I wrote this at the same time as The Feeling Is Mutual, but misplaced this draft. Now, this is what I had meant to write in the first place!

Soifon believed in a world of order. She believed in beginnings and in endings. She saw the need for hierarchy, for the comforts of the rank and file. Genius to her was less inspiration and more perspiration. The world was a well oiled machine, and if one followed its rules, one was destined for greatness. Because few ever took the time to follow every decree, she was one of a kind and proud of it.

She believed that a mentor existed to shine a light upon the well-traveled ropes that propelled people from one position to another. It was a relationship of tradition and necessity, where the past and the future could mingle freely with one another in the present. Nothing was better for preserving the old ways which were still relevant and replacing the archaic with fresh intuitions. The duty of one to teach reciprocated by the duty of the other to learn which earned a loyalty that would be engrained deep within the heart.

It was a bond to last forever!

xXx

Mayuri, far more than order, believed in a world of logic. He believed the mind was constrained by the body and dulled by the heart. He was mystified by the complex systems that sprung up around seemingly dumb individuals be it element or molecule, cell or shinigami. He and he alone knew that every specimen was unique. He also understood that unique was not a synonym for "special."

He believed that a mentor's place was to open doors, to make opportunities and solutions appear where there had been none before. It was a relationship with the most ancient of roots: a bizarre, sacrilegious mix of the ambition of a father for his son and the shared burning passion of lovers all rolled into one. This was a meeting of minds, born in a realm much higher than the flesh! It was far more sacred than those formed by the basest yearning of biology, somehow at the same time ephemeral and everlasting.

It was a bond that was meant to break!

xXx

The day that Urahara had been banished to earth, and Yoruichi had protected him, the order shattered around Soifon's ears.

"This is all your fault."

Soifon's voice was more of a growl than an actual sentence. The angry fire ball of a girl stormed into the laboratory, slamming the door behind her.

Mayuri blithely looked up at her, but only after she had gotten inches away from his face.

"Yes, you!"

"Oh?"

It was that self-important demeanor in his carriage that pissed her off more than anything. Soifon stared into the yellow eyes that never blinked, even when the flat of her hand slapped on the wood of the desk.

"You're a terrible influence. If he hadn't become intoxicated by your wild ideas, none of this would have ever happened," she spat.

Mayuri rolled his eyes. "I don't have any time to waste on you. Please get out of my way."

Soifon leered at him. Mayuri inwardly superimposed the image of a snarling cat onto her face. It did not befit her, but she was too dumb, too childish to understand why it did not. Any mask that one chooses to wear should always be one's own. He knew that well and took great pains to show it.

Mayuri shook his head. "Now if you wouldn't mind, I would like to set this beaker down. It is rather hot to the touch, you know."

He pushed past her, continuing. "I may have altered my pain receptors a bit, but it doesn't mean that the sensation is completely gone. Pain does serve a purpose, but I highly doubt that you would understand that gem of wisdom."

"Tch. You're sick." Soifon crossed her hands across her chest.

"I scarcely think that you are one to talk." He set the liquid down on a rubbery pad and paused to straighten the collar of his lab coat. "It would appear that I am the only one acting sanely within this laboratory at the moment. "

He sighed and continued, gesticulating with a single hand.

"If you absolutely will not leave, I would appreciate if you would stop with these preposterous accusations. Or better yet, speak your mind. I am sure that you did not come to hurl poorly formulated insults. Hurry up. I'm already bored."

"Your disgusting support of your captain's secret projects was enough for him to bust you out of the Maggot's nest."

He paused, thinking.

"Well, yes, we had some very intelligent conversations on various subjects before he took it upon himself to free me. I assure you that he was very obsessed with some profane topics before he met me."

"Then it was your fault for not stopping him for going too far."

"Too far?" Mayuri laughed. "You obviously know nothing of how research works."

"Listen to me now," he said. "Urahara is a man of logic, and nothing more. Yoruichi, like you, is a woman who is not. Maybe one day you will do something far more irrational than anything that your captain has ever done."

Soifon twisted her lips into a tight line. "I don't understand what she saw in that man. He was full of danger and lies."

"He was very unpleasant, wasn't he? "

"Well, what did you see in him?" She asked.

The earth froze beneath her feet.

"It wasn't what I saw in him, it was all about what he saw in me."

Soifon stood there, continuing to watch him work. Even when he was locked up in the Maggot's Nest, she had never really gotten the chance to see him closely. Now, some part of her wished that she had.

"Like Urahara, I am also skilled with building gigais. Perhaps I can interest you on a commission for one. I do have the movement and mannerism information on file for all of the past and present captains and vice-captains. Give me a few strands from her hairbrush and I can even give her a voice."

Mayuri paused and traced his bottom lip with a finger before eyeing her with a truly interested face.

"Or did you find her more physically appealing as a feline? I can build one of those instead if you wish."

"You are disgusting."

Mayuri threw his hands up in the air. "What?! I am only trying to help, you ignorant fool. I do not understand why they say I am never nice. And when I am, this is what I get." He blinked. "I did not get this far as a scientist without the penchant for problem solving."

Soifon's balled up her little fists and punched a hole in the wall beside her.

"So unappreciated!" He mumbled. "And I am billing the 2nd division for that."

Soifon saw to it that he was never paid.

xXx

The ceremony of naming the new Captains was filled with the same pomp and circumstance as it always was. The current captains and vice-captains all stood to congratulate the new crop, and what a large crop it was. Never before had Soul Society lost so many in a time without a war, and after a year of considerations, the ballots were in.

Soifon donned the trappings of her newly attained captainhood. It was only natural, only right, only fair that she had inherited this position. In it, she would rise higher and shine brighter than Yoruichi ever had. And when she found the right person to open her cracked heart, she would be a better mentor than Yoruichi had ever been. Yoruichi, who had not even told her where she was going, nor come to take her along.

Mayuri also stood amongst the inductees. He had changed his look, his hat vaguely reminding Soifon of a glorified toilet seat perched atop his head. She knew that he had not been a favorite for inheriting the leadership of the 12th squad due to his obvious history, but there he was anyway. He had handled the duties of both absent leaders in stride, running the laboratories as if nothing had ever happened.

Like a cockroach, he was just too good at living and too bad at dying to ever really go away.

At the end of the night, when most were beginning to head home, they found themselves together, eyeing one another as they had the whole day, now less in secret, daring.

Mayuri broke the silence. "I see you found your way to the top on your own."

"I don't need her anymore," she said.

Soifon continued to hold his eyes. Mayuri frowned.

"I suppose that's for the best, though I do not see where this concerns me."

Emotions welled up within her. She had no idea what to say to him, what would be the same.

"Your style is ugly," she whispered.

Mayuri laughed. It was a sound that both made her want to claw out her ears and join in at the same time. It confused, comforted and angered her all at once.

He rubbed the knob on his chin thoughtfully. "My, you aren't very good at saying what you mean at all."

Soifon looked away. Now, there were no words to say.

She was a captain. He was a captain. He was an enfant terrible in every sense of the word, but even she could not deny that he did have a raw sort of wisdom locked deep within him. From this day forward, she would be forced to trust it, and know it better and better.

The night continued to fall, but neither moved. The silence was slow to unfurl, but now it cocooned her. They were two ships passing, again and again. They flashed, side by side, beacons in the night.

Finally, she understood.

Just like her, he would never be free.

As always, reviews are kind and helpful for feedback. :)