𝐓𝐇𝐄𝐑𝐀𝐏𝐘 | sasuke uchiha

十六

"She took you to see Teyaki?" [Name] groaned as she flopped onto the bed beside Sasuke, shielding her eyes with her forearms.

"Yes! Look, she even gave me a stack of designs and told me to choose one!" Sasuke leaned over [Name] to reach for the papers lying on the bedside table, eyebrow raised.

"Did she ask you if you wanted to design your own?" asked an amused Sasuke, filing through the papers. His back was turned to [Name], and she sat up, remembering what she had wanted to do.

"Show me yours!" she insisted, leaning towards the Uchiha and reaching for the hem of his shirt. He looked over his shoulder at her, a smirk on his face. [Name], whose fingers were still intertwined with the fabric of his shirt, faintly blushed as she realised what she looked like.

"I-I wasn't-" she spluttered. Sasuke smirked and shrugged her off, beginning to remove his shirt.

"Sure you weren't," he said sarcastically. As soon as his shirt was off, [Name] was greeted by the sight of a vibrant, twisting koi fish sprawled across his back, with the kanji for strength, perseverance, courage, pain, and honour adorning the background. Her jaw dropped.

"How... I... did... it hurt?" she squeaked, reaching forward and tracing over the design with her finger. Sasuke felt himself shiver at her touch, then shook the feeling away with a scowl.

"Of course not," he said briskly, sneering at her over his shoulder. [Name]'s eyes were still wide as she soaked it in, and shook her head, shuddering.

"It's just not for me," she shivered, withdrawing her hands from Sasuke's skin. He pulled his shirt back over his head, glancing at [Name] as he did so.

"What, the design? Of course not- it was made for me," he scoffed, rolling his eyes as if he expected [Name] to know. She scowled at him.

"No, I meant the tattoo in general, dummy," she retorted, childishly poking her tongue out at him. Sasuke rolled his eyes, getting under the covers of their shared bed.

"Well, good luck telling my mother that," he sang, snuggling into his pillow. "If you're going to be her first daughter-in-law, she's obviously going to want you to go through the clan tradition and shit." [Name] frowned, and turned off the bedside lamp, putting the stack of designs beside it. She too got into bed, and lay facing the same direction as Sasuke.

"I still don't understand why I'm here," she admitted, talking to his back. "I know I was supposed to serve out my punishments and stuff, but this whole marriage thing was just... just a huge curveball, you know?"

"Tch." [Name] rolled her eyes.

"You know, Sasuke, it'd be nice if you and your family gave me better excuses for their actions rather than threaten those close to me," she said, a hint of slight anger in her voice. Sasuke sighed, and rolled over so that he and [Name] were face to face.

"[Name]. I swear, after you finished your time here, I was going to send you back. All I wanted was to teach you a lesson," he said dully. "Quite frankly, I'm not even sure why mother arranged this thing. I don't even know why she doesn't get Itachi married off first."

"Maybe because Itachi's a responsible adult who can control his actions and face the consequences?" suggested [Name] lightly, making Sasuke reach out and flick her in the forehead. "Ouch!"

"Haha, very funny." [Name] rolled over onto her back so that she was staring up at the canopy of Sasuke's bed, thoughts running wildly through her mind.

"Can you believe we're getting married?" she asked in an amused tone. "It's kinda like- we don't even like each other and this is all happening. Woaaaaaaah."

"I don't know, I'm pretty sure you like me." [Name] rolled her eyes.

"You threatened my family, tortured me for weeks, and kept me captive. Hmm, yeah, I'm pretty sure I like you," said [Name] sarcastically in a bitter tone. Sasuke felt something well up inside of him, before shaking it off. For once, he was truly speechless. [Name] sighed, and turned her back on the Uchiha.

"Good night, Sasuke," [Name] said in a dreary voice, closing her eyes. Sasuke didn't reply; instead, he chose to stare at [Name]'s back for who knows how long, right up until he began drifting off to sleep.