Disclaimer: *Sigh* Why do those dumb lawyers make us poor writers make these stupid things? Bah! Anyway, I don't own Miles 'Tails' Prowler or any of the StarFox team, although they are barely involved and Tails is almost my character (after I added a few touches to him).

Introduction: Well, my brain was kinda hyper after I played Sonic for about six hours straight at a friend's house AND watched 'We Were Soldiers' the other night, so I just decided to write something about our overshadowed Tails. Poor little guy; he doesn't get much attention. This is centered a bit more on StarFox than it is Sonic, so I'll just file it under StarFox. As always with my stories, this has no reference whatsoever to my other fictions. This is based on an alternate universe setting. Oh, don't worry, you don't have to know anything about Tails. Frankly, I don't know anything about him either.
**Epilogue**

"He never drinks coffee," Amy muttered as she leaned on the wooden doorframe. Falco murmured something about Tails drinking orange tea. Amy nodded and left Tails to brood about his own problems. The bird sighed as he peered into the blinds and saw a miserable two-tailed fox in his mahogany desk, a large stack of papers in his 'In' pile and a cup of coffee in a coarse china cup. His elbow was on the table and his finger was making little circles on the desk.

"I hope he's okay."

"He'll be fine," Amy smiled sweetly at Falco and pulled him away, "They all get over disappearances."

"He didn't last time," Falco grumbled. Amy scowled at him and suddenly pecked his cheek. Falco blushed so much that his feathers seemed purple.

"Don't be so pessimistic," Amy grinned and blushed, too.

**

Tails fluttered along the skies like a helicopter, completely oblivious to the harsh snowstorm blowing in his face. It was going to be spring soon, and the possibility of the horrid weather getting better kept Tails' mind off the stinging, freezing pain in his large ears. There wasn't much left to do at the agency, a big problem gone and all, so all the people cramped up in offices (including Tails, Falco, and Amy) went out to take walks or get a cappuccino.

A sudden gust blew Tails off course and set his eyes into the sun, flashing over his line of vision and making a strange, green blur appear in his eye. He grumbled and tried to blink it away, but every time he did so, the image grew more and more bluish, until it turned into the face of a young fox with a short snout. Tails blinked again, and the image in his eyelid went away.

Another gust, as if guided by ghosts, threw Tails' vision to the blue and green planet of Zoness, setting like a moon over the mountains beyond the city. A thought popped into Tails' mind and he agreed with it whole- heartedly.

**

"A vacation?" Falco asked, as if a vacation was the greatest invention in the galaxy, and Tails just thought of it, "Hey, that's great! Maybe it'll make your head clear up and maybe you'll be able to concentrate on work now."

"Just maybe, Falco," Tails mumbled absently, "Just maybe it will."

"Take as long as you like, Tails," Amy patted Tails on the head and clicked off his computer for him, "The base owes you an apology, after all."

"The base needs to apologize to a lot of people, you know," Tails smirked faintly before he lifted himself from the chair and walked out of the office.

**A day later, White Stone Executive Hotels, Zoness**

Tails looked around the place and noted the marble columns around the lounge. The sliding door opposite him lead to a swimming pool. He could see a couple of kittens running around, tagging each other and shoving their parents into the water. This was defiantly the place Falco was about a year back. He backed up a step and into the mat as a janitor went by with a large sweeper. He was whistling the tune to 'Robin Hood'. Tails smiled to himself as he remembered Falco stuttering to Krystal.

Tails stepped around the janitor and up to the front desk, his sneakers tapping softly on the floor as he went by. He was wondering how the staff didn't trigger the metal detector as he bumped into the desk. Shrugging it off, he folded his arms over the neck-high wood divider and smiled at the person behind it. She was scribbling quickly on a few bits of paper and didn't seem to notice Tails. Maybe this time she would see through the disguise.

"Hey, I'm looking for a single room, please," Tails said in a slight British accent. The receptionist looked up with big green eyes and scowled. From her ruffled blue hair and her flat cheek, Tails would've said she had woken on the wrong side of the bed, literally.

"Can't you see that I'm busy?" Krystal growled. Tails lifted and eyebrow, which was currently gray under his disguise. His shirt and pants were quite different from his usual attire, but he kept the shoes, just to test her. Her eyes drifted not to his shirt, but to his eyes. Tails tried to look mildly curious, but inside, he was smiling again. Bill Grey had the strangest eyes anyone would've seen: Brown flecked with bright blue. Tails wondered why he didn't gawk at the late commander's eyes when he first saw them. He had read that natural huskies could have one brown eye and one blue eye, but Bill must be some sort of in-breed.

"Sorry," Tails said and made Bill's droopy-furred tail pause for a moment in mid-wag, "I'll wait."

"No, no," she sighed, looking back down to her papers again, "I tumbled down my bed this morning and fell unconscious, so I was late for work and I didn't get any breakfast. Then, the kitchen decided to serve kiwi with an alternative of cashew pie, both of which, combined with the chemicals they have, I am allergic to. It'll make my mouth swell up and my throat will feel like wood for the rest of the week. But that's irrelevant. What did you want?"

