A/N: This is a direct continuation to the previous chapter.
Verse: 'Half-Canon'.
"Here you go, Hisana-san."
Shirogane placed a tray on the table, which held two ceramic cups of steaming matcha and a plate of dango. Despite her love for sweets, she had absolutely no appetite, and she cast her gaze down to where she was wringing her small hands on her lap.
She didn't dare to look at the Captain that sat quietly opposite her across the office table.
"The store that sells the dango here is extremely popular," Shirogane said cheerfully, seemingly oblivious to her frazzled state. "I trust you'll enjoy it, Hisana-san, seeing that you enjoy sweets."
Hisana forced a strained smile, willing herself not to fidget on her chair. "Thank you."
"Well then, I shan't disturb you two anymore. I'll take my leave now, Taichō," Shirogane remarked breezily, in the same beatific tone. He bowed to them, then turned jauntily on his heel and exited the Captain's office of the Sixth Division.
Silence reigned, punctuated only by steady strokes of a brush.
She didn't know how long she sat there, trying not to fidget as she stared at her lap. Eventually though, the silence became too much for her, and she raised her head hesitantly.
He was in the midst of paperwork, writing on a sheet of paper with his beautiful calligraphy. Her lover appeared absolutely indifferent to her presence, his long-fingered hand applying tranquil, skilled strokes of his ink brush on the sheet as if she was not even there. She swallowed, her unsettlement rising.
She knew just what she'd done, and how badly it looked on her part. She had outright disobeyed her husband's explicit order to remain in the Kuchiki estate. Not just that, she had turned tail and fled when she had seen him out in the streets. The fact that he had so easily caught up to her meant he'd watched her flee in the first place.
"Byakuya-sama," Hisana said thickly. "I—I apologise. I know I should not be here. I…" She swallowed hard, and went on, "I know I should never have left the manor. I'm sorry."
She couldn't bring herself to explain why she'd been so desperate to leave—why, for the first time, her luxurious home had felt like a prison. In a way, it was just that. From the moment she had married into the Kuchiki House, she had become one of its people, and in doing so, had committed herself to the reign of the Head of House.
In other words, she now legally belonged to Kuchiki Byakuya.
She no longer harboured any illusions to the harsh reality of a patriarchal noble family. It had only been easy to forget this reality because she'd been fortunate so far. She'd been granted the kind of fortune not every woman in other noble families had.
Her husband loved her. He had pampered and protected her so much that it had blinded her from the cruel dynamics of their relationship: that he would always have the upper hand between them. Should he ever turn his back to her in favour of another woman, there would be nothing she could do but resign herself to her fate. As his possession, her world was shaped by his whims, not hers.
Obā-chan's words on the day of her wedding returned to her mind, this time with a new meaning she had not comprehended then.
In this place, in Seireitei, your only connection here is your husband. You don't have any other bond.
If I wasn't so sure that this man loved you so much, I would have objected to this marriage.
A soft sound drew her out of her stupor, and she looked up to see that Byakuya had rested his ink brush against the ebony inkstone. He regarded her calmly now, his slate grey eyes unreadable. It was, as usual, impossible for her to decipher his thoughts.
Wanting to gain some control—tenuous as it was—over the situation, Hisana broke the suffocating silence again.
"Byakuya-sama—" she began, only for him to interrupt.
"The servants will be punished accordingly," he said matter-of-factly. "That is the end of the matter."
Hisana stared at him in shock, her mouth dropping open. Whatever she'd been expecting, it wasn't this. The servants were to be punished? He had to mean Seike and Akari—they had been the ones who had tried to stop her but failed.
"B—Byakuya-sama," she gasped out, shaking. "Please don't punish them. I'm the one who disobeyed the order. I should be the one punished, not them, so, please…"
Her stricken violet eyes searched his cool, unyielding grey ones beseechingly, and, just like that, the truth sunk in through the panicked haze she was in.
