Author's note: This was my entry for the Foxhole's 2024 Valentine's Day contest. The original had to be edited to fit the 3000 word limit at the time, so this one is the full unedited version of the story, mistakes and all, the way I wanted to tell it. Enjoy!

Hustle and bustle. A phrase used to describe the underlying active life and movement in a dense urban area. And in the densest urban area of all, the practical religious motto of Corneria City was "hustle and bustle".

Fox didn't have a chance to see any of that moving life, however. Instead, pulled by his father tightly clutching his hands, he was forced to keep pace with the older vulpine on his short legs. While he tried to keep up, whatever was bothering his father didn't matter only one bit to Fox, as Corneria City's urban megapolis jungle called to him.

He didn't get out much anymore after the funeral.

Finally, the pulling stopped, and Fox looked up to see his father, with his classic black shades forever hiding his eyes, looking into something on his wrist. A small holographic display popped up from the wrist, and whatever it said made his father mad, judging by how hard he squeezed Fox's hand at that moment.

"Ow, daaaad!" Fox whined. His father's grip immediately weakened as he let go of Fox, slightly flinching back in surprise at his own involuntary action.

"Oh stars, Fox!" his father said. "Are you okay?"

Fox brought his arm back and rubbed the sore spot where his wrist was squeezed. "I'm fiiiiine…"

Fox's whine snapped James out of his focus, and he suddenly realized where they were standing. Species of all colors and shapes ducked and weaved around them as they accidentally stood in front of a park entrance, somewhat blocking the way as some of the parents of energetic kids glared and stared in confusion at them. One husky father stared so hard James could have sworn he was hired to do so.

He activated his wrist com to double-check his message, and the reply made him angry once again. This time he tried to mute his anger since he no longer could accidentally crush his son's arm.

Pigma was gonna be late. Again. At this point, he doesn't even know why he keeps hiring that fat pig for his jobs. He should have retired the moment everything now relied on him, the moment when she-

A vulpine's internal instincts can tell him a lot even if he consciously doesn't realize it. Something triggered James enough to reach around with his hands, and not feeling his kit's hand, he turned around to see Fox gone. A quick glance around, and a sudden and deep fear took hold of James.

"Dad!"

The familiar voice of Fox broke through the crowd, catching and directing the older vulpine's ears. James turned in the direction of his ears to see Fox on a nearby bench, climbing up to a small flower that was blooming on a designated small puddle raised behind the bench.

"Look dad! It's a lotus!" Fox pointed out, the water lily blooming ever so slightly in its small cubicle of murky water, meant to cultivate the flower first before it would be transplanted to the pond a little behind the park bench in the distance.

His fear subsiding, James sensed the usual hustle and bustle passed him and his son. The park they somehow ended up stopping at was now in relative quiet and silence. It wasn't lost on him when things got quiet and a lotus was around…

"Yeah bud, yeah it is…" James sighed, walking up to his son with a more relaxed gait than when he left the house. He could see Fox hyperfocus on the flower, and his lips mouthed out several numbers; Fox was probably counting the infamously large number of petals that a lotus flower could have.

She loved lotus flowers. The scientist in her was absolutely fascinated by how they could regulate their own temperatures as a plant, but the more hidden wild spirit part of hers loved how each flower grew their own petals in a unique pattern, never the same. Fox knew both of these things about her, of course, and so soon after the funeral, it was no wonder to James that his kit immediately latched on to the thing that reminded him of his mother.

He wasn't exactly the shining father that stepped up for his kit lately, considering this was the first time they literally stopped and smelled the flowers for a long while in his busy life.

"How did you and mom meet?"

What. "What?" James asked, taken aback by the sudden question.

"When was the first time you and mom, well, saw each other? Do you remember?"

It was an innocent question, but one that caught James off guard. They haven't even mentioned Vixy since the funeral, and this was the first time Fox broached any subject about his mother since and it was about his first date?

