I'm so ready for this chapter, I hope everyone reading right is too, so many questions to be avoided and mind probing to be done. *dreamy sigh* I love this job...
Disclaimer: If I owned Starfox, Fox and Krystal would still be canon, but not without that onesided Wolf and Fox!
With the food cooked and ready for serving, and the others getting dressed nicely enough for the mercenary couple not to doubt the living conditions of Wolf's home. Though Luke needed a lot of bargaining to wear anything that wasn't torn, explicit, bland, or all three. The young lupine actually had to borrow a dress shirt from the human along with some jeans.
"Ugh, why do I have to dress fancy?" He complied, though his argument was very low considering a simple dress shirt and jeans isn't really close to fancy, just casual.
"Because we don't want to piss off a merc." Keith replied, implying the wrath of Krystal when she discovers the mission, and far worse, Marcus taking a life.
The three were taking their own precautions to help get that memory out of their heads, each with unique techniques. Jacob, being the intellectual and tactical person was reading a book and even so solving random equations in his and trying to apply the energy from a potato to be used as a weapon. (... Just go with it... I don't even #$%in' know)
Keith had invited Eleanor, hard to think of death when someone you, somewhat, love is by your side. As for Luke, the husky joked that his mind would be safe seeing as it would be empty. Which resulted in another argument which lead to the young lupine to blow off steam by juggling his knife. A feat that could only be done with extreme concentration, Keith a look at Jacob, which the husky confirmed was his plan from the start.
Though they wondered how Wolf was going prevent getting mind probed for himself and the blue fox.
"I have a feeling that no matter what, this dinner will not go by without the table being flipped." The husky shared his thoughts.
"We at least gotta try and sugar coat the truth, it's not Marcus massacred them, he only blew off the head of one guy." The redheaded human explained, though the husky closed his book and looked at Keith with a deadpan expression.
"You do realize that what you just said doesn't exactly make the situation better?" Had a person not knock on the door, the human would have cussed him out for being a smartass. The dyed black hair lupine caught his knife between two of his fingers and proceeded to answer the door. But not without tossing the knife carelessly behind himself, which stuck into the wall behind him. When he opened the door abruptly, he stared at the panther girl and whistled.
"Whoa, hey sweetheart, you lost?" Her face expressed annoyance and the want to knee the lupine where the sun didn't shine.
"Asshole, that's mah girlfriend!" Keith yelled from the living room, knowing that he wouldn't have answered the door in that manner with the McCloud family.
Though he already knew that, Luke was trying to confirm if she was the type to cheat, which she clearly wasn't based on her disgusted look. He stepped to the side and allowed enough space for her to pass in, though with that much space, she still bumped into him, rather harshly. "Alright, she may not cheat, but she is a bit vengeful.'
The panther girl smiled warmly as she was embraced by the her boyfriend. Jacob took a peek from his book and noted most of her details and began piecing together an overview of her, which wasn't for any particular reason aside from having another thing to solve on his mind. Keeping the mind busy was his life's calling.
"So where's Marcus?" Eleanor asked, not recognizing any of the roommates and hoping to meet the famed Starfox child again.
"He's gettin' ready upstairs with Wolf..." Though that one sentence was enough to make him worry, the Star Wolf leader was starting to be the root of all his pain, and not just the physical, but the mental with worrying over his friend's safety. But that was not the least of his worries, he hoped that the city would be under some kind of attack just so that Kyrstal and Fox would have to cancel, or even if it was a menial thing like traffic jams. As if nothing could go his way, he felt the vibration of his phone, accompanied by the sound of it's ringtone. "Dammit..."
Everyone stared at the human as he didn't even show any sign of wanting to pick up his phone, it was as if he was purposely ignoring the call's existence.
"Aren't you going to answer that...?" The Neko Panther asked, breaking the almost awkward silence. Keith exhaled deeply just at the moment the chip tune stopped.
"It was mah lil' brother... I don't know how he does it, but he knows when I'm cookin' anything pasta, and immediately tries to get some..." Before any more questions could be asked the doorbell rang and the human shut his eyes painfully. "Twenty Credits says that's him..."
The young lupine approached the door while giving a fair warning to the others. "If he tries eating my serving of spaghetti, I'm cutting off his ear." His last words being at the moment he opened the door. "Oh, hello there Mr. and Mrs. McCloud." He put on fake cheeriness to cover up the threat he just said.
The famed mercenaries stared at the young lupine, both having heard his remark. "Good evening Luke... What was that about cutting off ears?" Fox asked, his wife giving off a glare as she attempted to intimidate him.
"I was just finishing a joke, I'll go get Marcus and my dad, you can come in and converse with the other dinner guests." He faked a fancy way of speaking and continued on with his act, everyone knowing he was doing it on purpose and just for the hell of it. Though in his way up the stairs, he managed to stealthily retrieve his knife from the wall without the parents noticing.
