The Hunted
Set Up
The last few days of December and the early days of January passed by in a dull blur when compared to the magical Christmas plans that had been shared with between the couple, more so when the powers that be, or more precisely, Kukaku had decreed that New Year was to pass without any declarations of love or parties since despite Yoruichi thinking otherwise, she was meant to be in hiding.
"Therefore I am officially grounding you!" Kukaku declared as she deposited Yoruichi back at her run down flat after Yoruichi had managed to spend more time at Kisuke's place then under her own roof. "Phone calls only for the next week or so, don't even think about leaving your place or I'll take your phone next time too."
"But muuuuuuuum, that's just unfair." Yoruichi whined playfully, "How am I supposed to give Kisuke his birthday present if I'm not allowed to go play with him anymore? Or collect my own gifts on that note."
"We'll celebrate birthdays at the end of January or something." Kukaku muttered as she dragged Yoruichi up the stairs and all but shoved her friend inside. "I mean it Yoruichi, I'm getting a lot of flack for letting you run this operation the way you want to." Yoruichi was about to counter that when she realised Kukaku was letting her get away with all sorts of stuff that her previous guards would have had a heart attack over.
"Alright, I'll behave for a while." She lamented, resigning herself to actually living in her flat. She could tell Kukaku had been expecting an argument and almost looked a bit lost at having won so quickly.
"Err, thanks." Kukaku finally managed to think of something to say to Yoruichi before heading back to resume her work for the day. I'm gonna have to thank Soifon yet again, Kukaku realised that the only reason Yoruichi was being so compliant was because she was still riding out the emotional high of going abroad.
Those following days allowed Yoruichi a lot of time to learn about what kind of work Soifon actually did at this company of hers since true to her word, Yoruichi did stay at her flat so every day Soifon would call her or vice versa and they resumed their daily telephone calls. It turned out Balance Industries did a bit of everything, from funding projects pitched to them to running its own social media platform though its primary market these days was it's brand mobile phones and computer technology. Apparently this was one of the breakthroughs Soifon had a hand in which helped earn her credibility within the company, was to start making their own electronic parts and using them in their own products instead of paying to import the parts which was easier to do. It took a lot of time and effort and faced a lot of backlash since it meant the company would be investing a lot of money into something when it was cheaper to buy the parts they needed but her hard work paid off and she got the first production line up and running.
"I'll show you this at some point, I have the very first phone made completely by our own manufacturing line right here at home with me." Soifon sounded proud of her accomplishment, the fact that she still had the phone in question showed Yoruichi that it was precious to her. It was the end product of all her combined efforts brought into the physical world.
"I bet it's amazing." Yoruichi complimented her, smiling at how animated Soifon sounded over a phone being made.
"Not anymore, " Soifon laughed, "It's about fifteen years old, possibly older by now and it has been out of circulation for ages, in fact the latest model is currently being developed. I'm not sure I even have the cable that charges this anymore." Yoruichi could tell Soifon had gotten up and could hear her rummaging around, opening and closing some doors now and then, obviously looking for the wire.
"I still want you to show it off to me when I get the chance to see it, I promise I'll act surprised."
"Over an outdated mobile phone?" Soifon questioned Yoruichi's logic.
"I swear it, I'll act like it has just been launched and be all 'Whooa, you're telling me that you, you are behind the Block 300!" Yoruichi put on her very best, over the top voice of being in complete rapture with this unseen device. This earned an outburst of laughter from Soifon.
"I'll have you know, it's the Block 100 actually." Soifon laughed at Yoruichi's naming conventions. "Remind me never to hire you for marketing."
"Hey, that's how I used to earn a living! Give me that outdated thing and a photoshoot, I'll have people lined up ready to purchase it like it just came off the shelf an hour ago."
"I can believe that, I'd line up just to see you again." Soifon's voice softened at this, Yoruichi felt heat rise to her cheeks as she pictured Soifon turning away from Yoruichi, a blush spreading across her porcelain skin from Soifon voicing her intimate thoughts.
"Are you biting your bottom lip right now?" Yoruichi asked, knowing full well Soifon would be. It was a nervous habit Soifon had but damn, it made her look so cute and sexy, Yoruichi found it hard to resist pulling Soifon into her arms anytime it happened.
"I am not." There had been an unusual long pause before Soifon denied this claim.
