I consider this as something to go along with the other thing I'm writing, but it's something that I think can stand on its own (non-existent) legs. Plus, I've wanted to do this for a bit now. I'll try to stop myself from going into hyper-fanboy mode and make things uber wince-worthy. With that in mind, this'll be kinda AU.
For once, Fox was looking forward to retiring to his quarters for the night. Even in thinking about it he felt like he was somewhat betraying his core values. Even during the heights of the Lylat Wars, he'd be relentlessly working. Fine-tuning his ship's aerodynamics, going over schematics, revising battle plans, the works. But the Aparoid situation had exhausted him.
He'd just spent the last seven hours going over a battle plan with the rest of the team, six just going over it and an hour explaining the idea to everyone else. If it'd just been his original team, it'd be fairly easy to go over, maybe Falco would end up promoting his own idea, but he'd lose the majority vote in the end.
Wandering down the west wing of the Great Fox, McCloud slung a towel over his shoulder, fresh from a shower. A design oversight was that the showers in the personal rooms were horrific. The water was often painfully cold, the spread was always jittery and Fox harbored a personal disdain for the curtains, rough and easy to get wrapped up in. Despite the lack of privacy in the main ones, the conditions were far better across the board. Fox stopped feeling uncomfortable the moment Falco started to know more about him than his father did. Those two being the only ones who opted to use the open stalls was the best way to get to talk with Falco privately, at least.
Fox didn't know why the only towels they had were branded with the Starfox insignia, sprawled across the white backdrop in a wine red, but Fox wasn't in a position to complain, they worked damn well. He figured that in ten years they'd be making up the numbers in a landfill somewhere the moment the public stopped giving a shit about that his team did for them.
Given that all Fox was in was a pair of black boxers, he upped his pace to get to his room, almost skipping on his toes to try avoid the unbearable coldness of the metallic floor. Rushing down the hallway to reach his door, Fox slid on his heel to get to his room, blocked off by a door, being a final annoyance. He'd done this routine countless times before, never investing in slippers thanks in part to his tendency to forget about looking into it. The door swooshed open following Fox slamming his hand on a console harder and faster than he'd ever done before. The fox sighed in relief as he was hit by a wall of warmth. A perk gained from pushing for better heating. Fox battled with the temptation of diving into his bed, a king-sized one with a red duvet, still creased and messy from this morning. Whoever commissioned it for use aboard the ship must've thought Fox would bring home a wife or something along those lines, but it wasn't that simple. Never is, anyways.
Fox told himself to avoid that option for now. He wasn't exactly that tired anyways. There was a slight drowsiness underneath his eyes, but it was nothing too major. Fox wandered over to his left, turning on a soundsystem that powered to life with a satisfying whirr. It began playing some music, but Fox didn't take much notice of it. It was okay background noise for him. He sat down on a chair in front of a desk where the soundsystem was. The chair wasn't incredibly comfortable but it wasn't the worst thing in the world. Fox preferred this over the bed, the chair couldn't put him to sleep in an alarming amount of time.
The desk was scattered either with weapon parts and models ships. The models ranged from the standard Cornerian frigates or fighter ships but expanded beyond just his home's. The crown jewel in Fox's personal collection was the Alliance's SR-1, to which Falco joked about it having an internal self-destruct device, given that the thing was destroyed in a surprise attack that hadn't been solved yet. Fox dragged him to his room so he could watch the long construction process, just to prove it didn't. The Alliance... damn it, if Pepper hadn't been so stubborn in dealing with the Aparoids without any assistance maybe they wouldn't been in this shitshow. Fox had to calm himself before he could go onto an internal rant, a habit he had been indulging in far more often than he would like to admit.
Fox slouched back into his chair, letting his mind numb and try relax for what felt like the first time in a while. Then he heard a knock from the door.
"It's open." huffed Fox, looking over to the door.
"Shit, real homey place you got here, McCloud." started Wolf, walking into the room, fur fluffier than usual and shirtless, making his already stocky frame look bigger. "Could've used mood lights, or somethin'."
