Chapter 4: Young Moxxie (Age 5)

Moxxie awoke the next day, he had grown taller, the ozonize he was in was now uncomfortably tight for him, he climbed out of his blankets, careful not to disturb the sleeping Millie and sat over the top of the bed. His feet only went down about half way, he had to push himself forward to get off. He landed on the floor on his chest with a thud. He stared up at the bed and saw Millie stir but not wake up. He let out a sigh of relief as he pulled off the ozonize and then blushed with hot embarrassment when he saw the pull-up he was wearing. He couldn't be quick enough to get that off, he checked it, to his relief it was dry. He now stood there naked and vulnerable with a small, slightly chubby due to still remaining baby fat around his tummy and cheeks but the rest of him, bone skinny and hairless body. He must have been about four or five now. He looked at his tail, he remembered that on his fifth Birthday he noticed that it could now touch the floor, even if it was just by the tip. He decided if his tail couldn't touch the floor, he was four, if it could he was five. He looked behind him, his tail was touching the floor by its tip. He was five.

He decided he wanted to be clothed but knew his original pyjamas were much too big for him and what he was put in last night was now too small and tight. Guiltily, he went to Millie's side of the bed and held her hand. "Millie, can you get me some pyjamas please?" He asked in a high-pitched child voice of a five-year-old child.

Millie's eyes slowly opened, "what?" She yawned her eyes fluttering.

"Sorry to bother you, but I need some new pyjamas, please Millie." Moxxie asked again.

"Of course, you can Moxxie," she smiled with relief at her husband, she recognised his childhood form from many years ago. He was now five. She slid out of bed and brought Moxxie a pair of Tweenie pyjamas from a box of supplies given to her by Mary. Moxxie quickly got them on before clawing his way on to the bed and crawling in just as Millie got in. He then slid into her arms and lay his small head on her breasts and cuddled in, back to sleep. Millie then followed suit as she wrapped her arms around the small child laying on her.

Three hours later Millie awoke to a text. It was from Blitzo, it read, "Hey Mills sorry to bother ya but one of the horses at the resort we're at in the Lust Ring is sick and I told the owner, Ozzy, that I'd ask you to come down and look at it with you growing up on a farm and all. See you soon." Millie instantly became worried. She couldn't leave a five-year-old on his own. Even though he was grown really the authorities would not see a 29-year-old grown man, they'd see a 5-year-old little boy. But Millie also knew that if Blitzo saw Moxxie like this, her poor husband would have (a metaphorical) hell to pay and he'd already been through enough for a while. She then hatched a plan in her head, but she'd have to run it my Moxxie.

Moxxie's head was now lay on Millie's stomach. Millie slowly rubbed his head and whispered his name. "Uh…" Moxxie moaned looking up at her.

"Moxxie there's something I need to tell you."

"What?" Moxxie yawned.

"Blitzo texted just now he's asked me to check this horse out down at the ranch he's staying at."

"Millie, Blitzo can't see me like this! I know you love animals, but I'd never be able to live it down!" Moxxie panicked with desperation.

"I know honey, so I've come up with something. You're not going to like it, but it's the best I can do given the age you're set at."

"I'm listening."

"I drop you off at the closest elementary school. I'll tell the staff you're home-schooled but an emergency has come up. A member of the family is extremely ill and in ICU and they're saying "no children" so can they let you join their kindergarten class today. Most likely they'll say yes. You go to school and I'll pick you up afterwards."

"I guess it's the best we can do, but what will you tell Blitzo?"

"I'll say you're staying at home because you're scared of horses and this trip will be no good for your anxiety." This wasn't a complete lie, Moxxie was afraid of horses. "However, it has to look real. You'll have to pretend I'm your ma."

"What do you want me to call you. Mother or…"

"Mommy."

"What?! But…"

"Moxxie, you're 5, remember."

"Oh right." Moxxie smirked, looking down at the floor and shrugging his shoulders.

An hour later Moxxie was dressed in a bright green Scooby Doo t-shirt and black jeans, he had already had some cereal for breakfast. Millie helped him into the back seat of her car and on the booster seat whilst Moxxie fastened his own seat belt. Fifteen minutes later Millie pulled up outside of "Peyman's Elementary School" and lifted Moxxie out of the car and lead him inside.