Actually… technically he didn't have a first date with Vixy.

He took another look at his wrist com, opening up the holographic display to see if any more messages came after Pigma's arrival of being extremely late. Nothing else. He had time, and this time he was going to spend it with his son.

James sat down on the park bench, and Fox soon followed as he began to follow every word of his father. "Well you see, your mother wasn't fond of me at first…"

What you have to remember of your mother is that for all I act about being a hotshot pilot, she was the wild animal that wouldn't be tamed. I still gotta follow orders and know my way around any vehicle because it was my job. She set her own orders and she knew her way around a space fighter because she wanted to see how it worked, and how she could make it better.

She was a visiting scientist, using her biology degree to apply it to junior bio-engineering projects for the military. I saw her on base during a routine training exercise for some of the rookie pilots, and I thought I'd impress them by acting flashy and showing off to this random girl at the cafeteria. Boy, that was a mistake!

I said "Well howdy there!", and she said, "That is the worst country accent I've ever heard."

I said that I was just trying to be friendly, she looked behind me to my trainees and said, "Why? Was your magic mike show overbooked?"

"What's a magic mike show?" Fox asked.

His shades hid it, but James's eyes went wide at accidentally letting that slip. "Uh, nothing you need to learn about now. Anyways…"

I could see she was going to be a lot more difficult to impress than the usual non-mechanic girls around the base, because usually girls always swoon over us hotshot pilots. She was dressed up as one of the delicate scientists that the military worked with, and usually those girls couldn't help but get close to their "experiment subjects", but it seemed like either she was new or she really didn't want anything with me. So I decided to switch it up. I wanted to see if I could get any information out of her that I could latch and then catch her attention. I told her, "Alright alright, look. We got off on the wrong foot here, and clearly you got a faster mouth than me."

She scoffed and replied back, "You wouldn't know speed if you were strapped to an SSTO rocket." That caught me off guard, because as a pilot I would know what speed is, it's practically my job to know especially with high manuever aircraft like mine!

So I said back, "Honey, if I ain't flying experimental planes, I've got a Targa waiting for me on base here that gets me back home like I just took one step in and out." I heard some of the rookies behind me whistle, imagining that beauty.

The first time she ever smiled, and it was a smirk as she raised her eyebrow at me. "A six-cylinder? Oh please, call me when you finally play with the big boys," she chided, before she turned her back on me and left me looking like a fool in front of my rookies. I've had some rejections before, but that one was cold and mysterious. Maybe at the time I didn't think much of it, but I told your mother years later that was the moment she had me hooked.

"What's a Targa?" Fox asked.

This time it wasn't awkward, but James couldn't help but wistfully whistle at the thought. "Beautiful car, could roll back its entire roof to be a convertible at the time. And a car I thought was both pretty fast and looked se- looked really good. But just like your mother, there's cars wilder and faster than that old girl…"

Fox blinked.

Later on in the day, I was pulling out of the parking lot of the base, at least the one next to my working hanger. Back in the day there was just a long stretch of road before you would hit the gate, the base wasn't practically a full city like it is now. Sometimes I'd press the pedal down with the roof off just to feel that speed that usually I had to stay in a cockpit to avoid it. It never occurred to me to test out my Targa's capabilities there, but little did I know.

There was a traffic light for the last bits of traffic that would or would not come through to my deep end of the base. And just as I roll up to it on one lane, a car on my left also rolls up. A simple Karōra, shining like it was just off the lot and bought for the price of a sandwich and a drink. And sitting in the driver's seat was the woman that made me look like a fool in front of my trainees, who didn't let me live it down for the rest of the day. The traffic light was stuck on red for a long time, so I took a moment to look back at her.

She was smirking at me. I heard her engine rev three times, as if she was daring me. I used to race cars when I was a teen, but I haven't done anything real serious with my car in a while, so I almost didn't recognize her challenge for a race. But once I got the message, I gave her my best shi- my best bragging grin, as I let my Targa roar as a challenge back.

