Chapter Text
“Sonic?”
The (very sleepy) Blue Blur blinked his eyes open as he felt his blanket being shifted. Once his eyes had adjusted enough to see past his snout, he realised his little brother was gently tugging at his bedsheet.
Tails’ fur looked dimmer in the low light but Sonis could still make out the lines tracked out on his cheeks left over by tears.
“Woah, little buddy….you okay?”
“I- I had a nightmare…” A lump starts forming in Sonic’s throat at how shaky his brother’s voice sounds. He sits up, propping himself up on his elbow. Tails’ namesake are wrapped around his waist, the tips untucked so that he can fiddle with them nervously.
Sonic sighed softly before flipping his blanket off and patting the cleared spot on his bed.
“Come on then, in you get.”
Tails yips and leaps onto the bed, burrowing under the covers. Shifting around a little so that he didn’t accidently jab the fox with his quills, Sonic reached to grab an extra blanket from the edge of his bed to cover the two of them. He felt Tails curl into his side and Sonic was uncomfortably reminded just how small his baby brother still was.
“You comfy, Mi?” Sonic felt Tails untuck his head to nod. The little fox ball currently against his side was a little awkward to wrap his arm around properly so Sonic just draped his arm over, gently cupping his hand around where he assumed Tail’s back was.
They lay like that for a little bit, Sonic waiting until his little brother’s breathing evened out before closing his eyes again.
—
Sonic hated winter for many reasons. The ice made it hard to build speed, the cold made him sleepy, his spines started to shed and that made his skin all prickly.
But the current reason Sonic hated winter was the sheer amount of fox fur everywhere.
Now, Sonic loved his baby brother to death, he really did. What he didn't love was finding fur in his food and on his jackets and absolutely coated in the cockpit of the Tornado. Something had to be done but he couldn't do it alone.
“Back up fox brusher reporting for duty, Sonic sir!” Amy jokingly saluted as Sonic opened the door to greet her. He was glad to see she had listened to him about wearing a dress she didn’t mind getting messy.
“Good to see you as always, Aims.” She beams at him as he steps aside to let her in. Swinging the door shut, Sonic leans back to yell down the hall. “Tails! Amy’s here!”
“Coming! Coming!” The kit came running down the hall, still in the middle of rubbing his ear fur dry with an old t-shirt. He plops himself down on the towel Sonic had set on the kitchen floor. “I still don’t know why you needed a second person for this.”
“Because last winter, I brushed out enough fur to fill a couch, little buddy.” Sonic grabs one of the brushes and a bottle of TRESeniegh fur oil and turns to his support. “Do you want the chair or the floor, Amy?”
“Oh, I don’t mind!” She beams at Sonic before following his lead and grabbing the other paddle brush. “Whatever is best for you two.”
“You good if Amy brushes your tails and I do your ears, bud?”
“Yep!” Tails smiles up at him from the floor as Sonic takes a seat on the kitchen chair. Smiling back at his little brother, Sonic gives his hair a ruffle before preparing to brush.
They work for about an hour, gently working through knots, stuffing discarded fur into bags and adding oil to any dry feeling spots (alarmingly common on the little fox). By the time they’re done, Tail’s floof had visibly decreased and Sonic and Amy had managed to fill 1 and a half trash bags with discarded undercoat. Tails stood up, shaking off any left over loose fur and gave the two of them a thumbs up.
“Feeling lighter, dude?”
“Much better, thanks, Sonic!”
“Anything for my sidekick.”
—
Tails was sick.
Honestly, it was nothing to be dramatic about. Just a sniffle. He would have been able to just power through it, he swears.
Sonic does not agree. Something about watching his baby brother fail to pour juice into his work mug because it was upside down, glare at the carton like it was to blame and stumble towards the fridge to get another carton really tells him that Tails needs to be in bed.
Speeding over, Sonic carefully takes the juice carton out of his sidekick’s hands, ignoring the grumble Tails lets out, and sets it back in the fridge. He fixes Tails with a hard stare. The little fox has the sense to look embarrassed. Like Sonic had caught him with his hand in the cookie jar.
“Miles.”
“ ‘m not sick.” Tails mumbles.
“Didn’t say you were, bud.” Taking Tail’s hand to stop him reaching for the fridge again, Sonic scoops him up with his spare arm. He makes a few weak noises of protest but it doesn’t take much for him to choose to curl up in Sonic’s arms instead. “But you for sure are.”
He carries Tails up to bed, the little fox already half asleep by the time they reach his room. Setting Tails down in his messy nest of a bed, Sonic reaches for a blanket to cover him so that he can go grab the kid some medicine.
Suddenly, Tails’ paw shoots out to grab his wrist. Leaning up a little, he blinks at Sonic, blue eyes cloudy. Sonic feels his heart squeeze as Tails’ lip wobbles like he’s about to start crying.
“Please don’t go…”
“I’m just gonna go grab you some things to make you feel better buddy, I’ll be back so quick you won’t even notice.”
“But what if you aren’t? What if you leave?” Ah. That explained it.
Sonic sat on the edge of the bed, putting a gentle hand on his baby brother’s shoulder. Holding out Tails’ stuffed Chao, Sonic gave him a soft smile.
“I will be right back, I promise. I’m just going to the medicine cabinet to grab some stuff to make you feel better, kid.”
“And you’ll come back?”
“I will. Cross my heart.” Sonic traces the cross on his chest, happy to see Tails attempt a smile and burrow his face into his Chao toy. Standing up from the bed, Sonic tucks his little brother in tighter before dashing to the bathroom.