Tails stretched, sighing as the loud alarm clock sent a buzz through his skull, jolting him awake. Reaching out to switch it off, Tails suddenly felt an odd throbbing at the base of his neck. Wincing, he lifted his hand to rub at the pain in an attempt to soothe it. He pulled his hand away quickly as his fingers caused a sharp pain to erupt across his neck.

Tails' heart began to thud as he stated to panic.

Calm down he scolded himself as he leapt from his bed and ran towards the bathroom quickly, It's just a morning twinge.

However, the mirror told him otherwise. Tails gasped at the large purple ring glowing against his skin, made up of two U shapes, points almost touching. The young fox's face fell as he traced his fingertips across the base of his neck where the odd mark lay. It looked to him like teeth marks, although it wasn't serrated or engraved; it looked like somebody had drawn on his neck with purple pen, though the pain ruled that possibility out.

A sudden startling image of Sonic swept across Tails' mind, and, as he closed his eyes, he could feel the hedgehog's warm lips press against his neck. There was one particular spot... towards the base of his neck, just above his collarbone. He remembered Sonic's teeth nudging it gently.

For a split second, Tails panicked; what if they'd gone further than that last night? No, Sonic was only around his house for an hour or so, and they spent that hour kissing. Nothing but kissing. And vampire activity, it seemed.

Tails swallowed. How would he cover up the mark Sonic had left whilst hungrily sucking at his best friend';s neck? It was too far up to be hidden under his shirt collar. Scarves were not allowed to be worn during lessons at school. If anybody saw it, they'd ask questions. He couldn't say he'd had Marine round the previous night, because she'd know he was lying. He couldn't say he'd had a different girl round, either. Although he didn't particularly like Marine, he wouldn't want to hurt her feelings by letting her think he was already cheating on her.

Running back into his bedroom, Tails snatched up his phone and quickly dialled Sonic's number. It was past 7:30 so the hedgehog would be awake, at least. After a couple of rings, Sonic answered.

"Hn... Hello?" Sonic sighed, his voice heavy with sleep. Tails could hear the hedgehog's mother in the background, yelling at her son to get out of bed now, or face the consequences.

"Sonic, it's me." Tails hissed.

"Tails? What's wrong? Are you ok?"

"Tell me, Sonic. Were you hungry last night?"

"What? Hungry..?"

Tails sighed, irritated. "Just get over here."

"Now?"

"Yes."

"But it's not even eight o'clock!"

"Now!"

Tails hung up, tossing his phone to the side and dropping back down onto his bed, running his hands through his hair in desperation.

"Tails?" His mother called suddenly from the other side of the door, "Are you awake in there?"

Tails slammed his hand over the bite on his neck.

"Uhh... yeah. I'm just... getting dressed." He listened hard, waiting for her to leave so he could relax again. Then, Tails pulled on his clothes, almost bursting into tears as he rooted miserably through his shirts, failing to find one which would cover the loving mark.

Damn it, Sonic! If I didn't love you so much... He tried to think of some kind of insult or punishment for the hedgehog, but ended up uselessly with a longing to hug him instead.

He listened as his mother answered a knock at the door. She sounded surprised to see Sonic so early, not without reason; he usually didn't come before 8:30 and it was now not even ten to.

"Tails asked me to come early," Sonic told her coolly. "About some homework?" A few minutes later, Sonic knocked lightly on the bedroom door. Tails muttered "Come in" and faced away from the door as Sonic pushed it open gently, closing it once more as he stepped into the room.

"Tails?" He said quietly. "What's this all about? What did you mean by 'Were you hungry last night'?"

"I just wondered why you got the sudden urge to try and sink your teeth into my neck." Tails replied, facing him and removing his hand from around his neck. Sonic's eyes widened. He took a slow step forwards, resting his hand on Tails' neck and tracing his fingers along the mark. Tails shivered under Sonic's light touch, pushing the hedgehog's arm away.

"So... That was me? Sonic breathed in disbelief. Tails nodded gloomily. "I'm sorry, Tails. I don't even remember doing it."

"Just be glad you didn't do anything else." Tails muttered, pulling his collar up over the mark and holding it there. "How am I gonna cover it up, Sonic?"

"Well... you must have something with a big enough collar." The hedgehog began searching through Tails' shirts and jackets, pulling a few out and holding them up to Tails' chest, throwing each one to the side as the collars failed to reach high enough.

Both were ready to give up when Sonic tugged out a jacket with a high collar. Tails reluctantly pulled it on and zipped it up all the way. It completely covered the wretched mark.

"Perfect!" Sonic grinned. Tails shook his head.

"I hate this jacket." He said. "Why do you think it was shoved right at the back? It looks horrible and feels horrible too." The inside of the garment was lined with some weird kind of material which turned his fur static, causing it to sick to the jacket.

"It'll have to do." Sonic told him gently. "We're going to be late." He lay a reassuring hand on Tails' shoulder, passing him his school bag. Swinging it over his back, Tails followed Sonic out of the door.

The jacket did its job. Nobody in the whole school saw Sonic's teeth marks. The only time anyone made Tails panic was during history class, when the teacher asked Tails to lower his collar.

"Having it up like that is not formal." He insisted firmly.

"I can't, Sir," Tails said quickly as inspiration hit him. "The zip's jammed." Luckily, he wasn't pursued further.

After a week or so, the mark faded enough for Tails to say it was just a bruise or something, and he took the jacket off, telling Sonic to never do that again. Though the next time they were alone and Sonic's mouth left Tails', travelling down across his jaw and onto his neck, the fox didn't stop him, and Sonic ended up getting carried away again. This time, though, the bite mark glowed a little lower, below Tails' collarbone, and was - luckily - much easier to hide.

We're getting too carried away, Tails thought as Sonic grew impatient at school and dragged the fox into the toilets to kiss him instead of wisely waiting until they got home. We're not being careful enough, He worried, though didn't voice his concerns to Sonic, for fear of being on the receiving and of Sonic's anger.

When it turned late, the boys returned to their own homes (depending on whose house they were in, anyway). Some nights they talked on the phone. One particular night, around three weeks after getting together, Tails tried to ring Sonic, only to find his own phone had no battery left. With permission from his parents, he used the upstairs house phone to ring Sonic about 'Homework'. Although the fox remained alert and on the lookout for his parents so they wouldn't overhear his conversation, he never thought about the fact that one might pick up the phone downstairs.

He didn't think about the fact that if someone did that, they would overhear his conversation.

He didn't hear his mother do exactly that.

She picked up the receiver and held it to her ear, getting ready to dial the number she wanted when she heard those three words.

"I love you."

Then, with a small 'bye', her son put down the phone, sending the dialling tone echoing through the silence.


A/N: For anybody who didn't understand that, if you have two phones in the house that are both wired to the same line, and you pick up one phone while the other is in use, you can hear the conversation on the other phone.