The sun was setting as snow slowly floated down from the thick clouds above. It collected on the city sidewalk and the people walking on it. It was almost 5 P.M. and the holiday dinners should be starting soon. Wolf stood atop one of the taller public building looking down at the people below. The cigarette in his mouth gave off a faint glow as the smoke got caught in the cold winter breeze. The smell and taste distracted him from all the problems in his little world.; up there it was just him and his cigarette. The sun's rays slowly dissipated as twilight faded. The dull shine the city's windows gave was replaced with reflections of the dark night sky and falling snow.
"Excuse me sir!" A young building attended said trying to get Wolf's attention, "Excuse me but we'll be closing soon. You'll have to leave."
"What? This place doesn't close till seven." Wolf said.
"Well usually, but it is Fetiumval eve sir. The boss wants to close early."
Wolf took in a deep puff then flicked his stub of a cigarette off the side of the building, "Ok."
Wolf walked down to the main lobby and once again looked at all the holiday decorations. Ribbons, reefs, those fake snowmen with all the lights, and finally a massive tree in the middle of the lobby.
"Mommy!" A little girl talked as she pointed at it, "Look at the big Fetiumval tree!" It was obvious she was enamored by the lights and shiny ornaments on the large tree.
"Yes darling it's very pretty." The mom smiled back at her.
Wolf just looked at the tree and rolled his eye; it looked like a massive eye sore to him. Wolf was the last person out of the lobby and the doors were locked behind him.
The cold air hit his face and he sighed, "I fucking hate the cold." He whispered to himself.
After an hour walk Wolf got to his bar. Frost covered the windows and the door handle was colder than ice. Wolf opened up the door and was greeted with a small amount of heat.
"Fuck! Panther where is the damn heat?!" Wolf shouted. The only people inside were the regulars and were used to Wolf yelling. Wolf didn't get a response, "PANTHER!"
Shuffling could be heard from upstairs and then footsteps rushing down the stairs. Panther's head popped out of the hallways, "What?" he asked trying to pretend nothing was wrong.
"Where is the damn heat? I can't even take my damn jacket off!"
"Yeah, it blew out while you were gone. I've been doing my best to fix it though." Panther stepped down off the stairs holding a wrench and there was some dust and black smudges on his clothes. Surprisingly Panther was quite the handyman, he fixed a lot of the appliances around the bar, "I've got some heat coming out but it's going to take a bit before I can get it up and running."
"…" Wolf just looked really irritated.
"Wolf, why don't you just go home for today? I know how the holidays make you feel."
"…Fine. I don't want to freeze my ass off here anyways." It seems like Panther's offer just made him more upset.
The door slammed behind Wolf and it shook the snow above Wolf and it all fell on him. He was beyond the point of swearing and just quietly brushed is off his shoulders and out of his hair and fur. He walked up the stairs and turned the corner, cars rushing by, people crowding the sidewalks to get home, it all gave him a massive headache.
"Wolf?" A familiar voice called out from behind him. Wolf turned around and saw Fox McCloud, "You know this is the first time I've seen you out of the bar this early!" He smiled.
"Hey Fox," Wolf said rather coldly as he continued to walk.
"Is something the matter Wolf?" Fox asked as he followed Wolf, "Why are you leaving work so early?"
"No," He said as he reached into his coat pocket and took out a cigarette and his lighter, "And I'm leaving work out heater broke down."
"Oh, sorry to hear man."
"Why are you here Fox?"
"Huh?"
"I always figured you and your crew would be having a big party or whatever."
"Oh no," He laughed a bit nervously, "Falco says he's going to be with Panther after you guys close, Slippy is spending it with his dad, and Peppy is with his daughter."
"Oh…"
"Yeah, so I was hoping to get a drink at your place before I headed back up to the Great Fo-"
Before Fox could finish his sentence a news reporter appeared on the large television screens scattered throughout the city, "This just in. A massive blizzard is rolling into the area. It is advised that everyone finds shelter as soon as possible. For more information stay tuned or go to our site."
