"Are you sure you don't want to see the smooth skin of a young woman? This will be the last time…" — Yoruichi Shihōin.
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[POV: With Yoruichi]
She stretched languidly and let out a moan of content as her muscles got the right amount of strain that scratched the itch in her joints.
Just how much of this had she been doing lately?
The answer doused the lighthearted contentment she was feeling. It almost brought a scowl to her face but Yoruichi didn't scowl. She blinks and the source of her jittery frown considers its position and readjusts accordingly.
She had no idea how many times she had said it to herself(she does), but she didn't miss much in the Seireitei when she was in exile.
The things she missed could be counted on one hand with one finger to spare and another one being negotiable.
Being a Shinigami in an official capacity and being the Chief of the Onmistukidō did not make her generous list. The Stealth Force and the 2nd Division were her pride and over a century of her hard work but, yeah, no.
It automatically came as a package when she took over as the Head of the Shihōin Clan and she did put in her best work for it, but no, it still didn't enter the top 3 of the things she missed. Even negotiable number 4 was not a position it was worthy of having.
Spot number 1 – 3 were in random order as it depended on her daily mood. Unlikely number 4 was empty in the event that she wanted to add in something to make herself seem more sentimental.
After living for quite some time as a stray carefree cat, she saw responsibility the same way cats saw cold water. It was a natural disaster.
She twisted her neck and bent down backwards to her left to get those teasing joints to cooperate. Personal comforts came with the job and she was hell-bent in savoring every ounce of it.
"Ah~" she slowly rose back to standing with deft flexibility. "I could use a massage right now." She muttered to herself with exasperation.
"Soi Fon, why did you have to go and change so much?" She wailed tragically.
If these were simpler times — before everyone decided that the century was too boring and took to schemes, rebellions and power hustle as if they were the new trend, which they kind of were — all she had to do was make an idle comment and her ever-dutiful Soi Fon would immediately give her a divine massage and proceed to take care of every little complaints she had.
"Those were the days." She smiled wistfully, a rare genuine thing. Her little butterfly used to be so vibrant, a sight only she got to see. Now she has grown into her own person, and while that made Yoruichi proud to no end, her vibrance was no longer reserved for her but for another.
It didn't make her sad, Yoruichi didn't do sad, or envious either, but like a cat, she missed when the colorful little bird was all hers to play with.
And Itachi…
She chuckled as the image of Itachi in her head frowned when she mentally called his name.
His was more direct. She hadn't experienced talent like his in her time of life. Sure, there were a couple monsters just like him among the Court Guards—his best friend Kenpachi, for one. There was the monument that was the Head Captain, the demure Unohana — oh she definitely knew about that one, something Unohana knew as well, which was why she always joked around the wizened healer.
She would put Kyōraku among them based on how much of an enigma he was. The fact remains that in her centuries of life and active duty as a Shinigami, she has never once seen something that rattled Kyōraku. It unnerved her, but that was just her being her usual cat self.
Apart from Kisuke, none of her peers could compare to these monsters she shared a den with. She didn't put herself on their level because frankly she wasn't. She was just a normal sassy black cat.
So finding someone like Itachi who was like her, but also had the mentality of Yamamoto and Unohana, completely stole her curiosity and she wished to watch how he grew. She was petty, stingy, sassy and curious — this shiny find was all hers. Itachi was an exotic fish that this cat was never going to share.
Kisuke had his obsession with soul science and the likes. Hoarding special things; be it people, places, moments, relationships and even feelings — that was her obsession.
And he'd recognized it in a short time. And he didn't judge her, not because he did not want to but because he couldn't. Everyone had their obsessions, he did too, so he didn't judge her for it because it would be hypocritical of him.
She would say they got along swimmingly well from the onset; Itachi might disagree, but to his defense, she doubted he even knew what getting along felt like.
She sat cross-legged and reclined fully into her chair after discarding the coat she wore and was left with the sleeveless form-fit black vest.
She doubted it would change anything for him if she told him that she only took him in because she was curious to watch how he grew. He already knew so admitting it would do nothing except annoy him.
Maybe she'd do just that. Drawing out his frustrated expressions was as hard as any job could get, but it paid in full with the immense satisfaction she got when she succeeded.
After all this; after finding someone who fought like her, read her like a book, amused her, understood when she spoke without words — all for her to miss the biggest highlights of his life so far.
