Tatsumi practically roared a loud yawn, awaking Wave in his position on the wall.
Esdeath's punishment the previous night kept Tatsumi from getting the early sleep he had desired. His mind replayed the night's events against his will, sending a shudder down his spine.
Upon dragging him to her chambers, she pushed him to the bed with one hand and pinched his nipple with the other, not letting go until she was sure he wouldn't move.
"Stay" she ordered.
Tatsumi entered the Jaegers quarters, pretending not to notice Wave. He staggered to the counter and grabbed a banana. A snicker oozed from outside in the hall.
Satisfied with his compliance, she strode to the washroom, her hips swinging in small horizontal arcs. Tatsumi noticed that she tended to walk like that when excited or content. And she was very content.
Tatsumi hoped what he heard was just the wind outside. But the vegetation in the windows was still, the leaves unmoving. He looked to his right and nodded to Bols.
The faucet ran, the weight of the water slamming into the tub reminding him of rocks smashing a bucket. Waiting until he was sure Esdeath was in the shower, he slowly left the bed.
"Are you hungry Tatsumi?" asked Bols, raising a kitchen knife, chopped scallions on the cutting board.
"I prefer light breakfasts, thank you Bols" replied Tatsumi, eyeing the pot of boiling water. "I've gotta admit, that soup looks good."
"Don't be afraid to try some if you'd like. It's got egg noodles, cha siu, scallions, everything I've heard people from the north like."
Tatsumi forced a chuckle.
"Yeah, sounds like something we'd eat back home" he replied. "Wait... how do you know I'm from the Northern Region?"
Bols reached for the oven to turn off the burner.
"Well, Esdeath never stops talking about you, Tatsumi."
"Oh great" thought Tatsumi. "Does she have no humility?"
"Even if she hadn't told me all that she had known about you, I could still tell" Bols continued, wagging his finger. "You and Esdeath both have the same stern yet affectionate eyes. Like... steel... but with..."
Bols stirred the soup lazily, as if he wasn't aware of his movements. Then he looked up.
"Like steel with chocolate icing!" he exclaimed happily.
Though a voice in his mind told him there was no way she would hear him, he tiptoed towards the door. The juxtaposition of fear and arousal she held over him amazed him at times like this. Upon placing his hand on the door to leave, he found that the door was frozen shut. No one could get in or out except for the succubus in the washroom. Unsure if he was disappointed or relieved, he climbed back to the bed carefully. He gazed back to the white ceiling, and found himself thinking of a cannibalistic flock of sheep.
"So the ice queen's from up north too" Tatsumi inferenced aloud.
Bols nodded in an energetic motion.
"And I am so happy for the two of you! Everyone is really excited to see Esdeath in love with such an amazing man as you!"
Tatsumi stopped chewing his banana, the sweet tang saliva enveloping his tongue. He swallowed.
"Love... I see..."
The water stopped, the bucket's pounding put to rest.
Out stepped the succubus.
A damp towel eased over her wet body. Tatsumi's awe for her renewed, and he sensed something new in his heart, too. His dread had faded to a small, black orb in his chest, so miniscule that it could be a mouse compared to his elephant lust. The domineering aura pressed into the room, she was the goddess of war. The goddess of steel. His goddess. A goddess that destroyed her opposition and allies alike. She could fight Ragnarök and survive, all the Gods left impaled in a ditch below her.
His excitement swelled like a balloon as she raised her finger to the ceiling.
"Up" she ordered.
Tatsumi sensed an unfamiliar presence behind him, and promptly turned. Standing at the entrance of the quarters was Wave, water slowly dripping from his damp clothes. His weak giggling disconcerted Tatsumi. They stood for a moment, Tatsumi not daring to take his eyes off him, and Wave staring at the ground, his hair covering his eyes, a toothless grin on his wet face. Then Wave began to speak.
Tatsumi promptly stood out the bed.
"Your shirt, pants, boots, socks, belt, everything. Off,"
With the same instinct of a duckling following its mother, he began to unbutton his collar. Her presence shook as he paused.
"Why did you stop. Continue."
"E-esdeath."
"Did I give permission to speak?"
"I'm not... ready for you... to see me like this..."
Her hand rested on her hip, she smiled.
"Oh, really?" she questioned. "After everything we've done?"
Tatsumi stayed still as a statue.
"You know we are past that barrier" she stated. "You are definitely ready. If you continue to act like a little school girl, your punishment will only lengthen."
