A Rough Beginning

"Arghhh!" Wolf grunted deeply under his breath, experiencing sharp pains on his left side while also clearly frustrated with the situation he was currently in.

"Hold your arm still Wolf. If you keep twitching it, I can't stitch it up properly." Isabelle said as she was currently in the process of applying first aid to his injured left arm. Wolf had received a deep cut from Ridley during a 4-man team match earlier in the day and had refused go to the medical staff for treatment afterwards. He seemed content on just wrapping medical bandages around it which prompted Isabelle to insist on taking care of the wound the right way.

"You know if you're gonna insist on patching me up you could at least be a little more careful in doing it!" Wolf emphasized with a harsh tone.

"I-I'm sorry, I'm doing the best I can." Isabelle responded nervously while continuing to thread the needle through the open gash. "This is a pretty bad cut too, I still think you should have just gone to the clinic with Young Link and Lucina after the match today."

"As if I'd do that, I don't trust a former plumber to patch up my wounds."

"Um Wolf, you do know Mario hardly works there. In fact, I don't think he's allowed to. Not since it's become common knowledge now that he isn't licensed…a vast majority of the time certified medical professionals are stationed there."

Wolf merely grunted not even wanting to respond. Taking his eyes off of Isabelle, Wolf began staring in front of him with a scowl on his face. His wound was honestly only a small contributing factor to his sour mood. What was really riling him up was the fact that their team had lost the match, which in addition to giving Ridley a spiteful pleasure over their little feud, the opposing team also had Fox on it. Losing to the person whom he considered his rival was something he had always hated and this was no exception.

With this current loss, Wolf and Isabelle's team was set a little lower on the current team ranking. This unfortunately meant Wolf was now lower on the Smash Tournament's overall ranking in both tag-team and singles than Fox. Something he was not pleased with at all.

"Well in any case, after this incident today, hopefully you won't feel inclined to be so aggressive when fighting other combatants." Isabelle said, breaking Wolf out of his little trance.

"What the hell is that supposed to mean?" Wolf responded, taking great offense to what Isabelle just said.

"I just think you might want to be a little more careful in these matches, it's supposed to be a friendly competition, but you and Ridley really got violent with each other."

"DON'T talk to me on how you think I should fight. I personally have more combat experience than a good portion of the people attending this smash event. I'd wager half of the people here have no idea what a real fight is."

"But this tournament isn't supposed to be a death match Wolf. I don't understand why you think you need to try so hard that you'd risk serious injury."

"And that's none of your concern now is it? How I chose to fight within these matches is my own prerogative." Wolf was now getting more aggravated than he already was.

"I'm not gonna sit here and get lectured by someone who stood back only for support. From what I recall you barely pulled your own weight in the match. Don't think you can tell me how I should fight my battles unless you can do more than set up those stupid rocket mines."

There was a brief silence in the room. Isabelle was taken a little back by Wolf's words.

"… I'm sorry, I wasn't trying to lecture you."

"Good" Wolf huffed.

Isabelle just remained silent and continued on. She was just about done, as the formally open cut was now gone with both sides of the wound was now firmly stitched together. The second Isabelle snipped the last bit of excess synthetic medical string from the stitched up wound Wolf immediately stood up from his seat.

"So you're all done I take it?" Wolf said while doing a quick inspection of his closed up wound.

"What? W-wait Wolf, I finished stitching it up but I still need to apply this special medical ointment—"

"No, the cut is all stitched up, you're done!" Wolf said walking over to the door.

"No you don't understand, your stitches are keeping your cut closed up but it can still get infected, I need to apply this ointment over the wou—"

"NO! you're done- now go!"

"But—"

"NOW!" Wolf Shouted opening the door.

What followed was yet another uncomfortable moment of silence. The tension in the room was thick due to Wolf's aggravated mood. Wolf clearly wasn't willing to listen and Isabelle took the hint. Knowing she wasn't wanted here any longer, she got up from her seat and walked over to the door.

Before she left however, Isabelle turned back to Wolf and said "I'm sorry Wolf, I really hope your wound heals up well." And with that she left Wolf's dorm room and made her way down the hallway.

Alone at last, Wolf shut the door and proceed to sit back down starting into space wallowing in his frustrations for the remainder of the day uninterrupted.

