Work Text:
1.
“Oji-san!!!” shouted a young Monoma, who was only 7 at this time.
They were in the fox’s forest, a piece of land that the fox called his home.
“What do you want, brat?” he asked. Since the kid wouldn’t stop calling him Oji-san , he would be calling the kid a brat.
“Can you come to my house? It’s lonely,” Monoma said.
The fox wanted to growl. But doing so wouldn’t do Monoma any good. The kid might think that he was mad at him , and not his ‘babysitters.’
“No, I’m not going to your house,” the fox answered. He gave him puppy eyes. “Don’t give me that look. I already told you I wouldn’t.”
“But...it’s really lonely. I don’t like being alone. It’s scary. And you’re strong right!? You can protect me from the babysitter when she gets home.”
The fox felt fury build up in him. The kid didn't exactly keep it a secret that his babysitter would hit him when she was drunk on her job . The kid would always appear black and blue, but would say that it didn’t hurt. It didn’t make him feel any better though.
He really wanted to tell the kid to stay and not ever go back to his house, but knew better. It wasn’t the way that the human world worked. There was no way that the evolved creatures would get away unnoticed anymore.
The fox sighed. He cared for the kid, yes, but there was no way for him to show it. And even if he did show it, the kid would realize that the way that he was being treated is wrong and start thinking up bad things.
“Brat. Leave me alone. No is no,” the fox said, instead of telling him to live with him in the forest.
“Okay,” Monoma said, his voice dripping in sadness. The fox felt guilty. More guilty than he has ever felt.
When he looked back up, ready to apologize and tell the kid to stay and never go back to that hellhole , he was gone. Maybe the fox would tell him another time.
2.
The next time that Monoma showed up to the forest, it was a month later. He usually came by every week, but he left the fox alone. For too long.
And his arrival wasn’t good either.
When Monoma appeared, he was in bad shape. He was bleeding from the cuts on his arms, bruising everywhere, a black eye, blood dripping down his lips, and was unconscious.
The fox almost had a heart attack when he first saw him. After his initial shock, the fox started working.
He dragged Monoma to his house and put him on his bed. Next, the fox started licking at Monoma’s wounds, disinfecting them. He looked around his house and found the bandages and wrapped them around his wounds.
It took him a long time to do all of that, but he finished it anyway. The fox wanted to go murder whoever hurt his child, but he knew that it was illegal.
He looked at the kid and sighed. Monoma must have teleported here by accident. In the state that he was in, there was no way that he did it consciously.
THe fox shook his head and called the deer, a creature that Monoma made a contract with, over to his house.
She appeared before him, surprised to see Monoma in his bed.
“What do we have here? A parental fox?” she teased.
The fox glared at her. “You may be an elder but I will tear you down if you ever mention this to Monoma.”
She chuckled. “What did you need?” she asked.
“I need you to take him home and tell him that you found him and patched him up,” the fox said.
She looked at him confusedly. “Why? He’s already fine here.”
“Because I don’t want him to know what I did,” the fox replied.
“And what do I get in return?” she asked. The deer did not want to do something like this for free.
“You’re literally in a contract with him. At least have some part in his healing process.”
The deer analyzed him and nodded reluctantly. “Fine. I’ll do it.”
The fox thanked the elder, who went over to Monoma and teleported back to her house. Hopefully, the deer would uphold her end of the agreement.
3.
The fox woke up in the morning knowing that it was going to be a bad day. There weren’t things that signified it to be, such as waking up on the wrong side of bed, but it was instinctual.
He sighed and got out of bed.
‘Might as well get up now and deal with whatever it is that won’t be going well today,’ he thought. Shaking his head, the fox walked out of the house. He ran around the forest, getting some morning exercise in, when he bumped into someone.
“Oww!” the voice shouted. The person fell to the ground at the impact. Looking closer, the fox realised that it was the brat; Monoma.
“What are you doing here? And why is your hair different?” asked the fox. He waited for an answer, but never got one.
Looking down at Monoma, the fox saw that he had a large scratch on his knee. The kid must have fallen onto some of the thorns. But then, he saw that there were bruises and more cuts over the knees. There was no way that the kid just got it right now.
“Oji-san! That hurts !!!” the kid exclaimed. He scrunched his face up, the fox could only presume in pain.
In all honesty, he wanted to tell the kid that it would be alright. He wanted to patch him up and cuddle up with him. But he knew that if he did any of that, the kid would start to be dependent on him.
“Get up,” the fox said. He winced at his harsh tone. “You’ll be fine. It’s just a small scratch, so stop complaining.”
Monoma gulped and nodded. He looked ready to cry, but stood up anyways. “Sorry.”
