CH. 20 'If you care, then you better act like you care' OR 'I'm just wondering what you're so upset about?'

As Rinami burst into the penthouse door she found Sukuna standing in the middle of the floor. He immediately turned towards her, his eyes flaring as he saw her, but he didn't move.

"Where've you been?" He asked indifferently.

Rinami eyed him. "I got caught up."

She watched as his eyes narrowed. Hmm, not so indifferent now. She noted to herself.

"I'm not interested in games Ami"

Rinami shrugged. She was tired. She didn't want his games either. He was going to stand there like he hadn't noticed how long she was gone? Like he hadn't cared either way?

She offered up no other answer, just began pulling off her jacket.

Sukuna's eyes darkened and he came closer, a dangerous curve on his lips.

"Are you intentionally trying to piss me off?"

Rinami glowered at him and threw her jacket to the side.

"And what of it? I'm free to come and go as I like, isn't that what you said?" She raised on her toes to get into his face. "So I went out. And then when I do come back, obviously gone much longer than I should have been, all I get are scowls and threats, and you acting like you couldn't give two fucks". She put her face into his and pushed him in the chest. "Stop freaking threatening me Sukuna. I'm tired of it." She began unbuttoning her shirt, still casting him the evil eye. Sukuna had stepped back, and he was now looking at her with a mixed look of anger and interest.

Rinami finished unbuttoning her shirt, took it off and threw it to the side as well. She grabbed Sukuna by the collar of his shirt and looked him directly in the eyes, her own copper eyes, stony and serious.

"It's been a very long day and I'm already tired of your bullshit. I'm not proud of the things I did just to get back to you. So if you care, then you better act like you care."

She stared into his red eyes and then pulling him by the collar, she kissed him hard against his lips. She broke the kiss and again looked directly into his eyes, she gave a slight raise of her eyebrows and waited for his response. Sukuna pursed his lips as his red eyes went black. He grabbed Rinami tightly by the hair on the back of her head and pulled her back against him kissing her roughly. As they broke, Rinami pushed him back against the wall and reached for the pants he wore loosely at his waist, her slim fingers quickly unbuckling them and pushing them down. She looked briefly up at Sukuna who seemed to be rather amused at the unexpected display from her. Raising her chin in defiance she gave him another small, hard shove into the wall. She gave a short hard tug on the shirt covering his body. "Take it off" she commanded. His eyes still glittering with amusement, Sukuna took one hand and grabbing the hem of his shirt, seamlessly pulled it over his head and tossed it to the floor.

Catching his eyes before she began kissing his neck, Rinami used her tongue and slowly ran it down his chest and stomach, tracing the linear black tattoos that marked his muscular body. Stopping to give small kisses along the way, and lightly raking her nails across his skin. She could hear his heartbeat through his chest as she made her way down and the sound excited her. Pausing to give one more look up into his deep red eyes, Rinami, slowly dropped to her knees in front of him, continuing to kiss and use her tongue to explore all of him. She heard him suck in his breath and then felt his fingers grasp and then lock into her hair, tangling in it as he slowly rocked his hips to meet her mouth. Rinami focused on pleasuring him with her mouth for as long as she could stand it before she needed her own release.

Finally, she pulled away and sitting back with her arms behind her, she slightly spread her legs and looked up at him, meeting his eyes. "You claimed before that I begged for it, right? True or not, I don't plan on begging today." Before she had barely finished her sentence Sukuna growled and pounced on her, knocking her flat on her back and attacking her neck with his mouth. He hitched up her skirt and in one fluid motion entered her, forcing her underwear to the side and then tearing it off as he grabbed her. The sex was rough and dirty. Rinami clung to him, meeting his movements as best she could and allowing him to do as he liked with her body. She closed her eyes and drowned in nothing but the feeling of him- in, on and around her. She couldn't count the amount of times that she climaxed but it seemed never ending, and whenever she thought he was done, he would shift her position and take her again, quickly bringing her to the edge of yet another earth-shattering orgasm. When they finally collapsed together, her hair hung damp and limp, drenched with sweat, and their bodies were red and sticky with perspiration and natural body oils.

