Lily had long since learned that Nickel's voice, besides being very deep, was also quite quiet with regards its volume. He spoke rather softly, and he rarely shouted; unless he had to, was excited, or was being shouted at in turn. Sometimes that made it hard to hear him when he was speaking - and within those times there were certainly occasions where not hearing him was by his design - but she still liked it and him, naturally.

It took her much longer to realise, however, that he hated shouting - and loud noises, for that matter - entirely. He seemed to dislike them almost as much as he disliked earthquakes.

It was during an after-school convention where Lily discovered this. She had invited Nickel to take part in some fun festivities alongside her and Topaz, and he had been a good sport so far. Lily knew he wasn't terribly inclined to socialise, so having him there with her made her happy.

Her two big friends had won her a few prizes at the games already, including a slightly oversized stuffed chao that she was determined to make her bedtime plush. Not that anybody else needed to know, obviously.

Music was blaring around them, safe for the children to listen to, of course; and accompanying it was the din of many voices, younger and older, engaging in conversation. And herein lay the issue.

They were walking along, searching for other things to do, when of a sudden Nickel halted. Lily stopped to look back to him, a bewildered expression blooming on her face. "Mister Nickel?" she pried.

He didn't reply - he must not have heard her over the noise. She could talk about his quietness all day, it didn't mean that she wasn't a little quiet herself.

Hastily she tugged at Topaz to get her to wait for Nickel as well - his attention had gone to his screen, and he had begun talking to somebody over a call. Who it was, Lily couldn't guess.

It was evident, however, that just as he hadn't heard her over the noise, the person calling couldn't hear him, forcing him to raise his voice.

She heard: "I said, you can just put them down by the piano, I'll get them from there!"

That seemed to do the trick, as Nickel let loose an exasperated sigh, having presumably gotten his words to be heard at last. He hung up and plodded up to the awaiting girls.

"Ugh, I hate having to shout," he voiced, loud enough for them to hear so Lily guessed she could give him some reply.

"Why, mister Nickel?" she pried, trying to be heard this time and succeeding.

"My voice isn't suitable for shouting. Either I end up getting a headache, or my throat gets really sore," he told her. "And when the music's so loud..."

He said words after that, but she couldn't discern them. "Huh?"

Nickel's face contorted into a wry smile, which she was confused by until Topaz elaborated - evidently, she'd managed to pick up his words. "That's what he was saying. When the music's turned up so loud, he ends up getting drowned out by it, so you can't hear him."

That made Lily "Oh" in understanding.

Presently, as they strolled on, the music died down a little - which Nickel was probably grateful for - and someone began to speak into a microphone from somewhere. "Hello, everyone!"

The sound drew their attention in the least mellifluous way possible: the mic was peaking with almost every spoken syllable, and there was a little bit of feedback too. Probably one or two microphone settings were slightly off, but whatever the cause it didn't stop the cats from twitching their ears nearly every time they heard the unpleasant echoes. Nevertheless they found a place to sit and listen to the words being announced.

On a particularly bad bit of feedback as the person spoke, all three pairs of ears flattened to lessen the decibels they had to hear, with Nickel doubling down and sticking a finger in each of his own radar dishes to further block sound. As cats, they were very sensitive to high-pitched noises - and, Lily recalled, Nickel tended to be hypersensitive. Whether it translated from touch to hearing the kitten wasn't sure, but given how he'd reacted to the microphone's unfortunate screech, Lily could safely guess that his ears were very, very highly sensitive to sounds like that.

"Why's it hafta be so loud," Nickel complained, fingers remaining in his ears for a little longer then necessary, even after the feedback had settled itself again. "My ears feel like they're blocked."

"It's loud to make sure everyone can hear, mister Nickel," Lily reminded him, just in case he forgot.

"Yes, I know, Lily," he said with an amused smile. Topaz giggled a bit, too. "I just got a little upset because the feedback was so appalling. I don't like loud noises all that much - especially really high-pitched loud noises."

So he didn't like loud sounds, nor did he like to be loud himself, Lily had learned. "Why not?" she asked curiously.

"Well, I guess when you don't talk a lot, your hearing becomes better at picking up sounds; that means, though, that louder sounds start to hurt your ears because they're so sensitive." He looked away from her in his explanation. "I'm not a hundred percent sure, but that's what it feels like."

Lily nodded at him, not that he could really see.

Another bout of feedback rang out, and their ears folded once more. "It's gonna be a long time here, isn't it..." Nickel muttered.

Lily leaned against his side, trying to cheer him up a little with her mere presence. It worked. "Thanks, Lily. You'll help me get through this, yeah?"

"Yeah!" she shouted enthusiastically, before remembering the whole source of his ire and quieting herself. "I mean, yeah."

Nickel and Topaz just laughed.

.

.

.

