A/N: I know this chapter is short; it's basically just them getting closer ;)

There is a make-out scene at the end of this chapter; there's no smut, but it is a little rough (biting and some small bruises from that). It's not violent, and it's totally consensual, but if you're not into that, maybe don't read the end of the chapter, specifically the two huge paragraphs down at the bottom...

That said, I'm trying to keep the rating down on the main story, so when I do write a smut scene (soon), I will post it as a chapter in "Good Girl, Bad Fox" and not in the main story. :)

'I'll see you tomorrow,' Rang mouthed mockingly at Ga Eul's closed apartment door. He kicked at the snow on the ground. Patience was not his strong suit, and he really, really wanted to be let back into Ga Eul's apartment. Maybe, to her, they had only been dating for two weeks, but to him, it had been too many weeks since he'd been a cat, curled up comfortably beside her on her bed, and it wasn't fair that he was literally being locked out in the cold like this after having been so close to her. They had kissed a few times after that first night, and she'd seemed to like her Christmas present—she'd worn it every day since—but besides constant hand-holding, which was nice, that had been their only physical interaction.

Not that they had to do anything in particular. Rang could be good. He could just watch her soapy dramas and lay his head on her lap while she stroked his hair. She did it to the cat; why not to him? He was drifting into dreamland, remembering how calming her fingers felt sliding against his scalp, when she reopened her apartment door. He jumped when he saw her, and she jumped too, even though she had been the one to open the door.

"Oh! You're still here. Um...I was wondering...would you like to come in for a little bit?" Ga Eul asked. "We could watch something or, I don't know, play Go-Stop." She shrugged and shifted her weight listlessly. She'd taken her coat off but not the fluffy, oversized cream sweater that hung over her black leggings, and she toyed with the sweater as she waited for his answer.

"Well, if you insist," Rang replied, smiling. "I make it my business to grant favors to humans." Rang made his way inside, feeling suddenly buoyant. He took off his dress shoes, his heavy coat, and his suit jacket, leaving himself in his navy blue dress shirt and dark gray dress pants. He then made his way over to her unmade bed. "The question is"—he turned by the bed—"what do I get in return?" He sat down on her lavender sheets and eyed her expectantly.

Ga Eul arched her eyebrow.

"One might say I'm doing you a favor by letting you in."

"I didn't ask to be let in. You're the one who wants me here, obviously, so I'm granting you a favor." Rang stretched himself out on her bed, crossing one leg over the other, and reclined against the headboard, cushioned by one of her pillows. "Now, what do I get?" He folded his hands over his stomach and tapped his fingers. Ga Eul had closed the door behind her and was now leaning against it, staring back at him with suspicion.

"What do you want?" she asked carefully.

He patted the spot next to him on the bed.

"Sit."

"Then what?"

Rang let the silence draw out in a dramatic pause.

"Then nothing," he finally answered, turning his head away. "Sit down and stop looking at me like I'm going to eat you." Rang picked up the TV remote from her nightstand—the picture of her and her cat was still there, as was the urn—and flipped through shows until he found a variety show he liked, Amazing Saturday. "Tell me, is it exhausting being human? You must be scared of everything all the time." He turned up the TV's volume. "Do you like this show? I like this show. We should watch it." He patted the spot beside him again. "Sit. I don't bite. Unless you ask for it."

"Why would I…" Ga Eul began, then stopped. Her face colored pink. She didn't finish the sentence. Ga Eul crossed over to the other side of her bed, not looking Rang in the eyes; she fluffed up two pillows and sat next to him, cross-legged. Her back didn't touch the pillows, though; she leaned toward the TV at a tense, awkward angle. He didn't say anything for several minutes as he watched a human struggle to recall the lyrics to a twenty-year-old pop song. He hoped the human got the popcorn. That was his favorite part, watching popcorn explode in those clueless human faces.

On the TV, a contestant made his third attempt at an answer. Wrong again. Rang laughed.

"How do they not know that?" Ga Eul mumbled beside him. "It's such a famous song."

"Don't you want to sit back?" Rang asked. "You can't be comfortable like that."

"Oh." Ga Eul said, glancing back at her pillows like she hadn't known they were there. She sat back stiffly. "This show always makes me hungry," she remarked.

"This show makes me want popcorn," Rang replied. "Do you have any?"

"Popcorn?"

Rang nodded.

"Oh, yes. I can make you some." Ga Eul leapt from the bed, as if she'd been waiting for an excuse to get up. For the next few minutes he only half-watched the program; he kept an eye on Ga Eul moving around her small kitchen, pulling things out and putting them back. She finally ended up with one bag of popcorn and two glasses of water. She put one glass on the nightstand next to Rang and handed him his popcorn.

"You don't want any?" he asked, accepting the bag.

"Why? Is Mister Lee Rang offering to share?"

"No." Rang popped three pieces of popcorn into his mouth. "I was offering to let you make yourself another bag before you sit down."

Ga Eul did that thing—she did this a lot—where her mouth moved like she was holding back a laugh, but no sound ever came out.

