Silkily emerging from the shadows in her bedroom Mimi eagerly resumes her human form clutching the letter to her chest like a giggly schoolgirl. She drops the packages she has been carrying to the ground. He had said yes to a meeting! Taking a deep breath, Mimi tries to calm her pulse. God. She wanted her wife back. Taking on the form of a regular fox had been difficult but worth it. The rest of her tails quickly come into view. Lightly smacking her shoulders and head, irritable at being left out. Stuffing the letter into the front of her chemise, Mimi bites her lip. So much to do, she thinks. So much to do. But first, a snack. And . . .she wanted to inspect her current abode.
Pulling the door to her room, open Mimi peers out into the corridor. Feeling goosebumps lift on her arms, Mimi closes the door behind her. The corridor is empty. Putting her nose to the air, Mimi tries to scent out a possible kitchen. She had bought food for herself. But a kitchen would be lovely if she needed to heat something up. Deciding to explore instead of asking one of the spirits, Mimi treads lightly across the floor. Suddenly movement catches her eye. A man creeps across the ceiling, weaving his way on his hands and knees. Feeling her eyes upon him, the man turns. He had a live pigeon in his mouth, which he crunches in his teeth. Yongrui, Mimi thinks with disgust. He grins at her bloodily and grabs his crotch with his hand.
Mimi growls and flips him off. If not understanding the gesture, he understood the emotion. He growls, blood dripping down and splattering her face. Keeping her head held high, Mimi wipes the blood from her face. He disappears into the shadows. Suddenly a small child's scream erupts within the manor. Lifting her skirts, Mimi chases the screams. This is a child in pain. After a moment, Mimi comes to a door. Nearly tearing the door from its hinges, Mimi sees Yongrui lighting a stove.
"Little human meat. How I would like to meet," Yongrui sings, at the sound of Mimi breaking the door down, a small face peeks from the stove pot.
Mimi waves her hand and leaps toward the pot. Yanking it from the stove and gently putting it on the ground. With a vicious growl, Mimi turns to the koi flapping weakly on the ground. Ignoring this, Mimi opens the pot and finds it empty. A little muffled cry comes from the nearby cupboard.
"It's alright, cub. He is gone. I turned your brother into a koi. He shouldn't bother you anymore. Actually, I think he looks a lot better this way. Do you want to see?" Mimi whispers softly, but the child did not open the cupboard.
Taking her time, Mimi finds a water pitcher and ladles it half full of water.
Picking up the weakly moving koi with her thumb and index finger, Mimi puts it face first in the pitcher. Then she makes a sandwich. Crouching down in front of the cupboard with the sandwich on a plate, Mimi decides to wait.
"Would like something to eat, cub?" Mimi gently knocks at the cupboard door and puts the plate on the ground within reach.
A little hand quickly reaches out from the cupboard and takes half the sandwich. Mimi smiles, "There is plenty. If you are still hungry, I can always make more."
After a time, Mimi watches the little hand reach for the second half of the sandwich. It is at this moment that Chen runs into the kitchen. She is holding a makeshift sword. The two kitsune study each other for a moment.
Breaking the silence, Mimi gets to her feet and holds up the loaf of bread, "Are you hungry, kiddo?"
Looking at her suspiciously, Chen moves into the kitchen. Mimi soon realizes she is trying to get to the cupboard. Mimi subtly steps away so that she is on the other side of the kitchen. Giving the young kitsune plenty of space to run if she desires. Chen drops her makeshift sword and reaches into the cupboard to grab the child, who was still gripping half a sandwich.
"Where is Yongrui?" Chen stutters, her eyes landing on the koi, which is flapping his fins maniacally.
"I don't like his manners," Mimi states, inspecting the remaining contents of the cabinets.
"You're just going to leave him like that?!"
"No. I was going to put him in the koi pond. I'm not a barbarian."
A little smile crosses Chen's face, "Can I help?"
"Of course, but first, would you like something to eat?"
Chen stares hungrily at the sandwich in the child's hand.
Mimi waves her hand over the old table, fixing its wobbly legs while summoning the packages of food from her room. She had had the foresight to purchase some groceries from the adorable town near Cloud Recesses. As a spirit of her age, she did not have to eat per se, but children do.
Waving her hand, a couple of stools pop into existence near the table. Not waiting for the children's assent, Mimi sets a package of strawberries on the table. She pushes the strawberries towards the children and takes some chicken out. Loquats follow. Mimi also pulls out a couple cartons of noodles, setting everything within reach of the nervous hands.
"Help yourself," Mimi smiles, waiting. She pulls out some plates from a very dirty cupboard.
Thinking better on it, Mimi sets the plates aside and waving her hand, two plates appear on the table. Chen seems to debate this obviously unexpected gesture of generosity, but the child answers for her.
"Can I have both?" the little girl is looking at the sandwich and at the fruit, her large emerald eyes torn between the two.
Mimi felt like someone has punched her in the gut. She nods and, trying not to scare the children, plays it cool.
"Go ahead, there is plenty," Mimi sits on the opposite side of the table and rests her hands on the polished wood where the kids could always see them.
