The Joys of Hearth and Home

by obsidian dreamer

He thought his family was about average and assumed hers would be the same. He could never have guessed just how wrong he was was going to be. Continuation from A Pair of Second Chances. BigMighty. COMPLETE but TBC...

4. Chapter 4 Nights Together, Nights Apart

Chapter 4 – Night Together, Night Apart

A/N: Well then, nasty Knuckles got away with it last chapter – will his lucky streak continue or will someone stand up and make him pay for his crimes? Read on to find out, but first of all a shout out to the reviewer of the last chapter:

BC – Yeah fluff is all well and good but hopefully this chapter's a bit deeper, though still in a good way. Let me know if you're still enjoying it and thanks for the review as always.

With a stretch Mighty very happily stood up, rolling on the balls of her feet as the Tornado rolled to a gentle stop on the runway of Mystic Ruins; though the cockpit of Tails' specially modified transmogrifying vehicle could easily seat two, the armadillo had been unable to even contemplate the idea of stepping back into the front seat since the night Tails, irked by her lampooning his chronic infatuation with Cream Rabbit, had started transforming the Tornado into its jeep mode even before the plane mode had touched down. The mid-air shape switch, combined with the armadillo's bowel-loosening certainty that she was going to end her days like a run of strawberry jam smeared over the tarmac of the runway, had shattered her nerves completely and deepened her disdain towards air travel. Bloody fox; recalling that image for a fleeting second before banishing such memories with a shudder, her acidic glare towards where the internal speakers of the Tornado were now crackling away merrily was neutralised somewhat by the realisation of what had come next in the day; though I did get him back in the end – three hours with Sonic knowing you've paid for something like the ALT, priceless. Mighty sighed softly, remembering the phone call she'd made to Sonic to tip him off about that little slip of proof of young love being in the air before a burst of static jolted her from her reverie and she listened into the instructions issuing from the front of the plane,

"Okay Mighty, if you could please hop off for a minute with your gear, I'll switch this baby around and get you a ride towards the swampland, sound okay? And before you think about arguing", Mighty snapped her open mouth shut as she realised the fox had somehow read her mind, "I'm driving you there because as far as I know you've got to catch your train sometime tomorrow and knowing your luck with getting places…well, need I say more?"

"Not if you know what's good for you", the armadillo riposted as she hefted her luggage with one hand and headed towards the chillier air now infiltrating the main cabin of the Tornado, the pneumatic hiss of the boarding ramp being lowered also letting her know where to go. Blinking as she emerged into the bright sunshine, the sun still high in the sky despite the lateness of the season, Mighty swiftly descended the boarding ramp and turned to give a thumbs-up towards the cockpit; though it was difficult to see through the specially-hardened glass surrounding the controls, she was reasonably sure she saw the gesture returned before with a mechanical grinding and squeals of lubricated protest, the plane she could see began to reform itself. The wings were pulled back into the main body and tucked away, the wheels that together made up half the landing gear were pulled horizontally apart in tandem with the entire chassis being redeployed in a single, fluid movement. In the space of seconds, the plane had vanished completely; the only evidence that remained of the aircraft that had stood in the space now occupied by a squat, powerful jeep was the identical paint scheme both machines sported. As always impressed by this sight, the armadillo stood upright and approached the car as the hissing and clanking noises began to die down, safe to approach now the transformation was complete. Seeing her coming, Tails gave a wave before starting suddenly, reaching down and pressing a button next to him; a sudden pop rent the air as the fox wound down his window,

"Boot's open Mighty, just drop you bags inside and we'll get rolling".

"Yes, rolling", the armadillo's voice drifted to him at the front of the car as Tails tapped the rim of his window, her next comment drawing a smile from him as he shook his head; she's never going to let that one drop is she?; "a heck of a lot more pleasant than rolling out I can assure you".

"Oh come on", the foxboy mechanic drawled appealingly as he heard the boot slammed down, "it wasn't as bad as all that surely?" There was no immediate answer; it was only when the passenger door was opened and Mighty swung herself inside that she deigned to throw him a disgusted glance as she buckled herself in, Tails doing likewise as he fought not to snigger,

"No of course it wasn't, it really was a barrel of laughs, and if you believe that please feel free to try it out with me again sometime, preferably after you sign the waiver saying that in the event of you being found drowned in the Tornado's petrol tank, no-one's going to come knocking at my door. We got a deal on that?"

"I think I get the message", the fox chuckled as his seatbelt clicked into its holster before a thought registered with him and he paused as he groped for the keys to the ignition, "but, er, I wouldn't fit in the Tornado's petrol tank, even I'm not that slim".

"You want to bet on that one?" For a second Tails was tempted to take her up on that offer but such an idea lasted only until the armadillo turned to face him once more; the deadly glint in her eye was more than enough to get the engineers' finely honed danger sense tingling and he wisely let the matter drop, instead firing up the Tornado's engine and swinging his pride and joy around, pointing the nose towards the horizon and taking off, winging his way towards where the first stop on Mighty's journey awaited her with open arms.

XXX

At about the halfway point of the drive, which was itself a more than pleasant affair as the weather was positively balmy for the time of year, so much so that Tails was able to open his window a crack without causing too much of a chill; ah, that's better – nothing like a nice breeze between the ears when you're driving; that Mighty happened to remember to do something. Idly reaching down, she felt around one of the pockets of her trousers and, feeling the rough shape of the item she was looking for, she jabbed at the spot she guessed the on button was located on. Bingo; with a welcoming trill, her mobile activated and hummed in her pocket for a minute, the last chance anyone would have to connect with her until at least tomorrow evening as there was absolutely no reception in the area where Big had made his home. Tails glanced around at the noise but as he saw his passenger clench a fist and then extend her pinkie and thumb he relaxed again, or at least he did until the appliance beeped again, a couple of high notes making both Mobians prick their ears.

"Weird, wonder who's after me now", Mighty commented off-handedly as she delved into her clothing, fishing for the mobile as Tails shrugged at the same time as keeping his eyes on the road,

"Probably someone like Sonic, saying goodbye for Christmas; it's okay that I let him know you were going right?" Luckily Mighty was absorbed in the task of getting her phone to display the text message she had received to notice how the tip of his tongue flitted across his lips for a second, relieved at his close shave with letting the truth slip so close to the eventual goal. Just to be on the safe side though, he forced a chortle and winked at her from the corner of his eye, "you never know, it might be Vector trying to apologise". Mighty snarled low in her throat,

"And if he thinks he can do that with something like a text message he's got another thing coming, namely my right hook. Anyway, let's see…" Finally prising the telephone free, the armadillo flicked a couple of buttons, trying to see who'd texted her at this late hour; Tails, not wanting to intrude on what could well be a private message and not particularly bothered about the contents anyway, kept his eyes fixed on their eventual destination. At least, he did until the vile oath from the side of him almost made him jump in alarm at its venom,

"I'm gonna kill him, the second I get back"; don't say a word, do not say a bleeding word, it might well be more than your life's worth; just for once Tails took the pro-offered course of action supplied by his brain without reasoning it through his fantastically attuned mind and froze in the driver's seat, barely even daring to flit his eyes sideways as Mighty scowled menacingly at the glow emanating from the front of her mobile, her hand threatening to crush the appliance with gigantic strength before she instead thrust it back into her pocket, "sorry babe but your man's a goner when I get my hands on him".

"Umm, I might have missed something…?"

"Too right you missed something", Mighty grated flatly, not even looking at the driver as she sat back in her seat, chin on her clenched fist as she glowered menacingly, "not only did he humiliate me just now, he made sure I picked on the wrong person when it came to laying the proverbial smack-down". Nope, sorry, still lost; despite his very quickest thinking Tails couldn't break the puzzle and had to shake his head; Mighty sighed as he hand flowed up her face, coming to rest at her forehead and kneading it with her fingertips,

"It wasn't Vec who put those, er…"

"Yeah, them", Tails nipped in quickly, sparing the armadillo the indignity of having to go all the way through that recent red-cheeked hell of a memory; she gave a small, split-second smile in answer before finishing,

"…in my bag, it was Knuckles"; what!; Tails suddenly forgot the road for a moment, turning in his seat as he fought to nail this idea through his skull and into the realms of probability, "he was still a bit sore from when Vec hid the Emerald, remember what Charmy told you, last time you were up – the Legion?"

"Oh yeah – heh, that was a good trick", the fox sniggered a little at the memory before turning serious again, "but, but why did he get you for it?"

"He didn't", Mighty explained, reasoning the devious echidna's train of thought and wondering if there had been any point along the track she might have been able to derail it earlier, "he got me to pound Vector for him by making me think it was Vector who'd…you know – I was so mad I didn't think to check all through my bag and find the real present ol' TGG left for me; according to the message he just sent it's in the right pocket, not the left".

"Slippery little…the old switcheroo; never thought he had it in him to even see through a bit of trickery, never mind pull one off himself", Tails breathed out loud in wonderment before chuckling, "heh, Sonic's going to have a fit when he hears about this, er, without the, um, unpleasant details that is". Took the words right out of my mouth – they were in there with your foot; the fox only breathed again when Mighty jerked her gaze away from him after a long, long second of Looking and he gave himself a pat on the back for clambering out of the hole he'd just dug for himself; I'll have to be careful about what I say now I think about it – the last thing that needs to happen is that this comes blurting out some time this evening because I never let everyone else know what the score is!

