If someone ever asked Yoruichi who was the most distant person she'd ever had the pleasure of meeting, she would telling them Kuchiki Byakuya. She first met him when he was a small baby wrapped in fresh white linen. They were having a ceremony to welcome the baby into the most prestigious noble house of all Seireitei. Yoruichi had stood at the back of the room with her arms crossed over her chest and her head tilted to the right slightly. They had called her away from her job just so she could watch some brat kick and scream while people offered false compliments. She forced a smile when the boy's parents looked at the back of the room at her. They had better not be thinking she was going to watch him. She had not trained for centuries just to waste it away watching a snot nosed kid. Her feet were silent as she stood and eased out of the temple.
Kisuke stood at the bottom step with an armful of apples and a devious smile. She narrowed her eyes at him as she tramped down the stairs by twos. What had he been up to? Her hands rested on her hips; she stared at him pointedly, waiting for him to tell her what had happened.
"I won a bet against that guy around the corner. I used a barrel to fix the floor of his cart." His voice was so melodious. He happily lifted the apples into the air. "He offered me money, but I saw the apples on the ground from the barrel and took them instead."
She shook her head in reverie of the decisions her friend could make. On second thought, she was rather surprise he'd taken any payment at all. Her hand wrapped around one of the before she motioned for him to follow her. There was going to be a huge party at the Kuchiki mansion and there was no way in Hueco Mundo she was going to miss it. Her feet stopped in their tracks when something hard hit her in the back of the head. Her gold eyes watching in shock as a shiny red apple rolled past her. She turned to Kisuke with a smirk that made him laugh. They ran around the front of the temple.
"Yoruichi! What has gotten into you?" Her mother's voice was one that made her wince whenever she first heard it. The dark woman was shorter than her daughter, but just as beautiful.
She released Kisuke's collar and slowly turned to her parents, forcing a smile in the process. "I was waiting for the party to come from the temple."
Her father glanced at Kisuke with a look of distaste. "You really should get better friends."
Yoruichi opened her mouth to retort but closed it when she felt Kisuke's hand on her back. She nodded to her father, her smile never faltering. Her eyes followed their movements until they were out of distance so that she could curse every thing about them she could think of. Kisuke listened to her with dull eyes; he was accustomed to his best friend calling her parents worse things. They walked to the Kuchiki mansion so slowly that when they arrived most of the people had gone.
Her mother shoved her towards the cradle where the baby lay crying. She wrapped a tight arm around Yoruichi's slim waist and whispered to her. "They think this boy will be better than you, my Yoruichi. You will not let that happen." Her mother smiled widely at the woman standing behind the cradle. She touched Yoruichi's shoulder gently. "Yoruichi is so happy for the new member of your family."
The woman bowed. "I am also happy. I hope you two will be close friends."
Yoruichi's eyebrows rose. Her eyes darted to the blond man standing at the table with his apples still clutched in his arms. She laughed heartily when he sniffed a piece of meat and discreetly slid it back onto the platter. "Of course." She bowed awkwardly before prancing off to be with the only friend she really ever needed.
"Can we play tag now, Yoruichi-sama?" Byakuya stood on a large rock ten feet away from her with a knife in his hand.
Kisuke's laughter ruined the moment for she had a wonderful speech planned for the boy. She glared at her friend. "Of course." As always, she would allow him to get close enough to where he thought he had her, but she would disappear and be paces ahead of him.
"You should let him win once. He'll feel better." Kisuke snickered as the boy tramped down the rocks on a trail that led back to Seireitei. "What's he doing out here anyway?"
"Ah, his parents don't let him out much. You want to catch me?" Her eyes gleamed hungrily.
Kisuke closed his eyes and tilted his head towards the warmth of the midday sun. He sighed rather loudly. "Again, Kitty?" He rolled over onto his side and smirked. Yoruichi walked to him and crouched beside him with a similar smile on her face. She pressed her lips against his roughly before jumping out of his reach. "Why do you have to make me chase you?"
"It's part of the game!" She shouted over her shoulder.
Golden eyes stared into eyes the color of darkness. Brown fingers slowly dug through ebony hair. Yoruichi chuckled wildly at the look Byakuya wore as she made a complete mess of his hair. She flipped away from him quickly and waved her hands at him. "No need in trying to catch me. You never have. You never will." A pink tongue protruded from her mouth before she began to laugh again. She sat down on the table behind her with her legs crossed.
Byakuya slowly made his way to her. He wanted just once to touch that beautiful hair and to kiss those lips he was sure would be as soft as the silk kimono her wore. Ever since he'd join the Gotei 13 all he could think about was Yoruichi and that silly blond man running around carelessly. Well, Kisuke had to have some type of strength if he was a captain. His dark eyes inhaled the angles of her face; she was perfection.
"What are you thinking? You're probably wondering where Kisuke is. I am too." She fell back onto the table with a loud groan that made his stomach flip. Yoruichi maneuvered so that she lay on her side with her palm resting underneath her chin. She gazed at him curiously. "Well, what do you want?"
He wanted to tell her that he wanted her. Instead, he turned away from her with the distant look he'd mastered when he was younger. His voice was as cold as he could make when he replied to her. "You can't give me anything I want." He inhaled slowly at the feel of her arms around his waist.
Yoruichi chuckled in his ear softly. Her lips grazed his jaw as she purred into his ear, "I can give you all that you want." Her hands moved from his shoulder down the front of his chest to his torso where she wrapped her arms around him. Hesitantly, she kissed him on the neck and tightened her grip on him. Hadn't her parents told her he would more than likely someday become her husband? She nuzzled her face into the warm spicy scent of his black hair.
Byakuya closed his eyes and reveled in the nearness of her. He could feel the press of her soft breasts against his back. The thought of her wanting to be that close to him made him want to do crazy things. He stepped away from her; his resolve had finally sunken in. He did not want a woman who tramped around all of Seireitei with trash from rukongai. He looked at the confused expression she wore. "I don't want you."
Yoruichi nodded solemnly as she sat down on the table. When she looked up he was gone. She released a great sigh of relief that caught in her throat at the site of Kisuke peeping from behind the dressing shades. Loud laughter bubbled in both their stomachs and rolled out into the night air. She pressed her face into his neck as he wrapped his arms around her. What did she need with Byakuya anyway?