Chapter Text
A teenage red fox morph yawned as he walked through Mezzo Park in the morning. Scratching behind his neck, he looked with bleary eyes at the frozen fruit stand coming into view. He sighed, rubbed his eyes, let loose a yawn large enough to cause a whine, and headed forward.
"Okay Mom, I'm here," the fox told the taller vixen. The two only had a passing resemblance, mainly in their blue eyes. The older vixen, Vivian, had standard red fox colors, whereas her son had a black "bib" where foxes normally had white underbellies.
"Good morning, Alex," Vivian said pleasantly. "Won't you join me behind the counter? You're going to help me work today."
"Really?" Alex's eyes squinted in the morning light. "Uh, okay, why?"
"Well..." his mother looked at him sidelong, "if you want me to be honest, it's has to do with what happened with you and Jessica."
"What!?" The young fox yipped. "Dad told you about that!?"
"Of course he did!" Vivian looked at him sternly. "What happened was a serious thing, after all! So, we all got to talking-"
"Ughhh," Alex's head bowed, "my other Mom knows too...?"
"-and we decided that it would be good for you to help me around the stand for awhile."
"Why... to keep me out of 'trouble'?" Alex grit his teeth, looking pained. "You're punishing me for what happened?"
"Alexander Reddish," Vivian said solidly, and his tail drooped at the use of his full first name. "You are not being punished. You are being taught."
"Uh?"
"Catherine and I both agreed that you let Jessica treat you like she did because you were-"
"Stupid...?" Alex grumbled, staring at the ground.
"Unassertive," Vivian went on, raising a finger, "you barely ever fight back when someone's taking you down a path you don't want. That's why you never win any arguments with your sister."
"It's not worth fighting with her," Alex rolled his eyes, "she normally only argues about stupid stuff anyway, like if I've used her fur dryer."
"Be that as it may," Vivian poked him in the chest, "you are worth fighting for, and you can't expect everyone else to do it for you. Sometimes you have to do it yourself."
"...So, how is this gonna help?" Alex narrowed an eye.
"Well, since you asked," Vivian brightened up, "it might help you with how meek you are. You and your sister are both on the introverted side like your father, and there's nothing wrong with that. However, working behind a register forces you to talk to people, and it gets easier that way. It won't 'fix' introversion, but it will help."
"Really?" The young fox continued to be skeptical. "I thought cashiers were supposed to just take whatever the customer says. 'Customer's always right' and all." He made air-quotes to punctuate the phrase.
"True to a point, but the first step to expressing yourself is actually reaching out to talk to people," Vivian wiggled an index finger. "And this should help with that."
"Okay, Mom," Alex sounded quite resigned.
Minutes passed with little activity or notice from other mammals. Eventually, a hippo mother and her son passed by the stand. Alex nearly yipped as he felt his mother's elbow nudge him in the side.
"Um, good morning!" Alex called out.
The young hippo, maybe seven or eight, looked up at his mother. "Mom, I'm thirsty!"
"Well, we'll get something from a prey store," the hippo mother said, scooting her son along. "Predator shakes probably have bugs or something in them anyway, you wouldn't want that."
Alex held up a finger and tried to think of a response to that. Something like "no, Mom only uses fresh fruit", or "foxes are omnivorous and don't always eat meat", but the words failed in his throat. Eventually, the hippos left.
"Uh, should I have said something...?" Alex looked up guiltily at his mother.
"Well, she looked like she was in a hurry," Vivian huffed, "and I doubt she would have been in the mood for a discussion about fox dietary habits."
Eventually, two female fruit bats approached. They both looked like adults, and their attractiveness wasn't lost on Alex. His eyes widened a bit; both of them had similar vivid multicolored dye in their head fur, making them stand out quite a bit. They were also talking to each other quite loudly. They got right up to the stand, continuing a blistering conversation with each other.
"So my cousin told me to try that new exercise workout, and it's just murder on my wings."
