Chapter Text
With the heat of machines whirring and the soldering iron smoking, the inside of Tails’ workshop was immune to the below freezing winter air outside.
“It takes a steady hand to connect the circuits without damaging them,” Tails demonstrated, raising his iron as a trail of smoke curled up into the air. He waved away the smoke and turned to look at his friend, Silver.
“Silver, do you want to solder the next one?” Tails asked with a smile.
Silver immediately shook his head and shrugged.
“I’m not ready for that yet,” the hedgehog admitted. “Have you seen my handwriting? I need more practice with that first.”
Tails laughed, “I thought you'd have great fine motor skills, after all, you activate your psychokinesis with your hands and control it with your fingers.”
Silver conscientiously rubbed his mechanical wrist braces. “It’s a different skill altogether. I can’t possibly explain… Anyway, you go on, it’s always cool getting to watch you work.”
Tails beamed. “Thanks!”
He was about to start on the next circuit when Silver suddenly cried out, “ASH!”
The fox lifted his visor. “What?!”
“Outside!” Silver ran past some of Tails’ mechs and pointed out the massive window that extended from the floor to the ceiling.
Tails’ face scrunched in worry as he powered down his soldering equipment and set it aside as fast as he could. He leapt up, suspending himself in the air with his propeller tails to get a better view.
He raised his eyebrows in relief, “No Silver, that’s snow!” He stifled a chuckle and cracked a smile.
Silver turned sharply and looked up, his brows still knit together. “Snow?”
“Yeah!” Tails confirmed, flying close to the window. It fogged up from his warm breath. “I know you’ve seen it at least once, right? In White Acropolis?”
Silver’s eyes widened with realization and he gasped. “That WASN’T ash?”
A loud “Ha!” Escaped Tails before he could cover his mouth. The fox’s ears flopped as he landed beside Silver.
“Hm hm, oh sorry Silver, I didn’t mean to laugh but…” Tails cleared his throat. “But how did you… How…”
Tails stopped himself, glancing back out the window. “Let’s go outside.”
He grabbed Silver by the hand and rushed out the workshop, hovering over the stairs to avoid slipping on ice.
By the looks of it, the snow had already been falling for a while. The ground, rocks, and trees were coated in a two-inch-thick layer of perfectly white snow. Tiny rays of sunshine poked through the gaps of the dense clouds above, making the snow sparkle ever so slightly.
Silver gripped Tails’ hand tightly. The hedgehog’s knees bent defensively as his spines slowly raised up along his back and head.
“Chill out Silver!” Tails snorted at his own pun. “Snow is just water. Water frozen in such a way that it branches out in a fractal pattern on the microscopic level and then sticks to other snowflakes like a puzzle!”
Silver side-eyed Tails doubtfully.
“It won’t hurt you.” Tails assured simply.
Silver bent down to investigate the snow. He swept his hand along the grass until he had a small heap of snow sitting on his fingers. He felt the cold wetness seep through his gloves. It was so cold it almost burned the longer he let it sit. Silver folded his fingers over the snow, pressing it into his palm. He turned his hand around and let it go, gasping a little when he saw the snow had clumped together. He caught it in his other hand, scrutinizing it.
Tails giggled at Silver’s awe and scooped up a pile of snow, packing it into a ball. “Look!” He said, pointing to his new creation, “You can make snowballs!”
Silver briefly glanced down at his snow lump and them back at Tails. “... Okay.”
Without warning, Tails hurled the snowball. Silver jumped back when it smacked into his chest, little chunks of wet snow splattering everywhere.
“What was that for?!” Silver shouted, arms out.
Tails laughed as he reached down to make more snowballs. “It’s called a snowball fight!”
Silver tilted his head to the side, “Snowball fight?” He repeated in a low voice.
Tails replied, “Yeah, it’s for fun!”
Silver stood still, looking down at his crumbling snow lump sticking to his gloves. His nose wrinkled as he quirked a brow. After a long pause, Silver ran along the ground, shoveling up snow into his hands.
Tails smirked and narrowed his eyes, throwing a ball as Silver struggled to form a neatly packed snowball. It made a satisfying whack as it slapped into his cheek. Silver stumbled and growled, thrusting himself up into the air with his psychokinesis as he continued working on his snowball.
“Take this!” Silver spun in the air, raising his snowball high before launching it at Tails.
Tails jumped to the side, dodging the ball as it slammed into the ground.
The fox grinned mischievously “That one was a bit sloppy!”
Silver backflipped in the air, his aura spiraling like a ribbon of light behind him. He took up two heaping handfuls of snow and gritted his teeth.
“Not as sloppy as your face is gonna be when I’m through with you!” Silver spun again, throwing the balls at Tails' face. The fox giggled and sputtered when some of the snow splashed against his muzzle.
“You have to pack the snow extra tight!” Tails explained as he grabbed some snow from the ground, “otherwise it starts to fall apart midair.” He pounded and rolled snow around in his hands and made a tight fist.
Silver dove to the ground, the incoming snowball flying above his head.
Tails nodded, impressed. “Nice dodge. I still managed to get more snow on you!” He looked down triumphantly as Silver pushed himself up from the snow.
Silver shuddered as he frantically wiped snow off his chest and belly, his wet fur hanging limp.
If only I could have quills on every part of my body. He thought as he felt icy cold sinking into his core.
Silver rushed past Tails, scooping up more snow. “I’ll get you for this!” He threatened with a laugh, hopping around as Tails whipped a few more snowballs his way.
Silver rolled behind a rock, smacking as much snow as he could find into shape. He laughed as the ball grew bigger and bigger, almost as big as his head. His smile fell when he realized it would be too heavy to easily lift over the rock without falling apart. No matter. He had a better plan.
Tails stomped up to the rock shielding Silver, four balls tucked in his arms and his tails curled around two more behind him.
Tails tried to mimic a villain, narrowing his eyes. “You can’t hide forever, hedgehog! Bahah ha ho ho!”
Tails leaned in for a good throw, nearly losing his footing when the big rock suddenly began glowing as it slid away, revealing Silver curled around a snowball twice the size of his head.
Silver grinned, spinning again as he chucked the massive snowball, knocking Tails over as it collided with his knees. Tails laughed, scrambling to get the snowballs that were knocked out of his hands before Silver could make more.
They ran back and forth, trying to come up with more villain and hero insults, ending up sounding more like pirates. They climbed up trees and rocks, rolled down hills, catching each other off guard and splattering them with fistfuls of snow.
Before long, both of them were wet and the ground was bare.
Silver shook out his quills and dusted snow off his chest fluff. He smiled at Tails, “I have an idea.”