This is a SonTails oneshot that-I would like to point out-I wrote specifically for The Red Tail's SonTails community. I am taking a break from my story-in-progress (Shadows of a Silver Mind) to write this.

If enough people like this and ask me to, I MIGHT make this into a twoshot or even a multi-chapter story. Please be aware that if I do continue this, it will be after I have finished Shadows of a Silver Mind, which is still my main project.

All Sonic characters and bla bla bla are owned by SEGA, to the detriment of some.

Throw it All Away

'Why now?'

A familiar blue blur sped through the streets of Westopolis. A man knelt down to explain to his young daughter what it was as she clutched his hand in confusion of the loud booming sound that followed it…

'Why me?'

He told his daughter of the great and heroic deeds done by the famous "Sonic the Hedgehog". He told her of the mighty Hedgehog's friends and allies who had helped him through all of his adventures. Some of these unlikely heroes included a grumpy red Echidna, a beautiful pink Hedgehog and a two-tailed Fox…

'Why him!'

The little girl asked to know more about them, wondering how these animals could have done such things. The man smiled and told her more of the superhuman Knuckles who lived on a floating island, the stubborn Amy who always ran after her hero and the genius Miles, nicknamed "Tails" by most. He told her of how Sonic saw Tails as a little brother…

'A "little brother"? If only that were true…'

...

Sonic left the city, swerving quickly through the maze of trees outside as he tried to drown his thoughts in the concentration required to navigate at such speeds.

'I've been able to cope with this before, why doesn't it fly by like everything else?' Sonic asked himself, hoping for an answer to come out of nowhere as he kept his pace, watching the city and the trees disappear from his sight as quickly as they entered it.

'He's a kid for Christ's sake!'Sonic told himself, borrowing the curse he had heard from his time working with G.U.N soldiers. He finally screeched to a halt as his concentration faltered in the flood of thoughts he was receiving. He rested his forehead on a tree, ignoring the uncomfortably rough surface and the pieces of bark that broke off, sticking in his fur.

'Why couldn't I just fall in love with Amy or something?'Sonic almost yelled aloud, his composure falling apart rapidly now that he was alone.

'Why a male…no… Why a child!'Sonic hopelessly threw his fist into the wood above his head, causing a fresh cascade of bark to get tangled in his quills. Sonic held little care for such distinctions between sexual preferences, reasoning everyone had the right to love who they wish. But…

'Oh it's all fine and good for me perhaps, but the Humans?'Sonic knew of the number of humans who thought otherwise.

'The public?'If Sonic recalled correctly, it was a human crime to hold non family-orientated love for one of Tails' age.

'The media!'Worst of all, if they knew, he wouldn't only be ruining his own reputation and life, but ruining the life of the one person he cares most about.

'Tails… What can I do? If I tell you, rejection is almost certain. But acceptance… that's much worse.' Sonic stepped away from the tree, throwing a kick at it as his emotion started to seep through the cracks of his sanity. He started to think of what would happen to them even if Tails did return his love.

'I can see the headlines now…' Sonic spat on the ground, noticing the large chunk of wood his foot had dislodged from the tree.

'Sonic the Hedgehog: Hero or Pedophile?' Sonic darkly suggested to himself. He tried to stop his train of thought, but the section of his mind that was in control, stayed in control.

'Sonic the Hedgehog, savior of the world countless times over, has been revealed to hold a perverse love of his pre-teen "sidekick" Miles "Tails" Prower.' Sonic realized with detached wonder how even his own mind could sound mocking. The hedgehog fell to his knees on the dirt-covered earth as the flood of emotions he had always held up came rushing at him.

'I tried to be strong, I tried to ignore it.' He thought helplessly as his sanity cracked further, allowing more emotions through.

'No-one would understand, no-one cares.' Sonic told himself, his darker persona slipping through the barrier of strength and carelessness had had always relied on.

'Amy would be disgusted while Knuckles and Shadow would smirk in contempt.' He convinced himself, not noticing how quickly his thoughts, morals and beliefs had changed. He couldn't deny it, the world be damned.

'Tails, I love you.' An image of Tails smiling at him, twisting his namesake tails adorably behind him entered Sonic's mind, slowing his descent into certain madness.

'Adorable…there's no other word that quite describes you...' Sonic went on, his anger for what others would think finally brought to a halt as he thought of his brother, his sidekick…

'…my love.'

'And it's because of all this, that I can't tell you.' Sonic realized, his mind gaining a newfound clarity with those words.

He couldn't look Tails in the face day after day without telling him, yet he couldn't possibly bring the fox into this. Suicide had occurred to him, but even in his broken state, Sonic the Hedgehog knew that wasn't an option.

