Chapter 14: White Nightmare
Aizen Sousuke walked quietly into the open garganta and led a solemn and still hollowfied Byakuya, the just recently healed Renji, Grimmjow and Ichigo, and the newly returned Rukia, Nel and Orihime into the dark cavern. He felt a twinge of discomfort at the sight of his tragically lovely consort, his head bowed and eyes unbearably sad and his slender wrists bound in front of him with golden kido ropes.
But there is nothing else that can be done. Byakuya, in this state, is far too dangerous to allow him to walk unfettered into the spirit dimension. I only hope that when we arrive at the palace, something can be done to restore him. Rukia gave a message to Urahara Kisuke to come to the palace, so at least we shall have his input. And although Byakuya cannot enter the Kuchiki archive in this state, the current clan leader and elders will be searching that place as well. There has to be hope for him. That the witch acknowledged that the process wasn't complete suggests this.
But what will it take?
Byakuya...
He slipped an arm around the consort, and Byakuya sighed resignedly and rested his head wearily on the king's shoulder as they walked through the too silent blackness. The members of the small group breathed a solemn sigh of relief upon reaching the dimension wall. Aizen paused and touched a fingertip to the back of one of Byakuya's bound hands as they reached the dimension wall, drawing the symbol that marked the noble as a royal prisoner. they continued out of the garganta and to the dimension wall, where Kuchiki Ginrei stood at the head of a group of royal guardsmen. The elder Kuchiki inhaled sharply and his eyes widened at the sight of his hollowfied grandson, but he moved forward and embraced Byakuya calmly.
"I am glad that you have returned," he said, bracingly, "Do not worry, Grandson. We will find a way to restore you. Right now, the brightest minds in the palace and in the Kuchiki family search the royal and Kuchiki family archives for anything that will help to give us answers. And your friends, Shihoin Yoruichi and Urahara Kisuke have arrived, and are helping in the search for information and analysis right now."
"Arigatou, to all of you," Byakuya whispered, without raising his eyes, "I am grateful."
"I think that Byakuya needs to be examined by a healer and allowed to rest now," said Aizen, turning him away from the others, "Go and get some rest yourselves. We don't know what our researchers will find, but I have a feeling that we will need to take some kind of action before this is over."
"Right," said Renji, looking back at the others, "Let's go, guys."
Byakuya watched them leave, then moved quietly with the king down the hallway. They came to the end, and Byakuya paused, looking at Aizen questioningly.
"What is it, my love?" the monarch asked.
"Why do you lead me this way?" Byakuya asked softly, "Neither the healing center nor the prisons are in this direction."
Aizen met his eyes squarely.
"Why would I send you to either?" he asked, "The healers can come to you, just as easily in our bedroom and..."
He paused and offered his consort a warm, lingering kiss, "You will not spend a moment confined in some cold, lonely cell. I would not do that to you."
"But Sousuke, I am...a hollow...an enemy life form!" Byakuya objected, "I tried to destroy you."
Aizen smiled.
"You did," he acknowledged, "but you also destroyed my enemy. You may be a hollow, but you still have a heart that guides you. Remember, the process wasn't finished."
Byakuya nodded briefly.
"The witch said that I had drain you to complete it. So...by that reasoning, to keep me with you...Sousuke, it is...liable to end in disaster. You should let them take me to the prison. It is safer that way."
Aizen's smile warmed, and he kissed the hollowfied noble again.
"I will do no such thing. Do you think that I cannot control even an Espada level hollow, Byakuya? I lived among the Espadas, even before I transcended. I am not concerned."
"But...?"
Aizen stopped him with a harder, more passionate kiss. Byakuya sank into his mouth, sucking hungrily at his tongue, and feeling an odd, feral ache inside. He pulled away, shivering and swallowed hard.
"Even now, when you kiss me, I feel the urge to devour you."
An expression of intense lust rose on the king's handsome face.
"Well, then," he said, lifting Byakuya off his feet, "We must do something to fulfill your craving for me."
"Sousuke..." the noble said breathlessly as he was carried into their bedroom and laid down on his back on their bed.
He watched with troubled eyes as Aizen placed a heavy seal all around the room, then returned to their bed and climbed in next to the noble. The king's hands captured his wrists and bound then securely above his head, then bound his ankles with his slender legs parted.
"Y-you are going to leave me alone like this...?" Byakuya asked, something akin to fear rising in his golden eyes.
"Of course not," Aizen chided him, "When I leave, I will unbind you. The entrances will be sealed, but Torio will be able to enter and leave the room to tend to you."
