I shut off the faucet, hearing the last bits of recycled water drip out and into the drain. The steam in the shower hazed up the air a bit, but I leaned out from the curtain to hit the fan switch. One loud as an engine minute later, the steam and scalding heat were all gone, leaving just me and my soaking body in the cold.

Wait a minute, when was I taking a shower? I don't remember going in my room and—ow.

I felt a small shiver down my spine from the space shower cleaning, so I grabbed my heated towels and started drying myself, almost sighing in pleasure at the towels warming my body up. Whoever invented self-heating towels, everybody who's ever had to take a shower in space will forever sing your name in praise.

That or get a burn if left on one spot for too long and curse your name.

Luckily for me, that didn't happen this time, as once I felt comfortably dry and warm without the side effects of wet or dry fur, I wrapped myself up in a regular towel. Unluckily for me, because heated towels were obviously invented by a guy, I had to dry my hair the old-fashioned way. I grabbed another towel and wrapped it around my hair, having to bend over the tub to squeeze out what I could.

Thank you genetics for giving me hair that could retain water much better than others. Because somewhere along evolution, my ancestors believed hair was a useful tool in collecting liquid nourishment.

With the towel now wrapped around my hair like a cone on my head, I took a deep breath and stepped outside my personal shower room.

And that's when I saw her bent over my bed.

What in the, what's Krystal doing in my room?! "Um, excuse me?" I asked in a confused and slightly angry tone, considering the invasion of privacy.

Krystal leaned back up from her spot and had that look of someone that just got their hand caught in the cookie jar. "Oh goodness, I'm so sorry!" she apologized. "I didn't mean to sneak into your room, I was just wanting to speak to you!"

I took a moment to look around at what she was doing leaning over my bed and giving me an accidental show coming out of the shower. Nothing stood out to me, other than the bed seemed perfectly done up.

That was weird because I never get my bed done.

"Well, you got my attention. Is it important or can I at least, you know, change and put on some clothes first?" I asked, glaring at Krystal.

"Oh no, no, go ahead! I thought you were away for a moment and I came to wait for you in your room! But I saw your bed was messy so I took the moment to make it," she replied, standing off to the side to show me my made bed.

It looked... Like a made bed. The blanket was straightened, the pillows were placed at the top of the bed on top of the sheets. Honestly, I never saw the interest in making beds presentable, you'd just mess it all up the next night.

"I, uh, thanks. You could have just waited outside though?" I mentioned, walking over to my dresser to start rifling through for something to wear. If I was going to be somewhat presentable for whatever Krystal needed, might as well grab something easy to feel comfortable.

"I, uh, well, I thought it was important so I came in, but, you know, maybe I was overreacting and, um," she stammered out. It sounded like whatever got her tongue has her spooked or nervous or something.

Believe me, Krystal, I know that feeling very well with you.

Ugh, dammit, what I need isn't in this drawer. I looked around real quick trying to remember where I last placed my sports bras. Suddenly the location occurred to me just as I passed over Krystal. "Hey Krystal, could you open up that drawer over there behind you and toss me one of the nylon bras there?"

"Here," she opened the drawer and quickly found them, grabbing one of the black ones to hand over to me. I raised my arm at her to grab it while holding up my towel, when I heard a sudden "WHOA" from in front of me.

Krystal walked a little too fast and somehow tripped on the outside corner of my bed, completely losing her footing as she was trying to hand me my bra. With one hand already trying to hold up my towel, I didn't think quick enough to hold up my arms to brace for Krystal falling to the ground.

I also wasn't expecting Krystal's taller frame to topple me to the ground with her.

"Oof!" I exclaimed, feeling artificial gravity work its magic on me as I got pinned down by Krystal, her arms on top of mine. Not the worst fall I've had, it barely felt like I hit the ground at all. "Argh, you okay Krys?"

Krystal looked up from her position to my face, and that's when the situation suddenly came to me. I had her pinning me down in my room, with nothing between us except her tribal clothes and my oddly thin towel, and when she looked up at me there was less than an inch between our muzzles.

The redness crept up in my face faster than a g-zero racer.

