So, um, I do feel like I messed up some moments in this particular chapter, so chances are that this one will also be a rewrite candidate. And as always, I'm terribly sorry if either Shadow or Shade seem a bit OOC in their moments.
After the discussion that happened between Tails and Cosmo a few days ago, everything seemed to have been going back to normal. Well, as normal as it can get for a mutant and an alien living together – Tails was still busy tinkering with his mechanisms in his workshop, sure, but at least he wasn't acting completely obsessed with his mechanisms. Cosmo, meanwhile, was quietly doing all the housework and not complaining the tiniest bit – after all, she wasn't the type of person to just sit around and do nothing while her boyfriend is busy at his workshop.
This day was a more unusual one, however, as Tails decided to take a day off from working with his machines at the workshop, and for a good reason – he needed to get out into the city to buy a month's supply of various necessities. Normally, Tails would just take the train to the city – there was a train station in the Mystic Ruins – then buy all things necessary and go back home. This time, however, Tails had wanted to go to the city together with Cosmo. After Tails had counted off how much money would go on all of the necessary things, he found that he would still have enough money to buy something extra, too. Usually, that extra something were either new instruments or more parts for the new mechanisms created by the young fox, but this time around, Tails had decided that he might as well buy Cosmo some new clothes. Sure, he liked the flower-like dress that Cosmo wore all the time, and there were no issues with it anyways – the damage done to it would repair itself as easily as just putting the torn parts back together without using a sewing kit, and any and all stains were also rather easy to wash out, but Tails still wanted to see Cosmo in some different clothes.
So, after finishing his calculations, the young kitsune went to the guest room, where Cosmo was quietly reading a book. As Tails had approached the plantgirl, she looked up and asked: "Is there something you wanted?"
"Well…Today, I was going out into the city to buy some necessary stuff, and wondered if you might want to tag along – after all, a few days ago, you told me you wanted to see the city up close." – Tails replied a little nervously.
"I don't see why not." – The plantgirl replied, putting her book down and standing up.
"Oh, and once there, we'll go get you some new clothes." – Tails added as his seedrian girlfriend stood up from the couch.
"Why would I need new clothes? Is there something wrong with my usual ones?" – The plantgirl asked, sounding a little confused.
"No-no-no, it's not about that!" – Tails replied in a rather defensive tone, feeling like he might have upset Cosmo. – "What I meant to say is…Here, on Mobius, most people usually have to wear different clothes for different occasions."
"Oh…Well, I didn't quite understand it at first because…I hadn't really ever changed my clothes throughout most of my life. You see, the dresses most seedrian females wear are made of a material that easily stretches to accommodate the wearer's body. " – Cosmo slightly pulled on the sleeve of her dress, with the form of the sleeve not changing the slightest bit after she let go of it, emphasizing the plantgirl's point. – "But if it is necessary that I get some other clothes…Then I suppose I might as well go for it."
The trip over to Station Square went by fairly easily – the train was going smoothly, there were no interventions or attacks from Eggman or anything like that. Sure, there were a few occasional glares at Cosmo given by the passengers on the train, but they still tried to keep it all quiet, as no one wanted to get into any trouble.
As soon as Tails and his seedrian girlfriend exited the station over at the city, they almost immediately bumped into not one, but two familiar faces – Shade and Amy, to be specific. Right now, the two were in their usual clothes – Shade was wearing a black leather jacket, a white undershirt, blue jeans and black shoes, while Amy wore her usual all-red attire – red dress, red shoes, red headband. And apparently, the two were in the middle of a conversation. It didn't take long for Shade to notice the two, as she greeted them: "Long time no see, lovebirds! How's it going?"
"Fairly average, I guess. And there was no need for the "lovebirds" part, you know. " – Tails replied.
"Hey, I'm just teasin'. So, what about that recent conflict between you two? Amy and I were just discussing it – I heard that things weren't exactly going all that smoothly between you two for the past few days."
"We talked this one out. There are no more issues between us, and we left all our usual problems in the past." – Tails replied, slightly hugging Cosmo by her waist. The plantgirl didn't really say anything, and just gave out her usual kind smile.
