Authors note:

Long time no see. The reason I hadn't updated for so long was that I felt the story had major flaws in the story telling and continuing how I would ideally would want it to would mean rewriting that. Instead, I'll try finish this story as fast as I can and possibly start another.

Chapter 7: Rescue

"They've been gone an awful long time Peppy. I think we should go investigate" Krystal said, her voice ridden with worry.

"I'm sure they're fine, there wasn't anybody there when we looked..." Peppy turned to face her, looking in her eyes.

"Doesn't that make you worry more? If they're only scouting the base, you would think they would be done by now." She couldn't get the thought of something going wrong out of her mind.

"Do you know who's down there? There's no way Fox of all people would be able to get taken down, even if it were only pirates. Wolf on the other hand, I don't care if anything happened to him." Katt added to the conversation. Sometimes, she really got on Krystal's nerves.

"Well if you're so sure, you can stay here, but I'm going down to see." Krystal turned to face Katt, glaring at her.

"There's no need for that Krystal, they will be back any minute now." Peppy tried to stop her, but this only made her more determined to go. Sometimes he didn't know what got into her, but she could be so stubborn that he had no idea how to deal with it.

"Tch, let her go. She'll see how stupid it was to go down for no reason. What a wasted effort." Katt snidely said.

Krystal quickly rushed down the halls of the ship to the hanger, where her ship awaited her. She quickly jumped in and prepared for launch. "Peppy, open the door." She asked

"Krystal, this is poin-"

"PEPPY! Let me go!" she almost screamed into her headset, startling the hare. He pressed the button, albeit reluctantly, and the hanger door opened. Her ship blasted out, speeding down to where Fox and Wolf were last seen entering the atmosphere. The cold instantly hit her, seeping into her bones. She tried to ignore this and kept going.

It was hard to see under the clouds in the blizzard, further increasing her worry. It wasn't until she saw a silver glint that she had no idea where she was going. Lowering to the ground, she looked at the state of the ship. Glass shattered, blood pooled in the cockpit, yet no Fox or Wolf. She noticed there was a trail in the snow of blood very faintly.

Without thinking, she followed this trail, running as fast as she could. Suddenly, she saw a small building in front of her, the blood leading to the door. She entered and took note of the lights being on. 'At least there's still power in here...' This slightly alleviated her worry.

Looking around the base, she noticed an orange mass in the corner. 'Fox! Thank goodness'. It wasn't until she noticed the state he was in did she start to feel something again, this time it wasn't worry. She noticed Wolf's arms wrapped around him, and vice versa, cuddling in the corner. She didn't even look at their health, as she couldn't help but feel jealous. Fox had always tried to decline her advancements whenever possible, and now he's going to do this and already get ahead of her? Not on her watch...

'I'll just have to try that much harder.'

"Fox!" She shouted, trying to wake him up. He shuffled slightly in his exhausted phase, taking in his surroundings. The first thing he noticed was heat emanating from next to him, to which he pulled it in tighter and started muzzling it, trying to escape from the cold of the rest of the base. This only fueled her jealousy even more. "FOX!" Once again, trying to get his attention.

He opened his eyes to see a large wall of grey fur obscuring his vision. Wolf... Slowly things were coming back to him. But when he looked up, he noticed that he was still asleep, or at least he hoped he was. 'Come to think of it, that voice sounded like...' "K-Krystal?" He said groggily, still huddling to the warmth.

"Fox! Thank goodness you're okay. What happened here?" She tried to keep her voice as impartial as she could, but couldn't help let a smidgeon of jealousy in.

"W-we were ambushed. Star Wolf, they did it. I don't know what they wanted from the base, but they got it." He slowly started coming around, missing out details of the mission.

"And this?" She said inciting him to look behind him at her, noticing that she was gesturing towards them.

"O-oh..." His face suddenly had a red tinge to it, he hadn't noticed he was cuddling Wolf all this time. "Don't think anything of this." He tried to hide his face from her, but this just ended up in him hiding his face in his chest, further amplifying the red of his skin. "L-lets just get out of here, unless you want to check around."

"I mean, we ought to do our job and check, unlike some of us." She looked over at him again.

