Sorry it's been awhile, had a bad case of writer's block again. Well, it's all better now. I've yet again had way too many story ideas. Last update for this one was January 21stof 2024 if you are reading in the future) so yeah its been way too long. Not that this story is supposed to be too long. I have this and various chapters for my other stories partially written and have for a while. Its just so hard to finish stuff for me it seems.

Oh well, enjoy the chapter.

And big thanks to Tony Lupo and Naza Sutera for beta reading this chapter. Be sure to check out their stories they are great (such as Cerinia Beyond Doom by Tony Lupo, one of my current favorite Star Fox fics.)

Chapter 3

Waking up a few hours later, Krystal yawned and sat up in bed. Glancing over at Shira, she noted the child was out like a light still.

"Quiet little thing now, isn't she?" Krystal mused, recalling the fuss from the child's crying overnight. Krystal luckily simply had to talk to her telepathically, and the child went back down, though. She looked over at the child's sleeping form, a newfound sense of compassion and purpose swelling in her mind.

At once, her thoughts from yesterday resurfaced: this was a new start for her, wasn't it? This child was her responsibility, at least for the time being.

Could she truly adapt to being a guardian and caretaker?

"Quit it. You just found her." Krystal reminded herself, quelling her doubts. "It's too much to think of all at once; just take it one step at a time"

With a final glance at Shira, the vixen resumed her morning ritual, Krystal undressed from her nightgown and retrieved her more conventional, plain white t-shirt and blue pants from her drawer.

After she finished getting dressed, she heard her stomach growl.

"Guess I better get some breakfast." She muttered.

As she turned to leave the room, however, Krystal realized something and stopped for a moment.

Could she leave the child alone for a bit in her cradle asleep? Was that responsible without a way to monitor her? She was not entirely sure about how much supervision she needed while in the cradle; it was meant to keep her safely inside after all.

Then she remembered something; she looked up to the periphery of the room to see a security camera in the room. Blacked out to the other teammates for privacy but R.O.B. was patched into it for security reasons. He lacked the autonomy to peak on anyone but the different members could switch on and off the cameras to his feed. Surely he would alert her if anything were wrong.

Plus the room was safe; she was asleep and safely tucked into a cradle. She could not escape it.

Content with that, the vixen exited the room

Arriving in the kitchen cage saw everyone seated together. Fox in a blue bathrobe, Slippy in a yellow pair of pajamas Falco meanwhile wore a white work-out shirt and black workout shorts.

Peppy, who was sitting at the end of the table, was already in his usual day-to-day attire for their work, his collared shirt and flight jacket combined with grey pants.

"Morning." Fox greeted, followed by the others. Falco simply waved at her as Krystal headed for the pantry. A simple bowl of cereal would suffice.

"Good morning everyone." The vixen responded, pouring a bowl of Fruity Loops, a rainbow-colored ring cereal, into a bowl. She started pouring milk into the bowl.

"How did you sleep? I heard crying this morning." Fox said.

The vixen sighed. "Well, enough. Shira barely made a sound." She muttered a hint of surprise in her voice.

Falco hummed in agreement. "Yeah, I was expecting her to at least cry a bit; not that I'm complaining." He joked.

Krystal hummed in agreement as she started walking over to the table. "I will admit as was I; from what I sensed of her emotions, she seemed comfortable enough just to have me around." The Cerinian stated.

Peppy glanced at Krystal.

"Most curious. Speaking of which, how's the little one doing? I see she is not with you." the old hare inquired.

By now Krystal was sitting at the table across from Slippy, eating her cereal.

"She was still asleep and was clean. I did not want to wake her. ROB is patched into the cameras, so he can notify me if something is wrong." She stated.

Fox nodded and went back to sipping his coffee. He looked at the window, noting the incoming planet they were approaching.

"We'll be arriving at Fortuna soon." He noted, staring out the window of the kitchen. From her viewpoint, Krystal saw the planet. It was lush, covered in greenery all over its land bases, and oceans present covering much of the rest of the planet. She felt captivated by its beauty; it was so much like what Cerinia was once. Spending most of her time in space like she did with the team made moments like this all the more magical to her. Being able to see new planets like this was one of her favorite parts of this job.

