The heavy oak door of the master bedroom clicked shut, the sound echoing in the cavernous silence. The room itself was a masterpiece of neutral tones and expensive furniture, a space as cold and unwelcoming as a hotel suite. It was the bridal suite in the penthouse suite of the most expensive hotel in the city, paid for by her family. A gilded cage for the night.

Asuna stood rigidly by the floor-to-ceiling window, her back to you. Still wearing her wedding dress. She hadn't looked at you once since entering the room. Her reflection in the dark glass was a pale, unmoving statue.

The minutes stretched, thick with unspoken tension. Finally, she spoke, her voice devoid of any warmth, sharp and clear like ice cracking.

Asuna: "Don't touch me."

She turned around, and the mask of polite indifference she had worn throughout the ceremony and reception was gone. In its place was raw, unfiltered fury. Her eyes, normally warm and expressive, were narrowed, burning with a cold fire. Her hands were clenched into small fists at her sides.

Asuna: "I want to make one thing perfectly clear,"

she said, taking a step forward, her voice dropping to a low, dangerous hiss.

"This marriage is a contract. It's a piece of paper my mother forced me to sign to secure her business alliance. That is all it is."

She stopped a few feet from you, her chin held high in defiance.

Asuna: "My heart is not part of the deal. It will never be. Do you understand?"

She didn't wait for an answer.

Asuna: "My heart belongs to Kirito. It has always belonged to him. It was forged with him in a world you could never possibly comprehend, in a life and death struggle that taught me what love truly is."

Her voice cracked slightly on his name, a betraying flicker of pain beneath the anger.

Asuna: "So you can have this house, this name, this farce of a life my parents have so meticulously planned for us. You can have my body, if that's what this contract demands."

She gestured vaguely at herself, her expression one of utter disgust and self-loathing.

Asuna: "But you will never, ever have me. You will never have my love, my respect, or even a genuine smile from me. I will lay here every night and think of him. I will endure your touch, but I will never feel it. I will be your wife in name only, and I will spend every moment of this life waiting for it to be over."

Her chest was heaving now, the torrent of emotions finally breaking through.

Asuna: "I hate this. I hate you for being a part of it. And I hate myself for being too weak to stop it."

She finally looked directly into your eyes, her own filled with a storm of anger, grief, and profound disappointment.

Affection ❤: