A Fox's Family (American Kitsune Book 4)

by Brandon Varnell

  “I see some tongue action there!”

  “Holy shit, that’s hot!”

  “Since when did Kevin learn to kiss like that?”

  “I think his girl is the one doing most of the kissing.”

  Upon hearing the voices, whistles and catcalls, Kevin let out a loud squeak, only slightly muffled by Lilian’s mouth. He tried to unsuccessfully jerk his mouth away from the two-tails, but she kept him in place by grasping his head in her hands, which consequently caused him to lose his balance as he tripped over his own two feet.

  As Kevin crashed to the floor, shame filling him as the other track team members laughed and jeered and catcalled, one thought rose to his mind.

  I’m never going to live this down, am I?

  Somehow, Kevin felt like he could live with that.

  ***

  Arriving home later that day, Lilian and an embarrassed Kevin found themselves being greeted by a kimono-clad vision of loveliness.

  “Welcome home, Lilian-sama, Kevin-sama.”

  Kotohime offered them a bow. Well, she offered Lilian a bow. Kevin was pretty sure the woman would only bow to him after he proved himself to her, and the gods only knew when that would happen.

  After rising from her deferential bow, Kotohime offered him a conciliating smile. “I believe congratulations are in order. Am I correct in assuming you won first place in your races?”

  “Of course he did!” Lilian exploded with enthusiasm--a lot of enthusiasm. “He was incredible! The moment the gun went off, he was speeding down the track! I almost thought he was using Shunpo, he moved so fast.”

  Kotohime stared at her charge with a single, delicately raised eyebrow. “Indeed? That is most intriguing, but might I suggest you keep real life anime references to a minimum? Author-san has recently been getting complaints that he breaks the fourth wall too much, and so he’s been trying to keep any cracks from appearing within the fabrics of this fragile reality.”

  “I don’t see why he would bother with something like that.” Lilian waved her hand dismissively. “Everyone knows he doesn’t have the talent to write anything good.”

  D-Do you have to put it so bluntly?

  “And you have no room to say anything. You’re just as bad as I am.”

  I think you’re both terrible.

  “Shut up.”

  “Indeed, if you wish to continue living, I suggest you not talk any more than necessary.”

  My own characters hate me!

  “We don’t hate you,” Lilian said reassuringly. “We just find you very annoying.”

  U-ugh…

  “Would you two stop that already!” a red-faced Kevin shouted. “Stop talking to someone who isn’t real!”

  Kotohime and Lilian looked at Kevin like he was an idiot.

  “What are you talking about?” Lilian asked. “Of course he’s real.”

  “Indeed.” Kotohime nodded her agreement. “We wouldn’t exist if he wasn’t real.”

  The next morning, the complex manager would arrive at their doorstep after receiving numerous complaints about strange banging noises, as if someone had been slamming their face into a wall, coming from the Swift’s apartment.

  ***

  Kotohime led the pair onto the balcony, where she had prepared what appeared to be a romantic dinner for two.

  A small round table with a white cloth placed over it sat in the center of the balcony, with two comfortable-looking padded chairs situated on opposite ends of the table. Kevin didn’t question where Kotohime found the table and chairs, which he knew they hadn’t possessed this morning. In the table’s center, a single candle burned, its flame wavering and dancing to a transient tune beyond human perception.

  “Oh, um, wow.” Kevin didn’t know what to say. “This is, uh…”

  “I didn’t really know what we should do to celebrate your last track meet,” Lilian admitted as Kevin gawked at the scene before them. “My first idea was to invite all of your friends over and have a really big party, but we did that last time.”

  Kevin remembered that. They had done really well on their second to last track meet, getting first place in almost all of the competitions except for pole vaulting and the shot put. Having been so elated by their success, Eric had invited all of them to his house for a party.

  He also recalled how that particular celebration had ended with Eric and his pervy old man being laid flat by an irate Christine, who’d shown up halfway through the party.

  A small droplet of sweat trailed down the left side of his face. “Yeah. I think not having a party was a good decision on your part.”

