The office was crying. Well, it wasn't the entire office, just most of the female staff. They'd talk to one another, and then break out sobbing. Kurama, for his part, was ducking out of the way and trying to hide. Any time one of them caught sight of him, they'd run off and start sobbing in the bathroom. Today was a very unproductive day. That is, until Kane came running into his office and flipped off his light shutting his door tight. She had a flashlight in hand, and it glowed brightly, the light dancing off the floor. Her teeth glinted in the dim light.
Kurama jumped when he saw her and blinked a few times, "Ms. Kane?" He asked sheepishly.
"Look." She tossed the flashlight to him. Once her hand left it, the light turned off, but once it got within his range of energy, it lit up, brighter than when she had held it. He caught it before it hit his head.
"Ooh!" Kurama examined it, "You got it to work!"
Kane nodded enthusiastically and wandered over to him, her hips swaying like he was about to get pounced. "I did it alright. I did it a lot easier than I thought I could too."
"Yes, yes, you did." He smiled, "Congratulations."
"Do you like it?" She asked leaning on his desk.
"Of course I like it Kane." He grinned at her.
She reached a finger forward and ran it around the rim of the light. It tried to get brighter, but wouldn't break the bulb. "I convinced a trill weed to expend its energy on the light. It was really easy actually. It just needed to realize that I was holding the flashlight longer when it lit the bulb. It took about two seconds."
He laughed, "This is great Kane!"
"And you know trills, they can grow to any particular size you want, this one is going to fill up the case of the light, so it'll be a nice heavy object without needing extra metal. Actually I think the humans will think they're cute."
He smiled and half stood to kiss her, sitting back down heavily. "But trills are dangerous for humans to handle. We'll have to completely seal it inside so we don't get sued for killing people on accident. A lot of people are stupid enough to try things like um, well, opening the flashlight and dissecting the weed."
Kane's eyes widened in surprise, "Oh wow, that would be stupid. They'd die so quick."
He chuckled, "Yes. So, seal it good."
"Right." She grimaced.
He sighed and rubbed his face.
"What's wrong?" Kane asked flicking the lights back on.
"All the girls are upset."
"Because you're mine?"
"Yes. I've had five of them come in here and make sure I know they have an undying love for me, and then they keep crying, and crying," he patted his shoulder where it was wet.
Kane sighed heavily, "You know, there's a way to fix that."
"Is there?"
"Come celebrate with me." She grinned, "With the trill weeds we should be able to make energy packs really easily. All I'll have to do is send some plant manipulators to Human World and teach them to pack the weeds when they're young enough to learn about gathering energy slowly."
"I don't," he sighed, "I have a feeling ten more will come in here before the end of the day. Then I'm going to need a new shirt because this one is already soaked."
"Well then don't be in here, come with me. I need to crossbreed some of my trills to get a tamer variety." she offered her hand to him with a soft smile.
He watched her hand for a while, unsure if he really wanted to take it. He'd have to go through the halls and he just wanted to hide in his office.
"Tell you what, transform. They'll never know it's you."
"No, they'll all fall in love with me again."
Kane sighed and crossed the room. She kissed him firmly on the lips and folded her arms, "You're my love Kurama, I won't let them touch you if you don't want them to."
He watched her with a skeptical stare but got to his feet and straightened out his jacket.
"Come on, I have to go tell your parents what I've done." She took his hand, and the flashlight, heading for the door. "Now are you going out there as my human or my fox?"
"Your human because they'll try to trample me as a fox."
"Oh no they won't." Kane pushed the door open anyway and strode out into the hallway confidently. Kurama wasn't so quick to follow, dragging himself behind her as much as he could, whining just softly enough she only heard.
The odd thing was, when they got out to the hallway, Kurama started to hear a quiet little bell, and as they walked through the hallway, people heard the bell as well, and they ducked into rooms as Kane came by. They reached Shiori's office unmolested because despite wanting to go to Kurama, the women stayed away from Kane as a general rule and seeing them hand in hand, sealed the decisions for them.