She was being punished as well. By punishing the servants for her disobedience, it served in turn as a punishment for her. Her remorse and horror now were evidence of that.
No. No. She couldn't live with this. She couldn't live knowing she had incriminated someone else for her own little act of rebellion.
"Byakuya-sama, please…" Hisana breathed, her soprano voice even higher than normal with desperation. "Please change your mind. I'll do anything. So, please…"
She couldn't help herself; a hot tear broke free from her thick lashes and slid down her milky cheek, followed swiftly by another. Not for the first time she felt mildly embarrassed by her proclivity for tears. In contrast to her husband she had almost no grasp over her emotions, and she feared his contempt for her inability to contain them. He'd never indicated as such before, but then again, his feelings had almost always been a mystery to her.
She had just opened her mouth to beg him again when Byakuya rose from his seat. Taken aback, she froze for a heartbeat.
Unhurriedly he padded around the table towards her, the ends of his long windflower silk scarf fluttering gently, and she felt her pulse accelerate. A flustered Hisana was still contemplating whether to get up from her own seat when he stopped before her. She raised her head, her heart cartwheeling in her chest as she met piercing slate grey eyes.
There was a pregnant lull, and then—
He reached out, making her breath stutter, and gently cupped the side of her teary face with a large gloved hand. She felt the calloused pad of his thumb slowly wipe away the rivulet of her tears, and the sweet, wordless gesture made her heart wrench with unadulterated sorrow. Without a word, his gloved hand moved to slant gently over her forehead, and she realised with a jolt that he was checking her temperature.
Her lips began to tremble as her sorrow intensified into an acute sting within her, and another large tear swelled and spilled past her thick lashes. The warmth of his touch was simultaneously soothing and agonising, and before she knew it, more tears were following, spilling and leaving crystalline trails down her pale cheeks.
All of her heartbreak surged up her throat like a broken dam, and Hisana could no sooner stem her tears than cease breathing. Not wanting him to see, she wrapped her fine fingers around Byakuya's gloved wrist, then dropped her face from his hand and let out a wretched sob.
She had bottled her despair ever since Nanami had visited, and it felt terribly cathartic now to weep it all out. Her silent husband made no move to stop her, allowing her to continue gripping his wrist as she began sobbing frantically like a child. Fat teardrops landed on the hem of her plain brown robe, leaving dark wet spots in the fabric, and they continued growing as more tears fell. It was reminiscent of the times she had wept on the nights following her miscarriage—Byakuya would stay quiet, and allow her to grieve uninterrupted in his arms.
It seemed like an eternity had passed by the time her weeping subsided, and she felt spent yet relieved as she expelled a final shuddering breath, the taste of salt on her lips. She knew her face was a swollen mess, and she wiped tiredly at the tears streaking her cheeks with her other hand.
The room spun.
Hisana gasped. She swayed on her seat, vaguely aware of her body drooping sideways. The floor came towards her with alarming velocity until she lurched to a standstill, and it took her a split second before she became cognisant of her husband's arm around her waist. He bent slightly before her, his other arm sliding smoothly under the crook of her knees, and she felt herself being lifted entirely off the chair.
Too dizzy and dazed to protest, Hisana slumped against him, inhaling the heady notes of his scent greedily. Dimly she registered her husband stepping past a door situated further inside his office, which opened up into a vast bathroom. He carefully lowered her onto the wooden bench, propping her back gently against the wall, and this time she gave a faint whimper at the loss of his warmth and scent as he eventually withdrew.
He seemed to ignore her as he moved towards the faucet instead, and she heard the sounds of water running a moment later.
It didn't take long before he returned to her side, and she squinted at the damp cloth in his elegant gloved hand. He bent a little over her, his heavy dark gaze on her profile, and cupped her chin with his other hand. Her breath halted at once in her throat, and she shivered when he began to dab her teary face with the cloth. Her lids lowered at how wonderful the cool, wet fabric felt on her skin, and droplets of the refreshingly cool liquid trickled down her salty lips.
