Chapter 10: Watched
"Well, this is going to make things awkward, ne?" said Gin, smirking as he and Aizen watched Byakuya rest beneath a sakura tree at the top of a cliff, while the eleventh division captain sparred with a group of Squad eleven fighters, beat the living hell out of them and moved on to the next group, "That overgrown pit bull hasn't left his side for a moment since Kuchiki was released from the healing center."
"I think," said Aizen, watching the shinigamis in the meadow below them, "that it means that Captain Unohana has become suspicious."
"Damn, this is boring!" complained Zaraki, using just his spiritual pressure to knock half of the group off of their feet.
"That is because you do not challenge yourself," replied Byakuya, shifting to rest more in the shade, "You already know that you can smash them with your hands, barbarian style. Why not try something with a bit more sophistication?"
"Well, listen to you, Kuchiki-hime, giving me pointers. You want to get off your pregnant ass and show me how to fight them then? I'd like to see you waddle over here and try!"
"Oh, they are adorable together, aren't they?" chuckled Gin, "One might be tempted to think that they were really in love."
"Hmmm," said Aizen, watching the two closely as Byakuya swept down off of the cliff and flash stepped towards the other captain, attacking with a blaze of hakudo strikes that belied his current, very pregnant state.
"Stop it, baka!" Zaraki complained, "I was kidding. And what fun is it being annoyed by something that I can't hit back? It just pisses me off more!"
"Do you think I am any happier about this than you are, being housebound and going out of my mind with boredom at having nothing to do but gestate for months on end?" Byakuya complained.
"Sheesh," Renji muttered to Ikkaku and Yumichika, where they stood, waiting to spar with the eleventh division captain, "They're both having mood swings."
"It's cabin fever," sighed Yumichika, sliding his fingers through his hair, "They've been pretty much incarcerated here at the manor ever since Captain Unohana suspected that Sousuke Aizen had abducted Captain Kuchiki from right under his own guards' noses, while our captain was out slaying hollows and not watching over him like a hawk."
"Yeah, well, all I can say is that Captain had better give birth soon or one or both of those two are going to level the entire estate with their reiatsu."
"Ah well," laughed Yumichika, "They have the money to rebuild."
"You got that right," chuckled Renji, pausing and looking more closely as Zaraki grabbed the punching and kicking sixth division captain and weakened his knees with a sweltering, penetrating kiss.
"Oh dammit," complained Ikkaku, "We didn't even get our turn fighting him, and they're already at it again. Damned pheromones..."
"Huh?" mused Renji, looking confused.
Yumichika giggled.
"Apparently, your captain is giving off odd attractive scents that Captain Unohana said are secreted by the body to ensure that the parents attend to the necessary bonding. But every time our captain gets a good whiff of him, he forgets all about fighting and just wants to fuck the living daylights out of that man."
"Yeah," agreed Ikkaku, "Half the time, they don't even make it to the bedroom anymore."
"B-but," objected Renji, looking more confused, "They talk to each other like they can't stand each other! Why the hell do they do that if they're in love?"
"Go ask them," Yumichika said, shrugging flippantly, "I don't think that even they know what's in their heads right now. Mother Nature has those two very tightly bound in her little, malevolent fist."
The three exchanged bemused glances as Zaraki suddenly threw a struggling Byakuya over his shoulder and flash stepped towards the manor, then burst into laughter.
"Here we go again," chortled Yumichika.
"Well, kids, it looks like no more sparring, so let's say we go get drunk off our asses and then give my feathered friend here a good hard ride in honor of our love enslaved captains?" suggested Ikkaku, "I'll even buy the first round."
"How generous," said Yumichika, glaring, "If you think you can keep yourself from spouting such ugly words, I might take you up on that. What say, Renji?"
"Oh me?" grinned the redhead, "Drinking? Sex? Hey, if there's no fighting to do, those are my next favorite things! I'm in."
They watched as their captains disappeared into the trees at the top of the cliff, then flash stepped away together.
A short distance away, Aizen frowned and shook his head in annoyance.
"We need to push Kuchiki to the full limits of the chamber. It is no good if we do not push him to the ends of his endurance, because the hougyoku will clearly push him at least that far."
He noted the suddenly dour look on Gin's face and smirked.
"What's wrong? Are you feeling sorry for them? Remember, they wouldn't feel anything but the usual disgust for each other if we hadn't used them in this. And once Kuchiki is in our hands for good, Zaraki will quickly find other things to distract him."
