1 day before the Olympic events
Tails was in his room the next day, as he was on the couch and was reading a book he had brought with him. He read the book every now and then when he didn't have much to do, no practice or he just wasn't in the mood for any of the sports, just something he could do while he didn't have anything to do at the moment. Surprisingly, it wasn't a book on mechanics or technology or anything like that, it was a romance novel. Chaos forbid, if Sonic or Knuckles or anyone at all saw him reading that, he would surely be teased about it to no end, and he wasn't one for getting any unwanted attention too, so he would read it when he was sure he was alone so no one would see him reading any mushy stuff, as his peers tended to say. By the looks of how far he was with the book, he was almost done with it, more than three quarters of the way done. He did have a magazine on mechanics just in case anyone came though.
"This turned out to be pretty good. It's a shame I'm almost done, but it was worth the read." He thought to himself.
As he was reading, he started thinking a lot about the scenarios in the book and seeing how things had picked up, he thought back to how things were with him, and what he recently went through. He was both excited and rather scared with how things would be in the long run. He was interested that a lot of the situations in the book were relatable to him, but he wasn't sure if they were things to be proud of since he could find a way to learn from them, or if he should be concerned since real life was vastly different from fiction, and things had the potential to backfire in real life as well. Regardless, he was happy to at least have something with him whenever he had some down time.
As he was reading, Sonic and Knuckles came over and saw that Tails was in the room, making the blue hedgehog chuckle before knocking on the door to get Tails' attention.
"Tails?"
His ears perked up and he looked over to see both Sonic and Knuckles were at the door, making him smile, but he did put a bookmark on the novel and put it away before Sonic and Knuckles could question what he had and took out the magazine.
"Hey guys." He said.
"Hey, Tails, me and Knuckles were about to head over to the Rec Hall for some fun and to get some practice for our events." Sonic said, chuckling a bit then looked at Tails. "You wanna come, buddy?"
"Thanks, but no thanks guys." He kindly rejected Sonic's offer.
"You sure? You'll get some practice for the events too." Knuckles said.
"I'm sure, Knuckles. Maybe next time."
"There won't be a next time, the events start tomorrow. I mean unless you got nothing planned." Sonic said.
"It's alright, Sonic. I don't have any events planned, at least I remember seeing that I didn't have anything planned. I'll have to double check." he said and chuckled a bit. "I'll go later, I mean maybe. I have nothing planned, but we are here for about two weeks, something'll come up for me. I'll be ready by then."
"Alright then. Well, me and Knuckles are headed to the Rec Hall if you need anything."
"Sounds good."
"Alright, see you later then."
"See ya, Tails." Knuckles said.
They both left and Tails went to put the magazine away and took out his novel, going back to reading it. He looked back at the door and chuckled a bit, shaking his head a little too.
"Now then, where was I?"
He sighed and turned the page to finish reading but after a few minutes had passed after Sonic and Knuckles left, there was a knock on the door. He looked up and was a bit confused.
"Did they come back already? Did they forget something?"
He laughed to himself, knowing that that was a possibility. It was always either Sonic or Knuckles that would always leave and forget something, no matter how big or small it was. The level of importance for what they did forget sometimes played a role there too. It's not that bad and it rarely happens, but when it does, hopefully they can have a good laugh about it afterwards.
"Sonic, Knuckles, did you forget something already?" he chuckled, opening the door. "I keep telling you to always check what you need before-"
When he opened his eyes to see who it was, he wasn't expecting to see Amy standing there. She looked up at him and smiled and Tails could feel as his cheeks flushed red and his breath was caught in his throat. He started to internally freak out and he could feel as his heart was starting to beat fast.
"A-Amy. It's, um, it's good to see you again." He said nervously.
"Hey, Tails." She smiled back but then looked away, admittedly nervous too.
They both stood there awkwardly for a few moments before Amy looked up at him and spoke.
"M-mind if I come in?" She asked.
"N-no. Not at all, Amy." He said and moved aside so she could come in.
"Thanks."
