Avatar The Last Airbender Fan Fiction ❯ Control ❯ Controlling Fear ( Chapter 2 )

[ X - Adult: No readers under 18. Contains Graphic Adult Themes/Extreme violence. ]

She owed him for the engagement, but she hadn't quite figured how to exact payback when wedding arrangements were keeping them both busy. In the end, she didn't try to meet up with him. A little separation could do wonders for their wedding. Their reunions had always ended in spectacular feats that had them both "not receiving visitors" for quite a while.

So she actively didn't do anything to correct the situation, and decided to focus on her other toys.

She rubbed her fingers against the set of knives before her. She had two sets of knives, one was her standard set, which she threw against the wall when she was bored, more often than not lately, or against her enemies, something that wasn't too abundant lately. It was red tinged steel bought when she was younger.

Another set, was more rarely used. It was a rare pattern welded set with a mosaic along the knives. The balance was good, and she kept them sharp and clean personally. As with most personal weapons, no one else handled these. She picked one up and began wiping it with a cloth instilled with her preferred purification agents. She then followed it up with a clean cloth to dry it.

It was quite unfortunate then, that Zuko had decided today of all days to come looking for her and found her handling the knives. There was a sharp intake of breath as he hovered over her door. He didn't know if he wanted to come in or out. She could live with that. He never feared her red knives. The mosaic though... well yes, she could live with that.

She tilted her head to one side and rose from her table. "Finally realized we haven't seen each other for days?"

A moment of hesitation before he stepped into her room. He closed the door behind him. "I wanted to give you space to decide."

She raised her eyebrow. He raised his. "You're a moron." She crossed her arms in front of her.

He flushed. He started a sentence several times and when he failed to complete it, they settled down to a staring match.

Mai sighed. "Whatever."

"My next meeting is in an hour, maybe after lunch. I told them we all needed to walk and resume later. It's a rather... open ended break. I was getting frustrated. It's one of those things where everyone thinks they're right and no one wants to bend."

She went to her desk and lit an incense stick. It was enough to signal the end of an hour. He shivered lightly when his eyes dropped to the knives displayed prominently beside her incense holder.

Sometimes, her Fire Lord needed punishment so badly. And she had wanted to play this out on the wedding night, damn it.

But he had said he was frustrated. And he had just walked in on her with her pattern welded knives. "Did you lock the door behind you, soldier?"

He stood up straighter. There was a frantic tilt to his eyes. She waited patiently for him to decide if he wanted to play or work. In the end he knelt down in front of her slowly, watching her before lowering his head in a bow. The Fire Lord doesn't bow to anyone, but well... this soldier he's seen enough kneeling to wear out her rugs. He has never turned her away before, even though he always panicked. "I am at my Queen's command."

She unpinned his crown and set it near her knives. She let down his hair and wove her hands against it, as she tried to decide on a scene. "I was sharpening my knives, soldier. Disrobe and lie on my bed as I like you."

He flinched but he obeyed. He smoothed out the Fire Lord's robes and hung them neatly on a coat hanger beside her bed as he lay down on her bed. She smiled as she pulled one of her knives and ran it on a whetting stone. She wouldn't be doing any of the sharpening now, but it was torture for Zuko to hear it. She finished at one and looked at her incense stick before turning to Zuko.

Naked. On her bed. Eyes cast low. It was one of her turns.

She opened one of her fragrance oils and took a whiff. Fire blossoms. Oh Zuko would be pissed. She brought the small bottle and dipped her fingers in it, while weaving the invisible patterns on his arms.

He inhaled deeply. There was a starting protest on his lips. "You remember that if you want to be released from my services, you could always go to the Fire Lord, soldier. You could always take his crown."

He always started to protest but didn't take any of her outs. Mai smiled as she said, "I thought so. Would you heat up the oil as I work? Be careful not to burn yourself. It is oil." She didn't check if he did but continued on his right arm, then his left. She looked at his eyes. They were intently looking at her hands.

