Chapter 2: Liberation

"Your hair is longer than mine, I think," said Orochi, tightening his fingers in the mess of silken black strands of Tetsuya's wavy hair, "That is a great offense."

Tetsuya knew better than to say a word or to stoke Orochi's temper by looking up at him. He pleasured his cousin obediently, wishing with all of his heart that he dared to clamp down. But Naoki's eyes watched from behind Orochi, where he sat, massaging the older youth's back and shoulders, reminding him of what he stood to lose if he rebelled.

"Go a little deeper into the muscle," Orochi urged Naoki.

He made a pleased, gasping sound and forced Tetsuya's head down, then smirked as he released, making him choke and cough. Tetsuya pulled away and remained on his hands and knees, coughing and gasping until his stomach heaved, and he loosed everything inside him violently. He continued to heave and cough until nothing was left inside him, then he collapsed onto the floor. Orochi pulled away from Naoki and leaned over his fallen cousin.

"You will clean up that mess, immediately," he ordered Tetsuya.

He watched with snakelike eyes as Tetsuya panted softly and tried to catch his breath.

"Not feeling like obeying, ne?" Orochi asked, "Then, I think you deserve a punishment."

"I will clean it up, sir," offered Naoki.

Orochi glared at the youth.

"Shut up," he said, sternly, "You were given something to do."

He paused, glancing down at Tetsuya, then back at the other youth and smiling.

"On second thought," said Orochi, "Get on his back."

"Sir?" queried Naoki.

He drew back with a gasp as Orochi slapped him across the face.

"You heard me," the noble said angrily, "Get on his back. I want you to take him while I do you."

Naoki rubbed his red cheek.

"Yes, Orochi-sama," he said, approaching Tetsuya.

Tetsuya remained on the floor, still panting and looking flushed and dazed. Naoki settled on his back and brushed his lips against Tetsuya's earlobe.

"You have to control it or he'll realize," Naoki whispered, "Just go along with him. I will be as gentle as I can."

"Be quiet and get started!" Orochi said, positioning himself behind Naoki, "And don't bother preparing him. He's been screwed enough that he probably doesn't need it anymore anyway."

Naoki moved carefully, but bit his lips and fought back tears as Tetsuya winced and groaned softly beneath him. Orochi plunged into Naoki's unprepared body, forcing him against Tetsuya and making his blue-eyed cousin release a soft exclamation of pain. Naoki's hand found Tetsuya's and held it tightly as Orochi continued. His face burrowed into Tetsuya's hair and he kissed the blade of one pale, naked shoulder.

Orochi looked down and saw their clasping hands. His eyes narrowed and he shoved aside the brown-haired youth.

"I didn't give you permission to touch him like that," he scolded Naoki, "Now, you can watch us."

"I am...sorry, Orochi-sama," Naoki said, nearly choking on the words, "P-please...I will..."

"You will watch," Orochi snapped.

He continued with Tetsuya, watching Naoki's face closely as he began. Naoki kept his expression carefully controlled, but his hands clenched as he watched Orochi continue his hard, methodical violation of his half-blooded cousin. Tetsuya offered no resistance, but laid on his stomach, beneath Orochi, his head turned and his eyes fastened on Naoki's. Orochi reached around his cousin's body and grabbed him, stimulating him as he went on. He continued relentlessly until Tetsuya groaned again as sickness swept through him, brought on by the explosion of his cousin's stinging heat inside him. He laid quietly beneath Orochi, his blue eyes looking into Naoki's as his cousin pulled away for a moment, then returned to his side. His fingers sank into Tetsuya's hair and yanked the younger boy's head back.

"What's wrong? Can't get up? Too weak?" Orochi said mockingly, "Perhaps you just need a little less hair to weigh you down."

Naoki gave a strangled sob and Tetsuya gasped as a pair of scissors sliced through his hair. Orochi laughed and let the separated strands fall onto Tetsuya's bared skin.

"Take him out and clean him up, then return to your cell," said Orochi, off-handedly, as he wrapped a fine yukata around himself and left the room.

"I'd like to take him out and..." Naoki began.

He broke off as a heartbroken sob escaped Tetsuya, and the youth's hand gathered a handful of his hair and he sat up and stared at it, more soft sobs shaking his body. Naoki's arm wrapped around him and he brought his lips to Tetsuya's, soothing away the younger boy's misery with gentle words and gentler touches.

