A/N: Hello guys, welcome to another chapter of DCT. Sorry it has been a while but I had a great time in Japan :) Anyway, I hope you all enjoy the next chapter. It's a special one because it marks the first chapter of the second half of the story. Yep, that's right. This story will officially have 24 chapters, with an authors note as an ending where i will talk about some things, my thoughts and feelings, and also answer any lingering questions that you might have. So I hope you all enjoy the crazy ride that is the second half because the plot is about to get out of control. And don't forget to review and let me know what you think :)

Chapter 13:

The Sleepover

The winter holidays flew by like a chapter out of a fairy tale. Snowflakes peppered down from the sky most days, drifting lazily on the winter winds that whipped the faces of the joyful Mobians below. The two boys spent most of the holidays together, including a great big New Year's Eve party which Tikal set up, inviting most kids in their year level to join in the festivities.

January grew long and the novelty of the holiday season began to wear off on everybody other than the students, who dreaded the time when they would have to go back to school, starting their time in their second last year of high school.

Tails lay back in his bed, covered up by the many different coloured sheets which he had thrown over him during the night and early hours of the morning for heat. A bright, Mobian-made light illuminated the room, striking a line of sight through the layer of darkness. Tails groaned, rolling over and reached out to turn off his phone when it buzzed again.

He sat up, swiping his lock screen and putting in his password, blue (which he had created after Sonic made his own password gold) and read the text aloud to himself. Hey Tails, school is starting up next week so we were all thinking of having a sleepover Friday night as an end of winter thing. Hopefully I'll be able to see you there.

'Blaze is the best,' Tails thought, replying a quick 'yes,' his fingers tapping quickly on the phone's glass covering. Tails fell back into bed, his arms crossed behind him as his head rested on his intertwined palms, elbows resting on either side of the pillow. He breathed deeply, a small grin crossing his face as he thought about his friends. Although he had an amazing time with Sonic, he had grown to miss his classmates and was excited to catch up with them all before school started again.

The sun rose and fell, birds tweeted and slept, owls cooed and hunted throughout the days and nights that passed whilst Tails began to get impatient, waiting with baited breath for the sleep over. Finally, Friday rolled around and Tails made sure to get a lot of sleep the night before so he would be able to stay up with the rest of his friends until the early hours of the morning.

Tails dashed to the shower, waiting for the cooling bullets of water to clatter against his fur, seeping into skin to wet him awake. He checked his phone. It was midday. He was supposed to meet Sonic beforehand so they could travel to the gathering together in a couple of hours. Plenty of time to sedate his stomach that had begun its insatiable moaning for sustenance. Tails hastened downstairs and flung open the cupboard, scanning the many rows of shelves for a quick snack that he could shove down his gullet before meeting his friend.

"Tails, where have you been buddy?" Sonic called out, waving his arm ferociously in the air as the small, golden fox rushed over to their normal meeting place, bag slung lazily over his left shoulder.

Tails doubled over, placing the palm of his hands on his knees as he inhaled the oxygen in deeply, trying to regain his breath that had been sucked out of him as he sprinted down the road.

"Sorry Sonic, I kind of lost track of time. You ready to head off?" Tails asked nonchalantly.

"Always. Hold on tight," Sonic grinned, wrapping his arms around the kit's body and hoisting him up into a bridal position. A bloody crimson washed over Tails' ghostly white muzzle creating a highly visible juxtaposition of colour, beaming off of his face. Sonic looked down, smiling to himself as he saw the pleasure on his lovers face as he narrowed his straining eyes which struggled to operate against the gale force winds that were created by his speed and picked up the pace. His speed increased and accelerated as Sonic grew close to the speed of the sound barrier when he pressed his heels into the ground. Sparks flew from his shoes and black skid marks of heat and tar grew visible on the road as he skidded to a stop in front of the large, suburban house which acted as the abode to one violet feline known to the boys as Blaze.

Sonic strolled up to the door, a wide grin still plastered over his face with Tails close behind him and wracked his knuckles on the door.

"Blaze! We're here!" He called out, continuing to knock, picking up speed between each sound until the door swung open and Blaze greeted the two.

"Chaos, Sonic. Don't you ever take a break?" she joked, bringing the two into a brisk hug before inviting the duo into the house, closing the door behind her. "What took you two so long? Everyone else is already here."

