"That was one of the dorm rules you missed while you were outside flirting."
"I wasn't flirting. I was hiding. And if I didn't hear it, it's not a real rule, right?"
"Kaede-sama…"
"Chan."
"At least wait a month before you start abandoning all sense of propriety."
"You're a kami-damned nogitsune! I'm supposed to be calming you down. What the hell happened to your noble heritage?"
"It met you and wanted, with all my might, to protect you."
"I hate it when you get all sweet and shit. Knock it off."
"Hai."
I hugged him anyway. "I wish you liked girls."
He laughed and pushed me away. "You know I do. It is you I cannot stand."
"Uh, huh," I said with a smile and sat down on the bed, the one I had claimed as my own. "So, you're telling me that if it wasn't for the fear of my parents…you would have been all over this?" I motioned at my body in a dorky erotic way.
"No. I prefer my girls with a little less penis on them."
"I don't have a ding-ding."
"Kaede-sama, some days, I think yours is bigger than mine."
"That's not saying much. I've seen you naked."
He made a hurt expression, but I knew he was full of shit. I had seen Hiroki naked on occasion… Calling his cock tiny would be like calling an aircraft carrier a dinghy.
Now, I just need to figure out how to get my hands on it…
"Is that the bed you wish to occupy?"
"No. Just warming yours up with my butt."
"My apologies, I had assumed you wished to be closest to the bathroom."
"Kidding. Yes. This is my bed. No touchy."
He rolled his eyes and shook his head. "A simple yes would have sufficed," he mumbled under his breath.
"Well, I'm going to take a bath before dinner." I stood up and started to lift my shirt over my head before stopping cold. "Uh… Hiroki? Why am I not seeing a door to the bathroom in our room?"
"Because there is not one? There are community bathrooms on each floor. Had you not been outside flirt–"
"I wasn't fucking flirting! Seriously? I have to share a bathroom? How the hell am I supposed to get my fur clean?"
"Shave it off?"
"Gah! I hate this fucking place. Let's go home. I need a drink."
"Feel free. I shall wait here. It should not take that long for your mother to remove your tails and kick you halfway across the planet."
I dropped back down to the bed and fell over sideways, burying my face in the strange smelling pillows. They weren't my pillows. It wasn't my bed. It wasn't my home. Finally, a little something inside me broke, and the tears started falling down my face.
It only took Hiroki a moment to notice, even though he couldn't see me. How he knew, I didn't have a clue, nor did I care. He crawled up the bed and lay down behind me, putting his arms around me and pulling me into him. At least he smelled like home.
Hiroki's arms were warm and comforting. I rolled over and buried my face in his chest. Gently, he kissed the top of my head. "Do not give up before it begins, Kaede. You can do this."
"I don't want to."
"Here, there, it does not matter. You are you and always make the best of any situation. You must look for the bright side in all things."
"What's the bright side?"
"You have me." His response was so uncharacteristic, I had no choice but to smile.
"Forever?"
"I have loved you since the day you were born, Kaede. It is my plan to continue doing so until the end of time."
"Wait. Like love love…or just like a kid sister kind of love?" I was expecting him to sigh and he didn't disappoint. It just took longer than I was expecting.
"Which would you prefer?"
"You already know that answer."
"Why me? There are literally hundreds of men at this school."
"Because, you are you," I said, throwing his words back at him.
"Even if we became lovers…you know nothing could ever come of it. We are not in the stars, Kaede. Your parents would never allow it."
As much as I hated to admit when he was right, he was. "Who's looking for a relationship? Not this fox, let me tell you. But who says we cannot have a little fun every once in a while?"
I probably said the wrong thing. He instantly stiffened, and not in the good way. "Go have your bath. It will be time for dinner soon."
I almost started crying again when he kissed me on top of my head and let go of me. I'd never felt so utterly alone in my life.
