A/N: Hello, and welcome to my personal favorite of all my works to date! This idea came to me one morning during that wonderful phase between sleep and awareness; I tossed the premise around in my head for about a week before writing it down. One summer later, I had written this, a work which I am still pretty excited about. I really poured my heart and soul into this story, so I sincerely hope you enjoy it as much as I do!
Disclaimer: I don't own Sonic the Hedgehog or any related characters, places, objects, or ideas. I just like to torture the poor guy.
Against all odds, life was as normal as could be.
It was strange to think about how much things had changed in less than two years, since the defeat of Eggman. In the absence of the doctor, the world had truly undergone an incredible transformation. No one else had stepped up to fill the mad scientist's place, and thus no cities were being threatened and no angry gods were being awakened. It had taken a while for people to completely let their guards down, but at present things were almost as peaceful and relaxed as could be; the world was left with the kind of trouble which the law could handle, like thieves making off with people's laptops in fast food restaurants and drivers testing red lights and causing car wrecks.
Of course, a whole team of super-powered heroes was a bit much for situations caused by stupidity as opposed to those brought forth by genius; therefore, after almost six years of faithful service, Sonic the Hedgehog and his friends were, at long last, free to live their lives the way they wanted to. Everyday domestic life had taken some time to get used to—Sonic had even complained about it for longer than anyone had been happy with—but in the end, even he couldn't deny the blessings brought by the prosperous, free world they had fought for years to earn. Life took a different, more homely turn for the successful heroes; Knuckles learned to let go of the Master Emerald on occasion, Rouge came to be friends with a majority of the team, Silver and Blaze came and went as they pleased from their homes in the future and the Sol Dimension, and Sonic taught himself to play the guitar. A few of the gang even began attending school with the intent of at least finishing high school—just like normal teenagers.
But school eventually let out for summer break, and they were left without anything to do—just like normal teenagers. It almost made them all miss what Sonic already called the "glory days." The initial first-week-of-summer rush of sleepovers and pizza parties ended all too soon; then, the boredom of summer hit, and very often that meant drastic measures were taken in order to find something, anything to do.
Of all the things Tails had expected for this summer, however, the fostering of romance within the gang was not on the list; so when Sonic tossed a certain comment over his shoulder on his way out of the workshop, he dropped his wrench in surprise.
"You're doing what?!" he demanded; he had tried not to shout, but he was unfortunately loud enough that Sonic jumped slightly.
The hedgehog turned back around in the workshop doorway. "I said I'm heading out with Amy," he repeated slowly with a little smirk. "You forget how to speak English?"
"Did you?" Tails shot back, cerulean eyes wide as dinner plates. "Sonic, you're going out with Amy? Just like that?"
Sonic shrugged nonchalantly. "Yeah. I probably wouldn't have brought it up, but—"
"What about, 'Oh—'" Here Tails slipped into his best Sonic impression—"'if I go out with her even once it'll be like telling her that I've loved her all my life and I just don't feel that way and—'"
"Okay, okay, I get it!" Sonic broke in, muzzle reddening slightly. Tails quirked an eyebrow at him with an expression that was both confused and suspicious. "So I've said that a time or two. I figure, maybe it won't be that bad."
The ten-year-old looked at his big brother with the most emotionless expression he knew how to make. "Just because she's quieted down some lately doesn't mean she won't still think like that. Have you lost your mind?"
"Yeesh, buddy, I thought you'd be all excited."
Tails paused with his mouth open to retort. He's right, he realized, I should be teasing him or something. What's with me?
He quickly chalked it up to the suddenness, at least for the sake of the hanging conversation. "S-sorry, Sonic, I was just kinda preoccupied and... well, you took me by surprise." He forced a smile; "Really, that's awesome. Have fun."
"Will do. I've got my phone if you need me."
This time, Tails didn't have time to react before his sixteen-year-old best friend was gone, leaving naught but a gust of wind and a twice-surprised kitsune in his wake. What was that for? He's never told me that before—he doesn't usually even remember to grab his phone in the first place!
