Bleach 1. Chapter 1

**Disclaimer: I don't own any of the characters and stuff, except the story line which was my idea.**

Soifon was Shunpo-ing as fast as she could. The object was in sight. She was ecstatic that she was the first to get there, proving once again that she is a force to be reckoned with.

What was in the softly wrapped bundle she didn't know, not many did. The cloth wrapping was white and tied with a string. Being only a few inches wide, a couple inches thick, and 7 inches long, it would be easy to grasp.

It was a race. Yamamoto told her quickly where the white package would be and sent Soifon off as soon as he could. Even though he knew no one in their vicinity could match her pace he sent a few lower ranks to follow, just in case. The men were soon left far behind with their taichou no longer in view. With braids nearly horizontal behind her, she headed towards mountainous terrain. The mysterious object was supposed to be on the highest tip of the very thin ridge right in front of her. At least she was told it was a ridge. Soifon's view made it seem like it could be as thick as any other part of the tree covered mountain. She was coming from its wide side, unable to see that there was just as steep an incline on the other side, with only a few yards of a plateau on top.

Soifon finally made it over the steep incline, making the object in perfect view, seeing as the area around it was clear of trees. By some strange power the white package was floating just above waist height. Seeing it float there in bright sunlight almost made it seem too perfect to the skeptical taichou. She paused slightly as she felt a nice breeze come from her right.

"It's mine!" the black haired girl said in an excited whisper as she reached out her hand to grab it.

"_What_ is yours?" Soifon looked up in shock, her eyes meeting golden irises and violet hair. Yoruichi gave her devilish white smile. Mouth hanging open, stuttering, Soifon looked down.

"Y-your hand...!" The Chinese said softly and in excited confusion. Her pale hand was grabbing that of the Goddess of Flash, which was holding tightly (but not too tight) to the softly wrapped package. White-cream cheeks began to fill with red blood as she realized she was holding onto Yoruichi's hand. Though this scared her, she was unable to let it go.

Still looking at this unusual sight of her hand grabbing that of her master's, Soifon noticed Yoruichi's other hand coming into view. The dark right hand took the white package from her left, the latter which then proceeded to twist around and returned the grip of the pale hand. Soifon's vice-like grip lightened so much that she almost let the unrealistically soft hand go. But Yoruichi's hand tightened. "You can always have it, you know." The last two words weren't a question and she said it while widening her smile.

"H-have what?" Soifon's blushed cheeks were as red as they could get. She was confused, having lost track of any previous conversation that they had. Her eyebrows raised a little. The focus of her eyes was on the Goddess's forehead, which she considered a safe spot. It wasn't her golden eyes where Soifon was afraid of what she would see and wasn't even sure if she could hold their gaze, and it wasn't her lips which she was afraid she might... well... she was already confused enough, she didn't need to become a blabbering idiot.

"My hand," was the exasperated reply as a "duh" expression spread across Yoruichi's face.

"Uh," seemed to be all Soifon could muster.

But she did finally close her mouth and swallow - not to mention it probably wouldn't look the greatest if she started to drool now.

"Come," was all the Goddess of Flash said before beginning to Shunpo and, quite literally, dragging her Little Bee with her.

**Important A/N:**

I'm extremely new to this. In fact, when I signed up here I wasn't expecting to ever write a story, but this idea struck me while reading other Yorusoi stories. So I decided to write my idea and it kept growing and growing, so I figured I might as well post it.

I've only watched 2 complete Bleach episodes (1 and 57) and have only read 10 or so chapters of the manga. But I have watched quite a few other clips on YT. Most of my knowledge about these characters has probably come from reading fanfic here on this sight, and perhaps by some of you reading this. So, I'm not exactly sure what is canon and what is fanon - please excuse my ignorance. If something doesn't make sense, just go with it. lol. That's not to say that I wouldn't like to be corrected if I get a name wrong or something that is so clear cut. Help would be sincerely appreciated. There are many original terms with Bleach and some are still a bit confusing to me. I'm definitely in over my head, but I'm going to try and make it work.

There is definitely going to be more chapters - some are already written, but I still need to get some ideas for the next couple. They will likely be longer, this one was surprisingly short.

Please review! I'd love some constructive criticism! (I think I'll put some details about that in my profile later.) This is the first (fictional) story I've written and let people read, so please comment. I'll also be considerate of whatever ideas you have about what should happen next, as I've yet to flesh everything out.

I think that's all I have to say. Sorry for the really long note - they'll be much shorter from now on, if existent.

P.S. Concerning the title... I couldn't decide what to call it, but it actually works with part of the story later so I kept it. just fyi

Edit 6/15/10: I started watching Bleach a couple days after posting this.


	2. Chapter 2

**Disclaimer: I don't own Bleach or the characters. duh**

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* * *

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"Where are we going?" Soifon had many questions, this one just seemed to make it to her lips the fastest - and by 'fastest' meaning a good 60 seconds. They were far from the ridge by now.

"It's a secret," Yoruichi replied with a playful grin passed back to her lagging companion.

"You do know that I wasn't the only one sent for _that_?" Soifon said while implying the package with her head. "The other shinigami will be after us... after you."

Yoruichi laughed. "Do you honestly think they could catch up to us?"

The Chinese woman actually smiled a little bit "Of course they couldn't." They continued their lightning fast run, but Soifon was still undecided on what to do.

* * *

Yoruichi was finally explaining to Soifon. Urahara Kisuke had sent a message to Yamamoto that one of his inventions was missing and they had to find it before Aizen or someone of the sort found it. "...so, in conclusion it was all set up so I could... capture you... No, 'capture' isn't the correct word, but I think you know what I mean," the Goddess ended lamely.

"So if 'capture' isn't the right word, then what is?"

"Hmmm. Well, I was bent on bringing you back with me at all costs, call it what you will." Yoruichi smiled.

The Chinese woman thought for a minute. "Kidnap?"

"Nah, not really."

Soifon stopped running and stopped Yoruichi along with her, still connected by their hands. "And what if I chose to not go with you, Yoruichi-sama?"

It didn't take long for her mentor to playfully respond, "Then I guess it would be kidnapping." It may have been playful, but she was serious.

They both stood still, facing each other. Golden eyes searched the other woman, trying to decipher what she was thinking. The search was pointless because the steel gray eyes were blank and the body they belonged to was unmoving. Soifon looked very much like a statue.

There was a reason why the mentor couldn't detect what her protege was thinking, the younger didn't know what to think. She longed to be with the Goddess of Flash but not under these circumstances. This wasn't some fairy tale where her love was taking her away from the tyranny of some evil lord. There could be repercussions for running off, leaving her position as a captain of the Gotei 13 unattended. And who does Yoruichi-sama think she is for thinking that her "Little Bee" would comply so easily?.. okay, point proven. It was widely known that Soifon would do about anything for her master. But it still wasn't forgotten how much it hurt when the dark skinned beauty left for a hundred years. Her thoughts started to pile up and become uncontrolled. A confused look spread across her face.

"Why?" she paused, trying to formulate what was to be said next. "Why should I go with you, Yoruichi-sama?"

It was now time for confusion to spread across the dark face. This was one response that she was not expecting. She smiled once again.

"Because I want you to."

"That's not going to work this time," Soifon said sternly. Yoruichi's smile withered. That response usually worked with Soifon. "Why do you want me to?" She looked down at their hands which still happened to be holding each others. She let the dark hand go. It was almost forgotten that she was holding it. The captain was a bit confused as to why they were holding hands anyway. She started to get a bit embarrassed at the thought and a very light blush began to appear.

'Crap, crap, crap!' was all Yoruichi could think of at the moment. She wasn't one that was so in touch with her emotions and expressing them, especially when she was the one vulnerable. The truth was that she really missed her Little Bee. Though they had befriended each other once again after her return and their epic fight, they didn't spend much time together anymore. Yoruichi was either busy with Urahara and Kukaka or Soifon was busy with her duties as captain. Their time was limited and their friendship has suffered because of it. And if Yoruichi was really going to be honest with herself, she may have realized that she also wanted to see if their relationship could go beyond that of friendship.

The violet haired woman was having trouble listening to her own thoughts, she didn't want to express them to the woman before her. At least not all of them. Time finally unfroze and she took a deep breathe.

"I've missed you, Little Bee."

Yoruichi was a bit shocked at what she said, but didn't let it show. She decided to throw in some puppy dog eyes for good measure - part of them real, part of them fake. It was part of her defense mechanism.

"I'm glad to hear it! You were gone for a hundred years," came Soifon's bitter response. For the most part she had decided to move on from that whole ordeal, but it was still a pretty fresh wound. "We can just hang out like normal friends, you know?" Yoruichi started to unwrap the bundle that was in her right hand. It looked like a coping method she was using for being reprimanded by the taichou, her head bowed down. "You didn't have to kidnap me!" Soifon was starting to get mad, which the Goddess didn't like, especially since she seemed so receptive at first.

"Bend your knees," it was a command, and quite an unusual one coming from the tan beauty at such a time. A white cloth and string fell to the ground. Seeing the incomprehension on her comrade's face she decided to move forward even though Soifon hadn't done what she asked.

"...What..!" Soifon barely had time to get the word out of her mouth before she could speak no more. Her lips still slightly parted from making the "t" sound.

* * *

Yoruichi began to Shunpo once again, this time with a stiff Soifon in her arms.

"I take it you're confused, Little Bee," she said after looking at her captive's face while still running. "...and angry. Let me explain.

"I partially lied when I said the object was just bait to draw you out." Yoruichi waited for a response before remembering that one wouldn't be coming. Well, besides that of the death glare she was now getting from gray eyes. "It was used as bait, but it also has a purpose. It's one of Kisuke's new inventions. Doesn't even have a name yet. I don't really understand it, but it sends some sort of shock wave through your body... blah blah blah, neurotransmitters... blah blah, then it makes it so voluntary muscles freeze, practically leaving you paralyzed. The exact duration of this is unknown, but it should be relatively short. It's not exactly a paralyzation in the sense that it's just you that aren't able to move your muscles, still letting them be malleable to someone who may want to move you. Instead, your muscles are locked, keeping the respective muscles flexed, extended, or relaxed. It could be very detrimental if someone tried to force movement. All of your muscles are affected except for those on your face from the inferior part of the nose up. For some reason Kisuke thought it'd be a good idea to see some of the paralyzed person's emotions." The princess looked down at the pale face, she was still receiving an angry glare. "I'm still undecided on whether that was a good idea or not, but I see where it could have it's uses."

Even though this last statement wasn't exactly funny, Soifon's expression lightened up considerably. Yoruichi noticed this. This time she didn't only look at the gray eyes, but she also took notice of the slightly parted mouth. White teeth shined through the slight aperture.

"Awww, a smile!" Yoruichi laughed, knowing that no one in their right mind would call that facial expression such a thing. Pink lips still remained slightly parted, but pale nostrils flared and dark eyebrows lowered.

Golden eyes were still focused on the pink lips. This didn't go unnoticed by Soifon. She didn't have much to do other than pay attention to her surroundings. The captive audience of one felt a jerk and then an increased grip from the Goddess of Flash. The "Goddess" almost tripped and sent both of them flying. She had failed to notice a depression in the ground where her right foot landed, which caused her to falter. Being true to her nature and quick on her feet, she recovered, Soifon and all.

"Sorry about that, Little Bee," she said as her paced quickened once again.

"And sorry about the lie. I just really wanted you to come with me." A stoic expression was on the pale woman's face once again. She was trying to figure out what her transporter was thinking. But her view wasn't the greatest, as the runner was finally looking forward, and there was too much confusion etched into the tan face to read what was on her mind. Soifon was confused as Yoruichi started to take unnecessary turns. It wasn't like anyone was following them. But the woman was still steadily moving towards a general direction. One that didn't surprise Soifon.

Overall, Soifon was rather surprised by the turn of events. Not so much because of her kidnapping or Kisuke's new invention which rendered her mostly paralyzed, but because of the looks in Yoruichi-sama's eyes which she hadn't seen before. Besides being surprised, she was a bit relieved. She didn't have to make a choice between her mentor and the work that she loved, having the choice made for her made it much easier. Deep down she wanted to know what would happen if she went with Yoruichi, and now she'd be able to find out.

