Chapter Text
“Aren’t rabbits supposed to freeze and die?”
“I’m a hare.” She answers softly, coldly. A detached nature to her words brings a brisk air from the left. It blows her scent to him.
“There’s no difference. Prey is prey.”
“I am not prey, and I certainly won’t submit to you.”
“If you don’t, you’ll die.”
“Then I suppose I’ll just have to die.” She unsheathed the knife from her side, holding it with both of her hands. Aiming it towards her stomach beneath the layers of formal clothing. A shame blood would stain his gift.
“No.” He shakes his head, she hadn’t even noticed he’d gotten closer. She opens her eyes, lifting her head from where she knelt, looking up at him under her long eyelashes.
He holds her wrist tightly, yet she gives struggle. She’s not stronger than him, most certainly not.
She grabs his wrist and grits her teeth.
“Unhand me, you monstrosity. What man has blood red eyes? Only comes out at night like some demon, let go of me!”
“What feeble woman inherits ice, while the rest of her family are useless non sorcerers. I come from a long well bred line of power. You are a single mistake in a pond of failure.”
Her ice surrounds her, traveling up his arm in sharp shards threatening to poke into him.
“Maybe you fit in with the pond of failures.” Her ice doesn’t reach his face, subdued by the pain of his hands nearly shattering her wrist.” Behave, and you’ll be rewarded. I paid a good amount for you. Honestly it’s a steal. But your family is so poor any amount of money is worth selling their only daughter.”
Uraume holds her head down as he brings his lips closer to her ear.” Isn’t it a shame to have a daughter. No one to pass the name, weak, meant to be bred and no other use for her but a house maid behind mommy.”
“I said let me go!” She stands to fight, quickly tugged back down to her knees with aggression. When her knees hit the hard floor her mouth falls open in pain.
“Unfortunately your mother informed me you don’t know how to cook. You’d rather waste your efforts trying to be a sorcerer. You’re a woman, Uraume, you’ll never be strong enough to beat a curse.”
“But I have, and obviously I’m worth much if I’ve been recruited by the school! There are women there too!”
“Do not raise your voice to me. I am your husband now.”
“You are not! That wasn’t the agreement.”
“The agreement was I bought my wife? You think I’d buy a woman for a few hands around the house? Be a servant to take me on missions? You’re dumber than you look.”
“You will unhand me. I am not your wife.”
“I suppose our kids would be cute. Your eyes are lovely.”
Uraume’s face darkens in disgust, twisting her wrist to wrench it from his grip. She falls back on her bottom, her eyes trailing up to him as he stands. His patience torn to shreds.
“You will obey me. I’ve dealt with women more stubborn than you.”
“Aren’t you a useless non sorcerer, as you call them?”
“You are gravely mistaken. I can tell you haven’t been informed of me. My name is Ryoumen Sukuna. You are in my estate, you are owned by me. All property of mine must obey or face the consequences. As my wife you will perform tonight.”
“You will not touch me!” She stands with a start, her hands shoved against Sukuna’s chest. Had he been a regular person he might be on the floor by her strength alone. But he’s not.
He’s much stronger than her. Much more ferocious.
“Well I’ll get my moneys worth one way or another. You can’t just sit here and look pretty.”
She turns, confidently. During their argument his servants, his property, had begun carrying in her luggage that she did not pack. In fact, her father dragged her in here with an iron hand.
She had means of walking right out of that door, pushing past the various servants and her belongings with an anger akin to her fathers.
“If you leave. I’ll be forced to retrieve you. And when I do, you won’t like the consequences.”
She felt the wind of it hit her back, turning to create a block of ice, anything to guard her from the slice that cuts through the air.
“Well trained. It’s a shame. And you have quite a bit of confidence to you. You think I’d just allow you to go?”
Uraume stands there, one hand out, ready to do anything she needs to, this man is obviously a monster. There’s something sick in his eyes that she isn’t fond of.
But she’s only defending. She doesn’t have time to attack. He’s backed her into a corner, slicing, cleaving, cutting her clothes, marks in her body from where he sliced her. They aren’t deep, but they sting in the night air.
