Sonic passed the guest room door for the 100th time today. The door was ever so slightly ajar and he could see the lump under the blankets and the hint of red from the top of the blankets.

It had been two days since they got Knuckles home. Two days since one of the scariest in his life. Two days since his family had almost been torn apart. Two days since his brother…

Sonic clenched his eyes shut. He wanted to talk to Knuckles so bad. He wanted to talk about that night. He wanted to talk about the coat…

But his brother needed rest, Maddie had told him. He may be out of the woods but it would likely be days before he felt himself. The extreme cold he had endured had worn his normally resilient body. He had developed a cough, stuffy nose, and he seemed so tired. So Sonic stayed away.

He watched as Maddie and Tom, as his mom and dad, made their way to and from the bedroom. Bringing water, bringing soup, bringing grapes. Occasionally he could hear the deep murmur of his brothers voice and he soaked that in like starved lungs for oxygen. But he didn't go in.

"He needs to rest." Sonic told himself. "He's sick." "Now is not the time." But deep down he was running. Deep down he was scared. Deep down he had almost lost his brother. Deep down he was scared to talk about the coat.

And so he continued to hover at the edge of the door. Taking comfort that his brother was in the next room, very much alive, and slowly feeling better.

He jumped when he felt a hand on his shoulder.

"He's going to be fine…" his dad spoke, squeezing his shoulder tightly. Sonic forced himself to look up, burying the fear behind his eyes.

"Yeah I know…" he said, as if it was the most obvious thing in the world. "He's a strong dude. I bet the Rock never let the cold get the best of him either."

Tom let a small smile cross his face. He knelt to his knee.

"I think Knuckles could take the Rock…" Tom said wryly.

"Knuckles could kick the Rock into the next time zone…" Sonic answered with a snicker. Tom smiled again. But he wasn't done yet.

"He's going to be OK." he reiterated, forcing his son to make eye contact. "He will."

"Yeah…I know…" Sonic replied, rolling his eyes.

Tom stared, never breaking eye contact. "Is there a reason you haven't been in yet?"

Sonic shrugged, burying his feelings. "Mads said he needed rest," he said. "So rest is what I am giving him."

"You can go in there…" Tom pushed. "It's ok. He would like to see you."

Sonic took a hard swallow and found himself subconsciously glancing toward the cracked door.

"He's sleeping…" Sonic tried.

"He's been resting a lot, he'll be ok." Tom pushed.

"I don't want…" Sonic started, but trailed off.

"He's going to be OK." Tom said again. His father's eyes bore into him, reading him, knowing him, better than he even knew himself. Sonic took a deep shuddering breath.

"I'm scared." he said simply. Lying was no longer an option.

"I know," his father answered, squeezing his shoulders and never breaking eye contact.

Sonic tried to drop his gaze but Tom caught his chin and pushed it back up.

"Talk to him." he said, leaving no room for argument. Sonic felt himself be pulled into a hug, squeezing strength back into him, strength he thought he lost. When the hug ended, Sonic felt like he could take on the world.

"OK." he said. It was the only answer left.

Tom smiled and gave him a soft nudge to the door.

Sonic inched his way closer and slowly pushed the door open just enough so he could squeeze by. Before disappearing behind the door he chanced a look back. "Thanks," he said simply.

Tom smiled, gave him a small thumbs up, and walked down the hall.

Sonic turned back toward the room, the door to his back. He took a deep breath and slowly inched his way to the bed. His brother was laying on his side, buried in blankets with his eyes closed. Sonic was taken aback again by how young he looked. He looked just as young as when they were back…."No, we aren't thinking about that right now." Sonic said to himself, pushing the scary image of the cave back out of his mind. "We didn't die…he didn't die…he's going to be fine."

Sonic took another deep breath and pushed a small plush chair to the side of the bed where his brother was facing. He was getting situated on the chair, situated to wait when he caught purple eyes looking at him from the covers.

