Disclaimer: I don't own Bleach. Please forgive the mistakes that I failed to notice. T_T
'I seriously don't see what she sees in you, you lame excuse of a man,' she muttered through gritted teeth.
The weather that day was fine; the cool breeze magnificently brought the fragrance of blossoming flowers from nearby field and there were even waves of flower petals complementing the finest day possible of the newly arrived spring. Frosts and snows had thawed for a while now and love have been filling the air along with all of the beautiful things but they all seemed to skipped one particular person Captain of the Second Division, Soi Fon. At least, for most parts.
The Captain was having a rather good mood that day until she caught glimpses of the loathsome former captain of Twelfth Division, Urahara Kisuke. Soi Fon was not going to have him coming here and stole her precious moments when Yoruichi-sama came to visit her some time later that day, so she did what she considered the most sensible thing to do; she followed him covertly to find out what his business in Soul Society was. It lasted for a fair amount of time before he made her come out of her guise. That did not go well because what entailed was pretty much one-sided battle of insults coming from Soi Fon's end while Urahara just steadily received every bits of her insults—he just stood there, blinked a few times, cocked his head to one side and drew a short smile at her.
The same seemingly-innocent smile as the one from a hundred years ago, she thought. Soi Fon hated the man, so very much. He angered her in the slightest way possible and it angered her even more because she knew his incompetence was never a good enough reason for her hatred towards him, no matter how many times she convinced Yoruichi-sama of it. It bothered her so much when he never minded to be on the receiving end of her displeasure and it became so much bothersome when he welcomed every wrath she threw his way.
'You shouldn't even be here,' she held back a snarl. 'Give me a good reason not to have Hacchi lock you up in his barrier again. This time around, I'll come to off you for good,' she let out a half-hearted threat as she had a feeling she was going to be irked by his answer.
'Yoruichi asked me to come and meet her here,' he replied. 'She mentioned something about patching up old stuffs and she needs my help for it. She said she didn't want Kurotsuchi anywhere near this stuffs,'
The answer earned the man a glare before Soi Fon huffed distastefully. As she turned her heels to leave she heard rustlings from behind her and just like that she was irked once more by that man Urahara's ability to intrigue her. She wanted to turn around in dilemma of either to just to have one last look at him before she went her way or the urge to just snap his neck and end all of her problems right then and there. She resolved against any of her choices for the sake of her pride and stepped away from the place only to have him stopping her after a few steps with his mere statement.
'I always find you as an admirable young woman, Captain,' he said with a voice as innocent as always.
Panic struck into Soi Fon for a moment and forced her to stop in her tracks because she could not come up with a clever way to cut the man down.
'Always so resolved, and now even more composed than you were long ago,' he added. There was a hint of pride in his tone.
The hint of tone made Soi Fon to feel compelled to turn and just smack him on the head until he bled but for some reason she froze, intrigued by whatever else Urahara could say before she decided to seal his fate.
'You knew Yoruichi doesn't need anybody protecting her, but you bound yourself to the responsibility, nonetheless,'
If that had not come to Soi Fon as an insult, his next words sure did.
'It's no secret that you hate my guts, Captain. Is it because what Yoruichi and I share goes beyond your logic?'
'Don't be going around and making your own assumptions, Urahara!' she snapped from her frozen state and lunged towards him with a strong intent to pull his tongue out through his teeth.
Again, she was stopped in her tracks. She did not know when it happened, maybe it happened when she was briefly blinded by her rage—her hands were neatly locked in Urahara's grip. Solid and unbreakable. Soi Fon had never felt so exposed since she confronted Yoruichi-sama why she was not taken along out of Seiretei long ago. She did not know where to look at when being so close to Urahara, she was beginning to regret to have lunged at him.
They were only inches apart from each other, it only made sense to Soi Fon that she mustered all of what was left of her pride and tried to come out of this situation on top.
'Let go off me if you value your life,' she hissed, somehow proud of herself to be able sound threatening and not quivering as she feared she might be.
'What is life for me if I let you go?'
The reply came in a voice so low, if it was not for their close distance, Soi Fon was not sure she wanted herself to accept the reply was meant for her. She hated that brief moment of hesitation and she hated the fact that not only she could hear the solemnness but she could feel it creeping into her soul. She shot her eyes up to meet his and the moment their eyes met, there was no denying how intense the two pair of eyes bore into each other and instantaneously engaged in an unspoken battle of searching for the truth.
It was not until a while later that Soi Fon felt the girp on her hands loosened and her face warmed up. She took a step back from the man whom guts she hated and suddenly she felt gleeful. Urahara wore the same look as he had a hundred years ago, back when Yoruichi-sama had accused her for having romantic interest in him—right in his presence.
A look that Soi Fon hated a hundred years ago right to her core. A look that highlighted Urahara Kisuke's innocence and vibrant liveliness that could only be exceeded by Yoruichi-sama. A look that made all of her hard work to prove his incompetence as futile. Her newfound glee for the man's bashfulness renedered her to feel triumphant—and then, confused. What is so victorious in making an incompetent man flush in the face? She asked herself, she sported a façade and went on an attempt to tease him about it, 'Don't tell me you're going to blush the rest of your lifetime if you let me be,'
'I don't mind it if you're going to blush the way you are now too,' he said with a vague smugness in his voice. 'Oh, your shade of red is deepening,'
'Take a long hard look into the mirror, why don't you, you bastard, Urahara!' her hands were quick to strike him down out of the nonsense but it did not seemed like the day was going to side with her rather than the promising upcoming event of seeing Yoruichi-sama after she was settle whatever that was happening with Urahara.
