(Tails x Zooey and Perci) A/N: I had no idea how to write this. (Still don't. Sorry if it's… messy. Weird.) Sorry it took a month to get it done – life got in the way.
Requested by Tailsrulesandthegirlsdrool
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"Tea? Soda?" Amy paused, hovering next to the kitchen island with a finger put to her lips in a thoughtful expression. "Home-baked cookies and moral support?"
Tails nodded somewhat dejectedly from the couch, fussing with his communicator for the sake of doing something. "Amy," he said morosely. "What should I do?"
"Well what's the problem?" Amy asked, taking out a plate of cookies from the fridge. They were all decorated with tiny flowers out of multi-coloured frosting – Amy had been trying some new recipes.
"The problem is me," Tails said. "And Zooey. And Perci too, I guess. But mostly me."
Amy sat down, offering Tails the plate. He took a cookie. There was a pause, in which both of them just chewed on their cookies. And then Tails asked quietly, "…Can you be in love with more than one person?"
"Why shouldn't that be possible?" Said Amy, defender of free speech, penguins, all things cute and fluffy, etc. etc.. And then she looked at Tails, and said, "Oh. Oh. So that's the problem."
Tails just nodded, looking at his feet.
"Oh Tails – have you talked to them?"
He shook his head.
"Are you going to?"
A pause. He shook his head again, still staring at his shoes.
"…You'll have to, eventually." Amy looked at Tails worriedly, and Tails was still pointedly looking away. Pointedly looking at his shoes, numbly agreeing with Amy's wise words… Scratch that. Thinking of doing that, talking to them, felt absolutely terrifying. The potential results – the bad ones – were absolutely terrifying. And Amy's last advice regarding that (though it was long ago) had been… outright awful, when he finally had thought about it…
-but obviously he was still going to follow it. Talk to them…
…Soon.
Search engine: how do i know if this person likes me?
(x2)
By getting older, Tails had suddenly gotten more awkward. Or not. It was just… his crush on Zooey didn't go away. Instead it just got stronger, and stronger, and would be worse if she remembered his attempts at asking her out, or if she didn't remember?
…Life is difficult.
Did I mention Perci?
"All clear. I've installed the shield - all you need to do to activate it is to press this button here-" Tails pointed at a sort of panel on the wall, "-or here-" he held up her communicator, showing at another button, "-and they'll be up in a matter of seconds."
"Wow," was Perci's answer, expression one of excitement as she took her communicator from Tails. "So this will keep the robots out of the village?"
"Yes," said Tails, looking proud with an oil stain on his muzzle. "...Unless the robots manage to destroy it. But it should at least keep them at bay long enough to-"
"-to evacuate?" interjected Perci. "Or for you guys to kick their butts?" she smirked.
"Um, yeah." Tails looked away, and started to grab his tools.
"Gosh, you're so talented," said Perci, giving her communicator one last awed glance before looking at Tails again.
"T-thanks?" replied Tails. He threw his tools in a bag, and proceeded to somewhat clumsily look for his screwdriver. "Though you're the village protector - and you know how to fix things, too. Not to mention how pretty you-" ...He had said too much. Red colour dusted over his cheeks, and he dove to the ground to pretend to look for his screwdriver.
"Pretty?" Perci said. "Oh thank you, sweetie." A pause. Tails couldn't find the screwdriver, but he was going to scramble around here some more, until his face had cooled down a bit... And then Perci said, "Is that your screwdriver?"
Tails shot up again. "Yes, yes - it must be."
Perci gave him a sort of amused look as she handed over the screwdriver, and Tails quickly accepted it, spinning around to put it too in his bag.
"Well, I have some upgrades to do on my plane - I'll see you around." He raised one hand in a sort of wave, while hauling up his bag with the other one. Perci nodded, and said with a grin,
"You have my thanks! Always a pleasure to do business with the village genius."
-And Tails waved, and departed quickly...
He answered his communicator quickly, leaning out from under his plane to press the button. "Hello?"
"Tails!" came Amy's cheerful reply. "I and Sticks are going to look for frogs in the jungle – do you wanna come?"
"I'm up to my elbows in repair work, so… no thanks."
"Ah well." Pause. "Have you talked to them yet though?"
"…Who?"
"You know who! Zooey, Perci… who else?"
"…I'm too busy."
"Well… you should talk to them while you have the chance, I think. The repairs can wait, can't they?"
"…Maybe."
"You see! Just talk to them, and it'll all work out."
…Yeah right.
Amy argued about how the food at Mehburger sucks, and then Sonic replied that at least it's cheap. Tails just tried to ignore them, trekking after the gang while mindlessly looking around… and then he saw Zooey. His chest and stomach did some foreign, uncomfortable move… and then he saw that Zooey was talking to some young otter Tails didn't recognise. She was smiling. The otter said something, she laughed, and he stepped closer…
And whispered something to her, and she replied, and-
In other news, Tails really wasn't that hungry after all. Not at all.
