Chapter 25: What was and what is
(Thanks so much for your continued support of this story. And my deepest gratitude to reviewers Cptn. Suz (I'd say that the hougyoku has some very capable competition. But Bya is going to have to proceed cautiously!), Geecee (That lovely mixture of naughtiness and danger extends into this chapter...meaning HOT STUFF AHEAD!), Sariniste (Aizen will coax him into taking better care of himself, while completely enjoying himself doing so! LOL), Iloveaizenandbyakuya (Oh yes! Prepare for nosebleeds...that is plural!), and SlytherinQueen020 (Byakuya has some ideas about how to fight the hougyoku, but it will be something unintentional that opens Aizen's eyes to the truly insidious nature of the thing he created.). Enjoy the new chapter! Love, Spunky)
Byakuya laid quietly on his back with his yukata open and a naked Aizen Sousuke pressed up against his side, half sleeping. The noble stared up into the sky above the dome, enjoying the loveliness of the view, despite his circumstances, while Aizen's hand slowly explored his exposed flesh, first lingering over his healing chest wound and offering a warm flow of reiatsu to soothe it, lazily following the curves of pale breast and soft belly, then tracing the lines of hip and thigh and moving on to touch him more intimately.
It is odd that his touch feels so natural, but at the same time, so strange, considering how long we have been apart. The last time we were together sexually was when Hisana died and I started to lose my mind. I think he saw then how I could not stand the constant feeling of loss, and he took the memories to ease the pain for me.
But that left him alone, facing the loss of Amaya and the danger of the hougyoku. He always seems so determined not to rely on anyone, but this is a danger we should face together. As powerful as he is, the hougyoku is a crafty spirit, getting inside his mind like that and making him go against his own nature. Yes, Aizen Sousuke does not depend on others. He does not trust others. Yet he does depend on and trust the hougyoku more than is natural for him. I cannot help but think that it gained some kind of control over him long ago and used the pain that resulted from the way he was treated by the Central 46 council to entice him into this wicked plan of his.
Yes, the hougyoku has odd powers...the power to grant the desires of the ones around it. But, as I learned when I became pregnant with Amaya, it is capable of using that power to manipulate. It caused me to become pregnant, knowing that it would cause disagreement between Sousuke and me, and that, being a male and not made for pregnancy, it would endanger my life. The hougyoku uses its powers relentlessly to pursue its own ends.
Sousuke told me once that he hadn't, at first, desired revenge. He wanted justice. He wanted to be given the same right to exist peacefully in our society, without Central 46 interfering in his life and trying to control him. Making the hougyoku was a defensive act, then. I think he did so, thinking to use the device somehow to gain that acceptance, that normality he wanted.
But the hougyoku sent Sousuke down a much darker path, invading his mind with thoughts of, not just justice, but revenge. And it worked so subtly that Sousuke himself did not see what it was doing. By the time he realized what was happening, the thing had taken Amaya.
Yes, taking Amaya proves that the hougyoku was exerting its will on Sousuke, and that it still is. It uses Sousuke's love for us to manipulate him. But there has to be a way to stop it, to overcome it, to destroy it...to bring our daughter back to us and free Sousuke.
But how?
"You look conflicted," Aizen said, startling the noble out of the reverie he had gone into.
Byakuya looked into the man's eyes, trying to find the truth of what was happening, the way to the answers, but nothing suggested itself to him.
"I am just trying to get my bearings. It has been many years since we were together like this...even more since we were lovers, Sousuke. It feels both familiar and odd to be touched by you."
"Yes," Aizen sighed, running his fingers along one soft inner thigh and kissing him lightly on the throat, "I would say the same, but I must admit with some guilt that my craving for you over the years was so strong that I very often used my zanpakutou while with Gin to fool myself into believing that I was with you."
Byakuya frowned.
"Is that supposed to reduce my disgust at the idea of you going to bed with that snake?" he asked unhappily.
"No," Aizen said, smiling and running his fingers through the noble's fine hair, "But it should reassure you that I did not enjoy the long years without you either, Byakuya."
Byakuya fought down the urge to point out how the hougyoku had been the impetus for their separation.
There is no point in repeating what we already know. And I am not going to win him back from it by alienating myself from him with accusations.
