Beauty and the Beast
Darth Maul x Queen of Naboo!Reader
Summary: Maul is tasked to keep you in line while his master's plan comes together on Coruscant...
Warnings: angst, enemies to lovers (it doesn't really get to the lovers part but that's where this is going); mentions of child kidnapping, of murder and maybe other war crimes, of blackmail/threats (from canon), not proofread at all, a mess of POVs, long fic?, idk I went a little crazy with this
inspired by @alexversenaberrie's edits for @maulweek
~ 3K words
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You called him a beast the first time you've seen what he is capable of. You never would have thought that he takes it to heart and tries to hide from you through the weeks when he acts as your guard while keeping you imprisoned in your own palace.
Maul wasn't much of a talker, so to say he was speechless when he saw you for the first time would probably not justify the feelings that still hold him captive from that moment - along with the pain and rage that your words caused him, of course - but he had no better way to describe the experience, as he was never taught to indulge in anything like this. Quite the opposite actually.
He was holding onto those lessons, trying to fuel his rage with the pain he felt when he realised he wanted you and you would never feel the same. He was trying to hate you, telling himself that you are just a spoiled princess who is nothing but a pawn in his master's plans.
His resolve would crumble within seconds of meeting you each day. The way you proudly held on and denied each offer of an easy way out, readily providing a defiant and sometimes mocking answer to everything your weak-minded enemies said. They thought they could break you but Maul knew better, he felt your strength and the underlining growing rage that might just burn them all in the end.
The Queen of Naboo fascinated him beyond words, not just with her beauty that he was fortunate to witness without all the paint you hide behind these days, but everything else he learned about you in this short time. Even the fact that you are strong enough to keep him out of your mind.
You felt his eyes on you all the time, he never said anything but most of the time you could tell what he was thinking. For how little he was showing of his face, it was really telling. Especially his eyes, that you were unfortunately too mesmerised by to look away from on the rare occasion he was actually facing you and not staring out of the window or looking menacingly at your captors.
But he was also your captor, you had to remind yourself way too often. Your mind regularly took you in the direction of wondering about his past. Because you needed to understand him in order to defeat him. Or at least that's what you've been telling yourself.
One afternoon he decided to barge into your bedchamber and caught you hacking into the Trade Federation's network to communicate with your trusted handmaidens, one of which took your place and your senator who escaped with the Jedi the Sith tried to kill. He smashed the consol with his mind and grabbed you by your throat, finding you without your armour of paint and jewels.
For a moment Maul thought the tears, fear and pain he saw were a result of his attack but the message you just listened to was still on and the display kept glitching but he understood the point of the news you received. The Senate abandoned you.
He saw how your misery turned into scorching anger that any Sith could envy and he couldn't help but stare admiringly. Then he let you go, curious as to what you would do. He did not expect you to have a weapon in your sleeve though.
It took him by surprise, not just the dagger but the attack too. You were nowhere near as good as him but you were trained well to use everything to your advantage and if he was an ordinary man, you might have managed to seriously hurt him too.
The first stab grazed his cheek, drawing a faint line of blood but he didn't even flinch and that somehow made you angrier, if that was possible. He let you surrender to your rage, not even trying to stop your attacks, just leaning away and stepping backwards a few times until he got you next to a pillar and grabbed your hand, hitting it against the stone until you dropped the blade.
He caught you, turning you around and pulling you to him, trapping you in his arms as you fell to the floor then he just let you scream with helpless rage while you still struggled against him. But after a while you became too exhausted, sagging in his hold completely, the back of your head hitting his shoulder.
He let you go after savouring your closeness for a stolen moment. After you pulled away, turning around, positioning yourself to face him while you sat against the pillar he carefully moved too, not to scare or agitate you. Resting his elbow on his bent knee, he subtly leaned a little closer, studying you while you collected yourself.
He didn't say anything as you calmed down and wiped your tears with your sleeve. Then you were looking at him, trying to figure out why he let you off so easily and you wanted to ask so many other things but you realised you didn't even know what to call him, so you asked first, "What is your name?"
"Maul," he answered before he could think this through and didn't even take your acknowledging hmm as an insult as he might with anyone else. And before you could start to interrogate him, he let his curiosity known.
"What is yours?" Your frown told him what would be your answer, so he quickly clarified. "The real one."
Maul didn't expect to get a weak smile at that and even though it was gone before he could blink, he knew it was there and the image would surely come back to plague him later.
"Can't you read my mind and find out?" You arched a brow challengingly, almost playfully and he felt a tug in his hearts at that. Before you continued and managed to hit a sensitive topic. "I thought Jedi could make people do things..."
