A/N- I'm so sorry for the long wait! I had the majority of this finished a while ago, but there wasn't a good enough conclusion so I forced some time over the weekend to finish it. Hope you enjoy and leave a review letting me know what you think!

She angled her face away from me and I could faintly see the corners of her chocolate eyes shine, yet it wasn't with happiness, but the gloss of unshed tears.

Chapter 34

Limits of Selfishness

The first thing I felt was my head pulsing in frantic spasms. Surrounding me was a faintly black, yet at the same time blinding light, leaving my vision impaired. Trying to rub my eyes of the sunspots starting to appear every time I blinked, I realized that my wrists were shackled by two black and cold metal chains on each side of me. I was laying on a board with a foam surface, something that could be maybe considered as a bed. Trying to remember what had ultimately resulted in this situation, I thought back to the amazing time I had at the party. I went home, and- Aizen's soldiers captured me! Since my vision began to normalize, I raised my head above the bed and strainingly, I peered to the best of my ability. Feeling my abdominal muscles clench, I continued to strain as much as I could to see around me. I determined that this must have been a dungeon. Relaxing, I rested my spine along the foam once again. Deeply sighing, I focused and concentrated on reiatsu nearby. There were several strong ones, but I could feel Aizen's distinctly; it was coming closer. What great timing he had. He must have sensed a change in my energy as I had awoken. The man surely had nothing better to do.

"Hello, Akiyama. How was your birthday?" his words seeped with sarcasm and disgust.

"It was great, until you," I replied, mustering as much hatred to match his.

"Well, please forgive me as I needed you for a very important job."

"If you think that I will help you speed the hogyoku, then you are crazier than I thought. I won't." There was no way that I would help him: even if he tortured me, I could take it better than being the cause of the downfall of Soul Society.

"Really? I believe that I have ways that will bring you down to pieces. You won't be able to defy me. I was informed of your one weakness, and don't think that I will be hesitant to use it." No. He couldn't mean…

He continued. "At this moment, you are of more value than anything to me. I need a fraction of your power to rule the entire world. I would be willing to kill anyone to obtain that power," he explained.

"Fine, then kill me." At this point, I was really hoping he would. I started to beg to anyone above for help.

"Why would I ever kill you? A different young man, however, opens an entirely new set of options, wouldn't you agree?" He paused for a second, a small smile beginning to creep on to his face. "Now tell me, Akiyama. How would you feel if I were to hurt someone you cared about?"

I couldn't answer his question. He went directly to the one thing he could threaten me with. Instead I simply ignored his question."A monster like you doesn't deserve to live in this world, much less rule it. Let me go now!"

"You didn't answer my question. I also think I should inform you of a rescue team approaching Hueco Mundo at this moment. And the timing couldn't be better! Can you guess who's leading the team?"

No...please…no.

"I'll be a generous man and make you a deal you can't deny. I will let you return to your beloved and give you your zanpakuto."

"And...what's your part of this agreement?" I asked.

"You will leave Soul Society when the time is right and return to me. You will speed the hogyoku through time and I will rule."

"No way in hell will I agree to that!"

"Well...I do believe it's your best interest, as the alternative…" he smiled in silence. "I think you know what it is. Now, what will you choose?" He definitely knew I couldn't pick. They were both outrageous.

"How much time do I have until I return here?" I figured it would be the only choice. If he was here now, there wasn't a doubt that Aizen could kill him. The only thing holding him back is me.

"I will give you a month," he replied. That wasn't enough time.

"Alright. I'll do it." After all, considering the choices I had, there really wasn't an alternative option. I decided to test my luck. "But I won't agree to one month. I want more time. Three months."

"As I said, I desperately need the hogyoku as soon as possible. Waiting three months isn't possible. I will allow you two months, max. Agree to the terms or he will die today."

"I agree," I said. There was no way I'd return. Aizen knew this. What is he plotting?

"Alright. You will not speak of this to anyone. If you do, I will know and he will die. If you do anything that pisses me off, he will die. If you do anything that you feel would irritate me, I will know and he will die. If you think about defying me and not return. He will die. And to prove my point, follow me and you will believe me." He swiftly removed his zanpakuto and sliced through the cuffs around my wrist with a slash. Sounds from the action were sharp and jarring, deafening my ears for a quick moment. The metal chains shattered on impact and were transformed into specks of dust at the mercy of Aizen. "Follow me and tell Hitsugaya that you don't wish to return. Tell him to leave and when he doesn't. I want you to injure him so he knows you are serious. I will release your zanpakuto into your possession. A barrier has been erected around the castle so don't even think about escaping. You won't be able to take it out."

