Ch.6
Bonding
Josh woke up from his dream to his alarm clock going off, he had it moved to the living room so he wouldn't wake Krystal, as well as had his clothes all ready for him to put on after his shower. Josh yawned and started to stretch his body and felt a sharp pain in his shoulders. He slightly grunted at the pain, which only intensified. Soon it got to the point he nearly shouted at the pain.
Krystal heard something in the living room and got out of bed, she opened the door to find Josh on his knees, on hand was lying on his shoulder as he hunched over in pain.
"Josh? What's wrong?" She asked, Josh started to breathe fast and heavy before speaking.
"It's my shoulder…I think its cramping up." He said and started to grind his teeth together. Krystal made her way over to him.
"Were exactly does it hurt?" She asked, Josh pointed at the middle of his left shoulder with his finger; Krystal gently placed her hand over the spot and nearly gasped at how tight it was. "Okay, I'll help you…You need to stay calm and try not to move okay…Is this a good shirt to you?" She asked.
"No not really? Why?" He asked and quickly got his answer, Krystal used her sharp nails and slashed at the shirt. "Whoa what the hell are you doing?" Krystal grabbed the shirt and then tore it off.
"Hold still…This is a technique that my mother thought me" She said and started to straddle his butt; she placed her warm furry hands on his shoulders and tenderly yet roughly started to massage them. The pain increased for a moment, but was soon replaced with relaxing feelings. Krystal started to really work into his shoulders, unable to believe that they were hard as a rock. She then used her thumbs and knuckles to really get deep into the tissue.
Josh felt like ten pounds of weight was removed from his body, a soft moan escaped his mouth as he slowly started to close his eyes at the relaxing sensation. Krystal slowly moved away from his shoulders and started to work on his back and lower back and sides. They were just as hard as his shoulder.
'Poor guy.' She thought as she started messaging his sides, 'You must be under a great deal of stress for your body to be this tense.' Krystal lowered her hands to his lower back, just above his crack and used her thumbs to deeply trace circles near his tail bone. If Josh was a dog, he knew for a fact his leg would be shaking like crazy. He nearly fell back asleep feeling his whole body loosen up for once in a while.
"That feels really good." He trailed off as his eyes closed; Krystal smiled and noticed he had fallen back asleep. She noticed how peaceful he looked and it pulled at her heart.
'You seem so at peace, I can only guess that you haven't slept well in a while.' She thought, she started to stroke some of his hair and leaned forward so her lips were next to his ear.
"Sweet dreams." She said and grabbed a blanket from the couch and covered him up. Before she left she placed her hand on his cheek. She might have just met him, but she could sense he was a good and kind person. The pain he must be feeling, no one this kind should have to suffer by it. Krystal gently stroked his cheek and then stood and walked off.
Josh woke up later on the floor, for once he woke up feeling refreshed and energetic. He turned his head around to look at his clock which said '9:45 A.M' His eyes went wide and he jumped up.
"Fuck!" He shouted and ran to change his clothes, he didn't have time for a shower; he was already late enough. As he got dressed he noticed a note that said.
'Sorry didn't want to wake you, you looked really peaceful also for the communicator, I need some Soldier equipment, and I had to check the internet of your phone. Sorry for using your phone without permission, but I needed to know if this place had anything like that. Also I need some wire cutters, and electric tape…I went over to Ms. Evergreen's place to help her move a few things…Krystal'
Josh stuffed the note into his military pants and quickly grabbed his boots and put them on. He grabbed his car keys and ran out the door and into his car.
"Hey Josh." A female voice called out, Josh made it to his car and quickly looked over to find Krystal in her human disguise sitting on the steps with Ms. Evergreen.
"Can't talk sorry, see you later!" He said and got into his car and drove off. Krystal turned her attention back to the elder woman and the two started talking.
Josh quickly punched in his work building and made his way to his office, he opened his door a little, when suddenly a hand was placed on the door and slammed it shut, Josh looked over to find Major Thornton standing there. Josh sighed.
"Yeah, Yeah I know I'm late, I just have a lot of stuff going on right now." He said.
"Boy I don't give a shit what you have going on." He replied.
"So what now? Are you going to make me stay another extra four hours without pay?" Josh asked, Thornton smirked.
"Let me guess boy, you think because you're young that you think you know everything there is to know about life and its struggles don't you?" He asked, Josh shook his head.
"I didn't say that at all...I didn't even come close to saying that"
"Let me tell you something punk, I've seen the real life…I've been to war." He said, Josh laughed and suddenly had a boost of anger flare up inside of him.
