STH: Sugar and Spice

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Sugar and Spice
by Tearra WS

"We dance round in a ring and suppose, While the secret sits in the middle and knows"
--- Robert Frost

The huge owl-faced statue lumbered forward, thirty feet tall, thrusting with its massive spear.  The blue hedgehog in red sneakers it attacked was busy buffing his nails unconcernedly as the great weapon plunged towards him, then disappeared in a blue streak moments before the statue created a crater in the worked stone floor.

"Ha!  You're as slow as you are ugly!" taunted Sonic, as he zipped in a circle around the stone guardian, whipping up a small whirlwind in the massive underground Mandara temple.  The dust picked up from the floor, from the crater, slipping past the rows of support columns and down from the stone altar upon which an item lay wrapped in decaying cloth and adorned with centuries of dust, revealing only a faint glow from beneath the rot and dirt.  The statue hesitated at the speed, lifting its spear again, but unsure where to attack.

"Too easy," continued Sonic, "I'm gonna get bored, here!"  He had swapped to running backwards, leaning back against the dash with his hands tucked behind his head.  His expression turned to one of surprise, though, when he saw three small Cheetah statues had joined the fight, three times his size and gaining on him quickly.  "Spoke too soon," he amended.  "That's more like it!"  He turned around and poured on the speed, testing just how fast the mystic statues could run.

"W-w-what is to be happening?" stammered Antoine, the cowardly fox hiding just inside the small hole they had used to gain access into the temple.  His royal guard uniform blew backwards, the colors fading as the whipped-up dust cloud coated him lightly.

Before him, Princess Sally stood behind one of the columns, the royal ground squirrel wearing her old blue vest and boots as she tapped carefully at a small palm-sized supercomputer named Nicole.  "Not sure, Antoine," she replied, "This is fascinating!  Some sort of energy field is surrounding those statues, animating them!  What sort of power is this?"

Bunnie 'Rabbot' D'Coolette, wearing her standard lavender jumpsuit, peeked around the edge of the massive column to try and see the fight through the debris and dust.  The great statue was still waiting for a perfect opportunity to attack, and Sonic briefly appeared to give it one, perching on the back of one of the cheetah statues while the statue slowed down to try to buck the hedgehog off.  The spear created another crater in the floor, but both Sonic and the cheetah had dodged the attack.  "Aw, man!" cried Sonic, "That trick always works!"

"Maybe those ol' orange gems in theah collars has something to do with it," suggested Bunnie.  "They only started a-glowin' once the ol' sugah-hog rushed in."

"You may be right," agreed Sally.  "Nicole, analysis?"

"92% probability factor, Sally," replied Nicole with a calm, synthesized female voice.  "And a 99.83% probability that Sonic, my main hedgehog, will be way past too cool for the statues."  The computer delivered the entire line in the same measured, emotionless voice.

Sally sighed.  "I need to keep Sonic away from you," she declared.  "He's a bad influence on your programming."  She turned to the half-cybernetic rabbit at her side, smiling to her trusted Lady-in-Waiting.  "Bunnie, think you can get at those collars?"

"S'all I needed to heah, Sallygirl!" cried Bunnie, hefting her robotic arm and leaping into the fray.  Her metal fist retracted into her robot arm, which cracked in several places around the edge and expanded, the electronics within reconfiguring themselves into a smooth barrel-shaped cannon that held a deep blue glow as it powered up.  The statue stumbled a half-step as she got its attention with a glancing energy shot to its head.

"Whoooo-ee!  These things ah tough!" she declared, her legs extending and spreading to let her avoid the statue's massive spear, straddling the resultant crater.  Her legs quickly retracted once more and the nimble rabbit ran up along its shaft to get to the statue's arm, then shoulder.  The slow statue clumsily slapped at her, but she hopped, flipped, and jumped past the ponderous blows without a worry.

"Perfect," declared Sally.  "They're all distracted.  Tails, your turn!  Get the rod, it should control the statues!"

Behind a nearby pillar was another orange fox, tall and lanky, wearing a blue t-shirt with a white starburst on the chest.  Two long tails raised behind this fox, which gave a quick shake to get the dust out of them.  His long, shoulder-length hair whipped around his face in the fierce winds created from the ongoing battle.  The young fox had grown a lot in the years since they had all been Freedom Fighters.  "Yessir, Sally!" he cried, his voice still young and high-pitched despite his growth spurts.  The twin tails twisted around each other to wind up, then shifted into a blurred orange and white disc as they spun in the other direction, lifting the fox teen into the air.

The fox flew easily and quickly over the commotion, dodging a few flying shards of stone as Bunnie's arm cannon blew apart one of the stone giant's fingers.  Bunnie leapt from her new perch on the giant's shoulder to try to grab at the yellow stone hanging from his collar, but the giant caught her in a quick brush of its massive hand and knocked her to the side.  As she tumbled through the air, a port in each of her heels opened up, then jets of flame spurted out, stabilizing her out-of-control tumble and flying her back up towards the statue.  "Well, y'all should learn nevah tah hit a lady!" she declared, her cannon re-configuring itself into a fist once again, which she then used to deliver a rocket-assisted uppercut to the massive statue, sending it stumbling backwards with a network of cracks across its chin, nearly stepping on a blue blur that was zipping past behind him.

Sonic barely avoided the massive foot, but the stone cheetah chasing him wasn't nearly so lucky.  It got buried into the stone floor as it got stepped on, though the other two cheetahs split apart and flew past one on each side of the foot, hot on the hedgehog's tail.  "Ha!  That's what happens when you mess with the hedgehog!" Sonic declared.  As the giant's foot moved away, the buried Cheetah pried itself out of the floor and gave itself a shake, small stone shards dropping out of the web of cracks all over its form.  "Heeey!" objected Sonic.  "That's not fair!  That's just rude!"

Tails slipped past all the commotion and flew up to the altar, satisfied that all the guardians were busy with Sonic and Bunnie.  He hovered carefully above the altar, not wanting to set off any trapped floor panels, and his white-gloved hands brushed carefully away at the wrapped, glowing object.  The rot and dirt fell away to reveal a golden scepter with an orange stone set into it, a stone of the same color as the gems glowing on the collars of the statues.  Tails seized it and lifted it high.  "I got it!" he cried.  He pointed the scepter at the statues.  "Stop!"

The statues completely failed to respond.

"Freeze!" cried Tails. "Hold it!  Brakes!  No fighting!  Stop it!"  Sonic ducked under one diving cheetah and leapt over a second, then sidestepped the third, wiping his forehead.  The massive statue grabbed Bunnie right out of the air, and she screamed as it started to crush her, barely keeping its fist partly open with one leg and her robot arm.  "Sally!  It's not working!" Tails wailed.

