“I know.”
“He just wants to look cool.”
“Quiet, you.”
Kevin sent Iris a mild glare with no real heat. In return, she blew him a kiss, which caused Kevin to shake his head as he slung his own duffel bag over his shoulder.
Exiting the small treehouse, Kevin meandered down the dirt road, branches and leaves crunching under foot as he walked to Christine’s treehouse. It didn’t take long to reach. Pausing by the entrance, Kevin wondered how he should do this. He couldn’t very well knock on the door, since all that existed was a cloth covering the entrance.
I could just walk in, but I don’t think that would be very well received. Also, given everything that’s happened to me since I met Lilian, the chances of me walking in while she’s changing or something are high.
He turned his head, as if pressing his ear to a door, and listened. There was some rustling from the other side, then a whump, followed by some swearing.
“Christine?” he called. The rustling stopped. “Christine, are you in there?”
“I-I’m here,” came the call back. “W-what do you want?”
“I came to pick up those presents… can I come in?”
There was a pause. Then…
“J-just give me a second!”
Kevin waited patiently as he heard more rustling, several bangs, and numerous grunts. He felt a small drop of sweat trail down the left side of his face when Christine cursed several more times. It sounded like she was having trouble with something.
“Do you want me to come in there and help you?” Kevin asked.
“N-no! It’s fine! I’m ok—kya!”
As a surprised shout went up from the other side, Kevin decided to heck with waiting and rushed into the treehouse. Christine was there, as expected. She was sitting on her butt with a wide-eyed expression on her face. Clothing lay scattered in a mess all around her. There was a briefcase sitting a foot away, leading Kevin to assume that she’d been trying to stuff these clothes into her suitcase and they’d all burst out.
“Are you all right, Christine?” Kevin asked as he walked up to her and held out his hand. Christine stared at the hand like it was an alien artifact. Then her cheeks turned a light shade of blue.
“I-I’m fine,” she muttered, delicately sliding her hand into his. Kevin marveled at how tiny her hand was as he pulled her up. “I-I thought I told you not to come in yet…”
“Ah-ha!” Kevin chuckled nervously as he rubbed the back of his head. “You did, but when I heard you scream, I thought something might be wrong. I guess I rushed in here without thinking. Sorry.”
“It’s fine,” she mumbled softly, looking in his direction.
“Hm?” Kevin tilted his head when he saw this. Was she embarrassed because he’d seen her in an awkward situation? “Christine, is something wrong?”
“N-no,” Christine choked out. “Nothing’s wrong… it’s just…”
“What is it?”
“C-could you let go of my hand, please?”
“Huh?”
Kevin required a second to process her words. Looking down, he saw that, indeed, he was still holding her hand.
“Oh.” He let go. “Sorry.”
“Y-you don’t need to keep apologizing.”
“Eh-hehehehe, right. Thank you, Christine.”
Poof!
Kevin stumbled back as steam burst from Christine’s head as her face turned blue. “W-whatever! Th-there’s no need to thank me. It’s just annoying how you keep apologizing.”
“I guess.” Kevin withheld a smile. Christine really hadn’t changed at all since the last time he’d seen her. Actually, she might be even more tsundere now than she had been. “Anyway, would you like me to help you pack?”
“A-ah! I-I don’t need any help! I can do this just fine by myself!”
Smiling down at her, Kevin said, “I know you can, but wouldn’t it be faster if you had someone lending you a hand? Besides, I want to help you.”
Christine squeaked, but she quickly regained herself. “W-well, I guess it can’t be helped, then. Since you’re being so pushy, I have no choice but to let you help me pack.”
“Then let’s get to work,” Kevin said with a grin that made Christine lose her composure.
“Don’t smile at me like that, you idiot!”
Thwak!
“Kuu!”
Kevin, now sporting a lump on his head, helped Christine pack her belongings.
They gathered up her clothes first. He’d never realized that she possessed so many gothic lolita outfits. There must have been at least sixteen pairs of the same lolita dress with very slight variations in cut and color. She also had numerous slippers.
Kneeling down next to an article of clothing, Kevin looked up to see Christine a few feet away, gathering up one of her extravagant lolita dresses. Looking at her like this, the girl really did look cute, like a fragile porcelain doll. As he continued to watch her, his eyes landed on the black choker around her neck.
“Isn’t that the choker that I bought you for your birthday a while back?” Kevin asked.
Christine paused in her work. Her hand went to her choker. “A-ah, um, yes, it is. I… well, this is my… my favorite choker, so I like to wear it a lot…” Christine’s cheeks flushed once more, but she at least didn’t seem to be blowing her top. “After you, Iris, and Lilian left, I was really lonely. I hadn’t realized how important all of you were to me until you were gone. Ever since that day, ever since you three went off to Greece, I’ve taken to wearing this, because it reminded me of all the good times we’ve shared together.”
That was probably the most honest thing he’d ever heard Christine say since she’d confessed her feelings for him. He’d noticed it before, but Christine really was a tsundere. She rarely ever told anyone what she was really thinking, and she covered up her embarrassment with bluster and violence. Moments like this were rare for her. He could count the number of times where she’d been honest with her feelings on one hand and still have fingers left over.
