Disclaimer: I do not own any of the recognized characters or gameplay patterns within this fanfiction. Sonic the Hedgehog, Tails, Eggman, Blaze, and all related characters of such are owned by SEGA.

Excess 3.2

"Sonic! Portal ring over here!" Tails cried out, one arm over his mouth. The island was on fire, the trees burning with flames taller than he was. Eggman had set the entire place on fire in an effort to kill them this time.

There was plenty of water flowing around, various waterfalls ensuring the rivers stayed there, yet none of them stopped the flames surrounding them. "Good job Tails! Into the ring, it'll be easier to breathe there!" Sonic shouted, one arm over his mouth. He grabbed Tails other hand and jumped through the ring.

It was fortunately much easier to breathe, even though there was no technical air. They landed on a giant sphere, much as they'd done twice before, each one had several dozen other sphere on it, in blue and red.

"Come on, before we go back we should take a few deep breaths," Sonic said as he started to collect the spheres. Tails nodded, his two tails fluttering with excitement as he tried to not show it. Sonic gave a quiet chuckle, but Tails wasn't sure why he was laughing.

As they ran through the sphere, collecting all the blue spheres lying around with some more additional rings, Tails mentally counted down the spheres in his head. Most of the Special Zones had an even number of rings or spheres to collect. "Deep breath Tails!" Sonic warned as he grabbed the last one. The world spun around them, faster and faster as a red light suddenly jammed its way into Sonic's hands. Tails remembered his warning and took a deep breath.

But the Special Zone didn't go away. It kept transforming, kept shifting, no matter what they did. Sonic was silent, not yelling or even talking as the breath was ripped away from Tails' throat. He felt himself losing himself into the chaoticness of the zone, and he slammed headfirst into the next shifting pathway.

Tails woke up with a panicked breath. He expected fire all around him, and took a deep breath instantly. The world was different, not on fire but full of green, he'd just been in the Special Zone and...wait, dream. The memories took a few moments to hit him fully.

He was stuck in another world with Blaze the Cat, and they couldn't get out through the Special Zone, and had to essentially wait until the Sol Emeralds brought Blaze back to her world. From there, she could freely dimension shift until Tails was brought back to his own. That was the best plan they could have come up with now.

They were building a house, Tails remembered. The sky was a dark blue, slowly turning orange over the horizon. Early morning, probably, because he doubted he was out for an entire day. He was thirsty, but not 'out for twenty four hours' thirsty.

He cradled his head gently as he pushed the small blanket made of leaves and other such things they found on the ground to the ground. He wasn't hot, but for some reason he was sweating, chilled to the core despite his fur. Was he getting sick again?

No, probably not. He could still think straight, except for the usual morning fog. He wasn't like Sonic, who could wake up in an instant and almost immediately know what's going on. He took a few minutes. He looked out towards the campsite to see Blaze resting her head against a small pillow made of the bail-bag and some grasses. There was an odd scent to the air, of iron and blood, emanating from her. Had she gotten hurt overnight?

"Blaze?" He tried out. The cat remained asleep. He stood up, slowly confirming that it was in fact blood he was smelling, but it an odd scent to it too. It wasn't fresh blood, but rather older, more oxygenated blood. Blaze's chest continued to rise and fall, so at least she wasn't dead...

"Blaze?" He tried again, louder and from closer. The scent was definitely coming from her, now. "Something...smells off."

Blaze's eyes slowly opened, and she let out a low moan of pain as she sat up, grasping her stomach instantly. After a quick moment she took a deep breath. "Tails," she said quietly. "Just...ignore it."

"But if you're hurt-"

"I'm not hurt. I'm fine."

"I'm smelling blood, Blaze!"

She stood up, her gold eyes lighting with a fire behind them as she stared him down. "I know! I'm fine, Tails. Just ignore it!"

"I'm not going to ignore it if you're hurt!" Tails said. How was she able to just ignore this? If she was hurt, then he should at least check to make sure she was alright. She says she's fine, but he also couldn't see any visible wounds, but maybe it was something internal-

"In this, Tails, ignore it. I'm alright. I'll explain it later," she said, her eyes closed as she seems to have come to terms with something. "I'm going to the river. I'll explain everything when I get back, alright?" she said.

Tails' eyes narrowed, wondering just what it was she had to explain. It's not like she...oh. A random thought occurred to him, of a discussion long and long ago, in which Sonic had left unfinished because Amy had decided that was a perfect time to come visit. He doubted that'd be it, but he slowly nodded. He'd keep a nose out for her, just in case she was in actual trouble.

"Good," she exclaimed. She went off towards the river at a harsh pace, and his ears barely caught her whispers, "damned smell-it-all foxes don't even know when to listen..."

