The day that Yoruichi hears of her pact with Ushōda Hachigen, she erupts into a fit of utter hysterics.
Her head dips as she doubles over, hair falling over her eyes, hands clutching at her abdomen, and Suì-Fēng might find her amusement pretty, laughter beautiful, if the circumstances of it didn't grate so much on her nerves.
Instead, she stands there patiently, trying to stop the embarrassment from creeping into her features, until the goddess composes herself enough to speak, wiping the tears from her eyes.
"Now why . . . would you go and request a thing like that?" she asks, mirth still present, playful, and yet . . . almost chastising. Or maybe not. She's cackling again, turning to the rotund man at Suì-Fēng's side. "Hachigen!"
Ushōuda at least still has the good graces to act as though this is still a strictly business affair even though they've been utterly humiliated- polite, cordial, pleasant, despite how Suì-Fēng is slowly starting to feel the opposite.
"I'm afraid I'm a man of my word, Shihouin-san."
"It was hardly a sensible request, though," Yoruichi replies, still with that thoroughly entertained demeanor. "I can't believe she would propose an agreement like this." She turns to Suì-Fēng, still grinning as if this is all a big joke to her. "I can't believe you would propose an agreement like this."
As if Yoruichi doesn't know the lengths she would go through for her.
"Well, I did," says Suì-Fēng, gruffly, and she finds it all she can say, and maybe it is really unlike her in hindsight, maybe it is really immature, but it's also not like her to just back down out of the blue.
Yoruichi just leans against the shop's door frame, casual, slow smile accompanying nonchalant, lazy stance, and damn it...
She knows that it's a tendency of Yoruichi's— to reduce things to nothingness, to reduce things to some meaningless thing through her lackadaisical tongue and equally lackadaisical manner. She knows that Yoruichi may be playing around, and that riling Suì-Fēng up seems to be her favorite game, but said woman also can't help but keep bristling at the lack of being taken seriously.
"Hm, well, I can't say that this is something Kisuke would willingly cooperate with."
"I'll drag him out here if I have to," Suì-Fēng declares with faux composure, eyes raised evenly to meet gold. "You know this."
At this, her former mentor smirks, tapping a thoughtful finger against her jaw. "Ah, but what if I were to say . . . 'he's not here at the mome', Commander?'"
Of all the-
Suì-Fēng exchanges a rather heated glance with Ushōda (although all of the ire comes from her end.) When she turns back to Yoruichi, she's still smirking, but it's pretty at least, so Suì-Fēng takes a breath recalls what this is all for in the first place.
She didn't come here to be hostile or mercilessly teased, she'd just . . . wanted to see the woman who makes her heart jump with a life of its own.
But she cannot refrain from pressing, "Is that so?" unable to keep the skepticism out of her voice. It's true, she can't sense his presence, but that man wasn't in the Onmitsukido for nothing.
"He felt your reiatsu and figured you'd come to see me," the taller woman explains with a shrug, "so he made himself scarce for the time being as you two don't really seem to get on. You probably can't imagine, but he can be quite amicable when you need him to."
The way she locks eyes with her as she stresses the word holds Suì-Fēng in place for several bemusing moments, and she senses that there may be something there that Yoruichi is trying to relay to her in some roundabout manner.
Her thoughts, however, fall on how she can always count on Urahara to ruin everything, that enigmatic good for nothing son of a—
"So!" The sudden inclination of Yoruichi's voice prevents Suì-Fēng from seething any further. "This is just too bad, huh?" She casts an apologetic glance sidelong at Ushōda that the captain doubts is very apologetic at all. "You may have to visit another time if you're looking to lock him up."
"Perhaps it is for the best, Captain Suì-Fēng," says Ushōda Hachigen as her former mentor grins cheekily from the doorway.
Well. Luckily for Yoruichi, Suì-Fēng thinks she's had her fill of laughter at the expense of herself for the day, so she promptly turns on her heel after exchanging a curt farewell with her portly companion as well as her former commander, however, she's instantly snagged by the sleeve of her shihakusho.
