Home for Horny Monsters Ch. 037

"Hey. Don't worry about it." Ratu rubbed his lower back. "Let's focus on the things we can do. Like get something to eat?"

Mike swallowed the giant lump that had formed in his throat and stood up, blinking away the tears that had already formed in his eyes. Everyone was counting on him, and the weight was suddenly crushing. Closing his eyes, he took several breaths. Ratu was right. Freaking out now wasn't going to help him get home any faster. A good meal might help him focus better anyway.

She took his hand and led him inside.

- - -

Yuki filled the bathtub to the brim with hot water, trying her best to ignore Naia's absence. Stripping off her robes, her tails swished in the hot, humid air of the bathroom as she stepped over the tub wall and into the water, the warmth rapidly climbing her legs.

When the tub overflowed, she sighed, remembering that there wasn't a nymph to prevent a mess from being made. She opened the drain and snapped her fingers, causing the water on the floor to flow in reverse until it was back in the tub. Satisfied she wouldn't flood the bathroom, she stoppered the tub once more and laid back.

The tears came slowly at first but then flowed freely once the full weight of her reality sunk in on her. How had things gotten out of control so fast? Sure, she had expected some resistance to her taking ownership of the home, but she definitely hadn't expected everybody to forget about her. The fight with Abella had been exhausting in more ways than one, and seeing the look of horror on Sofia's face as she turned to stone had twisted a knife in Yuki's heart.

Tink had fled into the Labyrinth with others she hadn't recognized. Determined not to be ambushed later, she had frozen the reflecting pool so that none of them could take a shortcut back. She would deal with them eventually, but for now, she just couldn't handle it anymore. Years of pent up anger had taken their toll, and all she wanted was a nice, hot bath.

Her tails floated along the surface, so she took several minutes to wash them clean with soap and shampoo. Most of her bathing had been restricted to the rivers of her prison, though she had, on occasion, made herself an actual bath. However, a proper shampoo was far superior to stealing toiletries from the centaurs. She had done her best to avoid them for many years, but their path's eventually crossed. How many times had a group of warriors clustered near her tower, demanding entry? She had stoned them all, moving their statues out back. She had debated tossing them from the tower to shatter on the rocks below, but Daisy had convinced her that keeping them in storage could have certain benefits as well.

After a good scrub and rinse, she drained the tub a bit to get rid of the dirt and filled it up again. Then she grabbed a nearby towel and soaked it in hot water. She got it nice and wet and placed it over her face, letting the heat open her pores.

The water streaming down her face mixed with more tears, and a sob escaped her lips. This was not the triumphant return she had expected, and she couldn't help but wonder if she was going about everything all wrong. The urge to release Naia was tempting, but her old confidante would likely not be in the mood to speak with her unless she brought back Mike first.

She simply couldn't. After what had happened with Emily, there was no way she could trust another human being with the house.

The warmth of the tub soaked into her core, and she let out a sigh.

"Feels nice, doesn't it?" Naia was scrubbing Yuki's back, her fingers massaging the muscles beneath.

"Your hands are magical," a much younger Yuki replied. Intense warmth radiated out from where Naia touched her, relieving aches and pains. Yuki and Emily had just returned from a quick trip to Europe that had failed miserably and resulted in a fight with a bridge troll. They had gotten banged up a little, but had eventually escaped to the safety of the forest. "Is that nymph magic or water magic?"

"It's water magic. I can teach you sometime." Naia's thumbs dug into some tight muscles around Yuki's left shoulder blade. "You can learn a lot about a person by how their muscles are wound up?"

"Oh really?"

"It's true. For instance, you have a sore spot down here," Naia's hand moved below Yuki's ribs, "that's from an impact."

"Yeah. I got kicked." It had hurt like a bitch, too.

"Tightness in your legs is from running. Most of these are easy. However, I want to talk about this." Naia's thumb found a muscle by Yuki's neck that twinged once it was touched. "This is from carrying the weight of a secret."

Yuki felt a chill go down her spine. "A... a secret?"

"You know what I'm talking about, don't play dumb." Naia leaned forward and gave her a hug. "I see how you look at her."

She blushed. "Is it that obvious?"

