First World Problems

Chapter 4: Mandarin Fox

Wolf O'Donnell – Morning, Day 4

"Oh Cecilia, Cecilia, my morning flower, why must you appear at such a time? Do thy eyes not knoweth it is still the time for savages to lurk out of the alleys?"

"Yes, Papa. I am aware of it. But brother Thomason is not in his bed."

"Do my ears deceive me? Cecilia is this true? Are you not playing tricks with me? When I left you, he was sleeping as if he went on a journey with Death himself?"

The heck is this bull?

"I swear Papa. These lips of mine speak the truth, and only the truth."

For a classic, it's dumb. Dumb and stupid… I gotta ask Panth for some new insults.

But I can't.

He's too busy getting into his role as Donovan Ferrey, the Father who sacrificed his children for the resurrection of his dead wife or somethin'. In Living Room, blocking the TV where I was too busy playing a video game.

"Cecilia, go off to find Nanny Mysmerelda and tell her to wake up the other servants and find your brother. I must see if your Mother is okay!"

"But Papa. Mother is under the ground. How are you going to see her."

…

…

…

Shouldn't it be his turn now? I looked up from the script I'm reading and all I see is Panth having both of his hands on his hips, one of them holding a similar script. He stares at me with glaring eyes and his mouth set in a straight line as he taps his right foot excessively.

"What?" I decided to speak up first and kill the silence.

"Wolf, I'm beginning to think you're not getting into your role."

"Really? How could you tell?"

"Your slouching on the couch, lazily reading your lines with a monotonous tone!... You're not even looking at me, but instead at your phone, as we speak!"

Looking up at my phone I remembered I was getting scolded for something, "Huh? What'd you say Panth?"

"Oh my stars…" He presses his forefinger and thumb, pinching his forehead as he shakes his head in progress.

"Yeah, um. I've been meaning to ask anyway…" Panth raises his head and looks at me with his left brow rising. "Why the heck are we doing this?", only to facepalm himself.

He then huffed and slowly walks up towards me in the process of speaking, "Well, Wolf. Now that we are no longer wanted criminals, we can start all over and do things we couldn't previously do given our status."

He quickly turns around as he reaches his end only to speak more, " I'm using this opportunity to try out the Cornerian Public Theater and hopefully become the lead actor from the upcoming theatrical performance, The Birth of Lylat!"

"Wait, wait, wait. I thought we were doing The Penance of Ferrey? The heck!"

"Wolf, we're just practicing a scene for the upcoming tryout. This isn't going to be in the play."

"Well, that's stupid!... Also, help me find new vocabulary words I can use as insults!"

"No, now let's get back to busine-"

"Hush you! I still have questions!"

"Stars reigning down on m- Yes, Wolf, what other questions do you have."

Given this opportunity, I needed to think about how I can set up this question that's extremely important to me. It's been eating my mind ever since we started this dumb practice this morning, where instead I could've had my morning vodka while playing Fighting Spirit of the Beasts. With a lot of energy in thinking of the question's set-up by thinking of likely outcomes, going through all the vocabulary I already knew and asking the question in different ways to myself through trial-and-error, I feel like I got it down and asked in the most eloquent and thought-provoking as possible.

"Why the heck am I a dumb little girl!"

…

Before Panth could answer, he pinched his forehead with his forefinger and thumb once more with a heavy sigh after it.

"Do you not like the role, Wolf?"

"Of course not! I'm the great Wolf O'Donnell, I should be given the role of Donovan, he's got the whole kingdom to himself!"

"You mean you want to be the guy who killed three of his children and perform some demonic ritual to allow the demons to eat his civilians?" Panther raises his left eyebrow.

…

"Yes."

…

"Just to resurrect his dead wife?", finishing his sentence.

…

"Nevermind."

He facepalms once more.

"Okay, Wolf, does it really matter in what role you're playing as, do you rather want to be Donovan's Brother? Father? I mean, after all, it's just practice. You're not even participating in the tryout and… you're looking at your phone again. Why do I even bother?"

I looked up over my phone after I replied to a text, "What'd you say, Panth?"

"Stars… Where in the world is Leon anyways, he should be back by now!?"

"Oh, Leon? Yeah, he went to go to Mandarin Fox for eggrolls or somethin'." I went back on my phone.

"What!? But how? We didn't see him leave to the entrance door, he said he went to the bathroom!"

"Okay, One, he's a chameleon. If anything, he probably camouflaged himself and left. Two, he probably jumped out of the bathroom window."

