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Gamer-fox91-Don't know if you got my reply or not but if you didn't, thanks for the message it meant a lot and yes you can use them if you want to.

got nothing else to talk about, enjoy the next two chapters.

Ch. 21

A Slippy Reunion

Krystal watched as Fox made his way to her. Behind him were Peppy, Slippy and Falco. Fox was wearing what looked like dark blue pants and dark grey nearly the color of black metal boots. He had a red shirt and an unzipped jacket over it. The jacket's torso was brown and the sleeves were black. Fox was now standing ten feet away from her. Krystal gulped and slowly moved away from Josh, her fingers gently slipped through his hand.

"Fox." She said.

"Hi Krystal." He replied, then there was silence. Ryan noticed how awkward the situation was and decided to break the ice by loudly clearing his throat.

"Greetings, and welcome to Earth." Ryan said and approached Fox with his hand held out to shake. It took Fox a second to snap out of his idle stare with Krystal. Fox managed to look at the human that towered over him by a foot. Fox reached his hand out and shook Ryan's, "I'm Col. Joseph Ryan."

"Hi…Fox McCloud, leader of the Mercenary group called Star Fox." Fox pointed to his teammates. "This is Peppy Hair, our mechanical expert. And Slippy Toad our weapons specialist and lastly this is Falco Lombardi an Ace pilot...Our last member is in the bridge of our Star Cruiser called The Great Fox, his a bashful character so forgive him for not showing." As Fox called out each member of the team Ryan went up and shook their hand. Afterwards Ryan placed a hand on Josh's shoulder.

"This here is Joshua Grant; he's the young man who has been watching over Krystal the two months she was here." Suddenly Fox's ears flickered.

"Two months?" He asked and looked at Krystal, "I thought you were here for a few days." He said.

"No…It took me two months to get the communicator working." She said, Fox nodded and then looked over at Josh who stood a few inches taller than him. Fox held out his hand. Josh was a bit hesitant at first; Krystal gently laid a hand on his back. Josh breathed deeply and shook the Vulpine's hand.

"You have my thanks." Fox said.

"Don't mention it." He said and removed his hand from Fox and brought it down to his side. Ryan then spoke back up.

"How long do you plan on staying?" Ryan asked, Fox looked at the Col.

"Until Krystal is ready I would think." He said.

"Well then, I'm sure you all must be tired from your long journey, we have rooms available if you like." Ryan said. Fox shook his head.

"We have our own rooms aboard the Great Fox…But thanks for you offer" Fox replied.

"Well then…I'm sure we can finish this conversation later today." Ryan said and then started to walk off as did everyone else. Fox noticed Krystal quickly walking away and in a sudden fling of emotion he called out to her.

"Krystal." She paused and slowly turned around to look at him, "Its…It's good to see you." He said. Krystal lowered her gaze and walked away.

'Wish I could say the same.' She thought to herself and walked away. Fox's ears and tail lowered a little, once the humans and vixen left, Fox turned to his team.

"Let's get some sleep guys." He said and walked passed them and into the Great Fox's hanger.

Josh and Krystal made their way to the log cabin style hallway; Krystal was quiet the whole time. Josh placed a hand on her shoulder.

"Are you okay?" He asked, Krystal didn't look at him when she answered.

"I'm very tired…I just want to go to bed." She said, Josh nodded.

"Okay…Let's go to bed then." Suddenly Krystal used her hand to remove Josh's off of her shoulder.

"Alone Josh…I'm going to bed alone." She said and walked over to the door that lead to her room, the one she hadn't used yet. She pushed the push pad and the door opened, she walked in and closed the door, leaving Josh out in the hall way alone.

Josh had awoken in his room several hours later. He stared up at the wooden ceiling for a few seconds before yawning and then wiping the sleep from his eyes. He turned over to see that he was alone in the bed, alone in the room. He had hoped that Krystal would come back to the room later, but he wasn't surprised that she didn't. He let out a sigh and got off of the bed and made his way over to the dresser. He pulled out a pair of clothes that were not that surprisingly the same as the ones he had been wearing. White t-shirt and white pants. He would have to have a talk with Ryan about getting some new clothes. He wouldn't want to travel across space wearing these.

Josh put the clean clothes on and looked over at the clock on the wall; the digital clock was the only thing in the room that didn't match. The time said it was 5:43 PM, he wasn't surprised how late in the day he had slept, he didn't go to sleep until 10 AM. Josh turned away from the clock and made his way to the sliding door. The mechanical doors slid open and Josh made his way down the hall, however he stopped at Krystal's door. He wasn't too sure if she was in there or not and didn't know if knocking was a good idea, what if she wanted to be alone and didn't want to see him? What if she was alone and really needed him by her side?

He lifted his hand and was about to knock but stopped himself. He lowered his hand and looked away from the door and continued to walk down the hallway to the elevator. The Elevator doors opened before he got to the door and noticed a small 4'9 Frog stepping out, wearing a yellowish/orange jumpsuit and a red and white cap. They were both a tad startled when they saw each other. Slippy placed his hand over his heart and shook his head.

"Nearly scared me to death." The frog said in his high pitch voice. Josh was caught completely off guard by Slippy's voice and had started to think he was a girl.

"I'm sorry Ms." He replied, Slippy started to frown and looked embarrassed.

"I'm a guy." He said. Josh instantly went wide eyed.

"Oh…I'm so sorry…" He started to say but Slippy cut him off.

"I know, it's the voice…Falco teases me about it sometimes." Josh started to scratch the back of his head and was quickly trying to think of a subject changer, and then he figured that seeing how Slippy was up here, then maybe he was looking for Krystal.