He was her most interesting specimen and she'd left during what was basically his formative years. She missed everything.
A normal person would be appalled at the nature of her interests and the way she viewed things that caught her attention, but that was where they differed. There was nothing normal about her or people like her.
It was like trying to tell Kenpachi, both the elder and younger, that people were more than fleshly meat bags to cut up. Or telling Mayuri and Kisuke(yes, Kisuke) that people were more than test subjects or potential experiment modules.
Passionate people were rarely 'normal'. It was naturally contradictory. Passion was the glitter painted mask that obsession wore.
Well, no use crying over spilt milk, even though she was tempted to lick it off the floor.
Out of three of her most interesting people, she missed the growth phase for two of them.
Not only did she miss theirs, but she also missed the collection of the interesting group of people they gathered around them.
She would have meowed a sad song if she was in her cat form. She couldn't even be depressed in her human form because that was just not her.
"Why did I take this job again?" She asked herself for the umpteenth time and got the usual answer all the same.
Itachi had saddled her with it. The barely bright side of it was that she could work out some frustration on her paperwork or on her poor Shinigami.
Thankfully, being the deputy-head of the Onmistukidō meant that she dealt mostly with the smelly closet of the Noble Clans, her specialty. It also worked in her favor that their pride would either have them bury it deeper or have them try to secretly resolve it before it got to her office.
They hated her for it far more than they did Itachi, because her capacity as Acting Chief of the Onmistukidō meant that she could lord it over their heads as Head of the Shihōin, or former Head, it didn't matter. She was a Noble Princess, she played with semantics the same way she used her chopsticks.
She finished the small amount of work she had and meditated for a short hour before her feline brain pawed at her for staying in one place for too long.
She threw on her coat, which was definitely a fancy accessory than an official garment, and walked out of the highly restricted piece of land that was the main base of the Stealth Forces
She was barely out of the outer ring, where the first barrack/security outpost for the base was, when she suddenly smiled.
The wind around where she previously stood was only displaced after she was long gone.
"You know, with the way the two of you shun me all the time makes me think you don't love your dear ex-Captain anymore."
She had her hands wrapped around both Itachi and Soi Fon and while Itachi did not so much as twitch a blood vessel, Soi Fon's senses encased her like a vice in that split moment where she slowed down and before her legs touched the ground.
The grin on her face bloomed.
"Don't be ridiculous. No one's shunning you… if that is even possible," Soi Fon bit back immediately, murmuring that last part under her breath. "There were some complaints in the barrack and he decided to check it out. We didn't plan on going further."
Cats were easily bribed with belly rubs with the caveat that they were premium belly rubs. Anything subpar and your punishment was paw swipes and a disappointed look.
Would you look at that? An echo of her little butterfly still remained even after all this time. Yoruichi was satisfied with this belly rub.
Soi Fon disentangled from Yoruichi's arm and gave her a warning look that was 99% threatening and 1% pleading. She would gladly take it.
She looked at Itachi who from the beginning never stopped conversing with the guard who was utterly focused on the report he was giving Itachi and paid no single attention to what was happening around him. As long as they didn't address him, they might as well just be air. She commended his focus.
Even taking Itachi's hat from his head didn't break his conversation so she waited until he was done.
"I thought I wouldn't be seeing you for at least a few days, what changed?" She asked as she threw both hands over his shoulders from his back.
"I changed my mind." He simply said, not once commenting on her hands.
She caught his fleeting expression but it wasn't the usual frustrated discomfort. It was discomfort all right, but of a different kind, and it passed too fast for her to properly read.
"Let's go eat." She suddenly said as she let Itachi off. "There's this fancy restaurant that opened up near the 6th Division. Hope you're coming along, Soi Fon, because our dear Captain is paying."
Soi Fon looked at Itachi with a raised brow while she looked over with a feline smirk.
Itachi took in their stares impassively and waited three full seconds before he agreed. He didn't ask for his hat back and she didn't intend to give it back. Maybe until after dinner.
As they walked, her movements slowed for a brief bit where she stared straight at Itachi, golden slit eyes staring into his black orbs, before she pulled back and turned her face forward.
The deep smirk on her face was mischievously smug. A step behind her, Itachi sighed, this one she recognized as fed-up and helpless, and her expression dug a little deeper.
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