And that's when I heard the true beast roar back.

I don't know how she did it, but I recognized the engine sound that her little dinky daily driver Karora had roared in. It was one of the engines of the old weather craft that the military used to track storms and guide them away from the cities. A twelve-cylinder aircraft engine, stuck inside what is usually a family road trip car. That was twice the amount of power I had at the very least!

But I didn't show her my fear at being outclassed. I've been in more dangerous situations than this, and the only way to beat someone when you're outclassed is to trust yourself more than your machine. I didn't know how my car would do, but I'm a pilot. I knew speed.

So there we sat, waiting for that traffic light to turn green. Time felt like it slowed, as we both got ready to drag race across an empty section of the base. I could even feel every vibration my engine made in that exact moment.

And then the light turned green, and we raced.

I had a good launch, but I felt that hidden beast roar more than I heard it as it caught up to me very quickly and overtook me in a short while. As we passed the 200 kilometer mark, all the lights in the end of the day began to stretch as the road seemed to feel both slower and faster. Every thinking decision was a millisecond in length compared to the seconds that passed as our engines roared into the night.

Something that I was familiar with in a supersonic space-capable fighter.

Eventually I could see that her car was starting to fishtail, and I was keeping up enough in her draft that once her Karora couldn't handle the airflow of her engine, I made my move to catch up alongside her, that we were neck and neck going down the road. I couldn't even hear my own thoughts as both of our engines drowned out even the last few jets trying to land at the base.

And then the absolute worst thing happened. I felt my body suddenly lean forward extremely quickly as if I hit a speed bump, and it came from the back. I looked behind me and I saw sudden flames from a sudden new hole in the back of my car; one of my cylinders decided it wanted to see the stars.

Acting on instinct, I had to lean away from your mother as I braked to lose my speed, but then I looked to the Karora to see its front catch completely on fire, itself trying to break and lean away from me. Her Karora slowed down first, she had upgraded brakes, before I came to a complete stop.

Her car was on fire and I didn't see the door open. I ignored my Tagra's flames and got out quick, running towards the Karora's driver side to see if she got out. The flames in her car stuck inside her roof, but I saw her clenching her eyes shut as I crashed through her window to unlock and take her out of the car. The training for getting someone out of a burning wreck came in hand quickly that night.

Before we had time to process what happened with our cars, military police caught up to us. Chief himself was there, Will Grey, and boy was he mad about my current stunt. We never saw eye to eye, and I always thought he had a stick up his- that he was a stick in the mud. Seeing burning cars and me in the middle of nowhere gave him enough to lock me and your mom in the clink.

"You and mom got arrested? But why? I thought you were basically their leader!" Fox said.

"I'm just a regular merc who does training work for the rookies while off-mission. To most of them, I was an outsider that was always causing trouble," James replied, slightly chuckling to himself as memories of pranks and show-offs echoed in his mind. "But I did have a few friends in high places…"

It wasn't my first time in a cell, especially the military police's. I've done my fair share of trouble since military rules don't technically apply to me except for conduct. But your mother, for all her mouth and brash behavior right before, certainly seemed to regret every life decision she made until now.

She swore up and down that first, her parents would kill her, then her colleagues would kill her, then her boss would have her head. Turned out she never actually tried to race someone before like that, and she definitely shouldn't have considering she knew her radiator issues but chose to ignore it in favor of trying to floor it on the gas. Loved to act like she pushed herself, but always hid from the consequences as best she could.

Luckily for her, she was with someone who dodged consequences just as fast as enemy missiles.

It wasn't long before both Peppy and ol' Pepper came walking up with their usual disappointed faces as they unlocked the cell doors. Peppy began his usual speech of how I could have been hurt and that I should be more careful, but I managed to interrupt him long enough to get Pepper to agree to something.

Let the girl go with all charges dropped, and she keeps her job with no one other than the three of them knowing she was there. Bill all expenses, including both cars, to me. I was the one that raced her thinking I could smoke her in my fast car when in fact both of us got stuck in smoke.

