Chapter Five- Courtship
"There's nothing to view." Ozai said still holding her. "Besides, it's a lot easier to grab hold of you than it is to talk to you."
"What!"
"Take it as a compliment, dear, it's one of the nicest things you'll probably ever hear from me."
"Stop calling me names, I'm not yours..."
"Yet." Ozai said as Iroh left.
"Let her go." Tala said.
"Who?" Ozai questioned.
"Princess Milieu."
"And have you take her place at my side..." Ozai said. "You don't know what you are doing-"
"If I did..." She interrupted. "Would you let her go?"
"Yes...but..." Ozai said. "But you must promise to stay here, with me...forever..."
Tala paused to think for a moment. "You have my word." Tala said. Ozai kissed her.
"Done." He left her in that room. Tala stood there for awhile. And when Ozai had come back she was on the other side of the room with dried tears in her eyes and she was looking out of the window.
"Come." Ozai ordered. She turned around. The cream on her face had completely vanished. The only part of the scar that remained surrounded her eye, but it looked like eye shadow, so it was hard to notice. Her eyes looked at him with more hate and rage then she could possibly express on the outside. But also in her eyes there was love. A love that, until now, he hadn't seen before. When she walked over to him she never said a word. But he noticed a mark on her cheek. Her right cheek was red as though she had been slapped, recently.
"What happened?" Ozai asked softly.
"Nothing..." Tala said with fear in her voice.
"Tell me..."
"NOTHING ALRIGHT!" Tala shouted.
"Geez...excuse me for the slap on your cheek..."Ozai grabbed her arm again. She was used to it now. She kept her head down. There was a tiny rust stain on the armor that she had stolen. It was from her tears. "You cry too much." Ozai pointed out.
"Why do you care...I'm just some girl you can use to your privilege." Tala said sounding depressed.
"First of all...you are WAY to depressing okay...you were like that when I first met you. You cry over everything, for pity's sake you even cried when I left you alone."
"I'm sorry..." Tala said. "You haven't had it as bad as I have okay...my whole family-"
"OKAY I GET IT! I KNOW THAT MY FATHER AND I KILLED YOUR WHOLE FAMILY! I GET IT! STOP BRINGING IT UP! YOU CAN'T KEEP HARPIN' ON THAT FOREVER OKAY SO GET OVER IT." Ozai shouted. "AND IF I HEAR YOU MENTION IT AGAIN YOU'LL HAVE TWO SCARS INSTEAD OF ONE!"
"Fine...you fat bastard..."
"FAT!"
"Did I say Fat...I meant fit...honey..." She said in a different tone.
"Just come on..."
"Where are we going anyway?"
"Remember when I was going to introduce Milieu to the nation...well now it's your turn. Now do as I say and I won't have to hurt you..."
"Whatever."
"Don't speak at all and try to smile."
Tala smiled an obviously fake smile as she was thrown out onto a balcony where thousands of civilians stood. The fire lord was making a speech and had pointed to her. They cheered as Ozai pushed her further out onto the balcony.
"Stop waving..." Ozai said through his teeth.
"Oh, blow it out your ass." Tala said through her teeth as she kept on waving.
"Okay go..."
"Go where...?"
"Back inside we're done."
"All of that for nothing?" Tala said when they got back inside.
"What, did you think I'd make a speech?"
"Well, yes actually."
"Well get used to it, now lets get you out of that armor." Ozai pushed her into another room where a whole bunch of servants took her. They took off all of her clothes and shoved her into a metal tub.
"Is there no decency in this nation anymore?"
"Well come on, doll, it's not like I haven't seen a naked girl before...I mean come on I'm a Prince who's twenty...give me a break." Ozai rolled his eyes.
"So when exactly do we get married..." Tala asked as the servants washed her hair.
"Tonight..."
"WHAT! Taking things a little fast aren't you."
"No...It's a policy, when a Prince hits twenty; he has until a week after his twentieth birthday to get married."
"And tonight marks the end of your week..."
"Yup..."
"You're not getting me into bed..."
"Hey, you're the one who said you'd switch places with Milieu..."
"Ya, but that doesn't mean my body is yours..."
"What's wrong, tuts, afraid to loose your virginity?"
"No!" Tala said as she was wrapped in more clothes. "I just don't want to loose it to you."
"To bad...YOU do as I say...YOUR just a figure...I'M the one with the power here cutie."
"I'm sorry, dear." She said using a whole fake bad emphasis on dear.
"You really need to stop calling me names."
"You call me names..."
"But I'm a dude...its different concept."
