Two weeks. It had been two weeks of this.
Grimmjow was before the cameras. They didn't do anything to him today, it was just proof that he was still alive. He heard the voice on the phone. He heard arguing and then he caught the nod from Katagiri.
"Fine, but not now. Later. We'll arrange a video chat on a burner. Be waiting for the call."
The lights went out. Grimmjow looked to Katagiri. It sounded like they were going to let him talk to Aizen again.
"Set it up," the boss ordered. "Someone take him."
He was hauled off, forced fed a protein shake and water, and left on the bathroom floor for half the day. At the prospect of Aizen seeing him, he forced himself to his feet and washed his face. There was no getting rid of the fading cuts and bruises, but he let the cold water wake him up, take away at least some of that haunted look in his face.
"I'm still alive," he told his reflection. "I will get out of this. I will kill him."
His own eyes betrayed him, but he fought back the doubt. He had to have conviction. He had to hold on. He could not lose to Katagiri.
"Show time," Katagiri announced when he opened the door. He smiled at Grimmjow, as if he knew what he'd been doing and he laughed at his resolve. But he said nothing more and dragged him out into the room beyond. "There." He pointed to the bed.
Grimmjow spotted the phone. It was in the center pillow at the top of the bed.
"What is this?" he asked suspiciously.
The back of his neck was grabbed and he was shoved toward the sheets.
"Do you want to talk to you boyfriend or not?"
Grimmjow was forced onto the bed. He still didn't move to the phone. Katagiri shouted at him again, threatening to cancel the call if he didn't obey.
Slowly Grimmjow moved over to the phone. He looked at the screen, it was all set up to make the call.
"Can I—"
His head hit the head board. He fell face first on the pillow, stunned, and felt his wrists put into the restraints.
"What's going on?" he asked when Katagiri began to strip.
"You're going to have your phone call, Grimmjow." He crawled onto the bed behind him. Grimmjow shifted to get away but his hip was snagged and then Katagiri wrapped both arms around his waist. Grimmjow held the bars at the top of the bed to keep his balance.
"D-don't do this," he said when he realized Katagiri's intent.
"Don't worry Grimmjow, he'll only be able to see your face."
Katagiri reached up and tapped a button on the screen. The call went through.
"NO!" Grimmjow screamed as he was penetrated. He was still in the midst of it when Aizen's face appeared.
"Ah, stop!" he cried back over his shoulder, his body jerking. Aizen's face contorted at once, realizing what was happening to Grimmjow.
"Grimmjow—"
"Hang up!" he screamed, rocking violently above the phone. His breath became frantic gaps.
"Grimmjow look at me."
"Just shut it off, don't look!" Another strangled cry escaped him. His eyes watered. He shook his head. "Please don't watch."
"Just hold on."
Grimmjow stared into those brown eyes. There was sorrow in them, anger, but also that same fierceness that always characterized them. Then the screen distorted with water as his tears splashed onto the screen.
"Grimmjow…"
"AH!" Katagiri's hands clawed into him. His head hit the headboard because of the brutal thrusts. He pressed his face into the pillow to muffle his screams but the phone was too close Aizen would still hear…
"Keep screaming." He heard the hiss behind him. Two hands took hold of the headboard. Grimmjow tasted cotton. His own voice echoed back to him. The sheets below him drenched with his saliva and tears. The call ended when he collapsed unmoving while his body still rocked from Katagiri's motions.
He lay still when the other finally grunted and withdrew. He watched him pick up the phone and place it on the bedside table.
He'd used him again—just when Grimmjow thought he was going to be shown a mercy he got this—Aizen forced to watch him taking the abuse first hand. He shut his eyes tight as his hands were released from the head board and Katagiri pulled him down so his body rested on his side, head on pillows. A tongue ran over his jaw and met his mouth. Grimmjow clamped his teeth shut as hungry hands pawed at him from behind.
"Come on now." Katagiri's low voice sounded behind him. "Play nice."
Grimmjow's whole being seized up. The mocking tones. The touches. The pain that continued to stab through him and then the call with Aizen. No. He wouldn't take this abuse from any living creature.
"GHA!" He threw his hands back, clenching them into fists before they and the chains struck Katagiri across the face. Fingernails bit into Girmmjow's skin but he rolled away and fell from the bed.
