A/N: So this is the final chapter as I mentioned before. Please comment/review about this story or if you want to read the companion stories that I've written out.

Thank you all so much again for your continued interest!

I was not allowed back to the human world yet. I was told that the vizards were all healed up, and that they returned by themselves. It was the same for both Kisuke and Yoruichi. Isshin had a family to get back to, so I hadn't expected him to stay at all. I wanted to see all of them again. I wanted to know that they were actually okay, and for them to know that I too was actually okay. Those were the ones I wanted to celebrate with.

It didn't feel like much of a victory, not with the way that everyone was prancing around and getting work done. Soul Society was focusing on recooperation and getting everything back to running. As for the higher up Shinigami, they were all training. I could make out all the types of reiatsu that were going off across different sectors of Seireitei. It was like the time before the war, except now they understood more properly the goal that actually lay ahead.

I sighed and raked a hand over my hair before turning up towards the sky. Honestly I was surprised that I was being left alone. Mayuri hadn't seemed to take any interest in me, though I was thankful for that. None of the other Shinigami seemed to think twice about my presence, and the Sou-taicho had yet to call me in for a meeting. I was just ambling my way through everyday. It was odd not to be obligated to do anything. What had I used to do with my time here on days off?

You went to Ukitake's.

That's true…. Say Kumo, you know what would be really nice right now?

What is that, Ayake-sama?

Some nice jazz music.

Go escape to the human world and track down Shinji then.

I huffed out a few laughs before leaping into the air. There was one person that I could actually see myself celebrating with. I hadn't been straight out avoiding him. He had stayed far away to let me come to him when I wanted to. He had always been that way, that damn infernal pervert of a captain.

I clung to the trace of his reiatsu and let it drag me to where I could find him. It didn't take long, for he was on the roofs of his own division. I landed on the tiles and eyed out his frame. He was resting back, with his hands under his arms, hat tilted over his forehead, and legs crossed as if he was sitting on a chair. His usual pink kimono was spying out from his back.

Slowly I edged my way up closer to him. I knew that he knew it was me from the moment I had landed. Perhaps, from even further back. Yet he made no signs that he was going to speak to me or to acknowledge me in any sort of way.

My heart grew twelve sizes to big for my chest, and as it attempted to keep beating the blood it caused rumbles to go through me. I was stifled from calling out to him, to see if he would acknowledge me, by the clog in my throat. Quivers raked all through my body, wanting me to go tumbling down from the roof. I felt young again, as heat pooled onto my cheeks. These were all the signs that I had lived, and I could get myself breathing from that thought.

"Kyoraku?"

His hat shifted back immediately and he turned his head slightly to see me. We stared long and hard at each other, before he brought his hand out for me. I took a few more steps, and finally came to sit next to him. His hand thumped onto the tiles, in mild protestation, as I ignored it.

"Yuko-chan is being mean again?"

I glanced at him from the side of my eye to make out that soft grin on his face. His thick eyebrows were slanted the opposite way in that calm expression, and his eyes were not half-lidded but not open fully. The cold glint I had seen during the war was gone, leaving them the shade of chocolate that I had first seen all those years ago.

Slowly my eyes traveled down to where his heart was beating in his chest. It lay under the folds of three layers of clothing, curly hairs, and heated skin. Prickled by the small memory of what it had been like, my hand reached out and I slowly slide my fingers over the spot I had been watching. The fabric of the shihakusho was rough in its wariness of age, but the skin lit me on fire. The hairs came slinking through the small gaps between my fingers, but the skin was warm and tender beneath my touch.

"If you do that, Yu—"

I turned my gaze up to him and the words cut off. I tilted my head slightly before moving closer towards him. My hand pressed harder down on the spot and I could feel the sensation of his heart beneath my hand. Subconsciously my heart came to beat at his own rhythm, and it sent a pleasant calmness through me.

"You won't control yourself, Kyoraku?"

"I won't be able to."

