Archive of Our Own ^beta

Chapter Text

“Why are you so grumpy today? If Shadow was here I would think you were deliberately impersonating him to be annoying!” Amy patted the bottom of her sheaf of papers on the table, still eyeing the top of a blue head that did not react.

Sonic grumbled inaudibly, though it was difficult to tell if it was meant to be indistinguishable as a point or if the act of speaking while his face was half-smushed between his arms and the table rendered the words unintelligible.

Amy sighed and tapped her papers again, skimming over the top one as if checking they were filled out right by the small group currently in front of her. On her other side, the chair squeaked as Knuckles leant forward to narrow his eyes at the hedgehog opposite.

“You know we can't hear what you're saying,” he stated bluntly, never one for a complex approach. “And she's right, you've been way too quiet. It'd be a nice change if you weren't clearly moody about something.”

The only reply was a possibly offended sniff from the approximate location of a nose surrounded by blue arms.

Knuckles' eyes narrowed further. “Are you sick?”

“Oh, you shouldn't have come if you're sick!” Amy shivered, hugging the papers against her chest. “It wasn't that urgent. And also I said I'd go to Jewel's girls party tonight, and I don't want a runny nose the whole time.”

“Wait, if it isn't urgent why did you tell me to come as soon as possible?!” Knuckles switched his violet eyes from one uncooperative friend to the other indignantly.

Amy sighed. “Because I knew you'd only come if I said it needed doing immediately, otherwise we'd be stuck waiting for whenever you decided to grace us with your presence again!”

“Wait, you can't just say one thing and expect--!”

Knuckles' spluttering was interrupted by a loud creak from the room's doorway, causing Amy to stop physically squaring up as Knuckles began to stand from his seat in favour of them both looking angrily towards the other side of the room. The door continued to make its obnoxious noise as it slowly swung open, revealing the person that had caused the movement with one fist raised.

Tangle smiled nervously without lowering her arm. “Uh, I was going to knock, but there was shouting, so I was going to wait, but then I sort of thought that I shouldn't be listening, so I was going to leave, but then I'd have to tell Jewel why I didn't get the papers, and she'd be disappointed, so I was going to knock loudly so you'd hear, but then my elbow hit the door and it hurt, and then it started opening so I thought I should knock so I wasn't just standing here, but then it was really loud and it carried on opening and, uh, well. Yeah, hi.” Her tail twitched behind her. “I wasn't listening! Well, I was because you were kind of yelling, but I didn't meant to! I can't shut off my ears, because even when they're flat like some people can do, they're probably still able to hear, so I don't think that counts eithe--”

“Tangle! It's fine.” Amy held a hand out to physically stop the lemur's babbling and took a deep breath before arranging her face into a secretarial smile. “You said Jewel wants the papers now?”

“Oh, yeah, that's why she sent me here. Not to listen. She wants to go through the stuff before tonight so we can actually chill.” Tangle made a face, stepping into the room absently. “Well, that's what she said. Mostly. Bet she'll still be trying to do some work though. I've gotta get her and Whisper to actually relax sometime...”

Amy sighed as she neatened the wad of papers against the table for the third unnecessary time, and eyed each of her companions in turn. “Alright, I've got to help Jewel with these. Knuckles, thank you for your time.” She ignored the scowl in response, turning to the other table seat. “Sonic, go rest or eat something, okay? I'll check in later, hopefully you'll feel better and not be so irritable.”

The words was genuine despite their delivery, and Amy half attempted to pat him on the arm before realising it took too much to hold all the papers securely in one hand, and settled for offering a quick smile before hurrying past Tangle out of the room. The lemur looked at the open doorway for a moment.

“Well. At least Jewel might be able to get the paperwork stuff done now.” She glanced back at the small meeting room table that consisted of an echidna sitting back down with arms crossed, and the flat spikes of the hedgehog leaning almost slumped into his own arms on the surface. “Sooo... You guys good?”

A gleam of green just above the table nest of arms eyed her in unamusement.

“You know, she's got a point, you've been kinda quiet this week. Not that, like, you have to talk all the time or anything, but I guess it's kind of weird? Pretty sure you didn't eat anything at lunch either, but honestly, I really didn't help Whisper with the cookies, they're actually really nice!”

Knuckles frowned across the table, previous anger forgotten. “You didn't eat yesterday either,” he said slowly, as if putting something together.

Sonic huffed, lifting his head just slightly to mumble, “Dunno why you're watchin' me eat, think that's weirder.”

