Ignoring the pain from the tight grip on her wrist, Azumi allowed herself to get pulled, not saying anything to Sasori until they reached their home and then went straight to his room. "Shall I run a bath for you?" she asked once they were in his room.
"Yes," he said in a clipped tone. Without looking back at her, he walked into his workshop as he started to remove his daily jewelry. She frowned as she went into the bathroom. As usual, she set the temperature and poured the oil and salts in. She placed his robe on the hook in the bathroom and waited for him to enter the bathroom to dismiss her. He walked in moments later and looked her over. "Run the other bath. You're taking one with me," he told her. "I need to take your measurement after and I think it would be best for both of us if you were clean."
Azumi resisted the urge to roll her eyes and scoff, moving toward the other bath and setting it up for herself. She almost forgot to put the salts and oils in it if it were not for Sasori bringing it to her attention with a mere clearing of his throat and a nod toward the shelves. She nodded, grabbing an oil and a jar of salt and putting it into her bath before getting in.
Sasori sunk low into the water as he usually did, his head tilted back over the edge of the tub. They fell into silence for a little while.
"How did you like it?" he asked suddenly.
She hummed before answering, thinking about her words. "It was very interesting," she said. "I liked it a lot. It is definitely worth the hype from the three of you. I can see why one would be excited about it." She was definitely excited to go back.
"Mm, the hype," he chuckled. "I haven't seen either of them that excited about taking someone to the night market since we took Mei," he mumbled. "You won't be able to keep any of those trinkets they got you. And I want you to learn who to go to and what to shop for tomorrow. It is beneficial to know for our business."
She nodded and looked down at the water. "I was prepared to not be able to keep anything," she said. "And I made sure to pay attention to a lot of the stalls when Lord Komushi was showing me around." She knew that when she was with Gaara, she was not focused on much else but looking for art supplies with him. "But I will make sure to pay more attention tomorrow."
Sasori stared at her silently again. "Mhm." He wanted to bring up her behavior with Gaara but he was not sure how to. It was grating on him how close they were getting. It irked him just how easily Gaara seemed to brush off not only his status as a nobleman but also that she was not his. She was Sasori's slave and by extension Sasori's plaything. She could feel his eyes on her but she did not want to look back at him. She started to wash off quickly, anticipating getting away from him a little more. He watched her with half-lidded eyes. "Why are you rushing all of a sudden?" he asked, lazily turning over in the tub. He lifted his leg into the air and lazily started to wash his body down. "You can't leave until I let you," he casually reminded her.
She stopped for a moment and rolled her eyes. "I know," she said. "I just do not like being in the water for too long. And would you not prefer I get out first? To make sure your towel is warmed before you get out?"
He glanced at her again. "You're getting very clever with how you evade me," he smirked, running a hand up to his arm, rinsing off some soap.
"Evading you?" she hummed, turning toward him and leaning back against the farthest wall of the tub. "No. I just want to do my job efficiently."
Sasori scoffed, smirking again. "Fair," he replied before dipping under the water to rinse his hair. As he came back up, he ran his hands through his hair. "Tell me what your village was like," he said suddenly.
She looked up at him and blinked. "My village..." she said quietly. She had not thought about her home life since before she was put on the stage to be sold as a slave. She tried not to think about it too much. She did not want to be hindered by missing home. "It is tucked behind the mountains, settled within an oasis. Very well hidden. It is not very common to receive outsiders. One can really only find it if they are actively looking for it. And since no one knows about it, no one can know to look for it. It is a thriving village."
"Interesting," Sasori hummed. "It sounds like it has a strong natural defense. And you have many different types of snakes living within this village?" he asked, rinsing off his body. He stood up and poured water over himself to rinse his hair off and then stepped out of the tub.
"Most of them are naturally there," she said as stepped out of her tub as well. She stepped toward the cabinet to grab him a towel, handing it to him before grabbing one for herself. "The rest were brought to the village for our use."
"I see," Sasori said as he accepted the towel. He dried himself off then reached for his robe. "And how did a little noble girl from a far off land wind up on that stage for sale?" he asked her as he reached over and tilted her chin up with his forefinger. His voice lowered as he leaned in closer. "Did no one come to defend you?"
She frowned, looking him in the eyes and taking a moment to answer. "I volunteered to take the place of another girl from my village," she said finally. "She was much younger than I...and it did not sit right with me that she would be sold off as a slave."
He smirked. "How did I know it would be for some noble cause," he grinned. "And was she worth it?" His lips brushed hers as he spoke.
Her breath hitched quietly and she started to tense up just a little bit. "She deserves none of this," she said softly, keeping his gaze. "I saw great potential in her. It would have been a shame to throw it all away into slavery. So yes, she was."
