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fanfictin · 11 months ago

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a heros consequences

this entire thing needs soo much editing akfjajdj but just got to put it Somewhere for now

Technically, someone was always trying to 'get' the hero. It was how /being/ a hero had to work.

But, as Tails glanced over his shoulder for the upteenth time to make sure his brother was still stretched out on the sofa at the side of the workshop, despite the 'hero lifestyle', there were very few /real/ close calls with morality that haunted his dreams.

And this was going to now be one of them.

Tails exhaled shakily, forcing himself to turn back to the computer he sat in front of. He had patched sonic up best he could when they got back from the caved in factory, ignoring the weaker than usual protests against care. It wasn't like anything Sonic could say would erase the memory of him inches out of tails' grasp hitting the shallow water and immediately being lit up with what was easily lethal doses of electricity even without the lightshow and screaming of pain as surge advanced unflinching through the crackling--

The fox forcefully shook his body slightly to stop the scene from continuing in his mind. His eyes flicked from the main program he was /trying/ to work on as a distraction to the bottom left of his screen, where he'd brought up the built in link to his communication devices - though they did much more than just work as Comms. Ever concerned about his friends' wellbeing both in and out of adventures, each device had several distinct features, with the currently opened one a screen of tracking vitals.

It was one of the only things stopping him from curling up right next to his brother with an ear close enough to hear any changes in breathing or heartbeat that would indicate the slightest hint of something potentially deadly wrong. There was work to be done, so instead Tails had swallowed as much fear as he could and left Sonic to rest physically, while immediately bringing the vitals program up on the computer and pinning it to the corner before even starting to try and find something useful to work on. Still, despite its several built in alarms for various states and statistics, his gaze kept sliding to the numbers, double checking for any arrhythmia or drop in stats. Anything that would be the only input he needed to drop everything and take his brother to an actual hospital or something so someone /else/ who knew better could tell him that it would be okay, electricity didn't mess with people's heart rates or anything, doesn't mess with your brain's signals, isn't as deadly as lighting in thunderstorms…

A nearby creak made Tails jump an embarrassing amount, and he quickly gritted his teeth against the shock and thoughts that kept crowding him. He was fine. Sonic was fine. They escaped. It was over. For now, at least.

He glanced at the clock on the wall that suddenly sounded obnoxiously loud. It was almost time to wake Sonic anyway. Given the electrocution and recent beating, he would need a lot of rest, but concern about how hard he had hit one of the tanks - hard enough to /crack/ it on inpact when surge hit him back with metal - with his head, leaving a noticeable mark, Tails had quickly decided that being shaken awake every hour or so was more important to avoid coma complications from head trauma than sleeping off probable broken ribs was.

Quietly, he slipped out of his chair, glad at least for something that needed him to physically move, and padded over to his brother's back that faced him on the sofa.

Sonic looked asleep, but a frown on his face and crossed arms even with his body half curled into the pillows suggested it wasn't a pain-free rest. Tails worried his lip as he slowly reached out to carefully shake the available shoulder, making sure not to get pricked by any quills.

"Sonic? Can you hear me? I just need to check your eyes."

Despite keeping his voice soft, Tails shook the hedgehog slightly more firmly when there wasn't a real response, until Sonic groaned and half rolled towards the interruption, managing to squint open an eye after several blinks.

"Mm? Tails? Wha's up?"

His words were slightly slurred, but Tails was happy to chalk that up to exhaustion without further evidence of serious injury, and he gave an encouraging smile as he raised a small torch in his other hand into sonics sight.

"Cmon, you know the drill," he cajoled, trying for a more casual tone, "both eyes open for a second. Up and at 'em."

Sonic groaned with slightly more lucidity, and slowly opened his other eye, still half squinting in the dim workshop light. Tails quickly clicked on his tool and carefully watched as pupils sluggishly followed it to one side, slowly shrinking against the close brightness. Tails switched off the torch with a hum.

"Slightly better," he allowed, watching as sonic grumbled and screwed his eyes shut in an attempt to reset his now spotlighted vision. "Do you know where we are?" Tails pressed, ignoring the huff in reply.

"Workshop," sonic mumbled after a beat.

"That'll do," Tails allowed only slightly reluctantly. Precise location could come later. "What's your name?"