Their eyes met and they looked at each other. They really looked at each other.

"Sorry I woke you." Sonic mumbled, his eyes finally breaking away and looking down at his hands.

He heard a soft hum come from his brother's chest and felt him rustle under the covers. When he looked back up Knuckles had pulled himself up a bit propping himself up against the back of the bed his purple eyes staring at him, looking through him.

"You did not." he said simply.

"Yeah right sleeping beauty," Sonic quipped with a small smile gracing the side of his mouth.

Knuckles brow creased in what Sonic had learned was confusion. "I do not understand." he said. "I am not beautiful. Endlessly good looking, perhaps…"

Sonic laughed despite himself at the unexpected joke. He saw the hint of a smile cross Knuckle's face.

"How are you feeling?" Sonic asked, steering the conversation back.

"I am fine," his brother answered. And as if just on cue to make Sonic's heart leap out of his chest, his brother started coughing, burying his face in his glove.

"Yeah…you sound great." Sonic said sarcastically with laced humor.

"A warrior never gets sick…" Knuckles rasped, almost offended at the cough. "An invisible enemy is no match for our strength."

"And yet…" Sonic trailed off, smiling. He watched his brother scowl in disgust.

A silence fell over him again. Sonic let his eyes drop to his hands. He suddenly felt a weight boring on his chest. He wanted to ask his brother a question. He needed to ask his brother a question, but he couldn't get the words to pass through his lips. He clenched his teeth in frustration - he was a coward.

It didn't help that his older brother continued to eye him. Eye him with the penetrating violet orbs that felt like that could read minds. He shied slightly from the gaze.

"I…" he started, then lost the words. "Come on Sonic - say it!"

He took a deep breath and forced the words from his mouth. "Whydidyoutakethecoatoff?" he slurred, the words pushed out with such force that they meshed together in a pile of mush. Once the words got out he immediately looked back at his hands, afraid of what he would see on his brother's face.

There was silence. Silence that stretched across the room. Silence that could stretch across oceans, and Sonic felt like he was drowning.

A soft hum came from his brother's chest, and the next words spoken took Sonic by surprise.

"I thought this would be obvious." he stated simply, as if there was no other answer.

"What do you mean, obvious?!" Sonic answered, his voice raising as fear threatened to pour over. "We were fine. We would have been fine if you just stayed under the coat. We would have been fine." The words flowed out if him, out of his control, anger starting to lace the words that passed his lips. "You almost died. DIED. All you had to do was keep the dang coat on."

When he finally looked up the purple eyes were no longer looking at him. They were looking at his hands as they wrung together unconsciously, almost as an outlet for all the pent up fear. Something that felt out of Sonic's control. Silence again. God, he hated silence.

"You would not have been ok." he heard the words exit his brother's mouth, a statement, no room for argument. Sonic looked up and tried to meet his eyes, but his gaze remained downturned.

"After you fell asleep, I could not find rest." he started. "I could feel you shaking, as the night went on. Your breathing was changing. You looked like your color was paling. It scared me."

Sonic started at the word scared. Knuckles was scared?

"I have lived through cold." he continued. "By myself I had to face harsh weather that could consume others. I looked at you and I knew you could not. Echidna's are stronger against the cold. I made a decision. A decision I would make again, and again, and again…"

"But you weren't stronger…" Sonic scolded, looking up with narrowed eyes. "You almost died."

"An acceptable outcome if it meant you were safe."

These words lit a fire in Sonic's chest. His insides burned, erupting as flush in his cheeks.

"An acceptable outcome?!" he yelled, emotion falling out of him. "You dying is an acceptable outcome? What the Hell?"

"Listen…" he tried.

"NO, you listen!" Sonic interrupted, needing to be heard. "Maybe you dying is acceptable to you. But do you think it's acceptable to Tails? To Maddie? To Tom? To…to me?"

