2.35 PM Urahara's place
When Yoruichi got back to the house she found it in the exact condition they had left it in earlier. It was almost too empty. But just almost. She liked how quiet and calm it was inside – it was enough to make her believe that the many things that had happened during the day were nothing but images in a bad dream. If it wasn't for the stifled cries the wooden walls made as they were exposed to the burning sun outdoor, she could have sworn the world outside completely vanished the moment she closed the front door after her.
The solitude fitted her like a glove. She was free to run around the house as much as she wanted, taking long steamy baths until her toes got wrinkly from the hot water. Better yet, she was free to dig up her friends' dirty little secrets, which they surely kept hidden at the bottom of their wardrobes or tucked away under their beds. The family men façade Tessai and Urahara had picked up didn't fool her one bit and she was sure that Tessai for instance had more than a few toys left from his long bachelor period hidden away somewhere, waiting to be found.
Actually, she thought. She didn't want to know about those kind of things right now. Finding such items certainly wouldn't help her keep her mind off the things she had been trying to avoid ever since she had left the station. Like the tense body Kisuke had displayed the previous day. His muscles were etched to her retina in a way she never imagined they ever would be. She had seen his body covered in bruises from the burst veins below, she had seen him covered in blood from head to toe. Some times it had been his own. But despite the countless times she had seen him laugh off a grave injury while she helped him wash the clotted blood out of his golden hair; despite the numerous times she had laid naked beside him as they slept beside each other – despite all of it, had she only once before looked at him with any true romantic interest while in the human world.
It must have been decades since that one previous time happened, and at that moment she had promised herself to never again be taken by surprise like that.
Shit, she thought, as she stood there in the hallway contemplating her next move. In her defense to it all, the reason she had showed up in their house was because she had been feeling lonely and desperate for human contact. A laughter shared among friends was what she had thought she had wanted. And his full frontal had taken her by surprise. That was everything it had been, surprise, she thought miserably.
Wasn't this one for the books, she thought. She wanted to fuck the brains out of her oldest friend… Damn, she needed to think of something else, anything else than this!
She decided to change into more comfortable clothes and go training in the basement in a desperate attempt to pass the time. If she was lucky Kisuke would return soon. When he did, they could go to a pub and drink sake and flirt with people one could flirt with without ruining themselves – or rather before she ruined them.
She knew she wasn't Urahara's type. The woman the day before had been blonde and far more voluptuous than herself and the previous one had looked like a super model from what she could recall – skinny and inexperienced.
Why did this have to happen to her? It wasn't like Kisuke was her type either. He had been, once – in between the fair innocent of youth and her doomed and brief relationship with Soi Fon back in Soul Society. But that was a long time ago.
As she ran around the training area she couldn't help but think about when it could have been that she had stopped merely loving him, and actually had fallen in love with him. Was it during that time two decades ago, when she had walked in on him – or was it much, much earlier? Was she even in love with him? Or was it only overpowering lust that raged inside of her, tearing her to pieces from the inside? She decided on the latter option as it was the least painful one.
Damn, she would kick his ass when he got back here. No amount of training could give her rest from the demon tearing at her mind, trying to rip out her heart and cut open her aorta. It was all his fault. His fault, and that damn police officer with her stupid questions. Why had she been forced to recall last night? She wanted it long forgotten. Now, at once. Before…
She could feel her breath sing along with her heart beats as she ran for all she was worth, trying to escape her infinite doom. She was building up a bit of a sweat, enjoying the way her trained muscles tensed and released with every step she took. A cloud of dust formed behind her every time a steady foot hit the ground.
Yoruichi let her mind focus on a slighter less pleasant subject than her friend's abdominal muscles. She wondered who the real killer was. It hadn't been Urahara, even though her testimony hadn't exactly helped him clear his name. She had, if anything, only succeeded in the destruction of his alibi.
Her small comfort was that they no matter how much she screwed up couldn't keep him more than a couple of hours without better proof supporting their theory. She was certain they wouldn't find any new proofs, at least not that day, and since Urahara had been detained for more than six hours now, she figured he would probably show any minute.
She wasn't ready for that. If he only hadn't been a first time criminal according to their records… if only… Then he would have had to be bailed out, not released like this.
In that case Yoruichi could have said that she had forgotten to bring the necessary money or told him that she was stuck in traffic as she collected her thoughts. She grimaced as she came to a halt from her intense spurt.
When she realized that fanning her hot face with rapid movements didn't help her body cool down, she decided to sink into the hot spring instead. Slipping out of her clothes and letting her body soak in the warm water, she momentarily forgot all her troubles.
It wasn't until she had decided to get up in order to get ready for her planned evening out, she remembered that she hadn't brought a towel down with her. It wasn't much to do about it. With steady steps she moved to where Urahara kept his towels, in one of the bedroom wardrobes, the one closest to the entrance – the one behind the door Kisuke had pressed his date up against the previous night, she thought absently.
It didn't take her long to get upstairs, and she couldn't help but grin as she opened the closet to find a lot of neatly folded towels in different sizes, just as she had expected.
Yoruichi padded her damp face against the soft fabric of a small one. Her clothes lay on a heap on the floor beneath her bare feet.
There was the familiar sound of a door opening and closing, "Oy, up here," she yelled to the man downstairs.
"They released me," came the tired reply as the man dragged himself upstairs. "Apparently they now lean toward it being a woman who attacked the girls."
"That's good," she said as she moved to sit on the bed. Unembarrassed, she sat with her legs spread, her upper body resting on her elbows behind her.
Urahara shot a glance at her as he leaned against the door heavily, seemingly not noticing her. "Not that your story helped," he added, shooting her one of his characteristic smiles.
"I know, sorry," she replied with a small grimace.
"Uh huh," was all he said, not really believing her sincerity - with right.
"Anyway, that calls for a celebration," Yoruichi said, smiling at him.
The clock had just struck eight, and he briefly registered that his whole day had been spent in a cell. It had been the most boring day he had had in a very long time and all he wanted was for it to end.
"What do you have in mind?" he asked.
Kisuke had let his guard down and was beginning to remove some of the hot garments that lay plastered across his skin because of the heat. His shirt joined her clothes on the floor with a soft thud.
He paused when she didn't answer, looking over at her place on the bed. Only to find her face mere centimeters from his.
"Well," was all she said, digging her eyes into his. Her lips were almost touching his chin as she spoke, her hot breath dancing across his skin.
"Yoruichi," Urahara said warningly, peering back into her yellow eyes.
"Don't start something you don't plan to finish," he said in a angry voice.
"I am just teasing you," she grinned, letting her tongue slide across his jaw line to further punctuate her words. "And I am bored."
When she saw his look of disapproval Yoruichi's smile disappeared. She shook her head from side to side, trying to hide the hurt and disappointed look to her face.
"Can't a girl play with her food nowadays?" she muttered as she turned away from him.
She didn't know what had possessed her to corner him like that, but all she knew was that she couldn't concentrate on anything other than the memory of the previous night. It was as if it drowned out every ounce of self preservation that was left in her.
Her feet moved to take a step away from her close friend, to disappear into the night. She wasn't planning on returning in a very long time. She couldn't believe he was rejecting her like this, had he not only 24 hours earlier said how much he had needed female company? Couldn't he see how much she wanted him?
A/N When life gives you lemon, make lemonade – that's how the saying goes, right? Well, this story is rated M for a reason. If you don't like it, don't read the next chapter. It does contain a lemon:). You have been warned.