Undecided

Chapter 3

"What took you so long?" asked Kisuke.

"I, uh, took a detour." It wasn't a lie. She ran around for a good amount of time trying to clear her mind and deciding what to do.

Kisuke looked up from under his hat and finally realized that Soifon was paralyzed in her master's arms and confusion left his face. "So you had to use it?"

"Yeah. How much longer is she going to be like this?" Soifon saw golden eyes take a quick look down at her. Yoruichi then went to put her protege down.

"It shouldn't be too much longer now. An hour at the most," Kisuke answered and was soon helping Yoruichi as she was finding difficulty with the task of putting the Chinese woman down. Soifon was rolling her eyes as the two people were trying to stand her up in Kisuke Urahara's house in Kurakara.

"If this doesn't work, then what?" asked Urahara. His hands on Soifon's waist as he was standing behind her, with plenty of room between them, trying to keep her standing. Yoruichi was currently standing a few feet away, looking the frozen girl up and down trying to figure out why she couldn't get her to balance on the wood floors of Kisuke's kitchen.

Soifon felt like she was going to explode, steam was rising from her head or so it seemed to her. She wouldn't let anyone, let alone Kisuke, touch her like this. Yoruichi looked up to the stone gray eyes and started to laugh, but had the smarts to keep it stifled.

"Kisuke..?"

"Yeah?"

"You may want to step away," Yoruichi said as she took over Kisuke's job of supporting the petite woman, standing in front of her instead of behind. Her golden eyes looked at Soifon, noticing her cheeks were coloring and steam still seemed to be rising from her, before looking back at her childhood friend. "I don't think this is going to work. She must have been using her muscles to keep her balance when I zapped her."

Coal eyes had watched Yoruichi's approach, getting closer and closer. They roamed over the tanned face. Her eyes were looking down at Soifon's feet and their placement on the floor. Her mouth had a slight smile on it. Her lips a indescribably beautiful color and just the perfect size, not too thick and not thin. Her protege always found her lips the most beautiful when they were in a smile. The petite woman noticed the lips started to form words as she became entranced by them.

Soifon felt the hands on her waist slide off as ones were placed on her sides, over her lower ribs. She would have flinched at the touch, but she couldn't. Even though her body couldn't flinch her mind still did. She wasn't quite sure what happened, her focus had been completely lost for the last few seconds. 'Damn it, how did I let my mind wander so much?' thought Soifon as she started to blush. Yoruichi looked down at her. Soifon tried to keep her eyes as blank as possible, realizing that she just barely escaped being caught staring at her mentor's lips.

Yoruichi seemed awful close to Soifon, then again the princess didn't seem to have many boundaries. The frozen shinigami found it very frustrating to be incapable of most of her voluntary muscle movement at first, but with time she learned to accept it. She didn't like not having any control, especially over her own movement. But there was nothing she could do, there was no need to continue to be angry with her temporary condition. It was only the situations that made her angry now, like being in Urahara's house. She hadn't been angry and frustrated the whole time, though. Soifon figured she should enjoy the closeness she had with Yoruichi-sama, even if she was ambivalent about it. This closeness that she was currently confronted with usually wouldn't have lasted long, her reputation would have seen to that, but once again it came down to her having no choice. Secretly she was thinking this was one of the best things that have happened. She was close to Yoruichi and no one could judge her for it since it was out of her control.

Soifon caught some of what was being said around her as her ears were clearing from the fuzz of her thoughts. Apparently they couldn't find a way to get her to stand up on her own. She would have told them this when they started their endeavor, but she had no way of telling them that she had been on the balls of her feet when Yoruichi sent the shock-wave through her. Hands tightened on her sides as she was starting to be lifted up. Soifon looked up and found a grin on Yoruichi's face.

Movement was slowly starting to come back to her, muscles were becoming less stiff. She had been listening to Yoruichi and Urahara talk from the living room for the past hour or so. Time was extremely hard for her to gauge, not being able to see a clock or see the differences in the natural day light.

Soifon was in the corner of the kitchen. Her forehead pressed against one of the walls, her side against another. Yoruichi had placed her in the corner like she was some unused broom. Not only that, but they then had the gumption to leave her there while they moved to the living room, where it would be "more comfortable." Soifon's anger had boiled over, emptied, and was now beginning to refill again with her regain in movement.

It only took a few minutes from the beginning of her return of control over her muscles until she felt like she could move with her normal vigor again. Soifon moved to the living room, trying to keep a placid expression on her face. She had plenty of time to think how she was going to react.

Yoruichi and Urahara's head tilted her way as she came into the room. Soifon could tell they were a bit tense, expecting her to blow up at them. The tenseness didn't last long. Girly laughter was starting to bubble over, and a dark hand couldn't help but point. Anger flowed over the pale face, then replaced with indifference. She made her way over to sit down next to the still laughing Yoruichi.

