AN:
EDIT: I'm adding this to address EVEN MORE things. I write on Google Docs and have tried in the past to put links up so that you guys can comment on specific things in real time instead of posting reviews. I'm probably going to find some sort of workaround if I need to, but it's really frustrating that I can't post links when they'd enhance the storytelling.
More frustrations, though! Google Docs converts from their own format to .odt for me, which is how I post this. Unfortunately, it doesn't get everything, so there are typos. Typos that I've verified WERE NOT MADE BY ME. That frustrates me to no end, so I feel the need to vent about it. I should mention that my grammar, while not immaculate, is honestly very solid. Thus, if you see terrible mistakes, please give me the benefit of the doubt? I'd be eternally grateful.
One more thing I'd like to address is that I'm deliberately leaving the outcome of this fic ambiguous. I've gotten a few calls to make this a Fox x Wolf fic, and a few calls to make this a Fox x Falco fic. I won't publicly say how I plan to resolve it, although I will say that Falco does appear in person again by the end of the fic, if not sooner. I hate to say it, but you'll have to wait and see how things unfold, which will probably be two to four more weeks of me agonizing over how to write this silly fic. Sorry!
ORIGINAL AN (with one terrible typo hopefully fixed)
I've been sitting on this for days now. There's just a little too much fanservice for my taste, which is partly because I have major hots for Fox. Nothing too extreme, considering that the story doesn't call for it, but it's definitely there. I feel like this chapter isn't ready, but I only have half a summer to write this whole thing, so I need to move on whether or not this thing is done justice. Expect that there will be seven chapters in total. I should be able to post about one every 7 10 days until I'm done, and then I'll be out of time to write at all. Such is life.
A couple things I want to address, though, at risk of me sounding like a real piece of work. I originally wrote for this fic to only have two calls to Falco. I've been told that putting one at the end of every chapter is a bit repetitive and annoying. I want to make my reasons known. One is that it's practice for me working with Falco, because he's going to be more directly involved at some point. Another is that certain people people, two of whom helped me get this fic off the ground, heard my plan for the rest of the story and suggested being quicker to include Falco in the main plot, considering his later role.
Also, this fic has honestly been extremely draining. I don't think I even know how to let go enough to accept that something I write, even if it's fanfiction, doesn't always have to be the best work I'm capable of producing. I really beat myself up about it sometimes, so thank you all both for reading, and for giving whatever feedback you have. Regardless of what you say, hearing anything at all helps me feel as though I haven't let everyone down.
Finally, I acknowledge that the swimming I'm going through in this chapter isn't necessarily the very greatest swimming. It's simplified somewhat. I get that there are multiple ways to do frontcrawl, and I didn't even get into other strokes.
On that pleasant note, here's chapter 3. Enjoy!
Chapter 3
It turned out that Wolf wasn't kidding; the pool was twenty-five meters long and was wide enough for two to lap swim in comfortably. One end was four feet deep, and the other was seven feet deep. The water was mostly clear, but had a greenish blue tint and a mildly pungent odor that Fox assumed to be chlorine.
Fox was on time, bright and early at five in the morning, but Wolf was already swimming laps, and seemed to have been there for a while already. Wolf tore through the water in an impressive display of strength, making no indication that he'd noticed Fox until he reached Fox's side of the pool and stopped, standing in the shallow end water.
"Morning, pup," he said plainly.
Fox had thought the square trunks that Wolf had given him fit a little too small, with stretchy fabric that reached down to Fox's mid-thigh if he pulled, and gradually worked back up to fit like a smaller pair of boxer briefs.
He hadn't expected Wolf to one-up his swimsuit, but Wolf clearly had no concern for his modesty; he wore a black-with-purple-trim speedo that left little to the imagination on the rare occasion that the water stilled. Somehow, it didn't feel like an immodest choice out here in the pool-completely different than spending the bulk of their time together in nothing but his underwear. Wolf had his game face on.
Somehow, actually knowing how to swim made the suit feel like a natural choice for Wolf. The minimalist suit felt like part of Wolf's current task at hand rather than a garish aesthetic choice, more similar to his cybernetic eye than the underwear he seemingly only kept on out of some well-hidden sense of decency.
