After the show was over, Winter invited Tails over to his office, there the wolf opened the gifts Tails gave him, the fox also packed some extra stuff in there he thought he'd also like too. A customised phone, a new digital watch that was compatible with said phone, a white scarf, and an earring with a thunderbolt design on it since he noticed Winter liked piercings. Tails also took the time to finally also explain who he'd secretly been going to to his shoes as...

"You were Lyle??!!" Winter shouts.

The wolf sputters, not knowing how to respond to this new revelation. Tails scratches the back of his head, embarrassed that he couldn't even tell Winter who he actually was when they originally met.

"Y-Yeah..." Tails says, holding a cup of hot chocolate.

"W-Why didn't you tell me?" Winter asks, his eyes practically begging Tails for an answer, did he hate him secretly? Was this just a joke?

"I-I... uh... Sorta fumbled when I introduced myself to you, I'm sorry" Tails says, looking down at the floor.

"Oh... It's okay I guess" Winter says, resting his head on his desk.

"I wasn't really having the best night either, I don't wanna go into details... At least not now anyway..." Tails explains.

Then Winter realises some of the songs he wrote to sing at shows were about Tails and when he does, his face turns red, not to mention he started writing songs about him in September, this meant that there were a sizable amount of songs performed at his shows that were about Tails or mentioned him... With him in the audience... The embarrassment was overwhelming... He wanted to die.

The wolf starts banging his head on his desk, aggressively, Tails not wanting him to see him hurt himself stops him.

"Whoa whoa! What's wrong?!"

Winter looks up at him with teary eyes and embarrassment, "Some of the songs I wrote were... Um... About you"

"Oh I know" Tails says, a nervous smile on his face.

"You know?!" Winter shouts, this made him feel worse.

"Mhm" Tails responds, "I saw an interview you had a few years ago and that's how I discovered you liked me"

"Ohhhhh", Winter's head sinks. Tails pats his back hoping it would make him feel better.

"Some luck I've got... Ugh..."

"Hey Winter, can I tell you something?"

Winter looks up at him, and sees Tails reaching for him so he can hug him, the fox wraps his arms around him and rests his chin on his shoulder.

"You don't have to be a god or some crazy mythical creature to be my friend. All you have to be is yourself" Tails stepping back and putting his hands on his face, "Have more faith in yourself, okay?"

Winter's head sinks a little in Tails' hands and he nods, then Tails goes back in to hug him.

"Th-Thank you, Mister Prower..." Winter says, fighting back tears.

Tails laughs and leans back off him so he can face him again.

"One, you're older than me. Two, all my friends call me Tails... And you're my friend" Tails says, hugging him tighter so Winter knew he was being serious.

"O-Oh... Okay..." Winter says, his new friend wiping his face yet again, "Are you sure you're not just saying that?"

Tails smiles and looks into his eyes, holding both his hands.

"Wanna know how serious I am about being your friend?" Tails says, holding up the wolf's hands, "I'm taking you to the movies tomorrow! Then you can choose whatever else you wanna do that day!"

"Oh... Okay" Winter says, slowly looking down into Tails' welcoming eyes.

The fox sighs, closing his eyes as he lays on his shoulder. It was oddly relaxing being able to just sit with him, like he was the medicine for all his troubles. Winter slowly wraps his arms around him, doing his best to not cry again... It was the best night of his life, his dream had actually come true, he was friends with him, he wanted to be his friend.

The two boys spend the rest of the evening talking, Tails trying to get Winter to be more confident in himself and Winter talking to Tails about all the things he heard about him, sort of releasing his inner Team Sonic otaku to him. Eventually it was time for them to part way for the night... However...

Winter finds himself in a predicament, he's actually ready to go home. But Tails, doesn't want to leave him, latching onto his arm. Winter can't bring himself to be annoyed at him though...

"A-Are you gonna let go of me? I should get to the train before the late night schedules start going into effect" Winter asks.

"I don't wanna" Tails whines.

"Huh, why?" Winter asks, shocked that he was being so clingy all of a sudden.

"I like hanging out with you" Tails responds, his cheeks puffing up, whining quietly.

Winter's ear flicks slightly, his body is telling him to hug the little fox, bring him close... So he hugs him, seeing him so downtrodden just compelled him to react the way he did. Tails gives him a happy moan, hugging him back, then he steps back and looks into his eyes.

