A Fox's Mate (American Kitsune Book 6)

by Brandon Varnell

  She looked at Kevin and Lilian.

  “Why’d you two stop?” she moaned out in complaint, her left hand still busying itself between her legs. “It was just getting to the good part.”

  Iris’s head was suddenly and swiftly implanted into the wall when Lilian smacked her right in the face with a youki-reinforced tail.

  “Ouch,” the raven-haired fox-girl muttered, her voice muffled by the wall that her head had become embedded in.

  Chapter 5

  The Date

  The next day was the start of their weekend. Saturday had arrived, and with it, Kevin Swift found himself preparing for his date with Lilian. They hadn’t really planned on what they would do for their date, but he would be with Lilian, so whatever they decided to do was bound to be fun.

  He still had a lot on his mind: His conflicted feelings over what had happened at the Comic-Con and Kiara’s refusal to train him until he showed his “resolve” being at the forefront of them, but he did everything conceivably possible to push them to the back of his mind. Today wasn’t about him. It was about Lilian.

  He looked at himself in the mirror, checking to make sure nothing looked out of place. His blue jeans fit snugly and felt comfortable; the plain white t-shirt that he’d donned had a collared button up charcoal shirt worn over it. The buttons were currently undone, allowing a dog tag necklace—a Christmas gift from Kiara—to be seen hanging around his neck.

  Kevin absently tugged at his unruly blond hair. It had grown really long. He would need to have it cut soon.

  Not seeing anything wrong with his looks, he exited the closet and entered his room. Lilian wasn’t present. Voices from the living room drew his attention, and he wandered there to discover Lilian chatting with Iris and, surprisingly, Lindsay and Christine.

  Huh, what are they doing here?

  Lilian had chosen to dress up for their date. Gone was her usual green off-the-shoulder shirt, and in its place was a light pink crop top that complimented her hair. The shirt stretched across her chest, presenting a visually appealing image that he knew would attract attention from men everywhere. The black skirt that she wore, which looked like a spirited twirl would cause it to reveal more than Kevin felt comfortable with other men seeing, was just the icing on the cake. On her feet were her usual gladiator sandals.

  “Kevin!” Lilian greeted upon seeing him. Kevin smiled as her already vibrant expression gained another level of brightness. Even if he still felt insecure, just seeing Lilian so happy and cheerful made him feel better. “Are you ready for our date?”

  “Yep,” Kevin said, walking up to Lilian’s side and grabbing her hand. Then he turned to Christine and Lindsay, tilting his head slightly. “So, what exactly are you two doing here?”

  “We show up to see how you’re doing and that’s all you have to say?” Lindsay asked, rolling her eyes. When Kevin raised an eyebrow in response to her words, she shrugged. “Since you and Lilian are going on a date, Iris called us up and asked if we wanted to hang out.”

  “It would be boring to spend all day on my own,” Iris added. “So I thought I could hang out with Frosty and Dyke. They make good company.”

  “Shut up, skank!” Christine shouted. “By the gods, do I hate you! If it weren’t for Lindsay pleading with me to come over, I would have never… eh?” The snow maiden blinked when she noticed that Lindsay was no longer standing beside her. “Lindsay? Where the hell did Lindsay go?”

  “She’s over there in the corner,” Lilian said, pointing at Lindsay.

  Kevin and the others looked over at the corner. The blonde high schooler was crouched, her face turned toward the wall. She appeared to be drawing circles on the carpet with her index finger. An aura of depression hovered over her, and a black miasma-like mist wafted off of her body, as if it was a physical manifestation of her melancholy. She was sniffling.

  “I can’t believe she called me a dyke. Sure, I find the female form kind of attractive and everything, but it’s not like I’m into girls.” A pause. “At least I don’t think I’m into girls.” Another pause. “Then again, I do find girls to be more attractive than boys.” One last pause. “Does that mean I really am into girls?”

  After spending several seconds staring at her, Kevin, Lilian, Iris, and Christine decided to pretend that the last few seconds never happened. It was safer that way.

