A/N: Don't expect later chapters to be anywhere near as long as this monstrocity. But enjoy reading.


"Aw, Knux." Sonic sagged in relief, before standing and running over to him. "You shouldn't have."

"Was I… interrupting something?" Knuckles said giving Sonic a dark look before passing the pie to him.

Sonic shook his head, "Nah, me and Tails were just having a discussion, weren't we bud?" He looked back at Tails a slightly forced grin on his face.

Tails didn't speak for moment not trusting himself not to scream at the interruption. He didn't want to look like a little kid screaming when he didn't get his way, he was nine, he had to seem mature. Finally, he closed his eyes and swallowed his frustration, before looking away.

"Yeah," Tails grumbled crossing his arms. "Just a discussion."

"A very loud discussion." A feminine voice came from in the house, followed a familiar pink set of quills.

"Amy!" Sonic beamed, "Glad you made it."

"Pfft. As if I'd miss Tails' birthday bash." She pointedly walked past Sonic who winced when she ignored his outstretched hand.

"Guess the whole talking things out didn't work, huh Sonic." Knuckles whispered as she went past, a comment that earned him a death glare from both hedgehogs. He held up his mitts as he backed away from the pinkette. He leaned over to whisper in Sonic's ear and Tails felt his ear twitch as he could barely make out his words. "...didn't tell her... Highness... wouldn't if I were..."

"Not. The. Time. Knuckles." Sonic ground out.

Amy sniffed and ignored the comment before making her way over to the table, and placed a large bowl she'd been carrying down. "Rose Family Secret Soup," she said looking at it rather proudly. "Just like my mother makes it."

She glanced over quickly spotting Tails, suddenly squealing loudly before running over and practically lifting him off the ground pulled him into a bone-crushing hug. "Oh, Tails! It's so great to see you again! Nine years old today!"

"Ack!" Tails chocked at the back breaking strength being applied to his skeleton. "Good to see you too Amy, it's been a while!"

"Oh yeah." Amy squeezed tighter, "It feels not so long ago that Sonic asked me to babysit you! I'm sure the party will be amazing!"

Tails thought he felt his rib audibly creak as he scrabbled desperately against her back gasping for air. "Amy!" he croaked eyes bulging from their sockets, "Can't breathe!"

"Oh no!" She immediately released her grip letting him drop to the ground with a thump.

"I'm so sorry, I guess I just got a little carried away there." She rubbed the back of her head, chuckling sheepishly.

"S'alright." Tails wheezed rubbing at his aching chest as he sucked beautiful, precious, life-giving oxygen into his lungs. "It happens." Of course, normally Amy's abnormal strength was applied to Sonic when he wasn't fast enough to get away from her advances. Tails was very glad he was almost never on the receiving end; the older girl could be utterly terrifying when fixated on something.

"You alright bud," Sonic said as he walked over to put Knuckles' pie on the table.

"Yeah," Tails said as he pulled himself to his feet, ignoring Sonics' hurt look as he refused his outstretched hand. Maybe it was petty, but until Sonic wanted to be honest with him, he felt like he had the right to be a little petty.

'You know you're not being quite as honest as you could be either you know,' a snide voice whispered from l back of his mind. Tails ruthlessly crushed the thought down; it wasn't the same thing at all.

"Right then," Sonic muttered out loud. "Hey Ames' you know when Cream and Vanilla are getting here?"

"Soon I think," Amy said a little coolly. She was still pointedly not looking at him. "Vanilla said she'd be taking Cream to Station Square for new clothes this afternoon. They shouldn't be too long."

Tails looked between the two of them slightly confused at the sudden frostiness between the two hedgehogs' normally Amy would be draping herself all over Sonic by now. And Sonic would be politely trying to find an excuse not to be in the same room as her or running away.

What the heck had happened between now and when they saw each other a couple of months ago at the last group get together? His mind flickered back to Knuckles comment a few minutes ago. Who was the 'Highness' he'd mentioned, it couldn't be Blaze she lived two dimensions over and besides she and Amy got along well enough didn't they? There was that Sally he'd overheard Sonic talking to before, but then again, he'd never heard him call her any kind of title. So, was there another third girl in the mix?

Tails smirked slightly at Sonic's turned back, mentally rubbed his hands in glee. Oh, that would be fun to work on. And getting Knuckles to spill the beans would be child's play and then he would have a whole new thing to tease Sonic over.

He paused at the thought, okay that sounded a little meaner than he intended. Maybe he was a being more of a little pain in the tail than he should be but Sonic deserved it, and besides it was his duty as a little brother to be a little—.

"You guys' hear that?"

'Speak of the devil,' Tails thought as the Echidna interrupted his inner monologue.

"I don't hear anything—" Amy began only to be cut off by Sonic lifting a finger as if to shush her. Her cheeks went pink and she opened her mouth to protest only to pause as faint whine sounded in the air.

Sonic glanced around before looking upwards, he paused before glancing back at them and rolled his eyes. He proceeded to whistle innocently, wandering casually over to the pile of party streamers still left on the ground.

"Sonic? What are you doing?" Tails asked curiously, but before the hedgehog could answer the sound grew louder and more recognisable.

"Caaaaaaaaaaanooooooonbaaaalll!"

A black and yellow blur suddenly rocketed out of the sky directly towards the large pile of confetti.

Quick as a flash Sonic's hand snatched the blur out of the air and spun on his heels bleeding off its momentum, before jerking to a sudden stop.

"Ya know Charmy. If you wanted to go diving, the Tornado's hanger is right by the beach. Confetti and mud aren't really a good substitute." Sonic said with a grin.

The Bee grunted and wriggled fruitlessly in the hedgehogs' grip, before looking up at him with a cheeky grin. "How would you know that Sonic, did you have a try?"

Sonic chuckled and let go of the Bee who quickly buzzed his wings as not to land flat on his butt. "No, but Vector will try to eat me alive if you eat dirt on my watch."

"Yeah right." Charmy brushed off some imaginary dust from his shoulder, shifting a wrapped box under his arms. "Everyone knows you're too fast for the boss to get. Or is it that 'he's too sloow'!" He said the last part in a surprisingly good imitation of Sonics' classic taunt.

Sonic shook his head, snickering a little at the bee's impression, "I never said he'd succeed."

Charmy shook his head still wearing that wide grin as he turned to the rest of the group surrounding him. "Oh, hi guys. Long time, no see, what's up?"

"You just tried dive bombing us and spraying us with confetti," Amy said with an exasperated expression, "that's what's up."

"Bah," Charmy waved her off uncaringly, "Who made you the fun police?" He pulled down an eyelid and stuck out his tongue at her before turning to Tails. "Oh yeah! Hey there Tails. Fist BUMP!" He thrust a fist towards Tails' expectantly.

Grinning Tails slammed his knuckles against the younger Bees hand. "Never change Charmy!"

The Bee had physically changed very little since their first meeting during the Metal Overlord incident, but he'd steadily become more of a prankster over the last couple of years. Teepeeing a house, overnight make-up application, and of course the classic whoopee cushion. Anything was an option. And anyone could end up a target. No one was safe not even Sonic, more recently however Charmy had become obsessed with getting one over on Amy. Who when it came to the bee, seemed to have eyes out the back of her head.

Tails on the other hand as the only boy close to his own age had seemed to avoid the worst of the Bees' rampages, only suffering the occasional mummification by toilet paper and missing tool kits.

"How you been Charmy?" Tails couldn't help but let his eyes be drawn to the box-shaped object under the bees' arm.

"Oh, boring, Espio's not teaching me anything new yet until I stop pestering the Boss about School. The Boss has gotten me booked in for school next year! Can you believe it?"

Tails groaned mentally as he prepared himself for another of the Bee's rants. Charmy was a good guy but when he felt he was being picked on unfairly he wouldn't stop talking about it. A glance Knuckles and Amy told him they felt the same way. Sonic of course was nowhere to be seen; out of all of them he'd always find the best excuse to escape.

Charmy shook his head unaware of his audience's mental torment, "I mean c'mon! Me? At human school? I'd die of boredom in days. Do you know how dull humans are? Really dull. I make one crack about him and Miss Vanilla and he signs me up to learn manners or something stupid like that, do I seem like I need to go to school for that. I mean—." The bee paused realizing that his audience had stopped listening, he looked back and forth between his arm and Tails' eyes slightly confused

Looking around he took in everyone else's glazed over expressions and snapped his fingers, "Oh duh," Charmy rolled his eyes before holding out the box he'd been carrying out to Tails.

"Happy Birthday, dude!"

Tails shook his head ridding himself of the growing cobwebs in his brain and grinned eagerly taking the offered box. "Thanks, Charmy!" He shook the box lightly, ears twitching as it rattled. "What've you got for me this year?"

"I think gifts can wait 'till everyone else gets here," Sonic called out as he reappeared from gathering up the confetti that had been strewn everywhere. "Cream and Vanilla aren't here yet."

"Aww, man!" Charmy crossed his arms pouting. "I thought here I thought I was being fashionably late!"

"You live with a ninja chameleon chunni and a loudmouth crocodile who solves mysteries," Knuckles said lightly as he poured himself some punch. "In what way are you fashionable."

"More fashionable than an Echidna who lives alone on an island all year round! Heyoo!" Grinning Charmy raised a hand towards Tails as if seeking a high five.

Tails looked from the hand to the Bees face and back again with an unimpressed expression.

Charmy pouted, "Needs work?"

"Just a little?" Tails said dryly.

The Bee rolled his eyes and blew a raspberry in the older Echidnas' direction. "Party Poopers," he muttered sullenly.

A rumbling sound suddenly echoed through the garden, drawing all eyes in their direction. "Hehe," Charmy blushed and tapped his fingers together, "You guys got anything to eat, flying all the way here's got me famished."

A round of snickers was all that answered him

It was only a short time later when everyone had piled their plates high that the final guests called to say they'd arrived.

Sonic had gone to meet them at the front door, which gave Tails just the opening he needed to do some information gathering

He sidled up to Knuckles silently, the Echidna was chowing down on a bowl of Amy's soup with a gusto.

"Hey, Knuckles?"

"GAGH," the older Mobian practically jumped out of his skin sending red tomato soup slopping out of the bowl and all down his front. Knuckles stared down at his now red dripping chest before slowly turning his head in Tails' direction. A single raised eyebrow was all the emotion he wore as he stared the young fox down. Said fox felt sweat begin to bead on his forehead under the heat of the glare.

"Eh heh," Tails gave him a sheepish grin scratching the back of his head. "I guess it good we don't wear clothes."

Knuckles continued to stare at him before looking back at his now empty bowl and sighing. "Of all the things you could imitate Sonic in, it had to be his ability to sneak up on people."

Tails tapped his lips, trying to think of a way to appease the red echidna. "Well at least the front now matches the rest of you." The moment the words left his lips he mentally slapped himself.

Knuckles looked back at him with an odd expression before placing the bowl down, and dragged a gloved hand down his face mumbling something. Tails thought he caught the words 'way too alike' but he couldn't be sure.

"Alright kid," Knuckles dropped the hand, looking back at him with a small grin. "What do you want before you dig that hole any deeper?"

Tails looked up at him slyly, "I just couldn't help but overhear what you said earlier, about a 'highnesses. So, spill, who has Sonic rescued this time? They a princess or something? Have they tried to kiss him yet?"

Knuckles blinked at the question, "Highness? You don't—? You haven't…"

"Yeah?" Tails leaned in with the most innocent expression he could muster.

Knuckles looked away scratching at his ear, "I don't know. I don't think it's something I should be telling you."

"According to Sonic you have two brown thumbs." Tails said flatly.

The Echidna spun to face him, his eye twitching. "What do you want to know!?"

Cracking victorious grin Tails opened his mouth—

"Hello everyone!"

Tails deflated slightly and turned back to the house, "Hey there Miss Vanilla." He called back as the Rabbit Matriarch stepped through the door.

He turned back to the Echidna, "you'll tell me everything later? I need teasing material."

Knuckles' response was a lopsided smirk, "Teasing material, huh. You really are too much like Sonic sometimes, you know that?"

Tails shrugged giving him a smug grin. "Hey, he raised me, he should have seen it coming."

'And it's the least he deserves right now,' he thought darkly.

Knuckles chuckled, before glancing back to the house. "Looks like they're having a problem, you want to be like the Hedgehog so much why don't you help out. I'm going to clean up."

Seeing that the Echidna was not going to be forthcoming Tails pouted a little before leaving the Echidna in peace and heading up to where Sonic and Miss Vanilla seemed to be having an argument with a door.

"Cream, sweetie." Vanilla was saying to the closed door. "You look fine, come on out. I'm sure no one here's going to tease you."

"I don't know about that," Sonic said scratching his chin. "Charmy's here and you know what that little shi—" He cut himself off as Cream's Mother suddenly seemed to loom over him, a frozen smile on her lips.

"Ah-ah-uh! But I'm sure he'll behave! I'll make sure of it, yeah!" Sonic quickly corrected himself.

Vanilla's smile softened again and turned back to the door.

"Uh," Tails hesitantly interrupted. "Is everything alright?"

Sonic looked back at him tiredly, "Tails' it's fine, we got this. It's your party go have fun."

Tails looked at him flatly and then ignoring him turning to Vanilla, "What's the problem Miss Vanilla?"

"Cream's just a bit shy," Vanilla sighed. "Amy helped her pick out some new clothes today and now she's afraid she will be made fun of."

Tails looked between the two of them before shaking his head. and rapped hard on the door. "Cream? It's Tails, you okay."

"Huh… Tails?" A voice clearly trying to hold back the sniffles replied.

"Yeah," Tails smiled softly. "Why don't just open the door a little, I'm not going to tease you I promise."

"No," Cream hiccupped. "You're just going to make fun of me."

"No, I'd never do that." Tails called back, "Cross my heart, I'm sure you look great."

A chirping noise came from behind the door.

"You think so Cheese, but what about Charmy?" Cream's voice came quietly.

The chirping came again which was followed by silence on Cream's part.

Tails looked over at Sonic for help, who shrugged. "Vector told me he'd be on his best behaviour but we all know how much he listens to the big lug."

