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Fingers grazed strings, ungloved and free as a melodic voice spilled softly from his lips. Song writing had always been a release for him. A way to vent his feelings that didn’t involve communication, a way to mask thoughts and conversations behind a veil of a melody, notes in sequence, a rhythm. It had always been his most natural way to put his thoughts to words, actions always came clearer to him. Thoughts turned to beats, temptations to bridges, raw emotions to choruses. Few moments of privacy were possible, and it wasn’t like he just played in front of anyone. It was a rather small group of his friends that knew he was even interested in music, even fewer knew he could play guitar, and somehow even less knew he could sing. Only one knew of his time leading the Sonic Underground, and a sworn silence ensured the others never found out.
His songs hit a lot of subjects. Victory, glory, defeat, anguish. His highs were dedicated to chords, his lows belted out with passion unmatched, but today strung together a different emotion. Reddened cheeks had flushed further, and a reserved and quiet smile graced his lips as he sang of romance and forbidden love. In his years he had never thought his mind would fall so consistently to a crush. Sonic the Hedgehog didn’t feel romance, he felt heroism, pride, and the wind in his spines. But since his last major conflict; the War of the Phantom Ruby, he had been plagued with thoughts.
Of a villain.
Of a romance.
Of pining for someone he could reasonably never have.
A quiet exhale escaped him as his fingers slowed and stopped. Taking the guitar from his knee and placing it back in its spot against the nearest wall, his eyes lingered, unfocused for a moment or two before a voice snapped him back to reality
“That sounds new.”
“Wh-- Tails? When did you get here?”
Eyes focused, his head spun as he turned to face the warm toned fox lingering in the door with a smug little grin. His twin tails twitched out of sync with each other, expressing their interest in the hedgehog
“A couple minutes ago, I didn’t want to interrupt.”
Frantically stumbling his way through sliding his gloves back on, the azure blur forced an embarrassed chuckle.
“You could have told me you were here, I would have played you something way cooler than that.”
Tails knew about Sonic’s intense passion for music, but not its source. The fox often brought Sonic’s marvelous singing voice to his attention, even to the point of embarrassment. Sonic never played his anxious little melodies for the kid though, he sang songs of great victory and triumph, or of teamwork and the power of friendship. But this new direction had Tails heading towards a realisation Sonic wanted to disengage quickly;
“Yeah? Who was it about?” The voice was smug and knowing. Of course the boy wasn’t dumb, especially for a child his age. But even if he was more like a regular child, the red in Sonic’s cheeks was a dead giveaway that he was onto something.
A quick, panicked reply “Who was what about?” only added to the fire
“The song! It was about someone wasn’t it?” chuckled Tails, eyeing the drastic change in Sonic’s body language. The way his spines puffed slightly or the way his body went rigid and the redness extended until it was eaten by the blue of his fur
“What? No! It was-- just a song! It doesn’t have to be about anyone!”
“Was it about Amy?”
“Not a chance! C’mon, let’s just drop it, it’s just a stupid song!”
“It wasn’t stupid! And I know it was about someone.”
“How.”
“Because you don’t smile like that for a song about no one.”
He was right, but it’s not like Sonic was about to admit that. In his sixteen, nearly seventeen years alive he hadn’t had so much as a ghosting heartbeat of a crush. It wasn’t exactly on his mind to spill lovey dovey mush about how he’s head over heels for someone that nearly--
Quickly shaking his head from those thoughts, words gracelessly tumbled from his lips ‘What!? I wasn’t smiling! I was-- singing with passion!”
“Yeah, passion for whoever the song is about.” Appearing unphased, Tails cocked a brow at him, eyeing his stiff body language, the way his eyes seemed to focus beyond the fox, yet for a change he was at full attention.
“No! Passion for music, who doesn’t love music? I do!” It wasn’t a graceful reply, and it really didn’t hold any grounds as far as the argument went. Sonic visibly cringed inwards when he realised that was his best argument. Emotions in conversation weren’t his strong suit, and he would go out of his way to avoid bringing any conflicting emotions to his friends and allies. This was new, this feeling, the way his chest fluttered imagining a voice. This was an internal conflict.
It was then that Tails softened his stance, stepping the rest of the way in and shutting the door behind him. Even if he was sure no one would hear them, there were some conversations that should really only be had brother to brother. “You’re not fooling me, Sonic. We’ve been friends since we were kids! You can tell me!”
“It’s… kind of a long story, and I don’t think you’re gonna like it. So, how about we drop it, okay?” His voice changed significantly. There was no more panic, but his tone still held reluctance. It wasn’t a big deal right?
It was a love song.
Tails had any number of guesses on who it could be about. Advancing into the room and hopping his way up onto the hard bed in the corner of the room the fox smiled up at Sonic, eyes full of wonder and curiosity “A long story is something I’ve definitely got time for.”
It was the defeated sigh that caught Tails off guard. Sonic sat himself on the bed beside him, emerald eyes unfocused as they glanced towards the floor, his hands crossed over his lap, his knees comfortably spread apart and his back slouched.
“I don’t want a long, drawn out story. Those are total yawn-fests. But it’s not normal… it’s-- complicated?” A shaky breath, and another anxious chuckle. What Sonic was so afraid of wasn’t clear to Tails, but another few moments of silence passed before Tails realized Sonic had frozen trying to put his emotions to words. “I’m a hero.” he added before Tails could break the silence himself. The relevance wasn’t immediately obvious, and momentarily it hit Tails that Sonic may be avoiding romance in case he ever falls in battle, so he didn’t cause any more heartbreak than he would have to. But when Sonic was ready to speak again, his voice suddenly deafened the room;
“And he’s a villain. That almost destroyed the world.”
