It was late when Sonic finally arrived home, the sun had long since set below the horizon and the silent stars twinkled brightly overhead. His feet skipped over familiar stones and tree roots like a fish swam through water, home was where the heart was or so went the saying and if Sonic did anything right it was following his heart.

Mystic Ruins was not the first place Sonic had imagined as being his permanent home, but the humid air and dense jungle forests made it a decent place to lay low for a while, especially when Robotnik was up to his old tricks again. Robotnik. Sonic rubbed his eyes tiredly as he reached the bottom of the ramp leading up to the building that was half-home half forward operating base.

Eggman had been very quiet as of late, it had been a little under a year since the mad scientist had tried conquering the world with the ancient deity Dark Gaia. Ever since his defeat had sent him once more flying over the horizon, he'd been unusually quiet. Normally he'd at least be trying to conquer a free nation or two before switching to one of his big gambles.

For him to go this long without a peep usually meant something big was on the horizon. Sonic sighed practically sagging in exhaustion as he reached the front door, man he was wiped. Maybe he should cut back on the patrols, if the Egghead was going to strike in a major way, he was doing the world no favours in exhausting himself. Opening the door as quietly as possible Sonic kicked off his shoes leaving only his socks between the soles of his feet and the cool wooden floor of the house.

Sonic's nose suddenly wrinkled in disgust as a horrible hot sour smell assaulted his nose. Glaring at his shoes with a baleful eye, he gagged. Oh yeah, that was another pair for the incinerator.

The blue Hedgehog yawned, well that could wait until the morning at least, right now a nice soft bed was calling him with a pillow with his name on it. He placed a hand on a dark screen on the wall and let the security system recognise his hand print. One of Tails' more useful inventions, it would lock down all security once it had both their identities registered, nothing was getting in or out until morning.

Sonic paused at the thought of the young fox before smiling to himself. On second though sleep could wait, he still had things to prepare for tomorrow now that he thought about. He rubbed at his eyes as he fought back the desire to collapse into a soft mattress.

It was hard to believe sometimes that the little guy was growing up so fast. The kid was nine years old tomorrow, and yet it felt like only yesterday that he'd laid eyes on the kit for the first time. It was a little scary to think about if he was honest with himself. 'Time moves so fast.' He thought with not a little bittersweet nostalgia, 'even for me.'

Sonic made towards the stairs to check on the little guy when a flicker of blue light down the dark hallway drew his attention. He paused tensing slightly as he readied himself for anything. The light flickered again and a familiar humming noise picked up as the hallway lights flickered on. Relaxing again Sonic smirked, rolling his eyes.

Tails must have left one of his inventions running overnight again, probably tripped a fuse. He'd have to talk to him about that. Wasting power was no good, even if it was almost completely green. Sonic yawned again as he walked down the hall towards the workshop. The ache of exhaustion had seeped in almost to his bones by this point but it looked like sleep would be eluding him for another few hours yet.

Popping his head round the doorframe Sonic squinted to see where the pulsing light was coming from. The involuntary raising of his quills alerted him to the source before his eyes did, on a stand just above the desk at the near-left corner rested the familiar blue Chaos Emerald.

Snorting, Sonic mentally kicked himself. 'Duh, what else would it be'

He shook his head in bemusement as he stepped into the room. He'd lent it to Tails as a keepsake for his experiments before he'd left, and now it was reacting to the other five he'd collected the past two days he'd been away. Nothing to be concerned about.

A light snoring sound drew Sonic's attention to the desk itself, and he chuckled to himself. The usual occupant of the room was slumped over his desk silhouetted in blue light. Tails snored again, louder this time.

"Really Tails? Really?" Sonic muttered to himself a ghost of a smile passing over his lips. A brief look at the clock told him it was half past two in the morning; Tails had clearly been working past all reasonable hours... again! Shaking his head Sonic marched over to the sleeping fox, looking down at him halfway between amusement and exasperation. "Buddy, at this rate I'll need to start setting curfew," he whispered aloud.

