The evening getting back from work after the snow day was not as bad as Nishiki expected it to be. Thankfully there were workers who did a great job in clear out enough to make the walkways mostly safe. When he got back home, there was even some nice hot soup to warm his body back up. Though Tenha was oddly quieter than usual while they ate.

Strange to him, since she looked so cheerful when he left to go play in the snow. But the man didn’t think much about it as he ate his dinner and headed to bed. Being stuck out in the cold as long as he was caused great exhaustion. His fingers were sore just from being nearly frozen solid as he bundled up to keep warm.

By the time the next day rolled around, there was less snow around, but it was still cold. Now that he minded, it certainly was nothing compared to the snowstorm that passed over yesterday. He got ready for work as usual, but again like yesterday there was something which was different from his normal routine.

“Ugh…” As he walked into the living room, Tenha let out an audible groan.

“Are you all right?” He asked, walking to the couch to check on her. She had covered herself with one of his extra blankets. The girl’s face was all red as she laid down writhing in pain.

“No, I don’t feel so good.” She answered. “I think a caught a cold…” He thought it was strange since it wasn’t a real thing to get sick from being in something as cold as yesterday. Yet even stranger was she was a snow fox, surely even if that were the case she’d have immunity from it due to her nature.

“What did you do yesterday when I was gone?” She explained to him what had occurred, mostly just the bit about her hanging out with a bunch of children at the park to play in the snow. “Guess one of those kids must’ve given it to you.” While he wasn’t certain on how the science would explain how illness could be spread between humans and spirits, it didn’t matter. All that did was the end result of her now laying on the couch rather ill.

She appeared like she’d be barely able to get up from this position. Thinking about it gave Nishiki another thought that could be cause for concern. “Hey, are you going to be able to cook and clean?”

“You’re really still want me to do your bidding while I’m this sick?” She would’ve glared at him in contempt were it not for how tired this cold had made her. “Don’t worry, the contract allows for sick days.” Somehow through the power of magic, it would know if she was faking it or not. Though he figured she wouldn’t risk trying to fool the thing that could kill them were they not to take it seriously.

“Lucky that you get sick days.” He said, leaving her in her pain and suffering as he had more important things to take care of. “Been a while since I took a sick day.” In fact, Nishiki couldn’t remember if he ever did take a sick day at the office. Normally if he was a bit under the weather, the man would just tough it out.

“Wait, are you really just going to leave me alone all day?” She tried her best to put up her arms in an attempt to grab him, but he was already way too far for her to succeed in that endeavor. Instead she attempted the next best thing, which was to talk to him in a whiny childish voice. “But who’s going to take care of me?”

“I don’t know, maybe Kinuko?” He didn’t have a clue on how those two even communicated with each other. The best idea he could make up was that they were able to telepathically speak to call the other. “I’m not the one who’s sick, so I can’t take the day off.” And with that he was out the door.

Not much of interest could be said about his day at the office. There were some moments where he would cough and his throat would feel a bit sore. During those times, he pondered for a bit if he had caught what she gave him. Then the man would play it off as simply being a part of his imagination and him thinking so only made it seem like the case.

It certainly annoyed the coworker sitting next to him as she verbally made sure to tell him how it distracted her.

After the uneventful day, he headed on home. Before getting back to his house, Nishiki dropped by the nearby convenience store to pick up some medicine. There was none of that at home since he would normally just deal with the illness until it went away. But it seemed like Tenha was in some real pain, so he wanted to help her a tiny bit after abandoning her all alone in his home.

Except when he got back home, she wasn’t alone at all. To his surprise, though it was entirely his suggestion, there Kinuko was tending to the girl with a hot towel. “Guess it’s a good thing you came along to help.” He commented as he walked in through the door.

“Hmpf, and it’s your turn for me to hate you for bringing that idea up.” As it turned out, the Kitsune were capable of communicating with each other. Which was a bad thing for her as Tenha contact her, then proceeded to be really annoying inside her own mind that she had no other choice but to come over to help. Otherwise she’d have to suffer going insane.

“I’m sorry for that.” He knew he could go crazy if he had to deal with Tenha in his head. “Hmm, she’s looking a lot more peaceful now.” Compared to her writhing in pain, this napping of hers looks much more relaxed. As he looked along her body, there was one part of hers which caught her eye. That being the her big fluffy tail.

It was much bushier of a tail than he had ever seen an animal have. On someone like her, he never had the chance to be table to touch it like what most animals would allow him to do. Now with her in such a vulnerable position, he did have that opportunity. “I think I’ll just…” He moved his hand towards it to run his fingers through her fur. Had she cared about it as deeply as she said, then it would also be the softest thing in the existence of the world.

“You won’t.” Unfortunately his plans were cut off as Kinuko tightly grabbed his wrist and flipped over him effortlessly.

“Ow, why do you care?” She continued to keep him down by applying whatever this wrist hold was. Not that she needed any special techniques with her superior strength over him. “I just want one touch.”

“Our tails are incredibly sacred to us.” She told him. “Regardless of my opinion or feelings about her. I understand how important it is to prevent someone like you from being able to get a hold of it.”

“All right fine I won’t touch her.” He relented easily on her threats. “Just let me go, this really hurts.” She gave up her grasp on his hand, allowing the man to return to his feet. “Anyway, since I’m back now I guess you can head back to wherever you came from.” While Nishiki wasn’t a fan of the idea of having to take care of the girl. It was fair considering that Tenha was under the contract with him. Not to mention Kinuko didn’t live here nor like the girl.

“Well it’s not like I’m doing anything important after this.” She said, making her way into the kitchen. “You’re likely disappointed that she’s unable to cook a meal today. So I figured that I can make dinner for the three of us.”

“Really? You don’t have to do that.” It was incredibly kind of her, but to him also really unnecessary. The man was more than capable of cooking for himself and one other person.

“I don’t mind.” She didn’t hesitate for a minute to pull out some ingredients and tools to cook something out of them. “I also believe that you’ve been unhappy with her dinner cooking abilities. So I’d like to show you what real skills in being a chef are.

“I suppose that’s fine with me.” He gave up and allowed her to do what she wished in his kitchen. “I’ll just take a shower while you cook, I could use a cleaning after all that snow got on me.” His outfit was a bit damp from the snow now melting into the fabric. Causing the coat to get wet all the way into his shirt.

“That’s good with me.” She responded as he headed into the shower room. “As long as you pay me back for it.”