"It's all right," he whispered, uncertain how long they would be left alone, "Tetsuya, you look beautiful with short hair, too! You have to stop. I know that the changes in your body have made you more emotional, but if you don't keep control, he is going to sense the baby. They will not let you give birth. They will kill our baby, Tetsuya. Please...please don't cry!"

"I am sorry," Tetsuya sobbed softly, "I can't help it. He is a horrible, insufferable monster!"

"I know," whispered Naoki, "We have to get you out of here. Even if they don't figure out about the baby, you have to be where you can have proper meals and a healer to tend you. You can't go on like this much longer!"

"What am I supposed to do?" Tetsuya asked, letting the hairs fall from his hand, "We have to wait until Byakuya-sama comes for us."

He watched in silence as Naoki cleaned up the floor, then washed his face gently and helped him to his feet. Naoki wrapped an arm around Tetsuya and guided him out of the room, then out to the small exercise area. They walked around the yard slowly, then a second time, before returning to the building and following a guard back to their cell. They watched the guard lock their cell and walk away, then held each other in the halflight and exchanged soft, wistful kisses. Naoki's hand rubbed the small, barely noticeable bump on Tetsuya's belly and he held the younger boy tightly.

"He will come for us, Tetsuya," the older boy whispered, "He must know where we are by now. He will come in time so that they will not find out about the baby."

"Yes," Tetsuya agreed, looking down at where Naoki's hand rested on his abdomen and not believing a word of it, "Of course he will."

Thank you, Naoki, for helping to keep me calm. It may not save us, but at least it offers us peace while we still have each other...

XXXXXXXXXX

"What's wrong with him?" the guard asked Naoki in a gruff, but not unkind voice.

Naoki lifted Tetsuya's flushed and sweaty body into his arms and carried him to the cell door.

"He was feeling poorly through last night and most of today," explained the brown-eyed youth, "I think he needs to go to the infirmary. May I take him?"

The guard nodded briefly and unlocked the cell, then handed Naoki an infirmary pass. Tetsuya rested his head against Naoki's shoulder, his hands clenching the older youth's yukata.

"Naoki," he moaned softly, "You cannot take me to the infirmary. The healer will..."

"Shh," Naoki said, reassuringly, "I made sure it was the one who agreed to help us. You can't manage anymore...not the way things are here. If you do not get out of here, you and our baby are going to die, Tetsuya. I am not going to let that happen. Rest easy, now. It will be all right."

Tetsuya nodded briefly and nuzzled further into his lover's shoulder. Naoki reached the infirmary and the two were let into a small treatment room, where the older boy set Tetsuya down on the examination table and helped him lie down on his back. They waited quietly, holding hands and watching through the barred window as the sky darkened outside and night fell. The door opened and the healer who had helped them before walked into the examination room.

"He has been unwell?" he asked Naoki.

"Yes," the youth confirmed, "He has been feeling poorly and hasn't been able to hold down much food."

"I see," the healer said sadly, leaning over the blue-eyed youth and examining him briefly.

"Tetsuya cannot take any more," Naoki insisted, "We have to find a way to help him sneak out of here!"

The healer looked around and leaned forward, lowering his voice.

"We will not have to," he whispered, "He is here. They will be storming the prison in a matter of minutes."

He leaned over Tetsuya and gave him a quick injection.

"This will get you on your feet," he told the youth, "And I will take you with me and get you out as soon as the siege begins."

The three waited until the shot he had given Tetsuya took effect and the paleness went out of the youth's face. Then, the healer touched Tetsuya's abdomen gently.

"I am strengthening protective kido on you to continue to hide your pregnancy. No one will be able to see or sense the seal except a stronger healer. That way, if we are caught, the baby will still be protected. Now, come with me."

He led the two through a guarded doorway and back to his office, then the three waited inside, listening carefully. Naoki moved closer to Tetsuya and wrapped his arms around his lover.

"You see, it is going to be all right," he said softly, "We are getting out of here, and by morning, we will be free of this place. We will go to the Rukongai and make a new life together there."

"I want that so much," Tetsuya whispered, "Naoki, I love you."

Naoki's lips found his and brushed warmly against them.

"I love you too," the brown-eyed boy whispered back.

The two froze as a knock sounded on the door. The healer motioned for the two to duck into the closet, then he opened the door.

"Ah, Orochi-san," the healer said, nodding, "What can I...?"

