Pain
Pain.
Everyone has dealt with it before.
Some have to deal with it every day.
And sometimes, some pain doesn't heal at all, especially if you don't let it.
It was a warm, spring afternoon on Mobias, and six friends and well known heroes, Sonic, Tails, Shadow, Amy, Knuckles, and Rouge, were out in Sonic's backyard playing volleyball with each other.
The teams had three each, and it was oldest vs youngest. Knuckles (16), Shadow (15), and Rouge (18) were on the oldest team, while Tails (8), Amy (12), and Sonic (15) were on the youngest. At the moment, with a speed demon on each team, they were both evenly tied up.
"Nice job, Sonic." Tails praised the blue hedgehog, who had spiked the ball before, causing Knuckles to miss it. "Just one more point and we win."
"Show us what you got, Faker." Shadow playfully teased the azure speed demon. "It's your serve."
"See if you can catch this one, Shads." Sonic chuckled as he threw the volleyball up and gave it a hard smack with the palm of his right hand, sending the ball over the net. However, as Sonic served the ball, Shadow couldn't help but notice that his azure hedgie mate grimaced a little.
'Huh, wonder what's wrong.' Shadow thought with a frown. 'Probably hit the ball too hard.'
"Shadow! To your left!" Knuckles called out.
Immediately, Shadow went to the ball and quickly dug it, sending it over to Rouge who hit it over the net. Amy went for a dig and sent it over to Tails, who quickly hit over to Sonic.
With the ball being close to the net, Sonic became the hitter of the team and quickly jumped, spiking the ball over the net with his right hand once more. Knuckles went for a dig, but he missed, giving the point to the youngest players, thus ending the game.
"Alright, we won!" Amy cried out excitedly.
"Nice spiking there, Sonic." Tails said to his older brother.
"Thanks Tails." Sonic squeaked out, trying to give his little buddy his trademark thumbs up, but quickly grabbed his right wrist and grimaced in pain. "OW!"
"Sonic!" Both Tails and Shadow gasped. They both ran up to him as he fell to his knees, but Shadow got there first.
"Sonic, what's wrong?!" He asked in a worried tone as he knelt down beside him. "Is it your wrist? Does it hurt?"
"Yes… Tails, it's acting up again." Sonic whimpered to his younger brother.
"I'll go get some ice." Tails nodded and quickly flew to the house. As he did so, Shadow gently took a hold of Sonic's wrist and inspected it.
"*hiss* Ow, careful Shadow." Sonic hissed in pain.
"Sorry, hun." Shadow apologized, gently kissing the wrist. "What happened anyway?"
"Yeah, what did you mean when you told Tails it was 'acting up again'?" Knuckles asked.
"... Well… it's a bit of a long story." Sonic sighed.
"We've got time, hun." Rouge assured him.
"Well, you would think that I got this injury fighting Eggman, but really, it was just an accident."
"What happened?"
"Well, it was when we were on Earth, living with Chris and his family in his mansion. It was a pretty rainy day, so instead of going out to run, I decided to stay inside and help Ella clean up a bit, you know, just to be nice and show my gratitude for letting us live there."
"Oh yeah, I remember that day." Amy nodded. "Your wrist was never the same after that day."
"But why, what happened?" Shadow frowned.
"Long story short, Sonic went outside to take the trash out and he slipped and fell." Tails answered as he came back with a bag of ice.
"It wasn't just that," Sonic frowned as he took the ice and pressed it against his slightly swelling wrist. "Yeah, I was taking the trash out, but it was when I was coming back in when I slipped. On a natural instinct, I put my arms behind me to catch my fall, but I'm pretty sure I landed on my wrist wrong. I swear, I thought my middle finger touched my top forearm."
"That's a long way for your wrist to bend back." Shadow cringed.
"I know, and it hurt so much. I've never felt pain like that before. I was down on the ground for about ten minutes before the pain finally died away enough for me to stand up and go inside."
"Where was everybody during this?" Knuckles frowned.
"We were in the living room, checking the news." Amy answered. "We unfortunately didn't hear Sonic crying out in pain."
"Only when Sonic came inside holding his wrist and crying did we take immediate action." Tails nodded. "I mean, he was crying! Sonic never cries. When he told us what happened, Chuck and I immediately took him to the lab and took an x-ray. What we discovered wasn't too pleasant."
"The fall ended up fracturing my wrist." Sonic sighed. "It took six weeks for it to heal, but when it did, it's never been the same."
"How so?" Rouge asked.
"I can't put too much pressure on it or I'll just get a shot of pain up my arm. Sometimes it just starts hurting for no reason."
"I wish you would've told me this sooner, I could've helped." Shadow whimpered with his ears down. "You're my uke, I'm supposed to protect you."
"Shads babe, you forget I'm no ordinary uke." Sonic chuckled. "I can take care of myself. I've been doing so my whole life."
"But you don't have to anymore." Shadow purred, rubbing his face against his lover's. "I'm here for you now, and you have other friends that'd jump to the opportunity to help you."
"I guess you're right." Sonic gave a small smile as he snuggled back.
"Please love. The next time there's something like this, don't keep it from me. I'd do anything to protect you."
"I promise Shads. From now on, no more secrets." Sonic kissed Shadow's cheek. "I love you."
Shadow smiled and kissed Sonic's lips.
"I love you too."