"Sorry, I got a little… distracted," Tails admitted, looking down to the floor as he rubbed the back of his neck self-consciously with his hand.

"Sonic!" The pink hedgehog squealed, rushing over and bringing Sonic tight into a warm embrace.

"H…Hey Amy," Sonic sighed, struggling to push the swooning hedgehog off of him as he shuffled over to greet the rest of his friends with Sonic not far behind him.

"Sup bro?" Knuckles asked, slamming his fist against the hedgehog's back playfully, although Sonic couldn't help but let out a slight shudder from the immense pain that he refused to let soak through to his exterior. Sonic hated showing any sort of weakness in front of his red furred friend.

"Nothing much, Knuckle-head. How's Tikal?" Sonic replied with a laugh. The greetings continued as Sonic and Tails grabbed a seat on the couch furthest away from the television.

"Hey, where is Cream?" Tails asked.

"Busy," Silver chimed in, returning to the room with a big bowel of popcorn. "So, what movie are we going to watch first?"

Silver reached into a plastic bag which he had brought over and spilt the contents onto the glass coffee table counter, letting the many cases of DVD's pile onto the floor.

"I'm feeling horror," Shadow remarked in a dull tone, opening his mouth for the first time the whole evening.

"Nice of you to finally join us," Sonic joked.

"Humph."

"Lighten up, Shads."

"Don't you ever call me that again," Shadow yelled, raising his voice and pointing his finger at Sonic, poking him in the chest in the process.

"Calm down, it's just a nickname."

"It's always something or the other with you, Faker. You just do and say what you please because you're so popular. Well I'm sick of it. I'm out of here!" And with that, the ebony hedgehog with the crimson eyes stormed out of the house, slamming the door behind him as he disappeared into the snowy late January night.

"Shads frustrates me so much sometimes," Sonic sighed, collapsing into the deep cushiony couch.

"Maybe you should treat him a little better," Blaze offered advice.

"Don't worry Sonic. He will come around eventually," Tails smiled reassuringly.

"He's just mad because Amy rejected him the other week," Knuckles laughed. Tikal glared daggers at him and elbowed him into the stomach. "Ouch! What? Was I not supposed to tell anybody?"

"Tikal! I told you that in privacy," Amy screamed, losing her temper suddenly.

"Amy, it wasn't her fault. Hey, at least I didn't tell everyone that the only reason you rejected him was because you are still desperately in love with Sonic." Tikal elbowed him again, slightly harder this time and tears, coupled with a burning, fiery rage formed in the pools of Amy's eyes.

"Aaaaaaaaaanyway, what move?" Silver piped up, trying to defuse the situation before it got out of hand.

"This one," Blaze quickly grabbed it and placed it into the machine, quickly pressing the on button on the remote, begging for the flickering images to buzz to life quickly to provide a distraction from the continuing fight.

The group of friends instantly grew quiet. Secretly, none of them wanted to continue this argument but nobody wanted to be the first one to apologize so the beginning of the movie provided a perfect excuse for silence to fill the air, soaking up the ensuing awkwardness that follows a fight between friends.

The mossy monster let out a low, rumbling growl that emanated from the deep pit of his stomach, emerging out of his throat and pierced the silent night, causing children to toss and turn in their sleeps, crying out from nightmares. He turned, after disemboweling his final prey and slithered back under the dingy depths of the swamp.

The words the end? Flashed on the screen before a final growl shot out of the speakers, causing the group of friends to all shriek and jump in unison. A chorus of laughter erupted as Blaze flicked on the lights and a familiar brightness returned to the room, illuminating even the darkest corners of her house.

"Well…" Sonic finally said after a moment of silence. "That was bloody scary! I loved it!"

"Ditto," Knuckles added.

"So what do we do now?" Silver asked.

"I know exactly what it is time for," Amy grinned cheekily. "Truth or dare!" Tails gulped, sighing under his breath. If he knew his friend, and he did, this was all just a rouse to get a kiss from Sonic.

"Great idea. I'll go first. Sonic, truth or dare?" Blaze began.

