143 Parental Pressure (10)

After an hour of lecturing, Kyro was couldn't help lamenting for having dug the hole himself. The moment he mentioned the idea of remaining alone for the rest of his life, it was as if he had poured water over burning oil. For the rest of the evening, he couldn't say a word over his parents trying to make him see the light. Even hid dad, who usually didn't speak much, forgot about this habit of his and spoke at length about how life alone was the worst fate a man could suffer.

He joked and spoke seriously, while mom berated and pleaded, ending up in tears. She really didn't wish for her son to have no one by his side.

Kyro listened to their words and felt the warmth radiating off them. Although he didn't agree with their views, he could understand from where they were coming. The way they painted it, life without a partner was one where you soon became ostracized by everyone.

You didn't have anyone at meetings, you didn't have children to talk about and compare, you didn't have a family to focus on while everyone else had their own to busy themselves. In other words, you became uninteresting to the majority of people your age because you no longer fit in. No one might say it to you in the face, but they would think that.

There was truth to these word. Kyro wasn't blind and saw how much less he saw of Jimmy, while a few of his other friends had long faded away. His only companion that he met often was Gale, and that was because he was a bachelor as well. They were both free birds that weren't tied down at home after work.

If Gale found himself a girlfriend… Kyro might really be left alone. But he didn't fear it that much. First, the playboy Gale was never going to get married, and second, he himself didn't fear having no one to meet every other Friday. It'd be good enough to meet his friends once a month or so, when they had free time.

Once nine o'clock rolled around, his parents had exhausted themselves and went to sleep. The dishes were still left on the table, and it took Kyro a moment to realize they weren't going to disappear by themselves. He glanced down at the fox which was curled up into a ball on the ground, then decided that she really wasn't going to clean up this evening.

His parents had closed their own doors, so Kyro called the fox over and closed his own, too. With this much, no one should hear what he spoke and think him crazy.

"How did you change?" he asked the girl right away.

It was a bit too convenient that the moment he told her to leave, she regained her fox form. But then… he had told her to change before if she wanted to stay and nothing had happened… Did she not believe him then? Or was this really a coincidence?

The fennec screamed at him, and he massaged his temple. The fact that he knew about that fox's real form didn't mean he could understand its screams.

While he thought about it, the fox ran off into his study. He followed it, and the little thing turned on his computer and opened a new Word document. 'Smart.' This way, he could actually get some answers.

However, the speed at which the fox wrote was madness inducing. It took her almost a minute to write: [saw msg-->poof].

"You mean the message got you to transform?" he asked, finding this really peculiar. He hadn't really said anything there. Previously, almost all of her transformations had been due to fear, yet he hadn't said anything worrying in his message. He had just asked her to leave and said he would pick her up in a bit.

The fox shrugged, not bothering to write anything, which was probably for the better. That writing speed was an abomination. After an evening of his parents badgering him about finding someone to marry, he didn't have the patience to watch the fox walking around the keyboard, trying to reach the right letter without stepping on any other.

"Do you think you'll change back any time soon?"

She shook her head, then paused and shrugged. This sequence was a bit suspicious, but maybe she just remembered how soon she had changed back before. There was no real telling when it would happen. Or what exactly caused it. The most likely culprit from before—fear—seemed to not be the only trigger.

"What did you do with your clothes?" he asked.

Instead of answering, the fox ran back into his bedroom and dragged out a ball of clothes from under his bed. His lips twitched after seeing her hiding place, but he couldn't admonish her too much about it. There weren't that many places to hide things on the ground level.

He swiftly grabbed the clothes and hid them in his wardrobe, under a bunch of old clothes he hadn't worn for a year or two. Here, mom shouldn't find them. It was a surprise that she hadn't located them yet, though. 'Probably got too caught up in what she found in the guest room.'

Once the major things were addressed, Kyro decided to go to sleep. When he changed and went under the blanket, he heard the fox enter the room from the study and jump onto the bed. Her steps were light, barely audible, but it was this exact thing why he would never mistake her for Lucy. The cat never bothered to act secretive, at least not about such things.

His back stiffened, and he was tempted to turn and ask her what the hell she thought was doing. 'It's perfectly normal to not let random people onto your bed,' he told himself, but at the same time, he was quite aware that she had slept there for over a month. He couldn't have her go to sleep in her room, either. That would just be weird when his parents knew that Lucy and the fox stayed the nights with him.

There was a time when the fox had even injured herself escaping just to get back to him and not have to sleep alone.

When this memory came into his mind, he froze. Escaping to return to the owner was something that could be explained with animal logic, but the fennec was no animal. Then why had the girl done it?

He thought again to turn back, demanding an explanation that would make sense, but then decided against it. They had slept like this before. There was no harm to it, so why should he mind it. He was simply thinking too much and should just shut up and sleep. The day had been long enough and without him adding extra drama to spice it up.