Sonic sat alone at home, documents strewn across the table, drowning in paperwork. He couldn't stand paperwork, but it had to be done and he couldn't ask Tails to do it for him this time, so he pressed on. Looking at the clock, he realized it was 3:00 AM, and Blaze still had not come back. She'd been staying out late more often, but Sonic was still a bit worried. But he went back to his work, assuming she would come back soon. Over half an hour later, she came stumbling through the door.

"Blaze?" Sonic asked, concerned, while Blaze closed the door behind her and leaned on it. "Blaze are you ok?"

"I'm f-fine," she replied, slurring a bit.

"You're… you're drunk," Sonic said in disbelief.

"I couldn't…" she said, looking at him.

"What? Couldn't what?" he asked. She didn't respond. He helped her to the couch, where she immediately passed out, and he sat back down at the table, still processing what had happened.

The next morning, she woke up in the afternoon and looked around to see that Sonic was already up, sitting at the kitchen table. He motioned for her to come sit, and handed her a cup of coffee. "Drink this." he instructed her.

"I don't—"

"Trust me," he interrupted. She forced some of it down, despite its bitterness. "Why didn't you tell me? Talk to me? Something?"

"About… what?"

"You were drunk last night. I've never seen you drunk. I know for a fact you'd have never let yourself do that before all this."

"You've never seen someone drunk before?" She scoffed quietly.

"Come on, Blaze. Don't try and pretend this is normal. This is not normal for you. I've done the same thing plenty of times before with Knuckles, but this is very different. You'd never let go of yourself like that. What's going on?" Blaze didn't speak for a few moments. "You're still having nightmares, aren't you?" he eventually asked, breaking the silence. She got up from her chair to leave. "Where are you going?"

"Out." She replied bluntly. Sonic jumped to the door, blocking her exit, and she made no attempt around him, looking downward as she held back tears. "Come on, Blaze." he said softly as he lifted up her face. "Talk to me." She nodded her head, and he led her back to the couch and sat next to her.

"I've… always had this problem." she started. "Makes it easier to forget things. And I've got plenty of things I'd like to forget. I had it under control, but well—" she buried her head in her hands. Sonic leaned in to hug her, but he saw something on her wrist. He took her hand and looked closely, seeing a thin red line along her forearm. She said nothing, only looking at him with tears in her eyes. He didn't say anything either, and hugged her even tighter.

The two of them laid on the couch in silence for a while, but after a few hours, Blaze's makeshift phone that Tails had made for her began to ring. Sonic got up and answered it himself. "Blaze's pho-" he began to say before pulling the phone away from his ear, the man on the other end yelling angrily. Sonic hung up without another word. "I think you lost your job, Blaze." She chuckled. Sonic picked up his own phone, noticing a missed call from Tails. "Go back to sleep." he told her, laying down next to her.