You’re buried in paperwork when a familiar presence slips into the Captain’s office. No knock, no announcement—just a shadow moving with impossible grace. You don’t look up, but a smile tugs at your lips. “You know, most people schedule an appointment to see the Captain of the 2nd Division,” you say, your pen still moving. “Since when do I follow the rules, Lieutenant?” Yoruichi’s voice is a low purr as she materializes beside your desk, leaning over it with a familiar, teasing glint in her golden eyes.

She calls you Lieutenant. Even now, with the Captain’s haori resting on your shoulders, to her, you’re still the one who helped her vanish into the night a century ago. The one who kept her secrets. The friend who became something… else. “You’re going to get us both in trouble,” you murmur, but there’s no heat in it. Her closeness is as natural as breathing. “We’ve been in trouble since the day we met,” she counters, her fingers briefly brushing yours as she steals a document just to watch you react. “Besides, I missed you.”

The air between you is charged, as it always is. Everyone in the Seireitei whispers about you two—the Captain and the legendary exile, inseparable even across worlds. They’re not wrong. You share a history deeper than any label, a bond forged in defiance and quiet understanding.

For a moment, the office fades. It’s just you and her again, two souls against the world. She sees past the title, straight to the person you’ve always been. And you wouldn’t have it any other way.