His legs weren't working properly after the terrible assault. He half crawled on his way to the door then he remembered the security guards. Shit. He looked back. He'd gotten Katagiri pretty good. He was still on the bed, holding a hand to his face. There was blood.
Damn it. The implications of that started to sink in. He'd hurt him.
Fuck it. He might as well try his luck. He shoved off the floor and grabbed the door handle.
It was just one guard and he had his back to the door, facing outward. Grimmjow kept a hold of the door as he kicked forward, striking the man in the back of the knee. When the man was down, Grimmjow looped the chains around his neck and hauled back. He would kill him like he had Yoshi.
Hands came up to his wrists. He leaned back but the guard got a firm grip on his forearms and pulled. Grimmjow flipped over his shoulder and landed hard on the ground. He lay stunned. He should have been able to kill the man but he'd been easily overpowered.
That was how weak Katagiri had made him.
"AGH!" He struggled against the hands that restrained him. He brought a knee up and caught the man in the face. He swore and drove a fist into Grimmjow's jaw before wrestling him onto his stomach and pressing a knee into his back.
"Get him back in here." He could hear the cold fury in Katagiri. His stomach bottomed out. He was already in Hell but he was sure he'd just made it worse. He brought a foot up against the door frame in an attempt to stop himself being hauled in. It did him no good. He was carried in, reduced to kicking and screaming in the guard's arms.
He threw him down to the floor where his screams turned to gasps. The air in the room became dry and thin. His ankle was gripped and he was dragged across the floor, his fingers scraping over the surface, but when Katagiri grabbed his hair and threw him against the side of the bed, he didn't holler in pain. He didn't fight that hand that knotted in his hair. Instead he clutched desperately at his chest. He breathed hard and fast but got no oxygen.
It felt like he was breathing through a straw under twenty feet of water. Pain exploded in his chest, and the thin stream of air he managed to drag into his lungs wasn't enough to sustain him.
He passed out with one last, desperate inhalation, sagging against his tormentor.
"Aizen's made our position."
Katagiri announced to his surrounding men. "He's burnt out our other safe houses. We have less than an hour before he gets here."
Grimm silence met the statement. Then Katagiri smiled.
"Good news is, the charges against us have been dropped. We're going home boys!"
There was a loud roar among the men at the safe house. It had been over two weeks of fancy footwork with bought off-cops and Katagiri's lawyer but they'd gotten clear of what had happened at the pier and since then. In addition, Aizen had given up anything he'd taken from them.
Katagiri wasn't stupid. He knew he could only push Aizen so far, so he'd drawn out the time between demands and he'd only asked for his own properties back. Until now. Now he was moving back into the city. He was curious to see just how far he could use his leverage over Aizen.
At the thought he was reminded of a last piece of baggage that needed packing up before they left.
"Come with me," he ordered a pair of men back to his room where he began to pack his personal belongings. "Get him dressed."
"Where is he?"
"In there."
Katagiri pointed to the bathroom door. The men approached, not sure what state they'd find the young man in. None of them had seen him since his escape attempt two days ago.
The door creaked inward. They saw the mop of blue hair bent into trembling knees. Grimmjow didn't stir at their presence. He continued to sit against the radiator between the toilet and tub. By the looks of it he was in pain, but anything physical was lost in the midst of an emotional meltdown.
"Get rid of those cuffs too." Katagiri leaned in, unperturbed by the state of the young man. "We can't take him home like that."
"Yes sir."
They pulled Grimmjow up to his feet. He moved between them, silent, face dry but streaks creased into his skin. They sat him down on the bed while they undid the cuffs and began to pull his arms through a checkered button shirt. Then one held him up as the other dragged jeans up over his legs.
"Good. I'll take him from here."
The men nodded. Katagiri took a grip around Grimmjow's upper arm, taking him out of the room with him, then down the halls.
Grimmjow stared at the post where he'd been humiliated on film several times. His eyes cast over a dozen men who'd had a hand in his assault in some way or another in the past two weeks. Then sunlight struck him and he blinked several times until he saw black cars and suited men opening the doors.
"Damn, it's going to be good to get back." Katagiri smirked and pushed Grimmjow into the seat next to him.
They drove in silence. Grimmjow watched the highway go past, processing the location of where they'd been. Had Aizen really never found out where they were, or did he not have the resources to effect a rescue?
