In a Hylian Hole

[JC303]

This is a Zelda/Sonic crossover fan-fiction I'm working on. I figured you guys could always read over it if you get bored enough on here. Since AC was posting some of his stories, I would too

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Chapter One - When You Wish Upon a Star

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"Sonic?"

Sonic had a mouthful of chili dog and couldn't properly respond, but he turned his head to his buddy. "Hm?"

Tails covered his mouth to try not to laugh at the puffed out cheeks and chili stained face Sonic had.

Sonic observed Tails' expression in puzzlement, swallowing what large amount of chili dog he had in his mouth. "What?"

"Your face is covered with chili!" Tails said, letting out a small laugh.

Sonic smiled, wiping off the chili with his fingers and then licking off the contents. He wouldn't dare wipe it with a napkin, because that would be a waste of chili. "So, what is it Tails?" he asked.

"Oh, I wanted to know if you'd want to finish mine," Tails said, offering a half-eaten chili dog. "I guess I wasn't as hungry as I thought I was."

Sonic snatched the dog out of the fox's hands instantly. "Sure thing!" he said, proceeding to wolf it down eagerly.

Tails smiled watching Sonic until his eyes peered around. The two of them were just sitting on a curb in the city and it was close to sundown so things around here were settling down. It was the perfect time just for hanging out, especially since Eggman's latest plan for unleashing Dark Gaia was foiled and the Dr. made his usual disappearance, likely to plot his next big scheme to take over the world and beat Sonic the Hedgehog.

Until then, they could take their time leisurely.

Once Sonic finished the dog in a matter of seconds, he noticed Tails quietly staring at the golden orange horizon. "…is something bothering you Tails?" he asked.

Tails hadn't heard him at first. "What?"

"You're just really quiet is all," Sonic added.

"Oh," Tails looked back at the sunset again. "Just thinking."

"'bout what?"

"Well," Tails rubbed his chin. "I started working on a project, but I've run into a small problem that I haven't found a solution to yet."

Sonic cocked his head curiously. "What project?"

"Well, I've always been curious about Chaos Control and just recently I got the idea for it. Shadow tells that even if he's able to do it without an emerald, the Chaos Emeralds enhance the power of his Chaos Control to longer distances and even enabling him to bring others with him, so I grew curious." Tails closed his eyes while he began rambling. "I wondered if maybe the Chaos Emeralds brought together could perform a Chaos Control powerful enough to travel to the other side of the globe, maybe even out into space and beyond. That's when I started looking into it more and—"

Sonic lost interest with the excessive talk from Tails, sorry that he had asked. He held his head while an agonizing headache came on, hoping that something would save him from this while Tails obliviously continued.

Then a happy shrill interrupted Tails, which also made Sonic flinch painfully, "Oh SOOOOOOOOONIC!"

Gasping, Sonic was on his feet. "I didn't ask for this!" he yelled, taking off in a blur while a certain pink blur pursued closely behind.

Watching Sonic run from Amy, Tails sighed. It was a tad frustrating that none of his friends were interested in the things he had to talk about, especially when Sonic had the shortest attention span out of the group. When he had problems with his projects, he just couldn't get anyone to help him, so he was left on his own to find the answer to the problem, or just eventually drop the project.

Knuckles may know a lot more about the emeralds, but he wasn't patient enough. Shadow might be helpful too, but he was busy repairing the ARK after the Black Arms invasion. Amy was still obsessed with Sonic to even take time to think about anything else. Cream was just much too young to help at all. The Chaotix were too klutzy and could break his stuff. He wouldn't even think about going to Rouge since there was nothing she could do to help him; except maybe hunting down the emeralds, but even then, she'd call for a price that would make up for that.

The worth of the Chaos Emeralds was peerless, period.

Amy tackled down her icon of endless love to the ground with Sonic squirming fearfully. "Now you can't run from me, Sonic!" she laughed.

"TAILS, HELP ME!" Sonic cried out.

Tails grew more irritated. "Why should I?"

"BECAUSE SHE'LL TORTURE ME!"

The fox stood up sternly. "You brought it on yourself Sonic," he said, storming off.

