Yay FF is fixed... but the AO3 errors didn't clear themselves so I had to wipe my cache, which was annoying. One randomly occurred again afterwards (1st page of results.) That one seems to have sorted itself out but it's gonna be like that?

Anyway, Sonic Prime was SO AWESOME. Sonic sez, "Video game adaptation curse? What's that?" Well okay, Sonic Underground was pretty bad. I do have to point out, since it has gotten some flack for a disappointing third 'season', is that it isn't really a season. It's the third part of a story that was arbitrarily chopped into segments for Netflix business reasons. I doubt it was written that way and the blame really should go to Netflix, especially considering the past series I've watched (like Punisher) had dropped all their episodes at once, so I'm guessing it was an unexpected curveball. Knuckles is also looking to be fun, though I'm keeping my expectations a bit tempered due to the fact it's a 'TV' show and is clearly gonna be more human-oriented than the movies.

A quick note: not to spoil anybody's fun (or well, whoever prompted said note's fun at least) but while I have enjoyed making Tails squirm whenever anybody uses even the least suggestive of words in relation to their boy/girl dynamic (which is ALMOST ALWAYS), last chapter was my first INTENDED instance of our two stars actually being mistaken for a couple. Sonic has only been teasing Tails about his friendship with Rouge (though he knows his little bro is afflicted with puppy love), the GUN Agents likewise (though I'm sure speculation is going around the workplace), and Amy thought Rouge was just using Tails as an in (though how far she thought Rouge would go is best left unsaid...)

On the FF review side, Westwood's a good person at heart, just a hardcase. He and Rouge understandably still have a bit of rough history to put behind them (and neither of them are likely to talk it out anytime soon), but Tails is ALMOST a model GUN agent... for a kid prone to whims.

So anyway, I guess Valentine's Day demands an entry for our two anti-lovebirds. My output has slowed partially due to my Youtube review remastering, but I think only 2 videos remain. However, I may have to pause to better plan future chapters. I'm actually formulating ideas for another story to explore something that this story hasn't and I think I'll shuffle some ideas to it instead, though I'll definitely finish this one first. And I swear I'll make good on doing more with Virtua Cops like I keep saying.

This chapter turned out a little less than kid-friendly, though not for the reason I was expecting... Is seeing something in words as bad as seeing it onscreen?

Note: First time importing my work from AO3 rather than the other way around, so if anything looks wrong, that's why. Looks fine to me and I'm tired and going to bed now.

He HAD warned her.

She had showed up unannounced one night when she knew Sonic would likely be out. It wasn't that she was still avoiding Sonic and/or other friends, but sometimes she preferred to just fill the void instead of joining a crowd. On this particular night he had just started watching a movie before she arrived. He had suggested doing something else, but she had told him not to change his plans on account of her. He had countered by saying that she probably wouldn't really like the movie. She had shrugged it off, still quite curious to this new wealth of entertainment options...

It had started oddly interesting enough despite the mundane premise: a bunch of people going on a road trip. A totally normal thing on Earth, except for the sheer number of bad omens that had her gut feelings perking... which were soon proven true when some logs fell off a truck and obliterated part of a car along with the driver's head. She couldn't hold in her surprised gasp, but had little time to be embarrassed about it before a guy on a motorcycle wiped out and got crushed, prompting another one. Then a car flipped into oncoming traffic and got split by a much bigger truck. It was right around the part where a water bottle perfectly rolled underneath somebody's brake pedal as if by some divine hand that she couldn't help but wrap herself around Tails, causing him to jump as well. "Whoa!" After recovering from the surprise, he awkwardly held her back due to his angle and the fact that the upper half of his left arm was pinned by the hug. Despite a heroic effort, he was unable to completely hide his amusement at her current state of disadvantage for once. She ALMOST hated him for a second. His considerate and caring nature gradually winning out, he offered, "We don't have to watch this if you don't want to..."

He was already reaching for the remote when she practically yelled, "No!" with enough volume to startle him into stopping. "I'm NOT scared!" she denied, even though she was in no hurry to release the fluffy fox she was clinging to. "I was just really surprised!"