XXX

He'd heard her coming for the past few minutes, each crunch of leaves underfoot sending his heart rate fluttering a little faster, each tiny splish of boots into water sending a cascade of sweat down from his palms into his gloves; Big didn't look around, didn't dare to for two reasons. Firstly he knew that if he did and she hadn't yet arrived, he wouldn't be able to drag his eyes away and every second after that would stretch into an eternity of agonised longing for Mighty to appear, the second reason being that his float had been knocked a couple of times over the last couple of glances he'd spared it. Come on now, focus; his hand twitched as the tiny red buoy marking the position of his bait was knocked again, something just below the surface swimming past the small berry he'd spiked on the end of his hook, scenting it, deciding if it was good to eat; I've not got a lot in the larder right now – gotta land something before I have to call it a night because I'm getting sick of fish stew! His instincts quivered certain they wouldn't be denied much longer; it seemed almost pre-ordained that at the precise second his float dived for the bottom of the lake, there was a shout from behind him,

"Hey Big guy…" Fortunately for both the cat's relationship and his prospects of dinner for the night, he managed to separate his instincts and his manners in time; as his body twisted violently to the right, his arms exacerbating the movement and striking at whatever was biting, he looked over his shoulder and, after a brief moment of straining with the movement of making sure the snared game didn't start stripping line from his reel, smiled a greeting at the armadillo stood towards the back of the stream bank,

"Morning Might"; aww, she looks adorable when she's flustered; the cat managed to keep a chuckle out of his voice as he realised the armadillo probably thought she'd made him miss his chance, "you know that's not what they mean when they're going on about fly-fishing right?"

"Hmm? Ah, right", shaking herself and recollecting her scattered thoughts, all plans for a devastatingly witty first line blown clean from her mind by the sight of her boyfriend rearing back as thought frightened half to death by her sudden call, Mighty snapped her shocked lips shut and, seeing the way his fingers were pinched on the reel, she gave her own answering sly smirk and nodded, "just like that's not what they mean when they say drop a line?"

"Something like that"; as the cat devoted his attention to the struggle in front of him, expertly guiding the struggling prey towards the bank with practised and strategic jerks of his rod and turns of his reel, Mighty came to stand alongside him, watching the battle unfold. Even to someone as inexperienced as she was in the field of fishing it was a one-sided struggle; the fish, whatever species it happened to be, was being easily out-muscled and out-manoeuvred by the fisherMobian who'd tricked it into biting – it was no more than thirty seconds after he'd first snared his prey that Big had hauled it from the water, holding it up before him before shaking his head, wistfully annoyed at such a tiddler occupying his time. Mighty on the other hand saw the funny side,

"Hmm, reckon that'd do a course at least, maybe one and a half at a push – definitely got some meat on it"; Big merely snorted, gripping the squirming fish softly with his free hand as the other held the rod steady,

"Bah you could probably spit more than it weighs, not worth the bother of cooking; all right buddy", skilfully teasing the hook from the side of the fish's lip with one finger, the cat stooped to lower it into the water, slowly releasing his constricting grip increments at a time until the tiny water-dweller slipped free like a bar of soap, "catch you later".

"You old softy", Mighty folded her arms as she watched the little bow-waves the vanishing fish left behind disperse across the surface of the softly babbling brook, Big glancing up as he washed his glove in the water's surface, the slime of his recent prey slipping clear after being loosened by the touch of the water, "would have added a bit of body to a nice fish stew that".

"I am not having any more fish stew this side of Christmas", Big told her forcefully, emphasising his point with a vehement shake of his head that made his ears flap, "nothing against the dish but it gets really old after, I don't know, two or three weeks". Mighty laughed again and slipped her bag from her shoulders, unzipping and flipping the top compartment as Big looked on in evident interest; her hands dived beneath the lip of her luggage before reappearing triumphant, Mighty grinning from ear to ear as she saw the effect of her purchases on Big's face,

"Just as well I brought something to refresh your palette then isn't it? How lucky are you?" I love custard creams; almost dreamily Big's hazel eyes drifted from the bright yellow packaging to the carefully-wrapped parcel of greenery the armadillo held aloft in her other hand; and nothing beats a sprig of parsley or three to bring out the real flavour of any fish – Mighty, you are a complete life-saver;

"Have I told you I love you lately?"

"Well, now and then", the cat spread his arms apart and Mighty dropped all pretence of coyness, "but you can always tell me again". Stepping forwards, she put a bit of a hop into her last step to land squarely in the cat's broad chest, "but I can always do with a reminder".

"Fine"; she shivered as his breath tickled her ear sensuously, the organ already stimulated by the sound of his deep bass purring; whatever you say next…; she'd never be able to throw her arms around him they way he could her, she gave it her best effort, "I love you Michelle"; …I second it right back at you.

XXX

"Hey"; what? Ah, yes?; stooping once more, Big gently lowered his girlfriend back to the floor, careful not to risk accidentally setting her down on her own luggage as Mighty rubbed her brow self-consciously before pointing at where his rod had fallen to the floor, discarded without a second thought as he'd greeted, "reckon a bit of beginner's luck might turn the tide here; I take it you're not having much success?"

"And you'd be right; I've been taking it on the chin for ages now – always the same in winter", the cat sighed as he poked a toe under his recently-carved rod and flipped it up, catching it with his paw in a single, well-practised move, "everything that doesn't migrate hibernates, and everything that doesn't hibernate loses its appetite".

"Everything except you?" Fighting to keep a smile from smothering his face, the cat glanced at where Mighty was smirking with a pseudo-scathing glint in his eye,

"Are you insinuating that I'm portly?"

"No", the armadillo replied in a long, low note before chuckling, pointing at his unavoidable waistline as proof of her observations, "you do a pretty good job of proving that point on your own".

"Fair enough I suppose; come on the only way I was ever going to break into the fashion industry was literally, breaking into it".

"You and me both", the armadillo agreed, reaching around her back to tap her shell in annoyance, "for some reason designers never seem to take natural design flaws like this into consideration when they're dressing up their catwalk models. The only way you'd get me into one of those frocks was if you ran me through a mangle before hand".

"Forget the mangle, fetch the ruddy industrial press; for me I meant, for me", Big added hastily as Mighty glared up at his addition to the conversation; though honestly he had been poking fun at himself that time, the cat thought that it would still be a prudent time to change the subject and offered his rod forwards as a peace offering, "anyway, talking's nice but dinner's still not on the table yet, and try as I might I just never seem to be able to eat my words".

"Shame, you'd never have to fish again if you could"; ouch – okay, we'll call that one even; all he could do was grin and take it as Mighty landed that stinging rebuke in payment for his earlier slip of the tongue, "still, I've never cottoned onto that trick either; now, am I doing this right – please remind me?"

Right; mentally running through the checklist she'd drilled into her head after months of watching the cat perform this most elementary of fishing manoeuvres, the armadillo slowly and carefully wound up the slack line until the base of the float was almost catching in the first eye of the rod itself; slack's gone, now flick the reel to cast; she did so with the thumb, hearing the click as she glanced over her shoulder, making sure Big got himself clear before she began to raise the rod over her head; make sure there's nothing behind you, don't go too hard and…; she whipped her arm forwards, hearing the frantic whirring in front of her as the reel played out line, the float arcing away in mid-air in response to the force of her cast. For a second fear spiked her heart – had she overdone the cast in error, but no, the dagger was withdrawn quickly as the entire assembly splashed down in almost the exact centre of the rushing stream. Quickly whipping her hand down to reel in any slack line before the current could drag the float away, Mighty kept her eyes on the landing point of the float, stopping her motion the second the vermillion tip of the marker was tugged towards her; perfect, a damn near perfect cast. Letting out a breath as she reassured herself that had gone according to plan, the armadillo looked over her shoulder to see Big watching on appreciatively,

"So", she gave another small pull on the rod, the float in the stream responding almost instantly to her application of force, "how's that for a cast and a half?"

"Very good", Big began, wanting to offer as much praise as he was able to before he had to highlight the one crucial area where she'd gone wrong, "got rid of the slack and not a hitch in the actual cast, but", he hesitated just for a second, quailed as Mighty looked around challengingly, daring him to criticise, "I doubt you'll catch much".

"Why's that then? As far as I can tell the hook's in the right place for something to have a nibble at it".

"It is, but I've yet to actually find a breed of fish that'll willingly bite itself onto a hook", Big said heavily, sighing as Mighty glanced at him again, this time a little more concerned at his tone of voice, "you forgot to put any bait on the end of the line".

There was absolute silence for a brief second before, with a series of agonised clicks, the reel began to turn once more, this time dragging the line in hand over fist as Mighty merely pursed her lips, annoyed with herself as she realised that yes, she had neglected that very important detail to do with the art of catching fish from land. Sighing as she raised the rod and dragged the hook into view, the unblemished steel of the metal glinting in even this weak winter sunlight, Mighty carefully pirouetted the rod around to where Big had bent down to pick something up from the ground; a second after he'd carefully reached over and slipped something on the end of the line, Mighty repeated her earlier movements, a little proud despite her earlier howler that she'd nevertheless managed to nail two excellent casts in quick succession. Nor was she the only one to think so,

"Now that's what I call getting the hook in the right place for something to nibble on", Big affirmed with a nod, his practised eye easily catching the bright tip of his float amid the background of still blue-grey water, "you've come on a long way".

