I hope you're loving this so far. :3. The cover picture gave me a couple of ideas. the next thing I knew, this happened. Enjoy this for the cute. There are more chapters to come.
Updated to say that I wrote this to Avril Lavigne's "I'm With You."
I accidentally storied.
2nd SCENT: FREE
April 21st. Thursday. The shopping district. Close to midnight...
Inaba.
The city of endless rain.
Or at least that's what should be written beneath the 'Welcome To Yasoinaba' sign. "We Have Rain. And Steak. Mostly Rain."
Yu Narukami was at the tail end of the last group of shoppers to step out of Junes for the night. He opened his clear umbrella against another onslaught of brutal weather pounding the dimly lit streets of this sleepy little town. He could count the number of solid sunny days on both hands since he moved here a week ago. His parents had no other choice but to stuff a train ticket into his pocket dooming him to live in rural obscurity with an uncle he'd never met –or if he did, didn't remember. Yu would forget things from time to time like everyone else, but he was pretty sure the face of a family member would stick around. He was, after all, part of an extremely small family. Apparently staying with his uncle, Ryotaro Dojima, was the only option open to his parents even though Yu had insisted he wouldn't burn down the apartment while they were gone for a year in the states. Of course, being left with some kind of care giver –sometimes at a moments notice—was par for the course for his life. Why change the formula now when the outcome proved to yield predictable results every time?
He adjusted his grip on the plastic Junes bag in his free hand as he moved up the hill of the shopping district. Everything was closed. Inaba had rolled up its sidewalks for the day a few hours earlier.
He paused at the corner. If he turned right, it would take him twenty minutes to walk in the rain back to his uncle's house. If he turned left, it would take him thirty. However, if he took a shortcut through the Tatsuhime Shrine he'd discovered while wandering around alone one day, he could be there in fifteen, maybe less. He glanced to the right where a street lamp barely lit the entrance to a back alley behind the shops. It flickered and died.
He narrowed his eyes at the statistically fantastic timing. Through the shrine it is.
Being from the city had taught Yu how to survive when traveling alone at night. a) It was never a good idea to be out at night to begin with, and if so, you're a moron. b) stay on the lit side of the street, and c) make sure what you're carrying can be used as a weapon. Although Inaba had enough people to fill just one subway station in Okina city—maybe—it somehow warranted being called a 'town.' Probably because it had its own post office. He was relatively sure no malevolent shadows would take him out from the bushes, steal his bag of snacks and supplies for his little cousin, Nanako's, science project, and leave him bleeding on the shrine's cold, ancient steps.
He stopped under the dim, golden lantern light of the shrine anyway and slid a glance into the darkness. Yu exhaled in annoyance at his own actions. Paranoia had tagged itself to him from the city no matter how hard he tried to leave it behind. It was a constant companion he hoped to abandon if he ever wanted to trust anyone.
A fifteen minute walk in this weather was nothing. He started to move across the courtyard when a choked, high pitched sound caught his attention. He paused. Another, like a constricted 'yip' from a dog mixed with a shuttering sob followed. Yu turned back to face the dark hollow behind the offering box when yet another sound filtered out. If it was a feral animal, it could be dangerous. But if it was in need of help, he could at least call animal control to come get it.
Thunder threatened the town from the hills in the distance with lightning taking the lead. The storm would reach its apex of violence pretty soon and turn the Samegawa flood plain into a roaring river.
Yu moved forward beyond the protective circle of light, his palm tightening around the umbrella handle, his senses tuned and ready for danger. Suddenly, the small noises stopped The shrine thickened with a 'patter' chorus of rain against the stone and leaves of surrounding trees. Something rustled in an old, worn cardboard box marked 'FREE' in black paint. He moved forward cautiously to see around the offering box, and peered inside.
Two small, white-tipped, rust colored ears drooped on a shaggy mess of dark reddish-brown hair. The little creature was shaking.
His mouth slacked in shock when the animal turned big brown eyes his direction. It immediately scrambled to the opposite side of the box into a shadow cast by the shrine, its ears folded back in fear. Someone had put it into an oversized white long sleeved shirt that reached past its knees with a red v-neck collar. The darkness shaded most of its face. What kind of person would leave an animal in a box on a ferocious stormy night like this? Even if it is at a shrine, that was still a shitty move.
