A/N: Wing Star = Lylat Systems Starbucks.
Chapter 6: Winter Surprise
Fox climbed out of his canopy, after flying for 1 hour, it was finally 3:30, school was over. He looked around, looking for Bill, who nearly shot him down, but the time limit caught him and saved him. Whew! Fox thought. That coulda gotten real nasty if that buzzer didn't sound... now where is Krystal? I believe she owes me 20 credits... Fox walked over to the robot score keeper, who kept track of all the kills achieved in the simulator round. "Score Keeper, compare the 2 pilots kills of Fox McCloud and Krystal."
"Action approved. Processing... complete. Kills for Cadet Fox and Cadet Krystal were equal at 15. Awaiting next command."
Fox was stumped, how could she have possibly tied me? It's impossible. " Ok then, who scored the highest?"
"Action approved. Processing... complete. Highest kills this round was Cadet Bill with a total of 20 kills. Awaiting next command."
"Keeper, I am finished, await next cadet." Fox turned around and left
"Confirmed, awaiting next cadet or professor. Please see your professor to receive your dog tags and report card."
Fox went up to the gym teacher, who was obviously a body builder. "Sir, I need my dog tags and report card."
He looked down at Fox, then turned around and grabbed some dog tags, along with a report card. "Here you go, have a nice Winter break." He tried to sound enthusiastic, but he didn't like the students having breaks when they could be preparing for combat.
Fox immediately put on his dog tags, and took his report card, "thanks, you too." He turned and walked towards the entrance of the simulator room, well, the exit rather than the entrance now. He looked down at his grades, all A's and B's, naturally, but no one looked at those, it was always the spot in your class that mattered. P.E, first, no surprise there. He thought, and he scanned the rest of it, when one thing caught his eye, Flight, second. Second? How does that happen? As far as I know, no one can possibly... He smiled at this thought, only one person has ever managed to top him in flight I didn't think you would be so good Bill.
Fox was in the hallway, he let out a long drawn sigh. He knew he wanted to ask Krystal to date him, but managing to do that was harder than he thought. It's been 2 months since the alleyway incident, and he had still yet to ask her for at least a number. Slow and steady, he thought. Slow and steady. He figured today he would ask her to the Wing Star café. He was planning how he would do this in the hallway, waiting for her to walk out of the room. I could possibly use the tie score, it could work. Or I could bluntly ask her to go to Wing Star. I gotta decide quick, the moment she sees me she could start reading my mind at any-
"Second." Krystal had caught him thinking. "So, did you get your dog tags?"
He was caught entirely off guard by her appearance next to him. "I... oh, yeah. I got them." He put his hand under them and showed them to Krystal.
She put on a friendly smile, "they look good on you."
Fox about had a meltdown right there, it was rare he got compliments from her about what he was wearing. Usually they talked about the school work, and what classes were hard, rather than what they looked like. Maybe she only complimented him because there was no school to talk about anymore, since the break had started. "Thanks, I like how they look on you too." He said, he didn't even realize she didn't have them on.
She looked at him with a blank look on her face. "I don't even have mine on. How would you know what they look like on me?"
He looked at her neck, and realized she was right, she wasn't wearing her dog tags. "Well, uh..." He cleared his throat, causing Krystal to giggle, thereby causing Fox to blush. "Right... well, you do know we did tie in most kills in the simulator..." He waited for a reply, but Krystal only nodded. "Since we tied, I was thinking, why don't we... er buy each other... drinks... at, uh... Wing Star?"
Krystal thought for a moment, looking at the tiled floor of the hallway, then raised her head up to look at Fox. "Sure, that be nice."
Fox let out a sigh of relief, and tried to hide his excitement, "cool, when do you want to go there?"
Krystal let out a grin, "how about now? I could use a warm drink."
Fox checked his coat pocket and found 30 credits, incase Krystal didn't have any money, he could still buy her some coffee along with something for him. "Alright then, lets go. A vanilla lotte with whip cream sounds nice." They walked outside into the cold, it was snowing. The walkways and roads were clear, but the grass had at least 6 inches of snow, and lots of little kids were throwing snowballs, and building snowmen off to the side. Fox smiled as they began walking towards Wing Star 3 blocks away. "This is why I love winter." He said.
They walked in silence, watching people scatter around to get presents, trying to catch taxi's, meeting loved ones, and so on.