  “Thanks. Anyway, that’s why I decided on doing this. I thought it would be nice if we celebrated your success, just the two of us.”

  When Lilian’s cheeks tinged a soft pink, visible even in the moonlight, Kevin thought he would die of moe. Some things existed in this world that were just criminal, and a drop-dead gorgeous girl like Lilian possessing such an enthralling look of sweet demureness was one of those things.

  “Uh… ah…”

  When Kevin opened his mouth and only got a few monosyllables for his trouble, he realized how close he was to losing it. He quickly closed his eyes and concentrated on his breathing. He would not allow himself to act like a jabbering idiot. Not anymore. He refused.

  Opening his eyes, Kevin showed Lilian his best smile. “I like this idea. It’s sort of like we’re on a date at a nice restaurant.”

  Lilian’s smile made Kevin feel both lighter than air and like there was a lead bowling ball in his stomach.

  “I’m glad. Now then, shall we sit down?”

  “Oh, um, right!”

  Remembering his manners, Kevin held Lilian’s chair out for her before sitting down in his own. Kotohime walked onto the balcony, carrying a tray of food. Kevin followed the tray with his eyes, trying not to let his mouth water as a delectable aroma wafted into his nose.

  With her usually placid smile, Kotohime set the tray down, and then placed two glasses on the table, which she filled with what Kevin really hoped was sparkling cider.

  “For a side dish, I have prepared tiropsomo, warm bread stuffed with feta. For Lilian-sama, I made bourtheto, and for Kevin-sama, spetsofai—sausages with bell peppers.”

  “You’ve really outdone yourself, Kotohime.” Lilian sniffed the food, her own mouth watering. “This looks delicious!”

  The perennial smile on Kotohime’s face grew at her charge’s words. “Yes, well, it is a special occasion, after all. Now, please enjoy the meal.”

  With one final bow, Kotohime retreated into the living room, leaving Kevin and Lilian alone once more.

  ***

  Dinner that evening was a surreal experience.

  He and Lilian had gone on dates before, but those had mostly been the kind of dates that all high school students went on: the movies, a picnic, ice skating and so on. None of them had been super-serious romantic dinners complete with candlelight and a table for two.

  Kevin didn’t know if this counted as one of those dates. But, even if it didn’t, it had enough necessary components to be considered as such. That alone made him nervous.

  He still did what he could to make it enjoyable, remembering to use his best manners and doing everything possible to keep Lilian engaged in conversation throughout dinner. It was more difficult than he thought it would be. While talking to Lilian was surprisingly easy, coming up with topics to discuss was tough. The butterflies fluttering about in his chest and the scorpions poking his intestinal tract certainly didn’t help.

  “How is your training with Kiara going?”

  Kevin was so surprised by the question that he almost choked on his food. He banged on his chest several times to dislodge a bit of sausage before looking at the red-haired vixen, his mouth hanging open as he stared at her in stupefaction.

  “I’m… sorry, but, did you just ask about my training?”

  Lilian puffed up her cheeks, her pout filled with enough cuteness to suffocat
e a man from too much fluff. “What’s with that response? I’ll have you know that I am very interested in your training.”

  After a moment’s hesitation, Kevin reached out and placed a hand over one of Lilian’s. “I’m sorry. It’s just that you’ve never asked about my training before. You always said that you weren’t interested in the ‘stupid training I did with that dumb mutt,’ remember?”

  Lilian’s cheeks flushed upon hearing his words, just a bit. “Y-yes, well, t-that’s just because I don’t like you spending time with her. She’s an inu, and even though she doesn’t have any romantic intentions towards you, I still don’t like how you’re spending time with some filthy dog. You’re mine, not hers.”

  “O-oh…”

  Kevin and Lilian stared at each other, their faces growing more and more red as the seconds ticked by.

  “S-so!” Lilian tried to get her groove back. “A-anyway, I’ve calmed down since then, and am now curious to know how your

  training is going.”

