Threads

by gitz

Reading the fine print should be the least of Felix and Poindexter's worries. There may be something more nefarious bubbling underneath the cold hard surface, and they might not like what they see.

1. Night Out

'Dressed and ready for a night of skating! U two meet me in front of the roller rink. K? I will be waiting there'

'Sounds good, Kitty. Poinsy's greasing up our skates. We'll be on our way in a minute.'

'kk! Don't forget its neon nite.'

'I won't forget. Looking forward to it. Don't cause too much trouble if Waldo shows up.'

'can't promise that one. See ya until then Felix :3 3'

Felix turned off his phone's screen and resumed the preparations for the planned night out. Opening up his yellow bag, he packed various glow sticks and bracelets into it, including some light up accessories in case anyone in the group was in need of a little something extra.

An atmosphere of pure joy filled the living room where the two boys were getting ready. While a special evening up ahead, it was all still very casual. A little excitement to help balance out the slow few past weeks in the area. There was nothing particularly eventful going on lately, so it was something.

Okay. Maybe a night of skating in a controlled environment wasn't exactly something Felix would consider living on the edge for his standards. But it was worth seeing Poindexter come more out of his shell around other people beyond just him and Kitty. Was quite the shift to see take place. From the first time he met the formerly more reserved redheaded human, to the present where there seemed to be more of a skip in Poindexter's steps whenever the opportunity to hang out together presented itself. It even began to feel less tense and awkward interacting with the boy's uncle for Felix, which was certainly a welcomed change.

Kitty insisted they go with her tonight, anyway. A molly's persistence that could only be rivaled by the black cat's wit and forward thinking.

"This should be enough glowy items for tonight." Felix closed his bag shut and quickly patted his fur back in place. "Think I might have packed a little too much of them?"

"Well, knowing Kitty, she might appreciate the extra decorative light sources. She does have a tendency to go big or go home, even more than Sheba does." Poindexter deduced as he sprayed the skate's wheels with swift precision. "Tonight is a new moon, and it will be nearly midnight when the skating rink closes. So they will have much more practical use on the way home."

"Oh, yeah. I guess you're right about that, Poinsy." Felix chuckled, "The terrain to and from your home here is already a small hike in of itself. I can't imagine trying to avoid tripping and falling all the way down in pitch black."

How much Felix wanted to block out the memory of his rough tumble down one of the hillsides in his first week in the area. Not even Kitty was prepared to warn him of the potential hazards that came with leaving the town's limits.

"For you it might be a challenge. But for me, this valley is my backyard." He smiled at the cat standing across from him in the room. "Before I met you, I would spend the rest of the day outside after I finished my home school lessons. Until the sun went down, or when uncle called me, of course."

"Really? I never really pegged you as the outdoor type." Felix defensively gestured in a frantic sign of reassurance. "Not that there was ever anything odd about you in general."

"No offense taken." He waved back reassuringly at the feline. "Not all of my inventions can be worked on and tested indoors. Besides, studying the elements and wildlife is just as fascinating as making something brand new in a lab. All materials used to create what makes our lives more convenient came from a natural source, after all."

"Huh, I never thought of it like that." Felix eyed the yellow bag in his view, momentarily pondering what the redhead just stated. "You know, when he wasn't trying to steal my bag, I got the impression that your uncle was strict. But, the more you talk about it, the more your home life sounds similar to mine before I moved here."

"He's always been pretty hands-off. As long as I finished my assignments, the sky was the limit of what I could do on my free time." Poindexter explained fondly, until his facial expression suddenly became neutral. "Until I invited a family of foxes into the house. That's when he put limits on what I could and couldn't bring in from outside." He blankly stated.

Felix resisted a snicker. "I guess he's not much of a nature person like you?"

Poindexter shook his head. "Oh no. Outside of that incident, he always looked forward to what I would bring inside at the end of the day." He finished on the skate's wheels with one last strong spritz. "One year for Father's Day I even crossbred a carnivorous plant for him. He still keeps it in his lab to this day to ward off intruders."

The cat's eyes shifted almost as fast as the human reminiscent his fond memories. "You made that thing?" He cleared his throat, trying to avoid any further potential unease. "Oh, um, hearing that now makes for a more wholesome, and less terrifying, memory of the Professor sicking it on me, then."