They walked along not really having much of a conversation, and Bill was watching in interest a good distance behind them. When he saw them go into Wing Star, he pulled out his phone and started calling two of his and Fox's friends. The dial tone kept going, then finally it picked up. "Hullo?" The voice on the line answered rather lazily.
"Hey, Logan? Come meet me outside of Wing Star, like right now." Bill said leaning against a light post.
"You serious? Why do you need me over there?"
"Let me put it this way Logan, Fox and Krystal at Wing Star." He waited for Logan to respond, but it never came. "So, do you like snowball fights?"
10 Minutes Later...
Fox and Krystal walked out of Wing Star. Full of the warmth of the drinks they just had, seemed to break the ice between them. "So, where to now?" Fox asked as they stood outside in the snow.
That was when Bill decided to make his appearance.
He popped out behind them, and thrusted himself between the two fox's, putting one arm around both their necks. "Hey Fox!" He said, and he turned his attention to Krystal, "Hey Krystal!" He shifted back to Fox. "So, what are you all doing?"
Fox and Krystal where extremely close to each others faces, thanks to Bill pulling their necks towards each other. Fox was doing all in his power not to make eye contact with Krystal, "Well, nothing really. Just... chillaxin'."
Bill began dragging them along the street, his hands still around their necks. "Great! Let's go for a walk in the park!"
Fox was doing his best to get out of the hold Bill had on him, but he couldn't pull himself out, so he tried verbal communication. "Bill! Bill!" He said as he struggled with all his might out of Bill's strong grip. "Why are we going to the park?" He continued to struggle, and every time he got close to getting out, Bill increased his choke hold, gagging him, and making him go back to square one and try again.
"Oh, nothing really. Just wanted to spend quality time with my best friends before Winter Break, thats all." Bill kept on his steady pace towards the park entrance, cutting no slack in his grip on Fox, but let Krystal out of the grip.
Fox looked up to see that Bill had released her from his all powerful choke hold. "Wha? Bill! Why did you let her out of the hold?" He groaned. Krystal giggled at his response and Fox made a pouty face.
Bill raised an eyebrow, "Oh, you want her face to be close to your face again? I can arrange that..." Krystal blushed slightly and turned to look the other way to hide it, she also took two or three small steps away from Bill.
Fox then started to throw out words. "N-no! I didn't mean that!" He then looked up at Krystal as much as he could from his limited view. "I- well, uh... don't take it the wrong way Krystal I like you... wait! That didn't come out right!" Bill was laughing at Fox while he was tripping and falling at his own words miserably. "I mean, I like you, but... gah! You get my point." He finally gave up and held his head down in shame, practically making Bill drag him.
After about 3 more minutes in the hold, Bill let Fox go, "Now, don't run away from me. Let's enjoy this walk in the park." Bill sounded a bit too cheery to be in the park. After all, he didn't exactly enjoy this place all that much to begin with.
"Bill, you got something planned in this place? You rarely ever go to the park to begin with." Fox was rubbing his neck as he said this, the choke hold was incredibly strong, 'didn't think Bill had it in him to have such a grip.' Fox thought.
Bill put on one of his stupid smiles, "Noooo..." He dragged out the single word to such an extent it was almost certain he had something planned. He studied Bill's expressions very carefully, a thing he picked up from his father. Who said 'You can learn a lot of things people are thinking about by the expression on their face'. Fox was so intent on staring Bill to confession that he didn't notice the 3 other animals with snowballs in their hands. After a few moments, he felt a pile of snow hit him in the back of the head. He twitched at the feel of it, causing a bit of laughter from Krystal.
He glared up at Bill, "Seriously Bill, what did you plan?"
"Just a bit of fun, such as a snowball fight, me and Logan versus you and Krystal." As soon as he finished he was hit in the side of the head by a snowball, he turned to see Joey, Aaron, and Logan standing there, all laughing as Logan high fived Joey. "Hey! Thought we were on the same team!"
Joey shouted back at Bill, "We were! Until me and Aaron showed up! En guard!" As Joey made another snowball and threw it at Fox, who ducked and it hit Krystal in the chest. Thus, beginning the Battle of Snow Park, as they dubbed it.
