The next morning, she woke up at 11:45.

She didn't think about it too much, until she imagined a sad, lonely Captain Falcon standing in the middle of the training grounds.

She immediately got up, threw on her zero suit, and then activated her Varia suit. She went running down the hallway, helmet under her arm.

I guess there's no time for coffee. Shit, I should've put an alarm on..

She turned a corner that led to the entrance of the outdoors. Some Smashers, mostly young ones, were outside eating their breakfast. Samus ran past some cherry blossom trees, until she came across the training area.

It wasn't exactly the official training arena. A while ago, a couple fighters decided that it would be a good place to practice, and eventually the name of 'training ground' just stuck.

The grass was worn down, showing off the dirt underneath. There were large cherry blossom trees and willow trees surrounding it.

Samus walked into the light shade of the trees, spotting the man she had been looking for.

"Hey! Sorry I'm late. I slept in." She felt stupid saying it out loud, but to her surprise the Captain just laughed.

"Same here! I only got here about ten minutes ago." He rubbed the back of his neck, awkwardly.

She relaxed. She didn't feel as horrible now. Then, he handed something to her.

A cup of coffee.

"Thanks." She said, eyebrows raised. After she chugged down half the cup, she sat it down on the ground.

"Right. Let's get training then."

They stood in their fighting stances. Falcon started out, dashing towards her. He was fast. Really fast.

No wonder sonic hates him so much.

The F-zero racer flipped over her, and managed to get an attack in from the back. She stumbled forward, but quickly lashed out. She shot a couple missiles at him, and hit her target. He regained his balance and ran for her again. But instead of punching her like he normally did with this up-close stance, he shot out a quick and strong kick. It knocked her off balance.

Dammit. This is what I get for waking up do early. Even if it was 11:45.

She wasn't going to let him win this round however, she quickly shot a number of beams at his face. When he was occupied with the smoke, she ran over to him and released a rough head-butt that shot the Captain back a couple feet. He bolted back to her though, not giving her a moment to think. He violently threw more punches then she could feel through her armored figure, and then kicked her legs underneath her. As she looked up, readying her next attack, she froze. He had his arm drawn back, flames blazed through his arm.

"FALCON-"

Shit.

"PUNCH!"

She took the blow right to her face. Thank god she was wearing her helmet. But the knockout didn't just effect the targeted spot. Her entire body went flying. She couldn't see her attacker, only air. Then, seconds later, she felt tree limbs smack against her helmet as she landed next to a couple of willow trees.

Samus hit the ground with an enormous Thunk.

Bitch... she thought, rubbing her her head when she took off her helmet. Since her suit weighed a lot more then she herself did, it created a large dent underneath of her.

The F-Zero racer was running towards her from the far distance she had landed. When he finally reached her, he was out of breath.

"Are-are you okay?" He huffed, hands on his knees.

"Yeah I think so, I mean I didn't die." She said sarcastically.

He face-palmed, and shook his head.

"I'm sorry. I had no idea that I used it as strongly as I did. Are you sure you're not hurt?"

"No, I'm fine." He reached out a gloved hand. She took it firmly.

Together they walked back to the training grounds, talking about what and what-not to do.

They had been meeting up and training together for almost five days. They were getting stronger already. Both of them equally as powerful so that it drew the fights out longer. Samus could now almost handle the Falcon Punches that Falcon would throw her way.

They learned more about each other. Samus learned that the Captain had won many races in his past, but lost many as well. The Captain learned about the Metroid Samus had bounded with, as well as how it ended. They learned each other's pasts, (not exactly, nothing about their parents), what they did in their spare time, their favorite drinks and foods, and much more.

She enjoyed her time spent with him. He seemed to enjoy it too.

Samus woke one morning at 9:30. She had been getting good at arriving early.

She made her way down the long hallway leading to the outdoors. She didn't bother activating her varia suit just yet.

When she reached the entry, she spotted Ness, Young Link, Pikachu, and a couple others including some adults, sitting around eating their breakfast and chatting about what they were going to do for the rest of the day. The mansion had been surprisingly peaceful ever since they had all gone on break for preparation of the tournament.

The bounty huntress made her way down to the tree covered coven, the wind whipping around her blonde locks. She was a bit chilly due to the fact that she only had a tank top and some shorts on, but she knew that she would warm up once inside her armor.

Once there, she met the Captain as usual, and they began to practice.

After a series of quick attacks, close-ups, and missiles, Samus had gained more ground and began to charge up her beam blast. Falcon saw this coming, and rolled out of the way. He could stop her blast from charging, but he would need to get a running start. The bounty hunter turned and to Samus's surprise, he started running away from her. She then realized what he was doing. She has to hit him quick before he could falcon kick her. He then ran back towards her, flames bursting from her thighs and arms.

"FALcon.. KICK!"

She buckled over from his blow, and lost her charging progress. She was quick to her feet however, and managed to hit him with some bombs she left behind. While he was blinded, she slid behind him and hit him was a beam blast and then a couple missiles. Now was her chance to use one of her stronger attacks. The huntress morph balled underneath the racer, and quickly spun upwards, creating an electric orb of herself. Falcon went flying upward as Samus transformed back. He hit the ground with a groan.

"You alright, Captain?" She asked, offering her hard, metallic hand.

He grabbed it without hesitation. "Yep. Always good to get the blood pumping."

They both retreated to a small wooden bench under one of the soft pink trees.

Samus sat her helmet aside, and reached for one of the bottled waters the Captain had brought out with him. She then offered Falcon one, only to see him remove him helmet.

She had forgotten that he had a face under the dark visor. He brushed his hand through his chestnut bangs, revealing a smooth scar that ran along his eyebrow. He had a well sculpted face with sharp cheekbones, and dark eyes. When he looked up, the sunlight glinted off of them, revealing a fascinating blue. She could only stare. So this is who she had been fighting this entire time. She hated to admit it but:

Damn. He's cute.

She flushed a bit, handing him his bottle, which he chugged more than half of it in one gulp.

"So, should we take a break?" He said after a couple more gulps of refreshing liquid.

"Sure. I saw the others hanging out in the front."

They both got up, and started down the path that they had worn down into the grass, leading them to the others. Falcon hair ruffled in the wind, sweeping across his eyes. Samus couldn't tell why she couldn't stop looking at him.

Stop it, dammit. He's gonna notice. He did. But only chuckled, which led to her face reddening for some anonymous reason.

The grass was greener here. There weren't as many trees, only a couple scattered here and there. There was also a small pond covered in algae and lily pads. It was beautiful.

The bounty huntress had deactivated her suit so that she was in her simple tank top and shorts again. The sun had come out earlier that day, so the chills that had once clung to her were now gone.

The two made their way to a smaller tree with nice shade, when I voice called out to them.

"Hey! Samus! Captain Falcon! C'mere! We're playing tag and we want you to join!" Ness hollered at them.

The 'we' in question were a couple other smashers consisting of Pikachu, Young Link, the Ice Climber duo, Yoshi, Link somehow, Pit, and Isabelle. Samus could also see some others in the shade watching, like Rosalina, Duck Hunt, and Peach.

She heaved a heavy sigh preparing to say no, but before she could, Falcon replied for them both.

"Sure!" He glanced at her. "C'mon. It'll be fun."

"More like funny." Samus grumbled, but followed after him as he joined the others.

"Okay! Here's how the game works!" Ness exclaimed, but stopped when Link made the point that they all knew how it worked already. He shook his comment off and continued to explain anyway.

"We all choose a seeker, and then the seeker runs after people, and if you get touched, you have to sit out and wait for the game to end. Which is basically when everyone is out. Everyone ready?" Ness said, excitement overflowing.

"Yeah!" Came the reply from everyone.

"Okay! I wanna be seeker first!" He announced, and then began to count down.

"One! Two! Three! GO!"

They all took off running, leaving Ness in the dust.

Samus jogged but then sped up to a full on dash when she realized that Ness had been chasing her. She heard Falcon laughing at her, which made her realize that she was going Way too fast for the poor kid, and he had been gasping for breath behind her. She slowed to a quick jog, looking over her shoulder occasionally to see if the boy was catching up. He did, pressing his hand onto her back.

"Gotcha!" He huffed, trying to catch his breathe. "Now ya gotta go sit in the shade!"

She slowly walked over to Falcon, who had stopped laughing as much, but was still snickering at her.

"What?" She asked defensively.

"You were running like your life depended on it," he wheezed, "poor kid didn't have a chance at catching you."

Samus rolled her eyes, but smirked. He was even cuter when he laughed.

Once Ness had caught the others triumphantly, he gathered them all back to the middle of the field.

"Okay! Someone else volunteer to be the seeker now!" He said, still out of breath from the chase.

"I'll do it." The Captain said, slicking back his hair out of his eyes.

"Great!" Ness yelled. "I'll count like I did last time!"

They all readied themselves to run again as the young boy began to count.

"Three... Two... One.. GO!"

Just like last time, they all went sprinting.

Samus felt the tall grass whip across her bare legs as she blasted past. She peeked over her shoulder, only to see the Racer running full-force towards her.

"Are you kidding me!?" She cried.

This was the second time she was the main target, and of course this time it had to be the one man who was known for his incredible speed.

Her ponytail flew behind her as she zoomed from the F-Zero racer. He was gaining on her. She obviously knew that he could easily catch her, there honestly wasn't much she could do to stop it. Except wear him out.

She darted around trees, and across the field, occasionally digging up ground with her shoes. Why wasn't he gone yet? She could see the pond somewhat ahead.

But just as she was about to run any further, the racer leapt forward, smacking his hand against her lower back. Unfortunately, he wasn't aware of his own strength, and instead of stopping, he fell, taking the bounty huntress with him.

They flopped through the grass for a few moments before actually landing, both on their backs.

Falcon expected to get yelled at but instead his ears were met with a blissful laughter.

Samus had her eyes closed against the sun, and her mouth open, spilling gleeful laughter.

Falcon smiled and joined her. After a short while, they stopped, taking in the feeling of warm grass against their skin. (Well, at least Samus, since Falcon wasn't exactly showing any skin belong his neck)

Samus sighed. She then glanced over at her companion. It was now his turn to close his eyes and experience the welcoming warmth of the sun. His face was lit up by the beams of natural light. Samus ached to gently cup his peaceful face in her hands, but before she could even shake the thought, he sat up, grass on his shoulders.

Samus chuckled and softly brushed the grass off of him. He smiled at her, and then plucked a piece of grass from off of her head. She blushed a bit, but couldn't contain her laughter.

They were adults. Why the hell were they acting like kindergartners?

Suddenly, Falcon stood up.

"Their probably wondering where their seeker has gone." He extended a hand towards her.

She smirked and accepted his offer. Together they walked back to the group, who were now all gathered together, questioning where the Captain had gone.

"You ruined the game!" Ness complained to him.

"Sorry, kiddo!" Falcon responded, rubbing the back of his neck. "Wanna play again to make up for it?"

This was probably one of my favorite chapters I've written so far, so I hope you all enjoyed it as much as I did.

Reviews, favorites, and what not are greatly appreciated, thank you!