Tatsumi knew she was right. But as rust spreads on an unclean blade, his initial beliefs were etched into his sense of normalcy. Some changes are stubborn, others can be finished overnight. A part of him felt more than ready, he didn't think he could change so fast. The day when he received his reluctant powers, and the morning of that same day changed everything that he took for granted.
Tatsumi continued to unbutton his collar, his heart swelling at Esdeath's hungry expression.
"T-T-Ta..." mumbled Wave.
He reminded Tatsumi of a baby attempting to say a word.
"Ta... Taaaa... T-Taaaa"
Wave seemed to be sounding out a particularly difficult word.
"T-T-Taaaaa..."
He began to giggle weakly, arms hanging limply at his sides.
"Hehehe... Ta-hehehe...Ta...hehehe..."
His giggling began to sound more awake, and quickly evolved into a crude cackle. He held his stomach and began bawling with laughter.
He raised a shaking finger to Tatsumi, tears in his eyes.
"TATSU-BUNNYYYY!"
She was a wolf watching the tired lamb collapse, ready to ravage it's victim. Her starving eyes devoured his body as that shirt- that accursed shirt- fell away, as the chest opens to reveal gold. Her breathing grew heavier as she noticed the mark on his chest. A new, sinister proclamation of symbiosis lay etched under his neck, above the sternum. The distinguished star semblance was marked, chilled black grains stretched out as ink grows on paper, reminiscent of the growths on a porcupine.
"I DON'T EVEN KNOW YOU!" screamed Tatsumi. "STOP ACTING LIKE YOU'RE MY LITTLE BROTHER."
A banana peel slapped against Wave's face and Tatsumi stormed out to the hall, Wave's laughter chasing him the whole way.
"Oh, Tatsumi..." she sighed.
The disappearance of her authoritative tone surprised him.
"Uh... Did I do something?"
"You were destined for the teigu, Tatsumi."
His heart sank. Why was she bringing that up again?
"We're done talking about that" he stated.
"Look at your chest."
He glanced down, and looked again. The star was as black as Esdeath's cross, but the shape was completely different.
"Now the two of us are even more alike. I can't believe how fast you have changed for me baby" praised Esdeath.
His heart sank even more at her words. He didn't want to believe her. While he had always been taught to accept change, a part of him believed any changes in him from Esdeath would be for the worst. However, her savage allure, her confidence and charisma, her power and skill, he felt all of these could help him become stronger. And the stronger he became, the more money he could earn for his village. He had to accept her.
"Yes" he said weakly.
"The teigu approved of you baby. It's strange, taking your recent behavior into account. Perhaps it knows of your potential as a warrior, as I do?"
"I don't care."
Her authority returned.
"Your opinion was not asked for. Now, your pants. Off."
The urgency he portrayed as he undid the rest of his clothes pleased her. Her feral grin covered her face, official authority replaced with sensual dominance.
"Your body satisfies my eyes so much, baby" crooned Esdeath, watching him briefly smile at her compliment.
"But it's not just my eyes that need to be pleased"
He exited to the courtyard in the center of the palace. He shut his eyes and lay on a marble bench, groaning from the sunlight on his skin.
"I'm gonna teach that asshole a lesson one day" he muttered to himself.
The chaotic chirping of the chickadees formed unrest in his head; it quickly became difficult to relax. Realizing that relaxation wasn't what he really needed, he strolled to the training grounds.
She threw off her towel, her natural porcelain skin filling his gaze. She chuckled as he looked away to the the side, his face reddened.
"Still so timid" she observed, striding to the bed. She crawled to him on the sheets and straddled his steadily rising waist, his chin in her slender fingers. "I will change that."
She forced his head to her direction. To her pleasure, it didn't take nearly as much strength as she anticipated.
"I know you enjoy them Tatsu-bunny" she prodded. "I always catch you looking at them when you think I won't notice, and I can hear even the slightest of your blissful sighs as I press them against your back."
She leaned to his ear.
"You love my breasts, don't you."
Her grin widened at the increase in puffs of air felt on her bosom.
"They are all yours now, Tatsumi, just as you are all mine."
"St-sto..."
"Are you trying to tell me to stop, baby? You don't seem too sure about that" she teased. "Is that what you really want?"
"Ju- just... I..."
"Don't worry, I'm not going to be doing anything to you. Your punishment won't be like that..."
She scratched his crown, relishing the feeling of his hair between her fingers.
