FIRST CATCH
Salut, salut! April fools' is approaching quickly, but you won't have to worry about any of that with this story. I'm just happy to be typing again lol. I've had way too many examinations this past month - like one every week. This story is like my safe space lmao. Visit our Pokemon discord server if you haven't. Just send Luanastar#5525 a friend request on discord, and we'll sort it out from there.
LuanOTP owns nothing, but you've heard that before.
Falco was doing a lot of thinking on his way to his room. Boy, did he have a lot to say to that feline. He straightened out his t-shirt with his feathered hands after it being slightly crinkled in the chair he sat on.
"It's one thing appropriatin' my room, but flirtin' with Fox? What's that cat tryin' to prove?" the bird angrily murmured to himself, stopping outside of his chamber doors. Just as he was about to burst in, he stopped his hand from pressing the button that would grant him access. Instead, he remembered what Katt had told him earlier, and reluctantly rapped a couple times on the door.
"Hello?"
The avian remembered where he had heard that sing-song voice before. The same tone haunted his memories to seemingly no end. Elementary, flight school, his misadventures being a Hot Rodder. Falco cringed merely thinking about it.
"It's me, Falco. Who'dya think it'd be?"
The door opened for a distressed bird to meet a smug cat. Thankfully, the whisker-faced mammal was dressed appropriately in clothes Falco found very familiar. He frustratedly crossed his arms as Katt moved out his way to trudge in.
"Hey there, Falco." sang Katt, shutting the door and trotting to her long-term partner's cozy bed. "Took the liberty of stealing a couple of your clothes as pyjamas. Hope you don't mind, though."
"Figures." grumbled the blue warbler. Although, it didn't stop him from stealing a couple glances while he still could. One of his old StarFox-crested vests draped over the feline's torso carelessly, not bothering to capture her curves and meanders - to Falco's inconvenience. Covering her arms was one of his uniforms; a grey bomber jacket with its collar popped up. "Even my jacket, huh?"
Like a toddler aware of what they had done, Katt smiled gleefully, shrugging her shoulders. "It's comfortable. What else can I tell you?"
It was either now or never, and Falco was burning daylight. He folded his arms, hawking on the feline that took off his jacket, and hung it back in the correct wardrobe. He gave two coughs into a balled fist, and straightened out his t-shirt.
"Oy Katt, I've got a bone to pick with ya, by the by."
Katt eyed the standing avian, who actually didn't seem so impressed upon closer inspection. His eyes that were surrounded by crimson feathers glimmered under the starlight of many bodies outside the window behind them. She watched with slight worry and a pursed lip as he took a swivel chair from his desk, and plopped his tail-end in it, shifting about until he was comfortable.
"So…?"
Falco looked at one of his closest acquaintances closely. The intense glare had him less confident than he was just a moment ago. He played off his hesitation with a flick of an itch that he had on his beak.
"So, what was all of that earlier?" questioned the bird with poisonous conviction. Katt merely leaned back on his bed, not seeming fazed in the slightest by his interrogation.
"All of what exactly?"
Falco's beak hung open in disbelief. "Don't think I didn't catch you flirtin' with Fox."
Katt's previously furrowed eyebrows that expressed her pride loosened, and soon, her straight line of a mouth morphed to show curls at both corners of her maw.
"Flirting? My, my, Falco. Accusing a girl of flirting is a bit far-fetched, don'tcha think?" debated the cat, now crossing her legs, one over the other. Her tail behind her began waving to the left and right. Whether intentional or not, it certainly did catch the falcon's attention. "I'm not quite sure what you heard."
The avian couldn't believe it. He leaned over, discovering arm support by sitting his elbow on his leg. "You pulling my leg, Katt? I'll tell you what I heard." Next, Falco cleared his throat, and put on his best Katt Monroe impression by increasing the pitch in his accent. "Wow, Fox! You look so cute! I'd eat you up for breakfast! Mwah, mwah!"
Katt, upon seeing her cerulean cohort wave his hands in the air and put on a girly voice, removed the seriousness from the conversation by reeling back and laughing her tear ducts out. Meanwhile, the unimpressed bird leaned back in his chair and waited for the laughter to cease. His eyes gazed at the pink cat's exterior. Falco couldn't help not cracking a smile of his own. Katt lurched to and fro just to chuckle, and it made his chest feel a little more bloated than it usually was. His smile faded quickly, as the laughter began to die down. Hopefully Katt didn't notice that.
"Geez, Falco, at least warn me when you're gonna pull jokes like that!" Katt joshed, wiping away whatever amounts of salt water that threatened to drop down her cheeks. Seeing that the falcon barely popped a smile, she straightened up her posture and resumed her classic smirk. "Even so, Falco Lombardi," eliciting a twitch of an eye from the respective male who owned the name. "Why do you care so much that I was having a go at Fox? You aren't quite my boyfriend."
