Chapter #7A token of her gratitude by: Karl0s   It was a sunny evening in Mobius. Vanilla the Rabbit returned home after work. She opened the door and saw Cream and Cheese already waiting for her in front of it.
"Yay! You're back, Mom!" Cream said cheerfully as she then gave Vanilla a hug, which Vanilla returned.
"Chao Chao!" Cheese said, greeting her.
"Hi dear! Hi Cheese! Have you two been good?" Vanilla asked with a smile.
"Yeah. We were playing in the Chao Garden a lot today. Also, Miss Amy came to visit, and we played board games." Cream said. "She left an hour ago. How were you today, Mom? Did you have many clients?"
About a month ago, Vanilla opened her restaurant in the city. Her cooking was very good. Cream and her friends really loved Vanilla's food. However, Vanilla had some problems...
"No, there were no much clients today either." Vanilla said a bit sadly.
"Oooooh, but that's not fair." Cream said, to which Cheese nodded. "You cook so great, Mom. You deserve a lot of clients for your restaurant."
"Thanks, Cream. But the problem is that it doesn't look attractive for people. I don't have enough money to improve the appearance of the restaurant. And if it keeps like that, my restaurant might get closed forever." Vanilla said, to which Cream looked at her sadly.
"I'm sorry to hear that, Mom." she said.
"It's alright. Maybe I'll figure something out." Vanilla said with a small smile, and then walked to the kitchen. "Now, are you two hungry? I'll cook my best carrot pie today. You and Cheese are my permanent clients, after all."
"Yay!" Cream said happily.
===
Two days later
Vanilla was serving a few clients at her restaurant. She was the only worker there, since she couldn't afford herself to hire someone.
Then she heard the door open.
"Welcome to the- Oh, it's you, Tails?" Vanilla said as she saw the yellow fox walking inside.
It was indeed Tails the Fox, a friend of Sonic the Hedgehog who saved Vanilla's life in the past, and a friend of Cream.
"Hey Vanilla! May I have the fruit salad, please?" Tails ordered with a smile.
"Alright!" Vanilla said as she then went to the kitchen, while Tails sat at the table to wait.
After ten minutes, Vanilla walked over to the table where Tails was sitting with a plate of salad in her hand.
"Here's your order." Vanilla said with a smile.
"Thank you, Mrs. Rabbit." Tails said as he paid for the salad.
Vanilla frowned a bit. "Tails, you don't have to call me that, you know this."
"There are some people around. They might think I act disrespectable." Tails said quietly.
"Well, everyone here is allowed to call me Vanilla, so you don't have to worry." Vanilla said as she then sat at the other side of the table.
Tails noticed that something was off about her.
"Mrs Rab...I mean, Mrs. Vanilla. Are you alright?" he asked with concern.
"I'm okay, don't worry." Vanilla said, but Tails didn't seem to be convinced by this answer. She gave up.
"Eh...I don't think this restaurant is gonna last long." Vanilla said as she looked down. "I have some debts to pay, but I can't do this right now. As you can see, very few people come here. And so every day. I can't even hire people to help me with work...Maybe starting the restaurant wasn't a good idea."
Seeing Vanilla sad, Tails placed a had on her shoulder.
"Come on, Mrs. Vanilla. You don't have to give up that easy. We have to work on the ideas how to make your restaurant look much more attractive for clients, so they could come and see your true potential."
"Hm?" Vanilla raised her eyes to look at Tails. "Are you going to...help me?"
"Of course, Mrs. Vanilla! I promise, I'll help you with the restaurant. It will become famous throughout the city!" Tails said with a huge entusiasm in his voice.
Seeing that, Vanilla smiled. "Heh, you're really nice, Tails."
"Well, you're very nice to us all, and you and your restaurant deserve better than just a few clients." Tails said, which caused Vanilla to feel touched.
"Thank...thank you very much. But how are we going to do this?" Vanilla asked, to which Tails took out his smartphone.
He looked through the Internet and found something.
"I searched for the most popular categories of restaurant. And I found some." Tails said, showing Vanilla the results.
Both noticed that the most popular category was restaurants with curvy waitresses, wearing only t-shirts and short shorts. However, from the information it was clear that such restaurants were rare.
"What do you think about this, Mrs. Vanilla?" Tails asked curiously.
"Well...I'm not sure about this. It seems to attract a lot of clients, but I don't think I could find waitresses like these. Plus...it might be a bit too extreme."
"Oh...Sorry for offering such an option." Tails said, feeling awkward.
"Don't worry about it." Vanilla said with a reassuring smile.
"Let's keep searching then." Tails offered, to which Vanilla nodded.
But then they heard the door open.
