NOVEL NEXT Chapter 149: Boys Will Be Boys
As they arrived back at the house, they were greeted by the sight Carl and Gil sitting on opposite sides of the room bruised, scraped and grumbling while Tiamutael watched kid-vids.
"What the hell happened?" Klaire said as she stormed to the middle ground.
"He's a dick!" The two of them shouted, pointing towards each other.
Klaire sighed, her head lowering as she cracked her shoulders, then she shot both of them with a rubber round.
"I asked for an explanation not a continuation. Talk."
"Mum, they were arguing about you three. I asked how they knew they were marrying the right people, dad said "because your mums are the best" and Gillian said "because Scylla's the best" and then they started fighting..."
The women, including the children, looked between them all.
"Are you two children?" Scylla grunted in a tone that warned about replying.
"I'm incredibly disappointed in you two." Kyubi said as she shook her head.
"Our leader and head of diplomacy, everyone..." Klaire stated with agitated sarcasm.
"I'm just going to be like Mum and Mum..." Raziel decided before turning her back on them and joining her brother watching kid-vids.
"Why couldn't I join in!? Dad, you are so mean!" Kitsunoko shouted when everyone else was done, which ironically was the one to get through to them and make them apologise to one another.
"Klaire, Kyubi, everyone; I'm sorry for being so childish." Carl said after he shook Gillian's hand.
"Yeah, we both are. Guess we just had a lot of unspoken feelings, we aren't great at saying exactly how much we care about you, throwing each other was just the best way to show it." Gillian explained.
"Yeah, it's not an excuse, we know we're idiots and let things go too far and to make it worse we nearly let it become an actual fight."
The girls all sighed except for Kitsunoko, who moaned about being left out.
"So are you still curious about relationships then Tiamutael?" Kyubi asked as she knelt beside him.
"No, I decided to wait until I'm mature enough to fight about it like those two, I'd end up hurting someone and I'd rather not."
Kyubi chuckled. "Well that's very mature in itself and a sign you're a good person. Keep it up and whoever you eventually fall in love with will be a lucky person indeed."
"I agree, at least they were enough of a bad example to show you what not to do."
"Well done Gil, you just made a kid bench relationships. Honestly, you're such an idiot I don't know why I love you sometimes." Scylla said with brutal flatness.
"Yeah, I suck, I'm really sorry Tiamutael... Don't use me and your dad as the benchmark for what it's like, we're just unusually passionate with all this marriage stuff." Gillian spoke as he moved over to Scylla.
"Gil, if I used you as an example, this world would be doomed. Or did you forget about using me to scare those chasm-dwarves?"
Almost as Tiamutael finished speaking, the heel of her right foot connected with his jaw and as she hooked her leg back he was dropped to the ground. "I am, so, sorry for my idiot fiancé! I swear I have no idea when he even did that!"
"It's okay, we already knew, that is technically why he was made so we let it slide because he asked Tiamutael to not do anything too drastic."
"So... Can I get up now, or should I just stay down?"
"Up, we're going to leave them in peace for the day. How long will the adjustments take Kyubi? I'll leave the dress with you whenever."
"Just leave it now, I don't have anything in particular planned, Carl will be returning to the committee on monday and I'll need something to do to take my mind off it. It might also give Klaire and me some ideas for our own dresses, of course I'll be making mine a shiromuku, which is the wedding variant of the kimono I wear."
"Oh that sounds beautiful, can you make me a kimono too? I've wanted to try yours for a while."
"Look at that, looks like I'll be a seamstress before long..." Kyubi smiled. "...I'll happily make you one after I've fixed my kimono, adjusted the wedding dress and when I need a break from mine."
"Yay! I can't wait, thank you."
"Yeah, thanks a lot Kyubi, I'm so glad I met you and you too Klaire."
Carl's eyes drifted over to Gil so they could have a silent conversation.
[ PRIVATE MESSAGE SENT FROM CARL : BUT NOT ME? ]
[ PRIVATE MESSAGE SENT FROM GILLIAN : DUDE THEY'RE GETTING ALONG, IF SHE DOESN'T LIKE YOU, THEN WE HAVE AN EXCUSE TO GO AND CHILL OUT WHILE THEY HANG OUT!!!! WE WIN BROTHER! ]
Carl had to fight to hold back a snicker, barely concealing it as Scylla grabbed Gillian's arm and pulled him out the door as he turned and flashed the smugest expression he could conjure.
As he pulled the door shut behind him the the three of them chuckled with a shake of their heads.
