Chapter Text
A warm, breezy afternoon was settling in, and Sonic and Tails were joined on their routine patrol by Rouge and Shadow. It was all very basic - they had a tip that Eggman and his robots were trying to take over yet another forest. When will he ever realise , Sonic thought, as he and Shadow raced across the treetops, Rouge and Tails flying not far behind, that we’re always going to foil his plans?
Either way, they didn’t expect much of the inevitable fight. Innocent animals saved, a few scratches maybe, a pile of broken robot parts on their hands - it was all par for the course, with Robotnik. Just a regular day - or so he hoped.
However, that morning, when he’d woken up, Sonic had instantly known something was wrong. Despite his blatant rejection of it at first, he had to admit: he felt… off, to say the least, and although he stumbled through going over Tails’ latest blueprints and meeting up with Shadow, he was the same chatterbox as always. Probably a little loose at the seams, a little detached, but hey; a guy had to get tired once in a while, right? It wasn’t noticeable at all, he’d be fine by tomorrow, but the feeling of foreboding lingered at the back of his mind.
He was faster than the speed of light, yeah, but it felt as if the years and years of fighting and fear were finally catching up to him.
The fight started as it always did - a bit of bickering here, some threats there- but when Rouge flew in to take the first hit, Shadow swept Sonic aside, a worried look on his face.
“Hey, are you okay?” Shadow could always see the nuances of other’s feelings way better than Sonic could, but now wasn’t the time. They didn’t come here to stand around and talk.
So, Sonic lightly pushed him away, an uneasy ‘Yeah’ forced out of his mouth. It definitely sounded strained, and his smirk was a little uneasy, but Shadow didn’t push it.
Eventually, as always, Eggman had lost too many of his robots to continue fighting, and all of them quickly helped the unlucky captured animals escape back into the forest. Tails, however, had stayed behind to distract him a while longer.
Turning around to yell for Tails, Sonic’s newfound confident smile faltered. As Robotnik soared away, he’d smacked Tails to the ground as a final blow. Overwhelming fear bubbling up inside of him, Sonic instantly dashed over to his friend, who was laying on a patch of foliage.
“I’m okay!” Tails shouted, fumbling his way out of the bush he’d gotten caught in, but Sonic was already by his side, going through a long mental checklist as he looked over him. It felt like all too much - memories of friends getting knocked down and not getting back up, and all the worst possibilities pushed to the forefront of his mind until he didn’t register slowly skidding down the trunk of a tree to sit down.
“Sonic, you hurt?” Rouge was here, now, sticking her nose in his face, overcrowding him. Sonic wanted to reply, he really did, but all the words swirled around his head, mingling with the memories brought back from seeing Tails getting hit backwards, and none of them would fit in his mouth.
Instead, all the
‘I’m fine’
s and
‘Let’s go home’
s stuck in his throat, and when he shakily rose to his feet, he felt so tired, so drained by what had occured in less than three minutes. As if he could read his mind, Shadow took one glance at the look on Sonic’s face and seemed to instantly understand, pulling Rouge back a little. They were confused, yeah, and Rouge wouldn’t stop mumbling to Shadow, but Sonic appreciated the gesture.
Back at the base, Sonic still hadn’t said a word. Tails understood, this had happened more times than Sonic would’ve liked to say, but still danced around him, avoiding him, not quite sure how to interact while his friend was in this state.
He didn’t like feeling this way, but it wasn’t like he was a lightswitch. He couldn’t turn it off like the others wanted him to. Alone in his room, Sonic flipped through his things absentmindedly, avoiding everyone. Some of the weight had dropped from his chest, but he still didn’t feel ready to face himself - let alone the others.