FIRST CATCH

You know what? I'm a big fan of the StarFox series, and I wish that Nintendo would do something with the franchise they have. The gameplay is obviously simplistic, but there's a lot that they can do with it. Plus, there's a buttload of lovable characters and an easily moldable storyline. So why not? This is just my opinion, though.

LuanOTP owns nothing.

…

The avian was right - he never really won at anything.

There he sat, holding twenty cards in one hand, and the broken jigsaw pieces to his dignity in the other. Slippy raked in piles of chips toward his chest as he greedily smiled. All Falco could do was simply watch in despair, silently fuming.

"B-B-B-Bring it in!" yelled the frog, excitedly placing his cards on the table to retire. "Thanks for dropping that King, Falco!"

The Avian balled his fist and shook it at Slippy. "I forgot what it does!"

"Chill out - it's just a game, after all." Fox calmed his feathered friend by speaking in hushed tones, while also laying his cards down on the table. "Besides, I think I'm gonna quit now before I lose any more money."

"Heard. I'm done too."

Slippy reeled back into his chair, rubbing his stomach. "Buncha s-s-sore losers. Boy, Slippy is gonna eat great tonight."

Chucking his cards in the frog's direction, Falco took off from his chair. "I think I'm gonna head back to bed."

"Hey, Falco, I haven't seen you munch on a single thing today." Fox waved at the avian, getting up and walking toward the kitchen. "Come 'n' grab something to eat, at least."

Now that he thought about it, his stomach had been whining for the past half hour. He shrugged his shoulders with nonchalant swagger. "Alright, sure."

Entering the kitchen part of the ship, the avian took in a whiff, and was it a whiff to behold.

"Is that sausage I smell?" gawked the blue bird, homing in on the plate of meat on the counter. Without another thought, the bird had nabbed a plate, and began setting up his food.

The captain rolled his eyes, waiting behind Falco before he could serve himself. "You're welcome, by the way."

"Appreciate it."

Falco finished promptly once he realised the one man queue behind him was getting fairly impatient, and took a seat down at the nearby communal table. His plate was chock full of meat, vegetables and carbohydrates as a balanced meal. It was the first proper meal he had in days. Fox joined him soon after, with a dish much smaller than his own.

He stretched out his arms, scratching the fur behind his ears, before getting down with his food. "So, how's it been, Falco?"

The avian's beak stopped it's chewing motion. "What do you mean?"

Fox dabbled his cheeks with a thin handkerchief. "What else'd I mean? I just wanted to know what's up."

"Oh. Nothin' new." admitted Falco, gnawing on another sausage. "I've been slow, but that's about it. How 'bout you?"

"I've been decent. You been… getting any urges recently, Falco?"

Now, the avian wasn't sure he wanted to be eating something until he knew exactly what the vulpine was talking about. "Okay, what? What're you tryna say, Fox?"

"You and your flyin', Falco." the captain said a little louder this time. "I'm askin' if you've gotten any urges to go stick your head out the window."

"No, Fox. I haven't. I could really go for some time outta this ship, and into my own, though."

Fox took another bite from his fork. "Mhm, grmbmbm wff'n yrbck-"

"Noone eva taught you to swallow first?" Falco chortled in half amusement, half disgust.

Swallowing, the canine brought a tissue to his cheeks again. "I said, better not with StarWolf on your tail. They already hate us. You just had to go and make matters wors-"

"C'mon. Don't gimme that. You 'n' I know best of all, especially out of the entirety of StarFox, that being cooped up in this metal can is literally prison! We ain't got no new missions, so what are we even doing here?"

"That's ridiculous, Fal. We-"

'Oy! What'd I say about "Fal".'

"Okay, okay, I remember. Still, though, we've got plenty of missions to keep us busy. General Pepper isn't gonna send us out for everything, though. He knows Corneria has to be able to rely on it's own military."

He could only be thankful that his blue feathers concealed every blush and fluster he had. Only because Falco knew he was right, had he felt the slightest tinge of embarrassment. A fork full of protein still entered his beak.

"...Fine. But don't be surprised when you find yourself itchin' to switch the Arwing on."

"Yeah, sure. Whatever you say."

The bird took a long swig from his bottle of orange juice. "Hey, I gotta question."

"No. You can't go out now."

Falco wasn't surprised with his superior's speculative reply. "I wasn't gonna ask that." he hissed, before pointing in the direction of his quarters. "What're we gonna do about her?"

"What do you mea-"

"Hush, can't you keep your voice down?"

"Falco, that's the third time you've interrupted me. What are you talkin' about?"

"Listen; Katt isn't part of StarFox. She can't stay here forever, right?"

Fox shrugged his shoulders. "Personally? She gave us a big hand against Andross. She may as well be."

"-You… You can't be serious."

"'Course I'm not, but what's the harm in letting her stay here? If you really don't want her in your room I'm sure we could sort somethin' else out."

"It's not solely that. You know StarWolf is after her neck, right?"

"...So I've heard."

"We can't have her staying here, can we? We may as well be puttin' a dartboard on the Great Fox."

