Author's notes:

And the much awaited conclusion…

Chapter 20: Finally

As exhausted as she was, Yoruichi didn't notice the approach of her special visitor until she had knocked on the door and called her name. She had recognized the voice perfectly, of course. How could she not when she heard it in her dreams and yearned to hear it when she woke up? "Soi?" she questioned all the same to acknowledge the woman's arrival and to help her gather her bearings for the unexpected meeting.

Soi Fong entered the room cautiously, first peering in then stepping carefully just inside the threshold, leaving the door open. She was keeping her distance, Yoruichi noted sadly.

"Yoruichi… may I speak to you?" The tone was neutral, at least.

"Fire away," she answered with false cheer even as she dreaded her first conversation with Soi Fong since the 'incident'.

Soi Fong bowed her head slightly, clenching and unclenching her fist nervously as she searched for the words. "I have something to say and I would appreciate it if you could just hear me out and not say anything for now." She bit her lip apprehensively and raised her eyes of liquid mercury to meet Yoruichi's golden ones, awaiting the response.

Yoruichi didn't know what to make of the request or the manner in which it was made but she nodded hesitantly.

"First of all I want to thank you for saving my life… at great personal cost." Soi Fong started off fidgeting.

"You're welcome," came the flat, automatic response. Yoruichi had to keep up the charade after all.

"Please, Yoruichi, just let me… If I don't get this out quickly, I don't think I'll… ," She swallowed hard. For some reason, the room felt a tad cold for Soi Fong and she trembled slightly. She breathed deeply and collected herself as she looked to her former superior pleadingly.

Yoruichi's schooled features softened into worry for both, the uncharacteristic vulnerability of her companion and for what her pending words might mean to their friendship.

"I know you've been looking for a way to undo the ceremony and I understand why. If that's what you want, then I wish you the best of luck." She wrapped her arms around herself protectively but kept the eye contact.

"I came here to say that… that if you can't find a way to reverse it, it'll be okay."

Yoruichi opened her mouth to say something but was cut off.

"Wait, I'm not finished." Soi Fong's steel orbs hardened with determination.

"It'll be okay because… I love you. Not just as a friend. I love you… and I will do whatever it takes to make up for your sacrifice… even if that means pretending nothing happened in that cavern or… or..." She paused her rambling, biting her bottom lip again.

Yoruichi, for all her training in maintaining a poker face, couldn't help it when her jaw dropped. She didn't know what she expected, but this certainly wasn't it. Her heart beat wildly, her breathing grew labored and her mind shut down.

"I'll go with whatever plan you come up with but… if you give me the chance, I promise to make you happy… not because I have to or because you saved my life by binding yourself to me, but because I love you. I… uh… ," the braided woman trailed off, deciding that she had probably said enough.

Yoruichi struggled for something to say when Soi Fong quickly said, "Yeah, that's everything. I'll be in my office when… ifyou want to speak to me." She corrected herself at the end, for she fully believed that Yoruichi wouldn't want to. With a gust of wind, she flashed away.

"Soi… ," Yoruichi managed, but only after all traces of the shinigami disappeared.

Up in the mezzanine, the dashing blonde scientist had overheard everything. 'It's not my fault that sounds carried well in the room,' he internally defended his eavesdropping.

"I did say that she would love to be married to you." Kisuke called out smugly as he made his way down the stairs.

Yoruichi stared blankly out the door.

"Yoruichi?" Kisuke waved his hand in front of the woman's face when she failed to react to his teasing.

She swatted his arm away, eyes still glued to where she last saw Soi Fong, and set off in the fastest shunpo Kisuke had ever seen.

The man sighed. "I never thought I'd see the day…"

***

Soi Fong's tiny feet left light prints on the dirt path that led from the sakura grove to her office in the Second Division. To anyone outside of the Onmitsukidou, this was nothing strange, but the squad of assassins knew their captain well. The woman lived and breathed stealth; and nothing, not even a safe walk within the Seireitei could shake her out of her training to leave no tracks. If Soi Fong's footfalls were making prints at all, that was the equivalent of a trudge.

Soi Fong wondered for the fourth time since she broke out of shunpo why she had really gone to see Yoruichi. The last thing she thought before she actually grabbed her haori was that she needed to speak to her savior. Because she owed it to her. Why was that again? So she can assure her that the future is not so bleak?

"Psh, how selfless of you, Shaolin," she noted sarcastically.

After the fifth time she asked herself the same question, she had come to the conclusion that her unrehearsed speech was undoubtedly aimed at keeping Yoruichi. She wanted her to consider staying together. Well, that was certainly new. Months ago, she would have called bullshit on anyone who would have deigned to think themselves worthy of the goddess. She didn't know how things had changed to the extent that she dared to think it herself.

There was nothing for it now. She had recklessly confessed and yes, in a way, begged for her consideration. The proverbial ball was in Yoruichi's court, and to be honest, Soi Fong was not in a hurry to find out what was going to happen next.

'Coward,' Soi Fong berated herself for not giving Yoruichi time to react to her confession.

***

She finally reached her office building only to find lustrous violet locks fluttering out her window. For a moment, her heart stopped, but she gathered her courage and strode shakily towards the door.

