Fox Life

Once everyone ate their breakfast, Iris found herself being chased. Again. One might think that it was easier now that she had practice, but that wouldn't be the entire truth. Someone else was getting better at this, too.     

Kyro caught her before she could make a dash for anywhere else and did not give her a second chance at escape. His hold wasn't painful, but as unchangeable as the rising of the sun in the east.     

'I'm still not doing it,' Iris stated, glaring at him.     

He did not listen, of course. While holding her with one hand, he went into the bathroom and filled the bath with enough warm water to cover her up to her belly, which wasn't that much in truth.     

'I thought I told you I'm not going to be washed by you,' she said again, wriggling to get away but finding no luck with it.     

While she was doing that, he closed the door of the bathroom so she wouldn't be able to escape into the apartment even if she slipped from his hold. At this moment, Iris really wanted to cross her hands at him and scowl until he stopped his actions, but it was a bit troublesome in her current form.     

Without arms, she could not only not pick up stuff and so on, but even so many of the most common human expressions of displeasure were denied her. What a horrible life she was living now…     

The next moment, she was placed in the warm water, and she screeched at Kyro when he tried to touch her. 'I told you! Stop acting like you don't hear me!'     

"Calm down… It's okay. It's just a bath. If you stay still, we'll be done in a moment. Don't you want to be done with this quickly?"     

'That's now what I'm worried about!' Iris shouted out at him. If he could only leave her alone for a moment, she could wash herself in no time. A bath after yesterday's adventure even sounded nice.     

Not, however, if a man was going to give it to her. That suddenly turned something relaxing into something really awkward.     

"Just look at your coat, it's almost gray now, and between your toes, how much dirt is there? The water is already getting dark," Kyro told her seriously as he held her down from jumping out of the bath. With his free hand, he scooped water up to wet her back as well as her head.     

She shivered, then shook herself with a violent motion, shaking all the water right into his eyes. Her fur wasn't long so there wasn't that much ammunition to be absorbed by it, but when used at a right moment, it was still deadly.     

Kyro instinctively raised his hands to block the water missiles, and she used that moment to jump out. Or thought to do that, anyway. Who knew that baths were this slippery?     

While lying sprawled in the water, only her nose and ears sticking out, she berated herself for being this thoughtless. Having heard horrors of how her friends tried to bathe their cats and dogs, she thought it was going to be a piece of cake to escape.     

However, she had underestimated her own size. Again. Cats, dogs, most of them could reach the top of the bath if they stood up on two legs with ease. After that, it was no trouble for them to jump out. But she… she only reached up to the midway point of the bath even on two legs! On top of that, the bottom was somewhat slippery with water around, which showed up more than she could manage.     

"Are you sulking?" Kyro asked with incredulity, laughing lightly.     

She didn't bother looking at him. At the moment, she was too busy glaring at the side of the bath that was like an impossible to climb mountain to her. How was she going to get out if she couldn't even leave this place?     

With her distracted, Kyro quickly took out the pet shampoo and poured a good dose on his left hand. "Don't move too much or you might get some into your eyes," he told the fox when he started rubbing the shampoo into its fur.     

As expected, the warning did nothing to dissuade the little ball of energy from trying to get away. It did everything it could, from moving about to shaking its fur again to even attempting to bite him. Luckily, he managed to pull his hand away on time on that last one; otherwise, the little one would have gotten a mouthful of shampoo.     

"Just a moment… Could you please stay still for just a moment?" he begged.     

His answer was a loud scream and another attempt to dodge his hands. Sighing, Kyro just continued with his task. It wasn't easy, but at least the fox was a little thing instead of a monster like Lucifer. There had been only a few times that he needed to be washed, but those few times were a dark memory Kyro did not wish to recall.     

Once the shampoo was all rubbed in, he brought the shower head and let the gentle stream of water wash everything away. Having expected another bloody war, he was a bit surprised when the fox just stood still, eyes closed. It was a weird reaction, but he used it to his advantage anyway.     

In no time, the rinsing was done, and he took out the little fox that was even smaller than before. Was this really what it looked like without its fur? That's just skin and bones! He suddenly wondered if it was fine. How can anyone be this skinny? He could count all of its bones.     

Well, he was going to take it to the vet tomorrow anyway. If something was wrong, he'll be told it over there.     

He dried the fox as much as he could and bundled it up in a large towel. "You're all sparkly and clean now, aren't you happy you took the bath?"     

The look the fox threw at him could have brought back the ice age and frozen hell over.