Days 1-5: First Date

Wednesday: hump day. Nothing motivated most high-school students like a good Wednesday afternoon, knowing that the worst was out of the way and that they were rounding the corner for the weekend. This was true even for abnormal high-school students like Ichigo Kurosaki. Today Ichigo was on his way home passing the Urahara Shop when he noticed something amiss. Something subtle, a little detail that had been bothering him since he had gone to school Monday: a black cat was sitting in front of the store. Now this was nothing out of the ordinary, except that he had seen that black cat sitting in front of the store, in that exact same spot, starting when he was coming home from school on Monday, then when he was going to and from school on Tuesday, and again both in the morning and afternoon today. Ichigo was finally bothered enough to act on it.

"Hey, Yoruichi," he said, turning off of the sidewalk and approaching the cat that sat at the storefront.

"What?" came a gruff masculine voice from the cat. "Oh," she suddenly realized, "hey Ichigo."

"Have you been sitting in that spot for three days?" he asked, arching an eyebrow.

"No, of course not," the cat replied. "I mean, I've gone to eat and drink and go to the bathroom."

Ichigo's eyebrows arched still higher. "What are you doing that for?"

"I could answer if you give me a sec to change into my human form," the cat said, her masculine voice sounding very strange with a seductive undertone.

That got rid of Ichigo quickly enough. He blushed a shade to make his orange hair envious. "No, that's fine," he said quickly, stepping backwards towards the sidewalk. "See ya, Yoruichi!" he waved as he zipped away.

The cat chuckled, and returned to its vigil. The truth was that Yoruichi had been maintaining her feline form to take advantage of one particular trait that she lacked but cats possessed: patience. After what she had witnessed on Monday morning, she had found herself full of boundless, nervous energy. She could focus on nothing, and found herself zipping around the city with Shunpo, trying to see what a certain someone was up to. By noon on the first day she had realized that she would drive herself crazy if she kept doing this all the time, but she lacked the patience to do anything else other than obsess about what she knew was coming. Thus she had transformed into a cat, where she found she did have the patience to keep a vigil in front of the shop, so that she could wait for Her to arrive, yet retain her own sanity.

Yoruichi had witnessed Kisuke being sealed away. Kisuke had inadvertently given them away, having to get up so early he had forgotten to repress his reiatsu, whereas Hachi and Soi Fon had reigned in their reiatsu to make them virtually undetectable. Kisuke's wandering reiatsu had drawn Yoruichi's attention and awoken her from her slumber, though she was the only one of the household who was aware of what had really happened.

Her Little Bee had come back for her. Leaving Soi Fon had been Yoruichi's only real regret when she had abandoned Soul Society to help Kisuke get the Visoreds out of Soul Society alive. After their violent reunion during Rukia's aborted execution, she had at least been in contact with Soi Fon, occasionally spending time with her, but it had never felt the same, had never felt like they were honestly spending time together. First off, their contact was rarely one-on-one, as she either had Ichigo and his friends or the Urahara Shop crew hanging around her, or Soi Fon was surrounded by her fellow Captains, especially her fellows in the Shinigami Women's Association. Yoruichi hated to admit it, but she always felt a tinge of jealousy in the few instances she had seen Soi Fon with those other women, wondering if her Little Bee had found in one of them a surrogate for herself. Secondly, Soi Fon seemed more distant than she had before. She was still deferential and easily embarrassed, but she lacked that hint of openness and vulnerability she had possessed 100 years ago. Yoruichi still remembered the hateful things Soi Fon had said upon their reunion, and wondered if she hadn't changed their relationship irrevocably in her departure.

Unlike Soi Fon, Yoruichi labored under no delusions about what she felt for her former subordinate. Yoruichi knew she was attracted to the younger woman, even though she had practically raised her from her teenage years. Something about Soi Fon just drew the noble-born woman to her, a woman who loved and worshipped Yoruichi not for her position or ability, but for who she was as an individual. It was easy for Yoruichi to be completely natural around Soi Fon in a way that she couldn't be even around best friends like Kisuke or Kukaku Shiba. Whether Yoruichi was being mischievous, serious, lazy, playful, or contemplative, Soi Fon loved all parts of her equally, and seemed to just enjoy being with her, without asking anything else of Yoruichi other than her presence. Yoruichi thought that she brought out the best in Soi Fon, helping the tightly-wound girl to mellow out, even if only slightly. Yoruichi loved Soi best when she could see that hint of softness in her, that rarely-seen vulnerability.

