A/N: This takes place far, far into the future of previous chapters. I do like jumping all over the timeline. Also, thank you for your review, lone reviewer. :)
Verse: 'Half-Canon'.
It had all started one day over breakfast.
Even though they had been married for over half a year now, it still felt wonderfully surreal to Hisana whenever she ate breakfast with her husband. They normally awoke at different times—she, between eight to nine in the morning, and he, at half past five, to head for the Sixth Division. Hisana had tried countless times to awaken at the time he did so that she could see him off, but her body never cooperated, and she always overslept past that time. She'd then asked him to wake her up when he did, but he never obliged.
Hisana didn't even feel people were biologically equipped to wake up so early. As far she was concerned, the soldiers of the Gotei Thirteen were damned machines. It was true her husband was a particular stickler for punctuality, but she was also aware that all of the Shinigami had to report for duty by latest seven in the morning. It sounded brutal to her.
But this morning had been special. It was one of the few days a week where he either didn't have to head so early for the Sixth Division, or he didn't have to go at all in order to devote his attention to private business related to the Kuchiki House.
Hisana cherished those days, since they provided those blessed mornings where she got to enjoy breakfast, which she perpetually ate alone, with Byakuya. Every minute shared with him was a minute she dearly treasured.
The two of them had been having breakfast from individual food trays on the table, Hisana daintily plucking boiled spinach with her bamboo chopsticks and bringing it to her lips, when the unexpected wave of nausea hit her.
She froze, the chopsticks halfway to her mouth.
Hisana was instantly aware of her husband's gaze upon her, while Akari and Seike, standing in the banquet hall with them, appeared quizzical.
"Hisana-sama?" Akari asked, mystified. "Is everything all right?"
Hisana wanted to answer, but the nausea was overwhelming, and she feared she'd hurl all over the table if she so much as tried to speak.
She slammed the chopsticks onto the table, the morsel of boiled spinach thrown aside, and then, to her mortification, gagged audibly, one hand flying to cover her mouth.
"Hisana-sama!" Akari sounded horrified. "What's wrong?"
"N–Nothing," Hisana forced out. It was the truth. The nausea had abruptly passed, almost like it had never been there, leaving her more embarrassed than ever at her actions.
She felt a familiar warm hand pressing onto her back then, stroking the curve of her spine gently, and she looked up to see Byakuya gazing intently down at her.
"Are you all right?" he said calmly.
"Yes, I'm fine," Hisana said hastily. She could feel her cheeks burning. How impudent she'd been, gagging over the food the chefs under the Kuchiki House had so painstakingly prepared. Back in the Rukon District, such a meal would have been an impossible luxury, and yet here she was, gagging in front of the man who had upgraded her life completely. "I'm so sorry, Byakuya-sama…"
With his hand still resting on her back, his slate grey eyes flickered towards Akari. "Get her a cup of warm plain water."
"There's no need—" Hisana protested, but Akari bowed deeply.
"Understood, Byakuya-sama!" she chorused, then scampered off, the tatami creaking beneath her feet.
"I'm honestly fine, Byakuya-sama," Hisana added placatingly. "I feel back to normal now."
It was peculiar, though. Where had that nausea come from? Surely it couldn't have been food poisoning. She'd shared the exact same dinner with her husband last night, the latter whom remained unaffected today, not to mention the Kuchiki chefs were renowned for the freshness and high hygiene standards of their culinary offerings.
They wouldn't be able to afford the consequences otherwise, considering they served one of the Four Noble Houses.
And it wasn't as if she was averse or allergic to the breakfast items today—rice, boiled spinach adorned with soy sauce and dried bonito flakes, tamagoyaki, miso soup, salt-grilled sea bream—since she'd consumed each and every one of them before, and had been perfectly fine.
So if it wasn't food poisoning or food allergies, what was that…?
Hisana was certain that Byakuya had arrived at a conclusion similar to hers, though his blasé visage revealed nothing of his thoughts. Seike, too, said nothing, but his eyes behind those round spectacles were fixed on his master, a strange emotion Hisana couldn't decipher shining in them.
Byakuya glanced wordlessly at his steward, his slender hand still on Hisana's back, but he made no comment at what he saw in the latter's wrinkled face.
