Hunted
The Morning After

Yoruichi groaned in pain, her skull felt like someone was drilling into it and her movements slow and sluggish as she willed herself awake and quickly twisted herself back round, pressing her face into the firm cushion beneath her in an attempt to get away from the unusually bright light. She felt very stiff from feeling like she had slept in a cramped space and could feel her dress twisted around her body, no doubt from moving around in her sleep. She racked her brain for answers on where she was but found none; this was a common side effect when she spent the night out with Kukaku. After she had some time to prepare herself, she turned her head to the right and shielded her vision from the glaring light clumsily with her arm so she could take in her surroundings.

She found herself staring at the back of what appeared to be a car seat. More confused than before she propped herself up to get a better look and saw that she had indeed been looking at the back of a car seat, the bright light being the morning sun shining through the windows and that she was sprawled out across the back seat of the car and was vaguely aware of someone sitting at the wheel, apparently in the stages of waking up as well.

"Why are we in a car?" Yoruichi mumbled half heartedly as she flopped back down against the seat, still too tired to really put more conscious thought into the possible answers.

"...Hell if I know." Kukaku groggily answered back after stretching as best as possible within the confined space, "...More so when we're packed outside your flat." She added in bemused confusion.

"Did we...just not want to – to leave the car?" Yoruichi asked slowly with a yawn, completely baffled as to why they had spent the night in the car if they were parked by the flat though couldn't help but think the car was the better option out of the two. Kukaku turned to get a better look at Yoruichi on the back seat to answer her and did a double take when her eyes spotted the passenger seat beside her.

"I dunno but we have a pizza here." She informed Yoruichi, finding the whole situation quite amusing.

"What topping?"

"Meat feast" Kukaku replied after picking a bit off and tasting it.

"Ahhh, that's why we stayed in the car," Yoruichi summarised and twisted round onto her back in search of a more comfortable position to get more sleep except she sharply recoiled from Kukaku reaching round and slapping her thigh, "What was that for?" she whined and managed to dodge the second swipe from Kukaku when she tried to lie down again.

"Come on, none of that. Your flat is right there so once you're inside you can crash some more." Kukaku pulled out some dark sunglasses from one of her pockets and popped them on as she got out of the car, surprisingly graceful for having spent the night drinking.

"Urgh...hate it when you go all protective on me." Yoruichi teased without budging from the back seat, movement caused the pounding in her skull to increase and she just wanted to sleep off the hangover. She heard the sound of the car door being opened. Hands roughly grabbed both of Yoruichi's ankles and yanked her backwards out of the car door. She yelped and tried to scramble free of the grip unsuccessful as Kukaku dragged her halfway out of the car. "Alright! Alright, you win!" She shouted out in defeat in hopes of being freed before she tumbled out of the car.

"Come on shift, I got work in an hour's time and I need a change of clothes." Kukaku let go of Yoruichi though leaned in on top of her, not caring in the slightest that her chest was pressing into Yoruichi's face just so that she could grab Yoruichi's bag to rummage around in it for the keys to the flat. Yoruichi titled her head to the side so she wasn't suffocated by her friend's breasts and caught sight of a man staring through his flat window at the strange sight of them both hanging out of the car and the position they were in. She couldn't help it, even with her building hangover she flashed the man an enticing smile and winked at him as she grabbed Kukaku's butt and gave it a quick squeeze. She laughed at the man's wide eyed expression as he quickly ducked behind the curtain, no doubt embarrassed from being caught watching them and most likely in need of a cold shower too.

"Think you're confusing me for your girlfriend." Kukaku commented unfazed by Yoruichi's actions and freed herself from the tangled mess of limbs, holding the bundle of keys triumphantly and started her hunt for the right one.

"My girlfriend?" Yoruichi asked as she stood up as well and straightened out her outfit though her mind instantly switched to Soifon. She remembered that they had planned a date and how she had been stood up by Soifon but couldn't recall talking to her or anything afterwards so was confused on how that could have happened.

"I know you're a lightweight but you weren't that drunk." Kukaku sighed and postponed her key hunt to pull out her phone and began to flick through the various menus.

"It'll come back to me eventually." Yoruichi replied defensively and peered at Kukaku's phone when she offered it to Yoruichi. Displayed on the screen was a badly blurred picture of herself taken from their night out with a young woman clinging to her with a bright smile spread across her face - Yoruichi had never seen her before. Any eagerness she had felt to hear what had happened vanished when she realised this was who Kukaku was referring to and not Soifon, "Alright, who is she then?" Yoruichi sighed as she vaguely recalled Kukaku introducing her to the woman.

"Well I don't know." Kukaku replied with a shrug after giving it some thought.

"What?" Yoruichi was starting to feel more confused than she had been.

"She just happened to be in the bar last night so I got you two talking and you guys seemed to hit it off." Kukaku explained.

"You set me up with someone?" Yoruichi asked a little annoyed that Kukaku had thrown her at some stranger in the drunken state she had been in.

"Yeah well I couldn't take you whining about Sonfu not showing any longer -"

"Soifon." Yoruichi automatically corrected.

"Huh?"

"Her name is Soifon." Yoruichi explained further.