"Glad to hear everything's going okay between you two." – Amy finally spoke up. – "So, what brings you two to the city?"
"Oh, I just needed to get some necessary things, and that's about it. That, and I wanted to buy Cosmo some new clothes." – Tails replied, checking the PDA he had brought along.
"Yes, Tails told me that I might want some different clothes for different occasions or something." – Cosmo replied quietly.
"So, right off to the clothes shop at once, right?" – Amy asked.
"Not really. First, I have to make sure that I'll still have enough money left for the new clothes. First off, we'll get to the convenience store and buy all the necessities." – Tails said, checking the street map on his PDA as it calculated a path to the convenience store from their current position. – "Then, from there, if the amount of money is enough, we'll head over to the clothes shop."
"But I thought you also had to buy some mechanical parts for those inventions of yours, didn't you?" – Shade asked.
"Not really. In fact, the very money that I planned to spend on the mechanical parts will actually go on the new clothes for Cosmo." – Tails replied, pressing a few more buttons on his PDA and checking the calculations he made back at home.
"Tails, I appreciate what you're doing for me, but you don't really have to. I mean, you would probably be out of work for quite a while with no mechanical parts available, right?" – Cosmo asked in a shy tone.
"Nonsense. You are much more important to me than my hobby or those machines I'm working with could ever be." – Tails replied, patting Cosmo on the head slightly. The plantgirl just smiled shyly, Amy just cooed "Aww…", while Shade commented to no one in particular: "Cheesy, but I guess it works."
While Tails was busy with shopping at the convenience store, Cosmo, Amy and Shade had stayed behind, with Amy telling Cosmo some things about Mobian society. At the moment, Amy had told Cosmo about typical Mobian marriage proposals.
"You know, most of your traditions do have some similarities to those of seedrians. A piece of jewelry is also used for proposal for marriage in our society, but it's not exactly something as small and mundane as a ring – it's usually a diadem with a Star Amber."
"Amber? Really?" – Amy asked, somewhat skeptical. Cosmo chuckled and replied: "Unlike the ordinary amber that is fairly common, Star Amber comes from the sap of the Matriarch Trees – those trees are basically female seedrians that had lived their full lifespan out. The Star Amber has got its name from how brightly it shines under the light – as bright as a star."
"And your amulet is also made from amber of some sort, right?" – Amy asked, looking over the red amulet that Cosmo wore most of the time. The plantgirl looked over the shining red crystal and replied: "Well, this one doesn't use any Star Amber per se – it actually uses some unknown crystalline material, but said material seems to have been artificially modified to hold back the latent energy of a seedrian, thus preventing any transformations even in the direst of circumstances."
"You know what? I think Tails might want to run a scan of this thing later. You know, in case you'll need a duplicate of this amulet for some reason." – Shade said, looking off to the side and at the shop entrance, waiting until Tails comes back from the store.
"Well, if he could artificially replicate a Chaos Emerald, who's to say he wouldn't be able to replicate an energy inhibitor?" – Amy asked, shrugging.
"Knowing how much of a genius he is…But I doubt that this planet has the material necessary for creation of another of those amulets." – Cosmo said, looking around the urban environment she was in. And with that, the conversation screeched to a halt. That is, until Tails exited the store with the bags containing all the things he had to shop for.
"Oh, we were just discussing your mechanical genius, Miles." – Shade said casually, making the fox drop both bags. – "Specifically, Amy told me about the one time you managed to create an almost perfect replica of a Chaos Emerald."
"Not really, the conversation kind of trailed off to this subject." – Amy said, interrupting Shade. – "At first we were enlightening Cosmo about some Mobian society traditions, then the conversation kind of trailed off to that amulet she wears all the time, and…Well, Cosmo here wondered if you could be able to duplicate that amulet of hers, or at least create a working replica of it."
"I didn't really say anything like that. You brought the whole topic up first, to be specific." – The plantgirl replied shyly.
