Chapter 1: A Matter of Blood

Tetsuya Kuchiki's bright sapphire eyes watched quietly from within a copse of plum trees, near where is cousin and clan leader knelt beneath a lovely sakura that stood at the top of a little cliff, overlooking a moonlit lake and grassy meadow. To his cousin's right, and just ahead of Tetsuya's vantage point, a running stream spilled over the edge of the cliff and splashed down into the lake below them. Byakuya's chin lifted and his dark steel eyes focused on the full white moon overhead. Tetsuya read his peaceful expression and sensed his cousin's next words before they left his lips.

"Tetsuya, would you like to join me?"

The younger Kuchiki stepped out of the trees, pausing and glancing to his left as the nearby brush rustled and his tall black Arabian stallion poked his head out, snuffing through his nostrils to clear them. The stallion nickered and fell in at Tetsuya's heels as the young man approached Byakuya's favorite resting spot.

There seems to be no part of the estate that is not beautiful, Tetsuya reflected silently as he moved across the distance to meet his cousin, Yet, of all of the beautiful places here, this is the one that is his favorite for rest and reflection.

Tetsuya breathed in the lovely scents of the splashing water, damp grass and flowers as he joined Byakuya and knelt at his cousin's side. Byakuya was quiet for several minutes, breathing slowly as he drank in the moon's light and let the cares of the day fade.

"Is there anything to report?" Byakuya asked softly, keeping his eyes on the moon.

"Not really," Tetsuya assured him, "It has been calm since the war ended and we began to rebuild."

"That is good."

"Yes," Tetsuya agreed, closing his eyes and marveling inwardly that the brightness of the moon still reached him, "I enjoyed being able to spend a little time reading in the gardens as I used to before the war."

Byakuya nodded.

"It is good to be able to return to our more casual pursuits, although the memories of the war are still fresh and they do tend to invade our peace at times."

"I feel the same," Tetsuya concurred, "I want so much to feel as I did before, but then I pass a place where one of our family was lost, or a friend, or a comrade. I do not mean to cry, but my tears come easily at those times. Hatred is such a painful thing. I wish there was a way to destroy it. I know better than to think there is a way, but…I try to remain hopeful."

"Although I know that your hopes of normality have been tested with the end of the war," Byakuya acknowledged, "I felt your disappointment at the way the elders decided to handle the losses to our numbers."

"Oh," Tetsuya said, smiling dismissively, "it isn't as though I wanted to be handed off to someone for marriage anyway. It is just…"

"It is wrong for them to fail to acknowledge your bravery during the war, and the astounding protection our clan enjoyed because of your forward thinking and preparations. I assure you, all of them know that, if not for you, we would have faced losses in the war as great as the others that the quincies targeted."

"I had to protect my family," Tetsuya said, opening his eyes and looking into the moon's light, "Sadao and Mai took me in when I was but a feral teen, who had never lived anywhere but within prison walls. Koji and Torio, our attendants, were the ones who taught me how to live in noble society, and you taught me to protect myself from ever being imprisoned again. I was fighting to protect all of those things, and I was not going to lose. I think the elders simply know that they were but the beneficiaries of my devotion to protecting my family."

Byakuya gave him a reproving look.

"You know as well as I do that you were determined to save as many lives as possible, no matter who was being saved. You grieved as deeply over watching strangers die at the hands of the quincy invaders as you did over our lost family and friends."

"I suppose that is true," Tetsuya admitted, his smile fading, "at least when it comes to the children who were lost. But I have always felt protective of innocent ones. I had no childhood to speak of, so it seems something I want to protect for others."

"You do that well," Byakuya said approvingly, "no matter how the elders fail to address it."

"I'm not looking for recognition," Tetsuya chuckled, shaking his head, "I think all I can reasonably hope for is that they will leave me alone."

"Ah, your life and mine are different in many ways, but believe me, Tetsuya, I share that hope. And I don't think either one of us will escape them entirely."

"Well," Tetsuya sighed, leaning against his cousin's shoulder and smiling as Byakuya's head tilted to rest against his, "at least we're in this together."

"Yes," Byakuya agreed, offering Tetsuya a rare smile, "I do not know what I would have done without you. You were there when I lost my father, and when I lost my wife. You suffered through all of the elders' interference in my life. I am glad you are here now."

"I will always be here for you," Tetsuya promised, "After all, you were there for me. You saved me from that dark, horrible place. You showed me that life could be so much more than what I had been led to believe. And it is because of you that I have become strong."