"Are you sure?" he asked in a skeptical-but-totally-nonjudgemental voice.

She considered her answer while another crash left the driver slow roasting in his car... before being plowed by another truck in what could almost be considered a mercy. There was absolutely NO WAY that she was going to chicken out of a movie, especially not in front of Tails. "Yeah. I'm just... a little creeped out." It was MOSTLY true: she had been in harm's way many times, facing her own kind, humans, robots, or monsters of various natures. Of course she was brave, but this was... something else. Wait, all of sudden everyone was alive again? "What is going on in this movie?"

"Don't worry, it will be explained soon." Sure enough, it was... after another carload of people were suddenly wiped out in another jumpscare. Her thoughts of some sort of divine force turned out to be correct. Mother had told her a few stories of scary creatures that targeted those who misbehaved, but fate personally taking an interest in killing you was on a whole different level. I'm gonna have nightmares all week...

"People actually watch these for fun?" Who would find being scared fun?

"Yeah." Surprisingly enough, she eventually got into the mood, and it seemed like she even might not end up with nightmares after all. Admittedly, there was a certain sick humor to seeing people get chopped in half or decapitated, though perhaps years of negative social interaction may not have primed one to be automatically sympathetic for another's misfortune- there seemed to be no other way to explain why TAILS found the movie so enjoyable. The frequency with which she grabbed him reduced as time went on. Which, she reassured herself for the record, was probably only two or three times. Eventually she settled for simply leaning against him with her head on a shoulder. It was really nice and comfortable... so much so that she didn't feel like moving even when the movie ended. Knuckles needs to learn to let me do this... "Wanna do something else now?" he asked.

"Not really," she replied. "I don't care." He changed the feed to standard TV, flipping through channels to find something interesting. Since the options began to repeat, she guessed that he was simply trying to choose the closest thing to interesting of what was available. Whatever his opinion, whatever was finally chosen wasn't doing it for her. Tuning everything out, she simply let her mind wander... Upon opening her eyes, she was momentarily confused as to why her room, bed, and pillow all seemed different somehow. As she continued to awake, the correct answers became apparent: this was Tails' living room, she was lying on his couch, and her head was resting upon one of his legs with one of his namesakes acting as an additional cushion while the other was draped over her bare shoulders like a blanket. Sweet boy... Maybe I'm still dreaming... Not one to pass up a fox's offer of their luscious fur, she pulled the tail blanket tighter while burrowing her face deeper into the tail pillow, a purr rumbling in her throat... then froze upon remembering WHO owned the appendages in question. She slowly looked up at the fox looking down. Resisting the instinct to bolt upright, she simply laid still and played like everything was all just part of her usual alluring tease, hoping that her blush wasn't visible. "Uh... what happened?"

"You nodded off. And then slid down." Well, that much was obvious. "I wasn't sure if I should wake you up..." he explained bashfully.

She rolled her eyes along with the rest of her body, settling onto her back. "Yeah, I'll bet you were real conflicted about waking up a beautiful girl that fell asleep in your lap." You're a really lucky guy... What guy WOULDN'T kill to have that? Oh wait- the answer was probably Knuckles: the one she actually WANTED to find herself waking up with. He wasn't as fluffy as Tails, but far more muscular and physically attractive. Not that THAT was her key criteria for a guy, but... okay, so woman were as shallow as men. Wasn't her fault. Maybe she was a little old-fashioned. But Knuckles was a little old-fashioned too; his whole noble warrior persona clearly included some romantic knightly ideals. He was always on his kindest behavior when dealing with her, despite the earlier... missteps in their path to becoming friends. Even when they had actually fought over the Master Emerald, he was immediately apologetic afterwards. And when she had fallen off the precarious ledge, he had caught her. Granted, she was never actually in any danger; she would have just flown back up to safety, but the point was that he hadn't hesitated when he THOUGHT she was in danger. Plus, he was actually somewhere around her age, so cuddling like this wouldn't have felt anywhere as weird.