Yu set down the Junes bag to fish his phone out of his pocket. What he'd had in his hand drew enough curiosity for the box occupant to move with trepidation into the light. It placed its hands on the lip of the box, stretched up onto the toes of its bare feet to see over the edge, and looked up at him. His eyes widened as the initial shock returned
It was an animal—a fox—but it was also a kid. Yu had never seen anything of that combination before in his life. It had to be a child playing a game in costume. However, that idea quickly dissolved when the fox-boy's ears twitched. They and the tail were real. What kind of creature had he stumbled upon?
The two stared at each other for a long time through the storms thick sheet of silvery darts. The phone glowed a faint pale blue in Yu's hand.
What would he tell animal control? 'Hi, I found a fox-boy-thing in a box at the shrine. Can you guys come get it?' They'd hang up on him after laughing at the idiocy, then berate him about being out so late. It was nearly midnight.
He pocketed the phone.
Taking a risk, Yu reached out a hand.
It stepped back, pulling its ears back once more. The little guy wasn't even pushing 2 feet tall – maybe a foot-and-a-half at most.
"It's o.k. Here." He dug an apple from the bag and held it out.
The other sniffed at it and flicked his eyes up to Yu's face as if trying to figure out if this stranger was going to hurt him. The giant had silver hair the same shade as the man's who'd abandoned him. He couldn't risk trusting another who looked like that. His stomach grumbled as it had been doing for most of the night in argument against his decision. He snatched the apple, moved to the back of the box, and downed it quickly. The need for food had given him temporary bravery to trust someone he had never met. His ears gradually pulled forward as his fear began to quell.
"Hungry, eh?" He handed over another apple. Two empty orange plastic bowls and a couple of towels inside the box were the only sign of another person's involvement. "Who left you out here?"
It blinked at him, shrugged, looked at the interior of its box, and ate the second treat.
"You can understand me?"
It let out a light 'yip' in response, almost like it was afraid to make any sound, though it was definitely an affirmative.
The rain began pelting Yu's umbrella and the already soaking wet fox-boy with more vigor.
It sneezed.
Yu picked up the Junes bag and looked back down to the vacant street. There were no cars, no cops, no pedestrians, and no one who seemed to care about the half Human fox-creature-boy at the shrine. Not a soul knew they were out here.
The lights of Junes near the end of the street dimmed as the store locked its doors for the night, further darkening the shopping district.
Another whimper grabbed his attention. He looked back to find the unique creature standing at the wall of its cardboard prison again, this time with hope and need in its eyes.
Not knowing what the right decision would be, Yu weighed the best options in his mind along with their possible repercussions.
1. Call animal control anyway.
2. Take it home.
3. Leave it be. It'll be fine.
Option 1 likely wouldn't get him anywhere but reported to his uncle at the police station, and option 3 was just cruel.
That left option 2.
He set the bag down again and crouched to reach out to the fox-boy. "My name is Yu Narukami. I'm not going to hurt you. See?"
The fox demon hesitated, but leaned forward to sniff his hand. Then in a surprising move, it bumped its head against his palm.
Relieved it wasn't going to bite him, he scratched its head. "Let's get you somewhere dry." Yu hooked the Junes bag in the hock of his right elbow. Everyone would be asleep when he got back to his uncle's house, so it will be easier to sneak inside. Decision made—good or bad—he set the umbrella down and lifted the fox-boy out of the soggy box. The small creature weighed hardly anything. The boy trembled from either cold or fear, or both. A rumble of thunder frightened him into burying his face in Yu's jacket.
"Calm down. I used to be weak against storms, too. Lately, they don't bother me at all." He wondered just what had happened for this little guy to deserve abandonment. Sadly, he could relate.
Yu sheltered them with the umbrella and left the box that said "FREE" behind to the mercy of the shadows.
He carefully opened the door to the Dojima home as quietly as possible, slipped off his shoes, and moved up the stairs to his given room. Yu set the fox-boy down. "Stay here. I'll be right back. Stay."
