UPDATE (07/22/2013): Hey, y'all! So I finally got around to revising my works (and I'll be doing this throughout the summer for most of my works), so I hope you all enjoy! :)
Hello, Irish here to present a fic, but not just any fic; this fic is a gift!fic, done for the RLT Fic Exchange (which gave us a holiday prompt, and I decided to go with Valentine's Day), and I present this to MessengerOfDreams, an amazing author and person, and I hope that he (along with anyone else) enjoys this fic! Enjoy and (early) Merry Christmas to all! :)
DISCLAIMER: I DO NOT OWN STARFOX IN ANY WAY, SHAPE, OR FORM!
Valentine's Day was upon the Lylat System and more importantly the lovely planet of Zoness – a planet that once was polluted by evil, now resumed its holiday vacation destination. This was no exception for Falco Lombardi, the anthropomorphic falcon who enjoyed this planet ever so dearly. He visited it a couple months back when he was with the StarFox team, and was immediately distraught, seeing all of the pollution that had covered the ocean.
Falco was glad that he made reservations here on the holiday, and even more excited that he is spending it with Katt Monroe, a feline with a bit of a cocky attitude – one thing that Falco adored. The two had been going steady for a few months after the Lylat Wars ended, and Falco believed that this would be the perfect time to open up to her.
Currently in his hotel room on one of the more expensive islands on the oceanic planet, Falco let out a bit of a chuckle as he suddenly remembered the Lylat Wars, with the one mission that had him thinking of her. It felt like an eternity ago, but somehow it seemed like it was just yesterday.
Sector Z – one of the toughest sectors in the whole Lylat System, and another roadblock in the way for the StarFox team on their way to Venom.
"Be careful you guys," General Pepper ordered to the crew, "the Venomian Army will be gunning for you."
"Don't you worry, we will be alright," Fox McCloud responded. The leader did his best to compose himself in front of his general. It wasn't as though the anthropomorphic fox was scared of the mission up ahead; no, he was feeling more stressed out than anything.
Having gone through Zoness was bad enough, and they could have been spotted easily due to the search lights. If it wasn't for his pal, they would have been goners.
"Fox, are you ready to go?" The leader was snapped out of his trance to hear his mentor, Peppy, speaking to him through radio transaction in the arwing.
"I sure am."
As the Great Fox made its way to a halt in the middle of the sector, a few dozen starfighters started to swarm towards the general headquarters. Signaling to the rest of the crew, the four members made their way out into the battlefield.
"Lovely welcome we have here," Falco, the wingman, muttered as the crew was surrounded by the enemy.
It didn't take them long to destroy most of the fleet, but the real fun was about to begin.
"What in the world is that?" Slippy, the technician, questioned to the others as he looked towards the left of the Great Fox. Out in the distance, a Copperhead missile was making its way towards the headquarters.
"Missile One distance is approaching fifty," ROB, the robotic operation of the team, said from inside the Great Fox.
Fox reacted quickly, and zoomed past debris to make it out to the missile. Laying open fire to it, the missile was destroyed, but Fox had a feeling that it was only the beginning.
He was right, as another huge fleet of starfighters made their way towards the crew, along with two other missiles heading towards the headquarters. Fox knew that it would take a miracle for the team to succeed, but he was far from quitting as he started to unload on one of the two missiles.
"Guys," Fox commanded, "I could use a bit of help here."
"I wish we could, but right now, we are in a bit of a shooting battle," Peppy replied as he found himself shooting down starfighters and speeding away from many more.
Just as Fox destroyed one missile and was making his way on destroying the second, a voice rang through his arwing as it played through the radio.
"Are you guys going to hog all the fun?" Fox gave a small smile as he recognized that voice anywhere. "Don't mind me, guys; I'm here to help you out."
It seemed as though everyone was fine with the aid they were about to get, except for one pilot.
"Katt, can't you go bother anyone else?" Falco questioned the feline, annoyed that she was here again to help out.
"I'm not bothering anyone silly, just lending a little hand," Katt stated as she zipped towards Fox to aid him with the missiles. Within seconds, they were destroyed.
"Nice work, little man," Katt complimented Fox in a flirtatious voice – a voice that Falco had known for most of his life. The anthropomorphic falcon grunted as he overheard his former colleague talk to Fox like that.
'I really don't understand her; what is it going to take for her to realize that what she does is wrong and can be hurtful?' Falco pondered, as memories started to flood his mind; memories of Katt prancing around the flight academy they both attended, looking for a few guys to flirt with. The long strut that she had, along with her bashing her eyelids, made it impossible for guys to not feel attracted to Katt. Falco ended up taking the back seat in this charade, seeing as he was fed up with the way that his friend was acting.
Over the course of their years at the flight academy, Falco and Katt seemed to have a good friendship, but that was it. It never budded out to a relationship, and Falco felt at fault here, wishing that he would have just one chance to tell her what he feels.
Falco snapped out of his daze as his arwing was hit by a nearby starfighter. Clearly not in the best of moods, he decided to take his anger out on the fleet surrounding the Great Fox, destroying over half of them out of pure rage. Thanks to Katt's help, Fox was able to destroy the rest of the missiles, thus stopping the rest of the fleet invasion. With all that being done, Katt made her farewell to the team.
"Thanks for letting me help out. You all are on your own from now on."
As Katt made her way out of sight, a few beeps went off from her control panel; pressing the answer button, she heard Falco's voice.
