A/N: I took a long time with this, I know. I, unfortunately, got caught up with some very personal situations, which killed my love for writing this for a good month. As of this week, I finally managed to get my life back in working order, long enough to churn out another chapter. I'll try not to take long with the next update, but you never know with how this year's been goin' for me so far.
Hope you guys enjoy. Feel free to drop a review and tell me what you think. This is Haygood signing off.
Chapter VII: Understanding
A metaphorical bomb exploded within Krystal's mind—so strong that that it inadvertently deepened the impulsive kiss to such an intensity that she was hit with countless emotions all at once.
Shock was one. Being metaphorically slapped in the face with realization when she finally registered what she committed to definitely did a number on her. She, as of the current day, had just got done saying that Fox was the only one she could share her affection with, but by the end of the day she had contradicted herself. As in, Wolf was in the midst of one of the strongest kisses she had ever given out.
She felt a bit of inner disgust too, kissing the closest thing she had to a mortal enemy with not only a passionate intensity, but an overall affectionate manner as well, as if Wolf was Fox McCloud himself. When the bomb of emotion split up into distinct mental wavelengths that Krystal could connect to specific emotions, she realized how strange it was; feeling his rugged muzzle against her delicate lips. He was obviously just as shocked as she was—probably even more if he could prove it—and it was definitely apparent with how his muzzle didn't adapt to her own lips right away. Yet, much to her own surprise, her body disregarded it and molded to fit against his face in a seemingly demanding way when his shock didn't seem to fade away.
However, what she felt the most of, despite it being incredibly shocking to her, was that feeling she lost just a few long days ago. That feeling abandoned with Fox's deposed soul. That feeling buried with Fox's lifeless corpse. Something she firmly believed—after the dirt had washed over Fox's casket, firmly embedding it into the ground to keep it from coming back ever again—she would never experience as long as she roamed the earth.
It was love. True, comforting, warming, and consoling love.
Krystal felt herself and the lupine locked with her lips radiate that powerful aura of love as if they were both supergiant stars, whose chemical reactions that released energy in the form of heat involved that same affection. A weird comparison indeed, but, adding to that, Krystal felt like she was about to supernova with how much involuntary affection had been let loose.
Nevertheless, they both froze up as soon as their muzzles met, mainly out of sheer confusion and the inability to comprehend and assess the situation. Yet, the more they stayed, the more they felt each other melt into the warm, affectionate embrace as if they had become piles of slush. That same heat coursed through their bodies, seemingly jumping the gap between their respective layers of skin into each other's bodies to keep the heat flowing. Never—not even with Fox—did Krystal ever feel so many butterflies in her stomach; so much heat flowing through her blood; so much affection being expelled from her body in such an impulsive and desperate manner.
To her amazement, as soon as Wolf recovered from the multiple second spook and confusion, he pushed inward, snapping their frozen lips into action. With an almost possessive and hungry desire, Wolf regained movement in his face and deepened the impulsive kiss. As soon as Krystal realized he responded positively to her desperate and unconscious action, she did the same. Their arms worked like mindless machines, aimlessly reaching out to touch and feel anything their fingertips could locate. They both were blind to each other, as their eyes had slowly shut when the shock of the kiss subsided into seemingly drunken affection. Krystal's cobalt paws explored the rigid contours of the lupine's backside, mapping out every single wrinkle, tuft of fur, scar, or recognizable bone just by her touch, while Wolf tentatively reached out, not knowing what to do next. Yet, all the while, both his lips and Krystal's gently and gracefully danced in and out of each other like a choreographed dance.
For being a rugged mercenary with microscopic amounts of genuine care—well, up until now, that is—Wolf was certainly a good kisser. Krystal unknowingly became lost in the lupine's surgeon-like carefulness and tenderness he expressed in his heart-felt osculation. Time seemed to slow down completely as both Krystal and Wolf lightly bit on each other's lips in a faintly acquisitive fashion, their needy, yet restrained fondling only allowing for more of that sympathetic and intoxicating heat to flow between them as if the kiss spliced their bloodstreams together.
They became ambiguously comfortable with their tight, fervent endearment to allow their embrace to skip a few steps upward. Krystal and Wolf cocked their heads in opposite directions, beginning to fight for a sense of dominance with their tongues. Fox always let her win, being how he was, but with Wolf she actually had a challenge. One of her paws snaked up his back to rest on his cheek, her fingers feeling his jawbone as she tried to gain a foothold—er, tongue-hold, if you will—in the fight. Wolf's paws unintelligibly found their way up to her cheeks as well, more out of a subconscious reflex rather than a thought-out process. Hell, most of his thought process was going to his immediate restraint to not make a scene out of the improvised session unfolding before their blind and disconnected minds.
