A/N: Sorry about the impromptu hiatus, RL well and truly did me under for a little while. I debated putting this up for Grimm/Ichi Day but decided against it because they aren't our main pairing here. Hope everyone's was excellent. And I'm sorry this is so short. I need to come up with a cover image for part 5, but I'll put up the first chapter as soon as I've got one. Enjoy! Ja ne!
Sunlight streamed through the tattered blinds, glinting off of hair the same color, as it slid over the pale eyelids beneath until they fluttered open. Immediately the first thing Shinji was aware of was the vibrator still in his ass. He whimpered as he pulled it out, and dove for the bathroom to clean up, completely missing the person sitting on his couch until after he exited once again. Then he caught sight of the over six foot tall humanoid with the huge gossamer wings sitting seiza at his coffee table reading his psychology book.
"Uh...?"
Aizen had propped his chin on his hand when Shinji went dashing by, and smiled beautifully at him. "Good morning, Shinji."
The blond snagged a towel from the bathroom behind him to hold in front of himself. "Uh...mornin'? Did...uh...are you...um?"
"Surely you haven't forgotten last night?" The butterfly was still in his demonic form, point-tipped feet in clear view behind him. "I am able to adjust my size, if that's what you were wondering. I did promise not to leave."
"So..." Shinji blinked several times and looked around the room, "Uh...not that I didn't enjoy it er nothin' but...ya promised me ya'd tell me why ya were watchin' me this mornin'...an' I don' us'ally do that...I mean...I've never done that...I don't know if ANYone outside o' hentai has ever done that." He blushed lightly.
The brunette chuckled softly, but he was a bit nervous. Usually, this was when things began going downhill with his mate. "Well, much as it may seem like the plot of a bad yaoi, it happened. And I did promise." Putting the book aside, he rose to his feet and offered his mate a deep bow. "As you already know my name is Aizen Sousuke, and I am..." He paused to gather his nerve. "I am Famine, Third Horseman under The King of Souls."
Shinji rubbed his head, "Why's that sound familiar? Not yer name o' course, but the rest of it."
"Please don't think on it too hard," Aizen replied, but really he was pleading.
Somehow, his mate never quite was able to properly assimilate his other Lives. It drove him mad, every time. The brunette tended to attribute it to the high amount of lives in which he was abused, or died violently and young, accumulated life-traumas making it impossible for him to remember without suffering acute shellshock and either dying from that, or being driven insane by the pain in the memories and committing suicide.
"No, it's like..." The blond shook his head, coming over to the couch and plopping down, frowning. "See there's this voice. In my head. My whole life, he's been there. Would warn me away from people sometimes. An' I asked him once what his name was, but all I could hear was 'So'. Was that you?"
The taller male was hesitant, but not unforthcoming, "Of course. After Gin began calling me 'So-So' many years ago, I found myself becoming fond of the nickname. And of course, that voice is mine. As I said I have watched over you for a long time, even when I was not physically or mentally with you."
"So...heh…gonna hafta change how I say stuff er yer always gonna think I'm sayin' yer name." Shinji smiled. He let his eyes trail over the wings, and feelers, a soft contemplative look crossing his mind. "I don't know if ya can help me with this but since ya obviously aren't human maybe ya can give me the answers nobody else could. I had this dream when I was little, 'bout bein' surrounded by people tryin' ta kill me. I had some kinda weapon er somethin' an' was swingin' it 'round when all of a sudden there's this flap of wings an' this thing falls on me. I can't see what it is, but I know I'm warm, an' that the people tryin' ta kill me can't get to me. But in the dream fer some reason I was fightin' to get out from under it, an' I remember thinkin' how stupid that was cuz there wasn't nothin' wrong with bein' held, 'specially when th' one holdin' me was protectin' me. But, the wings...they looked just like yers."
He reached out to touch one, almost afraid that they'd dissolve into nothing. Surprisingly, they held under his touch, depositing a thick layer of dust onto his hand where it touched. Aizen's eyes closed. First, because his mate was touching his wings and giving him goose-bumps. Second, he did remember that memory. He remembered that battle, his wings torn to shreds, his body rent in two, and his mate dying, impaled on the end of a—
His eyes flew open and he swallowed. "Yes, I-I…I know the...the dream. It is...an old nightmare...of mine. I must have...have accidentally shared it with you."