It felt so good, and yet so gut-wrenching. She couldn't bear the idea of Byakuya sharing the same intimacy with another woman. Once he married his concubine, she would be forced to watch him afford the other woman with the same tenderness, and a fresh wave of unbearable agony came over her at the thought.
Refusing to cry again, Hisana tried to reach for the cloth in his hand. She ended up brushing the warmth of his fingers, and she stiffened, sucking in her breath as her violet eyes darted furtively towards him. His raven head was tilted slightly as he studied her with those smothering grey eyes—they seemed to bore right through her soul, leaving her uncomfortably bare.
"Byakuya-sama," Hisana choked out. "I can do it. You don't have to…"
His eyes narrowed, and she flinched at the piercing, level look he sent her. Her growing hysteria, however, outweighed all other emotion—including being cowed by his sharp stare—and she pushed on.
"Please," she whispered. "Don't. Not when..."
Not when there's someone else.
Her mouth moved numbly, but she couldn't bear to say the words aloud, though she suspected he was able to read her lips. Her suspicions heightened from the charged silence between them, and from the way he continued studying her with those liquid dark eyes.
"There is not."
She conjured a ragged breath. Blinking several times, she struggled to make sense of what she'd heard as his words, plain and matter-of-fact, sank in.
There is not.
She had to have misheard him, or misunderstood. It was impossible that Byakuya would not take a concubine. Hisana could not bear him a healthy child; that much was certain. If she did not fulfill her role, the Kuchiki bloodline would be discontinued, at least from the main house. And as the Kuchiki Head, it was one of her husband's duties to produce an heir. She was painfully aware that he took affairs of the House very seriously—any form of neglect towards them was unacceptable.
How could there not be someone else? What could he have meant?
It had to be a misunderstanding. If so, Hisana needed answers now before she dared to get her hopes up.
"I—I don't understand, Byakuya-sama," she stammered at last, her heart beating so fast she could hear it in her ears.
Gently, without a word, he brushed a wayward strand of ebony hair away from her face, causing her cheeks to pinken into a rosy flush. The hush stretched on, his calm grey eyes still locked upon her dilated violet ones, and he cupped her face with a gloved hand towards him. Whatever else she was about to say was silenced by the unexpected sensation of his lips on hers, the familiar minty coolness of his mouth teasing her flesh and making her shiver.
Her mind scrambled, her heart rate spiking as the lingering kiss sent every little thought in her head spiralling out of control. This time, he did not allow her to think of anything else like she had last night. Within seconds he had deepened the kiss, unapologetically working her salty mouth open with slow smooth strokes of his lips followed by the sleek sensual velvet of his tongue slinking towards hers.
The apex of her thighs tightened as he sucked on her wet tongue unhesitantly, the wicked suction making her gasp deliriously into the hungry, mind-addling kiss. There was something, a reason to stop him—it had consumed her mere moments ago—but it was slipping further and further away as his tongue entwined possessively around hers.
She couldn't think at all.
She could only feel.
"Ahh!"
Hisana's drenched head fell against the slippery wall as she screamed and climaxed violently, her insides rippling and convulsing in a series of uncontrollable contractions around him. Little black spots punctuated her vision at the acute rush of pleasure that accompanied each fierce contraction of her nether muscles, her blood surging through her ears until she could barely hear the gushing of the showerhead above their dark heads. The small mounds of her naked breasts rose and fell harshly as she moaned and fought for breath, waterlogged strands of her dishevelled hair clinging to her face.
If not for her husband, she would have long collapsed in a heap. She was currently completely suspended above the soaked floor of the bathroom, Byakuya's large hands cupping the backs of her diminutive thighs, keeping her shaking legs around his bare muscled hips as he took her against the shower wall.