"You don't think that he will mourn them at all?" Gin asked.
"What? Do you think that what you see between them is real, Gin? Didn't you hear me? I told you that we made it happen."
"I understand that," Gin said unhappily, "But you can't discount a couple's emotions for each other, just because they were manipulated into them."
"And it bothers you to break up a couple that has truly fallen in love?" asked Aizen curiously, "I didn't take you for such a sentimental being..."
"If someone did something like this to me, would you come after me?" Gin asked suddenly.
Aizen's head tilted and his eyes narrowed affectionately.
"I would never let them take you from me in the first place," Aizen said, slipping an arm around the silver-haired man and offering him a warm, placating kiss.
"Hmmm," he mused aloud, kissing Gin again, "Perhaps you are right."
"I am?" Gin asked, frowning.
"Yes. Perhaps...it is time that we just accepted that these two have fallen in love and the only way to achieve what we want is to bring them both to Las Noches and let Kuchiki have his child there, with the father at his side."
"And then?" asked Gin, "You can't let them go, ne?"
"No, not Byakuya anyway," Aizen said quietly, "But...if we have his lover and their child, I think Byakuya just might give in to us and bear the hougyoku-child without a fight. After he does, if it pleases you, we can let their entire little family go home alive. How is that?"
"Hmmm, you are being indulgent today. Too bad we aren't in Las Noches now..." Gin said suggestively, "I could come up with some other requests."
"And what is it you would want that we can't do right here?" Aizen said, sinking into Gin's mouth again and reaching for the tie at his waist.
XXXXXXXXXX
Byakuya let out a relieved breath as his body came down roughly onto his bed, and Zaraki's dropped down on top of him, both forgoing the use of any words at all as the eleventh division captain bypassed even foreplay and plunged into his unprepared body. The two succumbed to a hazed bout of hard, biting kisses as their entwined bodies strained against each other, seeking much needed release. Byakuya's slender hands reached up and clenched the fine, dark cherry wood slats on his headboard, and he spread his pretty thighs wider, arching upward into Zaraki's heavy downward thrusts. Zaraki's eyes closed into slits and his chest heaved as he pushed deeper into Byakuya's braced and writhing body, unable to even loose his usual profanity while his sexual needs were so dire.
Damn...it feels like we'll die if we don't...
His thoughts melted away as Byakuya's body tensed beneath his, arching like a bow as the sixth division captain shattered the wooden slats he was clinging to and screamed in release, his reiatsu exploding around them and his seed splashing onto their bodies that hadn't even had time to break a sweat. Zaraki grabbed the noble's still quaking body and held onto it tightly as his own release filled his panting lover until he was seeing spots in front of his eyes.
Zaraki gave a shaky laugh and sought Byakuya's pouting mouth again and the two surrendered to a storm of deep, plundering kisses. Finally, Zaraki pulled away, seeming to gather himself and grabbing the noble's softly trembling hands to quickly examine them.
"You okay?" he asked, good naturedly, "You didn't get any splinters when you roughed up that headboard?"
Byakuya gave him a nasty smirk.
"The only 'sliver' in me is the one with which you impaled my..."
"Aww, that's asking for it," hissed Zaraki, sliding his hands down the noble's slightly bloodied palms and capturing his wrists.
He pressed down, holding Byakuya's hands down on either side of his head as his tongue sank into his lover's mouth again and sought the noble's slick tongue, then curled around it, sliding up and down it's length, loving, tasting and gently tormenting it until the pretty blush returned to Byakuya's face and throat. He lifted himself slightly and examined Byakuya's trapped hands again, lowering his head to lick the small cuts here and there, bathing them in saliva and small releases of healing reiatsu, leaving the noble's fine flesh clean and perfect again. He caught the noble's eye for a moment and suddenly realized that Byakuya was almost smiling.
"What's that look all about?" Zaraki asked, "You having mood swings again?"
"No," Byakuya said, capturing a strand of the other man's hair and sliding his fingers down to the bell at the end. He turned his head slightly, pulling the bell down and teasing it with his tongue before slipping it into his mouth and savoring it as Zaraki watched with dangerous, glinting eyes.
"You trying to seduce me again already?" Zaraki asked, "Or are you just being a tease?"
