The young ginger boy had a quiet, rough start to life. Weak, but not quite sickly, he'd been subdued for a long time. He was too young to know or remember any strife, and life was simply quiet. Peaceful.
Borrrrriiiiiiinggggggggggggggg!
He hardly got to leave the nest, just laid framed against his Mothers pale fur, fussed over. It was nice, sure, there was no shortage of love, but the babes young mind yearned for stimulation. To stretch his legs. Explore the big wide endless den! Sure, he liked the brown face and the ginger face that came to see him often, but it wasn’t enough.

One thing he enjoyed was when the window glowed blue at night; in a way, it reminded him of the sparkle in his fur, and on the fur of the Big Ginger. Something special he didn't really understand.
He wanted to know what it was.
Thankfully, though he had seen the adults go in and out of the doorway many times, it was the window he flocked to when he finally managed to scramble free of the blanket. It was the blue he wanted to investigate! So spindly golden legs pulled him carefully up and out, slipping his lanky little self sneakily from the nest and taking him away, away, away from confinement.
Yknow, from the side of one body onto another.
Uncoordinated and unsteady, but trucking along unimpeded by anything like manners or godly hours. It was dark, and the window shone with the blue of the distant flame. He would not be cowed!
He either didn’t notice or care that the wooden floor turned plush and ginger as he climbed from the nest onto a body proper, clumsy, rude, up to the window ledge to peer outside with a soft coo. If there was a body in the way, well, it seemed to him that just like any other time it was there to help him!

The plush ginger floor noticed.
Penny noticed when the babe started stirring, but he thought as usual, Mintaka would shush him back to sleep. His eyes slipped closed again. Minty managed the kids, Penny managed the food; easy. He’d been asking Verbena for her help again, and somehow, this time… It was different.
He felt different. He felt... Useful. Felt like he was a part of something, felt important. It wasn’t just a duty: he loved taking care of this budding family in any way he could.

The next thing he knew, there were tiny paws digging into his flank, shocking him back to wakefulness. He kept perfectly still, unsure what to do, and just… slowly, opened his eyes. The boy was clambering right onto him, didn’t seem to notice or… care? The Nightshade wasn’t sure which, but one way or the other, the whelp scaled Penny without help.
Slowly. With paws shoving between ribs and then putting full weight on them, clumsy and in a way that made him very sure there would be bruises tomorrow, and perhaps a slight shift from dear ol’ dad when he kept slipping, but yeah, he did it all by himself.

Pennyroyal, pancaked to the ground, just whale-eyed up at the kid and waited to catch him if he tumbled down. Did… he say something? Ask what he was lookin’ at? Would it scare him?
He settled on just… watching.