Notes: So, here is the next chapter. I will say that I'm not looking forward to writing the next chapter or so. I don't want to see June cry and I know that she's going to. I'm very sad now thinking about this. Anyway, please review. It'll make me feel better as I write the coming sad parts.
She blushed heavily as she woke up. She couldn't believe she had fallen asleep in his arms. She felt bad and also noted that she had only been wearing an over sized shirt and panties. He had been wearing just as little as she had. She slowly back way from his sleeping form doing her best not to wake him. Her mother would kill her if she ever found out about this.
June gasped as she thought about her mother and her sisters. This was not good. If they ever found not about this, they would never leave her alone. Her mother would point out her weakness, May would point out how this was the only way a guy would go to bed with her, and April would say such nasty things. June's turned into a deep shade of red. They could not know about this, ever.
"Ta..ta...Tadashi." She stammered with her words. She gently shook him. "Tadashi."
"Hn," He took hold of her hand a pulled her back to him. "Hm, just a bit longer." He muttered into her hair.
"Tadashi." She didn't know what to do. "Tadashi!" She shouted as his hand lazily touched her bottom. His eyes snapped open at the sound of her screaming. He was quick to push her away.
"I..."
"I'm going to get dressed." She rushed out. She jumped out of the bed and moved to her closet. She pulled out a dress before locking herself in the bathroom.
He slammed his head back down on the pillow and sighed deeply as he covered his face with his arm. He wasn't sure how he was going to face her. He wondered if he should just leave and collect his thoughts. He was sure that she didn't want to see me.
He glanced at the door before leaving her room. He slowly dressed and weighed his options. If they talked, they may end up talking about things he didn't want to go over. Like, that he had kissed her, called her beautiful a number of times, and kind of enjoyed looking at her a bit too much. Oh God, he thought with horror as he sat down. What if he ended up telling her that he had feelings for her? What if he said the 'L' word? How would she react to hearing that?
She didn't seem to like waking up beside him. While he was sure that he wouldn't have handled it well either, he was sure that he would have behaved better than that. Of course, he at least knew where he stood and, from what everyone had been saying, she may be feeling the same way he did. Was he ready for that kind of talk? Not really, but it had to happen sooner or later. They couldn't keep dancing around the issue could they. Or could they?
Coward, he thought to himself as he shut her apartment door behind him.
Xxx
June sighed as she walked towards the lab. She was looking for Honey Lemon. The blonde seemed like an understanding type. It was possible that she was the best, if not only, person she could speak to. This was big. This was beyond big. This was opening up to someone, outside her family and Fred, about something super important.
"Honey?" June sighed out as she entered the lab. "I need to speak with you."
"Oh, hi June." Tadashi tried to breath. Honey glanced between and her eyes went wide at the tension in the air.
"Hello." June greeted him with a simple nod. She had a task to do. She needed to talk with Honey. "Are you free to speak?" She said as she turned to the blonde. "It's important."
"Yeah, sure." Honey Lemon nodded in confusion.
"In private." The white haired female added. "Where no one can see us?" She stressed.
"You could use my lab." Tadashi narrowed his eyes in thought. Why would she need to be alone with Honey.
"Yeah, sure." The blonde nodded.
Xxx
"Aaaa." Honey screamed twenty minutes later. There was a loud noise. It sounded like a howl. Tadashi quickly rushed over towards the scream, as did others. He tried to open the door, but found it stuck. "No! Not the door!" Honey shouted. She whispered something about the window.
Tadashi rammed into the door and found Honey all alone. Where had June gone? He was confused. There was shouting from outside.
"What was with the screaming?" Someone asked.
"I saw a dog." Honey Lemon stated. "A big dog!"
"A dog?" Fred questioned. "Oh, no. June!" He rushed out. The female chased after Fred with a great speed, even with her shoes.
"Wait! I'm sure she's fine."
"You don't know...she has this thing...about dogs." Fred tried to explain. "Just. I need-"
"I know!" Honey shouted. "She told me about the thing with the dogs." She nodded towards the door.
"Oh, oh!" Fred seemed to be understanding something. "That's great! But we should really go find her."
Tadashi was confused. What the hell was going on? Where was June? What were those two hiding?
Xxx
He felt awful. He was worried about her and he had left things in a mess. He should have stayed to talk things over with her or pulled her aside when she went to see Honey. She hadn't been answering her calls and it bothered him how she just disappeared. What if she left again? What if she never came back?
Since she wasn't at her apartment, she had to be at her lab. He quickly opened the front door and noted how cold the room felt. He wondered if she had stopped by at all, but he most have. Tadashi noticed that there was a small light on. He stepped towards it and looked about. She wasn't insight.
