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3 days had passed since the strangely anticlimactic battle with Eggman, and with each turnover to midnight, Tails' suspicions only worsened. Something was wrong. Something had changed.
And it all came back to Sonic.
He was acting..off. It wasn't noticeable to an untrained eye, not by a long shot, but Tails had an edge that couldn't be beat. Not many people were privy to Sonic's quieter years when body language and expressions dominated their communication, but for Tails, they happened to be some of the most formative years of his life. That meant that whether Sonic liked it or not, Tails could read him like a children's picture book. And right now? Sonic was tense. Agitated, and..something else, an emotion entirely new to the younger, at least in the way of figuring out the lock-and-key emotions of his brother.
Tails couldn't be sure without a frame of reference, but he was beginning to wonder if Sonic was outright anxious. Sure, he could get twitchy if he was stuck in one place for too long, or when Amy would try to drag him to swimming lessons he pointedly refused to attend, but something about this was different. To Tails' understanding, there wasn't much going on in Green Hill that could cause the constant tension in Sonic's shoulders. No Eggman, no world-ending schemes..
So what was it?
Sonic wasn't one to worry about the doctors next impending appearance, having accepted them as a facet of life a long time ago, so that couldn't be it. And while Shadow could irritate him, it was more likely to be the other way around. Pushing Shadow's buttons was one of Sonic's favorite pass-times, after all. As a matter of fact, his brother had been sparring with the lifeform much more frequently as of late..another thing to add to the growing list of strange behavior.
Tails groaned, smearing a hand through his bangs before allowing his forehead to make contact with his workbench, the light thunk breaking up the silence. He wished more than anything that he could just ask Sonic directly, but..
What's stopping you? He always swings by to ask about you when you're having an off day. Why can't you do the same?
But the answer was plain and simple: Sonic didn't need someone to check in on him, never did; not in his mind. He'd deal with it one way or another, because he was Sonic the Hedgehog, and he could handle anything life threw at him! Even when the odds were stacked against the hero, he'd find a way. Even if he didn't realistically stand a chance, he'd smile in the face of whatever was next; the good, the bad, and the downright ugly. Gods, mechs- emotions..if it came down to it, in the end, Sonic would gladly do it all alone. But was that really a fault of his ego?
Or was it because he thought he had to?
Tails' chest ached something fierce at the thought. Even if Sonic didn't think he needed a shoulder to lean on, Tails would be there. Now, tomorrow, always.
"Okay," He whispered to himself, sitting up from his back-destroying slouch with a steadying breath. "I guess we're doing this. It's just a question, and I ask plenty of those, right?"
So what was one more?
_______________
The sun had only just dipped below the horizon when Tails finally spotted that familiar shade of blue. The stars were beginning to peek through the fleeting clouds that remained, still warm from the evening's afterglow, and they contrasted starkly against the endless expanse of the ocean. The water was calm, but the hedgehog that was sitting eerily still on the ground in front of it, Tails noticed, was not. Sonic's quills were flexed in what the younger recognized as a warning. It wasn't a full bristle quite yet, but it was threatening that it could be. Tails squinted, furthering his study, and found himself drawn to the way Sonic was running his hands through the sand by his sides. Over and over again, he let the grains weave between his fingers. Not exactly unusual; Sonic had always adored nature, but it was certainly something worth noting. The cause of the tension, however, was what continued to elude him.
With a newfound determination, Tails walked towards the other with deliberately even steps, making sure his approach was heard even through the cushion of the sand. A blue ear flicked back, listening, and after a few more strides Tails was standing beside him. He took a breath.
"This seat taken?"
Tails was rewarded with a quiet laugh and a gentle pat on the ground beside the other. An invitation.
"Nah, 's all yours, bud." Came the reply, nearly lost to the gentle lap of the waves. Subdued. Tails let the tone slide in favor of lowering himself to sit beside his brother, allowing a moment of quiet to settle over them before deciding to speak again.
