A Fox's Family (30 page)

Lilian’s
smile was absolutely brilliant as she spoke, “Of course not,
ufufufuf, why would you think that?”

Oh,
yeah. She was definitely mocking him.

***

Kevin
stood in line with Camellia, Lilian and Heather, who had decided to
join them.

“
I’ve
got nothing better to do. Might as well join you. Besides, I need
some more inspiration.”

Kevin
didn’t really understand what she’d been talking about
when she mentioned “inspiration,” but decided not to
bother with it. He was pretty sure he didn’t want to know
anyway.

While
they stood in line, waiting for their turn at the register, Lilian
wandered over to a small rotating display case that sold small
trinkets. Kevin followed her with his eyes for a second, but didn’t
pay much attention to her until…

“Beloved!
Beloved, look at this!”

Kevin
didn’t call Lilian out on using her old pet name for him. He
knew she was just excited.

“Check
it out!” She showed him the item she found. “It’s
an official
Shinobi
Natsumo
kunai!”

“So
it is.” It wasn’t a real kunai, of course, but it was
still a pretty good replica. It was even made out of metal and not
plastic. “Would you like me to get it for you?”

“Would
you?” Her eyes widened with hope, and then dimmed when she
remembered something. “No. No. I want it, but you’re
already spending your hard-earned money on my manga. I can’t
ask you to get something like this for me.”

Kevin
rolled his eyes. “You’re not the only person who likes
manga, you know. Besides, I’ve got enough money to buy that as
well.” Lilian opened her mouth to protest, but he cut her off.
“It’ll be fine. Really, I want to get this for you.”

“A-are
you sure?”

Kevin
knew Lilian was on the verge of giving in. She was, in many regards,
an open book.

And
to think this girl is actually a kitsune.

“Really.”

“Okay,”
Lilian said demurely, her large, innocent eyes looking at him from
beneath a curtain of crimson hair. “Thank you, Kevin.”

Lilian
leaned in and pressed her lips against his. Kevin accepted the kiss,
welcomed it even—despite the fact that they were in public and
it was kind of embarrassing. He was beginning to get used to her
public displays of affection.

“Huhuhu.”
Heather giggled in a most perverse manner. “Eric was right.
This kid is solid gold! Gold, I tell you! Huhuhu!

Camellia
expressed her confusion at the lecherous woman’s words in the
only way she knew how.

“Hawa?”

Exactly.

***

Mei
Ling watched as Kevin left R-Galaxy with Lilian and Camellia.

She’d
been observing them for several days now, following from a distance,
studying them to learn everything she could. Her master wanted to
know about the human that the Pnevma Clan heiress was so enamored
with, and she did not want to suffer the consequences that would come
if she failed him.

While
Mei Ling acted like an emotionless doll to avoid having her sanity
eroded by her master, that did not mean that she didn’t have
emotions. She merely hid them behind an inexpressive visage. It had
helped to keep her alive and sane ever since she had become her
master’s slave.

Mei
Ling followed the trio from a distance as they stepped onto a bus.
She waited for a moment and then entered the bus as well, choosing to
sit near the back where she could continue to her observations.

She
would spy on them for a bit longer, just to be on the safe side. Then
she would report back to Lord Jiāoào
with her findings.

***

Kevin
woke up to the fulfilling warmth of his mate’s embrace. The
hour was late, signified by the darkness outside his window. He
stared at the ceiling, wondering why he’d woken up. Then his
stomach growled.

“Ah.
That’s why.”

He
looked down at his mate. Lilian lay snuggled against him, her head on
his shoulder, her arms around his waist, and her legs entwined with
his. Soft snoring escaped her delicately parted lips.

She
was also sleep talking.

“Zzzzz…
munya-munya… you think you can beat me… silly
Britannian homo… I’ll show you… coz I’m the
pyro-ninja… zzzz…”

Kevin
felt some sweat accumulate on his forehead at Lilian’s muttered
words. This girl said the most bizarre stuff in her sleep sometimes.

After
extricating himself from Lilian’s grip, Kevin wandered into the
kitchen for a midnight snack. The apartment was engulfed in darkness.
None of the lights were on, and with the new moon out, it meant he
only had what sparse starlight filtered in through the window to
guide him.

He
saw Kotohime sleeping over in a corner of the living room on a futon.
It was almost unusual to see her asleep. While he knew that,
logically speaking, Kotohime had to sleep sometime, the idea that she
ever actually went to sleep was somehow shocking. Kirihime slept next
to her sister, her arms and legs spread as she lay on her back, drool
leaking from the corners of her mouth.

He
shook his head.

After
raiding the fridge in search of food, Kevin eventually decided on
something healthy; carrots and celery with a little bit of peanut
butter. He got himself a plate and was about to sit down when he saw
that someone else was also awake.

Iris
stood outside on the balcony. He couldn’t see much because her
back was turned to him, but knowing of the argument that had happened
between her and Lilian, he easily determined Iris’s reasons for
not being able to sleep.

Taking
his plate of veggies, Kevin walked onto the balcony. “I didn’t
think anyone else would be awake at this hour.”

Iris
turned her head, startled. Red eyes narrowed and a frown appeared
when she saw who stood behind her. “Oh, it’s you.”

“Do
you have to talk about me like I’m some kind of pest? It’s
pretty rude, you know.”

Iris
snorted. “This is how I am. You don’t like it, don’t
talk to me.” She eyed him as he wandered up to her. “Is
there something you want from me, kiddo?”

“I’d
like a couple things, actually. I’d like you to stop calling me
‘kiddo,’ for one,” Kevin quipped.

“Not
happening,” Iris declared. “As far as I’m
concerned, that’s all you are; a kid. While you and I may
technically look the same age, I’m still over a hundred years
older than you.”