It was a good thing that Tails was still fully innocent; he was even looking at her eyes despite the angle she was at... Realizing this, she promptly rolled back onto her side with a fresh blush, letting out what could best be described as a sigh. "What's wrong?" She almost sighed again. Of course he would sense that something was eating her. And of course, he would be concerned, because he was such a sweet guy. She knew that he would be willing to listen to whatever was bothering her, totally understand everything, and probably even find some way to make her feel better. But she couldn't let that happen, no matter how tempting it was.

I shouldn't be here, hanging out with Tails... I should be hanging out with Knuckles... or Shadow... or a friend closer to my age... But I don't have any... No, she told herself, she DID have friends that fit that bill now. But she hadn't gotten to know them too personally yet, and certainly not to THIS point. That was why there was nobody else that she could pour out her guts to except a kid who was a full... six years younger? Damn it- she should really know this by now. Admittedly, the age gap itself wasn't really that big of a deal; it was the fact that he was still very much a kid. How pathetic would it be for a grown woman like her to cry on a kid's shoulder? Not that she would actually cry; it was the basic principle.

Summoning up her best performance, she looked back to make whatever lie she was about to give him more convincing. "I..." That was when she made the mistake of meeting his eyes. Suddenly, she thought that SHE was a kid once again, looking up to that little caring fox in the Poloy Woods- even the lighting was spot on. He still looks almost exactly the same... Realizing that she was just staring with big doe eyes, she nearly shook her head to snap out of it. She had to stay strong and come up with some other silly little thing that was bothering her so that he could go solve THAT instead and be satisfied.

When her answer was far too long coming, he coaxed, "What is it?"

After another long moment of further gazing, her mouth moved on its own while her brain conjured up words. "I... was just... wondering if... your childhood was as depressing as mine." Dear god, she had totally failed.

"Oh," he said simply, clearly not prepared for such a heavy response. "Why?"

Honestly, she didn't know why she asked that particular question either. She answered with another question in turn. "Did you really have no friends at all before you met Sonic?" It was hard to believe that someone as friendly as him couldn't have converted at least SOME people.

"Besides you?" That ALMOST jokey answer should have been expected.

"Yeah..." she said sadly. "I didn't count." The fox began fumbling for words. "Don't," she preempted, knowing full well he was either about to dispute her claim and/or downplay how she had betrayed him back then. "Let's not think about it."

"Okay."

They both were silent a while before she reiterated the question. "So did you?"

"No," he said sadly. There was a long pause before he asked back, "Did you?" His tone was clearly hesitant, but he seemed to sense that this conversation was meant to be two-way.

"Real friends? No."

"What do you mean by that?"

She considered her answer. Over the years she had made a handful of partners in the career path of a thief, which would have been the closest she'd come to calling anyone 'friend', but the question had been about their childhoods. In those terms, the question was a little more complex, even more sad, and far more painful. She was truly on her own back then and stealing just for her own survival. "I didn't have any... what you might call... normal friends..." He looked at her curiously, probably wondering if asking if that meant she at least had unusual friends would be insensitive. She considered lying but decided not to. "There was this one boy... He was a wolf... He kinda looked a little like you-" She stopped herself short, wondering why she had mentioned that. He reminded me of you... That probably affected my judgement... "But he wasn't like you otherwise," she continued. "He was a thief just like me. I saw him stealing from a street vendor... and I decided to approach him... to ask... if he wanted to work together."

"As thieves?" Tails asked cautiously when she paused.

She sighed. "Yes." That wasn't entirely true. She couldn't remember exactly what she had been hoping for on that first meeting, but she quickly began to think of the wolf less as a partner and more as a friend. Maybe she had always really been looking for the latter. And sometime later, she dared to think that perhaps they could be even more than that... But she kept that part of the story to herself. It was too personal. Maybe I'll tell Knuckles or Shadow someday, if I get that far... She picked up the story. "We worked well together for a while. But we eventually broke into the wrong place and were discovered by the occupants. I was able to get away, but they caught him..."

When she had paused for a long time, the fox asked, "What happened to him?"

She almost LAUGHED at his concerned tone. "Oh, don't worry about him, he was fine... I went back and hit one of the guys, allowing him to get away... but then I got grabbed..." She paused again, though not for as long. "And he just ran away..."

"So what happened?" His voice was even more concerned than the previous question.