There were books laying on the floor. It seemed that someone had been going through her things. Someone had been trying to find something. He went to pick up one of her notebooks when a small photo slipped out. He took the picture off the floor and paused. Even in the dim lightly, there was something about it that didn't seem right.
He stood up and turned on a lamp. It couldn't be. It didn't make sense. He turned the photo over and read the three simple words written on the back. 'Dashi and Me' He flipped it over once more as he let his mind think the impossible. Her words, her behavior...could it be that-
There was only one way he could be sure. He had to check something out at his house first.
Xxx
"Tadashi!" Aunt Cass yelled as the boy pushed his way into the house. He rushed to the bookcase and frowned as he looked it over. No, it wasn't here. "What are you doing?"
"Photo albums?" He asked instead of answering her question. "I'm looking for a photo."
"Well," Aunt Cass frowned. "What are you looking for? Maybe, I can help."
"A photo of me." He said as he picked up an album and flipped through it. It wasn't there. "One my dad took. It's important." Well, his father hadn't taken it, but that didn't matter.
"You're dad didn't take many." Cass recalled. "That was more of my sister's things than his." She recalled. "Narrow it down a bit more."
"A dog was in it." Tadashi stated.
"Oh, that picture." Cass snorted. "That's in the cafe. I take it out when I have a really nasty-"
"Thanks." He rushed out as he went to get the photo. He stared at it with wide eyes. It was the same photo from June's lab, the one of Dashi. Only it wasn't a photo of Dashi. It was a photo of a young Tadashi holding a little white puppy in his arms.
He took a deep breath as he turned the photo over. It was clear as day. The impossible idea that was forming in his mind seemed to be finding solid ground. 'Dashi and June' Could it be that June really was a fox spirit? How was that even possible and how could he have known her? None of this mind sense.
xxx
Tadashi couldn't believe what he was thinking. This was crazy. He was crazy. He was walking towards the campus when he heard something odd. He wasn't sure if he heard right.
"So, you turn into a dog." A woman stated. "Anything else?"
"Dog, cat, wolf, other animals." He heard a male answer. "Like being a fox, a lot or wolf."
"It's something I do...and my family can do." A second woman stated. She sounded a bit nervous. "It's our thing."
"That's amazing." The first woman gushed. "You turn into a full animal. A little bigger than most animals, but still perfect transformation!" That sounded like Honey. Was she talking to June?
"Yeah, I guess." June muttered. "Being magic and at risk for being a science project make for a very stressful life. I can't be me. I can't show this." She waved over herself.
"He wouldn't mind." Honey stated softly.
"It's not about him." June heaved out.
"Isn't it?" Honey Lemon questioned her softly. "Isn't that what you're really scared of? Isn't that why you showed me what you can do?"
"And freaked out most of the campus!" Fred chimed in. He heard the sound of crying.
"Fred." Honey scowled. The comic geek didn't understand why June was upset. "It's okay. If you just-"
"What? Show him I turn into a dog?" June shouted. "You freaked out. He'll freak out. He'll say things... I can't... I thought I could... but I can't." She shook her head. "I just can't have me look at me like... I can't... I can't..." She broke down.
"But he's-"
"Shhh." Honey cut in. She shook her head. Now was not the time. "It's all right."
"He ran out. He run off." June whispered through her tears. "He doesn't even know and...he ran off because..." She sobbed harder. The sound of her crying tore his heart in two. He wanted nothing more than to comfort her, but he knew that was the wrong course of action. Coming out now would only embarrass her and cause her to run further out of his reach. He had to let her have this moment. Plus, she wouldn't enjoy finding out that he had been listening in.
Tadashi slowly and carefully left the scene. He knew what he had to do. The next chance he had alone with her he would tell her how he felt, how he saw her. He would find his courage and tell her that he loved her.
Xxx
It was a long three days. Tadashi noted as he waited for the right chance to speak with June. She looked horrible, like she hadn't been sleeping well. He tried to talk with her, but she was a queen at hide and seek. Just when he was about to reach her, she managed to find a way to disappear. It was driving him crazy. How was he going to tell her how he felt when she refused to be alone with him?
"You in the dog house?" Hiro snorted as he did some work on his micro-bots. He had a long way to go before the showcase.
"No! Kind of...not really..." He rested on the couch. He wasn't sure how much longer he could keep his cool. He turned his head to look at his brother. "How's it going?"
"It's going." Hiro stated. "But what did you do?"
"Nothing." Tadashi sighed.
"Nothing?"