I picked my hand up and brought it close to my eyes at it clenched and unclenched before me. It still tingled from having caressed him, and there was a warmth that still burned. It was odd to see that the very same tool that killed was suddenly holding onto life. Then again, Kumo was a crawling paradox. Everything was doubles for us like that. The hand that feeds is equally the hand that takes. We're always in control.

"Kyoraku." I pulled my hand down and turned over to the man. He turned his head more fully towards me. It was actually rather disappointing that he had found a replacement for his hat so soon. Although, it had been three weeks since the war had ended. "Do you want to know something?"

"Hm~ I always listen to my lovely Yuko-chan."

My words faltered slightly and I stared off wondering if it was even worth doing this. I stared into his face trying to draw out the answers that I wanted. Yet there was nothing but a curiously cool face that offered no solutions. My heart raged deeply through my ears. When the heart normally pumps this hard it causes adrenaline, but this time I felt the prickling sensation at the back of my eyes. I swallowed back at the knot in my throat and then turned to look at the man.

"I really can't call you by your first name."

You liar, Ayake-sama.

Shush, Kumo.

I was thankful that I didn't hear Ichi calling out for me at that moment, because hearing that voice would have been a bit too much. She lacks tack. I turned back over to the captain before I could wander to far afield in my thoughts. The man's eyebrows furrowed and he slowly sat up and leaned back upon his hands. His lips collected into a pout, and my eyes had to flicker away.

"Why ever not?"

"That," the words cut off again and I huffed slightly to break the clog. I slapped habitually at Kyoraku's rising hand that was making its way up to my ankle. "That's private."

I didn't bother to have my eyes wander back over to him. I heard the smallest of mumbles before he took me up in his grasp. I found myself settled down in his lap, with one hand on my thigh and the other around my neck. He loomed closer and dragged the limbs across what had already become my skin, since I could make out his touch through the fabric. My hands quivered and nestled deeper into my top, pressing hard and hard down on my stomach to try and stop the eruptions from occurring.

"When did you get so nervous around me, Yuko-chan?" The wind behind his words brushed up against me. His hands slide further along my body collecting me closer and closer to his chest. "I know you like being in control… But you don't need to be nervous."

I uncuddled my hands and propped them up on his chest. As he pulled me in, I slunk my arm around his shoulder, letting that be the only vulnerable part to the outside world. I ducked my head and splayed it into his collarbone; my cheek rest there and breathing in his scent deeply. I pressed my torso right up against his, feeding the pace of my heart to him, and latched my hand to a place just under his neck. My other hand came and clung onto his side, where it remained hidden by his captain's haori.

In the mean time, his hands traveled criss crossing each other. It sent red hot flares down my entire body that had my eyes closing at the sensation. The hand that had been on my neck, crossed down to hold onto my hip. The other traveled up along my leg, along my side, barely passing the curve of my breast, and then clutching down on my shoulder. His nose feasted into my hair, before I felt the faint brushing of his lips against the parts of my forehead that he could get to.

"Are you scared of me, Yuko-chan?"

"Terrified." I whispered out for just his ears, as he had done for just mine. "Like you said, I have a thing for control."

His hum pulsed and I found him jarring our position slightly to move me about. He pushed me up so that my head was climbing above his own. Slowly his hands came to travel around so that he was fastened to my hips. I hooked onto his shoulders, since the trembling had started up again. The open air was not helping me at all. I'd rather be suffocated by the man in secrecy than have to deal with the outside world like this.

I could feel the burn of his eyes, but I didn't dare look down. I stared adamantly at the branch that contained the stillness that I sought after. In a flourish, I was taken back into his arms and he was jumping away. We landed not seconds later in the clearing that we had both come to know. He settled me onto my feet slowly, keeping an arm around me with a small smirk coming to his face at the actions.

"Shut up you dumb pervert."

"Now, now, Yuko-chan. No need for anger… You're as cute as ever like this." His hand collected around my waist and pulled me into him, as soon as we were sat again since my legs were not working properly. My leg was just acting up from the injury, though the comment only had Kumo snickering in my ears. "Like a baby fawn."