Hisana was puzzled. She felt as if a silent exchange had transpired between master and servant, only she had no idea what.
The girl debated asking them about it, but decided at last that she was probably reading too much into the situation.
It was probably nothing significant at all.
To her confusion, however, the strangeness didn't end there.
The next morning, Hisana overslept. And by overslept, she didn't mean waking up later than half past five in the morning, which was the time her husband awoke.
She meant awakening at twelve in the afternoon, which had never, ever, happened before unless she'd been ill.
"You must have been very tired last night, Hisana-sama," Akari, sitting by her bedside, had said kindly, seeing Hisana's aghast expression.
"I wasn't…" Hisana, sitting up on the futon, ran a bewildered hand through her mussed ebony locks. She hadn't felt exceptionally tired the night before, no more than usual. She'd made love with Byakuya once, and then they'd both retired for the night. Technically one round of lovemaking was considered tame for their regular routine, so she couldn't ascribe her oversleeping today to that.
But what was more bizarre was how sluggish she felt for the rest of the day even though she'd awoken late. She'd planned to head for the Rukon District today to hunt for her sister after she balanced the business accounts for the Kuchiki shops and boutiques, but for some reason, couldn't seem to find the energy to focus on computing the balance sheet, and ended up staring blearily at the numbers the rest of the afternoon.
Originally, Byakuya himself and a few related personnel under him would handle the business accounts. Money attracted money, and the Kuchiki retail establishments were doing extremely well in their trade purveying various goods, with their primary clientele being other high-ranking aristocrats in Kizokugai. Ever since Hisana had been engaged to marry into the family, however, she'd insisted on learning how to handle the financial accounts in her then-fiancé's stead.
It was the least she could do as the Lady of the House, and to lessen the heavy burdens on her lover's shoulders.
Still, it was intimidating, to say the least, to handle and calculate the staggering amounts of profit the Kuchiki House earned monthly, which were easily enough to purchase several residences in Seireitei. A mistake on her part would imply disastrous ramifications. This was why Byakuya himself would look through the accounts once she was done balancing them.
And she would sit beside him like a nervous wreck, fearing he'd uncover any serious miscalculations she'd made. He was much, much faster than she was, those long, dexterous fingers flying over the calculator with accurate precision as he moved swiftly from one equation to another. Thanks to the Technological Development Department in the Twelfth Division, they'd invented very handy mobile calculators for members of Seireitei that was ahead of even the Living World.
Yet sometimes her husband didn't even need the calculator; it'd take her a couple of seconds to realise he'd moved onto the next computation already with new values he'd derived mentally.
He was meticulous, clever and quick, which Hisana had initially assumed came from years of experience of closing the financial accounts, but she'd been at this for a over half a year now and she still wasn't anywhere as fast.
He had never reprimanded her whenever he unearthed a mistake she made, even the severe ones that threw off most of her other subsequent calculations. He merely crossed out the incorrect number she'd written and continued with the rest of the calculations, while she apologised fervently from beside him. She definitely deserved a rebuke for that, in her opinion. She was, after all, aware that his subordinates were often on the receiving end of his disapprobation for any mistakes they made.
But Byakuya never said anything to criticise her, his demeanour as unflappable as ever instead of showing signs of disapproval.
Regardless, this drove a determined Hisana to ensure that the balance sheet was perfectly totalled and calculated when she handed it to him for his inspection. She had already summed up the assets for every respective shop under this month's balance sheet, which consisted of current, fixed and intangible assets as well as the investments the Kuchiki House had made, and she'd planned to wrap up the liabilities and equity today before she headed for the Rukon District.
Only she felt strangely lethargic, and found herself on the verge of dozing off several times throughout the day. As a result, she kept recalculating the entries on the balance sheet in case she'd made a blunder from her sleepiness.
Hisana had also asked for some tea to keep her awake, but to her bafflement, Akari had brought her a Japanese ceramic cup of red tea instead of the customary matcha, which defeated the purpose since red tea was caffeine-free. Nonetheless, it went against Hisana's nature to complain, and she'd simply taken the tea with thanks and went about with her work.