A cyclops demon was sat at the front desk. "Hi, I would like to speak to your kindergarten teacher please." Millie pried.

"Whatever for?" The cyclops impatiently asked.

"Well, it's for my son, I was wondering if you could have him for the day."

"Look lady this isn't a baby-sitting service."

"I am aware, look I normally home school my son, but a family emergency has come up and I can't take him with me. A family member is in the ICU, no children allowed."

"Why do you not just leave him at home?"

"He's five!" Millie's teeth then started to bare and a raw escaped her lips.

"Ok, fine, I'll speak to Miss. Parks but I can't promise anything." The cyclops huffed and left the office. Millie took a seat, placing Moxxie on her knee and putting her hand on his heart just in case. It was beating normal, thank Satan for that.

The double doors opened, the cyclops had come back with a purple gorgon, the gorgon approached Millie. "Hello, my name is Miss. Parks. Mrs. Eye has explained your situation to me and I'd be happy to have your little boy join us for today." Miss. Parks was a kindly woman with a warm aura, unlike Mrs. Eye.

"Thankyou so much, you've saved my life."

"It's no trouble, I love children. What is your son's name?"

"Moxxie."

"And how old is Moxxie."

"Five."

"When is he six?"

"March."

"March of next year?"

"Yes."

"Yep, kindergarten is the correct class for him. I'll take him along now. I dismiss the children at 3:00pm, but if you need a bit longer, I'm happy to stay until 4:30pm."

"Thankyou so much."

"Anything about Moxxie I should know before I take him. Any special needs, dietary requirements, anything like that?"

"He can be a bit nervous, but apart from that he's fine aren't you Moxxie?"

Moxxie looked up at his wife and forced out a "yes Mommy" behind a false smile which was hiding his humiliation.

"That's all I need to know; I'll take him along now I'm just about to let the class in. Give your number to Miss. Eye and we'll call you if we need anything."

"Ok then. Bye Moxxie." Millie called up the corridor as her husband was being led away by his hand out of the office's double doors.

"Bye Mommy." Moxxie called back, waving his free hand.

Millie wrote down her number on a slip provided for her by the cyclops secretary and then left for her car to head to the Lust Ring, swearing to herself that she'd make everything up to Moxxie later.

Moxxie was lead through a red door which read "Miss. Parks, Kindergarten" on a colourful sign with a boarder for cartoon animals. Parks let go of Moxxie's hand on the carpet area. "Now you chose a shape to sit on, it can be any: square, triangle, circle, star, rectangle, whatever you want." Moxxie sat down on a star and took in the surroundings of the colourful and vibrant classroom full of toys and desks, like a mix of a school room and a play room.

Miss. Parks went to a door leading outside of the classroom. Inside flooded a tsunami of little demons of many kinds. Gorgon, goatia, imp, cyclops, hell hounds, succubuses, incubuses and shadows. There were 21 children in the class overall: Mandy, Freya and Lobo (gorgans); Olivia, Phenox and Matilda (goatia); Ingrid, Ian, Samuel and Derek (imp); Marvin and Damien (cyclops); Draco, Moonshine and Star (hell hounds); Snowy and Zoe (succbuses); Rodrick and Rachael (twins- incubuses), and Sapphire and Darkness (shadows). Miss. Parks registered the children and then waved her hand, causing the register to go up in flames and be sent to the office. The kindergartners had a full house today.

"Before we get on with today's activities, we have a special visitor today…" Miss. Parks held up her hand towards Moxxie, gesturing him to come to the front. Moxxie nervously got up. "This is Moxxie, he is visiting for today. Moxxie normally learns at home, but his mother has been called out on an emergency matter, so can we all say hello to Moxxie today."

"Hello Moxxie." The children sang back.

"Would you like to tell us about yourself?" Miss. Parks asked.

Moxxie hesitated then spoke out, "my name is Moxxie, I live with my mommy in the Wrath Ring. I like helping mommy with the cooking at home and my favourite colour is red. That's it really."

