Current mood:	busy
Entry tags:	fic

Alternate Scene

Title: The Coldest of the Cool / The Lamest of the Lame
Author: liquidsanity
Requested by: prpl_pen
Rating: NC17
Pairing: Tatsuki/Soi Fong
A/N: This is an alternate scene I eventually chickened out of putting in the main fic due to fear of being burned alive. But then again people are always too young in fiction and, especially in anime, too short. Yoruichi is 156cm? Yeah right. That would make her exactly 1 foot shorter than me. I barely know anyone that short. Ok, I know someone who's 152, but my point is that the stated ages are just as unrealistic as their other features (which we accept without complaint because firstly it's fiction and secondly it's animated) and authors shouldn't be flamed for putting characters who regularly stare death in the face into 'adult situations'.  Differences begin at the ***

Boiling Point

The morning’s training focused mainly on timing and counter-attack, with some anti-Hollow tactics. Soi Fong drilled her student hard allowing little time for breaks or banter.

After a few hours the focus switched. She introduced the new lesson as her charge took a few minutes to replenish her energy.

“There have been a few Hollows that infect or somehow control a human’s body. In this instance you want some way to disable the host and, assuming you like them, inflict as little damage as possible.”

Hollows that take over your friends’ bodies? Yes, Tatsuki was very familiar with this kind. She set aside her snack and gave the woman her rapt attention.

“If it was just mind control you could try to knock them out, but that might not work in the case of physical invasion. Another option is to hit a series of nerve plexus that will cause all of the main muscles to lock tight, completely immobilizing your opponent.”

She beckoned for the girl to stand and demonstrated three points.

“Here,” she said gently pressing on a point between the tip of Tatsuki’s left collarbone and her throat.

“Here.” Indicated a point between the right kidney and hip.

“And here,” she finished. Touching a point on the crease at the top of her left leg.

In rapid succession Soi Fong drove her middle and index fingers into all three points.

Tatsuki felt her whole body go rigid. Tears formed in eyes that were barely able to blink. It felt like a vise had been wrapped around her chest, compressing her lungs. Without active balance correction she slowly toppled and crashed to the ground.

Soi Fong smiled politely down at the locked form and continued her explanation in a matter of fact manner.

“You need to hit all three points and preferably in that order if you want them to live. The effect fades on its own once muscles pass the point of exhaustion, but extensive damage and toxin build up will have occurred. Before reaching that point the victim will experience considerable pain, so don’t forget about them. Finish your battle quickly. To release the seizure you need to do this…”

And with that the still politely smiling woman drove two fingers into Tatsuki’s solarplexus, angling under her ribcage to hit a point close to her heart. The girl arched up of the floor with a gasp as air rushed into her expanding lungs. She rolled over on to her side, clutching her chest and clawing for oxygen.

“H-how…How is that something to do to a friend?” she gasped, after a minute of coughing and writhing.

“Well, my next choice would have been to break your legs,” the dispassionate woman informed her.

“…oh.”

Tatsuki took a few more moments to regain her composure before struggling to her feet.

“My turn?” she asked.

Her teacher’s nodded.

“Let’s see how much you can do,” she replied. “Just try not to hit me in the throat or an artery.”

As if I’d miss that badly, Tatsuki grumbled to herself. She closed her eyes and reviewed the experience in her mind. What was the exact placement? How deep had the fingers pressed? What had been the timing between each thrust? Snapping her eyes open she quickly drove her fingers into each of the points.

The look of shock on her sensei’s face as she tumbled to the ground was priceless.

As her head hit the wooden floor the Captain realized this was the second time the girl had caught her completely off guard. There was no way she should have hit the correct points first time. If Soi Fong had had preventative blocks in place she would have been affected for less than a second. In order to release herself now she would have to re-enable about two hundred locked nerves one by one. Such remarkable precision... she thought.

***

Tatsuki looked down at her Sensei’s prone form feeling a slight rush at how effective her attack had been. Soi Fong looked so young and vulnerable lying there struggling to move. Of course she’d be back to her tiny scary self as soon as she was upright. Should she try to release her?

Not yet, she thought.

This was the first time she’d managed to do something that demonstrated to the death god she wasn’t some weak suicidal child. She deserved to be by HER side. It was a brief flash of light in the darkness of the sidelines. A darkness that was slowly choking her soul.