Tails suppressed a sigh but he had to agree, Charmy was good friend but the hyperactive bee barely had a sense of restraint at the best of times. Plastering a smile over his face he knocked on the door again. "Cream? No one's going to make fun of your new clothes, at least I'm not anyway. But if Charmy says anything I promise that I'll whack him with a wrench."

"You promise?"

"Cross my heart." Tails replied with a smile. "Now come on and open up. I haven't seen you in ages."

A long pause met his words, and Tails opened his mouth to utter another reassurance. Suddenly the door was jerked wide open revealing the young rabbit girl hiding behind it, a worried looking blue Chao hovered over her head.

She held her head off to the side, her eyes tightly closed. She was clearly nervous about what he would say. Tails took her in, at seven years old she had since outgrown the blue and orange dress that had been her trademark almost as long as Tails had known her.

Replacing it she wore a yellow-orange hoodie with a stylised pair of Chao marking the sleeves. A pair of blue shorts fell just past her knees. The hoodie looked slightly large on her though that might have been the way that she was trying to shrink in on herself as she waited for his opinion.

As a boy Tails wasn't really one for wearing clothes outside formal occasions so he knew his view was skewed. But as he looked at her, he really couldn't see anything wrong with it. Honestly, it made her look a little cute with the way her nose was scrunched up.

"Well, I'm not the best to ask for fashion advice." Tails smiled, looking down at himself, "but you look great to me Cream."

Slowly Cream seemed to relax, opening her eyes a crack she peeked at him shyly. "You really think so Tails?"

'Why is she blushing?' Tails thought, confused at the sudden pink dusting now colouring her cheeks. 'All I did was say her clothes looked nice. Shouldn't she be less shy or embarrassed after that?'

Keeping that to himself however, he nodded emphatically, smiling at her. "Yeah. You look amazing Cream, now come on I'm sure there's plenty of food and gam— OOF!"

He was cut off as the air was suddenly driven from his lungs by a Rabbit shaped missile slamming in to his midsection and wrapping her arms around his chest.

"Thank you, thank you, thank you!" Cream squeaked happily.

"Uh, your welcome?" Tails responded; gently patting her on the back, suddenly getting the odd feeling he'd missed something.

A snort drew his attention towards Sonic who was looking between the two of them with a hand over his mouth, his eyes sparkling mischievously.

"Cream." Vanilla remarked, an echo of laughter in her own voice. "I think Tails would like his lungs back now. Shall we go see Mr. Knuckles over there. We haven't seen him for a long time, have we?"

"Okay Mama," Cream said letting go of him, her face beaming at him. Taking her mother's hand, she waved at them as they walked away, Cheese following them. "Bye Mr. Sonic. Bye Tails."

Tails stared after them dazed. "Uh, what was that about?"

Another half-suppressed snort brought him back to reality. Turning to a now whistling Sonic who had taken a sudden interest in his fingertips, Tails glared at him.

"What's so funny? What did I do?"

"Who me? You mean you didn't see it?" Sonic seemed genuinely surprised.

"I'm serious;" Tails said, confusion filling his voice. "What did I do to get that reaction?"

The hedgehog gave him a sidelong glance before chuckling again and looking up at the clouds. "Sorry Tails, sometimes I forget with how smart you are that you're still a kid sometimes."

Tails folded his arms, narrowing his eyes at the hedgehog. "Oh? And what wisdom. Oh, great and mature one, do you have to bestow upon me?" His tone came out more biting than he intended but Sonic seemed to ignore it as he placed an arm around his shoulders.

"Then listen closely to your elders," Sonic mock-whispered. He pointed at Cream who was now twirling in front of Knuckles showing off her new look. "You see her? That girl thereon yonder? The one you so graciously complimented on her new appearance, the one who—"

"Sonic! The point!" Tails growled, his eye beginning to twitch.

The hedgehog grinned at him unrepentantly. "Alright, Tails alright. The truth is, I'm pretty sure she likes you."

Tails squinted at him disbelievingly. "Um Sonic, sorry to say this but… duh! Were friends, of course she likes me."

Shaking his head Sonic chuckled and leaned in almost conspiratorially. "Ha, no. Tails, I mean. She LIKES you."

"She… LIKES me? what do you—" It took a moment for the meaning of Sonic's words to filter into Tails' brain, "oh... OH!"

Sonic snickered loudly as the realization spread across Tails' face. "Super high IQ and now he figures it out." But his words didn't penetrate as Tails stood rooted to the spot as an unfamiliar mix of emotion suddenly welled up inside him.

Shock. Surprise. Interest. Fear. Nervousness. All these emotions and more raged inside his chest as he wrestled with a fact that could be summed up in three words and yet couldn't be confined by them.

Cream liked him.

His chest suddenly felt tight, "But… how? When?" He tugged at his ears; mouth suddenly dry as he tried to separate his emotions. "Why me?"

"Why not you?" Sonic replied slapping him on the back. "You're a good person. Brave, resourceful, fairly strong, ridiculously smart." He ticked each attribute off on his fingers one by one. Tails felt his face heat up at the sudden praise.

"And," he smirked at Tails steadily growing blush. "Tails I'm going to be blunt here, but you're a good-looking kid. Trust me, the ladies are going to be throwing themselves at you in a few more years."

Groaning, Tails buried his face in his hands as he felt the heat spread up to the tips of his ears, he wouldn't have been surprised if steam whistled out of them at that moment. "Soonniiiiic." He whined in embarrassment.

Sonic shrugged still smiling that odd smile. "Hey, I'm just telling it like it is."

"But… but…" Tails cast around for an excuse to end this conversation. "She's seven!"

"And you're nine," Sonic countered. "Not much of a difference in age there, plus you're both still kids' bud. I mean hey maybe it's just a crush, but…" He shrugged, his green eyes shining with barely restrained humour. "All I'm saying is that Cream liking you isn't something to freak out over, you're a genius. You'll figure things out."

"Stop it!"

Sonic blinked, looking non-plussed. "Stop what?"

Tails' lips twisted as a conflicting mix of emotions rose up in his chest once again. "Stop, acting all mature and big brotherly all of a sudden, after everything we said. Making me feel like I'm the bad guy for getting angry earlier. I'm supposed to be mad at you, I want to be mad at you. You lied to me; you've been lying to me for who knows how long!"

He hesitated rubbing at his eyes, before continuing in a whisper. "So why do I feel so bad all of a sudden? Why do I still want you to be proud of me? I feel like a little kid again and I don't know why."

Sonic blinked surprise filling his features for a moment, before his expression morphed into something far more serious.

"First of all, Tails." Sonic's murmured solemnly, all sense of levity gone. "You are a little kid. Don't be in such a hurry to grow up, this time you have now is something precious, don't waste it trying to be something you're not." He closed his eyes, breathing in deeply before opening them again. "But more importantly, if I haven't said this enough, then I'm truly sorry. But I am proud of you." He pulled Tails against his chest in a kind of half-hug. "I truly am proud of the person you've become. The person I know you're going to be. I get you're still mad at me, but the one thing that's never going to change is how much I love you. No matter how deservingly mad you get at me. No matter how much you yell at me. I'll still love you."

"I am still really mad at you," Tails whispered dropping his hands. He looked up at the older Mobian intently a hand over his chest. "I don't what your reasons are but you lied to me. That hurts, it really hurts. I don't think I even know if I can trust you anymore Sonic and… it scares me."

Sonic nodded sadly, "Hey, I get it. I deserve that. And I promise I will tell you what's going on someday, but…" he trailed off and sighed. "We'll talk about this later alright, I swear it. Let's... let's just have fun today, okay."

He hugged Tails one last time before letting go, making his way towards the growing group that was congregating around the tables.

Tails followed frowning, lost in thought. He hadn't lied. He was still furious with Sonic, but Sonic was right that this wasn't the time to confront him over it.

His family could wait one more day, they hadn't come for him yet, and getting mad at Sonic for his secrets wasn't going to bring them here. Still, not knowing who or where they were. It made his chest hurt. It hurt more than he thought it would. And now he had to think about how to approach Cream as well. It was almost too much.

Sonic grabbed a hot dog and spooned a large helping of Chilli over it from a nearby pot, despite himself Tails almost laughed. You could always trust Sonic to set himself a pot of chilli at any special occasion. Birthdays, holidays, any celebration he always somehow ended up with a Chilli Dog by the end no matter how unlikely it was for them to be there. It was pretty much his go to comfort food.

'…Comfort food?' Tails froze in place as a new perspective suddenly clicked into place.

Whenever Sonic was upset or had recently come from dealing with fight with Eggman or another stressful thing he always made himself up a ton of Chilli dogs.

Tail's mind went back to various incidents where he himself been upset. Sonic always seemed to know when something was bothering him and set up something sweet and highly chocolaty and then cooked up a ton of chilli.

Sonic was upset with something, really upset. His first thought went to their fight the timing didn't add up. Sonic had been cooking all morning setting up this spread, meaning that he'd either been expecting something to happen for him to need it. Or, something about the day itself was upsetting to him. Tails' brow furrowed in thought; actually, Sonic had had Chilli Dogs on his birthday as far back as he could remember, did his birthday coincide with something bad.

Why hadn't he ever said anything? How many times had Tails been having fun and been completely ignorant that his adoptive brother had been hurting inside. If this was true how on earth had he not realised this before.

Tails was drawn out of his thoughts as Sonic coughed loudly, drawing everyone's attention towards him. "I think we all know why we're all here." His voice had taken on an oddly formal tone as if he was addressing a large crowd of snobby upper crust aristocrats. "We are here to celebrate the birth of someone who is near and dear to all our hearts, for some more than others." He added with a wink at Tails as his gaze swept over Cream. Tails buried his face in his hand as he felt the blood rush towards his cheeks again. "Now there are a lot of people who I wish could have been here but can't for various reasons, so I want to thank all you for making it. So, thank you, all of you, for actually showing up to this little gathering."

A silence so quiet that you could hear a cricket coughing filled the garden as the small group stared at the Hedgehog. The same look of dread on everyone's faces, a speech was the last thing anyone would have expected or wanted from the Hedgehog.

"And further more I would like to say that... the looks on your faces are hilarious!" Sonic said suddenly relaxing, "Let's get this party started huh!" He spun and hit a stereo that had been hidden behind him and the garden burst into life with the sound of rock and roll.

Charmy's eyes went wide before he cheered bobbing his head to the music. "Crushed Underground!? That guy's awesome!"

"Really?" Knuckles smirked at Sonic, "I always found his songs to be a bit self-referential myself."

Sonic laughed, "You don't like him because he doesn't do rap Knucklehead. But enough about that let's get down and do it to it!"

Despite himself Tails cheered along with everyone else, as the celebration finally got underway.

The party itself was awesome. Tails couldn't recall the last time he'd had a chance to just chill out and play. Even his anger at Sonic couldn't dampen his spirits. The hedgehog had truly gone all out, decorations, games, and food. The table was so laden down that it was threatening to collapse under its own weight. But despite that Tails found himself going back for third, fourth and even fifth helpings. A pretty fun game of Pass the Parcel had ended up with Cream finding herself with a small Chao plush and ear ribbon.

The game of musical chairs had become a fairly nail-biting showdown between Tails and Sonic. A game that whilst Tails had ultimately won, he harboured a distinct feeling the blue hedgehog had thrown the game. The fun and games were a great distraction though and Tails finally felt himself relax, all burning questions could wait until tomorrow but for now he was just going to make the most of his time with his friends after so long.

After a couple of hours however it finally came time for the main event.

Sonic vanished for several minutes before returning with a large covered plate he set down on the central table. "Alright, I think we all can guess what's next? But Tails it's up to you. Do you want this," he gestured to the plate. Or would you rather take presents first?"

Tails stared at the plate longingly, the scent of mint and chocolate was almost overpowering to his nose making him drool. But on the other hand, Presents! He bit his lip; it was so hard to choose. Cake or presents, Cake or Presents. Eventually he turned and looked over at the rest them. He grinned, "Let's save the best for last, show me what you got."

A cheer went up from the small group and before Tails could realize what was happening, he had been picked up and dropped into a chair as a everyone crowded around him lifting him into the air, all the while belting out a rapid-fire round of 'He's a jolly good fellow.' Then just as quickly the chair was set back down as the gang spread out around him.

"Me first. Me first." Cream called out as her mother pulled a neatly wrapped rectangular object out of her bag and handed it to her daughter. Beaming the younger rabbit held it out to him, "Happy Birthday Tails." She said a blush once again dusting her cheeks.

"Why are you so red," Charmy hollered as he buzzed above them. "You too warm in that fluffy little—" Sonic with a blank look snatched him out of the air and out of Tails' view. A smacking sound followed by a sudden cry was all the indication of what followed.

Tails shook his head at the grinning at the antics. "Thanks Cream." Turning his attention to her gift he eagerly attacked the wrapping paper, quickly revealing a rather hefty book.

"Advanced Aerial Mechanics and Fluid Dynamics Volume Twelve?" Tails read the books title aloud in surprise, "how did you know I was after this?"

Cream looked over at Sonic who shrugged at Tails' questioning look. "What," he said sounding slightly offended. "I do listen to you, ya know."

Tails shook his head with an amused snort. "Thanks a bunch Cream," he said. "This'll help with some modifications with the Tornado I've been wanting to do."

"You're welcome, Tails," she responded with a shy smile.

Tails couldn't help but smile back. Her smile becoming bolder as his grew wider.

A slight cough brought their attention back to the world around them, glancing at all the others who were passing knowing gazes at each other, Tails realized embarrassedly how the two of them just staring at each other must have looked. A look back at Cream showed that she'd realized that as well as she was busy burying her face in her mother's dress.

Amy went next, handing a soft looking parcel to him with a sly grin, "Happy birthday, lover boy."

Tails blushed hotly at her tone. God, after today he was going to be stuck looking like a tomato, he was never going to live this down. Swallowing his protests, he opened his next gift.

"Pants?" He squeaked somewhat incredulously as he lifted the brown shorts into the air. They weren't a bad gift or anything, they were made of a tough fabric that wouldn't easily tear with the cuffs turned upwards at the knees, and a surprising number of pockets sewn throughout. Still clothing wasn't something he'd expected as a gift.

"Uh, Amy?" Sonic said scratching at the back of his head awkwardly, looking at the pants in askance. "No, offence. But you do realize Tails is a boy, right?"

