AN: Inspired by tumblr user ainefelai's captive zhao au. slave leia!zhao was not my idea therefore i am blameless
It's embarrassing. Humiliating. Dehumanizing. It's as if it wouldn't have been degrading enough for him to return home and report his failure directly to the fire lord. They treat him like an exotic pet, like some kind of trophy. Chained up like a rabid animal, like a slave, always left just warm enough to stop illness from setting in, but too cold to firebend.
It's inhumane, is what it is. And yet they treat him like he's the savage among them.
Zhao fiddles with the links of the chain, the metal even colder against his palms than it is around his neck. It feels like it should come apart so easily, brittle like ice. But it holds fast, just as it has every day he's been here. How long has it been now? A month? Two? His waking hours are filled with thoughts of escape, curiosities about what is happening beyond the icy walls of the north.
There is only ever one opening for him to make off. He spends his time locked in a sparsely furnished room — truly, a prisoner's quarters, and the chain around his neck connects to the floor. A window looks out of the cell so that the people passing by may jeer and taunt him, and he never gets a moment of privacy.
But every few days, they unchain him, and they bring him to the princess's room. Guards watch his every move, and he knows that if he harms the girl, they will instantly be upon him.
The princess herself is enigma. Or, he supposes, he should say chief, or queen. Her father had died during the siege, so Zhao tries to convince himself that he hasn't failed completely — though it's hard to remember that when children are launching snowballs through the bars of his cage and calling him names.
Either way, their leadership is uncertain. Queen Yue is young, only sixteen, and she has disregarded her late father's wishes by breaking off her engagement to her fiancé. The fiancé, too, is upset, and so are the tribe elders. Zhao has gathered as much just by listening. Besides that and dreaming of escape, there's not much else to do in his cell.
Tonight is one of those nights when the queen summons him. He doesn't know what the visits mean, because she rarely speaks. The waterbending guards let him out of his cell, and as always, he looks around for an opening. The first time, he made a run for it, and he was harshly punished. He knows it won't work if he tries again, but it gives him a faint sense of hope, makes his new life just a little more bearable.
The air in the queen's room is noticeably warmer, almost a pleasant temperature, even. The guard chains him to her floor and leaves him. Zhao catches a glimpse of him outside the window as he stands watch for any sign of trouble.
Queen Yue observes him from her perch on the bed, her legs tucked sideways beneath her. Her hair is up in an elaborate do; he must have seen her a dozen times by now, but with its striking white color, it has yet to stop catching his eye. Zhao makes up the pillows on the pile of furs that serve as his bed in her room, but her voice cuts through the haze of his routine.
"Why don't you join me in bed tonight?" she asks.
"Oh," he says lamely. His time in captivity has taught him not to speak unless spoken to, but now that she is addressing him, he can't find the words to say. "If it pleases you, Queen Yue," he manages, and he's embarrassed of himself. His life is run by children. Prince Zuko. The avatar and his friends. And now his captor, a frail girl that he could easily crush if it weren't for the guards outside.
He crawls into her bed. The chain only permits him to go so far, so he rests at the very edge and pulls the blankets over himself, feeling warmth return to his body for the first time in what feels like years. Minutes later, Chief Yue slips in beside him, and he lays there uncomfortably, wondering what she expects from him. But she merely faces away from him on the opposite edge of the bed.
He thinks about escape, too tense to drift off, not to mention that he can't get cozy with the chain taut and the metal collar digging into his neck. He's warm enough now that he could hold his fist to their queen's face and threaten to kill her if they don't let him go, but he's underestimated the Water Tribe before, and he won't make the mistake again. The type of threats he hears on a daily basis are enough to strike fear into any man.
When he wakes up, the moon is bright and full outside the queen's window, as if mocking him. Perhaps she thinks that he's still asleep; her touch is so light that he almost doesn't notice the hand sneaking beneath his shirt, tracing his muscles with fingers that leave chills in their wake. Her body delicately presses against his back, and her caress slips lower, toward his abdomen.
"What are you doing?" he growls in a low voice. The finger traces the waistband of his undershorts.
"I'm not a thing to be used anymore," she whispers, so quietly that he barely hears it. Her other hand grips the collar around his neck. "I am the one who uses."