"Very nice, Akiyama. I am proud of you. It was well staged, although I believe you should have sliced him up just a bit more. Now, before I let you leave, I need you to do something. I wish to test your power. It will also make your fight to escape look more realistic. So, Akiyama, try and kill me. I won't hold back."

Why did they need to be so alike? Did 17 years of life not change someone? Those words…a point in time, those exact identical words had smoothly slipped out of his mouth. I could remember the words, as if they were yesterday, but in reality, it was quickly approaching two years ago. He continued to stare at me, those beautiful turquoise eyes, gazing into my eyes. I realized that quite a bit of time had passed since his question. "It's...just. Nothing." I panicked, there was nothing I could say. Nothing came to me in the spur of the moment. Everything just froze. Frankly, I couldn't even remember what he asked me.

"That's not really much of an answer is it?" he continued to ask, probing for more answers.

"It's just...I'm so sorry. What was your question again?" God, I must have sounded so stupid at that moment. I used the tip of my right thumb to brush the silent tears away.

"I asked you: Why aren't you wearing it?" he repeated, agitated at my inattentiveness. He was not doing a good job of hiding it, nor do I think he was trying very hard.

"I never wore it. I kept it on a necklace, but the chain…" I faltered and paused for a moment. Tears began to cloud my eyes again. I fought them. Hard. "It broke."

"What do you mean it broke?" This quirked up my suspicions. Why was he suddenly being so...inquiring?

"What is this? An interrogation?" I questioned him, scoffing in disbelief at his behavior. What was up with him? He's never like this.

"No. I just was curious that's all. Didn't mean to pry." This was something new, and definitely wrong. Since when did he ever admit he was wrong?

"Thank you for returning it. It just brought up some rather bad memories, that's all," I explained, hoping that he would buy my vague explanation. "So, I heard your birthday is in a day? Matsumoto told me and she wanted me to help her plan out a party."

"Yeah, it is. When'd you get to see Matsumoto?" he said, with an inquisitive look on his face.

"I just ran into her on my way here. Why? She skipping out on work again?"

"Yeah, something like that," he replied, mumbling off to himself about her lazy ass.

The hours went by quickly with no one interrupting the day. I managed to get Akiyama to do a large portion of the paperwork, and agreed that if she could bring Matsumoto to the office, I would finally give her a tour of the entire house. She seemed delighted to accept my offer without a moment of hesitation. Unfortunately for me and her, as well, my vice captain was no where to be found: not that it was uncalled for. Akiyama left for several hours and to my surprise- she returned, with useless vice captain in tow. It was just another usual day in the office. We were nothing more than fellow shinigami coworkers.

Until night came. The time where I would befriend her as if nothing was awry.

Agreeing to the terms I had spoken to her earlier, I gave her the grand tour of the house. I realized that she never had the time to look around, as either I wasn't here and she was too scared to without my permission, or she just didn't have the chance.

"So, this is my house, it has three bedrooms, 3 bathrooms, an office, and another room upstairs. Currently, you are in the guest bedroom, which is under my room. Since you have the time and we aren't in a rush anymore, you can move your things into the main bedroom upstairs. It's a bit nicer than the guest room, and it's more spacious," I explained to her as we walked through the double doors.

"It's nice having the time to really slow down and see this place in daylight. The house- it's so insanely gorgeous. The design, the art, it's so amazing," she said, while her eyes scanned from corner to corner.

"Yeah, I like it too. You into architecture?" This was developing well. I was getting progress with her and getting to know her likes and dislikes.

"Yeah, I am actually," she confessed. "It's a bit weird for a shinigami to be into architecture, but it's just so fascinating," she said.

"There's also a pool- it's indoor so you can head out there even though it's wintertime. You'll be bored around here, so it's a great way to spend some time, I guess," I explained. We continued to move along the halls of the interior building.

"Here's the kitchen. The refrigerator and pantry rarely have groceries in them, so whenever you feel like it, you can buy me groceries. I left some cash on the coffee table in the living room. Use it as you desire, I have no need for it." Before she had the chance to respond, I began to maneuver my way down the hall into my office.

"This is my personal office. I keep important files here. It's not much different from my work office, but I occasionally leave Matsumoto and finish up the papers here," I noticed her glancing around at the pile of papers scattered wildly across the span of my table. "Excuse the mess. Now let's go upstairs, there's nothing else to see down here," I explained. I figured the living room wasn't necessary to visit as she had been there several times. So far, she seemed quiet and content with the tour I was giving her. Suddenly, I remembered a message I was supposed to let her know.

