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"Ohh yeah! Blue Blurr and Double Threat are back at it again!" Sonic laughed, spindashing into one of the many robots that were attacking the village. Tails- who was for once not in the Tornado but on the ground, threw bombs at the robots surrounding them.
It was a bit upsetting, that Eggman left early. He now didn't get to see their victory. Oh well..
"Knux- I need you to give me a speedboost!"
"Copy that!" Knuckles nodded, smashing two robots at once, before kneeling down, holding out his hand. Sonic grinned, and ran towards him- starting to spin in place the moment Knuckles held him securely- and launched him, making him go faster then normal- which already seemed impossible.
"Little bro!"
"Got it!" Tails started flying the moment Sonic called, and held out his hand- not even a second later grabbed by the blue blurr, and suddenly they were both spindashing together in a mix of blue and orange. Their special combo, which Sonic had recently realized they could do. The damage they did became twice as much when they did their combo and the kid seemed fine, so why not?
Besides, it was fun!
They spindashed into a hoard of robots- hitting them all at once, mostly damaging them all. Thats when Sonic stopped his dash, and settled on running- but not before making sure he was holding Tails' hand. Afteral, there was no way for the kit to be able to keep up with him on his own. That was fine.
Besides, the fact that Tails could even keep up with him at all was awsome!
As they ran- or flew, in Tails' case, Sonic noticed how Tails seemed to have no trouble keeping up at all- and went just a bit faster. Tails didn't even seem to notice- he simply kept up. His smile grew. Later.. he would tell him later.
Knuckles smashed the final bot, Tails threw another bomb- and they were done. Sonic slowed down slightly- before stopping. Tails stopped flying, and lowered himself onto the ground. Surprised when Sonic suddenly trapped him in a hug. "Heck yeah! Thats my little bro!"
"Sonic?" Tails looked confused, giggling when Sonic ruffled his bangs. Sonic's smile grew even more.
"Congrats, buddy- because you just broke your own speed record."
Tails' eyes widend. "I-I did?"
"Yeah! We went faster!"
"......" Tails giggled, a disbelieving look on his face, even though he started smiling himself. "Yeah.. yeah! I did!" He flew up again, cheering to himself. "I did!!"
"Yes you did!" Sonic laughed, a proud smile on his face.
Meanwhile, Knuckles just watched the two celebrate, very confused.. but didn't speak. He just crossed his arms, and stared. At some point, their laughter stopped. Sonic pulled Tails in for another quick squeeze, before the fox said something about getting the Tornado- and flew off, way faster then any normal Mobian could. The hedgehog walked back to the Elechinda, quickly sensing the confusion. "Knux? You good?"
"....you slowed down."
"Huh?" Sonic looked confused- before he looked outright offended. "No I didn't!"
"You did." Knuckles didn't look impressed- just mostly confused. "Whenever you run with the kid." He clearified. "You normally go way faster. But you slow down when you run with Tails. Why?"
...oohh. Sonic huffed. "Can't a guy go slow sometimes?"
"Sonic the hedgehog? Slow down?" Knuckles looked unimpressed. Sonic huffed, realizing Knuckles wasn't going to let go.
"...fiiineee, so what?" He grumbled. The echinda raised a brow.
"But why?"
"...look." Sonic sighed. "Honestly- I used to hate the thought of slowing down.. but I kinda had to. He's a kid- not to mention, I have superpowers. I can't just.. expect him to keep up, ya know?"
"But then he would have invented something to go faster." Knuckles looked more sternly. "I know Tails once tried to invent a machine to keep up- you didn't let him."
"....maybe I don’t want him to go fast."
"..what?" Knuckles was now lost.
Sonic sighed. "...Honestly... ever since we met.. all he wanted to do was to keep up. Which is great! Just.. not for the right reasons..."
4 years ago..
Honestly, Sonic had known the kid was special. And no, that was not just because of his smarts. No, not because of his twin-tails either.
