A/N: I had this sitting on my computer for a while as a possible chapter 2 and I still really have no plans to make this a full story but maybe publishing it and getting some ideas might help. This is kind of a prequel and possible sequel all rolled into one for Secrets. But hope you enjoy it either way.

Disclaimer: I own nothing but the delusion that this could be possible in the Bleach Universe

Matsumoto snuck in her room without drawing anyone's attention. Her "lessons" with Soi Fon were paying off apparently. Last night had been more than enjoyable, but that was typical when one was with the captain. She'd heard rumors from underlings in various squads when she was out drinking about Soi Fon's prowess. She didn't believe it and she didn't think she could be into that sort of thing. But one night when she challenged Soi Fon-taicho in a drinking game and ended up in her bed as a result, she quickly learned that she was more than into that "sort of thing." And she kept coming back for more. Though they didn't have an actual relationship, she felt her and Soi Fon had something more than sex in the few months since their little arrangement began. Matsumoto was able to get the Commander of the Onmitsukidō and 2nd division to actually talk to her, instead of just using her for sex. She found herself, to her surprise, wanting the petite commander to talk to her more after their trysts. She wasn't sure if she was beginning to have actual feelings for the little commander, but she didn't want to think about it too much anyway, deciding that enjoying whatever they had was better than trying to define it. A hard yawn snapped her back to present concerns. She decided now was time for a long bath, a short nap, and then maybe some paperwork before she enjoyed the rest of her day of relaxation.

Soi Fon awoke with somewhat achy and relaxed muscles, but a noticeable pep in her step. Noticeable to her anyway. Thankfully Matsumoto had already left, maintaining the secrecy of their arrangement, as well as removing the temptation for another round. The sex last night had been mind-blowing. Even the minor post-coital conversation was helpful. Matsumoto may be a lazy drunk who has made avoiding her duties an art form, but she was astonishing in the bedroom. Soi Fon had intended their first time be their only since she could barely tolerate the lieutenant, but somehow Rangiku had gotten her to agree to more. Something she was reaping the benefits from as much as possible. And her tolerance was slowly building, akin to almost liking the sexy blonde. Soi quickly began her early morning routine with a clear mind, but allotted herself fifteen minutes to write down last night's events in her diary before leaving. After Yoruichi-sama's abrupt departure over a century ago, Soi found that leaving all her emotions and distracting thoughts on paper helped keep her focused, in peak performance, and her memory sharp. Though she'd never admit it, most of her enjoyment with keeping a diary was found in being able to relive her past conquests whenever she wanted. Once she was done recording her night, she hurried to the training grounds. Being the first person there was more than ample reason to start today's torture.

A Few Hours Before the SWA Meeting/Meanwhile in the Urahara Shoten

Yoruichi sat at the table, ignoring her food to tap her fingers absentmindedly. Kisuke entered and noticed that particular expression on her face. He knew from past experience that his best friend was thinking about Soi Fon again.

"Girl trouble?" Kisuke asks mockingly.

"In a way," Yoruichi replies distractedly

"You know, you could just stop being afraid and tell her how you feel," He says as he takes a seat across from his friend.

"It's not that simple," Yoruichi snaps back with a frustrated sigh.

"After more than a century of you moping about your precious little bee, and then getting her back, you can't just say you love her and be done with it? I'm beginning to believe your cat form is a reflection of your true self."

"What's that supposed to mean?" She asks with a tinge of annoyance.

"You're a pussy in more ways than one," Kisuke answers with a wide smile.

Yoruichi punches him in the arm, ending that argument before it began. He grimaces slightly rubs the pain away.

"If I knew for sure she felt the same way, then I wouldn't have such a hard time talking to her about this."

"I'm going to go out on a limb and say she never stopped. Otherwise she wouldn't have forgiven you so easily, despite the attempted murder," Kisuke offers patiently.

"You don't know Soi like I do. Or did. She's changed, grown up really. There is something different and I can't figure out what," She murmurs while nibbling on her thumb.

"Approach it like a scientist. Observe and gather information, draw conclusions from the observations then create a plan of action. She never really told you what happened after you left. Maybe that's the change you're sensing. Either way a conversation is in order," He says after a moment of consideration.

"Oh my God! You're a genius…" Yoruichi exclaims when a new idea pops into her head.

"Glad you recognize that," Kisuke mumbles as he pours himself some tea.

"…I know the perfect source for that information," Yoruichi continues with that mischievous grin.

"I'm afraid to ask," Kisuke replies with a worried look.

"Do you have some invention that can make copies quickly?"

"Like a copier…" He doesn't get to finish the rest because Yoruichi punched him again in the same arm.

"No, you ass! Something instant." Yoruichi rolls her eyes in annoyance.

"Why?" He asks rubbing his arm, hoping to soothe the rapidly developing bruise away.

"I know she keeps a diary and I'm going to borrow it and gather my intel that way. I can find out everything I need to know and decide where to go from there," She answers while figuring out how best to implement this plan.

"You recognize that this has bad idea written all over it, right?" Kisuke tells her seriously, hoping she might reconsider this.