"You are to be letting go of my her!" cried Antoine.  A bright flash flared as his sword cut across the statue's knuckles, cutting them neatly from its hand, leaving Bunnie to drop heavily to the ground.  Antoine landed between her and the statue, his sword held at the ready before him, the charged blade crackling with energy.  "Your fingers are much too much dirty for such a lady!"

Bunnie got to her feet, rubbing at her behind.  "Ouch... ah think ah landed on mah pride.  Thanks, sugah-twan," she drawled, kissing Antoine's cheek with a fond little smile.  "Let's take him out!"

"Oui Oui!" said Antoine enthusiastically.  "But how are we to be doing it?"

"Ah'm thinkin' ah'll have to try mah fastball!" said Bunnie, picking up Antoine and winding up.

"Wait!" cried Antoine, shaking once again.  "I am not thinking I am liking this plan very muuuUUuUUUUUCH!" he screamed as she threw him through the air.  Still shaking, still screaming in terror, he readied his sword.  The statue tried to block him, but it wasn't used to missing its fingers just yet, and Antoine flew past the severed digits.  His sword flashed, and the collar fell, neatly severed from the massive stone neck.

The statue shuddered to a stop, and freezing for several moments, then slowly, ponderously started to topple over.  Antoine slowed in his flight up near the top of the temple's vast ceiling, then started to fall once more, screaming in terror.  Tails flew past and snagged Antoine, grunting as he held tightly to the other fox's tail.  "I got you!" cried Tails.

"Oh, Merci, Merci, Monsieur Tails!" stammered Antoine.  "You are half past too cool!"

"Sonic, look out!" cried Sally, as the statue fell towards the speeding hedgehog.

Sonic looked up and saw the toppling statue, his eyes widening as he slipped out of the way.  "Past cool!" he exclaimed.  "How'd you do it?"

"It's the collars!" Sally replied.  "You gotta get rid of the collars!"

"Collars?" asked Sonic, perplexed.  He glanced back at the cheetahs.  "Oh!  Collars!  Right!  Figure-8 time!"

Sonic leapt into the air and his blurring feet took on a new pattern, from a circle into a figure-8, his speed doubling.  In a blur of motion, he sped past the three cheetahs, then ended up resting casually against a column as they surrounded him.  "Missing something?" he asked, holding up three collars in one hand.  The cheetahs all looked at each other, then realized that the collars in Sonic's hand were theirs, and fell motionless to the floor.

o o O O ( ) ( ) O O o o

The sun shone down bright and hot over the lush green forest, the mountain a massive spire of rock incongruously intruding itself into the otherwise mild roll of hill and forest.  A great face half-covered in moss and vine stared blindly out over the forest, a spout of sparkling, cold water pulling itself up out of deep under the earth by ancient forces to become the source of a river whose name had been lost for centuries.  Fat, round birds flew lazily past, and hidden spiders set up a loud, continuous noise not too dissimilar to cricket chirps, the entire region untouched by civilization until today.

A bulbous transport rested at the edge of the lake underneath the face, big enough for a half-dozen Mobians to sit in comfortably, near to where the sceptre lay on a rock being scanned by Nicole.  The small group of Mobians were cooling off and relaxing a bit in the lake, escaping the heat in the cold, spring-fed water.  Not one Mobian would resent this particular group a moment of relaxation, for they comprised some of the biggest heroes of Mobius.  Between the lot of them, they had freed Mobius from the grip of the evil Robotnik six years ago.  Though there had not been much in the way of battle since then, it had nonetheless been rough going, rebuilding after such a complete and total destruction of society.

These six still pulled more than their fair share of the work, even Sonic having finally started calming down.  These archeological expeditions to Mobius's absurdly large number of ancient sites served many purposes.  Aside from scholarly interest, the ancient sites often held relics of great power, many of which were already in use cleaning the horrible pollution still staining the city once known as Robotropolis.  The recovered knowledge also was allowing a school of mages to form amongst the survivors, though none were yet able to match the powers of even the Journeymen of two decades ago.  This, combined with the technological skills of many of the Mobians, allowed them to make a small pocket of the city livable for those few who still possessed flesh and blood instead of steel and oil.  And, of course, there was the constant hope that some ancient artifact would allow the vast numbers of Robians to regain their original bodies.

For these six, however, the most important reason to go on these trips was to relieve the stress weighing upon them to rebuild civilization.

Rotor, the massive walrus and unassuming technological genius, was most at home in the water, heading far out into the lake to explore its depths.  He had been the one to find the secret entrance to these particular ruins, hidden underneath a submerged shelf of rock.  He hadn't gone in with them, though.  Action didn't appeal as much to the bulky mechanic, and Rotor had instead stayed behind with the hoverpod to keep an eye on things.  He darted swiftly through the dark depths of the lake, chasing down the large fish concealed in the calm lake waters.

Princess Sally Acorn floated lightly on her back on an inflatable raft in the water, a large pair of sunglasses shading her closed eyes as she luxuriated in the unusual activity of sheer relaxation - a blissful rest that was disturbed as Sonic the Hedgehog came running past, his unnatural speed allowing him to skim over the surface of the water till he reached her, sending up a great spray that capsized her raft and sent her sputtering.  While she was still trying to get her breath, Sonic dropped under the water and started tickling at her mischievously.  Her shrieks echoed all the way to the shore.

General Antoine D'Coolette, head of the city guard and royal bodyguard, had finally left the side of his wife Bunnie to cool himself off with a languid swim, not indulging in the horseplay the others were in, but setting out across the lake and back with a lazy but fast stroke.  He kept a sense of noble self-possession about himself that was not disrupted even by the waves of Sonic's several super-speed passes.

Bunnie herself, as hot as anyone, was stuck up on the shore and in the shallows, her heavy metal limbs making her unable to enjoy the water like everyone else.  Super strength meant very little in the water, and she'd sink like a stone if she went in any deeper.  She held her sleeping infant son close to her, making sure his large bunny ears weren't getting sun burnt, and that his thick and bushy foxtail, curled round his tiny form, wasn't making him overheat.  The sleeping bunny / fox crossbreed held tightly to Bunnie's robot finger, a soft scene that failed to reveal the insane strength that the infant possessed.  That tiny grip could bring grown men to their knees.  Sonic and Sally's infant daughter and heir to the throne was back at home, being watched over by Aunt Lupe and Uncle Chuck.

Miles "Tails" Prower walked along through the shallows with Bunnie, wearing the oversized blue t-shirt he had gained an affectation for a couple years back.  His two long fox tails, never still, waved sinuously behind him, slightly lifting the back of the thigh-length t-shirt.  While the rest of them had grown into adults, their features maturing, Miles had finally hit puberty.  He was much taller and leaner, though his face was still very young and his voice had not yet broken.  He had grown his hair out long, some of it falling over his face, most of it spilling uncontrolled over his shoulders.