Fox smirked. "Well I'm sorry that my room doesn't live off to your high standards. Crappy space stations in the middle of nowhere must be the real dream."
"My room on Sargasso had a window, at least."
Fox stood up, feeling the need to stand up to have a more mannerly conversation, as much as he could with Wolf.
"So, we're going head-first into their base?" asked Wolf, reaching over to the table and inspecting a model of an Arwing, tilting it around to get a better look at the finer details.
"Well, it's not like we have any other option." answered Fox, sighing. "You a model buff, too?"
"Nah, nah. Just nice to have any collectible around. Helluva lot better than participation medals and trophies a kid would get." Wolf put the model down, poking it by its sides to try get it back in the position he found it in.
"Well, we all have to have our things."
"If you're trying to get to know every little thing about my life, then you're gonna be disappointed."
Fox chucked lightly, much to the canine's confusion. "Aw, I think we've gotten to know each other long enough to get into the smaller details."
"Ah, stop. I think I'm starting to know what it's like to be you, having obsessive fans."
Fox looked downward and laughed, earning a deeper one from the one-eyed pilot. "Oh, you don't know that it's like. Only good thing about this war is that I don't have people coming up to my door at three in the morning, asking for autographs and going on about how we were meant to be together."
"Aw, so working with me isn't a good thing. Oof, that's heartbreakin' Fox." whimpered Wolf, giving his counterpart a puppy eye and clutching his heart.
"No. It's more than good." replied Fox, resting his arm on Wolf's shoulder before quickly taking it off and shaking it a little due to Wolf's damp fur. "It's been a damn joy to actually work with you."
Wolf rubbed the back of his head, flustered. "Look, Fox. I feel like I should say that I appreciate you takin' a chance on me back on Sargasso" he stammered.
"An opportunity to work with the best pilot that isn't me is a hard thing to turn down."
Wolf balked, raising his eyebrow. "Wow, you sure are a vicious bastard, ain't ya?"
"Only with the people I call friends."
"Oh now I'm a friend? Damn Fox, first casual insults and now friendzoning?"
"Ah, you do care!"
"Of course I care, you're the one getting me warm food, somewhere to sleep..." droned on Wolf, tone getting more mundane as he went along.
Wolf smirked, starting off into the distance, visualizing something in his mind. He sighed, before looking down to the younger male.
"So... friends, huh?" he murmured.
"I feel like we're at that point, yeah." replied Fox, quieter than usual.
Wolf sighed again, more somber in tone. "Could've been this way years ago, y'know? Went to the same academy and everything."
"If I recall correctly, I would've been in your class if I was born a couple days earlier."
"Coulda known each other before that, too... Could've avoided all this time at each other's necks had that fuckin' instructor not ran his mouth about me bein' me and got me thrown out of the damn thing for being..." Wolf stopped his shouting and paused.
"...Wolf?" whimpered Fox, looking up to see Wolf staring blankly. "Why would they kick you out for being you? The only way they coulda done that on Corneria is tha..." Fox put two and two together. "Wait... you're...?"
"Yeah. Yeah I am."
"Oh... Wolf..." Fox threw away all his common sense and wrapped his arms around the taller canine, burying his head into his chest. "I'm so sorry... You didn't deserve to get thrown away like that..." he said, voice raspy.
Wolf didn't say anything, he just rested his chin atop Fox's head, unconsciously moving his head to behind McCloud's head. The two stood there for a minute, no noise but the noise coming from the soundsystem.
Fox knew the danger he was putting himself into. let alone doing it with someone like Wolf. Needless to say, Corneria wasn't fully on-board with anything between two men or two women. Fox coming to realisations about himself and hearing that Wolf is in the same boat as him made him feel slightly better about the whole situation. Fox hadn't planned to go back to Corneria, maybe settle down on Papetoon or somewhere else because he knew that he couldn't keep this hidden forever. But finding someone to relate to, let alone being his longtime rival was something he couldn't have even imagined at his drunkest.
But then again... it's not like the world was entirely against him. Falco was the only one who knew about Fox's sexuality beforehand and he was fully behind him. He could almost guarentee that Wolf didn't have that kind of support behind him, hell, Fox was probably the first one he actively told about it.
