Disclaimer: Read Chapter One.
Note to readers: Here is Chapter Ten. I changed the rating because of some of the adult-ish things that take place. And some of the things said.
Rating: T-Plus
When the Sun Starts to Set
Ten
A burning pain in the back of her head alerts her to the fact that she is, indeed, still alive. It also tells her that wherever she is no one took in consideration that dumping two girls on the floor in a study-like place is not very nice. She props herself up, groaning when her head swims, and looks around. Then she looks at Hinata, black-hair sprawled around her in a black halo. A pretty sight if not for the bruise that lines the side of her temple, along the hairline.
Damn bastards, they hadn't needed to be rough, she sits up, one hand reaching out for Hinata. She shakes her friend once, twice, and a third time. As she goes to shake her for the fourth, the girl stirs with a groan and a flutter of eyelashes.
"G-Gwyn-chan?" she grasps her friend's hand in her own, "Yeah, it's me."
Hinata sits up, blinking, "Where are we?"
"I…have no idea." She answers honestly as she looks around the room. From what she can see, it is indeed a study of some sort. The far end of the room, near the roaring fireplace, has a wall only for row after row of books that reach from floor to ceiling. There is a large chair sitting before the fire, sitting in a way that reminds her of Beauty and the Beast. Along the other walls is a narrow band that sticks out, like a counter only big enough for a small vase of medium cup.
It has a homey feel to it, comfortable and putting her at ease. Hinata relaxes, eyes running over everything. Then she smiles, "Well, at least it isn't a d-dungeon."
"Agreed," she pauses, hearing voices outside the study door, and watches as a very familiar figure sweeps in.
Said figure pauses, eyes widening, and they stare at each other.
"K-Konan?" the blue-haired woman looks at the man, demanding something in another tongue that she is not familiar with.
Then the man leaves and the cold stare leaks from Konan's face as she rushes towards them. Instead of yanking her off the ground, like she expected, the woman hurls herself at them. Tackles the already downed girls and embraces them in a hold so firm that it is warmly and heartfelt.
"What the hell are you doing here?" Konan asks when she puts them at arm's length.
"Visiting…the Red Diamond District." Yeah, tell her the riches woman in that place is her aunt – not happening in this lifetime.
She knows that Konan picked up the unmentioned part but she is thankful that she does not pursue the issue. Gwyn asks a question of her own, "What are you doing here?"
The seriousness comes back to play, a frown marring the woman's face. It doesn't take away the beauty, not in the least, and Konan sighs. She then says, "It was,"
"It was necessary that we take action when things go downhill for us." The smooth, silken voice comes from the door. It is a voice that she knows, one that haunts her dreams.
She twists, turning to see the figure of Pein standing a good ten feet from her. She watches as he closes the distance, slow and calculating.
He looks…difference.
Not so much in appearance but in feeling. His eyes are harder, colder, and that thick shield is even denser than before. He looks older, wiser, and not a bit happy. Then his eyes meet her and a new look floods those gray eyes.
A look of intense heat, a burning fire smoldering in the hottest depths – a look that causes her heart to skip more than one beat. She watches as the door clicks shut behind him, watches as walks closer, watches as he stops before her sitting-on-the-floor form.
"Gwyn," a whisper of a word, a name, her name…
He handles the stone at her neck, a present he gave her not long ago that feels like an eternity. He is silent, thinking, and then he sighs. He turns to Konan, speaking in tongue, before saying, "I believe it is best we get young Hinata cleaned up. I do not think red suits that shirt."
Gwyn twists once again, seeing her friend's shirt, no longer a baby blue, is now an odd shade of red. A blackish red. A greenish red.
Konan stands and, as she helps Hinata up, Gwyn says, "Pein, I,"
"Pein-sama," he breaks in, an amused look on his face.
She blinks a moment, staring opening, and says again, "I was wondering…what…"
"Shouldn't I take Gwyn as well, Pein-sama?" Konan says lightly, face serious and blank.
"I believe she is fine as of now." The way he says it that way, so calm and gentle, makes her think that he means it in another way. That he knows that she is not fine, that her sides hurt, her eyes burn, but she cannot see why…
However, Konan nods. "I understand. I shall return when I am finished."