Both hedgehogs stopped their shenanigans when they saw Tails stomping away. Shortly when he was gone, they exchanged blank, blinking looks. Sonic took the opportunity to shove Amy off and get back onto his feet, dusting himself off from all the wrestling on the ground he was forced into.

"…is something wrong with Tails?" Amy asked.

Sonic gave her a shrug of his shoulders. "Beats me." This confirmed that Sonic wasn't really listening at all.

Tails made it to his biplane parked in the city square and took off, while depression sunk in. He just wished that for once, his friends would listen to the things he wanted to share with them. He was so tired of being ignored when it came to his interests. The only way his friends were interested in the things he did were only if they benefitted them; like Extreme Gear for instance. Even then, they didn't care to learn about Extreme Gear and what made it work. All they cared about was to learn how to do flips and ration their fuel in terms of boosts.

Now that he was older and relying on himself more than Sonic, he realized how lonely he got sometimes. Sure, Sonic was cool to hang with, but Sonic wasn't the most social type and mostly cared to run around freely rather than sit in one place and talk; much less listen to Tails' lectures.

"…I wish there was someone like me to talk to," he murmured to himself.

If only there was someone who could think like Tails. Someone he could work with when he runs into a snag, and vice versa.

He sighed in disdain about his wishful thinking. He took these thoughts all the way back to his shop in Mystic Ruins, and even to bedtime; lying awake in his bed.

Looking out his window into the night, he stared at the blanket of stars above; more importantly to each of the brighter ones. Tails knew the constellations and different belts, so the idea of the 'wishing star' was irrational, but on this particular night, Tails was willing to believe in a wishing star.

"…I wish I had a friend to talk to," he murmured, picking out the brightest star he could find, "someone like me, who wants to learn." Maybe his eyes were playing tricks, but it looked like the star twinkled.

Somehow, Tails was too tired to question it, and was instead relieved that he was heard. Soon enough, he fell into a comfortable sleep.

---

First Chapters kinda short, but the others are longer.[/b]

[JC303]

Chapter Two - New Pet

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Tails awoke to pleasant chirping from various Flickies perched on his window sill, and after a yawn, the fox climbed out of bed and groggily trudged through the halls of his house toward the kitchen where he would have breakfast.

Getting there, he discovered that his fridge door was open, and someone was fishing through the inside. Thinking it was Sonic, Tails groaned. "Sonic, don't you have someone else's fridge to raid?"

That someone jumped away from the fridge, and that instant, Tails realized with wide, surprised eyes that it wasn't Sonic.

"UH!" It was a girl he didn't know; a Mobian owl not too far from his age, carrying a variety of food in her arms like a jar of mayonnaise and a carton of orange juice.

Tails was flabbergasted. "…WHO ARE YOU?" he screamed. "WHAT ARE YOU DOING IN MY HOUSE?"

"Uh, um," the owl girl grew nervous and dropped the things in her arms. The jar of mayo shattered, leaving a glob of mayo on the tile floor mixed with spilled orange juice, soaking the rest of the food she held. "Listen, I can explain—"

"—NEVER MIND!" Tails bellowed, pulling out a broom. "If you were trying to steal my food, then I want you out of my house!"

"Please," the owl pleaded, "I was only trying to…uh," it looked like she couldn't come up with an excuse.

Tails boiled up.

"OUT!"

The owl took off into the living room dodging an aerial frying pan from behind the couch, and then out the door with Tails following closely behind with his broom.

Some would usually stop there, but for some reason, Tails took it farther. He chased the owl girl down the hill and into the Mystic Ruins jungle, continuing to try and bat her down with the broom.

Maybe the frustration from yesterday was letting itself out.

"You're crazy!" the owl cried, struggling to keep away from Tails.

"You should talk! YOU'RE the one who waltzed into my house!" Tails retorted. He wanted to catch up to her and give her a what-for, so he kicked on his two tails in a helicopter twirl, picking up speed.

"EEP!" The owl saw him coming quickly and she desperately tried to run faster while it didn't bring her any better luck.

Then she tripped, falling flat on her face while Tails swooped right over her, taking him a minute to realize what happened.

Once it processed through his mind, he halted to a complete stop and took a u-turn to find her.

