Chapter one

Ashes

'Do you remember when your life was simple?'

'…Nope.'

The fox stared down at his burnt home. Tears were threatening to spill over, but he couldn't allow them to fall, not in front of the whole team. His house was just a pile of ashes now, with hardly anything worth finding to keep in the pile of rubble. So much of his life had been in this small but cozy home. Photos of friends, piles of gadgets…they were all burned to the crisp now.

And it was all Sonic's fault.

And, even though no one had been able to tell, the fox had been blaming the blue hedgehog for a long time. He blamed Sonic for their friendship starting to break, he blamed Sonic for his house burning down, he blamed Sonic that he was miserable…

But he also blamed Amy. Because it was Amy who kept the blue hedgehog from the fox.

Granted, the fox knew it wasn't entirely the blue hedgehog's fault, or even Amy's. The hero couldn't keep every bad thing at bay. He wasn't perfect. And Amy wasn't trying to get in the way of the two brothers. Yet, Tails could vaguely recall the times in his childhood-his childhood which had been so short- when life had been simple, easy. When life had just been, 'Survive.' When he had met Sonic, it hadn't changed that much, except life became, 'Survive and fight for freedom.' When his life had started to go downhill, the fox wasn't so sure. Maybe it was when he met Cosmo. Maybe it started on the teams' journey to save the universe.

But the fox did know one thing. And that was that suddenly, life wasn't so black and white anymore. There were plenty of grey shades he wished he could avoid. Like when Sonic had become a slave two years earlier to protect Amy. When he talked to anyone about this, they said it was all because he was a teenager that he saw life more complicated.

"When you become a teenager, your brain starts to connect things that it couldn't as a child," Vanilla had explained a while back.

"But, what about all those gadgets I could make?" Tails had questioned, as he blinked in confusion. Vanilla had smiled down at him gently, responding,

"You were smart, Tails. Being smart though didn't mean you had the mental side of your brain yet."

But that conversation had been long ago. Three years ago, to be exact. But that still didn't seem to explain to the fifteen year old fox why life had gotten so much more complicated. He knew that a regular teenager his age would think life was difficult because of homework, but Tails didn't do school. He fought by Sonic's side like the loyal brother he was, and, for some reason, the government of this planet had never forced Tails into the school system. Sometimes, the fox wondered what it would be like to be a normal kid, one that wasn't best friends with Sonic, one who didn't make inventions, not only for fun, but to protect the world. How many other fifteen year olds had gone through what he had? How many other foxes had seen their true love die, had seen Eggman practically win, and had seen the true blue hero in his best and his worst?

Not many.

In fact, besides Cream, Tails was the youngest on the team. And Cream had her age on her side. She had only just started to understand the cruelty of the world. So really, she'd missed out on a lot of drama.

Or, that's what he told himself anyway.

"Tails?" It was Sonic's voice. Tails resisted the urge to turn around and hit his brother, and Sonic knew this fact himself. With his ears lowered, he put a hand on his younger brother's shoulder, hoping for it to provide some comfort as he said,

"I'm sorry I wasn't here sooner." The fox merely shrugged, pretending it didn't matter, pretending that it didn't hurt that Sonic had practically replaced their once close relationship with a pink hedgehog named Amy. If it hadn't been for Amy, Sonic would've been here on time. He would've been able to save his house from burning down.

If Sonic hadn't become a slave two years ago, none of this would've happened. Everything would be the way it had been.

"Tails?" It wasn't Sonic's voice this time, and Tails knew this immediately. A warm hand found his own cold hand, and the rabbit squeezed it gently, hoping the fox she had started to love would only look at her, and let out his emotions. Because she knew from experience that that was what he needed. "Tails, mother says you can live with us, if you want," Cream continued, keeping herself from blushing at the thought of Tails living with her, Cheese, and her mother.

"No," Sonic stated suddenly, sounding firm. He turned to Cream then, his face turning from stern to gentle in a second, not wanting to hurt the young teenager. "I think it would be better if he lived with me," the blue hedgehog explained. "I think…it would be good for us…to you know…"

Everyone knew what Sonic wanted to say. Reconnect. The two needed to reconnect. For ever since Amy had become Sonic's number one, Tails wasn't nearly as close to his big brother. It was to be expected. Love made people realize that their old best friends were really nothing compared to their newfound emotions. It was what had happened to Sonic.

Really, Tails was glad that Sonic had someone to lean on, someone like Amy. Who was he, a mere two-tailed freak, compared to someone like Amy? He couldn't offer Sonic as much joy as the pink hedgehog gave him. All he could offer were long conversations about science and technology, which Sonic had never exactly enjoyed.

The fox knew his brother would grow up sometime, would find true love. Yes, he knew Sonic was naïve when it came to romance, but he also knew that Sonic wouldn't dare to miss out on something so grand, especially when he already had the perfect girl standing right next to him, named Amy Rose.

