As a newer and untried member of Sukuna's organization, Nadja's skills and handling were placed under the purview of Toji Fushiguro, Sukuna's chief enforcer. To Toji, Nadja was as good as any of the men that worked under him, if not better. She was clever, could make hairpin turn decisions in the field, and had a 100% clearance rate. She was a ruthlessly efficient siloed killer, required almost no guidance, and she didn't flinch at death the way some of these younger wolves did when faced with their first few kills.
All in all, Toji would say his babysitting job was an easy one. Nadja didn't give him any trouble in the field and took orders the same as any other subordinate. If her skills far outstripped those of his other men, even better. Maybe that would motivate them to get their asses to the shooting range and train instead of ogling Nadja's ass whenever she was in the room.
Not that it was unwarranted. Toji had to admit, for so slight and vicious a woman, she was a veritable honey pot. Everything about her seemed sculpted and crafted to allure, her presence as vivid and magnetic as any flower, if one ignored the venomous serpent beneath the petals. She was disciplined in a way Toji could respect, and she never got caught up in the petty day to day shit his men entertained themselves with, though he did want to see her when she let her hair down.
He even imagined taking a fistful of that thick, curly hair, pulling her head back to expose her throat, and sucking a mark into her satin skin. But it was clear from the outset that she was Sukuna's woman. They had the decency to show restraint in public, but Toji had survived on reading the illegible. Where his fellow lieutenants seemed oblivious, Toji could practically see the electricity crackling between Sukuna and Nadja; a heat that bore within the promise of extraordinary violence and equally extraordinary passion. He could tell from the way they looked at each other it was over for both of them.
It was too much to hope that Nadja would throw him a bone. He was so goddamn curious as to what she had that kept Sukuna's smirk so sleek and satisfied, and even seemed to relax the bastard in meetings. He wasn't one for needlessly killing subordinates to make an example—a waste of personnel, really—but that didn't mean he didn't devise other ways to torment those who crossed him.
As a result, Sukuna ran a tight ship, and the threat of his ire was enough to keep the men in line. But since Nadja came back into his life he seemed content to let the men relax a bit. After all, they'd secured a victory over the Zenins, effectively dismantling their core network. It was Toji's intel about the inner workings of his former clan that aided in that final victory.
And Sukuna claimed their territory as his own, growing stronger and wealthier by the day. And as he did, so too did those in his organization.
Toji had to own, life was good, and as he and Nadja worked alongside one another, it got better.
It was after a mission in Kyoto that things shifted between them.
Customarily, after work was done, they—the boys, mostly—liked to go out carousing in Roppongi. For her part, Nadja tended not to indulge too much, but after Kyoto she seemed restless enough that a night of drinking wouldn't do any harm. So, they did an izakaya crawl. Their group consisted of Toji's younger enforcers: Genji, a wild-haired delinquent who had dropped out of high school when he found out his talents with a baseball bat were more suited toward cracking skulls than homeruns; Kai, a sly trickster who was more flashy than he should have had any right to be, and cheated at cards though no one was quick enough to catch him in the act, unless Nadja's sly grin told a different story [she cheated too, Toji noticed]. Then there was their youngest recruit, still green in his skills, newly blooded, but with that unwavering hunger in his eyes, and fewer words. Of him, Toji knew little, and he'd been thorough in his background check. Inumaki, they called him, and the only ink he bore were the concentric circles at the corner of his mouth and on his tongue. When asked of their meaning, Inumaki remained reticent.
Kid was a hell of an interrogator, though. Toji would hate to be on the receiving end of that motherfucker's patience.
Toji and Nadja walked side by side, while Genji, Kai, and Inumaki walked ahead, talking and laughing loudly.
"Not interested in the mind-tingling conversations of young men?" Nadja asked, her voice silky. Toji found it hard to believe that this woman had masqueraded as some civilian who just happened to catch Sukuna's interest. Then again, true predators like her always hid in plain sight. Right now, he wasn't sure what he was dealing with: lady or tiger. Sukuna was the same way, only you were always dealing with the tiger. Nadja hid her stripes until her jaws closed around her target's neck.