The owl girl sat up, or tried to anyway. She felt an unreal pain in her ankle, and looked down to see that her foot was caught in a bear trap. While she tried to pull it out, it just hurt even more. It hurt so much that she wanted to cry, and she was so scared that she could cry, because that scary fox wanted to hurt her.

That's what she did; she broke down into tears while the pain in her ankle worsened.

This is what Tails found when he made it back to her, wielding the broom in anger above…and then he stopped.

Seeing the owl bawling with her foot in the bear trap caused his anger to slowly simmer into guilt.

After watching this go on, Tails descended to the ground next to her with the broom in hand.

The owl saw him and jumped. "No, please don't hurt me!" she pleaded.

"Whoa, hey, it's okay!" Tails assured uneasily; worried at how much he succeeded in scaring her like that. "Listen, I'm going to help you out of there, okay?"

With a snivel, the owl nodded.

He was happy to have that broom there, because that gave him a way to help. He flipped it over and stuck the pole into the teeth of the trap, working to pry it open wide enough for her to slip her foot out. It took awhile, but soon enough she managed to wriggle her foot out to some relief.

Pulling out the broom stick, the trap snapped back together and Tails looked over at the owl with concern.

She held her ankle while sniveling some more. It was punctured a little by the teeth of the trap, resulting in a light mess of blood. "I-it hurts," she whimpered.

"Just settle down," Tails tried to comfort, still guilty that this happened at his fault. "You can't walk on it, so I'll have to carry you…is that okay?"

The owl rubbed her eyes and looked up at him. "…I guess so," she replied.

Tails brought her onto her feet and helped her limp all the way back through the jungle and to his shop, where he set her down on the couch. Then he took out a First Aid kit to bandage up her ankle. "I'm sorry this happened," Tails apologized shamefully. "I don't know what got into me."

"I guess you had a good reason," the owl admitted.

Tails' guilt was gone just as soon as he finished tending to her ankle. "But what were you doing in my fridge?" he asked her curiously.

"I needed to feed my Chao," she replied, shrugging her shoulders. "I didn't know where to find any food, so…well, here was your house and…" she trailed off with a nervous chuckle, since the rest was self explanatory.

Tails smacked himself. "Don't you know that Chao don't eat our kind of food? Their stomachs are built only to digest a specific variety of fruits and nuts which contain the nutrients they need."

The owl looked at Tails in disbelief. "…you mean they don't eat people food?"

Tails eyed the owl in his own disbelief. "…you don't know how to take care of a Chao, do you?" he guessed.

"Nope! I just picked it up from the garden this morning!" the owl answered cheerfully. "They didn't tell me how to take care of it. The care lady just dropped it onto my lap and wished me and my Chao a happy companionship!"

Tails rubbed his face in exhaust remembering that it was still the morning. "Where is your Chao?" he asked.

"Oh, let me call her," the owl inhaled a long breath and then called out. "PATCHES! C'MERE PATCHES!"

So far, there was no reply.

Tails' fox hearing was now impaired though, as he plugged them with his fingers. "If you just got your Chao today, then I don't think it's trained to respond to commands either," he said, rubbing a finger in his ear in agony.

"Oh, right," the owl giggled sheepishly. "Well, Patches should be outside somewhere…"

Tails sighed, "I'll go look for…Patches." Leaving the owl alone in the living room, Tails ventured outside and started looking around. Luckily, it wasn't very long until he found who he was looking for.

A little Chao was quietly watching Tails' waterwheel turning round and round, preoccupied with sucking on its bulgy paw like an infant sucking its thumb. It took awhile for the Chao to notice Tails standing there, and turned curiously up to him. Patches was a neutral Chao, but instead of a sky blue color, it was a creamy, off-white color, highlighted with some light brown spots on its paws and tip of head, along with a browner bobbing ball. Tails figured the name must have come from the little turtle-neck sweater the Chao was adorned with because it was patched up like a quilt in some places.

Tails walked up to Patches and picked it up slowly, while Patches continued to stare curiously at Tails.

"Let's take you back inside," he murmured, doing just that.

"Chao?" Patches wondered with a small, gentle squeak.

