“Never better.”
“Right. Well, you should get up now. Breakfast is on the table.”
“Right. Breakfast.”
Iris swung her legs over the edge of the bed, then lowered herself to the carpeted floor. She stood up and took a step forward, and then she stumbled after seemingly losing her balance.
Kevin’s eyes widened even as he moved forward to break her fall. Rather than tumble to the floor, she landed against his chest. Kevin stiffened when he felt the fullness of Iris’s body press into him. She placed her hands on his chest and looked up, appearing just as surprised as him.
“You okay?” he asked.
“Yes, I’m fine,” Iris said, blinking. The look of astonishment disappeared and was replaced by amusement. “Huhuhu… thanks for catching my fall, Stud. I guess that makes you my hero.”
For some reason, Kevin did not like the sound of that. “Uh…”
“And you know what they say,” Iris continued, leaning up on her tiptoes. “Heroes deserve a reward.”
Kevin panicked. He tried to pull out of her grasp upon realizing her devious intentions, but Iris kept a firm grip around him. Instead of jerking himself out of her grip, he sent them both tumbling to the floor. Now, instead of a naked fox-girl hugging him, it was a naked fox-girl straddling his waist.
“Come on, Stud. Accept your reward like a good boy.”
She leaned down. Her lips were pursed ever so slightly. Kevin shuddered as her bum rubbed against his erection. This was a worst-case scenario situation, if he’d ever heard of one.
“W-wait, Iris! We can’t do this!”
“Huhuhu… and why not?”
“B-because I’m dating Lilian! I refuse to cheat on her! Now get off!”
“A kiss isn’t cheating.”
“Says you!”
“And even if it was, don’t worry so much. I won’t tell anyone. Besides, it’s not like Lilian will care.”
“I care! I’m caring so much right now!”
Kevin put up an admirable struggle, kicking and bucking like a bronco. But Iris remained steadfast and refused to get off, even going so far as to use her tails to hogtie him. She’d also reinforced her limbs, though he noticed how hard they were shaking, as if she needed to concentrate harder than normal.
That would have been the end of it, but Lilian chose that moment to enter the room. “Hey, Kevin. Is Iris awake yet? We need to… get… ready… for… eh?”
Lilian stared at the panicking Kevin and grinning Iris.
“L-Lilian! This is not what it looks like!”
“What are you talking about, Stud? This is so what it looks like.”
“You’re not helping here!”
As Lilian continued staring at Kevin and Iris, her face slowly turned red. It wasn’t long before her cheeks could have outshone the sun. Delicate hands clenched themselves into white-knuckled fists, and her body shook with emotion. Her two tails, which had been hidden, extended from beneath her skirt and writhed in agitation.
“You see that! Now Lilian’s mad! Get off me, Iris!”
“She’s got no reason to be mad. I promise I’m not trying to steal you. I’ll give you back after I… huhuhu… reward you.”
“I don’t want your reward, dang it! Get off of me! Lilian! Help!”
Kevin’s words caused something inside of Lilian to snap. Without warning, one of her tails extended to incredible lengths and flew toward the downed pair at speeds neither of them could comprehend.
Several seconds later, Iris crashed into the wall, denting it.
“Ow…” she muttered as her body slowly peeled off of the wall and fell to the floor with a dull thud.
***
It was official: Lilian was mad.
Kevin didn’t know if she was mad at him or mad at Iris, though he hoped it was Iris. He hadn’t actually done anything wrong. Sure, the situation had looked bad, but it wasn’t like he’d been trying to kiss Iris. It was the other way around! He shouldn’t have been blamed for that, should he?
Then again, shōnen protagonists often tended to get the short end of the stick. He only had to look at some of the most prominent examples to know the truth of this statement. Rito Yuuki, Tsukune Aono, Bell Cranel, Touma Kamijou… yes, harem protags had it hard, especially because most of them were stupid. Kevin was lucky in that he was at least aware of the strange harem-esque circumstances surrounding his life.
It was almost enough to make him feel like someone was out to get him.
But surely that couldn’t be it, could it?