When she’s on the ground, catching her breath, he’s standing there, clapping and laughing like a fool.
“Well, maybe this was worth the trouble. You’re entertaining!”
She sits up, moving to get back on her feet but falling on her back once more. She nurses her arm, the deepest cut she’d got from him.
“You can fight. This is the most fun I’ve had in years. I’ve changed my mind on your punishment. Get up.”
She still sat there panting, and she watched his eyes darken before his voice spoke the sinister command.
“Get up.” His voice like venom.
Blood seeps out of her arm. She can’t even come up with a remark, something to dethrone him from this place of joy.
“It can’t be helped.” To her dismay her comes to her, hooking his arms under her to pick up her battered body. She tries to hit, use ice, anything, but it’s weakened, it can’t continue. She cannot continue.
“Have you been tired out, wife?”
“I’m not your goddamn wife.” She replies shakily. Her world is bracketed by black slowly, struggling to keep those eyes aware of what’s happening.
“Wake up.” He lets her body lay on the cool floor, she only hears the hushed movements of fast feet rushing to complete his commands.
A glass of water is set down next to her whilst she’s scooped up in his large arms once again.
The water is cold as it touches her tongue, she wants to reject it, reject this brief moment of faux kindness but she’s so thirty.
She envelops her hand in the glass drinking it herself.
“Why did you say you’re a hare?”
When she’s had her fill she lets the glass clatter on the floor, crawling from his lap to create some space between them.
“Whatever.”
-
She hasn’t eaten since she arrived. She refused she would not eat because he says they eat, and she will not obey him. For now, a servant is tasked with feeding them. Another of his property.
“I’m sure you’re famished.”
“I could only imagine the kind of drug you have laced in my food.” She pushes the plate away and moves to get up.
“Sit down.” His words absolute, cursed with a dangerous precognition of what may happen had she not listened. She’s weakened, hungry, injured.
Injured, yes she’s injured… she’s supposed to be injured, where are her scars. She doesn’t feel them anymore, doesn’t feel the ache of the lines cut into her skin.
He scoops some of her food into his mouth and chews approvingly.
“It’s safe. Eat.”
“No.” She turns her head up in refusal.
“I will force you to eat.” He stands up. A fire in her eyes ignites. It’s scary, watching his large hand cup her face tightly, his other hand palming her food and shoving it in her face.
“Uraume, eat.” She bats her hands at his face, her balled fists landing hit after hit against him. She tugs at his shirt, trying to push him away and his hand of fucking food making a mess of her face.
Her hair is disheveled at the end of the exchange. His patience has run thin, so thin it would snap and shatter beneath her feet.
He grabs her neck, squeezing. Achingly tight she bats her hands at his arms, scratching, ice forming on his bicep. At her jaw and crawling to her temple.
In her feeble struggle her mouth falls opens, a silent scream for air, a demand to suck in air.
The mush of food forced into her mouth, his hand slapping over it next.
“If you’d like to breathe I suggest you swallow.”
He feels it under his hand, attempting to come back out, he squeezes harder.
“Stubborn woman.” He shoved her harshly letting her go and resulting in the food splattered on his shirt and his lap. She wipes her mouth, a light chuckle leaving her lips.
The food was delicious. She has swallowed half of it, only managing to get half down before her fight for air took precedence.
But as he looks at her, that disheveled mess of a woman. Her chest heaving, half of her kimono off her shoulder from their tussle. She’s strong. Impervious. Fucking stubborn.
She looks feral. Absolutely fucking hot with barely any regard for what she’s doing to him right now. The sound of her breathing, the light slither of her voice at the end of each ragged breath, like she’s fought for her life and ready to fight for more.
She picks up the closest utensil to her, a spoon, and eats. Sukuna would rather clean his hand than try to figure out her stupid reason for trying to eat now. Maybe the fumes of the food got to her, maybe she’s become so hungry she realized she had no strength to fight him.
When he turns, drying his hands she has finished, wiping her face delicately, as if she were a lady.