"War? I've read your reports Major, you sat on the sidelines and took your little pictures…You might have seen war, but you sure as hell haven't been in it…I've stood at the front lines of firefights, I've watched men die, I held a gun and fired it…I've killed, and you haven't…I might be young, but I've had death staring me in the face, and he's the one that blinked…You are nothing put a pencil pusher compared to me…Bitch."
Major Thornton was babbled at what Josh had just said to him, never had any one of lower rank talked to him so disrespectfully, he was about to open his mouth when suddenly.
"My office, now Private Grant." Col. Ryan called out. The two men looked over to the Col. Josh lowered his head slightly and walked off with the Col. Josh sat down on the chair in front of the desk as Col. Ryan closed the door and walked over to his desk
"I don't like Thornton either son, but what you said was very disrespectful to a fellow Soldier." He said with a disappointing tone.
"I know Sir." Josh said and forced his eyes to look at the Col. "I didn't mean what I said, it's just that…I've been having a very, very bad week Sir…And Thornton just added on to it and I couldn't keep it in." Ryan crossed his arms and leaned into his chair.
"You think you've had a bad week son? Mine is going much worse that you can imagine." He said, Josh wanted to say something, but Col. Ryan has been real nice to him the last two days and the last thing he wanted to do was ruin whatever friendship they had.
"You remind me a lot about myself son, which is way I'm only suspending you for two weeks." He said, Josh nodded, "Now go home." Josh stood from the chair and saluted the Col. He then walked out of the office, out of the building and into his car.
Josh pulled up to his apartment a few hours later, He placed his head on the steering wheel and sighed loudly. He stayed that way for a few moments before walking out of the car with the things Krystal had asked for. He opened the front door and walked into his home.
"I'm home." He said, Krystal was watching TV in his bedroom, she turned the TV off and walked to the living room to find him sitting on the couch, she felt her ears lower.
"What happened?" She asked and slowly walked up to him, He shook his head and handed her the bag of tools she asked for, and she couldn't help but read his mind.
"I'm sorry about your job Josh." She said, Josh looked at her and scuffed.
"Will you stay out of my damn head you fucking Alien!" He shouted and quickly stood up, "Here's your shit, hurry up and get the fuck off of my planet." He said more quietly tossing the things she asked for at her feet and walked into his room. Krystal's ears and Tail were as low as they could go now.
It had been a few hours since Josh came home, he had stayed in his room the whole time staring at a picture of Amanda.
'This is your entire fucking fault!' Krystal heard Josh shouting in his mind, she looked over at the closed door and slowly approached it.
'Why did you leave me like that Amanda?' He thought as he held the picture, 'I loved you so much, and you just left me all alone…How you could do that to me?' He then sat the picture down and suddenly brought his fist to it, shattering the glass and slicing his hand.
Krystal quickly barged in after hearing the sound, she looked over at Josh who was holding a bloodied hand with tears rolling down his face, he looked up at Krystal and she felt her heart break for him, no one would know just what he was going through, other than her. She felt her own tears start to roll down her face and she quickly approached him and hugged him. As she did she felt him stiffen up.
"Krystal please let go of me." He said, his heart broken voice only made her hold him tighter, she felt him trying to shove her away, but she wouldn't let him succeed. She was going to hug him, to let him know he's not alone, to let him know she's the shoulder that's there for him to cry on.
"Please let me go." He cried, full on crying now, nonstop tears were coming out and he sobbed onto her shoulder and wrapped his arms around her and squeezed with great force, it was such a crushing hug that she was starting to want him to let go. But she didn't say it, she couldn't even dream about ruining this moment. It wasn't until she remembered that his hand was cut that she pulled away to look at it, the floor and the shirt she wore were stained red.
"That's really bad, we need to get you a doctor." She said and walked over to the couch and grabbed her flight suit, she zipped it on and pushed a button on her wrist-com and morphed into her human form. She quickly approached Josh and helped him out of the room and out of the apartment.
The doctor finished stitching up Josh's hand in two places, between his middle and ring finger was the worst one, and a smaller one on his index finger. The Doctor then grabbed some bandages and wrapped his hand in them.
"Now the larger cut was really deep, it seemed as if it might have damaged the nerve, so don't be surprise to find that you might lose a bit of feeling or mobility, it's only temporary, as long as you don't use your hand for a few weeks then everything should heal up nicely." He said.
"So are we done?" He asked, the Doctor nodded.
