bruh this one went on too long lmaoo as you can see i have so many headcanons about this franchise ill lose my damn mind also like idk man i just really like hurting sonic i do its okay
special shout to sky for givin it a looksee!
{Originally posted on AO3 on 2022-02-04 for Febuwhump 2022}
Nightmares were not a new thing for the blue blur. In fact, for a long time they seemed to be the only dreams he ever woke up to remember. Sonic's already nocturnal habits mixed with the constant horrific visions that plagued him in his sleep caused a horrible case of insomnia to form within the hero. Getting him to actually sleep instead of waiting to pass out from exhaustion was much greater a challenge than fighting an E-100 unit.
Sonic was a fighter. He would fight anything he saw fit. Whether it was a robot sent by the Mad Doctor or just a tablespoon of cold medicine. Whatever it was, if Sonic thought it was worth putting up the resistance then he would do just that. He was defiant to his core and feisty as could be.
Tails knew this better than anyone. He'd seen Sonic at his worst and watched him grow into his best since they were kids. However, that also meant he had seen Sonic in his worst days. He had watched a good majority of the very moments occur that caused such terrors to return and reoccur in the hero's sleeping subconscious. Tails was also one of the few most likely to, and most prepared to, fight back against Sonic's rebellious nature when it came to the hedgehog's well being. He'd learned a good thing or two about being feisty from the other, after all.
When he had counted the third day in a row that Sonic had not slept he instantly started after the hero. Tails invited Sonic over to his house under the guise of hanging out for the night. They watched movies, palled around as usual. Just because it was a trap didn't mean they couldn't actually hang out. At eight, Tails said he was heading to bed for the night and told Sonic he should do the same in his own, unused, room.
Tails waited a good two hours before finally slipping back out of his room to check on the other. He found Sonic playing a game in the living room. The fox frowned at the sight. Of course. He stomped over to the TV and grabbed the plug in the back, giving it a harsh tug out of the socket.
Sonic gave a shout of upset as the screen shut off. "Tails!" he hissed out, throwing his arms into the air. The controller cord wacking into the side of his arm at the sudden movement. "What the hell man! If you wanted me to turn down the volume you could'a just said so," he grumbled out with a frown.
"Go to bed," Tails huffed out.
Sonic looked up at him now with the face of a man caught in the act. He dropped the controller to lean on his hand and use the other to wave away at Tails' request. "I'm not tired. You know how it is, evil never sleeps bla bla bla. I'm more partial to daytime naps anyways." He crossed his arms with a confident nod.
"Sonic!" Tails screeched, causing the other to flinch back. Clearly Tails was not falling for such 'sound' logic. "When was the last time you slept?" Tails threw out, already knowing the answer but needing to shove it into Sonic's face. "Like actually slept. Not whatever power nap you took in a tree somewhere."
Sonic opened his mouth, a fabrication clearly sitting on the edge of his tongue. However, it only took one glance at the frustrated glare Tails was giving him to stop him. His mouth snapped back closed instantly. Eh, he was a bad liar anyways. He frowned and looked away from the other. "Come on, man. I'll sleep later. I was in the middle of a game." He tried to gesture to the TV and give Tails a pleading look.
However, Tails stood his ground. His grip on the cord only tightening. He shot out other hand and pointed towards the hall. "Go to bed."
Sonic let out a frustrated groan and ran his hands down his face. He let himself fall back onto the carpeted floor. His quills flattened and frayed out underneath him. "Taails," he whined.
The younger gave a sigh. "Just. Please just try to sleep, Sonic. Promise me you'll at least try?"
Sonic looked up at the other from his dramatic floor sprawl. Tails' serious and concerned frown pulled down Sonic's own eye ridges. He let out a groan and threw his arms into the air again before letting them fall back to the floor with twin thumps. "Fine," he hissed out.
His agreement earned him a relieved smile from the fox which Sonic attempted to return.
As the hero pulled himself up and slugged towards his room, Tails pulled out his phone to send out a text of confirmation.
They were always different. After all, his mind had a lifetime worth of events to pick and choose from. Mushing different moments together or just lengthening out one in the worst possible way.
That night was a particularly bad one.
Sonic was in a tube. At least, that was his first impression. The metal platform under his feet felt dreadfully familiar. He looked around to the room, the control panels and large monitor felt much bigger and much more intimidating than they had any right to be. There were other tubes like his own lined up in the room. The others, however, were all closed from sight.
Then, lights flashed on under the platforms. Almost like spot lights. A show to begin and be performed for all of Mobius. It was always a show, wasn't it? Always some kind of act, some kind of event. Always something.
