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As Sonic propped the Miles Electric up in the counter, he mentally hoped— no, begged— that its creator would not notice that it was missing.
He and Tails had recently visited Chun-Nan. Tails hadn’t been all over the world just yet like he had, but he was going to make sure that the kid saw most of it eventually.
The villagers had given the pair most of the local delicacies, which caused Tails to discover his newfound love for gyoza.
The kid had found a recipe and downloaded it onto the Miles Electric, but hadn’t had the time to make any with Eggman’s frequent attacks. Sonic decided to make it for him a little end-of-day surprise.
After doing a quick grocery run, he had everything he needed to make the gyoza. He had even bought chopsticks, and those training chopsticks in case Tails didn’t know how to use them.
To say he was over-prepared was an understatement.
Sonic quickly dashed down to Tails’ workshop to make sure the boy was distracted. After a quick glance around the room, he saw the white tip of a tail coming from under the Tornado.
“Hey Tails, you all good in here?”
“Yep,” was the quiet response.
With that done, Sonic zipped back to the kitchen. A quick glance over all the ingredients, and he was ready to start.
“Okay, let’s see…” Sonic mumbled to himself. It was a habit he had picked up, but he only did it while he cooked.
“Combine the cabbage and half the salt, and then allow 20 minutes for the cabbage to wilt…”
Sonic began sifting through the cabinets for bowls. Once he found one that he was okay with, he plucked it out of the drawer and dropped it on the table, not paying attention to the loud clang that the bowl made.
He picked up the cabbage head. “Am I supposed to cut it first, or put the whole thing in there?”
Turning back to the Miles Electric, he scrolled back up to the list of ingredients.
’1 1/2 cups green cabbage, very finely chopped’
”Ah.”
Nothing some quick chopping couldn’t fix. Sonic grabbed a knife and a cutting board, quickly (but safely) spinning the blade on his index finger once before gently digging the knife into the cabbage, slicing it into thin little bits.
When he was done he plopped it in the bowl, added salt, and then put it in the fridge.
He kept meaning to ask Tails to fix the fridge light. It flickered whenever the door opened, and often just went completely out. Seeing as he was the only one who regularly used the fridge, it was likely his responsibility to inform someone.
Looking back at the recipe for guidance, Sonic grabbed another bowl to mix the ground pork, garlic chives, crushed garlic cloves, grated ginger, sesame oil, cornflour, and soy sauce.
Twenty minutes later, he could complete the next step: mix the filling with the cabbage, squeezing any excess water out of the green vegetable.
‘Now use your hands to mix the filling.’
Not wanting to get his hands dirty, Sonic grabbed a wooden spoon and began to mix the ingredients together.
He did, as any good cook should, taste the mixture.
He could see why Tails enjoyed it so much.
”Next I have to wrap the dumplings…”
Sonic placed the gyoza wrapper on the table and placed the filling in the center. He then folded the wrapper over the cabbage mix, and made tiny ridges in it with his finger.
The gyoza crumbled apart in his hands, cabbage spilling out over the table.
”Oops-“
The hedgehog took another crack at it before realizing he didn’t follow the instructions correctly.
”Ohhh! I have to wet the edges first.”
Trying again, he successfully created a small lump. While they didn’t look amazing, Sonic figured that it didn’t matter what they looked like, as long as they tasted good.
Fourty-three dumplings later, he had used all of the filling and was ready to cook them.
Sonic zipped to the cupboard to get a skillet when he slipped on some cabbage and fell to the ground, yanking all the pots and pans to the kitchen’s hardwood floor with him.
It couldn’t have been that loud, right? Tails would definitely still be in his workshop-
”Sonic?”
Oops. Guess he heard.
He looked up from the pile of pots to find Tails standing in the doorway to the kitchen, staring at him with a hand on his hip.
“What are you doing?”
He chose to avoid the question. “The fridge light needs fixing,” he said with a shaky smile.
”Are you okay? What’s going on?”
Sonic sighed. So much for the surprise.
“I was making those little dumplings you liked.”
The kit’s face practically lit up. “The ones we got in Chun-Nan?”
”Yep,” he replied with a chuckle.
“Can I help?” Tails swung over the railing on the stairs, loping over to the hedgehog. The kit was practically emitting joy.
”Sure, why not,” Sonic said with a smile and a shrug. “I was just about to cook them. Can you get the olive oil?”
”Of course!” Tails said, with a tail wag.
After Sonic cooked the bottom of the pot stickers, he removed them from the pan. A couple of the dumplings ripped, releasing their delicious insides.
”Sonic… we were supposed to steam the dumplings first.”
“…Oh.”
“It’s fine,” the kid replied. “We just steam r them, and we’re done. How many did you make?”
”Uh, forty-three?”
”That’s a lot.”
________
It took another twenty minutes for them to steam, drain, and plate the rest of the gyoza. Some of them had ended up as random balls of gyoza wrappers, as the ones that were ripped lost their filling in the steaming process.
”Hahah… stickers.”
Tails had the dumpling halfway to his mouth when he stopped, confused. “What?”
”They stuck to the pan, y’know like stickers.”
The kit put his chopsticks down and stared at the hedgehog for a full five seconds before playfully sneering at him.
”You’re not as funny as you think you are.”
He looked crestfallen. “I’m very funny.”
Tails sighed, looking down at his plate. He nudged the gyoza with the edge of his chopstick. There was a look on his face that Sonic couldn’t quite place.
”I’m surprised you liked them. I wrapped them so badly that they just looked like little blobs.”
Tails didn’t respond.
”…Tails?”
”Thank you.”
”For?”
”For doing this for me.” The kit turned to the hedgehog. One of the brightest and sweetest smiles that he had seen was spread across the little fox’s face, so bright that it was hard for Sonic not to smile back at him.
“You didn’t have to anything.”
“I wanted to.”
”That was very nice of you.” Tails leaned into him, wrapping his arms around the hedgehog and placing his head on his peachy chest. “So thank you.”
Sonic returned the hug. “Anytime, Tails.”