Tails had fallen asleep in the middle of doing adjustments to another new machine or something, bits and pieces of metal, wires, and other things littered the floor and a screwdriver was clenched loosely in a gloved hand. He must have been dreaming, a small grin on his lips even as his head was resting on top of a set of blueprints with a puddle of his own drool surrounding him. Sonic covered his mouth supressing the urge to laugh, he was tempted to get a camera but Tails would never forgive him if he recorded this adorable moment.

Sonic tapped his foot as he hummed to himself thinking. He could wake Tails up and send him to bed but then again that would leave him with a grouchy eight-year-old with a screwdriver in easy throwing distance. Hm, what to do? He smirked as a slightly selfish desire formed in his mind. Well, he hadn't had the chance to do this in a long time, and the years were passing by who knew when he could do this again.

First gently pulling the tools from the little guy's hand Sonic knelt and tossed Tails' arm over his shoulder. Careful not to wake him, he grabbed him by the waist and lifted him into the air. Tails slumped over him nearly causing Sonic to stagger but he caught his balance quickly. Placing a supporting arm under the boys' legs. Shifting slightly to balance the kit on his hip he let Tails' face rest in the crook of his neck. 'There we go' Sonic thought. He hadn't done this since Tails had been six, he'd missed this.

Tails was always surprisingly light for his size, though then again, he had to be to be able to fly like he did, much like Sonic himself had to in order to reach the speeds he did. Of course, that wasn't to say that there weren't a few other factors like Chaos Energy involved.

"Alright little buddy," Sonic murmured fondly, "let's get you somewhere comfier." Tails shifted slightly at the sound, nuzzling his face into Sonic's neck, a hand softly gripping at Sonic's quills.

Walking slowly as to not wake the young fox, Sonic made his way back to the stairway, hitting the light switch off on the way out. Looking up at the curving steps, Sonic wished not for the first time for his next growth spurt to kick in. Tails was larger now than he had been when Sonic had first done this with him, making balancing him like this far more awkward that it would be if Sonic was full grown. Still, he managed to make it up the stairs without incident.

Tails stirred slightly in his sleep as they reached the door to his room. "Mm," he murmured "Papa?"

Sonic froze feeling his heart skip a beat. 'What? What did he say?!'

Tails suddenly squirmed in Sonic's embrace, his grip on Sonic's quills tightening. And Sonic suddenly felt a warm dampness seeping into his fur. Any brief hopeful thought that it was just drool was put paid to by a sudden whine and Tails' shaking shoulders.

'Oh.' Sonic closed his eyes as his expression darkened, 'it's THAT dream again.' A feeling of loathing and guilt welled up in his gut with a sickeningly cold sensation.

Sonic ran a hand soothingly over Tails' back for several minutes, attempting to quell the muffled cries. His face contorted in anger he opened the door with his foot. 'Bastard.' Sonic swore viciously in his head as Tails stilled. 'You complete and utter bastard!' Taking a deep breath to calm himself Sonic strode over to Tails' bed closing the curtains as he went.

Tails' bed was a small thing. Painted red in the shape of a familiar looking plane it was the one sign of childishness that Tails had allowed himself when they'd first designed his bedroom. He was honestly getting a little big for it but whenever Sonic had brought up replacing it Tails had always shot it down with a single sentence. 'When I wake up it reminds me of the best day of my life, why would I get rid of that?'

Using a free hand, he pulled back the blue sheets on Tail's bed, it was a warm night out and Tails would be embarrassed to heck and back if he woke up finding he'd been tucked in. Slowly he bent over and dropped the fox gently onto the stuffed mattress.

'There,' he thought 'that should do iii—YEOW!' Sonic tried to stand up only to his as he felt a painful tug on his quills. Eyes watering, he pursed his lips to stifled his yelp of pain. Tails mumbled in his sleep from where still had the hedgehogs' quills in a death grip.

