Today is a very special day, but no one acknowledged it as such when the day started. Instead, Ayana helped Takashi get ready for school, and seemed to go straight back to sleep like normal. The truth, however, was something a little different.
Takashi likely has forgotten, but Ayana knows things about Takashi he wishes no one did. And one of those things is his birthday. It's a day that has never been particularly celebrated; a day which the lack of proper parents has most likely been a sore subject for him.
This year, however, Ayana has prepared well in advance. She called Fate and asked her to come over right away, then spent the day making sure everything is perfect.
Around 3 PM, Ayana sent Takashi a text informing him that failure to come home by 5 would result in her intentionally destroying lab equipment. Be here or else.
The apartment is perfectly cleaned. Ayana is dressed in a pretty black dress with blue ribbons and bows, and of course her collar with Still Night dangling from it. There are a pair of brand new house slippers waiting just inside the door where Takashi's slippers usually sit: cushy, comfortable. On the table is a small collection of presents. And in the kitchen, Ayana is busy flustering over the oven and the stove. Fillet mignon in the oven, being prepared just right, with green beans in garlic and bacon on the stove. Rice in the rice cooker, and miso soup in a pot. Everything as perfect as Ayana can make it.
"Did I get everything?" Ayana asks Fate worriedly. "I feel like I'm forgetting something important. He's gonna be here any minute. It has to be perfect."
Fate, not being enrolled, has had the day off to help Ayana prepare. Trying to remember Fate's own birthdays has only resulted in headaches and confusing memories, so she stopped trying and is now focusing on preparing for Takashi's in particular. She seemed vaguely worried about Ayana's methods for ensuring Takashi's participation, but since the fox familiar is oh so wise in the ways of the world (as far as Fate knows) she decided to quietly go along with it.
Upon being asked if everything is right, Fate makes a startled and confused expression. "You're asking me?" Seeking confirmation, she looks down at Bardiche, who starts pinging a checklist. Forgetting something important? Ayana's worry is making Fate worry.
"Was it a present? Was it food? I don't know." Fate seems rather helpless here, because it's likely that if Ayana forgot something then she may have forgotten to tell Fate about it to begin with.
Of course, Takashi is painfully /aware/ of what day it is. He has known for a week, has found unavoidable little reminders. Parents dropping younger children off at school, happy families on the way home.
It's likely he would've spent the day flying through Mitakihara (or causing trouble) without Ayana's text.
Takashi is also natively suspicious, given what day it is - but he also knows regardless of any of Ayana's threats, the last time he promised to show up and didn't means he owes her. Still, he's fighting the urge to clutch at his locket as he heads for what currently passes for thier home.
Takashi opens the door slowly, leaning his head in first, green eyes scanning the room.
"No, no, I have those," Ayana says, then sighs unhappily. "Well, whatever it is, it will just have to stay miss--here he comes!" she says at the sound of Takashi's key in the lock.
Ayana takes her oven mitt off and bounds forward to stand next to Fate as Takashi comes through the door. "Happy Birthday!" she declares loudly, excitedly, hopefully. All three of her tails are wagging fast, and her ears are perked up with expectation.
Fate wears a mild panic on her face as she tries to answer the unanswered question, but then time is up and now she just has to roll with it. Fate turns around to face the door, putting on her brightest (if somewhat nervous) smile as she sings out in time with Ayana. "Happy Brithday!"
Bardiche also stops pinging.
Takashi blinks a bit. He'd expected something like this, but a sudden arrival of Fox and Fate still shocks him for a moment before he wraps Ayana up in a hug.
"Thank you, Ayana-chan, Fate-chan." he says, genuinely. But he's stoic enough to not let all of the feels get to him so hard, and he looks around.
"But you know I don't really... celebrate my birthday. I know I've told you that, Ayana-chan."
Ayana hugs Takashi tightly, tails still wagging. "That," she tells him sulkily, "is because you have not had anyone to celebrate it right with you." She sticks out her tongue, then strides back to the kitchen. "I got you new slippers," she calls. "So take off your shoes and put those on. Dinner will be ready soo--"
The kitsune is interrupted by a loud beep from the oven timer. Ayana pulls it open, and perhaps miraculously it doesn't spew smoke everywhere. She grabs a hot pad and reaches in to pull out a trio of deliciously cooked steaks, all still sizzling.
