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Vincent had been worried about his boyfriend’s sleeping habits for the last few days.
He understood when Arthur was writing. Vincent himself had nights when he would paint, no matter the time. Their works had to be done when they were inspired to do so.
In the past week, all the males in the mansion had been reporting strange events, from the others acting strange, to illusions. Vincent was the only one who had never seen anything.
Dazai had roped Arthur into hunting down what he was convinced to be a kitsune. And Arthur was both a good detective and very curious, so he had gone along, which meant long hours into the night hunting.
Vincent tried to help, although their girlfriend, Reina, insisted they were wasting their time.
In the end, she had been right. All of their efforts had been unfruitful. The closest they got to seeing the kitsune was that morning, when Arthur had convinced another of the mansion’s girls, Amy, to help him make some inari sushi as bait but, in the end, the spirit cast an illusion to distract them and stole the food.
That afternoon, they had allowed themselves a break, at least. Vincent was sitting in his bed, with Arthur laying beside him, head on his lap, while Vincent ran his fingers through his boyfriend’s hair.
Arthur looked so relaxed and content, and Vincent was happy to at least support his partner like that. He just wished the peace would last longer.
“Do you want to continue searching?”
“Of course. A detective never gives up until the case is solved. But you don’t have to accompany me if you don’t want to, luv. Rei must be quite lonely by herself.”
Maybe Arthur was right. They had only briefly seen Reina at breakfast, but as soon as Arthur asked about the kitsune she wished them good luck and left them to their hunt. But what Vincent wanted at the moment was more time for the three of them, but Arthur was so determined to solve the mystery of the spirit haunting the mansion.
Vincent couldn’t deny he was curious too, though, so helping Arthur wasn’t just about to spend time with his boyfriend.
Sometimes it was complicated having two partners with different needs. But Vincent wouldn’t trade any of them for a simpler relationship.
“It’s okay. I promised to be your assistant in this case.”
“Thank you, Vincy.” Arthur tugged at his hand and kissed the back of it. “I’ve been thinking about something that happened this morning. Amy was laughing whenever she thought I wasn’t looking. When I asked, she said I was wasting my time, just like Rei. I thought she might be the kitsune.”
“But she wouldn’t have scared Jean that day.”
“True. You are the only one who hasn’t been tricked by her, except for this morning. So I was thinking of Mai, instead.”
Mai was Theo’s girlfriend and was a little too serious to go around pranking people, in Vincent’s opinion, but he could see where his boyfriend’s conclusion came from, except for one thing.
“She wouldn’t have tried to trick Theo, either.”
“Maybe after that argument they had the other day. It was the only time Theo complained about the kitsune. All the other girls know, and they must have some sort of promise not to tell anyone.”
Why? Vincent was about to ask when someone knocked on the door and they had to leave it for later.
A little after Arthur left, Vincent found himself approaching the window to observe the garden, still thinking about the interrupted conversation.
Arthur never said things he didn’t have a good base logic to support, and he was good at catching details most people would miss. Vincent had to agree that the kitsune being someone in the house made sense. Or the other theory Arthur had before, that it had followed the girls through the door. What didn’t make sense was for it to take so long to manifest.
Observing the garden, he saw Amy working there. As if noticing him, she spun around and looked up, waving with a smile as she saw him. He waved back, and she laughed before returning to watering the plants.
Then Vincent saw Jean entering the garden, but his attention didn’t fall on his girlfriend, and he looked surprised and confused. Vincent followed the man’s gaze, to see another Amy on the other side of the garden, who winked at Jean.
The first Amy, which Vincent was convinced was the real one, finished her job and looked at her boyfriend, then at her double. She only frowned and marched to where Jean was, practically dragging her boyfriend away.
The fake Amy pouted as she watched them leave, shaking her head, before transforming into Reina.
But she couldn’t be the real Reina, either. She might have noticed he was watching and was teasing him.
Then she looked surprised at whatever she was staring at and looked up to see him. She jumped in surprise and dashed away.
Arthur was right. The kitsune lived in the mansion, hiding in plain sight. But, unless he got an undeniable lead, Arthur would investigate every other girl in the house before ever suspecting his own girlfriend.
Vincent himself was stunned for a moment. Why would their girlfriend be hiding from them? And why would she take so long to even use her powers?
Maybe Arthur was also right and all the girls agreed to hide it for a reason. She wouldn’t hide it just to mess with Arthur and the other guys.
Both the possibility of Reina being afraid to trust them with her secret, or of her and probably Amy hiding it for their safety worried Vincent. He loved her and wanted her safe, but he couldn’t help when she hid from him.
Now that she knew he saw her, maybe they could talk about it. But when he went looking, he couldn’t find her anywhere.
Only when he returned to his room later was that he found Reina sitting on his bed.
Although he knew it was his girlfriend, she looked more like a female version of Arthur. The more he looked over, the more he could see traits of both of his lovers in her, blended together in a curious harmony.
“Rei? Why do you look like that?”
