I do not own Bleach or any of the characters.
Coming Home
Soi-fon sat back against the side of her bed, gritting her teeth and gripping Suzumebachi's hilt so hard she thought her hands might start to bleed. Three days ago, she and Yoruichi had fought and she had lost. Her pride stung but it was lessened by the knowledge that she at least was able to challenge a goddess for a short time. Of course, along with that knowledge came the fact that Yoruichi had defeated her without even landing a blow. That really hurt her pride, but also made a warmth that Soi-fon hadn't felt for about a hundred years blossom in her chest.
She bit back a curse as this knowledge occurred to her. She struggled to stamp out that warmth. She could not allow herself to be weak. Not now. She wouldn't. Of course, the reason she was in her room in the middle of the day rather than training was also due to a weakness much larger than the warmth that refused to die out. It was both a physical weakness and proof that nothing had changed since she was serving under Yoruichi. And if anything had changed, it certainly wasn't for the better.
Soi-fon looked down at her bandaged right arm and left leg then at her abdomen, where she knew more bandages were hidden below her uniform. She hated herself for being so badly wounded. Especially by something as weak as that hollow. After all, surprise attack or no, it wasn't even a Menos and it had nearly killed her. The fact that it even got a surprise attack was a testament to her weakness. She didn't much like the idea of owing Omaeda for saving her life either. But then, it wasn't his fault. It wasn't the hollows fault for taking advantage of an obvious opportunity. As much as she would like to say it was, it wasn't even entirely Yoruichi's fault. It probably wasn't Yoruichi's fault at all, to be perfectly honest. It was Soi-fon's fault. She had been weak, and she had payed with both humiliation and what should have been her death. Omaeda swore not to tell anyone what he had seen, both to avoid her wrath and out of sympathy, which she hated him for feeling.
He had seen her as only one other had. He had seen her cry. He had seen her broken and defenseless. She knew he wouldn't tell but still, she shouldn't have been like that. When Yoruichi abandoned her a hundred years ago, she had lost her entire world and had drowned herself in training and anger, striving to become strong enough to defeat her former master, her goddess. And she had failed. She admitted, when Yoruichi had returned and they had worked together to stop Aizen, hope had blossomed inside her for the first time in so long. Despite being defeated so easily by both Yoruichi and Aizen, she had hoped that maybe Yoruichi would stay in the Soul Society, would stay with her.
But that hope had been crushed when she found out Yoruichi had left the Soul Society almost immediately, returning to that scientist that was stupid enough to leave Mayuri Kurotsuchi in charge of Research and Development. Soi-fon felt her face crease in a scowl thinking of Urahara and her black eye and split lip both sent pain through her, making her wince, which only made it worse.
"Fucking hollow," Soi-fon snarled, holding a hand over the side of her face that had been hit. "Fucking b..."
She stopped, unable to make herself say what she wanted to. She wanted to be angry. She wanted to hate the woman who had abandoned her twice. But she didn't. Couldn't. Despite everything, she couldn't hate Yoruichi.
Soi-fon hugged her knees to her chest and rested her face against them, fighting back tears that she didn't understand the origin of. She hated emotions. She hated being weak. Most of all, she hated being a teary emotional. Finally she stood, favoring her injured limbs and limped to her private bathroom, deciding to take a shower and clean her wounds. She disrobed, hanging her uniform and haori up neatly before carefully unwrapping her bandages and throwing them away. She had just cleaned them that morning but the wound on her abdomen really should be cleaned at least three times a day. Maybe more. The injury on her right arm was a scratch by the hollow, fairly deep, enough to bleed badly at the time but it had scabbed over mostly already. Her left leg was sporting a similar scratch but a bit deeper and had yet to successfully scab over. The real problem was the bite on her abdomen, which she wrapped a towel around to stem the bleeding from. Unlike the leg which only bled a bit, the bite on her abdomen, which didn't look much like a bit considering she had flown out of the hollow's mouth before it had opened it's mouth, bled profusely still. Though she had had worse and was used to bleeding. Having her entire side split open was nothing particularly impressive to her in the long run.
Soi-fon stepped into the shower, cleaning herself then gingerly cleaning her arm and leg wound before quickly, and technically insufficiently, cleaning her bite wound before wrapping the towel around it again. She shut off the water, her hair falling in her face and getting soaked with water as she did. She grumbled at it as she reached out of the shower for the towel not currently binding her open wound and froze when she found it, resting on a hand and no where near where it should be. She instantly jumped back, crossing her legs and covering her chest with her right arm, wiping her hair back with her current good arm. Then, she froze. Yoruichi was smiling mischievously and holding out her towel.