It seemed like Krystal was the one that was acting on her immediate thoughts rather than her conscience more than he was. Even with all of his senses concentrated on his embrace, he still felt his undershirt ruffle as Krystal's other paw attempted to get underneath it. Unknowingly, the cobalt vixen just accidentally flipped the situation at hand from a passionate, comforting, and sentimental expression of genuine attraction and affection, to that of a sensual, lustful, and somewhat obscene make-out session. Their mindless fondling suddenly degraded into lewd and stimulating groping, and their kiss suddenly stopped being affectionate and became completely overshadowed by spiking hormones. Their choreographed embrace suddenly became that of an unrelenting fight for domination.
Their silence was broken.
A thick haze clouded their mentalities. They no longer appreciated their momentary embrace for what it was worth, but suddenly only saw the outer shell of who they just as of recently wanted nothing more than to get inside of their heads. That suddenly became a fight as to who could get into each other's pants the quickest. That love they shared flipped to lust in no time flat. Their limp grasp to explore the other's body in an appreciative manner started becoming much more intense and possessive, driven by hormones rather than a warm heart. They began to lick, nip, and bite with a much fiercer vigor, eliciting erotic moans from their respective match. Their drunken love looked like it was just about to go flying down a flight of stairs.
Up until Krystal finally couldn't keep her eyes closed anymore.
When she opened them, she saw how much of an unconsciously lustful expression the lupine wore on his muzzle, obviously turned on with how much their session of incoherent fondling revved up his hormones. Abruptly breaking their temporary bond, Krystal forced herself out of the lupine's aura, snapping him back into himself just as fast as their lovable embrace started and ultimately ended.
Instead of panting from exertion and lack of breath, Krystal backed away with a scared and confused expression, her breaths light and quick. She stumbled off of the couch, using the back and arms for leverage as she looked around the room in a slight stupor.
With wide turquoise eyes, Krystal looked back down at Wolf—who looked just about as confused and uncertain as she did—and let her muzzle hang ajar.
"Wolf…" she squeaked out, fingering her lips as if they were radioactive. "What… what did I do?"
Wolf's ears pinned against the back of his head.
"What have I done?" questioned the flustered vixen, her arms and paws beginning to shake. "Oh my gods and goddesses, what did I do?"
"Krystal," Wolf attempted to call out to her, but her name fell on deaf ears.
"I kissed you," she whispered hoarsely, remembering the warm and loving session of affection they shared before things started getting heated. Again, she touched her lips with the very tips of her fingers; the scent of his breath and saliva lingering.
"Krystal," Wolf repeated, yet not getting a response.
"Oh my gods, I kissed you," Krystal began to panic, her tail going berserk behind her. "How did this happen? Was I thinking? I don't think I was thinking! What is wrong with me? What—"
"Krystal!" Wolf shouted, grabbing her attention. Silence ensued for well over a few seconds, both of them contemplating their next move. Hell, not even Krystal knew what Wolf was planning, but she'd have to wait for him to make a move, or else they would stand like this all night.
Wolf slowly stood up off of the couch, pulling his undershirt back down. Slowly, the lupine stepped forward, his radiating warmth and admittedly intoxicating scent causing her cheeks to turn a deep shade of purple. She wasn't embarrassed, she was just feeling just as warm as he was. Her heart and tail sped up in activity, and her eyes couldn't be drawn away from that one piercing violet eye that stared back down at her. Part of her wanted to skip his explanation and force him into another session of affection, another wanted to skip the affection all together and go back to right where it started to get intense and physical, but the majority of her conscience told her to wait. Luckily, she made the right choice.
Wolf approached her until he had to look down at her, and vice-versa for Krystal. He exhaled a hesitant breath, but eventually outstretched his arms again, waiting for the cobalt vixen to lean into that attempted embrace. He was just offering up that amazingly warm and soothing grasp for free, and she definitely wanted to take him up on that offer, but instead she just started back at his enigmatic mind, trying—and ultimately failing—to get into that mindset of his just to see what it was he wanted from her.
"What's going on?" Krystal inquired in a faltering voice, practically on the verge of tears due to all of the emotional confliction she was feeling. Staring at Wolf with tear-stained and glossy eyes, she continued, "Wolf, what's happening?"
"What do you mean?" the lupine asked, his voice striking an almost divine chord.
"Why do I feel like this?" she asked with humility, a balled paw resting over her heart. "Why do I feel so conflicted? Why… why does it hurt?"
Krystal eventually became overwhelmed with emotion, faltering down to her knees as she let quite sobs escape her muzzle. Wolf crouched down to her level to investigate, leaning on one knee.
Krystal looked up off of the floor to meet his eye again. "Why does it feel so wrong?"
"What feels wrong?" questioned Wolf, staring right back at her.
Krystal stared back with an internal longing to be heard without having to go through the pain of admitting her guilt. The embarrassment. What would happen if she spilled? The uncertainty was killing her from the inside, and Wolf knew it. Krystal refused to talk just by her expression and body language, so Wolf honed in on the most of his concern to speak in the most assuring and angelic voice the Cerinian had ever heard.
"Krys, talk to me."
