A/N: Woo third chapter already! So I just want to say that Sonic may seem a tad OOC, but our boy just escaped a 6 month imprisonment! So in my opinion he would be dealing with some trauma that's he's never had to deal with before. As the story continues we'll be seeing how he handles and overcomes it, so don't worry this isn't strictly angst but there will be a decent amount sprinkled in.
Anywho, hope you enjoy! Reviews and feedback are encouraged! Thanks for reading!
By the time Sonic woke up the sun had set long ago and it was the dead of the night. He slowly crawled out of the tiny cave that he managed to fit into hours before and reluctantly stood up. It was a dark and overcast night, no sign of the moon or stars to help guide his way. That didn't matter to him though, the supposed bots he was hiding from before were long gone and he was in the clear to head straight to the village. As he began his descent down the hilly area an intrusive thought crossed his mind. It had been so long since his capture - he wasn't entirely sure how much time had passed but he knew it was more than a couple months. There was chance something bad had happened to the village in that time. Would he show up and it would be vacant? Or even worse, destroyed? What of his friends, his loved ones, his comrades? There's no doubt that during his capture those worries and concerns relentlessly antagonized him, but right now Sonic was just too exhausted to entertain these thoughts –he had to focus on just making it to the entrance. He would deal with what he came across, when he came across it.
It took him about an hour or so to find his way. A small part of him didn't believe it was real – some cruel doubt in the back of his mind was terrified that this was all some sick illusion and he would wake up back in his cell. But he chose to cling to the hope that this was really happening and that he did finally make it. He pushed his way through the thick bushes and stumbled forward. Catching himself at the last second he regained his footing. Sonic could feel a wave of relief wash over as he saw the village in front of him – looking just the same as he had left it, safe and sound. He focused his attention immediately to the little house on the far left and headed toward it. He could see a small flame flickering in the windowsill, its warmth inviting him toward it.
His first instinct of course was to go straight to his own house in which he shared with Tails, but he didn't want to startle the poor kid with his appearance. Then there was the fact that their house was pretty centralized, he would risk running into all sorts of different people and he just couldn't bear to deal with that right now. Amy's house though was on the outskirts – he was quite jealous of it's location to be honest – and she was definitely at the top of his list of people he wanted to see. As he walked his mind kept repeating her name in his head over and over again, hoping if he thought it enough she would appear. The closer he got the more he felt this yearning in his heart, it was an overpowering feeling he couldn't really explain. Every inch he got closer his feelings seemed to intensify.
Please be home, please be home, please be home.
As soon as he got to her doorway he put his forearm up to lean on it for support, using his other hand to knock as loudly as he could on the door.
Amy shot up in her bed, startled by the loud noise that woke her up so suddenly. She glanced at her clock which read 3:05AM. Then again - another loud set of knocking. She tried to shove down her annoyance as she put on her slippers and made her way down the hallway. This wouldn't be the first time a villager knocked on her door at a ridiculous hour for some mediocre reason. Just two weeks ago someone woke her up because they thought they had appendicitis when really is was just bad gas. Before she could even make it to the end of the hallway another set of knocks ensued. Whoever this was they were going to be lucky if she didn't smack them. Finally reaching the door, she began to speak.
"I'm coming! Jeez, you shouldn't be so impatient when it's three o'clock in the freaking morn-"
As she opened the door her sentence failed to form, the words on her tongue evaporating to nothing, rendering her speechless. She stood in shock as she starred at the culprit leaning in her doorway. It was like time stood still for a few moments as they both stared into each other's eyes; a million different emotions being silently conveyed to one another.
"Hey Ames, long time no see." Sonic smiled weakly at her.
After he spoke it was like the spell was broken and she lunged forward at him, hugging him tightly as the tears began to flow. He let out a soft 'oof' as her body collided with his but instantly returned the embrace with a tight hug of his own. He cradled her head into his chest, nuzzling his face as closely as he could to it. She was really in his arms again; he could smell the sweet scent that undeniably belonged to her, feel her warmth radiate against his skin. Amy's soft, muffled sobs felt like they were vibrating through him and he could feel the wetness of her tears start to soak into his chest. Sonic was fighting back tears of his own and he held her as if he was never going to let go. It felt so unbelievably good to finally hold her again.
After he couldn't ignore the pain that the hug was causing his battered body any longer, he slowly began to release his hold which caused her to do the same. She looked up at him and place a hand on his cheek. Softly she whispered "I can't believe you're really here."
Sonic smiled warmly down at her and brought his hand to her cheek as well, using his thumb to wipe away a fresh tear. "You can't get rid of me that easy." He couldn't bring himself to shift his eyes away from hers. They were the most beautiful shade of light green, her tears making them glisten like an exquisite jewel. Just then his face unwillingly scrunched in pain which lead them both back to reality. Amy took a small step back, the initial euphoria of first seeing Sonic fading away, and noticed just how bad of shape he was in. It was pitch black outside but the light from the open door behind her shed a spotlight on him. It horrified her at how much of an absolute mess he was.
