The following sequence of events was quite blurred in Fox's mind. Everything happened so fast and unexpectedly, he had difficulty processing it all at first.
First, there came another series of loud knocking at his door, for the second time in the day. It startled him, setting all of his badly-groomed fur on end. Simultaneously, his friend Slippy's voice boomed from the other side of the door, loudly enough for the vulpine to hear even in the bedroom with thick covers over his head.
"Fox! Please! Speak to me! Fox, it's Christmas. I'd just like to talk, okay? Please?"
It made Fox cringe inwardly, as he imagined how many other renters in the apartment had been disturbed by the yelling. But at the same time, he was a more than a little glad to hear the voice of his amphibian friend again.
And it was Christmas Eve, after all…
Therefore, he slowly, very slowly, pulled off the covers from over his head, and slid off the bed. He slipped into the only pants and shirt in the apartment that were somewhat clean. As he passed by the fallen chair in the living room, he bent down and set it back upright, pushing it into its place beside the table. And he slowly, very slowly, walked to his door as though in a trance. He first undid the extra chain lock. Then, he switched the main lock so that it was open. And, very slowly still, he turned the knob, opened the door just a crack, and peered outside.
Slippy stood there, still huffing and puffing. Whether it was from the effort of knocking and yelling, or whether it was from excitement, Fox couldn't tell. The toad's face immediately burst into a smile of both immense joy and immense relief.
"Fox! I thought… I thought you wouldn't want to spend Christmas alone. So… uh… I thought that… Uh, do you want to come over to my place?"
Fox shifted in embarrassment. He was also slightly relieved that it was only the toad there. He wouldn't have been able to deal with seeing the rest of his teammates all at once. "Uhm…Thanks, Slippy. I…"
Before Fox could really reply to his friend's shaky-voiced invitation, the toad had already pulled him by the arm out of his apartment.
"S…sure thing," Fox finally managed to mutter, as he stood watching his friend shut the door of his own apartment with a slam.
Still in a sort of trance, the vulpine allowed himself to follow Slippy down the stairs and out of the building, and into an old green car that was in even worse condition than Peppy's. And he let himself climb into the front seat beside his friend. All of this was done without a word except for a small "thanks" at the main apartment entrance door being opened and held.
As Slippy drove, they said very little. Fox shifted nervously. Thoughts ran through his mind. How long had it been since they had last spent time together side to side like this, in car or otherwise? And now, Slippy was inviting him to his home for Christmas, after being ignored, quite rudely so, for three weeks. Fox closed his eyes and sighed.
"Uh, Slippy… I… I'm really… I'm sorry," he said at last.
"Don't worry about it, Fox," Slippy replied softly, with a smile. Simultaneously, the car veered abruptly in order to make the turn that Slippy had almost missed. Once they were back on a straight road and Slippy could let out a breath of relief, he continued to speak.
"Fox… We just want you to be happy, you know."
Fox smiled weakly, his first real smile in a long, long time. At this point, nothing really mattered anymore. He was just glad to be with a friend.
Slippy finally dragged Fox up the stairs of his apartment, panting a bit as they got to his floor. He then dragged the vulpine in front of his doorway, and knocked three times. Before Fox could ask what was going on, the door opened wide.
In the doorway stood Falco holding a cake, and Peppy with a large pot of steaming noodles in his mitted paws. Both had enormous grins on their faces.
"SURPRISE!" all three teammates yelled in synchrony.
"Huh… hey…" Fox let out a small sound of acknowledgement, but otherwise stood frozen in place. There was a split moment of silence as Fox was paralyzed with the shock of the surprise, as well as the awkwardness of remembering how much of a mess his fur, clothes and general personal hygiene were in. He was feeling extremely self-conscious, because he had been neglecting his appearance quite badly for the longest while. At the same time, he also noticed that Peppy was wearing his favorite flannel shirt... inside-out. Furthermore, the hare's pants were stained at the legs by the remnants of some sort of not-too-clean liquid.
Somehow, that made Fox feel just a little more at ease.
