I do not own Hawaii Five-0 or any characters. No copyright infringement intended.

Notes: ku`uipo = sweetheart

H5O* H5O* H5O* H5O* H5O*

"I have little left in myself - I must have you. The world may laugh - may call me absurd, selfish - but it does not signify.

My very soul demands you: it will be satisfied, or it will take deadly vengeance on its frame."

― Charlotte Brontë, Jane Eyre

Chapter Six: No Kau a Kau ~ For Eternity

"Gibberish," Kono muttered under her breath. A disingenuine smile flit across her lips before it was quickly smothered. He had escorted her out of the bedroom prison to a darkened dining room lit only by an obscenely ornate candelabra. The delicious odor of pasta wafted through the room and she could just see his profile from where she had been forced to sit. Chained into place actually; with wrists locked to the chair's sturdy arms. And horrifyingly, a matching pair of leather cuffs covered her ankles with links of chain entwined around the lower spindled legs of her chair.

"I'll be right out, ku`uipo." Kono glowered angrily as she allowed her hair to flow forward, covering her face to hide the look in her eyes and the bright bruises covering her cheek. He'd kept her moderately drugged and she could barely think, let alone walk in a straight line. But she possessed enough of her senses to equalize her fear with anger.

"Gibberish," she repeated to herself. Through the veil of her hair, Kono peeked out as he moved around the kitchen. Pots clanged and dishes clacked together as he prepared their dinners and she felt her stomach clench with apprehension. A thread of panic made it's way out of her chest and she roughly tore at her bound wrists though she knew that she was impossibly stuck. "He doesn't know me. Anything he says means nothing ... he's insane." Fingers fisted so tightly that her knuckles went white, Kono froze, the breath stuck in her throat as he appeared in the doorway with two steaming plates in hand.

"Hungry?" He asked, a smile showing off a dual set of dimples near the corners of his mouth. His smile also demonstrated the bluish-black swelling she'd managed to impart on his face during her one and only attempt at escape. Despite being disoriented by drugs, Kono had embraced a slim chance during her first meal with the man. He'd been excited and careless with an arm thrown casually around her shoulder as he helped her from the dark bedroom.

Feigning a stumble, her elbow had slammed solid and true into the side of his face. Topher had fallen to his knees but he'd recovered quickly and she'd not gotten any farther than where she sat now in the dining room. Looking at proof of her single achievement barely giving her a sense of personal pride as her eyes flickered hazily to his food laden hands. "I know you must be starving by now, ku`uipo. It's a silly question," he added happily.

Kono winced as he gently put a plate in front of her, fighting another surge in panic as he lay a white napkin across her lap. His fingers lingered by her bruised cheek before he stepped behind her to finger-comb both sides of her long hair behind her ears so it would be away from her face.

"That's better. I'd like to see more of your beautiful eyes. Maybe I can style your hair for you later," he whispered with a gleam of pleasure. He paused, intrigued by the thought of simply brushing her hair before adjusting her plate on the table. "Now though, I made your favorite. Pasta primavera."

"Topher, I'm not hungry," Kono dared to whisper with a careful glance upwards to meet his eye. Without access to a window, Kono had no idea how long she'd been kept locked away. Hours felt like days and then, days like months, even when she was kept passively drugged more than half the time. In a few rarer instances, like at this very moment, she did possess clearer lucidity. However, she had quickly learned to keep her mouth closed the hard way. Resentfully, she needed to accept the fact that she had been abducted by an intelligent psychopath; someone who was obsessed with owning her every breath of air.

The overall end result of knowing the intent of her enemy only slightly softened her constant state of fearful confusion though. She watched him carefully now as she tried to avoid the inevitable. Her refusal to eat was a definite risk which wouldn't be received well. "Please. I'm not hungry," Kono failed at sounding convincing. "Topher?"

"No," his eyes narrowed warningly as he placed his own plate across from her. He stood tall over her, fingers clenching and unclenching sporadically, as he decided how best to react. Her brain registered the threat in the movement and she briefly closed her eyes. "No, you are hungry and I made this meal just for you; it's your favorite and you will eat it."

