Its finally over. I started this fic originally when Sonic Book was airing lmao.
To all those that waited nearly a decade for this - Enjoy!
Tails had been panicking so much at the idea that his friends could be ease dropping on his first date, he almost missed the event entirely. Tails was sweating, both from nervousness and the strain from making his tails fly him to Meh Burger as fast as they could carry him. He hoped his date wouldn't count a strike against him for his tardiness. He couldn't use the classic 'My older friends think I'm clueless with girls, so they wanted come with!' excuse, although Zooey seemed to be polite enough to go along with the joke.
The fox panted harshly, hiding behind a market stall to relax and mentally prepare himself for the evening ahead. He fixed his disproportionally large bow tie and front tuft of fur. It was strange to not wear his signature goggles, but tonight he was not a sidekick nor a scientist. No, for tonight (and hopefully many more) he was a boyfriend, or rather he could be if tonight went as smoothly was he predicted. He had systemically calculated every eventuality tonight could have. Every positive or negative outcome. Atmosphere, food and conversation were given a value and measured accordingly. There was not one variable that he didn't account for.
"Hey, Miles."
"AHH!"
He didn't assume Zooey would get tired of waiting and leave her home 10 seconds earlier than he planned.
She giggled, "Sorry. I didn't mean to scare you."
"It's okay," Tails tried to play it cool. While he finally understood that Sonic's flirting style didn't suit him, he didn't want Zooey to think he was a complete scaredy cat. He flushed at the thought of Zooey witnessing his reaction to the calmest of thunderstorms.
"Well, shall we?"
They walked towards the open air restaurant which was quiet considering it getting late into the evening. It wasn't the most romantic place in the world, let alone the cleanest, but Zooey suggested it, so why would he veto her request. The foxes sat down at an empty table. Tails' face was hidden behind the menu, scrolling through to decide what mediocre meal he would eat, when at the corner of his eye, he could see flashes of blue, pink, red and brown.
'No... I must be going crazy,' he rationalised. They were all at home, perpetually trapped until he escorted Zooey home. Zooey peeled the menu away from his face gracefully. Her face was full of concern.
"I didn't mean to upset you Tails, I won't call you Miles again if you don't like that."
"Oh, it wasn't that." Tails reassured. "I'm just nervous," he admitted.
"You don't have to be nervous, Tails. This is my first date too after all," she giggled. 'A sound that would make angels jealous.'
"But how'd you know my real name is Miles?"
"It's all over your tech isn't? I think it's a lovely name."
"No one's called me Miles since I was little, I associate it with when I was bullied. Sonic suggested 'Tails' as a nickname and I've been called that ever since."
Zooey appeared mortified at the memories she unwittingly brought out, however Tails confirmed that he wasn't upset.
"It's okay. You make my name sound a lot nicer."
"I'm glad."
They shared a warm smile.
Zooey's petite gloved hand laid gracefully on the wooden dining table. Tails gaze lowered to stare at it intensely. Her finger was mindlessly tapping the wood absentmindedly to a beat only she could hear. Ever since they held hands only a few hours ago, he had been dreaming of holding them again. Under the table Tails' hand trembled in nervousness as it manoeuvred up around the table and placed it hesitantly beside Zooey's. Internally, he calculated the best angle and timing to graze his hand against her until Zooey completed his calculation for him and placed her hand over his. Tails' heart rate rapidly increased but stabilised as he remembered to remain calm and collected and enjoy the time he was spending with his crush.
'So far, so good,' Tails thought. He learnt to trust his own instincts and believe in himself. She already liked him enough to ask him out on a date. He had nothing to worry about...
"Hey Tails! What would you and your lady friend like to have?"
"Hey Sonic! We'd like- Aaaaahhhh!" Tails shrieked, ending the serene mood of the night and any calmness left in his mind.
"Sonic! WHAT are doing here? I thought you said you'd be staying at home?!"
"We were, but Amy mentioned we should do some good will volunteering to make up for the fact Eggman's robot almost destroyed the entire restaurant last week, so we gave Dave the night off so he could play Dungeons and Dragons with the Lightening Dolts."
'But why tonight of all nights?! Wait... Sonic said 'we'!' He looked behind Sonic to see Amy, Sticks and Knuckles all in Meh Burger's garish pink uniforms. Amy was at the cash register, Knuckles was mopping the floor with the wrong end of the mop, and Sticks was acting as security. Sticks was acting like a guard dog as she barked at would-be patrons from coming within a 10 feet distance from the restaurant.
