The Reunion

"Tears that she had not planned on shedding rolled over her cheeks, staining her chest and the black dressed she dawned. Below her, she cradled her face of her cold beloved, still and unmoving. Why had she been taken from her? Did she really deserve to suffer like she did? Had Yoruichi not sad 'I love you' enough? Had she not held her the right way or for the right amount of time?

'Soi-chan…. Soi-chan… I still love you. I still love you Soi-chan...' Yoruichi straightened the black suit Soi was decorated in, handsome and sleeping, only… it was a slumber she would never wake up from again. Yoruichi threw herself to her former lover's chest, gripping the flesh that he had not had enough of. It wasn't until strong hands braced her shoulders, slowly teasing her away from the stoic body.

'No! One more time. I need to kiss her one more time. I need to hold her!' She screamed into the broad chest she was supported against Broad arms held her close, comforting her. The man that they belonged to knew that there was nothing to say, there was nothing to do to make the tears stop flowing. She might cry herself dry before the pain became any easier to deal with. She had a bond with the frail woman in that box that would have outlasted eternity. It would have outlasted the love that the living two had between them.

'You will always want one more. You will always wan more time. We need to let her rest, love.' Gently, have stroked her hair back, avoiding the black butterfly clips that bound the loose strands of violet together. 'You're gonna be okay.' He promised this with no sincerity. How could he know? For as long as he had known Yoruichi, for as long he had loved her, he never knew her to live without Soi. It would be remarkable if Yoruichi could make it through a week with only a memory to sustain her. It made him wonder just how strong the connection between them were and how it had gotten that way.

'No!' She struggled against him, trying hard to push him away, to escape to her little bee. She needed to caress her cod skin, to rock her back to life. Yoruichi's blood wouldn't be able to circulate, her lungs not able to function if Soi could be there with her. She need her scent on her skin, her hair spread across pillows, she needed to hear her voice call out to her; to say those words that she had refused to speak for years now. She needed the love of her life.

'How could I have been so stupid, Soi? Why didn't I love you like I should have? Why didn't you let me love you? Soi… Soi! Don't leave me Soi! Come back! Come back…' She cried her last please into the chest of the man that could never understand the love she felt for Soi. But that love had died, unrequited and unfulfilled. Suddenly, it became difficult to breath, difficult to see. She couldn't stand anymore, she couldn't feel anymore. Why darkness finally came, she cursed the sky knowing that she would wake up at any second, alive and breathing… without her Bee."

"Yoruichi? Baby, get up, you got to get food in you…" Yoruichi stirred against the pure white sheets, her face imprinted with the dull pattern for staying there for hours on end. Suddenly all the memories rushed back from the inside of the ambulance, the tube that was shoved down Soi's throat, the needles pricking her skin, the way she lied lifeless and cold in the strange box, not responding to Yoruichi's touch, to her words. Tears pricked her eyes, blinding her before they fell to the bed that she was bent over.

"I'm not hungry… Kisuke…. I can't eat." She lay back down, refusing to look anywhere other than the backs of her lids, wishing that darkness would come as soon as possible. She didn't want to dream for she would be tormented by her lover's face, knowing her eyes would grace those handsome features again; she just wanted to sleep, beside her Soi-chan until she could touch her again, until she could feel her once more; the way she was used to, the way that she craved.

"Come on, doll. She'll be here when you make up. I doubt she's going to be running off anywhere." Yoruichi's head shot up, suddenly realizing where she was, She was surrounded, suffocated by the sterile room, the pure white walls hurting her adjusting eyes, the painfully clean smell that promised either death or pain, and the slumped figure whose chest Yoruichi was curled against.

"Soi!" Water fell from her eyes with no restraint. She wailed and cried out, so very grateful to have the warm body in her arms once more; the scent of her Bee filled her nose, surrounding her, saving her. "Soi-chan… Oh, Soi-bee…I'm so sorry. I'll never do this to you again. Soi… Soi…" Yoruichi didn't want to question why she was still here still breathing; if she did she might be taken away again.

"Y-Yoru-chan…?" Kisuke mumbled, completely confused. She had not broken down like that… ever. He realized the link between them was unbreakable, but it made him speculate the reaction she would have if he up and disappeared or was in peril much like her former roommate.

"Hey people! Well let's see how that girlie is doing eh?" An overly cheerful blond orderly skipped happily into the room. She seemed all too comfortable with the feeling of sorrow, anger, and frustration drenching a room that she had lost the ability for appropriateness. Slowly, the blond reached over to Soi, attempting to check her pulse and her temperature, but her arm was caught just short of the pale skin.

