So, here we are with Skyward Freedom! I wanted to go with Fox and Zelda for many reasons, but mostly I just have this gut feeling such a partnership will turn out good. Always have, for some odd reason.
The story takes a sliver of influence from John Green's amazing book Paper Towns. Simply marvelous.
I own nothing, regret nothing. I let them forget nothing. Except the Gazafly. Yep. You ask me to create an OC, and I make it a spacecraft. :3 That's me!
Let's go!
Chapter 1-Take-Off
It was just one of those days.
One of those days where everyone except Zelda seemed to be busy with something or another and she found herself thoroughly bored out of her mind. And seeing as she was at what was supposed to be the most extravagant, recordbreaking, innovative and incredible fighting tournament in the world, that was just too much of an oxymoron for her not to get frustrated. She halfheartedly wandered through the different hallways, approaching different people, only to end up with no leads to occupy herself with.
How I've underestimated you, boredom. Cursed, wretched boredom. Whilst so mundane in appearance you drive the mind mad more than any form of torture could.
Great. Now she was coming up with poetry to describe her boredom. Gods help her.
She sighed, twirling on her heel into a different hallway, blinking back clouds of exhaustion created by her damned boredom.
Someday I shall defeat you, boredom... someday.
Since she had literally found no form of entertainment in any other room of the mansion, she deduced drastic times called for drastic measures.
She went into the garage.
It wasn't strictly a garage- it was also a hangar for some of the spacecraft possessed by some of the starbound members of the tournament. Namely, Samus, Fox and Falco. But really, there was nothing special if you didn't own a car or ship. Zelda owned neither. She was notably behind the times- if it wasn't evident enough, she still wore a dress everywhere.
But even observing the somewhat foreign objects wasn't wholly interesting- she knew the basics of mechanical vehicles and what she could see on the outside was nothing new. Either way, she drifted along the front of the cars drearily, gently running a hand across the hoods.
For Naryu's sake, let something happen! Anything, just make something ha-
"Someone looks like they're having a good time."
"Mother of-"
So deep into her thoughts as she was, coupled with the fact that she could have sworn the hangar was empty, hearing another voice almost caused her to leap so high in surprise she nearly hit an overhand lamp. She heard a surprised, light laugh and settled down, taking a seat on the concrete ground. She looked up to see Fox sitting on the hood of his spacecraft, stretching his leg out off the edge.
"Oh! I did not see you there, Fox," she murmured as she caught her breath. "My apologies."
"Hah, are you okay?" he asked, leaping off the spacecraft. "I thought I gave you a coronary there."
Zelda sighed. "Oh, don't worry," she replied. "Just kinda..." she shook her head swiftly and waved a hand in front of her face as she tried to think of the word.
"...out of it?" Fox offered.
"Yes! Very bored, very dazed. Very out of it."
Fox chuckled. "My sentiments exactly. I thought I was gonna fall asleep... on my ship. And that's a lot harder to do than it seems."
"I'd imagine," she replied. "So, why are you out here?"
Fox sighed. "Ah, I was gonna go for a fly in my Gazafly here. It ain't my Arwing like back home, much too pedestrian... but it'll do." Zelda took a quick moment to look over the ship; a much rounder, sleeker ship that bore more semblance to a car than his Arwing did. "Not that it matters; Master Hand said that he didn't want me going out today."
"...he can do that?"
"Apparently."
"...he can do that."
"What a crock, right?"
Zelda sighed, running a hand through her hair. "Right. What did you do to be told not to leave?"
"...well, you look like you could use a laugh. Apparently he's trying to do a painting of the sky. Says he wants it plain. Nothing in the way."
"...and here I was thinking you beat someone half to death," Zelda admitted.
Fox laughed. "Nah, not today. Just his vain desires keeping me cooped up."
Zelda scoffed as Fox plopped next to her, leaning against a tall red tool cabinet. "I suppose he's going to have someone tell the birds to alternate their instinctual flight path as to not get in his way."
Fox blinked. "Well, that would explain why Mewtwo was in such a hurry today. You don't think..."
Zelda's eyes widened as she leapt to her feet. "...you have to be kidding!" she shouted, violently kicking the cabinet despite being in heels. "You mean the only thing keeping us from having a good time is a self-centered appendage who wants to possess the sky for the day?"
"I like that cabinet..." Fox weakly replied, clambering to his feet.
Zelda groaned. "I'm sorry about that. It's just..."
"♥♥♥♥?" he tried.
Zelda blinked in surprise.
"Wrong word?" he chuckled.
"Actually, that's the perfect word. Thank you."
The air was thick with defeat as Fox and Zelda slumped against opposite wings of the Gazafly, Fox on the pilot's side, aching to get in and fly through the heavens.
Finally, he could take no more. "That's it. I'm getting in," he growled as he opened the door, "and I am getting the hell out of here."
Zelda blinked as he climbed into his seat. "You're going to get into so much trouble!" she hissed, desperate to get him to his senses.
"Pah. What's he going to do to me? Ground me?" he snapped.
"What's he gonna- he's a giant floating hand with unknown quantities of mystical powers for Din's sake!" she protested.
"You honestly think he's going to zap me to death with his lasers?" he scoffed, reclining in his seat. Zelda had trouble hearing him since the door was still closed, but almost upon that thought, the passenger door opened, causing her to jolt.
"Get in," he grinned slyly. Like a fox, Zelda would note with irony later. But at the moment, she was surprised, telling him "I don't want to get in trouble! It's not happening!"
"Get in," he repeated, raising an eyebrow.
"Not interested!" she insisted.
