Behind the Curtains

Chapter 17 - Please Cheer Up, Lass

After entering the room, Foxy made his way up to the stage with each heavy stomp he made. In his anger, he was ready to rip the curtain right off the hooks, he quickly stops himself, realizing what he's doing. Thinking about how worried and possibly scared Kitten might be, he slowly starts to calm himself down, taking quiet and slow breaths. Feeling ready to enter, Foxy pulls open the curtain and steps up onto the stage. The pirate looks forward and sees his first mate cuddling up to his jacket. The image makes him chuckle knowing she hasn't seen him yet. "Are ye cheatin' on me, lassy?" he jokingly asks.

Kitten perks up the second she hears her captain's voice. After returning from the vents, she saw his jacket and couldn't help herself but to cuddle up with it. The smell and the feeling of the soft fabric against her face make her feel slightly dazed, imagining him sleeping in the same hammock as her. She looks up at him with a very deep blush. "N-No! Never!" she retorts, throwing the jacket behind her to hide the "evidence."

Foxy continues to chuckle. "I'm jus' pull'n yer leg, lass," he says as he walks over to her, then sits down beside her, pulling one leg up and resting his arm on his knee. "That could 've gone better."

Kitten crosses her legs and holds both of her ankles as she questions him. "Oh? What happened?"

"Eh... Same old, same old. Freddy jus' thinks I need to be more protective of ya." He looks at her a little worried. "Ye don' think I'm too bad do ye?"

She shakes her head quickly. "Of course not. You're amazing!" replies with a blushing smile.

The male smiles back at his first mate. "Thank ye, lass. Freddy's jus' too ol' fashioned..."

"I'm sorry for causing a bunch of problems..." Kitten apologizes, laying her head on his shoulder.

"Arrrr, ye only doin' what ye think is best. So don' worry 'bout anythin', got it?"

"Well... I guess. I just feel bad for all the trouble I've caused everyone... Especially between you and Freddy... I'm sure he wasn't happy with me interfering with last night's shift..." Upon saying this, the feline's ears fall sadly.

"Arg! That blubber of fur gets angry at everythin'." Foxy moves his hand up to her head and ruffles up her hair, causing it to look a little messy. He smiles down at her with a genuine, fatherly look. "So don' think ye did anythin' at all. He'll leave ya alone soon enough, lass."

Kitten keeps her face away from his view to hide her blush, which she can feel grow hotter, and possibly redder, each time he speaks to or touches her. "A-Alright captain."

Foxy slips his hand off her head and, seeing how messed up he made her hair, he can't help but let out a hearty laugh. Turning his head away from her, Kitten moves her head off his shoulder to look up at him with a confused expression. "Wh-What's so funny?" she asks, her ears twitching curiously.

The pirate looks back at his first mate with an entertained smile, though he tries to hide it with his hand. "Y-Yer hair...!" he exclaims through his laughs.

With a sudden realization, the female pirate quickly grabs the male's hook and holds it up to see her reflection in it. Her eyes widen a bit to see parts of her hair sticking out in a weird way. "Naaa!!" she squeals while quickly running her fingers through her hair in an attempt to fix it. After she feels like her hair is straight again, she lowers her head, blushing in embarrassment.

Slowly calming his laughter down after a few moments of fun, he begins to take a few breaths in and out to calm down the rest of the way. The pirate wipes his eyes with his good hand, then turns to his side to look at the embarrassed redhead. "Haaa... Ahh, that's what I needed. Thank ya, lass. Ye certainly know how to put a smile on them faces," he says in an attempt to make her feel a bit less flushed.