Chapter 6: Bonds

"Over there," Byakuya said into the ear of the flying red demon that carried him, "The house set back in the trees."

Kenpachi's demon form hissed an answer and Byakuya frowned at the weaker sound.

The beast looks tired.

"Perhaps you should let Kenpachi come back," he suggested, "You can land here."

The demon slowed his movements and dropped down to the ground in the trees outside the cottage the noble had indicated. He quivered warningly as Byakuya slid down off his back, then he collapsed onto the ground, his body shimmering and smoking as it morphed slowly back into that of the eleventh division leader. Kenpachi remained on the ground for several minutes, looking dazed and not speaking, then he sat up slowly and looked around.

"Nice place," he commented, "but if it's a place that belongs to you, then won't someone eventually come to look for you here?"

Byakuya shook his head.

"No," he answered in a weary voice, "This property is one of Urahara Kisuke's safe houses. He will likely discover that we are here when he returns home to Karakura Town, but I didn't know where else we could go, and I would rather try to convince him not to kill us outright than to try the same with Central 46 or my clan elders."

"I'm with you."

Kenpachi ran a hand over his sweaty face.

"You're in some trouble now, huh?" he huffed in an almost chuckle.

"That…is an understatement," Byakuya sighed, looking down at his still slim abdomen.

He closed his eyes, breathing slowly as he tried to make sense of the chaotic mess his life had so suddenly become. A moment later, a big hand dropped onto his shoulder and Kenpachi's voice rumbled in his ear.

"We gotta do that bonding thing soon, don't we?" he asked, "Do I have to go bankai or…?"

"No," Byakuya answered softly, thinking again about how tired the beast had looked and how Kenpachi had needed more recovery time before getting up, "We are one with our zanpakuto, so it does not matter which form you take while infusing me."

He sighed raggedly and shook his head.

"I think your counterpart merely enjoys physically abusing me afterwards."

Kenpachi gave him a sideways glance.

"Is it really that bad? Doing it with the demon part of me?" he asked, frowning curiously.

Byakuya gave him a scathing look.

"That hideous thing made me eat raw kill."

"It was sushi!" Kenpachi snickered.

"And he dribbled his saliva fouled water into my mouth to drink."

"He was just trying to keep you alive," the bigger man argued, "Did ya see the size of those damned claws? Like he was gonna be able to carry any water in his hands, right?"

Byakuya rolled his eyes.

"I suppose. Can we just go inside now, before we are noticed here?" he asked tiredly.

"Sure thing," Kenpachi said, smirking and heading for the cottage door, "Just tell me something honestly and don't just insult me when I ask."

"Hmm…"

"The sex is good, right?"

"Do you want me to kill you right now?" Byakuya asked dryly.

"I mean it," Kenpachi insisted, "I mean, I kinda lose awareness while I'm transformed, but I get impressions, and one of the impressions that I got was that you were as horny as that red beast, and you were getting' into it."

"I do not believe I'm hearing this," Byakuya complained, heading into the cottage and closing the door behind them, "You are not actually insinuating that I enjoy being brutalized by something as incapable of love as…"

Kenpachi gave him a curious look as the noble broke off, looking positively tormented.

"What is it?" he asked quickly, "Do you need one of those infusions? I can give you one if…"

"I could probably use one," Byakuya sighed, "though it will really not begin to address the source of my agony."

"You're not talking about me, are you?" the bigger man chuckled.

"As obnoxious as you are, you did not reduce us to the disgraceful state we were in that started all of this. The real culprit is the one who pushed you so hard that your bankai was necessary to survive."

"I'm glad you see that," Kenpachi said, looking around at the cottage's lovely dark wood furnishings and sniffing the air, "Is there food around here. If I'm gonna be infusing you, we need to keep up our reiatsu."

Byakuya gave him a little nod.

"The kitchen should be fully stocked. Kisuke is used to housing refugees and criminals…"

"Criminals?" Kenpachi repeated, "Maybe I'm a criminal, but in what fucked up universe are you any kind of goddamned criminal? If anyone's a criminal, it's the one who calls someone like you a criminal. What did you even do that was wrong? You said it yourself that the demon jumped on you."

Byakuya sighed and shook his head.

"And you know as well as I do that your beast form is completely primal and would not have done that if, as the beast said, it had not been driven by the signals it was getting from me."

"You and I both know that thing disgusts you," Kenpachi huffed, "You didn't want him inside you."

"But I did," he insisted.

"Huh?"