His cell phone vibrated, knocking Kevin out of his thoughts and causing him to nearly jump out of his seat.
“Is there a problem, Mr. Swift?” Ms. Vis asked, looking quite displeased at having her class interrupted by the young man who refused to follow long-standing anime tradition.
“No, ma’am,” Kevin said. “No problem.”
“I see. In that case, please try not to disrupt my class again with your unusually loud antics.”
Kevin’s cheeks gained heat as several of his peers snickered. When Ms. Vis went back to her lecture, he pulled out his cellphone. He had a text message from Lindsay. It read: Is something going on between you and Lilian? She seems kind of upset. You didn’t do anything to hurt her, did you?
With his cheeks swelling in annoyance at how Lindsay’s first thought was that he’d done something wrong, Kevin furiously typed his response: Of course not. Why would you even think that? You know I would never do anything to upset Lilian.
He received a reply a few seconds later: Really? You didn’t do anything? Or you don’t think you did anything? There’s a difference between the two, you know.
Kevin frowned, calming his mind enough to think about how to respond. Finally, he typed: There was something that happened between Iris and me this morning, but it’s not like I did anything to her. Iris was just being her usual self, and Lilian walked in during a compromising moment when I tried to wake Iris up.
I see. Yeah, that makes more sense. You might be a guy, but you’re not the type to cheat on your girlfriend.
What’s that supposed to mean?
Nothing.
Kevin frowned at the screen, which he hid on his lap underneath the desk. So… do you have any ideas on what I should do? I don’t want Lilian to remain mad at me.
Clear the air during PE. Just let her know what happened. I’m sure she’ll forgive you.
You make it sound like I did something wrong.
Kev, you’ll learn that when you’re in a relationship with a woman, it’s always the man’s fault whenever something goes wrong.
Kevin’s right eyebrow began twitching. He was about to reply when a clattering noise caused him to stop.
He, along with everyone else, turned to Iris, who’d dropped the pencil that she had been writing with. Her wide, round eyes stared at her hand like it was something foreign. The entire hand was shaking. Her fingers were twitching. It was almost like they were undergoing random muscle spasms.
“Is there a problem, Ms. Pnév̱ma?”
Iris shook her head. “No, sorry teach. I think I just got writer’s cramp or something.”
“Very well. See to it that it doesn’t happen again.”
Ms. Vis went back to the board, grumbling about how people kept interrupting her lectures. Kevin stared at Iris as she bent down to pick up her pencil. On her way back up, she noticed him staring and grinned, causing him to look away and turn his gaze to a pouting Lilian, whose brows were furrowed as though she was in deep contemplation. She didn’t even seem to notice his stare.
“Hmph!” she huffed.
Kevin sighed and scratched his head. How was he supposed to clear the air with her when she still seemed so upset?
His phone vibrated again.
Digging yourself into a bigger hole?
Kevin twitched.
Shut up.
***
Kevin was glad that PE was on the track field that day. Coach Raide appare
ntly wanted to check everyone’s times for the one-mile run. While most people groaned and complained, he was actually quite thrilled, especially as he’d managed to cut his time from a 5.32 minute mile to a 4.35 minute mile.
Kiara’s training had more advantages than just learning how to fight, it seemed.
However, he had another reason for being glad that they were checking mile times: Boys and girls weren’t separated. They all did this together, which meant he would have a chance to speak with Lilian.
He sat on the bleachers with his friends. Alex and Andrew had just finished their one mile a few seconds ago, getting a 5.43 time for their troubles. They did the 400-meter relay and weren’t good at longer distances. While Kevin also did the 100-meter dash, he’d been increasing his endurance by riding his bike with Lilian on the back and training with Kiara every day for the past five months. Eric had gotten a 4.53—an impressive feat, to be sure.
“Ugh, why do I always feel like you’re leaving us in the dust these days?” Alex asked, giving Kevin a look that used to make him feel like he’d stuck his finger in an outlet. “Seriously, man, what’s happening to you? I know we’ve joked about this before, but you’re so different now. I sometimes feel like I’m looking at a completely different person.”