Here, though, Bunnie couldn't help but notice that his face seemed troubled, his gaze never leaving Sally and Sonic.  Bunnie suspected that Tails held a great crush for the princess, but had never said anything because he knew how much his hero Sonic had loved the noble lady.  Now, of course, there would never be a chance.  Tails had stood Best Man at Sonic's wedding, but his heart looked to be in rebellion with his brain.

"Sugahfox, y'all don't have ta stay out heah with me," she drawled lightly to Tails, smiling warmly to him.  "Y'all can go out and have a bit of a swim, ah'll be fine."

Tails's eyes turned to Bunnie, and the troubled expression disappeared as he gave a roguish grin, the grin that was, at least partly, the cause of the many young girls who followed him around with hopeless love in their eyes, dropping poems into his mailbox and generally sighing happily whenever the bishi kitsune tossed his hair out of his face.  Bunnie could still see that hidden pain deep in his eyes, however.

"That's all right, Aunt Bunnie," he replied quietly, smiling to her.  "I don't much feel like swimming today.  Maybe next time."

"Y'all never go swimming with them anymore," Bunnie reproached, "not like y'all used to.  And y'all always say 'next time'."  Tails shrugged helplessly, glancing away briefly.  "Maybe if y'all invited one of the lovely ladies who are so interested in y'all?" Bunnie suggested playfully.

Tails scowled and shook his head, looking away from Bunnie towards the forest.  "None of them are very interesting," he said seriously.  "They all hid during Robotnik's time.  None of them are very bright, or capable.  They think it was all a big game."

Bunnie nodded a little, considering Tails.  He had always been the one to think it was a game, at the time, but Robotnik had stolen childhood from most of them.  With Tails having been as young as he had been, it was harder for him to find an age-mate who understood what he had been going through, here in Mobotropolis where the main fight had been.

"Ah'm just worried about ya, sugahfox," Bunnie drawled.  "Ye're kinda drawin' away from folks.  Sonic mentioned that y'all stopped going fer morning runs with him, right 'round when y'all stopped comin' tah Martial Arts classes with me."

Tails frowned.  "I've just been busy, what with school and all."  Bunnie started to say something more, but Tails quickly broke in and continued, "I'm gonna go for a walk, okay?  We can go for this later."  He crouched slightly over the water and his tails lifted, giving a quick shake to spray water droplets from them before disappearing into a blurred disc of motion.  The fox lifted up into the air and flew off low over the trees gracefully, heading downstream from the lake with his oversized t-shirt flaring around him.

Bunnie sighed as she watched him fly off.  Sometimes he seemed fine, the happy child he had used to be, that impish grin always on his face.  He would have responded to Bunnie's gentle prodding with a joke about how many mothers he seemed to have, trying to get him to start dating.  Other times, he seemed so moody and easily offended, the slightest jibe sending him off to sulk on his own.  She supposed that was just puberty, some phase he was going through.  She wished there was something she could do - it was far too beautiful a day for him to be grumpy.

Downstream, Tails found himself skimming through light and shadows, an angry expression on his face.  It wasn't Bunnie's fault, he told himself - she was just trying to help.  She was always so kind, a soft heart underneath her strong demeanor.  If anyone would understand, it would be her.  He wished he could tell her -

But no.  No one could help him.  He landed and panted softly, wiping at his forehead.  It was too darn hot out to fly for too long.  He scowled up at the sky, shading his eyes with one hand.  "Wish I could go swimming," he murmured.  He glanced upstream briefly, considering.  He could never be too careful - Sonic could appear with barely a warning except a brief whining noise - but Sonic was playing with Sally, and she was the one thing that could keep Sonic's attention.  None of them could see him from the lake.

He stepped over to the river, hopping down a few large rocks with his tails giving a brief flutter to slow his descent, the fox floating from rock to rock with the slow grace of a leaf on the wind, till he found himself near the bottom of a small 8-foot waterfall.  Taking one last glance around, he shrugged, pulled off his oversized t-shirt and the rest of his clothes, and waded out into the stream to soak himself under the blissfully cool waterfall.

The cool water quickly refreshed the kitsune, and Tails found himself regretting his behavior towards Bunnie.  He wished he wasn't so touchy lately, and mentally went through the calming techniques that always accompanied Bunnie's martial arts lessons.  Between the soothing water and familiar mental exercises, Tails quickly felt himself finding peace once again.

He stepped out of the waterfall again and shook himself, spraying water all over.  He was soaked - he couldn't put on his t-shirt like this.  He would dry out and then head back to apologize to Bunnie.  Finding a large, sunny rock at the river's edge, he laid down and closed his eyes, feeling the sun's warmth on his face, seeing the red glow past his eyelids as he let the sun dry his thick fur.

Perhaps it was the peace, perhaps it was the warmth of the rock and the sun, and perhaps it was the exertion of earlier, but Tails lost a half-hour to the pleasant afternoon in a cozy half-doze.  He completely failed to notice the rustling approach through the woods until he heard Bunnie gasp above him as she reached the top of the waterfall.

Tails leapt to his feet, his paws moving to cover his body, crying out an automatic, "Don't look-" but he cut it off short, an anguished expression on his face as he realized the cybernetic rabbit couldn't have possibly missed his secret.  His fur wasn't as fluffy and concealing as it normally was, thanks to the soaking a half-hour earlier, and his paws couldn't hide the soft curves of a swelling feminine chest and hips the way the thick fur and oversized t-shirt could.

"Tails," gasped Bunnie, "Y'all are a girl!"

Tails gulped softly and looked down at herself, her eyes misting.  She grabbed up a length of bandage that was coiled atop the discarded t-shirt, moving as if to wrap it around her chest, then sighed and seemed to collapse inwards, her hands dropping into her lap along with the bandages.  "I ... that is ... you ... this ..."

Bunnie's legs extended so that she could step down off of the 8-foot rock face as easily as if it were one step in a staircase, easily coming down beside Tails as the fox curled her knees up before her chest, hugging at them as the tears soaked her cheekfur.

"That relic y'all grabbed must have done this," drawled Bunnie, setting her hand on Tails's shoulder.  "Don't worry yerself, sugahfox.  We'll go tell Sallygirl an' all.  Ah'm sure we'll figure out how to reverse-"

"NO!" cried Tails quickly, grabbing at Bunnie as if the lapine were about to run off right at that moment, her scared eyes moving up to stare helplessly at Bunnie.  "Don't tell anyone!  It's not... it wasn't that, it's ..."  she trailed off again, pain deep in her eyes, pain and fear, and then she looked downwards again, unable to get any words out past the lump in her throat.

