Well, if you're reading this, you've probably already noticed that I'm uploading my old/hidden drabbles. These will all most likely get rewritten someday! Many of these drabbles are from books I've had unpublished/just buried away. Hopefully, you all don't have any issues with that! Inky belongs to my friend MadieeJoyy! (Apologies for the tag broski-)

Warnings:

Implied Homelessness from Neglect
Implied Physical Abuse

Word Count: 2,927

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Felix had always been a quiet kid, even when he was growing up in a home that was beyondwealthy. He could technically get anything he asked for, and yet, he never did. The boy was justsilent and never made it clear when he wanted something. This used to frustrate his parentsquite a lot, making them fight often over what to do about their son. His father wanted to takehim somewhere to force him to start talking and his mother wanted him to take his time andopen up. None of their arguments got much of a reaction from the young kitsune boy. They didmany, many things to make him react to anything, but nothing came from it. No gifts, no hits, nowords, nothing. Not a thing would make this boy even smile. The only time he ever made anyclear reaction was when he cried the day he was born and as a very young child.With him being such a quiet and reserved child, one could imagine he didn't have many friends.Other kids found him too creepy to be with, and those who did tolerate him even mentioneddiscomfort for him. This never seemed to faze the boy though, who just carried on through lifebeing calm and quiet.

This all changed during one winter morning. Felix was out of school for Christmas and wasforced outside to play in the snow. He decided to take a walk around the town he lived in to seewhat everyone else was doing, before he stumbled upon footprints in the snow. They led tobehind a store, perking Felix' curiosity, so he walked behind the store, following the prints. Theyled past the back of the store to the nearby woods on the outskirts of town. The boy has heardmany stories about the dangers of the woods and strangers, as all children are warned of, butFelix wasn't all that worried. For one, these prints were really small, another child's footprints,and they weren't being covered up or followed by any other footprints. Another was just somesort of feeling to follow them. The kitsune was sure there was nothing bad that would come ofhim following these footprints. Once he made it to the edge of the forest, he looked back to seehow far away from the town he was. A good bit of distance.Turning back ahead, he marched into the woods and continued to follow the prints. At somepoint, they stopped and the kitsune looked around, before something hit his head. "What areyou doing out here!" A little voice shrieked from up above the young kit. His yellow eyes flashedand he looked up, seeing a little girl in rags sitting on a branch, arms crossed. She was wearinga hat on her head and appeared pretty small. Maybe about six? Felix was nine, so he didn't feelat all threatened by this tiny girl who just threw a snowball at him.

"I was following footprints. Why are you out here in a dress?" He asked, pointing out that shewas most likely cold. The girl made a face at him and prepared another snowball to chuck athim. He simply dodged the next one and looked up at her, "You didn't answer my question,unless you're suddenly mute." It was probably the most he's spoken to anyone today. This girlbetter be lucky.

Speaking of which, she just prepared yet another one, speaking as she did so, "I don't have toanswer anything to a weirdo like you! But since you won't go away, I live here! How would youlike it if I just barged into your house and demanded to know why you were there?" The girlchucked it at him, hitting his arm. Felix looked at his snow covered coat sleeve, getting anotherone to hit his head. "You shouldn't look away from someone who can hurl snowballs at youwhen you are in their home! Now go away!""No. These are woods, you can't kick out people because you 'live' here." The kitsune huffed,"And why are you even up there, you're just going to freeze to death and then fall." He soundedlike his mother whenever she got onto him for doing something dangerous. Did he care though?No, not really. He just wanted to know why this little girl thought she could just own the place.Who did she think she was? Especially when he was the son of one of the most powerfulfamilies in the town. Why was he suddenly curious about this mean girl? What in Ashni's namemade him walk down to the woods all because of some footprints? Oh well, he was here now,might as well ask away.

The girl muttered something and crawled down the tree after throwing another snowball near his direction. "I don't know if you're stupid or something, but I do, in fact, live here. You know not everyone lives in houses and stuff!" She rolled her eyes, as if this was obvious. Felix neverheard of someone living in the woods though. No one has ever told him about this before.

"I didn't know that..." He admitted, before speaking up again, "But that still doesn't make it fair to tell me to leave when you don't own the woods. Where is your mom and dad?" Felix crossed his arms, looking at the girl. Now that she was closer, he could make out more details. For one, her face appeared a lot older then he would've initially given her credit for. She looked like a ten or eleven year old. Then her eyes were a purple color, which matched her lighter purple hair. There was no way that she was a human. Humans had really dull colors, so then what was she?
The girl's body tensed up and she rubbed her arm sheepishly, "They're not here."

"Where are they?"

"I dunno... just not here." She seemed to be hiding something, "Why are you asking anyways? Ishould be asking you the questions! Where are your parents?"