"Y...You!" Soi-fon tried to say angrily, but the blush on her face mixing with the embarrassment in her voice removing anything resembling anger from her demeanor.
She snatched her towel from the dark-skinned woman and held it in front of herself as she reached for the bandages with her other hand. It was just barely out of reach but Yoruichi grinned knowingly and corrected that problem, seeing the halfway dirty look Soi-fon managed and laughed, the familiar sound making a stronger warmth than Soi-fon ever remembered feeling blossom inside her chest.
Soi-fon quickly and haphazardly bandaged her worst wound then wrapped the towel around her self for modesty and stepped out from behind the half-fogged glass door and moved to the toilet, setting her left foot on it, bandaging her wound and inadvertently exposing her upper legs to her goddess. She wrapped her arm wound then turned and walked to her uniform and haori, taking them into her room but stopping at the door.
"Stay," Soi-fon growled warningly, managing to almost sound threatening.
"I'm a cat, not a dog," Yoruichi grinned but stayed in the bathroom.
After a moment Soi-fon finished putting her clothes on and walked to the window across from the door, Yoruichi stepping into the room upon seeing she was clothed.
"I thought you returned to the World of the Living," Soi-fon said, voice devoid of emotion, perfectly masking the warring emotions she felt. "Why are you here?"
"I heard you were hurt," Yoruichi said softly. "I came to make sure you were okay."
"What's it matter?" Soi-fon snorted. "I'm a captain now. If I'm weak enough for a sub-Menos hollow to do this to me I deserve it."
Yoruichi was silent. She could tell there was something else bothering Soi-fon. Something massive. And she knew exactly what.
"I'm sorry," Yoruichi finally said, voice quiet, full of regret. "I know I hurt you when I left. I'm so sorry."
"Hurt me?" Soi-fon laughed humorlessly, her voice making Yoruichi wince. "You didn't hurt me Yoruichi. You were my goddess. I'd have given my life for you. And I was willing to do anything to see you happy. Your smile was the thing I longed to see. I'd have given anything for you. And you promised we would be together forever. I was so happy. And then you were gone. Can you imagine how that felt? The person I idolized above the Soul Society, above the World of the Living, above the Soul King, above anything, abandoned me without a second thought. Everything that ever made me feel like I mattered crushed me. So no. You didn't hurt me. You destroyed me."
She turned toward Yoruichi, tears streaming down her face only to stop when she saw that Yoruichi was also crying, covering her mouth to hold back sobs.
"You're wrong," Yoruichi managed to choke out the tears multiplying rapidly as she began to shake slightly. "I didn't leave without a second thought. You have no idea how I felt. Every day I missed you. Every day I wanted to go home. I regretted hurting you so bad it hurt. There wasn't a single day that went by that I didn't regret not taking you with me. I know I hurt you beyond words. I wanted to stay. You have no idea how much I wanted to stay. I never intended to leave you. But Aizen hollowfied the Soul Reapers now known as the Vizards and Kisuke and Tessai were blamed. I couldn't just leave them to be executed so I had to get them out but there wasn't enough time to take you. I'm so sorry Soi-fon. I'm so horribly sorry!"
She dissolved into tears too hard to speak and Soi-fon stepped forward, gently leading her to the bed and sitting beside her, holding her comfortingly as she sobbed into Soi-fon's shoulder.
"I-I kn-knew you c-could l-live w-without m-me," Yoruichi sobbed. "I-If I-I hadn't th-thought you'd b-be o-okay w-without m-me f-for th-the m-m-most p-part, I-I w-would h-have c-come b-back f-for y-you. A-And I-I d-din't w-want y-you c-caught u-up i-in th-th m-mess I w-was!"
Soi-fon stroked her back gently but made the mistake of saying, "Then why leave again? Why abandon me when you returned just long enough to give me hope that maybe you might be able to keep your promise? Why not take me?"