"They're conversations I've already had," Toji said with an easy shrug of his shoulders. "Let the kids have their fun, they've earned it tonight."
"But not on your dime, right, boss man?!" Genji called back over his shoulder, earning uproarious laughter from the trio, and a sultry, simmering chuckle from Nadja. Toji sucked his teeth in momentary annoyance as jokes of how stingy he was with his yen got volleyed between the three boys. A sideways glance let him see Nadja's lovely profile, plump lips curved into a smile that somehow walked the line between sweet and seductive. He bet her lips tasted like salt and vanilla.
Another izakaya, this one less rowdy, and they found themselves a quiet booth made instantly louder as the trio piled in, calling for a round of shots. Toji pulled out a seat for Nadja, and smirked as she looked up at him in surprise.
"Take a seat, gorgeous, I'll cover the tab," he said. Nadja's smiled turned intrigued, then. The trio gazed between them, a little mystified by Toji's boldness. It was well-known that Sukuna and Nadja were an item, though the two were known to create an air of tension so thick at times it made everyone in the room uncomfortable. No one could tell if the two wanted to murder one another or fuck, and sometimes—if the rumors were true—it sounded like a little bit of both.
This was the kind of delicate tripwire Toji danced around with his idle flirtations and innocuous niceties that anyone who knew Toji's tack record could see for the game it was.
Nadja was willing to indulge, if only out of idle curiosity. She was who she was, after all.
So, she sat down, and Toji paid for their drinks, including the trio, much to their delight [and surprise; they'd been serious about Toji being a cheapskate].
As the night wore on, and the shots piled up, the conversation grew boisterous. Toji joined in on occasion, trading insults back and forth with his subordinates as if he weren't Sukuna's left-hand man. Nadja watched the easy camaraderie and smiled. It was not a sort of kinship she herself was accustomed to given her background, but since joining Sukuna, she'd found herself with a surplus of family members, however dysfunctional.
Beneath the table, Toji's hand found hers, and their fingers brushed.
"I'm gonna step out for a smoke, you want to join me?" Toji asked.
Nadja smiled. "Sure," she said, and the two stepped outside. She didn't miss the hushed whispers of the trio in her wake, nor the very conspicuous shushing as she and Toji stepped outside. He was already lighting a cigarette, and he let out a satisfied exhale, as if the fresh air and the smoke were equally relaxing.
"So, when does Sukuna think he'll release you from babysitting me?" Nadja asked. Toji almost coughed in surprise. Whatever he'd been expecting, it wasn't that.
"It's not that," Toji said and Nadja fixed him with a quirked brow as if to say: what else could it be? She was a world-class assassin—a goddamn mercenary—who had been sent to kill Sukuna himself and nearly succeeded. She did not need a handler breathing down her neck like she was still training. Toji sighed.
"Look, you and Sukuna's first meeting was…pretty unconventional," Toji said. Nadja gave him a crooked smirk.
"I was sent to kill him," she said casually. "It was nothing personal, just business."
Toji frowned. "Yeah? Then why didn't you?"
That gave Nadja pause, and Toji saw the predatory stillness in her. For the first time, he caught a flickering glance at the stripes she hid so well. Grandma, what big teeth you have.
"He caught me by surprise," she said easily. Toji had to commend her: she hid her shock well. But he wore a killer's skin too, and they knew their own. "And with Naoya and the Zenins no longer holding my leash, killing him doesn't serve my handlers."
Toji ashed the cigarette, tossing it and exhaling sharply.
"See, that's it, right there," he said irritably. Nadja's brow furrowed. "'My handlers,' you say. Talking about them like you're still theirs. You pledged your skills to Sukuna in front of Naoya's severed head. The head I took, mind you. You, like the rest of us, belong to him. And the sooner you start acting like this isn't just some wild chapter in the fabulous life you seem to lead elsewhere, the sooner you can lose me as your babysitter."