"You'll see me tomorrow right?" Winter says, restraining himself from hugging him again.

"Yeah" Tails responds, restraining his own urge to do more than hug him.

"Then you have nothing to worry about!" Winter answers.

Tails puts his hands on Winter's shoulders, and examines his face briefly before taking a deep breath.

"I promise I won't stand you up... Okay?" Tails says.

Winter feels his tail wagging a little as he puts his hands on the fox's shoulders.

"A-Alright"

The two stand there, looking into eachothers eyes, both their tails wagging calmly... While Team Sonic stands there and watches them, wondering what was going on.

What the hell are they doing?

---

Winter finds himself sitting at Kennedy Station, one of Nightstar City's major transit hubs, it was early morning which meant everyone had somewhere to be. The terminal has is modern, seemingly rebuilt as early as 2088, holographic displays showing some rather eccentric ads, simple screens in the walls showing advertisements and train departures and arrivals. It was loud, it was crazy, and it was almost packed.

Winter has a lot going through his mind too, he was wondering if the outfit he was wearing that morning was something Tails wouldn't like so much?

Was it a good idea to wear my usual white turtleneck? Is he gonna hate my cologne? Is he gonna hate my high tops? Should I have just dressed more casually? Bahhhhhhh!

He looks at the time on his new phone, 7:40 AM, Tails said he would be there at 7:30... The wolf began to wonder if he was stood up after all, but then...

"Winter!" Tails' voice goes, almost muffled by the sound of the bustling morning rush hour crowd.

Winter's ears flick around trying to locate the source of Tails' voice, the wolf looks around and finally sees him running towards him. When Tails gets to him, he gives him the tightest hug imaginable, catching the white wolf off guard.

"Tails..." Winter says, a smile on his face when his eyes, meet the fox's for the first time.

"Sorry I'm late! You should have seen the rush hour crowd down in Kanasaki this morning!" Tails says, his tails wagging excitedly, ears raised in anticipation for the excitement their day would bring.

"No... It's okay... The trains here are usually on time most of the time but they just can't figure out how to tackle these crowds!" Winter says, scratching the back of his head.

"Heh heh yeah!... Anyway, come on! Our train is leaving soon!" Tails says, taking Winter's hand, then he notices the twin tail insignia pin on Winters blazer, when he sees it he blushes immediately.

"Hey fox boy, are you okay?" Winter asks, wondering what he's staring at.

"H-Huh?! Oh yeah, sorry... I uh... Was thinking about uhh burgers!" Tails says with a nervous grin.

"Uhhh alrighty then...?" Winter responds, slightly concerned about Tails' willingness to go through with this, "D-Do you wanna reschedule?"

"No!" Tails shouts almost immediately.

Winter jumps back a little, not expecting him to answer so fast, he could see he was jumpy, he just didn't know why he was so jumpy, was something eating away at him? Did he do something that made him upset and he just didn't want to talk about it?

"Tails... Is something wrong?"

"N-No! I swear... I just um uhhhh, didn't expect you to wear the pin I gave you..." He responds, his voice trailing off, playing with his fingers shyly. He avoided making eye contact with Winter so he could try and hide his blushing face.

Winter looks down at it, it's shiny silver colour reflecting the lights on the ceiling.

"Of course I was gonna wear it out today, I got it from the one and only Tails The Fox! My idol and hero!" Winter responds still looking down at the pin on his blazer.

Tails' face turns into a tomato... "Agh... Bujajjklsdl..."

Oh my god, I want to hug you forever you big beautiful wolf, you're so precious!

"Are you sure you're okay?" Winter asks, really concerned with how erratic his behaviour was.

"Yep! Sure! Never better! Let's go catch our train!" Tails says all really quickly, almost speaking as fast as Sonic could run, the fox boy tugging Winter along down the crowded hallway.

Winter decides to stop pressing Tails about his behaviour for the rest of the time the two of them are in the station. They find themselves on a train to a town called Fleetwood, about a two hour ride from Nightstar City. Winter looks out the window as Tails works on something technology related, it looked like he was making something, he didn't know what. Winter finally gives into his curiosity and asks him...

"So uh, are you making something?" Winter asks.

"Mhm" Tails responds, still paying attention to the screws he was tightening.

"What are you making?" Winter asks, tilting his head to the side.

"Port Scrambler" Tails responds.

