A Choice Beyond Pride

Chapter 1 "Security Guard"

It was a beautifully bright and sunny day in Unikingdom, just as it should've been. Everything was progressing along smoothly, and it seemed impossible for a single problem to arise on such a perfect day.

Unikitty was floating happily around her castle, carefree and joyful as always, humming a merry tune. Although she was in high spirits, things were dragging along fairly slow. There weren't any exciting happenings or princess duties she needed to attend to at the moment, leaving her with nothing to occupy her time.

"Hmm, it sure is quiet around here," noted Unikitty aloud, landing on the floor as she glanced around the colorful room she found herself in. "There's no frowny faces or rainy clouds, everyone's great! But it's sure hard to help anyone or have fun when there's no someone who needs help or someone who wants to have fun."

"Well, actually I could use some help cleaning this floor," said Richard in his monotone voice, gesturing to the ground with his eyes. "There are brooms in the closet. If you could grab one and start cleaning, I'd be finished much sooner..."

Unikitty flew over to a circular window as Richard spoke to her. She rubbed her chin with her paw as she observed her kingdom below, wondering; what fun thing could she do on such a beautiful day? Unikitty was so deep in thought, that she completely neglected Richard's dull toned voice, which easily seeped into the background.

"What to do, what to do..." said Unikitty to herself, thinking long and hard.

"...Then, if you want to have some fun, we could play a game of chess," Richard kept speaking regardless of how little Unikitty was paying attention, "I have several variations, one of them-"

"I KNOW!" exclaimed Unikitty excitedly, cutting off Richard, "I'll go see what Dr. Fox is up to! I mean, she can't be TOO busy, right?"

Richard groaned, "Yeah, sure."

Unikitty began to fly away quickly, "I bet Dr. Fox has some really cool science thing she's working on," she told herself. "After all, she's always doing something in her lab!" She landed on the ground, and suddenly, an opening in the floor appeared underneath her.

She was dropped directly into a colorful, twisty slide, and happily tumbled through it before landing safely on a short conveyor belt. It brought her forward, and she was gently picked up with a claw being operated by one of Dr. Fox's robot servants. It plopped her onto a cushion, which swung her forward onto another cushion, bringing her to a purple elevator. The elevator eventually crashed into the top of a water slide, sending Unikitty flying out. She excitedly sped down the slippery slide, and quickly passed an illuminated sign that read "Lab Entrance." Finally, after the whole process, Unikitty tumbled out a hatch into Dr. Fox's laboratory. She landed safely on her feet, finding herself upon a fluffy rug underneath a cushion, positioned in front of the vast control panel belonging to an advanced computer.

Unikitty walked around a bit, glancing at all the fascinating things she passed by. But the place was almost dead silent; all she could hear was the occasional distant clanking of a machine, and the "beeps" and "blips" of various computers and other technologies.

"Dr. Fox? Dr. Fox~!" called out Unikitty, searching for her orange-furred friend. "What's up, Doc? Where ya at?" 

Suddenly, Unikitty was startled by the intimidating "hi-yah!" of Hawkodile! He practically threw himself in front of her from out of nowhere, threatening to kick her, his foot pointed at her face. Fortunately, he quickly stood down before things could escalate. He realized he had mistaken an unknown presence for a hostile intruder threatening to wreak havoc on the laboratory when it was instead only his friendly, pastel-colored kitty friend he was sworn to protect.

"Whoops, my bad," apologized Hawkodile, embarrassed by his mistake. "I thought you were an intruder here to destroy Dr. Fox's stuff. Sorry."

"That's alright, Hawk! What are you doing in Dr. Fox's lab?" asked Unikitty, surprised to see a tough brute like him in a place of science and engineering.

"Dr. Fox went to go explore Action Forest for her science stuff or something. She said she'd return by sundown," shrugged Hawkodile. "I'm honestly not sure what it was about. But she's relying on me to protect her laboratory while she's gone."

"Wow, that's really great you're helping her out!" praised Unikitty with a beaming smile.

"Yeah, I actually sorta begged to help," admitted Hawkodile with a nervous laugh, rubbing the backside of his head. "First I asked if I could go with her, to be like, her bodyguard or whatever. But she told me it wasn't needed and said I should stay here in case you needed me. So, I guess she's letting me be a security guard instead." He starting speaking as if he was in a dreamy state, "Man, it would've been just the two of us out there, alone in a forest... with no supervision..."

Hawkodile flushed with love at the thought of confessing his feelings for Dr. Fox. He didn't even notice the small sparkle matter cluster above his head; several deep red hearts. The romantic passion he harbored for her had lasted for ages, and he figured out long ago that no number of punches or kicks made it disappear. This was different considering he often effortlessly kept his emotions in check by releasing them onto training equipment, or enemies threatening Unikingdom. But when weeks turned into months and his affections for her still hadn't ceased, he began suspecting it was deeper than a silly crush.

"Um, Hawkodile? Are you alright?" asked Unikitty, observing the hearts hovering over him in perplexity. "You've got a little... something over your head?"

"GAH! Y-Yes, of course," responded Hawkodile, startled. "I'll just... u-uh..." He waved his arms around to shoo the hearts away. They collected on the floor in a small pile, in which he then aggressively crushed to shards with his foot.

Unikitty didn't say anything for a moment, simply staring at the pile of shards with mild concern. "Hawk, could I ask you something?"

"Yeah, what's up?"

"Do you remember when you wanted Dr. Fox to be your Valentine?" 

Hawkodile's face flushed with embarrassment, extremely uncomfortable about having the humiliating topic brought up, "Uh, yeah, why?"

"So, maybe I'm a little crazy asking this," Unikitty chuckled awkwardly and rolled her eyes, "but was there something more going on during that? Like, are you actually really really in love with her?"

"What?! N-No, I swear, that's not-"

"I mean, you two would just be so cute together!" chirped Unikitty, glittering sparkle matter popping from her head, "imagine it: sharing milkshakes, cuddling, frolicking in fields of flowers, all that sweetie-pie lovey-dovey stuff!"

"T-Thank you, Princess, but I'm definitely not in love with her," replied Hawkodile, his fear reflected in his voice and visually shown by the sweat dripping from his forehead, "Now if you'll excuse me, I better patrol the surroundings and make sure no one's gotten inside! Security guard KICK!"

With a kick to the sky and a squawk, he leaped away elsewhere, leaving a small cluster of sparkle matter on the floor where he once stood.

Unikitty was once again left to herself, her boredom increasing with each waking moment. She sat there on the floor in silence for roughly a minute, peacefully observing some of the serums on the shelves. She also picked up some of Hawkodile's sparkle matter to inspect it out of curiosity, still thoughtfully wondering if her trusty bodyguard told the truth.

"Well, I guess I'll just go see what Puppycorn is up to," shrugged Unikitty, beginning to float around the lab, seeking an exit. "Maybe he's stuck in another shoe or having a conversation with Rock Guy. Yeah, maybe that could be fun!"

Suddenly, Unikitty was stopped in her tracks when Richard fazed up from the floor and began speaking to her. "Oh no you don't, I nearly forgot to remind you that there's work to be done," said Richard. "It's your responsibility as Unikingdom's princess, so I hope you'll-"

"Alright alright, I'll do them," assured Unikitty, rolling her eyes with a chuckle. "I'm actually pretty bored, even a chore doesn't sound so bad right now! What's first?"