Chapter 9 – A beautiful friendship

---

Fox nudged Kyle, who was asleep in one of the medical beds.

"Kyle," he said, "hey, wake up!"

Kyle stirred for a bit, then slowly opened his eyes.

"What time is it?" he asked.

"It's eleven AM."

"Whoa! I must've stayed up longer than I thought!" Kyle said, jumping out of the bed, "I was experimenting with a sample of the virus and trying to find a cure."

"I see. Any luck?"

"Well, sort of."

Kyle picked up the vial containing his formula.

"This stuff can repair the damage done to the body," he said, "but it needs to be modified so that it'll attack the virus."

Fox looked at it for a while.

"Well, you've already made more progress than the scientists have." Fox said, "Maybe you should take it to them and see what they can do with it."

"Hey, that's a good idea." Kyle said. "One small problem though."

"What?"

"I can't fly an Arwing. Can you give me a lift?"

"Oh, right. Sure."

---

Lieutenant Eva Lee sat at her desk, working on a report, as Kyle and Fox approached.

"Excuse me." Kyle said.

Eva looked up.

"Can I help you?" she said, "Oh, hi, Kyle!"

"Hi, Eva. I need to speak to the General. Is he in?"

"I'm afraid he's very busy right now." Eva replied, "He and Stukhov are planning an assault on the zombies at Katina."

"Oh. Well, I have something that might help in finding a cure for the virus."

Kyle took out the vial and handed it to her.

"When you get the chance, could you give this to him?" he asked.

"Sure, no problem."

"Thanks, Eva."

Kyle and Fox started to leave.

"Say, Kyle…" said Eva.

"Yeah?"

"Tomorrow's my day off. Do you think maybe… you and I could… do something together?"

"Well… I don't know." Kyle said, "I think I might be…"

Fox put his hand on Kyle's shoulder and nodded.

"Sure."

"Okay. Here, why don't you give me a call?"

Eva handed him her card.

"Thanks." Kyle said, "I'll see you tomorrow."

With that, Fox and Kyle left.

"How long have you known her?" Fox asked, as he and Kyle headed to his Arwing.

"Since I started training at the academy." Kyle replied.

"And you've never gone out with her?"

"I've been meaning to, but I was never able to work up the courage."

"I see. Well, let me tell you something that I learned from a movie. Never pass up a good thing."

---

Kyle wandered around the restaurant, trying to find a table that wasn't full. Earlier that night, he and Eva had gone to a movie and now they were about to have dinner. Kyle was still a bit nervous, since it was the first time he'd ever gone out with Eva. He began to think of how things would've gone if he'd started dating her earlier. Then his thoughts were interrupted when he bumped into a blue falcon, who was returning to his table.

"Watch it!" cried the falcon.

"Sorry."

Only then did they recognize each other.

"Falco? What're you doing here?"

"What's it look like?" Falco replied, sitting down, "How 'bout you?"

Before Kyle could say anything, Eva walked up with their food.

"Did you find a table?" she asked.

Then Eva noticed a familiar pink feline sitting at the other end of the table.

"Katt? Is that you?"

Katt looked up and gasped with excitement.

"Eva!"

Eva put the tray down and on the table, and she and Katt hugged each other.

"You know her?" Falco asked.

"Yeah, we went to school together." Katt replied, "Hey, why don't you two sit with us?"

Kyle and Eva sat down at one end of the table, while Katt moved next to Falco.

"So, Kyle, I heard you might have a cure for that virus." Falco said, shoving a few fries into his mouth.

"Well, yes and no." Kyle replied, unwrapping his burger, "What I have is something that'll repair the damage done to the body. It still needs to be modified so that it'll attack the virus."

Kyle took a bite out of his burger and glanced at Eva, who was talking with Katt about the movie that she and Kyle had seen that night.

"…and all that time, they thought the rifle wasn't real!"

"You're kidding!"

"Women." Falco whispered to Kyle.

Kyle grinned and nodded. The four of them continued eating and talking about this and that for a while.

"Well, we should get going now." Falco said, "Katt and I have some uhh… business to take care of."

"No problem." said Kyle, "See ya back at the Great Fox."

Falco picked up his and Katt's trash and threw it away.

"See you later, Eva!" Katt called to her, as they left.

"So, how's Wolf doing?" Eva asked Kyle.

"Pretty well. In fact, he's been doing a lot better since he joined with us."

As they polished off what was left of their meals, Kyle told her about Wolf and how things had started getting better for him.

"Wow, I didn't know he had a son!"

"Yep."

Kyle finished the last of his soda.

"So, what do you want to do now?" he asked.

Eva glanced at her watch.

"Well, it's getting kind of late and I have to be there early tomorrow."

"Oh."

"Want to walk me home?"

"Uh, sure."

As they headed to Eva's apartment, Kyle tried again to find the courage to tell her how he felt about her. Unfortunately, he just couldn't find the right words to say and they soon arrived at her door.

"Well, it was nice hanging out with you, Kyle." Eva said, "I hope we can meet again some time."

Eva took out her keys and started to unlock her door.

"Hey, Eva…" Kyle said.

"Hmmm?"

"There's umm… something I've uh… been wanting to tell you."

"What's that?"

"Well, umm… I've… err… you... umm…"

Kyle sighed. Then Eva put her hand on his shoulder.

"I think I know what you're trying to say." she said with a smile, "And you know what?"

"What?"

"I've been feeling the same way for you all along, handsome."

Kyle could hardly believe it. The woman he'd had a crush on for years was in love with him too. For a while he didn't know what to do. Then something inside him said, "Now's your chance! Go for it!" Slowly, Kyle brought his muzzle close to hers. Then they kissed.

---

Krystal pulled a small container of ice cream out of the freezer.

"Couldn't sleep?" a voice behind her asked.

Startled, Krystal spun around and dropped the ice cream on the floor.

"Sorry, Krys." Wolf said, picking it up and handing it back to her, "Didn't mean to sneak up on you."

"Oh, that's okay."

Krystal took a spoon out of the silverware drawer, sat down at the table, and started eating.

"Ray is so adorable." she said.

Wolf grinned.

"You know, I kind of had a feeling that you'd become pregnant." he said, "Sarah went through the same things as you before Ray was born. I just didn't say anything because I didn't want to ruin the surprise."

"That was thoughtful of you." Peppy said, as he walked into the room, "Sorry, I couldn't help overhearing your conversation and thought I'd hang here and chat for a while."

"You couldn't sleep either, huh?" asked Wolf.

"Not a wink."

Wolf then heard his PDA beeping.

"That must be Kyle." he said.

Sure enough, after Wolf pushed the button, Kyle's face appeared.

"Hey, Wolf. I'm ready to come home now."

"Okay, I'll be right there." Wolf replied, "Wolf out."

Wolf walked out of the room and headed to the docking bay.

"You know, I remember back when Fox was as young as Ray." said Peppy, "He used to try to grab my glasses while I held him."

Krystal giggled.

"I bet he was cute as a pup." she said.

"I'll say he was." Peppy replied, "And James would've been proud to see Fox's child being born."

Krystal smiled and rubbed her belly.

"I can't wait either."