"Gee, not like we noticed the big planet Fox." Falco's sarcastic statement intruded on Krystal's train of thought

"Though I guess that was obvious." He added

Krystal nodded.

"If you'll come with me, I want your help to get out stuff for the little one," Fox told the vixen.

Krystal nodded, as she finished her cereal. "Of course."

Nodding back in acknowledgment, Fox gave one final sip of his coffee before going to rinse it and put it in the sink. As he did this, Krystal did the same with her cereal bowl.

With that, the two vulpines left the others to finish up their breakfast. The two departed the bridge through the main door, intending to get dressed in preparation.

An hour and a half later

The Great Fox had been cleared for docking and was undergoing the scheduled refueling and maintenance, arranged by Peppy before landing via communication with Fortuna's flight control. Fox had handled the rest of the arrangements[

and documentation with the hangar crew once the Great Fox had landed within Fortuna City, the economic capital of the world.

After a short bus ride, Fox and Krystal arrived in the shopping district of the city; a vibrant metropolitan area bursting with life. Cars and other vehicles traveled up and down the steel streets, families waking around with their children, tall steel skyscrapers towering as far as the eye could see; it was much like Corneria City.

Now Krystal carried the little fox kit in her arms, walking side by side with Fox as they made their way through the crowded shopping district of Fortuna City. Fox was just ahead of her, briskly walking through the crowd. He paid little attention to any of the surprised stares he got or children stopping to jump in excitement at seeing him.

Krystal was dressed in a simple pair of jeans and a blue dress; a gift Fox had given her. Fox wore a simple green jacket, white shirt, and grey pants. Judging from the lack of the occasional stare, it helped her blend into the crowds a bit better than wearing her, as far as much of "mainstream" Lylat was concerned, primitive tribal robes would draw attention towards her. Shira still wore hers, but she had sensed in the passing thought that people just dismissed it as just a cute little costume for a baby

Navigating the district was tricky itself; it was disconnected from the road, but the large crowds going to and from were hard to navigate. The district itself was situated in a bit of a plaza of sorts; it was closed off to vehicles and built around walking. Shops of all sorts had advertisements and glowing signs trying to grab the attention of any passerby.

Taking a moment to soak in the sights, Krystal could never get over her own wonder at how developed it he city; having visited Coreenis city with Fox prior she could not help but feel in awe at the

The adult Cerinian sighed as she was met with stares from the various people she walked past. Everywhere she went, she got stares from at least a few people. As for her clothing, Krystal knew robes were out of the ordinary gif most of 'normal' Lylat society, but she had been accustomed to wearing robes since childhood; even traveling with the merchants who found her she still mostly wore these robes she made.

It's not that she hasn't considered getting something new or more modern to wear to better fit in, but she rarely ever had the money. Even now, it's not like she had her own bank account or anything; not even now. She had not had a chance to set one up, plus Fox and the team covered all the necessities, including clothing. Regardless, she still preferred her traditional Cerinian garb…

However, a thought occurred to her. She looked down at the baby clutched to her chest. Perhaps a member of a galaxy-known famous mercenary team being spotted carrying a baby with Krystal's color might stir up some rumors. And no doubt people might theorize about her. It had only been a few months since she joined Star Fox but for all the people of Lylat knew, she could have been seeing Fox for a long time before …

And sure enough, such thoughts were already forming in people's minds. As they walked through the port and closer to the store, she picked up the passing thoughts of some people they walked past.

"Fox have a hidden girlfriend for all this? Don't recall this blue lady being seen pregnant in the last few months. The kid looks older than that at least…"

"McCloud hit it off with this blue lady? "

"Go figure, McCloud scored with quite the exotic blue woman. Quite the impressive feat, even for him "

"McCloud started a family? Where was that in the news cycle?

"Guess the next generation of Star Fox is gonna be blue."