"Actually…If I had some time to scan it and identify the material, then maybe there would be some odds of being able to create a replica of said amulet, or at the very least, create something functionally similar." – Tails said, picking both shopping bags up. – "But right now, that is of no concern. We still have some clothes to get for Cosmo, remember?"
"And I think I know just the right shop for the occasion. It should be just nearby." – Amy said, and before Tails could check the map on his PDA for the location of the nearest clothing shops, the pink hedgehog grabbed both him and Cosmo and ran in what one would presume was the route to the shop. Shade just sighed and trailed behind the three.
It didn't take long to get to the shop that Amy had mentioned, and sure enough, it was a rather nice place – it didn't look like the kind of shop where overpriced clothes would be sold, but it wasn't the "second-hand" kind of shop either – in other words, right in the happy medium. As soon as Amy, Cosmo, Tails and Shade entered the shop, Amy immediately took Cosmo's hand and ran with her towards the nearest shelf full of various articles of clothes, while Tails and Shade followed after them, albeit with a little less enthusiasm.
"Okay, you're gonna love this one- No, too bright for you- Nah, this one's too dark- Wait, why didn't they throw this away ages ago, it's out of fashion by an entire-" – Amy was being her usual chatterbox self, rapidly picking up various dresses, sort-of-applying them to Cosmo, then throwing them back on the shelves, rinse and repeat.
"Tails, would you specify exactly what I need here? I think Amy here went a little overboard." – Cosmo said to her foxy boyfriend, turning to the side slightly.
"Let's see here…" – Tails pressed a few buttons on his wrist PDA – usually, he used the PDA for writing in a list of what things he needed to buy, and this time was no exception – it's just that before going out this day, he wrote in another list, and right now, he checked that particular list. – "A nightgown, a sundress, some winter clothes – gotta think ahead – a swimsuit – beach season's not over after all…And, yes, that's about it."
"Okay, guess we'll start out with choosing a proper sundress." – Before Cosmo could ask anything, Amy grabbed her by her hand and dragged her toward the hangers with various dresses.
"You know…" – Amy looked for a proper sundress, and noticed a rather nice-looking white one, which she then handed to Cosmo. – "I think this one should be just about perfect. Off to the fitting room now!"
While Tails and Shade waited by next to a hanger with some other articles of clothing, Amy and Cosmo ran off to the fitting rooms. It didn't take all that much before Cosmo came out of the fitting room wearing the white sundress that Amy gave her. Cosmo looked over herself, and just now, Tails had noticed that Cosmo had actually took her red amulet off from her dress and had it attached to the sundress.
"Charming. Quite charming. What do you think, Tails?" – Amy asked, getting Tails' attention. The young fox walked over to the two and took a good look over Cosmo's clothes.
"It…Looks rather nice…White is…Definitely your color." – Tails did stutter up a tiny bit, but otherwise managed the answer just fine.
"Okay, then I guess we'll be taking this one."
"Yes…It is quite comfortable, actually." – Cosmo said, looking over herself a tiny bit more. Meanwhile, Amy ran off for a while, and soon came back with a white hat adorned with a light green ribbon. The pink hedgehog then practically slammed the hat on to Cosmo's head, getting it slightly over her eyes. Cosmo barely struggled to pull her head out of it and put it back on properly, looking over it some more.
"White really is your color." – Tails said, readjusting the hat on Cosmo's head a tiny bit. The plantgirl smiled shyly, and asked: "You…Really think so?"
"Alright, we still have some other articles of clothing to go through, you know. I guess you will buy this one for her, right, Tails?" – Amy asked.
"Yes, I think this one will be perfect for those afternoon outings. So, what we'll be choosing next?"
The clothes shopping went by fairly quickly – sure, Cosmo had some modesty issues with choosing the swimsuit, but other than that, there were no difficulties with anything.
"Well, guess that's it. I suppose we can call it a day and go home now." – Tails said as Cosmo and Amy exited the store, each holding a bag with the clothes that they had bought.
"Come on, Tails, you have barely gone any further than the yard of your house recently. Why won't you and Cosmo take a walk around the city while Shade and I get all the stuff back to your place?" – Amy asked, nudging Shade in the shoulder. At first, the echidna wanted to protest, but all she really replied with was an exasperated sigh.
