Tails x Zooey: What? How? (A/N: oh gosh this is pretty terrible, anyway here, have your really late Halloween-story, enjoy)

Requested by grimlock1997

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Tails is carrying a basket. The last rays of sunshine filter through the leaves as he and Zooey stroll toward the village, side by side, Tails carrying the empty picnic basket and Zooey saying they should do this more often. "We should go to the beach at night and look at the stars! Wouldn't that be perfect?"

"I could bring my telescope," Tails adds, and Zooey grins.

-and that's when a wolf suddenly bursts out through the foliage. In shock Tails thinks something like: I had no idea there were feral wolves on Bygone Island.

Zooey's shout has him crash-landing in reality, and Tails drops the basket, growls at the wolf and makes a swipe with his claws— and the feral wolf realises that maybe it shouldn't pick a fight with the slightly bigger wolf, and it darts away back into the jungle. As soon as it's gone Tails spins right back around to check up on Zooey.

"Are you injured?" Of course she's injured, but where?

"Just – just my arm. It bit me," Zooey says with so much incredulity and disgust. Tails tries to have a look at her arm, but she yanks it away. "Let's get back to the village first, alright?" –Tails agrees, after a second of considering their options. He grabs the basket, and they set off for the village…


Tails borrowed some bandage from Lady Walrus, who had upgraded her purse after one too many accidents with her kids, and then he wrapped up Zooey's arm as best as he knew how to. He knew how to treat burns, sure, because Sonic was stupid like that – but so far none of the people he cared about had gotten bit by anything…

"There."

Zooey prods at the bandage. "Thank you." –he kisses her hand then, as if that'll make the wound better, and she hugs him with one arm. They stay like that for a while.


Ghost was plain boring, she did witch last year, she really didn't fancy dressing up as a zombie, or a skeleton… and especially not something weird like a… dinosaur. Not to mention she actually didn't have that many materials on hand… She pouts at her mirror, and it pouts back. Blue eyes, yellow fur… maybe she should just put on a dress and be done with-

"Zooey!" Amy chirped, throwing the door open and stepping inside Zooey's house. "What are you gonna wear for the party?"

And Zooey had to honestly answer: "I don't know."

Thus Amy began a mad search of Zooey's wardrobe, while Zooey sat down on her bed after feeling a strange sort of… twitch, in her body. Like she had gotten hit by something and jerked in reaction. It didn't repeat itself, so she shrugged it off, and watched Amy with an exasperated look. "Amy, I literally don't have a costume-"

"What about this then?" Amy exclaims triumphantly, and yanks out a dress and a pair of shoes, holding them up with a smirk on her face.

"…That's my battle outfit."

"Oh."

Zooey eyed the clothes while Amy looked awkward and a bit embarrassed. The dress was sort of decorative, and she did like the shoes… "Actually, I think I'll wear that."


Thousands of coloured lanterns lit up the village, dark sky with even darker clouds looming above, and faint mists – traces of fog – lingered in the alleys. A lot of stalls were selling hot chocolate, treats, tarts and even cotton candy, and there was a couple of minks who sold masks and trinkets, a goat painting faces for twenty rings. Moving around the plaza, Tails could hear bursts of Halloween-themed music, actually a woman singing live once, and then there was a stall which played annoying pop songs way too loudly…

They did run into Eggman briefly, who… appeared to just be hanging out? And bored, too. Orbot and Cubot had seemed terribly stressed.

-Of course Sonic started teasing him. And then Eggman retaliated, and Sonic threw back something witty, and by that point Tails and the others were getting tired of it and left them to their own devices.

They stopped at a stall to buy drinks. Tails tried to hold a tiny mug in his ridiculously oversized hands, and spilled half of his beverage on the ground. The other half ended up on Amy's shoes…

Oh-oops.

"Tails!"

"I'm sorry! These hands aren't made for-"

-and then Zooey's legs gave out, and her drink went flying too. The clouds parted and shards of light fell on their group, Tails already on his knees with his arms around Zooey, Amy commanding Knuckles to go fetch some water, Sticks stalking away to get Sonic-

"What's happening?" Amy demanded, falling to her knees to have a better look. To that Zooey let out a gurgling sound, and Tails looked horrified.

"I don't know! It could be-" His theories were practically writing themselves as Zooey's fur then, in one heavy shudder of her body, turned a dark, grey-ish colour. Fangs. Spikes on her shoes, sports tape tearing with a shrieking noise, and anyone could see the conclusion staring them in the face. But how, how was this happening? –Tails couldn't understand-

"Am I dying?" Tails just stared at Zooey, her voice coming out hoarse. Different. Of course it is different, Tails thought angrily. But why is this happening?

"Zooey!" Amy exclaimed, shock lining ever feature in her face. "You look… like Tails?" She reached out as if to touch Zooey, but let her hand fall.

"Why," Tails stated out loud, albeit a bit hysterically- "Is this happening? How?"

Zooey ignored the both of them, smoothing out her dress, examining her fur, raising a hand to her mouth in surprise when realising she had fangs. Fangs. This could not be happening- she tried to reason, breathing too much and too fast. Alright. Fangs. Claws and stuff. She could – she could cope with this.

Tails could not cope with this.

Dave, Lightning bolt society and the other scum? They could really not cope with this.

A crowd had been drawn to the commotion, but now half of them turned tail and fled. One Werefox? Okay, that's almost reasonable. Two Werefoxes? –nope, no, no.

Tails really wasn't aware of much of this. He just stared at Zooey – had her eyes changed colour too or was he just hallucinating by now – mind turning the pieces over and over. And then Zooey looked back at him, as if realising he was there, and they locked eyes. Blue staring into blue, Tails wanting to say something, anything-

How?

"I got bitten by a wolf," Zooey then says all of a sudden; a blinding revelation.

The pieces fall into place. "So that's why…" Tails trails off, looking at Zooey. She looked greyer, clothes torn – she was slightly taller? – she looked strange. She matched Tails. They looked alike, both stuck with this curse-

"Yeah, I think," Zooey answers, and Tails' thoughts dissipate. "Or maybe it's infectious!" She grins, a bit manically, a bit happily. "I'm spending way too much time with you, I-"

Tails kisses her, to quiet her rambling, but she kisses back instantly. Amy makes an annoyed sound in the background, looking down at the couple of foxes, the moonlight almost… almost making it into a fairy tale picture. Kissing someone special on all Hallows eve? Now that's something Amy would like to do…