Soifon rapped her knuckles against Yoruichi's front door once more. It was unusual for her to take so long to answer it. Soifon could only assume that she had had far too much to drink last night and was now sleeping off the effects. Perhaps she should have called first? Sighing, Soifon decided to give up and turned to leave. She'd made it to the top of the stairs when she heard the latch on the door. She turned, smiling and dashed back to the door looking forward to seeing what kind of state Yoruichi was in.

Only it wasn't Yoruichi at the door. It was a man, a half naked and still half-asleep man.

He yawned, "Can I help you?"

Soifon continued staring at him. Her jaw had dropped and her went as wide as saucers. Who was this man? And what was he doing in Yoruichi's apartment?

"Who is it, Kisuke?" Yoruichi's voice called out from inside the darkened apartment.

Soifon looked past the man just as Yoruichi stepped out into the narrow hallway, she was wearing only a long shirt and her hair was mussed up. Soifon looked back to the man; he was only in his boxer shorts.

"Right," Soifon muttered, stepping back from Kisuke. She turned and walked away, feeling a little bit sick.

"Wait! Soifon!" Yoruichi called out to her. "Kisuke, do something!"

"Me? Why should I do anything?"

Soifon ignored them and hurried down the stairs. Her face was burning in anger and embarrassment, her throat felt tight and the sick feeling in her stomach had intensified. She felt... stupid. She quickly made her way to the lobby and was almost at the door when someone took a firm hold on her wrist. She spun round only to find herself facing Kisuke in all his barely-dressed glory.

"There might have been a bit of a misunderstanding," He said, smiling at her. There was a twinkle in his eyes that suggested he was finding the whole thing fairly hilarious. "I'm Urahara Kisuke," he introduced himself, changing his grip on her wrist so that he was shaking her hand. "I'm Yoruichi's brother."

"Brother?" Soifon blurted.

"Unfortunately, yes."

They stood still for a moment, just staring at each other. This was Yoruichi's brother? He didn't look at all like Soifon had thought he would, not that she'd actually put much thought into how he'd look, but still... She had to remind herself that he was Yoruichi's step-brother, so of course he looked nothing like her.

"Oh," Soifon finally muttered.

"Sorry about that," Kisuke said. He turned and started walking back up the stairs, pulling Soifon along behind him. "So you're Soifon, I've heard quite a bit about you."

"Y-you have?"

"Yup!" They continued up the stairs, only pausing when a door opened and a random old woman poked her head out and stared at the, Kisuke waved happily to the woman, not at all perturbed by how she might take him dragging a young girl up the stairs while he was dressed only in his underwear.

By the time they had made it back to the apartment Yoruichi was dressed and was busy brushing her hair.

"Soifon," She smiled at her. "Sorry about all that. I was going to send you a text later on to tell you about him." She nodded her head towards Kisuke. "He's going to be staying with me for a bit, just until he gets his own place sorted out."

Soifon nodded, not trusting herself to speak. Kisuke let go of her hand and shuffled off to the kitchen, muttering something about coffee.

"Puts some pants on, Kisuke," Yoruichi yelled after him. "You've probably scarred the poor girl for life!"

Soifon couldn't help but smile. She sat down on the couch, only now noticing that there was a pillow and blanket set out on it. Kisuke must have slept on the couch last night.

"I gotta say," Yoruichi said, pulling her hair back into a neat ponytail as she spoke. "You're here pretty early."

Soifon shrugged. "I had to get out the house."

"Fair enough." Yoruichi set about folding the blanket on the couch and set it down in a neat pile atop the spare pillow. Soifon watched her as she made a quick clean of the room. There was two empty glasses set out on the table and a discarded pizza box. "There!" Yoruichi said once she was finished clearing up. "Much better. You'd better be making us coffee too, Kisuke!"

"Yoruuuuuu-iii-chiiii!" Kisuke wailed from the kitchen. He shuffled back through holding a milk carton. "You're out of milk."

Yoruichi frowned at him. "I can't be, I just bought that yesterday."

He looked to the carton in his hand and then back to Yoruichi, his bottom lip stuck out in thought. "Well, and this is only a guess mind, but I think that some very inconsiderate person may have drank all the milk straight from the carton."

Soifon stared at him in disbelief.

"Right," Yoruichi glared at him. "Well then, you are just going to have to buy some more."

"I don't have any money," He mumbled.

"I'll give you the money."

