Rakia stepped through the ever-familiar threshold of her husband's chamber. She stood outside the door, eyes boring holes into the wood grain, for what must have been a small eternity. She knew it had to have been a long time, because one of the guards who stood behind her dared to pipe up,
"Your Majesty?"
Rakia's head snapped to the guard. She was going to have to get used to being called that. "Yes?"
"Do you... do you want us to knock for you, my lady?" he asked carefully.
"Oh," Rakia put her palm to her face, shaking her head slightly, she lifted her eyes to the door, where she knew a snake was waiting on the other side. "No, I'm sorry, I just got lost in my thoughts."
"No need to apologize to me, your majesty." the guard placated quickly.
Rakia's hand came up to rap lightly on the door, and she heard from within a man's voice drawl, "Come in."
Come in she did, gazing around Ozai's familiar antechamber, she shut the door lightly. Flames fickered all around in various candles, lighting all but the corners of the room. Rakia looked about, her eyes finally falling on a man's form, cloaked in shadow.
"Ahhhh... my wife." Ozai drew his words out, eyeing Rakia like she was a meal, primed, ready for him to devour. The tone of his voice made chills run down her spine. A soft rustling was the only noise as Ozai got up from his seat, walking ever so slowly toward Rakia, circling her. "I've been expecting you, my dear."
All alarm bells were blaring inside Rakia's head, a voice wss screaming, DANGER, YOU ARE IN DANGER, GET OUT, but her legs were stuck in place, she couldn't just run from her husband. That would only made it worse. Paying closer attention to the adrenaline coursing through her veins than what Ozai was actually doing, Rakia dropped to her knees, bowing low and pressing her forehead almost to the ground.
"I owe you an apology, Your Majesty." she willed herself to stay still. Up high, where Rakia could not see, Ozai smirked wickedly.
"Whatever for?" He asked with unconvincing curiosity. He knew what she was groveling for just as she did.
"I should not have spoken crossly to you this morning. I wasn't thinking straight." Rakie spoke into the marble floor.
Ozai smiled, knowing he had his pretty, young wife right where he needed her to be. The Firelady submitted to no one but him, the Firelord. She was quickly becoming an extension of his will, and this pleased Ozai immensly. He watched as she stayed on the floor, forehead pressed to the cool stone, not daring to move a muscle until he spoke. He circled her once more, slowly, torturously so. As he reached her head again, he too dropped to his knees, grabbing a handful of done-up hair he couldn't wait to ruin, puling her up to sit back on her knees and face him. She wanted to rip his hand from her, but knew better than to fight. He wasn't hurting her, and a tussle wasn't worth the effort or the risk. She kept her gaze down, not daring to look him in the eye.
"It's alright, my love." He spoke in the candlelight, his voice dripping with poison. He moved closer, scooting further towards Rakia on his knees, his fingers came up to run his fingers down her exposed neck. He relished the contrast, his ghostly white hand teasing his wife's skin which glowed umber in the warm candle light. Her chest heaved, and he could feel her pulse quicken under his touch. He had deliberated a long time tuis day on how to deal with his mouthy woman, but getting physical with her couldn't hold a torch to the sweet torture of teasing her about her terror. Ozai kept her there like that for a while as she let him touch her with fear in her heart, his horrible golden eyes scrutinizing her every breath and every beat of her heart.
"Won't you look upon me, Rakia?" Ozai taunted, daring her to look into his eyes. She did, her face lifted with some guidance by his hand, and in her eyes he saw that horror he sought. Rakia was terrified, and he felt his heart start to race as well, her fear turned him on. "Don't do it again." he snarled and she could have lept out of her skin at that moment.
"Yes, Your Majesty." Rakia replied a little too quickly, feeling his grip loosen slightly on her hair.
Ozai leaned toward her, pressing his lips lightly on his wife's cheek, feeling her tense. He knew now, she would have flung her self from the roof top if he'd asked her, but instead he stood, dragging her up with him and told her, as he began to back further into his quarters. "Come."
Rakia followed, mustering up all of her courage to step through the threshold into the night-black bedroom. Rakia could feel her heart in her throat as a sliver of moonlight, barely there, dimly illuminated her husband's form.
