Tofu. [ Xiao ]

𝐂𝐡𝐚𝐩𝐭𝐞𝐫 𝐎𝐧𝐞: 𝐦𝐞𝐞𝐭𝐢𝐧𝐠 𝐚 𝐟𝐨𝐱

Xiao decided that today, he would eat his almond tofu outside. Now, he never really enjoys eating outside, considering he is still on duty as a yaksha. Usually he takes his plate of almond tofu onto the balcony of Wangshu Inn.

However, the weather today was quite pleasant and he was in a good mood. There weren't many demon-possessed creatures wondering around, and luckily no one had called his name. Teleporting was an ability he could use if his name was beckoned, however, nowadays it was becoming a slight pain with the karma he held within him.

Xiao took a deep breath, sitting down on the grass a bit of ways of the Inn he resides in. His plate of tofu sitting on a flat rock next to him, alongside a cup of tea with a mint leaf floating around inside.

Relaxation was one thing that the adeptus rarely had, and whenever he got it, he made sure to savor every second of it.

However, today was not going to be as relaxing as he thought. Without noticing, a cream colored fox poked its head out of the bush it hid in.

They sniffed around, eyes locking onto the plate of fresh almond tofu. A delicacy to this unique creature.

It creeped out, lowering its body to the ground, ears pinned back in concentration. Completely focused on stealing the almond tofu.

The fox froze momentarily as Xiao took one of the cubes of tofu before turning away to admire the setting sun.

It's paws carefully stepped past blades of grass, watching its footing. They didn't want to step on a leaf and give away their position by the loud crunch.

Eventually, the fox made it to the plate. It cautiously picked up as many cubes of the tofu as it could, however, one cube fell out of his jaws and splattered on the sauce that covered the bottom of the plate.

The splat caught Xiao's attention, and as he turned his head he was completely appalled. A fox, of all things, was stealing his precious almond tofu?!

The two beings stared at one another, almost like a game. Whoever were to make the first move, which just so happened to be the small fox.

It made a dash to the bushes, however they heard a loud voice close behind them.

"Evil Conquering!"

A loud screech was heard throughout the field, and soon enough the fox was in Xiao's hands. It looked dejected, but Xiao had a small soft spot for animals.

It clearly was young, but it's fur was matted and dirty. The only clear part of the fox was the head, even though it's muzzle had mud all over it. One eye seemed to be closed shut by eye boogers and dirt.

It's tail, seemed to be encased in mud, quite a lot if it looked that large. The bottom of its paws looked torn up, and they were awfully skinny.

"You must be a runt." Xiao sighed, holding the fox under his arm. "I'll clean you, but then I'm throwing you back out. Don't ever touch my almond tofu again, you brat."

The fox slumped down, stomach growling as they were carried away.

❖

The fox jumped around, trying to escape the sink full of water.

Xiao gritted his teeth, snatching up the fox once again. This had been happening a lot, and it seemed like the fox was terrified of the water, but he needed to get the mud and matted fur off.

He may be a cruel and cold hearted person, but he wasn't that cruel to leave an animal—that's in the state like this one— alone.

Xiao once helped a bird with a broken wing, he always releases the animal after it's been helped. Since this one had already pissed him off, he planned to put it back out after cleaning it and maybe hope for its survival.

"Would you just stand still?!" He yelled, glaring at the fox.

It slumped down again, curling its tail between its legs.

Xiao sighed, shaking his head and set the fox down on the towel beside the sink. He examined the sink, considering it was small due to the inn only using it to wash a few dishes.

He hummed to himself shortly, grabbing a wooden bucket after he cleaned out the sink. Filling it up with water, he wrapped the soaking wet fox in the towel it stood on before going to the back of the inn.

Gently, he set the fox down on the gravel. "Alright, let's try this shit again."

The fox stared up at him curiously, glancing towards the bucket, soap, sponge, and brush that he set beside him.

It shook its body, shaking off the water that coated its dirty fur. This action made xiao scowl, but ignored it as it was an animal instinct.

Xiao pulled the bucket closer to him, pouring some of the warmed water onto the back of the fox.

It shivered at the sudden warmth, but stayed still this time. The yaksha assumed that it didn't like to be inside a closed space.

Soon enough, Xiao got all the mud off of it, and sat down. He stared down at the fox, and noticed something unusual.

Xiao may not have noticed it while cleaning the mud of the fox, and in the moment he thought it was just matted fur or loose hair, or even just more mud.

The tail was much larger than average. It's eyes were a caramel color, one that reminded him of almonds.

It's fur was a white-cream color, and it had brown spots on the forehead, nose, tuffs on the ears, and the ends of the tail. The brown on the ends of the tail was a lot paler of a color.

Xiao smiled—more like his lips twitched up because this man doesn't know how to smile—as the unique fox stretched and waved its tails around with joy.

It turned, looking up at him before tilting its head. Suddenly, it lunged onto him and curled up in his lap.

Despite Xiao getting more annoyed, since now his clothes were drenched, he took the opportunity to brush out its fur.

It was as soft as silk, but it had plenty of knots, and around the legs were matted. Xiao made sure to be gentle, and careful when getting the knots out. He wouldn't want the fox to bite him, especially since it's teeth looked sharper than a normal fox.

He may be an adepti, but he was not risking the chance of getting rabies, even though this fox showed no acts of being sick or infected by the disease.

The fox purred, rolling over onto their back, stretching its front paws out. It seemed relaxed in the care of Xiao, especially since it was wild, and xiao was not a very kind person.

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Unedited

BONUS:
Xiao was tempted to dump the entire bucket of water onto the fox, considering it stole his almond tofu and kept getting him wet.