Nadja's expression never wavered.
"So, the promise to be free was a false one," she observed quietly. Toji smirked at her.
"Did you really think Sukuna was gonna let you do whatever you liked just because you sucked his cock a few times?"
Normally, Toji's crude words would be off-putting, but Nadja had heard [and done] far worse things. There was no line to cross.
"I had hoped it would help, at least," she admitted with a grin that Toji found all too tempting. "It certainly seemed to make him more amenable for a time, if I remember correctly."
Toji pulled a face. "How the fu—"
And then Nadja burst into laughter—true laughter. Toji remembered that night because it was the first time he felt like he was seeing her unscripted. There was no ulterior motive, there was no angle, and there was no coy batting of lashes; there was only Nadja and her amusement and joy, full-throated and from the belly, and her goddamned smile. Her real one.
In that moment, Toji got a passing glimpse of what Sukuna probably never even saw when she was working him.
"Well," Toji said, fumbling with his box of cigarettes for another stick. "You're not entirely wrong. When he thought he was courting you he definitely lost his temper a lot less."
"Did he?" Nadja asked, amused. "I always told him to not let petty things irritate him. I guess he did listen, after all."
Toji tried not to unpack why her words stung him. Instead, he lit his next cigarette. For a while, they stood in silence, and Nadja's gaze drifted to the passing foot traffic and auto traffic that flowed like so many cells through the veins of Tokyo's streets.
"You broke his heart, you know," Toji said suddenly, and became starkly aware of Nadja's dark gaze on him. He would make her listen. "He was in love with you, thought you were really something. But it was a lie. He's been different since then."
Nadja's gaze returned to the street.
"Like I said," she said quietly. "It wasn't personal. Just business."
"And now?" Toji asked, trying not to sound as jealous as he felt. Nadja was dressed in what could only be called 'assassin chic,' an all-black ensemble that accentuated her curves and lines, giving her the appearance of one of those models one saw in the glossy pages of some editorial spread in Vogue. Her hair was loose, thick and curly and bound back at her nape. A few stray curls coiled possessively along her sculpted cheekbone, framing her face like wisteria blooms.
"Now, I have options," Nadja said. "If Sukuna wishes for things to be as they were, I can be that, if that's what he desires of me. But if not…"
Toji glanced down at her, meeting her dark gaze.
"If not…?" He asked. Nadja tilted her head, her smile soft, almost tender.
"Then we'll see what the night brings, won't we?" She replied.
Toji wasn't sure who moved first, her or him, but he took her face in his hands, leaning down as she pressed up on her toes and kissed her.
Her mouth tasted better than salt and vanilla. It tasted like honey. He swept his tongue between her lips, agile and seeking entry, and her mouth yielded open with a soft whimper Toji knew he'd be hearing in his dreams later that night.
Toji pulled away first, struggling to catch his breath.
Nadja lowered back down, lips parted as she looked up at him. Toji could no longer tell if she is hiding her stripes or not, just that he wanted her.
"We shouldn't," he said gruffly. "I can't cross that line. Not with Sukuna."
Nadja tilted her head, her expression quizzical.
"Did I pledge my body to Sukuna as well as my skillset?" She wondered.
"From what I know, your body is part of your skillset," Toji snapped a little more venomous than intended. Nadja raised a brow, unflappable to the last.
"I see," she said. "And were you told by Sukuna to try and sample all of my skills, as it were?" She ventured. "Because if so, I'd be happy to give a full demonstration. I know your investigations tend to be…" She looked him up and down. "…thorough."
Toji stared at her, hard, verdant eyes glittering dangerously. She was tempting a leviathan she didn't know lurked beneath the usually calm waters of his exterior. Toji was known for being laid-back amongst his men and had known Sukuna in the game long enough that they spoke more as old friends than boss and subordinate.
