this is a two chapter mash up. 'This, our solemn hour' is the chapter in normal text and 'The king and I' is the chapter in italics. Believe me, it worked better without them broken up into two chapters.

Chapter 36: This, our solemn hour and The king and I

Gin sat there, with Aizen lying limp there in his arms. His fingertips lazily stroking his lover's deep brown hair, comforting him, as he sat there waiting for him to regain conciousness once more. Aizen's breathing was deep, almost calm even. His eyes were closed, and his features were relaxed, as was his whole body. It really was the calmest that Gin had ever seen him. Gin sighed, he did like to hold Aizen, but not when he was unconscious. And he knew that there was only one other force that had the power to render such a man into a state of full unconsciousness, and that was that internal bastard of his. The other half of his personality. The sadist. The manipulator. It was such a pity to think that inside of someone so calm and loving there existed such a monster. Someone so hurtful and evil in the real sense of the word. He remembered how this monster had come to be... through some stupid mistake.

Aizen's breath shook. It always did whenever he was dragged into his internal world. Whenever the horse wanted to try yet again to overthrow the king.

"Oh god... not now..." Gin sighed, his heart giving in to its tendencies to lurch whenever Aizen was forced into this pre-emptive state of mental psychosis. It worried him. It made him both worry and fear the consequences of Aizen not being able to wake up as himself again. For both his safety and the safety of all who reside in Las Noches. Because who knew what he was capable of when the other side took over. And if that part of him had complete and indefinite control over Aizen's body, a disaster was undoubtedly inevitable to follow. Blood, death. Gin wasn't sure if he could handle that.

"Please fight it. Please... I can't lose you just yet."

Gin looked at him, his eyes gazing down longingly at the unconscious body of Aizen Sousuke. At his former captain, at his teacher, his master and his servant. The man he loved.

His sun.

His everything.

His entire world contained within one other being.

"Oh god please wake up darlin'... please wake up as you."

Gin stroked his hair softly, gently brushing it from his closed eyelids, only able to watch and wait as Aizen lay there, in his arms, lifeless. His body cooling down starting from the tips of his fingers and his toes, as Aizen slowly re-entered his inner world, ready to do battle again.

...

His eyes slowly fluttered open, and he found himself to be lying on cold concrete, quite a difference from his inner world before the change. Before The Change had happened his inner world looked much different. There were trees, scattered around a large circular lake, somewhere in a grassy alcove. The full moon illuminating the night sky littered with uncountable arrays of stars across the vast dark blue haze of sky. Flowers dotted around the landscape each of various shades of blue and purple, each bathing in the light of the ominous moon, with the reflection of the entire scene visible on the vast glassy lake. But now... now there was just concrete. And his world was empty and barren. A desolate plain, not even worthy of being called an internal world. It was cold, chilling even.

Aizen always could feel the cold easily. Ever since the incident, he had grown sensitive to temperature changes. Even internal ones. His back ached, as it always did when he grew cold. His world was empty and cold, barren. So different from before. He could feel the natural chill more deeply than before, right through to his very bones. He shivered. The cool wind passing through him. He hated this world. He hated this world and everything in it. The cold, the whiteness. The fact that it was empty and so very very bright.

He even hated the irony that something so dark could reside in such a bright place. Typical. He used to love the use of irony on books, in poetry. Now he just hated it. He despised it.

Concrete, plain white buildings ascending both vertically and horizontally, criss crossing in squared patterns for when seemed like an age, getting smaller and smaller as they faded off into the distance. Aizen lying somewhere in the middle of this godforsaken world. If it could be called a world, that is.

He covered his eyes to avoid the light, groaning harshly as he regained his senses one by one. His back stiffening from being laid out on such a hard and cold surface. He wanted to just wake up now, wishing that this was all just a dream and he was not really here. But a eerie voice told him otherwise; that this was reality. And that he had to wake up and face the music. With or without his morning coffee, or... tea.

"Well well well... long time no see, King."

Aizen dragged himself to his feet, his body growing heavy as he lifted himself up onto his feet, grimacing because his body and all of his joints were stiff and creaking. As they always were whenever he entered this world. Correction, his own world.

"Oh please... give it a rest. We all know the King and Horse metaphor is getting old."

His breaths were ragged and harsh, but he still managed to retort to that comment. Glaring up at the one who had made it. Glaring at another, darker, more twisted version of himself. Pale skin, ash black eyes... a complete and total opposite of him. Staring him in the face. Standing right in front of him only a few feet away.

"I told you I would be waiting. Waiting for you to slip up and drop your guard. You won't get away this time Sousuke, I'll make sure of it."

He licked his lips as he said it. Even his words had a natural chill to them. Only it wasn't natural. It was more bonechilling than anything else. Not like any other voice he had heard before, but harsh and wired. Laced with pure hatred and anger and such fury. Disdain for him, disdain for the world, and for anything and everything in it.

