Work Text:
Getting darker.
He supposed it wasn’t the worst way to go.
Eggman had been silent for longer than usual. Now, that in of itself wasn’t something too out of the ordinary, but this time in particular there came about a weird itch. An itch the two-tailed vulpine couldn’t quite rid himself of. He wasn’t buying it. Something was up or amiss or wrong and Tails was going to be the first to find out exactly what it was. What the doctor was planning or perhaps a possible location for his next strike, anything. Figuring he was in it for the long run, he had also started making preparations and countermeasures for an attack should it come before he could figure out what old Egghead was up to.
In retrospect, this proved to be a bad idea.
Tails was used to biting off more than he could chew, especially when it came to stopping Eggman and protecting his friends by working in the lab. Developing tech or surveillance or drawing up plans, whatever helped. However this time he really, really, bit off a lot more than usual.
Getting darker, still.
It started with one invention and then the next and before he knew it he was making new plans and countermeasures while in the process of drawing up other countermeasures that he had thought about while planning other ones. It was a lot, and so far a very difficult four days, with minimal food and water and sure as hell no sleep to keep him going. He’d really outdone himself this time.
He would’ve kept going too, honest, he could still work and be productive, if it weren’t for that split second decision to go check on the water cooling vat. He doesn’t remember why or when he managed to drag himself up the ladder to the platform, but there he was, regardless. Unfortunately, it was on top of the vat where all his poor decisions over the past few days had decided to catch up with him.
It's too dark now.
One moment he was standing upright with his eyes closed for a second (just a second), and the next he had smacked his head on the platform, earning him a minor concussion, and had fallen directly into the water cooling vat. His unconscious self lazily thrashed in the water on instinct, attempting to surface, however it proved to be rather ineffective. This was the end. The water was so cold, he remembered it rushing into his ears, nose, and mouth until suddenly he couldn’t hear anymore and it was just dark. Darker than before.
Maybe it was on him. He had been told multiple times before to take care of himself and here’s how that ended up. The freak could fix an entire biplane with a toothpick and crazy glue but Gaia forbid he eat and sleep for once. Such is the downfall of the great Miles “Tails” Prower, a bit of fatigue and hunger. This had to be some sort of genius equivalent of slipping on a banana peel.
This was his fault, and now he was going to die.
But suddenly, the darkness began to fade away. It was no longer the buzzing comfort of approaching death, or an endless void of unknown darkness before him, or a cold rushing fluid rippling around his floating figure. No, this feeling…
Burned, it was burning. His lungs and throat were no doubt on fire and aching, collapsing, and his chest had taken quite a beating. Before he knew it, his eyes sprang open and he swore—if it didn’t feel like he was currently dying all over again—he was in heaven.
The angelic lapine he knew all too well was looking down on him with her coffee-coloured eyes, her face practically smushed right against his, her orange hair and beige fur brushing against his forehead. Her brow was furrowed and she seemed in distress over something, she looked like she’d been drenched in water and possibly crying. Despite this, the same bit of twinkle was in her eyes that Tails knew all too well. His best friend. Cream the—
Tails’ whole body shot up and quickly fell to the side as he began to violently throw up the large amount of water that had trapped itself within him. Once that was over, and his tears began to blend in with his already soaked fur, he started to gain his bearings. He inhaled sharply at the air he had been missing for however long he was under there for. Everything hurt, that was immediately obvious, and he felt incredibly weak and cold and—
He almost died.
“Tails!” his lop-eared friend next to him cried out. “What happened?! Are you okay? I- I came in and you were just floating there! I was so scared, I thought you were dead!” She was in hysterics, her sobs weren’t there, not yet, but they could still be heard.
It took the amber teen a second to find his voice. “Yeah… I- I’m fine thanks,” he uttered. “What are you doing here?”
Cream straightened up and sat on her knees, fidgeting with her dank gloves. “I came to check on you. I was worried about you,” she looked right at him now, looking into him. “No one had seen you for a while but I’ve been periodically checking in. You barely acknowledged me when I was here a couple hours ago.”
He couldn’t even remember her previous visit if he was going to be honest. “Well, I’m alright, everything is fine now,” he patted the top of her hand without much thought. Cream stared at him, baffled as he spoke like this was just any regular day to him. He turned back towards his workbench, “I just need a quick break and then I can get back to what I was doing.”
“Are you insane?” she lashed at him. Standing up now, even at a year younger she was a whole head taller than the fox, “You almost drowned! You almost died, and your first thought is about when you can get back to work?!”
“I almost die all the time,” he responded, “it’s not a big deal.”
“Yes it is! It’s one thing to get knocked around by Eggman but it’s a whole other thing to neglect yourself and let some stupid lab do you in,” Cream argued.