"Started without me, huh?" Fox said.
"If you can keep up with me, then I owe you an apology," Wolf replied, shrugging. "Not likely, though. Goggles are on the bench. Hop in."
A purple eye fixed on Fox as he removed his shirt and shorts. He could feel it even with his back turned. Fox put his feet in the chilly water at the pool's edge and returned the stare as he confirmed what he'd assumed.
"You really gonna just sit there until the water warms up?" Wolf said. "Warm isn't happening. I keep it cool."
The longer Fox sat there, the longer an unnerving, predatory stare was fixed on his barely-clothed body. He noticed that beneath Wolf's goggles, there was no trace of the cybernetic eye that Fox had finally started getting used to. He also couldn't see through the tint, though, and that just made everything feel unsettling. The water was pretty cold, but Wolf's silent judgment was less comfortable still.
The frigid water's sting hit him all at once as he slid in. He shut his eyes and cringed, missing the friendlier temperatures of Zoness's beach water.
"I'm guessing you haven't swam much before," Wolf said.
Fox noticed that Wolf's cybernetic eye was missing. Instead, he wore a pair of goggles that was lightly tinted on one eye, and so heavily tinted on the other side that Wolf probably wouldn't have been able to see through it even if his bad eye worked. Fox tried not to wonder what the bad eye looked like beneath the tint.
"Is it that obvious?" Fox asked.
"Nah. Just a guess. Even I make that face when I get in the water early in the morning," Wolf admitted. "But I did figure you wouldn't be very good. What's your swimming background?"
"My parents took me to Zoness for a few vacations when I was younger," Fox replied. "We spent a lot of time in the water for a few weeks." It dawned on him that he had a chance to fish for info, and probably without bringing up too many sour memories. He knew precious little about Wolf, but that had to change, and this question felt safe. "What about you? How much have you swam?"
"Swam competitively all through Academy. Did pretty well. It helps to be tall." Wolf cocked his head downward at Fox, staring down the five-foot-eight vulpine and grinning. "Had to quit swimming altogether when the Lylat Wars broke out. Andross was a shitty boss if I've ever had one. Afterward, I inherited my dad's ship afterward, lost it to a dumb bitch, stole it back, and picked swimming back up."
"You swam in Academy?" Fox replied.
All through his school days, before he'd been forced to drop out and assume command of his father's team, Fox had been so focused on becoming a better pilot that he'd never bothered to see what the place offered for sports. Half an hour of cardio five mornings a week and two days a week of full-body weight training were all he'd felt he needed.
Wolf nodded.
"Good experience, overall. Makes your lungs a lot more efficient, slows your resting pulse better than most workouts. And there were other perks."
Fox felt he'd nearly overextended with questions, and Wolf's cocky face dared him to take the bait he'd laid out. He wasn't sure what Wolf was referring to by perks, but Fox was content to let it go.
"Well, I'm way less experienced, but I'll try to keep up," Fox said.
Wolf shrugged, turned down his lane, and took off.
Fox could certainly try to keep up, but it was a doomed effort. Wolf moved at a slower pace than he had before, when he hadn't been aware that Fox was around, but even at reduced speed, he was faster than Fox could catch. Fox took to swimming underwater, desperate to gain ground, but even when he kicked repeatedly off of the bottom of the pool, Wolf was faster. Through his goggles, he saw Wolf floating at the other end of the pool, waiting for him as he cleared the last quarter of the pool.
"Figured you wouldn't be very good," Wolf chuckled.
"Shut up," Fox grumbled. "I can do better."
"I'm pretty sure you can't," Wolf replied with a wide smirk. "But hell. I'll see if I can change that. Give this a try, pup. Watch for a few seconds, and then do as I do."
Wolf took off again, only several measures slower. He'd slowed by enough that Fox could've kept pace by swimming as he'd done before. The pulls of his arms followed the same motion as before, but the intensity was gone and his legs didn't kick as forcefully.
Fox tried to follow suit. He swung his arm forward, pulled water back, and reached forward with the next one. His legs kicked frantically. He raised his head from the water intermittently to take heavy breaths. Twice, he found he'd gone off course and had to correct his path.
