From: lost_her_voice	Date: 08/19/2007 18:17:48

Kai was making her way to the shore, swimming upwards until her face burst from the water. The air was warm on her face, and she swept her hair back so she could see.

And she was quite delighted by what she saw. A familiar-looking fox, amused by the ripples before him.

"FOX!" She cried out happily, forgetting that Shuhei had never heard her voice. Excitedly, Kai swam toward him, tail splashing.

	From: ivegotbigballs	Date: 08/19/2007 18:24:33

Shūhei was understandably startled by the sudden exclamation and immediately started looking around. Not for the source of the voice, but for the object of it. Fox? Where? Had Genkurō followed him? Oh no, had he lost track of time already? Again.

And then he noticed someone swimming toward him, and squinted. it was... oh! The mermaid! Wait... was that her who'd said that? Shūhei was confused. He'd though she couldn't talk. He waited until she got closer to cock his head and ask, "Did... did you just call me a fox? Did you say something?" Oh he hoped she had and he wasn't just pushing sore buttons like he had before.

	From: lost_her_voice	Date: 08/19/2007 18:27:49

Kai reached the shore, and pulled herself up onto the pebbly beach with a grin. Her tail twitched a bit as she spoke. "Are you not a fox? I'm sorry...I'd never seen an animal like you, only when we met the last time, and so I wasn't sure what-...Oh!" She realized then, that Shuhei had no idea she could talk again.

"My voice! The fairy...the dim-witted, stupid fairy she was, but she gave it back to me! Well, not REALLY, she let me sing again, but I it was in some other language...but then Puss-" She waved her hand dismissively. "Never mind how, just that I got my voice back! I can talk to you now!"

	From: ivegotbigballs	Date: 08/19/2007 18:34:47

"No, I'm a tanuki. A raccoon. Just a red one. But you can talk! That's great! You can talk!" He didn't understand half of what she'd said - something about a fairy and Puss? A cat maybe? Or just someone with an unfortunate name? He hoped the former. He grinned as wide as a raccoon could grin and then suddenly shifted form, back into the face he'd used when he met her, his Mizuiro face. "You can talk!" And he flung arms around her in a huge hug.

Forgetting, of course, that he was completely naked.

	From: lost_her_voice	Date: 08/19/2007 18:37:40

She nodded quickly, the grin still on her face. Her head spun as he shifted so quickly, back into the child-like boy she remembered. Kai brought her arms up to hug him back, and her face grew crimson with the realization that he was naked and various parts of his anatomy were-..well, quite big.

Kai sputtered and pushed back, her eyes wide. She couldn't help but stare. And point.

"Do you-...I mean-...How come-..." Kai coughed.

	From: ivegotbigballs	Date: 08/19/2007 18:42:55

It took Shūhei a moment to understand her reaction. He was busy wondering if he'd crossed some boundary by trying to hug her. And then he remembered his nudity and laughed, reaching for the cloths he'd shed when he first changed. He pulled on his hakama first, covering the parts in question.

"What? Oh!" He realized what she was pointing at. His, ahem, testicular fortitude. "It's because I'm a tanuki. It's just... how we are." He had no other explanation for it.

He just had really big balls.

	From: lost_her_voice	Date: 08/19/2007 18:44:46

"Oh." She blinked, tilting her head like a curious kitten. "So all of the...boy tanukis are like that? And can they all change into people like you can? Are they all pretty?" That wasn't said flirtatiously, just in curious admiration. Kai liked pretty things.

	From: ivegotbigballs	Date: 08/19/2007 18:52:24

"Uh-huh!" Shūhei's response was muffled as he was putting on his shirt. "Well at least the ones I've seen. I haven't seen any other tanuki in a really long time though." But all the ones he'd known chose pretty faces to wear as well. Not all were lucky as Shūhei to have a pretty face in their customary human form, but when you were a shapeshifter, it didn't matter if one face wasn't pretty.

Then again, Kai didn't know Shūhei could take more than one human form.

	From: lost_her_voice	Date: 08/19/2007 18:55:35

Kai seemed satisfied with that answer. She certainly didn't know that, and for now was quite content keeping it that way. The shape shifting from animal to human alone was enough to confuse her.

"I missed you, and I was hoping to run into you so you could hear my voice." She frowned a bit, tilting her head in the other direction. "And you never told me your name."