“It’s not stupid, it’s important! I need to figure out where Eggman will strike next! A- And I need to prepare for anything!” He turned to an array of monitors with live surveillance footage. “He’s up to something and I know it, he’s never been this quiet before, trust me! We need all the failsafes we can think of for when he eventually does strike!” His eyes twitched slightly, the bags under his eyes never looked deeper. The teen started to play with and pull the cuffs on his gloves. He must have looked like a wild animal. A wild, crazy, drenched and paranoid animal.
“Tails, I don’t think you should be working anymore today,” the cream-coloured rabbit begged him. “Please, I think you really need to rest for a while, and check in with your friends. We’re worried about, especially Mr. Sonic.”
Tails scoffed at the idea. He didn’t need help, he was the one who helped others. “Cream just, leave me alone okay? I need to focus.”
Cream went ignored, her best friend wasn’t listening to her and was fully willing to keep up this self-destructive pace. “Listen to me,” she gently but firmly laid a hand on his arm, “you need to lie down, you’re just going to hurt yourself again. Don’t make me forcibly drag you out of here,” she reiterated sternly.
“I’m fine,” he emphasized, pulling away from her grip, “nothing is going to happen to me.”
“You almost drowned! You have a bruise on your head, you look so tired and sad. I miss you, I miss my friend. I don’t recognize this Tails.”
“What’s that supposed to mean?” The fox felt hurt, yet his heart fluttered slightly at hearing those words. She misses you.
“I haven’t seen you at all lately! Every month you just seem less and less like yourself and it’s making me sad, especially recently. I want my friend back,” she pleaded.
The amber teen let out a sigh, shutting his eyes in frustration, mostly with himself. “Well I’d like to see him too, but unfortunately he is busy trying to be helpful.” He needed to be useful.
“Not this again Tails,” she groaned, “you’re already helpful, you’re one of the greatest heroes in the world and deserve all the recognition for it and more,” she reached slowly for his hand, frowning when he pulled away. “But you can’t help anyone if you can’t help yourself first. How can you save others if you’re not able to even lift yourself off of the floor?”
Tails furrowed his brow, “I would like nothing more than to care for myself, but I can’t when there is an active threat. People could get hurt and it is my job to make sure that doesn’t happen,” he looked towards the cooling vat, “no matter what.” He turned towards Cream and observed her, “Honestly, what were you thinking?”
“What!?” Cream wailed.
“If you weren’t careful you could’ve hurt yourself when you barged in here. Did you know it was just water in that cooling vat? What if it was something dangerous and then you just would’ve gotten yourself killed too,” he protested as the rabbit stood in shock, the fatigue completely guiding his snappy attitude now. “You should be more careful before running into every situation head-on, you could hurt someone or yourself.” He knew exactly what he was saying. Tails also knew, however, that there was some genuine truth to the words he spoke. He couldn’t live with himself if Cream had gotten hurt or worse in his lab.
Cream confronted him once more, “You almost drowned!” Balling her fists, she really was readying to drag him outside by force.
Tails glared back at her, “And you could’ve ‘almost drowned’ too, but let’s focus on Miles Prower instead.” Tails wasn't thinking anymore; he was just saying whatever came to mind, which very rarely ended well for him. He just wanted Cream to go away so he could collapse under the desk for 20 minutes and get back to work.
The rabbit began to shutter and clench her teeth, “You can’t just shake off almost dying like it was nothing.” she stomped.
“Well I’m going to because there are more pressing matters at hand here Cream!” the amber fox hissed.
She scoffed, the floodgates beginning to fail as her eyes became glassy. “This place is not good for you Tails!”
“And why do you care exactly, huh?”
“I care because I’m your friend!” Cream proclaimed, “I don’t want to watch you kill yourself!”
“If I’m going to die then at least I’ll be dying doing something I’m actually good at,” Tails concluded. “At least I’ll die with a purpose, I’ll be useful. No one is going to miss out if I end up face down in the cooling tank again so long as I do my job and stop people from getting hurt.”
“I will be missing out! I don’t want to have to live without you! I love you!” the lapine blurted out.
Tails’ breath hitched. What did she just say? He could’ve guessed but he wanted to hear it again—both because those were the most beautiful words he’d ever heard and because he was still so tired he couldn’t be sure if this was his imagination or not.
The twin-tail turned to face Cream, her eyes wide and tears running down her face, hands close to her chest in fear of what she just uttered. “What?” Tails asked her.
“I…” she paused, “I love you, Miles. I don’t want to lose you.” Her eyes grew heavier as her tears started to fall, “And, if I lose you, then I… I don’t know if I will ever be the same. You’re sweet, kind, and funny and so so smart. You’re my best friend in the whole world and I don’t want to see that thrown away because you thought you weren’t enough. You’re more than enough and I wish you could see that as much as me or anyone else.” Her eyes shut as she began to tremble, hugging herself for comfort, “Please.”
Cream gently fell to her knees and sniffled loudly, trying her best to not let any heavy sobs escape. Tails could only stand there dumbfounded. This was all so much, and he didn’t know what to say or think or what to do. Cream loved him, as much as he loved her probably. He was so tired. Everything hurts…
He almost died.
