I woke up in the bedroom, drowsily looking around the room as I noticed that the red vulpine was nowhere to be seen. I grew a little curious as I regretfully crawled off the bed and stood up, stumbling across the room towards the doorway. The door had been left open, so I stepped outside looking down both ends of the hallway, not seeing anyone as I went towards the stairs. I descended the wooden steps, feeling the cold floor under my feet with every footfall while I walked into the entertainment room. Neither Goldy nor Foxy were in the room, which made me confused until I looked outside and saw the vulpine standing on the deck, leaning against the rail. I quietly stepped up behind him and wrapped my arms around him, resting my cheek against his back while I heard him mumble something in surprise.
"Good morning," I told him with a slight giggle as I felt one of his hands wrap around mine as I held them together around his body. "Morning," He replied, letting me rest there for a little bit as the town below was still waking up itself. "How'd you sleep," I asked him which earned a sigh from the red vulpine. "Decent… Just, kind of have a lot on my mind," He replied, a hint of regret in his voice while I loosened up and stepped beside him. "Well, you could talk to me about it, that might help," I told him, my left arm still wrapped around his back slightly as I saw him blankly stare out at the town.
"I've just been thinking of it again," He replied, trying to smile when he looked over to me. I sighed as I hugged his arm, I didn't know how he felt exactly, but I knew that whatever he felt was messing with him, badly at that. I looked up at him as he stared out at the town, before trying to focus in on where he was staring. All I could see was the never-ending sea of roads, houses, and alleyways, interrupted by the central park. "Do you want me to make you something for breakfast," I asked him, earning a light chuckle as he looked over at me. "I don't think that's the best idea, considering…" He replied, trailing a bit near the end as I realized he was mentioning the little 'incident' I had with the oil in the kitchen at the pizzeria.
"Shut up," I told him, playfully hitting his arm while I leaned back against the rail, resting my elbows against it as well. "I'm telling the truth," He jested, holding his hands up in defense while I grinned at him. "How am I supposed to get better at it if I never do it," I asked him, leaning my head back a little as I stared at the pinkish, purple sky. "I don't know," He replied, placing a hand on my side as he pulled himself closer to me. I felt him place both his hands on either side of the rail beside me, before leaning forward with a sly expression.
"Do you really want to cook something, or do you want to go get breakfast at one of the restaurants," He asked me as I leaned back into him with a grin. "I thought you used the rest of the money Goldy gave you for the table at the bar," I asked him, seeing his expression drop to a blank one. "No, he got the cash from the other three, remember," He said as I brought an arm up around his neck, feeling his soft fur running between my fingers. "We need to figure out how to get our own money," I told him as he wrapped his arms around my waist and looked down at the town below.
I saw his eyes focus on something before he looked back down at me. "Well, maybe I can get a job helping build that building down there," He told me, pointing towards a construction site to the south side of the town. "Maybe. Though, if you could get a job fighting I'm sure you'd have no problem," I replied in a taunting voice as he gave me a small smirk. "Yeah, but most people prefer bulls, horses, or whatever other large animals you can think of," He said, beginning to rock side-to-side while he held me. "Just wait until they see you floor one of them and they'll think differently," I returned, giving him my own smirk as he let out a content sigh.
I rested there for a little, letting him rock me back-and-forth as he held me in his large, comforting frame. I eventually realized that I hadn't seen the gold bear anywhere all morning. "Where's Goldy at," I asked the vulpine, not bothering to move my head as he rested his atop mine. "He went back to the pizzeria for today," He told me, the two of us eventually walking into the entertainment room and sitting down on the couch with a sigh as we looked through the window at the cityscape below.
"We really need to figure out something to do today," I heard him sigh from beside me as I laid my head across his lap. "Well, we have some cash, but we don't know where we can go to have fun or just hang out aside from the bar," I replied, pondering different ideas while I watched him lean on his elbow on the arm of the couch. "How about this, you can go freshen up or whatever you want to do, I'll go throw on a shirt, and we can go down there to see if there's anything to do," Foxy told me with a smile as I sat up and stretched. "Sounds good to me," I replied, getting up from the couch to which we both went upstairs and began getting ready. I took a quick bath and dressed up, soon walking out to see the red vulpine in his white T-shirt and shorts once again.