And that was what Yoruichi feared; that Soi Fon had lost that vulnerability, had lost that need for Yoruichi, had lost that softness that the noblewoman had once treasured. People changed, of course, and 100 years was a long enough time for any Shinigami to change. Yoruichi feared that loss because she found that she needed the grounding and direction that Soi Fon had given to her life. Yoruichi felt she lacked purpose in the past hundred years, and she had come to realize that her relationship with her former Lieutenant had given her life an extra degree of meaning and comfort. Yoruichi knew she had taken her old relationship with Soi for granted, had failed to realize just how much of the pleasure she had derived from her old life had come in the form of the petite, iron-willed, fully devoted tagalong girl.

Thus Yoruichi had been overjoyed to see Soi Fon come to the World of the Living with the intent of restoring their relationship to where it had been 100 years ago. Soi Fon had indeed changed, as the old Soi would have never taken the initiative in this way, would never have been so bold as to impose anything on her Yoruichi-sama. She had been amused as she observed Soi Fon's continued suspicion of Kisuke, though she had known all along exactly why Soi distrusted that man, it had always been cute to watch her try to compete for her attention.

The only other thing bothering Yoruichi was that Soi Fon was taking it too slow. If Soi wanted to spend one-on-one time together with her again, why didn't she just get on with it? She remained in her cat form, keeping her vigil at the front of the store, senses acutely attuned towards even the slightest hint of reiatsu, or the scent she had memorized; the scent of her Little Bee. Yoruichi would be ready when Soi Fon stopped teasing her and was finally ready for some fun. It was Yoruichi's job to do the teasing, after all.

~~~000000~~~

Soi Fon was, in fact, experiencing one of the most nerve-wracking moments of her life. She had spent the first two days hiding out in Karakura Town, stalking around and gathering some items that she might need later, while she had set up camp in a wooded area outside the town. Her intent in this case was to minimize Yoruichi-sama's suspicions by not appearing in the same day that Urahara disappeared, or the day after he disappeared. It was all a part of her plan that she would wait until just before dinnertime on Wednesday before making the initial contact, to make it seem as though she had just come to spend time with Yoruichi-sama out of the blue.

Of course, it wasn't just "spending time" with Yoruichi-sama, it would be a date. The first of several dates that the rigid woman had meticulously outlined, everything scheduled down to the minute, though obviously she had built in a wide range of room for error, given that Yoruichi-sama was incredibly hard to manage. The course of these dates would progressively make the two of them more intimate until before she knew it, Yoruichi-sama would be firmly (and of course, willingly) bound in a relationship with her.

Soi was currently perched atop an office building of medium height, looking out over the shopping district of Karakura Town, pacing back and forth as she writhed in her own indecision. She was clad in her full Captain's regalia, again wanting to make a casual first impression, as if she had just popped over from her work in the Soul Society. Despite all of her trappings, however, she looked anything but confident, for as determined and motivated as Soi Fon was, taking this first leap was still an agonizing experience. Sealing Urahara away had been an easy thing to do; she hated that guy. This, in Soi's mind, was the real first step, where she had to take a risk, make her investment, and go to see Yoruichi-sama.

But she was completely paralyzed. After all this resolve, all this planning, all her growth over the past hundred years, she was still couldn't do it. She was still just a child, just the tagalong girl who silently worshipped her Yoruichi-sama, but could never hope to approach her. She had not grown at all; she could not to touch Yoruichi in physical combat, and she could not make an emotional connection with her either. For a moment, resentment boiled up in her, thinking of how perfect Yoruichi was, how inaccessible, how she had everything in her life handed to her, how she made it all look so easy.

No, what was she thinking? She was letting her own inadequacies cloud her heart. She loved Yoruichi-sama, and she would do what it took to make that love truly blossom, so that she could be together with her forever. Yoruichi may have had it easy, but Soi Fon had had to work for everything in her life, she would work for this as well, and she would get it.

She turned, made a run at the edge of the rooftop, then stopped suddenly, breathing deeply. "Okay, okay," she said, trying to steady herself. Her palms were sweaty, a phenomenon she never experienced outside of severe combat conditions, and her heart seemed to leap up into her throat. In short, she was in a deplorable condition, a condition that any member of the Onmitsukido would be ashamed to be in, let alone the brigade's commander. She had to master herself. Besides, she had to master herself for more practical purposes. If she showed herself to Yoruichi-sama in this condition, her intent would be beyond obvious, and the whole affair would unravel quickly.

Her resolve was all she had, all she had ever had, and that was enough in this case. Her resolve had led her to serve that woman, her resolve had led her to try to hunt her down, and now her resolve would lead her to win her heart. This was the culmination of the two forces that had driven her life, of her iron resolve and Yoruichi-sama, and between them she found the capacity to master herself. Her breathing slowed and her will solidified. This time she turned towards the edge of the building, dashed towards it, leapt off into the town, and didn't look back.

