Angel Fit for a Devil
A Bleach Adaptation of Beauty and the Beast
By Spunky0ne
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Prologue: Bedtime in Las Noches...
"What do you want, Gin?" Aizen asked off-handedly, "You know I am not feeling well."
Gin grinned good naturedly and sat down on the edge of the bed, leaning over him to wash his face with a cool cloth.
"You're not feeling well?" he queried, "That's why I'm here. Your healer says you need to be pampered a little, and to rest a lot. I see everything's been done for you, but you're not sleeping."
"I am having trouble falling asleep. My mind is too busy for sleep," the leader of the hollows sighed.
"Yes," Gin agreed, "Preparing to take over the three worlds is quite a consuming chore, ne? But I have just the thing to make you feel better and to help you sleep."
Aizen raised a curious eyebrow.
"Do you, now? What is it?
"Well, I know you like a good story...and that you have a certain secret passion for a certain lovely man. So, why don't we combine my talent for storytelling and your creative imagination and whip up a sweet bedtime story? That will have you off into dreamland in no time!"
"Well," Aizen sighed, "I would have been more pleased if you told me you had actually captured that secret lust of mine...however, as you haven't, I suppose this will do. Go on, then. I am listening."
Gin nodded and grinned more widely.
"Very well, then. Close your eyes...Once upon a time, in a sunny land called Hueco Mundo, there was a lovely prince, who lived with his family in a castle on the side of a mountain."
"Gin, first of all, Hueco Mundo is never bright and sunny except where my illusions have been placed, and secondly..."
"Just bear with me, here. It's a fairy tale," Gin explained, "You have to let your mind get into it. Close your eyes, Aizen taichou. You will like it. You will see."
"Oh...fine, then. I suppose I'm not going anywhere until this infernal flu goes away anyway. Go on."
"Prince Aizen's parents were well loved, but very old, and the young man had already begun to take the reins of leadership. But Prince Aizen was used to having things his own way."
"As well I should."
"And he didn't let others tell him what to do."
"Also commendable...independent thinking...initiative..."
"But even though his ideas might have been good ones, he angered his advisors by refusing to listen to their advice. He cast off the wisdom of his elders and he soon lost the ability to understand the needs of the people around him."
"Isn't that why one has other staff?" queried Aizen.
"Well, Prince Aizen became so remote that the advisors left the palace in anger."
"Not a huge loss."
"His parents faded away from disappointment."
"That is not nice, Gin."
"And the people became estranged from their monarch. But..."
"This had better get more interesting soon, Gin," Aizen warned him, "Or you will bore me to death."
"Ah, not working for you? Perhaps a different storyteller, then? Keep your eyes closed."
A smile crept onto Aizen's lips as a deeper, more dulcet and tranquil male voice picked up the story.
"Oh, Gin," Aizen sighed happily, "You did capture him! How kind of you."
He smiled more widely as the light scent of sakura touched his senses, and a warm, naked body slid into the bed, next to his.
"I trust that you can salvage this very cracked and battered fairy tale, Byakuya. I am afraid that Gin butchered it quite badly and only increased the ache in my head."
"Hmmm," said the noble, "I will see what I can do."
He thought carefully for a moment, then continued the story from where Gin had left off.
"What no one realized is that what was happening to Prince Aizen was the result of a deep and compelling isolation, a loneliness he had felt all of his life."
"Hmmm..." sighed Aizen, "I wonder what could save him from that loneliness."
"His parents were kind, and he happily accepted the wisdom of his elders as he grew. But his vast powers, even as a child, set him apart and made his peers mistrust him, so he became angry and said he didn't need them...and in this way fell into solitude and became estranged from everyone. But one night...while a fearsome storm raged, a knock came upon the door. And when he opened the door, an old woman stood there, looking up at him hopefully. She offered him a lovely, small sakura tree..."
"Of course," Aizen said, smiling again, without opening his eyes.
"And all she wanted in return was a room in the palace for the night."
"I see. I think she had other plans for him, ne?"
Byakuya's lips smiled.