Amy scowled taking a menacing step towards the blue hedgehog. "Of course, I do Sonic. What kind of idiot do you take me for."

Sonic took step back raising his hands in front of himself in surrender. "Not, at all it's just… you know…" he smiled in embarrassment. "We guys don't really need to wear pants; I mean I'd get it if it were like some formal shirt or something. But a pair of pants?"

"And what if a guy wanted to wear pants? Why should it be girls who have to wear the clothes all the time!" Amy said sharply.

"But why pants though?" Charmy's voice cut through the growing tension between the two hedgehogs. He looked as confused as Tails felt.

Amy stared at the Bee, before pouting and crossing her arms. "Cargo Shorts. You guys may not know anything about fashion but I know for a fact that you need pockets for your tools and all that junk you guys end up picking up on your adventures."

"I don't know Amy," Knuckles said wrinkling his nose. "Sonic and I just use our quills, they seem to work good enough."

"I don't know if you noticed Knuckles," Amy said sharply. "But Tails is a fox, he doesn't have quills!"

Knuckles raised a mitt as if in rebuttal but seemed to think the better of it and closed his mouth with a clack.

"Well, uh. Anyway," Tails mulled over the right words to say. "Thanks Amy, I'm sure I'll need these at some point... I mean I'm not sure when I would but…" he whispered the last part under his breath unwilling to risk the legendary Wrath of the Piko Hammer.

Amy narrowed her eyes suspiciously before looking away, grumbling something about unfair standards.

Tails let out a breath he hadn't realized he hadn't been holding and turned to Knuckles expectantly. "So, what've you got me Knuckles?"

Knuckles side eyed Amy before reaching into his quills and pulled out a small card. Amy flushed, petulantly puffing out her cheeks at the display.

"Here, this is for and I mean it, one time use only."

Curiously Tails took the card from the Echidna's large paw. "I the Guardian of Angel Island," Tails read aloud. "Hereby give the holder of this card, one time access to the Master Emerald to use in whatever way they see fit."

Tails looked up at the Echidna wide-eyed, "you mean it?"

The Echidna shifted uncomfortably, "I… I couldn't think of anything else okay. I don't know what you get for a nine-year-old so… yeah, I mean it."

"THANK YOU! Thank you! Thank you!" Tails practically tackled the older Mobian. "It's perfect, Thank you so much." He beamed up at the Echidna, which made Knuckles blush a deeper red than his fur.

"Alright," Sonic quickly said. "Let's move on before Knuckles digs a hole to hide in."

A round of laughter swept through the crowd at that, with even the butt of the joke giving a grudging chuckle.

Tails let go slightly chagrined, he couldn't remember the last time he'd acted like that in front of so many.

Blushing he looked at Charmy expectantly who smirked.

However, as the bee began to pass his gift to him, Cream piped up.

"Um, Mr. Sonic where's your present for Tails?"

"Oh, he gave me his gift this morning, see?" Tails lifted the necklace the hedgehog had given that morning for all to see.

"Oh, that's so pretty." Cream whispered, her eyes widening as she took in the glimmering colors that reflected from the medallion. Cheese made a humming noise in agreement.

"I had no idea you had such good taste in jewellery Sonic." Amy mock whispered as she elbowed the hedgehog, Sonic suddenly looking uncomfortable at the half-lidded gaze she was shooting him, quickly sidling away from her and next to Knuckles.

Knuckles however was looking between the medallion and Sonic with a heavy frown, leaning over he muttered something in Sonics ear so softly that Tails couldn't hear. Sonic turned his head to Knuckles with a strange look and gave him a nod followed by a shake of his head. Knuckles rubbed at his eyes tiredly but said nothing.

Following the exchange with a raised eyebrow, Tails filed it away as something else to wheedle out Knuckles later. He smirked, perhaps it about the Princess he'd mentioned earlier.

Tearing the wrapping paper from Charmy's gift he felt his smile fade.

"Huh, new toolkit?" Sonic muttered, frowning slightly.

Tails pursed his lips as he stared down at the familiar looking box in his hands. 'Don't make a scene Tails. Don't make a scene, don't make a scene' he mentally repeated like a mantra. His fingers tightened involuntarily against the plastic of the case.

"Tails," Amy said worriedly. "Is everything alright?

"Ah, don't worry." Charmy smirked rubbing a finger under his nose confidently. "He's probably just speechless with gratitude."

A vague snapping noise suddenly echoed at the back of Tails' mind and he felt his eye start to twitch.

"Charmy?"

The bee paused in his preening, his eyes suddenly becoming wary at Tails' tone of voice. "Yeah? He replied drawing the word out hesitantly.

Tails looked up and smiled. "It's a really nice gift, really. I've been needing a new tool kit for a while. Thanks a bunch…"

"Oh," The Bee relaxed and began smirking again. "Well, that's no problem, you're welc—"

"There just one tiny. Itty Bitty… teeny weeny problem though." Tails interrupted his voice saccharine as he continued smiling revealing just a few to many teeth.

"Y-yeah?" Charmy's voice trembled slightly, his eyes darting around nervously. As if sensing Tails' change in mood the rest of the group seemed to slowly move away from the young bee. "W-what's that?"

"Oh, nothing big," Tails began calmly. "It's just that you… failed to remove my signature from the box!" He spun the yellow and black box around to reveal in clear bold letters; 'PROPERTY OF TAILS! NO TOUCHING! THAT MEANS YOU CHARMY!'

The entire group was silent for a moment as they took in what the Bee had attempted to do.

Charmy swallowed taking in the sudden glares being directed his way. Sweating, he grinned nervously. "Ah… heh. Would it help if I said it was just a joke?"


Amy Rose didn't consider herself to be an angry person. She had her moments of irritation and frustration sure, but anger was not an emotion that she often found herself experiencing. The past few days though had been an experience that had been severely testing her patience. First her home suffered a burst pipe flooding the entire building leading to both her and her parents having to room with Grandma Rosy for the foreseeable future. That wasn't so bad, she loved her grandma to pieces. The elderly hedgehog had been the one to teach her Tarot and fortune telling when she was younger. Something she had treasured ever since.

Then what she had thought was going to be a date with Sonic was put off by him supposedly being sucked into another dimension where he'd had to join forces with a group of knights and fight an evil version of King Arthur. Even after all she had witnessed in the last few years that excuse had been a hard one to swallow.

And then when she had finally gotten that date out of him, Sonic had just sat her down and told her quite flatly that he only saw her as a friend. The nerve of that Hedgehog, he hadn't even given them a chance before shutting her down, he then even had the nerve to invite her to Tails' birthday party as if he hadn't just crushed her heart. The jerk!

Still, she'd come, she couldn't miss the little guy turning nine for the world. She'd thought maybe that she could try and talk to Sonic about the two of them there. But no! The universe seemed to want to kick her while she was down. Knuckles probably thought he'd been discreet whispering like that, but she'd heard him loud and clear.

So now Sonic was in apparently in a relationship with some Princess! A Princess?! Royalty! How on Mobius was she supposed to compete with that! She wanted to scream at him for not telling her. But she forced herself to be calm, this was Tails' day after all it wouldn't do to make a scene. After all a lady should never freakout in public.

That brought her to the current moment when Charmy the Bee had decided Tails would make the perfect subject for one of his stupid pranks! ON HIS BIRTHDAY NO LESS! Regifting something you'd stolen back to the person you stole it from. Even for a little kid that was scummy, she'd suffered the Bees pranks in the past. Whoopee cushions, toy snakes in jars, even somehow getting mummified by a dozen rolls of toilet paper. Something she still couldn't figure out how he'd managed. This though was beyond the pale, and was honestly the final straw.

She felt the familiar smooth handle of her Piko hammer materialise in her palm, the weapon responding to her unconscious demand. She wouldn't hurt the kid, but perhaps a scare would set him straight. Before she could take a step forward however Sonic groaned from beside her.

Sonic groaned drawing a hand down his face. "Seriously? Charmy, I thought you and Vector talked about this."

The Bee just grinned nervously, "What? No, no. You don't get if you just op—"

"Yeah," Cream interrupted. Her voice normally sweet and pleasant tinged with anger, "that was really mean Charmy! You should apologize to Tails right now!"

"Aw, but Cream!" The Bee turned to her his lips trembling.

"No but's, young man!" Vanilla answered her large brown eyes filled with disappointment. "Honestly, I have half a mind to call Vector right this minute! I truly thought you much better behaved than this!"

"What!?" Amy almost giggled aloud as the boy's voice went up an entire octave at Vanilla's pronouncement his pupils constricting to pin pricks. "Oh no. No, no, no. It's just a joke, please don't tell Vector he'll ground me for the rest of my life!" Begging he threw himself at Vanilla's feet, hands clasped in prayer.

"Should've thought about that before you did something like this!" Amy found herself growling, "This has got to be the worst thing you've tried to pull."

"But—"

"Charmy." Amy startled as Tails interrupted the Bee, his voice remarkably pleasant considering what the other boy had just tried to pull. "You're my friend. A real jerk sometimes but a friend. So, I'm giving you a five second head start."

"But- but- but—"

"A five second, head start!" Tails' smile was practically predatory.

Army smirked in satisfaction, at the bee's gaping expression. Tails could be so quiet sometimes one could forget that he was perfectly capable of standing up for himself.

Something in the young bee's expression said that he saw that as well as his wings immediately started buzzing. "Thank you, I'm gonna need it. You're very fast!" And with a squealing sound he shot into the air quickly becoming a black speck in the blue sky.

"And five… four…" Tails counted down as Charmy became a smaller and smaller dot on the horizon. "Threetwoone GO!" Amy threw up an arm to shield her eyes as copious amounts of dust were flung up as the kit launched himself upwards with enough force to blast his chair several feet in the other direction.

Amy coughed blinking rapidly as she took in Tails' small form shrinking as he chased after the bee. Sonic whistled from beside her, to her profound irritation the other hedgehog was practically untouched from the ensuing dust cloud.

"Dang," Sonic said quietly, sounding quite impressed. "Look at him go. A little faster and he'll have broken the sound barrier." He had an odd look of pride on his face as he spoke. "Should probably start training him again, it can really hurt the first time if you're not prepared."

She looked at him sharply, "And would that training have helped him move, without showering all of us in dirt Sonic."

Sonic shrugged. "Eh, trust me he did better than I did when I finally reached that level of speed. I stopped teaching him because he's missing some attributes to really cut the air." He wandered over to where Tails had dropped the toolbox and picked it up, tossing it from one hand to the other. "Now I wonder… did he," he popped the lid open and smiled. "Thought so."

Amy frowned trying to make out what he was referring to, when realization struck. She groaned and drew a hand down her face. "His gift was in the toolbox wasn't it."

Sonic's grin didn't leave his face "Yup." He drew a pair of clean white gloves from the box. "I thought Vector might have warned him from doing this but I guess he wouldn't be Charmy if he ever listened."

"Oh," Vanilla placed a hand over her mouth. "now I feel just awful. Shouldn't we try to get them both down here, I'd hate for one of them to get hurt over this misunderstanding."

"Don't worry about it," Sonic said looking off after to the two distant dots dogfighting overhead. "Tails' won't actually hurt him. Give him a bonk on the head maybe but nothing more than that Vanilla. Besides," He smirked, "If Charmy didn't want this to happen, maybe he shouldn't have made himself look like such an unthinking jerk in the first place."

Amy leaned on her hammer finding herself nodding in agreement, "He's been getting too confident for his own good, maybe he'll think twice about who he's playing tricks on next time."

"Yeah, Charmy's been acting like a mean jerk lately. It's about time someone taught him some manners!" Cream piped up and looking over at her Amy felt her heart skip a beat. The little Rabbit had her arms crossed and a fierce looking scowl on her face, on anyone else it might have been slightly intimidating but on her it just looked adorable.

Sonic smiled at her, "And I guess it's best that Tails is the one to do it, right?"

Cream shied away at Sonic's words, quickly turning to bury her face in her mother's dress. A light pink dusting spread across her cheeks.

Amy forced herself to suppress the squeal of joy that was welling up inside. It was truly cute the way that the younger girl was crushing on the fox. Amy didn't know when exactly it had started but now, she just had to get the details. She looked the rabbit up and down, now that she thought about it; Cream had been oddly insistent on a slightly brighter orange and blue for her new clothes when picking them out. At the time she'd thought that she'd wanted to keep with the up with the colours of her old dress but now…

Amy grinned inwardly. 'Aw, she has it bad.' Hopefully Tails would be more sensitive to a girl's emotions than his brother was. Speaking of whom…

"Oh, Sonic." She called out sweetly. "Can I talk to you alone for minute?"

Fluttering her eyelashes and him, Amy felt a rush of satisfaction as Sonic swallowed nervously. 'Scared? You should be, you big blue jerk!' She thought viciously. 'Did you think that so called date we had was the end of it?'

"Um. Sure Ames. Give me a 'sec." Sonic quickly whizzed around gathering up the small pile of gifts everyone had presented and placed them on a table with a group of other still wrapped presents that Amy was certain hadn't been there a moment ago.

In another instant he was at her side a gentle hand placed on her shoulder. He leant in to whisper in her ear, "I think I know what this is about Amy. Do we really have to do this at Tails' Birthday!?" He voice was mostly gentle but Amy could detect a clipped hint of frustration in it. He was stressed, that much was obvious no matter how much he tried to pretend to be laid back. That fight she had walked in on between him and Tails was obviously put some sort of strain on him.

"This is the only time we're going to be seeing each other for a while Sonic," she hissed back letting her own frustration bleed into her words. "I want an explanation to at least clear the air between us before you go galivanting across the globe again!"

Sonic sighed scratching at his cheek as he considered. "Fine," he said eventually. "But the second Tails gets back down, this is over. Got it?"

"GET BACK HERE YOU PIN BUTTED JERK!" A shout echoed from overhead making everyone with the ability flatten their ears.

Amy smiled slightly, "Something tells me he'll be up there a little bit longer."

Sonic winced, "Kid, has some lungs on him when he needs to that's for sure." He glanced around before pointing over at a small copse of trees just beyond the tables surrounding the gathering. "Over there, should be private enough."

