Work Text:
Robin Moonflower had three mummies.
Most kits only had the one. Sometimes he’d run into some that had two. Robin felt kind of lucky, in a way, as somehow – for reasons he wouldn’t learn about or fully understand until he was older – he ended up having a total of three. The first was his mama, Tessa, who had been there right from the start and was a fox like him along with spending the most time with him. She was very much his role model in a lot of ways; she was a big presence wherever she went and showered him in love and affection, and gave the best hugs and kisses out of the three of them.
Then there was his mummy, Phoebe. Phoebe was a cat and had been in Robin’s life since not long after his eyes had first opened, and she always smelt strongly of flowers and wood and soil because of her many different perfumes and her job in a flower shop. She had kits of her own, a pair of girls called Lucy and Molly who were also cats like her and doted on their ‘new little brother’ despite both’s ages having hit double-digits already.
Finally there was Katja, who he had known for less long than the others and was used to calling her Auntie Kat. She was a striking figure compared to the other two; a gothic amazon of a raven with a low husky voice and a slight accent that Phoebe had explained was from Iceland (Robin didn’t understand why people who came from the supermarket spoke differently, but he rolled with it because Katja was kind of scary in a quiet way and she was technically also his mummy now) who, for all her icy demeanour and dramatic sense of style, seemed to be a lot more shy than she let on.
She didn’t seem to fully know how to deal with children as young as Robin was, although she made an effort for Phoebe and Tessa’s sakes, and both of them were always there to provide gentle guidance. Robin found her kind of intimidating; she was super tall, almost always dressed in dark clothes to match the blue-black sheen of her feathers, and came across like she was a little bit intimidated by the kit as well.
Katja had been going out with Tessa and Phoebe for some time now, having been introduced to Tessa through Phoebe as she already had history with the cat and the three of them all worked well together. The three usually went out on dates together as a group, but due to colliding schedules and being unable to find a babysitter in time – typically Molly’s girlfriend Jade offered to help out since it meant getting to spend an evening with Molly one way or another – Katja had reluctantly offered to babysit while Tessa and Phoebe had gone out instead.
“You really don’t have to, darling, we can just reschedule,” offered Tessa. “Sweetheart, no. Next week will be better, that way we can all go out,” said Phoebe. “I don’t mind looking after Robin for the night, it’s fine,” Katja had replied almost instinctively. She didn’t know why she had offered like she did and without hesitation; she never knew what to do with kids, and the little fledgling was...a lot to handle even when his relentless energy was being tempered by Tessa and Phoebe as well. A little part of her brain thought ‘maybe it’d be good to try and bond with him’. The rest of her brain shot back with ‘are you out of your mind?’.
The raven had arrived at the foxes’ house with a bag full of essentials that Phoebe had instructed her on; several boxes of fruit snacks, an animated film that she assumed was appropriate since it was a U, a handful of pull-ups (“...will I have to change him?” she had asked nervously while regretting every decision she had made up to that point. “Well, he has long since graduated from nappies, but there are still the occasional accidents caused by over-excitement…” the cat had responded with a slight smile, enjoying her girlfriend’s worry), and a book for herself after he’d been put to bed. Tessa had opened the door and swept her straight into a kiss on her beak before she had the opportunity to ring the doorbell, having spotted her through the curtains first, and called Robin over to greet her.
A little fox dressed in a pyjama set had peered around a doorframe, said ‘hi’ in a tiny voice, and then turned and dashed off fast enough that the orange flash of his tail was barely visible. She did feel a little bad about scaring him; she knew that she was an imposing presence for a fledgling his size and age, but at the same time Phoebe hadn’t exactly trained her on how to talk to or entertain children while she was preparing everything else.
The majority of the evening had gone better than expected, if not somewhat awkwardly. Robin had come out of his hiding place from behind a door after Tessa and Phoebe had left and Katja had immediately resorted to pulling out the snacks and movie to distract the kit for roughly ninety minutes. This had worked for as long as the film had gone on, since aside from a few moments where Robin had started talking to her about the movie as it was playing or toddled off to pick up some toys to play with at the same time it had been a nice peaceful break for Katja, who had been able to get started on the book she had brought with her.
About two-thirds of the way into the film the kit had noticed that her attention was on the book and not the TV, at which point the line of conversation changed to what was she reading and was it good and can you read it to me too ‘cuz I can read but it’s nice bein’ read to an’ you look like you’re really enjoying it lots.
