Title: Regrets
Genre: Angst
Rating: T
Pairing: implied Ruk/Ren
Spoilers: None, oh I don't know I haven't watched the anime regularly in years nor read the manga in months.
Summary: Byakuya reflects back on his life.
Disclaimer: Nope don't own. Not yet at least.
There are many events in my life for which I should feel regret.
I suppose the first is my marriage to Hisana. It was the first time I had broken the rules since Yoruichi had left with Urahara. I did not feel regret because Ojii-San did not say he disapproved, but then again he did not give me his approval either.
With Hisana's death wish in mind, I went to Ojii-san, who too was about to leave this life. I asked what I should do. He said I must honor my late wife's wish. His last words were that he was proud of the man I had become.
I found Hisana's sister at the Shinigami Academy roughly three years later. She stared with complete disbelief while the headmaster stood gaping when I announced her adoption and immediate graduation. I knew she would need work.
The day I met Rukia was also the day I first saw Abarai Renji. He had more raw potential than most of the men and women in my division. When I was informed of my captaincy, I had plans to raise him through the ranks of the sixth division, but Aizen got to him first. When I finally was able to transfer him to my division, the Eleventh had corrupted him further. I knew it would be difficult, but not impossible to break him. Rather than destroy the tenacity reinforced by the Eleventh, I merely pushed him in the right direction.
Despite my want to separate these two, they fall in love the same way I did with Hisana. I knew it would be a disgrace to my family once again, but when Abarai, now Captain of the Fifth, came to me and told, not asked, that he and Rukia would marry, I gave my approval. I did not desire for Rukia to feel the same doubt about her marriage that I had felt about mine. So now as I lay dying, I have no regrets about my choices in life.
A/N: I think I wrote this close to four years ago. I did a little tweaking but not much. This is the last installment of my Soliloquy thanks to all those that reviewed and commented during my four and half year delay.