I've been tossing and turning over this chapter, but this morning I thought "Alright, just gonna do it", and here we are! Originally it was going to be the second last chapter too, but the rest of it seemed to move too quickly so I separated it into two.

Also, I'm such a sucker for Amy/Tails friendships, srsly. But hopefully this is okay, happy reading!


7.


For the first hour or so, Tails had been absolutely terrified. He'd sat behind the chimney with his legs pulled up to his chest, not daring to move in even the slightest way. Amy had been a little braver and every so often she'd peek around to see what was going on. She didn't say anything though, for fear of attracting attention (which was kind of silly because if the Werehog didn't see her move, then he probably wouldn't hear her talk, but neither of them wanted to take that chance). But as time wore on, it started to become apparent that Sonic wasn't even there anymore, most likely running off somewhere else and didn't really care about them. Why would he anyway? He wasn't purposely trying to attack anyone, he was...you know.

As he became surer he was gone, the fear started to subside and was replaced with, well, nothing. This would have been a good thing, except now it was really dull. So he sat there, trying to ignore it, but it was getting worse. The dullness and nothingness was building up until he just couldn't stand it anymore, and he leant over to Amy and whispered, "I'm bored,"

"Yeah, me too," Amy replied. She must have realised that he'd gone too - that was a relief, he wouldn't have to explain it to her.

But what could they do now? He didn't particularly want to stay there all night, the time would drag on forever and it wasn't the most comfortable place to be seated. Admittedly, he was tired and sleeping seemed like a good option, but the fear was still prevalent enough that there was no way he'd be able to do it. It's not that he had an issue with sleeping outside, he didn't care about that at all, just...not here. Maybe he'd have better luck in the city? Even though they wouldn't have a place to stay, they'd find something and Sonic probably wouldn't be there.

"Do you want to go to Spagonia?" He continued. "It'll only be a fourty minute walk or whatever,"

"Sure, there's nothing else to do,"

He stood up but kept still for a moment, almost as if he was testing and making sure Sonic was indeed not there. When there was no response and he was convinced they were by themselves, he walked across the roof and balanced rather precariously on the edge. Actually, it wasn't precariously as such, because the gap between the two houses wasn't even a metre in length. Overcrowded, built-up areas weren't his favourite thing, but in this situation they were definitely handy.

"What are you up to, Tails?"

"Walking along the rooves. The houses go all the way into the city and it's probably a lot safer than being on the ground, plus," He added with a grin. "They all have chimneys,"

Wait...that had sounded a lot better in his head.

Amy laughed quietly and he felt his cheeks heat up, it had been a pretty ridiculous idea. Why would they walk across the rooves? It was just more complicated and they'd have to watch out for all the small gaps, they'd be easy to slip down and that would hurt. It would take longer too, and they were bound to be noticed by people on the street. The homeowners definitely wouldn't appreciate them stomping around and probably knocking off the tiles either. It just sounded more fun, is all.

"Let's do it," And with her approval, suddenly all the worries flew out the window. If Amy agreed, then it couldn't be a bad idea. "We'll just have to be careful,"

Then just like that, they set off. No one stared or yelled and before he knew it, they were halfway there.


"What are we going to do in Spagonia anyway?" Amy asked. Good question, he hadn't really thought that far. He was just holding out hope that everything would sort itself out by the time they got there and they'd find somewhere comfortable to sleep. It was unlike him to leave everything to chance like that, but he was really tired and in all honesty didn't particularly care anymore.

"Sleep," He replied, yawning for effect. If he wasn't too busy being exhausted then he would have found that kind of funny - he wasn't able to yawn on cue but that had been a very appropriate moment. "I'm not being very much fun, sorry,"

She stopped mid-stride and then sat down, crossing her legs over and from what he could see in the dark, was giving him a look of some amusement (probably at his yawn). "Why don't we stop here then? I don't think we're going to find anywhere better in the city, unless you have a whole lot of money for a hotel or something,"

He stayed standing momentarily, thinking about what they could do. Amy made a good point, he didn't have much money on him at all and they'd be pretty hard pressed to find somewhere to stay at this time of night. He didn't know where he'd been planning on going when they got there in the first place, but the city just seemed like it was safer area. Mind you, they were only about ten minutes from the heart of it now anyway, so here was actually fine. It was a bit more comfortable than the other house had been too, so that was another positive.

"Do you think he'll be able to spot us?" He still felt bad about saying that sort of thing, Sonic was their best friend! But Amy knew what he meant - well, she ought to anyway, it would be kind of odd if she didn't. It wasn't as if Sonic was himself now, so they couldn't exactly blame him.

"I don't think so,"

Tails lay back, placing his hands behind his head and staring up at the sky. It was so vast and everything else seemed so tiny in comparison. Even he felt small, but that was okay because for some reason it made him hopeful too - that if something as big as the sky could exist, then surely they'd be able to work out their issues. Soon after that thought though, he started to go over everything scientific and mathematical he knew about the sky, different types of clouds, what stars were exactly and whatnot. He generally thought about things in that way, but you know, it was nice to be reflective once in a while.

"I'm so worried about him," Amy spoke up, breaking him out of his analysis of those particular stars over there. He hadn't seen that constellation before, it was kind of neat.

"Yeah," When he really considered it, Tails felt out of his depth. They fought Eggman all the time, but not when he had kidnapped someone like this and had absolutely no leads to where he was. Especially when said someone was so darn important to the situation and progress of it. They would find him eventually (hopefully), but did they really have that time to spare when the planet was splitting apart as they spoke? Not really, but they had no choice. Chip was their friend as well, they couldn't just leave him like that.

Funny thing actually, on their way back to Spagonia, Sonic had mentioned he didn't want Chip to know what had happened. Tails didn't understand why, and when questioned Sonic had said something along the lines of 'I don't want him to stress'. Chip was prone to freaking out, but it seemed a little strange to keep him in the dark. If it had been up to him, it would have been the first thing he'd said, but Sonic more than likely knew what he was doing though, so he'd promised not to say a word...no matter how much he wanted to.

"Like, what if we never find Chip and the Dark Gaia takes over Sonic completely? I know it's a long shot, but I can't help but worry about those sorts of things," She continued. "There are just so many questions and places to search, I wonder if we're even looking in the right place,"

Well, it seems they understood each other better than he thought. "What if Chip is actually working with Eggman?" It sounded stupid, but he still thought about it sometimes.

"Or maybe Eggman isn't even near Spagonia and he's on the other side of the world?"

"Then we'll need to fly there and the same thing that happened tonight could happen again,"

"We might be over the ocean and have no where to land, "

"And by that time Eggman could have taken over there and we might be too late,"

"But we'd never let him get away with it,"

"Of course not," They fell into silence after that, both of them taking in everything the other had just said. He'd never thought about the Dark Gaia fully changing Sonic, but now she'd brought it up, it was something that did sound sort of possible. Or maybe he was just jumping to conclusions again. And while he had even more to be scared about now, he was even more determined to find Chip and fix everything. He didn't know where all this determination was coming from because he thought he'd been pretty determined in the first place, but he wasn't going to argue with it. If it got things done, then it was good. Oh, and he didn't really believe Chip was working with Eggman, it was just a thought.