All the while, just a short distance ahead of him, Wolf splashed far less, and consistently tilted his head just far enough out of the water for his maw to take a breath. Fox traveled faster and even nearly reached the end first despite Wolf's headstart, but Wolf wasn't going for speed, and Fox knew it. The taller canid gave a perfect example for Fox to copy, with each arm synced to the opposite side's leg.
"Better," Wolf commended. He held four fingers above the water, his wrist limp, and dropped them so that they submerged in the water. "Like this. Fingers break the surface tension before your palms do. It reduces splashing. Open your palms and pull water with as much surface area as you can. Also, rotate your whole body. Make sure that when one arm goes into the water, the opposite side's leg kicks downward. Tilt your head a bit with every stroke, and tilt extra to take a breath on every third stroke."
The voice was foreign. Fox had heard Wolf bark orders at his team, and he'd heard him try to cow Fox over the comm channels. He'd heard him speak casually, and he'd even heard him sound a bit panicky.
This was different. Wolf was telling something that was already in his head-something he already knew to an extent, just from watching the last lap out of the corner of his eye. It was still difficult to convert that into actual coordination, though.
"I'm not sure I get it," Fox said. "What do you mean, rotate?"
He moved closer to Fox. Without warning, Wolf reached an arm out and placed a finger on Fox's nose. He paused, waiting for Fox to challenge the move, and no reaction came. Fox was intrigued enough by the odd gesture to humor him.
Poker-faced, Wolf dragged his finger straight down along Fox's chin. The tip of his dulled claw reached through the fur to drag against Fox's skin, and continued tracing downward as it reached his neck, first, and then his chest.
Fox's face took on a faint trace of a snarl as Wolf reached lower beneath the water, the older canid's one eye following the line he drew. Wolf didn't seem to be stopping, either, as though he was hell-bent on winning a game of chicken.
The claw continued through Fox's fur and pricked against his navel. Fox flinched visibly and swatted Wolf's arm away before it could get any lower; it didn't seem as though Wolf planned to stop until he reached the suit he'd so graciously loaned him.
"What the hell are-"
Wolf's other arm pinched Fox's mouth shut, quicker and firmer than Fox was prepared for. Before Fox could struggle, Wolf gave his explanation.
"That's the axis you rotate around," Wolf said. The frustration subsided as Wolf's grip loosed in an instant and Fox regained his calm.
The process was starting to make sense. Wolf's touch had been unnecessary and unwelcome, but the method of communication had already become irrelevant. The swimming stroke was becoming clear; Fox was starting to believe that with a little more clarity, he could get on Wolf's level and maybe just beat him at his own sport.
He listened intently.
"Center your rotation around that line. Make your movements repeat in a clean cycle, and balance your horizontal propulsion so you don't fall out of line. Pull yourself forward evenly and you won't swerve. Got it?"
He did. It felt like everything Wolf said had already been in his head since he saw Wolf demonstrate it a few minutes back, and Wolf had just reminded him of something that he already knew. Images of Wolf going through the motions had engraved in his mind, and with a little push, Fox could substitute himself into them and feel as though he'd done it himself.
"Yeah."
"Then try to keep up."
Watching Wolf's stroke, it finally clicked. Fox took off moments after Wolf, determined to beat him this time, or at least keep up.
The one part Fox still wasn't prepared for was the breathing. Air came into his lungs, but splashes of water also made their way, forcing him to hold his breath or cough it up several times. It did nothing to curb his determination.
It turned out to be a doomed effort. Wolf didn't hold back this time, speeding to the end at what seemed to be nearly double Fox's improved pace. By the time Fox reached the end of the pool, he panted heavily and coughed up swallowed water onto the concrete shore, ravaged by his own inability to take in air without water. He thought he should be ashamed of himself, maintaining illusions that he could walk onto the scene and keep pace with a longtime swimmer.
Somehow, though, he didn't feel ashamed, or even defeated. The exhaustion was invigorating.
"Yeah. That's it," Wolf said, grinning as Fox caught his breath. "Slow. And clumsy. But your overall form was just about perfect. Looks like you learn from me as well as I learned from you, even when we're not in a cockpit."