“Ladies don’t fight their husband, don’t try to act like one now.”
She takes his plate from across the table, shoving her finished food aside and beginning to eat his.
Stubborn fucking woman.
She had been sleeping against the wall the last few days. She was a young woman, he can understand her nervousness to a degree.
But he doesn’t care. She will sleep in the bed with him tonight.
First he’d have to herd her. Bargain with her. Fighting will only result in a larger drift. He realizes he’ll have to gain some kind of trust. Unfortunately she isn’t particularly trusting after their food situation.
“You will bathe and come to bed tonight. You stink.”
“I refuse.”
“You can obey, and be assisted by the women, or I will bathe you myself.” An ultimatum even she wouldn’t be so stubborn to fight. She stands up, his servants assigned to her female health specifically undress Uraume with little words, little to share and never gazing into her harsh eyes.
They lead her into the tub of hot water, scrubbing her seemingly from all directions.
“I can bathe myself.” She tugs her arm from the woman to her left, the rough sponges scrubbing at her skin like she’s a rock.
“Ow!” She protests, water, dumped her head to begin washing her hair.
“Hey! Ow!” The women are non sorcerers. She isn’t that heartless to attack them and leave them dead in his bathroom. But as they scrub as her legs and arms, rough brush on her back and a very unrelaxing hair wash, she feels the growing want to kill them all.
She doesn’t. Itll only result in a fight with him next.
After she’s dried she’s wrapped with silk, Her legs and arms alike rubbed with beautiful smelling oils over her skin. The ladies are still rough, ensuring ever inch of her is moisturized.
Her hair is brushed. The silk tied around her waist to show she does in fact have a shape under her thick robes she arrived in. The door is closed and locked behind her.
“I am pleased to see you’re ready for bed. And you smell decent.”
“I’d rather sleep on the floor.”
“The bed is comfortable.”
“I will not have sex with you.”
Sukuna sighs, defeated almost. Almost.
“Unfortunately Uraume, eventually you will have sex with me. You are just a woman, and women are knowingly more sleazy and needful of sex than men.” As if he knows everything. As if he has the all seeing eye of every woman and how they’re all the same.
He’s a cunt.
“I refuse.” She replied, simply.
“You’ll eventually come to me. For now, you’ll lay in the bed and go to sleep.”
Uraume does not. She laid on the floor on the side that wouldn’t been her side of the bed. She curled her hands beneath her head and found comfort there.
“Why are you so difficult? I feel I’ve compromised with you.”
“Compromised!?” She sits up, looking at him from the floor. She looks like a shark, only her eyes visible for the kill.
“I’ve been more lenient with you than my past wives, yes. I’d have tortured them if they behaved like this.”
“I suppose you’ll have to torture me.”
“It won’t work on you. You’re a sorcerer. You’re too tough. And you’re too pretty for me to torture.”
She laid back down on the floor. It didn’t take long for her arm to be grabbed and her body tugged into the bed like an inconvenience.
It’s soft. Incredibly soft for a man so rough and violent. He puts the blankets on her, and that’s all.
She shoves the blankets off. That’s where the submission starts. Letting him do whatever he wants will make her submit.
She will not.
But she couldn’t leave the soft embrace of the pillows. It definitely beat the hard floor. And the pillows cradled her head in such a comforting way, she felt like she was being rocked to sleep in its softness.
-
She’s officially been here a week. She wakes with a start. Her entire body balled up in the blankets.
Sukuna has been reduced to a single column of bed space. The small woman has successfully taken the entire bed and its blankets within one night of sleep.
When she lifts her head she notices the cocoon she’s subjected herself to.
“You sleep like a rock.” She lets her head fall back down in the embrace of the pillow. She could do to sleep some more. Her back had been aching her from the floor and the wall, she’s found comfort.
But she’s hungry. She’s very hungry.
Sukuna can hear her stomach growl.
“Would you like to have breakfast?” He asked, trying to temp her out of her.
“Not with you.” She says, not aggressively, not as she usually dismisses him.
“Do you always have to be armed?”
“I should’ve suffocated you in your sleep.”
