Authors' note: Firstly, yes, more than one author. That is not a typo. This fic is jointly written by myself (TwiLightJoy) and PhoenixChase. We alternate chapters, I do the odd numbered chapters and she does the even numbered chapters. The reason for this will become apparent as the story progresses.

Bleach, of course, belongs to Tite Kubo. We have nothing, we make nothing.

The characters are Japanese, therefore whenever possible we use the Japanese terms rather than the Americanized ones. We also include honorifics and different levels of formality as we feel suits the characters.

This fic is Yoruichi x Soifon. If you are uninterested in the pairing, I suggest you click elsewhere.

Special thanks to BleachAsylum forums and YoruSoi on LJ, you guys rock!

Chapter title notes: All the chapter titles on my side come from Story of the Year songs. Wake Up is on their album The Black Swan.

Soifon always hated these dreams the most. It was bad enough to have dreams at all - random firings in her brain. Random meant not in her control, which almost always equaled bad. Certainly she was never in control of what her orders were, or where and when Hollows appeared. But her job was to bring order to these situations. Putting things back into control.

Regardless, of all the things she wasn't in conscious control of, dreams often were the worst. Somehow, at random, it managed to pick the very worst things and bring them to vivid life. Take now, for instance. She was lying in a bed, her hair unbraided and flowing in loose waves down her back. Pale sunlight shone through the small, high window on the wall above the bed. It was still quite early, just a bit after sunrise. Birds chirped cheerfully to signal the start of a new day. Everything seemed normal - everything except one. She was not alone in the bed.

Well, and it wasn't her bed. That was also a little odd, but in dreams these things happened, and were usually within the realm of things she could deal with. The room seemed to belong to the person who lay beside her, although for some reason it wasn't in Soul Society but rather in the living world. She'd seldom seen Yoruichi with her hair down, save for in much older times, when it was too short to be held in its now-customary ponytail. She'd imagined Yoruichi would still manage to look stunning in her sleep. Instead her deep purple hair was in rumpled disarray. Her dark limbs were flung out in illogical directions, not at all curled like a cat as Soifon had expected. Her face was lined with marks from the pillows and sheets, and her lips were parted slightly. She appeared to be … drooling.

What sort of nightmare was this? As she began to get a bearing for her surroundings - always practical even in her sleep - Yoruichi thrashed about, rolling from her back onto her side, smacking Soifon across the stomach. Restlessly the Goddess of Flash pawed at her hair, tossing it out of her way and off of her neck. She mumbled and then finally settled, sighing in satisfaction. One arm had wrapped tightly around Soifon's waist. At this Soifon noted that she didn't have anything on, nor did Yoruichi. Even with all the inconsistencies, it still seemed that it was another of those dreams.

She slowly tried to extricate herself from her former mentor's grasp. Try being the operative word. As she gently attempted to disengage Yoruichi's fingers, the older woman loosened her grip from the younger's waist, only to sleepily thread her fingers through Soifon's own. She mumbled a bit more, smiled, and rolled again, this time bumping her forehead hard against the Chinese girl's collarbone.

"Unh!" she groaned, one golden eye finally halfway open. Soifon stared down at her quizzically, wondering when she'd wake up. "Nng. Soi." Yoruichi's other eye slowly opened as well. "S'too early." Both eyelids lowered again and her grip on Soifon's hand tightened. "C'm back t' sleep."

"I ah … need to use the restroom."

"Mmm. 'Kay." Finally she was permitted up. Gray eyes scanned around the room for her clothing. Or anything she could put on, she wasn't feeling that selective at the moment. Clothes were scattered in a trail from the bedroom door to the foot of the bed, but Soifon didn't recognize any of them. She picked up the smaller of the two shirts and threw it over her head, pulling it on. After that she spotted a pair of black shorts hanging off a short bookshelf, and pulled those hastily on as well. Coming to the door, she noted at least it was locked. She unlocked it and continued out.

Deciding she better have a look around, Soifon made her way out of the bedroom and into a hallway. The first thing she heard was a faint snoring noise that seemed to come from further ahead. The carpeting in the hall was cream-colored and surprisingly very thin. The walls were a bland shade of yellow, and some type of cable snaked its was along the floor. On her left was a closed door from which no sound could be heard. From behind another closed door on the right she heard muffled talking and clicking, although only one voice was present. It sounded suspiciously like Urahara Kisuke - she decided to let that lie for a moment as she padded softly down the hallway, the snoring increasing in volume as she made her way towards the end.

The hallway opened up into a medium-sized room. Mismatched chairs and an exceedingly ugly couch were set out around a large television. Five small black boxes were placed around the walls of the room, among framed photographs and pictures. Various odd-shaped things Soifon didn't recognize were strewn across the floor, as well as what appeared to be musical instruments, though she wasn't sure how they might work, since they lacked strings. An immense and very real-looking drum set was in the corner. And the now nearly eardrum-shattering snoring emanated from the couch.

Soifon peeked over the back of the couch to see a heap of empty cans that stank of alcohol, and a person partially under a blanket. A pair of feet poked out one end of the blanket and shaggy black hair out the other. Suddenly the person stirred, nearly falling off the couch. One leg shot out, pushing against the floor while an arm grabbed at the back of the sofa, half-sitting and half-pushing herself back onto the multicolored monstrosity. The blanket fell from the occupant's face to reveal Shiba Kuukaku. Her blue eyes focused briefly on Soifon before snapping back shut, slowly reclining back to a lying position and grabbing two fistfuls of the blanket to pull back over her head.

Wait. Two?

"Fong," Kuukaku practically growled from beneath the blanket. "Go back ta bed f'r gods sake. It's too early fer me ta deal with ya."