"Damn, the vixen is already taken. Won't find beauty like hers in most other places."

"Looks like Fox Boy walked on the 'wild side' a bit. "

Cute baby but why is she blue? Is that normal? Did they dye her fur?"

That last one did make Krystal chuckle a bit, but still perplexed her. This was her normal fur color: were blue foxes really that unusual in Lylat?

Krystal tuned out the rest after that last jab at her tribal roots. The prospect of people admiring her beauty was flattering to her but that was simply vanity at best. Few of these individuals' 'compliments' rang to her as anything more than a shallow desire to get into her pants, nothing more.

And then those pondering about her and Fox… sleeping together. As if! She hardly knew him for more than a few months! Of course, people would jump to the assumption Shira was their offspring. Although Krystal supposed that they did not know the full context.

Krystal shook off the thoughts as she noticed the narrow strip of stores they were walking through was begging to give way to a larger area.

"Almost there," Fox stated to Krystal, as they walked onward. As they weaved their way through the crowd, Krystal noted a lapse in the number of people present in the preceding area. As they walked further, she saw something.

A much larger structure than most of the others. The chains and outlets of the rest paved the way to this store, situated a bit towards the back of the shopping district.

Krystal nearly did a double take. This store was humongous! The building must have been nearly a mile in length, not that Krystal could accurately measure it. The structure was a pristine white across most of its dura-steel surface. There was not much in the way of overt decorations on the front of the building, other than the arch silver archway in the font. There were windows situated towards the roof, including under the archway. Across the front of the building was a column of white steel pillars, propping up the roof from the ground level to the top. To the far right side of the building, she saw a service road with various black cars and vans coming to and from.

A large sign glowing sign that read "Apex" was situated in the middle, glowing an eye-catching blue.

Foot traffic across the main entrances was heavy, with large crowds of people of various species coming and going as they pleased, many of whom were dressed in a variety of clothing from fancy dresses and suits, all the way to more basic clothes like shirts and jeans. It seemed to Krystal that just about every social class of person in the city was here.

She stops to gawk at it for a moment, looking the building up and down.

"Impressive huh?" Fox questioned.

"Mmm-hmmm. Yeah." Krystal stated, a bit taken aback. "Quite the place." the vixen noted, as Shira turned her gaze to look up at it. The baby started pointing out to the building, to which Krystal chuckled.

"That's right, sweetie. We're going there." Krystal told her, her tone softening.

Fox shot her a smile, as Krystal turned her head back to face him.

"What's so special about this place that we did not just go to a supermarket or something? There was one near the hangar according to Peppy?" Krystal inquired, raising a brow.

"Well, sure, that might have saved us time but I've been wanting to visit this place for a while. " he explained. "Let's just say it sells a bit of everything, including stuff I have been intending to get for the ship anyways," Fox noted.

"Like what?" she asked.

He started walking towards the entrance, gesturing for her to follow.

"You'll see."

Shira suddenly started squirming and began reaching out towards the entrance. Her caretaker only smiled and rubbed her affectionally. "Looks like someone's excited," she noted, to which Fox and her shared a laugh as the building became nearer.

Once inside, Krystal could not help but gawk at the place: it was prettier white everywhere!

Directly in front of the entrance were a bunch of registers, each with a long line and a bunch of beleaguered cashiers attending them.

The store's layout was massive, like that of a wide open space albeit packed full of all sorts of stuff. The floor itself was of course a marvel white, with aisles having walkways yards in width and across from each other. The walls and pillars were all a solid white marvel color, as were the floors. All the display screens, boasting advertisements for various items from food to clothing, were in cases in white stands.

All over the store, massive racks were scaling nearly to the ceiling, filled with all kinds of items; from food and clothing to things like kitchenware and even camping supplies.

"See, I told you they had a bit of everything." Fox's voice rang, breaking her from her daze.

Krystal's ears shot up along with her fur in surprise. Shira's sure too lit up in alarm at her caretaker's sudden jolt. Krystal's shocked demeanor, however, dropped when she remembered it was just Fox.