“It was Vanilla's picnic and you were sitting opposite me like you are right now,” Knuckles said flatly. “I couldn't avoid seeing you have things if I tried. And trust me, I want to.”

Tangle blinked at the two. Sonic huffed again, deliberately looking at a corner of the room as though it held secrets of getting out from the conversation. “So?”

Knuckles' eyes were narrowed dangerously again. “Something's wrong with you. ”

As he spoke, Tangle moved towards the table, reaching a hand out. She had intended to poke her friend's shoulder, but Sonic moved on noticing her closer and one extended finger managed to somehow stab at the side of his muzzle.

Sonic almost howled more than yelped, and immediately backed up in the chair, covering his lower face with his hands thickly enough to severely muffled reactive, “Tangle, what the hell?!”

“Uh.” The lemur froze with finger still outstretched as Sonic made some more covered groans of assumingly pain, practically cradling the one side of his face. She glanced around as the sound of hurried footsteps approached, grimacing in apprehension. “Whoops.”

“What's wrong?!”

Amy's anxious tone was immediately recognisable as she ran into the room, hands now free of paper. Sonic groaned louder.

She scanned the room for threats as a yellow figure stopped just behind her, expression concerned. The war's marks had yet to fade, Knuckles noted grimly, even as he stood to action above the source of distress despite being present and knowing there was no intruder attack. Such a sound still woke instinctive fears of pain and protection.

Both newcomers quickly came to the same conclusion, and focused in on the situation in front of them as Tangle sheepishly tucked her hands behind her back.

“I uh, may have accidentally poked Sonic in the face.” She tried for an apologetic smile, turning to her victim. “By the way, your face is really warm. Is something wrong?”

Sonic made a sound that was more akin to a car revving up than anything a hedgehog could express. If the car was expressing frustration as it tried to consider escaping a quickly closing in fate of unwanted attention.

Tails frowned. “Is your mouth still hurting? If it's hot now, it could be an infection.” He walked over to his brother, trying unsuccessfully to peer at a face protectively hidden by hands. “Sonic, you've got to get this checked out.”

“Well, that explains it,” Knuckles muttered, resisting rolling his eyes for favour of watching the pantomime in front of him as Tails tried to pull Sonic's hands away from his face to various noises of protest and younger brother scoldings.

Amy's posture untensed a little with the reveal of the issue, though she still looked harried as she exhaled sharply and glanced at Tangle who was standing awkwardly, unsure whether to leave this to clearly experienced hands or stay as some sort of moral support. Amy took a calming breath and stepped forward.

“Tangle, why don't you go back and help Jewel? Tell her I'll be there soon. Maybe.” She narrowed her eyes at the scene in front of her, clearly calculating how long it may take to solve it effectively. Tangle glanced between the two opposing forces.

“Uh, sure.” She waved briefly in the direction of the arguing boys as she started walking backwards. “Bye I guess! Hope your teeth are better soon! Sorry Sonic! Bye Knuckles!”

The latter gave a nod, and Tangle gratefully took that as acknowledgement, turning around to speed out of the room, using her tail to navigate the corridor, thinking of the hopefully calmer time she could have with Whisper and Jewel the sooner the day was done.

In the meantime, Amy approached her friends.

Tails had managed to practically pry his brother's arms away from his face and open his jaw just slightly, frowning at the clear warmth and clearly too-red area against half-hearted garbled protests.

“Sonic, you said it wasn't that bad last week! Now you've got an infection and it obviously hurts a lot.” He huffed as he released his brother's face, watching in worry as Sonic made a relieved sound and tenderly rubbed the side of his muzzle with a wince. “Why didn't you say something?”

The hedgehog grimaced and flicked his eyes up to Knuckles standing over his chair. Without breaking expressionless eye contact, Knuckles said out loud, “He hasn't been eating.”

Green eyes glared back in betrayal as twin exasperated high voices immediately replied, “Sonic!”

Ignoring the echidna versus hedgehog dramatics, Amy huffed and glanced at her wrist for the time, tapping her foot as she furrowed her forehead, considering the best plan of action. She stared at the wall for a moment in thought, putting her hands on her hips.

“Right.” She turned back to the company sharply, silencing grumbled mutterings about traitors and being fine. “I promised Jewel I'd go to hers tonight, and we've still got a lot to finish, even with Tangle's help and hopefully Whisper getting back early. That means you,” she fixed Sonic with a look that was likely learnt from Vanilla, “are spared my lecture at least. Fortunately, I doubt your other option will go easy on this behaviour either.”