She hadn’t expected to end up reading a very, very abridged (for the sake of child-friendliness, being that it was from a series infamous for how graphic it was in nearly every way) version of a chapter from the fantasy novel she had in hand to a four year old. What she expected even less was to have enjoyed being a storyteller for a brief while, and even less than that was for her charge to sit and listen intently the whole time as she slowly but surely started making it up for the sake of his entertainment and her relationship with Tessa.
The thought of having to explain why Robin was having nightmares about medieval warfare or dragons or weddings that turned into bloodbaths, or worse yet quoting any of those scenes to his mother wasn’t worth entertaining. At the very least she hoped that he hadn’t read the cover and figured out what it was actually called instead of the title she gave it, which as she couldn’t think of anything better fast enough ended up being ‘Bad Times in the North’.
After that things had settled in nicely, and Robin had started getting used to Auntie Kat’s presence by herself. He’d never really been left alone with her like this before; every other time she had come around there had been Mama or Mummy to hide behind or stand next to so that he didn’t feel so shy, but once her own shyness had eased up a bit she was actually kind of fun to be around. She was a good storyteller, even if he got the feeling that she wasn’t actually reading what was going on in her book and just making it up, and she put up with his relentless energy and inability to stay still as if it was no problem at all.
Once the chapter had ended he had gotten up and bolted around the room on all fours, yipping and barking excitedly because he had snacks and he was happy and he didn’t feel like he had to be on his absolute total best behaviour now. She was family, and that meant he didn’t have to mask. She didn’t let him go outside and run about in the garden, but she at least pointed out that it was dark and late and it was getting closer to dinner time.
The two had sat in front of the TV and watched cartoons at that point while Katja’s dinner spun around in the microwave and Robin’s fish fingers and chips cooked in the oven. He had taken the opportunity to start asking her questions about herself as she hadn’t really talked all that much beyond the story, and the wall of ice seemed to freeze back up again somewhat. What he had discovered by poking at her verbally with questions was that Iceland was a country and not just a supermarket (he had run into the kitchen, opened the freezer, and presented her with a bag of frozen vegetables that proved it was also a shop, which had managed to get a smile out of her) and that she knew Mummy for longer than she had known Mama.
“I met her at a goth festival years ago, back before you were born.” “What’s goth?” The bird had gestured down at her clothes as a reply. Along with being varying shades of near-black they were also kind of frilly and fancy looking, as though she had stepped out of some Victorian manor, and before she had taken them off at the door ended in a pair of tall leather boots. He had told her what her look reminded him of while they were eating dinner, and the noise that came out of Katja in response had been somewhere between a mortally offended caw and choking on laughter.
The little fox had a lot of cheek, and way more energy than someone his size or age should reasonably have, but he also had charm as well. He reminded Katja a lot of how Molly was when she was a kitten; all mouth and no filter. She was still like it now, that was for certain, but even she would have stopped to consider how best to word something instead of just blurting out ‘you look like Mary Poppins if she was spooky and lived in a big house full of ghosts’.
Katja rolled her eyes as she headed across the kitchen to put the empty plates in the sink, the two of them having eaten not long after the kit had bombarded her with personal questions. At the very least he hadn’t asked her about why she was closing in on seven foot tall or why her voice was that deep, and she quietly thanked whatever gods were listening for that. Tessa and Phoebe had clearly raised him well. The raven’s eyes flicked towards the clock, seeing that it was nearing eight-thirty, and she called out to the kit in the living room. “Robin, it’s time for bed now, please.”
A sound that was somewhere between an irritated moan and an elongated yowl came from the other room in response. Katja slowly shut her eyes and sighed deeply, realising that the kit wasn’t going to make this easy for her after all. Looks like she’d have to pull out a classic from her own childhood. “...if you’re really quiet, I’ll pretend you’re asleep and you can have another ten minutes.”
“Ten minuuuutes?!” yelped the fox from the other room, scampering out and looking up at her with eyes that betrayed just how sleepy he actually was. “Wanna watch cartoons all night ‘n’...stuff!” Guess that only works on less energetic kids, the corvid thought to herself. “Robin, if you’re still awake when Tes-” Her beak snapped shut as she realised where she was going with that, and she closed her eyes for a moment to think. Phoebe’s voice rang in her skull. You don’t have to speak with children like adults, you know, I doubt you will sound too childish. “Yes, my dear, I’m aware of that...but it doesn’t make it any easier,” the bird shot back internally at the memory of her girlfriend’s advice.
