Tails' Got a Gun

Tails woke up early today the way he does every day. He got up from bed, put his shoes on, and got his hygienic needs taken care of in the bathroom. The fox boy was excited to spend a beautiful day with his best friend Sonic after they had both been so busy with their responsibilities. Tails walked out of his room and onto a balcony that deposited his view into the woodlands filling the valley. The air was warming up after a cool night. That combined with the sight of a beautiful sun rising over the horizon filled Tails with the energy to tackle a new day.

Tails wandered back inside the cabin and out from his room. He walked across the hall and invited himself into Sonic's room to help him greet the new day.

"Hey, Sonic," said Tails. "I know it's been a while since you got up this early, but I was hoping-" Tails stopped when he realized the room was too dark for him to navigate. He squinted at a bright square of light burning from one side of the room. "Sonic?"

A scraggly, crusty-eyed figured turned its head towards Tails from in front of a screen. Its red-cracked eyes squinted at the fox in the doorway. Sonic's voice came from the figure. "Tails? Ugh, it's so late, what are you doing?"

Tails' eyes began adjusting to the dark room while he averted his gaze from the bright screen. "Ugh… Sonic, it's 7:30 in the morning. It's not late anymore, it's early." Tails carefully stepped through the room, avoiding a clutter of red shoes and dirty socks on his way to Sonic's window. He pulled the drapes back and evaporated the darkness with the rising sun's fury.

Sonic's room was dingy even with heaven's rays filling it. The socks on the floor were tinted yellow and shoe pile had shoes with holes or missing laces. There were chili beans scattered around the floor. Sonic's desk on a mess of paper napkins and drained soda cups.

Tails grimaced and looked to sonic. "Sonic, what have you been doing all night? Did you even sleep?"

Sonic hissed at the light and covered his eyes with his hands. "Ugh, Tails! Close it, close it! I have blackout curtains for a reason!"

Tails hesitated but complied in pulling the curtains back together, leaving a little sliver to guide him back to the door. "You need to clean your room, Sonic… I can help you if you want. We haven't done a lot together lately so maybe we can-"

"I've been working on my fanfiction!" Sonic interrupted Tails and gestured to his screen, showing a word document filling half the screen and a vtuber that Tails didn't recognize on the other. "It's super cool and really gives me a chance to show off my more poetic side."

Tails couldn't help but smile a little bit at seeing Sonic so passionate about something. He walked forwards and looked over at the document. "Oh… Oh, well I guess that's good. I didn't realize you were a writer."

Sonic smirked and leaned back in his expensive gamer chair. "Yeah. I'm good at more than just running and smashing badniks. It's just a shame so few people are smart enough to comprehend my advanced literature."

Tails took a moment to read Sonic's story, his appreciation for Sonic's work depleting as he read it. "Uhm… Sonic, is this about our friends?"

"Yeah," replied Sonic, rubbing a finger under his nose. "I'm a big FAN of our friend circle, so I figured it's the best thing to write a FAN-fiction about."

"Do they know you're writing about them?"

Sonic sat up and looked at Tails with a raised brow. "It's not finished yet. You're getting backstage access, little buddy. Of course nobody else knows yet."

"I feel like… You should ask before writing stuff like this about our friends."

"Like what?"

"Well…" Tails leveled is finger on a particular line of text. "You just sorta… Keep having Knuckles touching you while everybody else tries to deal with the ghost child."

"It's called a fanservice ship, Tails. Knuckles doesn't really have to feel that way about me."

Tails could see he probably wasn't going to get anywhere with this. He just gave Sonic a conflicted smile and made his way back out the door. "Well… Alright, Sonic. I'm glad you're having fun. But get some sleep, okay?"

Sonic waved his hand and nodded. "Yeah, alright. I'll get some shut eye when I finish this chapter. I've got this really cool scene for Shadow planned out. He's gonna love it."

Tails' smile fell again as he closed the door and shut Sonic's odorous room away into the darkness. He sighed and leaned up against the wall, wrists on his stomach and thumbs twiddling with each other. "I guess um… I'll ask Belle if she wants to hang out!"

