Word Count: 1321

Fandoms: Sonic Prime

Characters: Tails, Sonic, mentioned Nine the Fox

Relationships: [gen/platonic] Sonic & Tails.

Warnings: None

Author's Note: Written and posted before Sonic Prime part 3 was released. This is written under the assumption that all the version of Tails - Nine, Mangey, and Sails - will fuse back into the original Tails at the end of the show. Also crossposted to AO3

After its all said and done, Tails - Tails, he's Tails now - returns to his workshop. It looks exactly the same as when he left it, hours, days, weeks, years ago. Time is jumbled in his head. It hasn't been long since he last walked through the rolling doors of the workshop, he knows that, but there's something under his skin that feels like its been a lifetime. Several lifetimes.

Lifetimes that weren't his.

He holds them now, he thinks. The memories, the experiences. They're distant, warped as if he's looking at them through a filter, but they're there.

He remembers being scared, being starved. Friends turned into monsters. A stranger who smiled at him with warmth and taught him how to fly. A ship, a captain, a waste of time and potential and the weight of boredom on his shoulders, suffocating like the midday sun.

He remembers being angry. He remembers being hurt, over and over again, a life spent being crushed. He remembers the glimpse of hope, then the feeling of betrayal and devastation, then all consuming rage.

He remembers the look on his brother's face as hands that looked like his own tried to kill him.

It's a lot.

He knows their names. Sonic told him. Immediately after- after whatever it was that happened. When Tails suddenly stumbled to life, disorientated and body buzzing with unfamiliar energy. Mangey. Sails.

Nine.

It left a bad taste in his mouth.

He's not exactly sure where Sonic is now. With Shadow, maybe. They looked like they had a lot to talk about. Tails hadn't wanted to stick around and listen to it.

What Tails really needs is to sleep, for a week preferably, but instead he pulls up the chair at his workbench and flops into it, and tinkers. He's not entirely sure what with, just the first thing he grabbed when he sat down. Something from the Tornado's engine, he thinks, grease smearing on his gloves.

A memory boils up, hazed and disjointed, of working on a different plane, hunched over in a cramp and dark workshop. Building it from scratch, hours warping around him, flashes of hands that are not his own buried deep in wires, a machine he has never laid eyes on coming to life before him. A shard of a crystal in his hands, warmth and hope and love bubbling up in his chest for the first time in years.

Tails sets down the gadget on the desk. It's light outside still, a window propped open to let in the cool evening breeze. Distantly, he marvels at it, the absence of smog.

He didn't realize how much he missed Green Hill.

All at once, emotions swell up in his throat. It's too much. There are emotions, thoughts and memories that aren't even his and he knows that, knows that they aren't even whole, that they're… they're residual. He can't claim them, he doesn't have the right to, but he can't stop himself from feeling them, from remembering everything that hurt them. People he will never meet, but will carry with him always.

More than anything, he wants Sonic right now. He wants Sonic to hug him and tell him that he'll fix it, that he's okay, that they're both okay now. He wants Sonic to hold him while they sit on the couch and watch some dumb cartoon together until they fall asleep.

The very thought of that makes him dig his claws into the workbench, leaving grooves. Sonic hurt him, Sonic ruined him - but he didn't, did he? Tails had nothing to do with that, and from what he's heard, what he remembers, Sonic didn't even mean to. It was an accident, a miscommunication. An impossible situation, caught between a rock and a hard place.

Sonic didn't hurt him, but all Tails can remember is the realization that someone he loved, someone he thought was going to save him, didn't care about him, was using him, thought of him as a replacement that he could throw away as soon as he got his real friends back.

The sudden stab of resentment and pure hatred he feels towards himself takes him by surprise.

God. What a mess.

Dropping his foreheard to the workbench, he groans. A headache is building behind his eyes, and he can feel his fingers shaking. From what, he doesn't know. Adrenalin crash, shock, exhaustion, take your pick.

He pushes his chair back, stumbles to the couch that's tucked into the corner.

When he wakes, it's morning. Sonic is there, hovering nervously. He's holding a stack of comics, and he places them on the workbench, not meeting Tails' eye. Tails recognises the comics for what they are, an apology. His ears fold back. He's not sure who the apology is for.

Sonic throws him a shakey smile. He looks awful, pale, fur dulled, dark bags underneath his eyes. Tails feels a stab of sympathy.

He starts to sit up, pushing away the blanket, but Sonic starts talking before he can.

"Hey bud, sorry that I kinda left you hanging. Last night. I should've check to see if you were doing okay, but…" he trails off with a shrug. "I was trying to sort out some other things. Still. I'm sorry."

"That's okay," Tails says, and it doesn't feel like a lie. "I pretty much just crashed straight away."

Sonic gives him a disbelieving look, but lets it go. "How are you dealing with… everything? I can't even imagine what this must feel like, right now."

"Its….fuzzy," Tails admits. "They're distant and hazy, but all of them, all of it, it's still in my head." He pauses. "It's a lot."

"'Them'?"

"The other ones. The, whatever you called it, the shatter spaces of… me. Mangey, Sails. Nine."

Sonic shuffles his feet, turning his face away. "I'm sorry. I really am."

"... for what?"

Sonic doesn't respond, so Tails continues. "For rushing in, for not listening to me? For not trusting us?"

Sonic barks a short laugh. "Yeah. Yeah. That too. That was… stupid. I shouldn't have done that."

"Incredibly stupid," Tails agress, smiling. "You love getting yourself into messes. Good thing I'm always there to bail you out."

"Yeah. Don't know what I'd do without you."

He doesn't say it like he normally does, with a cheeky wink and a ruffle of Tails' fur. He sounds tired, defeated. Tails shifts on the couch, awkward.

They stay like for a few moments, the silence heavy, before Sonic takes a deep breath. "And… and I'm sorry for what happened while we were in there. The Grim. For tricking you - I didn't mean to, I didn't mean a lot of things, it was a stupid move, but I know I hurt you-"

"That wasn't me."

Sonic stares at him. "I know, but-"

"You didn't hurt me. I'm not- I'm not mad, or angry, or upset. About that, at least. Still a little miffed about the whole 'not listening to me' thing, but that's old news."

It's not a lie. Tails isn't upset. Tails isn't hurt. He understands, and he's sorry for Sonic and for Nine, for what they went through. Both of them were hurt.

It's not a lie, but he feels his heart climb to his throat anyway. He swallows.

Sonic's looking at him closely. "So… are we good?"

"We are. Of course we are."

"I'm sensing a 'but'."

Tails laughs, then hangs his head, pushing the heels of his hands into his eyes. "But he wasn't. and I can feel that. He wasn't okay. With anything."

Sonic's hand tightens on his shoulder. "What can I do?"

"I dont know."

"I can't- I can't apologize to him. I can't make it up to him. Not anymore."

"No" Tails echos. "You can't."

There wasn't going to be any closure. There wasn't going to be any resolution. There couldn't be.

Tails is just going to have to carry it.