Chapter 14 – Fixing Fixations

The next day was tense and strange. Wolf paced the empty quiet halls of his neglected mansion on a hill far away from Fox, separated with miles of dense forests. He drank his coffee and read his morning briefs alone, feeling like a stranger in his own home. Fox tossed and turned in his sheets and rubbed his face and turned again, stretching diagonally, trying to fill the king sized bed with himself. Wolf stood on his third floor balcony and watched the sun rise over the megalopolis and thought about the business he had today.

"I want her and this senator at these tables," Olivia directed to Cecilia who poked around a holographic image of a mess hall. "And move Senator Tyne up to the front. Wolf? Do you think this is a good arrangement now?"

Wolf stared through the image, at the floating icons, names, stats. "Yes. I think that'll be fine."

"Excellent. I'm really pleased. I'm excited this is going to finally happen," Olivia beamed to Cecilia who grinned back, elated she was also personally helping the Chancellor of Corneria, as well as Wolf. "Cecilia, how's catering coming?"

"A-plus so far! I've arranged the best services in Lylat, a catering company from Zoness. They'll definitely add some pizzazz and excitement for our guests."

Olivia laughed, "As long as it's nothing too over the top."

"Oh no, it should be a blast."

Wolf put down his tablet. "If you'll excuse me," and he found himself pacing out of the room with the Chancellor and his assistant watching him, confused and perplexed.

"I've tried calling him," Fox said to Falco, pacing, circling furniture, pulling at the fur on his arms. "I've left messages trying to explain the situation, but the network tells me they get deleted before even being opened." He stopped. "Why won't he talk to me!"

Falco sat on the couch and rested his arms on his knees. "Well. And I don't know much about guy on guy drama, but to be honest, it sounds like you really screwed up."

"But we didn't do anything! It was—I don't know—Lance was just—"

"I know I know, but it doesn't matter. It's what he saw. Now here's what I think." He lit a cigarette. "We need to all pull ourselves together. We've got that huge interplanetary conference thing above Zoness and we all gotta be professional for it."

"I am being professional! It's Wolf who isn't talking to me."

"We can't let petty stuff like this split us up. If we don't keep ourselves together the whole thing's gonna fall apart. Now I can try and talk to Wolf if that's what you want. I mean for the sake of making sure this meeting is cordial." He watched the smoke rise to the ceiling of the room, thinking of how pissed Katt would be if she were home.

"No, you don't have to talk to him," Fox said dejectedly.

Falco shook his head. "I'm telling ya. We're in the wrong jobs here. We're fighters. We belong up there. I mean, Katt's shedding and losing her mind. She's been back and forth to Macbeth and Zoness organizing, speaking, and Wolf, well Wolf, he's been working real hard too. He's under a lot of stress. And what happened was the last thing he needed to see."

Fox sat across from Falco and dropped his head. He rubbed his muzzle. "How am I going to fix this."

"Ladies and gentlemen of Macbeth!" The heavily decorated mole stood on a podium above thousands of moles in a massive blue quarry. His uniform was covered with ornate jewels and gold trimming. He sparkled above the sea of moles with dirty faces and the whites of their eyes looked upward with excitement. "Change is coming to our great planet! The Great Planet of Corneria will support us in our troubled times of division! Unity is coming! Stability is coming! A Macbeth perched high in a Lylatian Confederacy will bring us prosperity! I give you! The Ambassador of the Great Planet of Corneria! Katterina Monroe!" He threw his arms up.

The roar of thousands swelled from the quarry like the deafening rush of a waterfall, and a small pink feline with silver hair carefully approached the balcony overlooking the ocean of moles and the avalanche of cheering.

"What am I getting myself into," she muttered, then grinned and threw her arms up.

Wolf folded his tablet into the small square and put it in his uniform pocket. His boots clicked across the hard top of the Government Plaza's lot and he sighed at the familiar sight of his car. A voice called to him from a distance.

"Wolf! Wolf wait!" Tinny and bright, but desperate.

Wolf turned and saw a young deer dashing towards him across the maze of parked hovercars. "Wolf!" He skipped and squeezed between cars, making L-shapes through the lot.

Wolf stood frozen and watched the deer approach. It was Lance, and not in his typical lab coat. He thought of what he wanted to say to him… or do. He decided to keep walking.

"Wolf! Please I'm just a stupid young fool who doesn't know what he wants. Please! It was me! He didn't do anything! It was all me!"

Wolf opened his car door and stopped. "I don't have time for this Lance. We both have jobs. We have higher priorities."

"Well I don't. Not anymore at least."

Wolf stared blankly, not comprehending.

"I got fired," Lance said.

"Oh. So you thought you'd go get some pity sex from Fox?" Wolf turned to get into his car.