"Prince Aizen was not a trusting man. He had trusted his friends as a child and they had abandoned him. So, he refused the old woman and started to close the door. But...as he did, she shed her skin and revealed the very daughter of the spirit king, himself. She rebuked him for falling into such a state, and she cursed the entire kingdom, turning Hueco Mundo into a vast, dry desert, in which the sun never shined. Then she turned to the prince and said that he was not fit to be a prince. Until his heart could learn to love selflessly, he would take on the form of a beast, for that, she said, was what he had become."
"Should I call Gin back in here?"
"Patience," Byakuya said, touching soft lips to his, "You will enjoy this. I promise."
"I know what I would enjoy more," Aizen said, upending the naked noble.
Byakuya raised an eyebrow.
"Your healer said no excitement."
"Yet you got into bed with me naked?"
"You were overly warm, so I thought less clothing was better."
"Less clothing is always better on you, Byakuya, dear," said Aizen, making the other man blush.
Byakuya pushed him away.
"I do not have all night. I have to have time to escape and return home in time to go to work in the morning. Now, are you going to cooperate?"
"If I must," sighed Aizen, contenting himself with burying his face in sakura scented hair and licking the sweet, white skin of Byakuya's neck as he went on with the story.
"But although she punished Prince Aizen, she did not leave him without hope. She left behind the sakura tree, telling him that it would come into bloom just once. And if he found true love, and it was returned by another before the last petal fell from the tree, then he would be free. In his fury and agony, the prince fell into despair...because if he had felt isolated before, he now felt more so. His subjects left the valley, and the prince was tragically alone. No one dared enter the valley where the palace stood, out of fear of the beast that they thought had eaten their prince."
"This is turning into quite the nightmare," commented Aizen, "Are you sure that this will help me sleep?"
Byakuya's cool, graceful fingers slipped into his hair and stroked it gently as he continued.
"In every darkness, there is light, and the darkness that our prince had fallen into was no different. He waited alone for years, yes...but finally, the day came when something happened...when a young woman stumbled into the valley...and he captured her."
Byakuya smiled, seeing that Aizen was beginning to fall asleep. And as the leader of the hollows slept, Byakuya's voice continued to whisper the story into his sleeping mind, making it come to life all around him...
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Chapter 1: The Exchange
She is here! I know she is! I felt her reiatsu in this direction, Byakuya thought as he flash stepped across the sand, Renji was somewhat delirious when he was found, but he also indicated that he had sensed her in this direction.
I must find her!
He continued along the stretch of sand dunes and rocky clusters that marked the night world of Hueco Mundo, flash stepping at top speed. His riled reiatsu swirled around him, lighting the area with a soft pink glow. He slid to a stop as he reached the top of a large hill and thought he might have seen something in the darkness, just ahead of him. He ducked behind a group of boulders and peeked around them, looking down into the area and catching his breath softly.
"Oh..." he breathed, marveling at the stunning old castle that sat partway up the side of a mountain at the far end of the small valley, "This has to be where she is. This looks like what Renji was trying to describe."
He knew better than to approach head on, so he worked his way around the edges of the valley and reached the outer walls. It took several tries, and his fine clothes were somewhat torn in the process, but he managed to slip over a palace wall and down into what looked to have once been a beautiful garden. There were dead things all around, but only one thing had been left alive in the garden...a small, lovely sakura tree that appeared to have come into bloom, despite having neither light nor water. He knew then, that it must be a magical tree, and he marveled at the sight. He could have remained, gazing at it forever, but he remembered his reason for sneaking into the palace, and continued out of the gardens and into the castle, itself.
The inside of the castle was dark and dusty. In some rooms, there were signs that someone must still live there. Byakuya thought briefly of the horrid beast that the elders had spoken of. But, determined to free his sister, he raised a kido light, and placed a hand in readiness on his sword and continued on towards the tower, where he thought she might be imprisoned.
He was unaware of the lovely brown eyes that followed him...lovely eyes trapped in a beastly body...
Byakuya climbed the tower steps, listening for sounds of the beast or of Rukia, but the area around him was deathly still. He reached the top of the stairs and heard a soft sniff that came from one of the cells.