"Well, you wanna be able to fly anywhere or not?"
"I mean, heck, flying's all right and all, but barely anywhere in Zootopia is easier to get to by air. All the public transit is so convenient!"
"With that attitude you'd never get to where you were going in an emergency."
"Um, hello," Alex greeted timidly. "Can I get you anything?"
"And my OTHER cousin, well, he swears up and down by dragonfruit."
"Oh, those are good for your bones."
"Yeah, but so tasteless."
"If everything good for you tasted like candy, everyone'd be in great shape!"
"C-can I get you anything?" Alex repeated, looking at his mother helplessly after there was no response. She just shrugged and smirked.
Eventually, the bats barely seemed to notice where they were. "Yeah, I'll get a medium cherry, please."
"Oh, maybe make it two mediums."
"Or one large? Yeah, lets do one large." The bats tossed a look at each other during their deliberation.
"Okay, certainly," Alex said, pouring them one large frozen cherry drink. Large for a couple of fruit bats, anyway. The two carried their conversation with each other the whole time and barely paid attention while they were paying for the drink. They left, continually gabbing away.
"Have a nice daayyy..." the teenage fox called after them sarcastically.
"Oh, Alex," Vivian tried not to giggle, but only mostly succeeded.
"It's like I was just an obstacle to them," he held his tongue out partially.
"Yes, well, you'll get customers like that," Vivian nodded, "but with them, I think they're probably together, maybe recently engaged. They had similar rings on their belts."
"Their belts?" Alex echoed. "Isn't that a weird place for a ring?"
"Well, a bat has to wear it where it won't get in the way of their flying, right?" Vivian chuckled.
"Guess so," Alex sighed, "I don't see how this is helping me, really."
"You're not going to develop these skills overnight, Alex, so just hang in there," Vivian tapped him on the nose. "Eventually, you'll meet some customers you like, even become friends with! Those regulars are the kinds of people you'll look forward to seeing, but to get them you have to be willing to start conversations, really try to genuinely be interested in them-"
Vivian was interrupted by a fox police officer sauntering up to the fruit stand, a gray bunny marching by his side.
"S'cuse me, ma'am," the fox drawled, paws on his belt, "but we received some reports of a fox running a fruit stand with some suspiciously tasty fruit on offer. We might have to give said fruit a look-see."
"Hi, Nick," though she didn't roll her eyes, the tone of Vivian's voice sounded like it contained one. "Hey, Judy."
"Hiya Vivi-ooh my gosh!" Judy lit up, looking at Alex. "Is that Alex? He's grown up so big!"
"Sure is," Vivian affectionately tousled her son's head fur.
"Um, hopefully not quite done growing yet," Alex winced, "though I might be... I'm not even as tall as Mom, and barely taller than my other Mom."
"Either way, you're always gonna be Cindy's little brother and our little boy, one way or another," Vivian winked, to Alex's disappointed groan.
"Nothing wrong with being short," Nick noted, holding a claw up, his other paw resting hard on Judy's head before she shooed it away. "Some would even say it's a selling point!"
"Nick, stop," Judy chuckled, turning to the younger fox. "You remember Nick and I?"
"Sure," Alex nodded, "we've gone out to eat with you guys a few times. Um, I remember your kit's pretty cool."
"Ah yes, Larry, our little squirrel," Judy cooed, "actually just dropped him off with his friends at their little meeting place here at the park."
"Really, he's here?" Alex perked up. "Can I go see him, Mom?"
"Alexander," Vivian looked at him with a tiny amount of scorn, folding her arms, "you're supposed to be helping me here at work." She started pouring a couple of smallish drinks, a blueberry and a citrus swirl. "You think a real employer would just let you wander off whenever you felt like it?"
"Ooh, she's doing a lesson teaching thing," Nick said in a loud whisper, barely leaning to Judy, "I guess that means we're gonna have to pay for our drinks this time."