"Thank you, Rakia," Ozai smirked, and she could see his skin and teeth glow white by the stars. "I don't like making others apologize."
His voice sent shivers down her spine. He drew ever closer, fingers reaching out and brushing her arm. He heard a sharp intake of breath before he grabbed her fully by the arm and flung her to the wall. Rakia should have recoiled, she wanted to tell him to fuck off for scaring the shit out of her. Rakia thought she ought to be ready for a fight, knowing that perhaps she'd bitten off more than she could chew. Her hands shot up instictually before familiar hands grasped her wrists. Like someone blew put a candle, their grip loosened and gently guided Rakia's hands back down to her waist. She was still on high alert, waiting in the darkness for yet another attack, but it never came.
Instead, a hard, muscled body was pressed against hers, soft lips found hers, and Rakia stayed still as a statue at the new contact. Like a hare that heard the hawk's screech, she dared not move a muscle. As Ozai pulled away, he smirked down at the wife he knew he had the upper hand on. "We're going to rule the world, you know that Rakia?"
Rakia knew the answer to this question, as Ozai's hands found the clasp to her outer cloak and slid it down over her shoulders, his lips trailing down her jaw and neck. To her, he sounded like a madman. What did that have to do with their domestic dispute earlier today? She thought best not to question it.
"Yes, my king." She breathed. Ozai bit down hard on her neck. Rakia gasped, Ozai's scent filled her nose. He smelled of smoke and fire whiskey and frankincense and everything about him was intoxicating in one way or the other.
"Oh, call me that again." He demanded, his hands slipping around her waist and clamping down on her hips. Rakia couldn't make herself fight him, it was suicide, and she wasn't sure she wanted him to let go of her. The man so damn dangerous, at the same time his demeanor alluring. She was fully in his clutches.
Rakia moaned as Ozai's fingers danced around her ribs and up her back, tugging and the straps of her dress, "Oh, yes, my King."
Ozai chuckled at his wife's responisiveness. "King." he growled, a noise that vibrated deep in his chest and sent waves through the poor girl he had trapped before him. "I quite like the sound of that, my dear."
~O~O~O~O~O~O~O~O~
Months had passed. News had reached Rakia that her mother, of all people, was learning the common tongue, something she'd never done. But, with the newfound bond with the Fire Nation, it made sense. It would be good for her to know how to speak with other countries now that Kun'li was no longer an isolationist nation.
Each day was quite like the last, very little new things to report. Rakia tended to only see her handmaidens and her guards, Dasha would stop by everyonce in a while, but never brought her children. Her husbands guards would guide her to Ozai's chambers nearly every night. Some times he would want her in his bed, sometimes he just wanted to speak with her, or so he claimed.
He picked her brain ruthlessly about what to do with the Earth Kingdom. Rakia urged him to keep pressing at the current pace, the Fire Nation was a military state and had more weaponization and organized man-power than all the nations combined. They could outlast the Earth Kindom, most certainly.
He asked for her advice just now as well. It appeared Admiral Zhao had not made it back from the Northern Water Tribe. No one had told Dasha yet, no one was going to tell Dasha until he said so. She'd be devastated, and these things needed to be handled lightly. Better to get it done soon, he summoned Dasha for an audience immediately.
Yet here they stood, waiting to recieve Dasha in the throne room. Ozai had his arm around Rakia, she stood still as a statue just feeling his breath, feeling his heart beat a little quicker than usual. If Rakia didn't know her husband better, she'd say he was nervous to drop the news on Dasha. Soon, her lithe, tall figure, just barely showing the beginnings of a child within her, slipped through the curtains to find the Firelord and his young wife standing about halfway to the curtain. As she strode forward, she bowed to them, and continued to make her way to the couple, smiling wide.
"Your majesties!" Dasha chirped, "What brings me to you grand establishment?" she said in a very regal accent, attempting to rib Ozai, but when he didn't respond at all, she straightened, tilting her head. "My lord?"
Ozai opened his mouth as if to say something, then shut it. He smiled, and even when he was trying to put her at ease he looked downright predatory. "Dasha, perhaps we should take a short walk." He suggested.
Dasha smiled back, seemingly not noticing the subtleties of Ozai's behavior. "Lead the way, your majesty!"