She walked in and Tails got nervous again, he was both excited and terrified that Amy had come over, mostly terrified since he had no idea she was coming over, and she didn't give any type of heads up either, not to him, or to Sonic or Knuckles.
"What is Amy doing here? Not that I want her to leave, but I was so unprepared for her to come." He thought. "Is she here to tell me that she doesn't want to be friends? That I should try to stay away as much as I can?"
She looked around before she looked back at Tails and sighed.
"Tails?"
Tails, still lost in his own thoughts, jumped when she called for him.
"H-huh? Oh, um... Y-yeah, Amy?"
"We need to talk..." She sighed, looking away.
"Y-yeah. Of course." He said and walked towards the couch. "Can I get you something? A glass of water, maybe?"
"No, thanks." She said and sat down too.
He looked at her, afraid of what was on her mind and why she wanted to talk. He had a good idea of what it was she did want to talk about, a very big and obvious thing. Nevertheless, he had his head down and waited for the words to leave her mouth, but it was a long while before she did. It was only a few minutes, but it felt like an eternity to him.
"Tails... I..." She stammered, unable to find the right words to articulate what she wanted to say.
Tails noticed her demeanor and knew exactly what she was going to say and what she wanted to talk about before a word even left her mouth. He had the same thing in his head too, battling with himself on the topic and he was afraid what it would all lead to now that Amy wanted to talk about it. At least he had a feeling that's what she wanted to talk about.
She sighed and cleared her throat and spoke again.
"I've been thinking about what happened the other day."
"Wh-what?" He said, genuinely confused with what she said, but only needing a second to process what she did say, and again, he knew what it was too. "Oh, that..."
"Yeah..." She said and sighed, looking over at him and looking him in the eyes. "I don't think it's good if we don't address what happened."
"Amy, I swear, it was an accident. I-I didn't mean to-"
"It's alright, Tails." She stopped him. "I-I'm partly to blame for that too. For all of it actually... N-not that what we did was wrong, by any means. It's just..."
"It happened too quickly..." He finished for her.
She was quiet but nodded when he answered after a few seconds.
"Exactly..."
"Well, I'm sorry that we did end up, d-doing that."
"It felt really good to finally kiss her though, but I suppose that wasn't meant to last..." He thought.
"Don't be sorry, Tails." She looked at him and tried to change the subject to be more happy. Chaos knows they need it. "All things considered, I did have fun skating with you."
Tails blushed and smiled a little too, feeling happy that she at least enjoyed being with him.
"Thanks, I had fun skating with you too, Amy."
She sighed and looked out the window for a bit before looking back at him.
"You don't have to be sorry for what happened, but..." She trailed off.
"But what, Amy..?"
She looked up at him and couldn't help but feel as her heart fluttered around. She started looking at him in a different light.
"Could it be that maybe... You've fallen in love with Tails?"
She thought back to what Peach had told her yesterday, her words echoing in her head. She's had time to think about what she told her and came to find that Peach may have been right this entire time. She looked at Tails, embracing what her feelings were telling her, that she's fallen for Tails all this time. She was unsure if she could believe it before, but it was clear to her now. But she sighed knowing that she shouldn't tell him, since she wanted to put this incident to rest as quickly as possible.
"Amy?" Tails called out to her.
She blinked and gasped a little, having forgotten that she was still talking to him.
"Oh. Sorry, Tails."
"It's fine."
She smiled and nodded, looking away for a moment to organize her thoughts.
"What were you saying before?"
She blinked then looked back at him, not saying anything, she only sighed and looked out the window, closing her eyes too for a moment.
"It's nothing." She quickly answered and then looked back at him. "Let's just try to move on from this as best we can, please?"
Tails felt as his heart ripped in half. He was fully expecting Amy to say something like that, but the impact was still painful, like being hit by a freight train. Still, he knew that this was the outcome Amy was going for, and as much as it hurt him, he thought it may have been for the better.
"I guess this means I'll never be with her or have a chance with her..."
