DENIDED He stared blankly down at the bold red letters stamped across the custody papers in his hands. His fingers were so weak the pages were only barely balancing on their tips. He sat in his armchair in the dark empty living room.
"I'm sorry but we can't give custody of an 8 year old girl to a bachelor" The woman at the social services office told him. Rose needed a mother, why? Why couldn't he be enough?
"Daddy?" came a small voice from the hall. Tails' hands trembled as he fought back the tears that threatened to betray him. Rose stood at the stairwell looking down at her foster father. She was a Seedrian, she had dark hair with little thorny tendrils that had been tied back to keep them out of her face. Her big sunset orange eyes looked at him expectantly.
Tails clutched the papers tightly and reached up to wipe tears from his eyes pretending to adjust his glasses.
"What are you doing up rosebud I thought you were in bed"
Rose looked own at her feet shamefacedly "I couldn't sleep"
"Rose I told you to be in bed by 9" Tails' tried to be stern with her. Now was hardly the time to bring this up with the little 3rd grader on a Monday night.
"I was in bed" Rose protested before darting the rest of the way down the stairs into the living room. "I couldn't fall asleep"
Rose crawled up into Tails' lap without giving him much choice. She wrapped his arms around his torso. "Please don't be mad at me daddy"
"I'm not mad rosebud but it's late and you need to go to bed"
Rose made a pouty face at him.
"Bed" Tails insisted.
"But you promised you'd show the the adoption papers" Rose protested.
"In the morning it's time for little girls to go to bed you have school in the morning"
Rose hopped down and Tails' led her upstairs and tucked her in bed, all while clutching the little piece of paper which had just torn his world apart. After saying goodnight and closing the door behind him he just barely managed to make it to his own room before sliding to the floor. He sat propped up against his bedroom door clutching the pages and staring down at them as if he hoped the would change. Tears ran down his face soaking the pages. Enraged his shredded the legal documents in his hands before sobbing like a child.
The next day Tail's shuffled Rose off to school as usual. He didn't open the shop that day, he though about calling Sonic, Amy, or Cream but couldn't bring himself to do it. He didn't want to tell anyone. He wanted to just ignore it and maybe it would go away. But no, he looked at the clock. Rose would be home soon. He had to tell her.
"The teacher taught us about the solar system today" Rose mumbled through a mouthful of fruit. She went to wipe the juice off her face with her sleeve and Tails instinctively reached out with a napkin to clean her face. "She said GreenGate was in the Nova system like a gazillion miles away"
"GreenGate is very far away yes" Tails replied softly as he set the napkin back down.
"Daddy how did I get here" she asked.
"well when a mommy and a daddy love each other very much..." Tails' teased.
"eww, no I meant the ships Daddy how do they make it so far?"
"That's very complicated Rose, it involves a lot of complex engineering"
"But you know how it works right? Cause no ones smarter than you" Rose chirped with pride.
Tails' sighed at looked down at his plate. He hadn't eaten.
"Daddy what's wrong?" Rose asked.
Tail's eyes began to water again but her kept his voice steady "remember the day I found you?"
Rose reached up to place a hand over the scar of her cheek. She nodded solemnly. She had run away from the childrens home where she received the scar.
"You looked a bit like my dad, my real dad..." Rose pondered this a bit before looking up at Tails' pleadingly "But it's OK your not him, you're better"
"It's ok Rose you're not in trouble" Tails soothed. "It's just... I'm afraid I can't be your daddy anymore"
Rose Gazed up at him in shock and confusion. She looked as though she'd just been slapped. "But... but why?"
Tails reached across the table and took her small pale hand between his own strong callused hands. "Rose, the state says that I'm not qualified to be you're legal guardian. They're wanting to give you to a Seedrian couple in New Emerald city."
"no, no..." Rose tore her hand away "I'm not going, I don't wanna go!" she was crying now.
"Rose it's not up to me"
"NO!" she screamed has he reached out to try and calm her down. "I can't believe you're just gonna give me away"
"Rose it's not like that" but his protests were in vain she she ran up to her room slamming the door behind herself. Tails stood alone in the kitchen now. He would learn to become very familiar with this feeling.