There was a certain strategy to truth or dare. An optimal way to reach a close and comfortable atmosphere and get to know everyone that much better, breaking down barriers without any ruffled feelings or things "going too far" and everyone being better friends at the end of it.
Amy, who had uprooted her social life four years ago when she left Little Planet, and spent a decent chunk of that time just struggling to establish herself on a world where her only social connection was her penniless hero and his antisocial sidekick, did not have any idea what that strategy was. She had no idea what she was doing. And while she had managed to make some female friends lately, and Rouge, she had little to no experience in what to do in this situation, especially with a boy around. Even if it was just Tails.
But she had a plan, a glorious, beautiful plan, to help her friends find love with one another, and a little nudge in the right direction would be exactly what this passive pair needed if they were ever going to get anywhere.
A plan that would go much more easily if the fox she was helping would cooperate. His first victory against Cream hadn't even been interesting. He'd asked her what her favourite hobby was. She could have told him that, clearly she was going to have to take the lead and start making things interesting.
If he'd just lose.
"And I move my Bulldog… here?"
"Ughhh." Amy slumped against her palm, laying on her front to stare down at the board. "How are you so good at this? You win again. Are you sure you haven't played before?"
Tails shook his head, his usual smile in place. "It's a little like chess, except for the randomness."
Amy rolled her eyes. "Shoulda known you'd be good at this. I pick… truth, I guess."
"Alright…" Tails tapped his lips, blue eyes unreadable as he stared into her own. "What is one thing about you that you don't want Sonic to know?"
What happened to boring?!
"That's not very nice, Mister Tails!"
"Just getting some insurance." Tails grinned.
Oh that sneaky little-
"It's fine, Cream." Amy waved quickly. "Just… promise not to tell?"
"What happens in truth or dare stays in truth or dare, right?" Tails' smile didn't waver.
"I think so?" Cream looked to Amy, eyes wide.
"Uh, yes! Those. They are the rules." Amy nodded. "Well, okay. I guess it's probably quicker to show you."
She pushed herself up and off the bed, taking a deep breath before sliding open a drawer and grabbing a case from within. She closed her eyes as she put them on, turning with a smile she hoped looked cute and confident.
"Oh! Glasses!" Cream covered her mouth, long ears standing on end with surprise.
"That's right." Amy rubbed her shoulders, glancing up at Tails, whose smile had vanished. "I have bad eyes."
Tails didn't even reply, just stared. Amy looked down, frowning in growing embarrassment.
"Yeah… So that's it. It's not even that bad, but things get pretty fuzzy when they're far away."
It didn't need to be that bad. She ran fast enough that something she could barely see was moments from being something she ran into. Especially hedgehogs. Any moment Tails was going to crack a joke about all the times she'd grabbed the wrong guy and-
"Wow, those look really good on you."
"Wh-what?" Amy blinked, train of thought both derailed and detonated.
"Yeah! They look really pretty, Miss Amy!"
"Ah, well." Amy rubbed the back of her head. "Thanks."
"Why don't you wear them more often?" Cream tilted her head in childlike curiosity. She'd apparently forgotten the question.
"Because..."
Because she wasn't good enough for Sonic even when she was perfect.
"Because they'd keep falling off, right?" Tails spoke up, raising a finger.
"Yes! That's right." Amy nodded.
Mobians had big eyes and ears on the tops of their head. Even contacts had a habit of flying out when their wearer stopped suddenly, to say nothing of the pince-nez style glasses currently in style. A sudden stop at three hundred miles an hour and she'd probably put a dent in the nearest wall.
"So do we need to dare you to keep them on while we play, or is that a freebie?" Tails' smile broadened to a grin.
"Shaddap!" Her face was probably bright red now, they were merciless. This wasn't fair, their cheeks were furry, nobody could see them blush.
"Oh… is that a no? That's a shame. They're so cute though." Cream pouted, batting her eyelashes.
"No more! I'm not kidding!" Amy raised her hammer, face on fire.
