A Well-Intentioned Breakfast The dim sunlight pouring through shade-covered windows, combined with instinctively snapping herself awake pulled Soi back to the land of consciousness, if only in the literal sense of the term. As the freshman experimentally moved her head, she nearly yelped out loud, the crick in her neck painfully advising her against sleeping in this position in the future. Knowing that she needed some aspirin, Soi prepared to get up before remembering why she had to sleep on the couch in the first place. She looked down at the still sleeping Yoruichi, her eyes nearly popping out of her skull when they wandered just enough to see that her hand had somehow found its way into the older girl's hair. Before she could give herself the opportunity to blush, Soi practically jumped out from under Yoruichi, who didn't wake even when her head thudded against the cushions of the couch. What the...? Soi thought in delayed surprise when she saw that her movement had made no effect of her friend's restfulness. If I'd known that she slept like a rock then I would've moved! Ultimately deciding that she had no one to blame but herself for her current state of discomfort, Soi gave a slight huff of annoyance and walked to the nearby bathroom. Well, hopefully she's at least got some painkillers or something, the young girl mused as she rubbed her sore neck. Fortunately, buried behind a box of high-end bandages and cotton swabs was a half-bottle of aspirin, the lid of which Soi removed with ease and gratefully swallowed a pair of the small white pills, washing them down with a palmful of water from the tap. Once she had allowed a few moments for the medicine to take effect, she glanced up at the clock when she suddenly realized how curious she was about the time. She did a double take as her prior obligation came back to her attention. ...It can't be that late... Desperate for a second opinion, Soi lifted her watch arm to her face, only to see that the time was in fact correct. Oh, damnit! 8:53! The test! On pure instinct, Soi dashed out of the bathroom and to Yoruichi's front door, grabbing her bookbag on the way. Okay, I've got my shoes, my homework, my gi... As her karate uniform entered her mental checklist of things she needed, Soi halted a few steps from the threshold. Wait a minute... Oh God, please let me be wrong... When it came to having bad feelings, Soi's gut instincts were usually right on the mark, and since she'd been wrong about her early judgement of Yoruichi she was long overdue to be correct. With a bit of hurried trepidation, Soi unzipped her bookbag, tossing folders and a few textbooks out with abandon (had she not been so preoccupied with her belongings, she would have noticed that Yoruichi was STILL sleeping through the clamor she was raising). Unfortunately, the object of her search was nowhere to be found. Where is it? I thought I packed it...wait... Suddenly she remembered that she had left her gi BESIDE her backpack the day before yesterday, in preparation of packing it with her things but had forgotten it in the rush of a late morning. With no uniform, she couldn't expect her sensei to take her seriously as a student prepared to take a belt test. After a few moments spent in disbelieving, frustrated silence, Soi dropped the now-empty backpack to the ground, then quietly opened the front door, stepping out onto Yoruichi's front step and being careful to close up behind her. Once she was certain that the door was safely closed, she took a deep breath and shattered the early morning stillness. "DAMN IT ALL TO HELL!" Soi was sure she's seen a flock of birds scatter from the nearby trees at her uncharacteristic outburst, but at the moment she didn't care. She continued yelling for a few minutes, cursing her own absentmindedness and Yoruichi's sickness and Kuchiki-sensei's scheduling sensibilities and her alarm clock for failing to wake her up properly yesterday. Fortunately for her, the houses in this neighborhood were far enough apart that she could yell her heart out free of the fear of being reported by the still-sleeping populace. Once she'd vented enough to avoid breaking something, Soi suddenly heard her stomach growl. ...I'm starving, the freshman thought with a bit of embarrassment, then headed back inside. I guess I might as well have a decent breakfast. Remembering the 'medicine' Urahara had left for Yoruichi, Soi pulled the eggs out of the fridge, along with a partly finished half-gallon of milk and a small block of cheese. Well, it's not much, she though with a raised eyebrow, but I'll probably just screw it up anyway-- best