But Toji was Sukuna's left-hand for a reason.
With a speed that startled even the unflappable Nadja, Toji's hand shot up, almost as if to strike, and he saw her tense up briefly, not in fear, but in preparation to retaliate. Instead, his hand was unerringly gentle as he caressed her cheek with his knuckles.
"You sure you want this, angel?" He asked, holding her gaze with unnerving steadiness. Nadja felt her pulse leap in her veins and perhaps for the first time, began to see Toji with more than passing interest. He had done what only Sukuna had been able to and intrigued the intriguing predator.
"I promised a demonstration, didn't I?" She replied with a soft grin. Toji's hand came to her mouth, tracing the full, luscious shape of it with his thumb, pulling her lower lip down to reveal her teeth.
"I'll need more than a demonstration," he said. "I want the full package. I see a little bit of what he saw in you."
Nadja smirked, then.
"Toji," she murmured, and turned her head just so. "You have no idea what he saw or experienced in me."
And then she took his thumb into her mouth and sucked.
Toji paid the tab, of course, but he and Nadja got into a cab without another word. The tension between them was thick and by the time they got to his place, he couldn't wait to get his hands on her.
Keys in the door.
Shoes off.
Toji didn't even hit the hallway light before his large hands sought every button, buckle, and zipper on her clothing. They tore at each other like they were only teeth, claws, and pure, unalloyed need. Perhaps that's all they were. Toji put his hands and mouth on every inch of exposed skin, relishing in her cries in the dark as they stumbled their way to a surface that could withstand the storm gathering between them.
There was something inordinately thrilling about working in the dark, and to two people whose darkest deeds were done in the baptism of shadows, this was a much-needed pressure valve release.
Not to mention the slaking of a carnal curiosity that had been building for the better part of a year.
By the time Toji got her naked he had the decency to click on one lamp, if only to get a good look at her.
Fuck, she was magnificent.
When Sukuna had told him about how he'd tracked her down, he'd left out a detail that Toji had later understood to be that he'd fucked the life out of her for hours after. And looking at her, Toji could not blame him. The woman was a fucking smoke show.
Nadja lay on the bed like a sacred offering, her hair blooming in a profusion of jet-black curls like a cloudy halo around her head. Her face was sculpted with deadly intent, with dark, uptilted eyes the color of deep, forest pools, ringed by a flutter of thick, sooty lashes. Her lips, which he'd been feasting on the entire ride here, were love-swollen and bee stung, parted in an even, patient breath. Toji's gaze slipped downward, from her collarbones to the tender swells of her breasts, tipped with dark, velvety nipples.
Every curve. Every slalom. Toji didn't think there was any woman who could look like this and not scare a man half to death with desire.
But Toji was never one to back down from a challenge.
"Open those pretty legs for me, beautiful," he said with an easy smirk. Nadja tilted her head back slightly, as if to raise her chin in defiance. Then, with a tantalizing slowness that made Toji's cock twitch like a fish on the line, she spread her legs. Every single thing about the simple movement demonstrated the degree of control Nadja had over her body. Her legs parted like she was a dancer responding to an unspoken cue and Toji's eyes dropped to the tender apex between them, as if he were compelled.
Fuck, even her cunt was gorgeous. She kept it trimmed, and he licked his lips hungrily as he spied the thick, wet heat dripping from her entrance. Toji mounted the bed, and Nadja's smile turned eager and expectant, smoothly moving back as he crawled between her thighs. She was made starkly aware of how massive he was, even as he hooked her knees over his elbows, his palms pressed against the back of her thighs, pushing her legs back to expose her pussy further.
"Fuck," he whispered reverently. Nadja grinned slowly before she watched Toji's head dip down, meeting her cunt in an open-mouthed kiss that would make a pornography cameraman look away and blush.