Kevin scratched the back of his neck, wondering if he should feel embarrassed or pleased. “I don’t feel any different, but if I have changed, then I guess it’s because I needed to change.”
Andrew perked up from where he lay sprawled on a metal bench. “What do you mean?”
“You all know that Lilian and the other people living with me are kitsune.”
“You mean the women living with you,” Alex corrected.
“Hot women,” Andrew added.
“Hot women I’d love to fuck,” Eric said unnecessarily.
Alex and Andrew pointed at Eric. “What he said.”
Kevin facepalmed. Were his friends always this perverted?
“Whatever. In any case, you know they’re not human. They’re kitsune. Yōkai. They live in a world completely different from our own. You three already saw some of what happens in that world when we went to California.”
“You mean that massive showdown during the con?” Andrew asked.
“Yes, that. The battle we got caught up in wasn’t an isolated incident. It also wasn’t the first time I’d been forced into a conflict against a yōkai.”
Kevin remembered that first week he’d met Lilian. Chris had nearly killed him. He also remembered when Kiara had demolished Lilian in battle. Then there was the time he’d been kidnapped by the Sons and Daughters of Humanity, and after that, Lilian had been kidnapped and he’d fought against a two-tailed kitsune. Those were four separate occasions in which he and Lilian had been forced into battle.
“So wait, you’re saying that you’ve had to deal with crap like that before?” Alex’s eyes were bulging from his sockets and his mouth hung agape. Beside him, Andrew appeared just as flabbergasted. “How come you never told us about this?”
“I knew,” Eric said, only to get punched in the face by both Alex and Andrew. “Ouch! The hell was that for?!”
“For being an idiot!” The fraternal twins shouted.
“What was I supposed to say?” asked Kevin. “Should have said something like ‘Oh, by the way, my girlfriend is a yōkai, I’ve almost been killed by several other yōkai, and I was kidnapped by an anti-yōkai faction who may or may not be affiliated with the government’? Could you have seen that conversation going over well? Because I can’t.”
“Okay, I see your point,” Alex admitted. “But it still would have been nice to know about all this stuff sooner. You know, like after we learned about yōkai?”
Kevin waved off his words. “All of that’s in the past. There was no point in bringing it up anymore. I only brought it up now because I was trying to make a point.”
“And what is that point?”
“That if I want to be able to stay with Lilian, I need to be stronger. I can’t keep being a weak, under-confident teenager with girl problems. I have to become someone who can take care of himself—no…” Kevin shook his head. “I need to become someone who can stand by Lilian’s side as an equal. To do that, I need to become strong enough to fight on par with yōkai, which means becoming as physically fit as a human is capable of.”
Alex and Andrew looked at each other. Eric rubbed his cheeks, which had swelled to the size of tennis balls. He was muttering about violent friends.
“Do you really think you can become as strong as a yōkai, though?” Andrew sounded skeptical. “Not to burst your bubble or anything, but aren’t yōkai, like, these super powerful creatures with strange abilities? How can you hope to match that?”
“I can’t, not with just physical strength.” Kevin’s eyes strayed to the track field. Lilian had just finished her mile and was walking toward the fountain. “But if I can combine my physical abilities with the ability to wield various types of weapons, I’m hoping to at least be able to match them.” He stood up. “Now, if you’ll excuse me, I need to speak with someone.”
He left his friends on the bleachers and wandered over to Lilian, who was sipping from the fountain. She was leaning over while wearing the really short, light blue gym shorts of their school. Kevin’s eyes traveled the expanse of her mile long legs. The shapeliness of her calves, the supple muscles of her thighs, and dear god, that small, perfect little bubble butt! It was way too much! By all eight million Shinto gods, did everything these kitsune do have to be so sexy?
Kevin shook his head. What was he thinking? Of course everything they did was sexy. They were kitsune for crying out loud!
“Lilian?”
Kevin stopped several feet from the redhead, who straightened and turned around.
“Kevin.”
He winced at the tone. It wasn’t cold, but it sounded distracted, as if she wasn’t interested in talking to him. That wasn’t a good sign.
