A/N: my friend is such a bitch when they proofread my shit XD

A blue blur was seen racing through the forest with a slightly worn paper bag trapped safely under his arm as birds of all shades of the rainbow were trailing behind him, berries in their claws and all. The bandit leaped for the trees, an arm extended out and gripped firmly to a branch, swinging him onto another tree then another, the process continued until they reached the highest tree branch and threw themselves towards a small clearing. A large, old dark house with many imperfections had stood out from the trees that surrounded it, vines were everywhere on it, and branches that poked in through the broken windows. The bandit had walked over with no problem, not even a trace of uneasiness was in the back of his mind or his face. He looked into one of the windows, his emerald eyes glistening as they jerked around looking for something, or rather someone. They had bolted to the front of the house, and knocked, calling out to someone behind the entrance..

"Hey, Tails! Open the door! I scored big time with the help of my fellow compadres if you know what I mean." He had pointed up to the colorful birds, giving off a bright smile as they chirped cheerfully behind him.

Clicking and snapping sounds were heard behind the door until it swung open completely, the bandit instantly being greeted by a younger two tailed fox and their beatific blue eyes. "Sonic!"

"The one and only.", he slicked back his quills and winked at his young friend before they had stepped aside and allowed him to walk through, the birds still following close behind and swirling around the room. "Whoa! Guys, chill out!" The blue male had called out towards his followers, spreading his wings and tapping his shoes as a sign of dominance. "First, we eat. Then, we party."

The golden kitsune laughed and sat down the table, one of the books he had been reading from before had been shut and was now neatly stacked over the others right beside him. Sonic had opened the window and asked the birds to stand guard outside before he walked over and dumped all the food from the bag he was holding, fruits and vegetables rolled across the glazed wooden surface. The hedgehog had pulled out a big, juicy looking red apple and rubbed it with a small soft handkerchief before taking a bite out of it, pulling his legs onto the table and crossing them over each other while an arm had been bent behind his head for added support against the chair, his expression chill as ever. The cub had already been munching on a banana and sipping on his apple juice he had saved since last month. Sonic had noticed the book stack placed right next to his 'little brother' and cocked a brow at it, he sat down and pointed at it with his eyes full of curiosity and his wings raised. "What's that?"

"A pile of books.", Tails had stated. Sonic had made a face that clearly spoke 'Seriously?' to the young boy, which made him snicker as he grabbed one of the books and opened it back up to where he had left off before continuing. "I was reading about engineering a steam powered jet. It's really cool actually!" Tails prepared to tell him all about it, on technical terms of course. "Just earlier I've been learning about the types of different engines I could use on them, like airbreathing, turbine powered, tubrojet, tubrofan, tubropop and turboshaft, and etcetera. Also the motorjet is an obsolete type that worked like a turbojet but instead of a turbine driving the compressor a piston engine drives it with advantages like a higher exhaust velocity than a propeller, offering better thrust at high speed but has disadvantages like being heavy, inefficient and underpowered-" Sonic raised a finger to his brother's mouth, a pained smile on his face.

"You lost me at cool." Tails just rolled his eyes at Sonic's invasive yet funny interruption. "Speak Sonic to me when you're trying to explain smart stuff like yours, okay bud?" He pat the cub's head and swiped another apple from the table, throwing it up into the air and catching it.

The kitsune had eyed him, taking another bite bite out of his banana before speaking up again, this time with a partially full mouth: "How do you always manage to get such high quality food like this now? Last time you told me that the city over the mountain had the worst tasting food possible and that was before you suddenly starting bringing this stuff in!" The blue boy had flinched slightly, and hesitated a bit before a sly grin spread onto his face as he swallowed the last of his apple, throwing the core and watching as it perfectly landed into the trash can by the end of the staircase, which he had silently applauded himself for. He distracted himself with that thought, and hoped Tails didn't notice the slight pause he gave out.