"I, I'm sorry. I went too fast and, um," Krystal stammered. I felt her hot breath on the tip of my snout, and feeling our bodies together was very much distracting me from everything at the moment.

I felt her breathing stop, and saw her beautiful blue eyes staring into mine. "Uh, Krys? You okay?" I asked.

"Your eyes," she muttered. "They are so green. Like the jewels of Cerinia..."

In the haze of hormones that my body was practically punching me with, I wanted to ask Krystal what she meant by that. All of a sudden, I felt her lips press onto mine for a kiss I was not expecting in my wildest dreams.

Holy shit. She's kissing me. She's kissing me! For a brief second, I felt my heart skyrocket itself out of my chest before the kiss was all over too soon. Krystal stared at me, her eyes peering into mine, her breathing a little heavy as I could see how she tried to comprehend what just happened.

I cupped my hand around Krystal's cheek, feeling my own breathing become heavy. At that moment, I knew what I wanted, and so did she.

I pulled my hand down, and kissed Krystal again, more deeply than I ever thought I could. I felt my whole body warm up, and I slightly shivered when I felt Krystal's hand touch my cheek, before it slowly slid down my neck, caressing my shoulder and down to my hips, where I felt it stop at the end of my towel and began to creep under—

I woke up with a gasp in my bed, laying down on my side as I tried to take deep breaths. What in the stars was all that about? Also, ow, my lungs! Was I suffocating or something?!

Between the gasping for fresh air, I briefly looked down. Within my arm that I was laying on, I had a pillow that was very, very wet with saliva and slobber. My saliva and slobber.

Oh my stars I was making out with my pillow.

"BWEEP BWEEP BWEEP BWEEP!" I heard a noise behind me. Oh cool, I woke up seconds before my alarm was about to wake me up. Thank you, suffocation, I totally needed your help with the stupid alarm.

I turned around in bed and reached my arm out to hit the silence button on the alarm, which greeted it with a click and silence. I heaved a great big sigh before finally sitting up in bed.

I rubbed a hand against my forehead, trying to rub my eyes awake at the same time. Ugh, what was that dream? I know it has been a while since the last time I had a "romantic" dream like that, but usually, there's a whole big buildup to the moment before everything cuts out like it did. Was that about to be a wet dream instead?!

On auto-pilot, my body mindlessly slid off from the bed and started walking itself towards my shower room. Hold on, let me throw some water in my face to wake me up some more, stars do I feel groggy and ugly.

I turned on the light in my bathroom, which I immediately regretted with the brightness hurting my eyes for a brief second before they could adjust. I went over to my sink and turned on the cold water tap, feeding my hands into the OH MY STARS THAT'S COLD.

I blinked at the ice-cold recycled water running out of the faucet, my brain trying to fire the rest of its cylinders before I twisted the hot water tap a bit to try and make the water lukewarm before I splashed my face with liquid nitrogen. Feeling it safe with my hands once more, I cupped my hands and let them fill with water, before throwing them onto my face and feeling the slightly cold water cool my muzzle and cheeks.

Hell, been a long time since I even had a wet dream. Think the last one was when I was still in the Academy of all places, when I had that crush on that young training pilot husky. Yeah, she was my superior and teacher, but she was only at least 5 years older than me, if she didn't have that stick up her ass I would have asked her out right after we graduated. Too bad some rich dickhead from another part of the academy apparently asked her before I did. Doubt she even swung that way anyways.

Swing that way... Why am I even fucking kidding myself? 'I was not expecting someone like you to rescue me'? Was she hoping for some prince in shining Cornerian Army armor to rescue her instead of my dumb debt-ridden ass? C'mon, I can dream, but I also gotta face the facts. Krystal probably doesn't see me in any way like that, only just the disappointing girl who rescued her. Hell, she seems capable and athletic, if she had the chance she probably could have saved herself.

Fuck me, man, this is like the Fay situation all over again. I can't be some girl pining for her one true love anymore, I have to face facts and keep my head out of the grass. Krystal and me? Platonic team member friendship, and nothing more. Just like I have with everyone else.

