"Hey guys, I'm home!" James called out as he opened the door. He slipped his shoes off, gesturing for Ahri to do the same.

"Where the hell have you been?" A high, female voice rang out angrily. Ahri noted curiously that James was physically shaking as a short, squat woman stomped out of the kitchen, carrying a knife. Ahri caught the scent of beef wafting out of the room where the woman emerged.

"A problem came up and I had to stay longer." James replied, fidgeting with something in his pocket. His mothers eyes narrowed when she saw Ahri, letting out a very annoying aura. Her gaze then drifted to the tails.

"Who is she?" She asked suspiciously, eyeing the poor fox girl like a hunter deciding how to kill her prey.

"The problem." James stepped to the side, raising his arm with his palm up in a gesture for her to step forward. Ahri understood and stepped forward.

"Hello, my name is Ahri." The girl introduced herself, bowing politely. "It's a pleasure to meet you." Her tails shifted uncomfortably as the woman looked her over, glancing at James for reassurance that she had done the right thing. He nodded in approval, stepping between the girls before anything awkward could be asked.

"Mom, could I please talk with you and dad for a minute? Ahri, you can just go up the stairs. Last door on the right." He ushered his mother into the kitchen, ordering Ahri to move it under his breath. Ahri walked calmly up the stairs, only to bolt as a loud slam was emitted from the kitchen. She looked back guiltily at the source of the noise, debating on whether to save the guy or follow her orders.

Ahhh, sorry James. Good luck. She made her way to the room she was told about and opened the door, taking in the sight. The bed was an absolute mess, with the covers heaped up and wrinkly. On the desk was a neat stack of text books and a computer, a backpack leaning up against it. An average size TV sat on top a bookcase, a comfortable looking chair placed in front of it. An assortment of video games and books cluttered the shelfs. She picked up one of the books and started to flip through it, interested in what the man she was now living with was interested in. The title of the book was Eragon.

"So you can read our language." Ahri looked up as James shambled in and collapsed on his bed. "That was a curiosity of mine."

"So what's the verdict?" Ahri asked, closing the thick book and putting it back on the shelf. "Can I stay?"

James was silent for a while, his head buried in his blankets. "You have to stay. By law, I have to be with you no matter where we go." He rolled over so he could face her, his tired face frowning slightly at the sight of Ahri in his gaming chair. "I made sure to get all kinds of documents to make it safe for you to live here. That way we don't have random cops or military coming after you while we find a way to send you home."

"So that's why you wanted me to charm those guys." Ahri lit up as she realized what happened, pleased she could figure out what was going on. James sweat dropped, wondering how much trouble it would to keep this ditz in line. Ahri, on the other hand, was beginning to respect the human even more. "I'm lucky that I met such a smart guy right off the bat." She grinned as James blushed ever so slightly at the complement.

"I guess." He said sheepishly, deciding to accept the compliment. He then remembered something. "It will be a little while till dinner. Mom wants to know if you eat beef." They both laughed at the stupid question.

"No, I'm a vegetarian." Both of them found it hard to breath as the fell into a fit of laughter, James literally falling off of the bed. Once they calmed down enough, James got to his feet and left the room, desperately suppressing a smile. Ahri waited patiently for him to return, giggling every now and then. James returned rather quickly, delivering his message and disappearing quietly when his mom looked away for a second.

James came back to the room to find his foxy companion on the floor peaking under the bed, her tails waving. He waited behind her patiently as she continued to find nothing under his piles of laundry and trash for a few minutes before an impish grin formed on his lips. Being very quite, he reached out and grabbed her tails into a bundle and tackled her, pinning her under the bed.

"Tails!" He squealed happily. Ahri struggled underneath him, kicking at him and trying to scratch him. All the while James was petting her tails, dearly enjoying himself. He eventually let her go, only to put her in a choke hold when she came out and start scratching at the base of her ears.

"Let me go!" Ahri wined, her face glowing red with embarrassment. She had been with many guys, sure, but none of them had ever held her down to play with her ears and tail. While the scratching was not unpleasant, far from it, it was highly uncomfortable to be pinned down while he did it. "I'll let you continue, but please release me!" The grip around her neck loosened and she felt James's head press against her ears. A second later he released her and pushed her off his lap.