"But, what if I...? Sousuke, I already attacked him once!" the noble objected, "I do not want to hurt him. He has been my attendant for..."
"Shh," Aizen said, comforting him with another, deeper kiss, "You will not be able to harm him. Your own powers are sealed away, leaving just enough reiatsu to feed our child, and Torio will have a protective enchantment around him that will remove him from the room immediately if you should become violent. Do not worry, my love. You are safe. And the ones who attend you will be as well."
"What about our child?" Byakuya whispered, looking down at his swollen abdomen, "Is our child going to be safe as well? I could deliver at any time! And if I am still a hollow...?"
"Stop," Aizen said, kissing him and shaking his head reprovingly, "It does not help to dwell on it. And we are going to find our answers."
He paused as a healer tapped on the door, and then was allowed to pass through the seal. Byakuya rested quietly as the kind-eyed, old physician opened his yukata and examined him carefully. He took several vials of blood and reiatsu, then studied the baby's reiatsu.
"Is there anything you can tell us?" Byakuya asked softly.
The old healer smiled.
"I can tell you that there is still hope," he reassured the consort, "It seems that your enemy needed to slow your gestation, for some reason, and that is holding you back from delivering and giving us more time to find our answers. And that is encouraging. We want this to take longer so that we will have time to reach our answers and help you."
"Yes," agreed the consort.
"There now, we are finished for the time being," the healer said, tying Byakuya's yukata closed, then standing, "I will speak with the two of you when the analyses have been completed."
"Arigatou," said Aizen, "And one more thing. Is it safe for Byakuya and I to be together?"
The healer nodded.
"As long as your exertions are not great," he assured them, "There should be no effect on the developing child."
"Good," Aizen whispered as the healer left.
He turned back to his bound consort and smiled down at him, the lust returning to his features as Byakuya's wide, golden eyes looked back at him with that same feral hunger as before.
"Now then, where were we?" he asked, smirking, "I think that you were showing an interest in devouring me? Would you like me to indulge you?"
"Sousuke, how can you joke about this?" Byakuya asked sadly, "I do want to make love to you, but...my instincts also tell me to drain you! How are we supposed to...?"
"You cannot drain me whilst bound and having no powers," Aizen assured him, "You could, perhaps bite a bit with those wicked fangs of yours...but...that could be...intriguing."
Byakuya quivered as Aizen's hands opened his yukata, then captured his face as the king leaned down and kissed him. Byakuya groaned and closed his eyes as Aizen's reiatsu teased the hollowfied part of him, and he felt a powerful, lusty hunger coming on like a fever. He started to bite down on Aizen's mouth, but gave a discontented moan as the king pulled away before he could do any damage, then nudged his way below the consort's chin to attack the lovely, white flesh of his throat. One hand slid slowly down the noble's slender torso, stopping to caress the baby bump, then moving down further to invade and tease his privates.
"S-sousuke!" Byakuya hissed, his voice echoing oddly as arousal swept over him
Aizen commenced a slow descent down his restrained body, his narrowed eyes enjoying the view of Byakuya's pale face, written over with warring feelings of passion and killing rage.
"You are...so incredibly beautiful, Byakuya!" the king whispered, sucking an erect nipple into his mouth and tormenting it as his wetted fingers began to preparethe consort. Byakuya gave a heavy, aroused moan that ended in a near growl that made Aizen's loins throb warningly.
"I can feel how much you want me inside you," the king breathed hotly onto his skin, making him thrash and growl more darkly, "And at the same time, I feel how fervently you want to suck the blood from my veins. So...erotic!"
He sank into Byakuya's navel, licking and sucking, raking his nails down the noble's back as it arched and his body rose up to meet his lover's devilishly fiery and eager tongue. A more frantic hiss escaped the hollowfied noble, and he pulled hard against his bonds as Aizen's fingers found the pleasure center inside him and stimulated it vigorously, while his mouth attacked the noble's piqued nether region. Still teasing the writhing consort, he caressed the noble's inflamed member, making a warning shudder rake the noble's trapped body, and a fiercer snarl escape him.
Aizen looked into the hateful and nearly senseless, golden eyes and smiled, loosening the seal slightly to allow Byakuya to shift into the dark, angelic form he had taken while fighting in Las Noches.
"Lovely," Aizen panted, a hard, throbbing ache in his loins as he adjusted the consort's bonds to turn him so that he rested on his bound forearms and widespread knees with his black, silken wings raised and fluttering.
