As she showered, she thought of a rumor she'd heard. Something about robot legs, and cutting off their real ones. She shuddered, shaking the water off her body. She heard the door to Fox's room opening, and footsteps coming inside. She quickly washed the shampoo out of her fur and hair. She then grabbed a towel. After doing that, she wiped herself down, her fur fluffing out naturally. She especially covered her chest, not wanting some tod she'd just met seeing her almost in the nude. She padded out of the shower, slowly opening the door.
He was bent over and digging through a drawer, quite frantic. He was obviously looking for something important to him. As she watched him, he found what he was looking for. A picture of a orange and blonde vixen, smiling. It was near what looked to be vixen's clothes. Krystal's ears drooped, and her tail stopped swishing about. She stepped back into the bathroom, saddened. She dropped the towel and put back on her pilot's clothes. She walked out of the room, and Fox noticed her.
"Oh, hey Krystal." He whistled, raising his eyebrows. "You look great."
"You seem mighty flattering of me for already having a mate." She said quietly.
"A mate? What are you talking about?" He said, confused.
"Those clothes, and that picture…" She looked downcast.
"The picture? Those old clothes? No, Krystal, those are my mother's old clothes. I keep them because she joked to me about giving them to whoever I marry. The picture's also of my mother." Fox said, slightly amused.
Krystal turned red under her fur, so embarrassed that she wished she could just retract what she said. "Oh… I'm sorry about that. I just- just-" She stopped at that point, not wanting reveal that yes, she was falling for him just a bit.
"Ah, it's fine. You're new, it would've happened sometime." He smiled at her.
"So you're not unhappy, or angry, or anything?" She said, biting her lip nervously.
"No, no, no, Krystal. I am fine. Again, it's just a misunderstanding." He snapped his fingers, and at this point, she could tell that was a habit with him. "I've kept you pretty isolated from the rest of the crew, so I think it's time you met the rest of them." He motioned with his hand for her to follow him, and she did.
"I'm glad that I'm able to meet the other members of your team, Fox." She said, smiling. They went to another room, and she supposed it was some kind of place to eat, judging by the empty plates and such. There was a table in the middle of it, with a frog, an elderly rabbit, and a surly looking avian seated at the table. There were two empty chairs. For them, she guessed. The duo sat down, and Krystal settled down into her chair quite comfortably.
The bird spoke up. "Fox, I thought you wouldn't let someone who gave you a blowjob onto the team." Krystal was confused. What was this thing they were talking about? Blow-thing. Odd word, but it sounded foul.
"She didn't do anything like that, Falco. I let her on because she wanted to, and she's incredibly skilled."
"Yeah yeah yeah, let the slut on the team." He said. Now she knew what that word meant.
She growled at him, her honor insulted. She had sharp enough nails, and if she wanted to, she could scratch the neraxus out of him.
"Don't call me that." She said menacingly.
"Don't try to deny it, slut. Your outfit was a dead giveaway. You had everything hanging out, trying to have sex with anyone you can." Falco pointed towards Fox, who's motioning for him to stop talking.
Krystal's eyes widened, shocked at what he's saying. "Those are my priestesses garments! I pray in them! You're blaspheming the gods and goddesses! Stop!" She whined.
"Oh, religion? Pitiful. A religious prostitute." That was the last straw. Insulting her as a priestess and a vixen was just too much. She stood up and put him out of his chair with a punch. It seemed a lot worse than it actually was, but it still decked him. She looked around at everybody, who had her fixed with stares that bored deep into her, and even Fox had her fixed with one of those stares, though significantly less judgemental.
She moved her mouth noiselessly, trying to find the words for what she was trying to say. "I was- He- He-" Then she quickly ran from the table, her eyes shut tight. She instinctively ran to Fox's room, and upon realizing that she might be kicked off for hitting Falco, and then no longer being able to be close to Fox; She cried. She cried warm tears for her planet, for her people, and for her stupidity of falling for Fox. Damn that bird! As the door opened behind her, she stopped crying, sniffling down the last of her tears.
"Krystal? Are you okay?" Fox said, worried.
"Just kick me off the team already, I'm 'orrible! I hit your friend, I'm so sorry…" She blurted out all her pent-up feelings in one sentence.
"Kick you off the team, Krystal? I wouldn't do something like that. As for Falco, he shouldn't have called you a slut. I didn't know you were a priestess, though." He got nearer to her, and she felt the urge to move away from him.
"I-I-I-I want to tell you something. You- You make me feel safe." She said nervously.
"Why, Krystal? Is everything okay…?" He asked.
"Fox, I think that you're pretty wonderful and amazing, and I'd like to be with you."
"Does that mean that you want us to be a thing?" He said, shifting his feet back and forth.
She thought for a while. "I think so."
"I've had a bit of a liking to you from the start, Krystal. I hope you don't mind…"
"So you're okay with it?" She perked up a bit. Mentally, she beat herself in the head for that.
"Yes, but keep this on the down-low. I don't want Falco or Peppy to know about us, especially Peppy."
"Who's Peppy?" She asked.
"The rabbit. He's like a father to me, and I love him a lot. ...But that wouldn't prevent him from kicking you off the team if he knew we were in a relationship, even if it's under the radar."
"Oh, bleedin' neraxus. It's the eighth day with you, and we're already together." She purred at that though.
"Krystal, we've got to get back to the table, you still need to be introduced to everyone. And yes, you gave Falco a black eye. He deserved it." He took ahold Krystal's hand, and she squeezed it back, comfortable with just that much contact. They walked back through the hallways and to the table, but when they got to the hallway next to the dining room, Fox let go of her hand and she let go of his. Fox was the first one to sit down, and Falco gave him a dirty look, slightly obscured by his swollen eye. Krystal came in second and sat down at the chair next to Fox.