"…Shit." Fox said as he looked up at the sky. The dark clouds seemed to have grown thicker and the snow seemed to double as they talked.
"So much for going back home," He said as he took in a puff of smoke.
"I'll just call a hotel and get a room."
"Fat chance, its Fetiumval eve Fox. I don't even think you can pull off getting a room right now."
Fox was already on his cell phone looking up numbers, "Won't know until I try," He said as he pressed a number to call. With each number he called the more depressed Fox got, he stopped after trying seven hotels, "Crap you were right." Fox stared intently at the ground, Wolf knew that look all too well. It's the same look Fox had in the middle of their fights; he was thinking a way out of this.
Wolf sighed as he scratched the back of his head, "Uhh… Do you wanna spend the night at my place?"
Fox looked over at Wolf a bit shocked at the suggestion, "You sure man? I really don't want to impose."
"I can't let you stay in the bar and if you stay outside you'll freeze. I'm not that much of a monster."
"Well, thank you Wolf, I really appreciate it." Fox said with a warm smile.
"Yeah…well, you better be happy with the couch."
"What? I get a couch? I'd assume I'd be on the floor." Fox snickered.
"Watch it pup."
Fox followed Wolf to a small apartment building a few blocks away from the bar. The building looked rather old, the paint outside was mostly chipped, it was only three stories, and the concrete staircase into the building had lot of stains on it. Fox didn't want to think about what each one of them were from.
"It's uhhh, nice place Wolf." Fox said broke his gaze away from the staircase.
"Don't lie to me, its crap." Wolf said with a smile as he took out his keys and opened the main door, "Just wait till you see the inside Pup. I can point out at least three places where people were murdered."
"…Really?" Fox asked a bit worried as he stepped inside with Wolf and took in the inside of the place, "Oh man I thought the outside was bad." The inside was a lot worse than the outside. Large chunks of tile were missing from the floors leaving just the bare concrete. There were a few large discolorations in the wallpaper where Fox guessed pictures once hung. The handrail for the stairs was missing a few bars from what he could see. The air inside smelled a bit musty, like there was mold somewhere, "Holy crap."
"Yeah it's a wonder why this place hasn't been condemned yet." Wolf put out his cigarette in a standing ashtray right by the door and walked towards the stairs, "Come on, I'm on the third floor."
Fox and Wolf walked up to the third floor and Wolf walked all the way to the door in the back of the hall. He took out his keys again and unlocked it.
"Home sweet home." Wolf said sarcastically.
Fox didn't know what he expected Wolf's apartment to be like but he was pleasantly surprised. Compared to the rest of the building, Wolf's apartment was like a five star hotel room. The paint looked brand new, the walls were bare of any sort of pictures but Fox figured Wolf wasn't the sentimental type. All the furniture looked a bit old but rather nice. Wolf's TV was actually pretty big; it looked like it was thirty-two inches. It was resting on a rather plain looking entertainment center but it did the trick. In front of the four-seat couch was a rather nice coffee table with a glass top. There were a few boxes tucked neatly into the corner. The living room and kitchen were pretty much one room with just a wall that had a doorframe and large square cut out for a window as the only real distinct separation. Next to the kitchen doorframe was a small hallway with a door in the middle of the wall and another at the end; Fox guessed the first one was the bathroom and the last was the bedroom.
Fox looked at the place with pleasant shock, "Wow, nice place Wolf. It certainly stands out from the rest of the building." Fox said as the two walked in and took off their shoes.
"Thanks, the landlord let me renovate the place. I get to pay cheap rent and if I ever move out she gets the rack the rent up a good hundred bucks." Wolf walked into the kitchen and opened the fridge, "Hey you want a beer?"
"Yeah, thanks." Fox said as he stood a bit awkward.
"Relax man, take a seat on the couch," Wolf said as he plopped down onto the couch and held out a beer to Fox, "It's were you're gonna be sleeping tonight so you might as well get used to it now."