This time sonic slipped open an eye again to offer a disbelieving look. "Sonic the hedgehog," he replied with a hint of bemusement and clearer than the last answers.

Tails smirked at the attention, mood slightly lifted by a show of his brother's usual humour. "Just gotta make sure that tussle with metal didn't knock anything important around, big bro," he responded with the smirk.

Sonic huffed again, but it was more of amusement this time. Tails' grin faded into a more sincere smile.

"Did you need anything else? Hows the leg?"

"Eh. Still healing. It'll get there," sonic replied tonelessly, almost subconsciously tucking the rebandaged limb more into himself as he already started to shift in facing the back of the sofa comfortably again, tiredness quickly pulling him back under. The amusement slipped away as Tails watched the hedgehog flinch when the right side of his face touched the sofa cushions again, the covered injury from hitting the tank still sore of sudden pressure.

Tails grimaced in concern at the clear signs of a fight on his older brother. Fur was sticking up in wrong directions, dotted with blood here and there, and small gashes littered the blue body. Some were hidden under square plasters pressed against skin on his limbs and head. Neither of them were unpractised at treating the odd visible injury, but this…

It was a lot. It was a real close call. The physical injuries, the electrocution, the water damage, the /finger marks/ around his neck--

Surge had really been trying to kill him. Trying to /end his life/ to gain her freedom, as she put it.

They all liked to give benefit of the doubt. That was another thing heroes did. But there was no mistaking someone's intentions when Tails was mere metres above, watching in horror as she simultaneously tried to electrocute and strangle and drown in an attempt to /kill/ while he could do /nothing/.

His own slight knock to the head had made their escape a little fuzzy after helping sonic out the water, so consumed with fear and worry he couldnt articulate more than /oh my gosh/ even as his brother tried to put on a shaky smile and make a joke about the water.

But he remembered gripping the metal bar, his fingers strong next to sonic's slipping grasp, helping his brother over the last edge, glaring at eggman together, and then trudging out of the collapsed factory. Adrenaline had began to wear off, clearer on sonic as his trembling escalated to shaking only minutes into their walk away from the city. They had left the tornado just outside of it, barely half an hour away even at a normal pace, but when sonic stumbled so bad he had to lean heavily against a tree to keep from collapsing, breathing harshly with a hand pressed to his chest, tails had thrown concealing his concern to the wind and pulled the hedhogs free arm around his shoulders, getting a good grip before quickly flying them forward so sonics feet barely touched the ground.

His mind had raced between the restoration, a hospital, maybe shadow or chaos emeralds themselves as he got them back to the plane with his brothers pained grunts and uneven breaths in one ear, wondering if the sound were so unusual that they could be classed as /dying/ noises worthy of some emergency reaction--

It wasn't until he was trying to bundle sonic into the back seat of the tornado that he had realised he was being talked to.

"'m okay, Tails. Just a bit…" Sonic tried to take a deep inhale, as shaky as it sounded, in an attempt to calm his little brother's impossibly wide eyes, "a bit out of breath," he admitted, clumsily patting Tails' grip on his shoulder in what was hopefully reassurance.

It didn't feel that much better to get acknowledgment of /struggle/, unfortunately.

Tails did pause though, trying to slow his panicked thoughts down enough to take in his brother's state - bruised and battered, yes, but alive. His breathing was still slightly forced, and there was a lazy drop of blood clinging to a small wound just under one slightly torn ear, but he was talking and conscious, and the trembling had calmed to the occasional shiver.

"Does it hurt?" Tails asked, realising he had yet to reply, eyes still wide on smudged red mixed in with blue fur.

Sonic grimaced for a second before raising an eyebrow. "Anything in particular you're talking about?"

"Is it hard to breathe? Do you need medical help? I can call someone at the restoration, or, or knuckles could come get us--"

"Tails, hey, it's okay. I'm--" Unfortunately the attempted reassurance was again ruined as sonic coughed and wheezed for a second, retreating the hand he tried to place on Tails' shoulder to cover his face.

Catching his breath, he managed a shaky but sure smile, and Tails finally felt some of the blind fear fall away.

"Let's just go home, kid. I could do with a nap, at least."