Briefly waving the rest of the group saying they'd be back in a minute, they marched over.

Running his fingers through his long quills Sonic leant against one of the trees with a frown, "I'm guessing this about that dinner we had, right?"

"If you can call sitting on a park bench eating Chilli dogs a dinner." Amy huffed, puffing out her cheeks in minor irritation. It hadn't been much of a date in her opinion but at the time she had just been glad that Sonic had at least been willing to spend time with her. It had started well enough, Sonic bought them both Chilli-dogs and found a secluded bench to sit at in the park. By the end of it though she'd found sitting herself alone crying her eyes out.

The memory of the situation must have shown on her face because Sonic's expression instantly softened. "Oh, Amy." His tone was gentle and filled with regret, "Why didn't you come, talk to me sooner?"

"And risk bursting into tears the moment I saw you?" Amy wiped at the corner of her eye, still dry, good. "I've spent the past week trying to build myself up to not cry on Tails' special day."

Sonic breathed out heavily, "I shouldn't have left. I never meant to hurt you, Ames. Truly I didn't."

"It doesn't matter that you didn't mean it! You did!" Amy sniffed forcing back the ache in her eyes. She would not give Sonic the satisfaction of seeing her cry. "But that doesn't matter, all I want to know is why you accepted my offer of a date in the first place if you were going to turn me down at the end."

The blue hedgehog looked skyward, his green eyes darting every which way as he observed the two children above chasing each across the air. "I've really screwed up lately, haven't I." He said, more to himself than to her, melancholically. He laughed darkly, "I guess I've been screwing up for years." He eyes snapped back to her, "Amy. I wasn't lying when I said I saw you as a friend. I do. I care about, you are like a little sister to me." His bright green eyes were bright and earnest, imploring her to understand.

Amy felt her lips tremble slightly, "Then why did you agree to that date with me?"

"Because it was the only way I could think of that would get you to really listen to what I had to say." Sonic replied, "You're a great person Amy but we both know you've got a tendency to fixate on things and stop listening to other people. Can you honestly tell me that if I had told you that I considered us just friends at any other point that you wouldn't have just brushed me off?"

Amy looked away at that, she couldn't really deny it. She did have a habit of developing tunnel vision, especially when it came to Sonic. Ever since he'd rescued her from that Metal doppelganger of his she'd been infatuated with him. He'd been like a shining white knight right out of the stories rescuing damsels in distress, then as quickly as he'd come, he vanished. She'd gone home fantasising about him, of her hero who came running on wind. Larger than life, dark blue quills billowing behind him as he held her in his arms. As time passed, she'd almost thought him a dream, that she'd never see him again.

And then years later she had seen him on the news saving people. Looking as though he'd never aged a day from their first meeting. From that point she'd made it her goal that she would become strong enough to stand at his side. To help him in his quest to protect the world. So, he could see the strength of her love for him.

But it had seemed that while he certainly had appreciated her, he'd never truly acknowledged her love for him. That had been okay though it just meant that she had to try harder, make him understand. She had tried to show him her passion, chasing him day by day. Thinking that if she managed to catch him, he'd sweep her off her feet in turn.

But then then he'd constantly try to pull away from her, she thought that he'd been playing hard to get. They were meant to be together; Grandma's tarot had told her so. Time passed and they'd had many adventures together, then out of the blue he'd accepted her offer of a date. It had been a dream come true. It had been everything she'd wanted; she'd started daydreaming and planning their future together, a wedding. If they would have kids and what they would look like. And then… sitting on that bench in the park her hero had shattered all of it a single sentence.

"Amy?" Sonic's pleading voice came through as if piercing through a fog. "Aw, please don't cry Amy."

She brought a hand to her cheek; it came away wet. She felt like she was floating, almost dreamlike.

But it wasn't a dream, her dreams had ended. No… not ended. They had never been real to start with.

Sonic brought a hand to her cheek brushing her tears away with a gentleness that she'd never thought him capable of, it only made the tears flow faster. "I am so sorry Ames," he whispered. "You deserve so much better than me, you have such a beautiful soul. I promise, you will find someone who can care about you the way you deserve."

"I don't want anyone else," She hiccupped. "I want you!" She looked into his green eyes through a veil of tears. Sonic looked almost on the verge of crying himself.

"Amy Rose," he said her name with a profound tenderness. "I am flattered that you would want me. I really am, but we would never work."

"Why? Because of this… Princess?!" The words came out far more bitter than she intended.

Sonic flinched before rubbing at his eyes frustratedly, "You overheard Knuckles then."

"It was hard not to," She let out a watery laugh. "You should have seen the look on Tails' face, he went straight to him the moment you looked away."

"No, doubt getting teasing material to get back at me." Sonic said fondly, "It's what I would do."

Amy chuckled wiping her eyes, in was sometimes envy inducing at how strong their bond was, even after a shouting match like she'd heard the end of, Sonic still clearly held no ill feelings towards the young fox. "Who is she then? Are you actually her boyfriend?"

Sonic chewed on his lower lip at the question, "Her names' Sally and… it's complicated."

She frowned; it hadn't sounded so complicated when he'd turned her down. "Do you love her?"

His own brow furrowed as he was thinking of how to word his response and was coming up short. "I—yes. And—She's one of my oldest friends Ames." He expression relaxed an almost beatific smile spreading across his face. "I do love her. But as I said, it's complicated."

Her heart clenched in her chest; it wasn't a total answer but it was enough. She swallowed, "If… if it wasn't complicated… would she make you happy?"

A moment of silence passed between them as Sonic seemed to shrink in on himself, wrestling with something. Finally, after what seemed like an eternity, he closed his eyes and uttered a single word.

"Yes."

To Amy's surprise her heart didn't shatter in her chest, she didn't even feel sad. She felt… relieved? She released a breath she hadn't known she'd been holding. "I'm glad."

His eyes snapped open, widening in surprise. "What?"

She smiled; it was as though some great weight had suddenly been lifted from her shoulders. "I said I'm glad. I'm happy that you've got someone you love Sonic." The words came from somewhere deep within her and to her own surprise she found she meant them. "You've done so much for all of us, you deserve some sort of happiness of your own."

Sonic's eyes became glassy. "Amy," his voice wavered as reached out and pulled her into a hug. "You are one in a million you know that?"

She didn't respond at first and just basked in his embrace. His arms were so strong and warm. There was safety in them. Now that she thought about it, it felt a lot like when her father had hugged her as a little girl. A sense of reassurance, that no matter how bad things looked, it was going to be okay. She could feel his heart beat, a strong steady rhythm that was almost soothing. Maybe that was part of why she'd been so drawn to him.

She hugged him back, burying her face in his shoulder. "I still love you."

"I know," He whispered. "And I love you… lil' Sis."

She closed her eyes, they weren't the words she wanted, but for now… they were enough.

They remained like that for a few minutes longer before they both pulled away with an embarrassed cough.

"So," Sonic said scratching his cheek awkwardly. "We good?"

Amy felt her cheeks warm as she pointedly looked anywhere except his face. "Yeah. I think so."

"Good."

"Good."

The two of them stood next to each other silently.

"So," Amy said after a minute. "Were there any other reasons you told me no?"

Sonic laughed embarrassedly, running a hand through his quills agitatedly. "Ah, yeah."

"Aaand?"

"It was because… well, you're twelve Amy."

Despite herself she giggled. "Love knows no age limit Sonic," she sang.

"Yeah," Sonic muttered looking away. "But prison does."

Amy frowned the comment bringing her up short, "Wha? What do you mean by that?"

Sonic opened his mouth but whatever he was about to say was interrupted as a tremendously loud crash rang through the air. Followed by the distinct sounds of splintering wood and stone. The two of them looked at each other, matching worry in their eyes before quickly moving to join back up with the others.

"What happened," Sonic asked. His voice sounding slightly dangerous as he stared up at the now gaping hole in the roof of his house.

"Tails and Charmy happened." Knuckles said amusedly, standing next to them. Amy felt her eye twitch as the Echidna said this while eating yet another bowl of her soup. "They were wrestling above the place and suddenly dropped like a stone, the roof never stood a chance."

"And you're just standing there eating?" Amy snapped, "They could be hurt in there."

Knuckles gave her a look that seemed dryer than all the deserts of Efrika. "These two have been thrown through walls, dive bomb and wreck metal robots on the regular, and have kicked the butt of things almost ten times their size. I don't think some wood and brick is going to do much to them Amy."

"No," Sonic said his eye twitching. "But I would like actually have a roof over my head when it rains Knucklehead."

"Where did they land?" Cream piped up; she was hovering above about a few inches above her mother's head. Vanilla for her part had an iron grip locked around her daughter's ankle, it didn't take a genius to guess that the younger rabbit had been about to join the boys in their airborne wrestling match when they'd crashed.

Sonic squinted, "Looks like they hit right above the workshop, they'll be out in a minute I'd guess."

"Sonic," Vanilla said. "Doesn't Tails' keep his experiments in there. They're not going to get hurt in there are they."

The blue hedgehog grinned back at her calmly. "Nah, Tails' keeps the stuff that could actually be dangerous out by the runway. Moved them after he blew out the walls for the third time running."

A burst of red light flashed from the hole in the roof, quickly followed by agonised scream. "AAAAGGHHHH!"

The blood fled from Sonic's face, his easy-going grin morphing into a look of horror.

Creams' eyes went wide, "That sounded like—"

"TAILS!" Sonic shouted, vanishing in a blur of blue.

Amy exchanged a frightened look with a concerned looking Knuckles before the two of them quickly followed.

Amy arrived first with Knuckles only a second behind, skidding through the doorframe she couldn't help but gasp. The walls of the workshop, normally a dull white was cast in a bloody red hue, illuminated by a glowing sphere at the centre of the room. A strange boxy device seemed to be the source humming with a sound that could only be described as enraged.

Charmy was hovering near a large switch on the wall looking terrified, "I didn't mean! I didn't mean it!" He squealed frantically. "I didn't know that would happen!"

That caught her attention. "What did you do!?" She shouted over the rising noise a sinking feeling in her stomach, "Where's Tails, Charmy?!"

The bee didn't seem to hear her, "I didn't mean it! I'm sorry!" He seemed to be in shock, tears trailing down his cheeks.

Tearing her gaze away she frantically she looked for Tails, if Charmy was this bad then Tails must be seriously hurt somewhere. Sweeping her eyes over the room she couldn't make out hide or hair of him, Tails didn't seem to be laid out anywhere on the ground. Yet neither was he up and moving if he was hurt. Another pain filled cry filled the air and heart sinking Amy allowed her gaze to be pulled her gaze upwards. Her hands flew to her mouth in shock.

Tails was pinned to the roof, a torrent of crackling red energy streamed upwards slamming into the young fox holding him there. His arms were spread wide, his body contorting in agony as the power crashed into his small frame, "AAAAAGGGH!" His voice sounded horse as he yelled, as though the air was being forcefully driven from his lungs while he twisted and turned trying to free himself.

"TAILS!" Summoning her hammer, she made to run towards the sphere, her heart in her mouth.

"DON'T COME ANY CLOSER!"

Amy froze. Sonic was kneeling slumped by the source of the light staring up at the young fox, he looked both angry and terrified. He was holding a bundle of blue sheets filled with diagrams and equations that Amy couldn't make heads or tails out of.

Tails cried out again, it was a painfilled whimpering sound that tore at her heartstrings.

"Sonic what's happening?!"

The older hedgehog didn't answer her. Bowing his head, he closed his eyes. "Tails…" he sounded heartbroken. "You promised…"

"Sonic?" Knuckles called out, very real worry in his voice. "What going on?"

Again, Sonic didn't answer merely crushing the papers in his hands.

"HEDGEHOG!"

That seemed to snap him out his daze, he turned to them a look of hollow despair. "He built it, Knux. He built a R.O.C.C."

Amy watched as the Echidna seemed to pale. He pushed past her running to Sonic, dragging him to his feet. "I thought you said you'd talked him out of it!"

"Obviously he didn't listen to me!" Sonic snapped, snatching his arm from Knuckles grip.

"Did you bother explaining why he shouldn't?!" Knuckles growled eyes blazing, shaking Sonic furiously by the shoulders, "Or were you too much of a coward to tell him that either!"

"STOP IT! Stop it both of you!" Amy had had enough and charged the two of them, shoving them apart. "Tails is in trouble and the two of you choose now to fight over it!" As if to prove her point the stream of energy seemed to intensify, drawing another pained cry from the newly minted nine-year-old above them.

"Sawnic! It hurts!" Tears beaded at the corners of his eyes only to quickly evaporate; his eyes screwed shut in agony. "Sawnic please, help me!"

'God, he sounded so young.'

Grief flashed across the hedgehog's face as he listened to the kit calling out for him. "Damn it." He looked between the glowing machine and Knuckles and his eyes seemed to light up. "He only had the one emerald Knuckles; you think you can drain him?" His question had a ring of desperation, like a drowning man who'd been thrown a life ring.

Knuckles brow furrowed, cupping his chin in thought. "One Emerald? I don't know. It's worth a shot, but you better be ready if things go sideways."

Sonic nodded a familiar look of determination coming over him.

Amy looked between the two of them, she had absolutely no idea what was going on. But whatever it was it looked like they had a plan. "What do you need me to do Sonic?"

"If I can't do it, make sure Tails doesn't escape before Knux does his thing." Sonic said grimly crouching down.

"What? Escape?!" That was not what she'd been expecting. "Why would we need to do that?"

He glanced up at her, a haunted look in his eyes. "If he's still alive after this Amy and we don't keep him here we will regret it for the rest of our lives."

Amy didn't quite know how to respond to that and so just nodded firmly. If this thing made Tails act crazy or something she would be ready.

"Charms," Sonic hollered at young bee who had finally seemed to snap out of his daze. "I want you to leave, you're in the most danger right now."

"What?" The bee protested seeming to snap out of his daze, "Why? I can help!"

Sonic's eye seemed to twitch, "No. One, you're the guy that Tails is ticked off at right now, meaning you're a target. Two, you're the weakest out all of us if something goes wrong. Three," he glowered at the younger boy. "You're the one who hit the damn switch! I don't want to even see your face for the next several days!"

