Thirteen

Kuro

"That could have gone better," Joe said.

Kuro glared at him, ears pinned back, still in his fox form. The two of them were on another rooftop, on a building somewhere in between where they had been staying and Marie's high-rise apartment. This rooftop wasn't intended for public access. It had no lighting, which was perfect for them. No one would wonder what Joe was doing out here in the hours just before dawn. And no one was going to wonder what the heck a fox was doing in the middle of the bustling city—especially one with nine tails.

"Do you want to head back to our witch?" Joe looked out over the streets below. "Seems like this would be the best time to slip back into her building. I don't sense anyone following us."

Kuro growled. Keeping eye contact with Joe, Kuro sat. The movement seemed very deliberate.

"Or we could hang out here for a little while." Joe ran his fingers through his hair and sighed as frustration churned in his belly. "Not being able to talk freely is really getting to me."

Kuro made a sound deep in his chest. It might have been about as close to one of his normal grunts as Joe had ever heard his partner make in fox form.

Joe turned and sat with his back against the low wall bordering the roof, knees up. Kuro moved to sit right between Joe's feet and leaned forward until he bumped Joe's nose with his own.

Joe laughed. "That's cold and you know it."

Kuro settled back on his haunches, looking smug.

"Okay, yeah. It'll be good for the two of us to talk privately." Joe realized the timing worked out.

They had remained at Marie's apartment well into the night. She'd pulled out her tablet to get some work done and set up her laptop for Joe and Kuro to watch streaming videos. It'd been awkward for the first few minutes, but she'd been adamant about continuing to work on her research. She'd wanted to look for whatever information she could find regarding their hexes and research the situation at Socrates Industries.

Apparently, a dead person walking around was a major cause for concern to her. Maybe he should've been more worried himself, but the body hadn't appeared to be interested in eating anyone. It hadn't seemed like the beginning of a zombie apocalypse, so Joe was a little more focused on his and Kuro's immediate circumstances.

For him, it wasn't about how the scientist was walking around after death, or even how he ended up dead. It was purely about getting ahold of that amulet the scientist was wearing. That was what Babel wanted.

Joe chuckled. "Marie's really something, isn't she? She made her list of things to do and got started on it, right away."

He'd wanted to talk to her more, but the way the conversation had been interrupted by Kuro's change, it'd been like getting splashed with cold water. The sooner they had more information regarding the situation at Socrates Industries, the sooner they could put together a plan to get inside.

Babel had arranged this situation to ensure Joe and Kuro had a vested interest in completing the contract, after all.

Joe tipped his head back to rest on the stone wall behind him. The cold was seeping through his clothes. The weather might be fairly temperate in Seattle, but the late fall was still cold. He looked up into the night sky. There was cloud cover tonight, and the city lights reflected back eerily. But the sky was lightening, even if it wasn't easy to tell. Dawn wasn't too far away.

"If we've figured out the cycle of the spell correctly, you should change back to human soon," Joe said to Kuro. And Joe would be forced into his fox form.

He didn't even try to suppress the shudder that ran through him. He'd had his shape-shifting ability since puberty. It had been one of the first aspects of his nature as a gumiho to manifest. More and more of his abilities developed as he continued to mature. By the time he grew to his full height and filled out his frame around the age of twenty-five or so, he was comfortable in his human form, his nine-tailed fox form, and a range of partial shifts in between. He'd never been trapped in a single form, never been unable to choose the form he wanted to take.

A paw pressed firmly into his chest, bringing Joe's attention back to the here and now. He looked into Kuro's face.

"You remember when we were first getting to know each other in college?" he asked Kuro, chuckling. "You were so serious. It was so damned hot, and you caught me stroking myself in the showers, thinking about you. I was so close, I lost control of my shift and my fox ears came out."

The sky lightened further to the east and Kuro's form grew, changed, until he was kneeling between Joe's legs with his hands resting warm on Joe's knees.

"Fox ears and nine tails on a stark-naked human body dripping wet under the shower spray," Kuro's voice came out husky and low. "With your hand wrapped around your cock. You were gorgeous."

The memory of it and hearing the sound of Kuro's voice, especially with that note to it… Joe's cock was straining at the fabric of his pants. He reached up and fisted a hand in the fabric of Kuro's shirt. His partner leaned in, kissing him hard. Kuro's big hand wrapped around the nape of his neck, and Joe let Kuro take the lead between them.

When they broke off the kiss, it was because they were in dire need of air. Kuro rested his forehead against Joe's, and they stayed that way, without any sound passing between them but their ragged breathing.