"Ah, it's only two casts; not much compared to what, two-thousand from you?"

"Don't knock yourself Mich – two casts is still a fair achievement", the cat said philosophically as he sat down on the mossy bank, Mighty doing likewise onto the top of her travel bag to make herself more comfortable, "more than Tails ever managed anyway". The armadillo chuckled and glanced over at where the cat was now taking his repose; thanks for making me feel better, but you really shouldn't do the little guy down…should you? Nah, you've gotta be making that one up…;

"I know what you're thinking"; even as her brain was delivering the words to her lips Big had seen the thoughts in her face and was answering those directly, "no, Tails has yet to manage a pair of good casts back-to-back, not like it bothers him though. He freely admits he's never going to make it as a fisherMobian – he only tries if he's visiting with Cream usually".

"Oho, is that so?" Now I can definitely tell what you're thinking; unfortunately, recognition of such thought didn't stop him smirking at it, mirroring the expression the Chaotix sat next to him was suddenly sporting, "Is he still trying to kid on that there's nothing going on beyond a friendship – not even he could be that blind, Sonic's brother or not?"

"Apparently so, they're both as bad as each other though, you can't just blame him", the cat snickered even if half his attention was focussed on the water before him, "they usually drive by if they've got an hour or so to kill after they've been flying".

"Right", the armadillo drawled in a questioning manner, this new information starting to get really juicy as far as she was concerned, "he never told us that, and anyway I thought he wouldn't have a lot of time around now – it must be one of his busy times of year surely? Although", now she thought about it a bit more the facts seemed to contradict themselves somewhat, "maybe not – can't imagine too many people wanting to go sightseeing when it's getting cold and the nights are drawing in like a pair of old net curtains".

"Something like that; or at least that's the excuse he uses anyway", Big mentioned a moment later, his effortless recall allowing him to know such things before he leant over a touch to give his girlfriend a shallow dig in the ribs, "personally I reckon it's just an excuse to get Cream up in the air a bit more…what?" As a depth-charge seemed to detonate in Mighty's nasal passages the cat managed to look affronted despite having a good idea of exactly what was running through her mind. Choking back her laughter a little more, Mighty let go of the rod with one hand for a moment as she waved her hand in his general direction, warding off his questions as she sought desperately to thrust those thoughts back into the dankest, darkest oubliette of her mind,

"No, no trust me you do not want to know about that"; though it's an interesting spin on the idea – I wonder if there is such a thing as the junior mile-high cl…right, that's enough of that, they are both too young and too level-headed to be that stupid. Besides; another smile split her lips, this one perhaps not quite so wicked as her previous lip-works; officially there's nothing going on between them, at least as far as they're prepared to admit to anyone. Quickly dashing her hands across her eyes as tears of mirth threatened to fracture her vision, Mighty heard a noise off to the side of her and looked around,

"Sorry, what was that, I was er, busy shall we say?"

"Well, just a point mind", Big shrugged casually before flicking his finger forwards, "but you might want to think about striking sometime soon?"

"Huh?" Following his finger the armadillo looked out over the water; oh, yeah, the float's where I…ah!; and seeing her marker being dragged against the current, Mighty reacted instinctively, whipping the real back at the same time as jerking violently on the side of the rod. There was a lurch from the water before her and she was poised for the struggle, ready to pit her wits and strength against whatever it was she'd been able to snare, but such preparation was unnecessary; aside from the residual vibrations caused by her tremendous strike, the rod tip remained still. Damn, it got away, and I know why; with a bad-tempered huff the armadillo resigned herself to reeling in the slack of her line and slumped back, sighing slightly more evenly as she looked across,

"I know, I struck with the reel".

"Yep", Big seconded her identification of her mistake, "you'll have ripped the bait right out of his throat with that sort of shot; poor little guy'll never be able to face up to snacking on a red-berry again this side of five-figure therapy".

"Ah, he'll be fine, in fact I'm almost sure", the armadillo moved her hand again, ready as her float began to bob up and down again, "he's coming back for another bite at the cherry".

XXX

Slowly sucking on the tips of her fingers one at a time, Mighty sat back as the last of the juices of the meal they'd just shared together trickled down the back of her throat; the material around her absorbed her shell like an old cricket glove around a well-hit ball and, right at this moment in time, she felt replete with her lot in life.

"Now that was a decent bite; compliments to the chef as always", Big ducked his head at the praise before the armadillo added, almost as an afterthought, "though of course, most of the kudos goes to the girl who managed to snare dinner in the first place".

"Just like you said – beginners luck was all that was required. Complete fluke though"; yeah, yeah – you're just embarrassed you got upstaged by a complete newbie in your own back yard; regardless of her thoughts Mighty stayed silent as Big wandered over and slowly eased the massive fern from over her lap, carefully folding the one-use dinner plate so that all the traces of her recently devoured meal refrained from dripping down and soaking her legs, "that hook wasn't dredging the bottom so how the hell you managed to hook a barbell, especially a bit of a beastie like that one, is beyond me".

"Ah, just call it complete and utter spawn; I'm the last person to ask about how I actually catch anything with the twig and twine – I just stay still and it sort of blunders into me. Speaking of spawn by the way", Mighty's voice rose over the sudden gust of wind as the cat opened the front door to his home and casually discarded the fern leaves he'd skilfully plucked to the capricious attention of the disturbed air so that nature would quickly see them rotted away to mulch, "did Froggy bed down for the winter okay?"

"I assume so", Big replied as the front door closed behind him with a bit of a bang, leaving only a small, uncovered gap between two of the sturdy trunks that made up the walls of his home as the only possible entryway into their now private haven, "I don't stand over him as he digs himself in like – I figure he's old and ugly enough to have got the gist of how to ride out the frost by now".

"You're one to talk calling him ugly – no wonder you never put mirrors in this place"; there was no need for that; affronted, the cat quickly leafed backwards through his memories, concentrating on the few times he'd ever seen Shadow and Sonic together as he quested for a really witty put-down; right, that'll do nicely;

"At least I've got the option of putting them up"; where are you going with this?; trying to see the end point of the cat's snapback, Mighty tried to steal a march in this new war of wits, "if you tried they'd shatter the second you so much as glanced in their direction".

"Well doesn't that say a lot about your standards – going out with a troll like me?"

"It says a lot more about being able to look beyond the obvious; I go for personality over looks every time"; come on, come on; her mind whirred into overtime – she couldn't let him win after that but even as steam began to condense in her overheating brain and Big leered at his forthcoming victory, she had nothing left to fire back with and with a half-hearted growl she relented, slumping back in her chair again as the cat celebrated his triumph as discreetly as he was able to, even offering her his condolences, in a way at least,

"Ah well, at least you've got the nicest personality I've ever come across", somehow the growl from across the room didn't reassure him that she'd got the right end of the stick in that case and he tried again, "that and the fact you're the first and only girl who's ever dared to venture in here more than once, willingly at least".

"Yeah, willingly, that's one word for it I suppose, though I could think of others a lot more closer to the mark", the armadillo said gratingly, though this time her voice didn't chafe because of what he'd said; it was more to do with another problem a lot closer to home as far as she was concerned. Curiosity aroused, Big leaned forwards a little, taking in the way she seemed to be squirming around a little more around on the seat and wondering if he was reading the situation right as he measured his next question carefully,

"How so – if not willingly, then how?"

"How about out of necessity? Would you mind at all – sorry to ask…"

"Don't be; I thought it might have been that", quickly crossing the room as Mighty hopped off her seat, allowing Big to sit down and slap his knee beckoningly, "come on then, let's get those gribbles sorted out; rather now than on the National Express I suppose".

"You suppose right; refused dad's offer of a quick tidy-up just before a two hour car journey once, only ever happened once"; the mere memory of that torturous two-hour stint in purgatory made the insistent itching she was going through now increase in tempo even more. Only the thought that this problem was going to be removed very quickly gave her the strength to go on without looking like a robot recently deprived of oil, moving jerkily in order to try to keep the burning feeling at bay as much as possible; going along he lines to keep her discomfort as short as possible, the Chaotix hopped back up to the lap that was inviting her openly as an escape hatch from the curse of the gribbles.

XXX

As Mighty landed across his lap, Big as always had to wrestle down the imp of mischief that suddenly sparked into life and whispered in his ear that swatting the prostrate armadillo's tail would actually be a really good and funny idea. No it wouldn't – well, not for her anyway; grateful only that she couldn't see the smirk that licked across his lips, Big raised his favoured right hand and slipped the claw on his index finger out from its natural sheath, holding it up and ready as Mighty reached backwards with both hands, grabbing twin fistfuls of her top and pulling it forwards, exposing the naked plates of her shell, giving him a clear target to work with.

"It's mostly two down from the top", her voice came at him from somewhere around his kneecaps, "feels a bit soft, probably just a couple of bits of fluff – we need to get the couch at our place replaced, it's starting to bobble up like nobody's business".

"Hey, don't talk to me about interior decoration", the cat chuckled as he ever-so-slowly set his claw into place just above the armadillo's tail, looking to slide the natural weapon through the chink in her armour at the bottom of her back and work his way up from there, "I might be a jack of many trades but believe me feng-shi, or however you pronounce it, has never been one of them".

