Foreword

As you may have already guessed, this is a rewrite of the Fifty Shades trilogy by E.L. James. The reason for this being that the entirety of Fifty Shades was utter trash.

There are several key differences, that I suppose will be evident as this progresses. What I believe to be the primary issue with E.L. James is that she writes about things that she is entirely ignorant about. And this is also what became the inspiration for the basis of this rewrite - and as an LGBTQ+ East Asian member of the BDSM community, I hope to be able to do the premise of this work justice.

I'm not entirely sure whether this is within guidelines. There is a plot that will become especially evident as this progresses, but the sexual relationship will take a very prominent role, and there will be many explicitly sexual scenes. If anyone is more familiar with the guidelines than I am, please feel free to either comment or DM me.

- asterire

River woke with a jolt, so suddenly and violently that his head spun dizzyingly and his heart pounded as his dazed mind tried to make sense of where he was, and more importantly, what was going on. He blinked several times in a futile attempt to clear the sleep from his eyes, and when that didn't work, rubbed his hand across his eyes, yawning.

He pushed his fringe out of his eyes and glanced outside the window, frowning in confusion when he noticed that there was barely a pink strip of sun shining feebly through the cheap curtains, blurred and soft around the edges with the absence of his glasses. His roommate was still asleep in the bed beside him, his deep, slow breathing the only sound in the room. A quick glance at his phone, charging on his bedside table, confirmed that it was barely six in the morning. River let out a groan, rolling over in his bed and burying his face into the scratchy sheets, determinedly trying to will himself back to sleep for another few hours.

A slightly muffled screech echoed through the apartment, startling River so badly that he flinched and slammed his head against the headboard. He sat up immediately, fumbling around for his glasses and pushing them up the bridge of his nose and skidding across the bare hardwood floor as he dashed out of the room, his heart beating frantically in his chest.

"What's going on?" River demanded, his voice rough and slightly hoarse from having just woken up. He paused, recognizing the familiar curly dark hair of the person sitting in the chair, lit by the almost blindingly bright light of her laptop in the darkness of the room. "Sofia?"

His roommate's face was buried in her hands, her shoulders hunched and her body slumped in her chair, muttering under her breath. At the sound of River's voice, she looked up, twisting around to face him. There were dark shadows under her eyes, which, combined with her unruly hair made her seem frantic in her distress.

"'Read by everyone'," Sofia quoted, her normally low, smooth voice rising in pitch, her hands gesturing wildly. "And how many slides are in the PowerPoint? Two goddamn slides, and one of them is the title slide!" She shrieked.

"Sofia," River began hesitantly. "Are you okay?"

"Does it look like I'm okay?" Sofia looked more stressed than River had ever seen her – and considering that he'd known her all throughout the three-and-a-half years they'd been in university together so far, that was saying something. "I have two essays due, one of which I haven't even looked at yet, never mind started, three tests in the next week, about twenty assignments, and this project with the most useless fucking group members in the goddamn world." She broke off, coughing so violently that her entire body shook. "Fuck," she choked out emphatically between coughs.

"Have you slept at all tonight?" River wasn't sure if he needed a verbal confirmation – the dark, bruise-like shadows under Sofia's bloodshot eyes were answer enough. She shook her head, swaying slightly in her chair like a reed in the wind. "Jesus, 'Fia. You only have one lecture tomorrow – well, today, I guess – right? Stay here and get some rest."

"I can't!" Sofia wailed, her voice cracking and squeaking up an octave. "I have the interview today at three, and you know how important it is for me to be there!"

River winced, both at Sofia's rise in pitch and the reminder (and cast an envious glance at the narrow hallway leading back to the two bedrooms in the apartment – where their other two roommates were no doubt sleeping blissfully through the night). Yes, he did know how important it was for Sofia to be at the interview. He'd been by her side throughout the entire process of scheduling the damn thing, and he would have dismissed it as something that was not nearly worth the effort Sofia had put into it, but for the fact that it could very well be the thing that spurred her from her internship at Dalton Daily to a full-fledged career in journalism.

"Try rescheduling?" He offered, but that only seemed to make Sofia more agitated.

"It's taken me the entirety of the school year so far just to get him to agree to this interview. I don't want to push it – especially since Nakano doesn't ever do interviews, and it's a goddamn miracle that he agreed to do one with me in the first place."

