Chapter Text
6:30 am reads a beeping clock for a young fox who stirs from a deep sleep and grumbles as he hits the off button. Miles Tails Prower, a yellow and white fox, age 22, a former college student going to Virginia Tech majoring in mechanical engineering always had a knack for mechanics and tech and anything with machinery. Tails gets ready for his first day of classes wearing a white t-shirt, blue jeans, and a leather brown jacket. He grabs his messenger bag from his desk and heads down stairs and grabs a quick bite to eat and pours a cup of coffee before heading out to his Chevy truck. As he drives and finds parking on campus he checks his watch as he still had 30 mins until class started he sits back in his seat admiring the campus until he notices a young vixen walking past his truck talking to a few friends of hers as he drinks his coffee. She wore a nice red shirt with jeans.
Zooey laughs softly as one of her friends tells her a joke as she catches Tails looking at her. She smiles at him as she tucks some hair behind her ear, Tails blinks a few times before smiling back at her before drinking more coffee until Silver knocks on his window hard. He jumps a little, almost spilling his coffee, snapping out of his train of thought and looks at him, “Wha-what the hell?! How many times do I have to tell you I hate being sneaked up on!” Silver laughs at his reaction as Tails opens the door, slowly getting out grabbing his bag. Silver, a 23 year old hedgehog with white and silver fur, also majoring in engineering and Tails' best friend. “You should have seen the look on your face! Ha ha! Priceless! Also I SAW that other look on your face too.” Silver grins at him, raising an eyebrow looking at Zooey then back at him. Tails blushes a little and punches his arm softly, “I-I have no idea what you're talking about…coffee was too hot.” Tail closes his truck door and walks with Silver up to the main doors of the building. “I’m not talking about the hot coffee bro…I’m talking about the hot chick I saw you looking at, and it seems she has an eye for you too” he grins and winks at him. Tails drinks more of his coffee, looking away from him a bit. “Fine I admit it…she does look cute, but I don’t know her name.” he shrugs. “From what I've heard her name is Zooey and she's majoring in cognitive behavioral, something science…” Tails raises an eyebrow and replies, “You mean cognitive behavioral neuroscience?” Silver blinks once, “Yeah that’s it.” He chuckles softly and shakes his head and walks to his class giving him a short salute. Silver does the same before walking to his own class down the hall.
As Tails walks in he looks for a place to sit in the lecture hall he takes a seat towards the middle of the room. He takes out his computer from his bag and opens it and waits for class to start. He takes some mint gum out of his pocket to chew on and plays with his pencil, looking around the class as he waits, Zooey says goodbye to her friend Amy before walking into class. He perks up a little as he sees her walk in looking for a place to sit, some guys offer her to sit next to them trying to make conversation. She smiles weakly at them as she continues walking until she sees Tails and walks up to him, “Do you mind if I sit here?” He blushes a little and nods and moves a little bit as she sits down next to him, taking her computer out. She notices a hint of mint coming from him and turns a little bit seeing him chew. He starts to make paper planes out of the gum wrapper. When he finishes, he throws it, seeing how far it travels. It lands in a classmate's fur and he chuckles softly. She giggles “You like airplanes?” Zooey asks. He nods, “Yeah I love to tinker with anything mechanical and fly planes someday, maybe as a pilot or a plane mechanic, I am majoring in mechanical engineering after all” he smiles. Zooey nods a little, “A pilot huh? Sounds exciting, where do you plan on traveling?” he thinks, “ I don’t know but I do want to travel the world someday, I like living life in the fast lane…what about you? What are you majoring in?” She studies him a little before giving him an answer, “Cognitive behavioral neuroscience, it focuses on thought processes and overall how we act…like right now I can tell you are feeling a little nervous or flushed” he stops chewing and stares at her. She giggles softly. “I'm kidding, I'm still learning about it, I don’t study people that closely.” he laughs nervously, “Yeah, t-that's good haha, that would be weird…” he blushes more.
As he was about to say something else the professor walked in greeting the class and talking about math. “Our first assignment is a project, I know, I know what you're going to say, why a project already on our first day of class? I believe in getting to know at least one classmate throughout your years in college and it gives you all a chance to get to know one another. In pairs of two you both will be interviewing each other and then presenting the information to the class including an interesting fact. Choose wisely as this will be your partner for the rest of the semester in future projects at least in my class.” The professor walks around handing out papers of the project. “Now go choose your partner, then we'll get started with class.” Zooey turns to tails, “So we have to choose a partner…” Tails rubs his head a little, “Yup…you don’t suppose you have anyone in mind…do you?” Zooey looks at him then at the other guys around, some smirk others wink at her. She looks back at him, “Nope! You?...” Tails smiles and shakes his head. She does the same, “My name is Zooey, I don’t think I caught yours.” she extends her hand out for a handshake “Miles Tails prower, but everyone just calls me Tails for short” he shakes her hand softly. They both blush while holding hands and let go quickly. “Do you like mint gum?” He offers her some. She nods and gladly takes one “Thank you, Tails” she blushes a little. “Anytime” He grins softly.
