Until the Last Petal Falls [Sakazuki x Fem!Reader]

24

Art by @mifunenco on twitter

I'm still unsure about how this chapter turned out... I don't think I'll be trying another Akainu POV for a while. The dude is triiicky -_-

I hope I got across some of my headcanons for his personality *worried face*

Enjoy!

Akainu splashed some water on his face and dried it with one of the neatly folded towels piled on the counter.

The muffled beat of the music pounded on the bathroom door, but thankfully was not granted entrance. There was no one else in here, so Akainu let himself linger in the relative quiet. He should have known where his thoughts would run to the moment he relaxed his hold on them.

He met the eye of the man in the mirror. Rough edges and sharp angles, adequately handsome features dulled by a frown he couldn't seem to lift, a glare that frightened off all but the most foolhardy of people.

You were anything but foolhardy...

Akainu shifted his attention to his hands, and he carefully pulled his gloves back on. The action was more habit than necessity. He'd long honed his control over his devil fruit far beyond the point of needing the heat stifling material as a barrier between him and the world.

No... that wasn't completely true anymore. The downturned corners of his mouth plunged further as the memory rose unbidden in his mind. The fact that magma began to stir in his stomach did not escape him.

He had discovered what torment truly was that day. With the screams of the Revolutionaries still ringing in his ears and the smell of charred flesh lingering in his nose.

He still couldn't decide if he cursed or thanked the fluke that had caused you to fall.

To have you there. Under his arm. Pressed against him. The curves of your body a perfect fit to the hard edges of his own.

He had not expected himself to react in such a way. He had become accustomed to the ache that had been growing in his chest over the years. He had thought it would be easy to continue to ignore these pointless feelings. To savour their sweetness in the moment, and to forget them just as quickly.

It had hit him like a physical blow. A cannonball to the stomach. It had taken all his focus to simply contain the devil within himself. To ignore the lingering imprint of your body along his. To keep his hands from pulling you to him once again.

Shameful. How could he lose control in such a way? His only saving grace was that he'd managed to keep his outward expressions calm. An ability that had always come naturally to him, and disturbed others.

And then you had gone and thanked him for drying your clothes.

The tilt of your head. That smile. Those lips...

"Enough."

The sound of his own voice served to anchor his thoughts back into the present. The red swirls shifting under his skin slowly faded away.

Pathetic. To let one woman have such an effect on him. Truly pathetic.

One woman... Your image rose unbidden in his mind. The subtle tilt of your body as you leaned toward Vice Admiral Momousagi, chuckling at some joke or other.

Akainu shook his head.

Though he enjoyed the distraction from the noise and the crowd in the banquet hall, the act of glaring down anyone trying to approach a certain table had been getting annoying. A table that was currently unguarded.