I felt the cold water turn lukewarm on my face as it dripped from my muzzle, while I stared at myself in my bathroom mirror like some crazed maniac. Yeah, I think I should stop acting like some love-struck school girl, and keep things at an arm's length for now.

By the stars my love life is pathetic. When we hit planetside I'm finding the nearest gay club and letting loose all the steam I have on the poor girl who thinks she could keep up with me. Hell, give her a fighting chance and make it a threesome, say you and your girlfriend got to sleep with The Vixen McCloud. Maybe I'll try to find one near a military base so I could show those army girls how we pilots get it done.

I let one singular laugh escape my lips as I looked down at my sink, seeing the last of the water slide down into the drain, to be filtered and recycled. Yeah, you know what? That actually doesn't sound so bad. Have a night to feel like a civilian. Stars know I need it after everything on Sauria and all the crap we've been through for the last nine years.

...Let's just wait until the checks get cashed.

I breathed in for a moment, clasping my hands together and pointing both index fingers out to touch the tip of my snout. "Yeaaaaaaaah, sooooooo... Krystal wants to join the team."

"I knew it."

"What? But where are we gonna keep her on the ship?"

"Ohhhhh not this again..."

My beloved teammates and crew members of Star Fox were some of the best friends I could ever ask for. And they were really quick to call me out on my decision.

Krystal hadn't woken up yet, and not seeing her around meant she was probably still sleeping in her room, so I called up a meeting back in the command room before breakfast to get the team up to speed on what was happening. We would go to Corneria, we'd grab our big checks once again, and we'd celebrate our biggest mission since the Lylat Wars in style. And then Falco asked me what we were going to do with the random visitor.

I don't think they noticed at all how I gravitated towards Krystal.

"Swear to the stars, V, you're like any dudebro when he sees a pretty girl."

"And then what about fighters? Unless you're paying for it I can't just conjure out an Arwing out of thin air!"

"This betta not be another Fara situation again, Vixen!"

Oh crap two of them noticed.

"Hey, heyyyyy, listen!" I began to explain, trying to calm them down in the ensuing chaos. "Peppy, you're the best, but I gotta say it: your age is catching up to you."

"Ah'm only forty-nine!" he exclaimed angrily.

I continued, "And how old do pilots of our career choices end up living? Peppy, the last thing I want is to kick you out of Star Fox, but I think it's better to start up part of your retirement now by staying on ship while the rest of us do missions. To pick up the slack, and your role in the air, we can kit out your Arwing," I turned to Slippy so he can understand I was cueing him in, "and give it to Krystal for her to use. At least until we can find some custom ship shop that can understand the Arwing blueprints and build us some new upgraded versions for each of us. Peppy gets to be safe, we get a new crew member to help on the ship, we can raise our prices to accommodate, and everyone is happy!"

I pumped my fists up to emphasize my point, but everyone else just glared at me as they folded their arms. Slippy piped up, "You're forgetting the elephant in the room, Vi."

Shit, even Slippy noticed?!

"I have... no idea what you're talking about, and I am the leader... so I make the decisions so I'm letting Krystal on the team and that's the end of this meeting everyone—!"

"V!"

"Vi!"

"Vixen Aftyn McCloud!"

I tried to dodge the incoming questions, but something about hearing my full name from Peppy shut me up quickly. He walked over to me from his side of the command table, still folding his arms.

"Now you listen," Peppy began. "Ah know that Ah've been askin' to retire before Ah kick the bucket early, but seein' how you're actin' with Krystal lately, we can't all help but assume you're about to pull the same thing like you did with Fara all those years ago."

"Hey, listen, listeeen!" I tried to explain. "I was upfront about Fara, alright? I thought she was gonna be a great addition to the team, and she wasn't, and I'll take the blame for not listening to y'all at first, and all the other times after. But Krystal and me, it ain't like that!"

I caught a little bit of Peppy's slang coming out of my mouth, so I hesitated my words to make me seem less anxious. "I don't have anything with her, so if she fu— messes up, we'll know she's not a good fit, and I'll kick her off all the same. But we don't know much about how she is like! She was aiming good shots with her staff, I can vouch for that!"