Winter knows what it is but proceeds to ask Tails anyway as to not look suspicious...

"What is a Port Scrambler?" Winter asks.

"Picture this: Sometimes Eggman needs up security at his labs and facilities and hot wiring sometimes doesn't work so... I created a program that basically hacks into digitally controlled systems, overriding them and unlocking everything. All you have to do is put this-"

Tails holds it up a black device to show him, a green coloured suction device on the top, and a small analogue screen in the center along with a set of buttons that would make the scrambler do various things, such as unlocking, shutting down, overriding, closing off and crashing devices.

"-on the device you wanna control, it injects the code in several hundred times a second until it gets threw so you can manipulate the device. Heh, it's amazing what technology can do right?"

"So you could use it to steal a car?" Winter asks, one of his ears raising up in interest.

"If you wanted to, but uh you definitely shouldn't do that..." Tails answers.

"Haha, yeah" Winter says, his mind chuckling at the thought of the things he could do with one.

"Technology like this is heavily regulated you know! Only certain people and businesses with the right papers can have one of these" Tails explains, turning the device on, checking to make sure it was working.

"So you guys have the right papers I guess?"

"Mhm... It was a pain to get them though, the dude who was screening us had no clue who we were apparently, either that or he didn't care. Sonic was pretty upset that morning now that I remember" Tails goes.

"I can only imagine, who hasn't heard of you guys?" Winter responds.

Tails turns the device off and looks at Winter, "That guy apparently"

The two start laughing quietly, Tails looks out towards the passing fields of grass as the train hurdles down the tracks. Winter knows Tails said they were going to the movies, but why were they leaving the city to go to the movies.

"Say Tails, if we're going to the movies, why are we going to Fleetwood?" Winter asks.

"Hm? Oh! There's this old cinema theatre in the city centre that was built in 1985, it has the décor, the vibe, the colour, it's perfect!" Tails says, his eyes sparkling at the thought of being able to watch movies with Winter in an old cinema theatre.

His face turns warm at the thought of being able to hold his hand or hug him if the film got scary. Winter curious to know what he's talking about looks it up on his phone... And indeed there was an old cinema building with a 1980s aesthetic feel... A 114 year old building where once upon a time one of his own ancestors must have gone to watch a film, it was actually interesting to him... Well except for the name.

"Jasper and Jazz?" The wolf says, the name was truly that confusing for him.

"Eh heh, yeah... The name Is funny I know" Tails says, scratching the back of his head.

"Uh huh... How much was this?"

"Oh, it was e20... But as soon as they saw my email they sent the money back to me immediately"

"Wow... Free film" Winter says, astonished to hear that they were practically going for free.

"Yeah... I do wish they kept the money though. With all the free stuff people are giving us sometimes, I can't help but feel like we're kinda stealing from them ya know?" Tails says, feeling a bit bad that the people running the place weren't getting money just because he was a hero who saved the planet several times.

Winter gets a notification on his phone from Spring, he looks at it...

> Mi amigo came through, let's meet later tonight

Winter responds with...

> Might be late, but I'll see you then

"Who you talking to?" Tails asks, noticing Winter was texting someone.

"My sister, she wants me to go see her garden" Winter responds.

"Do you know a lot about plants?" Tails asks.

"No, my sister is a botanist so she knows plenty about plants and all that stuff. And even though she's the tree and flower expert, she still insists on calling me to her place every now and so often to get my opinion on flower arrangements. I don't know if she's lonely or whatever but it's a little bit annoying" Winter explains.

"Haha! Sonic used to ask me what my opinion on certain chilli dog flavours even though though I haven't had all of them... And I'm more of a burger guy myself"

"Really? I used to imagine you like lamb chops or something like that" Winter responds.

"Lamb chops are good too! But you can't go wrong with a cheeseburger!" Tails responds, salivating at the thought of some delicious beef, cheese and brioche bun in his mouth.

"Little guy loves his meats" Winter says, laughing a little at Tails' enthusiasm over cheeseburgers.

"I'm a carnivore! What did you expect? So are you!" Tails says, pointing at Winter, the wolf jumps back when he does.

"Hey I like meat but I also eat my veggies too" Winter says, crossing his arms.

"Pffff, vegetables are boring" Tails says.

"You sound like a child..." Winter responds, looking at him as if he was an unfunny clown.

"We are kids!" Tails shouts, jumping onto the seat.