"You so are. I knew it. God, you have no idea how that drives me wild." Yoruichi revealed, subconsciously biting her own lip at sharing that little secret with Soifon.
"Really? I thought it was when I stopped kissing you that you went wild and couldn't hold back anymore?" Soifon quipped back, Yoruichi's smile only grew in strength at the memory of Soifon being on top of her back in Sweden.
"Oh it did, it really did. I loved how powerful you were. Mmmm, the way you looked right at the start of that poker game. I swear it was a good thing I was sitting down, I felt my legs give up on me then." Yoruichi nearly giggled at how daft she must have sounded and clutched the phone closer to her in order to hear Soifon's reaction all the more.
"They did?" the sweet, soft sound of Soi's chuckle melted Yoruichi's heart all the more.
"Oh yes, the way the firelight danced across you, how in control of everything you were, like you owned everything and everyone there." Yoruichi practically purred at recalling how her soul had been claimed by Soifon's need to have her. "It's a good thing I don't work for you, I'd be collapsing left, right and centre anytime you walked past me." Yoruichi laughed at the image of her working for Soifon, though it soon turned into a mental picture of her being under Soifon on top of a desk, papers scattered everywhere.
"You know what I liked?" Soifon said after she managed to stop laughing as well. "The look on your face when we arrived at the airport, you looked like you were about to have a heart attack." The call continued in this manner, each taking turns sharing their favourite parts and laughing together at the memories of their impromptu holiday together. The only reason the call began to end was simple because Yoruichi wanted to pull Soifon into her arms and kiss her and no words she could think of could really show how much she needed to feel her girlfriend beside her again.
"I - I would love to be able to treat you like that one day." Yoruichi settled for saying instead, very aware she would be unable to do so anytime soon.
"You could do so right now." Soifon had taken a moment to reply which indicated to Yoruichi that Soi must have had one of her mental battles on if she should continue or not. A familiar soft glow of warmth spread throughout Yorichi's core when the side of Soifon that wanted to share things with her had won this particular bout. "Say you want me to come over."
"Of course I want that, I love y - I'd love for you to come over." Yoruichi clenched her eyes shut at correcting herself and hoped that Soifon wouldn't question it.
"I won't be long." Soifon said goodbye to Yoruichi who was relieved that Soi's lack of experience with relationships came in handy now and then, anyone else would have called her out on that slip up. That was far too close, Yoruichi breathed a sigh of relief, she knew Soifon was not ready to hear that anytime soon, she was still getting used to being called her girlfriend after all. And here I thought I had emotional baggage, Yoruichi chuckled though she was glad to be a guide for her little buzzing bee.
Unsurprisingly very little conversation took place between them both once Soifon arrived and Yoruichi had guided her to the bedroom. If she couldn't tell Soifon the extent of her feelings, she could at least show her in all the ways she knew how to do so. Technically, "technically" I'm not breaking any rules. Yoruichi smiled and waved goodbye to Soifon after she had stayed over again since she never did leave her flat and Kukaku never said anything about Soifon not being allowed to visit. Her europhoria didn't last long after Soifon's car pulled out of the complex for one of her delightful neighbours tumbled out of the flat further down the row of the doors and threw, what Yoruichi assumed was an empty beer bottle over the railing for it shatter into pieces when it hit the ground.
"Good throw Toru." Yoruichi commented on the distance cleared by his throw when she recognised him as the local drunk who liked to haunt the second floor stairwell. He turned to see who had spoken, scrunching his grubby face against the light, grunted once in recognition of being spoken to then turned around and stumbled his way towards the stairs. Yoruichi thought about saying something about a bed being better then stairs but if his place looked anything like her own room, she thought that the stairs may actually be a better place to take a nap instead. Plus she could hear Kukaku's nagging voice in the back of her head telling Yoruichi to keep her head down and keep to herself as much as possible so with no other options available to her, she retreated back into her flat and pointlessly shuffled her sofa around the room before giving up and attacking the kitchen with shower of chemicals while she wondered what meeting Soifon was stuck in today.
It happened to be a rare day where Soifon did not actually have any meetings. Instead she was busy reading a file that had found its way onto her desk, wondering why the Board were so determined for her to at least read the file on a possible merge offer from some other corporation.
"More money for them somehow…" Soifon muttered under her breath while she researched this other company, her face scrunched up in dislike at discovering it had something to do with oil.
"Why is it always oil?" she spoke louder when Nanao let herself into Soifon's office with another stack of files and deposited them on the desk.