"Just because my teleporter recharges quickly and runs on a Chaos Emerald doesn't mean you can feel free to use my teleportation for all the mundane purposes, you know." – Shade said to Amy as the two took Tails and Cosmo's bags and went to the train station.
"Come on, these two deserve to have a proper outing with each other. And carrying those bags after they are long done shopping would ruin the mood completely, don't you agree?" – Amy's voice kind of trailed off into the distance as Tails and Cosmo headed to the opposite direction of where the pink hedgehog was going with the terracotta echidna.
"So, where are we going now?" – Cosmo asked.
"I don't really know. What kind of place do you have in mind?" – Tails asked back, slightly holding on to Cosmo's waist as they kept walking. The plantgirl noticed this and blushed, replying: "Well…I did want to see the city, so I guess a simple tour around the area near the station should be just enough, at least for today."
"I actually had a different idea. What do you say we go to a nearby café and I'll get you something sweet?" – Tails asked, still not letting go of his girlfriend's waist.
"Fine with me." – Cosmo replied. As the two kept walking, Tails remembered the conversation that Amy and Shade had mentioned, and asked: "Cos?"
"What is it?" – The plantgirl asked back.
"You know…I was wondering…Just how much of your power that amulet you're wearing is holding back? As in, does your whole life depend on it, or you can take it off for prolonged periods of time?"
Cosmo just giggled – this was probably the one time where Tails was the less knowledgeable person on the matter they were discussing, not the other way around.
"Not really. My life doesn't depend on it as much as you think it does. Sure, it does prevent my transformation from going off against my will, but even then, seedrian transformations usually only happen in the times of great distress." – Cosmo replied, fiddling with the chain on her amulet.
"Basically, it's a survival mechanism?" – Tails asked, and the young seedrian replied with a quiet nod. – "And this means that you can take it off for prolonged periods of time without any consequences?"
"As long as there is nothing too extreme going on." – Cosmo replied.
"Okay. Thanks for telling me about that. You know, it's interesting how it not only manages to be a strong inhibitor…But also a rather nice-looking accessory." – The kitsune said, attempting to compliment Cosmo. The plantgirl blushed and replied: "You really think it looks good on me?"
"Of course it does." – The two shared a brief hug as Tails said that. Soon enough, the couple had arrived to a fairly small ice cream café. The female raccoon waitress at the counter didn't even bat an eyebrow at the two strange-looking customers that had entered the café – the first reason being that commenting on their…Weirdness would be rude, and the second reason being that she was way too bored to comment.
"Welcome. What will you be having?" – The waitress asked in a "don't care" kind of tone.
"Let me speak up here." – Tails whispered to Cosmo, then turned to face the waitress and said out loud: "I'll just have the usual orange ice cream. As for my girlfriend here, she'll have a plain vanilla ice cream." – After that, the couple went over to a table near the window, and soon had the ice cream served to them. Tails didn't eat his ice cream until Cosmo even touched hers. Right now, however, the plantgirl was a little unsure about it.
"In all honesty, it looks like a simple ball of snow. Is it really that good?" – The seedrian asked, poking the scoop of vanilla ice cream with her spoon.
"Well, it's usually well-liked by most mobians, but I'm pretty sure that something like that would be an acquired taste among seedrians. In any case, one's usually supposed to eat it before it melts. Here. " – Tails took the spoon from Cosmo's hand, scooped up a tiny bit of the vanilla ice cream, and spoon-fed it to her. At first, the plantgirl took some time to savor the taste, then replied: "It really tastes rather wonderful."
Tails chuckled, handing Cosmo her spoon back, and said: "Vanilla ice cream is the choice for when you just don't know what you are in the mood for or hadn't tried any ice cream before. Come on, eat it before it melts. "
Cosmo didn't need to be asked twice – she ate her portion of the vanilla ice cream rather slowly, while Tails didn't really take his time all that much, just eating his portion of orange ice cream at a moderate pace. After the two had finished their portions, Tails paid up for the desserts and they soon left the café.
