"So how's he doing?" Amy dropped down on the couch next to Miles, settling down in the cozy, familiar warmth of his blind spot, right on top of his tail.
He wished she wouldn't do that. He understood why she'd elected to squeeze in next to him when Sonic was there. Keep a safe distance between the two of them and all that, but this was a mobian couch, and not a three seater, so her enduring insistence on that spot, even with all that extra space in Sonic's absence, was baffling. Maybe she just liked to make him jump?
"He's going strong this year. Lost some ground scaling the Mazuri mountain ranges, but he'll probably pull ahead once he gets out on the savannah."
Miles didn't glance up from his notepad. He might still be restricted to a few minutes on a computer each day, but he was adaptable. Now if he could only convince the people in his life to let him work on designs during all TV stuff he might endure it long enough to actually reach the end credits of something.
Of course, he probably got even less out of this than Amy's romance dramas. He'd spent a good proportion of his life watching Sonic run. Watching him win the race against the dawn of the new year for a third year running wasn't especially appealing, at least for the full twenty-four hours.
Plus he could maybe leverage not watching into getting more time to write stuff up on his computer today.
A hand brushed the side of his ear, making him shiver in surprise.
"Open up." Amy's voice oozed amusement.
Ugh. Sadist. Miles resisted rolling his eyes as he dutifully opened his mouth. She'd insisted on keeping him dosed up on the painkillers they gave him, but he'd rather his eye didn't hurt when they wore off.
A cold hard object slipped onto his tongue.
"Mm?" He looked up at her, swirling the faintly bitter thing around in his mouth. Her face was wide eyed and hopeful.
"How is it?"
"...It's… Mmmm!" The dark chocolate melted through into a mintsplosion. "Thish onesh really good, thanksh!" He grinned.
"They're not all for you, they're for Sonic." Amy smiled all the same, a pleased pink on her cheeks. "But... " She looked away. "You know how he is."
Miles nodded. In Sonic's eye the sole factor of taste was the calorie. He, like Miles, cared more about fuel than food, without any strong preferences for what that fuel might be. While he enjoyed carb-loaded protein best, Miles had literally seen the hedgehog eat a whole lemon without complaint before.
"You make the chocolate?"
"It's not too bitter, is it?"
"Tastes great. Really brings out the mint."
Amy's expression brightened. She plucked another from the tray in her hands and placed it in his glove. "Last one until dinner, okay?" She smiled at him, liberating his tail as she stood. "Let me know if anything happens!"
Miles made a wordless affirmatory noise as he turned back to his schematic, measuring distances with his fingertips. He wasn't even sure if he necessarily wanted to build an optical implant - the whole thing gave him bad memories of the time he'd had been installed with Eggman's version, without anaesthetic - but he'd sooner have the design already written up, just in case Amy took out both of them next time.
...Next time? Miles snorted. She'd probably be paranoid of eggnog for years at this point.
A presence dropped into his blind spot once more.
"So what's he up to?" Amy asked by his ear.
"He's just hit ocean." Miles nodded. "No sign of any killer whales y- You're not Amy." He turned with a frown.
Cream the Rabbit stared at him wide-eyed from the couch beside him, Amy, her head poked over the back of the couch, pouted at him.
"That's amazing, Mister Tails. How did you know?"
"Amy weigh-" Miles caught himself. "Feels way different. The somatosensory system of my tails is extremely refined, there are actually more mechanoreceptors per millimetre of each tail than there are in my fingertips, making tiny changes in tactile feedback very noticeable. It's a necessary component for measuring airflow during aerial locomotion."
"...What?" Cream tilted her ears at him.
"I can feel better with my tails than my hands. I use that to help me fly."
"... Oh." Cream shifted off his tail. "Um. We wanted to surprise you."
"Well I was pretty surprised for a second."
"I figured with Sonic doing his thing you might want to have someone to talk to than just me." Amy winked. "Plus I figured Cream could keep you out of trouble while I'm busy in the kitchen."
"I don't need keeping out of trouble." Miles pouted.
"And who did I catch playing on their computer at five a.m. this morning?"
"I was doing accounting!"
"No. Screens." Amy huffed. "You're lucky I'm not making you stay in bed."
Cream giggled.
"I'm just here for the company, Mister Tails. I hope you don't mind."
"Of course not, Cream. You can come by every day if you want." Amy rubbed a hand on Cream's head. "Right, Tails?"
"Uh, sure." Miles rubbed the back of his head. "Like I said, you're welcome anytime. Did you want to stay the night? I think I have another spare futon around-"
"That's alright, Mister Tails. I'm heading home for tonight. Mama says Happy New Year, and she hopes you're recovering alright after your... fall."
"Right!" Amy initiated her social retreat at mere mention of the topic. "I'm going back to the kitchen! You two behave. No computers."
"Mmmhm." Miles turned back to his notepad with a sigh. Cream dropped from the couch and switched to the opposite side, appearing in his peripheral vision at last. "So how are you doing, Cream?"
"I'm alright, Mister Tails. I'm sorry I never really got a chance to thank you for taking care of me at the party. I was…" Cream looked away, kicking her feet. "Sorry for everything."
"It's fine." Miles shrugged. "Oh, I never got to give you these." He slipped two packages into his hand, one round, one flat, holding them out to her.
