Chapter 12:
Fox woke up in the middle of the night, disturbed by a terrifying nightmare. She dreamt of Alice returning, and killing Dragon in front of her.
Fox acknowledged that she probably won't be able to sleep normally, so she decided to take a short walk around the bunker. Standing up and walking up to the door, she heard footsteps in the corridor. She slowly opened the window to find Dragon out in the corridor. Fox could easily tell by his awkward walking that he wasn't awake. She debated whether following him was a good idea, but when disappeared at the end of the corridor, Fox finally made the decision to follow him.
She placed her steps carefully on the iron floor, making sure she didn't make any noise. She walked in a crouching position, should anyone else notice her. Dragon snored quite loudly, but those snores were followed by cute “rawr”s - Fox struggled to keep herself calm over that. She reall wished she had some kind of camcorder. She regained her cool as they passed by Ryan's office. Fox could hear him talking on the phone, but couldn't make out what was being said. Dragon carried on walking, as if he was in a completely different world. As they left Ryan's office behind them, Fox started worrying as she heard Dragon whisper faintly:
“They left… Me to die...”
Suddenly, they came to a large door. Fox expected Dragon to walk into it and wake up, but instead, he simply lightly pushed it open. Fox stared at the destroyed lock in horror, before looking at the things behind the door. There, she saw the beautiful night sky with shining stars and the glowing full moon. She looked around and saw the bunker was in a countryside area. Fox found strong relief in being away from the city crowds.
Suddenly, she saw Dragon walk out into the open moonlight. In an instant, Dragon woke up from his dream.
“Wha...?” he shook his head, confused. “Where am I...?”
“Are you ok?” Fox asked. Dragon’s head snapped round and looked at Fox. He smiled clemently and sighed.
“I am now.”
They sat down on the ground, leaning against the bunker wall and staring at the sky.
“How did you even manage to get to sleep?” Fox asked, “I thought your nightmares wouldn't let you sleep.”
“I just tried dreaming of a perfect world,” Dragon replied, “Or at least one where the Enhanced were deemed normal by society and where you and I…” Dragon didn't finish his sentence, but Fox knew very well what he was trying to say.
“Do you remember anything from your trance?” Fox asked, changing the subject.
“No. For some reason, I don't remember anything.”
Fox shrugged. She looked up at the starry sky above.
“I love being away from the city. I feel… Free, and happy.”
“I fully understand,” Dragon replied, cuddling her. “I feel that way too.”
Fox stared into his wild green eyes, Dragon stared into her eyes of crackling amber. They moved closer together, inching their faces towards each other. Fox felt the tension building up inside her.
What am I doing?! She thought. I never expected this to take such a drastic turn!
Fox battled the urge, but her mind was soon left powerless against her instincts. Their eyes closed as their lips met and kissed passionately. After a minute, Fox’s head snapped away from his.
“I’m sorry,” she said, her face glowing red.
“What are you sorry for?” Dragon asked calmly, yet he seemed quite surprised.
“I couldn't stop myself. It's all really a surprise to me, I mean my emotions towards you and all.”
He leaned in towards her.
“Fox, trust me, I didn't feel comfortable with my emotions for you at first either. I, the ‘brave’ Dragon Noir, was scared of what I felt for you.”
They smiled at each other, before Fox moved back closer to him. As she laid her head on his muscular chest, she felt his strong heartbeat was very relaxed and slow. Dragon’s head fell lightly onto her shoulder. He whispered into her ear:
“I love you Fox.”
Fox started tearing up.
“I love you too.”
Before they knew it, they were asleep.
***
“Excuse me…?”
They were woken by a tall man, he couldn't have been older than Dragon. He had fox ears like Fox and looked pretty much like a male version of Fox costume-wise. He also looked strangely familiar to Fox. She stood up. The man was a bit taller than her.
“Who are you?” she demanded.
“Oh, I don't really have a name… I forgot it when I became Enhanced… That's what it's called right?”
“Yes, it is,” Fox replied. As she did, Male-Fox’s eyes widened, as if in realisation. Dragon tilted his head in confusion, still sitting on the ground.
“You ok there?” Dragon asked, a note of suspicion played in his voice. Male-Fox snapped out of his trance.
“Oh… Yeah, I'm fine. You can call me Fox, if that suits yo-”
“It doesn't,” Fox cut in. “Because my name is already Fox.”
“Oh…”
“How about ‘Vixen’?” Dragon suggested. Fox rolled her eyes and sighed at his stupidity. Male-Fox responded exactly the opposite.
“That sounds like a nice name!” he smiled. “From now on, you can call me Vixen.”
Fox found it hard to believe a male fox agreed to be called ‘Vixen’, but she kept her opinion to herself.
“I'm Dragon, nice to meet you Vixen,” Dragon stood up and shook his hand happily. Fox really questioned his state of mind, but, again, stayed quiet. Suddenly, Jack and Jane appeared in the entrance to the bunker, they sighed in relief to see Dragon and Fox in one piece.
“Jesus, you two!” Jack said abruptly. “Care to turn up to breakfast on our first morning here?”
“Wait, what time is it?” Fox asked.
“It's nearly 11:00, meaning it's almost an hour past breakfast time.”
Fox and Dragon looked at each other with their eyes wide open in shock.
“Who's that new friend of yours?” Jane asked.
“I'm Vixen,” Vixen spoke out.
“Jack and Jane, nice to meet ya,” Jack responded.
