a/n: To my dear friend, thank you for your continued support. To other readers, thank you for your patronage on this journey.
Tuesday.
Amy set down her handbag and looked at herself in the washroom mirror over the sink. She felt that she looked neat enough.
Her blouse was crisp and white, tucked surgically under a white belt and the equally immaculate navy blue skirt that went down past her knees. A slit on one side gave her legs room to move, but she also noted how it made her look really, really adult-like. She thought as much, anyways...office ladies and teachers sported the look so commonly that she couldn't think otherwise. Dark stockings dipped into her familiar pair of red boots. Protocol didn't say she had to give them up, and they were her favourites anyways.
She let out a breath and turned her head from side to side. Pressed her lips together and looked satisfied as they were lightly coated in a glossy red. Adjusted the blue silk scarf around her neck. She looked fabulous. Felt it.
A part of her was saying that it was silly. It was just lunch with Tails. But she wanted to make an impression on the world around her. She knew she was good enough to work for the military...she just wanted everyone else to see it, too.
She nodded and picked up her handbag before walking out of the washroom, back into the brightly lit setting of the cafe. A certain visitor was looking around, no doubt for her.
"Hey, Tails."
"Oh, hey...wow. Amy, you look...well, like super-grown up and stuff."
"You think?"
"Yeah. It's pretty neat."
"Glad you think so. C'mon, let's get a seat."
They found a corner booth and sat beside each other on the leather cushions. He could smell her perfume, though that was due to heightened awareness more than anything. It was...a complex smell, whatever that could mean in his head.
"A bowl of pho and the sushi plate, please. Tails, what do you want?"
"Ah..."
"Don't worry about the prices," she said.
"Well, okay...I guess I'll have this thing here."
"Double Bacon Grilled Cheese Chicken Sandwich." She shrugged. "Sure, whatever does it for you."
"Does it?"
A small chuckle. "Don't mind me; I've been hanging around the office too much." She nodded to the waiter and he nodded back before leaving.
"So what have you been up to?" Tails asked as he sipped from a glass of water.
"Just my first week of work. Technically I'm a common secretary, but I just follow Rouge around and do the team's paperwork. The other girls around the office are nice enough."
"Yeah? That sounds nice."
"What about you? What are you doing?"
Tails shrugged. "Nothing much. Sonic and I are just flying around. Sometimes we go up to Angel Island and bother Knuckles."
"Bet he appreciates the company."
"He never says as much."
Amy smiled. "It's okay. Men are stubborn like that sometimes."
"You mean like Shadow?"
"Yeah, like him. He's a real treat to be around sometimes..." The waiter came back with their food, and a bottle filled with red liquid. He set it down along with the bowl of noodles, the chicken sandwich, and the sushi platter. "Rouge makes sure I handle the budgets. I've gotten real good at slipping things through."
"That doesn't exactly sound legal."
"Comes with the territory." Tails frowned as he watched Amy squeeze half the bottle of sriracha sauce into her pho. She caught his gaze and smiled. "Want some?"
"I want to be able to feel my mouth later. No thanks," he said, making a face.
"No worries. I just like a little kick sometimes."
"Hm..."
Amy made sure to slurp up her noodles gracefully. Wouldn't do to ruin the outfit at midday. Tails gratefully bit into his bacon-filled sandwich and chewed with a smile.
"Good stuff?" she asked.
"Yeah." Amy grabbed a napkin and dabbed lightly at his mouth. "You like sushi?" he asked.
"Acquired taste."
"Rouge?"
"No, Shadow."
"Oh." He swallowed. She skillfully pulled the noodles from her bowl with her chopsticks and twirled them into a ball, pieces of beef lodged inside. Tails sniffed at the air and frowned as the scent of hot sauce scratched at his nose. Amy quickly swallowed up the ball of noodles and chewed a few times before wiping her lips with a napkin.
"He said that you'll probably pick up a lot of habits from work."
"Who said that?"
"Sonic."
She shrugged. "He might be right. I think I'm getting a bit too casual at times, at least Shadow says as much. Rouge doesn't mind, not that she would. She's paying for today's lunch on my three hour break."
"Wow, three hours...she's really nice to you, then."
Amy scoffed. "Right. More like trying to curry favour again. We're up to our necks in paperwork, and by we I mean me because she doesn't pull her weight half the time. Little things like this are her ways of apologizing."
"So you're not friends?"
"That's probably many moons away, dear."
He blinked at her phrasing before biting into his sandwich again.
"What are you planning on doing?" she asked him, reflexively wiping the crumbs off his face. "Eggman took up most of your free time, didn't he?"
"Yeah. I dunno what I'm gonna do yet, but I was thinking about starting some kind of non-profit group. Sonic's interested in solving geopolitical conflicts."
"Meddling in global affairs? Sounds like him."
"Yup. We might team up on that, we might not. I haven't exactly decided."
"You'll figure something out."
"And if I don't, Sonic says it's okay. I guess because I'm still young and all." He looked at Amy as she finished her noodles and stabbed at a sushi roll. "How is it being an adult?"
Her green eyes floated upwards for a moment in thought. She stuck the roll into her mouth and chewed for a bit. "Mm...well," she mumbled as she swallowed, "it's not bad, actually. I thought it would be tedious all the time..."
"Really?"
"Yeah. But don't be in too much of a rush to grow up. Enjoy being a kid and everything that's a part of it."
"Okay. Sonic said the same thing."
"He's your big brother for a reason."
"That's true." He finished his sandwich and smiled at Amy. "I was worried for nothing, I guess. Adults are pretty cool!"
"We are, sometimes. But we usually get on each others' nerves..."
"Does Sonic do that to you?"
"Yeah, sometimes..." She popped another roll into her mouth, chewed and swallowed. "But I guess...I'm a bit of a masochist..."
"A what?"
"N-nothing."
"Alright."
She sighed and mentally kicked herself. There was no need to start spouting weird things around children.
Maybe she was getting too into things around the office.
"Dessert sound good?" she asked with a tender smile.
"Sounds great!"
"Hoped you would say as much. It's not on my dime, anyways...thank goodness."
"I guess that means Rouge will be taking advantage of you more often."
She glared at him while chewing another sushi roll.
Kids these days.
