Emerald eyes gazed around fondly, red shoes scuffling on the sidewalk and dragging the bottom of his jeans on the ground-ahhh, home. Downtown-after all that fighting and madness, after being gone for FOUR YEARS, he was home free. He was going to go home, nom some chilidogs, kick back and-holy hip huggers, Bat-MAN! Look at that fox!

He was only to about to Sonic's nose, with ginger ears and a matching tail and big, BIG blue eyes. Baggy jeans were hanging from his hips, and he had on a green tank top, one of the straps dangerously close to slipping over his tanned shoulder as he stood there and chattered with someone Sonic actually recognized-Knuckles, wearing similar clothing, his shirt a deep shade of red and hugging his body firmly. Realization hit at just about the same time as Sonic saw a second tail whishing behind the fox, both appendages tipped in white.

…

…

…

By the Chaos Emeralds, was that TAILS?

…He was gorgeous!

The Blue Blur sped over behind them, dropping his bags and grabbing their shoulders. "Hey, guys! Did I miss anything?" Knuckles's fists clenched, going for Sonic's head as Tails swept his foot down, for Sonic's ankle. Both halted immediately when seeing the face of who they assumed was an attacker, and tears bubbled to Tails's eyes. "SONIC!" He tackled him, arms tightly around the elder's neck as the morph tried telling him a million things at once, ears twitching impatiently as he jabbered. "

"

"…and I improved the airship blueprints and built a new house and made you new gadgets and by the Emeralds, Sonic I missed you so much never do that again!"

He chuckled and put his arms around Tails's form tightly, burying his face in his hair and inhaling. "I promise I won't-that was a one time deal, promise, Tails." He nodded and looked up at Sonic, turning a bit pinkish and letting go after a moment, eyes locking on the ground. "I'm glad you're home," he murmured, lifting his eyes again. This time they were soft and almost shy, and it took all the control he had not to snatch his friend up and run home to have his way with him. "Sonic."

He turned, quills brushing lightly against each other as he faced his friend with a smile. "Hey, Knux! Long time no see." He nodded and grinned gruffly. "Things have changed, Sonic. Be prepared-everyone is…" He glanced at Tails with an amused look. "…a bit different." Sonic shrugged. "So am I." "So I see," the echidna-morph chuckled, and turned. "Well, Tails, I hate to dump Sonic on you, but I have a date to rush off to, and you know how Shadow gets when I make him wait." Tails rolled his eyes and muttered, "He gets more masochistic and you love it, Knux, and we both know it. That's why you stopped to chatter with me."

Sonic's jaw dropped as Knuckles walked away, and Tails giggled, tugging on his arm a bit. "C'mon, Sonic, lets go get you moved back in and make your house like a home again, 'kay? I'll explain in the process." He nodded, and by the time they were to his house, Sonic had come to grips that his rivals were lovers-and he was okay with that. Tails was now chattering about changes the town had made, new guidelines, things like that, and when Sonic saw his house, he was shocked….

…it wasn't a colossal mess!

He looked to Tails questioningly and the fox smiled a bit shyly. "I… tried to upkeep a bit. Is that okay?" He nodded and grinned, opening the door to find things neater than when he left, everything organized and neat, no dust, no bugs, no mice. Sonic turned around, bright green eyes locking onto sky blue unerringly. "Thank you." His friend had busted his ass keeping his house clean, and he hadn't even been asked… Scratch his previous thoughts, he would court Tails properly, and THEN bang him into a mattress. …And a wall. And perhaps the table. The fox nodded, a small smile on his lips as he walked in as well, taking Sonic's bags and setting them in his room before coming back into the living room, plopping down on the couch and looking up at his cobalt friend as if to say, 'well, what are you waiting for? This is your house, silly, I just took care of it for a while!' Well, who was a hero to argue with that logic? The phrasing was 'clever as a fox' for a reason, you know. He sat and sighed happily-there were no dust motes from the couch, either. Tails had been thorough in his cleaning.

He rested his head on the back of the couch, and for the first time since he'd left, he merely lay there, breathing in silence. Fighting as much as he had was hard on the mind and body, and this…this was heaven. His friends were safe, he was safe, he was resting, and there was blissful silence… He opened his eyes to see Tails curled up on the other end of the couch, smiling bemusedly, eyes closed. 'He looks as if he's eaten the last cookie,' he thought, and closed his eyes again. Ah, peace.

`~.~`~.~`~.~`

He ran faster than sound, faster than light, so fast you couldn't even see the blur he was so famous for. Panic overrode his systems, and there was a dark chuckle as the clone caught up to him, sniggering, "What's the matter? Am I too fast?" There was silence, save for panting, and the 'bot slammed Sonic against a tree, finally halting his movements. "Oh, this'll be fun. I'll get a promo, get to see you killed, and watch the horror as your friends are killed before you. OH, that one, what was his name? You know the one-he only clings to you all the time. What is he, your boyfriend? I'll make sure they draw his death out, making it painful, but they start with him first."