As she dropped to the floor, worn out beyond the point of functioning, Sukuna reached out and easily pulled her within his arms. He carefully moved her limp body and pressed it to his side, laying her partially on his chest and in the crook of his arm. Rinami smiled and slid her top leg across his, a finger of her hand tenderly tracing the tattoo on his shoulder. This was such a comfortable spot. She could feel his hand stroking her damp hair and could sense his eyes on her. She looked up, still breathing hard, her flushed face meeting his. Now his red eyes were soft and she could see herself reflected in them

"I do care Ami. You left and I was…worried. I don't like the feeling and it's not an easy thing for me to admit to." Sukuna cleared his throat. "Tell me where you were? You disappeared for nearly a full day and then when you do come back, you come back like…this… saying you did things you weren't proud of… should I be concerned? Angry?"

Rinami looked at him and felt a surge of warmth go through her. She loved this part of him. The strong, dangerous part of him was a turn on, but so was this side. She fought the urge to straddle him and start up another session. Instead she snuggled deeper into his arm.

"No, there's no need for concern." She gave only the slightest pause, quickly reassuring herself. Just spit it all out, don't hesitate. "Though I did meet with Gojo." As soon as she said Gojo's name she could feel all of the muscles in Sukuna's body immediately tense up. Rinami imagined that he was probably considering some correlation between her sexual appetite and her meeting with Gojo. I guess he wouldn't be completely wrong. She thought. Though the truth was this libido charge had been solely the result of seeing Sukuna. She'd rushed from the school to hurry and get home to him, and the second she'd seen him her body had wanted him, and she'd just had to have him. Maybe he'd trained her to react to him? She couldn't say, she just knew that right now had been about an itch that only Sukuna himself could have scratched.

"It wasn't like that, so please don't worry."

"You left after eavesdropping on a conversation I had with him - a conversation that was mostly concerning his feelings for you. You disappear for a full day and I find out you were with him that entire time. You come back and immediately want to screw, are way more aggressive about it than you've ever been, you're doing things you've never done before… but 'don't worry' you say?" The tone in Sukuna's voice was becoming sharp.

Rinami sighed. So much for basking in the afterglow. She sat up and faced him. "Don't jump to conclusions. I've always been honest with you and that's not going to stop now, okay." She licked her lips and checked his face to see if he was really going to listen. He was quiet. For the moment.

"I was upset, I went for a walk and I ended up downtown over near the water. It was purely coincidental, but I did run into Gojo there." She halted because she knew the implausibility of it would bother him.

"It was near a spot that we used to visit." She admitted. "I didn't intentionally go there, I just ended up there as I walked." Sukuna nodded and said nothing.

"I was actually there for awhile before he showed up, but when he did, we talked for awhile and we argued for a bit." She hesitated again. This was the part she was concerned about. She was scared about the repercussions of her next words. Sukuna caught the pause and looked at her warily.

"And then?"

Rinami exhaled "Look, Sukuna I don't want problems and I want your word that there won't be any."

He looked at her and said nothing.

"Really!" She insisted.

"Ami, be serious." he looked at her. "You know me better than that. I won't lie to you either, so don't sit here and ask me to. You know I'm not going to promise you anything without knowing what we're talking about. So what happened?"

Rinami huffed. "He knocked me out and took me back to the campus." She said it all at once, as if saying it quickly would somehow make it better.

"Hmm." Sukuna's eyes were narrow and dark and the grin on his face was much less of a grin and much more of something sinister.

Rinami swallowed. Not good. She tried to continue through the rest. "Anyways, long story short, I was held there until I could escape. As soon as I could, I made my way back here to you. I wasn't hurt or anything, so it's really no big deal."