"We didn't know jack about Fara either, only that she was a prissy petty princess of the Phoenix Corporation. We know even less about Krystal, and you're asking us to put faith in some bullet spray?" Falco chimed in, also having his arms crossed at me, but his arms were always crossed anyways.

"She doesn't have anywhere else to go!" I blurted out. "She's from Cerinia, and she might be the last of her planet because ol' crazy ape blew it up during his insanity. We can't exactly just drop her off on top of a skyscraper in Corneria and call it a day!"

"Wait, Cerinia?" Slippy repeated me, standing up and walking towards me from his side of the room. Before I knew what he was doing, I felt his finger flick the side of my head.

"Ow! The hell, Slip!?" I exclaimed, holding my hand up to the side of my head where he hit me. Yeesh, toad's got strong fingers!

"Just had to be sure. Guess you're not mind-controlled at least," Slippy said. "Cerinians are powerful psychics, I remember my dad telling me about them as one of the planets we lost contact with during Andross's conquest."

"Wait. Waiiiiiiit..." Falco cut in. "She's a psychic?"

"Wellllllll..." I hesitated, trying to think of a way to break the news without making Krystal lose even more of her chance at joining, "She said she doesn't have much control over her powers yet—" Oh stars dammit that was bad! "What they had was tied to the planet itself, and when that was gone, she and probably any other survivors lost that connection to their powers. She can regain them, but only with 'meditation' and stuff. She said it'll be years before she could ever hope to gain control of whatever powers she could use. The only one she really has is hearing some long-range distress signals from people's minds."

I could feel everyone's minds racing at the otherwise not possible limits of Krystal's powers. To lighten the mood, I tried to make a joke, "So, uh, don't scream out 'help me!' if you trip in the bathroom, hehe..."

Even after my joke, they all still glared at me. I hated doing this, but I'm pulling rank. Krystal can't be just left alone somewhere, we can at least figure out how she is as a merc before we toss her somewhere else.

"Look, I'm giving her the chance. I'm the leader of this team, and I say we all give her a chance. One. If she looks like she won't fit in at all without some training, Peppy," I pointed at him, "it's your call to kick her out. I'll give you that responsibility if it calms you down enough."

The team looked towards Peppy, and he closed his eyes, taking the time to wipe off his glasses before sighing loudly. "Fine. She gets one chance, Vixen. But you're not trainin' her by yourself. Falco, you're gonna be the one that tests Krystal."

"What?!"

"Wait, what?"

"Vixen, Ah trust ya, but if ya want us to trust Krystal, we're gonna need more than your word," he explained. He pointed out a finger, swinging it around all of us, "Y'all can train her all you need, but Falco is gonna be the one that tests her to make sure she's fit for the team. Do Ah make myself clear?"

Having a bit less control over how we can integrate Krystal in made me feel a bit uncomfortable, but I guess I had no choice if I wanted to make sure Krystal got her chance. "Yeah, okay, fine. Falco, you up for it?"

The bird-brain crossed his arms. "I guess so. Least I'm not the one babysitting her the whole time. I won't go easy on her, V, so you better make sure you teach her right."

I waved him off. "Oh please, after I teach her, she'll fly circles around your slow and flashy Arwing!"

"So do I get a say in all of this? Having to retool Peppy's Arwing is gonna take time, you know!"

Falco smirked at me, keeping his arms crossed in his signature snarky pose. "Really? Do you really think you can teach a random to fly better than me? Do you know where I've been all this time, V?"

"Oh okay cool, guess I don't have a say."

Hearing Falco pull up the past like that snapped something in me, something that existed beyond our friendly rivalry. "Oh, yeah, I've been meaning to ask, where you've been since you abandoned us?!"

"Hey, I told you I needed the time away!" Falco exclaimed, his smirk now gone and replaced with a hostile sneer. "I needed the time to myself after the Lylat Wars because I didn't know what I was doing with my life, even in the team!"