Naia laughed. "Of course it is. You're different when you're around her."

"How so?"

"It's hard to describe in words, but you practically glow when she talks to you, hanging on nearly every word. That's not a bad thing, you know."

Yuki let out a long sigh. It was true, Emily occupied most of her waking thoughts now, which didn't make much sense. She had never given a human more than a second thought, unless they had wronged her and she wanted revenge. "About that. My feelings for her... are they because of her magic?"

"No. You've lived here for a few years now, and if it was magic, it would wear off when she wasn't around. That, and it does take a deliberate effort on my part to make someone think they love me, and Emily wouldn't do that." Naia slid her arms around Yuki's waist and gave her a tight hug. "Think of it this way. Why do you like her so much?"

"I..." How could such complicated, yet delicate emotions be put into words? "It's how she sees me. Growing up in Japan, it was always about survival for me. If people weren't suspicious, they were enamored, there was no in between. Being what I am, it was hard to find anybody willing to see me for who I am, and when I'm with Emily, she treats me like everybody else here. Maybe it's stupid to like someone because they don't give you special treatment, but there it is. Do you know how many legends about kitsune revolve around granting wishes, immortality, or even becoming a god? It's why I fled to China in the first place. When she looks at me, it's just me, and that's what makes me feel special."

"Hmm. I would argue that she doesn't treat you like everyone else." Naia placed a tiny kiss on the top of Yuki's head. "Emily spends way more time with you than she does with anybody else. Surely you've noticed?"

"That's because she needs my help when she goes exploring. My magic can protect her."

"Sure, when you leave the house. But what about inside the house? She could have brought anyone else down into the Labyrinth you two found, yet you often go down there for hours at a time, just searching through it. I would even argue Abella would be a better choice, or even Tink."

"I can sense the Labyrinth's traps, and my magic can protect us when we trigger them."

Naia laughed. "While that may be true, she can sense danger far better than you can. Almost any of us could go down with her and still be perfectly safe. I guess what I'm trying to say is—"

"Don't say it." Emily walked into the bathroom, holding a book in her hand. Yuki's cheeks burned and Naia dissolved into the water, just her head floating on the surface. "If she is going to hear it from anyone, I would prefer she hear it from me."

"As you wish." Naia vanished beneath the water, leaving a small tide pool behind that eventually burst.

"May I join you?" Emily asked, setting the book down on the bathroom counter.

"I... I guess." Yuki looked away while Emily undressed. They had seen each other naked plenty of times, but now she was too embarrassed to look. Emily eased into the bath across from Yuki, letting out a moan of pleasure when the warm water swirled around her waist.

"I wasn't trying to snoop, by the way. I found that book in the Library and thought you might like it, but heard you talking about me." She chuckled, her eyes on the water. "I confess, it was something of a relief to hear some of the things you said. Before I say anything else, I just want you to know that... I like you. A lot."

Yuki swallowed the lump in her throat. "You do?"

"Yeah, I do. Some years before you moved in, we had an... incident here in the house. As much as I love everybody who lives here, I was feeling lonely and thought I had met a kindred spirit. I met him the year I traveled abroad to plant the trees for the portals, and brought him back here with me to meet the others. It was great at first, but things changed. Turns out the guy was no good for me, and he put everyone in danger."

Emily let out a sigh, tracing her finger across the surface of the water. "After what he did, I was afraid to leave the house, or even be outside. The others helped me get past that, and it occurred to me that what he tried to do was what happens to creatures like you all over the world. That feeling was the only way I was able to leave this place, to help others. I was even more determined to make this place a safe haven for creatures like you. As you know, I wasn't super successful in finding others, but that changed when you came."

"How so?" Yuki's ears had cocked toward the sound of Emily's voice, hanging on every word.

"Well, you were able to travel with me. The others, not so much. At first it was nice when I realized that I had someone to keep me company. Well, you and Daisy." Emily smiled at the thought of the yellow fairy. "But something else happened. You see, even though I'm formidable in my own right, I still struggled with what happened. That man walked in here and almost took everything away from not just me, but everybody. Since that day, I've been under a cloud. The shadow follows me no matter where I go, a feeling of helplessness that never quite drifted off. Do you remember that first trip we took together?"