"Eeep!" Cream hunkered down on the bed, holding the Sonic plush over her head. Tails glanced at the plush of himself before just wrapping his tails over his own head with a resigned expression.
"That's better!" Jerks. Amy huffed, arms folded a moment before she climbed onto the bed once more, heart still pounding. "Alright, Cream. You and me, you're going down."
And down she went. This was more like it. Usually she went easier on Cream, but even if she was embarrassed she was still a top notch FP player. Tails just got in her head, that was all. Well she was going to get her own back, she was just a little off balance was all. Two could play at that game.
"That's it, your dalmatian is mine, and that's game. Truth or dare?"
"Umm…" Cream peered up at her, ears tilting as she thought it through. "Dare, I guess?"
"I hereby dare you to sit next to Tails and…" She pushed up her glasses, a wicked grin spreading across her face. "Blow in his ear for the next round."
"Miss Amy!" Cream gasped in horror.
"That's the dare! No backing out!" Amy turned her grin on Tails, who stiffened as the distraught rabbit settled alongside him. "Now I do believe next round was between you and me, Tails?"
Perfect. Put the two of them close together, get some hearts racing and give her strongest rival a handicap for the next round. She clasped her hands together as light reflected across the lenses of her glasses. Just as planned.
Tails narrowed his eyes at her as she set up the board, keeping a solemn silence until she nodded.
"Uagh!" His tails lashed out, fur standing on end as his expression collapsed and he coiled in on himself as the delicate fur in his ears was subjected to a stream of warm air.
"Sorry, Mister Tails!" Cream clenched her hands together beside him, where she knelt to reach up to his ear.
"It's… fine. Going to… get you for this, Amy." Tails gritted his teeth as he reached for the die, shivering down his spine.
It was still an annoyingly close match, but Amy eventually laid her last piece with a triumphant "Ha!". Cream sighed in relief as she sat back, panting softly.
"That. Was. Awful." He squirmed, rubbing his ear with a shudder.
"That's what you get for teasing me!" Amy smirked, mentally noting the new weapon in her arsenal against the fox. "Now... truth or dare?"
"Truth." Tails was back, immutable smile in place as he glared at her.
Ooo, a truth. Now what could she do with that? Tails didn't exactly get up to much outside of hanging out in his lab or following Sonic around… Ask how he felt about Cream?
No, too direct. Miles was the type that would give evasive answers that could shoot down any chance of a relationship early on. Better to feel things out first, maybe start with Cream. Oh, Cream was still next to him though, that was progress. Hm… Amy tapped her lips. Curiosity came first then. There was plenty she didn't know about his past, after all.
"You always say you've had worse when you get hurt. So… What was the worst?"
The smile vanished, and Tails stopped looking at her, staring at something past her. It was as if he was a robotic double after all and his AI just rebooted.
Oh Penders she'd just made this awkward. Abort, abort.
"You remember when Sonic and I were on the Lost Hex?" Tails looked back "at" her suddenly, his expression haunted.
"Of course." Amy nodded. She'd almost died. Everyone almost died that time, before Tails reversed Eggman's extraction machine.
"When the Zeti hooked me up to the roboticiser." He nodded thoughtfully. "I think that was the worst. Especially when it stuck the needle into my optical nerve." He nodded again.
"Ugh, someone stabbed you in the eye and you think that was the worst?" Amy shuddered.
"Well, there's a lot of competition." Tails rubbed the back of his head with a chuckle. "I'm not Sonic, after all. I'm always struggling along."
Totally insensitive question, this was dumb. Now she felt terrible and-
"Oh, Mister Tails!" Cream scooched closer to him, eyes glittering with wet. "That sounds awful! You must have been so scared!"
Oh, wait. Everything worked out better than expected.
"It wasn't all bad. I looked super tough!" Tails grinned, flexing his slender mobian arms. "Very macho. Sonic was scared of me."
"He was not." Amy narrowed her eyes.
Cream giggled.
"I'm sure you were very… intimidating, Mister Tails."