"First of all," Byakuya said sedately, "I never offer you something I will then withhold. Secondly, what just happened wasn't a seduction, but primal, carnal need brought on by the hormones my pregnant body is secreting. So...to answer your question, I am trying to seduce you, but not again, and I am not, in any way, teasing."
"Heh," chuckled Zaraki, "You're right about the hormones. My dick's barely had time to wilt from the last tango, and it's already up and ready to dance again. That's some powerful voodoo you've got going on there."
"Hmmm," huffed the noble, "I would like to take credit for that, but I am afraid it is only nature having her way with us."
"Naw," Zaraki drawled, "Nature wouldn't be enough to make me fuck someone...not even a pretty thing like you."
"Oh?" said Byakuya, a hint of uncertainty rising in his eyes, "So what makes you want to make love to me? If not simply hormones and nature and not the manipulations those foul traitors forced on us...then..."
"You get me," Zaraki said simply, "Most people don't, but you do. And even though I can tell sometimes that you want to, you bite your tongue and don't ask me to be different from the person we both know I am. And you remember when you talked to me about my honesty?"
Byakuya hesitated, then nodded silently.
"You're honest too."
He shook his head as the noble started to speak and stopped the words with a gentle fingertip.
"I didn't mean it like that. You lie plenty with your lips, but the truth is always there in those big gray eyes of yours. Everything's there...that you want to hate me but you can't, that you need to fuck me like you need air to breathe, that you want me to hold you but you'll never lower yourself to ask, that you respect who I am and love the hell outta me, that you get afraid when I go off hunting for something to kill, and that you sit and listen for my footsteps when I'm not here. See?"
Byakuya's lips tightened and his eyes glared softly, but he said nothing.
Zaraki smiled.
"Let's see to that bonding," he said, reaching down to send his reiatsu into the noble's rounded belly, "And then if you still want to make love, we can do that too."
Byakuya rested quietly, turning his head to look out the garden doors and breathing in the pleasant scents of flowers blended with the muskier scents of their lovemaking. He closed his eyes against the rising feeling of arousal that the bonding always brought on and tried to connect with his heart.
He is right in everything he said. I do want to hate the man, but I look at him and I cannot hate him. I respect the fighter in him...the one that survived childhood in the lowest part of the Rukongai...the one that is hard and unyielding with his enemies, yet can be soft and loving with Yachiru. I love the pride he has inside that is different than my own, but just as passionate. I love the fact that no one tells this man what to do. He follows his own heart and makes his own way in a way I will never be able to. He is a proud, wild beast and that is more than just attractive to me...it is intoxicating.
But...by his very nature...his definition, he is not the type to settle down. And he knows that I wanted to marry him, though I never asked for it. He heard me tell the elders I wanted to marry the father of my child. And yet, he has never brought it up and I have never been able to say the words. I know what he would tell me. He could never marry someone like me.
He thinks that it is because he couldn't be worthy of a cultured, respectable member of high society, but it is really that I am not good enough to tame the heart of the most proud beast of the Rukongai...and in any case, I do not want to change him...
What am I supposed to do?
"Aww, don't start that..." Zaraki said, shaking his head and brushing away a tear that had somehow escaped and ended up on the noble's proud face, "Whatever I did that offended you, I didn't mean it, okay?"
"You didn't offend me," said Byakuya, brushing the broken pieces of wood off of his pillows and arranging them more comfortably, "It was just...a stray, rampant thought. It wasn't about you...hormones..."
It is a lie, but the truth is too much of an assault on my pride.
I love Kenpachi Zaraki and I want to marry him. But to marry him would change him, and I don't want to change the man. And in any case, if I did lower my pride and ask, he would say no anyway. He knows it would be a trap. As soon as he fell into it, he would cease to be the man I fell in love with.
So it seems we will love each other while we await this child. Then, I must let him go. I am sure he will visit to spend time with the child, so they will know of each other. But this...this exchange of power and passion between us? This will be lost soon.
Too soon.
"Lord Byakuya?" said Torio's voice from outside the doorway, "I am...sorry to bother you sir, but Head Councilor Nori is here. He says that it is important."
Zaraki rolled his eyes and pulled his hands away from the noble's belly, smirking and offering their growing baby a final kiss before getting up and straightening his clothes.
"You don't have to leave," Byakuya said, "I am sure that it won't take long for him to cast the council's criticisms and leave. Then we can..."