	From: ivegotbigballs	Date: 08/19/2007 19:02:19

"I'm glad. I wanted to see you again too." Shūhei smoothed down his clothes and looked at Kai. "I didn't? I'm sorry! How awful of me. You can call me Mizuiro."

It wasn't a lie, not to Shūhei. When he shifted, his shift was complete. He wasn't just wearing a face, but a whole person. He was only ever Shūhei in his Shūhei face, and when he was a tanuki. Right now, he was wholly Mizuiro. "your name was Kai, right?" Spacy and ditzy as Shūhei could be, names he almost always remembered.

	From: lost_her_voice	Date: 08/20/2007 00:40:11

Kai struggled inwardly with that name for a moment. It sounded so foreign to her. "Miz...uiro. Mizuiro, yes, I can say that." She smiled brightly, nodding. "You remembered my name!"

She propped her chin on her hands, laying flat in the sand, her tail swishing back and forth slowly in the air. "So what do you think of my voice? Do you like it?"

	From: ivegotbigballs	Date: 08/20/2007 10:17:49

Shūhei positively beamed at her pronunciation of his name. "You can! It's amazing!" He flopped down next to her, hardly seeming to care his clothes were getting wet and sandy. "It's a very, very pretty voice, just like you! I like it a lot. I'm glad you can talk now. How did it happen exactly?" He smiled at her expectantly, waiting and hoping for a story.

	From: lost_her_voice	Date: 08/20/2007 13:42:40

Kai was in good spirits, so she didn't mind telling a story or two. She beamed especially when he complimented her voice and her.

"Well...I was swimming by that little town with all the people..and this older woman fell into the water. I decided to help her, and when I did, I saw she had wings...she called herself a fairy grandmother or something." Kai paused, frowning and wrinkling her nose. "She was strange, very strange. Well, in return for helping her, she said she'd give me my voice back. But...she didn't do a good job of it."

	From: ivegotbigballs	Date: 08/20/2007 13:53:12

Shūhei's eyes were wide as a small child's as he listened with rapt attention. He sat still, an unusual thing for him, but common when things like stories captivated him entirely. He gave a small sound when Kai said the fairy woman hadn't done a good job. "Oh no what happened?" He wasn't really too worried, though. Whatever it was must have gotten fixed, because Kai sounded wonderful now.

	From: lost_her_voice	Date: 08/20/2007 14:23:50

Kai released an exasperated noise, not at Shuhei, but at the stupid mistake Fairy Granny had made. "She made sure I could sing, which is what she wanted to hear in return...but I couldn't speak properly! I was talking in some other tongue! And before I could tell her, she took off!"

Kai sighed. "So I was stuck like that for a while, and then I ran into Puss...He's my friend, a really sweet kitty."

	From: ivegotbigballs	Date: 08/20/2007 15:41:21

Shūhei gaped at Kai. "No! Really? How silly of her! You don't think she did it on purpose, did she?" He couldn't see the merit in that. He only ever tricked people for food, money, or some other necessity, not merely to laugh at them. That didn't seem right, and the thought of someone tricking Kai for no seeming benefit to themselves, and at the cost of something she held dear didn't sit well. It was an oddity. An honest trickster. A rogue with a conscience. "Oh, a cat? Did he do something?"

	From: lost_her_voice	Date: 08/20/2007 15:52:19

"Honestly? I think she was just that stupid." Kai said with a roll of her eyes and a sigh. "She said things that made no sense...I think maybe she hit her head on a rock underwater or something."

Kai brightened again at the mention of Puss, and she nodded. "Yes...He fixed me up with some magic, and now...I'm me again!" She didn't bother mentioning Puss's ability to turn into a woman...somehow, she got the feeling that was something Puss would rather let people know himself. Especially with the scare it gave Kai and that snow bitch.

	From: ivegotbigballs	Date: 08/20/2007 16:28:31

"Oh." That was... better, he supposed, the fairy being an idiot than a mean trickster. But at least Kai got it fixed! Shūhei applauded the end of her story with a palpable cheer, his expression bright again. "Yay! I'm so glad that worked out for you, Kai. Maybe you can tell me how you lost it in the first place?" He remembered she hadn't wanted to say before; it seemed too painful. But maybe now she had it back, it wouldn't be so bad? "You don't have to if it's too painful though..."