"Us neither", Mighty replied before she tensed unconsciously; though technically the hard horn encasing just over half of her was nerveless, some deep instinct forced her to recognise when such cover had been breeched and react accordingly; tense up and narrow the gap between the overlapping shell plates even further. It was a battle of will over primal urge to still her natural reactions, give Big even the minute amount of space he needed to work with – a hard scrap to be sure, but one she was able to win out in the end, "the closest Vec's come to maintaining inner balance in the living room is a can of soda in one hand and a plate of crisps in the other".

"And two cans in his hat I'm sure", Big chuckled, though he focused his attention solely on his patient as he let his claw slip in further by increments; the second a barely-perceptible quiver rippled its way up through his probing claw to the receptive nerves of his fingertips he ceased all forwards motion – that signal meant he'd reached the skin and to press on any more would be very unwise. As Mighty had told him, and as he knew to be true himself due to a little research in the Station Square library following an apprentice session with Mr Trenton, wounds under an armadillo's shell were serious things indeed, no matter how small or insignificant they might seem; by the very nature of their location they were virtually impossible to keep clean and as such often became infected, paving the way for all sorts of nasties get into the open sore and cause trouble, potentially life-threatening trouble at that. So he began to slide his claw along very slowly, watching the armadillo's reactions at the same time as concentrate solely on the task in hand, blotting out the very slight ache in his thigh where Mighty had grabbed onto a handful of his fur and was spasmodically tightening and loosening her grip depending on where he natural nail was. Take it steady, got all the time in the world; it was true, following the contours of the armadillo's shell was relatively simple and he had done this before – sifting through the sands of his memory made the task in hand all the easier as far as he was concerned.

As at every time this ritual was enacted, there was only one stage that made Big a little uncomfortable and that was when it came to trying to get under the broadest of his partner's shell plates; the first and most obvious reason for this was that the depth of the cleft beneath the shell was such that his favoured index finger claw was too short to reach down to the skin of her back. This meant that he had to use the larger claw of his middle finger, which was a little more difficult to manoeuvre precisely under such duress and he was therefore always a little edgy that he was more likely to inadvertently scratch her now than at any other time during the shell cleaning; however, the other reason that gave him slightly more cause for concern at this latest step was that Mighty, rolling her shirt up over her back to make sure he had a clear target to run at, always now pulled the material up far enough to expose the back strap of her bra. The sight of such material; Mighty had almost laughed her socks off when Big, blushing furiously during the very first time he'd volunteered to give this sort of work a shot, had been forced to admit that had been the first time in his sheltered, frugal life that he'd ever seen any aspect of a lady's undergarments whilst they were still being worn; was still a little uncomfortable to him though he'd almost got used to the idea by now, even to the point where he was just about able to bring himself to undo the clip himself rather than the armadillo having to reach round and do it for him. Though he logically knew why it was necessary to remove obstacles from the path of his claws it always made the butterflies in his stomach kip-up into action when he felt the clip give way under his fingers, the two halves of the sundered strap falling to either side of the armadillo's shell – he always quickly pressed on at this stage, not wanting to risk jeopardising something as important as the one serious relationship he'd ever had outside his family by lingering on the lurid visions conjured up by his libido, stimulated by the realisation that Mighty was, completely by her own consent, almost semi-naked in his lap.

Take a deep breath – this isn't the time to be thinking things like that; it was true enough and he flicked out the claw he needed for the job without further ado, focussing his attention on the matt black expanse of Mighty's shell rather than that thin sheets of white that draped down either side of it, drowning out his desires with a workman's pride in the job; you've got to make sure Mighty's comfortable in her own skin again, they'll be plenty of time for that sort of thing, later…. He never quite answered his own thought then, never asked himself when later might actually be, but as his blade slipped into the joist between the two large shell plates such ideas were quickly banished by his naturally caring attitude and his inability to even consider the possibility of injuring his friend through negligence on his part. Luckily the blade slipped in cleanly, the slight hook of his claw feathering home on the armadillo's back and stopping short as its owner felt the resultant twitch transmit up along his finger, Mighty giving a short hiss as she felt his attention from her position, her voice thick as her chest was compressed against his legs,

"Ahhh, that's the spot"; that's got rid of the lot of it – the rate he's going I won't need doing again until we touch down in bonnie Scotland; "sorry if it looks like you've been stirring your nail through a tar pit though – believe me Charmy does his best".

"I know, and don't worry", examining the assembled mess as his claw retracted, the cat carefully reached over and wiped the tip of his finger with another of the fern leaves he always kept handy, hanging in bushels from his roof in order to be ready for times like this, "I've seen a lot worse; remember what you were doing in the summer?"

"Don't remind me; I think I must have carried half that damned desert back into Echidnopolis with me", Mighty spat forcefully, the merest memory of the horror that had been Sandopolis making her shiver, "I could hear you trying to get those grains out, sounded like someone was dredging the Silver Sea".

"Ah well, I got them all in the end", she heard the cat's voice a split-second before freezing again, the faint scratch of his nail infiltrating the crevice of her shell plates grating at her ears before she forced herself to relax again, consciously reminding herself over and over that he was aiding her, a friend rather than a traitor beneath her armour, "took a while like, but in the end it was worth it".

"Too right – oohhh, you have no idea how much of a life-saver you are Big"; that was the worst and he just breezed through it – buzz-boy wouldn't have stood a chance, those gribbles were right in at the narrow end; "I was able to walk around without looking like the tin man from the Wizard of Oz when they lost his can of oil for the first time in a month". She felt as well as heard his answering chortle, the sound vibrating though his legs and straight into her body, the feeling tingling all the way through her body in a way nothing else ever really could,

"Just as well we did that first really wasn't it? I mean, trying to teach you anything while you were jumping around like someone sitting on an anthill would have been a wasted effort on both our parts".

"Too right – you about done? I can tell you're on your way up, is it top or second from top?"

"Top, and if you'll lay still a minute"; oww, no need for that; flicking her heels up, the armadillo took exception to the cat's treatment of her defenceless tail tip and buffeted his huge arm with the sole of one of her boots in revenge for his underhanded flick, "we'll be done in a second".

"Great, go for it; you know, I was reading not so long ago there's supposed to be a new operation available for Mobians like me, just a cosmetic thing, nothing major but it's supposed to be a life-saver from the reviews it was getting in the mag I'd picked up". She fell quiet for a second, not daring to talk as Big's claw went under for the final time; there was a brief moment of final, alien contact against her normally untouched, raw back skin before the presence withdrew and she was safe to draw breath again,

"Go on", Big prompted her from above, evidently intrigued by this new news from the land above. Taking a second to recuperate both her train of thought and reach around to grip both sides of her unclasped bra, Mighty eventually continued her story,

"Yeah, it was to do with some bright spark downstairs figuring out what I could have told him when I was four – our shells are nerveless, so are those of most other species with one of these things on our backs. So matey in the mag does a bit of thinking, realises hang on a moment, it must be really uncomfortable to live with one of them…"

"No…", Big's pause spoke more than any word ever could have; Mighty had to cover her mouth with her hand to stop the explosive laughter bursting forth, ruining her progress so far in covering herself up properly, "…Sherlock".

"My, myhihihi thoughts exactleehehehe; ah, come on, stop it", with a mental jerk she pulled herself back together and shook her head, "well anyway, he figures out that if he drills a succession of holes through the plates, shallow ones like, nothing near the skin, well then us armadillos could just get a mate to slip a couple of pipe cleaners through the hole and hey presto, gribbles gone for good. Apparently he's raking in four figures per op, and he hasn't stopped his surgery since his procedure went mainstream".

"Good for him", Big mused after a couple of seconds debating the issue mentally, sneaking a peek downwards to see Mighty just about manage to clip her top back together and start rolling her shirt back down, "he saw a gap in the market, or in fact he saw there wasn't a gap in the market and found a way to make one. You thought about going for it?"

"Not a chance", the armadillo informed him in no uncertain terms; bracing his leg, Big felt her hand grab onto his knee and sucked his stomach in as much as he was able to in order to let Mighty roll over on his lap, facing upwards as she finished, "for a start I've got something better than any new-fangled machine they manage to wheel out the doctor's surgery, and secondly have you even thought what Vector would say if I said I wanted a grand or two for an op like that? No hope missus; top off, into the garage and I'll plug in the Black and Decker, be with you in a second".

"You know I wouldn't put it past him either", Big chuckled, joining the armadillo in her snickering for a moment before seriousness reasserted itself once more and he found himself gazing down into her face once more, a warmth suddenly blossoming on his chest and his arm moving almost without him thinking about it to reciprocate such intimate heat with the one who allowed him to feel it so.