It was after many minutes of kneeling in the cold earth, that Sonic realized what he could do. He stood up, shaking his head at his own previous anger, scattering most of the bark lodged in his fur. He didn't smile. He wasn't sure when he would smile properly again. He stood for a second, pulling his previous sanity together, refusing to let the anger break free once more.

He would confess to Tails, then go. Leave to live the life he once had. He had fought alone once before, he could do it again. Just like it was before friends...

Before love.

...

Tails' workshop was a mess; there was no other way to describe it. Pieces of probable junk lined the walls and littered what could be seen of the concrete floor. Un-cleaned oil spills and random assortments of nuts and bolts on the floor made it a difficult place to walk through safely, despite the size of the room.

Tails screwed on a plate to the underside of the X-tornado, having taken it off to fix some blockages in the engine due to frozen fuel. The fox made a note to himself to fix in an auto-heater for the X-tornado's engines so the fuel doesn't freeze when the aircraft is left in the snow.

The two-tailed fox admired his machine, as he never failed to do. As effective as a fighter-jet only considerably faster, it always gave him a sense of achievement when he looked at the metallic gleam that just seemed to cover the plane. Tails' moment of satisfaction was quickly interrupted by a slow gurgling of his stomach.

"Ah, I must've forgotten lunch again." He realized as he saw how late in the afternoon it was already. Knowing that Sonic would still doubtlessly be out running, Tails turned from his vehicle to get himself some food.

Tails began to push his tails into a circular motion they were so familiar with, using the propulsion to hover above the treacherous floor of his workshop, making his way to the kitchen. He stopped once at the bathroom in the hallway to wash his gloves of all the grime they had picked up in the work he had done.

Having cleaned his gloves, he continued to hover to the kitchen so his oil-stained shoes didn't mar the creamy-white carpet of the house he shared with Sonic.

The fox, while mature, was still a child in many aspects, and it showed in the face of glee he recklessly had as he opened the fridge, looking for something to eat. His glee left him as he was once again reminded of the notorious appetite of his bigger "brother".

Empty.

Tails closed the fridge, figuring that he was definitely overdue for a trip to the shops. Returning to his workshop, he picked up his wallet he left on a greasy bench along with some of his tools and went outside. He put the wallet in a cleverly-hidden pouch of skin that was something resembling a pocket in a pair of trousers.

Tails put on a backpack he always left by the door for such a situation. He knew from experience he wouldn't be able to fly back from the shops and walking the short distance back to the well-concealed house while carrying a few plastic bags full of shopping was an uncomfortable event, seeing as the hand-holds for the bags dug into his palms painfully. Nonetheless, Tails was stronger than any other human his age thanks to his long days of exercise running around with Sonic and carrying others with him in flight, so he knew he could manage the walk with a bit of weight on his back with little problem.

It wasn't a long distance to the store Sonic and Tails frequented, three miles at the most. It was an average store just within the boundaries of Westopolis. While it was relatively well-known that Sonic and Tails occasionally turned up there for their own food supply, it was still in a quiet part of the city so it was rarely crowded.

Tails didn't bother with locking the house, knowing that it was hidden from most people so they weren't swarmed by fans. No road led to the house for this reason, and it was surrounded by trees on every side. After double-checking he had the backpack, the young fox took to the air, tails spinning rapidly.

"So that's all you would like?" The man behind the counter confirmed as the young fox placed his items on the counter. He quickly checked over his own mental list of items that he'd bought. Chilli dogs for Sonic, some extra fruit, sliced bread...Tails checked off all the major ones before nodding to the cashier. The cashier scanned all of the items, putting them into plastic bags. He was fine with the fact he was packaging items for someone who was-one way or another-a celebrity, a hero even, in his own right since he'd already served Tails or Sonic a few times before.

"The total price comes to-"

"24 dollars and 13 cents." Tails finished, having already done the arithmetic and pulled out the appropriate money. The cashier smiled, putting the bags on the counter next to him for Tails to pick up.

"Right again, Mr. Prower. And thank you for the autograph last time you came, my daughter could hardly believe that I'd met the Miles Prower." He thanked Tails with a grin. Tails sent the familiar employee a grin of his own as he filled his pack with the groceries.

"Just Tails, please. And you're welcome anytime." Tails said politely as he zipped his bag and settled it on his shoulders. He waved to the cashier as he left the store.

The sun was setting as Tails left the shop, a chilly wind had picked up and the clouds above were grey, threatening to rain. Tails rubbed his cold arms for a second to warm them before making his way down an empty street towards his house. He had taken the route many times and he favored it since there were rarely any people there to ask for his autograph or to bombard him with questions. While Tails didn't mind giving autographs, he hated being the center of attention, which-naturally-often resulted from being famous.

