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I no longer feel my fingers. The cold wind whips around me in cold strokes while snow blankets the ground. I can barely shuffle through the snow on the mountaintop. Frost coats my cheeks and the inside of my mouth. I bite down on the meat of my tongue, but I can’t feel it. I fight to keep my eyes open; my eyelashes keep trying to freeze together.
I can barely see the ridge of the castle above me, on top of the mountain. I’ve been trudging through this snow for what feels like ages, and I’m starting to feel it - or rather not. I squint. For some reason, I stop moving, and it takes me a long moment to realize that I’ve fallen to my knees.
I fight to rise. I stumble again, and this time collapse. I hear distant voices, hallucinations I think must be of my own making. Then, there are brands of warmth all around me, tugging at my limbs and turning me onto my back. Confused and delirious, I lash out; a ghost man gasps, swears, but even hotter brands wrap around my body and pull me into an inferno.
“Don’t struggle, sweet.”
The words flow into my blood, and I gasp. I force myself to look up at the delusion, and see a pair of glowing, pink eyes staring down at me. My own eyes roll back - and so does my head, as I black out from the cold and heat mingling inside of me.
***
I’m not outdoors. Instead, I’m surrounded by heat, with some kind of blanket wrapped around me and warm bricks stacked up at my sides. Sweat pours down my brow, but the stones are being removed, at least, and the cool air makes me moan. I can barely move onto my back to catch my breath. My head is still pounding, but a soothing hand comes over my brow, and I relax. I don’t know where I am, and I don’t care. I just keep my eyes closed, accepting my place among heaven.
“Shhh, don’t move,” a voice comes to me, and it swirls into my blood again. The raw sexuality coils into me, and I arch; a hand pushes me back down, and I squirm against it. Tickling coils of hair brush against my face, and that voice whispers into my ear again. “Relax, sweetheart. Sleep, and awaken when you’re feeling better. Then we’ll talk.”
My head swims, and I go limp once more, falling into slumber.
***
When I finally awake again, I recognize the feeling of a cot beneath me, and the warmth of a haori over my form. There’s warmth in the air too - a room. I’m out of the cold. A feeling of safety washes over me, and I rub my face into the pillow under my head. I pull the haori further around me, and take a moment to try and anchor myself before fighting to sit up.
My joints are all stiff, complaining in the ways of pain, but at least I can move at all. I’m vaguely surprised that I’m alive, even. I’m in a small room, well-furnished, with a small kotatsu in the center of the room. Sitting there, topless, with just hakama on, is a pale man with obsidian hair that glows oddly red in the light. He sits with a cup of something warm, something that smells delicious. I lean closer, trying to get a sense of what it might be - and then he notices me, and turns to face me. It’s the man with the glowing eyes, and my heart leaps into my throat.
“You’re awake,” He says. “You shouldn’t get up yet. You nearly died, you know. You’re probably all stiff, poor thing.”
His words are doing strange things to my head, making me want to throw myself at him and, at the same time, retract. Like the words he spoke carried some immense power. But I had heard of this, and I know what it means. I fight through the molasses of my mind and ask, “I’ve made it to Akuma castle?”
He chuckles. Again, my heart throws itself against the inner cage of my ribs, but I manage to control myself. Still, he smiles at me. “Yes, you have. My name is Vox Akuma. And you are?”
“I . . .” I look down as everything swarms back to memory. “I was . . . a Tanaka,” I whisper. “My village was decimated - burnt down and sundered.”
“By Tokugawa’s men?”
“Yes,” I close my eyes and take a breath. “I’m . . . I’m the last of my clan. There were hundreds of us - and now there’s just me.”
“A harsh burden to carry. Hey,” I hear movement on the tatami, and his fingers come under my chin to lift my face to his. Those eyes burn with passion, anger - but not at me, at least not the fury. After a moment of staring into his eyes, I feel his hand lift and brush at my long hair.
“So young to face such tragedy,” he whispers. I gulp.
“I’m twenty-six, milord.”
“Twenty-six. Still too young yet. I am so sorry for your loss,” he says, and I can hear the sincerity in his voice, the new pain in his eyes. “For what it’s worth - once we can confirm your story - you are welcome to stay here.”
“That is- that is what I hoped,” I answer. “I heard that this place, Akuma castle, took in the unwanted and the abandoned. Those who had no place else to go.”
“We do,” he confirms. “We take in people like you. Though you must be prepared to work,” he adds with a raised brow. “May I ask of your skills?”
“Housework of any kind. And my family were farmers,” I say. “Though much to my parents’ distress, I am unable to bear any children - nor do I want to.”
“Bear children?” his brows draw. “Now that I think about it - you had been wearing a layer of bandages over your chest when you had come in.”
“I’m more attuned to masculine roles, milord,” I admit, before realizing what he meant by ‘had’ - he’d stripped me of my clothes, and the bandages. I wince and pull the haori more fully around me. “I’m sorry if that is upsetti-”
“No, it would never be upsetting. As I said, we take in many here, including the outcasts,” his eyes drop to where my chest was, then lower yet, before flickering up to my face again. I flinch at the scrutinization. “Those bandages may have saved you the few minutes it took for my men and I to find you. An extra layer of warmth, I assume.”
“How did you find me?”
“My men and I saw you from the precipice of one of my towers, and ran out to collect you.”
“You were there . . . I remember,” I bite my lower lip. “Why come out yourself, just for me?”
“The cold does not affect me,” he says as he waves it off. “But this all can wait. Once you are feeling better, I want to treat you to a small feast. So you may recover swiftly.”
“Right,” I breathe. I’m beginning to feel bare, exposed. All I have, after all, is his haori. I shut my eyes and squirm, hoping he doesn’t notice. Of course, he does. After a moment’s pause, I feel arms around me, and he pulls me into his lap.
I sigh, and nuzzle my face into the nap of his neck, barely cognizant of what I’m doing. His voice is bouncing around in my head, and the warmth of his body is more than enough to make me want to stay forever. I hear his chuckle, and one of his hands comes up to brush at my hair again.
“You know,” he murmurs, “If you cannot bear children . . . there is another role you could fill.”
“Anything,” I sigh into his shoulder.
“You could be my concubine. A courtesan.” I hum, allowing him to continue. “You’d be in direct contact with me most days, and fill any needs I might have. And, in turn, you would be well taken care of. I am not one to deny a courtesan anything when they serve me.”
The thought is appealing. To be loved, kept warm, kept at the side of a demon (even if as only a pet) - even though I know his voice is influencing me, I still can’t help myself. I tuck my face further into his neck and sigh, almost moan. “Your words make my head spin, my lord . . .”
“You don’t have to answer immediately; there are plenty of options for you among my clan. Enjoy the feast, and- ah,” I interrupt him and kiss his neck. I only take his silence as permission to continue (though I realize how risky that is, given he’s a yokai). I continue kissing at the same spot, even baring teeth to tug and suck at the skin - and then the world flips, and I’m on my back against the tatami bed, and he’s kneeling above me.
The view - those pink, glowing eyes - enrapture me. I lick my lips and murmur.
“What if I want a taste of what courtesan life would be like before I make up my mind, my lord?”
He smiles above me. Not predatory, like I would expect from a demon - just certain, amused, and just a touch loving.
That’s all I get, the mere scrap of an idea that he might be right, before we’re kissing, and the warmth finally settles back into my bones.