  “Where are Kotohime, Kirihime, and Camellia?” Kevin asked.

  “I think Kotohime went grocery shopping,” Lilian said. “As for Mom and Kirihime…” she trailed off and shrugged. “Don’t know. She’s probably tripping over something.”

  ***

  “Ah-hahahaha! Ah-hahahaha! Look, Kirikiri! Look!”

  Kirihime walked behind her mistress as she and Lady Camellia walked through a park near the Le Monte apartment complex. Her mistress had wanted to spend time outside today, and while a part of her felt like allowing this woman to go anywhere was permitting disaster to strike, she hadn’t been able to find it in herself to deny the woman her desires.

  Currently, her mistress was laughing and pointing at the number of kites soaring through the sky. There were an awful lot of them. She guessed it was because the weather was so pleasant.

  “I see them,” Kirihime said with a tender smile.

  Her mistress’s returning smile seemed brighter than any sun. “Hahahaha! They’re so pretty!”

  Lady Camellia, in her enthusiasm to follow the kites, did not see where she was walking and thus missed the steep hill naught but two steps in front of her. Kirihime saw it, however, and did her best to stop the woman before she could fall.

  “Ah! W-wait! Lady Camellia, you need to be—”

  “HAWA!”

  “—careful…”

  Kirihime winced as her mistress tumbled down the hill like a sack of flour. Her limbs flailed about. Her body bounced like a pair of beach balls. She was like a ragdoll.

  “HAWAWAWAWAWAWA!!”

  And she was yelling her head off.

  Fortunately for Lady Camellia, the hill, while steep, wasn’t very large. Her tumble was quite short. Unfortunately for her mistress, there were several people at the bottom.

  Upon hearing her highly unusual shouts, these people turned around and, rather than do what most smart, logically thinking people would do and move out of the way, they chose to stand there like a bunch of idiots as Lady Camellia crashed right into them. The people shrieked as they were knocked over like bowling pins getting the smack down after the Hulk decided to try his hand at bowling.

  “M-Mistress Camellia!”

  Kirihime ran down the hill to make sure her mistress was all right… and to apologize to the people that her mistress had bowled over, even if it was their fault.

  They really should have moved out of the way.

  ***

  “Very true.” Kevin nodded, agreeing with Lilian’s assessment.

  Knowing Camellia as he did, that woman was probably running around somewhere, causing her maid no end of trouble with her childish antics. Knowing Kirihime, she was more than likely chasing after her mistress while trying to keep the woman from hurting herself, as well as inadvertently hurting others.

  He only hoped that Kirihime could keep her “mistress” from falling breast-first into some poor boy. That much stimulation was too much for the male mind to handle. He knew this from experience.

  “So, are we ready to go?” Lilian asked, and in response to her words, Kevin patted down his pants pockets. Wallet? Check. Cellphone? Check. Keys? They were right next to his cellphone. Check.

  “Yep, we’re good to go.” Kevin and Lilian turned to Iris, Christine, and Lindsay—who’d recovered from her bout of depression with admirable swiftness—and raised their hands in farewell. “We’ll see you guys later. Have fun doing… whatever it is you plan on doing.”

  “Oh, we will,” Iris said. The expression on her face, which seemed to convey numerous dark and twisted secrets, made Kevin and Lilian feel uncomfortable around her.


  “Right.”

  After exchanging a few more pleasantries, Kevin and Lilian left the apartment building. Iris, Christine, and Lindsay went over to the window and peered out to see the two hop on Kevin’s bike and ride off.

  Nodding to herself in satisfaction, Iris stepped back from the window and held a fist up to her face. “All right! Now that they’re gone, it’s time to finally put our plan into action. It’s time to begin operation ‘spy on that couple’!”

  Christine and Lindsay looked confused. They looked at each other, then at Iris.

  “Um, why would we do something like that? Weren’t we going to watch movies or something?” Lindsay asked, scratching at her cheek with her right index finger.

  Iris looked at the girl like she’d said something stupid. “Whatever gave you that idea?”