"My cousin and his cellmate were not in their cell, and I was told that they were sent here. I ordered that they were to be sent to me tonight."

"They have contracted food poisoning and are unable to leave the infirmary."

"Very well," Orochi said tersely, "Then, give me their room numbers...so I may check in on them."

"They are in the far wing," said the healer, "Beds A23 and A24."

"Thank you," said Orochi, "I will go and check in with them now."

The healer closed the door behind Orochi and rushed to the closet.

"You have to come with me now," he said nervously, "Orochi-san is going to know something is..."

He broke off as kido blasts sounded nearby and the building shook softly.

"It is beginning!" the healer cried softly, "Come this way!"

He led the two through the empty hallways, ducking past several abandoned guard stations and moving into the staff living areas. The healer handed each youth an attendant's uniform and waited as the boys dressed and joined him again. Kido fire continued to sound, and clanking cell doors and screams rose up from inside the prison walls. Tetsuya swallowed hard and clung to Naoki as the healer led them away.

"It's a horrid thing," the healer said sadly, "They have begun to kill the prisoners. They don't want word to get out about what they were doing here..."

Naoki tightened his arm around Tetsuya and hurried on after the healer.

"There is only one more guard post," said the healer, "If we can..."

A sudden explosion shook the hallway they were in, and the wall ahead of them collapsed.

"Run!" the healer gasped.

Tetsuya took Naoki's hand and the two fled with the healer, climbing quickly over the rubble of the wall and bursting outside.

Heavy kido fire shook the ground beneath their feet and smoke and dust obscured the air around them. Shouts and screams filled the air and the prison alarms wailed. The three made their way along the outer wall and closed in on the final guard post. The healer sighed in relief, seeing that the guards had been slain and their rescuers had gained control of the prison gate. The healer called out to the rescuers and was immediately recognized and waved on to the gate. The three started to walk towards the entry gate.

They were steps from the gate when a flurry of flash steps sounded and kido blasts erupted all around them. The healer and several guards tumbled to the ground as the kido fire pounded them and swords slashed at them.

Tetsuya's face went white as a man appeared in front of him and loosed a kido blast at point blank range. Time seemed to slow excruciatingly as the hazy redness of the kido blast lit their faces for an agonizing moment, then closed in on the unshielded youth. Naoki appeared suddenly between the two, turning towards Tetsuya and taking him to the ground as the blast reached them and a heavy shock wave send them tumbling. Tetsuya's hands held on to Naoki as their bodies rolled over and over, then landed roughly, just in front of the entry gates. Rescue forces rallied around them, stopping their attackers from reaching them as Tetsuya dragged himself onto his hands and knees. He scrambled to Naoki's side and leaned over the fallen youth, calling his name frantically.

Everything around him disappeared as Tetsuya's eyes locked on Naoki's glazed and lifeless ones, and realization broke through him with shattering force.

"Naoki!" he screamed, lifting the older boy and holding him tightly.

The blood seemed to freeze in his veins as the healer limped to his side and gently loosed the other boy from his arms. He laid Naoki down gently and leaned over him, his kind eyes sad as he examined the youth, then brushed his eyes closed.

"I am sorry," he told Tetsuya, who sat, staring at Naoki, with a devastated look in his wide, blue eyes, "He is gone."

The healer's hand touched the stricken shinigami's face gently.

"But..." he went on, "He saved you...and he saved your baby. Be grateful. That boy is the only reason that you and your child survived. That kido blast was going to kill you both."

The healer moved away, leaving Tetsuya kneeling at Naoki's side. He stared down at his lover's motionless body, silent, heartbroken sobs shaking his slender form. Tears ran down his face and his hands rested protectively over the place where their baby grew.

Out of the corner of one eye, he saw the soft glint of light touching metal. A shinigami was moving towards him, bearing a sword in his hand. Tetsuya didn't move as he approached, but only kept his eyes focused on Naoki. Something inside him cried out for him to move, to run, to do something. But he couldn't make himself leave Naoki's side. The shinigami reached him and turned his body so that the rescue troops would not see, then brought his naked blade to Tetsuya's throat. The blue-eyed youth never moved, but fixed his eyes on Naoki and waited for the sting of that life-ending slash.

"Orochi?" said another youth's voice.

The blade withdrew quickly and the shinigami beside Tetsuya straightened.

"You are never to say a word against me," Orochi warned him in a low tone as the other youth approached them, "If you dare, I will cut your tongue out. Stay quiet about everything...or you will pay."