"I believe that is something Marenoshin has a history with and is pushing for." Nanao adjusted her glasses after glancing at the screen to see what Soifon was talking about.
"Omaeda…" Soifon muttered with greater distaste, she had been forced to give his son a job as her assistant no less, those had been some dark times for her, dark times indeed. Meetings forgotten about until last minute, deadlines revealed to her on the day of being signed off. Just thinking about it now was enough to give her a migraine again. "Dare I ask what he is doing at this present time, or what he is meant to be doing?"
"Re-designing the twenty first floor." Nanao informed her, "His father gave him some money to play with and it keeps him from bothering me every other minute."
"I feel sorry for anyone working there after he is done." Soifon scrolled through the history of this oil company, not really taking much of the information in. "Why do they even want to merge with us… why not just work with us?" Soi mused out loud, the answer would be hidden somewhere, she was sure of that fact.
"Combining asserts, company expansion, new horizons, the usual corporate jargon. Staff discounts on petrol… I highly doubt that though." Nanao rattled off the main reasons Omaeda senior had declared at his latest push to get this proposition through to the board members.
"Those are his reasons, not theirs." Soifon continued to search through the website's features. "I have little interest in this, we don't use oil."
"Technically we do, transport and distribution do." Nanao corrected her and earned an eye roll in return from Soifon.
"Alright we do, not on a level where it could be of any use though. I can guarantee they will get more from this idea of his then we will. It's not worth it."
"The offer is very vague, I agree with your evaluation too. I assume they expect consideration and for talks to begin." Nanao began collecting a bunch of files from the 'going out' tray on the desk.
"Not gonna happen… for as long as I can delay it." Soifon added when she considered the fact that she had already turned down his proposal before and yet somehow, here it sat on her desk again.
"Want anything ordered in for lunch?" Nanao asked before she left Soifon to pursue her research in peace.
"No, I've got some errands to run then." Soifon checked the time both on her laptop and her phone to check that she was not running behind her schedule when she saw the unread message symbol highlighted on her screen. Nanao nodded in goodbye and shut the door but not before she saw a faint trace of a smile grow on her boss's face when Soifon read the message Yoruichi had sent her. It was a simple greeting along with a question of how her day was going but it made her smile all the same knowing that Yoruichi was thinking about her.
I'm acting like a fool, Soifon chastised herself for being stupidly happy over a single message even as she buised herself with typing out a reply at the same time. One thing that Soifon was certain of though was that it was out of her control so she took the only option available to her and did her best to ride the waves of euphoria that Yoruichi brought into her life. A simple message, a single touch, the sound of her voice, her laughter alone was enough to fill Soi's insides with exploding fireworks. Each one had a different colour, sound, timing and explosion, it was simply impossible for Soifon to try and define any of the forbidden pleasures that consumed her entirely when Yoruichi entered her thought process. Ah but that is wrong too, her inner voice corrected her when she realised that Yoruichi never actually left her thoughts now. Anytime she leaned back in her chair, she often caught herself recalling how Yoruichi's fingers danced through her hair and brushed against her skin, somehow renewing Soi's energy and relaxing her at the same time so that she could continue her work with new determination.
A familiar fog of confusion began to cloud her mind as her upbringing collided with these latest revelations. Her usual tactic had been to deny any of these thoughts or feelings the light of day except somehow, without really knowing how, Yoruichi had managed to plant roots firmly within Soi's head and refused to be kicked out. In fact she actually felt the beginning of fear when she tried to picture herself without Yoruichi now. She really is my g-girlfriend now, again Soifon felt her survival instincts clash with her new chosen lifestyle. I have to follow this trail, Soifon flipped the laptop lid down to avoid the temptation to hide in her work, determined to stop running from her inner self. I didn't get to be in charge because I acted like a coward at every difficult decision and I am not going to do it anymore. Soifon had moved over towards the windows during this thought process and now she stood in front of the glass panels, her silver eyes taking in her own reflection and was pleased to see strength and resolve looking back at herself.
A smirk curled across Soifon's lips, she knew she could do what needed to be done and nothing was going to stop her. Besides, even if she changed her mind it was too late now, she had already taken the necessary steps to set things right. The agency she had called would get back to her sooner or later with results. Things had been set in motion that could not be undone and if it all ended in fire and ash, then she was going down in flames with Yoruichi beside her.
