My Dearest Tanuki

What Are We?

It had been nearly a month after Redd's first arrival and his relationship with everyone on the island has improved quite a bit, especially his relationship with Tom.

Sometimes he thought back on the day where the tanuki didn't even want to hear his name, but now he held him while his head rested on Redd's chest. It had been a long day for the both of them. They were both quite busy throughout the day and worked themselves to the bone, so Redd decided to take a moment to relax at the beachsides. With Tom curled up in his lap, Redd rested his chin gently on the top of his head as his hand slowly rubbed up and down Tom's back.

It was quiet. All you could hear were the waves splashing and Tom's quiet little sighs here and there. "Don't fall asleep on me now.." Redd mumbled with a chuckle.

"Mm.." Tom simply let out just to imply that he was still awake.

If Redd was being honest, he wasn't quite sure what the two were to each other. Neither of them asked or made it official that they were either just being flirty or dating. Although, having relations with each other on the counter that one time would be a weird thing to do with someone you weren't dating.

Redd wanted to ask, but he felt like Tom would get upset if he did. "It's kinda late, yeh?" Redd whispered as he stood up with Tom in his arms. He moved his free hand down to Tom's bottom for support. "I should probably get you home."

Tom didn't want to leave since he find such peace listening to the waves under the starry nights, but it was late and he had to work in the morning. His arms slithered around Redd's neck, one hand gently scratching at his cheek fluff and the other one just resting behind Redd. He knew Redd liked little scratches close to his jawline under all the fluff on the sides of his face. "I don't want to.." Tom mumbled finally.

Redd chuckled, "You need to though. You'll be drained in the morning.."

Tom huffed.

"..Do..you want me to stay with you?" Redd asked, hoping maybe that would convince him to go home.

The tanuki just slowly nodded and stuffed his face into the crook of Redd's neck.

Tom was carried all the way back to his home, where the twins were already asleep and Redd gently lied him down onto his bed. "Your house is massive, y'know." Redd mentioned, " 'Specially for just three people."

"Sometimes four.." Tom whispered, pointing a finger up to him.

A faint shade of red flushed across his cheeks. "..Right." He chuckled shyly then walked over to the other side of the bed. He lied down next to Tom with his arms rested behind his head and Tom snuggled up to his chest. "Still pretty big though."

"I treat myself to a big house. Makes me feel better since my old house was so much smaller." Tom explained in a quiet, sleepy mumble.

Redd carefully moved his right arm to drape it around Tom and rest his hand on Tom's hip. "You deserve it." Redd started, "You've worked so hard to get where you are and you're still working hard to get even better. What's your end goal here?"

Tom shrugged. "I suppose it's to just live a nice life and leaving the business successful for the twins to take over."

"Ah, so you do plan to give to 'em." Redd hummed. He sort of already knew that.

Tom nodded, "They're very hard-working. I think they'll do great carrying on the business. I care about them a lot..I care about you a lot." He added truthfully.

Redd hadn't heard that from Tom in a while and to hear it again made his heart flutter. He loved him so much and to just hear him say that again brought him back to the years they happily spent together.

"That brings me to somethin' .." Redd started then turned his head to look at Tom. The poor little tanuki was all curled and snuggled up and looked like he could pass out at any minute. Despite the exhaustion, Tom still wanted to talk to him, to hear his voice.

"What..are we?" Redd asked hesitantly. He was nervous to ask that question. What if Tom got upset? What if he wasn't ready yet? What if..What if..What if.

Redd never realized how much he worried about everything.

Since Tom was so tired, his mind wasn't exactly in the right place. In fact, as Redd spoke all he was thinking about was how a bird would be able to eat pasta. "..Animals?" Tom mumbled in response. That gained a laugh from Redd. "No, silly."

God he sounded like Rosie. Redd shivered to that thought.

"I mean like, what are..we?" Redd asked again. "I don't mean to make you think about it, especially now, but it's killing me wondering. We spend so much time together and do so much together and we're always being so flirty, but I can't tell if it's a joke." Redd rambled on. Once he started, it was hard for him to stop.

Tom lifted his head just enough to look up at Redd, and he finally understood. "Do you think it's a joke?" Tom asked. That struck fear in Redd because he felt like it was a trick question.

As much as his mind loved to trick him..
"I don't." He answered.

Tom smiled, as if that was the answer, then rested his head back down. "I don't either." He responded at first, slowly wrapping his tail around Redd's.

Redd sighed in relief to his response. He was starting to feel much better about the whole mess.

"I figured you would have guessed that from our little playdate.." Tom teased with a stiffled chuckle. Redd felt his face begin to burn, he felt a wave of embarrassment and fluster fun through him. "So, does what mean we're..?" Redd trailed off.

"I'd like that." Tom whispered dreamily with his head snuggled back against Redd and his eyes closed. A big smile crept onto Redd's face and he couldn't help the wagging of his tail, which made Tom's fall back against the bed since it was wrapped around it. The kitsune got so excited and overwhelmed about it that he had a short sneeze fit of little sneezes, which was normal for kitsune when they got too excited.

Aware of that, Tom couldn't help laughter. "Bless you." He teased with one eye open to peek up at him.

"Hush." Redd snapped back with a grin before he wrapped his other arm around Tom as well so he could hold him even closer. Calming himself, Redd carefully wrapped their tails around each other again. He slouched down a bit to kiss to Tom's forehead. He wanted to go for his lips, but the Tanuki had his face buried. "I love you." Redd whispered through his grin.

Tom sensed that Redd would have trouble sleeping now since he was too excited, so he finally moved his face out of Redd's neck so he could look at him. Moving an arm up, Tom extended his pinkie paw and pressed it between Redd's eyes before he slowly and gently dragged it down and to the end of his snout, which he then brought it back up to between his eyes and repeated it. It was a trick he often used on the twins as well to get them to sleep when they didn't want to. "I love you too..now shhh." Tom whispered back as he continued and eventually started to softly hum.

"What are you-?" Redd started to ask, but it didn't take long for him to start feeling drowsy.

"Shhh.." Tom shushed again and kept doing it until Redd fell silent. He stopped once he heard Redd's usual little snores then he pressed a small kiss to Redd's cheek and snuggled back up to him. "Works every time.." Tom mumbled to himself before closing his eyes, slowly drifting off to sleep.

Even though he would have to wake up in 4 hours.