Zhao returns to his cell the next morning wondering what their little exchange meant. Yue is a mere girl, a princess whose father had made all her decisions in life — including her marriage — up until he'd fallen during the siege. It's a lot of responsibility for a child, to take over an adult's position after something so traumatic.
So maybe there's another way out. One that doesn't involve the futile plan of making a break for it and hoping the waterbenders won't catch him. The days pass in his cell; he is largely ignored. The novelty of harassing and insulting a captured admiral must be wearing off, but even if they ignore him, he cannot ignore them. He sees other men from his troop walking about outside. Some wear shackles like his, others are left cold to inhibit their abilities, but they are always accompanied by a waterbender, and they never dare look at him.
Yue summons him back to her room a few days later, and back into her bed. He takes kindly to the warmth, if nothing else.
It happens in the middle of the night again. He awakens to her hands on him, ghosting down his spine, following the curve of his backside beneath his undershorts. He sucks in a sharp breath when her freezing fingers meet his inner thigh. They linger there, rubbing pensive circles on the sensitive skin.
"Wouldn't your fiancé be upset if he learned of this?" he gasps, even though he knows that she broke off the engagement.
"We're not together anymore," she says, and he turns his head to look at her over his shoulder. Her hair is down, cascading over her shoulders in a white wave tinted blue by the moonlight. She throws her head back, exposing her neck to him, and he struggles to make sense of what she's trying to show him, or get him to do.
Then he remembers — the betrothal necklace. Her neck is bare, and he thinks he understands why she makes him wear the collar.
He scowls, embittered, but her hand is warming up between his thighs. His shorts tighten, and blood rushes to his erection. He hates that some girl — the queen of a nation he should've conquered — is having this effect on him. He grits his teeth as she grips the base of his cock, tentatively making her way up the head in one slow, exploratory stroke.
If she wants him so badly, he'll take her right on her own bed. Zhao jerks against the chain, and she withdraws her hand with a gasp. Struggling to breathe as the collar digs into his throat, he turns over, only to find that she's scampered to the opposite edge of the bed.
"Get back over here, princess," he jeers. "I'll give you what you want." He reaches out, stretching the chain to its full length, and places a hand on her thigh. Painfully hard as he is, it's all he can do to keep his touch gentle so she won't call the guards in.
The moonlight glints in her eyes and she looks at him warily, as if she's just remembered that captive or not, he is a dangerous member of an enemy nation, and she is a scared little girl. He pushes up her gown, and with agonizing hesitation, her muscles relax beneath his palm. His hand dips into the warmth between her legs, and the dampness there pleases him.
A little whimper escapes past her lips when his finger slip inside. "What a slut you are," he breathes. He strokes her front wall, trying to find her clitoris with his thumb. "Who would have guessed that you'd get so wet from letting a big, bad firebender into your bed? Just admit it. You want me to dominate you. To conquer you."
"Speak that way to me again and you'll find yourself back in your cell — for good this time," she threatens, yanking away from him.
"You don't have the guts," he taunts. "You're just a weak little girl, unfit to be a ruler."
"Try me," she hisses.
She's not bluffing. He's quickly hauled off to his cell, where he stews in resentment. Yue has left him a little problem, and he takes care of it with fantasies of putting her in her place.
The punishment he receives still isn't quite what she promised. In the morning, she takes him to the town center, leading him around on his leash — of course, surrounded by an entourage of guards for her own safety. He sits beneath her throne, cold and shivering as a meeting commences.
The tribe elders make snide comments about the both of them, but he supposes his presence has the intended effect: they are taken aback. "It's improper behavior," one says. "Preposterous to let an enemy so close to the future of our tribe," says another.
"I am not the future of the tribe. I am its present," Yue asserts, but there's uncertainty wavering in her voice; she's unused to the power she wields. "And I won't have you questioning my judgment. There are issues I came here to discuss. We must prepare in the event of another siege, and repairs are still waiting to be made in wake of the last one."
"And we will take care of it, not you," an elder says. "Take your new pet and go home, princess."
Zhao seethes at being called a pet, but he knows better than to speak up. "An admiral from an enemy nation has found that it is in his best interest to obey me, and I think you will too," Yue says.
He joins her in bed again that night, perhaps as a reward for his good behavior during the meeting. "So what am I to you, just means of flaunting your newfound power?" he asks. Both of them lie on their backs, and her hand works his cock, moving far too slowly to be anything but frustrating.