∞ ∞ ∞
The awesome thing about showers is, nobody can see you crying. The tears just sort of blend in and you can stand there crying for an hour without a single person asking you what the hell is wrong with you. Not that the snotty ass bitches in the stalls beside me cared anyway. Their conversations ranged from boys, to boys, to boys. Apparently, one of the first years had already blown someone and everybody knew about it. I wouldn't tell anybody, not that I had anybody to tell, but I wasn't that experienced. I talked a mean game, but I could count the number of guys I had slept with on one hand. Human guys just had a tendency to shy away from the supernatural. Unless you were some sort of succubus, getting laid wasn't always easy.
The few guys I had fooled around with lived in the town my parents had built. Foxes mostly, but there were a few yokai as well. My longest running relationship had lasted a lengthy six hours. Standing under the shower, in the girls' washroom of my new school, I came to the realization that I might be high maintenance.
Reaching out and gripping the shower knob, I turned it until the flow of water stopped. I stood there for a moment, letting the water cascade from me and fall to the white-tiled floor beneath me. I had just wrapped myself in one of the towels left in our room when the door to my stall was pulled open.
"Oops. Sorry. Didn't realize this one was taken. Aren't you a little old to be a student here?" She paused to stare at my white hair. "Or are you another one of those dorm nannies spying on us teenage girls?"
I cocked my eyebrow at the extraordinarily tall Scandinavian Amazonian standing in front of me with her hand on her hip. "If I were to spy on a teenage girl, it would be on one with breasts. I almost didn't notice you standing in front of all the flat white tiles." I chuckled and motioned for her to get the hell out of my way.
"You little–"
"Really? This is how you want to play this? You're going to try and bully me on the first day of fucking school? Couldn't you at least wait a week? Pretty sure that was in the bully handbook I took off that last dead body."
The two girls standing behind her sneering at me gave a little chuckle at my attempt to defuse the situation. One look over her shoulder was enough to paint the smirks back on their lips. She turned her head back to me, and just that one look at her cohorts must have topped off her tank of bully juice.
"You have no idea who you're dealing with, do you?"
"How did I know you were going to say that? Does a free book of clichés come with the bully book? Or did you have to pay extra for it?"
She sputtered and motioned for her friends to back her up. They took a step forward, but the shower stall didn't allow for three abreast thugs. "You know what? You can keep your little shower stall. I don't think I want to use it after you, you disease infested rodent."
"Bully books, clichés, and insults? Somebody blew a wad of cash at Barnes & Noble. But then again, you look like you're used to blowing things. And I'm sure you have a lot of experience with wads… Oh! It must have been you that was giving out welcome to the academy blowjobs! Shit, if I had known that, I woulda borrowed somebody's dick and lined up. Can I borrow yours?"
Know that exact moment when you just know you took things a little too far? Yeah. That was one of those times. Her fist locked on target and went straight for my exhaust port. I popped into existence behind them and turned to watch the show.
Elsa's fist, without anything to stop it, suc
h as my face, hyper extended her arm. I giggled and clapped when she lost her balance and fell into the shower head first. The other two screamed and lurched forward to catch her and save her a large bill from the dentist. Luckily, one of them got their hand in the towel she had wrapped around herself, yanking back just as her face was about to connect with the floor.
I walked over and grabbed my shampoo and conditioner from the stall, and headed for the exit, not even bothering to cover up. "Remember, ladies… You mess with the bull, you get the shit," I called over my shoulder and waved. As soon as I was back, naked, in the corridor leading to my room, I popped back in front of my door. Unfortunately, I couldn't teleport through doors or walls, otherwise I would already be hiding under my covers. I wasn't a brave fox, nor apparently was I a smart fox. I had gone to take a shower without my room key, trusting that Hiroki would be there to open the door upon my return.
I started pounding on the door as soon as I appeared, fumbling to get the towel around me while holding two bottles of hair care products. Unfortunately, my door wasn't the first to open. Slowly I turned… Jacques had opened his door, which by the grace of kami, was directly across the hall from ours, to see what the commotion was.