	From: lost_her_voice	Date: 08/20/2007 17:58:44

Kai considered this for a moment, drawing little patterns in the sand as she thought. Shuhei was so nice, and he seemed so happy to hear her story...maybe he wouldn't react badly if she told him what happened.

The mermaid finally looked up from her array of squiggles and zig-zags, and drew in her breath. "...Okay. I can tell you. But...but when I'm done, will you still come to see me?"

	From: ivegotbigballs	Date: 08/20/2007 18:01:37

Shūhei blinked at her in confusion. That was an odd question. It didn't seem to logically follow. "Yes... why wouldn't I?" He couldn't promise to be around often, but he would look for her whenever he was around.

	From: lost_her_voice	Date: 08/20/2007 18:51:28

"...Well...I don't know if you'll like me very much after I tell my story." Kai said sadly, before she sighed again and sat up, planting her palms behind her, her tail in front of her.

"I'm actually a princess where I come from...and I was always curious about the world above water. On my fifteenth birthday I was allowed to rise above and see the shore...and I saw a man. A prince. I fell in love with him." Kai smiled a bit upon recalling the face of her prince.

"I wanted so badly to be like him..with legs, so I could live next to him. So I went to the Sea Witch, and she gave me legs...but I had to give her my voice in return." Kai paused, letting Shuhei wrap his head around this.

	From: ivegotbigballs	Date: 08/20/2007 19:02:36

Shūhei watched her, eyebrows furrowed. He said nothing to interrupt, just let her tell her tale. He smiled softly at the first mention of the prince, but it disappeared at the trade the sea witch had offered her. He remembered this much. he'd asked why she had neither legs nor a voice when they met if this had been the deal, and that was when she stopped answering. He nearly held his breath now, hoping she'd continue.

	From: lost_her_voice	Date: 08/20/2007 19:12:31

This time, Kai continued. "She also told me that if my prince-" She couldn't believe she was still calling him that. "-fell in love with and married someone else, that I would die and become the foam of the sea." She took a moment to explain this.

"Mermaids usually live for three-hundred years...but in exchange for such a long life, we don't have an immortal soul, like humans do. We simply become foam of the sea. If my prince fell in love with me, I could gain that immortal soul. So I surfaced, and found my prince, and he took me in."

	From: ivegotbigballs	Date: 08/20/2007 22:31:09

Shūhei seemed surprised at what she said. "Three hundred years?" He interrupted, before he could stop himself. "That's all?" And his eyes widened in apology. "I'm sorry. I suppose it is a great deal longer than humans live but..." But it was nothing to a tanuki. Or a kitsune. He was somewhere around nine hundred years old himself, and he was still considered young. Life spans for different creatures could vary so drastically!

"I'm sorry. I didn't mean to interrupt. Please continue!" He placed both hands together and gave her a little bow, made almost comical-looking by him still still in the water.

	From: lost_her_voice	Date: 08/20/2007 22:55:32

Kai blanched, looking slightly insulted. Mermaids were proud of their lifespan, and she had no idea Tanukis could live so much longer. But he apologized, and she dismissed her flare of anger with a nod.

"It's all right. I guess it would seem short to you..." She continued. "...So I lived by my prince, and I loved him so much...but he didn't love me the way I loved him, and he soon married a princess. By sunrise, I would die and become part of the sea." Kai fell silent for a moment, looking sad.

"...My sisters came to me, and they had traded their hair to the sea witch to free me of the curse. I could live...if I traded my life for my prince's. I was to kill him with a special dagger."

	From: ivegotbigballs	Date: 08/20/2007 23:11:32

Shūhei fell right back into listening to her story, and his face fell appropriately when she said the prince hadn't felt the same for her. That was never a good feeling, and he married someone else! And then he gasped. "They...? What? The.. why would the witch make an offer like that? Did she really expect you to kill him?" His eyes were wide and he was leaning forward in anticipation of her answer.

	From: lost_her_voice	Date: 08/20/2007 23:15:52

"I don't know why..." Her voice faded, and at Shuhei's shock at thinking Kai would actually kill him, the mermaid looked away. She was ashamed, and sad, and it showed.

".......She did. And I did it. B-Because...I wanted my freedom, and I was angry. Angry that he had chosen her and not me, when I was the one who devoted myself to him."

	From: ivegotbigballs	Date: 08/20/2007 23:34:27

Shūhei stared at her, not at all certain he heard her right. "You... you killed him? Really killed him? But.. why? He hadn't- I thought you said you loved him?"

