"Gooood morning!"
Startled out of her mindless yet thoughtful contemplation of the tarmac roving beneath her scuffed running shoes, Blaze looks up and then aside, her piercing gaze discovering the source of the cheerful exclamation.
There is an unfamiliar lemur suddenly jogging beside the feline, smiling like there is nothing worth frowning about in this entire world, fur slick with sweat, eyes bright and friendly, lithe body flexing effortlessly beneath athletic attire.
She's beautiful, is Blaze's immediate conclusion as she mutters between pants, "Morning," with far more sombre reserve and some underlying bashfulness. Rouge was difficult to get used to at first, too. As was Amy. And the rest of them.
"I'm Tangle!"
"Blaze."
"Hey, Blaze, nice to meet you!"
"Um. Likewise, Tangle."
An externally comedic handshake whilst on the move.
Tangle's hand is smaller, stockier, and her grip is abrasive and strong.
Blaze's hand is feminine, elegant, soft and gentle yet warm, enveloping.
The lemur lets go first, but only after a squeeze.
The cat finds herself tracing the sensation afterward, over and over again, in her head, whilst taking a turn with the stranger bouncing alongside her.
"Lovely morning, huh?"
"Indeed."
"This your neighbourhood?"
"No, I only come here to run."
"Explains I haven't seen you around much."
Blaze raises a brow. "Much?"
"Oh!" Tangle loses an adorable amount of composure whilst grinning with such energetic enthusiasm "That sounded a little creepy, didn't it?"
"Somewhat…"
"I… I'm not, um, following you or anything."
"You aren't helping your case."
"Sorry! It's just… I've seen you run by my house on a bunch of mornings and I thought each time about how cool and interesting you look, but I never had the guts to run with you, talk to you, until…"
The cat slows down.
The lemur stumbles to comply.
They draw to a stop outside the entrance to the park. Panting and staring at each other.
"Don't get the wrong idea about me, please."
"I don't actually know you."
"I'd like to change that. If that's okay with you?"
Blaze sets her hands on her narrow hips, looking Tangle up and down with an intimidatingly blank expression despite catching breaths.
"I'm socially awkward and I frequently say socially awkward stuff and I only just got the courage to try running and talking with you, today, but I'm really harmless and I just–" Tangle suddenly grits her teeth, wincing, muttering through the expression, "Harmless? Did I really just say that? Ugh, now I totally look like a potential murderer."
"I'm actually a detective."
"What? Really?"
"Yes, and I don't feel threatened by you at all."
"That's… reassuring!" The lemur laughs sweetly, clumsily, wiping her brow on her arm. "I like to consider myself pretty harmless."
"Most of us do."
"That's… really profound!"
The cat shouldn't feel so flattered.
"And cool! See, I knew you'd be super interesting and smart and stuff! I just needed a chance to hear your voice and know your name and – I'm doing it again!"
"That's alright."
"Can… Can I, um, hang out with you a bit more? But if you'd prefer I buzz off, that is totally fine, too!"
Blaze gracefully turns, sweeping an arm toward the entrance to the park. A silent, gentlewomanly invitation.
Tangle blushes, shyly brushing herself off before trotting a few paces ahead. She tosses a glance backward, worried she misinterpreted, then reassured.
The cat catches up effortlessly.
"Am I slowing you down?"
"I'm slowing myself down voluntarily."
"'Cause I can see you're a fast one. You don't have to hold back, I'm kinda fast myself!"
"I can see you work out."
Both women are silent for several moments after that.
"That was very inappropriate of me and I sincerely apologise."
"You're socially awkward too, huh?"
"Terribly," Blaze says under a grunt, scowling at herself.
"That's awesome."
She turns to Tangle again, discovering a gentle, bright smirk.
"Something about you struck me the first time I saw you jog past my window. Something… heroic and… and…"
"And?"
"Sad," says the lemur more quietly, her smirk softening further. "Lonely and burdened with the world on your slender shoulders."
"This is a lot to tell someone you don't actually know."
"You have trustworthy eyes. I feel embarrassed, but also safe, making myself look stupid in front of you. I just hope you'll still wanna talk to me, after all my idiocies."
The cat exhales sharply. "That is one of the nicest compliments I've ever gotten."
"Hey, wanna race me to that big tree over there?"
"Sure. Get ready."
"Three… two… one… go!"
Blaze accelerates, kicking up dirt, flecks of flame alighting her footfalls.
In a hot gust Tangle is left behind, stunned and staring at nothing, then at the distant figure beside the tree, forgetting to run entirely.
The cat is amused, perhaps immodestly so, leaning against the firm trunk.
"Hey, that was incredible!"
"Hurry up!"
The lemur laughs and bolts forward in an impressive sprint, closing the distance with evident skill. She's fast, but not as fast.
