He thought he was alone.

The sapphire hedgehog had many thoughts on his mind, as he ran and felt the familiar feeling of wind hitting his face – a significant amount of them centered on the recently-departed Chip, but—besides the faint memory of the sprite that he could feel in his bracelet—in the back of his mind he felt a sense of solitude. "I guess I'm on my own again... at least 'til the next time Eggman's up to no good," Sonic thought to himself, until he noticed the faint yet familiar sound of propellers.

Curious, he wondered who could be flying by and shattering his solitude. He looked ahead of himself, then up above, but saw nothing. Shrugging and disregarding it, he glanced over to his right without another thought, only to spot none other than the Tornado, piloted by the twin-tailed fox himself - Tails.

His heart skipped a beat.

"What's Tails doing here?" was the first of many thoughts that began to fill the hedgehog's spiky head. Among the whirlwind of questions that flew into Sonic's mind, "Why did he find me?" echoed the loudest.

Looking a little closer, he could see that the twin-tailed pilot was waving at him. "Do I slow down or keep going?" he wondered to himself. He felt like he could get away with smirking and waving before speeding ahead, but something in his chest ached when he thought of actually doing it. What could it be? "... Wait, right, that's my heart," Sonic realized, remembering the thing he tried so hard to ignore so often.

Steadily, he found the Tornado advancing ahead of him. "Okay, well, he's leaving now anyway, 'no use in worrying about that anymore," the blue blur thought to himself, "it was nice of Tails to come by and say goodbye..." Then, he noticed, the Tornado made a left turn and landed ahead of him, right in his path. "Oh, uh, he's landing right where I'm going. Great. Cool," he panicked.

He was surprised by the spontaneous move – so much so that he couldn't think of an excuse not to go and meet with him again, leading to him finally halting before the Tornado as the twin-tailed fox departed from the aircraft. "Hey, Sonic, how are you? What's Chip been up to?" asked Tails.

Quietly, Sonic awkwardly answered, "Oh, um, I'm fine... Chip's gone, actually, uh... he's not dead, just... inside the Earth, for the next few million years." He hadn't prepared himself for a social encounter, much less a reunion with his best friend so soon after his last adventure with him, so his usual wit and charm were not present yet.

As he listened to the hedgehog's words, Tails could feel an air of sadness present in his voice – one he knew the sapphire speedster tried to keep from himself and others. Kindly, Tails offered consolation for Sonic, saying, "I'm so sorry that happened, Sonic, you must miss him so much..." Concerned for Sonic, Tails opened his arms out as an invitation for a hug.

Reluctant at first, and still feeling awkward about the whole thing, Sonic eventually accepted it – wrapping his arms around the fox he had known for fourteen years. Tails hugged him tightly, squeezing him so much with such care that the hedgehog couldn't help but feel a little more alive—even as the air departed from his lungs. A little bit too soon after for Sonic's liking, the fox broke off the hug and gave Sonic a smile so warm he felt as though his needles would melt right off. "Th-thanks, Tails..." said Sonic, shifting his feet and rubbing the bracelet Chip left behind meaningfully, "Yeah I miss him... I wasn't really thinking about it, but I guess I do..."

The conversation stalled. Sonic had begun to wonder if leaving then would be best when Tails offered, "Say, do you need somewhere to stay? You could stay with me for awhile!" The twin-tailed pilot was excited as he suggested it, but faltered when he saw the conflicted expression on the hedgehog's face. Wanting to reassure the blue badnik-buster, he added, "You can leave as soon as you feel like it, you don't have to worry about doing chores or something, I promi—"

"I appreciate the offer, pal, really," Sonic assured, smiling weakly at the fox, before dropping his head low, "I dunno, though, I usually don't stick around for too long..."

Leaning down and tilting his head up to meet the hedgehog's emerald eyes with his sapphires, Tails replied, "Remember when we were kids, before that first adventure with Knuckles? When we used to spend time with each other all the time? It'd be a little like that." The gesture brought a smile and a little chuckle to Sonic, who lifted his chin up once more. Turning to look at the Tornado again, Tails mentioned as he brushed some debris off of the wing, "Besides... I wouldn't mind getting to see you more, when the world isn't ending..."

