Aki Kitsune - Chapter 4

After a while of waiting on a stool at the bar counter Aki watched as Felix slid a freshly cooked hamburger across the bar in front of him. Smelling the freshly warmed up meal in front of him he could not help but salivate at the sight. Just looking at the food alone was enough to make his stomach growl even if he thought at first that he was not that hungry. He began to wonder if the man was always this kind to people but quickly rid himself of the idea considering he knew the man was losing money by feeding him for free two days in a row.

“So good~!” Aki blurted out with a mouth full of food as he held it in his hands. The slight sound of chewing could be heard as he filled his mouth with the largest bite he possibly good causing the burger to drip ketchup onto the plate below it.

“Don’t choke yourself and eat more carefully because your making a mess on my counter.” Aki scolded him as he reached across the counter. Wiping his thumb gently across Aki’s cheek to remove a bit of ketchup that had gotten on his face he could see the boy blushing at his touch. Once the ketchup was on his thumb he placed it into his mouth and licked it clean off while watching him chow down on the food.

Aki’s heart raced at the sight in front of him as he gazed at the man with a mouth full of food. He was not sure if the man was naturally like that or just teasing him but what he did know was that it felt oddly enticing to him. Turning to glance around the bar he could see many of the girls who were blushing at the sight of how Felix was acting besides himself. From a glance he could tell that the man was very well liked by the customers as if he was a piece in a museum. Everyone at the bar loved to gaze upon the sight of Felix behind the bar counter on any day of the week but seeing him act the way he did with Aki seemed to send them into an overload of joy.

“Your food is just too good I could not help myself.” Aki spoke as he tried to calm his beating heart.

“Well take it easy,” Felix said before sliding a jar of suckers in Aki’s direction as he recalled how much the boy had enjoyed them the day before. “Here.”

At the sight of the sweet suckers coming in his direction it was like a light lit up in Aki. His entire body began to shake from the pure joy at the sight of them. Reaching his hand out as the hamburger fell to the plate he pulled a sucker from the jar and popped it into his mouth. It felt like pure bliss to have something so sweet at the tip of his tongue.

“So much for my burger being that great, huh?” Felix laughed as he watched the boy quickly abandon the food for the sweets.

“It’s great, but this is heaven.” Aki sighed happily as he pulled the sucker from his mouth and pointed the sucker at Felix.

Felix smirked slightly as he bent over and crunched on the sucker. Shaking inside his mouth he could taste the sweetness while his eye gazed deep into Aki’s. Those two eyes shined with a bright spark of confusion as he was startled at the fact that he had just taken the sucker he had been enjoying. It looked as though Aki had been wounded at the fact that the candy in his hand was suddenly gone. Slowly leaning back up straight in front of Aki from across the bar he laughed slightly for a moment before wiping his own mouth with his thumb to make sure there were no crumbs from the sucker on his face.

“If I keep finding you behind my bar sleeping in the alleyway you wont be seeing these anymore.” Felix said to him with a kind smile on his face that almost seemed fake. It was as if he was threatening to stop allowing Aki to have candies at his bar if he kept sleeping on the street.

“Fine. I won’t sleep out there again!” Aki pouted for a second before smiling as he held up a peace sign with his hands at Felix. “I promise!”

“I mean it. I don’t want to see you out there again tomorrow.” Felix said as he turned his back to Aki and went to cleaning off a glass. He was not certain if the boy would listen to him this time or not and could only hope for the best. When he thought about it he almost wondered if the boy simply had no where to go but no matter how he looked at it he was sure that Aki was not living on the streets because he was too clean to be homeless.

After a while Aki felt it was time to part with the man at the bar. No matter how much the man scolded him over where he slept he was sure the man cared more then he let on. If Felix had not cared for Aki in the slightest he would not be willing to feed him for free two days in a row. It was not new that Aki slept behind the bar in the alleyway so it was not that Felix had not found him back there before. He had simply gotten tired of hearing complaints from others who had walked by and simply glanced at Aki asleep back there. Not every mortal had a heart big enough to reach out to Aki on the street like Felix had. It was interesting to see how deeply this man seemed to care for him.

Leaving The Sunny Wolf bar that day Aki could feel a slight warmth to his chest as he thought about how Felix would react tomorrow when they met again.