She trailed a finger over his scar. He flinched again. "Do you need to be tied down, soldier? You keep moving." He stilled. He closed his eyes then looked back at her, then down again.

She trailed oil against his body. His nipples earned her a long hard groan. His body was flushed, his face had darkened, and his eyes were half lidded. His abdomen rippled as she touched him there. The fires were starting to burn brighter in her room. Just as well that there was only the incense stick. "If you burn the incense stick to the ground, our time will be over, soldier, and you're going to have to go crawling back to where you came from."

The fires banked, moderated. Control, he still had some form of control. She oiled his legs next, and he almost pulled his foot from her fingers when she oiled the balls of his feet. He watched her as she worked over his legs, she could almost feel him shaking. Like it was their first time together. They always shake during their first time.

She inched up carefully, like she didn't have a deadline. He was already painfully aroused. She oiled his shaft slowly, and he almost leapt out of the bed. But her other hand was holding his hips down and she was looking at him intently.

He growled. She smiled as she stood up and wiped her hands on a piece of cloth. She had been tempted to wipe it on his robes, but that wouldn't do. "You know, I think maybe you do need to be tied down. What do you think, soldier?"

He was breathing heavily. He took too long to respond. "I don't think I can control myself enough, majesty."

It was a title that wasn't used in the Fire Nation. The Fire Nation used Fire Lord, because it was a remnant of a time that the Fire Lord was the head sage. But the title Queen was used in Ba Sing Se, and it seemed strangely apt to use them here, between the two of them.

She brought out several swathes of cloth and reached for his arm first, then tied it to the bed post. There was vibration in his arm, like he wanted to move but he'd locked his arm against his will. He had fought viciously the first few times they'd attempted this. But there had always been some submissive lurking beneath Zuko that she recognized when she'd punished him for leaving her.

And he'd loved her enough for his trust. She finished tying him down. He was still tensed, ready to break free, so she fingered the last swath of cloth... and decided to blindfold him as well.

He turned his head to the side breathing hard she touched his skin. Fever pitch, the oil must be driving him crazy. "I don't appreciate that you're making this difficult for me, soldier." With barely controlled panic he set his head flat on her bed. He stilled. He breathed hard with want, but he stilled.

Firebenders hated the dark almost as viciously as they hated the cold. The mere fact that they had flames eliminated the need for it. Zuko had probably never experienced darkness since he learned to bend his first flame. He looked at her, and then set his eyes down cast again. "I'm sorry, my queen."

She squeezed his arm then tied the silk around his eyes.

She checked the incense. He had bended its flame out. Oh the man was going to have to be punished hard. She smiled as she began to sharpen her knives again. The slow snick of the knife against the whet stone unsettled Zuko enough because he wouldn't know when she's going to decide that she had sharpened it just right and it wanted to taste his blood.

There was a knock on the door. He had locked them. Bolted them shut despite her knives out on the table. The man sometimes projected his need to be punished so badly. "Lady Mai, is the Fire Lord perhaps with you?"

Mai didn't stop the movement of the knife against the stone. "I'm sorry. I haven't seen the Fire Lord since an hour ago. Please fetch me some food and place it outside. I'm in need of a repast."

There was a slight hesitation before the servant answered, "Very well, Lady Mai."

And that was that. An hour, or maybe after lunch he had said. She brought one knife and scraped the edge against his abdomen. He rocked trying to move away from the sensation and she slapped the flat of the blade against him. "Do you want to be cut unintentionally, soldier?"

There was a long pause as Mai leisurely scraped the blunt edge of the blade against his thighs. Unlike her red knives, these were not double edged. "I expect an answer when I ask my questions, soldier." There was a slight shiver in him, he was afraid. He was excited.

"Yes, my lady." He took a deep breath. "No not unintentionally." Another pause. "My queen."

She ground the hilt of the knife just under his balls and his hips rose again. "Please. Please... please--" he whispered against the bed.

She would have loved to stripe him, and then paint him with deep reds that the Fire Nation was known for... but the blood was going to seep through his robes. He was going to need rest after it, and mostly because there were some things that she'd need to reserve for her wedding.