"Yes. Nothing!" He gritted his teeth. "I had a great moment to tell her how I felt, to show her I'm in love with her and I didn't do anything. I took a look at her and couldn't bring myself to take advantage of her. Because that's what I thought. I stupidly thought that if I acted she'd freak out and I'd ruin things."
"Instead, you ruined things by doing nothing?" Hiro couldn't help but laugh. "Man, you suck at romantic don't you." He stated between fits of laughter. It was just too funny.
"Done?" Tadashi scolwed as he sat up.
"Wait!" Hiro giggled a bit more than stopped. "Yeah, okay I'm done now."
"Good."
"So, what are you going to do about it?" Hiro asked as he faced his older brother.
"Well, I have two options. Well, two good options." Tadashi thought over. "One is to keep waiting and the other is to camp out her door."
"Those both sound awful." His little brother rolled his eyes. "How not corner her in the hall?"
"That won't work." He explained. "She's quick on her feet and hides rather well." He frowned. "Most be magic." He muttered to himself.
"What about magic?" Hiro didn't know if he heard right.
"Nothing." Tadashi shook his head. It would be wrong to tell his little brother when June wasn't even ready to tell him yet. She'd be outrage and it put her in danger the more people that knew her secret. She was right to fear what others would do to her. "Well, I'm heading out." He had to pack a bag and think of what he was going to say.
"Ah, well if you don't blow it I'd like to meet your fox spirit." Hiro snorted. "See what's so magical about her."
"Hey, don't talk like that in fact of her." Tadashi warned. "I don't want you creeping her out."
"Because, the guy waiting outside her apartment is creep at all!" Hiro shouted after his brother.
Xxx
"You can't sleep there." June pouted as she found Tadashi blocking her apartment door.
"I don't plan to." He said as he lifted his head from his text book. She eyed his bag and frowned.
"You thought you'd sleep over?" That didn't sound like him at all. "I never took you for that kind of man."
"I normally wouldn't do that." He agreed. "But you haven't been sleeping well. Don't lie. I can tell and I doubt you'd told anyone about the nightmares."
"So, you thought I'd let you sleep over in order to ease my mind?" She wasn't sure what to make of his behavior. Mere friendship or the sign that Honey Lemon was right? She thought the matter over. "Are you sure that is a good idea?" She recalled how he ran off in the morning. He hadn't seemed comfortable with the task before. Why was he now?
He looked up at her with eyes soft and full of concern. She felt a bit naked under his gaze and crossed her arms over her chest before going to rub her neck. She wanted him to say yes, to say that it was a good idea because he cared for her and wanted to protect her, but she also wanted him to go away. She didn't want him to see her for what she was, a fairy tale beast. She didn't want her to treat her like a monster.
"I'm sure that I can't just watch you live like this." He said with a heavy heart. She didn't know what to say. She hadn't thought he'd say that. She'd planned on him seeing that maybe this was a bad idea. She blinked a few times and realized that of course he would want to stay over. He had a sort of honor to him, nobility, that had been lost.
"Isn't the fox spirit the one that helps the honorable man, not the other way around?" She tried to joke. She wasn't sure if that was how the story went, but from what she recalled that seemed about right.
"Well," he smiled playfully. "In some tales, the mortal man helps a beautiful fox. Sometimes, the man protects the animal from hunters and others it frees the being from a trap, or another type of danger. Than the fox spirit returns to the mortal in order to reward the man for his kindness and noble spirit."
"Oh," June wondered if this counted as helping her from some kind of danger. She doubted that. She was only having nightmares. "Well, I guess that we don't fit into that story."
"Doesn't mean I don't want to help you out." He pointed out before she turned red. "It's what friends do." He added. He couldn't believe he just said that. Why did he bring up the 'f' word? It's like he wanted to stay in the friendzone forever.
"Well, I guess it couldn't hurt to have you stay over." She muttered as she her returned to that word, friends. Was that all she was to him? A friend? Honey Lemon and Fred seemed to think she meant more to him than just a friend, but they could be wrong. Fred wasn't the sharpest person after all and Honey seemed like a hopefully being. It could have all been something they wished would happen instead of based on facts. Knowing Fred, that was highly the case.
"Great." Tadashi nodded his head. He felt awkward. This hadn't gone like he planned and now he was possibly further away from dating her than he had been before.
Xxx
Tadashi rested on the sofa deep in thought. June had wished him goodnight about an hour ago, but he had yet to sleep. All he could think about was his father, June, and that photo. His thoughts turned to the night she had ran into him. The look of shock on her face and how when she next saw him she begged him not to tell people. He wondered if that was her true form, or if her human form was her true form, or if it was that of a fox. Did she even have a true form? How did it even work? Did this mean magic was real? Or only some types of magic?