She laughed, voice sounding like her own, and stood up to approach him.
“Hi, prince. Just a little surprise. And kind of showing off my powers since you found out. Did I do a good job?”
Vincent blushed when she wrapped her arms around his neck, smiling quite seductively at him from very close, but he touched her cheek.
“You look perfect, but I would rather have my beautiful girlfriend back and my boyfriend actually here.” He chuckled, smiling at her.
He wanted to ask about the whole kitsune thing, but assumed she would only talk when Arthur found her out and she could explain things to both of them at once.
“Really? What about after Arthur comes back? Should we wait in his room?”
Vincent could practically hear the hidden suggestion in her words, and it was rare for Reina to be so forward with these things. He was tempted to just accept it.
“Like this?” It was the only thing that made him hesitate.
“Only if you’re comfortable with it, of course, but I did have something in mind while we wait. Or we could go meet Arthur, but I would rather not see Amy again today.”
“She got angry because of what I saw early?”
“She’s been more protective this week than usual, and I realized a little too late. It has been a hectic week. I missed spending quality time with you and Arthur.”
Vincent didn’t resist when his girlfriend kissed him, despite her not returning to her true form. He had missed Reina too and would totally indulge her if it made her happy.
Arthur never imagined this ending for the great mystery that he’d been trying to solve the past week. He didn’t feel like sharing his findings with anyone but his boyfriend, either. It would be fun to see the others trying to figure it out themselves.
Although he might just tell Comte, who had ‘hired’ him for this, and Vincent would likely tell Theo. But it would be fun to just tell Dazai he had solved the case and not what he found out.
It had been quite the chase. A nice challenging game. Maybe because his personal interpretation of the clues got in the way of what could have been a simple solution otherwise? Arthur didn’t know, and it didn’t matter.
He had figured it out in the end. Of course he did. Now all that was left was the why it happened. Was it just a game? Because he hadn’t been able to find a cause.
But he had decided to simply ask that from Reina. He had figured her out, and she owed him an explanation. And maybe some other sort of prize, especially if it was really just a game on her part.
First he would talk to Vincent, then the two could talk to Reina together.
But Arthur couldn’t find Vincent anywhere in the mansion at first. He found him in the last place he expected, his own room, with a woman that looked like him.
He immediately knew what was happening, and it was such a cheap trick that no one would have fallen for it, but Reina had just come out and told Vincent everything?
“Having fun in my room without me?” He teased. “And they say I am the naughty one.”
Reina laughed and Vincent just smiled at him, gesturing for him to join them.
“We were waiting for you.” Vincent told Arthur.
“I was just showing Vincent something I can do. I don’t think you would have liked this one, anyway.”
With someone who looked like him, even if Arthur knew it was his girlfriend? Likely not.
“Why don’t you turn back and show me something different then, luv?”
As if she was just waiting for him to ask, Reina shifted to sit on the bed. The details of her transformation that Arthur got a glimpse of were surprising. Would be fun if she could do that without looking like him.
Vincent also sat up, and Arthur stood by the other side of the bed.
When she turned back to the form they were used to, it wasn’t without showing the traits of her true nature. The pairs of ears and tails had fur the same color as her hair, unlike the depictions of kitsunes in old tales they had been told. Reina stared down and bit her lip.
Arthur ruffled her hair and sat on her other side, while Vincent caressed her cheek and ran his thumb over her lips until she stopped biting it.
“Why were you hiding from us, luv?”
By the way she was acting, Reina wasn’t doing it just for fun.
“When the girls and I were younger, someone sealed our powers and memories because of an accident I barely remember. I only recovered them about a week ago and Amy wanted to figure out why, first. And…” Reina sighed, her ears dropping. “I wasn’t sure how you would react. When we met, you thought I was human, but now… I wasn’t sure how things would change.”
“Nothing will change, Rei.” Vincent hugged her closer. “Neither of us fell in love with you just because you were human. You are the one who taught us how to love again, after all.”
Maybe that would change their relationship, but they could only grow closer from facing these changes.
“You are perfect the way you are. Still our beautiful girl.” Arthur kissed her cheek. “Beautiful and naughty. You had me running in circles for a week and Vincy quite worried.”
“Sorry. It was an accident at first, but I thought it was fun. Although you were never a target, just happened to be in the wrong place. So I found it interesting to see if you could catch me.”
“And I did. What do I get for it?”
Reina laughed.
“Actually, Vincent found me first. It was carelessness on my part, but he is the one with rights to the prize.”
“I don’t mind letting Arthur choose.” Vincent told her. “I just want to spend more time with my partners.”
Smiling, Reina warped one arm around each of her boyfriends’ shoulders and a tail around their middle.
“Both worked hard, and you both accepted me, so I should reward both of you, then, right? I’ll make up for this last week.”
They still had many questions, but getting these answers could wait. The moment felt like a long waited reunion, like they hadn’t seen each other all week instead of just having separate schedules. For now, they only wanted a little of each other’s time.