"Do you realize how uncomfortable this is for me?" I pulled back slightly and his hand automatically gave way, falling onto his lap. His other reached on top to scrub his head, hat already discarded. His eyes fell heavily on my face, and I pulled it back to give a bit more distance. "I've always found it uncomfortable."

"Why?"

"I grew up in a brothel." Nails hooked onto my eyes and splayed them wide open and I choked out a cough turning my head away. "I mean… I wasn—I didn't do that sort of stuff. I –"

"I already knew."

My necked popped as I turned it too quickly. It was an unusually hard burst and I hunkered down into my shell so that I could start rubbing out at the tense cartiledge. Kyoraku tried to push my hands away to get at the muscles there, but I slapped them away. The two of us fussed over the muscles, him whining and me scolding, until I was crawling a bit away so that I could fix the tension.

He latched onto me immediately, and it was definitely the shock that didn't have me fighting at him. He grabbed onto my ankle and slid me back. The surprising force had my balance thrown off and tilted a bit too far onto my side to get a good look at the man. With a tiny shove and a roll, he got me on my backside, where he locked me down.

"Do you want to know why you're nervous Yuko-chan?" One thick hand came and wrapped from the middle of my sternum all the way around my rib cage, closing at it, while his other came to my neck gently messaging in. He tipped my neck forward so that I could see him, but I was watching as he settled close between my splayed knees. "Do you?"

My eyes flickered up to the eyes that seemed to furthest part away from me. The quivers were already coming back, and I felt them disperse into torents of flames through my veins. My hands locked down into the ground and grass, digging tiny holes as I sunk deeper and deeper into them. The thought of squeezing my knees together, and bringing him closer so that I could wrap my calves around his back, picked my heart into a cacophony of unpleasant beatings. His hand quietly shifted further around my back and he slowly came to pick me up again.

I dragged the dirt up with me as I was forced to straddle his kneeling thighs. Each finger pressed me closer and closer, and I moved to wrap my hands onto his biceps. His other hand made work with rolling out the bushes of muscles in my neck, whilst moving my head so that I would stay focused on him though he never specified which part. I swallowed down and worked at getting my tongue to move about.

I tucked into darkness, but his voice called me back immediately with a tiny shake and his disapproval. My breath stolen by the sudden drop in his hand down to the curve of my lower back. The blood from my body rocketing to my cheeks, and I did my best to just cling. My eyes took in his thickened smirk on his face, and the way his eyes started a dawdling leer around my face.

When a chuckle from deep within his chest, came it muffled out the rest of the sensations by my ears. His nose dipped and his drew small lines of my cheek, before his lips came right by my ears. "Do you want to know, beautiful?"

He pulled back just enough to see the duck of my head. He shifted me up closer, pushing me up with the hand that was basically brushing over the top rim of my behind. I squirmed slightly but he chided, and squeezed my neck slightly as he turned it back up to him. Nonetheless, he moved his hand over to the other hip, so his arm was crossed diagonally along my lower back.

"Because I learnt you." My eyes furrowed and I leant back into the web of his arms. The hand by my neck came down to my collar bown and traced out a line until it came to lay flat on top of my sternum. "It was all a game, Yuko-chan. - I won."

"What?" I finally bite out, feeling the blood stop rushing through my ears. My hands coming to grip down on his biceps.

Kyoraku blinked a few times before he clutched just a bit tighter, and then smiled. "I worded that wrong."

"I certainly hope so."

My eyes tore open as I was suddenly placed on my back again with the man hovering over me. Kyoraku wasted no time in locking me back into his gaze. He came in close again and rested his lips right by my ear. "The game of seduction, Yuko-chan. – Those men you knew as a child, could never do this to you."

His lips ran down the side of my face, across my cheek, although he never gave me a single kiss. I attempted to twist my head slightly, but he nudged it with his nose to keep me facing the other way. I stayed within his ploy, letting him start his whispers over there to calm the rage of my blood again. Whether it was from the bad wording or the new sensations, I didn't know.