"I thought, when it was happening, that it was the beast's reiatsu or some power it had, which made my loins ache for connection with it, but it wasn't that at all. The truth is that the resonance between your soul and mine is stunningly strong, so strong that neither your inner beast nor mine could resist it. What happened wasn't an assault at all, but a fateful connection. I have no right to characterize it in any other way."

"Are you sayin' you've got a soft spot for that thing?" Kenpachi asked, smirking.

"I am saying that we are not at the mercy of pieces of ourselves. We are whole souls, and that means it doesn't matter what form you are in, my soul knows yours. And maybe the fact that I was denying such a thing for so long simply means that it took me nearly dying and the eruption of that beast to beat the truth into me."

Kenpachi's smirk grew into a pleased grin.

"Am I hearing wrong, or are you sayin' that you had feelings for me before?" he asked.

Byakuya froze as Kenpachi closed in, encircling the spellbound noble in strong, unyielding arms. His head tilted and his green eyes narrowed into slits that glared hungrily into his. Unable to move or make a sound, Byakuya watched the bigger man's face get closer, feeling the warmth of him and breathing in his primal, masculine scent. He was surprised that although he knew Kenpachi to be an impulsive man, there was more than a little restraint in the way he was held and the warmth with which Kenpachi's rough lips possessed his. His eyes drifted closed and he kissed back, the dizzying truth assailing his mind.

I don't know how this can be, but this is right. We are right. This is the feeling of destiny and the knowledge that no matter what lies we might have been told, what lies we might have told ourselves, we were meant to walk this path, and we were meant to do that…together.

He realized suddenly that their lips had parted and he opened his eyes to look up into the bigger man's. Kenpachi grinned and touched his cheek with rough fingertips.

"Whaddya know?" he rumbled affectionately, "Who woulda guessed?"

"Certainly not me," Byakuya sighed, "Come, we need to restore ourselves."

"You know, you can just say we need to eat, bond, fuck and sleep," the bigger man snickered.

"No," Byakuya said dryly, "As brutally true as that is…I cannot say that."

XXXXXXXXXX

The warm feeling of being watched by affectionate eyes brought Tetsuya out of sleep, and he looked up into Kuri's bright turquoise orbs, wondering at the gentleness in a man he knew well was capable of fiery emotion and frightening, earth shaking power. But gentleness, too, was a part of the Shima leader. As brutal and hard a fighter, Kuri loved passionately, and it was love that he protected, every time he raised his sword.

"Did you get any sleep at all?" Tetsuya asked softly, "or did you simply lie there and look at me all night?"

Kuri chuckled and the already beautiful warmth between them radiated even more brightly.

"How could I help myself?" Kuri mused, touching Tetsuya's soft cheek with his fingertips, "Such loveliness, Tetsu-hana. I am overwhelmed."

"I thought that you were going to be a gentleman if I shared my bed with you for the night. Are you going back on your word now?"

"Not at all," Kuri said smoothly, moving in for a kiss, "It is the next day now, and I have made no promises about that."

"No," Tetsuya agreed, his cheeks flushing, "you haven't."

"Don't worry," the handsome Shima leader reassured him, "I will never dishonor you, however, I can no longer resist you, so…if you are accepting of my meager and unworthy love, I will do my best to give you all of the love that is in me, Tetsu-hana."

Well aware that there were a hundred or more reasons he should probably refuse, not the least of which was likely to be his cousin and leader's disapproval of the Shima leader's sometimes sly methods and easy bending of the rules, Tetsuya still had no defense, nor any will to raise one as Kuri's voracious mouth crashed into his. Warm hands swiftly undressed him and caressed his pale, soft flesh as the two men kissed and thrust against each other.

Kuri was a powerful man, and he certainly could have taken what he wanted, much as Tetsuya's foul cousin had done so for years before, but there was nothing of that cruelty in the Shima leader, as his dampened fingers found Tetsuya's entrance and worked very slowly at pleasuring and preparing him. Instead of forcing and demanding as Orochi had, Kuri's hands offered and yielded love, affection, emotion and sensations the likes of which the slighter noble had never experienced. Desire swept over Tetsuya like a raging, torrent of fever, bringing flashes of heat and misting his skin as their kissing intensified. He blushed harder at how willingly he gave in to the lightest touch on his thigh, and spread his legs easily to let the Shima leader enter him.

Tetsuya expected there to be at least some pain, but having taken the time to properly prepare him, his swollen member slid in as easily as a sword into its sheath. A little, shaky gasp escaped Tetsuya, and Kuri paused immediately, studying his face for any signs of discomfort.

"Are you all right, Tetsu-hana? I did not hurt you?"

"I'm not hurt," Tetsuya assured him, "I just…never felt sexual joining that didn't hurt. W-with…I mean, before, it was always painful."