“I’m sorry we left you like that,” Kevin apologized.
Christine shook her head. “You don’t need to apologize. I know that you didn’t have much of a choice. Had you not left, then…”
Then he, Lilian, and Iris would have put everyone in danger. Back then, Lilian had been targeted by the Shénshèng Clan. One of its members, a three-tailed kitsune named Fan had attacked them during Lindsay’s soccer game. Iris had nearly been killed and Kevin had destroyed an entire school building just to defeat Fan. Christine had been there when it happened, so she understood why they had to leave.
“Thank you for being so understanding,” he said.
Christine quickly turned her back to him. “T-there’s no need to thank me. We’re friends. I-I was only doing what any good friend would do.”
Tsundere until the end, Kevin thought with an amused chuckle.
“Then, Christine, I’m very glad that you’re my friend.”
Christine squeaked. As she sputtered incoherently, Kevin finally grabbed the article that he’d been kneeling over. Blinking when he realized that it felt different than everything else that he’d picked up thus far, he held the article up to study it.
“What is this…?” He trailed off.
The object in his hands… was Christine’s panties.
“Uh…”
Kevin could hear his brain sizzling.
“W-what are you doing, idiot!? Don’t stare at those!”
Christine leapt at him, and Kevin, too shocked by the object in his hands to do anything, let her tackle him to the ground. The panties were thrown from his hands as his back slammed into the floor. Spots appeared in his vision, but they were soon replaced by Christine’s face, which hovered not two inches from his own. Their noses were almost touching.
“C-Christine?”
He felt his eyes widen as Christine’s face inched a little closer to his. This was bad. This was a very bad situation. Chris
tine was straddling him, and he could feel her thighs touching him, and her body was pressed against him, and… and…
Oh, no…
Perhaps it was the result of him still being horny because Christine had interrupted him and Lilian while they were having sex, but Kevin felt his arousal skyrocket. Christine felt it, too, because her eyes went even wider and she looked down. He also looked down. Then he looked back up. Their eyes met. Christine’s face was the brightest blue that he’d ever seen.
“I can explain this,” Kevin said calmly.
“KYA!”
The sound of Christine’s scream was followed by a loud slap.
It took longer than expected, but Kevin and Christine eventually managed to pack all of her belongings, and Kevin had grabbed the presents that he’d bought for Lilian and the others, which he packed into his own duffel bag.
“Did you really have to hit me?” Kevin asked, wincing as he touched the bright blue slap mark on his face. There was frost covering it, and it felt kind of numb, but that just made it worse.
“I-I’m sorry,” Christine apologized. She seemed so embarrassed that she couldn’t even activate her tsundere protocols. “B-but you really, um, surprised me.”
“Yeah… I guess that would be surprising,” Kevin admitted with a sigh.
Truth be told, he felt a little guilty for getting aroused like that. Guilty and ashamed. He knew that it was a normal biological reaction, and that it couldn’t really be helped given the circumstance, yet he still felt awful.
“K-Kevin,” Christine stuttered.
“Yes?”
“Do you… that reaction… does that mean you… um, find me attractive?”
Of all the questions that she could ask…
Kevin didn’t know how to answer her. It was true that he thought she was pretty, but he didn’t have the right to tell her that, not after he’d broken her heart. At the same time, it wouldn’t have been right to lie to her.
Withholding the sigh that threatened to escape, he decided to go with honesty. “I’ve always thought you were incredibly pretty.”
“R-really?” Christine looked hopeful.
“Really.” Kevin felt his stomach twist into painful knots. This really was the worst kind of torture. He wondered if this was his punishment for breaking her heart back then.
“I-I see…” Christine murmured. There was a brightness in her eyes that hadn’t been there before, and her lips had curved into a joyful smile. She didn’t even seem to realize it herself. Kevin was sure that if she knew how happy she looked, Christine would have gone full tsundere on him.
Great, now I feel really guilty.
They walked in silence. Kevin tried to take his mind off the past few seconds by enjoying the surrounding greenery. He heard the chirping of bird songs and saw several animals crawling along the trees, chipmunks and smaller mammals, which made their home at the base of the massive trees.
I wonder if these trees are natural or if a yokai made them grow like this.
They soon reached the edge of New Genbu, where everyone else was waiting. Kotohime and Heather stood near the front, while Orin trailed behind the two with Cien. Phoebe, Polydora, and the other yama uba were all packed together. Lilian was with Iris. Judging from his mate’s flushed cheeks and the pleased grin on Iris’s face, they must have gotten up to something while he was away. Kevin shook his head.
Now is so not the time for that.
“Kevin Swift!” Phoebe greeted in a booming voice. “Let me once again thank you for rescuing me.”
“There’s no need for that…”
“Please allow me to give you my body!”
“Urk!” Kevin doubled over like someone had punched him in the gut.
“You may do whatever you please with me!”
“G-gurk!”
“However, I would be particularly pleased if you injected your semen into my womb and impregnated me!”
“Would you stop saying stuff like that?!” Kevin shouted once he’d recovered.
Christine sent him a flat look. “You know, I forgot to ask this because so much happened, but who the hell is this girl and why does she keep asking you to knock her up?”