"You okay there?" The vulpine asked.

"Yes, just taking it all in. I've never seen a place with so much different stuff. It's so different from anything we had on Cerinia" she noted. "The largest shop I can think of there was just a big stone structure full of few stacks with items; it was barely larger than a house. We never had something this extravagant," she noted.

Fox nodded in agreement.

"Yeah: it's Apex Indistries' premiere store here on a Fortuna. They've been a staple in the shipping industry across Fortuna and Lylat for decades." He explained.

"The merchants who took me sometimes got contracts from them," Krystal commented. "I still can't fathom a company selling so much. I get groceries but all this?" She said, gesturing towards the outdoors section, the aisle decided to candy, the electronics, and then further in the back to the automotive section

"More avenues for profit. Apex is big enough so why not?" Fox half asked, half stated.

He turned to grab a cart from one of the nearby stalls by the front doors. It was a massive cart, way bigger than what one might expect at a grocery store.

"Now then, let's get the stuff for Shira first. I'll put in an order for the other stuff later." He mentioned.

"Wait, how are we gonna get all this stuff and the rest back to the ship?" Krystal inquired.

Mccloud gestured over towards a desk to the right of the entrance, filled with people in the middle of transactions. Behind the desk, various computer terminals displayed what Krystal thought to be analytics and video feeds from certain machines.

"Their delivery services. Cars, automated drones, automated cars, and so on. We'll get it shipped to the hangar." He reasoned.

He began pushing the cart, gesturing for Krystal to follow.

"Want to let Shira ride in the seat?" He asked.

Krystal looked at the baby in her arms and shook her head. "No thanks. She is fine with me." She insisted.

The trip to the baby care aisle was mostly uneventful. They passed by various wares along the way, such as clothing and electronics. Typical stuff for a store of this caliber.

After a few directions from the employees, the foxes made it to the infant care aisle. There, they met with a whole catalog of items.

The vixen glanced around the aisle, looking up in down at all the items on sale. Diapers, clothes, toys, and various other supplies, of all sorts of types. The sheer variety

"Quite the step up from the handcrafted wood toys back on Cerinia." Krystal thought to herself. "Where do I even start with this?"

Then the idea hit her.

She looked to Fox and spoke. "So what all was on the list of essential items Peppy left us?" She inquired.

Fox pulled out the list from his coat pocket and handed it to her. "Half the stuff in the aisle seems." He half-joked, glancing around "Have a look."

Krystal held Shira in one arm as she took the note in hand with the other and looked over it.

Diapers, clothing, blankets, mats, wipes, toys, teething rings, possibly a raffle, Pacifiers. And so on.

The vixen nearly did a double take. "By the Krazoa, all that? For one baby?!" She added, flabbergasted. "I knew it takes a lot but I did not expect that many supplies." She said.

Fox nodded in agreement, duckling a bit. "Same. Never really bothered glancing at But such is children I guess. People knew what he was doing when he wrote those, he knows more than I do. If it's what we need, it's what we need." He said, starting to survey the aisle.

As he did so, Kristal placed the kit into the cart's seat for children her age. Taking a moment, she took notice of a pregnant, dark grey-furred wolf wearing a green maternity dress and blue pants, standing nearby holding her pup. The pup looked only about two, wearing simple brown shorts and a blue shirt. The mother was eyeing Fox in surprise.

Krystal blushed at the novelty of this; how surreal was it for her to see a famed mercenary and soldier shopping for baby supplies? Krystal nearly laughed at the thought.

Taking her gaze away from the woman, Krystal began surveying the stuff on the aisle.

The vixen could not help but stare in confusion, which things were best to buy? All these toys around from different brands she did not know, ranging from toy cars to blocks to dolls, even stuffed animals.

She was at a loss. What would the child like?

"We barely had so many options at home." she thought. Back on her homeworld, outside of an odd export. Practically everything had to be produced by hand, specifically of a skilled artisan or craftsman of what ever item it was needed. Toys were handmade from wood and other materials, with many simply being passed down from sibling to sibling. Clothing for infants, even diapers, were weaved from fabrics by skilled tailors; even diapers on Cerinia were designed to be reused.

