A little Christmas present for my fans, if a little late, but I had to finish my Christmas episode Yakuza 0 review for my Youtube channel (while I'm plugging, updated Sonic 2 movie review!), leaving little time to whip this up. So this is somewhat of a rough draft, but you know me; I'll go back and tweak it later like ten times. Half a year from now this chapter might be totally different. UPDATE: First revision 3 days later! I added at least 2 more paragraphs! I got a couple other possible additions in consideration. See what I mean?

Before we begin, this story is a direct follow-up to my story Angels. If you haven't read it, then just stop right here and go do that instead because it's mandatory reading. I will be making plenty of references to stuff from it. If you haven't read it, a lot of stuff here is not going to hold any significance, and you'll totally spoil the other story reading this first as well, making it a doubly bad idea. In fact, it was originally all meant to be one single drabble series before I realized I had enough material for a proper story.

I'll just take this moment to state that this is also going to be PG-13, but pushing the envelope to be a little more risqué, largely due to considerably more adult humor. So kids, if you don't understand something, you probably shouldn't ask your parents. And parents, if your kids don't understand something... well they're your kids, so you decide.

Also: I don't know how serious canon is, but I'm spelling GUN with no periods. They're annoying, look stupid, and I don't think we really even do that anyway. Who puts periods in FBI, CIA, DHS, or NSA?


"I'm back," Rouge announced to anyone who may have been listening while admiring herself in the mirror. She was clean, fully made up to return her face to its usual glory, and even was back in one of her own outfits after being forced to wear the basic and obnoxiously colored garments GUN had previously given her to wear for so long. I must have done SOMETHING good...

"It's about time," Agent Topaz complained from elsewhere in the locker room. "Took you long enough. Are you absolutely sure you're ready?"

"Hey, a girl's always gotta look her best. Or should TRY to, at least."

The crack went unanswered. "Whatever. You're only burning your own time today." The bat was tempted to ask why today was different than usual but figured the answer would soon be provided. The female agent had ultimately been her 'handler' as an asset of GUN, as Captain Westwood liked to call it. All in all, she liked Topaz considerably more than Westwood. But I liked Tails way more than either of them... She followed the agent through the halls of the GUN base and up the staircase all the way to end at a door. The agent stopped and turned around, holding something out in offering. "Here, this is for you... It's a watch. You know what those are?"

She snagged it with an annoyed expression and put it on while answering, "Yeah, we've got them back home too. They look different though."

"Well, these are easy enough to read: it's got nice, simple numbers that-"

"I know how to count too."

"So you CAN be taught after all."

"Oh, ha-ha-ha."

Topaz opened the door and they went through it to... the outside? Looking around, they were now on the roof of the building. She'd never been brought up here before. Why were they here now? Nobody else was present, unless they were hiding somewhere. "I think you'll like your next mission. It's real simple: be back here before that thing says 2400."

Rouge just blinked in confusion. "What? Did I miss the entire part where you explained what I'm actually doing?"

"Nope, that's up to you. The rest of this day is yours to do with as you please, but you have to come back on time."

She cocked her head warily. "I like it, but sounds too good to be true. You're really gonna just let me go out freely?"

"If you're going to be a GUN operative, we have to be able to trust you. Obviously, you will need to run freely to a certain extent in order to do your job. An asset we can't trust is of no use to us. Here's where you demonstrate to us that we can. Do that, and you're in. If not... I imagine we'll just turn you over to a proper prison. Besides, over here, we only keep bad people locked up. If you behave like a good girl, we'll let you out of your cage more often."

I don't know if I can do that... I'm a pretty bad girl... Rouge thought it over. It made sense. The prospect of freedom- to a degree- was tantalizing. But she couldn't shake her inner cynic that things weren't as they seemed. "And Westwood's actually on board with this?" She was surprised that he wasn't here for this.

"Yes. Why? You don't believe me? You think maybe this is just a trick to get you into trouble?"