Nadja's eyes slipped closed, and her head dropped back as she let out her first, very real moan of the night, accompanied by the slippery, wet slurping of Toji's mouth working until her cunt bloomed like a flower against his tongue, and he felt her writhe like a serpent caught in a wolf's jaws.
At some point—likely when Toji's lips wrapped around her clit and sucked until Nadja's screams threatened to cause a power outage—Toji learned that despite Nadja's ability to shift her colors and behavior with everyone around her, there was nothing about this part of her skillset that was feigned.
That wash of slick against his mouth as his tongue stroked her clit up and down and all around? Real.
Her screams begging him for moremoremore and yesjustlikethatdon'tstop? Very, very real.
And when his thick fingers found that tender plane inside of her that made her see fireworks bursting in her own head as she came, and came, and came until she left a wet spot on his sheets? Real.
Nadja Hikmat did not feign in bed, and neither did Toji Fushiguro.
By the time Toji was done lapping up every last drop of her, her thighs were quivering in his grasp, and she was pushing at his mop of hair, begging him not to go any further. But Toji had something to prove, and so he wrung one more out of her.
"Fuck!" She shouted, back bowed off the bed, legs spread wide, and Toji nose-deep in her pussy like it was hiding a secret he so badly craved to have on his tongue.
"Mmph," he groaned, deeply pleased with his handiwork as Nadja fought the final tremors of an overstimulating climax. "That's it, baby." He pulled away from her reluctantly, finally letting her breathe.
Nadja looked up at him as he released her legs which she lowered carefully. She kept them open, though, and beckoned him with open arms.
Toji didn't even care if she was hiding her stripes anymore, and he went to her, his cock aching to fill her. Nadja moaned as he slipped the swollen tip up and down her sensitive slit, and lifted her hips, begging him to slip inside.
Toji, being an obliging man, did just that.
The room filled with their mutual groans of relief and pleasure as Toji sank eight inches into her, stretching her pretty little pussy around him. Nadja's eyes rolled back, and she bit her lip as his hips pressed against her. Toji took his time to watch her, even as he slowly pulled his hips back. Nadja's mouth dropped open and let loose a strangled sound.
"You like that, baby?" Toji asked. "Want more?"
Nadja nodded, unable to speak. Toji's dick was so damn big it was taking all of her breath not to lose her mind more than she already had.
And then he started to fuck her.
Toji's bed squeaked and groaned beneath their bodies, the headboard clacked against the wall, and he knew his neighbors would be banging on the wall for peace after a while. He didn't give a shit because right now he was stroking possibly the best pussy he'd ever been inside of aside from—
"Put your fuckin' legs up my shoulders, baby—yeah, just like that—nngh, fuck…!" He folded Nadja in half, and for the next fifteen minutes there was only the rude, erotic sound of skin meeting skin. Toji drilled his cock into her like he wanted her to taste it with each thrust.
And then he flipped her over onto all fours, giving her only a split second to brace herself before he took her from behind. He spread her thighs wide, palming the lush cheeks of her ass and spreading those two, before he leaned over and spat into her cute little asshole. He enjoyed watching her pussy stretch around his cock, the sound of her choked cries soaking the room, and when he slipped his thumb into that puckered hole, he enjoyed feeling her come again and again.
For a long while, Toji rode her hard with every intention of putting her away wet.
"Is this what you gave him?" Toji found himself growling, grasping one of her hips to the point of bruising, and listening to her incoherent moans as he spat in between her spread ass cheeks again, rubbing it along her asshole for further lubrication for his probing thumb.
There wasn't a line to cross. Whatever had kept them separate had dissolved the minute they kissed.
Toji pulled his cock out of her roughly, leaving her empty and bereft. She dropped down to her forearms, whimpering and needy before he turned her back over.
"I wanna see your fucking face when you come, baby," he said with that harsh grin that was like a slash to the throat. Nadja gazed at him with lust-bleary eyes, her hair unkempt, her dark umber skin glowing with sweat. Toji stroked his cock with his fist, and divining his desire, she scrambled onto her hands and knees, crawling toward him.
