Byakuya came with a huge orgasm that took his breath and all the remaining energy he'd had left. He groaned as his body went limp beside his lover, his eyes finally able to open when Ichigo shoved him away and climbed from the bed. It wasn't a gentle shove, that paid attention to his many aching bruises given to him only hours ago. It was a harsh, one that told just how much Ichigo wanted to get away from him.
"Ichigo?" Byakuya called as he watched the boy stumble from the room. He frowned at the posture, the hand he'd held to his face, the speed in which he was desperate to leave.
"Ichigo?" He said softly as he pushed the bathroom door opened and looked at the boy sitting on the toilet with his head in his hands. The ginger spikes shimmered as he shook his head in response. Byakuya came over and knelt beside him attempting to take his hands but he was pushed away with enough force to knock him backwards. Byakuya looked up shocked at the angry face glaring back at him.
"Leave me alone!"
"What?"
"Leave me alone!"
"Why?"
"Why!" Ichigo screeched. "Why!" He stood and thrust his wrists out towards the mystified man. "How about this! Or This?" He showed two angry red welts that looked like finger marks. "You did that! I don't know what I did, to make you so angry, but..." Ichigo's tears fell again. "I'm sorry. Just... It hurts when you're angry and you don't seem to care so long as you're fucking me."
"I'm so sorry. Ichigo I never meant..."
"I said stop! I asked you to stop!"
"I didn't hear you."
"Didn't want to!" Ichigo sobbed and Byakuya stood to hold him but he was pushed away again. "Don't touch me! I'm leaving."
"No! Ichigo No!" Byakuya prevented him from leaving the room by blocking the doorway. "I am sorry. Really sorry. I don't know what came over me!" He did, he never realised it then, but he did now. It was all that anger inside him that had wanted to smash that woman's face into the floor and grind it to dust. Such strong primal anger that he hadn't felt in many years since the loss of his parents. And he'd taken it all out on the most innocent person in his life. He was sorry, more than he would be able to convey.
"Anger! That's all you've been since we got back, angry! If you didn't mean to marry me then just say. Just say if you want us to split up!"
"No. No. That isn't what I want at all."
"Could have fooled me."
"Oh Ichigo..." Byakuya sighed. "I've been angry. Not with you."
"If you're coming up with some lame excuse about the palace, don't bother. I'm not going to be your punching bag for that!" Ichigo shoved himself forcibly through the door whilst Byakuya was stunned how perceptive Ichigo was.
Feeling like the biggest jerk on the planet, Byakuya stood in the bathroom trying to think of how to make amends. A hot drink and some time to thrash out all the things that have been going trough his mind would be good. Ichigo needed to know everything that had happened at the airport. The front door slamming however stopped him from doing anything but panicking.
...
Ichigo at first didn't feel the bitter cold droplets of rain falling on him. He didn't sense the chilled air or the brisk wind. His mind was full of how much each footstep hurt. Not only did it hurt physically because of how fierce Byakuya had been, but it hurt emotionally to be walking away from the one thing he thought was good in his life. The one thing he had relied so much on.
What was left now? It felt bleak to think like that, but what other conclusion could he draw?
Nothing.
The thought had him reeling and stumbling into the nearest wall. He clung to the hard surface as if letting go would mean he would fall into an deep bottomless pit. He let out a loud sob that echoed around the built up area and he bit his hand to stop any more slipping into the night.
Where does someone with nothing go?
What does someone with nothing do?
How much does someone with nothing have to hurt? Because right now the pain was huge and towering over him like a tidal wave of misery. The white frothing waves lashed at him, soaking him in sadness and regret. Fear and desperation began to drown him.
Uneven, heavy footsteps carried him onwards, his mind not directing them, his eyes not seeing his journey.
The sounds around him began to close in, the shadows moved without the aid of diffused light. A chilling intent began to pound in his conciousness. His heart beat loud in his ears and suddenly he was plunged into the middle of a moving mass of bodies around him. White figures with frightening masks of bone were following him, calling him, teasing him about how they wanted to eat him. Their claws and sharp teeth nipped at his heels and Ichigo frantically batted his arms around trying to fight them all off.
"LEAVE ME ALONE!" He screamed.
His feet kicked out, his fists felt as if they made contact with hard rubberised skin that refused to break or tear. One after another they came for him.
As his crouched down, hands over his head, an angel of mercy slid into a chink of darkness. Warm hands hoisted him up and seemed to walk with ease through the menacing figures. A body tall and broad guided him back to the pathway and towards the homes that came into view.
Ichigo watched the figures retreat into the shadows and took a tired look at the man who'd saved him.
"Chad." Ichigo whispered relieved to see his friend.
"You are lucky work finished early." Chad sighed walking the crying figure onwards. Something thankfully inside him, call it intuition, had told him to take the river walk home tonight. Glad he had now, he scooped his friend into his own warm home and shook his head at the state of his oldest friend that fell onto the sofa.
...
It was closer to morning than midnight when Chad heard the banging on his door. He slid out of bed predicting who would be there and opened his window.
"He doesn't want to see you." He said simply looking down at the dark haired man at his door.
Byakuya's feet crunched in the gravel of the path as he stepped back to look up. Even in the dim light from the street lamp Byakuya looked hassled and worried. "But he's here?" He had to be because Byakuya had knocked at everyone else's and that would have earned him a few bruises at Isshin's had they been back from England, but the house had been empty. "Is he okay?"
"What do you think?" The Mexican mix gave little away on his face. Byakuya should have guessed that he'd only get the barest of information from Sado.
