This was written in response to Jakia's challenge to everyone: write something that is NOT your OTP. It's just a drabble, but I'm not adding it to my other drabble series because this is most definitely not Zutara. Besides, Zhao/Azula doesn't get enough love. There may be other non-OTP fics that follow this, but they'll probably be posted on their own too. I'm thinking... Haru/Katara next. Or maybe Jun/Jet. XD
Title: Better Than Paperwork
Prompt: Jakia's Non-OTP Challenge
Pairing: Zhao/Azula
Word Count: 461
Rating: PG-13
A/N: I love the pairing Zhao/Azula, but it doesn't get enough love! Why! Oh, and review, please! It makes me happy!
It is long after sunset, amidst a painfully tedious stack of paperwork, when Admiral Zhao hears the iron door to his chambers creak open.
"Princess."
The door closes on squeaky hinges, footsteps echoing across the room.
"Admiral."
"You shouldn't be here," he tells her, the statement lacking any real conviction.
"Oh, but I have a reason, dear Admiral," she replies smartly, holding a scroll out in front of him. He does not fail to notice the broken seal on the scroll. She waggles it at him, teasing him.
He sighs, and plays the game. "And what might that reason be, Princess?"
"Oh, I wonder," she muses, staring at the scroll with an expression that greatly resembles childish curiosity. Zhao isn't fooled; he knows that Azula lost her childishness innocence and curiosity long ago and replaced it with an equally childish fascination with pain and torture.
He puts down the brush he's been writing with, pushes the pile of parchment awaiting signatures away, and turns his chair to face her. She likes it when he devotes his full attention to her, and what the princess wants, the princess gets.
"Humor me, Princess, and tell me why you have gone to such great lengths to deliver this message yourself," he asks cunningly, his voice slicing through the air like a hot knife through butter. "A servant or messenger would have been more appropriate."
She smiles, or at least manipulates her mouth to look like it. "You have orders to leave tomorrow morning," she explains with a clear lack of interest. "A blockade, or something as equally dull."
"Tomorrow morning?"
"Short notice, I know."
He suddenly notices how much closer Azula is than she was a mere minute ago, and wonders what they teach at the Firebending Academy these days that allows a young woman to move twenty feet without lifting a foot or being noticed. He rises from his chair, smirking.
"Oh, I think it's long enough," Zhao says, staring at his fingers as they trace meandering patterns on the fabric of her shirt.
Azula isn't as patient. Dropping the scroll, she grabs him by the chin and yanks his face forward to meet hers, shoving their lips together in something that is less like a kiss and more like two animals fighting for dominance. She grabs his shirt by the shoulders, dragging him backwards and falling onto the bed together.
She smirks into his mouth, then pulls away only slightly.
"Better than paperwork?" She asks, her shirt finding it's way to the floor, where it lands next to the forgotten scroll.
"Much," Zhao replies, smirking back at her as his lips find hers again.
& & &
Azula wakes up the next morning, in her own bed and very much alone, and the Admiral is gone.
END.