"Open," he ordered curtly, and she opened her mouth, holding out her tongue. Toji leaned down and spit in it. She moaned in response, cut short when his spit was followed by a few light taps of his cock on her tongue before he shoved it into her open mouth. "You look so fucking pretty like this."
"Fuuuuckkkk…" Toji groaned when Nadja tilted her head to allow him to slip into her throat. He felt her struggle, but only for a split second. He understood Sukuna in that moment. If this was the kind of head he was getting daily, hell, he'd be a lot nicer too.
Nadja sucked his cock with an eagerness Toji was sure could only be bought and paid for outside of this bedroom. But here she was, doing it for free and because she enjoyed it. She took as much of him into her throat as she could, fat, glittering tears pooling under her lashes before running down her cheeks, taking her eyeliner and mascara with it. Toji wanted to come on the spot from the sight alone. Then there was the drool pooling around his cock, dripping down her chin and throat, down his balls, which she sucked one after the other, and massaged when she took his shaft back into her mouth.
"Fuck, that's it," he breathed with a satisfied groan, head tipped back, his hand fisted in her hair as he guided her mouth along his cock, pushing her further and further. He wanted to test the limits of her throat, and he hadn't hit it yet.
Nadja moaned around his cock as if it were her favorite meal, as if she could spend the rest of her life being used just like this. One of her hands worked between her legs, stroking her clit, already swollen and sensitive from Toji's attentions.
"Just like that, baby…" Toji was so close he could see the bright edge of one hell of a nut, and he imagined what Nadja's beautiful face would look like painted with his come.
Nadja's hand found his balls again, and then the other joined her mouth, and she stroked him.
Toji brought his immediate fantasy to life as he grasped her hair, pulling her off his cock to stroke it furiously as it throbbed and twitched in his palm. Nadja welcomed the warm spray of his come along her cheeks, across the bridge of her nose, dripping from her lips and splattered on her tongue. A few pearlescent droplets even splashed across her breasts. Toji wished he could rewind this moment just to come all over her again.
"Fucking Christ," he groaned when he'd emptied his balls. He looked down at Nadja as he caught his breath, watched as her tongue snaked out to lick the droplets of his come that graced her swollen and pouty lips. Toji felt his breath beginning to even out and smirked at her.
"Did I pass your inspection?" Nadja asked, her voice slightly hoarse from disuse, and the bullying of Toji's massive cock in her throat. Toji laughed tiredly, ignoring the shiver down his spine as the air in the room grew cooler in the immediate aftermath.
"Fuck yeah, you do," he said. "Hell, I'll call Sukuna right now and tell him to pull me off this detail. You're a goddamn ace in my book."
Nadja laughed, crawling off the bed and heading to the bathroom. Toji followed, grinning as he palmed her ass on the way to turn on the shower. Nadja washed the mess of him off of her face as the shower grew steamy. Toji held out his hand and she took it.
"Let's see your wet work," Toji said with another one of those wolfish smirks. It was so incredibly cheesy that it startled another one of those unscripted laughs out of her and Toji counted that as a win in addition to making her come so hard she drooled a little.
Well, Toji hadn't been entirely wrong: her body was in and of itself a skillset. One that when employed in just the right way, could make even the most skeptical of lovers believe in the lie of transparency. The trick was that nothing Nadja did in bed was feigned. She simply saw it as another card to add to her deck. How that card was played, depended on her goal. A little truth seasoned the lie like salt.
The following week, Nadja was briefed on an upcoming mission, and she was slated to work it solo.
Sukuna proposed to Nadja one cold winter night while they were enjoying a private dinner in his penthouse.
She had been running in yolk with his Wolves for almost two years and acquitted herself well with each assignment. Highly competent, and after two years of observation, highly trustworthy. They'd danced around one another for a time, and Sukuna had been slow to trust Nadja again, but the attraction between them felt as sure and inevitable as gravity. Eventually, they had to talk, and of course they did, in their way.