Once again, Urahara caught Soi Fon in his grip and she had not gotten the chance to prepare herself when she saw his eyes bore into her eyes and she felt as if her soul was bared for him to see and he definitely seen her through. His eyes turned into warmer shades and face softened but she could not shake the uneasiness of what was coming was not going to be rainbow and sunshine.
'So much admiration, so much loneliness and pain—and you kept these bottled up and hidden from the world?'
'I don't need pity or sympathies, especially from you,' she growled and unlike previously, she made attempts to set herself free from his grip. 'And those weren't loneliness or admiration, those are for children,' she scoffed. 'That's just me; hidden, because that's how I operate. Better unseen.' she corrected curtly. 'Now, let me go,' she demanded.
'Why should I?'
Urahara had a look that Soi Fon could not understand—dissatisfied. A look she had never seen him wor before. She got a feeling she was about to know why and she was sure she was not going to like it, so far she had not liked how things panned out, so she made harder attempts to break free.
'You wanted to stay, don't you?' he asked. 'I let you loose and you only took one step back when you could've been long gone. You let me have you back into my hands when someone with your strength can easily break through a simple hand grip. It's like you're not even trying to walk away. So, why should I let you go this time?'
Soi Fon hated being right on occasion like so. She hated that he was right, she was weak enough to let her guard down. It irked her that he knew that about her, something private about her that nobody was supposed to know, only Yoruichi-sama because she would know anyway without Soi Fon having to tell her anything. Above all, it irked her that after that day, she could no longer dump all of her hatred and bitterness onto Urahara Kisuke as a coping mechanism with a crystal clear conscience. Why would he care so much anyway? He never made any fuss before, why now?
'You're pathetic,' it came out more venomous than she intended. At least Soi Fon got what she wanted, he let her go and she wasted no time to make her way back to her quarters, only to be haunted by the replay of Urahara's futile persistence to not let his face drop in her presence.
The unsettling feeling lingered long enough it began to bring seething pain somewhere in her chest. Yoruichi-sama was in the middle of telling her a story when Soi Fon got up from her seat at the instant of hearing the name, 'Kisuke.'
Yoruichi knew something was up with her Little Bee the moment she had seen her earlier but decided not to press on the matter, but her suspicions were confirmed when Soi Fon fled out of the room without saying anything. She recognized that look her Little Bee had when she fled the scene, a look she often saw in the World of Living and have not seen for a long time in Seiretei. It was a refreshing change to her Little Bee following her instinct other than related to assassination or being a Shinigami like that. She knew what typically would happen, there were always the same series of sequence. She did not know where she was heading, she had no specific destination but to just will her feet and her heart to take her to wherever whatever that was causing her disarray. Her steps were getting faster almost as if it was trying to match her heartbeats and she would soon be oblivious to her surroundings. When she thought she in question, Yoruichi was thinking about her Little Bee. 'Go get him, Little Bee,'
True enough, the running had been going on for a while that Soi Fon reached the point of not being able to see where she was going, all that she knew was she was still moving when she was slowly started to recognize the place. Few more runs ahead was the tree where it happened. The tree that witnessed her cutting down the man who survived being on the path of her wrath for over a hundred years in an entirely new way. She regretted it. Even more when she could not find any sign of him anywhere there.
'Damn you, where are you?!' she cursed as she willed herself to follow what was remaining of his reiatsu. He's gone, she thought to herself. She let him go. Why did she do that? She squandered in a brief self-pity over her rotten luck and about to reason with herself how she had let things to get that far when she caught glimpses of him from the corner of her eyes.
Soi Fon easily caught up to Urahara with her Captain-level speed and efficiently stopped him in his tracks when she wrapped her arms around him. Unfortunately, even her Captain-level skills could not prevent her tears from falling as soon as she buried her face into the fabric of his back. It was scary how letting everything go with the stream of tears could bring her calmness. It was strange for her to feel secured when she buried herself into his back, as if she was finally hidden from the world, as if he was enough to hide her and with that revelation, she tightened her wrapping arms around him. 'I let you go,' her voice still bared threats of cracking into sobs.
'You didn't. I let you go,' he whispered and Soi Fon whimpered into his back and found a whole new reason not to let go. 'You simply came back,' he soothes.
There was nothing but silence for a long time until the tears cascaded from her eyes subsided. Then, she felt his hands over hers and her heart soared only to have it slammed down when she felt his attempt to unbuckle her from him. 'Don't you want to let go?' he asked with a tone of asking her to believe in him.
'What is life for me if I let you go?' she replied, finally warming up to the idea of believing in him. After all, the man had Yoruichi-sama seal of approval, albeit incompetent to her standards.
Urahara let out a small chuckle before unbuckling her arms from him and for a moment, he could see her trying to hold tightly onto her dear life for what was coming, and honestly—he adored that earnest resolve she had in her. He pulled her into his embrace and he smiled when he heard she exhaled a sigh of relief as if they had just finished a battle.
'Oh? Look what we have here,' a familiar voice came out of the sudden startled both newfound couple. From up a tree, Yoruichi shot a mischievous grin onto both Soi Fon and Urahara before she got down and walked closer to inspect Soi Fon's face, only to have the latter bashfully retreated deeper into the man's chest, without any doubt blushing uncontrollably. 'What have I told you, Little Bee?' she laughed, referring to the incident long ago. 'Don't let her go, Kisuke,' she nudged him when she noticed neither of them were ready to let each other just yet.
'Not a chance, not when she's hard to come by,' his lovingly voice was unmistaken, it earned him a surprised look from Soi Fon, before she let herself being drawn deeper into his embrace.
'Good job, Little Bee,' Yoruichi winked as she jumped onto a tree branch, ready to make her exit. 'Oh, by the way, I told you so, didn't I?' she laughed gleefully before waving at them and went her way.