The Regular
Chapter 1
The sun beamed down against the flowing waves, causing a glimmer to shine through the clear surface. However, the peaceful atmosphere didn't last long once a quick movement cut a portion of the water, spewing the water up into the air.
A flying fox was blasting through at high speeds, with sharp wind blowing heavily against his orange fur, pushing his bangs into his eyesight as he navigated the open horizon. His twin tails mimicked a plane's engine, twirling around each other rapidly behind him. Boosting his weight forward, they kept him levitated away from the water below so he wouldn't crash and become submerged in the deep blue sea.
Huffing, Miles pushed his flowing hair out of his eyesight and squinted, spotting land coming into full view.
'Central City.'
Tilting his body upwards, Miles took off into the sky before heading straight again, now hovering over the city below him. Scanning the area from his high vantage point, to him, Miles felt like he was on top of the world. That everything was massive yet small at the same time from the height he achieved amidst the sky.
"Cream told me she'd be at GreenCreek. Now where's that.."
Miles mumbled to himself, deciding to get a closer look he nose dived, heading straight towards the city. The fox traversed through multiple buildings, dodging street lights and power lines in his way, finally skidding his heels against the concrete floor which caused a small spark from the friction. He landed successfully, his body unharmed and intact.
Catching his breath, he quickly adjusted his blue t-shirt and his bangs before walking along the crosswalk, taking sharp glances around the area for any street sign while avoiding pedestrians in his way. The city had non-stop bustling traffic, busy streets filled with Mobians, Humans and shops galore. Miles didn't necessarily mind the shops, the lack of space is what bugged him. As he walked he was stiff, squeezing himself against his body to avoid any sort of unnecessary contact while his twin tails coiled into one.
After a while of walking down a multitude of streets, he took notice of a four way sign. Reading it, he saw that the left was his destination. Sighing in relief, he picked up the pace and headed that direction, this time rushing past the individuals blocking his path.
Paying no mind, the fox walked past a construction site. A tall statue was being made in the middle of a ring road, overcasting its looming shadow over the vehicles and individuals walking around it. A statue honoring their local hero, Sonic, was being established.
Ignoring the murmuring about its psyche, Miles eventually found himself in front of what's called GreenCreek Plazà. Staring up at the rusted metal sign, he averted his gaze from it and walked his way underneath, following a graveled trail through the park.
For the animals, the city was required to use a couple of large vacant lots to give the wildlife a proper home. As a result, grass, flowers and small rolling hills covered the plot along with palm trees filled with luscious fruit, flowing rivers and miniature waterfalls. A dome surrounded everything, hiding away the city atmosphere and keeping the forestry aspect into effect for further amursion.
As Miles strolled through, he spotted Chao grouped together messing about while others kept separate, enjoying their alone time. Flickies took flight to the sky, taking in their limited freedom.
Stopping in place abruptly, the fox spotted his friends, Charmy and Cream, they were sitting together underneath a tree with a picnic explay already set up. Slowly approaching them, he then stood a couple feet away. His ears twitched in response before angling forward, listening intently and remaining quiet.
Sitting slightly hunched over with his leg propped, the bee reached a hand up, fidgeting and twirling his antenna that hung out of his aviator hat. Charmy took his attention over to Cream who was rather silent watching the Chao that surrounded them. As they preoccupied her, she softly smiled towards them in response. Grunting, the bee suddenly fell backwards, hitting the ground with his arms spread out on both sides, groaning aloud.
"So.. are we gonna just sit here and babysit or are we gonna chat it up like you wanted to, as in, the point of us even being here-."
He spoke up, earning a sharp glare from Cream before sighing at his comment.
"I mean, it's no rush, but I'm not one for hanging around babies."
Rolling her eyes, she took her attention back towards Charmy. Cocking a brow, she folded her arms and spoke up as she leaned her body towards him.
"Gee, Charmy, it certainly seems like I'm babysitting you instead. Considering the fact all you've done since we got here is whine." She grinned before pulling away and relaxing her arms.
"You do realize, we can talk and care for Chao at the same time? You don't have to be stiff as a statue."
Letting out a huff, he mumbled under his breath. "Fair.." placing his palms onto the ground, Charmy pushed himself upwards. Sitting himself back up, he readjusted his posture before reaching an arm back behind him. Digging into his clothed backside. Catching something in the corner of his eye, he looked down. Taking notice of a Chao beside him. Exchanging awkward glances, Charmy looked back to Cream. Nervously speaking up.
"Can you, uh. I don't know, make this Chao go away. they give me the creeps-"
"Hm.."
Tapping a finger to her chin, Cream watched as Charmy scooted back only for the Chao to come closer to him.