"Falco, are you hearing yourself right now? Katt is a veteran from that war. Without her, we would've had our hands full in Sector Z, and no doubt, the Great Fox would've been totalled!" The captain placed his fork on the ground. "Plus, it'd be much safer for her here. So, what's your problem with her?"

This time, he hadn't an answer. Only an unvictorious gaze to the left.

"No, don't tell me…"

Falco reluctantly brought an eye to meet the coy fox's eager smirk. "Don't you say it."

Fox only shrugged his shoulders. "Hey man, we're adults! You're the one getting all highschool 'bout it."

"Am not!"

"Am too! Don't think I can't see you blushing under your feathers."

Shaking his head, the pilot merely went back to nipping at his food. "You talk too much, Fox."

Instead of a witty reply, Fox guffawed at the miser. "C'mon! Haven't you told her how you feel?"

"I told you. She just got out of a relationship. I doubt she'd be interested anyway."

"I mean… you'll never know if you don't give it a go."

Falco shrugged. "Some things aren't worth giving a go. Plus, you were the one she was gawking about the other day. Callin' you cute and all that crud."

"That's a bit bold of you to say."

"You'll never know if you don't give it a go." Falco mimicked in a higher register, trying to imitate his captain's more timid voice.

"Funny stuff, Falco."

"Mhm."

The rest of the meal was spent either exchanging small talk, or stuffing their faces with lots and lots of meat. Soon enough, a stuffed bird and fox sat fatigued at the table. Noone had seemed to pass through the dining area, which wasn't too uncommon. This gave Fox time to just think about it.

Just think about some things.

Perhaps just play devil's advocate for a bit.

Then, he really started thinking about it.

Fox brought himself to his feet. "Man. I feel like I'm gonna pop."

"Heard. You cooked all of this stuff yourself?"

The fox proudly wagged his head.

"You'd make a good housewife."

"That's… okay, Falco." Fox adjusted his beige vest around his slim torso, pulling and tugging at it in certain places. "So, speakin' of Katt, where's she been?"

Falco put his hands behind his head, stretching out his abdomen. "How am I supposed to know?"

"She lives in your room."

"She's probably still there, then."

"Alright. Mind if I pay her a visit?"

The bird waved dispassionately. "Don't go touchin' any of my stuff, though."

"Yeah, yeah."

Fox left his finished plate with his copilot, and strolled through the innards of his father's life savings. The bright lights that lined the hallways reminded him of walking down the red carpet as a hero in the Cornerian military base. If only his father could see him then.

One more left, and he found himself knocking at the doors to his teammate's personal room.

"Is that you, Falco?" a voice came from inside.

"Um, no, it's Fox." Fox called back. "Is everything alright?"

"Yeah, yeah. Come in."

The vulpine pressed on a button on the side to the door, and the entrance was presented to him.

Falco's room was the same as ever before, complete with the addition of Katt Monroe, taking an interest in one of his comic books while lying on his bed. The captain strolled in, and the door automatically shut behind him.

"Hey, Katt."

"Mhm. Hiya Fox." She closed the comic book, and sat up. "Somethin' you need?"

Fox shook his head. "I was just checking up on you."

The hot pink coloured cat chuckled softly. "You know, you don't have to perform regular check ups on me."

"I just feel like I have a moral responsibility to make sure everyone's alright."

"Well, that's very sweet of you. I'm doing fine, thanks."

"Glad to hear it. Are you still alright with staying in Falco's room? I'm sure I could fix you up w-"

"No-! No, it's fine." she responded, a little hastily. "It's been a pleasure staying here.

Fox warmly smiled as he stood just in front of the door. It was a bit of a dream to believe this was the same person who only the day before, insistently called him all sorts of compliments.

"Just letting you know, we might get some alarms, or transmissions, from General Pepper all the way in Corneria." elaborated the vulpine, flicking a hand about here and there. "But don't be worried or anything if it happens. I know it can be a little loud, though."

Katt shrugged her shoulders. "Fine with me. I wouldn't mind helping you guys out anyway I can."

"It should be alright. I don't think you're quite cleared to pilot an Arwing, either."

The feline giggled silently. "You know, my CatsPaw was modified from an Arwing. You guys aren't too special."

"Huh. Really? Did you modify it yourself?"

Playfully, Katt tapped the sides of her nose, obviously concealing something. The vulpine had to respect it though.

"Fair enough. Well, if you need anything else, Katt, you can let me know."

"No worries. Thanks, Fox."

Peaceful silence filled the room. Balling his fists, the fox built up moxie from places inside him that he didn't know he had.

Fox turned around, and walked out the door. Once he was into the hallways, and the entrance shut itself automatically, he scratched the back of his neck with an ungloved paw. The cat's behaviour was a little out of the ordinary, all things considered. Maybe he was expecting a little too much.

"Man…" he mumbled to himself, walking down the hallway to his own room.

He'll never be able to read that cat.

…

Okay, so, in regards to Krystal's appearance in this story, she's going to be introduced slightly differently to the canon lore. That's just to clear things up though. As for now, thanks for reading! I do appreciate every single view given to this story. I hope you guys all know that. Significantly shorter this time, but nonetheless, see you next time!

-LuanOTP