Fox nodded as he took the beer and sat a cushion away from Wolf, "I gotta say Wolf you did a pretty good job fixing this place up, I didn't know you were such a homemaker." Fox teased.
"Heh, yeah, not a lot of people are willing to come fix a space station run by galactic fugitives so we all had to learn how to fix stuff ourselves."
"We?" Fox asked before he took a swig of beer.
"I took up domestic stuff like walls and stuff, Panther took up all the mechanic stuff like fixing the ovens and crap, and Leon took up most of the cooking."
Fox almost spat out his drink upon hearing that, "I can't imagine that guy cooking at all."
Wolf laughed a picked up the remote and turned on the TV, "Yeah neither could I. After we left the Venom army he just started cooking, said it was stuff his mom taught him."
Fox was a bit still freaked out at the idea of Leon standing in a kitchen with an apron cooking.
"Panther was the biggest surprise though. He said he has an engineering degree or some shit," Wolf laughed a bit to himself, "He actually did all the work on his own Wolfen, never let anyone touch it."
The two just sat and chat while watching TV for a while; it was nice. Since Wolf only had basic cable the two were suck watching whatever was on and since most of it was crap they made fun of a lot of it.
Wolf finished his beer and sighed, "Crap, hey Fox can you get me another beer? You can get yourself another one too if you want."
"Oh ok sure," Fox got up and walked into the kitchen. The cold tile against his socks sent shivers down his spine. No matter what training you can go through cold tile is an unbeatable opponent. Fox opened the refrigerator door and was shocked to see the makings of a feast inside, "Whoa, Wolf what's with all this?"
"All what?"
"All this food? You have a Fetiumval feast in here."
"Oh right… My dad was gonna come over originally but had to cancel last minute since his girlfriend wanted to do something."
"Oh…"
"It's ok, I'll just have Leon come over and make it if it doesn't go bad."
Fox paused as he looked at the food. He popped his head out of the windowless window, "Tell you what, how about I cook all this food for you as a thank you for letting me spend the night."
"Uhh I mean if you want sure, you don't have to though."
"It's ok really, I want to. Plus it would be a shame if all this went to waste, now where are your bread crumbs and stuffing?" Fox asked as he began washing his hands.
"Top shelf next to the fridge, the pots and pans are in the closet on the other side," Wolf paused as he got up to look inside the kitchen. Fox was already at work putting a dry rub on the turkey, somehow he already found the spices, he sure worked fast, "Do you want any help?" Wolf asked as he got some pots and pans for Fox.
"If you want you can start peeling the potatoes but leave all the big stuff to me."
"Ok sure." Wolf said as he picked up the bag of potatoes and took out the peeler.
Within the hour Fox had taken full control of Wolf's kitchen. He had all four burners on the stove top going, the turkey was in the oven, and Fox was stirring something in one of the larger pans. The whole apartment smelled amazing.
"Fox I gotta ask," Wolf said as he slid the peeled and cut potatoes into a pot of boiling water, "Where the heck did you learn to do all this?"
Fox paused for a moment as he got lost in thought for a second. A small smile formed on his face, "My dad."
"Oh."
"My mom died a few weeks after I was born so my dad just took up everything she did," as Fox talked he had this solemn smile which made him look rather stoic. Wolf didn't know why but he was kind of struck in awe of Fox; he couldn't look away, "Peppy told me dad was always a good cook. I remember everyone would come over for the holidays and dad would always in the kitchen putting together a feast. He always let me help out and he always made cooking fun," Fox quickly snapped out of his mindset, "Oh sorry, I went on a tangent there didn't I?"
Wolf quickly snapped out of his daze too, "Oh no it's fine. I wasn't even paying attention." He joked.
Fox snickered, "You asshole."
After a few hours the feast was ready and the two brought it all out and somehow managed to get it all to fit on Wolf's coffee table. Wolf looked at the food eagerly as he couldn't remember the last time he saw that much well prepared food.
"Let's dig in," Fox said.
"Hell yeah!" Wolf added.