"Isn't this what victors do?" she responds. "Take prisoners of war as their slaves?"
"It's what soldiers do. Warriors. Men. Not a girl like you." He wraps his larger hand around her small one and guides it up and down the shaft, faster and faster until he hardens in her grip. "I can teach you how to get people to listen to you, to win their respect." He twists to growl into her ear, "Not to mention how to please a man."
"Fine. You want to know what this is really about?" she whispers. He pulls his undershorts down around his knees to give her more room. Honestly, if it didn't involve him, then he wouldn't care less about what she wants. "My life wasn't exciting until the avatar and his friends came to our tribe, and when they left, I wish I could've gone with them… An adventure like that comes only once in a lifetime. But this is where my duty lies, and I have to make do with what's here."
And he has a duty, too. He's put it before any other part of his life, before any woman. And he can't fulfill it until she unchains him.
He releases her hand, and she slows almost immediately to feel around the tip. "No, you've got to beat him like he owes you money," Zhao chides her. He stops himself from asking if his is the first cock she's handled in her life, because chances are, it probably is. "Listen, Princess," he says, tilting her head towards him. She barely flinches from his touch. "I can show you excitement like you never imagined. You did well to ditch that pathetic fiancé of yours in favor of a more experienced man. Come a little closer, or better yet, let me off this chain."
Knowing it'll only frighten her if he yanks on his restraints, he stays stock still and waits for a reaction. Her big, fearful eyes wander from his burning gaze down to his broad chest, then to where his cock tents the covers.
"I'm… I'm sure we could find something to do where I don't have to unchain you," she stammers.
"It's your call, Princess," he says, stroking himself beneath the sheets.
A long tense silence passes while she ponders a response. "I liked how it felt when you touched me," she admits, then she looks guilty, like she's just been caught doing something she's not supposed to. Maybe he would consider it cute if she wasn't his enemy and captor.
"Oh, is that so?" He takes it as an invitation to reach under her gown, a motion made awkward by the chain stretching to its limit. Fortunately, she responds to his touch this time, bucking her hips upward to meet his hand. He grabs her and pulls her onto his side of the bed, and she wraps her arms around his neck as he pushes a finger inside. The collar cuts into him, and it takes all his willpower to refrain from flipping her onto her stomach and fucking her over the side of the bed.
"Have you ever touched yourself like this, princess?" he asks, nipping her ear. Her neck is bare; he should mark it just as she has marked his.
She's wetter than before, and a restrained whimper rolls out of her. "I was told it was wrong, and — gah!"
He slides a second finger into her. She's tight, but it's easier the slicker she gets. His digits pump in and out, rubbing her inner wall, and she looses a little moan when his mouth closes on her neck. One hand goes up, balling up in his hair, and the other clenches around the back of his collar.
He draws away from her only to pull her gown off over her head. Her body is dark and lithe, and her tits aren't nearly as big as Zhao likes them, but he's never been too picky. Her chest heaves beneath him as he takes a nipple in his mouth, and she whines in pleasure, for the first time loud and clear. "Mmh… Sokka…"
Zhao stops with his fingers still inside her. "What did you just say?" he hisses. "I am Admiral Zhao of the Fire Nation, and I'm the one pleasuring you right now!"
"Don't forget who's in chains, and who's in charge," Yue pants, glaring. She sits up, her hair falling over her breasts, and he kneels between her legs, halfway on the bed. "And maybe part of it… is that I'm using you so I know how to please him when the time comes…"
"I can stop right now if you're going to scream for another man," Zhao threatens. At least, he thinks it's a man. It's hard to tell with those Water Tribe names. He doesn't know why he's more worked up about this than he is about being chained up.
"No, don't," she begs. "Zhao… please, keep going. Zhao. Please."
"That's Admiral Zhao," he corrects her.
"Not anymore," she says.
He scowls. It's a fair point. She takes his hand and tries to guide it back inside her. "Who's Sokka?" he asks. "Why don't you marry him instead of tainting your innocence with a dirty prisoner?"