"So ah…Are you looking for Krystal?" He asked, Slippy started to nod his head and mentally thanked the human for changing the topic.

"Yes, is she awake? I would very much like to talk to her before everyone else gets too."

"Well to be honest I'm not sure if she's awake or not…Or If she's even in her room. But you can try and see. She's the first door on the right." Slippy thanked Josh and walked past him. Josh turned his attention back to the elevator and got in, the doors closed and the elevator went down.

Slippy made his way to the first door on the right and looked at the metal door. He took a second to take a deep breath. This would be the first time in two years that he would have talked to her, he hopped she would want to talk to him. If she had a problem with Fox, surely it would only be towards him and not the other team members. Slippy stood straight and knocked on the door. He waited patiently for a few moments before knocking again and waiting some more. No one answered; Slippy narrowed his brows and knocked one last time. When the results turned out to be just like the last two times he figured she wasn't in there and started to walk off. Suddenly the sliding doors slid open.

"Josh?!" Krystal called out and ran into the hallway, she then noticed Slippy. He saw how her face looked when she called out for the human that had been keeping her safe, he couldn't really describe it, the best he could make of it was that she was really hopping the human was there. When she noticed Slippy that face quickly changed to one of disappointment. Slippy then started to wonder if there was more to Krystal's and the human's relationship then he originally thought.

"Sorry, just me." Slippy said and then pointed to the elevator down the hall, "The human had just went down the elevator.

"Oh…So I guess you were the one knocking?" She asked.

"Well yes." He said, Krystal nodded and looked like she might go back into her room, Slippy quickly approached her.

"Krystal…I was wondering if maybe…We could talk…You know between old friends?" He asked her. Krystal looked at the frog for a few seconds before nodding.

"Yeah sure…Do you want to come in?" She asked and moved away from the door a little. Slippy said yes and the two entered. They sat down on the chairs and looked at each other.

"So, how are you Slippy?" She asked him, Slippy smiled.

"I'm doing well, what about you Krystal?" He asked. She brought her hands together and placed them on her lap.

"I'm good…Considering." He knew she was talking about Fox.

"You know…When we heard your distress call, Fox ordered us to drop what we were doing and to get to Earth as fast as possible…I know you two ending things badly…" He was suddenly interrupted by Krystal.

"Can we not talk about me and Fox?" She asked and looked at Slippy with a bit of annoyance, "I want to hear about how you've been Slippy." She said. Slippy gently smiled and gave a slight nod.

"Sure thing Krystal, anything you'd specifically want to talk about?" He asked, Krystal shook her head no.

"Let's just talk…Whatever pops into our head." Slippy nodded in agreement and then started to wonder about her and the human.

"The human that saved you…" He was cut off when Krystal immediately called out Josh's name, in case he didn't remember.

"Ah yes, Josh…If you don't mind me asking Krystal…Is there something between you two?" He asked and noticed Krystal raise a brow.

"What makes you think there is something between Josh and me?" Slippy shrugged his shoulders.

"Just the way you looked when you thought he was knocking at your door." Krystal frowned a little; she wanted to apologize to him for last night. She had woken up that morning severely missing his presence. She hopped she hadn't hurt his feelings, she just wanted to be alone so she could be with her thoughts, surly he would understand that right?

"To be honest Slippy, Josh has been a very good person to me. It wasn't just that he saved my life. He took care of me at his own risk; he listened to me when we talked, when we are near each other I just feel so…Protected, like he would do anything to keep me safe." Krystal suddenly thought back to where he took three darts of tranquilizer when Ryan's men came for them. He nearly died, and he did it to try to save her. "When we are near each other I feel wanted, I love that feeling Slippy. I love the feeling of being wanted. I love it that I can talk to him, I love it that I can be next to him, that I can look at him and be with him. I love it when he holds me tight, it's like he's afraid that I'll disappear if he lets go…I love it when he kisses me."

And there was the answer to Slippy's question. He then noticed how happy she looked when she talked about the human, it made his heart swell with joy that his old friend was happy.

"I know he cares about me, and I care about him a lot." She said and tried to cover up her blushing cheeks. Slippy smiled and leaned forward and took ahold of Krystal's hands. He looked her in the eyes and smiled.

"If I didn't know any better Krystal, I would say that you might be in love with him." Krystal chuckled at Slippy's words. Love? Sure she loved him, but in love. She didn't really know how she felt, ever since Fox showed up her emotions have been all over the place. Suddenly Krystal started to think what if Josh was in love with her, could he? What if she couldn't return his love? She knew if he was in love with her and if she couldn't love him back, it would hurt him. All because Fox had to show up and stir up old feelings. Not only had the Vulpine ruined her life, but now there might be a chance that he would ruin Josh's as well.

Suddenly her anger started to flare up, she couldn't hurt Josh. It would kill her to know she caused him any emotional pain. She knew that he sometimes still thought of Amanda, he was still emotionally hurt by what happened. If she rejected his love…She wouldn't be able to face him ever again.

'Whoa, whoa hold up.' She thought, 'that's only if he loves you…If you want to know just ask him.' Krystal then looked back at Slippy.

"Thanks for the talk Slippy…But I need to go find Josh. There are something's I need to talk to him about." Slippy tilted his head a little to the side.

"Okay, sure thing Krystal." He said and the two stood from the chairs and started to walk out of the room.

"It's been really good to see you again Slippy." She said with a smile. The frog looked up at her and smiled back.

"It's good to see you too." He said, and then they walked into the elevator.