"It really would have helped if you bent your knees," a irritated tone worked it's way into her voice. She started to shift her arms a little bit. Her left arm was supporting Soifon's middle back and her right arm was against the back of her friend's upper thigh. Soifon was almost as stiff and straight as a board, making her unwieldy to hold. If she had bent her knees, even just a little bit, it would have helped the transporter's comfort significantly. It would have been even better if they were bent enough where her right arm could fit in the crook behind the captains knees. Then it could have been like holding a bride that had been recently married. Yoruichi blushed at the thought.

.

A/N:

I hope you guys liked this chapter. It's kind of a transitional one, I think... I'm still a bit lost in all my thoughts.

I think I need a beta reader and someone that knows Bleach well to answer some of the questions that I have. If you are willing, send me a message please!

And please review! Constructive criticism would be helpful (and if you feel like it, check out my profile for some of the things I'd like to be observed), though not necessary; any review is welcome :)

edit (5/30/10):  
it hasn't been long since I posted this, but thought I should say that I'm watching the series now. It was very annoying to me that I didn't know how a lot of the stuff worked; I'm a perfectionist. Currently on epi 34. Trying to watch as much as I can as fast as I can, but I have school and stuff (damn class). I've already written part (or most) of chapters 3, 4, and 5, but will probably wait until I finish more of the anime until I post them. I definitely need a better feel of the characters, even though I could make them however I want.


	3. Chapter 3

**Undecided**

**Chapter 3**

"What took you so long?" asked Kisuke.

"I, uh, took a detour." It wasn't a lie. She ran around for a good amount of time trying to clear her mind and deciding what to do.

Kisuke looked up from under his hat and finally realized that Soifon was paralyzed in her master's arms and confusion left his face. "So you had to use it?"

"Yeah. How much longer is she going to be like this?" Soifon saw golden eyes take a quick look down at her. Yoruichi then went to put her protege down.

"It shouldn't be too much longer now. An hour at the most," Kisuke answered and was soon helping Yoruichi as she was finding difficulty with the task of putting the Chinese woman down. Soifon was rolling her eyes as the two people were trying to stand her up in Kisuke Urahara's house in Kurakara.

"If this doesn't work, then what?" asked Urahara. His hands on Soifon's waist as he was standing behind her, with plenty of room between them, trying to keep her standing. Yoruichi was currently standing a few feet away, looking the frozen girl up and down trying to figure out why she couldn't get her to balance on the wood floors of Kisuke's kitchen.

Soifon felt like she was going to explode, steam was rising from her head or so it seemed to her. She wouldn't let anyone, let alone Kisuke, touch her like this. Yoruichi looked up to the stone gray eyes and started to laugh, but had the smarts to keep it stifled.

"Kisuke..?"

"Yeah?"

"You may want to step away," Yoruichi said as she took over Kisuke's job of supporting the petite woman, standing in front of her instead of behind. Her golden eyes looked at Soifon, noticing her cheeks were coloring and steam still seemed to be rising from her, before looking back at her childhood friend. "I don't think this is going to work. She must have been using her muscles to keep her balance when I zapped her."

Coal eyes had watched Yoruichi's approach, getting closer and closer. They roamed over the tanned face. Her eyes were looking down at Soifon's feet and their placement on the floor. Her mouth had a slight smile on it. Her lips a indescribably beautiful color and just the perfect size, not too thick and not thin. Her protege always found her lips the most beautiful when they were in a smile. The petite woman noticed the lips started to form words as she became entranced by them.

Soifon felt the hands on her waist slide off as ones were placed on her sides, over her lower ribs. She would have flinched at the touch, but she couldn't. Even though her body couldn't flinch her mind still did. She wasn't quite sure what happened, her focus had been completely lost for the last few seconds. 'Damn it, how did I let my mind wander so much?' thought Soifon as she started to blush. Yoruichi looked down at her. Soifon tried to keep her eyes as blank as possible, realizing that she just barely escaped being caught staring at her mentor's lips.

Yoruichi seemed awful close to Soifon, then again the princess didn't seem to have many boundaries. The frozen shinigami found it very frustrating to be incapable of most of her voluntary muscle movement at first, but with time she learned to accept it. She didn't like not having any control, especially over her own movement. But there was nothing she could do, there was no need to continue to be angry with her temporary condition. It was only the situations that made her angry now, like being in Urahara's house. She hadn't been angry and frustrated the whole time, though. Soifon figured she should enjoy the closeness she had with Yoruichi-sama, even if she was ambivalent about it. This closeness that she was currently confronted with usually wouldn't have lasted long, her reputation would have seen to that, but once again it came down to her having no choice. Secretly she was thinking this was one of the best things that have happened. She was close to Yoruichi and no one could judge her for it since it was out of her control.

Soifon caught some of what was being said around her as her ears were clearing from the fuzz of her thoughts. Apparently they couldn't find a way to get her to stand up on her own. She would have told them this when they started their endeavor, but she had no way of telling them that she had been on the balls of her feet when Yoruichi sent the shock-wave through her. Hands tightened on her sides as she was starting to be lifted up. Soifon looked up and found a grin on Yoruichi's face.

* * *

Movement was slowly starting to come back to her, muscles were becoming less stiff. She had been listening to Yoruichi and Urahara talk from the living room for the past hour or so. Time was extremely hard for her to gauge, not being able to see a clock or see the differences in the natural day light.

Soifon was in the corner of the kitchen. Her forehead pressed against one of the walls, her side against another. Yoruichi had placed her in the corner like she was some unused broom. Not only that, but they then had the gumption to leave her there while they moved to the living room, where it would be "more comfortable." Soifon's anger had boiled over, emptied, and was now beginning to refill again with her regain in movement.

It only took a few minutes from the beginning of her return of control over her muscles until she felt like she could move with her normal vigor again. Soifon moved to the living room, trying to keep a placid expression on her face. She had plenty of time to think how she was going to react.

Yoruichi and Urahara's head tilted her way as she came into the room. Soifon could tell they were a bit tense, expecting her to blow up at them. The tenseness didn't last long. Girly laughter was starting to bubble over, and a dark hand couldn't help but point. Anger flowed over the pale face, then replaced with indifference. She made her way over to sit down next to the still laughing Yoruichi.

"Here, let's see if we can fix that," the older woman said while turning towards Soifon, moving her right leg onto the couch to get in a more comfortable position. She started to rub at Soifon's forehead. There was a big red mark just above and between her stone gray eyes from having a good portion of her body weight supported by that one place in her body. Some of her hair was also matted down, indenting the soft skin of her forehead. Yoruichi tried to remove some of the redness by rubbing, but it wasn't working very well.

"Sorry, but it'll go away eventually."

"Oh, thanks," the youngest said sarcastically, though unhappy, she was quite enjoying the closeness. "You could have just laid me down on the couch, or even the floor."

"Hm, didn't think of that." Yoruichi scratched at the back of her head and smiled a little.

"That would have been a good idea," added Kisuke, feeling left out. Soifon turned to him to give him a dirty glare. Most people would have shriveled at the look, but Kisuke had been building up immunity for a long time. He moved his wide rimmed, green and white stripped hat a bit lower over his eyes.

The captain moved her head to look forward again, then let her eyes roam around the room. She had never liked Urahara's house, but it did seem to have been improved a little bit since the last time she was here. It's overall cleanliness had gotten better, and it's furnishing and structure seemed more updated. She let a little bit of her hostility go, feeling two sets of eyes on her. The frown was removed from her face.

"So... can I see this latest invention of yours, Urahara?" There was some confusion on the host's face. "I can see it being put to good use by the Onmitsukido."

Urahara was still not responding. He was still shocked from Soifon's general inquisitiveness and niceness – things that were never directed towards him from the woman.

Soifon continued, "Yoruichi-sama told me a little about it. How it freezes your muscles. But it seemed like it froze my reiatsu as well."

"Oh yeah, forgot to mention that part," Yoruichi said under her breath.

"Yes, it does exactly that. Whatever state the person's reiatsu is in when it's used is the state that it'll stay in until the effect has worn off." Kisuke was a bit suspicious about the taichou's interest in his invention, but answered thinking that Yoruichi would probably be unhappy if he made waves with Soifon when she seemed to be taking the whole situation in stride. It was this contradiction in the Chinese woman's personality that had him suspicious, though.

"Could you show me how it works?" This made him even more nervous, but he acquiesced.

"Uh, sure. Where is it, Yoruichi?"

Yoruichi took it from a pocket of her customary orange jacket. She held the half inch in diameter stick in her right hand between herself and the interested captain.

Kisuke was a little miffed that she didn't give the object to him. It was, after all, his invention and he would be the one explaining it. After a moment he thought that perhaps the distance would be for the best, as he continued to sit in his chair toward Yoruichi's end of the couch.

"The part that Yoruichi is holding is the handle, and the safest place to hold it," he said, referring to the blue part of the stick. The handle took about three quarters of the whole length. "The other part is the dangerous part. You can still touch it with out getting zapped, but it's better to not take you're chances." This time he was referring to the clear-ish end of the stick. The outer part of the container may have been clear, but inside there seemed to be mist. The most interesting part was the small white lightening bursts that were constantly going through that end of the tube, contained by the plastic-like solid. Kisuke continued, "It only works if you turn off the safety and press the button," Yoruichi pointed to the corrugated slide switch and then the button to the side of it, both of them towards the lightening part of the stick, "while having it pressed against someones skin. It's best to place it on a peripheral part of the body, or a place not too close to the heart. It's best to let the power of the shock die down a bit before getting to the heart or the brain."

"Wow, it's a pretty nifty invention," Soifon said. It was hard to tell if there was some mockery in her voice. There was, but she was also pretty impressed, she just wouldn't show it. She moved her hand towards the object, opening her palm, silently asking Yoruichi if she could hold it. The Shihoin princess hesitated a moment before giving it to her. She new of the possible dangers that could happen with giving it to the captain.

Kisuke tilted his head back to see better from under his hat as Soifon twisted the object around in her hand. All six eyes were focused on the lightening stick in her hands. She continued turning it around before switching the safety off and to the right. She heard the intake of breath from the woman beside her and the man that was further from her. Her thumb slide the switch back to it's safe mode, letting the people beside her exhale. Soifon laughed inside her head. She slid the switch again. It had the same effect as the first the time.

Her thumb continued to slide the switch back and forth. Gray eyes looked up, away from her hands and the object that they held. "How did you create this?"

"I did some experiments with Yoruichi's shunko. It took a while but I eventually got it sustainable on it's own and found a material that could contain it. Many experiments later and you have the object before you," he said with a bit of a proud smile on his face.

Soifon turned to Yoruichi. "That's amazing, Yoruichi-sama." Urahara's smile fell from his face. It was he that did most of the work.

"You think so?" Yoruichi smiled.

"Yeah..." Soifon smiled back at her. A big smile. A big devious smile. "Yeah, now it's time for ME to test it out."

Yoruichi's face was literally frozen in shock. She didn't have time to defend herself from the quick movement beside her. Only having enough time to raise her right arm a little bit, trying to block Soifon's arm.

An evil laughter erupted from the petite woman as she stood up. She didn't stand up for any particular reason, just felt like she needed to in order to claim her victory. Yoruichi's upper face contorted into many different expressions, none of them very happy. This made Soifon laugh all the harder.

Urahara joined in with her laughter, though it wasn't as sinister sounding. He could tell what was going to happen and just let it unfold before him. This wasn't the first time that he thought Yoruichi placed too much trust in her former student.

After a moment, Urahara spoke up, stopping the unusually continuous laughter from Soifon, "What should we do now?"

"Huh? What?" This caught the woman off guard.

"Well we can't just let this opportunity go to waste. We need to take advantage of it."

Soifon didn't like the man, but she was liking where his thoughts were going. "Like what?"

"Hmmm, well I was thinking something along the lines of striping her naked and putting her in a public place."

Soifon blushed, her face temporarily in shock. "I will not be doing that to Yoruichi-sama! I won't have perverts tainting her skin with their eyes." She didn't want to think about anything else that could happen to her in such a state.

"Yeah, I guess you're right. Plus, she probably wouldn't care about being naked in public. She does it _way _to often to have it phase her anymore."

Yoruichi smiled with her eyes at Kisuke's last statement. Her eyes had followed the conversation happening about her, reacting to each statement. For the most part it was true. She would have been way too comfortable to let Soifon get any sort of satisfaction from her current predicament. Her slight happiness didn't last long as she remembered that she wouldn't be having any control over her body for a good two or three hours – if Soifon's experience was anything to go by.

"Alright, I have an idea," Soifon said after thinking for a bit, looking at her mentor's position. She motioned for Urahara to follow her out of the living room.