if I don't empty out her entire cupboard in the process. After a few minutes of searching in the massive dining area, Soi managed to gather a skillet, small bowl, and a sharp kitchen knife, all of which she set on the counter as she flipped on the front-burner of the stove. She was in the middle of cracking eggs when she heard a yawn and the sound of bare feet coming towards her. "Oh--Good morning, Yoruichi-san!" Soi greeted warmly. It took the still-tired upperclassman, in the middle of rubbing her sleep-filled eyes, a few moments to answer back. "M...mornin'. "How are you feeling? You sound a lot better now." Indeed, Yoruichi's near-unintelligible congestion of the previous day had diminished to a mere sniffle. "Ahh...Lots better, thanks to you. Hey," Yoruichi's eyes opened a little wider as she suddenly sniffed at the air, waking up a little more as she caught the unmistakable scent of butter on hot metal. "...What are you makin'?" "Well, since you've got a bunch, I thought I'd make some eggs," Soi answered, holding up the bowlful of four half-mixed yolks. "...I was planning to just make scrambled--I hope it's not a problem." "Uh...No, that sounds great," Yoruichi said with a widening smile at the prospect of a hot breakfast. "Is there something I can do to help you out?" "Oh, no, you should just relax, Yoruichi-san." "Really, if you need an extra pair of hands, it's no problem. Besides, I'm sure you're sick of taking care of me--" "N-no, it's not that!" Soi managed quickly, pouring the mixture of egg and milk into the skillet, which let out a gratifying sizzle as it hit the pan. "Really, it's no problem, Yoruichi-san--I like making breakfast. Now just sit there and I'll make you some coffee, okay?" Before Yoruichi could protest, Soi held out a container of ground beans (which she'd found by chance on her sweep of the kitchen cabinets earlier) and started to wander about the kitchen. "So, where's you're coffee maker?" "Oh, uh, in the corner near the window," Yoruichi answered pointing away from her. When Soi turned around, her jaw dropped straight to the floor. Instead of a nice, normal, SIMPLE coffee machine, the Shihouin house was equipped with a horribly complicated-looking monstrosity of metal and chrome. She stared at the thing bewildered for a few moments until Yoruichi spoke up from her seat nearby. "Um, Soi..." "Uh," the younger girl began nervously, not wanting to admit defeat before she'd even tried using the coffee maker. "D...don't worry, I, uh...know how to use these, I just, um..." "No, it's not that..." Yoruichi answered casually as Soi suddenly caught the acrid scent of something burning. The freshman turned around just in time to see her forgotten eggs smoking on the stove, which elicited a long string of "oh, crap, oh crap!" from Soi as she hurriedly struggled to turn the uncooked side over. "Uh, here," Yoruichi said, holding back an amused grin as she walked past a very disgruntled Soi, "..How about I take care of the coffee?" Soi put up no argument this time; she was too busy grumbling to herself about the possibly-ruined eggs to notice. ---------------------------------------------------------------------- "...Well? How is it?" Yoruichi was taking a little too long to answer Soi's question than she knew she should have. The first bite she'd taken of Soi's spirited but failed attempt at making scrambled egg with cheese had made a loud 'crunch' inside her mouth. She was fairly certain that eggs, unless eaten raw straight from the shell, were not supposed to make that sound, but she slowly chewed the small chunk of food anyway, willing to at least see if it got any better if she continued. It didn't. "C...can I be honest with you?" Yoruichi asked with a slightly worried smile once she'd washed down the culinary abomination with a gulp of coffee sweetened to the point that it was more like hot chocolate than fermented bean juice. "...Yeah..." "...This stuff is terrible!" Yoruichi managed as she broke into laughter. To her surprise, Soi was far from offended; in fact she was laughing right along with her. "Oh God, I know! To tell the truth, I can't cook worth jack!" Once the two girls had calmed down, they took turns eating from a plateful of buttered toast that Yoruichi had prepared along with the coffee, the flavor of which Soi was enjoying greatly. "Man, this is kinda sad--I try to make you a nice breakfast and you basically ended up making the only stuff that's actually edible." "Hmph. Well, don't get the wrong idea," Yoruichi smiled wryly as she walked over to the coffee machine and poured herself another cup, taking a moment