`~.~`~.~`~.~`

He woke with a yell, and his forehead met with a person standing over him, and he heard a near-silent curse as Tails brought his hands to his nose, groaning. He pushed back his panic and ran to get a rag of some type, handing it to his fox-like friend with a soft apology. Tails waved it off and thanked him, tilting his head back and clamping the rag over his nose, finally asking, "What was your nightmare about?" Sonic blinked. "How did you-?" "You were floundering around like someone had you pinned… It didn't look like fun, so I tried to wake you up, and well…" He chuckled softly, "Here we are. Sorry for staining the rag, by the way." He shook his head. "No, it's fine, Tails. Are you alright? Anything broken?" He gripped his face in his hands, carefully tilting his head up so he could have a good look at his sidekick.

"N-no," he whispered, blue eyes wide with shock at their closeness, pink peppering his tan cheeks. Sonic blinked and let go carefully, scooting back a few inches and laying against the couch arm again. "I'm sorry you had to see me like that," he finally muttered, and then Tails's face was buried in his shoulder after he flew at him from the other side of the couch. "No! I'm glad I was here. I know how it is to have nightmares that bad… From when we were fighting Black Doom… That was awful…"

Emerald eyes locked onto cerulean, and Sonic's arms locked around the Prower prodigy's waist. The younger man had been terrified of the aliens, but fought them all the same, blue eyes filled with panic and fear. He began to pet Miles's hair when he heard a soft sigh from the doorway, a coo-like sound peppered with gentle agitation. "Of course you go to Tails. Why wouldn't you go to Tails? Didn't even bother trying to say hi to a fellow hedgehog-morph."

Sonic groaned into Tail's hair and the fox-boy giggled, lifting a gloved hand to motion Amy in. She stared at their odd position for a moment, but sat in a chair across from the couch. "How have you been?" she asked, already physically flirting with Sonic-slight tilts of her head, leaning forward to give him a peek down her cleavage-which he avoided-smiling only at him. Tails had curled up half on top of him, nuzzled closely into his side and glaring icy daggers at Amy, glares she returned-Sonic could see Amy's glares, but not his best friend's, and as such eased himself from Tails's grip to stand.

"Maybe we should catch up later, Aims. Me and Tails were catching up, too. See you on the flipside?" He held his arms open to her and she pressed every square inch of herself that she could against him, making him grimace. "Of course. Have fun with your boy time~ ," she replied with a smile, and practically skipped out the front door. Sonic lay back down and curled up around Tails as they used to when they were starting out as heroes, a subtle hint to Miles saying that he meant more than that bimbo.

~*~.~*~.~*~.~*~.~*~.~*~.~*~.~*~

A week later found Tails spending the night again-he'd stayed with Sonic four out of seven days. With a sigh, he rolled from bed and went to brush his teeth, hopping in the shower and getting dressed before writing Sonic a quick note. Pressing a feather light peck to the top of his head, he dashed out the door to go work on his house again.

Sonic groaned softly, rolling over to the other side of the bed only to meet empty sheets, green eyes full of confusion. "Tails?" He sat up and looked around, quickly spotting the paper on his bedside table:

Sonic,

Hey, I have to go work for a little while, okay? It shouldn't take me two hours-are we still meeting up for lunch?

See you later,

Tails

He smiled a bit and walked to get ready, pausing for a moment when he saw that Tails had left his toothbrush. Now, Sonic sped to get ready, already eager to see his vulpine friend after he shoved the brush in a Ziplock and the Ziplock into his backpack. He tugged the nearest clean shirt-a midnight blue tee-and faded, ripped jeans on and scarfed down some breakfast before dashing out the door, green eyes full of content at his speed.

~*~.~*~.~*~.~*~.~*~.~*~.~*~.~*~

Miles swept red hair from his eyes with a sigh-he was sweaty and hot but didn't care-his house was coming along swimmingly. He'd given his old one to Cream, her mom, and Cheese the Chao, but still hadn't completed his own. Blue eyes were zeroing in on his work again when he heard a gasp from behind him. "Tails… this is your house? But… you said it was done… how can you live here?"

Tails winced, but turned to face his crush. "I can't just freeload all the time… and I gave Cream and her mom my house… They lost theirs. What else can I do?"

~*~.~*~.~*~.~*~.~*~.~*~.~*~.~*~

Ah, Tails. We love him, huh? Anyway! Here's my Sonic story! And those who like Harry Potter should keep their eyes peeled: Drarry, ScorpAl, and Siriumus, on the way!

Love always!

~Mel

(P.S. Speaking of Miles "Tails" Prower... there is a seriously cute toy of him out now-a posable action figure! Check it out, it's adorable! I took one home. It now rests at my writing station -heart-)