Sukuna counted the resulting furniture damage worth it.
Now, however, as they ate a sumptuous full course sushi meal provided by the world class chef he'd hired, everything seemed almost like before; before he woke up that morning with her blade at his throat and that sharp predatory glimmer in her dark eyes.
The only difference is now he saw that glimmer all the time, and when the illusion of the innocent maiden faded, he accepted the tiger for what she was…because he was a monster too.
Outside, the panoramic view of Tokyo glittered like a carpet of preternatural jewels. They were so high up Nadja could barely see the taillights of the cars in the streets. Idly, Nadja rested her chin on her fist, watching Tokyo as if the answers to all of her questions could be divined in the neon entrails spread before her.
"You're awfully pensive tonight," Sukuna said, amusement coloring his tone. Nadja's brows went up, and she blinked like a waking dreamer, coming to life as if Medusa's spell had come undone. It never ceased to amaze Sukuna how Nadja moved as no woman should have been able to and still remind him of a lioness peering at him from over the drinking pool.
Well, lioness, meet tiger.
"Offering me a penny for my thoughts?" She asked him, equally amused as she regarded her empty plate. Sukuna loved that Nadja was as enthusiastic about food as he was. She had a prodigious appetite in so many things. He'd never met anyone with so much ardent passion bubbling like magma beneath such a cool exterior.
"I'll offer you the entire world for your thoughts, you know that," Sukuna countered. "But I want you to give them to me freely."
Nadja regarded him quietly for a moment, as if she were studying him. Sukuna gazed back, unblinking and unflinching. He was not a man easily riled, and over the course of the last year he had grown accustomed to the deadly woman before him. His passion and love for her may have carved a river ribbon into his soul, but it was still his soul, after all.
"What do you want from me?" Nadja's voice was so quiet, Sukuna almost didn't hear her. But he had, and it was his turn to be still. Nadja waited, and he understood that she was serious. She wanted to know what he wanted from her, but he knew what she was really asking.
"You pledged your skills to me, Nadja," Sukuna said thoughtfully. "And I told you I couldn't kill you because I found them valuable. Anything more than that was a bonus from which we both stood to gain."
"And is my body included in that skillset, Sukuna?" She asked, and Sukuna's brow furrowed slightly at the edge in her tone. He'd never heard Nadja question him like this, and certainly not on the nature of how he employed her skills for his organization's benefit. There were few lines Nadja would not cross, and Sukuna had requested and born witness to some truly dark deeds at her hands on his orders.
But what she was asking is if she belonged to him as much as her skills.
"I meant what I said when you joined," Sukuna said. "You'll be free. That includes taking to bed anyone you please."
Nadja's brows raised in quiet surprise at that, and Sukuna grinned.
"Did you think I was blind, Nadja?" He asked with an amused chuckle. "I know you and Toji have wanted a taste of each other since you first walked into my office and gave yourself to me. I also know how fast you work. So…how was he? I hear he likes to play rough and nasty. Not all his partners like it, but the ones who like it, love it. And I just happen to know that you're the latter."
Nadja was so stunned that for a moment she simply couldn't speak. She had expected many reactions from him regarding her tryst with Toji, but none of them involved him being as relaxed and candid about it as he was being, now. And it seemed Toji was such a hound that Sukuna was intimately familiar with how he liked to play in bed.
"Well, shit!" Sukuna exclaimed in a rare moment of unfettered excitement. "I finally managed to stump that pretty, complicated brain of yours! You've never been quiet this long!"
Nadja stared at him and blinked several times, as if she were trying to shake off the last vestiges of a bad dream.
"You are taking this awfully well," Nadja observed quietly. Sukuna gave her one of his customary smirks.
"How else would you like me to take it, my dear? I never expected you to remain faithful to me, and Toji's a good-looking man that I trust. I knew he'd treat you right."
Nadja's brows furrowed, slightly confused.