It was his determination.
Sonic had already warned the 4-year-old: "Its impossible to keep up, Tails. You don’t have to try."
The kid had pouted. And looked upset. Sonic had thought that was only because he wanted to be fast, too. He had been so wrong.
"Watch me." Tails had smiled, but uncertainty and fear had been hidden behind it. Why, the hedgehog hadn't known. Again, he had been young and stupid.
It took a the latest battle they had with Eggman to realize.
Tails had revealed to his hero he could fly, and Sonic had encouraged him to practice with it whenever it was safe enough to do so.
The fox had ignored the "safe enough" part.
It was one of their many battles against Eggman: Sonic ran, spindashed, and slammed into robots left and right, while Tails threw bombs from the side. The kid was smart, Sonic knew that, and often stood in battlefield.
But for goodness sake the kid was four. He shouldn’t even be on battlefield. Besides, Tails had been sleep-deprived these past few days. Sonic had taken the opportunity, and told him to stay in the sidelines this time.
The hero hadn't understood why Tails got so upset the moment he even suggested that, the fox cub even had looked closed to crying. So Sonic then offered him to throw bombs: aslong as he didn't get into the main field. Besides, there weren't that many robots. Sonic could handle them just fine.
"Your bots are getting crappy, Egghead!" Sonic laughed, spindashing into another bee-bot at once. Eggman, as he had been called by the child, groaned in frustration.
"You haven't even seen crappy yet, rodent!"
"Its Sonic! Get it right!"
"As soon as you stop calling me Eggman!"
"Then stop driving your eggpod! Its shapped like an egg!"
"Why you-" Sonic laughed again, effortlessly destroying two more bots headed his way. "We'll see who is crappy now, hedgehog!" Eggman yelled, suddenly holding up a remote- and pressing the red button on it. Sonic had no time to see the rockets suddenly firing at him from behind, and turned around with wide eyes-
-just to see a mass of yellow flying in front of him before he could react.
"Tails-!" Sonic called out in shock, because the kid was still practicing flying- and gasped as said kid screamed, and couldn't keep in the air. He tried, Sonic could see that, but the small rockets ended up hitting him in the stomach and tails, making him go crashing into the ground, now unmoving.
Sonic's heart stopped. "Miles!" He ran over, checking fox over: just some scrap wounds, but one of his tails was definitely injured. No permanent damage, it seemed. Thankfully, Eggman didn't use too dangerous weapons, back then.
Said doctor even stopped, looking at the duo in surprise. ".....Sonic-"
"Stay away from him!" Sonic held Tails close to himself at once, looking threateningly at Eggman, but mostly prepared to run. The doctor seemed to think.
"..."
He simply pressed something in his eggmobile, before all attacks just.. stopped. Robots started retreating, which, honestly, was surprising. Sonic blinked in surprise.
"...there is a hospital two miles from here." Was all he said, before starting to fly away. While, Sonic didn't watch him leave. He quickly picked up the fox, and ran.
Despite Eggman having pointed out a hospital, Sonic didn't go there. He was too panicked right now to actually consider taking Tails to a hospital, and besides, if Eggman knew where they were, he might sneak attack them!
So, call him paranoid. But no.
They didn't own a house back then, either, so the most Sonic was able to do was run deep into the forest, and lay the kit on the ground to check for injuries. Thankfully, he didn't seem to have broken anything. Just some wounds, but nothing more.
"..." since Tails seemed fine, Sonic didn't want to wake him. Instead, he let the fox rest. The hedgehog himself sat against a rock, playing on his phone, until half an hour later, when he heard Tails waking up beside him.
"Miles?" Sonic put his phone on the ground, sitting on his knees as he worriedly looked at his friend. Tails groaned, before slightly opening his eyes, and quickly closing them again.
"B-bright.." he whined.
Sonic hovered over him to create a shadow, which is when Tails opened his eyes again, looking straight into Sonic's.
"Can you sit?"