While it was not the first time they'd made love in such a position—they had done it a number of times before—it was still extremely disarming. Even though Byakuya generally controlled their lovemaking even in other positions, she was completely powerless now, her legs suspended from the ground as he pinned her mercilessly to the wall. Right on cue, despite her fading orgasm, he peeled his hips back before pinning her back in a single strong thrust, the unhesitant upwards motion sending the broad head of his arousal against the sweet spot deep within her and making her cry out. His pelvis ground against the tiny swollen bud of her clitoris at the same time, and she clutched his hard shoulders blindly, her eyes rolling and her toes curling around his waist at the overwhelming stimulation.
She'd already come a few times since he'd mounted her, but it was evident her husband was far from done. She was no stranger to his appetite in bed, but something about his present behaviour unnerved her.
"Bya—Bya…" Hisana mewled. Her sense of powerlessness intensified as she slumped helplessly against him, her limbs boneless and weak. Elevated and pinned to the wall, there was nothing she could do under his compact, muscled weight but breathe his tantalising scent in. Dazedly, she turned her face and stared up into beautiful cool eyes, the irises of which had darkened so that they were almost a midnight black.
At that moment, there was no way she could run from him like she had before.
She was not the only possessive one, she realised. Her husband was always so serene, so unruffled, so detached, that she couldn't fathom having affected him at all when he had caught her fleeing from him. Sitting across from Byakuya earlier as he wrote quietly and elegantly with his ink brush, he'd seemed so far away—and she'd despaired at her utter helplessness living in his world.
But now, as he pinned her beneath him with that eerie predatory gleam in his eyes, she hazily wondered if she was the only one who had been shaken.
I'm yours, she wanted to tell him.
If only—if only...
You were mine, too.
Another powerful thrust had her crying out as he embedded himself deep within her, stimulating the elusive sweet spot close to her navel, his slate grey eyes glittering as he deliberately ground on her clitoris in the process. Her fingers desperately clawed the toned, firm muscles of his bare back with every scorching thrust into her slight body, her incessant high moans rising into half-screams at the delicious friction against her loins.
She couldn't believe they were doing this in his office at the Sixth Division. Technically she knew that every Captain had their own living quarters in their respective offices, but Byakuya rarely spent the night away from home and she didn't remember ever having intercourse with him outside of the Kuchiki Manor. They'd been intimate in his office before, of course, but never once had they progressed into actual lovemaking.
They had to stop—his subordinates were in the very same building they were in. What if they were knocking the door of his office at this very moment, wanting an audience with their Captain? What if—
Byakuya drove into her once more, blotting out the errant thought in her head, but this time, he kept himself lodged deep within her. Hisana arched her slender back with a high-pitched cry as he deliberately applied more pressure onto the wondrous spot inside her, angling his strong, lithe hips to spear her to the wall. Ruthlessly, he maintained the excruciating stimulation until her garbled cries escalated into a shrill shriek.
A powerful orgasm seized her waifish body once again, her violet eyes rolling to the back of her head as her velvety inner muscles clamped tighter around him in an unforgiving vice-grip before going off in a set of unbridled convulsions. She clenched her teeth and emitted a wild keening noise as he thrust unapologetically into her once more with another sleek, effortless stroke, doubling down on the hypersensitive spot inside her and magnifying her climax until her vision whited out.
Seconds later she crumpled onto him, burying her face into the side of his wet, silken raven hair, gulping his heady scent in as she continued to pulse faintly around his erection, her delicate frame shuddering at the wave of pleasure following each decadent pulse. One of his long-fingered hands left the backs of her thighs to gently caress her quivering, sweaty back, the warm calloused pads of his fingertips eliciting goosebumps on her milky flesh.
It was then that she registered how hard he still was despite her body's countless attempts to milk him with her, and her chest went tight as a stone-cold hint of melancholy punched through the euphoric haze clouding her mind. Ever since the first time they'd made love following her miscarriage, her husband no longer allowed himself to release inside her, at least not without a sheath. Ordinarily she'd have attempted again and again—to no avail—to change his mind, but she knew now that she could not risk another pregnancy. Nanami had made things agonisingly clear.