Yoruichi heard whispering coming from the furthest part of the kitchen, but she couldn't make out what was being said. Obviously her Little Bee wanted it to be a surprise for her. She liked surprises, but she had a feeling she wouldn't feel the same about this one.

They came back into the room where Yoruichi was sitting.

"Are you sure? That's kinda boring."

"Yes, I'm sure," Soifon said sternly. It was true that she couldn't think of any good ideas at the time, but the one she did come up with didn't seem too bad. It was simple, wouldn't take much time or thought, and she wouldn't have to worry about Yoruichi's safety too much. "Are you sure you have the stuff?"

"Yeah, it's in the store," Urahara said, continuing to stand there.

"Go get it!" was what Soifon snapped at him.

"Er, yes ma'am," he retorted in a steady voice, finishing it off with a mocking salute. As expected, his reply was received with a glare. He walked out of the living room and to the part of his house that was the dilapidated store.

Soifon turned away from the walking Urahara and to the still Yoruichi. She walked up to the woman and stared at her for a few seconds before moving again. Her left arm slid behind the back of the orange jacket and her right arm behind the frozen woman's knees. The petite woman lifted the relatively larger woman with considerable ease. "The tables have turned, Princess," Soifon said a bit scathingly, especially the last word, while starting to walk out of the room.

If this was what it always felt like to have the tables turned then Yoruichi didn't mind, choosing to not think about the title that her past protege gave her. She was rather comfortable in Soifon's arms. She had an unfulfilled urge to hook her arms around the captains neck, and perhaps snuggle her nose into it as well.

* * *

"What is Yoruichi-san doing?" asked Jinta. This was the question on Tessai and Ururu's tongue as well. The three of them came into the house a moment ago, finding Soifon-taichou and Kisuke on the couch watching tv. Neither of the two looking particularly happy with the company that they had. Tessai was shocked to see the woman in the living room, but decided it was safer to not ask about it.

"The short story is... she's getting her deserved punishment," was Urahara's quick and succinct answer. He was best friends with Yoruichi, but he wasn't very happy with her bringing her old protege into his house, and with hardly any warning, no less. The two of them continued to watch tv unfazed. The three new arrivals decided to sit down, figuring they'd be told the whole story when it was time.

"Where have you guys been all day?" Kisuke asked. The last bit of light was leaving the sky.

"Ichigo was having some hollow problems. Jinta and Ururu wanted to help him, and I decided to tail them, in case they got into serious trouble," smoothly answered Tessai.

Soifon was annoyed by their talking. It was distracting her from watching an informational documentary on airplanes. She was amazed with the technology that the humans had come up with to quicken their transportation and for warfare.

She didn't have too much time to be annoyed. There was a change in Yoruichi's reiatsu, she could feel it. It wasn't long before the woman was walking through the kitchen and into the living room. Kisuke quickly yelled at her to get back into the kitchen. She went and Soifon followed. Soifon's feet feeling the change from carpet to wood floors.

Laughter filled the kitchen before Yoruichi even turned around to face her former protege. She was angry before, but this just made her more so. Soifon started to control her laughter.

"Karma's a bitch, isn't it?"

"Yes, it is," Yoruichi answered, though she really wanted to tell her who the real bitch was.

Coal eyes started to move up and down the body, taking in the damage. It was as she predicted, except there was something on the black leg of her pants. "How was it?"

At first when Soifon sat her down outside the store Yoruichi didn't know what the captain had planned. It was more confusing when Urahara came out with a big bag of bird seed, a few steel bowls, some straps, and tape. Soon she found a bowl strapped and taped to her outreached right hand, and one to each of her knees. The bowls were soon filled with bird seed. She thought it was a pretty stupid idea for the captain of the Second Division and the Onmitsukido.

"I didn't realize we had so many freaking birds around here!" Yoruichi said, exasperated. "I'm not going to lie, I thought your idea was pretty lame at first. But the birds kept coming and coming. They landed on any part of me that they could, trying to get at the food. Their feet would claw at me." She showed Soifon her right arm. It had a few scratches, but nothing to whine over. Gray eyes rolled in their sockets. "Those nasty, disease ridden birds were all over me. And poop! They were pooping all over me." She did have a lot of bird crap on her. It was all over her right arm, shoulders, and her upper legs. There was some on her back from when birds would perch on her shoulders. Yoruichi bowed over to show Soifon the bird poo that was on top of her head. Her hair was rather disheveled, probably from birds landing and taking off from it.

"Birds don't have any control of when they relieve themselves. They aren't to blame," said Soifon with a monotone voice, but smiling on the inside.

"I don't blame them!" Golden eyes glared at the smaller woman. It was clear who she was blaming.

"I thought the worst was over when all the bird food was gone," Yoruichi continued. Soifon's ears perked up with interest. She hadn't expected anything else. "But it wasn't over. About twenty minutes after the food and birds were gone a stray dog comes over. ...And he starts to hump my left leg! Why he'd want to hump something covered with bird shit, I don't know. Grrr, it was so frustrating, not being able to do anything. Not even able to yell or hiss at him."

Soifon knew that this last experience was made worse because of the other form that her master took. Most cats don't like dogs, and she was no different.

Kisuke came into the kitchen. Tessai, Ururu, and Jinta stayed in the living room watching tv – having changed the channel long ago. The hatted man smiled as he looked at the purple haired woman's countenance. "Got to give credit where credit is due," he said, turning to Soifon. "Not bad."

Soifon didn't want or need his praise – and what kind of praise is "not bad"? - but accepted it with a nod of her head.

"Well, it's been an interesting day, but it's time for me to get back now. I have a lot of paper work to do, and I'm sure people are wondering where I am." Soifon started to leave.

"You can't go," came Yoruichi's surprisingly calm voice.

"Why not?"

Yoruichi answering in the same calm voice, "I'll just catch you again. You may be fast, but I'm still the Goddess of Flash. And there's other technologies that Kisuke has that will make it really hard to escape." Her eyes were daring her past student to try it.

Soifon turned her head to Urahara to give him a glare. He shook his head slightly, trying to say that this was all Yoruichi's idea.

It was true, Yoruichi would just be able to tag her with the lightening stick and bring her back. Running and then being frozen would get very tiring very fast. And she didn't know what else Yoruichi may have up Urahara's sleeve.

In the depths of Soifon's mind it was already decided that she'd at least stay the night when she decided to stick around while Yoruichi was feeding the birds. And with this somewhat new development, her decision was made for her. "Fine, I'll stay the night. Where am I sleeping?" she asked in a grumpy voice.

"You'll stay a few nights," the Goddess corrected her, a hand on a poop free section of her hip. Soifon looked as if blood was about to shoot out of her eyes.

"Fine." 'We'll see about that,' she added in her head.

"I'm actually surprised that you didn't leave while I was frozen."

"Me too," she sighed.

Xo0oX

**Disclaimer: I stillllll don't own Bleach. Surprise, I know.**

I'm updating later than I thought I would. I've been working a lot on the plot of the story, so I haven't written much of it out in the time between updates. The plot has changed a lot from the original one that I had planned. I should probably change the summary to reflect that, but I'm not sure what to change it to. One thing that I have changed on it, is that there will be yaoi in this story, as well as hetero (and of course shoujo-ai / yuri).

I've tried to the keep their personalities in character, but I'm not sure how well I did. Some of their thoughts or actions may seem a bit weird, but the reasons behind that will be explained in future chapters (and hopefully it will make sense).

Please review!

and I'm on episode 90 right now. It's been good, just wish there was more Yoru/soi.


	4. Chapter 4

**Disclaimer: Bleach does not own me.**

**Disclaimer 2: Sometimes dyslexic am I.**

I've decided to change it where their thoughts are _italicized _instead of having these things ' ' around them. Flashbacks will also be _italicized,_ as seen below. _When doing a flashback and quoting someone's thoughts I'll have it in _normal, un-italicized _letters. _

_Yumichika_: I agree with this mode of action. Italicized writing is much more beautiful.

Me: I agree, that's why I made the change.

_Yumichika:_ And having the 's right next to the "s seemed way too clunky.

Me: Indeed. You have such a beautiful mind to have such thoughts.

_Yumichika_: I... see you made my name italicized.

Me: It seemed to suit you best.

_Yumichika_: ..Will you go to dinner with me? Friday night, 8 o'clock, I'll pick you up.

Me: [blank stare] I-I didn't think you swung that way.

_Yumichika_: I swing wherever beauty takes me.

Me: Well, sorry, I only swing for the fairer sex.

_Yumichika_: Which would have to include me. So, what's the problem?

Me: Alright, goodbye, Yumichika. I'll see you later... in the story, not for dinner.

And without further ado...

**Undecided**

**Chapter 4**

Yoruichi wasn't sure what to do now, she hadn't thought this far ahead. But she wasn't the only one with these thoughts.

"What are you going to do now?" asked Kisuke. It was only the two of them in the kitchen. A while ago Jinta and Ururu went to sleep. Tessai helped set up Soifon's room before going to his own. And Yoruichi had already 'settled' Soifon into the guest room, after changing into clean cloths.

**XXX flashback XXX**

"_Here's your room," said the chocolate skinned woman with a smile. Soifon just grumbled in response. The shoji was opened, making the room behind it viewable. It was sparse square room. There was a bed and a cabinet, that was about it._

"_Homey..."_

"_You can decorate it any way you want."_

"_How long, exactly, do you expect me to be here?" Some anger was wafting into Soifon's voice. She actually didn't mind the room. If there had been too much stuff in there she wouldn't have known what to do with it, and it would have been a waste. She was very accustomed to a Spartan lifestyle and was glad that it would be the same here._

"_That has yet to be decided," Yoruichi replied as Soifon moved into the room. The Chinese woman stopped in the middle of the room, by the end of the bed, and slowly spun around. The room's emptiness was the same from any angle. There was at least a window, but the view wasn't great. The moment of silence continued until her captor asked her if she needed anything._

_She figured she might as well make it seem like she was obliging. "Uh, is there some cloths I could borrow to sleep in?"_

"_There's some in the cabinet that should work well enough. Is that all?"_

_Soifon thought for a moment, then couldn't think of anything else. "Yes. I think that's it." She turned her back to Yoruichi to see what exactly was in the drawers of the cabinet. The shoji made a slight noise as it was being closed, but it didn't close all the way. Yoruichi stuck her head through the foot and a half wide opening to be heard better, since Soifon wasn't looking her way._

"_By the way, there's reiatsu sensors in this room. If you hide your reiatsu or leave the room it will wake everyone in the vicinity. …There's no escaping," she added with a fake evil laugh. Soifon flinched at this new information and grabbed the opened drawer with a frustrated hand. Yoruichi then gave a real laugh at this reaction, also imagining an angry glare appearing on her Little Bee's face._

Damn, _thought Soifon. She had given in to staying (a night, at least) but she was still thinking of ways to get away. Making her escape while they were asleep would make things much easier for her. Even though no other effects were mentioned about setting the sensors off, she couldn't assume that there weren't any. And, tonight at least, she didn't want to check Yoruichi's reaction time to wake up and find her. She still couldn't believe that her former captain had essentially kidnapped her._

_Wasting time was not something that she condoned, and she felt like all of this was a big waste of her time. There were many things she could have done back in Seireitei today, many important things. Sure, she couldn't think of any right now, but she was positive that there were some. She was worried what would happen if she was gone from her post for two days. Oomeada-fukutaichou wouldn't know what to do with her gone and would probably get nothing done. The Second Division of the Gotei 13 and the Onmitsukido would basically be at a standstill._

_Yoruichi still had her head poked through the door, taking note of Soifon's reaction._

"_You didn't think I'd trust you, did you?"_

"_A girl can hope, right?" she said while giving a flickering smile._

"_Not after you froze me and threw me to the wolves, so to speak." She paused before continuing, "Anyway, have a good night. I'll be back in the morning to shut off the sensors," and with that Yoruichi closed the shoji all the way before Soifon could hear it being locked from the outside._

"_Great. Guess I don't have a choice after all," murmured the shinigami as she grabbed a simple t-shirt and pair of comfortable short shorts to sleep in. _

**XXX end flashback XXX**

"What am I going to do?" she repeated Kisuke's question to herself, thinking. "We'll get her in a gigai tomorrow. I'll take her shopping to get some cloths. Then after that... we'll need to keep her entertained to make sure she doesn't want to leave."

"I believe you mean 'I' instead of 'we,'" insisted the clogged man, but Yoruichi ignored him.