"Here, let's see if we can fix that," the older woman said while turning towards Soifon, moving her right leg onto the couch to get in a more comfortable position. She started to rub at Soifon's forehead. There was a big red mark just above and between her stone gray eyes from having a good portion of her body weight supported by that one place in her body. Some of her hair was also matted down, indenting the soft skin of her forehead. Yoruichi tried to remove some of the redness by rubbing, but it wasn't working very well.

"Sorry, but it'll go away eventually."

"Oh, thanks," the youngest said sarcastically, though unhappy, she was quite enjoying the closeness. "You could have just laid me down on the couch, or even the floor."

"Hm, didn't think of that." Yoruichi scratched at the back of her head and smiled a little.

"That would have been a good idea," added Kisuke, feeling left out. Soifon turned to him to give him a dirty glare. Most people would have shriveled at the look, but Kisuke had been building up immunity for a long time. He moved his wide rimmed, green and white stripped hat a bit lower over his eyes.

The captain moved her head to look forward again, then let her eyes roam around the room. She had never liked Urahara's house, but it did seem to have been improved a little bit since the last time she was here. It's overall cleanliness had gotten better, and it's furnishing and structure seemed more updated. She let a little bit of her hostility go, feeling two sets of eyes on her. The frown was removed from her face.

"So... can I see this latest invention of yours, Urahara?" There was some confusion on the host's face. "I can see it being put to good use by the Onmitsukido."

Urahara was still not responding. He was still shocked from Soifon's general inquisitiveness and niceness – things that were never directed towards him from the woman.

Soifon continued, "Yoruichi-sama told me a little about it. How it freezes your muscles. But it seemed like it froze my reiatsu as well."

"Oh yeah, forgot to mention that part," Yoruichi said under her breath.

"Yes, it does exactly that. Whatever state the person's reiatsu is in when it's used is the state that it'll stay in until the effect has worn off." Kisuke was a bit suspicious about the taichou's interest in his invention, but answered thinking that Yoruichi would probably be unhappy if he made waves with Soifon when she seemed to be taking the whole situation in stride. It was this contradiction in the Chinese woman's personality that had him suspicious, though.

"Could you show me how it works?" This made him even more nervous, but he acquiesced.

"Uh, sure. Where is it, Yoruichi?"

Yoruichi took it from a pocket of her customary orange jacket. She held the half inch in diameter stick in her right hand between herself and the interested captain.

Kisuke was a little miffed that she didn't give the object to him. It was, after all, his invention and he would be the one explaining it. After a moment he thought that perhaps the distance would be for the best, as he continued to sit in his chair toward Yoruichi's end of the couch.

"The part that Yoruichi is holding is the handle, and the safest place to hold it," he said, referring to the blue part of the stick. The handle took about three quarters of the whole length. "The other part is the dangerous part. You can still touch it with out getting zapped, but it's better to not take you're chances." This time he was referring to the clear-ish end of the stick. The outer part of the container may have been clear, but inside there seemed to be mist. The most interesting part was the small white lightening bursts that were constantly going through that end of the tube, contained by the plastic-like solid. Kisuke continued, "It only works if you turn off the safety and press the button," Yoruichi pointed to the corrugated slide switch and then the button to the side of it, both of them towards the lightening part of the stick, "while having it pressed against someones skin. It's best to place it on a peripheral part of the body, or a place not too close to the heart. It's best to let the power of the shock die down a bit before getting to the heart or the brain."

"Wow, it's a pretty nifty invention," Soifon said. It was hard to tell if there was some mockery in her voice. There was, but she was also pretty impressed, she just wouldn't show it. She moved her hand towards the object, opening her palm, silently asking Yoruichi if she could hold it. The Shihoin princess hesitated a moment before giving it to her. She new of the possible dangers that could happen with giving it to the captain.

Kisuke tilted his head back to see better from under his hat as Soifon twisted the object around in her hand. All six eyes were focused on the lightening stick in her hands. She continued turning it around before switching the safety off and to the right. She heard the intake of breath from the woman beside her and the man that was further from her. Her thumb slide the switch back to it's safe mode, letting the people beside her exhale. Soifon laughed inside her head. She slid the switch again. It had the same effect as the first the time.

Her thumb continued to slide the switch back and forth. Gray eyes looked up, away from her hands and the object that they held. "How did you create this?"

"I did some experiments with Yoruichi's shunko. It took a while but I eventually got it sustainable on it's own and found a material that could contain it. Many experiments later and you have the object before you," he said with a bit of a proud smile on his face.

Soifon turned to Yoruichi. "That's amazing, Yoruichi-sama." Urahara's smile fell from his face. It was he that did most of the work.

"You think so?" Yoruichi smiled.

