Author's Notes

Spoils: Parts of the Hueco Mundo arc.

lj springkink prompt was: playful sex--"Let's get out of here" -- There's a flavor of the TS relationship between Ukitake and Yoruichi in here, their nicknames for each other come from there; but this is set in the present. I play Ukitake on lj touchedthesky rpg and the beginning details are from an interaction Ukitake had with Byakuya in play, it's not canon.

Jyuushiro was working. He was doing all the paperwork necessary to get Rukia tested and Seated, since he'd gotten direct permission from Byakuya to do so. The younger Captain had, after decades of waiting and her acts of courage in Hueco Mundo, finally conceded that Rukia had more right to her own honor than he had to protect her.

He didn't really notice the cat until he noticed its paw prints in black ink all over the edges of his blotter. He looked up, startled, and gazed into golden eyes.

Jyuushiro laughed softly. "Thank you for not stepping on the applications themselves." He leaned forward and scratched the black cat under its chin and up along its sleek jaw.

The cat closed its golden eyes and purred. Its whole small body rumbled with the sound. It licked a blackened paw and made a face before speaking in its gruff, low voice, "Still using pine soot ink sticks, I see. Very old-fashioned of you, Ukitake."

"True, but I like the depth of color to it."

"But you're doing paperwork with it, not... painting or calligraphy."

Jyuushiro looked at his papers. "But it is writing. And there is no reason to save it for something better. I enjoy using it when I can."

"Living in the moment, hm?" The rough tone was teasing, affectionate.

"I enjoy the moments I get," Jyuushiro said with a smile. "What else is there, Yoruichi-chan?"

The cat leaped off the desk. There was a soft bang and a cloud of smoke, and Yoruichi laughed, naked as the day she was born. "I've always loved that about you, Ukitake," she said, gracefully flowing towards him.

Jyuushiro watched her with a smile, and rose from his seat, taking off his Captain's haori as he came around his desk. "You're looking a little thinner: has Kisuke-kun been feeding you?"

She rolled her eyes at him and ignored his comment, but he saw she was smiling at his informality, just as she always had.

It had been a very long time ago that he'd stopped thinking of her as a girl: now he enjoyed the fact that she'd grown up to be a very strong, capable woman. He held the haori out for her politely to put on. "Sorry," he apologized, "this will have to do, I'm afraid: I don't have many changes of clothing here; and it's not like you haven't worn one of these before."

She sniffed in scorn, but pulled it closed around her. "Not that I particularly like wearing it, but it will be convenient. Oh," she said, pulling on the collar of the haori to bury her nose in it. "It smells like you, rosemary and mint."

"A little like catnip, no?"

Yoruichi walked up to him and pulled his arms about her, too. He laughed, and hugged her affectionately as she rubbed her face against his shoulder and his hair. "Now, what does it make convenient?"

"We can just go where I want to go with you, and no need for anyone to get shocked by seeing me. I don't really like changing shape that often, especially with what I want to do."

"And where would that be?"

"The glade by the pond and the waterfall, where there were the huge, sprawling oak trees and the wild wisteria," she said a little wistfully.

He stilled. His slender hands lightly stroked her purple hair as she leaned her forehead against his shoulder. Memories percolated up gradually, tugged by all the things she'd listed.

"And what would you like to do when we get there?" he asked carefully. And then he grinned a little ruefully, wondering if this was a joke. "Play tag?"

Yoruichi laughed, full out and long. "Only you, Shiro-san. Only you. But no... since you have your breath..." She paused and reached up to slide her hand into his heavy hair, and she brought his face down to hers. Against his lips she breathed, "I'd like to live in a full moment with you."

She kissed him, slow and sweet, and he, being a perfect gentleman, kissed her back as gently and as thoroughly. And it wasn't the first time he'd thought how good she was at stealing his breath away.

"I cannot refuse a lady her desires," Jyuushiro said, chuckling a little at his own formality.

"Right," she said, laughing her rich laugh again. "Let's get out of here."

In a snap of flash step, the two of them were gone; and the paperwork settled quietly, capable of waiting for just one more moment after waiting for decades.