"Shoot!" the older hare grumbled, effectively breaking the silence. In his inattention, his paw had jolted, and a sizeable amount of the burning noodle broth had just splashed onto his mittens. Despite his age, he darted speedily back to the dinner table in the living room to set down the pot before worse things could happen. Falco followed suit with the cake.
The diversion gave Fox time to adjust, and also for him to peer into the room from the doorway where he was standing.
He saw the floor still covered in non-negligible traces of pine needles, broken decorations and dust. He stared at the small, lopsided and somewhat pine bare tree taped to a wooden chair by masking tape, whose branches seemed about to crack under the weight of even the few lights and ornaments that had been loaded on. His gaze landed momentarily on the paper Arwing in particular, which hung right in the middle of the tree. A wave of nostalgia came over him, and he couldn't bear to keep looking at it for much longer.
He glanced away from the kitchen as soon as he set eye on it, not daring to look too long because flour and blobs of dough had been slathered all over the counter. He did notice, however, that a coffee machine was standing on top of the mess, humming gently. Fox's attention was then attracted to the dining table, where Falco and Peppy had just put down the cake and noodles. He only now saw that the plain cake was visibly burnt all around the edges of its pan, and furthermore had a hole poked in the middle, revealing lighter-colored dough that didn't seem much more edible than the rest. Also, the pot of noodles consisted in fact of badly bloated instant noodles that were likely to have been overcooked. Beside said pot, there sat a chipped ceramic bowl which was filled to the brim with what appeared to be spaghetti sauce.
In the middle of the table, a deformed, half-used red wax candle was burning. The little ember that it offered cast a warm light over cake, noodles, and spaghetti sauce.
It was all a truly and utterly beautiful scene.
The entire while, the smile on Fox's face grew and grew and grew, until it lit up his entire face with a happy, silly grin. He began to feel very emotional, and tears welled up behind his eyes. But, unlike the tears that he had shed so often in the past few days, they were tears of immense and overwhelming happiness.
"Uh… g-guys… You did all this… for me?" He paused, and wiped his eyes. "It's all… just so beautiful. I… don't know what to say…"
Falco broke the silence, having run back from the table along with Peppy. "It's alright, Fox. You don't have to say anything." The avian's voice was quivering with emotion, something uncommon indeed. He also reached out and put his wing on Fox's shoulder.
"No Christmas is ever complete without our Fox McCloud, after all." Peppy winked at Fox, and pulled him by the arm to lead him from the doorway into the room.
Fox took in a deep breath. He was now standing in the messy living room, where he felt immediately at home and in his place. Slippy had just turned on the lights on the tree, and though a few bulbs were dead, it provided the perfect finishing touch. All three of his teammates were now gathered around him. Slippy's grin was wider than Fox ever thought possible. Falco's usual smirk had been changed into a softened expression that included both overwhelming joy and immense relief. And Peppy was also smiling in his wise, old hare's way. Fox looked each of his teammates in the eye, one after the other – Slippy, Falco, then Peppy, and back again the other way.
"Spending time with you all is truly… the most wonderful Christmas gift I have ever received," Fox said softly. It was a scene that he would remember, forever and always.
Then he laughed, because his three team members had tackled him from all sides, enveloping him in an impromptu group hug. But Slippy had moved too quickly, with too much force, and the vulpine lost balance, falling onto both Peppy and Falco, so that all four toppled to the living room carpet in one big heap. They remained on the floor together like that for quite some time, the sound of their laughter filling every room and closet of the little apartment building.
Fox wouldn't have wanted to spend his Christmas any other way.
Phew. This is literally the longest story I've ever written. It just got longer and longer and longer as I kept working on it. When the story first started off seven years ago, most of the plot was just a chain of random events inserted to be funny. But as I worked on it this time, I wanted to make it… slightly more than that.
So, if you enjoyed this fic (or not), reviews are appreciated (concrit included, please please). Thank you for reading. And don't forget to appreciate the important people in your lives – not just for the holidays, but also during day to day life. ;)