"It's hard, not getting to hold your hand," Joe said softly. "I guess after this many years, I took it for granted. I mean, I thought we touched all the time, no matter what form we were in. And there's nothing stopping us from touching, really…"

"But it's not the same," Kuro said just as quietly.

Joe shook his head. "It's not."

Neither of them were attracted to the other when they were in fox form. They weren't actual foxes, after all. It wasn't quite the same as maybe werewolves felt. He'd never known one well enough to ask. He and Kuro both had been born human, grown up human, and sure, mythology said gumiho were supposed to be actual foxes who lived a century or more before gaining the power to become human, but in actuality, he was thirty and Kuro was thirty-one, and no matter what form they were in, they thought and felt like humans.

He didn't want Kuro in fox form the way he craved Kuro's touch in human form.

"As much as I want to follow up on that kiss," Kuro rumbled, "we have less than an hour to talk freely."

"Usually, an hour would feel like forever." Joe laughed, his sense of humor kicking back in with a bitter edge. Patience was never a virtue he had any interest in pursuing. "But for the first time, it's not enough."

Not nearly enough.

As quickly as the laughter had come, Joe felt hollow inside, and that space was starting to fill with cold fear.

"We should start timing it," he said impulsively. "For Marie. She'd want the information. Did you see how she takes notes? Dates and times and measurements."

One corner of Kuro's mouth tipped up. He reached into his pants pocket and pulled out a phone. "All right, then."

That was another difference they had from werewolves. They didn't lose their clothes when they changed shape, and that included what might be in their pockets or on their person at the time. Beyond that, Kuro had ways of storing stuff as a kitsune that Joe didn't as a gumiho.

"Staying with Marie is a good idea, if she'll have us," Kuro began, shifting his weight back so he was crouching on his heels. He returned his hands to rest lightly on Joe's knees for balance. "Safety in numbers."

"And it doesn't seem like the pain witches knew she lived nearby. I don't think they would have hexed us so close to a witch who might have been able to help us if she'd known." Joe chewed on the inside of his cheek briefly. "But what if we bring trouble to her?"

They'd gone back to their place. There hadn't been signs of disturbance. Neither of them had sensed anyone following them on the way there, or on the way back, either. But obviously the pain witch—and their accomplice—had found him and Kuro somehow. They weren't always as careful as they should be discarding things like used straws or tissues. A witch could trace a being's location with something like that, an item carrying a part of the person who had used it.

As good as cities were for supernaturals, there weren't so many among the populace that they encountered each other all that often. Not unless they deliberately went to a place that catered to them. Joe and Kuro really didn't interact with many others, unless they sought them out, like Marie.

"We can use my power to make space for ourselves in her apartment that no one else will be able to detect," Kuro said. "We won't impinge too much on her, then."

Joe nodded. They'd have to explain that to Marie. "Okay. And what do we do next?"

She was going to ask for ideas. Joe had been thinking about it. He figured Kuro had been, too. He wanted to be sure they were in alignment. Because at this rate, it was Kuro who would be doing the talking when next they were in Marie's company.

"I'll go with her," Kuro said without hesitation. "During the day. We shouldn't leave her without someone to watch her back with pain witches paying attention to this contract."

"Yeah." Joe met Kuro's gaze. "If we were contracted to confirm items of interest were in that building and retrieve them, then Babel will be aware of potential competition."

"At night, you help her research," Kuro said.

A thought occurred to Joe and he started laughing.

Kuro tapped his knee. "What?"

"It's just…" Joe couldn't stop laughing. "This isn't the first time we've had to give a lady a chance to get some rest. But we're not even thinking about sex."

Kuro's quiet laugh joined his. "Yet."

Heat bloomed in Joe's chest.

"Yet," he agreed. Then he reached up to grasp Kuro's forearms. "That reminds me, we're each spending time with her. Just not together. You okay if I get close to her?"

Kuro smiled fully, then, and the expression changed his face in a way that made Joe's heartbeat stutter. "Yeah. If you're okay with me doing the same."

Joe had been thinking about that, too. "It's good for her to have a chance to get to know us each individually. I'm not sure we ever did that when we were dating anyone else. It was always us inviting them to join us both on dates and stuff."

Kuro turned his head and dropped a kiss onto Joe's knuckles. "It could be a stronger foundation for a relationship."

"You want this, with her?" Joe asked quietly.

He hadn't been able to stop thinking about Marie since they'd sat with her in the trees, months ago. She was more than a passing interest. Interacting with her yesterday and the day before only attracted him more.

"I feel the potential," Kuro answered. "But I'm not leaving you if it doesn't work out with her. She's the one who'll decide if she wants to build something with us."