~~~0000~~~

The cat that had been sitting up stiffly all day suddenly perked up a notch. She felt a hint of reiatsu, not much, but noticeable to the experienced woman. Whatever else she felt for her, she was proud of her Little Bee, as it was commendable that someone with her level of power could sneak around the town almost untraceably, and Yoruichi would not even have noticed the spike had she not been forewarned of Soi Fon's presence.

The subtle shift in power was rapidly moving towards her, meaning that Soi Fon was finally ready to reveal herself. The cat turned and scampered back into the Urahara Shop. It zipped up the stairs, and soon enough Yoruichi Shihoin came back down the steps. She wore what was now her usual attire, her orange silk shirt over a modified variant of her old Onmitsukido uniform.

Soi Fon's reiatsu had vanished entirely again, meaning that she was likely walking normally through the city. Yoruichi decided to be nonchalant anyway, not knowing exactly how close the other was to her, and not wanting Soi Fon to get wind of the fact that she knew. She headed into the kitchen where Tessai was preparing dinner.

"Human again, Miss Yoruichi?" Tessai asked.

"Yup," Yoruichi replied, as she took in the smell of what the apron-clad man was cooking.

"So Miss Soi Fon's on her way?"

"Yup," Yoruichi replied again, taking a seat on the tatami floor before she really took in what he had said. "Wait, what?"

"I said something?" Tessai asked flatly, though he shot Yoruichi a knowing look. The tanned woman glowered, wondering how much of a secret this was any longer.

The doorbell rang and Yoruichi leapt to her feet, betraying her eagerness. She too needed to master herself, to not seem too over-eager to see her old subordinate again.

~~~0000~~~

Soi Fon stood, rooted in the strength of her own glacial calmness, at the shoji in front of the Urahara Shop, waiting. It was only moments after she had reached out and rung the doorbell, but that time had dragged on almost indefinitely, wearing on the strength that she had summoned. Finally She came and opened the door. Soi Fon saw her, but refused to truly see her, to allow her discipline to melt into those warm, golden eyes, knowing that she was here on a mission.

"Oh, Soi Fon!" Yoruichi said, "what brings you here?"

"I wish to speak to you, Yoruichi-sama," Soi Fon said, retaining her veneer of formality.

"Duh," Yoruichi replied, grinning cheekily. "Otherwise you wouldn't be here. Why are you here?"

Damn her, Soi Fon thought. Yoruichi always had a way of unsettling her like this. She would hate her if she weren't so in love with her. "I was thinking," she began instead, "I'm free on Friday, would you like to go do something?"

"Like a date?" Yoruichi said.

Damn her, Soi Fon thought yet again, damning herself was well for good measure as she felt the blood rise in her cheeks, betraying her emotional state. She was trapped, unable to say yes or no, so she simply denied the question. "Would you like to do something?" she repeated.

"Like what?" Yoruichi replied, her grin growing.

"Well, I noticed there's a beautiful park not too far off in this town here," Soi Fon said. "How about an afternoon there?"

"That sounds nice," Yoruichi said. "What time?"

"1400 hours," Soi Fon rattled off, a little too quickly. She wasn't blowing it, but she was making mistakes. They both participated in the farce, neither one properly aware of what the other knew or expected from the whole affair, but both knowing that there was far more going on than one woman asking to spend time out with another.

"Yes ma'am!" Yoruichi said, saluting smartly with a mischievous smile.

Soi Fon blushed again, but saw Yoruichi's smile become more sincere. "Right," Soi Fon said finally. "2:00," she corrected, "at the park's southern gate. See you then," she said, and in a flicker of motion, she was gone.

"S-see you…" Yoruichi said.