"Oi oi oi oi!" Peppy cut in, taking the time to step in between Falco and me with his arms raised. "That's enough between you two! Vixen, we've agreed we'll let Krystal in with terms, that's enough for that topic. Falco, I understan' you needed that time, but I think we should focus on the present and let the past wither its ghosts before we can talk about it."

Falco saved my hide against Andross, and I'm all too willing to let him back on the team. But when he left, it hurt. And while Peppy wants to move on, I don't think I will for a while. Not until I sort it out one on one with bird-brain here.

I snarled at Lombardi, and he sneered right back at me. I think it's gonna be some time before we can feel chummy around each other again like before. Sorry Peppy...

"Fine. Everything is done then? We head to Corneria, we get ourselves paid, and we figure out our next move now that we're back on the map. Any more questions?" I asked, still glaring at Falco.

"No. I think we're done here," he darkly muttered, breaking eye contact with me to turn away and walk out on his own. "I'll see you later, V."

Fine by me. He doesn't want to talk, I'm willing to ignore it a little longer.

I could hear Peppy sigh loudly, and my heart dropped just a bit hearing another lecture come at me again. "Now, Vixen, why did ya have to prod him like that?"

I know something in Falco's words pressed a button in me, but honestly, couldn't tell you why. "I, uh, I honestly don't know. When he asked me if I knew where he'd been, something snapped in me about asking him where. My mind went from 'teasing my friend' to 'this guy hurt me' and I just... Opened out like that."

I stared in the direction that Falco left from, half not bothering to turn to face Peppy because I was still calming down, and half not wanting to see his disappointed face. But then I heard a voice coming from the other side where Peppy was. "He didn't hurt just you when he left, Vi," Slippy started. I heard him stand up. "He hurt all of us. But if we're gonna get back together as a team again, we're gonna need to figure out our feelings over it and talk to him about it."

Ugh, I already know that, Slip! Tell me something I don't know for once!

"Because otherwise, he might test Krystal and then leave again."

I flinched my head back in surprise, before finally turning around to face Slippy. "Wait, what? Why would he leave if he clears Krystal to join us?"

"Think about it. He comes in 'just to check on us', and all he sees is us taking big jobs and having adventures without him, and he sees you being all chummy and happy with another person the same way you used to be friendly with him. Remember how he got jealous of Fara taking you away from him doing things like Brawl night or horror movies every first Friday? I'm not saying it's gonna be the same with you and Krystal, but he doesn't know that."

I sat back down on the chair, leaning my head down and putting my hands on my forehead. Ughhhhh. If I'm gonna talk to bird-brain about him leaving, I really hope he doesn't bring up my ex again. I get it, y'all hated her, and afterward so did I, but I don't think we can just 'move on' like I did with her the same way we can move on with Falco leaving the team.

I dunno, maybe I'm overthinking things. We saved a planet, and probably the Lylat again, we should be worried only if the checks are gonna bounce (and they shouldn't unless the Cornerians somehow are entirely out of money). But, here I am worried about Krystal joining, Falco feeling off, and the rest of the team wondering if I've got a few screws knocked off from probably all my running around on Sauria.

... Dad, what do I do?

"Listen," I started, rising back up from the chair, "You leave all that stuff with Falco to me. I know he hurt you all, but y'all know he left because of me. Let me worry about him. Slippy," I turned to him, "I need you to make sure our ship is okay for planetfall into Corneria, and only focus all maintenance on that. I also need you to start cataloguing all the errors and fixes on the Arwings that you can't do that we can get professionals to do. We're getting a shopping list done."

I turned away from Slippy, "Peppy, I need you to do the same but for the Great Fox. Any new screens, any new circuits, any new metal anything that isn't a patch job of Slippy's. We're back in business, and we'll need to look the part. Can you two do that?"

Slippy nodded his head, and I noticed a little smile on his lips. "Can do, Vi! I'll get started first thing in the morning!"

Peppy more openly smiled at me. "Glad to see your leadership skills are intact. As long as you can assert yahself, I think you and Falco will get along just fine, like in the ol' days."

Awesome. "Great! So let's get started. I still need another shower after my last one last night. Turns out rolling around Sauria just to get to places quicker gets you real dirty just as quickly too, huh?"

I laughed out loud, but I tapered out when I saw Peppy and Slippy just look at me strangely. "Oh, whoops. That's, uh, something I'll have to tell y'all about later..."

Before it could get any more awkward, I quickly turned around and started walking out the command room, instinctually heading back towards my quarters.

Once again, I walk back into my room, and once again I feel like it's not my room anymore. I remember back during the Lylat Wars there were clothes and flight suits strewn about everywhere, because I barely had the time to clean anything else but my pelt before the next mission.

Now? Got fresh clothes in the drawer, my bed sheets have usable linens that aren't scratchy hammocks or crunchy leather cockpit seats, and I even still have shampoo from before I left for Sauria. The clean aesthetic looks good, yet somehow I don't feel great about it.

Meh, maybe it's just my brain on auto-pilot trying to figure out the best way to ensure survival in a hostile environment, or whatever some psychiatrist would say about me preferring more chaos instead of peace. Maybe it's just the quietness of the ship that's got me on edge because I've been trying to use my ears to listen for any sign of danger.

Really need to write down somewhere to ask Slippy if I could get a jungle sounds audio system set up in my room.

I started to take off the flight suit that I quickly put on earlier in the morning and headed towards my personal shower when I heard a knock at the door. My body froze for a minute as a flashback to my dream flashed before my eyes, before I zip back up my flight suit and yell out, "Come in!"

I heard my door open behind me, and then I heard the tell-tale 'flip flip!' of her sandals behind me. I turned around with a smile to greet Krystal, but instead I see her lugging in a fucking bloody corpse on her shoulders."Excuse me, miss McCloud? Could you direct me towards your kitchen?"

Please tell me she did not just hunt Peppy Hare for breakfast.

I stared at her and the carcass, etching my face in utter confusion and terror. Not only did she have a bloody corpse on her shoulders, but she also had blood splatter all over her body, and her golden staff that I could see extended behind her had a very, very red hilt. And she was also tracking blood into my room. And probably outside my room too. Oh my stars.

"Where the actual fuck did you get that?!" I screamed, taking one step away from the freaking murderer in my room.

"The carcass? It's a deer I found while I went hunting on Sauria, I went back there quickly when you were all sleeping in your rooms. I caught it with only my hands according to the custom of my tribe, and then cleaned it with my staff!" she answered oh so innocently.

I looked at the 'deer', seeing vacant eyes stare back at me, its pelt all but skinned off to its neck, with his head still holding weird swirling antlers that I've never seen on a buck before. I knew a deer couple over in Kew, cool folks, and seeing this poor buck made me imagine Krystal hunting them down like a rabid amazon. "So you just found a random guy, ran his shit, and then used your staff to strip his body of his fur? Krystal, that's murder and mutilation!"

"Wha- no, he wasn't anyone! It was not a sentient person, just a creature of the woods!" Krystal exclaimed. "It was well within the Laws of the Hunt!"

… Okay, so at least she didn't murk a dude. But, first of all, the fuck are the Laws of the Hunt, and second, the fuck are you still doing dragging a bloody carcass around the Great Fox, and third, HOW THE FUCK ARE YOU GETTING BETWEEN SAURIA AND HERE THAT QUICKLY-

"Oh, your zipper isn't fully up," Krystal suddenly pointed out. Her cheeks turned a shade of crimson that was very noticeable on her white muzzle. I was shaken out of the stupor of questions I wanted to ask, and I took a moment to look down.

My zipper stopped right in the middle of my chest. Annnnnnd my cleavage was out on half display for it, along with that little annoying scar.

"Whoops!" I muttered, quickly zipping up the rest of the way (and feeling some of my neck fur get caught at the top, motherfu-). "Sorry, sorry! I, ack! I wasn't actually asleep, I checked up with the team earlier this morning while I guess you were gone. I came back here to take a quick shower before I got, er, ready for my stuff today."

"It's, it's okay!" Krystal replied. I noticed that even after I zipped up, her eyes still darted between my face and my chest. No, she couldn't be...

