Chapter 14: Sweet Retaliation
"Do you know for how many years I longed for you?" Aizen's quiet, deadly calm voice breathed into Byakuya's already blushing ear, "You mistakenly thought that I used, discarded and forgot you, but that is the farthest thing from the truth, Byakuya."
"Sousuke..." Byakuya whispered, struggling and trying to move the blindfold over his eyes so that he could see.
"No," Aizen hissed softly, carefully adjusting the restraints on his lover's wrists and ankles so that, while not terribly uncomfortable, he was very securely bound, "The time for you telling me the truth you should have before, and for kneeling at my feet and begging my forgiveness passed long ago, my love. You put me through years of torment, years of looking at others and only seeing you, years of not feeling that hypnotic sensation of arousal that only you could give me. I admit I am a cruel, ruthless man, but you are even worse, making a man like me suffer as you have. Do you think that my strength to resist you is endless?"
Byakuya's breath caught as he felt something restrictive slide on to his awakening member, then a hard jolt went through him as something else was done to the same area that was both painful and deeply erotic.
"You have teased me with the possibility of having a family with you, yet you denied me the role of being a father to our son."
"I wasn't able to confess to being his 'mother,' either," Byakuya reminded him, panting and shivering as Aizen's hands began to caress him in a way that felt both warm and yet wickedly dangerous.
"But you knew he was alive," Aizen went on, "You had him close to you. You woke up every morning and looked into his eyes..."
"And I saw you!" Byakuya cried, "I saw every tiny little reminder that part of you rested in him!"
A quick shock of pain silenced Byakuya, making him gasp and pant harder as his body reeled with the intensity of what the other man was doing to him.
"You cut me out of his life and you denied me the pleasure of being his father, the pleasure of what was rightfully mine! And so, tonight, I will have the pleasure, Byakuya. I will have the pleasure, and you will come close, but be denied...again, and again as I was...endlessly!"
He nipped sharply at a flushed earlobe, sending a shiver down his lover's spine.
"You think that I denied you pleasure?" Byakuya managed in a clipped voice, "Do you think it was a pleasure being constantly reminded of how you used me? You used the one thing against me that you knew would hurt the most!"
"I used that threat, not against you, Byakuya, but to wrest you away from them. I told you that!" Aizen said, heat spilling over into his voice and riling it as he continued his rough, invasive caresses.
"Yes, now, years later. But do you think I suffered any less than you did?"
"I am not concerned with what you went through. We have been through that, and I have comforted you. And I will further comfort you with the knowledge that you will never leave my arms again. I do not care who or what tries to take you away from me, you will be bound to me, as if by these restraints, and I will never remove them for as long as we live."
"As always, you decide something like this," Byakuya panted, "and you do as you wish, but do you even consider what I want?"
Aizen glared down at him through nearly dazed eyes.
"Did you ask me, Byakuya?"
"Ask you? Ask you what?"
"Did you ask em if I wanted to be love's prisoner? Did you ask me if I wanted to ache for you every day and night for all of these years? Did you ask me if I wanted the sweet torture of loving you and having you turn your back on me? Do you know how you have teased and tormented me? I am only returning wicked lust for wicked lust. You pretend to be innocent, but you are a harsh master and I am forever your slave!"
Aizen's hand snaked down Byakuya's sweating torso, sliding slowly over the soft skin and tracing the lines of his body as he went. He lowered himself and began a slow, meticulous exploration of the Kuchiki heir's vulnerable genitalia. Byakuya's jaw clenched at the barely contained fury that licked at the corners of each deliberate move, each carefully laid touch, each commanding caress, each dizzying shock of pain or pleasure, Soon, everything disappeared into an agonizing longing, that began in his aching heart and worked its way outward, swelling within him until it radiated so strongly that he could barely keep himself from pleading. He bit at his lips and tongue, groaning incoherently and writhing helplessly until he could hold back no more.
"Sousuke!" he gasped in a near sob.
"Oh no, no, no," Aizen whispered in his ear, teasing it with a scorching lick and a puff of seething breath, "You have not had nearly enough. I will tell you when it is enough. You must, you understand, come to a full recognition of the agony you caused me."