Byakuya loosed a blinding shriek, and to Aizen's surprise, he felt a few sharp, black petals cut into his back. He plunged into Byakuya's shaking body, laying over his back and sharing a barrage of biting kisses with the noble as he thrust heavily into him. Byakuya's dark reiatsu burgeoned threateningly beneath the seal as the two continued their almost violent coupling. More petals stung Aizen's flesh, and he watched, completely enchanted as Byakuya fed voraciously on the small drops of his blood, whining as he sensed the reiatsu he so longed for, but was held back from stealing. Intrigued, Aizen let a small tendril of reiatsu escape him and watched raptly as Byakuya inhaled it, and his body went taut, quivering at the cruel, teasing taste of the other man.
"I am s-sorry," Aizen managed, resting his damp face against the back of a ghostly white, sweating shoulder, "You are just so enthralling this way. It is a torment, yes...but...you are still...so very enchanting, Byakuya!"
Byakuya's body moved easily with his now, and the noble released soft, soulful sighing sounds as Aizen continued his deep thrusts, closing his eyes and letting himself be carried off on those sweet, hypnotic sounds of pleasure. He barely felt Byakuya's head turn, or when his fangs sought the vulnerable flesh of his throat. Petal soft lips brushed lightly in preparation and Aizen was nearly so gone on the waves of arousal and approaching release that he barely had time to pull away before the noble could bite down and begin to feed on him again.
"Ah..." the king panted, rising pleasure making his voice shake softly, "V-very crafty, my love...using erotic hypnosis. To think how close you came to being successful, with a man whose power is hypnosis! Exceptional! S-so...! So...B-byakuya!"
Aizen lifted himself off of the noble's back, throwing his head back and loosing a groan of intense pleasure as he thrust in deeply, one last time and released into his hollowfied lover's quaking form. Byakuya gave a shattering scream of bliss, the edges of sound raking both Aizen's skin and his own and leaving small streaks of redness all over the two as they collapsed onto the bed, side by side. The lovely, feathery black wings that had appeared on the noble's body, gleamed for a moment, then faded, and Aizen kissed him lightly and strengthened the seal on his powers again.
Several minutes passed with the two lying still, catching their breath and looking dazedly into each other's eyes. Slowly, Byakuya's eyes softened and regained their cognizance. They widened again in alarm as he spotted the still evident traces of blood on Aizen's skin.
"Sousuke!" he exclaimed, sounding alarmed.
"Don't concern yourself," the king said, blithely, "You were amazing, my love."
"I was trying to devour you!" Byakuya whispered in dismay as he recalled, "How could you...?"
"I wasn't going to let you hurt the baby, yourself...me. I only wanted to feel your power."
Byakuya's eyes took on the sad look that had weighted them down before.
"But...that isn't me," he objected, "It is the..."
"It is you...hollowfied," Aizen corrected him, "But it is still very much you, my love."
"Fool!" Byakuya hissed angrily, "You know that the ritual associated with the return of Diablo involves me devouring you! Why would you take chances like that?"
Aizen kissed his trembling lips bracingly.
"I took no chances. I knew exactly what I was doing."
"Do you think this is some kind of joke?" Byakuya asked, a hurt look overtaking his face, "Are you really enjoying me this way? Do you want me to stay this way?"
The king frowned and brushed away a tear that had risen in the corner of one still proud eye. He captured Byakuya's comely face in both hands and froze him with a look of intense affection.
"I was not playing games, my love," he said, his face calm and serious, "I was trying to make you understand that it doesn't matter to me that she made you a hollow. You were beautiful as a shinigami, as a transcendent, and you are beautiful as a hollow. I don't mean for you to stay that way, but I would like to take the sadness out of your eyes, if only for a while. Your eyes are sad too often, my love. I only sought to make them change."
Byakuya took a shuddering breath and nodded.
"I am sorry," he said softly, "I misunderstood."
He gave Aizen a tentative smile.
"I know. But you understand now, ne?"
"I do. And I will try to endure more gracefully."
Aizen shook his head reprovingly.
"I do not want you to pretend with me. If your heart aches, then unburden it here. If your soul screams, then let me breathe it in and make it quiet again. And if you find yourself lost, you are never farther than my heart. Be at peace. Rest. Heal. We are going to find our way out of this."
Byakuya let out a soft, clipped laugh.
"What is it?" Aizen asked, meeting his eyes curiously.
"Oh...I almost expected you to ask me to trust you," the noble confessed.
Aizen's fingers slid through his hair and he kissed the troubled consort chastely on the forehead.
"We will find our way out of this," he promised, "Trust me."
And despite everything, Byakuya found himself wanting to do so.