"Yes, some little tods have a lot to learn," Vivian gave an affectionately stern look to her son.
"Isn't that the truth," Judy nudged Nick. "And yes, we're paying." She offered payment for their usual drinks.
"C'mon, Mom, I've been here for like three hours," Alex wailed.
"It's barely been past one hour," Vivian shook her head, "but all right, I guess being social with a friend you barely see counts as developing your social skills. Go on, you little scamp." She flicked her paw. "It'll give your mother some time to catch up with these two criminal-busting creatures."
"There's so much we could catch up on!" Judy looked excited.
"Yeah, but if we're gonna be responsible we should probably make it brief," Nick looked at his phone. "Y'know, set a good example and all."
"Of course. Welll... anyway..." Judy grinned.
Thus released, Alex pumped his fist. "Thanks, mom!" He started to leave the stand and then froze, meekly pointing several directions. "Uh, which way is Larry?"
"Southeast," Nick pointed with a chuckle, "by a group of trees. You can't miss 'em. Or maybe you can, cause they're all kinda small." Judy giggled at that.
Alex headed in that direction, looking left and right casually. He scoffed at the idea of "missing" Larry or his friends; he was sure a group of smaller mammals would be easy enough to find.
"Waagh-!"
"Uh!?"
In an instant, Alex's peripheral vision got the glimpse of a blurry mass rushing right for his face. Instinctively, he shut his eyes and placed both of his paws in front of his face, and felt a furry impact in them. When he opened his eyes, he was astonished to find a squirrel in his paws.
"Larry...?" Alex marveled as he got a closer look.
"Oh!" Larry chuckled, trying to steady himself in the larger mammal's grip. His expression changed from a bit scared to quite friendly. "Oh hey, Alex. Long time no see. Nice to, uh, literally run into you, heheh!"
A white stoat walked by, waving her arms. "Uh uh- that's an interception. The squirrel has been intercepted. No points for that one, Larry."
"Pff", Larry glanced down at her briefly. "So, how've you been, Alex?"
Though his mind shot to recent negative events for him, Alex managed to just say: "Oh, I'm fine. You?"
"Doing great," Larry nodded. There was an awkward period of silence where more mammals approached and watched the fox holding the squirrel.
"You know this guy, Larry?" A female weasel with a somewhat pinched voice asked.
"Sure! His name's Alex," Larry exclaimed, "our parents are friends, which makes us friends by proxy. He's a cool guy."
Alex could only grin at the assessment, though he didn't know the squirrel all that well. A male chinchilla and female ferret wearing glasses also joined the weasel.
"So, uh," Larry coughed, "could you put me down, or...?"
"Oh, right, right!" Alex cringed, obliging. "Sorry." He fought a bizarre urge to pat the squirrel on the head once he set him down.
"Well?" The weasel girl folded her arms and threw some of her weight out to one side. "You gonna introduce us or what, Larry?"
"Ah, okay," Larry flashed a guilty smile back to the approaching gang. First, he indicated the weasel with his hand. "Alex, this is Princess."
"Charmed," she said up to the fox.
"The chinchilla is Chet, my best friend," the squirrel smiled at the average-looking gray chinchilla.
"An honor to make your acquaintance, foxy dude," Chet performed a playful bow. His voice was quite easygoing.
"The white stoat is Heather," Larry went on.
"Hey," Heather cooly nudged her chin up, smirking at the fox with her hands on her hips.
"And last but not least," Larry paused to draw in a breath and gestured at the ferret with both hands. "This is Kara. My- ahehheh." The ferret folded her hands in front of her and grew a demure smile, swaying back and forth a little. Larry hesitated another second, causing her to nod. "My girlfriend." Her eyes squinted shut and she smiled at the assessment. Heather rolled her eyes, but kept her smile, and Princess shook her head into her paw.
"Oh, you're dating a ferret?" Alex blinked. "That's cool."
"Yeah, and they're still in the lovey-dovey phase," Princess stared up at Alex with her eyes half-lidded. "Hope you're not allergic to sweets, fox."