There had to be more to the story, HAD to be. She seemed so nice, and so sad, he couldn't believe she could have taken the prince's life like that. No, he had to have done something wrong. Really bad. Right?

	From: crazylikethefox	Date: 08/21/2007 01:18:10

She should have known better, really should have. Or at least gone with Shūhei when he'd said he'd be going for food. But, well, the tanuki had worn her out and she'd found herself needing a nap.

Genkurō found herself smiling at the memory of how they'd spent their morning, but the rumble of her stomach replaced the smile with a grimace, then a peevish scowl.

Shūhei had been gone far too long - again - and Genkurō knew he'd been distracted by something - again. Well, the tanuki had said something about getting fish, so at least Genkurō knew where to start looking: the lake.

Sure enough, as Genkurō made her way down to the shore, blue kimono held up about her calves and parasol overhead to spare her skin from the sun, she spotted Shūhei, using his Mizuiro face and talking to a woman.

A half-naked woman.

Genkurō's scowl deepened.

	From: lost_her_voice	Date: 08/21/2007 10:10:21

Kai's eyes teared up, and she balled her hands into little fists. "Because I was angry and I felt betrayed! I devoted so much to him, and he never once considered me...a-and my sisters, my family, they loved me, and I loved them, so I wanted to go home! A-And the only way I could do that..."

She shook her head. "Everytime I walked with those feet, it felt like a thousand knives were stabbing me. I bled for him, and he never noticed. All of that pain for him, and I was nothing more than his mute pet. I was hurt..."

	From: ivegotbigballs	Date: 08/21/2007 11:25:27
	Holy crap, reply of doom.

Shūhei was torn. He felt awful Kai had started crying again, but he couldn't get past what she'd said. She killed him? Because he didn't love her back? He understood it had to have been painful watching him be with someone else but-

"I... I don't understand. Was he purposefully cruel to you? Maybe he loved the other girl a lot. I don't... I don't understand why if he loved someone else, you... did that. If you loved him, wouldn't you want him to be happy, even if it wasn't with you?" He knew, deep inside it would hurt, hurt so badly if Genkurō didn't want to be with him, if he loved someone and married them and left Shūhei alone. But he knew he would never be able to agree to anything like that, so he couldn't comprehend how Kai could.

Kai had made a huge sacrifice for this prince, but Shūhei wondered if she'd thought past her feelings at all and considered the prince's before, during, or after the first sacrifice she made. She had said she'd seen him and had fallen in love. Had they even talked before she made her deal with the Witch? How could she have just assumed he'd feel the same and everything would be perfect? "Kai, how much did you know about him before you agreed to the Sea Witch's offer? Either of them? How long had you known him?"

He looked really upset himself, like a little child who was unhappy with the end of the fairy tale story he'd been told. He had curled up, drew his knees up in the water, and wrapped his arms around them like he was comforting himself.

And really unfortunately for him, he hadn't yet noticed that Genkurō - or his Genko-chan as he had taken calling her in her current form - was there watching, and less than pleased.

	From: lost_her_voice	Date: 08/21/2007 11:32:13
	Re: Holy crap, reply of doom.

"You don't understand!" Kai was crying hard now, her expression one of someone tortured and in agony. "I wasn't thinking, I wasn't myself...I don't know if that was an effect of her cursed blade, or if it was an effect of something inside of me...But do you think I live a day without thinking of it? Without wishing I could go back, and just let him and his bride alone?" She wiped hard at her eyes, but the tears kept coming. "I can't put into words the kind of anger I felt...blind rage, something beyond logic and rationality"

She sniffed at his question, and shook her head. "I knew enough to love him, but even I know now that I was foolish. But I was young, a mere stupid child, and he was a man, and I didn't know any better. I felt cheated, and I didn't know any better." The mermaid raised her head, looking at Shuhei directly. "But if you think this is something I'm not sorry for daily, then you're wrong!"

	From: ivegotbigballs	Date: 08/21/2007 12:00:58

Shūhei almost shrunk back from her sudden explosion. He listened, biting his lower lip until her last exclamation, and then he suddenly got up, sloshing water all around. His clothes were soaked, his hakama full of sand, weighing him down, but he didn't seem to care. Instead he just flung his arms around the sobbing mermaid and squeezed her tight.