  “You did,” Lindsay deadpanned. “When you told me that you wanted to know if Christine and I wanted to come over and watch movies with you.”

  “Did I say that?” Iris asked, smiling innocently as she pressed a finger to her lips. Of course, the term “innocent” could never have been applied to this vixen, and her smiles never looked remotely close to innocent.

  “Yes, you did.”

  “Oh… well, what I meant to say was watch the stud and Lily-pad while they went on their date.” Iris rapped her knuckles against her forehead, as if to say that she’d made a mistake. “My bad.”

  “Somehow, I don’t believe you,” Lindsay said.

  Christine face-palmed. “And this is why I didn’t want to come over here. I knew she’d pull something stupid like this. You see, Lindsay?”

  “Okay, okay. So I shouldn’t have given her the benefit of the doubt.” Lindsay blushed. “So sue me.”

  “Maybe I will.”

  Iris just laughed. “Now, now, I know that both of you are interested in seeing what the stud and Lily-pad get up to on their dates. There’s no need to deny it.” Grinning, she held out her hand. “So, are you two in?”

  Christine and Lindsay looked at each other as if they were holding a silent conversation. Iris would have made a comment about how they looked almost like a couple and should just start fucking, but that would have ruined the moment, so she remained silent and concocted ways to tease them later.

  The silent conversation ended, and Christine and Lindsay placed their hands over Iris’s.

  “We’re in,” they said at the same time.

  “Good.” Iris gave the two a fanged smirk. “Then let’s not waste any time.”

  ***

  Odd though it may have seemed, Kevin and Lilian hadn’t gone on that many dates, despite having been a couple for several months.

  While most couples felt like dating was the highlight of being a couple, and indeed, many magazines espoused that dating was what all couples needed to do to be a “true couple,” Lilian and Kevin felt a little differently.

  Dates were nice, certainly, but not a necessary proponent to enjoying a healthy relationship. Why spend money going out on a date when they could stay at home, snuggle under a warm blanket, and watch anime or read manga? There were also other things that they could do at home that they couldn’t do in public.

  Still, sometimes it was nice to go out and do the things that all couples did, even if their idea of a date was vastly different from normal people. Dinner and movie? Don’t make them laugh.

  The Metro Center Mall was the nearest shopping center. It had been a while since they’d been there. The last time they had visited this particular mall was when they’d gone shopping for winter clothes for Lilian. That was before Kotohime had arrived. It was also during that time that Kevin had finally confessed his feelings for Lindsay and been turned down. In some ways, it could almost have been said that this mall was the starting point for the way their relationship had progressed.

  Being a Saturday, it was fairly busy. There must have been several hundred people wandering through the mall. Teenagers were hanging around stores and sitting in chairs. Parents were holding their children’s hands as they wandered the halls. Several kids ran through the mall, laughing as they played a game of tag. It was a bustling den of vibrant activity.

  It was a good thing, then, that their destination was not the mall itself, but rather, the bookstore on the northern side of North Metro Parkway, the street that encircled the mall like the moat of a castle. The two already knew exactly where they wanted to go upon entering the store. They made a beeline for the manga section almost before the sliding doors had even opened.

  There, the two of them tried to decide what manga they should buy.

  Unfortunately, they both had very different opinions.

  “Why do you want to get that?” Lilian said after seeing the manga that Kevin wanted to buy. Her mate frowned at her as he held out a manga volume for Natsumo Shinobi, the last one in the series. She ignored the look that he sent her, grabbed the volume to another manga, and held it out for him to see. “I think we should get the next volume showcasing the adventures of a certain straw hat pirate.”

  “Be careful with what you say,” Kevin warned. “You don’t want us getting sued for copyright, do you?”

  “Aw, it’s fine,” Lilian dismissed his warning. “I doubt Eiichiro Oda would care if I talk about his manga. He makes millions of dollars each year, and it’s not like we haven’t made dozens of references already. What’s one more?” Saying this, Lilian crossed her arms under her chest and pouted at him. “You’re just saying that to avoid having to give me a reason why we should get Natsumo Shinobi instead of this epic work of fantasy and adventure. I think you just want to see Natsumo getting randomly stripped naked by her sensei.”