The other sat, though couldn't keep his eyes from curiously checking out the room. It was warm and dry here, sparsely decorated, and the blue two-toned checkered carpet was soft, so whatever this stranger said—for now—he'd do.
Yu cracked the refrigerator door just enough to remove a bottle of water, and the rest of his bento box from lunch that day at school. The internal light spilled into the dark living room. He unloaded the contents of the Junes bag and closed the door. Nerves at being the new kid in Yasogami High had kept him from eating the whole thing, so he had this saved as a midnight snack. He scooped half of the contents onto a plate for himself, grabbed a set of chopsticks, and walked to the desk next to the stairs. The wall calendar said tomorrow was Friday, which meant he would have to deal with his current problem after school or on Saturday when he'd have time to move around town to look for its owner. That left what to do with it while he was at school. He marked a small 'x' at the corner of Saturday as a reminder, and went back upstairs.
The fox-boy hadn't moved at all.
"You're trained at least." He set the food on his desk and grabbed a towel from the hall closet to dry off his own hair. A puddle of rainwater had dampened the carpet around the fox. His shirt stuck to him and he shivered from the cold.
Yu reached out with the towel, but the little guy stepped back with wary eyes. He couldn't blame him for being cautious. He'd be distrusting of anyone after being left behind, too. To show him he meant no harm, he dried off his own hair once more, then held the towel out.
The fox's eyes flicked from it to the giant Human. He bit his lip, then stepped forward.
Yu gently dried off the small creature's hair, ears, and tail, and motioned for him to remove the shirt.
The tiny fox boy mimicked the motion, pulling the oversized shirt free, then wrapped the towel around himself to keep warm. It bunched up around him like a blanket.
"Stay." Yu draped the wet shirt over a hanger, hooked it on the corner of the metal shelving unit in the room to dry, and went downstairs to the garage. There were a few boxes haphazardly piled in front of the car. One had toppled over so its contents spilled across the floor. The mess had caught his eye earlier in the week when his uncle had opened the garage door to leave for work, which was why he remembered it now. He crouched down to dig through the pile of old toys and clothes, and put them back in the box as he searched for a plushy with removable clothing. Might as well clean up while he was here. A soft, green frog plushy wearing a gray hooded sweater caught his eye. It had a screen-print of an anime grinning frog face on the front, and donned a pair of blue cotton pants. He began to pull the apparel from its stubby arms and legs, but paused as the nights events finally sank in.
Tired, he sat back heavily on his heels with the toy dangling from his right hand. He glanced to the frog's permanent, button-eyed goofy smile as the muted rhythm of the rainstorm swallowed the silence.
He exhaled. "What am I doing?" He had to be crazy to bring a strange animal thing like that here. There wasn't a classification for what it even was. It could prove to be dangerous. No...that wasn't the feeling he had. For some reason, he knew bringing it home was the right thing to do. That little fox-boy wasn't a threat. He was lost, alone, and scared-abandoned and forgotten like Nanako's old donation clothes. Maybe his owners didn't want to deal with him anymore.
Yu's head dipped slightly. One some level, he could relate.
After a couple of minutes, he returned upstairs to find the fox under the table in front of the t.v. "I don't know what kind of person would leave you outside in this weather, but you're dry, now."
The fox took the plushy's forfeited wear, sniffed them, and put them on. They were warm and comfortable, and helped to calm him down.
Yu cracked the door open, put the bare stuffed animal on the floor, and set the food down next to it with the open water bottle. "You have hands, so I hope you can manage. Bathroom's down the hall if you have to go." He dried off, changed into his night clothes, and sat on the futon to eat his own snack as the small fox-boy greedily dove into the food. "How long were you out there?"
He slurped up the rest of the noodles and went for the leftover rice and vegetables, leaving the tofu behind.
"Do you have a name?"
He shook his head from side to side.
"What are you? I've never seen anything like you before. Where'd you come from?"
The fox-boy stopped eating long enough to look Yu in the eyes. His ears and tail twitched, and his shoulders slumped.
