Sonic
5:00.
Sonic, hypnotized by the ticking hands of his desk clock, watched as time slowly marched forward.
Slumped over, head balanced in one hand, he twirled his pencil in his fingers. If he tapped his foot any faster, it would surely take off on its own.
Having spent the majority of this rainy Saturday stuck in his dorm room, actively avoiding his responsibilities, he eventually felt guilty enough to take a crack at his math homework. And, despite his usual stubbornness, he wanted to try proving Shadow wrong by actually doing his own work before their meeting tonight.
Snapping himself from his trance, he tried focusing back in on his problem set.
Alright, alright, inequalities. Soooo, if I subtract 7, that leaves me with 4z which is greater than 23+7z… but why the hell is there a Z?! Isn't this supposed to be math?!
"UUUGH, I don't get any of this!" He threw his hands up in frustration, leaning backwards in his chair. It didn't help any that he neglected to take notes in any of his classes anyway, and had lost track of his textbook sometime shortly after renting it.
He whipped back to his desk, desperately wrangling his thoughts in long enough to complete even the first problem. Holding his head in both hands, he stared at the paper, hoping the solution would just jump to the page if he waited long enough.
It felt like an eternity had passed when he finally caved, peeking at the clock once more.
5:03
"I'm hopeless," Sonic frustratedly put his head down on his desk.
"Hey now, that's not the Sonic I know," Tails chided as he stepped out of the bathroom, drying his freshly-showered fur with a fluffy towel. "Where's the cocky show-off I know and love; the daredevil crazy enough to race out into traffic without a second thought?"
Though it wasn't a common occurrence, Sonic had had his brushes with danger in his youth. As a young lad of 12, he had risked his life to save a 6-year-old Tails, playing in the street, from a car running a stop sign. He hadn't really thought anything of it, acting before he even had a chance to consider the possible consequences. Their small town, though, championed the feat. For the next few years, Sonic was hailed as the young hero of Emerald Hill, able to outpace a car.
Even now, he would get an occasional exclamation and clap on the back from any middle-aged resident who remembered his face from the incident. He always blushed and tried to shrug it off when Knuckles would clown him about it, but a small part of him still shone at the praise.
His local hero status hadn't spread beyond his hometown, though, and no one at GHU knew anything about him or his supposed reputation. Sonic had yet to decide whether was a positive change or not.
"Tails, nothing on this math is more oppressive or soul crushing than college algebra," Sonic mumbled from his arms.
"Umm, you said 'math' instead of 'earth'," Tails coyly corrected.
"Oh no, it's spreading to my language ability. Noooo, that's the only thing I've got going for me," Sonic whined, giving a rather pathetic moan of frustration.
"Haha, oh Sonic, don't despair, I'm always ready to help out where I can," Tails beamed, eagerly pulling a chair up to Sonic's desk.
"Aww, Tails, you're my mathematical angel," Sonic weakly latched onto Tails in an exaggerated display.
"Well, we all have our strengths, I suppose." Tails was always exceedingly bright. By age 8, he had already rebuilt and upgraded their families old bi-plane. By 10, he had tested out of junior high. By 13, he had hundreds of scholarships tossed his way, all eager to have the boy genius among their admissions.
"Mhmm," Sonic gave a half-hearted reply, unable to muster up his usual wit. Tails started in on Sonic's homework.
He'd be lying if he said he wasn't a little jealous of Tails. When he was in high school, it was easy enough to get by on cruise control, riding his cred as the track star and town hero. But here he was now, being tutored by a teenage boy over something as basic as algebra, just so he could maintain a scholarship for a yet to be determined future.
Shadow's right. I'm just some ungrateful dumbas—
"Hellooooo, earth to Sonic?" Tails, snapped a finger, calling Sonic back to attention.
"Huh? Oh, sorry, guess my focus is out to lunch, ya' know?" Sonic gave a semi-genuine chuckle.
"Well, maybe you should take a break then. Go for a run? May help you jog your memory," Tails snorted, quite proud of that little feat of wordplay.
"Stick to math, kiddo. Awkwardly cringy wordplay is my territory," Sonic gave a wink accompanied by finger guns in Tails direction. Tails had always been good at this—pulling him out of his funk, making him laugh. They always knew how to make each other smile, ever since the beginning. Sonic stretched out his stiff limbs, tilting back the creaking legs of the dorm's decades-old desk chair. "But as nice as a waterlogged jog in the rain sounds, I've got a thing to get to at 6. Probs shouldn't chance being 'fashionably' late."