"That's ok Moxxie you sit back down." Moxxie let out a secret sigh of relief, it wasn't easy to act like you were five when you mentally functioned at twenty-nine, and sat back down on his star. "Now let's see our activities for today." Miss. Parks walked towards an empty Velcro time-table on the wall. "Alright children today we are going to start with our carpet time; then you are going to have some free play; then I hope to finish our work on the letter C and move on to D tomorrow; then we'll go outside to play; then we'll practise a bit more of our counting; then you can have some more indoor play before lunch; after lunch we will do our art; then we will do our science on mini beasts before nap time; after your nap we'll have some fruit and milk and then a story and some of our songs if we have time before your mommies and daddies come to get you." Moxxie just looked up at his schedule for today: carpet time, indoor play, English, outdoor play, math, indoor play, lunch, outdoor play, art, science, nap, snack, story. He then stared down at the floor, feeling himself blushing. He couldn't help but think about his boss, Blitzo, and how much in his element he would be if he was watching this.

"Moxxie are you alright?" Asked Miss. Parks. "You're looking a bit hot."

"I'm fine Miss. Parks."

"You sure, I can get someone to take you to the nurse if you'd like."

"No, I'm fine."

"Ok, maybe you just need to get off the carpet. It's a lot being a new place, isn't it?"

"Yes." Moxxie said out loud, but deep down he was thinking, "you have no idea."

"Alright, anyone sitting on a star can go and play."

Moxxie stood up, looking around, he saw a play piano in the area marked "Music Corner" by a sign. It was as good as anything else. Moxxie sat down at a play piano and started to prod the keys with his tiny fingers, trying his best not to make it sound "good" in order to not blow his cover. Moxxie was suddenly shoved from the seat, he landed on his back. "Out of me way!" Shouted the hellhound known as Draco. Moxxie growled at him, but then walked off to find somewhere else to play.

He decided to go to the art area and draw a picture for Millie. He sat at a desk and took a packet of crayons and swapped the colours between his right and left hand, again to make it look a like a five-year-old had drawn it. When it was finished, he placed it on Mrs. Park's desk with his name scrawled on the back in lead pencil "Moxie" he deliberately left out the second X.

Soon, Mrs. Park's called all of the children to the carpet to do their English. Moxxie had to endure sitting on the carpet drawing the letter "C" in the air and making the sound "cuh" from reading from cards. He was then sent over to the "green table" to colour in a giant letter C and write over dots of the letter C and then write it free hand. He then had to work with Ingrid and Darkness to sort objects into "has a C in it" or "doesn't have a C in it" hoops placed on the desk. He sat back and let Ingrid and Darkness do most of the work.

Ingrid picked up a toy car. "Car, Cuh-Are, car has a C in it." She placed it into the C hoop.

Darkness went next, he picked up a toy dog. "Dog, Duh-Og, nope, no C." He placed it into the no C hoop and then looked at Moxxie. Moxxie picked up a plastic coffin. "Coffin, Cuh-Oh-Fin, yep it has a C in there. Your turn Ingrid."

Ingrid picked up a doll and the game continued from there until the class was called outside to play. Moxxie went to the swings. He remembered one night, when he and Millie were still dating, before they were married, they were out on a date. They were walking down a street, hand in hand and passed a play park, there were no kids on it, it was late at night. So, Moxxie and Millie decided to have some fun. Moxxie led Millie into the park and lifted her on the swing and pushed her as high as he could to her southern laughter. Moxxie tried to push himself on the swing, but he was too weak to do it. Mrs. Parks came up to him, "would you like me to give you a push Moxxie?" She asked.

"Yes please." Moxxie smiled up at her and he was pushed back and forth to the point he couldn't help but laugh due to the butterflies in his stomach. Before he knew it, it was time to return to class. Moxxie was returned to the carpet to practise counting to twenty, he used his fingers to keep up his act. He was then given a work sheet where he had to fill in the blanks for numbers 1 to 20. He finished quickly so Mrs. Parks gave him another task where he had to count objects and circle how many there were. He finished quickly and was given some addition to do which he also finished quickly. Mrs. Parks then decided that this was enough for a five-year-old (if only she knew) and gave him a special sticker and told him "how good" he was and "how he did so well" and "how she couldn't wait to show his mummy." Before setting him off for extra play early. Moxxie decided to sit in the tent for a while, he found some jigsaws there and began to complete them, he was half way through a thirty-piece jigsaw before Draco entered.