"Your blood running, heart beating, skin tingling…. I learnt how to seduce you Yuko-chan. Those men can't do what I can, because I know you intimately. I seduced you; mind and body. – You gave yourself to me."

"Have I?"

His head propped and that sinister smirk was back on his face. I watched as he flickered into another type of man above me. One of his hand came out and slowly picked up my left hand and brought it up so that I could feel the warm breath against them. His long fingers loitered over ever single knuckle, drawing out smooth lines before he finally settled a kiss on top of the tingling skin. Brown eyes preened as they looked down at me.

"I know you like a slow seduction." His voice sounded out through my palm as he had switched my hand over and left a prickle of his lips there. "You get caught up in the feelings, don't you?"

My hand fell with a small flop onto my chest, and he came down closer, until I was baring his weight. My bottom lip gently came to a quiver, as he used his hand to shift the top of the shihakusho open just slightly. Then as he breathed right at the crook of my neck, that same hand came around my ribs again. It pressed down to let me know that it was there, and then inched around my waist, and then came around to travel up through the valley of my breasts before stopping down right at my heart.

I felt the smirk that grew along the exposed skin that he pressed his cheek to. "Hm~ How fast, Yuko-chan…. You don't like going in for the direct touch. You like the foreplay much better."

I was jolted back into my body. I had focused so much on how he was moving, I hadn't even felt the pick of my breath, and the rate of my own heart. I felt my body sagging into the ground, and tiredness from the warmth that seemed to eminante from right inside me. My hands had fisted into the flower kimono that he adorned, keeping his equally strapped to me, as he kept me bolted to the forest floor.

Just as my hand was going to slip into his hair, he picked up his head and came back to his hovering position, with his two hands by the sides of my head. His eyes flickered over to the hand that had been risen by a ghost, as it immediately coiled and went back down. When he came to stare back at my eyes, he grinned like a boy receiving a present; all the contours of his normally sharpened face softening.

"I'm very happy with my prize… Especially if you look at me like that Yuko-chan."

He brought the two of us to a sitting position, and set me between his two legs hiding my smaller frame in the warm darkness; his front to my back. His two feet clapped together in front of me. He rested his two arms on my body; tying me close to his chest. Then his back hunched forward slightly and I felt the pressure of his body against my shoulders. His head came dipping down, until it was snuggling up against the fuzzy hairs on my head, and then he sunk just that little bit deeper.

"Kyoraku?"

"Hm~?"

"How long have you known?" My fingers reached down to the grass and twisted it around and around.

The man let out a sigh and took his head from mine own so that he could get a good view of my face. I took the opportunity to switch the position slightly, and turned sideways so that my right shoulder was against his chest. My legs fell over his left thigh, and my feet slowly flicked at the captains' haori. He had opened to let me move and then immediately came curling in again; one arm around my waist, the other high around my shoulder.

"I've known I was in love with you for a long time, Yuko-chan." I took my eyes from the shadows that were around my feet, up to his eyes. His eyes flashed in pleasure, and a tiny smile came to face though it took up his entire face. It was not loud in its brilliance, but soft and warm. "I've known you were in love with me just before you became fuku-taicho."

"What?"

He let out a few snickers, taking my face into a hand and rubbing against the cheek. "I had a feeling that it was the case then but when you became captain I was absolutely sure…. It was too cute watching you figure it out."

I coughed out a few syllables before I whacked at his chest. He chuckled again and rubbed at the spot that was already gain a bright red spot. "Cute? Aish, you're a horrible man, Kyoraku."

"Yare~ so cruel, Yuko-chan… How about my first name?"

"Absolutely not."

I didn't even bother anymore. A week later had found me with little time away from the brown-haired captain. It was the same as the stalking incident all those years ago. I'd turn a corner he'd be there. I'd enter a room he'd be there. I'd be simply walking, he'd show up. However this time, immediately he'd cling onto me. If we weren't in a relatively closed off area, then he'd whisk us away until we were. The man had grown more and more clinging when I had gone from smacking to downright refusing to allow him to hold me. Then, I just gave up.