The game continued. Laughs were shared. People were embarrassed and secrets were spilt but the group all held to their promise that whatever was said would not be repeated ever again. It wasn't until the third time around when things started to get out of hand for a certain golden fox.

"Truth or dare?" Tikal asked.

"Truth," Tails replied, deciding to not go for the dare for the first time.

"Which girl do you love? It's Cream, isn't it?"

"U…uh," Tails mumbled, flustered by the comment. He chanced a quick glance at Sonic who shook his head slightly, raising his eyebrow to Tails. "I…I don't like anybody," he tried to lie but the blush that was evident on his face showed otherwise.

"I knew it! Who is it?" Blaze chimed in.

"N…Nobody."

"Come on. Just tell us," Amy added.

"There is somebody," Tikal said.

"Stop lying!" Knuckles yelled.

"I'm not!" Tails couldn't take it anymore, trying his hardest to stop the tears. He clenched his fist, bit down in his bottom lip and stormed up into his room which Blaze had set aside for him and Sonic that night, slamming the door behind him.

"That wasn't cool," Sonic bellowed, gritting his teeth in anger whilst scalding his friends.

"He needs to take a joke," Knuckles said defensively.

"That's not the same Knucks. He says he doesn't like anybody at the moment and I believe him. Don't give him such a hard time because all of you guys have a good relationship. He probably just feels lonely and none of you are helping." Sonic finished, breathing deeply and trying to contain his temper. "I'm going to check on him."

Sonic rushed over to the stairs, grabbing the banister with his gloved hand and began to slowly climb to the top of the stairs, knocking gently on the door at the end of the long, winding hallway.

"W…What?" a sniveling voice inside asked. Sonic pushed open the door gently and slipped inside the cold room, closing the door behind him. He shuffled over to the bed, sitting next to the balled up body, hiding underneath the covers.

"C'mon buddy. Don't be like this," Sonic sighed, wrapping his hand around Tails body, shifting him over until he was looking into the sapphire blurs eyes. Emerald met Lapis Lazuli and Sonic leant his forehead down, resting it on Tails' as their noses touched each other.

"But it just reminded me of the truth," Tails cried out quietly. "I am going to be asked this question over and over and over again but I will never have an answer. Eventually, if we want to survive, we will each need to get girlfriends, get married, and have chil…" Tails couldn't finish as the lump in his throat grew too big and the sobs cut off the remaining syllable.

"I know," Sonic replied softly. "I know. It's unfair but what can we do?"

"I don't want to have to have a fake family. I don't want you to have one either. You being with somebody else. I just can't even begin to imagine… I can't… I…" Tails trailed off again, violent shakes of sadness wracked his body. Sonic held tightly, hardening his grasp around the young fox's body to cease the trembling and to show assistance.

"Look at me, Tails. No matter what happens. I will always be here for you. Together forever?"

"Together forever." Sonic smiled, tilting his head slightly as his subtle lips met Tails. The two sat there, together in each other's embrace, enjoying the familiar taste of the other's saliva. Neither cared what will happen in the future, because they were both content at that present moment. Nothing could ruin their happiness. Well… almost nothing.

…

"Guys I think we took that a little too far," Blaze sighed, thinking back to the outbreak just moments before.

"I hope he is alright," Silver added.

"Should we check on him?" Tikal mentioned.

"You guys stay here. Silver, put on another movie and I will get the other two to come down. We should all just act like nothing happened and hopefully put this mess behind us." Blaze climbed up the stairs and made her way to the end of the hallway to the door where to two boys were staying.

'Hmm, that's odd,' she thought, noticing the door open slightly ajar and hearing a strange conversation happen on the inside. Blaze knew that it was private and she shouldn't listen in but she couldn't help herself.

"Together forever," Tails said. Confused, Blaze peered through the crack in the door and had to quickly cover her mouth to stop any escaping noise from her gasp be heard. She quickly backed away, down the corridor slightly before the realization set in.

'Did I just see them… kissing?' her mind questioned. That's when it hit her. 'Oh My Chaos! They Are Gay!'

A/N: Your eyes didn't deceive you. Blaze discovered the truth. But what will happen to our star crossed heroes now that their secret is out? Can we trust Blaze or will she tell everyone? Only one way to find out! Stay tuned. Don't forget to Fav, Follow and Review if you liked it. It means a lot.