Ahri crawled about a foot away before plopping down, keeping her eyes diverted from him as if hoping he couldn't see how red her face was. "Where did you learn to do that?" She asked, petting the back of her ear.

"We had a cat." James said simply, then added sheepishly. "Sorry for being so rough. I don't know what came over me."

Ahri's ears perked up at the at the mention of a cat. "Where is it?" She asked, glancing around as if it would slink out of nowhere at anytime.

"Dead." James said flatly. Ahri looked back at him to find him suddenly serious, his face stony. She tried to apologize but he waved it away. "It's fine. We parted a long time ago." They were both saved from the awkward silence that had filled the room when James mother called from down stairs, telling them that dinner was done.

The only thing that felt out of place during the rest of the evening was magically on the ten second trip from the room to the kitchen table James turned from the silent brooding teen to his usual outgoing self. His parents treated her as if she was their own daughter (a bit friendlier from the father, who mysteriously kept flinching all throughout dinner. Ahri couldn't understand what was up there.) and to top it off, the food was really good.

When she complimented James mother, named Marry, she just brushed it of with a good natured chuckle. "It's nothing, I've been doing it for years. Just don't eat James's cooking, he can screw up just about anything you can't just put together by hand." Everyone but James laughed.

"Hey, I only set the stove on fire once!" The whole table laughed, Ahri imagining the panicked teen trying to beat out the fire with a towel. Dinner passed with a lot of stories of James as a boy, a few ones from James about his parents that were just as bad. Dad left the table towards the end of dinner, getting a mysteriously bleeding knee after he told Ahri she could just call him dad.

"You kicked him, didn't you?" Ahri whispered to James as his mother took her and her husband's plate to the sink. He nodded, not looking up from his food. He had taken it upon himself to finish all the leftovers. With a little bit of salt, the vegetables were vanishing like candy. He also passed the meat over to Ahri, claiming that it was pretty dry. She agreed after a few bites, blaming the salt.

"How could you tell it was me?" James asked as he took their plates to the sink, quickly cleaning them with a wash cloth.

"The smell of blood on your shoe." James looked down. There was indeed a bit of blood on the toe of his shoe, still wet. He wiped it of with his sleeve, not bothered at all by it.

Marry ducked her head around the corner. "Hey dear, the baths open if you want to use it. Towels in the cabinet."

Ahri thanked her. "I'll use it later, after I'm done talking with James." Marry smiled and retreated back around the corner. James finished his work and set the dishes on a towel to dry. "Is it ok if I use the bath?" She asked.

"Go right ahead. This is your home now too, you don't need to wait for my permission to do everything now." James told her, drying his hands on his shirt. "Just check for cameras first. My dad can be a bit of a pervert."

"Ok, I will." Ahri surprised him with a hug before bouncing off to the bathroom. After a quick check for cameras, she took a towel out of the cabinet and set it on the sink and stripped before she hopped in the shower. She pumped it up to full blast, the hot water feeling good on her skin. The room quickly filled up with steam, making it feel like a sauna. Ahri took her sweet time washing, gently scrubbing her curved body of all the sweat that had accumulated on her skin. After she finished scrubbing her body, she reached over and grabbed one of the multiple bottles on a little white shelf, adding what she believed to be shampoo to her hair. As soon as she started to rinse said shampoo out of her hair, she gagged as a strong odor filled the room. It was especially bad with her heightened sense of smell.

Upon rereading the label, Ahri found out she was using an axe body wash. She made a mental note that the two of them were not the same thing and to not touch the bottle again. She held her breath as the last of it washed out of her hair, running in little streams down her back and breasts. She began to read the other bottles, only to flee the shower as it began to shoot out cold water.

"James, I'm done with the shower. Like what you see?" Ahri called out in a singsong voice as she opened the door. She immediately tripped and fell down when her foot made contact with the sleeping teen on the floor. "What in the world are you doing down their?" She complained, rubbing her temple. She poked at him, failing to wake up the male with every attempt. She even tried tickling him when poking didn't work, only succeeding in giving him scratches.

"Fine, be that way." Ahri pouted. "You will have nowhere to complain in the morning."