"Just give me a few minuted to gain my bearings, then I'll help."

Krystal moved away, all worry she felt before had now turned to jealousy, and she couldn't stand it. This was the first time she had ever experienced this, which made it hurt all the more. There was a stabbing pain in her heart, bearable but noticeable. She searched around the base to try take her mind off of things. The base almost looked stripped bare, if it weren't for the documents and other miscellaneous equipment thrown around. Whatever they were looking for, it was hard to find.

As soon as the strength had to returned to Fox's bones, he started to try escape Wolf's grasp, to no avail. Every time he pulled away, he seemed to pull closer to Fox. "Uh, Krystal?" She turned over, seeing him in a half sitting state, ensnared by arms around him. "I don't think I'm going to be able to help search." As much as she felt jealous of this, she couldn't help but finding it amusing too. This made her think he wasn't intending on whatever happened, to which she slowly started chuckling lowly.

"Krystal?" His face made her chuckling amplify into a full blown laugh, meanwhile a blush crept up on Fox yet again, making his face glow. "It's not funny!" He tried to stop her, but she just kept going. This actually helped ease the pain of jealousy, and she slowly started to forget why she was in the first place.

"Well, from the state of things, I don't think we're going to be able to find anything noteworthy. How about we just head back to my ship?" Krystal said. It would be impossible to search the base for anything with it being in a state like this.

"But how do we deal with" he motioned his head towards Wolf "him?"

"You're just going to have to carry him."she giggled again.

"Arwings only have 2 seats..." he added.

"Well I'm not sharing. I have to pilot the thing you know."

"But-"

"Suck it up, we're going." she said as she walked towards the door. Fox tried to turn around to pick up Wolf. Eventually, and with great difficulty, he succeeded. He had to hold him bridal style, with his arms still wrapped around his waist. "How cute." She added, and the red returned. She couldn't help but jab fun at this, it was too good. The three quickly moved back to Krystal's ship, the two males getting in first. "Comfortable?"

"Shut it." As much as Fox hated to admit it, it was like having his own fluffy, warm pillow. It was nice, if it weren't for the weight. Luckily, he was strong enough to handle it. "Just get going."

The ship slowly raised from the ground, Krystal having to take care of the wind. If she couldn't set off properly, it could take her and result in a crash. It went off without a hitch, taking a look back at them before setting off. Here, she saw Wolf muzzling against Fox, much to the latter's dismay. The ride back was agonising for Fox, half from the embarrassment of his ex-rival muzzling him and cuddling him in his sleep, half from the laughter from Krystal in the front. All he could wish for was for this to never happen ever again.

As the ship entered the docking bay, the rest of the crew acknowledged that only one ship had entered. As the three got out to go to the rest of the team, they were met halfway. "Krystal? Where are the other two? We only saw your ship return." Peppy said, his voice full of worry. He looked behind her to see the them, with Wolf in Fox's arms. "Fox?"

"No time for talking, we need to get Wolf to the med bay, I tried to stop the bleeding as much as I could but he still lost too much. He's not waking up." He said, as the group moved quickly there. He set him onto the bed, yet his arms still remained around him. "Also, he's not letting go of me, no matter how hard I try." He sighed, exasperated.

"You tried hurting him? You could break his arms, I'm sure that would do the job" Katt suggested. She just refused to be helpful in any situation it seemed.

"We can't do that, he's part of the team! And you should get that through your head of that, any more of this antagonism to him and I will personally kick you off, got it?" Fox snapped, looking straight at her.