We left the house and walked to town, the same usual half hour stroll was beginning to feel quicker than it had been earlier, which I was incredibly thankful for, but when we got to town we saw several groups of cats roaming the streets, all of them were armed in some way as if they were expecting something. "I wonder what that's about," I asked, pointing them out to Foxy as we walked through the street. "I'm... not sure," He replied with a curious tone as I saw something catch his eye. He pulled me over to the store that he had thrown the red canine through yesterday and we stepped inside to see the same elderly wolf at the counter.
"Hey, Clark," Foxy greeted the wolf as he stepped inside. "Hello," The wolf replied, giving us both a small smile as we walked up to the counter. "Do you know why those cats are all out there like that," He asked the wolf who sighed. "Last night a group of them got mugged in an alley by some guy who was running through them. Turns out that they were part of one of the several gangs around town and now they're doing their own 'vigilante' work to try and find who did it," The wolf replied with a seemingly drained tone while he leaned on the counter. "Huh," Foxy replied as he looked at the old wolf. "You look... tired…"
"I'm exhausted by those bastards. Every time they do their little 'patrols' I have to stay here and keep them from raiding my store. This isn't the first time they've done this, but every time it happens it gets even more irritating," The wolf told us as he pulled up a stool from behind the counter and sat down. "Alright, well, we'll talk with you later," The vulpine told him while we both walked out again. I looked through the crowds, seeing that it wasn't only cats in them, it was actually mixed with several species but the majority of them were made up of felines, giving off a vibe that it was only cats. As we walked down the street, I felt him tighten up his grip around my waist, as if he was uneasy about something while he eyed everything around him.
As we walked in front of the bar, a dog of some sort was thrown through the front window, soon rolling out in front of us as his face was visibly beaten. "Jesus," I shouted a bit, looking inside to see that there was an entire brawl going inside. I guess the several 'gangs' Clark told us about were all inside. I saw Foxy instantly run inside as if instinct took over him, watching him ducking under blows from the brawling crew, sometimes throwing them back as he made his way through.
I followed him over to a clear spot in the bar, just beside the front bar at that, to which I saw him asking the bartender something. "What the hell happened here," He asked the avian who was ducking behind the bar with the feline waitress. "Those damn people walked in here and started a fight with some group in the back over what happened last night," He told us as I looked over at the red vulpine who had a shocked expression.
He turned around and walked up to two of the people fighting, one looked like a tiger while the other was some breed of dog like the one that got tossed through the window, each of them throwing blows like no other as they drew synthetic blood from each other as well. Foxy hooked his arm around the tiger's and slammed his fist into their jaw, throwing them back into the booth as he turned to the other who instantly targeted him as well. He ducked under the dog's left hook, the vulpine wrapping his arms around his waist and picking him up before slamming him down into the floor before crawling up and pounding into his face a few times as the dog went unconscious.
I was about to help him up as I saw a wolf go to kick him off the dog, so I ran over and wrapped my arms around his neck while lodging my foot behind his leg, sending him into the floor as I held him in the headlock, Foxy soon getting up and running over, sending the bottom of his foot into the side of the wolf's head, knocking him unconscious. "Thanks," He told me with a smile as I grabbed his hand and stood up. "Same to you," I replied, staring at him for a second before we both turned back to the crowd fighting.
In the few seconds it took for us to take out those three, the crowd had also knocked itself down by a good amount, though I couldn't tell if they were actually knocked out or whether they were still trying to get up. My train of thought got wrecked as I felt the vulpine yank me out the way of a stray kick, soon seeing him grab it and pull it towards him which made another wolf fall into the floor with a groan. I looked over to the wall and spotted a fire extinguisher mounted on it, with a small letter 'B' printed on the side. I grabbed it and threw it over to the fox, who managed to catch it before slamming it down into the wolf's head.