"What did you get up to today?"
"The usual," Sonic supplied, as if their routines were anything but hectic. "Ran a few laps around the hills, picked a fight with Shadow like it's my day job, y'know how it goes."
Tails' gaze flicked down for a beat. Sonic's hands were still continuously sifting through the sand, and if he didn't know any better, he'd wonder if Sonic had forgotten what the sensation felt like. He seemed entranced by the movement between his fingers.
"What about you, pal? Anything crazy in the lab?"
There were a few minor things Tails could think to mention, but they drew away from his point. Distracted from his goal. "Not really," He mumbled instead. He wasn't entirely sure how to start the conversation now that he was actively working towards it. He should've thought this through a little more. Guess Sonic's 'jump first, ask questions later' attitude is starting to rub off on me after all.
The hedgehog in question only hummed, eyes firmly fixed to the darkening horizon, and Tails couldn't help but follow suit. The quiet had returned, its sharp edges somehow managing to shout over the waves, twisting in the kit's sensitive ears. Tails took a deep breath to steady himself. He could do this. It was just a simple question, right? He'd faced worse, much worse. So why was it so hard to just open his mouth and say it?
"Somethin' on your mind, squirt? You look like you swallowed a lemon." Sonic suddenly commented, and when Tails' gaze flicked back to the hedgehog, he found that the other still wasn't meeting his eye. A glance, then.
This is your chance. It's now or never.
"Um.." The fox mumbled, but no, if he was going to do this, he was going to do it right. The younger placed his hands in the sand and turned his body to fully face his brother, giving the teen his full attention just like the hero had always done for him. Sonic shifted, ear flicking, but his brother still didn't look his way. Something about the avoidance stung. "Y-Yeah, actually. Sonic, I.."
Tails' voice seemed to fizzle out, but that just wouldn't do. The boy genius took another breath, deciding that if he had to, he'd force the words out.
And finally, with a squeak, Tails managed it.
"Are you okay?"
A beat of that dreaded silence passed, then two. Tails risked a glance.
Sonic was looking at him as if he'd grown two heads in place of the dual namesakes he was accustomed to, but quicker than Tails could blink, the expression was smothered and replaced with a smug grin.
"Well sure, why wouldn't I be?"
Tails had spent 3 days wondering the same thing.
If Sonic saw the way he nervously fiddled with the tip of his tail, he didn't say anything about it.
"I noticed that you've been sorta out of it lately, and..well, I guess I'm just a little worried."
"About you" went unsaid. It already felt like he'd said too much. Sonic's eyebrow twitched before he looked away with an easy smile.
"Must've had one too many truck stop chili dogs. Don't get me wrong, they're good, but on the off chance you get a bad batch, feelin' a little 'out of it' is a wild understatement." Sonic said with a wave of his hand. The smile never left, but it didn't quite meet his eyes.
"Sonic.." Tails tried, feeling the slightest bit hurt. He was trying to be serious, but as a lot of things went when the blue blur was involved, the mood was rooted to a forcefully brighter place. Suddenly, Sonic reached out and put a hand on Tails' shoulder, offering a light squeeze and paying little mind to the sand he left in his wake.
"Hey, don't sweat it little buddy! You're worrying over nothin'! I'm just takin' it easy for a bit, that's all. There's no need to get your tails in a twist," Sonic said, and the warmth in his expression was almost enough to get Tails to fold.
But his eyes..
"..You're sure?"
"As sure as the sky is blue."
Tails wanted to trust Sonic's word. He trusted him. Even still, something unsatisfied writhed in his chest as he resigned himself to the end of his attempt with a soft sigh. Sure, the conversation didn't go the way Tails had hoped, but he could at the very least try and cheer Sonic up. Their usual banter typically had that effect.
"The sky's not very blue right now."
"That's not- Tails, you know what I meant."
"And you're positive about that?"
"Under normal circumstances, sure, but I'm starting to wonder if your IQ took a quick lunch break."
