Following Amy's death, the invention convention Tails and Sonic were attending was put on hold, the police were questioning everyone who was present near the site of Amy's death. Mighty was called over to help with the investigation, Ray, who also joined the police team was there too. Both of them are standing there as the investigators continue to look for clues that could point them in the direction of the one who did it.

"How did she even escape in the first place?" Ray asks.

"She fought the crew of her prison transport and escaped into the woods. That was a few days ago..." Mighty responds, the armadillo is kneeling down next to her body which was as still as a rock on the ground.

"Somehow I had the feeling she'd come after Tails after what happened at Sonic's welcome back party, and we're still trying to solve that as well"

"Whoever did this really knows what they're doing" Ray responds.

Mighty grumbles and stands back up, he straightens his tie and covers Amy's corpse with a tarp.

An officer approaches Mighty and Ray with news...

"Sir, the CCTV footage was tampered with... We can't identify who did it with cameras"

"Interesting... Anything else?"

Ray starts to think about who could have done it in his head, after a bit of thinking he has an idea of who the perpetrator is. Whoever the killer was had to have been smart enough to cover his traps up this well, and theirs only one genius he believed was the culprit...

---

"For the last time! I was literally being shot at, why would you think I'd put my life on the line for some hormone enraged psychopath like Amy?! I hated her for trying to kill me off... But I would never go as far as to then go and kill her! Come on!"

The two police officers sitting in an auditorium with Tails look at eachother and then back at the fox. Sonic watches from outside as the fox does his best to keep his composure.

"That is all Mr Prower, you may go-"

Tails gets up and walks out with Sonic who immediately pulls him close so he can rest his head on his shoulder, "Its okay pal, I'm here-"

Tails wipes his face and let's Sonic walk him away from the area, Sonic knows the perfect thing to help cheer him up. He scoops the fox into his hands, Tails yelps in surprise and looks up into Sonic's kind eyes.

"Hold on!"

Sonic runs out of the building with Tails in his arms passed the crime scene tape to a desert parlor that had opened in the area recently. When he gets there he lets Tails back on his feet and steps back to marvel at the modern looking building.

Tails looks at Sonic and then back at the shop, he lets out a laugh. Sonic looks over at him, utterly bewildered by his outburst of laughter.

"Hey, what's so funny?"

"Nothing, I'm just not surprised you thought about something like this"

Sonic pouts and crosses his arms, Tails jumps at him squeezing tightly, Sonic notices the warm, satisfied grin on his face and it makes him feel better almost immediately.

"Thanks" Tails whispers.

Sonic blushes a little.

"Come on! I wanna try everything!" Tails says excitedly, taking him by the hand and tugging him inside.

Hours go by as they chat and laugh together while enjoying various sweets... Tails is enjoying himself a ton, meanwhile somethings bothering Sonic, something that had been eating at him since him and Tails arrived at Cloudpuff City. Tails grows concerned when he notices all Sonic got was a cake and a glass of soda, the fox knows he usually eats more then just that so he puts his hand on Sonic's and looks up at his eyes.

"What's wrong?..."

Sonic doesn't know how to get the words out, rather he's struggling to get the words out, he doesn't know how Tails will take it when he says what he needs to say.

"Sonic?..."

The hedgehog decides to just speak his mind, bracing himself for Tails response. He sighs raggedly and opens his mouth.

"We should stop"

Tails is confused, but he has a feeling he knows what he's talking about.

"...Stop what?"

"This... All the kissing, the shenanigans in bed, the mushy stuff-"

"Oh..."

There's silence between the two of them for a moment, Sonic almost immediately begins to regret doing this when he sees Tails lively, upbeat mood turn grey and somber.

"I-I just need time to process myself still... I'm sorry. Really... I am-"

Tails stands up and walks to the door, Sonic can feel himself panicking, his heart is tightening up.

"Tails! Wait!"

