'Do you want to degrade me?'

It started with a simple question. A question that was out of the ordinary, but a simple question nonetheless.

It was a question that Yusaku didn't know how to answer. Should he say yes or no? The fact that he was even contemplating was a telltale sign of his moral corruption. Yusaku liked to think that deep down he was a chivalrous hero who knew no sin, but a decade of vengeance inevitably changed him. Although he didn't want to drag others into the darkness, it was also because the idea never crossed him that anyone would want to join him where there was no light. Now, Aoi Zaizen - someone he thought exuded light - was asking for an invitation into his own personal hell.

Why couldn't he refuse outright?

'What do you mean?' he asks instead.

'Do you want to hurt me?'

'Why would I ever want to do that?'

'To feel good.'

Yusaku's green gaze hardened. He looked right into the eyes of the woman in his arms, who knew what she was doing but was cruel enough to continue on anyway, and tightened his already steel-strong grip on her. 'Why do you think that hurting you would make me feel good?'

'Because maybe you wouldn't feel so lonely anymore if you had someone to hurt alongside you.'

'Who the hell are you to speak as if you understand me?!' he growls with sudden intensity. Without warning, he unwraps his arms from around her and his hands fly up to her neck. She whimpers for only a second before she regains some composure. The features of her face settle into what Yusaku perceives as pleasure; this irritates him. He's hurting her. He's genuinely, seriously hurting her. So why is she biting her lip? Why is she arching her back so that her body pushes up against him?

How dare she enjoy his anger.

'I'll do anything you want.' she whispers. 'I just want to understand you.'

His grip on her neck tightens. 'You can't understand me...' he hisses back. 'You don't know anything about me!'

'I-I...' Aoi tried to speak, but it was next to impossible. She hoped that she he could see the sincerity in her eyes, but he abruptly let her go and turned his back to her. His hands fell into fists at his sides. She could see that he was shaking, but that moment of vulnerability gave her confidence to pursue him further. She reached out to swipe his shoulder, an action which prompted him to turn around. That was when she swiftly leaned forward to kiss him.

He didn't push her away.

Instead, he pushed against her until the back of her knees bumped into a desk. The impact caused her to break their kiss by toppling backwards so that she was laid out in front of him with her thighs on either side of his hips as he stood tall. This lasted for only a second before he leaned over her to kiss her again. This time, so deeply and sensually that she was temporarily paralyzed by all the emotion surging from within her. When she finally managed to regain some semblance of control, she wrapped her arms around his neck and massaged his tongue with hers.

Despite being the perpetually stoic sister-in-law of the strict Akira Zaizen, Aoi was in this very moment was unbecoming of her status. She was moaning and writhing underneath a man she barely knew but desperately wanted. In the back of her mind she knew that her brother would be severely disappointed with her, but when it came to Playmaker, she could only hope that Akira could one day understand just how much she needed to be close to him. Playmaker was the only person she knew other than herself who was debilitatingly lonely.

It made her feel like she wasn't so alone anymore.

So even though it'd piss Akira off, she had to get closer to Playmaker. Even if Yusaku wasn't aware that she knew of his virtual identity, she wanted to get closer to him so that neither of them would ever have to be alone ever again.

'Do I want to degrade you?' Yusaku whispered against her lips. Heavy breathing mingled between them, the only sound that could be heard in an awkwardly empty classroom. 'Who do you think I am? Why would you ask me something like that? Or maybe...'

'Eh?'

'The truth is that you want to be degraded?'

Aoi's heart skips a beat. 'Why... Why would I want that?'

'One...' Yusaku begins as his hands fly up to the neckline of the school sweater she wears under the blazer. 'You are aroused by the idea of being sexually submissive to a dominant partner,' he made the first point before ripping that thick article of clothing apart. 'Two...' his hands move to the collar of her uniform's white button-up. 'You want to rebel against your brother, and you know this will anger him if he ever found out,' he tears open her shirt and the buttons land loudly on the floor. He likes the white lace of her bra. 'Three...' he slips two long fingers into her mouth. 'For once in your life, you want to have the feeling that you no longer have to be in control.'

Yusaku starts pumping his fingers in and out of her mouth slowly, as if trying to show her what he wants to do to her in more intimate contexts. Aoi seems to enjoy it. She swirls her tongue around his fingers and whimpers as she tries to suck him in deeper. He reciprocates by thrusting his digits so far down her throat that she gags, but he'd be lying if he didn't admit that the sensation of her throat closing in around something else of his excited him.

'Am I right?' he manages to say.

She can't speak, but her eyes answer him.

