The Number One Fan
Sonic wasn't one to complain.
He didn't complain when they ran out of hotdogs. He didn't complain when Tails ate the last can of chili, and he didn't complain when he was sent to get more groceries for them because "it will be faster for you anyway."
But he didn't want to run, so he decided to take the train today because trains are cool, and he could never get over the view it gave him of the mystic ruins.
The sun was setting below the horizon, pinkish-orange rays reflecting off the greenery. Just a few more stops, and he'll be home.
"Ahhh- Choo!"
"Bless you." He said quietly, jumping a bit as he realized someone was in the carriage. He looked backward to meet the gaze of a chubby brown tapir.
He looked about the same height as Sonic, with a wide head and large almond eyes, round ears, and a short snout that looked like a sized-down version of an elephant's truck. And a mop of dark hair with his bangs shaking as the train rattled to its next stop.
He was wearing thick D-shaped glasses with a yellow shirt with a fan-made image of Sonic at the front, the kind of shirt you would buy during comic conventions but never wear because it meant too much to you than to live in it.
"Sonic?" The tapir called, "Sonic the Hedgehog?" And now he was standing up, and now he was coming over.
Please let this be a normal fan interaction. Please god, don't let this man be the creep I'm getting the vibe for right now. Please let this be his next stop so he doesn't have to talk to me.
Not having anywhere to go, Sonic greeted the tapir with a small wave. "Would you like a picture?" He offered. Usually, whenever people noticed him like this when fans observed him like this, they were so overwhelmed they didn't know what to do. But he learned a long time ago offering a picture was the best way to keep them from doing something weird like asking him a million different personal questions.
"I- ... I have so much to ask you!" The tapir announced, shaking his paws excitedly like a school girl who had just been asked to dance by her crush.
Sonic bit his lip and begged himself not to roll his eyes. This was going to be something.
The tapir lifted a sweaty paw over to Sonic. "Mark." He said then paused as if waiting for him.
"You already know my name." The hedgehog said again, looking out where the entrance was to see if it was too late to get off this plane and book it home. Aw but then he'd have to get all the groceries out and- ah, and there goes the doors closing again. No turning back now.
Mark squealed in excitement again like a schoolgirl and flopped down uninvited into the seat next to Sonic, taking out a spiral notebook from his backpack labeled "Sonic Fanfiction."
Oh boy.
Sonic looked at it and laughed nervously. He really was going there, wasn't he? Wait... why is there a tab labeled 'Sonadow'?
"Heh, I got to go soon- " But the tapir had grasped at his arm, his grip turning his arm white. His paws shimmied over and under to wear Sonic's pristine eggshell gloves covered his paws. The hedgehog cursed himself as he did nothing but take it. It was like he was an outsider watching it happen. He didn't know what to do. He didn't know how to make Mark let go. He debated screaming. But what if screaming didn't work? There was no one else around after all. Who would believe him when he talked about what happened? If he talked about what happened. He had no witnesses, and he wasn't even trying to pry the sweaty hand away. Why wasn't he? What was he doing?
Sonic has never been one for physical affection. Hugs and high-fives were reserved for a select group of people in his life that he cared deeply for. But touching under gloves? For a mobian that was so intimate you might as well be grasping at his crotch.
We are all taught at an early age that touching like this isn't okay. No-no squares and personal bubbles and keep your hands to yourselves and all that. Preschool rules follow us as we get older and start to develop things like breast and body hair.
Mark maybe didn't go to preschool. Sonic told himself. Maybe he was never taught the sacredness of under the gloves. How only family and lovers and sometimes doctors should touch you there. Maybe it wasn't his fault, Sonic told himself again as Mark started rubbing circles in his paws, and- was he drooling? Was this pleasant for him? It certainly wasn't for Sonic.
Was he getting off on this? Move Sonic, move. Get away from this tapir. Get away from this creep. He is groping you Sonic. Why can't you move?
"Oh, this is my stop," Mark said and Sonic realized that the train had come to a complete halt again. "Nice talking to you Sonic the Hedgehog!" The tapir smiled as he removed his paw from under the hedgehog's gloves, kissed his palm, and walked off the train before Sonic's brain ever let him do anything.
—————
Sonic couldn't remember the walk home. He could feel his grip on the grocery bags. He could hear the wind whistling between the trees. He could see the glow of the sunset reflecting onto the ground beneath his feet. But he couldn't recall stepping off the train or stepping into the house. It was only when he heard a crash from the kitchen over the sound of the TV that he was aware he was there at all.
"Sorry!" Tails called as he got the broom, sweeping up his second favorite mug. He had spent so long in his workshop that he had actually become too shaky to hold anything. That wasn't good. Was it? He really should learn more work-life balance techniques.
Sonic looked over towards the kitchen from where he lay on the couch, hugging himself. Normally he'd be a good big brother and insist on cleaning the shattered remains of the ceramic mug himself, it was better than letting an eight-year-old do it, but right now he didn't have the energy. It was like Mark had stolen it when he invaded the space under his gloves.
Sonic groaned as he stuffed his face between a throw pillow and the couch cushion, willing the memory of the tapir's sweaty hands violating him to go away. He felt the couch shift as Tails sat down next to him, still, he didn't move to get up.
"Sonic?" A small voice said, grasping him on the shoulder, "Is something wrong?"
Oh, something was very, very wrong actually. But he isn't going to bother his kid brother with it. The kit had to act grown up enough as it was without him piling his problems onto him.
The paw on his shoulder tightened and he resisted the urge to flinch away from it the way he should have with Mark. He could still remember the circle he had traced in his palm. It lingered over him and would forever whenever he went to use his paws.
"It's your fault for being a woman." His mother would have said if she was here, despite him telling her years ago that he never really was a woman.
"I'm just not having that good a day, bud." He told Tails, not bothering to lift his head from the couch cushions. The couch shifted again as Tails sat up. "Do you want to talk about it?"
Sonic fought to close his mouth before saying anything else, but that didn't work. It ended with him recounting the entire story to his little brother, who sat and listened patiently.
"Sonic..." The kit said once he had finished, Sonic wasn't looking but he swore he could feel Tails frowning. "That sounds like assault, are you okay?"
The hedgehog made no move to look at him, clearly was very much not okay. "He just... he wouldn't let go... why wouldn't he let go?" Sonic wiped up tears from his eyes before they could fall. It was stupid, he was so stupid, why did he have to be this way?
"Do you... want to report them?" Tails asked unsurely, shifting again on the couch thus shifting around Sonic as well.
No. No, he didn't but he had to didn't he otherwise the tapir would hurt someone else and it would be his fault and-
"No, it wouldn't be. Where did you hear that?" The kit next to him asked as Sonic realized suddenly that he had said that last part out loud.
"Sonic," Sonic lifted himself to sit upright on the couch, Criss cross applesauce on the first cushion. "What you just described to me is called victim blaming. It's not your fault, report him, don't report him, none of it is your fault." The kit's ears now were flat on his head. "I hope you don't really think that way, do you?" It seemed to Sonic that his brother was more worried for him than mad at whoever taught him that.
"I don't its just..." It's just his mom talking in his ear is what he wanted to say. That is what he needed to explain but he couldn't. Despite the years separating her from him her voice occasionally rang in his ears. He wiped his eyes again.
"Can I hug you?"
"What?"
"Can I hug you?" Tails asked again, and Sonic nodded yes and so they did and neither of them would talk about that day again unless the hedgehog wanted to. Because he shared none of the blame, that was all on Mark.