"Why does nobody ever believe me?" Tails slumped. "Okay, you ready for the next game, Cream?"
Danger of drama now gone like it never even happened, Amy recognised the next danger coming from a mile away as Tails handily beat Cream.
"You two aren't playing very nice." Cream pouted. "I choose dare. It's only fair." She glanced at Amy meaningfully.
"I dare you…" Tails grinned. "To do your best Knuckles impression."
"Huh?" Amy perked up. She'd been expecting brutal truth and dare proxy wars, not- "Wow, that's actually a really good impression."
"It's like he's here right now." Tails nodded in wonder. "How do you even bend your ears like that?"
Cream nodded in Knucklesesque smug satisfaction, relaxing the boxing pose of their crimson friend with a final "oh no!" before curtseying and taking her seat once more to astonished applause.
"You and me, next, Miss Amy!" She smiled. "That was fun!"
This time it was close, a lucky Retriever combo on Cream's part left her on the ropes, but Amy pulled through thanks to a few lucky rolls.
"Good game, Cream! You almost had me there. Truth or dare?"
"Mmm… Truth?" Cream's expression fell as Amy's brightened.
"Do you... have a crush on anyone?"
"Miss Amyyyy!" Cream clutched her ears in horror.
"Yes or no is fine." Amy winked. That was a good sign.
"Um..." Cream prodded her fingertips together, the inside of her ears reddening. "...Yes."
"Ooo, juicy." Amy grinned. That was another good sign. "Is it someone I knooww?"
"W-w-w-well-"
"One question per win, Amy."
"Oh foo." Amy stuck her tongue out at Tails. Didn't he know she was doing this for him? "Fine, let's go, party pooper."
Well that was fine too, let him rescue her from a little teasing. This was all going great so far. Why couldn't things go this well with Sonic and her?
Oh right, because he couldn't stand to be around her for this long.
She was even winning. More from a few good rolls than any real difference in strategy at this point. She'd already accounted for his quirky, if effective, tactics by now, but nothing she did seemed to catch him off guard either. Annoying. And now he was on this defensive stall that made her sacrifice puppies one after the other…
"Whew. You got me." Tails rubbed the back of his head with a grin. "Good game, Amy."
Her annoyance evaporated. Right, this was a game. Just because he'd got good at it quickly that didn't stop it being fun, if anything it made beating him more enjoyable. Especially when he was so calm about losing.
"I pick… Truth."
"Ooo, very brave after what you just pulled." Amy tapped her lips with her glasses. "You afraid of what dare you're going to get?"
"Absolutely." Tails nodded without hesitation.
"Ugh, coward." Should she ask him the same question? Or maybe… no, not after last time. She almost wanted to ask why he'd stopped fighting with Sonic, but that was probably another landmine. "What's the strangest thing you've ever eaten?"
"Hmm… Definitely bee."
"What?!" Cream looked aghast.
"No, Cream, just regular bees!" Tails raised his hands. "I've never eaten mobians! Honest!"
"Wait, bees plural?" Amy grimaced. "What the heck, Tails?"
"Well, there was nothing else to eat." Tails shrugged. "I needed the protein. Got the honey too, but that wasn't weird so much as-."
"Where the heck were you living that you had to eat bugs?"
"One question per win, right?" He smiled, wagging a finger.
"Oh no, you're banned from choosing truth for the rest of the evening. Everything I learn about you just makes me want to cry."
"Oh come on! I didn't even think that one was that bad!"
"You are a surprisingly tragic figure, Mister Tails." Cream nodded gravely.
"You too, Cream?" Tails flopped onto his plush copy with a groan.
It really was pretty funny how much bigger it was than him.
"Sorry, Mister Tails."
"Oh, no." Tails glared from atop his namesake. "It's fine. You want to play truth or dare with only dares?"
His dark smile was a grim echo of the stitched happiness of the plush toy upon which he lay as he placed pieces out on the board once more.
"Then let's get daregerous."