Robin tilted his head to the side as he watched the big bird lady suddenly stop talking and shut her eyes for a moment. She looked as though she was...how did Mama and Mummy call it again, ‘meddy-tating’? Either that or she had gotten sleepy mid-sentence and had a nap. He had heard that birds could fell asleep super quickly when it was dark or their eyes were shut for too long, and although Katja was the only bird he had really ever spoken to this much he felt as though he was watching an example of it in action.
Suddenly her eyes blinked open again and locked on his, causing the kit to flinch a little in surprise. “If you’re still awake when your mothers come back then they aren’t going to be happy.” “That’s not true,” Robin retorted, “even if I’m up super ultra late then Mama’s always happy.” “And how late is that late?” Katja replied, the ‘talking to adults’ tone creeping back into her voice. “Like...eleventy o’clock. PM. Real late.” said Robin, wagging his tail a little. “I don’t believe that’s an actual time, dear,” the raven would have said, but took one look at the kit’s mischievous expression and decided against it.
“Do you have a bedtime routine?” she asked instead. She realised that she was looming over the much smaller fox and got down on one knee to be closer to his eyeline, resting her arms on her upright knee and trying to soften her expression somewhat. This seemed to work, as Robin returned the look and stood a little straighter. “Kinda. Yuh.” The fox absent-mindedly grabbed the bottom of his pyjama top in both paws and kneaded it with his claws, giving them something to do while he spoke with her while having the added effect of helping him focus. “What does it involve?” “Well...first I gotsta brush my teeth, an’ go potty, an’ have a drink, an’ then I go to bed ‘n’ sleep.”
Katja’s brow furrowed ever so slightly. “Wouldn’t it make more sense to drink first and then go to the bathroom?” Robin mirrored the bird’s confused expression back at her. “But then it’s all outta order…” “...and then you wouldn’t need to use it again in the night.” The kit tilted his head slightly and frowned. “I didn’t think of that…” he whispered. Clearly not, thought Katya, pinning her tongue down with her beak so that she wasn’t tempted to say it out loud as well.
“What do you usually drink before bed?” “Milk please.” With one graceful movement the corvid swung around and wrapped her fingers around the handle of the fridge, hoisting the door open and reaching in with her other hand to grab the carton of milk. Robin watched, somewhat transfixed at how elegantly Auntie Kat could move despite being as tall as she was. He wonder if she was secretly a ballerina or something, and made a mental note to ask her that after his nap when he was less sleepy and had more energy to ask her things.
Pouring the milk into a mug and handing it down to the fox, who took it in both paws and lapped at it without thinking before raising it to his muzzle properly and drinking normally, Katja leaned against the counter and propped the back of her head up against the cupboard behind her. “I may just offer to babysit y-” Robin’s blue eyes shifted upwards from the mug to look directly at Katja. “Kitsit.” “...kitsit?” “I’m notta baby any more...an’ it sounds nice.” The bird looked as though she was turning the word over in her mind for a moment, before giving an approving nod. “...offer to kitsit you again soon. You’re a good kit.”
The fox wagged his tail quickly as he drank the rest of the mug’s contents in one go, tipping his head back to finish it off before lowering it and revealing a beaming smile. “An’ you’re really nice. An’ pretty.” Katja seemed to blush with her entire body at that, feathers ruffling somewhat and a smile breaking across her face that felt deeper than any others that he had seen her make before. “Thank you, Robin.” He handed the empty mug back to her, and as she took it with one hand she reached down and ruffled the fur between Robin’s ears with the other. “Well, go on then. Get yourself sorted out and I’ll get you to bed.”
With that, the kit shuffled back out of the room towards the bathroom across the hall. Katja put the mug in the sink and the milk back in the fridge before making her way back to the living room, pausing for a moment to listen to the sound of running water and Robin scrubbing their teeth from the bathroom. “Don’t forget to rinse!” she called, and after a moment of silence a small paw came through the doorway and gave her a thumbs up as she wandered over to the couch and sat back down.
She wondered if this was how Phoebe must have felt as she gradually got used to Robin and watched him grow up around her. She had never once longed to have children of her own, and she was more than happy to be an aunt or a family friend that gave support with a level of distance rather than directly caring for a child herself, but in small doses like this it was kind of nice. It helped that underneath the irrepressible energy Robin was a sweet and polite kid that clearly looked up to her somewhat, and not just physically given that she was big enough to use him as a projectile.