"I am not a Jedi!" he growled back at you, cutting off your taunting.
"Clearly," you responded with only a little less hint of disdain.
He narrowed his eyes, apparently deeply insulted by the comparison. "The force is not the privilege of the Jedi, no matter how highly they put themselves above others."
"Is that why you hate them?"
"They wiped out my kind." You frowned at that.
"You are a Zabrak, aren't you? Your kind lives on Iridonia and Dathomir, I..."
He interrupted again, obviously not wanting to discuss that topic either but his confused expression betrayed the reason for his sudden change of topic. "The Jedi will not help you, nor will the Senate. Sign the treaty and end the suffering of your people."
Now that you were starting to understand him, you knew how to get what you wanted. In his case, with a little bit more antagonizing while satisfying your curiosity. "You could force me to sign it. Why didn't you?"
He stood up, turning his back on you, going to take his usual place in your presence, staring out of the window. "Only the weak are easy to control."
"You almost killed two Jedi, I don't suppose that is an easy task either."
He turned back to you, reaching up and slowly taking off his hood, daring you to look away. So you didn't. You kept looking at him, taking in his features with little to no emotion on your own face.
"What? You don't find this beast so hideous anymore now that you have no other hope?"
Now that, got him a reaction. You looked at him in utter confusion before you understood what he was referring to.
"I did not call you a beast because of the way you look but for how you acted." Although you truly meant it, he took the hint of laughter in your voice in the wrong way.
Quickly making the distance between you, he grabbed you by your throat once more. "You think I am so easily fooled?"
It was a little harder to breathe from the pressure but he wasn't really hurting you so you took a chance and went back to the question he dodged twice now. "If you don't believe me, why don't you look for yourself? See what I think about you."
You could see how he was struggling to hold back something but he gave up on it after a long moment of silent contemplation. But he decided to show you instead of simply telling.
You felt something trying to push into your consciousness, and despite it being almost gentle, something in you snapped and shouted inwardly 'no!' as you somehow pushed it away like it burned you. Your vision darkened for a second, and you could have blamed it on that or the following dizzyness that you saw a hint of a smile on his usually stern face but his eyes were still telling, speaking of feelings you did not want to dig deeper into.
But then he confirmed his admiration for you as he explained with a gentle tone, "You are strong. To break down your walls would mean breaking you."
With his answer, his hold on you loosened too and if you didn't know better you would have sworn you felt him caress your chin as he let you go. He moved to step back and give you some space but you surprised him again.
"Try it again."
It was almost cute how he tilted his head to the side and regarded you with utter astonishment. Then he did as you asked.
Your little experiment went a bit sideways though, because while you managed to let him in, somehow you also caught a memory he obviously didn't mean to project to your mind. And he did not take your thoughts well to that painful memory of one of the first lessons he remembered.
"I am not broken," he growled, oversimplifying what you thought.
"Yes, you are." You boldly approached him, explaining your conclusions with a gentle tone. "The Jedi take very young children to train them. You were taken too. Otherwise, you would know more about your origin, if it had been your choice to leave."
He didn't answer and even refused to look at you but you were not afraid anymore. You didn't have much to lose anyway.
"You have a master, don't you?" Still no answer. "He's the one who broke you. And he will order you to break me too."
He knew you were right but it would mean that all of his suffering was for nothing, because he knew couldn't do it. He couldn"t hurt you and he will lose everything. So he did what he was taught and leaned on his anger, lashing out at you to avoid facing the truth.
"What do you know of any of that, Your Highness? Living in your fancy little palace, surrounded by servants and riches must have been a terrible fate."
The fury reflected in his glowing eyes might have scared you a few days ago, but not anymore. You did not even return his anger, answering in a calm and confident tone that enchanted him.
"I was elected to be Queen for the first time when I was barely fourteen. While I can't even imagine what you went through, I do have an idea about the weight of expectations put on you when you are way too young to bare them."
You jumped a little as he finally silenced the still crackling comms and left without a word.
The next morning your predictions came true. His master contacted them.
"Let's end this once and for all. Make her sign it." The hooded figure ordered him and for the first time in years, he did not follow the instruction immediately.
"If I force her mind open, it will kill her."
Maul knew it was no use to try to subtly argue and his master confirmed that without delay. "She only has to live long enough to sign the treaty."
"I understand, my master." And for the first time, since he can remember, he truly did. He knew what he had to do.