“It’s
that kind of attitude that keeps pushing Lilian away.”

“Tch!
I don’t need a lecture from you!” Iris sent Kevin a
vicious look mired by frustration. “I’m perfectly aware
that things between my sister and I have not been… ideal.”

Kevin
snorted. “Ideal? What are you, the master of understatements?
Your relationship with Lilian is so far from ideal it makes the
relationship between Makotou Itou and Kotonoha Katsura look perfect.”

“Ouch.”
Iris winced. “That’s harsh.”

“And
no less true.”

“Look,
did you want something, or are you just here to gloat?”

“To
be honest, I’m not really sure why I came out here,”
Kevin admitted, holding his plate of vegetables out to Iris. The
fox-girl looked at him skeptically before taking a few carrots. “By
all rights, I shouldn’t want to have anything to do with you,
not after what you did this morning. Yet, I’m not really angry
at you. I mean, I am kinda mad,” he added upon seeing her
flabbergasted expression, “but I’m not that mad.”

Iris
looked at the cement underneath their feet. “I don’t
understand. Why aren’t you angry at me?”

“I
guess it’s because I can kind of understand how you feel.”
Kevin admired the velvet sky. Without the moon, the stars shone all
the more brightly. “Granted, I’ve never had any siblings,
but I understand that you and Lilian were close before I came along.
I imagine it can’t be easy watching someone you love grow
distant because she fell in love with someone else.”

Iris
didn’t say anything. She didn’t have to say anything. The
look in her eyes, too wide and too round to be human eyes, said more
than words ever could. She was stunned; completely and utterly
astounded.

Kevin
turned away from the sky to look at Iris. “I’m not going
to ask you to like me. If you don’t like me, that’s fine.
I’ll understand. But I would like to ask that you at least hold
off on judging me until you’ve gotten to know me.”

“You…”

“Think
you can do that?” Kevin held out his hand. “I don’t
think that’s too much to ask for.”

Iris
stared at the offered hand. Kevin waited. Seconds ticked by, and all
Iris did was stare. He began to feel like an idiot. Iris hated him
for taking Lilian away. She wasn’t going to accept his
offering.

He
nearly squeaked when something suddenly grabbed his hand. He looked
down to see a smaller, more feminine and more delicate hand holding
his in a soft grip. He looked from the hand to see Iris smiling at
him.

And
for the first time since they met, Kevin thought he might have just
gotten a glimpse of the real Iris.

“Deal,”
she announced.

Kevin
smiled. It wasn’t much, but he felt like he was finally helping
his mate with something. And really, what else could a guy like him
ask for?

***

“Hehehehe…
oh yeah… look at all those beauties… hee hee hee…”

Heather
Grant was enjoying her favorite pastime—well, her second
favorite pastime. Playing eroge was her all time favorite activity,
but peeping still held a place close to her heart.

The
world around her looked like something out of a jungle paradise;
trees and shrubs of all kinds surrounded her, encroaching upon her
from all sides. The steam rising up from the water’s surface
combined with the jungle theme of the hot spring masked her presence
perfectly.

“Thirty-five,
twenty-four, thirty-two. Not bad… hehehehe, not bad
at all.”

She
stood behind several large shrubs, which hid everything but her head
from view. A pair of binoculars were pressed to her face. A dozen or
so feet away, several women enjoyed the hot springs.

Heather
could have joined them if she wanted, but that would have ruined what
she was trying to accomplish.

One
could not peep if they sat in the midst of those they wished to peep
on.

“Hmm…
fifty-seven up top, fifty-four around the middle, and sixty-six on
the bottom. Oh my. You’re a big girl, aren’t you?
Hehehehe…”

Heather
had always loved visiting the hot springs. There were so many
different body types to enjoy. So many women to sample. Few things
could beat a good trip to a hot spring, especially for a peeper like
her.

“You
girls are going to make excellent resource material for my book.”

Heather
was a woman with big dreams. While she had, through a series of odd
and unusual circumstances, ended up becoming a member of an agency
bent on protecting the world from yōkai, her real goal in life
had nothing to do with yōkai at all. She wanted to be a writer.

Of
porn.

It
was her dream to write the smuttiest, raunchiest books ever, which
was why she needed inspiration.

And
so, with a notepad in one hand and a pencil in the other, Heather
Grant continued peeping, her perverted old man giggles heard by no
one but herself.

***

Heather
left the hot springs after deciding to spend a bit of time enjoying
the water instead of peeping. All of the females had welcomed her, of
course, being a woman herself. She doubted they had even suspected
her of shamelessly ogling their naked flesh from a distance.

Eric
would have been jealous.

While
wandering the empty streets, a feeling came over her. The hair on the
back of her neck stood on end. Her arms prickled curiously. She knew
this feeling. It was a feeling that had saved her life a number of
times when she had worked for the agency, and she knew what it meant.

She
was being followed.

Pretending
that nothing was wrong, Heather carefully observed her surroundings
without turning her head, using windows and other reflective surfaces
to see all around her. She couldn’t see anyone; not behind her,
nor to her left or to her right. There didn’t appear to be any
people hiding behind dumpsters or walls either. Heather looked at the
roofs and frowned when she still couldn’t see anyone. So then,
where was…?

Her
eyes widened.

Above!

Launching
herself into a series of acrobatic back-handsprings, Heather barely
avoided being flattened. The street wasn’t so lucky. The
pavement cracked and exploded outward in a shower of rubble. Heather
clicked her tongue as she used her agility to dodge the rubble coming
her way; ducking and dodging and weaving in a ceaseless, fluid
motion.

The
area soon cleared of dust and debris, and Heather caught sight of the
large crater that had been created by whatever tried to flatten her.
She could also see it, the thing that had nearly turned her into a
pancake.