He grasped a small table nearby and lowered himself onto the floor. He just needed to sit and think for a minute to process this all. He’d made a complete fool of himself that much was obvious, but he’d also hurt Cream not only with his words but by neglecting himself.
A minute of silence passed before Cream started mumbling. “I just think that… wouldn’t you be upset or scared if I threw myself into every danger without care? Without stopping to rest? Why can’t we do the same for you?”
He looked at her from across the room, it was his turn to start crying. She was right, she was always right. He couldn’t imagine a scenario where she would be doing any of what was mentioned because Tails wouldn’t let her do that; hell none of her friends would let her do that.
So how did Tails end up here?
It began to hurt him as much as it had been hurting Cream—the true weight of barely eating and not sleeping also began to press down on him even more. He simply curled in on himself and pressed his face into his knees and arms, watching as silent tears fell onto his still swamped work boots. This was agony, and the love of his life snivelling in the middle of the room didn’t help any of it. Nothing was going to help this mess.
Well, something might, now that Tails thought about it. The one thing that always helped him when he was this low.
With that thought, Tails stood up, wiping tears off his damp face and made his way to his desk. He searched through drawers and small cabinets, all while Cream was left there probably thinking he just threw himself right back into his work. He found what he was looking for and made his way over to the teen rabbit. He sat cross-legged next to her, revealing a medium sized book that he laid in his lap so she could see it too. It drew her attention as he opened it and began to flip through.
The book revealed pages upon pages of pictures from different events and moments in Tails’ life, all of them featuring his closest friends.
“Whenever I feel down,” he started, “I like to just go through this book. It’s stupid really, but it just reminds me of all the friends I have to support me even when I try to shut myself out from the world. When I come back out they’ll be there to help me, and if I don’t come out they’ll be there to force me to go outside or haul my body away I guess,” he gave a lighthearted snicker to the comment. It wasn’t received well as Cream gave him a glare and started to lean on him, as if he would disappear if she wasn’t always keeping him in place. “I didn’t mean that,” Tails finally added.
As they neared the end of the book, there was a picture that appeared to be missing.
“What picture went there?” Cream quietly asked him.
Tails gently put the book down and pulled out a small wallet from his waist tool belt. Hidden within the wallet was the last picture Tails had, and his personal favourite. He handed it to Cream for her to see. She took it and held it close. She recognized it.
It was from the Extreme Gear World Cup from two years ago. Both Tails and Cream had competed with the fox placing quite high in the final rounds. The picture however, was taken right after a practice where the rabbit had challenged him to a race. After their little competition (which Cream won), they took a picture side by side with their respective gear, holding onto each other in a show of good sportsmanship. They both knew why that picture was as meaningful as it was. It was on the track in the middle of the race flying down a tunnel at ridiculously high speeds that they shared a quick glance at one another. One that both knew and would never forget.
“I bring that picture with me wherever I go now, it’s my good luck charm,” Tails admitted. “I love you too Cream,” he blushed, leaning into the rabbit girl.
Tails felt his eyelids grow heavy as he rested his head against the cream-coloured lapine. Before his eyes could close fully though, he found his makeshift rabbit pillow turning towards him and giving him a quick chaste kiss before dipping her head and resting her forehead against his. Cream moved her hands to hug him as Tails did the same, wrapping his tails around her as much as he could.
He sighed, “I think I wanna take a nap now,” as he slowly closed his eyes and started to further lean into Cream.
She giggled quietly at the sensation of his head growing heavier, she moved both of them against the nearby wall to lean against. “Are you sure you don’t want to go to your own bed? Or even dry off first?” Cream asked as she began rubbing the back of his head.
“Nah,” Tails mumbled, “c’n do it later.” He was barely audible, already attempting to grab one of Cream’s ears to use as a sleeping mask and pillow.
The lab quickly fell into silence aside from the humming of computers and the light snores coming from Tails. As soon as he was given the chance the twin-tailed fox curled into his girlfriend and he was out like a light, four whole days of exhaustion catching up with him.
Cream observed his sleeping form. Now that she thought about it they really should have dried off and went to a clinic for a quick check-up. In all honesty she should probably still bring him to be looked at. Besides it’s not like it would be hard to move the vulpine without him realizing. Just give it another minute.
She looked down at him one more time, “So, Tails,” she started, “which one counts as our first kiss? Just now, or was it when I gave you mouth to mouth and saved your life?” she stated with a smirk.
The only response she received in turn was a short series of snores.
“I’ll take that as the latter.” She stood up slowly with him in her arms and carried him through the lab’s doors. Everything would still be there when they returned, it wasn’t going anywhere after all. Just like them. Neither would be going anywhere without the other.
But for now, at least one of them needed a well deserved rest and some food. Maybe after they could go out for lunch together, her treat.