Fox Life

Only when the two were flushed and out of breath did they pull apart. Iris hid her face against Kyro's shoulder, her hands still resting around him. A part of her mind felt like complaining about this unexpected turn of events, but the majority of her brain was in an off-mode.     

"That pie is really nice," Kyro murmured to her, and she looked up to glare at him. He hadn't even taken a bite of it!     

His gaze went lower from her eyes, and Iris pushed herself away in indignation. That rascal, he was making fun of her! With light chuckles following her, she left the kitchen to escape into the bedroom and pretend that she really needed to unpack her stuff.     

It took only ten minutes, and she was forced to leave the room. Kyro was still in the kitchen, having sat down by the dining table. Busy with checking something on his phone, he only nodded at her in passing, his thoughts seemingly having been shifted to other matters.     

That was for the better. Or so Iris told herself.     

She went to the living room and made herself comfortable in an armchair. Upon opening her phone and checking out the news, a familiar name instantly popped out. Gale was all over the place.     

One article described his party at the top of some hotel where ambulances had to come in droves to save the lives of the participants from too much drinking. Another spoke about how he raised hell in some well-known club, resulting in an all out brawl and him being banned from that place. At other time, he broke the law with his yacht. Only the fact that he was using it at night and in a place when there were few other boats around saved him from a horrible incident.     

The more Iris read, the worse she felt. Although she didn't have a deep relationship with Gale, he had seemed like a decent fellow. At least he was Kyro's best friend.     

But the person in the gossip columns… He was a pure degenerate, partying every single day and blowing money like its paper. Worst of all, however, his actions were always only a step away from costing people lives. He didn't seem to care a bit what his unbridled partying might bring about.     

'What should Lily be feeling?' Nowhere was there any mention of the little girl or her parents. The world seemed to rotate only around Gale. 'I really wish I had gotten Lily's number…'     

The next few days passed in relative calm, with Iris once again just staying at home. It wasn't comfortable, but she acted like nothing was the problem. There was no way that she could live out her life without ever being left alone, so she forced herself to confront the shadows that terrified her.     

On Tuesday, Kyro came back with a large carrier. Noticing it, Iris swiftly ran out of the house to welcome him. "How is he?" she asked, trying to see the black furball through the small gaps in the carrier.     

"Alive."     

The look Kyro offered for the cat inside worried Iris a little, but she reserved her judgment for when she saw the situation herself. Nothing could be worse than what she had seen before.     

But it came real close. When Kyro brought the carrier inside and pulled Lucy out, Iris was met with a shadow of the majestic cat. As before, his side was bare, purplish blue and red. Stitch marks could be seen where the wound had been sewn closed.     

This alone was disturbing enough, but it wasn't all. There seemed to be something wrong with Lucy himself as well. He didn't sit on Kyro's knees, but tried to pull away. This action left him wheezing for breath, his whole body shaking.     

When Kyro placed him on the sofa, he stood up with difficulty. A moment after putting weight on his right back leg, he turned around to sniff it. He then tried putting it down again, and a pitiful meow left his lips.     

The next moment, his energy seemed to abandon him, and he dropped on his belly. The small fall left him out of breath once again.     

As Iris watched in horror, Lucy tried standing up again, but to no avail. He then half-crawled, half-pulled himself forward. Yet she couldn't tell where he was going. It was clearly not to her and not toward Kyro.     

The cat's struggling journey took him to the edge of the sofa, and he would have fallen if not for Kyro. He pulled Lucy back and caressed the black head with unreadable eyes.     

Yet Lucy didn't seem to register the touch. He was looking around, and once more attempting to move away.     

"What's wrong with him?" Iris asked in a whisper. Speaking loudly seemed somehow sacrilegious.     

As she stared at the laboring cat, she could only feel an instinctual sense of something wrong, unnatural. This couldn't be Lucifer. He was a noble and majestic creature, his fur like a lion's mane.     

"There are drugs still in his system," Kyro answered while stroking Lucy's head. "They'll fade in a few hours, and then it'll get worse. I have some painkillers, but he won't want to eat them, yet he will be in excruciating pain without them."     

Iris' heart trembled as her gaze returned to Lucy. This was all because he wanted to protect her. If he had just left her to fend for herself, he wouldn't be in such a horrible situation.     

"I'm sorry," she murmured, mostly to herself. Her fingers reached out to touch the once bright and silky fur, and she felt the desperately beating heart underneath. Lucy was still alive and fighting.     

With this comforting thought, Iris looked up at Kyro. "But it'll get better after it'll get worse, right?"     

"Of course." Kyro smiled at her and picked up Lucy. "Let's make him a nest on the ground so he won't have anywhere to fall off."     

"'Kay!"