"He's the avatar's friend," she says. "And I know he only saw me as a princess, but he was sweet, and funny, and he showed me that there's more to life than what's here in the Water Tribe…"
Zhao has a vague idea of who she's talking about. That idiotic, loud-mouthed boy with the boomerang. "And you think I can't show you all those same things?" He finds her clit, and she bites her lip to suppress a moan. "Before you captured me, I sailed all over the world. I've been places you've only dreamed of. I could show you, too."
He licks a broad stroke up her sex, rubbing her faster now. "Wherever you go… you bring war…" she pants.
"You don't think that's true of where your little friend goes, either?" Zhao asks. Yue can't stifle her noises now, and she looks down on him with hazy, delirious eyes. "You don't think that traveling with the avatar is a walk in the park, do you? With me, you'll be safe, well-cared for. You need a real man, not a little boy."
Never mind that he keeps getting bested by children. It's enough to eat away at any man's confidence, but the way she trembles under his skillful touch is restoring it.
"By the time you're through with me, you'll know how to please your precious Sokka, but what makes you think that he'll be able to please you?" he goes on. He leans in and tongues her clit, and her thighs clench around his head so hard it hurts. He pays attention to her every movement, the quivering of her legs, the tensing of her muscles, her breath hitching in her throat, her moans and whimpers and cries.
Zhao's fingers plunge back into her, pumping in and out as he continues to work her clit with his mouth. The chain rattles as she rocks back and forth. Her skin is exceptionally smooth beneath his rough, weathered hand as he explores her inner thigh, her buttocks, the small of her back.
"S-S-S…" she starts to say. He sneaks a glance up at her, and her eyes are shut in bliss, her chest heaving.
"Say my name," he growls right against her cunt.
"Zh…" she begins, but she never finishes. Suddenly, she pushes him away and flops onto her back, gasping and groaning. He tries to join her on the bed, but that damned chain stops him.
"Is something wrong?" he asks, earnestly for once. "Did I hurt you?"
"No," she murmurs shyly. She pushes her way back under the covers. "It was good, but… overwhelming." Nestled among the blankets, she gives him a little smile, and for the first time, he feels something for her besides contempt or lust.
"Unchain me," he begs, and he's disappointed when the softness in her eyes morphs back into fear. "Uh… how else am I supposed to hold you if I can't get all the way into bed? That's an important part of sex, you know. Holding each other afterwards." He feels himself flush. He sounds ridiculously sappy, not at all like the man he considers himself to be, but he has to win her over somehow. Women like sappy. Teenage girls probably like it even more.
"Is that what we just had?" she asks innocently. Agni, she's far too young for him.
"Almost," he says. "But I can't show you unless you let me off this chain."
"I'm not ready for that," she says, and he's not sure if she's talking about sex, unchaining him, or both.
He spends the night perched on the edge of bed with Yue in his arms. She falls asleep quickly, but he isn't so tired. He runs his hands through her hair, fondles her breasts, and finds himself admiring how the moonlight plays on her peaceful features before he remembers to be angry with himself for failing to fulfill his duty.
Yet in attempting to serve his nation, he's forsaken the simple pleasure of holding a woman close.
In the morning, she teaches him how to do up her hair. "I think you look better with it down," he says, nipping her neck playfully. She yelps and giggles. "White, that's a strange color for a girl. You're not secretly an old woman, are you?"
So she tells him the story of how the moon spirit saved her life when she was just an infant. He knows those koi are sacred to her people, but he's never stopped to think about the moon spirit as a giver of life, only an enemy to be destroyed. The ocean is another matter; he has lived a great deal of his life on the water, and he has mastered it as well as any firebender can.
"You came here to kill the moon spirit," she says, her tone souring. She's moved her mirror to his side of the room so they can sit together without unchaining him. He looks at their reflection, his larger form hulking behind her as she brushes her hair. He has encountered child soldiers, war-torn families, but Yue has remained innocent, sheltered, ignorant of the war's realities.
Zhao rarely cares about any of those things, and maybe it's because she's a pretty face inviting him into her bed, but he wants to preserve that about her.
But at the same time, he shouldn't underestimate her. She's vying for power, clashing with the tribe elders, disobeying her dead father's wishes. He wonders how the late chief would feel if he knew what Zhao had done with his daughter last night. Even without the war controlling every facet of her life like so many others he has known, her innocence is starting to fade in the face of her responsibilities and the choices she's made for herself.