"Could you go shopping tomorrow for some things to keep us entertained?"

"Why?.. Why would I do such a thing? This is you're problem, Yoruichi. You didn't even tell me you were going to get her til last night. That's rather short notice when it's my house that you guys are living in," his frustration was coming out about the situation. "Why do you even care so much about her staying here?"

"I..." She took a moment to collect her thoughts, let her emotional mask come off, and took a deep breath. "I think I've started to like Soifon... more than just a friend. I never thought this would happen. I always used to think of her as just a friend, and perhaps a little sister..."

"So..?" Kisuke cut in before Yoruichi could continue. "She's liked you for a good 100 years, if not more. I don't see the problem."

"I think she's been avoiding me for these last few months. That's what woke me up to... these feelings. I didn't like the drop in attention from what she usually gave me. She was talking to other people more... it was making me jealous," the Shihoin princess said with her head bowed down a bit with shame, her voice quiet. She didn't think anyone had the ability to make her green with jealousy. She was someone that did whatever she wanted whenever she wanted and wouldn't let other people control her emotions. But the more she thought about it the more she confirmed her beliefs that Soifon was intentionally ignoring her, and today's actions only seemed to verify them. Yoruichi was confused whether she was bothered by Soifon ignoring her because they used to be such good friends and it seemed like the captain didn't want the same friendship anymore, or if it was because she did have these romantic feelings for her and wanted Soifon all to herself. Perhaps, there was a good mixture of both. She needed to figure it out, and the only way to do that was to be in direct contact with the Chinese woman.

"Alright, I'll help. What sort of entertainment would you like me to get?" Thinking more along the lines of something kinky.

"I don't know, just stuff to help pass the time during the day. Perhaps some 'real world' stuff that she won't have seen before. ...Interesting stuff."

"Humph, 'stuff'... that's very descriptive. Thanks for narrowing it down."

"You're smart, I'm sure you'll figure something out," Yoruichi said in her defense. Sometimes the best way to get someone to do something was to pet their ego.

Kisuke nodded. A smile came to his face as he thought of one last question to ask his long-time friend. "So, when are you going to tell her that you're gay? You've held it off long enough. ...And maybe she'll start to like me better now," he said. Shortly after he raised his eyes to the heavens as if asking them to grant him this one miracle.

Xo0oX

**A/N**:

Contrary to popular belief, I can't read minds. What I can read are reviews. It would be very nice if, at least, some of you reviewed so I could know a bit of what you're thinking. I can see how many hits and visitors I'm getting (and it seems a pretty good amount, though I have nothing to compare to) but I'm not able to know what you're thinking, what I need to fix, what I'm doing right/wrong. Please review! I'm, slightly, begging you.

Anyway... I'd like to tell you guys a bit of what to expect from this story. If you'd like to keep it a complete mystery, stop reading – but I won't be giving away any of the plot. (I'm not sure if I like that I'm writing this... but oh well).

I'm planning on finishing this story – I have way too many half finished projects and I'm not going to let this become one of them. Expect 20 plus chapters – I'm not exactly sure, but that seems like a good guestimation. If you're assuming that I'll be having Yoruichi and Soifon in bed (and describing it) in the next few chapters, you're wrong. If you're looking for smut you're looking in the wrong place – there's some pretty good stuff of that sort on this site w/ these characters... ^cough^ or so I've heard ^cough^ (what?, I'm sick w/ the flu). Yes, this story is going to have a plot in it, so if you're just looking for a hot xxx scene I don't want to waste you're time – you've been warned. I'm planning on keeping this PG 13 – perhaps a dirty PG 13 at some point (sorry if that doesn't make sense to some of you out of the U.S.). So, if I was doing a MPAA rating it'd look something like this (I think): Violence, (some) language, adult situations, sexuality. If the last one has you confused, that which came above it still stands. But I don't really feel like it deserves a "mature" rating on this site...

Alright, sorry for the short chapter and another long A/N,,, so,,, what is Soifon thinking? finally getting more into the plot of the story.


	5. My Back is Turned on You

**Disclaimer: Bleach still doesn't own me, though it's slowly buying up more and more of my stock.**

Sorry for the month wait for this chapter. I wasn't expecting it to take this long (and I've been trying to work on it pretty steadily, keyword "trying", and at the demise of my schooling) but it's been a... pain in the butt to write. Honestly, some of you may consider this chapter boring, but it's **extremely important** to the rest of the story. I realize that there might be some contradictions with the first couple of chapters... I chalk that up to not knowing where I was going with this story until after I wrote and posted those chapters – but for the most part they should still work pretty well with this. I have changed the spelling of some o the names a bit, and am doing it last name first and first name last. Another change is that Urahara's house/store/shoten has two floors. I think it's only one in the anime, but I'm making it two, and Soifon's room is on the second floor.

And sorry if I'm missing any "f"s. The key is rather sticky on this computer... I wish I could tell it to go uck itself. ...coincidence? I think not.

Shout out to -uPsideDownTinCann-, Contadora, Shaden, and gimme..name (whose full username won't be shown here for some reason... why?) for the reviews! Thank you!

Suggested listening [can be found on youtube]: Almost Lover (by A Fine Frenzy) (which I do not own – referenced with ch title), Dangerous (by Joshua James), or anything slightly (or more so) depressing/angry. If you like to listen to music while you read (like I often do).

* * *

_Do I make it that easy to walk right in and out of my life?_

**Undecided**

**Chapter 5**

**My Back is Turned on You**

Soifon woke up to the early morning chatter of birds outside. A dull gray blue light was coming in from the window. There was no clock in the room so she wasn't sure what time it was, but she was guessing some time around 5:30. Her ribs had started to ache a bit from sleeping on her left side, looking towards the sliding door to the hall, the whole night. She shifted positions. The bed was hard, but not as hard as the one in her quarters in Soul Society. She was now on her right side looking out the partially curtained window.

It seemed like she had hardly rested even though she got a usual amount of sleep – usual for her, little for most. Her mind was giving her a hard time letting her rest peacefully, too many thoughts were running through it. She had dreamed a little, but they weren't pleasant. The dreams were full of the same questions and thoughts that her conscious mind was trying to process.

What was she supposed to do? How was she expected to react? How did this situation come about? Soifon was glad she had some time in the morning to think about it. She didn't know what time Yoruichi and Urahara woke up, but she could guess that it definitely wouldn't be for another hour.

Yoruichi was correct in thinking that Soifon was avoiding her. To understand everything that Soifon is thinking about we have to go to the very beginning of their story.

Soifon's life was surrounded by structure. There wasn't time for opportunities to put a toe out of line, it was like this since she was born. Even her play time as a young child was full of games that taught skills she'd later use in battle, though she didn't realize it at the time. She was the epitome of 'not having a childhood.' She lived her life for one reason, and that was to give it to the Shihouin family. Her soul, body and mind, since she was born, was for them. Soifon could have given up, been disowned by the Fon clan, and lived a different life, but she had an inner resolve to take on this burden. From the first time she saw Shihouin Yoruichi she new that this was an occasion she wanted to rise up to.

Soifon respected and admired Yoruichi very much since the first time they had contact. The young Chinese girl was fighting with some fellow shinigami inside Seireitei. It seemed that they were annoyed with what potential she had, her youth, and that she was a girl. Despite it being four grown men against her, she still took all of them down, and quite easily. Shortly after, another woman had entered the area. She attacked a different group of men that were near by, easily knocking all of them out. Once the guys were down she moved to Soifon, attacking. The young girl blocked the attack well. It would have been an actual battle, unlike the men's, except the young girl from the Fon clan then saw who it was she was fighting with. Yoruichi Shihouin. The woman she was training to protect. Soifon lost focus and was promptly kicked to the ground. The princess of the Shihouin clan asked her for her name.

..._it's Soifon._

This was something that Soifon would never forget, and the beginning of her deep admiration for Yoruichi. It was a different view of the woman, that she saw years previously, walking on that high narrow bridge with an apparent regal and dainty persona.

It was 7 years after their short violent encounter that Soifon was added to the regiment of Yoruichi's bodyguards. She wasn't treated as a normal bodyguard, though. It wasn't long until Yoruichi had given her a nick name, "Little Bee," to get back at her for not referring to her as she wished. Though of a noble family, Shihouin Yoruichi didn't want the proper suffixes to be added to her name. "Yoruichi-sama" was as familiar and improper as Soifon would go. It wasn't long before she was brought under the purple haired princess's wing, being befriended and teased along the way. Soifon at first thought that such attention towards her was wasted, but it wasn't.

She had five older brothers, but none of them made it past their 6th mission in the Onmitsukido, all of them dying young. _How weak were they to die so quickly?_ she often thought. Her family and clan had sent her to live in the barracks of the Onmitsukido at an extremely early age. And when she did go back to visit they didn't seem to care that much, probably thinking that she'd soon end up like her brothers and that they'd rather not get attached. As such, she didn't interact with anyone on a familiar level, finding talk useless when actions spoke so much louder. She was serious, devoted, and carried orders out quickly. Because of these traits she would do anything Yoruichi asked, except having no suffixes added to her name, and allowed her to interact with her like she wouldn't let anyone else. Slowly some of the shell around her started to crumble, but only to the person she revered as a goddess.

When the two of them were in the sakura forest is a perfect example of this shell cracking. They had gotten back from a fight with hollows earlier that day. Soifon had been caught by one of the hollows and was about to be eaten when Yoruichi came to her rescue. Her whole purpose in life, she was often told by the elders of the Fon clan, was to protect the Shihouins; instead she was saved by one of them. It was failure in her eyes. She bowed her head apologizing to Yoruichi for her lack of protection and strength, just to be told that it was okay and to not worry about it. But how could she not worry about it? So she had come out among the cherry trees in the dead of night to train once again.

The full moon was wrapping everything in it's silky glow as some of the sakura blossoms fell, in a slight breeze, to the lush grass. Soifon had started to get emotional while going through the motions of killing some imaginated enemy. She asked, seemingly to no one, if this would make her strong enough to be able to protect Yoruichi-sama. The only person that she now cared about.

Soon, there was a quick break from her flurry of motions, a break which Yoruichi had used to shunpo close behind her. Soifon stiffened as Yoruichi whispered to her ear to listen, as one of her mentor's hands was placed on her shoulder and the other taking hold of her hand which wielded her sword. The well trained tan arms were guiding her own through the next motion while her mentor was whispering how to swing her sword. At first, Soifon's heart was beating rapidly and her breathing had hitched because of being surprised by the Goddess of Flash's sudden appearance. Later, her heart was still beating hard because of something else, something she recognized as complete shock because the one she worshiped as a god was being so familiar with her and helping her. The closeness was inducing havoc on her heart and mind, which usually felt so firm and resolute.

After the brief swordplay lesson, Soifon was soon on her knees again with her head bowed before the princess. Yoruichi seemed to know what she was thinking. Her mentor told her to stop beating herself up over her inabilities, that she's doing well. It didn't matter, her thoughts didn't change. Soifon never felt good enough and this was no exception. If she _wanted_ to protect Yoruichi she would have to become stronger and better in every aspect, she said this aloud, starting out with her chin up and ending with her head down in shame. A hand was placed atop Soifon's head making her look up into Yoruichi's eyes as these comments were quickly dismissed again by her master, comments that she wouldn't have made to anyone else. The girl was surprised to hear what was to come out of the princess's mouth next; that she reminded Yoruichi of herself, and Yoruichi felt she was her little sister. "Such words... are wasted on someone like me..," she untruthfully replied. Those words, in fact, would have a huge effect on her life.

Yoruichi suddenly laid down in front of her, with her head on the girl's lap, saying that was enough and it was a full moon, which ended the discussion. This was yet another movement that had Soifon in temporary shock, until relaxing because dark eyelids slid down golden eyes. A pale apprehensive hand started to softly smooth down violet hair, slowly growing in confidence as she let it rest upon her idol's head. One of her thoughts got passed the usually steadfast filter between her mind and her mouth and was whispered out into the moonlit night. "I will always be by your side to protect you. Always..." Soifon never expected to hear a reply, but a soft one did come, "Yeah, it's a promise." Happiness coursed through her, after the surprise of letting one of her inner thoughts being heard and answered.

Soifon was lucky that she loved her duty and would have done it willingly if she wasn't forced to. It was as her clan elders had said, she lived for the Shihouin and would give her life for the princess. At first this concept that she was supposed to give her being to another was a bit strange and unnatural, but it wasn't long before the Chinese girl accepted it. There was no better person who she'd rather sacrifice herself for and she would have done it even if it wasn't her "calling" in life. Yoruichi was such an amazing person and commander. If anyone did or said anything derogatory to or about Yoruichi, the young Fon _would_ kill them. There was no doubt about it.

