A Fox's Love (American Kitsune Book 1) (17 page)

"I was thinking that we should get you some of your own clothes to wear."

Hey, that actually sounded like a pretty good idea. She didn't have any clothes of her own, right? Of course not, she had told him so during their conversation the morning after their first meeting.

The more he thought about it, the better an idea it seemed. Maybe having her own clothes would even make her stop trying to prance around naked all the time.

And maybe pigs would start flying, hell would freeze over and the dead would rise to devour the flesh of the living.

"I mean, you can't go anywhere wearing one of my shirts and nothing else." He was being literal with that.

"I guess not," Lilian frowned, her nose wrinkling cutely. "You humans have very strange taboos when it comes to public decency."

"I don't think they're that strange," Kevin said just a tad dryly. "Besides," he continued to try and drive his point home, "You wouldn't want just anyone to see you running around in your..." he paused, trying to think of a delicate way of saying what he wanted to say, "...birthday suit, would you?”

Lilian didn't even take a second to think about the question before shaking her head. "No. The only person I want looking at me when I'm naked is you."

Having not expected such a response, Kevin choked on some of the eggs he was eating.

"Beloved!"

Lilian rushed out of her seat, moved behind her mate and began gently rubbing his back as he started pounding a fist against his chest in an effort to dislodge the bits of egg that went down his windpipe.

"Are you alright, Beloved?" she asked as Kevin began taking grateful breaths of air after nearly asphyxiating on his food. That would not have been a very pleasant way to die.

"I'm fine," Kevin coughed a few more times before looking up at the girl. "Thank you."

"You're welcome." The smile she gave him had Kevin turning away to hide the redness of his cheeks. Lilian cast him a curious glance as he looked away, but decided not to question him and sat back down in her seat.

"So, anyways..." after several minutes of awkward (to him at least) silence, Kevin tried to get back on track. "I was thinking that since today is Saturday, we could go and get you some clothes of your own after breakfast."

"Okay," Lilian said, smiling at the blond haired sophomore. "Thank you."

"Ah...ahem," Kevin coughed into his hand to hide the squeak he emitted. "You're welcome."

Chapter 10: Skirts, Skorts and Lingerie

Kevin was sure that everyone pointing and whispering at him and Lilian as they walked through the mall were making fun of him.

How did he know this? Technically speaking, he didn't, but that wasn't going to stop his mind from coming to such a conclusion. He could just tell.

They were probably making fun of how red his face was. It was red enough that he could outred a red star.

That was a
seriously
red face.

After washing the dishes, Kevin had decided he would take Lilian shopping at the nearest mall, which was only several minutes away from his mom's apartment by bike. Convenient right?

Naturally, they had run into their first problem before they even left. Lilian didn't have any clothes to wear. How was she supposed to even go outside if she had nothing to wear?

They had managed to solve this problem easily enough. While his mom was a size or two larger than Lilian, as well as being a good half a foot taller, they fit her well enough that so long as she used a belt to keep her skirt up, they wouldn't need to worry about her outfit falling off.

They had chosen a fashionable skirt that went down to Lilian's knees and was being held up by a belt, a pink spaghetti strap blouse that complimented her crimson locks of hair very well and a pair of sandals. They actually didn't look too bad, even if the straps of her shirt had tried to slide off her slender shoulders several times within the past few seconds alone.

On a side note, Lilian had categorically refused to wear any of his mom's panties. Not that they would have fit anyways. She was slimmer than his mom.

Thankfully, she had agreed to at least wear a bra. Surprisingly, Lilian and his mom had the same bust size, which was more information than he ever wanted to know about the woman who gave birth to him. Seriously, who wants to know their mother has the same sized tits as the girl claiming to be in love with them? On the other hand, it was interesting to note that because Lilian was slimmer than his mom and shorter than her as well, her breasts actually appeared to be much bigger than they really were.

After he had finished making this observation, Lilian had questioned why his face was so red, which just made him blush more.

Now they were walking down one of the large walkways inside of the nearest mall, Lilian was holding his arm tightly, and consequently smashing said arm between said breasts. Which, by the way, was the reason Kevin's face had retained its redness ever since they had arrived. In all honesty, it was surprising that the boy had not passed out from over stimulation yet.

Perhaps he was gaining some kind of resistance? Or maybe it was just a convenient Plot Device? Who knows.

Lining either side of the large walkway were numerous shops that sold everything from toys and books to sports gear and shoes, to clothing and sunglasses. It was a very large mall, with somewhere around a hundred stores so there was a lot of variety.

Milling around the store, walking and chatting with their friends or just going it alone, were all kinds of people. Kevin could see everything from businessmen talking on their cellphones to goths that looked very similar to new aged Vampires with their dark clothes, heavy amounts of eye shadow, mascara and the ridiculous amount of sparkles that made them look like they had been shot several hundred times with a glitter canon. The mall was a place where all kinds of people could go to relax and enjoy some down time.

"You seem awfully excited," Kevin tried to make conversation so he could ignore the stares and his own burning face. Both were hard to ignore, especially since half the reason for his face was due to the stares.

It should be noted that a number of those staring were men, and the ones not actually glaring at Kevin were staring at Lilian, not him. He just didn't know that because he had his own problems to deal with.

Meanwhile, the women those men were with were glaring at their boyfriends/lovers/significant others for their staring... that, or they were glaring at Lilian for being the cause of their boyfriends/lovers/significant others staring. It was almost like they were blaming her for being hotter than they were.

Strange right?