"I apologize for my uncle for using it to antagonize you in the past, Mr. Felix." Poindexter got up from where he sat, pair of skates in hand, "After we get back tonight, I will make sure it can't attack you again." He walked over to the black cat. "A basic scent familiarization process will do the trick."

Felix tried to speak up, wanting to apologize for any offense he may have caused the human boy. But his pair of roller skates were handed over to him faster than he had the chance to move his lips.

"For now, I want you to try out this new wheel lubrication formula of mine." Poindexter insisted, "It should allow your skates to glide across even the roughest of surfaces."

Not a second longer of waiting, Felix got right to strapping the skates onto his feet. With some fast clicks, the straps were tightly secured, keeping the pair of sportswear snug on the feline.

Maybe he was too eager, or he propelled himself forward too soon, but Felix was already on the other side of the living room. It would have been a welcomed surprise if not for him nearly slamming into the frame leading into the hallway. If it weren't for his hands cushioning the impact, Felix was certain he would have been out like a light for hours to come. A couple of tries to straighten himself out was required, even with the wheels firmly planted onto the hard floor beneath him, keeping his clawed fingers wrapped around the edge of the hallway entrance for extra leverage.

Slowly, he twisted his body until his back faced the hard wall, opposed to gripping onto it for support. Felix finally got his body to balance out with the new sensitivity of his skates.

"It will take getting used to on the first few rounds. Think of it as your minimum stats now being elevated." Poindexter explained to the cat. "Just start off at your lowest speed and then gradually go faster the more acclimated you become to it."

Felix frustratingly grunted, "If I can even make it across the room without a concussion."

Steadying himself further, Felix braced himself, and then gave his body a very tiny, minuscule push away from the wall. They were hardly baby steps, but taking Poindexter's advice was quickly paying off, allowing him to reach the other side of the room with a far more gentle stop. Felix felt his confidence grow as fast as he did coming to grips with the wheels being used as yet another test subject of Poindexter's work. Taking more laps back and forth from the opposite ends of the living room, each one decreasing in the time it took to make one, as his feline's more precise movements adapted to it.

Whatever doubts Felix had for Poindexter's new invention blew past him just as fast as the furniture he now found himself maneuvering around. Strange how this cycle repeated itself. Offering himself up as a guinea pig for the nephew of the man who only recently became stand-offish at the very least towards him. Each new invention to test out starting off very rocky. But whether through trusting the process, rigorous trial and error, or pure luck, the kinks would usually be worked out. Usually...

That's where Felix should have given up. But even when a project turned out to be a complete failure, something kept him from leaving Poindexter high and dry. The reason came right back to remind him, briskly circling around the redhead observing the performance of the formula he worked on. Seeing his fruits of labor pay off. The proud look of joy on the human's round face knowing another person is willing to be first one in line to beta his work. Even his large round thick rimmed glasses couldn't fully conceal it.

Knowing he helped create that joy for Poindexter made Felix experience a sense of satisfaction he couldn't describe. Content he never achieved before he began hanging out with him. Just being in his company right now had Felix feeling weightless, even if for a very brief moment. Or maybe it was just the skates creating that sensation.

With much needed confidence now within him, Felix took it upon himself to test out Poindexter's improvements on the wheels by making full laps around the room. Following as close as the cat could manage to the walls, barely hugging them at points. Gliding in a near blur at points until he remembered to focus. With that his keen eyesight picked up details with every improved lap around.

The assortment of photos hanging up on the wall became Felix's incentive on improving his focus. They served as the cat's guide on his progress, eventually having to ability to clearly make out the memories captured and preserved. Ribbons of varying colors framed with pictures of Poindexter winning science based competitions. Holidays of past years celebrated. Birthdays showcasing a rough timeline of growth. Many more moments Felix had no doubts were fondly looked back on.

But then a special one caught the cat's eye. Honing in on the peculiar photo, his stride slowed with every round made, soon enough rolling to a complete stop within near direct eye contact of it.

No mistaken it. Although younger in appearance, that was no doubt the Professor in the picture. However, what actually caught Felix's attention wasn't present in any of the other photographs adorning the living room's wall. It was two other people he's never seen before.