So Tails had nodded numbly and made sure his brother was strapped in and safe before settling himself into the seat in front and automatically starting their way back.

Which led to now. Where sonic was still banged up, still shaky in body, and definitely exhausted everywhere.

Tails looked down at his brother quickly slipping back into sleep after being woken for coherence. This really had been a close call. Too close.

Aside from his already injured ankle and knee, his ear had been daubed with cream along with the small head wound underneath, and several scrapes disinfected and covered. It was the internal damage that was the most worrying.

But no alarms had gone off still, and when Tails hesitantly pulled himself away from the sofa to head back to the computer, his gaze immediately watched the vitals monitor calmly measure what would usually be an alarmingly fast rate, but for sonic it read as natural, even slightly slow in his rest.

The only arrhythmic movements reported was a slight jump when there was a sudden ringing as tails sat down, making him startle aswell.

Quickly, he answered the communicator call. "Hello?"

"Tails! Thank goodness. Whisper said you'd gone to get her wisps, so when they came back alone, she came to ask if we'd seen you, but no one had- wait, is sonic with you?"

It took a moment for Amy's voice to register and then its content to sink in enough for a reply.

"Oh, um, yeah, we're both here," he managed, pausing to remember what Amy had started with. "Oh, they went straight back, I should have figured," he realised. Granted, he had been half out of his mind with fright that sonic was imminently dying at the time, so it was possible he lost track of the wisps that had left the factory with them before disappearing at some point.

There was a sigh of relief and muffled talking in the background. Tails' gaze went back to sonic who shifted slightly on the sofa.

Amy's voice returned, "As long as you're both safe. Are you heading back now then?"

Innocent enough question, but even the thought of being anywhere but /home/ (or the closest thing they'd ever had to it) right now after such an experience put a lump in his throat. He swallowed.

"We're staying here," he replied, knowing it lacked information by the hesitant silence on the other end. "Sonic's…" The stress of the day, and the last few days, was catching up, tears beginning to threaten to breed. "She went after him, Amy," he half whispered, tone dropping as if speaking it quietly made it less real. "She was trying to- she wanted to /get/ him."

For once, Amy did not demand details or panic about injury. There was something in the fox's voice that kept hers as quiet as though calm.

"Okay. Okay. Do you need medical help?" She asked, background fading as she assumingly sought privacy for the conversation. "How bad is it?"

"I… I've done what I can," Tails rubbed an arm over his face despite its dryness, refusing to let that change. "And I'm monitoring him. He, uh, said that there was some numbness, sort of tingling in his hands, but I think I can. Well, I'm. I'm watching out for anything. He'll be okay."

It felt like more reassurance to himself rather than for someone who didn't know the situation, but Tails couldn't bring himself to care that much. Electrocution couldn't be messed with - he'd had enough accidental shocks with inventions to know that if nothing else. He wasn't an expert, but neither was he clueless. It would be enough.

There were a few more quiet but persistently vague details exchanged, before Amy made him promise to check in later and Tails did his best to actually focus on the computer programme to make some progress for some time.

A glance at the clock next showed another hour had passed recently. Surprised but grateful that he had actually managed to get work done for a good amount of time, Tails stretched and clicked on the still linked communicator window; in the longest gap yet between checking it, the report showed vitals were stabilising well and already resembling more normal baselines that they had never been /that/ far off.

More residual fear slipping off his shoulders, Tails sighed out a deep breath and glanced at the sofa only once before shuffling out the room into the kitchen, returning less than a minute later with a mug of juice and heading to his brother's sleeping form.

"Sonic. Hey."

This time the hedgehog reacted at the first tapping of his shoulder, groaning before shuffling to push himself up slightly as he turned around. "This again? Already?" He grumbled without heat, nevertheless keeping his eyes half open to eye his little brother grumpily.

Tails gave a half sympathetic smile. "Indulge a little brother's worries," he wheelded, but the tone was only half teasing. "Do you remember where you are?"

"Workshop. I'm sonic the hedgehog and my brother is a genius that needs to sleep more because he clearly doesn't know how it's meant to work."

Sonic stuck out his tongue slightly and Tails wouldve been worried it was lingering muscle spasms if not for the certain glint in his brother's eye that wasn't there before. Playing along, he raised an eyebrow.