And it was not like they had as much variety; toys in Cerinia had been compromised of things like straw dolls, wooden blocks, as well as other shapes. Older kids did have things like soft wooden weapons, albeit coated in soft materials to avoid injury. Here, she had choices that many would consider...

She shot a glance over at Shira, who was surveying the aisle up and down.

Her gaze shifted to Fox, who was typing something into his phone. He kept glancing up, surveying the different diaper brands, too engrossed in his activity to help.

"Need some help?" A soft voice from nearby broke Krystal from her gaze.

She turned her head to notice the wolf woman had greeted her. "Sorry to startle you, but you seemed a bit confused." The feline noted.

The blue vixen sighed and nodded.

"Oh but where are my manners?" The pregnant wolf asked herself. "I'm Telia and this is my son Tano." She stated, gesturing towards the boy she held.

"What brings you here?" she asked.

"Oh just looking at supplies for my next born; had to change Tano a bit ago and I guess it gave me the idea to glance around here. It was lucky they left supplies in the bathroom and didn't have the bag… oh but pardon me. I get sidetracked."

Krystal smiled at her, amused, " I'm Krystal by the way." she proclaimed.

"From Star Fox yes?" Telia half asked.

"You seem to know me then." the vixen chuckled.

"Hard not to when you are flying with Lylats former golden boys." She joked. "Anyways, what was bothering you? You seem so lost." Telia noted.

Krystal frowned. "I have no idea what I am doing." She confessed. "Fox and I are trying to get supplies for the little one but I don't know where to start. How do know what's best for her? Or what she will like?" Kristal pressed, flustered.

The pregnant wolf smiled at her. "Dear, you are overthinking it. Babies are not that picky; just go with what you feel is best." She suggested.

"But what if-" the blue fox pressed before the wolf laughed to herself.

"And there you go again, overthinking. Just take a step back and relax; it's all about trial and error. You can't expect to know what she'll like without trying." She insisted.

The gears started turning in the vixen's head as she bit back the urge to pester her with more questions. There was one more thing though.

"Okay… but what's the best choice?" She asked.

The wolf woman rolled her eyes. "Get a mixed pack of toys; a variety is a good start." She suggested, before shaking her head.

"Why don't you are you and your boyfriend take a look yourselves?" She suggested.

"Yeah… good idea…" Krystal replied, trying to calm herself.

"'Man I get ahead of myself." She thought before it clicked in her head what she said.

"Wait, my friend?" She parroted, a bit louder than she meant to.

The wolf laughed a bit.

"I am just guessing… I mean, that's his baby right?" she teased, gesturing towards Shira. Krystal blushed like she had never before in her life. "Uhh…."

"Honey, it's not rocket science. You randomly show up as part of one of Lylat's most famous mercenary teams a few months back, and now I find you and Fox shopping for baby supplies, with an under-year-old in your hands." she pointed out. "And the child looks so much like you. Not sure what other conclusions I can draw."

Krystal's cheeks lit up red, hot with embarrassment. She could barely muster up a response. She thought of telling the woman the truth but the thing was the circumstances she found Shira would just draw more questions. How does she explain finding a baby in the ruins of a destroyed planet without being bombarded with new questions? Frankly, she did not wish to, it was too painful.

By this point, she heard Fox's footsteps approaching, giving her an easy out to avoid an explanation.

The male fox took one look at Krystal's embarrassed face, and then to the pregnant wolf.

"Uhh, hello…. What's going on?" he asked.

"Oh, nothing just embarrassed your girlfriend there. I was helping her decide on what to get for your daughter," she stated.

Fox looked at her in bemusement, before steeling his expression. "Uh… it's a bit more complicated than that. It's… hard to explain." he stated, putting a comforting hand on Krystal's shoulder.

Telia gave an understanding nod.