"Rukia?" he called softly.
"B-byakuya!" sobbed the girl, "Byakuya, you have to go! That beast isn't just a myth. He is real! He captured me and locked me in here...and..."
The two froze as something struck the kido light out of Byakuya's hand, and sent his sword clattering away. Rukia screamed, and Byakuya fired a quick kido spell at the cell door, which shattered, setting Rukia free.
"Run!" Byakuya commanded her, "Get out of here, Rukia!"
Something grabbed his arm, and he struck at it with a blast of blue kido fire, But to Byakuya's amazement, the kido spell flared and then died. Something snapped closed around his wrist, and he felt his reiatsu weaken and fade.
Oh no!
"Run, Rukia!" he cried, shoving the dark creature and trying in desperation to reach his fallen sword.
The beast wrapped an arm around his waist and brought him to his knees. He was ready to inflict a killing blow on the man, when the sweet, gentle scent of sakura touched his senses.
What? This is the one, then? Him?
"Please, let her go," Byakuya said, relaxing in the beast's strong arms, "Let me be your prisoner instead."
The beast gazed down at him in silence, stunned as the moonlight fell across the man's lovely face and lit his enchanting, wide gray eyes. Prince Aizen was immediately smitten.
What a beautiful young man...but...how will he ever fall in love with me?
Byakuya knelt in silence, still held firmly by the beast and waiting for an answer. The beast made a motion with his hand, and a large gargoyle statue came to life and grabbed Rukia by the front of her shihakushou. Rukia screamed her brother's name as she was carried into the sky and flown quickly back towards the Seireitei. Byakuya remained frozen in the beast's arms, blinded by the moonlight so that he could not see who held him.
"Thank you," the noble said softly, "I am relieved that she will be safe."
"But you must keep your promise to stay here," the prince told him, "My illusions have hidden this palace from all eyes. This is your home now...Byakuya."
The prince released his captive and watched as Byakuya stepped slowly into an open cell with a heavy, undamaged door. The prince conjured a tray of food and tea and set it within the cell, then shackled one slender wrist to a chain on the wall. Byakuya sat down on a small mat in the corner of the cell, and set his back against the wall. He watched quietly as the beast closed and locked the cell door, and listened to his steps as he descended the tower steps.
At least Rukia is safe. That is all that matters, Byakuya told himself.
But Byakuya had never lived anywhere but at the rich, well provisioned home of his noble family, and he had never experienced imprisonment...poverty...chilling cold that could not be abated.
As the hours passed and the unending silence went on, Byakuya shivered in the cold and tried to shrink further into the corner of the cell to escape it. He tried to tell himself that he would be freed soon, that he would find a way out or that someone would come to rescue him. But the beast's words kept coming back to him, haunting him so that he couldn't close his eyes.
"My illusions have hidden this palace from all eyes. This is your home now...Byakuya."
He thought of his warm, comfortable bed at home...the tea that his attendant made for him, or that Renji made for him when he was at work. He thought of all of the people he saw every day, the other taichous, his squad members, his kind, gentle cousin, Tetsuya and sister Rukia.
All of those things may be gone, but at least I can remember how they made me feel.
The thought strengthened Byakuya's broken heart as he removed his kenseiken and set it on the table, next to the uneaten food, and then laid down to sleep. He pillowed his head on the folded silken scarf he had been wearing and pulled his haori more closely around him. But the mat was thin, and the cell floor was icy and hard. It took him a very long time to fall into an uncomfortable sleep.
Prince Aizen watched through an enchanted looking glass, admiring the beautiful man as he shivered and moaned uncomfortably in his sleep. After a fashion, and for some reason he couldn't understand, he became uncomfortable himself, seeing the young man suffering. So, he waited until Byakuya slept more deeply and slipped into his cell. He laid a warm cloak over the young man and slipped a soft pillow under his head. He had left Byakuya's side and was closing the cell door, when the young man's soft voice reached him.
"Thank you, Beast," Byakuya whispered.
He meant to close the cell door without answering, but the words escaped him, uncontrolled.
"You are welcome, Byakuya."