A/N: Ohaiyo, minna! Early update cuz I'm bored. lol Because this is the only fic I'm updating, I'm getting tired of working just with this one. I know...I know...I need to get back into working on the other fics, but my surgery and everything just has me all off my game. I'm hoping and praying to be able to get back into it soon...I'm starting to go stir-crazy, Silva and I have been starting fic after fic after fic and never finishing a one of them...x.x GAH! Hopefully things'll get sorted out soon, minna. Anyway, enjoy! Ja ne!
The Directive hit the panther harder than any blow. He was frozen in place for several long, long moments before he went into an absolute fit! Howling, clawing, screaming and carrying on, his rant spanning so many different languages only someone equally versed, like Aizen, would have understood even the general gist. How dare he?! Conquest was trying to be a good mate dammit, trying so hard, he even forced himself not to get angry when Ichigo wouldn't say who the father was, but then he goes and does this?! Forcibly changes the children to be Conquest's when they were someone else's by birthright, and then, then enslave his mate, his own mate, a Horseman, by means of a Directive?! His roar of unbridled rage shook the very castle foundations. No! Conquest debased himself for no-one, not even his mate! He refused! But it was a Directive, he would have no choice. How could he? How could his mate, his loved and trusted mate, turn him into a goddamned puppet?!
"Mah...so much anger, Kitty-kun."
Gin just happened to be making his own way back from the bathhouse at that moment. The triplets were down for a nap and he had just finished a much needed soak in the hot spring. He'd missed the Directive, but the tell-tale snap of power hadn't seemed strong enough to cause that kind of reaction from the First.
"Snarrrrrrl! He's fuckin' som'body else, I don' giv-a-shit 'bout tha', bu' 'e won' tell me 'oo," Said feline snapped, pacing, accent thick with anger, "an' jus' Directed 'is lover's kids ta become mine, an' me ta grovel fer fergiv'ness when things 'appen as he's Directed! I grovel fer no-one! I refused ta debase m'self even fer the goddamn King o' th' Abyss 'imself! How DARE he abuse me dis way?!" He let out another shriek, leaping for the nearest non-living thing and tearing it to shreds in his rage and frustration.
The kitsune summoned his mist cloud, just so he could easily get out of the way of the rampaging Horseman. "Well...now, granted 'M not 'xactly an expert on th' subject, but he ain't left the Shrine since ya left. 'Member, he took th' semester off so ya could cover fer Tora? Thanks fer that, by the way. An' I know he ain't sleepin' wit' any o' us. Shiro's been holed up wit' Qio th' whole time, an' So-So only jus' broke outta his cocoon t'day. Yer th' only one I c'n think of him sleeping wit', an' well...wouldn't I know?" The sex demon implied that his role as the Jester meant that keeping the King entertained was his job, so if the King wanted a concubine or any other sort of escort, he'd be the one to pick them out.
Conquest paused, calming just slightly, and raked his hands through his hair. "Yeah...yah, tha' makes sense. So, fergettin' the random pregnancy bit, I ain't gonna fergive th' rest so easily! Ya know I don' grovel, Gin."
No, indeed, he had been tortured and killed, once had very nearly had his core-self destroyed, which would have removed him even from the reincarnation cycle, but he had never betrayed himself to grovel, beg, or debase himself. That would have destroyed his core much more than physically harming it.
"Bu' he's gone an' made it a Directive! Th' second I seen that kid 'e's carryin', I'll be forced ta betray m'own self an' all I ever stood fer. Ya know as well as I do it'll break somethin' in me 'at can't git fixed," he said the last part quieter, body sagging where it stood.
His mate was going to destroy the thing that made him who he was and he could do nothing to stop it. That hurt more than anything.
"Mebbe ya need ta try an' get him ta reverse it? He said somethin' 'bout fergivin' ya, right?" The kitsune shrugged. "Earn his fergiveness b'fore th' kits 're born." He rolled over so he could look at the feline upside down, hanging backwards off of his cloud. "I said a whole buncha stuff that I didn' mean when I was knocked up. Nah, I know I couldn't change Reality like he c'n, but it didn' mean I didn' hurt m' Tora by sayin' 'em. Mebbe ya should set aside that he's th' King fer a bit an' jus' love 'im as your mate. Th' Directive'll sort itself out. If nothin' else, Shiro'll take care o' it when he finds out. Cuz I know fer a fact, yer mate's in there pourin' his heart out ta his twin as we speak. 'M sure he knows 'xactly how much he hurt ya, but he doe'n't know how ta fix it. He's still pretty young, ya know."
The panther looked very confused. Young? He was King. And set aside him being King? His brain couldn't comprehend it.