He blinked. That was weird, and strange even for her. He narrowed his eyes, and slowly whirled up his tails silently. Something was wrong, and if his friend needed help he was going to be there for her. No matter what. He'd stay out of view. Blaze, despite being a cat, almost never looked up. If he stayed up in the trees, out of view, he'd be able to pick up if she said anything.

The trees seemed to almost aid him in this as he flew above her. She didn't bother taking off her clothes, which Tails was...probably a good idea for her not to but if he smelled blood she should have, but there was a part that was...bad Tails.

"There it is..." Blaze's voice carried softly. He was hiding behind a tree nearly thirty feet above her, making sure that he couldn't see her, or her him. She was scrubbing at something, maybe the actual wound? She was hurt, he knew that much at least. "I'm surprised Sonic didn't tell him anything. Maybe he forgot? And of course, he has to leave it to others to clean up the mess..." Blaze continued. "Hate the full moon..."

Tails' first thought was 'oh no, Blaze is a were-cat.' His second thought was 'that didn't make any sense, and should be discarded.' Why would she hate the full moon? There's no reason for it. Unless her wound only opened on the full moon, but...that wouldn't make any sense.

Blaze only continued to wash for a few more minutes, before she got out, her clothes soaked. She steamed them clean, using her fire to dry them quickly. That was Tails' cue to skedaddle back to the house.

He flew back quicker, hoping that Blaze was going slow, and he took a few moments to grab a few boards and start piling them close together, as if he was getting started on building one of the walls.

"Tails," Blaze said, giving a quick glance towards the boards and then to the house as soon as she walked back into the clearing. She gave an accusatory glare, but said nothing.

Tails looked down, and realized he'd messed up. Most of the boards were backwards, and they'd already had a section of wall this long. If he'd actually been here setting up, he'd have noticed that ages ago. "Are you going to tell me what's going on?" he asked.

She sighed, before she looked to the sky. "I wish you'd just take my word for it that I'm fine."

"You also said that about your ankle, and we both know you weren't."

She blinked, before she acquiesced. "That's fair. Ready for the most uncomfortable talk of your life?" she asked, sitting down against a nearby downed log.

"I doubt it. Sonic will always have that award, after he tried to tell me where chili dogs came from," Tails smirked, sitting down next to the lavender cat.

"Oh? I don't think I've heard this conversation."

"He tried to tell me that they came from a chili dog spork. Not a stork, a spork. Granted he was twelve or something. And that when chili and a hot dog come together in beautiful harmony, boom, chili dog."

"That will haunt my nightmares. Thanks Tails," Blaze deadpanned.

"Yeah...he didn't know what he was trying to say. It was bad."

"This one's bad as well. I'm surprised Amy or Cream didn't try to say anything. It's really only a girl-only issue."

"I never smelled blood on them."

"You ever try?" Blaze asked. "It's only been here that I've seen you try to smell more. Most of us sapients use only sight or hearing, and not the other senses we have."

"Not...often, no."

"Didn't think so. Although they might use ways to hide it, I don't know. Cream might be a few years off still. Or in the middle of it. Amy...you ever notice how Amy is sometimes a bit more...cross...than usual?"

"Have you met Amy?"

"Right, bad example," Blaze said. She took a moment to center herself. "This is already a really awkward conversation, and I don't know where to even begin. This is usually something your parents would deal with..."

Tails stared at her. Did she really not know that his parents were most likely dead? He didn't even know what happened to them. The earliest memory he had was of Cocoa Island and fighting off the Kukku army basically by himself. Then he remembered walking into a portal after following the seven chaos emeralds...and he found himself on West Island.

"But I know that's impossible in this case. Did Sonic not tell you about the 'birds and the bees'?" Blaze asked.

"I think he started to, a few years ago. Then Amy decided to show up looking for him, and he booked it."

Blaze let out a low curse, barely audible even to Tails' ears. "Long story short, I'm fine," Blaze started to explain, and then she continued on. She explained to him what a period was, and why it would smell like that to him. She explained how it wasn't a big problem, as usually the cramps weren't awful, but that was largely dependent on the woman in question. She was blushing furiously, he could tell, but he was legitimately learning a lot. He'd never gotten the full explanation out of Sonic, and what he did know of the male side of puberty he learned through...other methods. Or Knuckles, who was surprisingly knowledgeable and adept at explaining said knowledge.

As much as this was an embarrassing conversation, Tails wasn't all that embarrassed. It was more embarrassing to be having given this knowledge by Blaze of all women, whom he had a ridiculously tough time thinking about how she came across all this information. The only one who could probably have made it worse was Rouge, who would probably be flirting with him the entire time, if only to see how much of a 'red' fox he could turn.