"A room," Bill said slowly, trying to conceal his laughter. Krystal, instead of getting a key, decided to cock her head to one side and gaze into Bill's eyes.

"Do I know you?" She asked, narrowing her eyelids.

"Not exactly," Bill grinned. She said an 'uh-huh' and nodded, swinging around in her chair. Bill saw that she was wearing all black, definitely not her color. Bill thought she would look a lot nicer in gray and dark green, but he kept his mouth shut.

"Name, please?"

"William Grey," Bill said. Krystal paused typing in the name. Bill grinned slightly, knowing that she would recognize that name. She typed it in slowly and looked back at Bill, her eyes running from his paws, to his eyes, to his hair and ears. A good spy always looked for those four things first, making Bill grin again.

"Are you sure I don't know you?" She asked again.

"I wouldn't be completely sure, but maybe?" Bill shrugged. Krystal gave Bill a suspicious glance and turned to the shelves behind her. She picked a key from a slot that had two cards and handed one to Bill. He smiled and took it. She was being careful.

Bill straightened back up and walked to the staircase, making sure to get his shoes in view of the small space where Krystal would go to and from her breaks. Krystal's eyes followed him the whole way. Bill's smile grew a lot wider as he caught her eyes flicking down to the red sneakers.

"Wait," she called out. Bill paused and turned, trying to look surprised. She furrowed her brow and said, "Can I show you to your room? The place I gave you is a nightmare to find. Al, can you take over?" "Yes, your all great-and-mighty highness," the janitor mumbled sarcastically. Krystal thanked him and hurried to Bill's side. She gave him a little nudge to get going. Bill made a face that a single guy in a post- secondary degree school would make if a beautiful young girl just asked him to the college dance.

"Really, it's not necessary," Bill said. Krystal ignored him and followed him up the steps. Bill waited patiently until Krystal guided him to a dead end near the exercise room, where there was no one, currently. Bill wheeled around on the red carpet and faced Krystal, who had her arms crossed over her chest and a lecturing scowl on her face. The look might've peeled the white paint off the wall behind Bill. Bill pretended to stutter, "What's the meaning of this?"

"Stop it, Tails, this isn't funny."

"Who's Tails? I told you, my name is William, or Bill, if you prefer."

"Quit it! We need to talk."

"You've got the wrong guy, lady," Bill lifted his paws up in a signal of innocence. Krystal, of course, didn't buy it. Instead, she reached under his baggy shirt and felt along his belt line. Her eyes flicked up in triumph as she took out the folded staff.

"I told you: I've caught ya."

"Just playing with you," Bill chuckled as he flashed his appearance back to Tails. Krystal's scowl grew completely confident and annoyed.

"Do you remember what I said if you had tried to save me?" Krystal asked dangerously.

"Yeah, you'd hate my guts for all eternity or something like that," Tails responded, his expression darkening, "I really meant for him not to hurt you, Krystal. I had a plan and I-"

"Shut up!" Krystal shouted, "You jeopardized the entire Lylat System to pull that stunt. One person is not worth that! Didn't your damn Special Ops training teach you anything? And you want to know what else?" Tails flinched. "I forgive you."

"What?" Tails came out of his cringe position and stared at Krystal.

"You heard me. I forgive you for what you've done, and I thank you for saving my life," she smiled and enveloped Tails in a tight hug. Tails' nose wrinkled a bit in pleasure; She smelled of natural strawberries. Sighing, she let go of him after a long time, "You kept your promise, didn't you? You came back."

"But I DID leave you," Tails frowned.

"No, I left you," Krystal prodded him in the chest.

"You've been eating yogurt again?" Tails asked. Krystal ran her tongue in her cheek.

"You spied on me, haven't you?" Krystal glared. Tails only smirked. She laughed and leaned in for a kiss, but stopped as she saw that he was just standing there, "What? Afraid to kiss me again, or are you just allergic to the remains of strawberry yogurt on my lips?"

"I never kissed you. I kissed Liliana Cobalt."

"Given, but you kissed my soul by keeping your loyalty," Krystal reasoned. Tails made a sound of understanding and nodded once.

Tails waited for a moment until the tension between the two heightened to so much that Krystal had to clear her throat and look away. Tails smiled and relaxed. With two quick motions, he swept her into his arms and cupped his snout over hers. Tails' mouth, partly hidden under Krystal's, curved into a smirk.

Her lips did taste like strawberry yogurt.

**

A/N: Finally, it is now officially over. This is my longest fiction yet, in case you didn't know. I was thinking about doing another chapter to my cheesy story about Falco... Ai, I'm actually afraid to get into more details about mouth-to-mouth contact. Maybe I should actually learn how to kiss before I write more romance scenes... Yeah, but at school, I look and act like a freaky nerd on crack... Hey, that rhymed!