A/N: This is Mai and Ozai's backstory, and is technically a prequel to Midwinter Madness when it comes to chronology of the Dynasty-verse.
The Hollywood Bible
My old man is a tough man but
He's got a soul as sweet as blood red jam
And he shows me, he knows me
Every inch of my tar black soul
"Off to the Races" – Lana Del Rey
"She's interesting," is the best thing a disinterested weapons dealer by the name of Piandao can say. "Beautiful."
It is extremely easy for Ozai to see through that. For a man who has such acclaim he does not bother putting effort into lying to a very important man about his new wife of one month.
The young woman is hiding from the sun but acting like it does not exist at the same time. She is by the pool but he thinks he has seen her swim exactly once and she complained about it for the entire five to seven minutes. Dark sunglasses, black bikini, two dragons up her arms that mark her ability to slit the throat of a man as easily as capturing the attention of him with no effort.
"She's different. I always had a thing for those '90s goth girls, or Suicide Girls if you need that comparison."
"How did you two meet?" That remark is in earnest.
"My daughter brought her home a few thousand times before she showed up after two summers looking like Vicki Vallencourt. And one day when she was legal, mind you, the pathetic ma—no, boy—that I'm very reluctant to claim as my son broke up with her through a text message. She wanted revenge; I wanted her. It was a mutually beneficial arrangement."
Piandao looks awfully disturbed for a man who sells weapons for the fucking Yakuza. But he is smart enough to change the subject within minutes of congratulating Ozai Shinohai on his recent marriage. As if he hasn't seen a thousand pretty little clingy blondes attached to powerful men in his old age and line of work, Ozai notes.
"Alright, to business," Piandao says and they do not mention her again.
…
It starts on a summer afternoon.
Ty Lee has vanished upon going to ballet school – Mai hasn't heard from her in two years – Azula is running a damned company in New York. But Mai stayed in LA for college and came home the minute her dad got sent to prison. Her mom lost it, left the house, left her daughter to clean up the fact that they are in crippling debt, and it is all left to her to manage.
Zuko is in town for the summer, staying with his father. The tension between them is unpleasant, and so Mai meets her boyfriend away from their neighborhood as often as she can. That is, until he breaks up with her through a text.
A text message. Her boyfriend broke up with her through a text.
When Mai arrives, she asks the housekeeper where Zuko is hiding.
"Oh, he went back to Portland to be with his mom. Rushed to the airport like he was on the run from the law. Do you need him?" the lovely woman asks so sweetly that Mai wants to punch her.
The words Ozai says that start it all are: "Do you need anything?"
Mai looks up and forces herself not to cross her arms.
"I was looking for Zuko. He broke up with me through text and I was coming to kill him."
Azula's father laughs and Mai secretly simmers. "It's not that funny. It's just typical of him. You haven't been around in a long time. I thought you broke all ties with those parents you hate."
"Yeah, well, those parents I hate left me a debt and a house to sell when they went to prison. I'm probably going to be around for longer than I can stomach."
"Azula is coming home in a few weeks."
"That's nice and all but there is no fathoming of my hatred for this place. I left for a reason… but I know I'm never going back."
"That's so unfortunate. I would hate to see you lose your dreams because your parents are pathetic criminals." He shifts his position and Mai vaguely knows it. Azula or Zuko probably. "I could take you to dinner tonight."
Mai genuinely is not sure if her childhood best friend's father is asking her on a date. He isn't friendly. The man runs a branch of Sozin Industries – if it exists, Sozin Industries own it – and a criminal empire in Los Angeles. Not the type of man who does anything without expecting something in exchange for it.
"Is this a date?"
"Yes."
"I'm busy tonight."
"Hm. Clear your plans for me and you won't have to worry about that debt."
Mai at first is offended, until she feels her phone in her pocket and remembers Zuko. Zuko, who hates nothing more than his father, but lives to gain his approval. Zuko, who Mai wants her revenge against.
Going on a date with his father might just be the vengeance Mai desires.
"I'm up for it. When and where?"
[X]
Mai buys new clothes for her dinner date. She has never cared about how she dressed before, but she has realized that her grunge phase of the past three years has severely limited her amount of formal garments.