"Hm," Sasori pulled back, smirking at her. He held onto her face, tightening his grip on her jaw and pressing into her bone. "I won't let you go to waste. I can assure you that," he grinned, finally releasing her jaw. His hand slipped down to her neck and shoulder. "Go get my tape measure from the workshop," he said without breaking their eye contact. His voice was soft but the dark command was still there. "Then meet me in the room." He gripped her shoulder tightly and spun her around gracefully, pushing her gently toward the door.
She wrapped the towel around herself as she went into the workshop, looking through a couple of drawers before finding the tape measure. She stood there for a moment and took a deep breath before walking out into the bedroom, handing Sasori the tape measure.
He was waiting for her on the edge of his bed when she walked back in. He took the tape from her and placed it on the bed then reached up and pulled her towel away, tossing it on the bed. He tilted his head a little to the side as he looked her over again. His fingers reached out to trace the shape of the 'art' he had burned into her chest. His fingers dragged lightly up to her collarbones and slid over her shoulder before curling under her arm to lift it up and outward. He repeated the action on the other side. Then his hands moved to her hips. He knelt and moved his hand to her inner thigh. "Open them," she said nudging her right thigh so her legs would open.
She pressed her lips together for a moment as she moved her right foot out a little to open her legs. It had been a long time since she had been measured for any reason and it was usually a moderately uncomfortable experience. Moderate discomfort had been surpassed as soon as he took her towel off. He had barely even started and she was already much more uncomfortable than she usually was around him.
He smirked, looking up at her. He could see the discomfort on her face and it was like sweet nectar to him. It was exactly where he wanted her. He moved his hand up to the crux of her hip and pelvis, gripping her leg tightly and pushing her legs open just a little further. He turned around to grab the tape measure off his bed and stood back up. He circled her to set about measuring her arms and wingspan first. His hand casually brushed her skin every so often. He was going to make sure each measurement was detailed. He noted each number in his head as he moved back around to her and measured her front.
She looked at him for a brief moment. "If I may ask," she started, as he continued measuring, "what am I being measured for?"
He took a moment to answer her. "Not that it really matters," he said casually, "but I plan to buy you something tomorrow that I want to see you in," he told her. "Don't worry, I think you'll rather like it," he said as he knelt down to measure her hips and legs. He ran his fingertips along the length of her snake. "But even if you don't, it doesn't really matter because as I said...you'll wear it."
She nodded, starting to wonder if the comments from earlier got to him and he caved into getting clothes for her that would not cause people to question his intentions with her. "I see," she hummed, risking a glance down at his hands on her snake tattoo.
"This will be my next project," he said softly to himself. He could feel her watching him and could not help the grin that pulled his lip. He knew exactly what he wanted to do to enhance the large tattoo.
She furrowed her brows at the comment. 'Next project?' she thought. She wanted to give him the benefit of the doubt and think that maybe he was using her snake tattoo as inspiration for something that would have to do with snakes. But that was entirely too hopeful.
He finished up his measurements and walked over to his desk to record them all. "We'll leave from the shop again from tomorrow," he told her once he was done writing it all down. "I want all of our purchases from yesterday organized before we start bringing more in."
"That sounds good," she nodded, relaxing when he was no longer near her. She went into the bathroom to grab the clothes that were left in there and put her clothes back on before putting his away then waited for him to dismiss her.
He had moved to his bed in the time that she had been in the bathroom. Once more, he was poring over a ledger and making notes. He noticed her waiting and remembered why she was still there.
"Sleep here tonight," he told her. He doubted she would try to slip off to the river bank but he also did not want to have to go to her room to fetch her in the morning.
Her heart sank and she nodded, getting onto the daybed at the end of his. She laid down, trying to find some way to calm herself a little. She felt uneasy sleeping in a room with him, but she had to admit to herself that this was a little easier than sleeping in his bed with him. She stared up at the domed ceiling, looking at the night sky through the skylight at the peak of it as she waited for him to fall asleep first.
Sasori looked up from his ledger twenty minutes later and noticed she was still awake. "Go to sleep," he commanded without raising his voice. "I did not ask that you wait up for me. I do not want you to be any more of a pain to wake up in the morning," he said, nudging a blanket that was at the edge of his bed onto her with his foot.
Azumi rolled her eyes as she took the blanket and rolled over to face away from him. 'It is not even hard to wake me up,' she thought. She continued to wait for him to fall asleep, not at all comfortable with being there with him. Another twenty minutes passed before she finally admitted to herself that she could not stay up any longer and passed out.
'About time,' Sasori thought to himself when he looked up ten minutes later and noticed her breathing had switched to a sleeping pattern. He smirked and decided to finally call it a night himself. He closed up the ledger, placed it on his bedside table and fell asleep easily.