"I'm sorry. I didn't understand. And maybe I still don't. But please don't cry. I'm sorry. I shouldn't have made you tell me the story." He held on to her, really sad now that he'd asked questions that shifted their happy reunion into this.

	From: lost_her_voice	Date: 08/21/2007 12:05:50

She was shocked into silence by his sudden embrace, her cries going from little wails to muffled sniffles and gasps. It occured to Kai that since this all had happened, she hadn't the chance to talk about it until now. It had been pent up inside of her, ready to explode.

"...No.." She murmured, hanging onto the shapeshifter tightly. "I needed to tell it. I..I haven't told anybody, and you're the first and...I-I had to let it out. I'm sorry, if you...if you don't want to be my friend anymore. I know that I'm horrible, to have done such a thing."

	From: crazylikethefox	Date: 08/21/2007 13:12:32

Genkurō had been too far away to hear their conversation, but she could see well enough. It was kind of hard to miss that enthusiastic embrace and for just a second Genkurō felt a twinge of pain somewhere around her heart. But the jealousy was swift and, hitching her kimono up to her knees, Genkurō set across the sand at a brisk pace, cheeks flush with anger.

"Get your hands off him you...you...you naked hussy!" Okay, not her most eloquent moment, but this really was too much.

	From: ivegotbigballs	Date: 08/21/2007 13:21:23

Shūhei blinked at the sound of Genko's voice. He was never very swift on the uptake, and this time was no different. He let Kai go to turn toward Gen-chan storming at them with fury in her face. Eh?

Oh! "Oh... Genko-chan, I took too long again, didn't I?" And he hadn't even begun fishing! He'd gotten all distracted yet again - really at this rate Gen would never let him off on his own again - and had forgotten to do what he set out to do.

The fact that Shūhei had had his arms around a very pretty half-naked mermaid however as a source of Gen-chan's anger hadn't occurred to Shūhei just yet. No, wait. There it was. Naked hussy? Who? Kai? Oh. Oh! Oh, now Shūhei understood. "Oh, Genko-chan, she's not a hussy. She's my mermaid friend!"

	From: lost_her_voice	Date: 08/21/2007 13:24:46

Kai skittered backwards into the shallow water, startled by the loud and angry voice. Her tail splashed the water, and she stared wide-eyed at the approaching woman.

"..H-Hussy?" Kai stammered. She didn't even know that word, and she racked her brains. Well, it couldn't have meant something good, and her brows furrowed in anger and confusion.

	From: crazylikethefox	Date: 08/21/2007 13:45:16

"Your mermaid friend?" Genkurō all but shrieked. Really, not her finest hour. "Your naked mermaid friend that you're pawing all over and - " Okay, that had definitely been a fish tail and that took some of the bluster out of Genkurō's sails, but not the jealousy.

Toes curling wet sand, Genkurō looked down at her. "Well. It seems you did catch a rather large fish after all. She'd feed us for days." She wasn't serious, of course; eating mermaid flesh tended to have disasterous consequences.

	From: ivegotbigballs	Date: 08/21/2007 13:51:46

Shūhei's eyes went wide and he met the fuming kitsune halfway. "That is not what I meant, and you know it. We won't be eating her! She's the one I told you about, who couldn't talk! Well, now she can talk, and she was telling me how she got her voice back and that was a good story, but then she told me the one about how she lost it in the first place and that was a really sad story and it made her cry so I hugged her and then you showed up right then and called her a hussy and that wasn't very nice because she was crying." Shūhei's voice went from upset to his usual state of not-quite-there to sounding almost reproachful throughout the speech.

And then it shifted again. "Genko-chan. I didn't mean to get distracted again. I know you must be hungry." And then he stepped forward, sliding a hand onto the kitsune's stomach, lingering there with a little smile on his face. "I'll get us some food, okay? It's okay, really."

	From: lost_her_voice	Date: 08/21/2007 17:40:18

Kai was torn between throwing something at Genkuro and hiding behind a boulder. So she met each desire halfway, ducking halfway behind a boulder so her head stuck out, and keeping her hand near the smaller rocks in case Genkuro decided to lunge.

The mermaid's eyes grew huge. "FEED YOU?!" She shrieked just as loud as Genkuro had been, and was only silenced by the voice of Shuhei. She frowned, watching the two as though she were watching a tennis match, eyes darting back and forth.

