-Unexpected tidings-
Preston sighed as he began to lie down on the couch inside of his apartment. Staring down at the small fox that he had found not all that long ago. In fact he had just came across it this afternoon, and it was entirely by chance as well. He had just been leaving the nearby town for the American base when he had stumbled upon it. The creature looked rather tiny and cute at that point in time. Even more so it looked and acted tame towards him, if the fact that it had allowed Preston to pet it was any indication. Of course it was probably that small action that had caused the tiny fox to start following him, always looking up at him with expectant and almost intelligent and mischievous looking eyes. And it hadn't mattered where he went either, whether it was a trip to the grocers or just simply getting into his car. The canine had continued to follow him. It had gotten to the point where Preston was becoming seriously afraid of the small thing. A thought that was extremely ridiculous considering everything that he had been through.
As he continued to stare at the fox, the soldier began to realize that he hadn't even checked to see if it was male or female. Reaching down, he gently began to scratch behind its ears. Of all of the things that Preston could have guessed that he would gain from his stay in the country of Japan, a fox was not one of them. And yet, as he continued to pet the animal he began to figure that he might as well keep it as a pet. After all, it did seem tame enough. Plus all Preston would have to do is take it in to a vet to have the creature looked at. Who knows, perhaps it was someone else's pet fox that had gotten loose. That explanation would certainly…well, explain quite a few things as to the fox's nature.
Still as Preston had continued to pet the creature's blood-red fur, he started to feel that there was something more to the creature than just that. The way it had looked at him, the way the creature seemed to hold a level of intelligence akin to that of a human's. Although now that he had thought about it, he was probably just thinking too much over the seemingly unimportant matter. He had been doing that quite a bit in recent days, ever since his adventures in Bad-company had ended, along with the war. There just didn't seem to be all that much to really do anymore. Aside from the obvious, of course, which was not exactly something that he had been enjoying all that much.
Slowly, ever so slowly, he allowed his mind to wander until his began to slowly close. Letting his hand continue to rest on the small fox as it climbed up on to his chest and curled up into a small ball of fur and fluff. Eventually his petting had ceased, and Preston had finally drifted off into a dreamless sleep.
However he was soon awoken by a peculiar pressure on his body. It was not exactly the feeling of something pressing down on him. It had felt more like there was another body laying on his own. At first he would have ruled it as a possibility of it being that little fox whom had fallen asleep with him. But that idea was quickly thrown out of the window, as the body on top of him was much too large and heavy, as well as womanly, to be that of the fox. And so his eyes began to slowly open themselves up, only to be greeted by the sight of red hair obscuring his vision.
Leaning his head away from the other…person's? Preston was fairly certain that it was a person. In fact the size and shape of the body was, in fact, that of a human female's. However, there were still a few features that the soldier had noticed were most certainly NOT human. Namely the long, pointed ears and that large, bushy tail that, Preston was extremely certain it was doing, was twitching and covered in blood-red fur. And to make matters worse was the fact that the woman was completely and utterly naked. She had not one scrap of cloth anywhere on her body and her rather…large and generous breasts were pressing themselves against his own, clothed body.
This was…what?
Just who the hell was this woman!
Quickly, Preston began to sit up on the couch, an action that had caused the red-haired woman to let out a sound of surprise before she fell to the floor. Like wise to Preston's own, quick actions, she too began to sit up from her position on the floor, tail flicking left and right angrily at being disturbed, while her long, wild red hair was splayed all over her back, body and the floor. And as the woman looked up at him, Preston stared into her face. Everything about this woman was so, extremely bizarre. Her eyes were blood red and jet-black slit in the middle of them. While six black scars, or were they tattoos, Preston could not tell, adorned her cheeks with three on each cheek.
Preston immediately shot up into a standing position before backing away from the woman. He had no idea why he was so intimidated by this slender lady, but something about just screamed inhuman to him. And it wasn't just her features either. "Wh-who are you? And how and why are you in my apartment!" He practically shouted at her, watching as the woman looked at him with a mixture of anger, curiosity and mischief. A look that Preston could only guess would mean trouble for him and anyone else around. Watching as the woman began to stretch out her body, much like a feline who hadn't just been tossed off of him and on to the floor. Blushing brightly as the redhead's chest and slender body became more exposed to him, a result of her arms stretching up and into the air.