The pan is set down on the stove, then Ayana pulls down plates and begins plating: Rice to one side, garlic green beans atop, and the steak itself all alone on the opposite side of the plate.
Ayana carries the plates carefully to the table, then sets them down around the presents in the middle. Some of those presents look large and take up quite a bit of space! "I hope everything's right. I cooked Fate's a little longer because the book said younger people should not have their steaks as rare. So um. Maybe yours won't be overcooked. I hope."
Fate looks up at the much taller Takashi. "You don't?" Then she looks up at Ayana, eyes asking an unspoken question. She looks over the rest of the room. If this isn't a Birthday party then what is it?
Oh okay. So Ayana wants to do it right this time. That makes sense. It always makes sense to prove that you can do something better than someone else. That doesn't need further explaination. Her eyes light up and her confusion fades.
Fate smells the (presumably) delicious (and possibly overcooked) steak and moves over to the table. She has to jump up a little to actually reach her seat but you know... Magical girl. Luckily overcooked steak usually isn't that bad, just maybe a bit more dry than usual.
Fate starts cutting up her steak, but Bardiche pings at her. "What? Against the grain? You mean like this?" She turns it on her plate and then Bardiche pings again.
Fate looks at the presents curiously. What kinds of gifts would Takashi even be into?
Takashi can't help but be delighted with the food that comes out of the oven. And then onto the plates. Not only is it his favorites, it's also not strangely lopped together, and it doesn't even look burned in the least!
"I think you're doing much better with the electric range." he notes. "Totally worth it." Of course the fact that it's a /damned fancy/ range as opposed to the generic gas stove they had might help too. In addition to the fact that Ayana has legitimately put her heart into getting better at this.
He walks into the room (finally) and switches he school shoes for his new slippers - which /are/ super comfy.
"Fate-chan, it's good to see you here, too. And smiling." he adds, grinning back at her."I've been working on something to try to give us faster reaction to the Jewel Seeds." Takashi says, apparently not understanding you shouldn't bring business to a party, not even your own. "I don't like getting there when everyone else does."
Ayana doesn't seem to mind being distracted by discussion. In fact, she chimes in, "Is there a way to predict their apperance?" She eyes the fork and knife disdainfully, but in the end does pick them up and start cutting her food up like a proper normal person would.
Fate's meat is a little pink. Without adult supervision she doesn't really know if it's cooked or not. So she cuts it up and eats as if it's nothing. Bardiche doesn't warn her, probably telepathically being told to be quiet down.
She's not even looking at the veggies. Between bites, she responds to Takashi.
"That'd be better. It'd be best if we could be in and out before the others even show up." Apparently she doesn't know about not talking business either. I mean, they talk business at all of their other parties, right? "I really don't need another justice speech from the pink laser girl."
The fact that Ayana is eating with a fork and knife in their own home earns an eyebrow raise from Takashi. She must really want today to be special.
"Just trying to see if they make fluctuations when the arrive that we can track. We seem to pick it up about when everyone else does."
Takashi cuts into his own meat. He smiles a bit. "This is really good, Ayana-chan." he says, stopping the conversation about a project just to compliment her, which is how she should know she must've done well.
"The pink one's annoying. I'm gonna knock her head off at this rate. It's really hard not to."
Ayana beams excitedly at Takashi's compliment, and her tails spin up to full on windmill mode. She has a mouthful of steak or else she'd be thanking him for the compliment. As it is she just keeps on chewing for now.
Eventually she manages to swallow, and then smiles at him again. "Thank you," she squeaks happily. Heartless aren't supposed to be happy, and yet here she is. "Do you think you could detect it so early? That seems like it'd be hard. But then, I haven't even seen one, yet."
Fate pauses briefly, before nodding firmly at Takashi. Yeah. Knocking someone's head off is how you deal with an enemy, right? If they didn't want that, then they shouldn't be your enemy.
"Are you experimenting on the one we got from the zoo?" Fate supposes that Precia might be a little more patient if it was helping her cause. It might be best if no one tells her she's wrong in this.
Fate's twintails sway in the breeze from Ayana's tail-windmills. She doesn't point out how happy she is compared to how happy she should be. That's not something she wants to bring up in front of Takashi.
Maybe he just wont notice.