Upon laying eyes on the new guests, the Panther girl was filling up with excitement, not only had she got to meet the son of Fox McCloud, she was going to have dinner with him, his father, and mother. She could die now and have no regrets. And as any dinner would have gone, it started with the introductions. The first being those that have met before.
"Hello, Keith, Jacob." The blue vixen smiled at both. "I trust that life at the academy is swell?"
"Yes Ma'am." The human returned the smile, but the husky remained glued to his book.
"Yep." He replied a bit dully, which who could blame him with his intelligence and skill, the whole academy was bellow his skills.
Upstairs, the young lupine past his father on the way up and quickly exchanged a glance that explained the situation without a word. As Luke continued to the blue vulpine, he found that Wolf left the door wide open and Marcus staring blankly at the ceiling as if trying to burn a hole through it.
"Ya got five minutes to go down and see you're parents again, use that time to listen to a song and get it stuck in your head." As fast as he had come, the young lupine was back down the stairs.
Marcus sighed as he lifted himself off the bed and to his drawer, retrieving his headphones and immediately plugging them into his phone while he searched for a song. After a quick thought, the blue fox found himself typing in Lost Time Memory, the very same song Keith's younger brother had gotten them to agree to sing with him. 'Already got the lyrics stuck in my head, might as well get the song as a whole'
Laying his head down as the song began. He could just watch the video, but he felt that he wanted to just use memories in place of the song's visuals. He closed off his green eyes to the world and began absorbing the instruments used and finding the right timings for the lyrics. Pretty soon, he found himself reciting the words as the song played. After two repeats, the young vulpine found his smile and rose from his bed. Making sure to stretch and straighten out his clothing to be presentable. He breathed in a gulp of air and exhaled calmly, walking out of his bedroom and down the stairs.
When he reached the bottom of the steps, and looked at all the familiar faces, including Eleanor who he didn't expect to see. Marcus smiled as he saw both his parents in front of him. Thanks to pushing negativity to the back of his mind, the blue vulpine was happy to see both of his parents. It was much like when a child returns home after summer camp, only with mercenaries and a army academy.
"Hey mom, dad." Marcus smiled as he greeted both parents, making his way to them to get a warm hug.
"Good to see you again Marcus, Wolf hasn't been rough to you, has he?" The Hero of Lylat asked, from the corner of his eye, he found said rival was shaking his head with a grin.
"No, he's been surprisingly nice." Had he not blocked out all the bad memories, Marcus would not have been able to say that with a straight face.
"Now that everyone's here, we can eat." Wolf announced, leading everyone to the dining room, all the food already served and table set.
The seating at the table was rather typical and understandable. Fox and Krystal sat beside each other, Marcus getting the seat beside his mother. Wolf getting seated directly across from the older vulpine, Luke seated next to him. And to the young lupine's verbal dislike, seated right next to Jacob. And finally, Keith seated beside Marcus and across from his girlfriend.
Everyone began eating their Spaghetti in silence, the sound of forks scrapping on the plates being the only sound to fill the room. But with the silence, there is bound to be the person who breaks it.
"So Keith, I heard you're one of the few humans that's been accepted into Cornerian Academy." Fox announced, looking over at the redhead. "What are you taking it for?"
The human was hesitant to speak seeing as it was The Fox McCloud, and based on his stupid streak, he feared he was going to say the wrong thing. He tugged on his collar a bit to lessen the heat of embarrassment.
"Well, I'm lookin' to become a mechanic and weapon designer." Keith forced a chuckle to escape his lips, hopefully to lighten his own tension. As quickly as the silence was gone, more conversation broke out, courtesy of Mr. McCloud.
"And what about you Luke?" The young lupine shrugged and seemed uninterested in the whole dinner.
"I already got the experience I need, but I'm on the same boat as Red over there." The meal continued with no interruption for a while, but eventually Fox had more questions to ask the human.
"So Keith, how was it coming to Corneria from Earth?" The redhead sighed, of all the questions to get asked.
"Honestly sir, I don't like answerin' about that stuff..." He placed his fork down and stared at the wall, keeping his gaze away from everyone.
"I'm sorry I brought it up then." The older vulpine apologized, hoping to bring back the cheer in him. The blue vixen stared at the human, finding a break in his mind and finding sorrow.
"Keith, bottling up emotions and memories isn't healthy." Krystal advised to him. "If you don't want to feel like that, you need to get it off your chest instead of hiding it under the rug."
The human stared down at his meal, rubbing his forehead with a free hand to hopefully alleviate some stress. The human had the full attention of everyone, and eyes melting into him.
"Fine..."
:P Ending it at a cliffhanger.
This would be one of the most anticipated moments, seeing as I always avoided giving out more than vague insights. And now it's getting brought to light. Well, anyways, hope you guys enjoyed the chapter.