The Detective and Her Kitsune

Consciousness returned to me like a drowning woman breaking the surface of black water—violent, desperate, accompanied by the terrible need to expel what should never have been inside. The gasp that tore from my throat brought with it a torrent of gelatinous matter, thick and viscous as grief made manifest. A tube withdrew from my nostril with the sensation of barbed wire being pulled through delicate flesh, each ridge and hook tearing at tissue that had grown tender around its intrusion.

I sat gasping in that sterile chamber, my throat raw as an open wound, while the machine that had sustained me writhed beside my bed like a metallic serpent caught in its death throes. It was a thing of impossible anatomy—ferrofluid flowing in magnetic streams between holographic screens and needle-tipped appendages.

Through the haze of my recovery, a familiar warmth materialized at my right side. Xiao Ru's face appeared like dawn breaking over troubled waters, her tail creating a frantic metronome of joy behind her. Before I could form words, she had launched herself across the space between us, her arms encircling my neck with the desperate fervor of one who has feared permanent loss.

"W-what happened?" I managed to rasp, my voice emerging as little more than a whisper scraped across gravel.

She buried her face against my shoulder, and I felt rather than heard a soft rumbling that might have been purring. Her warmth seeped through the thin fabric of whatever garment they had clothed me in, chasing away the clinical chill that seemed to have settled into me.

"Xiao Ru," I pressed, anxiety blooming in my chest like a poisonous flower. "Where am I? Am I... dead?"

She pulled back then, her violet eyes blazing with fierce denial. "Most certainly not! I shall not permit such a fate to befall my… my Lingling."

The pet name struck me a warm summer breeze, heat flooding my cheeks in a tide of crimson embarrassment. Her own face mirrored my blush as she realized her unconscious confession, both of us suddenly finding the sterile walls fascinating in their mundane glory.

The chamber's wall chose that moment to dissolve like sugar in rain, reforming itself around the figures of Ashley and Serena as they entered our sanctuary of awkwardness.

"Relief settles in my chest to see you among the conscious," Ashley said, though her smile carried the artifact of recent terror. "You provided us with quite the theatrical performance."

Serena nodded with the gravity of one who has witnessed resurrection. "Fortune smiled upon you with uncommon generosity. That little melody you hummed allowed us to track your location—we arrived to find you balanced on death's threshold."

Ashley's expression grew clinical. "Serena possessed an emergency cardiac stimulant, which she administered directly to your heart. Your vampiric circulation required… aggressive encouragement to maintain function. Blood transfusion followed, while I contacted our associates through emergency channels."

The thought of my heart stopping, of that fundamental rhythm failing, sent nausea crawling up my throat like an arachnid in a drain pipe.

"But our pixie companion recovered her wings," Xiao Ru interjected, her voice nitid with forced cheer. "You succeeded brilliantly, even if your methods were… recklessly inconsiderate." Her voice cracked then, tears gathering like storm clouds in her eyes. "What if I had lost you? What if you had…"

She could not finish the thought. I gathered her against me, my hand stroking the silk of her hair as she trembled with unspent grief.

Serena observed our scene with… interest. "How utterly fascinating," she murmured, her tone rich with mischief. "The emotional landscape here proves quite… illuminating."

Both Ashley and Serena shared a laugh at our expense, causing, once again, fresh waves of embarrassment to crash over both Xiao Ru and myself. I would worry naught, however, as I would tease the little hypocrites at a later date.

"When may I depart this place?" I stammered, desperate to escape their scrutiny. "Is there a physician I must consult regarding my injuries?"

"No physician," Ashley replied. "Only a surgeon who operates in conjunction with the machine. Your body has been restored to functional parameters, though you must exercise caution in the coming days. Departure is at your discretion."

Xiao Ru turned to me then, her eyes still lucent with unshed tears but her voice steady with newfound resolve. "Then I shall escort you home."

I nodded, allowing a genuine smile to soften my features for the first time since awakening. Home. The word carried new importance now, new possibilities that had nothing to do with brick and mortar and everything to do with the warmth currently pressed against my side.

---

I sank into the gelatinous seat, watching the translucent screen where a newscaster delivered reports with the measured cadence of a funeral director. Her gray suit hung like shadows made fabric, while white antennae twitched above eyes that burned like dying coals. The creature possessed an unsettling beauty—part slug, part demon, Xiao Ru informed me from a kitchen that had bloomed from the wall like some architectural flower.