He leaned against the window, watching Katagiri from the reflection. Was he taking him back to his place? Where would this end? If Aizen hadn't been able to rescue him from a shack in the woods, then surely he wouldn't be able to assault a high-rise building in the middle of the city.
Grimmjow grabbed the door handle and yanked back.
Nothing happened. He yanked harder, again and again, before Katagiri got hold of him and shoved his head down on the leather seats.
"You do know that would have killed you, right?"
Grimmjow didn't answer. He couldn't even if he wanted to—his breath had grown too short and fast and that pain in his chest only grew.
"I guess that answers my question—looks like you're more afraid of livin' than dying." He lifted his hand and pulled Grimmjow up by his collar. "It won't be long now. I can tell Aizen's at the end of his rope. That raid on the safe house today was his last move, and it was desperate. He can't give up anything more without his men starting to question him, start to break and scatter. He's going to have to say no to my demands soon, and then he's going to have to watch me kill you."
He pulled Grimmjow in close, holding the back of his head so his lips were next to his ear.
"But we'll have a few more nights of fun, first, okay?"
His other hand slid up Grimmjow's back, touching a pair of criss-crossed scars left from that first night when he'd been whipped. Grimmjow shoved away. Katagiri let him go, laughing. He didn't need to do anything more, he'd sent Grimmjow over the edge and now he bent his head into his knees, trying to get air that failed to come in.
He was barely recovered when the long drive ended. They'd taken many snaking side-roads to get back to the city, avoiding potential traps set by Aizen. They parked before a tall white building. Unlike Aizen, Katagiri's establishments were more to do with sex industry so he did not live above his businesses. Instead he was located in an upscale condo building. Like Aizen, he owned the penthouse at the top.
The car parked at a rear entrance. Katagiri got out but Grimmjow didn't budge, not until the door opened on his side of the car and a hand waved to him to get out.
They couldn't shoot him here, in this small gap in the real world, between one prison and the next. But neither did he see an escape. His legs wouldn't carry him far on his own if he decided to run, but he couldn't go willingly either.
"Come on, boy." Katagiri reached in and took his wrist, pulling him out. Grimmjow saw the wall of guards around them. There was nowhere to run after all. Katagiri's hand slipped behind his back and propelled him up the steps. His feet dragged. Someone else took his other side, forcing him.
He fought at the door. There was no pubic presence in the shadow of the building. He got a foot up against the rail and shoved backwards. The man holding him fell and they tumbled down the grated steps but there were a dozen more men to grab him. Someone planted their fist in his gut and he went down. Two men picked him up again and forced him inside the building.
The door shut behind them. He was steered down a hall and into an elevator. He collapsed against the wall when he was let go, clinging the bar there. He saw his face in the mirror, he remembered that time with Aizen. How different he'd been then, his face, his eyes. The person was dead now. Katagiri had already killed him. He was right—Grimmjow didn't fear dying anymore.
"Shit." One of the security caught him when his knees gave. He clutched back to the suited arm around his chest. The man felt Grimmjow's stomach hollow but didn't let go in time. Grimmjow vomited down his arm. The man let him drop and Grimmjow heaved a second time onto the carpet of the elevator.
"Shit." The elevator ground to a halt. The doors opened and Grimmjow was pulled up again, away from the mess. Unlike Aizen's place, the elevator opened directly into the penthouse. He got a brief impression on an enormous space, much larger than Aizen's, filled with boastful extravagance. Grimmjow was set down on his knees. The men moved passed him, already busy the moment they returned home.
"Alright boys, no time to celebrate, we have work to do." Katagiri started handing out orders. Then he started to move away.
"Wait, sir, what about him?"
Katagiri turned as if he had actually forgotten Grimmjow. "Him?" He paused a moment, trying to make this more agonizing for the young man. "Stick him in a room, put a man on him. He knows the end is close, don't take any chances. I don't want him offing himself before I get to the do the honours."
"Yes sir. We'll lock him down."
They pulled him off the floor. Grimmjow didn't spare the room around him a glance as he was dragged away, his eyes bored straight into Katagiri, and that yellow smile.
Yes I am evil, but this part of the story will be over soon, so please stick with it so you can enjoy Aizen and Grimm's eventual reunion!
~ZQ