"The agony I caused you! You bastard! My own family nearly killed me because of you!"
Byakuya froze, and felt Aizen's body tense.
"What are you talking about, Byakuya? Who tried to kill you? What happened? Who was involved?"
Byakuya swallowed hard, loathe to speak, but knowing what to expect if he held back.
"You might as well tell me. I am going to get it out of you, one way or another. And anyone who has tried to hurt you is going to pay."
"Listen to you, going on and on about how anyone else who hurts me will pay! What about you, Aizen Sousuke? Why do you never pay! You hurt me more than they ever did! You hurt me more than they would have if they had killed me!"
Aizen went silent...so silent and still that Byakuya wondered if he was still on the bed, kneeling between his parted thighs. He listened to the chilling sound of his own labored breaths and felt tears threaten, though he held them back stubbornly.
"You want me to pay for what I did to you?" the other man said finally, his voice icily calm, "Very well, then."
Byakuya flinched as he heard the sound of the leather riding crop striking flesh. Oddly, the pain, he found, wasn't his.
"Sousuke, what are you...?"
The riding crop snapped loudly again, the sound echoing around the two.
"Sousuke, stop!"
The whip snapped again, and continued the slow, methodical strikes until they counted nineteen. And all through the onslaught, Aizen remained eerily silent. When the sounds stopped, he moved in close to his bound lover until Byakuya's stunned senses picked up the coppery scent of blood.
"Sousuke..." he pleaded softly.
"Are you satisfied now? That was one strike for each year of our son's life, one year we lost together because of how I alienated you and made you run from me," Aizen asked quietly, "Is it enough, Byakuya? Or do you think I deserve worse?"
Byakuya's lips trembled as he struggled for words.
"I think that...we have both suffered enough, don't you?" he whispered, "Sousuke, we both lost something dear. And when Tetsuya learns just what I have kept secret all of this time, we could lose him again! He could hate me for this. Do what you want to me, but know that it cannot come close to the agony of losing his love. It was all I had to hold me together all of this time. And if I lose that, I really will go insane!"
"You will go insane?" Aizen repeated, touching his fingers to one of the wounds he had left on his own flesh and then touching them to Byakuya's lips, "I will go insane if you leave me again. So, I am going to make that impossible for you."
"What are you going to do?"
"You let me take you like a woman. You risked impregnation. You did that for a reason, Byakuya."
"I told you," the Kuchiki heir argued, "I don't know why I did that!"
"I do," Aizen breathed in his ear, brushing his lips against it, then nipping sharply, "The truth you won't admit, even to yourself, is that you crave me the way I crave you."
"I already admitted that I lo-!"
Aizen's mouth crashed into his, stopping him forcefully as the two men fell into a barrage of fierce, biting kisses. He felt Aizen's body shift against his, and the pleasuring implement was removed and replaced with his lover's hardened member.
"S-sousuke, don't!"
But he realized that he didn't want the other man to stop. He wanted their bodies to join, to collide repeatedly, and to drive each other into the throes of climax. He wanted to die in those strong, unyielding arms, to give everything, even his life to that one person, who, despite everything, still loved him.
Yes, he is a wicked man, whose love will never be gentle. But, Sousuke loves me. He loves me with everything in him. And I return that love completely.
"I will never stop!" Aizen promised, holding Byakuya tightly as he climaxed, filling his lover with incredible, nearly unbearable heat, "I will do this all night long...until without question I have impregnated you. And this time...this time you will not leave me. Leaving won't do you any good, because I already know. You can't run from this anymore, Byakuya. You can't hide from it. Neither of us is leaving anymore."
"I won't leave you, Sousuke," Byakuya promised, biting down on the words as erotic hunger rang throughout his body, "I swear on my life I will stay with you. And if tonight gives us another sweet miracle, I will only be happy."