~~~000000~~~

Friday dawned, seeing a cat stir on a futon in the Urahara Shop. Once again Yoruichi had taken refuge in her feline form to overcome her anxiety, which in this case had given her a crippling insomnia. With their proclivity to sleep at least 16 hours a day, she had been able to pass the time quickly as a cat, and had been able to find the sleep she had not been able to find. Yoruichi had continuously forced herself to nap, staying awake only when even her feline form felt possessed of too much nervous energy. If even she was this charged up about the idea, she felt bad for her Little Bee, who had always been several orders of magnitude more tightly wound than her, and may very well have become a nervous wreck in the past day and a half.

Finally she awoke at noon on Friday, with two hours to the appointed time. She deliberated for a time over what to wear, wondering if Soi Fon wanted her to dress in World of the Living street-clothes, or if they were going to be spending their day in their spirit bodies. In the end she resolved that they had to be using Gigai, given that Soi had chosen a rather public place in Karakura Town, and they would have little to do if they could not interact with the general populace, and the resourceful Soi had doubtlessly brought a Gigai with her, or otherwise acquired one somehow.

With that in mind Yoruichi eventually settled on something stylish, vaguely casual, and neutral in tone, something that wouldn't make Soi feel awkward as she worked to re-establish their close, quasi-romantic friendship. If Soi wanted to go into "friends with benefits" territory, Yoruichi would be only too happy to oblige, but she doubted that her former subordinate would ever be quite that forward, so she went with something moderate: She settled finally on a white button-down shirt that she wore open, revealing a blue t-shirt underneath. The t-shirt revealed only a hint of cleavage, neither too conservative nor too provocative, and finished the ensemble with a pair of skinny jeans that emphasized the shape of her legs, and yet did not stand out all that much. Dressed and ready, Yoruichi departed with just enough time to arrive at the park at 2:00 on the dot, wanting to surprise Soi Fon with her punctuality.

Soi Fon arrived first anyway, that being a part of her plan. She waited casually at the gate that led into the public park in Karakura Town, blending in with the living human populace in her gigai. She still stood out somewhat, however, with her white-cloth hair braids tipped in their golden rings.

But with all the variety of daily life in the bustling town, Soi Fon's one odd choice did not seem so peculiar, especially given her otherwise normal clothing. She had chosen to go with a yellow blouse and (no doubt driven by her unconscious favoring of that color scheme) loose-fitting black pants.

She watched Yoruichi arrive, walking down the street towards the park. No shunpo, no "sneak up as a cat and surprise you naked," no special entry altogether. Soi Fon didn't know how to interpret that, but hoped it meant that Yoruichi understood Soi's plan to frame this outing as a casual get-together, rather than a proper date (even though it was the first in a series that would, hopefully, lead to serious dating).

"Hey, Soi Fon," Yoruichi greeted as she crossed the street and approached the other woman.

"Hi, Yoruichi-sama," Soi began, caught in the old habit of excessive politeness, even in this casual setting.

"So what's the plan?" Yoruichi said, seemingly eager to get going.

"No particular plan" Soi replied (which was a blatant lie). "Let's just enjoy the day."

Yoruichi saw the honest smile on Soi's face and practically melted from how adorable she was. This was going to be worth the wait.

The day went much the way that Soi Fon had predicted, The first phase of the get-together was predominated by a walk through the park, which was sizable, as the two women caught up. 100 years apart had given them a lot to talk about, things that Yoruichi had been able to learn through her own intelligence-gathering methods, but enjoyed hearing about again straight from Soi Fon. Yoruichi divulged a good deal of what she had done over the last hundred years as well, though avoided referring to Urahara too much. It was the first genuine conversation the two women had had in a long time, punctuated neither by Soi's efforts to sting Yoruichi nor by the intervention of Omaeda, Urahara, the Shinigami Women's Association, Tessai, Kurosaki, or any of the other people that had gotten in the way of their direct interaction since their reunion.

The day was beautiful, as was the park, green foliage overhead that complimented broad, green lawns, as well as crystal-clear ponds scattered about for the public's enjoyment, and the conversation was satisfying above all. Both women had rose-tinted memories of the other, idealizing time they had spent in the past and smudging out minor disagreements that had existed between them (while acknowledging the major issues that had come to light in their reunion fight), and yet now they found in this sunny afternoon the fulfillment of those altered memories.

Soi Fon pulled out her cell phone at one point, intent on checking whether she was on schedule or not. "Whoa," she said audibly, disrupting the flow of conversation.

"What's up?" Yoruichi asked.

"It's already 4:00," Soi Fon said, then realized she was speaking aloud. Yoruichi-sama was not to know of her rigid plan. "I mean, it's amazing how time flies huh?"

