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In his hundred-and-some years as Aizen"s subordinate, Ichimaru never once wavered in his conviction to see Aizen dead by his own hand. And in his hundred-and-some years as Ichimaru"s master, Aizen never once doubted what Ichimaru"s true motives were.
That didn"t stop them from hooking up. Like, a lot.
Ichimaru hardly remembered the first time. It wasn"t as though it had been important to him in any way.
(This, of course, was a lie. But despite everything, Ichimaru still believed some lies were worth telling—even to yourself.)
Perhaps he"d wanted to distract Aizen from something. Or perhaps he"d simply been bored. All he really remembered about that first time (rather, all he would admit to remembering) was that it had been surprisingly easy to coax Aizen into taking him to bed.
Then it became a habit. A one-to-three (and occasionally five) times a day sort of habit.
It didn"t mean anything. (Or so Ichimaru told himself.) At least not to Aizen. (This, Ichimaru truly believed.) It didn"t change the fact that one day, one of them would be the other"s end.
Sex with Aizen was just a physical release.
Sex with Aizen was also fucking phenomenal.
Aizen usually put Ichimaru on his knees and took him from behind. It took Ichimaru almost ten years of sleeping with Aizen to realize that this was for him, for his sake—Ichimaru didn"t like showing Aizen his face when they fucked, and somehow Aizen knew that.
They never talked about what they were doing, but Ichimaru was able to piece together what Aizen did and didn"t like. You don"t spend a hundred years with someone without learning how to read them, after all.
Aizen didn"t like loud, exaggerated sex noises, which was just as well because Ichimaru didn"t like letting Aizen know exactly how good he could make him feel. Aizen didn"t seem to like hurting Ichimaru in bed, even when Ichimaru wanted it. And Aizen wasn"t much of a cuddler, but he did let Ichimaru fall asleep in his bed once in a while.
What Aizen did like was making Ichimaru come two or three times before allowing Ichimaru to bring him off. What Aizen did like was watching the way Ichimaru"s lips parted and trembled as Ichimaru rode him. What Aizen did like (or seemed to like, Ichimaru should say, because he still found it a little hard to believe) was kissing Ichimaru.
Ichimaru hadn"t counted on anyone ever finding out that he"d slept with Aizen well over fifty-fucking-thousand times, but he hadn"t counted on surviving his attempt to kill Aizen either. He wasn"t a cocky man; he"d always thought that his attempt on Aizen"s life, successful or not, would end in his own death as well.
But he"d lived.
Aizen had let him live.
Ichimaru knew it was no accident that Aizen"s retaliation had left him badly wounded but alive. If Aizen had wanted him dead, he would be dead.
Living, unfortunately, came with its own complications.
Ichimaru didn"t regain consciousness until the tail-end of the Quincy Blood War. Matsumoto cajoled him into performing some minor heroics while making sure to keep him far away from Aizen, which did a great deal to help his case when the dust settled enough for Soul Society to put him on trial.
Hitsugaya wanted to have him killed, which Ichimaru thought was fair. But Matsumoto, among others, spoke up in his defense. The new Captain-Commander wasn"t in the mood for a long, drawn-out trial, so he pulled some strings and Ichimaru was summarily sentenced to two hundred years in prison for "well-meaning acts of treason and various other shenanigans".
Which is all to say that, sooner rather than later, Ichimaru was released and dragged out on a bar crawl with Matsumoto, who thought he was a massive but not unforgivable idiot.
When all the bars closed and they went back to Matsumoto"s room to drink some more, Ichimaru blurted out, "I was sleeping with him."
Matsumoto clinked her bottle of sake—they hadn"t bothered with cups—against his. "Cheers, slut. I would"ve done the same."
Ichimaru was lying flat on his back. His vision was already swimming, and there were about five Matsumotos dancing around in front of him when he turned to look at her.
"What?" Matsumoto shrugged. "He"s an enormous dick, but I"m not about to act like he isn"t hot. Speaking of which, is it…?"
"Enormous," Ichimaru confirmed with a drunken hiccup. He looked up at the ceiling, which was a lot less wobbly than Matsumoto. "I thought you would be mad."
"Gin," Matsumoto deadpanned, sounding remarkably sober for someone who"d spent the last five hours drinking like a fish. "You did a lot of shit in the name of getting revenge for me. Revenge that I never wanted. I"m mad about several things, but you sleeping with a sexy war criminal isn"t one of them."