His eyes weren't focused anywhere near my face. In fact, I could almost feel the heat from his gaze on my still wet, very exposed ass…
"Howdy, neighbor. Enjoying the view?" I wiggled my butt for emphasis
He stared for a moment longer. I stopped fumbling with the towel and just stood there, ass to the wind, so to speak. His hungry gaze traveled up my back, caressed my shoulder, and stared at my face. He scowled, walked back into his room, and slammed the door behind him.
Totally worth it.
Screams of rage erupted from the bathroom at the end of the hall, I pounded frantically on the door again. By the time my fist connected with the wood for the fifty-third time, Hiroki opened it and I fell into the room atop of him. "Thank fuck. Took you long enough," I said and kicked the door closed behind me.
Chapter 6
"Seriously? Home economics?" I was staring at the list of classes while Hiroki and I tried to find the first one on the list.
"Yes. And if we do not hurry, it will be over before we get there."
"I'm good with that."
"Physical Education? What the ever-loving fuck?"
"You could stand to shed a few pounds. Loose some of that sake-gut."
"You wanna die?"
"Eventually. Yes. If it is at your hand, I shall pass on happy."
"That's kind of morbid."
"I was joking. Like you could kill me. Who would fold your underpants?"
"At least I wouldn't have to worry about you wearing them."
"That was one time, and the lack of circulation to my extremities was painful."
"Shouldn't have popped a chubby."
"I was referring to my legs."
"Uh huh. Suuure you were."
He stopped walking and it took me a moment to notice he wasn't beside me anymore. I turned around and he was pointing at a set of double doors. "I believe this is the place."
I shoved the class schedule into the pocket of my newly issued blazer and scratched the back of my neck. The blue wool with red trim was itchier than a pile of hay after a skinny dip, but it was classy. It even had a fancy crest embroidered on the pocket. The pleated skirt was actually kind of cute, too. But still itchy. I was going to have self-inflicted claw marks on my ass by the end of the day. "You sure?"
His nostrils flared as he scented the air. "Quite."
"Oooh. Too much garlic," I made a face and waited for him to enter first. He wasn't very tall, but tall enough for my scrawny ass to hide behind.
He turned the handle and pulled it open, gave me a smile, and stepped back for me to enter first. He did it on purpose, knowing full well I hated going anywhere first. "Some bodyguard you are."
"I think you are safe at school."
"Bull shit. Somebody tried to murder me in the shower!"
"Were you talking at the time?"
"Yes," I answered, failing to see the relevance.
"At least the mystery has been solved, Kaede-sama."
"You're a big meanie."
"Hai." He made a sweeping gesture toward the door.
I closed my eyes and took that fateful first step into the home economics room. Nobody was cooking, but the walls, floor, and ceiling had been saturated with enough cooking oils for the smell to linger like a heavy cloud. At least to somebody with the nose of a fox. I could also tell more than one student had failed horribly at their assignment, the smell of carbon remained strong in the air.
"Thank you for gracing us with your presence," a shrill voice called from the corner of the room.
"Yeah… Big school, got lost, sorry about that."
"Find an open work station and we'll begin our introductions," the short, gnarly looking tree stump of a woman said as she waddled toward the front of the class.
I glanced around the room. Unfortunately, all of the stations in the rear of the room were the first ones to fill up, leaving only two of the front three stations opened. Sighing, I headed for the one closest to the window in case I felt the need to jump. Dread filled me as I sat on one of the two tallish stools. I could cook, for the simple fact that I fucking loved to eat. I'd been doing it since I was a little girl. Hiroki could get a job at a Japanese restaurant if he wanted to. He was exponentially better than I was. Why the hell we had to take home economics was beyond me.