(MONTAGE TIME!) Over the course of a few weeks Tails and Zoey work on the project meeting up with each other on and off campus and at each other's apartments. Meeting up and asking questions with each other while they are working on their labs for other classes. Tails puts on his goggles while looking at a car engine as he tightens a bolt. Zooey watches him closely as he works while asking him some questions. He wipes his face a little getting some motor oil on him, she idolizes him a little blinking a few times. He catches her looking at him, and clears his throat a little and smiles blushing as he continues working. She blushes and goes on to the next question. Silver walks into the lab about to say something to Tails until he notices them talking and he shuts up immediately and smiles at both of them. Next he meets her at the chemistry lab as he puts some coffee next to her as she’s working. He starts to ask her questions, she listens as she measures some chemicals into a tube, he studies her a little bit. He blushes a bit as she writes down some info in her notes, she turns to him as he catches her looking at her. He clears his throat and looks away and asks the next question. She smiles and continues answering his questions. Silver peaks in the chemistry lab and sees them together again and rolls his eyes a little and sees a flier about the Navy recruitment. He thinks and takes it and walks away. News starts spreading around that the government is needing recruits as they are low on them as Dictator Robonik is waging war on the U.S. with his robots and soldiers. Tails and Zooeys meet ups turn into dates as the semester goes on. (End of Montage)
“I'm telling you Amy he’s amazing!” she giggles as she gushes about him as they walk out of the building. Amy smiles at her, “Sounds like your head over heels for him girl, I'm glad he's treating you well…I hope you spend a lot of time with Tails. Me and Sonic are trying to see each other before he gets called to the Navy.” Zooey stops and looks at Amy, “The Navy? Why?” Zooey asks, showing concern. She sighs a little, “Have you heard lately? The government has been sending letters to recruit men who they think are eligible for either the army, navy, airforce, and all of that because of the tensions building up between the U.S and Robotnik…they might go to war soon..” Zooey looks at Amy worried, “I hope Tails doesn’t get a letter…I don’t want him to go to war…” Amy puts a hand on her shoulder and reassures her, “I hope they don’t go, but we can hope for the best..and maybe they put them to work on planes or something.” Zooey smiles softly and nods.
Meanwhile back at the Mechanical Lab, Tails continues to work on a car engine until Sonic the Hedgehog comes in laughing with a few of his friends and walks to his project and bumps into Tails hard causing him to drop some oil on both of them. Sonic, a blue hedgehog about 23 years old, everyone knows him as the fastest runner on the college track team and currently dating Amy and can have a cocky and competitive attitude most of the time. Tails looks at him groans and looks at him annoyed. Sonic looks at Tails angry, “What the hell dude?! I got oil all over my fur! Can’t you watch where you're going?!” He tries to clean the oil off with a rag. Tails glares at him, “What do you mean watch where i’m going?! You’re the one who bumped into me while I was working!” he tells him. Sonic glares at him, “Look runt you better pray this oil comes off in the next hour before my date or i'll find you..” Tails rolls his eyes, “Take a shower with soap and it will come off geeshh it's not that bad…” he cleans himself up too. Sonic eyes him,”Next time stay out of my way..” he shoves him and continues wiping and walking to his project at the otherside of the room. He grunts and glares at him and starts to pack up his stuff and walks to the door. He stops before walking out and sees some bolts and grabs them slowly and holds them in his hand before looking at him. “Hey, even before you had oil on you….I still highly recommend a shower…” he grins.
Sonic gets up quickly and runs to him, “Why you little-” Tails throws the bolts on the ground and makes a dash for the exit as he laughs as Sonic slips on them cursing at him. He runs out chuckling and hides behind some buildings for a few mins before making his way to his truck. He sees Silver waiting for him leaning on his truck with a serious look on his face. Tails' looks at him confused as he approaches him. “What are you smiling about?” He looks at him confused, crossing his arms. “Why so serious?” Tails chuckles. Silver takes out an open letter and hands it to him. Tails takes it, “What's this?” and he starts to read it, his smile drops slowly as his face turns into seriousness and concern. He looks at him quickly, “You're going to the Navy?” Silver nods slowly and sighs, “Yeah I got called…the government is mailing them out to the guys who they think are eligible to join from what's been going on…” Tails gives him back his letter slowly. “I hope I don’t have one when I get back to my apartment…I don’t want to leave Zooey..” Silver rolls his eyes, “Dude that's all you care about right now?! You have been seeing her almost all day since the first day of class…and you hardly ever hang out with me anymore…honestly I guess i’m glad I got this letter…don’t be surprised if you get one too…if you do…i'll see you there…and maybe you should start thinking how you’re going to tell her…” He walks to his car and gets in and drives off. Tails watches him go and groans and sighs as he checks his watch, “Only a few more hours until my date…I really hope I don’t get one…” He mumbles before getting in his truck driving off to his apartment. Tails soon pulls up in his driveway of his apartment and walks to the mailbox and checks it. He walks to his door, opening it and closing it behind him as he looks through his letter. He widens his eyes and sees a thick one with a Navy Recruitment Letter in bold letters. “Shit…”