Later that night well after all the matches of the day had concluded and most smash participants were in their designated dorm rooms sleeping for the night, Wolf was wide awake as he feverishly tossed and turned in his bed. Trying to rest only to be met with throbbing pain from his arm where his cut was. His cut was fairly numb for most of the day so Wolf didn't think much of it. It was only after the evening rolled around that he started feeling pain.

Reality set in as Wolf realized that had he not ignored this problem (or at least given it a little attention) he likely wouldn't be struggling to deal with this pain. But here he was, drenched in cold sweat with his stitched up wound feeling like it was on fire.

"…Fucking shit, this hurts so damn much…" Wolf growled under his breath and clenching his arm. Concluding that trying to sleep in his current condition was a futile effort, Wolf simply got up deciding it wasn't worth it to still be in bed if he couldn't relax. Thankfully for him he didn't have a match for the next two days, so it didn't matter how little sleep he got.

Wolf made his way over to the bathroom to take a look at his wound. As he turned on the light and looked in the mirror, he was a little shocked at how badly his bandages were stained. When he unwrapped the bandages, he saw that the actual cut itself wasn't much better: covered with dried blood and pus in-between the stitching.

"Damn it." Is all Wolf thought seeing the condition of his arm and proceeded to properly wash it with warm water.

"I swear the next time I face that overgrown newt in match I'm gonna kill him!"

Now fully awake and with the wound cleaned, Wolf decided that he needed a drink, badly. With the night he's had so far, he just wanted something to calm himself down and take his mind off of things. Unfortunately for Wolf, as he began walking through his dorm room to the mini fridge he banged into the coffee table causing him to let out another curse.

What caught his attention however was that the sound of something falling on the ground in front of him. Confused, he picked up what seemed to be a small container and brought it back over the well-light bathroom.

It was the healing ointment Isabelle had left at in his dorm. She likely forgot to take it with her when Wolf practically forced her out of his room earlier in the day. Wolf was so caught up in his own attitude since then that he evidently didn't realize it was still on the table this whole time.

Sighing deeply, Wolf unscrewed the cap to the container and began applying the ointment to his cut. He decided that there was no harm in using it since doing nothing obviously hadn't worked. He had nothing to lose. The process only took about a minute, with the ointment fully applied to his wound and a new set of bandages secured around it, Wolf simply sat down and waited for it to take effect.

After about 7 or so minutes had passed, the pain finally started to subside and was replaced with a slight numb sensation. A sense of relief washed over Wolf's body now that his arm no longer felt like it was being stabbed with a heated iron rod.

Wolf just stared at the container thinking about everything that had happened recently that led up to his current situation. About two weeks ago Wolf had receive an invitation to attend the latest smash tournament, it being dubbed the "Ultimate" compared to all the previous ones.

Although this wasn't his first time participating in Smash, Wolf was still nonetheless surprised to be invited back after only participating once before. Naturally, he eagerly jumped at the chance to take part in a fighting tournament, giving him a little break from his usual life as a mercenary. But upon his arrival he had noticed a lot of things had changed about the smash tournament since he had last been there. For one thing, many newcomers had been invited alongside all of the returning veterans. Many people he didn't recognize or didn't really care to know about.

On top of this, it wasn't just the number of tournament participants that was different, new rulesets were put into play to give more variety to the standard tournament layout. This really didn't bother Wolf so much except for the fact that team battles were now a mandatory part of the tournament. Even worse was that teams were chosen at random which meant Wolf had no say in the matter on who he got paired with for the rest of the time the tournament took place… which brings us to how he got matched up with the newcomer called Isabelle alongside Young Link and Lucina.

He didn't have much interest in conversing with any of his teammates. Wolf would usually split off from the group after any matches they had together. Obviously today in particular was not different, except that he had lashed out at his team's loss even though it wasn't anyone's fault in particular.

Thinking back on this whole situation, Wolf couldn't help but feel a little ashamed with his attitude. He was so blinded by his anger earlier in the day that he stupidly brushed off a serious injury that could have worsened considerably had Isabelle not helped him out like she did. In hindsight Wolf was still a little bewildered that she went through with it given his hostile attitude towards here from the very start.

Realizing that it was far too late in the night to dwell on things any more than he has, Wolf got up and went to go get a beer from his fridge to settle his mood. After a quick swig of the drink, Wolf headed back to the bed room and crashed on his bed.