"Yeah..." Soifon smiled back at her. A big smile. A big devious smile. "Yeah, now it's time for ME to test it out."

Yoruichi's face was literally frozen in shock. She didn't have time to defend herself from the quick movement beside her. Only having enough time to raise her right arm a little bit, trying to block Soifon's arm.

An evil laughter erupted from the petite woman as she stood up. She didn't stand up for any particular reason, just felt like she needed to in order to claim her victory. Yoruichi's upper face contorted into many different expressions, none of them very happy. This made Soifon laugh all the harder.

Urahara joined in with her laughter, though it wasn't as sinister sounding. He could tell what was going to happen and just let it unfold before him. This wasn't the first time that he thought Yoruichi placed too much trust in her former student.

After a moment, Urahara spoke up, stopping the unusually continuous laughter from Soifon, "What should we do now?"

"Huh? What?" This caught the woman off guard.

"Well we can't just let this opportunity go to waste. We need to take advantage of it."

Soifon didn't like the man, but she was liking where his thoughts were going. "Like what?"

"Hmmm, well I was thinking something along the lines of striping her naked and putting her in a public place."

Soifon blushed, her face temporarily in shock. "I will not be doing that to Yoruichi-sama! I won't have perverts tainting her skin with their eyes." She didn't want to think about anything else that could happen to her in such a state.

"Yeah, I guess you're right. Plus, she probably wouldn't care about being naked in public. She does it way to often to have it phase her anymore."

Yoruichi smiled with her eyes at Kisuke's last statement. Her eyes had followed the conversation happening about her, reacting to each statement. For the most part it was true. She would have been way too comfortable to let Soifon get any sort of satisfaction from her current predicament. Her slight happiness didn't last long as she remembered that she wouldn't be having any control over her body for a good two or three hours – if Soifon's experience was anything to go by.

"Alright, I have an idea," Soifon said after thinking for a bit, looking at her mentor's position. She motioned for Urahara to follow her out of the living room.

Yoruichi heard whispering coming from the furthest part of the kitchen, but she couldn't make out what was being said. Obviously her Little Bee wanted it to be a surprise for her. She liked surprises, but she had a feeling she wouldn't feel the same about this one.

They came back into the room where Yoruichi was sitting.

"Are you sure? That's kinda boring."

"Yes, I'm sure," Soifon said sternly. It was true that she couldn't think of any good ideas at the time, but the one she did come up with didn't seem too bad. It was simple, wouldn't take much time or thought, and she wouldn't have to worry about Yoruichi's safety too much. "Are you sure you have the stuff?"

"Yeah, it's in the store," Urahara said, continuing to stand there.

"Go get it!" was what Soifon snapped at him.

"Er, yes ma'am," he retorted in a steady voice, finishing it off with a mocking salute. As expected, his reply was received with a glare. He walked out of the living room and to the part of his house that was the dilapidated store.

Soifon turned away from the walking Urahara and to the still Yoruichi. She walked up to the woman and stared at her for a few seconds before moving again. Her left arm slid behind the back of the orange jacket and her right arm behind the frozen woman's knees. The petite woman lifted the relatively larger woman with considerable ease. "The tables have turned, Princess," Soifon said a bit scathingly, especially the last word, while starting to walk out of the room.

If this was what it always felt like to have the tables turned then Yoruichi didn't mind, choosing to not think about the title that her past protege gave her. She was rather comfortable in Soifon's arms. She had an unfulfilled urge to hook her arms around the captains neck, and perhaps snuggle her nose into it as well.

"What is Yoruichi-san doing?" asked Jinta. This was the question on Tessai and Ururu's tongue as well. The three of them came into the house a moment ago, finding Soifon-taichou and Kisuke on the couch watching tv. Neither of the two looking particularly happy with the company that they had. Tessai was shocked to see the woman in the living room, but decided it was safer to not ask about it.

"The short story is... she's getting her deserved punishment," was Urahara's quick and succinct answer. He was best friends with Yoruichi, but he wasn't very happy with her bringing her old protege into his house, and with hardly any warning, no less. The two of them continued to watch tv unfazed. The three new arrivals decided to sit down, figuring they'd be told the whole story when it was time.

"Where have you guys been all day?" Kisuke asked. The last bit of light was leaving the sky.

"Ichigo was having some hollow problems. Jinta and Ururu wanted to help him, and I decided to tail them, in case they got into serious trouble," smoothly answered Tessai.

Soifon was annoyed by their talking. It was distracting her from watching an informational documentary on airplanes. She was amazed with the technology that the humans had come up with to quicken their transportation and for warfare.

She didn't have too much time to be annoyed. There was a change in Yoruichi's reiatsu, she could feel it. It wasn't long before the woman was walking through the kitchen and into the living room. Kisuke quickly yelled at her to get back into the kitchen. She went and Soifon followed. Soifon's feet feeling the change from carpet to wood floors.