"The thought did cross my mind," she admitted, trust being a distinctly lacking trait in a thief. Of course, the far more likely scenario in her mind was that GUN was tricking her into doing something so they could suddenly come down on her... when she did whatever they were waiting for her to do. But WHAT?

"Well, it's not, so get out there and enjoy your day off. Time's ticking." She simply stared off into the horizon, at nothing in particular. The possibilities for today were infinite, but she had no idea what she wanted to do right now. She'd been waiting for something like today, but was totally NOT ready for it. Agent Topaz continued standing by as well, eventually speaking. "It's okay." The tone was surprisingly reassuring, clearly having picked up on her uncertainty. Unlike Westwood, Topaz actually showed some compassion from time to time.

"I know. I'm just... thinking about what I'm going to do." She was really dreading the question she wanted to ask. "Do you... by any chance... happen to know... where I could find Tails?" Damn it; she did NOT pull that question off in anything resembling her natural smooth manner. In fact, she was fidgeting like a shy little girl.

Exactly as feared, Topaz smiled with intrigue at the opening that had just been given. Teasing was about to commence. "Now why do you want to know that? You want to spend your day off with him?"

She blushed slightly but otherwise kept her cool and rolled with it. "Well, I'm certainly not gonna spend it with you guys."

"What activities are you two going to do?" That much was admittedly a fair question. "Is that why you're all done up tonight?"

"It's NOT a date," she said with more than a touch of defensiveness. "You know he's still just a kid, right?"

"And you aren't?"

"No!" she snapped as if offended by the thought.

"So he's too young for you?"

Now she full on flushed. "Yeah, a little. I don't know what YOU consider appropriate on this planet but there are standards where I'm from."

"Are you really even THAT much older than him?" Topaz snickered, absolutely savoring this rare moment where she got to toy with the bat instead.

Truthfully, she and Tails weren't far apart in the grand scheme of time, but they certainly were in totally different stages of maturity. The GUN agent surely knew this but was poking fun at the fact that the bat was still just under what was considered an 'adult' yet... even if she'd lived entirely on her own since halfway through childhood. "Look, are you gonna tell me or not?"

The agent had to think it over. "I probably shouldn't just give out his address, but considering that you two clearly like each other, I suppose I will." Rouge kept quiet as certain words were teasingly emphasized. "He lives out in the Mystic Ruins. You know where that is?"

"I think, but I'm not sure."

The agent pointed. "It's kind of far, but I think you can cover it quickly with those wings of yours. Just follow the train tracks along the coast to where the mountains start and you're in the general area."

It sounded simple enough but was vague. "How will I know which house is his?"

"Easily. It's the only one out there."

"You're saying he lives, like, out in the middle of nowhere?" She was somewhat surprised that a friendly soul like Tails lived far away from anyone else. Though maybe she shouldn't have been. Just another way he's like you, huh?

"Yep. It's a very nice, quiet, and private place."

Something snapped. "Give it a rest, okay?"

"Alright. Just remember that you only have until midnight, Cinderella."

"What?"

"Cinderella," the agent repeated as if THAT helped any. "The fairy tale?" Rouge kept blankly staring. "It involves a glass shoe?"

"Never heard of it."

"Forget it. Just be back on time, and don't do anything too stupid."

"No promises." She stepped to the roof's edge, spread her wings, and glanced back to the agent in case there was anything else to add. When nothing came, she took flight. Her stomach remained tight as she crossed over the outer fence marking the boundaries of the base. No alarms sounded. She was not promptly shot out of the sky. Absolutely nothing suggested anything was amiss in the world. She was relieved but not entirely at ease yet... for more than one reason.

After all that she had endured through asking, spending time with Tails wasn't exactly her number one choice for what to do. In fact, she actually had some reservations about it. Sure, she liked the kid and wouldn't have minded killing some time with him, but Topaz's question stood: what would they do? She hadn't hung around with anyone significantly younger before. Granted, Tails was hardly a normal kid. Kinda like you, huh? Kinda, but a sad social experience with others was about the extent of what they had in common. He had found friends; she hadn't. She was actually somewhat... afraid of the prospect of seeing him, fearing it would just be an awkward experience. I warned him I wouldn't make a good friend...

