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Guest: The story's first reviewer! Thank you! And... well, I don't want to burst your bubble, but I did warn of the pairing with the brackets in the classification/summary. I won't tell you to keep reading if it really bugs you, but I will say that it won't be prominent at all, but it will be present in small quantities. At this point, Sonic and Amy's relationship is strained, just like Sonic's relationships with everyone else. You'll have to read on and see why~!
Nais: Thank you! That's high praise! I'll certainly try, don't worry. Hope you enjoy this chapter, too!
A/N: Still working on formatting. But have another chapter, anyway! For those back in school already, good luck and have a great semester!
In other news, I'm thinking about posting either double updates on this one (meaning twice a week or so) or uploading another fic of mine to update side-by-side with this one during the next three weeks of break. What do y'all think?
Chapter 2
Amy's solution for Sonic's sleeping issue was to try everything.
"If you've heard of it, try it, all at once," she explained authoritatively. "Go on a nice long run as soon as you can after dinner, then go nuts. Warm glass of milk, light stretching, avoid watching TV or checking your phone, count sheep, read the book of Leviticus, whatever. This sounds pretty serious, so the best way to get it to work is to try it all at once."
Both Sonic and Tails shied away from the method right at first, exchanging glances that spoke of their conflicting desires to keep this simple and avoid annoying Amy at the same time.
"Seems kinda... over the top," Sonic managed to say after a few moments of trying to put his uncertain thoughts into words.
"Maybe you should start with one thing at a time," Tails suggested quickly before Amy, whose face had darkened, could start a fight. "Try a different method every night. If we run out of ideas, then we'll try them all at once. Compromise?"
The two hedgehogs exchanged miffed glances, then simultaneously conceded with matching nods. "Sounds fair," Sonic added for good measure.
That night, he tried the stretching technique on random selection, which he was pleased to discover actually felt rather soothing after running a few hundred miles, even if he couldn't resist a few "old jokes" in the meantime. But after tossing and turning for a while, he only slept for a couple of hours before finding himself up and antsy again. When he finally heeded the sun's wake-up call and stumbled into the kitchen, where found Tails awake and alert, nibbling on cold cereal for breakfast, he grumbled without greeting, "Got any other ideas?"
Twin tails drooped slightly. "Aw, it didn't work?" As the hedgehog shook his head, Tails shoved his bowl toward the middle of the table and stood up to stretch. "Well, I hadn't thought about this, but Cream called yesterday. She wanted to know if we could go to the fair with her and her mom today. Maybe all you need is an excuse to drop out for a while."
Sonic raised an eye ridge with as much curiosity as he'd ever had so early in the morning. "So we go hang out with the gang for the day and I get so tired I can't not sleep like a log tonight? Sounds doable."
"Are you sure you can handle it?" Tails hated to be so careful with the one and only Sonic the Hedgehog, but as weird and backwards as such caution felt, he didn't want to make things worse on any front; not only would it ruin a day of fun, but it would also likely discourage Sonic further.
A sly smile slipped onto Sonic's face. "Hey, now, this is me we're talking about. If I can handle Egg Dragoons and Time Eaters, I can handle a day at the fair when I'm a little under the weather."
Only hesitating for part of a second, Tails nodded. "Okay, then. I'll call Cream and tell her we'll be there. Just..." He glanced down at his bowl shyly after a moment of loaded looks between the two. "... Never mind. You better grab a bite to eat; we're meeting them half an hour from now, I think."
As he ran upstairs to unhook his cell phone from its charger, the ten-year-old mentally kicked himself for his conduct. I'm not going to hover, he firmly decided. That's his job, to worry about me—not the other way around.
The day passed in a flurry of fair fun. Along with Sonic and Tails, Cream had invited Amy, Knuckles, Silver, Blaze, Marine, Rouge, and the Chaotix to come, and they spent the whole morning as a group, riding the more popular rides before the weather made the long lines unbearable. At one point, Vanilla took the youngest four to ride the smaller rides geared toward children; the teenagers, meanwhile, were left to their own measures, with as much freedom as Vector, the self-proclaimed chaperone, allowed. Between heckling the crocodile for his tight leash and enjoying the activities he did approve, it was easy to forget anything had ever been wrong.
"Hey, Vector," Silver called at one point shortly after the split-up, "Rouge and I want to try that ride over there—" He pointed at one of the larger roller coasters in the near distance—"the Turbo Jet 2000."
"Hang on. Group's gotta stay together," Vector reminded them for what felt like the thousandth time. He turned to the herd of ducks behind him, the majority of whom had to resist the urge to roll their eyes, and asked, "Anybody else for the Turbo 3000?"
