Tails was not ok. Not even close. After he had left Sonic, he honestly had no plan, and really nowhere to really go. He didn't even go to his workshop. Due to his constant travels with the blue hedgehog, he didn't have many belongings, or at least, not many that he cared for. Most of the things he invented were made for his friends to use in the battle against their all-too-familiar egg-shaped foe. Heck, even the Tornado hadn't belonged to him. That was always Sonic's. The only thing he could think of was his toolkit, but he could always grab another from somewhere. He just… couldn't go back there. He couldn't handle looking at Sonic again after that.

Of course, it seemed as though the universe hated him today. His tail-powered flight had taken him to the nearest city, where he had checked into a hotel room for the night. He was immediately recognised, and the hotel manager would not accept any money from the young fox. Apparently, Sonic had saved their child from some rogue Badniks a few months back. He probably should have guessed that the manager was a fan, considering all of the pictures of Sonic and his various friends in the lobby.

The room was small and simple, which was more than enough for him. After all, he was only staying the night. After that… he had no idea, other than the fact that he wouldn't be staying there. Sonic liked to run through this city, when he was able to, so the fox knew that it would only be a matter of time before a blue streak sped by.

"Tails? TAILS?!"

He froze. He recognised the voice. He couldn't be here already, right? The fox ran to the window and, sure enough, there he was. Sonic, five stories below him, running through the streets.

"Where are you, Tails?!"

His heart cracked. He knew this would hurt. If Vanilla's reaction was anything to go by, the world would not accept them, and he didn't want to drag Sonic's reputation through the dirt. He wanted to run down to his hedgehog and straight into his arms again, not caring who saw, but he just couldn't.

"Sonic, are you ok?"

Another voice he recognised. The hotel manager. He froze.

They would tell Sonic.

"Not really. You know my friend Tails?"

Friend. That's all they were, again. Tails had no idea how much hearing that word would hurt.

"Everybody around here does. What about him?"

"He ran away. We had a… fight. I wanted to apologise. Have you seen him?"

"I see. As luck would have it, he just checked in. I can take you to see him."

"Wait, really? Oh my God, thank you!"

With that, Tails started panicking. He couldn't face Sonic right now. He was so far from ready. He knew he couldn't get away in time, and even if he did, Sonic would catch him in no time. He could escape through the window and fly away, but he was sure someone below would see him (and then tell Sonic), so the only option left was to hide. But, after only a couple of moments, he realised just how little time he had, as the voices of Sonic and the manager came into earshot.

"I'd imagine that this argument you two had was quite a big one?"

"Yeah. He got really upset."

"In that case, I'll give you the privacy that you probably need. I'll be at the end of the hall if you need me."

"Thank you."

He heard the footsteps of the manager walking away, before a few seconds later, Sonic started knocking.

"Tails, it's me. Can you let me in?"

Tails was silent. His heart was screaming at him to just go and open the door, but his head refused to listen.

"Tails, I know you're in there. Can you just let me in? Please?"

On that last word, Tails could hear the hedgehog's voice crack, and it broke his heart even more. He couldn't leave Sonic out there to cry, so as much as he didn't think he could handle it right now, he timidly walked over to the door and opened it.

He didn't even have time to blink before he was surrounded by blue. Sonic was hugging him.

"Don't you ever to that to me again, Tails!"

It took the fox a few seconds to remember that they were still in the doorway, so he tapped Sonic on the arm, signalling to release him, before stepping back to give his guest room to enter. As he closed the door, all Tails could think was how little he was looking forward to this conversation.

The sun was just starting to set when Vanilla heard some rather frantic knocking from her front door.

"Just a second!" She stood up from her armchair to open the door. She was quite pleased to see a flash of pink through the window. She smiled broadly as she opened the door.

"Amy! How nice to see you, dear! What can I do for you?"

"May I come in?" Something was off. Amy's demeanour was completely different to how she usually acted during her visits.

"Uh, yes, of course, dear. Is something wrong?"

Amy didn't answer. Instead, she just walked past the stunned bunny, before taking a seat in the living room. Vanilla closed the door before walking over to join her, returning to the armchair.

"Amy, you seem troubled. Whatever is the matter?"

"I'm here to talk about Sonic." Immediately, Vanilla's mood fell.

"Oh, sweetie, I'm really sorry. I know how much you like him, but I'm afraid he's—" She couldn't bring herself to say it, so Amy helped her out.

"Gay? Yeah, I know."

"Oh, so no wonder you're so under the weather. It must be hard for you, to know that he didn't just choose a mutant fox over a hedgehog, but he chose another male over you." Vanilla didn't notice the dangerous glint in Amy's eyes.

"Actually, I encouraged it."

That made Vanilla stop.

"What?"

"I'm the one who told them to go for it."

Vanilla wanted to say something, but she was still too shocked to speak, so Amy continued.

"I was just with them. They told me what you said, and honestly, I'm disgusted. You had no right to say any of that to them! It wasn't hurting anyone."

"Amy, it's not right!"

"I wasn't finished! Frankly, I don't care what views you have on the matter. They're your views, so do us all a favour and keep them to yourself! Are you aware that, because of you and your immature reaction, Tails has run away?"

Again, this caused Vanilla to blanch. Amy noticed this and continued.

"Yeah, that's right. He's gone, and it didn't sound like he had any intention of ever coming back, and it's because of you!" Vanilla opened her mouth to say something else, but quickly stopped herself when Amy continued.