The aroma that drifted toward me carried notes of copper and smoke, familiar yet transformed. She was cooking flesh, yes, but baptizing it with her own carmine offerings to make it comestible for my accursed palate.

When summoned to dine, I found she had conjured something that resembled the roasted birds of my mortal memories—charred flesh adorned with vegetables that gleamed like jewels pulled from dark soil. Beside it, rice the color of fresh wounds clustered in small mountains, while clear water sat waiting for her alone.

Her knife appeared woven from captured moonbeams, dividing our meal with the reverence of a priestess breaking sacred bread. I perched on what felt like crystallized air, marveling at Xiao Ru’s time and effort… just for me…

The meat dissolved against my tongue like prayers made edible, carrying the honeyed poison of her blood transformed through kitchen witchcraft. Each grain of rice burst like tiny hearts, flooding my mouth with liquid warmth that tasted of devotion and sacrifice.

Xiao Ru watched me consume her offerings, her own meal innocent of the red baptism mine required. That was when I noticed the fresh stigmata adorning her wrist—a thin smile where blade had kissed skin to provide my supper's holy ingredient.

Horror bloomed in my chest like a black flower. I reached across our floating table, capturing her wounded arm with trembling fingers. My tongue traced the ruby path until I found its source, sealing my lips over the cut to stem its weeping.

"This wounds me more than any blade," I whispered against her skin, lifting my gaze to meet her startled reddish blue stare. "There must be some other way…"

The space between us contracted like moribund breaths before the rattle. We began to lean across that small divide, drawn by forces more than gravity—

Only to have my treacherous body betray me entirely. I pitched forward, my hand grasping at phantom support, tumbling directly onto her slight form while our dishes maintained their aerial dance, entirely indifferent to our collision.

She stared up at me from beneath my fallen weight, and I found myself drowning in the impossible sweetness of her expression. Those violet eyes, wide as winter moons, held a longing so pure it pierced through every defense I had constructed around my undead heart. Her lips, flushed rose-petal red and slightly parted in surprise, seemed to issue an invitation written in a language older than words.

My vampiric heart, sluggish though it was, began to pound against my chest like a caged bird desperate for flight. The sight of her beneath me—so trusting, so achingly beautiful—shattered what remained of my restraint.

I surrendered to instinct, pressing my mouth to hers with the fervor of one drinking from a sacred spring. She responded with equal hunger, her arms twining around my neck as if to anchor me to this moment, this miracle of mutual want. We moved together in that kiss like dancers learning steps to music only we could hear.

When we finally broke apart, both flushed and gasping, the words tumbled from my lips before I could stop them: "That was my first kiss."

Xiao Ru blinked, her head tilting with that familiar fox-like curiosity. "Is that so?" Her voice carried notes of wonder and disbelief.

Heat crept up my neck like a lost verse of a song finally finding its melody. "I suppose I lack experience in matters of… affection. Unlike yourself, surely…"

Her incredulous expression deepened until it bordered on the comical. "I have never… that is to say, you were also my first."

We stared at each other in mutual amazement before laughter bubbled up from some deep well of joy neither of us had known we possessed. I collapsed against her chest, melting into her warmth like snow touching spring earth.

After a moment of this blissful dissolution, I lifted my head to meet her gaze, my pulse still performing its erratic symphony. "Ruru," I said, my voice carrying a coyness I had not known I possessed, "might you elaborate on that bridge between pleasure and creation you mentioned before?"

Her ears shot upright like perked… my mind wandered, her throat working in a visible swallow as cherry flooded her cheeks. A fierce giggle escaped her as she pressed my head back against her chest, as if hiding me might somehow contain the dangerous territory we were approaching.

"Perhaps," she managed through her mirth, "we might finish the meal I prepared first." She punctuated this suggestion with a gentle tap to the tip of my nose.

I allowed a smirk to curve my lips, feeling suddenly bold in the aftermath of our confessions. "Very well. But Ruru," I said, affecting a casual tone while pointing toward her chin, "you have something just there."

She glanced downward with innocent curiosity, and I seized the moment to steal another kiss. A soft sound escaped her—half surprise, half pleasure—before we dissolved once more into that delicious laughter that seemed to transform the very air around us into something lighter than dreams.

"I do, after all, owe you a banquet, per my promise from the castle~."