She fondly remembers her mother crying when she cut up a Chanel dress into something she would not be ashamed to wear. Mother did not believe that 'all the kids were doing it' when Mai lied.
Unfortunately, she thinks it is a size too small in some places and a size too large in others, which makes her deeply regret not just breaking into Azula's house and stealing something of hers. Then again, robbing the man waiting for her would make a piss poor impression.
She already got caught breaking into his house to kill his son for breaking up with her over text. Well, not actually kill him. Just frighten him a bit.
"He's waiting for you," says the waitress and Mai cocks her head to the side.
Mai asks, half-interested, "How do you know who's waiting for me?"
The waitress rolls her eyes. "He can see you and you've been standing there for like five minutes at least."
"You don't have to be a total bitch about it," Mai says and the waitress looks stunned. "Don't act like no one's ever said that to you before."
The disgruntled waitress guides Mai to an isolated table out of plain sight. Mai knows well enough from her long history with Azula that people like to gawk and take pictures if they follow the news in the slightest. It is exceptionally weird to Mai that a family of businesspeople manage to be celebrities too.
Mai remains standing as he greets her.
"So, let's clarify up front. All I do is tolerate this date with you, just a date in this hideous restaurant, and then you make the problem disappear," Mai says while daring like no one else to look directly into his eyes.
"Yes. Unless you change your mind," says Ozai, gesturing at the chair across from him.
"I'm not changing my mind." Mai sits down and lets her purse fall onto her feet. Ozai watches as it stays there and stays there and he realizes she is not picking it up.
"That's fine." He waits for her to get settled and watches her halfheartedly examine the menu. "So, you're going to college nearby?"
"Yeah," says Mai, bored by the conversation already. "Well, I'm probably dropping out to deal with my parents' horrible mistakes but I don't really care."
"I figured you didn't," he says, realizing he knows her better than any other woman he has taken out. "What were you studying?"
"Stuff, or whatever. I want-wanted to be a surgeon," Mai says and Ozai waits. She imagines he is asking for a justification. "I like the sight of blood and scalpels arouse me."
Ozai laughs. It sounds far darker than his son's. "That's a good a reason as any."
"I tell everyone I'm going to study for the FBI. Since everyone I know is a criminal," Mai says, turning up a palm. "I think it's funny to watch their expressions. But, no, I was going to med school before my father made the mistake of getting caught and my mother ran off to her parents and didn't answer my calls."
Ozai sips his drink and asks, "How many times did you call her?"
"I haven't yet," replies Mai.
And Ozai inquires, "I thought you said she didn't answer them."
"Yeah. She can't answer calls I don't make, can she?" Mai asks and he cannot argue with that.
He enjoys that response. "You always were on poor terms with them."
"Yeah. I was a prop or, at best, a keychain. But you're not paying for my therapy, so let's discuss something other than my copious mommy and daddy issues." Mai leans back and picks up her menu.
And he has never been told what to talk about before. He is not certain if he likes it or not, but it does intrigue him. Most girls have already bored him to tears by this point. Ozai thought he had heard it all by the time he was fifteen.
"Fine. We can discuss something more interesting," Ozai gladly suggests in a deep, commanding tone she hates to like.
[X]
At the end of the night, Mai stands at his front door. She just crosses her arms when he invites her inside.
"No sex, don't worry," he says once he sees the gesture. "You can feel free to turn me down. I won't revoke what I've already given."
"That's… really not noble. It's just basic human decency. But I'll come in. I did basically grow up here," Mai remarks as she steps inside. The house smells more familiar than her own.
He finds that somewhat disgusting, but not enough to stop him from continuing.
[X]
"I cannot imagine you as a doctor. You would have very poor bedside manner," says Ozai as he escorts her to the sofa in his favorite living room.
"Yeah, I decided when I still had more money than God. But it really doesn't bother me. College is dumb anyway," Mai says, already sick of discussing her dreadful parents.
"Don't you have grandparents?" asks Ozai.
"Both croaked years ago," says Mai, setting her feet up on the expensive glass coffee table. Ozai grits his teeth but decides not to tell her off. He can do that after he seduces her.
"Other relatives?" he asks, turning to face her.
Mai replies, "Two uncles in jail and an aunt who owns a flower shop and sends me really weird Christmas presents."