'Honor, loyalty, and kindness have such magic to them.' He heard someone whisper to him. 'They are worth more than any treasure you could imagine, the very thing gods grant rewards for.'
He opened his eyes to find himself alone in the dark. He wondered if he had been dreaming or if someone had been there. He narrowed his eyes as he sat up. He heard a sound in the darkness. It sounded like a small dog whimpering softly. He glanced over towards June's room and chuckled as he rose to his feet.
He opened her door to find her whimpering in her sleep as she tossed gently side to side. Her long white hair framed half covered her face, but he could tell that she was frowning. She muttered something to her pillow that he couldn't hear. Tadashi stepped towards without making a sound. He sat on the edge of her bed and leaned in to hear her.
"Ta,,,dashi...no... don't...I don't...wanna...fire... die." Her brows knitted. She looked as though she was in a great deal of pain. He touched the back of his hand to her face and she relaxed a bit. It was clear that she was still unwell though. He bit the inside of his cheek as he debated what to do next. Through were a number of options. He could leave her and return to the sofa. That may have been the best option. He could also just hold her hand until she relaxed more, or he could stay with her for the rest of the night. He could lay next to her and hold her in his arms, like he did the last time he was there.
Xxx
"Tadashi?" June whispered into the night. He was looking down at her with soft, kind eyes.
"It's okay." He whispered to her as he held her tightly in his arms. "I'm here." Her feet touched the cold floor and she felt a strong wind kiss her back. Her wolf ears twitched as they heard something odd. It sounded like flames. A massive blaze burned behind Tadashi just before a loud scream echoed through the dark.
"No." She said as Tadashi looked throughs the flames than back to her. She shook her head side to side. "Don't." She begged him. Her chest felt heavy. She could feel death's shadow looming over her.
"I have to." He told her.
"I don't believe that." She told him. "You don't have to." She choked out. "Don't... wanna lose... you."
"You won't." He promised her. "I'll be fine."
"But the fire." She stressed. "You'll die."
"I won't." He promised her. He gazed into the black. She felt a strange warmth on her face. It was as though someone was creasing her. She closed her eyes for a moment to enjoy the feeling before opening them again. "Be the light in the shadows and I shall return. You're light will lead me home."
"What does that even mean?" June questioned. He had been telling her that a lot in her dreams. "Tadashi? What's going on?"
"I love you." He whispered as he pulled her into a deep hug.
xxx
She snuggled into his chest. His warmth and scent filled her body and eased her heart. She opened her eyes slowly to find herself back in her room. The early rays of dawn shined in her apartment and she felt at peace with the world. She could stay here forever she thought to herself.
"Hey." Tadashi whispered into her hair.
"Hey." She whispered into his chest.
"I..." He wasn't sure how to explain why he was in her bed. She slowly lifted her head up to look at him. He gently cupped her face with his left hand and brushed a tear away with his thump. She placed a hand over his. "It's alright. You're okay." He promised her, but she wasn't thinking about herself in that moment. She was just glad that he was alive and well.
"Stay..." She whimpered to him. "Stay with me."
"For as long as you."
"What if its forever?" She asked as she searched his eyes for an emotion she feared he didn't have for her. "What if I want you always with me."
"Than I'll always be with you." He answered without taking time to think the matter over.
"You shouldn't say things like that." She softly stated as she leaned closer to him.
"Why is that?" He wasn't sure why she wouldn't want to hear him say that. Did she not like the idea of him being with her for the rest of her life? That didn't make sense. She just said that she wanted him with her always.
"Because..." They were noise to noise. "I may hold you to it." She blushed.
"I wouldn't mind that."
"Oh, why is that?"
"Because I like you..." He smiled at her.
"I like you too." She smiled back at him.
"A lot."
"Hmm." She closed her eyes. She was slowly drifting back to sleep.
"I love you."
"What?" Her eyes snapped open. She couldn't be sure she heard him right. He couldn't have possibly said what she thought he said.
"I love you." He repeated. "I'm sorry." He realized that he shouldn't have said that. This wasn't the right time or place to tell her something like that. "I should-" His words were cut off as she placed her lips on his. She quickly pulled away and blushed a deep crimson.
"I...I..." She couldn't believe she did that. Now, she ruined everything. He wouldn't want to be around her now. She crossed a line and things would be weird between them. He was just her friend. He loved her like a friend, not in a romantic way.
He placed his lips over hers and she could feel his smile. And for once, a long time, she felt truly loved to her core.