Wolf? Learning from Fox? What was he talking about?
"What's that supposed to mean?" Fox sputtered between breaths.
Wolf thought for a moment.
"Ever hear of mirror neurons?" he asked.
"Yeah," Fox replied between breaths. "Something in your brain that lets you imitate things that you see."
"Pretty much. They're pretty powerful things for a guy like me. You used some tricks on me both times we flew against each other," Wolf replied. "And I learned a lot from every time I saw you fly. Even got some ideas yesterday, when you pretty obviously weren't even trying. I don't think flying is the only thing, though. I can improve by watching you, period. And I think it's mutual."
Wolf looked dead serious, as though he'd caught something game-changing. Fox couldn't help but laugh for just a moment.
"You might be onto something," Fox said. He coughed between laughs, and sprayed a bit more water out at the poolside. "But piloting, Wolf? Does that really need saying? I know we've always been enemies, but I've always known you made me a better pilot. Why do you act like this is news?"
"You think I think it's news?" Wolf said. "You're clueless, aren't you? I bet you don't get why you're even here."
The goggles made it just a little tougher to guess what angle Wolf was taking here.
"In the pool?"
"On my ship, period," Wolf said. "Damn it, pup. Tell me something. You've put me through a lot of hell and handed me two humiliating defeats. It used to be okay, when Panther and Leon were around, but now I'm far and away the biggest mark in all of Lylat, and I don't even have accomplices to band together with. Thanks to you, I'm a fugitive who's all alone in the world. Why haven't I kicked you the fuck off of my ship for making everything worse, one encounter at a time? Can you give me an answer?"
It hit him by surprise, and he was out of breath, but Fox had already gone over this with Falco in great detail. In truth, he'd expected to have this conversation on the very first day. Wolf had every right to be angry, but Fox had a good recruitment pitch at the ready. It'd be easier now, with a little more ammo from the prior afternoon.
"Because I'm here to make up for that," Fox replied. "And so far, I'd dare say I've done a pretty good job. Do you really think you'd have gotten out of yesterday with your Wolfen intact, let alone unscathed, if someone hadn't been around to divert half of the fire?"
"I do," Wolf replied. "I was going to take it slow, and I'm capable even with a broken radar. I'm not delusional, of course. Having you around was good. Didn't have to fly scared. Might say I got away with being sloppy, not doing a more detailed check on my Wolfen before I flew, not taking a more painstaking approach to dismantling the threat at hand. It was nice, and it saved me time, but there's nothing about my current objective that I couldn't accomplish without you. I really did plan on doing this alone. Your presence is convenient, but it sure as hell isn't necessary."
"Not necessary? How exactly do you plan on establishing contact with Cornerian authorities once you have the money to pay off your bounty, huh?" Fox challenged. "You're a wanted-"
Wolf put a palm to his temple.
"Fucking hell, pup. Shut up," he growled. "You've spent this whole time ignoring what I'm trying to say, and now that I'm direct, you're barking up the wrong tree."
"What you're trying to say?"
"I've been screwing with your head," Wolf grumbled. "Except it hasn't worked. Thought it was going to be fun, but maybe I'm not the only one here with a busted radar."
What the hell did he mean by that?
"I didn't know you had fun on your agenda at all," Fox replied. He tried to guess what busted radar Wolf was talking about, but there was too much he'd ignored for the sake of civility. Wolf's dress habits, or lack thereof, with his superior physique? Bringing up James McCloud at the worst possible times? Constantly calling him pup, as though Fox had the kind of ego that a condescending nickname could bruise? It seemed like Wolf spent their interaction trying to belittle his longtime rival. As for whatever was beyond that, Fox couldn't even guess. "This whole expedition is supposed to be all business, right? If not for giving you a fresh start, why should either of us be here? I'm here to help."
"Yeah?" Wolf scoffed. "You really ought to stop with your sales pitch. It wouldn't work anyway. Do you get how shitty it sounds from my point of view? You gave me my first dogfight defeat since Academy, won a high-profile war by killing a monster I could've handled, established me as a villain as though Andross didn't do a good enough job of that on his own, wrecked Sargasso after I spent six years building it up, and then left the Aparoid homeworld without checking to see if I was even alive after we all risked our lives to blow it up"
Fox had a good counterargument to all of those. He'd prepared for this, and he'd start with the last one.