"That's very kind of you," she said, "but I don't want popcorn right now. You can have it. I promise I won't make you share with me."

"You mean like you made me share that cake?" Rang asked as she moved away from him. "That was more like stealing."

"I know, and you didn't even do anything about it." Ga Eul put her water on top of her dresser and settled down on the bed again. She seemed more relaxed now, and he was glad. In that case, maybe he could try something.

Rang picked out a single piece of popcorn and tossed it at Ga Eul. It hit her cheek and bounced onto the bed.

"Hey! What was that for?"

"Nothing. Just your delayed punishment for stealing my cake." Rang threw another piece, then popped a few into his mouth.

"You're getting popcorn on my"—Ga Eul shielded her face as Rang tossed a handful of popcorn at her—"bed!"

Rang laughed.

"Why don't you fight me then? Here. I'll even lend you some popcorn." He shook the bag at her. She reached for it, but he snatched it back at the last second. "You have to be faster than that." He held it closer to her again, but still out of her reach. She launched herself on top of him, trying to grab the bag, but he held it over her head. He sprinkled popcorn over her back.

"You're getting popcorn on my bed!" she protested again, but there was laughter in her voice, and he enjoyed the weight of her body as she sat up on his lap, straddling him.

"Then grab the popcorn, not me." Rang peppered her head with more popcorn.

"Stop, I'm serious," she pleaded, but her request was undercut by the smile on her face.

"You're really bad at this game." Rang tossed a few more pieces at her.

Reaching up, Ga Eul tugged on the bag of popcorn.

"Give it. You're going to get popcorn everywhere."

"I'm not getting popcorn everywhere. I'm throwing it at you. You should catch it with your mouth and eat it." He threw another kernel at her, enjoying their new proximity.

"Can you do that?" she huffed.

"Yes." He actually could.

"Well, I'm not a...a…"

"A?"

Ga Eul glared.

"A circus fox."

"Circus fox?" Rang laughed. "What is that?" he asked, holding the bag as high up as he could and whipping it out of her reach every time she jumped up and got close to snatching it. With an even more determined look on her face, Ga Eul sat up on her knees so that Rang was eye level with her chest.

Oh, this was nice. Rang could barely make out the curves of her breasts under her thick sweater, but they were there, waiting for him to slide his fingers around them or press his face into them. He smiled and felt a tug on the bag; then he heard a sharp ripping sound overhead. Rang snapped out of his trance as popcorn poured over him—his hair, his shoulders, his chest. A few kernels went down his shirt. Ga Eul dropped back down to the bed, mouth agape.

"Um…" She paused and slapped a hand over her mouth. She snorted.

Rang tried to scowl at her, to reprimand her for spilling food on him yet again, but he couldn't do it. They stared at each other in startled amusement until suddenly the humans on the TV erupted into violent laughter, and they did too, the popcorn between them sliding off their laps and onto the bedsheets, onto the floor. Rang laughed until his sides hurt, and he started coughing. Tears rolled down Ga Eul's cheeks, and her whole body shook. She laughed until she was red in the face; she collapsed against him so that her forehead pressed into his shoulder and he could feel every shudder in her body.

When he calmed down, Rang clicked the TV off; it was background noise now. He kept his arms around Ga Eul until she quieted as well, until she sighed and pulled away from him, but even then he kept his hands on her waist, intending to keep her there now that he had her.

"I didn't do that," he informed her as she wiped the tears from her eyes and brushed popcorn kernels off his shirt. "You did that."

"You asked for it, though. You asked me to fight you. I think you lost." She shot him an amused smile; then her expression turned serious. "Um...hold still." He felt her fingers brush his hair, tentatively. "You had popcorn in your hair," she explained, taking her hand away far too soon. It had been a light touch, but it had been better than nothing. He grabbed her wrist.

"Do it again," he said before he lost his nerve.

"Do what again?" Ga Eul mumbled, her hand caught in mid-air. He guided her hand back to his hair.

"Foxes are like cats," he explained. "We like being petted."

"Why cats?" Ga Eul smiled, rubbing small circles in his scalp. He let go of her wrist and motioned to the picture and the urn on her nightstand.

"Didn't you used to have a cat?"

"Oh, yeah," she said. Her voice got softer. She leaned over and took the picture off the nightstand to show him. "His name was Milo. I got him when I was twelve. He passed away a few...no, over two months ago. Wow. I didn't think it had been that long." She put the picture back on the nightstand. "Anyway, I have a fox for a pet now." She resumed her head massage. Her gentle touch made Rang want to close his eyes, but he kept them open, also wanting to enjoy the tenderness in Ga Eul's face while it lasted.

"I think the proper term is 'boyfriend,'" he corrected.

"You asked to be petted. That's what a pet does." She smiled. "That means you're my pet." She slid her fingers further along his head, rubbing him with firmer, wider circles.

Rang began to feel drowsy and couldn't help the contented sigh that escaped him.

"See? You like that, don't you?" she continued in the sing-song fashion she'd used when he'd been a cat. "Good fox," she praised, and he bit the inside of his mouth to keep from whimpering.