"Did you have plans for med school?" Ozai asks.
"I'm only halfway through undergrad."
"How is your GPA?"
"I don't care. You shouldn't either."
"Bad, then," Ozai states with a smirk.
"No," Mai fearlessly corrects. "Excellent, actually. I've been doing other people's homework for cash and favors and still top of my classes. But I meant it when I said I didn't care."
"Cash and favors? I like that," says Ozai, that smirk flashing on his face again. Mai notes that his kids must get it from him. "Do you want to play a game?"
Mai scratches at her lips and turns to him, kneeling on the sofa now. "Like a Monopoly type game or like a Jigsaw type game? You'd be surprised at my answer."
"No, I don't think I would be. No to the first and if-I-can-be-Jigsaw to the second."
"That wasn't too impressive," says Mai, which no other woman ever has. Not even Ursa. "You've been talking to me for three hours."
Ozai regally sighs. "Do you want to play the game or not?"
"Fine."
Ozai shamelessly says, amused, "I'll pay for you to finish school if you take your shirt off."
Mai rolls her amber eyes. "That's not a game at all. That's just stripping my way through college."
"No, the nicest strip club is much, much more dangerous than my living room, you can't even walk in those heels that look like you'd wear them to an elementary school choir concert, the average pay is 75,000 dollars at best for an entire year of taking off much more than your shirt every night. I would be giving you around a hundred thousand for five minutes of your time."
"Tell me the catch," Mai says, clueless as to why she plays along. Does she hate Zuko enough for that? Yes. The answer is yes.
"The catch is that if you took your shirt off I'd offer to get you into med school if you took off everything else," Ozai says with a wicked glint in his eyes.
"Wait. This is a game if I get to make an offer too," says Mai. "I will do much more than take my clothes off once tonight and once another time – if next time your son catches us."
"That is unsurprisingly creepy."
"Last time you paid for something of mine it was hosting my sixth birthday party."
"Yes, I suppose that is also creepy."
"This is all messed up. I only went out with you because he broke up with me through text. I thought it would make me feel better but it just made me crave revenge even more. And you are the expert at devastating the poor boy."
"It seems like a short sighted deal for me, doesn't it? You get your revenge, two paid years of college and guaranteed training to become a surgeon and I get to have sex with you twice?"
Mai suppresses a smile. "I was hoping you wouldn't notice that."
"I did not become an excellent businessman and ruler of a criminal underworld if I made unselfish deals. Now that I know you want revenge, you're at the disadvantage. You will go with me to all business events of mine with me and do exactly as I say at them for the two years I pay for your school. Call it checking up on my investment."
"I do hate business events, but I like free college and the idea of Zuko's face when he finds out. I'm going to take so many pictures of it."
"This seems reasonably fair now. We can always play again."
"I can't believe I actually thought you were going to make me play Monopoly or Mortal Kombat. Ugh. Azula always made me play Mortal Kombat."
Ozai grimaces. "It might be best if we don't talk about my children tonight."
"I agree."
Mai adjusts her eyeliner and stands up.
[X]
Three weeks later, Zuko reluctantly comes home for the weekend. He needs to ask a business favor of his father, but hates spending any time around Ozai. As he disables security using the password: Azula's name and birthday, he opens the door with spiteful thoughts swimming in his head.
Then, as he strides inside, what he sees makes him forget every planned snide comment.
"Mai?" he asks, and she turns to him, lowering the shimmering wine glass from her lips. "What are you wearing?"
Gesturing at the black silk robe that she certainly never wore for him, "Nothing under this," she replies, shrugging.
Zuko almost retches at the thought of his baby sister and Mai. "Is Azula home?"
"No," says his ex-fiancée. "And I really would never have sex with her. I'm with your father. I was worried you'd walk in on us for a split second before I realized that would be hilarious. But you're three hours late and I get bored easily."
Zuko stands mute and still as a statue. "You're—I never can tell when you're being sarcastic. It's frustrating."
"I'm serious," says Mai, meeting his uncomfortable eyes. "I have video proof if you want it."
She tells the truth about the evidence. Zuko sees it.
"Mai…" he murmurs, searching desperately for words.
Ozai walks downstairs, saving the day by wrapping his arm around her. It turns Zuko's shock and disgust into pure, unadulterated rage.