"...I'll not be goin' ta him," he decided stubbornly. "I crawl fer nobody, not even 'im. I will not go crawlin' or grovelin'," he repeated firmly with a growl, as though proving it to himself more than Gin, before turning on his paws, dropping to all fours, and taking off.
He wanted a hot bath, then to find two or three priestesses who would coo and squeal over his feline features, pet and maybe massage him a little, and then get some damn rest.
"Well, that ain't gonna go over well..." Gin muttered and used his cloud to appear in the library, where true to form Ichigo was sobbing, angry and basically exploding things almost faster than Aizen and Ulquiorra could fix them. "Yup, definitely not gonna end well." He ducked a flying a book and approached the butterfly, "So-so..."
The butterfly, despite making semi-frantic motions to keep a plethora of spells up and running and aimed at the correct objects, seemed perfectly normal when he replied, "Yes Gin?"
He sounded like he was sitting in a chair reading, not desperately trying to keep the library intact through the King's emotional onslaught. Ulquiorra was doing the same, chanting under his breath in Sumerian as his mate comforted his monarch.
"We've got a problem wit'...um...First." He whispered the name, but Ichigo heard him anyway, and a bust of some philosopher went flying through where the kitsune had been not two seconds before to shatter against the wall. The kitsune made a nervous noise as his ears went back, "Mebbe we should talk elsewhere...?"
"No!" The King was on his feet. "What's the fucker up to now? Off ta kill somethin'? To fuck somethin'? Accuses me of sleepin' around and then he's gonna go off an' do it, isn't he?" Several books exploded into particles of paper only to be repaired immediately by Shiro.
Gin whimpered. He didn't know for certain but he had suspicions. "I think...um...well...uh...see, yer Majesty, he...uh...mebbe he's jus',...yeah, I got nothin'...So-so? Help!" He hid behind the brunette butterfly, deeming the instability in the King's emotions enough to warrant both protection and formality.
"Enough, Ichigo!" Aizen's voice cracked like a whip of pure power, and his use of the King's Name lent even more power to his command.
He could not overcome the King, exactly, but he could exert some considerable influence, which was what he wanted. He needed Ichigo calm, at least calm enough to explain what was going on.
"I know you gave a Royal Directive! Tell me what it was, the exact words. I have known Conquest longer than you have been alive and no matter how many times he is reincarnated his core is the same and behaves in simple, predictable patterns. Give me the data, and I can tell you exactly what his response is."
"He can," Ulquiorra supplied, holding a barrier over Gin with one hand and fixing a broken wall with the other. "He can do it to all of us except you, and he can accurately predict even your behavior nearly sixty-four percent of the time, Ichigo. But you must be calm enough to supply the information he needs."
Taking a deep breath, the King closed his eyes. The library righted itself, as though he'd never had his outburst. To the point that even the papers and books that had been out and open and being used were back in the places they were. He took another breath, and a static shock ran through everything backwards. Another couple of breaths and he re-opened his eyes, looking defeated.
"It doesn't matter. I've reversed it. There's no help for it, I suppose. Eventually, I'll probably be all fat and ugly and he won't want me anyways." He re-took the seat he had taken when he first arrived to find comfort from his twin.
Lips pursing, Aizen marched straight up to the pregnant man and put a strong hand on his shoulder, the other tilting his chin up so he looked him in the eye, chestnut to amber. "This is important. Even if you undid it, he will still follow through on the behavior and I need to know what he is doing. Even though he is Awake as a Horseman, this does not make him immortal. He is just as mortal as he ever was, merely a hell of a lot harder to kill, and there are certain situations that always, I repeat, always, as in one hundred percent of the time these situations and events occur, that he goes running headlong into death immediately afterwards. Now. What. Did. You. Direct?" His wings were dyed orange-yellow with worry and streaked with a disturbing murky brown: worry and fear.
"I...I told him that the twins would be born looking just like him, and that...that he'd have to beg me to forgive him..."
Even as he said it a second time, Ichigo knew as surely now as he had then, how horribly wrong it had been to say it. His lover was proud, bowed down for no man, and would never grovel, even if he was commanded to do so. It was one of the things that had made him fall in love with the vibrant feline man the first time he laid eyes on him, before all of this nonsense with prophecies and magic had consumed his life. He couldn't even meet Aizen's gaze and tears, fat and heavy, began to fall anew, though this time tinged in despair, making gentle silver-grey clouds gather outside, drizzling.
"Oh thank the Abyss," the butterfly breathed. "His reaction to that is easily remedied."
Ulquiorra looked at him in confusion. "He would see that as a betrayal by his mate. How is that easy?"
