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Prize of Victory	By : NovaAlexandria Category: Bleach > Het - Male/Female Views: 87205 -:- Recommendations : 8 -:- Currently Reading : 8
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Chapter List
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What I Still Don�t Have

Gin was in pain, the metallic smell of his own blood thick in his nostrils. He lay motionless on the floor of his mistress�s quarters as his blood slowly seeped across the tiled floor to form a warm, red lake around him.

�An� the floor took so long to clean too�� he couldn�t help but think, light-headed from the blood loss and beating.

One minute he�d been scrubbing the floorboards in Unohana�s chambers and the next moment Aizen had him by the throat, lashing at him with both his reiatsu and his fists with an unprecedented level of fury. Gin had frantically tried to figure out what had enraged the ex-Shinigami this time; he hadn�t been home all day and while Gin hadn�t finished all of his work yet, he was still technically on schedule.

It was while he was being bounced off of one of the walls that Aizen had asked him what his latest act of sabotage entailed. It took a few minutes, but by the time that Aizen had abandoned beating him, in favour of ripping into his flesh and drawing blood, he made the connection between Ulquiorra�s visit to fetch Unohana the previous day and the frustration that vibrated through every slash the bastard inflicted on him.

�Someone,� a remote part of him, one that could still think independently despite the abuse he was busy enduring, thought, �was jealous.�

His suspicions were confirmed after a particularly bad blow temporarily knocked him out. He woke up a few minutes later to the agony of Aizen kicking him none-too-gently in what he thought might be a broken rib and making threats against both himself and Unohana if he found that either one of them had defied him.

Then, before he could begin to process what he was hearing, the real violence began in earnest.

At the moment, Gin couldn�t have moved even if his very life depended on it. At some point, his lower back must have been broken, as he could still feel his fingers twitch but he could not feel nor move anything below the waist. Which was probably a mercy, since everything above his hips was awash with blistering agony. He wondered if Aizen would allow anyone to heal him when this was all over or if he would be forced to drag his body around while trying to complete his chores.

With one ear pressed to the floor he was able to hear the sound of footsteps approaching her room. He squeezed his eyes shut and willed for this to be some terrible nightmare, that she wouldn�t walk into her own chambers to see her husband, who had regained his composure, calmly sitting in his chair reading a book while her naked servant was splayed out and slashed up, laying in a steadily-widening puddle of his own blood, the strands of his once-silver hair stained crimson.

The door opened and he caught the soft gasp of horror she let out as she froze in the entrance, her hand over her mouth in shock.

�Ah, welcome home, my dear,� Aizen spoke, turning his brown eyes from his place on the page before him to look up at her. �How was your day?� he asked nonchalantly.

�It was well,� she answered in a surprisingly calm voice, considering the expression on her face. Even she, with her famous level of self-control, couldn�t manage to hide her shock and distress at the scene in front of her completely.

�That is good to hear,� Aizen replied, and appeared to turn his attention back to his book.

Gin could hear her footsteps echo on the tiled floor as she approached them. He wished so desperately that he could speak, could tell her to run and forget about him. The thought of killing himself had become a regular occurrence of late, and he would have tried if he wasn�t 100% certain Aizen would just get Ulquiorra to order Orihime to �fix it�. He wasn�t entirely certain that the girl could reject death itself, but from everything he�d seen so far, it was a possibility.

�You smell like work. I suggest you take a shower first and then we shall talk,� Aizen ordered without looking up from his book.

�As you wish,� she responded softly.

Gin followed the sound of her footsteps as she forced herself away from the brutal scene in her sitting room and retreated to the bathroom to do as ordered. Because he knew her so well by now he noticed the slight trembling to her steps. He couldn�t tell if it was due to fear or anger, or perhaps it was a mixture of them both. It was, he supposed, the same thing these days.

As soon as she was gone the binding to keep him silent faded.

�Why?� he questioned weakly.

�Why what, my dear Gin?� Aizen asked, turning a page in his book as he did so.

�Why are ya doing this to her?� he rasped out. �Ya know it ain�t her fault.�

�Are you confessing to sabotage then?� Aizen asked sweetly.

Gin�s entire body, at least the upper part of it, trembled at the thought, recalling all too well what had happened when Aizen had caught him drugging his wife, and even what Aizen had done, and forced him to do, to Szayel simply because he thought the scientist was being lax in his study of the Swarm.

Aizen was definitely losing his patience and Gin was positive that to Aizen, the Swarm�s invasion was just the icing on a cake made from his mounting anger and frustration. Unohana�s continued failure to produce a Royal heir was truly starting to get to him.