At any rate, she wouldn't have gone straight to his place anyway. Her first want was to just wander around and soak in the outside world. She had no plans for how to spend the day beyond that. Just enjoying being away from GUN seemed like a decent enough idea. Normally she would probably be asleep now. She had plenty of time to make up her mind. Of course, she knew that what she REALLY wanted to do was steal something pretty, but that was massively unlikely on short notice. She would have precious little nighttime to do the deed before the deadline, and she had NO time to do any scouting of targets. Besides, she didn't want to do any work on her one day off.

Naturally, while aimlessly flying around the nearby city she considered simply taking her chances and running. She didn't see how GUN could possibly keep tabs on her, and she was looking awfully hard. Not wearing a collar... No helicopters following me... No other way for them to keep up with me... I think... A gut feeling said GUN had to have SOMETHING up their sleeve.

With nothing else to do, visiting Tails became a more enticing idea with each passing minute. A quick glance at the watch indicated just over an hour had passed since leaving the base, leaving the better half of a day to go. Oh well, worst comes to worst, he's not gonna complain if I make bad company... Another worst possibility came to mind: if he somehow found out she had a free day, would he think that she hadn't cared enough to visit? It made a bigger knot in the gut. She did NOT want to look at that sad face and come up with an answer to the question: "Why didn't you want to come see me?"

The decision now made, she flew off towards the train station and perched on its roof to wait for a train heading the right direction. There was no sense spending her own energy traveling. When an appropriate train began to leave, she swooped on top and laid flat to settle in for the ride. After an uneventful trip the train began to slow. As it had been told, she was now at the beginning of the mountains. She took flight and gained altitude for an aerial view. Topaz seemed to be right again: there was a house in view at the otherwise uninhabited location.

Approaching the structure, it was easy to tell it belonged to Tails by the fact it had a runway leading to it and a painted image of his namesakes on its side... which was adorable. A lot of noise was coming from the house, escaping through the open massive hanger doors on one side. Her ears were able to pick up the sounds of working within in addition to surprisingly loud music. She wouldn't have expected a quiet kid like him to listen to such aggressive-sounding music, but then again this music was literally out of her world to begin with.

Walking through the wide-open hanger doors, she quickly spied the legs of the fox sticking out from one of the THREE planes inside. Part of her was unconcerned about the matter of entering someone's place uninvited, but it was obvious the owner wasn't going to answer the front door. With all the music, he didn't even seem to notice her approach until she had nearly reached the plane. His visible limbs suddenly tensed up in surprise, then the rest of him slid out from under the plane. "Rouge!" He shot to his feet and grabbed a device laying nearby. With the press of a button, the music ceased. "Hey..." His expression shifted from unbridled happiness to uncertainty, maybe even nervousness. "Uh, what are you doing here?"

"Visiting you, of course."

He looked around. "Are you here alone?"

"Yep."

"So GUN..." he began, clearly afraid to finish the question.

"I didn't escape, if that's what you're wondering." The answer brought visible relief to the fox. "They let me have the day to myself because I've been so cooperative. I have to go back tonight, but I'm free until then."

"That's great! You're on good terms with GUN now!" I wouldn't go that far... "So, what are you gonna do today?"

"Have you forgotten already? I just had to come see you, of course!" It was sort of a fib, but still a mostly true statement. And she now couldn't believe visiting hadn't been higher on her list earlier. He was just such a positively charged ball of fluff her mood shot straight up within his presence. Stepping forward, she bent down slightly to throw her arms around him, then returned to an upright posture, easily lifting the light little fox off the ground with the tight embrace. Ignoring the obvious discomfort this was causing, she cooed, "Oh, I've missed you so much! I thought YOU were going to be my partner at GUN."

"They haven't asked me!" Tails answered as if he thought that was an accusation.