It wasn't long until Soifon became an almost adviser type person to Yoruichi, who had become commander of the Onmitsukido and captain of the Second Division. Yoruichi was the first female Shihouin to become the head of the clan and also the first female in charge of the Onmitsudio. Everything seemed to be working out as planned. They were both there side by side protecting each other, whether from physical blows or other kinds.

Not everything was just peachy, though. Soifon would often get jealous whenever her captain went off to do things with others, particularly Urahara Kisuke. She wondered if there was anything going on between her captain and the guy, who was corps commander of the Detention Unit of the Onmitsukido, 3rd seat of the Second Division, and one of Yoruichi's childhood friends. The two often went to places just by themselves, Yoruichi telling Soifon that her assistance and protection wouldn't be needed when she went off with Urahara. The bodyguard wanted to find out what her master and the corps commander were up to, but respected Yoruichi too much to use her stealth skills to spy on her. She was never relaxed during these periods when her commander was gone, often pacing inside her own room and sometimes walking around the sections of Seireitei that Yoruichi would most likely appear back at. Most of the time she'd find her commander walking towards her room in a happy mood, sometimes a little tipsy, and rarely in a mood of anger, as if she had a disagreement with Urahara. The girl's interest in what happened during these moments just increased over time, and Yoruichi never offered any information about the encounters.

Yes, besides the moments where her commander was off with Urahara, Soifon was very happy being by Yoruichi's side most of the day. Sometimes in the morning they'd train together and Yoruichi would teach her protege some techniques that only a few knew, and some that Yoruichi had come up by herself. These were definitely the best moments in Soifon's day, month, or year.

It all came to an end, of course, when Yoruichi suddenly vanished along with Urahara and Tsukabishi Tessai. Soifon was shattered by the information and ran to Yoruichi's quarters just to make sure. The room was completely empty; void of her master and any note of goodbye that she might have left.

She had left Soifon. Left her with no farewell or knowledge of her absence. She had to find information on Yoruichi's, the person she was closest too, disappearance from other people. Her Yoruichi-sama had betrayed her and her trust. The promise that they had made in the sakura forest many years ago was now void.

_Why? _was the question constantly going through her head. _Why did she leave? Why did she leave without telling me goodbye? Why did she leave _me_? Why...?_ The questions were never-ending. She couldn't get her mind off the subject and soon people brought her to Forth Division to see Unohana-taichou.

The girl had spiraled into a deep depression, according to Unohana Retsu. Soifon would often just sit there in the hospital type building listlessly thinking about Yoruichi's betrayal. She didn't like to do anything that she once enjoyed... everything that she had enjoyed was because of Yoruichi, and doing those things now just tainted her previously happy memories. It didn't help that everyone was now calling her master a traitor (she didn't care so much that Urahara and Tessai had been branded as such) and she was getting in fights with people over it. And, yes, she did still consider Yoruichi as her master. It was engrained into her to act as such, and she couldn't seem to shrug it off. It didn't matter how much she tried to get rid of the thought and how much she considered the abandonment. Over the years this just made her angrier that the Shihouin still had so much control over her.

Unohana had her come in for special sessions just to talk to her, trying to get her to open up after the first shock of it all. Soifon didn't open up very much but she felt that the woman knew what she was talking about anyway. The Forth Division captain seemingly knew to tread lightly with the petite girl and took things slowly, not prying with areas that seemed too sensitive. The experienced woman doubted that the girl would give up the information if she tried a more forceful method to get out what was bothering her so much. That method would likely backfire and just cause her to put another barrier around her and everyone else or, worse, become suicidal and/or attack others.

It only took a month of these one-on-one meetings for Unohana to realize that Soifon had no more to tell her, not that she had told her much. She asked her if she had anyone to open up to, because expressing emotions in a healthy matter was extremely important, to only get a shake from the head that was covered in unusually disheveled black hair. Since she had no one to express herself to, Unohana gave her the assignment of trying some new hobbies that would help get out her emotions in a calm manner. The doctor also hoped that giving her something definite to do would help her sleep at night, since she didn't want to administer to the youth sleeping pills and have her become addicted to them. Since Soifon had been temporarily relieved of her duties, due to her breakdown, she had nothing to do but let these thoughts fester, making it hard for her to get a good nights sleep.

The first hobby that the taichou tasked her with was artistic drawing, and gave her some lead pencils, an eraser, and a sketch notebook. The captain also gave Soifon a short drawing lesson, telling her the basics of shading and other beginner techniques. Slowly her technique improved and her drawings looked considerably good. Unohana was shocked by the girl's ability to show such crispness and details in the drawings. Really, this all came down to Soifon being a perfectionist. She drew what she saw and there was nothing more to it. If the curve of the tree branch didn't look right to her critical eye then she would redraw it until it did. The drawings weren't perfect, of course, but they came pretty close. Because of this exactness and lack of imagination she found it very hard to do abstract art, and was rather jealous of those that could.

She wasn't fast by any means, often pondering the best way to make the mark long before setting her pencil down to the paper. And then often erasing it to make the stroke better. Once the outlines were done it didn't take as much thought to do the shading, but still took a considerable amount of time. After having gone a month with this new assignment and only finishing three drawings Unohana gave her more specific orders. This time she was supposed to have ten sketches done each week, with each sketch only taking up to fifteen minutes. She could still do her other drawing that took more time, but the captain wanted to see ten quick ones so Soifon wouldn't get bogged down with the details she was trying to add to the artwork. For a while it was still the same kind of objects (trees, landscapes, things found in a common room, and buildings of Seireitei) but then it moved to more emotionally inspired drawings. She was finally letting some of her emotions out.

The second hobby that Unohana had her try was poetry. The captain explained to her that it didn't have to rhyme or have any sort of rhythm, she just wanted the Onmitsukido member to get some words on the paper. Unohana was unsure whether she should read them or not, obviously she needed to if she was going to see if Soifon was making any progress, but she wasn't sure if reading them would make it so the girl would sensor herself. So she didn't tell her whether she'd be reading them. The first time that a poem came in, about a week later, she read it with the girl's knowledge. She congratulated Soifon on the poem, wanting her to know that it was good that she got some of her anger and hurt out of her body. She didn't say that exactly, but just congratulated her, hoping that this would make it so she wouldn't inhibit herself in the future.

Unohana felt that another mini lesson was in order, seeing as Soifon didn't seem to be a natural with words. She taught her about syllable counting and how it's usually good to have about the same number of syllables on each line, about alliteration, and how poets used certain words with certain letters to either let your mouth flow over the words or make your mouth slow down to say them, among other things. A book of poems was brought out to demonstrate each part of the lesson and Unohana let the recovering girl take it with her so she could read the whole thing on her own.

Soifon read the poetry book and noticed a big difference between her poems and the ones created by actual poets. Sure there was the difference in quality, but she didn't care too much about that. The main difference was that of emotion and mood. The writings in the book tended to be happy and thoughtful, often trying to encourage people to be at their best, only a few of them were more serious and gloomy like her own. This was easily noticed by Unohana-taichou as well, who was glad that the girl's own reading of the poem book didn't seem to change the content that Soifon wrote about.

The Forth Division captain noticed the reoccurring themes of Yoruichi (or someone in a mentor/master type role), anger, frustration, loneliness, confusion, sadness, and quite often had the place "Hell" in there. Unohana didn't feel the need to pick the poems apart and try to decipher what they may literally mean. It wasn't particularly hard to realize why Soifon was so hurt. Despite popular belief, Unohana wasn't intensively trained in the mental health area of medicine and usually left it to others in the division. The reason she assigned these hobbies herself was because Soifon wasn't willing to share her feelings with anyone through any other means.

After a few years of this routine, the poems and drawings started to get lighter in mood and weren't always themed around Yoruichi's departure and betrayal. Soifon had learned many other hobbies and useful skills during these years, though they were mostly just something to do instead of something for expressing oneself (with a chance that another person may understand). Soifon was finally able to work at full capacity within the Gotei 13 and the Onmitsukido, which she slowly started getting back into a few months after beginning therapy. She still wasn't a 'happy' person but she was finally able to think of other things and think of Yoruichi in a clearer scope.

Yoruichi was the only one that had brought true happiness into Soifon's life, and was therefore the only one that could bring deep sadness into it as well.

For years she thought that her lifted heart rate that night long ago, and many times since, was due to having the person she revered as a god right next to her, helping her. But that was only a mask to what she truly felt. It's easy to have admiration cover feelings that at first are confusing. Soifon has and will always admire Yoruichi, but it was no longer hidden from herself that she actually liked and loved the goddess more than she realized. She was _in love_ with her.

Coming to this realization was a bit of a shock to Soifon, but the more she thought about it the more it made sense. Why else would she be so willing to die for the lady? Sure, some could chalk it up to that sisterly type bond that they had made, but that didn't explain the obsessive type thoughts that ran through Soifon's mind since their first physical encounter. It didn't explain why her breath hitched, her heart would skip a beat and then start to race whenever the Shihouin princess would touch her or be extremely close. It didn't explain the vigorous workout the blood vessels in her cheeks got whenever Yoruichi payed particular attention to her. There was only one thing that could explain these things, and it was about time she had figured it out for herself.

Once she had figured out that she was in love... well, she had still been left behind, left behind by the woman she happened to fall in love with. It only made her hatred grow for the golden eyed woman. The only one that she had made a friend with, loved, trusted, and honored had betrayed her. She was left with nothing and no one. All was Yoruichi's fault, or so Soifon thought.

This increase in her fury was also the motivator to become stronger and take over Shihouin Yoruichi's positions as commander of the Onmitsukido and captain of the Second Division. Vowing to also take her down with her own hands should the traitor ever return again.

There were many things that happened between these vows and when Yoruichi came back. Soifon did become captain of the Second Division and the commander of the Onmitsukido. It wasn't easy, but she did it. She also found out that there were other women that she was attracted to and that it wasn't just Yoruichi. This revelation brought her much comfort. She was glad that it wasn't just some sort of twisted idolization that made her love her old mentor so much. This didn't make it any easier to get over the dark skinned beauty, however, and she never really did. How her old master stayed in control over her she didn't know. It was starting to make her sick how she couldn't break the attachment.

Then there was the time when she saw Yoruichi for the first time in a hundred years. The Goddess of Flash came running at her and took them both off the cliff of Sōkyoku Hill. Of course, Soifon didn't know that it was Yoruichi at that point, not until she unwrapped the scarf that was covering most of her face and head. The past Gotei 13 captain used some kido to soften their landing from the lengthy fall. And on the valley floor they began to fight.

Soifon let it all out, screaming all her anger and frustration at the person that caused it. She had heard of Yoruichi's presence in Seireitei from Byakuya and was prepared to give her hell. During these exchanges were the only times that she used Yoruichi's name without the -sama suffix. It wasn't the only thing lost in her temper. There was only a slim chance that they would get through the day without a battle and the way that ponytailed woman acted only extinguished that possibility.

Once Yoruichi had seen the anger in Soifon's eyes and heard the passion in her stinging words she knew that there wasn't a chance of getting through the day without a fight, that was what she told Soifon afterward. So the past captain figured she might as well give her protege what she wanted, and it was clear that she wanted a confrontation. Yoruichi wasn't going to go easy on her though, first just seeing how far Soifon would take it. She never expected it to get as far as shunko. Knowing that she needed to end it soon, Yoruichi decided to show her power and knowledge of the little known fighting technique and was successful in stopping Soifon. Through all of this the Shihouin was rather proud of the Fon with her techniques, strength, and that she had figured out shunko all by herself.

After Yoruichi stopped Soifon's attack, the latter had her emotional breakdown. Something which Soifon considers shameful, even though it was honest. The petite woman had never cried that hard before and had never felt the need to agonize on the ground like that. Somehow the golden eyes managed to stay dry as they looked on at her in her tortured state. This just made Soifon cry all the stronger. She didn't understand how her mentor could be so stoic at such a moment.

Her breathing started to go back to a steady rhythm and her tears started to dry up on her face. She was exhausted between the intense physical fight with Yoruichi and the mental battle that's been raging since she could remember, so she continued to lay there on the brownish orange dirt. That was finally when Yoruichi made her move. The older woman walked softly over to her and lifted up the younger's upper body so she was sitting up at an angle. Soifon sensed the other woman sit down on the dirt beside her and felt the dark arms embrace her tightly. Instinctively Soifon wrapped her arms around Yoruichi's back, only to shed more tears.