"You know what to do." she ordered.
Tatsumi didn't move.
"Suck."
To his surprise he found Kurome, cutting flying watermelons with her sword. He watched her slash each melon flying toward her gracefully, his mouth slightly open. He looked to his left and noticed Seryu throwing the melons at her, Koro jumping excitedly. As Seryu stooped to pick another melon from a pile, she saw Tatsumi and smiled.
"Hello fellow warrior for justice! I was just helping Kurome train!" she explained. "Do you think you could help me?"
Kurome shouted for Seryu to wait and jogged toward them, sword sheathed in her hand.
"Seryu, I need to speak to Tatsumi for a moment" Kurome stated when she reached them. "Sorry, but can-"
"Sure! Warriors for justice need their privacy, after all!" Seryu replied with a smirk.
He frowned. He hoped Kurome wasn't going to say what he thought she would.
After they watched Seryu and her dog re-enter the palace Kurome turned to him.
"Are you okay Tatsumi" she dead-panned.
Her constant lack of emotion always confused him, made only worse when he realized she was inferring to his incident yesterday. At his silence, she continued.
"Yesterday's patrol seemed to... do something to you, in a way..."
"I'm fine now" he proclaimed.
She raised an eyebrow.
"Really?"
"I apologize for my actions after k-killing him."
He still had some difficulty acknowledging that he had taken a life yesterday for the first time.
"...I know it was weak of me. I'm sorry for acting so ungainly, just... first day jitters I guess."
Her paint-black eyes studied his unsteady greens. Then she spoke.
"We kill people Tatsumi, that's our job. We're military. We are on the front line. Get used to it."
His heart darkened in shame.
"I know that" snapped Tatsumi. "I just... never did anything like that before. I barely even remember it, yet I know it was me who did it-killed him I mean. But at least he was coming for my life, so that makes it easier to deal with... good god, I never asked for any of this! All I know is that this woman told me to come with her and I went, I had no freakin' clue what was going to happen! Next thing I know I get ice tentacles coming out my fucking back and I'm crushing people's skulls open-"
He broke into a reluctant sob. He fought it, he fought it hard. But the landslide can't be stopped, he needed to let go.
He slowly inched his head toward her, and then moved with renewed bravery.
"Oh, you are so bold..." She moaned.
He had no previous experience with anyone other than Esdeath. However, at his village his many conversations with Ieyasu often led to them pondering performing oral sex would be like, and how they would do it. Ieyasu was always more committed to these conversations of the two. As such, Ieyasu would somehow find ways to satisfy their curiosity. He often snuck magazines and books from the book cart that arrived in the village monthly to show Tatsumi, much to Sayo's chagrin. The texts showed a whole new, reluctant world to Tatsumi. He guiltily devoured the content when Ieyasu wouldn't know.
He found himself silently thanking Ieyasu for all the knowledge he knew he had to learn one day. Esdeath's reactions told him that he was utilizing this knowledge to full effect.
"Have you been practicing on another woman before me... Tatsumi?" she sighed.
Tatsumi stayed silent, too focused to listen.
"Oh, good boy, yes, uhh...yess good boyyy..."
Her praises awakened a new sense in him- a different kind of satisfaction that he had never felt before. He realized it must have been the lust gained from pleasing a lover.
He increased the frequency of his tongue, refusing to allow his momentum dissipate.
"You are such a good boy Tatsu-bunnyyy..."
He slowed briefly and gave a final, climactic suck, the sudden suction forcing her to gasp.
He felt so angry at himself. Why was he crying? Esdeath would have considered this behavior weak. Stop. Stop it. Why did his gasps continue? Sure, he was definitely upset about the hooded man's death, but it was kill or be killed. He had no choice in the matter. He should be grateful. He survived, the other one died. That was the end of it. All there was to it.
Kurome's gaze bored through his tensed shoulders. Unfamiliar with comforting others, she reached into a small sack tied to her waist.
"Here" she said, holding out a sandwich cookie. "Raspberry jelly. In the middle. It's good."
Tatsumi looked up from his wet palms, shameful for his childish behavior. He drew a handkerchief from his pocket with a shaking hand and blew his nose. He received her gift and thanked her in a low voice.
"Sorry. Won't happen again" he apologized.
"Eat the cookie before I regret my decision."
The raspberry filling filled his mouth, the sweetness squeezing his tongue.
"It... tastes good" he remarked.
"Stop crying."