Unsurprisingly, her fatigue had not been alleviated, and by the time dinner approached and the Captain had returned to the Manor from the Sixth Division, she was still working on the balance sheet. She would have preferred to forego dinner in favour of concentrating on her work had her husband not ordered her to put the accounts aside. When it came to her meals, he was always resolute in ensuring she ate.
Reluctantly, she'd gone for dinner, the only comfort being that she was dining with her beloved. Some nights he returned late, which meant she had to have dinner by herself. She'd always questioned him upon his return if he'd had dinner at the Sixth Division Barracks—she hated the idea of him missing meals just as much as he did her. As far as she was concerned, he needed sustenance more than she did since he possessed vast spiritual power compared to her almost negligible capacity, not to mention his responsibilities far outweighed hers. If not for her sister, she would have close to nothing to do at home.
And then, on that very night, another strange occurrence followed.
It had happened when their individual dinner trays had been placed before them. Hisana's was slightly different from Byakuya's; hers had been specially prepared Okinawa soba topped with fish cake, a humongous slice of pork belly, slivered scallion, and pickled ginger, while his had been spicy soba noodles with fresh coriander and sesame seeds, accompanied by eggs sprinkled generously with seven-flavour chilli pepper.
The first thing that hit Hisana was the strong scent of the chilli.
The second thing that hit her was overwhelming nausea. She had long grown used to that smell, so she had no clue why she felt so violently ill now in response to it.
She recoiled from the table, her hand flying to her mouth once more, and—unable to help herself—gagged. She was dimly aware of the servants' alarm, and Byakuya moving swiftly to her side.
"Take the eggs away," he said sharply to Seike, who obeyed immediately. The old man picked up the plate containing the eggs and hurried out of the banquet hall with it.
Byakuya had guessed correctly. The moment Seike disappeared with the eggs, the smell faded, and gradually so did Hisana's nausea.
She lowered her hand, feeling the faint heat of shame creep upon her cheeks. What the hell was wrong with her? She knew by now that Byakuya enjoyed spicy foods, including the seven-flavour chilli pepper, and she'd gagged at it? It was bad enough that she'd made a scene, but she'd driven her husband to remove a dish he was partial to. If not for him, she would have nothing but stale bread to eat each day at the Rukon District, but instead of being grateful, she'd infringed on his meals too.
What was going on with her stupidly sensitive gag reflex, anyway? She'd never had an issue like this before. Was she going through some sort of a stomach bug?
Hisana turned to the Kuchiki Head, and bent her ebony head contritely.
"I'm so sorry, Byakuya-sama," she forced out wretchedly. "I don't know what came over me, but I am so, so sorry I ruined your dinner…"
He held her chin and gently lifted her head, so that her large miserable violet orbs met his slate grey eyes, which were uncharacteristically softer than usual.
"Are you feeling all right now?" he said quietly.
"Yes," Hisana responded instantly. "I–I don't know what's wrong with me recently." She exhaled frustratedly.
He made no remark of his own, but reached out and cupped the side of her heart-shaped face in his hand, gently caressing her cheek with his calloused thumb. It had been more than half a year since their wedding, but his touch never failed to spike her heartbeat and ignite heat in her belly.
Seike returned then with a plate containing a thin sheet of fried tofu devoid of any spices, which he placed carefully in Byakuya's tray. The sight of the new dish made Hisana's stomach roll in guilt, and she averted her eyes remorsefully towards her own tray.
"Eat, Hisana."
She started then at her husband's smooth, deep voice, the latter having let go of her, and she hastily turned and grabbed her chopsticks, not daring to disobey.
"… Itadakimasu, Byakuya-sama," Hisana whispered, putting her hands together.
It was also a desperate prayer that nothing would go wrong again to ruin his dinner.
Fortunately, the rest of dinner proceeded without a hitch.
She was now in the study with him after they had finished dinner, working furiously on the balance sheet while he went through his own voluminous paperwork from the Sixth Division. Looking at their individual tables made her want to laugh despairingly at the disparity; his papers, so neatly and impeccably stacked, and hers, absolutely haywire, with random sheets scattered haphazardly. She wasn't typically this messy, but her mind was awfully frazzled today, and she couldn't keep track of all the details needed for her calculations.
Hisana jabbed the buttons of her calculator, then jotted down the value onto her paper with her brush. She didn't get why she was still so fatigued—it was only seven in the evening. She'd taken an entire day working on the liabilities and equities of all the shops when usually, she was certain she could finish them in a few hours if she put her mind to it.