The embrace felt so good and had a great calming effect on Soifon despite the previous feelings she had towards the one who was now cradling her. Yoruichi continued to envelop her until all her tears were gone. A few minutes after the salt had again dried onto the girl's cheeks she began to answer the questions that Soifon posed to her before her breakdown. During the explanation the tan arms loosened their grip around the petite back, so she could maybe see her protege's face as she talked to her. This only caused the pale arms to tighten around Yoruichi's back and Soifon's head still resting on the front of her shoulder and collar bone. It seemed like Soifon was scared that she might disappear once again, so Yoruichi reciprocated the tightening of the arms, trying to signal to her that she wasn't going anywhere.

It made sense why Yoruichi had to go, why she needed to save Urahara, Tessai, and the eight others that were mixed up in it. If the Central Room 46 would have just opened their eyes and ears they might have caught the actual culprit, instead they chose to stay blind and just blame who they considered the easy target. The excuse that was given to Soifon for being left behind was that there was no time, but Soifon didn't really believe it. Yoruichi was the fastest that there was, Soifon was still among the fastest even a hundred years ago and wouldn't have needed any convincing to go. Soifon still didn't quite understand why she had to be left there alone but finally decided to accept that was what Yoruichi thought was best for her. That it was better to have her ignorant of the situation than in harm's direct path.

They didn't have much time to talk since they heard Isane make the announcement that it was Aizen, Gin, and Tousen that were the culprits and needed to be stopped. The two of them were the first to arrive on the scene besides those already there. Both of them shunpoed next to Aizen, one on each side. Yoruichi stopped him from unsheathing his zanpakuto and Soifon put her sword to his neck. There was no where that he could move without one of them stopping him and Soifon slicing off his head with her zanpakuto. It was frustrating when the gillians sent down their impenetrable negación to pick up the three real traitors. They both moved out of the way of the beam of light just in time, Yoruichi yelling at Soifon to move so she wouldn't get caught up in it.

After that day, even though there was a good amount of chaos and uncertainty in Soul Society, Soifon and Yoruichi were able to spend some moments catching up. It wasn't much, but it helped bridge the gap that had grown between them over the hundred years of separation. Seeing Yoruichi again caused Soifon's feelings to stir once again. She had decided that it was definitely love that she felt towards the beautiful woman. There wasn't much of change in her behavior since Soifon had always been hard working, devoted, and serious when it came to her work and job. It may have dulled these aspects slightly since protecting Yoruichi was no longer her job, but what was more noticeably increased was her daydreaming and temporary lack of focus after Yoruichi had made certain contact with her or said something endearing.

After a few weeks of this Soifon would find herself immediately searching for Yoruichi whenever she knew that the woman was supposed to be in a certain place. In crowded areas her coal eyes wouldn't stop wandering until they found the dark skinned and purple haired person. Usually they didn't have to search too long, if she was indeed there, because of how much Yoruichi stood out among the other shinigami. It is kinda hard to blend in when you have purple hair and wear a bright orange jacket. But Soifon's lack of height made it harder, than what the normal person would find the task, if she was in a crowded area.

The captain obviously liked having her master and crush back but, if this sort of obsessive behavior continued, she was afraid that the woman was taking too much control over her life once again – and Yoruichi didn't even realize it. Soifon couldn't let her whole life revolve around the princess like it always had done, so she decided to make a change.

She would no longer search Yoruichi out at Seireitei functions. This was rather difficult at first and she'd often inwardly berate herself when she did it out of habit.

No longer would she only make so much time to visit or be visited by her past commander. Obviously she'd still see Yoruichi, but Soifon wanted to open up to other people as well. She often thought of it as not putting all her eggs in one basket. When Yoruichi left and was gone for those 100 years, Soifon was so effected by it because everything good she had connected with people had been laid with the golden eyed woman. The stern woman didn't want that to happen again so she started to interact friendlier with other people.

The questions was, who would she act friendlier towards? Soifon and Nanao had gotten along pretty well for the last couple of decades, but she really didn't want to take that further. She has always been on good talking terms with Unohana, obviously, but Soifon thought of her more as a mother figure or doctor than a friend. The sight, let alone being close enough to smell, of Ōmaeda was enough to make her shunpo in the other direction. Hitsugaya, too young. Kyōraku Shunsui, too perverted and drinks more than she'd like. Kuchiki-taichou was too serious and often an asshole. Komamura... she just didn't see it working out, especially if he'd be by Iba and others of the Seventh Division with all their "manly" talk that she'd like to shove down their throats. Rangiku was too much of her opposite and often got on her nerves. Kenpachi was too attention seeking in his attacks, and there's a possibility of the two of them getting in an explosive fight. There should be no explanation needed as to why she didn't consider Yachiru a possibility. Yumichika would get on her nerves too quickly. She hated Kurotsuchi-taicho with a passion and didn't like how he treated others as experiments, especially Nemu. Rukia would have been a possibility except that she always seemed to be in the World of the Living. Hinamori had mostly been recovering since Aizen had attacked her, plus their personalities just wouldn't work. Kotetsu Kiyone and Kotsubaki Sentarō, the 3rd seats of the Thirteenth Division, were too annoying with their constant bickering of who did what for Ukitake. Renji was, and still is, a dumbass. She could see herself being friends with Shiba Kuukaku, but when the whole point was to put some distance between herself and Yoruichi then making friends with one of her mentor's best friends wasn't a good idea. Soifon didn't even think of the First Divisions taichou and fukutaicho, they were too old and there were other problems as well.

The reason she didn't even try to get to know Yamamoto-sotaichou and Sasakibe-fukutaichou shouldn't be a surprise, though she doubts many in the Gotei 13 think about it.

The Central 46 controlled three different military branches: Gotei 13, Kidō Corps, and the Onmistukidō. But since the forty wise men and six judges had all been slaughtered by the traitors, Yamamoto has been giving Soifon some orders and some freedom to do her own thing with the Onmitsukido branch. She didn't like Yamamoto giving her too many orders because the special unit was supposed to be autonomous of the Gotei 13 and she was sick of doing their dirty work. Plus, how are you supposed to patrol something which you had become integrated with without becoming corrupt or biased? They were supposed to smell out and apprehend traitors, conspirators, and criminals within the Gotei 13 and Soifon didn't like the thought that the Onmitsukido would be controlled by the very organization they were supposed to investigate. These thoughts only worried her more about what was happening with her units now that she was gone and the idiot Omaeda would be in charge.

That left the possibilities of Kotetsu Isane, Hisagi Shūhei, Kurotsuchi Nemu, Ikkaku Madarame, and Ukitake Jūshirō for her to get to know better. In Soifon's mind, each of them had their downfalls and strengths but she figured she'd try to talk more to them anyway. And she did talk to them, and others, more often. Her word count had at least doubled but when compared to others it was still small. Soifon didn't try to change this, she wasn't trying to just speak more, she was trying to get to know others and not have her life revolve around her former master. The Chinese woman had always been more of a listener and this didn't change. She found interacting with her comrades as 'okay' on the enjoyable scale, sometimes flicking to either side of the middle. What she found surprising, though, was when she relatively liked being in someone's company that she had previously declared as someone that just wouldn't work when it came to being friends and getting along. Take Rangiku and Kyōraku for example. After a while Soifon started to find them acting as fools quite funny. Not that she'd like to be one-on-one with them, but when the shinigami were in groups she found the two to bring some liveliness and fun to the activities. She also found Yumichika to be not so bad, and found it quite funny when he insulted people, especially Omaeda. He had even made her quietly laugh a couple of times, not that she would admit it. She often wondered how he could stand to serve under such a ugly captain. Soifon could tell that the other leaders found her new 'sociability' to be odd at first but later seemed to shrug off her uncharacteristic behavior, still not daring to ask what the cause of it was even though she seemed more open to talk about some things.

Soifon did notice that Yoruichi acted a bit annoyed by her new behavior whenever she was in Soul Society to witness it. This often gave the petite woman a bit of a smug feeling as she finally felt that Yoruichi was getting a taste of her own medicine. Soifon was bitter and she recognized the emotion in herself, but that didn't change the fact that she felt putting some distance between herself and her (former) interest was the right path to take. Though it was hard to sometimes put her plan into action, and she sometimes relapsed when in close quarters with the woman, when she saw reactions such as this from Yoruichi she figured that a bit of revenge wasn't such a bad side-effect. After a few months of having her plan enforced it started to become easier for her to ignore the Goddess of Flash and interact more friendly with other people.

But it seems like Soifon had put too much distance between them for Yoruichi's liking. _Why else would she kidnap me?_ Soifon had decided months ago that the dark skinned woman didn't have any special interest in her besides that of a friend or little sister. Sure Yoruichi would tease a lot, but that's all it ever came to and nothing more. Now that she was forced to be in her presence, Soifon needed to make sure that she guarded her heart with extra resolve, and not falter like she had yesterday when Yoruichi took hold her hand. She couldn't let that resolve waiver by reading into any of the princess's actions as a return of the affection that Soifon once held for her. She would not get her hopes up by Yoruichi's teasing and general gregariousness.

Soifon was deep in her thoughts when she could hear some light walking coming down the hallway towards her room. She knew it was Yoruichi just by the gait and softness of her footsteps. It was then that Soifon realized how much time she had spent awake thinking of the past events that had gotten her here and some thoughts of the future. The room now had a warm orange-ish tinge to it from the sunlight coming through the window, instead of the cold blue that she woke up to. But she hadn't thought of a plan on how to get back to Soul Society. She had one in the works, but nothing concrete that she could lean on. She couldn't just hope to find an opening and run for it, as there was obviously something that the two of them needed to work out. _I guess I'll make it up as I go. _This thought made her uncomfortable and vulnerable.

The footsteps have reached the shoji to her room now, but Yoruichi paused there for a few seconds before sliding the door open. Soifon still had her back to the entrance and decided to leave it that way, not caring enough to rush out of the bed or to turn over. But when Yoruichi didn't say anything upon entering the room Soifon decided it best to lay on her other side and face the woman.

Yoruichi was leaning against the inside of the doorway with her arms crossed when Soifon rolled over. Dark eyebrows were raised on the pale forehead, asking her what she was doing there.

"Uh, good morning... did you sleep well?" Yoruichi tentatively asked her.

Soifon just grunted as her response. Her grunt meant something like, "Not the worst, but not great either."

The Goddess of Flash had a look of trepidation and concern on her face before joking a little, "That good, huh?" She didn't receive an answer so she continued with a smile, "Breakfast is ready, let's go down and eat."

_Does she ever ask me what I'd like to do? No, it's always a command, and she probably doesn't even realize it. _The annoyance and anger enveloped her face before it quickly dissipated. _Yoruichi-sama probably didn't mean it like that... perhaps I should give her some slack._

"Sure," was Soifon's dejected reply as she got out of the hard bed. She looked down and remembered that she was still in the t-shirt and mid-thigh shorts that she had put on last night for pajamas. A blush couldn't help but appear at her cheeks. Never had Yoruichi seen her in such a state of dress. "Just let me change and I'll be right down," she said while moving to the dresser where she had put her uniform last night.

"Nah, just come as you are or the food will get cold," the easy going woman said with a wide smile spreading on her face.

"Okay," replied Soifon slightly defeated, feeling exposed as she started to follow the purple haired princess down the hallway.

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"There's no one so easy to control as someone who admires you." - Aizen

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Xo0oX

**A/N:**

Yes, I know "imaginated" isn't an actual word. Seems how I imagined it, wrote it and liked it, I decided to keep it. Don't rain on my parade. Why isn't it a word? Perfect blend of imagined and created.

I'm not sure if I really like how this chapter has turned out – if I have described it how I think of it. And my 'creative writing' brain was really struggling with my 'editing writing' brain throughout. I was actually planning on having the whole day within this chapter... so, if things continue like this, this story will very likely be much longer than 20 chapters. I would just put more of the story in the chapter, but after so long I get sick of it and just want to post it. And what I'm afraid of in this chapter is that I've forgotten something important... I really hope that hasn't happened. If it does then I'll notify you all about the stuff I forgot and edit it. And I do edit it quite a bit for a few days after I post it, so just fyi, those that read it *right* after I post it will be getting a slightly different read than those that don't read it for a few days. I can't help that as I will only notice some mistakes after I post it and read it on this site.

