Speedy's note: Welcome to an installment of a rare kind: a story of mine that isn't about Sonic or Knux! Though actually, I'm not 100% sure if it actually qualifies for "story" or if it isn't rather headcanon wrapped in story shape... It addresses an issue I've discussed with several people over the years, and it just wanted to be written at this point, and once it was written, I might as well toss it out here. Enjoy?

Set in season 1 of Sonic X.

The X-Tornado's rear engine hatch stood open to reveal the machinery inside the plane's tail. The new design had worked well during their latest clash with Dr. Eggman, but Tails was always trying to improve on his aircraft.

Chuck stood behind him. Chris' grandpa was an engineer and scientist himself and they enjoyed building machines together. Today though, Chuck was unusually quiet as he watch Tails fiddle around with cables and connections. The fox was about to ask if something was bothering his friend when Chuck spoke up on his own, and it wasn't about the X-Tornado.

"How old are you, Tails?"

Surprised at this question, so out of the blue, Tails lowered his tools to turn to Chuck. "Eight. Why?"

"Years, I assume?", the human scientist went on.

"Yes, years." Tails nodded. In a way, it was both unfamiliar and welcome to talk to Chuck about anything, because as a scientist, he too wanted accurate information and facts. Most of Tails' other friends were happy with something much less precise. "In fact," he continued, "I think our planet's years are very similar to yours; the length of day seems the same, and the number of days in a year. Unless the day only feels the same length because we're here now and it's relative?" He trailed off uncertainly.

But Chuck was smiling. "It's possible, maybe, but not what I'm getting at." He looked away, across the garage, back at Tails. "You're actually younger than Chris," he said then, out of the blue again, sort of.

Tails shrugged. He wasn't quite following what his new friend was getting at. "I guess?"

Chuck looked at him strangely. "Cream told Ella she's six. That means she's only two years younger than you."

"Yes?"

"What about the others? Sonic, Amy, Knuckles?"

"Sonic's fifteen. Amy's twelve. I think Knuckles is sixteen, or so?" Tails frowned. "Why?"

Chuck still studied him. "I was wondering if you guys grow up and mature like humans do. Sometimes, it almost seems so to me. Cream is like a human six year old. Amy and Sonic also seem similar to human adolescents in their maturity. You seem more on par with Amy and Sonic than with Chris or Cream, although you're closer to them in age. But you're all different species, aren't you? Do all of you mature at the same rate? Do foxes mature faster in your world?"

Tails still failed to see the relevance, but he too was often simply curious about things. He could humour his friend. "I don't think so. Pretty much all Mobian species grow, physically I mean, until we're fiftteen, sixteen, round about. I think we're physically completely mature and grown in all aspects when we're like, twenty? I think it's different from person to person, too."

"That sounds similar to humans. Most people stop growing taller in the middle of their teens, but their bodies only reach full maturity at the end of them." He folded his arms, brow still furrowed in thoughtful lines. "Mental maturity is something else entirely, and then there's the legal side to it. Here on Earth, we consider people legal adults when they're 16 to 21, depending on where you live and things like that."

Now it was Tails' turn to frown. "What does that mean, legal adults? What's legal about it? Can you be an illegal adult?" Human politics were complicated and utterly ridiculous. Like all the paperwork they recently got...

Chuck grinned. "No, you can't be an illegal adult. That's not what I meant. We - wait. Do you differentiate between adults and minors on your planet? Legally?"

Tails blinked. "What are minors? Like, minorities? Social groups that aren't as numerous as others?"

"No, not like that." Chuck was sitting straight upright now. Whatever it was, this weird conversation was taking a path that had sparked his interest more than his average high level of curiosity even. "You see... Here on Earth, we think of children before a certain age as... too young to be doing some things by themselves, for themselves. On Earth, eight year olds aren't normally allowed to fly planes or drive cars, for example."

"Why not?" It seemed ridiculous. "What does age have to do with it? Being a few years older won't teach you how to fly a plane. Flying lessons teach you."

Chuck waved his hands. "Yes, sure. Not everyone is allowed to fly or drive because of their age, they need to practice and earn a license, too."

That was what they'd told him the largest part of his paperwork was. Licenses to fly and drive his planes and other inventions. "But they're not allowed to earn that license when they're younger than some set date?"

Chuck nodded a confirmation. "Exactly. If you're not legally an adult, you're considered too young to drive or fly."

"Hm. Why am I allowed to fly then?" It seemed the next logical question.

His older friend shrugged. "I guess they either didn't think this far, or they can't tell how old you are, after all they don't know you, or they figured they have no way to stop you anyway."

"Huh." Tails chewed his lip. "Why do you have rules like that? I mean, by that logic, I suddenly grow old enough to be driving or flying overnight, on that "critical" birthday. That seems... sudden? Arbitrary, too. People don't grow up overnight. It's a slow process, and it happens at different speeds for everyone, too."

Chuck was watching him with his head tilted in thought. "You're right, I guess. It is a process, not something that suddenly happens at a specific date, but it had to be legally defined. How do you guys handle stuff like that in your world?"

