She struggled to maintain her poise while restraining herself to match his unhurried pace. The sensation of the students' transfixed gaze on them felt like a thousand tiny needles piercing through her skin. Anxiety welled up in little beads of perspiration on her forehead. She denied their existence and allowed those annoying little droplets to stick to her face. The choice to wipe them off with the back of her hand was not a valid option for her; it would have been too unrefined, not befitting of her public image.

Her companion, on the other head, was too accustomed to even regard the overwhelming attention they were receiving. His presence alone demanded the attention of anyone passing by. With the addition of her walking by his side, everyone became so mesmerized that they just had to stop the work at hand. Some people were even gaping at them with mouth wide open while others chattered away like frantic little birds.

"Isn't that Kanemiya Nadeshiko next to Akashi-san?"

"Yea, her family is pretty loaded right? Plus I heard that even though she is a first year, she is the already vice president of the tea ceremony club."

"Seriously?!" A second year student from their audience exclaimed out loud, the noise echoed painfully in Nadeshiko's ear. The passer-by's friend immediately shoved a hand in front of her mouth to muffle down her voice.

"Shhhh! Are you an idiot! Don't scream so loudly!"

It wasn't as if there was anything about Nadeshiko that lackluster, even on her own, she easily captivated other's attention. She had all the elegance, the charisma and the dignity necessary for the heir of the esteemed Kanemiya Corporation. Yet somewhere deep down, she knew that she still fell short from being the fiancée of Akashi Seijuro.

It had been an arranged marriage to strength the bond between their families, in more direct words, a political marriage of convenience. Yet, Akashi has always been kind towards her, and Nadeshiko was grateful for that. However, there was a certain intimidating side to him that was been growing in leaps, and it scared her.

His orders are absolute. And there was no exception to that rule-

"Nadeshiko?" Akashi shifted his attention to the girl as he held open the door to the empty basketball club room. Nadeshiko flinched upon hearing her name, for she had been too drowned in her own thoughts to notice that they had already reached their destination.

"Thank you, Seijuro-san." Nadeshiko pulled a weak smile as she took small steps forward, all the while tugging a stiff hand between the folds of her school skirt. She could feel his sharp gaze on her, forcing her to swallow hard and flex her muscles just to keep herself from shaking.

If this was a game for both of them, she knew she was walking right into his traps.

There was no way she could possibly ever win against him.

Akashi motioned for her to sit down, and Nadeshiko obeyed silently, careful not to reveal her left hand to the basketball captain. They settled down without word, while Akashi kept his gaze on her, tracing all the lines and curves on her upper body with his eyes, it was almost as if he was pressurizing her to reveal the secrets she kept from him. Nadeshiko responded by stiffening her body. There was no way she will allow herself to succumb so easily to his gaze.

However, Akashi knew better, there was no need for him to use any offensive tactics against her, for soon she will be the one who inaugurates her own defeat. Since she set foot into this room, her fate has already been sealed. With the perpetual nonchalant expression on his face, Akashi began to occupy himself with his usual game of one-man shogi. The soft clacking of the chess piece seemed to save her from complete silence, but yet at the same time it unnerved her, threatening to crumble her composure. Nadeshiko tried to turn her attention to something else, but the only other source of sound in the room was the resonance of the clock, it was ticking away mercilessly, proclaiming and mocking her inevitable defeat. Left with nowhere to run, she drew up all her courage in a small breath and opened her mouth.

"Seijuro-san?" Nadeshiko cringed as her squeaky voice betrayed her fear. Of course, she knew that even without such obvious reactions, Akashi has already seen through her act. It was a well-established fact between them that there is simply nothing that can possibly deceive those heterochromatic eyes.

Akashi looked up from the shogi board, and those sharp odd coloured eyes seemed to be piercing straight through her.

"What is it that you need me for?" Nadeshiko flashed a smile that didn't come out as gracefully as she had hoped. The sheer pressure of having his eyes on her was enough to make her lose her cool.

"You should know better yourself, Nadeshiko." She was surprised at herself that she managed not to flinch at the statement, because as those words left his mouth, his piercing gaze had suddenly softened.

