Time Off Chapter 1
A/N: Redid the first chapter again going to try to go through it all this time. If you finish this story don't forget to read my next story Lights Outcast Shadows.
Fox laid back in his chair and put his hands over his eyes. No matter how hard he tried he couldn't stop thinking about the past few weeks. They had been drifting in space for what seemed like forever waiting for any type of job to come up. Any possible conflict, any escort, they were willing to take. Unfortunately nothing at all had come up and so they were left floating in space with nothing to do. They were all looking forward to the great sum of money they were set to receive after the Aparoid war. Similarly they were also extremely upset when they realized they may as well have gotten nothing at all. The new GreatFox didn't pay for itself after all. Sadly with nothing to do and nowhere to go the crew had not been exactly warm to each other as of late.
Fox sighed and lowered his hands. He was being affected by the lack of missions as well. He was afraid to start anything serious with Krystal and it made for an awkward atmosphere whenever she was around. Fox sighed and thought about this again, as he had many times over the past weeks. Of course he liked Krystal but at the same time he didn't want that to get in the way of his decision making. Or even worse, he didn't want Krystal to come to harm because they brought their private interests into their work. Fox slumped in his chair as he was reminded of his past love, Fara. He still felt guilty for what happened and he didn't want the same thing to happen with Krystal. Krystal seemed to construe this as just an overall reluctance to get in a relationship. As she didn't like to look into anyone's minds past overall feelings she misunderstood Fox and he couldn't find any good way to tell her otherwise.
Falco was also having some trouble but his was a much more basic feeling, boredom. The avian could barely stand the thought of sitting still at all, much less doing nothing for as long as they had been. Fox was starting to worry he'd go back to wandering solo again. Slippy was also sick of the mission drought as the lack of income was debilitating for his necessary electronic tinkering.
Fox rubbed the sleep from his eyes and looked around the bridge. R.O.B was doing a virtual check up on the GreatFox and the Arwings. He had run this exact check probably twenty times since they last did anything. Peppy and Slippy were writing up blueprints for an upgraded version of their sleek fighter. The design would ultimately be better than the current design but as usual would never get built.
Everything around him was exactly as it had been for the past few weeks and he felt like he was caught in a point where time just stopped. The clicking of the keyboards was like a metronome driving him steadily to insanity. His eyes were visibly blood shot and he just looked completely disheveled.
"Fox are you alright?" Peppy asked with a concerned expression across his face. Peppy had always acted like a father to Fox since the death of his real father. "You're starting to get a bit of an unhealthy color to you."
Fox tried to quickly pull himself out of his thoughts and put on a smile. "Yeah I'm fine; I just wish something interesting would happen around here. It seems like we've been stuck here forever. " Fox said almost wistfully. "I don't care if it's a mission or what; I just really need to take my mind off of everything for awhile."
"Well I think it's probably a good thing there's nothing out there that we need to take care of so soon after the Aparoid attack. It would be pretty hard on the entire system if anything were to happen right now." Peppy said. "Although I agree with you it would be nice to break the monotony around here. You do have the ability to break it yourself you know?"
"I don't think I know what you're getting at." Fox said, puzzled.
"Let's take a break," Slippy chimed in. "I mean seriously what will it hurt, it's not like we're doing anything around here anyway." Slippy looked back down at his work and scowled at it. "And believe me it would help. I haven't come up with any good ideas in like a year, I really need a break, and by the looks of it you do too."
Fox looked out the window, staring into space. "That actually might not be such a bad idea, we haven't really had any time off in awhile, and maybe I could get back on Krystal's good side. Now that I think about it we could probably stop off at Sauria for awhile. We're close and I heard they pretty much recovered from the Aparoid attack. I wouldn't be totally adverse to that myself; Sauria is a beautiful planet, not to mention it's been years since I've been on vacation. It might not totally make it up to her but at the very least it will break us out of this horrible routine."
"Fine," Fox smiled. "You win, we'll go on vacation. I even have a certain place in mind. We can go and get away from all this, and then hopefully when we come back there'll finally be something for us to do."
"Woohoo!" Slippy yelled. spinning in his chair with his hands in the air. "We get a vacation! I could cry I'm so happy!"