Yes, Shinigami had low fertility rates, but as a trained medic one would have thought Unohana would have at least conceived by now. The fact that yet another of Aizen�s subordinates had managed to do what he had not seemed to be what had triggered the latest round of the �abuse Gin for the flimsiest of reasons� game.

So if it wasn�t Unohana� Perhaps it was the blood loss and the way that Gin�s brain was jumping around at the moment, but a strange thought suddenly occurred to him and before he realized it, he�d uttered it out loud.

�Have ya considered yer own reiatsu might be too strong?�

�What was that?� Aizen asked, sounding surprised that Gin had actually dared to speak up.

�Well, what if your reiatsu is too strong an� it�s killing the eggs?�

Gin muttered the suggestion into the blood-soaked floorboards. He was really only grasping at straws now in an attempt to spare the only creature that still gave a damn whether he lived or died the pain he knew Aizen had planned for her, but those odd threads of logic that looped crazily through his brain were actually kind of starting to make sense as his pain-hazed mind sought to sort them into some kind of order.

�I am quite capable of controlling my reiatsu, even if it is troublesome to keep it contained so as not to crush the insects which scurry ever-so-amusingly underfoot,� Aizen stated coldly and Gin let out another soft cry of pain as said reiatsu knifed into his abused body yet again.

�What about tha� sperm?� he gasped desperately, fingers clutching at nothing as waves of pain followed the crash of reiatsu. �Maybe there�s too much power in �em an� it�s killing off the eggs.�

The oppressive hold on him let up as if it had never been there and when he cracked one swollen, bloodshot eye open it was to see that Aizen actually seemed to be pondering the suggestion. Gin let himself hope that it meant Aizen might consider the possibility and thus spare Unohana the planned punishment that Aizen had described earlier to Gin, in full gory detail, from coming about.

�That�s an interesting concept,� Aizen finally admitted, a hint of intrigue in his voice. �It might even explain why there have been so few successes amongst the others as well. Most of my Arrancar are far more powerful than their Shinigami pets, despite controlling their reiatsu. I will have to get Szayel to look into it�� he mused.

Unohana returned at that point, her hair pulled back and damp from her shower, wearing a silk yukata and a deliberately bland expression on her face. Aizen turned a satisfied smile her way as she approached them.

�That�s much better. Please sit,� he indicated one of the chairs nearby. �It would seem Gin here has brought an intriguing idea to my attention, one that you might even have knowledge about.�

�May I stop his bleeding first?� she asked, but didn�t dare let her gaze waver from Aizen�s.

�Perhaps I�ll allow it� in a minute. Sit,� he ordered again.

She did as instructed this time, taking a seat in the chair opposite her husband and folding her hands demurely in her lap. It was at that point that Gin felt his grip on consciousness waver. The pain receded along with it, as if his nerves had finally been overloaded and were incapable of sending anymore sensations to or from his brain. He knew it was shock setting in, a dangerous state to be in, as it meant that he�d probably lost too much blood. As such, he floated along for a while, paying little attention to the conversation as the voices conducting it burbled in and out of his ears without the actual words registering.

When the warmth of Unohana�s reiatsu flowed into his abused body after what might have been a few minutes or a few hours later, easing the haze of agony and bringing things back into focus, he concluded that his desperate theory might have actually had some credence. It had, at least, kept Unohana from being hurt or tortured and for that he was infinitely grateful.

He let out a cry of pain as something in his lower back shifted slightly and he could suddenly move his legs again, albeit only with a great deal of agony. Aizen must have been very pleased with his suggestion because once he was healed enough to move he was actually helped along to his so-called bed, where Unohana continued to try to repair what she could of his unwarranted punishment.

That momentarily bewildered him. Aizen never let anyone heal the wounds that were the results of his �discipline�. Did this mean he�d guessed right, that his hurt-dazed mind had found the answer Aizen had been looking for all this time? If so, what happened now?

�Unohana-san?� he asked, weakly, lifting a hand.

�Hush Gin,� she admonished softly. �A part of me wishes you had never found the answer while another part is indebted to you, as you have spared us both what I surmise was going to be a very unpleasant evening,� she sighed in regret and relief. �Thank you.�

�Ya knew all �long?� he accused, but there was no real anger behind it. He couldn�t summon up the energy.

�It was one of my theories. It was a situation I had no plan on correcting if it turned out to be true,� she admitted. �Honestly, the situation isn�t something I�m able to correct at all. I have no control over Aizen�s reiatsu.�

He gave that some thought as the glow of her Kido surrounded him again.

�Now what?� he croaked out.