Lance made a short defensive nervous laugh. "No. Look, that wasn't the case. How can I explain. I mean, I was actually coming there looking for you, if that means anything."

Wolf turned. "You were?"

"Of course I was! I liked you! When I gave you the tour of the new ship I couldn't look away from you. I like you Wolf."

He shook his head. "Then why—I don't understand."

"I was upset and I hate that I threw myself at Fox. It was just… something there. But please you gotta believe me that nothing happened. I don't want to be the home-wrecker that ruined you guys. You two were meant for each other. I like you, but you were meant for him."

Wolf studied the deer and then looked elsewhere, contemplating.

"He loves you," Lance said. "He only wants you."

"Alright alright, just shutup for a minute."

The deer straightened up.

"So how do we even this up?" Wolf asked. "How do I get even with him?" He studied the deer's gentle gold eyes, but thinking about Fox. He thought of Fox's grin, his hands on his shoulders, kneading, his body, his humor.

Lance looked around the herd of parked cars, uncomfortable with Wolf's silence.

Wolf looked where Lance did, then grabbed the skinny deer's collar and pulled him close, sniffing him for a second and then pressing his lips to his, quickly, then falling softly, tilting, sneaking a tongue, getting a taste of what Fox got. Lance for a moment grabbed an arm, then a shoulder, then pushed himself back.

"What are you doing?!"

"There. Now what more do I have to do to be even with him?" He smirked and adjusted his eyepatch.

"Even with who?!"

"With Fox."

Lance laughed shortly. "What is this, a competition? You guys have kind of a twisted thing going on don't you? Or do you both find me that hot?"

"We've always had a love-hate relationship." He thought upward. "Well, more so hate-love. And yes to the latter. You're nice."

The deer blinked.

"So what else?" Wolf glanced downward, feeling a strange mix of desire and rage.

Lance shifted. "I don't know—that's really it. Really."

Wolf sighed and grabbed Lance by the arms. "Look me in the eye and say that." He glared into the frightened deer's eyes.

Lance was afraid what the wolf would do next, bite his face off, or kiss him again. "That's all that happened. You're even." He didn't look away once.

Wolf studied him closely, and took a moment to think, feeling satisfied, yet not. "Well then, have a nice day Lance." He sat into the car seat, adjusted his coat at the knee and shut the door.

The deer stepped back and watched the hovercar rumble to a start and zip off toward the skyway above. His rushing adrenaline faded and he recalled fondly the feeling of Wolf's lips. Then Fox's. Comparing the two, and decided who was better.

Fox spooned his cold Udon soup and lowered the holoscreen's volume and glanced back at the magazine article in his lap about Wolf, Olivia, and politics.

He was lonely. He fumbled with the couch cushion, where Lance had lay hours before, looking for something warm. His claw tightened and he tore a small hole in the cushion, angry now that he was getting angry. His communicator beeped and he buried himself in the couch and opened it, wedging it between his ear and a pillow.

"What is it."

"Fox? It's Slippy. Have I got great news!"

Fox bristled at the toad's squelching and he sat up. A multitude of angry words and statements were bubbling on his tongue, but all that came out was, "Yes?"

"The Great Fox II is going to be ready for her maiden voyage before the Lylat Unity Conference! That means the team, and Olivia and her cabinet can fly to Zoness on it. It'll be great publicity! And very symbolic for the future of our team!"

Fox's eyes rolled back, looking up at the orange hair scattering into his view, not really hearing. The future of the team wasn't important to him. He wanted to kill Slippy at the present moment. Wolf wasn't talking to him. Peppy quit. What else could go wrong? Falco, the only other friend of theirs without any obligation, maybe he'd run off and find something new for himself. Fox always pictured him as an actor, probably for his dramatic moments.

"That's great Slippy."

"It's in a week? Three four PX is the date right? That's a week."

"Yup."

"Great! We can definitely make it by then. Media is gonna go nuts over this!"

"Oh good. Just what I want to see. Media."

"You sound like shit. What is it."

"I sound like shit because you fired someone for getting fresh with you."

"What?"

"You know what I'm talking about."

"Lance."

"Lance. It might have been rash, but that's Lance. The professional response would have been to politely inform him you're not interested and that he got the wrong message. Not fire one of your best designers."

"Why is he important to you?"

"Because he is. You wouldn't have fired him if he was a woman."

"That's different."

"Like shit it is."

"Fox. He came onto me. He threw himself at me."

"So you push him away and laugh about it later, not freak out. You hurt him. And you've insulted me in the process."

"Didn't know I was knocking on a bee hive here. What do you want me to do? Re-hire him? We're practically done with the ship. He's getting his severance. One million credits."

"Money isn't important here."

"So re-hire him?"

"Yeah. You've got other shit he could work on."

Slippy sighed. "Fine. It's done."