"They roughed me up a bit in the fight, which I probably deserved, but I was able to get away. I was more hurt by the fact that he ditched me." That might not have entirely correct, but she was trying to soften the story because she knew Tails was going to feel way worse for her than warranted. "Needless to say, our partnership was finished after that. I went right back to our hideout and found him there. He asked me what happened... and I said 'this'... and kicked the crap out of him." She smiled faintly at the memory, even though she didn't actually drop the one-liner back then. Of course, Tails was clearly more shocked than appreciative of this act of vengeance. "Oh, don't look at me like that. I only hit him a couple of times. Certainly less than he deserved." I stood you up back then... I guess I deserved a friend that would do the same to me... "He wasn't like you..." she sadly mused, "he was like me."

Of course, he tried to reassure her. "Rouge... That's not true. You went back to help. He didn't. You're nothing like him."

That wasn't the part she expected him to respond to, but she found herself feeling a little better. "Yeah, but I'm nothing like you either... although that's an impossibly high bar." WHY CAN'T KNUCKLES BE LIKE THIS?

Of course, he was modest about it. "Actually, it's pretty easy."

"Only for you. I have no idea how ANYBODY could have possibly hated such a sweet little boy like you." There was a silence before she scrambled to correct course. "That was stupid. Forget I said that." There was another silence while they both wondered where to go from there. After a deep breath, she spoke first. "I got off lightly compared to you. Nobody wanted anything to do with me, but that meant they left me alone. Nobody picked on me or anything." In her scrappy street kid days she had been largely ignored. Those who didn't typically just showed disgust at her raggedy appearance or shooed her away. Nothing worse had happened without provocation... like an unsuccessful pickpocketing. Once she made herself into an attractive girl, she was treated just fine by others. But Tails could never change the fact that he was... different. "If anybody hated me, it was because I gave them a reason to. The only times somebody ever hurt me was when they caught me stealing." The word HURT echoed in her mind. "Tails..." She hesitated, not wanting to ask the terrible question, but was compelled by a morbid curiosity. "They didn't actually ever... hurt you, did they?"

He flinched slightly. "It usually wasn't much... Mostly just words... Sometimes somebody would shove me to the ground... Maybe throw something..." Gauging his response, it rang true so far but seemed to be stopping just short of full disclosure. It takes one to know one...

"You said usually..." she prodded. "But there was a time that was worse?"

Now he outright grimaced. "The worst time... was with two bullies... One of them shoved me down... It probably wasn't really anything special, but that day I decided to stand up to them. So one grabbed me and shoved me up against a tree... I broke out of the hold and pushed him away, he punched me, I punched him back, and we fought."

"Just you and him? Or both?"

"Both," he said simply.

She already suspected the answer, but hearing the confirmation still made her heart sink. "Did you get hurt bad?"

"Of course. It was two against one. I stuck out my chin when I should have ran."

The image was easy: Tails lying on the ground while two jerks cruelly pummeled him. "I wish I could have been there..." When did this happen? Before or after their chance meeting? Could she have protected him if she was there? "I hate to think that two guys could just beat on a helpless little kid and not get theirs."

"Well... you can feel a bit better there."

She raised an eyebrow at the almost chipper voice. "Why?"

"I didn't say that I lost the fight."

"You said that you got hurt pretty bad."

"Oh, I did... Got a bunch of bruises, a bloody nose, and both eyes blackened... but you should have seen the other guys."

"You actually fought them off?"

"Well, it was a bit of a Pyrrhic victory, but yeah, they retreated."

"How bad did they get it?"

"Basically everything I got, plus one of 'em lost a couple teeth."

She managed a bittersweet smile. "Guess you were always a lot tougher than you looked." How long ago was this? Were you tougher than I was at your age?

"Yeah... I guess I had to be..."

Another silence- she filled it this time. "Well, I feel a lot better now. I mean, it still sucks what happened, but I'm glad you made them pay for it." She gave him a gap to speak, but he didn't. "Did it feel good? You didn't feel sorry for them, did you?"

"Yeah, but I felt a little bad about it too."