Laughter filled the kitchen before Yoruichi even turned around to face her former protege. She was angry before, but this just made her more so. Soifon started to control her laughter.

"Karma's a bitch, isn't it?"

"Yes, it is," Yoruichi answered, though she really wanted to tell her who the real bitch was.

Coal eyes started to move up and down the body, taking in the damage. It was as she predicted, except there was something on the black leg of her pants. "How was it?"

At first when Soifon sat her down outside the store Yoruichi didn't know what the captain had planned. It was more confusing when Urahara came out with a big bag of bird seed, a few steel bowls, some straps, and tape. Soon she found a bowl strapped and taped to her outreached right hand, and one to each of her knees. The bowls were soon filled with bird seed. She thought it was a pretty stupid idea for the captain of the Second Division and the Onmitsukido.

"I didn't realize we had so many freaking birds around here!" Yoruichi said, exasperated. "I'm not going to lie, I thought your idea was pretty lame at first. But the birds kept coming and coming. They landed on any part of me that they could, trying to get at the food. Their feet would claw at me." She showed Soifon her right arm. It had a few scratches, but nothing to whine over. Gray eyes rolled in their sockets. "Those nasty, disease ridden birds were all over me. And poop! They were pooping all over me." She did have a lot of bird crap on her. It was all over her right arm, shoulders, and her upper legs. There was some on her back from when birds would perch on her shoulders. Yoruichi bowed over to show Soifon the bird poo that was on top of her head. Her hair was rather disheveled, probably from birds landing and taking off from it.

"Birds don't have any control of when they relieve themselves. They aren't to blame," said Soifon with a monotone voice, but smiling on the inside.

"I don't blame them!" Golden eyes glared at the smaller woman. It was clear who she was blaming.

"I thought the worst was over when all the bird food was gone," Yoruichi continued. Soifon's ears perked up with interest. She hadn't expected anything else. "But it wasn't over. About twenty minutes after the food and birds were gone a stray dog comes over. ...And he starts to hump my left leg! Why he'd want to hump something covered with bird shit, I don't know. Grrr, it was so frustrating, not being able to do anything. Not even able to yell or hiss at him."

Soifon knew that this last experience was made worse because of the other form that her master took. Most cats don't like dogs, and she was no different.

Kisuke came into the kitchen. Tessai, Ururu, and Jinta stayed in the living room watching tv – having changed the channel long ago. The hatted man smiled as he looked at the purple haired woman's countenance. "Got to give credit where credit is due," he said, turning to Soifon. "Not bad."

Soifon didn't want or need his praise – and what kind of praise is "not bad"? - but accepted it with a nod of her head.

"Well, it's been an interesting day, but it's time for me to get back now. I have a lot of paper work to do, and I'm sure people are wondering where I am." Soifon started to leave.

"You can't go," came Yoruichi's surprisingly calm voice.

"Why not?"

Yoruichi answering in the same calm voice, "I'll just catch you again. You may be fast, but I'm still the Goddess of Flash. And there's other technologies that Kisuke has that will make it really hard to escape." Her eyes were daring her past student to try it.

Soifon turned her head to Urahara to give him a glare. He shook his head slightly, trying to say that this was all Yoruichi's idea.

It was true, Yoruichi would just be able to tag her with the lightening stick and bring her back. Running and then being frozen would get very tiring very fast. And she didn't know what else Yoruichi may have up Urahara's sleeve.

In the depths of Soifon's mind it was already decided that she'd at least stay the night when she decided to stick around while Yoruichi was feeding the birds. And with this somewhat new development, her decision was made for her. "Fine, I'll stay the night. Where am I sleeping?" she asked in a grumpy voice.

"You'll stay a few nights," the Goddess corrected her, a hand on a poop free section of her hip. Soifon looked as if blood was about to shoot out of her eyes.

"Fine." 'We'll see about that,' she added in her head.

"I'm actually surprised that you didn't leave while I was frozen."

"Me too," she sighed.

Xo0oX

Disclaimer: I stillllll don't own Bleach. Surprise, I know.

I'm updating later than I thought I would. I've been working a lot on the plot of the story, so I haven't written much of it out in the time between updates. The plot has changed a lot from the original one that I had planned. I should probably change the summary to reflect that, but I'm not sure what to change it to. One thing that I have changed on it, is that there will be yaoi in this story, as well as hetero (and of course shoujo-ai / yuri).

I've tried to the keep their personalities in character, but I'm not sure how well I did. Some of their thoughts or actions may seem a bit weird, but the reasons behind that will be explained in future chapters (and hopefully it will make sense).

Please review!

and I'm on episode 90 right now. It's been good, just wish there was more Yoru/soi.