Instead Blaze explained it calmly and clinically, despite her embarrassment. She asked if he had any questions, and he brought up a few other issues he'd noticed with a few other women he knew. She continued on saying that not all women were the same, and trying to explain everything away as 'hormones' was inherently sexist, and that most women did absolutely just fine. He probably wouldn't have noticed if his nose wasn't as sensitive as it was.

He personally disagreed, but got up a few minutes later to get some water.

-Side B-

Blaze rested her head against a log as she drank a small cup of water. She'd done more talking today than she had done in a long time, even while here, but that was due to the lecture she had just given Tails.

The boy would probably think he was unfazed, but he didn't have any white space left, and she could feel the heat emanating from his face. She felt sorry for him, but at the same time felt it was best she explain it now then get into problems later on down the road because he simply didn't know. She took a moment to take a deep breath, before she called the fires back into her chest, burning a small line into a log. She'd have to go back and get more berries soon, as both she and Tails had acknowledged that they were surprisingly good and easy to eat far more than intended to at a time.

She gave a quick glance over to Tails, the fox deftly hoisting another section of wall up. She would have helped had he not said she shouldn't bother. He'd figured out a quick pulley and winch system with what they had, and was holding it surprisingly steady as he put the wall in.

She was still angry at him, despite knowing what she did. He had knowingly gone following after her to the river, even if he hadn't seen anything. But it was a calm anger, the kind that would boil over if he did anything else to piss her off, and it was an anger that she knew, deep down, she couldn't be that mad about. She could, but she also knew that he thought he was trying to protect her, even if she absolutely did not need it. Or he might've forgotten the part where she could burn the forest down with but a thought?

Yet, another part was touched. That he was so worried about her, he knowingly infringed on her privacy for the sole reason of trying to protect her. There were other reasons he probably wouldn't have been able to argue out of, perversion being the biggest theory. He was a teenager, that's just what teenagers did. They were curious without reason, and without the good sense to back it up. There were always two or more reasons for anything they did, and if one led to a naked woman that reasoning would probably get bumped up.

Even if they refused to acknowledge that reason as being real. That's where Blaze thought Tails had been. He wasn't like the types of others she'd met in her own world, where in some ways she'd been essentially idealized, an image that others had that she couldn't live up to. Those that were in the Palace with her at least knew enough to not bring those people anywhere close to her.

She grabbed another small log and started the long arduous process of precise cutting using fire of all things. Tails had already stripped the bark off this one, it lying to the side in a pile with many other trees bark. That was, if she was honest, her least favorite part of this endeavor, if only because the bark was not fire-resistant in the slightest, and so had to cut off using their claws.

The log had already been marked, fairly precise cuts and marks in the wood and side, showing where Tails preferred her to burn through. She took a deep breath, and focused her pyrokinesis on a single point. She envisioned a small sawblade of fire, with cool air on the sides. It was similar to maintaining three different fires at the same time at different temperatures in vastly different locations. If she was still on her world, and hadn't come here, she doubted she'd be capable of it.

She definitely hadn't been, seven years ago.

The sawblade went through the wood, small sharp crackles piercing the air. She was doing it in halves first, as otherwise the log, small as it was, would be far too much for her to try at once. The fire in her core ached, another sure sign she'd been trying to do this too much.

She dispelled the fires that had appeared as soon as she felt the log shift, being able to be broken in half through the charcoal easily, and took another few deep breaths. She gave a quick glance to the fox close to her, wondering where he was in the wall. His blue eyes were scouring into her.

At least he wasn't asking if she could hurry it up. Blaze doubted that he'd get off with anything less than a large sunburn if he tried that. She looked up towards the sky, the sun burning its way through the atmosphere. Almost noon, or well past it.

"Ready for some lunch?" Tails asked as he spun his tails towards her. Around him was a layer of cool air as his tails fanned them. They had chosen this spot not just for its warmth but the fact it shouldn't get too hot, but it didn't seem to be working. It was still rather warm.

"We should take a break, yes," Blaze answered. Her hands were aching and numb, and the fire in her heart was at its embers. Could she overuse her pyrokinesis to that degree? What would happen if she did?

The fox handed her a few fish, charred to perfection the previous night. They were cold, and not the best tasting, Blaze had to admit, but they were something, and were bacteria-free. They went down easy on their own. Were there spices here that they could grow?

They ate in silence, Blaze making sure to take small bites if only to avoid the bones that were still there. River fish didn't have the highest of bone counts, nor were they the biggest, but there were plenty of them.

Minutes passed, or hours. Blaze wasn't sure. She looked over at one point and saw that Tails had fallen asleep, his head propped against the same log that she was sitting against, his eyes closed and his chest breathing deep. She gave a quiet giggle, staring up at the sun, feeling the warmth from it on her body, and she blinked, seeing the sun nearly another quarter of the way through the sky.

