The Fox Husband

Scar opened his eyes, his vision bleary. Sleep was calling for him to come back and dream and it was tempting, considering he had his dear cat Jellie by his side and a warm quilt over him.
Yet still he rubbed his eyes and yawned as he got up and out of bed, he was tired, but he had work he'd regret not doing now if he went back to sleep.
Scar dragged himself to his dresser, yawning one more time as he put on a clean pair of clothes, just a plain button up shirt and jeans, he threw his pajamas onto the rather large Dirty Laundry Monster and realized he'd need to take care of the laundry today too.
Scar groaned, he hated laundry. Folding the clothes was always so tedious.

As the man made his way downstairs he made note of the other household chores he'd need to do, so far it was laundry, dishes, and to sweep and scrub the floor.
But as Scar put on his jacket and boots he added 'wash the welcome mat' onto his mental list of chores. It was still covered in mud and muck from his boots, Scar had hoped the recent rain would wash it out, but he'd forgotten to hang it off the porch railing.
He sighed and grabbed his axe, but as Scar walked out into the great spruce forest he had a look of determination.
It was just a little work after he finished grinding. That's all.
-
Grian watched as the object of his affections walked into the woods to work.
The fox silently snickered at Scar, the man had forgotten his hat today. His hair looked like a wild berry bush.
He grinned, trotting up to Scar's house. He hardly made any sound as he did so, and stopped at the door to look at the welcome mat.
Tsk tsk tsk, the mat was all dirty and covered in mud.
Grian quickly removed his fur coat and walked in wondering what other things his dear Scar had forgotten.
Looking around all Grian could see that needed to be done in this room was that dishes and floor needed to be cleaned.
He smiled fondly and shook his head, silly Scar, his house was hardly presentable.
"What would he do without me?" Grian thought as he hung up his coat, next to Scar's hat, and set out to do the chores.
-
It was around evening that Scar finally returned home, he unloaded the logs he'd collected onto the firewood rack.
He cracked his back as he made his way to the front door, but paused before he entered.
The welcome mat was clean.
"How odd" Scar thought to himself, he didn't remember cleaning it this morning, and he knew he hadn't left it out to wash in the rain.
He straightened himself out as he entered the house, slipping off his shoes and scanning the area.
Nothing out of the ordinary, atleast at first. After Scar got a good look at the room he noticed the floor had been swept and scrubbed, surprisingly thoroughly, and the dishes had been washed, dried, and put away he found after checking the cabinets.
He bit his lip, "hello?" He called out.
No response.
Wearily Scar headed upstairs, peeking around the corner. It looked like no one was in his room, other than Jellie of course.
Scar let out a relieved sigh, at least Jellie was alright.
Walking in and sitting down onto his bed, Scar started to pet Jellie idley ready to relax before he went to bed for the night.
Wait..
Has-
Has someone done his laundry??
Scar shot up from his bed and threw open his dresser drawers and checked the closet. A great portion of his clothes had been washed and folded.
He glanced down at the rest of the laundry that was still dirty, it had been moved from the floor into what had been a previously full hamper.
Scar shifted from foot to foot as he decided to check the house again.
No one.
Had someone done all his chores while he was away? But he was so far from anyone, it couldn't have been Cub or Bdubs either, they were at least seven hours away. And they both worked! so even if they did come to clean for whatever reason Scar would've caught them!
He sighed and ran a hand through his hair.
Maybe he'd take a nice shower before bed, to clear his head.
But as Scar entered the bathroom his eyes widened, the tub had been filled with warm water and a clean towel was placed on the toilet seat.

"AM I GOING INSANE?!"

-

It was a day or two since the whole chores being done business, and in that time the rest of Scar's laundry had been done. And not only that, the rugs had been washed and the house dusted.
Scar sat with his head in his hands. Was he being haunted by a meticulous ghost!?
He was about ready to call Cub for help before an idea struck him.
He'd just wait to see who was cleaning his house!
Scar smiled to himself as he went to make himself lunch.