"I know they haven't," she reassured before putting him back on two feet. Actually, she didn't know, but it wasn't hard to guess. I'm not surprised... They know you're such a soft touch... "They've got me partnered with Topaz instead now. She's better than Westwood, but I'd still rather be with you."

"Really?" His eyes lit up at those words.

"Of course. You're much nicer than anyone at GUN. And WAY more fun to be around. Better-looking, too." That made him blush again. As much as she enjoyed the reaction, she couldn't help but feel she was skirting a line with him. It suddenly occurred to her that something seemed to be missing. "Where's Sonic?" She had actually completely forgotten about the fox's partner until now.

"He's out and about."

"Is he coming by later?"

"Maybe. You never know with him."

"Not even you? I thought you two did everything together."

"We hang a lot, but we each do our own thing every now and then."

It wouldn't have been that surprising that even friends spent time alone, but the famous duo seemed almost joined at the hip. There was a bit of a pause until she asked, "So you're all by yourself today? And you're just gonna work in here?"

"Yep." There was another pause, this time even longer. Tails was clearly a bit... shy when talking to anyone other than Sonic or his circle of friends- herself being only a recent addition. But she found herself equally at a loss for conversation here. Man, it's a lot harder to have a meaningful friendly conversation without flirting than I thought... Normally I'd have picked anyone else clean by now... What was she supposed to talk about with someone as young as him? She was completely out of her element. Tails suddenly threw out a save: "So... what else are you going to do today?"

Good question... I can work with that... She smiled again, this time half warm and half sly. "I don't have any other plans either. I'm open to ideas if you have any."

The young genius was astute enough to catch the hint. "You mean, like, for both of us? I don't know..."

Judging from how deep in thought he looked, she suspected he was massively overthinking the boy/girl factor here. Curious as she might have been as to what he'd come up with, it would probably be for the better to make a suggestion to avoid something awkward. "We don't have to go out and do anything fancy. What do you and Sonic do when he's here?"

"Well, if we're not going anywhere, we pretty much either play video games, watch movies, or just watch TV... So basically we just sit on the couch in front of the TV."

She'd observed enough human activity by now to know most of what he was talking about. Her smile slid even more sly. Hmmm... Watch a movie, huh? That's what the human couples do for dates around here, isn't it? "I think watching a movie sounds good."

"Really? You do?"

"Sure. That's part of what being friends is about, right? Just hanging out together?" Hearing the F-word perked him up again. "Besides, I've never actually seen one."

"Oh, that's right! Man, you're gonna love them!" Any trace of shyness vanished as he beckoned her to follow. He led her through his home, ending in a room with a sizable television that had an unholy number of other devices hooked up to it. Then he suddenly returned to an uncertain state. "Um... I'm not sure if you'd really like any of the movies I have though."

"Why not?"

"Well... I mean... I don't have anything that's... in the genre of..." He became visibly more uncomfortable as the sentence progressed. "...romance or anything like that." What a shocker... "Nearly all of my movies are action flicks... I have a couple that are funny... A few are action-packed and funny..."

"Action-packed AND funny? Sounds great."

"Really?"

"Sure. I like it when a guy can both excite AND make me laugh." Whoa, tone it down there girl... He's like, ten-ish? She hadn't PLANNED to say such a suggestive line, but her voice and choice of words simply tended to veer onto the sultry side. It wasn't HER fault she never talked to kids before... Or maybe it was.

Tails was able to cover his discomfort by looking at the contents of a nearby shelf. "Uh, I don't know which one to pick then."

"Then just pick your favorite. Or whichever you think is the best. Pretend you're trying to impress me." Gah- she STILL had a slight flirt in her voice. I just don't know how to shut it off!

That bit fortunately seemed to fly over the innocent little fox's head. "Well, in that case... I'd go with this one." He held up the movie for her to see, though it told her nothing beyond suggesting that the story featured an explosion on a building.

"Looks promising," she said simply. "What's it about?"

"A guy trapped in a skyscraper with a bunch of bad guys."

"Now THAT sounds like our mission." When he didn't respond in any way for several awkward seconds, she wondered if he was waiting on her to give more explicit approval. "Let's watch it."