"Sorry, got things to do. I'll be back."
Byakuya bit his lip and sighed, closing his eyes and listening to Zaraki's footsteps fade away. He walked into the dressing area and stood quietly as Torio hurriedly dressed him, then walked through the gardens and into the greeting room where Nori waited. He felt the immediate sense of disapproval and forced down an ache inside.
"Head Councilor, I wasn't aware you were planning to come here," he said calmly.
"I am sorry for coming unannounced, but the council is anxious that you are so late in your pregnancy and you have, as of yet, not resolved what you will do about your situation. We are curious as to your leanings."
"What is there to say?" Byakuya said solemnly, "Kenpachi Zaraki is not going to marry me."
"So...you will consider having him approved as a clan concubine and his name left off of the child's birth record?"
"I will not," Byakuya said firmly, "As I informed the council, it was not my fault nor his that we were made to engage in sex together in Las Noches and because of that, it should not be scandalous for him to be named the child's father and acknowledged, even though we will not be married."
Byakuya swallowed hard.
"And besides, there is a small but very real chance that the child might not be Zaraki's after all."
"What?" asked Nori, paling at the insinuation.
"Captain Unohana has been trying to confirm that Captain Zaraki is the father, but there were questions of whether Aizen might have fathered the child, then made an illusion so that everyone would think it was Zaraki's. I was abducted a few weeks ago and the reiatsu chamber was manipulated by someone with knowledge of the device."
"Good heavens!" said Nori, paling even more, "Why didn't you inform us? We certainly would have..."
"There is nothing you can do," Byakuya said, shaking his head, "If the child is Sousuke Aizen's, then at some point he will likely abduct me again...and he will try to take the child from me. We both know how that scenario would play out. And if the child is Kenpachi's, then you need only wait until the child is born and he leaves me."
"You are...certain he would not consider marrying you then? You have discussed it with him?"
"I have not...and I will not. He would refuse, so the question would be pointless. I will have this child and raise him or her on my own, and I will acknowledge Kenpachi as the child's father, giving him rights to visitation."
Nori considered his words and studied the weariness and half hidden sorrow in the clan leader's eyes.
"Ah...I am sorry. I know that you had hoped to marry your child's father. And despite the position that the council was forced to take based on our laws, there is sympathy for you among us. We are not heartless after all. I must admit. I am not grown so old that I do not remember how enthralling a young, wild beast can be to another young man whose life is dictated by rules, morals and propriety. The council will not make waves then. We will accept your decision and wait for the development of the child's abilities to judge his or her suitability as heir. And if the reiatsu flares the child has been causing you are any indication, I think there will be no question."
The old councilor paused and cleared his throat softly.
"There is one more thing that I have been asked to convey from the council...a concern at the...continued spirited nature of your association with Captain Zaraki."
"Oh?"
"Yes...Although we accept that your current pregnancy makes demands on you that lead to a certain amount of...'sexual intimacy,' we feel that perhaps more could be done to lend propriety to the situation."
"What exactly are you asking me to do?" queried Byakuya, his reiatsu flickering warningly.
"Oh, nothing too much," Nori said, backing off slightly, "It is just that...some of it has been so...public...so unrestrained. Your activities in the fourth division? Having relations all about the manor...'wherever you happen to drop.' as it were...until about the only place you haven't indulged is on your grandmother's old grand piano over there. I am sorry to sound rude, but could you please attempt to reach the bedroom before you...'drop?' I know it is a lot to ask, but..."
"I will take that into consideration," Byakuya said, shaking his head in annoyance, "Is there anything else?"
"N-no, I have relayed our concerns. And again I am sorry that this situation has not worked out in the way you would have wanted, but...it seems you are wise to realize that some creatures are really not meant to be caged and gentled, ne?"
Byakuya bit his lip and nodded silently.
"Well, I must be going. I will see you in council, and I will be looking forward to the news of the delivery of your child."
"Thank you," Byakuya said solemnly, not looking up as the old man left.
He let out a soft breath and walked slowly to the stately old piano, remembering when he had watched his grandmother play it. He sat down on the bench and stretched out his fingers, then played a soulful tune, the name of which had escaped him. He finished that and started a new piece, one he had heard in the living world, letting out the words in a sensuous baritone that blended beautifully with the full. lovely sound of the melody he played.