Ozai's arm dropped from Rakia's side, depriving her of his searing warmth, and he led the two women out to the courtyard. It was a rather dreary day, clouds cast over the sky as the crowd shuffled outside to breath in the stagnant air, a slight chill in the wind that blew through the trees. Dasha had brought a light cloak, and Ozai turned to Rakia, throwing his surcoat over her shoulders. She grasped at the heavy cloth, drawing it around to fully encapsulate her much smaller frame. As he covered his young wife be bent down our of Dasha's earshot and commanded, "Wait for me somewhere."
Rakia found his eyes, an unreadable mix of emotion at play. She smiled reassuringly at her husband, and nodded silently, bowing her head slightly before taking her leave. She stood over by the turtle duck pond, the little creatures abandoned their beloved swimming activities in favor of hunkering down, close to each other and waiting out the storm that was sure to come later. Rakia shifted Ozai's cloak, closing her eyes and listening the the private conversation that she could still hear across the small yard.
Dasha took the arm the Firelord offered her, her tensions rising. Why had he dismissed Rakia? Something was up, Ozai never acted like this. As he began to lead her farther to the back, she spoke up, "Is Rakia not coming with us?"
Ozai looked back at his wife, shaking his head. "She likes to watch the ducks."
It was a lame excuse, but it wasn't a lie. Rakia did in fact adore the little creatures, but there wasn't much to see there. Dasha didn't seem convinced, humming skeptically.
"I'm glad Rakia decided to marry you." she commented, Ozai looked back at the young woman in question, focusing on the pool beneath her feet.
"Me too." he replied earnestly.
"You seem quite fond of her." Dasha pressed.
Ozai's head turned back to Dasha. If she was going to suggest that he loved Rakia, she was going to have another thing coming. Love was a ridiculous notion, and it was foreign to Ozai. He was fond of Rakia, yes, but he was fond of her for her country and the good it produced. He was fond of her property, he was fond of her body, and he was fond of the way she bent to his will. Perhaps yes, he did care for Rakia. She was the key to victory in this war.
"So, to what occasion do I owe an audience with the Firelord himself?" Dasha snapped Ozai out of his train of thought.
The older man took in a deep breath. "The fleets 50-75 returned from the Northern Water Tribe lands just this morning." he began, heart wrenching as the woman on his arm beamed up at him.
"Really?! That's great! So, where is my husband, then?" Dasha looked around, as if expecting Zhao to show up right there in the yard. "Can he come home?"
"Dasha," Ozai turned her to face him fully., looking her in the eyes. He remembered the day they met. Dasha, at just 8 months old, babbling and cooing at a curious young Ozai. She bit his finger. It didn't hurt, she was just a baby, but she suprised him. And since that day she never stopped suprising him. And Firelord Ozai was not an easy man to suprise. Here she stood now, a woman, waiting eagerly for a chance to see a husband she would never again see.
Dasha seemed to read the silence between them, her voice lowering to a whisper as she stuttered, "O-Ozai?" not wanting the thoughts that ran wild in her head to be true.
Ozai looked at Dasha's wide eyes, begging for him to say anything other than what he was trying to say. "Daxianare, Zhao didn't-"
Dasha hel up her hands, interrupting Ozai, finishing the setence for him. "Zhao's not coming home." she concluded, looking down at the ground.
Her eyes held their gaze at the brick walkway beneath her feet, a few tears dropping to the ground and mixing with a light rain tht began to fall before Dasha did the same, falling before her lord, face in her hands. Ozai stood there, watching the whole thing transpire as the woman he thought of as family broke down right before his eyes. He wanted to hold her, but years of rule and power had changed him, hardened him.
He chanced a look over at Rakia, who was standing in the rain looking at Dasha with her brows furrowed sympathecially. She realized Ozai was looking at her, an unfamiliar, wide-eyed look on his face. In any other situation Rakia might have laughed. The meanest, scariest, most powerful man on this earth couldn't bring himself to figure out how to deal with something as mundane as a crying woman. That face was the look of someone who needed help. Rakia had never seen Ozai need help before. She made her way over to where Dasha was crouched, holding his eyes and she knealt down and wrapped and arm around Dasha.
The woman continued sobbing while Rakia held her, whispering sympathetically, "I'm sorry, Dasha."