"Yes, I came here to kill the moon spirit," he says. He unwraps his arms from around her waist. "It benefits us if there are no more waterbenders. It takes away your tribe's primary means of defending itself, making it easier to conquer."
"And why do you want to conquer us?" she asks darkly. "I've never heard a firebender's perspective before. I've only been told that it's because you're power-hungry, and you want to use us as slaves or take our resources for yourselves."
"We're the greatest nation on earth," he says. It's obvious, isn't it? "We want to share that with the rest of the world. Our values, our technology, our prosperity."
"I can't say if you're the greatest nation on earth," she says. "And I can't say that I'm happy with every part of our culture, either, but there are things I love about our way of life, and they're worth fighting for."
She finishes doing her hair and looks him in the eye. "I'm a lot like you, Queen Yue," he says. "I have a duty to my people, the same as you do. And I need to go home to be able to do it."
She shakes her head. "No. I can't let you do your duty, because yours is to destroy. Mine is to repair. Do you understand that if you had succeeded in killing the moon spirit, I would have given my life to save it? To repay the favor it granted me when I was born?"
He tries to interrupt, but she talks over him. "It would be cruel to take away our waterbending, Zhao. It's part of who we are. It's cruel the same way we've limited your firebending, only you deserve it because you tried to destroy the natural order."
She leaves without unchaining him, and he yanks against his bonds and calls out for her to come back. Her room is as much of a cell as his usual quarters, and its warmth and privacy — and most of all, her affection — are ploys to keep him complacent.
She returns hours later, carrying a pile of clothes. "Put these on. I'm taking you on an outing today."
The parka and fur-lined boots are warm, like burrowing into a blanket. They even unchain him for a brief moment so he can pull the jacket on over his head. He blows a breath of fire into the chilly breeze, delighting in the sensation of the hot air rushing past his lips.
Yue holds the end of the chain, flanked by an entourage of guards. There's another event going on in the town center, some sort of festival, by the sound of it. Music and laughter drifts up on the wind, and he can smell food cooking.
"I can't wait for you to taste shark meat," she says. The guards peel off, and Yue and Zhao merge with the crowd. Tribespeople pass them by on either side, but he gets surprisingly few stares and glares. Maybe she told them to take it easy on him, or maybe he blends in better, wearing their clothes, accompanying their queen.
"What are we celebrating?" he asks.
"The spring equinox, silly," she says. It's hard to hear her over the music and the chatter, so he leans down to get closer to her. "Don't you know how long you've been here?"
"No, I didn't," he says. So it really has been months. "But I do now."
They wander in and out of stalls selling arts and crafts, clothing, weapons, cookware, cuisine. One of the food vendors has a firebender chained to a post, roasting meat. Zhao can barely see him past the group of northerners clustering around like it's some sort of spectacle, but he makes long, uncomfortable eye contact with his fellow prisoner before Yue drags him away.
"There's going to be a bending performance at that stage soon," she says, pointing. She sounds excited, the most energetic he's seen her, like the child she still is instead of a young woman upon whom duty has been forced.
"Maybe you don't need me to keep your life interesting after all," he remarks, but she rambles on past his comment.
"I used to wish I was a waterbender when I was little, but I got over it. Now I'm starting to wish I was again, after seeing how Katara — that's another one of the avatar's friends — challenged Master Pakku."
"I sorta remember her," Zhao says. He scratches the back of his neck awkwardly, reaching beneath the collar.
"Until just recently, girls were only allowed to use their bending for healing, not fighting," she says. "That's one of those things I don't like about our culture. The tribe elders, they don't respect me because I'm a girl. But Katara changed things, and she's not even from our tribe. It makes me think I can change things too." She glances up at him with big, hopeful eyes. Like he's a real person to her, not a tool or a toy.
"Women are allowed to bend however they want in the Fire Nation," Zhao replies. "I had a great lieutenant once who was a woman. And that's to say nothing of the fire lord's daughter. She's even younger than you are, and she scares the shit out of me."
The music stops, and a line of men — and one woman — files onto the stage. To his surprise, Yue releases the chain and grabs his hand instead. The crowd falls silent, though he can still hear some chatter from the market area, and drums start up again as the benders and their water move together in a perfect dance.
"That doesn't look like fighting or healing to me," he mutters in her ear.