Takashi shrugs. "I don't know. We haven't had a lot of them fall to work with." He's glad to see Ayana happy. He's so glad, in fact, that he pushes away the small but insistent voice that something is /wrong/ with the fact that she's happy. Right now he doesn't want to deal with it, of course. There's no way that decision could backfire.
"And you're very welcome, Ayana-chan. You did very well."
Then, back to Fate. "Yeah, that's the reason I haven't given it to you for Precia yet. I am not going to use it up or anything, but I'm hoping we can find the others if I get some more tests run. I'm still going to pass it back to you as soon as I can though. I know it's important to your mother. So that means it's important to you, and then that means it's important to me."
Takashi is apparently glossing over the fact that Fate is only here because her mother wants Takashi's help finding the seeds. That's not why they're important to him - that's a business deal. That they're important to Fate? That's personal.
Ayana wiggles in her seat at the praise, ears twitching excitedly. But once more she has her mouth full. Also her plate is already empty, which is perhaps terrifying given they started eating less than two minutes ago.
Ayana chews and swallows, then licks her lips clean. She only got a little juice on her chin, for once. "I wish I could help," she says truthfully. "I'm really good at finding things and bringing them back." Fetch. A canid familiar's most marketable skill.
"But but but hurry up and eat!" Ayana tells Takashi. "I wanna see you open your presents."
Fate watches Ayana empty her plate at frightening speeds. She probably should not be surprised, but she kindof is. Fate looks down at her own plate. Most of the meat is gone, but the vegetables remain. She decides to be a good little villainous girl and eat those up so that she can be strong enough to destroy all opposition.
Fate looks up at Takashi, saying, "Yeah, that's right. They're going to try to get an edge over us, so we have to get an edge over them first."
She never once suspects that Takashi's intentions might ever not be exactly that.
"We'll find others. I don't doubt that."
Takashi actually /laughs/ a little. Has Takashi /EVER/ laughed on his birthday? Not that he remembers. Not except for the kind of sour-hearted laughter one uses to deflect questions one doesn't want to answer, anyways. But this is true, honest laughter of happiness. "Ayana-chan, some of us like to taste our food. Enjoy it. Savor it. Because we are not fox-shaped black holes."
"I'm sure you can though. And you've been very helpful in a lot of ways." he says, smiling.
"Right, Fate-chan. That's how these things work. Everyone's scrambling to be on top. But we're gonna be on top. You and Ayana-chan are fast, and I'm smart. So we should have this in the bag. We got the last one, after all."
Ayana's ears fold down just a little at the remonstration, and she tucks her head down and stares at Takashi, eyes wide and mock-sad. But she doesn't say anything; just delivers a sad face that would give Usagi a run for her title as Best Sadfacer Ever.
Nom nom green beans. Nom nom rice. Fate's red eyes pass from Ayana to Takashi as the two of them talk. She sees Ayana's face, suddenly glad it's not being aimed at her.
"I'd hope to be pretty fast. I'm sacrificing endurance and power for that speed."
Her attention is mostly on the other two as she chews her food. Is Takashi going to give in and open his presents? How long can Ayana hold that sadface?
Takashi holds out until his own steak is gone (having eaten everything in more equal portions) but THAT FACE. He does manage to turn to Fate as he leans over and grabs one of the presents, and begins to open it.
"Yeah, I could probably go a little faster, but I'd be less resistant to damage, and for some reason, I seem to draw a lot of aggressive responses." he says, as he finds the end of the paper and begins to open the box carefully.
The box Takashi picks is well wrapped in dark black, silver, and blue paper--just like most (but not all) of the presents on the table. It is about the size of a laptop, although its contents don't make much noise as he moves it around.
Ayana perks up excitedly, and her tails start to wag. "Oh, this is a good one," she promises as he opens it up to reveal a stuffed teddy bear with pink hair, in a pink dress, with pink eyes. There are a pair of red ribbons holdings its short hair up in bows, and the label from the Build-a-Bear shop names it Teddyoka!
Fate finishes off her food, hunting down and eliminating any stragglers. She watches as the Teddyoka is unwrapped. There's a pink girl that Takashi actually likes? So much for Fate being able to form a simple anti-pink prejudice.
Takashi opens it, and his eyebrow raises VERY SLOWLY as he looks up from the bear. "You... got me a teddy bear... of my ex-girlfriend?" he asks, perplexed through and through.
