Chapter 21: All I Need is You

The next morning Breeze woke up early with the sunrise. She still felt upset about the situation she was in with Tails. He hadn't even spoken to her since she was rescued and just took off in the X Tornado without a word once he had dropped off Chris. He must really hate her after all. That didn't deter her, however. She had come up with a plan that may help him to forgive her and she was anxious to put it in action. I'd do anything to be friends with him again! She thought, even if it did involve waking up Shadow.

"Hey, Shadow," she whispered into his ear and shook him a little. His eyes immediately shot open and he sat up, felt a spell of dizziness pass over him, and lay back down on the mat. It was quite surprising to Breeze that a person would wake up in such an abrupt manner, but then it was Shadow she was waking up and he was in a strange place. Of course he was probably jumpy.

He stared up at her from his lying position and waited for her to say something. He wasn't very talkative, but if she had woken him up then there must be a reason and he was ready to listen even if his head still felt woozy from yesterday's adventures.

"Sorry to wake you up so early, but I was wondering if you could do me a favor…when you're feeling better," she said in a quiet whisper so she wouldn't wake Vanilla who was sound asleep on the bed next to them.

"What's the favor?" Shadow said. His voice was a low whisper, but it sounded stronger than it was when he had just gotten hurt. He must be getting better.

"I need to get to the trash disposal center and it's a long way away, to far to walk, so I was wondering if you could do the chaos thing and take me there. I have the emerald Knuckles gave me if you want to use it."

Shadow stared at the blue vixen. She wanted to go to a trash center this early in the morning? "Why?" he asked.

"I have to find something for a friend. It's really important and would mean a lot to me if you would help," she said hopefully.

"I'll do it, when do you want to leave?" he said.

"Oh thank you, Shadow! Right away if we can but…you're still hurt."

Shadow smiled and put out a hand. "Give me your emerald and we can go right now."

She put the light blue emerald in his hand and he drew out the yellow one he had been keeping. Holding the two glowing gems in hand he mumbled, "I don't know why I didn't think of this before." He closed his eyes, still grasping the emeralds, and slowly allowed their power to seep into his being, giving him strength and agility once again. Breeze watched in amazement as he then stood up, looking good as new, and offered her his hand.

She took it exclaiming, "How did you do that?"

"I drew on the power of the chaos emeralds. Now hold on, this should be a lot smoother than last time."

There was a flash of bright light and the bedroom with the sleeping rabbit disappeared to reveal an open area full of garbage and dirt. There was a machine on one side of the field slowly incinerating the trash every once in a while. They were at the trash disposal center.

The morning was still young as the small blue vixen and her black hedgehog friend stood near a pile of trash, just looking around. Breeze was still getting over the sudden jump to a new place and finally snapped out of her daze when she heard Shadow's low voice.

"Will you tell me what we're looking for?"

"Um…I'll know when I find it," she said. "I've always been pretty good at finding things. Once my little brother lost his favorite toy at the beach and everyone was looking for it. They had been searching for hours and then I showed up and just stumbled upon it in like five minutes."

"Hmmm," Shadow said and followed her as she started walking deeper into the trash piles, looking around and holding her nose against the smell. He silently observed her, and pulled her out of trash piles when she got stuck.

Breeze kept searching and soon ten minutes had already flown by. The garbage field was just so big and what she was looking for was so small. She stopped and stood still for a while concentrating on her surroundings. She felt Shadow's presence behind her and closed her eyes. All of the sudden she moved towards a particular pile of trash. Something about it seemed to draw her to it. She didn't know what, but for some reason she felt compelled to look in it. She surveyed the pile and then moved an old tire out of the way to reveal a black trash bag exactly like the one she had used to clean up the mess she had made in Tails' workshop. She opened it up excitedly and quickly withdrew a small green plant, roots and all, into the sunlight and held it up.

"I found it! Look, Shadow, it's still barely alive! Oh, quick, let's go get a pot and some dirt," Breeze said excitedly and spun around in a circle holding the plant close. Shadow smiled knowingly and when she stopped her joyful spinning he said, "So that's what you were looking for, a plant?"

"Yes! This is…Cosmo apparently, whoever that really is I don't know, but I have to give it back to Tails and maybe he won't be so mad at me anymore."

"I knew a Cosmo, I tried to kill her."

Breeze looked at him and held the plant closer. You wouldn't kill this Cosmo would you?" she said worried.

"Not if you don't want me too. But if you give that thing back to Tails, he'll forgive you, but your problems will start over again."

"What do you mean?" Breeze asked.

"Tails needs to let go of that plant, not hold onto it forever."

Breeze sighed. "Well, I still want to give it back to him if it means he'll like me again. I don't care what else happens, and besides, I went through all the trouble to find it so I can't just leave it here to die."

Shadow shrugged and offered her his hand again. She took it and they jumped, using chaos control, in front of a greenhouse. Breeze smiled in gratitude at Shadow and immediately dashed in to collect a pot and some dirt. She carefully planted the plant into the soil and gave it a little water after which it seemed to perk up.

