Without You

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Ten Years Later

It was cold out tonight. The grass underfoot was cold and dewy, the chill air threatening to turn it into an all out frost. The skies were filled with heavily laden clouds, threatening to snow at any moment.

Tails had always loved the snow. Sure it was cold, wet and turned to mush after only a day or two. But for as long as it was snowing, beautiful little white flakes fluttering to the ground, it was hard to ignore the magic of it all.

"I know you never really liked the cold, being a plant and all." Tails voiced his thoughts, reclining against the trunk of the tree with his arms behind his head. He had decided that he was going to stay there until the snows fell, and so far it felt like he'd been waiting for hours.

As he'd laid there and watched, looking up through the barren branches of the oak – leaves long since fallen for the winter – he'd observed the clouds as they slowly circled overhead. Once it started – and it would start soon, he was sure – he'd heading off home. Without the shelter of the leafy canopy his only protection against the elements would be his fur.

"But you have to admit, snow is pretty beautiful!"

His eyes offered up a questioning glance to the heavens, Where is that first snowflake anyway?

The questioning glance turned into a frown. Would it actually snow, or was the weather simply taunting him?

"You know..." He allowed his train of thought to wander, switching subjects entirely, "I can't believe it's been ten years already..."

His thoughts drifted back to the Metarex, finally destroyed, and everything that had transpired since that moment. A decade of his life summed up in an instance of thought; Cosmo's death; the seed; the seedling; roses; sadness; happiness; Cream; the future. Endless probabilities in contrast with the rigid truth of the past. All blossoming in the blink of an eye.

"I want to thank you, Cosmo." Tails' voice took on a solemn hue, "For letting me be with Cream. I know love has many faces, and I know love is different with everyone. I know that I love her, and I love you. It's the same sort of love, but each one is different."

It was hard to explain it fully. Even setting it out in his mind was proving a challenge. Over the past decade his love of Cosmo had faded none. And yet, at the same time, a whole new love for another had blossomed and grown into a very caring, very close, intimate relationship. Love was the only word that could describe either of these heart-warming sensations, and he felt them both with great intensity. But the way in which he felt it for both Cream and Cosmo was entirely different.

"I know there's room in my heard for both of you. And I know that wherever you are, you'll understand, Cosmo. Because you always understood these kinds of things far better than I ever could."

His thoughts now drifted onto Cream, and the feelings inside him made his heart flutter and his soul sing. He knew that it wouldn't be so without Cosmo's blessing. Even from the great beyond, her love for him was letting him live his life.

"Ever since Cream moved in with me I've felt more complete," he went on, smiling at the twitching branches above as the wind began to pick up. He was sure the first snowflake wasn't too far away now.

"I think about you all the time, Cosmo." The orange-white fox confessed, "But when Cream and I are together I just feel..." he searched for the right words, the ones which mattered, "Less lost."

The inner peace she'd helped him create deep within his soul, he knew, would never have been if he'd tried to do it alone. It was strange the way he felt his heart-strings plucked by the thoughts of two separate individuals. Strummed by a master musician, they reverberated in a way which filled his entire soul with the most beautiful music. He knew that Cosmo was at work somewhere in there, guiding him somehow into his future.

It made him smile with true contentment at the thought of her watching over him, guiding him, protecting him. Making sure he made the right decisions.

"So here I am again... Under this old oak with you." The sway of the branches seemed almost rhythmic, following some silent beat brought on by the wind, "About to ask for your blessings once again..."

He was at another crossroads in his life, much as he had been five or even ten years earlier. Each route led off in a different direction. Each route obscured by the uncertain, murky mists of time. He couldn't see the future, any more than anyone could. But he could see which path shone the brightest. He could see which one made the most sense.

"I think I'm going to ask her to marry me..."

The breeze died down completely, the air falling still. The sway of the tree's higher limbs slowed and eventually stopped entirely as a surreal stillness took hold of that place high atop the hill. An unnerving sensation welled up within the pit of Tails' stomach.

"Cosmo...?" he questioned, worried for a moment.

A small flit of motion drew his eyes skywards, and he rose to his feet. From high in the sky, passing carefully through the gaps between twigs and branches, a small, solitary snowflake fell. His eyes locked onto it, mesmerised by it as it swayed and swooped down towards him.

He'd never seen a flake by itself, falling alone, and it seemed to almost be dancing as it twirled and spiralled slowly down towards him.

Tails felt himself compelled to reach out to it, raising a hand out and up towards it. As if seeing his plan, the flake seemed almost too slow, accepting his open invitation and falling the last few centimetres to land gently on his palm. It settled there after a moment or two, and then proceeded to swiftly melt away to nothingness.

Tails simply beheld it for a fraction, and then looked upwards in question. Like some miracle, a million of the lone flake's fellows descended to the ground. And with it came a settling warmth, almost like a wish granted.

Tails felt his heart glow.

He knew it was Cosmo.