XXX

Barely aware of the movements of her own fingers though reasonably sure they were all still massaging their way though the Big guy's chest and belly hair as his purrs were still echoing though the house like a continual roll of gentle thunder, Mighty focussed completely on where her boyfriend's dinner-plate sized palm was resting atop her own stomach, one edge of his gloved hand slowly creeping its way down through the gap she'd left as she'd roughly pulled her top back down over herself as she'd rolled over. For once grateful that her shell was as rigid as it was, Mighty let herself relax backwards as much as she was able to; she knew that she wasn't going to topple backwards because her natural armour kept her in place across Big's thighs; and even if that wasn't there, he's almost wide enough to stretch out on anyway. Thoughts and idle calculations such as those flitted into and out of her mind as they pleased; she didn't bother with them in any real way as right now they weren't important – all that mattered was that Big was caressing her tenderly and she was doing likewise, each completely comfortable with the mood and ministrations of the other. Touch had always played an important role in their relationship; having been alone for most of his adult life such sensations were novel and exhilarating for Big, unseen and therefore unremembered by his flawless recall, and as far as she was concerned the shell that swallowed half her body meant she only had half a sense of feeling anyway – anything situation that let her use such a stunted sense to the fullest were moments to be milked for all they were worth. A grin crept over her face, widening as Big's hand finally made it to where it had been aiming for; her fingers clenched in the fur of his chest, contracting uncontrollably in response to his movements, the sawing motion he was making across her stomach making the corners of her mouth stretch further apart until it looked like her grin was about ready to separate her head,

"Kreeee"; she didn't know why she was making any noise at all, she wasn't ticklish in any way – it just felt so, so different and nice that she couldn't keep a lid on her vocal chords, "you trying to saw me in half there pal?"

"Too right", his reply descended to her a moment later though his movements never slackened for a second, "I'm trying to see where most of that barbell went; it's in here somewhere I'm sure, but there's a lot of ground to cover". That got a reaction; a muffled thump suddenly drowned out the purring around the cabin as Mighty took exception to her partner's latest jest,

"Lot of ground my foot", the armadillo muttered up crossly even if she carried on stroking his chest fur the second her slap hit home, "put it like this; if I've got a pit for a stomach you've got an entire cave system in there somewhere mate", she declared, prodding Big's ample berth with the elbow of her scratching, stroking hand.

"Something like that; if I for any reason drop down dead in the middle of Station Square I really pity the coroner who has to get on with the autopsy; forget the scalpel, you'd need a chainsaw to get through this lot". Mighty's stomach skin fluttered helplessly, laughter breeching through her even her scrunched up face as she tried to imagine Big laid up on a mortuary slab; in most circumstances that would have been an awful thing to picture but in this context, when she could see the look of horror on the face of the senior practitioner clashing too perfectly with the pained, exhausted expression of the pallbearers who'd brought him down, each holding their aching backs and moaning, she couldn't help but giggle like a tipsy schoolgirl. Big also laughed at pretty much the same image, but his mirth didn't, or perhaps couldn't, stop his eyes lingering on the way the armadillo's helpless sniggering was making the material around her torso, still loose as she hadn't pulled it down properly, ride up a little further, exposing more of her stomach and her navel. Quickly moving to take advantage of this good fortune, the cat replaced his hand on his girlfriend's still-quivering stomach, the sudden contact maybe helping her snap out of her giggling fit as she quietened down after another minute or so, breathing deeply with her face flushed pink with the sudden exertion as she looked up into the cats open, honest face.

Neither spoke, both merely continued to stare deeply into the eyes of the other for time that stretched on and on; Big's lips were dry as desert sands but he dared not lick them, dared not try anything that might end this lovely moment. His eyes never left Mighty's just as she never broke her gaze away from his; even when he felt another pressure on top of the hand he had laid gently on her nude stomach he didn't look away, feeling instead Mighty's palm massaging the top of his knuckles and, after a minute of merely soaking up such blissful pleasure, beginning to transmit such a feeling downwards through his own palm. Only then, as this massage started was the soul searching between their eyes end, Mighty's eyelids falling shut as her lips parted slightly, the sigh that whistled from between such a parting a sweet, sweet music to Big's huge ears.

"Please", she shivered for a moment, a tremor so tremulous Big barely believed it had originated from someone as normally stolid as Mighty was, "that feels absolutely magical; don't stop, whatever you do".

"Okay", Big agreed mutely; she could have asked him to sign away his soul in that moment and he'd have put pen to paper without a second thought; to keep Mighty looking as happy as she did now was worth any sort of sacrifice, "you just…" Her eyes opened once more, a glint of understand in those jade eyes that took him a little by surprise,

"I know; here", reaching up once more, she freed his crabbing hand and set her own fingers back to work, the strong digits brushing through the cat's thick winter coat to softly tenderise the hardened flesh underneath, "that good?"

"Perfect; I won't…" he broke off to gasp a moment, the armadillo hitting a sweet spot he'd never even known he'd had, "…won't quit if you keep going".

"Done deal", assuring herself that it was so, Mighty closed her eyes once more and settled back, feeling only the warmth at her belly and underneath her hand as she did so, "oohhhoooo, too much more of this and I'm going to either fall asleep or pass out; just put me to bed if I start snoring".

"Only if I'm still awake at that point; if we go down together we'll just have to spend the night like this".

"I can, I can live with that".

"Good, me-hehe, me too".

XXX

Fortunately, or maybe unfortunately, neither of the two ever really figured out if their inability to succumb to the siren's call of sleep was a good or a bad thing, both were still awake when the final, completely unplanned celebration of the night kicked off. And, like everything, it began with a spoken word rather than an earth-shattering explosion, Big looking down at where Mighty was still laying back replete and smiled,

"So tell me"; hmm, what do you want to know?; not able to even consider refusing answering, the armadillo merely nodded to let him continue, mind beginning to descend slightly from the warmth that had previously cocooned it but still mostly wrapped up in the loving heat's caress, "what's the plan of action when we actually touch down north of the border?" The armadillo pursed her lips, trying to tot up how much she should let Big hear and how much she should keep secret, a surprise for when they were actually there,

"Well, after we say bye to the rest of your rabble", Mighty began, Big's hand giving a warning squeeze on her stomach to let her know he didn't take all that kindly to insinuations about his family; okay okay, point taken; "which I'm looking forwards to by the way, we'll catch a flight over there; my parents are already on their way, we'll meet in kind of a halfway house sort of thing, so at least you won't have to catch dad in his garage"; or prise him out of it for that matter, though I doubt he'll be in that good a mood being dragged away from his toys for too long; luckily Big never noticed her face darken as her thoughts strayed to her father, he was too busy thinking backwards to what she'd said in the past regarding that particular parent,

"Yeah, you did say he was into his engineering – heh, sounds like he and my dad should get on like a house on fire"; somehow I doubt it – Bill's patient, fair-minded and thinks the world of his wife, three things dad's never been or ever done;

"Yeah, we can but hope", Mighty said brazenly, hoping her voice was giving the words of her mind more cheer than her heart was, "but anyway, after that, we all drive up there and it all kicks off – and no, I'm not saying any more than that".

"Why not?"

"I want it to be a surprise".

"Believe me it'll be one – come on", Big knew that look and was already trying to work out a plan to deal with it, "don't be awkward about this".

"Why not? It's more fun that way", the armadillo smiled sweetly, apparently either unaware or uncaring as Big's hazel eyes narrowed at her obstinacy, "and besides, anything that can keep you in suspense has to be a weighty matter indeed". All that and a pun at my waistline too; the cat appeared to be saddened as he gave a wistful sigh, though his eyes betrayed that false sincerity as they glinted at the challenge,

"Okay, we do this the hard way then; just don't say", he began exerting the pressure he hoped would break her, feeling the prodigious rack of muscles in her gut immediately clench together, seeking to resist the force of his palm heel, "you weren't given a chance!"

XXX

No chance pal; he was strong in his own right but she was his match this time, her six-pack holding up to the assault from his bulging forearm as she gritted her teeth, hoping to press her stomach muscles out to really rub his face in the fact that he'd been beaten by a girl; you're strong but I was born to be the toughest. Grinning even through her gritted teeth, she managed to grate out her victory speech into the straining face of her boyfriend, pressing down on her as he still was,

"Nice…idea", she said, taking her time to breathe a little between the words to ensure that her body had enough breath to work with to avoid cramps, "shame it…didn't work".

"Ah, but Mich", his tone was similarly gasped; only the fact she had to divert yet more attention to the battle of her bulge meant she missed the suddenly predatory expression that flashed onto Big's face, "who said this…was the whole plan?" Now!

In the blink of an eye, the huge cat had whipped his arm back from where it had been trying to press his girlfriend through his own legs; caught out by the sudden loss of contact, Mighty's tensed muscles immediately tensed up further and she half-curled up involuntarily. What, what are you…?; disorientated and gasping down fresh breath, the Chaotix member had barely enough time to think as she relaxed again, whipping back down to her previous position like a snapped bow string; why did he just…? Even as her mind logged the query she felt herself rise, glanced down to where the gaping jaws were opened and waiting for her and all her thoughts turned to panicked escape, thrashing desperately to try and force her way out of Big's arms as he lifted her upwards towards the very worst fate she could ever hope to avoid.

Fighting hard not to laugh and lose precious air that could be better spent on other avenues, Big ignored Mighty's last, flailed shrieks of retribution and pleading for mercy in time to press his face downwards and blow a long, loud raspberry against her recently-sensitised stomach.

The result of this underhand attack was utter pandemonium; mind blown completely clear of the water by the vibrations that swept aside all hopes of rational thought, Mighty virtually screamed out loud and redoubled her efforts to break free, barely aware of what she was saying at all as Big tried equally as hard to reinforce his hold over her shell and thighs, hugging her stomach against his lips as he drew in another deep breath through his nose. Give her just a second – that'll do; grinning again now as the armadillo began to get hold of herself once again, the cat delivered his ultimatum,

"Right Miss Armadillo, you want some more of the same?"