Almost immediately after she didn't respond to his question, Preston opened his mouth to try and coax an answer out of the woman. And that was when a strong, and yet strangely soft, voice filled the air. "Hm…. you woke me up. You're not exactly a very good pillow." The words were English, something that Preston had thanked her for considering that he was not entirely fluent in the Japanese language yet.
The voice had belonged to the beautiful woman in front of him, and while her words had angered him further, Preston couldn't find it in himself to yell at her once more. How could he when the woman had such a beautiful voice? The sound of the woman's voice was like the tinkling of a bell in his ears, or the voice of a mother songbird, getting his blush to grow even redder and brighter than before. Which was something that the strange woman seemed to have noticed, if the widening of her grin was anything to go by.
Still, beautiful voice or no the woman was an intruder in his home and had to be dealt with accordingly. "I asked you a question." His voice had a sharp edge to it, even if it was not raised in anger. However the woman did not seem all that bothered by it at all and began to stand up for a second or two before slowly sliding onto his couch.
"Yes, yes I suppose you did." The woman said. And despite her rather beautiful voice, Preston had managed to pick up on the faint trances of some strange accent. It sounded a tad like Japanese, but at the same time it wasn't. And that was yet another thing that had bothered him about the woman, and yet, at the same time, made her mysterious personage to grow.
"Very well," The woman said. "I shall answer your questions then. To start off with, I have been here for a while now. In fact, you had even allowed me entrance into your…home." She said the word home with a slight grimacing look before continuing. "As for who I am. Most humans tend to refer to me as Kyuubi."
Her words made him raise an eyebrow at her. He let her in? Preston was rather certain that he had done no such thing. In fact, he almost never lets anyone enter his apartment anymore, unless they had some sort of business being here. And then there was the problem with what she had called herself. Preston was fairly certain that he had heard that term used before in his study of Japanese culture before arriving in the country itself. It was the name of a fox, wasn't it? Whatever, it seemed like the woman had taken his few seconds of silence as a sign for her to continue.
"I can see that you are having a hard time believing me. You are possibly even thinking me to be mad. However I can assure you that I am neither lying nor am I insane, Preston." The entire time she had been speaking that grin of hers had never left her face for even a split second. It was unnerving to the soldier, as the woman seemed to genuinely believe everything that had come out of her mouth. But that was not what had set off alarm bells in his head. What had done that was the fact that the woman had known his name.
Narrowing his eyes as he looked at the still naked woman, blush now gone. "How do y-."
"Know your name?" Kyuubi had cut off his sentence, her smile turning morphing slowly into a slightly disturbed and sly one. "Why, you had told it to me yourself. Don't you remember? When you first attempted to pat my head at the street corner?"
Preston just continued to stare at her; she wasn't serious, was she? But the look on the woman's face said that she really was extremely serious of what she had just said. "You're telling me, that you are that little fox that I had found earlier today?" His own look morphed into one of disbelief. However, when that woman nodded her head, seemingly happy that he had figured it out on his own. The thought that she had also believed this had left Preston baffled, from a supernatural stand point such a thing would make perfect sense. But from a much more logical one, one that Preston was most used to thinking, such a thing was preposterous and laughable.
The smile on the woman's face did not change though, and the only change in her body movement was that of the twitching tail that had swayed back and forth in an erratic pattern of movement. "I can tell that you are having a hard time believing me." Kyuubi stated, her eyes still filled with mirth at his confusion and anger.
"Then, perhaps I should give you more of a reason to believe me than just my words alone." Those words had caused Preston to nod his head and stare at her expectantly with arms crossed over his chest. Watching her smile turn almost manic, sending the soldier even more on edge and causing his body to tense. But nothing could prepare him for what he was about to witness happen next.
Watching as the woman closes her eyes, allowing Preston to start sneaking backwards, eyes fixed on the small stand next to the couch which had a pistol hidden inside the drawer. But just as he was about to reach down and open the drawer, his eyes caught the movement of something red. At first he had just figured that it was the woman's hair. But a second later had proven him wrong. It looked like a tendril of visible, crimson red wind that was moving in a spiral up and around the woman's body. Preston couldn't help but to stop and stare. To him it looked strange as well as unearthly. Almost as if every fiber of the woman's body and spirit was being called up to show itself in the physical realm of mortals. After about five seconds of this Preston became aware of a sizzling sound, making him worry that what this woman was doing would potentially cause a fire. Which was something that he really did not wish to deal with. He started to contemplate on stopping her before a puff of smoke appeared around the woman's frame.
