Seireitei Monogatari

a/n: Okay, so this one hit me out of nowhere when I was stuck in a writing funk and I wrote it in like the space of ten minutes. It is one of my ABSOLUTE FAVORITES. Like in the top ten. Seriously. The effect is even better if you listen to the mentioned songs while reading. It will tear your heart to pieces (or maybe that's just me 'cause I wrote it).

Anyways, I take a break from NaNo because I am inspiration-less to bring you this! Thanks to everyone who has been so patient with me. And who has reviewed the last surprise chapter: Yakumo, uchiha mikomi, rowenstar, Kuromei (Squee! I love Szayel/Ishida. Sweet! I'll have to think of a good one then! *agrees with you on the Tousen, shudders*), and LizzEATSrainbows.

Enjoy!

Title: Anthem of Our Dying Day
Characters: Aizen/Urahara
Rating: M
Warnings: boysmut, violence, spoilers, character death, angst
Words: 1860.
Description: The betrayal you can see is trivial. What is truly fearsome is the betrayal you don't see.
Dedication: For RadicalEd57, who wanted this pairing.
Inspired by “It's Not Over” by Daughtry. Title was taken from a song by Story of the Year.

The sword whips through the air. Kisuke feels his feet locked in place. Try as he might, he can't seem to get them to move. He can only watch.

Blood falls, dripping to the ground. A building dissolves into nothing as a powerful attack rips through it. Crimson clashes against soft blue. And beyond it all, brown eyes look over everything dispassionately.

This is the end that he has wrought. This is what Sousuke wants.

Kisuke can't seem to make himself move. There's something pulling and tightening inside his chest, gripping where it refuses to let go. It rises to the forefront of his mind, flashing across the back of his eyes. Too many images for him to ignore. Too many memories and too much pain.

“So you're Urahara-taichou.”

He turns to see the lieutenant of the fifth behind him. Kisuke smiles in greeting.

“Evening, Aizen-fukutaichou. I could have sworn we were formally introduced once upon a time.”

Those eyes, shaded by thick and clunky glasses, met his stare evenly. “Formally, yes. Informally, no.” He bows softly, leaving Urahara to politely return the gesture, before offering him a hand. “You wouldn't happen to be free tonight?”

“Oh?” Kisuke asks with a tilt of his head.

Aizen’s fingers are soft, despite what must be years of swordwork, and the hand lingers longer than seems proper. An even more understanding “oh” reverberates through Kisuke's being.

“I might happen to be,” he adds a second later.

And Aizen-fukutaichou smiles.

He's not smiling now. In fact, Kisuke isn't sure what to call the expression on Sousuke's face.

Victory?

It shouldn't be, but perhaps it is.

Judging by the destruction, by the bodies that lie in various states of injury around him, maybe Sousuke already thinks he holds his victory. Trampling over the corpses of his loyal Espada. Paying no mind to the former allies he has dispassionately watched fall.

Kisuke finds it incredibly difficult to reconcile the person before him now and the man so bright and consuming in his memories.

Hot kisses trail down his throat, and Kisuke gasps. His fingers dig deeply into Sousuke's back as the vice-captain pushes against him again.

“Ah, harder,” he urges, body surging forwards to further prove his demand.

Sousuke chuckles. And the low sound echoes in the room and pours into Kisuke's ears like auditory sex.

“Any harder and I might break you, my dear.”

It doesn't sound so bad, the blond thinks to himself. But all that emerges is another moan as Sousuke's lips cover his, muffling the sound. Kisuke shoves his tongue hungrily into the brunet’s mouth, and their tongues engage in a hearty duel. The vice-captain tastes of honey and lemon, both flavors in that tea he's always drinking, and Kisuke fears that he's drowning in that familiarity.

It is that familiarity which left Kisuke so blind. He hadn't been able to see it. He never saw Sousuke for his true face. Perhaps the man had wanted him to. Maybe he had been subtly trying through the length of their relationship. And maybe Kisuke had been too caught up to even notice the signs.

The smell of ash and smoke tastes so bitter on his tongue. Kisuke doesn't think he'll ever be able to forget the bitter, copper stench of blood. His chest squeezes, reiatsu swamping the area with a force so powerful he still doesn't know how he's standing. Benihime rattles at his side, desperate to join the fight, and Kisuke watches.

He doesn't move, just watches as another falls. As Shunsui struggles to pull himself to his feet and Yamamoto's fire burns away another illusion. No one can see Sousuke for his true position, but unerringly, Kisuke's eyes find him every time. Or maybe it's not even his eyes that can see it. Maybe it's something else entirely.

Glasses clink together, the joy of the evening permeating the entire atmosphere. Kisuke grins as he downs the first shot and feels the pleasant burn.

“Happy birthday!” his friends chorus around him.

But Kisuke's eyes are only for Sousuke, who is both patient and indulgent as he sits beside the twelfth division captain.

And beneath the table, Kisuke feels their fingers briefly clasp, a promise for something later. As the others in front of him exchange jokes and more alcohol is passed around the table, the brunet leans in close. His breath is a warm brush across Kisuke's ear that makes him shiver. To anyone observing, it would just look as if Sousuke is nearing to combat the noise level. It seems innocent.

Only Kisuke knows the truth. Especially when Sousuke's lips brush against his ear ever so lightly, making a low heat pool in his belly.

“I left your present in your quarters.”

Kisuke drinks deeply from his bowl, hoping to blame the heating in his cheeks on the alcohol. It also helps to conceal his lips.

“Then I'll have to make an excuse to skip out on the party early, now won't I?”