"I'm not a pet. I'm a powerful ancient being," he protested, leaning into Ga Eul's hand nonetheless.

Ga Eul squinted at him doubtfully.

"Pet."

"I'll bite you," he threatened, attempting to regain some control of the situation.

"Earlier, you said you wouldn't bite me unless I asked."

"Well…" Rang trailed off, unsure of what to say to that. He didn't have to respond, though, because suddenly Ga Eul removed her hand from his head and circled her arms around his neck. She scooted up so close to him that their chests nearly touched and cleared her throat.

"You can bite me if you want," she offered shyly, her face inches from his.

Rang blinked. His fingers dug into the sweater at her waist. He hadn't expected that. He swallowed. Ga Eul swept her hair off to one side, exposing her neck and the thin chain of Rang's necklace.

"Go ahead," she prompted. "You already said you aren't a vampire, so I expect you won't draw any blood."

Well, that wasn't an entirely accurate assumption. If he had his fox canines out, he most definitely would draw blood, but as those were carefully put away for now, she had nothing to worry about. At least not where blood was concerned.

He had been joking about biting her before, kind of, but now he felt like if he started biting her, he probably wouldn't stop until he'd marked every exposed inch of her skin. He hadn't taken her for someone who would like that sort of thing, but if she insisted…

Rang adjusted himself so that Ga Eul could wrap her legs around his waist and sit more comfortably on his lap. He circled one arm around Ga Eul's waist and held her tightly. Then he traced two fingers down the smooth column of her neck. Their noses brushed, and Rang kissed the tip of her nose and the corner of her mouth.

"Did you know that foxes heal faster than humans? If you give me a bruise, it will disappear instantly. But if I give you a bruise…" He grinned, not finishing the sentence.

"It's okay. I don't have work," Ga Eul answered calmly. She stroked the tips of his hair and the back of his neck. He shivered from the contact and the trust in her warm brown eyes. She was perfect, and he wanted to ruin her in the most literal way possible.

"Good," he rasped, zeroing in on her neck. "Then I don't have to be careful." At once, he slid one hand up her leg to grip her outer thigh beneath her sweater and slipped his other hand into her soft hair so he could hold her neck at the perfect angle. The first bite was rougher than maybe she'd intended because she let out a hiss, and he immediately pulled back, tilting her chin up with his thumb so he could look in her eyes.

"Did I hurt you?"

"No!" she quickly protested, then confessed, "I mean, yes. Yes, but...I liked it. Keep going." She guided his face back to the left side of her neck. Somehow, she managed to look both shy and curious, like a kitten who'd just discovered a ball of yarn. Encouraged by her enthusiasm, he soothed the spot he'd bitten with his tongue and sucked at it for a few seconds before making his way further down her neck, then to her throat, then to the other side of her neck. He'd never made a human feel pleasure before by causing them pain; he'd never thought that by hurting someone, he could make them feel good. Like everything else about Ga Eul, this was a puzzle he couldn't solve, but he liked it. He liked the little sounds she made when he scraped his teeth over her skin. How she squirmed, but not like she was trying to free herself. Rather, she dug her fingers into his hair and pressed his face into her neck and rolled her body into his. Mostly, he liked soothing her afterward, lapping his tongue over the stinging redness of her skin. Over every mark that said she was his. The frustration that had been roiling in his gut for the past weeks and months snapped and sprung free, morphing into a raw hunger that could only be satisfied by taking more of her into his mouth, not to kill her but to kill the ache inside himself, to fill the parts of him that needed her, to take as much as he could while there was still time. He could feel in his bones that there had been a mistake; the gods wouldn't be this gracious to him on purpose; he was hanging on to this stroke of good fortune by the skin of his teeth, but he would suck its sweetness down to the marrow, down to the bone.

There was still popcorn in their laps and on the bed and on the floor, and Rang still had those damn kernels at the bottom of his shirt, rolling around on his stomach every time he moved, but that seemed a trivial thing compared to having Ga Eul in his arms, gasping and whimpering at his touch like he'd dreamed of her doing. She must have had a thing for pain because the harder he bit her and ravaged her tender skin, the more desperately she pressed herself against him. And, well, if she was into that sort of thing, he was definitely into it. He bit and licked and sucked every inch of her that wasn't covered by her sweater until her neck was a mottled mess of angry purple splotches and his scalp actually hurt from where she'd been gripping his hair. Only then did he capture her mouth with the same intensity and kiss her until her lips were swollen and her hair was as completely messed up as his and she was panting against the side of his neck, boneless and beautiful.


"Turtleneck today?" Rang commented with a smug grin when he returned to Ga Eul's apartment the following afternoon. They had eventually cleaned up the popcorn and had fallen asleep facing each other, fully clothed, but Rang had gone home in the morning to shower and change clothes.

"I'm cold. Let's go somewhere indoors," Ga Eul answered, not looking him in the eye as she closed her apartment door. She brushed past him, her innocent schoolteacher mask in place again, but Rang smiled to himself as he trailed after her like a pet following its owner.