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Sonic lay in his hammock, listening to the ocean waves and watching the last rays of sun disappear over the horizon. It had been a pretty long day, and it was nice to get to lay down and drift off. He could feel sleep creeping up on him, and was fully content with finally letting it consume him for the night. But, of course, just as he was about to, something had to interfere.
“Sonic? Are...Are you awake?” Came a whisper. Pulled from the edge of sleep, Sonic sat up in his hammock and saw Tails standing in the doorway. Usually, he would’ve been annoyed to be roused right as he was about to sleep, but something in the fox’s voice gave him pause. It was soft, and shaky, which made him sound even younger than normal.
“Mm, yeah? ‘Sup?” He questioned, yawning as he tried to fully shake off the last bit of sleep. Before he could open his eyes again, he felt the weight of the hammock shift as the young fox climbed in, clamoring on top of him and burying his face in his chest. The hedgehog was confused for a moment, before he noticed that the kit was shivering, his ears pinned back against his head. Now he was fully awake. This wasn’t good...
“Woah, hey,” He wrapped his arms around him, keeping one on his back and the other on the back of his head, “You ok there, bud?”
That was apparently the wrong thing to say, as Tails promptly burst into tears. Sonic’s eyes widened and he scrambled to sit a bit more upright, pulling the fox along to show he wasn’t letting go. It had been a while since he’d really had a breakdown like this, and Sonic was scrambling to think of how he could help him. He’d never been good with handling emotions, be it his own or others, but he was relatively used to calming his brother down, he was just a bit out of practice. He racked his mind with what to do, before settling on waiting it out till he was calm enough to talk.
“Shh, I-I gotcha, it’s ok…” He found himself mumbling, repeating variations of that in hopes that it would help. He kept it up for a few minutes, before resolving to sitting in silence and letting the kid cry himself out.
Tails had a death grip around his torso, his body shaking as he choked through sobs. Sonic could do nothing but rub his back while trying to remember what could’ve led up to this. It had been a normal day, no Eggman attack even, just the gang playing beach volleyball and relaxing. But looking back at it, Tails hadn’t seemed super enthusiastic about playing today... so was there anything that happened earlier in the week…? After going through a breakdown of the previous seven days, there still wasn't anything that came to mind. He'd just have to wait till he could explain. So they continued to sit there, Sonic staring out the window at the slowly darkening sky while he waited.
After what felt like an eternity, he finally felt the kit shift in his arms. It seemed he’d started to tire himself out, as his sobbing had slowed down, but there were still no signs that he would be letting go anytime soon. Still, his crying has slowed enough to try talking, so, keeping his voice soft to avoid startling him, the hedgehog spoke.
“...Tails? Can you tell me what this is about?” There was a long pause, before the kit finally sat up, pulling away from his embrace to wipe his eyes. Sonic rested his hands on the fox’s arms, looking him over. His fur was ruffled and his cheeks were still wet, but his eyes seemed almost void of emotion, just filled with exhaustion instead.
“M’sorry… It’s… It’s not really important, I just needed a hug…”
“Hey, If it’s important enough to make you cry, it’s important enough for me to hear it.” He offered what he hoped was a comforting smile, but even without seeing it he knew it was strained. Part of him was tempted to just say ‘ok’ and drop the conversation, it would be easier than actually talking, but he also knew that that wouldn’t get them anywhere. Tails looked him over, seemingly nervous about actually delving into it. Eventually, he let out a sigh, looking down from Sonic.
“Do...Do you ever wish that you were… normal…?” He started, playing with the fur on his left tail.
“Uhh… not really?” Sonic followed his eyes, looking at the kit’s tail. His face darkened for a moment, grip on the other’s arms tightening, “Why? Is someone making fun of you??”
Tails looked up, dropping his tail quickly and shaking his head, giving a weak smile.
“No! No, nothing like that…” Sonic relaxed a bit at that, “I’ve just been having these recurring dreams, for a week or so…”
“Nightmares…?” The hedgehog questioned, concern seeping into his tone. Tails shook his head again.