Charmy swallowed and flew from the room tears pouring down his face. Amy couldn't help but feel a little sympathy for him. Sonic might have been known for being impatient at times but his soft spot for children was legendary. To get Sonic to act like this towards you as a little kid, said quite a lot about much you must have screwed up. Then again it was Tails, it practically went unspoken that if you hurt Tails, Sonic would make you wish you'd never been born. The Hyper Bee might have gotten off lightly all things considered.

While this had been happening, Knuckles had been manoeuvring him himself around the machine avoiding touching the spherical glow surrounding it. "Sonic, the second I say so Spindash and destroy the machine. I'll grab the Emerald and try to purify it."

Sonic nodded grimly before curling up into a ball and started to spin on the spot. He spun faster and faster, each second gaining speed until he was so much of a blur, he seemed to shift to a solid sphere glowing with a blue light.

Amy shivered as a cold wind began to pick up as Sonic spun in place. The golden sunlight that had previously been beaming through the hole in the roof vanishing as dark clouds appeared to form out of nowhere. A faint rumble of thunder to echo overhead. Her hammer materialised in her hand; something wasn't quite right here.

"Sonic what is—"

"NOW!" Knuckles shouted, plunging his hands into the sphere of crackling energy.

Tails howled in pain!

With a shriek of wind that pierced the ear, Sonic blasted forwards spinning at what must have been hundreds of miles per hour. He struck the sphere with the force of bomb going off. A shockwave rippling outwards nearly bowling Amy over, only being saved by smashing her hammer into the tiled floor beneath her. She could only stare as cracks tore their ways up and across the walls. The reinforced concrete and metal that Tails had designed to withstand almost all conventional force straining against the power that had been unleashed.

Yet despite this the power the two of them struggled against would not fall so easily. Sonic was practically glowing as his body strained against the sphere, he hadn't so much as scratched the machine.

"Put your back into it Sonic!" Knuckles shouted. The Echidna's face was twisted into a rictus of pain as bolts of energy erupted from the sphere, scouring across his face. "This one damn Emerald! How are you struggling with this!"

The ball that was Sonic seemed to almost glow in response to Knuckles' words. And somehow began to spin even faster! The cold wind blew harder and within seconds a full-blown gale was whipping past Amy's quills. The high-pitched grind of quills on stone shrieked painfully in her ears.

Amy gritted her teeth before fixing her eyes on Tails. The boy had gone limp from where he was pinned. Her heart ached as she looked at him, it was only the slight movement of his mouth that indicated that the worst hadn't happened. Amy didn't know what she would do if they lost him here. She was pretty sure that Sonic would… well that look in his eyes said it wouldn't be anything good.

"Almost! THERE!" Knuckles voice croaked as he pushed further into the energy field his hands inching towards the Chaos Emerald. The energy field however still resisted Sonic, if anything it seemed to flare even brighter as the hedgehog tried to damage the machine generating it.

Amy forced herself to squint as Sonic glowed even brighter. Then she saw it. It was beautiful whenever it happened, but she couldn't help but shed a small tear as a familiar set of gems seemed to burst into existence around Sonic.

"The Chaos Emeralds!" She exclaimed, of course Sonic would have some on hand. He always had a trick up his sleeve, when the problems seemed insurmountable. She could only count five as they floated around him, but if a single Emerald could grant a heart's desire. And Seven perform a miracle. Five should be enough to turn the tide against whatever force had corrupted one to do this.

"Mr. Sonic!?"

Amy froze as a familiar childish voice called out from behind her.

"What's happening to Tails!?"

Spinning around she locked eyes with Cream, apparently having broken out of her mother's grip and had come to see what was going on. "Miss Amy?" Cream's large brown eyes stared up at her, the girl was trying to look brave as she took in what was happening but it was clear in her eyes that she was scared.

"Cream, you need to go. It's dangerous, Sonic and Knuckles have it under control." Amy made to usher the younger Rabbit away when a high-pitched squeal pierced her eardrums. Snapping her head back she caught sight of the red barrier begin to buckle as the five emeralds poured energy into Sonic. As his body grew too bright to look at Amy knew she had a split second to act.

"GET DOWN!" She launched herself at the little girl, curling around her as something seemed to erupt behind them! A wall of wind and heat slammed into them launching her through the through the workshop door and into the wall opposite with a thunderous roar. Bracing herself around Cream, Amy bit back a scream as she smashed into the wall at what felt like a hundred miles an hour. Pain flashed up her spine and shoulder as she slid to the floor, Cream trembling in her arms.

Amy lay there for what felt like an eternity, stars bursting into life behind her eyelids. Darkness swimming at the edge of her vision, a promise of blissful slumber.

"Miss Amy? Miss Amy, are you alright." Cream's concern filled voice drew her back away from the brink of unconsciousness.

"Ugh, fine Cream." She winced in pain as she uncurled. Even without the pain in her shoulder from the explosion she hadn't curled up like that since she'd been a little girl, living in a human city it was considered uncouth to indulge in one's more Mobini like nature. Doing it again after so long and in such a situation, was uncomfortable to say the least.

Cream wiggled out from under her thankfully looking unharmed. The younger girl offered her a hand, "Can you get up, Miss Amy?"

Nodding Amy took the proffered hand and with Cream's help hauled herself to her feet. Maybe she shouldn't have do so, so quickly however. As she wobbled and nearly collapsed again, only saved by Cream seizing her arm and throwing it across her shoulders. The little rabbit was a lot stronger than she looked, taking Amy's weight without complaint.

"What happened?"

"I'm pretty sure Charmy triggered one of Tails' inventions." Amy said, her voice tight from the pain. "From the looks of it, it probably wasn't ready yet, whatever it was supposed to do."

Cream nodded at the explanation, though the look her face said that Charmy the Bee would have a lot of explaining and apologising to do.

The two of them struggled back across the doorframe, the workshop had clearly seen better days. It looked like a bomb had gone off, though maybe in a certain sense one had. The cracks in walls had widened into fissures, with craters interspersed among them. Miraculously it looked like the corner nearest them had been spared the worst where Tails' more delicate equipment like his Miles Electric were kept, it was covered in a layer of dust but nothing much more than that that. The Tornado at the far end also looked merely scuffed up with no major damage to it.

The same could not be said about the centre of the room, a several foot deep crater, had been blown into the floor where the machine had been standing. Cracks spiderwebbed their way across the floor, littered with metal fragments and other machine parts. Amy looked around and felt her heart skip a beat, Sonic was laying slumped near a wall cradling a familiar yellow shape.

"TAILS!" She shouted, before wincing at the withering look Sonic gave her. "Sorry," said in a quieter tone. "Is he alright."

Sonic shook his head, "We'll see when he opens his eyes. And if we need Knux to do his thing."

"Where is Mr. Knuckles?" Cream asked quietly.

Sonic wordlessly pointed to the opposite wall. Turning Amy saw the familiar red Echidna laying slumped against it eyes closed. A large lump on his head showing why he wasn't up and yelling at them for not being careful.

"Is he alright?" Cream's voice wavered as she spoke.

Sonic chuckled, "Ah Knucklehead's been hit harder than that before, I'm just hoping he managed to keep a hold of the Emerald when we went flying."

Amy frowned and stood up straighter to relieve the weight on Cream. "Yeah, what the heck was that all about? Why does Knuckles need to drain him? Drain him of what?"

The blue hedgehog shot her an unreadable look, "It's a long story Amy, maybe later."

Amy opened her mouth to press further when the yellow lump in Sonic's arms stirred.

"Tails?!" Sonic's voice was suddenly filled with relief and hope. His eyes lit up as a weight seemed to drop from his shoulders. Worry however still lined his face.

"S-sonic?" Tails' voice was weak and hoarse. Though with how hard he'd been screaming that wasn't surprising.

"Yeah, I'm here" Sonic said. His voice was soft and comforting, but Amy could hear a thread of tension in his voice that threatened to turn into something more. "You okay bud?"

Tails shifted, as if unsure. "Where'm I? What happened?"

Sonic stroked his brow tenderly looking wholly relieved. "You had an accident, one of your machines overloaded. It's okay, your safe now."

"Oh." He looked around dazed, eyes brushing over Amy and Cream unseeingly. "Which machine? What happened to the—" His eyes went wide and he shot up straight in Sonic's arms. "THE NCM!"

Tearing himself from Sonic's grip he struggled on unsure feet and hobbled over to the crater where his invention had once stood. Staring at the pit, he fell to his knees looking completely distraught as he picked up pieces of the machine. "You... broke… it." He sounded on the verge of crying.

Amy felt her heart swell with sympathy, whatever the device had been it must have malfunctioned badly, and it clearly meant a great deal to Tails. "I'm sorry Tails," she said hobbling closer towards him. "It was hurting you; Sonic had no choi—" She cut off as said hedgehog immediately appeared in front of her, his face stony as he motioned her to be silent. Amy blinked in surprise, but held her tongue. A feeling in her gut told her that Sonic was not messing around today. He hadn't cracked a smile from the moment he'd seen Tails in trouble.

She watched warily as Sonic slowly crept up on the fox who was still staring down at the parts in his hands.

"Tails," Sonic said warily, reaching a hand towards the child's shoulder. "Are you alright?"

The fox seemed to stir at that, a sudden tension coming over him. His shoulders tightening.

"You…" Amy blinked as what looked like red electricity seemed to crackle across Tails' fur as he spoke, anger in his voice. "YOU… STUPID… HEDGEHOG!"

Sonic snatched his hand away as the normally sweet kit whirled around and snapped at his fingers. "I should have known it'd be you!" Tails snarled, spittle flying from his lips. "I finally see it, when I finally create something that can save the world you turn around and destroy."

Sonic pulled away, heartbreak and fear on his face. "Tails," he moaned. "No, not you too!"

"Me too?" The fox threw his head back and laughed, long and hard. "What am not the first you've done this to?"

A mad looking grin spread across his face. "Oh," he said as if in realization, "I think I get it now. You couldn't face the fact that with the R.O.C.C I'd finally be an even bigger hero than you'd ever be! Couldn't have the sidekick steal your spotlight could ya!"

He laughed again throwing his hands in the air. "The great Sonic the Hedgehog, can't go a day without having someone there to stroke that ego for you, huh? That's why you grabbed me back then isn't it, a nice little sidekick to praise you to high heavens."

"Tails," Sonic began. "I have never thought that about you ever. You're my family, I could never treat you like that! The R.O.C.C it's twisting your mind!"

"The only twisted thing here is you, Hedgehog." Tails spat spinning on his heels away from him. "All you've ever done is take, take, take. Well guess what! Now it's my turn!" He started tugging at his gloves, "I'm going to show you just what I can do! No, I'll show the world just who the smartest most genius fox ever really is! They always treated me like a freak well let's see how they feel with my inventions leveraged against them! They'll kneel before me, begging for mercy in how they've treated me." He snarled, "And I'll look down and crush them like the bugs they are!"

"Tails?" Cream piped up; her eyes wide in shock. "What are you talking about? You're sounding like that awful Doctor Eggman!"

Tails head snapped in their direction a crooked grin on his face. Amy suppressed a gasp; Tails normally kind sky-blue eyes had changed. Now a pair of bloody red irises stared back at them, strands of dark colouring steaking through the whites of his eyes. They burned with an undisguised hatred of everything and everyone around him.

"Don't compare me to that loser, Cream!" Tails hissed softly, "Eggface has lost every fight he's brought. He's a joke." His crooked grin grew cruel, "Hehe, a joke… Just like you, and those stupid chao that follow you around. That anyone takes a stupid bunny like you seriously is hilarious."

Amy felt Cream freeze at the boy's words. Her large eyes suddenly filling with unshed tears, "You don't mean that! You can't mean that! The Tails I know would never be so cruel."

The twin-tail's eyes glimmered maliciously. "Aw, is wittle Cweam upset at the twuth?"

Amy narrowed her eyes, "I don't know what's gotten into you Tails but you better apologise to Cream right now or so help me I'll beat it out of you!"

He sneered at her, "And you. The fangirl! How long did it take for you to realise that the one your chasing has no interest in you!? Or are you as dumb as you are ugly?"

Amy felt like she'd just been slapped, "Tails! What the hell is wrong with you!?"

"Tails," Sonic stepped between them, arms outstretched. "Leave them out of this. This isn't you. It's the Chaos Compressor's influence. Fight it, I know you can!" He reached out a hand to the younger Mobian, eyes kind. "I believe in you!"

Tails stared at him for long moment the red light in his eyes fading slightly, then he grunted and gripped at his head. "NO! You're not going to trick me again! I'm not going to go back to that weak snivelling coward." He looked up at Sonic a sneer on his lips, "You mean nothing to me you egotistical jerk. Always holding me back, from reaching my true potential! Just using me as a glorified taxi service!"

He bared his sharp teeth at him, and Amy felt a chill travel down her spine. Whatever was going on this wasn't Tails speaking. Tails never spoke about Sonic like that, even in the private moments he'd voiced irritation with his brother to her, he'd always spoken with genuine love and affection for Sonic. This bile pouring from his lips wasn't right.

"You know that is not true, Tails!" Sonic shouted; eyes wide in desperation "You're the one the one thing I've cared about more than anything. Taxi Service!? You're my—" he shut his eyes taking in a deep breath. Opening them again they shone with unshed tears. "You're my little buddy, my special little guy. You're my family, Tails! And I'm not going to lose you to this thing!"

Letting go of Cream, Amy pushed past Sonic. "You can do it Tails, whatever that machine did to you, you have to fight it. I know you can win!"

"You stay out of this Fangirl!" Tails snapped at her, his blazing eyes barely flickering from where they were fixed upon Sonic's. "You're as bad as he is! Always taking me for granted, always using me!"

"I'm sorry if we ever made you feel that way, Tails." Sonic said softly, "but the way your acting isn't you. Just calm down and we can fix this."

Tails laughed coldly, "I'm thinking clearly for the first time in forever, you're not my Papa! You aren't my brother! WHAT EVER YOU ARE, YOU ARE NOT MY FAMILY!"

It happened so fast that it was almost a blur. Snatching her by the arm Sonic threw her backwards as Tails launched himself snarling at the them. In a split-second Sonic raised a hand and the two boys clashed in the middle of the workshop.

