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“This is your fault you know.”

“Excuse me? I didn’t cause a cave in.”

“Who’s world are we in? Mine or yours?”

“Yours but-”

“Exactly. So shut your mouth and fix my arm so I can get us out of here.”

An argument around this topic had been a fairly common occurrence since they had been trapped together. Tails had been stupid, yes, but he and Sonic had been ambushed in a cave system in search for a chaos emerald by Scourge and Fiona. When they could run no more Tails tried blowing a hole in the ceiling so they could escape.

Didn’t work so well. Now the two of them were separated from both hedgehogs and Tails had gotten himself hurt by tackling Fiona out of the way of several large rocks. More than one of which landed on him and his various limbs. This led to the situation of Tails having a broken arm and Fiona having to patch him up.

“There. It’ll heal correct…ish, until we get out of here.” Fiona said, tearing a piece of cloth from her shirt to keep the arm straight as possible.

Tails inspected the damage to his arm with an experimental squeeze. Something he immediately regretted with a hiss of pain.

“Don’t do that idiot! There’s at least one broken finger in that hand.” Fiona reprimanded him.

“Sorry, I didn’t feel anything. Now I do.” Tails rose to his feet and inspected the wall that blocked their escape.

“So what’s the damage?” Fiona asked, still sitting in the center of the rocky prison.

Tails rubbed his good hand against the rock wall in front of him. He felt a few loose stones and pulled them out. Unfortunately he ran out relatively quick. For once, his high intellect failed him. He didn’t know what to do.

“I don’t know. Hopefully the other two aren’t crushed. They can buzz saw through this stuff eventually. Best I can do is hopefully blow my way through without causing another cave in.” Tails answered.

“Well then…I guess we wait.”

So they did, with no way to tell how much time had passed the two of them had no idea how long they had waited. Tails did his best to keep track in his head but found the endeavor fruitless after an hour.

“Well I’m tired of waiting in silence and catching you staring at me. What can we talk about?” Fiona said. Moving from the other side of the cave and placing herself next to Tails.

“I don’t have anything to say to you.” Tails said, averting his eyes and facing the first thing to catch is attention.

“Come on, Scourge can’t hear you if that’s why you don’t want to talk.”

Tails laughed at the idea. “You think I care what that green idiot hears me say about you?”

“Well you did run from us.”

“That was because Sonic and I didn’t think you were alone. We would of fought you if that wasn’t the case.”

“Riiight.” Fiona said sarcastically before moving to get back up, but stopping and sitting back down.

“Why did you try and protect me?”

Tails wouldn’t look her in the eye. He simply stared down at the floor in silence. At least for a while anyway.

“I don’t know.”

Fiona sighed and slid her hand down her face in exasperation. “This is still an issue isn’t it? After how many years? Five? Really Tails?”

Her condescending comment seemed to get really far under Tails’s skin. His fist clenched tightly and his face darkened for a moment before shaking his head and glaring daggers at her.

“You’re still good at hurting people aren’t you? I just saved your life and you try and bring me down! What is your problem?”

“My problem? I’m not the one holding on to a petty crush after five years.” She said, poking a finger into his chest for emphasis. Whether she poked his heart on purpose he didn’t know, but it stung all the more.

Tails got to his feet just for the satisfaction of talking down to her. “You know what your problem is?” He began. “You aren’t capable of caring for anything other than yourself.”

Fiona got to her feet as well, though unable to talk down to the slightly taller fox in front of her the same way he could to her. “News flash kid, I’m not one of your goodie two shoes friends for a reason. Despite that, I fixed your arm for you! Why don’t you start giving me a little respect and then worry about getting into my pants.”

What Fiona didn’t know was that Tails had this exact same conversation go down in his head countless times; it would be hard for him to miss a single beat. “How about your own news flash? You fixed my arm because you owed me! That’s the difference between you and me, I help because I’m needed and I want to. Not because of my own selfish reasons! You’d be surprised how much willpower it takes, when you could do the things I can do, to not turn into a psychopath. Besides, the last thing I’d want to do is catch Scourge’s genital warts.”

“Preach all you want. I don’t care about you, your feeling, your friends, or your ideals.” Fiona rebutted, counting off on her fingers. Glaring the daggers right back

Tails ground his teeth. He was sure Fiona had heard the small growl that involuntarily escaped from his throat. “I was always taught to be bigger than whoever I argued with. But screw that! You’ve done more than enough to deserve…” Tails ground his teeth even harder than before, so hard he thought one of them would chip.

Tails could feel his hand clench, just itching, to take a swing. But he forced his more violent instincts to settle down before he actually hurt her. “Give me one example of when you felt bad for someone other than yourself, a real example and I’ll take back everything I said.”

Fiona opened her mouth to say something, but stopped.

“That’s what I thought. Ever since you left with Scourge, how many people have you hurt? Hell, how many Mobians have you killed or watched Scourge kill? Wipe that look off of your face before I do, don’t pretend I didn’t know.”