"This is the most disgusting—do you both have no shame?" Zuko exclaims. "I can't—you can't be dating my father! screams Zuko, punching the wall to try to take out his anger. It does not work.
"No. I'm not dating him," Mai says and Zuko turns to her, taking a deep breath. "We are just having lots and lots of sex."
Zuko makes the most beautiful face Mai has ever seen.
[X]
After her satisfying conclusion to the chapter of her love life dedicated to Zuko, at the first business event she vowed to attend with Ozai, "This is boring. Can we leave? I've honestly never been this bored before." Mai asks at their antique table.
Mai spent hours walking with Ozai holding her like a pet, businessmen introducing themselves and gazing at her greedily and businesswomen gazing with envy. That was Ozai's intent, of course.
The man and girl sit together now.
"Sometimes you have to do things you don't want to do, because you promise other people that you will," Ozai replies in a tone that would frighten anyone but the girl beside him.
"But it's boring."
"I know it is."
"Then leave with me."
"This event is very important."
"But it's boring. We've been here for a thousand years."
Ozai snarls under his breath, "You are being extremely childish."
"I'm nineteen," dryly retorts Mai. "What do you expect?"
"I think your parents raised you poorly. At nineteen you should be more mature."
"Yeah. They were sucky parents. Obviously, I have some problems with my father if I'm regularly screwing a guy older than him. That never occurred to you?"
"It did," admits Ozai. "We are still not leaving. No one successfully plays on my pity, since I have none."
"Neither do I," Mai says.
He finds it oddly sexy.
[X]
"Let's play a game," Mai says as the second boring event wears on.
This one is identical to the first and Mai imagines the ensuing ones will be too. She cannot believe she signed up for this but just thinks about school and her parents' debts while she endures the party guests and Ozai flaunting her like a new toy.
"Alright." He refuses to admit how bored he also is.
Mai withdraws a coin from her black satin purse and sets it on her palm.
"I will flip this coin. If it is heads, we leave right now. If it is tails, I will tolerate this entire event and we can have sex afterwards. Why not?"
"Fine. Flip it," coldly orders Ozai.
"Tails." Mai looks at it again. "Okay, now, heads we do this an hour from now, and tails we do this six hours from now."
She flips it again. Again tails.
"Well, that is unfortunate," remarks Ozai, although his amusement overshadows the disappointment of needing to wait.
"Ugh," is Mai's response. "Now I have to figure out what to do for six hours. I should've quit while I was ahead."
"I thought tails was if I won."
Mai locks eyes with him, overbold as always. "I didn't say only one person could win."
Ozai inquires, "Do we both lose with the six hour rule?"
Mai sighs. "Whatever."
After an hour, she feigns illness and they escape together to his car.
[X]
"I am good at poker," says Mai after a meeting in Singapore. She sits in the hotel with Ozai after the very long, exhausting and boring event.
"I don't doubt that, but I am better. My grandfather's very first business was a casino," says the man, and Mai shrugs.
"The Brimstone?" she asks.
"Yes," says Ozai, sitting down across from her and setting down the cards she had in her purse. "It was much less impressive in the 50's than it is now."
Mai asks, as she has wondered for some time, "Is the Brimstone owned by the mob?"
"Not the Italian one. They tried to coerce my grandfather, but he just had the three men thrown off of the Brimstone roof. Then, when the mafia boss tried to get involved, my grandfather had his throat slit in his bed while his wife slept peacefully beside him. Or so the bedtime story goes."
"That was a bedtime story?" she asks, hiding her surprise behind her emotionless mask of a face. It is well-practiced.
"It was better than the one about the elves that cut off children's feet if they get out of bed and bother the adults while they're drinking," Ozai truthfully says.
Mai remarks in response, "Jesus."
Ozai sets his bet on the table. Mai fishes through her purse and sighs.
"I can't match that, but my coat is worth a lot. I didn't buy it for myself but it's Prada." Mai takes it off and sets it on the table.
"Are you hungry?" Ozai asks, ready to order her food from his bodyguards standing outside.
"Yeah. All I've had today is a bag of gummy bears and some scotch."
"Are you on a diet?" he asks, startled. Mai did not come off as that type.