That nearly got a laugh out of the fox, but he refused to be the first to give in.
"I can see the headlines now: Sonic The Hedgehog calls children dumb for fun! You do realize I could end your entire career with this, right?"
Sonic leveled him with a flat look.
Tails raised an eyebrow in challenge.
It was then that a light snicker broke the standoff. The noise slipped from the fox's teeth before he could stop it, and when Sonic abruptly snorted in return, Tails finally gave in and allowed himself to laugh. He couldn't see very well with his face scrunched up from the joyful sound, but he could hear that Sonic wasn't too far behind in the amusement department.
When Tails managed to open his eyes again, he made a point to look his brother over a final time, making sure to keep the flick of his gaze as subtle as possible. Sonic's quills had smoothed out considerably by now, and if Tails' eyes weren't deceiving him, some tension had finally drained from the hedgehog's shoulders as well. The fox's smile softened.
For now, it was enough.
______________
He and Sonic had decided to turn in early that night, going their separate ways in a blind search for the snooze cruise. The hedgehog had asked if he could crash at the shop, something he'd been doing more often lately, and while it was just another thing to add to his list of oddities, Tails actually found himself enjoying the development. Usually, Sonic would go off to Chaos-knows-where with the goal of resting in some randomly selected tree, sleeping under the stars like they used to when they were young. Tonight, though, he'd taken the couch.
Tails, on the other hand, was breaking more than a few bed time rules in the garage. He'd been meaning to touch up the shop's automatic vacuum system for a few weeks now, as it kept missing a specific spot by the side door, but with Eggman being his typically obnoxious self, Tails hadn't found the time or the motivation. With the events of the evening working him up, there was suddenly more than enough energy to go around. Perfect time to get to work.
An hour or so had passed when Tails found himself working on a new side project, only after the tweaks to the vacuum yielded desirable results. The kit pointedly ignored the yawn that tugged his eyelids a little further down. He wasn't tired, no, because he said so and that was final. He was busy. Sonic could scold him about his sleeping habits all he wanted in the morning- Tails was invested now.
But it seemed that fate had other plans.
The peaceful buzz of machinery and the mechanic's quiet breathing was abruptly interrupted by a blood-chilling scream of his name. Tails lurched in his stool, fur raising in alarm, before he all but threw himself out of it and shot towards the side door.
That had sounded an awful lot like his brother.
Tails' heart raced in his chest, eyes wide and pupils narrowed into slits as he swung the door to the living quarters open, holding his breath. Expecting the worst.
The first thing he noticed was a distinct lack of bots or any obvious signs of a struggle. There were no broken windows, no glowing red eyes, no..anything. The house was empty, peaceful, save for the sound of ragged breathing coming from the sofa. Tails' stomach began to twist itself in knots. That also sounded a lot like his brother, though Tails couldn't recall ever hearing such a noise from the older. Concern reached its peak then, so the kit rounded the couch, hand gripped firmly to his chest with fearful eyes. If not the end of the universe, just what in Gaia's name could make Sonic scream like that?
And yet, for all the certainty he'd circled the sofa with, there wasn't a single thing that could've prepared him for what he saw.
Sonic was pushed up against the arm of the worn furniture, quills split and flared like his life truly depended on their razor sharp edges. Even in the low light, Tails could see the way his eyes darted back and forth, searching but somehow unseeing, as he had yet to notice Tails' presence at his side. His chest stuttered, frantically gasping for air. There was nothing attacking, nothing blatantly amiss, and with present context clues there was really only one other viable reason. Nightmare, Tails concluded solemnly. A bad one.
Even then, bad didn't feel like it could cover it, because for the first time in Tails' life, he could say without a shred of doubt or frame of reference that Sonic looked positively terrified.
