Taking a walk from the station to home was easing Hiroshi’s mind on a sudden invitation to become a monster tamer. However the stress wasn't fully gone as Nata kept on following him couple feet behind him.

  After a while of him wondering how long she will keep following, he gave up and turned to look at Nata who seemed to be cheerful as ever. “You know it is getting late. You should be going home.”

  “I don't have one.” she stated bluntly, nearly making him fall from the surprise, and making her realize in the situation she was in, having been too focused on being blissfully with him the whole time.

  “WHY NOT!? Edith told me she offered multiple foster families for you to join!” While he could feel the reason will only cause more worrying, as her gaze drifted to the side with a light frown.

  “I don’t like them. They worry if will cause trouble to others, so they leave me inside or put me on a leash… I know I am a bad girl. I even gave you trouble again today. But…” she said with a saddened look at the floor. He couldn't help but feel this appears to be was what Edith mentioned about wild monsters, going by instinct rather than what they want.

  With heavy regrets already coming to haunt him, Hiroshi decided to bite the bullet and say “Want to come stay at my place, then?”

  As if he had said the magic word, she quickly stared at him like she was trying to ascertain if he was serious, and seeing the calm stare back, she beamed up in joy as she happily went to hug him. “More than happy to.”

  Nata's joyful display seemed to ease his decisions, even if he knew he was putting way more on his shoulders than he should be. Their joyous moment got shortly got disrupted as the growl of an hungering beast came from her stomach, making her slightly flustered.

  “Have you eaten anything today, aside from that snack bar?” He proceeded to ask knowing very well the answer will not be anything good.

  "I-i have..." Nata tried to play it off like it was nothing, but another growl came disagreeing with her statement, flustering her further.

  Knowing it was an argument she wont be beating, she gave up and muttered out "N-no."

  Hiroshi gave a deep sigh before putting a hand on her head to comfort her. “Well, I was preparing to make some dinner anyway, and I am not planning to starve a guest.” he noted, as he continued their way to his place, with her following with light fluster as she tried to get her composure.

  After a good while of walking, and coming near the southern outskirts of the city, they found themself at Hiroshi’s place. A simple one story building, clearly designed for small living, but humble enough to be proud of.

  Taking calm steps in, Nata's curiosity getting better of her as she rushed in while looking all around the place. “HEY! Shoes off.” he commanded before she got too far.

  By the entrance there were a couple sets of shoes awaiting their time to be worn, as he took his off to join them.

  As Nata ears flopped apologetically, she quickly came back, kicked the shoes off messily and returned to her exploration. He couldn't help but sigh, as he took her shoes and put them neatly with the other shoes. He could take note how worn out they were, enough that she most likely would need new ones sooner than later.

  Hiroshi proceeded to head into the kitchen with attempts to focus on making dinner, but he was unsure how to feel as Nata was happily rushing around his house taking in the sights while coming in asking about stuff she found.

  Meat sizzling on the pan, and some potatoes getting boiled. He was working on the kitchen as he considered what she could eat. In his memory even if beast monsters resembled humans, they still had hard time processing what normally would be deadly or allergic to that specific animal, so he had to be careful what to include and what not.

  Before he knew it, the rushing around the house slowly got more quiet, before he could hear a thud hit the floor by the kitchen entrance.

  Upon glance, he saw Nata having collapsed in exhaustion, as it seems her body finally realized what critical state she was at.

  Nata groaned out “Food…” before her stomach started to plead for mercy.

  He gave a light chuckle in response. “Starting to feel the consequences of your actions, now don't you?”

  After a while of waiting, and mustering all the strength she had left in her, she took seat by the dinner table. Her senses were quickly awakened as a meal was put in front of her.

  She was about to start devouring it, before getting iffy as she was used to eating with her hands for a while now, but remembering she was now with Hiroshi, she tried to get used to the utensils, but it was clear even from distance she was having difficulties on remembering them

  She carefully handled the knife and fork as she dug into the food. Once taking a bite, she beamed in joy back into the blissful cloud she was while ago.

  As both were enjoying their meal, it was shortly disturbed by Hiroshi's smartphone starting to ring.

  Checking and seeing it was Edith, he wondered if he forgot something so he answered “Hiroshi speaking.”

  “HAVE YOU SEEN NATA?! FOSTER FAMILY SHE MEANT TO STAY WITH CALLED AND SAID SHE HASN'T ARRIVED AT THE PROPER TIME!”

  the answer struck him by surprise with Edith calling out with clear stress behind her voice. “Calm down. She said she didn’t want to go and hasn’t eaten anything proper today, so I had her come to my place. we are eating dinner currently.”

  “HELLOOO!” Shouted Nata so that it was picked up over the call.

  Hearing her voice seemed to calm Edith down. “Oh thank god she is fine. You should have called earlier, made me worry she was getting in trouble again.”

  This tale has been unlawfully obtained from Royal Road. If you discover it on Amazon, kindly report it.

  “My apologies. Nata was too distracting for me to call at the moment.”

  “...wait, she just happily came to your place?” Edith said with clear confusion behind her voice.

  “I mean... Yeah, I think she would have insisted even if I didn't invite her.”

  An awkward silence was left hanging for couple seconds, leaving Hiroshi question what Edith was thinking.

  “Hello?” he answered, hoping to get her attention back on the call.

  “Sorry to put this as more burden on you, but how would you feel about working as a foster family? You would be taking care of monsters like Nata, and legally speaking be their guardian. You’d get some benefits and monthly allowance, and with you having work as a tamer, we could drop the monster amount quota and get some bonuses.”

  As Hiroshi was left speechless for couple seconds, left thinking on her offer, but seeing Nata across the table having time of her life with such a simple meal, there was deep feeling in him that he couldn't deny. “I mean… if you put it that way, I guess it would be nothing more than a benefit.”