"Thanks for helping Fox out with the missiles and whatnot." From the sound of things, it seemed as though Falco felt annoyed by the feline's presence around the team. Katt knew what she needed to do right then and there, but it had to wait just a bit longer…
The war was over, Andross was dead, and the crew decided to reject the offer made by Pepper to join the Cornerian Army. With that, the gang flew out of Corneria, wanting to be close to the Great Fox as possible as ever. It felt as though this was supposed to happen, and that they all knew that StarFox would be theirs for a long while.
What the group didn't expect was to see Katt's lovely pink Invader III ship in the docking bay of the Great Fox. Most of them were wondering, as they entered the headquarters, what she was doing here.
"I'm guessing you all are wondering why I'm here," Katt said as the gang made their way into the main room. "I didn't mean to intrude or anything; it's just that Falco wanted to speak with me after the meeting with the general."
"Do you guys mind?" Falco asked.
"Not at all, we'll leave you two alone," Fox replied as he, Slippy, and Peppy all left the room.
Falco breathed out a sigh before speaking with Katt, "Look, over the past few months, I've been fighting with StarFox, and I guess over that time, I was feeling really cruddy, seeing as I left you back at the academy with all the other boys you were with."
Katt wore a look of confusion as she asked, "What in the world do you mean 'all the other boys?'"
"C'mon Katt, you know what I'm talking about; the boys who you used to flirt with."
"Falco, they didn't mean anything to me."
The bird was taken aback by his friend's statement. "What do you mean by that?"
"Those boys didn't matter to me…because I already had someone else waiting for me."
Falco was surprised at the answer. "Was it me?" Falco ended up blurting out.
"No, it was someone back on my home planet, but things started to get rough around the time you left, and then I decided to team up with you guys…"
"I know, I know, you wanted revenge on Andross and his army."
"That was one reason why I did it; the other reason was to see if we still mattered."
A couple seconds of silence lingered through the air. "Do you think that we still matter?" Falco asked.
"I don't know, do you?"
"I thought we did, but seeing you hit on those boys over and over again…it was just too much for me."
"If it makes you feel any better, I'm sorry for the way I acted, even though I wasn't trying to."
"I guess you are forgiven."
"Are you sure about that, because you really don't sound like it?"
Falco sighed before replying, "I'm just going to have to think about this long and hard to really see if I should give you another chance."
"I understand that; when you are ready, you know how to reach me." And with that, Katt walked out of the main room, leaving the blue falcon with a lot on his mind.
It wasn't an easy choice, but in the end, Falco decided to see what Katt really meant to him. A few weeks after their talk, they reunited on Corneria and decided to take things real slow.
Falco made some last-minute checking's before leaving his room. Looking himself in the mirror, seeing his hair neatly gelled and wearing a lovely fitting trench coat with trousers, he was nevertheless ready for tonight.
Stepping out of the room, he was delighted to see Katt waiting for him, dazzling the falcon with her choice of a red silk dress.
"You ready to go?" Katt asked, holding her arm out to escort her friend.
"I am most definitely ready." And with that, the two linked arms and walked down to the hotel lobby, which half of it acting as an eloquent restaurant.
As soon as they arrived, they were greeted and all situated with their meals. Deciding to pass the time, they had some mild conversation.
"How was the walk over here?" Falco asked, seeing as how Katt was staying at a different hotel only a few hundred feet away.
"It was interesting to say the least; it's not everyday people see this lovely look on someone."
Falco let out a chuckle. "True, most people do not."
Silence fell upon them until Falco said, "I don't know why, but today I started to reminisce about the war."
"You were?"
"Yeah, it felt kind of strange remembering the mission."
"Ooh, which mission was it?" Katt was intrigued to know.
"The one for Sector Z…the last one you were at and helped us out…" Falco looked away from the feline before muttering to himself, "The one that helped me out."
"What was that?"
A sigh left his mouth before saying, "The mission helped me out a lot."
"Helped you out with what?" Katt decided to ask.
"Remember when we had that talk after the war was done and I said that it would take me a long while to see if I should give you another chance?"
A head nod from Katt was all that Falco needed before continuing, "It was that mission that helped me out the most. Seeing you with Fox, being your flirty self…it reminded me of what I thought of you back at the academy, and what I felt for you."
"What did you feel?"
"Honestly, I felt like you were the absolute one for me."
Another wave of silence lingered the air. After a couple seconds, Falco continued, "It's true; there wasn't a day that went by that I didn't think of us being together. Then you had your flirting thing going on, and it really simmered, but I guess that the feeling never left."
Katt was near tears. "You really think that we could be together forever?"
Falco shook his head before stating, "I don't think we could, I think we will be."
His hands shaking, he reached into his trench coat and pulled out a small red box. Sliding it towards Katt, the feline opened it and was startled at what was inside; a golden ring that glimmered under the light.
"I know it doesn't mean much now, but I want to show how much you mean to me. I was hoping if you wear the ring, it would make me breathe easier at night, knowing that I'm not going to lose you."
Katt picked up the ring and slid it on one of her fingers. "I love it."
"I love the ring too," and reaching over the table, Falco whispered, "but not as much as I love you," and with that, he gave Katt a peck on the cheek.
Katt was at a loss for words, but looking down at the ring, it reminded her of what could be. "I love you too."
Falco smiled, as did Katt, and from that moment on, it seemed like everything was right for them in the world.