Sukuna turned a skeptical look to her. "So many things wrong with that. 'No big deal', huh? I think that's called kidnapping. At worst case it's stealing. You're mine. You belong to me, he can't just take someone else's possessions-"

"Uh, I don't really belong…and I'm not a possess... urgh, never mind." The look on Sukuna's face said that now wasn't really time to raise it as a talking point.

"Now." The dark grin had returned to Sukuna's face as he firmly pinched her chin between his thumb and the curve of his bent index finger, and leaned in closely. "It's cute that you want to cut your long story short, but I know that Satoru Gojo didn't steal you just to leave you in someone else's hands. I'm sure he kept watch on you himself. So do you want to explain to me exactly how you managed to escape from out of the hands of Japan's most powerful jujutsu sorcerer?" Sukuna's eyes were still black. This wasn't getting better.

Rinami flushed red. "No. No I do not. No thank you please." She gave a quick sharp shake of her head.

Sukuna's eyes flashed and in and instant he had picked her up and moved with her to the couch. Sitting her down and crouching over her.

"Rinami, I know you said no more threats, so don't consider this a threat, but know that I'm not playing. I expect you to tell me what happened and to tell me now. Otherwise, I'm going right now to burn Jujutsu High to the ground and Satoru Gojo along with it."

Rinami still doubted whether or not Sukuna could actually kill Gojo, but she wasn't crazy enough to let those words pass her lips. Besides, she was 100% certain that Sukuna could destroy the school, and that at the very least he would definitely do some serious damage to Gojo in the battle. It seemed like a stupid reason to start a war.

She looked away. She'd tell him, if only to avoid all this drama, but nothing said she had to look him in the eyes when she said it.

"I used my powers on him. My full powers."

Sukuna grabbed her face and turned it to face him, gripping it tightly by the sides of her chin. "Now is not the time to be shy my love. Speak up and be detailed."

Rinami glared at him, her eyes becoming glassy. She really hadn't planned to speak about the details, but she could see now that he wasn't going to let her off about this. She took her arm and knocked Sukuna's hand from her face, wiping her face with her other hand.

He sat back, arms crossed, looking at her and waiting.

"The barriers in the room he put me in didn't affect my technique. I don't know why but they didn't. So I created an illusion to trick him..." Rinami reluctantly told him about the vision that she had forced upon Gojo. She didn't go into details about the intimacy just that sex was involved, and she completely left out the part about the confession of love that started it all off. She couldn't determine if not disclosing that to him constituted lying or not, but she just wasn't ready to share that. He'd already forced her to reveal more than she'd wanted, and so she was keeping that bit of it to herself.

She finished explaining and then sat crying silently while Sukuna sat and thought over what she had told him. "That's really interesting." he said, a surprised grin on his face. "I had no idea that your powers were that strong or that you'd gotten that good!" He sat in contemplation "You actually managed to take out Gojo…"

Rinami cast a spiteful look his way. Of course. Of course that's what he's focused on. Forget the fact that she'd literally concocted bit by bit, an entire sex fantasy between her and her ex and then forced it upon him. At least it meant her powers were growing.

She laid her head on the arm of the couch and covered it n her arms, continuing to silently cry to herself. She felt exhausted all over again. The good mood she'd had after her time with Sukuna was now gone and she once again felt just as miserable as before.

Having to relive that awful illusion all over again sucked, and it just reminded her of what a garbage person she was, to have actually used Gojo's feelings like that against him. Sure Sukuna would find it interesting. Like Gojo, hjs heart didn't function right either. Maybe she just had a thing for damaged guys. She sat up. Or maybe it was some kind of cosmic joke – that only damaged guys were the ones allowed to touch her?

She looked over at Sukuna. He was staring at her intently. "What?" She snapped. She was now fed up with him as well.

"I'm just wondering what you're so upset about?" He asked, raising an eyebrow.

Rinami turned up her nose. "Don't worry about it, you wouldn't get it." She stood up to leave and Sukuna grabbed her hand.
"Maybe you need me to lay you down and help to ease your mind again?"