Without a backward glance, the blue-haired woman leaves with the Hyuga trailing along with her. The door opens with a swoosh, clicks in place, and they are left standing in the large room alone. For a few moments, Pein is silent.
"Pein, what happened back at–" he cuts in once more with a sharp, "Pein-sama, Gwyn."
She frowns, brows furrowing together.
Why the sudden honorific?
Slowly she rises to her feet. A wince of pain, her arm throbbing. She rolls her shoulder, bends her arm, and fights off the urge to grit her teeth. She turns, surprise fluttering in her stomach when Pein moves. The look in his eyes, his every movement, it sets off an alarm in her mind.
He stalks towards her, a look keen to hunger shinning in his gaze. She can feel her heart pounding in her chest, her cheeks heating. He closes the distance with slow, meaningful steps. He stops before her, barely an inch separating them.
"Did you hurt you arm, Gwyn?" a low purr emits from him as he brushes the torn garment of her jacket, fingering the gash along the side and the stained bend of fabric that covers her elbow.
For a moment, she thought of lying. This look in his eyes, so familiar to lust, causes her heart to lurch in her chest.
"Y-yes, but it'll be f-fine…" she looks away, one hand moving to cover the clothed injury.
He clucks his tongue in thought; she can hear it even as he steps directly into her personal space. She stumbles back, partly scared about the heated look coming into his expression and partly frightened about the way her heart pounds in her chest.
"It is never fine, an injury. Not with you…" every foot forward is a foot back for her. She keeps backing up, farther and farther, till her rear bumps into the cold counter that lines the wall of his study. He stops directly in front of her, forcing her to look up to see his face.
He traces the open edge of her jacket, fingers skimming over the black material that hangs loosely before her chest. That thoughtful look has etched its way back onto his face, but the heated storm lies right under the surface.
And he smiles.
"Take it off." He commands without warning and tugs on the jacket, and the button-down shirt under it, as an emphasis to his statement.
"P-Pein?" she tries to back up but only results in being pressed firmly to the counter.
"Pein-sama," he breaths the correction as he pushes the thick, damp cloth of her jacket from her shoulders. She 'eeps', cheeks burning a brilliant hue of red, as she moves to correct the clothing – something he will have nothing of.
He pulls the jacket off with ease, throwing it to the floor behind him. He eyes the white shirt, slightly see-through now that it is wet, and she can feel his gaze lingering on her chest as he hums something of…satisfaction…before his iron-gray gaze locks onto hers.
His height doesn't help as he breaks the first button. She imminently grabs his wrist, eyes wide.
"Shy?" he asks and she stutters out an answer, "N-no, Pein, it–"
"Pein-sama," he corrects once again as he grasps her fluttering hand.
When he goes for the shirt a second time, she stops him with a bat of her hand. She stands there, slightly bent backwards over the limited space of the counter, with him right there. And, with no warning, he hauls her off the floor and onto the hard marble behind her, efficiently pinning her between him, the wall behind her, and the counter under her thighs.
With no more than a few feet to sit on, the only thing keeping her from falling off the protruding surface of the wall is Pein himself. Pressed firmly, with her legs on either side of his hips, his gaze holds her with frightening force.
"Your shirt."
She shakes her head, face redder than before. She nearly scoots to the side but he slams his hand down next to her face, blocking her with ease.
"Gwyn," her heart flips in her chest and she yelps in shock when he rips the sleeve of her shirt. Tears it right off and turns her arm to his inspection.
She can feel his breath misting over each scar and cut. He curls his hand around hers, holding it still as he exams, and traps the other hand against the wall above her head. She knows not if it is on purpose, but his fingers interlock with hers – warm and purely him.
His next action startles her – a warm run of damp flesh over the seeping wound that starts just below her elbow. Her breath catches as she watches him, with her heart rattling like a drum set in her chest, as Pein, leader of the Akatsuki, drags his tongue over her wound. And clamps down over it with enough force to pry a cry from her lips and an arch from her back.
Tears spring to her eyes even as she tugs on her arm. Tries to free it from the merciless grasp of a man who she cares for. A man who currently has her trapped and washes her wounds with his own mouth, pulling on the wounds and licking them.