“I peed!” yelled the little fox from the bathroom proudly, the sound of his voice echoing through the house before trailing off into silence. Katja stared into the middle distance, through the TV and spiritually through the wall behind it. How in the hell was she supposed to respond to that? Did she have to go empty it out now? Was this a potty training thing or just a...Robin thing? “Great!” she shouted back without thinking, to total silence. For a moment she thought that he must have been just standing there waiting for her to come in and do something, until she heard the tap run for him to wash his paws afterward.
Grabbing her book, the corvid started on reading again as she leaned back into the sofa cushions. She figured that he’d be a little while longer in there and she could possibly get a few more pages in before he came in and she escorted him to bed, and so she swung her legs up on to the other side of the couch to get comfortable while she waited for him to appear. Just as she got into position the kit toddled into the room slowly, looked at her, and then immediately came up to her and started climbing on to her stomach.
“Sleeping here tonight, then?” Katya asked with a hint of sarcasm, raising an eyebrow at how he had just decided to turn her into a bed without asking first. “Yuh,” came the response as Robin clambered on to her and flopped down on his front, wrapping his arms around her sides to hug her tightly. He looked thoroughly exhausted from all the previous fun he’d had and the effort of climbing up on to her, and snuggled in close with a little tired growl. “...okay then, just because it’s a special occasion,” Katja said quietly, leaning towards the table a little and setting her book back down.
“Can you sing?” mumbled Robin with his face buried in her top. Katja blinked in disbelief. “...I’m sorry?” The kit looked up at her with big watery eyes. “Whenever I’m too sleepy...an’ like really too sleepy...Mama or Mummy’ll sing a song to me to help me fall asleep.” The raven’s blood froze. She was worried that he was going to say something like this, given that she’d seen Tessa and Phoebe both singing lullabies to the little fox. She wasn’t fond of her voice at the best of times but she particularly hated how...masculine she sounded when she sung. “I’m...I don’t really sing all that much, I’m afraid.”
Robin’s ears flattened down. “But Mama an’ Mummy both sing…” he whimpered. Katja raised a hand to her face and pinched above her beak gently as she thought. She couldn’t let him down – she didn’t want to let him down – but she also didn’t want to deal with a blast of dysphoria all night until Tessa and Phoebe returned. There are some songs you know you sing well, though, pitched that same little part of her brain that had gotten her into this in the first place. And if you sing an octave higher then it should be fine.
“Okay, I’ll find some music to go with it…” ...and hopefully I won’t be able to hear myself as much, she added mentally as she reached over on to the table and picked up the TV remote to switch it on. She rest her free arm around Robin’s back to make sure he didn’t roll off as she started absent-mindedly flicking through the channels to find the music ones, and the fox kit snuggled in closer against her top. Against all odds it had begun feeling as though she actually knew what she was doing when it came to looking after him, or that it wasn’t as stressful or complicated as she was expecting, and he had been nothing but sweet and well-behaved the whole time.
Katja let out a yawn that she tried to suppress, the warmth and weight of the fox making her feel slightly tired. Robin responded in kind with a huge yawn that bared all of his little, pin-sharp fangs and sleepily wagged his tail against her side. “No ‘overexcited accidents’ while you’re laying on me, please,” the bird said with a slight smile as she stopped on a channel advertising ‘total 90s hits’, bringing the remote back over to the two of them and lightly bumping it against Robin’s nose. “Aurw!” the kit yipped. “I promiiiiiise.”
The channel flickered into life at the end of a music video that she couldn’t easily recognise. “Whatever comes on, that’ll be the song you get.” Katja said. She knew that it’d be a somewhat safe bet, given that the 90s were her decade, and even if it was something stupid like the Macarena or the Vengaboys then maybe she could wear the kid out by making him giggle himself into being too tired to stay awake. The screen faded in to four moody-looking monochrome men and a dramatic burst of synthesisers, and in an instant she knew exactly what it was. “Perfect choice,” she murmured, half to Robin and half to herself.
Robin turned his head to look at the TV as well as the men were replaced with shots of a king wandering around hills and mountains with a deckchair under his arm. “Who are they?” he whispered. “One of the best bands in the world,” came the reply, and before the little fox could respond to her Katja began to quietly sing almost by instinct. “Words like ‘violence’, break the silence...come crashing in, into my little world…” Robin watched her, enraptured. He had never had Auntie Kat sing before, and whenever Mama or Mummy had teased her about it she had gotten flustered and awkward.