Fiona felt strange, almost back when she was being interrogated at Robotnik’s lab when she was a child. Her eyes widened and she started hyperventilating as the memories surfaced again and the area around her started closing in on her. She collapsed onto the ground and scooted back into the nearest corner and buried her head in her knees to try and bury the memories again.

Tails watched the whole thing with a blank look.

‘Great, she’s losing it. I didn’t mean to bring that back…’ He did know what had happened to Fiona during her childhood.

Tails stood and watched as Fiona nearly choked on her sobs. She was right about one thing though, he did still care about her and that may have been what made him sit next to her and attempt to comfort her.

He placed his hand on her knee to get her attention and the act made her freeze up.

“Fiona?” He said as comforting as possible.

“Twelve.” She said, wiping the tears off of her face and glaring at him.

“Twelve what?” He knew, but he wanted her to say it.

“I watched Scourge burn a building to the ground without even blinking. There were twelve Moebians inside.”

Tails did nothing other than taking his hand away and shaking his head.

“What are you looking at me like that for? I’m not crying for those Moebians, I’m crying because of what Robotnik did to me.” Fiona buried her head in her knees again.

“I know.” Tails said, slipping his good arm around Fiona and pulling her a little closer. An action she at first resisted, but eventually gave in and rested her head on his shoulder and cried softly.

“How did you know about that?” She asked, more out of curiosity than any actual need to know.

“Ever heard of Auto?” Tails could feel Fiona tense up at the mention of his first wound’s name.

“I know about her, but how do you know about her? All she ever did was torture prisoners, including me.”

Tails sighed and pulled Fiona a little closer, more for himself than her. “She was the one, and only, direct attempt on my life by Robotnik. She was supposed to make me fall in love with her, lead me into her den, and then…kill me. I only got away because she rusted when I fell in the water and she came in after me to try and drown me.”

“That sucks.” Was all she said.

Tails laughed bitterly. “Yeah, it did suck.”

The two of them stayed together for a while. Simply basking in the crappy way they had experienced childhood together. Fiona then did something that really surprised him.

“I’m sorry about bringing all that up.”

Tails sighed and held Fiona a little tighter, something he would cherish while he could. “Sorry about reminding you of your captivity.”

Fiona took a calming breath and scooted more into Tails’s embrace, something he was grateful for. He’d never get over her at this rate.

“So long are you going to let me hold you like this?”

“Until I say stop.”

“Well, when will you say stop?”

“Knock it off. You know, you can be kind of intimidating when you try to be.”

Tails shrugged his shoulders. “I wasn’t trying to be intimidating, I guess it just sort of happens when I get angry. I was just trying to hurt you like you hurt me.”

“Well, if your ever trying to intimidate somebody, get angry. That seemed to work pretty well.”

They both shared a small laugh.

“I’ll be honest with you Fiona…I really miss you.”

But she didn’t answer him. She had fallen asleep on his shoulder. Something he was sure the gods were using to mess with him.

“Figures…” The day’s events had gotten to Tails himself and he could feel the dull ache in his arm driving him to close his eyelids and rest his head on Fiona’s head and rest.

Later

Tails was awoken by the severe throb of pain coming from his arm, and it only intensified when he put weight on it. Drawing a gasp of pain out of him that blasted all drowsiness out of his system.

“Tails! You idiot!” Fiona had same over and began doing some sort of rough massage on his arm and the pain died down slowly.

Tails hissed the last of the pain through his teeth. “My bad.”

“My bad? Honestly. You feel any better?” Fiona asked, rubbing up and down his battered arm.

“Yeah…so about-” Fiona cut him off.

“No, that didn’t happen. It was stupid. Forget about it.”

Tails could feel the words cut deep into the wound he had opened up again. “Why are you so adamant about forgetting about it?”

“Because it was stupid. That’s not who I am anymore.” Fiona got up and turned away from Tails, refusing to acknowledge his presence.

“If it isn’t who you are anymore, than why did you do it?”

“Because…because-” Fiona had trouble forming a sentence. But Tails stopped her when he placed his hand on her shoulder and turned her around.

“Fiona, I know it’s hard to believe, but I don’t have any ill will towards you.”

“That’s easy to say.” Fiona cast her eyes downward again a move that was confusing Tails greatly.

“Fiona, please stop beating yourself up over what happened. We just slept near each other, we didn’t even do anything. Yeah, we shared some private moments with each other. But that’s all.”

“That’s not why I’m upset.”

“Fiona dammit! Look at me!” She refused at first, but Tails grabbed her chin and forced her to look at him. He could see that her eyes were extremely conflicted about something, something he was going to pry out of her.

“If you really weren’t the kind of person to open up to me. Then tell me, why did you?”

“f I told you I’d never be able to forgive myself, so there is absolutely no way I’ll tell you.” Fiona batted Tails hand away and walked away to the other side of the cave.

But Tails wasn’t letting her off that easy.

“Fiona, I never told anyone about Auto. You’re the only one who knows about a pretty dark secret of mine. Why don’t you open up to me again? Why-” it seemed that he had finally broken Fiona’s patience.