One by one, the other tubes began to open with a slow sound, smoke flooding the area around them as they did. The fresh smell of chemicals and metal wafted into Sonic's nostrils, bringing only disgusting memories and unwanted feelings. He pushed his hands against his muzzle to try and block out most of it.
When the smoke cleared his heart sank. Sally. Tails. Knuckles. Jules. But none of it was right. All of them, where fur should be stood robotic bodies. Always with the fucking robots. Red eyes dim with a terrible emptiness behind them. The lights below their platforms lit up the metal with a threatening gleem.
Sonic slammed his eyes closed and tried to calm himself. He knew this was wrong. These didn't happen like this. He breathed in and out. The panic was starting to set in fast. If he could just fight it before he lost himself in it.
Sally was the other timeline, he reminded himself. This Sally no longer exists. As far as anyone else was concerned, she never did. Sonic was the only one left with foggy memories of it all. The only reason being that he wrote everything down, scared to forget what he felt he needed to remember. Scared to forget yet another timeline split off and thrown into nothingness. Another life to live and lose. He couldn't let it go. Even if he really had lost everything in such a state.
Jules was gone before he even had a picture of flesh and fur to replace at all. Sonic had never met his father before his death. Sonic had always known Jules as he was. There was no reason to be scared of the other. There was absolutely nothing to fear.
Knuckles wasn't even caused by Robotnik. Knuckles was only in such a state for a short time and it was to save Sonic. Not to hurt him. Sally and the others had taken a gamble and it worked. Knuckles had saved his ass many times but that one he would never forget. Knuckles risked his own life and body for Sonic's sake.
And Tails… Tails had suffered this fate a few times. But he was fine now. Every time they had figured a way out of it. The last time didn't even work properly as Zavok only had a much more rudimentary version of such technology than the original design. The original machine and any possibility of it ever existing again was destroyed by Sonic and his allies a long, long time ago.
He knew this was wrong. He had to remind himself it was wrong. If he let himself get lost in the nightmare, in the fear, he knew it would be worse. That's how it always worked. He had to force himself away. Step back from whatever primal emotions this was setting off.
Sonic ran his hands down his face and through his quills. He had to wake up. He was dreaming right? Of course he was dreaming. It had to be a dream. But it all feels so real. He shook the thought away. No. No, if he let that seep too deep into his mind he'd get lost. He breathed and let himself think. Just, rationalize it all.
His ears perked up at the sound of heavy steps entering the room. Against his better judgment, he opened his eyes to look towards the sound only to feel his heart sink to his chest.
A roboticized Chuck stood in the entryway.
"No," Sonic mumbled out. The breath felt knocked from his body. No. He couldn't let this get to him.
He watched as the Chuck began to move towards the controls. The Sally, Jules, and Knuckles stepped towards him. They stared at Sonic. The glow of their eyes filled his vision with red light. The alarms rang loudly and violently in his head. The visceral reaction he became so used to feeling at the glow of such a color.
The Chuck pressed a few buttons and Sonic's own tube shot open. He had no time to even take in this action before the Tails, who he hadn't been watching, grabbed him from behind; holding him still atop the metal platform. Oh. Now that was just cruel.
Sonic began to move around in the grip, attempting to pry the bot's arms open and off him. When the familiar buzz of the machine turning on filled Sonic's ears. His movements instantly turned to panicked thrashing. His quills spiked up as violently as possible, trying to harm his current restraint. He kicked and scratched and screamed for the other to let him go. For his uncle to stop. For his dad or his friends to snap out of it and save him.
The buzzing grew louder and the lights of the machine started up.
Sonic's breathing became sporadic. He couldn't stop it. He couldn't stop the machine. He couldn't stop the panic. He couldn't stop the spiraling fear taking over an overwhelming every part of his very being.
His fur prickled up at the first feeling of the device's effects. The very reconstruction of DNA, morphing skin to metal using stolen energy from the dying earth below. Sonic always wondered if the searing pain the process caused was similar to how the planet felt. He wondered if feeling every nerve and molecule attempt to resist the change felt anything at all familiar to the world he called home. It's natural energies constantly stolen and rearranged. Forced to do harm to its own life and inhabitants.
Sonic screamed. He screamed and he thrashed and he cried and he begged. He couldn't let this happen again. He couldn't let himself fall into this again. The dream? The roboticizer? Did it even matter which was really threatening his life now? All he could feel was the power of the machine attacking his internal energy. All he could feel was the dread of what he knew would come next. Loss of all atonomy. A hazy existence of being just out of reach of his own mind and body. Forced to hurt those he loved.
He really, really hated robots.
Sonic shot up in his bed. His breathing panicked and sporadic. Was he even breathing? The air felt so thin and useless that he really couldn't even tell.