"Show off!" Draco yelled at him, pushing his face into the jigsaw. In most cases Moxxie could've fought back easily, but at this time he was five and half this hell hound's size. Moxxie tried his best to get back up, but he couldn't, he had to wait until Draco released him. "Disgusting little imp, think you're better than the rest of us, because you can do more than we can?"

"N-no." Moxxie stuttered nervous, he was more worried about his cover being blown than anything this hell hound pup could do.

"I'm going to kill you!" The pup yelled at him, covering his mouth and nose with his paw. Moxxie could not breathe. He tried to push and kick the pup off, but it was no use. He had no choice. He managed to poke his tongue out of his mouth which caused Draco's hand to release him enough for him to bite him. Moxxie only meant to give the child a shock, just enough so he wouldn't do it again. But imp teeth are sharp and Moxxie managed to make two long incisions in Draco's paws. Draco screamed at the blood and ran out of the tent. Moxxie was in shock, he never meant for that to happen, not ever. He had hurt a child, a little boy, he felt on the verge of tears. He felt ashamed and cruel, he was worried what Millie would think of him, he allowed himself to cry, he felt his chest grow heavy as he was pulled out of the tent. It was Mrs. Parks.

"Moxxie is what Draco told me true? Did you bite him?"

Moxxie started to pant, he was gasping for air.

"Well?"

"I…uh…sort of…but no…he." Moxxie panted more. Mrs. Parks rested her hand on his shoulder. "Moxxie, you need to see the nurse, come on." Mrs. Parks helped Moxxie to his feet. "Count and breathe with me. Breathe in: 1, 2, 3, 4, 5. Hold. Breathe out: 1, 2, 3, 4, 5." Moxxie followed her lead. He was almost out of it by the time he was at the nurses' office. Mrs. Parks and the nurse allowed Moxxie to get himself out of it after that. Once Moxxie had calmed down he was given a plastic cup of water and a small plate of grapes. "Thankyou." Moxxie said, he then looked at Mrs. Parks beside him and then looked at his knees, unsure of what to say or do.

"Are you ok now Moxxie?" Mrs. Parks asked.

"Yes." Moxxie replied, even though he was unsure. His face was still flowing with tears. Mrs. Parks handed him a tissue. "Here son."

"Thanks."

"Now is what Draco told me true, did you bite him?"

"Yeah, but he…"

Mrs. Parks held up her hand. "No Moxxie, we do not bite here. You made Draco bleed; do you understand that?"

"Yes, but…"

"Moxxie, no! You never bite! We use our words here. We do not hit or bite."

"He…"

"No! Moxxie, listen! It doesn't matter what he did to you, you never do that, ever, do you understand?"

Moxxie knew there was no use defending himself, he had no choice but to give in, "yes Mrs. Parks."

"That's good. Now what are you going to say to Draco when you next see him?"

"Sorry." Moxxie was trying his best not to snarl.

"That's good. I think you're ok now. You'll be having your lunch with me in the classroom and you are staying in at lunch time, do you understand?"

"Yes Miss."

"And I will also be speaking to your mommy when she comes to get you."

"Yes Miss." Moxxie felt embarrassed and ashamed, plus he was worried about how Millie was going to react when she found out he'd injured an actual child. He was led back to the classroom and was given spaghetti hoops with nuggets and potato smiles; a glass of milk and a chocolate fudge cake. He ate it and watched out of the corner of his eye as the rest of the kindergartners were taken outside whilst he stopped inside, punished. He didn't care about not going out to play and socialise with a group of five-year-olds, what he cared about was the reaction of his wife and how that kid Draco must get away with bullying others smaller than him.