Bunnie let her hand rest on Tails shoulder, murmuring, "It's okay, sugahfox... It's okay... I won't tell anyone."  She wasn't sure what was going on, but it was obvious Tails was about to tear himself apart out of fear of ... something.  He looked so different.  His face was feminine, now, his voice, even choked with tears, was so ...

It was the same.

The face was the same, too.  As Tails sobbed silently, the fox's shoulders shaking, Bunnie's eyes widened a little more as she started connecting the dots.  Tails' sudden self-consciousness about being seen without clothes.  The way he was growing up in some ways - but not other ways.  His face wasn't young, it was feminine.  His voice wasn't young, it was feminine.  The way Tails had been withdrawing from his friends.  His lack of interest in the girls fawning over his every word.  His periodic moodiness.

"Tails, honey... how long-" she started to ask, then paused.  Starting again, she asked, very quietly, "Always?"

Tails nodded, pulling her knees in tighter.  Bunnie sat down behind Tails and rested her cheek against the orange-furred shoulder, her arms, one flesh and one metal, wrapping ever so delicately around the terrified young vixen.  "It's all right, sugah.  Y'all don' need to be scared of me.  I'm sure y'all had a good reason..."

Tails spun around and grabbed at Bunnie, sobbing even more viciously, her arms wrapping around Bunnie in return as she pulled herself into Bunnie's understanding embrace.  She tried to say something through the tears, but it just lost itself into an unintelligable wail.  Bunnie just sat there making soothing noises, her fingers softly running through Tails' hair, then through the shoulder fur where the hair ended, then down through the lush fur of Tails' back.  For minutes, neither of them moved, the small vixen shaking with fierce sobs, released fears from years worth of secrets.

Finally, the sobs slowed, and then died, Tails sniffling softly, and then finally drawing away from Bunnie slowly, bashfully.  "I'm sorry,  Aunt Bunnie" she whispered.  "I'm sorry for ... for ... for everything ..."

Bunnie shook her head and touched lightly at Tails' chin, lifting up Tails' gaze to her own face.  "No," she assured the small fox, "There's nothin' for y'all to be sorry of.  Y'all have obviously been in pain over this.  Why don't y'all tell me all about it?"  She drew a handkerchief out of nowhere and offered it to the sobbing vixen.

Tails sniffed and smiled nervously at Bunnie, taking the handkerchief and giving a small giggle.  Then another giggle came out of her, then she was laughing heartily for ten or fifteen seconds, a nervous and scared laughter as her emotions bounced around erratically.  Finally she settled down again and brought the cloth up to her nose, giving a noisy blat as she blew her nose.  Bunnie waited patiently as Tails got her thoughts together.

"I didn't realize at first," said Tails.  "I didn't realize Sonic thought I was a boy.  That he thought my name was Miles.  I told him Mels.  It was my nickname, short for Melina ..."

Tails took a deep breath, let it out slowly.  She looked down at the ruined handkerchief, and Bunnie produced a second one for Tails.  Tails smiled gratefully up at Bunnie and used the new one to dab at her eyes, trying to work the words out past the lump in her throat.

"He had rescued me.  I ... I don't remember much before that.  I just remember being so scared, with all those robots around me, and then there he was, so tall and strong and fast.  I thought it was like a story... the hero rescuing the damsel in distress, and that we'd live happily ever after together.  It wasn't till a few days later that I realized everyone thought I was a boy."

Tails took another deep breath and let it out in a long sigh.  "By then, I saw how many other girls felt the same way.  And how much he avoided them.  Like Amy... I've never seen him run so fast as when he was trying to get away from some lovesick tagalong.  There was only two he didn't run from.  Sally ... cause he loved her ... and me, because ... because he ..."

Her voice choked off and she shivered, on the brink of bursting into tears again.  Bunnie finished for her.  "Because he didn't know.  Because he thought y'all were a guy."  Tails nodded helplessly.  "And like all secrets, this one kept growing an' getting harder to share?"  Tails nodded again.  "Oh, sweetie..." drawled Bunnie, "You poor thing.  It must have been so hard for you.  No one to talk to, to help you through growin' up."

Tails nodded again, and started crying again, silently this time, and let out another long, scared sigh.  She seemed drained of energy, so different than her normal upbeat, energetic self.  Bunnie just held her for a while longer, letting the young vixen get it out of her system.

"Y'all know," said Bunnie, shortly, "Ah never felt like ah was fittin' in.  Ah was so scared that everyone would abandon me, because ... well ..."  She shifted her robotic arm slightly.  It still twinged somewhere deep inside to talk about it.  "Ah always pushed mahself so hard cause ah needed to prove myself.  Prove ah wasn't a spy for Robotnik."

Tails listened, silently, as Bunnie continued.  "It got harder to deal with after Antoine and ah hitched up.  We went so long without ... without anything happening.  Ah wanted a baby so much, since the world was gettin' itself back ta normal.  But it looked like mah Roboticization mighta made it so ah couldn't have any.  When young Chris finally came along, it was a miracle.  But then it turned out he was different than we expected.  Don't make no sense, him bein' part robot.  Robotic parts don't have DNA or anythin' like that.  But heah he is, steel bones, silver blood, an' strong enough to butt heads with a bull."

Bunnie looked upstream, as if she could see past rock and tree to the lake where the baby must be napping.  "But ah still love him, an' everyone else does, too.  No less cause he's not what we thought he'd be."

A silence stretched between them.  "You won't ... you won't tell them, will you?" Tails finally asked.

Bunnie sighed.  "Oh, sweetie, not at all.  It's your secret.  But ah think y'all should tell them as soon as possible.  It'll just be harder, later."

Tails shrugged.  "I dunno, I ... I was thinking ..."  She paused.  "I was thinking of going somewhere else to finish college.  Get a new start, where they don't know me.  Then I can ... just ... be myself."

Bunnie let out a soft chuckle.  "If'n y'all want that, then y'all can do that.  But ah think y'all are forgettin' how famous y'all are."

The kitsune grinned.  "So I look like I'm related to Tails.  So what?  Melina Prower can just ... just be someone, again.  And not have everyone following her around expecting her to be a hero.  Everyone knows Tails.  No one knows Miles."

Bunnie shook her head. "Well, if'n that's what y'all think, that's up to you.  You're underestimating yerself, though.  An' ah think you're just running away.  You're a hero in yer heart, sugahfox.  You grew into yer own years ago, that way.  Ah think you can find the courage to face this.  And your friends will understand."

There was a long silence, then Tails nodded.  "I'll ... I'll think about it, Bunnie.  I'll let you know.  Thank you."