He follows the wound up to the inner side of her upper arm, embarrassingly close to untouched parts of her. Every pull, every suction, brings small jolts of pain to her and a flutter to her stomach. A coil winds in her gut, tightening to the point she fears she will breathe.
Her eyes close, checks covered in a faint blush of pink when he nips the underside of her arm. She can hear him chuckle, a deep vibration that rattles throughout him, and knows he is enjoying this.
Even back…at home…he enjoyed getting a rise out…of me…thinking is nearly impossible.
She has never felt this way, this coiled and alert. She can feel his touch ghosting over her skin like a brand. And she knows that he is more than aware of this fact. It is one he is not afraid to wield like a weapon.
She only knows that he found her other wound, the one where the blade grazed the skin along her shoulder, till he latched onto it. She hardly noticed he had pushed the torn shirt out of his way, pushing her against the wall while doing so, as her thoughts whirled in her head.
Another yelp breaks from her when he bites her collarbone. She jolts, bringing herself that much closer to him.
"And I wonder, how many of these wounds are self-inflicted." He asks moments before taking the end of the wound from her shoulder, an end that rests on the swell of her chest, to his mouth.
She whines, lost to the sensation as the door bursts open and Konan, blue-haired and collected, rushes in. And promptly stops as she witnesses the ordeal taking place.
"Pein," Konan's voice comes out as a growl as he turns his attention to the woman standing in the doorway with a look to scare the devil out of a demon.
He raises one brow in question.
"What are you doing?" she steps closer.
"Simply disinfecting her wounds." Still pressed firmly against Gwyn, Pein's lip curls up into a ghost of a smirk as Konan snarls, "Disinfecting my ass,"
Konan easily separates them, pulling her away from Pein in the process, as she adds, "This appears more like foreplay to me…"
As she stumbles, Konan's arms circle her and the blue-haired woman says, "Look at her, she can barely stand now!"
Gwyn can see the look on Pein's face, that cock of his eyebrow. He folds his arms, props his hip against the counter, as he says, "There would be no need for standing if you didn't interrupt."
The innuendo flies right over Gwyn's head. Konan starts sputtering, face growing red, before she snaps, "Pein, you damn fiend!"
Gwyn cannot see his reaction to that for Konan drags her out of the room, down the hall, into another room. She rummages through a few places, throwing clothes out as she does so, until she comes back with a black blouse. With no warning, she stripes the torn and completely open shirt from Gwyn and replaces it with the new shirt.
She stands there, lets her change her like a doll. She lets her look over her injuries, the ones she knows of and the others she was not aware of until they are exposed. Konan clucks her tongue, humming to herself as she works.
Once again they are out in the hall, her being dragged. She can hear laughter at the end, from a room brightly lit, and as she is pulled through the open doorway she can see it is the kitchen. And Hinata is sitting at the long, marble island surround by more than one familiar face.
"Brat-chan!" Deidara glomps her, nuzzling her cheek with his own.
Sasori even stands, walking over and brushing her bangs from her eyes. A ghost of a smile graces his lips as he looks down at her. He then glares at Deidara.
"I believe she needs air to breath, Deidara."
He lets go only to be replaced by Tobi. He latterly jumps her, sends them sprawling to the floor. He sits on her stomach, mouth a large grin.
"Tobi has missed Gwyn-chan." He mumbles as he pulls her to her feet.
Itachi, who has been standing next to them entire time, hands her a drink. "Here, this will calm your nerves. You're jittery."
She takes it with thanks, smiling at the people she is surrounded by.
"So, what happened?"
"I believe that is something of a tale…for another time." The Uchiha says calmly, gently, but another voice replies, "I believe you have some explaining to do, Gwyn. Tell us what you know of attack that took place."
Oh shit, she turns, slowly, to face the leader of the Akatsuki.
There is only one thing she is certain of – she does not know what to say or how to begin.
I wasn't sure if this was M material - usually sexual things, like lemons, get an M rating - or really, really graphic things like murder and, gasp, lemons and nudity. So, yeah, I wasn't sure.
Anyway, the Akatsuki is back in the house! Yay!
AND WHERE IS ALL MY OLD REVIEWERS FROM MIDNIGHT SUMMER? SERIOUSLY?
I hope you all enjoyed this chapter.
Review
~CideanForever