Sorry for the long A/Ns, I promise they will be getting shorter.

Also, WARNING: if you don't like songfics... sorry, but there will be some of that stuff in the upcoming chapters. It will be good stuff, I promise (and hope). And there is a good purpose for it in the story

Randomness:

Chapter 51 page 16 of the manga, as on mangafox, Chizuru is totally grabbing Orihime's boob. And Orihime is just looking up at Rukia like nothing's happening. What the heck!.?


	6. Chapter 6

**Disclaimer: I don't own Bleach. This is the last time I'm writing that for this story. If that status somehow changes, I'll let you know.**

**A/N:** wow, it's taken me forever to get this up. To those that have been waiting for it: sorry! I've actually had the majority of it written for months, then a whole lot of stuff came up... then school, etc. I just finished writing it tonight, so if there's a lot of typos at the end, that is why – I'll probably find/fix them in a bit, though.

Anyway, I hope you enjoy :) just kinda some character/dynamic development. And I'll change "Soifon" to "Sui-Feng" in the upcoming chapters.

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**Undecided**

**Chapter 6**

"How's the miso soup?" Tessai asked Soifon. The four adults were eating their breakfast at the kitchen table. Urahara was at one head of the slightly rectangular table and the other man of the house was at the other. The former and current Second Division captains were sitting at each side of the table, between the men. The first part of the breakfast had been rather awkward and quiet, and this was an obvious attempt by Tessai to get rid of the tension.

"It's... good," Soifon said before taking another spoonful of the still hot soup. It hadn't taken her long to realize she was rather hungry since she didn't eat much yesterday.

"Indeed! Much better this time, Tessai. And hopefully it won't make us sick like last time," Kisuke added with a faint smile.

"It should help that I got the miso paste from an unexpired and non-bulging jar this time," the well-built man, wearing a black apron, said with a bit of shame in his voice. It has been a while since Soifon has been around the former Kido Corps captain, as such she had forgotten what a gentle giant he can be. Well, he can be gentle when he wants to be, and it's usually wise to not get on his bad side.

The kitchen fell once again into an awkward silence. Soifon took to staring at her breakfast most of the time, not knowing what else to do with her gaze. She would have scowled at the people, but it was hard when they were being so calm and peaceful and not saying anything too stupid, not to mention giving her good food. So she didn't see the questioning looks between the men next to her. Or what Yoruichi was doing across from her.

Yoruichi had been looking at the woman across from her for most of the breakfast, trying to gauge her mood and receptability today. So far everything seemed okay. The Chinese woman hadn't demanded to be let back to Soul Society and wasn't yelling at anyone, she was just eating her soup and keeping her eyes down. This actually bothered Yoruichi a bit, it just didn't seem right. She expected Soifon to at least be reacting to the situation, but she was just sitting there. Perhaps this unexpected reaction would work to her favor, though. And she couldn't forget the blush that graced her Little Bee's cheeks when she realized she was still in her shorts and t-shirt in Yoruichi's presence. ..._Priceless._

The Goddess had talked to Kisuke earlier that morning. He didn't think things were going to go so smoothly for her. Inwardly she agreed with him, but tried to put up a front that she had everything figured out. If you think you're going to fail then it's most likely that you will. She knew she had to keep a positive outlook, and sometimes faking it is the best way to go until you actually have that outlook and confidence.

There were some things that she had overlooked when she had made this rushed strategy, and they only made themselves evident after she had gone through with bringing Soifon to the real world. If she had just waited a day to think it through a bit more she probably wouldn't have these mistakes that she'd now need to fix. Despite these difficulties she was firm in her belief that she could make this plan work. But Yoruichi did ask Kisuke for some more help, and he smartly agreed.

Yoruichi was deep in her thoughts on how to go about the day when she heard Soifon's chair sliding over the wooden kitchen floors as it was being pushed away from the table.

"Thanks for the breakfast," the petite woman said while she stood up. These were obviously meant to be her parting words.

"Woah, where do you think you're going?" came Yoruichi's response, her voice was light but serious. "Sit back down."

Soifon continued to stand. A slightly confused and then an exasperated look crossed her face. Yoruichi could see the gray eyes give a quick glance at the kitchen doorway. Beyond that door was the outside world. She knew what the fast moving captain was thinking. Probably something along the lines of, _'just a few quick steps and I'll be outside and free.' _ She obviously needed a reminder.

"Don't make me use this again," Yoruichi said seriously while pulling out the lightening stick from some place on her body and waving it in front of them. The men on both sides kept quiet and watched the scene unfold before them, noting that Soifon's notorious eyebrows had regressed to their infamous scowling position.

Soifon thought of her position and what to do next. She could make a run for the door, but it was ninety percent likely that Yoruichi would catch up to her before she was a mile away. She gave herself zero percent chance to make it to two miles. She was confident in her speed and knew she could keep up with the Goddess of Flash pretty well, but when she had less than a second head start... her chances weren't good. _...and it only takes one touch from that damn stick and it's back to square one. _She resigned herself once again to staying.

_Why am I wanting to get out of this situation so bad? A few months ago I would have loved being wanted in Yoruichi's presence so much. _

_...Yeah, a few months ago, but things change, _she thought as the reasons why she had been putting distance between herself and Yoruichi came back. _I don't want her to ask me questions. I don't want her to ask why I'm acting differently. _That thought scared her. _How would I answer if she asked me that question? _She thought about it for a few seconds. _...I don't know_, she realized. _It's not like I could explain without giving my feelings away._

Gray eyes started to focus on the room again. Soifon noticed that everyone's eyes were on her, watching her every movement. Her nose twitched a little in anger. She sat back down and gave Yoruichi a dirty look. "Fine." Yoruichi put the lightening stick back to where she got it as Soifon sat back down.

It seemed like no one knew how to proceed from there. An awkward silence filled the air for a moment.

"So, I guess first thing first. We need to get you into a gigai. Kisuke has already made one for you," Yoruichi said to Soifon. Once the words were out of her mouth the three old friends pushed their chairs back from the table and stood up. Soifon grumbled before doing the same, wondering why they even had her sit back down if they were done.

Tessai asked that everyone bring their dishes over to the sink before they leave so he could clean them. Kisuke then led Yoruichi and Soifon to his "creative lair," as he called it, to get one of his reiatsu suppressing gigais.

* * *

Soifon took in a deep breath, trying to get rid of some of her tension and frustration. Yoruichi had informed her that it was summer break for most of the schools in the area, and it seemed like most of the teenage girls, and a few boys, were at the same department store they were at. She had never been so annoyed in all her life.

_I hate people..._ The thought came unbidden to her before she could stop it. The thought wasn't new to her, it had just been a while since it had come to her like that. It didn't help that everyone that passed her seemed to give her wardrobe an odd look before continuing on their way. _Little do they know that I could kill them in a blink of an eye. _ That being said, she was behaving herself. She found it a bit difficult to not yell at some of the gaggles of girls blathering on about the latest pop star or "in" style of clothing. Never had she had to deal with people that were so jaded. They could even give Ōmaeda lessons, and _that_ was saying something. Always used to serious situations, often life or death, Soifon couldn't figure out how so many people could occupy so much of their time and use so much of their energy on such frivolous subjects. But perhaps it wasn't so much the subject matter as it was their demeanor. There was too much bubbly happiness for Soifon to stomach at one time.

One reprieve from this all, was that too much to ask? It wasn't like Soifon had that strange of cloths on. Yoruichi had given her one of her rarely used pair of jeans and a fitted tee to wear. It was a good thing that they're only a couple inches different in height so that the younger could fit into them reasonably well. The only problem with them was that they seemed to be a bit baggy on the much less curvacious and endowed shinigami. There were a few times where Soifon would have to remember to pull the jeans back up because they had worked themselves down too far on her hips.

"What about this one?" came Yoruichi's voice. She was holding up yet another pair of jeans for Soifon's opinion.

Soifon grunted. "They're okay..." she said with a look of indifference as she turned around again to stare blankly at another rack of clothing. _I hate shopping..._

"Is that the best answer that I'm going to get from you?"

A little smirk twitched at her lips. Soifon couldn't help but feel somewhat pleased that she was starting to get under Yoruichi's skin. She turned her head over her shoulder to give her short reply. "Probably."

Yoruichi sighed. "Well, at least it's better than the outright 'no' you've been giving," Soifon could hear Yoruichi say quietly.

They stayed in that same section of the department store for another 20 or so minutes before moving on to try to find some fitting rooms. Yoruichi was leading the way, of course, and Soifon was following behind. Both of them were carrying a handful of clothing. All the cloths were Soifon's except for a pair of jeans that Yoruichi couldn't help but at least try on.

"Ah, I almost forgot. We need to get you some underwear," came the goddess's excited voice, breaking Soifon from her quiet reverie. It just so happened that the underwear and bra section was right in front of the women's fitting rooms.

A blush started to appear on pale cheeks. "Huh.. what? I-I don't nee-"

"You're telling me that you are going to wear the same pair the whole time?" Yoruichi asked teasingly and faking surprise.

"N-no. I -" Soifon couldn't finish as Yoruichi cut her off once again.

"There's a lot of things I'm comfortable sharing with you, Soifon, but my underwear is not one of them."

Soifon's whole face had then gone a shade of red, with her cheeks the shade of marinara spaghetti sauce.

Stuttering was the only response that would come out of her mouth for a few seconds before she started to get some actual words out. "Wha..? No! I-I... I'll get a few pairs."

Yoruichi's white smile came out behind her gorgeous lips. Between Soifon's already rising temperature and the amazing smile, she was about to lose control, but she had to be strong. _Reign it in, Champ... Reign it in._ _Remember your decision and the situation you've been put in._

"I just don't see the point in buying them – just like the rest of these cloths," said the Second Division captain in a stern voice, her blush starting to fade.

"We've already gone over this," was the beginning of the exasperated reply. "You need some real world cloths while your staying here..." the reason why Soifon was in the real world was left unmentioned, but both knew what wasn't being said. "And whenever you come here for missions you can use them to wear and fit in with a crowd... and all your other real world cloths are old and outdated," Yoruichi finished, towards the end sounding rather like one of the teenage girls that her protege was being annoyed by.

"But we hardly ever go on missions in gigai form down here. It's much easier for us to stay as spirits. Besides, these cloths are too restricting to move around comfortably. I might as well be a sitting duck."

"You'll get used to the tightness. Just give it some time." Soifon noticed how she seemed to ignore the rest of her reasoning. "Now... do I need to pick some out for you or will you have it covered?"

_If I have no choice..._ "I've got it," Soifon said as she started walking into the maze of racks with the little pieces of clothing on them.

"Here," Yoruichi said, effectively stopping the captain from walking any further. Her hand was outstretched and opened. "I'll take the cloths so you don't have to carry them around while you look."

"...Thanks," was all that was said as she handed the jeans and t-shirts over to the former captain.

"I'll just be over here," she said as she jerked her head towards a near by area of the store and started walking off. Before she got too far, "And get a few pairs of bras, as well," she said loudly, on the point of yelling, back to Soifon.

The captain noticed some near by girls looking her way as they were trying to hold in some laughter. _How mature..._ She couldn't help but blush slightly and feel a little embarrassed. Had she been anyone but Soifon, captain of both the Second Division and the Onmitsukidō, she would have facepalmed. But instead she just turned on her heel and started walking into the maze again.

It took her a while to actually focus her eyes and see what she was looking at. The clothing rack that she randomly stopped at happened to be holding a bunch of frilly thongs. After a brief second of realization she quickly moved to a rack containing what she considered to be much more appropriate garments.

After a few moments of looking around (the real world had a lot more options than the stores in Soul Society) she started to focus on the area that seemed to fit her taste the best. There was a whole bunch of, what Soifon would consider "normal," underwear along the wall of the department store near the entrance to the fitting rooms, so she made her way back to it.

They were in all different colors and sizes. Soifon didn't have any trouble picking out the colors that she liked, but she wasn't so sure about the sizing. _It's a lot different than how it is in SS,_ Soifon thought, using the abbreviation for Soul Society. She saw a row of underwear that she liked and seemed like they might be in a size that fit her. After looking around to make sure no one was watching and that Yoruichi was still a good distance away, she took down a pair of underwear and put it against the front of her hips to check if the size was reasonable.