He couldn’t understand why listening to her, though. He didn’t understand what she was singing about as such, but she sung as though every word meant something important to her. Her accent pricked at the corners and edges of some words and made them stand out even more, the naturally husky voice smoothing out as she sung an octave higher than the man on the TV. She has a really pretty voice, Robin thought. The sound of her singing was making him feel a little sleepy as well, and the soft velvety feel of her top under his pawpads was causing him to start kneading at it with his claws softly to get more comfortable.
The raven’s hand curled around the back of his head gently, a talon lightly scratching behind one of his ears, and the little fox let out a whine of contentment. Despite how scary she had first seemed, and he had run away and hid behind his mama followed by the sofa when she had first been introduced to him, she made him feel safe.
She was strong, he could feel that in her arms even though she was so very gentle with him like the kit was made of glass, and she was soft. Her feathers felt almost like his fur but with a slight roughness to them, and her clothes had a very similar texture despite being fabric instead of feather. Even her dark eyes seemed to thaw from the frosty detachment that he saw in them whenever she was dealing with people outside of their family, or when he tried including her in games and made her seem uncomfortable. She was totally unlike his mama or his mummy, she wasn’t even a mammal, but at the same time it felt as though something within him had finally turned in such a way that he could look at her and see family.
Robin yawned widely, hugging the bird tighter, and rest his head on her chest. He tried to focus on her but he could feel himself slipping into sleep, the sound of her singing working perfectly to get him to sleep. “Ni’-ni’ Auntie Kat…” he whispered, managing to get the words out before his eyes slowly shut and he buried his muzzle in her clothes to sleep comfortably.
Katja looked down at the fox kit that was resting on her chest, muzzle digging into the velvet top that covered it and snoring softly as he was lulled to sleep by the song. “All I ever wanted...all I ever needed, is here in my arms…” It felt like it had all come together on purpose, in a way. If the gig she had intended to go to hadn’t been cancelled she wouldn’t have been able to step in and babysit for her girlfriends, and if she hadn’t decided to stick Robin in front of the TV then she wouldn’t have thought about putting the music video channel on, and now she was singing a song that had meant a lot to her since it first came out to her girlfriend’s child as he slept on her chest.
Katja had never been maternal in her life; despite how much Lucy and Molly meant to her she had never truly known how to handle them until they approached their teens and she could talk to them and be around them on a more equal level, and when she had discovered that her new partner had a child who was barely out of infanthood it made her immediately dread ending up in a situation where she’d have to take care of him. “Words are very unnecessary, they can only do harm…” Despite everything, though, something felt truly special about this. Robin was a sweet little fledgling underneath the hyperactivity, and in a way they weren’t so different after all.
A lot of Katja’s ‘ice queen’ persona was a deliberate facade that she used to protect herself, and she kept her true thoughts and feelings to herself and occasionally those she trusted most. She saw a lot of her younger self in this little fox boy as well. The bluster used to cover up a deep shyness, the unfiltered stream of emotion that immediately switched off when faced with resistance, the intensity of his interests. If he had feathers instead of fur then they would have almost been one and the same when she was his age, right down to his gender.
It was why she had connected so much with the music that she did; it felt as though they were speaking to her soul in a way, acting as a bridge between her inner emotions and the world at large. Robin, doubtlessly, didn’t feel the same way as she did about it and most likely just took it as a nice song being sung with a nice voice, but that was something she would get to work on.
The corvid glanced over at her book, still face down on the table where she had left it when Robin had scampered in and started being disruptive, and turned her eyes back up towards the television. She carefully lifted her hand away from Robin’s sleeping form and picked the remote for the lights up off of the table, before gracefully sweeping her arm in the direction of the lamp and switching it off.
As the room went dark and the video cut to the band again, the glow of the TV illuminated the two laying on the sofa together. She had wanted to get back to having some time to herself and reading, but between the peacefulness of the situation and not wanting to disturb the kit’s sleep, she accepted defeat and gave herself over to being stuck in place. Part of her was kind of pleased. The original plan had been to make herself comfortable in Tessa’s bed and read until her girlfriends got back or she fell asleep, but falling asleep in front of the television with some good music playing and a living weighted blanket on her chest was a much nicer option.
No doubt there’ll be a photo of this from one of them when I wake up, Katja thought to herself as she put her arm back across the fox kit’s back and around his shoulder, causing him to growl softly and nuzzle in closer while he slept. Hopefully there is, anyway. As the song and video continued on towards its ending, the raven let her mind drift off and her eyes slide shut. She hadn’t expected this to have gone as well as it did, or to make a breakthrough with Robin like this, but she was glad that it did. He was a good kid, a good kit, and she felt a little proud to be his step-mother.