"Wha, what? You dare", the cold venom in her voice would have made any other Mobian back down, least of all one who had seen firsthand the devastation Mighty's strength could leave in its wake if she chose it to do so, "you dare and I'll – no!" A puff of air made her naked skin flutter; for some reason she'd never understood this kind of attack was able to smash straight through her defences in a way nothing else ever could – she imagined it was for the same kind of reason that Charmy went orbital whenever Espio seized him around the knee but at this moment in time she didn't give a damn about the reason why it happened, she was too busy trying to work out a way of avoiding it happening in the very near future at very short notice.

"No you say – then say something else…"

"Haha, no way", finally wrestling on of her arms free, Mighty covered her exposed weak point with the back of her liberated paw, "try and get past this if you can".

"My pleasure"; no way; she felt him press his lips forwards again and she fought like a dervish to stop him, forced to rely on touch and her natural stubbornness to see where she was going as she couldn't crane her neck down far enough to see the struggle itself; you shall not pass Big – you are not doing that to me ever again. Aha, a whisker, now I've got, hey; suddenly he froze, and it wasn't just because she had hold of one of his long, fine facial hairs either; what gives? Suddenly she felt herself descend, the unexpectedness of him letting his arms go limp like this in turn meaning she lost her vital hold on his tender spot; for a second she remained on high alert, expecting this to be another ploy in trying to get her helpless again for a second attack – only then did she see her boyfriend's face. After a second of seeing the way his cheeks were the colour of whey and beating down the resultant panic that such a sigh caused did she notice the way his eyes were fixed into the distance, seeing something else as the blood began to burn its way back into his face; following his gaze, Mighty too saw what had caught his attention and felt herself similarly transfixed by the vision, her own face exploding vermillion as the implications of this sight sank in.

The small gap in the wall of Big's home was a gap no longer; it had been filled in the very recent past with a most unusual material indeed. Even as the armadillo and cat watched on, both jaws hanging slack and hardly breathing from the shock of the sight, the familiar blue face grinned, raised an eyebrow at the pair of them, extracted itself from the hole a little and whispered a couple of words that both of them heard effortlessly,

"Go right in guys; get the party started".

XXX

Face ablaze but body movement explosive Mighty, yanking down the bottom of her shirt again in a belated damage-control scheme about as useful as a chocolate fireguard now that Sonic had seen what he'd seen, managed to vacate Big's lap in a single bound just before it was filled again by the beige blur that whizzed in through the cat's front door; Big had barely enough time to catch his breath before a pair of arms were around his neck and a joyful voice was calling down his ear,

"All right Big guy; sorry it's a bit early but merry Christmas to you, and you as well Miss Mighty"; Miss?; as always it was the presence of manners, perhaps a little more rough and ready than they had been once but manners nevertheless, that let him put a name to voice,

"Cream?" There was another sudden pressure in his lap as a pair of dainty feet touched down and the forenamed rabbit put her hands on her hips and grinned broadly, giving a cheeky wink,

"Yep", she pirouetted gratefully on one of the cats huge thighs, waving at where Mighty was still stood gawking dumbfounded at the same time as extend a hand to usher in the rest of her support cast, "and everyone else is here too".

"Too right", Amy agreed with her younger 'sister', striding into her former team-mate's home just behind Tails, the pilot's older brother bringing up the rear and pulling the door closed behind him to keep out the cold, "think we were just going to let you slip away over the border without saying goodbye and season's greetings first – pull the other one". Yes, just keep pulling it for a second longer; frantically tucking herself back in, Mighty tried to get herself ready before any of the attention fell on her; almost done – okay, good to go. Just make sure the Smurf knows that if he so much as whispers anything about what he saw I'll rip him in two and we'll be sorted; taking a quick, deep breath, the armadillo turned back around in time to see Amy bearing down on her, the pink hedgehog's face open and honest as she reached for one of the armadillo's paws; after shaking and giving her friend a quick once-over, the Chaotix smiled and buffeted the undergraduate gently on the shoulder,

"Oww, what was that…?"

"That was from Shadow", Amy's face was a peach as Mighty wagged a finger at her reprimandingly, "hopefully that'll teach you to get ratty with him when he's trying to wish you luck for your exams". Piqued by the reminder, rather than break out cursing at the black hedgehog's long-distance comeback Amy instead hung her head a little, chuckling regretfully as she did recall all too clearly being a little sharp with her friend on Angel Island the night before her first major exams had to be sat,

"Heh, well okay, I might have deserved that, but my nerves were in absolute tatters by then; I've never been so glad I don't smoke", the hedgehog mumbled with a shrug before attempting to explain things from her point of view, giving an example of how ragged she'd been feeling leading up to going into the examination hall itself, "I'd have been puffing like a chimney for weeks beforehand just to try and calm myself down".

"And she's not lying either", Cream chipped in as Big, finally beginning to catch up with what was going on, began to pull apart the large mound of freshly plucked heather that he used for a bed to provide seating for his guests, "this one time Cheese nearly tripped her over when she called round with Sonic; I swear I never knew she knew half the words that came out of her mouth – thanks". My pleasure; the rabbit's grateful smile was enough to force a reciprocal grin to form on the cat's lips as Amy's ears drooped lower in embarrassment, the colour of her cheeks giving her a passable impression of Knuckles from the right angle,

"Hmm, well…" Unfortunately at that point someone else stuck their oar in to make a bad situation for just that little bit more excruciating,

"Believe me no matter what you heard I got it worse", Tails said in a long-suffering manner; he perhaps would have added more had he not seen the filth in the glance Amy threw his way and swiftly weighed up that a few cheap laughs now would probably cost him a lot more hassle than it was worth in the long run, "but it's all over now; anyway at least she was speaking in a language. What were you two up to just now – we could have heard you from Mystic Ruins?"

Now it was Mighty's turn to go red, trying to think of a quick way to explain what she and Big had gotten up to on the fly and in a way that wouldn't sound completely absurd to their friends was a challenge she simply wasn't up to. Certainly not when she recalled that there was someone else here would could and, knowing him as well as she did she reckoned it was a better than even bet that he eventually would reveal precisely what had gone on. Okay, here we go then; she could see it coming, time seeming to slow to a crawl in mockery of her feeble attempts to shut Sonic up before he could open his big mouth – she kissed her ego goodbye, all but closing her eyes as the first syllable left the lips of her childhood friend,

"You don't want to know kid, believe me on that. In fact", Mighty caught the flash of his eyes and promptly returned it with a death glare of her own, "I'd say you're too young to know". Immediately Tails started sniggering, Cream attempting to keep her lips level and failing as she saw Big, stood behind Sonic as he went back for another load of heather for a third seat, drawing back his hand from behind Sonic as though ready to hammer the hedgehog through the floor of his house as Mighty mentally egged him on; go on, it'll save me having to do it later. To her mingled relief and disappointment her boyfriend couldn't find it within his soft heart to do anything other than drop his arm and whistle innocently as the hedgehog span around, quills prickling as he realised that all was not as it should have been. His sudden spurt of paranoia well justified, the hedgehog raised a hand palm upwards to keep his largest friend at bay,

"Nice try pal, but I've got my eye on you"; why's he looking so smug all of a sudden?; just this once his speed was lacking and before he could connect suspicions to actions, someone spoke,

"Good", from just behind him – the next instant there were tears starting to form in the corner of his eye as a vice-like something seized hold of the quills on the back of his head and hoisted him off the ground by them, "shame you don't have eyes in the back of your head spikes". Seeing his brother being brutalised in this manner, Tails valiantly came to his aid with a giggle and a dry comment,

"Mighty, please don't hurt him, or swing him around at all; he's carrying the dice, we need him alive".

"Dice?" Mighty queried, still not letting go of the top of the blue hero's head and apparently immune to where he was kicking backwards at her shins in a vain attempt to free himself, "what's this about dice Smurf". Gasping against the pain even as he tried to hold himself still, the azure hedgehog spoke in pained, uncontrolled bursts,

"It's a game, a game Amy taught us", he explained, the trying to surreptitiously raise his hands and get some relief to his straining spikes, "could you let go now, please?"

"Hmm, oh I suppose so; don't make fun of what you don't understand", she demanded as she uncurled her fist and let Sonic slump to the floor again; as always, after turning around, gingerly reaching up and smoothing out his natural hair style, the blue blur rebounded on her with a quip of his own,

"And why not; I've never heard the M.E. complain", he quoted as he slumped backwards, teetering on the mound of heather Big had thoughtfully set up right behind him, "the guardian neither for that matter, not that I've ever listened much to what either of them have got to say".

"Shame, even you might finally learn something if you did", Cream sniped, nailing him dead on with that pretty much perfect quote before moving on before he could muster anything like retaliation, "but we're losing time nattering like old women; Amy", the rabbit wound up her speech, indicating her adoptive older sibling imperiously, "the game".

"Too right; Big, do you have anything like an old table we could use – this needs a flat surface to play. And don't just sit there looking ornamental Sonic, dole out the dice and cups while we're getting ready". With a disbelieving tut, Sonic's hand dove into the bag he'd brought with him and emerged a few seconds later, dropping a quintet of brightly-coloured cubes into a sturdy, opaque plastic beaker and passing it to his right, the recipient fox trying very hard not to smirk as his adoptive older sibling muttered mutinously,

"Yes miss, no miss, three bags full miss – hard to believe her exams ended a week ago isn't it? I mean come on, I've got one on the twenty-second, three days before Christmas and do you see me going to pieces and mouthing off at my friends?"