"Ah… I understand. You don't have to explain to me. It's between you and her." she responded simply. The fox seemed to realize something.

"Ah but Fox, I do have to ask… do you recognize me by chance?" she said, a bit teasingly.

The mercenary looked over at her before his eyes lit up in realization.

"Wait… you flew with Bill's squad and eye during the Lylat Wars," he noted. "Been awhile… Telia right?"

Telia nodded. "Indeed. Good to see you too Fox; glad to see you branching out in life a bit. "She noted, gesturing to Krystal and the baby in her arms, "I know it's been a nice change of pace for me." She said, gesturing towards her protruding belly and her son.

"Glad to hear that," Fox responded as Krystal got over her embarrassment.

The wolf turned to leave. "Well, I've taken up enough of your time. I need to find my husband; probably off in the camping section." She joked, turning away.

"Thanks for the service," Krystal replied to her. The mother wolf nodded.

"See you around." The wolf said, waving them off, leaving the vulpines alone.

Krystal looked at Fox. "Well then… that bit awkward." The blue vixen nodded a bit anxious in her voice. "Anyways, did you find something?" she asked.

Fox nodded, showing her the box. It was light blue with a picture of a red fox kit on its

"Its Cloth. We can wash and reuse them." He noted.

Krystal nodded in approval, before reaching into the last and picking up Shira, holding the infant towards her chest.

"Shall we find you suitable toys?" She cooed.

The baby laughed at her guardian's playfulness.

Fox smiled as they began to survey the supplies on the aisle.

For several minutes they looked around, picking the clothes piece by piece.

"Do you like this one?" Krystal asked the baby, who stared at the red dress she held up, the child simply stared at it.

"Are you sure this is working? Can she even understand what we are doing?" Fox questioned, as he held her in place for Krysral to hold up dresses.

The pair has been at this gif a bit, having already found the appropriate amount of utter items on the list, including toys and blankets.

Krystal sighed and held up the next set of clothing, a blue dress.

The child seemed to have her interests piqued, reaching out for it. The adults laughed in satisfaction.

"Oh course it's blue. Why am I not surprised?" Fox lamented.

He handed the child to Krystal while he took the dress.

He put it in the cart, which was now full of baby supplies. He sat the dress into the other pile of clothes they had gotten her, which were all of course blue.

Krystal could not help but ponder how much all this was gonna cost; they had even gotten a proper crib for the child so they did not have to rely on a makeshift cradle. She was a tad guilty to know this was all at her behest but she knew Fox volunteered for this of his own volition.

"Guess that should about cover it," Fox noted surveying the list and the contents of the cart.

While he did so, Krystal could not help but feel Shira squirming in her arms. The child is fidgeting around.

"Sweetie, what's wrong?" Krystaknaskee, only to be met with a poor smell.

Krystal's ears dropped as The realization sank in.

"Ummmm Fox…" she meekly spoke. "We have a problem…"

The toddler glanced over at her, a frown nervous frown forming on his face. "Oh…" he muttered.

As if to add salt to the wound, Shira started crying loudly, eliciting both adults to pale, and embarrassment eating at them.

Krystal looked left and right trying to think of what to do; she had half a mind to rip open the pack of diapers they were going to buy before she recalled what Telia said a bit ago.

"I'm gonna go change her, see you at the front!" Krystal nearly yelled to Fox as she jetted out of the aisle, searching for the restroom, leaving Fox alone.

The vulpine sighed heavily before calmly taking his cart of supplies and pushing it to the aisle. Subsequently, he started making his way towards the front entrance registers.

As he walked, he again noticed all the stares he was being given by passersby; he did not have to be telepathic to know that they were wondering what the former "hero of Lylat" was doing pushing a cart full of baby supplies around.

Fox inwardly chuckled to himself.

"Greatest mercenary in the Lylat, buying baby supplies at a store. Who would have thought?" he thought, sarcastically. "Still though, it's an interesting turn of events I suppose. Whatever makes her happy…" he thought to himself. He just hoped it helped Krystal was all.