"Yeah, yeah, okay," River agreed, frowning. Kiyoshi Nakano was something of a legend, and almost always the subject of media scrutiny – to no avail. River hadn't particularly kept up on any articles about him – most of them were only speculation and little more than poorly-disguised gossip, not least because Nakano refused point-blank to sit down for any proper interviews and never seemed to give straight answers to questions at the best of times – but even he knew that Nakano was very young, especially to be the CEO of a leading software development company in the world (even if that company had been inherited). River could only imagine that he'd been so unbelievably annoyed with Sofia's constant phone calls and emails that he'd finally agreed to an interview simply to shut her up. "This interview is important, I know. But you really only need to write the article, right? What if someone went in your place?"

He felt a lurching sensation in his stomach as he caught sight of the gleam in Sofia's eyes. "Oh no –" he said hastily. "I didn't mean – Sofia, you know I'm not, I can't –"

"Why not?" Sofia said, pushing herself up in her chair. "It was your idea, and besides, you're the only one I'd trust to not fuck this up. It's not like you have a million things to study for, you're only taking two classes this semester, for fuck's sake, and you're top of the class in both of them. You'd only have to read the questions off the paper; I've already prepared them, and record it so I can transcribe it."

"'Fia," River said in desperation, but knew it was a lost cause.

"You should be there at least fifteen minutes ahead of time. Don't bother writing anything down, since you'll be recording the whole thing anyway and since your handwriting is shit anyway."

"'Fia," River repeated, but stopped, shaking his head.

"Please, River."

"I –" River sighed. "All right, fine. I'll do it."

Sofia beamed, stumbling out of her chair on stiff legs and grabbing River's arm to pull him into a hug. River endured it for a few seconds, before another coughing fit from Sofia gave him the opportunity to pull awkwardly away.

"You're the best," Sofia said gratefully, sniffling slightly. She wobbled precariously, almost pitching forwards before River caught her by the shoulders.

"Yeah, okay," River said. "Now go get some sleep."

River swallowed nervously, reflexively tugging at the collar of his shirt, protruding through the neck of his windbreaker. He wasn't used to dressing up at all – he'd never had a reason to, after all, except for the odd piano recital when he was younger – and he was feeling distinctly uncomfortable in his navy-blue button-up shirt and not-quite-perfectly ironed black slacks. The wind bit through the thin material with an icy snap uncharacteristic of March weather and ruffled his usually smooth, straight black hair into unruly spikes, blowing his fringe into his eyes. He shivered; he'd been standing outside the sleek, glossy glass-and-steel building that loomed before him for several minutes now, attracting a fair amount of dirty looks and muttered insults, but even the sight of the building alone was daunting.

Sofia will kill you if you don't do this, River reminded himself. He should be in bed right now, catching up on sleep, or at least pretending to be working on the program he had due in a week. Instead, he was standing in downtown Dalton, shivering as he stood outside the main building to Nakano Enterprises and trying to talk himself into walking inside.

River took a deep breath and stepped quickly up the stairs leading to the entrance, almost tripping over his own feet. He flailed out an arm to catch himself on the railing, blushing even though there was no one around that cared enough about a lanky barely-adult on the stairs to even notice. His face still hot with embarrassment, he pushed through the heavy glass doors that nonetheless swung forwards smoothly and without a sound.

He almost balked right then and there. If he'd thought the building was intimidating from the outside, it was ten times more so from the inside. Everything seemed cold, severe, and harsh: flat blacks and pristine whites, angular edges and sharp corners, with the weak sunlight filtering harshly bright through the glass. There were quite a few people walking back and forth, talking on phones, or simply sitting around, waiting, but the place was so massive that it seemed oddly empty.

"May I help you?"

River started guiltily, realizing belatedly that he was blocking part of the entrance to the building. A rather young woman wearing a dark blue pantsuit was looking expectantly at him, clearly waiting for a response.

"Oh, um," River stammered, taken aback. "My name is River Lu. I, I'm here for an interview with Mr. Nakano at three. I'm from, um, Dalton Daily, in place of Sofia Castillo?"

The woman seemed to take this as an acceptable answer. "Sign in at the receptionist desk. You have your Press ID?"

River nodded, fumbling in his pocket and clumsily retrieving the laminated card that Sofia had given him before he'd left, almost dropping the recorder – also in his pocket – in the process. Apparently satisfied with his credibility, she gestured for him to follow, the sound of her heels clicking on the tiles tapping a steady rhythm as she lead him to a man sitting behind a lofty counter. Prompted by the receptionist's slightly raised eyebrows, River repeated what he had just told the woman, relieved to have gotten the words out more smoothly this time.