Yuki laughed. "Down to South America? That was a lot of fun."

"It was. We struck out hard, but I'm talking about that night we got spotted by that group of men. Remember, the ones that chased us into that alley?"

"I do. There were five of them, and they pulled knives on us. They wanted us to come with them."

"And do you remember what you did?"

Yuki grinned. "I do. I fought them off." Centuries of living had taught her many things, but one of the most important had been the various martial arts she had picked up while traveling through Japan and China.

"You did. But you did it without magic. That impressed me, your ability to show such restraint. Even more so, when you were done, you asked if I was okay. During those tense few moments, watching you knock those men around as if they were children, I felt something that I hadn't felt in a while." Emily smiled, stirring the bathwater with one finger. "I felt safe."

"I think I understand that. When the japanese decided they wanted to expand their empire, there were rumors of an elite unit of men and women who were capturing magical creatures and attempting to strip away their abilities. It was a technology that Germany had been working on for years. So I fled to China, bouncing from village to village to stay a few steps ahead of the japanese occupation. I couldn't let them get their hands on me, not when so many of my kin had already been captured."

Emily nodded, her breasts bobbing in the water. "I found one of their facilities once, not too long after I inherited the house. It was based out of Hiroshima. I seduced an intelligence officer who then took me on a tour of his military base, hoping to get a blowjob when we were done. When he showed me the building, I could feel the magic radiating off of it and knew it for what it was. A storage area for magical creatures. Knowing I couldn't do anything, I ran away that very night, not even bothering to go back to my hotel. I found out some years later that he was executed for showing me, and that the japanese military tried to track me down, thinking I was a spy. Luckily I had stowed away on a commercial fishing vessel and found a way home from South Korea. I didn't leave home until after the war was over."

Yuki sighed. "Yes, the war. It was a terrifying time for everybody. Magical creatures are typically territorial, and being from Japan made it even worse. I rarely stayed anywhere longer than a couple of months, because eventually something would sniff me out and a fight would ensue. Rumors of a magical fox that could grant wishes began to dog me everywhere I went. I gave up on living among mortals, and that's why you found me hiding in a cave. When you brought me here, I was just waiting for the trap to be sprung, but I was okay with it, because you brought me to America. The U.S. is a much safer place for creatures like me. But when you showed me genuine kindness and let me come and go as I please, I felt safe for the first time in a long time as well."

The smile that crossed Emily's face lit up the room. Small bubbles floated up from the surface of the bath "Maybe that's why we mesh so well. We both know what it's like to be terrified and then find solace." She slid closer to Yuki, placing her hand on Yuki's knee. "But it's become more than that for me."

Yuki swallowed, staring at the hand on her knee. It was warm from the bath, but it was somehow more than that. The rest of the room had suddenly fallen away, her focus entirely on that patch of skin that now connected them. Her heart was beating fast now, her thoughts sliding away before she could contemplate them.

"I first noticed it after our trip into Canada. I was checking on something as a favor to a friend and you and I came across that witch. We tried to let her be, it didn't seem like she was hurting anything, but then she got upset because her cover had been blown. I was completely out of my depth, and we got separated."

Yuki remembered it well. The woman could turn herself into a large bear, and had made them lose each other in a snowstorm. "It took me hours, but I was able to find you. The witch had taken you back to her home and put you in that cage made of whale bones."

"That's right. When you burst through her front door and tore into her, I realized that I wasn't just happy that you had come to save me, but I was happy to see you again, to know that you were safe. It was a feeling I hadn't felt in some time, and I didn't know how to put it into words." Emily's other hand landed on Yuki's other knee. "You're good at hiding your emotions, but that makes sense. You're a kitsune. I didn't think you felt the same way that I did, so kept my thoughts to myself."

"Emily." Yuki spoke her name as if it were a prayer. With a hand on each knee, she was all too aware of the position they were now in. Heat flowed back and forth between her knees, passing through her groin with every heartbeat. She was breathing hard now, staring into Emily's golden flecked eyes.