Tails shrugged. "It's not a big deal. You just... When you're old enough to understand how to fly and not crash, you're old enough to do it. It doesn't seem as complicated as here."

"What about other things? Elections? Or alcohol?" Apparently Chuck found Mobius' laid-back approach to government as weird as Tails found Earth's many odd rules.

"If you want to vote, you go vote. I think it's like flying. If you're old enough to care about voting, you're probably good to go, I think?" Tails shrugged. He didn't care much about politics, neither did Sonic. "Sonic says I shouldn't drink alcohol, and he doesn't drink any himself. I never even thought about if we'd be allowed or not." He twirled his tails. "It's not that every adult drinks, right? And do your laws stop younger people from drinking?"

"No, they don't." Chuck frowned. "But it's considered a crime to sell alcohol to minors. Adults who do it can be fined or otherwise punished." The human studied him again. "Okay, um, what about living arrangements? Do children live with their parents until they are grown up? That's what it's like here on Earth, and if a child doesn't have parents, they get taken care of in orphanages or foster families or they get adopted."

"Sonic adopted me when I was small," Tails noticed, "because I have no parents. He doesn't have parents, either, but he's my big brother now, so we're family."

Chuck was staring. "When you were small? How small?"

"Four," Tails said, struggling to follow the suddenly distraught look on Chuck's face. "What's wrong?"

The human leaned back heavily against his chair. "Four," he repeated softly. "I remember Chris being four. Four is tiny. To think that -"

"Chuck? It's okay. It's not a problem, honest."

The elder human stared at him. "You probably wouldn't even know if it is a problem or not... An eleven year old taking care of a four year old seems terrible by our standards. I know it happens, for children living on the streets in third world countries or so, but... It just seems so terrible to me." He shook his head. "I'm sorry, I don't mean to judge, and we come from different cultures. Is is common, an arrangement like that?"

Tails shrugged, still mildly distressed by his friend's obvious discomfort. He'd not meant to unsettle Chuck. "I don't know," he said softly. "I don't really think so. We might be a bit of an unusual group."

"I see." It didn't seem like he did, but he seemed willing to let it pass. Tails could work with that. "But people on your planet see no problem with children living alone and taking care of themselves?"

"No. If you get along, you're fine. You can go ask for help if you're not, I suppose." He bit his lip. "If you're... normal? People didn't seem to like my two tails, for example..." He trailed off uncertainly. It was a painful memory, even though he didn't get picked on for his appearance much anymore, and he wasn't particularly interested in dwelling on it here and now.

"So racism, or something similar, bigotry, discrimination, that's a problem in your world, too?" Chuck sighed. "I was hoping with so many different species apparently coexisting peacefully, your world would be better than ours there."

Tails frowned. "To quote something Sonic said to me once: There are jerks everywhere."

"That is unfortunate but probably true." Chuck swept a long look over the garage, then focused back on Tails. "Back to Sonic having adopted you. Is that a legal thing?"

Tails shrugged. "I think you're thinking too much in Earth terms. There isn't paperwork. It's more like... A promise. Sonic promised me that we're family and that we're there for each other, stuff like that."

"But it's considered to be as... valid as, say, Cream and her mother being family?"

"Sure. Why wouldn't it? Family is family." Humans were so complicated.

Chuck was sitting slightly more relaxed again. "That's... nice, you know. It sounds so simple."

"I don't see why it should be a big deal. We have no legal and illegal family, like we have no legal and illegal adults." Legal adults still seemed weird.

"It seems weird to me that you don't have concepts like legal majority, because you do make a general difference between children and adults, right?" Apparently Chuck was back at that part.

"Sure we make a difference. Children are smaller, still growing. Very small children can't talk or walk yet, or take care of themselves. When you're small, you need help more than when you're older. I know what a child is, Chuck." Tails smiled. "I dunno, maybe we just really don't make a big deal about things like you guys do. Kids get more and more independent as they grow up, and unless we can't handle ourselves, I think on our planet we're just... Maybe we seem more independent to you because we're expected and allowed more independence?"

"Hm. I sort of see your point, but it's hard to verify, if our concepts don't make much sense in your culture and world view, and vice versa. And we have no way to compare the actual experiences, if being an eight year old Mobian fox is actually different from being an eight year old human boy. Already for just human children, there's a lot of differences between individuals." Chuck was rubbing his chin thoughtfully.

Tails frowned at him. "I don't see why it's important. Why does it matter?"

Chuck shrugged. "I think we humans like to file things into categories. It's how we process thoughts and concepts."

"Huh. I see." It wasn't that Mobians really were all that different there. "How about you just make an individual category for any one of us and be done? There's only a handful of us. Not a big deal?" He winked at his friend.

Chuck grinned back. "You're turning that into a catchphrase."

Tails smiled. "There are worse catchphrases." He pointed back at his plane with the hatch at the side still open. "Come on, grandpa, you said you'd help me improve this system."

His human friend pushed back to his feet, white coat swishing about him. "Of course, young one." He laughed.

Tails laughed with him.