"I think we needed the nap," Tails murmured quietly. "Ready for more?" he asked. Blaze nodded, pushing herself up gently. The fire in her heart was a raging inferno again, much better than the embers she'd had earlier.

"Yes. The sooner we finish, the better," she answered. Tails nodded, getting a few more of the boards together for another section of wall. He only had the one wall left on the first floor, but how they were going to do the second floor, Blaze didn't know. Were they going to do it the same as the first?

She gave a quick glance to the rabbit hide bag, an odd smell coming off from it. "I think we may need a new hide soon. I think this one's breaking down," she said, holding it up gently. Small bits were starting to grey out, and now that she was closer, it was really starting to stink. The heat and humidity must have started the rot process faster.

"Ah, darn. I don't suppose you know anything about tanning leather?" Tails asked.

"I was hoping you did. There's not much in the guidebook," Blaze murmured. "Hmm...I suppose I could always just dry it out and go from there, but I'm not sure that's right."

"Doesn't it usually need to soak in something? I want to say lime, like limestone and such. I haven't seen any deposits of it though," Tails answered.

"I can go check the mountain over there tomorrow," Blaze pointed out. "There's bound to be something useful."

"If you'd like. Or I can check it out, and you can stay here and keep working on the logs, get enough pieces for the wall and second floor. Do we need stairs, you think?" Tails asked.

She gave a quick glance. Did he honestly think they needed stairs? Probably wouldn't hurt, but he can fly, and she can jump high enough already. "Don't think it's necessary."

"Oh good, because I don't think I can build that using tongue and groove style wood pieces," Tails admitted. "I'd figure it out, if I needed to, but off the top of my head it's not the easiest thing."

Tails nodded and went back to the logs that Blaze had already done. The last wall was coming up in the next few hours, or so Tails said, and Blaze wanted to make sure that whoever they didn't send over to the mountain had plenty to do. They would probably switch off, like they switched off on who got to sleep in the tent.

The next few pieces went surprisingly quickly. The nap had re-empowered her pyrokinesis, and she was able to get the basic shape easy enough for each piece of wood. The hardest part would be the tongue and groove portion, small pieces that jutted out or in from the center of each piece.

She lit two fires all the way down on one piece, slowly burning down and inwards. Once it reached a certain depth or height she'd cut it off, leaving the pieces charred but having a noticeable 'tongue' on each one. Then she did the same on the other side, letting the fire burn it through naturally, or at least as naturally as she could let it.

It helped that she had near perfect control now. She couldn't do extremely high temperatures, as she'd tried once when Tails was asleep to melt a few of the iron bars, but they refused to even so much as soften.

The rest of the day was spent in silence, Blaze trying to churn out as many of the planks as she could. The sun had started to set, but she was still going, capable of going for as long as the fire beat in her chest. The glow from the embers wasn't the only light around; Tails had gotten the white crystals out and held them in one hand, using their light to sort through the planks she'd already made that day.

Finally she set the last one down, and sighed against the last wall that Tails had put up. It resembled a small square, now, with small marks on the inside for where the other rooms would go. It would be extremely challenging for them to put up the middle walls now, and Blaze doubted they ever would. This wasn't intended to be a permanent residence, anyways. This was meant as a stop-over for however long they were in this world.

Tails had created the fire himself this time, a small campfire using the electricity from the crystals. That he'd been able to figure out that it could start fire was still, pardon the pun, shocking. It was real electricity, not just pure static. But even lightning could start fires, and that was just static, wasn't it...?

They ate in a comfortable silence on their fish or berries, cooked by the fox. Blaze noticed that he looked up at her several times throughout their meal, oftentimes with his eyebrows furrowed, as if trying to figure out some great mystery. "I'm...confused," Tails muttered.

"About?"

"The...topic this morning. You kept saying it was embarrassing. Why?"

"Most sapients don't like talking about it. I think that's something we learned from the humans, honestly. They're more hung up about it than most sapients."

"Was it embarrassing?"

"Having to list everything I hate about my body and the way it works? Slightly," Blaze answered. She sipped a cup of water delicately, trying to look anywhere but at Tails. She probably should have clarified that she didn't actually hate herself, but at times it was difficult to remember that point.

"I don't think you should hate yourself," Tails muttered, a large red blush on his face. She gave him a questioning glance. "I mean, it's just a natural thing, right?"

"It is, yes. Doesn't make it less annoying."

"That's...why are all bodily functions annoying?" he asked, making sure to look anywhere but at her. Blaze rolled her eyes.

"That's a question no one knows the answer to. Just handle it and move on," Blaze advised. "Just handle it on and move on..." she repeated quieter.

I apologize to all for the uncomfortable topic this chapter. I realized with Sonic being one of his only male role models, Tails probably wouldn't know. To be honest, I'm still not sold on this chapter, but I feel it had to be done. Until Next Time!