Tails tilted his head, intrigued. "Oh? What's this 'thing' for?"
Sonic, balancing a pencil on his nose, tried to keep the details vague. He didn't feel like talking about the mess that was his partnership with Shadow. "Just a group project at the library."
Tails eyed the ground. "Oh. Sounds fun."
Cocking an eyebrow, Sonic assumed a more serious posture. "You wouldn't happen to have any group projects to work on, now would you," he asked coyly. Sonic hadn't forgotten his worrisome behavior in the cafeteria. He hadn't pushed Tails about it since then; he knew he shouldn't. But something was clearly weighing on him, and Sonic wasn't about to let him bear it alone.
"Well… sorta, maybe," Tails anxiously traced a circle in the palm of his hand. Silence filled the air, neither of them willing to fill it. He wanted to wait for Tails to say what he needed to. Despite his flighty, impulsive, jittery nature, Sonic could exercise a great deal of patience when he needed to.
Eventually, Tails continued. "I… have a semester long engineering project. My partner…" Now, he was clearly having difficulty speaking. A blush rose to his cheeks. His words were likely to let loose all he was trying to hold back.
Sonic caved, aching to rid Tails of his misery, and maneuvered the conversation in a less painful direction. "What kind of project takes an entire semester?"
"Well, it's a pretty intense project, to be honest. We have to design something meant to help the environment in some way," Tails welcomed Sonic's mercy, the tension in his form relaxing slightly. "Since it's such a broad topic, they give us this semester to design the concept, and next semester to begin prototyping. It's required for completion of my engineering major."
"And this is a freshman class? Wow, that's intense," Sonic gawked. The thought of committing so much time to such a long term project sent chills down his spine. Even this semester-long home-ec assignment felt like overkill. "Well, at least you have another person to help out, right?"
"Yeah, we get class time to work on it, and meetups every Wednesday to do more planning." Tails trailed off as his eyes dropped back down to Sonic's homework, pencil scribbling correct answers on autopilot. "Or at least in theory, we're supposed to." This last part was muttered under Tails' breath as he wrote, tone bitter. Sonic wasn't even sure that he meant to say it aloud.
Whatever it was this partner of Tails' was doing to him, physical or not, it was clearly getting to him. Tails, for all his brains, was still just a 13 year-old boy. He was bound to have some jerks hounding him for his immaturity and inexperience. It hurt his heart to even think about someone talking down to him for something he couldn't control. Can't say I don't relate...
"Ya know," Sonic started, making the familiar switch into Big Brother Mode. "Group projects kinda suck when your partner doesn't wanna see eye to eye," Sonic looked out the window, watching the even pace of the rain. "But, at the end of the day, there's only so much you can do. If they're hellbent on making you feel like trash, they can't succeed unless you let them. So, it's difficult, but always keep one simple fact in mind."
Tails looked up, startled by a seriousness that seldom touched his carefree green eyes.
"You are Miles Prower. Don't let any jerk make you feel bad about that." Sonic, holding onto Tails' shoulders, didn't break eye contact. "Got that?"
Tails, always too bashful to accept compliments, nodded, tears pricking at the corners of his eyes. Pulling him in, Sonic held onto Tails for a while, letting the dam break as tears leaked onto his shoulder.
"Alright. You okay bud?" He pulled away, patting him on the back now.
"I'll be fine. I promise. Thank you," Tails wiped away some stragglers in his eyes. He glanced at the clock on Sonic's desk. "Sorry I couldn't help you more with your homework."
Sonic followed his gaze.
5:50
"Shoot!" Sonic jumped up, hurriedly filling his bag with whatever supplies he thought he needed. "Don't mean to break up this heartfelt moment, but we can go grab a nice dinner wherever you want when I get back, aight?"
"Can we go to Eggman's," Tails, trying to hold back his childish enthusiasm, coyly asked.
Sonic slowed down for a second, heart warming at the nostalgic suggestion."Sure thing, little buddy. Love ya," he said, giving Tails a quick kiss on the forehead, "See ya in a few!" He quickly departed, with a gust of wind left in his wake.
Tails, still embarrassed by such a childish show of affection, found himself smiling despite himself.