"This is wrong," Byakuya said, his eyes still on the stars above them, "We shouldn't be in this dead place and in such circumstances. We should be sharing a home and raising our daughter together. That is all that I want, Sousuke. Is that such a bad thing?"
"No," Aizen said, kissing him, "There is nothing wrong with wanting those things, and we will have them, Byakuya. Things are difficult now, but we are closing in on that time when we will have what we want. But...if you want to be there to enjoy what we have fought for, then you must take care of yourself."
He reached over to the untouched food tray and picked up a pomegranate. As Byakuya watched, he peeled back the skin and carefully removed four red seeds. He placed one between his lips and kissed Byakuya again, using his tongue to push the red seed into the noble's mouth, where it rolled around between their entwined tongues as they kissed. He withdrew and watched Byakuya eat the juicy red seed, then smilingly offered him another. He watched as Byakuya ate the second seed, then fed him another and another, until he had consumed all four. Then, he laid his head on the noble's shoulder and looked up at the stars.
"I am certain that, being as well read as you are, you know the story of Hades and Persephone, ne Byakuya?"
"Of course," said the noble, looking at him curiously, "Hades fell in love with Persephone at first sight, and stole her away, where he held her captive in the underworld. Her mother searched endlessly for her, and when she learned that Hades had taken her and made her his wife, she refused to let things grow. Zeus prevailed upon Hades to release the girl, which he finally agreed to do. But before she left, he persuaded her to eat four pomegranate seeds, thus requiring her to return to the underworld for four months of every year."
"I have a somewhat different interpretation of that story," Aizen said, his warm breath teasing Byakuya's earlobe, "You see, I think that Persephone was something like you...quiet and well-behaved, respectable at the surface, but...possessed of a wilder side. That side of her delighted in being stolen away by the handsome devil, Hades, and wanted to stay with him, but felt obligated to return to the mother, who mourned her. I do not think she was so much tricked into eating those seeds, but that she partook of them willingly, so that she could have it both ways. Like you, she was caught between the good child she was supposed to be and the wilder one that Hades brought out of her."
"Is that how it was?" Byakuya asked softly, his dark eyes fastened on Aizen's, "And do you really think that anything of that foolish boy I used to be has survived all of this time? Because I wonder..."
"Oh, I think it has," Aizen assured him, "But before that person can surface, there is damage to undo. You must work with your healer, Byakuya. I want you to get well, so that we can explore together just how much of that deliciously passionate young man still exists in you."
Byakuya gave him a sudden, tentative smile that made his heart skip.
"I do not think that it is healing that will awaken that side of me, though I will try to be more cooperative so that I will be able to be reunited with Amaya."
"Oh?"
"I think that side of me has already started to awaken on its own. It was that part of me that sought to lure you here, even as my waking mind protested."
"Was it, now?"
Byakuya nodded.
"And even now, it makes me hunger for something that only you can give me...a soul feeding that will bring more healing than food ever could."
Aizen smiled and started to gently refuse, but was frozen in place as Byakuya turned and captured his mouth in a long, deep kiss. Still sweet with the juice of the pomegranate seeds he had been eating, his kiss was so enticing that despite his concerns for his injured lover, Aizen feasted on Byakuya's succulent mouth, closing his eyes and searching out every last trace of that lovely sweetness. He started to protest as Byakuya's mouth left his and began to plunder the soft skin of his throat, but found himself breathless as the noble's soft hands joined his mouth in relearning the pleasant expanse of his lover's body. Graceful fingertips unhurriedly traced the lines of collarbone and breast, teasing the other man's nipples lightly, then he plundered each with a wonderfully sinful, voracious mouth.
"You really shouldn't exert yourself like this, you know," Aizen whispered, "Your reiatsu is..."
He lost his breath again as Byakuya's warm lips made a line of soft kisses down to his navel, where an insistent tongue sank inside, sending Aizen's mind arcing back the early days of their love affair...stolen moments when the Kuchiki heir had honored him with just such a spirited exploration.
"But I told you, Byakuya. Gin will be back in a moment. We should wait until later. Why don't you come back after...?"
"I don't want to wait until later," Byakuya said, letting his hakama fall to the floor and climbing onto Aizen's lap, "So you should perhaps use your shikai to cover up what we are doing, or this could get embarrassing for both of us."