"What's. Happening. To. Her?" Yoruichi slowly and deliberately spoke the words, trying to make it as easy as possible for the woman to understand.

Unfazed, the nurse responded, "Well, Miss Shihouin." Yoruichi hissed at the long forgotten name. "She seems to have suffered a mild case of hypothermia. Your friend here says that he found you two curled up together. Was she unconscious when you arrived?" Yoruichi nodded, not wanting to hear the final prognoses. "Well she hasn't woken up since then."

"What?" Yoruichi flew to her feet, crouching over Soi almost as if she were ready to leap at any offender and readily rip out their throat to protect her slumbering lover. "She's…. She's not going to wake up." Tears fell freely from the goddess' eyes. The overwhelming amount of desperation that seeped from the shaken woman slowly loosing control startled the nurse, making her happy exterior shift into a gentler and more understanding human, rather than just a messenger with a death sentence. "Soi… She won't…" She slowly slid to her knees, collapsing over Soi, cradling her lifeless torso to her chest, desperately wishing for a miracle, for a mistake, for the devil to come from his fiery home to buy Yoruichi's soul in exchange for Soi's—anything.

"It might take a while… Her body is exhausted, it needs time to recuperate. When you found her, her body had basically shut down. If you wouldn't have found her when you did, I might not be here to tell you this much." She laid a gentle hand on Yoruichi's convulsing back. "Don't worry. She's not in a coma, but she is unconscious. And she will more than likely be there for the next day or two. And…I'll look the other way tonight. You can stay, but only one of you." The news did not comfort Yoruichi. The bitch said nothing about when she woke up, what would happen if something happened to Soi in her sleep, what the fears were. The only way Yoruichi would believe anything that came out of those hypocritical monster's mouths was if Soi was alive and responsive in her arms, holding her back, kissing her back, loving her…

She felt Kisuke shift uneasily behind, but now, she could really care less. It wasn't until he took hold of her shoulders, pulling her away from the bed, away from the love of her life, so she could peer into those calming dark orbs that she had taken comfort in so many times before. She collapsed onto him, reveling in the way his strong arms wrapped around her frail body, supporting it, protecting it.

"Excuse me..." A lengthy and somewhat frightening man staggered in, head bowed and cheeks flushed "I do apologize ma'am, but I have been looking for Soi Fon for quiet sometime. Do you think you could direct me to her room?" When he picked up his head for conformation, he looked as if he belonged on a bed next to Soi's. His light grey eyes dilated, his shaggy black hair stood on end, and his strong arms braced his weakening body against the door frame. Immediately he dropped to his knee, flattening a single curled fist to the floor. "Miss Shihouin!"

"A-Aki…?" Yoruichi sniffled. The only contact that she had ever had with the man was whenever she had tried to escape his clutches and his watchful eye to actually have a life outside of the Shihouin world. She always failed though. Whenever she thought she was out and finally alone, trouble would always attract to her like a magnate, and here he would be to save the day. He slowly rose from his respective position, twisting the jacket he held in his sweaty hands.

"Yes ma'am. I was told my daughter had been admitted here." It wasn't surprising that Soi was his daughter. She looked almost exactly like him. The same gentle eyes, the same graceful motions, the same shy exterior, but if you were to come near the one person they were meant to protect, the person they loved, their wrath would have no end.

"Aki…" Yoruichi slowly pulled out of her pacifier's hold and stepped up to her former protect, her long legs only needing to take a few strides to reach him. She gently stroked the sides of his chiseled face, sliding her fingers into the deep worry lines that mostly Yoruichi had caused. "Is it really you?" This man had been like a father to her, her only father. He had taught her right from wrong, truth from lie, and the souls from the soulless. She owed this man so much but she had never had imagined there reunion would have been like this…

Yoruichi took hold of his large hand, leading him towards the other end of the room. His thick brows were furrowed in worry and confusion, but still he gripped his princess' hand securely. She gripped the sheet that sheathed the face of the person in question. Yoruichi's grip on Aki grew tighter, more secure when the pale, blue-lipped, corpse-like girl was exposed to him. His daughter, or what was left of her, was cold and unresponsive, but beautiful; a Chinese porcelain doll. She seemed so peaceful… yet… heartbreaking.

"M-My little warrior… Soi-chan… What has this world done to you…?" Yoruichi guided his hand towards the handle on the side of Soi's bed before stepping back into the shadows, careful of her breathing and the silent sobs that occasionally rocked her body.

