Children

It had been a long, long day.

Icky was ready for a nap.

The day had been particularly stressful, if not a little annoying, consisting plainly of a trip to market with a very testy little Chalchiutlicue, a trip to Kajortoq's to drop the little heathen off to play with her quiet playmate, and a long, coarse trek back home.

The market had been busy that day. Busy, and loud, and, after a bad nights sleep, it was enough to make both Ichabod and his kid sister more than a little short with each other. Especially when they were donned in their human forms and greeted with the scorching sun.

"Chalchiutlicue, please go and grab a handful of peaches from the stand over there." Ichabod had stated, giving his sister a small nudge. The girl barely moved, her foot only moving out a little to catch her.

"Mmm."

Ichabod glared at her, the lack of sleep giving him every right to be irritable.

"I said go, Chalchiutlicue. Don't just stand around like some lazy yak."

The little girl looked up at him, a look of sass too great to be on that small of a child.

"I don't want to." She said plainly, her eyes daring him to fight her.

"I won't do this here. Go get them before I send you home alone." Ichabod whispered this harshly, trying his best not to cause a scene. Calamity didn't budge. He gave her another little shove and caused her to sway on her feet.

"Go,"

And then she had opened her mouth, and screamed.

Sometimes raising a seven year old had its perks. Tantrums were not one of them.

Ten minutes, many disapproving stares, and a mother telling Ichabod how 'spanking really does wonders,' later, and Ichabod had finally managed to drag a very unwilling Chalchiutlicue over to the peach stand. He had done all the shopping that day, and Calamity had tried her very best to move her feet as little as possible.

Until, of course, she saw them.

And then she was running, running far away from Ichabod and shouting back at him the whole time. He barely had time to catch up.

"Icky can we please get one?!" She shouted excitedly, looking at the little black kittens in the bin.

Ichabod shuddered just thinking about having one of those things in his home.

"No. No way, Chalchiutlicue. Do you know how bad of an omen it is for a black cat to cross your path?"

The child before him put a hand on her hip.

"Oi, do you know how much of a bad omen it is for me to see your face right now?"

It was obvious she was trying to be rude and sassy, but Ichabod did not appreciate it in any way.

"That is not what an omen is. If you keep it up, I will have no choice but to fly you home instead of taking you to see Quetzalcoatl."

Calamity made a face, accompanied by a tiny squeak, and stomped her foot.

"But Icky, that's no fair! Corn didn't do nothin' wrong, why do you hafta punish him, too?"

Ichabod had had enough. He grabbed Calamity's collar and began to drag her away.

"Okay, okay!" She yelled defensively. When Ichabod stopped, she lowered her voice. "'Promise I'll be good. Promise." There was a pause as she offered her brother the tiniest of smiles. "But.. Can I pleaaaaaassssseeeee have a kitten? "

Ichabod gave her a look.

"No."

Within an hour, Calamity had been unceremoniously deposited at Kajortoq's house and Ichabod had gone home.

With Calamity being seven - almost eight, she'd be sure to add - she was, on occasion, allowed to walk back home all on her own. That was Icky's idea, as he was growing quite tired of going to pick her up on a regular basis. It was also Icky's idea for her to take the moderately maintained dirt trail leading back to their little cove rather than take her own path through the woods.

It was not Icky's idea, however, for her to find a somewhat large, somewhat lost black cat on her way home that day.

It was also not his idea for her to pick him up and bring him home with her.

Now, that had been three weeks ago. Calamity had managed to smuggle him inside in her little lunch basket, and, somehow, had gotten him past Ichabod. She had set him up in her room with a little pan of water, and had begun sneaking him scraps from dinner.

He was getting fatter, she noticed. And, no, not just fatter from the food intake. It was different, and, one dark morning Calamity had been woken at three AM to the tiny sounds of kittens mewling.

Oh.
So he hadn't been a boy.
Calamity would have to get Ichabod to explain that to her later.

It was much, much harder to keep six kittens contained then it was to keep one fairly lazy cat. Calamity was struggling, to say the least. There had been four instances of them almost walking out of her room, three of Icky nearly waltzing in as she was watching their mother feed them, and one of a single kitten slipping out from under her bed and nearly getting stepped on by a very unsuspecting Ichabod.

Being a parent was hard work, she decided. She was exhausted constantly now, as little meows and midnight terror-runs through her room had been keeping her up at night, and her lessons during the day had kept her from napping. And Ichabod had noticed, and now, at two PM on a Saturday, he had knocked on her door to, no doubt, lecture her on her sleep habits.

"Chalchiutlicue, please allow me in. There is something we must discuss."

Calamity had been expecting this, and was prepared. She had closed the Kittens off in her closet, made sure the cat sleeping in a large box in her corner was covered in sheets, and had shoved their litter (Made simply of a pile of scraps of paper) and water under her bed. She just finished pulling her blanket off of her bed to cover the thick mats of cat hair on her rug when Ichabod opened her door. He instantly covered his beak with a wing.

"Goodness, child, this place is a mess. Just look at everything in the floor! And what in mystery is that retched smell?!"

Calamity shrugged.

"Bugs."

Ichabod rolled his eyes at his sister's response, still keeping his wing over his mouth.

"We have to do something about this. There is no excuse for a girl of your age to be hoarding this much stuff in her room, and - "

He was cut off by a small chorus of meows. He paused, looking over to them, and made a quizzical face.

"What -"

And then Calamity saw it. The cat had woken, thrown the sheets off, and was now darting towards the open window where a blue bird perched. She was running faster than Calamity had ever seen her run, and she was running right towards Ichabod's line of vision.

Calamity instantly panicked and launched herself into action to stop the cat from escaping.

"Boris!" She screeched.

She landed on the floor, hard on her stomach, with her hand barely gripping Boris's back left paw.

The cat meowed.

Ichabod twitched.

Calamity took that moment to look up and see that right where Boris had crossed - right where she now lay - was directly across Ichabod's path. She remembered the omen from the last month.

"Uh oh."

And with that, six tiny kittens came barreling out of the closet to join their mother.

And Ichabod fainted.

A/N:
This was a request from the beyond lovely LadyArcher2020 on Tumblr. I'm so so sorry it took so long to get it done!
But it's here now, and I really enjoyed writing it. I really hope you like it!