If Nickel were to be honest, he would never have expected to be in the Sol Dimension again; he didn't have a valid enough reason to warrant the trip, and even if he did he wouldn't have enjoyed asking someone to send him over. When you were a cat, and the local princess was also a cat, people tended to ask questions.

But Silver had, out of nowhere, asked if Nickel and Lily wanted to go dimension-hopping. Lily had accepted quickly, and Nickel had agreed as well, if only to keep an eye on the xanthic feline.

Currently they were on one of the many beaches in the island system. Lily had chosen to play in the water with the psychokinetic hedgehog (who was entertaining her with his powers) and Nickel had decided to watch and stay well clear of the waves, with him getting wet being something he didn't want to have happen.

Presently Nickel scanned the surroundings for a place to sit; upon failing to do so he simply sat on the sand. "I don't know why I'm standing, to be honest," he said to himself.

Almost as though it was scripted, Blaze happened upon them at that exact point. The reactions were varied: Silver was glad to see his friend again, Lily was shy about meeting the princess, and Nickel was the epitome of neutrality. The vermilion cat had seen Blaze, and had waved to her, but had decided that he wasn't going to approach her and say hi for the sake of saying hi. Who knew what Blaze had been doing before they arrived - she could be irritable, not in the mood to engage in small talk or any number of other things. She might tolerate Silver because she knew him well; she might also entertain Lily because she was a child. Nickel had neither as an excuse.

Of course, that did hinge on Blaze being in a less than amazing mood. He had no idea if that was even the case, but it was probably better not to find out the hard way.

"Oi, mate!" Nickel flinched at the loud voice that suddenly entered his ears from nowhere. "What are you doin', not even gettin' into the water? You're gonna be sweatier than a gypsy with a mortgage if you don't even take a dip, don't you know!"

A young-looking raccoon appeared around his right side, no doubt the one who'd shouted at him. Her Australian accent was prominent enough for Nickel to identify her as Marine - her reputation had preceded her on the trip to this dimension.

She leaned forward a little bit to look him in the eye, and Nickel wanted both to say something cheeky and to stay quiet. Before he could decide on either, though, Blaze voiced her opinion. "Marine, stop bothering Nickel. If he doesn't want to get wet, that's his choice."

Nickel sent her a silent thank you in the form of a shy smile, trying not to make eye contact with her for any longer than he felt he could stomach. Marine, for her part, rebutted loudly. "But gettin' wet's the best part of bein' at the beach! Aside from sailin', obviously. Why's he wanna miss out on that?"

The raccoon apparently wasn't interested in arguing the point any further than that, as she'd headed over to where Silver and Lily were still playing their games. Blaze chose to sit beside Nickel.

"Hello," the lavender feline started.

"Hi," the vermilion cat answered.

"It's good to see you again. It's been a while, hasn't it?"

Nickel shrugged. "It has. It's not really helped by the fact that we exist in two different dimensions." There was a small pause. "And you're a princess, too, so there's that. I don't suppose free time is in any sort of, uh... abundance."

"It certainly isn't," Blaze confirmed. "I must admit, it's also nice to be able to converse with another feline. It's something that's not really presented itself before."

"Really? I would have expected otherwise, given that you are royalty," Nickel mused. "Are there really no other royal cats running around?" Blaze gave a no. "Huh. Speaking of, what does one do as royalty?"

As Blaze recounted the vague ins and outs of life as a princess, Nickel felt his ears being toyed with. He tried to ignore the pulling and the moving around of the big fluffy appendages, knowing that whomever it was, Lily or Marine or maybe even Silver, was having fun doing it.

Blaze took notice eventually, however. "Your ears are..." She trailed off, seemingly not thinking it necessary to say what was happening to them.

"If I've learned one thing, it's that people tend to do things for a reaction. Bullying someone, messing with someone, sometimes even just talking to someone; most of it is done for some kind of reaction. Like you were saying, actually," Nickel continued, fixing his sleeves, "when the other royals visit for banquets and things and they make small talk to everyone. They do it for a reaction that might give them an opportunity to, I don't know, expand their kingdom's borders of commerce, or find a weak point for an invasion, or whatever. Least, that's how I see it. I'm not royalty m'self, so I wouldn't necessarily know from experience."

Nickel knew he'd talked a long time there, but as he often said he had plenty to say about things, he just didn't usually say them. He still felt a bit self-conscious about talking so much, though.

"That's very true," Blaze responded. "It also seems to happen when you meet someone and want to be friends with them. You say things in an attempt to start a conversation."

"Yeah," Nickel hummed. "Or if you like them." He finally swatted at his ears, feeling nothing there; soon after, Silver appeared next to the pair of cats, seating himself beside Blaze, opposite Nickel. The lilac and alabaster companions began to talk amongst themselves, and the rust-coloured feline left them to it. He didn't pay much attention to what they were saying, it was probably supposed to be between them anyway.

Lily and Marine also joined the group, Marine staying on Blaze and Silver's side and Lily busying herself by playing with Nickel's hair. Nickel's eyes started to shut and he let loose a few purrs, drawing the attention of the others.

"Crikey! 'S that you, Nickel?" Marine asked.

Nickel nodded in admission. "Sorry about that," he added, his voice taking on a slight Australian accent in lieu of his usual Ameritish accent. "Lily's playing with m' hair, that's why."

"It's just that your purr is really low," Silver remarked.

"Would you think that it wouldn't be?" Nickel asked him, a droll tone entering his voice. "All of us cats have really low purrs."

"Blaze's isn't that low, though," the grey hedgehog said.

"How would you know that? She never purrs," the red cat queried, a curious look sprouting on his face. "At least, not when she's in public."

"It was a long time ago," Silver and Blaze said in tandem.

Nickel shrugged. "Fair enough."

.

Eventually, Nickel decided that it was time to go, much to Lily's dismay. Nickel understood her want not to leave, it was a pleasant and enjoyable stay, but they couldn't stay too long or something might happen back at their home.

Silver opened the portal, and let Nickel and Lily go through - he'd decided to stay in the Sol Dimension for a while longer - but just before they could step into the portal, Blaze stopped Nickel. "I have at least one question to ask you."

Nickel tilted his head in intrigue. "What is it?" he answered.

Blaze lowered her voice so that only they could hear what she was saying. "Do you have a girlfriend?"

Nickel had no idea why she would be asking him this, and he wished he could avoid the topic. Alas, he had to give an answer to the princess. "No, I don't. I've never had one - I've never gone on a date, either. Why did you want to know?"

"Admittedly, I had been curious about you ever since the day that we'd met, and so I asked Silver to tell me a bit about you. He explained to me that you were rather well-liked among some of the girls in the Resistance, and I wanted to know if you and one of them had gotten together after the war."

"Of course he did. Why wouldn't he have done, realistically?" Nickel remarked with much dryness. More seriously, he added, "Well, the answer is no. No girlfriend."

"Hmm. Do you have a crush on anyone at all, then?"

"No," he replied instantly.

Blaze eyed him sceptically, as though not believing his very truthful - if a bit quick - answer, but she said nothing about it and allowed Nickel to step through the portal to return to his home dimension.