"You were right, Tails. This was certainly an enjoyable treat." – Cosmo said.
"I knew you were going to like it. So, I suppose we can walk around the city some more, and then we'll call it a day?" – Tails asked, embracing Cosmo by her waist. Just before the plantgirl could reply, someone struck Tails in the head from behind, and a pair of scaly hands grabbed Cosmo from behind – one hand keeping her suspended in the air by her waist, while the other covered her mouth.
"Well, well, well. Would you look at that? Two freaks walking around in broad daylight." – A rather haughty female voice said from right behind the two. Before Tails could get up and identify who the voice belonged to, he suddenly felt something heavy pinning him down right in the back.
"I do recognize one of them – he's that annoying sidekick of Sonic. Well, he got his side kicked alright." – The other voice was a more masculine one, and just as the owner of the voice said that sentence, he laughed at his own terrible pun.
"And what about the girl, boss?" – The third voice, that also sounded rather masculine, but was a bit higher pitched, asked.
Cosmo barely managed to look behind at just who ambushed her and Tails in broad daylight – they were a group of reptilian-mobians, with the two rather buff ones who held her up in the air and kept Tails pinned down being a purple viper and an orange python respectively. The third reptilian-mobian was a female black cobra. Cosmo didn't really have much time to analyze their clothes, but she did notice that said clothes weren't exactly of the neat kind.
"Let's just leave the kid here and take the girl. She's not much, but just enough for you guys to have some fun with." – Whatever it was that they were going to do to her, Cosmo did not like it the slightest, but since her mouth was shut by a scaly hand, she could only protest with a loud "Mmmph!"
"Leave these two alone." – A rather familiar male voice said from somewhere above. The reptilian-mobians looked around to see the source of the voice, and as they looked up at the top of a building, they saw someone standing up there. And that person was none other than Shadow.
"Whoa, look at this amateur. Standing on top of a building, thinking he's hot stuff or something." – One of the thugs said. Clearly, he didn't know just who he was referring to.
"I'm telling you – let these two go and get out of here. Right now." – Shadow said, not even moving from where he stood.
"Fat chance, black quills!" – The black cobra said, hissing for a few moments as she ended her sentence.
"On three, you let them go. One…"
"He's just bluffing, mistress. Let's get going now." – The python thug said.
"Two…"
"Sorry, you fail at being intimidating." – The leader of the thug group said.
"Three."
A sudden flash. The python that was pinning down Tails falls flat onto his face, with the young kitsune barely managing to roll to the side and dodge the falling body. A whooshing sound just nearby. The other thug lets go of Cosmo and covers his crotch, wincing in pain as he falls down. Tails gets up and sees that Shadow is standing just in front of the third reptilian-mobian, holding her by her neck.
"Do I need to repeat myself?" – The hedgehog asks in a deadpan tone.
"Eh-heh-heh…No, not really…We'll just…Take our leave now!" – The viper replies with a rather stupid smile. Shadow let go of her, and soon enough, she runs off, with the two thugs barely following her – after all, they each got incapacitated in a single strike from Shadow, so they couldn't really run as fast.
"Try to be a bit more careful wandering around the streets like that next time, will you?" – The black hedgehog asked in the same deadpan tone as he helped Tails get up.
"Okay, we'll try to. Thank you, Shadow. We really owe you one." – The kitsune said, wiping the dust off of his fur.
"Thank you for your help." – Cosmo replied modestly. Shadow didn't say anything and just walked away.
"So much for that walk around the city." – Tails said, looking around. Sure enough, the road around the café was rather empty, not a single person nearby. – "You know what, I think we're done here."
"Agreed." – And with that, the couple headed to the train station. Meanwhile, Shadow was already back up on top of a nearby building, watching over the fox and the seedrian.
"If I didn't know any better, I'd say you kind of have a thing for these two." – A voice of an all-too-familiar bat sounded from behind Shadow. The black hedgehog didn't even bat an eye, still looking at the couple just quietly going back to the more crowded part of the city.