"At home," He responded, his tone of voice dull and bored, "I'm not the weirdo here who lives inthe woods."

That struck a nerve with the girl, who flared up and bared her surprisingly sharp teeth at Felix,"You're the weirdo who followed FOOTPRINTS into the woods! I could've been a boy eatingmonster for all you know, idiot!" The girl growled. The kitsune twitched his tail and shrugged."You'd be an awfully small boy eater then, whatever your name is. And it's not my fault that Iwas basically dragged out here by whatever magic you were using. Maybe you should stopusing magic that pulls people if you didn't want uninvited guests, stupid." Felix rolled his eyes,as if it was obvious. The girl loosened up and gave a confused look, tilting her head, as if hesaid something that completely baffled her. "What's with the look? You know what you did.""I didn't do anything? I can barely use my magic anyways... and even if I could, why would Iever drag you here?" She asked, crossing her arms, "And my name is Inky, if you must know."Inky? Felix thought, That's a weird name. Oh well, who was he to judge. "My name is Felix, andif you can barely use magic, then why did I feel like I was pulled towards here?"

The girl shrugged and started rocking on her feet, "Well, you can probably go on now. I'm notmaking you stay. In fact, I'm pretty much doing the opposite," she huffed. Felix shook his head,which made her face scrunch up, "Why not? I don't want you here, and I know you aren't here tobe my 'friend', so why don't you go away! There's nothing here to do anyways, don't you haveyour parents to go back to, weirdo!"

"My parents kicked me outside the house and told me not to come back until dark. I don't thinkthey care whether I come back crying about a little girl forcing me to leave the woods or not," Hekicked up some snow, "Anyways, I'm not done asking questions. Why don't you have anythingwarm to wear. You're going to get sick if you don't have warm clothes to wear when it's cold."

"I don't know if you've taken the hint yet, Felix, but I'm poor. I don't have money to just buythings! I have to hunt for food and steal clothes from stores," Inky kept her arms crossed andglared at the kitsune, "You don't even look like you do any kind of work, except for maybe sittingaround and playing." Felix' ears twitched. She wasn't exactly wrong, but she wasn't right either.If Felix had the option, he would probably be inside reading a book while his mother cookeddinner. He didn't exactly play around. Inky seemed to think she had hit a nerve and started tosmile and giggle, clearly glad she had upset a rich city kid like himself. "Ahaha! I made youupset! I bet I'm completely right! You have to rely on mommy and daddy for making you happyand stuff, don't you? You never have to worry about anything, huh?" Inky giggled, getting closeto the kitsune to make fun of him more. "Too bad mommy and daddy didn't give you a properhaircut! You almost look like a wild animal with your hair over your eyes!"

The kitsune stepped back as she got closer, invading his personal bubble. She kept gigglingand teasing him, which did actually start to annoy him. At home, no one was like this. Other kidsdidn't like him, sure, but they never said it to his face. He didn't have bullies. Just people whodidn't talk to him. Inky kept going and going until he finally pushed her onto the ground andsummoned up a glowing, buzzing spear. Little electrical particles surrounded the weapon as hepointed it at the strange girl, and he noticed her cap had fallen off. It seemed she also sawsomething about him that was on his face. They both stayed silent as Felix stared at her hornsand she stared at his face. Then they opened their mouths and spoke at the same time."You're a demon?" "

Your eye is weird."

They both realized they had spoken and quieted down again, Felix pulled away, making hisspear fade out of existence while Inky worked on sitting up. Another pretty long moment ofsilence passed between them before Inky bent down and picked up her hat, her pale face ratherred. Embarrassed. "Yeah, I'm a demon. What are you going to do about it? Rat me out?"

The kitsune stayed silent, for once not even sure what to say. What did he have to say? Sorry forpushing her and knocking off her cap? For seeing her for what she was? Felix has never met ademon before, but he knew his dad hated them. It was never made clear to the boy why thatwas, only that his father had a deep, deep disdain for them.

"Yeah, that silence is really helping your case. You know what, whatever. Just go tell everyone about me! I'm used to it, just go on! At least now I have a bit of a notice," as she spoke, her voice started to crack, like she was about to cry. Has this happened to her before? Felix felt compelled to try and comfort her, even if she was annoying to him.
"I won't tell anyone you're here, I promise," Felix watched her crouch down and have a momentto think, clearly in distress, "I don't even talk much at home anyways, it's not even going to bethat hard for me to keep a secret that a demon is living in the woods."