He grabbed at his body. His hands ran over his chest then down his arms. One hand gripping the other in a vice. Fur. The same fur as there always was. His thumb pressed into his other hand's paw pad. His nails digging into his hand much harder than need be. They would leave marks. Feeling the pain of his own claws was grounding though, so he didn't stop til he at least had some control over his breathing. At least til he didn't feel as though he were on the verge of passing out.
Once Sonic had confirmed that his body was all fur, quills, and flesh and he was no longer a hollow breath away from slipping back into unconsciousness, he stood from the bed. He promised Tails he would try. He tried. He tried and it sucked as much as it always did.
Sonic looked at his phone. Only a little over an hour had passed. It was better than nothing, he supposed. Still, if Tails woke up and found him awake, he knew the other would get upset. However, staying in bed for another seven hours sounded like another freak out waiting to happen. Instead, he set up his pillows just right and went out the window.
Tails woke up to the light from his door opening. He sat up, blinking away the sleep and looked towards the light. Blocking a portion of it was Shadow holding a pouting Sonic under his arm.
"I'm starting to realize this is more of a set up than previously assumed," Sonic muttered out.
Tails let out a sigh and ran his hand over his face. He threw his legs over the side of his bed to sit up on the edge. "Sonic," he huffed, more defeated than angry. "You promised me you'd sleep." He gave the hero a pointed look.
"I said 'I'd try'!" Sonic corrected. "And I did try! Honest! I slept like, an hour 'n' a half."
"Sonic!" Tails cried. "That's not nearly enough sleep."
"What about your bouncer over here!" Sonic threw back, shoving his finger into Shadow's cheek. "He's not sleeping!"
"Unlike you, I naturally don't require much sleep," Shadow explained, grabbing Sonic's finger to pull it away from his face. "Any I do outside of necessity is only out of leisure."
Sonic crossed his arms against his chest and grumbled to himself something about 'stupid hybrid bullshit'.
Shadow looked back over to Tails with a roll of his eyes. "I assume this means we go with 'Plan B'?"
"'Plan B'?" Sonic parroted in confusion.
Tails only gave a nod and slid out of his bed. The two walked Sonic back into his room.
He was fully prepared to be shoved back into bed and watched til he fell asleep. What he didn't expect was for Shadow to slide into the bed with Tails doing the same from the other side. Both enclosing the blue hero in the middle.
"This is your 'Plan B'?" Sonic huffed out. "Sleeping with me like I'm five? I'm a grown man you know!"
Tails gave a sympathetic, yet humored smile to the other. "Come on, Sonic. We used to sleep together all the time, remember?"
"Yeah when we were kids and homeless," Sonic retorted. The comment earning them both a questioning look from Shadow which was pointedly ignored.
"The amount of sleep you get regularly is dangerously unhealthy," Shadow started up. "Especially for someone who's always on the move like you are. If there's even the possibility that having us as comfort and grounding while you sleep could help, then it's worth a try."
Tails gave a nod in agreement. Clearly this was something they both had talked about before.
Sonic only let out a small noise of annoyance as the other two moved into more comfortable positions. By the end of the shuffling, Sonic had Shadow's arm under his neck, the two of them pressed closely together at their sides and Tails's head on Sonic's chest, arm draping over him as he curled against Sonic's other side. The bed was definitely not made for three people but, somehow, they made it work.
"Do you wanna try talking about it?" Tails asked quietly as Shadow pulled the covers up over the three of them.
"No," Sonic mumbled back. "'S just… normal stuff, I guess. Old stuff." He gave a shrug.
Tails frowned at that. "Okay," he sighed. "Just try to sleep, please."
Sonic sighed and closed his eyes. He didn't even have a moment to drift before the sight of red and the feeling of panic shot through him. He jolted, suddenly more awake than ever, gripping the covers over him hard enough to rip. His breathing started to become rapid again as the panic settled into his gut.
Before he could begin to spiral, he felt comforting hands running through his fur. "It's okay," Shadow whispered. The fingers ran up and down in a repetitive and calming motion. "You're not alone."
Tails curled in closer and nuzzled his cheek into Sonic's chest. "We'll make sure nothing gets to you. And if you wake up again, we'll help you." His soft twin tails coming up to rest over his own and Sonic's legs.
Sonic looked between the two as they settled into their positions and let themselves drift to sleep. He took in a large breath, pulling in everything he felt, before letting all of it out in a heavy sigh. He let himself relax against the other two. At the very least, if the nightmares came back, he wouldn't have to fight them alone. Something about that did comfort him much more than he'd thought, as he let himself drift off soundly back to sleep.
thank yall sm for reading! make sure to leave a comment and find me on twitter n tumblr HeroicToonz if ya want !