"Peppy was in critical condition and needed to be rushed to-"
"I just told you that's not going to work," Wolf scolded. He didn't yell or even come close to it, but there was hurt in his voice and even in his posture. "I don't care what your excuses are. They don't help your case. The fact is that every time we interact, I end up getting fucked over. I saved your life and you say you're grateful, but you still fuck me over without even trying to. Just look. You wanted to make things up to me, but my bounty is still high and you got my team to ditch me. It's like you're jinxed. I wouldn't be surprised if this time we're spending together gets my home destroyed and ends my remaining influence as leader of Sargasso, as if three assassination attempts in the last two months isn't forbidding enough."
Wolf took heavy breaths, a hand still caressing his forehead. Fox waited for him to go on, not wanting to agitate Wolf any further, but Wolf didn't speak.
He could feel Wolf's pain, or at least his profound frustration with something that Fox still hadn't identified. He'd put Fox at a loss. Wolf had brought up the one point that had never occurred to Fox-consistency. Every single time they'd interacted, it had ended badly for Wolf. Fox had no counter for that, and it made him feel as shitty as he'd felt back way back when Falco had reminded him that he really had made the best choices… somehow. Fox couldn't remember what the bird had said anymore.
"If you really want, I'll leave," Fox replied.
It hurt to say, because with Wolf out of the picture, Star Fox was as good as over. They could find another pilot or two, sure, but they wouldn't find anyone comparable to Fox or Falco. Their stellar reputation would sink, young pilots' Arwings would go down in flames, and Fox and Falco would end up jaded by their early thirties, wondering if it was really worth sacrificing all those foolish, ambitious kids just to keep their own flying lifestyle alive. They'd both seen it play out in their heads and lost sleep over it countless times, or Falco never would've agreed to accept Wolf at all.
"Pup. If I really wanted, you'd be back in Corneria right now," Wolf seethed, turning partly to Fox so that his good eye made contact. "Would've been the smart thing to do. We have a bad history and you have thirty thousand incentives to put a blaster to my head and pull the trigger. You can't leave, though. At this point, I wouldn't let you. Do you really not know why?"
Honesty felt like the best policy. Another stab at it would probably just make things worse.
"No."
Wolf sighed.
"Fuck, then. This didn't go how I planned," he cursed, speaking with nonchalance that didn't quite cover his exasperation. "I'm going to swim a few more laps and cut out early. Talk to me when I've had a while to get my head on straight."
Wolf was about to take off, but Fox wasn't done just yet. He hadn't considered before that he might just have habits that harmed Wolf, and that he wasn't even aware of them. Since Wolf seemed to believe that, and since it hurt him personally, he had to address it.
"Do you really think I'm bad for you?" Fox asked. He caught Wolf just as he was beginning to turn away, prompting the wet lupine to stop in place. "I see where you're coming from, and you're right about the facts. Nothing but bad has ever happened to you when we've met. But do you really think it's set in stone? Are we rivals forever… and never friends?"
Wolf clearly heard him, but he turned away fully and was gone in the water. When he returned to Fox's side of the pool, he flipped under the water, kicked off against the end of the pool and was gone without even coming up to take a rest.
Fox realized his question wasn't going to be answered. Maybe it didn't need to. Wolf wasn't the kind of guy who even looked for friends.
Despite maintaining a pace far beyond what Fox could reach, Wolf wasn't going to tire out and surface, so there was no point waiting for him. The best Fox could do with his time was try in vain to match Wolf's pace, or at least practice what he'd been taught. Wolf had seemed to want him to learn to swim, at least.
Fortunately, the swim lesson had clicked well. Fox performed the stroke, and it became more comfortable with each lap he took. He was nowhere near as quick in the water as Wolf, and he didn't expect to get that good, but he could reconcile his own movement with that of Wolf cutting through the water beside him, and that was progress.