As he turned his eyes back to the Tornado, the fox's mind wandered, mulling over the conversation with a quizzical mindset. By all accounts, Sonic had acted fine, but something intangible about his behavior concerned Tails nevertheless, and questions filled his brain. Was Sonic up to something else? He wouldn't use a dating excuse to cover just anything; but then again, he had never covered anything on purpose before, either, at least to Tails' knowledge. Did this development bother him and he was just hiding it? Tails didn't want to see Amy hurt if Sonic did something stupid because he was insincere, and he was pretty sure Sonic was smarter than to risk that.
Maybe this is just a different side of Sonic—Sonic in love. That prospect made the preteen in Tails snicker a little; perhaps he'd just have to watch this development a little more closely.
That night, Tails enjoyed the quiet of being by himself. It wasn't terribly often that he had the whole house to himself for longer than five minutes; Sonic practically lived here, and their friends had made the place almost a social hub—it was the first place everyone would go when they didn't have anything else to do. It wasn't like he minded it, and most of the time he enjoyed it; but he considered the rare moments of quiet to be things to cherish whenever possible.
Of course, it didn't last. About the time the sky darkened completely for the night, Sonic slipped into the living room with a tired sigh.
"Hey, Sonic," Tails greeted him without looking up from the documentary he was watching on his laptop. "How was your date?"
"Friendly outing, FYI," Sonic retorted flatly before lazily throwing himself onto the couch with a whump noise and causing the soft cushions to inflate briefly underneath the occupants. "And it was fine. Nothing to report."
Tails glanced up for a second to note the hedgehog's position; he had hung his head dramatically over the back of the sofa, and he held his hand over his forehead as if pushing back a headache. "You okay?"
"Huh?" Sonic picked his head up immediately like he'd been called out for sleeping in class. "Oh, yeah, just kinda beat. Think I spent too much time running, too much time socializing... y'know, the usual."
"Seems to be getting easier these days," the fox commented dryly, the better part of his focus back on the movie. "You need to start going to bed earlier or something; you come home every night exhausted."
Sonic let out a sheepish laugh. "Yeah. I guess school wore me out, and now juggling friends and running and all that is kinda a whole other enchilada, so I'm not catching up on any sleep." His facial features screwed into an annoyed grimace. "It stinks. I liked the good ol' days, when school didn't happen and we didn't have to live all normal and stuff. I see why everybody's always so tired nowadays, though."
"I dunno," Tails shrugged, pausing his movie to turn his full attention to his friend, "I kinda like the chance to be normal. Not being in the spotlight all the time, and of course no Eggman threat..."
Green eyes turned toward the ceiling again, distant and thoughtful. "Yeah, maybe. I kinda wish we could have that on-the-run life again. Just, maybe without Eggman."
"Risking your neck for no reason?" Tails teased, reaching over to lightly punch the hero in the arm.
A laugh escaped Sonic's throat as he reached over to return the favor. "Dude, those days were the best! I'm definitely feeling an adventure kick right about now, man. Maybe we could go track down the Chaos Emeralds—you know how they always show up in all the dangerous and obscure places, and nobody's seen 'em for the last two years, anyway. It'll be fun!"
"Hm..." An adventure did sound appealing (though it was probably more fun if you actually enjoyed springing death traps), but the sensible part of Tails had to be allowed to take over. "It's probably best to leave them separated for now. Just in case somebody decides to pick up where Eggman left off."
"... Yeah, you're probably right." Sonic sighed and stretched his body out to full potential, suppressing a yawn. Then he languidly recollected his limbs and rose to his feet; "Think I'm gonna hit the sack a little early—see if that helps anything."
"'K. Good night, bro," Tails waved, turning back to his movie.
Sonic gave him a two-fingered salute; "G'night." The speedster fled up the stairs in a matter of milliseconds, leaving Tails to his thoughts once again.
Funny how I'm the younger one, and he's the one who can't stay up past his bedtime...
His movie droning on to deaf ears, Tails frowned slightly. Here was that feeling again; for the second time that evening, Sonic's behavior was coming off unusual for no reason he could pinpoint. Is this normal for a guy dealing with a crush? he found himself wondering. If so, the fox decided he wanted no part of it, ever. Love probably wasn't worth constant exhaustion.