I had gone to Ukitake's for tea, seeing as he finally had a moment when he wasn't busy. He'd been spending plenty of time trying to administer work and routine through his more than frequent visits to the fourth division. He's wound was healed over, but it had sent him down a bad spiral. Not to the point of being bedridden, but his lungs had been deeply effected by the blow.

Now, over a half hour in to the relaxing time, Kyoraku had shown up with his gallant smile on his face. I sighed and rolled my head back so that it rested on my own shoulders. Then, I slipped back and lay down across the veranda, letting out a few more huffs. I hadn't gotten around to telling Ukitake about my slight problem with his friend. I had found it immensely awkward to bring up the confession from a week ago, and I didn't really know how to broach the topic. Now, he'd be getting it full blown in his face.

My eyes came open and I stared straight up at Kyoraku, who had yet to take a seat. He was leaning over, his ponytail over his shoulder, and his arms safely tucked into his sleeves for now. That calm smile of his slowly came out into a grin, and his eyes crinkled up. Then he swooped me up into his arms, until he settled in the spot I was, where he sat me on his leg.

I shut my eyes and just dumped my head right onto his shoulder, since it was in range. Flinging one arm around so that it dangling off the same place, I huffed and slouched more into him. His hand came up and rested on ribs, tentatively bringing pressure to them.

It seemed that he had to always be checking the area. I assumed it was from the fact that he had seen me after the fight with Aizen. Unohana had given me a decent idea of what had happened, and my own imagination filled in the details well enough. It did not make for a pretty picture. Although it had been Yoruichi that had found me immediately after the battle and brought me to safety, Unohana warned me that a majority of the captains, including Ukitake and Kyoraku, had seen me during my first day of recovery in the field. It was a completely open area, and there was no way to really restrict anyone's access to the place.

When I had run into Ukitake the first time after I was released, he was very cautious about hugging me. He kept nearly an inch between my shoulders and his arms, leaving his natural pleasantness to fill in the space that was between our bodies. Kyoraku had taken the more aggressive road of just constantly checking that my ribs were, in fact, in tact. No matter what, he'd always find a way to touch the rib cage, and my sternum several times during the course of the day.

"Is this a thing now?" Ukitake questioned.

My eyes peered open and I caught the very openly amused expression on his face. His lips were trembling from well hidden laughter but it was slowly being released. He spluttered and clapped his cup into the dish, before letting out heaving laughs. It was so hard that his head tilted back and his long hair was laying on top of the floor.

Kyoraku's shoulders jumbled my head a bit, and it had me twisting a bit further towards his neck. He took the move pleasantly, moving his hand into my hair, whilst his other kept me on his leg by holding to my hip. My eyes shut closed again and I began by drawing patterns on his back; tracing out a flower that probably didn't even match the design.

You're enjoying this Ayake-sama.

Stop laughing Kumo.

You're hardly threatening like that.

Stop keeping me honest.

Someone has to… I'm glad that you can receive comfort from him.

I picked my hand up and brought it to slap him over the side of his head. While I had been zoned out slightly talking to Kumo, he had gone and made more than a few sexual comments to Ukitake. I picked my head up, and then clamped onto his cheek and began to tug. Kyoraku let out more than a few whines before I was let the skin smack back to his mouth.

"Who have you dominated over Kyoraku?"

He pouted and ducked his head, whilst bringing his hand to rub at his cheek. "No one."

"Good. – You have more than once called me dangerous, so I'd be careful about what you say."

"Are you going to do something about it?"

My eyes flickered between the two of his own. His face had remained in a pout, though it had moved on to almost a childish protestation as his lips pursed and he raised his eyebrows in disbelief. My head slowly tilted and then I gave me a wicked smirk that had his shoulders arching backwards so that he was sitting up straighter.