None are as fast as Blaze, except perhaps for Sonic, if his speed is genuine outside of television. And that has, in a way, been a constant frustration. But the cat doesn't say so as Tangle reaches her.
The lemur is in a fit of giggles and pants, now, falling on the grass to sit with her back against the tree, gazing upward at her newfound companion.
Blaze stands over Tangle like a tower, a sentinel, lacking is curves but brimming with majesty.
The lemur, tomboyish, similarly wiry and charmingly cute, shyly pats the grass beside her.
The cat hesitates, but swallows her shyness and gracefully lowers herself to her knees beside the other.
"Thanks."
"What for?"
"For giving me a chance to maybe be your friend. A lotta people just… brush me off because I'm so… weird."
"Interesting."
"Mm?"
"I'd assume you to be popular. You aren't?"
"I'm aren't." Tangle is distracted by the velvety, almost seductive yet at the same time professional and aloof purr with which Blaze seems to naturally speak. "I mean, I'm not. Like… n-not popular."
Chuckling, the cat is similarly engaged by the lemur's unusual eyes.
"Wow, we've made strides already, huh?"
"Indeed. This is very strange for me."
"You aren't popular, either? But you're so… you!"
"I'm widely admired but very much by myself most of the time. I have only a few friends."
"Man, the world makes so little sense, sometimes, as much as I love living here."
"That's profound, too."
"Heh." Tangle is still blushing, drawing shapes across her thigh. "Thank you."
Blaze swallows, her throat a little tighter than usual.
"You… got plans later?"
"Not today, no."
"Wanna, uh, hang out some more?"
"Coffee sounds nice."
"Great! But I gotta warn you, caffeine makes me very bouncy."
It's the weekend.
Silver is at the office in secret. Blaze would be annoyed with him if she caught him working. He has caught her similarly as well and voiced his own displeasure. But today, he is alone with the evidence, digging for clues, trying to figure out the shape and face of the monster – perhaps more than one.
The cat's perfume lingers about her desk. She'd be furious if she knew he likes to nestle in her chair and breathe her in, when she's not around.
He hates himself for being unable to tell her. For feeling such things for someone so precious and important and beyond his reach. Someone who is, at least in his eyes, his mentor and superior and the woman he wishes he could have as his own, if only he could, if only she let him. To want and to be wanted.
She fills this office with such warmth. With her gone, the place is cold and barren, save for the paperwork, the evidence, pictures of places and the dead.
He wonders what it'd feel like, to have a monster bring its talons to his cheek, intending to kill, then shrink back in fire – to fall into her arms, wounded, and to shield her with his telekinesis when the killer lunges for her in its fury, sending it careening with a blast through a shattering window – to be pressed against her in the torn bedroom, the hostage alive and safe, blubbering gratitude – to meet the Detective's fierce eyes in the gloom – to embrace her, to kiss her, after it's all over.
Papers quiver in his grip. Her perfume fills his head.
"Odd."
"Hmm?"
"She's late."
"Oh."
In the moments that follow Rouge leans voluptuously forward and rests her handsome chin on the back of her hand, her cool eyes wandering across the bar again, piercing alluringly, dangerously, from beneath her heavy lashes. Her gaze, for all its power, inevitably returns to the door, seeking a feline shape.
"Blaze is fine."
"I know."
Shadow puts another perfectly polished glass in its proper place, then tosses the cloth over his shoulder. It lands on the opposite counter with stylish accuracy, allowing him to join his dearest friend unimpeded.
The bat sighs.
Settling close beside her, the hedgehog allows himself to subtly lean against her shoulder.
Rouge sighs again. "Thank you."
"You needn't thank me."
"You've got better things to do than mind me whilst I watch my business slowly die."
"Your safety is my top priority, actually."
"I…" She can still feel the bruise where a patron grabbed her. "I can protect myself." The animosity directed toward her has caused such incidents to become more frequent.
"I know."
"But I'm not a monster. I'm not the bloodsucker everybody thinks I am," she whispers, turning so that her lips are closer to his cheek. "They look at me, my pale fur and my fangs and my wings, and…"
Without comment he rests his head against hers as well.
"I never wanted their dumbass opinions and superstitions to get the better of me. But I'm not made of stone. Not even me."
He nuzzles her. A simple grazing of his stripe against her jaw. A chaste and momentary gesture filled with years of timidly growing intimacy and genuine affection he doesn't know how to express with words.
"It pisses me off. I haven't done anything and I'm suspicious because I exist the way I do."
He just lingers against her, listening.
With him so close to her, like this, she cannot remain angry. She is drawn helplessly into a sort of soothing lull and her body relaxes. She lifts herself protectively over his bowed head and places a kiss on one of his ears, then grumbles huskily, "Stop being so cute. Drunk people are looking at us."
He smirks, but withdraws.