Tails was glad he had such a vast grouping of friends. Belle was always a joy to be around. She appreciated Tails' young attitude and Tails loved her entertaining demeanor. So, any day spent with Belle was sure to be a good one. Tails made his way downstairs and into the living space where tools, chairs, bits of badniks, and other mechanical parts were strewn about.

Tails looked around but didn't see Belle. "Belle? Belle, are you here?"

A sweet voice that sounded like it originated from a tinny robot came from outside. "Outside, Tails!"

Tails quickly deposited himself out the door to see Belle streaking a metal tool along a length of wood, stripping pieces off and leaving curls of shaven wood on the ground. Belle is a wooden creature with freckles painted on her cheeks and a round pink ball-nose between her large blue eyes. Her fur, if it could be called that, was designed to be orange with a green hat on top and two braided bundles of yarn hanging from it. She wore green overalls on a pink shirt, leaving a string tail and her marionette like arms and legs out in the open.

Belle stopped shaving at her work to wave at Tails. "Right here, Tails!"

Tails walked up to Belle, curious what she was doing. "What's today's project? You're doing woodwork?"

Belle nodded and glanced up at Sonic's window. "Yeah. Sonic's room is so filthy that the wood is starting to rot around it. I have to make whole new panels for the floor in there or it all might collapse!"

Tails' smile fell further than before. "Oh… So that means you're too busy to hang out today, aren't you?"

Belle nodded and reached out her wooden fingers to rest on Tails' shoulder. "Yeah… 'Fraid so. It's okay, though. I should be done with this by tomorrow and then I'll need some help cleaning Sonic's room and getting these in. Would you want to do that?"

Tails nodded and let a small smile work its way back on his face. "Yeah, that sounds good. Is there any way I can help right now?"

Belle held up her tool and shook her head. "Can't say you could do much unless you get yourself one of these. I'm sure they sell them in the city if you want to go that far out to help."

Tails nodded and started back inside to grab a backpack. "Oh, sure thing. I don't mind taking a little trip. I've got nothing else to do and working with you on anything is lots of fun."

Belle smiled at Tails before turning back to her work and shaving the planks further.

Tails came back out of the cabin with his backpack on and waved to Belle. He lifted himself off the ground with the help of his propeller-like tails and began his flight towards the nearby metropolis. The sight of pine trees shortly gave way to a boarded of roads and centralized tall buildings. Tails didn't get around here very often, but it wasn't hard to tell where he was. He landed somewhere by the street and proceeded to walk in the general direction of a shopping strip.

Before he gets too far, Tails can smell something foul in the air. He covers his nose and winces as the scent gets stronger the longer he walked. "Gah… What is that smell? Is somebody burning trash?" He certainly hoped not. Tails walked in front of an alleyway and turned to see where the source was coming from.

Two people stood in the alley, eyes on the ground and backs against brick walls. A green furred woman with a spiked-up ponytail twiddled a burning stick between her fingers. She wore a black shirt, yellow pants, and studded rings around her wrists. Notably, she had a large patch of black fur between her eyes that melted into her eyeshadow. By her feet was a younger looking boy, somebody around Tails' age carrying blue fur and two large ears that draped over his shoulders. He had a fluffy tuft of a tail and cuffs around his wrists that matched the ones on the woman next to him.

Tails looked at that smoking thing between the woman's fingers and considered if he should say anything about it. He was pretty sure by now that the smell was coming from there. It wasn't until he saw the woman press the stick to her lips and drink in the smoke burning off the other end that he felt the need to butt in.

"Woah, woah! What are you doing that for? There's no way that's good for you!" Tails walked down the alleyway as he scolded the woman. The woman glared down at Tails and bared her large, uniformly sharp teeth.

"Huh? You talking to me, runt?" The green woman leaned in on Tails before blowing a puff of that foul smoke into his face. Tails coughed and waved his hand while pinching his nose.

"Eugh! Yes! That stuff smells awful. You definitely shouldn't be breathing it in like that. What even is that thing?" Tails gestured at the stick between her fingers. The two strangers looked at each other, a little baffled by the question.