A little surreal in how much the man next to the Professor could almost be like a prediction of what Poindexter might end up looking when he's grown up. The only thing missing were a pair of glasses. Those went on the woman in the photo, though, but only here they were butterfly frames holding in the lenses obscuring her eyes. Strands of her thick golden blonde hair coming loose, evidence of any attempted preparation for the picture coming underdone.

"They're my mother and father."

Felix flinched as he finally noticed Poindexter's presence right next to him. Was he really that focused on the picture?

"Really? What are their names?" Felix asked.

Pointing towards the man standing next to his uncle, "Dexter," then changing the direction over to the woman on the opposite end in the photo, "and Alba."

After hesitating for a moment, "I've never seen them around here. Do they live somewhere out of town?"

"No." Poindexter responded plainly, "Me and my uncle are currently of their possible whereabouts. They left for business and never came back. None one ever heard a word from them again."

Now he was starting to regret prying the human with a more personal question. How many times was he going to let his curiosity get him into situations he rather not find himself in? Felix thought he learned his lesson about that. But the cycle just repeats, he guessed.

"Oh," Felix paused, "I'm sorry."

"No need to feel apologetic, Mr. Felix." Poindexter replied, "I had only just turned one years old when they disappeared. So, I don't really remember them, anyway."

Felix inspected the photo again in silence. There was something about it that felt as if he was looking into another mirrored world of there's. It clashed, no, utterly contradicted all of Felix's past experiences and interactions with the Professor. Even with his recent truce, there was still tension between them, only making a real effort to back off because he became good friends with his nephew. But here, in this captured moment from years ago, the man appeared to be just as lively and jovial as the other man and the women standing next to him.

"Were there ever any leads of where they could have potentially went?" Felix cautiously inquired.

"Not really. It was like they vanished." Adjusting his glasses, the human continued. "But to this day, my uncle doesn't believe they abandoned us." Felix couldn't see underneath his glasses, but he knew Poindexter's attention shifted on the picture. How exactly, he wasn't too sure. "The very last time he ever saw them, mom and dad were eager to return as soon as possible. They were excited to get married, and move into their own house. That's what uncle told me, at least."

Peering back over to the later photographs taken hanging up on the wall, the clear sentimental nature of them all came together for the cat. Each picture either showing a milestone or achieving in Poindexter's life, or the boy's uncle in the place of where his parents would have been for special memories as a family.

When was the last time he's ever done something even remotely close to this, Felix wondered to himself.

"Why do you ask, Felix?" Poindexter curiously inquired the feline.

He snapped back into focus, realizing he dozed off into his own thoughts. He needs to quit doing that. "I assumed for a while you were just or staying with the Professor temporarily." Felix answered, "I guess being allowed to our own devices isn't the only thing we have in common."

"Your biological parents are absent, too?"

"Yes, and no."

It felt like the room fell completely still, even if it was for a couple of seconds. Felix swore that uncomfortable sensation of his fur standing up begin to hit him. Memories both fond and more unsavory crossing his mind.

"My mom travels for her job all the time. She's gone so much I forget she even exists at times." His tail twitched, "The situation with my old man is one-to-one with your folks. One day he went out, and he never came back. Never heard from him again, without any trace. Just like you, I was too young to remember much about him."

Poindexter hesitated before he asked, "What about siblings?"

"Yeah, I have one. My older brother, Julius. I guess his sons, Inky and Winky, could count towards that, too. Those two were always more closer to little brothers to me, than my nephews." Felix didn't mind the question, honestly. It was always clear that Poindexter was an only child, even before he learned about his situation. "But Julius was already old enough to move out by the time I was born. So he wasn't a pinch as present in my life as a sibling would normally be in someone's childhood." Felix grimaced, "I did have a group of friends I hung out when I was very little, though. But, they all eventually moved away. Kitty and her family are really the only friends from my early years I still see today."

He still remembers the gradual process. One by one, each friend he knew since he was very little leaving him sooner or later. Not by choice, of course, but from circumstances beyond their control. Always the choices their parents made for them. Still didn't make easier for him to go through every time it happened.

But as soon as the winds of change came for Kitty and Rosco to move far away with their family, that's when Felix searched elsewhere for excitement. He chose to search under every wrong stone, though.

"Oh, is that why you moved out here?" asked Poindexter, "For Kitty?"

