04 - three's a crowd
MAKI WAS WAITING FOR YOU AT the gate with a hat and glasses in hand, "Just in case guards see you." she sets the hat on your head and fixes your hair delicately. "You seem nervous," she states in your silence.
You take a second to breathe and put the sunglasses on that managed to cover half of your face. "I am nervous... I get the sense he doesn't like to be tested." you look back at Toji's mansion. "Are you sure your friend can pretend to be me while we're gone?" you ask.
Maki puts an arm around your shoulders and begins walking to her driver's blacked-out expedition, "Don't worry your pretty head about that, we have to meet some of my friends and then we're going to show you what this town really offers." she wiggles her eyebrows and opens the door, motioning for you to go in first.
You stay frozen in your spot for two seconds but instead of backing out, you get into the car and place your trust in someone you met yesterday.
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It was a short drive to town and you took the time to look around your surroundings. Toji's side wasn't as nice as your father's but more lively which surprised you. The car stopped at a restaurant and you quickly got out first then Maki. You kept your head down and followed without asking questions.
"Maki!" a boy runs up and tackles her into a hug.
"Yuji," Maki smiles and returns the hug, "This is y/n.. my cousin's wife?" she says in a questioning tone. "She married Toji," she whispers in his ear and you see Yuji's eyes almost pop out of his head.
"You?" he points, and you nod in response, wanting to question him more on why that's so surprising, but two more people walk up and greet Maki. A girl with light brown hair in a light pink mini skirt channel set and a boy that looks exactly like Yuji, just with tattoos everywhere and black mixed in with his pink hair. Yuji's evil twin almost.
"y/n, this is Nobara and Yuji's twin, Sukuna."
Nobara was the first to greet you with a hug and you get a whiff of Channel no. 5, classy girl. "Nice to meet you."
"Likewise, cute hat." she winks before her phone rings and she excuses herself to take it. You look at Yuji and Maki still discussing your marriage with Toji, but Maki wouldn't know anything, it was constructed in less than twenty-four hours. Your vision of them gets blocked by someone and your eyes look up to meet Sukuna's dark ones.
You don't say anything and are ready to ignore him until you hear his voice, "What's up with the sunglasses and hat? You an undercover cop or something?" he asks.
A scoff leaves your lips at his thinking, but you make a noise of agreement, "Do you have something illegal or an unauthorized weapon on you?"
Sukuna pats his pants as if checking, "Yeah but you'll have to get down on your knees to get it." he smiles at you before putting a lollipop in his mouth to which you roll your eyes, not that he could see.
"If only men being pigs were a crime, we'd all be happy lesbians," you say before walking to Maki. You hear footsteps following you, an arm is around your shoulders. Before you can shrug Sukuna's arm off, Maki does it for you.
"No touching, unless you want this hand to be in one of Toji's trophy cases."
Sukuna rolls his eyes, "Why would Toji care?"
"y/n is his wife, dumbass." Yuji slaps his twin's head, "He'll fucking kill you."
You look at Sukuna and he seems unfazed and scratches the back of his head and looks at you, "You married Toji?"
You sighed, "Yes, now let's stop talking about my marriage and get me a drink, please." the more you talked about Toji the more you felt he was near like you were summoning him or some shit.
Maki cheers at your suggestion, "That's what I wanted to hear, I know a place open this early." she leads the way happily and everyone follows. You walk behind Nobara and Maki when Sukuna begins to walk next to you.
"So you're not an undercover cop."
"Nope, just married," you say, your thumb rubbing against your ring as a constant reminder.
"What did he do to you?" Sukuna asks, "Are you in trouble?"
You gasp and look up at Sukuna, "Why would you ask something like that? Just because I married Toji? I mean yeah he's a fucking monster but I'm still alive, aren't I?"
"Do you love him?" Sukuna asks and you don't answer. Thankfully you had made it to the restaurant, ending the conversation there.
You make sure to sit between Maki and Nobara to avoid Sukuna's weird questioning. Maki orders mimosas for the table and you eat a stack of pancakes with fruit. Toward the end of the meal, Yuji tells funny stories about the group, and just when you begin to relax, Toji walks in.
"Get down." Maki pushes you under the table and you instantly feel as if your breakfast is about to come up. If Toji found you here, he wouldn't do anything right now but in private.. you weren't ready to find out what that consisted of.
You could only hear muffled talking above the table and a second later, Sukuna's head pops under. "What?" you ask in a whisper.
"Come on, I'm getting you out of here." he reaches a hand for you and you slowly take it. "We're going to exit through the back while they pay for the bill."