"We're in the seventh floor of this building, Wolf!"

"Okay, but Panth. This is Leon we're talking about. He could practically summon a black hole with just him breathing without doing it willfully."

"Why even is he getting eggrolls?"

"The lizard loves his eggrolls, Panth! Haven't we already established that in Sargasso with all of us ordering like fifty meals just because each contained at least two eggrolls!"

"Ugh, don't remind me. I couldn't look at noodles for at least two months since all we ate was just nothing but Mandarin Fox leftovers."

"Yeah… all that money spent on useless food… we could've used that for upgraded Wolfens."

After saying that, Panth just stood in the middle of the living room as I kept looking at my phone. It seems we're done acting for today, we should celebrate by going to some fancy schmancy restaurant, or…

"Wanna go to Mandarin Fox?"

"…fine."

Fox McCloud

Squid Inked Noodle Supreme… Giga Shroom Chicken… Power Pellet Platter… some of these foods don't feel realistic. Nor does it sound like it'd be from our universe. Or taste good at all.

How in the world did Mandarin Fox get so many food chains around Lylat? Oh wait, I think I know the answer, the logo it uses. When one thinks of 'Mandarin Fox', they instantly think of a big orange bubbly font with some chibi fox beside it that totally doesn't look like me. While also holding a box full of noodles. I hate when industries use me to sell their products or gain attraction, knowing that Fox McCloud, approves and uses it, and you should too!

Eh, at least I get a share of the payment. But of course, we only use the money for repairs of the Arwings, upgrades, improving and maintaining the Great Fox.

Oh, actually it's going to take a lot of money to build a new Great Fox, Great Fox 2.0.

"Sir."

Now that I think about it, have we even asked the General for a new Great Fox?

"Sir?"

Speaking of the General, wonder how he's doing, you know, after being infected and possessed by Aparoids and all, and… us shooting him down…

"Sir? Sir, what's your order?"

Maybe I should visit him in the hospital, along with Peppy…

"Sir, could you please…"

Oh my stars, I never noticed it till now but General Pepper and Peppy names are almost similar!

"SIR!"

"CONSPIRACY!"

"What!?"

"Huh? Oh…" Regaining my attention back to the real world I realized that I'm basically holding up the line to order.

"Sir, what is your order?"

I should choose something quickly, skimming over the menu board, I chose one that looked appetizing… I think?

"I'll have the… Umbran Teriyaki Chicken?", What? Stars, how do people know what this stuff is?

"And your side?"

Oh stars, can I just- fine, looking over the sides section I picked out the first thing I see.

"I'll also have the Rhythmic Heaven Shrimp Side as well."

The person behind the counter listed down my order and looked up at me with his tongue slightly sticking out and made a disgusted face. Something tells me what I listed down isn't a good combo, "With the sauce?".

Friggi- "Sure."

He finished listing the order, "That'll be $11.64". I gave him a twenty and was given back the change and receipt with the ticket number on it, 232.

I left the counter, walked to the nearest wall and leaned on it, waiting for my order. I only came here to visit Falco and see how he's been doing, what with the bet and all. These past few days have been stressful for me, I'm starting to have neck pain and my legs are starting to get sore. Being a waiter sucks, I don't see how Katt can tolerate it. With all the walking back and forth, writing down orders as people keep on talking with more outrageous details on how they want it to turn out.

"I'm about to reach my limit…", talking to myself always calms me down.

"I usually hear that line in bed." Oh stars, you have got to be kidding me.

A figure walks up to me to my right and would then lean on the wall mimicking the pose I'm doing. I put all of my effort into not looking at him, but I could sense his gaze at me, this is starting to be uncomfortable and it won't end unless I say something.

"Wolf."

"We really got to stop meeting like this, people will start to talk."

I'm just going to cut to the chase here, "What do you want, Wolf? Why are you here?"

"What? Come on, can't a guy go to a restaurant with an incredibly cute mascot and order…" He didn't finish his sentence to only look at the menu board with his remaining eye squinting, "…the Banana Pepper Slamma Ramen? What? that sounds gross."

That's one thing we can agree on.

"So how come you're not over by the counter then?"

"Because I need to get Panth's order… and I didn't bring my wallet, Panth is the one paying for us. He's currently in the bathroom because he said something about 'Krystal foresight' and he has to prepare himself. So I thought, 'I'm going to be bored outta my mind!' till I saw you, Pup!"