"Nah, no more than usual at least", Tails commented, attempting to cheer the hedgehog up a touch after the duo of put-downs he'd been forced to endure over the past few minutes, "you're too laid back to get stressed by anything".

"Too right I am", Sonic assured him with the cocksure grin the pilot knew so well, handing another prepared cup to Big as the cat sat down, a nod from Mighty telling him she had a handle on dragging the small chest he kept behind the back of his chair over, the best sort of table he could muster under the circumstances, "okay people, gather round and grab a cup, let me know if I've missed anyone out or you're a dice down".

"You should have five", Amy added a second later, seeing Big looking into his cup almost doubtfully, "and if you don't check it's not Sonic's fault if you've been short-changed, he's only playing by the rules of the game".

"Oh yes", Mighty said as she sat down on her own impromptu seat, accepting the cup Cream passed over to her and giving the dice inside a quick head count, "and what is the name of this particular game then?" Amy looked over, a sly smirk playing on her lips as she purred a name throatily,

"Liar dice".

XXX

When all was ready, Amy brought them all to order by placing her palm over the top of her beaker and shaking it vigorously, the rattling of the small cubes inside bringing the attention of all present onto her and allowing her to begin explaining,

"Right, liar dice is easy to play; shake your dice up in the cup, then…" she slammed her plastic cup down on the chest before her, inverting it quickly as she did so to end up with the opaque plastic holder upside-down, shielding the dice beneath it from view, "…okay, go ahead". There was a crescendo of bangs and thumps as five other beaker rims hit the table top and, as the echoes died away, she quickly carried on where she'd left off,

"Right, now only look at your own dice, don't show anyone else", lifting the rim of her cup a little, she peeked at the way her cubes had fallen and then replaced the cup down, face thoughtful as though making up her mind about something, "all right then, I'll start; I'll bet that, underneath all our cups combined this is", she pointed out to clarify the situation, "that there are at least four-fours; that is, there are four dice showing four. That's my bid, so the play passes to the person on my left, we go clockwise".

"So it's my bid", Sonic carried on for her, taking a second to carefully check his dice again before he said anything else, "now lucky me, I've got two choices; I can either up the bid or I can call Ames a liar – now believe it or not even I'm not stupid enough to risk calling on such a low bid, so I'm going to up it to five-fours. This is the main rules of liar dice – you have to up the bid every time; either a higher number of dice or a higher number on the dice"; guess that English paper did count for something – six months ago I'd have never been able to explain it that well. Still; seeing a couple of the assembled congregation still looking a little puzzled, he decided to put the matter completely to bed; practical examples always make things easier to picture than just words;

"For example, Cream", the rabbit's head shot up from where she'd been examining her rolled dice, "I said five-fours, you can say five-fives, five-sixes or six of any other number; higher on the dice or higher number of dice, got me?" The rabbit's brow knitted for a second before she carefully unpicked the expression and said carefully,

"Yeah, yeah I think so; rats", ducking down for another quick peek, she surfaced again with a distinctly unsettled air about her, "I was hoping to go five-ones, but I guess it'll have to be six-ones now won't it?"

"That's still about average, one each", Tails commented reasonably as Mighty upped the bid to six-fours; however, when Big turned to him offering seven of the same number, he felt he had to take a stand, "now that's not right, I'm calling you a liar there. What happens now?" Eagerly turning to Amy and studiously ignoring Big's mortally wounded expression, the fox obeyed her next words unhesitatingly, desperate to know if he was right or not,

"Okay, lift your cup up and count how many fours you've got; go in sequence", first of the blocks as usual, Sonic quickly banged his cup down again, looking for all the world like a puppy denied a chocolate drop as Tails proudly unveiled his dice with a triumphant,

"None there".

"I've got two", Amy said a second later, Tails just about managing to keep his smile where it was as Sonic revealed his result and took the total up to four, over half the number Big needed to be proved innocent of lying. Cream's not got any – lots of ones though – I'm nearly home; Mighty sighed and he felt his heart plummet,

"Sorry Tails, five, six, seven".

"Eight and nine – we were doing all right there in the four department" the cat commented as his name was cleared in impressive fashion, "so what next?"

"Tails looses a die", Amy said simply, tapping the centre of the chest until the foxboy grudgingly flicked one of his cubes over in the general direction, "right, now we start again at step one; everyone shake them up and Tails gets to make the first bid". As the rattling and sextet of thunks died away, Cream piped up a query that had just occurred to her and cleared up the last grey area of the game,

"You lose a dice every time you're wrong; what happens when you run out?"

"You go 'cup-up'; flip the mug up and put your dice in it, ready for the next game", Sonic stated, examining the fall out this time before glancing in her direction and winking, "Ames was telling me, whoever goes out first buys the next round when they play this at Uni".

"Sounds about right, the stories I've heard from that place", Tails muttered disgruntled, trying to come up with a believable bid that wouldn't make it around the table back to him, "okay then, start with five-twos…"

XXX

A short time later, with the pile of lost dice in the centre swelled significantly, Cream tapped the top of her beaker; don't you dare call me on that; Sonic tried his best to look neutral, hoping the rabbit would swallow his outrageous bluff despite the fact that he still had a full set of five dice still under his mug. It was all he could do to stop wheezing with relief when after a long, long moment of self-deliberation, the rabbit turned to Mighty and said,

"Six-twos".

"And I agree", the armadillo said with a heavy grunt, Amy and Tails chuckling at that announcement as she checked under her cup once more, "I reckon there are six-twos, but I also think there's six-fives as well", she turned to smile coyly at her boyfriend, "what about you Big – think I'm lying?"

"I wouldn't put it past you", the cat drawled, drawing a pained gasp from the armadillo by his side before he turned an evilly-challenging gaze on the fox next to him, "but I'm pushing the boat out here – eight-sixes". There was a collective intake of breath; Tails did a quick head count of the number of dice left in play and, having consulted the laws of probability and come up with a big, fat no, shook his head, raising his cup,

"No chance, even though I've got one", and sure enough one of the fox's dice showed the obligatory six dots on its uppermost face. Amy whistled and lifted her beaker in turn,

"Sorry Big guy, I can't help you", her words compounded by Sonic merely shaking his head as he too came up empty-handed.

"I've got two", Cream piped up bravely, having managed to roll a pair on her remaining three dice but still not all that hopeful for Big's chances of retaining his five dice. Mighty also shook her head as she revealed no results on her remaining four,

"Looks like you're on your own pal; I'd have been all right with the fives though".

"Damned if you did and damned if you didn't", Tails laughed perhaps a little gloatingly, scenting the blood on the wind as the cat looked troubled, "come on, cough up unless you've got five under there". Big drew in a sigh before flicking his eyes to the side of him, trying his hardest not to smile as he slowly withdrew his beaker from the tabletop,

"Well, actually, funny you should mention that…" Tails started laughing, then looked at the dice exposed and the chuckles died in his throat,

"I don't believe it!"

As good-natured chaos erupted around the table the fox rested his forehead in his hand, still not believing the five sixes gleaming proudly from under the beaker of the one who had rolled them; that's me down to just a pair then – how the hell did he roll that?;

"Oooh, yhatze", Amy crowed before realising that no-one else would have had a Scooby what that meant, "that's what it's called when you roll five of a kind, it's a yhatze".

"It's also bloody jammy", the mechanic grumbled as he deliberately placed the dice that had rolled his six in the discard pile before glaring up the his left, "you spawny git – do you know how long it takes to repair the laws of probability after someone like you steamrollers them like that?"

"Ah well, if they need repairing you're just the Mobian to do it", Big commented with a good-natured tap to his shoulder, Tails heaving a weary sigh and reluctant smile as he scooped up his pair of dice and shook them up, sticking his tongue out at where Sonic was reducing Cream to helpless laughter with an exaggerated impersonation of him seeing the cat's yhatze, Mighty in the background also sniggering. Just after the beakers hit home this time, however, a low buzz percolated the air before Tails could make the first bid; all was still for a minute before a loud and at best semi-melodious tinny tune blared out from somewhere and Mighty suddenly lurched upright,

"Oh hell, sorry guys, hang on a sec; that's my phone".

"Phone?" Tails glanced around as though he were hearing things, not quite sure Mighty had meant what she'd said before looking over at Big, "didn't think you could get signal out here?"

"You couldn't until recently; apparently there was a bit of a to-do about a month back or so", the cat explained, looking over as Amy, having checked her phone, gave an almost disbelieving nod that she could still pick up incoming calls, "couple of young berks decided to go camping or something on the fly, got lost and of course, couldn't phone anyone to say where they were. Big scrambled search, normal sort of affair; there were found three days after they went missing, starving and at death's door from hypothermia – next thing you know they've got a small mobile mast erected in pretty much the centre of the plains out there, boosts the signals so much even I get can get a line in this neck of the woods. Will do as well soon as I can afford to buy a model".

"Brilliant!" Cream gave a sudden exclamation as the news sunk in that she'd be able to contact her huge teddy-bear of a friend any time she wanted to, "you'll have to get a good deal though, I'll see what my friends are…"

"Of all the…deal me out of the next round", the firm order from behind them all inadvertently squashed the younger Mobian's excited ideas for phone-shopping with her boyfriend, Mighty stood up with her phone at her ear looking, if not exactly angry, at least extremely agitated about what she was hearing, "this is going to take some time". Without another word, the armadillo headed for the door of the wooden house and let herself out, stepping into the cool embrace of the night as the door banged shut behind her.