Kono squirmed uncomfortably in her seat as she waited for the next slap. His anger flickered much too closely to the surface and she automatically quieted in response. It wasn't taking very much for him to become physical with her. Her captor had confessed his one-time real name of Christopher Reed and had even shared his old nickname of Cristo. He had been offended by her blank stare, yet had managed to move on because that past was gone anyway and he could justify her ignorance. Still, he explained that Cristo had been his name when he was nothing but a low-life street gang member. With a true delight, he reveled in the fact that Cristo was no more. He celebrated the fact that by changing a few letters of his last name or by coming up with a new nickname or two, he could completely redefine himself.

"I legally changed my name to Topher Reid," he had confessed with an incredibly deep sense of pleasure. "Topher from Christopher, of course. And 'Reid' is obvious ... it completely alters the old spelling of 'Reed' which is so boringly commonplace. Doesn't it, ku`uipo? Very artistic sounding and much more ... what would you call it? More ... creatively classic?" However, his pleasure in that most important of revelations had been extremely short-lived due to her initial response. Kono's poorly chosen retort had prompted a resurgence in his anger and he'd been unable to quaff his temper as the last word left her lips.

"Whoever you think you are ... you're still a nothing to me," Kono had slurred sloppily enough as his face swam eerily in front of her eyes. She had snorted in derision, mockingly to find her voice even though her tongue nearly stuck to the roof of her mouth. "I don't know you ... and never have and I don't want to now."

His anger had flared immediately upon the heels of her retaliatory jibes. Mere seconds later, her cheek had garnered a deepening bruise, caused by a reactive slap which had sent her head reeling into her bed's hard frame. Tears sparkled in her eyes from the dual attack of hand and iron frame. Her first lesson in how he might manage his love for her was a harsh one, doled out with painful consequences followed by a baffling apology.

"I'm sorry, ku`uipo. You shouldn't make me do such things." Just as quickly, he had melted in regret to kiss the burn from her cheek and to thumb a pained tear from her eye. Then he had forced a large amount of drugged water down her throat. Enough to make her burble and choke, but he'd been far from remorseful for causing that discomfort. During the entire forced exercise, his tone remained amiable and conversational as he subsequently lay a soft mauve blanket over her legs and kissed the top of her head. "By the way, you need to know that because of you, I'm a world class photojournalist. I'm rich and will give you whatever you want. Whatever you need."

He had left her alone and cuffed to the bed for an unknown period of time to stew in her trapped misery while her cheek burned and tears streaked down her face. She's lost consciousness to a nightmarish hell which she failed at escaping until the drugs slowly began to lighten in her system. When he'd finally returned, she was beginning to rouse and her tears had dried. She'd been leery, but he'd had similarly recovered a tractable demeanor as if nothing had happened at all. However, his next gift to her was unfathomable as he flipped open the lid to his laptop computer while he sat next to her on the bed and presented her with proof of his artistic creativity. As she might have guessed, all the photographs were of her. But to see them first hand and to understand the depths of his personal invasion upon her privacy made her physically ill.

"So long?" Kono had murmured in disbelief, eyes wide as she tried to focus her drug-hazed vision on the bright computer screen. "You followed me for so long?" Kono had been shocked to see pictures of herself dating back to a time she could barely remember in grammar school, on the beach, at practice or walking home with a younger Chin, shave ice treat in hand. Only then, had she truly become frightened by the depths of his familiarity with her life. Newer pictures were more memorable to her and her eyes watered as she recognized those taken the day she'd been abducted. If Danny had ever been in any of them, he'd been cropped out entirely.

Danny.

With glistening eyes, Kono had looked to Topher in astonishment. A pang tore at her chest because she should have listened ... she should have stayed more aware. She had looked directly at Topher and had suffered the consequences of another error in judgement because she had been wholly unable to hold her tongue. Using his name for the first time, she tried to appeal to an empathy which never existed and was reminded of his fragile temper. "Please tell me ... where's Danny? Topher, what happened to him?"