"Wow. I feel honored to be graced upon the Great Wolf O'Donnell."

"Stars, Fox, what has gotten you on edge today?"

I turned to him dumbfounded over the fact he completely forgot what he did, "Don't you think I still haven't gotten over you making fun of my Father!"

"Oh my- grow a thicker skin, Pup! It's been like what, 8? 9 years? Since your dad mysteriously disappeared!"

"Don't act like you don't know what happened to him, you were there!"

"You think that huh? How do you know? You weren't there, who told you?"

"Peppy."

"Figures…"

"Oh please, he's more trustworthy than you'll ever be."

"Yup, trust. An important virtue that every individual struggles with on a day-to-day basis. That even the most kindred and innocent man could never achieve."

"What are you insinuating…"

"Hm, you heard that? Oh, don't mind me. Just talkin' to myself that's all."

"Don't act coy, spil-"

"But I will say, I'm like so hungry, it's hard to believe Panth is still in the bathroom. Guess you could say I'm… hungry like the Wolf?" He gave me a toothy grin as he nudges his elbow to my side, I aggressively brush him off.

"When is my food ready! Hey! Workers! Hurry up!" Wolf only gives me a disapproving frown as he shakes his head when I yelled.

I'm so sick and tired of him always acting like he knows more than me, not just with my Father but with everything else thus far. He may have helped us with the Aparoids, he may have quit his organization for whatever reason, but he's still the same man who took my Father away.

I felt something grabbing both of my shoulders and forcing my entire body swaying back and forth, I could hear a deep, gruff voice close to my right ear.

"Why can't we be friends…" He's singing to me, he's literally singing to me with some dumb song that's basically mocking me, "…Why can't we be friends?"

Blood starting to boil, my vision getting hazy, both logic and civility escape out of me.

"Ya know Pup, you have some pretty tense muscles. Maybe I can give ya a good massage Panth once taug-" He was interrupted with a fist to his left cheek and stepped back, giving both of us a decent space in between. A couple of patrons and workers quickly stopped their normal activities and lay their eyes on us.

Little did I realize the fist that knocked him back was mine. I must've cracked.

Wolf stayed still, kneeling down with his head staring at the floor, stunned with his left hand caressing his bruise as he frowned. The initial shock left him with a look of disbelief on his face as he tries to process on what just happened. What was once his frown quickly turned into a toothy grin and looked up at me with a sense of ferocity in his eye.

He stood back up and started stretching his shoulders and twisting his sides, he speaks as he did all of this, "Lemme tell ya somethin' Fox. I've always dreamed of doing a one-on-one combat with you, just kind of wished it was on different circumstances, but I won't look a gift horse in the mouth."

He finished stretching and soon posed for what is to be his fighting stance as he raises both of his hands, revealing his sharp, almost metallic claws. He spread his legs in the process with his right foot forward and his left behind him facing between the front and his left, as he is in a crouching position.

"I will say, you certainly pack a punch… for a scrawny fox." I positioned myself to my own fighting stance in preparation for in case he surprises me with an incoming attack. "Of course, that just gives me the approval of not holding back any of my ow- Woah!"

Before he could finish his sentence, I immediately jump at him and perform a turning aerial kick, only to be blocked by both of his arms. He stepped back away from me, close to the wall now.

"Never expected you to do that Pup, kind of thought you'd be into all of that honor crap and wait for your opponent to be ready. Guess you're not all chivalrous after all."

It's not like I wanted to do that, but I have to consider the situation I'm in. I hate to admit it, but he outmatches me over physical strength. I could only win through speed and quick thinking.

As I process this, Wolf sprints at me and raises his right arm to try and claw me. I ducked below him and retaliate with a punch to his stomach and raise my head to bump his jaw, knocking him back once more.

He tends his jaw giving me the opportunity to pounce on him, I run towards him and try to launch another aerial kick. He swiftly reacts and counterattack by grabbing and throwing me across the booth tables.

I felt weightless for a few seconds only to receive pain from the front as I landed on a table that was currently occupied, patrons from the booth quickly left. Turning myself on my back I tried to get off the table only to be pushed back on it.

Above me was Wolf who only gives me a wicked smile as he grabs both of my sides, digging his nails deep into me in the process. "You're in for a ride, pup." I grimace at the pain and I felt myself sliding closer to him only to suddenly be dragged along with Wolf ahead of me.

I felt a couple of booth seats bumping my head consecutively as I slide across each of them, Wolf just kept smiling in the process. Once we reached the end of the booths against a wall giving a final slam to the head, Wolf releases me and stepped back.