"However," Sukuna said and laughed when Nadja tensed. "Relax, I'm not going to berate you or cast you out like some cheating spouse in a drama. I have a proposition for you, actually."
Nadja had the decency to at least look suspicious. She inclined her head, inviting him to continue. Sukuna poured himself sake, threw it back, and licked his lips.
"If you want to continue seeing Toji, I won't stop you of course," Sukuna said easily. "I trust him, and I've come to trust you. However, in order for this to work, I need you to be mine in truth."
Nadja frowned. "What?" She asked, and there was that dangerous edge to her voice again. Sukuna grinned.
"Marry me, Nadja," Sukuna said, and watched her eyes grow wide. "I can't rule this little kingdom alone, and if I'm gonna keep you and Toji, then I need you to be able to—"
"You want spousal confidentiality privileges," Nadja interrupted. Sukuna raised her brows. He truly hadn't thought of that particular implication. And when he realized why she had, he pinched the bridge of his nose. How could he be botching his own proposal like this?
"Damnit," he growled. "It's not that, Nadja. It's just…I want you by my side. I want to marry you, and maybe even have a couple of brats of our own one day."
Nadja's eyes were wide, and Sukuna feared he truly had broken her.
"Fuck," he laughed. "At least say something! Toji said this shit wouldn't work on you."
Nadja stood up abruptly, so abrupt that Sukuna sucked in a breath. Was she angry? What was going on?
"I don't understand," Nadja said. "You say you're fine with me and Toji being together, yet you're insistent that you and I get married. Why? What changes?"
Sukuna stared at her in slightly stunned silence. Then, like a bloodstain, a smile slowly spread across his face. Nadja thought this must be what it was like to smile in the face of the Devil himself. Sukuna smiled and then began to laugh. It was a crazed, manic laugh that chilled his enemies to the marrow, reminiscent of bygone days when he was a whip-thin youth eager to get his hands bloody and knowing himself capable of doing so.
"Oh," he said as his laughter subsided. "You're precious. Yes, you may fuck and date and love Toji to your heart's content. You can fuck his friend Shiu too if it pleases you. I don't care how many lovers you take, Nadja, only that I'm the only one whom you call husband."
Nadja placed her hands on her hips.
"And this applies to you, as well? You can fuck and love whomever you like…and I'm the only one you call wife, correct?"
Sukuna dipped his head in a duelist's nod. "I would have no one else, beloved. Sex is sex, and love is love, but you're worthy of the devotion of a husband. And, if I'm not mistaken, you were not opposed to the idea once upon a time."
Nadja's mouth opened and then closed shut abruptly with an audible click. Sukuna gave her a smug grin that he was able to shut her up and stun her without having to fuck her. Twice in a row, now.
"And can I trust you to adhere to this?" Nadja asked him. "If I say yes, you won't turn me into a miserable wife while you become a negligent husband, right?"
Sukuna spread his hands, sleeves rolled up, and Nadja tried to ignore how much she enjoyed the sight of those thick, corded forearms, the thick bands of ink around his wrists…his strong hands.
"I can promise you my tomorrow, if you'd like," he said with that devilish grin that made Nadja's heart turn to water in her chest, drowning her.
"I don't want just your tomorrows, Sukuna," Nadja said irritably. Sukuna closed the distance between them.
"Yeah?" He asked before he looped his arms around her waist to pull her closer. "How about for as long as you'll have me, then? I just want you to be mine no matter where you are, how far, or for how long."
Nadja hesitated, blinking up at him as he cupped her head with his large hand. Why did those words feel so familiar? She felt as if she'd heard them before, like some sort of dream long buried, now excavated. She blinked slowly, looking up at him again.
"Okay," she breathed. "Yes. For as long as we'll have each other, then."
Sukuna leaned down, devouring her mouth with his own. For a long while, they simply kissed, lost in the moment they both decided that forever was good enough for them.
No matter how far, or for how long.