Curious glances were indeed swapped over the makeshift table, Sonic as usual slightly the fastest off the mark,

"What got her dander up?" Big shrugged his shoulders, looking nonplussed,

"Dunno; hope it wasn't anything I did"; oops; already he knew he'd said the wrong thing, he didn't even need to see the smile flicker across the hedgehog's lips,

"Oh believe me I highly doubt it was anything you did".

"That's enough of that", Amy stepped in to stop the fledgling verbal duel before it could develop, hiding the fact that she was as desperate to know the reason behind Mighty's previous shrieks as anyone else present with an accomplished profession's ease, "stop embarrassing him, remember Big's a really special case in situations like this, and why are you grinning like that?"

"Hmm?" Preoccupied with thoughts about what was probably going on outside and dreaming up some of the less-than-complimentary comments Mighty could well be making out there, it took Tails a couple of seconds to work out that Amy had directed that question at him, "oh, I was just, er…"

"Yesss?" He's up to something; having known the fox before him for the better part of eight years he wouldn't have swapped for anything else in the world, Sonic was blessed with an instinctive knowledge of when his younger brother had something he'd rather keep quiet. To his surprise though, rather than try and cover it up, Tails instead took the bold step of coming forwards almost brazenly and admitting his suspicions,

"Well put it like this, and before I start I'll say I'm saying nothing else beyond what I say next", the fox leaned forwards as everyone else was digesting his previous statement, the conspiratorial air around him dragging everyone else in like a vortex of gravity, "I'll just say I've got a good idea I know who's just rung, and if it is who I think it is, take it from me Mighty's got a good reason to be outside now".

"Why?" Knew someone would ask; luckily it had been Cream's pert little mouth rather than Sonic's massive one that had opened and as such, Tails could be a little gentler in letting her down,

"What did I say earlier"; the rabbit's ears swayed as she shook her head, the movement mirror almost imperceptibly by Tails as she did so as the movement fascinated him as it always seemed to do,

"Right, sorry"; well I'm not – holding up on us are you pal? Well; drawing himself back and folding his arms, Sonic blinked a couple of times in preparation for what was to come; not on my watch!

XXX

"You've got a bloody nerve calling me Knucklehead"; hoping her hiss would be enough to carry down the line to him at the same time as not be overheard by those still inside Big's home. There was a moment of snowy static from the other end of the transmission and she thought for a moment that she'd been cut off before there was an almost grated chuckle from the other end and the guardian's voice filtered through,

"-ce Rouge got ho- of me, I've got - lot of bloody nerves", the armadillo cut off her retort at the last minute, stewing for a second as she ran that sentence over in her head and deduced from it that she still had some friends on the island in the sky, "listen, I want to…"

"So do I; you think you've got problems now you just wait until New Year".

"…Sh- up!" It was a brave shout from a Mobian with absolutely no reason to expect the recipient of his call to keep listening but it seemed to work as she stayed on the line, "I'm apologising n- just for –king up like I did, but for ma-g you go after Vec and not having the ba- to stand up –nd take the rap myself".

"Damn right", the armadillo growled even if, at almost the exact second she spoke to the echidna again the lighter side of herself was able to look back over what had happened with something like a laugh – after all, it had been a fantastically well-worked and cunningly thought-out trick, "but, I guess you had your reasons; why me though, what did I do?"

"You didn't, V- did; he hid –e Master so I go- him back th-ugh you"; right, now it makes kind of sense; "so I'm –ry".

"Not yet you're not", the armadillo promised with an almost defeated sigh, deflated by the realisation that she really could take an embarrassment as monstrous as that as a joke at the end of the day, "but I will, with very ill-grace, accept your apology".

"Great; just pa- you over to Sh- who-must-be-obeyed, cou- you tell her I –g?"

"Er yeah; Knuckles what…" she cut her question off as a thin, piping kind of whistle reached her ear, nothing like any other kind of noise she'd ever heard on the phone. She strained her ears to try and place the sound, only to suddenly recoil at a heavy, final kind of thump that echoed inside her head, giving her a sudden case of the shivers as she tried desperately to work out where that had come from. Did Knuckles just fall over, or, no he must have dropped his phone – yeah; she could hear him picking it back up and gave herself a pat on the back for such quick thinking before the next voice cut her off,

"Hello?" There was no way a voice as cultured, collected or feminine as that could have belonged to Knuckles, so that meant it had to be,

"Rouge?"

"Mighty?" The armadillo's surprise was reflected back at her, both ladies trying to figure out what was going on, Rouge leading the way as she inadvertently held more of the pieces that the fourth member of the Chaotix did, "what are you, oh hang on", this time she did actually take the phone away from her ear and stare at it, wondering why the bat's voice had suddenly gone from surprised to cold as stone, "just bear with me a second".

"Sure", Mighty couldn't think of anything else to say so said only that, eyebrows raised perplexed as she replaced her phone at her ear; the was a brief pause before she heard Rouge again, the guardian's voice much more tinny and distant this time,

"Nice try but you're still not getting in. Humph", with a crackle, Mighty heard her friend's voice properly again, "sorry about this Mich, hope he didn't bug you too much – he did apologise didn't he?"

"Umm, yes he did", the armadillo said carefully before biting the bullet and diving in headlong, "but, er, how'd you know that, and where are you anyway".

"I'm at home", the bat replied, this time with a little more a dark laugh in her voice as she finally filled her friend in on the situation, "but after what he did to you earlier, Knuckles isn't".

"What? Where is he?"

"Somewhere close by I assume, he just lobbed his phone in through the window", no doubt about it this time, there was definitely more than a whiff of black merriment in the former spy's voice as she finished, "I've kicked him out".

The bark that echoed throughout the swamp was fortunately quickly stifled, Mighty clapped a hand over her mouth as she doubled over; the look on Knuckles' face must have been an absolute picture when his normally loving if independent wife had presented him with a set of bags and an impromptu eviction notice. No, get a grip on it; forcing her hitching chest to slow down and swallowing her laughter, the armadillo tried to pack a little sympathy vote into her next comment even if her soul was celebrating that the smarmy echidna had finally gotten his comeuppance good and proper,

"Aww poor little Knuckie, out there on his own in the dark and the cold"; perfect, I hope it snows tonight, no in fact I hope it hails – please God, if you're up there and listening, send me hailstones the size of marbles all night long, you being a just and fair Lord in all things; "you didn't have to on my account – believe me I've got plenty of nasty ways to make him suffer mapped out in Technicolor".

"I don't doubt it, but to be honest I fancied a bit of a break anyway, this just makes a good cover for a night on my own for a change. Still, I'm leaving this one up to you – as a guardian I'm honour-bound to repay the slight my somewhat less than completely balance spouse did you, so how long you want him to stay out there?"

"Rouge", the armadillo was genuinely shocked, "you can't let me dictate how you run your marriage! It'd be churlish of me to even think about telling you how long you've got to stay away from your nearest and dearest; I just couldn't make that sort of call. Reckon you could last for another night?" Knew you'd never resist it; up on Angel Island, the bat broke into a deep smile as Mighty eventually capitulated to temptation – though the bat wouldn't strictly take any notice of her suggestion, that didn't mean Mighty would ever find out she'd been cheated of the revenge Rouge was offering her,

"I reckon I could, but just two nights away – boy are you going easy on him".

"Not a chance"; hello; just this once Rouge dared believe she'd managed to unlock the saucy prankster that Mighty kept so carefully hidden most of the time – she would rumble with the best of them verbally and certainly physically, but very rarely did she stoop to conniving with a friend to set someone up for a fall, "just throw me back to him; I'm going to tell him it's a lot longer, you act up one more night to get him nervous, then bang – any money he'll be at your beck and call for a week".

"Right on sister; I owe you one", mind already thinking about how well she could word taking back her husband as the battle of a woman torn between friend and family, Rouge made to say goodnight to the armadillo, "ready to go flying again?"

"Launch me when you're ready"; after another minute of whistling and a thankfully more muted thump, the armadillo heard herself being picked up again; rather than give Knuckles a chance to talk, she immediately delivered the coup de grace, "well you better write to Santa for a new winter blanket and thermos flask Knucklehead – gonna be a long, cold lonely Christmas for you". Before the stunned echidna had a chance to reply, she'd hung up and switched her phone off.

Slipping the appliance back into her pocket, Mighty tilted her head back as much as she shell would let her and breathed in a deep, sweet breath of the cooling swamp air, releasing the captive breath as a happy, contented sigh as she felt the planes of karma rumbled back to an overall flat shape with an audible click. Satisfied with her night's work, she admitted herself a luxurious stretch before turning back towards her lodgings for the evening and opening the door; a second later she closed it again, going beet red at the sudden ironic cheers from Amy and Cream, Big's would be suggestive grin, Sonic's wolf-whistle and a meek, pitiful excuse that continued to crawl its way through the wood towards her,

"Sorry Mighty, they stared it out of me".

A/N – Sorry, sorry, busy life and then some – caught up with an old friend I haven't seen for five or so years, trying to juggle work and becoming one of the heads of a new fledgling company as well as family birthdays really puts a squeeze on the time available. Still, hope this was good enough and look forwards to seeing you all for the next chapter.