It honestly normally wouldn't have been much of a contest. Sonic was older, more experienced, and above all faster. But whereas Tails was punching, kicking, and slashing at him with his tails with clear intent to harm; Sonic was clearly holding back. Not wanting to do anything that hurt the younger boy, merely dodging, or deflecting the attacks sent his way.

"Huh, you're a lot stronger than I remember kid." Sonic said a strained grin on his face as he ducked under a blow that left cracks in the wall as it landed. "You been practicing when I've not been looking?" He bent backwards to avoid Tails' spinning tails as they buzzed through the space where his head had been a second earlier.

Tails merely growled in response, leaping up to launch a kick at the Hedgehog's side. Only to snarl in fury as Sonic casually turned and gave him a gentle shove that sent him flying across the room. Skidding to a stop he narrowed his eyes, "Of course I've been practicing." He hissed, "but only because you stopped teaching me anything!" He launched himself forwards, kicking off the wall fist pulled back to deliver a vicious blow.

Sonic sighed and seemed to blur on the spot. It was almost imperceptible but Amy could have sworn she'd seen a blue streak fly upwards through the new hole in the roof.

Tails cried out in triumph as he swung his fist towards the blue hedgehogs' face. The fox grinned in triumph as it struck… which turned to confusion as it passed straight through the hedgehog. Tails landed looking furious as the afterimage of Sonic wavered and vanished

"You know Tails," Sonic's voice echoed around them seemingly coming from nowhere. "I would have hoped you'd recall the first lesson I taught you in fighting. Never fight angry, not only does it burn you out quicker. But," a blue flash landed behind Tails seizing him under his arms and locking his wrists in an iron clad hold. "You blind yourself to the obvious."

Tails hissed and thrashed in Sonics' grip. "Let go of me you big jerk! I was supposed to win! I know I can win!"

Sonic rolled his eyes, "Yeah, this has definitely screwed up your brains lil' bro. Before you would have seen the afterimage trick coming two countries over and have calculated a dozen different methods of countering it within the time it took me to land. But most of all, you wouldn't have tried to fight me in the first place, the Tails I know would have taken the first chance to escape."

Amy breathed a sigh of relief as Tails snarled furiously but stopped struggling. Okay Sonic looked to have Tails under control, now they just needed to wait for Knuckles to wake up and do his thing. And they could all go back outside and relax again, and this would all just be something everyone would laugh at in a couple of months' time.

Tails dropped his head to his chest in defeat, "Okay Sonic, you win. Just… let me go."

Sonic breathed out a sigh of relief, relaxing his grip on Tails wrists and setting him on the ground. "You scared me there, bud. Now let's just wait for Knuckles to wake up and we can all just go back –"

It happened almost too fast to register, Amy cried out a warning as Tails whipped around, the tips of his gloves glinting white heading towards the older hedgehogs' eyes. Amy shielded her eyes not able to bare to look.

"DIE!"

A sound like a gunshot cracked through the room followed by a high-pitched yelp then silence. Trembling slightly Amy lowered her arm from her face and peeked out at where the two of them had been standing.

They were engulfed in a grey cloud of dust, Amy's heart pounded as the cloud began to disperse. Sonic was the first to reappear wearing an uncharacteristically annoyed expression. "Tails, if I didn't know you weren't in your right mind, you would so grounded!" He groused breathing in deeply through his nose. "Thanks for the save there Knux."

A mitted hand swept through the dust cloud dispersing it. Knuckles stood tall, a slumped fox in his grip while holding a glowing blue Chaos Emerald above his head. A faint stream of red light was flowing off Tails' body and towards the mystical jewel. He eyed Sonic in annoyance, "You wouldn't have needed me, if you bothered to actually pay attention. The kid could have taken one of your eyes out if you hadn't ducked at the last second."

"But he didn't and that's all that matters." Sonic said, kneeling down to take his younger brother back into his arms. "Is he back to normal?"

Knuckles sighed, lowering his arm as the red light seemed to taper off. "You have no idea how lucky he is, any longer in that blast and I don't want to think about what would have happened to him."

Sonic grasped one of Tails' hands and ran his thumb over his fingertips, "Looks like he pulled the gloves down hard enough that his claws pierced the tips." The hedgehog frowned, "I'm not one for taboo's but I keep telling him to trim them before he hurts someone." He ran his fingers through his quills for some reason looking sad, "Tails. What am I gonna do with you?"

"Is—is he going to be, okay?" Amy jumped; she'd almost forgotten Cream had been there while the struggle had been happening.

Looking up, Sonic shot the rabbit one of his trademarked confident smirks. "Who, Tails? Don't worry Cream. Me, and Knuckles will have him back to normal in no time." His grin faded a little, "But I think Tails and I need to have a talk when he wakes up, so how about you and Amy go back and see your Mom okay. I'm sure she's worried about you, especially after everything just blew up again."

Cream looked from Sonic to Tails' unconscious body, "You're not going to be mad at him?" She whispered, her eyes looking wet. "He didn't mean what he said, that wasn't Tails!"

"Cream," Sonic said his expression turning soft. "I don't blame Tails for a word he said while acting like that, today's been a bit rough on both of us. I'm not going to say I'm not a little mad at him, but I'm that's for doing something I specifically asked him not to do. But I promise, I'm not going to hold anything he said to me or either of you against him, alright."

The young rabbit stared at him before hesitantly nodding.

Sonic smiled nodding back. Shifting Tails in his grip so that the boy's head rested against his chest, he turned to Amy. "Ames, can you take Cream back to Vanilla, she's probably worried sick. I'm surprised she hasn't broken down the door with a baseball bat."

Amy stared at him in incredulity, "You want us to leave? After everything that just happened!? Without explaining anything?"

"Please, Amy." Sonic said closing his eyes. "This is something between me and Tails, it doesn't involve you."

Knuckles raised a hand before Amy could retort. "Amy, I get your worried about the kid. But Sonic's right, this is something the two them need to deal with. It's nothing to do with either of us."

She looked between the two of them, Sonic honestly looked awful. His quills were dishevelled and sticking out in odd places, large creases and shadows lined his eyes as pain seemed to fill them. She'd never seen him this tired, not even when he'd been unable to sleep during whole Were-hog incident. He honestly as though he'd aged a decade in just a few minutes. Knuckles was a little better but his expression was stony and unmoving.

"Fine." She whispered taking Creams hand, "but don't think I'll forget about this. You've got a lot of explaining to do Sonic!"

Stepping over the rubble that was now strewn all over hallway, she found something nagging at her. In the time she'd known the two of them, she'd never heard Sonic so terrified as when Tails was being blasted by his machine. Yet if Tails had invented it, how did Sonic seem to know what it was going to do to him. 'Sonic, why are you hiding things from us.'


"How long is he going to stay like that?"

"… I don't know maybe you should have thought to get smelling salts or something!"

Tails stirred as he felt a light pat on his cheek.

"Hey he's waking up, oh thank Chip!"

Blearily Tails opened his eyes. Two blobs of colour, one red and one blue filled his vision. Blinking he grunted, his head was pounding. "Ugh, what hit me." Shifting he cradled his head in his hand, it felt like he'd taken the full force an Egg Dragoon to the to the face, he ached all over. He attempted to stand only to drop barely an inch off the ground as the already blurry world began to rapidly spin.

"Whoa! Careful there, bud." Sonic's voice seemed to bounce around in his skull. "Don't want you conking out again on us."

Tails blinked as the blue and red blobs seemed to crystalize and Sonic's face swam into view, Knuckles standing just off to the side looking rather grumpy. "Sonic?" He shook his head as the pounding shrank down to a faint throbbing, "what happened?"

Sonic frowned before gripping him under the armpit and gently pulling him to his feet. "What's the last thing you remember?"

Tails screwed up his face as he tried to think back. "Charmy and I were wrestling in the air, I think. It was probably over something stupid."

"Eh, I don't think Charmy faking that he'd was regifting you your own toolkit was stupid to be upset over." Sonic shrugged; he was smiling but something about it wasn't quite reaching his eyes.

"Wait? He was faking it?" Tails blinked in bewilderment.

"He hid a new pair of gloves inside the box." Knuckles grumbled, his purple eyes narrowed to slits as he looked Tails up and down. "But that's not important, right now. What else?"

"Uh," Tails scratched at his chin. "I think I might have hit his wing at the same time as when he pinned one of my tails and…" his eyes went wide and he slowly craned his neck upwards. A flash of red filled his vision and what felt like an echo of pain flashed through him. Tails hissed, bringing a hand to his head as his vision swam. The moment passed and the ruinous gape that now hollowed out the roof came into view.

"Oh," he squeaked as the workshops new skylight met his eyes. Slowly he lowered his gaze and met Sonic's unamused gaze, he laughed nervously. "Eh heh, would it help if I said I was sorry?"

Sonic's forced smile faded, replaced with a frown that looked severely out of place on the normally sunny hedgehogs face. "Knux, can you give me and Tails some space?"

The Echidna nodded his expression stony, "yeah. Just… remember you also did stupid stuff as a kid." He strode out, only pausing to pick up the door and slam it back into place.

And with that it was just the two of them. Silence stretched between them for a long minute, Sonic's foot tapping the only sound as stood alone with his arms crossed. He was breathing heavily through his nose as he stared at Tails.

Tails swallowed; 'oh he's mad.' In Tails prior experience Sonic only very rarely got mad, and even rarer was the times where Tails had done something to trigger the blue hedgehogs temper.

The last time Tails had faced Sonic temper was when he was little and tried to hunt down Mecha-Sonic in a stupid attempt to impress him. It had resulted in a broken arm and bruised ribs for himself, and Sonic in pulling him from the ensuing badnik swarm had twisted his ankle badly enough he'd been stuck on crutches for two days. What made it worse though was that Sonic didn't yell at him, honestly it seemed like Sonic made it a point to never yell at him in anger. Instead, he went quiet and closed off, until Tails could dredge up the courage to ask what was wrong. Sonic had then proceeded to break down each and every step of his plan and emphasise just how stupid it had been.

The quiet dragged on and Tails found himself twitching, 'Please just say something. I can't take much more of this!' For a moment Tails hopes were raised as Sonic opened his mouth. A second later those hopes were dashed as he seemed to think the better of it and closed it.

"Sonic, if it's about the roof. It's not so bad, I can fix it in no time." He said against his better judgement.

A low sardonic chuckle came from Sonic's throat. "The roof?" He looked up at the hole, his expression slightly hysterical. "You think this is about the roof, Tails?!"

"Uh," Tails felt a shiver run down his spine to the tips of his two tails, and slowly took a step backwards. "I guess not?

Sonic's nostril's flared and before Tails had a chance to blink, he was right in front of him their noses barely an inch apart. "Kid," Sonic whispered his voice strained. "I'm giving you one chance to be honest with me Tails, why did you lie to me this morning?"

"L-Lie?! Tails spluttered, his hackles raising involuntarily. 'Who the heck does he think he is after what he's kept from me.' He thought furiously.

"What would I have to lie about, Sonic."

His brother's expression darkened and faster than Tails could react Sonic made to grab him, panicking he tried to reach up to pry at the elder hedgehog's grip. Except his arms refused to work. Blinking, Tails realised that Sonic was holding him up by his neck scruff, and he couldn't move.

'A scruffing reflex? Tails thought with shocked embarrassment, his body hanging limply in Sonic's grip. 'I still have my scruffing reflex?!'

It didn't hurt, the scruff reflex was something biologically ingrained in almost all mammalian based Mobian children. If a child was being troublesome or endangering themselves then their parents had an inbuilt method of moving them or forcing them to be still. You were supposed to grow out of it after a certain age, most commonly once one had hit their mid-teens. Tails hadn't been subjected to it in so long he'd almost forgotten about it. He swallowed, was he really still that little?

Tails stared up at Sonic, his arms trailing limply at his side refusing to move an inch. The older Mobian had lifted him into the air with surprising ease and was staring him straight in the eye. 'He's treating me like a little kit!' Tails realised, moaning internally. 'Like a naughty little kid.'

Sonic made a chuffing noise at the back of his throat, as if choking back an angry bark. "You really want to play this game, Tails? Okay, do the words 'Fine, I promise I won't build it,' ring any bells?"

Tails felt his heart sink. 'On second thought,' he winced. 'Maybe he really does think of me as little kid right now.' He swallowed, "Sonic I don't know—"

"Don't you dare act like you don't know what I'm talking about, Tails!" Sonic snapped.

Tails' ears flattened against his head as a deep reverberating rumble laced Sonic's words. An image popped into his head of rolling over and baring his belly in submission, as though some deeply buried ancestral instinct had briefly surfaced. An involuntary whine welled up from his throat, Sonic blinked and for a brief moment his façade of anger seemed to crack as the corner of his mouth twitched upwards in amusement.

The moment passed however and the angry glare returned. Still holding Tails up by the scruff of his neck he turned him around to look at the workshop. "Tails," the strained growl in his voice was back. "I'm trying really hard not to yell at you right now. All I want is for you to tell me the truth, look at this place and think back, what do you think happened here?"

Taking in the crater in the floor and deep cracks running up the walls, Tails gulped nervously. After crashing through the roof everything was just red and pain. 'I thought I just hit my head though; it couldn't have been the N.C.M. the equations…' Sonic dropped him, setting him on his feet as the submissive limpness faded from his limbs.

A flash of blue crisscrossed the room and Sonic was in front of him with a large pile of scrap in his arms. Eyes never leaving Tails,' he dropped them in a pile in front of him with a loud clatter. "Okay, maybe these will jog your memory. What did you call it? An N.C.M?"

Tails stared down at the shattered device and could only nod numbly; how had this happened? The pieces began to slot into place. The crater in the floor, the cracks, Sonic's anger. Something must have happened to cause the N.C.M to detonate, but what? "Negativity Containment Module," Tails bit out.

Sonic glared down at him crossing his arms, "Thought so, but from where I'm standing, I'm this is just another R.O.C.C!"

"It's not a R.O.C.C!" Tails snapped suddenly; he'd worked hard to refine it. To make it better than the previous model, he'd worked out the problems with it, that meant it was his own thing. Not a copy of an old human's failures.