Tails could determine from the voice that it was a female Chao. "Interesting…" he muttered.

Once he returned to the owl, he held up Patches. "Is this your Chao?" Tails asked.

The owl jumped in her seat like an ADHD kid. "Yep!" Then he held out her arms. "C'mere Patches! Come to Chloe!"

Patches just stared at the owl, now known as Chloe, with a blank look.

Tails expected as much. "Hey, listen," he told Chloe. "You don't look like you're in the condition to go anywhere, or take care of your Chao." Setting Patches down on the ground while getting another curious look, Tails went towards a phone. "I'm going to call a friend of mine and ask if they could take care of you and your Chao until you feel better," he said, picking it up and beginning to dial.

"No, wait!" Chloe said, getting a weird look from Tails. "Okay, so I'll need some taking care of, but why don't you look after Patches for me instead?"

Tails found the request strange. "Why do you want me to look after your Chao?"

"You already showed me that you know more about Chao care than I do," Chloe reasoned. "So she'll be just fine if you're taking care of her!"

So it was a girl Chao after all, Tails mused. "But my friend Cream knows how to take care of Chao too," Tails argued calmly. "In fact, she has a Chao of her own."

"But I want YOU to take care of Patches!" protested Chloe, jumping in her seat again.

Tails knew that if she got riled up, her ankle would only get worse. "Okay, okay!" He eased, giving in just so Chloe would stop. Thankfully, she did. "Alright, I'll take care of Patches," Tails promised. "But I can't take care of you if I'm doing that, so is it okay that I call my friend to come take care of you instead?"

"Sure!" Chloe said.

Tails sighed, and made the call to Cream's house.

---

"Thanks so much Vanilla," Tails said, watching as she and Cream helped Chloe limp out of his house.

"You're quite welcome Tails," Vanilla said sweetly. "I also dropped off some supplies for taking care of Patches. They should be sitting in the living room."

"Okay," Tails said, waving to the three of them. "Thanks again!"

"Have fun Patches!" Chloe called to the Chao that sat by Tails' feet.

Once gone from visibility, Tails returned back inside with Patches struggling to her feet and following closely behind, watching the two tails sway back and forth with interest.

"Okay," Tails said, looking over the things sitting in the living room. As much as he surveyed, he saw a week's supply of Chao food, a small little bed, and some fortified Chao shampoos to bathe. While Tails knew what a Chao needed, he also knew that taking care of a Chao had more to do with experience than know-how.

As far as he knew, he didn't have any experience.

"Oh, why did I agree to this?" he moaned with his head hanging.

"Chao."

Tails felt something stroking his tails and looked to see Patches eying his two tails, feeling the soft fur and smiling. "Chao!"

Tails giggled. "Hey, s-stop it! Haha! It tickles!" He finally had enough sense to pull his tails away, and he got another blank look from Patches. With hands on his hips, he looked down at her. "What am I going to do with you?" he said.

Patches just started sucking on her paw again, looking back at Tails cutely.

Tails bought the cuteness with a smile. "Well, as far as a Chao goes, you are kind of…adorable," he said. He wondered how he came to say that, since he was more a man of science than cute and cuddly Chaos.

Scratch that, he was a boy of science. Tails was too bashful to call himself a man just yet…

That was beside the point, since Tails suddenly remembered the mess in the kitchen he had to clean up. Reluctantly, he went to see the mess of mayo and orange juice and proceeded to clean it up.

Patches watched from the doorway, wondering what Tails was doing. The methods of this fox boy certainly caught her interest, since they were different than the methods of her so-called "Master." Heck, Chloe wasn't much of a Master. After the Chao Garden, Chloe pretty much bounced her around until she got nauseated enough to throw up on her, and Chloe hadn't touched her since.

She simply followed Chloe around until they came to this place.

Growing hungry, Patches turned to the Chao food sitting in the living room and searched through it. She tossed away the Square fruit in disgust, and the Triangle fruit in indifference. She took a big whiff of the Round fruit though, which appealed to her appetite. It was gone in a matter of minutes, along with the other Round fruits.

Then there were some nuts she decided to nibble on, but she began to wish there were more Round fruits.