"You mean so much to Tails; I'd hate to see you thrown away. Besides, you're kind of a pretty little plant," she whispered to it. She then got a can of green paint and wrote "Cosmo" on the side of the pot with it. As she leaned back to survey her work, Shadow stooped over to look as well.

"Tails really means a lot to you, doesn't he," Shadow said.

"Yes, he does, and I want him to know that. I want to tell him I'm sorry," Breeze said in a low voice. She looked up at Shadow with eyes close to tears. "Will you take me to his workshop?"

"Of course," he said and in the blink of an eye they were gone in another flash.

Shadow watched from outside as Breeze made her way into the workshop to drop off the plant. He didn't want to go in with her just in case Tails was there. Shadow knew that he was the reason Tails had left in such a hurry last night and he didn't want to make things worse for the vixen. As he stood staring at the entrance with his usual frown, he noticed Sonic walking towards him from around the backside of the workshop.

"Hey, Shadow. Whatcha' doing here?" the blue hedgehog said.

"Waiting for Breeze. Have a problem with that?"

"Nope," Sonic said and stood next to the black hedgehog. "I'm just enjoying the morning. I'm surprised to see 'ya up so early and not a scratch on you. I suppose it's due to a chaos emerald right?"

Shadow didn't answer.

"So what's Breeze doing here?" Sonic tried.

"Giving Tails a plant she found at the trash disposal center."

"What? No way! She found it?" Sonic asked amazed. "Tails was looking all over that place for hours and didn't even come close."

"Yes, she's good at finding things."

"Really…see 'ya!" Sonic said and dashed off again behind the shop.

Shadow stared after him, wondering if he'd ever figure it out.

Breeze crept quietly in the workshop. She hoped to just put the plant down on its ledge and leave a small note. She didn't really think she was up to actually confronting Tails at the moment. She walked over to the shelf, and in her nervousness and anxiousness to just drop the plant off and get out before anyone saw, her tail flipped in agitation and knocked over a standing metal pipe with a loud clang. Breeze froze, and when no one showed after a few seconds she decided it must be safe and walked on over to the shelf. She lifted the plant to place it on the ledge…

"Breeze…what are you doing here?"

Breeze's head slowly turned to see Tails staring at her. She was holding the pot outstretched towards the shelf and quickly drew it back down in front of her. She didn't know what to say. A few minutes passed by as both foxes stared at each other in silence.

Tails took an uncertain step forward, stopped and hesitated, then walked across the room until he was a few feet from her. He didn't notice what she had in her hands; he was only trying to figure out how he should start explaining himself.

"I didn't disturb you or anything with that crash did I? I'll just put that pipe back up for you if you want," Breeze finally said in a quiet voice, looking down.

"Don't worry about it…Breeze, I—"

"I brought this for you," she cut in swiftly and held the pot out to him. He finally noticed it and a look of surprise and shock crossed his features.

"I knew you hated me for breaking it and throwing it away so I went to the trash disposal place and found it. I only want to be friends again. I'm very sorry. Here, take it," she said in tears and pushed the plant into his hands.

Tails held Cosmo and looked at the small green plant he had known so well. It was the same one to the very detail. How had she found it? Why would she go through all that trouble just for him? She must care about him and about how he felt. All of the sudden Tails began to feel really bad about how he had been acting. He had been so selfish to have taken so long to say he was sorry.

"It's the exact same one, I promise," Breeze said as Tails' guilty thoughts were running through his head. "Will you forgive me, Tails? I don't hate you."

Tails looked up when she asked for his forgiveness and placed the plant on the floor to the side. He stepped closer to her and took her hands looking into her watery blue eyes.

"Breeze, you don't need to ask for forgiveness from me. It's all my fault and I'm sorry. You never did anything but try to help and be good while all I could do was freak out and cry. You are an amazing friend and I should have told you about Cosmo and everything from the start. I'm sorry I was jealous and that I was never there to help you when you needed me most. I'm sorry for yelling at you and leaving you; and I'm sorry right now for not telling you this earlier and for not being as excited about your gift as I should be because I don't really care if I don't have Cosmo anymore. All I need is you," Tails said from the bottom of his heart and tears ran down his face as Breeze crossed the few inches that divided them and enveloped the orange-yellow fox in a fierce embrace.

They held each other for a while and then Breeze finally sobbed into his shoulder, "Thank you, Tails. That's all I needed to hear."

"Thank you for forgiving me," Tails replied just as heartfelt.

"I'd do it again and again for a thousand years no matter what you do."

"Will you stay here with me for awhile? I'd like to tell you about Cosmo," Tails said to her.

"Of course," she said drawing back so she could look at him. "I'll stay all day."

Tails smiled and hugged her again. He then picked up the pot, placed it in it's place on the shelf, and walked away with his arm around Breeze's waist. The plant sat in the sunlight and sparkled with the rays as the light illuminated the words painted in green on it's side.

The blue hedgehog smiled at his two friend's reunion and sped away to go inform everyone else at Vanilla's house. The black hedgehog, sensing that he wasn't needed anymore, flashed out of existence with the bright light of chaos control.

Awwww, how cute!! But Shadow has a lot of conflicting feelings inside now. Anyways, you're probably wondering about what Eggman has to say about all of this...find out next!!