He is treated to another of Sousuke's smiles, the kind that turns up his lips and makes his eyes sparkle behind those glasses. He draws back, putting a proper distance between them, one that can't be misconstrued as anything else. The promise remains in his expression though, and Kisuke looks eagerly forward to tonight.

Reiatsu swirls around him, cloaking his body in his own power. He rises in the air before he entirely realizes what he’s doing. His eyes are for Sousuke alone, paying no mind to the struggles of the Shinigami around him. Their faces have blurred to him, becoming nameless. He knows they are allies. Some even friends. And few of them are Vizard, those with equal stakes to his.

Kisuke sees none of them.

He focuses on the Sousuke that he is certain is the true one and not a fake reflection of the overlord. He can't explain how he knows. At his side, Benihime rattles, and Kisuke feels her hilt in his hands before he remembers drawing her. The swelling within him increases and knocks at the bonds of bone.

Broad shoulders… oh so familiar. Brown hair that waves in the wind, not quite the same style but still similar. Reiatsu that floods over Kisuke's entire being, much more powerful than he remembers but still familiar. His heart tries to shove him back to a golden past, but all his mind remembers is one bathed in crimson.

Sousuke stands there like an entirely different person as the wounded bodies of their allies – their goddamned friends! – paints the ground a garish shade. He defends Kisuke's attack so easily, as if swatting away a nuisance. Just a fly buzzing around his head.

Kisuke doesn't recognize him. He doesn't know this man at all. Doesn’t recognize the dark eyes or the soft brown hair.

His gaze unerringly finds Hiyori's battered form before they return to Sousuke. The words that pass between them are inconsequential compared to the feeling that tears through his entire being.

And Kisuke just stands there as Sousuke lies, betraying everything that they've shared. Dismisses it as though it is nothing. And perhaps it is. Maybe it is an illusion like everything else. He doesn't move, doesn't think to move, until Tessai yells at him. And the two differing kidoh clash in a dazzling display of sheer power.

When the lights fade and the power diffuses, there is nothing but empty space before them. Nothing marks where Sousuke had stood, cruelly betraying everything.

Benihime sings as she stabs through the air, faster than Kisuke can think and faster than anyone realizes his presence. The white back in front of him doesn't remain white long as crimson spreads across the pristine fabric, like a scarlet flower in snow. And Kisuke's fingers tremble around the hilt. His whole body shakes. And he can't tell if his vision is blurring because of the pain or if it's another reason entirely. Kisuke doesn't even know if it's anger anymore or sadness. The feel of his soul shattering.

His zanpakutou slides free with a sickening sound, audible even above the noise of battle, not that Kisuke hears it anymore. To him, there is nothing but silence as Sousuke gradually turns, his startled gaze falling on Kisuke. More blood paints the front of his outfit – the complete opposite of a Shinigami's black.

There is surprise there. And yet... not surprise, too. Expectancy. As though he has been waiting for this.

Around them, the illusions vanish, and the surprised Shinigami are left swinging at empty air before realizing there is no enemy to fight. And dark eyes are locked on Kisuke as Benihime dangles loosely in his grip, blood dripping down with a sound that never happens because the ground is so far below them.

“Kisuke.” His voice is stronger than it should be for the hole in his belly.

“Don't call me that,” Kisuke returns.

And he is horrified by the tightness in his voice. By the feeling that grips his vocal cords and squeezes his lungs until he's gasping for breath for a reason he can't comprehend.

“You have no right to call me that. Not anymore.”

The words aren't what he wants to say, but he keeps the truth locked inside of him anyway. He wants his secret to remain a secret, now and forever. Kisuke wants – no, needs – for it to end like this.

Sousuke lifts a hand, and Kyouka Suigetsu isn't even in his grip. Kisuke can't remember him dropping her, but his eyes refuse to leave Sousuke's face to check. Reiatsu surges as the Shinigami surround the two of them, clinging to life, desperate to end this war. There's no escape for Sousuke, and even he knows it.

The injury is critical but not life-threatening. It won't immediately kill him, but he'll die if he's not treated. Kisuke knows better than to expect the Shinigami to rush to take care of the wound. Not with all the death and destruction Sousuke has wrought. No, they are planning to deal the final blow here and now.

The hand stops inches before Kisuke's face, but the gesture is all that's necessary in the end. Kisuke doesn't move, towards or away from Sousuke's fingers, even if every fiber of his being seeks to close the gap. Once again, he's paralyzed.

“It wasn't an illusion,” Sousuke murmurs, those brown eyes softening for just a second.

And in an instant, something inside Kisuke snaps. He can't call what emerges from his lips a scream, but he isn't sure what it is either. Whatever those emotions are churning inside of him, they erupt until something in his chest explodes with the tension. One foot slides forward, and Benihime lifts, slashing through the air quicker than anyone can follow. Faster than anyone can stop him.

He isn't even sure he's hit his target through the blurring in his eyes. And Kisuke can't breathe; he's choking on air. He only knows the harsh smell of blood and the bitter taste of betrayal. He only knows the last glimpse of dark eyes that in his madness seem ringed by clunky, outdated glasses and brushed by loose strands of brown hair. He only sees a smile that's genuine. Only hears words that whisper ever so softly in his ear in the dead of night when he is presumed asleep and no one else is listening.

“Only you.”

********

a/n: So.... there will definitely be a sequel. Because I can't leave this one here like this. There's too much wonderful angst to explore! In fact, the sequel is attempting to worm it's way into my NaNo writings. Grrrrrr.

Hope you liked! I shall return fully soon!