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Maurice was always an extravagant and flashy boy. As a child, he was extremely restless, running from one side to another as if he were in a constant race. For the same reason, his uncle Chuck had nicknamed him Sonic and, since then, that was his known name.
At 17 years old, he had already met many people and seen many places in the world, but education was necessary and his family had decided that it was best for him to go to boarding school before going to university. Sonic did not agree with that, he was sure that he would get a scholarship for sports and his whole future would be resolved. But his mother, Aleena, made the decision, and she was not known for changing her mind.
His roommate was a grumpy boy a year older than him, very tall and with very long red hair. He was quiet and had a very short temper. The other students nicknamed him Knuckles for that. In addition, the boy was very reluctant to use technology—and when he did use it, he would break everything he touched, which was evident from all the broken gadgets in their shared room—and much of his activities were outdoors. Sonic liked him and he knew that the redhead thought the same of him, even if he didn't admit it.
But Sonic didn't know if he could consider him a friend, after all, they didn't share much.
That was a big problem, Sonic was feeling pretty lonely. Many of his classmates admired and idolized him but that was different from having friends and he felt bad for it. The boy had decided not to tell his family about it, because it was likely that they would withdraw him from the academy due to his mental health and he didn't want to be percieved as weak.
However, everything changed one day, when he made his first true friend.
He woke up early that day for his morning marathon. Knuckles was on a field trip for one of his environmental classes and wouldn't be back for a few days.
Sonic looked at himself in the mirror before leaving to fix his hair in that extravagant way that he liked, where his locks looked like spikes.
While running, he heard a scream that stopped him.
"A monster!"
It was a child who was screaming.
Sonic headed towards the noise and found many children surrounding a small animal.
"How strange it is! It has two tails” another boy screeched as he grabbed the kit and yanked on its lower limbs.
It was a fox, a kit, and it let out pain-filled whimpers as it was hurt. And if there was one thing Sonic couldn't stand, it was seeing someone defenseless in danger.
"What do you think you are doing?" he crossed his arms as he scowled at the children.
They moved away from the little fox, frightened by the presence of other, and the older boy took the opportunity to approach the little animal and take it into his arms. It looked very hurt and kept its eyes closed.
Sonic took it —him— to his room and made him a makeshift bed with pillows and some sheets. The fox snuggled into them and seemed to sleep peacefully.
Looking at it closely, the fox itself was quite strange. In addition to his two tails, he had a brilliant golden color fur. The foxes he had seen were orange, white, or brown but never gold.
He approached the sleeping kit and, as he stroked his little head, he promised that he would take care of him.
Thus, he made his first friend, and he named him Tails.
Tails quickly recovered and seemed intrigued by Sonic. He always looked at him while he was training or studying. The first time the boy took him out for a walk, he was very obedient and never tried to escape or anything like that, he even tried to keep up the pace by running behind the human.
Sonic felt so touched by his new best friend.
But strange things began to happen.
When Sonic returned from his tedious classes, the electronics, which were broken or destroyed by Knuckles, began to repair themselves. From his old music player to his laptop. He preferred not think too much about it and take the situation as a gift that the universe gave him for being so cool.
When Knuckles came back from his trip he made a big fuss about Tails.
"How dare you have a pet?! You are so irresponsible!" He scolded him angrily.
But the anger did not last long. Knuckles loved nature and animals, so it didn't take him long to warm up to the little fox. The redhead was in charge of preparing the most nutritious food for the kit and cooperated with taking him out for a walk in the following weeks.
One day, Sonic got into a fight with a guy with raven hair with red lines who, according to Sonic, looked like a character from a bad goth movie. The boy was much stronger than he thought, and he managed to beat him making a fool of him in front of the entire academy.
Frustrated, Sonic went out for a walk in the middle of the night being followed by the fox. It was winter and there was a lot of frost and ice on the ground.
"Shadow is a stupid nickname, and why was he calling me a faker?" And without paying attention, being distracted by his thoughts, Sonic headed to a frozen lake.
Tails tried to get his attention by biting his pants to make him back away but it had the opposite effect. The human quickly turned to see the fox when he was already on the lake. Before asking what was happening, the ground cracked and he fell into the freezing water.
"I-I can't swim!" He managed to say as, with all his might, to climb to the surface. "Help!"
Before submerging completely, he watched as Tails dove into the water at high speed. Seconds later, he felt small arms grasp his torso and then rise up.
When he felt himself being lowered to the ground, he began to cough to try to get the water he had swallowed out.
"A-are you alright?" asked a high-pitched, childlike voice that was unfamiliar to him.
Sonic turned around and found a blond boy with blue eyes, about 10 years old. Before thanking him, he remembered something.
“M-my fox! He went into the water and I don't see him!" Sonic was frantically looking from side to side trying to find the kit "He probably is still there!"
Even though he didn't know how to swim and had already been at risk of drowing a few moments ago, Sonic wouldn't leave a friend behind, so he started to go back into the lake but something stopped him.
"N-no, he's safe" said the blonde taking one of the older boy's sleeves while he looked at the ground embarrassed.
On closer inspection, the child was not normal. He had animal ears the same color as his hair on his head and his clothing was strange. He wore a kind of white karate gi on top and a yellow hakama, also similar to his hair color. But what stood out the most about the boy was two fluffy tails sticking out from behind him.
Sonic looked at him impressed. He already knew those blue eyes.
"T-Tails?" He approached the boy and took him by the shoulders. "A-are you a human? How? Why?"
The blond let out a small nervous laugh.
"Not exactly human, I'm a kitsune, I can change my form at will."
Sonic still didn't believe it, his friend for so many weeks now presented in front of him as a human. It sounded so stupidly unrealistic that even he had trouble believing it.
"I couldn't change to my human form before but" the blue eyes were filled with determination and a smile appeared on his young face "seeing you in danger made me act without thinking! Protecting you is my priority!"
Sonic took his head in his hands and started laughing out loud.
"I think this is the coolest thing that's ever happened to me." The older boy laughed to which the younger one pouted.
"You are the coolest! I thought that humans were selfish and evil creatures but with you I realize that is not the case."
Sonic smiled tenderly as he ruffled the blonde hair.
"If it wasn't for your ears and tails, I wouldn't have recognized you" he mentioned, amused, to which the little boy seemed shocked.
"Huh?! I couldn't completely transform?!" Tails touched his ears and tails in disbelief, he still had fox parts, that was not supposed to happen.
Sonic just laughed, the boy was adorable.
Without knowing it, Sonic had not only gained a best friend, but also a younger brother with whom he would never feel alone again.