"Uh, but yeah, so, uh," I tried to calm down and get back on topic to the deer in the room. "So, what were you planning to do with the elephant in the room?"

"Excuse me?"

"The deer you got there," I pointed my arm out to the thing on her shoulders, and oh my stars can we please get that thing wrapped up before it drips anymore?! "We don't really have anything that can store or cook that, you know."

"Oh, really? I was hoping I could make breakfast for you all, just to start pulling my weight as a team member! You wouldn't happen to have any ayoi pears or sevelescus flour, do you?"

Who in the what now.

"I don't... Think so?" I blinked a couple times at her. "We just carry MREs while we're in space, since fridges take a lot of power over time, and for the last few years we couldn't afford that much energy loss."

"Oh. Do these 'em are eese' have any juju candies or any malasada I could run into a paste?"

I blinked at her twice. "Nooooo?"

"Do they have any sea salt ice cream or Lon Lon milk I could use with ashtik starch?"

I blinked at her once while feeling my face fall unamused. "No."

She began to hesitate, "Do, do you have any preserved Italian pasta or egg foo young?"

I glared at her. "Now you're just making words up."

At this point, Krystal looked at me with a growing horrified expression, which is odd considering she's the one who's got a freaking dead animal on her shoulder, "Then… then what does your kitchen have?"

"MREs," I repeated myself strongly. "Meals ready to eat. It's mostly just some wet pack entrée with some water, a little heater that doesn't explode the oxygen in the ship, and sometimes a pack of candy, like Skaddles. You put it up on a wall, or a rock, or something, and let the heater and water mix up to warm up the food, and there you go."

"That's, that's it? Do you have any cooking supplies or at least a fire stove or anything?" Krystal asked in a confused tone. I have a feeling she's never been anywhere near a military-like position. That or Cerinia had magic mind portals to five-star restaurants for their troops.

Stars, wouldn't that be useful? Get stuck in a firefight, gotta hide in a foxhole for a day, lemme just mind-fuck out a portal and ask ol' Mikey at the Cornerian Slag to throw me a meat lovers pizza. Bill me the "saving your dumbass planet" discount later.

"Fire on a ship is a big no-no. We have an electric stove for any planetside groceries, but none of us know or bother to cook if we care to, plus I think we took out its power supply to replace a terminal's on the ship. Sooooo it's just MREs we swipe from bases or call in favors from a few soldiers here or there," I explained.

She looked down at the ground. I think she has a tic where when her mind is racing, her eyes just dilate rapidly everywhere, because that's what it felt like to me seeing her completely silent and in her own world for the moment. At this point, I'd forgotten all about the deer and was just entirely confused at Krystal. I mean, yeah, we probably could learn to cook a few soups, but no one likes spaceship grog, and MREs do us just fine!... For the most part.

Suddenly she looked right up at me with a very focused expression. "You said that there are no fridges on the ship because it takes up a lot of power, right?"

"Yeah, MREs don't really need to be frozen," I replied back, suspicious of what she was about to say. So she doesn't know about MREs yet knows about modern kitchen appliances? Gotta ask her or Slip later on how far Cerinian tech went.

"My staff can produce a freezing spell. If I tune it right, I can have it set at a temperature within a given area," she mused, before suddenly gasping, "That's it! I have my first mission of the Star Fox team! I will create a self-sustaining refrigerator using my staff's freezing spell!"

My eyes and ears opened wide, hearing the words 'mission' and 'team' coming from Krystal's muzzle. "Now wait, that's not how we do things around here-!"

Before I could explain any more about Krystal's situation within the team, she quickly turned around and almost all but sprinted out my door. "I'll prepare a mission report for you by the end of the day!" she called out before leaving.

I heard her footsteps echo out the hall before I got left in the confused silence of my room, the bloodstains of the carcass settling into the front of my doorway like a romantic evening to a serial killer's bed. Not even one day, or even any sort of briefing on the situation, and Krystal's already taking missions for herself and running off somewhere, with the apparent Cerinian tribal training of catching her prey using her bare hands.

...That girl ain't right. Oh my stars I have so much fucking work to do with her.