"That was easy." Kurama commented.
"Uh huh. I've trained your humans."
"You've done what?" Shiori asked looking up from her work.
"The people here were always jumping when I was walking around the halls because they couldn't hear me, so I grow a bell plant when I'm in the halls so they know it's me. They tend to avoid me now that they know when I'm coming." Kane released Kurama at the door and crossed the room to Shiori. She set the flashlight down on the desk, head up. When she let it go, it turned off.
Shiori stared at it curiously, "What's this?"
"A flashlight."
"Well yes, clearly, but, why are you presenting it to me?"
Kurama leaned against the doorframe, grinning.
"Pick it up." Kane suggested.
Shiori took the flashlight without hesitation but squeaked and jumped, dropping it, when it turned on at her touch. It turned off when she let it go. "Oh my! What… is it a touch screen or something?"
"No, I gutted the flashlight in the lab actually."
"Oh, so what's in it?" Shiori started trying to untwist the top.
"It's a root." Kane took it from her before she could get the top off.
"No, don't touch it," Kurama was at the desk in an instant and sighed in relief, "Thank god."
"Don't be so dramatic." Kane unscrewed the top and pulled it up so the root hung exposed to the air. She smiled.
"I love my Mother! If she died, I don't know what I'd do."
"She wasn't going to die, I wouldn't let it do that. I grew this little guy. He listens to me." Kane chided.
"What is it?" Shiori folded her hands on the desk in front of her staring in shock.
"It's called a trill weed. They consume energy by touching demons and grow whenever they do, usually. When they reach a certain size, compared to their environment conditions, they do stop growing, but not consuming."
"They're very dangerous to humans."
Kane sighed, "Yes, I suppose they are, but honestly, I didn't expect humans would actually try to open up the container and touch it." Kane commented shaking the case at her.
"They're curious," Kurama went to touch the root but stopped himself, "Let's not try that, I like this body."
Kane laughed, "Yeah, let's not." She slipped it back into the container and screwed the lid tight.
"Is there a way to turn off the light while you touch it?" Shiori asked skeptically. "A lot of dogs and pets like to chase flashlight light, and it could be nice not to blind someone with it when you pick it up."
"With humans it'd be difficult considering most can't control their energy whatsoever, though I'm sure demons could probably accomplish it to a point."
"Sure," Kane flicked the light on and off with her energy just holding it as she was. "But no, I haven't made an area on the case non-conductive. I suppose, if you were wearing gloves you might not turn it on though. Human energy is too varied to make something stable. However, this is never going to need the batteries replaced, and it will always light up as long as the bulb is good. You can change the bulb in these things surprisingly easily too."
"Kane did a fantastic job." Kurama touched her back gently.
"And these can be mass-produced?"
"With our company in Demon World handling the plants and casing, and your company handling the assembly and product marketing, yes."
"What conditions does the trill weed need?" Shiori asked, skeptical about the name.
"It will go dormant if conditions are uncooperative for it. All it needs to live is energy. It might be a little bit sleepy if it's left alone for a long time though, might not wake up right away and turn on. It might take a couple minutes."
Kurama took the flashlight, but manipulated his energy so it wouldn't light up, "It's really engenius. I don't know why I didn't think of this."
"Well you're managment, not science." Kane patted his shoulder. "Actually, let's show her what we can really do with it." Kane grinned.
"Hey, I was a scientist." Kurama scolded, shaking the light at her.
Kane took it from him and set it across the room. "We can turn it on from here." She ignored Kurama's comment.
"You can?"
"We can, who wants to go first?" Kurama asked, smirking at Kane.
"She's not going to know the difference between either one of us turning it on. We can also determine how light it gets by how much energy we give it." Kane demonstrated for Shiori making the light throb.
Kurama smiled at Shiori and folded his arms behind his back, watching the bulb flicker.
"Wow. But a human can't do that."
