AN: First ever fanfic! I'm excited. It's a Ozai/Mai/June love triangle, essentially, with mysterious assassins/enemies who need to be stopped. I don't think it'll be much more complicated than that so it will probably be a shortish fic. There's also Tyzula, Zutara and probably some others but June is the protagonist so...
"Just don't look at her in a sexual way," says Lee and June cocks a teasing eyebrow at his urgency about June's new job.
"Now, why would I do that?" she drawls, leaning back against the wall of the dive bar. He looks at her like it's so serious. She can't even go out and celebrate her fucking new job, can she?
"Because one time he cut a guy's eyes out for looking at her in a sexual way." Needless to say, the man also burned down the entire world, which is slightly more intimidating.
But June isn't intimidated by it. Nothing scares her, not even the damned Phoenix King.
So she snorts. "That's…" She then pauses and rolls her shoulders. "That's believable. But it's not like I'm gonna tell him I'm into girls and it's not like I'm gonna be into his wife."
She runs her hand along the notch on the wall and feels a shiver nobody notices but her. It's been nine years exactly. Five years since she got out of prison. She doesn't like such deliberate scratches. If some dumb kid feels the need to immortalize his girlfriend on this ugly wood, it's probably within her rights to leave him.
"You there?" Lee has asked it too many times. June makes sure he knows it is because she thinks he's boring, not because she gets lost in her thoughts. Or that she has thoughts in the first place.
"I've gotta pack. It's a day to get there," June says, pushing off of the wall and leaving both the scratches and its owner behind her. "I should probably worry more about being late to my first day as a royal bodyguard than if he thinks I'm gonna steal his wife."
"You promised you'd tell me why you agreed to work for him before you left," argues Lee and June winks at him.
"I lied."
" " "
A day later, June strides through the grand front courtyard of Sozin City Palace and gazes ahead of her. This place is nice. In her younger days, she would have plotted how to rob it. Now, she just wants to get out of the disgusting comet-scorched land, given that her bounty hunter career went downhill without Nyla.
"So, is it true that the Phoenix King had a guy's eyes gouged out for looking at her wrong? Am I supposed to do any eye gouging?"
Chan laughs and laughs. "He's fucked up some guys good for nothing. That's why he hired a girl to accompany her at all times. I know he ripped out the throat of some army guy pretty high in ranks because he asked her too many questions at a gala."
"He asked her too many questions?" June laughs and Chan gives her a serious glance. "Were they about, uh, the fact that she went from a prisoner of war to our queen?"
Our queen is too mocking on June's tongue, but she knows to lose that type of attitude when she takes the job. It is the best thing that ever happened to her.
June doesn't have the fondest opinion of people who locked her in prison for four years and lost Nyla. She hates them, but she never cared about that in her line of work before.
Chan escorts her to a room in which she sits down on a mat and waits for the Phoenix King.
He arrives late. It isn't like June is going to do anything about it.
"I've been having some. . . issues with insurgents. They've tried to harm my wife and therefore I insist on a constant guard for her," he says and June nods at him. He goes on about a few details, shit about the job that June could figure out on her own. He finishes with, "Any questions?"
"Yeah. Why'd you hire me?" June asks and he stares at her for a moment.
"You have good senses, you have a history of violence and you are the most qualified person who applied for the job. Now, there will be guards around you at most times, so I trust you won't try anything or fail me. The only time I need you to work alone is when you accompany her at night and when she is in the palace without a formal guard," Ozai lists and June finds his voice. . . disturbing. Disturbing for no good reason.
"I can handle it. She'll be safe at all times."
"That's what I like to hear. I want you to escort her out of the palace for her birthday tonight after you get your tour, regulations and permitted weapons. I imagine it would be easy to strike her when she is out in the open like that."
"Of course."
"I want her to enjoy herself. I won't be accompanying her."
June suddenly realizes that it is her job to make the Phoenix Queen have fun.
Great. She hates prissy snobs.
" " "
June's first assignment isn't combat heavy and she doesn't want it to be. She just wants to get this birthday over with.
She guesses she doesn't mind an easy one first. For a few minutes she wonders why the Phoenix King wants someone else to take his wife out for her birthday, but then she realizes that she doesn't care. It's none of her business and she doesn't give a fuck about anyone else's business.
June takes a deep breath and leans against the doorway to Queen Mai's chambers.
"I'm here for you, your worship," June drawls and she receives brief silence.
"You can come in. Or not. I don't really care," and that is the first time June hears her voice.
It makes a smile flicker across June's lips. Maybe she won't be as awful as June thought. The former bounty hunter pushes open the door and sees Mai halfway dressed. It would be polite to avert her eyes, but June has never been polite.
Mai finishes and looks June in the eyes. The Phoenix Queen has very amber ones and they analyze every inch of Mai, pausing on her tattoo, pausing on scars, finishing by looking at her face.
"I don't want a bodyguard. I don't need a bodyguard," Mai says coldly. "Don't fuck up."