It stunned him to realise how much of a point Katt had. It wasn't like him to care. It wasn't like him to show attention to affection. Now, she had a free will of her own, and he was caught going back on the same words he thrived from. It was news to Falco's ears, to hear Katt relenting someone who had done so much for her. But what did he care for? Why had the feline's nonchalant smile and cotton candy words strike him like lightening this time? A duo of questions ran through his mind like a pair of Arwings descending upon Corneria. They wanted to make him pinch the bridge between his eyes as hard as he could and just be done with this. A sigh came out, yet Falco continued.
"Well, I know a bit about playing with someone's emotions." lightly quipped the avian. It was far from a joke, though, judging by his near lifeless facade.
Katt noticed his half-lidded and exasperated mask. His face represented that of the colour grey. His beak was neither open nor smiling, yet those eyes - Katt had seen those eyes before. The pair of orbs that eyed her pink, slender frame. She could tell that there was more to this conversation from the glimmer in his cobalt spheres.
"Oh, really, Falco?" she taunted, reminding herself to keep her posture up and tall in front of the azure-feathered ace pilot. Katt leaned a couple inches ahead of her, leering deep into Falco's eyes. "Are you implying that I'm toying with Fox's emotions, then?"
In all other circumstances, he would've said yes with his chest out, tail up, and beak pointing up into the air. On the other hand, there was a mysterious force on his inside, urging him to think about it, and that he did. Falco leaned back in his chair, thinking quietly to himself. Their eye contact didn't break regardless. His chest rose up and down in time with his shaky breaths. He felt his fingers start twitching uncontrollably - he hated it.
"Listen, what you do with Fox is between 'course, you 'n' Fox. I just want to know what your intentions were when you were with him earlier today." explained Falco, trying hard not to stammer within speech.
The cat didn't seem to care much for his enquiries. That same smug leer sat on her face since minute one, and it behoved Falco to wish that he could read minds like some species out there.
Katt rolled her eyes to patronise the younger Arwing flyer. She rolled into Falco's bed, throwing the blankets over her body without even regarding the bird prior. However, she still watched him intently as she climbed under the sheets. Once comfortable, she propped her head up with her hand while the same arm's elbow rested on the plump mattress.
"Maybe you'll find out one day."
With his eyes wide open, he saw Katt turn around so she faced the wall. There was no way that she was just going to leave him on the cliff edge like that. Falco continued to stare at the back of her head, expecting the snarky feline to face him and truly spill the tea. He waited… And waited some more. Then, two and two were put together, allowing him to realise that the conversation came to a close.
He exhaled a couple of curse words from under his breath, before standing up and trotting over to his mirror. There were many blemishes on the glassy material that the bird had neglected cleaning. On the surface, a defeated falcon.
"Mmm… Falco?"
If Falco had external ears, they'd have shot up by now. He rotated his head, pointing his beak in the direction of the cat that had only just turned around. The bedsheets now cocooned her temple of a body. They barely just captured the meanders of her hourglass frame, leaving the rest to Falco's imagination.
"Can I help you..?"
"Could you help a girl out?"
She dangled a shoulder loop of a pearly-white bra on her pink-furred finger. Meanwhile, the bird alternated between staring at the bra, Katt's cerulean irises, and the end of the blanket that was wrapped just below her collarbone that was obscured by his own vest..
"Are… Are you sleepin' in my bed without any underwear, Katt?" questioned Falco. He wasn't sure whether he was complaining or not, yet he could sure do with a certain answer.
Katt rolled her eyes, smirking profusely. "'Course not, but there's no way I'm sleeping with a bra. I'm not a robot." she chided, folding the bra neatly. "Couldn't you be a dear and keep it on your table for now?"
He sort of couldn't believe this was happening right now. Falco's blush was inconceivably prominent, and it had made keeping eye contact with Katt ten times harder than it already was. His arm was a little bit shaky, though he had kept it fully extended as he closed in on the piece of female underwear. After grasping the bra, Falco strolled toward the desk. However, he took heed of a tightly stitched cloth on the wings of the bra. "32D", it read. There wasn't much he could decipher from it, but one letter stood out from the rest of the information, and that was the latter letter.
Then, the multimillion credit question had hit Falco; How the heck had she taken off her bra without taking her clothes off? The thought boggled the bird to the point it had made him light headed.
"Goodness, me!" she exclaimed in mock disbelief, egging his fluster on even more. Falco didn't even have to look at her to know that she was grinning like the cat she was. "Already staring at my bra!? I had no clue you were such a creep! You're just as badly behaved as you were in elementary."
"H-Hey! I wasn't peekin'! Plus, you're the one who handed me the thing anyways." defended Falco, but the blood that rushed to his cheeks didn't do much to help his case. He huffed as he dropped back into his swivel chair, pouting in return to Katt's attention-seeking giggle. "I don't see why you have to bring up school for the millionth time..."
"I don't know, Falco." goaded the cat, playfully rolling onto her back, folding her legs under the sheets and placing her finger below her bottom lip. "You seemed awfully curious there. There somethin' that you wanna find out about me?"
This was torture. Unfortunately, the avian knew how right the cat was. It felt like she was reading his mind. He tactfully beat a prompt retreat before his embarrassment became anything more than the elephant in the room.
"Go to sleep, Katt." he rudely parried, waving her off and turning around in the chair.
