“It was very cold of you to leave me like that.” Rei offered a tiny smile that might have been described as a little sad, were it not for that hungry glint hidden under the lazy eyelid.

“Just die already, you obsessive creep,” Eitsu recommended.

Was that a real flash of pain, just then? If it was, it was there and gone in a heartbeat, lost behind the sly smile that crept across Rei's face.

Speaking of heartbeats, Eitsu's were dangerously out of control. Her hand in Tsubaki's trembled. Tsubaki's fingers squeezed hers.

Didn't you just spend months getting building your strength? You can kick a hole through his spine now.

“You're not going to leave if I ask nicely, are you?”

“Depends how you ask. Are you coming with me?”

“What do you think?”

“Eitsu... Don't make me-”

“Make you what? No-one's making you do anything.”

The lazy brown eye drifted upwards, against the flow of falling snowflakes. “What do I have to do, Eitsu?” he asked quietly. “How do I get you to come to my side, and stay forever?”

“What do you think I am? A dog?”

“A treasure,” Rei said simply. “How could I let someone else hold onto something so unutterably precious to me? I can only be certain of your well-being if I have you beside me at all times.”

“You've been leaving me alone a lot if that's the case,” Eitsu pointed out reflexively, mentally kicking herself for her choice of words. Rei latched onto it straight away.

“Are you angry with me, then, for leaving you alone?”

“I've got far more important things to be angry at you for. Killing me several times, for one. Threatening Tsu-bo. Creeping in and out of the lives of the people around me. And what's with your weird side business of kidnapping and selling divine creatures?”

“Everyone has to make a living somehow.”

“You are literally an immortal shinigami. What need do you have for money?”

Rei looked surprised. “How else am I supposed to keep my precious goddess in comfort? Ah, you should see the most recent-”

“No.”

“Eh?”

“You weren't listening to anything...” Eitsu frowned. Closing her eyes, she squeezed Tsubaki's hand again, her voice a low murmur. “Remember...”

“Remember?”

“When I was snow...?”

Tsubaki looked blank for a moment, then nodded comprehendingly, if looking a little troubled.

“What are you talking about, treasure?” Rei asked pleasantly. “You were snow? Ah, are you referring to your seventh life? You truly were like snow. Even in human form, that pale skin and white hair...”

“You really are too smart for your own good.” Eitsu laughed lightly. Her expression was still less than positive, but she was no longer boring a hole through his skull with her eyes.

“What's this? I would love to think you've changed your mind, but I suspect you're up to something.”

“What will happen if I tell you to go fuck yourself and walk away right now?”

“Well, I'll be upset, of course.”

“And?”

“I'll likely have to calm myself somehow.”

“Stop talking in riddles, you damned fox.”

Rei's lazy light brown eye drifted casually over to Tsubaki.

Eitsu immediately took a few steps towards him. “Really... I thought you might, but I hoped... Why are you so impatient...?”

“Because I need you to be by my side, even one breath sooner.”

“How romantic.”

“So?”

Time seemed slow. The snowflakes hung in the air as Eitsu let go of Tsubaki's hand, and walked the few metres to stand in front of Rei, metres that felt like miles. He held out his hand, gloved in black. “I'll make you happy.”

“I'm sure you will.” Eitsu chewed her tongue. Compulsively, she turned to look behind her.

Tsubaki stood as still as a doll in the drifting snow. Against the stark whiteness, her long black hair and brilliant red robes stood out as though she were the only real thing in a vast dreamscape. Her eyes met Eitsu's, and it seemed, for the first time in a long time, that they were clear and full of expectation.

“I'm right here, and you're still looking back?” Rei complained gently. He reached out a hand, and wrapping it around her waist, pulled her close, so she could no longer see Tsubaki. With his free hand, he stroked her cheek lovingly. “Well?”

“Well what?”

“Let's start again. We've got a lot of time ahead of us, after all.” He bent and kissed her.

She tangled her fingers in his hair.

You're not getting away.

The months of effort had made a difference. It was now much more difficult for Rei to struggle free. Eitsu could feel the madness of his obsession under her lips and fingers. It somehow felt like food to her; she devoured it greedily.

Rei tore free, but she still had her fingers in his hair and lunged forwards again, eyes burning golden.

He shifted form, shrinking into the shape of a fox, but her hands shot out and grabbed the furs of his tails, moving quickly to his neck as he began morphing back into a human, the tails disappearing. Rei produced his sword, slicing at her wrists. She twirled, keeping her hand on his neck as she leapt onto his back, and he transformed again, the change in body structure causing her to lose her balance.

Over the snow they wrestled, trampling the fine powder into hard ice. Hand over hand, Eitsu kept having to change her grip. She kicked Rei's foot and he slipped, and she was on him in a flash, her lips pressed to his again.

His madness seemed endless.

Rei threw her off again, and she rolled, bounced, leapt back up onto her feet and charged back just as he reached Tsubaki and grabbed her by the throat.