His feet made little noise on the pavement as the bright yellow fox hurried through the streets, past the disused alleys and shabby housing. Tails didn't stop to wonder how the wealthy, well-ordered humans could stand to let their own live in such poverty as he normally did. He rushed home, hoping to get there before the wind brought any rain. That would be unpleasant to walk home in. He was reaching the last block of abandoned housing before the ends of the city when a hand reached out from an alleyway he was rushing past and clutched his wrist with surprising strength.

Tails managed to let out a surprised yelp before he was dragged into the alley and another filthy hand covered his muzzle. His eyes widened and his heart beat faster as he saw the unfamiliar human face of his assailant. The man's face was caked in weeks of filth and sweat. He had both the look and the smell of one who hadn't bathed in a long time. His face was glaring at the fox with the unmistakable look of jealously.

"Look you little freak," he literally spat at Tails, his spat saliva falling on Tails' cheek. "I'll lay this out for you, nice and simple. You give me your wallet, or whatever the fuck you keep your money in, and no-one gets hurt." He threatened, ripping apart the straps holding Tails' bag in place before lifting the terrified fox and slamming him against the brick wall of the alley.

Tails' vision was swaying from the force he had hit the wall with. Terror filled him at the brutality of his attacker. His fur was rising everywhere in instinctive defense. Through his dizziness, Tails was shocked at not only the attack, but the fact that the attack was done on him. But if this person thought Tails was just a child who would surrender easily, he was dead wrong. Despite the dizziness, Tails swung what he could of his body, kicking his foot into the man's stomach with no little force.

The mugger dropped him in surprise and staggered back leaving Tails to hit the ground, bringing another wave of dizziness. The man recovered faster than the fox.

"You little bastard!" He yelled, kicking the young genius that was still lying on the cold, concrete floor. Tails felt the force of his kick in his ribs, relentless pain shooting all over his body from the blow. He tried to get up, to get away from this crazed attacker. As he got up to his knees, a merciless kick to the head knocked him down again, scraping his head over the rough ground.

"Not so high-an'-mighty now? Eh?" The mugger taunted, throwing another kick at the vulnerable boy beneath him, heedless of the blood already staining the face of the hero.

'Sonic…' Tails pleaded as fresh shots of pain racked his body from the kicks. Further thought was incapable as his mind burned from the relentless assault as tears streamed down his face.

The assailant prepared for another kick at the fox on the ground before being thrown off his feet by a blast of energy. At the opening to the alley stood a creature that held little resemblance to the blue hero he was often to most people.

"You chose the wrong fox to mess with…" Whispered a voice laced with obvious madness. Fittingly, a bark of hysteric laughter erupted from the creature's throat as it threw another set of energy-based blasts at the human.

While the creature still retained most of his hedgehog features, his fur had turned a blue that was a mere shade away from pure black. No pupils existed in the blank white of its eyes and his normally-down quills rose with similar energies to that of a Super form. Instead of the golden-yellow glow from positive Chaos Energies, this creature was surrounded by a grayish-blue aura representing the negative Chaos Energies powering the form.

The creature lifted a light blue Chaos Emerald in his hand, despite the fact the human was already bleeding badly from the previous blasts, and prepared to let loose more bolts of energy at the once-mugger. The creature grinned as it did this; preparing to kill the human with the same lack of mercy the human had shown when he attacked Tails.

"S-sonic?" A weak voice from the ground whimpered. The creature looked down in response to the name, its blank eyes staring at Tails. It shook his head and lifted the Chaos Emerald once more, preparing once more to kill the human.

"S-sonic…don't…" The fox pleaded, now sure that the monster above him was Sonic. No matter what the mugger had done, he didn't deserve death. And Tails couldn't forget one thing that made Sonic so special, for all his strength.

He wasn't a killer.

The black creature clutched the Emerald, its body shaking in some internal fight.

"Sonic..." Tails begged once more.

The name cut through the creatures mind as it dropped the emerald, letting it fall to the ground with an audible clatter. Heedless now of everything else, it knelt down and embraced the injured young fox. Tails clutched tightly to the warm fur holding him as tears streamed down his face at the pain he had just suffered through.

As they held one another, the creature's fur slowly brightened and its quills fell. It blinked, and when the eyes re-opened, pupils had once again appeared on its face. The face of Sonic the Hedgehog.

Sonic held Tails close, whispering two words in the youth's ear non-stop.