Sonic smirked despite the burning sensation in his scalp, so Tails wanted to play that game, did he? Well, let no one say Sonic the Hedgehog backed down from a challenge. It was too bad for Tails that he knew his one weakness.

Reaching out with a careful grip, Sonic gently tweaked Tails' left ear. Tails chirped playfully in his sleep; his other hand instinctively flew up to slap the intruder away. Too late though as Sonic had already moved to tweak the other one. Tails let go of his quills to beat away his hand, letting Sonic stand back up straight.

Laughing silently to himself Sonic pulled the bed covers up and over Tails' waist before standing back and looking at the sleeping boy. Cocking his head, he frowned and pulled them up further over his shoulders before tucking them in tightly around his body. The hedgehog nodded with a satisfied huffing sound, before fondly ruffling the young fox's head. The action drew a pleased purring noise from Tails, Sonic held back a playful snicker.

He looked so peaceful sleeping that Sonic again felt the urge to take a picture, alas he had no camera so he had to settle for burning the image into his memory.

'Papa?'

The word came again so quickly that Sonic blinked. His grin fading as a leaden sensation of guilt slowly settled in his gut. 'You were right.' Sonic thought, old regrets suddenly washing over him. 'He needs to know. I should have told him years ago, Sal.'

Sonic looked away feeling slightly ill. He'd waited and waited for the right moment, and it had never seemed quite the right time. Constant excuses, first it was bringing Eggman down, then the Little Planet, then Angel Island. Then it was letting Tails enjoy being a kid just a little longer, then the incident with perfect Chaos, Shadow and Black Doom, excuse after excuse. Fear tying his tongue in knots every time he'd even thought of broaching the subject.

'Coward!' His mind spat at him, 'Liar!'

Maybe it was too late. Tails had given up searching for answers over three years ago, and Sonic had been content to let sleeping foxes lie. Who knew what telling him now would do? Where would he even start!

Sonic groaned, his hand gripping tightly at his chest as his breathing increased his pace, his heartbeat beginning to speed up. Was the room shrinking? Sudden panic gripped him as the world around him began to spin.

'No!' Screwing his eyes shut Sonic drew in a deep shuddering breath willing his heart to calm. 'Not here.' He thought, 'Not now.' He stood stock still waiting until the world had stopped spinning around him.

Breathing slowly, he opened his eyes, letting his gaze sweep around the room. A wall covering bookshelf spread across the room behind Tails' bed. It was filled with all sorts of science and engineering text books, fitting considering the young fox's proclivities. Not much in the way of fiction or history though, Sonic thought guiltily. That was also his fault he supposed, he had encouraged Tails' mechanical curiosity to the exclusion of almost all else. Maybe he should start looking to fix that…

'Start?' Sonic paused, before a bitter smirk spread across his lips. Yeah. Maybe that the way to go. If you can't remember how, you got here. Then perhaps you should retrace your steps, and go back to the beginning.

Unbidden the image of a trio of young hedgehogs filled his mind, one pink, one green… and one blue. They were laughing and bantering over a large plate of chili dogs in an old van. They were happy, joyful even as they celebrated. Completely unaware of what was to come, and around the blue hedgehog's neck was an old two-pronged medallion. The blue one said something to the green one, causing him to tackle the blue one to the floor, the two of them wrestling back and forth only stopping as they knocked the plate of chilli dogs into the pink one's face. The two of them shared a look as the plate slowly slipped away from her face, before falling to the ground laughing at her unamused chilli-soaked expression.

'Yeah,' Sonic thought trying to ignore the sudden hollow feeling in his chest, 'start from the beginning.'

He turned and walked out the door before turning to give the fox and his room one last look. Glancing at the bookshelf Sonic did a double-take at a large fluffy figure sitting on the shelf right above Tails' head. Was that a Werehog plushie? Sonic shook his head a genuine chuckle leaving his lips. "Tomorrow Tails," he whispered. "When this is all over, tomorrow I'm telling you everything."

With a final exhausted sigh, the hedgehog shut the door with a click.