The Hoshidan prison was quiet that night, save for the sounds of labored breathing from a woman in a cell. Saizo sat across her, watching intently with his one eye, waiting for her to come to.
The ninja didn't care much for prisoners, didn't even think it was wise to spare someone on the battlefield, but thie woman... he certainly caught his eye. He'd noticed her from afar, blonde hair swishing, swinging her axe in almost reckless abandon at the Hoshidan forces. She was a monster-a beautiful monster. He knew that the logical thing to do was end her then and there, before she'd caused them more casualty... but he couldn't. When their paths had crossed, and her physical strength fell to his superior speed, he could not bear to end her. Instead he'd thrown one of his smoke bombs, releasing a sleeping gas, causing the woman to fall unconscious in seconds.
And here she was now, in the Hoshidan prison cell. Sound asleep. Perhaps that smoke bomb had been a little too potent, Saizo thought. She looked so peaceful with her eyes closed, almost angelic... not the beast he'd seen at the battlefield.
He wanted to see it again.
His patience was running thin. He nudged her on her side, roughly. "You! You there! Wake up!"
He nudged harder, spoke louder. "Wake up!"
Finally, she stirred, fluttering her eyelids open. She looked around, looking disoriented-and her eyes finally fell on his. For a split second she looked wide awake, fully alert, but as quickly as it came, the eexpression vanished, replaced by one of confusion, trying to recall what happened to her before she passed out.
"...Where am I? By the looks of you, I'm guessing it's not Nohr..."
"You're a prisoner of Hoshido now," he said, watching her closely, looking for even the slightest changes in her reaction.
She looked down her wrists, noticing they were tired up. Her body slightly tensed, and she backed away into the cell, away from him.
...Yet something in it felt... off, Saizo thought. As if it were ingenuine. Saizo couldn't imagine the woman he'd seen on the battlefield be this woman, scared and backing away from him.
"W-Why would I be a prisoner of Hoshido? A girl like me... you must be mistaken..."
"You're a Nohrian soldier. The enemy. Why would you not be imprisoned? Be grateful that I spared your life."
"N-No! I'm sure it's all a big mistake... Please, have mercy on me... I'm sure this is a mistake. Please let me go..."
She was begging, on her knees on the cell floor, her tied up hands resting on her lap. Saizo felt conflicted. Looking like that, dressed in something that could only pass as smallclothes, begging him for mercy... something in it stroked his ego, and something else.
But at the same time, he was infuriated. It still felt like a fraud, a big joke-that woman in the battlefield, fierce, strong, and fearless... and this woman begging for her life in less than a minute. They couldn't be the same person now, could they?
"Oh please... don't hurt me... I'll do anything..."
She went on with her begging. Saizo stared down at her, partly confused, partly disgusted. Partly aroused.
"Don't play with me," Saizo said. "What do you mean by 'anything'? Be a little more specific."
"Well..." He had been sitting on a crate in a corner of the cell, and the woman inched forward between his legs suggestively. "I think I could, you know...!" She said, batting her eyelashes at him. "If you untied my hands, maybe I can use them to make you feel good...?"
Everything started falling into place for Saizo now. He knew from watching her before that if he untied her, she had the strength to knock him out and beat him senseless with her fists. How she dressed, how she acted-was it all a ruse to hide the animal within?
"Too dangerous," Saizo said, deciding to play her game. "How about you use your mouth instead?"
"O-Oh... I..."
"Didn't you say that you would do 'anything'?" Saizo smirked behind his mask.
The woman looked hesitant for a bit, but then gave a sigh of resignation. "I-I did, didn't I...?"
"Then come over here and kiss me."
It was only meant to test her, to see if she would really go so far or finally bare her temperament. It was a bit of a surprise to him when the blonde did get up, seat herself on his lap, and look at him almost shyly. "Alright... take that mask off then."
She was probably up to no good, if she was this willing. Saizo slowly pulled down his mask, eyeing the woman critically.
For a moment, she looked a bit surprised. "What?" Saizo asked.
"...Huh. Who knew you were hiding a handsome face behind that thing?" she said.