"I already stopped."
"There was another thing I wanted to say."
"What"
Kurome forced her thumb in the air.
"The man you... defeated seems to have been a Night Raid member. So... good job."
Tatsumi forced a closed smile.
"That name sounds familiar. What's Night Raid?"
Her face darkened.
"Bad people" she stated.
Hoping she was satisfied with his first half of the job, he moved his head to the right, his left hand groping her first breast. The wet friction of his fingers on her nipple forced her to inhale sharply.
"Ooh... I liked that..."
He repeated the process. While his hand stimulated her left breast, he licked, sucked, and bit her right. Her groans and praises showered his ears lovingly, he liked her sound.
"It seems... uggghhh... that we can add multitasker to your- urrrgh... list of... skills..."
He slowly revolved his tongue around her orb, his hot breath smothering her but the nipple left untouched.
"No... don't make me wait baby..."
She began to grind on his abdomen, he relished her wetness sliding on his abs.
"God... uh... ugggghhh..."
He found his effort come to a close as she quickly pulled herself out from him. He was able to see her rub her neglected breast before his vision darkened, her cold palm over his eyes.
"I said..."
Tatsumi's head was pushed to the mattress.
"...don't make me wait."
Bad people. Tatsumi wondered what that meant.
"What did they do?" he questioned.
"They kill innocents. Betray the empire. A group of assassins who kill only for money."
He felt his chest lighten.
"I killed a murderer yesterday" he thought. "I'm not naïve, I know killing is still wrong, but I did my duty as an imperial soldier."
"Night Raid, huh" he repeated. "That name sounds kinda lame."
"They get that name from the fact that they only work at night. And you managed to defeat one of them. The General is proud of you it seems."
He laughed.
"Yeah... proud..." he chuckled. "She seems that way."
He gasped as her tongue dragged down his abdomen, the cool slick sliding with vicious intent. Her hand fell away from his face and the white ceiling filled his sight.
"You did so well for your first punishment baby" she whispered, moving back to his face. "Good slaves get rewarded."
Her tongue, that sinful tongue, invaded his lips and ravaged his gums. Like the berserker leaving a torched farmhouse, she slipped from his mouth with sudden speed.
"Don't think I don't feel your bulging against me" Esdeath whispered.
Tatsumi gave a low chuckle.
She rested the side of her back to the bed and pushed her left arm under his neck. Tracing her wet right hand down his middle, she grinned as his expression widened.
"I'm about to pleasure my favorite subordinate."
Her hand began to stroke, flicking her thumb about the tip. She moved slowly, her tempo increasing as his breath grew faster and heavier. She now wanted more than ever to indulge herself further, to release her femininity. But she soldiered on. She must put her Tatsumi first. Those hands would stay right where they were, away from her body.
"U-uhh Esdeath!" groaned Tatsumi.
That broke her.
Her frequency increased, the dial set to the maximum. She ripped her left arm from underneath his neck, letting his head bump into the bed stand. He didn't seem to notice. She would allow herself to climax first this once, Tatsumi won't mind.
"Esde... gonna..."
His broken moan echoed through her ears as she reached her limit. Both her hands felt hot now as she slowed. He bucked slightly a few times, and gave a short smile.
"Wow" he sighed.
"Did you enjoy your punishment slave?" she teased.
She inhaled sharply when he gave her breast a final squeeze.
"Fine. Yeah, I did." he admitted, a defeated look on his face.
Kurome picked another cookie from her sack and bit into it.
"I must wash up and see what Bols made for breakfast. I hope it isn't too heavy, I can't eat heavy food for breakfast.
He chuckled again.
"Sure."
He watched Kurome leave the grounds, wondering if he had just made a new friend. He shook his head, he couldn't let himself think such things too soon. He scanned the area, struggling to remember what he had initially come here for. Upon finding a punching bag in a corner, he grinned.
"Guess some cardio will do me some good" he thought.
He entered into a calm stroll when his eyes widened.
It burned.
The cold set his back on fire.
Clenching his teeth to suppress a scream, he collapsed onto all fours. Tears of pain slashed through his eyelids. Ice water dripped to the sand below him.
"Wh-what is..."
Found you
"Its... so cold-"
The terrible gurgling filled his mind.
Rejection
"St-stop!" he gasped.
Grown
"I said STOP"
Trapped
The gurgling evolved to a dry groan.
An unnatural, horrid scream filled his ears.
He had never seen ice so red.
