A/N:Wowee! Eight chapters. Time certainly does fly :). Soo… I've got an extra special surprise for you guys (and that's why this one took so long for me to write). I made a picture of all of my characters (and I've realized that I have a hell of a lot :!) I want to squish them all :! But anyways, it's Gabrielle, Felix, Hina, Leah and Grace :D! If you can't tell which is which… than I really am a failure. Here's the link:

http://img153.imageshack.us/img153/4394/scanqt0.jpg

Did it work? I have a list of things which bother me about the picture: Hina's shoes (I was LAZY), Felix in general (He looks like VOLDEMORT!), Gabrielle's ears (…no comment -.-), Hina's petal skirt thing (I think some of their angles are a tiny bit PHYSICALLY IMPOSSIBLE), Gabrielle's nails (:K)!… the list goes on. But anywho, have fun reading… and a happy New Year B-)!

This one is in poem form :D!

'Oh charactersinmystory…

How I wish I owned thee…

But I don't :D!'

Thank you, thank you.

Tails pressed his head upon the cool, soothing glass of the window. He massaged his temples, tapping his foot anxiously. For the last few hours, he had racked his brain to try and find a single, long forgotten memory. He could nearly remember it; far, far back. It was tantalizingly close to appearing in his mind's eye. A brilliant, red flower, however, stood out in the haze of the rest of the memory. What the flower had to do with the bizarre situation involving Hina and Sonic, he was unsure, but his instincts were telling him that the scarlet blossom taunting him so was important in figuring it out. His concentrated thoughts began to exhaustedly creep from the memory, though, and fall upon Cosmo. For a half-conscious moment, it felt to Tails that she was with them again, gazing happily from behind a pane of glass just beyond reach. It was spiritually crippling when a soft knock at the door tore him away from his friend. He hastily wiped a budding tear from his eye with a fist, and jogged over to the bedroom door. Amy stood in the hall, looking concerned and nervous. A sleeping Hina was cradled in the crook of her elbow.

"Tails?" She asked gently, touching his arm softly with her free hand. The kitsune forced a weak smile.

"I'm sorry." He said sincerely, wishing he had not been such a neglectful host. "Did Sonic and Knuckles leave?"

"Yeah. A few hours ago."

Tails blinked in surprise.

"What time is it?" he asked, although he could have easily turned his head to read the digital alarm clock beside his bed.

"Nearly one." She replied with a tired laugh. Tails quickly took Hina out of her grasp.

"I'm so sorry, Amy!" He said in distress. "You can stay here tonight, if you want."

Amy smiled and rubbed her eyes.

"Thanks a lot. I'd walk home," she said with a yawn, "but it's pitch black outside."

Tails ushered her into his bedroom, refusing to listen to her objections about taking his room. After a few moments, most likely out of exhaustion, she gave up and slumped onto the bed.

"Night, Tails." The hedgehog yawned, burying herself under the blankets. Tails flicked off the light and quietly made his way to Hina's room to deposit her in bed. Now likely the last one awake in the house, he silently plopped down onto the couch in the living room, feeling surprisingly awake. He stared at the ceiling and removed his gloves to gnaw at his finger nails. For a few moments, he thought dimly about their future neighbors, but the subject couldn't keep his attention tonight. For the second time that evening, or morning as it was now, his uneasy mind pulled him back to the subject which pained him so. Cosmo was beaming in his mind's eye, and he could feel tears on his cheeks again. Ignoring them, he shut his eyes tightly until they burned and fireworks set of before them. For a moment, it seemed as though if he squinted forcefully enough, he might awake months back to find Cosmo sitting beside him, apologizing innocently for waking him, and asking if he would like to try a cupcake. For a moment, he blissfully imagined being reunited with her until he focused upon her ruby broach. He was reminded of Hina's fairly similar one. A stab of an unpleasant, unfamiliar emotion gripped him for a moment. What if he had found some way to avoid Cosmo's fate? She would still be with them, but Hina would certainly not. He felt bitter and completely torn as a disturbing question budded from the back of his brain. If he had been presented with a choice, which would he choose? Cosmo or Hina? He drifted off to sleep with this painful question torturing him.

Felix let out an ecstatic scream of delight as his drowsy eyes met the huge blue, flat-bottom sphere before his bed. He squirmed to escape the comforters surrounding him, half hotel-supplied, and half his own. He scrambled onto the floor beside it, staring with wide eyes and an almost comical, perfect 'o' of a mouth. He touched the glass with a finger, blue eyes surveying the odd creature lying on a large turquoise stone. The many-legged creature was the exact colour, and would have gone unnoticed were it not for its large, black eyes gazing out of its tank expectantly.