"I won't get caught. I'll grab it, make a copy, and then replace it without her even knowing about it. I was commander of the stealth squad after all. This will be cake," Yoruichi states with a cocky grin.

"Uh huh. When she finds out about this, and she will, I don't want her to have the perfect excuse to finally kill me. You're on your own with this one. I want plausible deniability," He tells her as he finishes the last of his tea.

"She won't find out," Yoruichi retorts confidently.

"She will. It would be easier if you just talked to her instead of pussy footing around the issue," Kisuke tells her with a hint of weariness in his voice.

"So then you don't have some sort of instant copier I can use?" Yoruichi asks ignoring his previous statement.

"Nope," Kisuke answers as he gets up to leave, even though it would be easy enough to make something like that.

"Fine. Then this mission will just take a little longer than I expected," Yoruichi says with a slightly petulant tone.

"Don't tell me. Plausible deniability, remember?" Kisuke shoots over his shoulder as he makes his way to his lab.

And that is how Yoruichi found herself alone in Soi Fon's quarters, silently searching for the diary's hiding place. She ignored the office altogether in her quest, thinking that something so personal would be hidden near Soi for easy access. Her little bee's utilitarian living style was beneficial when it came to searching for something and being sneaky about it. Everything was neat and organized but sparse, making it easy to replace something once it was moved. After eliminating the closet, the futon and the bathroom, she started to search for hollow panels in the walls and floors. Lightly tapping on the walls yielded no results, which left the floor. The floor ended being equally as fruitless. The goddess made her way to the office to look around and try to get in the head of her Soi.

If I were Soi, where would I hide something like that?

Her aimless gaze landed on the bookcase and Yoruichi smirked knowing it was the perfect place for her treasure. She started searching the titles of books, seeing nothing that piqued her suspicions. She ran her hand along the shelves, tapping lightly, when she heard a difference in the top of the bookcase. She examined it closely and realized it had a sliding top. "Bingo!" she shouted when she found her prize tucked in its hiding place. She memorized its exact location and everything surrounding it so she could replace it, without Soi noticing, later. It was bigger than she imagined. Once she picked it up, she flipped through the pages to see where the last entry was, in an attempt to better determine how long it would take her to read the whole thing. She had intended to start at the beginning and figure out if Kisuke was right about her going through something after her departure, but a word grabbed her attention as she was idly thumbing through the book. She found an entry about one of Soi's encounters and couldn't tear her eyes away from the detailed description about the night of wild sex. Yoruichi settled down next to the bookcase to read as much as possible about her very, very naughty little bee.

Matsumoto awoke from her nap still deliciously sore. She began to dress and decided to go to her captain's office to attempt some paperwork before the SWA meeting.

Hitsugaya listened to his lieutenant drag herself in to plop down on the couch and exhale contentedly, making him scowl as he continued with his duties.

"You're late and none of your paperwork is done again," He growled out.

"That's why I'm here taicho. I have my SWA meeting today, so I wanted to do some work before I'm gone."

"Are you as productive in those meetings as you are as my lieutenant?" He asks with dripping sarcasm.

"Of course taicho." Her calm answer only caused Toshiro to scowl more as he got up to take some paperwork over to the lazy blonde. He dropped a stack of papers on the table between them before he sat down to stare at her.

"Where's your lieutenant's armband?" The child captain asked with cold calmness.

Matsumoto looked down, realizing that she didn't have it and couldn't believe she didn't notice. She hoped it wasn't damaged during last night otherwise she'd be so screwed, and not in the fun way.

"It's bad enough you barely you do paperwork in favor of drinking, shopping or sleeping, but now you can't even respect your position enough to wear your badge. It's an honor that you aren't deserving of. I don't care if you're hung over or tired, but so help me Matsumoto if you don't have that armband in the next 5 minutes I'll be using you to hone Hyōrinmaru's tensou juurin, which will result in me finding a new lieutenant." With each word he spoke the temperature in the room got colder and colder.

"Jeez. Lighten up taicho. I'm going," She waves nonchalantly as she exits but internally she's a bit worried he might be serious this time.

Matsumoto was careful to avoid open areas to arouse the least suspicion as she shunpoed quickly to the 2nd squad's barracks, chastising herself the whole way. Since Soi Fon and most of the other members of the 2nd were already out for the day, she figured retrieval would be easy and fast, if she could remember where it was tossed during their intense rendezvous. To be fair it wasn't her fault that she forgot her armband. Soi Fon had been incredibly eager last night and when Matsumoto arrived, she found herself pinned against a wall, and assaulted with needy kisses and roaming hands. The next thing she knew, she was mysteriously naked and tossed on Soi's futon before she could even think about returning the attention. The captain had been in the mood to dominate and Matsumoto gladly submitted to the ecstasy, taking all Soi Fon offered. How can one remember something as frivolous as an armband when they're pleasurably distracted? She arrived at her favorite captain's quarters without running into anyone luckily. She silently slid the shoji back and slipped inside. When she turned around, she was surprised to see Yoruichi curled up in the corner next to the bookcase reading a book. It was actually a relaxing scene, despite the annoyance she felt with the Shihouin princess for invading the Onmitsukidō Commander's space as well as ruining her easy retrieval. Matsumoto was content to leave her undisturbed until she recognized the book Yoruichi was reading as Soi Fon's diary. The feeling of annoyance quickly grew to anger, but she squelched it realizing it was mostly jealousy at not being able to get her hands on the precious book first. Matsumoto had accidentally learned of its existence a couple of weeks ago when she arrived early, something she was capable of when it suited her, to find the captain writing in that very book. At first, she was shocked to learn Soi Fon kept a diary, something she associated with lovesick teenage girls, and was ready to tease her mercilessly. But once the captain explained her reasons for keeping a diary, she discovered she was strangely charmed by the idea. Matsumoto waited a second longer, to see if Yoruichi would notice her presence. When she didn't, the bodacious blonde cleared her throat, barely containing her laughter when Yoruichi yelped in surprise.

