a formal affair | urayoru

iii

The servants at the Shihon Manor were still making their beds with the thick blankets thanks to the chill that hung in the spring air. In the early morning Kisuke Urahara was still buried under the the layers of down, the edges of his messy golden hair the only indication that there was a person in the bed.

Outside his door Yoruichi nudged it open and slipped inside, sliding it closed behind her. To say Kisuke's room was chaos was a massive understatement. Science experiments, books, papers and other bits of stuff all fought for space on his overcrowded shelves. It was not as if his room was small but he just had so much stuff. The only reason the floor was even mildly clean was thanks to the maids who Yoruichi knew drew lots to see who cleaned his room after one experiment had gone off and singed a maid's eyebrows.

Picking her way across the floor, careful just in case, Yoruichi hopped onto the bed. It shifted under the added weight but Kisuke had always slept like a rock and the only response she got out of him was a snort as he rolled onto his other side, the blanket slipping down slightly. Yoruichi peered down at his features. Kisuke never looked peaceful, even when he was asleep thoughts ran through his head. Still he was handsome with his messy blond hair and his features that looked more and more adult with every passing day. She nudged the blankets down and crawled into bed with him, laying her head on the pillow so that they were level as she continued to watch him with her gold eyes.

As if he knew he was being watched Kisuke grumbled something under his breath before he slowly opened his eyes and looked at her. Confusion registered in his eyes as one of his hands came up to rub at his eyes, as if he was confused at what was going on. Yoruichi kept her expression neutral instead of bursting out into laughter. Sleepily Kisuke pushed himself up and rubbed his eyes again, as though expecting the answers to lay in the room somewhere. Yawning he looked around before shrugging.

"Must be one of the maids," he muttered looking at her, "don't hog the blankets," he muttered flopping back down and tugging the blankets up to his chin once again.

Yoruichi tried and failed to contain the chuckle that came from her lips. Kisuke's eyes flew open as Yoruichi broke down laughing hysterically at his sleepy confused expression.

"What the—"

Deciding she had toyed with him long enough Yoruichi concentrated for a moment and dropped the cat form she was in, reverting back to the dark skinned, golden eyed, purple haired, very naked woman she was.

"Holy crap!" Kisuke was on his feet in a minuet, flying off the bed like she had electrocuted him. His feet got tangled in the long legs of his pajama bottoms and he fell onto the ground, "Yoruichi? Weren't you just a cat? Why are you in my bed? You're naked, oh, Kami, why the hell are you naked?"

Yoruichi was laughing so hard it hurt. Poor Kisuke looked like he was seconds away from having a heart attack. Nimbly she jumped from the bed and crouched down to help him up but Kisuke had squeezed his shut the minuet she threw off the blankets. Still laughing she grabbed him by the back of his shirt and hauled him to his feet. The second he was upright he jumped away, refusing to look at her.

"Jeez, Kisuke, you don't have to be such a prude," she pointed out, "it's just me."

"Yeah, it's you naked!"

"So?"

"So? So? So you're naked!"

"Well obviously," she rolled her eyes, crossing her arms over her chest, "I can't very well be dressed when I'm a cat. Cats don't wear cloths."

"You were a cat—that's right! You were a cat," he turned around, remembered she was naked and then turned around again, "put some cloths on!"

Rolling her eyes she went over to his wardrobe and yanked out an overly large shirt. When she pulled it on it fell to thigh.

"Alright all the important parts are covered," she said, "you can look."

Kisuke turned around, satisfied that she was covered. Trying not to enjoy the sight of her in his shirt too much, he focused instead on the important part.

"When did you become a cat?"

"Oh, I've been practicing for a while," she said, "it'll come in handy when I'm Head of the Special Forces, huh," she added with a grin, "did you get hurt when you fell?"

"Just my elbow—and I wouldn't have fallen if you'd warned me that you were going to be first a cat and then naked in my bed," she pouted, "what?" he asked slowly.

"I thought you liked kissing me," she said.

Kisuke gulped. It was true, he did enjoy kissing her and she did as well. After their first tentative kiss at the ball where her parents had introduced her to her first taste of an arranged marriage, they had kissed a lot. She still blushed when he smiled and he still got butterflies around her sometimes but at least now they knew why that happened. Tessai loved to tease them about their young love even though he was hardly older and Kukaku Shiba had already told him that she didn't know what Yoruichi saw in him but that she'd gladly get her big brother to beat him up—or she'd blow him up herself. Yoruichi had told her that she was more than capable of taking care of herself but Kukaku had called her an idiot and pointed out that she had two brothers so she knew all about the evils of men. Yoruichi told her that Kisuke was not evil, not like her brothers anyway. Once the two girls had been separated everything was alright.

Despite the obvious enjoyment he got from kissing her there was a difference between kissing Yoruichi and being with her when she was naked except for an oversized shirt of his. Of course moments before she had been naked beside him in bed without the shirt. For the first time he realized that his room outside the bed was actually cool. Yoruichi seemed to realize it to as she wrapped her arms around herself. Catching his eye her lips curved into a smile.

"Come on," he said walking back over to the bed, "its cold out here."

"Haven't invented something to keep us warm?" she teased.

"I'll get right on that," he said with a grin as she got into one side of the bed and he got onto the other, "still cold?"

Without any kind of hesitation Yoruichi snuggled against his chest, her head fitting perfectly under his chin. Her feet tangled around in his as she wrapped her arms around his torso. He swallowed feeling her body press against his. One of her hands came up and tangled through his hair. After a moment Kisuke's arms wrapped around her. Yoruichi smiled as she titled her head up and looked at him. He couldn't help but smile looking down at her.

"Your reaction was priceless," she told him, her voice soft.

"I'm a funny kind of guy," he said as she smiled up at him.

"Its warmer here," she said with a happy sigh. He smiled and kissed the top of her head as she snuggled back into the crook of his shoulder, "its nice."

"Get some sleep," he said.

"Don't you want to know about how I became a cat?" she asked, though her eyes were closed and her breathing was evening out.

"You can tell me later," he said

Yoruichi gave a sleepy nod, her hair tickling his jaw before she fell asleep in his embrace, Kisuke on her heels. No matter how funny Kisuke's reaction to Yoruichi's cat form was it paled in comparison to the maid who came in to clean and discovered Yoruichi and Kisuke asleep in each other's embrace.