The wolf curled up into a fetal position as he held face, rendering him unable to even stand up due to the immense headache he'd likely be suffering from soon. I watched the vulpine as he spun around, swinging the red cylinder at a cheetah's head before he pulled it back and slammed it into the man's gut, forcing him to drop onto his knees as he held his stomach, face down on the floor. I saw someone running at him from behind, so I ran over and jumped up, grabbing his neck as I clotheslined him back, slamming my feet into another person's face on accident which knocked them over a table. As I landed on the floor, I felt the person I grabbed go limp as their head hit the ground, allowing me to let go and stand back up to which I saw Foxy slamming the extinguisher into someone's chest as he grabbed another's arm, soon spinning around as he used his shoulder as a fulcrum and slung him into the floor, earning an audible groan from them.
I felt someone grab my shoulder, causing me to thrust my elbow back, slamming into someone's gut before I grabbed their head and rolled forward, throwing them over me to which I saw it was a primate of some kind. Their arm shot up, grabbing my neck for a split second as I tried to get away, the ape struggled to his feet as he held me by my throat as I struggled against him for air. I shouted for the vulpine with what little breath I had left, instantly seeing him throw the extinguisher at him like a football, the impact resulting in a loud clang from the red metal cylinder. "Thank you," I shouted to him to which he nodded to me as I ran over to him.
After I reached him, the room suddenly died down, leaving me confused until I looked around and saw that the crowd was all either exhausted, or knocked out cold on the ground. "Well," I panted, hunched over a little bit as I held my knees. "That's one way to start a morning." "You're telling me," Foxy replied, falling backwards as he landed, sitting on the floor with a heavy pant as well. The two of us sat there for a little bit, looking around the messy room as broken chairs, tables, and other furniture were laid across the floor.
"Well, at least you two are still awake," The bartender chuckled to us from across the room, getting up from behind the counter. "Yeah," Foxy panted from beside me with a slight chuckle. "We can help you clean this place, it's the least we can do." We both eventually got up, helping the bartender and waitress with getting the people out of there, or convincing them to help, as we all began cleaning up and sweeping the large piles of glass, splintered wood, and broken furniture.
"So, what are your names anyways," The bartender asked us as I helped the vulpine with carrying a broken table out the way. "Foxy," The vulpine replied as I told him mine as well. "Name's Andy. Thanks for the help," The bartender told us while we tossed the table out into the street where some of the people who were fighting inside that didn't get knocked out would carry it off elsewhere. "As I said, it's the least we can do, considering that you'll need to buy all sorts of new furniture," Foxy told him with a slight chuckle while we walked back inside.
"Yeah, now that I think about it, where could I find you two when I go to bring it all inside? I wouldn't mind an extra pair of hands around to help out," the avian asked us while we rested against the bar counter for a minute. "Uh, we've been staying at the house up on the hill that's west of here," The vulpine replied as the bartender raised one of his thin eyebrows. "The one at the bottom of the hill," He asked. "No, the one with the deck about thirty minutes up the hill," I told him, at which he gained a slight smile. "Marionette's house. Yeah, he's a good guy… Helped me start up this bar as a matter of fact," Andy replied with a hearty chuckle as he began wiping down a glass that he pulled from a box with the waitress also grabbing a box from the back. "You know him," Foxy said with a surprised smile. "He's the one that brought us over here."
"He usually does stuff like that. He actually was one of the first people who helped start up this place, key reason why he has the house up there," The bartender told us as I nodded to him, soon looking behind us to see that the furniture had been cleaned up, but there was still glass and splintered wood all over the floor. I walked over to the side of the room, grabbing a broom before walking over to the bar and began sweeping the glass up. After a while, I looked over to the vulpine as he was staring at the floor, right in front of his foot as a long shard of glass. He seemed like he was thinking hard on something as he stared at it.