"I received a message from Kurotsuchi today. Since your zanpakuto has returned, the process for duplication has been terminated."

"Okay. Thanks for informing me. I have no use for it anyways."

We went finally went upstairs. Upon finishing the last step, she was immediately entranced by the large display of windows at the top. I had to admit, the view was lovely. It stretched over vast mountains in the background, with a river below and the city not far away. "Your house is absolutely beautiful…" she mumbled in awe.

"Yeah, I guess. There's nothing here but a spare room and two bedrooms. Mine's this way," I directed as we started moving to the left of the stairs. We viewed my room for a brief amount of time before moving on to the empty room that she would soon occupy.

After a few more minutes, Akiyama viewed just about every room in the house and I left her to move into the upstairs room. Shutting the door behind me, I rested my body against the cool sheets of my bed. Tomorrow signaled another year. Time went too fast sometimes. Within a couple of seconds, I unintentionally fell into the peacefulness of sleep.

Akiyama POV-

I was so glad that I only had a minimal amount of possessions to move. This included the few sets of clothing and a few other material items. The distance from this room to the upstairs was too far to make several trips before exhaustion kicked in. This house is so beautiful. I couldn't help but wonder what happened to it in the future. Why did get rid of it? The house he had was very nice as well, but lacked the uniqueness this house of his past had. He never told me of this house he previously owned.

Within five minutes and four trips later, everything was moved out and I left the guest room as clean as it was before I arrived. On my last trip back up the curving stairs, the back of my hamstrings began to feel sore. Today was an exhausting day. Matsumoto had me do so many things for her in preparation for his birthday. Usually, I was the one in charge of organizing his party every year. I was glad that Matsumoto gave him a party every year too.

I wondered if I should let him know that I finished and see if he had anything he wanted me to do. I decided against it as it was late and he might have already been sleeping. After all, he spent his day being productive and working.

Setting the clock to 9:54, 10 minutes ahead, I sat down on the queen sized bed. The room was very spacious and had a lot of windows facing the west side. The view was average, not comparable to the view from the top of the stairs. I could see the lights of the city and some small mountains far away in the back. The rest were just trees. My favorite part about the room was the bathroom and the closet. The walk in closet was huge and had so many compartments. I would need to buy some new clothes tomorrow.

The bathroom was what you would imagine in a five star suite, complete with tile floors and decorative lighting designs. There was a rectangular jacuzzi bathtub about 6 feet long on the right side of the door. The sinks made me think this entire house was carefully designed by an architect. They were unique bowls that looked like stained glass in the color of his eyes. Two of these adorned the counter, with a crystal edged mirror above. The shower had a lot of edges and was all glass with two shower heads on each side. The walls were smooth and stone. I couldn't wait to use the jacuzzi, but I figured it was getting late now and all I really wanted to do was sleep.

Quickly stripping my work outfit, I changed into another set of clean clothes to dress in for the night. Grabbing the diary and a pen, I slid into the covers and propped myself up against the wall and a pillow. Turning past my previous entry from 12/17/Y26, I quickly scribbled a brief recap of the events that happened in the past three days.

Dear Diary,

It's been such an exhausting day and I can't wait to go to sleep. I got my ring back today. I still can't bring myself to wear it. Especially when he's not here. Hitsugaya was suspicious of me today. He started questioning me about it and I concocted some random lies. I know it's just a matter of time before he breaks through me. I have to leave before then. I had 2 months. What choices do I have? I could kill myself, but that doesn't necessarily ensure his safety. I'm sure I'll figure out something within 2 months. Matsumoto is so amazing. The only thing I'm grateful for is that I was able to meet her here. His birthday is tomorrow, so I'm looking forward to celebrating that. I need to go out extra early to get him something, but it'll be quick since I know what I'm getting him. I wonder how Hitsugaya is doing without me. I bet the 10th division is a mess right now without me. I should probably go to sleep now or I'll be tired and sleepy tomorrow.

12/20/Y26

I closed the book and sighed. I placed the book down and saw the shimmer of the bracelet on the nightstand. All of a sudden, it hit me that I never thanked him for the gifts. I was being selfish, not realizing that everyone had more problems than me. Flicking off the white floor lamp beside me, I closed my eyes and began to take deep breaths, relaxing the stress out. Slowly I drifted off to sleep, oblivious to the fact that I forgot to set an alarm for the early morning.