Before he left to "work" that day, he left out some dirty dishes and had "accidentally" spilled juice all over the table. He had done a terrible job at cleaning it up, too.
So now he was a few feet away from his house, hidden behind some bushes. It had been awhile but Scar was determined to find out who was cleaning his house while he was away, so he was particularly surprised to see a fox pad up from behind a tree rather close to the porch and up the stairs.
What scared him most was that the fox was able to nudge the door open, in the back of his mind he wondered if that was how this mystery stranger was getting in.
Scar quickly followed and ran up to his door and slowly opened it, trying not to startle the curious fox.
"Hey little guy, you shouldn't.. ." Scar trailed off as he saw a young man, around his age, with beautiful sandy blond hair and, if he said so himself, an amazin and remarkably red sweater.
The pretty stranger looked at Scar in shock before it morphed into pleasant surprise.
"Well you're home early! What happened, did you forget something?"
Scar just stood there in the doorway, more than a little starstruck.
"Uh. N- No I'm alright." He stuttered out.
The other man, who had beautiful eyes, Scar noticed, walked up to him "Are you okay, love?" He asked.
Scar nearly choked. LoVE??
That must've worried the stranger more as he led Scar to sit down on the couch, the blonde sitting down as well.
Scar himself was thinking a mile a minute, but out of all his thoughts what he was able to mutter out was "You're amazin.."
The shorter man just laughed a little, it was a beautiful laugh and Scar thought he'd like to hear it more.
"You are too", the other said.
There was a pause, a tad awkward, as Scar started to take everything in. Then Scar started to flounder, he'd forgotten the most important thing!
"Who- Who are you?" He asked, his face turning even redder than before.
The pretty stranger chuckled, "I'm Grian love, your husband."
"HUSBAND!!?"
Scar's eyes nearly popped out of his sockets, when did he get a husband!?
"Scar, Scar love. Please calm down"
A hand rubbed soft circles into his shoulder
"Breathe Scar, in and out"

Scar breathed as told and slowly calmed down. He looked at Grian, their eyes meeting.
"I guess you have some questions, huh?" The other mused.
Scar looked away for a moment before looking back at Grian, "yeah, yeah I do. What I wanna know first is how I scored a husband"
Grian smiled.
"well," He started. "I remember that you had removed your neighbor's traps, I had almost got caught in one you know, but I didn't because I'm far too sneaky." Scar smiled a little at that, it was cute how Grian added in that detail. Grian continued "But you see I had told my friend, Mumbo, about what you had done and he told me I should do you a favor. So I had cleaned your house around the time your neighbor was coming to visit." Cub, Scar remembered. How hadn't he noticed? "And well, I might've hung around to see if I could, um, take something. As payment.." Grian mumbled. "But! I thought that you were really cute the way you talked with your hands! And how you were so hospitable with your friend Cub. And that's a very appreciative trait to have in a friend, so I came back to clean again while you worked and I," Grian paused "well after a few visits I fell in love, I guess." The fox smiled sheepishly looking away for a second "I'll admit I fell in love with Jellie first"
Scar chuckled at that, he didn't blame Grian. Jellie was a true heart stealer.
There was silence as Scar gazed at Grian, the shorter man was blushing and fiddled with the hem of his sweater. "Is.. is this, okay with you-"
"Would you want to date- date me?"
Scar was shocked with himself as he stammered the question out, and so was Grian, it seemed.
But then Grian's face split into a wide smile, a pleasant laugh escaping him
"Yes, I'd love to Scar!"
-
It was a few weeks later, and Scar could say with confidence that he loved this strange yet silly fox man he'd let into his life. Over the weeks he'd known Grian he'd found out that the man was rather mischievous and loved silly jokes just as much as Scar himself. He also loved Jellie as much as he did, it warmed Scar's heart to watch the two play together. But what Scar was starting to notice was his house had started to stink. No matter how many times he'd sprayed air freshener or washed the curtains, even changing the cat litter more than it needed to be changed, the smell didn't go away.
So as Scar sat at the breakfast table, eating some delicious pancakes with blueberries he and Grian had made together, he decided to ask Grian about it.
"Hey, Gri? Have you noticed the place has started to smell?"
There was an offended gasp from across the table and Grian shot up from his seat.
With his face red Grian shouted "How DARE you!"
Scar stuttered for a moment, dropping his fork. "Gri? Grian honey, did I say something wrong?"
That seemed to offend Grian even more as he practically slammed his chair back into place and shouted "Rude! That is my Natural Scent Scar!"
Before Scar could even say anything Grian grabbed his furred coat and stormed out of the house, turned into a fox, and didn't look back.

Later, Scar asked Cub what a fox's natural scent was. All the other man had texted back was "Foxes have scent glands like skunks, do you have a fox problem?"

Scar realized in that moment he'd fucked up.