That was a trap laid down with the sweetest honey.

"How is your hand?"

Knowing that any further sloppy attempt to hide her injury would only been seen as a rebellion, Nadeshiko slowly raised her injured hand towards her fiancé.

"What happened?" Akashi interrogated while carefully lifting up her pink scalded fingers to further examine the injury.

"I, ehm, accidentally scalded my hand during club activities." A shiver was sent through her body as Akashi caressed the burns gently.

"For a shihan*, you are quite clumsy." Akashi placed her injured hand on the table and a brittle smiled appeared on his face as his gaze returned to the girl. It was a smile that did not reach his eyes. The warm tones of red and yellow were suddenly replaced by freezing intensity that sent chilling sensations running down her spine.

"How many times do I have to remind you?"

She knew well what his next words would be.

"You belong to me."

He stood up and leant towards her, reducing the space between them to mere inches. She could feel his warm breath on the sensitive parts of her ear. She pressed shut her eyes and trembled from the chilling sensations his inhalation of breath produced.

"The only one allowed to hurt you is me."

She could hear a swishing sound as a penknife was brought down towards her hand in a swift motion. There was a stinging pain on her wounded finger, and she had to bite her tongue to hold herself back from screaming. It seems to have taken an eternity before she finally gathered enough courage to open her eyes. The red pen knife was driven into the wooden table, with its position fixed firmly in between her injured fingers. The sharp stationary had left a thin red line on the soft skin of her ring finger as a keepsake. It had only just grazed her hand.

"You really amaze me with how short your memory can be." Akashi's lips were pulled a thin smile, there was still no sign of warmth in his unusual eyes.

"Show me your tongue."

It was a command, there will be no reward for obedience, only punishment for rebellion. Trembling, the girl's tongue protruded from between her pink lips. Before long, a puddle of crimson slowly formed on the tip of it. She felt a hand gently lifting her chin. His other hand was placed on the back of chair, effectively sealing her escape route. A small gasp escaped Nadeshiko but there was no other option left for her, her eyelashes fluttering as she involuntarily closed her eyes. Heated breath greeted her lips. The warm tones of his eyes overflowed her mind as the outlines of his features blurred when he leant closer. His parted his lips slightly, suckling up the droplets of blood in the colour of his half-closed right eye.

He gently licked up the red liquid that continued to flow.

"The only one allowed to hurt you is me."

He breathed into her.

"My orders are absolute."

And he sank his teeth into her tongue.

Nadeshiko's gaze followed the back of the red-haired captain as he left the room, not even turning back as he closed the door behind him.

She was alone.

Her gaze traveled across the room and fell on the penknife still fastened into the wooden table. Thin fingers covered in pink burns wrapped themselves around the red Excalibur, in a swift motion, the shiny blade once again glistened as they reflected the sun's rays.

She looked at it and smiled to herself, admiring the great sword in its full glory before plunging it straight down into the porcelain skin of her uninjured hand.

The door closed behind Akashi with a light thud. The basketball captain leant back towards the door and pressed shut those oddly coloured eyes.

He could hear it, a swift yet dull noise of something being pulled out. Not long after it was an almost silent sigh of tearing flesh and muffled cries.

He knew what was coming, for he had seen it for himself before leaving the room, those small beads of perspiration forming on her forehead and her body tensing up in excitement. She has always been a greedy one, already anticipating their next little session even before it was over.

…

He thought to himself, Maybe he was pampering her a little too much.

Natto's notes:

*shihan: senior instructor in tea ceremony, martial arts and the like, they have to undergo a test to get a license. Basically Nadeshiko is licensed to teach people.

My first fic in a VERY LONG time! c: I think my writing abilities (if I ever had any) dropped by a lot. Plus, this is my first KuroBasu fic and none of my fics are beta-ed so please go easy on me *bows 180 degrees*

As you might have noticed, she is sick, very sick, mentally, but she doesn't notice this herself. (In case you didn't catch it she stabbed herself, yes she probably scalded herself too)

Sorry for talking to my self (in brackets) I think you can imagine what insane state I am in just from reading this fic. So forgive me. It's almost 4am here.