This is Wrong

"That's not right, Tails."

"Why not, Soniku?"

The hedgehog tossed his quills out of the way and blinked. "I don't know. It just feels wrong."

"You're still feverish," Tails bent his knees towards Sonic's place on the ground and kissed the top of his head. "Get some rest."

Sonic shook his head. "No, it isn't the fever talking, Tails." A rare frown crossed his face. "Something will go very wrong. I can just feel it."

Tails was about to dismiss him again, but when he really observed him, Sonic was trembling, his whole body shaking. It could be from fever, but…Sonic wasn't the kind of person whose gut feeling you distrusted. However… "Sonic, I have to go!" Tails crossed his arms over his chest firmly. "There's nothing you can do to stop me!"

"Then at least let me come with ya!" Sonic protested, standing up as straight as he could muster, towering over Tails' head. "I…Tails, I'm not sure you can…you know…but, I mean, I…but you…" He pouted, grabbing the silver rabbit with one hand and Tails with the other, pressing his warm forehead close to Tails'.

The little fox lost his footing and his heart skipped a beat. As he fell into Sonic, he observed the unspoken command. Sonic's normally calm and lazy eyes burned with Alpha seniority. They sparkled like green flames around the edges of his eye sockets, making Tails falter. "Don't go." Sonic's voice was very soft and pleading. It was unlike him to beg. "Please, Tails." Sonic slipped down until he was kneeling at Tails' feet, staring at his shoes. "I don't know what I'll do without you, or you without me. We'll lose ourselves, I think."

"Sonic, it isn't like that."

"For you, maybe," Sonic muttered, pressing his head against the fox's hip. "You've already lived hell once. But I…" he snorted. "I think I have yet to live it, especially if you leave. I do still have a fever. What if I go crazy while you're gone?"

Tails pulled Sonic to his feet. "Really, Sonic!" He scolded, tenderly licking Sonic's lips with the tip of his tongue. Sonic opened his mouth so that Tails ended up tasting his tongue. "You're too strong to lose yourself." The sparkling blue eyes commanded him in their own way. "You'll be fine. If you can survive Eggman's barrages and a huge bomb that left you half-dead, then you'll be all right for a few days without me." Tails forced Sonic off of him and kissed him one last time before going to the door.

Sonic, suddenly a lot weaker than he should've been, crawled after him, getting rug burns all over his belly and whining. Tails watched him with tears in his eyes as he opened the door. "Bye, Soniku," he whispered before closing the door behind him.

Sonic swallowed a sob, which came out as a strange animalistic hiss. Then, he grabbed a pillow and tore it straight down the middle, sending white feathers everywhere.

His vision a blur from tears, Sonic tore through the house, destroying anything he could get his hands on. Pillows, sheets, comforters, anything really, was lost to is wrath. Finally, out of breath and dizzy, he fell to the floor and sobbed as the gaping hole in his chest flew open, tearing his heart into tiny pieces. Tears buried themselves into the carpet and Sonic's voice was soon hoarse because of his sobbing.

But, he did not stop.

~ST~ST~ST~

"I came to understand…[he] understood nothing."

-Anne Rice, Interview with the Vampire

"…Nothing can survive, the will to stay alive. Cause if you try, you can do anything."

-Casey Rankin, Sonic-You Can Do Anything

Tails raced on through the forest, trying desperately to escape the ache in his heart. It was unbearable, as if ghosts were dancing through his body. His heart felt cold and dry and lifeless without Sonic there to keep it beating and Tails was lonely.

As the shadows of the trees enclosed around him, Tails began to cry. Unlike Sonic, he had no natural sense of direction and was now hopelessly lost in the middle of the forest. Tails was relieved now that Sonic had made him carry a backpack. It smelled like his blue lover, and perhaps even better, contained supplies. Tails slung the backpack off one shoulder and fumbled around inside for a water bottle. This he began to drink as he looked around, trying to calm himself down.

Would Sonic know the direction in which to head? Tails was about to call for him, as he knew it would reach the hedgie's ears, but some inner voice stopped him. "I need to do this by myself," he thought out loud. "Sonic is not allowed to help me. Besides," he sighed deeply, "with his fever, he's probably out cold right now."