"Not too amazing," Yoruichi replied. "I mean, we were apart for so long." An awkward silence hung for a second as the two women looked each other. Soi Fon's heart told her to say something meaningful, to bring her true feelings to the fore, but it was not yet time for that according to her timetable: it was only day 5 of 28.

"You know, so we had a lot to catch up on," Yoruichi said, breaking the silence in the least awkward way possible.

"Right," Soi Fon said, relieved that the tension had been broken. "Do you want to go get some food, Yoruichi-sama?"

"But yeah, I'm pretty hungry," Yoruichi said finally, defusing the awkwardness altogether and getting things back on track neatly enough. "What's to eat around here?"

"You mean you don't know?" Soi Fon asked. "You've lived here for a hundred years."

"Tessai," Yoruichi shot back. "That guy's always cooking something. That and the fact that I can shunpo off to Tokyo in about 12 minutes, I haven't really gotten too close a look at all the restaurants in town, outside of the Shop's neighborhood."

"Well, there's a sukiyaki shop on the other edge of the park," Soi Fon said. She at least had thoroughly searched through all the neighborhoods of Karakura Town.

"Sounds fine," Yoruichi replied.

Soi Fon noted the odd glance the counterman at the sukiyaki shop gave the two women. She knew that Yoruichi's appearance (namely through skin tone) would mark her as a foreigner in the World of the Living in Japan, though Soi did not realize that her hair braids gave her away as a girl obsessed with an antiquated Chinese style of dress. Lesbian foreigners, the shopkeeper was probably thinking, or so Soi Fon's doubts led her to believe.

Yoruichi had gotten used to the odd glances so far, remnants of a subtle xenophobia in Japan (that had actually gotten much better over her years there), but she was more bothered by the crumpled-up 1000 Yen bill that Soi handed to the man across the counter, wondering how Soi had procured World of the Living money, but she thought it wise to not inquire about its origin.

The pair of women ate their sukiyaki at a picnic table not far from the shop. They ate in silence, but it was not an awkward silence, as before. The two women seemed to have reached a consensus that they said what needed to be said, and were merely enjoying one another's company without forcing out more conversation. Soi Fon took it as a good sign, that she had effectively broken the ice with Yoruichi and laid a solid foundation for her to worm her way deeper into the Goddess' confidence.

The meal was as far as Soi Fon had planned to take Date Number 1, and therefore it was now time to disengage. The plan had been to leave Yoruichi-sama at the park and retreat back to her hideout and wait until the next day, when she would propose something more, but Soi Fon was feeling confident at this juncture, and resolved to walk Yoruichi-sama home.

"Shall I walk you home, Yoruichi-sama?" Soi Fon said after they had finished their sukiyaki and returned the bowls and utensils to the shop, eliciting another suspicious glare from the shopkeeper.

"Come on," Yoruichi said suddenly. "You got me on a date, drop the –sama already."

Soi Fon blushed scarlet, thrown off by Yoruichi's understanding of the situation. "Yoruichi-san?" she tried tentatively.

Yoruichi sighed, "fine, I'll go with that," she relented. "Anyway, let's go home."

And so they went home, ending the first date. They were no longer silent, but no longer having intimate conversations either. Rather they made small-talk, light commentary on the ins and outs of Karakura Town, Yoruichi trading her long experience for Soi Fon's short-term intensive research. They arrived at the Urahara Shop and stood together at the front door.

"I had fun, Soi-chan," Yoruichi said, putting a teasing emphasis on the honorific.

"I did too, Yoruichi sa-an," Soi Fon replied, catching herself midway through sama and switching over to the less awkwardly formal term.

"Can we do this again?" Yoruichi asked.

"Sure," Soi Fon replied. "I don't have much to do these next few days… I'll see you tomorrow, perhaps?"

"It's a date," Yoruichi said, flashing a mischievous grin as she saw Soi Fon blush again.

Yoruichi then leaned down and kissed Soi on the lips, holding it just long enough that Soi Fon properly realized what was going on. Yoruichi disengaged, flashing another mischievous grin as she left her Little Bee behind, beet-red and totally flabbergasted.

It was going to be so much fun having Soi Fon back!

Author's Note: Yup. School has slammed into me pretty hard, so I composed the bulk of this chapter in computer labs in between classes, and that's part of the reason why this took so long. Mostly a fluffy chapter, though the signs of things to come are there for those who can see them.