"Mi corazòn," Kuri sighed sadly, "that is only because your body has never known love. What that beast gave you was only abuse. Let me show you what love truly is."

Tetsuya smiled, tightening his legs around the man on top of him and giving him a little nod to continue. Kuri's hips moved experimentally and Tetsuya quivered and made a sound of surrender. The bigger man's powerful hips began a steady thrusting and Tetsuya moved with him, arching his back and writhing at the intensity of the slow, deep penetration. He would have been embarrassed at the noises he was making, but Kuri's deep moans mingled erotically with his, and as the speed of the man's thrusts increased and lost some of their gentleness, Tetsuya's movements became equally fervent, driving them towards the edges of oblivion, then throwing them carelessly over and into long, hard shudders of release. They held each other for a long time after, still caressing and unleashing a fury of softer kisses. Slowly, sleep began to overtake them, and still joined with the Shima leader's body, Tetsuya looked up sleepily into the other man's lovely turquoise eyes.

"Thank you," he whispered, offering Kuri a last, soft kiss, "for teaching me what love feels like."

Kuri's eyes turned smoky and Tetsuya felt the danger Orochi would be in if he ever angered this man.

"No one will ever hurt you again, Tetsu-hana," Kuri promised, "or he will meet with a fate worse than death long before I unmercifully kill him."

"You don't have to kill anyone," Tetsuya chuckled, brushing the stray hairs away from his lover's comely face, "Marked as I am with Kuri-Kuri-sama's love, no one will dare to lay a hand on me."

"That's right," Kuri agreed, "nor even so much as a finger."

The two drifted off and slept peacefully for several more hours, until Tetsuya woke to the soft brushing of a hell butterfly against the side of his face. He sat up slowly, and Kuri sat up with him, listening as the insect yielded its message.

"Tetsuya," said Byakuya's voice, "I wish to pass on to you that I am alive and…unhurt, but I am not able to return to Soul Society at this time. I am going to require your protection. I have placed coordinates within this hell butterfly to guide you to me. It is imperative that you do not tell anyone where I am. Something has happened, and I must resolve the situation before I can return. Trust only Urahara Kisuke and come to me as quickly as you can."

Tetsuya bit his lip gently and looked quietly at the naked man in his bed. Kuri looked back at him and gave him a little wink.

"Don't think you are going without me," the Shima leader chuckled, "After all, I have heard this message. It would be unsafe to leave me here with that much information."

"What information?" Tetsuya teased, "He didn't say where he is. How will you…?"

Tetsuya's breath caught as he was brought down suddenly on his back.

"Details," Kuri laughed, "Now then, shall we go and see what trouble Byakurai has gotten himself into?"

XXXXXXXXXX

Kisuke glanced over to where Ichigo ran alongside him, as the two flash stepped through the precipice world, headed back to the world of the living.

"Did Byakuya say why he needed to see you?" the ginger-haired man asked, "Is he in some kinda trouble?"

"I think he is, or I wouldn't be the first person he contacted, you know? I irritate Byakuya on a good day."

"Yeah, you do."

"He sounded kinda tense, and if he's not coming directly back to Soul Society, then something is definitely up."

He paused for a moment as hoofbeats sounded near them, and Tetsuya appeared, astride his tall, black Arabian stallion, with the Shima leader riding behind him.

"Now, I definitely know something serious is up," Kisuke commented, looking up at Tetsuya, "I guess it makes sense him calling for you."

"If he needs my protection with such urgency, then the situation is serious," Tetsuya agreed, "although Byakuya-sama did say that he was not hurt."

"Hmm, sounds like we have a little mystery on our hands. Let's get there quickly."

The group quickened their flash steps, hurrying to the exit and dropping down onto a quiet street. They followed the hell butterfly to a small cottage, stopping in front of the dwelling as little flickers of riled reiatsu leaked out and floated in the air around them.

"What is that?" Ichigo mused, blinking and staring at the strangely intense feel of the reiatsu.

Kisuke snickered.

"Well, given the familiarity of the reiatsu, I'd say that Kuchiki taicho and, unless I miss my guess, Kenpachi…just had a little more than a meeting of the minds, if you know what I mean."

Tetsuya's breath caught and Kuri barely stifled a laugh as Ichigo gave the shopkeeper a stymied look.

"Don't worry about it," Kisuke giggled, "It's not dangerous. I think they're done."

"Done?" Ichigo repeated, blinking.

"C'mon," Kisuke urged him, "Byakuya needs our help."

Tetsuya moved forward and laid a hand on the barrier surrounding the cottage, and the four men left the stallion on guard and walked inside.