Hisana was either too weak to carry a child to full-term, or she would birth a child with diminished spiritual power and introduce the genetic trait for anemia into the Kuchiki bloodline. Her child's physical capability had meant nothing to her, but a great deal of the Kuchiki House's prestige was rooted in its strength. Her child, the heir of the family, would be expected to helm the Sixth Division in the future, just like his father.
She could not be so cruel as to allow him to come to this world unequipped to face the challenges ahead of him.
"Byakuya-sama," she said hoarsely into his silky hair, pushing down the mounting helplessness in her chest. Soundlessly her lover tilted his raven head a little to the side, a sign that he was listening.
"Please, put me down," Hisana implored. "Let me…" She fumbled for the right words, too self-conscious to look at his face. "Let me please you."
She waited, her heart thudding rabidly against her ribs. With her breasts pressed to his chest, it seemed impossible that he could not feel her rampant heartbeat. Regardless, he gave no indication if he did, his calloused thumb languidly stroking the porcelain skin of her back. Not for the first time, it disconcerted her that she couldn't tell what he was thinking at all.
Unable to take the smothering silence anymore, Hisana was about to speak again when Byakuya's large hand slid down her petite back. Now holding her by the waist, his other hand cupping the back of her thigh, he proceeded to carefully withdraw himself from her snug wet heat. She groaned, feeling the length of him drag across the oversensitised nerve endings along her tight channel. He paused once he fully withdrew, watching without a word as she panted and trembled in his arms. The weight of his heavy gaze on her face only made her feel all the more bare, and desperate to regain some control over the situation, she whispered, "Please, Byakuya-sama…"
She wasn't sure if he understood what she wanted—she hardly understood it herself—and he studied her for a few more laden milliseconds before gently lowering her to her feet. The pervasive weakness in her legs now that she had to support her own weight threw her off-guard, and she had to lean into her husband for fear of falling over, a puddle of water splashing at her toes.
She peered up at him timidly, her lips parted. It seemed he had already read her mind, for he bent his midnight head and claimed her awaiting pink mouth, one arm around her svelte waist.
The familiar taste of his mouth was as cool as mint, and she sighed as their wet lips met and stroked in a gentle, luxurious dance, the tip of his smooth hot tongue glissading across the seam of her bottom lip. She braced a miniature hand against the warm hard surface of his pectorals, and then, unable to help herself, inched her fingers downwards to shyly explore the hard ridged wall of his abdominal muscles.
The refined, masculine work of art that was her husband's nude body never failed to mesmerise and arouse her—honed from years of physical training as a soldier, it was absolutely foreign in contrast to the softness of her body. Remembering her declaration to please him, Hisana broke off the kiss with difficulty and lowered her hand further along the sinuous dips and indents of sculpted muscle before wrapping her palm tentatively around him.
Her dainty fingers were too small to grip the entirety of his impressive girth, but she tried anyway, her pulse quickening at the tintillating sensation of him filling up her hand. She didn't think she could ever get used to it. He was as hard as steel, but enveloped in what felt like satin. Determined to give him at least a fraction of the mind-shattering pleasure he'd given her, she clumsily brought her hand up and then down the length of his arousal.
Right now, she was the one pleasuring him. Regardless of their future, regardless of whatever other woman came their way, Hisana was the one with her hand around him, the one he was feeling in this very heartbeat.
Only I can make you feel this good.
She looked up at Byakuya, wanting him to see this, to see her, and her breath caught in her throat as his slate grey eyes pierced her lavender ones. The rest of his aristocratic profile appeared placid and unmoved despite the service she was providing him—so much so that she almost doubted her performance—but the unsettling intensity with which his bottomless dark eyes captured her own told her otherwise.