Katt bit her lip, pursing and contorting it in dissatisfaction. "You're no fun anymore, birdie."
Falco sighed - it sounded more of a moan, though. He could feel the awkward sensation of the band of his shorts becoming tighter as his imagination turned it's gears. With all of his psychological capacity, he fought off any fantasies or implications that may compromise his pride.
"Tell me something I don't know."
Sighing also, Katt twisted such that her back faced the mattress, and her eyes were pointed toward the bland metal plated ceiling. There were occasional glances at the avian. Rather, the sight of the back of his head. Messy cobalt feathers stuck out in all erratic directions, but became more neat towards his face. Legs protected by shorts, ending in socks, were lazily flown onto the table, as the avian read a comic. It was common knowledge that Falco wasn't one to show off his feet. She watched with purpose as the ace pilot of revered team StarFox browsed through another comic book. There were just so many things about the bird that would drive any girl away. Be that as it may, the effect was different. The aura about him was different. He was so different.
Her eyes wandered back to the ceiling. Katt reminisced about the many males she had encountered back on Corneria. Blind dates would turn sour faster than a gone-off banana. Phone calls devolve into measly texts, then eventually no contact at all. Not to mention, men back home seemed so… plain, for the furry pink flyer. They all were one and the same, wanting one thing and one thing only. If she was lucky, there'd be someone that wouldn't want to head back to her apartment after the second date.
Somehow, Falco ended up back in her sight, flicking through pages without a care in the world. Free as a bird, if you will. Her heart rolled over, whilst her breathing lost its rhythm. She didn't truly want to go to sleep, did she?
"Sksksks… Hello? This is Slippy. Come in, Falco, over."
A portable transceiver sat on the stack of comic books tucked in the corner of the table. The avian had leaned over the table to grasp the walkie talkie. Socked legs went down off the table and onto the floor. He held down a yellow button and spoke using his gruff, suburban accent.
"I hear you, Slip. What's going on?"
"Well… F-Fox and I just recovered Katt's ship, and we're en route to towing the Cat's Paw back to the Great Fox!"
Falco winced for every crackle that had hijacked it's way onto the radio transmission. His feathered finger pressed down on the yellow input component again, and he opened his beak to speak.
"Sounds real swell, Slippy. Real swell." remarked Falco, nonchalantly spinning in his chair as he spoke. "Though, I don't like phone calls. Could ya get to the point?"
Slippy coughed a couple times over the line, before responding. "R-R-Right! Fox said we could really do with an escort while we're both doing the towing."
Audibly groaning, shoulders dropping, eyes rolling. Meanwhile, Katt reeled in the humour of the distress from her best spacie. The bird hadn't even bothered to remove his digit from the button, just to be sure that the amphibian mechanic could hear his agony.
"Seriously, Slippy? I'm in my 'jams, and you impromptu 'vite me to Zoness?"
Katt, the facetious feline snickered from behind the bird. Once he had turned around upon hearing her laughter, she got a good look at her avian acquaintance, who had a face that could send Wolf O'Donnell's scowl on a run for its money.
"Sorry, Falco. Fox's orders. It's just an escort mission anyway."
"Sure, whatever. I'll come to your coordinates in uhh…" Falco moved about to get a visual of the Cornerian clock in the corner of his room. "Let's say a quarter of an hour."
"No problemo! Slippy, out."
The pilot chucked the walkie-talkie back on his desk in a hump, glaring down the feline playfully kicking her legs back and forth in the air while she laid on her stomach.
"Did… Did you just call pyjamas 'Jams'?"
"Force-a-habit. Leave me alone."
Falco knew better than to entertain Katt's wild attempts to tease him. Although… Yes, he did just say 'Jams. Throwing on a flight jacket - that surprisingly had a feminine scent to it - over a tight orange flight suit that he had donned in a second prior, he headed toward a grey corded telephone just right of the door. He unhinged the phone, and pressed on a green button in the centre of where the number pad would be.
"ROB, get my Arwing ready." instructed the space ace, struggling to fit his boots on in the rush.
"...Affirmative, Falco. Your ship will be deployed in the docking bay in… 3… minutes."
The voice had Falco nodding after strapping his boots as tightly as he could. The door to his room was opened, and the avian turned around to glare at Katt, who returned the gaze with one of her own, albeit a quietly more miserable version.
"I'll be back soon. Try not to break anything." Falco deadpanned, folding down the collar of his jacket for once. It was a fresh start for the Lombardi.
Katt forced a smirk. "Sure. Escort mission or not, try not to get yourself killed."
He was barely smiling now, but there was surely a curve on the beak of the pilot. He gave one last wave, before he closed the door from the other side. The taps of his footsteps became quieter yet more frequent as time went on. Alone in the room, Katt treasured the memory of the smiling Falco while laying back on the mattress and closing her eyes. Sleep crept closer and closer - spreading it's blanket over the feline who was once awake, though now asleep.
Hey, this has been LuanOTP. I'd love to see who actually reads this story. I'd say it'd be interesting finding out what you think so far. Anyways, thanks for reading. I'm trying to alternate between writing this and That Sylveon, my other Pokemon story.
-LuanOTP