"Well, you got what you wanted. We're both here now aren't we?"

He grinned lazily when he saw a look of displeasure pass across the hollow's face. His own face. As usual as this experience was to Sousuke, he had to admit that it was a very surreal experience.

"That is true."

They were interrupted by the quiet padding of footsteps. Paws on concrete. Their owner being one chocolate timber coloured wolf. Her eyes of which were a deep yellow, accompanied by black pupils. Her fur many shades of brown with hints of black, elegantly flowing down to the very tip of her tail, her fur longer than that of the usual grey wolf. She walked slowly, her head held high as she swished her tail slowly, walking with presence. Indeed, she was an alpha wolf, dominant and proud. And she demanded both acknowledgement and respect from those around her. Even her master had to show her respect.

"Kyouga?"

The she wolf snorted at the other half, the hollow. Clearly she did not like him, but indeed, she did have to tolerate him. Even if she despised sharing her world, her world, with the likes of this bastard. This scum. This was her world and she ruled all within it. She did not like to share.

She strode gracefully to stand beside her master, her true master, and looked up at him, acknowledging his presence, as he acknowledged hers. Nodding her head as a sign of respect. As he nodded his in return.

"Aizen-sama."

"Kyouga Suigetsu." he responded, using the full name of the spirit of his zanpaktou, the way she liked to be addressed, before he said anything else.

"In your wolf form again I see?"

She tilted her head slightly, flattening her ears against the sides of her head, quite bemused at this little comment from her master.

"Does this form not please you, Aizen-sama?"

"I thought I told you that I did not like wolves."

"Oh." she said, lifting one of her front paws up off the concrete, her ears perking themselves upright again.

"Then perhaps I can transform into something a little more pleasing to your eyes."

A swish of her tail was all it took for her abilities as an illusionist to come into play. Starting at her feet she began to effortlessly morph into human shape. Her paws painlessly becoming a set of sandalled feet and pale hands. And before Aizen knew it he was looking at the form of Ichmaru Gin, clothed in a rather elegant white kimono, which was patterned with light pink sakura petals, with the sleeves of the kimono trailing far past his hands, just to his fingertips. This form of Kyouga Suigetsu's choosing being something that he found to be incredibly sexy in and of itself.

"Nya~ then what 'bout this form? Surely ya gotta like this?"

The 'Gin' giggled, his usual smile coming across as he laughed and flirtatiously produced a fan from his kimono sleeve, opened it and covered his face, hiding his smile. Aizen, for one, was not amused.

"No, the wolf form is fine."

"N'aww fine!" She pouted, making sure to put on the famous Ichimaru Gin accent before reverting back into her wolf form before she spoke out again, wagging her tail slowly from side to side, with her soft and gentle voice echoing into the air around him. She was calm, but when compared to just a few moments ago, she was very deathly serious.

"He is challenging you, over who is worthy to wield me. Over who has control of this world."

"I see. Then, are you going to grant me your assistance?"

The she wolf snorted quietly at him.

"Oh no, this is your fight. I am simply here to watch. Because for now, I can call neither one of you my master."

"Very well." Sousuke said, calmly and collectedly withdrawing his blade from its sheathe.

"We will just have to settle this ourselves."

...

Gin cradled his lover's body, pulling Aizen closer into him. He was getting colder, Gin could feel it, his temperature was dropping. He tried to choke back another sob as he rested Aizen's head on his shoulder, his cold hands doing nothing to warm the man up. Damn his cold hands. Damn him. He couldn't even do anything for him, nothing to help him. He could only sit and watch him, lying there. Quietly breathing. Wondering whether or not he was going to wake up as the man he knew again.

"Oh please wake up, please..."

He needed to get him warm again, but as he was now he couldn't physically carry Aizen because he was just to heavy for him. Normally Aizen was the one that did all of the carrying. Namely carrying Gin into the bedroom, because Gin's body was so light, and therefore could be carried easily.

As he sat there he could feel his heart beating. Thumping away at the inside of his ribs.

"I want you to wake up." he whispered, being quiet only because his voice was going. It was like there was a frog caught in his throat somewhere, that he couldn't get out. He wrapped his arms around Aizen's chest and shoulders, trying to use his body heat in order to get his lover warmed up again. He doubted it would work, but he had to try. He knew that being in his inner world made Aizen's body temperature drop dramatically, and homeostasis ceases to function properly. And Gin knew that when the human body's core temperature drops to below thirty three degrees Celsius, then it dies by means of heart failure. And Las Noches being naturally chilly was not helping any.

