» xxdomino says «

x so I shouldn't really be starting another fanfiction, but this plot bunny wouldn't stop molesting me!

x Tails has always been my favourite character and Wave is by far my favourite person to pair him up with. Cream is so… young and Cosmo is so… I don't know. I hate her.

x mechanic jargon in this fic is half made up because Extreme Gear isn't real, however much I wish it to be.

x Tails/12 and Wave/16 + I know Mobians don't have to wear clothes but I want them too okay? They're more fun to drawn and write like that.

x takes place after Sonic Riders: Zero Gravity, because I'm not going to buy and XBOX Kinetic just because I want Free Riders.

x all elements of Sonic the Hedgehog belong to Sega. Lyrics of Jasey Rae belong to All Time Low.

It's a Technician Thing

Trade

Thinking back on it now, she wouldn't be able to pinpoint the exact moment when their stupid little exchanges started to develop into something more.

She'd run by him before races, insult his work, remind him of how badly he was going to loose, anger him about his height, his age, his maturity levels, whatever she could do to psyche him out so that he'd be to angry to focus on the competition properly.

Thing is; Tails isn't anything like Sonic or Knuckles, neither was he the naïve little thing that had started creating Extreme Gear to keep up with his older and less mature friends. Tails is… he's so much older than his voice, his facial features or his large glassy blue eyes. Her mean, snarky comments phased through him and he'd return her scowl with a brazen grin and a reply catty enough to put Sonic to shame.

She'd heard of what he was like before; a weak naïve little cry baby. Compared to what he was now she would have never thought that they were the same person.

Tails wasn't who you would think of if you were trying to define a normal twelve year old kid.

She could however remember when she had noticed the change in their relationship.

She knew that she could be arrested for such an act; sneaking into another person's workshop. She knew how it would feel because she could empathise with Tails, she was a mechanic too and someone charging into her workshop would feel like she had been violated herself. Her gear shed was the equivalent of the artist's studio, the author's library, the scientist's lab. But in her defence, she hadn't barged in; she'd knocked quietly three times and waited for little over fifteen minutes before she decided to walk in through the opened door.

What she happened upon was something resembling half a teenager's room; band posters, soda cans, unmade bed, littering papers and abused game consoles behinds a half drawn curtain in a dark corner. On the other side was a garage that looked very close to professional, had the small little personal details not littered the working space.

She could see what he had been working on on a nearby bench scattered sprockets splayed out across the surface like he had gotten up abruptly to do something else. Between the two spaces lay a spiral staircase to which the room above was not visible from her vantage point. She ran her hand across the gear had had been focusing on; a new air board, much like the ones that had gone out of fashion once gravity control stormed it's way onto the Air Gear scene. It was dirty with grease but the design was slick and beautiful with planes of incredible craftsmanship beyond the skill of a normal twelve year old.

Beside the piece of mastery was a roughly torn bar of dark mint chocolate with four and a half missing pieces. The chocolate was next to what looked like a lukewarm cup of hot chocolate, but when its scent reached her beak she distinguished it as coffee. What kind of kid eats dark mint chocolate and coffee?

"Don't make this easy. I want you to mean it. Jasey… say you'll mean it. You're dressed to kill, I'm calling you out…" she distinguished the raspy teenaged voice as soon as the lyrics drifted down the stairs. Jumping away from the gear she watched with mild amusement as Tail's danced down the stairs, eyes closed and a pair of headphones rendering him oblivious to the world outside the drum beats. He almost jumped out of his skin when he opened his eyes to see Wave leaning over his gear bench with a slight smile curving her beak.

"Wave!" he exclaimed in alarm, eyes widening in shock as he yanked down his headphones so that they hung around his neck.

She jerked her head in the direction of the entrance, "Am I intruding? The door was open and-"

"No!" he smiled reassuringly, but quickly composed himself into a slight frown, "It's open for friends that like to visit oft… We're enemies, what are you doing here?"

She sighed a little, knowing that convincing him, despite his apparent lack of naivety, was going to be far easier that speaking to Knuckles or Sonic.

"So there's a certain part that the Black Market seems to be missing lately…" she knew that not all of Tails' parts were as squeaky clean as they seemed to be, "and I was wondering if you had one."

"What is it?"

"A special kind of ignition coil with primary winding made from bent speed ring and iron core made from synthesised Mobian silver," she was actually very thankful there was someone in the world that wasn't Eggman that would actually get what she was saying.

"Uh uh, no way, I was ripped off for that part because I didn't dabble in as much alchemy as one would like. I paid three thousand ring for wire that was only worth nine hundred."

"Yeah, alchemy's a bitch but… I have a chaos emerald."

He exhaled through his nose and opened a drawer, fishing out the desired cylinder and tossing it to her when she handed over the purple jewel.

She nodded her thanks, noting how he seemed to lament over loosing the part. He made an immature little noise, blowing air through lips pressed together before jerking his head towards the door. The swallow got the message and started heading towards the garage entrance, but before she was out she leant across the door frame and said, "Hey…"

He had his fingertips over his goggles about ready to pull them down when he turned his head towards her, "What kind of twelve year old drinks coffee? If I was blind I would've thought you were forty or sumthing."

She spied the slight traces of a smile along his muzzle before he pulled the goggles over his eyes, "Shut up and get lost Wave."

Hmm… interesting.

Ask for a gear part from Sonic and he would have passed it off as a joke. Ask for one from Knuckles and he would have accused them of lying, deceiving and thrown them out.

Maybe she'd have to drop by Tail's workshop more often.

Little did she know the next week she'd find herself making excuses to see the little fox's garage, if just to see he was like behind the Air Gear scene.

She'd noticed when she overheard Sonic asking Tails where the new part of his board had gone; Tails had said that he'd lost it. When Jet asked her where she had acquired the new trinket for his board, she'd said she found it.

They were lying for each other; their relationship had changed.

xxdomino; The idea was a lot prettier in my head. It sounds kind of different. I might change it when I get the chance. I hate introductory chapters. It was just meant to drabble about the way Wave and Tails' relationship changed from enemies to friends, and maybe even more than that, I don't know. Yeah, I think I will change it later... maybe. Thoughts?