Queen's notes: Sooooo... I've done a thing. Doing more things related to this thing now. The ring is real by the way, not the same history but its based on my right that grandma gave me when I was young.

...I'm back

Chapter Twenty:

Five, Six, Don't Mix Your Drinks

Later, Sonic would admit that he hadn't fully paid attention to where they had gone, or rather how they had gotten to the hotel and club that Jessy had almost bee-lined too. Making a stop to get them some meat rolls and two chilly blows from a food stand she seemed to know and was happy to see the vender. They weren't the only ones there, Sonic remembered seeing many others at that food stand, from humans to anthros, even a grey colored wolf with blue eyes (the colored marks on his eyes reminded the hedgehog of eye shadow).

There had been more than a few distractions, not just the city-zone itself but the people. For the first time, Sonic really did feel like he fit in, with the mix of people of skin, fur and even feathers. He even spotted a few different banners of nomad clans in a semi distant market, but none from his adoptive clan. Some looked like a desert based clan, the flags vaguely something Sonic remembered seeing the kids of the family learning from the older grandpas, then the flags and the caravan went into one of the underground tunnels to another glowing level of the zone.

Jessy walked the motorcycle down into a under street parking garage, not minding that both Sonic and Tails were sitting on it. The vehicle was in a low power mode as well as neutral so she could maneuver it without putting too much effort into it. Sonic was holding onto Tails with one arm, the chilly had been condensed into one bowl and the paper bowls stacked, though the blue anthro was twisting around to watch a hover craft coming lower to street level. His eyes widening a bit as the craft waited to land then deliver its contents to the café across the street from them.

As the woman was talking to the guard- who seemed to remember her and was happy to chat for a minute, Sonic was only listening with one ear tilted back at them. He knew of hover craft, seen a few in Seattle but... not this close up, and there were even move up above in the towers and maze of lights.

"Thanks Rocky," Jessy said, jarring Sonic back into the present as he turned, lifting his legs so his feet wouldn't drag. The canine anthro looked sonic up and down as he passed, the hedgehog blinked, and flashed a brillent smile before waving like a dork, getting Tails to giggle and wave too in response. The security guard chuckled then, smiling instead of that moment of a frown.

He waved the three on again, "Go ahead in, Jessy you're always welcome to the VIP parking. I'll like the boss lady know you're on your way up to the club. And have guests."

"Tell her I have a little brother now too, so there's no shenanigans going on with the gems." Jessy rolled her eyes as she walked, "Sonic finish that bowl off, its not much left and your metabolism..."

"Heh," Sonic deftly finish the nearly cold chilly, "I can see why you got it, its good."

"we were lucky it hadn't run out yet." Jessy said, digging into one of the saddle bags, trying to find something in the bottom while steering with only one hand on the handle bars how. It was an awkward stretch but she stood back up, holding a small purple cloth bag.

"What is that Jessy?" Tails asked, puzzled, and held out his hands as Jessy passed it to him.

"It was a present from me friend here," Jessy explained, smiling as Tails held the 'present' close to his white furred chest, "I want to wear it so she can see them. Don't drop it."

"I won't!" Tails promised as he looked back, Sonic was getting off to go jog over and deposit the non edible leftovers from their half lunch snack into a trash can in the parking garage. "What is this place Jessy?" the kit asked as Sonic came back, finally helping with pushing the motorcycle down a ramp and to where a purple sign Tails couldn't read for the fancy curves and lines of the letters. He scrunched up his face, one large ear kiltering back and the other up right, trying to make out the word.

"This place is a hotel and club, its owned by my friend," Jessy said, explaining again but not minding, it had to be a confusing and ADD-inducing day for the kit after going through the Warp Ring. "Her name is Rouge, she's a bat anthro," the woman explained, heading to the marked VIP parking and admirably taking some satisfaction at being able to park her motorcycle almost sideways in a spot big enough for a sports. She waved to a black mirror directly before the partaking spot and pointing at her bike, knowing one of the boys from her last visit was in there to keep and extra eye on these parking spots. If she remembered right, who was likely in there, she could trust her shared possessions were safe until she got a room and

"Bat?" Tails echoed, puzzled as he handed Jessy's present back to her when she held her hand out, "How tall is- ooooh, that so pretty!" Tails was distracted as he saw the silver chain and the small stones that glittered in the purple lights of the sign and a soft white of the parking garage. The kits leaned over, hands on the seat, captivated at seeing real jewelry for the first time- it had to be jewelry right?

