After the day at work where he couldn’t tell if it was on the good or bad side. Nishiki still thought about his conversations with his coworkers. There seemed to be a theme of what to look forward to now that Valentine’s day had passed. Odd, he never would’ve thought a day of romance would bring that out in people, but it certainly did for him.

“You look like you’ve been through a lot.” Tenha commented on his appearance as he walked in the front door. He didn’t think he looked bad, but she could easily see how stressed out he was. “Did something happen at work?”

“Nothing bad if that’s what you’re worried about.” He put down his bag and plopped himself down onto the couch as she stuck around in the kitchen making their dinner. All that talk about the future made him wonder about tie difference between a human like himself and a fox spirit who lived for either an absurdly long time or forever.

After what Kinuko put him through, it was only fair he was able to return the favor. Though it was a bit unfair to do it to someone who had nothing to do with the prior incident. “Say, do you fox spirits ever think about the future?” He asked. Considering how long she had been alive. This girl had been in existence through a lot of change for humans, Especially those in Japan, assuming she spent the entirety here in this country.

“The future? Not really.” She brushed his question off with a basic answer. “There’s never been anything for me to worry about coming up. I guess nowadays I’m just looking forward to the day I can complete this contract and get away from living here.”

“That makes two of us.” He retorted in yet another meaningless argument between them. It wasn’t like they were that adverse to each other like they used to be. This was more like trying to keep up appearances that they disliked each other and couldn’t stand living together. “I swear, you’re never any help.”

“It ain’t in the job description for me to give you advice.” She responded, moving about in the kitchen as she cooked their food. She went back and forth between the stove and counters in a manner that could only be described as sloppy. He wished she wouldn’t be so careless in there, but it was also partially his fault for distracting her.

“You are still my servant.” He reminded her of their dynamic. A dynamic neither of them were interesting in holding up despite the paperwork signed. “Seriously, you’re 200 years old. I assume that means there’s plenty of wisdom someone like you can give me.” He hated saying it for two reasons. One being she looked nowhere close to being older than him, so his mind thought it strange someone her size would be the elder between them.

The second reason was due to her immature behavior. He hated she somehow didn’t come close to acting her age. This girl acted closer to her size than anything else.

“Correction, I’m only 200 years old.” She reiterated. “It’s not that old for someone like me. And besides, how am I supposed to understand the quandaries of humans?” Nishiki couldn’t tell the point of the fox spirits existence. They didn’t seem to be with humans all that much, despite what he had heard about their supposed connection with Earth.

Yet hearing that Kinuko didn’t know much about humans and here with Tenha who also didn’t care about them. What were they here for? Well to be fair, it’s not like it was the responsibility of the kitsune to take care of humanity. Their actions made it clear enough and he would say people have gone pretty far without their help.

“Fine, whatever.” And he would continue that streak by forgetting trying to get her help too. “Just make us dinner so I can just lie down on my bed.” He was beyond done with talking to her. That’s mostly what he had done today and it seemed each conversation just made him feel more down in the dumps than before.

It was odd, since he had worked himself to the point of exhaustion before. Yet even those times he wasn’t stressed as he was before. Perhaps because this was a feeling not anything like physical stress. This was something more akin to those times when one didn’t even like being in their own body.

There wasn’t much talking when they had their dinner. Tenha didn’t like this feeling between them, but what else could she do? There was something about him that wasn’t in the mood for talking anymore, which worried her since even when they had their amounts of bickering, he was always willing to interact with her. Yet right now it seemed he wished she was out of her life more than normal.

After dinner, which felt long yet shorter than most of their dinners. He excused himself to head to turn in for the night. Even though she had an inkling of concern for him, Tenha hoped he would get over his funk after a good night’s rest. Mainly so she wouldn’t have to deal with it or try to take care of it herself.

Nishiki hoped for the same thing, but neither of them got what they wished for. His mind simply had too many thought running through it that he couldn’t get himself to fall asleep. His eyes were closed, his bed was as comfortable as it could ever possibly be for something that was cheap and old. But his body refused to draft off into slumber. “Forget this.” He muttered, throwing the blanket off himself, then got out of bed.

“Hmm?” He exited his bedroom and grabbed his coat from the hanger. This sound was more than enough to get Tenha to stir as she had only just begun the first stages of fading away for the night “Are you going somewhere?” She asked him, rubbing her eyes to try and see him in the darkness. Which was easy since she had night vision.

“Just out for a short walk.” He answered quietly, trying not to get her too awake to stop him. “Don’t worry, just going to stop by a late night convenience store. And don’t worry about my sleep, I’ve worked on much less sleep than this on a regular basis.” Nishiki was quickly out the door after he finished explaining himself. It was done so she wouldn’t have the chance to say anything to stop him or be able to follow the man as he headed down the sidewalk.

The streets he found himself on were dim. They were only illuminated be the street lights above, but only barely. He only stared at the ground, lost in thought as his body automatically went in the correct direction. All Nishiki could think about was what his future was supposed to look like. What was there in his life to look forward to?

His job wasn’t awful, not great, but not bad either. It certainly gave him more than enough to be able to live out the life he had made for himself, before and after Tenha’s arrival. So his life wouldn’t sucks by that metric and he didn’t feel that it did. At the same time though, he wondered what exactly should he be heading for? At this current rate, he seemed destined to become someone like Hinae. No offense to her, but she really was a bitter person a lot of the times. He couldn’t even picture her smiling.

Was he going to turn into that from all the hours he spend in the office. Toiling away for the sake of having something to do? At least he didn’t work as much as he used to after Tenha came around, but what did she really do to change his life? That fox spirit isn’t someone who pampers him or gives him love like in that manga. There was no way he’d say his health got better because of her. Maybe his diet, but that was marginal at best.

So it wasn’t as if she had made him go through some life altering event. More so that it was a change, but only for the sake of it. Most importantly, that contract between them would come to an eventual end. Once that occurred, it would be easy to say goodbye to her and never have to see that girl ever again.

Once that happens, will everything revert to what it was before she came into his life? Did his life never really change?