flatten | catch all & overflow

[ late into march, the walls of a three room apartment had become too small to satisfy eren especially when night had come, and brought with it more activity that needed burning. he’d take many forms, then, mostly dependent on the eyes that saw him, but at the moment it was compact, sleek and pitched with inky black fur that shined silver under malachite’s moon. the fox trots right through the patches of shadow born from high buildings and glowing lamp posts, and settles his attention on a child walking with their hand wrapped around their mother’s, another holding a delighting treat from festive stalls to make way for spring (and the primavera getaway). the child was slurping away at an ice cream cone one minute, then a dry, brittle little stick the next. by the time they threw their tongue around a vanilla scoop, it was around bark.

the child would begin to cry, of course, but there the fox sat with a cone sticking out from between its teeth to give a lasting snicker and— oh, cold. ]

[The evenings still got a bit chilly, but early on the weather was nice. And there weren't any biting insects about. These apartments came with tiny balconies, just enough room for two chairs and maybe a tiny folding table. Or for one Kaede to stretch her legs out and take over the whole thing.

Initially, she hadn't paid much mind to the child and parent; they were far out of range two stories down, weren't paying attention to her, and so Kaede had shuffled them off to so much background decoration. Then something darted from the gathering shadows below--something with pointed ears and a bottlebrush tail. A dog...?

That got Kaede's attention right quick, and she stood from the creaky chair promptly to get a better look. The dog(?) wasn't easy to keep track of in the dark; she heard the child begin to shriek, but she had no sympathy for it whatsoever.

--ah, movement again. There was the dog, unhelpfully black against shadow. It'd seemed it stole the child's ice cream--that was what let her spot it. It seemed rather smug about it, almost like a cat. Kaede snorted at it. Good boy.]

[ no one told him he’d get brain freeze if he tried to chew and swallow the whole thing, or at least a chunk. it never actually happened, but now that instant karma has given him a whack back, he chews through the freeze in his bones and teeth in what would be a hilarious attempt at trying to hide the evidence.

looking up had been off handed, and so was finding the sights of a pink haired girl looking down at him. bright blue eyes stare back up . . . and he wonders, immediately, how he could get up there. ]

[The way the dog kept grimacing and turning its head at the chill was quite funny; Kaede let herself chuckle a little bit more. Though on second glance, those ears...they were awfully pointy. And that tail--they made it look more like a fox, but black all over instead of orange. Huh. Guess what she heard about foxes coming to live in big cities was true, then.

And it was looking up at her with those pretty blue eyes. It didn't seem alarmed at her presence, just distressed at the brain freeze.

Well, she could get it something nicer to eat.]

Stay there.

[Not that she was holding out high hopes for the animal understanding her, but she felt so much more at ease around them. The crying child had been pulled away by their mother, either to get a replacement ice cream or go home, Kaede didn't care which.

The diclonius slipped back into the apartment, leaving the door open. It was still on the third story, but there were other balconies below it, and decorative bricks jutted out from the walls.]

[ just “stay there”? oh, eren knew. eren had just decided he didn’t want to stay put since the very beginning. it might seem like a workout, but getting started on hopping to the first balcony was an easy fit when he spots a couple of bricks he could use to scale to the next one. nimble like a cat, he hounded from the second to third floor with ease, deciding to sit on top of the girl’s balcony and wait with a swoosh of his tail.

it’s food. how can he say no to indulging himself with other people’s food? not only that— nice place? he can have a blast in here. ]

[Kaede wasn't gone too long; the balcony opened from the kitchen, and she was still fishing around in the mostly-empty fridge when Eren hopped up past the rail. Maybe not the egg sandwich, but--oh, a sausage. One of those pre-cooked ones from the convenience store, but still the whole fucking sausage.

The diclonius turned back to the balcony, cutting the package open with a snik of her vectors, and--those eyes were looking right at her again. Kaede stopped short, surprised, but not tense and wary like she might have been for a human visitor.]

When did you get up here...?

[Ah, it didn't matter. Saved her the trouble of aiming. With a resonant hum, a vector stretched out to offer the food to the fox instead of her physical hand. She was tolerant of animals, but getting her fingers bitten was still unpleasant.]

[ food offerings, was his hunch on point—? it was, and as any interaction with a kitsune, an offering of high value such as this one was a game breaker; any desire to bring her tricks and mischief has fallen flat the instant she holds out the single sausage with her vectors and the tasty, wafing smell fills his twitching snout and wet nose. gently clasping the offered end between his teeth, the fox dips his head away slowly only to nearly swallow it whole in about— maybe two or three chews.

he licks his chops, his single brush-ended tail motions into five, and with feline grace, he drops to land on the floor of her living space, front paws and then back. "have this meal" was not the same as "welcome home", but eren has deduced and accepted that it feels that way. would you look at that, with a squeeze of his eyes and a low rotation of his ears, his lips pull back, and he smiles. ]

[That seemed to go over well. Very well. Enough that the fox just...waltzed inside, entirely unafraid of her presence. Maybe it was someone's pet? Kaede stepped aside a little, to let it in--

--hang on. That fox didn't have five tails just a second ago. But it was smiling at her, with that soft face. She really wanted to scratch its ears.

