A.N.: I always wanted to re-post this because this site stole the bars I originally put between scenes. I'm finally doing it, as well as fixing Sui-Feng's name.

A.N.: This was written on the spur of the moment for the "coming out" challenge at BA. Leave your review!

And I don't own Bleach.

Bursting out

Things got a little crazy a little quickly after that unexpected statement was heard. While the quiet and sensible ones just watched the scene like eager spectators, the more brash and reckless among them started to whistle and let slip surprised exclamations.

Shihouin Yoruichi just stood with an impassive expression.

Some things in the universe never change. Like the eternal battle between darkness and light; like the unstopable passing of time; like death, that comes in different forms to different beings, putting and end to an existence, even if only to make it into something else. Just like you could count on the sun rising and setting in the living world, you could count on Sui-Feng-taicho being right there at Shihouin Yoruichi-sama's side, making plans together, fighting together, existing together. Subconsciously, nobody ever expected to see one without the other again, and, as it was, they were never disappointed.

So it was common for someone wanting to aproach one of them to even ignore the existence of the other, specially if that someone would be another soul entranced by the dark beauty of the Shihouin princess. It was becoming a habit for the austere captain of the assassins to endure dayly inane conversations under ridiculous pretexts; conversations that never included her in the least. To her credit, Yoruichi was always sharp enough to distinguish when her interlocutor - dazed or not by her charms - actually had something important to say, quickly dispatching the ones who didn't.

That is not to say that there weren't many who would rather admire the deadly commander - who for all her scowls still always looked like a delicate china doll. There were very few of them, tough, who actually had the courage to attract her cold gaze without a good reason. Sui-Feng's admirers preferred to keep their fantasies to themselves, sometimes making Yoruichi wonder why exactly the lower ranking soldiers paid such rapt attention to the captain's lessons, speeches and demonstrations.

Some things never change, and many are among the ones we don't notice, prefer not to, or do too late.

If there was a man Sui-Feng simply couldn't stand, he would be Urahara Kisuke. For being an amoral slacker with no real objectives other than disturbing the peace of the universe, but worse than that, for being all that and managing to have her lady's trust. But since he did have it, she would have to content herself with killing him mentally; slowly, if the mood struck, but only mentally nonetheless.

That was her favourite distraction at times like these, when the irritating friendly man came to report his activities before the authorities of the Sereitei. And she could keeping doing that forever, for she swore to herself she would never raise her hand against Yoruichi or her allies again. Even if said agravating ally had a tendency to linger "for a chat" after they were through with the formalities, and if those "chats" always included double-meaning sentences and double-meaning glances towards his cherished "old friend".

"Ho, ho, not now, Yoruichi-san. We can reminisce the good ol' days when you come visit me, how about it?" - Urahara said, unfolding his fan in front of his face.

Sui-Feng proudly acknowledged her restraint when one such little chat started to stretch a little longer than usual.

Some things changed; some were made to change from the beggining. Like a new life that is born, growing slowly and steadily into something more complex and beautiful; these changes that occur slowly, over a long time, we use to call "development".

These slow changes may surprise us sometimes, but they cannot go unnoticed forever nor go forever unanswered. It wasn't all that strange, then, when quick smiles started turning to long stares; soft, innocent touches, to soft, pure caresses; long, peaceful silences, to gentle, loving kisses. When the mind was almost convinced these occurences happened only in a dream, and the memory started to cover in mist these blissful moments, only then were they allowed to happen again. And that was the strange fact: that changes as sure and natural as those could go unacknowlegded for so long. But unlikely as it was, that was the way gold and steel eyes remained closed each day.

There are some changes that occur fast, though, and demand an immediate answer.

It was so fast no one there could see exactly what happened, and before Urahara could even notice the pain in his right hand, Sui-Feng-taicho's voice was heard, cold, clear, frankly terrifying.

"Shihouin Yoruichi is mine, and you better remember that before touching her again!" - and, to emphasize the point, twisted some more the hand of the man who dared caress (even if in a theoretically joking manner) her lady's own.

When the whistles and exclamations started to get loud enough to demand attention, the captain released the - regrettably - not quite broken hand of the shaken scientist. She had no idea what she was doing, and the only thing she knew how to do now was stare at the man with her killing intent expressed in her eyes. She might have been proud of her restraint, but he had been restrained as well, never having attempted something so stupid before as touching Yoruichi in front of her.

"That was uncalled for, Sui-Feng-taicho", Urahara said, hiding behind his fan once more, "Aren't we all friends here?"

The crowd, composed of all of the current Gotei Thirteen captains and lieutenants, plus the higher ranking officers of the second division, all of them held their breath. Things would surely get out of control if the surprised older woman didn't do something. That's what she thought, still shocked and relieved at the same time by the declaration of her furious, jealous, small partner.

"No, we aren't, Kisuke. Sui-Feng is much more than that, to me; I love her", Yoruichi's heart had certainly never beaten so fast inside her chest, and the spectators started to whisper intensely. "You went too far with your jokes and you know you were provoking her. You better go, now, so you and I can still be friends. I'll talk to you later."

"Heh, what a way to come out of the closet", thought Omaeda, lazily chewing on his snacks. "Not that I expected anything else from the captain", he finished his thought, truthfully not surprised in the least.