At some point, Wolf got out of the pool, and Fox was too immersed in his activity to notice. By the time Fox got into the locker room, rinsed the pool water out of his fur, and stepped into the pool dryer, there wasn't a trace to be found of his old rival until his ears picked up the quiet clicking of a closing door.
Fox paced around in his room. Breakfast didn't seem to want to go settle, and he felt worse than he had in a long time. It was mostly loneliness, and he knew it, but that didn't make him feel any better.
He couldn't help but feel that Wolf had hinted at the truth. Fox was just bad news without even meaning to cause harm-not just for Wolf, but for everyone. Falco left Katt and the Hot Rodders to join Star Fox, and now he was caught in a loveless scene where his satisfaction was fleeting his only close friend had not-so-secretly fallen for him. Krystal was off in the unfamiliar urban maze of Corneria, all alone with her severance package and phone numbers for old friends who were, decidedly, Fox's friends first. Wolf, Falco, and Krystal could all make a good case for wishing they'd never met him.
As for Slippy, Peppy, and everyone else he cared about… well, if Fox put his mind to it, he could find some way he'd fucked them out of their lives. He was just determined to see things through a gray-tinted lens. He couldn't help it.
He checked his watch as the loneliness gnawed at him, and he got a bad idea. It was mid-afternoon by Corneria City's time, though it was still morning in the orbit of this strange planet. He didn't like it, but he felt like his grief and guilt would consume him if he didn't.
"Fox?" the bird answered. "It ain't evening yet and you're still alive, so I'm just gonna take a guess. The son of a bitch turned on you after all, and you shot him down. Congrats on three-for-three. He still breathing?"
"He hasn't done anything wrong since I got here," Fox replied. "There's no emergency. There was no fight. Honestly, I just really need to talk."
Falco sighed.
"You're making a mistake," the bird warned. "We've gone over this. Talk to me about personal shit and you'll end up just as fucked up as I am. If you really need to talk to someone, Corneria's got therapists with better ears and better minds."
"I need someone who cares," Fox replied. "And someone I care about. Right now, you're all I've got."
It was truer than he cared to acknowledge. Falco was the only real constant in his life at this point besides ROB, who didn't exactly count.
"Couldn't call Peppy?"
"Hey, Peppy!" Fox shot back in a mocking voice. "I have a lot on my chest right now. You know how I broke up with Krystal? Well, Falco and I have been looking for Wolf O'Donnell and we both got really lonely over the weeks out in space, so we screwed. Now I have some one-sided feelings toward him that I can't seem to shake, and hanging out with Wolf one-on-one makes me realize that I've been a shitty person." It was a bit more open than he usually was about how he felt, but this was nothing new. Fox cleared his throat. He and Falco had gone through this conversation once before, when Falco shot down his hopes of anything more than casual sex between them. "How's that sound?"
Falco harrumphed.
"Shit. Remember how I said no strings attached?" he chided.
"Yeah. I get it. You don't let anyone tie you down, and guys don't do it for you anyway," Fox replied. "I'm just really feeling down. Can I have a few minutes? Please?"
"You've already had a few minutes," the bird grumbled. Fox almost buried his head in his pillow and… he didn't know what he was going to do, really. He felt lucky to not get that far before Falco went on. "You're lucky I'm not busy yet. Go ahead. Talk to me."
Relief poured over Fox. One less rejection made him feel just a bit better already.
"I just…" he started to say, but he couldn't form the question. "I feel like a shitty guy. Wolf talked to me this morning. You know how I ruined his whole life just by doing what I had to?"
"He's really sent you on a guilt trip?" Falco scoffed. "Even after all our prep? Sounds like we've got a master of persuasion on our hands after all. Oughta send him my way. With power like his, I'm sure he could convince me that I'm gay after all, and you and I can just live happily together for the rest of our lives. Should solve both of our problems, huh?"
Fox wondered if Falco knew how much that hurt. It actually sounded like it hurt Falco, too-like maybe the best thing Fox could do was press the issue, spend more time with the bird in bed, talk sweet to him, lose themselves together in flight sims and sex and drunken storytelling. Maybe, on some level, it was what Falco wanted, too?
