The first night when all forty of us showed up on the empty lot before his house Urahara had been very surprised.
He had been even more surprised to realize most of the selected shinigami had been his old friends, and the resulting reunion had made him glow with an almost beatific joy. I had been touched by it, and thankful that the mere sight of his friends generated such immense gratitude he had practically insisted I use his place as a base of operations.
He really was too easy to read. While he drank himself silly with the others, I called Gin and spent the evening talking to him about goldfish.
XxXxXxXxXxXxXxXx
The next morning, after the four teams set off in the four compass points, Urahara had led me to his sub-sub-sub-basement.
"You still like digging holes, huh." I examined the enclosed space around us. "This does bring me back."
"Yeah," he chuckled. "Anyway, you can track them from this screen, and if you need a headset it's here."
I nodded, impressed. "You run this by yourself?"
"If I need to. Tessai is handy with communications if need arose." He cleared his throat and lowered his hat. "Uh, Sou – I mean, Aizen, thanks. For bringing them."
"You can still call me Sousuke, or Sou if you like," I said gently. "You're not the one who nurses a grudge."
He leaned against a steel cabinet. Then he took off his hat, fiddling with the brim. "Why are you tracking them, Sou? You were the one who-"
"I did what I did because I didn't want you implicated. Soi Fon would have found a way to pin everything on you, and I don't think you need fresh grief."
"Why, Sou, I didn't know you cared about my life."
"I've always cared," I retorted. "I'm just not sure whether I care for your life or for your death. Set me up."
"Gladly." He grinned again, the arrogant Academy genius of yesteryear replaced with a mocking genius in exile. There was very little difference, save for the melancholic cast about his features.
I smiled crookedly, and the easy banter between us surfaced again. I wondered how much of this was an act on his part, because I knew the words I uttered were complete fabrications.
Still, appearances must be maintained.
XxXxXxXxXxXxXxXx
That night was the second night. Tessai had laid out a second bedroom for me, with a very large and comfortable futon. I had raised an eyebrow.
"Single, please," I had requested.
"But you and boss-"
"-are no longer in that kind of relationship. Single, please," I had repeated firmly. With barely a shrug the tall man replaced the bedding.
The communicator chirped on the other end, and I waited for Gin to pick it up. He did on the second ring.
"What have you been doing?" I asked as I heard his breathless greeting.
He chuckled. "Ya called just as I got in the bath."
"Hmm. Didn't slip, did you?"
"Nah. Just that I had ta sprint from the division bathroom with a towel round my hips to th'office. How's things?"
"You're naked in the office right now?" With an unexpected rush of blood to my head – and other parts – I found myself wanting to be in Seireitei.
"I'm joshin' ya. I'm in your quarters. Came in ta straighten up, got into the bath, then heard the comm. Are you disappointed?"
I groaned. "Don't tease, dammit. You have no idea how I hate living in the human world among humans. The stench of it..."
"And without my company too."
I snorted exasperatedly. "Insert knife and twist, Gin?"
"That's not what I wanna insert and twist," he laughed.
I sighed and lay back on the futon. At least I still had a towel with me, damp from my own bath. And I would have to wash it myself tomorrow too; it would be the ultimate in bad manners if Tessai had to scrub it clean for me. Gin laughed again, in a lower register, and inquired if I was feigning sleep.
"I am quite awake."
"You, or the lower half of you?"
"What do you think?" I sighed and shifted the pillows about, trying to find a good spot.
Might as well make myself comfortable if he was going to play.
XxXxXxXxXxXxXxXx
The next night Tessai had to make a trip to get supplies. I had just finished listening to the day's search reports and sent the fourth team out to Sector E when I saw Urahara and Tessai talking agitatedly at the door. Apparently Tessai felt it was dereliction of his duty to leave Urahara untended, and the blond was gesturing to something below the ground.
I slipped behind the door into my temporary bedroom and called Gin. It would be the opportune moment soon.
"Hey."
I smiled as soon as I heard his voice. "Hello."
"How's it going?"
"Bad." I lowered my volume. "The setup's ready, but I can't get into it."
"Hmm. Equipment failure?"
"The equipment is perfectly fine, thank you," I mock-grumbled. "You checked it yourself, remember?"
I could hear his leer despite the gulf between us. "I do. What do you need?"
"Getting power to run through the circuits." I was more than aware that Urahara had every line of communication bugged in his house. The sneaky bastard would definitely patch into my private line, and a cautious check the second morning confirmed my suspicions.
"Tall order. What do you see?"
"An extended link between a constant and a variable." I waited and listened; Tessai was still at the door.
"Any way to remove the variable?"
"It should be gone in the next five to seven minutes." I closed my eyes and redid some calculations. "I need everything to be up and running in that time."
"Wait for the constant to be isolated. I can't guarantee 'up and running', but perhaps I can get some juice over to ya."
"Get to it then. Conditions won't be any more ideal than tonight."
Gin chuckled. "Why are we speaking in code?"
"It's sexier," I said with a half-smile. "What are you doing?"
"I'm rubbing the jasmine and sandalwood scented oil you keep in your drawer over my cock. I'm already hard for you – why can't you be here to suck it? Only you know how to suck me off until my eyes roll back. Only you know how to make me come with a scream reachin' heaven and hell. Why aren't you here to suck my cock, Sousuke?"
"Hmm. Such language," I chided. He laughed again; he knew I loved his vulgarity when there was a chance we would be overheard.
"It's only language. What's important is that I'm hard for you, so it's time you're hard for me. Lick the index and middle fingers on your right hand. Then slide your wet fingers over your left nipple so I can lick it properly. Rub it. Pull it. Twist it. Get it hard for me. Then we'll work on other parts later."
I obeyed, feeling the stir of need settling in my gut.
"The other hand on your right nipple." I followed, and he growled, "Don't stop either hand, because right now those are my hands."
"I like that," I murmured.
"You would. Of course you would. You'd like your beautiful silver-haired whore to lick you up and down and all around, wouldn't you? But I'm not licking, not yet. Move my hands from your hard chest, over your firm abs, to your jutting hip bone where I love to suck and bite." He sounded a little hoarse now, his breaths coming a little faster than before. Just a small semi-quaver faster, but I knew his breathing rhythm better than anyone. "Run my hands along your hips, before my fingers dip below your belt, stroking the dark curls at your groin. This is where you always smell so damn fucking good, where I almost always come when I'm kneeling before you, taking you into my mouth. But now only my fingers caress you."
I swallowed. "Feels good."
"Feel my hot breath at your ear, blowing over your skin; I'm not kissing you, because I want you to wait for it until the end. But now I pull my right hand away-"
"No-"
"-and I cup the hard bulge in your pants." He snickered at my stifled moan. "And your magnificent cock is hard for me, so damn fucking hard, and you push impatiently at my palm; you want to push it into my hot, wet, perfect mouth, and then ram it up my tight, hot ass as hard and as deep as you can. But you won't, not yet. Not until I'm happy."
I inhaled slowly. "Easy, Gin."
"My left hand reaches into your hakama via the side slits and you jerk with the feel of my nails on your balls-"
I hissed, my eyes half-lidded.
A cold voice cuts across Gin's voice in my ear. "Excuse me." Although Urahara's eyes were shaded by the brim of that ridiculous hat, I knew he was glaring daggers.
"Hanging up now. Have fun. I know I will."
