AN: I'm sorry I've been gone so long. I let fanfic slip while I was doing school and other stuff IRL. I've always been more of a reader of it than a writer. But while I was cleaning my closet I found my old outline for this story and was inspired to keep writing it. I probably will update my other stories soon too. It takes me a long time to write since I'm a perfectionist but I really do want to finish my fics. Thank you so, so much for waiting.
Heads up for a lemon this chapter at the end.
Chapter Two: Not the Brothel Type
After their second tryst in under two days, Ozai decided he should ask a few of his countless questions. The most important one should come first. He generally tried to avoid thinking that way and often just demanded answers from those lesser to him. But the girl getting dressed in front of him might be more difficult. She was different than any other girl he had laid, which would explain why she was still in his presence in early afternoon after the night he first met her.
"That was fun," said Ozai but she did not gush over it like most girls would. "Now, sweet thing, if you want my help, you are going to tell me exactly what you have been doing for a year since you broke things off with my son."
Mai looked him up and down, sighed, got out of bed and found her clothes. "I can show you better than I can tell you."
"Sounds dangerous," he mocked but she ignored his disdain.
She said flatly, "You like dangerous, or you wouldn't have slept me last night."
"You aren't dangerous," he said smoothly. "You are unnerving at best."
Mai just shrugged. He liked that about her.
"May I lead the way, your highness?" asked Mai, not taunting him enough to earn a bruise.
He nodded but maintained his disdainful sneer.
Mai took him into the sketchiest part of Caldera he knew. She walked into what appeared to be a restaurant but smelled like the inside of a shoe mixed with metallic blood. He heard the roars of fighters and knew where she took him.
To a dance.
He always liked these kinds of places. They entertained him when very few things still could.
They strode inside and he saw the chaos. A ring was in the center and two men wailed on each other as the crowd breathlessly watched and a few contenders trained in the shadows.
"And you fight here, I imagine?" Ozai asked, laughing at her.
"Yeah. It was this or a brothel, and I am not the brothel type."
He smirked at her and said coldly, "You could be. You are very good at it."
For the sake of her vengeance, Mai ignored his degrading comment and said calmly, "I'm better at this. Get some side bets going."
Ozai cleared his throat and dug his fingers into her arm. "If you want my help, or not to spend a few nights in a dungeon, you will not give me orders."
Mai bowed. It seemed halfway sincere.
"My apologies. Your highness, will you please get some side bets going for me? My usual girl isn't here tonight," said Mai. She walked to a man at a desk and scrawled her name on a yellowed page in a book of signatures.
He shook his head and drifted to the back. It always was the best seat in the house for a royal amongst scumbags. Ozai watched Mai stand outside of the ring, a placid expression on her face as if there were not two men beating each other to a bloody pulp right above and in front of her.
She rose up into the ring quickly; she was a fan favorite here. Ozai supposed this was how nonbenders had their fun and he doubted it would be very exciting without fire.
He stood corrected. The edges of the ring lit ablaze, upping the danger level significantly.
Mai impressed him.
After she won three fights and they both ended up with a good deal of gold, she sat down at a rickety table as a girl in a skimpy outfit gave her a drink. She sipped it, Ozai glared until the girl quickly served him one as well.
Mai sighed. "I'm sore."
"I could make you sorer," he said and she fought the urge to roll her eyes. At least she won.
"Do you have your answer now?" Mai asked dryly.
"You have just been fighting here for an entire year?" Ozai commented.
"Not exactly. I fought in a sleazier one of these in the Earth Kingdom to earn the money to get to Caldera. Then I started working at this one." Mai toweled the sweat off of her body. He considered stopping her, because the sheen was sexy on her pallid skin, but he held back. "Now, can we discuss Zuko or not, your majesty?"
Ozai licked his lips. "Fair enough. You want revenge; I'm not sure what I want yet, but you will give it to me when I eventually ask."
"Of course," Mai said, subconsciously bowing her head slightly.
"How did you end up in the Earth Kingdom?"
"To fight in the war," said Mai, examining her sharp black fingernails.
Ozai rubbed his chin when he offhandedly said, "Which is why you're so talented at beating men half to death."
"I was in an elite forces squadron," Mai said and he noticed a wistful note in her tone. It was the first time he heard emotion in her voice. "My specialty was knives and we mainly took out high profile targets and worked in infiltration. I met Zuko while spying on him. He found me out but fell so in love with me that he didn't care."
"He always was weak. If I were in his situation, I would have killed you," Ozai growled.
"I know," Mai said.
She rose and started to walk out of the bar, and turned to look at him. Her face said nothing but her eyes informed him of what exactly they would spend their night doing.
He casually followed her.
Ozai took her to the palace. He did not mind it, bringing her to his lavish quarters in the dead of the night. No one noticed.
They did not reach his bed; he would prefer the floor. He grabbed her and pulled her into a kiss and she stepped back then forward then back then seemed to decide she wanted it.
Mai struggled with his shirt while he concentrated on hers. The outfit was still sweaty, bloody and worn from the fights. He did not care as he undid the last of her clothes and threw them on the floor without giving them a second glance. She finished with removing his clothes. He yanked her towards him and held her close, pressing their bare chests together as he moved her, forcing her down onto the floor beneath him with her back pressed into the hard stone.
His hands moved down to the hem of her underwear and he pushed them down over her hips. He removed his own clothes.
She hid that she liked the feel of him, hot and hard, against her thigh. His hands were everywhere all at once and she concealed that she loved that. He would have to work much, much harder than that to make her even react. After all, he was everywhere but where he wanted him to be most, but his cock was there, grinding against her where wetness was building rapidly.
He pulled her up and undid her hair. She supposed he was into something that simple since his cock pulsed against the skin of her stomach, but she did not have a choice. She needed his help and she would jump through these sexual hoops to get it. He tangled his hands into the raven tresses near the base of her neck and pinned her down, securing her in place, controlling her.
In their messy past encounters, he was definitely in control, but not this forcefully.
He held her tightly in place as he crushed his lips violently against hers. Her hands roamed over his back and she dug her nails in halfway down.
When he thrust into her she softly, faintly gasped so quickly that someone could miss it. He was hard and long and thick around. She did not mind this part of her revenge at all. He wanted nothing more than to keep touching her, to taste her, but he wanted nothing more than to slide the head of his cock over her clit, again and again, until she at last moaned.
He slid into her and buried himself to the hilt. Her fingernails dug deeper and he grimaced at the sharp pain. She drew blood. He liked that. He liked her stifling her moan against her neck.
Ozai did not bother with being gentle. He never did before. Hard. Fast.
Mai closed her eyes and controlled herself as she drew closer to the brink. She was good at this, good at seeming unbreakable and cold as ice.
He tilted her hips, finding a new angle. With every stroke, he hit the right spot inside of her. Mai knew she wasted her time with the immature and inexperienced but not to this extent.
She was going to…
She would not. She would not.
She did come hard around him, for the first time in their now three times together.
Abruptly, he finished and released her hair.
They did not lock eyes or look at each other for long as they pried themselves apart. It was just a requirement of Mai's revenge and it was just another girl to him.
It was nothing more than—admittedly hot—sex and it would never be anything more than that. They both would make sure of it.
In the morning, Mai walked through the palace. It was where Zuko grew up, before he was cast out by his own family. She hated thinking of him. It left a bitter taste in her mouth.
She sat down and thought through the plan.
If all went well, she and Ozai would start a journey to the west by tomorrow.