“Uh, okay.”
Taking the jacket from Kevin, Lilian quickly donned the article of clothing, putting her arms through the sleeves, and leaving it unbuttoned. She then looked up at Kevin and smiled.
“What do you think?”
“You look ridiculous,” Christine declared with barely suppressed laughter. Lilian puffed out her cheeks as she gave the other girl a menacing look.
Naturally, the entire menacing appearance that she was going for was ruined by her childishly puffed-up cheeks. It was like looking at an angry chipmunk, if chipmunks could actually look angry.
“I don't want to hear anything from you! And I do not look like an angry chipmunk!”
Sorry, but you kinda do.
“!!!”
Eek! What a scary look! I-I mean, shutting up now!
“Lilian… you're doing it again.”
“Oops! Sorry. Tee-hee!”
Kevin rolled his eyes as Lilian rapped her knuckles against her head.
“You really need to stop doing that. Anyway, Christine’s right, you do look a little odd wearing a jacket with those shorts,” he expressed his opinion much more diplomatically than the snow-girl. “You need some pants. Otherwise, you'll just look funny.”
“So long as they're a pair of nice jeans that fit me really well, I guess it'll be okay,” Lilian grumbled a bit.
Christine just had to make an insulting comment.
“You mean jeans that look like they were painted on? How are you not a slut again?”
“Shut up, you!” Lilian growled. “I don't want to hear it from someone who dresses like a loli vampire!”
“W-w-what?! A loli vampire?!” Christine's right eye began twitching. “I'm nothing like Evangeline A.K. McDowel, you skank! Take that back right now!”
Evangeline A.K. McDowel―an all powerful, nine-hundred year old, immortal vampire from a popular ecchi manga.
She also looks like a nine year old little girl.
Lilian's smirk was one of victory.
“I never said anything about you looking like Evangeline. Something you want to tell us?”
Christine paled. The sly expression that Lilian wore didn't help her complexion any.
“Although…” The emerald-eyed vixen looked at the goth girl with barely concealed glee. She was on a roll. “Now that I've gotten a closer look at that outfit of yours, I have to say that the resemblance is uncanny. If you were a couple of inches shorter and had blond hair, you would look just like her. You're even as flat-chested as she is.”
Christine's face went from pale white to atomic red and then to deep blue in less than a second.
“Grrr! Shut up, you stupid, large-breasted bimbo!”
“Ha! You're just jealous that you don't have boobs like mine!”
“J-j-jealous?! Wh-why would I be jealous of those ridiculously-sized knockers of yours!? Whore! Skank! Slut!”
“Your insults are getting repetitive!”
“And yours are just as dull as always!”
“Whoa, whoa, whoa!” Kevin quickly placed himself between the two before the situation could escalate further. “Easy, you two. There's no need to start another fight now, is there?”
“I'm always up for showing this skanky little fox why she shouldn't mess with me!” Christine smirked, looking more than ready to put Lilian in her place. The air around her also began to drop in temperature, getting so cold that Kevin's and Lilian's breath came out as mist.
Strangely enough, while the two aforementioned people were cold (Lilian more so than Kevin), the one who looked the most uncomfortable was Christine. The poor yuki-onna was shivering horribly; her entire body shook like some kind of leaf caught in a stiff breeze. It seemed that when she mentioned how she didn't like the cold, she hadn't been kidding.
“I…” Lilian took another long, hard look at the other girl. She then looked at Kevin, and then back to Christine. Finally, she sighed and relaxed her posture. “If you don't want me to fight with her, Kevin, then I won't.” She paused, then added, “At least not right now.”
“Hmph!” Christine looked away with a huff, the temperature rising back to its normal 75 or so degrees as the yuki-onna relented her hold over her powers. “You're no fun.”
“Thank you.” The grateful smile that Kevin sent Lilian's way caused her heart to flutter. An odd warmth came to her face, like a good portion of the blood in her body had rushed up to her head. Light pink dusted her cheeks, traveling across her nose to form what almost looked like a bridge.