Inky glanced up at him, her face expressing her lack of belief in his words, "I don't believe you.Everyone says they won't tell but they do anyway. What makes you suddenly different?"Felix shrugged, "I dunno, you don't have to believe me. It'll be all on you for leaving and no oneshows up," he spoke dryly, his golden eyes remaining dull and lidded, staring down at her. Inkyglared up at him before she sighed and stood back up, fixing her cap to hide her little horns."You're such a pain. Fine... but only because I need to settle down until spring. Now um... whatthe hell is wrong with your eye?" She asked, pointing at his mostly covered up left eye. Felixlifted his hand up and rubbed it, sighing softly.

"My dad did this last year. I'm mostly blind in it now," he muttered, pulling his hand away from his eye, "It doesn't hurt, it's just uncomfortable and itchy."

"I didn't really ask, but okay," Inky mumbled, looking down. The kitsune twitched his tail androlled his eyes, "Anyways. You can go now," She huffed, crossing her arms again.

The kitsune shrugged, "I don't really want to. Why do you want me to go so bad? I'm not doinganything but maybe annoy you," He crossed his arms as well. She made a face.

"You pushed me and pointed a weapon at me."

"You were getting in my personal space."

"You're also in my home."

"You don't own the woods."

Inky growled and made a 'hmph' noise, before a sudden gust of cold wind cut through the air,making her shiver. "Alright fine... stay, leave, I don't care." She mumbled. Felix actually gave asmall smile, the first one for him ever. Not that Inky would know or care though. "What's with the smile?"

"I don't know. I just found it kind of funny when you said that," He didn't lose the grin though. Itfelt kind of nice to smile actually. That pulling feeling from earlier came back and made him feelthe urge to talk more, "I've never met a demon before. What's it like?"

"It's..." She hesitated for a moment, holding her arms together to stay warm, "It's a bit hard todescribe actually," Inky admitted, "I've only met one animal person thingie... what's that like?"Felix blinked and scratched the back of his head, "It's alright. It's like being a human, but withmore steps into being feral? That's how my dad describes it to other people anyways," heshrugged, "You look cold."

"Yeah, wonder why," She mumbled, sarcasm running thick in her voice, making Felix' tail twitchagain. Felix made a face, and scratched his chin, before an idea hit. He pulled off his coat andhanded it to her, revealing that he was wearing a pretty thick long sleeve shirt underneath."Here. I'm rather warm right now anyways!"

Inky looked at him with her lilac colored eyes, before looking down at the coat, "Why are yougiving this to me? It's your coat. Won't your parents be upset?" She asked, genuinely soundingconcerned. The kitsune shrugged and walked closer, egging her to grab it.

As he walked forward, he spoke, "I don't know why I'm giving it to you, but take it anyways.Besides, it just gives me a reason to show up again to make sure I take it back. They won't careif I say that I just left it at a friend's house either." The demon girl bit her lower lip, before cavingin and grabbed his coat. She put it on over her ruined dress and twirled around a bit, remindingFelix of his mother whenever she went shopping for dresses. Was that what all girls did then?Inky seemed satisfied with her newfound warmth, especially when it appeared like the coatacted like a winter dress on her small body.

"Thank you, Felix. I guess this will be the only reason I'll tolerate you from now on..."

The kitsune felt oddly pleased to hear her thank him, and he smiled again, a bit of the coldstarting to soak into his shirt. He didn't mind though. "You're welcome, just be careful not to becaught wearing it in public. It's custom made so... people might think you stole from us and well-no one wants the King family to have to deal with thieving demons." Inky widened her eyes ashe spoke, as if she was now cursed. It made him laugh, "Kidding! My humor is pretty dry. Thatcoat can be found anywhere," He snickered, making the demon girl puff out her cheeks andpunch him in the arm.

"Shut up! Gods, you are such a pain!" Inky yelled, starting to laugh though, "I'll get you back forthat jerk!"

Felix snickered and bent down, and before the demon could react or ask what he was doing, hehad made a snowball and tossed it to her chest. "Hah! That's what you get for chuckingsnowballs at me earlier!" He laughed, making her gasp and bend down herself to make asnowball in return. She laughed and told him she was the snowball queen. Felix kept laughingand hurried behind a tree to hide from her onslaught of snowballs. Inky and him spent the rest of that day having a snow fight, before getting tired and making a snowman instead. A snowmanwith no hat or scarf, but it did have the rock eyes and the twig arms. It was quite a lot of fun!Felix has never laughed or smiled more around anyone like this before, and it felt good! EvenInky seemed to start relaxing a bit with him, both of them having a ton of fun with each other. Itwas such a shame that Felix had to go back home, but he promised to come back tomorrow toplay. And he kept up with it! Even when he came home, acting and looking the same way he didbefore, he looked forward to hanging out with the demon girl in the woods. They continued toplay and hang out all throughout winter, nothing breaking the cycle.