He laid quietly beneath Aizen's collapsed and panting body, shouldering his own lack of completion quietly, after, and making no complaint or pleadings as the night went on and he was taken and held back from pleasure repeatedly. But even though his body ached with that one desire, each coupling filled his heart with Aizen's love, as surely as his body was filled with the man's seed. He only smiled as his body ached, straining for and snapping at the longed for climax. He was wholly unprepared for when Aizen's hand slipped down to release that last restraint, and their bodies raged against each other more wildly than any storm. And when finally, the coil snapped inside him, he closed his eyes hard against the gripping sensation, shuddering and gasping as pleasure exploded everywhere at once. He might have screamed, but wouldn't have heard through the wicked rushing in his ears, couldn't see through the light that had exploded in front of his eyes, and couldn't feel a thing for some time after.
He woke to find himself back in Aizen's bed, naked and tightly entangled in the man's unrelenting arms, sure only that Aizen would never let him go again. He breathed slowly, enjoying the pleasant aches that followed their night of rapturous lovemaking and his eyes wandered over their exposed skin, admiring the markings they had left on each other. He found the telltale red lines on Aizen's hips and kissed his way along each, appreciating in full, that sign of his lover's willingness to accept his part of the blame for what happened. It wasn't often that Aizen Sousuke admitted to anything. The man was all shadings and manipulations. But, for Byakuya, he had come clean, and then done what he had to, to unburden himself of the residual anger and hurt he must have felt over having Tetsuya stolen from his life.
Now, all penance is done.
All is forgiven.
We have only now to claim the happiness that should have been ours. It will not be easy, but we will find our way.
"I love you, Sousuke," he whispered, kissing the sleeping man's lips tenderly, then watching the dark brown eyes open and fix on him.
"I love you too," Aizen answered, blinking slowly.
He pulled Byakuya into several hard, penetrating kisses, then ran his fingers through the long, tumbled lengths of his hair.
"So then," he went on, his eyes glinting softly, "Tell me about how your family tried to kill you. Tell me who...how...when...and where. And when you are done, I will kill each one involved as slowly and painfully as possible."
Byakuya looked into the other man's eyes, searching for the right words, something that would defuse his anger before the threats became reality.
"Sousuke, it was a long time ago. And...I had left you of my own free will. I was not hurt. My father, my uncle and my grandfather all protected me. All but one of my attackers paid for their crimes. And that one person is mine to confront. I want to handle this myself, in my own way."
"But this person could try to harm you again."
"I am older now," Byakuya assured him, "And I am much, much wiser. I will not allow that person to harm any of us. If you love me and you respect me, then you will let me handle this."
Aizen went quiet again, his dark eyes burning at the centers with a barely contained fury. Byakuya felt the sting of that fire all of the way down into his core, where it seethed painfully as he watched his lover deliberate. Finally, Aizen sighed softly and nodded.
"I will leave it alone then," he said in a low, controlled voice, "But know this, Byakuya. If there is even a hint of danger to you or to our son, there is nothing that will stop me from coming down on the one who tries it and making him wish he had never been born."
"I understand," Byakuya whispered, kissing Aizen's tightened lips and caressing his naked belly until the muscles relaxed and the anger drained out of him, "Thank you, Sousuke. I am...grateful, even though I have asked you to stay out of this. I am sorry that I hurt you by keeping our son gone from your life and for leaving the home I have right here, in your arms. But now that our penance is done, the future opens up ahead of us again. We will tell Tetsuya together, and I will make him understand. He may have inherited your stubbornness and some of your fire, but he was gifted with my gentler heart. I think he will forgive me for the way I handled things."
"From what I know of our son, I think you are right," Aizen agreed, leaning forward and seeking his lips again, "But...you know, there is one thing about which I must correct you."
"Oh?"
Aizen's lips sought his ear, bringing back the dark flush as he spoke.
"You are not finished with your penance yet."
Byakuya let out a soft puff of breath.
"I should have figured," he replied, smirking, "But, you have released all of those restraints. I am free now. How do you plan to punish me now?"
"I plan to give you a lifelong sentence."
"What do you mean, Sousuke?" Byakuya asked, staring as he realized what was about to happen.
"Marry me, Byakuya. Marry me now. We will tell Tetsuya and the three of us will go away for a private wedding tonight. Only say the word and this will be your family. We can work out the details of what happens with Kuchiki Studios later. But marry me. Marry me today!"