Sonic is acting strange.
From the moment he entered the cave at the top of the mountain and going on even after Shadow finished the battle, he was more energetic, talking faster than usual, to his friends’s eyes happier than they had ever seen him before. But deep inside his mind and heart, he felt more melancholic than anything.
Rouge said something about to going visit Shadow, wherever he’d gone, though it’s not probable that Shadow would gift her a powerful gem of inter dimensional proportions, it’s still a possibility. He finds himself comfortable with the idea of either of them guarding it, after all, Shadow would never let it bring chaos to their lives again, and now he knows Rouge it’s a better leader than he could ever be, they both would make the right call.
Sparring with Knuckles was as much of a way to get the stress out of his system as it is a reminder that the guardian isn’t a glory driven danger prone sailor, nor a extremely paranoid jungle survivor, and definitely not a soldier willing to hit an 8 year old if it means saving the world, no, he’s just Knucks. Ready to put him back in his tracks every time he goes off, same old Knucklehead.
Asking Amy to help him bake a cake to celebrate their victory on the mountain took her by surprise, not expecting Sonic to have the consideration or patience to think about and prepare that kind of gift just so their friends would enjoy it together. But what really shook her to the core was how many times he thanked her through the making, in his mind just one of those “thank you” was for the cake, the rest of them were for everything else.
Tails knows Sonic is acting strange.
it wasn’t just the sudden consideration on his words and actions, but also the eagerness to just spend time with them, an insane amount of time in which he paid attention to everyone and everything, he looked to the sea as if it was more of a new racetrack than an obstacle to his speed, he turned his sight to the sky as if he’d forgotten it was blue, and gazed to the palm trees as if he’d never seen one before. But most of it all, between his friends and the rest of the world, Sonic was looking at him.
It wasn’t the normal look he’d give him everyday, being the only one Sonic hadn’t been alone with since the mountain battle was weird enough, they would usually race and joke together after every battle, but not this time; Sonic was actively keeping him at arms length while never getting his eyes off of him, It didn’t matter who was Sonic talking to or what was he doing, if Tails was around, he was looking at him.
Every time he was smiling he would look back to see if he was smiling too, when one of his friends tried to approach him Sonic would instantly get in their way without any more reason than to talk to them, if there was a sudden movement or loud noise Sonic would turn to him as if to expect him to be gone, the calmness in his body being noticeable every time he found him.
It felt wrong, it felt distant, it felt as if he was a problem. He hasn’t felt like this in years.
Hours and hours later when their friends finally got too tired of watching Sonic’s odd behavior they all went their own way for the night, with Rouge just disappearing in the dark, Knuckles claiming he had places to be, and Amy saying the day had drained her and she needed sleep, Sonic and Tails were finally alone.
The walk to Tails’ lab was quick, but quiet. The silence prevailed all the way before they entered the house and closed the door, then it wasn’t quiet anymore.
With the way Sonic practically launched himself over Tails knocking the air out of him as he hugged the kit tightly, both falling to the floor as Sonic held him against his chest with one hand while the other one placed itself securing the fox’s head just below Sonic’s chin. Tails was quiet, way too shocked with the sudden affection after a whole day of being so close while feeling so far away. But Sonic’s sobs and whimpers weren’t quiet at all.
They were loud and broken, not forming any comprehensible words as hiccups broke in every time it seemed like he was actually trying to say something, as if he held back from crying for hours, It felt guilty, sorrowful, and desperate.
Tails found himself breaking his silence and asking repeatedly “what’s wrong?!” as he reciprocated the hug just for Sonic to tighten his arms around him, breaking into fully crying this time, with a sea of tears falling from the speedster’s eyes to the genius’ head, not letting him go even for a second, not loosening his grip after what felt like hours of holding his little brother, who held him back just as tightly.
Even if the tears stopped, their embrace didn’t, with the morning warmth closer than midnight’s coldness the blue hedgehog found himself surrounding the sleepy fox as he fought sleep’s calling to stay with his big brother.
“I love you” was muttered to the boy’s ears as he was claimed by the land of dreams, in which he could fly all day with the shining star he called his brother.
Tails wasn’t sure if that whisper was part of his dream. Sonic knew it wasn’t
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Axl Low is conceptually so funny in-universe. You've got this poor guy who by all accounts is the sweetest coolest guy, but he's literally a gang leader. BUT. He leads a gang to end violent crime in his town and he does it by fighting but without netting a SINGLE CASUALTY while doing it - he just beats up all these criminals and almost every single time they're like "This guy kinda rules I'm signing up with him actually" and he SUCCEEDS in ending crime in his neighborhood doing that. Then he meets his girlfriend and she thinks he's such a weird goofy guy and she falls in love instantly. Things are Great and then he is Yeeted Through Time multiple times. He ends up a few hundred years into the future and he just kinda deals with it, maintaining a glass-half-full attitude for the majority of that time despite this being probably one of the most horrifying things that can happen to a person. No one really cares about all that though, because the guy with time powers is Very Dangerous because of the time powers. Imagine being told "That guy over there is an extremely dangerous threat to reality on a metaphysical level" and you look over and they're pointing at some guy with the Union Jack plastered all over him just DESTROYING a hamburger and he looks over and waves at you.
By Xrd and Strive he's got control of his powers, and this makes him A Very Seriously Dangerous Threat. The Original contacts him personally to deliver a message to The Fucking Gear Maker. The Gear Maker sees him cause like "Holy shit. The Axes of Time. This guy is very dangerous and we should be careful" and Axl Low shows up, asks him if he's The Famous War Criminal Who Caused All This Bullshit, and freaks out and leaves when said war criminal offers him cookies for his trouble.
Jack-O asks Sol in Strive what the biggest threat to the world is right now and he goes "Axl" with a straight face. They talk about how dangerous he could be and within 4 seconds of that conversation Axl Low drops out of Fucking Nowhere onto their Speeding Motorcycle cause he needs Sol's help to save some innocent people on a hunch. How do you not shit yourself? I'll tell you how - because Axl Low is the equivalent of accidentally tripping into hell and meeting the devil and it turns out that the devil is actually just a fluffy golden retriever who has NO idea what he's doing and just wants pats like any other normal dog. Except he is just really powerful so people make assumptions. "Absolute Power Corrupts Absolutely" not my boy Axl Low. Decided against doing what he wanted to get what he wanted most because he wasn't going to erase an entire timeline to get home, even though he easily could've justified it as "Not my problem, not my fault, this is awful." The second he has full control over his time powers he uses it to either help people or get fast food really quickly so he has time for a stupid quip after a round. What a fucking hilarious character dude imagine if you met father time and he was just like "can I borrow some cash for McDonald's?" because that's pretty much how he acts. And you're just bewildered so you're like sure, hand him a 20, and you blink and father time came back cause he got you some fries. I fucking adore this man.
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