Sorry this chapter is so short, but I thought it would be best to keep it as a sepearate chapter. I'd also like to thank Riku's Music Lover and Twilit Guardian for helping me out a bit.
"Manic, could you get the eggs?" Aleena asked him.
"No prob." he replied, walking over to the fridge and pulling out two eggs before shutting the door and bringing them back to Aleena who was already pouring water and vegetable oil into the mixing bowl.
Aleena took the eggs and cracked them and dumped their yolk onto the chocolate powder in the bowl and dumped the shells into the trash can next to the counter top. She then lowered a mixer into the bowl and turned it on. The tiny Green Hedgehog assisting her watched in fascination as the chocolate powder turned to a wet syrupy substance as it mixed with the water, oil, and egg yolk.
She then tipped the bowl over a glass oven tray and poured out the brown goop while her son scooped out the rest of it with a spatula until every last drop was in the glass tray. Then they turned their attention to the oven, which was preheated, and opened it, the warm air carressing their faces as it escaped, and they stuck the brown substance inside and closed the oven door. They set the timer for 30 minutes and waited for the chocolatey smell.
As they waited, they could definitely smell something, but instead of chocolate, it smelled...like waffles. The scent of butter and syrup was in the air, and was getting stronger. Before long, the smell became overpowering...
Scourge's eyes opened to an unfamiliar room clearly not his own. Aleena and the oven were gone, but the smell of waffles remained. He looked down at the head of the bed he was in to see Sonic and Sonia sitting next to him, each holding a plate of food.
"Wakey, wakey. Time for breakfast." said Sonia, setting a plate of bacon and eggs on a tray in front of Scourge while Sonic set a plate full of waffles and a glass of milk right next to it.
That explains the waffle smell. thought Scourge, sitting up.
"Took you long enough, I was beginning to think you'd never wake up." joked Sonic.
"Sorry, I'm not use to sleeping on a bed that soft." apologized Scourge, emphasizing the bed's softness.
"No need to be sorry, I've just never seen anyone sleep in until 11 in the morning." replied Sonic.
"That late?...err wait, how late is that?" asked Scourge, a little fuzzy on the concept of time since he put most of his effort into killing it rather than keeping track of it while in captivity.
"About an hour till noon, which is mid day." said Sonia, catching on to her 'brother's' problem.
Scourge didn't know a whole lot about the time of day, but an hour till mid day did sound pretty late to him, especially since Sonic and Sonia looked like they'd already showered and dressed themselves while he was still asleep.
"That bed must've felt really soft. How hard..." Sonic was about to ask Scourge how hard his bed at Robotnik's house was, but decided not to dwell on that particular past since the poor boy was having enough trouble adjusting without being reminded of the years stolen from his life.
That being said, he was determined to help his brother gain his life back, no matter how difficult it was for him.
"I, uh...slept on rags." said Scourge, easily figuring out what Sonic had meant to ask him.
Looks like the cat was already out of the bag.
"Was that all you slept on?" asked Sonia.
"Yeah...and I was kept in the basement alot." said Scourge flatly, his ears drooping from the shame he felt at his pain being laid bare for the world to see.
"Well at least that's over." Sonia assured him.
"Yeah." agreed Scourge, trying to forget it since everyone else seemed to be doing just that.
Just hearing about the rags and the basement made Sonic wince. That had to be uncomfortable, not to mention freezing cold. He remembered sleeping in front of a fan the previous summer and woke up stiff as a rock the next morning, but that was just one night. He couldn't imagine going through that every night for nearly 5 years. Manic must've gone through that so often that he'd gotten use to it. Only one way to find out.
The blue hedgehog reached out and grabbed Scourge's shoulders and gently squeezed them, gradually hardening his grip.
"You must be pretty stiff from laying on a cold floor every night." he said.
Scourge hadn't realized how right Sonic was until he had started massaging him. He let his head lean forward, stretching out the muscle in his shoulders, and let the blue hedgehog do the rest. He couldn't quite describe the treatment except that he now felt lighter and more flexible than before, minus the stiffness that he didn't even know he previously had. Then Sonic moved on to his neck, and again Scourge felt the tension leaving him, though in a different spot.
"Hold still, don't tighten up." said Sonia, holding Scourge's head in her hands.
She leaned his head to the right until it reached it's limit, and then pushed it a bit further, stretching it out until she heard crackling noises, then leaned it the other way with similar results, bringing more relief to Scourge.
"Now lay on your front side." said Sonia.
6 words that sounded all too familiar.
Scourge's head snapped upward and he got off the bed, away from the two siblings.
"Manic, what's wrong?" asked Sonia.
"I think you came on a bit thick, there." said Sonic, quickly figuring out the problem.
"All I did was ask him to lay on his front side." replied Sonia.
"It's nothing, just forget about it." said Scourge, not wanting the issue pressed any further.
"Sonia, what you told him to do was something Robotnik-"
"IT'S NOTHING! JUST SHUT UP!" shouted Scourge, who fled the room in embarrassment.
For a moment, both hedgehogs just stared at the door in shock before Sonic finally broke the silence.
"Do ya get what I mean, now?" he asked.
"I think so." replied Sonia.
Only after remembering Robotnik did Sonia finally understand how awkward her request must have sounded to Manic.
"I hope he doesn't have a nervous breakdown or something." she said, walking out of the room, after her brother.
It was hard dealing with Manic's absence for 5 years, but the worst part of it was not knowing if he was okay, not knowing what he was going through. Judging from his reaction alone, her worst fears had been confirmed. He was alive, but he'd endured something horrible that he didn't even want discussed, and given that he'd freaked out over her asking him to lay on his front side, she had a pretty good idea of what it was he went through. All she wanted was for her family to be together again, for things to be the way they had been before. It was tragic to lose Manic, but for him to come back physically but not mentally was heartbreaking. He might as well have not come back at all if he couldn't accept the fact that he was safe and had nothing to fear here.
She was abut to look for her brother downstairs when she noticed the door to mom and dad's room was closed. He must've wanted to be with mom and dad, but dad had already gone to work and mom had gone out jogging.
"Manic?" she asked, knocking on the door.
No response.
"Manic, I didn't mean to upset you. I just wanted to make sure your back wasn't stiff like your shoulders." she continued.
"Why'd you want me to lay on my front?" asked Scourge, sounding choked up.
"So I could press down on your back like we did with your neck. Chiropractors do it all the time." she said, hoping he'd understand her this time.
The door opened slightly and Sonia could see tear stains on Scourge's face.
"Where'd mom go?" he asked, shakily.
She was relieved that he wasn't upset about the awkward situation anymore.
"She went out jogging. She'll be back really soon." assured Sonia.
As soon as she finished, Scourge leaned into her, putting his arms around her and burying his face in her shoulder, wanting to be held by someone, if not Aleena. If not the woman he'd come to accept as his mother.
Sonia hugged him tightly, refusing to let anymore harm come to him.
Soon after, Scourge felt Sonic hugging him from behind, but this time he felt safe in their embrace, knowing their love for him was real. If they'd been attempting anything, they could have easily overpowered him, not caring how he felt, but instead, they went to great lengths to make him happy, and even brought him breakfast in bed, something he'd never thought of before. As embarrassed as he was about them bringing up something that they could never have imagined, he couldn't stay angry for long after seeing how much they cared. That alone seemed like a product of his dreams only weeks before, but here they were making it happen.
"I'd hate to break up the moment, but your breakfast is starting to chill." whispered Sonic, releasing Scourge from his arms.
Sonia also released Scourge and he went back to the guest bedroom to get started on the delicacy his new brother and sister made for him.