The lid to the laptop had clicked shut with a hard snap and his left hand was flying through the air again. Without a word or any type of warning, the backhanded slap caught her cheek precisely in the same spot as the first and she'd gasped this time at the flush of pain. Her vision had blacked out at the sheer force applied into the reprimand. Breathless and weak, Kono had limply fallen into the deep cushion of pillows completely unable to protect herself or find any new words to placate his anger.

Now as she sat at the dining room table with a fresh dish of pasta seemingly placed so adoringly in front of her, Kono's cheek ached incessantly. The bruising was deep and swelling now touched the right side of her lip making it feel puffy and thick. She could only imagine what it looked like. She went to touch it tentatively, but her cuffed wrist brought her back to the present.

"What?" She murmured softly. Her eyes blinked rapidly, realizing now that she had completely zoned out for a few minutes wondering about Danny's fate. With an effort, she focused on the heated pain in her damaged cheek. The hurt reminded her of where she was and that she needed to pay attention. "What ... what did you say?"

"I said, you need to eat now, ku`uipo, and I'm going to help you," Topher patiently repeated. Kono looked up to see the blurry outline of a fork poised toyingly before her mouth. Tears welled tiredly in her eyes as she rattled the cuffs which were clicked tightly to the arms of the chair. Her ankles were bound similarly as well with no more than eight inches of steel that might only allow her a short shamble at best once he pulled her to her feet.

"Open," Topher urged, a lop-sided smile curving his lips from the painful swelling. Nonetheless, his shining black eyes were dancing playfully as he held the pasta before her mouth. "Come on, my love, open."

He was only just allowing her to eat small birdlike meals once or twice a day while chained in place. After her failed escape attempt, she'd had no food and so was indeed very hungry and constantly thirsty. This new plan which he concocted evidently required that he manually feed her and the methods twisted her stomach into knots but she had little choice as the fork waved enticingly near her nose.

"Kono? I'm sure you're hungry. Yes?" Topher pushed and prodded with an unrelenting purpose. "You're dressed so beautifully tonight and I made your favorite." Kono shook her head as she gazed down at the simple black dress, nearly choking at the much too recent memory of Topher so methodically helping her to change from the red teddy. He'd gone slowly. Caresses had lingered much too long. Left intentionally barefoot, she had been trembling by the time he was done clothing her, positive that something else was going to happen. Instead, he had escorted her - tightly bound - to the dining room where he chained her in place.

"Eat," he demanded, a new tone surfacing which warned her to behave. However, her stomach roiled and she slammed her mouth closed as her sharp inhales whistled loudly through her nose. The fork didn't move and she bit her already sore lip while fighting her own internal struggle.

"No," she murmured briefly again, more about her entrapment then against the food itself. Her fists tightened in fear when his face darkened angrily and she snorted breathlessly through her nose as her wrists flailed against the chair with more determination. In tandem with the drugs, he truly meant to keep her fully reliant on him for virtually everything.

"Open, ku`uipo," he urged, ignoring her surge of panic and eventually pleased when she grudgingly complied to swallow a forkful of bow-tied pasta. "It's good, isn't it? Like I said, I made it just for you. Pasta primavera is one of your favorites. I have to go out today and meet with a few clients, so you had best eat something to tide you over. After, I'll be back so we can enoy our evening together."

Kono barely heard him. Another forkful appeared as soon as she'd swallowed, followed by another and then another. In distress as each bite almost stuck cloyingly in her throat, Kono felt tears welling more as she forced herself to accept the food.

"I bet you're thirsty." While he was drinking a deep red wine, she eyed the water glass by her dish with a knowing fear. She could again refuse, but would have no choice there either. If she declined, he simply provided a more apt motivation or a sedative by needle. He would then force the tainted water on her afterwards to double the effects.

"Ready, darling?" Topher waited for her to swallow her food before quietly setting the fork down. It didn't matter that she was weakly confused, he still didn't dare trust her after barely three days of conditioning. His one bout of kindness during their first full day together and a planned romantic breakfast had resulted in that near escape.

