The sound of their doorbell pulled Aiden away from his video games, and the young man visibly perked up as he hustled to the door. Tomorrow was the first day of his Junior year in high school, and he'd been accepted for a unique new program: Little Brother Fox! The program promised to be a great experience in mentoring and 'shaping the youth of tomorrow.' Even more interesting his new 'little brother', who would be living with him and his family for the year, was going to be a young anthropomorphic fox!
Excited to meet his new 'brother', Aiden pulled the door open and looked down at a pair of fluffy, twitching ears.
"Hi!" The fox boy chirped happily from just below Aiden's chest height. "I'm Felix! Are you my big brother Aiden?"
Aiden tried not to coo at the little guy, standing there with his backpack, shirt and pants, and a suitcase next to his fluffy feet and tail. He bent to grab the suitcase for him and hefted it with a grin.
"That's me!" Aiden said, putting out his other hand. Felix wrapped his small hand around one of Aiden's fingers and gave it a shake, his big eyes sparkling.
"This is so cool! I've never been around humans before!"
Aiden helped Felix settle into their shared bedroom, the curious little guy poking and sniffing around and chatting nonstop about all his plans for going to 'human school' tomorrow.
"I know I'm only fourteen, but at least we'll be in the same building, right?" Felix asked earnestly as he changed into his pajamas. Aiden nodded in reply, but paused as a flash of something shiny caught his eye from Felix's neck.
"What's that, little dude?" Aiden asked, pointing out what he now saw was a collar with what looked like a pearl hanging from it.
"That's my special star ball!" Felix beamed, hopping up and down. "They're super duper rare! I'm the first fox to find one in more than a hundred years! They're supposed to have special powers, but I don't know what mine does yet."
"That sounds pretty cool!" Aiden complimented and laughed as Felix's tail wagged like crazy. "Maybe we'll find out together! For now though we need to get some sleep."
The next day Aiden and Felix set out early for the local high school. Aiden took the lead, but started to slow down as he saw Felix lagging behind. "You okay little dude?" He asked, worried.
"I'm not used to all this hard concrete," Felix pouted, rubbing at his sore paws. "Do you humans put this everywhere?"
"Well, most of us wear shoes, so kind of." Aiden rubbed his neck. "Do you... do you want a ride little guy?"
Felix pouted in determination. "No. No, I can do this. I'll be running on this stuff in no time, just wait!"
Aiden blinked a bit as Felix's star ball appeared to catch the light, throwing it in his eye. He shrugged down at his little fox bro. "Okay, suit yourself little dude."
Aiden set a slower pace, but after a few minutes he picked things back up as Felix seemed to get used to the hard concrete, running back and forth and inspecting all of the people and plants they saw on the way. They made it to school with time to spare, and sat down side by side on the front steps to rest.
Looking over, Aiden tilted his head as he watched Felix happily kicking his feet back and forth. He could be imagining things, but it almost looked like the pads on Felix's feet looked thicker than last night. Tougher maybe. And... bigger?