“We'll take him to Ryan, you two go eat something. You must be pretty hungry,” Jane said. Fox tried to decipher what that was supposed to mean implicitly, but couldn't find anything other than Jane hoping she chokes on her food. Even then, it made Fox want to rip Jane's insides out.
They went to the cafeteria as they were instructed and were given hardly a 5-star breakfast: from what Fox could understand, it was probably supposed to be porridge, but looked like an ostrich threw up on a plate. Dragon, on the other hand, got a meatier breakfast in the form of a half-cooked steak. Dragon was forced to cook it up a bit more with his fire breath. The cafeteria itself was pretty unnerving; its walls were murky green and there was barely any ventilation. It was quite large, though Fox could tell that there couldn't be enough people in such a small bunker to fill the cafeteria.
Once they started their meal, Fox decided to talk to Dragon. The porridge didn't really taste that bad, but those were the unused leftovers from breakfast.
“You know,” she started, “You were whispering things in your sleep.”
Dragon looked up at her and stopped blowing.
“Really?” he replied. “What kind of things?”
“If I remember correctly, you said that someone left you to die.”
Dragon raised his eyebrow.
“Hm, don't know what that could mean, to be perfectly honest.”
“I don't know either and I don't think I want to know.”
Fox looked towards the entrance to the cafeteria, where she saw Jane and Jack. She stood up and said to Dragon,
“I'll be back in a second.”
Dragon nodded in response and Fox walked over to Jack and Jane. When she got there, Fox looked right in Jane's eyes.
“Could I speak to you for a minute?” she asked, Jane nodded slowly in response. Jack could sense something bad was going to happen.
“You'll come talk to me first,” he said. Fox sighed but complied. She and Jack walked away from Jane and began their ‘chat’:
“I'm only planning on telling her to stay away from Dragon,” Fox admitted.
“Then do that and make sure you don't hurt- sorry, I meant, kill her.”
Fox scowled at him playfully.
“I won't kill her or hurt her physically. Maybe emotionally, but that's not that bad.”
“Fox, I'm being serious. Don't cross the line with this.”
“Ugh, fine. Anything else?”
“If you're going to be trying to keep Dragon for yourself, at least flirt back to him,” Jack chuckled as he walked over to Dragon. Fox shook her head, smiling. She walked back to Jane and invited her out of the cafeteria and into a nearby storage room.
After closing the door, Fox turned to face Jane,
“Just who do you think you are?” she asked.
“Excuse me? What's your problem?” Jane snapped.
“You're my problem! You're trying to steal Dragon for yourself!”
“So what if I am? Don't get involved and you might come out in one piece.”
“Are you threatening me? Did I hear that correctly? I'll be mopping the floor with your face by the time I'm done with you!”
“Fox, you're really not as strong as you think you are, so stop dreaming.”
Fox was about to retort, when she caught a familiar smell.
He's listening. She thought, I might as well carry on.
“Jane, no matter how many times weaker I am than Dragon, I am still stronger than you and I will not let you come between us!”
“Don't play innocent! I know what you said when you heard me and Dragon talking last night!”
“So what? You were never there when he went through dire times. You were never there to pull him back to his feet when he fell. Who was there? I was. Now, do us a favour and leave. Dragon. Alone.”
Fox stormed out of the room, she was shocked to find Dragon gone. He wasn't in the cafeteria either. She suddenly realised where he was.
Fox knocked on the iron door, the empty monotone noise resonated across the corridor. Shortly after, a voice called from behind the door,
“Come in!”
She opened the door slowly and peeked in. Dragon laid on his bed lazily, his costume was tight enough to see he was clearly flexing his chest muscles. Fox smiled at him as she entered and closed the door slowly behind her.
“I'm guessing you heard most of my conversation with Jane?”
“Quite a lot of it, yes,” Dragon replied. “You did go a bit overboard with your threats. Although, I'd say that the whole thing was pointless.”
Fox raised an eyebrow.
“Why do you say that?”
“If I were to choose between you and Jane, I'd choose you any day.”
Fox threw him an amused and suspicious look.
“Are you saying that just to get on my good side?”
Dragon tilted his head slightly and smiled innocently.
“Maaaybe,” he said. Fox chuckled. Dragon got off his bed and walked closer to Fox. “Wanna go outside and repeat last night? Without the sleepwalking and all, of course.”
“Maybe tomorrow,” Fox replied. She decided to change the subject. “I'm going to see Vixen now.”
“Oh, can I come with you?”
“Sure, let's go.”
They arrived at Ryan's office a few seconds later. Ryan was just organising his office, placing paperwork into organised folders. He was clearly annoyed to be disturbed by Dragon and Fox.
“Where's Vixen's room?” Fox asked straight-up.
“Just down the corridor and to the right from where you stand,” Ryan explained. “You'll recognise it, mainly because the guy talks to himself quietly.”
“We don't know what he's been through, so let's not make fun of him yet,” Dragon said.
“I wasn't making fun of him: I was stating by what features you'll find his room. Now, skedaddle, I've got paperwork to organise.”
“Ok, thanks,” Fox replied.
The duo returned to their corridor and listened out for Vixen's voice. Suddenly, Fox heard it, extremely faintly.
“I can hear him!” Fox said.
“Do you know where he is?” Dragon asked.
“Not yet, give me a moment.”
Suddenly, Fox heard something audible from Vixen. Instantly, she knew she shouldn't have heard it.
“I finally found her… I never knew she was still alive… I'm not alone anymore…”
Author's Note: Yep, it's a thing: Dragon rawrs in his sleep. Anyways, I hope you enjoyed this chapter and I hope you'll like what I have planned for QSS!
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