She saw that he was looking down again and spoke up, and scooched a little closer to him too.
"Tails... Are you alright?"
"Huh?" He looked up at her and blushed a bit then nodded rather dismissively and he gave her a fake smile. "Oh, yeah I am, Amy. Hehe, sorry."
She nodded, but saw that Tails' demeanor had changed suddenly. She knew he was feeling a bit uneasy, but she felt as he seemed to just feel completely down, more than before all of a sudden. She decided to not bring it up, afraid it'll spark something that'll make Tails really upset.
"Well, I guess we can move on and just remain good friends." She smiled.
"Y-yeah, sounds great." He said.
She smiled and went up to Tails and decided to give him a hug to show that she appreciated him and that they were still really good friends. Tails hugged her back and tried to hold back the tears that were welling up in his eyes.
"Don't cry... Now's not the time to break down in front of her..."
Amy broke the hug and looked at him, not breaking eye contact with him, for now.
"I, um, I should get going soon. I was on my way over to practice for my events tomorrow, but I wanted to come talk to you. I felt like it was important if I did."
"I-I understand Amy. I'm glad you did too."
"Thanks."
"You can go now if you need to. I won't hold you any longer."
"Alright, I'll see you later."
She smiled and stood up from the couch and went to leave. She opened the door but stopped and looked back at him.
"We should... We should hangout sometime soon. Maybe later if you want. A-as friends.
"Sure, sounds great."
She nodded and left the room, shutting the door behind her. When she was gone, Tails started to let his emotions loose and he cried quietly.
"That's it then...I won't ever get a chance with her again..."
He turned and went to go to his room, but the second he did, there was a knock on the door. He quickly went to the kitchen and turned on the faucet and splashed some water on his eyes to stop the crying and got a paper towel and wiped his face. There was another knock and Tails called out.
"Coming."
He went over and opened the door again, and he saw Amy standing right at the door.
"That wasn't even five seconds, and she's already back."
"H-hey, Amy." He said. "What brings you back so soon?"
"I know this is really dumb, considering I just came back only after a few seconds, but... Would you like to go with me to practice?"
He blinked and stared at her, not believing what he had asked her.
"A-Amy..."
"I don't know if you have anything scheduled for tomorrow. But in case if you do for tomorrow or the next few days, then maybe we can put in some practice together. What do you say?"
He was shocked to hear that Amy wanted to spend time with him. Sure it was just for practice, but the argument could be made that that's what happened last time, and it more or less ended badly, in a sense. He knew this wouldn't be the same as before, and besides, he'll be with her in the Rec Hall, there'll be other people around, so anything like what happened won't happen again, or at least things should be weird enough with people around that it shouldn't happen, right?
She grabbed his hands, making Tails look at her, and getting out of his daydream.
"Well?"
He was still caught off-guard and was thinking too, but he figured it wouldn't be- no, it shouldn't be too bad. He had his doubts, but he didn't want to push them on Amy and be a burden. He smiled, knowing that things would be okay for him, for them, they have to be.
"S-sure, Amy. That sounds good." He said after a few moments.
She smiled and he went to go get his ice skates again and came back.
"Ready when you are. Do you need to get your equipment?"
"No, I have my skates right here." She said and held them up. "I have a team figure skating event tomorrow, and that's the one I want to practice the most."
"I see, who's your partner for that event?"
"It's Sonic." She said, sounding both very happy and very awkward about it.
"I see, that's very lucky of him. Well, both of you, honestly."
She nodded.
"It is, but he has some other events he's practicing on right now. So he's likely doing that."
"Yeah, he was here not too long ago but left with Knuckles to the Rec Hall to practice, probably for his events."
She smiled and looked at him.
"Anyway, shall we go?"
He nodded and they left the room and made their way to the Rec Hall.
Meanwhile, down at the same Rec Hall, Luigi was there once again practicing again for his events. He kept his focus as he was practicing, riding on his snowboard and trying not to fall again like before.
"Focus, Luigi. Don't pay attention to anything else." He said to himself.