Tails pulled herself from Bunnie's embrace and stood up, throwing her arms out to stretch as if tossing away all the negative emotions that had been building up in her.  Then she picked up the medical bandages from where they had fallen and started working them under her thick fur, wrapping them around her chest a few times and then starting to pull them tight, flattening her chest out while trying to keep as much fur as possible out from underneath them.  The thick chest ruff fluffed out over the bandages, almost hiding them from the front, though they were much more obvious behind.  After a few moments, Bunnie stood up and came over to help Tails, holding the bandages snug while the fox used small clips to fasten them into place.

The curves of Tails's body disappeared as she gave herself a shake and a fluff of her fur, then pulled her t-shirt on over her head.  Her gloves and shoes quickly followed, and Tails looked like a young Bishi fox again.  Bunnie didn't know how she could have missed it, the feminine features.  Looking at Tails now, even though he looked so familiar, Bunnie couldn't help but see the girl lurking behind the disguise.  "Thanks again, Bunnie," he said.

"Anytime, sugahfox.  Anything y'all need, come to me.  Remember that y'all can ask me about how yer body's changin', too.  Y'all are becomin' a woman, an' that means a lot of differences."

Tails smiled at Bunnie, and hugged her again, and Bunnie held him close, feeling the sense of helplessness and fear from the young fox.  Then the two of them turned and started heading back upstream towards the rest of the group, close to each other, no longer needing words.  Tails fluttered his tails from time to time to give himself a boost as he jumped to the top of the cliff, or from rock to rock, while Bunnie simply extended her legs to get past the worst of the obstacles.  Tails stayed close to Bunnie, closer than usual, obviously taking reassurance from Bunnie's support and care.

When the lake came into view, Tails moved further away from Bunnie, a cheerful, energetic demeanor falling over him, as if he was back to his old self.  Tails gave a happy wave over at Sonic, who returned the wave before Sally shoved his head under the water and gave her own wave.  There was a cry of pain from over by the transport, and they could see Antoine jumping up and down while trying to free his crushed hand from the baby's grasp.

Tails gave a laugh and grabbed Bunnie under the arms, flying her quickly over to the transport so she could rescue her husband and kiss the crushed hand lightly, making Antoine smile through the tears in the corner of his eyes.  "Ze little one, he will to be making me proud, yes?"  

Bunnie laughed and gave Antoine a soft peck on the lips, then, as she held Chris close to her, letting him grab hold of her indestructible metal fingers.  "Why do y'all keep lettin' him do that to you, sugah?  

Tails turned away and let the two of them make cute with each other, the sight of two people being happy together making him feel irritable again, reminding him what he couldn't have.  Unfortunately, turning around brought him around to see Sonic and Sally wading out of the water hand-in-hand, which also didn't do much for his mood.  Tails told himself not to make a big deal about it, that it wasn't their fault, but he felt like he was stifling a scream even as he put a fake happy grin and asked, "So, bout time for lunch?"

"Yeah!  I've got a monster hunger built up!" cried Sonic, excitedly.

Sally smiled fondly at Sonic and nodded.  "I'd bet we're all rather hungry.  Bunnie, Sonic, would you set up the fire pit?"

"Suah thing, Sallygirl!" chirped Bunnie cheerfully, shifting Chris over to her normal arm so that she could point her robotic arm at the shore.  Her hand reconfigured itself into an arm cannon, the gaping barrel glowing with the energy contained within.  A quick blast blew a small crater into the shore.

Sonic disappeared in a blue blur, and everyone's fur, tails, hair, and clothes got caught up in the wind generated by his passing.  The blur streaked past several times, pulling at everything loose as the firepit built itself up.  After the first blur, the crater was rimmed with rocks.  The second and third pass brought tinder, kindling, and a teepee of logs.  At the fourth pass, a tripod and pot of chili appeared suspended over the pit, and the fifth pass set up a dozen or so sticks around the pit, each with two or three hot dogs skewered on the end.  Sonic lay on a nearby rock, one leg over the other, foot tapping.  "Well, make with the fire, and wake me up when food's ready.  Time for a power nap!"

Bunnie sighed and pulled out a brush to try and fix her hair, her ears.  "Land sakes, sugahog, a lady just can't stay lookin' her best 'round y'all, can she?  Goodness knows ah've got enough problems with mah ears frizzin' up in all this humidity!"

Rotor worked at starting up the cook pit, and before too long, the fire was blazing and the food was cooking.  "You know, when I said to pack a dinner for everyone, I meant more than just Chili Dogs," Sally reproached Sonic mildly, smiling.

"It's not dinner without Chili Dogs," replied Sonic absentmindedly, yawning as he laid there with his eyes closed.  "And there /is/ more than just Chili Dogs - there's also hot dogs, if you want those, and there's Chili."

Antoine stepped up to the pot of Chili and looked into it with disdain.  "Chillings," he said, dismissively.  "Why iz it always with ze chillings with ze hedgehog?"  He dipped a finger into the Chili and put it into his mouth, tasting it.  "Ack, and it is so very bland!  He can never to be properly making ze Chillings!"  Antoine let out a deep sigh.  "It is always up to ze great magnificence of myself to be fixing the culinary mistakes of fuels!"  He settled down with his pack of spices to work on improving the Chili to his taste.

The mild banter went back and forth a bit, others of the group getting in on it and then dropping out in turn.  Tails, not trusting himself, stayed silent, sitting alone off to one side.

His fake smile started to slip, then went away entirely, replaced by an expression of worry.  Bunnie noticed, and gave Tails a reassuring smile.  Tails tried to smile back.  Sally noticed the exchange, and glanced over at the worried-looking fox.  "Tails?" she said, cautiously, "Is something wrong?"

Tails shrugged a bit, reluctant to say anything.

"Come on, Tails, you can tell us anything," Sally said encouragingly.

Tails paused, then cautiously said, "Well ... there ... is something on my mind."  Everyone's attention was on Tails now, except for Sonic, who was still napping on the warm stone.  Bunnie smiled encouragingly at Tails.  "I ... I've been keeping a secret from everyone."  Tails paused and his mouth worked silently, a scared and worried expression on his face, unable to force the words out.  "I'm really ... really," he stammered, then fell silent again.

"Really...?"  Sally encouraged, looking concerned.

"Really ... thinking of moving to the Great Shore," Tails finished in a rush.  He glanced at Bunnie's disapproving look and sighed, his shoulders drooping.

Everyone but Bunnie gasped with shock, and Antoine started wailing loudly about the 'Tradegy' of it all.

"What?" cried Rotor.  "That's not cool!  Why would you want to go there?"

