Jafar x Reader - Strength in Caution

His cape swirls around him like black, squelching fire as he stops in the center of the room. The frosted oil lamps flicker for what seems like no reason at all. There is no wind to move them...or maybe I just can't feel it. With the way my head feels, I'm pretty sure I've been staring at him for like an hour already so it wouldn't be surprising if I'd lost touch with other aspects of reality. But...I mean...is it the power he exudes...? Or...?

"So you're the rat who's crawled into my palace." Rat? Really?

"Uh. Sure." His eyebrows twitch up, face tilts and he parts his plush, dark lips. Pretty sure he wasn't expecting me to just accept that sort of name calling. The flicker of a crow touches the streaming moonlight and makes me more than a little aware that the man has left the jail door open behind him.

Probably shouldn't try to escape, though. That...might just be bad news bears. All things considered.

"You do not mind," he starts toward me, careful, distrusting footsteps pervading the silence left in the wake of the feathery fluttering outside of my cage, "being called a rat?" Flirting with my personal bubble, the man imposes his posture on me, touching at his own chin and looking through the emptiness in my eyes.

"I would only mind if your opinion meant anything to me." The acerbic words sting around my heart like icy venom as I let them fall. Why exactly am I being a dick? It definitely doesn't benefit me...

"Ah," he sighs, retaking the breath through his nose and turning his attention to the bird at my barred window. "You don't know who I am, do you?"

"No." Caressing the metal bust of his cobra-laden cane, the man turns his gaze back onto me with uncertainty etched into the warmth of his dark, chocolate iris'. "Should I?"

Nearly letting a displeased grunt purse from his lips, he lets his hand fall from it's pensive state at his chin and searches the corners of the room for a moment before laying his eyes on me again.

"The Red Queen would be displeased that you are so disloyal as to discount your allegiance to her just to save yourself..."

"What?"

"I know that I would kill a subordinate who could not swear her loyalty to me until her dying breath."

"Okay...first off, do I really seem like I can be subordinate to anyone?" Quirking another eyebrow despite his still expression, the man before me shifts his footing, leaning on his other leg and definitely closer to me. "Um, second, what about in cases of deception? Like where she might have to lie to get what you desire. Why wouldn't you let her actions speak for her?"

"I would have to trust her. Trust introduces a weakness. One may always be betrayed. As I assume you must be doing to her--"
"No, like really, I don't even know who this chick is--"
"Don't lie to me, girl!" He snarls the words, tossing the head of his cane to artificially lick at the skin of my neck, warning me that he's ready to drop enough pressure to collapse my throat at any moment. "I know what she wants nothing more than to find a weakness in me. There is nothing for her to find. She has even wasted a precious pawn in this futile attempt."

Rolling my eyes, I shift my attention off of his heated breath, his long, curly, ebony tresses. Truthfully, I don't know if that means I'm going to die soon or if he's going to turn me into a slave of some sort. Should I even ask? I don't think I want to know...

"Nothing to say?" Slowly removing the cane from my body, the man straightens his spine and lets his words tumble off of his tongue like a mocking caw from our strangely silent visitor.

"Plenty to say."

"Then say it." Forcing my eyes to dazzle his, I take a step into him, something that he doesn't even flinch at, and poke him deep in the hard, warm pecks. Crap. He's probably totally ripped. Probably really hot naked...

"I have no fucking clue who you are. I don't even know who you're talking about. There's a stupid crow apparently listening to our entire conversation and you don't give a shit about that. Just some girl who was rudely awoken by some smelly guards of yours and who clearly and simply knows nothing about the crap that you’re spouting and I can totally make up a wonderful fucking story, if you want, about why I was unwittingly found in your stupid palace in the first place but I think you'd prefer the truth." I take a breath, huffing slightly from the adrenaline of my frustration. "This is the truth. I haven't lied to you. Ever. Because I've never met you, never been here," the undertones of my breath grasp around my words, "have to be dreaming..."

Without removing his sight from mine, the man presses his hand up to cover mine and ease it out of his personal space before opening his lips to take a terse breath.

Instead of answering, the man twists on his heel and walks at a very comfortable pace to my cell's door.

"Feed her as you'd feed me."

"Sir?"

"Let her bathe in peace. But never let her be alone."

"Sir." The guard dips his head with confusion that probably accurately depicts his level of intelligence. The man refuses to spare me another glance, however, before he flips around and lets that gorgeous cape flit around in his power's wake.

Did I really just do that? I did. I did and totally got away with it. Is that luck or...something else?