Chapter Text
The kit is running.
He’s running as fast as he can, but he knows it won’t be enough. There's two people after him now. He’d lost the third. Maybe that's a blessing– He loses a fuse when he takes a bad step. He’s too young to know what cursing really means, but even still he does.
He’d tried so hard to get that part and now it’s gone.
It's gone like everything else in his life and–
A wall of rock meets him harsh. He doubles over. Collapses into a pile and holds himself tight. His head is spinning and he hurts and he’s dead. He’s dead. He’s absolutely positively dead.
“Ha!” Someone, One of the people who’ve been tormenting him for months, catches him. Corners him. “Some genius you are!”
“I can’t–” The other is laughing. Leans over. Grips the first’s shoulder. “I can’t believe he just–”
Two foxes. One shorter than the other, both thrice his height and age. He’d never learned their names. They never told him. Even if they had no adult would ever help. The one with the sharper eyes tackles him. Grabs his tails. Holds down his head and pulls so harsh it makes him scream.
His voice is raw. The other grabs the parts he’d gathered. The fuse he’d lost. Starts to break them. Piece by piece by piece and- He kicks and screams and he actually nails the first in the nose. He laughs for a moment, backing further into the wall. His fur rising. His teeth bared. His hands–
They pounce again. Claws dig into his skin. His eyes fill with tears and he feels something sharp on the base of his tail and-
The wind roars.
There's a scream and the weight was gone.
Something hisses. Snarls. Howls.
There's the smell of metal and the bullies were-
They were-
The first is screaming. Biting. Clawing at a blur of blue and red that bares its teeth back, threatening to sink into his neck. The other is running. He’s running as fast as he can, but then he’s caught and brought back to the first’s side before the kit had even registered–
Its glaring at both of them now. It stares so intensely that the smaller actually bursts into tears.
A stick breaks under the kit. He’d gone to move. To run. To escape. The creature’s head turns towards him. Its eyes are wide and gray and–
Before he’d grown the second tail. Before he was nothing but a freak- He’d been warned about this. The possibility of a Mobian who’d experienced nothing but pain turning–
“Feral-”
The blue creature flinched at the sound of his voice. It backs off of the bullies, leaving them where it had tied their tails. It Lowers his ears and looks… almost ashamed as it-
The kit– Miles sits up. He’s bleeding from where the first had begun to cut- He’s unsteady as he comes closer. Picks through the parts he could maybe try and save–
He smiles.
He smiles at the blue one– A hedgehog now that he could actually see him. He doesn’t pay attention to the raised quills or the flat ears or the fear in its eyes as it looks back to the two bullies and-
Miles approaches.
Hugs the fuse he’d dropped close to his chest.
Smiles with all of his teeth and his tails spinning from joy and–
-
The hedgehog tries to leave.
Miles doesn’t let him.
He follows him back to the wreckage of a biplane and gasps as he sees just how damaged it was. He gasps and almost immediately begins to dig where he knows he shouldn’t. He doesn’t care. He’s happier than he’d been in ages.
The Hedgehog squeaks. Says something he doesn't quite catch. Tries to haul him out, but Miles had already gotten the lights back on. The hedgehog blinks. Takes a few steps back. Watches as the kit continues to work and work and-
“Is this your plane?” Miles asks as he comes back up. He’s covered in oil. In grease. He’s still bleeding from where the bullies had hurt him, but he ignores it. Focuses instead on the most interesting thing he’d found in months and-
The hedgehog nods. He points at his own tail. Brow furrowed and fingers in his mouth and-
“...I’ll be fine.” Miles tells him. “I’ve been through worse.”
Another noise escapes the Hedgehog. He comes closer. Opens a compartment in the side of the plane and shows him a medical kit.
Miles hisses at him. The Hedgehog hisses back and within a second he finds himself pinned with the hedgehog gently cleaning and wrapping his wounds and-
“You’re fast.” Miles tells him, even if he was annoyed by being manhandled. The hedgehog pops back into view. Smiles at him. Mouths something that he still can’t catch. His quills were sparse. There were bags under his eyes. His hands wouldn’t stop shaking and “Do you have a name?”
The Hedgehog frees him. Lets him return to the cockpit now that he’s been treated. Points at Miles. Curls his finger and Miles is sure he’s asking him the same.
“I’m Miles Prower.” He swallows. Takes a moment to hold his tails close. “But… Nobody really likes me. They call me ‘Tails’ because…”
The hedgehog frowns. His ears point down again. He tries to speak, but can’t. So instead. He takes off. Faster than Miles had ever seen anyone move and… His eyes widen as he reads it. His name. Written into the sand below. Massive and stylized and-
“Sonic.”
His name was Sonic.
He was-
“You’re the person who saved South Island…” Miles’ voice drops into a whisper. He has to sit. Cling at the side of the plane. Take a moment to–
The hedgehog stiffens. Hugs himself. Nods with his face red and eyes looking anywhere but-
Tails pounces. Hugs him tight. The hedgehog yelps. Falls back. Instinctively wraps his arms around him. Supports his head. His back. His- “You’re so cool!!” Miles tells him. “I can’t believe you’re here!!” He’s crying. He’s crying and Sonic holds him tighter. Lets him sob into his chest and– “You saved me– You actually–”
He used to obsessively ask about him. Beg his parents for photos and videos and any stories they could find about him. He was just a kid! He was a kid and singlehandedly stopped a monster from taking over his home! It was awesome! He was the coolest person he’d ever heard of!! He was a real life superhero!!!
And when his parents threw him out for being a freak. They said he’d hate him too.
But he didn’t. He didn’t hate him.
In fact. He shifts to hold him even closer. Doesn’t mind when he sinks his claws into him. Doesn’t push him away as he sobs and snots into his fur and clings to the first truly safe person he’d ever–
-
Sonic writes something else later that day. After Miles had finished crying and then apologized for crying so much and then- ‘Tails is a neat name.’ He tells him. ‘I think. Its cool.’
“...Do you really?” He asks Sonic.
Sonic nods. Pats him on the head. Takes his hand as he goes off to find them something to eat.
‘I do.’