"I don't know where the store is."

"Fine!" Yoruichi threw up her hands, in what was clearly mock annoyance. "I'll go get some more milk." She was clearly used to this kind of behaviour from her brother. "Behave!" she warned him right before she left.

Soifon didn't say anything. She watched as Yoruichi disappeared from the apartment and then returned her gaze to Kisuke, who dropped the empty carton on the ground and smirked.

"I know where the store is," he admitted, his smirk becoming that little bit cheeky. He grabbed his discarded jeans from the back of one of the chairs and set about pulling them on, in a last, haphazard way. Coins spilled from his pockets as he did so. "Look at that!" He exclaimed. "Turns out I had money too."

Soifon's eyebrows knitted together. What the hell was wrong with him? "So you just sponge off her?" she asked incredulously.

Kisuke seemed to consider this. "Pretty much," He admitted. "She doesn't mind. She has a bit of a thing for looking after the wayward, it makes her feel superior." He sat down on one of the chair, his elbow leaning on the table, and he smiled at Soifon.

"Why are you staring at me?"

"Just being friendly," He answered. "You know, if the wind changes then your face will be stuck like that."

She scowled at him. She didn't like him, she decided. He was using Yoruichi, taking advantage of her hospitality, and he was doing it so unashamedly as well.

"I think I should be the one glaring at you."

"What?" She hissed.

He ruffled up his hair. His relaxed posture annoyed Soifon. It was like he just didn't care what she might think about him. "Well," He started. "You're having this... heh... fling with my sister. And let's face it she could get into a whole lotta trouble for it. I dunno," he shrugged. "It just seems that as her brother, I should be doing this whole protective thing and be trying to warn you off her."

Soifon hadn't expected that. She felt suddenly worried, was he actually going to try to cause problems between them? "It's not your decision who Yoruichi's sees."

He chuckled. "True. But I can strongly advise against her seeing you, and I can just make your life hell until you leave."

Soifon swallowed.

"Of course," he grinded. "I'm not going to do that."

"You're not? Why?"

"Because Yoruichi likes you," He answered. "And she should be allowed to make her own mistakes. She certainly lets me make enough of my own. It'll be fun to watch this as it unfolds."

Soifon turned her head away so that she didn't have to look at him. She really didn't like him. She swallowed again, his meaning sinking that little bit further into her mind. While he wasn't going to do anything to interfere between her and Yoruichi he had explicitly made his feelings on the matter clear to her: he thought it was a mistake. He thought that she'd only be bad news for Yoruichi. It surprised her how much that actually hurt.

"I think we've got off on the wrong foot," Kisuke said. Soifon looked back to him; he stood up and crossed the room to her, holding out his hands towards her. "I hope that we can be friends, for Yoruichi's sake, if nothing else."

It felt like a challenge. Soifon took hold of his hand and shook it, mumbling her agreement. She didn't think they'd get on at all, but she wasn't going to be the one to cause any kind of disharmony.

The front door opened, signalling Yoruichi's return. She moved into the living room, kicking her shoes off of her feet and gripping a bag to her chest. "You kids getting along?"

"Of course we are!" Kisuke said happily. "Though I gotta ask Yoruichi, how the hell did you ever believe she was eighteen? She looks about fourtee- yeowch!" He was cut off by the empty milk carton hitting him in the head.

"Don't just drop litter on my floor," Yoruichi warned him.

Soifon sunk a bit lower into the couch. He knew that she had lied to Yoruichi too. No wonder he didn't trust her. What else had Yoruichi told him? Soifon was starting to wish that she'd spent the morning in bed or had met up with Isane and the others.

Yoruichi retreated into the kitchen with her bag of shopping. Kisuke was amusing himself by looking round Yoruichi's shelves, humming to himself under his breath.

"Yoruichi, when did you buy upstairs?" He asked loudly.

"Uhh, last year," Came her reply. "It was a good move when you think about how small this place was."

"You bought the apartment upstairs?" Soifon asked, looking at the narrow spiral staircase in the corner of the room.

"Yeah," Yoruichi said. "I needed the extra space and I couldn't be bothered moving, so I just bought upstairs too and merged the two places together."

"Which was probably a lot more effort than moving to a bigger place," Kisuke said, laughing to himself.

"Shut up!" Yoruichi laughingly replied. "It was a fun project. And the place looks great now; bedroom and en suite bathroom upstairs, living area down. It's good."