Ichimaru hiccuped again. He couldn"t remember why he"d brought this up all of a sudden. Matsumoto hadn"t asked, and Ichimaru wasn"t the type to brag—not about something like this, at least.
Maybe he was trying to answer a question she hadn"t asked. There had been no missing the way people whispered when they saw Matsumoto and Ichimaru out on the town. Though more than two hundred years had passed since Aizen"s rebellion against Soul Society and the Soul King, people still recognized Ichimaru Gin.
People still talked and gossiped and wondered why Aizen had left him alive.
"Do you think that"s why he let me live?" Ichimaru mused, mostly to himself. Maybe he was the one who needed an answer, and maybe that was why he"d brought it up.
Matsumoto shrugged again. "Probably. Even if I were completely unhinged, I"d at least hesitate to kill my boyfriend."
Ichimaru blinked up at the ceiling. "Was I his boyfriend?"
Matsumoto snorted. "Now that I think about it? Nah. You were with him for a hundred years. I"d say you were more like his common-law wife."
Ichimaru didn"t remember much of that night, but he remembered all the crucial snippets of that conversation with Matsumoto. So when he met with the Captain-Commander and asked to see Aizen, he had a reason for why he should be allowed ready at his lips.
"I"m like his common-law wife," he said, with the sly smile that he hadn"t lost even after all that had happened between him and Aizen and the rest of the world.
Kyouraku gave him a long look. "So you"re asking for a conjugal visit?"
Ichimaru continued smiling, but he didn"t say anything else. He suspected (correctly) that Kyouraku had no interest in hearing any gory details.
"Well, I suppose it couldn"t hurt," Kyouraku said after taking a moment longer to size Ichimaru up.
"Captain!" his pretty little lieutenant protested.
"Now, now, Nanao-chan. Aizen is far from my favorite person, but he has human rights."
"He most certainly does not," Ise protested. "He isn"t even human."
Ichimaru cleared his throat lightly, and Kyouraku waved him off.
"Go on, then. As the Captain-Commander of the Gotei 13, I hereby grant you permission to visit the prisoner Aizen Sousuke as much or as little as you please."
"Captain," Ise hissed.
That argument was clearly going to go on for a while, but it was none of Ichimaru"s business. He slipped away and, figuring there was no point in waiting, made his way down the twisting corridors that would eventually lead him down to Muken.
Ichimaru knew the way, because he"d been down there once before. Shortly after he regained consciousness, the new judges of Central 46 had dragged Ichimaru down there to parade him in front of Aizen. Presumably, that was an attempt to mock Aizen for failing to kill a subordinate who"d betrayed him and for failing to prevent that subordinate from betraying him in the first place.
Aizen hadn"t been the slightest bit bothered. In fact, Ichimaru was almost certain that Aizen had smiled at the sight of him. Had one of his eyes not been sealed, he may even have winked.
The expansive cell which held Aizen wasn"t quite as drab as Ichimaru remembered it. Aizen was still securely bound, but a table had been placed next to his throne. And it was a throne; Ichimaru didn"t know how those at Central 46 couldn"t see it, but their punishment allowed Aizen to remain as dignified as ever.
On that table, there was a music player and a shogi board. The sight of the board made Ichimaru"s lips twitch with an unbidden frown. Someone else must have been visiting Aizen.
"Gin."
Ichimaru looked up when Aizen greeted him with that soft, rich voice of his. He hated himself a little, or perhaps a lot, for the way his heart did a funny little flip in response.
It had been quite a while since he last heard Aizen"s voice.
"What an unexpected pleasure," Aizen continued. "Are you here to finish the job?"
Truth be told, Ichimaru didn"t have a terribly clear idea of why he"d come. It wasn"t as though he missed Aizen. (He did.) It wasn"t as though he"d longed to see and touch the man again. (He had.) It wasn"t as though he was lonely. (He was.)
And it wasn"t as though he had anything else to do.
It wasn"t as though he had anyone else.
Ichimaru glanced at the shogi board once more, before swanning across the cell and climbing straight into Aizen"s lap. It wasn"t very comfortable, but Ichimaru was nothing if not stubborn.
"I suppose that depends on what job you mean, Aizen-sama." Ichimaru wound his arms around Aizen"s shoulders and tipped his head back, allowing Aizen to see a sliver of his eyes. "Do you believe I still wish you dead?"
"Do you?" Aizen asked. The hint of a smile faintly curved his lips.
Ichimaru laid his head down on Aizen"s shoulder. "Rangiku says the revenge I sought was revenge she never wanted."