Tails shrugged.  "Well, y'know ... we're not the only group of survivors, y'know?  And this isn't the only place that needs help.  I just figured, y'know ... the Great Shore University is supposed to be decent, and I've always liked the water ... "

"There's no such thing as a robotics program better than Uncle Chuck's.  Besides, I meant, why would you want to leave here, leave us, your friends?" clarified Rotor.  Rotor was the most loyal of the group, completely dedicated to the rest of them, and the pain in his voice sent a sharp pain through Tails's heart.

Tails shrunk down a bit.  "It's not that, but ... y'know, here we're all heroes and stuff.  I just want to go somewhere I can ... get away from that, y'know?  Be myself, without people expecting stuff from me."

Sally moved over next to Tails and put her hand on his shoulder.  "Tails, you'll always be our friend, even if you leave.  And if this is what you want, then we'll support you.  But are you sure you've thought this through?"

Sally was going to continue, but Antoine suddenly got shut up when a pebble smacked right between his eyes, thrown by the stirring Sonic.  "Hey, guys!  Can't a hedgehog even get a little sleep?  What's with all the noise and long faces?"

"Umm... I-" started Tails, but Antoine broke in, "Ze Tails!  He is leaving us!  Leaving us FOREVER to be going to elsewhere!"

"What?" Sonic said, surprised, looking to Tails for reassurance.  "That's ridiculous, Tails wouldn't do that."

"Umm ..." hesitated Tails, looking down at the ground, not meeting Sonic's gaze.  "That's ... well, sorta ..."

"Why would you leave, Lil' bro?!" demanded Sonic, surprised and sounding a little hurt, himself.  "We've been a team for years!  There's so much to do here, still!"

Tails sighed.  "Like I said, it's not just here where there's work that needs doing, other places - "

"Other places aren't as bad!" interrupted Sonic.  "This is the worst place!  Where Ro-butt-nik did the most damage!  Running away when so much needs doing would be way past uncool!"

"I'm not running away!" protested Tails, a frustrated expression on his face.  "But I have a life, too!"

"A hero doesn't just think about himself," scolded Sonic, taking on a lecturing tone like when Tails was younger.  "He thinks about what's best for everyone."

Tails stamped his foot in anger, leaning forward so his nose was inches from Sonic's nose.  "I don't need you to tell me how to be a hero and live my life, Sonic Hedgehog!  I'm not a little kid anymore!"

Sonic let out a rude noise.  "Then stop acting like one, thinking only of yourself!  It's a couple hours of running, just for me!  It'll take longer for everyone else!  You think we're just going to be able to up and visit you like you're used to?"

"Who said I want you to visit me?!" yelled Tails angrily.  "Maybe I want some time away from the spotlight of the great Sonic the Hedgehog!"

Everyone went silent for a few moments, even Sonic and Tails.

"Pfft," said Sonic, his hand slashing through the air in front of his chest as if dismissing them all.  "If I'm not wanted, then fine.  I'm juicin'"  Before anyone could say anything, he was a blue blur and gone.

Tails stood there trembling for a moment, a faint wetness in the corner of his eye before his tails wrapped around each other and started spinning, lifting him up into the air so that he could fly off in the opposite direction.

Bunnie sighed and looked at Sally.  "Sallygirl, y'all better take Nicole and track Sonic, ah'll go aftah the sugahfox."  Sally nodded, and gouts of flame spurting from Bunnie's heels, the boot jets lifting her off so that she could follow through the air after the fleeing Tails.

It wasn't hard for her to chase after the flying fox, Tails was hardly moving as fast as he could.  In fact, his flight faltered a couple of times, which concerned Bunnie greatly.  She was glad when he lit down in a clearing not too far away, safe and sound, her own flight sounding a good deal louder as she came to a landing a few feet away, the scorched scent of burnt grass reaching her nose before she could shut down the jets.

His back was to her, but she could see it giving small spasms, aborted shakes.  "Sugahfox?" asked Bunnie, not entirely sure how to proceed, but needing him to face her.  He did, and she could see the glint of repressed wetness in the corners of his eyes, the faintly panicked expression that told her that he didn't know what to do, either.

"I-" he started, but his voice caught on the words.  He struggled for a moment, and then pushed out, "I c-can't breathe..."

Bunnie gave Tails a warm, sympathetic smile, taking a step towards the pained fox.  "Then why don't we get those ol' /bandages/ offa y'all, then?" she said casually.

Tails nodded, and accepted Bunnie's gentle help in unwrapping the tight bandages from around her chest, letting her breath easier.  As soon as they were off, the oversized blue t-shirt falling lightly over her freed curves, Tails started breathing faster.  Her deep breaths aborted with repressed sobs as Tails desperately tried to hold it in.

Bunnie gently drew the terrified vixen close, embracing her in a gentle hug.  "It's all right, Milly-girl," she murmured quietly.  "Y'all can give a good cry if y'all need to."

"I'm not-" started Tails, but the words were tight, becoming mangled as they were taken over by an audible sob.  Then, as if the soft words had indeed given her permission, Tails wailed helplessly, with years of repressed frustration, fear, and feelings of seperation from her friends all came out at once, the burnt orange and soft cream fur of her face getting soaked as the tears flowed freely.  Bunnie smiled and patted her lightly on the back as Tails clung tightly to the cybernetic rabbit, desperately, her entire small form shaking with the force of her tears.

It went on for several minutes like this, Bunnie patiently waiting for the wave of emotion and despair to wear itself out.  Tails's wails slowly eased down to body-wrenching sobs, and the sobs slowly lessened to silent crying, until Tails finally pulled herself away from Bunnie, sniffling sadly and looking embarrassed.  "I ... I'm sorry ..." she started.  "That's the second time today..."

Bunnie pulled out a handkerchief from nowhere and presented it to the sniffling vixen.  "No need, sugah.  Sometimes a lady needs a good cry.  Feel any better?"

Tails blew her nose with a loud honk, then gave a shy nod.  "Yeah," she murmured, a little surprised.  "I do, actually."

"'course y'do," Bunnie chirped brightly.  "That's what cryin's for.  A release, so y'all can feel better afterwards."  Bunnie paused for a few moments, smiling warmly to Tails, a gentle and comfortable silence.  Then she carefully ventured, "Y'all ready to talk 'bout what happened?"

Tails' expression drew more withdrawn right away, then miserable.  "Sonic hates me now-" she started, but Bunnie was shaking her head, cutting the fox off.

"No, sweetie, the sugah-hog's yer best friend.  He couldn't hate y'all," Bunnie assured her.  "He's just hurtin', same as you.  He doesn't understand why y'all would want to leave all of us."

Tails took a deep breath and let it out slowly, shaking from the intense emotions running through her.  "I can't tell him..." she murmurs helplessly, miserably.

Bunnie kept smiling gently, as she put her hand lightly on the back of Tails's, a comforting touch.  "Why not?"