Sonic stared back with wide eyes above fingers covering half his face.

Amy turned to Tails. “Assuming you can drag him to Station Square? I can go ask Belle to take over on the way to the office if you were in the middle of something.”

Tails shook his head, one paw on a blue shoulder as if forseeing an escape attempt. “Luckily I'd just finished the latest project board when passing here,” he replied, looking pointedly at his brother as if to remind why simply passing a room had led to this.

“Good. Then I'll check in later, before we leave here, probably.” She glanced up as an afterthought. “Knuckles, you're free to go back to Angel Island. Don't worry, I won't make you help with the sorting – I appreciate you coming down for the paperwork in the first place.” She flashed a brief smile that wasn't quite an apology for her method of summoning the echidna.

Knuckles shifted his crossed arms and made a “hmph” sort of acknowledgement that didn't quite forgive the false urgency of the situation, although his presence had now solved a different and actually timely important issue, so he begrudgingly held his tongue as Amy turned back to the other two.

“Let me know if you need anything, okay?” Although the offer sounded like it included both animals, her posture clearly addressed Tails who smiled back.

“Will do.”

With a final nod, Amy eyed her species counterpart meaningfully before striding out of the room. Tails tapped his brother's shoulder.

“Come on, big bro. Let's get you fixed up,” he cajoled as he simultaneously prompted with physical gestures to get the hedgehog standing and moving towards the doorway. Over his shoulder, Tails added, “See you later, Knuckles.”

Sonic grumbled as he was shepherded forward, feeling more down than anything now as he mumbled barely audibly without fight, “I'm not a machine...”

Tails gave him a sympathetic pat and gestured ahead again to keep them moving. “I know you're not. Those are easier to maintain.” He kept his tone clearly teasing, but Sonic just glanced around with a defeated look. Tails closed his mouth in concern.

After waiting for someone to pass them going the opposite way, he gently prompted his big brother forward again.

“Don't worry, I'll make sure they get you painkillers first. It'll be okay,” he reassured as they emerged into the outside sun and set towards the distant red plane.

Chapter Text

"Hey big bro, how you feelin'?"

Sonic's eyes were dazed and the cotton in his mouth made his muzzle puff up a little ridiculously. Tails nudged him to sit up a little more so he wouldn't choke on it by trying to speak while mostly reclined on the sofa. He'd only really come to from the sedation once Tails had wrangled him in from the plane ride back, and now gazed up with wide eyes from his position of being dumped on the cushions just in from the front door.

"...'ails," Sonic mumbled after a moment of seemingly trying to recall the correct name.

"Yes, Sonic?" Tails replied mildly as he propped another pillow between Sonic's and the sofa's back. It was a toss up whether he would start to monologue or soon fall asleep from the drugs, but either way it wasn't pleasant to accidentally swallow blood.

"Fink I was... cap... capt'red," Sonic continued, eyes still comically wide as they roved the room as if it was a brand new area rather than the house they'd shared for years.

(Well, technically it was Tails' house, as Sonic always insisted, because Sonic didn't want a 'home' and refused to address any of the issues that came with having a permanent one. As if Tails didn't have several workshops dotted around various areas and Sonic didn't sleep in on near them frequently, and they both migrated to this homebase in Mystic Ruins more than any other base that technically had the same facilities. Logistics and coincidences, according to Sonic.)

Tails made a polite hum to indicate he was still listening as he gathered the few things on the table in front of the sofa and walked them to the nearby kitchen to replace with things that might be needed currently. Behind him, Sonic made a noise of awe that sounded like a gurgle more than anything.

Fortunately for him, ignoring the pain until infection hadn't resulted in needing a tooth out completely. The emergency dentist had peered into a reluctant Sonic's mouth and declared that she'd have to chip away a bit of rotting enamel that was infecting the gum it sat on, then a course of antibiotics would take care of the rest. She'd initially tried to do it with Sonic fully conscious while injecting just enough anaesthesia into the relevant area of the mouth, but when she brandished a metal syringe, Sonic had squeezed Tails' hand so tight that it had gone numb, and before the held scraping tool even touched any teeth, Tails' communicator alarm suddenly went off with an amber alert due to how high Sonic's resting heart rate had peaked.

