The room was pure white, an endless void of utter abyssal nothingness that stretched from beyond the edge of all time and space and back again. And from the same nothing came a beginning.
Tails was the first to step into the void.
He was dressed in a dashing black tuxedo with polished dress shoes and a pair of white silk gloves. His hair and tail had been brushed then slicked with pomade to where they shone like threads of ivory and gold. He looked positively striking.
Sticks was the next to enter.
She wore an elegant single strap black dress with white trim and sash and a pair of matte ebony high heels. Her hair had been washed and fluffed into curly tresses that were draped behind her back, held together by a single golden ring. Smokey turquoise eyeshadow had been applied giving her an air of mystique. A rose was gripped between her teeth, she stood leaning on one side with her hand on her hips.
Sticks stared at Tails with the eyes of a temptress, wanting him to make the first move.
Tails stepped forward and took Sticks in his arms, staring up at her gorgeous blue eyes as the two embraced each other. Sticks smirked at his boldness and spat the rose into the aether, locking eyes with him as the two began to dance.
Hand in hand they danced the cosmic tango together. Their movements were passionate and fiery, stepping gracefully in sync to their quickening heartbeat as the heat of their passion grew hot enough to cause the void around them to erupt into glimmering starlight swirling throughout a wide ebon expanse. Each step they took gave birth to new stars, planets and nebulas filling up an empty universe with all manner of life.
They stayed that way for some time, enjoying each other's company as the universe around them bore witness to their cosmic dance. Eventually Sticks reached her hand up to caress Tails's cheek lovingly. She held him tenderly as if she were afraid he would break apart into stardust with the slightest mistake. Leaning forward she shut her eyes and closed the gap between their lips, drawing closer and closer until...
Tails woke with a start, his eyes wildly snapping open as he lay paralyzed in bed, drenched in sweat. The vivid dream he had felt far too real for his liking. The not so subtle implications of it made his hairs stand on end.
He was dancing with Sticks amidst the infinite cosmos generated by the heat of their passion. Then she and him were about to...
Tails shook his head, trying to clear the image from his mind. That couldn't be right. He and Sticks were just friends, nothing more, nothing less. More importantly why would he dream something like that to begin with? His head was still foggy from his rude awakening and he had trouble remembering the events of the previous day. He could've sworn something important had happened but for the life of him he can't recall a single detail in whole.
Everything came back in bits and pieces, fragments of a much larger picture. He saw flashes of his friends in his mind.
There had been a fight. Eggman had been attacking the village again, but while they were successful in repelling him for the umpteenth time he couldn't help but notice Sticks hadn't been there to help. Soon after he was working on his precious tornado when there was a catastrophic malfunction. It sent him flying across the sky like a twin tailed comet.
After that, nothing.
The sound of his communicator watch beeping drew attention away from his mounting frustrations as he lazily responded to the incoming call with his other hand. The voice of Sonic on the other line brought little comfort to his rough morning.
"Tails? Tails, are you there buddy?" said Sonic. "Tails, come in."
"Yeah, I'm here, Sonic. You didn't have to shout," replied Tails tiredly.
"Whoa. What's with you? Woke up on the wrong side of the bed or something?"
"I guess I did," he yawned. "You know, I'm actually glad you called because I had the weirdest dream last night and I guess I need to talk about it."
"...Did it involve Sticks?" Sonic asked hesitantly.
"Yeah, it did. How'd you know that?"
"Uh... Lucky guess?"
"You're always good at that. Anywho, we were all gussied up in the middle of this empty void and started dancing the universe into existence," Tails abridged, though he specifically left out the part where he and Sticks were about to kiss. Sonic didn't need to know that lest he suffered the teasing of a lifetime. "Weird, right?"
"Weird is right. Only you would dream about dancing in space and all that science-y jazz," chuckled Sonic. "Even with Sticks..." he muttered beneath his breath, something that Tails didn't catch in his early morning grogginess.
"Yeah, guess I would," Tails chuckled as well. "Actually, there's something else I wanna talk about also."
"Well, shoot. I'm all ears."
"It's about yesterday. It's strange. I can barely remember anything. I remember fighting Eggman with you all, then we parted ways. Everyone went to Meh Burger while I went back to the workshop to tune up the Tornado."
"Do you remember it blowing up in your face?" Sonic asked.
"I do, actually. I went soaring through the air and crashed in the middle of the jungle. After that the rest is a blur. I didn't hit my head too hard or anything, did I?"
"Let me answer your question with a question. When you're recalling anything, do you remember Sticks?"
"Now that you mention it, I don't think I saw her much yesterday."
"...Are you sure about that?" Sonic sounded concerned.
"What's that supposed to mean?" Tails huffed. "I clearly remember watching Sticks with you guys doing another one of her harebrained schemes before we left because none of us wanted to get involved with her."
"Tails, buddy. You might wanna strap yourself in for this one, because that happened a week ago."
"A week?!" Tails exclaimed. "What do you mean that happened a- Wait, hold on. I think it's all coming back to me. I'm remembering something. After the Tornado blew up in my face I soared through the air and crashed into..." He paused, feeling his blood run cold.
It was then that Tails felt his grogginess clear away and he finally registered the additional weight and warmth pressed against him in bed, a bed which he also noted was not his own. Turning his head over he came nose to nose with Sticks's slumbering visage. She slept soundly beside him, nuzzling up against his fur and keeping an iron grip on his arm. Her expression was one of tranquility, being beside Tails made her worries go away.