"Why not?" repeated Tails.  "'Cause ... 'cause ... cause I've been lying to everyone!  

A small shake of her head was Bunnie's response.  "Sugah, they won't mind.  It'll take a mite ta get used ta th' idea, but they'll like it better than ya'll takin' off ta th' Great Shore."

Tails looked down at the ground, giving a lil' nod.  "I guess ... " she murmured, quietly.  She opened her mouth to say something more, then closed it, her face a swirling mix of emotions.

"But ...?" Bunnie prompted, gently.  "That sounds like theah's a 'but' in theah..."

The young fox nodded her head.  "But I'm scared," she said softly.  "What if ... if they ..."  She couldn't finish, just trailing off with her voice catching in her throat.

Bunnie nodded a little.  "Ah know, it's odd ... thinkin' oh bein' scared oh somethin' like this, when y'all have faced up against more nasty sorts than a mangy ol' cat has fleas.  But ah understand how hard it can be.  Y'all jus' need ta realize that it's no different than' bein' scared've a fight.  Ya gotta be like mah sugah-twan, always brave."

Tails blinked up at Bunnie in total confusion, momentarily forgetting about being scared or depressed.  "Um ... what?" she asked.  "Antoine's scared of /everything/!"

Bunnie smiled softly.  "Ah know," she murmured quietly.  "But he nevah lets it control him.  He was always scared, but he also always went ta th' fight.  There were always plenty who held back, hid in Knothole - but not mah sugah-twan.  No mattah how scared he was, he always moved forwards."  Bunnie's loving smile got bigger.  "He's the bravest person I know."

Tails stared at Bunnie in astonishment for a few silent moments, then quietly said, "I always wondered what you saw in him.  Now ... I think I can see it."

"Sugah-fox," Bunnie drawled with a distant look in her eyes, "Mah 'twan is the only man ah know who knows how ta treat a lady.  He's the most romantic man on Mobius."  Her eyes focused a bit more as she gave a shy, naughty little grin at Tails.  "And theah's other things he does, but a lady doesn't talk about those things."

Tails let out a slight, strangled noise and shook her head quickly.  "I don't want to know!" she cried, quickly.  "I don't want to know!"

Bunnie slid closer to Tails and slipped her arm over the vixen's shoulders.  "So, are you ready to go back and tell them, then?"

Tails let out a laugh, realizing that the conversation had distracted her from the paralyzing fear long enough to bolster her courage.  She looked down at the cluster of bandages clenched in her hand.  "Well," she responded with a nervous smile.  "I guess I can't let myself be shown up by Antoine."  She threw the bandages down onto a nearby flat boulder and nodded to Bunnie.  "Burn 'em so I can't change my mind."

Bunnie smiled approvingly to the fox, her fist retracting and her forearm reconfiguring into an energy cannon.  On the lowest setting, the cannon let out a blue beam that caused the rock to heat up to a glowing red, and the cloth bandages to blacken and turn to ash within seconds.

With a scared shiver, Tails hugged Bunnie tightly around the shoulders, hiding her face briefly in Bunnie's shoulder.  "Thank you," she murmured, her voice muffled.

Bunnie held Tails for a few moments, then let the vixen back away and compose herself.  "You're welcome," responded the rabbit.

Tails twitched at her t-shirt a little, brushed at her cheeks a little.  "Right ..."  Her tails fluttered behind her in a nervous twitch.  "But ... I don't think I can fly.  I can't concentrate enough.  I'm too nervous."

Bunnie gave a small chuckle.  "It's all right, I'll carry you."  She stepped up behind Tails and hopped up slightly into the air, her jets igniting and withering a small strip of grass before Bunnie could get some altitude.  

"Okay," said Tails, hanging underneath Bunnie by the armpits, "So this is what it feels like when I carry people around."  Her tails fluttered behind her in the wind of their passing.  "It's not too bad, though I'm surprised people don't complain about their arms getting pulled from their sockets on longer flights..."

The flight was fairly quick, but Tails was surprised to see that she and Bunnie had been talking for so long.  It had to have been well over an hour, because the shadows were starting to lengthen as the sun was sinking low in the sky.  Tails saw the campfire looking bright on the lakeshore, in the shadows of the trees, and saw her friends waiting for them, their eyes bright in the reflected firelight.  She also saw the bright blue of sonic, and she got a little more scared once more.

Bunnie seemed to sense Tails' nervousness, and her gentle voice softly reassured her, "It will be all right, sugah-fox."

The two of them landed lightly to the side of the campsite.  Sonic stayed nigh-sulking angrily at the side of the fire, but Sally came over to greet them.  "Hey, Tails, why didn't you fly?  Are you all right?"  Tails turned towards Sally nervously, opening her mouth to say something, but unable to get anything to come out.  Sally continued, "Did you get hur-" then stopped mid-sentence as she noticed the difference in Tails' appearance.  "Uh... wha?  Tails?  What is ... how did ... "

Tails bit her lower lip as she tried to figure out how to respond to Sally's obvious shock.  She didn't notice as everyone else looked over curiously, noticing the commotion.  The concern on Sonic's face temporarily got rid of his anger, but only for a few moments before he stubbornly went back to being upset, not seeing the cause for Sally's concern because Sally was in the way.

Sally stared down at the slight curve of Tails' chest, partly hidden, but not completely, by the oversized t-shirt, then turned to where Nicole was still running scans on the scepter that they had retrieved from the temple that morning.  "NICOLE!" she cried, "I need the full report on that artifact much, much faster!  The preliminary report didn't say anything about transformation!"

By this time, Antoine and Rotor had made their way over and seen what Sally had.

"Oh no!" gasped Rotor, quietly.

"Sacre Bleu Cheese!" cried Antoine.

Sonic looked up again, and his curiosity overcame his sulk.  One moment he was at the fireside, then there was a high-pitched whine and a blue blur and he was standing at Tails's side.  "Whoah!  Tails!" he gasped.  "You - you're a ... you grew some ..."  Sonic gestured helplessly at Tails' chest, faltering as he tried to find something to say that didn't sound absurd.  "You turned into a girl!"

"We'll fix it," reassured Sally.  "We'll figure out what happened and reverse it."

"No, no," muttered Tails, miserably.  "It's not like that.  I didn't turn into a girl, I've /always/ been a girl."

There was a momentary silence.  "Not /another/ alternate Mobius!" Sally said exasperatedly.  "How many of those things /are/ there?  Great, so our Tails is lost somewhere else, and we have to-"

"NO!" Tails wailed, the stress causing her voice to go a little sharper and louder than she had intended.  "No," she continued, more quietly.  "Please, just ... stop jumping to conclusions, and let me explain."

There was another silence, broken only by the crackling of the fire.  It went on for a bit as Tails tried to figure out how to force the words out of her tightening throat, terrified of the confused and bewildered faces of her closest friends, the only family she could remember.

