Notice: If the title doesn't give it away, then I don't know what else would.

Summary: On a whim, she decided to pretend she was a stray black cat for the day. She exactly didn't know what compelled her to roam away from her duties in Soul Society (again) or why she decided to follow them, but she filed all thoughts away and decided to enjoy the festivities on Earth.

Warning: Slight AU - some characters have powers/abilities that are not mentioned in canon. Takes place after… well, I'm not sure. Spoiler-ish if you haven't watched/read all of Black Cat and/or don't know of Yoruichi's true identity.

Just by chance. On a whim. By a stroke of luck.

A strange, unforeseen encounter may bring two worlds together like no one else might have ever suspected.

Encounters

"A Stray Black Cat"

By Hikagi

It had been, she decided, far too long since the last time she had had the pleasure of simply relaxing on an abandoned rooftop without anything around to bother her. There weren't too many places she could go where it was relatively quiet and peaceful. Some of the buildings housed occupants that blasted music through the walls, hurting her sensitive ears. Others had shingles that broke off with the slightest touch.

'But this roof,' she thought as she leaned forward to stretch out all the kinks in her muscles, 'was perfect.'

And indeed it was. Not too many structures were around to hinder her view of the bright, beautiful moon. Everyone downstairs was sleeping or out for the night. The building was located in the less occupied part of town so there weren't people milling about in the streets.

Her whiskers twitched as a pleasant wind ruffled her fur like it did when she was running through the streets. Sometimes it felt good to get away from it all.

She stretched some more, sighed and plopped down, her head resting on her arms and her tail curled comfortably next to her.

With everything that had been going on, everyone had been busy jostling to and fro. Earth was chaotic – thousands of people were dying by the minute, and there weren't enough staff members to get all of the work and soul burials done. It was speculated that the majority of the deaths were related to the rumor that Earth was being controlled by unknown powers shrouded in the darkness. And yet...

Wait a second…

Shihouin Yoruichi's ears perked up while she lifted her head up to sniff the air, a delicious odor wafting into her nose.

Was that milk?

Forget world domination, poverty, corruption and death – her stomach had grumbled. The cat sweatdropped, embarrassed that she had forgotten a simple thing such as food. It had been many, many months since she had been in cat form.

Well, she supposed, it couldn't hurt too much to see what this was about, now could it?

She flicked her tail and hopped away, tracking down the source of the smell, springing from building to building with perhaps more skill or reach than a normal cat should. But no one was around to see her so Yoruichi didn't let that concern her for the time being. She stopped when she came upon a human being perched on top of another rooftop, an arm casually draped over bent legs. In his hand was the object of her desire.

She was about to venture closer, but a soft growl interrupted her before she could take another step. A white cat crawled out from underneath a shadow, baring her path. The sound alerted the human to her presence and he tensed, his free hand twitching and ready to grab an object in his left pocket.

Yoruichi wasn't stupid. She knew how to recognize something dangerous when she saw it, and the man in front of her was potentially lethal. Well, as dangerous as he could get when faced against an innocent stray cat.

She scoffed. Her, an innocent stray cat. Right. That was like saying that Kisuke was a gentleman. Or that Hitsugaya-taichou wasn't short. Or Yamamoto-soutaichou wasn't old. Or that pigs could fly.

Yoruichi ignored the white cat who, after a warning growl, did nothing to stop her from advancing towards the human save for staring suspiciously in her direction. The man relaxed after seeing that he had gone into alert mode for an animal, and settled back down. Yoruichi carefully walked up and nudged his feet with her paws.

"You hungry?" he asked, looking down.

She mewed in response. The man sighed and bent down, opening another bottle of milk and pouring it out onto a saucer. She considered herself lucky.

"Man, that's the second one today," he muttered to himself. "It's just my luck that another stray cat wants some of my milk." He paused, giving Yoruichi a look-over. "Though, you look too clean to be a stray."

He reached over and started scratching her ears after she licked the bowl clean. Yoruichi purred as his fingers found the perfect spot, leaning in to his hand. Apparently, the white cat was feeling jealous because she walked over and demanded to be petted as well.

"Hey, hold it! I can pet you both at the same time, so stop fussing!"

But after a few minutes, the hands stopped. Yoruichi was disappointed and showed it by butting her head against his fingers. When he merely laughed and made no motion to continue, she started wrapping herself around his legs. The white cat followed suit, claiming the man's other leg. Eventually, both cats stopped when he leaned backwards and made no effort to move.

"Isn't the moon beautiful, Saya?" he whispered, more to himself than to anyone else.

As if response, the wind picked up and ruffled their hairs as a sweet, almost otherworldly melody drifted past their ears.

"Fuwa fuwa fururin, omoi nosete…"

Yoruichi wasn't sure if it was the wind or the man's humming that filtered in, but she was sure that there was something wrong in the environment. Something was subtly grating against her nerves, like a bad feeling she couldn't shake off.

"Saya..."

He was looking up at the moon again, apparently lost in thought.

"You'd think that after a few years, I'd get over it."

Yoruichi's suspicions deepened when she saw that the white cat was staring unnervingly at the man, yellow eyes never straying from his form.

"You two play nice, okay? I'm going to see if Eve's remembered to stock up on milk."

She waited until the human shut the door before she approached the other cat.