"Maybe I will, maybe I won't. They're not bothering anybody."
She declared, while the Chao now clung to the bee's leg, making her amused.
"Besides, you still haven't informed me about the urgent thing you kept telling me over the phone-."
Shaking his leg repeatedly, He gritted his teeth, unable to shake the Chao off.
"Alright, well-my parents are coming over to my crib and uh.. the place is a dump. Like- I mean it when I say a dump.."
Shaking his leg even more, he took notice of a group of Chao starting to approach him from a distance. Standing up, he kept shaking his leg, attempting to knock it off to no avail.
"I honestly didn't think I'd need to do anything with it, but-- here I am. I don't want them to walk in all happy to see me just to find out their son is living like a junkie. They'd kill me. But, y'know. I just gotta do it." He shrugged.
"Oh- well, if you need any help I'm only a call away." She offered, placing her elbow up onto her thigh she pressed her cheek into it. The rabbit was honestly wondering where their two-tailed friend was.
"Plus, I'm sure your parents will understand the situation you're in. They love you, after all."
"Yeah, that's true. God damnit, get offa me-" He hissed, now having a whole bunch of Chao trying to climb on him, the only thing they could respond with is their nonsense of gibberish.
"Uh- anyways. Enough about me, how's that job of yours holdin' up?"
"Hm? Oh- it's going well. I'm pretty comfortable with it since I'm working alongside Amy. I don't have to worry about anything aside from customers." Cream responded.
"And.. Vanilla? How's she doing?"
The rabbit's ears lowered a bit at the mention of her mother. It's a good thing she wasn't looking at Charmy, or he'd see the immediate change of her expression easily.
"She's fine.. Doing a lot better than before, but she still stays at home a lot. She doesn't want to bother anybody."
She furrowed her brow for a moment before switching it up, turning to face Charmy with a smile.
"I've never seen her this happy in a long while though. It's nice to know that she'll be back on her feet in no time."
To lie between her teeth was like being struck in the stomach with a dull knife, but what could she do? Cream didn't want to believe that her mother wasn't actually getting any better. To live a false hope is better than living in a reality she doesn't want to consider real.
"Uh- anyways.. have you heard anything from Tails? He still hasn't shown up yet."
His ears perked up immediately at the sound of his name, the fox was so busy eavesdropping in the conversation he forgot to join them all together. Crouching down, Miles slowly snuck his way over to them. A couple inches away, the fox raised his voice and spoke up.
"Hey!-"
"EEP-"
Immediately, Cream's body jolted up. She turned swiftly towards him, with her hand out, she smacked Tails right across the cheek. Before she could realize who her unexpected target was, she instinctively clasped her hands over her mouth and let out a regretful gasp while Charmy bursted out laughing.
"Oh my chaos- Tails- I'm so sorry! Y-You can't just sneak up on people like that!"
From the contact on his body, Miles tensed and stayed still while his fur spiked up, feeling a light sting on his face from the impact. Clearing his throat, he gradually sat himself down. Staying quiet for a moment before finally speaking up in a sheepish tone.
"Hah..heh, my bad, my bad." He apologized with an awkward smile, reaching his arm over. He took his palm against the other, pushing down the fur on his arm back into place. "I didn't mean to scare you there."
"Dude- where have you been? I know I show up late sometimes but you took forever to get here. You totally deserved that slap, even if it was an accident."
Charmy blurted out, he was now already laying across the ground again. He eventually gave up on trying to remove the Chao. At this point, a bunch of them were climbing up on his chest and stomach. Once getting on top they laid themselves down, satisfied with the outcome.
"Oh, well I was just standing over there." The fox pointed over behind them to a patch of grass before continuing. "I noticed you two were talking and I figured it'd be rude of me to interrupt, so, I allowed you two to carry on." He shrugged. Turning his attention to the piled up Chao, he grinned at the sight.
"You wouldn't have interrupted, Tails. We could've all talked about what Charmy and I had discussed. It wouldn't have been a problem."
Cream explained to the two tailed fox, gently smiling at him.
"But apart from that, how've you been lately?"
Turning his attention back to Cream, he bit on his lower lip for a moment, tugging on it as he silently thought to himself before replying to her. "Um, same old same old.. I did some repairs to the biplanes control panel, along with exchanging out the chassis."
Tapping against his thigh, he continued on.
"Other than that, I've spent time with 'Cosmo'.."
Finally finishing his sentence, he focused on the Chao again. This time, placing his arm down and stretching out his index, he tapped the grass repeatedly, making an attempt to get the creature's attention.