Because Aizen's temperature would quickly descend further if Gin didn't do something to get him warm again. He just held Aizen close to him, close to his heart, close to his body because that's where the warmth was. His body shivered as he held him, but it was not because of the cold.

He shivered in fear. And the floodgates were about to be broken.

"Please wake up my love... I, I need you... I... I can't live without you... please wake up, please."

...

Aizen stood there, waiting, their battle had already begun and now he was fighting for everything. Not just the usual things like power, control, the right to wield his own sword, his life. But for everything else as well. The many pieces on his chessboard, all he had worked to build, all he had manipulated for love.

For Gin.

Sousuke knew that Gin was what his other half wanted. After all, he wanted whatever he could not have. But the hollow wanted Gin simply because to him, Gin was all the more manipulatable. Even more so that any other chess piece in this game of lies and deceit.

It snarled, looking at him with his yellow and black eyes as their blades crossed in complete symmetry. Truly, Aizen was fighting himself.

"Are you actually going to fight me now?" he growled, growing frustrated at the fact that he had not yet managed to land a single blow to the king. Aizen just smirked back in return, neither one of them taking any notice of the wolf lying down to the side of them only a few meters away, watching the entire scene play out.

"I was going to ask you the very same question."

The hollow growled again, more in annoyance than anything. This was taking too long, the body they were fighting over would die if this carried on.

"Oh for fucks sake lets just end this, my body is dying out there."

"Don't get too ahead of yourself now, I am not dead yet."

...

Gin wailed quietly, not even knowing when exactly he had started crying. Burying his face into Aizen's collarbone as he held, no, clutched onto him. Willing for him to wake up again. He was never usually under for this long, never. Something was definitely wrong. He was usually awake by now...

"Oh god... what if..."

He forced his eyes to open.

"No. No, I can't think like that. He will wake up, he will wake up."

Gin's pale fingers stroked Aizen's neck, he was still getting colder. If he didn't wake up soon then he would probably die of heart failure. Gin just whimpered, not even bothering to wipe away the tears from his eyes pouring steadily down his cheekbones.

"Please wake up Aizen-sama. Don't die..."

...

Blades crossed again, each aiming for the kill this time. Deep in the heat of battle, with both losing some substantial amounts of blood. This was a fight to the death, though it was not clear who was going to emerge out of this fray victorious. Cuts, bruises, scars. Blood dripping mercilessly from wounds. Red everywhere, staining clothes, the white concrete, skin, hair, everything.

"You're really fighting with everything ya got huh?"

"That is because I have everything to lose. And of course, I do not want to lose it to the likes of you."

The hollow growled again, trying to get Aizen to lower his guard and failing. Oh well. He would just have to go and do this the old fashioned way; tooth and claw.

He lunged at Aizen again and again, trying to aim for his jugular vein, and any other vital spots on his body. Only to be blocked each time he tried.

...

"Please don't die... don't die."

Gin whined again, like a puppy for his fallen master. Suddenly feeling a cold nose on his neck.

It was Tsuku, who had come looking for his master also. The little fox with the black tipped ears and tail sniffed Aizen, and then curled up next to him, making sure to keep as close as possible to him, to warm him up with his white fur. Pining for his master to wake up again.

Tsuku belonged to Aizen, as Cherry belonged to Gin, and they were seemingly inseparable. Which just made Gin hurt more at the thought that Aizen would not wake up again.

"Tsuku-kun... he won't wake up." Gin said trying to choke back more sobs.

"Why won't he wake up?"

Tsuku barked. This normally woke him up. But when the little fox got no response he merely whined pitifully, resuming his position and resting his head on one of Aizen's hands.

Gin was holding onto his other hand, both to monitor his temperature and as a form of self comfort. Lightly holding Aizen's hand in both of his, bringing it up to his face and his lips, planting soft kisses on the back of Aizen's hand and fingers as he cried quietly.

"Please... please just wake up... please... wake up for me."

...

Blades crossed, bloodstained metal against bloodstained metal. Growls and snarls coming from either side as they both fought. Aizen against his inner hollow, his inner sadist. The creature that threatened to destroy everything in his life. To murder all that is good.

Another snarl.

Time was slowing down now, both of their movements slowing down, getting more and more sluggish. This had to end. This had to finish before the body died. Their world tumbling to pieces all around them only proved that. Bits of concrete flaking off and disintegrating beneath the brightly lit sun. But even that was fading out, becoming dimmer. Vanishing into nothing, into darkness. Into despair.

The hollow went for him again, properly, for the kill. But he waited.

He waited, and waited, until just the right moment to quick step to the side, behind the creature. Swinging his blade high in the air and aiming for the back of his neck. The world they were standing on crumbling away into dust before their very eyes.

He did not know what happened next, who hurt who, or if his enemy had turned to counteract him - all he knew was that there was blood.

And pain.

And whiteness.