"Why do you care, I thought you hated him? Protecting your boyfriend or something?" She snarkily said, which caused Fox to look away. With the scowl on his face, the others would look on him as if he was angry, but inside held a different story. He, too, was confused about why he was defending Wolf so fervently. His hate for the lupine faded around the second day they met, which had simmered to a mild annoyance. Even though he wanted to be friends with him, boyfriends? Impossible. He had no feelings for the Wolf whatsoever, so he had no idea where she was coming from. Plus, relationships had no place in a mercenaries work. But, having someone to hold him did feel nice, he felt safe, protected. But this was Wolf she was talking about, nothing would happen between them. However he was a good pilot, rivalling even the best in the system for his skills, which Fox found impressive. This also made him dangerous, he could turn on them any second and hurt them. But didn't Krystal say he had no intentions of hurting them? How much of that is true? If it's true, maybe he can trust him. Although he know he doesn't like males, so yet again her statement confused him. Thinking about it though, he never wanted to be alone, Fox wanted someone to call his own... Maybe that cou-

"Jeez, sorry" Katt said, snapping him out of his thoughts. She turned and left the room, going elsewhere. Nobody knew, nor cared at this stage.

"Don't worry about her Fox, I'm sure she'll calm down." Peppy said, making Fox's scowl disappear.

"What are we going to do about him? I can't get out and I doubt I can get out without him waking up or violence..." Krystal in back of this still wore her smile, amused by the events occurring.

"Hm, as much as I hate to say it, while he recovers you're going to have to stay with him." This meant both Wolf and Fox would be incapacitated, so if anything went wrong they were in big trouble. "I'll start to patch up his wounds and such, get him on life support, but that's about all I can do."

"Does that mean..." He trailed off, knowing it was inevitable.

"Unfortunately, yes. We'll set course back for Corneria. He doesn't look too bad so he should hopefully recover soon." Fox sighed and resigned to his fate. Over the course of the next hour, Wolf was patched up, blood cleaned off him, electronics attached to Wolf to monitor him. Everyone else left the room, leading to Fox and Wolf being alone, and eventually falling asleep. Fox eventually hugged him back, as otherwise he was strangely uncomfortable.

Hours later, Krystal decided to walk into the med bay to check up on them. She sat on a lone stool in the corner, watching the two sleep facing each other. The jealousy surged up in her again, but she couldn't help it. She had wished this had happened to her, how she could hold the vulpine close while she slept. They both looked so peaceful. Why couldn't she have this peace? It's almost as if Fox was oblivious to how she felt.

Almost...

Anyone else would just chalk it up to the person of their affections not knowing of it, but Krystal was not anyone else. Being a telepath she knew things, things others would otherwise not know. She would naturally know whether someone was oblivious to such things, or were actually avoiding it, and Fox was the latter. However, this didn't stop her. She knew Fox tried to avoid developing feelings for her, and liked how they currently were, but Krystal wanted more. So what hurt even more now, was that this was happening to Wolf. Worst of all, the feelings of apprehension Krystal could sense when he denied her, she couldn't feel it before at the base, nor now. A lone tear dropped down her eye, and when she noticed she was crying she quickly regathered herself. It's not her fault.

She noticed Wolf starting to move. At first it looked like shivering, but upon closer examination, he was shaking. His feelings, fear, flooded the room. When emotions were so strong, she couldn't help but be enveloped by them herself. His shaking stirred Fox awake, who was surprised. Fox took note of his breakdown again, and tried to start consoling him. He pet his head, slowly moving his hands down to stroke along his back to soothe the pained Wolf. Fox started to whisper things into his ears, in a further attempt to calm him down. Not only would it be hard for him to fall asleep with Wolf like this, but it also was a heart-wrenching sight. Such a strong person, reduced to rubble.

Krystal just watched this unfold, quietly observing how he handled the situation. Eventually, Wolf lowered his head, resting it against Fox's chest. Fox, too, lowered his head to rest just above Wolf's. As soon as they both had fallen asleep again, Krystal slowly stood up and left the room. That was something she wished she never saw, or felt. It was heart breaking for her. Tears were now streaming from her face again, this time she could not control it. She noticed something else in the room, something she had never felt from him before.

Care. He cared for Wolf, no matter how much he pushed it away, lied to himself and others.

And not her...

End note:

Well this was a long time coming. Sorry for the lack of updates, I've just not been feeling motivated. The main reason I wrote my other short story was to try develop my way of writing a conversation that sounds believable, which may or may not have worked. The conversation in the other chapters feel strange to me, but I just can't find a way to fix it or make it better. Either way, that doesn't matter. Hope you enjoyed and hopefully the wait for the next chapter won't be too long.