Disclaimer: Bleach belongs to Kubo Tite. I only play with the characters.

Chapter 02: You Make Me Feel

He always greeted her with a polite smile and bow whenever their paths crossed in Seireitei proper. Gone was the galling gaze and insolent little grin. Instead, he was the very picture of decorum and respect as he quietly murmured her title with eyes averted towards the ground. In return, she would offer him a nod and smile of acknowledgement as she passed, the tips of her fingers prickling with the desire to rip that mild and obedient expression off his face. Their exchanges usually lasted no longer than a few seconds, leaving both their reiryoku on pins and needles, yet everyone else around them was none the wiser.

She knew his name now, made it a point to track his reiatsu down when it became clear that he wasn't about to leave her alone in the first few months of… whatever this was. Urahara Kisuke, best friend to Shihouin Yoruichi and her true second-in-command if rumors were to be believed. No one seemed quite sure why the captain of the second division put so much faith in a mophead like him, but Unohana wasn't fooled. Those wide eyes and embarrassed grins made up the new mask he'd chosen to adopt now that he had come out from the shadows of the Covert Ops. She knew he wasn't the simple third seat he'd have everyone believe, but to her, he was nothing more than a passing diversion, something with which to pass the time and ease the boredom as she waited for her real opponent to come find her again. It was a fact she knew he knew, but that didn't stop him - had never seemed to have the power to stop him.

Some would call him crazy, but the two of them knew better.

His exhilaration in the face of sheer impossibility sent shivers down her back, and she often found herself aborting a sudden spasm of the arm which could have taken his head. His sheer stubbornness drew her in, and his creativity excited her in ways she thought she had long since chained on that rainy evening in the outskirts of Rukongai. It made her thirst for something she knew she could only hope for, and as much as she tried to resist it, those unwavering grey eyes thrilled her to the core. His gaze was never defeated, always eager, always challenging. She knew he could feel her desire to crush his impudence in the violent weight of her reiatsu, and it frustrated her to no end that he had been able to make her lose control of it more and more frequently over the years.

But it was impossible to ignore him when he laughed and all the brilliant honesty of his soul shone through.

In those moments, she realized that he'd won, and that she didn't mind he had somehow managed to make her cede control. She had no doubt that given a few decades more, he would become a formidable opponent, even for her. His potential for growth was hard for her to gauge accurately, but she knew that his true strength laid in that mind of his. He was able to take attacks she had thrown at him and mold them into his own. Her tricks with kidou and knives were slowly becoming ineffectual on him, forcing her to rely on more raw power and reiatsu that she had ever thought to use against any mere member of the Gotei 13. Those eyes of his were always watching her from under that mop of hair, eyes that catalogued, calculated and dissected her every move and reaction. It was unnerving and irritating, and drove her crazy in all the right ways.

So they were back here again today, swords and bodies crashing against each other as they each sought to tear away the other's mask.

The press of his palm against her back was electric, not only because of the hadou spell that wracked her body, but because it had been so long since anyone had dared to touch her like this. Not even the most foolhardy or bloodthirsty of the kenpachi had tried once pinned under her smile, and to be honest, not many others had the skill or inclination. He was the only one who'd been brave enough, skilled enough and stupid enough to break that unspoken rule. Idly, she noted that this was another new spell he'd cooked up, that he was studying its effects even as he brought his zanpakutou down to hammer against Minazuki. It wasn't the first time he'd subjected her to his various inventions, and while some part of her was angry that he was using her as a guinea pig, she couldn't help but be impressed by his intelligence and innovation.

But it wouldn't do to let him get too cocky.

A stinging retort of her reiatsu drove him back, and the gleaming bite of her nodachi delivered a harsh reprimand as his blood splattered onto the dirt beneath their feet. He was unfazed, one hand pressed against the wound and already glowing with healing kidou even as he charged in, weaving between the flashing jabs of her swordpoint like a silent shadow. Sharp flicks of his wrist pinned her sleeve against the tree behind her with well-placed kunai - a first, but he wasn't someone who could be satisfied with only accomplishing that much. There was no hesitation as his blade swung straight towards her throat, and in that moment, Yachiru surfaced to cut him down.

Triumphant laughter, mixed with blood, gurgled its way up past his lips before he crumpled to the ground at her feet.

By all rights, she was the winner of today's little skirmish, and yet she didn't feel victorious. She stood there, breathing hard, feeling raw and exposed as she stared down at the head of unruly blonde hair. It had been a long time since anyone had been able to snake under her calm demeanor like he had just done. He may not be cut from the same cloth as her and the boy from Rukongai, but he certainly proved that he knew how to make her blood boil with that old desire for unchecked violence. It was… intoxicating.

She healed him for the first time that hot summer afternoon. As the cicada started up their song again, grey eyes fluttered open, found hers and gleamed with promise.

A/N: Right... so about 3 years later (wow, has it really been that long?), I finally get around to tapping out a second chapter to this little plot bunny. Mainly because "Moves Like Jagger" came on the radio and gave me feels. Decided to write this one from Unohana's point of view and kind of delve a little more into this tension and dance the two of them have going on. Hopefully this chapter continued that undercurrent of push/pull from the first chapter while also showing the progression of time in the storyline.

Let me know what you think!