Meanwhile

Krystal had wasted no time, she found a changing table built of wood in the corner past the stalls. It had various supplies on its shelves under the top and a white mat on top.

Anxiously walking toward it, Krystal took off Shira's robe and set the crying kit on top, while she fervently dug through the supplies to get was she required.

Kneeling down and grabbing what she needed, Krystal took a deep breath and turned to look at the child, only for something to dawn on her.

"I have no idea what I'm was doing.?" The vixen realized. She frantically tried to recall what Peppy had shown her.

"How did Peppy say to do it again?" Her mind raced as she Her ears and tail fell flat on dread. "By the Krazoa…" she muttered." I sure hope I can improvise." she thought…

Shira looked up at her expectantly only heightened her resolve.

"Right, here goes nothing…"

(A few minutes later)

"Is this it?" Krystal muttered to herself as she fastened the third diaper she had tried around the child, messing with the tapes as the child continued to squirm and shift around.

Trying her best to remain patient, and vixen held the child lightly her firmly in place. To her relief, she finally got the tapes right. Krystal smiled to herself as she placed the child's robe back on her, scooped up Shira from the changing table, and gave an exasperated sigh. She used her free hand to discard the other two diapers she failed to properly put on Shira into the trash can to the side of the table.

"Well, that was a battle and a half." She muttered. "Wish I had brought the holopad( could have just looked it up. Or if she could just have held still."

The baby giggled in her arms, eliciting a smile from the adult vixen.

"Oh, you." She smiled, tenderly hugging the child to her chest.

Content, Krystal departed the restroom.

.

After making her way back towards the front of the store, she paused once she came into view of the checkout.

Krystal caught up to Fox shortly thereafter, finding he was already at the front of the line at the checkout. A foxhound, grey with blue eyes and wearing a simple black uniform composed of a black long-sleeve shirt and pants, was operating the register. As she weaved her way through the lines at the front, she noted the different looks of surprise she was getting, once people realized who she was.

Once she got there, the cashier looked up at her and smiled.

"Ah, how cute. " she said, I guess between

Krystal did not even have to read her mind to know what she was going to say next: asking if it was their daughter or what the circumstances were.

"It's complicated. Let's just leave it at that," Krystal replied.

The casket shot her an odd look before shrugging g.

"Well, I am just about with your order from your er… boss' or boyfriend or… your order is ready I mean." she corrected herself, her tone uncertain. As if to add more fuel to the figurative fire, Shira started grabbing at Krystal's fur on her head again.

"Sweetie, can you please-ow!" Krystal called, trying lightly to remove Shira's grasp on the fur tuft on the side of her head It took a few more tries before Krystal managed to remove the infant's hold on.

Krystal blushed once more at the cashier and Fox. Fox looked faintly amused and the cashier shot her a slight smile. He calmly pulled out his debit card from his wallet and tapped it on the holo screen.

Krystal chanced a peak at the list of items listed on the holographic screen. Food, water, drinks, tools, and a few electronic parts that could be used around the ship, such as spare wires and conduits. Krystal guessed they were "universal" parts, meant to be interchangeable amongst the various electronic fixtures in the ship.

The price tag surprised Krystal a bit; the total cost was a few thousand, as far as Lylat currency went. Perhaps there were other things on the list Krystal could not see without scrolling up, amongst the various other wares. What she could see, however, was the fact that Shira's supplies were costing at least a few hundred total.

"Oh…. I owe him for this." She thought to herself. The reminder that all this was on the team's dime gnawed at her. Even though she knew this was Fox's own violation, it still made her feel a bit guilty.

"All done. Thank you for shopping at Apex." the cashier stated, as Fox finished the transactions.

"We'll have your stuff sent to the marked location by drone shortly. Be on the lookout for the drop-off." she finished.

Fox nodded and turned away, as another employee, a male greyhound in a black uniform similar to the cashier came over from nearby to take their cart.

"How are we gonna this stuff to the Great Fox?" she asked the mercenary leader.

