Keeping a Kitsune Ch. 02

This was a hard chapter to get right, with some tricky evolution in Jason and Chiyo's characters. There's a lot they still have to figure out, but hopefully I did a decent job with this chapter. I'm really curious to see what people think in the comments about both of them.

*****

I kicked the door closed behind me and dropped my bags to the floor. "Welcome home, Chiyo."

My fox spirit looked around curiously, holding my arm to help keep her weight off her broken leg. My apartment was a loft in a converted warehouse; a giant open space with a high ceiling, no walls except for the bathroom in the far corner. The main area contained an open kitchen and an assortment of couches and chairs scattered around. There weren't clear definitions, but I had grouped things to divide the loft into rough quarters. To the right of the entrance, an open kitchen and a large dining table. To the left, there was the bathroom, washer/dryer, my computer desk and wardrobes and storage. Above that I'd built a large elevated wooden platform that served as my bedroom, reachable by a ladder. The far side of the loft was the social space - entertainment center and couches, fully stocked bar, foosball table, etc. The far corner was my home gym, with a punching bag and a weight bench.

I nudged Chiyo to balance on her own while I knelt down and unlaced my hiking boots, tossing them over to land in the pile with the rest of my shoes. Standing up again, I scooped Chiyo into my arms and carried her over to my favorite chair, a big leather recliner near the TV. I lowered her into it and pulled up the footrest so she could rest her leg.

"So, what do you think of your new den?"

"It's . . . big? And kind of messy."

"I'm a bachelor; I'm allowed to be messy." I was a little disappointed in her reaction; I'm proud of my bachelor pad. I don't know why I'd expected her to ooh and aah over how cool it was like a chick I brought home from the bar. The only human habitation she had to compare it to was the motel room we'd fucked in earlier in the day.

"So, this is . . . home?"

"Yeah, this is where I live, and where you live, now. I'm going to make some coffee, you want some?"

"Coffee is . . . a bitter drink that keeps you awake? We're not going to sleep yet?" She yawned and stretched, squirming into a more comfortable position on the recliner.

"I'm not. It's past three in the morning and I have to start trying to figure out what to do about Kylie and getting your pearl back. We're going to need to go out again in a few hours anyway to see a doctor about your leg; I'd rather get a head start on things. If you want to try and nap for a bit you can, or you can stay up and talk with me while I work."

As I spoke, I busied myself measuring water and beans into the coffee maker. I always make a full pot whenever I make coffee, and just pour out the extra if I don't finish it. I don't know why I do it that way; it's just what I do.

"I'll stay up with you, Master. Talking sounds good; we haven't done much of that yet."

She was right about that. After I trapped her, she'd been too frightened to talk much as we worked our way down the mountain. Then there'd been the encounter with that cop, then the motel which had mostly been us fucking and her napping. Then we'd had the run in with Kylie in the parking lot, where Kylie and I had carried the majority of the conversation. Chiyo's main contributions had been admitting that she was a Kitsune and asking Kylie to hit me with the shock gun after Kylie stole Chiyo's pearl from me.

I hadn't spoken to Chiyo after I recovered from the shock except for short instructions. It's pretty much impossible to carry on a conversation while you're roaring down a highway on a motorcycle, and I hadn't felt like talking during our brief stop to charge the battery.

I heard a cute little growl of frustration over the sound of coffee brewing and turned around from the coffee pot to look at Chiyo. My breath caught in my throat. She'd taken off my shirt, folding it and setting it on the arm of the chair, and had my pants mostly off, bunched up around the knee of her bad leg where she was trying to work them over the splint. She was sitting on one hip so she wouldn't crush her tails, and her nude body was facing me, her thighs open as she wrestled with the pants. Pale skin, lean muscles, perky breasts, the triangle of very dark orange hair between her legs that matched the short mop on her head . . . I was instantly filled with the same urgent need to possess her that I'd had when I saw her bathing in her little mountain lake.

"Jesus, Chiyo, what are you doing?"

She looked up at me in confusion. "This is home. You said I could take these ugly clothes off as soon as we got home. Did I do something wrong?"

"Yeah, I guess I did say that, but if you're sitting around my place naked, I'm going to have a really hard time not fucking you."