Was it because of the strange stomach bug she was having?
She really needed some caffeine, but Akari had served them red tea again in the study. Hisana had waited fervently for her husband to comment on the deviation from the matcha they normally had, but to her puzzlement and disappointment, he hadn't said a word.
If even he had said nothing, then she could hardly complain, could she?
Putting her calculator down, Hisana bit her lip in growing frustration when she saw that the equity and liabilities didn't tally with the assets on the balance sheet for the fabric shop. She tamped down the atypical urge to slam the calculator on the desk. Seriously? She'd been pecking away at the fabric shop for ages already!
She forcefully stifled a yawn, and rubbed her eyes. This was getting ridiculous. She was considering whether to muster the guts to ask for some caffeine after all when she realised belatedly that her husband had risen from his zabuton.
She jumped, utterly taken aback that she hadn't felt Byakuya approach. Before she could so much as utter a word, however, he had knelt down before her, dipping his raven head, and next thing she knew, his cool lips were on hers, silencing whatever she'd been about to say.
The months of marriage had done little to subdue her passion for him; if anything, it seemed to have only strengthened her feelings. Nothing stopped time quite like the magical sensation of his lips against hers. It was difficult to think of the financial accounts she should be doing when he was intoxicating her like this, his sensuous mouth delving and coaxing her petal lips open. She obeyed mindlessly, her mind already disoriented from her work earlier, feeling his tongue slide seamlessly through the hot wet cavern of her mouth.
Unhesitatingly, she twined her tongue with his, craving intimate contact with a man often so detached and aloof. She could feel the familiar possessiveness welling up within her person, of wanting to claim him in that act, where no one else, not even individuals from the Kuchiki House or the Sixth Division, could have him. Here, while they kissed, he was neither a Captain nor the Head of a Noble House.
He was just the man she loved, and whom she would continue loving fiercely for the rest of her life.
She was almost crushed for a second when his mouth abruptly left hers, but was immediately gratified again when he planted more wet, suckling kisses down the alabaster column of her neck. She threaded her thin hands into his lengthy ebony tresses, marvelling at how silky the male's hair was. Her hand then skimmed across his smooth skin of his cheek, fingers reverently tracing the angular planes of his face and the strong, defined jawline.
"Byakuya-sama," Hisana breathed unsteadily, struggling to regain her bearings through the cloud of lust over her senses as he maintained his ministrations on her neck. "I need to… The accounts…"
In reply, his slender hand went to the cord tying her one-piece hadajuban together under her pink haori.
It always fascinated Hisana that the regal, pristine and taciturn Captain was a completely different person in bed. He was nearly always law-abiding, very critical of his own conduct as well as that of his peers and subordinates—traits she admired greatly—and despised unruliness, rowdiness, and lawlessness. His elegance and aristocracy in both appearance and mannerisms further cemented the perception that he himself was above any forms of impropriety.
That perception was wrong.
In bed, the austere, strait-laced man was gone, and in his place was an insatiable deviant who very much enjoyed partaking in carnal debauchery with her. Hisana would never have thought someone as controlled as Kuchiki Byakuya to possess such an appetite—according to Akari, he hadn't even had a courtesan before he'd met Hisana, which was apparently a very common practice for noblemen.
For that, Hisana was selfishly glad.
Yet over the six months of their marriage, they'd made love through various positions, and ventured in bondage, edging and power exchange. They had not explored anything too extreme in terms of sexual kinks, hence her husband had not been as unorthodox in that regard, but it was the frequency and the way the lovemaking had been executed that drove her insane.
But Hisana was a perfect match for him, because she was as insatiable as he was in spite of her own demureness. Her husband had introduced her to a delicious world that she had no interest in backing out of, so long as this occurred behind closed doors.
Thus, she made no further protest when Byakuya adroitly undid the cord of her hadajuban, and when he rained a path of fiery kisses down her creamy neck and onto the exposed swell of her breasts, where the sides of her cotton slip had loosened. His hand reached up to cup the miniature mound of her left breast.
The sudden pain had been entirely unexpected, and it jostled her right out of her lust-addled daze.