The machine was still going, Luigi trying very hard not to be distracted too. He was focusing so much that he didn't notice that Mario was coming over to him.
"Hey Luigi, I got something for you."
He looked over at Mario and stopped the machine, going up to Mario, wondering what his brother wanted to show him.
"What is it?"
"It's a letter, I think it's your schedule for your events."
Luigi felt both excited and nervous.
"Let me take a look."
He took the letter and opened it.
"I'll leave you alone, looks like you were busy, I'll see you later, brother." Mario smiled a bit and turned to leave.
"Alright. See ya later, Mario."
He looked and saw it was the schedule and saw that he had a few events. Some of them were what he expected to have and others were a bit of a shock that he had them too, but one that immediately caught his attention was a snowboard cross event where he would face off against Knuckles, Silver and Daisy. He freaked out when he saw that Daisy would be part of the event and looked around.
"Oh man... I really do have an event with Daisy..." He thought to himself.
He didn't know what to think or do, but he decided to take in a few deep breaths and try to calm down. He started walking away from where he was, hoping to have some time alone so he could think in private for a bit, but he bumped into someone, not having seen where he was going.
"Oof!" He said as he stumbled back and almost fell.
He shook his head and adjusted his cap after it had moved a bit from the bump.
"Oh, um, sorry. Didn't see where I was going."
He apologized and looked up to see that it was Daisy that he bumped into. His eyes widened a bit and he felt as his heart was starting to beat fast all of a sudden. She had fallen too but she didn't look mad at him.
"Hey, don't sweat it, Luigi." She smiled, and got up, dusting herself off.
He chuckled nervously and looked away, but then Daisy saw the letter in his hand and knew what it was. She was pretty excited for him, but still, she'd ask him.
"Did you get your schedule for the events?" She asked.
He looked at the schedule and nodded.
"Uh... Y-yeah, I did."
"Sweet! I did too. It says I have a snowboard cross event and you're in it too." She said pretty excitedly.
"M-mine says that too." He said, laughing a little, still feeling a little nervous, though he tried pushing that thought away.
"That's awesome! Well, I have to go practice, but I'll see you at the event tomorrow. Good luck."
"Thanks. G-good luck to you too."
She smiled and walked off and Luigi was left alone to freak out again, and started to walk off again.
"I need to calm down... It's only an event tomorrow... An event that I have with her tomorrow..."
He shook his head, and got a little mad with himself.
"Stop thinking too many bad things, I mean it's not like things would go bad. But I know how competitive she is... Would she go easy on me, or try to beat me like everyone else..? And would I even have a chance with her..?"
He thought about it some more and ultimately decided that he shouldn't try to force anything like that.
"You know what, at the end of the day, I guess I should let things play out... If I'm able to talk to her and confess my feelings to her, then that's awesome... If not, then I'm not going to beat myself up for it..."
He went back to practice again, moving to somewhere else, since he practiced snowboarding enough, at least he thought so.
At the entrance to the Rec Hall, both Amy and Tails had walked in and looked around. Amy smiled and looked around, seeing all of the competitors and the non-competitors either playing or practicing. She looked over at Tails, noticing that he smiled as he looked around
"What should we do first, Tails?" She asked.
"Well, considering we brought pretty much only our skates, I think we should do some ice skating, Amy. You said you wanted to put some practice into your figure skating, since you have a team figure skating event scheduled."
She laughed, getting ahead of herself a little and nodded.
"You're right, kinda forgot we only brought our skates."
"It's fine." He laughed too. "We can always rent some extra gear if we need to. Anyway, how about we go practice some figure skating?"
"Alright." She smiles. "Lead the way."
Tails nods and goes to lead her to where the ice rink was at, but before they could even take a few steps, they heard someone call out to them.
"Amy, Tails."
They looked and saw as Peach was running over to them and it looked like she was in a panic too. Tails and Amy looked at each other before looking back at the princess.
"Peach, what's wrong?" Amy asked.