"Okay." She turned her attention back to working the pants over her splint, wincing in pain as she jostled her leg.

"Stop, stop, let me help. You're going to hurt yourself."

I walked over and carefully lifted her leg, sliding the pants over the splint as gently as I could. I set her leg back down gently, tearing my eyes off her tits and looking at the wall.

"Um, I'll dig through my clothes and see if I can find something you like better. Let me grab you a blanket or something while I do that."

"A blanket sounds nice I guess. Why do you want me to cover up though? I thought you liked looking at me naked."

"I do, I really, really do. But like I said, looking at you naked makes it hard for me to not just grab you and fuck your brains out."

"I don't understand. Isn't that why you captured me? So you could fuck me?"

Fuck me; this was going to be a hard conversation. I pulled a footstool over and sat on it, burying my face in my hands, trying to figure out how to answer that.

"Yeah, I guess it is why I trapped you, but I was thinking about it while we drove back. I don't like what Kylie did; we don't know anything about her, and I absolutely don't trust her to have your pearl. But she did have a point; keeping you as a sex slave is kind of a shitty thing to do. I wasn't really thinking about it like that at first; I was thinking of you as a thing, not a person. And you're not a human, but you are kind of a person."

"I don't really know what to do with you. I have to own you; Kitsune aren't allowed to run free, and any other owner would just make you a sex slave. And you're dangerous enough that I need to keep tight control of you to keep myself safe. But I was thinking I could treat you better. Even though I don't trust Kylie at all, when she told me to act like a decent human being . . . that kind of struck a nerve. So, I decided while I was driving that I was going to try and be a little more decent, and not just bend you over and fuck you whenever I felt like it."

"Oh."

It took an effort to turn back and look her in the face. I'd spent part of the ride coming up with ideas on how to track down Kylie, but most of the trip had been spent wrestling my new bout of conscience. Society said that owning Kitsune was the right way to control them and keep their species alive while keeping our own safe, but who says society really knows what's right?

Kylie's belief that I was a sex criminal had really done a number on me; I always thought of myself as a good guy. Yeah I was a bit of man whore, but I'd never slept with a girl who didn't want it. And if I thought of Chiyo as a human girl instead of the scary yet sexy non-human society painted her as, I had to confront the fact that I'd basically raped her multiple times.

I couldn't get that thought out of my head the whole drive back. And I couldn't live with the thought of myself as a rapist. So I'd decided I would take care of Chiyo, I would register myself as her owner to protect her from the rest of the human world, but I wouldn't force myself on her anymore. I wasn't brave enough to say all that to her, so I'd mumbled out what I could bring myself to say. And all of that was in my head as I turned around to look at her and see how she'd react.

I couldn't read the expression on Chiyo's face. She was watching me very carefully, still the wounded animal trapped by the larger predator. Eventually I broke the silence.

"Um . . . what do you think about that idea?"

She paused before she responded, carefully marshalling her thoughts. "I think it's good that you realized I'm a person. Capturing me and keeping me as a slave was a shitty thing to do, and it's good you admit it. But I don't know what you want to do now. You still brought me to your home. Are you still my Master? Are . . . are you going to set me free?" She bit her lip nervously and lowered her eyes, but I saw the tiny flare of hope there before she hid it.

I hung my head in shame. "You definitely don't have to call me Master anymore. Um, my name is Jason. Jason Wiggins. You can call me Jason. I . . . I don't know about setting you free, I'm sorry. You know that I can't set you free before we get your pearl back from Kylie; as long as she has it you'll never really be free. And I have to register you while we do look for your pearl, otherwise you'll get arrested or someone else will claim you. There's no legal way for your kind to be free, but I'll try and treat you as well as I can. And part of that means . . . I shouldn't fuck you unless you want me to."

My throat tightened as I said it. Even sitting there stewing in guilt for catching and raping her, all I really wanted to do was fuck her again. But I couldn't keep being a rapist, and saying it out loud would help me control myself.

Chiyo watched me quietly while I spoke; when I made myself meet her eyes again, she nodded slightly.