"I see.. Well, I'm glad to see that you're doing alright. You too, Charmy."
All Charmy did was give them a thumbs up while Chao fell asleep on top of him, ignoring Miles' attempt for an interaction. Causing him to pout momentarily.
"Is there anything you'd like to talk about since you're here now?"
"Not really, nothing much happened lately for me to talk about." Miles confessed, to keep himself occupied the fox plucked the grass and tossed it to the side, causing chunks to pile up onto each other as he kept on.
Charmy later spoke up, while watching the two. "Hey, what about Sonic? I thought you two hung out and stuff." He questioned.
Turning his head, Miles stared at him. Swallowing down his spit, he brought his hand up off the ground, rubbing his palm against the back of his neck.
"Oh? Him? No, but yes! We, I mean we did but not lately." He stuttered out, sounding like a scrambled up mess.
"Y'know how he is, can't keep himself still one bit, not to mention he's famous. He's always occupied with that on a daily basis." Miles immediately excused it, relaxing his tone of voice after the sudden mention of his brother.
Cream looked towards Charmy who stared back at her before the two looked over at Tails again. Her expression lingered with worry.
"Right-.. well, I'm sure you'll be able to speak to him soon. Even celebrities have to make time to see family, right?"
"Yeah, maybe. Things just haven't been the same. I know I've heard some mentions of him partying, however that could just be a famous get together ordeal."
"He's also off saving the world from ultimate disasters. I haven't been able to go along with him anymore, or get an invite to anything. But, I figure that's because he has the money to get everything he needs." He frowned, now busy fidgeting with his shirt. "But, overall, I'm glad he's happy; he has many people who adore him."
"Sounds like he's ghosting you, dude. All those people and he can't even talk to his brother. Psh- if I were in your place I'd walk right up to him and force him to invite me."
Charmy looked towards Tails with slightly furrowed brows.
"I bet you'd make the party more lit than anything. Imagine that everything's lame till you show, and then everybody will be cheering and wanting to hang out with you instead and Sonic, he'll be hella jealous, heheh."
"The cool thing about Tails is he wouldn't get kicked out of a party unlike you, Charmy." Cream said as she raised a brow at him.
The bee looked sarcastically offended. He placed a hand to his chest and gasped loudly at the mention of her remark.
"Ugh! How dare you! At least I'd be doing something of interest other than standing around with my pinkie out with a cup of tea as if I was the queen of England." The bee mocked.
Rolling his eyes at their bantering. The fox allowed an exhale to slip past his lips.
"I can't just force somebody guys, plus I haven't properly asked anyways face to face, which is mainly my problem. All I've done is shoot a text message, knock on his door and try and slip through a crowd to get to him." Miles explained, not wanting their comments to escalate.
"Ghoooooossstttiiiinnnngggggg." Charmy immediately interjected.
Following his response, Cream spoke up. "Tails, don't you agree it's a little odd that he won't respond to you but, as Charmy supposedly said, has the time to speak to others? And I'm sure he knows you're trying to get in contact with him.."
She questioned him, tilting her head to the side awaiting a response.
Gritting his teeth, Miles shook his head and exchanged his attention back to the Chao.
"There's a good possibility my messages could be blasted away by countless others, I can't say for certain, but I wouldn't want to just assume that off the bat. It's wrong of me, after all, we're family. Why should I think bad of him?" He huffed, becoming annoyed by the constant inquiry. Miles reached his arm outwards towards Charmy, slipping his hand over a Chao's head, rubbing into it gently while they rustled in their slumber.
"While that may be true, it's alright to get upset at your family members, Tails.. if you feel they're upsetting you then you have a right to say something about it." Cream backed herself up slightly away from him, giving him space after taking notice of his agitated tone of voice that further rose.
"Yeah, I get that, it's just..I don't wanna stir any conflict up." Miles replied.
"Technically, if he's supposedly doing it on purpose, which is what it sounds like, he's asking for it." The bee mumbled under his breath, but loud enough for the two to overhear.
"Alright, alright! Let's just drop the topic. I'll try talking to him again sometime later. Okay?" He raised his tone abruptly, shutting the conversation down immediately.
Cream and Charmy exchanged looks once more at his demeanor.
"Alright.." The rabbit was a bit concerned for Tails, he seemed rather tense about the topic. Taking her attention over to the pile of Chaos accompanying Charmy, she picked one off of him and held them out to Tails.
"Well, would you like to feed the Chao to take your mind off of it? It's a helpful distraction-"
Taking the Chao into his grasp, Miles held the small being close to his chest. Cream opened up the picnic basket, pulling out a bag of sliced up mangos. Taking out a piece she dropped it into their hand. Holding it firmly, he pressed it against the Chaos mouth, waiting for them to eat it. However, they just slumped in his arms and fell back asleep.