�Now,� she sighed, �he will have to drain his reiatsu until it is of a strength that won�t endanger a new life. With his pool of raw power, such a thing could take several years, for as much as he drains, more gathers.�

Gin closed his eyes, trying to envision being able to drain away Aizen�s reiatsu and then shaking his head at such an improbably image.

�Like tryin� ta empty a tea cup while someone is still pouring more tea inta� it?�

The analogy made sense and Unohana nodded at his assessment while she worked.

�Precisely,� she agreed and then focused all of her attention on the largest problem beneath her hands, his still-damaged spine. �Some of these wounds are pretty bad, especially the ones to your lower back.�

He could feel her Kido moving along the nerves and the battered muscles, along the injured and fractured bones and tried not to weep as she knit blood vessels back together and tried to stem some of the worst of the internal bleeding. Finally, she wiped the back of her small hand across her forehead, careful not to smudge the kimono she wore with his blood and sighed in frustration.

�Hold on, I am going to take you to Orihime-san. The damage to your lower back is extensive and I am afraid that without her help it would require several rounds of surgery to correct. We both know Aizen-Kami does not have that kind of patience,� she commented, gathering him up in a sheet and picking him up easily, despite the difference in their sizes.

Gin couldn�t help it; he cried out as his body shifted, a flare of pain shooting along his spine like a bolt of lightning before her Kido suppressed it.

�Are you sure it�s okay?� he asked weakly, voice barely above a whisper. �Ya know he doesn�t like me away from tha palace��

Unohana gave him a look and a small smile.

�Aizen-Kami is in a very good mood right now. I doubt he will care very much,� she replied. �There is one thing that does concern me about this, however.�

�Wa�s that?� he asked, voice laced in pain as she carried him through the room, carefully avoiding walking through the blood on the floor.

His body was started to hurt like hell even with the pain-numbing Kido she had administered, which just showed how badly Aizen had messed him up.

�Orihime just gave birth yesterday and while Ulquiorra-san seems to be handling it much better than Grimmjow-san did, I do not want to push our luck with regard to what he considers his territory. We will have to tread carefully.�

�I�ll keep mah mouth shut,� he assured her faintly.

�Good, because Aizen-Kami promised only that he wouldn�t kill you,� she pointed out. �He never promised that another might not try to end your life instead.�

Gin winced in her arms and fell silent as she walked past the guards, stepped out of the Palace gates and launched them into a Shunpo. It felt nice being cradled in her arms, to be surrounded by loving warmth. It was a feeling he hadn�t enjoyed since he was a child.

Despite his current state, he was reminded of a long ago winter�s night, being sheltered under a ratty-yet-warm blanket and watching the snow drift down outside the barn in which they had taken shelter. He could almost feel the girl that Rangiku had once been curled up around him, muttering incoherently in her sleep as she tightly hugged him - as if she were afraid he would try and leave her while she slept.

He felt a few tears leak out as the memory replayed itself over and over in his mind. Perhaps she�d been more perceptive than he had given her credit for. She had been right, of course. He did end up leaving her, not while she slept but rather while she was awake to watch his retreating back as he walked away.

If Unohana noticed the tears, she made no comment on them.

�I wonder, can Orihime-chan reject tha� pieces of a shattered heart?� he wondered absently.

Ulquiorra and Diaemus hadn�t woken up yet by the time she got out of a long and soothing shower. It was unlike him to sleep that much but she had a feeling he hadn�t gotten a moments rest since the night before she went into labour.

With both father and son sleeping soundly, Orihime was able to retreat to the kitchen after getting dressed and was finally, finally, able to enjoy red bean paste spread over a piece of bread dipped in some soy sauce without the threat of throwing it back up.

She sighed in pure bliss as she ate. Oh, how she had missed the taste of red bean paste. Truly, she had no plans on having another child anytime soon, so help her Kami. She was able to finish her fourth slice of bread when she heard Diaemus begin to fuss in the other room.

Sighing, she went back into the living room to see her son now wide awake and clearly hungry. Ulquiorra was awake now as well and was just starting to stand up while cradling their son easily in one arm.

�It�s amazing how fast he has adapted to being a father already,� she noted pleasantly. �Here,� she said and held her arms out.

Ulquiorra blinked and then walked towards her, his eyes going to one of the chairs.

�Sit down first,� he suggested.

Orihime sat down and adjusted her clothing before accepting her son. She watched him closely as his mouth latched around a nipple, but she felt neither the pierce of his small fangs into her breast, nor felt him draw her blood.