Feeling unusually bashful, Lilian looked down at the floor, the bangs of her hair hovering in front of her eyes, casting the rest of her face in shadow. Only the light blush on her cheeks and the small, almost shy smile on her face could be seen.
“You're welcome,” she whispered softly.
Kevin gave her one last smile before turning it on Christine. “And thank you as well. I really don't feel like getting kicked out of this store because two of my friends were fighting.”
“F-f-friends?!”
Looking like someone had just stuck her face in a deep fryer, only without all the oil, Christine did what she always did when she was embarrassed.
Tsundere protocols activated.
“W-who the hell said that we were friends?! Idiot! I-I never told you that we were friends!”
“Eh?” Kevin looked absolutely perplexed. “What did I do now?”
Placing her hand over her mouth, Lilian just barely managed to stifle her giggling with several coughs. “Cough, tsundere Cough.”
“What was that?! What did you just call me?!”
“Nothing, nothing.”
“It wasn't nothing! You just called me tsundere again, didn't you?! I dare you to say that one more time?!”
“Hey, hey! No more fighting!”
“What makes you think I said anything? You must be hearing things.”
“Bitch!”
“Flat-chested Loli!”
“My chest isn't flat!” Christine shrieked, shamelessly grabbing her breasts and mashing them together. “These might not be as large as those ginormous hooters of yours, but they get the job done just fine! Hell, it's even been proven that men don't always like big breasts!”
“Of course a girl with tiny lumps like yours would say that.” Lilian thrust her chest out, causing her breasts to bounce enticingly. Several men that had decided to walk by at that exact moment passed out via nosebleeds.
“Oh, god! We’ve got more men passing out in aisle six! Someone, quick, call the paramedics!”
A group of paramedics appeared seemingly out of nowhere. Kevin watched absentmindedly as the unconscious men were placed on stretchers, and wheeled out of the department store.
“Huh.” He scratched the back of his head. “Weird.”
Kevin then turned back to the argument that was still going on.
“At least my boobs aren't so obnoxiously large that they'll cause me back pain in the future.” Christine tried to look haughty and superior. She might have been able to pull it off, too, if she weren't still groping herself. “And besides, a couple decades from now when your tits are all saggy and gross, mine will remain just as perky as they are now.”
“Are you two really going to talk about breasts here?” Kevin's question went ignored.
“You think my boobs will get saggy in a couple of decades?” Lilian looked smug. “Ufufufu, I've got a newsflash for you, frosty. kitsune stop aging after they get their third tail.” Lilian shamelessly hefted her “puppies” up and flaunted them to the blue-faced yuki-onna. “That means these babies won't be doing any sagging for a long, long time. Heck, my grandma is over a thousand years old, has bigger boobs than I do, and hers still don't sag.”
Kevin covered his face with both hands. He couldn't believe they were talking about this.
“Must you two keep talking about saggy boobs? And do you really have to grab your breasts like that in public, Lilian?”
“Huh?” Lilian paused in her shameles
s groping to look at Kevin. “What are you talking about?”
In answer to her question, Kevin took one hand off his face to point at Lilian's chest. The fox-girl looked down to where her hands were currently cupping her superlative bosom. She blinked several times before responding.
“Oh.” Lilian took her hands off her breasts. She looked back up at Kevin, her expression sheepish. “Sorry about that, Be—I mean, Kevin.”
“It's fine.” Kevin didn't even blush this time—which just went to show him how desensitized he had become to Lilian’s antics. He felt like he had lost something important in all this. He didn't know if he should call it his innocence, or maybe an irreplaceable piece of his soul, but whatever it was, he could practically hear it giving one final cry of terror before going silent. “Let's… let's just finish shopping.”
“Okay.”
“And as for you.”
“Huh?” Christine blinked as Kevin turned his attention to her. “What? Why are you looking at me like that?”
“You still have your hands on your chest. You might want to stop touching yourself.”
“?”
Christine blinked. The time it took her to process his words. Eyes widening, she looked down at her chest to see that, yes, she was indeed still groping her breasts.