“What are you going to do, Mr Fox?”Eitsu snarled mockingly. “We met one of your colleagues at the Hyakki Yagyo. She told us shinigami can't just kill as they like.”

“I can still inflict plenty of pain,” Rei pointed out, panting. His smile looked a little strained.

Tsubaki sighed. “I should have run away earlier.”

“He would have caught you anyway, Tsu-bo.”

“He does seem to be very good at running... away.”

“Would you mind not having a conversation about me as if I'm not here?” Rei asked cheerfully through gritted teeth.

“Why?”

“Is there a problem, Rei-dono?”

“Why do you have to be so difficult, Eitsu?” Rei asked Eitsu, ignoring Tsubaki despite the fact that her neck was in his grasp. “You gave me so much already – luck, my name – and yet this one little thing you deny me?”

“My eternal undying love is one little thing? And don't make up stories by yourself, all I did was say you were like a ghost. Go work out your own damn name, you already had one before.”

“Yes... I did.”

“... What?”

“Tsaam Lei, the loong called me,” he said, musingly. “I heard her, at the auction house. She screamed it when she rushed down to the stage. “A Dzue name, of all things. Pine Fox. I didn't remember anything before I met you, but now I have vague recollections of a place of pines and ferns. And searing heat. And a long, long time in the ocean. The ocean is a very big place.”

“Are you saying you drifted over to Chup-tuk from the Four... well... Five Kingdoms?”

He shrugged. “I can only assume.”

“If that's supposed to make me feel sorry for you, don't bother.”

“Not at all.”

“Rei-dono, could I trouble you to let go of me?”

Rei gave Tsubaki a friendly chuckle. “No.”

“Hm.”

“Damn it, I can't do this,” Eitsu grumbled, prowling towards them. Rei backed up a couple of steps, so she stopped. “Get over here, kitsune. I'll suck your tongue until you're somewhat normal and we'll leave it at that.”

“What to do? I like the sound of the first part, but not the second.”

“Let go of Tsubaki.”

“No.”

This was going nowhere. Maybe I can distract him by stripping? Eitsu fiddled with the fur collar of her outer robe.

“You'll never get what you want,” Tsubaki said.

Rei ignored her.

“You could threaten to kill me right now,” she continued, unconcerned. “And Eitsu-sama could come over to you, and you could leave together and play happy families, but you'd always think... 'She doesn't really love me, she's just doing this for that damned human.'”

Rei's head slowly, slowly turned until he was staring at Tsubaki, his handsome face terrifyingly blank of expression.

“And it'll haunt you whenever you catch her staring into the distance. 'Who's she thinking of?'”

A soft puff of laughter escaped Eitsu.

“You want Eitsu-sama to love you, don't you? Not just to stay by your side and have your children, but actually love you... or be as obsessed with you as you are with her. It'll never happen.”

“We'll see,” Rei sad, dangerously soft.

“No, you won't. You'll never be certain. You'll never, ever be certain whether the reason why she kisses you is because if she doesn't, you'll find me and snap my neck.”

“She'll love me.”

“Will she?”

“If I have her by my side always, she will.”

“That's just having the body. You don't know what she's thinking.”

“And you do?”

“Not at all.” Tsubaki's expression was wistful. “I have no idea what she's thinking most of the time. Or even if she is capable of thinking...”

“Hey!”

“... but love needs a certain amount of trust. We hurt each other and seek to make amends and try our best even as we know we'll fail sometimes.” Her dark eyes bored into Rei's light brown one unflinchingly. “You'll never have that. You'll always be uncertain to the point that it'll eat you up.”

Rei's returning smile was tight. “Nice sentiments but-”

“Ah, she's right. I could play nice with you for eternity if I had to,” Eitsu said. It wasn't at all true, but she could see Rei's smooth facade cracking.

“She's sneak away occasionally to see me,” Tsubaki said, nodding to herself.

“I'd tell you all the weird things he got up to this time.”

“We'd plot some new way of escaping.”

“Eventually. I'd need to get my fill of you first. Like breathing fresh mountain air after being trapped in a swamp.”

Completely ignoring the increasingly agitated Rei, Eitsu and Tsubaki bantered across the snow.

“What would you do first?”

“Maybe I should start with your ears first. They're so lovely and soft; they feel nice under my tongue.”

“I like that. And then you'd move down from there?”

“I was thinking that, but I've changed my mind. I seem to recall you like it when I lick your belly, especially your navel. Why is that? Does it feel nice?”

Tsubaki's response was to blush.

“Well...?

“... I love it...”

“Love what?”

“I love-”

“YOU-!”

There was a cracking sound.

Tsubaki hung limp in Rei's hand.

The two youkai stared blankly at the fresh corpse.

“Fuck,” Rei whispered, all of his suaveness and confidence gone. He dropped the body and backed away. “Fuck, fuck, fuck.”

A whirl of snow, and the white fox raced wildly away, lost quickly in a landscape of the same colour.

Eitsu didn't see him go.

Her eyes were fixed on the pool of red cloth and black hair that lay like a bloodstain on the silent whiteness.