What would Sonic do?
…I'll do it.
I guess…
A sunny day with a side-dish of calming breeze, though Tails' nerves were far too wrecked already to get any better by simple good weather. He chewed on his straw, his milk-shake forgotten, getting more and more nervous as he sat there and waited. Sitting there, looking like a fool. But Mehburger was a pretty dumb place anyway, and- oh no. Zooey and Perci were here. Or soon they would be, anyway…
Walking out of an alley, with basket in hand and the breeze tugging at her hair, came a curious-looking Zooey. And from further in the market place came Perci wandering, stopping briefly to say something at a few villagers, before then spotting Tails – who bit his tongue – and giving him a salute with a grin. And… Perci looked just like usual, Tails noted. And that meant pretty, awesome, and so stoic that Tails felt inclined to get jealous of her calmness.
And now she headed towards him. Of course. I mean, he called her here, and Zooey, and- well, Perci raised an eyebrow as she reached the table, and flung her backpack down under the table, where it settled with a thud.
"Hiya Tails."
"H-hi." Tails was trying to think of something else to say, but then Zooey arrived. She smiled at them both, and said,
"Hello Tails, hello... Perci?"
"That's me." Perci raised one hand in a leisurely greeting. "Hiya."
Tails just nodded at Zooey, throat feeling too dry. Zooey sat down, looking mildly surprised at Perci being there, but not saying anything as she put her bag down on an empty chair.
"So – burgers and milkshakes?"
"Sure."
Tails nodded again.
"I'll go order," said Perci, and left the table to join the queue.
Zooey turned to Tails then. "What's up?" she asked with a smile.
"N-not much," says Tails. "Fought Eggman again yesterday… And y-you then?"
"As usual." Her face lit up. "I brought some seeds last week, and I'm going to try gardening later today."
"Sounds interesting."
The conversation stalled. Tails tried to calm down the pounding of his heart by force of will alone, and Zooey looked off into the distance. Maybe she was waiting for Perci. I mean, yes, he was waiting for Perci, but did Zooey realise that that was what he was doing?
Maybe. This was so awkward, oh no...
It seemed like no time at all had passed, before Perci and a tray of food balanced in her hands arrived. She slipped into her seat, taking a milk-shake, and Tails swallowed and took a deep breath. This... this, yeah, well, uh...
"So?" Perci then asked.
"So what?" replied Tails, realising one second too late how stupid that sounded now and-
"So why did you wanna meet me - us - here? Got any business you need help with?" And Perci looked at him, and... so did Zooey. She looked mildly curious, resigned to wait, like she didn't want to put any pressure on him. And of course she didn't - she was the nicest person Tails knew, and Perci was one of the coolest persons Tails knew. They were both so...
"N-no business, exactly," said Tails with the charisma of a feral goat, and hauled his gaze away from the girls, glancing away at... his shoes. They were red. "I... I wanted to, to t-tell you something," Tails said, hesitation clogging his throat but dammit - he was going to say it here, now. Get it over with. He had already resigned himself to the fact that he was, unexplainably... in love. Smitten, with both Zooey and Perci - Zooey's kindness and Perci's look at life, and - dear lord, he was going to say it. Now.
"I... tell you both." Still staring at his shoes, some embarrassing shade of vermillion dusting over his cheeks - or maybe flaming crimson? This was terrible. And wonderful. You feel like... like you're gonna die - hah, to put it simply - when you're trying to confess. And the worst - he could still back out. Chicken away like a coward, and as soon as he realised that, the words rushed out from his mouth so fast that he just prayed it didn't sound like an illegible mess:
"I sort of, kinda, l-like both of you, l-like I-I-I-"
No, no, no, no, no. He had to stop talking. He just shut his mouth and stared at his shoes - the sports tape was ripping, he would have to fix that. Maybe he could look at his plane too, or - and right now he could do nothing but wait for them to say something...
And hey, here it came, first response: "...Thanks?" Perci sounded a bit perplexed. "So... you askin' me, or... uh, Zooey, out on a date, or what?"
Tails swallowed again, his face feeling painfully hot. "B-both of you, if th-that's - that's okay?" he stammered in a sort of hoarse whisper. This... was so painful and embarrassing and now they would just-
"Sure!"
...Tails' ears twitched, and something cold twisted in his stomach, hopeful...? Did she really say...?
"Or, like, well, I could bake a cake, and we... we, uh, you and you and me, could have a picnic...?"
-And now Tails just had to look, so he peeked at Zooey, really quick, before glancing down at his shoes again. Zooey looked... well, 'beautiful as usual' isn't going to cut the cake, but... she looked almost as embarrassed as Tails felt?