“What? Who?”
“Look, in my six months on the Death Egg I did a lot of thinking! I’ve never really thought about anything long term for myself and--”
“Who is it?”
“Infinite.”
The name was said with a sigh, and it took a moment before Tails could find the emotion behind it. It was shame, Sonic was ashamed of the way he felt. The name left a dull ringing in Tails’ ears for a moment. He must have been talking about the same Mobian
“Infinite? Like the guy with the Phantom Ruby that almost got you killed? That Infinite?”
“I told you you wouldn’t like it!” a hasty reply from Sonic interjected. Infinite the Jackal, the wielder of the Phantom Ruby, one of the first villains to truly find a way to incapacitate Sonic for any extended length of time. The masked creature had taken him off the field for six months, but when Sonic came back and they faced in the jungle… part of the hedgehog had swooned at his voice, even if he never showed it.
“I just don’t get it, why him?” There was no judgement in the tone, but there was a hint of apprehension in both his voice and the way his tails puffed and tucked closer to him.
Seconds passed while Sonic tried to put his thoughts into words once again. But even after thinking it through, he couldn’t traditionally put intense thoughts to words unless he had created a melody around them, and this was beyond even that. It went beyond rational thought and common sense. Sonic’s mouth felt dry, and his hands too sweaty under his gloves, but Tails’ eyes on him grew more intense by the second until the hedgehog finally forced out an answer.
“I don’t know! It’s-- maybe it’s his voice? Maybe it’s the thrill of the mystery behind the mask? I don’t get it either, he’s just-- been on my mind a lot lately.”
It wasn’t a great answer, but did it need to be? Was emotion something that could be eloquently put into words?
“He’s a villain, Sonic, he’s tried to kill you!”
Somehow Tails’ statement loosened the mood again, and a smile quickly took Sonic’s face before he laughed in earnest for a few moments;
“Name a friend of mine that hasn’t tried to kill me at least once!”
Lips parted, paused, closed, and contemplated. Finally Tails seemed to loosen up, “You’ve got me there, but- isn’t Infinite still a villain?” The tone held serious, but the more playful side of the kid poked out, seeming to understand Sonic’s plight a little better now.
But Sonic had been thinking about this a lot, especially over the past few weeks “That’s just it, we don’t know. I haven’t seen him since he tried to drop a sun on the planet. We don’t even know if he’s alive.”
“And instead of looking for him, you’ve been writing love songs about him?”
Clearing his throat immediately, Sonic glanced away as a blush flooded his face again. He was used to feeling hot cheeked now, with how much his thoughts wandered towards Infinite and all these possibilities with him. Reforming as a good guy… gaining the trust of the Resistance… but even through shooting these down because of their fantastical nature, he had still resorted to writing sappy love songs about how the heavens themselves would part for them. His voice cracked out “Hey! Lay off, it’s not like I could just find Infinite and bring him to the resistance camp! I’ve got to figure out what to do first!”
“Heh, maybe you really did change while you were gone.” The tone was playful and taunting, blue eyes focused in, sparked with amusement that showed even beyond his grin. “Making plans before running head first into things isn’t the Sonic I know. The Sonic I grew up with would just take a chance and do it.”
Ears perked and Sonic lifted his head, finally seeming to snap back fully to the present. Tails did have a point, he wasn’t much of a ‘plan in advance’ kind of guy, he was a ‘run head first and hope you don’t get a concussion’ kind of guy. His tone was shocked at first, but loosened up quickly, “You-- really think I should go find him?”
Standing quickly, Tails stretched his back out, pulling his arms to the ceiling. Stretching quickly before moving is something he just adapted from watching Sonic over the years. “You said it yourself, we don’t even know if he’s alive. If he’s hurt somewhere and you rescue him, you might even be his hero!” he added matter of factly, a quick nod to affirm his stance on the matter.
This stemmed another laugh from the azure hero, who finally seemed to lighten up, getting to his own feet and stretching as well, feeling his back pop satisfyingly after an extended period spent crouched over a guitar. His bravado was back to normal, smugly grinning as he swung his arm out to the side, stretching in preparation for a long run. “Jokes aside, you’ve got a point. I shouldn’t be sitting around waiting for an answer, I’ve got to get out there and find it myself! I’m going to head out, I’ll let you know if I find him.”
Heading out the door, he paused when he heard Tails call out “Good luck! I feel like you’ll need it!”
“You wish!” Sonic retorted smugly, turning with a grin, arms crossed over his chest, “I’ve beaten him once, and I’ll have no problem doing it again!”
Before he turned to leave though, his stance softened. The hedgehog gave a small, grateful smile to Tails, approaching him again and kneeling a bit in front of him. His voice came out practically a whisper as he concluded with “But-- thanks, Tails. This wasn’t easy to talk about but… I’m glad I told you.”
Unused to these kind of displays of emotion, Tails grinned, giving Sonic a gentle pop to the shoulder with a loose fist, the yellow fox relaxed despite the circumstances and ending the conversation with a smugly passive “Yeah yeah, I know. Go on, no one’s gonna think twice if you head out now.”
No more words needed to be said, Sonic got to his feet slowly, giving Tails a firm nod and a saluted farewell before finally turning on his heel once again and taking off out the entrance to the base. No one batted an eyelash as he passed through the main room and out to whatever experiences he was destined to stumble on. The stirring in the air suited the departure of the hero. Free, wild, and cool as the cold winters breeze.