"I did not think…"

"No you didn't think," Sonic continued. "Do you realize how scared I was when I woke up, when I couldn't get you to wake up." The words tangled in his throat as the image of his brother's lifeless body floated back in his mind.

"It was my fault we were trapped in the cave." Knuckles started again. "I did not want you to suffer for my mistakes. And I knew that if you didn't make it home it would be damaging to Miss Maddie and Mr. Tom. They love you as their son."

"So you think you're expendable?" Sonic said, cutting through his words.

"I made a vow to protect…"

"I made the same vow…"

"I could not…"

"What?!"

"I could not let you die." Knuckles finished, an edge to his voice that Sonic had not heard in some time. "You are important to your tribe. And you would have been fine without me. I would not have been fine without you. I could not have you die because of my mistake, my weakness."

Sonic listened as the words poured out, and he could finally hear the exhaustion in his brother's voice.

"You're and idiot." Sonic answered, his eyes hard.

"You mock me."

"No, I'm telling the truth." He pushed, refusing to yield. Knuckled had to see…he had to see. "You say I would be fine without you. Do you really think you are so expendable? Do you really think you mean that little?" Sonic took another deep breath, trying to bring courage back in his body, courage he knew he didn't have. "Knuckles, when are you going to learn that you are part of this family. I would have been devastated if you died. You are my brother. When will you learn that you mean the world to me. Forget the emerald, forget the vow. What matters is we stay together. We are stronger together."

Sonic deflated as his words left his mouth. Silence spanned between them like an impenetrable barrier. One that neither of them felt strong enough to break through.

He chanced a glance toward the echinida, buried in the blankets on the bed. His form almost seemed deflated, his eyes confused. He watched 1,000 emotions cross his face in the span of a second. Maybe it was longer, Sonic was always bad with time. Finally the eyes, the strong, sad eyes looked up and met his.

"I am sorry." he said again.

"You're forgiven." Sonic said, and he meant it. "But next time you get all 'sacrifice yourself'y, promise me you will think twice."

"I cannot."

"You 'cannot' what?"

"I cannot make a promise I know I cannot keep."

"What is that supposed to mean?"

He watched as Knuckles took another breath and watched his shoulders square up, and for the first time since a couple days ago, he looked strong.

"I cannot promise that I will not die to protect you, or the fox, or Tom, or Maddie." he stated firmly. "If my life is what it takes to protect you all from harm, I will give it without thought. I cannot allow harm to come to you. Not while I still have any fight left."

Sonic opened his mouth to answer but the words died before they crossed his lip. Who was he to argue with that. He could not argue with that because he would do the same. He would die to protect his family, his brothers. Why should he expect any less from Knuckles. Even if it made him an idiot.

"Just promise me that we will stick together." he started. "No matter what."

"No matter what." his brother answered. And with those words, Sonic finally found peace.

When Maddie walked by around dinner time, she chanced a glance in the guest bedroom. She had known that Sonic had gone in there hours before. Tom had made it clear to allow him time, so Maddie had stayed away, despite her constant need to check on her boys and make sure they were OK.

She slowly and gently pushed the door open and her heart melted in an instant. Knuckles had fallen back asleep - no surprise. He needed his rest. But Sonic had crawled into the bed with him, head nestled next to his brother's shoulder, his arm draped almost protectively around Knuckle's chest.

At some point in the afternoon her youngest must have made his way in and he was found curled into his red brother's other side, tails dropped over his torso. And in that moment she knew everything would be OK.

She smiled to herself and closed the door (but not all the way, they may need her) and walked back down stairs. Dinner could wait. Her boys needed this time. And she was happy to give it to them.

Warm.

It wafted over him and filled him to the brim.

In his hazy mind he felt an arm over his chest and tails dropped over his body and he felt safe.

He took a deep breath and sank deeper under the blankets.

He sank into sun, he sank into his father, he sank into his family. His new family. And nothing could take this feeling away.

He was warm. And he followed the sun back into sleep. And he was finally safe.