“Th-That’s the dumb part, they’re good dreams, I-I don’t know why they affect me this much, but they just make me feel so… content… and then when I wake up I start missing something that was never even real a-and…” He was clearly close to breaking down again, turning away from the other and shutting his eyes to keep the tears from spilling. Sonic waited it out with him, rubbing up and down with his thumbs until he had calmed down a bit.
“...What happens in them? The dreams?” Tails took a steadying breath, still unable to make eye contact.
“...It’s us, but everything is just… normal. W-We’re actual half-brothers, we have parents, and go to school, there’s no Eggman, or murder-robots, we’re just… regular kids. I-I even play with toys there, it's all so stupid –”
“It’s not.”
Tails looked up finally, and was met with a soft, melancholy smile, and eyes full of understanding. He tilted his head quizzically, waiting for the hedgehog to elaborate.
“It’s not stupid,” he continued, “None of that is. I used to have dreams similar to that when I was younger.” The fox’s eyes widened, momentarily forgetting his own grief and fully focusing on that new information.
“I...I thought you loved all the hero shenanigans?”
“Well… yeah, but It’s stressful, right? And when you start as young as we did, you end up having to trade in your whole childhood to save people. So...there were definitely times when I wished I didn’t have to worry about all this, and could just have a normal life instead.” He scratched behind his head, guilt briefly washing over his face, “And you started even younger than I did… It’s no wonder you’re mourning the childhood you didn’t get…" he trailed off, deep in thought for a moment, before turning back with a new look of determination in his eyes, "...But, you’re still a kid! You can still do kid stuff if you wanna.”
"What, like... playing with toys?" The fox was smiling, a confused look on his face, as though the very implication of that was ridiculous. Sonic smiled, ruffling his bangs while nodding seriously.
"Yeah. Like playing with toys." This brought a giggle out of the other, who wiped at the rest of his tears and leaned in to hug the older one again.
"Yeah, no. No one would ever take me seriously..." Sonic frowned, wrapping his arms around him and resting his chin on top of his head.
“Bro...I know that you try really hard to be perceived as mature, and you are! But I promise you that no one will ever, ever, ever, judge you if you just wanna be a kid sometimes, ok? You deserve to relax.” He squeezed the fox tighter while nuzzling his forehead, trying to make sure that he knew he was completely serious about this. It seemed to work, as he could feel the kit smiling softly and nodding. After a few seconds, he kept going.
“And… I can never be your parent or anything like that, but I can be your older brother, and I can make sure that you still get some semblance of a childhood, no matter how messed up our world gets. So if you want me to tuck you in, or watch a kid’s film with you, or buy you an action figure, or anything, I’d be happy to. That's what I'm here for.”
There was a soft sniffling from below him, and Sonic looked down to see that the fox was tearing up again, though this time he was smiling too, so he didn’t feel too much concern about it. He stroked the kit’s back, not expecting any response. They lay there, Tails steadying his breathing to avoid full-out crying again, while Sonic kept patting him, watching as darkness crept across the rest of the sky. Eventually, Tails interrupted the comfortable silence they were sharing.
“...Maybe I do want an action figure.” The hedgehog let out an airy laugh, squeezing his arm lightly.
“Then we’ll get one. I can get you one of those dumb Tommy Thunder ones, y'know, where the muscles are all super exaggerated?” Tails giggled, the idea of getting something so pointless and ridiculous was actually sort of comforting right now. He paused another moment, feeling nervous over his next question for no real reason.
“...and, can I sleep here with you tonight…?” Sonic smiled, having known he would ask that about a minute into their conversation.
“Of course, bud. Anytime.”
Sonic shifted so that he was laying down, and Tails curled up on top of him, head resting on his chest. Sonic’s arms were wrapped loosely over him, as his namesakes hung over the side of the hammock and flicked lightly now and then. Both of them were pretty much ready to pass out, their breathing slowing and syncing up, as they listened to the crickets and waves outside the shack. Just before they drifted off completely, Tails decided to interrupt one last time.
“Hey, Sonic?” Came a whisper.
“...Mm?”
“...Thank you for being my brother.” Sonic opened his eyes for a moment, glancing down at the curled up form on top of him, before grinning and settling back in.
“Love ya too, buddy.”