She then looked back up at Kevin, who was staring at her, waiting for her to take her hands off her chest. In a situation like this, Christine did the only thing that she could think of.
She screamed.
“KYAAA!”
***
After the moment of unintentional perversion had passed, the group of the human, the kitsune and the yuki-onna began their quest for several pairs of jeans anew. They walked to another section of the store, where various forms of female leg wear hung from racks, and lay folded up on shelves. There was a wide selection to choose from: jeans, capris and everything in between.
They headed straight for the rack with all of the jeans. Lilian had already made it perfectly clear that she would not wear anything else.
Lilian walked over to the first rack, which held several sets of blue jeans. As she perused the selection, Kevin rubbed at his sore cheek and glanced at the yuki-onna.
“Did you really have to hit me?” he asked Christine, taking his hand off his cheek to reveal the large red mark in the perfect shape of a hand print. “That really hurt, you know.”
Christine just scoffed and turned her head.
“I-it's your own fault for saying something like that in the first place!”
“How is it my fault?” Kevin asked, only to sigh when she tossed him a glare. “You know what? Never mind. I don't want to know.”
Turning back toward the red-haired member of their group, he saw that Lilian looked perplexed. In her hands were two different sets of basic jeans; one black and the other blue.
“Kevin?” she called as she held up the two articles of clothing for him to inspect. “I don't know which one I should choose. What do you think?”
“I think you should try them on before I can really give you my opinion,” Kevin answered. “There should be a changing room somewhere nearby. Let's go find it, and you can try them both on.”
“Okay,” Lilian sighed. Together, they walked over to a small desk where a middle-aged woman sat.
“Something wrong?” asked Kevin.
“Not really.” Lilian frowned as she looked at the jeans in her hands, as if they were the cause for her grievance. “I just never liked pants of any kind. They always feel so constricting, especially because I can't let my tails out. It's easy to let my tails out with shorts, but pants are too long for that. If I let my tails out while wearing them, I’d be forced to keep them stuck in one of the legs.” She shuddered. “And that is not a pleasant experience.”
“Really?” His brows furrowed a bit. “So that's the reason you always wear such skimpy clothing? Because it allows your tails more freedom?”
“Of course not.” Lilian sent him a smile so wide that it forced her eyes closed. “I mean, yes, we don't like to wear clothing that keeps us from letting our tails out, but I only chose the clothes I have now because I wanted to look sexy for you.”
Kevin twitched.
“So you were wearing them to try and seduce me.”
“Yeah.” A few seconds of giggling petered off as Lilian's beaming smile turned melancholy. She turned her head away from him, her lips curving downwards in a small frown. “Not that it really worked anyway.”
“W-well, I wouldn't go so far as to say that.” Kevin scratched his left cheek with an index finger. Lilian craned her neck to look at him, her eyes widening just a bit. His cheeks flushing slightly under her scrutiny, the young man nevertheless continued. “I mean, I always thought you were, um, like, really pretty, and everything. It's just…” he trailed off. He didn't want to mention Lindsay in this conversation. It would just hurt Lilian more. Besides, chances were good that she knew what he would say; they’d already had this conversation once.
“I understand.” Lilian's countenance softened. Her eyes became warm and slightly misted, and a pretty pink coloration stained her fair cheeks. “And it means a lot to hear you say that to me. The compliment, I mean,” she added after seeing him look at her strangely. “Thank you.”
Feeling his own cheeks beginning to burn, Kevin looked away.
“You're welcome.”
“Ugh, this is so disgusting.” Christine grimaced at the two. “Would you two please stop making googly eyes at each other and get changed already. I don't want to be here any longer than I have to.”
Lilian scowled. This girl just had to ruin the mood! Stupid, snow hating snow-maiden!
“Nobody asked you to come with us! If you don't want to be here, then maybe you should just leave!”
With one final huff, the redhead stormed up to the desk, and was assigned a changing room. Soon she was slamming the door to one of the changing rooms, leaving Kevin alone with the girl clad in gothic lolita garb.