Extracting his hand from the death grip for a moment, Tails had shook it out while politely asking if there was any more medication they could offer and twisting Sonic's wrist to reset the warning on the communicator it was originating from.

Although they couldn't completely knock him out, the strong stuff had done its job even on Sonic's metabolism, and now left Tails with the spaced hedgehog on the sofa he walked back towards from the kitchen, glass of water in one hand and medical supplies in the other with instructions on when to replace dressings and such.

"Tails," Sonic instantly said again on seeing the fox back in his plane of vision. It was a little more enunciated, but the muffling from his mouth still disrupted making specific sounds.

Tails set the glass on the table far enough away that Sonic couldn't immediately knock it off, but close enough for him to reach for it if necessary. "Yeah?"

"I... was capt'red," Sonic stated confidently. Tails shook the supplies onto the table to sort through as Sonic continued in wonder, "These pe... pe'ple. Put somethin' in me. They put a bomb! They pu' a, a bomb in me, Tails! An', uh. Aaannnnd. Uh, they took my mouth! My mouth isss, it, i's gone! Can't feel it..."

He trailed off to mumbling as one hand drifted to his face to verified the absence of a mouth. Tails nudged the fingers back down and patted it comfortingly as Sonic blinked at him - or, rather, more like through or past him.

"They didn't take your mouth, Sonic," Tails reassured, rubbing a thumb against his brother's wrist in a familiar comforting gesture for them both. "And there no bombs in you either," he added, hastily hoping that dismissing that thought quickly would stop any physical reactions to the idea.

Sonic's eyes wavered from the wall behind Tails to the table in front of him. Tails followed his gaze wordlessly settling on the water glass.

"Are you thirsty?"

Out of habit or the situation, Tails automatically signed the word with his other hand as he asked, drawing Sonic's attention to the gesture. After a drawn-out moment that wouldn't be long for consideration if it was anyone else, Sonic slowly dipped his head in what Tails figured was a non-verbal affirmative.

"Okay, be careful. Let me help," Tails warned after he picked up the glass and began to move it towards Sonic. He lifted Sonic's hand he was already holding to meet the glass, prompting the fingers to wrap around the smooth surface and wondering if he should have used a mug or something that might have been easier to grip. But it was too late to reconsider now, as Tails guided the glass to tip carefully in front of Sonic's face, who surprisingly cleanly took a sip.

When he didn't make any more move to control the glass again, Tails resumed his grasp on it and pulled it gently out of the limp hand to set it back on the table, pleasantly surprised by how easy the action had been.

"Is that bette-- Oh, Sonic." Turning back around as he spoke, his relief was quickly replaced by exasperation at the sight of tinged water dribbling merrily from his brother's mouth that was pulled down in an exaggerated display of distress, his eyes screwed up slightly as if about to cry.

Before Tails could grab a tissue from the conveniently placed box next to the sofa, Sonic's expression scrunched further.

"It won' even stay in my mouth! I shou' have known water would betray me!" Sonic was practically wailing, causing both saliva and blood to increase their dripping onto one white glove on his lap and make bubbly red tracks across the clean material. When his breath hitched, he started coughing from the bloodied spit in his mouth as Tails grabbed a handful of tissues and quickly stepped towards his brother to push him to leaning more forward with a light hand on his back.

He couldn't help commenting somewhat impatiently as he swiped at his older brother's face with one of the tissues, the coughing tapering off; "The water didn't do anything; you just didn't swallow it." Sonic turned his face towards him with wide eyes as if Tails had just become the second thing to betray him in a few seconds.

Fortunately, he looked so pathetic with a puffy wet muzzle and unfocused pupils that Tails' exasperation disappeared as swift at it had come, and the fox sighed as he mopped up his brother's face and briefly scrubbed at the marks on his lap before leaning back to observe him.

Tails sighed again, fond but tired. "How about you just get some rest?" He suggested.

Sonic blinked as his brother dropped the tissues into a waste basket and adjusted the pillows without waiting for an answer. He made Sonic open his mouth wide enough to check the dressings were still in the right place and not in danger of being swallowed accidentally, then encouraged him to lean back into the corner of the sofa to relax more while still being propped half-upright with a combination of pillow and posture.

"There. Comfortable?"

Despite there being no actual response, the green eyes were drooping now as they looked vaguely at him and Tails took that as a confirmation all the same. He gave his brother a reassuring smile and brief pat on the shoulder before stepping away, around the other side of the table to focus back on the medical supplies they'd been given.