Not Just a Mother Figure

Epilogue

She was cradling his head when he finally woke up. His eyes were half-glazed with sleep. He blinked a couple of times, his long lashes fluttering beautifully before he realized whose lap he was lying on.

"Is this a dream?" He whispered.

Smiling indulgently, she drew his hand to her heart and let him feel her heartbeat. "Does it feel like a dream?"

"No." He replied as he raised his other hand to tuck her hair behind her ear and cup her cheek. She sneaked a kiss on his palm. "But you are ever only mine in my dreams."

She sighed and looked away guiltily. He dropped his hand from her face. With great reluctance, he sat up and left her warmth but her scent clung to his robes like a cloud. The winter wind howled outside like a distant beast. The only light came from the corridor outside his room, seeping through the thin wall and the tiny crack between the shoji doors.

"Why are you here?" He asked without looking at her.

"Can't we enjoy each other's presence without questioning it?" She playfully chided him.

His jaw tightened until she thought it would crack. "You might take pleasure in a few stolen moments. But I do not. I will not." He said, his voice laced with pain and stubborn pride.

"You once said a day with me would erase a hundred years of pain and separation." Her words were quiet and beseeching him to stay calm. He could feel it soothing him like a balm. But he did not want to let it appease him. He had to say everything at that very moment, or else he might explode.

He jerked his head to the side, glaring at the wall beside her yet refusing to meet her gaze. "I meant it."

"Then what is the difference now-?"

"What will happen if this continues? Is there a future for us in this? We will touch and we will kiss as if there were only the two of us in the world. But only behind closed doors. Once we step foot outside this room, we will put up false pretences and you will not give me a second glance!" His voice was rising with each word but he could not hold them back.

"You know why..."

He gestured wildly at her in accusation. "Because you are afraid of what you want."

"I am not afraid!"

"You lie."

"It is NOT a lie!" She cried indignantly.

In a heartbeat, he was inches away from her face. In the dark, the shadows covered his features menacingly. She fought the urge to shrink back from him and fight the spell he always put her under by being in such close proximity. "Then prove it to me. Tell me. What is it you want? Do you KNOW what you want?"

"..." She opened her mouth but her throat tightened and there was no sound.

He looked at her with steel grey eyes which bore a smugness that brought him no satisfaction. He raised an eyebrow as if to say "well?"

She took deep breaths to clear the constriction at the base of her throat. Swallowing the urge to tear up, she tried to speak and keep her voice steady, "I love you and I want to be with you. Is that not enough?" She pleaded with her eyes.

He smiled mirthlessly. Cruelly. "You think I will be satisfied by having you as my mistress? That every time we will pass each other in the streets, you would look away and avoid all points of contact. By day you will be Unohana-taichou. By night, you will be Retsu and that will be the only time you will show your true colours. Whatever love you shower upon me will die under the light of day because you think our love can only exist in the dark where there are no eyes to judge you for your actions. You think it is a sin for us to be together."

"No..."

"Your actions speak otherwise."

"A few days ago, not one soul knew about us! Not even your sister! And now you want to tip the boat and let everyone know. This is a big change for us. For me."

"Do you even want other people to find out? No matter when we reveal our relationship, people are going to find out eventually. So why does it matter? Are you ashamed, is that it then? Are you not as ecstatic as I am that I have found this love and I want to share it with the world?"

She could feel his passion emanating from his pores. Little more and she will be consumed by him. They were so close that their shaky breaths mingled in the thin space between them. She closed her eyes, if only to give her mind some peace.

"I will wait for you as I have done many times now. But I want to be assured that the time will come when I can claim you as mine and my own. Tell me that I am not holding on to false hope."

Shaken by his demand, her eyes shot open and she stared right into his soul. His eyes were unyielding upon her, pinning her under his gaze like a hell butterfly.

"Prove it to me that this is what you also desire."

"...how?"

He turned away from her. "You know how," he said with a strong sense of finality. He would not repeat it anymore.

She sighed again and hung her head down.

When she lifted her face, it bore a hard-edged determination that had not been there before.

"Yes," she breathed.

For a long time, he did not say a word that she thought he might not have heard her. Before she could repeat, he cautiously peeked at her in the corner of his eye. "What?" he asked, just as softly and fearfully.

"My answer is yes."

...

"Wha' happened then, Okaa-san? Did they marry? Tell me they did! Tell me please please pleeeease!"

"What are you going on about, Hajime? Of course they did! Right, Mama?"

Retsu chuckled at the little girl and boy on her lap looking up at her eyes wide and filled with wonder even though the story was one they had heard a dozen times already. Both have inherited the slate grey eyes of their father and his forefathers before him. But their pleasant countenance they got from their mother and that thought never failed to fill her with pride and affection.

"Not quite yet. Their marriage was going to be a crime. It was a direct disobedience against the General."

On cue, the children gasped simultaneously and wailed. "No! That can't be!" "But they love each other!" "Why does he have to be so mean." "I hate him!"