Felix grinned sheepishly, "Sorta. It's more complicated than that."

Where could he even start?

"I kinda had a reputation of being a troublemaker, back in the city I previously called home. I was even on a first name basis with the police." Felix snickered, remembering the very moment he learned that the city's law enforcement had a special code for him. "Since my mother was never present, I was afforded more freedom than someone in my age range normally would."

Every night of his life back in city was one big, rowdy party for the cat. No need to sneak out of the house necessary.

Felix wriggled his way into bars and nightclubs, and even accomplished tricking from bartenders to store owners that he was of age to drink and purchase alcohol. But he found himself gravitating more to wards parties held in houses and flats. The lack of control, and more crowded corners, just found more alluring in Felix's eyes.

On more adventurous nights Felix would try his luck with climbing over fences just to take a swim in closed pools with friends, to counterfeiting admission into the local amusement park near the beach. Risking charges of trespassing, and breaking all other sorts of other laws, to hop onto rooftops to set off fireworks. Other times it would be some crazy competition that involves jumping off of the rooftops in some form.

But his tendency to row with opponents bigger than him is what officially placed the bulls-eye on Felix's furry back. True, Felix wasn't the instigator in all of the incidents. Never backing down though was always a guarantee way for him to make new enemies, and he made a lot of them back in the city. But he always managed to outsmart everyone and keep his wits about him.

The bag Felix kept only upped the chaos he found himself in. What he was already capable of pulling off by himself was only further elevated by it.

Nothing can last forever, though. Felix would eventually slip up, no matter how sneaky he was.

"Sooner or later, I tried my luck one too many times, and I was sent to live here, where Kitty's family could keep an eye on me." Felix was convinced that he was sent to live in Sunrise Hill because the city's police department was plain sick of dealing with him. It wasn't to keep him out of trouble. It was to keep him out of their jail and prison. "Not too sure that's panning out as planned. I think my mischievous habits have rubbed off on Kitty over the years, if anything."

"Oh my." Poindexter didn't entirely expect the circumstances surrounding Felix's arrival to be that. "I guess that explains your more independent nature for your age."

"It's okay. The arrangement seems to have worked out in the end." Felix smiled, "If it wasn't for all my past delinquency, I wouldn't have met you."

Felix wasn't going to lie himself, there. If there was one change he fully welcomed since moving to this town, having someone to actually go to at the end of the night was it. Instead of an empty flat, and the usual scheduled delivered check from his absent mother, there was Kitty, Rosco, Sheba- and Poindexter.

Felix found himself visiting the human boy at night more frequently recently. Kitty usually went to bed at normal hours, but Poindexter, just like Felix he also seemed to be something of a night owl himself. Climbing up to his bedroom window in a cinch, to find the human still up working on something, and then gladly being invited in. It was worth the risk of getting an earful from the boy's uncle.

"And we might soon be short of one less friend if we keep Kitty waiting." Poindexter pointed in the direction of the hanging clock to their right.

"I guess you're right." Felix said, "Let me grab her water bottle and we'll get going." He grabbed his phone. "I'll let Kitty know we're on our way, right now."

The doorbell rang just as Felix rolled his way back to his bag.

"I'll get it." Poindexter offered. "Whoever it is, good thing they came by before we left."

The human left the main living room, quickly walking to the front door located nearby. Opening the door, he was greeted by a guest no more out of the ordinary from the other travelers who passed through the area. A tall grey fox dressed in a sweater, with a scarf wrapped comfortably around it's collar bone, with the remaining piece of the apparel draped over his chest. There was still a professional air to him despite the more casual wear.

"Hello. What brings you here today, sir?" Poindexter greeted the stranger.

"Is, Professor Mercer Nutmeg, home?" The fox asked. "I have business matters to tend to with him."

"He's out right now." Poindexter informed.

"Oh, then is it fine if I hang around here until he returns?"

Poindexter wasn't too sure what hit him. It was like the room suddenly fell cold. Goosebumps forming underneath the sleeves of his white button down collared shirt, leaving his body frozen momentarily. He didn't like it. A sensation so unpleasant, so intense, and it wouldn't leave him. Muscles tensing up, like pin pricks in his hands binding him from reacting.

Unease in him increased the longer he stared at the fox and his striking silhouette against the dusk taking over the environment. Whatever his curling gut was trying to tell him, well, he didn't want to find out.