"What are you doing here?" Yoruichi asked with shocked annoyance for letting someone like Matsumoto sneak up on her.

"Soi Fon-taicho has been kind enough, for her anyway, to help me with a new technique. She was a little rough on me during our last lesson and let me come here to patch myself up. I left my armband and came to grab it quickly. What's with the book?" Rangiku smiled faintly thinking about just how good the roughness was.

Yoruichi looked down, forgetting what she had been reading then sheepishly tucked it behind her back.

"Just a little information gathering to help with an upcoming mission."

"Really? I've seen Soi Fon-taicho writing in something very similar looking to that," Rangiku says amused at Yoruichi's lame lie.

"Ummm…."

"It's her diary isn't it?" Rangiku says it more like a statement than a question.

"Nooo," Yoruichi drawls guiltily.

"So what's your 'mission?'" Rangiku asks innocently.

"Something personal," Yoruichi answered a little defensively.

"Personal enough to risk being caught by the Captain," Rangiku smirked.

Sighing in defeat and frustration about her carelessness, Yoruichi decided to be cryptic about her reason.

"I'm just trying to find out Soi's feelings about a particular idea."

"What idea? I promise not to tell." When Yoruichi remained silent, Rangiku pressed on, "The idea of you and her?"

The scarlet coloring Yoruichi's cheeks was answer enough.

"You know, you could just talk to her. At least that won't result in her trying to kill you again when she finds out about this," Rangiku chuckles, hoping to squash the minor jealousy she was feeling.

"You said you wouldn't tell her…" Yoruichi starts.

Matsumoto holds up her hand to forestall more protest, "And I'm not going to. But she will find out and she's going to be pissed."

"Why does everyone keep saying that?" Yoruichi asks more to herself than Rangiku.

"Because it's Soi Fon! Intelligence gathering is kind of her thing. Plus using her private thoughts against her is going to make her suspicious. Well more so than usual anyway. Also that book is thick. There is no way you're going to be able to read that thing in one sitting. You aren't that fast by any means, which means you'll have to come back again and again. And if I can sneak up on you, Soi Fon will easily catch you in the act one of those times," Matsumoto explains.

"When did you get so smart?" She asks with a chuckle.

"I've always been. I just get away with a lot more when I act like the dumb drunk blonde. Her diary must be very interesting if it had you that distracted. Care to share?" Amusement coloring her tone as she stalks closer to Yoruichi.

"I'm not sharing anything so you can forget it Ran. What new technique are you working on that you need Soi's help?" Yoruichi inquired with veiled distrust. She doubted Rangiku could be one of the people mentioned in her little bee's diary, considering Soi's contemptuous attitude towards the 10th squad lieutenant, but she had to be sure.

"It's a couple of things, but mostly she's helping me try to achieve bankai," She shrugged.

"Anyone could help you with that," Yoruichi stated, waiting for further elaboration.

"True but Soi Fon-taicho dislikes me just enough to not go easy. Plus she doesn't get distracted by my beautiful breasts like my other opponents. At least not until after we're done sparring," Rangiku explained but thought the last part happily.

"That makes sense," Yoruichi agrees nonchalantly.

"I'm not sure this is one of your better ideas but when she kills you can I have those black platform peep toes? They'd go perfectly with this outfit I just bought," Matsumoto remarks as she casually looks around the room for her armband.

"Since she won't find out unless you open your mouth, there's no need to prepare my will."

Rangiku nods her agreement and then makes her way to Soi's desk after noticing her armband crumpled next to it. Once she grabbed it and tied it securely around her waist, she turned back to Yoruichi to see her wearing a smug grin. Matsumoto rolls her eyes dramatically, thinking the goddess lived up to her name by replacing the diary without being seen, then turns to leave.

"We should go out, on me," Yoruichi says while she comes to walk out with her.

If she's been around Soi a lot recently then she might have some clues as to who she's seeing.

"Trying to butter me up so I don't blackmail you, Yoruichi-san," She chuckles.

"Only a little, but maybe you can help me come up with a better idea. Besides it's been a while since we've had fun together."

"Who am I to turn down a princess' kindness?"

"I'm always kind."

"Of course you are Yoruichi-san. We can plan later. Right now I have to go calm down a baby." Matsumoto left leaving Yoruichi bewildered by the baby comment.