With a cry, Hisana shrank back instinctively from Byakuya's long-fingered hand, shocked by the rush of pain that had seized her breast at his touch.
He stopped at once, his slate grey eyes widening almost imperceptibly at the visible pain in her face.
Hisana inhaled a laboured breath. She hadn't noticed this earlier, but her breasts currently felt sore and tender, something that she'd never experienced prior.
"I'm sorry, Byakuya-sama," she finally choked out. "My…" Too mortified to say it aloud, she gingerly touched the fringe of her cotton hadajuban hanging by her left breast to indicate what she was referring to. "They're very sore and sensitive today. I don't know why…"
He regarded her silently for a moment, and then she saw a strange comprehension cross his features, the faint shock fading to be replaced by his usual calm, measured mien.
Not for once, Hisana wondered what conclusion he'd arrived to from her revelation. She has no clue why her traitorous body was behaving the way it did as of late.
"Come here."
Hisana obeyed, shuffling back into his arms.
"Are you still in pain?" he murmured, taking her hand into his bigger one.
"Not anymore," she reassured him quickly.
He said nothing more. Instead, he let go of her hand and reached down to the opening of her garment, brushing either side further away from her exposed breasts, which fell and rose harshly at her nerves and excitement.
Then he lifted Hisana up so that she was straddling him on his lap, and she felt the area between her legs dampen.
This was both of their favorite lovemaking position.
Instead of disrobing himself, however, he elevated her slim, petite body slightly with one hand on her narrow waist and the other supporting her shoulder blade, and nuzzled the swell of her small breasts that were now positioned near his face. Shockingly, there was no pain this time—he was very cautious, languorous, and gentle. She felt his tongue, ever-so lightly, trace the pebbled peak of her nipple, and she gasped.
Sore and tender as her breasts were, it also meant they were much more sensitive. She felt the touch on her nipple through a potent electric current right down to her loins.
He moved on to her other breast, the tip of his tongue tracing a feather-light trail across the milky underside of her flesh and making her shudder uncontrollably due to her hypersensitivity. Her gasps escalated into a high-pitched moan when his heated tongue finally brushed the erected rosy point of her nipple, then slowly laved it again with the same feather-light strokes.
Those faint, fleeting strokes teasing her skin had never felt more acute, and she found herself writhing slightly in pleasure and breathing hard from where she was being elevated in his grasp.
Then Byakuya lifted her further up again effortlessly—she only weighed eighty pounds at most—and swept the disorganised sheets of the financial accounts she'd been working on to one side of her desk, a move that shocked Hisana immensely considering how strictly he valued all business pertaining to the Kuchiki House, and placed her onto the newly accommodated space on said desk. Then, under the separated skirts of her hadajuban, he parted her fair thighs, opening her up to him.
Hisana sat there, panting, her hands splayed on the elm wood of her desk as she canted her hips to allow Byakuya to slide the now soaked cotton fabric of her underwear past her skinny legs, his slate grey eyes darkening when he took in the sight revealed behind her underwear. He raised her bare, shapely leg and lowered it over his broad shoulder, and clasped her narrow hip securely in one male hand to help keep her balance.
Hisana arched her back then, sprawled in the disarray of her unravelled cotton slip and pink haori, when she felt him part the dripping folds of her labia with his deft fingers, followed by the caress of his tongue right where she needed him most.
It had always floored and stricken her to have Kuchiki Byakuya, a man whose station towered so highly above hers, kneeling before her, his patrician raven head dipped in between her thighs. The entire scenario was terribly surreal. She liked and disliked it at the same time—he should not have to degrade himself for someone as undeserving as herself. Yet he was unnervingly good at what he did, reducing her to a floundering, moaning mess on the desk as he relentlessly flicked the swollen, engorged bud of her clitoris with his teeth and tongue.
And throughout it all, those piercing slate grey eyes bored unapologetically into her glazed violet eyes, sending her heart into wild cartwheels inside her chest. Abashedly, she wanted to cover her face with her hands and hide her vulnerable expression from him, but she knew the consequences of such an action from past experiences, and it took everything she had to refrain herself.
