"But what if you don't want to talk about it? Or want to think about it first and not blurt out the first thing that comes to mind? I'm not gonna - make you promise things or anything, but-"

"I want to be able to not panic and bury my immediate reactions beneath a frustratingly impenetrable mask.  Ask whatever it is you want to ask me and if I have a second thought I'll tell you that too, okay?"

"I - said I wanted to get over myself some and prove that sex can't hurt me but. It turns out maybe it can after all, in the feelings. Are we, coworkers? Friends? Lovers? Just... Kitsunes being kitsunes? I don't know."

"Ooooohboy this'll get pretty complicated.

"I think that I think that to make that decision when we're just starting to explore the possibilities of sex is rushing it about as badly as we rushed the compactor, and that we shouldn't decide right now.

"What I can tell you, though, is that I think you're pretty neat.  And that I like you as a person."

"I am growing attached to you. I like making you make nice noises. There are some flaws you might have, but that's true of any person. I like you, too. I think... I'm not sure if it's a crush, or love, or what. The poetic descriptions there always seemed so alien to me. But, internally, there's a significant difference between interesting fellow kitsune to talk about magic with, and interesting fellow kitsune to talk about magic with who I've fucked. I want to keep doing so mind you, cuddle you, play with you... It's fun and good to make you orgasm, almost entirely separate from my own? It's an entirely separate drive than the diamonds thing, which is also wicked cool. Is that just lust, or what? It's just... And here I am torpedoing the mood with anxieties."

Hmmm.

Hug.

"Life pro tip: It is actually okay to be horny!  Even the Earthling me would have said that.  And it's also, in fact, perfectly okay to be going 'romantic interest what is that can you eat it', if I'm reading what you said right.

"And the other thing I want to have you think about, is that all of those things you just said except maybe 'kitsunes being kitsunes', those aren't mutually exclusive relationships, y'know?"

"...I suppose." Head-shake. "I wouldn't say no to more, ah, burning off the miscast right now. And in a bit we can go back to the cave and try to properly figure out what went wrong with the spell?"

"That sounds like a very good plan."

She punctuates this with a firm and fervent kiss.

-Oh! Okay, yes, this was the predictable result. Uh. They should be hugging and squishing certain bits together, too.

Why yes they should.