"It's fine Sonic... I just need time to take this in" Tails says trying to give Sonic a reassuring smile, his attempt only makes Sonic feel worse.

The fox opens the door and runs out to the restaurant, Sonic bangs his head on the table, he didn't want to do that... But he didn't want to go on the way they were going, he feared if he did things would get weird, uncontrollable, or worse... It could damage their relationship. The hedgehog shudders and musters up the courage to finish his cake and soda before taking the spearmint treat Tails ordered back to the hotel.

When he gets to the room, the first thing he can hear is Tails muffled sobs and whimpers. Sonic puts the bag down and peaks in on him, sure enough the poor kitsune is bawling his eyes out. It's suddenly hard for him to speak, so he leaves Tails alone and goes to his room to close the door.

When morning comes, Tails is feeling a bit calmer again as he finishes straightening his bow tie, the blue bow tie he chose because he loved Sonic, he can't help but feel like he rushed it, he regrets suddenly kissing Sonic under all that pressure. Now he can't help but feel gross inside now that Sonic has made his apperant discomfort clear.

Sonic is straightening his tie as he watches him open the door, "Hey pal, wai-"

Tails is already out letting the door close behind him. Sonic sighs and messages his face, the hedgehog rather then sitting back this time decides to quickly finish getting dressed and he dashes down the staircase and catches up with Tails whos just about to enter, he opens the door for him. Tails looks up at him briefly and then back down at the floor as if he's ashamed of something (because he is), Sonic's friendly smile turns into a frown when he realises his attitude has really taken a dive.

In the hustle and bustle of the convention, Cream and Cheese are there admiring the works of the various influencial mobian inventors and creators who showed up. Then she sees Tails shuffling around fighting back tears, Sonic following behind trying to comfort him. When the rabbit sees this, her chest feels like it's compressing, getting tighter and tighter, when she sees Sonic though it really filled her with ripe with anger and hatred.

"Tails come on! Don't be like this the whole day!" Sonic pleads.

"You think I'm gross don't you?!"

"What?! No!" Sonic replies, alarmed he'd come to that conclusion, he looks around swiftly and then down at his watch before taking the fox by the arm and tugging him into a custodial closet.

"Tails! Just because we both got a bit carried away with our fling, if that's what you even call it, it doesn't mean I hate you!"

"I kissed you! And I didn't even--- I didn't even, say that I want to do this, I just did it because I was scared-"

"Okay! You panicked! Not a big deal! We all panic!"

"I just feel so unclean now, so dirty...!"

"I feel the same way! And I feel like shit for having to break it to you like that, but I just couldn't continue, I was worried-"

"Worried about what?!"

"That it would destroy us!... Our friendship! Our brotherhood!"

There's silence between both of them as Sonic squeezes his fist, Tails stares down at Sonic's fancy shoes... Cream is listening in by standing near the door, the sound of Tails sobbing is heart shattering to her.

"Look... We may not be boyfriends, but I still care a lot about you" Sonic says, pulling the sobbing fox in for a hug, "Pretty sure we've all done something dumb under pressure anyway, it's kinda my fault for not stopping this though"

"No Sonic, it's my fault, I should have reacted differently when we were in the kitchen that day. I-If had just controlled myself!-"

"I wouldn't have found out how much I cared about you if you hadn't kissed me" Sonic says, "And trust me... I care a lot, more then ever now maybe"

"Either way, I can't help but feel I went too far-"

Sonic embraces him, holding him tightly, hoping this would calm Tails down... And it did.

"You overanalyze too much-"

Tails is about to open his mouth but then he chooses not to. Tails hugs Sonic back and sniffles some more, but he's happy to know Sonic doesn't feel grossed out or uncomfortable around him. Cream, having heard enough of the conversation, walks away from the door, a moment later Tails and Sonic emerge from the room.

Tails beams a happy grin at Sonic, the hedgehog puts his hand on his head.

