Arranged Marriage

YOUR Destiny

Katakuri's only been holding you for a minute and you already feel uncomfortable. Yesterday, you would have relished in his touch. Now? You have absolutely no idea how to feel about this man. For all intents and purposes, he's a stranger. A stranger who basically proposed to you.. And then he... well.. You know. You hardly know him. But if actions speak louder than words.. well his family just slaughtered yours! So what if your family wasn't exactly faultless. It was still your family and it was all you had. Is anyone ever really faultless? You killed a boy and you consider yourself to be a kind person. No one deserves to die. You think about your brother... okay, no one deserves to die, BUT a lot of them could be sent to prison forever to think about how horrible they are. And yet kind people, like you, who try to be good are the ones who get locked away in towers and beaten. Nothing makes any sense! Why is the world so unfair? Was there anything you could ever do to make it more fair? You doubted it.. You were just one person. You weren't strong enough to get yourself out of trouble let alone everyone else. Katakuri was strong enough to make a difference, but he didn't.

"Why don't you DO anything?" You ask him. Then you realize he wasn't a mind-reader and your current thoughts weren't being broadcasted for all to see. "What do you want me to do?" He asks. "Why won't you help people? You could have easily made the decision to save innocent lives. But you didn't," you tell him. "I do help people. But apparently not in a way that's good enough for you," he teases. "I'm being serious! There were children on the island! Innocent children! You could have easily saved them!" You pull your arms out of the blankets so you can cross them. "I was here, protecting you. It was Oven's call, and he always follows Mama's orders to the letter. You act like it's always an easy call. None of it's easy." You glare at him, "they were CHILDREN, sounds like an easy call to me!"

"We frequently take people in. That's why our territory is so big. But only under the right circumstances." He tells you. "But you'll never know! They never got the chance. Because they're gone! You can't justify killing like that!" You're not letting this go. There are clear morals at play here, what's right and what's wrong. He's wrong. That's why you can't stay here. "You've never had a family to protect," he says. "I need a bath," you tell him. Not just because you needed one-you made a mess of yourself just, or rather, he made a mess of you... But also because you were in his arms and needed a way out. Somehow, you don't feel that same hot rage that you had a minute ago. Maybe because the argument was useless. Katakuri wasn't going to change. None of the Charlottes would. Now all you felt was a dull but bitter emotion of lost trust and hopelessness.

Whatever he just did under the blankets, 'treasuring' you, was way different from anything you expected could or would happen. Not that you knew what to expect other than what your brother said will happen, which... didn't happen? If he were the horrible person you made him out to be, Katakuri would have forced himself on you. He didn't. It was surprising. He was surprising. He cared about you. But that didn't make him any less of a monster. Could you hate someone and still do THAT 'stuff' with them? You knew The Charlotte Family was like this. You knew the kinds of things they did to earn their status. You read all about it in the newspapers before you arrived at Whole Cake Island. It just felt so real when it actually happened to you. Like it wasn't just a story. You were tired of being in a cage. Even if this was a nicer cage, it was still a cage.

Did truly nice people really exist? You'd like to think of the people on your island as innocents. But they weren't. They were kind to each other but not at all nice to you. They'd even attempted to assassinate you multiple times for being a witch. Katakuri was right about one thing, they wouldn't have lived happily here. Not in a land controlled by Devil Fruit users.

"I could start the bath for you, or, I can wash you myself in the shower?" Katakuri offered. "No thank you, just a bath." You say firmly, laying down your boundaries. Katakuri nuzzles into the back of your neck, "Can I kiss your neck?" You pout and turn your head, "no," you say stubbornly, but you do like that he asked and didn't just do it. "I'll earn your trust," he tells you. You doubt that, but you'd let him believe that he had the chance. You'd never tell him your mind was already made up. You were leaving with Cherri.