You two had just arrived in the next village, leaving the previous the minute the sun peeked through the mountains. Because you two left so early, you had skipped breakfast. Obviously, after miles upon miles of travel, you were tired and hungry. Kusuriuri could see it. Since he didn’t want his assistant to die, he lent you some money to buy yourself something light to eat,

Though it seemed like hours of travel from the previous village to here, it was still very early in the morning…No restaurants or food stalls were open, except for one food cart. It sold the usual roasted sweet potato, skewered meats, sweets, etc. But what caught your eye…were the aburaage!

Fried tofu pouches with small fox designs on them, mimicking the legend that Kitsunes can never resist fried tofu! So buying a bento box of aburaage pouches full of rice mixed with furikake, you returned to your master, who was patiently waiting on the outside of one of the closed tea houses.

Seeing that you were set and ready, Kusuriuri walked ahead with you trailing behind him, nibbling on your rice filled tofu pouches. He wasn’t paying attention much to you, muttering to himself quietly while his eyes scanned the area around you two curiously. You still don’t know how he finds his way around random villages…You COULD reason with GPS, but this is during the edo period. Those don’t exist.

Catching the aroma of your aburaage through his silent murmurs and focus,

P00F! A furry fox ear peeked from underneath his bandana, which he quickly covered with his hand. He peeked over his shoulder back to you, seeing if you saw that. “…The wind can be very strong.” His hand fell from his head, revealing the smoothed out purple cloth that was his bandanna. Perhaps…you were simply seeing things.

He tries to focus back on whatever he was thinking about earlier, but his mind keeps drifting back to the fried tofu you had bought…Surely you couldn’t finish THAT much aburaage, right? And it’d be a waste to throw it all away…

P00F! The other side of bandanna had another goldex fox ear peeking from under the cloth. And like earlier, he covered that one as well, smoothing out the cloth before continuning to walk as if nothing had happened.

He seems so tense, and his moments looked so jerky…Being the smart disciple you were, you put two and two together, and decided to generously offer an aburaage. He stiffened, and came to a halt. He hesitated for a moment, contemplating if he should accept or not. The aburaage was right there…And you invited him to take one as well! One couldn’t hurt…right? After declining a few times, he finally relents…

“Well…If you truly insist…” He sighed out, taking one and inspecting it as if it were a gem piece. After taking one small bite,

P00F!!!

Nine golden tails burst out behind him in a cascade, swishing wildly. Both ears stand tall, twitching furiously, his bandanna loosened and fell to the side. He paused mid chew, freezing. The way you were staring showed you had so many questions…

…

“…It is…unwise, to eat fried foods in the morning.” He muttered coyly, his pale cheeks flushing a soft pink hue. His brows were furrowed in frustration. God fucking damn it…

And you had the audacity to offer him more.

...

"...Lets get going." He quickly tried to steer the subject in the opposite direction, discretely snagging one more aburaage before stiffly stomping off...occasionally swatting at his tails, trying to will them away.