Even despite his incredible stamina, she suspected her climaxes earlier had brought him far closer to the edge than he'd let on, for she pumped him only a few more times before she felt a warm wetness splatter her hip. She stared down, inexplicably spellbound by the sight of the pale spurts of his seed being steadily washed away from her skin by the shower. It was an oddly visceral image, one she didn't often get to see, and she found herself squirming the more she looked. In spite of their ferocious lovemaking earlier, she was starting to grow wet again.
She realised she was still staring, and her cheeks coloured as she became cognisant of his stifling gaze on her. His long slender fingers curled around her bony wrist, lifting the tiny hand she'd stroked him with, and she knew he could feel her erratic pulse fluttering under his fingertips.
Her embarrassment grew twofold.
"Let's get out of the shower, Byakuya-sama," Hisana said softly, clearing her throat. "I— "
She stopped and gasped, her slim frame going rigid when she felt his other hand move down the small of her back and cup the globes of her rear end. Whatever she'd been expecting, it wasn't this. He cupped her a little longer, then slipped a long finger casually between both cheeks, where she knew he could feel the tell-tale wetness from the slippery folds of her perineum.
"It's… just the shower," she whimpered, her knees buckling as he continued fondling her leisurely between her legs. "We—we should get out now that we're done, Byakuya-sama..."
"Are we?"
Byakuya's deep voice was a husky, rich murmur in her ear, and her mouth went dry. She didn't know what to say, but it seemed her husband was not looking for a response. His breath was warm on the shell of her ear, and he planted a slow, thorough kiss to the sensitive spot behind it.
She moaned. He continued his lazy investigation of her skin down to the taut curve of her neck, his sharp teeth nipping along the expanse of creamy soft flesh. There was a swift graceful flick of movement as Byakuya knelt to the ground, his long lean hands softly kneading the fleshy globes of her behind as he dipped his head and kissed a burning path down her clavicles to her breasts. She coiled both hands around the long tresses of his glossy raven hair, moaning louder as he took one of the erected pink peaks into his mouth and ravished it with a sharp, acute suction that went right down to her lower belly.
Unhurriedly, almost teasingly, he closed his lips over her other hard nipple and suckled it with the same relentless, alarming intensity, heightening her arousal until she felt herself panting and shivering, the molten tension becoming near unbearable between her thighs. Sensing her need, he released her ravaged nipple from his sensuous mouth and briefly observed her flushed features. She knew she looked a picture with her glassy violet eyes and flaming cheeks, but she was too wired to look away.
"Byakuya-sama…" Hisana's voice sounded strange even to her own ears; it was higher and almost slurred, as if she was intoxicated. "Please…"
She thought she saw the corner of his flawless lips quirk, but it was gone before she could so much as take a closer look. The thought instantly fled her mind as he inclined his raven head and kissed her heaving stomach, his hot tongue dipping and nuzzling the crevice of her navel for a heart-stopping moment. He parted her swollen labia with two of his fingers, and she groaned the instant she felt her clitoris being exposed to the air, then let loose with a stricken cry of ecstasy as his clever tongue caressed the distended, blood-filled bud.
By now, after a year of practice, he knew exactly how to pleasure her with his skilled mouth, and she cried out again as he continued laving her clitoris with calculated feather-light licks of his tongue. She threw her head back against the wall in unadulterated pleasure, then hissed under her breath as he dragged his sleek catlike tongue across her slippery, dewy folds, close to her perineum.
He did not stop, and her violet doe eyes widened with shock. Her mouth fell open and she gave a strangled, disbelieving moan as he squeezed the delicate pale globe of her rear end with his other hand, encouraging her to spread her boneless legs further for him.
I'm yours, she thought dazedly, her belly taut like a bowstring.
Byakuya's proud raven head dipped further between her thighs, bringing her closer and closer to oblivion.
And you're mine…
Less than a minute later he had her coming undone, her trembling hands in his silken hair and her eyes rolling to the back of her skull as she screamed his name over and over again.
Byakuya-sama.
:tbc: