#I swear if I was ACTUALLY typing WRTITNG instead of WRITING I'll fight someone

[chaolie]

Fundy Week, Day 2 - Food

Thank you, Fundy for letting us know Wilbur made you eat on the floor as a kid, very useful for this day of @fundyfiles' Fundy week! Here is my attempt at making that make sense! You can also read this chapter on my Ao3!

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Words: 1.6k

Characters: Fundy, Wilbur, Sally, Yogurt

Warnings: Poison (It's not too serious but better be safe than sorry)

Summary: After falling out of his chair one time too many, Fundy ends up eating on the floor. Unfortunately, not everything within his reach is actually edible. Learning from his parents' mistake, Fundy makes sure Yogurt can tell apart berries and spider eyes.

“Nope!” Wilbur yelped, miraculously catching Fundy before he’d hit the floor. “How… do you keep doing that?” he asked, quickly moving the fox kit to sit on his lap instead. In doing so, he accidentally knocked his fork off the table.

“...I’ll go get you a new one,” Sally decided, getting up from her seat and quickly disappearing into the kitchen.

“Thank you!” Wilbur called after her. He reached down to the floor, picked up the fork, and put it aside before turning his attention to Fundy again. “Is the chair that uncomfortable?”

The fox kit looked at the homemade baby chair he was just sitting on and his ears flattened against his head.

“Is it too small?” Wilbur asked, and Fundy looked at him again. He seemed… hopeful? “...Is my little champion too big for the baby chair?” he cooed, and the kit giggled quietly. “Alright, we’ll make you a bigger chair. And for now…”

Wilbur got up from the table and carried Fundy over to one of the nearby chests. He somehow held the fox kit up with one hand while he used the other one to dig through the chest, throwing out some items until he finally pulled out a single red carpet. He held it up triumphantly and quickly shut the chest before bringing both Fundy and the carpet back to the table. There, he gently placed the garment on the floor and sat Fundy down on it.

“Is this enough space now?” he asked, and the fox kit moved around a bit. Sure enough, it didn’t feel as uncomfortably closed off as the baby chair. He nodded. “Great! Do you want to eat down here today, then? I promise I’ll get you a better chair before supper, okay?”

Fundy nodded again, so his father stood up and took his plate off the table to place it on the carpet. Even when he got his food back, the fox kit was far too occupied with admiring all the open space he suddenly had. If he got bored, he could now stand up or lie down or run around or- he could do almost anything! However, as much as he wanted to do all of those things now and simultaneously, his hunger suddenly made itself apparent again, so he picked up his fork and started to eat. He could have some fun later.

“...Wilbur, where is our son?” Sally sighed once she finally returned from the kitchen. Fundy looked up at his dad while his dad looked down at him.

“He… didn’t like the chair, so he’s here now,” he answered with a hint of uncertainty in his voice. For a moment, everyone was silent.

“...On the floor?” Sally asked, and Wilbur was quick to shake his head.

“No, no, no! He’s not on the floor, I got him a carpet! Look!” he encouraged her to come closer and see. “His chair is getting too small, so I made sure he had some space to run around if he wanted! I’ll make him a new chair today, too-”

“Okay, okay,” Sally interrupted him. She seemed much calmer now that she knew her son wasn’t eating off the literal floor. She walked over to Wilbur’s side and handed him a fork before crouching down next to Fundy. “Are you comfortable like this, sweetheart?”

Fundy responded with a cheerful yip and an excited nod.

“That’s great,” Sally ruffled his hair gently. “And you don’t want to eat… I don’t know, while I or dad are holding you?”

This time, Fundy quickly shook his head. That sounded nice, sure, but he was not giving up his open space for anything!

“Okay. Hm… Oh, do you want me to move my chair so you can see us both?” Sally suggested. After a moment of consideration, Fundy nodded again.

“That’s a great idea,” Wilbur chimed in, getting up from his chair to help his wife move her things.

Now with both of his parents at his sides, Fundy cheerfully went back to eating, and he had to admit, eating on the floor was awesome! He was free to shift around, he no longer had to worry about falling off of anything, and he could see so many interesting things! Most of them must’ve come from the chest his dad searched for the carpet, and they all seemed pretty neat! There were some feathers, a couple of sticks, two or three golden nuggets… one item in particular really caught his attention, though.

A single berry.

It looked tempting. It seemed to be very ripe, so ripe that it was on the verge of being scarlet, not bright red like the ones he usually had. He couldn’t see any leaves attached to it, so he wouldn’t have to worry about accidentally biting one, he could just take it and eat it… Sure, he probably shouldn’t eat things off the floor, but wasn’t he doing that already anyway? Besides, how much harm could one berry cause? Deciding that he was essentially done with his dinner already, Fundy quietly got off the carpet and snuck over to where he saw the berry.

It was strange at the touch, very soft, but he supposed that it was okay. It’d be like having a berry and drinking berry juice, two in one! He also noticed a strange little stem attached to it… it didn’t look like a stick, it was the same color as the dark berry… oh well! He was just getting more food out of it, he figured! Excited about the little dessert he found for himself, he excitedly bit into it.

That was a mistake.

He scrunched up his face, it was bitter! It was bitter, and it burned his throat, and it was strangely chewy, but somehow dry, and it was… He tried to spit it out, but it was too late, and he suddenly felt sick. The world seemed a bit blurry and his head got dizzy, and he felt tempted to just lie down, close his eyes, and get some rest, but something at the back of his head was stopping him. Instead, he somehow made his way back to the table, still clutching the strange berry in one of his hands, and tugged on his father’s pants.

“Huh? What’s up?” the man asked, looking down at him.

The fox kit looked up at him with a sour expression and held up the berry.

“... Shit-”

“Wilbur!” Sally hushed him before looking down at Fundy and immediately freezing. “...Did he-”

“I’ll get milk,” Wilbur decided, getting up from his chair and essentially sprinting into the kitchen.

“Hey, hey, sweetheart,” Sally said, getting Fundy’s attention and picking him up. She took the berry spider eye out of his hand and put it aside before starting to rock him gently. “It’s okay, it’s okay, dad will get you milk and you’ll feel better! Just stay calm!”

Fundy nodded, but still let out a quiet whine shortly after. Sally just held him closer in response. He’d feel better in just a moment, he tried to convince himself, it would stop hurting soon… By the time his father returned, he was so disorientated that he could barely hold onto the bottle, but the drink magically brought some solace to his burning throat. Once the pain started to fade enough to let him think again, he was quick to promise to himself to not eat any berries anytime soon.

Later that day, his parents did sit him down and explained how to tell a spider eye and a berry apart, but the situation still left a bitter taste in his mouth long after the pain had fully faded. Why didn't they tell him before?!

Fundy paused as his hand came across something small, round, and squishy. He carefully pulled it out of the chest to get a better look at it, finding the iron he needed could wait. The moment he got the item out, a smile appeared on his face. A spider eye! He loved those! Sure, it was a taste you had to get used to and it took him a while to build up some immunity to the poison, but now they had to be one of his favorite-

Yogurt sneezed, accidentally getting Fundy’s attention.

He looked over his shoulder and saw his son sitting on the floor of their cottage, a feather in hand and a very confused expression on his face. He smiled, wasn’t his son the cutest- Then, another thought crossed his mind and he looked back at the item in his own hand. He remembered the first time he ate one, he couldn’t have been that far from his son’s age back then and it was not a pleasant surprise.

Should he sit down with Yogurt and tell him not to mistake spider eyes for berries, or could that wait? He wasn’t sure if his son would be too happy about hearing how sometimes the giant spiders they see in the forest leave their eyes behind themselves once they die, that was disgusting! Besides, they were supposed to have dinner soon, and if Fundy accidentally made Yogurt too worried about eating an eye, he probably wouldn’t dare to even touch berries for ages-

No, he scolded himself. No, that was not something that could wait. What if he wasn’t around when Yogurt found out the hard way?! He couldn’t risk that. The fox kit didn’t seem to mind other “gross” things too, and if he would be scared to eat berries for some time, they still had meat, bread, and even some potatoes! They’d manage, and he wasn't about to repeat his parents' mistake.

“Hey, Yogurt?” he started, walking over to the chest they stored their food in and pulling out some berries. “Come here, I need to show you something.”