"You ready to rock their socks off?" Sonic says, excited for what Tails has to show off.

"Yeah!" Tails says excitedly.

That day, Tails presented a special type of ribbon made from a textile he created from regular fabrics and a bit of his nanotech. The fox runs around Sonic who's standing there confused as the circle gets tighter and tighter. The hedgehog is eventually wrapped up like a burrito, he struggles to get free but there's no use.

"Introducing Elastiribbons! As you can see, the material is so resistant, Sonic can't even move a muscle. It's also fire resistant, water resistant, pressure resistant, it's all that and it feels comfortable on you!"

"Well it's kinda squeezing my soul out so can you unwrap me?" Sonic asks.

"Sure!" Tails says.

As he's kneeling down to untie Sonic, the hedgehog looks up into his eyes, Tails meets his glance but tries his best to focus on untying him. Once Sonic is free, he continues to talk about his new invention, as he's talking the hedgehog can't help but stare at Tails, his face all fuzzy and pink.

"... Additionally, I also made it so that you can do this-"

With a flick of his wrist a section of the fabric becomes solid, the crowd now has their eyes glued, Sonic snaps out of his moment when he sees Tails do this, Tails gives the ribbon a firm flick again and it changes shape yet again, this time to the shape of a heart.

"Cool right?" Tails says with a confident grin on his face.

Then he positions the heart infront of Sonic, making the hedgehog cover his face, "Tails! Cut it out!"

The audience becomes a bit rowdy when Tails does this and soon the sounds of gossip begins to fill the air. Cream who's sitting in the audience grits her teeth, worrying her companion who's floating above her head.

"Relax everyone! It's just a joke!" Tails says, slightly panicking.

The audience eventually settles down and Tails continues his showcase. The fox flicks his wrist again and the fabric loosens up back to its usual droopy state. He dances around twirling the ribbon about, when he does the colours of the fabric change like RGB colour lights as it flicks around the air, the crowd and the judges are amazed by what they're looking at, Sonic is the most impressed however seeing how much more ambitious Tails was when it came to his creations.

"What your looking at is the nanotech altering the colour of the fabrics molecules, they're readjusting them, changing them, evolving them! It's beautiful isn't it?!" Tails says.

The audience lets out a loud praising round of applause for Tails, Sonic claps too as he watches the fox come to a stop next to him.

"Anyway! That's all I have to show you for now, if you wanna learn more about Elastiribbons, stop by me and Sonic's stand!" Tails says waving at the crowd, another round of applause follows as Tails and Sonic wave to the crowd.

---

After that days festivities, Tails and Sonic return to their room, when they get there there's a knock on the door.

"I got it" Sonic says.

"Kay-" Tails says as he undoes his bow tie.

The hedgehog opens the door and sees a butler holding a silver tray with two letter on it, "For you Mr. Hedgehog"

"Oh, thanks" Sonic says taking the letters from the tray.

Once the waiter is gone, he closes the door and is frightened by Tails who randomly decides to hug Sonic, pushing his head onto his chest, nuzzling his neck. Sonic's heart rate picks up, and almost instinctively he gives Tails a gentle shove, he's finding it a bit harder to breathe.

"S-Sorry"

"It's fine... Just chill with that"

"This sucks..." Tails mutters to himself.

Tails sighs and let's himself collapse on the bed, Sonic opens the first letter, it's from Tangle and it's an invitation for him and Tails to go to Amy's funeral, the hedgehog groans. He still hated Amy for trying to murder Tails, but at the same time he did wish that she hadn't been killed so brutally, so slowly.

Tails head rises from the pillow and he looks at Sonic, "What is it?"

"Invite from Tangle to Ames funeral-"

"Oh don't tell me you want to go..."