Aizen hummed. His arms were bound, of course, but there was no restraint in the world that could have fully suppressed his powers. Ichimaru could feel Aizen"s familiar reiatsu rising to embrace him.
"If not for her, you would have been genuine in your support for my cause?" Aizen asked.
"If not for her, I wouldn"t have known you," Ichimaru said.
Aizen gave another hum. "I must thank her, one of these days."
Ichimaru wasn"t entirely sure how to take that, but it sounded like one of those things Aizen said that made him want to purr.
"Did you miss me?" Ichimaru asked out of the blue, surprising even himself.
"Of course," Aizen answered without missing a beat. He even sounded like he meant it.
Ichimaru turned and pressed his face to the crook of Aizen"s neck. "Who are you playing shogi with?"
"Kurosaki Ichigo." Aizen let the name hang between them for a moment. "You"re jealous."
Ichimaru didn"t bother denying it. He lifted his head and brushed his lips along the exposed line of Aizen"s jaw.
"The Captain-Commander gave me permission to come and go as I please," he said.
Aizen couldn"t move, but his reiatsu felt almost corporeal when it stroked up Ichimaru"s back.
"And when do you intend to go?" Aizen asked.
They both knew the answer to that. Ichimaru had no intentions of going anywhere fast.
"I missed you too," Ichimaru murmured. He lifted himself up a little higher and kissed Aizen"s brow, then his cheek, then his lips. "Isn"t that crazy?"
"I"ve always been fond of your crazy," Aizen whispered back.
As well as Ichimaru knew Aizen, which he believed was as well as anyone knew Aizen, it was still a constant challenge to know when he and Aizen were being honest with each other. They"d spent too long playing mind games to stop questioning each other now.
"Do you?" Ichimaru mused. "Show me."
He grabbed hold of the column behind Aizen"s head and pulled himself forward, pressing his chest flush to Aizen"s. When he dove in for another kiss, Aizen"s lips were already parted. Aizen allowed him to tease his tongue out, and it wasn"t long before they were sharing as filthy a kiss as they"d ever shared.
Ichimaru panted against Aizen"s lips when he pulled back. He had, in all honesty, started to get hard as soon as he walked into the cell. Aizen simply had that effect on him. (In fact, Ichimaru was sure Aizen had that effect on a lot of people, which was why he didn"t like the idea of Kurosaki Ichigo coming down here to play shogi at all.) Ichimaru was achingly hard now, and Aizen was sure to feel Ichimaru"s arousal pressing up against him.
A stuttering breath passed Ichimaru"s lips when he felt Aizen"s reiatsu roaming all over his body again. It was almost as though Aizen"s hands were traveling over his back, his sides, his thighs. Ichimaru heard a soft whine escape his own throat when Aizen"s reiatsu settled at his hips like a tight grip, stopping him from rutting against Aizen.
"Touch me more," Ichimaru whispered. "It"s been so long."
No one in this world, in any world, could truly order Aizen Sousuke around. But he obliged this time, allowing whispers of his reiatsu to slip under Ichimaru"s clothes. Ichimaru"s breath hitched when something like a hand wrapped itself around its cock, stroking him the way Aizen had so many times before.
But it wasn"t enough.
"Touch yourself," Aizen said.
Ichimaru didn"t need to be told twice.
He was no longer dressed like a shinigami, because he was no longer allowed to be a shinigami. Instead, he wore a pair of comfortable pants and a loose-fitting shirt. It was an outfit that wouldn"t have looked out of place in the World of the Living. From Matsumoto, Ichimaru had learned that such styles had become rather popular in Rukongai in the years since Hirako Shinji and the other vizards returned.
It was easy for Ichimaru to slip his own hand under the waistband of his pants. His lips parted around a silent moan as he wrapped his fingers around his cock, adding to the friction he already felt from Aizen"s phantom touch.
He bowed his head, and Aizen instantly met his lips for a kiss that drank up any sounds he may have made. Ichimaru was distantly aware of the fact that his pants were being pushed down past his hips—maybe by Aizen"s expert control of his immense reiatsu, or maybe by his own hand. Ichimaru could hardly tell; he was too busy drowning in Aizen"s kiss.
"More," he whispered.
That was all he had to say. Aizen had never been the type to make him beg, even though Ichimaru could plead rather cutely when he wanted Aizen to think he was adorable. Ichimaru shivered when he felt Aizen"s reiatsu respond, as though to his voice rather than Aizen"s command.