to add just a bit of sugar and honey to the dark liquid. "...Coffee and toast are about the only things I CAN make on my own. Usually Kisuke comes over if I wanna do anything else." Soi smile dropped in spite of herself at the mention of the hat-donning upperclassman, but she managed to catch herself before her friend noticed. "...So, then he's here a lot?" she asked with a nervousness she struggled to hide but whose presence made no sense to her. "Yeah, practically at least once a day. Now that guy-- if there's one thing he can really do right, it's cook. I probably would've starved to death a long time ago if it wasn't for him," the older girl said with a chuckle even though she was only half-joking. ...He comes over that often just to cook? For some reason, the information Yoruichi had just imparted to her along with her unanswered query of the previous evening made Soi curious. "But Yoruichi-san...Why do you need him here for that when your parents can take care of meals? In fact..." Soi glanced out of the kitchen and towards the stairs, "...Why haven't I seen them yet? Do they get in really late or..." "I don't have parents." As soon as Yoruichi said those words in her normal tone of voice, Soi blinked in shock before immediately going into a desperate plea for forgiveness. "...Oh, Jesus...I'm so, SO sorry! I didn't know--well, that's no excuse, I should've been more tactful than th--!" "It's all right...Really, it's okay!" Yoruichi repeated when her initial dismissal of her friend's apology went unheard. "It happened a long time ago." She said this last part with a no-big-deal sort of shrug, but Soi, who had only lost her mother and still felt sad about it, couldn't accept that anyone could take the death of their family so casually. "B...but don't you miss them? And another thing..." she spread her hands out wide to indicate the massive house they were eating in. "How can you afford this place on your own?" "Well, my parents left all their assents to me when they died, and this house along with everything in it was part of the will," Yoruichi answered matter-of-factly. "I was only able to move in a few years ago, just because I wasn't of the proper age to inherit it. As for my mom and dad...I don't miss them that much, mainly just because I barely remember them at all. It's just not something that's worth worrying about for me." Soi looked at her friend curiously, wanting to speak but unable to find the right way to put her thoughts into words. There were so many more questions she wanted to ask Yoruichi about herself now that she'd had the slightest inkling of her friend's childhood, but part of her was still afraid that she might go too far and make her friend angry. "I...I'm really sorry, Yoruichi-sa--" "Come on, Soi," Yoruichi said with a roll of the eyes from across the table, "...What did I tell you about apologizing?" Before Soi could give a proper answer, a door slammed from the direction of the front door, followed by a loud "Yoru-chan!" that echoed in the spacious house. A few moments later Urahara walked into the kitchen, his hat absent from being tossed onto the living room couch. "Oh, here you are...And Miss Fong, too! Well, how are you feeling, Yor--" He was rendered speechless when Soi walked right up to the blonde teen, squaring off with him and sporting a particularly nasty look. "What the hell were you thinking, bringing that crap to a sick person!" Urahara looked at her puzzled, but before he could answer Soi began her ranting anew. "All you needed to bring Yoruichi-san was cough medicine and some soup, not your quaint little 'home remedy!'" "...Hey, Soi..." Yoruichi called uncertainly, bewildered by the sudden change in her friend's behavior, but the younger girl was so focused on chewing out Kisuke that she didn't notice. "...And besides, if you knew Yoruichi-san was sick you could've taken FIVE MINUTES out of your incredibly busy schedule to tell me! I'm her friend too, you know! Since you couldn't be bothered to take care of her yourself--" "Soi, it's FINE!" Yoruichi said so loudly that the room's two other occupants turned to her, stunned. The oldest female in the room continued, but in a much quieter tone. "...I'm doing fine now. It's no big deal, okay?" Soi opened her mouth as if to argue that it WAS a big deal, but upon taking a moment to consider that she was yelling at a perfectly well-meaning (she assumed) person over a matter that wasn't worth blaming anyone for, her quiet inclinations took over and she sat down, looking ashamed of herself. "Uh...Hey, in my defense," Urahara said once the shock of Soi Fong yelling