- - - - - x - - - - -

"Oh, no, Aki. Don't start with the familiarities like that. You know I really could have cared less about my parents." Yoruichi giggled lightly, stooping over her coffee cup as if it were something stronger.

"I would have never guessed that my little warrior would have run from the Shihouin just to grow to love one. You two are really close aren't you?" Aki was never a man of many words. Yoruichi was shocked when he initiated the conversation, eager to learn of his daughter and her life and how her former master was entangled in it.

"You know… I never knew you had a daughter until she told me six years ago. I guess that's what made you such a good dad to me, huh?" Slowly, a blush swept over his defined cheeks. "So that's where she get is, eh! Why do you call her 'Your little warrior', Aki?" Trying to avoid any and all conversation about her relationship with her slumbering beloved merely feet away from the two. Aki's fingers were too bust entwining a single braid between his thick fingers to realize that Yoruichi's thumb was discreetly stroking Soi's thigh through the rough blanket Her hands, nor eyes ever left her little bee, it was the same for Aki's little warrior, they seemed to be afraid that if—even once—they lifted their attentions from her, she might disappear into nothingness.

"Well, Princess," Yoruichi smiled at her old nickname, finally feeling the weak tension between them drop and the father-daughter like atmosphere between them return. "that is a story that I have yet to tell you." He shifted in her chair, crossing his ankle over his knee and entwining his fingers, keeping Soi in the corner of his eye.

"You were always the story teller, Aki. I gotta say I kinda miss 'em" She could picture herself, just three feet tall, balancing herself on his lap in the middle of the night, tears staining her cheeks from the most recent nightmare. He was always the shoulder she could cry on, the arms that would comfort her.

"Believe this if you want, but I wasn't the one always fishing you out of trouble." He mused as Yoruichi's delicate brow furrowed in confusion. "Soi… is not my daughter, unfortunately." Aki let one hand wander onto the bed to rub Soi's shoulder as if claiming her. "But I am the only one that she has ever known. She was orphaned as a small child by my brother, I doubt that she has any memories from that time, but when I found her on a bench by the subway when I was tailing him, I took her in as my own and never looked back. He knew he was in trouble, but he wouldn't tell me what. The next day he was dead and I was the only family Soi had left. Very early on, she proved to be a unique and special child. I had never seen such coordination or… ambition as I did with this child. One time even I came home to find her surrounded by my knives! But when I got closer, I realized that she was cleaning them. Latter on I found an apple outside with a single knife mark in it. Her aim even impressed me." Aki chuckled at the memory, but soon his face grew stern and serious, as if in deep contemplation.

"Then she caught sight of you for the first time. And, if I can speak freely, I could have sworn she had fallen in love. Every day I got home the questions would never stop. She had every picture from the newspapers and magazines that had a glimpse of your face. She often spoke your name in her dreams. I guess you can say you became the sister she never had." Yoruichi blushed at the thought of Soi as her sister. Of course then the fun would have to stop, but she hadn't realized that Soi's admiration had ever ran that deep. How long had Soi been that close to her?

"But I finally broke down and for her eleventh birthday, I brought her along with me to watch over you. And she proved to have learned a great deal from her. She never let you see her, she never got too close to raise any sort of suspicion, and through a few minor misshapes… she became a pro. Princess, from the time you were fifteen to the time you ran out of the tradition of hatred your family upheld, Soi was protecting you, guarding you. I guess you could say I had found a replacement.

"You know she was devastated when you left: in tears nearly every night. Another year and she got a scholar ship. It was quiet a shock to her when she found she went to the same school as you, much less the same room. Princess… Yoruichi-sama?" Aki ran the rough pad of his thumb through the stream of steady tears that decorated Yoruichi's cheeks. She hadn't completely understood the love that Soi held for her and the absurd amount of devotion that she constantly poured over her…until now. Soi had been with her every step of the way. Soi had loved her, had defended and cared for her, even if at a distance, since before Yoruichi had ever laid eyes on the sallow child.

And all that Yoruichi gave her in return was a few one night stands and quick caress or two before she ran off into the arms of someone it was safe to love. Someone she could love with years and years of tradition and normality; that would raise little to no suspicion of passersby. She loved Kisuke because he was always there, he never left; not, unlike everyone else in her life. Had Yoruichi confused friendship and security for love and mutual physical attraction? If that was so, then what was it that she felt for Soi? Wasn't she just grateful to have someone love her with every fiber of her being, much like Soi did, without any expectations or string attached?

