Of Lordships & Dark Spirits 8 (Patreon)

Lee swallowed nervously. The day of the wedding had finally arrived, and he’d managed to avoid any face to face interactions with his bride since her and her mother’s arrival. Despite that, he’d seen that his assumption of the blind earthbender he’d met being his betrothed was correct. He was certain that she’d figured it out by this point as well. He was just glad that whatever mask she’d shown to her parents was stronger than however she felt upon making that discovery.

But there was no more avoiding it. Today was the day, and once the ceremony was over, he’d be face to face with the most skilled earthbender he’d ever met. He’d probably get to keep his testicles, they did need to produce an heir after all, but he was almost certainly going to be getting a beating. Sighing, Lee ran his hands through his hair as he forced himself to stop pacing. He wasn’t going to help himself by worrying himself into a frenzy.

The door opened, and Noriko entered, a soft smile on her face, “Wedding jitters, Lord Lee?”

He nodded, not wanting to tell the full story, instead moving and sitting down in the chair that was in the middle of the room. Noriko walked behind him, comb and razor in hand. His hair was on the shorter side, but for something this auspicious, and as a Lord, it wasn’t suitable for him to use his fingers as a comb. Plus the stubble he’d grown needed to be shaved away.

Noriko worked quickly, putting his hair into a simple, straightforward style and removing all of his facial hair. She finished the job by applying a bit of perfume to his neck and wrists and then tying a silk scarf around his head to hold his hair off his face. She helped him don the formal wear expected of his new station before giving him a comforting smile, and leaving.

Dressed in his formal robes now, he made his way downstairs, joining the guests who were already seated at the table. He took his seat, and then waited for his wife-to-be to take her place beside him. This element of Earth Kingdom weddings always threw him off. In the Fire Nation, the couple were not to see each other in the week leading up to the wedding. Seeing as the lands he was given to rule were the farthest from the front lines, the wedding would be entirely of Earth Kingdom traditions. Including where the bride and groom sat at the head of the table while they, their family, and honored guests had breakfast. The fact that the Earth King and Queen were present was a bit of a surprise, but it made sense given that Lee had both been present at their own wedding and he’d been instrumental in foiling the assassination attempt.

A moment later Toph appeared from another room, dressed in green silk, a single red sash wrapped around her waist, and holding a bouquet of flowers. Her milky, unseeing eyes showed nothing, though his eyes noticed a tensing in the muscles behind her cheeks, the detail one of a few others that told him she was gritting her teeth. Lee swallowed, already knowing that she was going to tear into him once the ceremony was over and they were escorted to the marriage bed.

Once she sat, the carefully vetted staff brought out breakfast. It consisted of a deceptively simple porridge made from rice with a fermented bean paste and river fish. The fish alone probably cost more than Lee made in a month as a mercenary, to say nothing of the quality of the rice. As it was served, the guests began to chat amongst themselves, some congratulating the couple on the nuptials. The congratulations were accepted with the grace and dignity expected of them. Once breakfast was finished, all of them stood, and Lee offered his arm to his bride.

She took it, after some fumbles that felt fake, and the two of them made their way to the central garden. Her parents and the rest of the honored guests, outside of King Kuei and Queen Azula it was mostly some bureaucrats, followed behind them. The rest of the guests were already there, seated and waiting.

The actual ceremony itself didn’t last long. They both sipped the rice wine, bowed to the cardinal directions, a ribbon was tied around their hands, and they were legally wed. The official overseeing the wedding led them to the central pavilion, and they took their seats. Now came the gift giving. It was the part of weddings that Lee disliked the most, from the few times he’d been hired to provide security at weddings.

In his experience, the gifts were always over expensive baubles that looked pretty but didn’t have any sort of practical value. For weddings amongst the nobility anyway, the one time he’d been present at a farmer’s wedding, then the gifts made sense. A farmer works the land, so they were given seeds, some livestock, with the biggest gift having been a finely crafted plow.

Fortunately, neither Lee nor Toph were expected to say anything during the gift giving, but it was still all he could do to avoid rolling his eyes at some of them. He was a soldier turned noble, what was he going to do with a clockwork trinket that spun around? Still, Noriko and Lao accepted the paperweight graciously, giving some lines about giving it a place of honor. Yes, it would have a place of honor in making sure his papers didn’t blow off his desk.

Toph was mostly given jewelry, and admittedly, some of the necklaces would probably look nice on her. While Fire Lord Iroh hadn’t come in person, he did send a representative with his best wishes along with a ceremonial dagger. It was a tiny thing, but Lee recognized it as being the work of Piandao. It was easily the highest quality blade in the building, except for Vaatu.

The last gifts were from King Kuei and Queen Azula. He listened as they were described, but Lee’s focus was on Azula. To most, she looked serene and calm, but even after all these years Lee knew better. To him, she didn’t look calm or serene, she looked broken. The passion, the drive that he couldn’t imagine her eyes without, it was gone. She didn’t look hurt, and he couldn’t imagine the non-bending Kuei overpowering her. Something else had to have happened.

After the gifts were given, Lee and Toph stood, bowed to the guests, and departed to the wedding bed. Lee officially had no family, so Noriko would fill in for the role of groom’s mother making sure that all of the guests were taken care of. Which left Lee with no way of avoiding the upcoming conversation.

To his surprise, Toph waited until the door closed, before whirling a finger to point at his face, “When were you planning on saying something, Squatter?!”

“Who?” he asked with a smirk.