Maul, as always, kept his eyes on you from the moment you were led into the throne room in your usually complicated attire. You didn't meet his gaze though, probably preparing for the worse.
The droids surrounded you, with the two Neimoidians on Maul's right. They asked for your cooperation one more time. You refused.
Maul reached out and took hold of you with the force, finally making you look at him as he held your body immobile. He grabbed his lightsaber and ignited one of the blades, making his supposed allies nervously fidgety next to him.
Your gaze flickered to the blade too before you met his again with confusion. Then you felt it. The nudge against your mind, it was deceptively gentle but it made you gasp and your eyes widen and that was enough to fool your enemies for now.
Maul realised you didn't trust him, so he had to change his plans if he didn't want to risk you getting hurt. So his eyes flickered in the direction of the throne where he knew the guns were still hidden and he applied a little more force into his hold to let you know he will push you that way.
The four droideka were firing before their masters even realised what was going on. He dodged their shots whit his lightsaber, cutting down the Viceroy with the same swing. You quickly grabbed the weapon, using the throne as a cover and fired on the other droids and witnessed with awe as Maul sent two of the shielded droid out the large window, crushed another with a big piece of stone he pulled from the floor and simply crushed the last one with the force.
Despite the loud fight, you did not hear any reinforcements approaching so when Maul dragged the other Neimoidian from his hiding place you approached them and to your new friend's amusement didn't hesitate to knock the other male out with one punch.
Maul felt his hearts skip a beat or two as you smiled at him with gratitude. He felt himself to be in some kind of trance as he deactivated his lightsaber and stepped closer to you.
He wanted to reach out and touch you but halted as he realised that he would smear the paint he liked to refer to as your armour. You caught the hint of the smile he was trying to hide but before you could ask, he reminded you that your fight was not done yet.
The two of you went to the chamber that was used as a prison, freeing the pilots and guards and locking in the Neimoidian.
It was easy from then on, with the droid control ship gone so was the invading army.
Somewhere during the meeting between the remaining council members, Maul wandered away and you later found him lounging on your throne. You stifled a laugh and quickly stopped your guards from shooting at him, dismissing them stating that, "I will be perfectly safe."
When you look at him, he silently taunts you and you could almost hear the "Why are you so sure that you are perfectly safe with me." And you can't help but smile at that, looking at him with a similar expression that says "Comfortable?"
Then he stands before you in a blink of an eye, reaching out again but stopping this time as well. Only for you to take his hands, stepping a little closer.
Your smile fades as you realise. "You want to leave."
He shakes his head, looking away. "I defied my master, he will not forget that."
"So you just plan to be on the run for the rest of your life?"
Your anger takes him by surprise, he expected you to be glad that you don't have to deal with the political headache that his presence would bring. And he certainly not expected you to be ready to fight for him.
"You can stay here. If you want." The addition to the offer was not lost on him. So much has changed in such a little time span, he was free to choose what to do, and he wasn't sure how to handle this.
Taking his silence as a sign that he was thinking about it you started to think through the possibilities. "I am certain you can handle any assassin he would send and I doubt your mysterious master would come here personally..."
Your tone asked for confirmation but he just quietly huffed at the way you said 'mysterious' as one would call someone a coward or something equally insulting.
"The Jedi and the Senate will want my head."
He thought that was it, but again, it seems he underestimated your stubbornness. "Well, fuck the Jedi and fuck the Senate. They did not save us. You did."
"I also helped your enemies."
You sighed and let go of his hands to cup his cheeks like he wished to do with you countless times. And he felt his throat tighten not just at that gesture but because of what you said next. "Was that something you chose to do?"
He took a deep breath and looked down again, unable to meet your eyes. Unable to handle your faith in him. But you did not let him go that easy.
"Stay with me," you asked in an almost whisper, feeling just how fragile was this moment.
When he looked at you again he placed his hands on yours and you felt the now familiar push that meant he was trying to read your thoughts. You let him but you also said them out loud.
"Stay." You repeated. "I will protect you and you will keep me safe."
He smiled at that. It was little more than a hint of amusement but it reached his eyes and the sight filled you with warmth.
You were so preoccupied with that that you did not realise he went a little deeper, chasing that emotion he felt from the moment you met but could never put it into words. He understood that you knew what it was but weren't ready to consciously acknowledge it yet, he would have to ask you later. Until then he might just get more comfortable with his other feelings and newfound freedom, he could live with this annoying little tug on his hearts and on what one might call a soul for a little while. Only if it didn't get more bothersome every time you smile at him. Like now, when he returns your promise with a single word. "I'll stay."
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