"Ex-shinigami Minatsuki Saya," Yoruichi said, cautiously. "It's been a while since anyone has heard any news about you."

The white cat bristled, fur standing on edge. "Who are you?" she replied, eyes narrowing.

Yoruichi stopped and calmly sat down, watching the other cat with scrutiny. "My name is Shihouin Yoruichi."

Saya (or who she assumed to be Saya) froze. "Y-yoruichi? Formally from the special opts. division?"

"Yes."

"What are you doing here? The last I've heard, you've been reinstated in Soul Society as a special shinigami."

Yoruichi shrugged. "Saa… Just taking a break from work. The moon is beautiful on Earth." She said this as if it explained everything.

"Oh, I see."

She had a feeling that Saya still wasn't comfortable around her. "Why don't we abandon these forms? I want to see what you look like as a human. And people won't see us that way either."

Yoruichi didn't wait for a response before she was surrounded by a cloud of smoke, her cat form already shed. When she opened her eyes, the white cat had been replaced by a young girl with short, dark hair.

"Something wrong?" she asked when Saya just stared at her, gaping.

"I had the impression that you were a..."

"Guy?"

"Yeah."

"Don't worry too much about it," Yoruichi said, waving a hand in the air. "I get that all the time."

They were currently peeking in through a window, silently watching the man raid his fridge all the while clinging to the brick walls, many, many meters above the ground.

"So..." Yoruichi started, indicating with a flick of her head. "Is he the one?"

"What?"

She threw a wild guess, having only one such experience in the past. "The man you abandoned your duties for."

Saya didn't respond, which was more than enough for an answer.

Yoruichi waited for a while, turning her attention back to the dark-haired human. "Who is he?"

"He... He's Train Heartnet. Former member of the Chrono Numbers. Codename XIII. Also went by Black Cat."

Yoruichi twitched at that.

"He quit being an assassin after I died and became a sweeper instead. He recently saved a lot of lives for my sake. I mean, I became a shinigami because it was like being a sweeper again. And then I was assigned to a job on Earth and I jumped at the opportunity because it was close to where Train was supposed to be. And then I found Train again, and I, I..."

"Didn't feel like coming back," the ex-captain supplied.

Saya nodded. "Something like that."

Yoruichi sighed as they started climbing up back to the roof. "I know what that's like. I did something similar myself, centuries ago."

"I know," she said as they took one last leap and reached the top. "I've heard stories about the legendary Shihouin Yoruichi and how she supposedly left Soul Society, so I decided to see if I could do the same. I ran into Urahara-san and he took interest in my case and helped me slip past the barriers."

"So Kisuke helped you out? That's why Soul Society hasn't a clue as to what happened to you?"

"I presume so. Urahara-san said that he helped a few people this way."

"Is that so," Yoruichi said, mulling the idea over in her head. "But are you content?"

Saya opened her mouth to say something, but stopped. She eventually settled on saying, "I'm afraid I don't understand what you mean."

Yoruichi grabbed the former sweeper's arm, forcing them to keep eye contact with each other. "The question is, Saya, will you be happy like this?" Saya's eyes widened and she made an effort to struggle, but Yoruichi wasn't going to let her go so easily. "Will you be happy just watching from the sidelines, knowing that he thinks you are dead and lost to him?"

"Oi," the man's voice called out, muffled by the door that opened to the rooftop. "Kuroneko-chan, Shironeko-chan, are you two still up there?"

Saya turned away as Yoruichi's grip loosened when the doorknob turned and the hinges creaked.

"This is more than what I had ever hoped by coming here. I couldn't be happier."

She gave the older woman a meaningful hug before she turned back into a white cat and scampering off to greet Train.

"Don't worry," Yoruichi said when the cat turned one last time to see her. "I won't tell anyone. Not a soul."

She remained in her place for a few more minutes, watching the two of them as a smile crept upon her face.

'You are a lucky one, Saya. It seems that Train is still in love with you.'

Then she turned around and leapt off the building, disappearing into the shadows.

Fin.

Author's Notes:

Crossed over with Black Cat

Mixed a bit of the manga and anime of Black Cat together, but there's more anime than manga at this point. And no, Saya did not have the ability to turn into a white cat in canon. I just totally made that up. She also (obviously) is not a shinigami in the original story either.

At first, I had something totally different in mind, but this is the direction my fingers has taken me. Originally, Saya was just supposed to be a spirit following Train around (as hinted in the manga). Then I watched the anime, and noticed how Saya was never shot in the same scene as the white cat. And then I thought that it'd be cool (i.e. I was tired and my brain was being stupid) if Saya stuck around after the end of the anime and comforted Train as a 'pet' of sorts. XD

You'd think that my writing would improve over time, but I feel as if that's not the case. Every piece I do, I go back and reread it, thinking, "Ack! Needs more work!" I'm not completely satisfied with the turn of events. Even the Bleach/CCS shot wasn't something I was happy with. I need to make my stories less boring. There are so many things I need to work on.

Maybe I should start writing crossovers that are more plausible and not completely random. Like the xxxHOLiC ones that are just sitting in my computer. Those have a nice cross-dimensional aspect to them and would probably work a lot better than all of my Bleach ones.

Yatsuka Hikagi

November 08, 2006