"Thanks," he said, dryly. He wasn't quite sure if she was flirting, or was just trying to get his guard down. "But I like you better with your mouth shut." He closed the distance between them, and kissed her.
She made a muffled sound, caught completely off guard as the ninja smacked her on the lips. He was aggressive, prying her mouth open with his lips and tongue. He felt her shudder, but she did not resist, instead yielding to him and kissing back. Saizo found this enjoyable, but was still confused. The woman he saw in the battlefield was a fighter. How could the same woman be yielding to him without giving a fight? Fighting back almost seemed like it was the last thing on her mind. She was drawing closer to him, pressing her body up against him, her hands sliding up his chest...
...Her hands...
Saizo quickly attempted to throw her off when he realized this, but he was too late-she thrust the weight of her body towards him, knocking him off the crate, straddling him to the ground, her hands with a chokehold around his neck. The rope that she'd been bound with was now a useless pile on the ground-she must have slipped out of it without him noticing.
Struggling for breath, he looked up at the woman on top of him. She was different now-a twisted grin on her face as she applied more pressure on his neck.
"Ohh, sorry! Looks like my hand slipped~" she said, clearly not apologetic. "You think I'm just gonna let a Hoshidan have his way with me? Hah! And here I didn't even catch your name!"
"Hnngg... W-When did you-?" He didn't finish the question, as he ended up wheezing for air. He'd never seen a woman this strong. If she went on with this longer, she wasn't just going to choke him and block his airway-she was going to break his neck in half. It was terrifying, but something in it also excited him. He'd been waiting for her to show her true self, and here it was. Thinking quickly, he reached down into a hidden seam in his clothes. With one swift motion, he took a poisoned needle, stabbing it into the blonde's neck with surgical precision.
"W-What...?" The woman released a hand around his neck, to reach up to her own, pulling off the needle with an annoyed groan. "That's a cute attempt, but all that did was sting-"
She looked down at the ninja. He was the one grinning at her now. Panic flashed on her features. Her grip on the ninja's neck started falling lax, and her entire body felt almost numb. "Shit..." she muttered, as she fell to the ground, as if losing all her strength. She vaguely remembered the smoke bomb that brought her here to begin with. "You Hoshidans and your dirty tricks...!"
Saizo sat up, feeling relief at the removal of the strain on his neck. "You have a couple of dirty tricks yourself, Nohrian. Pretending to be a feeble girl when you're strong enough to break someone's bones barehanded? ...And my name is Saizo, by the way."
"I didn't ask, you bastard."
"I thought you did earlier," Saizo said, sounding oblivious to the obvious spite in her voice. He looked down at her, a helpless heap on the floor. "The toxin in the needle has a paralyzing effect... there's no point in fighting against it."
He picked up the rope that bound her hands before, as if to tie her up again, but to his surprise, the woman protested. "Get that thing away from me! Take me back to Nohr!"
"That's some attitude you have, woman. Did you forget you're a prisoner now? You do what I want."
"What do you want then?! I'm just a simple border guard. I have no value as a prisoner or hostage. Nohr wouldn't give a shit if I went missing. There's no point in keeping me here. If you want information, I've got none of that too. I'm just a border guard!"
Saizo took the woman's wrists, binding them together again with the rope, securing the knots. She struggled, trying to pull away from his grip, but did not succeed, the poison most likely making her arms feel like jelly. "Just a border guard?" Saizo asked, sounding genuinely confused. "Nohr must have its ranks confused. What's a woman of your strength doing as a lowly border guard?"
"That's none of your concern. It seems you mistook me for someone of higher rank... So, will you let me go already? I'm not a valuable soldier. There's no point in keeping me!" The woman raised her voice, trying to reason. Even when she was missing her strength, she was clearly a fighter, still bargaining for her freedom.
Saizo liked strong women like her.
"...Unless you wanted me for something else?" she asked, almost suggestively. "What, you don't have a girlfriend or something?"
She hit a nerve, and Saizo frowned, unimpressed at her taunt. "You know, I really liked you better with your mouth shut. You want me to put a gag on that mouth?"