"Oh? So you /don't/ want this juice? Waking up tomorrow with a dehydration headache is how to /properly/ sleep?" He retorted, no bite whatsoever to the teasing words.

Their eyes met for a moment in a typical sibling standoff. Then sonic chuckled and carefully pushed himself out a little more. Tails grinned and offered the mug when he was appropriately reclined more upright than flat, enough to drink the liquid without choking on it and causing more unecesary drama for the day.

"Thanks, tails," sonic murmured as he carefully took the mug in both hands and sipped with it close to his face, a barely visible trembling passing through the grip occasionally. Tails purses his lips.

"How's your hands?" He asked quietly, crouching down slightly so not to be looming above his brother. "Are they any less tingly?"

Sonic took another sip as he considered, turning one of them over in thought. "Not as numb," he agreed. Tails sighed in relief.

"That's good. Any dizziness or nausea? Does your chest hurt?"

After taking another sip, sonic shook his head slightly. "Just feelin' a bit drained, 's all," he smiled, and it was only slightly off.

Regardless, tails smiled back, a lot more relaxed than his previous run through of questions. He waited for sonic to drink about half the juice before offering to take the mug from trembling hands. sonic accepted and yawned, stretching his arms by his sides as tails put the mug down nearby and turned back to the sofa.

"Do you want anything else, or-" Tails started, only to be interrupted by a hand on one arm.

"I want /you/," sonic tugged slightly, making tails fall in a controlled manner down next to him on the sofa, "to relax, buddy. I'm safe. You're here. We're okay now."

As he reassured, sonic lightly moved his hands through yellow fur, ruffling the kit's head affectionately. Tails tried not to melt into the touch too much and put him off.

Still, it wasn't quite enough to calm the dread that had clenched into a ball in his chest ever since he saw the cubes disappear under his brother's feet with only water and danger waiting hungrily below. The way he flew down after him, their fingers centremetres apart when he landed, the shallow water barely softening the hard fall against stone and nothing blocking out the scream that followed when electricity surged through the liquid and seized his body.

Tails found himself the one to shiver now, the memory still horrifyingly fresh even as physically he could feel sonics arm draped around his shoulders, a little too tight to be completely casual.

He glanced to the side, meeting his brother's wary eyes. "I just…" He began without being sure how to phrase what he was feeling. Sonic nodded anyway.

"I know, bud. It's been a lot."

And that was all there was to say, in the end. Tails leaned against the warm solid form of his brother, and sonic sighed slowly, letting his aching body rest against the soft sofa, holding his little brother closer than usual. A hero's work was never easy, and it was never done. He did it because he wanted to, mostly. But at times like this, when the one out to get them had almost succeeded, it struck a stark reminder of mortality in such a lifestyle.

Still, they suffered close calls before. There was no time to look back, and it was not in sonic the hedgehog's interests to /dwell/ on what ifs. No matter how unclear things seemed, moving forward was the only option he was willing to take.

They were together, and alive, and /that/ was what mattered. Sonic tightened his grip to press his little brother against him for a moment, drawing comfort and courage equally from the contact. Tails glanced up at him with slight confusion, but didn't say anything. He smiled and it was only a small bit off.

"It's good, little bro," he nudged the kid affectionately to draw a giggle and his own smile felt more natural. "It'll be just fine."

#Projecting what's that #Saw my little brother for the first time since Christmas and looks like that bothered me whoops #This was meant to b abt unecesary medical accuracies #Surge is such a lesbian thanks be to her for literally almost killing sonic so I can write dramatic unnecessary accurate consequences #Electrocution is p bad idk what to tell ya #This was written up to 4am last night #Then I slept for a few minutes then had a seizure then slept a bit more and tried to round it off just now #Needs editing so bad ajfjsj but I want to see if scooby doo is still on since the hotel has TV #The last bit is just song lyrics BC it's my ringtone now and time won't wait it's true so you can't look back you don't need to #Liz shut up challenge #How many times did I write brother fox hedgehog kid #Moving house tmrow lmao what is life rn it's stinky #Ig we just all keep on keepin on like sonc the heghog #Well ig this is #Sonic fic #Autocorrect stop ruining the way I write tags #Writing #My writing #Sonic the hedgehog #Sth #Idw

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