"It's art," she whispers back. She's right; it's impressive how coordinated they are, how much practice it must've taken to perfect their routine. He's seen performances like it back home, but the way the waterbenders move is completely different, fluid and smooth as opposed to aggressive, and they cooperate with one another rather than staging a spar.
Once it's over, a tribe elder announces that a play is coming up, and the crowd disperses back towards the market. "Shouldn't you be the one doing those announcements, Queen Yue?" he asks. She hasn't let go of his hand, and he picks up the chain so it doesn't drag on the ground behind him.
"Oh, I helped put the festival together," she says. "But sometimes I just like to be normal." She offers him a shy smile, and he runs his thumb over the back of her hand. Because taking a prisoner of war out on a date to a festival is normal. That's kind of what this feels like, doesn't it? He wonders if she has friends, or if her father kept her secluded from other kids her age all throughout her childhood. She's stopped to greet a few other tribespeople here and there, but none of them stay for long once they realize who she has in tow.
"Ooh! Over here," she says, dragging him through foot traffic to a stall across the way. "Here's that shark meat I was telling you about."
Cut into little cubes, it's unidentifiable, but once he gets closer, the powerful odor makes him recoil. "It smells like piss," he says, trying not to retch. She passes a few coins to the vendor and takes a pouch full of it.
She waves it in his face. "It smells worse than it tastes," she assures him. "The meat is toxic if it's not fermented properly. We bury it in the summer, and then, by next year, it's ready to eat. The long preparation is why it's such a delicacy."
"Whoever discovered that this is edible must've been very brave," he chokes out through the horrible rotting stench, "or very desperate." He can't say he enjoys the food he's eaten during his captivity, but compared to this…
All right. If eating rotten, piss-smelling seafood is what it'll take to win her trust, then he'll try it. He pinches his nose and tries to down the cube in one gulp, but he gags on the taste and coughs it back up without even biting into it. She giggles as he desperately licks his hands to rid himself of the taste.
"Just you wait until you try Fire Nation food," he threatens. "I can down a whole bag of fire flakes like it's nothing, but I bet you your mouth will be burning after just one bite!"
She takes him by the chain rather than the hand, and they rejoin the festivities. "What makes you think I'll ever get to taste Fire Nation food?" she says solemnly. "You know you're not going back, and certainly not with me. Not unless the war ends."
"I…" he says. The moldy, fishy taste still lingers in his mouth. He watches, horrified, as she pops one of the cubes into her mouth and chews heartily. "I meant that if you ever tried our food."
"Hello, Yue."
They both stop dead in their tracks. Yue narrows her eyes. "Hahn," she says flatly. The crowd still moves around them, but people spread out to give them space, and a few even stop to watch the confrontation.
"Long time, no see," Hahn says. "Though maybe it would've been a good idea to talk sooner. You see, you're not a very good chief. You're trying to change our rules and customs, and people aren't happy about that. I could do a much better job, and you wouldn't have to worry about a thing."
Hahn doesn't look too good, like maybe he's had a little much to drink. Zhao steps toward him, ignoring Yue's tightening grip on the end of the chain. "Listen, kid, she's made her choice," he says. The crowd is gathering now, the ring around them widening enough to block foot traffic. "Why don't you mind your own business?"
Hahn gazes past him. "Cute," he slurs. "You've got your pet firebender all trained to defend you. What's wrong, Daddy's not around to protect you anymore, so you got a guard dog to replace him? At least our last chief looked out for the tribe's best interests. Your dog will turn on you the first chance he gets."
"I said, mind your own business," Zhao snarls, fire kindling in his palms.
"Zhao, don't," Yue warns.
"You're even more pathetic than she is," Hahn says. "She has you on a leash like some kind of animal, and you're defending her." He's been slowly backing away from Zhao this whole time, but he stops and holds his ground, then leans in to whisper to him. "What did she have to do to get your loyalty? She's such a traitor to our tribe, it's not a stretch to assume that she loves to spread her legs for her firebending dog—"
Zhao cracks him across the face, and Hahn crumples instantly, rolling around and clutching his cheek. Before Yue can stop him, he pulls free of her grip and storms off. Someone tackles him, and he doesn't resist when the rest of the tribespeople aid in trying to subdue him. Hands he cannot see yank the end of the chain, and he chokes.