You follow Sukuna's lead, crouching down and walking towards the kitchen. You should hear Toji speaking faintly and a sound of a woman laughing which makes you frown and stop to look at who he was with. You knew you shouldn't care as he's obviously stated that this 'marriage' was one-sided but that didn't stop you from seeing the beautiful woman that was seated across from your husband.
They were both looking down at the menu and before you could see any more, Sukuna pulled you to continue your escape. "Well, they looked cozy..." Sukuna comments and you give him a glare which obviously doesn't make him feel threatened at all since he gives you a smile back. "Just stating the obvious babe."
You were finally in the kitchen and could stand up straight to walk. "One, I'm not your babe, and two, just because that happened doesn't mean this will." you gesture between you and Sukuna.
Sukuna raises his hands up in surrender, "I'm only trying to be a shoulder to cry on, a friend even."
He opens the door for you to leave, and you two wait for the rest in the parking lot, "Friends don't tell other friends to get on their knees."
"Fine, fine." Sukuna mumbles and walks up to you, "Can we start over?" he asks, raising a hand. "I'm Sukuna."
You look at his hand and then back at him, wondering if he was serious about starting over to be friends. Could Sukuna really be a friend? You let a sigh out and reach up to take off the sunglasses to allow you two to make eye contact. Sukuna's eyes take you in full, now being able to see your face. "You should've taken off the sunglasses before I said I would be just a friend," he mumbles jokingly and you let out a laugh.
"Nice to meet you Sukuna, I'm y/n." you shake his hand and put the sunglasses back on, "Thanks for being a friend."
Sukuna gives a sigh, "Just know, I can treat you better than that old man."
Could you save me from being practically sold into a sham of a marriage?
"I'm sure you can," you say amusingly as Maki and the rest finally walk out of the restaurant. "Did he see you?" you ask nervously.
"No, of course not, he can barely read under dim light." Maki jokes and you feel yourself loosen up now knowing that Maki is unseen. "Now come on, we must move on to our next stop." she hooks her arm through yours and begins to walk down an alley where a man stood outside a rusty door, he had his dark black hair in two messy buns and eyes that say he doesn't sleep for more than four hours a night.
"Choso, you made it." Maki smiles at Choso who grunts in response. "y/n this is Choso, I'm sure Toji told him about you. Choso works for Toji but even sometimes he hates him enough to help me, he'll tell us if the old man is here."
You look at Choso and offer a smile, he doesn't give one back but opens the door to let the group into the mystery location. Walking further into the space you hear music and the bass traveling through you. Maki hold your hand to make sure you don't lose her.
She stops at a hidden elevator and reaches under her shirt to get a key to unlock the elevator doors. You were apprehensive to get on as you didn't want to die but you trusted Maki. In the elevator, she shuts the doors, locks them with the same key, and presses the number five on the number pad.
"Where are we?" you ask when her friends are in their own conversation.
"This is Toji's club, he has rooms where guests can... entertain willing participants, but he gave one room to me.. not to do that shit but a place where I can get away." she opens the door when hearing a ding and you see a half an art studio and the other half has couches in front of a projector screen.
All her friends go to the couch and start up her Wii to play Mario Kart while you continue to look at her art. "Wow Maki, you have real talent." you stop in front of a self-portrait of Maki through the lens of a kaleidoscope.
She laughs a little and looks at her own art, then simply shrugs. "I've only taken one class and I've seen better."
You frown at her dodging a compliment she very well deserved. "Well, I've never seen something like this... so alive." you lean against the island counter covered in paint and rough draft sketches. In the corner, you see a large canvas covered by a white sheet that has spots of black and blue smeared on it. "What's behind that one?" you point.
Maki straightens up and begins to clean the brushes that were left in the stained sink, "An unfinished piece, you can see it only after it's completed and when the time is right."
Now you were more than curious to know what was painted on that canvas to have Maki so secretive. You let it go and join everyone on the couch to play the game.
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It was around half an hour until Toji got home when Maki snuck you back into your room via a ladder up to the window. Her friend was gone and you felt relieved since it was one less thing to worry about. You shiver the glasses and sweater under your bed and change into pajamas since you are tired from your day out.
Just as you sit on you were about to spread out on your bed, a knock is at the door. For a second you think it's Toji but you were more relieved to only see Aya. "Mister Zenin will be here shortly, will you be joining him for dinner at the table?" she asks while setting down a pile of freshly washed towels.
Your stomach turns at the thought of Toji since all you could remember was the last time you saw him, with that woman. "No," you say, "I don't think I will, can I have my food sent up here?"
Aya only gives a nod in response, "I'll bring it as soon as I can."
Once she leaves you lay on your bed and finally close your eyes, only to be interrupted by another soft knock a few minutes later.