“Listen, Lilian, I, uh…” Oh, dang it. Why was this so hard? “I just… w-well, I wanted to apologize for, um, this morning… and stuff…” When all Lilian did was blink, Kevin hastened to continue. “What I mean is I know it looked bad and stuff… back there, you know, with Iris and me. B-but I swear that nothing happened! I would never cheat on you! You’ve gotta believe me!”
Lilian stared at him for several seconds longer. It wasn’t until she began scratching her head that he realized Lilian was confused. “What are you talking about?”
“Eh? A-aren’t you mad at me?”
Lilian furrowed her brows. “Why would I be mad at you?”
“B-because of this morning,” Kevin said. “You haven’t spoken to me since this morning when you caught Iris trying to kiss me. I thought you were mad at me.”
The way Lilian’s mouth formed a pretty “O” of surprise made Kevin feel stupid. The expression only lasted for a moment, and then she rubbed her forehead and sighed. “I’m not mad at you.”
Kevin was nonplussed. “You’re not?”
“No… I’m just frustrated.”
“At what?”
“At Iris.” Lilian’s cheeks swelled as she pouted. It was adorable. “My sister is constantly teasing you and me, even though I keep telling her not to. She doesn’t seem to understand that I’ve made up my mind and decided to have a normal human relationship with you. Even though I’ve told her this dozens of times, she keeps trying and trying and it really pisses me off!”
Lilian proceeded to stomp on the ground like a child having a tantrum. Even while having a childish fit, she was still impossibly cute. He didn’t know how someone so freaking sexy could be so blindingly winsome.
“Beloved?”
Kevin blinked and snapped back to reality. He was going to blame his distracted state on hormones.
“Yes?”
Lilian walked up to him, her hands behind her back. When she reached him, she brought her hands forward and placed them on his chest.
“I’m s
orry. I didn’t mean to make you think that I was upset at you. Will you forgive me?”
“Of course!” Kevin exclaimed. “You know I could never be upset at you… well, not anymore at least. What I mean is that we’re dating now, you know? I mean, you’re my mate. What kind of boyfriend—no, what kind of mate would I be if I got upset because of a misunderstanding?”
Lilian giggled as Kevin continued to babble. He stopped when she walked into his personal space and pulled him into a hug.
“Lilian?”
“Never change, Beloved,” Lilian said, resting her chin on his shoulder.
“Uh… okay…”
What was with this change of atmosphere? What was Lilian talking about? Never change. Why would he change? He didn’t get it, but he guessed it didn’t matter.
Kevin returned her hug, taking more pleasure from such a simple action than he had anything else today. There was something amazing about holding his girlfriend-slash-mate. Maybe it was because of the way her thin waist seemed to fit within his arms, or perhaps it was how her arms wrapped around him, with her hands resting against his shoulder blades, clutching the fabric of his shirt—or maybe it was just her boobs. The way they felt pressed against his chest was pretty amazing. He’d said it before, but few things in this world could match the pure amazingness of her bust.
Ugh, pervy thoughts. Kevin grimaced. By the gods of anime and manga, his mind was beginning to sound like Eric!
“Kevin,” Lilian mumbled, nuzzling her nose against his neck.
“Yes?” Kevin asked.
“You smell.”
Kevin twitched. “Gee, thanks. That’s just what I want my mate to tell me after a heartfelt apology.”
Lilian giggled as she pulled her head back to look at him.
“Sorry, Beloved. Here, let me make it up to you,” she said, leaning up on her tiptoes. As Lilian’s eyes fluttered closed, Kevin leaned down and slowly closed his own eyes.
There were times when Kevin wondered if kissing Lilian would ever lose its novelty, like if he would ever think of kissing her as “just another kiss.” Then they would kiss and he could only wonder at how he could ever think such blasphemous thoughts. The feel of her lips as they caressed his and the heavenly flame that was her tongue in his mouth was beyond compare. Nothing could top kisses from Lilian.
A Fox's Mate (American Kitsune Book 6) Page 24