"I thought I trained you to shunpo faster than that. I've been waiting for you," Yoruichi was leaning on the wall by the window.

"I made an extra stop and I walked from there." Soi Fong answered evenly, thankful for the trivial exchange that delayed the inevitable.

Yoruichi nodded and a silence thick with tension descended upon the room.

"You didn't need to say all that so I wouldn't feel bad about trapping you."

"Yoruichi, why should you feel bad about any of this?" Soi Fong asked rhetorically, with just a hint of annoyance. "You sacrificed your freedom so that I could live. I should be thanking you."

"But it was my choice to perform that ceremony. You, on the other hand, never chose to trapped in this marriage."

"I told you already. I love you and I don't care."

"Stop lying for my sake!" Yoruichi raised her voice. "When… When I kissed you, you pushed me back," she finished weakly.

"What?" Soi Fong stared at Yoruichi incredulously. Was the woman seriously expecting her to enjoy the kiss given the circumstances?

"You said that you love me. But if that was true, why did you push back?"

Apparently, she did—silly woman.

"If Urahara suddenly kissed you at the Maggot's Nest while you were trying to avoid drowning in a collapsed cavern, would you honestly kiss him back?" Soi Fong snapped back testily.

"What?" the accusing expression on Yoruichi's face turned confused.

Soi Fong groaned. In the aftermath of her confession, she had hoped for acceptance but primed herself for rejection. Ever unconventional, Yoruichi apparently decided on a third type of reaction, which was the denial of her confession. She couldn't even begin to comprehend why.

"Look, I meant it when I said I love you. If anyone here is trapped, it's you. I'm sorry that you might have to settle for me instead of your boyfriend or the love of your life or whatever it is that you call Urahara, but I will do what I can to make this bearable for you." Her voice was firm as she quickly laid her cards down again, none of the earlier anxiety detectable in her words. Clearly, she was getting exasperated.

Yoruichi brought her intense gaze to bear upon the petite captain. If there was one thing she learned in the months that led to this encounter, it was that Soi Fong ignored all filters and was excruciatingly honest in moments when she lost her temper. By the semi-scowl on her face, which was as bad as it got in her presence, Yoruichi could tell this was one of her moments. Her eyes narrowed slightly.

'She was… serious about that confession? No… the world can't possibly be so perfect… '

And yet Soi Fong had spoken of her love in no uncertain terms no less than five times in the last hour.

Finally coming to terms with the winning hand fate had dealt her, Yoruichi calmly broke the suffocating silence that had once again permeated the room.

"I'm not trapped and I did marry the love of my life."

"Oh my god!" Soi Fong threw hands in the air. "You must not have been eating all this time you've been in the archives. You're delusional! You married me, Yoruichi! Me!"

"That's right." Yoruichi agreed seriously, her confidence growing. "I don't know where you got that idea about Kisuke being my boyfriend, but the one I love is you. I. Love You."

"Now who's lying to make me feel better?" The raven-haired woman muttered as she rolled her eyes.

"I kissed you in that cave," Yoruichi pointed out.

"Because it was part of the ritual." Soi Fong countered.

"I willingly bound myself to you," the older woman continued.

"To save my life!" Soi Fong was about ready to pull her hair out. Didn't Yoruichi understand how much it hurt to have that love dangled before her when she was certain that it wasn't meant for her? She would rather that her friend stopped pretending so that they knew where they currently stood and she could set out to win her heart for real.

"Alright, that's true," Yoruichi made a placating gesture and Soi Fong visibly deflated.

"But before that, I had already spent weeks contemplating how to confess. It was just so hard… and I wasn't sure you… and then…," the Shihouin tried to explain incoherently. "The situation in the Maggot's Nest just kind of… made it necessary to confess immediately."

Dropping her hand down heavily, she sighed in resignation. "Soi, I love you. I don't know how else to say it so that you would believe me."

Soi Fong looked at her former mentor with a mix of disbelief and curiosity as she realized that they had just traded places in the conversation. "You're… You're serious, aren't you?"

Yoruichi took Soi Fong's hands loosely into hers and gazed into her stormy grey eyes. "Yes."

"You… love me… and I… love you…" Soi Fong mumbled absently as her eyes focused on something far away. Her hands slipped away from Yoruichi's and pulled up her chair so she could drop into it. Yoruichi followed her movements worriedly.

"All this time… ," the Chinese woman continued to mutter.

"It's a lot to take in, isn't it?" Yoruichi whispered in her beloved's ear as she laid her hands on Soi Fong's neck and shoulder from behind her with the slightest hesitation. She was still not used to the idea that the gesture was completely welcome.

Once again, the electricity was there, where dark fingers met pale skin. It gave Yoruichi the urge to let her fingertips explore more of the creamy expanse and Soi Fong goosebumps. But it was undeniable that there was also something much less volatile and more substantial flowing between them: acceptance, comfort, understanding, and yes, the love that both of them had professed over and over.

Soi Fong held Yoruichi's right hand and leaned her head into it affectionately, blissfully awed that there were no signs of the woman pulling back. "What now?" she asked.

Yoruichi squeezed her hand gently. "I don't know… But we'll figure it out together, won't we?" It was a question but she sounded so sure that they would.

"Together… " Soi Fong smiled softly. "Yeah."

The End