"I don't want to be your slave, Jason. I don't really know anything about the human world, but I think that maybe . . . maybe if you were willing to, you'd find a way to set me free, but you're not willing to do it. And maybe you'll punish me for saying this, but as long as you're not willing to set me free, I'll never forgive you for making me a slave."

I swallowed around a painful lump that had suddenly appeared in my throat.

"That's a perfectly fair thing to say. I won't punish you for that. And you're right, maybe there is a way and I'm just not willing to do it. For now, I'm just going to focus on trying to get your pearl back and keep you safe. I . . . I promise you we'll talk about your freedom again once I have your pearl back, if you still want to be free then."

Chiyo pushed herself a little higher so her face was level with mine. "So you're still my Master then. Maybe, some day in the future you won't be, but that's up to you, not me. I'm not that smart but I know I'm powerless here. I'm hurt, I don't have my magic, and now I'm trapped in a city full of humans a long way from my home. It's nice that you want to treat me better, and I really am grateful for it. But I'm still your slave anyway. You don't get to pretend that I'm not your slave if you're not committed to setting me free. So if you feel bad about owning me, that's good and you should keep feeling bad."

I could tell it took an effort of courage for her to say that. She was trembling as she finished, but she met my eyes the whole time. I suddenly realized I didn't really know her at all, despite spending the last two days basically joined at the hip with her. Saying something like that, confessing her total lack of power and turning it into a weapon to tear at my pretension of decency - I was humbled in her presence.

Then she really blew my mind as she forced a shaky grin and lay back in the recliner. "But Jason, if you're worried about the sex, don't worry about it. I like fucking, it's fun and I don't want to stop doing it just because you're feeling guilty. Well, most of the sex; you know I don't like gagging on cocks. Humans all wanting to treat me like a slave sucks, but the sex thing is an even better invention than toilets. You can go ahead and stare at my tits whenever you want, I know they're pretty and I like it when you look at them."

She stretched her arms up and pushed her chest out, shaking her breasts at me. I stared at them like a thirteen year old seeing his first nudie photo online. I slowly reached up and crossed myself, saying a silent prayer of thanks. I don't really think of myself as Catholic anymore, but that was mana from Heaven. Yes, I felt guilty about owning Chiyo, and I would keep feeling guilty about it. But she was okay with having sex; hell, she wanted to fuck! God was merciful to a sinner like me. I slid off the footstool and knelt at her feet, looking up at her.

"Chiyo, I want to promise you I'll set you free as soon as I can. But I don't make promises I can't keep, and I don't know if I can keep that one - maybe there's no way to do it, maybe I won't be strong enough to do it when the time comes. You're right, I should feel guilty about that, and I do. I'll try and use that guilt as a motivation, try and use it to make myself a better person. But I do swear this, right now, by the spirit of the muskrat. I will always ask your permission before we have sex. That being said, may I please lick your pussy right now until you scream in orgasm?"

Chiyo looked down at me and slowly lifted her good leg over the arm of the chair, opening her pussy for me. She slipped her hand between her legs and stroked herself lightly, then looked me right in the eyes and slowly, shakily whispered "No."

"What?"

"I want to you lick me out, but more than that I want to see if your promise is worth anything. You said a lot of things right now. I want to see how much I can trust them."

I groaned and sat back on my heels. She was right. The path to a new, better Jason meant blue-balling myself if she said so. I'd made an oath. The fact that this was hopefully only temporary was something I clung to in order to give me strength.

"Okay. You want that coffee now?"

"Sure."

I got up and walked back to the coffee maker, my erection straining in my pants. Be good, Jason, be good. "You take cream or sugar in your coffee?"

"I don't know; I've never had it before."

That didn't make sense. "How did you know it's a bitter drink that keeps you awake if you've never had it before?"

"Because that's what the word means."

I paused, mug in hand, and turned to look at her again. "Wait a minute, had you ever heard the word 'coffee' before I asked if you wanted some?"

"No, why would I have heard it before? I've lived my whole life in a mountain valley."

"So you're telling me you can just hear a word and know what it means, without any background or context."

"Yeah, how else would I have been talking with you this whole time?"

"Banana."

"Fruit, shaped kind of like your dick except curvy. Green or yellow colored."

"Internet."

"Human invention for sharing knowledge and pornography? I'm not sure; it's kind of a big concept."