"If it looks like a duck, Tails!" Sonic's eyes flashed in anger, "You promised me! You promised you wouldn't build that thing. Not just that but I'm pretty sure I didn't see anything like this in here last night which tells me that it wasn't that you had already built it and tried to hide, but you out and out lied to my face!"

Anger briefly gave way to hurt as Sonic looked away from him with gritted teeth. "I'm giving you one last chance Tails. Give me one good reason that made you think it was a good idea to go behind my back and do the one thing I was all but begging you not to do!"

Tails stared at him, his brain rapidly cycling through every excuse he could think of. Why had he built it? The reason he'd done it had seemed so clear at the time, but now on the other side with Sonic's furious eyes glaring down at him, the logic seemed far away and cloaked in fog.

"Well Tails," Sonic said, his foot tapping rapidly at the cement floor. "I'm waiting!"

"I—I," Tails stammered.

"Yeah?"

Tails bowed his head, gritting his teeth.

Screwing his eyes shut he heard Sonic sigh harshly. "Yeah, I thought so. Tails I never thought I'd have to say this but… your grounded!"

He jerked his head up in shock, "What!?"

Sonic looked at him stone faced, "Grounded. Two weeks!"

"Grounded? You can't mean that!" Tails felt stunned, this wasn't something Sonic had done before. It wasn't fair, it wasn't his fault that the device had exploded and no one had gotten hurt. A ball of indignant fury burst to life in his guts, where the heck did Sonic get off acting like he was some kind of authority figure.

"Tails don't make this harder than it has to be," Sonic said, his shoulders were slumped in exhaustion but his green eyes still held that sharp angry look.

"So, I tried to build something that didn't work out!" Tails growled in frustration, "so what? It blew up, it's not the first time that's happened. No one got hurt—"

"MILES TAILS PROWER!" Sonic exploded his quills rattling.

Tails fell back wide eyed, his desire to defend himself forgotten as the older hedgehog seemed to barely contain himself. Despite the sun beaming in through the roof, roll of thunder seemed to rumble overhead. An involuntary shiver ran down Tails' spine. Sonic pulled at his quills, his frustration evident in his trembling limbs.

"You nearly got both yourself and Charmy killed, Tails!" Sonic continued, lowering his voice. "If I hadn't been here, you and everyone else would either be dead or worse! Do you get it yet, I told you what happened last time and you still went behind my back and built the stupid thing! You nearly got yourself and all our friends killed because you couldn't leave well enough alone! And you knew it was wrong because you outright tried to hide it from me! When did I teach you to be so selfish!?"

"I—" Tails protest died as Sonic fell to his knees placing his hands on his shoulders. His green eyes filled with emotion.

"Do you have any idea how terrified I was?! You were pinned to the roof getting blasted in the face by a Chaos Emerald. I thought I'd lost you! Do you get it?! I thought I'd never see you again! Then when me and Knuckles manage to destroy the machine, you wake up and start acting like Eggman! Do you—"

He paused, standing up as a look of shame came over him, "What am I doing?" He covering his eyes, stress lining his face. "I'm going about this all wrong."

'Eggman?' Tails mind raced, 'is that really how he sees me?' He'd almost been ready to apologise, but comparing building the N.C.M to Eggman... their biggest enemy!?

"So, I'm like Eggman now?" Tails hissed, clenching his fists. "You know Sonic I don't know what's gotten into you today but you're acting like a big jerk!"

Sonic grimaced, "Tails, I'm sorry. I'm just trying to—"

"NO!" Tails snapped, something inside him exhilarated to finally have the upper hand. "I'm done listening! You lie to me; you blow up my invention! And now you say I'm acting like the guy who's trying to conquer the world, and hurt all our friends! You know what, sometimes I wish we'd never met!"

Sonic's ears flattened; he reached out with a pained expression. "Tails? Bud... you don't mean that."

"I mean it!" Tails snapped, eyes blazing. "As far as I'm concerned, you're not my brother! I wish you'd never found me in Chemical Plant Zone!"

The second the words left his mouth he regretted them.

"Tails..."The Hedgehog closed his eyes, clearly hurt. "I… I'm sorry I made you feel that way." He looked away; his hands curled into trembling fists. "I'm going for a run... to clear my head. We'll finish this later." He turned and made to leave; shoulders slumped hopelessly

Tails turned around surreptitiously trying to wipe his eyes. "Yeah, run." He muttered sullenly, "Cause that's what you always do isn't it, run away."

Sonic's footsteps halted. "… I love you kid," his voice seemed to echo. "Never forget that."

Tails whirled around but he was already gone. Sniffing hard he blinked away the tears, "Stupid! Stupid!" He snarled at himself, pounding at his head. "You couldn't keep your mouth shut, way to go you freaking pixel-brain!"

He glared down at the pieces of the N.C.M and growled, the stupid machine had been a dud from the very beginning. Of course, it would blow up! Nothing he ever built worked right! He kicked at a particularly large piece of it sending it flying at the wall!

"OW!" A sharp pain shot through his paw and up his leg from the collision. Tails hopped on one leg clutching at his foot, "why am I like this!"

He flinched; a sharp sensation shot through him as a yellow spark jumped from his shoe to palm.

Tails stumbled back pain flooding his skull, crying out he fell to his knees, clutching at his head.

Everything became shrouded in a haze of red… and then he remembered.

Tails curled himself around Charmy as they struggled in the air. "Give up yet," he gasped.

"Nuh uh. No chance!" Charmy wheezed back.

After a thrilling chase across the skies, they had arrived back where they'd started. Struggling against one another in mid-air about a mile above the workshop.

"You can't win Charmy." Tails grinned sharply, pulling the bee into a headlock. "Sonic taught me everything I know. I can beat a hundred badnik butts with my eyes closed!"

"Yeah well, I've got tricks too! Watch this!" Tails blinked as Charmy rapidly seemed to shrink right before his eyes, quickly becoming a small dot as he shot out of Tails' grip.

"Wuh?" Tails stared at the space his friend had been, mouth gaping like a fish.

A buzzing at his ear was all the warning he had as he was body checked from behind knocking the wind out of him. Whirling around he stared as the bee rubbed under his nose, preening. "What? You didn't know I could do that? He giggled, "I thought you were supposed to be the smart one?"

Tails smiled, "Nice trick, so you can make yourself easier to squish?" His smile grew broader as the bee growled at him.

"Oh, you're asking for it now, Fox boy!"

"Bring it on Needle Butt!" Tails shot back, grinning widely.

The two of them narrowed their eyes at one another. And with a great cry the two of them shot towards each other, two yellow streaks in the air. A small shockwave of displaced air burst outwards as they clashed. The two grappled with one another, limbs scrabbling to pin the other and win.

Charmy yelped as Tails managed to get a strike at his wing, making it freeze in place. "Hah," Tails laughed seizing him by the arm. "Justice is served."

The bee glared at him and kicked out at the fox, locking his knees around the base of his tails, and squeezed. Tails' eyes widened painfully as he felt the spinning of his namesakes stop. A slight whimper was all he managed to get out as gravity caught up to them sending his stomach into loop-de-loops.

"Charmy you idiot!" Was all he managed to shout as they plummeted, curling himself around the smaller Mobian. He gasped as his back collided the roof below, the slate and wood splintering around them. This was gonna hurt like heck come tomorrow. More pain flashed through him as he broke through, and hit the hard floor below bouncing several times before rolling to a stop.

"Ow." He whispered hoarsely, vaguely noticing his fellow flier struggling against his limbs Tails uncurled. Gasping Charmy shot into the air wings buzzing up a storm.

"Gagh," he coughed. "How the heck do you curl up tight like that? I mean I know others can but you nearly squished me. How the heck do your bones not break or pop out their sockets?" He blew a bunch of white fluff from his mouth with a disgusted look.

"I have a flexible bone structure," Tails wheezed, gasping for the air that had been driven from his lungs.

"I'll say," Charmy said darting around energetically. "You sure you're not half hedgehog?"

Tails gave a weak chuckle as he struggled to his feet. "Heh, I hope not. Do you know how long Sonic spends on quill care every morning? That'd be way too much work." He blinked dizzily, it looked like they'd crash-landed in the workshop, thankfully they'd missed hitting the Tornado. He'd only just finished refurbishing Sonic's old plane; he didn't want to have ruined it already. Another wave of dizziness hit and he slipped only barely catching hold of a heavy covering thrown over something that looked rather boxy. He blinked blearily, 'Hold on. Isn't this...?'

"Ooh, what's this do?"

Not managing to finish the thought, Tails blinked owlishly turning to see where Charmy was looking at. He felt his heart drop. Time seemed to slow as he saw Charmy pulling at an activation switch on the wall. The activation that was connected via a thick cable to the N.C.M he'd hidden from Sonic under a heavy covering. A covering that he'd just pulled at to get to his feet, that was now sliding to the floor exposing him to the sight of a Chaos Emerald that rather than the blue it had been earlier that morning was a very bloody looking red.

His gaze snapped back to Charmy, his heart in his mouth.

"CHARMY NOOO!"

It was too late!

The Bee slammed down on the red switch with all his strength.

A crackle of energy was all the warning he got as Tails world became one of red and pain.

He screamed, and very faintly heard the rumble of a sonic boom.

The sounds of his own screaming ripped through his mind, a vague impression of voices calling out for him in desperation.

It had been like fire and ice, as though being burned alive as icy hooks pierced your soul. But beneath that had been an endless well of hatred and rage. Enough rage to be drunk on, enough hate to drown. A loathing of everything that lived and crept upon the face of Mobius. A hate that was both aimless and yet somehow intimate.

Tails gasped as the memory of the pain ended. But that was just the beginning, vague echoes of Sonic's, Knuckles', and Amy's voices pierced his thoughts. Wordless yet filled with fear and worry… for him. Tails trembled, he'd been hurting and crying out for someone to save him.

'Sawnic!'

He flinched; he'd been in so much pain he'd reverted to the old childish way he pronounced Sonic's name. And yet still more came rushing back.

"… I'll crush them like the bugs they are!"

It was just bits and pieces, yet it was his voice. But the words, they weren't his, his jaw was moving but it wasn't him! It couldn't be him! Could it?

"No," Tails covered his mouth in disbelief. "I wouldn't have!"

"… A joke just like you and your stupid Chao!"

Tears stung at the corners of his eyes. "I'm so sorry Cream."

"…must be as stupid as you are ugly!"

"Amy? Why would I…" Tails bit his tongue, holding back a scream. The acrid taste of iron filled his mouth.

"You're not my brother! … YOU ARE NOT MY FAMILY!"

"No!" Tails stumbled clutching at his head. "Sonic… I didn't mean it!" A painful needle like prick forced him to yank them away. He stared at his hands horrified, the tips of his gloves had been torn away leaving the white curve of his claws glinting cruelly in the light of day.

"DIE!"

Tails wanted to wretch, he had… he had almost… the thought was so repulsive that it barely wanted to form. The sound of Amy screaming his name echoed in his head as Sonic's fearful look flashed before his eyes. He'd broken taboo. He'd done the unthinkable and unleashed his claws on another person! If hadn't been Sonic… if it had been Amy or even Cream, they could have been blinded or even killed.

Sonic had been telling the truth. He really had been acting like Eggman! And out of all the things Sonic had yelled at him for he'd not mentioned that once. His stomach rebelled, he barely held back the rising gorge. Sonic was right, he had been selfish. He'd tried to take the easy way out of saving the world. He'd hurt Cream, insulted Amy, and ended up trying to maim his big brother, all because he been too selfish and stubborn to listen to Sonic's warnings.

He stumbled to his feet, mind racing. He had to find Sonic, he needed to apologize for everything. He needed to take back what he'd said. Stumbling over the rubble in the door way he scrambled to the front of the house, "Sonic! Sonic!" The front door was open, Tails burst through into the open air his eyes darting every which way for any hint of blue.

"Sonic?" There was no sign of him, Tails stumbled barely catching himself on the side of the ramp. He was too late; "SONIC! I'M SORRY!" In that instance he would have given the world to take back his words.

His lower lip trembled, of course Sonic would leave. 'You are the worst person.' A dark voice whispered from the back of his mind,'He was worried about you and you throw everything back in his face. You deserve to be abandoned.'

"Tails?"

He turned, behind him stood Knuckles, Amy, Vanilla, and Cream.

"Sweetheart?" Vanilla repeated, "Why are you out here? Where's Sonic?"

Tails looked between them before sinking to his knees. "I messed up!" He choked, "I ruined everything!"

He barely had time to hold back a sob, when the elder rabbit swept him up into her arms. "Hush, it'll be okay. We'll figure this out."

Tails shook in her arms, digging his hands in her dress struggling to hold back tears, "I said I wished he'd never found me. I pretty much told him that I rather be dead than with him."

"Oh, Tails." Amy whispered, her voice pitying.

Knuckles closed his eyes, "He'll be back, Tails. No matter how far Sonic goes, the guy always comes home."

"Where did he go?" Cream murmured, clinging to her mother's dress, trembling in her voice.

Screwing his eyes shut Tails could barely bring himself to speak. "Away," he said finally, voice rough. "Away from a liar."


Looking out at the front yard Tails sniffed, the last of the guests had left about ten minutes ago. Vanilla had offered to wait with him until Sonic returned or let him stay with her and Cream for the night but he'd turned her down, after the way he'd acted to Cream he hadn't been able to look her in the eye. Staying the night would have been too much. Amy had left even earlier saying she had to visit her Grandmother, but she hadn't left without giving him a bone-crushing hug and telling him to call her the moment Sonic returned.

Tails sat down on the front step burying his face in his hands, he didn't deserve their affection. Not after all he'd said.

A creaking sound made his ears perk up and a glimmer of red appeared in the corner of his eye.

"G'way Knuckles!" Tails hissed; the words partially muffled by his hands. Out the corner of his eyes he watched the red Echidna sit himself down next to him, an oddly pensive look on his face an odd look for the usually hot headed Mobian.

"Well, I guess that could have gone better," he said after a long moment. "We didn't even get to the cake. And that looked like a nice cake." Knuckles let out a slightly forced chuckle. The silence stretched on for another minute before he glanced over at the young Fox. "You alright kid?"