"Mister Zenin would like you to join him at the table." Aya's voice comes through the door, making your eyes open at his request. "And he wanted me to relay a message, five minutes or he'll be here to get you himself."
"Of course," you whisper to yourself, sitting up and fixing your hair. "I'll be there," you tell Aya and contemplate if a change of clothes was necessary to have dinner with this man, not that you cared about what he thinks... Right?
Right.
You frown at your hesitation in answering yourself and that decides it, pajamas. With every step you take down to the dining room, more sweat gathered in your palm at the thought that he would mention seeing you in the restaurant with Maki and her friends. Despite your nervousness, you put on a neutral face and remember to deny, deny until you die.
Just as you thought you had it under control, you began to worry. What if Maki was in on it? Would she really set me up against someone like him on purpose? We just got married! He doesn't really care about me and she doesn't know that!
At the bottom of the stairs, you take a second to let your stomach settle just as the front door opens. Toji. You try not to seem surprised and meet his eyes when he greets you. "Are you a witch or something?" he asks casually while shrugging off his suit jacket. Aya comes out immediately with two glasses, one martini, and one glass of what was probably whiskey. Of course, Toji gets his first before she hurries to give you one with a sweet smile.
You look down at the glass, not knowing if this would cause you to wake up chained to a bed like promised. You look up in time to see Toji downing his drink, throat muscles tensing which made you immediately look anywhere else. "Sadly I wasn't sent here to get a lock of your hair to use in a ritual, just that desperate." you mutter the last part so he can't hear before raising your voice to ask, "Why?"
He shrugs and sets down his glass to unbutton his dress shirt sleeves to roll them up. "I was thinking today that your father may have made you place a curse on me," he says and you don't know what to feel since he just called you a witch, but you then remember him once using temptress as an adjective to describe you. He walks closer to you and lifts your chin to make your eyes meet his. "just had to make sure. Let's eat."
"All I heard is that you thought about your wife all day," you say jokingly beginning to walk through the corridor Toji was walking behind you, and that made you nervous again, back to the enemy. "So you would say that your day was pretty bad then? Sorry to hear," you say and make sure to turn around and smile at him.
A chuckle leaves his lips and he shakes his head, "Not at all. I met a friend and they cheered me up." Immediately you think of the woman he was with that morning, but you bit your tongue from telling on yourself and said nothing at all.
At the table like usual, you and Toji eat in silence only the occasional clink from the fork and plate. You kept your eyes on the water drops that were forming on the outside of your glass. "How was your day?" he asks while cutting into his steak.
"Good," you say, keeping it short for obvious reasons.
Toji frowns at that, "Just good?"
You pretend to think about it, "Actually, I'll change my answer to subpar." you shrug carelessly before leaning on your hand and looking up at Toji for the first time since sitting down. There's something in his eyes you couldn't read and that made you back on edge. "How was your day? I'm glad someone fixed the sour mood." you busy your hand by stirring the straw in your glass and remind yourself to breathe correctly.
"Me too, some people just know exactly what to do." he finishes his second drink and leans back in his chair, keeping the eye contact that had you ready to confess but you swallow that word vomit. "Aya keeps me updated on you, you know that right, Koneko?"
You want to roll your eyes at the use of that ridiculous nickname but refrain. You clear your throat and shake your head, "I didn't.. but nice to know." you don't freak out as you suspected that is what he expected you to do. Now you wonder if Aya was able to figure out that whoever was in your room all day wasn't you.
"Tomorrow you will not spend all day in your room, Nanami will be ready tomorrow morning to begin your training," Toji informs you while Aya comes out to clear the plates. She picks up Toji's empty plate and then reaches for yours that was about half finished before Toji stops her. "She's not done."
You put the fork down and scoot the plate away, "Actually, I am." you tell Aya with a smile and then drop it when looking at your husband, "Training? Please don't tell me you're involved with an underground women's fight club or something." you didn't sign up to be trained in any sense.
Toji lets out another chuckle, dark and humorless. "I think we all know you're a lover rather than a fighter, Koneko, but I need to know that you can at least protect yourself."
"The only one I need to protect myself from is you."
Toji raises his eyebrows, "If that's how you feel, then we should have no issues, see it as motivation even." he gives you a wink just as Aya sets down another glass of whiskey. Toji stands up first, grabbing a hold of the glass by the top. "Ten am, meet Nanami in the gym for your first session," he tells you, not even hiding his smile from the confused look on your face.
You don't answer since it wasn't a question and watch as he leaves the dining room, only stopping briefly to say, "Koneko, you may think you need protection from me, but one day you will know the truth, and when that day comes, trust that I will be the one you run to first. Again."
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