From every angle Sonic looked at it, in his state of mind, it was such a bad idea. He knew he couldn't let this happen, couldn't face the look on Tails's face when he inevitably realized what a mediocre hedgehog he truly believed he was, but... every time he tried to say no, the words would refuse to leave his lips. Every time he tried to move away from Tails, his legs refused to go. "That damn heart again," Sonic cursed himself. Everything he knew told him not to, but his heart's demands only grew louder with each beat. "Tails.. wants to see me more..." he recounted in his head, collecting his thoughts. "... Really?" he responded, feeling the words reach him, "Well, if that's how you feel... I've gotta give it a shot at least."

Eyes widened, Tails exclaimed, "Okay!... Just hop onto the Tornado, then!" It was then that it truly set in, for Sonic, how much even Tails didn't expect him to go through with it. It was no matter, now – the decision was made and this bad idea was going to happen. He watched the fox climb back into the plane, then, once again, jumped onto the wing of it – the Tornado remaining completely stable as he landed, having been specially-made by the twin-tailed mechanic to withstand the hedgehog's affinity for reckless wing-riding.

Slowly, the propellers began to spin – they moved modestly, as though the humble device could never dream of lifting up an entire aircraft. Then, the wheels began to turn, accelerating the Tornado steadily forward. The spinning propellers began to pick up speed, its confidence appearing to bolden with each moment, as it grew increasingly blurry. Heading down the path that Sonic had just running through in the other direction, the aircraft started to pick up ever so slightly, before lifting off the ground completely and becoming airborne once again, at last.

Just as before, he felt the wind hit against his face, but it was more refreshing than the mere afterthought from before. In his chest, something was different – something inside weighed him down less than it had in a long, long time. "... My heart..." he thought, clutching his soft chest gently. It felt as if his heart and his head were completely at odds with one another and were fighting for control, but his heart was winning for the first time in years.

While the sun proceeded to set slowly into the horizon, Sonic yawned and lied down on the wing of the aircraft as his eyelids descended halfway down, idly rubbing the bracelet Chip left him. It would be a long time before this stopped feeling odd to him, he knew, but he wouldn't be running out of it this time. "So, where's home?" asked the blue hedgehog, shifting his emerald gaze back toward his pilot.

"Oh, well, I've got a place over by Sunset Heights that I've been meaning to fix up," Tails replied, his eyes looking off ahead of them as he fell deeper in thought, "it could use a friend to make it feel more like home, at least that's what I keep saying when I look at it, but... well, Amy's settled over in Station Square still, nothing's going to convince Knuckles to leave the Master Emerald, and..." His voice trailed off.

Closing his eyes as he listened, Sonic wondered, "Just how lonely has he been since I left?" It reminded him of the loneliness he himself had felt for the past couple of years, somehow deeper than any he had felt before, like he had lost something he never knew. Once more, he stashed the thought away to remember another day, finding it unnecessary for the time-being. "Well you've got me now, don'tcha? Whaddya say we make a home?" offered Sonic, flashing his trademark smirk to the surprise of his pilot and himself.

Brightly, Tails smiled at his wing-riding friend, taking one hand off of his control stick to give him a thumbs-up as he answered, "Okay!"

Sonic proceeded to go over the 'plan' in his mind, trying to see how it would work while a part of him still hoped to see how it wouldn't – he could be stubborn, he knew. Food wouldn't be an issue as long as there were chili dog stands in Sunset Heights, they hardly ever wore much in the way of clothes beyond gloves and shoes so laundry would likely not become a pressing matter, and as far as rooms went... "You've got a room for me, right?" asked Sonic, opening one eye and raising an eyebrow inquiringly.

Quickly getting his words together to respond, Tails assured, "Oh, of course! We have a really nice bedroom with a window that has an excellent view of the city, and the bed is absolutely perfect – you can sleep in there. I'm going to be in the living room when I'm not in the workshop, there's a couch that should be... usable, for sleeping in." It was more obvious than Tails would have liked, that the couch would only barely work as a bed for him.