Fox sighed, jumping out of the passenger's side in one deft movement so he was right next to Zelda. Leaning against the spacecraft, he started in on her. "Oh you're interested. You're just too scared of Master Hand to do anything. Which is ridiculous. Frankly, you're like a five year old afraid of the schoolmaster. And in our case the schoolmaster's the wrong one. Also, you're a princess. Higher title. Sure, it doesn't matter here, but if he ever goes through Hyrule you could..."
"...what? Arrest him? Have him detained? You're clearly not thinking this through," she muttered with a disbelieving smirk.
"I don't need to!" he shouted suddenly, causing Zelda to jump again, albeit not as high. Calming down a tad, he continued "Right now I don't care who says what or what kind of power he thinks he has. He's being absolutely ridiculous, and..." he trailed off, letting himself fall against his ship again.
"Heh, sorry about that," he murmured. Before she could forgive, he continued. "But the thing is, you only live once, and I sure as hell ain't gonna spend a damn moment in here when I don't need to be. And just cause Master Hand says I do don't mean that I need to be.
"Trust me. When you look back on today years from now, wouldn't you like to actually be able to remember it?"
Reeling off of his own passion, Fox walked around to his side of the ship and fell into his seat, head leaning against the steering device. Zelda noticed him and wasn't sure what to do. He did have a point, that she could admit.
Meekly, she tried "I... actually have never flown before."
"Thought not," he replied, smile appearing below the dashboard. "Don't worry, I'll go easy on ya."
Am I really going to do this? She thought. Every little apprehensive instinct in her mind, body and soul were telling her not to go in. Yet, amid their protests, while she was telling herself not to, she found herself climbing into the passenger seat of the Gazafly, somewhat intimidated by being in something capable of things that a couple of years ago she never could have imagined.
Nervously, she asked "How do you buckle up?" Fox responded by pressing a button, and straps shot out from the wall, binding Zelda to her seat from several different angles, covering half of her chest. She let out a surprised yelp, even more apprehensive now than before.
Fox noticed her frightened eyes as he brought his head up; she looked as if she were trapped with nowhere to go. "Don't worry, Princess," he assured her. "Nothing's gonna happen. I'm the best pilot in the cosmos. I can pull off a routine flight."
Although Zelda wasn't quite assured, she felt a bit better with Fox being so cordial about it. She did her best to perk up and steady her breathing.
"Now, just so you know, we need to sneak around Master's line of, err... sight," he explained. "So the takeoff may be a bit tricky. Don't worry, though."
Zelda nodded, bracing herself for takeoff.
Fox smiled again, getting out a keyring and pressing a red button. The hangar door slowly, quietly opened. Zelda spared a chuckle at how the higher-efficiency, more expensive touches to the mansion were enabling them to make a clean escape. Amused, she smiled and tried to relax.
Before she knew it, though, Fox had launched out at high speed, and her heart caught in her throat. Reflexively she gripped her armrests and bit her lip to keep from screaming.
Her grip on her lower lip was released as Fox went straight up in a sudden 90 degree angle, fifteen feet out of the hangar, and she let out a long scream. Fox laughed in excitement, and suddenly, with a sneaky smile, turned completely upside down, causing Zelda's hair to fall to the roof of the Gazafly as her screams became garbled. Laughing even louder, he flew a good half-mile away from the mansion before flipping 540 degrees, right side up.
"Barrel roll executed," he grinned.
"What the fu... holy... whazafuwashakawawa..." Zelda's brain was all but fried during the harrowing flight.
"Having fun, Princess?" he laughed.
"...you said you were going to go easy on me!" Zelda's usual calm demeanor was all but nonexistent as she brushed hair out of her face and regained a steady breathing pattern. "What the hell was that?"
Realizing the severity of the situation, his face became somewhat crestfallen. "Oh... yeah. Guess I got carried away. Sorry, Princess."
Zelda couldn't help but notice some of the hurt that crept up onto his features for a split second before he regained his grin and gestured grandly to the extensive sky around them. "Observe, Princess, the majesty of the skies."
She looked out the panoramic windows, and the view caused her eyes to widen in wonder and her jaw to drop. The sky was at its finest blue, the green knolls and its flora looked like marvelous tapestry finer than any royal robes. The birds flew among them, above, below and beside them. An eagle even came up to her window for a short second. She was like a kid, observing everything she thought she knew from such an incredible new level. She felt her eyes water with an indescribable feeling, overwhelmed with so many emotions.
"It's... I dunno how to... describe it..." she breathed, mystified. "...It's... miraculous."
Fox smiled. "Exactly. There's a feeling to flying... you can do it a million times and it never becomes mundane. Not like cars; you never see someone get a rush going to the mini-mart in one of those things."
"Unless they're Captain Falcon," Zelda pointed out.
"Well he's just an all around exception," he countered, before smiling with genuine bliss and adding "But up here... no buildings... no paved roads... no set way to go... you can make the same journey millions of ways." He sighed in a mixture of emotions. "Pure freedom."
Zelda nodded, letting herself relax a bit, face reclining so she had a viewpoint on Fox. She noticed that he was extremely focused on the flying, but that slowly, his eyes became downcast and his smile followed, as if they were reacting to his thought process. Instinctively, she put a hand on his shoulder gingerly.
He noticed. "Thanks," he replied, his mouth turning up ever so slightly.
She nodded silently as a response. As she watched the vulpine pilot soar through the skies before turning her gaze back to the free skies, she wondered what exactly it was that Fox needed the freedom for so badly right now.
A/N- Chapters 2, 3, 4 and 5 are on Fanfiction- I'll post them here if I get a decent audience.
Hope you enjoyed as much as reviewed!
MoD
