Title: 200 Years Too Late
ByakuyaxSakura
World: Bleach
Age: 200+
Current Time: Summer
Word Count: 876
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He just couldn't understand. Was it something he did? Was it something he didn't do? He had just told her he was in love with her and wanted to marry her, and all she did was stare him down and dare he say looked ready to either laugh, run or cry.
"Well?"
"...I'm sorry Byakuya but...I just don't feel the same.."
Well that had killed him, not that he was gonna let her know that it did. After all he had a reputation to uphold.
Her emerald eyes looked at the man before her with broken eyes. The man she once loved more than life itself. He was a god that she could never reach but now, now that she could reach him she finally understood why she wasn't able to before.
"Why?" His voice was harsh and cold, making her flinch back. The least she could do was give him a reason.
"Because loving you means that I could possibly be the next Kuchiki matriarch."
"Is there something wrong with my clan?"
"Yes-no," Sakura stumbled over her words before she let out a huge sigh and sat on the ground, motioning for the captain to sit to her, Sakura turned to look him in those cold grey eyes, "Look, Byakuya. I am a warrior. A fighter, a healer. A Soul Reaper. I will always be that before I will ever be a wife, or a lover. Definitely before a matriarch. I know you wouldn't mind me staying as a Soul Reaper but I also know that you would, without even knowing it, rather have me stay home. Take less missions, do less things and just stay home and be the perfect matriarch."
"Sakura-"
"I love you, and I always will. Nothing will ever change that. But I am not Hisana. I will never be like the woman you loved long ago. She was- is the only woman you could ever love fully. And I know that if I give into these emotions of love, I will only get my heart broken like I did all those years ago…"
Maybe he didn't catch the main part of the speech but he certainly caught the part where she had said someone broke her heart, "Who- Who was it that broke your heart that you can't even fully love." His voice was cold, harsh and cut like his blade.
"He's a strong warrior, one of the best Soul Reapers out there. But he was also an idiot to these feelings. I loved him more than life itself, but when he married some poor street girl, it broke my heart. I thought of myself as nothing but a stress reliever because we had such amazing moments together but yet he still choose someone else. He loved her, I could tell by a simple look. There was a light in his eyes I had never seen before. It was amazing what love could do. But when he gained that light, I lost mine." Sakura's face softened just the slightest at the mere memories of so long ago.
"...I'm sorry, Sakura. I thought that you would have taken those nights the same way I had. They had meant nothing to me, but now I realise that they were probably the best nights of my life. I was only a boy who didn't know what I wanted-"
"Oh and now because Hisana is no longer here you realise that I was more than a few night stands?" Her eyes glared into his with such fierce, "Byakuya, I have loved you since we were children. I have loved you more than you could even imagine. I saved myself from those childish dreams when I realised I was nothing more than a good fuck here and there. I cannot be with a man who only realises these things decades later. I need a man who knows what he wants and would fight the Soul King to get what he wanted if he had to. I will not be used once again like I was when I was but a young, dumb and naive little girl."
With her last words, she stood from her place and flashed stepped away. Her words cut deep within him. For some reason, the words hurt but it also lit a fire within him. Something that hadn't burned since the death of his late wife. The words she spoke were true, maybe she did deserve someone that wasn't him but he'd be damned before he let someone else touch her like he once did long ago.
It was only her, always had been only her that could bring out such an emotion within his cold demeanor. Her spit fire personality with her no nonsense attitude, she had caught his attention years ago, but only now had it been more eye opening that she meant more than just a friend. She was the enigma in his life that he would never let burn out. And it only took him nearly 200 years to figure something like this out.