"Ladies, I really am sorry, we were stupid an-"
"Shush, make coffee."
"Of course, but first..." Carl turnt to Kyubi. "...Seriously, that really suits you, I thought it'd be a bit weird seeing you out of the kimono but no."
Kyubi turned bright red, from the unexpected compliment, made worse when Klaire joined in. "Yeah, we seriously need to get you in our clothes more often, you never know when we'll do something that could damage the kimono; having a few banked outfits you feel comfortable in will be liberating."
"Okay, that's enou-" Kyubi reached the limits of her embarrassment tolerance and was about to tell them to stop when Kitsunoko jumped in and hugged her.
"Mmmmm, feels like one mum and smells like you all, perfect cuddling." She changed form and fell asleep in Kyubi's lap immediately.
As the others looked at each other joking that she must have worn herself out in training, Carl got to making the coffee as he'd been told and before he had finished making it there was a knock at the door.
As Klaire opened it, she was face to face with a red-faced Scylla. "Sorry, I completely forgot to leave the dress. Thanks again, I'll try to think of someway to pay you back."
"Forgive my idiot fiancé?"
"I-Fine, Carl, please try not to encourage Gil's stupidity anymore."
"I promise, I'll try, but if you want I can make our friendship beneficial... Like why I call him Gil."
"Because it's short for Gillian?..."
"Nope, because after a match in self-defence class I saw a message from you and tried to tease him for once with what I thought was a special nickname from you. He just said, "what the hell dude? I love her, is it really any different to you and Bashe, thought you'd get it?" We were proper rivals at that point, but I nearly pushed us back to enemies with that."
Scylla went bright red. "Uhm, thank you, I appreciate that. I always thought he was annoyed about getting engaged back then which was why he ignored me."
"He was, he was annoyed you couldn't come to SATS, later on I found out that our worst fight was actually the day you guys got engaged. He was furious that you couldn't come to SATS at all, thought that wiping the floor with the human with a plus would solve that."
"Wait, so is that he meant the first time we talked after the announcement? He said "I really messed up, don't think I have a right to judge humans anymore", or something like that."
"Probably, in other words, you might actually be the only reason we got past the hostility. Which means, you're a big reason that the faction is the way it is."
Scylla didn't say anything else, she just closed the door and left. "You're a real wingman, you left out the bit where he stayed in human form, that fight wouldn't have ended in a draw if he beasted out on you."
Carl smiled at Klaire's analysis and took Kyubi her coffee. "You're wrong about that, he really thought for the win that time, he stayed human because he knew he'd lose control and I'd take advantage of that."
Klaire thought about it for a second, then had to nod in agreement. "Yeah, never thought about it at the time, but I guess I just thought of him as a jerk. You thought the same back then, but you still used every confrontation as a learning experience. Anyway, I better go take the dress upstairs..."
"Not so fast. Kyubi, would you like a studio for making clothes? I can add a room, some mannequins to keep the dress neat, whatever you need. We'll need to come up with currency at some point, so it will allow you to earn some money doing something you love."
Kyubi's ears pricked up and her eyes widened. "Really? You think I could make a job out of it?"
"If you made that kimono, then definitely, where did you even learn to make clothes like that?"
"Oh, it's a common duty of kitsune, the older ones would teach them to stitch as a means of learning discipline. We would sometimes compete to make clothes for the celestial foxes." Her tails danced with joy as she told them about those days.
"If you didn't win, I would love to see the ones that did..." Klaire was spellbound, the idea of how beautiful, the clothes that beat her kimono must have been hard to imagine.
"Actually I did, my kimono was gift for a competition to see who could make Tsukuyomi a dress to give his sister. He was so impressed, he blessed it and gave it back to me, then gave his sister second place."
"Oh no, the rip didn't damage the blessing did it?" Klaire said, saddened by the idea that she might have lost one of the few remaining mementos from those times.
"No, the blessing faded when Tsukuyomi died. It was a minor one, normal threads would have been destroyed by the power of anything greater."
"Well, would you like to get it reblessed, I need to have another look at his realm. How long will repairs take?"
"I'm not sure what you're planning, but I have faith it will work out. I insisted on fixing it by hand, but I'll fix it with my divinity if you two would like to go there tomorrow."
"Sure."
"Yep, we can take Kitsunoko if you want her to see the realm her kind once had strong ties to."
"I think that would be nice."
---Message from the author---
So I'm dumb and didn't realise the Discord links have an expiration date. From now on the link will be in the about the book section beneath the extract.