This … was a really weird dream. Soifon made her way through the living room into a kitchen area. A small table was strewn with several thick, complicated-looking textbooks and papers with formulas scribbled hastily across them. A larger table further in seemed to be one used for eating. It was actually clean, as was the rest of the kitchen. She didn't look into any of the cupboards, for fear anything else unexpected should be waiting for her inside.

Finally she arrived at the restroom, on the far end of the house. She peered at her reflection and didn't see anything out of the ordinary. She found a comb and ran it through her hair, and thought about putting the braids back in, but she wasn't sure where her hoops were and decided it could wait. Maybe the hoops were in Yoruichi-sama's room, she thought, and decided she might as well head back there. Passing back through the living room, Soifon noted Kuukaku was once again snoring facedown on the wretchedly-colored couch. Sure enough, Kuukaku did have a right arm, and it hung off the side of the couch, her fingertips grazing the thin carpet. As she passed by the next closed door, she heard much less amiable-sounding chatter from the other side. Unable to resist, she knocked gently on the door, and it creaked open under her touch.

"No, I told you I was out of mana! Why didn't you stop pulling, I'm your main heal! ... How can it be MY fault we wiped if you decided to keep pulling anyway?" Indeed it was Urahara, wearing a headset hooked to a computer and chattering away at someone not in the room about who knew what - and oddly enough, in English rather than Japanese. Seeing her in the doorway, he clicked a button on the cable and raised his eyebrows in concern. He changed back to Japanese with barely a pause. "Oh, Soi-chan! I'm sorry, did I wake you? I'll try to keep it down. I know you guys were probably up pretty late last night." He winked suggestively and waved her off. Clicking the button again, he returned to his English rant at a noticeably quieter volume. "Scouting? You know how those mobs aggro! At least have the tank kite it for you until I have enough mana to sleep it!" Soifon pulled the door closed once more and, unsure what else to do, went back into Yoruichi's room.

Come to think of it, the dream should have changed by now. Usually they changed pretty fast. A somewhat puzzled Soifon quietly closed the door behind her and padded over to the bed. The dark-skinned woman looked half-awake now. Her topaz eyes flicked up to Soifon and a grin plastered itself across her face. The pillow-marks had faded a bit, but her hair was as messy as before. "There you are. Come back to bed," she said invitingly. "Aww, you look so cute in my shorts."

Obediently, Soifon sat down on the bed, and Yoruichi grabbed her hand, then trailed the fingers of her opposite hand across Soifon's palm. She was making it hard not to give in and lie down. She decided to change the subject, but she did allow Yoruichi to continue touching her. It felt very nice even though it tickled. "Shiba Kuukaku-san is asleep on the couch." She didn't mention that Kuukaku had both her arms.

Yoruichi laughed. "I know, sometimes she just passes out there. She snores like a chainsaw, I'm surprised I've gotten used to it. I'm sorry if she bothered you. Same with Kisuke, at least you didn't have to hear him when his raid fell apart. That's kinda what got me up." Her fingers trailed lightly up Soifon's arm and back down. "Now that we're up … we can sleep in." She planted a kiss in Soifon's palm.

"Hmm," Soifon said agreeably, still looking around the room. A flat-panel television was mounted to the wall, and beneath it was a stand with several machines on it. Shelves similar to the short bookshelf lined one wall, but there weren't many actual books. Instead countless uniformly sized cases stood side by side. Soifon couldn't fathom what they were for, but then again she had never spent too much time in the living world. She wondered at how she could fabricate this much detail to something so unfamiliar.

She found herself being pulled backwards onto the bed by her Goddess. She didn't resist. Nor did she resist when she felt Yoruichi-sama's lips pressing softly against her own. They wrapped their arms around each other, then Yoruichi pulled back and gently kissed Soifon's forehead. "Tell me when you fell in love with me."

Soifon felt her cheeks warm. "In love? Hm, it was a hundred and twenty-four years ago, in the spring, when I knew." Yoruichi-sama's breath was warm on her cheek, and she snuggled closer against her love, allowing herself to enjoy this part of her dream.

Yoruichi laughed. "You're so silly, Soi." She kissed the Chinese girl on the tip of her nose. "For me it was at the beginning of last semester. I can't believe it took you so long to catch on. I thought I'd have to buy out your entire store for you to notice me." She gestured to the shelves Soifon had been looking at before.

"My … store?"

Yoruichi grinned. "Ah, we can pretend it doesn't exist for right now. I'm happier here anyway."

Soifon nodded. "Me too. This is a really nice dream," she commented.

"Mmm. It isn't a dream, my little bee." The purple-haired woman kissed Soifon's neck and slid a hand underneath the dark-haired girl's t-shirt. "It's very, very real."

Soifon tugged at the hem of the shirt, pulling it upwards and over her head, tossing it onto the floor beside the bed. "It sure feels real, Yoruichi-sama. But of course it isn't." She sighed happily anyway, satisfied for the time to take what she could get. She could be upset once she woke up, for being so weak.

Yoruichi smiled. "You called me 'sama.'" She pulled her smaller lover tight against her, loving the still-new feeling of Soi's body reacting to her own. "And would you like me to show you just how real this is?" She lowered her lips to Soi's collarbone.

Soifon nodded eagerly, giving herself over to this momentary pleasure. "Mmm, that feels so good. I thought you hated being called 'sama' though." She shivered with delight as her Goddess moved across her collarbone towards her shoulder.

"I don't hate it. Actually, the way you say it, I think it's kinda sexy." Once she reached Soi's shoulder, she suddenly stopped and pulled away. "Wait. Where's your butterfly?"

"What? My butterfly?" Soifon asked in confusion.

Yoruichi paled. "Your tattoo. The homounka."

"Yoruichi-sama, I don't have any tattoos."