	From: crazylikethefox	Date: 08/21/2007 19:49:17

By the time Shūhei finished speaking, Genkurō was having a hard time holding on to her anger. It was tough with that tone in the tanuki's voice and the way he was looking at her. And then the gentle hand on her belly soothed away the anger as if it had never been there at all. No matter how hard she tried, Genkurō could never stay mad at Shūhei and it drove him crazy.

"Okay," Genkurō finally relented with a dramatic sigh and a definite pout as she leaned into Shūhei. "Feed me and maybe I'll feel better." Hunger probably was a contributing factor to her irritation.

To the mermaid, Genkurō called, "You can stop hiding, we're not going to eat you. You'd probably be poisonous anyway." The last bit was added in a lowered voice. Perhaps Genkurō wasn't quite over his pique yet.

	From: ivegotbigballs	Date: 08/21/2007 19:57:48

Shūhei positively beamed at Genkurō's contrition and placed a sweet and just a hair overlong kiss on still pouty lips, then he turned back around, lacing fingers through the kitsune's. "Kai, you can come out now. It's okay, I promise."

"Kai, this is my Genko-chan. Gen-chan, this is Kai." Shūhei seemed rather proud of himself for being able to make official introductions. "I'm sorry about just now; it was my fault really... I was supposed to bring back breakfast a long time ago and I got distracted. I do that a lot." He stepped forward as he spoke, gently tugging Genkurō with him.

	From: lost_her_voice	Date: 08/21/2007 20:30:41

Kai slowly emerged from behind the boulder, dropping the rock in her hand. She stared at Genkuro cautiously, before looking back at Shuhei. His Genkochan. That, and the touches and kisses were enough to tell Kai they were lovers.

"...Hello, Genkochan." Kai didn't know of honorifics, and assumed Genkochan to be the kitsune's name. "Are you a tanuki, too?" She was curious at the prospect of two of them.

	From: crazylikethefox	Date: 08/21/2007 22:22:34

At 'Genkochan', Genkurō's eyebrow twitched in irritation, but she forced herself to respond as politely as possible. "Hello, Kai." She stopped short of saying of saying it was nice to meet her; Genkurō still had the vision in her head of Kai with her wet, pert, naked breasts pressed all up against Shūhei.

She forced the thought away.

"No, I'm not a tanuki," Genkurō corrected. "I'm a kitsune. Entirely different."

	From: ivegotbigballs	Date: 08/21/2007 22:31:27

Shūhei squeezed Genkurō's hand and shook his head at Kai. "No, -chan is an honorific, Kai. Like, I could call you-" He actually thought better than to finish that sentence and instead just continued with, "I call her Genko-chan becuase we've known each other so long. And a kitsune is like a fox, not like a raccoon like me."

That was all Shūhei said to explain the diference between them. He didn't mention the excessive shapeshifting, the gender-swapping, the tails, or the fact that Genkurō was somewhere in the neighborhood of 400 years older than Shūhei and still considered pretty young.

	From: lost_her_voice	Date: 08/21/2007 22:39:54

"Ooh. So...Genkuro would call you Miz...Mizuiro-chan...right?" Kai smiled up at Shuhei hopefully.

She tilted her head in confusion at the word "kitsune", and was grateful for Shuhei's explanation. It was really all she needed.

"So you're a fox, then!" She remembered mistaking Shuhei for a fox earlier.

	From: crazylikethefox	Date: 08/22/2007 00:10:51

"Yes, I'm the fox," Genkurō confirmed, brows furrowing a little. It hadn't occurred to him before, but now he wondered just how much Kai knew about Shūhei's nature. It didn't sound like much, but she had neither the time nor the inclination to educate Kai. At least not on that matter.

"And, actually, I'd call him Mizuiro because we've known each other so long and...so well." Genkurō couldn't help the little smile that played across her lips at that last bit. "You can call him Mizuiro-kun because you're his...friend and he's male."

	From: ivegotbigballs	Date: 08/22/2007 00:22:49

"Genkurō." Shūhei said the name warmly, and that little smile earned the kitsune another little hand squeeze. And then Shūhei giggled, a delightfully playful sound. "Genko-chan she thought I was a fox earlier because I was red. I had to tell her that I was a raccoon not a fox, but it was funny, because I thought of you when she said it."

Shūhei cocked his head at Kai. "I need to go fishing now. We still need breakfast." And there was that chance Genkurō was eating for more than one. She needed nutrients. He looked to Genkurō for confirmation. He wasn't shifting until he was certain Genkurō wouldn't flip out at Kai again.

