Chapter 11: Match Made in Hell

"So...you never answered my question," Zaraki said, studying Byakuya's lovely, naked body that laid, sprawled carelessly on his back across the bed.

Zaraki waited for a moment, enjoying the glistening effect of the light sheen of sweat that remained on the noble's pale skin, the distant, senseless look in the glazed gray eyes and Byakuya's unusually relaxed demeanor. He slid his hand absently down the mostly slender torso, lingering on the pregnant swell of his abdomen, then sliding down to let his large fingers play in the still warm fluid that had dribbled onto the noble's skin in the aftermath of their most recent lovemaking.

"You hear me, Kuchiki?" he asked, nipping at Byakuya's perfectly defined collarbone, "Or have I screwed you so many times that my cum has stopped up your ears?"

"I heard you," the noble said, frowning in annoyance, "You so noisy, I couldn't avoid hearing. I was thinking."

Zaraki's head turned and he captured a soft earlobe, then sucked on it, letting the tip of his tongue trace the edge.

"You were thinking?" he repeated, smiling as the touch of his breath on the damp flesh of the noble's ear made Byakuya shiver and catch his breath, "Well, let me give you a piece of good advice, doll. Thinking too much is usually your first mistake."

Byakuya's eyes narrowed petulantly.

"I suppose I should expect such pearls of idiocy from one so primal that thinking is not just useless, it is often dangerous..."

"Huh," huffed the bigger man, watching as the noble started to sit up, then dragging him down again.

Byakuya flopped gracelessly onto Zaraki's chest, his baby bump pushing into the other man's slimmer abdomen and his flaccid member coming to rest against Zaraki's. He thought for a moment about resisting, then decided against it and let his head drop onto the other man's shoulder.

"If, by idiot, you mean that I'm not book-learned, you're right," Zaraki admitted, noting the guilty flush that touched Byakuya's skin almost immediately, "Where I come from, books are for kindling so that you don't die of the cold. But you already know that. You just said that to piss me off, so that I would forget that you hadn't answered my question."

"You never actually asked me a question," Byakuya pointed out, "You merely stated that if I wanted to get married, you are willing."

"So...do you want to get married?"

"No."

"That's not what you told the pencil-dick who came to see you today. By the way, thank him for the suggestion about doing it on that pretty grand piano. I liked that..."

"Ugh," grunted Byakuya, turning his head away, "Shut up before you make me throw up. That was my grandmother's piano."

Zaraki shrugged.

"She's dead. She doesn't care," he said callously, earning a scowl from the noble, "And I think you made your point. You don't care what that group of ancient relics thinks. You are in love with me and you want to marry me. So, lets get married then."

"Are you deaf and stupid? I said no!" Byakuya snapped, burrowing his face deeper into the other man's shoulder and tumbled black hair, "I am not going to marry you!"

"But you want to."

"No, I don't."

"You told the fucking council you did," Zaraki insisted, his temper flaring, "And you repeated it to the old fart who came here to scold you."

"He didn't come here to scold me. He was just..."

"...asking if you were going to give in to what they wanted, and warning you to mind where you fuck your barbarian boyfriend."

"You are not my boyfriend," Byakuya said, pulling away from him and trying to sit up.

He caught his breath as he was grabbed and thrown down on his back again. Zaraki's body trapped his, and the bigger man's face came close to his.

"No, I guess not," Zaraki went on, "but I am the guy who knocked you up and who you fell in love with..."

"Will you stop saying that!" Byakuya shouted, surprising himself with his own viciousness, "I never tell you that you have fallen in love with me! Why do you say things like that to me?"

"Because sometimes you need to hear it, even though it pisses you off," Zaraki answered, smirking, "And I'm not scared of what you'll do to get back at me, 'cause it's pretty much foreplay for the two of us."

"GET OFF OF ME, YOU BIG, HAIRY, BRAINLESS BEAST!" Byakuya yelled, "I can't stand you!"

"Hey, don't get your petals in a flurry. I'll let you up in a minute. But first, why don't you let your brainless, stupid idiot, non-boyfriend-beast tell you what your problem is so that we can fix it?"

"I DON'T NEED FIXING, I DON'T NEED ADVICE, AND I MOST ESPECIALLY DON'T NEED YOU!" Byakuya raged, beating his fists against the other man, "Let me up, now!"

"Naw," Zaraki said, ignoring the flurry of blows, and keeping his face carefully out of the infuriated noble's range, "You don't mean that. Just chill for a second and let me finish."

"I'll finish you!" Byakuya shouted, shifting suddenly and driving a knee into the bigger man's groin.