Once Tails came to the realisation that he and Zooey were the 'lucky' exclusive guests at the subpar burger joint, the kit's head dropped to the table's surface in agony. Thankfully, due to Zooey's naïveté and kind nature, the vixen did not appear fazed by her date's friends' intrusion.
"Oh, how kind of you all. Isn't it Tails?"
Zooey's sweet voice brought him back to reality. "Yep... really awesome." Tails tried and failed to sound enthusiastic about the situation.
"I'll have a salad, please."
Sonic scoffed. "A salad from here? Type 2 central!" The blue hedgehog quipped which made Zooey laugh. Tails tried not to appear jealous of Sonic's natural charisma. Normally, he wouldn't mind watching Sonic chat up girls in town, but not his date.
"I know Meh Burger isn't the healthiest, but I'm trying to maintain my figure."
'You don't need to do that! You're perfect as you are,' was what Tails thought and was about to share his opinion until the fastest thing alive beat him to the punch.
"Looking like that, I don't think you need to worry."
"Well aren't you the charmer," Zooey's cheeks went red whilst Tails' did the same in frustration. The moment was ruined when the waiter and patrons were startled by Amy the cashier, slamming the cash register shut with seemingly unnecessary force. Tails and Zooey jumped at the sudden noise, and Sonic took it as his cue to wrap up the ordering process and return to the kitchen.
Sonic coughed to relieve some tension. "And you, sir?"
"I'll just have a burrito," he blurted out the first thing that came to mind. Anything to get Sonic to leave sooner.
"Are you sure you want that Tails? You know the Meh Burger burritos give you massive gas- "
"I'LL HAVE WATER INSTEAD!" Tails yelled out whilst banging his hands on the table. Sonic took the hint and left, impressed and scared by his little brother's demeanour.
Tails sighed. "I'm sorry about them."
"Don't be, they're only trying to help." His sanity recovered. Zooey was really understanding and didn't seem bothered or annoyed by his friends ploy to spy on them.
"Anyways, how was your day?"
'Change the subject. Let her do the talking.'
"Well, I stopped by the market, had lunch at Meh Burger, read some books at home, ran into you a couple of times and was captured by a giant killer robot."
"So a pretty average day, then."
"Yeah, I guess so," she laughed.
"Oh god, he got her to laugh!" Tails gave the echidna a hard stare and he went back to mopping the floor incorrectly.
"It was very exciting though, you guys must have action packed days.
"Not really. It depends on whether Eggman's on his A-game or not. Most of the time, we're just hanging out, or if its a quiet day, I'll be at home doing research."
"What are you working on now?" Tails' face lit up. Finally something he can talk at length about without embarrassing himself.
"Oh, I'm refining my Buddy Bot to be more useful in the field. I'm testing out a new propulsion system to make him fly and run faster. I ran some tests and-"
Tails' speech was interrupted by Sonic's return to their table with a bowl of salad and a glass of water. "And here's your dinner."
Sonic moved in closer to Zooey's ear. "I saved you from one of his nerd ramblings. Once he starts he can't stop." Despite how quiet the blue hedgehog tried to be, Tails was perceptive to his meddling and groaned just as quietly, letting the temporary waiter know his cue leave the foxes alone again.
"Let us know if you need anything else."
"We won't." Tails said curtly.
"It's okay, Tails. I'll be honest, I don't really understand anything about science or machines, but I like listening to you. It's rare to hear someone so knowledgeable about things."
"Thanks." Tails said bashfully, reassured that his interests weren't merely being tolerated by his date. It was like finding a diamond in the rough. A shiny one at that. Then, Tails remembered Amy's advice was reasonable to apply.
"I've talked a lot already and you seem know a lot about me and my friends. I feel bad I don't know more about you."
"Oh, I'm not that interesting. I only moved here recently so don't have many friends," Zooey revealed, a fact which surprised Tails. The girl was so sweet and kind, but perhaps her soft spoken nature was connected to a hint of shyness in her personality. This explained why Tails always found her on her own when admiring her from afar.
"But I'm meeting new people everyday. I joined the library's book club and I'm planning to go to Puppy Con soon- "
"OMG, you're into Fuzzy Puppies too!" Amy cried out. She had wait months for the next con to meet like-minded people without her friends mocking her.
Zooey waved at the pink hedgehog who jumped over the counter and ran over to the foxes' table.
"I'm not very good, but I like collecting them. They're so cute!"
"Me too! You HAVE to come over to my house and we can play together." Tails coughed obnoxiously to remind his pink friend of his presence, which forced Amy to pull back from their conversation. "We'll talk later," she assured as she rushed behind Tails to meet the rest of the gang at the table in front of Tai-
'Wait what!?' Tails interrupted the narration. His friends, now bored and unbothered to maintain their false pretense of being Meh Burger's help, were just blatantly sitting at the next table, eating fries on Dave's dime.