I feel rapid thumping coming from my head after getting injured repeatedly, but after the end of the 'ride' and being free I was given the chance to recover a bit. Before I could fully regain consciousness I hear rapid steps coming towards my way and suddenly big thumps in the direction of the booth tables. Raising my head I see Wolf hopping on the tables ahead of me, I can only assume he's wanting to body slam me.

I rolled off the table before I landed on the floor I hear a thump on the table beside me, "Aarrgh…" came out of it, I noticed a pepper shaker falling and rolls beside me. I thought of an idea and grabbed the shaker and stood up only to quickly duck down as I saw another swipe coming from the table.

I uppercut him and followed by a right hook as I stood up once more, knocking Wolf on his back against the table. This gives me enough time to back away and loosening the cap of the pepper shaker. He recovers, jumps off the table and scans the restaurant to find me. He looks at my direction and begins rushing towards me.

I have to time this perfectly, I could feel time slowing down as I grip the shaker behind me as I start to dodge to the left from an incoming attack from Wolf as he closes the distance. I was able to dodge with only a scratch to my left cheek but it still resulted in him missing me. Leaving an opening, I throw the shaker and its content landing on his eye.

"Aarggh! My eye, dirty move Foo-ooah!" As he recoils and tries to wipe his only eye, I punched him in the stomach to leave his eye open once more. Instead of using the shaker, I grabbed his eyepatch from his left and moved it to his affected right eye, resulting in him being blind.

"What the hell! You're dead Fo-waah!" I grabbed his right arm over my shoulder and throw him to the ground, "Acck!"

I stood over him and dropped down on his stomach and then wrapped both of my legs around his neck and did a chokehold.

He grabbed my thighs and began digging his nails in as he chokes, I winced at the pain but I still continued.

"You like that gramps! Make fun of my Father again! Come on, say it! I AM FOX MCCLOUD, SON OF THE GREAT JAMES MCCLOUD!"

I screamed from atop of my lungs inside this cheap restaurant.

Panther Caroso – Literally 30 minutes after the fight

"Words can't describe how furious I am."

I'm pinching my forehead with more force ever since this whole day, in front of me are the two buffoons with bruises all over them and the now ragged clothes from the fight. The two are sitting on the restaurant's chairs beside each other but still a fair distance apart. The fight ended when a couple of patrons called the paramedics to come and get in between them.

Starting off with Wolf staring at me with an actual focus this time, his right eye is red and continually twitches from the pepper Fox mentioned using on him. The black silk tank top I bought him, one of his straps is torn exposing his left pec and a couple of other tears around his sides. The blue windbreaker around his waist, one of the sleeves is pealing itself off, probably was pulled in the fight. One of his leather boots is missing for whatever reason but the most notable piece is that his eyepatch must've snapped as the string is apart and Wolf is clutching it with his right hand and covering his left eye with his other hand. There were a couple of dark bruises around his biceps, cheeks, and top of his right eyebrow.

Fox, on the other hand, is facing away from Wolf and crosses his leg over the other, wrapping both of his arms around each other, hugging himself. His head is wrapped around with bandages with a black right eye. His signature red scarf hasn't received any major damage, but it is looser around his neck. A couple of more bandages are wrapped around his arms, legs and even his bare chest with a couple cuts still revealing. His shirt was probably taken off when the medics noticed blood seeping out of the cloth, but they did a poor job in treating his wounds. He had to take his pants off as well as there were cuts in not only his calves but on his thighs, so they had to be treated. There's one thing I do have to note though and I can't stop glancing at it…

I never thought he would be the kind of guy to wear bikini bottoms! Red even! I always thought he would wear briefs or boxer briefs but… He's obviously embarrassed, his face has been red ever since he had to take off his pants.

But now's not the time, I need to talk to these two.

"Like, it's been only 5 minutes of when I was in the bathroom, how's it even 30!? That's not possible!"

"Panth, Panth. You look heated."

"Of course I'm heated, Wolf! We've only been in this place for only a few minutes and I went to use the bathroom, next thing I know you two are suddenly ripping each other apart! We haven't even ordered food! It's a miracle the medics came but, yet you still kept resisting when they pulled you away, Wolf!"

"Hey! That guy was getting frisky all over me!"

"You sucker punched him in the eye and knocked him out!"

"That's the only thing he ever does when someone's confronting him…" Fox decides to join in on the argument.