“N-now isn’t the time for that,” Kevin tried to change the subject. Fortunately, he had a wonderful mate who was willing to lend him a hand.
“Here you go, Beloved.” A still slightly flushed Lilian handed him a pair of pants and a long-sleeved shirt. “You’ll want to put these on before we go into town.”
“Right.”
Kevin sighed as he slipped his clothes over his bodysuit. He actually rather liked wearing just the suit. It made him feel cool, like one of those shonen manga heroes that he admired so much.
While he got dressed, Iris walked up to Christine, wearing a salacious grin.
“So, how was it being alone with the stud? Did you two do anything that you shouldn’t have?”
Christine sent Iris a glare even as she blushed. “Don’t be stupid. We wouldn’t do something like that.” She grabbed her left elbow with her right hand. “Kevin doesn’t even feel that way about me…”
“Hm? What’s this? Why are you trailing off?” Iris’s grin widened. “Did something happen? It did, didn’t it?”
Shrinking into her lolita dress, Christine looked like she wanted to be anywhere but there. “H-he did say that he thinks I’m pretty…”
“Oh? He did, did he?” Iris chuckled. “Uhuhu, that’s good. It means that he thinks of you as a woman and not just a friend. Now all you need to do is seduce him.”
“C-can we not talk about seducing someone?”
“I’ve got an aphrodisiac, in case you want some help.”
“Who said I need help?!”
Kevin and Lilian turned to Iris and Christine when the yuki-onna started shouting.
“I wonder what they’re talking about,” Lilian pondered out loud.
Kevin just sighed. “I’m not so sure I want to know.”
Lilian couldn’t think of anything to say to that.
Kotohime stepped up to them and, with her hands clasped in front of her, said, “Lilian-sama, Kevin-sama, have you packed everything?”
“Yes!” Lilian and Kevin said at the same time.
“Ufufufu, that is good. Since we’re all here now, I believe it’s time for us to leave. Wouldn’t you agree, Orin-dono?”
“I guess,” Orin grumbled, rubbing his neck as if he was working out a kink. “I still can’t believe I actually agreed to go back with you guys…”
“Ufufufu, what are you saying? I thought you agreed to return with us because you were so moved by the courage that Lilian-sama and Kevin-sama displayed.”
“Che. The only reason I’m going is because Christine is leaving, and if she leaves, then I won’t have any eye candy to—”
“Shut up, ya damn pervert!” Christine shouted and threw an ice ball at Orin’s head.
“Gack!”
Orin went down like a sack of bricks.
“And this is supposed to be a member of the Four Saints,” Kevin declared solemnly. Everyone sans Heather nodded.
“I don’t know… I kinda like him,” the blond woman said.
Needless to say, she got nothing but incredulous stares.
They would not be flying from Ohio to Arizona but taking a train. Kotohime had told them it was because flying with such a large group would be too conspicuous, but Lilian thought there might have been another reason. On their train ride back to New Genbu after the rescue mission, she and Kevin had heard a rumor that the airports had all been shut down, though she didn’t know how accurate that rumors was.
The plan was not to go north through Columbus, but to travel south, cutting across Kentucky, Tennessee, and the other states that ran along the southern coast, until they reached their destination. Of course, a single train wouldn’t be able to get them back home, so they would be making multiple train hops.
Because there were so many people, they were in the passeng
er car and not their own private car. That kind of disappointed Lilian. She’d been hoping for some private time with Kevin, so they could finish what they’d started that morning before Christine interrupted them, but she guessed that was asking for too much.
The train itself was mostly empty. Lilian would have found this odd, but very few people were traveling these days thanks to the war. It was part of the reason that the airports were closing down. With so little business, there wasn’t much point in keeping them up and running. Even the trains only still ran because they were needed to carry shipments of supplies between states.
Glancing around the car, Lilian saw that their group had pretty much taken all the seats. Kotohime and Orin sat together discussing matters that she didn’t care to know about. Many of the yama uba sat grouped together, and she frowned when she noticed they were pointing and whispering at Kevin and Cien. She didn’t know what they were saying, but she hoped they weren’t making up a BL story about her mate and some other guy.
There were three seats to each row, and rows were arranged so that two rows would be facing each other. Lilian sat in one row. She was in the middle, while Christine and Iris sat on either side. Kevin was sitting directly across from her. On either side of him was Phoebe and Cien. Polydora was in the seat behind Kevin, and her glare looked like it could cut through steel. It probably had something to do with Phoebe and Kevin’s conversation—if one could call it a conversation.
“Kevin Swift, I was thinking that we could make a child when we return to Arizona.”
“I don’t remember agreeing to give you children.”
“She will be a strong warrior just like you and me.”
“I’m only sixteen. I have no interest in kids.”
“Her name will be Chloe.”
“… You’re not listening to a word I’m saying, are you?”
“Must be tough being so popular,” Cien said with something of a sneer. Lilian wondered if he was jealous of her mate.
Kevin tossed him a glare. “If you think having some woman try to convince you to have a child with her is easy, then by all means, be my guest and switch places with me.”
A Fox's War Page 3