It was then that she had managed to use the sharp point of her elbow to connect with the side of his face. He had fallen and she had gained ground away from him on all fours, scrabbling far enough towards the front door. His anger at not only her subterfuge, but at the large bruise marring his cheekbone, knew no bounds and set in motion an escalation of sorts to further provide her with the means to be reminded of their fate together.

Instead of beating her though, Topher had drugged her deeply and left her tightly tied to her bed without food or with very little water. From what she could recall, this plate of pasta was truly the first real food she could recall seeing since ... before she'd been surfing with Danny. Tears threatened again and she fought to control her pounding heart. She was too upset to eat ... too worried about Topher's ability to drug her at his whim and wildly panicked at the way he could control everything.

"Kono, you aren't paying attention to me at all, my love," Topher sighed loudly. He cocked his head, studying her closely and weighing the measure of her strength. She was weaker from lack of food and water, yet she possessed an amazing tenacity and he was particularly cautious. He'd only escorted her to the dining room that day after reassuring himself he'd properly balanced her medication requirements.

"Kono?" He rocked his hip to sit on the edge of the table, gently smiling down at her as she gazed blearily ahead. "I can imagine what you might be thinking." He could tell that her wheels were determinedly cranking through her head as she tried to determine day or night, and if she could possibly find a way to escape. Topher grinned as he followed her line of sight to the heavily curtained windows. Outside, the Hawaiian sun was blazingly hot that fine morning, but Kono had no idea. Maintaining that confusion was precisely what he intended in order to keep her off balance and utterly subdued.

"First of all, what you tried to do certainly won't be happening again," Topher advised in a completely different quality of voice when her fingers clenched into a pair of fists around each arm of the chair. The strength in those slim fingers was telling, and he nodded thoughtfully to himself as reached for the water glass. The resulting tremble which thrummed through her body indicated her growing awareness and that only meant that it was time for her next dose.

"Drink it, darling. Now." He didn't hesitate as he sternly placed the crystal glass to her lips. He'd hold her nose if need be or begin their dance by placing the syringe he had in his pocket warningly on the dining room table to make his point known. If that didn't work, the needle would find her neck. But he smiled in pleasure as Kono acquiesced with a quiet half-sob to drink nearly half the glass as some dribbled down her chin to streak her neck and spot her new dress.

"Careful, ku`uipo," he chided her gently, placing the glass down to wipe her face with a soft cloth napkin, dab her neck gently and then linger over the body of her dress. His breath hitched as she fought to keep herself still from his ministrations and he smiled anew. That part would come very soon, but he was simply enjoying something which had taken twelve years to achieve; he deserved to enjoy every long minute with his prize. There was no need to rush. Time was of no consequence. He could wait.

"Finish it," he whispered softly. Seconds later, the glass was back in hand and he was insisting that she drain its contents entirety despite her tearful refusal. "Now that you understand, you need to finish your dinner," Topher resumed his task at hand, ignoring the tears streaming down her face. He forced her to finish the small plate with a firm persistence because she would receive nothing until the following day as he needed to go out that afternoon. She would sleep and he would be confident knowing that fact.

"That's my best girl." With a contented sigh, Topher gently kissed her darkened cheek before taking his own seat in the chair directly across from where she sat.

"My dinner's cold, however it's still quite good. I can tell that you approved of my cooking, too. Another of my talents which I bet you didn't know about." He smirked as he ate his own meal, watching intently as her hands relaxed and her chin began to bob unsteadily towards her chest where a new necklace twinkled in the light.

"So beautiful." Topher smiled happily as he finished his dinner with a satisfied sigh of approval. Eyes closed and head bowed, Kono was breathing deeply as the heavy dose of drugs settled in her system. His life was now completely perfect in every way imaginable and Topher toasted the air in the direction of his beloved.

"Very nice. Very nice, indeed." His swallow of wine was long and appreciative, but he never took his eyes of Kono's passive face.

~ to be continued ~