"Hey, hang on a sec, not you."
As Ushōda disappears into the horizon, Yoruichi pulls her closer, and Suì-Fēng finds she cannot resist and ugh, she doesn't know why she always loses her staunch soldier demeanor when it's just her and Yoruichi, but maybe it just reminds her when it did used to be . . . just her and Yoruichi.
When she looks over her shoulder, her goddess is smiling that smile that seizes her heart. "Got a second?"
Suí-Fēng heaves a sigh as though her palms aren't sweating— as the dark-skinned woman's fingers shift from her uniform sleeve to her hand. "What do you need, Yoruichi-sama?"
There's a wily glint to her eyes that the captain is instantly wary of, and slender fingers play with her own for the sole reason of making her flustered. "It's nothing, really, just . . ." A grin full of mischief. "Any particular reason why you want me and Kisuke separated for a month?"
Damn. There are no secrets with this woman, but then, she's learned that long ago. Nevertheless, Suí-Fēng feigns her ignorance, scoffing, "Why do you have to assume that everything is about you?" but it comes out a little more petulant than she would prefer.
Yoruichi crosses her arms, eyebrows dipping in that familiar, no-nonsense manner of hers. "Come now, Suì-Fēng, I'm no fool." Her expression softens however, lips raised at the corners as she draws the captain closer still. From this angle, the dipping sun paints her skin pretty and her breath caresses Suì-Fēng ear, and said captain inhales deeply and shakily and tries to ignore how she's still hopelessly smitten.
"I know that you're simply too shy to say," a playful, electric finger runs from her throat to her chin, tilting her head back, "'Yoruichi, can we spend time together . . . just you and me?'"
Suì-Fēng averts her eyes, fighting a blush as Yoruichi regards her fondly, chin still lifted in the air. She feels the hand on her cheek, startles when Yoruichi seals the moment with a kiss, soft and chaste, just as she does sometimes with no weight or even a promise of commitment, and Suì-Fēng knows it shouldn't mean much to her, but her breath catches and her eyelashes flutter and she lets her hands settle lightly on Yoruichi's hips nonetheless.
"Kisuke's no issue, you know," she tells her afterward, lips just barely brushing the captain's cheek. "He knows when to butt out, so you didn't have to go and do something so reckless with me in mind."
Suí-Fēng doesn't know whether to sigh or to laugh, so she just resigns for a weary, "You'll patronize me every second of this day, won't you?"
The older woman just rests her chin on Suì-Fēng's shoulder. "Hmm? Is that what the cool kids are calling 'worrying about a loved one's well-being' nowadays?"
Her tongue is so damn quick, but it's part of her charm, she supposes, like how she can call Suì-Fēng a loved one just like that, and interlace their fingers as though they're in love and hold her so gently out here on Urahara's goddamn front step.
And- Suí-Fēng humbles, looks away- she knows just the reason I've come here after all...
"But . . . I mean— w-would you really . . . ?"
Yoruichi turns her head so that her lips rest right against the captain's jumping pulse, and her voice is like velvet, "Would I what?"
Suí-Fēng feels deathly close to spontaneous combustion. "Like to spend time together . . . just you and me?"
"Like a date?" asks Yoruichi, and Suì-Fēng would think she's teasing her, except her golden gaze meets hers with such disarming earnestness that she's momentarily lost.
"If . . . If you would honestly like that . . ."
As silence reigns for several moments too long and anxiety eats relentlessly at the captain's insides, she truly does wish that she would just combust into indiscernible ashes, but even when she makes to pull away, Yoruichi hugs her tighter, cackling "Relax, relax, relax!" in a way has Sui-Feng certain that this woman is just trying to make her sweat for naught.
Yet, she presses them closer, laughter gentle in Sui-Feng's ear and purring softly against her chest, and when she tells her, "I'd love to," in that beautiful, silken tone, Sui-Feng knows that, right now, Yoruichi is sincere.