It was a stark reminder to Soifon that Yoruichi clearly earned a small fortune, and also that Soifon didn't have a clue what Yoruichi actually did.

Yoruichi emerged from the kitchen with three mugs of coffee in hand, she handed one to Kisuke and then another to Soifon.

"Should she be drinking coffee?" Kisuke asked.

"It's just coffee," Yoruichi replied. "It won't kill her."

"You're such a responsible adult."

Yoruichi stuck her tongue out at him, laughed and then sat down on the couch next to Soifon. She shifted so that her legs were tucked up beneath her and she was partially facing Soifon. "You okay?"

"Yeah. Fine."

"I know he's a bit full on, but I swear that once you get used to him he's not all that bad," Yoruichi said apologetically, still smiling.

"Hey! I can hear you!" Kisuke protested.

"I'm talking about you, not to you," Yoruichi replied in a sing-song voice.

Soifon tried to smile along with them but found it too difficult. Yoruichi and her brother got along so well, they clearly had loads of in-jokes that Soifon didn't get and generally had a great rapport. Their interactions made Soifon feel lonely. She had never got along with her own brothers this well. She stared hard at her mug of coffee as she realized this.

Yoruichi laid her hand on Soifon's forearm and Soifon looked up from her coffee to see Yoruichi's concerned gaze. "You okay?" Yoruichi mouthed.

Soifon nodded.

Yoruichi stood up and drained her coffee in two quick gulps. "You've got places to be, haven't you Kisuke?"

"I have?" Kisuke sounded surprised.

Yoruichi just gave him a flat stare in reply.

"I have," Kisuke nodded and slurped at his coffee. "Need to stretch my legs."

"Yeah," Yoruichi agreed. "You need to go find out where the local store is."

"I knew that one would come back to bite me in the ass," He mumbled. He grabbed his shirt and pulled it on over his head. It only took him another few moments to locate his shoes and pull them on too. "Ah well, I'll bid you ladies adieu," he said walking towards the door. "Don't be doing anything weird while I'm out." The door slammed behind him.

Yoruichi turned to Soifon and opened her mouth to say something when she was interrupted by the front door opening once more.

"Oh, and Yoruichi – you're still a pervert!"

"Get out!" Yoruichi yelled back at him. Soifon heard Kisuke laughing as he closed the door. Yoruichi took a moment, her head cocked to the side listening to see if he'd return again. Finally she sighed, and shaking her head she turned back to Soifon. "Sorry about that. I swear though that he's a nice guy. Once you get to know him."

"I'm sure he is," Soifon mumbled.

"He's only going to be here for a little bit, he had nowhere else to go," Yoruichi explained. She took her empty mug to the kitchen and returned, sitting back down next to Soifon, much closer this time her leg brushing against Soifon's. "He's having a rough time, and I've got to help him out. You understand, right?"

Soifon nodded. She didn't understand though, it seemed to her that Yoruichi was bailing her brother out. If he was in some kind of trouble then shouldn't he be the one to sort it out? What did it have to do with Yoruichi?

"Hey," Yoruichi said her voice soft. She brushed the back of her hand against Soifon's cheek. "Are you sure you're okay? You've gone very pale."

"I'm fine," Soifon said. Her voice sounded strained though. She sipped at her coffee, it was strong and bitter and she wrinkled her nose at the taste. It was just how she liked it though.

"Well, what would you like to do today?" Yoruichi asked, without the slightest hint of suggestion in her voice.

Soifon shrugged. She shivered when she felt Yoruichi's hand venture from her cheek to stroke her ear, her thumb following the outline from the peak down to the lobe. Soifon risked a glance to her left; Yoruichi was watching her, a soft smile on her lips. Soifon felt her cheeks heat up. Yoruichi laughed.

"What?" Soifon asked.

"Nothing," Yoruichi replied. "It's just that you're quite adorable."

"Adorable?" Soifon whipped her head round to stare at Yoruichi.

"Yes," There was no hint of mocking or even teasing to Yoruichi's tone, she sounded like she was being completely sincere. "If you haven't got any plans, then I'm going to get on with some work."

"Oh," Soifon tried, and failed, to keep the disappointment from her voice.

Yoruichi climbed to her feet and moved to her bag, retrieving a file from it. She sat back down on the couch, length ways on and put her legs in Soifon's lap. "You can look after my legs while I'm working."

Soifon smiled. "They need looking after?"