After an hour or two of eating and watching bad TV most of the feast was gone. Wolf rested into his couch as he relaxed. The food was so good he could see himself getting fat off Fox's cooking, "I gotta say Fox that was pretty damn good."
"Glad you like it," Fox said as he got up and started taking the dishes.
"What are you doing now?"
"I'm going to clean the dishes, what else?"
"Aww wait wait," Wolf said as he struggled to get up, "Let me help you!" Wolf finally got up but immediately missed the comfort of his couch.
"You don't have to, this all is my thanks for letting me stay."
"Yeah I know but I'd feel like crap leaving all these dishes for you. I know I'm an asshole but I'm not that much of one,"
"Fine," Fox laughed.
The two stood next to each other talking as they cleaned the dishes and loading them into Wolf's crummy little dishwasher. He thought about how just a few years ago they were at each other's throats. But now, here they are, doing the dishes together, Wolf couldn't explain it but for the first time in a while he actually felt bliss.
-
Two days later.
-
"And that's what happened doc," Wolf said. He was lying down on a really nice therapist couch. That was always Wolf's favorite part of coming to these crappy mandated therapy sessions, the couch. It was the most comfortable thing in the world.
A female Leopard asked Wolf. Her blonde hair was tied up into a neat little bun. She wore a rather professional pants suit and she sat on an expensive looking swivel chair, "And how did this make you feel Wolf?"
"I dunno," Wolf paused as he though, "It… made me really happy; doing something like that. It was like nothing else existed in that moment but my crappy apartment and us."
"You told me you hate the holidays because of your mother, yet you said you enjoyed this one. Could perhaps be because of Mr. McCloud?"
"I dunno, I think so?"
"Why do you think that is?" She asked as she wrote stuff down on a pad of paper.
"I-I don't know. It just felt right."
"Well Mr. O'Donnell, to me one thing is clear."
"Whats that?" Wolf asked breaking his gaze from the ceiling and turning his head toward the therapist.
"It's clear to me you love this man."
Wolf was shocked at what she said, "What? You're crazy," Wolf sat up, "You should be on this couch not me." He said pointing down to it.
"Think about Wolf, you went from fighting with this man every chance you got to being happy whenever you see him. You find joy in spending time with him, being under the same roof as him, cooking with him, looking at him smile. You even enjoy doing something as simple as cleaning the dishes with him. That all sounds like stuff a married couple would do."
Wolf wanted to deny everything she said. He wanted to storm out of her office and call her a quack. But he didn't, he just sat there in silence thinking about what she said.
"He single handedly turned one of the worst days of the year for you into something you fondly look back on. He makes you happy no matter where you are, as long as he's there. I know he used to be your rival, but now he's more like an unexpected haven for you," she paused as she took of her glasses, "Wolf, when you first came here you were an unruly arrogant person who kept up a strong front all for the sake of pushing people away. I know you must be scared about hearing this."
"I don't love him, I can't. That's just-"
"Don't let yourself push him away. Wolf, when I first got you as a patient I thought, here is someone who will never change because he doesn't want too. But then you started talkign to me and I began trying to chip away at your walls. But here comes along someone who knocks them down in one fell swoop. And the best thing of all, you're letting him."
Wolf was just silent now.
"Wolf if there is one person who makes you truly happy, that makes you excited to get up in the morning, excited to see, excited to be with. Cherish that person, cherish the time together. Being with him will help you learn to open up more. I want to see you stop being this broody stoic guy, and be the funny sarcastic person I know you really are." therapist's timer went off, "Oh dear, our time appears to be up Mr. O'Donnell," She got up and opened the door for him. Wolf walked out, still lost in thought, "I want you to think about what we talked about today. I'll see you next week." She said with a smile as she closed the door behind him.
Wolf was in a trance as he walked down the hall and out of the building. He looked up at snow falling from the clouds in the winter sky. He took out a cigarette lite it. The smoke danced across the cold winter air and it's smell did not distract Wolf as he hoped it would had, "Holy crap," he said to himself, "I'm in love with Fox."