"Hush now, my loves," she cuddled them to her bosom and tickled them at their sides. They shrieked with laughter in her as they grabbed onto her hair, unintentionally popping out several strands. Wincing from the pain, she shushed them again until they calmed down. "Ouch, my loves, mama is hurting."

"Chitose, Hajime, what have I told you about pulling your mother's hair?"

"Otousan! Otousan!" The children squealed once again from sheer happiness. They bounced and leaped from her lap and onto the strong arms of the newly arrived figure. Chitose hung on Byakuya's neck, her thin little arms holding on for dear life, while Hajime scrambled over his back, his feet searching for footholds in his father's yukata.

Unfazed, Byakuya calmly sat by their mother's side, with both children still fighting to hang on to him. When they realized their father was not getting back up again, they started a game of tag. They chased each other around the room, their tiny feet pattering loudly on the thin wooden floor.

"What did you feed them?" he asked, adjusting the clothes Hajime yanked askew.

Retsu merely laughed as Chitose tried to use her right sleeve as a hiding place. Apparently the game changed to Hide and Seek. "How was your day?"

"Like any other day. How was yours? You got off early today."

"It was a slow day in the infirmary. Children stop fighting." Chitose and Hajime were now engaged in a wrestling match, with the elder sister sitting atop her brother, arms in a headlock.

"It is time we put you to bed." Byakuya scooped down to lift them each on one arm.

That earned him some protests and scratches.

"But Otousaaaaaan! Mama didn't even finish the story yet!"

"But I'm not even sleepy! See!"

"Please let her finish the story?"

"Please Papa? Pleeease?"

"What story?" he glanced at Retsu as the children slid from under his grasp and raced to their mother's lap. He made his way back beside her and Chitose crawled to him. He cradled her as she fiddled and chewed on his hair.

"Let's see now, where was I? Oh yes, the General ordered that the two lovers were never to marry, as long as they remained Captains of the Gotei."

"Meanie." His little girl whispered, her eyes already drooping as she fought to stay awake. Byakuya held her closer to his chest. His son on Retsu's lap was yawning widely, his mouth showing baby teeth that still have not grown.

"If the two of them were to marry, they realized they had to seek the favour of someone who had greater power than the General."

"The Soul King," the children murmured in unison.

"Exactly. So the two lovers, full of hope and also fear, tried to find a way to enter the Soul King Palace without having the guards killing them at sight…" Retsu continued her story, her voice flowing over the children like warm milk. Because the story of two lovers had always been very long, the children only vaguely remember what happens after the two lovers pledge their hands in marriage before sleep overtook them. Their dreams always involved dark, strange seas, a single ash tree, a stone key, and a thousand years of waiting. This night was no different for within minutes, they were fast asleep.

Byakuya observed his family and the intense emotion of love and protectiveness never failed to take his breath away like a strong punch in the gut. He would die for any of them. He was amazed that his heart, the size of a fist Retsu told him once, could carry such immense feelings that he thought it would overflow from him and end his life.

Instinctively, he reached for Retsu's left hand and brought it to his lips. Her wedding ring sparkled on her finger like a star and he kissed it as well.

"Did I tell you that I love you?"

She reached over to him, careful not to wake their children, and kissed him. His eyelashes fluttered shut and they melt into the kiss. She broke away long enough to whisper sweetly on his lips.

"Every day for a thousand years."

THE ENDEST END.

Notes:

Chitose - (girl/boy) a thousand years

Hajime - (boy) beginning

A/N: Thank you all to those who commented and said they hated the ending! I know, I hated it too. But let's be honest here, it wasn't really realistic for Retsu to accept Byakuya's proposal just like that. She is not the type to forsake her duties as a captain in the Gotei 13 just because she wanted to marry someone.

And frankly, guys, I love the fact that you voiced out your opinions in the last chapter which I found quite lacking in the other chapters (usually most of the reviews just ask for updates which I seriously appreciate and is a major source of motivation for me but does not offer me much on what I should improve on). The last chapter was kind of like my guinea pig chapter to test what kind of ending I'd write for this story. This is the first and longest story I've written so I'm still testing out the waters here.

Now about a sequel for Not Just a Mother Figure, telling the story of how they actually got to the Soul King, I already have it pictured in my mind. But I am unsure of whether I can commit to actually writing it out. I know you guys have been patiently waiting for new chapters (man it's been like what, four or five years now?) and it must be very frustrating for you guys because it takes me soooo long to write them. So I really don't know if I'm going to push through with this. I also have other stories from other fields that I want to write as well. So maybe you guys are satisfied with this epilogue (or you're most likely not satisfied and you're bashing your head against the keyboard because you've been waiting for Byakuya and Retsu to be together for four years now and all you got was a half-chapter of them actually being happy together as a legit family)...

...but nevertheless, I hope you guys enjoyed this helluva ride. I would have never finished this monster without you guys! So thank you, I love you all. Merry Christmas!