Work Text:
It was becoming late evening and a thunderstorm wasn't far away. The clouds made it so dark that it seemed like it was night time.
Tails was still in his workshop, aware of the approaching storm but not overly concerned. Tinkering helped ease his anxiety of the stormfront, causing him to lose track of time.
Out of almost nowhere, he heard a thump and some rustling in his workshop, causing him to jump and almost lose his wrench.
"Hello...?" Tails turns in his chair and calls back.
He sees a black and teal figure in the corner, tucked behind some of his clutter. The fox gets up and cautiously walks over, wrench still in hand.
The figure seems just about as startled as he was, growling at him. They were down on all four's and seemed to be in a defensive stance.
Tails, however, seemed relatively unfazed. After all, this was another mobian, and seemed to need some help. Not only was this another mobian, it was another canine.
Besides Infinite, he hadn't really seen another canine. The teal was some kind of a sweatshirt and the black was their fur.
He drops down to their level, sitting on the floor and setting his wrench down. He offers out a gentle hand, hoping that the being would take it as a sign of friendship.
"Hey, pup. What brings you into my workshop?"
This canine, which he determined to be wolf, still stood their ground but stopped their growls. Instead of the defensive stance, they instead sit, a glare still in their eyes.
They give his hand a little sniff just because it was right there.
"That's better. No need to be so growly, right?" He lets out a small laugh, retracting his hand.
-Just then, thunder finally cracks through the air, violently startling both canines. It prompts Tails to let out the yip of a wild fox, which intrigued this being.
"That scared you too, didn't it?"
To his surprise, the wolf hesitates, then nods.
"You must've come in here so that you didn't have to deal with the storm, didn't you? You're smart."
He reaches his hand back out, making a bold move towards their head. No growls started, just weariness. His gentle, gloved hand rests on the wolf's head, softly rubbing the base of their ear. They didn't seem to mind. In fact, they might've even enjoyed it. Their head leans in, silently pleading for more pets, causing Tails to giggle.
"You like this a lot, don't you?"
For as long as the pair were comfortable with it, Tails kept stroking the wolf, progressively moving to other parts of them; muzzle, back, shoulders, even their legs and tail to see how they'd like it, which they didn't and growled.
He then tried the "special spot", a place where canines would flop over and sometimes kick their legs. It was the spot on the rump, above the tail.
The wolf did flop over onto their side and one leg kicking.
"Aww, you're really enjoying this spot, aren't you?"
Another rumble of thunder disrupts them both, the wolf getting back into a sitting position and standing guard once again.
"I know, I know. I wish we could stop the thunder from happening, but we can't."
The wolf lets out a displeased huff at that.
"You seem to understand me... can you speak? Do you have a name?" Tails still had a lot of questions swirling in his mind, but was trying to contain them so that he didn't bombard his guest.
His questions hung in the air for a little while, and just as he was about to break the silence, the wolf does instead.
"Stardust... My name is Stardust..." Their voice was gruff, almost like it was hardly used. But their tone was trying to be soft.
"Stardust, huh? That's a nice name. My name's Miles, but everyone calls me Tails, as you can probably see why."
He moves his twin tails over to his right side so that the wolf could get a good look at them.
Instead of disgust like he was expecting, he was met with intergue. Although they still had quite the cautious behavior, they take quad-steps forward and sniffed at them.
Tails watched with his own curiosity, wondering what they were planning. He was caught off guard by nuzzling and giggled.
"What are you doing?"
Instead of any verbal response, their mouth gently holds one while their paws pinned his other.
"You're strange, but I like that. You can stay in here as long as you'd like. Whether it's to wait out the storm-" on cue, a less violent than before rumble sounds, "-or just using this place as shelter, I don't mind. You seem pretty well-off on your own, anyway."
He pokes their stomach, but instead of growls, it was now just a flinch. Tails had a point, though. Stardust had a good amount of meat on their bones, might've even been a little on the fat side.
They let go of the tail in their mouth, the appendage floating down over them.
"You're rather silly, too."
He pets the top of their head again.
"Do you have a pack that will be waiting for you?"
He knew that the question could be delicate, but he wanted to know the likelihood of them being able to stay.
"No... I've lived alone my whole life..."
The wolf nuzzles into his side, causing Tails to have a faint blush.
"Oh... sorry to hear that... but like I said before, you can stay here. I have a couch over there that you can sleep on," He points over to it, Stardust's head raising and following his finger. The couch seemed old and worn, but still functional. Even if they didn't really express it, they seemed interested in the concept. They put their head back down, seeming content all wrapped up in his tails.
"Or you can just stay like this... that's fine."
He was just going to play this out by what the wolf wanted, considering that they still seemed somewhat distrusting. He goes ahead and pets them again.
Stardust was starting to feel the weight of tiredness with how comfortable his tails and touches were. He noticed them drifting off but didn't do anything to stop it. After all, what better could they do during a thunderstorm if it wasn't disrupting them badly?
Droopy eyes fall...
closing all the way...
losing the feeling of the caring touch...
pure peace...
What might have been the middle of the night, they woke up. Stardust finds that they had been moved onto the previously mentioned couch, snuggled behind the fox with his tails draped over their body as a blanket. All of that fluff from his summer coat was on them in the cool workshop.
For as weary as they were, they could get used to a caring life like this.