  “Well,” Kevin stretched out the word, thinking about how to best describe his training with Kiara, “it’s… productive, I guess.” When Lilian stared at him with an astoundingly blank expression, Kevin felt his cheeks burn. “W-what I mean is that Kiara hasn’t been teaching me how to fight or anything. She just has me doing strength training exercises. She runs me through drills and routines that are designed to strengthen my muscles and increase my speed while not gaining any extraneous muscle mass.”

  “Uh huh…”

  “Yeah. According to Kiara, having big, bulky muscles actually puts fighters at a disadvantage against their opponents, and that large muscles not only cause your movements and reactions to become sluggish, but that having them can also restrict your range of motion, limiting the number of ways your body can move and bend.”

  “That was a terribly long run-on sentence.”

  Kevin nearly faceplanted into his food. “You’re not even listening to me, are you?”

  Lilian dipped a piece of bread into her soup. “Of course I am. You said that Kiara is increasing your strength through exercise.” She took a bite out of the bread and moaned at the pleasant taste filling her mouth. Upon swallowing, she continued. “And that having large muscles is a bad thing for fighters. See, I was listening.”

  Now it was Kevin’s turn to pout. “It didn’t seem like you were.”

  “That’s because I’m an excellent multitasker. I can eat bread and listen to you at the same time.”

  “If you say so.”

  “I do say so.”

  Kevin and Lilian stared at each other for a second before, ever so slowly, matching smiles crossed their faces.

  After they finished dinner, Kotohime served them baklava.

  Wanting this moment to be romantic, Lilian tried convincing Kevin that they should feed each other. Because he didn’t have any experience at being in a romantic relationship, Kevin agreed, even though the idea of him and Lilian feeding each other was kind of embarrassing.

  When dinner concluded, Kotohime took their plates away. Lilian and Kevin moved to the couch where they watched an anime that Lilian had been wanting to see. Kevin didn’t know why, but as they watched the anime, which featured a kid who’d been turned into a zombie by a necromancer with godlike powers, he felt a strange sense of deja vu, like he’d seen or knew someone who had been in a situation similar to the main character’s. Weird.

  Several hours later, as the twilight hour dawned, Kevin and Lilian prepared for bed. After their nightly ritual, Lilian donned plain white panties and a large white T-shirt, while Kevin put on black boxers and a T-shirt of the same color.

  Kevin laid down on the bed with Lilian cuddled up to him, snuggling into his side and using his left shoulder as her pillow. Despite his body burning like a furnace, Kevin still responded to her affection, wrapping around her and letting his hand rest on the curvature of her hip.

  Lilian sighed in contentment, kissing his chest and falling asleep seconds after saying goodnight, Kevin’s warmth lulling her mind and body into a sense of peace and tranquility that she only felt in his presence.

  On the other hand, Kevin was wide awake and suffering from a small (not so small in his opinion) problem. He stared down at Lilian’s lovely leg, visible as a lump underneath the blanket covering them. While he couldn’t anything more than an outline, he could feel her leg just fine, along with what it was grazing.

  Lilian’s leg rubbed against him, causing his body to respond. He rose to the occasion. Lilian shifted some more, her bare leg caressing him and causing a delicious sort of friction that he felt even through his boxer shorts. Kevin thought his face might undergo spontaneous combustion at any second.

  Despite it only being 9:45, Kevin could already tell.

  It was going to be a long night.

  ***

  A sea of velvet blanketed the night sky, complemented by the twinkling of several million stars.

  Justin leaned against a pillar located in a small park near his house. The pillar was connected to a pavilion filled with metal tables and benches.

  He could have sat down, but he honestly preferred standing. With a cell phone held to his ear, the young man waited patiently for the person he was calling to pick up.

  “…”

  “Good to hear from you, Commander. I was beginning to wonder if you’d answer my call.”

  “...”