Knuckles took the opportunity to shove Sonic lightly to get his attention while everyone else was trying to figure out how Vector had forgotten the coaster's name so quickly; "I'll do it if you will, Blue."
A flicker of surprise was quickly covered with a smirk as Sonic shouted, "Oh, it's so on, Red!"
The two started to dash away, but Vector skillfully grabbed one arm in each hand, ignoring their startled complaints; "Read my lips, boys: stay with the group."
"I, uh..." Blaze straightened her posture and cast her eyes back downward, away from the apex of the tall coaster, before stating, "I think I'll pass on this one."
Espio nodded; "And I will stay with her," he informed coolly, "to ensure that no one will be left alone."
Silver frowned slightly, but snapped back to normal when he caught Vector's inquisitive eye. "Uh, are you sure, Blaze? It's not that high..."
As the blushing cat and hedgehog duo launched into what could only be described as a polite argument, Amy made her presence known to Sonic by latching onto his arm and whispering, "You doing okay?"
He gave her a sort of half smile. "Yeah, I'm good."
"Hm?" Suddenly, Knuckles was beside them, trying to be serious but unable to hide the beginnings of a smug smirk. "You two want a minute?"
"Ha, no," Amy scoffed, visibly surprising both of the boys. "I just asked if he wanted to sit with me."
"And I said I was sitting with you," Sonic finished, simultaneously completing the story and speaking what he considered to be the truth. "Maybe Amy can sit in front of us or behind us or... something."
Amy shrugged, expertly masking her disappointment. "I don't see much choice. I can't sit above you, right?"
All three snickered at the thought. Sonic took the moment while Knuckles was distracted to shoot Amy a grateful look. She smiled brightly back.
Five minutes later, the whole group, minus Blaze and Espio, was in the middle of the longest line in the park.
"I thought you thought roller coasters were boring, Sonic," Silver commented curiously.
The addressed hedgehog shrugged. "I decided to take a different mindset. When I run, I'm in total control, but when I'm on a roller coaster, I'm not. So the roller coaster might be safer, but it doesn't really feel that way." He looked up and waved enthusiastically when a car full of screaming people raced by overhead. "It's a lot more fun when I think about it that way," he finished like nothing had happened.
Silver nodded. "That's pretty profound."
"Yeah. I have my moments." The blue hero's smirk returned; "But they're few and far between. I bet I can scream louder than you can."
"Oh, yeah? I hope you've been practicing," quipped Silver with a matching grin.
"Easy. I'll just scream like you did when you fell off the ski jumping ramp at the Olympics a couple years back. But since I'm cooler, it'll be louder."
The whole group burst into laughter at the memory—except, of course, for Silver, who sputtered indignantly with cheeks as red as roses. "O-oh, you are so going down," he finally declared, apparently no longer in the opinion that this was funny.
"Sure thing, dude," snickered Sonic sarcastically, "whatever you say."
After riding the same roller coaster three times in a row, the whole group reunited for lunch. Vector was so outraged by the prices of the food that he actually tried to haggle with the vendor, who gave in simply because the growing line was complaining of the increasing heat. The whole team celebrated the little victory with ice cream, which had been on the menu anyway but was given new significance by Charmy.
After lunch, the July heat drove them to the indoor activities. They observed the model trains in the plants and nature exhibit for a solid hour; Charmy, hyper on sugar by this point, mounted a surprised Sonic's shoulders and demanded him to chase the trains and not lose them, and the hedgehog needed little persuasion before they set to tailing the longest track in the building. Next came games; the girls played actual carnival games, coming away with some much-adored stuffed animal prizes, while the guys stayed in the air-conditioned arcade and bested each other at video games, with only a sense of pride and bragging rights over their friends to show for it. Cream even managed to get several of the gang to go with her through the art exhibit; the rest waited in the lobby, where they took turns standing in front of the cold air vents.
By early evening, the weather had cooled with the setting sun, leaving time for a few more rides. Since everyone was losing steam, however, the exciting rides were abandoned in favor of slower ones; the Ferris wheel was popular, especially when the nighttime lights display flickered on in the middle of the ride.
"Wow, look at the city, Amy!" Cream squealed, hands and face plastered against the glass windows of their car. "Look at all the lights! It's so bright!" At her side, Cheese let out a long "Chaoooo!" and copied her owner's movements with wide eyes and a huge grin.
"Hey, I can see the airport from here," Tails pointed out, less jumpy than the rabbit but enjoying the ride nevertheless. "That's probably a good three miles away, which means the angle we must be at compared to it..."
"Look at the sunset!" Amy gushed as Tails rambled on cheerfully to himself. "I've never seen so many colors in the sky at one time! What do you think, Sonic?" She turned toward their fourth and final passenger only to let out a little gasp.
