Familial Bonds (9)

While lying on the sofa and watching a soap opera, Iris suddenly had a bad premonition. Her eyes shifted to the side, the bright window on the right, but the sun was shining through there as normal, not a cloud in the sky. What could it be then?

"You can't do that! He's my child!" some woman from the show shouted out, and Iris returned her gaze to it. She was probably just imagining things.

A couple hours passed in a blur, and she heard the familiar footsteps outside. She jumped off the sofa and went to sit just outside the door. Lucifer didn't do that, but it seemed like a good way to earn some points from Kyro. Who wouldn't love a cute little fox waiting for them every day?

The person unlocked the door, and she welcomed him with a short scream. His neutral expression instantly shifted into one with a smile. He closed the door and bent down to pet her. "I'm glad to see you, too."

She leaned into his touch, to win max points. As she thought of that, she remembered the couple otome games she had once tried. Wasn't this the mindset one had when playing that type of games?

For a moment, she wondered how many hearts she had already collected. Had she stepped onto the right path? Or was she rushing to a swift game over?

"What's with that look? Can you smell what I've brought?"

Brought? Iris' eyes quickly cleared up, and she took note of the plastic bag in his left hand. Did it have something for her? Right away, she moved for it.

"Hey, hey! Patience!" Kyro raised the bag up, ignoring her whines. "Let's go to the table. You wouldn't want to steal everything for yourself, would you?"

Iris could have totally done it, but since he was so insistent, she just stomped on the ground and ran to the sofa. There, she lay down with her head facing Kyro, her eyes not moving from the plastic bag in his hand.

He came over and sat down with the bag on the table. "Lucy!" he called, and the lazy cat materialized out of nowhere as if he had just been waiting for this moment. He jumped on the sofa and sat down with an expectant expression.

"You're way too used to this." Kyro laughed and took out a small package of treats. While he opened it, Lucifer sat like a model citizen, but the moment the treats were out, he snatched them from Kyro's fingers like they were life-saving treasures.

He chewed them in no time, asked for more, and when he wasn't given any, he meowed with more than a little bit of anger. There clearly were more snacks in the package, and he wanted them. Now.

But Kyro shooed him off the sofa. "That's enough, you don't want to get sick, do you?" There was a loud meow in answer, as well as a very distinct flick of the tail at Kyro's legs. "Don't get greedy! Or I won't bring you anything next time."

He then turned to Iris and asked her, "At least you won't betray me like that, right? I bring him the best of stuff, and he takes it then ignores me. Where's his moral integrity?"

Iris stared Kyro back in the eyes. Was he really expecting a cat to be more receptive? He was lucky Lucifer cared for him as much as he did. She hadn't seen or heard of a cat that was this easy to manage in all of her twenty years of being a human.

Well, this was her chance then. She could totally become a better companion! 'Wait… Wouldn't Lucifer slaughter me in my sleep then? I don't think he'd take kindly to being replaced…'

"So, do you want to see what I got for you?"

'Certainly!' She didn't raise up, but her tail began to wag. Anything was going to be an improvement at this moment. It was great Kyro was so understanding and went to get something for her. Her image of him improved by a good margin.

The bag wasn't see-through, so she waited with anticipation what he was going to take out. She wasn't sure of what foxes ate, but it was probably something similar to cats and dogs. After all, all of them were carnivores that lived in forests.

What Kyro brought out was, however, not a cat or a dog treat, and neither was it some pork or chicken. No, that would have been too good. It had to be something way, way, way worse.

She stared frozen, unable to form a single thought. The questions of how, why, when kept taking shape and falling apart as she remained unable to string a sentence together. It wasn't possible that this was supposed to be her meal.

Kyro was holding a worm. A worm! It was miniature and all, but it was still a worm! Since when did cats and dogs start to eat that? She certainly hadn't heard of that!

'Please, give me back my cat food…'