Soifon suddenly had a look of horror on her face as she pictured someone seeing her do this – even though she was facing a wall and had racks of clothing all around her, but there were still some women milling around in the area. She dropped the pair of underwear down to one of her sides as she turned around and scanned the area to make sure no one was watching her. _I'm being paranoid. And I don't even know these people. Who cares if they see me doing this? ..Everyone has to go underwear shopping sometime. _The short woman turned back around to the wall.

_...But what if someone from SS is here? ...Rangiku-fukotaicho goes shopping all the time... and she's often here in the real world. _Once again Soifon quickly turned around, her back now towards the wall, to scan the area for a certain redhead. Her neck was stretched as far as it could go while she was balancing on her tiptoes to look over the clothing racks. There was no red hair to be seen.

Soifon sighed in relief and realized that she was overreacting again. Facing the wall of underwear once more, she put the garment that was in her hand against herself for the second time. Deciding that the sizing should work, she took note of it and searched for some more with different color schemes. Underwear was actually one of the few articles of clothing that she liked to have colorful. No one would know that of course, _grrr, unless they went shopping with me,_ she thought as she gave a dirty look in Yoruichi's direction.

She grabbed two more undergarments when she noticed an interesting kind of underwear, which on further inspection seemed to be called 'boyshorts.' They were similar to really short shorts made out of underwear-stretchy material. Soifon had never seen anything like them before. Soul Society did seem to be about ten years behind anything in fashion, she had heard Rangiku and other girls complain about it enough to know.

She took a pair of them that were in her size and added them to the three that she had already collected. _Four should be plenty... Now for the bras... ugh._

It wasn't hard for her to decide what styles she didn't want. _No. No. No. No... no, no, no, no, no. Definitely not! _The captain turned to her right after seeing the frilly leopard print bra. Her's eyes fell upon some sport bras and they started to light up. _Finally!_

Even though the sizing was foreign to her, it wasn't hard to figure out which ones would fit her or not. She grabbed four of them, two of them white and the other two were light blue. Then a feeling came to her that Yoruichi would probably be mad at her for grabbing only the sporty kind, so she put one of the blue ones back and began her search for a more realistic and girly one. Thankfully it didn't take her long to find one that she liked okay. She picked a few of the design but in different sizes and decided to try them on while she was trying on the other clothes.

It didn't take long for Soifon to find Yoruichi and for them to go to the fitting rooms together – Yoruichi in one stall trying on her one pair of jeans, and Soifon in another stall trying on what seemed like a truck load of clothing.

What did take a long time was trying on all the clothing. Yoruichi had long since tried on her jeans and had decided they weren't for her; "they make my ass look big," she had called over the partition between them. Soifon didn't give back any sort of answer, as it seemed like Yoruichi was mostly talking to herself. After she had tried on the pair of jeans she told Soifon that she'd sit on the chair at the entrance to the fitting rooms, waiting for her... and that if she wanted her opinion she could come out and show her the outfit.

_Ha! Like I'd go out there modeling cloths for Yoruichi? Not a chance. _That was her decision and she was sticking to it as she couldn't quite decide if she liked the last outfit that she was trying on. _I'll just get it. Urahara is paying for it anyway. _A smile worked its way onto her face as she grabbed the shorts and polo shirt. She headed out of the fitting stall with reasonable load of cloths in her arms, all the clothes that didn't fit or that she really didn't like were left behind on the stall chair. A vast majority of the articles left behind were the ones that Yoruichi had picked out and Soifon had said "no" to, but the goddess had added them to the pile anyway.

Yoruichi lifted her smiling face up as Soifon walked closer. "Kisuke just text me and asked if we could pick up some things at the grocery store that he forgot to get yesterday. So we're going to need to do that on our way home."

_Ugh, Urahara-san. I've already been shopping for... _she took a look at the soul phone Yoruichi had given her for some reason, it only had Tessai's, Urahara's, and Yoruichi's phone number in it (_why did she even give this to me?_)... _five hours! Gah, that's a long time! And now we have to do some more shopping because Smart One forgot to pick up some things? I _hate_ shopping._

Despite her inner anger, she had given Yoruichi's words rapt attention and decided to turn it into some outer anger. "'Home' as in Soul Society?"

"No. 'Home' as in Urahara Shoten," came the reply, annoyed that Soifon was still putting up a 'fight' at staying with them. She had gotten up and started making her way towards the checkout area. Soifon followed her.

"How long are you going to consider that 'home'?" _Is that a simple or a complex question..?_ Soifon didn't know. The question had come out before she had even thought about it.

Soifon noted how Yoruichi seemed to think about the question as well, perhaps thinking the same thing.

"I don't know." It was a stern response with her eyebrows uncharacteristically low. The conversation had officially halted as a semi-awkward silence fell upon them despite the din from the rest of the crowded store.

* * *

The two women were now in the grocery store picking up the few things that Urahara had forgot. Yoruichi was leading the way with a shopping cart being pushed with her forearms as she looked at her cellphone to look at the list of food that they needed to get. The purple haired woman had asked Soifon if she wanted to push the shopping cart but the offer had been declined. Soifon didn't see the point since it was Yoruichi that was in control anyway. It seemed wrong to her to have the person with the cart being the follower, and she had no idea where she was going, so there was no point in her being leader, either.

It only took twenty minutes to get the food that they needed, most of the time was spent by Yoruichi not being sure which brand they usually bought. On the shopping list was various kinds of fish, eggs, popcorn, rice, and a few other things that Soifon couldn't care half a hollow about.

Soifon was happy when they finally climbed back into the 1990's van and started driving 'home' again. _Then hopefully to the _real_ 'home' after this, _Soifon added.

The Goddess of Flash's driving wasn't actually that bad, though she had said that she hardly drove and gave a disclaimer before she had started the engine the first time. She was a little impatient and did get a little road rageous at times, but it all seemed acceptable to Soifon. _There are quite a few moron drivers out there._ And though she seemed to take some of the corners a little fast, the captain was never scared and could tell that Yoruichi knew what she was doing and how far she could push the automobile before something bad happened.

Before they knew it they were parked at the shoten once again. Yoruichi jumped out of the van and called to Jinta and Tessai to help bring in the groceries and other shopping bags. Jinta and Kisuke came out of the shoten instead.

"Tessai is in the middle of cooking dinner," Urahara explained when he saw Yoruichi's questioning look.

With the four of them bringing in the full shopping bags it only took one trip inside the store-house to get everything inside. Yoruichi then dragged Soifon upstairs to the guest room she was occupying, dropped their bags and went back downstairs to bring up Urahara's and Jinta's load. The two then emptied the bag contents into the drawers of the cabinet.

Yoruichi had sensed that Soifon was feeling annoyed at having the constant company. The tanned woman found it ironic. Soifon's duty used to be Yoruichi's bodyguard, being with her for most of the day – whether seen by others or not. This also meant that Soifon wasn't alone for all that time as well, though she didn't have the attention on her like Yoruichi was now giving her. _I guess during these last one hundred years we have become accustomed to our space. Her becoming a captain and being able to order her privacy if so desired. And me...? wandering around the world, anywhere I wanted – as a cat, no less._

It didn't take long for them to put the cloths away and go back downstairs. Tessai was still cooking in the kitchen. _It smells good_, Soifon thought. She was planning on entering the room further to ask the kido expert what was cooking, but Yoruichi turned into the living room. Urahara was sitting on the floor, near the TV, working on some sort of device. Jinta was standing near to him, looking at some of the components and sometimes picking up one or two of them. Ururu was sitting quietly on the couch watching the two near the TV.

Soifon watched the Goddess make her way over to the couch and sit down next to the black haired girl, leaving room for Soifon to sit on the other side of her, which she did.

"What ya doin'?" Yoruichi asked the disheveled man.

"Trying to get this thing to work," Urahara answered, his head still bent down over the device, some irritation in his voice.

"What is it?"

"It's a Play Station... three," he added after looking at the box next to him. Soifon could tell that Yoruichi had no idea what that was and was about to ask, but Urahara spoke first. "Any more questions?"

He was obviously frustrated. Something wasn't going right for the genius. This caused Soifon to smirk. Whatever this Play Station thing was, she liked it already.

"Nope," was Yoruichi's answer. The Chinese woman turned her head to see Yoruichi's reaction to her friend's rather harsh response. She was unfettered by it, relaxed further into the couch, and continued to have a slight smile grace her lips. _Perhaps she's just as happy with Urahara's frustration as I am? Surely it doesn't happen often. Maybe just a nice change of pace..._

"Jinta! Stop touching things or you can leave the living room until I'm done," Urahara's voice boomed throughout the room. The redheaded boy quickly dropped the two things that he was trying to join together and sat on the chair next to Ururu, his eyebrows low and lips pursed.

Soifon was quietly observing the situation, having resigned to stay at the shoten until night once again, but finally found something to say – and not caring if she irritated the clogged man more than he already was.

"Are there any instructions on how to put it together?" she asked, noticing no white papers or booklet near him.

"It's already put together. It just needs to turn on, but every time I push the button nothing happens."

"You probably did something wrong. You could probably figure it out if you just read the instructions."

"I don't need instructions," he slowly growled. "You don't learn how to do something unless you figure it out for yourself."

"True. But it's okay to have help when you're doing something for the first time. I couldn't imagine what would happen at shinigami training if the instructors told their students to just figure out kido for themselves," Soifon reasoned.

Urahara's reply was to pull his hat lower over his ears and crouch further over the black, shiny object, trying to shut the Second Division captain out.

_Haha,_ Soifon laughed inside her head.

"I'm hungry," Jinta complained from his chair.

"Me too," Soifon surprisingly added. The small lunch that Yoruichi and she had between bouts of shopping wasn't holding her over.

"Tessai!" Urahara loudly called, so as to be heard in the kitchen and over the noises being made from the cooking.

"Yeah?" the burly man called back.

"How long til dinner?" the frustrated man asked a bit quieter.

"At least an hour," Tessai responded. Jinta groaned and threw his body into the back cushion of the chair, like the child that he was.

Urahara turned around and reprimanded the boy with the stern look in his eyes. "You're not going to starve," was all he said before turning back to the Play Station 3.

"Well, it's been fun, but Soifon and I are going to go out to eat," Yoruichi said to no one in particular and started to stand up. Soifon looked up at her a bit surprised, not that Yoruichi could see it. Whatever Tessai was making in the kitchen smelled wonderful and she was a bit sad to miss what seemed like a feast. But she also wouldn't mind eating within an hour, so she stood up as well.

"I want to go!" Jinta said, excited.

"Me too," said Ururu with a much calmer demeanor.

Yoruichi gave Soifon a bit of an exasperated look before turning around to face the two kids and changing her expression.

"How about next time? Soifon just got her yesterday and I wanted it to just be the two of us," Yoruichi said with a sorry tone in her voice, certainly a tone Soifon didn't know the Goddess was capable of.

_Just got here?... yesterday? How long is she planning on me staying here? **Correction**: her keeping me here? ...one or the other. _Soifon wasn't certain which one it might just come down to.

"Okay..." the two kids responded, dragging out the word, before Jinta added, "But we are definitely coming next time; you aren't getting out of it." This didn't seem to be the first time that Yoruichi had used this tactic to get out of bringing them somewhere. _At least they were told that we're leaving and not just left behind wondering, _ Soifon thought bitterly before physically giving a small shake of her head to stop the stream of thoughts she knew would come next. She was trying to get over the abandonment, once again, but it would take longer than a few months. And even though she had been trying to distance herself from Yoruichi, it was still a fresh wound.

Yoruichi turned to face her former protege once again. Golden eyes noticeably roamed up and down Soifon's body a couple of times before Yoruichi spoke to her.

"Just go put on a nice pair of jeans and a nice shirt and we'll be ready to go," she said with a smile. No matter how hard Soifon tried she couldn't stop a small blush from forming.

Xo0oX

**A/N: **if these chapters continue on being longer than I expect... it's going to take me a loooong time to write this story. And there's no promises on how often I'll update when school starts back up in a week, but I'll try to do something within the next 5 months – unlike this last time.

I feel like I might be dragging this chapter out, and that that might also happen in the future. If you have any thought on this, or anything else about my writing, please leave a review and let me know. As cliche as it sounds, reviews do make me happy, motivate me, and help me update faster. I'm not particularly happy with some aspects of this chapter, but oh well.

Thanks for reading.

oh, and if you happened to read this story for the first time a few months ago and noticed that two of the chapters were the same... oops. I'm not sure how that happened. I switched it back a couple months ago to how it's supposed to be.

(12/29/10)


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