And she would’ve loved to. To see him thrash under her as she straddled his hips, keeping him down while he clawed at her, seeking air, seeking salvation.
“I’m a light sleeper.” He rolls over on his side to look at her. Her hair a mess, all on one side. Her mouth covered with the blankets, sleepy eyes blinking up at him. She’s a beauty.
“If only you’d behave, I’d give you the world.”
She only continues to look at him. A response to something like that can’t just be given, she doesn’t even know how to respond.
She’s been purchased. How could he promise to give her the world when he purchased her?
Shes subjected to another bath. This time she’s allowed to have some privacy to scrub herself in peace.
By the time she’s done the food is ready. It smells even better than yesterday, piled together beautifully.
“Let’s talk heirs.” He jumps to conclusions, quickly.
“I will not have sex with you. And my father failed to tell you I’m infertile.” She’s desperate to try anything to make him get rid of her. Even if he just kills her, she’ll accept it.
“You’re not infertile. Don’t lie to me.”
“And how would you know?”
“Well from your 5 day refusal of a bath, the smell is obvious. Not to mention your vibrant dreams.”
“My dreams are none of your concern.” She slams her hand on the table, an obvious threat to tell him to stop talking.
But he isn’t intimidated.” Do you always have wet dreams that often and that loud? Kept waking me up with your incessant grinding and little moans. You sound pretty.”
“I do not have wet dreams. And if I did shouldn’t you be fucking asleep?” She doesn’t believe him. She wants to call his bluff. She’s never been…loud.
“It’s hard to sleep knowing you didn’t get off. Who were you dreaming of?”
“Obviously not you if it felt good.”
“So you admit to having a wet dream?”
“Everyone has wet dreams.” She argues back.
Sukuna rested his head on his knuckles. ”It’s life. We have fantasies we want to fulfill but can’t. Well, I can, if you fail to perform your womanly duties I have a host of women to choose from.”
She pauses for a moment, putting her spoon back down to let it clatter on the plate
“So you have me here captive for nothing if you have access to have children elsewhere.” She concluded.
“I wouldn’t have children with just any whore, Uraume. You’ve got a…favorable cursed technique and the chances of a child taking it is something you can’t ignore. It’s worth a try. But you shouldn’t care, considering you hate me.”
“I don’t care.” She spits.” I don’t.”
“Then why ask?”
“You’re wasting my time. I could still be home, or at the school being a jujutsu sorcerer. I could be enjoying my life! And instead you buy me and cheat on me.”
“Well, it’s only cheating if you care.” He shrugs.
“I don’t care!”
“Seems like you’re caring.”
“I don’t understand men like you. You’re never satisfied, you just bully your way through life and expect people to fall in line.”
“I do expect you to fall in line. I’m more powerful than you, and I’m your husband.”
“You are not my husband!” She stands up with a start, storming off in her rage.
She’s got a temper, he comes to realize. One that ticks the same beat as his own.
He needs to make peace with her if he hopes to lay his seed. Just a compromise for a child. Boy or girl, he doesn’t care, but to raise a child with such potential for power. Fill it with his knowledge to be as ruthless as he is, leaving his estate to an heir worthy of his love.
He gives her time, then approached her while she laid in the soft bed.
Uraume didn’t grow up with beds like these, or pillows this soft and silk so delicate.
She grew up under her father’s heel. To be strong. To work hard. If she wants to live she cannot live by gender formalities, she needs to work to provide. And she did.
And then she realized she had a gift. A gift her family couldn’t see, but the teachers who recruited her could.
“Uraume, what do you desire? I’ll buy you anything you’d like.”
“I don’t need your money.”
“Offers expiring.” He says coldly.” I’m sure there’s something you desire. I can get you anything you’d like.
“I want nothing from you except my freedom from this contract.”
She knows he’d never give her that. It’s a stupid request but it’s worth a try. Worth asking for. She’d rather go back to her old life, being broke and going to school so she can start providing for her family as a jujutsu sorcerer. To have the freedom to do what she’d like whenever she wants.
“Unfortunately I can’t grant you that.”