at him over his oldest friend's health had subsided, "...Raw eggs and sake always worked for ME when I was a kid, and Yoruichi doesn't get sick too much, so..." Kisuke's statement ended in an apologetic, if slightly befuddled look which Yoruichi ignored in favor of another bite of toast. "Oh... I'm sorry, did I interrupt breakfast?" Urahara had just noticed the blackened eggs sitting in the center of the table and couldn't pass the opportunity to make a little joke, even if it did result in another angry glare from Soi. "For your information, Soi's been here all night. I can honestly say that I'd still be sitting in that bed if she hadn't gotten me something yesterday." Soi turned back to her toast as Yoruichi finished her statement and smiled appreciatively at her, the younger girl only just succeeding in hiding a deep blush that didn't escape the scrutiny of the young man standing behind her. "Well, I'm glad to hear that," Kisuke said evenly, deciding that what he'd just seen Soi do was more a trick of the eye than anything else, " ...But you should still be resting. You don't just get over these things in one night, you know." Yoruichi nodded admissively as she took another sip of her coffee, yawning in spite of the drink's intended effect of keeping her alert. "Ahh...I'll take a nap in a little while, once the java's worn off." "Hmm...Well, in the meantime," Kisuke said with a grin as he walked to the fridge and pulled out the alcohol he'd sent previously, "...How about we celebrate your good health with some sake?" "So THAT'S why you came here, isn't it!" Soi yelled in exasperation at the audacity of Urahara's request, while Yoruichi only rolled her eyes as if she'd seen this many times before. "Damn straight it is! I paid good money for this stuff--had to pull quite a few strings to get it, too--so if you think I'm gonna let this go to waste, then you're crazy!" Without further ado, Kisuke snapped the lid off the bottle, releasing the scent of sweet rice wine into the room. "Oh, and by the way, Soi-chan," he said turning to the further-disgruntled girl with braids, "...I've got the day off today, so I can take care of Yoru-chan. You can go home if you want." Without bothering to wait, Soi's anger toward the blonde senior was rekindled once more. "Excuse me, Yoruichi-san...NOT 'Yoru-chan'... isn't feeling well, and I have no problem with staying here as long as it ta--" "No, really Soi--I'm feeling a lot better," Yoruichi spoke up as she took a moment to drain her cup of coffee in a single gulp. "...And besides, I'm sure you're tired. Go home and relax a little bit. I insist," she added when she noticed that her dark-haired friend was about to protest. Soi hesitated defiantly for a moment, not wanting to leave Yoruichi alone with Urahara (though she knew that he wouldn't be foolish enough to do anything to her even if he WAS drunk), but after a few moments she nodded admissively. "...All right, Yoruichi-san. I hope to see you in school on Monday," she said shyly as Yoruichi waved farewell and Urahara made a half-hearted wave over his shoulder, as he was currently preoccupied with getting a glass for his alcohol from the overhead cabinets. He had poured himself a cupfull of the rice wine and was about to down in it one swig when a small, pale hand grabbed the glass AND the accompanying bottle out of his hand. He blinked himself back to reality just in time to see Soi Fong pouring the sake down the nearby sink. "H-hey! What the hell are y--" Kisuke managed to stutter out as he helplessly watched half-a-day's worth of work banished to the dregs of the plumbing. When Soi turned around, there was no sadistic look of satisfaction on her face; it was more the strict, no-nonsense expression of a schoolteacher who'd found a student breaking the rules. "You can be drunk on your own time, but I'm not going to let you molest Yoruichi-san when YOU offered to take care of her." Before he even had a chance to be upset, Soi marched out of the kitchen. Once the sound of a far-off door being shut echoed in the house, signaling Soi Fong's departure, he exploded. "What the...Jeez! To just toss that out!" he grumbled, more to himself than anyone else. "I mean, that was top-quality stuff, too! What kinda nerve does she...Hey, what's so funny?" He turned at the sound of an odd little noise coming from Yoruichi's direction to see his dark-skinned confidant covering her mouth with her hand, shivering as if she was freezing cold. "N...nothing," Yoruichi lied once she'd managed to stop giggling long enough to answer.
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