Tails jumped; "What? What's wrong?" When he turned as well, his blue eyes widened and his words died on his tongue, for instead of enjoying the view, Sonic had fallen asleep in his seat; his arm acted as a cushion for his head against the cold window sill, and his floppy ears and limp quills indicated how far gone he really was.
"It worked," the young fox breathed in disbelief. "He's actually asleep."
Cream let out a noise of bewilderment. "What worked? Shouldn't we wake up Mister Sonic before he misses the whole ride?"
Tails shook his head, stuck in a state of wonder and unable to respond for a moment. "We'll—we'll wake him up before we get to the ground again, save him some dignity in front of the guys. He needs it more than you know."
It turned out that Sonic wasn't the only one who was worn out. Marine was practically asleep on her feet, stumbling around in a sleepy daze, and Vector emerged from the car he'd been riding in carrying a snoozing Charmy on his shoulder. Though no one else had given in quite so far, the day was officially declared over shortly after. Just to show how absolutely awake he was, Sonic even offered to see the girls home safely; Silver, deciding this wasn't a bad idea, took Blaze and Marine off his hands with haste, and Rouge assured them that she could take care of herself, so he and Tails were left with the Rabbits and Amy.
"Thank you so much for coming with us, everyone," Cream enthused once they were back on home turf, her chocolate-colored eyes bright despite her lack of leftover energy. "The fair is always more fun when you have friends with you."
"Friends and frenemies," Sonic joked, setting off a round of laughter. "But hey, you're welcome, Cream. It was a ton of fun."
"Yeah! We should totally do it again sometime!" Amy added cheerfully.
"We will," Vanilla assured, "just sometime after we're all recovered."
"Can't eat that much junk food every day of the week," agreed Tails.
Once goodbyes were said, the three that were left quickly became two as Tails took to the skies with a sly smile at his surrogate older brother. "I'll leave you two some time alone," he said simply before flying out of sight faster than Sonic could retort.
"Come on, Sonic, my house isn't too far from here." So saying, Amy pulled Sonic's wrist so that he tripped after her, more drained than ever now that they were away from the luminous city lights. He allowed himself to be dragged along until he was even with Amy, when he pulled away as if to show that he could take care of himself despite dizzying exhaustion.
Soon they were in the sparse neighborhood that held the female hedgehog's home, just outside the border of the forest. Finally, the strong scent of pine trees and rich soil overcame the stench of boiling oil and feral animals that had seemed inescapable until now. Crickets were the only audible thing, chirping rapidly but steadily, perfectly at home in the humid heat of summer.
"I bet you'll sleep with the rest of us tonight, huh?" Amy commented lightly in hopes of breaking the silence.
"Heh, yeah, no doubt." Sonic cast her a sideways glance; even in the dim light and prominent shadows, his muzzle was a little pinker than it should have been. "By the way, thanks for... for not bringing that up in front of Knuckles earlier. Or any of the guys. It's not even that big a deal—"
"It is to you," Amy broke in firmly, "so what was the point of saying anything? You did fine today, though; maybe we're just overreacting to the whole thing and you'll be just fine by tomorrow."
A little smile turned the corners of the cobalt hero's mouth. "Yeah. At this point, I'm just looking forward to collapsing and crashing for a while."
"Me, too."
They had arrived at Amy's home by now, and for a moment an awkward silence fell over the two as they stood on the porch and waited for one or the other to say something. Finally, Sonic shifted his weight from one foot to the other nervously and coughed; "I better get on back to Tails's place. It's late."
Amy nodded. "Okay. See you later, Sonic."
"G'night." For a second, he lingered as if unsure what to do, but he eventually sprinted off, not quite full speed but still fast enough to get him home quickly.
Initially disappointed, Amy scolded herself for expecting anything different. Yes, he had clearly had something else in mind, but in all reality, the important thing here was that he would hopefully feel better in the morning, and as soon as he was happy, she would be, too. Love professions could wait just a little longer.
The shadows in Tails's room were different when he woke up the next morning. His first thought was that he needed to make sure he'd moved the Tornado inside in case it rained, but when he sat up, the hands of the clock on the nightstand next to him changed his mind. "Whoa..." This was the latest he'd slept in since... a long time ago. And that was saying something, considering how lazy things had gotten lately.
He stepped up to the window to open the curtains and let in the lovely sunny day before leaving his room and shutting the door as quietly as he could, knowing that Sonic, if he'd stayed here last night, might still be asleep.
... Unless he didn't sleep at all. His memory clicked, and he changed direction to move toward Sonic's room. The door was cracked open slightly, and there was no sign of the cobalt hero within the little room. Telling himself not to worry, Tails headed downstairs, figuring that Sonic simply hadn't slept in as late as he had. Surely yesterday's exciting events had been enough to coax him into a good night's sleep...