"Nope, I quite enjoy them," he returned with a grin.
"Anyway, Larry, you're forgetting someone?" Princess wagged her head, shrugging with her arms out wide.
"Ack!" Larry flinched. "Right." Looking up in the trees, he pointed. Alex followed his finger to some kind of mustelid reclined up in the tree. They almost looked like a marten, but with a whiter face and more orange fur. Alex's eyes were drawn to their navy blue scarf as a timely breeze caused it to billow dramatically.
"Kunoichi?" Alex echoed, catching the mustelid's eye. There was a nod in response. "Doesn't that mean 'female ninja'?"
"Ooh, a mammal of words! Most correct you are, foxxo," Chet nodded, holding his paws up in a conspiratorial way. "Kunoichi is Princess' ninja. She's shrouded in mystery; even her real name is unknown to-"
"It's Hotaru," Princess said in a droll voice. "Itachi Hotaru. It's not a secret." Kunoichi squinted up in the tree, but the scarf covered her mouth to the point that Alex didn't know if she was frowning or grinning.
"So uh, what's going on here?" Alex wondered. "Why were you flying through the air?"
"Oh, haha," Larry rubbed behind his head. "We were doing tricks."
"Tricks?" The fox repeated, feeling self-conscious about doing that a lot. "Like, magic tricks?"
Kara giggled, a paw to her mouth. "No, like physical tricks."
"Like this!" Larry scampered halfway up a nearby tree, paused to make sure he was being watched, then launched away from it. In midair, he twisted to be facing front-wise, then flipped twice neatly and landed on all fours, his tail flicking. "There, now you can't say I didn't complete a trick, Heather."
"Yeah, not bad, pipsqueak," Heather smiled.
"A lot of small mammals like chinchillas have a lot of extra energy," Chet explained. "I came up with a 'trick meet' as a way to hang out and burn it all off."
"Huh, that's cool," Alex chuckled. "I don't think I've climbed a tree in my life. Red foxes aren't really known for that. In fact, gray foxes are the only canid that are..."
"Uh, I wouldn't recommend you doin' a trick anyway," Princess waved a hand dismissively. "You're kinda big; much more likely to be hurt if you screw up." Heather gave Princess a skeptical look. "What? I didn't mean like, fat, he's objectively a bigger mammal than us."
"Don't listen to Princess, Alex," Heather said dully. "She's got the lamest tricks of any of us; she probably just doesn't want the extra competition." Princess scoffed, stamping her foot and thrusting her paws down.
"No no, it's fine, really," Alex held up his paws defensively. "I'm really not that physically inclined."
"That doesn't mean you can't hang out with us!" Larry bore a friendly, if cautious smile. "Y'know, if you want."
"Ah, sure," Alex nodded, sitting next to the tree Kunoichi was in, his tail sweeping around its trunk. Larry sat down next to him after a few moments hesitation.
There was silence between the two for a while as Larry's friends continued to perform tricks. It was an interesting display of furry acrobatics to Alex; he'd heard chinchillas could pull off some cool stunts, but he'd never seen it before himself. Even Kara did some neat, graceful looking tricks, her "champagne" color scheme making her look like a long furry streamer in the air.
After awhile of wrestling about what to say, Alex sighed and looked down at the ground.
"Something wrong, Alex?" Larry asked.
"I dunno, Larry," Alex mumbled. "I- maybe this wasn't such a good idea. To come and hang out with you, I mean."
"What?" The squirrel blinked. "Why not?"
"Eh," the red and black fox huffed. "I mean, I don't really fit in with you guys. I'm not really into the things you guys're doing."
"I'm into a lot of stuff," Larry protested, "like, you like um, superhero movies, right? Seen any good ones lately?"