The fox felt guilt flow through his veins once again. He didn’t want the kid to apologize . It wasn’t his fault that he fell; the fox caused it as much as he did. But, the fox didn’t voice any of his thoughts. It would do the kid no good to start being dependent on him. The kid needed to learn how to be independent to be able to survive out in the real world.
He shook his head. There’s no use in dwelling over the past, even if it just happened a few moments ago.
4.
The fox sighed at how his relationship with Monoma has become.
The kid would always come to him to complain about his life. Yes, the fox was happy that Monoma was opening up to him and not bottling up his emotions, but sometimes, it just got too much.
“And I don’t understand why he hates me!” an eight-year old Monoma exclaimed.
‘This is the exact reason why,’ the fox thought, but he would never say it out loud.
Sighing, the fox walked away.
“Hey! Oji-san! Why are you leaving?” he asked. The fox continued walking away, feeling a headache forming. “They always leave,” he mumbled.
This stopped the fox. Who always left Monoma? Was he talking about his parents? Friends? Caretakers? He felt protectiveness wash over him. Or, perhaps, Monoma was talking about the fox.
He turned back towards Monoma, and decided to play it off as moving the conversation into the house.
“Follow me. This is going to be a long talk and I would rather be on my bed than on this patch of grass,” the fox explained.
Beaming, Monoma followed him.
The fox internally sighed. He should stop trying to deceive the brat; the kid already had trust issues.
5.
He wanted to break his contract with Monoma. Very badly. It had been three years since they made their contract, but it never got easier.
The brat got kidnapped. Again. And this time, the fox felt Monoma’s life force weakened.
“Is he trying to kill himself or something,” the fox mumbled. He was walking in the ‘Red Zone,’ or whatever the humans called it.
Speaking of humans, they were all staring at him. Have they never met an animal before? Idiots.
The fox kept walking until he felt Monoma nearby. Looking around, the only place that he saw had an entrance was a bar.
Weird, but it makes sense. Villains had weird taste in hideouts.
The fox opened the door and walked in. The bar was bustling, drunk men talking and touching the women who wanted nothing to do with them. None of them noticed the fox walk in.
Like he thought earlier. They were idiots.
Sighing, the fox made his way to the back. The bartender didn’t even stop him. Probably not paid enough to deal with this.
He snorted and continued to make his way to the back, where he heard sounds.
“What do you want ? I don’t even have anything. Like, literally. Nothing ! Na-da. Do you not understand? I speak some Mandarin. 没有什么 (Mei you shen me),” said a voice. The fox recognized it as the brat’s.
“We want money , you fucking brat. And your parents are rich. So do the equation correctly, and we become rich,” someone responded.
Oh hell no. That villain didn’t just call his kid a brat .
The fox kicked the door open, causing the villain to flinch badly. They looked over to where the door was, spotting the fox.
They laughed.
“What the fuck is a fox doing around here? A-A fucking ANIMAL HAHA,” the guy laughed.
The fox was not going to go easy on them. They called him a fucking animal .
He jumped onto the guy, who didn’t even move to defend himself. Amateur. The fox bit him on his arm, biting down hard and deep enough to draw blood.
“What the fuck!?” the guy yelled in alarm.
“My teeth are poisoned. You should probably get that checked,” the fox responded. The guy yelled like a little prissy princess and ran away.
He snorted and walked over to where Monoma was being held.
Wrapped around Monoma was rope. Rope that the fox knew Monoma could cut out from. Lazy.
“Why’d you save me?” asked Monoma.
“Saving you was just an extra. I was getting back at that villain for calling me an animal,” the fox responded.
“Oh.”
The fox got Monoma out of there and teleported them back to his land.
“Don’t get into any more trouble,” the fox lectured. “The only reason why you’re alive is because that guy mocked me.”
“Thank you Oji-san,” Monoma said.
“MY NAME IS NOT OJI-SAN!”
+1:
The brat was sleeping soundly in one of the fields. Flowers were all around him, and he looked peaceful. More at peace than the fox had ever seen him.
He went over to lay down next to Monoma and thought about all the times he had wronged Monoma.
‘Monoma does deserve the truth of my feelings towards him,’ the fox thought. ‘Poor brat must think I hate him after all those times I tell him to stop bothering me and never answering to his thank you’s.’
The fox sighed. If he could turn back time, maybe he would do things differently. Maybe, he would tell Monoma to stay with him and not go back to his horrid house. Maybe he would let Monoma wake up and find out that he was taking care of him. Maybe he would tell him that he was alright after any injuries. Maybe he would listen to Monoma and offer him a way out; a safe haven. Maybe he would tell Monoma that he would die for him.
“I love you,” the fox said, instead of the many thoughts inside his head.
Monoma turned around to him and smiled. “I love you too, Oji-san.”