"I know! but you're too old to be grossed out by edible plants!" Winter responds, the wolf opens his bag and pulls out the salad he made himself for lunch, he was going to eat it later but after hearing just how picky Tails was when it came to foodhe decided it would be necessary to feed Tails his salad...

The wolf looks the fox's way and jumps from his seat to Tails', landing on top of him making Tails shout loudly, the fox didn't know what was going on, his mouth slowly opening as the wolf's red eyes got closer. He couldn't help but blush.

What is he doing? Is he crazy? Is he gonna bite me?... Or make out with me?

Winter takes advantage or Tails' mouth being open to put a spoonful of salad in his mouth, Tails flails around. Winter could feel he was refusing to swallow the salad and he growls frustratedly trying to get the stubborn fox to swallow it.

"Swallow the salad fox!" Winter says in a commanding tone.

"Never!" Tails says, acting like, his voice muffled by the spoon in his mouth.

"Swallow! Swallow it now!" Winter shouts.

Tails shakes his head, still fighting Winter, refusing to swallow the greens in his mouth, "I refuse!"

"I said swallow! Now! Unless you wanna be short forever, eat your bloody vegetables!" Winter says, loud enough for the whole train to turn their head, some people watching.

Tails shakes his head wildly, Winter's still holding the spoon, Winter never thought in a million years he would have to use this trick but if he was going to get the fox to eat the greens...

"...I'll buy you a mint chocolate chip waffle if you eat it" He says, a confident smirk on his face.

...When Tails hears the word mint, he caves in, swallowing the salad dramatically. Looking up at Winter with playful moodiness in his eyes.

Winter pets him on the head with a victorious smile on his face, "Good boy"

Tails grumbles, unable to believe something like that could make him give in the way he did. But since Winter promised he was definitely going to make sure he held up his end of the deal.

"I will remember that..." Tails says, crossing his arms and looking away from Winter, still pouting at the fact Winter got him to swallow those disgusting vegetables.

Winter can't help but start laughing, that whole thing was just that funny to him, Tails looks at the giggling wolf and blushes, seeing him smile was nice even if he did just force feed him his least favourite food in the world.

"Haha oh my god you are adorable as hell, who knew the one and only Miles "Tails" Power hates salads!"

Tails blushes harder, half embarrassed... Half in love with Winter a little more.

---

Eventually the boys arrive in the city of Fleetwood. Compared to Nightstar City it wasn't as bright and full of vibrant colours and neon, being more on the side of modern glass buildings, some older infrastructure and holographic street signs. The two come out of the train station and are immediately caught in a crowd of commuters rushing in, Tails not wanting to be separated from Winter holds his hand as they push threw the crowd to the intersection, once they make it threw and across the street they sigh, mildly terrified from the experience of almost being separated from one another.

"That was scary" Winter says, looking towards his friend.

"It was... Haha, I thought the crowds in Nightstar City were bad" Tails adds.

"Oh don't worry, they're worse" Winter says, leaning against a metal fence near the road.

"Mm" Tails moans, then he looks and realises he's still holding Winter's hand, his face turns red... Yet again.

"Do you have a fever?" Winter asks, noticing Tails' red face.

"Huh? What?! No! I'm fine!" Tails says, shaking his head really fast.

Winter now notices he's holding hands with him still and instead of freaking out, he tilts his head to the side, his left ear flicking up a little.

"Is something wrong?" Winter asks, still confused with what was going on with Tails.

"No!" Tails shouts, his face still red as lava.

"Do you want me to let go of your hand?" Winter asks, assuming that was the reason he was losing his mind.

"No!" Tails shouts, not wanting to let go of the wolf, enjoying the feeling of his hand in his.

"...A-Alright then. You're an odd little dude aren't you?"

"Hahaha, yeah I'm ga- I mean strange, definitely... Strange" Tails says, his brain felt like it was malfunctioning, his face getting more and more red.

"Keep it together fox, we're almost there" Winter says, tugging a blushing and brain scrambled Tails with him as he navigated to their destination.

Tails whimpers, his heart feels like a shaken soda can, he felt embarrassed, awkward and love struck. Still, he wonders how the wolf was comfortable with holding his hand, maybe he loved him too! Maybe he just wanted him to be comfortable! Tails looks up at Winter and can't help but smile as he leads the way.

Don't ever change... Wolfy...