At that moment, the floodgates burst. Tears expelled out of her eyes like leaky shower drains that hadn't been fixed in months, while a pitiful whimper slipped through her teeth. The pain was excruciating. Even with their intense expression of affection moments prior, Krystal couldn't muster the courage to open her mouth and get that one little sentence out of her chest. It felt wrong. She felt like she would stab way too many people in the back if she spoke out. But the guilt and regret of not doing so eventually ate through the last line of defense the vixen had.
In a terribly shattered and faltering voice as if it had been the first words she had spoken in years after being mute for that interval of time, Krystal finally spoke her mind.
"Why am I in love with you?"
They froze again, once more in shock as if a bombshell had just been dropped next door. Wolf, who had been strong and understanding the entire time he extended his compassion to Krystal, finally found himself at a loss for words. He genuinely did not know how to adequately respond to the shell she had abruptly blasted him with. Krystal started feeling more and more conflicted the longer he stayed silent.
She felt a tear drip out of her eye again. Her cheeks were about as purple as purple could get. Yet, in the face of adversity, her conscience picked out a little glimmer of hope. Again, Krystal just managed to pick up a sliver of the lupine's thoughts, albeit not very much at all. However, she did decipher that within that wolf's enigmatic through process, she could definitely locate his sentence formation process. Somehow, someway, he was trying to answer her. Not shooting her down, not denying her, and not trying to beat around the bush, but actually trying to give her a truthful answer from deep within his heart.
She waited for him to answer, knowing that Wolf was just on the verge of speaking. She couldn't get enough of his mind to find out what he wanted to say, but all she knew was that his sentence formation process was almost complete.
Wolf suddenly broke their shared eye contact and looked down at the floor. "Fox was right," he muttered under his breath.
"What?" Krystal squeaked after a momentary pause. "What do you mean?"
Wolf sighed, crossing his legs as he sat on the hardwood floor. "Fox told me about this during our talk that day," he explained, refusing to pick his head up. "Fox knew that you fell in love with him because of how supportive and comforting he was. He warned me about it, but… I just hated seeing you in such a broken state. I tried to take the risk, cheering you up while trying to keep it just as a distant friend kind of thing, but… you… er, I fell into the same hole Fox fell in."
Krystal's eyes widened even further. Wolf knew that realization just bit her in a place the sun doesn't shine very often, if ever at all.
"Krystal," the lupine continued, gingerly reaching out to clutch her cobalt paw. "I understand what you're going through, and I know how hard it is to get over a sudden death like that. But, you're strong, and so am I. If… if you're okay with it… I'll walk with you, and we'll get through this."
The vixen's muzzle hung slightly ajar at his revelation. With a quiet whimper, she whispered, "Will you really do that for me?"
"You need it," he answered, lifting himself to his feet, then gently pulling her back up with him. With his paw still clamped around hers, he pulled her into another embrace, resting his muzzle on the top of her head in a comforting manner.
"Can you walk with me?" Krystal pitifully asked, melting into Wolf's firm hug. "I… I need someone to love. I need someone to help me through this…"
"Which is why Fox trusted me," Wolf stated, leading her to sit down on the couch. Standing over the cobalt vixen as she curled up on the couch, he continued, "He knew you'd be lonely, so he chose another lonely soul to help."
"But… why?" Krystal questioned. "Why did you drop your old persona to be so comforting? I never would have thought that you would be so kind to me."
Wolf let a small grin crease his muzzle. "Love is one crazy drug, don't ya think?"
Krystal only stared back at him. "You…?"
The lupine couldn't help but grab at the scruff of his neck. "At first I just wanted to be a helping hand, but… I know, it sounds corny as hell, but… I fell in love with talking to you. You're probably the only person that I can really talk to anymore… I don't know… It just… feels surreal…"
She, finally, let a small smile poke through her lips. "Is that why you offered to help me?"
"It's more than just me," Wolf admitted, sitting next to the vixen. "It's about both of us. How we are going to move on. It's only what Fox wanted us to do after he died, was to move on without him."
Krystal sniffed. "And I can't do it alone…"
"Which is why I'm here," Wolf grinned, gently wrapping an arm around her. "I'm here for you, Krys. It's my new mission to get you through this. Your mission is to help me get you through it. Sound good?"
Krystal nodded, a new set of tears beginning to form in her eyes. She subconsciously leaned into his warm embrace, resting her head on his shoulder. That was the moment she realized that she really did have a chance at the love she lost. It would be an interesting journey, getting through life with Wolf by her side, but in all honesty she couldn't wait to get started.
She was the dependent, and Wolf was a sturdy rock to lean on. She was the emotionally broken one, and Wolf was that glue to fix her up. There were many instances that the burly, mountain of a lupine complimented her mentality and physique just as, if not better than Fox did, so she really began to think that she had a chance. A chance at a new life. And what a way to start it off.
That night, Krystal fell asleep on Wolf's shoulder, and he fell asleep with his head resting on hers.
Not once did Krystal have a nightmare for the rest of the night.