Sonic lets out a loud groan, "Tails, you don't have to go. But her parents are going to expect me to be there, and as much as I hated what she tried to do to you, I still had good memories with her, sweet ones even"

The kitsune's chest roaring with angry flames, he couldn't believe Sonic was doing this. But as angry and upset as he was, he couldn't deny that before all that happened, he too had some light-hearted memories with Amy as well... Even if she did end up being an obstacle in his way.

"I'll go..."

Sonic is surprised with what he said, "Y-You want to go?"

"Yeah... I can't hold this grudge on her forever..." Tails responds with a slight smile.

Sonic begins to tear up he grabs Tails and squeezes him tightly, dramatic tears still flowing down his face, "Oh Tails! You're too kind and innocent for this world!"

Sonic continues to cry dramatically while Tails face palms. Eventually Sonic lets go of Tails and sits on the couch with the young fox.

"What's the second letter?" Tails asks.

"Looks like fan mail-" Sonic responds.

The hedgehog tears open the letter and looks at its contents, when he pulls them out his eyes widen, his blood goes cold, he quakes in his shoes a little, on the paper it simply says...

Die

Tails sees the message on the paper and he's almost consumed by rage, he grits his teeth and squeezes his fists, a million little explosions going off in his face.

"Well uh... This was unexpected-" Sonic says with a nervous laugh.

"Someone wants you dead Sonic... Question is, why?"

"Well, I haven't upset anyone that I know of... I mean Shadow does nonchalantly tell me to turn myself off, but he never really says it to my face"

Tails can only assume one person who was responsible for this declaration of war... Cream, but he couldn't act without solid proof, so he planned on interrogating her at Amy's funeral. He also had a few other suspects in mind but for now Cream was his primary suspect.

---

In Nightstar City, Shadow's café is bustling with customers, the black hedgehog hands a customer their order and lazily waves them goodbye, he sees his next customer approach and it's none other then Ray. When Shadow sees that Ray is here without Mighty he grows confused.

"...Where's Mighty?" Shadow asks.

"Back at headquarters... Can I talk to you for a second?" Ray asks.

"Police work?"

"You could say that"

Shadow scoffs and taps one of the barista's on the shoulder, "Can you take over for me, I'll be right back"

"Sure boss!" She answers with pep in her voice.

Ray and Shadow sit at a table in the back, it's still busy there and the amount of talking, laughing and excitement is insane, but it doesn't stop Ray from firing his first question at Shadow.

"Has anyone in the house been acting strange since Amy's murder" Ray asks, placing a tape recorder on the table.

"No..." Shadow responds.

"Shadow... Are you sure no ones been acting strange, like they're hiding something?" Ray questions.

"Well... Since Eggmans death, Tails has been behaving oddly. When he's around Sonic, he completely loses it. His face gets all red, he stutters when he's mentioned in a conversation, he's like a big ball of stress when he's around that dumbass-"

"Oh for the love of chaos, stop!"

"What, you asked if his behaviour has been getting strange and I'm giving you the answer"

"Besides all that... Have there been any inconsistencies in his daily routine? Does he not come to gatherings on time, is having surprising mood swings, are there any signs of mental deterioration?" Ray questions.

"One, no, he's on time, all the time. Two, besides his sudden wacky behaviour around Sonic, no. Three, he doesn't seem to be losing his mind-... Wait a second... Do you think Tails killed Amy?"

"He's one of my primary suspects yes-"

Shadow decides he doesn't want to hear anymore and stands up from the table, "Where are you going?!"

"Tails is not capable of murder Ray, I scared him with a picture of a dead body and he not only threw up on the kitchen floor and he didn't sleep for a week, I don't know where you got that idea from" Shadow says, smirking at the fond memory of his cruel prank.