	From: lost_her_voice	Date: 08/22/2007 13:00:39

"Mizuiro-kun." She repeated it, and then nodded. "Yes, I like that. Mizuiro-kun." Kai nodded once more before smiling.

Upon hearing that Shuhei had to go fishing, Kai pointed. "You see those two boulders, just beyond that tree? There's a great fishing hole there. Schools of them. It's just in between the boulders there...too small normally for the men, but since you can change into a raccoon..."

She figured she'd help, since Shuhei was always so nice to her.

	From: crazylikethefox	Date: 08/22/2007 14:49:37

Normally, Genkurō wouldn't have found the little tale funny, but Shūhei's amusement was infectious and she giggled as well. "How silly! Foxes don't have ringed tails." But she supposed a mermaid wasn't too used to land dwelling creatures.

"You can go on now," she said with a little shooing gesture. "I'm hungry, but I promise I won't try to eat your friend." Shūhei would never forgive her if she did.

	From: ivegotbigballs	Date: 08/22/2007 14:57:36

With the proper assurance that there'd be no trouble in his absence, Shūhei grinned and kissed Genkurō again. He shifted then, back into his raccoon shape and left his pile of clothes right at Genkurō's feet, pausing to rear up and lick her kneecap.

He trotted off into the water, little red tail swishing behind him. "Thank you Kai," he called out and went splashing into the water, heading of to the boulders she had pointed out. He was practically humming to himself happy about the prospect of free fish for breakfast.

	From: lost_her_voice	Date: 08/22/2007 15:24:44

Kai gave the trotting raccoon a wave. "Good luck, Mizuiro-kun!" She smiled, and then looked up at Genkuro with no real expression. She wasn't sure what to think of her, really. It was hard to develop an opinion when Genkuro had gone from calling her a hussy (whatever that was) to..well, NOT calling her a hussy, but bringing up the prospect of eating her.

Kai tilted her head. "...What is a hussy?"

	From: crazylikethefox	Date: 08/22/2007 16:02:34

Genkurō yelped at the lick at her knee, but Shūhei was already scampering off by the time she got over the shock. So Genkurō contented herself with a huff of indignation before setting down her parasol and bending to gather up the tanuki's clothes.

Letting her kimono fall about her ankles onces more, Genkurō settled carefully on the sandy shore, subtly adjusting her tails beneath her kimono so she wasn't sitting on them awkwardly. She'd just started shaking the sand from Shūhei's wet clothes when Kai's question distracted her.

"What's a hussy?" Genkurō blinked at her. Surely Kai was joking. "A hussy is a woman of loose virtue. A woman who'll throw herself at any man who crosses her path. A tramp, a trollop, a slut." Perhaps Genkurō hadn't quite let that jealousy go yet.

	From: lost_her_voice	Date: 08/22/2007 19:44:47

Kai wasn't. Human slang was lost on her. Tramp and trollop, she knew. Kai blanched. "You thought I was one of those?! W-With Mizuiro-kun?!" She wrinkled her nose in distaste, not that Shuhei was unattractive or anything, but the thought of her throwing herself at him.

"Mizuiro-kun is my friend." She said it firmly.

	From: crazylikethefox	Date: 08/23/2007 10:51:05

"Well, that's certainly good to know," Genkurō said cheerfully as she started neatly folding Shūhei's clothes. "I don't share well and I'd have to take back my promise of not eating you. So I'm glad we have an understanding." The last was said with a bright, friendly smile, but Genkurō's dark eyes were dead serious. Laying the neat pile of clothes down next to her, the kitsune took up her parasol once more and wiggled her toes in the sand. "So, I haven't seen one of your kind in a century or more. What brings you here?" Polite conversation, as if she hadn't just been threatening Kai not even a moment ago.

	From: lost_her_voice	Date: 08/23/2007 20:06:19

Well, this fox-woman was certainly posessive. Kai raised an eyebrow as she stared at the kitsune, deciding she really didn't like her. She was nothing like Shuhei.

"I don't know, honestly." Kai said with a shrug, and she stretched in the sand on her belly. "My kingdom disappeared, and I swam to surface and...saw this place. I'm trying to find more of my kind, and my family."