"I always have my ways, Tails my boy." He reached out over the table, getting his friend into a headlock and grinding his knuckles into his head playfully. The fox had laughed along with him and was confused when Sonic pulled himself away suddenly, he watched with curious eyes as he got some grapes from the table and avoided looking at him. He could feel the kid's gaze on him, an overwhelming guilt slapped itself right into his mind. He hated lying to Tails, but what would he think if he actually stole these from someone? He was used to stealing, it was in his species nature to steal since they technically lived on clouds and couldn't grow crops of their own up there. Tails had always insisted that they didn't do that and attempted to use their small amount of money their dead mother gave them to go and buy the food over the mountain to the nearest city. Sure enough, the city was pretty shitty and he almost got mugged in there. Luckily, Sonic always followed close behind him while he went out. The people who had tried to hurt him were confused when they couldn't see what was hitting them repeatedly and eventually were scared off. Sonic had convinced Tails never to go back there again and that he would get the food from now on. Looks like Tails trusted him a bit too much when it came to that. What could he do? He couldn't hide his wings, people would easily spot him. He could out run them with no problem, but Tails loved the library he lived in currently. If the commoners managed to find them, just think about what they could do to a myth and a mutated fox? He didn't ever want to find out.

To be honest, he dreaded being a feathered. His didn't even use his wings unless it was to travel back up to the sky in the night where his mother would have his head if he wasn't there and didn't bother listening to her when she said going down here was no good. Home was absolutely awful, as long as they had their wings, they were binded to this area. With an adventurous soul like his, that was the worst you could do. He was practically a prisoner, their mother said it was for their species own safety but dammit, he couldn't stand constantly hiding from others. He had to keep up the act because he had no shield from others finding out what he really was, and Tails..

He had the urge to rub his head, Tails comes first. He always has been first in everything, kid doesn't have his mother and he was the only he had now. He was basically a big brother to him now, ever since that faithful day of Sonic looking down from the clouds and growing curious. He came across the scared, curled up fox boy who looked starved. He couldn't just ignore him, Sonic was 12 then and Tails was 4, 9 years have passed since then and he had made it a daily routine to always come by and see him. The two best friends have helped each other in many ways, and Tails was always confused by the fact that Sonic wanted to be a commoner. He still wanted to, anything to get rid of these binds to this land and only this one. He snapped himself out of his memory train as he felt the blue eyes of his friend staring at him again.

Sonic chuckled, "Hey, uh, Tails. Why are you looking at me like that, bud?" he tried to give off an innocent smile, but failed as it looked far too innocent, even for him. The fox raised a brow.

"Tails?"

Tails crossed his arms, not taking his eyes off of him and the hedgehog sighed out in exasperation. "Okay.. okay! You caught me, I've been stealing from someone. There, ya happy?" He instantly blurted out in an almost irritated tone before munching onto his grapes and looking away from his friend, knowing Tails would lecture him about how it was wrong to steal and yadda yadda. He already felt bad enough that his last resort was to steal anything.

Tails ears drooped and he whined out to his blue friend, "Sooniccc.."

"Yeah, yeah. I know it's bad, Tails. You told me like, what, 24 times already! And yes, I counted." He glanced back at the disappointed fox with a finger raised, his brother's disapproving gaze made him want to disappear. He turned around to face him completely with a sad glint hidden deep in his eyes. "Tails, you know what happened last time you went out to get food. Aslo, I saw your face when you were talking to some guy before that, magical beans, yeah right!" He air quoted the word 'magical', he really shouldn't have been talking though, seeing as he had wings and was practically a part of those kinds of things. He walked over to the cub and sat beside him, wrapping his arm around him and his face softened into something more thoughtful. "I'm just doing what I can for us, I didn't say I liked it."

The kid glanced up at him. "I wasn't implying that you did, but.. is it really the best we could do?"

Sonic looked down, his ears lowered slightly. "It's certainly not the best, but it's the only thing we can do." He looked back up at his friend with a soft smile. "But hey, let's not get too thoughtful about it okay? You know how bad I am into getting deep into these things, and it's best that we don't, it'd just make the guilt worse."

