Submit Unto Me
Disclaimer: I don't own Bleach.
A/N: I realize Kaname absconds the very day that Shuuhei and Yumichika fight. But I'm going to warp canon a bit—give me a week to throw these two together.
x.x.x.x.x.x.x.x.x
He was lying on his back on the roof feeling Commander-General Yamamoto's staunch reiatsu make the hair on his neck stand when his thoughts turned to the 5th seat he had just been defeated by. Ayasegawa Yumichika was so freakin' gay, Shuuhei thought lazily, with his feather-adorned eyes and his feather-adorned soul-cutter…
He blinked. It was really unusual for someone in the 11th Division to have such an esthetic zanpakutou. In fact, it was totally unheard of. Ridiculous. Only the strongest shinigami were allowed into the 11th, and whoever heard of strong people being pretty? Shuuhei snorted. Stupid gay man with his gay…hmm.
Yumichika had said something before leeching Shuuhei's reiatsu. He had said "Please keep this confidential, as I don't want to be disliked." Well, duh. Madarame and Zaraki-taichou weren't really the type to see the strength in beauty. They'd laugh Ayasegawa out of Seireitei if they found out.
"Please keep this confidential," huh? Oh, Shuuhei would, alright. But some costs would be incurred. I mean hey, he was already guaranteed to catch hell for being defeated by a 5th seat. Might as well humiliate the man responsible.
000
Chickenshit pecking
"Yo, Ayasegawa!"
Ikkaku turned on his companion's behalf. "Eh? Hisagi? What're you doin' in our dojo?"
"He can't be looking for anything beautiful," Yumichika said, "No matter what I say to Zaraki-taichou he won't let me alter the drab state of this dojo." The shinigami took a look of long suffering dignity at his broken, bloody surroundings and sighed.
Shuuhei grinned. "You're right. I was looking for you."
Ikkaku laughed as Yumichika raised a deeply offended eyebrow. "I don't think I have any business with someone who is so unattractively blind to beauty."
"I think you do," the 9th's vice captain said like sunshine, "You see, I want a kiss."
Ikkaku stopped laughing and Yumichika picked up where the bald man left off. "Hah! And why would I kiss you?"
"Because after our fight during which you overwhelmed me with your beauty, I want to kiss and make up."
Yumichika's eyes widened in mortified understanding while Ikkaku's narrowed in confusion.
"One kiss," he whispered.
Shuuhei stepped closer. "Mm."
Ikkaku watched amazedly as Yumichika leaned in with upper body alone to avoid unnecessary closeness. Shuuhei closed his eyes and felt a cold, hard peck against his lips. His eyes snapped open.
"What the hell was that!"
Yumichika looked highly affronted. "It was a kiss, Hisagi. I understand you don't have much knowledge in the field—"
"That was like a chicken harassing the ground for grain, Ayasegawa! Che, how disappointing." Shuuhei rubbed the back of his neck. "We'll have to try again soon."
Yumichika was dumbstruck as the lieutenant walked away. "Try…again?"
Ikkaku left too. He had gossip to spread.
000
Let me show you how
Rumors were running rife that Hisagi Shuuhei was a fag with the flaming hots for Ayasegawa Yumichika. Shuuhei didn't care for the vernacular. Still, the rumors didn't bother him. Both Yumichika and he knew who was groveling at whose feet, and that was good enough.
"Yo, Ayasegawa!"
The 11th Division's 5th seat looked like he was trying to sprout wings and fly away. Or maybe he was trying to shoot laser beams at Shuuhei out of his fingertips. Either way, he gave it up to hiss, "Why are you here, Hisagi?"
Yes, why was Hisagi-fukataichou here, wondered the rest of the division. This was their cafeteria and it was their mid-morning booze fest and Yumi was their seated officer.
"I was in the mortal world last night," Shuuhei smiled sweet as candy, "And I found a feather you might like." He presented Yumichika with a long piece of peacock plumage that was not from the human realm. It was from his zanpakutou's release. Yumichika shoved it into his robe and simmered. Shuuhei brought his face close to the lovelier man's.
"Um?" he asked innocuously, "Don't I get a kiss for my thoughtfulness?"
The bastard. "Ah…alright," Yumichika murmured.
Shuuhei put a finger to his lips. His small, warm eyes glowed with mischief that made Yumichika's stomach tighten.
"Ayasegawa, yesterday's kiss was pathetic. I'll show you how I want it, and you give me it from next time onwards, okay?"
Zaraki Kenpachi's apes were not fond of public displays of affection. It was all very foreign to them. But not one single shinigami had the shame to avert their eyes as two men—two awesome, powerful men—kissed in front of them today.
Shuuhei winded one arm around Yumichika's waist to pull him in and used his free hand to tilt his jaw up. Yumi's eyes showed resentment, and curiosity. It was a mix the vice-captain could live with, so he pressed his lips softly against Yumichika's. The sparkle-prone man was taken aback at how easily Shuuhei kissed him. Almost like he wanted to. His lower lip was sucked on (mm, and wasn't that an interesting thing to have done to him) and Yumichika allowed his eyes to close, thinking if it was this sort of blackmail he might survive it. More surprisingly, so might Shuuhei.
The arrival of a dread reiatsu broke them up and a giggly voice on Kenpachi's shoulder said, "Ken-chan, lookit! Feathers 'n' Sixty-nine are swappin' spit!"
Kenpachi didn't really appreciate that sort of thing, so he threw Shuuhei out on is skinny ass and promised him he'd feed him his own zanpakutou if he ever came back.
It was a good incentive to stay away.
000
A wet appendage called the tongue
"Where's Yumichika?" Shuuhei demanded of Aramaki Makizou the next time they crossed paths in the rice market,"Is that cowardly officer of yours hiding in your headquarters because I'm not allowed in anymore?"
11th Division doesn't take it kindly when accused of cowardice, and Makizou twitched with temper as he retorted, "Ayasegawa-san was out on soul burial duty! He and Madarame-san should be back soon—East Gate. And, Hisagi-fukataichou? Please don't call him a coward again, or I will rip out your intestines and garland my god with them."
Zaraki's influence shone brightly in his men's threats, Shuuhei mused on his way to the Eastern Gate of Seireitei.
This time he decided to have some fun with it. (Yes, because all this time it had been hard work with no reward at all.) He hid his reiatsu as much as he could and when Yumichika entered, chatting with Ikkaku, he snuck behind the silky haired shinigami and swept him up in a bear hug.
Yumichika was not amused.
He was unamused by the muscled arms pinning his own to his side; he was unamused by Shuuhei's breath against his neck. He didn't like the lean torso he was pressed against and he hated it when Shuuhei put him down.
I mean loved. Loved! He loved it when Shuuhei put him down.
Damn it, stop grinning.
"How's it goin', Yumichika?" the vice-captain grinned some more. Ikkaku snickered and Yumichika fumed.
"What an ugly thing to do, Hisagi! And why are you calling me by my given name?"
"Because we're dating," Shuuhei's grin stretched to fit the Cheshire cat, "Isn't that what you've been telling your division? That we kiss because we're dating? So of course your boyfriend would call you by your first name. You should call me Shuuhei, too."
Yumichika flushed. He'd figured it was more acceptable in his comrades' eyes to be sleeping with this guy than to be blackmailed by him. He should've known it would come back to bite his ass. But damn it what choice did he have?
"You haven't been dating for thatlong," Ikkaku frowned, thinking it over, "Maybe it's too soon."
Yumichika could've kissed him, but apparently he had a boyfriend who might not take kindly to being cheated on.
Shuuhei tackled him with a heady gaze. "Submit unto me, Yumichika-kun."
Sardonic, sadistic, overbearing bastard. Yumichika shrugged at Ikkaku. "I think it's okay. So. …Shuuhei. What is it?"
"Give me a kiss, Yumichika. I'm happy you're back and I missed you last night."
Ikkaku threw his hands up in the air as a symbol of his defeat and told his friend he'd meet him elsewhere. As soon as he was out of sight, Yumichika kicked Shuuhei.
"Ow! What was that for, boyfriend?"
"You stupid, ugly man," pouted Yumichika. The stupid, ugly man tugged him over to the great wooden gate and pushed him against it. He brought his nose against Yumichika's and said, "I need my daily ration, sweetheart."
Yumichika didn't buy it. "Ikkaku's not here. There aren't any people for you to embarrass me in front of, so why bother? Let me go, Hisagi, I've a beautiful bath to slip into at home."
Shuuhei chuckled and raised his rested his forehead against the other brunet's unblemished cheek. "Who said I want to embarrass you? I just want a kiss. A really good one. If it's good enough…if it makes me go weak in the knees…I'll stop irritating you. I'll forget about your zanpakutou."
He lifted his face to Yumichika's astonished eyes. The 5th seat thought it was a pretty good deal. He kissed him.
Oh, how he kissed him. He dragged Shuuhei's waist sharply inwards so that he, Yumichika was kissing down at him. Shuuhei's lithe limbs lifted him further and Yumichika bit at his lip to get him to open up. Their tongues pushed against each other, their breaths deep and needy. Shuuhei moaned into Yumichika, his hips grinding against the man. A hot, aching something rose up in him and he couldn't get enough, he wanted Yumichika to keep kissing him forever, except when he stopped to fuck—mm. Yumichika, naked…Yumichika, under him…
Yumichika, pulling away.
"No," Shuuhei said, "Please."
"A deal's a deal." Yumichika was red as a beet. "A deal's a deal, Hisagi. You nearly fainted from that kiss."
Though the kiss was over and in its grave, they hadn't let go of each other. Yumichika's hands were clamped to Shuuhei's shoulders and Shuuhei's arms were all around him. Frankly, the kiss wasn't entirely gone. It was still on their lips, waiting to be resumed.
Shuuhei sighed. "Right. A deal's a deal."
Irrationally, Yumichika wished he hadn't kissed him quite so fantastically. They weren't just victim and perpetrator of blackmail now, they were…um…
Kissers?
Whatever that meant.
Now if Shuuhei stuck to his deal there would be none of that. Yumichika's fingers clenched, and Shuuhei's whole soul felt it.
"Fuck it," he said, "I'm breaking the deal off."
Yes!
"No!" Yumichika seemed aghast. His heart thudded against his ribcage, though, and it was far from disappointed.
The vice-captain smirked and let him go. "I'll be back tomorrow, boyfriend. Think of me tonight, okay?"
Hallelujah.
000
And you give yourself away
He didn't come back the next day because Tousen Kaname was a skinny little wanker who turned traitor to Seireitei and ditched his lieutenant for worlds unknown.
Hisagi Shuuhei was stunned.
Ikkaku asked, "Shouldn't you be there to comfort him, Yumi?" and Yumichika lied.
"He needs to be alone right now. There's nothing I can do."
It was a lie because Shuuhei would be dying for company right about now and anything Yumichika did would be the perfect condolence for the bereaved vice widow.
Pop quiz!
Why didn't he go, then?
Because they weren't dating.
Ikkaku nodded in acceptance and Yumichika wanted to burn a hole through his own tongue. He also wanted to run as fast as he could to Shuuhei and smother him in the biggest mother of a kiss the likes of which hadn't been seen in millennia. He didn't do either of those things. He sat on his ass in the dojo and considered himself a wuss for the first time in his after life.
It was a joke. Shuuhei didn't actually want him there. Who was he, Yumichika, to intrude upon his sorrow? The whole thing had been a game for Shuuhei to punish Yumichika for defeating him.
Yumichika certainly felt punished.
Flopping back, he felt first frustration building up in him and then Zaraki-taichou's reiatsu as he entered the 11th Division barracks.
The 11th Division.
Yumichika sat bolt upright, his eyes as wide as they'd go. What the hell was he doing? He was the 5th seat of the 11th Division. What did it mean to be part of the 11th Division? They were the strongest shinigami, the bravest shinigami. Why was he insulting his people like this, by moping around like a spineless bug? He wanted to comfort Shuuhei and he damn well would, so fuck not having an excuse to be there. The least he could do was be brave about it.
He found Shuuhei by a random (as far as he, Yumichika was concerned; how could he know the significance of Tousen Kaname's dead, anonymous friend?) grave with Komamura Sajin-taichou. Upon Yumichika's arrival Sajin drifted away. Shuuhei sank to the ground and gripped his hair in his hands.
"Horrible," he whispered.
Yumichika knelt beauteously with him, a gracious hand on the man's shoulder. "Want a kiss?"
Shuuhei gawked.
"You don't have to blackmail me for it. It'll be freely given. If you want it."
And only if you want it. Shuuhei, can you hear the words he's not saying? This is your privilege to enjoy, or turn down. All yours.
"Yeah," he said at last, "Yeah, I'd like that."
Yumichika stayed kneeling and took Shuuhei's devastated face in his two warm palms. Closing his eyes, he put his lips against the vice-captain's; just his lips and some earnest empathy. Their kiss was the only thing between there and the gates of Seireitei; it was quiet as they grave they were next to. Shuuhei savored it.
When Yumichika had expressed as much as he wanted to, he moved away. Shuuhei looked at him a long while and said:
"I started it to piss you off."
"I know," Yumichika said levelly.
Shuuhei shook his head. "I wanna keep going now. Only…not to get you back for handing me my ass. Because I want to."
Yumichika waited a few anxious seconds before saying, "Yes."
They were just two souls who happened to be there together. They truly were. They were there because on was shattered by shock and the other emboldened by desire. But before the week was out, Yumichika would have the excuse he wanted to continue being there for Shuuhei.
They would date.
x.x.x.x.x.x.x.x.x
A more somber ending than I originally planned.
