kacha
After receiving permission in advance, Vahn opened the door to Yasaka's room, prompting a high-pitched but slightly deeper voice than the one in his memory to exclaim, "Chichiue...!?"
Seeing Vahn enter her mother's room, Kunou separated from Yasaka and zipped toward him with a swift pitter-patter of footsteps before wrapping her arms around him tightly, adding, "I missed you so much..."
"You've grown..." remarked Vahn, hugging Kunou's head to his chest with his right hand. In truth, Kunou was nearly the same as his memory, but he didn't want to upset her.
Barely processing Vahn's words, Kunou inhaled audibly through her nose several times before remarking, "You smell of that insufferable brat..." in a temperamental tone.
"You're referring to Millicas...?" asked Vahn, prompting Kunou to stare up at him with a frown and assert, "I refuse to speak his name..."
"Mmn...that might be taking things too far..." remarked Vahn, preempting Kunou's response by picking her up by the pits of her arms. She frowned even more intensely, but instead of protesting, she obediently wrapped her arms around his neck and flushed slightly as he supported her bottom with his left hand and forearm.
Carrying Kunou over to the red and gold chaise-style lounge her mother was sitting on, Vahn sat on the section with the higher back and outward-curling armrest. Yasaka had naturally made room for him, allowing herself to nestle closer to him once he had sat down.
"Welcome home, Danna..." muttered Yasaka, narrowing her golden eyes until they were nearly closed and raising her chin as Kunou released her hold on Vahn to let him and her mother exchange a chaste but lingering kiss.
"Me too..." muttered Kunou, waiting for her mother's and Vahn's lips to part before gripping the fabric of his yukata and giving him a pleading, deliberately pitiable look.
Though his initial instinct was to shake his head and refuse, the look on Kunou's face cut through Vahn's defenses like a hot knife through butter. She had also turned sixteen a few months prior, so as long as she didn't entreat him for even more, he felt a peck on the lips should be fine. The bigger issue was the presence of her mother, who saw no reason for him to restrain himself at all...
"Just the one..." responded Vahn, causing Kunou's golden eyes to widen, her pupils to dilate, and her body to become completely statuesque. She had fully expected him to say no, so his saying yes had shortcircuited her brain.
Electing to help her daughter—consequently demonstrating the reason for Vahn's concern—Yasaka placed her left hand on the back of Kunou's head, remarking, "Now isn't the time to hesitate...be bold, Kunou..." while guiding her forward.
"Chichiue..." muttered Kunou, her voice barely a whisper as she closed her eyes, raised her chin, and parted her lips anticipatorily. In response, Vahn briefly met Yasaka's narrow-eyed, smiling gaze, prompting the voluptuous vixen to nod before he faced forward and leaned in to gently press his lips to Kunou's. The moment he did, he felt a sucking sensation like placing his lips to the hose of a vacuum as Kunou, by pure instinct, began draining his life essence.
"Ah...!"
Realizing what she was doing, Kunou immediately pulled away from Vahn, her face paling and her eyes shaking as she asked, "I...what did I just do? I didn't...I wasn't trying to..."
"No need to fret..." said Vahn, smiling affectionately and gently tousling Kunou's hair with his right hand as he assured her, "When it comes to life essence, my well is bottomless. You did nothing wrong, and no one was harmed..."
"Humu...as expected of Danna-sama...such compassion and reliability..." hummed Yasaka, closing her eyes and nuzzling against Vahn's jaw and neck as she slipped her left hand into the gap between his yukata's folds.
"Behave yourself, Yasaka..." said Vahn, his voice soft but firm as he rested his cheek on Yasaka's forehead. If he permitted her to take control of the situation, there was a non-zero chance she would suggest something he would sadden Kunou by having to shut down, so he elected to nip it in the bud.
"If that is Danna-sama's command..." exhaled Yasaka, her voice low and sultry as she licked Vahn's jaw and snapped her teeth before pulling away but still leaning against him. As Vahn suspected, she had been moments away from suggesting they teach Kunou to control her spiritual vampirism together, but since she liked it when he put his foot down, Yasaka closed her eyes, rested her head against his left shoulder, and caressed her belly while humming a faint tune.
"Thank you..." muttered Vahn, planting a kiss atop Yasaka's crown before returning his gaze to a very dejected-looking Kunou. She felt like she had just fumbled her only opportunity to make out with Vahn for the next two years, so her fox-like ears were angled back and drooping along with her nine fluffy fox tails.
"You're undeniably adorable when you pout..." remarked Vahn, caressing Kunou's head and scratching the base of her right ear as he added, "But your smile is a Longinus-class heartstopper..."
"That has got to be the dumbest compliment I've ever heard..." muttered Kunou, contrasting her words by closing her eyes and undulating her tails with her head tilted to encourage Vahn to scratch the base of her left ear in turn. When her mother joined in, using her long and painted nails to dig through her thick and fluffy hair, she couldn't help but adopt the faintest of contented smiles...
"There's something we need to discuss, Kunou-chan..." said Vahn, waiting nearly two full minutes before interrupting Kunou's reverie with a faint but serious tone.
"Do we have to talk about it now...?" asked Kunou, frowning deeply as she had spent the past four months, specifically since the eve of her sixteenth birthday, actively avoiding everything to do with Millicas.