Oh, this was not good. Everything in him rebelled against lying to his mate. Even this partial-truth was much too close to outright lying to his mate and it showed. Damn his stutter!
"I didn't think it worked that way." Shinji shivered. "I knew ya b'fore. Didn't I?" He didn't let the other answer. "In my studies of my Dad's culture I read something. I know about the cycle of rebirth thing, an' that ev'rybody's lived at least once b'fore. It's...been somethin' of a comfort...knowin' that my soul must be old. Otherwise why wouldn't anybody like me? They could pro'ly sense I'd lived b'fore them. Made them scared o' me, but it's ok, cuz I had ya. I'd go ta that field an' it didn't matter what had happened at school, cuz ya where there, all year 'round, rain, snow er shine. So, near as I can figure we must've had some kinda connection in a past life...maybe more than one."
Aizen's wings began to stain a deep, deep blue, streaked with yellow—worry with deep pangs of alarm. "You have, but…don't go remembering them! Your soul is…it's too old," he attempted to explain. "When a soul as old as yours remembers all its previous reincarnations, bad things happen. It is a terrible thing to have so many memories overwhelm your current sense of self. It is painful and causes insanity." His feelers curled inward protectively, as did his legs as his arms came around them, trying to make himself as small as possible without actually changing sizes. "It is...equally painful to watch. So please, meine Shinji, don't try to remember."
The blond shrugged, giving a carefree grin. "The past isn't important. I live fer t'day. Fer the moment. It's how I get through shit like high school."
The butterfly blinked at him. He looked completely nonplussed for a long moment, then a smile that seemed to shine with sunlight and pure joy broke across his face and he unwound from his ball to pounce on his mate.
"Wie habe ich jemals so glücklich? Wie konnte jemand wie ich eine so große Geschenk als diese gegeben werden? Ich liebe dich, mein Shinji, und…und, wenn ich nicht, dich zu verlieren, werde ich mein Lob an die jemals zum Teufel hat diese verursacht zu geben…dieses Wunder für mich, und es ist nicht ein kleines Wunder entweder!" He held the blond to his chest, kissing him over and over.
No idea why he was being kissed and cuddled, but going with it, Shinji laughed. "I have no clue what ya just said but if this is th' kind o' boyfriend yer gonna be then I might hafta fig're out how ta trigger it more often."
Aizen sat up, straddling his waist and grinning. "Oh that is easy, you simply have to be you. That is all I need."
He then kissed him again, wings fluttering for a moment before something internally set off a chiming alarm. His internal clock.
"Ah, it is time for class. I believe this morning is Psychology, yes? A quiz, if I remember correctly, on Freud. And people say we demons are obsessed with sex." The brunette shook his head, incredulously.
"AH! I didn't do any studyin'!" Shinji dashed into the bedroom to get dressed. "Next time ya decide ta pounce me, make sure I get my homework done first!" He called.
"I will keep it in mind," The butterfly called. "Oh...if you hear my voice telling you answers on the test, ignore it. That's my demonic nature attempting to make sure my—freund," he changed the word at the last second, using one he was sure Shinji wouldn't translate properly, "shares all the knowledge I have. However, it won't make sure you actually know it, which is not helpful."
"Uh huh..." Shinji returned dressed in jeans and a shirt similar to the one still in the middle of his living room floor. "I'll do my best." Then he checked the time. "Those wings o' yers...they don't actually work do they? Like...could ya get us 'cross campus in five minutes?"
"Of course they work, and naturally I can get across campus…in far less than five minutes," Aizen said, standing up with a look of playful arrogance crossing his handsome features. "Brace yourself," he advised as he opened the door and took his mate in his arms. Then he Flitted, and a split second later was leaning Shinji against the wall right outside his classroom.
The blond looked around, and smirked, "Good, cuz that gives me time ta do this."
He wrapped his arms around Aizen's neck, pulling the taller man into a steamy kiss, right in front of what was left of Ginjou's gang; the lanky second-in-command with the freaky sunglasses, and a few of the other thugs who'd followed the football player. The fullback-turned-female was nowhere to be found, but that probably had to do with the fact that she still remembered and thought of herself as a male, in spite of the memories of everyone else around her having been altered to fit her new gender. Well, everyone else, except Shinji, but he was so wrapped up in enjoying his new boyfriend that she barely crossed his mind. More importantly, he prayed that what they saw was the tall, impossibly handsome, senior who was the captain of the Jujutsu team, not the stunningly, gorgeous demon that was his true form.
