"I admit, this looks a bit strange… but it kinda works. I'll hand you that."
The two Star Fox members stepped back and eyed their feat proudly. It had taken such a long time, but in the end, they managed to make the tree stand. The old pine, as short as it was, had stubbornly refused to stay upright. It finally surrendered after an immense struggle, during which it had lost even more of its brittle pines. Now it was mottled with bare patches. However, it was still a Christmas tree, and it was standing in the middle of the room. That was the only thing that mattered.
After some ingenious thinking from Slippy's part, they had made their first attempt at keeping the tree upright. The plan had consisted of pushing the tree under the ceiling light, then having Falco hold it while Slippy climbed up a ladder and attempted to suspend the tip of the tree to the light with some of the strongest-looking garlands that they could find. Said plan had failed miserably after the tip of the tree abruptly snapped, sending the pine crashing to the ground.
"At least it wasn't the light that broke," Falco had muttered.
It was Falco's more reasonable plan that ended up working: securing the trunk of the tree to the back of a wooden chair using nearly a whole roll of duct tape. And there it was. The tree standing straight at last, bound to the back of a wooden chair by duct tape.
"This is so great, Falco!" the toad cried in triumph, optimistic as ever. "I bet in all the years of his life, Fox has never seen a tree taped to a chair!"
"Yeah, well, there are lots of things he's never seen… including the mess that this place is in right now."
"Who cares? It's the surprise that matters, Falco!" Slippy then hopped happily up and down in an improvised sort of victory dance, but was interrupted when the phone rang once again.
"Oh no, it's the stupid telemarketer again!" he cried. "You answer, Falco!"
"No way! You answer!"
"I've embarrassed myself enough today! You get this one!"
"How about we just leave it!?" Falco suggested.
"Good idea."
And with that, the two began considering how they were to go about decorating the chair-strapped tree. All the while, the phone continued to ring and ring and ring for a full few minutes before the person on the other end finally gave up.
KNOCK. KNOCK.
Ten minutes after the phone stopped ringing, the two were startled to hear a pounding noise coming from the door.
"Hey, did you hear that?" Slippy asked, still staring at the giant mess of scattered decorations lying before him. "Who might it be?"
"Oh shoot!" Falco cried in sudden realization. "We forgot all about old man Peppy!"
"I heard that!" came a muffled, but clearly angry voice from the other side of the door. "NOW WOULD YOU PLEASE LET ME IN!?" Slippy hurriedly bounced to the door, which opened to reveal an extremely pissed-off hare with cans, boxes and bags in his arms, whose pant legs were soaked with dirty melted snow.
"What's wrong with you both? I've been standing outside for FIFTEEN WHOLE MINUTES! You would have found my DEAD, FROZEN BODY tomorrow if some kid hadn't let me in!"
"S-sorry, Peppy…" two meek voices apologized in unison. It was not enough, however, to quell the anger of the older man standing before them.
Peppy then dumped everything he was holding on the kitchen counter, continuing his angry grumbling at the same time.
"First, I get woken from my nap, and then I'm forced to go to this stupid store that's right about to close when I realize that I'd forgotten my stupid glasses, and I couldn't find where I parked my stupid car but then this other stupid car splashes me all over! And oh,that child! That devilish child! I may as well have met the most obnoxious family to ever exist in the STUPID LYLAT SYSTEM!"
His rant grew louder and louder from beginning to end, with particular emphasis placed on "STUPID LYLAT SYSTEM" as though he were placing a curse on every single living being that had the misfortune of existing within said planetary system.
"Uh… No wonder why the shopping took you so long…" Slippy pointed out in a tone of forced optimism. "Also…" he added, "you put on your shirt inside-out."
Peppy turned white as Christmas snow as he realized that his favorite flannel shirt was indeed, inside-out with all of the inner seams shown to the outside world. He burst into another fit of angry statements.
"Whoa there! Calm down, Peppy." Falco added in attempt to ease the hare's frustration. "Breathe in. Breathe out. Relax, Pops. Deal with the shirt later. First, what'd you get?"
"So there you have it." Peppy let out a sigh, having been brought more or less back to the present moment by his teammate's intervention. "This is all I could find." He pointed to the items that he had placed on the counter. However, the gesture made him aware once again that his extended right index finger had been bitten very hard not so long ago, and he withdrew it quickly, cursing once more under his breath.