"Oh great," Sonic thought as he rolled his eyes, immediately disliking how Tails had decided to treat himself in this scenario. "You are not sleeping on the couch, Tails," he told his worryingly-selfless pilot, firmly.

A little confused by the hedgehog's insistence, the fox reacted, "Huh? What do you mean I'm not?" When his pointy friend refused to budge from his stance, Tails stated exasperatedly, "Well, you can't sleep on the couch, either! How could I invite you to stay and have you sleep on the couch?" Looking off to the side upset, he added, "It would be rude..."

Gently, Sonic shook his head. He didn't like to argue with his best friend, and the pilot really did seem set on being courteous to him, even unfortunately at his own expense. "Alright, alright, let's compromise," Sonic offered, "neither of us sleeps on the couch. Everyone wins, right?" Tails appeared to be satisfied with the compromise... before his eyes began to widen, and his face flushed positively adorably. "Hm? What's wrong with that?" Sonic questioned his friend's response, only to realize exactly what had popped into the engineer's mind. "... Oh come on, Tails," Sonic chuckled, leaning towards him and smiling knowingly, "We've slept together before, what makes this any different?"

"We're in our twenties?" Tails replied, more flustered than the hedgehog had ever seen him be before, only managing to elicit another eye-roll in the blue blur. "I just thought it might be weird, now that we're older, because... it'd look like... you know..." his voice trailed off as his face reddened further.

Thoroughly intrigued, Sonic smiled and simply told the twin-tailed tinkerer, in a tone of voice that teased at being suggestive, "it only has to be that way if you want it to, Tails..." He held eye-contact with the blushing golden fox for one more moment, only for the twin-tailed one to gulp dryly and break away from it, instead focusing on where he was flying once more. "I won't make a big deal out of it if you don't want me to, don't worry," Sonic kindly promised his flustered friend, which caused Tails to smile. "Hm? So do you want that?" asked Sonic, curiously.

In the night sky, stars became more visible by the minute – and right then, the pilot fox's eyes were full of them. "You're sounding better," Tails remarked, "happier, I mean. It's been awhile since I've heard that in your voice..." He took a deep breath, then looked back into Sonic's breathtaking eyes once more. "... Yeah," he quietly admitted, before shifting his gaze yet again. In his peripheral vision, he could see Sonic smile and nod, before resting his head back down on the wing of the plane.

Sure enough, when Sonic searched within himself, he could feel his reservations for the whole plan begin to fall away. Perhaps he had been wrong before, he wondered. Perhaps what he really needed wasn't in fact more solitude, at least not this time. Perhaps... it would not be so bad, if only for a little while, to be alone no more.

The End

Author's Notes: Hey, it's been a little while since I last posted a Sonic/Tails story! I like how this one turned out, anyway...

As I hope ended up being very clear in the story, this oneshot takes place after the end credits for Sonic Unleashed, which ultimately leads to Sonic and Tails adventuring together pretty consistently for the next few games! I've always appreciated this little detail in the canon, so I wanted to take the time to write out how I think it went myself. I'm especially glad I got this idea out now, in time for the year of Sonic Unleashed's 10th anniversary!

Like all of my stories, we're going by my headcanons for how the characters aged since we've known them, and although I call it an "age-up" it's actually technically an age-down? Sonic is four years younger before Adventure, then he (and everyone else) ages four years between the original games and the first of the "modern" games. I thought it made more sense than him aging backwards one year, only for Amy to age four years while Tails ages none, like how it's apparently supposed to be in canon. xD I'm always going to think they only did that for SonAmy reasons.

So, since I also headcanon that they age mostly in real-time, Sonic is 24 and Tails is 21 at the time this oneshot takes place, at the ending of Sonic Unleashed. I thought it fit how they acted in the game, especially compared to the ironically-youthful spirit of Chip, or, Light Gaia!

Thanks for reading! If you leave a review for this story, favorite, and/or follow it, I'll really appreciate that!