A loud scream broke through the stillness that night brought to the quaint suburb Kisuke had set up shop in and the result of the scream caused him to drop his mug of coffee and shatter around his feet which were now being scolded by the hot liquid.
"Ouch- Eee hot, h-hot!" Kisuke exclaimed while dancing around the broken shards of his mug in an attempt to cool his skin down, "Why'd you have to screech like that right by my ear?" Kisuke directed his question to the source of the scream.
"I thought the grim reaper had come for me!" Kukaku held her phone up higher to get a better look at the deathly pale Kisuke that stood in front of her; he shielded his eyes from the brightness.
"Put that thing away will you. I haven't slept in a while, that's all."
"Why are you skulking around in the dead of night anyway?" Kukaku was still recovering from the shock of finding Kisuke raiding the kitchen when she had intended to do the very same.
"This is my house - if anything I should be asking you that question." Kisuke muttered to himself.
"Did you lose a fight or are you sick?" she prompted him while he recovered the larger bits of the broken mug off the floor.
"No, it's not beaten me yet but it could do -" Kisuke dropped his usual act of riddles when Kukaku just stared back at him with a clueless expression, "I'm working."
"You don't usually look this bad." Kukaku busied herself by resuming the raid through Kisuke's cupboards using her phone as a torch now that she knew he was ok.
"Usually my work involves tracking a normal person but I'm not dealing with a normal person." Kisuke flicked on one of the nearby lights to swiftly turn it off again when the brightness didn't agree with his eyes. "Why are you here again?"
"I needed to grab some stuff I left here the other day." Kisuke couldn't help but notice the only thing Kukaku seemed to be grabbing was his food. "Anyway Soifon seems like a normal person to me so why is it giving you such a headache." She pulled a large bag of crisps from the cupboard and added to the growing pile of supplies she was accumulating.
"Oh yes because every person owns a multi millionaire industry." Kisuke declined her offer to take some of his own crisps she was now tucking into.
"I guess that makes it difficult." Kukaku admitted.
"Difficult? It never ends. I've got programs sifting out the irrelevant stuff but I can't ignore photographs and there is always some sort of article being published somewhere that has a photograph that needs to be checked." Kisuke usually kept quiet about this sort of thing however even he had to admit when he was out of his depth and the fame of Balance Industries was impossible for one man to cover.
"I'll put in a request for a team to be put together for you if it means you won't scare the shit out of me whenever I bump into you in the dark." She had hoped he would have at least pretended to laugh at her lame joke but he still looked like he was carrying the weight of the world on his shoulders. "What else is eating you up from the inside?"
"I have to tell Yoruichi not to make any Valentine's Day plans." Kukaku blinked at him, her brain playing catch up with him on this one.
"Not even in private?" Kukaku read his facial expression and could tell that was also out of the question.
"Soifon has a reputation of not being involved with anyone and things need to remain that way for those two to have a smooth time of it all." Kisuke sighed, it would not have been so bad if Soifon was the kind of rich, romantic type who had a different date every other week, Yoruichi could have been lost in a throng of past lovers that way but alas, that was not the case. He had not been able to find any evidence that Soifon had ever been in a relationship so being spotted with Yoruichi was sure to attract attention.
"It's not like Soifon is some kind of celebrity, she's a business woman." The world where she wanted to be a supportive friend and one where she needed to keep Yoruichi safe had collided again.
"Yoruichi was and would be one again if she popped up out of nowhere on the arm of Soifon." Kisuke had already beaten any counter argument he could think so was ready for any that Kukaku fired at him as well.
"Alright… alright, fine. I'll tell her. It's just one day afterall. Is there anything else I should be aware of?" Kukaku asked while she was in the mood to hear any more bad news. Kisuke shook his head despite the fact that he had been forming a plan that Yoruichi was literally going to kill him for when the time required it. "In that case, you should get some sleep. You honestly look like a dead man walking." Kukaku bid him goodnight and walked out of the kitchen with half of it in her arms too.
"That was a little too close for comfort." Kisuke breathed out and looked to the closet door which creaked open by a couple of inches. "You were right, it's a bit too risky to meet here after all." He rubbed the back of his head while a figure peeked outside, checking the coast was clear for them to stop hiding while Kisuke opened the back door to allow an escape route from his house. "Be sure to do exactly what I said now." Kisuke waved goodbye as his silent friend left the house as quietly as they had arrived.