Oh gosh. Tails was such a failure. He should just go and have a flight with the plane, or adventure with the gang, or go and hide in his workshop and-
...Picnic. Zooey had suggested they go on a picnic.
So...wait... Did that-? -Tails's brain was probably not properly registering things. In any case he almost jumped in fright when then suddenly there was a hand on his shoulder, squeezing it sort of firmly,
"Tails, hey," Perci's voice then said, having acquired that almost careless calm again while Tails' mind was off panicking. And now Perci said, in a way which made a wave of both embarrassment and overwhelming relief wash over Tails, "It's totally fine, 'kay?"
-He couldn't reply. He was blushing too furiously. He hid his head in his hands - confessing was probably not that bad, he supposed, if it was just one person you had to confess to. But two? In which one of them was so much cooler than you? And the other one was kind and brave? -not to mention, it was two persons. What if Perci had hated Zooey, or something, and what if-
And yeah, now Zooey was holding his hand.
"Hey," she said, lightly, with humour and support. "It's okay - I... I l-like you too. I think. I mean, you're smart and nice and-"
"I'm not!" And now Tails could talk, of course. "I-I mean... you think that?" -real smooth, Tails. The whole day was a disaster. Oh god. What was even happening anymore?
-Zooey said yes. Perci said it's okay. Zooey is holding his hand. This was so much better that he could have hoped for - he was certain they would think he was weird... or really? Was he? Why did he doubt them? Why did he doubt Zooey? Why did he doubt Amy, who gave him such good advice? -still it was... a triumphant disaster.
Zooey squeezed his hand, rousing him from these surprisingly intense two seconds of thinking and making more red colour shoot up through his cheeks. "Of course I do!" she then exclaimed. "I haven't forgot how you... how you saved me that day."
Oh. She remembered. Hopefully, if there was even an ounce of luck on Tails' side, then she wouldn't remember his extremely embarrassing wooing attempts, courtesy of Sonic, Knuckles, Amy, and worst of all... Sticks.
He shuddered just thinking about it. (It was another reason he felt so horrible about this) At the time they hadn't felt like such a bad ideas, like such horrible advice... but when he then thought about it again, days after, then the real absurdity of it, mortifying weirdness, started to sink in... why did he even listen to his friends sometimes?
...But Zooey didn't bring any of that up, so either she didn't remember or was just so wonderfully nice that she didn't, for Tails' sake.
"I thanked you, didn't I?" she then asked, suddenly looking anxious.
"Yes!" Tails exclaimed. "I mean, yes, you did, I-" he trailed off. Confidence, Tails. Stop acting like a dork.
"Okay, cool," said Perci. "So, are we going to have that picnic? I have some pastries and such at my place - I could go and get them. And if we aren't, then I have some stuff to check up on."
"Yes - fine by me, but Tails...?"
He swallowed, too many feelings in his chest again. "Sure," he then managed. "I'm just gonna get some s-stuff from my place first."
He felt like he could fly. Like he could go anywhere, do anything.
Later that night, Tails just stared at his ceiling in amazement, too alive to sleep. A sort of amazed joy had seeped into him, by the time he got home, and now... wow. He couldn't believe they actually agreed to... to try this out. That Tails could be with both of them, or - or whatever he should call this...
Whoa.
…What just happened?
"Hey, Amy?"
"Yes?" she said lightly from wherever she was, her voice carrying over the miles by the help of their handy communicators.
"I... Thank you. For your advice, I mean, I doubted you at first (with good reasons) but now I-"
"No problem!" Amy exclaimed, silencing Tails. "A woman always knows best when it comes to love. And - it worked out, right?"
"Yes, of course!" Tails quickly reassured. It did, right? -He had yet to tell the others. But he wanted to digest the fact that yes, it... worked, first...
"You have the loveliest eyes, you know?"
Tails had been working for weeks on this. On what? Extra seats to his plane – they were three now, right? …And besides, when fighting it could be useful too – Knuckles had fallen off the wing one time too many already…
He had been working for weeks on this. And now it was completed. Tails looked proudly at his work, at the extension of the plane's back, some upgrades, bigger tail fin and better engine, plus those old wires he had replaced, new paint, at the lights he had installed around- it was all sparkling new. He couldn't wait to show it to everyone – which reminded him, where had he put his communicator now again?
-It was ringing. Like, it started ringing, and where in the heck- there. He leapt and he snatched it, pressing 'answer' and bringing it up to his ear-
"Hi!"
"Hi, Zooey," Tails replied. "I-"
"So, there's this new movie here, and I looks awesome, so can you call Perci and then we can have a movie-night? Today? Er, tonight, I mean?"
Tails closed his mouth, trying to make sense of Zooey's rushed speech. And then he did. And then he realised when the perfect moment for showing off his plane would be…
"…Sure. So what's the name of the movie?"
"…You're a genius."