Before he knows it, he's being dragged to his feet, and guards are escorting him back to his cell. He tries to look behind him at Yue, but a cold tendril of water knocks the breath out of him.
Hahn is right. He's pathetic.
He finds himself back in Yue's room at the end of the night. She sits silently on the bed as the guard chains him to the floor, and she's still silent when he leaves.
"Sorry for ruining tonight," he says quietly, just to break the tension, if nothing else.
"It's Hahn's fault," she says. "He's an insufferable…" She clenches her fists. "…an insufferable ass."
She sighs as if a weight has been lifted from her shoulders, and Zhao can't help but to laugh. He adds "swear words" to his mental list of things he has to teach her, but he reminds himself that he is angry at her, and he sobers up quickly.
"What did he say to make you hit him?" she asks.
"Well…" he starts, thinking of a way to say it that won't hurt her. Then he remembers again that maybe he should hurt her. Maybe it's what she deserves for treating him like this. "He said you're a traitor to the tribe, and you had to get my loyalty by sleeping with me."
"Oh," she says, the pain in her voice evident.
"I won't sleep with you again until you let me off this chain, Queen Yue," he demands. "There's nothing I can do to keep my captors from degrading me, but the least I can do is refuse to degrade myself."
But she's not listening to him. "How can they call me a traitor?" she murmurs to herself. "I just want my people to be able to make their own choices. I don't want them to be duty-bound like me. I wish we could be…" Her gaze slides over Zhao's neck. "…free."
He watches her get up and leave. When she comes back, she's holding a sliver of metal in her hand, and his heart swells with hope. The collar opens, and she tosses it onto the floor.
After months, it feels strange to be without it. He's grown used to its weight, and he runs his hands over the naked, tender flesh.
When he towers over her, fear is in her eyes again. But he reaches out slowly to cup her cheek and tilt her head up, and she melts into his touch. He knows he's been freed only symbolically; the guards are still outside, ready to barge in and subdue him again should she call for them, but it doesn't matter to him right now.
Yue places her hands on his shoulders and gets up on her toes, and he leans down to meet her in the middle. He's glad her breath doesn't reek of the shark meat; it tastes of berries, crisp and cold. He threads his fingers through her long white hair to pull her closer. Her lips part in a soft little sigh, and he takes the chance to slip his tongue inside her mouth. She yelps in surprise, but redoubles her efforts, kissing him harder.
He lays her down gently, despite how badly he wants to shove her onto the bed and have his way with her. He smiles against her lips; her first time should be tender, but if this keeps up, maybe she'll learn to like it rough. Zhao draws away to pull off his parka, and Yue watches him with amusement as he impatiently struggles out of his pants next, hopping around on one foot. Back in his underclothes, he climbs on top of her and starts to undo her dress.
Soon, they are beneath the covers, skin against skin. He kisses down her neck to her breasts, taking one nipple in her mouth and kneading her other tit. He slips a finger inside of her to warm her up, pleased to feel that she's already wet for him.
He lines himself up with her entrance, forcing himself to pause for her sake. "Are you ready?" he asks.
Her grip in his hair tightens, and there's that fear and hesitation painted across her pretty features, only it's not him that she seems afraid of. "Will it hurt?" she whispers.
"I'll be gentle," he promises, not even sure what he plans to do after he wins her over anymore.
"Okay," she says, and squeezes her eyes shut, sucking in a deep breath as he slides in. They lie there without moving as Zhao waits for her to adjust to the new sensation. Her breathing slows, and she squeaks out another "okay."
Carefully, he pulls back out and thrusts into her. "If it starts to hurt, just tell me to stop," he says, pressing a kiss to her cheek. It would be so easy to ram into her until she's climaxing and screaming his name, but his desire not to hurt her — is it part of some plan, or is it genuine? — overrides the urge.
He picks up speed, coaxing the first sighs and moans from her lips. His grip travels to her hips, lifting her up to get a better angle, and when he looks down, he's astounded by how beautiful she is like this. The moonlight coming through the window plays on her features, shimmers on her skin and sparkles in her eyes. Her white hair, almost blue in the light, fans out around her head like a halo, like she's a divine spirit living among humans.
Zhao decides that maybe it's a good thing he didn't kill the moon spirit after all. Then, Yue moans out his name, all breathy and desperate, and he decides that it's definitely a good thing he didn't kill the moon spirit.