A good few of the men that were blatantly ogling Lilian ended up receiving a smack to the back of the head when they were caught staring at certain parts of the red head's anatomy that they really shouldn't be staring at.

Still keeping herself latched onto his arm as they walked side by side, Lilian stopped her enthusiastic gawking of the mall and turned her head to look at him.

"I've never been to such a big shopping center before," Lilian informed him, her voice sounded just as excited as the light of wonder in her eyes looked. Kevin was surprised. What girl had never been to a mall before? Girls were supposed to love malls! "The town I grew up in was very small. I think there were only a couple hundred people living there all together. We didn't have a mall, just a grocery store, a clothing store, and a couple of places to eat."

"I see," Kevin mumbled as he tried to shift out of Lilian's grip. No luck. The girl was stronger than she looked, and she was latched onto him like some kind of leech. "You mentioned you were from Greece." Lilian absently nodded as she went back to looking around the mall with an almost childlike eagerness. "How come you're so good at speaking English? I would have thought you'd at least have an accent or something. If you hadn't told me you were from Greece, I would have never believed you were Greek."

"Technically, I'm not Greek. I think I told you my mom is English. We just moved to Greece before I gained my second tail, so I don't remember much of my time in England.”

Chagrined, Kevin said, “Ah, right. Sorry.”

“
It's fine." When Lilian smiled at him, he flushed red and looked away. "The reason we can understand each other and I don't have an accent is because I'm a Kitsune." When he looked back to give her with an expression that quite clearly said “I'm confused” she elaborated by saying, "Kitsune are blessed by Lord Inari with the ability to understand any language spoken to us so that we can better integrate ourselves into human society no matter what country we live in. This ability works both ways, so the people we are talking to understand us no matter what language we're speaking."

She grinned at him, and for the first time since meeting her, Kevin got a glance at her sharper than average canines.

"For example, I bet you think I'm speaking English, right?"

"Well... yeah..."

"Thought so." Lilian nodded her head. "The truth is, right now, I'm speaking Greek. You just hear it as English because that's your native language. If your native language was German, you'd hear me speaking German. Same with Japanese, Mandarin or any other language you could think of."

"That's pretty convenient."

"The Author felt it would have been a waste of his word count to create a chapter centered around us trying to figure out what the other was saying because of something like a language barrier."

Even though such a scene would have been awesome.

"It would have definitely been funny," Lilian agreed.

"Who are you talking to?" Kevin asked suspiciously.

"No one."

"No one?" Kevin eyed the girl with a look that clearly said “I don't believe you.” There was something very odd about this girl... fox... fox-girl. Whatever she was.

"No one," Lilian nodded her head in affirmation. Kevin decided to drop the issue. A part of him was sure he didn't want to know.

"So Kitsune have the ability to break all language barriers," Kevin got back to the topic at hand. It was interesting. And it kept him from thinking about other things. Things that could easily be considered morally reprehensible or at least morally ambiguous, which was always a plus.

"Not just Kitsune." Lilian shook her head. "All Yōkai have this ability. The only difference between our ability and theirs is that ours comes from our patron god, Lord Inari, while other Yōkai gain their abilities from their respective patron gods."

"Huh?" Kevin blinked in surprise. "So wait, there are other supernatural creatures out there besides Kitsune?" He ignored the gods part, as in plural, more than one. Kevin was not what you would call a devout Christian or anything, but the idea of there actually being multiple gods was just too much for him to take in at the moment.

"Of course," Lilian said as if the answer to that question should have been obvious, even though, you know, it wasn't. At least not to a human who has just been introduced to the world of Yōkai. "Aside from Kitsune, there are Kappas, Nekomata, Oni, Ookami, Yuki-onna... Inu." Her nose wrinkled slightly, as if she had smelled something foul. "There are a large number of Yōkai in this world. So many that even though our matriarch has been teaching me as much as she can about the various races, I still don't know all of them."

"Huh," Kevin scratched the back of his head with his free hand. "You learn something new everyday, I guess." Having satiated his curiosity for now, Kevin decided to get back to the reason they had come here in the first place. "Anyways, we should probably check out one of these stores..." He looked around at the different clothing shops with a frown. " Although, I'm not sure which shop we should go to first―Woah!"

And just like that, Kevin's and Lilian's shopping excursion began in earnest as Lilian, her enthusiasm at the thought of shopping in a real mall overpowering her, began dragging the poor, shy boy by the arm.

They walked from store to store, looking at everything. Lilian was all smiles as they moved about the mall: it seemed that even fox-girls had the fascination with shopping that normal girls have.

The first shop Lilian dragged Kevin into was The Gap, which just happened to be the closest clothing store near them. Kevin had shopped there on occasion. The jeans he was currently wearing were actually from there.

It was at this store that Kevin got his first experience in shopping with a woman that was not his mom.

The first thing he discovered about shopping with a girl was that it was just as bad as every guy who ever complained about shopping with their girlfriend said it was. Of course, seeing as this was Kevin, his reasons for not liking the idea of shopping with a female were completely different than most of the other guys. Other men just didn't like being used as a pack mule to carry around all the clothing their girlfriend's bought. Kevin honestly didn't mind that part. It was certain... other parts about shopping with a female that caused him trouble.

The second thing he discovered about shopping with Lilian, and part of the reason he was not enjoying the experience one bit, was due to Lilian's sense of fashion. It wasn't that she had a bad fashion sense. Quite the contrary. It was just that the clothes she enjoyed wearing were the kinds of clothing that made Kevin's face and body feel all kinds of hot.