"It's all right, sugah," Bunnie said reassuringly, her flesh-and-blood hand resting on Tails's shoulder.  "Just tell 'em, like y'all tol' me."

Tails nodded and took a deep breath, then let it out slowly.  "I've been lying to you," she admitted, dejectedly.  "I've just... I've been a girl, but ... but I let you think otherwise."  She tried to say more, but again her voice failed her.

Sally shook her head.  "That's impossible.  Nicole gave you a medical checkup every six months.  There's no way you could fool her scans, right Nicole?"  There was a brief silence.  "I said, right, Nicole?"

"I'm sorry, Sally," said the cool, measured female tones of her micro-computer.  "I'm afraid I could not violate my Doctor-Patient Confidentiality protocols."

After a moment's consideration, Sonic cried, "You mean ... he ... she ... Tails is telling the truth?  He's ... a girl?"

"That's affirmative, Sonic," replied the computer.  "Melina has always been female."

Tails groaned.  "Nicole, I told you, I hate that name.  Please, call me Mels."

"Mels?" said Rotor, confusedly.  "Not Miles?"

"I am to being too, too confusing," moaned Antoine.

"You sure are," teased Sonic automatically, as he kept staring at Tails.

It took a bit of time for the news to sink in to the group.  A lot of questions were asked, some of them fairly stupid, some of them repeats.  Tails had to explain about the bandages, about convincing Nicole to stay quiet, about a lot of things.  The 'how' questions were easy, though.  The hardest and most frequent question she had to answer was 'why'.  No one seemed to understand, made all the harder because Tails couldn't just admit it was because she liked Sonic.  Not with him standing /right there/!

"Look," Bunnie said, finally, staring right at Sonic.  "She didn't want y'all avoiding her."

"Avoid her?" Sonic responded.  "Why would I avoid her?  She's my best bud!  I don't care either way!"

Tails threw herself forward to hug Sonic, at that statement, and Sonic looked rather uncomfortable at the sudden display.

"Because," drawled Bunnie, "she saw how you reacted to other girls.  Like Amy Rose."

Sonic shook his head.  "That's totally different!  Amy was all over me, trying to get me to go out with her!  She had a big crush on me!"

Bunnie nodded, waiting for it to sink in.

"It's a huge difference!"  Sonic persisted.  "Amy wanted me to be her boyfriend!  Tails was - "  He stopped, suddenly, a stunned expression on his face, as he looked down at how Tails was clinging to his arm, hugging it close to her chest.  "Oh." he said.  Then, again, "ooohhhh.  I see."  He looked up at Bunnie, then at Sally.  "Is this one of those things that's somehow my fault?"

"No, no," murmured Tails, as she backed off a little from Sonic.  "No, it's not your fault.  It was my decision.  I just ... I made a bad choice."

Tails peered up worriedly at Sally.  "You're ... you're not ... angry with me, are you, Aunt Sally?"

Sally hesitated, and the pause made an expression of terror flit across the young vixen's face.  "No," Sally reassured her.  "No, I'm not angry.  Just surprised and confused."

Tails squirmed a little, and glanced at Sonic.  "Not even about ... ?"

Sally reached out towards Tails, and Tails rushed forward into a hug.  "Oh, Tails," sighed Sally.  "I'm not angry, not at all.  I understand why you'd like him."  She looked over at Sonic.  "Even if he is a bit slow, sometimes."

Sonic straightened up indignantly.  "Hey!  I'm never slow!  I'm always the fastest there is!"

Sally smirked.  "That's the other problem."

Sonic frowned and scratched at his head.  "Y'know, sometimes I just have no idea what you're talking about."

Tails, Sally, and Bunnie all giggled, while Antoine muttered about what a 'fuel' Sonic could be.

"Well," said Sonic, looking at Tails.  "At least this explains why you were getting so grouchy all the time."

He cringed as the cool, reproachful /look/ of the three young women fixed on him.

"Y-you know," Sonic stammered, "B-because ... uh ... because of the stress of the secret."

"Smart hedgehog," murmured Tails.

"Occasionally," nodded Sally.

The lot of them ate the chili dogs and relaxed as the sun started to sink and the bugs started to come out.  Sally threw a few specific types of plants onto the fire to make a slightly annoying scent that would keep the mosquitos away, and they sat around and talked for a while, shifting between current politics and reminiscing about their days as Freedom Fighters.  Tails, however, stayed off to one side, selfconsciously hugging her stomach as she watched everyone else enjoying each other's company.

Sally caught Bunnie's eye, and then glanced at Tails.  Bunnie followed Sally's gaze and shrugged helplessly, then nodded her head towards Sonic with a questioning look.  Sally nodded, then leaned over by Sonic to whisper lightly in his ear.

Sonic blinked.  "Say what?" he said, quietly, and Sally just gave him a fierce look.  Sonic rolled his eyes, but got up and walked over to where Tails sat.

Tails was so caught up in her own dark thoughts that she didn't notice Sonic's approach till he sat down next to her.  Then she jumped in surprise.  "Oh!  Sonic!" she gasped.  "Um, hi!  How ya doing?"

Sonic shrugged.  "Just thinkin', ya know.  Tryin' ta figure stuff out now that the ol' secret's out."

Tails looked a bit nervous.  "Figure what out, Sonic?"

"Well, why you gave up on the ol' daily runs?" Sonic said, in a voice that suggested he was giving it a great deal of thought.  "I mean, about the only thing I can figure is that you figured you had no chance of keeping up since you're a girl!"

Tails bristled, her fur standing on end as she glared at Sonic.  "What?!" she demanded, incredulously.  "I can't believe you just said that!"

Sonic buffed his fingers on his chest.  "Hey, it's no big.  I mean, I /am/ Sonic the Hedgehog.  I can understand you giving up."

Tails stood up.  "I did not give up!  I can take you any day!"

Sonic grinned, standing up as well.  "Right, race ya back to Mobotropolis!  Unless you want to wait, cause you're so out-of-practice?"

Tails shook her head.  "You're on!" she exclaimed.  "Right here, right now!"

Sonic leapt up into the air, his feet turning into a red blur of a loop.  Tails twisted her tails together, then lifted up into the air herself as the tails turned into blurring disc.  "Juice and Jam time!" Sonic and Tails cried at the same time, then there was just a burst of wind and sound as they took off through the woods.

Everyone laughed softly, glad to see Tails racing again.  "Go get him, sugah-fox!" sang Bunnie, though there was no chance that either of the racers could hear her.

Sonic and Tails rushed across the landscape.  Tails had a slight advantage over Sonic because she could just fly over the treetops, while Sonic was forced to dodge back and for