Tails just nodded, smiling back at him and shifting to continue his book. Sonic got up and stretched out his legs as well as his wings, fluttering once he stopped to roll his head around his shoulders and walked towards the door. "Hey, I'm going out for a run alright, little buddy? You know how bored I can get when you're doing this kinda stuff. Gotta kill some time before going back to you know where." Tails waved him off and Sonic took it as a sign to get going. He winked and gave a thumbs up to his brother, "I'll be back sooner than you can say-"

"Yeah, yeah. Just get out." Tails chuckled as he could practically hear Sonic giving him the most sad expression he could muster up, complete with watery eyes.

"Hurtful.." He whined and immediately dashed out the front door, the wind that blew against his face had instantly slapped the mock sad face of his and replaced it with a smile, his eyes daring as he eyed the next tree to bounce off of.

xxx

A certain black hedgehog had rubbed the top of his head, groaning as he had realized that the heap of ruined vines and branches were where his fruits and vegetables were supposed to be present at. He could always go to city and mooch some food off from Rouge's money but he'd feel bad about it even if she did offer before the last few times this happened. The bat had tons of money but enough trouble just maintaining the club from falling apart due to the constant fights that went on in it and despite keeping up her usual personality during and after her job, she already had these massive headaches from all the chatter that went on. She was a bat, after all, real sensitive ears right there. He'd always bring himself to feel guilty about it deep down even if Rouge had always forcefully dragged him along since he was as stubborn as a mule and always declined their offerings, it was also because he felt so helpless about it and he hated that feeling. He sighed as he kneeled down in front of the scattered remains of his food, growling to himself.

"Dammit."

He perked his ears up as he heard the sudden chirping of the birds above him. Right, he lives near the damn forest. Source of all pests for crops, this is just brilliant Shadow. Just fucking brilliant.

"Oh, so it happened again, huh?", Shadow turned his head back to see a familiar white bat out of her usual outfit for work and into her one of her aristocrat dresses with knee high buckled boots. A hand holding up an umbrella with fancy patterns and an apple held out in another, her trademark smirk present.

"Rouge?"

"That's me." She winked at her best friend who had gotten up and walked over. "I see your crops have been ruined yet again, how many times has this happened this week? Three? I suspected it would happen again, looks like my bat senses were right." She casually threw the apple she had been holding over to her friend who caught it right on time.

Shadow stared down onto the apple and stayed silent., the bat lady had noticed and spoke up. "Why so quiet? Feeling bad that I have to save your behind every time this happens?"

Shadow snorted, "You don't have to. I can handle these things on my own, thank you very much. You just love to pester me."

She rolled her eyes. "You're so stubborn about these sorts of things, a thank you would've been appreciated from not letting you starve while I continue living the high life. That pestering is just me wanting to be a friend to you."

"I said it once and I'll say it again. I don't recall ever knowing that you would love helping people right out of the blue unless you'll get something back out of it sooner or later."

Rouge just gave him a shrug, keeping the smirk on her face. "What can I say? I'm a lady that likes getting stuff." She twirled with her short hair and eyed the ebony hedgehog. "How long have you been standing here anyway? It's the afternoon already."

"Since the morning of course."

Rouge brought her hand to her face. "You've just been standing out here all day? What do you even manage to do with all that time Shadow?" She brought her hand down and grabbed him by the arm, pulling him away from his house. "You better eat that apple because thats your breakfast, we better go back to the city and fill that stomach up before it implodes inside of you." Rouge knew that that wasn't true, he could go for days without eating in fact, all perks about being an illegal experiment made by grand papa Gerald. Truthfully, she would rather treat him like a person and push him to do all these things, it'd just make them both feel better in a way.

Shadow just let himself be dragged off into the city, his eyes had dulled with boredom and his ears were being drowned out with the ramblings coming out of the young woman's mouth.

xxx

A bat and hedgehog sat outside under an umbrella, food brought to them by a golden cat waitress who had set their goods onto the table. Smiling at the two before walking back into the inside of the restaurant. Shadow's steam powered boots had tapped onto the cold floor, his head held up by his hand and his other hand shoving a spoon full of creamed corn into his mouth. Rouge had already ate some salad and was glupping down some fine wine, the glass being twirled around her fingers as she watched Shadow eat. The hedgehog felt her gaze on him the whole time, it genuinely creeped him out. He dropped the spoon onto his plate, giving the snowy bat an annoyed expression.