Coughing as the white smoke began to spread itself around the living room before quickly dissipating into the air. Letting his eyes sweep around the room before landing on the little fox, who was currently sitting where the woman had been before. The small canine gave a yip at him before walking towards him and looking up at Preston with, what could be called, a sly grin on its face. Just what on Earth was that woman attempting to pull? That had to have just been some sort of illusion, a magic trick of sorts! Or at least that was what he had thought until the fox opened its, her, mouth and actually began to talk to him. Talk to him in words that he could understand, and a voice that was all too familiar to Preston.
"So, Preston, do you believe me now~?" At those words, he began to nod his head in a shaky manner, which had caused Kyuubi to let out a laugh at his expense. Honestly, humans in this world amused her.
For once in his life, Preston was not certain how to make heads or tails of this situation. Sure he had actually managed to outrun the US military once, and had destroyed a good chunk of the Russian military. But this situation…this situation was entirely new to him. He is a soldier, not some sort of paranormal investigator or a witch. He had absolutely no idea of how deal with this new find. The only idea that he could think of at the moment was to, strangely enough, act like a host treating a guest.
"Um, er…w-wait here for a moment." He said before taking off towards his room, with Kyuubi staring after him curiously. After a minute or so later, Preston rushed back into the living room, carrying an arm full of clothes. More specifically he came back with a gray shirt with big, bold, black letters on it that proudly stated ARMY, along with a pair of jeans and a belt. "A-alright, um, could you change back…ya know, into a human?" He quietly questioned.
Nodding her head and a puff of smoke later, Kyuubi found herself back into her human form and sitting cross-legged on the floor of the apartment. Hazarding to walk closer to the woman before kneeling down in front of her, holding the clothes in front of him. "Here, you can wear these for now." Preston said, holding out the clothing for her to take.
And with that the sly grin had returned to her pink lips once more. "Oh~? So you wish to allow a woman to wear your clothes is it? You are quite the charmer, Preston." She began to chuckle before putting on the offered clothing, listening to him sputter and stutter out half-baked words and sentences. Really, he was beginning to prove to be a most amusing man thus far.
Turning around to let her get a sense of privacy as she dressed, while also using the time to gather his thoughts on the situation. 'So,' Preston thought to himself, 'I had found a cute fox earlier today who later turned out to be an incredibly beautiful woman later on. And now that said woman is standing in my living room, getting dressed in my clothes. So…what to do?'
His thoughts continued for a few more moments before Kyuubi had finally finished dressing herself. And then he sighed as he noticed her having trouble with the belt. Walking closer to the woman before reaching a hand down to wordlessly try and help her with the strip of leather. Wrapping his arms around her to loop the belt through the holes, while taking notice of the fact that her tail was sticking out of the top of the pants. After finishing with her help, Preston backed away from her, lest she tease him once more. Taking in her image with her in his clothes, before finding himself having to hold back a look or sound of amusement. His clothing was much, much to large for the woman's slender frame. The shirt hung around her body like a loose cloak, while the pants were so long that Preston was afraid the woman would end up tripping over them if she even tried walking. Sighing as he had begun to believe that he would have to go out and buy her some clothing of her own if she was going to spend any time as a human.
But clothing aside it was back to business as usual. "Alright, now that you're dressed let's sit down so that I can ask you a question that has been bugging me." He said while motioning back towards the couch before setting himself down and watching as the woman followed suite. In truth Kyuubi was relatively curious as to what other questions he had. After all, the human could ask her almost anything that came to his mind. From what she is to-
"Why did you follow me home?" …to the one that he had just asked actually. Humming as she acted like she was thinking his question over. In reality there was no need to do such a thing. Kyuubi already knew why she had followed him back to his lonely apartment. Although the demon fox figured that she may as well put on a show for him.
"Hm…I suppose you could say that I had just found you interesting is all. It is not every day that a human pets a fox that they had just met on the side of a road. Or even allowed that creature to follow their every move." She had told him just a part of the truth though. No matter how interesting the man may be, he was still just another human to her. And thus Preston was just another face in the crowd. However, in recent days she had found herself growing incredibly bored. After that last, human war had ended and the Russian's pushed out of Japan and Asia as a whole, Kyuubi had found things to have become quite dull.
