After what was easily the worst dinner of his life. It was time for Nishiki to prepare for bed. Another anomaly he wasn’t used to as this would be the first time he’d catch some sleep before midnight. When was the last time that happened? That was a time the man had long since forgotten from before work and college days.

A shame that contract didn’t include her having to help him take a bath. That was what ran through his mind as the man rubbed soap across his arms and rinsed water over his hair. Though considering her attitude, perhaps that was not something he should be wishing for. If anything, his greatest desire would be getting that girl out of his life so things could return to normal for him.

“You gonna be done in there soon?” The sudden knocking from Tenha broke him out of his thoughts. “Don’t take all the hot water. Some of us like being clean too.”

“Relax, hot water’s not a problem in this place.” He replied. This was annoying, she was even cutting into his bath time? The luxury of taking a hot bath was not something he got often. Usually the man was stuck having to take a short quick shower so he could make it to work in the morning. After work was usually not an option since he was too tired to even lift up a sponge. “And wait your turn. It’s not like you have anywhere to go.”

“Whatever, just finish up quickly so I can take a bath.” She whined at him through the door. “This tail doesn’t just look beautiful by itself.” Rolling his eyes at her vanity, he did pick up the pace a bit. Being with this girl was tiring, so he was going to need all the sleep he could get so work wasn’t completely terrible.

“Done.” He finally finished up and allowed her into the bathroom after he got changed for the night. Nishiki headed into his bedroom, where it was certainly more clean than when he left it this morning. That girl, while annoying, definitely kept her end of the bargain. Though her motivation wasn’t out of the goodness of her heart. Surely the thought of being erased from reality was a good motivating factor for getting some work done.

As he sat down on his bed, the realization dawned on him that this was going to be the first time he was sleeping properly with her here. The last time didn’t count since he had passed out from exhaustion before everything was explained to him. “How are you going to sleep?” He asked through the bathroom door.

“By transforming, duh.” She answered by opening the door, revealing herself already cleaned, albeit with a towel to cover her. The girl had cleaned herself in record time thanks to the ability to magic up the water all around her. “The couch is too small to sleep in my regular form, so being a fox makes me small enough.”

“I see…” He turned her head away from him. A bit surprised that she cared little about appearing in this manner to him.

“Tch, you humans are strange.” She took note of his behavior and closed the door once more. “Come on, you’ve already seen me sleeping. Don’t know why I’d do it any differently.”

“Well, is that what you prefer?” He asked, continuing on this line of questioning. There wasn’t any direction he hoped to take this in. This was more so out of curiosity, as fox girls aren’t something that come along often.

“If I could sleep without transforming, that’d be great.” She answered. “But you only have one bed. And no you perv, I’m not getting in and sharing with you either.” He wasn’t thinking of it, but she already believed she knew enough about human men that they’d want something like that out of a fox spirit.

“I wasn’t asking that.” He muttered to himself and plopped into his bed with a quiet thud. As much as his room now looked cleaner. That didn’t help the poor quality of his bed situation. No wonder he always woke up every morning with back pain. “Whatever, just good night.” He say, closing his eyes.

“Sure, good night to you too.” She emerged from the bathroom once again. Though shortly after taking her first steps out, she morphed into that white fox that he saw before on his couch.

The next day seemed normal enough. He woke up, still saw her sleeping, but paid it no mind. She had all day to fulfill that contract between them and it’d likely all be jammed into the evening for him to suffer through again. If she was going to cook food that awful every night, he wasn’t sure if he could survive until the end of their term. In fact, he wasn’t sure if he’d survive until the end of the week at this rate.

Work was also normal for him. In a sense, it was nice to have something like this to get away from the strangeness now running rampant in his own home. A shame that work was where he preferred to be, but this was simply how things were going for him. The only difference now was him clocking out right on time, rather than staying late doing some extra work. Today even brought him some comments made by other coworkers, who were shocked to see him leave work on time twice in a row.

The first time, while it was a surprise, they assumed he wasn’t feeling well. So no one made any mention of it out loud. This time, someone even said it to his face.

“Nothing’s going on at home.” He answered their inquiry. “I’m just going home early, that’s all.” There was no way they’d believe him if he told them the truth. Nishiki knew that he wouldn’t believe someone if they told him the story of what he has had to live with the past couple of day.

After that, he made his way home. “Tenha?” The moment he stepped inside, the smell of food being cooked filled his nose. It seemed she got an early start on things today. Likely because she learned of his schedule, so she could get this out of the way earlier. “I guess it’s nice you’re cooking right now.” He commented, but she didn’t respond.

“…” There was no way she could just ignore him that easily. Really, not even a ‘hello’ or ‘how was your day?’. Instead, she just kept going on cooking and humming to herself. Acting as if he hadn’t just gotten home.

“Tenha, is it going to be ready soon?” He asked, but again she didn’t say anything back. “Tenha! Can you hear me!?” He grabbed her shoulders, trying to get her attention. This caused the girl to scream at the top of her lungs and hit him with her bushy tail, which was harder than it looked. Nishiki was sent flying back into the wall as a result.

“What the?” The moment she saw it was only him, the girl calmed down in an instant. “What are you doing? Why did you just yell at me like that?”

“Why didn’t you respond to me earlier?” He asked in return, rubbing the back of his head in pain.

“What?” She replied in confusion, then realized something important. “Oh right…” Tenha reached into her ears and pulled out some ear plugs. “Sorry, I just couldn’t hear you.”

“Why were you wearing that?” He was in disbelief. Not only because she was wearing ear plugs to block out noise, but also how did she get those? He didn’t own any at home.

“You snore in your sleep.” She answered. It was already annoying enough for her the first night they spent together. But she knew there was no way she’d survive living here if she couldn’t get proper sleep. “So I bought some on same day delivery.”

“You bought same day delivery?” Somehow a spirit who never lived along humans until now understood that relatively recent concept. “And let me guess, you bought it with my money?”

“Bingo.” She snapped her fingers as if awarding him for getting a question right on a game show. “Relax, they had these things on sale. I got 100 of them.”

“You got 100… Never mind.” He sighed, giving up on this argument. It was pointless since he’d be fighting a losing battle against the contract that he signed. “Whatever, let’s just eat dinner after I get changed.”