�As long as he doesn�t draw too much blood in the future there should be no problem with this,� she noted aloud. �I don�t even feel it.�

�No doubt that the fluid he secrets also has a numbing agent so his prey is unaware he is feeding from them,� her mate noted. �Just like his namesake.�

�Hmm,� she agreed, humming contentedly as she watched her son nurse.

Her mate suddenly stiffened and frowned, eyes turning towards the door.

�What is it?� she asked nervously, ready to defend her child from any threat.

�We have company,� he noted, displeasure mixed with a little confusion lacing his voice.

Orihime turned her attention to the door, instantly recognizing Unohana�s reiatsu but having a bit of a harder time with the other. It was familiar so she had felt it before, but she didn�t recognize it and it was very weak.

�Maybe she forgot to tell us something,� she mused aloud, most of her apprehension fading.

There was a polite knock on the door and he went to answer it. Orihime finished feeding Diaemus, looking at the small puncture as blood droplets oozed slowly out while she patted his back.

Whatever it was Unohana wanted must have been important because the woman came into the house straightaway and Orihime could hear her mate and the Captain of the 4^th Division coming towards her.

�I hope it�s not something bad,� she worried to her son, who merely yawned and burped.

Ulquiorra was the first one in the room, followed by Unohana, who carried something very large and unwieldy. No, not something, someone. Diaemus began to fuss as he caught the scent of blood, and there was a lot of it soaked into the sheets wrapped around the person in her arms.

�What happened?� Orihime gasped as she stood up and handed Diaemus to his father. Then she approached Unohana and her charge, hesitantly reaching out one hand and then drawing it back.

�My husband was in a foul mood,� Unohana answered.

Whoever it was within the makeshift bandaging whimpered pathetically as if in affirmation.

�Quick set them down, and then let me see what I can do,� Orihime ordered.

�Where would you like him?�

�The tiled floor in the bathroom,� Ulquiorra interjected immediately.

Both women retreated to the bathroom. Once Unohana laid her patient out on some of the towels Orihime had set down she was finally able to see who her patient was.

�Gin-san?!�

Dull, once-blue eyes cracked open to look at her hazily before he closed them again.

�Hiya, Hime-chan�� He greeted her weakly, his face as pale and blood-spattered as the sheet wrapped around him.

�What happened?� Orihime asked again as she cast her shield around him, its golden light bathing his abused body.

�I fell down tha� stairs,� he answered mirthlessly.

Had she not been so horrified by the situation she might have found some slight humour in the joke. But there was nothing funny about the damage report her powers gave her.

The injuries weren�t as bad as what Aizen had done to Szayel that one time but it was still pretty brutal. His lower back had been broken and his flesh all but stripped from his body. Someone had at least eased the broken bones back into alignment and kept the vertebrae from slipping and pinching or compromising his spinal cord but they had not been unable to reattach the bone via the proper ligaments and tendons.

Gin let out a sigh of relief as she focused her powers there first, returning his backbone to normal and healing the damage done to his spinal cord. Since the wounds had come from Aizen they were infused with his reiatsu and battling it was like wading through a river of wet cement.

As a result, it took almost two hours to fix his back. It was yet another sign of just how powerful Aizen was, for the wound Ulquiorra had given Ichigo hadn�t even taking a tenth of the power or time this one cost her. It didn�t help that she was still exhausted herself from giving birth.

�I am sorry,� she finally gasped, feeling completely drained. �There is just too much oppressive reiatsu. I was able to mend his back, but everything else�� she trailed off.

�That is quite alright, Orihime-san. Everything else I can treat and with time, those injuries will heal on their own. It was his back that no one short of you, or days of intrusive and intensive surgery, could ever hope to fix. You just gave birth; I did not expect you to be at full strength. This is more than enough.�

Unohana gave Orihime an encouraging smile and Gin offered her a weak one as well.

�I feel so much better. Thank you, Hime-chan.�

�It�s nothing�� she replied and blushed softly at the thanks.

Green light infused Unohana�s hands as she checked over Orihime�s work with a growing smile of relief and satisfaction.

�It is as if the worst of it never happened. Your powers are truly remarkable,� Unohana noted with gratitude.

The sound of her son fussing reached their ears. Orihime frowned and checked the time.

�Oh Kami, I never realized it was so late. The poor boy must be starving!� she gasped.

�It�s quite alright,� Unohana assured her, helping Gin rise to his feet. �We�ll take our leave now.�

Time, as well as the combined effort of Unohana and Orihime, had stopped most of the bleeding and he was able to stand on his own, albeit with a gasp of pain.

�Thank you for your time, Orihime-san,� Unohana thanked her again.