"Whatever." Tala rolled her eyes. "And would you stop looking at me! I don't care how many bodies you've seen I still find it completely uncomfortable."
"Fine, if it'll make you comfortable, tuts."
The wedding took place that evening (I'm rushing through this because I have no idea what fire nation brides wear. And I'm not creative enough to make up one...) That night Ozai and Tala stood in their room after the reception. Ozai was trying...more like forcing Tala to do things for him (not those things...fucking perverts) but she wouldn't.
"YOU'RE UNBELIEVABLE!" Ozai shouted.
"Oh! I'm unbelievable!" Tala retorted. "You should talk Mr. ooooo look at me I'm a Prince and I forcibly bonded this girl to me."
"No." Ozai remarked. "You wanted to be bound to me. And I only said I do because of your eyes."
"My eyes?"
"Yes. Have you looked at them?" Ozai had a gentler tone now. "They show what you feel on the inside, but there is also love. A love that until recently I was too blind to see, a love that you will never admit to. I only love you because YOU are the only person who ever beat me in combat, YOU are the only person who ever deceived me, and YOU are the only one who I have even thought about in more than a lustful way! And I reveal that to you in hate."
"Ya...like maybe in the future you'll be less responsive..." Tala said.
"What to you mean?"
"When I was in the earth nation..." Tala began as she got a serious/sad tone. "I got my fortune read by Aunt Bee. She told me I would marry a great ruler who will blinded by his own stupidity. My husband would place himself and his needs above all others. She said that he would use his own selfishness to take over the world that his father was to weak to destroy. I come to realize now...that that person is you." Her voice started rising. "She also said that my husband would be the death of me. Again I realize that is you. You are selfish, and you do place yourself above all needs of others. For Avatar's sake, she said you'd banish your own kin to get your way!"
"And you believed her?"
"Yes I do."
"This Aunt Bee you speak of, I went to her once to when I was like...oh who cares how old I was. She told me, that I would marry the most beautiful girl in my generation, and that not only was I blessed with power and strength, but that I would be respected and feared by all. She said that I would be the strongest fire lord since who knows when. She also said that I would do what I could to please my wife..." Ozai said in contrast. "So there ha! We do end up happy!"
"You don't understand..." Tala sat down. "You're too blinded by your own selfishness to see it, you're power hungry Ozai, your power hungry!" She stood up and grabbed his shoulders and looked at him in the eye. "You will be strong and powerful...but that's not always a good thing."
"It's not? Power and strength are great things."
"But they are also frightening." Tala said in a shaky voice. "When people get too power hungry they loose sight of what's really important to them...they even hurt the ones they love the most to get them to believe in strength and power, more than love..." Tala let go of him and walked to the other side of the room. "And when they hurt that loved one, they become desperate, and they...they..." She turned to him. "They do anything to get them back." (Oh my cod...did I just type those words...my cod I'm magical!) She turned from him again and looked at herself in a mirror. She saw herself as that little girl five years before. The little girl who was so desperate to get her father back, that she joined the army. Ozai walked up behind her. He hadn't really paid attention to what she said, but he knew it had to be important. He wrapped his arms around her.
"I'm not power hungry now am I?" He whispered in her ear.
"...Not yet..." She frowned; she knew that he would become power hungry; she knew that he hadn't listened to a word she had said. But he had just honestly tried to court her, and he honestly had tried to make her feel better...she knew what she had to do for him but she couldn't bring herself to do it. He would have to wait. She pulled out of his grasp.
"What?" He asked following her as she paced across the room.
"It's not right..." she said. She looked at him. "Now is not the time...it's not right..."
"Why isn't it right...?" Ozai asked as he persuaded her with his good looks. She was seriously considering it because of his current condition. "This is probably the nicest way you'll get it...this is the easy way..." he said sternly.
"I know..." she turned away. It was the easy way...she had gotten herself into this so deeply that there was no time to turn back. She had passed the point of no return. If she didn't do it willingly, he would make her...and he WAS her husband, by HER choice...it was only fair to give him what he wanted...after all, his prophecy said that he would do what he could to make his wife happy...but how long, the prophecy didn't say. But he would be the death of her...it was best to enjoy her willing marriage as best as she could. "You're right..." she caved.
"Really? Wow! I mean, of course I'm right." Ozai was shocked. She had actually agreed with him on something. He approached her and spun her around. Then he kissed her.
(Okay, I know that there are readers who want to read on in this scene, but I refuse to type scene's like this until I have my own experience to base it on. I could just read a book like that and get information that way, but it wouldn't be the same as personal experience. Sorry guys...)
(the story is better without that scene anyway)