June passed with little to show for it, as summer months tend to go. Sonic and Amy went out a few more times, which of course attracted some attention within the gang, but it was hard to even call the two a "couple," because, really, there were almost no changes in the ways they treated each other. Amy was as wistful and clingy as ever, and Sonic still got red-faced and uneasy whenever she was around. In fact, the male hedgehog was slowly becoming more distant with her, and with everyone else in his life, without seemingly trying or noticing. Tails didn't like it, but he couldn't figure out what could be wrong.
Sonic was certainly not giving anyone the cold shoulder, in the full sense of the term, yet this developing trait became obvious enough that Knuckles soon began to take notice, as well.
"I can't put a finger on it, really," the echidna tried to explain when asked about it. "He's just... different. More moody, maybe. I don't know, maybe Amy's got something to do with it. Girls do weird things to a guy."
Tails wanted to remind him that he was technically in the same boat, by those standards, but instead only enlisted Knuckles's help in keeping an eye on Sonic.
Their combined observations proved beyond much doubt that something was off. Things bothered Sonic where they wouldn't before, but only sometimes; it was difficult to determine how he would react to any given thing every day. He was jumpy, more so than usual, and he gave a distinct impression that he wanted to be left alone. Even on his seventeenth birthday, a day when he ordinarily would have spent the whole previous night running off his excitement, he was more tolerant than ecstatic about the little party Amy had put together for him. Whether they spoke of it or not, the team as a whole began to notice, as well—everyone, it seemed, but Sonic himself, which was the most disturbing part of the whole thing.
Finally, under what she considered to be a biased vote, Amy was deemed the one to directly approach him about it.
"Sonic... Can I ask you about something?" she asked carefully. She had come over specifically for this purpose, and Tails had worked hard to keep the elusive hedgehog in the house in hopes that Amy could work it out of him what was wrong. She had requested a talk with him, and he had only hesitated for a second before agreeing. Now they were seated in the living room, a short distance apart on the old sofa, and despite her choice of wording, Amy did not leave him time to refuse her. "You... You're acting like something's bugging you. You're not... You're not yourself."
Sonic tensed, barely noticeably, and shifted casually. "Wait, what?"
"You... you..." The female hedgehog struggled to find words that wouldn't accidentally offend him. "You've been kind of... Please don't take this personally, but you've been acting all... touchy and... I dunno, you've been kind of all over the place."
"... I... have?" Confusion was written all over his face.
"Yeah, a little bit. I've noticed, Tails noticed a long time ago—everybody's noticed it at some time or another." Seeing that he didn't appear defensive or anything of the like—just genuinely puzzled—Amy let her queries become bolder. "You're not very happy lately. If something happens two days in a row, you react completely differently both times. And... and we're getting worried."
"So you want to know if something's bugging me," Sonic finished flatly, expression unreadable.
Amy nodded quickly. "It's just not like you at all, and I really do want to help if there's anything I can do."
Sonic folded his arms and leaned back into the sofa cushions. "Jeez, you make it sound like I'm acting like a girl. No offense," he commented without much emotion. Amy recoiled in shock, but he continued obliviously, "There's nothing wrong, not that I'm aware of, and even if there was, I could handle it myself. I don't need anybody telling me how to act."
"Wh—" Deep under his schooled, emotionless face, Amy could read a discreet swirl of emotions—hurt, anger, annoyance, and defiance seemed to fight for control of his expressions and words. Instead of desiring to reprimand him for his thoughtless words, Amy found herself more worried than before. But, to keep prying for information he wasn't giving, and partially since his words did strike home a little too hard, she reprimanded him anyway.
"Sonic! How dare you insult me?" she demanded, glaring at him and jerking her pointer finger in his direction. "All I'm trying to do is help! That's all Tails is trying to do, too, and all you keep doing is pushing him away!"
Slowly but surely, the little flames of anger in Sonic's eyes picked up in intensity. "Look, if I hurt anybody's feelings, then I'm sorry, but even if there was something wrong, it's nobody's business but mine. But I'm fine, got it?"
"No, you're not fine! Look at yourself; you're sleeping instead of running and exploring, you're grouching at your friends, you're picking a fight with me... How is that anything like the Sonic we all know and love?" How can I even know you actually meant it on those dates? This was turning into less of an act and more of a real show of anxiety and irritation; Amy hadn't intended to start a for-real argument, but it was too late to stop it now.