"Amy, I'm so sorry..." Peach said rather suddenly, she sounded genuinely concerned and sorry too, which was the weird part.
"Wait, what are you apologizing for?"
"Something happened and well... Sonic, he..."
"What? What happened with Sonic?" She asked, starting to get worried.
While Amy was panicking and was talking with Peach, Tails looked over and saw some paramedics and someone all too familiar being carried in a stretcher. He looked like he was about to panic and he tapped Amy's shoulder to get her attention.
"Amy..?"
"What is it, Tails?"
"I think something happened to Sonic." He said worriedly and pointed to Sonic in the stretcher.
Amy saw that Tails was indeed pointing towards Sonic and she gasped upon seeing Sonic on the stretcher. All three of them ran to Sonic, seeing him on the stretcher and he was wincing in pain as the paramedic was holding an ice pack to his ankle. They were extremely shocked to see him like this and Amy especially looked really scared at seeing Sonic like this before looking at the paramedics.
"Wh-what happened..?" She asked them.
"Well, we got called in and from what we understand, his ankle got broken." The paramedic said.
"How?"
Sonic looked at Amy and chuckled, and she looked at him.
"W-Well, um, funny thing about that." Sonic laughed. "I was with a few of the guys and we were playing Hockey, mostly for practicing for the events, but also to have fun." He chuckled a bit nervously. "A-Anyway, I had the puck and I don't know what happened or who did it, but when they went to steal the puck, they ended up accidentally hitting me in the ankle. Hard."
"Wh-what!? Who was it!?" She asked and got angry at the person who hit Sonic.
"I-I didn't see, but whoever it was, I'm sure they apologized nonstop and feel extremely bad for hitting and breaking my ankle..."
Tails looked at his ankle and saw that it was swollen and was a bit purple too, even with the blue fur covering his leg.
"I'm afraid he won't be able to compete for the remainder of this time." Said the paramedic.
Amy looked up at him, feeling as if her heart broke in two.
"What...?" She said devastatingly. "B-but... I-I have a team figure skating event... And Sonic was the one I was going to skate with..."
"Ames, I'm really sorry..." Sonic said.
The paramedics took Sonic and Amy was left there, crying and Tails hugged her close. She clung onto him and started crying on his shoulder. Tails, and even Peach, patted Amy's shoulder and back to try to calm her down.
"Amy, I know how this looks, and I know it's pretty bad..." Tails said, trying to think of what to say next to calm her, and not saying the wrong thing.
"Wh-what am I going to do..? I don't have anyone else to..." She stopped mid sentence, not able to finish.
Tails sighed and held her closer to him. Amy was feeling really bad until a thought came to her head. She looked up at Tails and thought back to how they skated together and how good he really was. She knew what she asked of him and they both agreed upon it, but she needed Tails' input, not for any selfish means, but she was genuinely curious and she knew he would like the idea, as did she but still had butterflies in her stomach too.
"Tails..?" She looked up at him.
"Yeah, Amy."
She blushed and was quiet for a bit and looked up at him, a hopeful glimmer shined in her eyes.
"You can be Sonic's replacement and join me in the team figure skating event."
As expected, Tails blushed and looked away, not believing what she asked of him.
"Amy, I don't know..." He said.
He looked down at her, and Amy held onto his hands and looked up at him.
"Please, Tails?" She begged, looking up at him with a saddened puppy look in her eyes.
Tails saw Amy's face and knew he couldn't say no to her. She had done that routine before, and he knew he could never say no to her whenever she gave him that look.
"Alright, Amy. I'll do it."
She smiled and hugged Tails, who smiled and hugged her back.
"Thanks, Tails."
The paramedics left and Amy left with Tails to practice. Peach smiled too and looked over to where Sonic was taken to, before she turned to leave and went to practice for her events too. She was glad Tails would help Amy, she still wondered about Luigi and Daisy, but she was sure that those two would be taken care of. She'd keep an eye on them and go to help if she needed to, she saw Luigi and smiled then decided to go to him to check on how he was.