“I can’t believe I’m doing this…” Fusa was beyond unhappy with the plan her friends made her do. They heard the part where he told her it was fine if she came over whenever she wanted to. So in order to convince them she had no problems whatsoever with Nishiki. They told her she needed to take him up on that offer at least once.

One would think the idea of her going along with it would be enough to prove it to the other two girls. However they also wanted to take advantage of this by getting her to be somewhat alone with the man.

The woman knocked on the door, then turned her head to check on the other two spying on her. They were watching from behind a bush across the street from his house. They both gave her a thumbs up in unison, then crouched down to avoid being seen as the door opened.

“Well this is a pleasant surprise.” Said Nishiki when he answered. “I wasn’t expecting you to take my offer up so soon.” They had known each other for a while now. Not once had she ever been to his home until that first time when her friends sent the supposed incorrect address. So to see her swing by again so soon made him think she might’ve wanted to come over before but never asked. “Come on in.”

“I hope I’m not intruding…” She said, entering the building. As her friends watched her disappear inside, they were faced with their own conundrum. Should they attempt to peep inside to see what was going on, or just leave and let things play out without seeing it? The latter felt so unsatisfying for women like them. At the same time, it was also the logical choice.

“Should we keep an eye on her?” Asked Yoshiho as they continued to duck under the bushes.

“I really want to.” Emako spoke in a childish hopeful manner, but internally she knew that wouldn’t be the best idea. “But if she thinks we’re watching, then she won’t make any moves especially with that other girl around.” She explained the rationale behind it, which they both already had in mind. “We shouldn’t get in the way, I bet if she gets more comfortable with him, she’ll finally pull the trigger.”

“All right, let’s get out of here then.” With that, the pair were off to enjoy the rest of their day doing whatever it was they wanted to do. Back inside, Fusa made herself more at home in his house.

“Tenha was just taking care of some of the cleaning.” He explained as they sat down on the couch. “I hope you don’t take me for a lazy slob because I’m not that.”

“He’s really not.” Tenha backed him up on that statement. “It’s not like he really needs me here or anything to take care of the house.”

“Interesting…” Fusa knew she understood little about their relationship. They didn’t have that much time to explain it to her in the first place, but she was able to get the gist of things. Particularly the part where he had signed a contract binding the two. “But then, why would you sign that contract if you didn’t need her help?”

“Look she tricked me.” He then went on a tirade on how horrible a person Tenha was and that he was tired and didn’t check what he had put his name to. “I guess it’s not all that bad, but I really wished I hadn’t made that blunder.”

“Lucky me though.” Said Tenha as she finished up the last of her cleaning chores. “Anyway, do you want to stay here for dinner? I can make extra for you.”

“I don’t really want to intrude.” She responded. It wasn’t on her agenda to actually hang out with the two of them. This was merely to get her friends off the trail for now, which appeared to be successful.

“Honestly, I’d like it if you could stay for dinner.” He said, which surprised her enough to get an audible, but not understandable response. “It’s been a little repetitive having Tenha be the only person I’ve eaten dinner with for the past couple months.” This prompted the fox girl to stick out her tongue at him playfully. They ribbed each other, and said they didn’t like one another, but Fusa didn’t get any animosity between those two.

“If you want me to stay…” She spoke gingerly, taking all the time in her sentence to ensure her mind really wanted to answer it. “Then I can enjoy a small dinner with you two.”

“Great.” Tenha replied with a thumbs up. “It’s cool to have someone over who isn’t Nishiki. I need friends who are girls to break up his boring personality.”

“If you don’t mind me asking.” Given how much the fox spirit seemed to dislike her position. It made Fusa wonder some things about their arrangement. “Why are you here then? If you didn’t want anyone signing the contract, then why give it to him.”

“Despite how nice she appears. She got kicked out of the spirit world.” Nishiki decided to be the one to answer this for her. “That girl is just plain lazy. You should see her when I’m at work.” He then went on a tirade on the things she did, and more importantly didn’t do, while he was gone. “She’s just putting on an act since we have guests.”

“Well maybe I want to be helpful to her.” She retorted, not willing to take the attack on her character undefended. “At least they’ll be someone around here who appreciates my work.”

“But I… Ugh.” He gave up on the bickering. They had a guest over, so he didn’t want her feeling uncomfortable. “Anyway, while we’re waiting for her to cook dinner. Is there anything you wanted to do?” Nishiki would’ve pulled out the game console, but he figured she wasn’t into video games. Not to mention he could use a break from the playing it himself.

“I’m not really sure myself.” She didn’t have any plans in mind coming here. Fusa didn’t even want to be here in the first place. Though as she got settled in and more comfortable, the woman couldn’t deny that it was nice to hang out with Nishiki at his own home. There was something about him which felt different compared to their conversations at the office.

This revelation wasn’t lost on him either. He could sense she had a different demeanor on compared to when they were at work. Perhaps this was due to work having it’s own set of rules and standards compared to being safe in the confines of one’s home. Maybe he should’ve invited people over more often. Not until now did he consider seeing a new side to someone just be putting them in a new environment. If he wasn’t so distracted during his one single pub visit, he would’ve realized it earlier. Though the man would’ve likely chalked it up to people getting drunk being the reason.

“If you have any movies, I suppose we can put one on and just chat.” It was a normal activity for her to do with her friends, at least back when she was still in college and had free time outside of work. Fusa felt herself getting a bit hot for suggesting it though. As this was also something she did back in college when going on more private dates with men. Unfortunately for her, she would always get so nervous that she never got much further with them. Now with that well dried up, she worried she might live with regret on not taking the next step.

“Ooh, how about this one?” Tenha got excited and ran over to the bookshelves to pull one out. She produced one he knew he never owned before. “I just picked this up from the video store.”

“You spent my money without permission again?” He complained, which triggered another mini argument between the pair. “Besides, I know your tastes. I don’t want to watch something like that again.”

“Relax, it’s an action flick.” Apparently Tenha was also into those. “I want to see some martial arts actions. You humans have cool moves, but us fox spirits would totally take you all out.”

“I’m not going to argue that.” He took the disk from her and set up his DVD player. If it was just a normal martial arts action film, then he could live with that. “Are you okay with this?” He asked Fusa. She nodded her head. It didn’t matter what movie was on, she just wanted something for background to feel less awkward in their conversation.

As he got it started, there was another knock on the door. Looking at his calendar, the man sighed in realizing what this was all about. “Ah, you’re here again.” He answered the door and of course it was Kinuko on the other side. “We kind of have someone over, do you really need to do this now?”

“It’s not like it matters.” Tenha called from the kitchen. She could hear them over the sizzling and boiling in the kitchen thanks to her ears. “Fusa already knows the truth about me.”

“I suppose it doesn’t matter if…” Kinuko first took that as normal, then the realization slowly hit her as she peered towards the living room to spot the normal human being Fusa sitting there. “She knows?”