Author's Note

Hi there, and thanks for checking out Reaching Higher.

As I am wont to say, you should never need to read earlier Eternal Tails stories (or even know who Sonic the Hedgehog is) to understand what's going on, but this story is a direct sequel to Chasing the Wind, so you might want to check that one out first.

For those interested in the overall Eternal Tails timeline, this story falls both after and before Chaos Calamity, which also never happened. Don't you just love time travel?

Hope you enjoy!

~ Pan.

How had it come down to this?

Miles "Tails" Prower, eternal sidekick, unparalleled gadgeteer genius, and slightly traumatised child solder, sat at the desk of his workshop. With both fluffy tails wrapped in his arms the fox stared at his computer screen, rocking occasionally as he agonised over two words he'd typed upon them weeks before.

'Somewhere nice?'

Damning in their simplicity, overwhelming in their significance, these words had been a source of constant anxiety for almost a month. He'd built a thorium powered nightlight faster than it had taken him to even take a crack at this question.

"Still working, little buddy?" A blue hedgehog leaned on the back of his chair, scratching at an ear with a white gloved finger.

"Hey, Sonic." Miles flashed a smile up at his best friend, even though this was all his fault. "Just thinking about some stuff, nothing important."

It was important.

"You sure? Thought you looked like something was bothering you."

"Mmm, nope!"

He was very bothered.

"Well… Alright." Sonic glanced at the screen. Miles didn't care, he'd written it in hexadecimal in the first place. "I'm gonna hit the hay. Don't stay up too late, alright?"

"Yeah, no worries."

He was extremely worried.

With a satisfied nod Sonic turned away from the desk and ambled back to the couch he'd previously been sat watching TV. He flopped over face first onto the cushions, not even bothering to turn it off. Miles rolled his eyes, slipping a tail into a mug on his desk to fish out the remote. He didn't even know how his recurrent house guest managed to lose it quite so regularly.

"Thanks buddy." A thumbs up poked over the top of the couch as the distracting stream of light and noise shut off. Miles grunted, dropping the remote to the desk without his arms ever leaving his other tail. It was pretty handy being a weird mutant sometimes.

Well, most of the time, really. Miles threaded his tail back into his grasp and squeezed, laying his head against the fluff as he stared at the screen.

If only Sonic hadn't been there that day.

Well, no, that was irrational. Sonic was by nature a vagabond, roaming the Earth - while avoiding the water - in an endless state of wanderlust, and Miles had made a lifelong habit of echoing his hero's endless migration. The various workshops he had built across the globe were intended to provide the two of them with a safe place to rest their heads, as well as an outpost from which they could base their operations whenever a villain - probably Eggman - started causing trouble. He might refuse to let Miles build him a room but this was as much Sonic's home as anywhere could be. If he wasn't here, Amy Rose, cause of Miles' current stress, would have waited until he was.

Miles slumped on the table with a yawn, his tails serving as cushions as he stared at the words like they might transform into some hidden secret if he looked hard enough.

No, if only Sonic hadn't run away.

Miles had wanted to be nice. Sonic loved the 'Knots, and Amy loved Sonic. What could be better for his two friends than to mention to her that the band was on tour? Sonic would get to see the concert, Amy would get a third date after five years of being Sonic's self-professed girlfriend, and almost two years living as a completely different person after the original person failed miserably to catch his attention.

Well, Miles knew what it was like to change yourself for someone. He'd done it twice already, reforging his personality from the borderline feral state he'd been in when he and Sonic first met, and once again when his hero had suggested to him that perhaps he didn't need a sidekick that fought giant robots with him. Probably because Miles had grown so little in the five years they'd known one another that they'd decided that he'd got his age wrong and celebrated his eighth birthday four years running. Sonic had wanted nothing more than a lab rat, so Miles had become just that and nothing more. Better that than being abandoned again.

He'd thought if she'd got that date, maybe her feelings would finally get through. At very least, maybe she'd calm down enough to show Sonic a glimpse of what a great person she was - at least when she was nowhere near Sonic. And maybe Miles would stop having a desperate hedgehog tween alternate between breaking into and just breaking his workshop when the Blue Blur snubbed her advances, trampled her feelings or generally made her feel like dirt.

Perfect plan, no downsides. She'd showed up looking radiant, tickets in hand, everything was set. Until Sonic made a run for it. Until she'd been about to cry. Until he'd said things. Until she suddenly decided to take him instead. He barely even knew who the Knothole Knots were.

And he… Well, he'd kind of passed out and she'd had to carry him home. That had been his stunning contribution to her evening. He'd half expected her to drop him off a cliff or something after that. Instead she'd proposed a different punishment.

She'd told him to help her get a date with Sonic, and to take her "somewhere nice" to make up for ruining her night.

Well, Miles had done a lot of things in his life. He'd mastered various academic fields and dabbled in countless others. He'd taken down armies single handed, faced down mind warping monsters, wielded the infinite powers of the chaos emeralds and been to more alternate dimensions than most people had restaurants. Miles had also spent plenty of time around girls.

Specifically, saving girls, fighting beside girls, and very occasionally fighting girls. Going places with girls, even Amy, who was one of his oldest and closest friends, was generally something that happened because they were trying to save the world together, usually wasn't his idea, and enjoyment was rarely a factor for consideration.

:: go to bed!

A message popped up in the corner of his screen, a smiling pink icon identifying the owner as none other than the girl in question. Miles sighed, slender fingers flying across the keyboard, chin propped by up a tail.

:: I'll go to bed soon.

:: I haven't forgotten!

That was part of the one-sided "deal". Get some sleep the night before. As if he could sleep with all this going on. Even if she was just Amy, who routinely hung out with him while trying to stalk Sonic, she also had a short temper and swung a mean hammer. The potential fallout of his plans for tomorrow could easily turn out as bad as any of Eggman's schemes. She might even cry.

Another message pinged onto his monitor, this time she'd sent a file. Miles raised an eyebrow. An image, titled 'Bed'.

The picture expanded to fill his screen, an animation showing a pink bed with Amy's head poking out from the covers, grinning as a number counted down in the corner. Five. Four. Three. Two. One.

Amy leapt from the bed, hammer swinging at the camera with a mad gleam in her green eyes. Miles flinched despite himself, but the image had already looped back to the start, grinning at him once more.

:: Very funny.

:: should have gone to bed already! tell Sonic goodnight for me!

:: He's already turned in for the night, but I'll whisper it creepily in his ear anyway. It'll be like you're right here with him.

:: oh ha. ha. that was one time. now go to sleep

:: and don't be late tomorrow

:: I expect you clean as well

:: That was never part of the deal! I'm doing it! I'm rolling in grease right now!

:: nooo

Miles jabbed the power button and hopped down from his chair.

"Amy says goodnight." He murmured as he passed the couch.

"Wh… sha… chilli dog control!" Sonic threw a cushion past his sidekick's head.

"... Yeah, okay. Sweet dreams buddy."

And so, for the first time in a week, Miles climbed the stairs to his room and went to bed before the sun rose, already dreading what might come when it did.