She sat down, legs straddling the older woman’s hips, in the most comfortable position to sit on someone if you so wished to.

Soi Fong was acutely aware of what parts of their bodies this action brought into close contact. Screw her limbs; she quickly freed her throat.

“Would… you mind… getting… off me?” she rasped.

Tatsuki caught the quick flicker of distress across the prone woman’s face. A vulnerability? she wondered. She really doesn’t like close contact…

Tatsuki’s danger senses as well as the incensed expression on the small Captain’s face told her that if she wanted to live she had better throw herself to the ground right now and beg all manner of forgiveness. But then again, if Tatsuki were the kind of person concerned with self-preservation she wouldn’t have convinced a tiny killing machine to be her sensei. It was far worse to be worthless than it was to be dead.

She was sick and tired of being dismissed. Dismissed for being weak. Dismissed by the one she’d sworn to protect. Dismissed by friends who thought her too stupid to figure out what was going on. Her pent up frustrations boiled within her, demanding release. She wanted to force everyone to acknowledge her, but she’d start with this woman right here.

Finally she remembered what it felt like to have fire in her veins.

Leaning forward she placed her hands either side of the death god’s head, not caring if her behavior was pushing the dangerous woman too far.

“Well, what do you think now that this mere human has you on the ground?” she asked.

“What do I think?” Soi Fong hissed. “I think that you’re prey. A little rabbit that suddenly wants to turn round and fight.”

She reached up and shoved the girl in the chest so hard she tumbled head over heels, coming to a rest several meters away. Her limbs were not quite working yet, but she wasn’t going to wait before beating some respect into this child.

Both women raised themselves on to one knee ready to fight.

Tatsuki knew she was in trouble, but her body felt hot, her blood was singing and if she could just land one blow… that would be enough.

She bared her teeth and growled, “Well this little rabbit isn’t afraid of the hungry wolf.”

The women leapt at each other and after a brief exchange Soi Fong’s foot connected with Tatsuki’s stomach, sending the girl flying.

Coughing slightly after she came to a rest Tatsuki staggered to her feet. She hadn’t come close to penetrating the other woman’s defense, but she wasn’t going to back down. She needed this. She was aching for a fight and she wasn’t going to stop until she drew blood. A wicked smiled crossed her face as a plan came to mind. The weak must exploit any vulnerability, mustn’t they?

Slowly the two women circled each other. Tatsuki waited until she saw a small opening in the Captain’s guard and drove in with sharp punch.

Soi Fong had been waiting for the attack and easily deflected the punch as it entered the false gap. Now inside the younger woman’s guard she drove her palm up towards her chin. She put enough force into the blow to knock the girl out and probably make her airborne.

Tatsuki had been betting that once she closed distance her opponent would go for a knockout blow. Carefully maintaining her balance as her arm was knocked aside she waited for the repost. She twisted her torso letting the upward thrust sail past, clipping her left ear. Then she ducked her head forward to meet her opponent’s.

Soi Fong’s shaky muscle control was slowing her down too much and she found herself slightly off balance as her strike missed its target. She braced for a counter attack, confident the girl didn’t have anywhere near enough power to hurt her and she could simply finish her in the next exchange. She was slightly put out when the young human closed the distance between their faces. She had not been expecting a head-butt.

What she was expecting even less was for the girl to press a hard sharp kiss onto her mouth.

Soi Fong froze in shock. Tatsuki took full advantage of the opportunity and flipped the surprised woman, pinning her to the ground.

“Remember this?” she growled softly into the floored woman’s ear.

The Captain took a minute to stare at the woman on top of her. What she’d just done was… unforgivable.

Tatsuki knew with things being the way they were, she probably had a few seconds to live. But it had been worth it. The tactics of the lowly human had forced the ‘Supreme Commander’ to the ground for a second time. Originally she’d just wanted to prove to this woman that she was worth something, to make her stop underestimating her. Now her blood was calling out for more. Unfortunately she knew once the death god underneath her stood up she would be finished. She didn’t have any powers, she just couldn’t compete on these terms. Still, the hunger inside her screamed for an enemy defeated and gasping at her feet. She needed to find some way to close the power gap, she had to find a way to fight the woman and not the god. Time to change the rules, she thought.