�Oh, no problem,� Orihime waved the thanks away. �I am just happy I was able to do something to help.�

She escorted them both to the door and waved as they left before turning her attention to her family.

�I swear, his appetite is bigger than my own,� she chuckled as she made herself comfortable on the couch and accepted her son.

�May it not be as interesting, or as varied,� Ulquiorra commented dryly.

�Oi!� she protested.

Diaemus didn�t feed for long and she was surprised to note he hadn�t drawn her blood this time.

�You should rest,� Ulquiorra commented.

She made a sound of agreement, carrying their son to their room. She noticed the bed had been moved up against the wall with a lining of pillows set up along the wall. She set Diaemus down and let her clothing slide to the floor before joining him in bed.

Orihime took the wall side as Ulquiorra crawled into bed beside her. To her surprise he picked Diaemus up and deposited him between her and the pillows.

�Nothing gets to him without going through us,� he answered her unspoken question.

�And nothing gets to me without going through you,� she smiled up at him warmly, catching his mouth with her own for a soft kiss.

�Hai,� he agreed once he was able to.

Orihime felt that peculiar warmth in her chest again and curled up around their son, who was apparently already dead to the world. She felt Ulquiorra slid up against her and she relaxed against his chest, sighing softly.

One of his arms encircled her and came down to rest against the stacked pillows, effectively using his own body to cover theirs. Any attack would hit him before coming near them.

Orihime drifted off to sleep quickly, but woke a mere two hours later, roused by a fussy and hungry Diaemus. He drifted off after feeding and she was able to join him. Two hours later he awoke again. And another two after that.

Surprisingly, Ulquiorra didn�t stir at the disturbance, or at least she didn�t think he did. His reiatsu and breath remained even throughout each feeding.

�Perhaps that�s because he senses no threat,� she mused exhaustedly.

She awoke again another two hours later. Something was wrong. Blinking open her eyes she looked down in shock to see Diaemus nestled against her, feeding contently. She just stared in shock as her son finished and then curled back up to sleep, snuggling under his wings like a makeshift blanket.

�You do not seem rested. Have you not been sleeping?� Ulquiorra�s voice took her by surprise.

�I have been up every two hours to feed Diaemus-kun.�

He seemed genuinely puzzled by her short, testy answer.

�Why?� he questioned.

�Why? Because he was hungry,� she declared, shocked not only that he would consider starving their child but that he thought she wouldn�t wake to feed him.

�Diaemus is capable of feeding himself,� he said dryly. �He will feed from you whether you are awake or not. Hence the reason the nest has been set this way.�

�I wish I knew that sooner,� she grouched.

She felt his chest vibrate against her back and she shot a glare over her shoulder just to check that yes, he was laughing at her, or rather chuckling since outright laughing seemed beyond him.

�I should make you sleep on the couch,� she grumbled.

�Go back to sleep. You need rest,� he ordered softly.

�Hai,� she agreed sleepily, and yawned as she relaxed against him, closing her eyes.

It wasn�t hard to slip into slumber again. She didn�t wake up again until sometime later, sprawled out on their bed with no sign of either her son or her mate. She blinked, looking around the room in surprise and might have panicked if she hadn�t heard Diaemus complaining from what sounded like the bathroom.

Crawling out of bed and pulling on a yukata she followed the noise and blinked at what she found. Both father and son were in the tub, a shallow layer of water on the bottom. Diaemus didn�t seem to like the water much and squirmed as his father went about cleaning him.

�You are awake,� Ulquiorra noted without bothering to turn his attention her way.

�Yeah,� she agreed with a warm smile.

�Did you sleep well?�

�Much better this time,� she assured him, moving into the room and grabbing the nearby towel.

Ulquiorra finished wiping Diaemus down before handing their son over. Orihime wrapped him up in the blanket, mindful of his wings and tail while Ulquiorra drained the tub and stepped out.

Diaemus fussed and complained as she brought him over to the bed and laid him down, drying him off before dressing him from the waist down.

�What are we going to do for clothing, Diaemus-kun? Your wings are going to be in the way most of the time�� she admonished him, not really expecting an answer.

Green eyes just blinked at her before he promptly curled up under those wings and shifted into slumber. She shook her head and crawled into bed next to him, not at all opposed to the idea of getting some more sleep herself.

Diaemus drinks both blood and milk, but he doesn�t need blood very often. Well I woke up long enough to post, time to crawl back into bed and curse the existence of males and remind myself why on earth I wanted offspring of my own.

Next chapter; bad things happen, and for once it isn�t to Szayel or Gin.
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Prize of Victory