Fox dove into the snow, narrowly dodging Logan's iceball. Fox action rolled behind a tree, scooping up the snow into his gloves, forming an uneven spherical shape. He peered around the corner and saw Aaron running towards the tree, the snowball in his hand, he saw her get within arms reach. He threw his hand out of cover, palm facing eye level with her, and she ran straight into his un-thrown snowball.
Aaron squealed as the cold rushed over her face, sending a shiver down her spine. She saw Fox take off running after he hit her, and she screamed playfully, "You are SO dead Fox!" She scooped up some snow and molded it into a near perfect sphere, and chucked it at Fox. Unfortunatly, gravity took over, and it fell slightly short of hitting him. Her agony was short lived when Logan came out behind a bench and tackled him. Smashing his snowball into Fox's face. "Nice going Logan!"
Logan got off of Fox, he ran off and gave a thumbs up. She cheered at him and waved, but it was short lived. Bill had popped out behind a light post and chucked his snowball at Logan. The ball struck gold when it hit him in the back of the head at great force. Logan began to stumble and fell face first into the grass. Everyone laughed at him, even Logan laughed at his fall.
After about 15 minutes, a cease fire was called. The cold, damp, and tired warriors finally opened peace talks. The talk you ask? Who is buying who hot chocolate or coffee. Turns out Fox is buying Logan's and vice versa, Joey is buying Bill's and vise versa, and Krystal is buying Aaron's, and vise versa.
20 Minutes Later...
"Alright guys, lets head back to the Academy! Gotta pack up and get ready for Winter Break!" Bill raised his hand up in the air, making a fist. He looked down to see everyone else nodding and taking one last drink of whatever they got. "Ready to go?"
Everyone replied with a nod, and threw their empty cups away. As they walked out the door, the guys segregated themselves from the girls, talking about what they were going to do, and planning out late nights for playing video games. Aaron and Krystal hung back, talking about their family plans, and who the cutest couple would be. Which rounded back to Krystal asking, "Are you dating anyone Aaron?"
Aaron looked around and looked at the guys infront of them. "Oh, no one really. I think I found a guy, but I'm not entirely sure." Krystal opened her mouth ready to ask 'who is he?' but Aaron knew better. "Not telling, because you'll ruin the surprise." Krystal closed her mouth and looked forward. Aaron looked at Krystal, and had to ask, "Are you dating Fox?"
Krystal responded rather quickly, "No!" She half shouted, trying to hide the red she felt rising.
Aaron sighed, "Well, you sure act like you do, and it would be so cute! You all would be perfect for each other!"
Krystal began to try to talk her way out of the confession, "No we wouldn't! He is most definitely not a datable person! Did you see how childish he acted while we had the snowball fight? Could you imagine him out on a date? It would be a disaster!"
Aaron sighed again, "First off, you weren't much better acting than him during the fight. Second, he was able to order the drinks better than anyone else, he was clear with his speech and very patient with the out dated robot cashier. What's your excuse now?" She dared.
"Uh, well... never mind. We are almost back anyway." She hung her head in defeat, Aaron was very good at finding reasons for anything. Very good is a huge understatement actually.
When they walked inside, the building was very warm, so warm that Fox took off his jacket, exposing his skin tight green Underlay shirt. Aaron looked over at Krystal, "You should really consider him, you would be the envy of half the school at least." Aaron whispered.
"Shut up," Krystal pushed playfully, but had a small hint of pink on her face. Everyone quickly said their goodbyes, and left for their dorms. Only Fox and Krystal remained in the lobby area. As fate would have it, they stood under the doorway, and above them in the center, was a mistletoe.
Fox was first to notice it and had to ask, "Krystal, do you, er, believe in Christmas tradition."
She turned to face him, standing right infront of him, "Yeah, why?"
"Well, then, you should probably look up." He pointed his index finger up, and the tip of the finger was no higher than eye level.
Krystal looked up and blushed, Fox was doing his best to hide his, "Well, I guess it couldn't hurt me any..." She leaned in and gave him a kiss on the cheek. An awkward moment of silence, then she broke it with the words, "Well, I better go get packing see you around!" She didn't take off to fast like she was super embarassed, but at a regular pace.
Fox placed his hand on his cheek, and mumbled "I love Winter." And left.
A/N: Hope you enjoyed this chapter, sorry it took so long to post. But it should be worth it! And for anyone who is reading Lylat Wars, check it out, posted Chapter 11 (Bloopers were removed.)