THEN he remembers that he never told Ayana they broke up, and he looks down and he looks very sad, and he heaves a heavy sigh, and that sigh sounds like it's got the cumulative weight of dozens of bad decisions. "I really don't talk to you enough about what's going on with me, do I." he says quietly. "Well... it's a new year today, I promise I will do better from now on. I'm not going to forget how important you are to me."
Then he holds her up. "It's really very cute either way though." he says, making sure Fate gets a look... maybe he should get Fate a Teddyashi for when he's not around. Ayana too? "Do you like stuffed animals, Fate-chan? Your room here seems so bare. You know you make lots of money, right?" he asks, before reaching over to grab the smallest package of the set.
Ayana's excited expression literally fractures at the word 'Ex-Girlfriend'. "E..ex?" she repeats the word, then sinks a little in her seat. "I didn't know," she squeaks out. "I'm sorry, Taka-kun," she mumbles, reaching for the stuffed bear as if to take it form his sight. Probably to throw it away.
Meanwhile, the second, smaller box feels hefty in weight, as if it carried jewelry or a fancy watch. Indeed on opening it, it proves to be jewelry. A pair of brilliant silver cufflinks with blue and purple stones set in butterfly-wings. They're tiny, yet so intricate and delicate they are clearly expensive. Those wings look an awful lot like the ones Ayana insisted for her dress at the winter dance Takashi made her attend.
More importantly, however, are the small slots where larger gems should make up the body of the butterflies on each cufflink. They look perfectly sized for a pair of small black retriever gems, and indeed there are two of those gems (empty!) sitting beside the cuff links.
"I don't have a lot of time to play around." Fate's explaination is a little quiet.
After a pause, looking at the ex-girlfriend teddy, she says, "... but I kindof like them." No one who owns a familiar like Arf can really claim to not like soft fluffy cuddly things.
Her eyes go towards the cufflinks as they're unveiled. She knows the size and shape of that slot. She smiles, even snickers, at the implications. She's forming a mental image of Riventon with Retriever cufflinks in her head.
Takashi looks at Ayana - and he snags it before she can toss it away. "No, it was still a very thoughtful gift. It'll remind me as much of you and how much YOU cared as anything else, so don't worry."
Takashi opens the box and is pretty blatantly amazed at the effort that went into this one, as well. Not from the standpoint of expense, but getting them sized as retriver-holding is amazing to him. He grins. It's both joy and a little wickedness in his grin. "See? You know me so well, Ayana-chan."
He turns to Fate though, rapidly. "You should find a little time to relax, Fate. It makes you more effective than burning yourself out all the time. You can't run at full speed all the time, you just burn yourself out. Breaks are important. I'm going to get you a video game or something."
He reaches over and grabs Fate's gift next.
Ayana perks up again when Takashi praises the cufflinks, then turns to nod at Fate happily. "We should play together," she suggests to Fate. "You and me and Arf. I bet Arf would love to play. We could go play fetch, or catch, or just go for runs, swing on swings. Um." What else has she seen girls Fate's age doing? "Oh video games. We should go back to the arcade!"
A video game? Fate wonders. Will that actually help? Maybe she is pushing herself too hard. Though the last time she played video games she didn't really find them all that difficult. Then again it was a dancing game based upon her physical speed. She can't help but feel that maybe she's missing the point. "Um... well okay. We could go back there."
Fate's gift is... maybe not quite as painstakingly thought out as Ayana's, but it it's certainly something that she thought he might want. It's a sampler pack of about 20 different various flavers of coffee. There's some standard flavors like 'French Vanilla' and 'Pumpkin Spice', and a few more outlandish ones like 'Chocolate Raspberry'.
"You seem to like caffeine so..." she explains. She doesn't remember if Takashi drinks coffee but it seems like his kind of drink.
"Well, I was thinking something that'd challenge your hand-eye coordination. Then it's fun, but you can also put it back into work fighting because your mind will work quicker when you're directing shots." He says, as he's opening Fate's gift.
Takashi's eyes pretty much sparkle and shine at Fate's gift, and he rummages through the with a grin that is steadily whining. "Thank you so much, Fate-chan!" he says. Then he gets quiet. "You girls know I've never really had a birthday with gifts. So this is really, really nice. And I appreciate it a lot."
He actually gets up from his chair to hug Fate, then Ayana. "You're both awesome." he says, grabbing the smaller of the two remaining presents.