Chen sets the little girl on the stool and, warily watching Mimi, begins filling a plate with everything before placing it in front of the little girl.
From her vantage point, Mimi studies the children. Chen, she knew a little of, but the little girl is a mystery. Yongrui had called her a human. But the emerald eyes were there. This was obviously the missing child from the strange name sound off yesterday.
"My name is Minori," Mimi finally volunteers, patiently waiting.
"Dumplin," the little girl says, her mouth full of chicken.
"Your name is Dumplin?" Mimi asks politely.
"Her name is Dandan, but I call her Dumplin," Chen snarls, chomping on a strawberry.
"Alright," Mimi concedes.
A not quite comfortable silence fell on the sisters. The only sounds being the children eating. Mimi took the opportunity to study her "youngest" siblings. Both Dumplin and Chen were quite filthy. The siblings have matching dirt on their faces and tattered hand me down clothing that did not fit. Dumplin being ridiculously small, could only just reach the table. Aside from the obvious differences in sizes, Mimi notes that their mother's strong genes took precedence. Both had startling green eyes. Dumplin, Mimi had noted previously with some surprise, has brown hair instead of the usual black.
"How old are you both?" Mimi asks curiously.
Dumplin holds up five fingers. Holy fuck, she thinks, the child could easily pass for 3, maybe 4.
The child nudges Chen with her elbow expectantly. Chen grunts, swallows, and says, "Nine."
"What. Is. Going. On. Here?"
Dumplin lets out a shrill scream, and Mimi leaps over the table to stand protectively in front of the girls. Yuanjun, the necrotic twin, stood in the doorway. Acting on instinct, Mimi pulls the girls further behind her, shielding them from sight with her tails. A maggot splits the skin of Yuanjun's cheek, but he does not notice.
"I. Heard. Screams."
Every breath seemed like a burden to this creature. His hand dug into the doorframe as if it was cottage cheese.
"What you heard, oh magnanimous lord brother, is . . ." Mimi gestures at the pitcher where the koi thrashes, "a lesson in art. Look at our lord father's creation. The patterns in the scales are worthy of screaming, correct?"
Yuanjun's head lolls to the side like a ragdoll as he tries to look at the koi. Mimi sucks in a breath. She could feel Chen and Dumplin trembling in fear behind her. Her tails wrap about the two children comfortingly, another shield if need be.
"Yes. But. Koi. Live. In. Pond," Yuanjun's head forcibly jerks to the side, hanging at a very unpleasant angle.
"Of course. Oh, magnanimous brother. How clever my lord is. We will do that now."
"No. Matter. I. Will. Do. It."
Yuanjun lurches across the room with great effort. Mimi moves with him, always keeping herself between him and the children. The flies about his head ridiculously remind Mimi of a flock of birds waiting to land. Awkwardly grasping the pitcher, Yuanjun is only able to use his palms to grasp the glass. His fingers were evidently unable to bend. Slowly ambling towards the door with the twisting koi, Mimi waits until she can no longer hear his footsteps before plunging into a shadow with the children in tow.
The three sisters appear in her room, and Mimi pulls her tails back. But the children did not seem to want to move. They held on to her tails like a lifeline. Chen finally pulls away, but Dumplin clung on, her face buried in Mimi's fur.
"I have a proposition for you both," Mimi says, trying to stop her voice from shaking.
"I would like to take you both from here. I will leave in a few days. I already have permission to take Dandan. But I will not leave you if you wish to leave as well, Chen," Mimi promises.
"But what of father?" Chen's voice trembles, but her eyes are steely.
"He is not fit for the role, and I do not fear him," Mimi growls, "Look, why don't you take some time to think it over."
Mimi is about to say something else when Chen interrupts, "I am not staying here! Did you see that thing that used to be my brother?!"
"I wanna go with Chen."
Mimi looks over her shoulder at Dumplin, who is still firmly holding on to her tail.
"Alright, that's settled," Mimi lifts the tail that Dumplin is clinging to and pulls her into her arms. Dumplin still refuses to let go of her tail.
"I don't think Dumplin ever really got to touch our mother's tails," Chen explains as Mimi pulls a little.
Biting her lip, Mimi reigns in her anger. Kitsune children needed to be around their mother's magical core to develop their own. With kitsune, their magic resides in the tails. From what Mimi could gather, their mother had purposely kept Dumplin from cultivating a magical core. That explained why she did not have a tail.
"Okay," Mimi pulls her hair back nervously, "Chen, will anyone notice if you two are not in your beds?"
Chen gave her a "we just ran away from our zombie brother, and you think they check our beds" look. Mimi snorts.
"Okay, when do you have meals?" Mimi asks and almost kicks herself. One of her new charges had nearly become a pot roast.
Chen shrugs, "Whatever we can scrounge up."
"Okay, then you two are staying here with me in this room until I can find other arrangements," Mimi expects the children to protest, but Chen almost seems pleased, filing that away to examine later, Mimi gently extricates Dumplin from her tail.