With only about 3 hours of sleep, Wolf woke up the next day feeling groggy to say the least. After all his fumbling around trying to deal with the pain it was a miracle is was able to get any sleep at all. It was all thanks to that ointment Isabelle accidentally left and because of that Wolf knew what he had to do.

After doing all of the mid-morning necessities such as washing up and getting a cup of coffee to fully wake up, Wolf made his way to Isabelle's room, all the while bracing himself for what he was about to do. It was something he rarely (if ever) did: apologize!

Walking through the hallways where the dorm rooms were located was always a pain at this time in the morning as nearly everyone was scrambling to wake up and get themselves ready for the day ahead. Though not everyone woke up at the same time it didn't change the fact on how congested the hallways got with people walking through them whether they were coming or going. Wolf did his best to keep his head down and maintain a low profile as he didn't have the energy to deal with anyone at the moment.

Aside from catching a few people's attention with his indifferent manner (Including his other teammates, and even his rival Fox), Wolf managed to make it to Isabelle's room with little trouble. Now that he was here, Wolf reluctantly knocked on the door in front of him knowing this was going be an awkward interaction. After the knock, there was a faint "Hang on, I'll be right there." coming from the other side of the Door.

As she opened the door to see who it was, Isabelle was shocked to see Wolf standing in front of her.

"Uh…hey." was all Wolf could utter, still feeling somewhat uneasy about doing this, not knowing how this was going to turn out.

"Oh, ah…hello Wolf…I didn't really expect to see you…at least not until our next team match."

"Here." Wolf said bluntly as he extended his hand out in front of him, holding the ointment container in his hand. "You left this in my room yesterday."

"Oh, thank you Wolf I—ah didn't realize I forgot it." Isabelle replied.

"It worked very well…..I used it sometime after you left"

At this point the uncomfortable tension in the air was getting a little too much for the both of them, though unlike yesterday the tension wasn't born out of hostility but rather the akward nature of the interaction on Wolf's part due to how he was speaking, as if he was forcing himself to do it. Though Isabelle was doing a good job of remaining calm and patient, Wolf unfortunately could only turn his head to the side as to avoid Isabelle's gaze.

"Here's the thing…I…didn't just come by just to give it back to you. I also came here to say…I'm sorry."

The tension settled a little bit as Wolf managed to finally say it. Isabelle was greatly surprised, she was not expecting an apology.

Wolf continued. "I was angry over something trivial and I said some very harsh things I really shouldn't have, this also includes shooing you out of my room when you finished stitching up my left arm. Frankly you weren't obligated to do even that, but you did anyway despite the way I treated you."

As Wolf finished his sentence, Isabelle simply lowered her head slightly, looking as the floor beneath them and remained silent for about minute or two, likely processing Wolf's apology. To her credit, no one could really blame her for her stunned response considering Wolf prior actions.

What caught Wolf's attention at that moment was a faint smile appearing on Isabelle's face.

"Thank you for apologizing Wolf, It means a lot. I'm happy you came by and did it."

Isabelle then pointed towards the ointment Wolf still had in his hand "You should hang on to this for the time being and keep applying it. Your wound will heal much faster if you do. As for what happened yesterday, consider it water under the bridge, we can start fresh as a team when our next team match comes up alright?"

"Yeah…Sounds good to me…." Wolf agreed. "….So….. I suppose I'll be going now, see you around?"

"Yes, I will see you around Wolf." Isabelle replied.

With the awkward apology having been given, Wolf walked off down the hallway as Isabelle waved him goodbye before shutting her door. At this moment Wolf was a little unsure on how his interactions with Isabelle would be from then on, but he could only guess that based on what just happened that this Smash tournament was going to be an interesting experience.

Author's Notes: This beginning chapter came out a little more Wolf centric than I originally intended, with not as much focus put on Isabelle. Sorry for that, but thankfully this will not be the case for later chapters. With that being said, I still think It was a good start to the story with a solid set up. Also, as a heads up, chapters will vary in length before I fully settle into multi-chapter plots.

Lastly, I want to give a special thanks to my good friend Jonathan Yee who drew me the pictured used for the Fic's Icon. You can find him on twitter under his name.