"Not really," Alex's muzzle wrinkled. His eyes flickered over to the ferret, who was putting her glasses back on after a trick, getting a pat on the back from the stoat. His mind flashed back to his own successes, or lack thereof, with the interspecies relationship he'd tried. "So how'd you end up with a ferret, huh?"
"Oh, haha, that took some- uh... guts on my part," Larry's eyes wandered off and he laughed nervously. "Basically a lot of egging on from Chet to ask her to the dance, and even more to ask her on a date after that. I'm not really that brave."
"Yeah?" Alex looked down at the squirrel, and saw a familiarly meek look to him. "So what made you finally do it?"
"I uh," Larry looked down at his paws, then balled them into fists and looked up at Alex. "Well, you gotta go for what you want. I got encouragement from everyone, but in the end it wouldn't have meant anything if I didn't go for it."
Alex half smiled. "Huh, that's pretty cool. Reminds me of a comic I'm reading. You read comics at all?"
"Uh, not really?" Larry scratched his head.
"It's neat," Alex grinned. "It's about a city where a few mammals have superpowers. It follows this fox girl, which, I'll admit, is kind of what caught my eye at first. But it's like, not just about superhero action, it's about your purpose in life, and what it means to be-"
"Ahh... excuse me," Kara said shyly, walking up to the two. She sat down near Larry after leaning down to kiss his forehead. "Are you talking about ZED?"
"Yeah!" The fox lit up. "Have you read it?"
"Oh, I love ZED," the ferret nodded. "Brittany is a really interesting heroine, isn't she?"
"Sure is!" Alex said, pumping a fist. "Hey, did you get to the volume where she figures out she's-"
Kara gasped and placed a finger to her muzzle. "Shh! Spoilers! I want Larry to read it sometime."
"Oh, okay!" Larry nodded quickly.
"Right, right," Alex chuckled. "Sorry, got carried away."
Larry paused a moment. "We should hang out more often, Alex. Something about how you hold your muzzle... you feel stressed or unhappy at all? Like, I dunno. Just a vibe I get."
"What, are you a psychologist?" Alex scoffed. "Maybe it's just because my coat is darker than a typical fox's. I used to think it made me look cool, now mammals think I look broody."
"Oops, my bad," embarrassment splashed onto the little squirrel's face.
"...You're right though, it'd be neat to hang out more," Alex said absently, watching the remaining mustelids tease the unflappable chinchilla. "Hey, I'm gonna be working for my Mom for awhile at her fruit stand this summer, so I guess you'll know where to find me."
"That's great!" Larry beamed. "Maybe we can do something as a group sometime. Like, uh, a movie?" He looked at Kara for approval.
"They're adapting this one series into a movie," Kara tapped her chin. "Attack on Mammoth? It's supposed to be coming out soon."
"Oh, that series is creepy," Alex's eyes widened. His reservations twisted his resolve a little, but he nodded. "But I'd be down to watch it." He started to a smile a little, which caused Larry to relax a little.
Alex watched the little group of friends say their goodbyes, and eventually he said goodbye to Larry as well and got up to head toward his mother's fruit stand. He placed his paws into his pockets as he thought about the lessons his parents and his sister were trying to subtly or overtly beat into him. He had to expend some effort to get the things he wanted, and not roll over and accept what came his way.
He let out a small laugh and broke into a jog as he saw the fruit stand in the distance. He didn't know if that small group of friends would help in the long run, but they seemed quite a bit nicer than his other acquaintances, and the recent words of his sister popped into his head.
"You've got to hang out with mammals who actually like you, you moron."
It was when he was at his most defiant and deluded about his then-girlfriend, but despite the fact that his sister was rather acrid, Alex knew she was also correct.
"Hey Alex," Vivian smiled as her son approached. He skidded to a halt, his tail flicking back and forth from his exertion. "Did you meet up with Larry?"
"Sure did, Mom," Alex nodded, hands on his hips and looking this way and that. "I'm ready to help."
"Four words I've rarely ever heard you say together," Vivian teased. "Okay, c'mon around the cart then."