Chapter Five – Velvet Chains

The morning after the storm was unnaturally quiet.

When Aoi opened his pale eyes, the memory of Renji’s roar still echoed in his ears. The hallway, the keys slipping from his trembling fingers, the hot whisper against his throat—everything was burned into his fragile mind like a scar.

Yet now, when he blinked into the soft light of the bedroom, he found none of that fury waiting.

Instead, Renji sat at the edge of the bed, his tall frame wrapped in a dark robe, crimson eyes lowered. His fingers were stroking gently through Aoi’s snowy hair, each pass slow, tender, almost reverent.

Aoi flinched instinctively, clutching Bunny closer.

Renji’s hand paused. His jaw tightened. Then, after a breath, he bent down and pressed a lingering kiss to the boy’s white crown.

“I frightened you,” Renji murmured, his voice hoarse with something that almost sounded like regret. “I never wanted to.”

Aoi blinked up at him, confused. Renji’s eyes were softer now, like dying embers instead of wild flames. The man’s broad shoulders seemed to bow slightly, as if the weight of last night had hollowed him.

“I… wanted the sky…” Aoi whispered timidly, as if repeating the forbidden words might summon another storm.

Renji froze. Then he smiled, the curve of his lips gentle, though his eyes glimmered with something sharp beneath.

“You don’t need the sky, Aoi. I’ll bring the sky to you.”

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That morning, the servants—silent, obedient, never meeting Aoi’s gaze—filled the room with boxes wrapped in satin ribbons. Piles of them, stacked high like miniature towers, spilling over the table and bed.

Renji guided Aoi’s small hands to the first box. “Open it.”

Inside lay a white silk nightgown embroidered with tiny silver rabbits, soft and shimmering.

Another box revealed a polished music box. When Aoi turned the key, a delicate lullaby spilled into the air, sweet and sad, like raindrops falling on glass.

A third box held a mountain of chocolates—dark, milk, caramel, dusted with sugar. Renji unwrapped one and pressed it between Aoi’s lips himself, watching intently as the boy chewed, eyes wide at the sweet burst on his tongue.

Renji’s gaze softened with each reaction, drinking in every smile, every flicker of joy like it was salvation.

“See?” he whispered, brushing melted chocolate from the corner of Aoi’s mouth with his thumb. “You don’t need to run. Everything you could want is here, with me.”

Aoi looked around at the gifts—shiny, beautiful, endless. It was like Christmas morning, multiplied a hundred times. His childlike mind was dazzled, drawn to the toys and sweets. His pale fingers reached out hesitantly for the stuffed polar bear nestled in one box, and Renji’s chest eased when the boy hugged it close.

But under the surface, something uneasy coiled.

Every gift was a chain. Every sweet was a lock. The more Aoi smiled, the tighter Renji’s crimson gaze clung to him, like a man starving, terrified of losing even a single crumb.

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The days blurred into velvet and sugar.

Renji no longer raised his voice. He no longer slammed doors or walls. Instead, he smothered Aoi with affection so intense it burned at the edges. He carried him from room to room, fed him bites of cake with his own hands, bathed him in scented water like porcelain.

Aoi was not allowed to walk in the garden anymore—but Renji had roses cut and placed in crystal vases around the room. He could not feel the night wind on his cheeks—but Renji hung a canopy of glowing stars above the bed, artificial but dazzling.

“You see?” Renji murmured one night as he held Aoi against his chest, his lips pressed to the boy’s snow-white hair. “You’ll never need to leave. I’ll give you everything you dream of, and more.”

Aoi nodded faintly, hugging Bunny tighter. His pale eyes glimmered in the false starlight. The chocolate still lingered sweet on his tongue, the silk sheets soft against his skin.

It should have felt like heaven.

But deep in his chest, the fragile longing for the real sky had not died. It only grew quieter, buried beneath gifts and kisses, waiting.

Because even a child’s mind could tell the difference between a cage—no matter how beautiful—and freedom.

And somewhere in the shadows of Renji’s crimson eyes, Aoi could see it: the cage was shrinking, and the chains of velvet were stronger than iron.

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