"Whoa Jes' talk about bling," Sonic said, leaning over Tails for a better look, his ears were picked up as well, then gave a little shiver like spazzemd, like they were trying to go even more alert, as he recognized the pattern in the tiny stones around the larger blue one. "Hey that's...that's the clan's..."

"Rainwalkers." Jessy smiled fondly down, brushing her thumb over the piece she held, the sapphire she was pretty sure was real, was the center piece and as big as her little finger's nail. With the other small emeralds and turquoise set in silver, the center framed but not backed, and as she turned the pendent over, the two boys saw another pattern set on the back side with the tinier stones in grey-white, yellow and one little red ruby. "And the Storm Runners. Rouge had it made for me and just left it on the counter last time she stayed with me. I got it out of the safe before…before we left." Jessy glanced up at Sonic, who nodded, not wanting to bring up that scare, not with Tails there cooing.

"That's…amazing." Sonic decided, "She just gave it to you?" he asked, one ear tilting to the side. He wasn't the best at estimating costs, but he remembered looking into a jewelry story with Jessy in a mall on the way to the chocoleteer shop and there had been a lot of numbers attached to the tiny little stones. Sonic eyed the center sapphire again.

"Its really pretty Jessy! And that's part of your clan flag?" Tails put in, a little puzzled, but seeing the link of pattern a little.

"It's a lot more stylized," Jessy chuckled, unzipping her riding jacket. She ducked her head to put the chain over, the Rainwalker emblem showing outward. The woman dug into the small pouch to put on a slender ring on her her right hand, the sapphire in it a non catching setting. A matching pair of ear ring studs were put in, and the kit was baffled.

"What are, doesn't that hurt Jessy?" Tails asked, worried.

"Hm?" Sonic blinked, looking down at the boy and back to Jessy, he grinned, "Their just earrings Tails."

"My ears are pierced," Jessy explained to the kit, crouching down on her heals to show Tails, "They already have a hole in them, see? It doesn't hurt. Sonic could have a stud or ring too." She added grinning.

Tails whipped around and looked up at the blue and brown anthro that had been a brother figure to him, "What?" he asked, so incredulous that the hedgehog found himself bursting out laughing.

"Yeah! I forgot about that!" Sonic reached up to his left ear, turning his head and smoothing his spines so they wouldn't rattle, he poked the end of an unfiled down claw though the whole in his ear, wiggling it. Where it had come from, he had no idea, and had found it one night after a shower and been drying off, but one of his claws had caught it. The spot had been well hidden by the fuzz on his ears until then, "Maybe I should get something, or barrow one of yours Jessy."

Grinning at Tails' expression as she stood, Jessy thoughtfully rubbed her chin after slipping the last piece of jewelry on, a bracelet on her left wrist with the Storm Runners clan colors, the cloth bag tucked down into an inside pocket of her jacket. "Hmmm… I don't have anything that's big enough, and Rouge I know would have a fit if she found any of my fake jewelry on you or me."

"Maybe a ring?" Sonic asked innocently, picking Tails off the motorcycle and letting back down on the ground, not minding that the kit grabbed at his hand as they walked to the elevator doors. "The hole is too big for studs, but nothing heavy, I don't floppy ears."

"That might work, but you'd have to work for the money to get it." Jessy grinned as Sonic gave a dramatic groan of horror at the thought of working. Laughing, Jessy hit the call button and when they entered to go to the club level she looked down as the golden furred fox kit tugged her hand. "what is it Tails?"

"...Can...can I have jewelry too?" Tails asked, staring at the glitter of blue, gold, yellow and red on Jessy's wrist at his eye level. "Not right now but...some time?"

Jessy blinked, and looked up at Sonic, who was tilting his head, "Like earrings or necklaces? Or my bracelet?"

"Yeah, like that," Tails nodded, glanced up between them, hesitating, "Is...is jewelry just for girls?" he asked worried, remembering some talk over heard at one of the fast food places they went to.

"Chaos no," Sonic said all at once, grinning, "Why would it be? Its for males and females, boys and girls. Though sometimes it looks nicer on girls." He added, and shrugged, "It depends on the syle that its made Tails."

"Here, tell you what," Jessy freed her hand and dug into one of the right pocket of her jacket, then to the inside jacket. All the way to the botten and to the small hole where some of the stitches came out, just enough that a simple but tough chain to slide through, but not the small ring that was attached to it. Moving aside the notepad and a few other things, Jessy fished it out.

