Food for Thought

[Wolf O'Donnell -[29]-]

Wolf scowled as he stared straight at the number next to his name on the tournament rank listing. It seemed to taunt Wolf the longer he looked at it as he compared his placement with that of his longtime rival Fox, who was currently ranked No. 20. The gap between the two wasn't big, but it wasn't decreasing very much either. In fact, ever since the Smash Tournament began, Fox had maintained a steady lead over Wolf, managing to stay a good 10-15 placements above him.

The likely reason for this constant lead in the rankings was probably due to the fact that Fox simply had more experience fighting against many of the other combatants. After all, unlike Wolf who had only participated in one of the pervious tournaments, Fox had been present for every single one since they first began. A disadvantage Wolf couldn't really do anything about.

It was only just today that Wolf had managed to close the gap slightly after winning two matches earlier that morning. His rank had increased enough to be in the same bracket as Fox, but only just barely. Close, but not close enough in his opinion. Not helping Wolf's utter frustration was the fact that his current rank was as close to Fox's as he had so far been able to get.

Wolf just continued to stand there in the smash mansion lounge, staring in silence at the rank listing on the wall, totally oblivious to everyone around him until he heard a voice speaking to him from the side.

"Try not to dwell too much on your current ranking."

Wolf turned his head slightly to the right to see who was talking to him, it was Meta Knight. The small rounded swordsmen had saw Wolf sulking in front of the monitor for the last ten minutes and figured he could say something to ease the bipedal wolf's mind.

"The tournament is still in its early stages. Initial placements will inevitably change over the course of the competition as more matches take place. If winning is what you desire, you still have plenty of time to refine your skills and increase your win count."

This fell on deaf ears unfortunately as Wolf simply brushed the star warrior's words aside, not caring to listen.

"Feh, Who the hell asked you?" Wolf responded.

Wolf then turned around and made his way towards the lounge exit. He had wasted enough time in there as it was, he didn't need to stay and get pitied by the other smash participants.

Feeling hungry, Wolf decided to head on over to the cafeteria. He had another match later in the afternoon and figured he should probably eat something to keep his strength up. If all went well, Wolf could snag another win under his belt before the day was over.

About sixteen minutes after leaving the lounge, Wolf had made it to the cafeteria. Much to his dismay however, he was faced with slim pickings as far meal selection was concerned. While there were still leftovers to choose from, most of the food already been eaten by other participants, and what was left was getting cold real quick.

In hindsight, 2:50pm in the afternoon is not an optimal time to have lunch, as by that point a majority of the food available will most certainly be gone, and the kitchen staff won't start cooking dinner for another couple of hours. Not that Wolf cared too much. As a freelance mercenary, he wasn't too accustomed to the typical three-meals-a-day structure as most other people were.

Deciding to make the process easier for himself, Wolf simply picked up one of the leftover steaks and microwaved it, feeling that it would be good enough.

Taking his tray of food, Wolf looked around for a place to sit. Surprisingly enough, a decent number of the table and chairs were still occupied even though the lunch rush was over. If Wolf had to guess, it seemed that anyone who wasn't currently in a match had probably stayed back to casually converse with their friends, teammates, and "Assists" (i.e Individuals not directly participating the in the tournament but were present to give aid to their colleagues when necessary) who were still eating.

As he looked around, Wolf spotted his own teammates at a table on the far end of the room. Young Link and Lucina were sitting beside each other and looked as if they were laughing, though it was hard to tell since their backs were facing Wolf. However, Isabelle was strangely nowhere in sight.

Wolf quickly scanned the around the room to see if there were any other places to sit. There wasn't. Not unless he was feeling brave enough to sit in-between King and Wario as they stuffed their faces in the most uncivilized manner possible. Any other vacant seats were out of the question as they were stationed too close to large groups of people. The noise is was what Wolf hated the most and why he didn't like eating in the cafeteria.

Not wanting to be bothered by anyone else's company, Wolf let out a sign of defeat as he walked over to his teammates hoping they wouldn't make too much of a fuss. Though their recent interactions with him haven't been inherently negative (If only because Wolf intentionally distanced himself), there was still an air of awkwardness between Wolf and everyone in the team aside from Isabelle because of his brash attitude.

The metal tray let out a faint clang as Wolf placed it on the table and proceeded to start eating, his head slouched over resting on his left arm. His eye was closed in a deliberate attempt to not make eye contact with either of his teammates sitting across from him.

"...Well hello there Wolf." Lucina spoke up.

No response. Only the sound of angry chewing and metal scrapping against plastic.

"It's odd seeing you here." She continued.

"Why's that? It's a cafeteria isn't it? And I'm hungry." Wolf shot back, his eye still closed.

"What she means is that it's odd seeing you sit with us at a table. Usually whenever you get food you just take it back to your room." Young Link chimed it.

"I have a match in a little while, it's quicker just to eat here." Wolf huffed.

"Are all the other seats taken?" Lucina questioned, quickly glancing across the crowded cafeteria herself.

"Is this a fucking interrogation or something? I just chose to sit down here and eat, is that okay?" He snapped. Wolf was beginning to regret his decision.

"It's fine Wolf. We just thought it was strange is all. That you suddenly want to sit with us." Lucina replied.

"Well why the hell are you two sitting with each other? shouldn't you be over chit-chatting with your home world companions that are also in the tournament?" Wolf asked.

"Don't you remember Wolf?" Young Link leaned forward, "Back when the tournament first started and we all got placed on a team, Isabelle had the idea for us all to sit together during lunch provided that none of us were in a match. She thought it would be a great team building exercise."

"However, if you recall correctly." Young Link continued, "You didn't agree with that idea Wolf. You said that the less amount of time you had to spend with us the better. And then you never showed up."

Wolf just sat there for a second hazily looking at his food, thinking back to the first couple of days of the tournament. He vaguely remembered saying something like that. Truth be told, back then he was too angry at his predicament to really care.

Lucina neatly folded her hands on the table. "Since then, Young Link and I have been regularly talking outside of matches and getting to know each other. As it turns out, we have a lot more in common that either of us would originally have thought." she said, looking pleased.

"For instance, both me and Lucina have utilized time travel before in an effort to prevent great catastrophes from happening in our initial timelines" Young Link explained. "That's not an experience many people can claim to go through, and honestly it feels good to be able to talk with someone who understands the hardships you go through in doing so." he continued, emphasizing that last point with sincerity.

Wolf had paused eating and looked at Young Link and Lucina with dull, glazed expression on his face as if to convey just how skeptical he was at hearing this. That explanation didn't really seem to sit to well with him. While Wolf had experienced his fair share of strange events in the vast reaches of outer space, he found it hard to believe that either of them were capable of something as theoretically complicated as time travel.

One thing that did catch his interest however was how they mentioned Isabelle.

"You two mentioned this lunch room get together thing was Isabelle's idea, right? Where is she by the way? I noticed she isn't here, and I know that she doesn't have any matches scheduled for today." Wolf asked. He knew something was up, he hadn't seen Isabelle for a couple of days now. She had even missed their early morning coffee commutes.

"Well we don't know the full details, but we think she is handling paperwork in the administration office." Lucina answered.

"Huh?" Wolf remarked.

"That's what Villager told us when we asked about her."

"What the hell is she doing paperwork for?" Wolf asked dumbfounded.

Lucina rested her head on her hand as if in thought, "Like I said, we don't know but it's been taking up a lot of her time. That's why she hasn't had very many solo matches lately. And most likely why she hasn't been eating lunch with us."

"So what you're saying is that she's been skipping meals?..."

"Maybe, though it could also be that she's simply doing what you did and taking food with her so she can eat in the office."

"Somehow I doubt that." Wolf grumbled as he stared down at the remains of his food. His ravenous appetite was replaced with a sudden sobering concern for his teammate. Skipping meals when food is available to you is against all common sense. You take what food you can get when you can get it. This was something Wolf had to learn when he first started traveling through space. There had been times when he went a few days without eating a proper meal in-between missions. Thankfully that wasn't the case with the Smash tournament, but that just served to prove Wolf's point.

Deep in thought, Wolf went for another bite of his steak, but what happened next served to steer the conversation in an unexpected way.

"You're concerned about her, aren't you?" Young Link said casually.

Wolf Immediately froze in place, gripping his fork tightly as it was just a few centimeters away from his mouth. He then slowly put his hand back down on the table as he glared at Young Link.

"What the hell are you talking about kid?" Wolf growled.

"I'm just saying you sound like you're concerned about her, there's nothing wrong with that." The young child responded.

"What makes you think I am!?" Wolf shouted.

"Well, considering how quickly you've been willing to help Isabelle out lately whenever she's having a hard time with something, I'd say that's a pretty good indicator right there."

Now on the defensive, Wolf's overall tone changed. What was once mild annoyance had flared up into a simmering anger. Lucina scooted ever so slightly away from the canine's line of sight, not wanting to get burned by the heat beginning the radiate from his harsh words.

"Anything I've done with her has only been in the interest of making this team win. You think I want to be dragged down by weaklings?" he argued. "I'm already nearing the middle of the barrel and it's not helping that I'm stuck with you three!"

"Is that so? Then what about a week and half ago when we were fighting on the icicle mountain arena and you gave Isabelle your jacket to stay warm?"

"I did that to prevent her from getting sick. If she had, then she would have been withdrawn from our team for the next couple of matches, putting us at a disadvantage!

"What about that time you grappled Ken to the ground while he was trying to lightly push Isabelle out of bounds in the boxing ring?"

"That's called covering your allies, kid! It's basic teamwork. I've covered both of your asses on the battlefield before."

"And what about you taking the time to help Isabelle practice her aim in the shooting gallery?"

Wolf's eye widened a little hearing this, he was caught off guard as he didn't think anyone saw that. "How…do you know about that?"

"I was practicing my archery across the room from you two. Neither of you noticed because I came in sometime after you two started. It's also worth mentioning that the shooting gallery is open to everyone here, I'm likely not the only one who saw you." Young Link plainly stated.

The expression on Wolf's face changed from one of belligerence to one of mild astonishment with a hint of embarrassment, he honestly was at a loss for words and didn't know how to respond to this sudden turnabout. Worst of all, he was backed into a corner by some kid. Probably no older than Twelve by the looks of him.

About a couple minutes went by before anyone said anything. Wolf just sat there clenching his fork as if it were a stress-relief ball and looking at his half-eaten steak. He more or less lost his appetite.

Feeling a little guilty at his teammate's change in disposition, Young Link spoke up once more, "Listen Wolf, neither Lucina or I are trying to get on your case about whatever is going on between you and Isabelle. Frankly we've just noticed that you two have been spending quite a bit of time together as of late. There's nothing wrong with that, you shouldn't feel ashamed of it either."

To Wolf, this sounded like something a seasoned elder would say to a lost youth. Something far wiser beyond that of a child's years.

Wolf was silent. It was hard to tell what he was thinking, but hopefully the Hylian's words had resonated somewhat with him, giving him a sense of reassurance in how he felt about all this.

"You said that as far as you're aware, Isabelle hasn't been eating lunch lately, right?" Wolf said in a soft tone, re-railing the conversation back to his initial question.

"Yes." Lucina replied.

"And that she's currently working in the administration office?"

"Correct."

"...Well I think I ought to do something about that." Wolf said as he got up from his seat.

Wolf made his way down the hallways of the smash mansion following the directions to the administration department given to him by Lucina. So many turns at hallway intersections, a couple flights of stairs to walk up, passing by miscellaneous storage rooms. It was crazy how complex the inner architectural layout of the building was and this in turn served to remind Wolf just how utterly gigantic the smash mansion actually was. Something that he never quite noticed before given that he had little reason to venture through most of the place beyond going to the cafeteria for food, battle arenas for matches, or occasionally the shooting gallery to practice his marksmanship.

As he made his way closer to his destination, Wolf couldn't help but grunt a little at having to carry a large box in a plastic bag as this way. He didn't like feeling like a fast food delivery boy.

Finally, after what seemed like twenty minutes of walking, Wolf had reached his destination: the administration office in the upper floor of the Smash mansion. Thankfully it didn't take any time at all to find which room Isabelle was working in. He was led by the incessant clacks of a keyboard and the dull snaps of paperwork being stapled together. Approaching the half-open door of the office, Wolf stood in the gap between the door and the frame to see Isabelle fixated on the computer screen in front of her, clearly so engrossed in the work she was doing she didn't even notice her fellow teammate standing a few feet away in front of her.

"Knock knock." Wolf said while lightly tapping the back of his knuckle on the door to the office Isabelle was working in. The abrupt noise broke Isabelle's concentration and snapped her out of her work-related trance.

"Ah-a W-Wolf what are you doing here?" Isabelle said, a little shaken up by her teammate's sudden appearance. Now that she wasn't staring at her computer screen, Isabelle took a moment to rub her eyes and re-focus her vision.

"I could ask you the same question. Word is that you're back here in the office cubicles doing paperwork?" Wolf questioned as he walked into the office.

"Ah yeah." Isabelle replied faintly while trying to shift her focus back to all the papers on her desk and organize them. She continued, "At the behest of Master Hand and Crazy Hand, they asked me if I could assist them with the work load, given the nature of my job back home as a mayor's assistant and city councilwomen, it seemed like reasonable request on their end." Isabelle was speaking a little slower than usual. The peppy upbeat energy that normally radiated with her voice was gone and instead replaced with an aura of exhaustion surrounding her. This was easy to see judging by the look on her face, she looked beyond tired with slight bags under her eyes and a droopy expression.

"Hmm, now that's strange, now would they ask you that? You're already a participating fighter in the Tournament. Shouldn't you be given the courtesy of not having to do any work like every other participant?" Wolf questioned yet again in a sly manner, almost as if he was trying to gauge whether of not Isabelle was despondent over her situation. To his surprise she wasn't.

"Oh no I told them it was okay, I didn't mind them asking me, In fact I am happy to help in any way I can." Isabelle smiled and stapled another set of papers together.

"You might not know this but there's a lot of work that goes into organizing these smash tournaments. Getting everyone together, sending out invites, keeping the Smash mansion operating with all its facilities, paying for food to be served in the cafeteria, paying to have any damages made to the stages fixed, paying to have equipment that needs be replaced, and not to mention all medical costs for injuries that can happen in any of the matches." At this point Isabelle was back to looking at her computer screen typing away on her keyboard as she was talking with Wolf. This was not an act of disrespect to him but rather a testament to her intense ability to multitask with so much work that still needed to be done.

"The list goes on, so it's a little understandable why they reach out for extra help."

Wolf hazily rolled his eyes hearing all this, to him this still felt like she was getting taken advantage of. "Seems a little rude to me that they would dump all this work on you. I mean, you'd think that they'd have the foresight to hire a proper amount of staff to organize this massive event."

Isabelle paused for a second to look up at Wolf with a stern look indicating she took slight offense at what he said. "Please don't say that. With an event as big as these smash tournaments you can never properly account for how much assistance you will need. Master Hand and Crazy Hand have worked hard to keep making this tournament happen." In a sense Isabelle spoke from experience. Back home she helped plan and organize town events year-round and as such knew firsthand how much work it went into organizing stuff like this.

Breaking the uneasy tension that was just created, Isabelle quickly redirected the conversation with a more positive tone. "In any case it's okay. As I said before, I honestly don't mind helping out in any way I can. Not to mention I helped out with the paperwork for the last Smash tournament as well…although back then I was just brought on as an assist for that one so I had much more time to focus on doing the work."

After finishing her sentence, about a minute of silence went by save for the constant clicking noise made by Isabelle typing away on the keyboard. Tired of holding onto what he had been carrying, Wolf wanted to ask one last question before doing what he came her to do. "If you don't mind me asking, how long have you been at this?"

Isabelle stopped typing and paused for a second to think about it, "Umm…" Isabelle muttered and then looked at the clock on the computer screen, "…about….twelve hours." Isabelle laughed a little bit not realizing what time it was.

"That long huh? She just doesn't stop does she?" Wolf thought to himself as he blankly stared as Isabelle with mild amazement though none of it showed on his face.

"Truth is, this isn't even my record. Back home I almost broke twenty-two straight hours over the course of a weekend." Isabelle added.

"I see." Wolf said softly.

Without warning, Wolf dropped the box he was carrying with him right in front of Isabelle, square on top of her desk with all the paperwork she still had scattered across it, sending loose sheets of paper adrift to the floor.

"AAAHHH! WOLF PLEASE DON'T DO THAT! You're going to mess up my work!" Isabelle shouted as she bent down to the floor frantically grabbing the few papers that fell off her desk.

"Eat." Wolf uttered.

"…What?" Isabelle said as if bewildered by what he just said.

"I said eat. Lucina and Young Link said that you've skipped lunch the past four days now and from what you've just told me, you've been at this for eleven hours straight."

Isabelle got back up to her desk and opened the box. To her surprise and delight what she found in it was a nicely cooked meal. A baked chicken pot pie with a side of gravy to be exact. It was the last one from the cafeteria line and Wolf had managed to snag it before it was discarded. The steam slowly rose from the open box, bringing in a warm aroma into the sterile, dusty office. Having not eaten for most of the day, this was a welcomed sight to behold for Isabelle, who just started to realize how hungry see was.

Isabelle became slightly flustered, being caught off guard by Wolf's kind gesture.

"W-Wolf, I don't know what to sa-"

"Then don't say anything. Just accept the food." This time it was Wolf's turn to sound stern.

"But Wolf I don't really I have ti-"

"Look just take a break and eat would you. That paper work is still gonna be there in another forty-five or hell even fifteen minutes from now so you may as well eat something so you don't pass out."

Isabelle remained silent as she looked at Wolf. While he remained stone faced as he normally did around his teammates, she could see a faint sense of sincerity in his eye.

"Anyway…" Wolf said as he turned around heading for the door "I have a match that's about to start so I'll leave you to your work or whatever."

But just as he made it in-between the door frame and the hallway outside the room, Wolf suddenly stopped and without facing Isabelle said "You can do whatever you want on your own time, even if that means burying yourself in paper work. Just don't do it to the extent that you collapse from exhaustion. That won't help anyone, especially yourself."

And with that bit of advice spoken Wolf was ready to leave except-

"WOLF WAIT!" Isabelle quickly shouted to get his attention before he ran off. Wolf stood in silence waiting for what Isabelle was going to say.

"….Thank you, and good luck with your match today. I wish you the best of luck."

"Hmph, thanks but I don't need luck." Wolf said with a confident grin on his face as he closed the door and made his way to the battle arena.

With Wolf now gone, Isabelle sat there alone in her office processing the interaction she and Wolf just had. It was a very pleasant surprise to her that Wolf went out of his way to get something to eat for her, especially since she hadn't told him about all the paperwork she had been doing the past week.

If she had to guess, Wolf probably found out by talking with Young Link and Lucina…or perhaps even the mayor. Though regardless of how he did find out, it was a sweet gesture, one of many that started to pile up now that Isabelle thought about it. In fact, it seemed that lately Wolf has been acting far less hostile and subtly more altruistic even if in extremely small amounts. It was a lot to think about, but now wasn't the time for it.

Taking a second to clear her mind, Isabelle then put her computer on sleep mode and took off all the paperwork laid out on her desk and put it on the floor right beside her. She opened up the box once again, now ready to take that long overdue lunch break. As Isabelle suspected, the chicken pot pie tasted just as delicious as it looked.

"I'll have to think of a way to thank him properly for this later." Isabelle thought to herself as she continued eating her meal.

The rest of the day seemed to pass by pretty quickly at the smash mansion. Before anyone knew it, nighttime had arrived seemingly without warning and brought the busy day to a close. With the current time being 11:27pm, most of smash participants were heading back to their dorm rooms for the night. Unfortunately, Isabelle was not one of them.

There she was, sleeping at her desk with her head rested on top of her closed laptop surrounded by stacks of paperwork. Experiencing a second wind after eating the meal Wolf had brought her, Isabelle went into a self-imposed "crunch time" mindset and tried to blaze through as much of the paperwork as she could by the end of the day.

Lucky for Isabelle, her efforts weren't in vain as she managed to complete all the paperwork she had, even some that wasn't expected to be finished for the next three days. By the end of it however, Isabelle was so tired and mentally worn-out that she simply plopped down where she was sitting and dozed off into sleep without a second thought.

Out of nowhere, the office door began to open slowly with the intention of making as little noise as possible. Young Link, Lucina, and Wolf all carefully walked into the room after peeking inside and seeing Isabelle slumped over her desk.

"I must say Wolf, you were not kidding when you said Isabelle was buried in paperwork" Lucina quietly whispered as she walked closer to Isabelle, making sure she was okay while also inspecting the clustered mess on the desk.

Wolf could only shake his head "Hmph... looks like she didn't take my advice and passed out. Exactly the kind of thing I was trying to warn her about."

"Stubborn to a fault and preferring to do things her way when she knows she can accomplish her end goal. In that way she's just like you Wolf." Young Link said in a somewhat teasing manner.

"What the fuck is that supposed to mean!?" Wolf said as he glared intensely at Young Link while also trying his best to keep his voice down so as to not wake Isabelle.

Completely unfazed at Wolf's threatening tone, Young Link just smiled earnestly and said, "Easy Wolf, don't take it so harshly, I wasn't saying that like it was strictly a bad thing."

"…Whatever" Wolf muttered.

"You really have to give her credit though, it looks like she managed to finish all of this paper work. It's all stamped, processed, and organized." Lucina said quickly flipping through various pages stacked on top of each other. "What my father wouldn't give to have someone like her in charge of safe-keeping royal documents."

Wolf remained silent for a brief moment before taking off his jacket and handing it to Lucina. "Can you do me a favor and hold this?"

"I...guess so, but why?" Lucina asked as she took the jacket from his hand, confused at the request.

Wolf walked over and carefully picked up Isabelle, doing his best not to wake her up in the process. Considering how light she was, this wasn't hard to do. Wolf then gently rested her over his shoulder. "So I can carry her without worrying that the spikes on my jacket might accidentally cut her."

Curious at his words, Lucina lightly brushed her finger against the brass shoulder spikes of Wolf's jacket. Indeed, they felt sharp enough to break skin.

Wolf now began walking towards the door, ""Come on, let's get her back to her room."

"How thoughtful of you Wolf, I'm sure she'll greatly appreciate this when she wakes up." Young Link beamed.

"Will you shut up already!" Wolf groaned under his breath as quietly as he could.

And with that, the four of them departed from the administration department, making their way back to the dorm rooms.

"When we get the chance, we should all talk with Master Hand and see if he'll lessen the work load for Isabelle, this is too much to ask of her." Lucina stated as they began walking down the hallway. Both Wolf and Young Link agreed. Meanwhile, Isabelle was still fast asleep on Wolf's shoulder.

Author's Notes: Oh boy, an extra-long chapter this time. I hope you guys didn't mind the wait. In reality, I actually had the original draft for this chapter written months ago (around the time I first started submitting this fic) but I held off from releasing it so I could go back and add more to the chapter. I'm glad I did because I feel this chapter came out much better than it originally would have had I stuck with the original draft.

As a special treat, my friend was kind enough to draw two illustrations for this chapter considering it's double the usual length. This isn't to say it's gonna be a constant thing for longer chapters, we're still gonna primarily stick to one per chapter, but it's a nice little thank you for all of you for being so patient. Since this is the version, I suggest you hop over to the Archive of Our Own version to check out the artwork done by my friend.

Lastly there are a few things I want to clear up just incase anyone is curious. 1) Wolf doesn't disbelieve in time travel (that's kind of hard to do considering he is participating in a multi-dimensional tournament orchestrated by two floating hands that can partially bend space/time) but rather he just finds it hard to believe Young Link and Lucina are capable of doing so….oh if only he knew. And 2) "Assists" are indeed characters who are assist trophies in the games. In the context of this fic, they take residence in the smash mansion but aren't officially in the tournament themselves, rather they just provide assistance in various duties to either help the tournament or any participants when needed.

Hope you enjoyed the chapter! Thanks for reading.