“Because I enjoyed it! I want to do it again! All right? Are you happy?!?” Fiona said, whipping around on her heels and jabbing a finger into his chest again before sighing and falling to the floor.

“I’m such a floozy.” She said, putting her hands in her face and sighing.

“It isn’t a bad thing to have enjoyed falling asleep in someone’s arms. I’m sure you and Scourge do that all the time.”

“No Tails, you don’t get it do you? I enjoyed it because it was with you. Scourge doesn’t hold me like that, Scourge doesn’t talk to me like that, Scourge doesn’t treat me like that. I feel more like a toy than girlfriend.”

‘Is she serious?’

“Now I don’t know what to do. I’ve been with Scourge for so long I feel like I have to stay. But everyone over there is just so cold to me. Then when I come over here, not only does a kid who’s heart I broke save my life, that same kid tells me he missed me even after everything I did.” Fiona was laughing at herself by the end of her speech.

The whole thing was unbelievable to Tails, it almost seemed like he was dreaming. But the dull throb in his arm assured him that he was awake. Fiona was confessing everything he wanted to hear and he wasn’t sure how to respond to it.

“So, uh, you heard that?” Tails said, suddenly embarrassed. Scratching the back of his head with his hand.

“Of course I did. It’s the main reason I said all of that. How can you do it Tails? How can you care about someone even after they did something horrible to you?” Fiona asked, getting back to her feet to talk to him, face to face.

“I just let go. I didn’t hold on to what you did to me because I cared about you. You never really cared about us, that was probably why you couldn’t let go to what Sonic did. Even I would have trouble letting go of something like that.”

“That’s it? Just let go?” It sounded ludicrous, and yet so right.

“Yeah, but that’s up to you.”

“I think…I think, I can let go of my past.”

“You can huh?”

“Yes, yes I can.”

“Then prove it to me.”

She wasn’t sure if it was right or wrong or not. But she didn’t care. Fiona grabbed Tails by his shoulders and brought her lips to his in the only way she knew how to apologize.

“So you made your choice then?” Tails asked, his head in cloud nine.

“You bet. I’m sorry for everything.”

“No more apologizing.” Tails said before kissing her again. Their tails encircling the two of them in a cocoon of fur and warmth. He wasn’t getting in trouble for this so he was going to abuse the chance maliciously.

The two of them didn’t part until the need for air was present. Afterward, Fiona placed her head on Tails’s chest to simply bask in the afterglow.

“If were done screaming at each other, how do we get out?” Fiona asked, almost unwilling to move from the fluffy pillow on her head.

“We’re just going to have to kill time and wait to get rescued.”

“That’s fine with me.”

The two of them waited on top of a small corner of rocks and chatted to one another, simply content with catching up the other side of the other’s life.

Eventually though, all good things must come to an end. That end came in the form of Scourge busting through the wall opposite them and Sonic following shortly after.

“Remind me never to fight you in a cave again.” Scourge said, dusting himself and his jacket off.

“How about I remind you not to fight me at all?” Sonic said, smacking the side of his head to dislodge any loose dirt.

“Like that’ll ever happen. Come on Fiona, we cleared the entrance too. We’re leaving.” Scourge said, beginning to go through the hole both hedgehogs had taken turns making.

“I’m good thanks.” She said, going back to stroking Tails’s tail.

“What?” Scourge wasn’t alone when he voiced his surprise. Sonic was too.

“She said she’s good.” Tails answered for the two of them.

“I’m not talking to you pipsqueak. Fiona, lets. Go.” It sounded more like an order than it did a suggestion. A tone that didn’t sit well with Tails.

“If you think she’s going to follow you because you’re together, then you’ve got another thing coming.” Tails answer froze Scourge mid stride.

He turned with the most bewildered look on his face before laughing into his hand. “You’ve got to be kidding me. Pipsqueak here stole my girlfriend? Oh man…”

Scourge made a big sigh before making his face look disappointed while he shook his head. “Now I have to beat you into paste.”

“Like to see you try.” Tails said, sided by his best friend almost by instinct.

Scourge weighed his options while he ground his teeth. He would probably lose to both of them at once, but since Tails had a damaged arm. He might be able to pull it off.

But Tails seemingly read his mind. “If you think I can’t fight with this arm then think again.” Tails suddenly tore the cloth cast off of his arm and threw it to the side. His arm then began to crackle with chaos energy as he overflowed it.

“You took her once, it won’t happen again.” Tails felt a force surge through his body far more intense than any other force he had felt before a fight.

Scourge then thought twice and decided he wouldn’t get away from both of them at full power. He spit at their feet before condescendingly insulting them as he left. “Whatever. Keep her if you want her that bad. I’m out of here.”

After a minute it was obvious that Scourge had activated his warp ring and left through it.

“So.” Sonic began, breaking the tense silence that had befallen the group once they were outside. “Car to tell me how this happened?”

Tails wrapped his good arm around Fiona and pulled her close. Eliciting a giggle from the fox girl and putting a big smile on his face. “I’ll tell you on the way back.”