Tails had finished cleaning the mess and entered into the living room to find this. Looking around, he observed that all the Round fruits were gone and easily deduced that Patches must have eaten them. "Well, looks like you really like the Round fruit," he muttered. Then he made a mental note to get more later on.

A knocking at the front door called Patches' attention from the nuts with the curious glance that she developed.

"Already?" Tails moaned, walking up to it. He opened it to find Sonic.

"Hey Tails," he started, "You kinda left yesterday looking like a steamed veggie. Was something wrong?"

Tails just gave Sonic a hint of a glower, wondering if he was listening to the problem he was having, but he put on a small smile. "Don't worry about it Sonic," he said.

"You sure?"

"Yep."

Sonic lightened up. "Okay, well, can I come in?"

"Sure," Tails said, inviting the blue hedgehog inside and closing the door behind them.

Sonic made it to Tails' living room and his eyes fell upon the many Chao necessities on the ground. He was confused, until he turned and spotted Patches staring back at him. A smirk crossed his face. "Hey Tails, you never told me you got a Chao!"

"Sonic, wait!" Tails said, rushing in just in time to see Sonic pick up Patches.

"This one's a real cutie," he chuckled, petting Patches' head as he held her, which the Chao didn't seem to mind that much. "Got a name?"

"…her name's Patches," Tails muttered.

"It's a girl eh?" Sonic let out an amused laugh while Patches cooed happily from the petting. "Well, when I said you should think about getting a girlfriend, I never expected this!"

Tails turned away to hide the fact he was turning red at that remark. "She's not my Chao!" he said, facing Sonic again.

"Oh, so she's your new girlfriend's Chao?" Sonic guessed, teasing him.

After another sigh, Tails went ahead and told him the events that happened this morning.

After he explained, Sonic set Patches back onto the ground, leaving the Chao to crawl back to the nuts she was previously eating. "So this…Chloe is at Vanilla's and Cream's, and she left her Chao to you?" he wondered. "You know, that sounds kinda weird considering she was taking your food."

"Tell me about it," Tails moaned.

Sonic just gave Tails a big, teasing grin. "Sooooo…she's NOT your girlfriend?"

"NO!" Tails yelled, which made Patches jump.

Sonic rolled over on the floor, laughing. Then something bonked him on the head, ceasing his laughter as he looked over. Patches was standing with a nut in hand, which could lead them to believe she had thrown a nut at Sonic. Patches had gotten the wrong idea of the situation, and was giving Sonic a glare.

Though coming from a Chao, it was hardly intimidating.

"No, Patches," Tails scolded, coming over and picking her up. "Sonic is a friend. We don't hurt friends."

"Chao!" Patches was more interested cuddling with Tails in his arms.

"Wha?" Tails was surprised.

Sonic got up, and laughed again. "It looks like Patches really likes you Tails!"

Tails looked down at the Chao and started griping, "Oh, who am I kidding Sonic? I don't really know how to raise a Chao! I don't even know how I got tangled up in this mess!" Patches ignored his complaints, purring in his arms.

"It shouldn't be that bad Tails," Sonic said. "Cream takes care of Cheese with ease, and she's only 6." He grinned proudly at the rhyme he just made on the spot.

Tails was not amused, but he had a point. After all, it could be worse. Instead of taking a liking to him, Patches could hate Tails' guts and rip him apart like a wild animal…

…an image that Tails forbade himself to think up again.

"Well, I gotta run," Sonic said. "I just wanted to make sure you weren't depressed or something." Tails didn't get a chance to respond because Sonic went ahead and zipped away, leaving a whirlwind in his home.

"…gee, thanks," Tails murmured, still holding the affectionate Patches.

[JC303]

Chapter Three - Patches Learns Her First Words

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Lunchtime came, and Tails returned with more Round fruits that were instantly gone the minute they appeared in Patches' sights. Tails had to find a place to hide them and save them as congratulatory treats rather than the main course of food; Round fruits were kind of expensive.

So against her consent, Patches was given more nuts to eat.

After Tails had eaten his own lunch, he took Patches with him into the actual shop portion of his house, which was like a very large garage. Both Tornados were parked here; the first one which was an orange bi-plane, and the second blue one that transformed into the walker.