"Yes, Sofia Castillo was expected to come in today," the receptionist said. "Have a seat. We'll call you when Mr. Nakano is ready to see you."

River thanked both of them – a little haltingly, but they seemed pleased, nonetheless – and took a seat in a ridiculously nice bonded leather chair. He couldn't relax, though, and sat on the edge of his seat, fidgeting restlessly. He thought about scrolling through his phone, but was immediately mortified by the hypothetical situation in which someone important would catch him behaving in a distinctly unprofessional manner.

He settled instead for casting his gaze around the room, taking in the finer details. There were actually a few splashes of colour here and there, he realized: mostly in the form of plants. A few feet away from him, a plant with waxy dark green leaves and scarlet flowers sat in a square of sunlight, a small bonsai tree was tucked away into a niche in the wall, and there were several small cacti with delicate pink flowers blooming jauntily on the counter.

"Mr. Lu?"

River glanced up to see a different woman almost hovering over him, looking as nervous as he felt. She seemed about his age, and he wondered briefly if she went to Dalton University as well. Perhaps she was an intern.

"Would you like me to take your jacket?" She asked. The words seemed well-rehearsed but uncertain, and she seemed to be trying to hide behind her curtain of long brown hair.

"Oh," River said. "Sure, I guess." He winced as he replayed the words in his head – much, much too informal – but the girl didn't seem to mind. He shrugged off his windbreaker and handed it over to her, and she, for her part, simply looked relieved to have something to do.

Hardly a moment had passed when the first woman returned.

"Mr. Nakano will see you now."

River rose to his feet, feeling the familiar flutter of anxiety in his stomach. For Sofia, remember. Or rather, for your own safety, River corrected himself, knowing how upset Sofia would be if she didn't get a permanent position at Dalton Daily because River had bailed on her.

"His office is on the twentieth floor," the woman informed him. "I'm headed up anyways, so I'll see you there part of the way. Just stay on the elevator until the highest floor."

The elevator buttons lit up an electric blue as she pressed down first on floor number sixteen, then on the button marked twenty. River stumbled and nearly fell backwards as the elevator shot upwards, popping his ears and landing awkwardly across the railing attached to the wall. He pushed himself back to his feet, blushing furiously and expecting a huff of disdain, but incredibly, the woman seemed to be stifling a genuine laugh.

"My name is Antara Khatri," she introduced herself, offering her hand. River took it, relieved that she, at least, didn't seem to think any less of him because of his complete ineptitude. "I'm the head of the Finance Department here at Nakano Enterprises. I do hope you know what you've gotten yourself into – there's a reason why there are never any interviews featuring Mr. Nakano. Most journalists don't last very long in the same room with him."

River stared at her, not quite sure what to make of the ominous statement, coupled with the half-smile on Antara's face. It sounded almost like a threat, which did absolutely nothing to calm River's already tightly strung nerves. What was Nakano like? He hadn't done any research at all; it seemed strange to meet someone with all the knowledge of their accomplishments, history, and status at his disposal. He knew he was very young to be a CEO – most likely in his early thirties – but besides that, that was it. Was he cruel? Malicious? Or perhaps he was simply an arrogant bastard who thought of lowly journalists as being beneath him?

Just then, the elevator dinged at the sixteenth floor, snapping River out of his thoughts which were steadily spiralling wildly out of his control and dipping into the realms of nightmarish imagination. Antara walked out, calling a "Good luck!" Over her shoulder. River appreciated the sentiment, but it only served to make him more anxious for what was apparently to come.

The elevator came to a halt on the twentieth floor and the doors slid open, revealing a stretch of black-and-white wall. River took a deep breath, steeling himself.

You just have to go in, read some questions, and walk out. It'll take all of fifteen minutes.

River stepped out of the elevator, looking uncertainly around him, before he spotted a door – curiously enough, not made of glass like almost everything else seemed to be. He rubbed his sweat-slick palms on the fabric of his slacks, swallowing hard

Come on. You can do this.

River knocked twice on the door, the sound echoing through the practically empty place. He waited, holding his breath out of paranoia that any sound would alert Nakano to his fear.

"Come in," came a faint command. River hesitated for another split second, rocking back on his heels, before twisting the handle and pushing the door open.