Tails groaned again dragging his fingers down his muzzle, "I screwed up, okay! I nearly killed myself or worse apparently! I think I traumatised Cream! Charmy's run off to God knows where! I blew up half my workshop! And I don't know why but I decided that today was the perfect time to emotionally scar my big brother! So, NO! I'M NOT OKAY!" Tails snapped turning to give a death filled glare to the older Echidna.

Knuckles leaned away, holding up his hand defensively "Hey, simply asking. Don't bite my face off."

Tails grimaced and quickly looked away guiltily, "I'm sorry Knuckles, you didn't deserve that." Tails sniffed, curling in on himself, as he tried to swallow a lump quickly growing in his throat. "Sonic probably hates me now."

A large mitt landed on his shoulder with a thump, "Hate you? Sonic?" Knuckles asked with a laugh, "Tails, you are probably the only person in the world that Sonic has never harboured a negative thought about. You mean the world to him. In fact, you want to know something? "

Tails looked up at him curiously. Knuckles looked back at him eyes half closed as if passing on some long-forgotten secret. "Tails, you are the only one where if given choice between saving you and saving the world… He'd choose you every time."

The painful lump almost seemed to grow harder in his throat and he looked away. "He scruffed me. He treated me like a kit."

Knuckles snorted, "You are a kit. Would you have preferred him to spank you like a human?" He chuckled as Tails shuddered at the mental image, before continuing, "And besides, can you honestly say that you didn't deserve a scruffing after what you did?"

Tails opened his mouth before closing it with a clack, protest dying on his tongue. Instead bowing his head, and glaring holes into the wooden decking below.

The red Echidna ran a mitt through his spines with a sigh, "Miles…"

Tails snarled still looking down. "Don't you dare, Knuckles. You're not him! You don't get to use that name!"

Knuckles grunted. "Okay, okay. Tails. Kid, look at me."

Slowly Tails turned his face toward the Echidna, dread coiling like a snake in his belly. Knuckles wasn't smiling but he didn't look angry either, that had to be a good sign right.

"Right. Kid, "Knuckles said seriously. "I respect you enough that I'm not going to sugar coat this for you. You screwed up. You screwed up big time."

Tails winced at the heavy emphasis the older Mobian used.

"You lied to Sonic, Tails." Knuckles continued, "He warned you it was dangerous and you promised him you wouldn't even attempt to build that damn machine. Yes, I know what you two talked about," he said at Tails' questioning look. "Why do you think he came all the way to see me earlier? Anyway, you promised him you wouldn't, and then you went behind his back and built it anyway."

Knuckles held up a hand forestalling Tails as he opened his mouth to protest. "Yeah, I know that it was a small prototype. But you still lied to his face, ignored his warnings, and did something that me and any other sane person would call dangerously stupid."

Tails' felt a small urge to defend himself but kept his mouth clamped shut, he had a feeling that Knuckles was not nearly as calm as he seemed to be.

Knuckles seemed to read his mind as he continued "But do you know why I'm not screaming at you for all that?" Slowly, Tails' shook his head mutely, not trusting himself to speak.

"It's because while you're a super genius who can build amazing stuff, things I can't even wrap my head around. There is one thing both Sonic and I always try to keep in mind with you."

Tails swallowed nervously but found himself focusing intently on the Echidnas words, "What's that?"

Knuckles smirked slightly looking off into the distance. "It's that you're still just a little kid. You're practically expected to screw up eventually. Maybe not with something this big but we all expected something like this to happen eventually."

Tails cocked his head to side incredulously, "Seriously?!" The reasoning sounded so… mundane.

"What did you think it was going to be some sort of cosmic fate of the world secret?" Knuckles' smirk just grew wider, "Nah. The point is you're a genius, yeah. But you're still a kid none the less. If you didn't screw up at some point Sonic would get worried, you'd been replaced by a robot. Mistakes happen, It's just a part of growing up."

His mouth twisted like he'd bitten into a lemon as he realised what he'd just said. "Then again, Sonic's an idiot and I'm a gullible hot-head. Maybe we haven't been the best role models."

A weight seemed like it lifted off of Tails' shoulders at that, yet there was something else. "But Sonic—"

"Sonic yelled at you because you freaking terrified him," the Echidna cut him off. "You have no idea how much Sonic works around the clock to keep you safe. Have you never wondered why he chose Mystic Ruins to build your home? Why he always seems to be running off somewhere, he's not out looking for adventures you know." He paused tapping his chin, "Well not all the time anyway. This place is off the beaten track along with being in a thick jungle. And he's making sure that you're not going to have some of Eggman's machines or a particularly hungry Mobini crawling through your window!"

Knuckles waved his hand emphatically, gesturing to the to the clearing around them "and that's just the stuff he does to make sure you're alive. Do you know how many times Sonic has come to me tearing his quills out saying, 'Oh Knuckles you genius of child rearing you. Please teach me how to get this half-feral Fox Child I'm rearing to eat his vegetables'."

Despite himself Tails found himself smiling slightly at that, that did sound like Sonic. "Yeah, I get that but—"

"But nothing!" Knuckles cut him off again, "the moment Sonic heard you scream he was down there in a flash. He was terrified. And then the first thing you did after coming too, was act like some maniacal mad scientist. He thought he'd lost you. That machine is designed to collect evil, and the last one exploded… well let's say it didn't give a happy ending."

Knuckles grimaced, "Hence why Sonic got me to do what I did with the Chaos Emerald there?"

Tails shook his head "No, I think I got that part. You were draining me of the negative energy that I got blasted in the face with, right?"

"You have no idea how lucky you were!" Knuckles said pinching the bridge of his nose, "If you built the full-sized machine, I don't think I would have been able to do that, not even with the Master Emerald. And you do not want to know what that would have done to Sonic when he learned that."

Tails clutched at his head, guilt roiling once more in his gut. "But if Sonic knew it was that bad, why not destroy the designs! Or explain the backlash I'd get. If he'd done that, I wouldn't have even dreamed of building the N.C.M!"

"You're right he should have;" Knuckles said scowling. "And the next time I see him I'm punching him in the face for not doing that. Why he didn't though, he had his reasons. Maybe Sonic will tell –."

"Tell me when I'm older?!" Tails interrupted with a hiss of frustration, "Just like he said he'd tell me about that ripped up photo I found!"

Knuckles seemed to stiffen at that, "Ripped photo?"

Tails blinked at his reaction. "You… know?" A familiar anger flared up in his gut once more as everything seemed to click, "You knew!? You knew Sonic was hiding stuff from me! And you never said anything!" He snarled angrily, "Knuckles you jer—"

"Okay, stop!" Knuckles leapt to his feet looking down at the young fox in frustration. "That's enough! Let me be real with you kid. Sonic has his secrets. Just like I have mine! He's been a lot of places and done a lot of things. He's a good person that has a ton of things in his past he regrets, way too many in my opinion. You have no idea what he's given up in fighting Robotnik all his life!"

Tails leapt to his feet giving an equal glare to the red Echidna, "I've lived with him almost all my life Knuckles! I have an idea!"

Knuckles shook his head, "No, you really don't Tails."

Tails clenched his fists, his lips pulling into the beginnings of a snarl, "You think you know Sonic better than I do! IS THAT IT!"

"Yes!" Knuckles snapped, "I get you're angry Tails, but if you're going to get mad at people for having lives before meeting you, you're going to have a lonelier life I do!"

"I can't help Sonic if he doesn't tell me ANYTHING!" Tails shouted, every muscle in his body was tense, hackles raised with both his tails writhing behind him. "Why would he talk to you and not ME!"

"BECAUSE YOU'RE FREAKING NINE, MILES!" Knuckles exploded, and Tails took an involuntary step back at the force of the Echidnas sudden fury. Shock acting as a splash of cold water on his temper.

"Sonic's only goal in the entire time he has known you is to keep you safe!" Knuckles continued his eyes blazing, "Every time you've been involved in any of Eggman's plots he considers himself a failure! You want to know why he hasn't told you everything?! It's because he's seen and been through horrible things, things that no one should burden a kid with! You are the only family he has left, and he terrified that'll you'll be hurt!"

"He certainly doesn't seem to act like it!"

That had been the wrong thing to say as Knuckles face darkened. "Don't," his voice dropped to an icy whisper. "Don't you ever say something that again! Sonic taken care of you for years! He's fed you! Clothed you! Chaos' sake, he's the only reason you're still alive! When he found on West Side Island, he was prepared to abandon the inhabitants to Robotnik's non-existent mercy, because they hurt you! He LOVES you! So don't you DARE! Say he doesn't act like he cares! He cares more than you could possibly imagine!"

The Echidna's icy glare pierced Tails to his core as everything said finally hit home. He trembled as guilt and shame flooded him once more, a cold shiver running down his spine. He felt sick, his stomach rolling like he was on a ship at sea. He turned his head screwing his eyes shut as he did so, unable to meet Knuckles' eyes any longer.

"Why then!?" Tails choked out, the painful lump from earlier suddenly reappearing in his throat, "Why did he lie to me?! That picture. She looks almost exactly like me; same hair, same eyes! For all I know she could be my Mo—" Tails cut himself off as a sob burst from his throat. Collapsing he buried his face in his hands as the tears began to fall, "I-I just wanted to know who I am!"

Very quickly he felt an arm wrap around his shoulder, Tails turned inward burying his face into the echidna's shoulder and bawled. He couldn't help it, the entirety of the stress and anger the day had brought had found a gap in his armour and came pouring out of him. He felt sick to his stomach as the magnitude of his actions finally fell on him. He'd lied to his brother's face; he'd nearly hurt or even killed his closest friends with his deception. He'd broken Sonic's trust in him and likely damaged their relationship permanently. He'd… he'd said things that he didn't know if he could take back,

Fears that he'd thought he'd buried long ago were spinning around in his head. Who was he? Where did he come from? Why had he been abandoned on that damn island as a baby?

Just thinking about those questions only made him cry harder, his eyes aching with the uncontrollable flood of tears.

Knuckles held him silently, his normally stoic nature returning, perhaps with a hint of pity. Tails didn't want Knuckles' pity though, he wanted answers. He wanted the truth… he wanted Sonic.

In being held by the older Mobian though Tails felt the anger and grief slowly drain from his small frame, leaving him shaking and emotionally exhausted.

"Knuckles?" He whispered weakly, pulling his head back from Knuckles' shoulder. "If you know something, anything! Tell me, please!"

The echidna hesitated, placing a hand over his mouth thinking hard.

"No," he said finally. "Not because I don't want to kid," he said quickly seeing Tails tearfully angry expression. "But because I don't know the whole story, and it's Sonic's story to tell. And he was going to tell you very soon."

"H-huh?" Tails sniffed, wiping at his eyes.

Knuckles sighed and poked at the medallion around Tails' neck, "That thing, the moment I saw it, I knew. Sonic was trying to build up the courage to talk to you. You have no idea how precious that is to him, for him to give it away. To give it to you…" he trailed off.

"When Knuckles," Tails clutched at the medallion, afraid that it might vanish any second. "What did he want to tell me?"

"Probably tonight after the party." Knuckles admitted with a grimace, "or within the next few days at the very least if he felt like he needs to pump himself up for it. Of course, with everything that's happened tonight…" he sighed. "I'm not saying that Sonic was right for keeping things from you kid. But you need to understand, the past is painful to him. I'm not exaggerating when I say you're the only family he has left, he's lost almost everything."

Tails closed his eyes before looking down at his hands, his bare claws glinted in the sun through the holes of his gloves, and bit his lip. "I—I owe Sonic an apology, don't I."

"Just a small one. But then he owes you one as well," Knuckles said dryly. He suddenly laughed, "Chaos. When did I become the voice of reason."

"Do you know where he is," Tails said softly.

The Echidna rubbed his chin, considering. "With everything that's happened today? He's probably gone where this whole mess started."

"Where?"

"Tails," Knuckles hesitated. "I think you should really just wait for both of you to cool off."

"Where!?" Tails repeated his gaze hardening as he stared at his older friend.

"Kid, I've just held you while you were crying your eyes out. Neither of you are good for this right now." Knuckles said firmly, his eyes never leaving Tails.'

Tails scowled for a moment, fists clenching, before forcing himself to relax. "Fine, I'll do it myself." Marching through the house to the lab, he grabbed the Miles Electric from where it had laid since the morning. He felt his lip tremble a little as his eyes fell upon the burnt-out husk that had been the N.C.M., Sonic's expression of complete disappointment in him flashed through his mind again. He'd been so stupid. So overconfident in his own intelligence he'd completely dismissed Sonic's warnings, his brother had practically begged him to listen, to trust him, and he'd thrown all of that in back in his face. Tails' might as well have spat in it for all the value he'd placed

The celebratory breakfast seemed so long ago now; but Tails could almost still smell the cooking bacon from the kitchen as he started adjusting the scanner. "If I just input Sonic's Chaos signature and calibrate it to ignore all signatures larger than his then… yes!" Tails was rewarded by a sudden ping as the Detector updated. A blue sphere pulsated slowly on the screen, steadily moving north. Odd, Tails would have thought Sonic would have been blasting off at the speed of sound. Instead, the marker seemed to be moving at a leisurely sub-sonic speed.

And it was on Northamer… how the heck did he get up there from Souamerca without the Tornado? Well, if Sonic was taking it slow, it gave Tails the perfect opportunity to catch up.

Marching back outside he stretched his tails working out the kinks in the muscle. "I don't care about Sonics' past Knuckles," Tails said looking ahead determinedly. "He's my big brother and I love him, that's all that matters. But my past? That matters to me as well. If Sonic knows something about where I come from, he can't keep that from me." Leaping high into the air he spun his twin namesakes in a long familiar motion quickly becoming airborne. "And besides," he called back as he shot towards the Tornado 2's airstrip. "it's not like it could be worse than not knowing!"

Knuckles stared up after the boy as he quickly became a yellow streak and then faint spec in the distance. He kept watching long after Tails disappeared from view and the distant rumbling of a plane took off.

Finally, as the sun began its final descent, he groaned dragging a hand down his face; "Sonic," he muttered "I hope you've learned how to forgive yourself; because the kid definitely won't if you hold off much longer." Jumping from the staircase he caught an updraft and began gliding home, he'd left Angel Island for long enough and there was an Emerald to purge as soon as possible.