"Mind telling me what's so fascinating about me eating?"

"Mind telling me what's been wrong with you lately?"

Shadow's eyes flashed for a split second. "..I don't know what you're talking about."

"You paused for a second there."

Shadow turned away, crossing his arms. Rouge had placed her hand on his shoulder, raising her brow.

"Now listen, you moody hedgehog. I know it's not my place to-"

"Then don't."

Rouge took a deep breath before continuing. "You've been more distant than usual. Something going on with that head of yours and all I've managed to get outta you is some childish fairy tale, which I know Maria had taken part in. I know she's always in your mind somewhere, but this is just unhealthy."

"Who are you to tell me what is healthy for me and what is not?"

Rouge set down her wine glass and rubbed soothing circles over her temples, "Shadow, hun. I know I'm not the best person to talk to this about, but you literally talk to no one besides me and, as much as I hate to admit it, I feel like I should considering I do care for you. I should at least try and be more of a friend to you by doing this."

Shadow sighed and took what she said into consideration. Rouge was the only person he would talk to and legitimately consider a friend, or at least close to it, no matter how much she tried to pester him. He'd been alone ever since Maria had left and was used to keeping to himself, until that one faithful night going into her club and attempting to drink but utterly failed, that's when Rouge had come along and got him talking. Rouge knew that he was not a real person, or rather born as one. Rouge knew that Maria meant a lot to him and knew how Shadow worked, hell she even knew more things were on his mind even if he was practically unreadable to most. Shadow hated that. He'd noticed that Rouge had been patietnly waiting for a response and even took a sip out of the wine glass she started to twirl between her fingers once more.

"..To tell you the truth, I'm not sure either."

Rouge seemed to have been studying him, possibly trying to see if he was lying to her or not. Surely enough, she found nothing and set herself back down to her seat.

"If that's the case, then.. just when you figure out what you're dealing me, talk to me, alright?" Shadow just nodded, and got a warm smile from his friend but it disappeared as she whipped out a book and slid it over to Shadow. Shadow was confused as the book hit the edge of his plate and also made it fall off, he glared softly at the bat before holding it between his hands.

"Mind telling me what this is?"

"I literally just explained it. All you have in your head now is Maria and some kids tales. Thought I'd get you something to start off with, the librarian near the club looked at me like I was crazy for getting it. I ignored them of course."

Shadow felt himself chuckle a bit at the librarian part, Rouge genuinely looked bored of the conversation now and continued to look away, slurping his wine once more.

"Now, eat. Can't keep that handsome face for long without some food in your system." Rouge spotted a small smile come her way from her friend, and smirked to herself.

xxx

Shadow had bidded Rouge farewell before he walked back off into the direction of his house, it wasn't long until he was back outside his house and observing his crops again. He shuffled around the dead leaves and vines and wondered if he had somehow missed something. He had traps for pests and they had all worked efficiently until just recently, what was going on?

His mind suddenly wandered back into the path of his memory.

'The Feathered'

Shadow's ear perked up at the sound of a sudden cooing sound coming up from the trees in the forest, he looked up and swore he saw a bird with the snowiest layer of feathers ever. The bird had cooed once again and fluffed it's wings, both of their eyes were locked. The bird had blinked and titled their head at the hedgehog before flying over and around him. Shadow was surprised at the bird's behavior and was thoroughly confused, he felt the bird peck and tug at his fine collared gloves. He took his arm away from the bird and then they started to tug at their collar.

"What are you.." Shadow asked the beautiful yet increasingly annoying white dove in a quiet voice. The dove had fled over to the edge of the forest and cooed back at the puzzled hedgehog as they stood upon a snapped off vine that most likely came from his food garden. He raised his eye ridge as he walked over and held the piece between his fingers and examined it closely.