Tails froze up at the sight of her, her hot breath tickling his muzzle. Memories he'd subconsciously repressed resurfaced in his mind with perfect clarity, sending a wave of panic rushing down from the top of his head down to his toes. From crashing into her home to the pleasant meal they shared, it was all there. His sense of urgency returned and he needed to leave before Sticks completed the mating ritual and flew his streamlined plane.
There was only the problem of how it was going to be done seeing as,
A) He couldn't outsmart, outmaneuver or overpower her to make any meaningful attempts at escape since the last time he tried it ended up with Sticks absolutely trashing the rescue team and carrying him back like a yellow duffel bag.
And,
B) There might also be a small, teeny tiny, itty bitty little chance, the amount of which cannot be understated just how infinitesimally microscopic it is, that against all rational thought and his better judgement, he actually wanted to be with Sticks.
"Please tell me you guys have a plan ready," Tails whispered miserably into the communicator.
"We've got one but we need time to prepare. Just stall Sticks for a couple hours and we'll be there before you know it," replied Sonic.
"A couple hours?!" Tails shouted incredulously before shooting a hand up and clasping tightly it over his mouth. He felt Sticks stirring beside him and a spike of panic stabbed at his sides. Fortunately for him she was a heavy sleeper and his sudden outburst didn't wake her from her restful slumber.
Wiping the sweat from his brow he turned back to his communicator, "I don't have a couple hours!" He whispered loudly. "Stockholm syndrome will kick in by then! I can't commit to a relationship right now!"
"You seem to make plenty of time for your plane," quipped Sonic.
"That's different! My Tornado is a sweet and well mannered gal, and Sticks is, blegh, Sticks."
"For someone so sweet and well mannered it must've come as a bit of a shock when she thrusted you into the arms of another woman," Sonic continued, barely suppressing a snicker. "Jokes about your unhealthy connection to the Tornado aside, we should be ready to bail you out in about four hou-"
*BOOM!*
"Knuckles! Be careful with that stuff, it's highly volatile!" Amy shouted in the background.
"Oh, why do we even need all this mootonium stuff anyway?!" Knuckles whined.
*BOOM!*
"Cubot, you six sided simpleton! Did you forget to put the plus side of the battery with the plus and the minus with the minus!?" Eggman bellowed furiously.
"Sorry, boss. It's hard to think when the radiation wafting off the highly unstable photon batteries keeps shorting out my logic capacitor."
"Dr. Eggman, was there a reason you didn't give Cubot any form of radiation shielding for his circuitry?" asked Orbot.
"To tell you the truth he does have radiation shielding, but it only protects him from harmful levels of radiation, not innate stupidity!"
"...On second thought, better ballpark the estimate at six hours," groaned Sonic.
*BOOM!*
*CRASH!*
"Oh, no! I've gone blind!" screamed Knuckles.
"No, you haven't," Orbot deadpanned. "The lights just went out."
"...Did I say six? I meant seven. Just hang tight buddy, and don't let Sticks tune your bass guitar. Sonic out."
"Wait, no! Don't-" Tails's face fell as the line died leaving him with Stick's gentle snoring as the only other sound in the burrow. "-Go..."
He laid in bed, staring up at the ceiling as the warm slivers of sunlight beaming through Sticks's window crept up at his neck.
Seven hours.
He needed to stall Sticks for seven hours before help arrived.
What was he gonna do? Up until this point his best and only course of action was to go through with Stick's mating ritual. And since then he's been trapped with her on an emotional rollercoaster that has sent him up, down and all around by the ends of his tails into the mouth of madness. He wasn't sure he could keep it up for much longer before inevitably becoming entrapped in Sticks's wiles.
"Mmm, Tails..." Sticks murmured, tightening her grasp on Tails's arm.
"S-Sticks?" Tails stuttered, fidgeting beside her. He thought for sure she was awake this time but, to his relief, she was only talking in her sleep.
"...For someone who consorts with the treacherous mechanical powers like some kind of dastardly technowizard, you're alright..." she sighed, her dreamlike expression turning solemn. "How could I fall in love with someone like you..."
"L-love?!" Tails choked out, blushing profusely. "She loves me?!" he whispered to himself. His mind raced, struggling to comprehend the the thought.
"I hate machines... They're loud and destructive and untrustworthy... I'm afraid of them. I should've hated you the same way I hate those blasted machines and killer robots," she confessed on the verge of tears.
Sticks became eerily quiet after that, yet the tears began flowing freely. She curled up into a ball and began shaking. Whatever peaceful dream she was experiencing prior to her unconscious sleep talking was shattered by a terrible nightmare. She began mewling, whispering desperate incoherent apologies in between breaths in response to some heinous crime that Tails could only guess was the crux of her issues.
It was second nature to Tails to immediately comfort Sticks in her time of need. Because she was one his closest friends, after all. He quickly reached over and pulled her into his arms, gently rubbing the back of her head with his free hand in a comforting gesture and wiping away her tears with the other.
Sticks began to calm down, instinctively digging herself into his chest. She breathed in his scent greedily, treating it like an anchor to sanity and causing the poor boy to recoil from her audacity. Yet he bit down on his lips and persisted regardless of his discomfort. His own problems didn't matter at the moment.
As long as it meant Sticks was going to be okay he'd overcome... most dangers for her. Sonic, Amy and Knuckles can handle the other situations that require a bit more speed, finesse or brawn. He'll stick to things that go beep, boop and boom.
Together they laid in bed wrapped up in each other's arm like a newly wedded couple.
The irony was not lost on Tails just how scarily prophetic all of this felt.
Conflict stirred within his heart.
He wasn't sure what to do anymore, and it scared the living daylights out of him.