"Right, but given practice, a human could learn to do that. It could help humans train their energy awareness to use these flashlights as a training device." Kane focused on Shiori letting go of the light.
When she stopped turning it on with her energy, Kurama lit it up to a full beam and made it flicker every few seconds, "This is a great exercise thing for demons too actually."
"For control, yes. Honestly my one concern is that it might get greedy. It might steal too much energy from a human and make them faint."
"Then you just don't give it energy for awhile."
"No, because if it makes a human faint, we'll be out a lot of sales." Shiori commented. "I'd like you to produce ten as a test run, as they would be for full production, and we'll give them to people in the office and see how it goes."
"How about instead of, 'there's a plant inside' we say there's a energy source inside that should not be touched under any circumstances due to," he shrugged.
"It'll be sealed up completely. The only part of the flashlight that can come apart will be the bulb area."
"Good. I really don't want the girls coming to me crying anymore."
"Crying?" Shiori asked skeptically. "What have you done this time Shuichi?"
"Eh, it might not have been his fault." Kane scratched her neck as she retrieved the light.
"Well, um. Kane and I are courting as foxes and we give each other tasks. One of my tasks was to tell all the girls I was taken… Needless to say they're all very upset."
"Oh, I see. I'll have Taki search for applicants." Shiori rubbed the bridge of her nose.
"I really don't want anymore girls rubbing snot on my shirt." He sighed and found the doorframe again.
"No, of course not." Shiori sighed, "I just, I know they'll probably be jumping ship soon since you admitted you're taken."
"I'm sorry Mother. I didn't mean to-"
"No no, it's alright." She smiled, "I'm very happy that you two are together. You fit well together. She's bringing out that playful nature you always hid."
"That's because a Youko's playful nature can go from playful to a few other things very quickly," he chuckled nervously.
"Yes, well, whatever the reason I'm glad to see you so happy." She patted Kurama's shoulder. "I'm going to get your father." she kissed his cheek and rounded the corner. Moments later she came back with Hatanaka.
They spent the next half-hour discussing production of the product and how to handle the trial run, who would be part of it, who would not. Kane's input was taken, then she was dismissed with Kurama so Shiori and Hatanaka could talk about it further. Kane kept her prototype.
"You know, this means I'll have to go back to Demon World to get that set up."
He nodded, "Yes." He opened his office door.
"I'll head back to the lab and call them, see how much of it I can get done over the phone. Jerry should be able to understand what I did with the trill weed and teach the others." Kane followed him inside.
"Mm," Kurama nodded and flicked the lights off, closing the door, "I actually like it better in here with the lights off."
Kane grinned and wrapped her arms around him, holding him tight. "You know, if you don't want people walking into your office, we could do it in here and let one of them catch us."
"What if we just made out really passionately?" Kurama rubbed her back, squeezing her back.
"I can accept that." Kane locked faces with him. Kurama let them kiss standing up before he dragged Kane over to his chair and sat down, pulling her up into his lap.
Kane grinned and swished her tail between his legs, wiggling it in as they kissed. She pulled back briefly to try to say something, but he caught her neck and pulled her back down kissing her. Kane shut off the flashlight.
Kurama heard the door open with a quiet, "Shuichi? Are you- Oh my god!" The girl yelped loudly and the door slammed shut.
Kane chuckled and pulled back, "That's going to get around."
He laughed, "Good. They'll stop coming into my office."
Kane wrapped her tail around his leg and nipped at his lip. "You're a bad boy Shuichi Minamino."
"I know," he smirked and kissed her briefly, "It's so good being bad."
She snickered and slipped off the complaining chair. "Well, I have work I need to do and I don't doubt for a second that you've got some too."
"I have work to do alright." He nodded, getting up, "In the bathroom."
"Oh, god, at work? Really?"
He laughed, "Well, no. Not… not really. If I can help it."
Kane chuckled, "Well, if you can't, come find my lab." she swished out of the room with a flick of the light, bringing him back into the world of the working.