Chapter 2

A Cosmic Miracle

It's been two days since Sonic's somewhat tense conversation with Tails, and since then the hedgehog had made repeated attempts to speak to his bro only to be met with the same sour disposition. Finally after giving up, Sonic had spent the remainder of the second day pondering the source of the problem. Naturally he had already figured out Tails was grieving over Cosmo, but he had been making progress hadn't he?

"He was doing so well, what changed?" Sonic mumbled as he paced back and forth in his living room.

"He's almost been his old self again for over a month, and now he's sleeping late and refusing to take care of himself. Whats happening to you little bro?"

Looking down at his feet solemnly, Sonic thought further about the past five months. The first month still seemed like remembering a nightmare, the second was like sugarcoating that nightmare, the third was the first time he felt like he was starting to get Tails back….and then there was the fourth….

"He just seemed to be doing much better…like he was starting to realize how much we missed him."

It had seemed almost like night and day, in the third month Tails was still a wreck but he was starting to show signs of who he used to be, and then on the fourth he was basically back to his old self.

Sonic's eyes widened at this.

"That doesn't make any sense…" His voice slightly catching as a wave of dread suddenly went over him. It was true, thinking about it more, it didn't make even the slightest bit of sense. Tails was a shadow of himself at the end of one months and early the next he was just…better? No, that can't be right, an unstable mind doesn't just fix itself over night.

And as Sonic replayed this thought process in his head over and over he felt his whole body grow cold.

"He was faking it…" Sonic managed to say in a barely audible whisper.

Suddenly he felt anger rise up within himself, not anger towards Tails, but himself. How could he not have noticed? He's known him longer than anyone, he can always tell if somethings wrong.

So why not now?

"Maybe…maybe I just wanted to believe he was really himself again."

Sonic knew he was trying to reassure himself, it did make sense after all as it would explain why everyone else bought it too. But he also knew that he still had himself to blame, he shouldn't have let his desperation get the better of him. So what now?

"I…guess I'd better tell the others."

It only took about twenty minutes for everyone to show up, all he had needed to say was they needed to talk about Tails and everyone had immediately replied with "Be right there". And now here he was, pacing back and forth in his living room again being watched anxiously by Amy, Cream, Vanilla, Knuckles, even the Chaotix. Finally, after preparing himself to deliver the bad news he stopped and turned to everybody.

"Guys, I don't know how best to say this, so I'm just gonna be blunt: I think Tails has been faking his recovery." Sonic stated in the most even tone he could manage given he was struggling internally to compose himself.

The reactions almost made him lose that struggle.

For a while, the room was silent but each person had their reactions written on their faces.

Amy was dumbfounded, hinting she was taking the same approach to it as he had.

Creams eyes were starting to tear up, hinting that she was absolutely heartbroken over it.

Vanilla had a look of sadness and slight disappointment.

Knuckles did his best to remains stone-faced, but anyone could see the conflict he was trying to hide.

Vector, Espio and Charmy just lowered their heads in sorrow.

Finally after a few minutes Vanilla spoke up.

"I suppose we should have seen this coming"

Amy turned to look at Vanilla with a quizzical expression.

"How? We couldn't possibly-"

"No Amy she's right." Sonic cut her off, knowing full well she was trying to rationalize the same way he had.

"But how could we have missed this?" Amy almost demanded, her voice wavering with desperation and her eyes starting to tear up.

"Maybe we believed what we wanted to…"

All eyes turned to Cream, who at this point was barely holding back tears.

"Actually…yeah, I thinks that's it exactly Cream." Sonic hesitantly replied, his voice filled with shame and his eyes directed at his feet, he couldn't look them in the eyes as he admitted that. He just couldn't.

"Soooo…what do we do?" Knuckles asked

"We should say something!"

"No Miss Amy! If we confront him about it he'll only shut us out further!"

"But Cream-"

"I'm afraid my daughters right Amy, if he's gone to such great lengths to hide this for so long, than he'll likely panic and become defensive if we say anything about it outright." Vanilla explained

"Um…excuse me?"

"Now all eyes were focused on Charmy as the little bee shuffled his feet.

"Vector always says that when a person tries to hide something bad the best way to get it out of them is to easily poke at it until they come clean."

"That's subtly prod at it Charmy" Vector corrected him in a half annoyed half proud tone.

"So what would be the best way to do that?"

"Well Sonic dear, you've known Tails longer than any of us. Simply find a time when he's easiest to access and spark up a conversation. Place subtle hints here and there and with any luck he'll slip up"

"He's…been a bit closed off from me these past two days…"

"well don't you worry Sonikku, if this doesn't work we'll back you up"

"Heh…thanks Amy"

And so they had a plan. Now it just needed to be put into action.

Sonic had never been so grateful for the stealth aspect of his speed. He had been watching Tails all day, or rather his house, and each time it seemed like he had a chance to approach him Tails would apparently lose interest in what he was going to do and turn back in his front door.

Only due to his speed had Sonic managed to avoid detection each time he failed to approach him.

Finally it was nearing sunset and Sonic was losing hope, tapping his foot in frustration.

"Seriously? Not ever one trip the workshop?"

Tails hadn't even opened the door in two hours and all his front windows were dark, but Sonic had already checked the back and had seen his bedroom window upstairs was lit up with the lights clearly on there. So Tails was still awake, but didn't seem to be doing anything.