"Oh! Thank you. You've been holding them all this time?"
"Mhm, they're the only ones I never got to hand over. Never thought to drop them."
"Oh, a computer like yours?" Cream pulled away the last of the wrapping paper with pleasing enthusiasm.
"It's a drawing pad." Miles quietly gauged her reaction from the corner of his eye. "You said your favourite thing was drawing when we did that truth or dare thing, so I built you the Miles Artistic. Just turn it on for the instructions."
"You made this just for me?" Cream beamed. "Thank you! I love it. And what's this?" She held up the metal sphere that was her second gift. "A ball?"
"Don't throw it indoors." Miles nodded.
"Huh?" Cream raised an eyebrow at him. "I know, Mister Tails, I'm not four."
"No, I mean- well, just don't. And don't throw it near anyone you like, either."
"Mister Tails, did you give me a grenade?" She gave him a hard look.
"No!" Miles looked away quickly. "It's… You'll like it, promise. Just throw it in a nice open space."
"Well… Alright, I'll trust you, Mister Tails. I'm going to be very cross if you blow up my garden though."
"... Maybe throw it on the road." Miles bent over his work.
"Mister Tails!" Cream let out a deep sigh. "So… How are things going with Miss Amy? She seems to be in a good mood again."
"I bet she is. Been staring at Sonic all week, whenever she thinks he's not looking."
"I see. And how do you know that, Mister Tails?"
Miles paused mid-sketch.
"Uh… I… guess I just notice things?" He resumed drawing.
"I think I know why Miss Amy likes sitting on the other side of you, Mister Tails." She leaned away from him, tail twitching towards him as she turned her attention to the TV. "You're very different when you know someone's watching you."
"Huh?" Miles started, looking over to his blind spot.
Cream laughed. "You're safe, Mister Tails. I wouldn't do that to you."
Miles grumbled, turning his attention back to his notepad.
"I meant-" Cream twitched her tail, then laughed. "Just like that! Sometimes you're miles away, other times you keep looking at everything around you. It's like you think I'm going to pounce on you."
"Well…" He frowned. "Just… habit, I guess?"
"It's good that you notice things, Mister Tails." Cream leaned in once more, brown eyes locked with his own solitary blue. "But it would be a little intimidating to be noticed all the time, I think."
"I think you're the only one who finds me intimidating, Cream."
"I think you'd be surprised, Mister Tails. But how about you? Have you liked having Miss Amy around?"
"Well…" Miles hesitated. "I thought it would be worse."
"Oh?" Cream tilted her head.
"Well, yeah. You know she can get… intense. I kinda expected her to hit me with her hammer and mess with Sonic until he left."
Cream nodded, eyes shut with pained understanding.
"But I don't know, she's been really nice these last few days. And helpful around the lab. And… Fun, I guess. Reminds me of the old days when it was just the three of us. Well, & Knuckles." He smiled faintly. "Makes me remember when she was younger."
"That makes you sound like an old person, Mister Tails."
Miles stuck his tongue out at her. She giggled.
"So what was Miss Amy like when she was younger?"
"Well, slower, for starters." He smirked. "She was… happier, I guess? This little baseline girl who somehow kept showing up and getting in trouble, and we'd keep saving her, and she'd never let anything get her down. Never stopped trying to help the little guys we couldn't slow down for either."
"Doesn't sound like she changed that much then." Cream smiled.
"She's even better in a lot of ways." Miles sighed. "Just…"
"I know, Mister Tails." Cream patted his leg. "I like her too. It's always nice to see her happy for a change. You as well."
"Hah. I'm very well rested, at least. She's merciless. I'm behind on everything. And I swear she's trying to make me fat with all these cakes."
"Oh, really? Seems about the same to me." She poked a finger into his midriff, her smile turning mischievous at his reaction. "Is it here? Or here?"
"Ah! No bullying the wounded!" Miles wrapped a defensive tail around his torso.
"Oh, alright, Mister Tails." She laid her head on his shoulder, batting her lashes up at him. "I'll bully you nicely instead."
"I'm going to tell Amy."
"Tell me what?" The hedgehog's voice rang out behind him.
"Orca started chasing Sonic." Miles jabbed his thumb at the screen. "He ran across a pod of them a few minutes back."
"Really?" Cream peered at the TV, where Sonic raced across the serene surface of the ocean to a jaunty background tune.
"Aw. I'm never in time for the fun stuff." Amy flopped down in her usual spot with a huff, on top of his tail once more.
"That's not a problem." He leaned past her to blindly grab the remote on the far side of her, almost but not quite managing to dislodge the rabbit still on his shoulder. "Whose drones did you think were filming him?"
The image on the TV flicked back to the blue blur streaking across the water in his bubble shield bare moments before the first black and white maw burst forth from the depths.
Amy let out excited yells like her home team just won at sportsball, Cream let out little gasps and "oo" noises, squirming in excitement as their most incredible friend did what he did best, larger than life, the centre of attention even all the way across the world, welcoming the new year with a cocky grin.
And Miles, flush with friendship, smiled, watching and listening to the excited chatter of his friends beside him with a dangerous thought bubbling in his brain for a new year's eve.
Sometimes change can be good.