"Sonic, oh my god, you look like you got dragged through hell and back!" Out of the corner of her eye she noticed a dark coloured liquid had seeped through an alarmingly large portion of her pajama top. When she looked down she realized it was blood. His blood. Instantly she lifted his shirt up and just as she suspected there was a deep wound on his side that was still oozing.
"Chaos, get in here right away! We need to fix you up!" She placed his arm around her shoulders and ushered him into the house, supporting half his weight as they walked. She expected a quip from him, some smart-ass reply as he would normally do, but received silence. Glancing up she could tell by his expression that he was beyond exhausted. It looked like he was doing everything in his power to just stay conscious.
Amy guided him to a chair and helped lower him down on it. She rushed over to the bathroom and began to run a hot bath for him. Before she even attempted to tend to his wounds they needed to be cleaned first. Judging by how filthy he was it looked like he hadn't had a bath in a long time, so even if he was dead tired she was sure he would still appreciate it. Once the temperature was up to her standards she grabbed the bubble bath but in her haste the cap slipped off, pouring copious amounts in. Well, he's definitely going to get a good cleaning now that's for sure.
She put out some towels and ran quickly toward the spare bedroom. Tails spent the night here very often and this room had unspokenly become his – which meant there were spare clothes in the drawer. And although Tails was still very much smaller than Sonic, since his disappearance he often liked to sleep in his older brothers clothing as a form of comfort. Grabbing a white t-shirt and a pair of black basketball shorts Amy hurried herself out of the room and peaked down the hall to check on Sonic.
Sonic was still slumped back in the chair, eyes barely open. He had been fighting this fatigue for so long. Now that he was finally somewhere safe and familiar it was like his whole body was fighting extra hard for him to get some rest. Being only vaguely aware of what Amy was doing in the background he resisted the urge to crawl down on to the floor and take a nap right then and there. His thought got interrupted when Amy appeared in front of him.
"Alright, c'mere. Hold on to me, we have to get you clean before you can sleep ok?" She walked him down the hall and as they entered the bathroom he let out a small laugh at the sight. Bubbles towered high above the tub, mountains of them flowing over the sides. There was so many overflowing at all angles it was hard to tell if there was even any water in the tub.
"Whoa, talk about overkill." She couldn't help but giggle at his comment – ah there's the teasing she expected; the teasing she missed.
"Nevermind, you! I would put more in there if I could - I don't think even this is enough to clean you." She noticed him struggling to take off his shirt due to the gash on his side. "Here, let me help."
She gently aided in removing his shirt, wincing a little at what it uncovered. She could tell a lot of it was just old, dried blood that clumped to his fur - which hopefully was making things look worse than it was. But still, this wasn't a sight she was prepared to see. Sure there was times he would come back from a battle torn up a little - quite frankly it was rare he would ever be completely unscathed on the day to day basis. Even if it wasn't battling Eggman, Sonic was always getting into some sort of trouble – whether it be poking fun at Knuckles until it eventually ended in a fight or sparing with Shadow who was never known to take things lightly. She was hoping the soap and water would wash away most of what she was seeing.
Amy tore her eyes away from his torso when she noticed he was looking at her expectantly. He had both of his thumbs in the waistband of his shorts and she realized he was waiting for her to leave so he could continue to undress. A small blush formed across her cheeks.
"O-oh! Right! Sorry, just uhmn, let me know if you need anything okay! I'll be right out here." Before he could reply she was out of the bathroom with the door shut. As the door clicked shut she leaned back on it, starring at the wall in front of her in somewhat of a daze. She lifted her hand and placed it across her chest, over her heart. He was home. He was actually back in the flesh. In one piece. Little rough around the edges but still, one piece. He was alive.
He was alive.
More tears began to flow freely down her cheek – tears of joy, relief, and gratitude all mixed together. Bringing her hand up to wipe them away she saw the blood covering her sleeve and remembered the state of her pajama top. Heading to the bedroom she exchanged her PJ top for a clean one and tossed the other one in the garbage. There was no use trying to salvage it, those stains would never come out. Afterwards she made her way to the kitchen and bent down to grab a large first aid kit that was located underneath the sink. She arranged the chair Sonic was previously sitting in so it was closer to the dinner table and laid out the supplies she would need to treat his wound.
A few moments went by and feeling antsy just standing there waiting Amy decided that she would fix him a little something to eat. He might be too exhausted to eat a full meal but there was no doubt in her mind that he must be starving, so she prepared him a decent sized sandwich. She made a mental note that she would need to get more food supplies as her fridge was almost bare but she made do with what she had for now.
The minutes ticked by until it made the half hour mark. Then a full hour. Then an hour and a half. At almost the two hour mark she started feeling a little worried. She knew he wasn't at the top of his game at the moment but Sonic would never take an unnecessarily long time in any type of water. Showers weren't so bad for him but if he ever had to take a bath it was in and out - no pleasure, just business. He did not find baths relaxing so the fact he was in there for two hours now was odd. Amy went to the bathroom door and knocked lightly on it.
