Chapter 11

Sonic finally strolls into the living room at 11:30am, stretching and yawning, and finds Manic sat across the sofa with his feet propped up on the arm rest.

"Did Star go home today?" Sonic asks him.

"Yeah, she left here at eight," answers Manic.

"Hmmph, she never said bye to me," Sonic replies unimpressed, "and I'm the one who's been her friend the longest."

"You were asleep, bro. She said she'd text you."

"Well she hasn't."

"You sure?" Manic smirks, knowing Sonic's bad habit of forgetting to check for messages or leaving his cell behind somewhere.

Sonic speeds off to find it and comes back with it, looking at the screen, "oh yeah, she did send one."

He reads it, types a reply back and sends. He notices Manic is busy scribbling something into a writing pad and tries to look over Manic's shoulder to see, "what are you doing?"

Manic closes the pad and hides it beside him so Sonic can't look, "nothing."

"You can't have secrets from your bro," Sonic objects and tries to grab it.

Manic keeps hold of it and they start a tug of war over the writing pad.

"Just leave it," Manic says, trying to pull it away from Sonic's grip.

"Aww c'mon, lemme see!" Sonic smirks and they start to play fight over who gets it.

"What's going on here?" Sonia asks in her stern voice and crosses her arms. She sighs in annoyance as she sees them wrestling on the sofa. "I can't leave you two alone for one second without you messing up the base."

Sonic feels frustrated that he hasn't been able to get it yet and bites Manic's hand to get the writing pad successfully.

"Oww! Dude, what the fuck?!" Manic shoots a pissed off look at Sonic, rubbing his skin where the teeth marks are. Luckily it doesn't bleed since Sonic was only playing.

"Haha! I got it!" Sonic grins triumphantly and starts to read what's in the pad. "You're writing lyrics?"

He looks surprised, since they usually write lyrics together or share their ideas, but Manic hadn't told any of them and was writing them in secret. He starts to read them curiously.

"Eww, I said no love songs," Sonic complains, scrunching up his face in disgust.

"Let me see," Sonia demands, interested to read what Manic has written too and takes the writing pad from Sonic.

Manic blushes a little, not happy with them both reading his private thoughts and feelings, especially when he didn't want to share them.

"Wow, they're pretty good," Sonia approves and smiles.

Manic snatches the writing pad back, embarrassed, "it's private, okay? I'm not recording it for our next album or anythin'."

"You should. Those lyrics would make a great song."

"I'm not even done; it's just a verse and chorus yet."

"Will you show it to me when it's finished?" Sonia asks excitedly.

"Maybe," lies Manic.

"Awww, it's about Star, isn't it?" Sonia gushes. "That's so cute!"

"Don't you dare tell her about it," Manic says, knowing how Sonia loves to gossip and how she's been messaging Star on MobiusNet.

"Aww, poor Manic. Are you missing your girlfriend?" Sonic teases him. "Are you gonna cry yourself to sleep tonight?"

"Fuck off," Manic replies, shoving him. "At least I've got one. You're never getting laid at this rate."

Sonic sulks a little, insulted that Manic is bringing it up. He doesn't like talking about the fact that he's not had a girlfriend yet and gets really embarrassed when people call him a virgin and laugh.

"At least I don't sleep around with a million girls like you," Sonic retorts and sticks his tongue out at him.

Manic rolls his eyes at the exaggeration. People usually assumed he slept around and there were always rumours about stuff he'd done with groupies. However, despite him flirting with pretty girls and fans, the truth was he'd had five girlfriends so far and only slept with one of them. He was still waiting for Star since she hadn't let him go all the way yet.

"Anyway," Sonia interrupts them, getting sick of their bickering. "I wanted to ask you both something."

They look up at her wondering what she's going to say.

"Is it okay if I go to the Floating Island for a day?" she asks nervously.

Sonic looks confused, "why do want to go there? Has mom sent a message?"

"No…I just want to go, that's all."

"But why?"

Sonia looks shy and doesn't know how to tell him.

"Bro, she wants to see Knux, isn't it obvious?" says Manic.

Sonia blushes.

"So you're ditching us to go snog with Knuckles?" Sonic looks annoyed. "You do know Buttnik doesn't take a day off, right? We're supposed to be freedom fighters."

"I know, I feel bad about it," replies Sonia, feeling guilty, "but it won't be for long and I really want to go."

"Just let her, it's only one day," says Manic. "We can deal with stuff 'til she's back."

"And if there's an emergency you can call me and I'll fly straight back home," Sonia promises Manic.

Sonic shakes his head, "no way you're going there alone! What if you're shot at by Robotnik's aircrafts?"

"Fine, if you can't trust me to go alone then you'll both have to come with me."

"What am I supposed to tell Cyrus?" Sonic argues. "We need to be here not there."

"Don't worry, I'll explain everything to him," Sonia says, knowing Cyrus will understand that they need a break. "Besides, he's got the rest of the freedom fighters helping him. So can we go? Please?" Sonia gives them her best sad, pleading sister look.

Manic shrugs, "I'm okay with going. It'll be cool to hang out with Knux and Chomps again."

Sonic sighs, "fine, we'll go."

"Yay," Sonia hugs them both excitedly. "I'm going to go pack right now and call Cyrus."

She strolls off to her bedroom, thinking of the perfect outfit to go in.