"Oh, shit..." grunted Zaraki, biting his lips and grabbing his injured privates.

Rage swelled up inside him at the shock of pain and golden reiatsu exploded around him, handily destroying the room as Byakuya grabbed a yukata and flash stepped away.

"Stupid ass..." muttered Zaraki, escaping the collapsing room as the wing they were in caught fire, "Hey! I hope there's nothing in there that you wanna keep, 'cause it's getting roasted! Hey! Hey, Kuchiki! Fuck..."

He grabbed his yukata and ran out of the room, beating it on the ground to put out the flame that had caught on the sleeve.

"Kuchiki!"

Byakuya ignored the other man and flash stepped blindly across the gardens, through the back gate and onto the dark, forest trail. He reached the waterfall above the lake and flash stepped down the cliff face, then across the surface of the lake and into the meadow where Zaraki had been sparring with his subordinates. He ran through the long grass, ignoring the sting on his bare legs, and only realizing that he was still naked and holding his yukata in a tightly clenched fist as he slid to a stop in the trees at the edge of the meadow. He dropped to his knees, hastily wrapping the yukata around himself. He swallowed hard, aching to make Zaraki's voice disappear from his mind, to make the other man's heat leave his insides and to forget that the two of them had ever met.

What is wrong with me?

Is this the pregnancy hormones or is he really reaching that far inside of me that I can't distance myself anymore? He keeps saying that I am in love with him, and when he says it like that, I don't want to feel it! I know he is right, but hearing him say it out loud...hurts!

A short distance away, Gin stirred in Aizen's arms, and sat up, staring as Byakuya flash stepped past them without sensing them, then dropped to his knees beneath a nearby tree.

"What is it?" Aizen asked, sleepily, sitting up and tying his clothes back in place.

"Hmmm," mused the silver-haired shinigami, "Looks like it might be a lover's spat."

"And an opportunity for us to..."

Aizen broke off as Zaraki flash stepped into view and slid to a stop in front of Byakuya, then sat down beside him. Sensing that physical touch was going to be a problem, the bigger man was careful not to touch the furious noble at first. He waited quietly for a time, allowing their flaring reiatsu to settle. Then, when Byakuya seemed quiet and not so angry anymore, he extended his hands and carefully stabilized the reiatsu within the noble's body, ignoring the instant physical effects and focusing on his angst ridden partner.

"You okay now?" he asked.

"I am fine."

"Huh, I think the wing your bedroom's in burned down, but you'll be glad to know that I lived."

"That is wonderful news," Byakuya said dryly, "Now, will you please leave me alone?"

"Hmmm, it's rude to get you all riled and leave you like that..."

"I'm fine. I don't feel like having sex right now."

"No, not mentally," agreed Zaraki, so I can just give you a hand job or a blow job. Which do you want?"

"I want you to shut up and leave me alone," the sulky noble complained, "I can take care of it myself."

"Just be quiet and don't go running off. You know that bastard Aizen is still hanging around, waiting to get you alone. Don't get stupid and reckless just because I pissed you off."

He is right, Byakuya admitted to himself, grudgingly, I overreacted. But the man makes me feel like I am losing my sanity...

"Fine, do what you want," Byakuya said tersely.

A slow, crooked smile crawled across Kenpachi's face, making Byakuya's eyes widen questioningly.

"What I want, huh?" Zaraki repeated, curling an arm around the slighter man and dragging him to his feet.

"What are you doing?" the noble asked, breathlessly, "Kenpachi..."

"You said to do what I want, so I'm doing what I want. Relax."

Byakuya started to object, but was stilled in Kenpachi's arms by a soft jolt of kido. He rested his head against the other captain's warm shoulder, watching the landscape around them blur as Zaraki flash stepped back in the direction of the manor, but surprised Byakuya by bypassing the ruined remains of the main wing and flash stepping out the front gates. He turned in the direction of the central senkaimon, taking the west gate out of the Seireitei and moving into the Rukongai.

He longed to speak, to ask where they were going, but even if not for the sedative kido that had quieted him, he had to admit, though only to himself, that it felt rather good to be carried in strong arms, taken away from the stifling company of his stuffy relatives, and surprised in some way that he found himself hoping would be a good way. But think as he might, he couldn't even begin to figure out what the big man was planning.

I'm sure it is something simple...uncomplicated, but personal. That is how he operates. And strangely, that feels like what I yearn for right now. With all of the insanity around me, I need to go somewhere quiet and have things be uncomplicated for a while. That he comprehends this about me...

It makes me feel like a fool for calling the man stupid...brainless...an idiot.