Moxxie just lay his head on the desk, he was tired after his panic attack, it was a lot for a five-year-old to take. Just as he was about to drift off, he felt a small tap on his back. He woke "uh" he moaned, he looked up and saw Ingrid and Samuel above him.

"Hey, Moxxie." Spoke Ingrid.

"Yes."

"We know you stood up to Draco and we think it was very brave." She complimented him

"Really?" Moxxie was confused.

"Yes, Draco is a big bully. The only reason he gets away with his 'haviour is because he has a wich Mommy and Daddy who are on the PTA." Samuel informed Moxxie.

"Yeah, his Mommy and Daddy pay a lot of money to the school. You're a hero Moxxie." Ingrid added.

"Thanks." Moxxie smiled as the other children left him where he sat. When they were gone Moxxie lay his head back on the desk and began to sleep, until another gentle hand touched his back. "Moxxie." It said, Moxxie looked up into the eyes of his wife.

"Mi-Mommy?" He asked, forgetting himself for a split second.

Millie placed Moxxie on her knee. "I see you drew this lovely picture of me, and Mrs. Parks says you did very well in math, but did something happen after that?"

"Yes. In free play after registration this hell hound called Draco knocked me off the piano. I ignored it. Then after math I went in the tent to do jigsaws and he came and he covered up my nose and mouth and I couldn't breathe. So, I bit him. M-m-mommy I only meant to give him a shock, I didn't mean to make him bleed. Please don't hate me."

Millie's heart broke. She knew that on that last sentence "please don't hate me" Moxxie was no longer acting at all. She lifted him on to her chest and embraced him. "Moxxie honey, I don't hate you, that kid is a lot bigger than you. You must have been so scared. Does Mrs. Parks know about this? Did you tell her?"

"I tried; she wouldn't listen. Ingrid and Samuel say Draco gets away with being mean because his parents are rich and pay a lot of money into the school."

Millie pulled Moxxie further into her arms and cuddled him in. "I don't hate you; I love you so much. My beautiful son. My little five-year-old. There, there." Millie comforted the now sobbing Moxxie before she turned to his teacher and growled. "My five-year-old had a panic attack from a bully who tried to suffocate him and you keep him in and let that bully get away with it! My child could've been killed in a kindergarten where he is meant to be safe! I trusted you with my little boy and this is what I come back to! Over money!"

"But…you see…" Mrs. Parks stammered.

"Oh just save it! I'm telling my girlfriends this story, good luck getting any future students enrolling here after I'm done you bitch!" Millie carried Moxxie out of the classroom, Moxxie smugly waved "bye" to Mrs. Parks as he was carried out of the door. As Moxxie was carried out of the office, Miss. Eye looked up and said, "that kid, Draco, is a little shit, good on you kid and Mom, good on you."

Millie carried Moxxie and buckled him in on the booster seat. "Moxxie, I am so sorry."

"It's ok, it wasn't your fault."

"Moxxie, I know you would never hurt a child. That kid is currently bigger and stronger than you and was causing you serious danger. At your normal height and size, you could've easily over powered him. What you did was self-defence. That teacher was being a prat. I love you and I'd never leave you or hate you. Is that why you were crying?"

"Yes."

"Oh sweetie." Millie rubbed his knees. "Let's get you home."

Moxxie smiled, he fell asleep on the ride home. He was very tired. Millie carried him to the couch and lay him under a thin blanket. He woke up an hour and a half later. Millie came over him with an envelope. He opened it with his sharp claws and saw two tickets to see Lion King on stage that very evening.

"Thankyou Millie." He smiled his eyes and mouth full of joy.

"Your welcome sweetheart, it's the least I could do, you've had such a long day." Millie picked Moxxie up and handed him a small, light blue tuxedo with a red bow tie. "You just tell me if you need any help with it."

"Thanks Mills."

Moxxie went and put on the tuxedo and Millie went and put on a red cocktail dress before driving Moxxie to the theatre with her and taking him to see Lion King. Moxxie and Millie loved the show, they enjoyed every minute. Millie then drove an energetic Moxxie back home and ordered the pair of them pizza before they both turned in for the night.