She didn't have enough time for it either, not now when he could still return to his meetings. But there was always enough time for pleasure. And though Zuko had always been intimately aware of his pain, she found that it was hard for him to recognize pleasure. He hated the helplessness of it at times. But they worked on that, together.

She fisted his hair and brought her hand down to his arousal stroking him mercilessly. His voice deepened. His pulse quickened. He tried to move away from her hand. His head moved from one side to the other before she pulled him done for a kiss. He was starving for contact. He demanded from that kiss as she took from him.

And then she abruptly pulled her hand away. He groaned in protest. "Not quite yet, soldier. You're mine now. Not the other way around."

He dropped his head on the mattress, breathing heavily.

She took away the blindfold as she looked at his eyes. She leaned her forehead against his. "Soldier, you remember the Fire Lord's problems with land disputes? Close your eyes and gather them all into the center of your mind's eye."

He looked at her then closed his eyes. "Good, soldier. Now bring all of those problems there and start a small fire with your bending at it. It's burning now, small start. In a while, it will burst into a large inferno, but you control it. "

He let out a ragged breath. He was a powerful bender. It was almost like a bending exercise. "You know that ball of fire will explode in a while. In five of my breaths it will explode, and you will feel it through your spine, your arm, your fingers, your toes. You don't fear the fire. You embrace it."

Mai breathed in, "Five..." he copied her, his breaths moving with her. The tension that he'd been vibrating with earlier was virtually gone. With every breath she took, he settled more into the stillness that he rarely achieved outside of her bed. Zuko was wildly passionate, easy to anger and easy to provoke. "Two..."

"One..." He wasn't straining now. He lay back on the sheets. Eyes closed. "Zero." She pressed hard on the glans. Everything that contained fire in the room exploded. Zuko shouted his release, his voice hoarse, as if he'd been shouting for days. His bonds burned and he shot up to capture her and he kissed her violently.

He leaned his forehead against hers, drained. The fires dropped in the room, suddenly extinguished. He was breathing heavily, leaning heavily on her. As if she was his breath and his life. He blinked, but she saw that it was an effort.

"Damnit, Mai, I might have killed you," Zuko said hoarsely as he flopped down the bed. Exhausted.

Mai gave him a small smile of contentment. "I'm fairly sure that you wouldn't burn your fiancée to a crisp." she looked around the room and frowned. "It does wonders for my room though. The Fire Lady's apartments must be flame proof at least."

"Not everything is fire proof," he said. He closed his eyes. His next words were close to mumbling. "It's you who insists you stay in your house. I have perfectly fine consort's chambers before you take permanent residence in the Fire Lady's suites."

She ignored the complaint and focused on him. He was going to fall asleep. In the middle of the morning. She stood up and opened her doors. On the floor was her neatly ordered tray of food. She pulled that in and propped the tray on her lap, shoving him over playfully to make room for her. Ladling some of the soup she brought it to his lips.

He opened his eyes and instinctively sat up, accepting her offering. He sighed and was about to slither down on her bed when she continuously fed him bits of food from the tray. He almost ate one of her fingers in the process but she flicked his nose in response. "None of that. You have delegates to attend to. After lunch you said."

"I'm not sure I can move," Zuko confessed. "But I haven't--"

"It does wonders for my ego that you're thinking of me," she fed him one morsel at a time. He ate obediently. He'd learned that she liked feeding him after the sessions. It was another aspect of their relationship. "Honestly, I was really thinking of postponing all of these activities until the wedding night."

That got his attention. "Are you serious?"

"Patience, sometimes you lack that far too often." She fed him another morsel of food. "Besides, it's your turn next."

oOo

When the delegates reconvened. They found the Fire Lord relaxed and more able to concentrate on the meeting.

Even if he did smell strongly of Fire blossoms.

Notes:

Bonus points to those who got the reference to omoni_scribbles's fanfic.

There's already a pretty damned good knife play/blood play story in fanfiction.net: Release by RueBroadway, so I didn't want to encroach on that.