"No offense," Mimi brushes the dirt from her clothing, "But you two are filthy. Those clothes are barely being held together. Bath time, kiddos."
Again, Mimi is quite surprised by the lack of complaint. Carrying Dumplin, Mimi enters the bathing area attached to her room. Chen walks behind her, eyeing everything with suspicion. With a wave of her hand, the large tub in the middle of the room fills with steaming water.
Putting Dumplin on the floor, Mimi is surprised when the two girls race each other to the tub and jump in fully clothed. It was kind of adorable how they took turns rinsing the dirt from their faces. Mimi takes a bar of soap and tosses it into the tub. It was as if she had brought nectar and ambrosia. Chen and Dumplin wrestle each other for the soap before deciding to take turns.
Feeling a little awkward and having no previous experience with children, Mimi asks, "Erm, are you guys not going to disrobe?"
"Will we get them back?" Dumplin asks, her voice small.
Mimi did not know how to answer that. She pulls out a couple of children's nightgowns she had bought earlier that day. One is pink and the other purple. She would obviously have to adjust the one for Dumplin, but it was a start.
"Umm, why don't you give these a shot? I will take you shopping when I find us a place, but for now," Mimi is sadly reminded of the elf Dobby from Harry Potter as they gape at her.
Mimi sets the nightgowns by a couple of towels, "I will just set these here. I will be in the other room if you need me."
Backing out of the room and shutting the door a crack, Mimi tries to conceal her tears. These children were feral. Her little sisters were barely holding on. Trying to distract herself from thoughts of her own child, Mimi sets about pulling out other dresses she had bought for the kids. The woman at the store had looked at her strangely when she had asked about what to buy for children. Sara was the one who did that. Mimi takes a steadying breath. She could not fall apart in front of her sisters. She had to stay strong for them. Sara would understand.
It is a few minutes later when Dumplin and Chen step out of the bathroom. Mimi immediately knows she is in trouble when she wants to squeal at how adorable they look. Squinting at Dumplin, Lie makes an even more surprising discovery.
"Dumplin. Your hair is red?"
The child's hair had been so saturated with dirt that it had disguised her true hair color.
"You both look so cute!" Mimi beckons to Dumplin, eyeing the pink fabric dragging on the floor, "Let me just fix that for you. Chen, does it fit, alright? I didn't know your sizes."
Chen scratches at the cuffs on her wrists and at her neck, "I'm fine," she bows to Mimi, "Thank you for the nightgowns, eldest sister."
Tsking, Mimi adjusts the length of Dumplin's nightgown with her claws. Dumplin takes the opportunity to wrap her small arms around one of Mimi's tails. Mimi then turns her attention to Chen and crooking a clawed finger.
"Did you want close sleeves like this or loose sleeves?" Mimi examines the fabric as Chen deliberates.
"Can I have loose sleeves, please?" Chen asks, her voice small.
Mimi nods and adjusts the length with her claws, "Did you want the neck ruff?"
Slowly shaking her head, Chen looks almost guilty.
"It's alright," Mimi smiles, "I will just have you try on things when we go shopping."
"Why do you have claws?" Chen suddenly asks as Mimi gently uses her claws to cut away the cuff at Chen's neck.
"I was a naughty cub and put on a spiritual device I was not supposed to," Mimi snickers at Chen's lockjaw expression.
"The claws fused to my bone and nerves. So now I can never take them off. It's alright, though. I can do things other kitsune can't. I just have to be careful not to cut anything by accident."
Mimi looks over at Dumplin, who has fallen asleep on her tail. Her face is content.
"Are you going to go back?"
Looking back at Chen, Mimi sighs, "How much do you know?"
"That you seek the peacock brooch and want to save father," Chen's eyes fill with suspicion once more.
"Your hair is a rat's nest. Here, let me comb it out for you," Mimi gestures for Chen to turn around.
Chen dutifully turns around, and Mimi begins the arduous process of combing out the tangled, knotted mess.
"Someone I love dearly was hurt badly with the brooch, but it was not your father. He is not even my father," Mimi struggles with a particularly difficult knot, "I don't intend to leave until I know you are safe," Mimi smiles, thinking of Lan Xichen, "I might marry as well."
Chen turns her head around, and Mimi accidentally cuts through the knot. Whoops.
"Marry?" Chen yelps at the sharp tug.
Deciding just to be honest with the child, Mimi says, "Sorry, cub. Hold still and sit straight."
"The one who is hurt in my time, the one I need the brooch for…." Mimi pauses, "When kitsunes find the one they love. They love that person for a long time. The soul of the person I love is in the man I might marry. This does not and will not affect my caring for you and Dumplin. I swear it. You are my little sisters and have become my number one priority," Mimi continues to comb out Chen's hair and wonders if it might be easier to cut it all off and start from scratch.
Something occurs to Mimi suddenly, "Have you and Dumplin began using your magic?"
"I can . . . a little," Chen says, her cheeks becoming really red.
"I will teach you," Mimi promises, "You should learn how to protect yourself."
Looking down at their mingling shadows, Mimi smiles at the fox and cub silhouettes.