"I think so..." the fox pushed himself up, rubbing his head tiredly. After Sonic checked him over, and found nothing out of place and gave him a tight hug, he got mad.
"Are you crazy throwing yourself in battlefield like that?!" Sonic hysterically asked, making Tails look away in shame. "You could have gotten hurt! Or worse! You're lucky Eggman doesn't like attacking you because I swear to chaos that could have ended so badly!-"
"I'm sorry.." Tails whimpered, lowering his ears.
Sonic was livid. "You better be! I told you not to join today! If you got hurt because of me, Miles-"
"Tails." Tails weakly said, but Sonic growled.
"No, Miles, one more stunt like that and you can't join me anymore!"
Tails gasped, horrified, finally looking back at his hero. "Y-you can't do that!"
"I can and I will if you put yourself in danger like that again!" Sonic was stern.
".......I just wanted to catch up..." Tails whispered softly, looking away, tears appearing in the corners of his eyes.
Now that made Sonic stop, and he just frowned in confusion. "Catch... up..? Miles, I already told you, you can't catch up with me- no one can-"
"I'm sorry!" Tails cried out, hugging himself and his head hanging low. "I promise I won't do that again just please please don't l-leave-" he cut off with a sob, trying to wipe his tears away.
And seeing the kid cry broke his heart.
Sonic knelt down to be on eye level with the fox cub, gently putting a hand on his shoulder. "Mi- Tails. I'm not leaving. Can you calm down?"
Tails looked up with teary eyes. "P-promise?"
"I promise."
"...you swear?"
"Cross my heart." Sonic crossed two fingers across his chest, and smiled slightly, before his smile fell again. "Did you.. think I would leave if you didn't do that?"
The younger hiccuped, and nodded. Sonic's eyes widend. "But.. why?"
"..." Tails mumbled something, but Sonic didn't hear it. "Buddy. You gotta talk louder."
"....I'm slowing you down."
"You- I'm sorry?"
"I-I'm slowing you down." Tails repeated for a 3th time, and closed his eyes tightly. "And- and you hate slowing down and once you slow down fighting goes harder, Eggman gets advantages, you're after me all the time and everyone keeps wondering why the great hero is slowing down and if I don't go faster I won't catch up and you'll leave me alone and I'll be all alone again and-"
"Tails!" Sonic cut off. "Breathe!"
He hiccuped again, but nodded, and took a shaky breath. Sonic was speechless. "Now.. slow down. What made you think you're slowing me down?"
"Y-you look more upset." Tails said. His namesakes kept twitching with anxiety. "You don’t run as often. Beating Eggman has been harder. And you're always after me. Its not hard to miss the great Sonic the Hedgehog slowing down for you, ya know.. its even on the news."
Sonic cursed in his mind. Darn it.. he thought Tails hadn't seen that.
"Great hero Sonic the Hedgehog: Slowing down?" Was popular. And no, he was not sick, like one of the theories in the media claimed he was.
"...look, Tails." He started. "I admit, I am going slower.. but thats because I want to, not because you're making me. You mean the world to me, little bro. And.. if me slowing down means I get to spend time with my little bro, I'll gladly do it."
At that, Tails' eyes widend in surprise. "R-really?"
"I would even give up my superspeed if I had to."
"..would you stop eating chilidogs for me too?"
"Now you're pushing your luck, kid." Tails giggled as Sonic pulled the fox to his side and ruffled his bangs.
"...but, yeah. I would."
"..." Sonic's smile grew when he felt two very familiar tails curl up around his hips, and sat down. Before he hesitated. "...Tails?"
"Yeah?"
"Why did you think I would leave?"
"...." The fox's ears lowered, and he looked away as his eyes filled up with tears again. "...Mommy and daddy left because they didn't like me.. if I slow you down, you won't like me either.. and then you'll leave too.."