For certainly, though he is a product of the lower Rukongai, Kenpachi is not a stupid man. Though, as he said, not book learned, he knows how to survive, to prioritize, to protect what is most important. Although he speaks carelessly, sometimes callously, he is not a heartless man, and he reads people well, both friend and foe. He perceives far more than people credit him for, which makes many enemies underestimate him. He is arrogant and loud, but he has a softer, quieter side that emerges when in the presence of young children and...now, sometimes me. When he gives, he gives quietly as well, not in loud displays, but in small, meaningful ways.

He expresses his emotions in a flippant way, acting sometimes as though he just accepts that the world is not fair and that bad things happen...good people die. But...if you learn to sense the current of pain beneath the words and casual attitude, you realize that Kenpachi Zaraki is steely on the surface, but harbors a hidden gentleness. He pretends not to care as a way of protecting his heart. He is naturally protective of people weaker than himself. And despite all of his claims to the contrary, the man is in love with me.

Sometimes I am tempted to tell him that. But...as a matter of respect, I will not speak what belongs to him and him alone. If he wants to tell me that one day, he will. In the meantime, I will make myself content with the small signs of his affection...the way he steals odd, amused glances at me...the way he likes to shock me out of my moodiness by making me angry...the way he shares his indignation over the way 'those stuffy old farts' try to run my life...how he remains at my side, even though he must be bored out of his mind, not being out killing things...and most of all, the way he touches me. The man's touch does not lie. As much as he says that my eyes tell the truth, the way Kenpachi yields touches tells everything also. From his killing blow to that line of soft kisses he makes along the skin of my throat, from hands that clench to hold a loved one away from death, to those that calmly let go when they know there is no other choice...yes...touch.

Byakuya realized suddenly that Kenpachi had stopped, and that they were now in a heavily forested area he imagined was the lowest part of the Rukongai.

This...

He is...taking me 'home' as it were.

Why?

Does he think that I do not know of this place?

Why did he bring me here.

"Wake up, princess, we're here."

Byakuya looked around as he was set back on his feet, and found himself staring in disbelief.

All around them stood miles of choked forest with scraggly trees ranging from mostly alive to dead and dried into sticks. But one huge old oak tree stood out. Byakuya swallowed hard and moved forward, staring at the lively branches that hung down, shading the trunk that bore a number of carved words.

"Names?" he whispered, stepping forward, "Kenpachi, what is this place? What is this tree? Why did you bring me here?"

Kenpachi moved forward and placed a palm on the old tree, wearing a more serious look than Byakuya wagered he had ever seen on his face.

"This is the oldest tree in the Rukongai," he said in that softer, almost purring, relaxed tone that was becoming more and more a part of their interactions, "Said to have been here since the beginning of the three worlds. Legend has it that the soul king set this tree here as a message to those who live here. Be strong. Make yourself hard. Live. And when you find a love that is strong enough to last, even through death...carve your names into the tree and say your vows...then give yourselves to each other underneath the branches, and your love will transcend even death. This is how we get married in the lowest part of the Rukongai. There are no churches, no witnesses, no formalities, no fancy clothes, no odd traditions, nothing but two souls binding themselves together in a way that can't be undone...not by anything."

He studied Byakuya's bowed head and lowered eyes for a moment, then went on.

"What I was trying to tell you before...was this. You see, you have two incompatible views on marriage. The first is your white bread, stuck up, choked with tradition, put your ass out there for show, marriage. That's what's in your mind when you say that you don't want to marry me. But...sometimes you admit that you do want to marry me. And I guarantee you, you're not thinking of a noble marriage ceremony when you find yourself wanting to marry me. You're thinking of something more like this, ne? Small, private, uncomplicated, but personal, meaningful, lasting...honest."

"And you...want this with me?" Byakuya asked, his heart pounding fitfully.

Zaraki grinned.

"Hey, it's better than having to dress up and act respectable, ne? We exchange vows, carve our names in the tree and follow up with some good sex..."

"Hoping that no one else has planned their wedding for today," muttered the noble, "That would be awkward."

"Huh..." huffed Zaraki, "Look closer. For a tree that's been there since the beginning of time, there aren't so many names. I don't know. Maybe because people get scared of the rumors...some shit about a spirit in the tree that judges you and makes you fight if it doesn't think you're worthy or meant to be together."

Byakuya stepped forward and let his fingers run over the carved names, his mind working quickly.

"You are right," he admitted, "There aren't so many...for a tree purported to have been here since the beginning of time."

"Which either means that the stories are true...or that someone's got a pretty damned good hoax going on here. But why don't we give this a try? You want to?"