All around where numerous shelves lined with many tools, and a couple other workbenches for many different things. One was an Extreme Gear station, where Knuckles' broken gear was sitting. It was broken because Knuckles had gotten mad having lost a match and…well, a gear snapped in two was the result.

Another workbench had a little gadget that was in pieces. Tails remembered it was the Chaos Emerald Radar that had needed a tune-up, and he cursed himself for forgetting about it.

Tails brought Patches to the work bench that was lined with notes and blueprints. Here, he had been brainstorming whatever latest idea he had conjured up; which was the idea that Chaos Control could promote travel to other dimensions.

"You can look around if you want," He told Patches as he set her down. "But I would appreciate it if you didn't touch anything."

"Chao?" Patches responded, somewhat questionably, wondering what the fox boy doing, and what all the papers were on the desk. When Tails didn't answer and got back to his blueprints, Patches couldn't help but watch him for a minute.

Then she got bored and started wandering around.

Tails was somewhat relieved Patches left him to think, but every now and then he kept an eye on the Chao to make sure she didn't get into anything she shouldn't.

Patches looked at the planes in the shop in awe. She wondered if these were those big metal birds that people made so they could fly too. These ones looked kind of goofy, but they looked pretty cool too. She figured that the fox boy must have made these. She touched the smooth, cold surface of them, tingling at the icy cold touch.

Patches drifted over to the workbench with the broken Extreme Gear. She didn't even know what this thing was. It looked like it must have been broken though, because most things didn't have wires sticking out so messily.

She left that alone and came to the workbench with the Chaos Emerald Radar that was taken apart. This must have been broken too, but this looked more interesting than the heap of Extreme Gear sitting on the other work bench.

Like Tails said though, she shouldn't touch.

Patches left that and continued to look curiously at all the tools that were hanging up in the area.

She sure is awfully quiet, Tails thought, taking the usual glance at her before looking back at his notes. For having a hyperactive owner, Patches sure is well-behaved…

Unfortunately Tails thought too soon, for when he glanced at Patches again, she saw her picking up a drill. Fearfully, he dashed to snatch it out of her hands. "Didn't I tell you not to touch anything?" he uttered.

"Chao," Patches muttered.

Thankfully, the drill hadn't been plugged in, but Tails set it on a high shelf that Patches couldn't get to. The instant he turned around, he discovered Patches wasn't where she was. Now she was sitting on one of the wings of the orange Tornado, peering into the cockpit.

Luckily she wasn't doing anything other than looking.

"Maybe she's just curious…" Tails supposed, rubbing his chin with a thumb. "…well gee, I wish I knew what she was thinking."

DING! An idea sparked in Tails' head instantly, with a growing smile.

He rushed back to his blueprints, jotting down the notes and the basic design of it. This sudden rush certainly caught Patches' attention, and she joined Tails by sitting on his head, watching what was going on.

It was amazing the speed that Tails had gone from drawing it, to collecting the different parts like a headset and some other unrecognizable things he gathered for this invention.

If Patches didn't know any better, she'd think that Tails was conquering this invention like magic, and that he was a wizard; in fact, she did. She gawked at what Tails came up with at the end.

"Nice," Tails murmured. "I only made it in seven hours!" That was good time, and at a glance, Tails saw that the digital clock read a measly 8:52.

In his hands it looked like earphones with a mic; which was the headset part of the contraption, while the rest of it was various attachments like a couple antennas from each earphone, a volume nob, and etc…

"Chao?" Patches wanted to touch this invention, and surprisingly enough, Tails allowed her.

"Try it on," Tails said.

Patches looked at it. Try it on? Where did it go?

Tails laughed at her puzzled look, and he took it to properly place it on her head. Then he flipped the ON/OFF toggle ON. "Now hopefully, this translator will not only be able to translate what you're saying into English," Tails said, "but whatever I'm saying will also be translated for you to understand what I'm saying."

Patches looked blankly at Tails again.

"So, is it working Patches?" Tails asked, hoping to get a response.

Patches' eyes lit up. She understood what that fox boy was saying, somehow. Surely this was the purpose of this strange thing he made. Naturally, she responded.