He stepped away and greeted the shinigami who had moved to join them. Overwhelmed by loss, Tetsuya collapsed softly onto Naoki's chest, lacing their fingers together and wishing with all of his heart that they could have died together. He barely felt the hand that touched his shoulder or heard the reassuring voice that accompanied it.

"You will be all right now. I know that you are grieving for your friend, but...be comforted. You are free now. No one will ever imprison you like that again."

The boy who had spoken to him turned away and called the healer back to him. Orochi gave Tetsuya a final glare of warning and flash stepped away.

"Do you know who this boy is?" the boy asked the healer.

"Yes, Byakuya-sama. This is Kuchiki Tetsuya," the healer answered, "His parents were Kuchiki Takao and Kuchiki Kiko."

"Kuchikis Takao and Kiko?" the youth said quickly, "Are you sure?"

"That was what was in his chart," the healer reported, "And the records kept here were very meticulous."

"But...Takao was my father's first cousin. My father always used to talk about him. They were very close, growing up. Takao and Kiko disappeared in a hollow raid in the Rukongai fifteen years ago!"

The healer shook his head meaningfully.

"They all have stories like that. The ones who built and ran this place wanted to be sure that no half-bloods were left free. So they abducted them and brought them here, leaving all kinds of lies behind. I don't know about this boy's parents, except that Takao died long ago, and Kiko a several months ago, the day of this boy's initiation."

"Initiation?" Byakuya queried.

The healer sighed uncomfortably.

"All of the younger ones, when they turn fourteen, are considered adults. There was a group within that gathered and when one turned that age, they would isolate them in a room and sexually assault them. They said that it was to ensure their subservience, but..."

"That is horrid," said Byakuya, shaking his head in disbelief, "Can you testify to the identities of any of them?"

"I did not directly witness any of the initiations...but I dealt with the aftermath. And the name that I most frequently heard the initiates say was...Orochi-san. The dead boy there, Naoki, told me that he had a fascination with those two, often calling for them and assaulting the two of them together. Naoki-kun protected Tetsuya-kun as much as he could once they knew about the child..."

"Child?" Byakuya repeated.

"Tetsuya-kun is pregnant...with Naoki-kun's child. That is why I was helping them. I was concealing Tetsuya-kun's pregnancy."

"If the elders learn of Tetsuya's pregnancy, they may order it terminated," Byakuya said, shaking his head, "Although the rules have been eased so that half-bloods may marry and, if they have the financial means from their jobs within the family, they can obtain permission to bear children, Tetsuya has no such means of support right now."

"Then you might as well kill that boy yourself," said the healer, "He was very much in love with his friend, Naoki-kun...and that baby is all he has left."

Byakuya turned his head and glanced back at where Tetsuya still rested on Naoki's chest, his eyes closed and tears staining his dirty face.

"You placed a kido seal to hide his pregnancy?" he asked the healer.

"Yes," the man said, his eyes hopeful, "You mean to..."

"Sadao," Byakuya said, raising his voice slightly and nodding to a Kuchiki family member who stood nearby.

"Byakuya-sama?" the man said, meeting the heir's gray eyes.

"Have Kuchiki Tetsuya evacuated to Kuchiki Manor...and...have the boy, Naoki prepared for burial there."

"S-sir?" the fighter said questioningly.

"The healer here witnessed that the two were in a relationship...and Tetsuya is a family member, though a partial one. He and his mate have burial rights on our property. This man can witness that the two shared a mutual relationship, and would have married under statute if not impeded by their illegal incarceration. Tetsuya needs to be able to have a place to go to mourn his mate. See that this is done."

"Y-yes sir," Sadao said, still looking uncertain, but moving towards the collapsed youth.

"Tetsuya," Byakuya said, laying a hand on the stricken boy's shoulder, "Sadao is going to take you somewhere safe. And we will have Naoki brought to be buried there."

He slid his hand down Tetsuya's arms and gently loosed his fingers from the other youth's. Then, he placed an arm around the younger boy and helped him to his feet.

"Do not say anything to anyone about your being pregnant," Byakuya whispered in Tetsuya's ear, "It is safer to keep it a secret for now. Trust me."

The boy did not reply, but his head lifted for a moment, and his sad, blue eyes struck Byakuya's forcefully. And amidst the devastation he read there, was a thin edge of barely readable hope.