Joe searched Kuro's face, not for any hints of uncertainty or duplicity. That wasn't Kuro. Joe was soaking in the conviction with which Kuro made his statement. If Kuro said it, he meant it. Joe took a lot of comfort from that. It anchored him.

"I'm not leaving you, either, if she decides being with the both of us isn't what she wants." Joe grinned. "But how can she resist the two of us? I think our chances of wooing our chosen witch are solid."

Kuro snorted. "We'll see."

"For now, we each get to know her in the time we've got with her." Joe gave Kuro's arm a squeeze. "And make the most of the time we get after sunset and before dawn."

Kuro nodded. Then he leaned forward again, until he was on his knees. Joe straightened from his seated position, turning his face up to Kuro's. As they met in a kiss, Kuro's hands came up to frame his face and Joe clutched at his waist.

This kiss was more carnal than their earlier one. It was more of a hungry clash of tongues and teeth. There was more strength in the way they held each other. A hint of desperation.

Kuro was the one to pull back. He unzipped the duffel Joe had brought from the place they were staying and pulled the stone out. It was hollowed out, with a sliding cover on the bottom, the kind of thing people used to hide their house keys in.

But when Kuro used it, as a kitsune, it was magic. "Let's take this someplace private."

He tucked the stone against the doorjamb of the stairwell access so it would be concealed behind the door if anyone were to open it. Then he went still. There was no flash of light or thunderclap, nothing to draw attention. Between one breath and the next, Kuro created a pocket universe inside the hollowed-out stone and turned with his hand outstretched toward Joe.

Joe grinned and took hold, letting Kuro tug him inside.

It was an odd feeling, stepping from the outside world into the space Kuro's magic created within the stone. As far as Joe knew, Kuro could make a pocket universe out of any stationary crevice. It was just easiest if it was a contained space to begin with.

There was no sensation of being shrunken down to fit inside a stone that could sit in the palm of Kuro's hand. It was more like stepping through a doorway. One moment, Joe was out on the rooftop. The next, he was following Kuro into the room that had been created by Kuro's kitsune magic in response to their combined desires.

It was a simple room with a connected bath. The room itself was decorated in a modern minimalist style, but the fabrics were luxurious, especially the sheets and blankets on the king-size bed. The bed also had a ridiculous number of pillows.

The heavy drapes were drawn, but if Joe decided to look out, he'd see city lights shining in an indigo night. There were no doors. The way out of Kuro's pocket universe always resembled a portal to Joe, never to be mistaken for a door.

Kuro hooked his hand around the nape of Joe's neck, capturing his attention and his lips at the same time. Their kiss was rough, burning off the stress both of them were carrying. It turned carnal as they opened to each other in a clash of teeth, desperately tasting and drinking each other in.

Joe let his hands wander over the flat planes of Kuro's chest and over his ribs. Kuro reached around and grabbed Joe's ass with both hands, pulling him close as Kuro ground their hips together.

"Fuck, Kuro," Joe groaned as Kuro scraped his teeth down Joe's neck.

"I know you want me," Kuro breathed against his neck. "But I want to know how much you want her ."

"What?" Joe stilled.

Kuro hadn't ever talked about a woman when it was just the two of them. They'd been with women before, individually and together. But Kuro had always kept that unspoken boundary around the two of them that couldn't be crossed.

Kuro walked them toward the bed, pressing Joe down onto the mattress. "Marie. We both want her."

Joe lifted his hips, grinding up into Kuro in return. "Yes."

Kuro's hand palmed his erection through his pants. He leaned forward, his voice gravelly in Joe's ear. "Now that we've talked about exploring with her, I want to know. How much do you want her?"

Joe decided to go with this without overthinking it.

"I want to taste her," Joe muttered. He grappled with Kuro's pants and got them undone, wrapping one hand around Kuro's hard length.

"Yeah?" Kuro's hand pressed harder against Joe's erection, dragging a whimper from him.

"On you ." Joe sat up enough to kiss Kuro again. "On your tongue. On your cock. I want to taste the two of you at the same time and know you're both mine."

Kuro growled and thrust into Joe's hand. Then he lifted off Joe enough to get Joe's pants open and pull his cock free of his boxer briefs. They writhed together, each holding the other.

"I want to be balls-deep inside you," Kuro ground out, "while you're buried inside her."

Joe swept his thumb over the head of Kuro's penis, smearing the precum down his shaft.

Kuro let out the air in his lungs in a huff, his hand moving quicker over Joe's length. "I want to know how she feels coming around my cock while you're filling her up from behind."

"Nnngh." Joe couldn't form any more words. All he could do was imagine Marie between them, the scent of her, the sound of her voice crying out with the pleasure they'd give her.

They came at the same time, thinking about what it would be like if she was with them.