"Ugh. No, I'll pass this time. Thanks." Rinami yanked her hand back, but not before she noticed a dark flash across Sukuna's eyes again.

"I'm going to shower and then I'm just going to go to bed. Like I said earlier- - long day"

She wiped away another wayward tear that had fallen down her face and left the room for the shower.

Sukuna sat on the couch, his eyes following her in silence as she walked off. It looked to him like the broken girl had mended herself, but this newly restored version didn't seem quite the same as the old…

Once again Rinami's sleep was restless and riddled with nightmares. Bits and pieces of the last 24 hours floated to the surface of her dreams. She woke late in the night in a cold sweat, a new revelation having come to her in her sleep. She looked over at the empty bed next to her and checked the clock. 4 am. While Sukuna didn't technically seem to need sleep, he would sometimes rest anyways to let his body recharge. Or at times he would lay in bed with her and then retreat to his inner domain to plan and prepare, allowing her to still have the warmth of his body with her. Tonight, he was gone. She felt unsurprised about it.

Thinking back to her dream, Rinami thought about all the pieces that had come in to play since Sukuna''s 'Big Reveal', and the start of this entire ordeal

She'd remembered when Gojo had first found her back in the convenience store and Sukuna had played at using her for a shield…

'Free pass with her, right?'

She thought about the conversation she'd heard between the two of them, and again about Sukuna's words to Gojo.

'Is that how much you love her? Would you give me whatever I asked just to get your hands on her?

She thought about Gojo's own words to her before he knocked her out at the waterfront-

'I will always try to protect you'

And then his words at the school

'I love you Rin….I loved you then and I still love you now, I've loved you far longer than you've known….'

This whole time it had never strayed from the back of her mind - wondering what it was that Sukuna might get from her in all of this. She'd always assumed that his plan was to use her as his way to get into Jujutsu High. Of course, that plan had been shot and that option was no longer on the table as soon as he'd revealed himself. So she'd been left confused. If by chance it wasn't really affection that kept him here, then what else was there. What possible remaining benefit could she have for him? The question burrowed within her, becoming more intense and burdensome with every exceedingly long day that she was left all alone- feeling both unwanted and unneeded.

When she'd caught the interaction in the portal, she'd initially assumed that Sukuna might just take some childish joy in taunting Gojo, but what if it was deeper than that? What if she was the plan? If Gojo really did love her, did that make her a liability for him? Did Sukuna have her as a pawn for sacrifice in order to force Gojo's hand?

Rinami shivered. She wasn't sure why the thought had never occurred to her before now. Maybe because before she'd never known how strongly Gojo really felt for her? Now that he'd confessed, it did make sense. I keep thinking 'if' he really loves me. But I guess I really know better now, don't I? She had to keep reminding herself, because even now it was hard for her to accept. She knew exactly how Gojo felt. She didn't have to wonder if the words he had said were true, because she knew for sure they were. When he'd spoken to her, she'd reached out with her technique and she'd felt it for herself. His feelings for her. They were definitely love. She was familiar enough to know the feeling firsthand and there was no mistaking it. The feelings coming from him mirrored almost precisely the exact way that she felt about him in those parts of her heart she tried so hard to keep hidden.

While she may have been oblivious, it was obvious that Sukuna had been aware of Gojo's feelings from the very beginning. He definitely wasn't above using someone's feelings against them, why would Gojo be an exception? A sharp pang stabbed her heart. The thought was overwhelmingly depressing. She couldn't be sure about any of it, it was all just a concentrated guess at this point. But it did hit close to home, and its high odds for accuracy, especially when it came to Sukuna, were just way too high to ignore.

Rinami laid back down. With these new thoughts now swirling through her head, she had no chance of going back to sleep. She lay there, configuring different scenarios and possibilities until the sun rose. Then drowsily she got up to face the new day.

NEXT: CH. 21 'Feel free to skip out and don't let me keep you' OR 'Was it everything you wanted and more?'

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