"Well gee, Pup, I wouldn't have done that if you hadn't punched me!"

"You were pestering me and made fun of my Father and his sacrifice to which you were involved with!"

"Guys can we please no-"

"Oh please, Like I actually did anything on your daddy's 'supposed' death!" Wolf makes quotation marks with his right hand after finishing his rebuttal.

"Wait, what?"

Before Wolf could answer, a bell interrupted him and ringed from the restaurant's entrance that caught all of our attention. It was none other than the gorgeous Krystal, shining as usual that can put both the sun and moon to shame. She wears a light pink Sunday dress with frills at the end, black leggings and accompanied by white leather boots. She's catching her breath as she holds the entrance door and placing her hand on her chest, fear was displayed all over her face. She scans the restaurant for something until she landed over this direction and widened her eyes and run over here.

"Krystal!?" Both Fox and I say in unison, surprised to see her here.

"Blue Chick!?" While Wolf lags behind in shock as well."

Krystal looks over him, opens her mouth only to quickly shut it as she looks him up and down and turns away covering her eyes, flustered, "I-I'm sorry Fox, I didn't notice you were- were…" Fox realized what she was trying to say and flustered as well. He grabbed the nearest thing to cover him up which was Wolf's windbreaker, but because it was around his waist, he pulled Wolf as well causing him to fall on top of Fox.

"Woah-hey! Fox!" Fox tries to push Wolf away as the other processes and curse him, Krystal on the other hand just kept on blushing and refuses to look over their direction. After a few more minutes of misunderstandings and yelling, Wolf finally gave Fox his jacket and Krystal glares over the former and switches over to worrisome to the latter.

"So, Krystal why are you here?"

"Falco sent me a text saying…" She pulls out her phone and reads over the text, " 'Yo Krys, you need to come over to the Mandarin Fox, Fox and Wolf are screwing each other, is crazy gurl', that's what he wrote, and I had to see if it was true. Obviously, he didn't specify the situation more clearly so I kind of interpreted as something else."

"Like what?" Fox asks her only to Wolf smacking his forehead and Krystal looking away embarrassed, I cover my mouth holding in any laughter slipping out.

"N-Nothing, I'm just glad you're fine. That's what really matters."

"What am I, chopped liver?" Wolf interrupts them, only for the two to stare him down. "Ya know, just to let you all know, during that fight all I could think about was the song 'Peck and a Punch' by Taurus and the Machine." Fox just huffs, and Krystal just looked puzzled.

I decided to jump in and tried to converse with Krystal.

"Krystal, I'm so glad to meet you on this fine day, I just wish it was on better circumstances."

She smiles at me and bows, "I agree, but it's wonderful to see you and Wolf alive and well after the Aparoids have been vanquished."

"And I to you, I'm just happy you were able to save Lylat… and the others too."

"Hey, by the way, thanks for checking in on us! We totally weren't in any trouble or horrible situation after the explosion!" Wolf jumps in, clearly still holding a grudge over the Star Fox team leaving us.

"So, what happened to these two?" Krystal looks over at Fox than to me.

"I can't say for sure since I was in the bathroom for a while-"

"A century!" Wolf interrupts once more.

"-but it's safe to say they just argued over something dumb-"

"Making fun of my Father isn't dumb!" now Fox interrupts me.

"-the only difference is they actually fought this time. I do apologize for Wolf's immaturity though."

"Hey! Panth, rude!" I choose to ignore him.

"No, no, you have nothing to apologize over, if anything Fox probably didn't behave well either."

"Krystal! Aren't you on my side!" She turns to him and gives him a glare, Fox was caught off guard and stares at the floor.

"Still, I do wish to make up for this. How about you, Fox and anyone else you can invite along to come to our apartment and we will treat you well with warm hospitality, entertainment, and food."

"What!" Fox and Wolf yelled in unison.

"We would like that very much, isn't that right Fox?" She stares at him with that same terrifying glare only accompanied with a cheery smile.

"S-sure… sounds like fun…"

After we come to an agreement, I look over to Wolf and he still doesn't look treated properly, I grabbed the nearest med-kit and walked over to him.

"Hey… what are you doin' with that."

"It's going to treat you." I kneeled down in front of him and opened the box, I grabbed a bottle of rubbing alcohol and cotton cloth. Putting the alcohol on the cloth I reached over to Wolf's face only to be stopped with him grabbing my arm.

"Hey! What're you doing! That stuff hurts!"

