Oh, fine, he's persuaded her to also grant him a nose boop. There it is, his nose is booped.

He giggles.

"Hmm. Breakfast?"

Affirmative yip!

Breakfast! Also nuzzles. Nuzzles are important.

She wouldn't dream of forgetting the nuzzles.

She is so good. A good soft fox. The best.

After breakfast, he yawns and pets her and then says, "I think I'm going to disappear into a pile of books for the day, I'll leave you some more food in case I forget that time keeps moving even when you're not looking at it and miss coming back for lunch."

She giggles, noses him affectionately, and yips an affirmative.

He kisses the top of her head, conjures some food that will comfortably keep all day, and vanishes.

Okay, being a fox is sometimes pretty great, but it comes with the weirdest urges. Not only does she still very intensely want to steal something of his and go bury it outside so she can have it available later, she also wants to roll around in the place he was sleeping so she can smell like him. That's. That's more than a little bit weird.

...

That doesn't mean she doesn't do it, but it's really, really weird. If he questions her about it later, she might not actually admit to it. Also, she steals his pillow. Hey, her fox box could use a pillow, right? This is very reasonable of her. Yep. Totally reasonable. Not crazy at all.

This bizarre set of vulpine tasks completed, she goes exploring outside. She can avoid getting messy if she doesn't go digging or running in mud or anything, and she didn't smell any traces of predators in the area that could kill a fox. It's fun and safe to just sniff around the immediate area. She will know this place so well.

Isfain does in fact miss lunch. And dinner. And bedtime. He did leave her enough food to account for all this, though!

How responsible of him!

There are plenty of things outside for her to sniff to keep from getting bored. That and fuzzy crush related feelings. (He likes her!! He likes her! He thinks she's charming and he snuggled her all day yesterday and he thinks she's interesting and clever and endearing and he's still going to teach her magic and aaaaa she feels a little like she could float off into the sky if she's not careful!) She appreciates space to sort through/bask in her fuzzy crush related feelings on her own.

She doesn't really miss him until bedtime, when the lack of a snuggling companion sort of - tugs at her. He is snuggly and warm and sweet and likes her so much and she feels very safe when snuggled next to him and he's terribly cute in the mornings. And he's not here. She has a brief debate over going to find him to snuggle, and decides that the pillow in her snug little fox box is good enough for her purposes. The fox box is warm and snuggly, too. She'd rather not get clingy. Even if she's totally being weird about stealing his pillow.

Eventually, she falls asleep.

He's not back by the morning, either.

Hm. She considers her food supplies, and whether she wants to go find him or not. It's fine if he wants to spend another day buried in books, but while she has enough supplies leftover for breakfast, she doesn't think she could comfortably make it all the way to dinner on them. In order to avoid having to hunt for her meals, she'll need to find him sometime today, and she'd really rather not have to do that again. This decided, she'd rather find him early, so she doesn't have to go anywhere near food insecurity.

So she goes looking, nose to the ground and ears perked up and listening for signs of a wayward wizard.

When she finds him, it's at a desk in a study on the upper floors of the tower, surrounded by piles and piles of books and scribbling in a notebook as he reads.

Well, that's a charming sight. He's very cute when he's surrounded by books and clearly in the middle of something. Also, wow, that is a lot of books. That is enough books that there is no clear path out of the books. Has he been reading all of those? She has a pretty good idea of his reading speed by now, even if he's just finding the chapters or passages he needs, that has to have taken him quite a while.

... Hold on. Has he slept? She is not sure he has slept. That is a lot of books that he went through if he slept.

He's clearly in the middle of something, so she doesn't want to interrupt him with a yip. But on the other hand, she's not sure when he'd finish on his own, and he maybe needs some kind of reminder that his body actually exists. Hm. She eyes the piles of books critically, figures out a navigable path for a small fox, and weaves accordingly. Avoiding knocking any over is tricky, but not impossible, and soon enough she's next to him and can curl up at his feet and wait for him to be cognizant of his non-book surroundings on his own.

"—oh, hello. Right, time. Has passed. As it tends to do. Do you need, uh," he glances at a window, "...breakfast?"

He's so cute.

She giggles, and makes a little affirmative yip. Then she affectionately noses his knee, just to show she cares. And because she can't reach his nose.

He leans down and pets her. "Right. Just a moment," he says, and he writes another sentence, bookmarks several books, and then teleports himself and Astea down to her room and conjures some breakfast, of which he has about two bites before flopping into her bed and going to sleep.

So cute.

She has breakfast, then takes a couple of minutes to carefully tuck him in as best as she can. Then she goes outside to investigate the state of the weasel. ... Without getting herself messy. No mess allowed, this time, she is not going to be having another bath.

Several hours later, after the Crooked Hills have been thoroughly sniffed, she returns to finish the remaining leftovers, then nestles beside him in bed for a quick nap. She did a lot of running in her investigation! And she's a fox, she can indulge in a... foxnap? Hm. Doesn't have the same ring to it as catnap. Oh well. Point being: Isfain now has a snugglesome companion keeping him company as he sleeps. She's careful not to disturb him.

How cozy!

When he wakes up, a little late for lunchtime but overall not too bad, he makes a pleased sound and snuggles her.

Her nap was a light one, on account of actually having had sleep the night before, so her ears perk up and she stirs when she senses movement from her cuddlebuddy. She yawns and sprawls affectionately on him.

Soft fox soft fox soft fox what a good way to wake up.

D'aw. She's so glad he thinks so! He may graciously have a noseboop. Just for him. She is a kind and gentle fox that likes him very much.

He kisses the end of her nose and hugs her.

Eee!

She nestles happily in his arms, and makes soft little affectionate yips. She missed him! He's snuggly! Snuggliest sleepy wizard.