Chapter Text
‘Sprout’ lays in the forest the sun beaming through the trees “we knew we’d find you here little kitten” a pair of foxes say, as they draw closer. She quickly stood up and put her guard up baring her fangs as the foxes chuckled “You are still so young and inexperienced you’d barely lay a scratch on us” the foxes teased, transforming into a pair of humanoid kumiho.
“Leave me alone I’m not like you at all” she hisses, throwing a rock at a kumiho who swiftly caught it.
“You are only an immature kitten who doesn’t fully understand what they are” a kumiho stated, quietly thinking about something.
“My name is Sprout and i know exactly who i am” sprout replied, throwing another rock at one kumiho it getting swiftly caught.
“That name is the one you were given to fill the role given by your person” one kumiho spoke. “But it’s not your real name Padparadscha” the other added, Padparadscha’s eyes going wide.
“That’s….i” Padparadscha went quiet, not aware that tears were falling from her eyes “….i-i can’t” she continued sobbing, one of the kumiho quickly comforting her.
“…my name isn’t Padparadscha” sprout choked out, eyes now a dull lifeless green. “I’m sprout” she said flatly, the sparkling red fully fading from her eyes as her friend Cosmo entered the clearing.
“Hi sprout” Cosmo smiled, both kumiho glaring at the key in his pocket before leaving.
“Hi” sprout said stiffly, expression blank. “….” Sprout only stared at the grass, subconsciously waiting for cosmo to tell him what he had planned.
“I offered to help out at the local bakery want to join me?” Cosmo grabbed sprout’s hand and led her from the clearing and into town.
“Sure” sprout weakly smiled, walking into pace beside cosmo.
Unbeknownst to the pair someone was watching them looking exactly like sprout. On the way to the bakery cosmo saw that someone was tailing them prompting him to quicken. The person soon caught up with them.
“Hey you dropped this” the person said, holding a key and their face obscured.
“Oh thanks!” Cosmo smiled, as the stranger walked past them taking a turn toward the park.
“…” sprout silently worked the cash register, a few people commenting that she doesn’t look happy here.
Cosmo entered the room “here’s your order sir” he chirped, trying to get attention off sprout’s demeanor.
A few hours later the bakery closed and Cosmo noticed that sprout was walking back to the treehouse through the woods “where ya going sprout” Cosmo asked, quickly matching pace with sprout.
“I’m just going to hang out at the treehouse” sprout said, indicating that she wanted to be alone. “Bye” she said, before running off.
“Bye” Cosmo whispered, pulling out the key from his pocket “….this looks different” he stared at the key, before putting it back into his pocket.