"Shadow, the CCTV footage around the area where she was killed was erased. Not only that, there were no other prints besides Amy's at the scene of her death, whoever killed Amy must've really known what they're doing-"

"Nggh! Enough with the bullshit, any serial killer who's almost as smart as Tails will cover their tracks, you're acting like he's the only one who does-"

"I'm not!... Look even if those guys were smart enough they would have left some sort of web signature that we could have traced back, but whoever cut off the cameras masked it really well... Too well"

Shadow grumbles, he can't bother to keep this conversation with Ray going, "Ugh, fine. I'll watch him for a week when him and Sonic get back from Cloudpuff City. After that, I'm done"

The flying squirrel is content with Shadows response, "Send an email to me when they return, kay?"

"Whatever" Shadow retorts.

Ray sighs, he knew Shadow would be difficult to work with, but he's at least happy to know Shadow can do him that small little favour so he opens the door and leaves.

"Bastard didn't even order anything" Shadow growls.

---

All Tails saw were news stories, tributes, and speeches commemorating Amy. Everyone would talk about how much of a bright light she was, what she was like, how she had dreams and aspiration... It made the fox sick and heated at the same time.

"Tch, angel... She was more like an obsessed freak"

Sonic knocks on the door to see now Tails is doing, "Hey buddy, you gonna get some sleep?"

"Yeah, give me a sec-" Tails shouts back.

Tails turns off his phone and goes to bed, pulling the string on the lamp next to him. He pulls the cover over him and closes his eyes, he may not have had the best day that day but he was content with what he had right now, and even happier to still have Sonic by his side.

There's a chime from his phone, he grumbles and tosses himself towards the night stand so he can grab it, when he turns it on there's a notification from a news article.

"I swear if it's about that who-"

To his surprise... It's not about Amy...

"Two boys believed to have been caught having relations killed in brazen attack... What..."

The story leaves a bad taste in his mouth, apperantly two individuals by the names Yonu The Badger and Alemon The Cayote were caught kissing each other in their college dorm by an unknown group of assailants. They were dragged into the woods and both beaten and stabbed to death, a hate group claimed responsibility for the greusome murders half an hour later. The fox takes a shaky breath and sets the phone on the night stand, with all the change also came new problems...

Groups that did not support homosexual relationships, groups that didn't like a way an establishment or certain group of Mobians would do things (kind of like religious discrimination), groups that didn't like certain speices of Mobians for any reason they deemed reasonable, all those and more formed and would spread their hate on the internet while the fox helped Mobius advance.

One reason Tails was going at any lengths necessary to keep his feelings fo Sonic a secret was because he didn't know if anyone living in the house with them was associated with any of those groups, he especially didn't trust Shadow or Vector since those two seemed to be most likely involved with one of said hate groups. The fox runs his hand through his hair and let's his head fall back on the pillow, he wished these angry hateful Mobians didn't exist... That way him and Sonic could live a happily ever after.

"Right under my nose. Why didn't I do more..." He says.

The fox looks at Sonic who's in the room across, sprawled out across the mattress, the sheets only covering his waist and bottom. His heart flutters and he blushes, a smile appears on his face as he continues to watch the blue speedster sleep, snoring obnoxiously, he goes and fixes the blanket so that it's covering him as he sleeps.

"Mmmh, chilli dog..." Sonic grumbles as Tails fixes the blanket.

When Tails is done he steps back to admire his work. He turns around to walk away, but just as he's about to set foot out of the door...

"Grgh, Tails... Hot little... Mh... Fox"

His head immediately snaps around, his face the colour of a tomato.

"Fluffy.... Ngh, soft... Tails... Adorable"

Tails covers his face and turns around so he can go to bed, but he can barely sleep after hearing Sonic's sleep talk.

"He doesn't actually-"

He looks back at Sonic who's hanging off the bed, drooling and still snoring obnoxiously. He plops down on the bed and rolls over so he can't face Sonic, he doesn't know what to say or what to think.

"...He's so hard to read sometimes"

He turns his head back to look at him though. Seeing him taking it slow was always a rare occasion, but a sight Tails loved to see nonetheless.

"Sleep well Sonic" He whispers, smiling a lazy little smile.