"I-" Dasha started. "I get it." she wept. "These things, they happen, men leave for war all the time and don't come back but, fuck, Rakia, you never think it's going to happen to you."
"I know, Dasha, I know."
"I can't raise three kids by myself, Rakia, what am I going to do?" Dasha pleaded, looking to Rakia for answers and apperently forgetting Ozai was standing right there.
Rakia reeled, suddenly remembering where and who she was. She was the Fire Lady, Dasha's friend, and she was being looked to for advice. Her! She was 18 years old, for crying out loud. Ozai was at least 40, she hadn't asked and she didn't really want to know exactly how old he was, she might not like that answer, Dasha was in her mid-thirties, and Rakia had no idea how to deal with these adults and their adult problems. Technically she was an adult, but so young an adult. What was she going to tell this woman 15 years her senior to make her feel better about her dead husband and now-fatherless children?
Rakia pushed those thoughts from her mind. Young she may be, but she was Fire Lady. She was the wife of the most powerful man in the world. Whatever she said to Dasha now was the right thing to say, by virtue of being Ozai's wife. Rakia drew back, cupping Dasha's face in her hands, feeling the woman's damp skin beneath her dark palms.
"Do you want to know what Admiral Zhao said to me, on my wedding night?" Rakia queried, getting Dasha to focus on a more happy memory: the night the Admiral came home. Dasha sniffed, and nodded, attention now fully on Rakia.
"We were talking and, he said to me, 'My lady, you must know that I am married to the most beautiful, most terrifying woman in all the Fire Nation.' Now," Rakia smiled reassuringly. "If Admiral Zhao, Fire Nation war hero, thinks you are a force to be reckoned with, what chance does the rest of the world have?"
Dasha laughed bitterly, a hand coming up to grasp Rakia lightly by the wrist and bring her hand down.
"You can do this alone, Dasha." Rakia reiterated. "It won't be easy, but it's a peice of cake for the most terrifying woman in the Fire Nation, okay?"
Rakia searched Dasha's brimming, hazel eyes as the woman huffed, "Okay." Rakia helped Dasha up, feeling her stagger slightly as she straightened, wiping the tears from her eyes. She bid the Firelord and Lady adieu, and made her way out of the palace, stating that she was going to need a bit of privacy, and understandably so, for this was no small wound to heal.
Ozai led Rakia back inside, holding his hand out for his, now soaked, surcoat. Rakia handed it over slowly. He said nothing. A 'thank you' didn't dare pass his lips for something so trivial as calming Dasha's heaving form. Rakia found herself wondering what she would do if something ever happened to Ozai. It was a ridiculous notion, Ozai was far too strong for that, but it definitely put things into perspective.
Ozai, when he wasn't busy being short-fused and surly, was almost predatory and definitely privy to using others to get what he wanted. Rakia knew that she herself was being used by him in his quest for limitless power. But, the man had just that, power. And he'd inadvertantly given her that power. He treated her different from the others, held her closer to him than anyone else. She couldn't ever hope to love him the way Dasha loved Zhao, but she did want him. She could finally admit she wanted him, the sex was good and the power turned her on beyond anything. Even when he was scaring her, that unmistakable warmth building in her stomach always gave her away.
As she handed over the last of Ozai's cloak to him, she looked him up and down. The eyes his wife was making at him were not lost on Ozai, his eyebrow cocked at her curiously. For all their months together, she'd never initiated. "You can thank me later, if you'd like."
Ozai's kips curled into a wicked grin, suddenly forgetting about Dasha, reaching out to grasp Rakia's chin and pull her face up to meet his lips. He deepened the searing kiss, hearing with his amusement the palace guards shift uncomfortably at the exchange, unsure where to look. He broke the kiss, leaving his wife panting, mouth agape. "See you tonight..." he rasped.
Rakia gathered her thoughts quickly, smiling softly and turning about.
But all the rightness Rakia may have felt, any of it, dissapated two weeks later.
Rakia's world was about to crash...
~O~O~O~O~O~O~O~O~Man, does it feel good to be back! Sorry I've been gone so long. I started a wrestling fic and COULDNT STOP. But I'm back in the Avatar grind. See you next chapter!