150 Parental Pressure (17)

"Will you stop?" Kyro asked, turning to face his mother, who was watching him with a disappointed expression.

"Stop what?" his mother asked, crossing her arms over her chest. "What do you think you're doing here? Kicking people out like that? Do you have any manners left?"

Her questions were a barrage of accusations, and Iris lowered her ears, hiding against Kyro's chest. She didn't want to be part of this. She hadn't done anything!

"If they come unwelcome? Yes, I'm gonna kick them out. There was no point to even let her in!"

His mother's mouth fell open for a moment, like she was struck by his outburst, then her color rose. "I did not teach you that," she threw, shaking all over. "You're disgracing yourself and us by acting like an uncultured hooligan!"

"Hooligan? Ha! And you're so amazing and sophisticated, scheming behind my back to find someone for me. Did you think I wouldn't find out about the rumors you spread?" Kyro sneered. "Or understand why you're being so nice to a random subordinate of mine? You wouldn't have been so kind if it had been some old geezer."

The words stung the gray-haired woman, and tears showed up in her eyes, but Kyro did not fall back this time. "You're a mother to me, but don't think to control my life. It's not yours to play with."

He then left the room, with Iris still in his hands. She watched it all, not daring to say a word. If she mentioned something, he might blow up on her as well.

Yet when he sat down to play some games, she couldn't resist making a sound. When he looked at her, she swiftly wrote, [wht happn?] To be quicker, she avoided capital letters and skipped some syllables that wouldn't be missed when trying to get what she wrote.

Kyro's eyes were two dark pools of midnight, and she thought he was gonna ignore her, but he breathed a sigh and said, "She spread a rumor saying I'm planning to marry in a years time."

'Years time? Kyro?' Iris burst out laughing. As handsome and rich as he was, she couldn't see him marrying so soon. It just didn't fit with his personality. A girlfriend was a possibility, but a sudden marriage? Not a chance. Not for him. He was anything but spontaneous.

"Are you laughing at me?"

His expression was torn between annoyance and disbelief, and it looked quite peculiar. She laughed again as she nodded in reply.

"You think it's funny?" There was little amusement in his voice.

Iris moved to the keyboard and wrote, [y]. It was a beautiful single letter, and she admired it for a moment, before a dark shadow loomed over her. Kyro seemed to be running out of patience, so she went to write again.

[only u could be stuck in ths. gale must be rolling in laughter. i too.]

While Kyro was reading her last sentence, she jumped down from the desk, barely dodging his raeching hands. He turned to her, a cold glare in his eyes, "I should send you both to a fiery hell."

'First you'd have to catch me,' she told him, waving her tail behind herself as if taunting a bull. The broken bone had mostly healed, so she could move it with just a little pain. It was nowhere close enough to dissuading her from the new game.

Or the old one, depending on how one looked at it. Kyro went after her, and she ran under the bed. He went around, and she slipped out the other side. Once he crouched down to tug her from below, she jumped on the bed and sprinted through it to land on his back.

With a snake's quickness, he whirled to catch her, but she had already rolled away and was yipping at him from the other side of the room. After all the exercise and learning to move in this body, she was light on her feet and aware of Kyro's tactics. It was thus not that hard to avoid him.

The chase seemed like it would never end, but after a good ten minutes, Iris started to run out of stamina. Unlike Kyro, she had to move twice as much and in bursts of speed. This was simply unsustainable.

And so, when she tried to dive under the bed for a hundredth time, he caught hold of her back leg. She screeched and kicked, turning around to bite him, but he didn't let go.

"Caught you," he said, voice full of satisfaction, and Iris stopped struggling. He pulled her out and held her up before himself, his breath coming a bit shorter than normal. "You're not going anywhere now."

'Really?' She smiled like a Cheshire cat and pushed herself up to bump her nose into his. This startled him, and he loosened his grip, allowing her to escape. She fell on the bed, then rushed off into the study and onto the desk.

[u terrible at tag.]

He stared at her words, speechless. "You're crazy," he told her. "Only kids play tag."

His words might have been dismissing her, but they were no longer cold or angry. The fury from before had been scattered about, forgotten in the more immediate problem of catching her.

It wasn't going to save his relationship with mother, but now he wouldn't end up doing something he might regret. The moment of blind anger had passed, and Iris called it a job well done. She was amazing at this, wasn't she?

Even if she was just a fox, she had the power to influence him. It was an intoxicating thought, and her gaze became cloudy.

"Why do I think I wouldn't like what you're thinking about?" Kyro said, his eyes narrowing on Iris.

'Nothing, nothing,' she promised, but the smile did not leave her lips. She had the power to improve his mood. Even with knowing who she was, he didn't put on any defenses against her.

Didn't that mean that they could be counted as friends?