Slowly, Kaede crouched, and just as slowly extended her hand for the animal to sniff. Can she scritch?]

[ kaede will be surprised as his pinned ears don’t rise, but fear not! he doesn’t seem defensive, his tails (adding two more to show off seven) waving down as he crouches low and keeps his smile. when her hand seems near enough, the fox slides his side to the ground and seems to laugh. a high pitched chuckling comes from behind his grin, and continues after each scratch she gives him. ]

[She'd never really heard a fox before, let alone heard one doing this squealing giggle and wiggling about on the floor. It was strange, at first, but...really, really cute. Help.

And while she couldn't reward it with ear scratches, chin and neck rubs were fine too. She even got both hands involved in the scritches! And while Kaede did notice its tails (definitely plural) flicking about at the edge of her vision, she was more concerned with whether or not the fox would accept belly rubs.]

[ eren wouldn’t otherwise accept such touches around the face, much less his belly— the latter felt nice, but the former . . . it wasn’t as if they were bad! but.

the fox dashes off rather quickly into her home, jumps onto a living room table and looks behind his shoulder blade with an inquiring little gaze. now you have to catch him for it. ]

[When the fox moved suddenly, Kaede pulled her hands back--she wasn't sure if that was a prelude to a bite or not. But it didn't seem to be; the fox darted off further into the apartment, those blue eyes staring back at her from the coffee table.

With a snort, the horned girl stood, and slowly made her way after it. The last thing she wanted to do was scare the fox, though it didn't seem very intimidated.]

Where are you off to?

[She left the sliding door open, though; if it wanted out, it could go.]

[ the fox would crouch in wait for her approach, waiting for her to come too close— that was his cue to pounce off and scuttle his way into the kitchen with another chittering laugh.

this time, the laugh comes from two places: in the rooms, and in the kitchen. he’s hidden, but he wants to see where she’d go.

woven into the laugh is a cantering, muddled whisper of words: ᶠⁱⁿᵈ ᵐᵉ ]

[...now wasn't that a curious thing. The many tails that fox had came sharply back to mind as Kaede glanced to where it had gone, to the hallway that led to the rest of the apartment, and back to the kitchen again. There was a little ethereal whisper in the fox's cackle, too.

Hm.

Well, she'd start with the kitchen first; that was where she'd physically seen him last. The rest of the apartment could come later.

Still, there were plenty of places to hide; most of the cupboards and cabinets were still empty. There was no fox under the table that she could see; Kaede checked behind the kitchen island next, then began to methodically open the cabinets for a peek.]

[ was it cheating if he was hiding being illusionary veils? it was, but he wasn’t about to favor her too much. he was already being nice, for one, and this would have to be a fair game in which he does want to be found. kaede just misses him from behind the island, making to pounce from the floor to the top of it as she checked the lower cabinets.

the pitter-patter of his paws click once as he drops and makes a run for the bathroom and sets a harmless trap there, stuffing a towel under another and making his way to the bedroom.

maybe she should raise the stakes? ]

If I wiͥn,̓ I s͛hͪoͦuͧldͩ geͤt aͣnoͦᴛⷮhͪer рⷬrͬize.

[The little scrabble of claws alerts her, but Kaede looks up too late to catch a glimpse of movement. Hm. She'd have to be faster about this. She stood, leaning on the counter--and the air around her hummed as her vectors manifested out of emptiness. They passed through the walls of the remaining cabinets; at this low frequency and power they didn't do much besides act as whiskers. And they didn't find anything fox-shaped.

Usually, Kaede avoided using her vectors around animals too much; some seemed to find them unsettling. But then, this wasn't just any animal, was it?]

Like what? [She asked the empty air before quietly making her way to where she'd heard the click of claws last; tile again, maybe the bathroom? Unless it'd circled back to the kitchen the moment she'd left. But--no, no changing boats in the middle of the river. The horned girl didn't flick on the bathroom lights, though her vectors immediately reached for the bundle under the towels.

Meanwhile the bedroom, while not a mess, still very much looked lived in; the bed unmade, a chair half pulled out from the desk with a sweater draped over the back, a laundry basket partly filled with crudely folded clothes that she'd put away at some point later. The outfit Eren gave her was even in there, albeit jumbled with other inexpensive skirts and a few oddly long shirts.]

[ eren had taken space in her bed, exactly— right where the pillow should be, but for him to “look” like a pillow . . . the present one must go. he kicks it to the ground and scuffles it underneath the bed before his illusions play its tricks on the eyes, but not foolproof ones— kaede would know she didn’t have two pillows, for example.

his voice lifts and falls, as he curls his brush of a tail over his feet and lowers his belly onto the mattress’ head, and play the part of innocent pillow easily broken if touched upon. he doesn’t say that, though, and hopes the shadowy bunch under her bed would serve as useful enough bait. ]

I liked the food.

