Authors note:

Hello people of the internet, I am KeybladeKnight39, or if you want just to call me Church and this is my first official fanfiction in the 7 years since I found this site. I know that's a long time, but hey, life, what can you do? So anyway, as you can probably tell from the title this is an AU of the recently popular Switch game, Xenoblade Chronicles 2. Now I haven't played the game itself because, at the moment, I don't have a Switch and also because of college, but I have seen game cutscenes and gameplay, so I do know most of the story. Anyway, I'm writing this for two reasons. One, I really wanted to write a fanfiction and see how people like it, since I come up with quite a few ideas that no one thinks of at first. And two because this fandom needs more Rex and Pyra/Mythra fanfics. Not to sound like I'm complaining or to disrespect the other fanfics, those are all great and I applaud their authors, but isn't that odd how the actual canon ship doesn't have a lot of stories on here? Well that's enough out of me now on to the story.

I do not own Xenoblade Chronicles 2 or the characters. All rights go to Nintendo, Monolith Soft, and Koh Kajima please support the official release.

Chapter 1: Encounters

As the sun sets, a young man walks home after a long day's work; or at least a long day of job searching.Rex has had a long and depressing day, many of the places he was hoping to apply for work already have enough employees. While he didn't necessarily need money for food or rent since his adopted Aunt Corrine called in a favor from an old friend to set him up in the town of Argentum, so he could start living on his own, he also wanted to send money back home to support her and his adopted brothers and sisters.

"Well, I guess I'll just continue the search tomorrow." Rex said with a sad undertone. Then he continues to his home.

*Yip, Yip Yip! *

"Huh, what's that?" He turns to the sound which is coming from the woods on the left of the sidewalk. Snapping out of his stupor he decides to follow the sound. 'It sounded like an animal in pain.' Being the kind of person who can't stand when others are in pain he starts running to the sound. As he goes deeper into the woods the sound becomes louder as he reaches a clearing with a large tree in the middle. As he moves to the tree he sees a large hollow section. Crouching down he is astonished at what he sees. Inside the tree is a fox, a fox with the fur the deepest shade of red, almost crimson, laying on its side. Upon looking more closely Rex sees that the animals back leg is injured with scratch and bite marks. 'Must have been trying to fight off some other predator.' At this point the fox has stopped barking and notices the young man. Fearfully, the fox tries to move back only to howl in pain from its injured leg.

"Hey, don't be scared. I'm not going to hurt you." The fox, as if seeming to understand what the boy is saying looks at him with a curious expression. Red canine eyes met the boy's gold ones, as if to see any form of deceit. After what seemed like an hour, the fox relaxes and rest its head on the ground. "You poor thing, I'm going to do what I can to help you but I need you to trust me. Will you let me?" He extends his hand slowly towards the injured fox to where they are only centimeters apart from contact. The fox stares at the human's hand, seemingly contemplating if it can truly trust the boy. Moving its eyes from the hand to the boy, the fox eventually licks the boys hand.

"I guess I'll take that as a yes."

After taking the short walk back to his home and into the living room, he starts to treat the fox's wound. It was a bit difficult getting the fox, which he found to be female, to stay still for him to treat it. But after a few gentle pats of assurance, the vixen lets him treat her wound.

"Ok that should do it, are you feeling better?" The fox, after having its leg bandaged, manages to stand on its own and barks as an affirmative reply.

"Alright, well until your all healed up you can stay here, let me go get you some food." He then heads to the kitchen and grabs the leftover fish from the previous night, and places it on the floor next to fox on a plate. The fox eats the food, not letting a single morsel out of its site. "Wow, you must have been hungry. Can't say I blame you after the day you've had." Rex kneels to pet the fox, who happily accepts the gesture from her savior. It then leans forward to lick the young boy's face with affection. "Ha Ha, that tickles." After getting the fox away, he stares at her with content. "You know I was having a really sad day, but even though we met on less than ideal circumstances, I'm glad I met you." The fox barks in agreement.

"Alright well I better get some sleep. I have some spare blankets, so you can sleep in my room." After getting the blankets from the closet and placing them on the floor, he changes into his pajamas and heads to bed. "Good night friend." And with that, the boy falls quickly to sleep.

Not long after the boy had fallen to sleep, the fox had begun to stir awake. Looking towards its rescuer, peacefully asleep. It then stands up and slowly makes its way to the bed. But as it does the fox shape begins to change, it slowly appears to become more human. Then finally as it reaches the foot of the bed, the fox is no longer a fox. She is now a human, a woman with skin as pristine as marble, an hourglass figure that would make any woman jealous, hair reaching just to her neck, and eyes red as a rose. Quietly, she crawls onto the bed to lay next to the boy and looks at the face of her healer.

"Young man", she speaks in a soft and lovely voice, "what you have done for me is something that I can never hope to repay. You have saved me from possible death and for that I owe my life, and quite possibly my love." She leans in and kisses the boy's forehead. "For now, rest, and tomorrow we will begin our journey together, sleep well my future mate." And the maiden falls asleep holding the hand of her savior to her heart.

And that's the end of the first chapter. I hope you all enjoyed it and expect more soon. I'll try to update when I can. I have University classes now but when May rolls in I will update more frequently.