	From: crazylikethefox	Date: 08/24/2007 00:04:28

"I've heard much of the same," Genkurō said thoughtfully, as she absently started tracing the kanji for tanuki in the sand. "Everywhere we've traveled in Pentamerone, there's been someone who had no idea where they were or how they'd gotten there." It was the same for Shūhei and herself, but they were accustomed to wandering wherever their feet might take them.

She started drawing the kanji for love underneath the first. "Have you tried looking in the sea? I heard there was one far to the West of here."

	From: lost_her_voice	Date: 08/24/2007 14:49:12

Kai frowned. "That's...strange." Very strange. She wondered how many people were like her, looking for someone else, or feeling lost.

Her eyes widened. "A sea? To the west? Really?" Perhaps her family was there! Or her kingdom!

	From: crazylikethefox	Date: 08/24/2007 15:01:53

"Oh yes," Genkurō said cheerfully, moving on to writing names in the sand like "Akane" and "Yumi" without even realizing. "I haven't seen it myself, but it's very large and wide from what I've heard. So vast that no one knows what's to the West past the sea. Perhaps your family is there somewhere," she suggested innocently. The kitsune would like nothing more than to send the mermaid on her way, far from here and far from Shūhei.

	From: lost_her_voice	Date: 08/24/2007 15:06:44

Kai fell silent, considering this. It sounded kind of promising...a big open sea, where her family could be. But then...it sounded so powerfully huge, that Kai wondered if it'd even be worth the look. There was a chance she could get lost again, and end up somewhere else.

"...I'll have to think abuot that." She finally mused out loud.

	From: crazylikethefox	Date: 08/24/2007 17:27:43

"What's to think about?" It was a seemingly casual question as Genkurō continued to draw in the sand. "I mean, you'd like to find your family, wouldn't you? And it's not like you don't have time. You seem young and your kind lives a relatively long time, right?"

	From: lost_her_voice	Date: 08/27/2007 16:52:21

(ooc: sorry guys, too much going on!! X_x)

Kai was silent for a moment, taking this in. Then, she narrowed her eyes, eyeing Genkuro suspiciously. "....Why do you care so much?" Genkuro definitely hasn't seemed fond of Kai so far, and so Kai became suspicious of Genkuro's intentions...not that that was anything new with the mermaid.

	From: ivegotbigballs	Date: 08/28/2007 13:54:16

It was about this time Shūhei returned, one large fish in his mouth. It was so large in fact, its tail dragged in the sand as he waddled back over to Genkurō and Kai. He laid the fish at Genkurō's feet and beamed up at her in tanuki form. "This one's big enough?" He asked, after licking her knee again.

	From: crazylikethefox	Date: 09/04/2007 17:53:23

Genkurō had just opened her mouth to remark that she didn't care at all, but Shūhei chose that moment to return and he hid whatever he was going to say behind a giggle and a smile. "It's perfect, Shū-kun. Come, change back so we can eat together."

	From: lost_her_voice	Date: 09/05/2007 12:46:37

Kai gave Genkuro a glance of slight disgust. She decided she definitely didn't like this one. She was jealous and snide and rude, and yet Shuhei was sweet and cute and kind. They were nothing alike, and Kai had to wonder how the two ended up together.

Kai gave Shuhei a smile and a wave. "I'd better go now, and let you two enjoy your fish."

	From: ivegotbigballs	Date: 09/05/2007 19:25:45

Shūhei did just change, right in front of Kai again, reaching for the clothes Genkurō had folded neatly for him. His eyes strayed to the kanji in the said. He read it and smiled widely.

To Kai he replied, as he dressed, "We have to eat now. But maybe we'll see you again soon. I really hope you find your family." His tone was understanding, as if he could imagine what it was like to be separated from people who'd always been with you. His hand had slipped into Genkurō's as he spoke twining in delicate fingers.

"Genko, you ready to go back?" Shūhei tugged Genkurō against him, wrapping arms around her, hands placed curiously on her stomach again. The fish lay there on the rock Shūhei had placed it on, waiting for them to take it with them.

	From: crazylikethefox	Date: 09/23/2007 12:06:51

"Yes, I hope you find your family," Genkurō echoed, her tone and manner kind, though her thoughts were less than. Leaning into Shūhei, the kitsune shot Kai one last look, before lifting her parasol and smiling up at the tanuki. "I'm ready to go, Shū-kun. I'm positively starving." And quite ready to get away from this mermaid who, in Genkurō's mind, had far too much interest in her Shūhei, innocent or not.