Nishiki woke up once again, but today was going to be a bit different. That was because he didn’t have work as it was now a weekend. However, this didn’t mean there was no work to be done. Now that the responsibility at his job were put on hold, it was time to take care of the responsibilities at home.

“Are you just going to sit around all day doing nothing until you have to do something?” He asked her as the man walked into the living room. Tenha was simply relaxing and laying back on the couch. Some random show nobody watched ran on the television.

“Is there a problem with that?” She asked snidely. “As long as the contract doesn’t need anything. I’ll just sit back and relax.”

“Well, I was going to go shopping today, but it looks like you’re not interested.”

“Whoa, shopping?” That perked her interest. “Don’t just leave me out of that. It’s lame being stuck in this tiny hovel you call a house.”

“It’s fine when only one person is living here.” He replied through gritted teeth. “Whatever, if you want to come along, then go ahead.” Considering his past conversation with Kinuko. Nishiki assumed the girl would join him, but be invisible to others except for him as well. So he shouldn’t talk to her unless he wanted the neighborhood to think he had gone mad.

“So are you going to say anything?” She asked him after they got inside the market. Tenha wasn’t expecting him to go silent when she joined along. “What’s the point of inviting me if you’re just going to ignore me?”

“I can’t talk to you with all these people around.” He murmured just loud enough for her to hear him. “It’s not like you actually exist.”

“What you think I’m just hiding away from everyone?” She responded. “Here, I’ll prove it.” The girl then walked up to an elderly lady who was attempting to reach an item on the top shelf. “I’ll get that for you.” The girl said, then she leaped up into the air effortlessly and grabbed it.

“Thank you so much young miss.” The woman said, giving the girl a head pat.

“It’s no problem.” She replied and returned to Nishiki. “See?”

“Um, but what about…”

“Relax, only you can see my tail and ears.” She answered his question before he was even able to voice it. The ways of these fox spirits were beyond him. It seemed they had magic prepared to solve any issue he might think they’d run into just by living among humans. “I can choose to allow people to see them, but obviously only you should be the one who knows who I really am.”

“Yeah, I definitely know who you really are.” He responded. People may view her a cute girl, but he knew the ugliness that laid inside. The man took a shopping cart and they walked around the aisles for food to pick up. He normally only took a basket, but with her now living in his home. It was clear that he was going to need to purchase much more resources. Namely that of ingredients, since the way she cooked was going to kill him. “This stuff should be simple enough.” He commented, taking some fruits and vegetables into the cart.

“Hopefully that’s not going to be everything.” She said, still ungrateful that he was even trying to make her job slightly easier. Probably because she felt he was only doing this to benefit himself to get better food.

“I wasn’t sure if you wanted to cook any meat. Are you fine with that?” Even if other people couldn’t see it, he couldn’t ignore the fox ears and bushy tail she had.

“I’m a fox spirit, not an actual fox.” She answered. “You better buy all the meat you can get.” Her mouth watered at the prospect of getting some more delicious food.

“I still need to budget accordingly.” He told her, but was glad that he wasn’t going to be stuck on a vegetarian diet while she was serving him. “I can get a fair variety for the two of us for now.” With her coming along in tow, his shopping trips were likely going to become more frequent. Normally, that would disappoint him as this was one of his least favorite activities. However, there seemed to be something different about this one.

For starters, as they walked about each aisle. He took note that he had spent more time here than usual. By now, the man would be at the register paying for his groceries. Yet with her, they had been here nearly an hour now. This wasn’t a drag either. Instead, it was as if the minutes flowed along a river of time that he had never felt before until now.

“You know.” She leaned onto the side of the cart, bringing him to a complete stop. “I’ve never gone real shopping before.” Since the kitsune were used to people bringing them offerings. She never felt the desire to go to a store. Not to mention they didn’t have any in the spirit world. This feeling she had was completely different from when she went onto his computer to order things online. Now that was something she would do while living in the spirit world.

How she was able to do that was a mystery to him. Upon further inquiry, she simply answered saying that it was thanks to some trickery on her end. “Is this really something humans only do out of necessity?” Since they were getting food, she figured that the only times they did so were to get things they needed, rather than wanted.

“Not all the time.” He told her. “There are some people who just like going out to browse some things. It’s really just an excuse to spend time with friends though, if you ask me.”

“Ha, as if we’d ever do that.” She scoffed at the idea of wanting to shop with this man specifically. “The less time I spend with you, the better.”

“Yeah, same.” He sighed as they filled up their cart. Upon taking a closer look at the things they planned on purchasing. He realized they went well above what he planned on buying. Hopefully his fridge would be able to fit everything.

“Ooh, can we get this stuff too?” She asked as they waited in line for the register. The girl showed off a large bottle of soda along with a bag of chips. “If I knew they sold them in stores at this size, I would’ve never ordered delivery.”

“I can’t believe you knew about delivery before actually going shopping.” He sighed. Her appearance might indicate an age where her being young enough might make sense for that. But he knew nothing about her real age, seeing as the girl was a spirit after all. For all he knew, she was easily older than him. She could even be centuries older than him. Which if that were the case, then he had no idea what to make of her strange knowledge of certain concepts of human life. “It’s not good for your health either.” He denied her request.

“Please?” She began to beg and grovel to him about getting them. The girl made sure to mention that it didn’t cost much and that she’d do something to repay the favor. It was also loud enough to earn him some strange looks from other shoppers as they waited in the line.

“Okay fine.” He relented, if only to avoid getting other people thinking that he was a bad man hanging out with a little girl. “But you’ll owe me.”