"Did this come from my-" He looked back up and saw the trail of dirt and pieces of ripped up skins of food, the bird who started to fly around him again before diving in through his window. Shadow felt himself shout out as they flew out and into the forest with the small journal in their feet. He dashed right after them without a second thought, cursing under his breath as he almost crashed into a tree on the way.

"Mother of- Get back here!" He leaped over the knee-deep waters of the lake with the help of some small rocks sticking out of them in a randomized order. He couldn't bear to get himself soaked, his fur took too long to dry off completely, same would go towards his vest and strapped on boots. His foot had slipped its edge into the turf of the water as he prepared a big leap towards land again, sure enough he had got across, but not without wetting the heels of his shoes a tiny bit. The bird was watching from a thin branch, waiting before they set flight again. Shadow groaned and kept himself going after it before the dove had landed in a clearing. Shadow had launched himself towards the bird who flew away just in time before they would get crushed under Shadow's weight. The hedgehog could hear the screams of victory set off inside his mind as he stared towards the white avian with deadly crimson eyes.

"You little- hey!", Shadow had hoped to at least release some of the wrath of their rather splendid use of curses onto the annoying creature but couldn't as he was faced with a torn up mansion. The bird had set themselves on a small fountain that seemed to have had some rainwater leftover from last week's out of the blue rainstorm, which had surprised a lot of people including him. He had to wait around 3 days before his fur returned to it's natural shining look. He stood up with the journal in his hand, walking over and placing himself right besides the fountain. He shot a glare to the bird who started to peck at their wings continuously.

"This conversation is not over." he said slowly, his voice threatening, the dove ignored them again, no surprise there.

He took a few steps forward, hesitating slightly. He observed the perimeter, the surroundings being covered by nature obviously since they were deep inside the woods. He cocked his ears around, searching for anything, or perhaps anyone who could be lurking around here, watching him. He tensed up at the thought, if there was one thing in the world you should definitely not do, it was spy on Shadow. He would not appreciate it and would show it in a way where you'd be screaming for your mother. Nothing. He had heard absolutely nothing besides the chirping and tweeting erupting from the trees around them.

Looks like no one will die today.

He laid his hand on his hip, a quiet hum buzzed behind his closed lips. The house was completely taken over by nature. Vines and plants looked etched onto them, trailing into windows and the surface with some pretty flowers sprouting up in some areas. Looking above all of that, thick branches found their way up and broke through the windows, also covered in vines. He peered inside the windows, it was dark, the only light was from this solo window he peeped out of which wasn't covered up like the others. He stared harder through the lightly worn glass, placing his hands onto it and squinting his eyes. Though he knew leaning onto the glass certainly wasn't going to help, he felt it was still necessary, in some way. I don't know you should ask him about it.

Squinting certain seem to do him some good since he thought he saw a bookshelf, wait.. two bookshelves. No, no. Was this a whole library? What's a whole library doing out here in the middle of the woods? Is someone here or is this place really abandoned?- His thoughts were interrupted when he heard a big splash behind him, he snapped his head back to see the bird flapping their wings and playing around in the fountain. Shadow's face scrunched up in a tight glower aimed towards the bird, before scoffing and looking back inside with unimpressed eyes. Soon enough, his eyes began to grow weary and he rubbed at them. He was curious about what kinds of books they had left over and if any would be about fairy tales. He started to consider actually going in and- no.

Shadow tore himself always from the glass in an over dramatic form. The bird tilted their head and cooed slightly.

Shadow, no. You can't just go running around in places that aren't known to you. Your hidden curious nature is showing. Stop it now before it's too late.

..He was wondering if exploring this new found discovery he had made would really be a good idea. He was sure he could take on whatever was in store for him around this unknown place, seeing as he was not your average mobian, but would still prefer not to. He was a pretty good boy until messed with, you know.