And the fox also knew that he had to grow up. He needed to find his purpose, for within the last few years, if there was anything the fox had learned, it was that Sonic was not his purpose. Sonic had been an idol as a child, but Tails knew he couldn't hold onto Sonic in that form anymore. He needed to get past his childhood, and move on, to find his destiny, to find what he needed to do with his life, because it was certainly not worshipping the blue hedgehog's every move.

But of course, he knew that even if he kept telling himself to move past Sonic, it would be harder to do then to say. Amy had always said that she was Sonic's number one fan. But there were times when Tails had come close to arguing to Amy that he was Sonic's number one fan. Really, it was hard to tell who needed the blue hedgehog more back then.

But now Amy had grown past her silly antics, and even though she still needed Sonic, she had changed. And Sonic had fallen for her, and moved on with his life as well. So Tails was stuck where he had been, without Sonic to help him get up off his feet. Sonic had always been Tails' motivation. And even though Sonic tried as hard as he could to get the fox to trust him completely again, to move on and away from the past, to find his purpose, the fox wouldn't accept the help.

"He's a teenager," Amy would often explain to Sonic. "It's granted for him to refuse help, to not trust you like he did as a kid. And you haven't exactly been all that reliable, these days."

Hence the reason why Sonic wanted Tails to live with him for a while. He needed the fox to come to terms with everything, and that meant the two would have to become inseparable like they once had been.

Again, it was easier said then done.

"Come on, Tails," Sonic started gently to his friend. He motioned Tails away from the scene of ashes, and back to everyone else, who stared at Tails, their faces forlorn. Tails bit his lip to keep from crying out, but with Cream giving him a look full of concern only feet from him, with Sonic looking helpless, with Amy looking close to tears, and with Knuckles avoiding everyone's eyes, he couldn't bare it any longer.

The fox broke down.

"Well, here we are," Sonic quipped cheerfully, swinging the door to his small home open. He looked over at Tails and smiled brightly, hoping to cheer the poor fox up. 'It ain't much," Sonic continued as he stepped in, "An' I'm sure Ames will want me to clean it up soon…but hey, it's 'nough for me." Taking Tails' small box of things he had managed to find unscratched within the ashes, Sonic headed over to the bedroom, where he set the box of things down on the bed.

Immediately, Sonic wished he had cleaned the place up a bit. Socks, gloves, and spare tennis shoes lay scattered across the room, and he scratched the back of his neck, chuckling nervously.

"Uh, I'll get this cleaned up-"

"It's alright, Sonic," Tails interrupted, his voice holding no emotion. For, it hadn't ever since his outburst ten minutes ago. "I can sleep in the living room."

"Hey, I hardly stay here, lil' buddy," Sonic replied. "The couch and the roof are normal for me." Tails shrugged, beaten, and he sat down on the creaky bed, resisting the urge to sigh in front of his brother. He knew Sonic was right. Sonic was hardly home, since he'd rather sleep somewhere in the wilderness.

So then, this basically would be his home until they got another one built for him.

Good thing he already knew every square inch of it. He had been here a lot as a youngster, and Sonic had been at the fox's home a lot back then too.

"Tails, hello?" The fox suddenly became aware that Sonic had been calling his name for a good minute. Shaking his head, the fox forced himself out of his thoughts, meeting Sonic's concerned gaze. "Anything ya need?" Sonic asked, his voice barely audible. The fox shook his head and looked back down to his shoes.

"I just wanna be alone," the fox whispered back. "Please." Looking a little hurt, Sonic nodded slowly and turned to leave, but stopped at the door of the room. Without looking back, the blue hedgehog murmured,

"It won't happen again. I promise." And he was gone.

Immediately, Tails wanted to call the blue hedgehog back, to tell him everything that was going on with him. But then again, he figured, Sonic already knew that he had failed his little brother. But he didn't know that Tails wanted to move on, to go back to the days when the two were each other's number one.

"That will never happen." Tails practically jumped at hearing his own voice. Without Sonic here with him, the house felt empty, lifeless. It was dead quiet, and the fox hated silence. How did Sonic ever survive in this home at all, alone?

'Well, he does have you now,' Tails told himself, and he forced his dead-weight body off of the bed, as he looked through his remaining box of things. 'And you need to stop sulking and get everything back to the way it was.

Little did the fox know, but Sonic was practically thinking the exact same thing.

Whoo! Emotional and kinda deep chapter. Just what I like.

Yeah…in a way, I think I made Sonic and Tails at odds with each other pretty suddenly. But heh, oh well. I can see Tails holding a grudge with Sonic like this, and hiding it for a long time.

Anyway, so as I'm hoping you guys have figured out, this is the new improved version of Tails the Fox at Fifteen. Also, I'm sure you've all realized the changes already. "Where's the talk about a repair shop?", you're asking. "When's Tia gonna show up?" Be patient, my good readers. And know that, this story has completely changed, like Forever Love did. Tia will be showing up a lot later than last time, and the repair shop, well…probably in the next chapter, actually. Anyway, hope you enjoyed this chapter!

~Ksonic~