I saw him raise his foot slightly, which made me run over quickly and grab his arm, pulling him out of whatever trance he was in as he focused on the glass, before looking over to me as I saw his pained eyes. "You alright," I asked him as he sighed. "Yeah, I just need to get out of here for right now," He replied, walking past me as he stepped out the bar and went left, towards Marionette's house. "Is he alright," Andy asked me as I kept looking out the door before turning over to the avian, soon realizing he looked like a hawk or some other bird of prey. "Yeah, he's just feeling a bit out of it," I told the man, eventually walking back over to the broom to which I finished sweeping up the mess into a pile in the center of the room.
"Just leave it there," The pantheress told me as I went to try and find a dustpan. "You sure," I asked her as she nodded to me. "I'll go clean it up later," She replied, pulling out bottles from a box as she restocked the shelf behind the bar. The bartender offered me a free drink before I went to leave, which I declined since I didn't want to be drinking so early in the morning, eventually leaving and walking back to the house.
When I stepped inside the house, the fox was nowhere to be seen or heard from. I went to our bedroom and walked inside, seeing him laying on the bed with his back towards me as he faced the other wall. Quietly, I walked up and crawled onto the bed behind him. "Are you alright," I asked him as I laid down behind him. "I don't know," He replied, his voice void of any emotion. He was still facing the wall as I wrapped my left arm around his chest and nuzzled my head into the back of his neck. I looked down just past his shoulder, seeing he had the picture from all those months ago in his hand while he stared at it.
"Do you want to about it," I asked him, trying to comfort him as he continued staring at the picture. "It might help you relieve some of the stress." He didn't answer for some time, so I assumed he didn't. I began rubbing his chest softly, hearing him slightly purr as I did. After a few minutes, I pulled myself up a little bit, leaning over his shoulder so I could kiss him on the cheek before I rested my head against his, seeing him grow a small smile after I did. I could swear I even saw a small teardrop try to claw its way out of the corner of his eye. I couldn't help but wonder what was running through his head, however, because he reminded me of when we had first met; how he kept to himself, not wanting to talk about anything.
I kept looking the side of his face from behind him, seeing a hint of guilt out the corner of his eye. I couldn't understand why he would be guilty about something currently, unless he was simply thinking of the incident still. Though, I doubt that seeing as he hadn't even brought it up in months as we were at the pizzeria, but then again, we were always busy at the pizzeria, well, he was at least. I wasn't busy all the time until I started training with Ava
"Do you want me to grab you something to eat," I asked him from behind his shoulder as I suddenly felt him roll over, causing me to crawl back a little. "Why don't we go down there and look," He told me with a small smile as he flopped onto his back. "Alright," I replied, wrapping my hand around his as I placed my left hand on his chest for a few seconds before I crawled off the bed. I walked over to the door before turning around, seeing him just walking over to me with his slight smile still planted on his face.
The two of us walked out of the room and went downstairs, but instead of going left towards the entertainment room, we went right into a small doorway which led to a decently sized kitchen. It had the same windows from every other room on the left side of the room, overlooking the cityscape below. There was an island in the center of the room which had a sink in the middle, facing the right side of the room, opposite of the windows. A sleek, polished granite countertop wrapped around the outer edge, except for the doorway and wall of windows to the left. The floor had white tiling across it, much like the pizzeria they took us to, except that one was checkered.
"So, what to do," I asked the vulpine who was looking around the room, seemingly for something specific. "Well, I remember Jeremy used to bring something called spaghetti in these little Tupperware containers all the time. I think I remember what all was in it as well," He told me as he walked around, opening cabinets as he looked around for ingredients. He eventually pulled out a box of pasta, a jar of sauce, and several other little containers with the names of different spices printed on the labels.
We eventually grabbed a pot and started fixing everything up. Before long, it was simmering on the stovetop as I occasionally stirred it, the two of us talking with each other while watching it.
The Class-B fire extinguisher returns!