This was uncharted territory in the worst of ways. What would Sonic even need in a moment like this? There was an instinctual answer that told him space, but Tails felt reluctant to simply walk away when he could very well stay and do his best to help. The blue blur still hadn't noticed him, breathing as sharp and fast as he had been since Tails rushed in. The detail was more than concerning.
Well..what would Sonic do?
The thought was enough to shake Tails out of his momentary freeze. That act of comfort had always been the other way around, much to Tails' chagrin, but that meant he knew the answer better than anyone else.
Tails reached out slowly, brushing his hand against Sonic's arm with the hero's name on his tongue, but before the kit could even get a word out, his wrist was seized in a crushing grip. He hissed, and wild emerald eyes turned on him.
"Sonic, it's okay! It's just me!" Tails strained, eyes wide. The hero's breath only seemed to get more shallow, and Tails' ears wilted, the sound crushing his heart under an unforgiving heel. The fox was only one step into his plan and it had already fallen apart, but he couldn't just wait around for things to get worse, so despite the scary glint in his brother's eyes, Tails did the only thing he could think of at the moment. Something the two of them had done when they were much younger.
Tails slowly brought his free hand up, ignoring the feeling of blood rushing to the fingertips of his trapped one, and carefully began smoothing out Sonic's smaller quills on the side of his head. The hedgehog bared his teeth for a split second, grip tightening on Tails' wrist, and the kit forcefully smothered a wince by continuing to run his gloved hands through the sharp spines with precision. It took a few heart stopping moments of the repetitive action, but then, to Tails' relief, something like focus began to bleed into Sonic's buzzing stare.
"It's okay," Tails whispered, voice cracking with something vulnerable and unnamed. Was comforting someone supposed to hurt this bad? Tails..didn't really have an answer. Even as Sonic's breathing began to ease into something more manageable, the feeling didn't leave. If anything, it only strengthened, and with it, big blue eyes began to burn.
Was this why Sonic usually slept in the company of the stars?
Glimmering tears gave in to the fall, blurring the kits vision and staining the sides of his muzzle with little sign of stopping. He hoped he was wrong. He needed to be wrong.
Sooner than Tails had the clarity to notice, Sonic's breathing had eventually slowed into deliberately deep breaths. Something seemed to click in his brother's eyes, and just like that, the hand that was clenched around his wrist loosened with a sudden twitch. Tails refocused at the loss of sensation. When he looked back up, he was met with emerald greens swimming in confusion, before an abrupt recognition snapped his stare to life. Sonic pulled his hand away so quickly one might've thought he'd been burned. Tails' fingers slipped from his quills as a result of the movement.
"O-Oh man, that's-" Sonic stopped himself short, swallowing hard to clear the tremble in his voice. He wouldn't meet Tails' watery gaze. "I didn't hurt you, did I? You okay?"
The younger could only stare in disbelief. If his heart was crushed before, it outright shattered now. Did Sonic ever spare himself a single thought? Was that normal?
Did Tails have a part in allowing that ideology to become normal?
That..that wasn't fair. The kit scrubbed at his eyes, a newfound determination flaring to life in his core. It ended tonight.
"I'm okay, Sonic. But you're not," Tails whispered, the words laced with an aching conviction. He chose to keep his eyes locked on the ones that continued to look away from him. Tails had never been so upfront before, but he couldn't let it slide again. He wouldn't.
"You..you weren't okay earlier either, were you?"
The resulting silence said more than words ever could. Sonic tensed, foot twitching. Ready to run. So that was it, then..Sonic had lied. Tails hated the bitter feeling the realization brought. He didn't want to be upset with his best friend, but knowing that the lie had come so easily wasn't something Tails felt equipped to acknowledge. For now, he put the sting on a back burner, and pulled himself back into focus. He could feel Sonic shaking through their shared space on the couch. The sensation was as foreign as it was worrisome.
"I know you're more than willing to take on the whole world, but you don't have to do it alone. You've done so much for me for so long, and I-"
"Tails."
The tone caused the fox's jaw to snap shut. It warned of one thing and one thing only: Tails was pushing it.