Falco and Slippy both stared at the cans, boxes and bags. The avian was the first to take a can in his wing, reading the label.
"Canned spaghetti sauce… What the heck, Peppy!? Why did you get canned spaghetti sauce when we don't even have spaghetti?
"Oh, uhh…" the hare began.
"And easy-bake strawberry cake mix… EASY-BAKE? We needed ready-to-eat-food!!" Falco yelled. In anger, he threw the can of spaghetti sauce back onto the counter. The can hit the strawberry cake mix, causing the box to slide across the counter before falling into the sink, while the can rolled off the counter and dented against the floor tiles with an audible "CLACK."
Slippy hurriedly picked up the now-soggy box of cake mix and the dented sauce can, and put them back with the rest of Peppy's offerings. These consisted of eight packages of instant noodles, a can of coffee grounds, and a one-kilogram bag of white sugar.
"You should have been CLEAR about what you needed!" the older hare yelled.
"And this is supposed to be a Christmas dinner," Falco yelled back at the top of his avian lungs. His feathers seemed fluffed up now, seemingly in anger, but in reality, he was simply expressing his immense disappointment. "Where's the turkey? The cranberry sauce? The log cake?
And now there was a moment of silence. Falco only now saw the expression in Peppy's face, which appeared greatly pained. None of the three said anything. And Falco began suddenly to fidget, tapping his wing against the kitchen counter.
"You know, Falco…" Peppy began. In his voice was a strange mix of frustration, sadness and fatigue. "It really wasn't easy getting just these few things. Especially because I ran into quite a number of… troubles on the way. I did what I could. Besides… I'm vegetarian. I don't eat turkey."
"Uh… Peppy old pal," Falco began, a bit awkwardly. It took him a while to continue his sentence, because he was looking very hard for words. "Uh… yeah. I'm sorry. Actually, I… take everything I said back." He bit his lower beak. Another moment of silence passed. "It mustn't have been, uh, easy. You know, to go and do all this for us in such a short amount of time. I… Fox… we appreciate it."
The expression on Peppy's face softened. "Fine then. Apology accepted… A bit of appreciation for the old hare is nice for once, you know."
"Hey guys! It's not all that bad! Instant noodles and easy-bake cake… we got this! Christmas noodles and Christmas cake. Uh… Christmas coffee too! We don't need fancy turkeys or log cakes!" Slippy chirped in, and forced a smile. "And Falco, cooking's not that bad at all! You'll see! It… it's the Christmas dinner spirit that matters." He paused. "Except, uh, time's passing, and we've barely done anything…"
The three stared together at the clock on Slippy's wall, which showed approximately seven-fifteen P.M.
Slippy curled his webbed hand into a fist. For as long as he could remember, he admired Fox's leadership, and the way he brilliantly took control of difficult situations. This time, for Fox, especially for Fox, Slippy wanted to do something… special. Out of the ordinary. Something that his friend would remember, forever and always. The Christmas party was his idea, and he wanted more than anything for it to work. That is why he now pretended to cough as though clearing his throat, and tried his best to put on a calm, self-assured voice despite his nervousness.
"Hey, guys… Let's split the work, like a real team! Uh, Peppy, why don't you do the cooking? Falco, you can start decorating. And me, I'll run around helping you both!"
Both of the team members glared back at Slippy, tension rising once again in the room. They weren't expecting the toad to be the one taking charge of the situation. But after a moment, Falco sighed and conceded. "Alright. For Fox. But only because it's for Fox." He then paused. "But I'm not decorating. That's stupid."
"You youngsters should all learn how to cook! These are just basic skills everyone needs!" Peppy complained indirectly.
After more than just a few profanities were exchanged, the teammates finally settled upon an agreement which satisfied everyone – that is, to the extent that no one was quite happy with the task they had, but each was willing to compromise if it meant that another person would do something that they liked even less. Falco was going to cook, Slippy was going to finish decorating the tree, and Peppy would walk around the house doing various chores to make the place presentable for Fox's arrival.
Each then set themselves to their tasks in greater seriousness than they would have let on to the others. After all, time was passing and they wanted more than anything to make Fox happy.