"I know," Ayana tells Takashi happily, leaning forward on the table with excitement. "That's why I wanted everything to be perfect. You've never had a good birthday, but this year had to be different. This year you've got me, and it's my job to make sure you are taken care of, Taka-kun. So .." she trails off, then blushes a little. "Well so I wanted you to know that I'm going to take care of you, as long as you want me to."
Uncharacteristically loving and giving for a heartless, and yet perhaps he won't notice. After all, the whole point was so she could serve him better. Right?
The gift, though, seems to have Ayana excited. She leans forward and puts her arms on the table, all three tails wagging, ears swiveled towards Takashi and the present he's about to open.
It's a simple thing, this one. Inside is a slender, woven black leash, long enough for Takashi and whatever canid he keeps at the end of it to be no further than a meter apart. The perfect leash, in fact, for taking a certain little black fox for walks in her recently acquired black collar.
Fate tilts her head, her twintails flopping as she does. Hand eye coordination? "Well, if it'll help me in combat, then I don't see why not." Then it's like training, right? It's not a waste of time if she does it like that.
Then Fate wears a tiny smile at Takashi's reaction. She was a little nervous at first, but it seems he likes it? Yay! "You're welcome. I'm glad you like it."
She opens her mouth to respond to the birthday comment, but she looks away. No, she doesn't want to think about that. Instead she's looking at the next gift. A leash? To go with the collar?
Fate seems a little sheepish. Well, that's two gifts she's given recently that have worked out.
Takashi smiles. "Everything's perfect, Ayana-chan." he says, reaching over and scritching behind her ears before ruffling her hair. "You do such a good job taking care of me, that I think sometimes it's easy for me to forget how much I count on you."
He holds up the leash and grins a bit. "And here, I've been trying to let you be on a shorter leash lately." he says, laughing a little bit at his own joke. "It's very nice though. We should go on more walks, too. Black foxes are cute, it would probably help me find another girlfriend."
To Fate. "Of course I like it. Coffee is the black blood of the gods themselves!" he says, making a dramatic hand sweep that causes the leash to clang against a cup which he narrowly catches from knocking over. It's clear he's enjoying himself here.
"But no, all of this is so wonderful. Now you two have to show up at my next birthday though or I'm going to be really upset." he says, grabbing the last box.
Ayana's entire face goes slack at the sudden petting to her ears. Just that simple touch is all it takes to send her into happiness overdrive. It's not just that she's getting her ears petted, it's that Takashi is petting her ears; a sensation she doesn't get nearly often enough in the Familiar's estimation.
"Don't worry," Ayana promises Takashi. "I will be at your next birthday, and every birthday you have, for as long as you keep me. I promise."
The final gift seems to be much more than a simple item. there's a red shirt on the top, folded but fancy looking, on a brown vest and matching pants. But all of that is over a brown duster and white cuffs. An impressively fancy outfit, if a little outside of Takashi's usual style.
Fate stares in amazement. The black blood of the gods themselves? Do gods have black blood? Well Takashi is smart so he must be right.
Fate watches as the last present is opened. A suit? Fancy. Fate should probably attend more balls just so she knows what the big deal is.
"For as long as I keep you?" he asks with a grin. "I thought I went out of my way to keep you." He means by not listening to her desire to be unmade, but she might take it a darker path.
Takashi regards the suit with a degree of curiosity, actually. It takes a moment to garner the kind of responses the other gifts did, but eventually, he decides he likes it. And that smile sneaks back across his face before taking it over wholesale.
"I guess you got tired of me wearing black and blue exclusively?" he asks with a smile to Ayana.
"You know, though. I have a present for you, too." he adds with a slight grin and that tone in his voice that screams to everyone present 'Takashi Is Up To Something'.
Ayana grimaces just a little when she realises she's said something that might cue Takashi into her present state of not-so-heartlessness. She quickly reverts to a smile, though, as he takes his time studying the outfit. "It's not that," Ayana says, "I just thought you might like a change of pace now and then. 'A whole new you', just for a day." She shrugs a little, then says, "I'm glad you like it."
But wait, a present for her?" Ayana tilts her head at that idea, then leans forward curiously. "What is it?" she asks excitedly.
Something for Ayana? Fate's very curious right now. She doesn't really have much to add to the conversation, though she occasionally looks down at her tiny kicking feet as she recognizes some of the undertones.
She still doesn't know what the 'right answer' is for Ayana's particular situation.