"Never." Sonic was quick to say as he hugged the fox cub tightly, right now wanting nothing more then to kill his "parents". He still didn't understand them. What kind of people could leave a little kid alone because of something he couldn't control?
"I am not them, Tails. I am an actual person. Those people were morons. They're bad people."
At that, Tails looked up in confusion. "But you fight bad people."
"...you know what, you're right! If you ever see them, let me know, I am beating them up." Tails giggled, clearly not believing Sonic would actually do that.
But oh.. he would.
"...but. I am never leaving you, little bro. Because I love you. Got that?"
"..Yes, big bro." Tails rubbed at his eyes, giggling as Sonic placed a kiss on his head.
"Good."
Then the hedgehog got the fox off of him, got up, and took his hand.. before he started to walk. Tails frowned. "Uhm.. Sonic?"
"Yeah?"
"Why aren't you running?"
"I'm slowing down cause I want to." Sonic decided, his grip on Tails' hand tightening. "And aslong as I got your hand, we'll go fast together, and I'll never let go."
"..." Tails smiled brightly, before making effort to go just a bit faster- being forced to slow down as Sonic refused to speed up. "You can't go faster, bud. Maybe someday, with more practice. We got time."
"..we got all the time.."
Months passed. Walking turned into jogging, with turned into running. The more time passed, the faster Tails got, this time, not risking his life to prove his worth. No, this time, he took his time to learn. Sonic wouldn't leave him. He didn't slow him down.
Tails learned to fly. They still ran together, with said fox now flying.
Years passed. And he got faster.. faster.. faster.. until at some point, Sonic could use his superspeed, and Tails could keep up without effort.
Through it all, Sonic had never let go of his hand.
"-...you wouldn’t let him go faster.. because the only reason he wanted it was so you wouldn’t leave?" Knuckles asked in surprise, his arms falling to his side.
Sonic nodded, and smiled one of his rare, fond smiles. "I ain't leaving him anytime soon, Knux. I wanted him to understand that. And if that means slowing down sometimes.. well, I don't mind."
"...and he is actually keeping up." Knuckles mumbled, to which Sonic smiled brightly.
"Isn't that awsome? Its not all my speed, sure, but he's keeping up! No one has ever managed to before!"
"That kid got some serious determination.."
"I noticed."
Both cut of their conversation as Tails came flying back without his plane, looking annoyed. Sonic frowned. "...where is the Tornado, bud?"
"One of Eggman's bombs landed on the Tornado, apparently." Tails huffed, and he landed. "It can't fly right now. I can repair it but I don’t have my tools.."
"We'll come back tomorrow." Sonic promised, and held out both his hands. Tails started flying, and took it. Knuckles took Sonic's other hand.. and they started to run.
Now that Knuckles looked.. they were going too fast for any Mobian to keep up at all. Then he looked at Tails, who seemed to not have any trouble keeping up, whatsover. Sonic was smiling his usual grin, looking straight ahead. He had a tight grip on his brother's hand.
...that was, until Tails looked at their hands. And suddenly let go.
Both Sonic and Knuckles blinked in surprise, the echinda almost panicking because they were going so fast the kid would crash-
He didn't.
No, Knuckles watched in shock as Tails managed to keep up.
Sonic was using his superspeed and Tails was keeping up.
Said hedgehog's eyes widend, before he smiled a bright smile. "Tails! You broke your record- again!"
"I am the brother of the one and only Sonic the Hedgehog! Of course I did!" Tails laughed, holding up his arms as he cheered. It was rare, to see Tails so sure of himself.. but neither of the olders were complaining.
Knuckles realized a second later- brother. The echinda could remember a time, when they had just met, and how unsure Tails had been to call himself Sonic's brother. He had instead kept reffering to himself as "the sidekick"
...Sonic's tactic was working, it seemed.
Knuckles looked at Sonic again. He had such a proud smile on his face, and such a fond look in his eyes, watching his little brother fly. Knuckles swore he heard Sonic whisper:
"Go little rockstar.."