"No," Byakuya objected softly, slipping a hand into his cousin's, "you were always strong, Tetsuya. I only freed you so that you could use the powers that were already inside you."

Tetsuya let out a soft breath.

"And I promised you that I would use those powers to remain free…and to fight the hatred that stole my parents and my childhood away from me. I remain true to that goal, even though it may take more years than I have."

The two men went silent, their eyes focused on the pretty moon above them as it wandered across the night sky. Tetsuya was about to doze off, but he felt his stallion's reiatsu tense slightly and looked back to where the horse's head was raised, and his ears perked towards the trail behind them.

Byakuya smiled.

"I believe Ichigo is coming to visit," he commented.

Ichigo laughed softly as he stepped off of the trail and approached the two Kuchikis.

"Well, try as I might, I just can't get past Arashi. I thought I was pretty quiet."

"Arashi just has powerful senses," Tetsuya said, pulling free of his cousin and standing.

He brushed off the grass that clung to his house guard's uniform,

"He knows very well you are a friend, so he will not harass you."

"Like he harasses Renji when he comes over to see Rukia?" Ichigo laughed.

"I believe he does it because Renji is amusing to tease," Byakuya suggested.

"Yeah," Ichigo chuckled, "he is, isn't he?"

Tetsuya stepped away, heading to Arashi's side as Ichigo sat down beside Byakuya.

"Y'know," the ginger-haired man said, smirking, "you don't have to leave, Tetsuya. I just wanna sit here and enjoy the moonlight with Byakuya. You don't have to run off."

"I'm not running off," Tetsuya replied, smiling, "I am a house guard and I need to check in with the night guards before turning in for the evening."

"Despite the agreement with the quincies to end our hostilities, we are careful not to take our safety for granted," said Byakuya, "This is one of the painful lessons we learned in the war."

"Will there be anything else, Byakuya?" Tetsuya asked.

"No, thank you. Have a good evening, Tetsuya."

"A good evening to both of you as well," Tetsuya answered, bowing.

He turned and flash stepped back down the trail with Arashi ambling in a more leisurely fashion after him. Ichigo leaned up against Byakuya's side, nuzzling his cheek and earning a smoky glance out of the corner of one of the Kuchiki leader's grey eyes.

"We're alone now," Ichigo said, bringing his lips close to Byakuya's, "Can I kiss you?"

"You needn't wait until we are alone to do that," Byakuya said approvingly, "Ichigo, I told you that it does not break any clan rule for you and me to see each other."

"But I know some of your elders were complaining about it. I heard your great uncle, Nori, talking to you about it when I was getting out of the shower in your room last night. Byakuya…"

"Certainly, there are some who do not approve of us being together…"

"Because I'm part quincy, and I'm from a clan that was banished, but is now higher in status than yours?"

"I imagine those are a few of their objections," Byakuya sighed, seeking Ichigo's hungry mouth and exchanging several passionate kisses, "but their objections don't matter. They are advisors. They do not have any power to make my personal decisions for me."

"And you really like reminding them of that, don't you?" Ichigo laughed, burrowing into Byakuya's shoulder and sliding his hands beneath the Kuchiki leader's loosely tied yukata.

"I do," Byakuya agreed, turning suddenly and bringing Ichigo down onto his back.

He pinned the ginger-haired man beneath him, pressing forward aggressively as Ichigo spread his thighs readily. Their kisses grew in intensity, and the two men rubbed their still clothed genitals against each other's.

"You missed me," Ichigo panted, smiling as Byakuya's hands deprived him of his yukata, and he moved his own clothing aside.

"I missed you," Byakuya agreed, running a warm hand down Ichigo's slim torso and seeking his entrance with hastily dampened fingers.

"God, I missed you too!" Ichigo answered, moving his hips and arching his back as the Kuchiki leader's fingers probed and thrust, carefully preparing him.

"I spent all evening, thinking about this, about being with you this way, Ichigo!" Byakuya whispered into his ear, thrusting his fingers in deeply and coaxing a delighted groan from deep in his lover's chest as he found the bundle of sensitive nerves, deep inside him and teased him mercilessly.

"O-oh, Byakuya! G-god, it feel so good when you do that! But, I want...more of you inside me!"

"You're impatient tonight," Byakuya said, smirking, "I think I am also."