Fox shot her and Shira a smile. "I've made arrangements; we have a ride waiting for us. " he stated, gesturing towards a large doorway mark on the far right of the store, a bit off from the drone operation area. Above it was a glowing "taxi and deliveries" sign.

"Wait Apex offers cab rides too?" the confused vixen inquired.

"Apex offers a wide array of services, all catered to meet our customer's needs. We have many space farmers such as yourselves coming to and from our store without permanent vehicles of their own. We saw fit to accommodate them." the attendant stated, in a practiced manner.

The attendant took the cart from Fox and began pushing it over towards the direction of the exit. Content with the answer, Krystal followed in anticipation.

Within minutes, the foxes were situated in the backseat of the black car, its interior a mesh of dark grey and black seats. Fox was seated on the left window while Krystal was situated in the back, with Shira fastened into a booster seat between them.

The car's dashboard was, for lack of a better word, fancy. As much as Krystal would describe it anyway; various glowing buttons adorned the stirring column and dashboard even the wheel itself. In the middle was a large holographic screen, which was plugged into a GPS.

The blue vixen could not help but glance at her surroundings in wonder; she had been to many exotic locations in her life. She had been on exotic spaceships, even flying and living on one such craft. And yet the luxury exterior of this vehicle was a novelty all the same to her.

"You look impressed, Krystal." Fox lightly teased her.

Krystal blushed. "That obvious?"

"Your face says it all."

Both shared a laugh.

"This blows the Great Fox out of the water in your mind?" Fox inquired.

The vixen shook her head. "I suppose it should not but… it's just so different to me. You know I've been in spacecraft plenty of times but I've not been something like this. Don't get many chances for a car ride; most of my travels are spent away from this." she joked.

Fox shrugged. "Eh, there's a first time for everything I suppose," he mentioned.

The sound of a door opening caught their attention,

Entering the driver's seat, the Greyhound attendant from before poked his head in the door.

"All right, everything en route to your requested location," he announced, climbing into the vehicles and strapping in.

"I will personally deliver you back to your requested location," he stated.

"Thank you… umm, I did not catch your name before. " The vulpine requested.

"Lyle," he replied. "Please to be at your service." the greyhound stated, activating the car's engine via a button near the stirring wheel.

"Do you have everything you need, Mr. Mccdloud?" the greyhound asked, turning his head to towards the back seat.

Fox nodded at this. The greyhound then turned towards Krystal.

"And you Mrs Mccould? Everything to your liking?"

Krystal blushed once more, albeit not as badly as before. She was getting used to this.

"Uh, it's Miss, actually. And just Krystal is fine." she corrected.

"My apologies. Everything alright, Miss. Krystal?" the greyhound reiterated.

The certain adult nodded. "Of course."

Finally, the greyhound looked at the baby in the middle.

"And what about the little one? Is she comfortable? In need of a snack or anything?"

Both vulpine glanced at Shira, who was happily sucking on a blue pacifier and playing with a fox plushie they got from the cart before entering the car.

Both smiled at each other and then to the driver.

"Nope, I think she's good. "Krystal insisted.

Lyle nodded and turned forward to face the road ahead.

"Very well then. I shall have you back at the hangar shortly. Let me know if you need me to turn on the radio or adjust the AC." he stated.

With that, Krystal felt the car began to move and the vulpines were off.

So one of the things I wanted is how being a celebrity or famous can have bad side effects on your personal life at times and lead to gossip. In this chapter I showed how being with the leader of Star Fox (A team famous for more or less saving the galaxy from an evil dictator) means people are going to jump to conclusions about Krystal. Being seen with a baby Fox that looks somewhat like her of course only adds a few to the speculative fire.

I guess you can't blame the people of Lylat since it's a reasonable conclusion given their lack of information on what Krystal's situation is and how the Star Fox crew found the child on Cerinina. But I want to make a point that, as cute as it can seem that two characters are assumed to be the parents of a child and how embarrassing it is, it's also genuinely uncomfortable since they have not started an actual relationship by this point. I see many authors gloss over that in situations like this when it's brought up.