The little fox put away the water bottle and took a whiff of the air around him. Everything smelled like pine. For miles and miles and…oh! What was this smell? Intrigued, Tails ran towards it, leaping over tree stumps and mauling bushes and flowers in an attempt to get to it. It smelled so familiar somehow.

The little fox found himself on rockier terrain. He almost tripped and fell several times, and by now, his poor little heart was pounding with exhaustion. Gold entered the next clearing, a beautiful stage with pine trees bending inward so the effect of a ceiling was created. The sky was already getting dark with rainclouds and the coming night and Tails knew he couldn't journey any longer today. But, he needed shelter.

Ah! An outcropping of rocks provided a small cave, which appeared to be too small for any animal to live in. Tails was excited that he'd managed to do something on his own for once and crawled into the cave, just as thunder roared across the land. Inside, Tails found some moss growing on the ground and a small rounded pit, as if he'd not been the first to camp here for the night. Tails looked around, but no one else was in sight. And, he could smell no ash. The fire pit could be months, maybe years, old.

Tails panted, leaning up against the wall and taking a sip of his water bottle. His stomach rumbled angrily up at him. He groaned. He hadn't packed any food! "Wait a second!" Tails snapped his fingers and bug through the many compartments of the knapsack. Maybe Sonic, in an overprotective father mode, had placed some food within…yes! The fox's small hand closed over the familiar feel of a protein bar and brought it up. He wasn't too fond of this nasty excuse for a snack, but it would tide him over until a real meal could be found.

The fox opened the bar and chowed down on it, just as the rain began to softly fall outside.

~ST~ST~ST~

"'No, he won't come back…he's inflexible…If he'd thought I might be useful…he'd have taken me...but he's left me behind…'"

-Madame Danglars to Monsieur Debray, Alexandre Dumas from The Count of Monte Cristo

"Ugh," Sonic listened to the strange hoarseness in his voice and cursed himself for sobbing so loudly. His throat hurt from the cries of anguish, his belly cramped from writhing in pain. "I need tea."

But, he had very little will. Being alone with silence made him crazy. His ears heard nothing, and he wanted very much to hear something. His head turned as he arose, slower than he'd ever done anything before in his life, and green eyes gleamed. He had a plan.

Sonic ran to his room, tore open the door, swiftly took his guitar from its stand, knocking the poor and much-abused old object over, plugged it into the amp, turned the volume up all the way, and let loose a long fret.

The blast was deafening and powerful, so that Sonic actually stumbled upon his unstable feet from it. But, once the echoes were finished blazing through the house, silence except for the thin buzzing of the amp reined once more.

"Damn!" Sonic shouted, only actually voicing the first two letters, so he actually said "da" instead of the whole word because his voice gave out. Then, he dropped the guitar, making a "boom" noise that reverberated throughout the tiny house, seeming to shake its very skeleton. Sonic cleared his throat and voiced a stream of loud curses and nonsense words and whatever popped into his head, screaming at the top of his lungs, just to make noise.

"Planetary! Poprocks! Fuck! Cheesenips!" Sonic slid down the well-waxed railing on his blue butt, eventually landing and skidding on the supposedly skid-proof doormat. "Fucking ass bitch whore!"

His voice was lost again and he was forced to stop shouting. The loud buzz of the amp was almost an irritation to his overly-sensitive ears, as his shouting had made them close in on themselves, forcing him to cringe in pain. But, with silence, without Tails…that was far worse.

Silence was death. Silence was eerie. Silence was suicide. Silence was the unknown. Silence was loneliness. Silence was…was… Sonic frowned. Silence was something that he couldn't be a part of. If the house was quiet, it wasn't the same house. It was hell. "Damn it," Sonic cursed quietly. "Fuck the silence." He groaned and pressed his back spines against the wall, sliding down to sit against the cold tiled floor, his ears popping as the buzzing became fainter as the amp went into some kind of power-save mode. Sonic curled his knees to his chest, shivering.

His stomach grumbled dully, but Sonic was in no mood for eating. He felt sick, like a art of him was missing. And it made him gag.

Sonic got up and went to the sink, bending over it before throwing up into the basin before him.

I'm not going on without you, Tails.

I need you.