There, she had finally said it. Lydia had something against Miki. I wanted to storm in and berate her immediately, but something caused my feet to stay planted and simply listen.
"I knew it…" Miki spoke sadly. "You hate me because I'm a foxki-"
"You're too pretty!" Lydia suddenly exclaimed.
"Eh?"
"Master is my master! I love Master, but then you came along and you got perfect short hair that is so cute! My skin is rougher, and my hair is blotchy, and my tail isn't fluffy at all. Master has his hands all over you! Don't deny it! You're trying to take him."
"I'm really weak… I was just…"
"You're definitely faking it! You don't need Master to feed you or bathe you at all!"
Miki lowered her eyes. "That's… you wouldn't understand. Everyone turned their backs on me. My own parents abandoned me. My last Master was an old, blind man who just liked to use me for an alchemy experiment! I've never been touched, or held, or loved by anyone else. That's why… that's why…"
"But Master is mine! I never even had parents. I was raised to be a courtesan, but I didn't have the ability to make the cut. I was also thrown away, given to a master who hated women. It was Master who saved me from that fate."
"I know…" Miki bit her lip. "When I saw the way you treated your Master that first day he bought you, I knew… I knew he must be a good master. That's why I approached him! I approached him because I saw what you had, and I was jealous!"
"See, you admit it! You wanted to take him away!"
"No!" Miki shook her head tearfully. "I just wanted to… share…him…"
"Share Master?" Lydia looked confused for a second. "How do you… share?"
"Ah, well…" Miki suddenly blushed, but then she lifted her head. "Wait, is you being jealous the only reason you don't like me?"
Lydia looked away and puffed her cheeks. "What other reason is there, isn't stealing Master enough?"
"Bu-but… I'm a foxkin?"
"So?" Lydia looked genuinely confused.
"A-aren't you afraid of me?"
Lydia nodded and then Miki let out a breath of relief. "Yes, I'm afraid you'll take Master, didn't I just say it?"
Miki's nodding head froze. "Ah… I mean… you know I have more than one tail, right?"
Lydia looked even poutier. "You don't need to brag."
"B-brag!"
"They're all so dazzling. Master will definitely leave me for you." Lydia looked almost in tears, envy clearly shining in her eyes.
"Dazzling, what do you mean?"
"You have nine tails; each one is a different color. It looks like a bouquet. It's so pretty. You don't need to rub it in."
For the first time, Miki looked completely stunned, and so was I. I had seen her 9 tails when she was in ghost form, but she was transparent and the colors were very muted. In her current body, she only had one tail. The rest of her tails were spirit tails. Miki even looked back to see one long wet tail before turning to Lydia with her mouth open.
"You can see my tails?"
"They're hard to miss." Lydia responded stiffly.
"And you don't hate them? You actually like them?"
Lydia looked away. "I said quit rubbing it in."
Tears began to fall down Miki's face, a genuine smile, perhaps the first she had shown since I had resurrected her formed on her face.
"Ahhh!" Lydia began to panic. "Please don't cry! If Master hears and comes back, he'll definitely be mad at me!"
Miki lunged forward in the bath and then wrapped her arms around Lydia. This caused her to grow confused and even more flustered.
"Thank you!" She said, crying into Lydia's chest.
"F-for what?" Lydia didn't seem to be able to understand anything.
"You're much prettier than you know." Miki suddenly said, "You have bigger boobs than me, and your body looks more mature and womanlier. Master likes these things. I've seen the way he looks at you. Master definitely likes you a lot."
I blushed, hearing her talk about such things. Well, she was an observant girl, I did like bigger boobs.
"Ah… you think?" Lydia grew flustered, blushing a bit.
"Big sister… let's share Master together, okay?" Miki looked up at Lydia through her long lashes.
"Ah…" Lydia looked uncertain, but the sincerity on Miki's face was too much to deny. "O-Okay."
It seemed like I didn't need to do anything after all. The girls worked everything out themselves.
Achoo!
I was standing at the door naked in the cold for too long.