"No," says Mai, "I just hate grocery stores so I avoid them until I literally have nothing left to eat but paper. I got the gummy bears at the airport and the party only had booze."
Ozai looks her up and down. It does not shock him in the slightest.
She, unfortunately, wins her coat back.
[X]
Mai walks beside Ozai on a Friday. She skipped her classes to fulfill her promise. "What business event takes place in this sketchy club?"
"My inherited side-business," says Ozai, referring to crime. "I'm meeting with a few people tonight and I thought of you instead of the usual assorted women I take with me to flaunt my power."
"I would be flattered, if I cared," Mai says as Ozai guides her into a shadowy booth.
"Consider this… a date of sorts," says Ozai. "And I promise you everything will be as perfect as my beautiful companion."
"Who is me?" Mai asks, ignoring the confident and messy flirtation. He must not need to put much effort into the women he woos.
He takes her by the arm and spins her around once. "Do you see anyone else worthy of my time?"
"I guess not." Mai shrugs.
She honestly considers this to be the best date of her life because it involves arms dealers and hit men, who are much more interesting than boring executives and contacts.
[X]
Azula comes home for the holidays and arrives hours early. She ran away from her girlfriend in the middle of the night and was already packed. When she enters the entrance hall she calls up, "I'm home!" to her father.
He walks down the stairs as she heads into the kitchen to pour herself coffee. Ozai stares at her in a strange way she cannot quite put a finger on.
"You should go out for your breakfast," slowly states Ozai in his sternest paternal tone.
Azula sighs. It is the protecting-her-from-hard-truths stare. "I don't care if you have some slut upstairs, father. I wouldn't be surprised."
Ozai narrows his eyes. "You would be surprised this time."
Mai perfectly times her entrance.
Azula demands, "Why are you here?"
"I almost wish I felt bad about telling you that I'm that slut upstairs."
Azula's eyes flash, then promptly widen. "I am going to throw up, but I can't. I'm too shocked to be able to even gag."
"Should I get you a bucket for when that shock wears off?" asks Mai.
Ozai shoots her a displeased glare that she shrugs at.
[X]
Fifteen minutes later, Azula sits on the red sofa, her coffee mug shaking in her hand. "You cannot date my best friend. Do you know how fucked up that is?"
Ozai nods as Mai corrects, "We are not dating. We are just having lots of sex."
"She said that well," comments Azula's father and she thinks she may need that bucket.
"Father, she's younger than me!" Azula shrieks.
"By a few months," Ozai protests.
Azula snarls softly, "Not the point of that statement. It was gross enough when she was sleeping with Zuko!"
"Little princess, calm down," says Ozai in a voice that almost always works on her. "Most of the women I've been with have been much younger."
Azula sets down her coffee. "I need to go outside and smoke an entire pack of cigarettes and take two Xanax. Then we can discuss this further."
"Have fun, princess," says Ozai.
She shudders and walks out into the backyard.
[X]
Two weeks later, Ozai answers his door and finds someone he did not expect to see. The porchlight illuminates a girl with a backpack at her ankles and a black dress draped over her perfect body.
Ozai, puzzled, asks, "I didn't request your presence."
"Should I leave?" Mai nods towards the mansion across the street.
"No," says Ozai, seizing her arm. "I only have no idea why you are on my doorstep."
"I came back to town for the weekend and I was bored so I figured I would come see you."
He touches her waist. "We should go upstairs."
[X]
After a night of ecstasy, Mai edges around Ozai's bed. He watches her, leaning back against the pillows and deciding not to ruin it by saying much.
"You can stay for the weekend," he still does order. It is worth wasting words on.
"I…" Mai stops her search and turns to him.
"You're also probably looking for this." He throws her bra at her and she catches it. "You are so much better at that than your ex-fiancé."
"And you're better than him at other things." Mai probably should not have said that, but she did. She cannot help herself. "God, am I flirting with you?"
Ozai cavalierly replies, "In a deplorable, vaguely Oedipal way."
"Maybe I shouldn't stay for the weekend," Mai says as her cheeks turn pink.
Ozai grabs her wrist and pulls her back down.
She does not care enough to preserve their cold detachment. It might not be horrible to harbor romantic feelings for Ozai Shinohai. Not good. But not horrible either.