"Whatever you have to say, save it. If you're just going to try and justify your actions, you can forget it. I'm not interested. If, however, you were going to apologise, it's not me you have to apologise to."

Amy took a few breaths to calm herself down. Not for long, though, before she was off again.

"You know what the worst thing is, though? You did this in front of your daughter. Cream deserves to form her own opinions on matters like these, not be influenced by your toxic attitude towards it. And, I think I'd be right in assuming that she's not best pleased with you either, considering I haven't seen her once since I got here." Vanilla's silence was confirmation enough. As a matter of fact, Cream had had her own shouting session with her mother about 'causing her to lose her best friend', before she had stormed off to her room. Amy continued.

"Guess I nailed it. Listen, Vanilla, because I'm only saying this once: if you ever come between Sonic and Tails again… actually, no, I won't threaten you, Vanilla. Just let them be. As I said, they weren't hurting anyone, but now, because of you, everyone's hurting. I know there will be others out there who share your opinion, but you were a friend. Those two had been dating for a couple of weeks, but they hadn't told anyone for fear of how you'd all react. I guess you proved them right." Amy stood up before thinking of one last thought.

"I'd probably steer of clear of Sonic for a while if I were you. His opinion of you is a lot less pleasant right now, and I doubt it'll ever recover, and honestly, I could probably say the same about my own. You've been a great friend to me over the years, Vanilla, so I can't hate you, but I can't say I like you right now. Maybe one day, we'll be able to forgive you, but not until you get your act together."

With that, Amy left the living room, but instead of heading for the door, she turned to the stairs. She had another rabbit to visit.

Cream's room was fairly easy to decipher, being the only one with flower doodles across the bottom of the door. Amy knocked gently.

"Go away!"

"Cream, it's me, Amy. Can I come in?" A few seconds of shuffling and quick footsteps later, the door flew open, and Amy was immediately embraced in a tight hug from the young, sobbing bunny.

"Hey, hey, it's ok Cream."

"Amy, what are you doing here?"

"I needed to have a chat with your mum about what happened today at Sonic's."

"You know?"

"Yeah. Sonic and Tails told me."

"Oh, Amy, I'm sorry. I know how much you liked Sonic."

"Oh, I'm not upset about that, Cream. I was here because I didn't like how your mother had treated them." The bunny looked surprised.

"So, you're not mad at them? I thought you wanted to date Sonic."

"I did, Cream, but I'm actually the one who encouraged them to get together. They both love each other, and I'd be much happier for Sonic to be happy with Tails, instead of unhappy with me. But, I'll survive. What about you, though? Don't try to pretend you don't have a crush on Tails!" Cream's face became as red as Amy's dress, and despite the circumstances, the pink hedgehog chuckled.

"It's not like that, Amy!" The look on Amy's face was more than enough to make the young rabbit realise that she was busted. "Is it really that obvious?"

"Yeah, but you know it's probably not going to work out the way you want it to. We'll just have to accept that we're not their type."

"I know, I know. And, for what it's worth, I'm really sorry about what my mum said to them. I don't think that was right."

"You've no need to apologise, Cream. We all know that you had nothing to do with it. I'm sure Sonic would still be happy to see you." That made Cream puzzled.

"What about Tails?"

Amy sighed, before smiling sadly at the bunny.

"He ran away. I don't think he plans on returning, but if he ever does, I'm certain he'd still try to stay friends with you."

"Wait, Tails is… gone?"

"I'm afraid so. But, I'm certain we'll see him again."

"Sonic, what are you doing here?"

"I was looking for you, Tails. Since when do we run away from the tough situations?"

"Sonic, stop. You already know my thoughts about this. I don't want a repeat of my childhood."

"Then will you listen to my thoughts about it? I know it's not easy, but the best adventures never are. That's what this is: an adventure. We've been on plenty of those, and more than the fair share of them had less-than-favourable odds."

"Yes, but those adventures didn't end with our friends turning against us, just because of who we liked!"

"They're our friends, Miles. They may not agree with us being together right now, but eventually they'll get used to it."

"How can you be so sure, Sonic?"

"I can't, but I trust them."

"And what about everyone else, Sonic? If we make this work, we won't be able to hide it forever. The public will find out, and there goes your image, your reputation, your legacy. All because you chose to like me."

Sonic stopped and stared at his fox.

"And? Do you really think I care about any of that? It's just like what I said after the plane crash: if I had to choose between my reputation and you, it'd be an easy decision. And, I think you already know what my choice would be." Sonic's gloved hand fell onto Tails', which made the two lock eyes for a second.

Two hearts fluttered.

Sonic remembered something the fox had said earlier.

"And, if anyone decides to bully you again for anything, they'll have to get past me first!" He started laughing, not even realising that Tails had started leaning closer, until…

"Sonic?" Sonic's eyes snapped open, meeting his fox's light blue orbs mere inches in front of them.

"Y-yeah?"

"Shut up."

Tails closed the gap, and they kissed.

Sorry this one took so long! I had a slight case of writer's block, and a lack of time to get much writing done, but we got here in the end!

We're not quite to the end of ACT II yet, but I liked this chapter, even with all the talking going on! We'll be seeing quite a few more conversations in future chapters, of course, so we're not quite out of the woods yet! But, in any case, I'll see you in the next chapter, whenever that happens to be! Ciao for now!

OnTheSpectrum