"Let me get the release forms." He then turned to Krystal. "I hope you don't mind but, you may need to be the one to sign the release forms for him." He said and walked off.
'I'm sorry for what I said to you Krystal.' She heard Josh say in his mind.
'It's okay Josh.'
'No its not, I should never have said something so horrible to you, someone so kind and lovely and beautiful.' Krystal blushed and turned to him.
'You think I'm beautiful?' She asked.
'Of course you are, and I'm not talking about your disguise…I'm sorry, my brain is a bit loopy from the morphine and my emotions are kind of unbalanced so…Sorry if I'm making you uncomfortable.' Krystal laughed a little and walked up to him.
"I think you are very good looking as well…For a human." She smiled, Josh rolled his eyes and smiled back at her, there it was…The look in his eyes, he was so much like Fox, yet he was so different. The Doctor came in and handed Krystal the release sheet, she took the pen and wrote down a random girl name.
"All right, you can take him home now…Jessica." The Doctor said and walked off.
"Jessica?" Josh asked with a raised eyebrow, Krystal shrugged her shoulders.
"It just popped into my head." She said and helped Josh out of the bed. The two made their way out of the hospital and into his car, it didn't take long for the Vixen to learn how to drive.
"Can I ask you something?" Josh asked.
"Of course, anything." She said.
"Your…Your my friend right?" He asked and stared out the window, Krystal quickly looked at him.
"Yes I'm your friend." She said.
"What should I do about Amanda?" He asked, "I still love her, yet…I hate her too. Even if the kid is mine…I don't think I want to be with her, not even for the kid…Does that make me a bad person?" He asked and looked at Krystal, they pulled up to a red light and she turned her face to look at him. She shook her head.
"She's caused you a lot of pain…She would be the bad person to ask you to stay." She said and noticed the light turned green. She started to drive off and made a turn.
"You said you were engaged once, what happened?" He asked, Krystal quietly sighed, He was sharing a lot with her about his loss, and she might as well tell him too.
"His name was…Fox." She said nearly cringing at saying his name out loud for the first time in two years, "Fox McCloud, leader of the Space Mercenaries called Starfox, you could kind of consider us to be militarized government special forces, while we didn't work for the Lylat government, we sure as hell did a lot of jobs for them. Saved the galaxy and got paid for it, you know how Mercenaries are." She took a deep breath and continued.
"The first time I met Fox…He saved me from a crystal prison that was sucking the life out of me, later I joined the Starfox team and was a member for five years, one day he proposed and I said yes…I had really fallen In love with him, and one day…He just ended it, no reason other than because of the job. Knowing that the man I loved just ruined my life was killing me. So one night I left, without telling anyone. I jumped into my Arwing and flew away." They pulled up to the apartment, "Two years later I was sent to hunt down two murderous Gortons, I killed one of them, but the other damaged my ship, I was forced to enter Slip space to the nearest galaxy was yours or Lylat, I chose yours…My ship died upon entering the Earths atmosphere and…You know the rest." She said and quickly left the car and made her way inside, trying to hide the tears. She had gone so long without talking about Fox to another soul and now finally talking about him out loud was just too much for her to handle.
Josh quickly chased after her inside the apartment; she had turned her disguise off. She felt Josh's hand grab her arm, she turned around to look at him and he placed his other hand on her other arm and pulled her close. She looked into his dark brown eyes and noticed him leaning down to her and before she knew it, his lips were touching hers. She quickly inhaled through her nose when their lips touched. Her eyes were wide opened, her mind was racing with millions of thoughts and her heart was racing just as fast, she felt his hands move to her back pulling her closer to him, she could feel his body heat through the flight suit.
Krystal suddenly forgot about everything bad that had happened to her, the thought of Fox was replaced by Josh, she closed her eyes and leaned into his kiss, placing her hands on his chest. This was her first kiss in two years, she had almost forgotten what it felt like to have someone's lips pressed against hers. She felt him pull away from her breaking the kiss much too soon, she opened her eyes and noticed his were half open.
"Good night." He said hazily and stumbled over to the couch and collapsed on it, Krystal could still feel like his lips against hers, she could feel her cheeks getting warm and she quickly walked into the bed room.
Krystal turned the light off and tried to go to sleep; but what had just occurred had kept her up for an hour before she was able to fall asleep.
And there's the next two chapters. sorry for short authors notes but I have stuff that has to be done soon. please read and review, reviews keep me inspired to continue to write for you guys. all right see yah Monday.