When he landed on the ground floor, he cut through the living room on his way to the kitchen, but he was taken aback upon seeing a blue figure stretched out on the couch. Clearly, Sonic was still out like a light; his arms and legs were sprawled out every which way, and a book on his chest was set to slide off at the slightest movement. This excited Tails; he carefully removed the book without touching the hedgehog, and he was overjoyed to find that it was a Bible. The first page of the book of Leviticus was creased due to the overnight mistreatment, which meant that not only had Sonic fallen asleep almost immediately, but he had also stayed asleep all night with the book still on his chest. Tails could have shouted with excitement.
He didn't let himself make a noise, however, because Sonic stirred at the gentle sound of rustling pages. Tails lowly spoke his name, but all the hedgehog did was bring his arms and legs in and turn over, falling back asleep on his stomach with one hand hanging off the couch. The kitsune smiled wryly and left the room, taking the Bible with him. It wouldn't hurt to let him sleep a little longer if he wanted to.
It was much too late for breakfast, so Tails disappeared into the workshop, nibbling on a piece of bread, to spend a little time on a project. When he reemerged an hour and a half later, Sonic was still conked out, having done nothing save for tossing and turning a bit more. For a moment, the ten-year-old debated on whether or not to wake him up, but he quickly came to the conclusion that if Sonic wished to sleep tonight, as well, then he'd have to get up sooner or later.
"Sonic..." he murmured, reaching out to jar his shoulder. Surprising warmth seeped through his glove on contact, and he yelped a bit before he could stop himself. His excitement turned to concern with speed like the flip of a switch, and his voice rose in urgency; "Yikes! Sonic, wake up! Are you feeling okay?"
This time, Sonic groaned as he rolled over slowly, and he cracked open one emerald eye in an attempt to focus on Tails. "Huh... Wha?"
Now Tails was definitely concerned. Sonic's eyes were red and bloodshot, and he moved as little as possible despite how uncomfortably warm he must have felt. "Sonic, are you okay? You don't look good at all..."
"... N-no..." Again, Sonic moaned, curling in on himself protectively and shutting his eyes again. "I don't—"
"Stop, never mind. I can already tell." Maybe this is what everything's been leading up to, Tails mused frantically. Weeks of not sleeping and moodiness... He must have worn himself down. "Obviously you're running fever. Are you... nauseous?"
"Kinda..." The hedgehog's breath was coming in little gasps now; Tails guessed "kinda" translated to "very" in the Sonic dictionary.
Tails had to dig around for several minutes under the kitchen sink to find the ancient artifact that was their old "bucket," a special plastic container Sonic had bought way back when Tails had been three and had gotten sick to his stomach at least once a month. It hadn't been used in years and was covered in cute little hippopotamus and giraffe stickers, but he didn't want to make Sonic have to get up should the need arise.
So much for dignity, he thought wryly to himself as he laid the bucket on the coffee table well within the patient's reach. He cleared his throat, unsure what else to do; "Do you think you can handle some medicine? At least to get that fever down?"
"I dunno..." It was all Sonic could do to talk at this point, and Tails decided there was no choice; he all but forced his friend to sit up long enough swallow the medicine.
"At least I'm not making you take the liquid stuff," he persuaded. "That stuff would make you puke for sure."
But as time ticked by, nothing changed. Sonic miraculously didn't give in to the strong urge to throw up, but his fever stubbornly stayed put at nearly a hundred and three degrees. His shivering worsened to visible levels no matter how many blankets Tails found lying around to give him, and that was enough to officially transform the young kitsune's insignificant misgivings into growing fears.
"Are you feeling any better?" he would ask every five or ten minutes, to which every time Sonic would communicate that no, he wasn't. Eventually he fell asleep again (or passed out; Tails wasn't sure there was much difference at this point), and the kitsune tried his best not to panic. This was too strange, and for all his intelligence, he knew nothing any other ten-year-old didn't concerning health problems.
He ran through a list of contacts in his head as he desperately tried to locate his cell phone, which had been discarded in his rush to get into bed the night before. He wasn't ready to submit Sonic or himself to the horrors of the doctor's office quite yet, for he had always preferred to treat both injury and illness at home as opposed to taking advantage of the medical system. The closest hospital was primarily headed by humans, and he felt, like many Mobians, that the human health care system was corrupt and ill equipped to deal with non-human patients. Therefore, the second he found his phone, he dialed the next number he thought of.
"Yeah, what?" came the gruff answer after what felt like the longest period of ringing ever.
"Knuckles," Tails breathed, scarcely believing the echidna had actually answered. "I think something's really wrong with Sonic... like, really, really wrong."