"I am Professor Welheim," she said and wrote her name out on the ancient green chalkboard. Unfortunately, the W sound in her name came out as a V sound and the heim sounded like she was trying to speak Klingon or launch a hunk of lung pudding across the room. Of course, I immediately started giggling.
"You find my name humorous, Miss…"
"Take."
"Your last name is Take?"
"Yes."
"Miss Take."
"Yes."
She narrowed her eyes and grabbed a clipboard off her desk. "I don't seem to have a Miss Take on my Roster."
"There must be some kind of mistake!" I slapped my knee. I was expecting at least a chuckle or two from the rest of the class, but nothing. "Just kidding. I'm Kaede Tanaka."
"See me after class, Miss Tanaka."
Of course, the whole fucking class erupted in a unified, "Oooh." Bastards. They were supposed to be my people and left me hanging to side with Miss Velkhhhhhhheim. "Sure thing," I said and gave her an innocent smile.
"Since we have that introduction out of the way, let's continue getting to know one another, shall we?" She pointed at Hiroki.
"Hiroki Nishimura."
She waited for him to say a little more, maybe mention a hobby or two, possibly a blood type. He didn't. He stared at her until she called on the table behind us.
"She's fun," I whispered out of the side of my mouth.
"Two-minutes into class. I think that might be a new record."
"Nope. Remember when I got suspended walking into class that one time?"
"The flaming gerbil or the moose antlers?"
"The gerbil. It took the teacher almost three whole minutes to notice the antlers."
"Ah yes. Both admirable."
"You get me."
"You get me. In trouble mostly."
Sometime during our discussion, we had stopped whispering. Professor Velheim was staring at the two of us, aghast. The rest of the class was staring at us like we were insane.
"Sorry," I whispered.
"Mr. Nishimura, please join Miss Tanaka in seeing me after class."
"Hai."
Instead of oohing, the class just full out erupted into laughter. They needed to seriously work on their timing. It sucked.
I pretended to be a good student while the remainder of the class introduced themselves. My eyes narrowed when Elsa stood up. "Hi, I'm Sabine."
"Of course she is."
"Sabine Lateran."
"Why d
o I know that name?"
"Because it is the same as the headmistress," Hiroki answered."
"I'm dead."
"I am to assume she is the one you had an altercation with in the shower?"
Professor Guggenheim coughed in our general direction. I waved, reached into my pocket, and offered her a cough drop I had found on the floor in the hallway. I knew I'd find a purpose for it later. She just shook her head and continued with the introductions.
Finally, they were over. I applauded in an attempt to unify the class in a feeling of comradery, but they weren't having it. They did like to stare, though. I shrugged and turned back around.
"Well, the best place to start is always at the beginning."
"A very good place to start," I sang. She ignored me for once.
"To get to the beginning, I need to know what you are capable of. In the back of the class, you will find a store room and cooler full of ingredients. You and your partner have forty minutes to flabbergast me with your best dish." She paused to cast a dire look at me and Hiroki. "After I have seen you taste it."
"What should we make?"
"We should decide after we see the ingredients available, no?"
"You're a fart smeller."
"Pardon?"
"Smart feller. My bad." The rest of the class was already heading into the store room. "Come on. Everything will be gone by the time we get in there."
Surprisingly enough, there was no line, there was enough staples to make anything we wanted, and the chances of them running out of anything were about the same as me winning a Nobel Peace Prize.
"A traditional Japanese meal?"
"We should probably go for simple. Maybe a nice curry."
"I will see if they have curry roux."
"I will find the rice," I answered and gave him a sweet smile. He narrowed his eyes but nodded.
All the dry ingredients were on storage shelves toward the back of the room. "Why the hell do they have so much stock for a home economics class?"
"Because the doors on the other side of the room are accessible from the cafeteria. This is their storage facility, but the home economics class uses a portion of the goods."
A Tail of Woah: A Reverse Harem Academy Tail (The Fox and the Hounds Book 1) Page 5