She was lying on the floor, shivering, when she heard him return.
"Here you go, Anemone-chan! Were you a good girl while I was gone?" He asked in a tone that, while ostensibly cheery, was laced with a hint of malice in it, and shoved two cases of bottled water onto the floor of the cave.
"You didn't try to leave me again, did you?"
Einin barely heard what he said after the scraping of the cases against the floor. Mouth dry, she inched forward and grabbed one of the bottles. She took careful sips so as not to overwhelm her stomach right off the bat.
She watched him shift, then pull himself up and out of the water; he settled in close to her, but far away enough to give her some space. He was still naked - which was disconcerting, especially since she was almost completely exposed herself; Einin turned her glance away with a blush, then set the water bottle down, not noticing the blond merman getting closer to her as she did so. Suddenly, he swept her up in his arms, evoking a squeak from her, before tossing her into the chilly water.
"Alright Anemone-chan! It's bath time~!"she attempted to struggle out, only to have him shove her back in.
"Ne~ stop struggling! This is good for you!"
"Stop it! That's not my name and I don't need a bath!"
"Of course it is, Anemone-chan! I found you wandering on that beach, and named you just like a good owner does!" The tone in his voice seemingly contented, Kou took advantage of the momentary pause to pull off the half shirt he had left hanging on her.
"Stop it!" she yelped, covering up her large chest as she tried to move out of his range, "I don't know what kind of sick fantasy you're having, but I want to go home!"
Kou huffed, starting to get irritated with the struggling, when an idea popped into his head, "Anemone-chan, if you sit still for a bit and let me wash you, I won't punish you for trying to get out…" his voice dropped to a serious tone, "which I was planning on doing later."
That about did it; the girl froze, and he took the opportunity to add soap to her hair and start washing. She stayed quiet for the rest of the time he spent washing her, only squirming when he got around to washing her chest and between her legs. Of course, when she would react this way, he reprimanded her with a quick 'Bad' and a flick on the nose. When she was all rinsed off, he smiled at how shiny and clean she looked, then allowed her to pull herself out of the pool.
Einin was scared. She could feel herself trembling from a mixture of the cold and the amount of adrenaline pulsing through her blood, at the fact that she had let this creature touch her… no, "let" was the wrong word, she didn't really consent to any of what was happening. She wasn't paying attention to the blond, and instead was more focused on curling up in a ball and keeping warm, when a loud snap echoed around the room. Kou apparently had just remembered something.
"Oh! I almost forgot to feed you, Anemone-chan! I'll be right back~"
It took him all of a few moments to come back, a live fish in hand, held up by its tail. He tossed it at her, to which she reacted with a screech, and dodged the flailing projectile. Kou, meanwhile, looked ridiculously proud of himself... but his gaze quickly shifted to concern when she didn't start eating.
She watched curiously as he grabbed the the fish, desperately flopping around in its attempt to escape back to the water. The curiosity quickly withdrew, however, when she saw him grab a rock and get a firmer grip on the hapless animal.
"No! Don't…!"
She spoke too late; the rock came down on the fish's head with a sickening crunch, crushing its skull. Einin could only flinch as it flopped around, still somehow alive. Horrified, she watched as the life left its body after a few minutes of flopping. She wanted to vomit.
"There you go Anemone-chan! Eat up!" He was smiling, even with splatters of the fish's blood still crossing his cheek and hands as he offered the food to her. She resisted the urge to gag, and shook her head, leaning back to get away from both corpse and killer.
"Aw, what's wrong? Are you not hungry? That's no good, you need to eat!" He seemed to take another moment to ponder, then his eyes lit up again, "Hmmmm... I got it! I'll just feed you myself!"
This, frankly, sounded like a horrible idea to the still shivering redhead, and she was quick to scramble up and back even further away from him, as far as she could carry herself, "N-no! I-it's fine… I'll just, um... eat it later! I'm not hungry right now, really! I promise!" She tried to bargain with him as she pressed herself against the back wall. Einin could tell he wasn't buying her act for a second, as he pulled himself out of the water and grabbed the fish again.
"You know Anemone-chan, it's not good to lie. Especially when someone does something as nice as getting you food, and taking care of you when you didn't have any before," his voice was back to that threatening tone. She could see the twinkle of mirth in his eyes when he observed her shaking body (though she still wasn't sure if the shaking was induced by the cold or by fear at this point).
"Sooo~ I would suggest you stop now, unless you want me to get upset with you. Do you want to upset me, Anemone-chan?" he asked with feigned confusion. Einin shook her head, and slowly sunk to the ground as Kou walked up to her.
"Good! Then you'll eat this, right? After all, I don't think you want to be disciplined on your first night here, do you?"
She flinched as he reached over to her, and brushed her hair away from her face in a gesture that should have been comforting, but just seemed to further remind her of her position as his 'pet'. Feeling as if she didn't really have a choice at this point, she looked back to the poor dead fish, and decided that she may as well eat it.
"N-no… I'll be good…." she winced, hating how her voice shook as she took the fish from him. He seemed all too eager to watch, as he sat unmoving from where he had crouched in front of her. Hesitantly, Einin decided taking a bite from the tail end probably wouldn't be too bad; most of the organs and smaller bones were towards the front anyways.
Her stomach was still rolling as she brought the corpse to her lips and took a bite, ignoring the taste and feeling of fish blood in her mouth. However, she found herself scrambling for the bottled water, in order to wash the bite down and get that awful flavor flushed off of her tongue. He made her take three more bites before he nodded, satisfied with how much she had consumed.
"That's a good girl," he praised, petting her hair again. She still felt the urge to vomit, but was definitely not as hungry as she had been. She gathered up the courage to look at him again, and nearly cursed at how pleased he looked with her. The petting soon traveled down from her hair to her back, causing goosebumps to rise up all over her skin. When he reached her waist, Kou pulled her into his lap, causing another sharp squeak to escape the girl's mouth before she was effectively pinned against his chest.
She was just starting to tense in preparation for a struggle, when she she felt his nails bite into her back, presumably as a warning. In a quick response, she stopped and fell limp against him, out of ideas.
"Good girl! See? Now that you're behaving yourself, you get rewarded! Do you feel warmer now? You should show your thanks by hugging me closer, Anemone-chan," he spoke rather impatiently, causing a small amount of panic to rise up in Einin's chest. With the interest of keeping the crazy fish-man happy, she hugged him back, letting him take her to the floor and continue to curl up with her.
Kou then shifted so that she was on her back, and he was curled against her side, his head resting on her breasts. This was extremely uncomfortable for her... but what could she do? One arm was around her waist and the other under her neck, while his legs had managed to wrap around hers like she was some sort of body pillow.
"You know... these fat sacks on your chest aren't bad as pillows. Maybe I don't need to cover them up anymore…" he trailed off, sounding rather drowsy. Einin blushed at the thought of her half shirt being taken away permanently, but then decided to close her eyes and sleep. Maybe if she wished hard enough, she would wake up at home where she belonged, and all of this would turn out to be an awful dream…
Luna:Hi guys! as much as I love seeing how many of you read this I would really like to hear what you guys think! please feel free to review or pm us with them it means a lot! thank you for reading!