"Ichigo merely needs to admit what he knows already, that to give such an order was wrong. His reaction to rage is volatile, his reaction to hurt on the other hand is nearly formula. First, he will bathe, then he will seek out comfort, and then he will go to bed to try and persuade himself that he isn't actually emotionally hurt. It's the seeking out comfort where we might run into a problem," Aizen added thoughtfully, tapping his chin.
Ulquiorra frowned. "How so?"
"Well, Grimmjow seeks comfort differently depending on how hurt he is. For something this severe, he's beyond looking for sex...but being feline, he wants touch. He will go to the priestesses for pampering. But his position will be highly compromising and may send Ichigo into a whole new fit." A look of concern crossed the Third's face and his wings reflected that emotion.
"That's ok. I don't really want him to see me like this anyway." Ichigo drew his feet up onto the couch and wrapped his arms around his knees. "I may Direct him again...and I don't wanna do that."
Shiro, having no words to comfort his King, merely sat down next to the orangette and held him. Pulling him to his chest and stroking his hair, much the same way as had been done for him in the past. Gin also floated over to add his own comfort, if he could, but it did little to soothe the ache developing under the King's breastbone.
"It's like...all I am anymore is the King. Even you guys don't treat me the same. There's always this fear that I'm gonna say something that can't be reversed, and I get it. I do. I can handle it from you guys. Even Horse, here, and Rage, but Grimm...he always looked beyond my mask. He always knew me, even better than I knew myself it seemed, and now...the longer he's away from me, the less he knows me. It wasn't much at first, but now...now I don't think he even knows my name." The King buried his face in his knees.
That...niggled something in Aizen's mind. It did, but he couldn't quite...bring it into the light. He was sure it would come out later, for now he stroked Ichigo's hair and made a soothing sound under his breath.
Grimmjow, meanwhile, clean now, was indeed lounging naked in the laps of three different priestesses, having oils massaged into his non-furry skin and purring like a truck engine. Like all cats, he just loved to be pampered.
Gin took in the situation, poofed out of the library, checked on his kits, then appeared in the room with the feline. "We gotta talk, Kitty-kun."
One ear perked and swiveled his way, but he didn't open an eye and his long, muscled body didn't so much as twitch. Disturb this lovely massage? Not unless his mate needed him.
"Mah. Ok. Then I'll talk an' ya c'n listen." The kitsune's tails twitched, 'accidentally' smacking two of the priestesses' behinds on his way past as he paced the room. "Y'know me an' Tiger 're real grateful fer all th' help ya've given us. What wit' th' conflict thing an' th' kits an' him bouncin' back an' forth. Thanks fer settin' that up by th' way. But, now it's m' turn ta give it back ta ya. Ichi-kun's all in knots. He ain't used ta dealin' wit' this shit. Least o' all the twins. I mean, 'M a kitsune, we're born fer it, he was human. Human males can't get preggers. At least...not wi'out Directive. So, he's been workin' his ass off tryin' ta learn all this shit that comes easy fer all'a us, an' at th' same time he's had ta watch ya run off an' do all the shit ya've been doin' an' I think it's gettin' ta him. Now, he's all knock-knocked an' he don't know where it came from. Nobody seems ta, or if they do, nobody's sayin' anythin'. So, ya come home, an' th' first thing ya ask him 'bout it, is who he's been sleepin' wit'? I think I'd be more'n a little upset at that m'self. He says all ya see in him anymore is th' King, an' he's more'n that. That ya used ta know him better, er somethin'...I sorta dozed out a little when he was talkin' 'bout that stuff, but it sounds ta me like instead'a runnin' away, ya should be cuddlin' up ta him. Ya know, like ya told Tiger ta do wit' me a couple months ago," He flushed a deep scarlet, "when I was nestin' so bad he could find anywhere ta sleep cuz I'd stolen all th' blankets. Ya told him ta go sleep wit' me in my nest, an' he did an' it stopped bein' a problem. Sah...mebbe, I'll talk ta Tora 'bout it, an' get ya a week er so ta stay home an' reconnect wit' him. How's that sound?"
Conquest rolled onto his stomach, propping his chin on his crossed arms and frowning. "...only if 'e ain't gunna Direct me like tha' again. Y know I can't handle it, Gin. I jus' can't."
The kitsune ran a frustrated hand through his hair, "Ya know he don't mean it. I think if ya gave him half th' chance he'd reverse anythin' he said. That's what he did wit' this one anyway. Said he didn't want ta Direct ya anyway."
"A'right. I'll go talk ta 'im."
Hopping to his paws, armor rippled up out of his skin to cover his nudity and the panther disappeared, taking off to go find his mate to comfort him. They could straighten things out when they weren't so strung out and stressed. They didn't make sense of each other when they were both under this much pressure.
Gin rolled his eyes and wandered off to find his own mate. He needed something to chew on, damnit...maybe the redhead would be up for a blowjob.