I slowly moved my hand and crawled it along his neck, raking my fingernails against the skin and not the pads of my fingers. Goosebumps immediately appeared as I traveled up, and then I flexed my hand against the contours of his left cheek. Running my thumb against the skin, I moved a touch closer so that one breast was just grazing over his body. It brought my head just by his ear, and I slowly funneled out a light breeze just on the curve of his jaw.

My lips trailed up and then hovered over his ear. "Do you really think I couldn't?"

I slipped from his arms and the seat that I was perched on, and somersaulted right over his shoulder. Then I skidded around quickly and came to the opposite side of a snickering Ukitake. The white haired captain had taken to hiding his face with the sleeves of his tops but it did nothing for the tiny tears and the jerking shoulders.

To finish off the taunt, I sent Kyoraku a wink. My eyes wander over the gobsmacked expression on his face; with his jaw hanging off the hinge slightly, and his two eyes widened out of their normal half-lids. I could remember the skin that I had left being raised and prickled by the sensation, and the faint beat of his heart coming through my own chest.

"Yuko-chan, that was a bit harsh, don't you think?" Ukitake finally choked out, wiping at the tears.

I smiled up at the man, and shook my head. "He's been stalking me again, and cuddling whenever he gets the chance. – I need to put him in his place, you know."

Not that you don't love the cuddling, Ayake-sama.

Shut up, Kumo.

. Of course~

Kumo's snickers faded slightly and I tilted my head with a faux innocent look. I brought my eyebrows down and in, raising them just slightly as well, and then tucked my lips into a pout. Then I pointed one measly finger at the white haired man, and stated, "I wasn't being that mean, was I?"

"I think," Ukitake shuffled a hand over onto his friends shoulder and then turned back to me, "you may have broken him slightly."

Ukitake and I went straight into a banter, while Kyoraku was shaking himself out of his dream. Slowly he came through, and placed his chin into his hand. He was watching us steadily, and made no attempt to enter the conversation. He just let his calm smile grow along his face, and as such we let him go down whatever path his mind had taken.

Our conversation went to happier things, mainly the restoration of Seireitei. It did take a slight turn when I brought up how the Sou-taicho was finally letting me take a trip down to Karakura Town. He had soften on me just slightly since I had nearly died in the war. He gifted me with a two week trip down to be with the others that I had also called family. I'd finally be getting that celebration that I had wanted in my soul, with the men and women that I had shared the start of the story with one hundred years ago.

"Yuko-chan?"

Eh?

I rose my hand up to my cheek and touched at it. As I withdrew, the tear made its way from the tip of my forefinger, all the way down until it dripped off the precipice and onto the veranda. I stared at where the drop had been in shock, and then took it back to my face to feel that more tears had come to my eyes.

I'm not even sad

My heart clenched up slightly and I covered up my mouth to keep the sob in my throat. I leant forward and wrapped my other hand around my torso slightly. The pressure tore through my chest and I let out a small heave of air before sucking it back in. More tears raced down, and my lips shuddered. I clenched my eyes shut and focused on taking the pressure away.

"I see." Ukitake had placed his hand on my back and started rubbing.

My eyes took his slightly blurred frame, as I felt Kyoraku take me into his arms. I snuggled deeper into them, and brought my hands to clench onto his sleeves. Now that he could hold me, there was no need to hold myself.

Ukitake tipped over slightly and patted at my leg that was still sprawled out, before sending me a warm smile. "Let it go."

"What?" the words quivered along with my face.

As if struck, Kyoraku tucked me even closer and dropped his head, so that his nose was just along my scalp. His lips made soft brushes as he spoke. "Now's a perfect time to cry, beautiful."

That's right.

I cried when I woke up thinking I was still on a plain of ice. I cried when I found Kumo for the first time. I cried at having to let go over everything and lay shut up at the cell for so long. The history clung to my shoulders when I left. So, now, I could finally cry leaving the dust of history somewhere in my wake, but the memory simmer to nothing but an impress on my brain. Time was a strange thing that moved forward, even when you didn't even notice it running along.