"Hmm?" Aki Kitsune slightly tilted his head back where he stood to glance over his shoulder towards the man sitting across the bar alone. A sucker was in his hand as it lightly tapped against his lips in thought. It was none other than Juniper who sat so openly among the bar in that moment. The man looked troubled about something and it seemed to peak Aki's curiosity.
"Don't get involved!" Felix who was tending the bar as usual quickly grasp Aki's orange hair firmly in his palm as if he was scolding a child as he spoke.
"I'm not involving myself in your sect's problems, I swear!" Aki's face brightened up with a smile as he gave Felix a dreamy expression as if he was trying to lure him in.
"You always say that so don't think I'll fall for it." Felix knit his brows as he glared at Aki with eyes of suspicion.
"I don't get why you are serving him when you know Duan Cai is looking for the man he's working for." Aki whispered to Felix as he leaned his body over the bar counter. His hand gently popping his sucker into his own mouth after directly speaking his words bluntly.
"I do have a job to do so I have no reason to turn away someone who's paying as long as they behave themselves in my bar.. Besides as long as he's sitting there at least I can guarantee he ain't doing anything else to cause trouble, unlike a certain someone. Understand?" Felix's gaze slowly swept towards Juniper for a moment before returning to Aki's mysterious expression. He was not sure what was running through Aki's mind at the time but it surely was not to be something he would later enjoy when he found out.
Aki Kitsune's pink eye seemed to sparkle for a second as if an idea had struck him. Smiling again with a soft laugh under his breath he pulled the sucker from his mouth and pointed it at Felix. His head was tilted to the side so that it was mainly his blue eye that showed itself to Felix's gaze. The smile he had was exposing his teeth and they almost seemed to have sharp points to them.
"Are you insinuating something about me?" Aki teased as he clearly understood that Felix was referring to his natural attraction to troubling matters.
"Of course I am.. Who else?" Felix leaned in while Aki was distracted and chomped down on the sucker that Aki was pointing at him. The sucker was sweet and shattered under Felix's teeth in the split second that he took it into his mouth. As he leaned back up to a straight stance his thumb slowly swept across his mouth to wipe and shred of crumb from the sucker that might have missed his bite.
"Wha-Wha?!" Aki Kitsune shook as he realized he sucker was gone because of Felix. He could not help but panic as if he had been wronged. If there was one thing Aki loved as much as getting in trouble it was his suckers. It was one of his main pleasures in life and it had just been confiscated by Felix.
"If you're not going to help me here can you at least go take care of that thing you picked up off the street that's still on our guest bed?" Felix sighed to himself as he carefully wiped down a glass. A few days ago he could remember Aki coming home to their place with an injured man in tow. He could not fathom where Aki had found a half dead ninja to haul in off the street but it ever since the man had been unconscious and healing in Felix's guest room.
"B-But.. My sucker.." Aki's entire face and chest seemed to collapse depressingly onto the counter as his body shivered as if a great tragedy had befallen him. He could not stop thinking about the candy he had just lost.
"Hey! Aki!" Felix snapped his fingers in front of Aki until the boy snapped back to reality.
"What?" Aki asked as he sat up straight. Both his pink and blue eyes were locked on the sight of Felix towering over him from behind the bar counter. The stern look that was once on Felix's face seemed to fade away into a gentle smile. Aki could only see a single one of Felix's eyes because his hair covered the other side of his face naturally but that one eye seemed to warm Aki's heart. It was that very eye that could easily remind him of the moment they met.
"Where exactly does your mind go sometimes.. Ah." Felix sighed as he stretched out his hand and carefully caressed the top of Aki Kitsune's head. As his head was being caressed his head seemed to tilt into Felix's hand more as he enjoyed every second of it. "You head home for now and check on things there. I will head home after closing up here later tonight. I need to inform Duan Cai about things here anyways so I'll take care of you later."
"Alright~!" Aki Kitsune smiled brightly while making a peace sign towards Felix with his hand. On the outside Aki might have been agreeing to go home at that time with Felix but they both understood that deep down home would be the last place that Aki went to. He was not one that had the habit of easily obeying commands unless it was something he wanted to do himself. Instead of going home from the bar he would be making a detour through the city.
Aki knew that he would be detouring to find something to entertain himself with while Felix knew that the boy was simply not the type to listen to him. He had long gotten use to the fact that Aki Kitsune did not listen and had come to an agreement that as long as he did not know about what Aki was doing he would not complain as long as Aki took care of himself properly and did not get hurt. Felix accepted the fact that he could not truly tame Aki Kitsune to behave himself. It was a part of what made Aki who he was to be wild and untamed.
No matter how many secrets Aki kept to himself Felix accepted all of it and never turned Aki away when he returned to his side. He could still remember the day he met Aki a few years ago. That small boy had been napping while curled up with the trash behind the bar. No matter how he warned Aki to stop napping by the trash the day they met that boy had from the very start wormed his way right into Felix's life and his heart.