"Mamma!" he cried, hopping from foot to foot. Gabrielle hurried into the room with a little smile and a cup of coffee clutched in both hands. She looked much shorter in the fuzzy slippers she wore this morning than her usual high heels. She had, however, taken time to paint her face with its usual layer of cosmetics.

"What is that?" She exclaimed in fake surprise, putting a manicured hand to her mouth.

"An octopus!" he cried, pointing to it and beaming. Gabrielle let out a gasp and crouched down to Felix's level.

"What is his name?" she asked looking at him intently.

For a moment, Felix silently pondered her question, gazing curiously at the creature.

"She." He said, cocking his head and looking up at the squirrel who he idolized so, who had found him as a child. He didn't like her being incorrect; it made him feel confused and even slightly afraid.

"Oh!" laughed Gabrielle. "What is her name, then?"

Again, the small boy returned to staring pensively at his pet.

"Lucy." He said certainly, getting to his feet. "Can I hold her?"

"Of course you can!" replied Gabrielle, reaching into the tank to grab the turquoise octopus. Felix stared fixedly at it – her - with wide, excited eyes, hopping up and down a bit again. He took her in his hands gingerly, almost afraid that if he moved too much she might dematerialize and fall between his fingers like sand. The little invertebrate quickly changed colour to match the off-white of its owner's gloves. Felix watched in amazement as she crawled up his right arm, giggling at the bizarre feeling each tiny suction cup on her many arms made.

"Want to go have some breakfast?" the squirrel asked him, gently pulling the creature off of his arm and plopping her back into the water.

"Yeah." He said cheerfully, skipping into the kitchen.

For the umpteenth time that night, Tails sat up from the couch rubbing his eyes. He moodily fell back onto the sofa, exhausted but apparently incapable of returning to sleep. To his mild displeasure, his mind once again returned to tearing him apart by means of the dreaded question. The strange thing was that he would, of course, never need to make this decision. Cosmo or Hina? Cosmo was gone. It pained him terribly to think it, but it was so. But however much he wished it would just leave his fatigued mind and body alone for the night, the question persistently nagged at him. In an attempt to drown it out, he concentrated on thinking about finding that memory stowed somewhere deep in his mind. The red flower materialized again in his mind's eye, but this time there were three distinct, colourful hazes which accompanied it; one red, one green, and one yellow-orange. It was obvious to him that they were Knuckles, Cosmo and himself. As soon as the names rushed into his mind, the image seemed to refine and buff to crystal clarity. He sat bolt upright, contorting his expression slightly in concentration.

"That flower." He muttered, taking large gulps of breath for some odd reason. The more he siphoned all of his mind power into deciphering the memory so excruciatingly close, the clearer it played out in his head. First, he recalled snippets of sentences, or flashes of facial expressions. Knuckles laughing, Cosmo thanking him…

Finally, the memory revealed itself in full.

The three friends walked through a thin, fairly sparse forest, conversing lightly. They stepped carefully to avoid crushing the few sprouts which managed to grow in the unfertile soil.

"Oh, look!" Cosmo called to the other two, crouching beside a stubby bush. This bush stood out between the others because of the bright, red flowers growing upon it. "This one's still doing well."

Tails and Knuckles walked to her side, both smiling at her. She gingerly plucked one of the blossoms, and held it to her face, inhaling the sweet scent.

"See?" She said happily. She grabbed Tails' hand and tugged him down beside her, and repeated the action with Knuckles. As soon as her hand clasped around his wrist, she crushed the flower in her hand. The boys stared in disbelief, but Cosmo dropped the crumpled petals and bit her knuckles, squinting tears out of her eyes.

"I swore I wouldn't." She breathed and backed away from the other two, tears running down her cheeks. She stumbled backward and fell onto her back clumsily, shielding her face from the other two with a trembling hand.

"Cosmo!" Tails said worriedly, rushing beside her. She composed herself with a quaking breath.

"I'm fine." She said firmly getting to her feet hastily and marching on past them. The boys exchanged confused looks and followed in her wake.

A/N:Gasp! Emotions! Oh my gosh, guys :! I just found that there's a show called Love HINA :o! I looked it up and it was a bunch of chicks in bikinis. I swear to god! I didn't get her name from that. Ahh well, thank you and please review!! If you think about it, a review is like the way you say thanks… and pay for my err… service. So, if you read and do not review, it's like stealing. Are you a stealer?!?! I certainly hope not.

--LA