"Honestly I have no idea." Byakuya sighed and ran a hand through his hair, looking up the heavens as they decided to pelt him with rain. Great.
"Hang on." Chad went back into his room and pulled the window to. He turned to look at Ichigo who was propping up the wall from his makeshift bed on the floor. "Well?" His amigo was tired and yet to fall asleep. Both knees rose under the covers and he leaned his elbows on them and then his head onto his hands. His head shook side to side, he truly didn't know what to do for the best.
"Ichigo! Please let me in." Byakuya's voice called through the letter box wondering what the delay might be. Hoping that no news was good news in this instance. "Please."
"Well?" Chad pressed his friend for an answer, glancing slightly over his shoulder as the wind picked up and threw a whole storms worth of water at the plate of glass. Either way, let him in or not, Chad would deal with it.
"If it was you?" Ichigo peered over his hands.
"He has come to find you." Ichigo looked unmoving. "Its raining quite hard." Sado never gave his opinion when it mattered, Ichigo had to make his own mind up. Ichigo sighed and knocked his head back into the window thinking it served the bastard right. It was a pity it also made him feel guilty. Absent mindedly his fingers began to twiddle the band of gold around his finger. His eyes watched the dance of the light on the precious metal but it was nothing but a visual distraction whilst his mind paced inside his skull.
Byakuya stood against the wall with his long wet hair dripping, his toes squelched inside his shoes and his shivering hands stuffed into his pockets for a tiny chink of warmth. What ever they were discussing in there had so far taken twenty minutes. Twenty minutes in weather he wouldn't leave a frog to drown in. But his attention switched to the light turning on in the hallway and various locks began to undo on the sturdy front door. He pushed himself upright and prepared to argue his case again. One thing was for sure; he was not leaving this doorstep until he had spoken his peace and Ichigo was going to be leaving with him.
With a great deal of hesitancy, the solid white door began to open. Byakuya sighed with some sense of relief that it wasn't Chad. Instead, looking like a little timid mouse, stood Ichigo wearing the largest jumper surely to have ever been knitted. Its maroon thick cable knit, extended from the ginger heads neck right down to his knees and sleeves then again dragged way past his hands
"Nice dress." Byakuya half smiled, but his expression still carried his worry. His steel eyes held nothing but concern and questions for his lover.
"Its Chad's. I was cold." Ichigo mumbled with his eyes cast down. He still wasn't sure why he'd got up to open the door and he most certainly was not going to make eye contact and be drawn in a war of blinking back tears. No, instead he kept his gaze firmly on the rivulets of water dripping off the bottom of Byakuya's jacket onto his trousers.
"I didn't take him for cross dressing." The intonation was meant to be light and humorous but instead sounded rather hollow.
"I'm not in the mood for jokes." Ichigo tutted and gave a flash of anger in a quick flitty glare. One stab of his mood and then back to staring at the dripping water.
"I obviously deserve your anger, but...would it help if I said sorry?" His words seemed to have no effect and Byakuya found himself still looking at Ichigo's crown with the rain falling on his head. Somehow the rain didn't seem to matter any more. "I am sorry. So much so, it appears that the God's are urinating all over my hand made suit." Byakuya finished looking up at the dark night and the millions of sparkling drops of water heading for his weary body.
The sides of Ichigo's mouth curled up. Damn that bastard again, he'd cracked the resolve to be angry. Ichigo clenched his fists and let his finger nails dig into his palm as a reminder that he was meant to be hurt and sore, at least Byakuya hadn't seen the chink in his defences. Thankfully he hadn't seen the shameful way he'd allowed himself to be dragged down by his inner demons. The sensible part of Ichigo, the quieter voice right now but still sensible none the less, knew that Ichigo reacted to so badly because of how wound up he'd been about coming home. His mind had been acting up of late, he knew, and he'd let himself get wound into a state where he couldn't tell reality from imagination. The trouble entirely due to the fact that his imagination was far too vivid. Maybe even, with a shrug, he was willing to reason that Byakuya hadn't treated him that badly either, again it could have just been his mind playing up. The shame of Chad finding him would have been nothing to that of Byakuya being the one rescuing him. Chad had done the same thing many times over the years, him and Uryuu were always there just at the right time. He should have known, predicted even that this would happen. Paranoia was one of his worst symptoms. Inflating the facts until they were distorted beyond belief and making them seem as severe as a damn hurricane in the back yard. He was tired, cranky and still waiting for the back lash that was bound to be printed all across the papers tomorrow. Fame Ichigo could most certainly do without.
"Ichigo?" Byakuya's deep voice spoke quietly as he reached out with one hand and lifted the young man's head up so that he could no longer avoid him. That deep wonderful voice, those beautiful silver eyes and amazing face was Ichigo's world. He held back the sob that was caught in his throat and lifted his hand to capture Byakuya's from his chin and held it. The ice like hand in his was a shock and wanted to drag Byakuya in out of the weather and hold his shivering cold body until he was warm and dry. He'd done this to him, he'd made him freeze, probably catch a cold that would be the death of him, all because Ichigo was a stupid messed up freak.
"Byakuya." Ichigo looked entirely pitiful and Byakuya's heart lost any hope of keeping some dignity.
"I'll admit I'm a bastard." The crude word was said with noble grace. "Can I come in now and give you plenty of opportunity to tell me what an ignorant bastard I am?" He gave a hopeful smile which melted Ichigo's last shred of anger and he nodded ever so slightly.