  Justin listened, waiting until the person had finished before chuckling. “I assure you, this isn’t a social call. I just thought you would like to know that one of your former associates who went against the grain and tried kidnapping the kitsune, Lilian Pnevma, has managed to slip through the cracks and is still hanging around. She’s currently teaching at my school as an assistant PE coach.”

  “…”

  “Her name? I believe it’s Heather Grant.”

  “…”

  “Yes, it’s the same Heather Grant who spent almost half the Arizona Branch’s—excuse me, I meant, the now defunct Arizona Branch’s budget on eroge.”

  “…”

  “Never knew you were capable of such expletives, Commander.”

  “…”

  “The point of my call? I just wanted to know if you would like me to take care of her for you. She could cause some serious problems if not disposed of soon, you know--especially if she decides to speak with Davin Monstrang.”

  “…”

  “Very well. I’ll let your people take care of her. Who do you plan on sending?”

  “…”

  “None of my business? Right. Okay. You know, that untrusting nature of yours will eventually be your downfall if you’re not too careful.”

  “…”

  “There’s no need to get upset. I was simply stating a fact. People don’t like it when they feel like you don’t trust them. It makes us wonder if the reason for your lack of trust is because you plan on double-crossing us at some point in the near future. Besides, wasn’t it your inability to trust others that caused your wife to leave you? Oh, wait. It wasn’t lack of trust that made her leave, but because you experimented on her unborn child, wasn’t it? My bad.”

  “…”

  “You’d be surprised by the things a person can learn if they ask around enough. It’s not like what happened between you two is a closely guarded secret. I’m pretty sure everybody knows about that incident and just refuses to speak about it.”

  “…”

  Justin examined his nails. They’d need to be clipped soon. He’d have his mom do it tomorrow after school or something.

  “Yes. Yes. I know. You’ve given me that same speech several times already. There’s no need to give it again.”

  “…”

  “Fine. Out.”

  Justin sighed as he hung up the phone.

  “‘Stay out of the way,’ he says. ‘You’ll only cause problems in the future,’ he says. Does he really think I’m so incompetent that I would allow myself to get caught by some he
ntai-watching floozy?”

  Looking up, Justin admired the astral beauty of the phantasmagoric night sky, his mind tracing intricate shapes using the stars as waypoints.

  “I guess there’s nothing to it.”

  Pushing off the pillar, Justin shoved his hands into his pockets and began walking home, his mouth twisting into an unpleasant facsimile of a smile.

  “I wonder who the Commander plans on sending after Heather? Whoever they are, I hope they’re strong. I could really use some entertainment right about now.”

  ***

  Kevin didn’t know when he had gone to sleep, nor did he know how long he had slept for. It couldn’t have been that long though, because when he woke up to use the restroom, the clock told him it was 1:45 am.

  Lilian stirred as Kevin tried to extricate himself from her grip, an exceedingly troublesome task. Lovely eyelashes fluttered open, revealing irises that glittered like precious gemstones. The twin-tailed kitsune blinked the sleep out of her eyes as he sat up.

  “Kevin?”

  “Go back to sleep, Lilian, I’ll be right back. I just need to use the restroom.”

  “M’kay…”

  Lilian complied and went back to sleep. Smiling as he looked at her, Kevin, in a rare moment of courage and initiative, leaned down and kissed Lilian on her right cheek. The emerald-eyed vixen smiled in her sleep, settling deeper into their large pillow.

  Kevin left the bedroom and was soon draining the dragon. Upon revealing the tension in his bladder, he entered the hallway and was about to head back to bed, when a noise caught his attention.

  Halting in his tracks, he strained his ears, listening for… there it was again! What was that? It sounded like something was… shaking? No, it sounded like crashing.

  Looking around for a second, Kevin noticed that Kotohime was not in the hall. She also wasn’t in the living room when he arrived. He frowned, but figured she must be out doing something. He didn’t know what she might have been at this time of night, and truthfully, he didn’t want to know.

  The sounds grew louder, and Kevin determined that they were definitely from something crashing into something else, though he couldn’t determine what. They came from outside his apartment and were getting closer.