"They don't like to be left alone," Yoruichi said, apparently engrossed in the file. She rubbed her foot against Soifon's thigh in a gesture that was more comforting than it was sexual.

"Right," Soifon said. She placed her mug on the ground and took hold of Yoruichi's legs, pulling them closer into her body. She looked back over to Yoruichi who was now stuck into her work. "Can I put a movie on?"

"Sure," Yoruichi replied.

Soifon carefully manoeuvred out from under Yoruichi's legs, ignoring the slight groan of protest that Yoruichi made, and set about playing a movie. She settled back on the couch and placed Yoruichi's legs back over her own, pulling them close into her body, almost protectively. She rubbed her hand up Yoruichi's calf, feeling the hard muscle beneath her jeans, and up her knee and back down again. Yoruichi's feet were bare and Soifon ran her hand down to them, wrapping her hand around Yoruichi's ankle and enjoying the feel of her warm, soft skin. When she brushed her fingers across the top of Yoruichi's foot, her leg twitched.

"Sorry," Soifon said immediately. She moved her hand away from her foot.

"You don't need to apologise," Yoruichi replied.

Soifon stared at the TV screen, she hadn't been paying the slightest bit of attention to the movie. "Are you ticklish?" She asked.

"No," Yoruichi replied.

"You're leg jerked."

"That wasn't because you tickled me," Yoruichi said, looking over her file at Soifon. "Are you ticklish?"

Soifon didn't reply which was as good as confirming that she was. Yoruichi laughed softly. "I'll have to remember that," She said.

Soifon returned her attention to the movie, only occasionally allowing her hand to stroke Yoruichi's leg. After a while, Yoruichi tossed the file she was reading to the side and stretched. "Well, that was boring," She muttered. "Enjoying the movie?"

"It's alright," Soifon said.

"Hey, Soifon," Yoruichi started. "Can I ask you a question?"

Soifon turned to the older woman. "Um, yeah."

"What's your name?"

"M-my name?"

"You don't honestly expect me to believe that 'Soifon' is your real name, do you?" There was a teasing tone to Yoruichi voice. She smiled at Soifon. "You know my name, it's only fair that I know yours too."

Soifon turned back to the TV. She pulled Yoruichi's legs tighter to her body, as if she was seeking comfort from them. "It's Shaolin."

"Huh," Yoruichi cocked her head to the side. "Shaolin. It's a beautiful name."

Soifon stared at her. She half expected to see a smirk on Yoruichi's face or to catch her in the beginnings of a snigger, but she was only smiling softly. "It doesn't suit me," Soifon said eventually.

"I disagree," Yoruichi nudged her with her foot. "But if you prefer Soifon, then I'll continue calling you that."

Soifon nodded. She watched Yoruichi as she slid lower down the couch so that she was lying down, her head turned towards the TV. Soifon licked at her lips nervously, wondering what she should do. Slowly, carefully, she shifted out from underneath Yoruichi's legs. She moved up the couch, up Yoruichi's body but keeping her head lowered so that Yoruichi wouldn't see the blush that colored her cheeks. She felt a little silly; this was probably the exact wrong thing to do and she half expected Yoruichi to push her away. She stopped her movement and raised her eyes, her face was directly above Yoruichi's. Those golden eyes met hers and Soifon could see the smile that tugged at Yoruichi's lips.

"Hey there," she said, her voice low.

Soifon felt her cheeks all the more for the husky quality to Yoruichi's voice. She was almost ready to give up on what she was attempting, but she felt Yoruichi's lips brush gently against her own. She sank into the kiss. One of Yoruichi's hands was in her hair pulling her in closer; the other had run down her body and was gripping her hip.

Yoruichi broke the kiss. She pulled Soifon down completely on top of her and held her, her head resting on Yoruichi's chest. She ran her fingers through Soifon's hair.

"You know," Yoruichi said, her voice rumbled in her chest and Soifon smiled at the feel of it vibrating up her. "Just because you're here, doesn't mean we have to do anything. I mean this is nice too, isn't it? Just relaxing."

Soifon lay still and listened. The calming motion of Yoruichi's fingers carding through her hair and the feel of her being held so close to her was relaxing, and Soifon felt the tension leave her body. She could hear Yoruichi's heart beating, slow and steady.

Soifon smiled. "Yeah. This is nice too."

Much faster update this time. Reviews are still wanted and appreciated.