Tails' blue eyes widen as Jessy knelt down beside him, with a very serious expression, and the kit realized that the woman had something very important.

"Can you promis me not to loose this, and be very, very careful with this?" Jessy asked holding something in her hands, ignoring Sonic's grin over Tails' head.

The kit let go of the hedgehog's hand and stood up taller, nodding very serious himself, though his two tails were waving so fast he might as well be wagging them, "I do! I promise! I'll be really careful with…what is it Jessy?" He leaned forward as the woman opened her hand to show the kit a ring too small for her to wear any more, the silver ring looked faded in comparison to the jewelry Jessy wore right now, giving it an old feeling to it. There was a stone in the center, held on by rounded silver points, the stone wasn't think, flat it seemed and oval shaped, about the same size as on of Tail's finger tips without his claws. It was polished black-silver, and reflected a tiny image of the kit after Jessy rubbed off a finger print.

"This stone is called hematite," Jessy said letting the kit tough the ring, "This ring is really important to me, it belonged to my great grandmother," Jessy could feel the start of tears prick at the edges of her eyes as she remembered the elder of her clan from her youth, the woman that brought the two clans together in her own youth. "She was the Matrarch of my family, who first brought the Rainwalkers and Storm Runners together as a new clan. That's very important to my family history, and this ring is over two hundred years old, there's a lot of history in it."

Jessy reached out, careful of the large tan ear as they folded back as she put the chain over Tails' head with a smile that was fond, loving and sad all at once. The kit didn't notice as Sonic inhaled as the older Anthro realized the real implications of what was happening, his own emerald eyes softening at the scene of the little kit being adopted into her- his- their family.

"Two hundred..." Tails breathed in awe, looking down at the ring that was on his small chest, almost highlighted by his white fluff. He held it in his hands then gripped it as if to keep the ring extra safe, responding to the honesty and feelings in Jessy's voice and poster. The kit hugged the woman as hard as he could, "Jessy- I'll take good, really good care of it! I won't every loose it until you want it back! I promise, I promise, I promise!"

The woman grinned as she hugged Tails back, "You can ware it for now Tails, I trust you." She stood after a moment, holding Tails' free hand and looked up at Sonic, who was holding the elevator door open. "Come one then, let's go meet Rouge and get a room for tonight."

Thankfully no one had been waiting for the elevator or the hall beyond- not that Sonic would have given a flying flip as Tails for the first time looked so proud and full of more life then since they found the boy. The hedgehog anthro made a promise to himself then as he fallowed the other two, his spines rising a moment of the swept back clumps in a protected display. As long as Tails was with them, until they got the kit safely home and with his real family: nothing was going to make Tails unhappy again, nothing was going to hurt his little brother.

Sonic scanned around, giving himself a light shake that rattled his quills, but grinned wide as Jessy glanced back to show he was fine. The hedgehog glanced around, noting they were one level above street level, with some shops below them, and on their level. Jessy was making a bee-line to arched doorway with a long line of people waiting to get into the dimmed, but not dark club. The woman walked right up to the doors, her head held high and her stride was that of a proud nomad, unafraid of the buff and big canine if not wolf anthros guarding the entrance. With the warning ahead of time and also knowing the most of the guards from the past, Jessy grinned as the German Sheppard like anthro in the very front smiled at her.

"Hey Franklend!" She greeted on her way up.

"Long time no see Rider." Franklend returned, glancing down at the two tailed fox and the spiny anthro that was with the mechanic. "Didn't think you would ever come back here, its been so long."

"That's what happens when you're on your wander years." Jessy said with an innocent look, and got a wide grin showing canine fangs and the almost cropped ears coming up, "Hope you'll stay awhile then. Go ahead in, the gems aren't doing anything." He glanced at the awed fox kit, having a feeling the boy hasn't seen many his 'cousin types' of anthros yet.

"Cool," Jessy walked right in, that satisfied feeling coming back as she avoided a line. Sonic wasn't even trying to hide it himself.

"Hey! How come she gets to go in!" someone in the line protested that didn't hear the exchange.

Jessy looked back, smirking a little at the young human and avian males that were getting upset, "It's called good history."

"Jessy?" A voice asked from in the entrance passage to the clue, a deep male tone that had her turning, and almost balking at the towering man.

"Vector?"