Fox kept clinging to Wolf's body, ignoring how damp his fir probably was by this point. Wolf's fur was softer than a fine rug, which almost took away from how well built he was. Muscular, but not completely ripped. Fox was able to lower one of his eyes to take a look below Wolf's waist, revealing that he was wearing a similar pair of boxer-briefs, only a deep purple. Fox demanded that he took his eyes away, but something entranced him.
He wanted Wolf.
Fox adjusted his head to give himself some space, looking up into Wolf's lone eye, slightly red and looking right into the emerald eyes of the smaller pilot.
Damn it... he knows...
Fox's mind screamed at him to drop what he was doing and back off, avoid the wildfire that could ensue from this encounter. But a small part of him, vocal and untamed, told him to go for it. And Fox listened.
Fox moved his hand behind Wolf's head, shutting his eyes and making his motives abundantly clear. Time ceased to exist, what felt like an uncomfortable silence followed as Fox's heart sunk, internally scolding himself for even daring to do this.
Fox couldn't remember how long it had been since he felt alive during a kiss.
The world melted away, the only two occupants of the new world being Fox McCloud and Wolf O'Donnell, two pilots taking the biggest risk they'd taken in a while.
Wolf was the first to pull away, looking directly into Fox's eyes. A rare smile breaking out onto his face.
"Heh... Guess we're both idiots..." said Wolf, a softer side of himself being put out in the open.
"I suppose we are..." answered Fox, rubbing Wolf's chest ever so slightly.
"Didn't know you liked the bad guys..."
"And I didn't know you were into..." Fox stutters, a series of 'um's following. "Shit, I got nothing."
"Really? Given all the time you spend around the bird, you have to have at least one half-decent quip."
"C'mon, Falco's not THAT funny."
The two pulled away from the hug, Wolf placing his hand on Fox's right shoulder. "I know it's sappy, but thanks for liking me, I guess."
"You're a hard guy to hate, Wolf."
Wolf shrugged his shoulders, somewhat happily embarrassed. "I'm guessing you have an idea on what to do after this?"
Fox wandered over to his bed, adjusting pillows to make them more comfortable. "Assuming we get out of this alive, might go off-world for a bit. I know Peppy has a gig lined up for me out of the system but he hasn't told me much."
"Think we can make it work together?"
"Are you implying a relationship?"
"Dunno. If we can figure this whole thing out..."
"I gotcha. Besides, I'd love to see how you handle regular civilian life."
Wolf crept up behind Fox, hugging him from behind and resting his muzzle on Fox's right shoulder, using his good eye to look over to the other male. "Same to you. Be fun to watch you get used to living like you haven't stopped a few wars and that your dad was loaded."
Fox leaped into the bed, not turning the duvet over himself, leaving the left side of the bed open. He looked over at Wolf before cocking his head toward the bed, sending the invitation. Wolf bared teeth with a smile and crawled in next to him, reaching over the bed to yank the duvet over the two. Fox felt himself get pulled back into Wolf's chest, before being kissed on the forehead.
"G'night, Fox." whispered Wolf, relaxing into the bed and into his team-mate.
"Thanks Wolf... for everything." replied Fox, feeling a warmth he hadn't felt in... years. He actually had someone he could trust, someone who he felt actually gave a shit about him, and Fox could look to the future with a sense of optimism. The Aparoids wouldn't stop them.
The galaxy awaited them, and they would save it.
Together.
So... I tried.
I know I don't have the skills to properly pull this off, it's a description heavy thing but I'm not exactly good at giving fifty different ways to describe Wolf's bulge (Fabulous example, I know.) but damn I'm on a Fox/Wolf hitch right now. I'll credit that to Smash's release and the fact that it feels like this couple has become the most popular ship online but that might just be me over-estimating things.
Again, I wrote this kinda as a prequel to something else I'm writing. The references to the SR-1, the gig on Earth etc.
Feedback on anything I've written would be cool, but if you actually finished this I'm convinced that nothing could break you.