"I merely did what I felt was right. That's all you have to know." – The ultimate lifeform replied in his usual deadpan voice.
"You may be the ultimate lifeform, but you're definitely not the ultimate liar." – Rouge said, walking over a little closer to Shadow. The hedgehog sighed and replied: "Tell me, Rouge, what you see when you look at these two? Aside from what is visible to the naked eye, of course."
"Personally, I see a couple that, despite the fact that they're not meant to be together, still share a strong romantic bond."
"No, romantic bonds usually break way too easily. There is much more to it. The bond between these two is something that isn't broken even by the worst possible circumstances – even when Cosmo was assumed to have been gone for good, Tails didn't completely give up hope for her return. And Cosmo went as far as to try and speed up the process of her recovery. Either by her sheer willpower, or by help of some divine being. But even the latter scenario is not so simple – one wouldn't usually be able to ask whatever is out there in the afterlife to let them come back to life just because they have some unfinished business back in the mortal world. It wasn't just the physical vessel created by Chaos Regeneration that bound Cosmo back to this world – it was her bond with Tails. " – Shadow replied, noticing how the couple disappeared off somewhere further in the distance. Rouge was a little confused, so she asked: "Why are you suddenly so interested in inane mortal feelings?"
"I may not have an easy grasp on emotions, but there is just something fascinating about a bond that even the inevitable and the irreversible couldn't break." – Shadow replied somewhat cryptically. Rouge just shrugged it off and flew away, while Shadow waited for a while more before using Chaos Control to teleport somewhere further away.
Meanwhile, Tails and Cosmo quietly made it back to the train station, where Amy and Shade had already waited, seemingly having had loaded off all the bags that they had to carry back to Tails' house.
"Oh, look who's-" – Amy quickly noticed that Tails' fur was covered in some road dust, so her tone shifted: "Whoa, Tails, your fur is all covered in dust. What happened?"
"Well, we-" – Cosmo didn't have a chance to go even halfway through her sentence, as Tails said: "I just tripped up. Nothing too major."
"That boot mark on your chest fur suggests otherwise. What you two have gotten into?" – Shade asked.
"That's what I wanted to tell about. We were quietly taking a stroll through the city, but we got attacked by those criminals out of nowhere. Had it not been for Shadow, who knows what they would have done to me and Tails…" – Cosmo replied, shuddering at the thought of just what those street thugs had in store for her.
"Wait, Shadow actually saved you?" – Amy asked with a slight note of disbelief.
"We ourselves had a hard time believing it." – Tails remarked.
"Look, I couldn't care less about how this happened or who saved your butts from those random criminals, but one thing's for certain – you probably wandered into the 'seedy part of town', so to speak." – Shade replied as she and the others had went back to the train station.
"Not really, we just went to a certain café not too far away from here. A fairly average café, nothing too unusual about it. Though it was in the quiet part of the city, so maybe that's why they were given an opportunity to attack us there." – Cosmo said quietly.
"Eh, whatever. I suppose you two will be heading back home now?" – Shade asked.
"Yeah, I think Cosmo and I had enough for today." – Tails replied as he and Cosmo entered the train.
"Okay, whatever. Amy and I will wander around the city some more, then. See ya!" – Coincidentally, just after that, the train for the Mystic Ruins had left. Tails and Cosmo had taken a seat just near the entrance, and tiredly leaned on to each other's shoulders.
"Well, this day was quite a doozy." – Tails said in a somewhat tired voice.
"A…What?"- Cosmo asked in the same slightly exhausted voice.
"A doozy. As in, quite out of the ordinary. In any case, I just hope Amy and Shade didn't mess up with getting all the things we purchased back to our place." – Tails said, looking off somewhere to the side. He barely noticed that Cosmo had fallen asleep, leaning on his shoulder – the plantgirl was certainly rather tired from all of the events throughout the first half of the day, and did feel like she needed a nap. Tails smiled quietly, and grabbed Cosmo by her waist again, left with just his thoughts and the occasional chatter of the passengers for the rest of the way back to Mystic Ruins.