Yusaku's breath hitches in his throat. It wasn't hard to see from the very beginning that Aoi was beautiful. Hell, even an AI felt the need to point out how beautiful she was. But there was something about the way her lonely, sad eyes burned into him in this very moment that made her appear the most striking he'd ever seen her. Despite the lewd display of having his fingers in her mouth, there was a stunning innocence that illuminated her features.

Alongside that purity was profound sadness. Even though she stared at him with longing and something else he couldn't describe but hoped was love, she also looked so sad. He something sparkle in the corner of her eyes, so he withdrew his fingers from her mouth and leaned in to kiss her. It was an action that was done instinctively to soothe her, but he didn't at all succeed. He felt her tremble and heard her whimper. When he opened his eyes to see her reaction, his chest tightened painfully to see that she was crying.

'What's wrong with you?' he asks without thinking. He mentally kicks himself for sounding so callous. He didn't at all mean it that way; he just wanted to know what was wrong. Was he doing something wrong?

'I don't know.' she smiles sadly.

'Why are you crying?'

'Because it hurts.'

'What hurts?' Yusaku's voice is unexpectedly empathetic. 'Am I hurting you?'

'No, you're not.' she can hardly speak. She's whimpering in between syllables. He's panicking. And he's also upset to see her so sad.

'Where does it hurt?'

'Everywhere.' she reveals. She's never been so honest in her life. 'It hurts everywhere. All the time. It won't stop.'

He doesn't know what to say.

He speaks anyway.

'I don't want to hurt you.'

'But you will.' Aoi tells him. 'You can't help it.'

'I won't.' he insists. Jade eyes are brimming with sincerity. 'I promise. I don't want to hurt you.'

'You will. Because I care about you, you will. You might not want to, but you will.'

'I-'

'It's OK.' she reaches up to cup his face. 'I'll love you anyway.'

Yusaku doesn't know why he still fucks her after that.

He tried his best to be a good lover. Despite his inexperience, he focused on listening to the subtle cues her body gave him. If she leaned into him, he'd repeat whatever it was that got that reaction out of her. If he saw her biting her lip so hard that he was worried she'd draw blood, he'd push into her slower. If she tightened around him, he'd moan into the curve of her neck to let her know that her pleasure was his pleasure. At the very least, he wanted her to know that in this moment, they were one and the same. If she hurt, he hurt with her. If she was feeling good, then that knowledge was more than enough to give him satisfaction.

Do you want to degrade me?

In the beginning, he did. Because he "loved her," he wanted to own her. Because he had control taken away from him in his life, he wanted to take control of everything around him. He may not have been conscious of it before now, but the self-discovery hit him hard.

Yusaku's self-reflection made him realize that he and Aoi Zaizen could never be together.

His dysfunction shouldn't drag her into the dark. While it was true that she was by no means baggage-free, he wasn't the person to help her through her problems. If he had been just a little bit weaker, he would have really, truly hurt her. Despite him trying not to physically hurt her to prove her wrong and show that he genuinely cared about her, the fact that he was even doing this with her would hurt her later. He knew this, but he did it anyway. Because for even a fraction of a second, he wanted to feel less lonely. Even if he wound up missing her so much more later, it was worth it to go all the way now.

In the middle of it all, he looks down to see her face. His own features are scrunched up in what he can only imagine is an unpleasant expression of labor and need. He expects her to have a better expression than his, but her eyes are the saddest he's ever seen and he realizes that no moans escape her. She's utterly silent, staring at him with an unreadable expression as he moves in and out of her.

'It hurts.' she says.

'I know.' he answers back, leaning over her and burying her head in his shoulders. His hands are entangled in her hair and his thrusts become deeper, more urgent.

'Don't stop.' Aoi wraps her arms around his back. She rakes her nails from the back of his neck to around his ribs. He hisses; he's pretty sure that she scratched him deep enough to mark him for tomorrow. 'H-Harder...' she commands and he obeys. She squeaks when he hits her womb, but the sensation turns her on despite the physical pain. Her abdomen feels like he's spearing right through it, but her skin is pleasantly on fire. 'Yu... Yus-sa...'

Without warning, he grunts and twitches over her. He thrusts into her one more time, deeper than he ever has before, and Aoi feels the warmth of seed being shot into her. As if with no regard for her feelings, Yusaku extracts himself from her and begins dressing himself back into his school uniform the second he empties all of himself into her.

Wordlessly, Aoi scrambles to do the same.

She thought she was being rather quick, but when she turned around to try and speak to her newfound lover, he was nowhere to be found.

When she's home alone again later that evening, she lays on the bed for hours just waiting for the moon's light to dim. A hundred thoughts race through her mind until one finally allows her to shed a tear.

You hurt me. I was right.


Author's Note: Hey guys! Thanks for reading. I wanted to tackle a lot of the complex character quirks I observed when watching these two. I hoped you enjoyed reading it and will let me know what you think!