"...Anyway, I wanted to get you drunk to forget about her but all you did was go on about her more and I saw that chick eyeing you from across the room so I invited her over to help get your mind off of her."

"You shouldn't have done that." Yoruichi told Kukaku after she tried to recall more of the previous night and remembered she let this person kiss her several times.

"Relax, I kept an eye on you and besides if you hadn't sweet talked her into driving us back here, we'd have had to leave the car and pay for a taxi."

"But you had no problems with her getting a taxi home." Yoruichi pointed out as she remembered the woman waving to them both just before she climbed into the taxi.

"Don't panic, you two swapped numbers – you'll get to see her again." Kukaku teased after locking the car shut and the two set off towards the buildings where Yoruichi's flat was which involved stepping over some drunken guy who had passed out on the second floor stairs. "Gotta love the decoration." Kukaku muttered sarcastically after she successfully stepped over the vomit beside the man without getting any of it on her shoes.

"Oh yes, graffiti, rubbish, vomit...don't forget the rundown buildings and the crappy paint job." Yoruichi chimed in brightly and gestured to a broken door to one of the flats they passed by. "Seriously want out of this place." She added in a mutter as they stopped outside one of the worn down doors with the faded number '33' on it.

"That's why you should get a job." Kukaku said as she handed Yoruichi the set of keys along with her bag to let her find the right one.

"I have a job."

"I meant a real one." Kukaku explained without missing a beat.

"Hey, it is a real job." Yoruichi defended after shoving the door open with a kick after she unlocked it.

"Uh huh." Kukaku rolled her eyes but followed her inside all the same and made a bee-line towards the bedroom where she knew there would be some clothes kicking around for her to borrow. Yoruichi was stood in the centre of the room, taking in the decrepit appearance of the flat. It was barely liveable and that was thanks to all the small changes she'd managed to do after the none stop cleaning attack she had to do when she first arrived. There was one main room with a small kitchen attached and a cramped bathroom, only slightly bigger since she replaced the bath for a shower which left a moderate sized bedroom. As always, she began mentally listing everything she would change or have redone but as always ended up scraping the list along with any plans to even start fixing the place up. It would be easier to just buy a new place and that wouldn't be happening any time soon in the foreseeable future.

"You could at least put down a carpet or something." Kukaku suggested as she emerged from the bedroom, she had exchanged her short skirt for some black trousers though kept her red tank top.

"I got rid of the last one because it was disgusting. I'm not putting a new one down only to have to take it up in a month's time to get it replaced, besides the floorboards work just fine." Yoruichi countered and flopped backwards onto the sofa, another recent purchase of hers after she let Kukaku incinerate the previous one into a pile of ashes. She dropped her bag on the floor beside the sofa.

"You've been here for 4 months though." Kukaku attempted once more to get Yoruichi to see reason in at least trying to make the place feel like home instead of some forgotten prison cell.

"Point being?" Yoruichi asked simply, not bothering to budge from the sofa as Kukaku headed towards the door, she stopped to give Yoruichi a last bit of advice before leaving though.

"Fine, fine... you want out this place then make plans with your new friend or something." Yoruichi didn't indicate if she heard Kukaku or not, she was too busy staring up at the ceiling lost in thoughts Kukaku had tried to get rid of with one drink at a time. "Oy! I said call your new friend; let her know you actually remember talking to her or something." Kukaku shouted in order to get her attention.

"I dunno..." Yoruichi mumbled back as she slowly rubbed her temple with one hand to try and dispel the unwanted headache and the thoughts she didn't want to focus on right now, namely Soifon and why she had ditched her without even a text and how she would react when Yoruichi told her she had kissed some other woman...this being something she would have to deal with when or even if she called Soifon again. They weren't technically dating since they had only met twice now but she still felt guilty for kissing someone else since she had wanted to try and explore things with Soifon but she had to admit, getting stood up by her had hurt. She still hadn't gotten so much as a text from Soifon, she was starting to believe that Soi had chosen not to show up on purpose and the one time Yoruichi had managed to call Soi without Kukaku to bite her head off about it had gone straight through to voice mail which could mean a great number of things...

"Yoruichi." The stern tone in Kukaku's voice made Yoruichi focus on her instinctively, it was rare when she got like this and it was normally for a good reason and Kukaku continued, "Yoruichi – don't call her again. She stood you up and you don't deserve that kind of treatment, nobody does ok."

Dam...why do you always make valid points when they are not wanted...Yoruichi cursed mentally as she nodded at this statement since it was true, almost certain that if someone had stood her up before she would have made them pay for it, especially if it was meant to be their first date after not seeing one another for 3 weeks, 3 weeks...has it really been that long? Part of her couldn't help but wonder if it would take another 3 weeks just to get a date set up and would Soifon have a change of heart again?

"Give what's her name a call from last night, you two seemed to find plenty to talk about when you stopped swapping saliva." Kukaku added teasingly with a smirk, Yoruichi just rolled her eyes at this.

"What's with the matchmaking role all of a sudden?" Yoruichi asked, slightly curious as to why Kukaku kept pushing her into making the phone call.