"Welcome!" Vanilla said, greeting a person who came inside.
This person was a middle-aged female raccoon. Her clothes were dirty and her hair looked wild.
Vanilla looked at her with concern and quickly ran up to the woman to help her sit.
"H-Hello." the raccoon woman said, greeting Vanilla. "C-Can I have a...small portion of soup?"
By the looks of woman, Vanilla realized that she didn't have much money to order anything more than that.
"Alright, your order will come soon. Wait a little, Tails. I have a client to serve." she said as she then walked to the kitchen again.
"Okay." Tails said with a nod as he felt sorry for the raccoon woman.
After some time, Vanilla came back. But she didn't have just a plate of soup in her hands. She had a very big plate with a big portion of soup with a meat and bread on it.
Raccoon woman's eyes widened. "W-Wait, I-I can't afford that."
"Oh, don't worry. It's the food that wasn't eaten by anyone today. You can have it for free."
"R-Really?" the woman asked in surprise.
"That's right." Vanilla answered with a sweet smile. "Enjoy your meal!"
"T-Thank you so much!" the raccoon woman said as she began eating quickly.
"Poor thing. I hope she'll be okay." Vanilla said to herself as she returned to the table where Tails was sitting.
"You're a great person, Vanilla! She looks very happy!" Tails admitted as they both looked at the raccoon woman who kept eating her soup.
"I just couldn't ignore someone who was in trouble." Vanilla said, looking at her sympathetically, and then she turned back to Tails. "Now, let's keep searching, shall we?"
"Alright." Tails said as he turned his smartphone back on.
===
"All these ideas are very nice." Vanilla admitted as she and Tails walked out of the restaurant. "I'll think about all this at home and tomorrow I'll tell you which idea I chose."
"Alright, Mrs. Vanilla. See you tomorrow!" Tails said as he and Vanilla then parted ways.
After 30 seconds of walking, Tails suddenly heard a familiar voice.
"Hello young man. She already left?"
Tails turned to see the same raccoon woman from some time ago.
"Oh, hello. Are you about Mrs. Vanilla? Yeah, she already left. Did you need something?" Tails asked curiously.
"Eh, I just wanted to bring a small gift to her as a 'thank you'. But it looks like I'm too late." the woman said with a sigh.
"Hm...maybe I can help. I know where she lives, and I can bring your gift to her." Tails offered, to which raccoon woman smiled.
"Unfortunately, I'll have to go somewhere tomorrow, so I won't be able to give it to Mrs. Vanilla." the raccoon woman said as she pulled out a necklace with a small purple piece of ruby in the middle. "I heard what you two were speaking about. This little gift might bring a good luck to her and help with a restaurant. Mrs. Vanilla just needs to put it on before bed and she will feel great the next day. Please, give it to her."
Tails took the necklace and nodded. "Alright, Miss. I'll give your gift to Mrs. Vanilla."
"Thank you, young man. Have a good day." the woman said, leaving on her way.
===
Knock Knock!
Hearing that, Vanilla walked towards the door and opened it to see Tails standing there.
"Oh, hello again, Tails." Vanilla said with a smile as she gestured him to come in.
"Don't worry, I'll leave soon. I just came here to give you something." Tails said as he took out a necklace and handed it to her. "This is a gift from the raccoon woman you fed for free today. She told me to give this to you as a token of her gratitude."
"Oh, she didn't have to. But it wouldn't be polite to refuse. It's very nice of her." Vanilla said with a smile.
"She said that you should put this necklace on before bed and that this is gonna bring you luck with the restaurant."
"Aww, that's sweet. Thank you, Tails. Will you stay for dinner?" Vanilla offered, to which Tails shook his head.
"Sorry, Mrs. Vanilla. I gotta go." Tails replied, which disappointed her a little. "Don't worry, tomorrow I will come to your restaurant and we'll discuss the plan."
"Alright. See you tomorrrow then." Vanilla said, to which Tails nodded.
"See you tomorrow, Mrs. Vanilla." Tails said as he then left the house.
===
It was bedtime. Cream and Cheese were already sleeping. Vanilla was just about to go to bed.
She looked at the sky outside the window.
"Tails is right. I was about to give up too easily. I should try and improve my restaurant."
Vanilla then took the necklace and placed it around her neck.
"It actually looks good. I wonder why she didn't sell it." she said, looking down on the necklace. "Maybe this will really bring me good luck."
Vanilla then turned off the light and went to bed.
"I hope me and Tails will...yawn...figure something out tomorrow..." Vanilla said as she then closed her eyes.
And soon she fell asleep, not realizing that literally a second after that the purple piece of ruby began to glow...
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