He straddled Aizen"s thighs, teetering a bit but trusting Aizen to keep him upright, and wet the fingers of his free hand with his own tongue before seeking out his hole. He continued to stroke his cock with his other hand, feeling hot but utterly unashamed under Aizen"s gaze.
Ichimaru had touched himself like this plenty of times in the past, often in front of Aizen. Sometimes, Aizen had liked to simply watch and stroke Ichimaru"s hair while Ichimaru pleasured himself.
So Ichimaru was no stranger to fingering himself open, and he knew exactly how he liked it. One finger first, but a second soon after, added quickly enough that he felt a sting of pain from the stretch. He usually stopped once he could comfortably take three fingers, but sometimes Aizen liked to help, adding his own fingers or his tongue.
A breathless "oh" slipped past Ichimaru"s lips when he felt Aizen"s reiatsu entering him. It was a perfect imitation of Aizen"s hands, Aizen"s fingers, the shape of which Ichimaru remembered so well. Ichimaru felt like there was another finger inside him, along with his own. Then another, then another.
His cock leaked, and tears gathered at the corners of his eyes, as he felt his own fingers and Aizen"s reiatsu fucking into his body in perfect time. He was stuffed full, yet still ached for more. He wanted to see the way sweat would form at Aizen"s brow when he fucked himself on Aizen"s cock, and he wanted Aizen to put him on his back and fuck into him hard and fast, the way he always would when he could sense Ichimaru needed it.
But, well, Ichimaru knew he was already pushing the boundaries here. He wouldn"t risk tampering with Aizen"s restraints, lest he summon the whole of Soul Society down here in a panic.
It wasn"t everything he wanted, but Aizen"s reiatsu filling him up and brushing over his cock was enough to make him come with a short, cut-off shout. He barely had the presence of mind to cup his hand over the head of his cock, catching his seed against his palm.
Ichimaru could only watch, panting for breath, as a tendril of reaitsu wrapped around his wrist and lifted his hand to Aizen"s lips. His cock twitched, like it wanted to get hard again already, as Ichimaru watched Aizen lick the come from his hand.
"Sousuke," Ichimaru whispered.
Aizen"s one visible eye flickered to him, with a look that was a little like that of a teacher admonishing a child for breaking the rules. But besides that, Aizen did nothing and said nothing, so Ichimaru grinned, feeling like he"d gotten away with something.
He spent a long time kissing Aizen after tucking himself back into his pants. There was nothing to track the passage of time down there, so Ichimaru hardly knew if it was an hour or a day. His lips felt swollen and his jaw ached by the time they stopped.
"What about you?" he asked, glancing down into Aizen"s lap. He"d felt the heat rolling off Aizen"s body earlier, but Aizen had regained his composure with ease.
Aizen smiled. "I"m afraid that"ll have to wait."
"For twenty thousand years?" Ichimaru pouted. "I don"t know if I can wait that long."
"Then," Aizen said, beckoning Ichimaru closer with a shallow nod of his head, "you have to tell me when you can wait no longer, Gin."
Ichimaru made an inquisitive sound as Aizen graced his lips with a chaste kiss, but he didn"t ask what Aizen meant, because it only took him a few seconds to reach an answer on his own.
Aizen could free himself, couldn"t he? He made it sound like it wouldn"t even be hard.
But perhaps staying here with Aizen for a while longer, perhaps just watching the world unfold for a few millennia, wouldn"t be so bad.
Ichimaru didn"t have to leave Aizen"s side for even a second. He did have to eat, usually, but Aizen gave off more than enough reiryoku to sustain him. He did still venture out of Muken every so often, to see Matsumoto and to reassure those who were still wary of them that he wasn"t plotting anything nefarious with Aizen.
He spent almost all his time with Aizen, though, so naturally he was sprawled across Aizen"s lap when Kurosaki Ichigo came to visit for a game of shogi.
The young shinigami—no longer so young or even alive by human standards, but still young in Ichimaru"s eyes—looked quite dashing in his captain"s robes, but Ichimaru had no intention of pointing that out.
Kurosaki glanced between the two of them a few times before taking a seat at the table and starting to set up the board. "Two against one? Hardly seems fair."
"Don"t you worry, Ichigo-kun," Ichimaru said. "I"m merely a distraction."
Ichigo looked at him for a few more seconds, then shrugged and went back to setting up the pieces. "Don"t sell yourself short."
Aizen"s reiatsu pulsed at Ichimaru"s hip. It almost seemed to say, Kurosaki-kun is right. You"re much more than that.
And Ichimaru, for the first time, chose to believe.