"An apology wouldn't hurt either."

There was hesitation. "Alright. I'm sorry I fired your gay friend. It was unnecessary."

"Thank you." Fox melted back into the couch and smiled. "Apology accepted."

Max Deveron entered the double doors of the space hotel's main function hall with his security team, scoping out the grounds and analyzing how to organize the security detail for the conference. The room was expansive, the size of a city block with long large bay windows and a clear dome with a starry view above. Balconies circled and layered the edge of the large oval shaped cavern.

"Here it is!" bellowed the tall strongly build white shark, leading in Max and his team. His voice echoed. "This room holds a capacity of 2,000 persons. There are fifteen different entrances and exits. All of that will be clear in the schematics."

"Thanks." Max made a quick circle looking around. The other feline security and military personnel studied the balconies and scrutinized the hundreds of round tables and small chairs and the large elevated speaking platform at the head of the room.

"Oh look. Here comes Zoness," the shark said, pointing out the largest bay window. A blue-green planet, mostly ocean, slowly drifted into the view of the windows. Max could make out island chains where clouds didn't obscure the oceans. He quickly recognized the long chain of the Tigrinian Islands. Somewhere far down there, sat Xavier Zan. The tiger terrorist could be solely interested in peace for this conference, or he might be analyzing the very same space hotel for opportunities to turn a meeting of unity into a meeting of chaos.

"Our planet sure is a gem," the shark continued. "Certainly our beaches rival those of Corneria."

Max stepped through the sea of tables and chairs, inspecting each one at random. "I'm sure." His comm. device on his belt beeped and he retrieved it.

"Deveron here."

"Max!" It was Olivia's voice. The feline security and military personnel straightened up at the sound of the Chancellor's familiar high punchy voice. "How's the hotel look in person? As grand as it does on screen?"

The shark raised his chin and smiled in admiration of his palace.

"Oh yeah. It's something. I think this will be perfect. I'm sure after reviewing the schematics and then getting the CSO to review security as well. We should be in top shape."

"Excellent. I want you and your team to rendezvous with Katt on Macbeth. She's been exhausting herself with diplomatic meetings and appearances all day. Come back to Corneria with her tonight."

"Understood."

Wolf pulled up to Fox's mansion and when he reached the gate, it automatically opened, recognizing his car. He felt somewhat relieved Fox hadn't locked him completely out. He hadn't announced his visit. Decided to surprise him again, hopefully not with the same results as last time.

"Wolf!" Fox said standing in the doorway after hearing the bell.

"I thought I'd stop by."

"Yeah. Yeah I'm glad to see you. It was torture not being able to see you. Come in. Look I'm sorry. I don't know if you got my hundred messages. But I'm sorry. I'm a terrible person and a terrible mate."

Wolf shook his head. "Fox stop. I talked to Lance and I understand now. Things are fine now. I don't want us to be fighting about this anymore."

"You did?" Fox landed on the couch and gestured for Wolf to join. "What did he say?"

"We worked things out. He doesn't like you like that."

"Oh. He doesn't? Good. That simplifies things." Fox hid the slivers of deep down disappointment. Not for wanting to be with Lance, but just for the simple vanity of being appreciated by another person.

"Really I just got a taste of what you got," Wolf said in a cool oily tone.

"I don't understand. What are you saying?"

"I'm saying we're even. He does taste nice." His eyes narrowed.

"You… kissed him?"

Wolf smirked and shrugged. "I see the appeal now. I mean he is nice."

Fox closed his eyes and his head made a slight shake. "Why. Why did you do that?"

"Because you did."

"I... That was different."

"How?"

"It just. Well Wolf. I made a wrong, and I righted it by apologizing and not doing it again. And you just did it. Two wrongs don't fix—"

"I see this as perfectly fair! You lured a young soaking wet deer into this house and straddled him and kissed him. And so I—"

"That's why you're here? You came here to tell me you kissed Lance to get back at me?"

"Yeah. So we don't have to fight anymore, sweetheart," Wolf said coldly. He plopped down on the couch next to Fox who stiffened up and pulled away.

Fox thought and contemplated; maybe he did deserve this, and had no right to argue. Why did Wolf have to still hold competitions between them? It's like they were back 8 years ago, always trying to outdo each other. "Alright fine. I understand. I deserve it I guess."

"Now. Do you still want to fight about this? Or move on and just accept the fact we have now both kissed Lance and enjoyed it."

Fox cringed. "Fine. Yes. We can move on. I just want you again."

"Good." He clamored over Fox til he straddled his lap, much in the same way Fox did to Lance. Fox ignored the familiarity and pulled Wolf down, still feeling a sense of anger at him, but drowning it out with unrestrained passion.

A little bit of the old vengeful Wolf bubbled up here.