"Don't act like a baby! Of course it'll hurt! It's your own fault for getting those wounds in the first place!"

"No! Stay back! Back I say!"

Krystal

Looking over to Panther and Wolf, the former is overtowering the latter cursing and yelling at him as he's being treated. I turn to Fox beside me and noticed how messy his treatment looked. This is the chance for me to get close to him, so I searched around the room for any spare med-kit, sadly there was none. I turned to Fox and tried to ask him of where I could get a box only to be interrupted by someone far away.

"Hey, Fox! I brought more tape! I think its tape? Wait do I need cotton or bandage!? Is tape a type of bandage?"

Looking over to my right I see Falco holding a med-kit walking this way. As he kept on asking other dumb questions, he tripped over a random salt shaker and let go of the med-kit. The box flew all the way here and landed on Fox's head as he turned to see Falco.

"Aah!" Fox falls to the floor and med-kit spills all of its content. Wolf from afar laughed as Panther shushes him.

"Real smooth, Falco."

"I said I was sorry!"

"Don't apologize to me, apologize to him!" Falco looked over me as I try to properly treat Fox's wounds and the fresh wound Falco gave him. Fox's eyes were closed but his face was pulsing and he's snarling lowly. So much for this being one-one-one...

"Hey Fox, I'm sor-"

"Don't. Just, Don't."

As I tried to cover up the remaining open wounds with the bandage, I looked at Falco, "Hey, how come the medics didn't do a good job in healing both Wolf and Fox?"

"Oh! Oh…" Falco starts to laugh halfheartedly and pressing both of his index fingers together as he looks down, "Ya see… I told them I could treat them and sort of… maybe… bribed them as well."

"Falco. Why!?"

"I wanted to see if I can be an awesome healer! Be more than just a rockin' pilot! You know, be like a triple-threat!"

"Falco…"

"Yeah, Wolf and I tried to stop him, but he wouldn't have any of it." Fox joins in on the conversation.

"Hey, for my first time, I think I did pretty well!"

"Oh stars, it was his first time even…" Fox shakes his head, "But more importantly, Krystal, why did you agree with Panther that we should go visit them tomorrow!?"

"You did what!?" Falco jumps in as well, "Are you crazy!?"

"Because. You guys have been on each other's tails, not literally, and since they quit being mercenaries why do we still have to act like the war never ends between us? I figured this was a good opportunity to bury the hatchet between all of us and maybe, just maybe they could be our allies more than our enemies."

"Wow, Krystal, you're so optimistic. But that's just wishful thinking!" Falco retaliates, "They're still bad guys who have done so many illegal things that there's no way they can be good!"

"But they've also helped us with the Aparoids and even saved Fox's life. I believe they're still good, Panther certainly is and I'm sure Wolf is too. Leon… is Leon."

"Krystal. They killed my Father, he killed my Father." He looks over at Wolf who's now laying on his stomach with a defeated attitude. Both of his arms are on his back as Panther holds them with his right hand and treating Wolf with his left.

"I… know, but… I don't know Fox, Wolf may be a terrible person but I don't think…" I couldn't finish my sentence as Fox just stares at me with a disheartened frown. "Just… please, can we give them a chance?"

Fox looks away from me and closes his eyes.

"Ha, there's no way we're going to their place!" Falco walks beside me, "And I doubt Fox would say yes, after all, they're nothing more than no-good selfish monsters who only think about themselves and only the-"

"Okay, we'll go." Fox interrupts Falco to which the latter was dumbfounded over the unexpected answer.

"Oh, Fox! I knew you would do the right thing!" I jumped on him and gave him a big bear hug.

It only resulted in him flinching and repeatedly saying, "Ow, ow, ow, ow, ow!" to which I released him quickly.

"Oh, sorry! Eheheh…"

Let's hope this feud between them ends for good.

Author's Note or something like that?

Huah... First time I did something so action-y or fighting scene like. It was a little challenging but fun as well. In fact I think this was the first action scene in like, any creative form. Not even in art! So... if I had to rate myself on my first time... a 6.

Anyways, I do hope this chapter wasn't too bad for you all, don't worry the two will get along (eventually...). I think this story is starting to meld into one direction now (is that the saying?) for the first story. But it's going to be a tight squeeze, but I'm sure I can make it work.

I already planned out how the next chapter is going to turn out! So I just need to write it!

Now if you'll excuse me, I'm going to wallow in my misery for a simple mistake I made for the preview art for this chapter, probably.. for the rest of this week... (It was my favorite too...)