"Sonic? Everything okay in there?"
"Y-Yeah, be out in a sec."
Hesitating at the door for a moment she took his word for it and walked back toward her make-shift nurse chair. She knew he would know right where to go, he's sat in this chair many times while she's patched him up in the past.
Just then he appeared in the hallway wearing only his basketball shorts, his upper body bare. As Sonic walked towards her she noticed how alert he looked - maybe alert wasn't the right word, but wired. She could have sworn after soaking his tired body in the warm water it would have lulled him to sleep instantly but now he looked more awake than ever. Strange. Before she could ponder more about it he had already made his way so he was standing in front of her. She could now see his true condition with all the dirt and filth washed away. Sonic looked more like himself – that brilliant, cobalt blue as vibrant as ever. And her assumptions were correct, all that dried blood from previous cuts made him look a lot worse than he really was - thank Gods. He still had some pretty big scrapes and she could tell some bruises were beginning to form, but other than that large gash on his side he was in pretty good shape considering.
Amy ushered him to his seat and he complied, lifting his arm so it was resting on the back of the chair, making his wound exposed for her to treat.
"You look a lot better!" she said cheerfully as she started preparing the rubbing alcohol to ensure the wound was properly cleaned. Soap wasn't enough to clean something the size of this. Kneeling down so she was eye level with the wound she started to dab it gently.
He gave her a small smile while wincing from the sting, "Thanks, I-"he sucked in a breath,"-feel brand new already… Where's Tails? Is he okay? And Knuckles? Everyone else?"
"They are all fine, the boys and a few others actually just went out to scope a new area. More importantly how are you? Are you okay? What even happened Sonic, Chaos we've been worried sick. Where have you been for 6 months?!" She looked at him with great concern, squeezing his leg softly, her eyes filling with tears again as she spoke. She fought these tears back - she couldn't start crying again, she had to focus on cleaning him up. She put her attention back to the wound but after a long silence she looked back up at him.
Sonic was looking down at her with a bewildered expression on his face, one of disbelief.
"It's been… 6 months…?" he slowly shifted his eyesight so he was looking straight ahead, looking like he was in deep thought. Amy was taken back a little by his reaction.
"Y-Yes, just a little over 6 months you've been missing… Sonic, what happened?"
He glanced down at her, his expression serious. The look he had in his eye – it was something she wasn't used to seeing from him. "….I don't want to talk about it right now." He spoke in a low, even tone.
She starred at him for a long moment and then nodded, silently continuing to tend his wound. Amy reminded herself that he had only just stumbled his way into her house a mere two hours ago, he needed time. Time to rest, time to process, time to adjust. Once his side was all bandaged up (which took longer to do than she thought – it was a nasty one) she stood up.
"I'm just going to check over the rest of you real quick to make sure there's nothing else that needs medical attention and then you can head to bed, sound good?" Sonic only nodded, looking still lost in his own thoughts. Amy started with his shoulders, arms and back, running her hands gently through his fur and spines, looking carefully for anything that would be alarming. She almost forgot how fit he was, his muscles carved out and protruding in all the right spots. He was smaller compared to someone like Knuckles in terms of muscle mass but his lean body still worked very, very well for him.
As her fingers moved along she came across a scar here and there, the bumps prominently sticking out. At first she figured they were old and didn't think anything of it. But then there were more and more the further she felt. Some of them were indeed old, she could tell by how hard the scar tissue was, but majority of what she was feeling were pretty fresh. Too fresh to have happened before 6 months ago.
As the realization hit she could feel the horror sink deep into the pit of her stomach. His body was littered with them, all different sizes and depths, hidden beneath his fur. She could feel his body become tense the more her fingers made contact with them. Once she was done she slowly pulled her hands away, trying to fathom what he could have possibly went through to accumulate that many.
Once Sonic felt she was done he stood up and turned around to face her. He could see the look on her face and chose to ignore it, not wanting to risk having a conversation on the subject. He pulled her in for a huge and kissed the top of her head.
"Thanks a million, Ames. I missed you so much." At that he proceeded to walk down the hall and head into the spare bedroom. Amy just stood there trying to process the million thoughts firing off in her mind. She had so many questions and concerns that it was overwhelming. But she reminded herself again to not bombard him.
Once Amy snapped out of her thoughts she realized she forgot to give Sonic his sandwich. Grabbing the plate she went over to the spare bedroom which had the door open a sliver. She knocked lightly on it and pushed it open to reveal Sonic already snoring on the bed. It looked like he barely even made it fully on before passing out – his one leg was dangling off, his body only half under the covers. Amy left the sandwich on the bedside table and gently lifted his leg onto the bed before pulling the covers fully over him. She kissed his forehead, murmuring "welcome home" before turning to leave the room.
As she was closing the door she turned around and gave one last look at him, smiling softly.
Their hero was finally home.