"As far as I know, everything's just fine," Sonic quickly shot back, tone growing more heated by the word. "If you think you can just come on in here and start yelling at me how I'm not being a good enough friend for ya, then you're wrong. Just quit worrying about me for once, okay? I'm totally fine, and you're not convincing me otherwise!"
At the corner of her vision, the briefest flash of gold caught Amy's eye, and suddenly the details Tails had given her came back to mind; running the conversation through her mind again gave her enough reason to sigh in reluctant defeat. "... Fine."
Her soft answer turned away wrath as Sonic blinked, misunderstanding once again taking over. He squinted at the female hedgehog as if he wasn't sure he'd heard her right. "'Fine'? That's it? Just, 'Fine'?"
Tails slipped into the room at that moment; he kept his head high, but his ears and tails drooped in telltale signs of underlying shame. "Yeah," he answered for Amy, holding up a small stick-shaped object Sonic instantly recognized as a voice recorder. "Fine. Because you need to hear yourself right there."
Though he was obviously initially dismayed, Sonic's slack jaw tightened in embarrassment as he heard his own voice—the entire conversation—played back for him with every harsh word and every loud syllable. When it was finally over, he sighed loudly and buried his reddened muzzle in a pillow that was conveniently placed on the other side of him from his friends.
"And that wasn't even a real argument," mumbled Tails into the silence. "Now do you see why we're worried?"
Sonic buried his face a little further into the pillow. "... Sorry," came his muffled, low apology. "That was... wasn't..."
"Sonic..." Tails wedged himself into the spot between the two hedgehogs on the couch and gingerly laid his hand on his dear friend's turned shoulder. "We're here for you, just like always. You don't have to say anything if you don't want to, but if there's something bugging you, then... I don't care what I'm doing, I'll drop it and listen anytime you want to talk."
"Me, too!" Amy chimed in, reaching over Tails to copy his move.
Sonic let out a long breath, studying his friends out of the corner of his eye as they waited for him to respond. He remained perfectly silent for the longest minute any of them could remember, the perfect example of an indignant, stubborn teenager caught between telling the truth and ending up grounded for two years.
"... I haven't been sleeping that well, is all," he finally admitted quietly.
Tails nodded sympathetically, relaxing some now that they had finally gotten somewhere. "Okay, it's a start. Why not? You wouldn't go this secretive if that was all it was."
Another forceful sigh. "I dunno. I just can't sleep. Can't shut down long enough. Some nights I'll go running for hours, and that helps, but by then it's almost morning and I gotta get up again. Other nights... Could be anything. Nightmares, tossing and turning forever... Nothing really unusual, I guess, it's just..." Sonic lifted his head to face his confidants once again and forced himself to finish his difficult confession. "I just don't feel that great in general, and... it's tough to explain."
"And that's what's making you go all moody lately?" Tails asked for confirmation, some relief seeping into his voice without permission.
Sonic nodded slowly, like he hated himself for it. "That's all I can figure. I hate acting like this."
"Wait, so you've been aware this whole time how rude you've been acting?" Amy interjected in surprise.
"Well, yeah." Sonic shrugged, like he was stating the most obvious thing in the world. "It's not like I'm on drugs or anything. It's just kinda... in the aftermath, after I've already said it or done it. Y'know?"
Amy shook her head in disgust; "Oh, you have no idea."
At this, Sonic diverted his gaze to the carpet nervously, a hint of red touching his cheeks. "Hey... I didn't mean what I said earlier, honest. I—sorry."
Amy smiled gently at him. If Tails hadn't been between them, she probably would have hugged him; as it was, she reached for his hand to grasp it tightly. "Aw, it's okay. We'll do what we can to help you out, okay? Hopefully it'll never happen again, and we can get you back to normal and everything'll be just fine."
For the first time, Sonic returned the hopeful smiles of his friends. "Yeah, that'd be awesome. Thanks, guys."
A/N: Yeah... It starts off kinda slow, I know. It'll pick up next chapter or so, I promise!
If you survived this long, let me know what you think so far! Updates should be pretty regular, but I am a freshman in college, so my schedule and energy levels vary from week to week. Comments help improve my mood and drive, though, so~ *shot*