  “Who the hell do you think I am? Eric? Don’t lump me in with that pervert.” His cheeks turning just slightly red, Kevin furrowed his brows at her. “That’s not why I like Natsumo Shinobi and you know it. I just think ninja are cooler than pirates. However, if you want a real reason, then how about because Natsumo Shinobi has actually ended while One Piece has over seventy-six volumes and there’s still no end in sight. I’d prefer reading something that I know has a definite ending over something that I’m not sure will ever end.”

  “Ha! Ended? I don’t think so!” Lilian grabbed another manga titled Burrito Shinobi, which featured a blond-haired brat who looked like a male version of Natsumo. “You see this? This is the sequel to Natsumo Shinobi. This is the proof that Natsumo Shinobi hasn’t ended.”

  “That crap isn’t even worth mentioning.” Kevin scowled at the manga in her hand as if it was horse manure. “That manga is just Shōnen Jump’s attempt at milking more money from an already ended manga. I don’t consider that garbage to be in the same league as Natsumo Shinobi.”

  “So you say, but One Piece is still better.”

  “Is not.”

  “Is too.”

  And thus, the great debate began.

  ***

  As the pair argued over which manga they should get, several feet away, hidden behind a bookshelf, were three people dressed in large overcoats and even larger fedora hats that hung over their faces. They were also wearing sunglasses.

  “What are they doing?” asked Christine, watching as the redhead and the blond waved their respective manga in front of each other. It would have been funny to watch, but she couldn’t get over the weirdness of the whole situation. What the hell were they doing?

  Lindsay bit her lip as she, too, watched the scene with a growing sense of “what the fuck am I looking at?”

  “It looks like they’re arguing,” she said, “but…”

  “They’re probably arguing about which manga is better again.” Iris rubbed her face. Honestly, those two… “It’s the one thing they don’t always seem to agree on, which manga is better: One Piece or Natsumo Shinobi.”

  Christine twitched. “So they’re arguing over which manga is better?”

  “Yep.”

  “… Are those two idiots?”

  “… Do you really need to ask such an ob
vious question?”

  ***

  It took several minutes of debate to decide which manga they would buy. They only had enough money for one volume today, since they planned on doing other activities and couldn’t spend all of their money on manga.

  After realizing that neither of them would give up on their stance, Lilian offered a compromise.

  “How about this one?” she suggested, holding another manga volume before Kevin’s eyes.

  He looked at the front cover. It featured a blond girl with boobs that might have even been bigger than Camellia’s. She was dressed in a skimpy red outfit that only covered a portion of her breasts and crotch. Everything else was left bare.

  “Magika Swordsman and Summoner,” Kevin read out loud, blinking. He looked over the manga to Lilian, frowning. “I’ve never heard of this one.”

  Lilian’s eyes glowed brightly as she beamed at him. “It’s really good! It’s a fantasy series about a young man called Kazuki, who attends a school as the only male summoner. The artwork is gorgeous, and there’s a lot of really nice fanservice.”

  “So, it’s basically a harem manga,” Kevin said.

  “Mou, Beloved, this isn’t just a harem manga.” Lilian pouted. “This is a really good series about the trials and tribulations of the only male summoner in an all girls’ school. It’s based on a popular light novel series that hasn’t been translated into English yet.”

  “It sounds like just another magical harem high school series to me.”

  “So what if it’s just a magical harem series?” Lilian’s eyes were like blazing flames as she passionately defended her manga of choice. “Natsumo Shinobi is just another shōnen series. Does that make it any less enjoyable? Jojo’s Bizarre Adventures is the same as most shōnen series, but it’s still really fun to read. What about Fate/Stay Night? It’s based on an eroge. An eroge, Beloved! But it’s still an excellent series! Just because a series shares similar themes with other manga, that doesn’t make it bad. You shouldn’t—”