"Well… visiting hours are over you two!" The cheerful voice that screeched behind the reunited couple made Yoruichi's teeth click and grind. "Ok, girlie. You're the only one that can stay remember?" Aki rose in acknowledgment, always used to be the last one in line. He bowed deeply to Yoruichi before speaking.

"It will always be a pleasure, Princess. Please take good care of her for me. Y'know you kind of owe her." He winked a solid grey eye at her before turning to leave, but was cut short when a firm hand grabbed his wrist, pulling him back. Aki let the weak body crash against him as he stroked the violet hair that clung to wet cheeks. "There there, Princess. I'll be here at daybreak."

"No…" She mumbled into his dark red sweater. "You are her father. She hasn't seen you in years. She see's my ugly mug nearly twenty four hours a day. Please be here when she wakes up. She needs you Aki…. She…."

"It sounds like you need me too, eh?" His rich and deep chuckled filled the room. Aki's voice always had a way of warming a person to their soul just by saying 'Hello'. Yoruichi nodded helplessly into his chest. "Don't worry kid. I'm not going anywhere. Neither is she, alright. After all… she is my little warrior after all, eh?" Yoruichi nodded again, reveling in the way it felt to have a father back in her life, someone to love her unconditionally; someone that will always be proud of her no matter how disrespectful she may become. Just when she was about to pull away, he held her tighter.

"Thank you for loving her back. You don't know what you mean to her."

Yoruichi didn't return home that night, but she didn't have anywhere else to go. She merely sat on the park bench she had found Soi near, pondering the last words Aki said to her. It was true the old man was wise past his years, but just how much did he know?

- - - - - x - - - - -

"Yoruichi! I'm sorry! Please don't hate me! Don't hate me!" Soi cried out, crumpled on the floor as if she were a piece of garbage that Yoruichi was done with. "You dais you loved me! You liar!"

"Yep. You're right. Imma liar, goddamnit! Now get off your pathetic ass and get out of my fucking sight. Why would I ever go for someone as plain and as boring as you? You stalked me since I was a child. How was I supposed to feel when you told me? You're worthless. You're pathetic. You disgust me." Yoruichi turned, her violet hair flying about her as she became a retreating figure in Soi's memory.

"No, Yoruichi! Please don't go… they all go, please don't go… please don't go…." Soi gripped at the burning pain in her chest, the sharp pang in her heart. She felt as if her whole torso would burst through her, depleting her, destroying her. How could Yoruichi leave her, after all this time… after all they had done for one another….ahs was just going to… leave? Just like that? How was that even possible? Had everything over the past six years meant nothing?

"Get out! I'm done with you!"

"No… No Youruihci-sama… no no no… Please I need you. Nooo…." Soi curled into a tight ball, trying to make herself disappear. Without her goddess, life wasn't worth living. Good thing she didn't have much more time.

"Soi… Soi wake up. Soi you're okay. Yoruichi's on her way, don't worry. You're safe now." Soi's eyes shot open, unused to the deep voice that soothed her fears, but recalling vividly who it belonged to.

"F-f…" Her eyes adjusted to the harsh lighting enough to make out the tall shadowed figure that loomed over her. "Father!" She shot up from her bed, arms tightly latching around the elder's back. The reunion brought on another onset of tears, staining the man's sweater as he patiently consoled her, easing back onto her bed. Once she had finally calmed down, he reached for her hand, slowly running the pad of his thumb over it.

"I thought I told you to keep your nose clean, kiddo…" He bent over to lightly kiss her hand, but Soi knew better. She could feel the cold tears sprinkle her skin.

"I have father…"

"No you haven't. You almost lost it for Christ's sake! Just don't… scare me like that, okay? This old heart cant take much…" He punched his chest for emphasis and Soi laughed. It had been forever and a day since she had laid eyes on the most trusted being on the planet. Suddenly it hit here… he was here…

"Father! The Shihouins'!" His ears perked and his bushy brow furrowed. Soi remember at a time where she would only reach up to his knee—not that she was much taller now—she would try to smooth the worry lines out with her fingers. Now, she barely had enough energy to stand up to hug him, and that depleted her supply of stored up vigor.

"What… Yoruichi didn't tell you?" Soi shook her head, exhausted by the motions. She felt her eyelids flutter, but her mind couldn't really catch up with the action. "Soi… Yoruichi is the last living Shihouin… They were all murdered"

A/N: well... i didnt really like this chapter. the last part was kinda thrown together anyway. Dont worry. ill probably rewrite this whole story in a years time. well review if you would like... kinda dissapointing update tho...