"Do you hate him...?" asked Vahn, his voice low and coaxing.
"I don't hate him..." answered Kunou, exhaling huffily from her nose as she explained, "I just got tired of him trying to tell me what to do and thinking he knows what's best when he's just a kid. Sure, I might not be that much older, but I was the sub-ruler of the Kyoto Youkai Faction. I'm much more experienced in management and delegation, but he kept acting like I was a part of his group instead of accepting we were working together. He's a self-important child who believes he's the main character of his own story and that everyone else is a character within it."
'Sounds like he's developed a case of Eight-Grade Syndrome...' concluded Vahn, his expression unchanging as he thought back to his encounter with Millicas. Despite appearing as a young man on the cusp of turning twenty, the crimson-haired youth was barely fifteen. With a significant portion of his development occurring in the Tower, where he spent much of his time training with a bunch of Shonen protagonist who had sorted relations with their fathers, it wasn't at all surprising that he would be inspired to rebel...
"You're not planning to ask that I return to his group, are you...?" asked Kunou, a look of frustration marring her face. She would rejoin Millicas if Vahn asked it of her, but she would prefer it if he informed her would-be King to leave her be and stop harassing others to persuade her to return on his behalf.
Shaking his head, Vahn reassured Kunou, stating, "Just as I told Millicas, you're free to choose the path you walk, Kunou-chan. But it would ease my heart and mind if the two of you could make amends. I won't ask that you be friends, but you should at least treat him like a cousin. You may not be related by blood, but we're all family..."
"Even though he wants to separate from the Dragon's Pavilion and create his own competing organization...?" asked Kunou, exhaling from her nose with half-lidded eyes and a flat tone.
"If that's the path he has chosen for himself, I will support him..." stated Vahn, nodding. Then, cupping Kunou's left cheek, his smile softened as he caressed her cheekbone with his thumb and added, "Just as I support the path you walk..."
"Fine...I'll talk to him..." muttered Kunou, placing her hand over Vahn's and settling into his palm with narrowed as she contended, "But if I'm going to do this for you, you should do something for me..."
"Will brushing your hair and tails suffice...?" asked Vahn, his smile visibly cramping as he didn't anticipate a sudden quid pro quo from his adorable surrogate daughter.
"You will have to come and spend the night with Shiroyuki-chan and me," asserted Kunou, revealing, "We have more than a dozen secret bases, but we're currently staying in a C-Rank mountain forest biome two hours east of Utopia. I occasionally travel there to socialize and trade."
"Speaking of, how has Shiroyuki been? Has she grown up big and strong?" asked Vahn, attempting to change the subject.
"You can see her for yourself when you come to stay with us..." responded Kunou, her expression and tone flattening.
"And so I shall..." conceded Vahn, causing Yasaka to cover her mouth and issue an amused, haughty-sounding giggle. Then, as it was fairly late, she met her daughter's gaze, her tails undulating as she said, "Alright, Kunou-chan. Now that you've received Danna-sama's promise, it's time for you to be on your way. It's not often that Danna-sama visits my quarters directly. I will not yield this opportunity to be alone with him..."
"I refuse..." responded Kunou, causing Yasaka's eyes to narrow and flash as she hugged Vahn tightly and asserted, "You may have forgotten due to your advanced age, but he came here for me. I would have him bathe and groom me. Only then will I consider leaving..."
"I see that you've become more willful in this time we've spent apart..." noted Yasaka, her tails shuddering and becoming noticeably poofy as she and Kunou eyed one another like enemies or, more accurately, rival foxes competing for the same mate. Fortunately, Vahn was present to mediate, leading to him bathing with and brushing the hair and tails of both mother and daughter before seeing Kunou off with a marginally longer kiss...
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With Yasaka refusing to release him sooner, Vahn emerged from her room around 9:40 AM the following morning, a protracted yawn emanating from his throat as he covered his mouth with his left hand and scratched inside his yukata with his right. By then, breakfast had long concluded, but when he made his way down to the dining room, Grayfia readily appeared with a pushcart topped by silver cloches.
"Good morning, Danna-sama," greeted Grayfia, stopping the cart beside Vahn's usual seat before waiting patiently for him to approach, habitually slip his hands around to her backside, and give her a deep, minutes-long morning kiss before remarking, "And with that, I'm certain to have a great day..."
"I'm pleased I could be of assistance~" hummed Grayfia, waiting for Vahn to sit down before promptly joining him atop his right thigh as he gave it a quick pat. He usually allowed Koneko to sit on his lap during meals, but as it was just the two of them, the responsibility became hers.
"I spoke with Millicas," revealed Vahn, using his domain-based telekinesis to remove the cloches and set the table while holding Grayfia's waist and caressing her pregnant belly. She, of course, already knew what he had to tell her, but she listened attentively from beginning to end. His decision to support Millicas's detachment from the Dragon's Pavilion troubled her, but she agreed with the sentiment fueling it. Telling Millicas he couldn't create an organization of his own could cause him to become resentful and even more rebellious, so while she would have preferred if Vahn had convinced her son to secure a place for himself within the Pavilion's structure, she understood it was best to keep power centralized and have as few contentious elements as possible...
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