Soi Fong cleared her nerve pathways in a burst of concentrated energy. She was going to beat this child until her anger was satisfied, probably within an inch of her life. She was not a woman that let herself be taken unawares. She was not a woman you were disrespectful to. She was NOT a woman you flipped and pinned to the ground. She was… Oooah.

Tatsuki bent forward and licked along the Captain’s collarbone. A slow rocking motion ground their hips together and she sunk her teeth into sensitive flesh. The body beneath her responded of its own accord: with a twisting of hips and the escape of a small moan.

Confused by the sudden shift, Soi Fong looked up into a pair of hungry aggressive eyes. The eyes challenged her, were laughing at her; the eyes claimed to already have won. This is insanity… she thought for a second before realizing the human’s tactics. It was still the same fight, but her opponent was forcing it to a very different battlefield. One which would nullify the death god’s power and speed. She could end this with a simple punch, but to do so would be to admit partial defeat. Impossible. After such an insult that was no longer an option. Soi Fong accepted the challenge. No anxiety rattled her battle hardened nerves, because this was not intimacy. It was combat; a place where she was completely at home.

Tatsuki watched to see the other woman’s reaction. Would she accept the shift or would an ethereal fist be meeting her corporeal face? Tatsuki smiled as the steel eyes below her hardened. It appeared the Captain was just as incapable of backing down as she. She released the woman’s wrists realizing her hands would be better used under the death god’s clothing. One hand slipped in through the thigh-length slit and the other took a small breast in her palm.

Soi Fong did not allow herself to be distracted by the touches alternating between butterfly kisses and raking nails. She bared her teeth in a vicious dangerous smile before tearing her fingers through the binding around the girl’s chest. As scraps of material fluttered to the ground she grabbed one of the liberated breasts and brought it to her tongue and teeth.

They fought for control. For each unbidden gasp or escaping moan. For every time a body moved to the other’s command, pressing into, or retreating from a touch. They kissed and nipped and bit. They stroked and kneaded and scratched. Legs pressed together, legs pulled apart in the desperate to and fro. It was a battle to show there was no division between sex and violence.

Tatsuki was the first to get her hands deep enough into the other’s clothing to touch her sex.

Soi Fong gasped and arched up off the wooden floor as a thumb pressed hard on her sensitive nub.

However, Tatsuki didn’t get the time to do anything else before the other woman brought her knee up sharply into the girl’s groin. She was stunned by a sudden flare of sensation. It was bright and blinding, but neither pleasure nor pain.

Soi Fong took advantage of that distraction to thrust her hand down the front of her opponent’s pants and pinch her where she was most sensitive. Tatsuki’s body convulsed from the overload, her mind momentarily blank.

Soi Fong sat up, the girl straddling her lap, and began to massage the flesh between her thumb and forefinger. Ragged gasps escaped from Tatsuki’s throat and her body arched back into the woman’s supportive arm. Somehow, despite the electricity frying her brain she managed to resume her ministrations between the Captain’s legs.

Tatsuki was the first to come. Biting down hard on the older woman’s shoulder as she did so. Biting too hard. As her orgasm faded she tasted the metallic tang of blood. Removing her sharp upper teeth from the shoulder she licked, then suckled, at the wound. Soi Fong came soon after.

She’d been unconsciously grinding herself into the younger woman’s frozen hand. The sharp pain of the bite, followed by the indescribable sensation of a soft tongue running along ragged flesh was too much. She threw her head back in a silent cry as waves crashed through her.

Panting, both women slumped on the cold wooden floor.

After a few minutes on the cool surface Soi Fong struggled back upright so she could study the young human. Absent-mindedly gathering some scraps of bandage for her shoulder she noted the unmistakable marks of teeth and nails that peppered their torsos. And to think she’d been hesitant about stripping the girl for a bath last night she thought wryly. She’d have to wear her full Captain uniform for a while after this.

Tatsuki basked in the afterglow of her release. Technically she’d lost, but that was irrelevant. All her fears, frustrations and inadequacies were, for the moment, washed away. Opening her eyelids she saw the death god looking down at her with eyes that were stripped of their usual shields. A deep look of understanding passed between them. An understanding of pain, need, desire and pride.

Soi Fong reached forward and stroked the girl’s cheek.

“Tatsuki,” the older woman said softly.

“Ah,” the younger sighed with a contented smile. “You finally said my name.”