He can't hold back anymore, pulling out as he comes. Yue looks up in surprise, upset that he's stopped, but he gets down on his elbows to finish her off with her fingers. Within seconds, he has he quivering and crying out again as she drips all over his hand. Her thighs clamp around his head, but he doubles down while she rides out her orgasm.
Her legs untangle from around his torso, and they break apart, both panting. "Your hair is… not soft," she says. Her legs shake, and she pulls herself into a sitting position. "I think I'm going to get a rash on the inside of my thighs from your sideburns."
"And I think I swallowed some of your white pubes," he says, and she laughs so hard she snorts. He crawls over and scoops her into his arms, and she cuddles up against him. They sit in contented silence beneath the blankets for a moment before he speaks again.
"I had a fiancée too, at one point," he says quietly, languidly stroking her hair. "I was only a few years older than you at the time. She was a nobleman's daughter, and her father could've secured me a high position in the navy. But I insisted on doing things myself, and working my way to the top the way an honest man does. I wonder how much sooner I could've launched my invasion had I married her."
"What happened to her?" Yue asks.
"I didn't like her very much," he says dismissively. The truth is a little more complicated than that, but not by much. "She didn't like me either." She stretches and yawns, burrowing deeper into his chest, and he finally admits to himself that he finds her adorable. "And with my career, it would've been hard to have a family."
There's that unspoken rule again, the commandment they both follow: duty comes above all else. But would it really be so terrible to stay here? Maybe the Water Tribe will never accept him, but Yue clearly has, and that's all that matters. The idea of manipulating her into allowing him into the tribe's internal affairs is growing less appealing with every minute that she lays against him. The thought of escaping to return to his grueling life at sea seems utterly ridiculous when she pulls him down for another kiss.
"Please don't hate me for this," she whispers. "But my guards will worry if they know I've let you off the chain."
The peace on her face turns to sorrow, and he realizes that it's not ridiculous at all to choose his prestigious career of bringing honor and glory to his people over a girl who doesn't even trust him.
"Don't do this, Yue," he growls, yanking away from her. "If I wanted to hurt you, I would've already done it."
"Zhao, I'm sorry," she pleads. "Please, it's not because of that."
"Am I your prisoner or your lover?" he barks, and she recoils, pulling the covers over herself as if they'll protect her from his wrath.
"Chief Yue!" a guard calls from outside.
"Everything's fine," she replies shakily, although they both know they opposite is true.
"Are you ashamed of me?" Zhao asks, seething. His fists burn, and once again, the only thing preventing him from losing control over himself is his fear of hurting her. "Are you ashamed to be caught in bed with your firebender dog?"
"You're not my prisoner or my lover, Zhao," she sobs. "I thought I could control you, just the same as I thought I could rule my people. I can only do one of those things."
Tears brim in her eyes, and she slowly — cautiously — inches toward him. When she gets to the edge of the bed, she reaches not for him, but for the collar on the end of the chain.
"If I can't be free, then at least you should be." The collar clicks shut around her neck, and there's so much pain and sadness in her eyes that he feels his rage drain away, sizzle out.
"It doesn't have to be this way," he says. "You could come with me, we could—" He kills the thought before he allows himself to finish it. Even if he no longer wears the chain, he is still as bound as she.
"There are no guards outside that window," she murmurs as he gets dressed. "If you're quick, you'll be able to get to the docks and take a boat out to sea. As for the spirit oasis…" She gulps. "It's guarded. You won't be able to get in."
"I wouldn't harm the moon spirit, even if I could," he says. If the sacrifice he must make for her is to face his failure when he gets home, then he will do it. "You said you would give your life for it."
He kneels at the foot of her bed and strokes her cheek. Twin trails of tears shine on her face, and she sniffles.
"I… I won't forget you," she says. "Maybe one day, we'll meet again."
Zhao presses his lips against hers. Their burdens are separate loads to bear, but he kisses her like he's trying to take a slice of her pain with him.
Halfway out the window, he looks over his shoulder.
"I won't forget you either."
— FIN —
AN: maybe after reading that you're thinking "wow, the titular chain (hehe, titties) is symbolic of the shackles of duty!" or someshit like that but i am here to tell you that actually it's 100% a kinky thing.