"What do we have to do?"

Zaraki's hand captured his and pressed it to an unmarked space on the tree.

"What?"

"Shh...don't talk. Wait."

Byakuya stared at where their joined hands touched the tree, and a moment later, golden reiatsu flared around Zaraki, and soft pink light rose around the spellbound noble. The two energies sank into the trunk of the old oak, and the two shinigamis felt an odd vibration under their feet. Byakuya's head turned and his hair flitted in the rising breeze as his eyes met Zaraki's and he felt a very old consciousness touch his mind. A shiver of intense uncertainty raked the noble's insides as he felt the two of them fall under scrutiny. It was a though an outside eye peered into everything, reading, analyzing, judging. A sweat broke out on the noble's forehead and his knees went weak. He felt an odd, warning twinge inside as the light around them faded and the area around them went still and quiet.

"Kenpachi..." he whispered, looking around and frowning at how silent the place had become.

"Huh," mused the bigger man, "I guess that means the spirit didn't have a problem with us adding our names. But ah, maybe you'd better do it because I don't kido write well...one power swell and I'd shatter that tree."

"Are you sure that it approved us?" Byakuya asked warily.

"Oh, you don't really believe in that horse shit, do you?" Zaraki asked as Byakuya moved forward, shaking his head and extending a calm fingertip to begin carving.

As the kido touched the tree, the branches above the noble quivered, and Byakuya's mind was assaulted by an infuriated roar.

Oh, this is not good!

The next thing he knew, gnarled branches wrapped around the noble and lifted him off of his feet.

"You IDIOT!" he yelled at his stunned mate, "It didn't accept us! It wants to fight!"

"Aww, shit. I must have misremembered the story," mused Zaraki, "Don't worry, sweetheart. I'll have you down in a flash."

"And when you're done with the damned tree, I am going to kill you!" cried the enraged noble.

He gasped as the branches that held him turned him upside down.

"Kenpachi!"

"I got it! I got it!" the other man said, drawing his sword, "Bastard tree wants to fight, we'll fight!"

Byakuya tried to draw his weapon to cut himself free, but found his limbs too tightly bound to move. Below him, Zaraki gave a pleased cry and.

"You want to fight over him," he howled, his eyes glinting as strange dry lightning cracked in the air around them, "I say, FUCK YEAH! Let's fight, you piece of shit!"

"That's what this is about? Some stupid, fight to show your strength while I hang upside down here? What happens if you lose?"

"Eh...I think it eats you," Zaraki said, staring as a pair of malevolent golden eyes opened on the trunk of the tree.

"Bastard! Get me down! What the hell were you thinking, bringing me here!"

"Calm down, will you?" Zaraki complained, stepping out of the path of a sweeping branch, "You're throwing off my concentration."

"I'll throw off more than that if you don't hurry up and kill this thing! The blood is running to my head. I'm getting dizzy."

"Oh good," snarked Zaraki, rolling his eyes, "Maybe you'll pass out and SHUT THE FUCK UP SO SOME OF US WHO AREN'T STUCK UP IN A TREE CAN FIGHT!"

"Kenpachi!" the noble cried, an edge of fear cutting through the anger as the branch that curled around his waist tightened, "I think there's a time limit on this. The limbs are constricting!"

"Ah..." sighed the bigger man, "Shit...I hate rushing through a fight."

"Well, I hate getting squeezed to death even more! Almost as much as I hate YOU!" Byakuya snapped.

"All right, big fella," Kenpachi said to the snarling tree, "What say you put my little woman down?"

"You son of a bitch! Don't you DARE refer to me as a woman again!"

"Well, you make a good damsel in distress, I gotta say...very pretty all flushed and pissed like that," Kenpachi said, dodging another sweeping limb and raising his reiatsu.

"SHUT UP AND GET ME DOWN FROM HERE!"

"Okay, okay!" groaned Zaraki, swinging his sword and sending a heavy blast of power at the trunk, "I'm working on it. Don't get your panties in a knot!"

He blinked in surprise as a large mouth opened on the trunk of the tree and inhaled his attack.

"Oh...fuck me, that's bad..."

"KENPACHI!" Byakuya screamed as the other man's power was released back at him, coupled with the tree's own power, striking the big man and sending him tumbling away.

Byakuya's turned to ice in his veins as the limbs that held him began to lower him towards the tree's huge mouth.

"Kenpachi!" he cried, struggling uselessly, "KENPACHI!"

It will end quickly. Do not worry, the tree whispered into the stunned noble's mind.

Byakuya's breath froze in his lungs as the branches dragged him downward.

"KENPACHI!"