"Oh...you are in an aggressive mood today," the elder shinigami said, invoking his power as the door opened and Gin walked in.
Byakuya positioned himself over Aizen's exposed member, taking him inside in a series of short, careful thrusts as Gin walked to Aizen's desk and set several reports in his inbox.
"Greetings, Aizen taichou," the silver-haired shinigami said, not noticing at all, the half-naked noble youth, perched on Aizen's lap, rising and falling on his very aroused cock.
"I trust your fukutaichou's meeting went well?" Aizen answered, wrapping his hands around Byakuya's bare bottom and encouraging him to move faster.
"Oh yes, fine," Gin answered, turning towards his desk, "Though your little noble playmate wasn't there."
"Oh?"
"I hope this doesn't mean you two were arguing," Gin said, smirking, "I would hate to think he'd be off taking comfort from someone else behind your back."
"Not likely," Aizen said, standing and holding onto Byakuya's bare hips as the younger shinigami fell back onto the top of Aizen's desk and tightened his legs around his elder lover's torso.
He leaned over Byakuya, looking down into the noble's lustily glazed over eyes, entangling their fingers together and holding his hands down on either side of his head as he began thrusting into him.
"Are you sure about that?" Gin asked, teasingly.
"Oh," said Aizen, lowering his head and fucking the pretty young noble harder, "I am positive."
"I hope so," Gin said, shaking his head and losing interest.
He sat down at his desk and pored over reports, asking the occasional question, completely oblivious to the scandalous display going on a few feet away from him. Byakuya's hisses of delight and rapturous moans reached only Aizen's ears and his own, taunting the elder shinigami into penetrating his lover more vigorously and adding his own moans of arousal to the delightfully wicked scene. He nearly lost control of his shikai, as enchanted as he was at the sight of Byakuya's lithe, writhing body spread out across his desk, his long, black hair freed of his hair tie and spilled out around his head, and his dark gray eyes laughing at how Gin sat a short distance away and noticed nothing.
Byakuya gasped and grabbed onto Aizen's shoulders, his eyes growing panicked as the door opened and Kuchiki Ginrei entered the room.
"Pardon me for the intrusion, Aizen taichou, but have you seen my fukutaichou? He left on an errand that would have brought him here for a time, but he should have returned by now."
Byakuya sighed in relief, panting and sweating as Aizen's hand wrapped around his stiff member, stroking it as he continued his loving assault on the young noble's body.
"He is assisting me with some delicate research, at the moment," Aizen replied placidly, "but I will let him know to return to you when our work is finished."
"Ah," said Ginrei, missing entirely the sweet sounds of pleasure that erupted from Byakuya's pretty lips as he began to climax, "Arigato, Aizen taichou."
"The pleasure is all mine, I assure you," said Aizen, gripping Byakuya's white bottom tightly and filling the near delirious noble with his blazing seed.
He watched as Ginrei left, then bent and slowly...meticulously licked away every trace of Byakuya's pearly release. Byakuya's fingers teased his hair affectionately and his sleepy, sated eyes showed the depths of his emotion without him having to utter a word. But he yielded the words anyway, sending a warm lovely throb through his elder lover's heart and making him smile as he lifted himself away and helped the young noble to his feet.
"I love you, Aizen taichou."
"I love you too. Go on now. You don't want to keep your taichou waiting."
Byakuya's lips curved upward cutely.
"Do you really want to let me go so soon?" he asked, letting the rest of his clothes fall away, "Perhaps you could send along an illusion and we could adjourn to your bedroom for a while?"
"Hmmm," said Aizen, enjoying the view of his lover's bare body, "You seem bent on testing my limits today, ne Byakuya?"
"Do I?" Byakuya asked, looking at him with undisguised lust, "Perhaps you should punish me?"
"Don't tempt me..."
"Byakuya..." Aizen moaned, watching raptly as the noble continued to kiss his way downward from his navel, following the line of fine, brown hairs, disturbing them wantonly with his lips, and moving closer to his lover's swollen, wet member, "How can you do this? You know everything now...and have every reason to despise me. How can you still look at me with such hunger in your eyes? How can you trust me not to kill you on a whim, so convinced as you are that the hougyoku controls me?"
Byakuya lifted his head and the noble's dark, beautiful eyes fastened on his.