He walked around the building some more before coming across a door, he reluctantly reached out to turn the knob. His ear twitched as a slight squeal emerged from the door's hinges, it expected it to be loud enough to scare all the crows in the area and fly up into the air as a group, screaming and all to add to dramatic effect. He was pleased that it didn't happen anyway. He looked in through the small opening before opening it completely. It was dark, but lighter now since he had opened the door. He was right, there were bookshelves practically invading the place with books stacked as their supposed commanders on deck. He sighed to himself as he used his hand to pinch the skin between his eyes.

He was sure he was going to regret this later on.

Up the stairs was a two tailed cub humming to themselves as they seemed to be drawing out a planning sheet of some sort onto the chalkboard and holding out a hardcover jet engine study in the other. His ear twitched as he heard the door shut in the bottom floor. Sonic was back already? He usually wasn't back until sundown and it was barely starting to set. He walked over to the edge and peered over from the top of the indoor balcony, a smile spread onto his face as he was about to welcome his friend back but stopped abruptly. Sonic didn't look like himself, his fur was darker and he wore a deep red vest with dark strapped on boots. He had red stripes on his upturned quills and his wings weren't there and he looked like he was reading a book- Oh my god that is not Sonic.

He almost threw himself to hide behind a small bookcase. He felt his heart jump into his throat, all he could hear was his heart threatening to explode and his mind was screaming internally. Who was that guy and what is he doing here?! Why didn't the birds set off the alarm when they saw him?! What does he want?! Is he going to hurt me?! This hasn't happened before. He was always lucky when it came to people not finding their lonely houses, but looks like that luck had run out. Tails wasn't sure what to do in situations like this and Sonic still wasn't back to help him figure this out! Tails' instant instinct was to just curl up and die right there in his spot. He looked over by the edge of the bookcase and was thankful the guy wasn't staring up at him by now. He still seemed to be reading something.. Tails knew this guy was definitely not Sonic by now. Sure, the guy was a hedgehog and with darker colors but what really set the alarms off for him was the fact that he had no wings and was reading a book. Sonic never sets his hand on one of those things, let alone bat an eye at them. He always had his mind set out on actual adventuring and exercising instead of relying on stories to entertain him like Tails did.

Tails flinched when the hedgehog had turned around, but they were still focused on their story. Tails still couldn't make out their face in the darkness but he could see the rest of him. He seemed to have had some chest fur sticking out that he was smoothing out, which Tails found a bit funny since he knew the feeling but still didn't improve his whole attitude on the situation. The guy certainly had an appearance that shouted out 'Back off' to anyone who laid eyes on him, his quills seemed to polish that assumption as they looked more aggressive than most hedgehogs he's ever seen, including Sonic's. Although he might've looked part, he certainly didn't act like it. He held the books with care as his eyes scanned through it. His posture wasn't crooked, but lean and sturdy like he had some muscle on him. Tails found themselves wondering if they would really consider hurting him seeing as how he wasn't really posing himself as a threat to anyone here, probably because he thought no one else was here with him but that's besides the point. He didn't look mean at the moment, just content and focused. Tails crawled over to their desk, equipping a handmade gun he had made recently. He hasn't tested it out yet but if worse came to worse, he'd use the guy on the bottom of the stairs as practice. He decided to be a brave boy like his friend and take matters into his own hands, also if Sonic came bursting in to find that guy whilst he was actually not wanting to cause trouble he'd pounce onto him faster than you can say uh oh bananas.

Tails cautiously and slowly stepped down from the base, his gun being held behind in the back of his belt and still somewhat in his grip at the same time. The hedgehog didn't seem to notice that either, he internally let out a deep sigh of relief. Reaching the base of the stairs, a loud creak finally emitted itself from the aged floor. The fox kid's eyes widened as the hedgehog's head finally turned to face them. They could see their eyes more clearly now, shining ruby reds, staring back at him with surprise etched into them. The urge to curl up and die was running back into him as the hedgehog stepped over to him. Oh where could Sonic be?

A/N: oops, cliffhanger. Haha fuck my life

Favorites and follows are great, but reviews help me improve and let me know that people want more, so do that if you want these to come out faster m'kay? By e

Story last updated: July 23, 2015