(Byakuya was playing "The Fire" by Rev Theory)
He paused in his playing as Zaraki's reiatsu touched his senses, making him turn and come to his feet as the other man approached him and stopped in front of him.
"I thought that you had something to do," Byakuya said quietly.
"I did," acknowledged the other captain, "I had to listen to make sure that old fart didn't maneuver you into questioning yourself and getting yourself all depressed. You didn't buy into that shit, did you?"
"What shit are you talking about?" Byakuya asked solemnly, "The shit about keeping you off of our child's birth record? No."
"What about the shit about taming our sexual urges?" Zaraki asked, smirking.
Still looking into Zaraki's amused eyes, Byakuya extended a delicate foot and nudged the piano bench aside. Zaraki's smirk widened into a pleased grin and he backed the noble up to the piano and let down the top to create a flat surface. He moved back to face Byakuya and brought their mouths together in a slow, deep kiss. He undressed Byakuya in an unhurried manner, carefully folding each item and laying them in a neat pile on the piano bench. When both men stood naked, he lifted the noble and set him down on the piano's shining black top, then lowered him onto his back.
"See," he said, grinning even more widely, "I can be less beastly."
He leaned forward, placing his palms on either side of the trapped noble and smiling down at him as he breathed the next words hotly in Byakuya's blushing ear.
"I just know you like me better the way I am."
Byakuya lifted his feet and set them on the closed key cover, parting his thighs as Zaraki laid his body over the noble's. Byakuya loosed a deep, breathy moan and gazed up at the glittering chandelier that hung above him, reflecting their naked bodies all over its pretty facets. He released another helpless sigh of wanton need as the man on top of him took him the way he preferred, with just a warning touch, then a single, powerful thrust that stole the breath from his lungs. Zaraki's devouring mouth inhaled the deep sound of pain he made, then made the pain disappear into a barrage of deep, penetrating thrusts that seemed to happen faster and go deeper each moment until Byakuya's vision went hazy and the naked images of them that reflected down into his eyes distorted and ran into each other, blending noble and savage, beauty and beast into a heartbreakingly lovely mosaic. He bit his lips to quell the tears that stung at his eyes and clawed at the hands that held his bottom still. He locked his slender legs around Zaraki's sturdy body, groaning with heightened arousal at the feel of that rougher skin rubbing harshly against his soft inner thighs. The bigger man's ministrations quickly took him to the ends of his wits, bringing beads of sweat onto his skin and drawing beautiful, erotic exclamations from his parted and sweetly flushed lips.
"You singing for me again, sweetheart?" Zaraki panted, smirking.
Unable to either escape or to give an indignant answer, the noble answered with a resounding scream of pleasure and hot spurts of pearly fluid that spilled out onto their skin and onto the pretty, polished surface of the piano. Zaraki's glaring eyes went suddenly senseless and he collapsed onto Byakuya's reeling body, as his seed seared the noble's insides, making him scream again.
The two laid still, exchanging slow, wet, savoring kisses.
"I thought you 'didn't do warm and fuzzy,'" Byakuya panted dizzily, "Why are you being so nice to me? Do you think I'll break?"
"Naw," Zaraki said, grinning rakishly, "I just can't stand to see Kuchiki-hime cry, that's all."
"You...!" Byakuya hissed, his eyes flaring and his reiatsu spiking sharply, "You bastard! Take that back!"
"Ah, that's more like it," Zaraki laughed as Byakuya's hands curled into fists and pounded against him, "Take it easy. You're giving me another hard on..."
"You beastly, disgusting, foul-mouthed son of a BITCH!" Byakuya seethed, "HOW DARE YOU!"
"Hey, I was just kidding..." Zaraki said, stepping back as a flare of soft, bladeless petals erupted around the furious noble, "Now, see there, you've got yourself all unbalanced again. We'd better..."
"You are not touching me again, you...you animal!"
"Oh gods," moaned Zaraki, "I really have a hard on now..."
He dragged the struggling, swearing noble off of the piano and tossed him over a shoulder, then carried him, still kicking and struggling, back to his bedroom.
I think his answer for the nobles' council asking us to calm down our sex life was a pretty resounding N-O!
Make that a resounding F-U-C-K Y-O-U!
Gods, I think I really am in love...
I'm gonna die now, aren't I?
"Hey Kuchiki?"
"Hmmm?"
"You still want me to marry you? I will."