Toph twisted her foot on the stone floor, and the floor under Lee’s feet opened up. Not enough to drop far, but enough that when she returned her foot to its original facing, Lee was trapped up to his knees. He looked down, before giving her a deadpan look. Not that she could see it.

“Is this really the best way to start our wedding night?” he asked sarcastically. “Besides, I wasn’t even entirely sure I was your fiance before the raid and helping you get back your wedding dress. If I had said ‘I’m the new lord’ that night we met, would you have been willing to even talk to me? I’d like to think we were something like friends, would you have allowed that if you knew?”

She let out an angry exhale through her nose, before reluctantly admitting, “Probably not. You’re right, doesn’t mean I like it.”

“Does it mean I won’t have to spend my wedding night stuck in the floor?” Lee quipped with a raised eyebrow.

With a snort, Toph stomped a foot, and Lee was shot out of the floor. He didn’t fall, and after a few steps had his balance. Turning back to her, he pointed out, “Think of it this way: because of the way I went about it, we got to know each other before the wedding.”

His bride jabbed his arm, pretty hard too, as she rolled her eyes. Before she took a deep breath, and started walking towards the bed. Her hands reached up, shaking ever so slightly, as she started to remove the various sashes and layers that made up her wedding dress.

“Well, hurry up and get undressed already,” she snapped, red starting to spread across her cheeks.

A small breath of amusement escaped from Lee, as he did so. His own robes were far less elaborate and time consuming. By the time that he finished, Toph had only gotten the upper half of her top undone, exposing the pale, creamy skin of her shoulders and upper back to his eyes. Lee took a deep breath, before walking up behind Toph and helping her get out of her dress.

She was stiff, tense as they went. Slowly, her body was exposed. Her arms were the most toned part of her, but while she didn’t appear fit at a glance, from the small touches against her skin as he helped her undress, Lee could feel the muscle hidden underneath.A soft exterior hiding a core of solid stone. In fact, every inch of her skin felt firm, yet supple, and smooth to the touch.

Her legs were just as well formed, and beautiful. When they were both completely naked, and lying together on the bed, Lee wrapped an arm around her waist, and pulled her into a kiss. It was slow and gentle, the sort of thing that had driven Noriko wild the last time he graced her bed. Toph didn’t resist, and soon, her lips parted beneath his, and their tongues brushed together.

Their first kiss lasted for a few minutes, before Toph put a hand on his shoulder, and shoved Lee onto his back. She swung her leg over his waist, straddling him, his erect length pressed tight against her slit. Her hands held her up, braced on his chest. Lee couldn't help but admire the view before him. Toph wasn't a classical beauty from the Fire Nation or the aristocracy of Ba Sing Se. But even with her blindness, she was still beautiful. Spirits, the fact that she'd achieved as much as she had in spite of her blindness only made her more attractive to him.

He grabbed her hips in one hand, and with the other, stroked her side, tracing her ribs, her hip bones, and then along the valley between them, until he came to rest at her belly button. His fingertips ran down her stomach, to where her pelvis met her thighs, before traveling higher, and finally resting against her mound. The soft hair there was damp, and her lips were glistening with sweat.

Toph leaned forward, and kissed him again, her breasts pressing flat against his chest, her nipples digging into his flesh. After a second, she pushed herself up and took a deep breath, driving away her nerves as she exhaled. She reached down with a hand, and took hold of him as she lifted her hips. The tip came to rest against her entrance, and she took another, brief breath, and drove him into her.

Lee felt something tear, moments before her hips slammed into his own, and held back a wince at how dry her passage was. Toph grimaced, but didn’t cry out. He expected her to take a moment, to let the pain fade and herself to produce more moisture, but instead she forced the pain down and started to ride him. Her hips rose and fell, until Lee grabbed onto her hips and held her still.

“It’s alright, it isn’t a race,” he told her, before reaching up and wiping away the tears that she refused to let fall. “Foreplay is a thing for a reason.”

To prove his point, Lee sat up, wrapping his arms around Toph’s back and started planting kisses on her left breast. Not on the nipple, but instead circling around her areola, including a few licks to go along with the kisses. Toph’s arms rested on his shoulders, her fingers playing through his hair. Lee continued moving his tongue, licking all around her areola, before taking her nipple between his teeth and tugging lightly. She gave a quiet gasp, so he took the nipple into his mouth and gave it a suck.

After a minute of this, he switched breasts, giving the right one the same treatment, though not quite as thoroughly. Then after a few more minutes, he flipped her over onto her back, and got back on top. This time, he focused on her clit, and gave it a few licks, before kissing it, and teasingly biting it. Ignoring the blood from her torn hymen, he brought two fingers up and slid them into her core.

Lee had been with a few different women, more than one had been willing to teach him about the feminine body. He put each and every trick he’d been taught on Toph, but even with the lingering pain from her hymen, it still took longer than he was expecting before her muscles tensed, her thighs locked on his head, and her fingers dug into his scalp as she came.

It was painful, her leg muscles incredibly strong despite not being outwardly visible. But he’d felt far worse pain during the war, and it was something that Lee took as a compliment. It meant that he did a good job at pleasing his partner. When Toph’s legs released their grip on him, Lee lifted his head, and gazed down at his bride. Her skin was flush with sweat, a blush reaching from her face to the top of her breasts.

Her head tiredly turned to his direction, before saying with a pant, “You are doing that again.”

He chuckled, “Later, Wife. There is still the consummation to finish.”

Toph nodded, slowly spreading her legs, “Well then, what are you waiting for, a written invitation?”

Snorting in amusement, Lee took himself in hand, and slid into her. As he reached her deepest depths, he leaned down and kissed her.