"I guess you're not interested." He commented before chucking the piece in his mouth, chewing it down.
"Soo.., got any plans for the weekend?"
"Uhhh.. yeah-. Got a lot of cleaning to do." Charmy mentioned once more. However, he figured he might end up procrastinating over it.
Cream thought to herself for a moment, collecting her thoughts before replying to him with a soft smile, "I have to work the rest of the week, but I can always try to make time for things if I'm not too worn down. Plus, you sound like you have something in mind you want to do, Tails."
"I was kinda thinking we could go fishing with Big. Since he's been by himself a lot."
The fox offered while rocking his arms side to side to keep himself busy in a way as he held the Chao.
"Fishing sounds fun, and I'd love to see Big again."
She watched Tails, a bit surprised by his affection towards the Chao.
"You must visit him often, Tails. That's very sweet of you." She commented on his kind gesture that catered to Big.
"It'll be fun until girlie over here finds out the bait is only worms and she has to touch 'em with her bare hands, maybe even getting a piece of it stuck in her preppy nails she spent a thousand rings on." Charmy snickered to himself at his comment, teasing her once again.
Cream grumbled under her breath, this time deciding not to feed into his amusement with a nasty comment and rather ignore him. "I can handle a few worms. But, maybe you should go with us, Charmy, we'd love the extra company."
"Me? Fishing? Nah, that's a major pass for me." The bee retorted.
Miles looked towards Cream, "I guess it's just me and you then. Is Saturday fine? I'll try and find Big so I can let him know about it. I'm sure he's up for it any time." The fox suggested as he placed the Chao back down onto the soft grass, leaving it be.
"Mm.. I think so, I'll have to recheck my schedule to see. Give me a second."
Cream pulled out her phone from her back pocket and began scrolling through it. Squinting at her phone, she smiled and put it away right after. "Yep! Saturday works." She exclaimed excitedly
Smiling, Miles nodded his head. "Alright, I'll see you then."
After a long while, the three of them found themselves walking together through the Plazà, taking notice of the scenery and to the animal inhabitants. As the time swept by, Cream took out her phone, looking at the corner. Her eyes widened at the time. Frowning in response, she stopped in place causing the other two to halt and look over towards her.
"Guys, it's getting pretty late and it's already past five. I don't wanna worry my mother by any chance, so I think I'm going to leave now." She quickly explained. "It was so much fun hanging out again, and I'll see you later, well- mainly Tails, unless you change your mind, Charmy." She glanced towards the bee after her last remark.
"It's possible, but it's unlikely to happen." He mumbled, having his arms behind his head looking off to who knows where. "I should probably head back home too. Better get a head-start on that cleaning than have to worry about it later."
"Alright, uh, I guess I'll head back home since everyone else is. I hope your mother was well today. And as for Charmy, if you need any help just call." Miles gave the two a kind smile, waving his hand at them as the three of them departed for the evening.
After they all went home, Miles finally found himself back at the Mystic ruins, entering inside his workshop. He made his way upstairs and climbed up a ladder to his bedroom on the second floor.
Spotting Cosmo on a table at the window, a heat lamp casting over, he smiled softly at the sight. Approaching the stationary potted plant, he sat himself down on a rolly chair next to the desk.
"You're looking as beautiful as ever today.." Miles softly spoke as he reached a hand out, fiddling with her red petals. As he stared, his gaze appeared lonesome.
"I wish they did, but they didn't ask about you again. I, uh, told them about you though. Cream also said she might come fishing, it'll definitely be a change of pace around here." he mentioned in a hopeful tone.
"Maybe I can take you along, but it depends on the location. Definitely not if we go to the ice cap. I don't want you ill or anything. That'd be very stupid of me and quite insensitive." Pulling his hands away, he took a glance at a photo of him and Sonic in their younger years that was placed at the edge of his desk.
"I might leave again next week, Charmy and Cream acted like I should go chat with Sonic again. Or attempt to, I don't know if I'll catch him in time or anything but it's worth another shot." He pondered briefly to himself, already feeling tense over the possible interaction.
"So yeah, it's um, getting late and you need your rest, I do too. I'll wake up early tomorrow to get you some water, so don't worry about that. Good night, Cosmo. I love you." Pushing himself off the chair, he flipped a light switch on the wall, turning it off, yet keeping on her lamp light instead. crawling onto his bed, he pulled the covers up over him, relaxing himself against the sheets with his cheek propped up against a pillow. Preparing to sleep for the night.