Lily had decided to accompany Nickel to the big headquarters building on the weekend. He'd been called over for something and she'd just wanted to be with him, not knowing how long he'd be there.

As they stepped in, they heard a few voices ringing around, talking about things Lily couldn't hope to understand; before she could pull Nickel over to investigate they were approached by the person who'd rung her big friend.

"Thanks for coming, Nickel," Tails greeted. "Hi, Lily. It's nice to see you here again."

"Hi Tails!" Lily answered the cute fox. "Nice to see you too!"

"What'd you need?" Nickel asked.

Tails led the older cat into a large, yet somehow out-of-the-way, workroom, all the while explaining to Nickel that he wanted a little help with one of his newer creations. Lily followed them, curious to see what they were getting up to and also just wanting to stay with Nickel.

Once they were inside, Tails showed the felines the contraption. He explained that it was meant to help in the creation of these special little things called "microparticles", which he could modify to do certain things. "Currently, I'm designing microparticles for a spray that'll make wounds close without scarring," he finished.

"How?" Nickel questioned, his own curiosity coming to the fore.

"They're supposed to promote repair of the strata in a way that restores the normal function of the integumentary system without the formation of scar tissue."

Lily tugged at Nickel's hoodie sleeve. "What does that mean?"

"Okay, so you know when you know when you get a cut, it heals and closes up after a little bit, but it leaves a mark you can't get rid of," Nickel began. Lily nodded yes. "Tails is tryin' ta make it so that when you get a cut and it closes, you don't get the mark and your skin works the exact same way as before."

"Oh, okay."

Nickel gave her a smile, before turning back to Tails. "So what d'you need me for?"

"Well, you see," the vulpine began, "I have a generator here that I would normally use to give this machine the power it needs to work. However..."

Tails went over and flipped a switch on the generator, causing a horribly loud whirring sound to pierce the quiet air. The ears of both cats splayed to the side at the noise, as did Tails' before he mercifully silenced the generator again.

"Yeah. That's what happens when I turn it on," he finished. "It only started making noise earlier today, and I can't work with it being so loud, so I figured I'd replace it with you for the moment."

"How come you didn't just fix the generator?" Nickel asked.

"I'm almost done with this first set, so I figured I would just finish them up before sorting it out. If these microparticles don't work, then I'll definitely fix it and let you go."

"Fair enough."

The two boys devised a way to "plug" the microparticle creator into Nickel's power, and once they were set up Tails resumed his work.

Nickel sat on an extra chair in the workroom, being careful to stay plugged in, and Lily bounded up to him to sit on his thigh as he busied himself on his screen. For a while, there was almost absolute silence, with Tails working and neither Lily nor Nickel wanting to disturb him.

Lily got to understand what Nickel meant when he said that when you didn't talk much, your hearing got better: at this moment, in the quiet, she could start to make out really faint sounds - from the little metallic sounds from Tails doing stuff to even Nickel's and her own breathing. It felt like she could hear everything.

Of course, that also meant that she could hear the impending arrival of a very loud car approaching HQ, revving its engine all the while.

It roared past them at the height of its noise, comparable to the broken generator in its obnoxious loudness, and just as before the ears of both felines flattened in response. Nickel even recoiled a little, causing the cord plugged into him to fall to the floor.

"Who are you people? Who are the people who make their cars so loud just to show off?" Nickel spoke after the car had passed and the din had subsided. "Because I don't wanna be friends with you."

Lily giggled at his wording. She knew how much her big friend despised loud noises.

"Sorry, Tails," Nickel apologised, presumably for the fallen plug.

"It's fine, I was just about done," the fox answered. "Just a couple little adjustments and they'll be ready for testing."

Nickel reached down and picked up the end from the floor, keeping it there rather than trying to put it back where it was. Lily, wanting to be of a little help, held the cord in place on his palm so he didn't have to do it himself; he smiled and ghost-booped her with his free hand, making her laugh again.

Soon enough, Tails completed his work and addressed them again. "Okay! All done."

"So now, how are you going to test this? You're not going to injure somebody, are you?" Nickel questioned, turning in his seat to face him.

Tails chuckled. "No, no. Not only would that be really bad, it would take too long. I can just run a simulation to see the results a lot faster, and a lot more humanely."

"Yes, that seems like a much more reasonable way of going about things," Nickel remarked in his funny British tone, before switching back to his regular one. "Hopefully this 'magic spray' works first time."

"Hopefully," Tails agreed. "I'll keep you up to speed with the results, if you want."

"Yeah, sure."

"You got it, then. Thanks again!"

Nickel and Lily left the workroom, but weren't quite out of HQ when another car zoomed past, just as loud as the first. The red cat sighed, and Lily heard him mutter a single word. "Hate."

The yellow kitten took his hand and began to pull him along as they made their way back to their tranquil home. The sooner they got there, the sooner they could have some more fun together - quiet fun, of course.