Monday morning announced itself with a splitting headache and a sensitivity to sound that was not at all helped by Laura's superhuman hearing. As she came to, the Kitsune realized that she had passed out on her floor, her tails her only blanket.
Rising from the hard, wooden floor, her ears flicked angrily towards Takeko snoring on her bed. After she pulled a blanket over the smaller spirit in an attempt to reduce the noise, she tried to hide her ears and tails with her magic. Sadly this morning her concentration was not up to the task, as she could barely create the illusion before her hangover forced her to drop it again.
"Great, just great" Laura muttered, wincing a bit at the discomfort the sound of her own voice caused. With her tails smacking against her desk and closet, Laura paced through the little free space in her room, trying to think of something to do now, as she could really not afford to miss classes now that they were starting in earnest.
In the end she settled on trying to pass it all of as a test for a cosplay of a fox or kitsune character of some kind. Pulling out a clean yukata and putting it on, the German student braided her hair before making her way for morning classes, leaving her longsword leaning against her desk for once.
Spending the day sitting as far back as she could, Laura managed to not disrupt classes over the course of the day, as well as keeping her ears stiff enough to not arouse suspicions. Even so she attracted smaller crowds between classes, to take pictures or just compliment her on how real it all looked.
Some of the professors didn't seem to notice or care, others complimented her on the craftswomanship of the costume, while the rest told her to not come in costume unannounced again.
In the end she managed to get through the morning with little issue, and after what felt quite a bit longer than just a couple hours thanks to the slowly diminishing hangover, the Kitsune made her way to the cafeteria for lunch.
After grabbing a bowl of Ramen, Laura made her way towards the area Daiki, Gabe and herself had sat each day. Spotting the Japanese student, and immediately noticing the worry on his face as he noticed her ears, eyes and tails, She had to try hard to keep her ears from folding down on themselves as she hurried over, tails hanging down trying to imitate simple props.
That is until she slipped on something lying on the ground a few meters from her destination, the tails flicking out on instinct to keep her from losing her balance and falling to the ground.
Of course this drew a large crowd curious how these 'fake' tails had moved so naturally. Stammering as her hurting brain struggled to come up with an explanation, Daiki came walking up, his laptop in hand.
"So sorry for that Laura, I hope the sound movement wasn't to unbalancing." He inquired with a decent enough fake of concern on his face, if it was faked in the first place.
"Ah no, I could catch myself before falling down." Laura replied, hoping she was right about what Diaki was trying to do she continued. "Mind letting them down again though?"
As he typed on his laptop, the Kitsune slowly returned the tails back to their limb position before the two made their way to their table, Gabe simply telling everyone "Nothing to see here, just a bug left to work out."
A handful minutes later the two of them had reached their destination, sat down and began to dig into their food, and a couple more minutes later everyone else had returned to their own meals as well.
Leaning forward to the spirit before him, the local student whispered to her. "What are you thinking with all this? Didn't you want to keep spirits and all that secret?"
"Yes" Laura replied sheepishly as she leaned forward as well. "But I can't keep any magic going reliably with this hangover."
"Huh, so even the mighty German get's hangovers" Daiki teased her with a smirk "So playing of everything as some sort of costume for today?"
"Yeah, thanks for that save back there, I nearly blew the whole charade, should have just let myself fall." The Kitsune commented, fighting mentally to keep her ears and tails from showing any of her emotions by moving around on their own.
"Maybe, but we got everything back under control for now, You sure the next few hours of classes won't be a problem?" the he asked, concern evident both in his voice and on his creased brow.
"I think I can manage that much, probably going to skip dinner though so I can just hole up in my room till the headache's gone." Laura reassured him before finishing her soup. "Now if you would excuse me."
After standing up, Laura took the now empty dishes and brought them to the return before heading back into the university's main building, her tails, ears and eyes drawing a lot of attention again until she sat down at the back of another class.
Once her last class for the day was over, Laura made her way to her room as quickly as possible and once inside simply collapsed onto her bed. As Takeko protested over being woken from his nap, the Kitsune just let her tails swish around and the pair of fox ears flick every which way, working out muscles that felt slightly sore after a day of straining to be as still as possible.
As the little Tanuki tugged at his own tail trapped underneath the woman, he kept on complaining. "I had such a nice nap, why did you need to interrupt like this? And would you please let go of my tail?"
"Oh sorry for that." Laura said as she leaned up a bit to release the accidentally trapped appendage. "Now mind letting me take a nap in my bed? Thanks."
Moments later, the German was already drifting of to sleep, finally able to relax.