And when her husband finally ceased his flicking to suck her blood-filled clitoris hard into his mouth, Hisana came apart with a loud, high-pitched scream, her orgasm wracking her svelte body unrepentantly, her delicate features scrunched up with ecstasy. For all of her reservedness and diffidence, she was very vocal in bed—not for lack of trying, the diminutive woman was unable to stop herself from the embarrassing noises that spilled from her lips, especially when she reached orgasm. She bucked her hips uncontrollably into his mouth, feeling herself release an ungodly amount of juices, which he licked clean.
Soon, her climax dissipated away, Hisana shuddering as he lapped lazily at the still-fluttering folds of her sex.
"Byakuya-sama," she croaked. "I want to… Please…"
Please make love to me.
He slowly released his grip on her slim hips, his features intent but otherwise cryptic as ever as he withdrew from her inner thighs. She slid down from the desk on wobbly legs, her timid hands reaching out for the sash tying together his kinagashi. Since returning to the Kuchiki Manor, he had changed out of his shihakushō, windflower silk scarf and Captain's haori into an informal plain white haori over a pale blue kinagashi.
It took her several seconds to undo the sash, her hands shaky with nervousness and eagerness. She separated the layers of silk including his white underrobe, her mouth turning dry at the sleek, lean muscles underneath. Byakuya was almost as fair as she was, his body a beautiful work of pale marble; he'd never been bulky, but was rather sleek and incredibly toned, like a rangy cat.
But what captivated Hisana the most was his evident arousal. In light of his unreadable, almost serene mien, this was the most prominent giveaway that he wasn't as unaffected as he appeared.
He made no move—no indication of what he planned to do next. Her heart beating rapidly, she knelt down, fingertips meekly tracing the velvety length of his arousal, and took him into her little mouth.
Hisana loved doing this for him. After everything he had done for her, and despite her financial inability to repay his love, this was the one thing that she could provide for him, and to show how much she loved him in return.
She took in more of him that she could, her tongue shyly probing the underside of his impressive girth, and sucked on him as vigorously as possible, wanting to maximise his pleasure. Unlike Byakuya, it was difficult for her to muster the courage to make eye contact with him during the few times she provided oral sex (yet he did it every single time he provided it for her), so all she was aware of was his slender hand softly stroking her short ebony hair.
Today, something made her look up for the first time, and her pulse stuttered in her veins at the sight of his lidded dark eyes gazing down at her.
"Enough."
Hisana blinked when his long, adroit fingers took hold of her chin, moving her slick mouth gently off him. She wasn't surprised he'd done it; for some reason, her husband did not like spending in her mouth.
He much preferred doing so inside of her.
Byakuya's hands went to the sides of her narrow waist and he picked her up into his arms so that she was straddling him like before. She had grown wet once more and needed relief again, her own arms winding around his neck eagerly for what was to come. His fingers caressed her weeping, slippery pink folds, the tip of his middle finger teasing her vaginal opening for a brief heartbeat, making her moan.
Satisfied she was lubricated enough, her husband withdrew his now soaked fingers, and brought them to her lips.
Trained by now to know what he expected of her, Hisana sucked his long, nimble fingers clean, tasting herself—sweet, salty and musky at the same time—on him, her heart-shaped face suffused with colour.
"Byakuya-sama…" she implored, once he pulled his fingers with an audible pop from her swollen lips. "Please…"
She needed him inside her—needed release again.
He kissed her then, those minty lips devouring her pliant ones. Her head spun throughout the kiss as she felt him lowering her body onto him, seating her onto the broad head of his arousal, her sodden folds parting bit by bit to accommodate her lover as he sheathed himself unhurriedly into her tight, slick channel. She was so tiny compared to him that penetration was always difficult at first, but her husband never rushed the process, taking his time to ensure she was sufficiently lubricated from foreplay and to slowly hilt himself into her.
Hisana moaned drunkenly again, twining both her legs around his waist. There was nothing in the world that beat having Kuchiki Byakuya inside of her. He was always so aloof, so distant, so seemingly removed from the rest of the world that even she felt far away from him at times.
But he couldn't be any closer to her now, with him literally inside of her, their robes splayed out from their joined bodies in a blend of pale blue and pink, so that she couldn't tell where he began and she ended.
Once he had fully hilted himself, he paused for a moment, giving her time to adjust to his entry, spending the time instead to continue tasting her lips in a dizzyingly sweet kiss.