"He only takes appointments." He fibbed. "However, I can give you his business number, or even call him, so you don't have to spend your evening here for nothing."

"Sounds perfectly manageable. I extend my deepest gratitude to you, young man." The fox thanked him.

He didn't want to come off as rude, but he was about to go out with Felix, anyway. His uncle was not one who liked to be disturbed with unannounced inquiries, too. So he wasn't really lying to this gentleman at the door. It would be unfair to waste his night, after all. But he still couldn't shake the discomfort in his whole body.

In a hurry, Poindexter pulled out his phone, turning on it's screen. Finding his uncle's number took far shorter time to find than what might be considered average. Even after he met Felix, Poindexter preferred to remain selective on that front. Outside of Felix, Kitty, and Sheba, he saw the device as just another little, less advanced, toy to take apart and mess around with. It served as a good alternative to communicate with Vavoom, when the ancient language he communicated through wasn't possible when not physically present. Esmeralda still occasionally struggles on how to use these things properly. There's no telling whenever Martin was actually on Earth, or even within the needed distance of a tower or satellite. And he rather be stranded in the most remote desert island, than letting Waldo have his number.

The lingering feeling of dread came to the conclusion he hoped it would never arrive at. It slammed into it much like Felix almost did with the wall minutes ago. As if time froze, Poindexter's heart instantly stopped mid-beat.

A sharp twinkle caught Poindexter's eye. The last kind he wanted to see, though. He didn't wait a second longer to watch the sharp barb unsheathe directly from the skin on the fox's right wrist. Unfortunately, it was far too late.

"Fe-"

His call for help cut off, ending in a sharp gasp of shock. A rough blunt force struck the human boy, stabbing into his lower left shoulder, so hard it jarred his whole body back a couple full inches. There was no time for him to even process his skin breaking. His muscles burned like they were set ablaze, and within a matter of fleeting seconds, his entire body went numb.

It happened so fast, yet, it felt like time practically fell to a standstill. Poindexter wanted to curse himself for being so foolish, but even that he was given no time to think in his head, feeling it spinning in a fury. Vision smudging into a blur as he was being picked up and off from the floor, and then hastily slung over his assailant's shoulder.

Trembling hands were the last parts of Poindexter to fall limp. Phone sliding out of his erratically twitching fingers desperately attempting to tap the call icon no matter what. That severely narrow window literally slipped out of his grasp, the loud clatter signaling how there was nothing he could do now. Moving even his lips was stripped away from him.

Felix's pointy ears twitched before they perked straight up. Although he was still in the living room, they instantly picked up the sounds up at the front.

"Poinsy?" Felix called, showing concern and urgency.

He tapped the message sending command on his phone, and put it in his bag before hastily closing it. Felix didn't even bother to remove his skates and rolled straight up to the hallway. Glancing down the hallway, his heart tanked.

Empty!

The front door was wide open. But no one was standing there.

Felix's sight laser focused, he rolled straight up to the door frame, faster than before his top speed during practice. He wasted no precious second, scanning every possible visible surrounding at the door. Both inside and outside of the home. Using his ears to hear any possible abnormality under the droning rattles of the cicada or the cacophony of crickets chirping.

Then he saw it. Felix's pupils shrinking into sharp pin pricks when he did.

He didn't recognize the figure hastily sprinting down the hill the house sat on top of. Who was hanging over it's shoulder, much to the cat's dismay, was a different story. And they were already half way down the hill. The increasing darkness swallowing the two up.

"Poindexter!"

Author's notes:

- In this AU, Felix is in his teen years. I thought it would make for a good compromise with combining his earlier rougher and cheekier portrayal, and his later softer and friendlier ones, characterization wise. The same thing goes for other characters like Poindexter, kitty, Sheba, etc.- they are also depicted as young teenagers in this.

- I pull from many different pieces of Felix the Cat related media for this AU, but I'm mainly pulling from the 60s cartoon, Twisted Tales, and the movie.

- Aside from one exception, just about all of the characters in this- who aren't parents of a canon character- are officially in the same way to the ever odd rabbit hole that is Felix the Cat media. So if you wondering what certain characters are and why you haven't heard of them before; you're not crazy, they are indeed canon in some way.