"Don't. Screw 'em. They deserved it. You certainly never did." The conversation seemed to be fully tapped out now, with neither of them knowing where else to go from here. She was perfectly content to just stay like this for a while. She had even unconsciously rolled onto her back again at some point during the conversation. As enticing as the idea sounded, she would likely fall asleep again. "I should probably get going."

"Okay." Sitting up, she scooched backward and turned onto her other side. Now leaning directly in front of Tails, he subtly looked away as their heads hovered in close proximity. She smiled mischievously. Why so nervous? Expecting something to happen? Is it this? She put her arms around him and hugged him tight, snuggling her head into his neck as she pulled his over her own shoulder. He tensed up from the sudden embrace, and stiffened further as her fingers ran through his fur. Recovering, he slowly reciprocated the hug, though with a more restrained grip. A few moments later he seemed to realize this was an emotionally supportive hug, as his tails snaked around her like they had done on that one fateful night, except this time separately, one from each side, crossing as they ran up her back and finally curled around her shoulders. The feeling simultaneously comforted and induced goosebumps. Knuckles might be a hunk, but he can't do this... I'm going to be so jealous of the lucky girl who gets you... Probably Cream- she's the only girl who might be as nice and sweet as you...

Reluctantly breaking off the hug, she rolled off to sit next to him. She wasn't sure if she wanted to leave just yet. After a moment's consideration, she decided. "Thanks for cheering me up. You always know just how to make a girl feel better." She leaned over once more to grab the underside of his muzzle with one hand and turn it towards her, then kissed it on the side. This was rewarded with his standard blush. There... Now we're even for tonight...

DVD Commentary: Uh, happy Valentine's? I'm really putting these two through it, aren't I?

Now we know where the alternate definitions for 'fox' REALLY came from... OUR WORLDS HAVE MET BEFORE!

Much more obvious what they're watching this time... I didn't mean to make Rouge look like a scaredy bat (since I'd hardly call said movie 'scary'), but I do personally know one or two female adults who I wouldn't call 'scaredy cats' that nonetheless are still prone to... very emextreme/em reactions to sudden scares. We're talking about sending bowls of popcorn flying. Sigh, I now realize SA2 and Heroes had her run into ghosts but too late to uncommit. Since my vision of their home planet is steampunk at best, let's just say Rouge's lack of media exposure leaves her unprepared for psychological horror. I also hate to spoil anyone who hasn't seen the movie in question, but there's a certain line to be walked in mentioning what she's reacting to I did my best on.

Speaking of SA2, I did feel compelled to plug that little 'plot hole' of Knuckles saving Rouge from the fall. Sure, maybe she had been too injured from the fight to fly, but he DID literally grab her hand right after she fell, because he didn't actually leave the beam to make the save. As Tails would say, it's the thought that counts. I'll also overlook the fact that you just get blown back upwards in the game as an 'anti-frustration feature'.

I said 'mutation' but I am open to the idea that Tails could be an actual Kitsune. Some interesting ideas could be done there, like Tails being over 100 years old (I'm assuming they're born with one tail and don't have to wait 100 years for their first?) while still only being a child by the kitsune's development... but nothing that would work into this story, just complicate it, so I'm just going to roll with 'mutation'.

If you've got a good memory, you may have noticed that I retroactively cut a few bits of insight into Rouge's past out from Angels when I found I could better use them here (or I felt they were just too dark/adult for the otherwise lighter story.) I left in a single reference to her failed relationships in chapter 3... though I cut the implication of a higher number to be a little kinder on her, so yes, this is indeed the person in question...

I admit I didn't really think through the details of Rouge's capture and their possible... implications. What kind of place did they break into? Obviously, the occupants were rough enough to handle things themselves in a firm manner, which might make one wonder if they were just going to detain Rouge until the authorities arrived... But this is a T fic, so I'm not going there. I'm still playing loose on what age Rouge is at ANY point in my story, so the darker possibility is less likely. But at any rate, Rouge was able to handle herself.

Also... how long are Tails' tails supposed to be? Those things look like they can wrap around himself at least twice. That would probably give them a lot of awkward slack in this scene, but I'm guessing they're not drawn to scale...