"My cigarette?" The green woman asked. "You for real? You've never seen one of these before?" The woman's confused voice and expression slowly shifted as she processed an idea. "Say, don't be rude about things you don't understand, kid. Me and Kit here smoke all the time and we're stronger than oxes."

The boy, presumably Kit, spoke up from his spot seated at the green woman's feet. "It's oxen, Surge."

Surge held back a groan and refocused on Tails. "Yeah, like my buddy said. He's way smarter than me and even he knows that. Come on, don't knock it 'til you try it." She held out the lit stick to Tails.

Tails looked down at it and started to question his judgement. They certainly didn't look like they had anything wrong with them and the longer he stayed in the smelly area, the more he could tell it was some sort of herb they were burning. "Well…" Tails looked around, seeing nobody around them. "I guess in the pursuit of greater knowledge, it wouldn't be such a bad idea to try new things. Oh! I'm Tails by the way. And you're Surge and Kit?"

Surge slid her arm around Tails' hip and pulled him in before plugging his trap with the cigarette. "Yah, yah," said Surge. "You and Kit will get along. You both sound like brainiacs. Now take a drag and we can really get to start knowing each other."

Tails was still a little apprehensive but getting to know anybody who wasn't a bog-standard color-swap of a person that filled his peripherals day-to-day seemed to be something worth doing. He breathed in on the smoke stick and immediately started coughing once the smoke hit his lungs. "Ack! Horf! Ugh… Wow, that's… That's pretty bad." He admitted plainly. "Ugh, my head…"

Surge snickered and gave Tails a wide pat on the back. "Nah, kid! It's just an acquired taste. But now you've gained access to our alleyway hangout. Let's have that chat you wanted."

Was that something he wanted? Tails was having a hard time thinking straight with a buzz in his head and that burning sensation still in his lungs. He needed a moment to breathe anyways, so a talk didn't seem bad. He leaned up against the wall next to Surge and looked over to Kit who was still curled up by her feet. "So… How long have you two been friends?"

Surge stared off for a moment. "As long as we can remember," she said in a dull tone. She snapped back and gave the boy a nudge on the shoulder. "But, hey! That doesn't explain why you're out here by yourself. You seem a lot like Kit, and he can't live without being near me." Kit smiled at that and nodded.

"Yeah," Kit started. "I couldn't imagine being without her. She's my hero. I'd do anything for her."

Tails gave a somber smile and averted his eyes from the duo. "That sounds a lot like how I felt about Sonic."

Surge perked up at that. "Sonic? Like, the Hedgehog?" Kit also raised his head.

"Yeah. I'm not trying to brag. I know he's a big deal. It just sucks we haven't spent a lot of time together as of late. We even had the whole day off and he just… Wanted to write his story."

Surge smirked and tapped at Kit to get him up. "Hey, that's no big deal. I know I'm not a replacement for anybody, but let's see about making your day exciting. Me and Kit here know a thing or two about having fun."

Tails tilted his head and stared blankly at the two. "What do you mean? I mean… I was supposed to go find a carving tool to-"

"SNORE!" Surge interrupted and walked past Tails, Kit happily following right behind. "Listen, Kid, you got ditched for a novel. Instead of doing chores, we're gonna be bad bitches. You can either hitch a ride with the people inviting you out or keep getting sent away by your 'friends.' Your choice, bruh."

Tails stood there in the dank alleyway as the two new people walked off without him. He couldn't move though. He was really thinking about all of that. Sonic really did ditch him… And Belle sent him away. Belle probably just saw him as some silly kid who needed something to do and get out her yarn… Was that how people saw him? Is he really still such a small kid to all of them? He turned his eyes up to see Surge and Kit round the corner and leave his vision. He felt a pang in his chest that sent him running forward to catch them just around the bend. "Hey!" Tails called out. "Wait, wait. You're right. I have nothing better to do. I can hang out with you guys today. It'll be fun."

Surge and Kit smiled at each other with devious cackles in their throats. Surge turned to Tails and waved him over. "Come on, then! Let's show you how to get in on some real action. Surge the Tenrec and Kitsunami style."

"With a little Miles Prower for seasoning!" Tails chuckled and followed by their side, walking deeper into the city, and starting a new adventure.

To be continued…