[That definitely sounded like a person, instead of a trickster spirit. But Kaede didn't see a person. She was still a bit on edge now, but not as much as--

Hm. A pillow was on the floor. Or something that looked like a pillow trying to hide under the bed, like a child who didn't realize their foot was still sticking out of their hiding place.

Kaede ducked to look, carefully prodding it with a vector to see if it moved in any non-pillowlike ways.]

[ no pillow movement from down below, but perhaps, from the corner of her eyes she’d see the pointed gaze of the fox’s ice blue eyes watching her from a crouch where the pillow should be, a sly grin curving his black lips apart to show the teeth in his muzzle.

there’s weight on her back, of four little paws, and then with a blink, it’s as if he was never there. ]

Yoͦuͧ’rͬeͤ cͨloͦs͛eͤ.

[The moment something touched her back Kaede stiffened, her vectors surging out to grab or bat away whatever it was. But their grasp found nothing, and the touch of paws vanished as fast as it registered in her mind.

She sat up quickly, her vectors reaching across the rumpled sheets of the bed faster than her physical hands could.]

[ now’s his chance— especially when the vectors come way too close to swiping at him. the pillow loses its form in a snap, going from white and puffy to a blur of a black furball making for a pounce right on top of kaede.

he’s been found! or, maybe he’s been made known, but that didn’t matter too much . . . not when he’s had his fun, and says with elated triumph: ]

Who got who first?

[ is he looking larger than his little fox counterpart? with every blink, there might be less fur, illusions beginning to overlap as his magic comes undone . . .

but maybe he does look more like a fox, still. something was off. ]

[The little feet came down on her back again--much, much heavier little feet. They squished her shoulders against the blanket a bit, and Kaede's vectors doubled back to see what it was.

But she had an idea; when Kaede looked, she saw the fox again. The fox, and...an odd double image, a hint of a nebulous something else that made her want to squint.]

You touched me first.

[ the fox's shoulders rolled and angled the way a cat's would, when preparing to jounce another time. he's slipped off, he's created only a touch of distance that comes shattered when the hot curve of human lips and breath growls, low and sharp enough that she could hear his smile: ]

Then I win.

[ on her shoulders were claws, elongated like human fingers but disfigured by vulpine claws and tinted black fur that raised above his wrists. the tail, a much larger sway of fluff invites kaede to an embrace that starts along her side and curves over her front— then another tail, on the other side.

there's not a hint of clothing in sight or sensation on him, if the girl were to react. ]

[That was definitely not a fox now. The claws settling on her shoulders weren't what alarmed her, but the whisper of a human voice so close the hairs on the back of her neck stood up. That was a person--one Kaede recognized, but still a person.

...a person with fluffy tails that Kaede immediately wanted to touch, and seemed to be cognizant of that fact. They curled around her belly, and for once Kaede didn't recoil at the contact.

She did have questions, though.]

Eren?

[She couldn't see all of him, but with how close he was to her back her vectors would have no trouble reaching him. And a few did manifest, curling over his shoulders, a spectral hand pressing against his che--he wasn't wearing a shirt, was he. But the vectors didn't toss Eren away from her back, though they certainly thought about it from the way the telekinetic grasp tensed.

She didn't feel indignant and angry, or...she did, but those feelings were muddled in a tangled squiggle of things she was feeling. She was grumpy about being duped, but quietly appreciative that he was made of warm, and...had multiple chances to wreck her shit while she was mopey and weak, and hadn't yet. And the source of it all seemed to be that ruby again; her gem seemed rather pleased with things, glowing like an ember and pulsing with contentment and encouragement she was wholly unused to feeling.

Kaede hadn't changed much this time, at least not overtly. Her legs hadn't stretched into a scaled tail, and her body temperature wasn't entirely dependent on how close she was to a heater. But she still instinctively appreciated the warmth another person brought, and found herself leaning back against him before she thought to stop. And knowing, feeling that she wasn't alone made the serpentine thing in her mind coil up and bask in the attention.]

[ the sound of his name made any tint of illusion left over him disperse to keep true to his own set of rules, the play of his appearance taking itself into true form: him, eren, with the limbs, appendages and the artfulness of a fox, but his face, his torso, and the start of his arms and legs were mostly human (if not for the sharpness in his feature's curvatures). a third tail slide up under her chin and around her jugular where her ruby gem sat, in a similar location to the kitsune's own, that began to shimmer with contentedness of a reciprocated push back. ]

Bull's eye. [ the invisible grasp coaxes an anticipating inhale that keened his smile to show his pointed teeth, pressing his cheek to the side of her head and rubbing from hair, temple, until he found the roundness of her own, marking her with the scent that would loudly say he was there and all over her. she leaned back, and in turn, he pressed forward, his entire bare front fitting against the curves of her legs and bottom the most. the embrace on her shoulders entice, fueled by the mystical canine's nature to lay with many, and travels down her arms to her ribs. each and every space is brushed upon from over her clothes, and the ruby gem knocks on the door to her's once more to grant him an access that was hot and only beginning to build. ] Thanks for taking care of me.

@kaede

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