In other words, this entire situation was most certainly not a coincidence like Preston was making it out to be. But by Kyuubi's own design and wish. Of course the soldier did not need to know or worry about such a thing. All he needed to know was what was happening now. And that would be good enough for both Kyuubi and Preston.
Studying the woman intently before nodding his head in thought. Lying back down on the couch while staring up at the ceiling, wondering just what he had gotten himself into this time. Normally now a days Preston considered his adventuring days to be done with, and he could just lay back and do what normal soldiers do on a daily basis during times of peace.
Still as he looked back towards the woman, who was looking back at him in curiosity as to what he was going to be doing next, Preston felt like he perhaps did have a bit of excitement left in him to go on one last, life adventure. And then a thought hit him, Kyuubi…Kyuubi. That didn't sound like a name to him at all, more like a title or classification of some sort. "Hey, er…Kyuubi. You wouldn't happen to have any other names, would you?" He just had to ask, although if she did Preston did not really believe that she would actually tell him what that name is.
Kyuubi, for the most part, looked at him with a small bit of surprise etched on her face. So, the human decided that Kyuubi was not her only name did he? Or perhaps it was just him using his brain to work out the name's meaning. Whatever the case her look changed from mildly surprised to one that could not be rightly described. Her mouth had turned back into one, large and toothy grin. Only it was neither her mischievous or sly smile. But at the same time it was not exactly happy, angry or even feral. It was a smile meant to be playful, although it looked far from being playful. And in one fluid motion, she laid her body down on top of Preston's once again. This time with her face planted against his muscular chest, cuddling against him and breathing in his distinct scent.
To her, he smelled extremely clean. Like he actually takes care of his body and regularly showers and baths. There was also the smell coming from his shirt as well, the sweet fragrance of laundry detergent had also mixed in and added to his clean smelling body. However, there was much more to his smell than that. She could also make out the faint stench of the blood that ran through his veins, distributing their precious cargo throughout his body. Continuing to snuggle against his warm body, now with his scent fresh inside of her mind, before considering his question. Peeking up at the man with her red, eyes as she contemplated on telling him one of the most precious things that she can call her own.
Finally, after three whole minutes of thinking it over, Kyuubi gave a nod of her head. "I do. Would you like to hear it?" She asked, still looking up at him, gazing deep into his steel-gray eyes.
Preston too held her gaze. It was as he thought; the name 'Kyuubi' must have only been a title or classification, and therefore not her real name. Thinking over the fox-woman's question as to whether or not he wanted to know her name. Though the answer itself was rather simple and came to him almost as immediately as the beautiful woman had asked it. "Yes, I would like that."
Once again the woman nodded her head lazily while still looking up at him. While she did not seem all that interested in the prospect of having to tell anyone, much less a human, her name. Kyuubi's tale did begin swaying around excitedly, while betraying her nonchalant attitude. "Very well, listen closely for I will only tell you this once." Leaning up and pressing her lips near his ear, causing Preston to tense up slightly. "My name is…Kurama." Shivering as he felt her warm breath brush against his ear before the woman pulled back.
Watching her place her head back down on his chest and gaze up at him with her red eyes, judging his reaction to learning her name. Looking back into her eyes while repeating her name over and over in his head so he does not forget it. "Kurama…" He said, testing out the name on his tongue. "It's nice to meet you, Kurama. I am Sergeant Preston Marlowe."
If one were to look carefully they may have seen a soft smile form on Kurama's lips as she heard her name being spoken for the first time in a long time, by someone other than herself or the other tailed beasts. It was nice, she had decided, and it only made Preston seem ever more interesting to her. Silently she made up her mind to find out more about this man, this Preston Marlowe and see exactly why it was that the man was so interesting. While Preston himself continued to gaze into those red eyes of the woman on top of him, wondering once more just what it was that he had gotten himself into this time.
{Author's note: So it's been a while since I had last posted a story here. Anyway for those of you who are curious, this story was based on an RP that I had a little while back and had only just remembered it. Of course this is mostly meant to be a one-shot type deal. But I may make it a full story and would like your guys input on it. If you do wish for me to try and make it a complete story, I have set up a poll in my profile. Which features all of the story ideas that I have had recently. The problem is that I just can't decide which I should work on. So for those of you who are interested then go ahead and vote! The polls will be closing by around February 8th.}