"Ugh, maybe I'll just go ahead and ring his doorbell." Sonic sighed

"But then he'll just close the door in my face again."

No, he had to catch him outside so he can't shut himself in again.

After thirty more minutes the sun was halfway descended below the horizon and Sonic had given up hope.

"No way he's coming out now, if he wasn't going to during the day, he won't after dark. Guess I'll try again later." And with that Sonic began to walk away from hill he had been watching from.

But as he began to push past the shrubbery he'd been using for cover, he heard a moderate slam. Like a door being carelessly swung open and shut. Snapping towards the front door, he found it hadn't been touched. No signs of slamming shut and no signs of Tails.

"The back door!" Sonic concluded as he rushed towards the back of the house.

Upon arriving a the the rear corner of the house, he saw Tails in his backyard. On his knees. In front of the tree that grew from Cosmos seed.

"Can't believe I didn't think of that" Sonic muttered to himself, almost smirking before reminding himself what he was looking at.

Watching Tails for a bit, he found that the fox had been sitting there in complete silence for some time.

"Okay, now this is getting creepy, I expected him to at least talk to the tree or check its growth or something. Not this."

"Alright Sonic, this is starting to tick me off, get over here already."

The look on Sonics face was such that had Knuckles been there, you can bet he would have immortalized it in a photo. Six times.

"H-how-!?"

Managing to snap himself out of it, Sonic rushed over to Tails and with his face turning scarlet like he had been caught stealing some of Amy's cookies.

"How-how long did you know I was there?"

Tails sighed, frustration evident in his voice.

"Sonic I've known you've been watching me all day, that's why I wouldn't even come outside. Your speed/stealth tactic doesn't work when you use it on someone who knows what signs to look for."

Sonics face was becoming as red as Knuckles, no one had ever caught on to his speed sneaking.

"Why…um…why didn't you say anything?"

"Because I know what you're going to try to say."

"Wait what?"

"Sonic, I'm not an idiot! I know you figured out whats been going on with me! I'm also willing to bet you've already told everyone else right?"

"Um-uh-well"

"Sonic, give me more credit will you? After all the times I've calculated us a way out of dangerous situations and all the times I've outsmarted Eggman, how could you think I'd fall for something like this?"

Sonic was at a loss. It was true, Tails' brilliance had gotten them out of a number of situations were they would otherwise have perished. And he has repeatedly out maneuvered Eggman's 300 I.Q. multiple times.

"Tails, I…don't know what to say."

"It doesn't matter, I know what you're thinking anyway, you think I'm lost right? A wreck? Well yeah I am! I haven't worked on anything in months, haven't slept well in longer! The Typhoons halfway submerged on the coast because I don't want to have to look at that stupid ship again! I never want to see it again…"

At this, Sonic slightly regained his senses.

"Tails listen, you don't have to do anything with the Typhoon, no one would blame you for that. But look at yourself! Yes you are a wreck, yes you are lost! No, no one can blame you for that either. But you're losing yourself! You can't keep going like this!"

"I'm not losing myself Sonic, I've already lost myself! The person I was died five months ago! My brain just keeps going anyway!"

Now Tails was starting to tear up, Sonic wanted desperately to drop it, to stop hurting his best bud. But he knew he had to keep going, had to reluctantly be the bad guy.

"Tails…I'm sorry I couldn't save Cosmo, but you can't keep doing this to yourself. She wouldn't want you to do this."

"Don't you dare go there Sonic." Tails growled, beginning to clench his teeth.

"Tails, she gave her life for us, for you! Is this what you plan to do with it!?" Sonic knew as soon as he said it he had gone to far. And now it was too late.

"DONT YOU TRY TO GUILT ME SONIC! YOU WEREN'T THE ONE WHO HAD TO KILL HER! YOU WEREN'T THE ONE WHO HAD TO PRACTICALLY LOOK HER IN THE EYES AS YOU DID IT! YOU DIDN'T LOVE HER!"

"Tails…I…."

"WHY DID SHE HAVE TO DIE!?"

Sonic could see the the pain in Tails' eyes, and only then did he truly realize just how broken he was. Months of unfathomable sorrow, grief, pain, and heartbreak made visible.

Then he saw something else.

The tree, as if responding to the scene playing out in front of it, had started glowing. But unlike before, where only the trunk had glowed with increasing intensity each time, this time the entire tree glowed. The bright white light becoming so intense that it became too much to look at. Tails himself only noticed shortly after Sonic, having been to emotional to notice immediately. Eventually the glow became so bright that the two had to turn away entirely. The tree, having apparently reached its peak luminescence, then changed from white to a bright almost neon green. After a few seconds, the fox and the hedgehog heard a light thump and seconds later the glow subsided.

Finally feeling safe to turn back the two were met with what can only be described as a miracle. Before them the tree had vanished in its entirety.

And in it's place was a green alien girl with two rosebuds on her head.

Sonic was speechless, unable to form even the slightest sound, simply standing there frozen and eyes dilated.

Tails on the other hand had gone numb, he hadn't fainted but he certainly felt lightheaded.

Sonic chanced a glance at the fox and found that the kistune had already closed the distance between himself and the girl, dropping to his knees before the unconscious seedrian.

"Tails…is-is that…?"

"Cosmo…."

And there we have it! Cosmo has returned! That was easily the most intense chapter I've ever written, but this is a romance/drama story. Good news is now we can focus more on the romance part. See you next chapter!