Fox grinned at Slippy's ridiculous behavior; he hadn't seen anyone on the team this happy since they defeated the Aparoids. It felt great to put a little happiness back on the GreatFox. "Please don't Slippy; I don't think either of us could take it. Peppy can you call Falco and Krystal down here? I need to make sure we're all down for this. Although I don't know how anyone could turn down some good R and R."
"Well I think I distinctly remember you being very averse to taking any time off but I can see you have a different mindset on it now." Peppy walked over to the communicator and opened a link to the rest of the ship. "Falco and Krystal, please report to the bridge."
"Hey Fox, where are you thinking of in particular for our vacation?" Slippy asked. "Let's hope it's better than the last time you tried to bring us on vacation, I'll never see Titania the same again."
Peppy laughed and Fox frowned. "Hey, how was I supposed to know that it was a breeding season for those sand worms? I didn't want to go in the first place anyway." Fox mumbled. Anyway we won't need to worry about it this time. That is if everyone agrees with where I've picked."
"And where exactly are you thinking of going?" Peppy asked, he had a good idea of what Fox was planning but he wasn't quite sure. He thought he may as well ask although he doubted Fox would say. Peppy had pretty good insight into Fox's mind after all the time he had spent with him. Sometimes he thought he would know what Fox was going to do before Fox knew himself.
Fox grinned at Peppy. He knew Peppy was thinking of the same place he was planning on going to already. "I might as well tell you all at once; wait for Falco and Krystal to get here."
"Well, what did you call us up here for?" Falco asked with his arms crossed, and that oh so familiar scowl that let everyone know he was better than them. "Did we finally get a mission or is it gunna be as boring as ever around here?" It was easy to tell that he was not in the greatest of moods.
Fox was so caught up in talking to Peppy and Slippy that he didn't notice Falco and Krystal walk in. "Oh I didn't even see you guys there sorry about that." Fox turned his chair to face them and cleared his throat. "Anyway the reason I called you down is because I've got an announcement to make. As you know business has been kind of slow lately, and by slow I mean everyone is dying of cabin fever here. Anyway I thought we could all use some time off, so how do you all feel about a vacation." Fox waited a second to see what kind of reaction he would get.
Falco laughed and almost couldn't believe what he just heard. "How much are they payin yah?" Falco asked with a smirk. "Don't get me wrong I wouldn't mind a nice break, but for you to suggest we actually stop working; it's a miracle." In all the time he had known Fox he never really wanted a break from work. Work was always first thing on his mind, with fun and anything like it coming in at a distant second.
"I know, I know I'm not always the fun and games type, but really spending this much time just sitting here twiddling our thumbs isn't exactly the most productive we've ever been. We may as well take some time off while we have it." Fox couldn't help but smile although he tried to be as serious as possible.
"I guess I can't argue with that logic." Falco said, obviously in a much better mood than he started in.
"Okay, what do you think Krystal?" Fox nodded to her with enthusiasm growing in his voice.
"Yeah, sounds great." Krystal said with almost no enthusiasm in her voice. She didn't even look at Fox as she spoke. She seemed completely disinterested in the entire conversation.
Fox cringed; that look hurt him more than a blaster shot could ever hope figured he could still win her over when he dropped the fact that he planned on going to Sauria.
"So where we goin' Fox?" Falco said, immediately snapping Fox out of his thoughts.
"Well I was thinking about going to Sauria, unless anyone has a problem with it. I heard they finished cleaning up there and we all know what it's like down there." Fox was yet again hoping for a positive reaction.
Peppy grinned knowingly.I was just as he had suspected, Fox felt bad about how things were going with Krystal. "I guess I never should have thought even for a second Fox would take a vacation if it weren't for some ulterior motive."
Krystal was not expecting Fox to want to go to Sauria; she could sense that he was doing it for her, now she was ashamed of the way she was acting earlier. She resolved to try to make the most of their time on Sauria and that it would hopefully carry them into a new beginning. When Fox looked at her all she could offer was a weak smile. It wasn't much but Fox's heart lifted and his idea was reinforced that everything could be better again soon.