The dizzying sensation only heightened when his hands, which had remained on her small waist, lifted her up while she was still impaled on him.
Then Byakuya brought her down in a swift, fluid motion, and she broke off the kiss to let out a little scream of euphoria, her violet eyes rolling back as the crown of his arousal struck her internal sweet spot head-on.
By now, with their having made love in this position countless times, her husband knew every inch of her pint-sized body like the back of his hand, and he continued lifting her slight weight and bringing her down onto his erection, hitting that elusive G-spot now and then through the angle he was more than familiar with. His slate grey eyes were almost the colour of obsidian now from stark masculine desire as he stared hungrily at her flushed, dazed visage, her tight passageway squeezing him in a vice-grip with every pistoning movement of her hips. It was the most visceral emotion she ever saw on his face.
"Byakuya-sama—aah—I'm–I'm going to..." Hisana could feel it now, the simmering, boiling tension that was about to erupt within her lower body and provide her with the sweet relief she so craved.
She was so close; she needed to come...
In response, he bent his head and, timing his ministrations, licked one of her oversensitive rosy nipples right as her little breasts bounced faintly up from his bringing her down onto him, the head of his shaft plundering that sacred spot once more.
Yes!
"Byakuya—!" Hisana cried, unable to finish her statement with the proper honorific the moment her powerful orgasm hit her.
Her inner walls clamped down onto him like a snug, heated glove and she wailed, her muscles bursting into a series of sporadic contractions and causing her to squirt around him. As she always did whenever she came in this position, one of her legs, originally twined around his waist, straightened and turned ramrod-stiff, her toes curling from her intense climax. He let go of one side of her waist and gently stroked that leg, soothing her through the ferocious pleasure rampaging through her thin frame.
Hisana could tell, however, from his narrowed grey eyes that he was doing his utmost not to let her milk him into completion with her. Feeling naughty, she clenched harder onto him, wanting him to lose himself as well.
His grey eyes went sharply to her face, narrowing further dangerously, and then the hand touching her leg moved towards where they were joined to fondle the tiny sensitized, engorged bud that was her clitoris peeking from the top of her vulva, and she cried out.
With her just coming down from an orgasm, the stimulation was near unbearable, and she pleaded breathlessly for him to stop.
"Byakuya-sama, my… my… I'm sore," Hisana gasped raggedly. She was referring to her breasts, which were more tender and sensitive than ever from being jostled by all of her up-and-down motions of riding him. This had never happened before, since she wasn't endowed enough in that aspect for it to be a concern, so she had no idea why she was suffering from this now.
Fortunately for her, her lover understood what she meant. So much of their communication came from reading between the lines, what with his reticence and her shyness—how he'd asked for her hand in marriage had been a prime example.
Byakuya carefully hoisted her off of him, and she groaned, feeling empty and bereft without him inside of her. However, he lowered her onto the floor, placing her head onto the zabuton she'd been sitting on earlier, then reached over to his own zabuton and slid it under her back as support, her pink haori spread out prettily beneath her.
Then, hefting both of her legs with his hands to wrap them around his waist, he entered her again in a slow, deliberate stroke, his own white haori cascading down either side of her.
Hisana whimpered in pleasure, her hands tangling themselves in his long jet-black hair. This time, with her lying on her back with the cushions supporting her, her breasts weren't as affected by his thrusts, and she dug her heels into the small of his back at the wondrous friction, her vision turning white every time he managed to collide into her sweet spot inside of her womb.
She found herself hurtling towards her peak rapidly, and her hands fell from his raven mane to clutch blindly at his robed back as a final thrust from him—as well as the pads of his fingers unexpectedly moving down and rubbing her clit close to where they were merged together—sent her toppling off the edge and sobbing his name as she did so.
This time, Byakuya followed her off the edge, his lips finding hers roughly, and she held him closer to her when she felt the heady liquid warmth of him filling her up. She loved the sensation; she couldn't help but feel possessive being able to take into her a piece of him as a souvenir even after their lovemaking sessions had concluded.
Her Captain was just that: hers.
Coming down from the sexual high, Hisana could feel lethargy creeping back into her senses, this time in renewed force. No sedative was more effective to her than after sex. She was always near comatose post coitus and was absolutely unable to function afterwards, especially at night.