It was all too tempting, as the thoughts passed through Fox's head, to make up some excuse to leave Wolf's ship and search the deepest recesses of space together for someone else to fill out their roster. Another few weeks alone in space, with only each other to satisfy their baser needs, and he could confess his love again, and maybe Falco would realize that he loved Fox too, in a way he could never love the one night stands he'd brought home in the name of lust.
Those thoughts were all the result of being on the rebound, though, and Fox had known it from the start. Falco wasn't going to have a change of heart. Fox's feelings were plenty real, but once Fox had been single for long enough, the rebound effect would subside. He just had to continue to fight it, and keep throwing himself into the tasks at hand.
It'd also help if he could somehow kill the guilt he'd started to feel.
"I don't think I'm being duped," Fox replied. "I think I've messed everyone up. The more I think about it, the more true it is. Wolf and Krystal, and even you. You'd still be with Katt if I hadn't interfered. You wouldn't just be chasing tail, never finding satisfaction."
"I would not still be with the damsel in distress," Falco protested. "Might have started my own team at some point, but Star Fox was a better move. You found me at the right time. Quit beating yourself up."
Falco exaggerated the harshness in his voice, like he frequently did when he said something a little too nice. Fox cracked a smile in spite of himself.
"It figures you won't let me paint you like a victim," Fox sighed. "But Krystal and Wolf-"
"We've gone over this, Fox," Falco dismissed. "Wolf screwed himself over the minute he signed on to kill your dad. He's always been on the wrong side of the law, and he's paid the price. Fucker's lucky you haven't killed him yet, cuz you have every right to. Yeah, I get where you're coming from. He's redeemed himself, or something, so we both tried to help him by clearing the bounty. We failed. He lost his crew. Doesn't matter if it's gone all wrong. We still tried to help him even though he's spent years trying to make us both dead. Now, he can join Star Fox and we've promised to clear him one way or another. That's better than he's going to get from the rest of the whole damn universe. If he's ungrateful enough to turn us down, then he can go do his bad boy schtick alone and hopefully get himself killed in the process. Good riddance."
The self-assurance Fox had boarded with started to flicker back to life. It wrestled with the doubts Wolf had uncovered-the doubts Fox had about his own ability to do good, and about how even he could really make things even if he helped Wolf turn his life around.
"I don't think you understand him," Fox sighed. "I don't either."
"Don't have to," Falco said. "He's got a fair offer that he can take or leave. He's our best option for the new team, but I told you I'm not leaving Star Fox. If Wolf won't sign on, then it's us two, combing space in our loaner ship again until we find someone who can impress us in the flight sims."
Fox wondered if Falco knew what he was doing here, tempting Fox with more time alone-more time where Falco was desperate enough to physically indulge his longtime teammate. More time with shitty space food, boring days spent drifting between planets, and flight sims until they were both physically exhausted. More time that Fox wished would never end.
All temptation aside, though, Falco was right. Fox had done the right thing consistently ever since the Lylat Wars. The results may not have been so favorable for Wolf so far, but if Fox kept doing good things, everything would turn out okay, even for Wolf. That was the nature of making the world a better place-the nature of doing what Star Fox always aspired to do. All Wolf had to do was not throw that away.
Really, Fox still didn't feel very good about anything he'd done so far. The feeling of dread, though, and the powerlessness he'd felt before, were at least greatly diminished. He could get through the rest on his own.
"Yeah… you know what, Falco? You're right," Fox said. It didn't mean Wolf was wrong, of course. There was still a lot of conflict in Fox's head, but at least he felt better about it all. "Thanks."
Falco sighed loudly into the phone.
"I just do what I have to," the bird replied. "Try not to let him get you fucked up like this again, yeah?"
"Yeah."
"And don't miss me too much," Falco added. "It's bad for you."
The tone sounded, indicating that Falco had hung up. Fox took a deep breath, fell backward onto his bed, and stretched. He yawned, wondering how just under one hour of swimming had made him so sore. Maybe it was just something his body wasn't used to.
The clock on his nightstand read 10:05, and napping until noon sounded like the best thing he could do with his time. Fox took off his shirt, threw it aside, and rested his head on a pillow. Maybe, now that Falco had at least sort of set Fox's head on straight, he'd be able to get some decent rest.