Chapter 5

Yuki opens her eyes and becomes aware of a body next to her. She yells and pushes away, bumping into the wall behind her.
“Wha, what are you doing here?!”
Jen slowly opens his eyes and looks at her, having been conscious for quite some time.
“I was keeping you safe.”
Her mouth hangs open in sheer flabbergast.
“How can you being in my room, on my bed, next to me, be keeping me safe?!”
Her voice rises with each set until she is yelling at him.

He simply closes his eyes again.
“Your mind wasn’t very stable, so I took action to help the situation.”
She glares and crawls to him, grabbing his trench coat in both of her hands.
“What?! What do you mean I wasn’t stable? I’m perfectly fine!”
He opens his eyes and glares at her.
“If you’re fine, why do you have a death grip on me while yelling at the top of your voice?”

She blinks and looks to see that her knuckles were white from the force she was exerting. She lets go of him and finds her hands stinging a little from holding something so tightly.
“I.. Sorry…”
She looks away and moves back, still sitting on the bed, but with her back to the wall. Jen shrugs lightly and puts his hands behind his head.
“It’s nearly seven o’clock. There’s still a while before your father should be coming home.”

She leans her head to the side while looking at him.
“It’s seven?”
Jen nods lightly.
“Pretty close to it.”
She bites her lower lip.
“I must have slept for quite a while.”
He nods again then pushes himself off the bed and stands up.
“You still seem a little worn out. I’ll make you some dinner.”
He leaves the room and closes the door behind him. She watches, in wonder, as he leaves.
What was that about?

While he was away, she lies on the bed and thinks, as she did countless days before when she was alone.
Why me? Why does this have to happen to me? What did I do to deserve this kind of life? And what is with him? I don’t understand him. I know everything he does is to connecting to getting his ball back, but his method is hard to follow. Is he being nice to me so I will feel ashamed to keep it?
She mulls over these questions and then feels his presence next to her.

Jen points to the tray of food on her desk.
“Eat it while it’s still warm, it doesn’t taste all that good cold.”
She nods and gets up, feeling a little light headed as she gets off the bed. She feels his hand steadying her and leading her to the seat at the desk. She plops down into the seat and begins to get over the light headedness. Jen lies down on the bed and places his hands behind his head.

Yuki takes the chopsticks and starts eating the rice. After a few bites, she realizes that she was pretty hungry and didn’t notice.
“Does it matter?”
She stops eating and looks at Jen.
“Does what matter?”
He continues looking at the ceiling.
“What my method is. Regardless of how I intend to regain it, the decision to give it back is yours alone.”
She doesn’t respond, turning back to her food and continuing to eat. Jen closes his eyes and remains in silence while she finishes her dinner.

After finishing her meal, she carries the tray back downstairs to the kitchen and cleans the dishes. The door to the kitchen opens and she turns to see her father walk in. She smiles at him.
“Welcome home Dad.”
He nods.
“Thank you. Did you have a good day at school?”
She nods, still smiling.
“Yeah, it went well. How was yours?”
Seiji goes to the refrigerator and pulls out a can of beer.
“It was another day. Though it does make one wonder how much can really go wrong within a short period of time.”

Yuki giggles at her father’s overreacting. Things rarely go as planned for him, but in the end, everything works out well.
“The business is still doing well, so it can’t be that bad, right?”
He smiles and nods before drinking.
“Did you eat at that place again Dad?”
He nods.
“They have really good food, and I must admit, without your mother around, I don’t feel like eating at home much.”

They take a seat at the table next to the kitchen.
“So, did Jen try anything to get it back?”
Yuki shakes her head.
“Not really, but for some reason, he’s been real nice to me today, nothing like he was earlier.”
Her father mulls over that and takes another sip of his beer.
“I don’t know what he’s up to. I never could follow his thought process.”
Yuki places her arm on the table and rests her head on it, closing her eyes.
“I feel exhausted.”

Jen walks into the room and looks at them.
“So it’s nap time and happy hour?”
Seiji finishes the can and throws it at Jen.
The kitsune in human form dodges the can and lets it hit the wall, watching as the can falls to the ground.
“You missed.”
Seiji shakes his head and gets up from the table.
“Putting up with your antics drives me nuts.”
Jen simply smirks and watches Yuki’s father leave the kitchen area. He then walks to the table and sits on it, next to Yuki.
“Didn’t you get enough sleep all ready?”

She opens her eyes, then closes them, trying to ignore him. He pokes her head with his index finger. When she doesn’t respond, he pokes her again and again. She groans and swipes a hand at him.
“If you really want to sleep, wouldn’t your bed be a better place than the kitchen table?”
She mutters under her breath and settles her head on her arm. Jen reaches over and ruffles her brown hair, making parts of it stick up.

She opens her eyes, annoyance clearly written on her face.
“Why are you doing this?”
He smiles at her.
“It’s too early to be going to sleep. It’s not even eight thirty yet, and you’re ready to fall right asleep.”
She groans and closes her eyes again.
“Fine, be that way if you want to.”

He gets off the table and pulls her chair out, with Yuki leaning more over to not be moved.
Sarcastically, he says, “All right, I’ll put you to bed and tuck you in.”
She protests weakly as he lifts her up and carries her in his arms.
“You’re such a little baby, you know that, right?”
She mutters incoherently and rests her head on his chest. He sighs and leaves the kitchen, going through the hallway to the stairs. Carrying her, he watches her sleepy face as she slowly finds rest.

He brings her to her room and sets her down on her bed. Seeing she’s still in her school uniform, he debates taking them off so they won’t get even more wrinkled than it all ready was, or just leaving her be. He decides to leave her be and pulls the covers out from under her and brings them up to her shoulders.
“Sleep well.”

Looking at the doorway, he sees Seiji.
“It’s sad when I have to do your job for you.”
Seiji doesn’t say anything, but walks away. Jen goes to the door and looks back at Yuki’s sleeping form.
“Night.”
He closes the door and leans against it.
“This seems to be harder than I had thought.”
He goes downstairs and leaves the house, wandering into the night for some mischief.