Her legs slackened from around him and began to slide down, as did her arms. She felt him pull out of her, the tantalising heat of his body warmth fading, followed by a rustle in the distance as he turned away and deftly retied his obi belt over his robes. It was inhuman how he was still able to function normally after an intense lovemaking session like that, she thought hazily.
Then he approached her again, crouching down before her supine form, taking a wordless second to observe her, she assumed, though it was hard to tell with her sleepy doe eyes half-lidded. His arm went under her shoulders and the other under the crook of her knees, and he promptly scooped her up into his arms, her pale pink haori fluttering beneath her.
Hisana was too exhausted and spent to even so much as stir. All she wanted to do now was fall into a deep slumber as her mind grew increasingly blank and her eyes grew heavy.
She was already asleep by the time Byakuya laid her gently onto her futon.
When Hisana awoke again, it was to bright sunlight illuminating the room.
She blinked drowsily, turning her head on the pillow to take in her surroundings. Her heart nearly leapt right out of her chest in shock when she saw her husband sitting on a zabuton by her bedside, watching her. He appeared as unruffled and flawless as ever in his shihakushō and silvery windflower silk scarf.
Hisana sat up at once on the futon, her thick comforter creasing atop her, staring at him in self-conscious bewilderment.
"Byakuya-sama…?" she stammered, wondering if she was still dreaming. What was he doing here? He was usually away at the Sixth Division before the sun was even up.
Maybe she was still dreaming, her subconscious allowing her to see the one person she fervently wished she could see more of every morning.
Then another horrifying realisation struck her.
"The accounts!" Hisana gasped, scrambling from under the comforter. She couldn't believe she had fallen asleep before completing them the night before. It had only been seven in the evening when she'd ceased working on them in exchange for… other more pressing activities. "I need to—I haven't—"
"I've finished them."
Hisana stopped short, taken off-guard by his rich baritone voice.
"W–What do you mean?" she asked, flabbergasted. "When?"
"Last night," he said simply.
Last night? Meaning after he'd put her to bed, when they had finished their…?
Hisana froze, her cheeks red.
Byakuya knew. He always knew that she fell asleep right after their lovemaking. He had to know what would happen if he seduced her, as he'd done so last night by initiating the kiss.
Had it all been premeditated from the start?
"Byakuya-sama," Hisana began, flushing harder. "I wanted to finish the accounts. You didn't have to… I mean, I know I was taking longer than usual, but I would have gotten it done eventually. I really hate troubling you when you're busy enough as it is…"
"Do you know why you were taking longer than usual, Hisana?"
She blinked, taken aback. That hadn't been what she'd been expecting him to say at all.
"I've been a little tired lately," Hisana admitted. "I'm sorry, Byakuya-sama. I think I'm down with a bit of a… a stomach bug, or something."
"You don't have a stomach bug," he said mildly.
Hisana stared at him uncomprehendingly. What was Byakuya trying to get at?
"Then…" Hisana squirmed under the startling intensity at which he was gazing at her. "Do you mean you know what's wrong with me, Byakuya-sama?"
He studied her unfathomably for a moment.
"Do you remember when your last cycle was, Hisana?" he murmured.
Suddenly, Hisana couldn't breathe. Her throat had constricted, her mouth dry.
When… When had it been since her last cycle again? She never kept track of it since it was highly irregular as a result of her hard life in the Rukon District and the consequential sporadic meals she'd eaten there.
Since marrying Byakuya, she'd gained quite a bit of weight as a result of a daily well-rounded diet, and her cycles had thus grown more regular, but she'd never bothered to keep track of them before and she sure hadn't started now.
Thinking back now, Hisana could not for the life of her remember when her last menstrual period had been.
Taking note of her dumbfounded face, Byakuya spoke again plainly.
"It's been six weeks."
She was not surprised he kept track, considering how attuned he was to everything about her.
Staring dumbly at him, the past events coalesced in her mind.
Her nausea.
Her food aversion.
Her fatigue.
Her sore and tender breasts.
Hisana opened her mouth weakly, unable to process the truth. How long had her husband known, or at least, suspected it?
"Byakuya-sama…?"
:tbc:
