Sousuke Aizen had never witnessed a child's birth before, nor had he held an infant. The captain had never before found himself captured by the gaze of something so new and innocent. The gentle power of cradling a being so utterly fragile and dependent was completely new.
Captain Sousuke Aizen had never been a father before.
Needless to say, this had been a night of firsts for the Shinigami captain.
The mother had been an idle night's diversion. He hadn't thought that the servant from the Rukongai had enough reiatsu to conceive, much less bear a child to term, but sure enough, six months after their union, she had appeared at his quarters in the dead of the night and tearfully confessed her condition to him. It took no more than a touch of power to her rounded belly to know the child within was indeed his.
He had cared for her in secrecy throughout the remainder of the pregnancy. When labor began, he transported the terrified young mother to a birthing room in Hueco Mundo, where the baby girl had been delivered – healthy and squalling as soon as the cold, dry air hit her tender skin.
The red-haired woman had died painlessly with her child nursing at her breast. The soft smile of a new mother never left her lips as her one time lover drained her reiatsu. A painless, ignorant death was the least he could do for the foolish woman.
He'd plucked the baby from her lifeless arms, before ridding the attendant hollow of its memories. For some reason, forming lesser arrancar with healing skills was a far trickier task than their more warlike brethren. It wouldn't do to eliminate one of the better specimens.
Now, only hours later, he stared down at the newborn lying naked amongst a cushioning nest of blankets. Little arms and legs flailed in discomfort, and a thin, indignant wail rose from the perfect mouth. Even now, he could sense the intense potential within the beautiful soul he had helped birth.
She could be useful when she reached adulthood – or she could be a threat. Either way, she needed to be sealed. The nameless child was a problem at the moment.
As he murmured forbidden words and held his hands over the delicate body squirming amongst the purest white silk, blue eyes already tinted with green opened. A tiny hand thrust forward, and reached towards the light emanating from her father's hand.
He let her reach as he layered bakudo after careful bakudo around the soul. He did not want to cause her harm – she was his, after all – so he worked slowly, carefully. The forbidden kidou wrapped around her like a blanket, and strands of reiatsu withdrew into her still forming inner world. It was tricky, but after the last word was spoken, the child's reiatsu was thoroughly sealed. With the power he'd felt pooling just out of reach, he had no doubt that it would begin to leak as she grew, but he was confident that her new home would prevent her from being able to do anything with it.
At last, he wrapped the struggling newborn within the folds of the blankets she was lying in, and cradled her close against his chest. Gently, he stroked a downy cheek and murmured soothingly to her in a deep, resonant voice. Within a few moments, the little one relaxed into his embrace, and soft breath grew silent with sleep.
He raised his head from his daughter's slumbering features and opened the custom garganta he had labored intensively over after hearing of the servant's pregnancy. With a rip, the portal tore a jagged tear into a Living World far from the one he would one day rule. It was a tool he could use only once, for it was a technique which put entirely too much strain on the fabric between worlds, as well as the one who implemented it. Never again would it be done.
Unlike the spacious, bare work room he had stepped from, the bedroom he entered was cozy and lushly furnished. The energy was relaxed and soothing. In the bed centered within the room slept a man and a woman. Appraisingly, he stood over the two with the infant curled into his chest.
The man held a passing resemblance to the shinigami himself, though his hair was the shade of straw and his build was slighter. Even in sleep, the human's jaw still held the remnants of a determined set and his arm fell possessively over the unconscious beauty at his side.
The woman looked quite a bit like his daughter's mother. Red hair, deeper in shade than the soul's that he had bedded, tumbled in a rush of curls over the pillow her cheek rested upon. She was extremely pregnant – the baby within due to be born any day. Aizen had been sure to time that perfectly.
Chocolate eyes peered through the deceptive glasses at the slumbering baby in his arms. The original soul destined for the body the woman curled upon the bed carried had been cast aside – sent back to the cycle to await its next karmic turn – perhaps, even, from that same womb. He had determined that the little vessel awaiting birth would instead be inhabited by his daughter.
And if she found her way back to him, then he will simply deal with her at that time.
Slowly, he knelt and unwound the blanket from the little girl.
The baby awoke at the movement, and her cry echoed through the room – heard only by her father. Carefully, he lifted the angrily writhing child from the cloth and placed a gentle kiss upon the scrunched brow.
"Thank me, little one," he whispered softly, "You are allowed to live because you carry my blood."
A gentle hand swept over the downy orange-blond fuzz coating the little head, before he carefully set the child upon the woman's stomach. With a soft murmur of power, he positioned the little one to match the body within, and the little soul sank into the human body awaiting birth.
As soon as he stood, the woman stiffened, and muddy green eyes flashed open. She could see neither him, nor the garganta behind him.
With a smile, he stood and returned to his own universe. There was no real need to witness his daughter's second birth, and he had more important beings to nurture at the moment.
This is actually a prologue I wrote up for an RP I have going on with a friend of mine. I figured it was good enough that it should probably be posted. ;)