“Do you really have to fight with Lilian so much?” he asked the girl with a small frown.
“I don't see why you care.” The yuki-onna had a bit of a frown herself. She crossed her arms over her chest, and looked at the changing rooms. “Besides, it's not like I was the one who started all of this. If that damn fox hadn't come up and started yelling at me during the track meet, I wouldn't have any problems with her.”
“Huh? So wait, you're telling me that Lilian was the one who started fighting with you?” Kevin was both surprised and not-so-surprised to hear this.
“Yeah.” Christine confirmed her words with a nod. “She just waltzed right up to me with that self-righteous attitude of hers and started yelling.”
“But why would she do that?” Kevin mused to himself. “Lilian's never been the type to just start randomly arguing with people. In fact, she generally tends to ignore anyone and everyone except for, well…” he coughed into his hand several times. “But, why would she argue with you if she didn't even know you? No offense, but that just doesn't sound like Lilian.”
“A-ah, w-well.” Christine looked away, causing Kevin to glance at her curiously. “She was asking me what my, eh, my, um…” pale, snow white cheeks became suffused with red as the girl began stuttering. “H-how we… I-I mean, how you and I…”
“Hey, are you okay? Your face is all red.”
A worried Kevin leaned in to get a closer look at Christine's face. Said girl leaned back, her scarlet cheeks quickly shifting from red to blue, as her embarrassment reached critical mass.
“I-I'm fine! Dummy! Idiot! Jerkwad!” The scowl was back in place. “Graaa!” Kevin stumbled several feet back when Christine shouted at him. “Why are you always doing this?!” He became concerned when she started pulling at her hair. “Getting all up in my face and acting all nice and stuff?! Huh?!”
“Did I… do something wrong?” Kevin asked uncertainly. He rubbed his cheek. He hoped she wouldn't slap him again. Once was enough for him. Mor
e than enough. That slap had really hurt. “I didn't mean to upset you or anything.”
“Ugh… n-no, i-it's fine.” Christine mumbled, turning her back to Kevin. She placed a hand against her chest, feeling the blood-pumping organ beating erratically against her ribcage. Why was her heart pounding so quickly? It felt like it was trying to beat its way out of her chest! “D-don't worry about it.”
Not really sure what was going on, but realizing that he would probably be better off remaining ignorant, Kevin decided to do as Christine suggested.
“All right,” Kevin said, shrugging.
While Kevin made what had to be one the most intelligent decisions in his life thus far, Lilian finally made an appearance. Stepping out of the changing room in a new pair of blue jeans that fit her beautifully shaped hips, heart-shaped bottom and killer legs perfectly, the stunning fox-girl looked at Kevin with a radiant smile.
“What do you think?” she asked, turning around and showing off her backside to the young man. Her hair long hair swished aside, allowing him to catch an unfettered glimpse of how well those jeans conformed to her small, shapely rear. “Do these look good on me?”
Kevin wondered why he found himself suddenly speechless by the sight of Lilian in a pair of jeans. Hadn't he seen her in far less? For the gods' sakes, he had seen her naked before! Multiple times! After being exposed to her beautiful, nude body, something as mundane as a pair of pants should be nothing to him! So why did he feel so strange? How come his stomach felt like it was being tied into knots? And why were there butterflies fluttering around in his chest?
Kevin took a deep breath.
I'm overreacting again. I need to calm down. This is just Lilian. Yes, just Lilian.
Feeling his heart rate slow done, he said, “You look really nice.”
“You don't sound very enthusiastic.” Lilian frowned. “Do they not look good on me? I can try on another pair if you want.”
Kevin's eyes widened.
“No!” He flushed when several women who were shopping looked at him after he shouted. Trying not to let his shame bother him too much, he continued in a much softer voice. “I mean, of course not. You look really good. I was just…” Come on, Kevin, think. Think! “Thinking!”
A Fox's Tail (American Kitsune Book 2) Page 28