"I-I h-had t-to g-go," Yoruichi sobbed, sobbing harder now as the realization set in, seemingly for the first time, that she had hurt Soi-fon by leaving without saying goodbye after Aizen had escaped. "I-I c-couldn't s-stay without st-tarting t-rouble. A-And I c-couldn't t-take y-you bec-cause you're th-the c-captain of Squad T-Two a-and-"
"Fuck Squad Two," Soi-fon snapped pushing Yoruichi up so she could look into the golden eyes that made the warmth in her chest, which had nearly died out from the sight of her goddess in tears, grow a bit again. "I told you, you're more important to me than the Soul Society, Aizen can have it for all I care. I only care about being with you. I don't give a shit what happens to the Soul Society or the World of the Living if it means I can be with you. So you aren't leaving me behind again."
She managed a weak smile, tears flooding down her own cheeks now, despite the blush spread across them.
"You can break my arms and legs and I'll still follow you from now on," Soi-fon smiled cupping Yoruichi's shell-shocked face. "I promised I would always be there to protect you, and nothing will keep me from keeping that promise this time. Even you."
Yoruichi smiled, fresh tears flooding out of her eyes then threw her arms around Soi-fon, pulling her into a kiss. Soi-fon's eyes widened before she closed them, cheering internally as the warmth she had been trying to snuff out spread through her entire body, her body going numb as it did. Finally Yoruichi pulled away and smiled but realized that, despite the joy in Soi-fon's eyes, her face was wincing in pain.
Yoruichi's eyes fell on the bruises and cuts across the side of Soi-fon's face, marking up the beauty that she so loved to see. Soi-fon realized what she was looking at and turned her face away, hiding her mistake from view.
"Soi-fon," Yoruichi cooed gently turning her head back toward her. "What happened?"
"I got sloppy," Soi-fon said bitterly. "I let my emotions get the better of me and when I did a sub-Menos hollow found me and...I owe Omaeda."
Yoruichi gently ran her thumb over Soi-fon's cheek, feeling that her cheekbone was broken before tracing it over Soi-fon's cracked lip which had split open again. Soi-fon winced as Yoruichi's thumb traced her injuries but after a moment, Yoruichi kissed her again, briefly, then a second time on the split in her lower lip. Soi-fon whimpered slightly in pain and Yoruichi moved up to kiss Soi-fon's injured cheek. Again Soi-fon whimpered and winced at the contact, but Yoruichi continued, kissing the side of her face several times before kissing Soi-fon's blackening eye. Soi-fon winced worse than before and Yoruichi pulled back. Soi-fon whimpered in complaint and Yoruichi smiled, leaning down and brushing her lips teasingly against Soi-fon's again before beginning to trail kisses downward. Soi-fon began to shift and tremble nervously and Yoruichi stopped eyes widening and looking up at Soi-fon, seeing a deep crimson staining her face.
"Lady Yoruichi," Soi-fon mumbled, blush darkening.
"Soi-fon," Yoruichi breathed, also managing to blush a little before smiling and kissing her beloved again.
Soi-fon kissed her back happily, tears rolling down both women's cheeks, though neither was entirely sure why. Yoruichi gently slipped Soi-fon's haori off followed by her own sweatshirt.
Hours later, Soi-fon smiled to herself, arms squeezing the Goddess wrapped in them, Yoruichi smiling and squeezing back.
"I love you Little Bee," Yoruichi whispered.
"I love you too Lady Yoruichi," Soi-fon replied smiling up at her.
"Even after all this, you still won't just call me Yoruichi?" Yoruichi smiled. "What am I going to do with you."
"I might have a couple of idea," Soi-fon smiled reaching up and kissing her.
Yoruichi kissed her back, the kiss gentle yet filled with more emotion than anything they had done previously. After a moment Soi-fon pulled away, nestling her head into Yoruichi's chest and sighing contentedly making Yoruichi laugh. Yoruichi ran her hand over Soi-fon's hair lightly, listening to her Little Bee breathe lightly. She reached down, to Soi-fon's abdomen where the bandages had long fallen off, exposing Soi-fon's new snow white scar that was all that was left of the hollow's attack on her Little Bee. It was amazing how well Kido was able to heal given enough time. And Soi-fon had never even noticed what Yoruichi had really been doing when she had been kissing her injuries. After a time, Yoruichi looked out the window and smiled.
Sorry Kisuke, Yoruichi thought squeezing Soi-fon a little tighter smiling and closing her eyes, nestling her face into Soi-fon's hair. Looks like I won't be returning after all. Looks like I'm finally able to come home.
Then, she drifted off in her love's arms.
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