That seemed to do the trick. The blonde whimpered, as if about to say something, but bit it back and stayed quiet. Now what? Saizo paused, unsure of what to do next. He took her prisoner because her strength on the battlefield intrigued him... he liked what he saw, and he wanted to learn more. But if she wasn't a high ranking Nohrian soldier, there was no point in keeping her. There was no point in killing her either, unless she became a threat to Lord Ryoma or something to that degree.
Maybe he could attempt to convert her, like Orochi did to the other prisoners? But he had no experience in that area, and he didn't have the faintest idea of what the woman wanted that he could offer. The diviner teased the male prisoners, and fucked them senseless, they end up worshipping her with blind obedience. But his prisoner was a woman. Would that approach really work? He had confidence that he knew how to 'take care' of a woman, but still...
"...I'll do it," she suddenly said, breaking the silence.
"You'll do what?" Saizo asked.
"Anything. If you promise you'll surrender me back to Nohr afterwards, alive and unharmed... I'll do anything."
"Yes, you told me that a few minutes ago and nearly killed me," Saizo said. But he thought that she seemed different this time. When her first offer seemed obviously fake-laced with flirtatiousness and pretend weakness to get his guard down-this one seemed different. Sincere. She must really want to return to Nohr.
"Let's see about that," Saizo said. "For starters, you can give me your name."
The woman paused and showed hesitation, but mumbled her answer after a while. "...Charlotte," she said.
"Charlotte," he said. She was showing willingness to answer, and it was a good sign so far. "Charlotte. Why do you want to come back to Nohr?"
"...That's none of your concern." And in a second, the willingness was gone. "Just get it over and done with already! Fuck me if you want. Just let me go afterwards."
So she was offering her body in exchange for freedom. Whatever she had back at Nohr, it must be really important. "Hmm. What makes you think I want to fuck you?"
"Hah!" Charlotted chuckled, as if he'd just suggested something absurd. "Saizo, was it? I've seen how you look at me. You asked for a kiss. You're a needy one, Saizo... you probably haven't had a woman in months? Or is it years?"
"...You're beautiful, but your foul mouth is unfortunate." Saizo said, frowing as he looked down at her. She hit a nerve, again. It really has been a while. And here was this woman, laying helplessly on the floor, hands bound, in clothes that left little to the imagination... Her long, blonde hair splayed on the floor, her skin unblemished, her breasts full, her waist narrow, with a hint of tight abdominal muscles showing through, a hint of her strength. She wore tight, short shorts that left almost half of her ass exposed. And she was just laying there, tied up, completely under his power. Offering herself. He hated to admit, but the sight made heat run through his body, drawing out a primal urge in him. If she was offering, how could he refuse?
But he wasn't about to give her the upper hand, and feed to her story of him wanting her. "If I knew any better, its you who seems to be interested in me," Saizo said. "You're the one offering herself to me... aren't you the needy one?"
She turned her head away, looking away from him. "Don't get any ideas. I just want to go back to Nohr."
"Walking around dressed like that... you like the attention, don't you?" he continued, trying to speculate further. Trying to figure what this woman wanted that he could use to his advantage. "You want a man to notice you and care for you..."
"Maybe I do," she said. "But I didn't put these goods up on display for Hoshidan thugs like you. I wish I at least got a rich prince or nobleman, someone from an esteemed family or something...!"
...So that was it. Saizo chuckled in amusement. Oh, if only she knew.
"What's so funny?!" she asked.
"You're an amusing woman," he said, kneeling beside her on the ground, his hand reaching for her chin, directing her gaze at him. "You're absolutely shameless... bargaining with your captor, telling him your desires for riches... Let's see how far this 'anything' of yours goes, hm?"
0o0o0o0o0o0
A/N I'm surprised there's nothing of this pairing so far on FF, they have a fun dynamic. Idea is based off the sadness that you can't capture these units and have them fight for you, but you can do so with normies. In one of Charlotte's DLC convos, she says that her secret to making men follow her is to promise them "I'll do anything", and it became one premise for this fic. Lemon warning in the next chapter, please stop now if that sort of stuff bothers you! Hopefully they weren't too OOC. T.T