He paused, looking down into Ichigo's sparking eyes, shifting and and beginning a slow entry, laughing softly as Ichigo cursed and pushed upward aggressively.

"Patience, my love," he chuckled, entering in slow, teasing thrusts, until he was buried in the ginger-haired man's core and Ichigo's hot breaths tickled his neck, sending beautiful twinges through his hungry loins.

"You want me to be patient," Ichigo laughed, reaching down to wrap a hand around his own thickened erection, "That's funny."

"I love you," Byakuya whispered, holding himself still as Ichigo adjusted, "No matter what those old men say, they will never stop me from loving you, Ichigo!"

Ichigo's strong hands wrapped around Byakuya's white bottom, urging his hips to move.

"I love you too!" Ichigo panted, bucking his hips upward and groaning amorously.

The two men writhed erotically, their naked bodies lit with pale moonlight and the light breeze fluttering their hair. Their moans rose over the sound of the waterfall and their flaring reiatsu brightened until it outshone the moon. They crested a wave of intense pleasure together, their voices mingling as they surrendered to the powerful shudders of orgasm.

Byakuya's slender body fell still and he collapsed onto Ichigo's muscular chest, seeking the younger man's lips and feeding more lazily on them. Nearly an hour had passed when the two finally disentangled their bodies and put their clothing back in order. They held hands as they walked back to Byakuya's room together.

"Are you planning to spend the night?" Byakuya asked, "You are welcome if you…"

"Are you kidding me?" Ichigo laughed, "Yeah, I'm staying."

The two slipped into the master suite, unaware that, down the walkway, Tetsuya Kuchiki's room stood unexpectedly empty.

XXXXXXXXXX

Sosuke Aizen felt a little shift in the reiatsu around him, and a sly smile came to his lips. His one uncovered eye peered into the darkness in front of him, and he spotted a small distortion in the area of the entrance to his cell.

"So," he said quietly, "you came back."

The air shimmered for a moment, and the slim body of a dark-haired, blue-eyed man formed in front of the white chair he was bound to.

"We weren't finished talking before," Tetsuya answered, a little shiver going through him at the touch of the prisoner's gaze, "You said that you had more information that could help me."

"I did. I gave you the location of some of the information. Did you find it helpful?"

"Yes," Tetsuya affirmed, "It was exactly the kind of information that will be useful in proving that Central 46 was complicit in the massacre of the breeder males. And you say that you have more files that will reveal names and prove that those noble lords were directly involved in the keeping of the secret prisons?"

Aizen gave the younger man a curious look.

"Tetsuya, I understand, of course, your need to have this information," he said quietly, "But…given that when you reveal that you have it, you will become a target for the ones you are seeking to expose, I think it's fair to require you to, first, carry through on your part of our agreement."

A little shiver passed through Tetusya's body, but he nodded in acceptance.

"That is fair, I suppose," he concluded, moving forward, "Very well. I will give you what you asked. I just have one question."

Aizen looked back at Tetsuya expectantly.

"I want to know why you asked me to bear your child," Tetsuya explained, looking down at his own slim belly, "You are master of the hogyoku. You are a transcendent. You have no need to procreate. So, I wonder why you want this."

Aizen gazed back him wordlessly as Tetsuya moved closer and invoked his power, sliding water into several of the locks on the prisoner and freezing it in the shape of the missing keys. He turned the ice keys, freeing Aizen's head, arms and nether region.

"I think it's a relatively simple thing," Aizen explained, admiring Tetsuya's downcast face and the flush on his skin, "I do not need a child. That much is true. But, I am a scientist, and both you and I are anomalies. I merely want to explore our bodies and powers to stimulate my mind while I sit here in prison. The child will not be harmed, and you are welcome to keep him or her and raise them. I will make no claim on them, as I know it would probably land you in some very hot water with your family for plotting with me."

"I am not plotting with you," Tetsuya insisted, his fingers shaking as he opened his clothing, "We have an agreement that will undo several lifetimes of wrongdoings. I am doing this for the ones who were in the cells of Itamigiri with me, and never lived to breathe freely. If it means letting you inside me and bearing a child for you, I will. I have suffered the cruelty of men's intolerance, their hatred. You may look down on me, but you don't hate me for what I am. And I am used to bearing pain, so you needn't be gentle with me."

"This is not about hurting you, Tetsuya," Aizen chided him, "It is intellectual curiosity. I gain nothing by hurting you. In fact, I think I would be more interested in seeing you in rapturous pleasure. You are a very lovely young man."