Pepper looked at me silently for a bit, before saying he needed to speak with the chief, bringing Peppy along and leaving me alone again with your mom. She said that I didn't need to pay for everything, she had enough in her savings, but I looked back and told her that I had my ways of making the Cornerians pay their own bills. I wasn't a hotshot pilot for pennies.

Calming down, that was the first time I heard her laugh after our whole situation. I couldn't help but tell her she had a beautiful laugh. She smirked and raised her eyebrow at me again, before finally fully smiling at me for the first time. She told me that she still won our little race, but I reminded her we disagreed because I pulled out ahead of her right before both our cars blew. She challenged me to another race then once our cars got fixed, and I said I'll leave it for our third date.

She looked at me slightly confused for a moment and asked what about the second. I told her, in that jail cell while we still had handcuffs on us, that our second date would be a reconciliatory dinner tomorrow night on me, at any place she chooses if she knows a good one.

She laughed again. And said sure.

Fox sat intently, listening and hanging on to every word of his father's. James felt his wrist com shake, but chose to ignore it this time.

James turned to his son, leaning in to finish his story and tell him the lesson behind it, as he always tried to with his stories before Vixy was taken from them. He could even feel Vixy's spirit next to him as he recounted their first date. "She asked me once why I decided to still race even though I heard her car was better, and I told her that even when I'm over my head, I believe that flying, or at least driving, is equal parts luck and skill, but the point of training was always to raise my skill and instincts to make luck an obsolete factor. I still had myself in the driver's seat, and I knew I could trust myself first before my car. If you still think you're out of your element, Fox, just always remember: Never give up…"

"Just trust your instincts…" Fox said to himself, standing in front of her door. Everyone else on the Great Fox was still asleep or away, leaving just him and Krystal on-board and awake. He knew she was awake because she'd taken a liking to see Corneria City's sunrise from her window, an opinion not often shared with its own denizens in their hustling and bustling.

He had a heart-shaped box of dark chocolates in one hand, and a lotus flower fully bloomed and painted blue in the other. The chocolates were dark, as he found out Krystal liked dark chocolate while on their way back from Sauria. The lotus was him hoping his mother could help him land the most beautiful woman the Lylat had ever seen, and he could say he decided on the lotus because each flower was both beautiful and one-of-a-kind unique, just like Krystal was.

It was sappy, but the heart loves the genuine and simple.

He had the lotus part down, but he had nothing else to say. That was why he was hesitating and repeating his father's mantra in front of Krystal's temporary room, the door tantalizingly closed and expectant for his move. What could he say? He didn't want to be too sappy, but he didn't also want to look like a fool.

Before he could try to think of anything else, the door suddenly opened to reveal Krystal in a blue and red pilot's flightsuit and jacket, a hand-me-down from Falco. She looked confused at Fox suddenly being there, before her nose picked up on the excellent sweets coming from one of Fox's hands.

She widened her eyes expectingly, wondering why it was stuck in a box shaped like a misaligned organ to her, "Is there something I could help you with, Fox?"

Fox snapped out of his stupor, and decided to just gun it, "Morning Krystal! Happy Valentine's!"

He handed over the box to Krystal, who smiled as she accepted it. "Oh, um, thank you! What's Valentine's, if I may ask?"

Fox held a hand up to the back of his head, embarrassed in forgetting that Krystal didn't know much Lylat culture while he assumed things, "It's a day where we like to spend time with our loved ones, or try to spend time with someone new. We've got a free day, so I thought I'd like to get to know you more, Krystal. Do you want to go out to the city and just enjoy ourselves for a bit?"

Fox didn't get an immediate answer, and so while trying not to look desperate, he scanned Krystal's face for any signs of acceptance or rejection. She looked to the other hand where he was holding his lotus, and she smiled.

"Of course, Fox. I would love to!"