"...You don't know?"
He shook his head slowly from side to side again, then went back to polishing off the bento box at a more normal pace. Finally sated, he leaned back and belched.
Yu finished his plate and set it on the desk. He opened the closet door and pushed aside the hangers. "Well, if my uncle finds you, he'll kill me, so you can sleep in here tonight." He set the stuffed toy down with a pile of spare sheets.
The fox-boy yawned broadly, then moved lethargicly over to the make-shift closet bed. The sheets smelled vaguely of laundry detergent mixed with the musk of time kept in a storage bin. He sat on them as Yu turned off the light.
"We'll see if we can't find who you belong to tomorrow. G'night."
There was a shuffling of bedding on the futon, then silence.
Within seconds, the fox-boy's eyes had adjusted to the darkness of the room. He stared up at the clothes swaying above him like ghosts. The frog toy stared blankly up at them, too. He could try to sleep, as he was exhausted, but he was in a stranger's house. He pulled up the sheets, curled into a ball with his tail tucked around him, and sighed. Somehow, he felt like there should be another presence next to him aside from the frog toy. The wind howled, though he wasn't afraid of it, and the rain tapped its demanding needles against the window. He thought about the box outside at the shrine and shivered. He could still be out there if Yu hadn't decided to take a shortcut.
Gradually, the food coma won the war. He managed to grab a few moments of rest when the harsh strobe of periwinkle lightning snapped him awake. Thunder chased it a few tense seconds later. The fox-boy sat up sharply. He had to see what was going on outside. The mystery left his imagination to its own flights of images, which were probably far worse than what was actually going on. Images of demonic snarls, and lightning reaching to tie him down and drain him dry were the worst of them. Whatever controlled the lightning must be a true monster. Still, curiosity overpowered fear, and he moved on all fours across the room.
Climbing up onto the chair and desk by the window wasn't too difficult, though he did scramble to haul himself up. He placed both hands against the cool glass and looked outside at the dark street as his breath left a small vapor circle on the glass.
Lightning and thunder clashed overhead.
All bravery vanished in a mad scramble away from the beastly storm that left him tumbling onto the futon. Without wasting a beat, he burrowed beneath the thick comforter near the edge of the bed and curled up. A slight whimper escaped despite his efforts to keep silent.
The occupant of the futon shifted awake.
Yu blinked bleary eyes at the new lump under the blanket. "…"
He lifted the edge and was met with those brown eyes harboring fear mixed with the dread of having possibly done something wrong.
Another crash of thunder hammered through the room. The fox-boy covered his ears.
He hm'd slightly to himself. This house was still new to him as well. He understood. The fox-boy must be more afraid of the storm than he'd thought.
Yu scratched him on the head behind his ears. "You can stay. I get it." He couldn't be that old, although he showed a higher intelligence and understanding of language beyond any normal animal, not to mention his appearance. He looked like a very small Human, yet at times, he acted like an animal. It was hard to know how to treat the little guy.
The fox-boy blinked in disbelief, though was relieved he wasn't forced to get off the bed. Why was this giant being nice to him? The other man was nice at first, too. Yu didn't have the same sense as the other man. Yu came across as kind, whereas the other held am uneasy, mysterious sense that could go either way.
There was something about Narukami that made the little fox think everything would be all right from here on, and he wouldn't find himself abandoned in another box with a command. "Stay here until you're claimed." He remembered the words through a wave of sleepiness and nausea that fogged his memory before that day, but couldn't really recall the man's face beyond a hat and silver wavy hair. Everything else was a blur.
Maybe...maybe it was o.k to trust this one.
The kind stranger had quickly gone to sleep as if he knew the storm outside wouldn't harm him, like the lightning would obey his every command. That must be an amazing power.
Another booming clash fought for supremacy outside, and sent the little fox-boy scurrying back under the protective cover. He curled up to hug his tail against Yu's back, and suddenly for the first time since he could remember, the storm didn't frighten him. He was safe. As long as he could stay with Yu Narukami, he would be safe.
With these thoughts cushioning his fear, he was asleep in seconds.
Next Scent: School Day