Takashi smiles. "If I can figure out which me is the actual me..." then he shakes his head, like he's said something even he doesn't want to deal with.
He's getting very good at compartmentalizing.
"It's very nice, Ayana-chan. It still speaks to my style!" he adds with a grin.
Then he looks to Fate-chan. "It's actually kind of a present for you, too." he says, getting up. "As of tomorrow, this room will be yours, Fate. Because I've decided I need a house in case any of my classmates or other people wonder where I live. So since you have Arf, you'll get this bigger room. Tomorrow morning, they're going to set up a new Door that'll take us to a house in Mitakihara." he says, looking to Ayana. "I think you're going to love it. Big kitchen. Big pantry. Big TV."
Ayana's eyes go extremely wide at the explanation. "A house," she squeals. "A whole big whole house that I can dance and play and run and watch TV in!?" She is literally bouncing in her chair, as if trying desperately to hold herself from going orbital, and only succeeding through some sort of locking clamp.
Okay, so maybe she doesn't actually succeed, because sudenly the kitsune springs out of her chair and pounces at Takashi, feet fully off the ground as she wraps her arms around his neck. (They'd have to be, given his height.) "Oh my gosh a house a house we get a house! Can I live in it even when you have people over? Will you introduce me as your little sister? CAN I COOK FOR YOUR FRIENDS?!"
"Huh? This room?" asks Fate. Her head turns as she takes in the space here. Sure the stuff will be moved out, but she has her own stuff to move in. It only makes sense that this would go to someone else if Takashi were to move out.
With a bright smile, she bows (in her chair), twintails flopping about as she moves her head. "Thank you, Taka-sama, and congratulations on getting a house!" A house is a really big deal in Japan, right? Fate's been around long enough to at least understand that much.
Whatever else she has to say is forgotten after Ayana's reaction. Little sister? If Ayana is talking like that, then Fate can only think that she intends to stay around for a while. That's a good thing, right? For both of them?
Fate smiles as she watches the two of them.
It's good to see them getting along. A happy familiar is a good sign.
Takashi laughs. "I'd have to get friends worth cooking for first." he adds. "I have subtantially more enemies than friends." Takashi puts a finger to his lips. "And I think if I invited Ami-chan over to my house she would take that the wrong way."
"Of course. You could stay with me, but you'd have your own room, too. Your own stuff. You could decorate it and such. You know I'm bad at that kinda thing."
"I'd consider moving us all to a house but I think people would get kinda suspicious because you and Helix-chan would never leave, Fate-chan. Then I'd get government inspectors and it'd be a whole thing. Plus you two don't really need cover stories."
"And like I said, with Arf I'm sure you need your own space here."
"One of the closet doors in the house will still open here, so we can bounce in and out. I still won't be that far from work."
Ayana squeezes Takashi tight. "You're the best master ever," Ayana assures Takashi. Yes, she's definitely going to have to get Hannah to help her talk to him; to help her show him how much better she is this way, rather than the selfish mindless monster he 'accidentally' created a few months ago. Surely it was an accident. Surely he hadn't meant her to be that way. Maybe he will forgive her; it's not a betrayal, if she actively just wants to help him. Right?
It would be very very terrible for Takashi if some people from the government started asking questions. Fate knows that better than Takashi does. She's very quiet at the thought of that, looking off to the side at a wall and making very sure to make eye contact with absolutely no one.
The bad news is that having her hair up in twintails means that she can't really hide her horrified expression from either of them.
"It would be best for all of us if that never happened. I agree."
She doesn't really respond to the rest of that. Her train of thought is derailed.
Takashi ruffles Ayana's hair. "I know. I'm sorry I've been so busy. But because I have, I was able to push for this. Getting a Door linked in a civilian house is pretty nonstandard. I've been working hard, but it was for us."
"Don't worry, Fate-chan. Worst case I'd blast em." he says, with another dramatic motion that does not send anything flying.
"But seriously, thank you both. Today was one of the best days I've ever had."
Ayana kisses Takashi's cheek, dangling toes scrunching excitedly. Finally she lets him go and slides back down to the floor, then bounds off to the table to begin collecting plates and dishes so she can clean up. "Oh my gosh we're moooving we're moooving," she says happily. "Yay." Even Fate gets a hug as the kitsune passes by, before bounding off to clean up the mess she made in the kitchen.