"Hey you're the one who said you wanted to find something more serious." Kukaku defended quickly and Yoruichi did remember making such a comment a while ago now about that being the case, her life was simply a mess and she wanted something more stable she could rely on to be there for her and vise versa. "I gotta get moving so I'll catch you later some time." Kukaku added and left the flat.

"You sure I can't come with?" Yoruichi called after her, a little too hopeful since it meant a means of getting out of the place she had to a call a home.

"You're not needed this time round." Kukaku waved back to her as she exited the room and closed the door behind her. Yoruichi stared at the closed door from her spot on the sofa for some time while her mind tried to work out what she should do next. To call or not to call, Yoruichi thought, and who to call for that matter... Was it even worth calling Soifon again even after she had to basically stalk the woman just to get a conversation after the first time they met plus the amount of lectures she'd have to put up with from Kukaku once she found out but her main reason she didn't want to call was because she was worried Soifon simply had chosen to not show up and would flat out tell her no and that she had lost interest...3 weeks was a long time for two people who had just met after all.

She reached down into her bag and pulled her phone out after rummaging around for it and scrolled through the address book. The list of names were few and she knew exactly who everyone was and when she last spoke to them so was a little surprised when she spotted the name listed below Soifon's number: Sora. The woman from last night...Yoruichi hesitated and began flicking between the two numbers indecisively. Soifon, she knew she could have a good time with, there was a connection but it was an outright battle to get any time with her. Sora was someone she had just met so would have to work at finding that spark but from Kukaku's word and from what she could remember, she had enjoyed Sora's company and she had been kind enough to drive them back home which showed some of her personality already. Her thoughts continued in this manner a little longer as she bounced back and forth between the two numbers and half toyed with the idea of calling both of them except this was only to put off making a choice she would simply have to make later on, as would putting the phone down and dealing with it later.

"Oh for fu-" She started, frustrated by her lack of actions she jammed her thumb onto the call button a little harder than necessary and shoved the device to her ear in hopes of dispelling any waves of doubt creeping into her thoughts. It's just a phone call, it won't do any harm! She reassured herself as she listened to it ring.

Again.

And again.

And again it rang.

Seriously what is the big deal with answering a phone call these days, Yoruichi thought as it continued to ring in her ear.

"Hello?" A breathless voice asked just before Yoruichi gave up hope and ended the call.

"Hi there...erm So-" Yoruichi began but was cut off instantly by her.

"Sorry, running late for a meeting - call you afterwards ok."

"Erm sure, no probs." Yoruichi managed to get out before she heard the sound telling her that the call had been ended. Well that wasn't too bad, she reasoned since it wasn't what she expected to get at all but it hadn't exactly been outstanding either, least I got an answer...kind of...Well now what to do? She sat up and rocked dangerously on the edge of the sofa as her world began to spin and she clutched her head defensively as her headache beat harder from the sudden movement. Ok painkillers it is.

After she managed to successfully locate and take some painkillers she then changed out of the dress and settled into her favourite hoodie and matching tracksuit bottoms and settled back onto the sofa and drifted off into sleep while she waited for the painkillers to do their job and for the promised phone call.

She felt her phone buzzing in her pocket when she started to come to from her nap, she couldn't have been asleep for long but it proved to be more than enough since she felt loads better and the painkillers were keeping the headache at bay. She pulled her phone out of the pocket and examined the screen after the buzzing stopped, she had been sent a text a message.

'Meeting is taking longer than usual.' Yoruichi grinned at reading the text message, it was huge improvement compared to the silent treatment she had gotten before. She held off texting back in case their phone wasn't switched onto silent mode, she did not need to be the reason the meeting got disrupted and most likely jinx what felt like a better start between them. Yoruichi was able to make herself a quick snack before she felt her phone buzz and start ringing simultaneously, she glanced at the caller ID briefly and smiled at seeing who it was, already liking the fact that they followed through with their word.

"Hey Sora." Yoruichi greeted brightly after she answered the call.

"Hey." Sora replied cheerfully back, no longer sounding rushed or out of breath.

"I know this is sudden and out of the blue but are you free anytime soon?" Yoruichi asked getting straight to the point since leaving the flat for the day was the whole point of calling in the first place.

"What...erm yeah there's my lunch break coming up soon. We could meet up then if you like?" Sora replied, a little surprised by the speed of the request.

"That's great! Someplace quiet would be perfect." Yoruichi added with an afterthought, not keen on having to deal with hectic busy crowds after doing so last night.

"Sure, I know a great little coffee shop." Sora chuckled, "Would you like picking up? I remember where you live."

"You'd do that?" This time Yoruichi was the surprised one at hearing the offer.

"Of course. Give me 45 minutes."

"That's great, see you soon then." Yoruichi confirmed and ended the call, feeling loads better now that she had some solid plans to get out of flat again. She hated the rooms, she hated the building and she hated the location and being stuck inside it all day wore off on her till she started feeling depressed so the less time she spent inside the dismal place, the better. I should really just move out, and knew that she couldn't thanks to the issue of money. I'm gonna have to talk with Kukaku about it, Yoruichi summarised, making a mental note to bring it up next time she saw the woman.