For a second, just one mere split instant, the illusion faltered from shock, but then Aizen was kissing back—and yes, all the others saw the transfer student he'd been for the last year and a half. The strange creature must have just been a trick of the light. But the brunette was picking Shinji up, holding him underneath the thighs as he kissed him back passionately. He had his mate. No, they hadn't performed the Marking ceremony yet, but that could come with time. Give the blond human a chance to parade the brunette around in his world for a while, before enveloping him in the affairs of the Court. The butterfly was well-enough ahead of his work to afford a decade or two off if that's what it took to keep his key this time around.
It was much, much later when thin fingers walked across the sculpted planes of a bronzed chest, using each 'step' as a tease. Smoldering, lust-filled brown eyes framed by straw-straight blond hair topped a pierced tongue that flicked out to lick over thin lips. The assailant pulled himself up the athletic torso of his lover with a human purr.
"So-so...d'ya know what day it is?"
The demon he lay on top of opened one eye with a little grin. "Hmmm, no, blondie. Pray tell…is it a human holiday today?" He teased. He knew damn well what day it was and he knew his lover knew it. But it was fun to play pretend.
Shinji giggled, "Silly Chou! One year ago today ya rescued me from that bakamono Gin-joke."
His hands were just about to dive underneath the pajama bottoms his lover wore for an early morning wake-up call when there was an electrio-static fizzle and something black and white bounced off of the wall near the door to land in a heap of limbs like he'd been shot out of a cannon. The blond sat bolt upright, clutching the blankets to his chest in spite of the tee-shirt he wore.
Aizen bolted upright as well, and breathed, "Qio."
The butterfly was frozen in shock for a second before dashing to his comrade, untangling the long limbs and wings and tail. The bat demon moaned in pain, struggling until he was all straightened out, eyes wide and...frightened. They were so bright, even bordering on terrified.
"We need you."
Aizen held his shoulders. "What? Qio—"
"We need you! We need you, we need you now, So! You're the eldest! You have the Knowledge we need! We need you!"
Aizen was taken aback by his vehemence—and by the repetition. Ulquiorra, repeating himself like this, he was thoroughly frightened and disturbed. Something was seriously wrong.
Shinji's hand flew to the side of his head, and he winced, a sudden pain shooting through his temples like the driving of an ice pick. "Y-ya hafta...h'help 'em, So-so." He panted. "Dunno what's wrong...but...AH! Ya gotta...gotta go!"
Aizen looked between the two for a moment, both in pain, before he fluttered to his mate and held his face in his hands. "But...you're hurting. How can I..."
"It's First, Ai," Ulquiorra whimpered.
Aizen's body jerked as though he'd been hit. "I...I will return swiftly. I promise, mate."
"Take me wit'cha." Shinj said suddenly. "I c'n help...I think..."
He frowned, rubbing his temple. It was strange, like a dream, snippets of something filtered into his mind. Blue hair, and claws, and something to do with saving a unicorn or chimera? He wasn't sure, but he felt in his heart if he went to this place he could clear away the fog.
Aizen was hesitant. That much magic could lead to...dangerous things. "But you…"
"There isn't time!" Death cried. "We need you now, he comes!"
"Ngh, FINE," the brunette growled.
The butterfly reached out and ripped open a portal. It would be faster than the Demon Flit and easier on his human mate. Picking up Shinji, blanket and all, and cradling him tenderly, he stepped through, Ulquiorra right on his heels.
End Part 4
A/N 2: Translations:
"Wie habe ich jemals so glücklich? Wie konnte jemand wie ich eine so große Geschenk als diese gegeben werden? Ich liebe dich, mein Shinji, und…und, wenn ich nicht, dich zu verlieren, werde ich mein Lob an die jemals zum Teufel hat diese verursacht zu geben…dieses Wunder für mich, und es ist nicht ein kleines Wunder entweder!"
- "How did I ever get so lucky? How could one such as I be given so great a gift as this? I love you, my Shinji, and…and if I don't have to lose you, I will give my praise to whoever the fuck has caused this…this miracle for me, and it is not a small miracle either!" (German)
Freund
- friend, generally assumed term for boyfriend meaning a homosexual relationship, like aibou in Japanese (German)