"DNA."

"Chemicals that serve as code to make people and animals what they are? Again, a little fuzzy on the details. Chemicals are . . . tiny things that make up the building blocks of everything else? That's really interesting, I had no idea the world worked that way."

"Holy fucking shit."

"I know what all those words mean by themselves, but you're using it as an expression of disbelief. Why, do humans not know what their words mean? That can't be right, you're talking to me. Why are you confused?"

"No, we know what the words mean, but we have to learn them one by one, in context. Someone had to teach all the words to me as I grew up. Sometimes I still run into words that I don't know and have to ask what they mean."

"Wow, that's really inefficient. I can't believe your species conquered the world with a handicap like that."

"Human and non-human history and how the world arrived at its current state is a conversation for another day. For now, just believe me when I say that the way you learn words is magical, not natural. How are you doing it without my permission?"

"It's not an active magic, like changing my shape. It's just part of who I am, like my tails."

"Huh. Magic is weird. Returning to our original conversation, I'm going to pour you a cup of black coffee with plenty of room and put some cream and sugar on the side, so you can try out both ways."

I poured myself a mug of black coffee, then made up a little tray for Chiyo and carried it out to her. I showed her how to flip up and lock the tray under the arm of her chair (one of the many reasons it's my favorite chair) then set the tray down.

"Don't drink it like water, it's hot. Just take a sip."

She carefully picked up the mug and took a sip. "Eww, that's terrible!"

"Yeah, it's a bit of an acquired taste. Try mixing in a scoop of sugar and some cream."

Chiyo wrinkled her nose but experimented with it. By the time she got a mixture that she declared acceptable, it was probably an equal mixture of cream, sugar, and coffee. She sipped at it contentedly and made a cute little noise of satisfaction. I dug up a blanket and brought it over.

"Please, tuck yourself under this. For my sake if not for yours."

Chiyo glanced at my erection and grinned, but took the blanket and snuggled up under it. "Thank you Jason. Both for the blanket and for keeping your word."

"You're welcome, Chiyo. I've got some more Ibuprofen for you too. Are you comfortable?"

"Yeah, pretty cozy, actually. Leg still hurts of course but not much I can do about that. This is nice, I kind of feel like I'm snuggled back in my den. And the coffee is nice and warm now that I fixed the taste."

"It's an insult to call what you're currently drinking coffee. I'm going to start trying to track down Kylie. Let me know if you need anything."

She murmured assent as I settled down at my desk and booted up my main computer. I logged into my work account and went through the remote authentication protocol while I sipped at my own mug of honest black coffee. I work for a private security company; I got the job fresh out of college through a recommendation from my aunt who also works for them - it sounded fun and living abroad was appealing.

My aunt's ex-military, like most of my co-workers. In fact, most of my family members are active or ex-military. I'm the odd duck out; not that I have anything against the military, I just figured that my two older brothers were taking care of keeping up the family tradition and I was more interested in software and IT. I promised my parents that I'd enlist if there was ever a real shooting war and they had to settle for that. In the meantime, I do tactical simulations and threat analysis for my firm's clients.

Threat analysis means combing the social networks of the client and looking for anyone who might have a grudge (there are lots) and might be able to act on it (a more manageable number). My company has a lot of tools to let me research these potential threats. Some are licensed integrations with law enforcement databases that we pay for, and some are a little less legal. If I have a starting point, I can find out way more details about someone than I should be able to. The problem was that I didn't have much of a starting point on Kylie. I'd checked at the front desk after I recovered from being hit with the shock pistol and she'd been renting her room by the hour off the books for cash.

As a quick aside for those of you who've never been a receiving end of an ND4, it's basically an electrically induced seizure. Kylie shooting me was the second time I've enjoyed the experience; the first was during orientation for my job. At least the first time they made sure I didn't have a history of heart problems or any other complications, and I got to take it sitting down and wearing a mouth guard. You can't just get one of those things at the store like you can with a civilian taser. Anyway, I lived through Kylie's shot in decent shape - sore all over from the muscle spasms, bruises from the fall, mild burns on my stomach where the prongs went through my shirt to make contact for the happy volts. Annoyances, but nothing major.