"What is this thing you put on my head, fox boy?"

She covered her mouth with her paws, but that didn't stop her surprise; and it didn't stop Tails' surprise either.

Then he let out an excited laugh. "Ahahah! It works!"

"What works?" Patches was startled by what Tails meant. It only made Tails smile, as that confirmed that Patches could understand him.

"Hey, its okay Patches," Tails assured. "There's no need to be scared. I just made a translator so we can understand each other and what we're saying."

"…what's a translator?" Patches asked.

"Well, it's something that can change a language to another language, so that people who can't speak one language can still understand what they're saying," Tails explained. "Sometimes it can be a person too, but they have to learn how to speak two different languages in order to—" Tails stopped himself, knowing how lost someone could be when he started to ramble on with explanations.

Patches eyed him curiously. "…in order to what?"

"…well, in order to change the languages for people," Tails finished.

"Wow, really?" Patches was really amazed to be told this. "Is there a lot of languages out there that needs a translator, fox boy?"

"…yeah," Tails said, sitting down beside Patches and getting comfortable. "There are actually over 7,000 languages in the entire world currently."

"That's a lot!" Patches commented, sitting herself in Tails' lap. "How come there are so many languages, fox boy?"

"Hey, there," Tails stopped Patches there. "My name's Tails. You don't have to call me 'fox boy.'"

"Tails? That's a weird name."

"Well, it's not my real name; it's just a nickname. My real name is Miles Prower."

"Well Tails makes more sense. You have two tails!"

"Yeah, that's how I got the nickname."

At first, Patches had obvious, somewhat patience-trying questions, but soon it escalated to very complicated topics that Tails was very much happy to talk about. Soon, he had forgotten all about the time as he talked to Patches, who was happy that she learned so much in one night.

From names, it got back to the languages, and then it went to cultures, and different parts of history, and then it went to the various great inventions in history and eventually, Tails found himself talking about electricity and how a circuit works when he noticed Patches yawn.

"Oh, I'm sorry," Tails chuckled. "Are you tired?"

"A little," Patches said. "But I still want you to keep going."

Tails looked at the digital clock to discover it was 1:09; scratch that, it just flipped to 1:10am.

"…nah, its way past bedtime for us," Tails said, standing up with Patches in his arms. "We need our sleep."

"…okay," Patches responded to some disdain, as Tails flipped off the light in his shop. While he walked down the hall, Patches cuddled to him in his arms. "You treat me much better than the Master does."

"The Master?" Tails inquired. "…oh, you mean that owl girl?"

"Yes," Patches said.

Tails blinked. It was a strange thing receiving that kind of compliment, especially from a Chao, but it meant something to him to hear that. Why it did, Tails wasn't quite sure, since he didn't exactly give her the attention that Cream usually would. Even then, he gave Patches a smile.

He made it to his bedroom, and set Patches down into her little Chao bed, which Tails had taken in here earlier and set next to his own bed.

"Tails," Patches said. "How long will it be until the Master comes back for me?"

"I don't know," Tails replied, crawling into bed and pulling the covers up. "When her foot heals I guess. That probably won't be very long though, depending on what kind of report we get from a doctor's examination." Vanilla did mention that they were going to take Chloe to check her foot out.

"Okay," Patches answered. While Tails got comfortable in his bed, the silence was broken.

"Tails?"

"Yeah?" he answered, turning his head.

"What do I do with this…translator?" Patches asked, tapping the headphones on her head. "It's kinda big and it might be uncomfortable to sleep in…"

"Go ahead and just take it off," Tails said. "If you keep it next to you when you sleep, then you can put it back on in the morning."

"Ooooooooooooh," Patches said. "That's a good idea." At first she struggled to slip it off her head with her paws, but she managed it. Setting it next to the bed, she turned to Tails with a smile. "Chao!" her normal chao voice returned.

Tails smiled, and yawned. "Yeah…goodnight to you too, Patches…" he mumbled tiredly, lying his head back down on the pillow. It wasn't long at all until Tails was asleep, and it also wasn't long until Patches followed, cuddling warmly in her own bed.