"If the hougyoku had control of you, then Amaya would not be concealed. She would not even exist. And it would have made you kill me by now. I am not saying that it won't. I am only following my heart...and it tells me that we are too deeply connected to lose each other now."
"But, I have..."
"Whatever you have done, you are still my lover, Sousuke. I will do as I must to hold on to that love. You have safeguarded my honor by placing the reigai in my stead while you brought me here. You hold me captive so that I cannot be accused of treason. The hougyoku has no reason to protect me...except that, protecting me means something to you. And that tells me that the battle is not over."
"Do not say any more," Aizen warned him suddenly, his eyes darkening dangerously.
Byakuya gazed at him quietly for a moment, then nodded in acquiescence. He sat up in the bed and waited as Aizen laid in silence for several long minutes, then seemed to regain his composure. Then he lowered himself down between the older man's parted thighs and tasted the fluid that had bled out onto Aizen's aroused member.
"You know, I should not be making love to you while you are still healing," Aizen said, shaking his head, "At very least, I should make you eat something so that you will not faint from the exertion."
Byakuya's soft, pink tongue tasted him again, and the noble met his eyes, almost smiling.
"I need nothing that my lover cannot give me," he whispered, wrapping his pretty lips around Aizen's flushed penis and treating it to a delight of wet strokes, kisses and warm suction. One pale hand gripped his inner thigh and the other pleasured him shamelessly, caressing the soft sac beneath his riled length then gently teasing his entrance. Aizen groaned in bliss as Byakuya's fingers penetrated him, stimulating the sensitive nerves inside him and the noble's mouth continued it's loving assault on his arousal. Within moments, he was overcome...gasping and moaning his lover's name as his body seized and shuddered in the throes of release.
And even more compelling than the intense throbs of pleasure, was the sight of Byakuya, naked and with half-closed eyes, feeding on his essence as though his hunger for his lover was insatiable. He swallowed repeatedly as Aizen caressed his cheek with shaking fingertips. As he lifted himself away, the elder man rose up and brought him down into the bed on his back, plunging into the noble's mouth and sharing in the beauty of their joined flavors. Byakuya's hips thrust upward into his, seeking friction as they continued to exchange long, wet kisses.
"We should stop," Aizen managed between the heavy bouts of kissing, "This is not good for..."
"Sousuke," Byakuya whispered seductively, "If you deny me, then you will only find yourself watching as I relieve the ache myself. Perhaps you enjoy this, but..."
Aizen smiled.
"I think it would be wiser to see to it myself," he chuckled softly, "Then, when you are overcome, I can breathe life back into you."
Aizen sat up and pulled Byakuya onto his lap, surrendering to another flurry of kisses as they thrust against each other. He stroked his own reawakening length, then coaxed the flustered noble onto it, holding onto his hips to make sure he did not hurt his injured lover by entering him too roughly. He wrapped a hand around Byakuya's damp, thickened member, sliding up and down the noble's length as Byakuya rose and fell on his renewed erection. He curled his other arm around Byakuya's sweat-misted back, holding him tightly and plundering his mouth eagerly. He felt Byakuya quiver and heard him make a soft, beautiful sound of completion, so deliciously passionate that it sent him tumbling into the throes of an even more powerful orgasm than the first.
"S-sousuke!" the noble moaned senselessly, collapsing against him and panting heavily as Aizen's hot seed filled him and his own release spilled out onto their skin.
Aizen smiled and lowered him into his back on the bed, then fastened his eyes on Byakuya's and slowly licked the pearly fluid from his flushed skin. He laid down next to the noble and smiled as Byakuya turned and curled into his arms, resting his head on his lover's sweat dampened shoulder.
"Will you eat something now?" Aizen asked quietly, tracing Byakuya's lips with a gentle fingertip.
"If it pleases you," Byakuya whispered, parting his lips and accepting a soft, ripe berry from his lover's fingertips.
He managed several, before loosing a gentle sigh and drifting off to sleep. Aizen Sousuke laid on his back, with Byakuya sleeping peacefully on his shoulder, one slender hand resting on his chest only inches from where the hougyoku was concealed.
You play a dangerous game, the hougyoku whispered into Aizen's mind, You had best be very careful, Aizen Sousuke, or I will destroy both if them in a heartbeat.