[X]
On Sunday, Ozai picks up a coin and sits down across from his guest. He has been thinking for hours and hours about this and has made his mind up. She sips her coffee and studies him.
"Want to play a game?" he asks, flaunting the quarter.
"Fine," says Mai, taking another gulp.
"Tails we never do this again," he says of their weekend tryst. "Heads we get married tomorrow morning."
Mai asks, barely containing her shock, "Who would marry us on one night notice?"
"Chapels in Vegas. I still have yet to take you to the Brimstone."
"I've been. But, flip away."
He does and does not dare to lift his hand for a moment. Perhaps this was a bad idea. He lifts it to reveal George Washington's profile.
"Are we serious?" whispers Mai, unable to hold back the emotion in her voice.
"I take fate very seriously," he says, setting down the coin. "Don't bother packing; I'll buy you whatever you need once we get there."
Mai rises from her chair and decides to do the craziest and most impulsive thing she has ever done. And Ozai does the same.
[X]
"Please allow me to introduce myself / I'm a man of—"
Ozai tears Mai's iPhone from the cord. They drive in his best sports car through the sweltering, dry desert on their way to the Brimstone. "I swear to God, if I listen to this one more time. Also, you have a lovely singing voice."
"We are driving through the desert to Las Vegas. We have to listen to this song."
"At least put it on a playlist of covers," growls Ozai, his eyes flashing like a wicked king.
Mai picks up her phone. "Done."
He thinks he sees her smile for a flicker of a second.
[X]
Hours later, after nightfall, Ozai stands at the front desk of the Brimstone with his arm wrapped around Mai. Open flames everywhere illuminate the humongous, cavernous room made from real obsidian.
"This is my friend, Mai," says Ozai when the woman who clearly has slept with him before cannot stop stealing glances at the almost-twenty-year-old woman.
"Friend?" asks the young woman with the bleach blonde hair.
Ozai clears his throat and tightens his grip on Mai. "When I say friend, I mean—"
"Gorgeous lay, sir. Here are the keys." She passes the plastic cards decorated with models in lingerie across the golden counter.
Mai walks beside Ozai to the elevator.
"I'm not complaining about being introduced as your friend, because I don't care, but are you invested in that girl or something, not that I care, but…"
"But you care. It's fine. I honestly don't even know her name and she was wearing a name tag. However, I need to find the right way to tell my father I'm getting married and a rumor from one of his employees is not it."
They walk into the suite and Mai looks around. She decides she does not hate this place as much as she despises most hotel rooms as she explores it.
Mai steps out onto the balcony of the Presidential Suite.
"It has its own pool," she dryly remarks, turning to her… fiancé? Is he her fiancé?
"I know. My family has class," says Ozai.
Mai walks to the edge of the balcony and stares out at the glittering city sprawling out around the resort. "And a decent view of the Strip."
"You could go swimming."
"Do you even swim?"
"No. I just want to watch you."
"I hate swimming," says Mai. She sighs. "But just this once, I will."
As Mai walks into the expansive hotel room and locks herself in the second bathroom, she realizes she is in love with this man. Mai would never do something she hated for someone, and, here she is, slipping into a bikini and painting her nails blood red.
She returns to the balcony and finds him leaning against the railing and waiting for her entrance. Mai stares at the water. At least it is probably clean.
"You don't really need to wear the swimsuit. I hardly recognize you with your clothes on."
"That's not a compliment."
"It is in this case."
Mai shrugs and unties the back of her top.
[X]
The next morning, they wake, Ozai buys Mai a decent dress and a new ring, and himself a ring and fresh suit, and they take the walk across the Strip to a cheap chapel.
Once they walk inside, "I never planned my wedding," says Mai, examining her new engagement ring as they arrive that their appointment. "So, I don't care that I'm getting married at a place that takes pictures like those at an amusement park."
"We can still turn back now," Ozai says, although he would never allow it. He wants to do this and he always gets what he wants.
"No," says Mai, to his relief. He does not want to start their marriage off by forcing her into it. "The coin has spoken."
Ozai asks as they wait, "Did we win or lose this game?"
"I…" Mai squints at him, looking more thoughtful than he has ever seen. "I think it's way too early in our relationship to tell."
He must agree.