Chapter Summary: This is not how... he would have wished to happen the next time he came back into this room.

Ref. Point: Somewhere within Chapter 8 of Sleeping Tanuki, with reference to a memory that could've happened within Lonesome Kitsune's timeline.


Ace had speedily crossed the length of the small apartment without looking anywhere but his destination; as he first headed to the washroom to clean the dust and dirt sticking on his legs before going into Keiwa's room. He didn't even dare to look at Sara-san... because then, he might end up frozen in place and not knowing what to do. Like... how should he explain to her, considering that Sara currently had no memories of the past DesiGra? Could he say 'Hi, Sara-san? Remember the cheeky fox that's been clinging to your brother's side almost all day for the past few days? That was me! I'm now back to being human!' to her? Like yeah... 'I'm the one who's been cleaning up the leftovers inside the fridge for some time now'...

As if he could say all that to her.

Aaah...

Ace let out a long sigh to himself before glancing towards the room in front of him. Such a familiar room, a familiar smell. But Keiwa was not in here. Well, Keiwa was STILL nearby, in the living room but—the thought of spending any time anywhere without Keiwa felt so... daunting. Scary, no, suffocatingly scary.

Ace took another long breath of air to try to clear his head again. Right, he needed to change out from his dirty clothes.

He clicked the lock on the doorknob behind him.

xxx

Ace slowly unbuttoned the shirt he was wearing before stripping himself off every single piece of fabric he was wearing sans underwear. The clothes were barely worn anyway—he only conjured the clothes out because he didn't want to appear naked in front of Buffa, Na-Go, PunkJack or his sister. And he didn't even think about how the clothes would look on him just... enough to cover his body.

He walked towards the cupboard where Keiwa kept his clothes—still half-naked. As if he would even care about his own modesty right now when he'd spent months not wearing anything as a fox. Though technically, he still had his fur covering his body at the time...

Ace let out another sigh as he stared at the bundle of clothes inside the cupboard... it hadn't been THAT long since that time when he first saw the inside of this cupboard when Keiwa had shown him. He still remembered it as if it was just yesterday he and Keiwa had talked about it.

.

"Heh... you actually had some nice clothes here, but why can't you dress nicely once in a while?"

"Ah, that's too much of a bother to worry about how you look. I just grab whatever I need and put it on. It's not like I wanted to impress anyone with my looks anyway..."

"What? Don't you want to at least... impress ME with how you look?"

Ace smiled weakly at the memory. Back then, Keiwa had laughed at him for even trying to point out that possibility. Because in the end, no matter how well he dressed, whenever a new round of the DesiGra started they would almost always default to the usual uniforms anyway. Also, he didn't want to ruin any of his good clothes while taking part in the DesiGra. That answer Keiwa gave him back then used to bother him so much. Like why can't Keiwa dress nicely for him at least? Who cares about the DesiGra rules or whatever the audience or management thinks? ̶A̶l̶s̶o̶ ̶i̶f̶ ̶K̶e̶i̶w̶a̶'̶s̶ ̶c̶l̶o̶t̶h̶e̶s̶ ̶g̶e̶t̶ ̶r̶u̶i̶n̶e̶d̶,̶ ̶i̶t̶ ̶w̶a̶s̶n̶'̶t̶ ̶a̶s̶ ̶i̶f̶ ̶h̶e̶ ̶w̶o̶u̶l̶d̶n̶'̶t̶ ̶o̶f̶f̶e̶r̶ ̶K̶e̶i̶w̶a̶ ̶h̶i̶s̶ ̶e̶n̶t̶i̶r̶e̶ ̶w̶a̶r̶d̶r̶o̶b̶e̶ ̶a̶n̶y̶w̶a̶y̶.̶ ̶Silly Keiwa!

Not that Keiwa wasn't already cute in his usual style. And god forbid, Keiwa actually bothered to groom himself properly... Ace couldn't imagine the thought of anyone else's attention being drawn towards Keiwa. Ace hastily shook his head free of that line of thoughts.

Ace picked out a simple shirt and pants as well as a jacket before putting them on one by one. He let out a sigh before Ace turned around to look himself in the mirror...

"One day I wanted to take you out shopping for some nicer clothes..."

"Eh? Why?"

"Just because. Keiwa... I just wanted to see you dress nicer. I just wanted to dress you up prettily..."

Keiwa had laughed at the idea back then. But he was being serious! He just wanted to see how handsome Keiwa would look if there was someone who'd pick up some nice clothes for him to wear.

"Ah... but Ace's sense of style... I'm not sure if I'm suitable for that kind of look. You always ended up having such flamboyant wardrobes. I'm not sure if I'd look good wearing the same clothes you usually wear—"

"Eh? Wanna bet on that? I bet I'd look as good even when wearing your usual clothes so you should have no problem looking good wearing mine!"

"Really? I'd like to see that someday. Ace looking so adorable wearing my clothes—"

.

Ace lightly grasped the shirt he was wearing while pulling on the jacket he wore on top of it. The clothes felt warm... as if he was being embraced by Keiwa right at this very moment. Ace felt his cheeks growing warmer at the thought. Ace glanced up towards the small mirror in front of him (seriously, he should get Keiwa a bigger mirror next time!)

His breath hitched, as Ace stared at his own reflection... wearing Keiwa's clothes. Without thinking, his fox ears and tails started to come out in the open as he continued to look at the mirror.

He wanted Keiwa to see him looking like this, but he can't! Because Keiwa wouldn't wake up right now!


A/N2: Hehe... finally can finish this when AO3 server went back up