"I can feel you now. I couldn't before, but now that we're being honest with each other, your arousal is like a perfume to me." Emily parted Yuki's legs, moving forward until their mouths were only a few inches apart. Yuki gasped at the sheer smell of her. It was like standing in a field of blooming wildflowers.

Golden bubbles drifted off the surface of the water, popping in the air with the tinkling of bells.

"You... we... " Yuki didn't know what to say, her head was suddenly full of fog. Her head was finally able to latch onto a single thought, an emotion that kept driving her forward. "Emily?"

"Yes?"

"I... I think I'm in love with you."

Emily's fingers slid onto Yuki's thighs. She leaned forward, those golden eyes of hers filling Yuki's vision, expanding outward until they were all that existed.

"I'm falling for you, Yuki. Put your arms out and catch me."

When their lips met, Yuki lost control of her form, her body sprouting fur all over. She couldn't bring herself to care, her entire being now tied up inside of that kiss, their tongues moving cautiously over one another. The bath water was swirling around them, Emily's magic manifesting in its movements.

Emily's lips tasted of mint and springtime, and her hands moved off of Yuki's legs and onto her hips. Yuki had kissed her fair share of men and women over the last century, but never with such passion. Her twin tails burst out of the water, splashing both of them and bursting several golden bubbles.

They broke the kiss, both of them laughing.

"I love how soft your fur feels," Emily told her, running a hand along Yuki's side. It had grown in underneath the kitsune's breasts and all along her backside with a bare patch around her belly button and the top of her breasts. Her sideburns had extended down her cheeks and onto her neck.

"You should feel it when it's dry."

"Oh, I intend to." Emily tilted Yuki's chin upward and placed a small kiss on the delicate flesh beneath, working her way down Yuki's neck. Every kiss sent chills through Yuki's body, somehow feeding into the building heat in between her legs.

Emily's lips found the top of Yuki's breasts, and those gentle pecks became insistent nibbles once they neared her nipples. Yuki purred, closing her eyes and leaning back to give Emily full access to her breasts. Every bite stopped just short of being painful, and every lick was followed up with a cool blast of air from Emily. Yuki's nipples were hard now, her wide areola giving Emily plenty of real estate to play with.

A pair of fingers teased Yuki's labia, tracing gentle patterns around her puffy lips through her thick pubic hair. Yuki opened her legs wide, giving Emily full access to her sex. Those fingers eventually found their way inside, spreading apart and stretching Yuki's vaginal canal wide.

The fox let out a cry, the sweet agony of being spread open by Emily too much for her mind to handle. A subtle foxfire glow formed along her hands, her magic leaking out in response to the stimulation.

"I've never seen anyone react that way before," Emily told her with a smile.

"I've never felt this way about someone before." Yuki pulled Emily in for a kiss, thrusting her hips into Emily's hand. Those fingers slid deep inside her, curling up and stirring her insides. Magic flowed from Emily into Yuki, igniting a series of orgasm-like tremors that had the kitsune growling in pleasure.

"Do you like that? It's a trick Naia taught me." Emily's voice was coming from a floating bubble nearby, her mouth currently busy with Yuki's breast.

"I do."

"Here's another one." Emily scooted back, her pendulous breasts dangling between them. With a wink, she sank beneath the water, her mouth replacing her hand. Her tongue was impossibly long, swirling across Yuki's clit and then sliding inside of her. It expanded, filling Yuki up completely, and she began slapping the sides of the tub with her hands, scattering foxfire along the floor and wall where it clung like soap bubbles, casting an ominous glow across the room.

"Oh, Emily!" Yuki thrust her hips into Emily's face, desperate to feel her and yet afraid this was just a dream. If she awoke, she knew her heart would break. So many fantasies were coming true for her right now, her entire world now confined to this little room. She had met someone who completed her, who could keep her safe and cherish her. Someone that felt the same way about her.

The Caretaker was underwater for several minutes, and Yuki started to worry. She grabbed Emily's hair to pull her up, but Emily slapped her hand away.

"I can breathe underwater," she said, her voice coming from a nearby bubble. "Just relax, and let me do my thing." Emily's tongue and fingers seemed to multiply beneath the water, and phantom hands grabbed Yuki's thighs, holding her in place as the pressure on her clit increased.