Well..fine. If that was what it took, he would.
"Sonic, please. I know something's been eating at you ever since the fight in the cave with Eggman, and I..I just want to help," Tails pleaded, reaching out for his brother's hand, but Sonic pulled away and it ached.
"You wouldn't.."
It was a barely-there mumble, trailing off, but it was something. A flicker of hope sparked in the kit's eyes.
"I wouldn't what?"
Sonic scrubbed a hand over his face, quills twitching.
"It's..bud, you wouldn't understand."
"My IQ just so happens to be back from break. Try me."
Sonic finally looked up at that, eyes flicking between Tails' baby blues. Considering him. The younger would be lying if he said it didn't make him the slightest bit nervous. But then, Sonic sighed, and Tails knew the sound to be one of resignation. Did..did he do it?
"..Alright. Get comfortable, pal. This one's gonna be a bit of a doozy."
_______________
"So..you shattered the prism, fractured the universe, and then once you and Shadow fixed everything, a time paradox wiped the slate clean?"
Sonic shrugged, looking far more tired than Tails thought to be healthy.
"Pretty much."
If there was one thing the fox could take away from the whirlwind of a story, it was that Sonic's sudden avoidance made a lot more sense. Tails knew there had to be more to the tale, especially regarding..what was his name? Nine? The kit had more than a few questions on that front, but one look at the tension coiled in Sonic's frame had him deciding against it. Tails figured it was best to let it lie, at least for now.
"And..tonight. Was that because of..?"
Sonic simply nodded.
"You yelled for me," Tails found himself saying, his gaze falling to the floor. Sonic shifted beside him. He really shouldn't have said anything about it, but he was groggy, worried, and all the messy things in-between. He allowed the words to continue spilling. "I thought something happened to you. Do..you wanna talk about it? Y-You don't have to, really, but.."
There was a tense quiet that followed. Unwilling to break it, Tails reached over to give Sonic's hand a reassuring squeeze. The action was, finally, gently returned.
"I know my voice is incredible to listen to and all, but if I keep talkin', I'm gonna end up sympathizing with Egghead's hatred for it." Sonic mumbled, voice fizzling out into a strained laugh, but Tails recognized the half-baked joke for what it really was: an attempt to bail out of the subject. To be fair, it had been a long night. Tails wasn't sure if Sonic had ever really confided in him to this degree before, but he did this time, even if it wasn't exactly what brought Tails to the couch. His brother looked a little better off for it, too, so..for the sake of their sleep schedules, Tails was okay with letting the topic drop.
Sonic squeezed his hand again, and when the younger looked back up, he was met with a small smile. His brother didn't hold his gaze for long, ear flicking in what Tails recognized as a rare fluster.
"But, uh..thanks. I know it's late, and you probably-"
Tails cut him off with a tug of his hand, dragging the older into what the kit realized was a much needed hug.
"I'll always be here. I know your memory is shoddy at the best of times, but..you're not allowed to forget that, okay?"
Sonic's hands moved to slowly wrap around Tails' back. The action had started as something light, but after a moment, his brother buried his face into the fox's shoulder and squeezed.
"..I love you, buddy."
The words were soft and muffled, but Tails had heard them anyway. His heart skipped a precious beat. He knew Sonic loved him, of course he did, but it had always been more of an unspoken thing between them. So, to hear it said out loud with so much warmth and certainty..
Tails pulled his hero a little closer, huffing a breath from his nose.
"I love you, too."
Soon enough, the teen pulled away and tugged Tails to his chest with a groggy quip about how he was trapped now, and wasn't going anywhere. The fox couldn't remember the last time the two of them had fallen asleep snuggled up. He'd missed listening to Sonic's heartbeat.
As the pair began to drift off, Tails couldn't help but smile again. For his first time taking on the role of big brother, he'd say he didn't do half bad..and well, the beginnings of Sonic's soft snores were all the evidence he needed.