"I'm sorry. I'm sorry. I'm sorry. I'm sorry…" Sonic said over and over to the sobbing fox, calming him by running his hand through Tails' fur. Finally, the fox finally calmed in the gentle motions of his "brother". Seeing that Tails was finally okay, Sonic gave his body one last squeeze before standing up, holding Tails in his arms.

Once Sonic had stood up, he retrieved the Chaos Emerald and glared at the barely-conscience mugger on the ground; broken bones were obvious through his ribs and arm. Sonic fished out an almost-unused phone from his spines and tossed it next to the human.

"Go call an ambulance or something; you're not my problem anymore." Sonic hissed coldly, knowing that if he was treated by a hospital, then questions would arise from his state and he would eventually be thrown in prison for assault once they found out of his attempted mugging.

Tails clutched a Sonic's neck childishly at the tone of his voice. Sonic petted him calming as he held the fox tighter, possessively.

"Let's get you to a hospital, Ok little bud?" Sonic crooned to Tails as he rushed off, leaving the human lying on the cold concrete as it started to rain.

...

The freshly-bandaged Tails was lying in a hospital bed; waiting for the doctor was currently off to check the X-rays to see if any of Tails' bones were fractured. Sonic was standing over him, clutching Tails hand tightly, although both knew that Tails was now safe.

"I-I'm….s-sorry Sonic…" Tails apologized, his lower cheek wavering, his face obviously ready to burst into tears. Sonic looked at Tails sadly, the fox's blue eyes meeting Sonic's green.

"It's okay, little bud. You don't have anything to apologize about. I'm the one apologizing here." Sonic soothed. Tails' head fell, breaking the eye-contact.

"But i-if I had just…" Tails began before being cut off by Sonic.

"You didn't do anything wrong Tails, and there's no point in "ifs"." Sonic assured the fox. Tails clutched his hero's hand.

"Thank you, Sonic…" Tails whimpered quietly. The words sparked new feelings in Sonic. Feelings of care, of warmth…of love. Sonic prepared himself to throw it all away with what he knew he must do, for both himself and Tails.

As if he read his mind, Tails clutched at Sonic's hand.

"Sonic? Promise me you won't leave…" Tails asked. Sonic looked down at his brother, no…his soul mate, hating himself for not being able promise Tails the one thing the mechanic so wanted. Tails looked up at him when he realized the hedgehog wasn't answering.

"S-sonic?" Sonic looked away and tore his hand from Tails'

"...Amy and Cream should be here soon, they're worried about you." Sonic changed the subject as he headed for the door, "I love you, buddy. More than you'll ever know..." Sonic finally confessed, opening the door to leave. Tails tried to sit up despite his bandaging as he saw Sonic open the door.

"Sonic?" He cried in fear, searching for some kind of joke in his hero's eyes. Sonic looked at him once more sadly.

"…Goodbye, my love." Sonic finished before rushing out of the hospital, trying to get away from the pained cry that followed him.

"Sonic!"

...

A still-familiar blue blur sped through the streets of Westopolis. As the Sonic Boom echoed through the city, a little girl tugged at her father's cloak.

"Daddy, daddy! I think I saw Sonic!" The little girl cried in glee, tugging furiously at her father's cloak. The man's face turned grim as he feigned interest in his daughter's cries. The little girl noticed the face.

"Daddy? Why do you look sad?" She asked innocently, "Is it something to do with what made you sad when you read the newspapers before?" The man's face looked at his daughter's eyes and realized that she wasn't going to be satisfied until she knew. He knelt down beside her.

"Sonic hasn't been seen in days, dear." The man stated. The girl put a hand on her hip.

"But I just saw him daddy!" The man shook his head.

"I know you did, but no-one has actually talked to him. He hasn't stopped for anyone and no-one knows where he is." He tried to explain. His daughter looked at him in confusion.

"But what about Knuckles and Amy and Tails? He's talking to them, so they know where he is, right?" The man's face didn't change.

"They're all trying to find him, but he hasn't stopped to talk to any of them. It is like he doesn't want to talk to them, dear."

"But why not?" The girl shouted, wanting to know why. The man shushed her and shook his head.

"I don't know, dear. I don't know…"

There you have it.

I'd like to point out to anyone who has noticed the way I write Shadow's experiences in G.U.N headquarters in my other story…yes, you may have noticed I like testing how humans act around the Sonic characters…how they "fit in" if you will.

If you liked, please review. If you DIDN'T like, please review.

While we're talking about Sonic, I'd like feedback to see if people liked how I sort of separated Dark Sonic as if it was an entirely different person from normal Sonic.

Remember, I MIGHT continue this eventually if enough people want, but keep in mind I originally wrote this purely to be a oneshot.