"Slut." Falco whispered.
She responded by send a psychic link to him, saying; "You're one of those men who ogles me. You know what? Shut the neraxus up, bastard." He recoiled, falling back out of his chair.
"G-Gosh, Falco." Slippy said, sounding amused.
At that point, Fox decided to introduce Slippy to her. "Krystal, this is Slippy. He's our engineer. He fixes our ships, keeps up with our weapons, and is a genius strategist."
Peppy piped up. "I thought I was the genius strategist of this team." He smiled happily. Krystal immediately liked him. He had a fatherly aura about him, and Fox seemed to have some attachment to him as well.
"It's nice to meet you, Peppy and Slippy. I hope I fit in well with the team. You all seems quite nice." She grinned at them, except for Falco, who was picking himself up off the floor.
"I guess you should know Falco, our local air-stuntsman. He's headstrong, but there's no one better to rely on to save your fur in a dogfight. And of course, you already know me." Krystal giggled at that.
Oh, I'm infatuated with that tod. The more I think about him, the more I like him. She thought, not paying much attention to what he was saying.
"-And we need to move your stuff out of your ship-"
He's wonderful.
"-but you need to help me." She snapped out of her daydreaming at that, standing up from her chair. He laughed at that, as did Slippy and Peppy, but not Falco. "First, though, we've got to eat. I'll make spaghetti for all of you!" Fox went to the cabinets and opened them. He took out something she didn't know, and put it in a pot. He then filled up the pot with water, and set it to boiling. At this point, she started going back to daydreaming about him in less-than-modest situations. In one of those, she started to think about stories she'd heard about a cruel mate. Her daydreaming took a dark turn, and she woke from them with a whine. She was suddenly scared, a fear that'd plagued her since she was old enough to understand returning.
"Krystal a-are you doing alright?"
"I'm-" She looked over at Fox fearfully. "-fine."
"Well, since you're feeling fine, if you-you'd like to, I can show you my video game collection if you don't think that's too geeky f-for you."
She didn't know a geek was, but it sounded derogatory, and Slippy seemed oh so nice. She'd happily take a look at his collection of 'video games.' "It's all fine, I'm just a little excited. On another note, I'd be happy to look at your collection after we're done eating."
"O-oh, thanks!" He croaked.
"Dinner is served!" Fox bellowed, putting down a plate right in front of Krystal. She looked down at the food and had to suppress her gag reflex. It looked like some poor things entrails had been torn out and put on her plate. She could tell Fox was waiting for her to try it, and she looked again at the disgusting thing on her plate.
"Do you have any utensils? I don't want to eat with my hands. It'd make my fur all red." Fox gave her a knife and fork. She picked up the fork slowly, and stabbed it into the mass of intestines. She took a small bit, holding back a grimace as she chewed it. It didn't taste bad, it just look absolutely awful. She swallowed it and managed a forced smile at Fox. He took it as judgment, and smiled back. He then put down a plate for all the rest of the crew, Peppy patting him on the back as Fox went by him. They ate the food, and they thought about what had happened.
"So, Krystal, how has your training gone?" Peppy asked.
"It went well, but when that robot-thing stabbed me, it scared me half to bloody death."
"That's just Rob-64, he was just giving you your shots. It'll keep you from getting sick and all."
"But I don't get sick, neither did my mum. My dad got sick, but that was just because he wasn't a priest or priestess. I'm blessed by the goddess of I think- What was it? Yeah, lust. She's going to help me." She smiled as she thought about her mother.
"Well, those shots will sure help with your god-given immunity." Peppy seemed a bit uncomfortable about her talking about being a priestess.
Falco got up from the table and gave her some kind of signal with his middle finger. It didn't look nice, and she looked over at Fox, wondering what it meant. Fox frowned at him, and he went off somewhere, hopefully not anywhere near where they would be. "Krystal, that was really rude of him, I'm sorry for the way he's acting."
"It's okay, Fox, you can't control him. He's his own person, and you're not to blame for that." She touched his forehead, her eyes half lidded. She then withdrew her hand, passing a thought to him. He got it, and gave her a smile.
"So, Fox. How has she done?" Peppy asked.
"She got through the flight course on the first try, but she banged her muzzle and got a bloody nose. It wasn't bad though." Fox replied.
"That's good, she might prove to be a formidable flyer after some more training."
Slippu piped up. "S-So, Krystal, is it okay if I show you my collection?"
"Oh, sure, Slippy. I'm happy to look at it." She said to him, her tail starting to wag. She walked out of the room with Slippy, listening intently as he went on about some wild game about apes as the main characters. Once they were out of earshot, Peppy sighed.
"When you let her on the team, were you thinking about anything else?" He said.
"What do you mean?" Fox asked.
"I mean, were there other reasons for you letting her on the team?"
"She's just an incredible flyer, and she's a good shot too. She's absolutely amazing."
"I'm putting this bluntly: Did you let her on just because she's a vixen?"
"Of course not! She's just really skilled."
"You're bad at telling lies, Fox."
"Yeah... " Fox said, looking down at the tabletop.
"I know that you've got what I'd call a 'crush' on her. You're still a young'un, and she's young too. If you mess with that vixen, I'll make sure that something happens. In other words: If you want her just for sex, you're being relieved of command."
"I don't want that, just-" Then electronic explosions and a whoop from Krystal echoed from Slippy's quarters.
"Shoot it again!" Slippy yelled.
"I'm doing it, I'm doing it! Just got to blow up these regime soldiers…" There was a clicking of claws on plastic, and gunfire rocketed from the room again. Krystal whooped again, this time marginally much more excitable. "Oi, Fox! Come on in and take a look at this!" He got up quickly and headed in to see what she wanted to show him, leaving Peppy with a thought and an empty chair.