Tetsuya blushed brightly.

Aizen gave him a more intense look.

"What if I require you to have a longer term relationship with me?" he asked, smirking.

Tetsuya looked back at him doubtfully.

"It is not easy to sneak into Muken."

"That is an understatement," Aizen said, smirking, "You are a wonder, Tetsuya. I am so glad that we met…even though meeting you cost me my freedom."

Tetsuya's blue eyes reflected a measure of guilt at the words.

"I wish that I had not found you," he sighed, "Had you awakened and no one was there, you could have slipped away."

Aizen's smirk warmed into a smile.

"But then, you would not be here with me, trading sex and use of your breeder ability for the information no one else can give you. Besides, don't you think I belong here?" he asked.

"It's cold and dark," Tetsuya said more softly, moving close to the imprisoned man and slowly uncovering his already dangerously aroused member, "No one should be locked up in a place like this."

"Not even an evil man?"

Tears came to Tetsuya's eyes as his mind replayed the moment he had read the secret order to eliminate Aizen's family.

The hateful ones in Central 46 found out that Sosuke was developing strong powers. They hate the Rukongai folk, and they wanted to be sure Sosuke's power was lost. They tried to kill him, and while he was locked up and waiting to die, they killed his family to be sure they snuffed out that power.

"You were not an evil child," Tetsuya said softly, climbing onto the bound man's lap.

He quivered under Aizen's hands as the elder man began to explore him.

"What are you doing?" Tetsuya asked uncertainly, "You didn't say that…"

Aizen's mouth found his, and a hot, open-mouthed kiss stole his breath away. He quivered as Aizen's dampened fingers began to prepare him. The cold fingers moved, thrusting and carefuly stretching the sensitive tissues.

"I told you that you don't have to be gentle with me," Tetsuya reminded him, looking down to avoid Aizen's piercing brown eyes, "I'm not weak anymore."

Aizen's other hand slid under the younger man's chin, raising it so their eyes met.

"I am curious why you are so convinced that I want to hurt you," Aizen mused, "Did the sexual training they forced on you in the prison leave you unable to imagine sex that is only for pleasure? Or do you think I have some reason to hate you?"

I am half noble," Tetsuya said softly, escaping the elder man's hand and burying his face in Aizen's shoulder, "You hate at least half of me, and the rest means nothing to you, except as a curiosity. I understand. Take what you want. I'll console myself with the knowledge that it will help to protect others like me from suffering the horrors I've known."

"If I had a heart," Aizen said, touching Tetsuya's cheek gently and raising his chin again, "I would admire such self-sacrifice.

"What am I sacrificing?" Tetsuya whispered as Aizen's lips touched his, caressing them tenderly, as his fingers moved, finding the bundle of nerves inside him and caressing until the noble's blue eyes grew hazy and clouded, "The wicked men of Itamigiri showed me the worst of their cruelty. I lost my innocence long ago. I've never known true love, only a love that ended in sacrifice. Naoki sacrificed himself so that I would live. Now, I live to serve the dream we once had of living in a world that would not hate us for who we are."

"Well, let me assure you, this little corner of Muken holds no one who hates you. Relax now."

Aizen's hands wrapped around the younger man's soft, white bottom. Tetsuya turned his head aside and closed his eyes against the feelings of intense heat and invasion as Aizen guided him down onto the elder man's thickened member.

"I haven't been with a lover for a long time," Aizen admitted, running his hands up and down Tetsuya's naked back as the younger man writhed atop him, "You are so lovely, Tetsuya Kuchiki, even though I know you wouldn't let me touch you if I wasn't helping you."

"You wouldn't be touching me if I wasn't an anomaly," Tetsuya replied, burying his face in the prisoner's strong shoulder again, "This isn't about love, Sosuke Aizen. This is about justice."

Aizen's thrusts grew rougher and his fingers clenched at Tetsuya's bare bottom as he began to climax. Tetsuya's eyes opened and widened at the sight of Aizen's impassioned face.

For a moment, he feels free. I gave him that. And even though he is a criminal and he could kill me, I want to comfort him after what they did to him. Sosuke Aizen isn't so different from me, Tetsuya thought as he slid off of the prisoner's lap, then carefully cleaned and dressed the two of them, The only difference is that my heart is too gentle to hate even my aggressors. Sosuke isn't afraid to hate the people who hurt his family and him…and he wasn't reluctant at all to kill them.