June cocks an eyebrow. "Well, you've made yourself clear. Let me write that down. Don't fuck up, right? Do you have a pen?"
Mai's expression doesn't move.
June thinks this might be even worse than if she was the obnoxious prissy royal June thought that she would be. The Phoenix Queen looks the type of dangerous that stabs you in the front because they don't even give a fuck about hiding it.
Maybe that's a good thing. Maybe that's a bad thing.
" " "
Mai is evidently not one for small talk. She is silent for the entirety of the trip via palanquin as June walks. They get there and June rubs her hand on her shirt before extending it. She never has done something that polite, but she cares more about money than pride.
"Well, after you, kitty cat," June says and the queen takes her hand and lets her help her out of the palanquin. But not without evident distaste. "You're gonna have fun. I'm fun as fuck."
"We better. It's my birthday," Mai says dryly and June cannot tell if she is being serious or not. "And I preferred your worship."
"I can't believe you prefer something," June says, laughing. "I don't think you've liked anything since I met you."
"How observant of you." Mai gets up and walks inside before June can do her damned job and properly escort the young woman.
June walks inside the place and sees that she won't be drinking anyone under the table. This joint is a glorified teashop and she has to babysit.
" " "
Mai and June are situated on a balcony that overlooks the real bar. They are alone save for a few soldiers, and the small talk is tormenting June.
"You're boring. I'm bored," Mai says by the time their drinks arrive.
June tries to keep calm. "Fine. You got anything better to talk about?"
"So, do you have a past?" Mai offers coolly.
"Most people do," June replies with a snort.
Mai taps a long, sharp nail on her cup. "You're not very careful with me. Most people grovel."
"Do you like groveling?" June asks, cocking her eyebrow.
"Maybe, yeah, yeah I guess. But it gets kinda boring after a while," Mai says and June doesn't know if that means Mai thinks she is interesting or not. "Really, I don't care about your life story, you just look like you've got more interesting stories to tell than that bullshit."
"I was a bounty hunter. I was the best bounty hunter there ever was. That's it. Nothing else. I used to win a lotta drinking contests and used to hustle people at darts," June says and Mai's eyes glint. It's weird, but maybe June just managed to say something that interested the Phoenix Queen.
"Teach me how to play darts," Mai demands in a contrasting deadpan and June laughs, glancing over the balcony at the boring soldiers playing downstairs. "I said teach you how to play darts. I believe that the Phoenix King, uncontested tyrant of the entire planet and your boss, told you to take me out and give me a good time. When I say I want you to teach me how to play darts, you to teach me how to play darts."
June manages not to roll her eyes and stands up. "Sure. Whatever."
" " "
After an hour of painstaking teaching, June lies through her teeth, "You're good at this."
"Yeah, I think I am," Mai replies and June thinks maybe she hasn't been spoken to honestly in a long time. "Will you play against me? I'm pretty competitive."
"Yeah, whatever," June says and Mai nods once.
"Gambling is required. I think playing games without stakes is more boring watching paint dry."
"The world sure can't impress you, can it?" June shrugs and decides it doesn't matter. "What would you like to bet?"
"I'm not tell you. Whatever I ask. And you the other way around," Mai says and June just shrugs.
She has to do whatever Mai asks anyway. "I'm not gonna go easy on you because you're fucking an emperor."
"I wouldn't expect anything else," Mai says, stepping back to the line carved in the wood.
June waits with her arms crossed for the darts to ricochet off of the board.
They don't.
She hits a bull's-eye on the first throw.
" " "
June's night has taken a turn for the interesting. She didn't expect that when Ozai told her that she was going to do it.
"I've got to give you some credit," June admits, sitting down and setting her feet up on the table. "I've never been hustled before."
"Yeah. I liked your expression when you realized how futile attempting to beat me was." Mai downs the last of her drink. "Take me home."
"Is that your bet?" June cocks an eyebrow.
"Oh, no. I'm asking for that when we get home," Mai says, standing up and looking up at the other soldiers eyeing them both. "Take us back to the palace. Now."
June thinks she might have been wrong.
This Phoenix Queen might only be moderately torturous to guard.
" " "
June looks around at the expansive chambers allotted to the Phoenix Queen. They're beautiful, if you're into that kind of thing. June isn't, and June can tell that Mai isn't either. The beautiful silk robes are all untouched, the decorations neglected and not a single item has been removed from the shelves in a long time.
"The view isn't horrible, except at sunset and sunrise," Mai says as she walks to the window and looks out.
"Lemme guess, you hate sunsets and sunrises?"
"Yeah. They're orange," Mai says. She steps away from the window and begins to change her clothes.
"I'll be checking the entrances," June says quickly. She is actually relieved she didn't get drunk when out at a bar. It would be a lot harder to ignore that if she weren't.
June finishes her work and returns to find Mai still staring out of the window. Like she wants out. Like she would do anything to get out because of course this place is a prison.
But June doesn't ask; she just goes to her bed and falls asleep instantaneously.
Today was slightly better than anticipated.
She still isn't that optimistic about the job.