"Okay!" He began to operate whichever devices were needed, then paused to ask, "Uh, do you want to sit on the couch or the chair?"

Admittedly, the chair looked like it might have been more comfortable, in some ways. But knowing Tails, she suspected he was going to err on the side of giving her space. "Why, the couch, of course," she replied, sitting down while giving her answer. "It's more than big enough for the two of us to fit."

As expected, he offered, "You can have the whole thing if you want..."

"Oh, don't be silly. Friends aren't supposed to sit far away from each other. I'd rather have the company." She gave the cushion next to hers an inviting pat, not caring exactly how her COME HITHER act was coming off now.

Tails folded at this point, unable to deny a friend's wish. "Okay." Although accepting the request for company, he settled on the opposite side of the couch, sitting straight up to leave her as wide a berth as possible. She sighed inwardly but left it alone for now. He's really shy, don't rush him... She wondered if it was just her or if he was the same around any other girl. The couch was big enough for humans to share, so there was plenty of space for both to fully stretch out if they wanted. She brought up her legs to settle into a leaning position.

Fortunately, the fox on the other side of the couch wasn't too nervous to make conversation. "Even better, if you like it, it's got three sequels." He put a noticeable emphasis on the number and had a faint smirk as if there was something humorous about that fact.

She had an even bigger question on her mind though. "What's a sequel?"

He very politely tried to hide it, but there was no mistaking the sigh that escaped his lips. "Oh man... This is like Knuckles all over again."

"What's Knuckles?"


DVD Commentary:

It's a Christmas treat for y'all, but this chapter isn't meant to be set at Christmas... If for no reason other than Rouge would probably freeze outside.

Before anybody points it out... technically speaking, military time doesn't actually reach 2400 (since it rolls over to 0000) but saying 2400 still makes sense since the idea is to be back BEFORE said time, and it would be easier to simply say that to an 'outsider' to avoid further explanation. Of course, we're also skipping over Rouge understanding how time is measured here but you might as well wonder why animals from another world all know English. On that note, I did consider having Rouge be confused by the 12-hour AM/PM cycles.

I know, I said I wasn't into the shipping scene... And I still wouldn't call it a ship, but oh man is this gonna be one giant ship tease. But doesn't the fact you marked them as a pairing spoil it? Maybe, maybe not- their relationship might be the center of the story, but there's no rule saying these things actually ever come to anything. And isn't the reason you're reading a Tails/Rouge story because you're curious to see what would happen between these two? That's why I put the brackets in for search purposes, and that's the carrot the story is dangling in front of you.

This series is actually where my Rouge backstory was really born, and I injected some into Angels. In retrospect, some parts feel slightly too dark and heavy for that lighter story but oh well.

Quick timeline update: this scene is still between Adventure 1 and 2 right now, though the story will move past that. And because you will thus inevitably wonder, here's the age situation... I came to the agreement that Tails is 11 or so in Angels and Rouge would be 16 or 17 (or 18?) either like canon at the point she joins the franchise or maybe a year short accounting for this preceding SA2- I'd say there needs to be at least a 5-year gap (or 1 school-length) between them to preserve the general dynamic we occasionally see in canon for now. They won't stay these ages as the story goes on to make their interactions progressively more fun, but I won't be giving many updated hints, because the ambiguity is more fun that way (and because I don't think too hard about them in most cases.) I'm also cheating slightly by strategically placing Tails's birthday so he has a decent head start on aging up before the rest of the cast (ain't no reason his canon age can't be just on the cusp of turning 9) to keep everyone else otherwise closer to the source. But you know what, now we're all thinking too damn hard about this. Nobody else's age will likely ever matter in this story.

No idea how fast I'll upload. I really do want to focus more on that OTHER story like I said, so I'm thinking this will be a backburner effort and deliberately pace myself since I think I currently have about 20 chapters worth of episodes. Don't be surprised if it's a monthly thing. But if I can make up ground on Virtua Cops I won't feel guilty about working more on this.