Tails dropped his head again in embarrassment. 'Why did they have to come? All they've done is make me lame and boring compared to them.'
To Tails it seemed that others were more gifted at making friends and interacting with others. While it might be easy for him to build and program robots, it was so difficult to approach someone and say all the right things to avoid being labelled a 'weirdo' or a 'geek'. Deep down he was glad his best friends were so willing to help him give advice and cheer him on, yet if he wasn't such a hard case, they wouldn't have felt a need to watch over him and stop him from inevitably embarrassing himself on his first date.
"Tails," Zooey leaned in quietly. "Are you alright?
"No," the kit admitted.
"I'm sorry I'm not being a good date."
"No, it's not you, it's me." Tails leaned in closer to meet Zooey in the middle of the table. "I've been really down in the dumps tonight, worrying about tonight and then my friends show up out of nowhere and throw me off. I swear I'm not normally this high strung."
"I can tell," she laughed, which brightened Tails' mood. "I didn't want to be rude, but did you not think of asking them to leave?
The genius, in a rare case, showed a blank face. "Oh... I didn't think of that." They both laughed at their mutual passiveness.
"They're whispering, what are they saying? "Amy asked frantically.
"I don't know, something about a 'high spring'." Knuckles said whilst inhaling another fistful of fries.
Sticks gasped. "H. I. G. H. S.T. R. U. N. G. Like an operative mission code!"
"Hey, guys." Zooey greeted the group, pausing their speculation. "It's getting pretty late, so Tails is going take me home. It was very nice to meet you all. It'll be great to see you guys again when I'm not on a date."
Zooey's bittersweet request made the gang become sheepish in their responses.
"Yep, it's strange how all of us seemed to be at Meh Burger tonight. What a coninkydink!" Sonic shared with a hint of sarcasm and zero self awareness.
The foxes said their goodbyes and the duo left the restaurant. Tails briefly looked back at his friends who were still eating and chatting at their VIP table. The team gave the youngster thumbs up and muffled cheers of encouragement, which made the kit smile. His friends really did believe in him.
Tails and Zooey made it to her home slowly, both subconsciously taking the long way to give them a chance to chat alone. While they were still technically in a 'romantic' setting. Tails finally felt relaxed to speak without fear of reprisal or mockery. Speaking to Zooey came natural, like being with an old friend. And at the end of the day shouldn't a girlfriend be a friend first. As the two made it Zooey's door, their eyes lingered on each other, both unsure how to end the date formally.
"I'm sorry about my friends," Tails apologised again profusely. "This date was really awkward and I understand if you don't want do this again." Tails would be disappointed that his first foray into love didn't work out, but he would be happy in the knowledge that he made a new friend all on his own.
"Actually, I was hoping we could go out another time, but I understand if you would be too busy. Y'know with you always fighting Eggman or working in your lab."
"For you Zooey, I'll make time," Tails offered. "Why don't you come over tomorrow and watch me work? The others find my non-exploding experiments boring, so we'll be alone. I promise."
Zooey's frown transformed into a smile. "That would be amazing!" She seemed genuinely interested in learning about his work, or at least spending more time with him. Either way Tails felt like he'd hit the jackpot.
"Although, I will say you're very lucky. You have such good friends that care about you." Tails' attention turned to the sound of rustling bushes. The gang was hiding (poorly) in some bushes nearby.
Tails sighed inwardly. "Yeah, I do..."
"I wish I had a friend group like that..."
"You can hang out with us anytime Zoe!" Sonic revealed himself from the shrubbery.
"Yeah, the more the merrier!" Knuckles affirmed.
"Join at your own peril!" Sticks shouted cryptically.
"She means, 'join us for us for tea when you can!'" Amy corrected the badger.
The young fox couldn't help but laugh after such a long night dealing with his friends' antics.
"Well, you heard them. You're one of us now. You sure you can handle them?"
"If you can handle Eggman, I think I can deal with them," she joked.
"Well... goodnight," the soft spoken fox said as she quickly gave her shorter date a peck on cheek before running into her home. Tails was left stunned, his tails having a mind of their own, flying him higher and higher until his friends pulled together to grab him and pull him back down to Earth. The empty village square was filled with hoots and hollers with the crew glad that Tails' date was a success, because of, or in spite of their intervention.
Zooey observed the team from her window and smiled. It took an unnamed village to find out where she truly belonged.