  “Thanks a lot, you have eased my mind a lot… oh, and before I forget to mention, she is 17. She may be a monster, but laws on age of consent don't change.” She said with clear teasing tone, than out of concern of him doing anything bad.

  He got a light blush from what she was implying and after short moment of stammering, “HEY! I am not a pervert. I just met her, I wouldn't be doing stuff like that.”

  Light chuckle came from Edith, clearly enjoying the fact her tease worked on him. “Just making sure. Have a good weekend you two, bye.” As with that, the call ended.

  He returned to eat with light fluster and anger from her tease while Nata looked in curiosity on his sudden mood change, before getting her focus back on the meal.

  “Of course Edith would pull something out of her pocket for this” sighed Hiroshi as he was looking at the ceiling as he was relaxing on the the living room sofa, having gotten finally the time to calm his nerves and get his senses back in order.

  As time went on, a clear, bad smell was slowly ruining his peace, and he didn't need to ask to know where it was coming.

  To no one’s surprise, it was coming from Nata sitting next to him. Even if hair was white and cloudy outside with slightly dirtied clothes, there was clearly smell of at least week's worth of dirtiness coming from her.

  With deep concern, but both of them knowing it was now or never, he gently took a grab of her hand and headed to the bathroom. She tried to fight against it, but shortly submitted to it with a clear grumpy look.

  Being careful and herself getting flustered, Hiroshi gave privacy for her to undress and put towel around herself to keep modesty as he did the same.

  He knew she no doubts knows how to wash herself, but the hair was clearly something she would struggle with, and he was wishing it wasn't nightmare for not having been washed for a good while.

  After getting wet, he started to apply and scrub in soap, it didn't take long for him to discover an entire wall of matted hair.

  "This... might be a real problem for weekend to solve." he said to himself, as he went looking and discovered her tail was heavily matted as well, and who knows how irritated the skin under it must be.

  "You are so badly matted, I think there might be a chance we have to shave all of your hair off." he said begrudgingly.

  Hearing it, Nata quickly bolted up and away from Hiroshi, with clear fear struck in her eyes as she cuddled her tail. "N-n-no shave." she stammered out, clearly valuing it heavily.

  "Calm down, I was only presuming. I wouldn't dare shave off such a cute cloud in a instant." Hiroshi reassured with a warm smile.

  As she hear him call her cute, she got slightly flustered, with still light grumpy feeling from such declaration, returned to sit on the bench where she was having her hair inspected on.

  He continued trying to remove as much matting as he could, but with just some normal soap and comb, it was like trying to break down a wall with a toothpick, and after half an hour of hard trying, he gave up on it for now. "Tomorrow, we need to get some proper gear to deal with this issue." as with it, let her finish washing before himself doing so.

  Heading out of the bathroom, Hiroshi just realized that she only had one set of clothes, and by looks they were as good as trash in how worn and dirty they actually were. So knowing there was no way out of this, he let her borrow his shirt and old shorts he was willing to sacrifice by putting a hole into it.

  Slightly oversized on the 4’5” demi, but at least fit her style.

  As he turned his back to put his own clothes on, Nata couldn't help but have a warm feeling of having Hiroshi's clothes on her, as she went to give it a little sniff, and to her surprise, it felt so good and comforting she couldn't describe it.

  Before she got too much into it, she happily returned to the living room, where he shortly joined.

  With exhaustion, Hiroshi crashed down onto the sofa before turning the TV on for some entertainment. Calm set on them after a busy day. Nata happily enjoying the programming for a while but her attention slowly moved to Hiroshi.

  She couldn't help but think of everything he has done to her, without her even knowing him, and now the man who has saved her is just letting her be with him.

  Her memory wandered to her past, which felt like chaos in comparison, flashes of mistreatment and worries... with a similar man she was with long time ago... She couldn't but let some tears start to shed.

  She could feel emotions press her chest like an anvil, as there was plenty she wanted to say, to the man she knew, and Hiroshi before her now. But she couldn't find the words or thoughts on how grateful she is, but she knew she had to say something. so with heavy heart and willpower fighting against her, she carefully nudged at his arm.

  Feeling the nudge, Hiroshi turned his attention to Nata, who was looking like she was about to explode from emotions, as she couldn't help but keep crying.

  Before he could do anything, she tackled towards him for a cry as she couldn't help it.

  He was trying to process what was going on as she started to wail, sending huge wave of tears and shortly snot onto his shirt, as all of her emotions couldn't be bottled anymore and had to flee out of her.

  It was clear she had plenty in her mind, and he knew he just had to let her take it all out.

  Patting back of her head, he gently whispered "It's alright. Let it all out." He may not know what her problem was, but he was just happy to know she was finally able to open herself up.

  He knew she was hiding something behind her smile, and knowing she was trusting him enough to let her true emotion's out meant much more than any declaration of trust could.

  He kept on gently patting her head as she tried to speak over her crying and snot smearing, be it russian or english, he couldn't understand a single word, and he didn't need to.

  He kept her in embrace as he slowly moved to lay on the sofa, giving her a spot to rest on top of him.

  Gently moving her, she took a strong grip on his clothes, enough to make her knuckles white.

  Her crying slowly calming down, she was only able to mutter out "Please don't leave me." as she slowly spent all of the energy she had, making her fall asleep on top of him.

  He kept petting her head, as he relaxed on the sofa, not wanting to disturb her peace.

  He couldn't help but share in her pains with his eyes gotten lightly wet from his own tears slowly coming out.

  "Sleep now, tomorrow we have a lot to do." he partly spoke to her, but to himself as well. After so long in his life, he finally felt honestly valued again.