#never let Espio cook alone again

[tsubomiiiii]

Had to make something for the boy’s bday :] Espio made him an apple pie

Bonus

[cinnamonrollorder]

Nerve Pains

(PROMPT 2 FROM THE GLORIOUS LIST @annikatti cooked up! :D)

Being infected was no fun. Now, one might think that’s an obvious statement. Of course it’s no fun, you’re infected. The thing was that most people who got infected lasted about ten minutes before they were gone. Tangle was an exception, Sonic would guess, as was he. He didn’t know when Tangle got infected, but she had lasted a longer amount of time than anyone else.

He was getting off-topic. Bottom line, no one really experienced the infection. They didn’t get the chance to feel how your skin would just go cold, even when it was fine, or how your thoughts started feeling weird and icky and gross. (No, Sonic, you are NOT going to punch that person, and you are INSTEAD going on a RUN.) They had maybe a little bit of that experience. It didn’t stop for them. Maybe that was worse, since it all happened at once. They didn’t have to feel themselves slipping away bit by bit; they just lost themselves.

The other problem with prolonged infection was when you weren’t feeling nothing, you felt everything. Sonic felt every nerve scream at him, all his organs protesting the very act of living, and all his muscles fighting to just stop functioning. It was like his body collectively decided they’d very much like to be dead. Turns out, basically every part of you turning from flesh to metal to flesh and back again in an endless loop messed with your body.

Sonic sometimes forgot he’d just gone running because his arm felt so cold and dead. It’s not metal, but it feels like it is, and the part that can still feel is burning because it thinks it’s next. He hated it; he hated all of it. He wondered if that was what Tangle felt like.

He wondered if he deserved to feel it.

The telltale twinge in every fiber of his being, like he’d just pulled a muscle stretching and it was about to explode in pain, told him that it was about to happen again. Gritting his teeth, Sonic hurried away from the main room of the carrier. He wasn’t able to go for a run right now. He found a small storage thing, maybe a closet, and went inside. He stayed and waited.

And then suddenly a tidal wave of agonizing pain blazed up inside him.

It had started at his heart, his poor, tired little heart, and rapidly extended to his everything. His hands twitched in uncontrolled energy and pain, clenching and twisting in painful ways. His lungs fought to work, scrabbling for any bit of air they could obtain, and were failing. His legs just gave out. They crumpled like all those pieces of paper that littered Tails’s desk. His head… oh gosh, his head.

The worst part was always with the head.

It was like it wasn’t him right then, it wasn’t Sonic. Part of his thoughts believed that it was over, that he was a zombot and he had to start finding people. It screamed at him to move to go get them but wasn’t strong enough to move his useless limbs. The other half was just panicking, unsure of where he was or who he was or who was around him. He remembered Eggman’s prison cell. He remembered those 6 months of endless torture that he just refused to talk about. Was he trying to stop the ARK? In a book? It was a jumbled mess that all resulted in a nearly irresistible urge to scream.

But Sonic didn’t scream.

He stayed like that until it passed.

-----

Amy, whenever she had the chance, liked to keeps tabs on who was where. It wasn’t often, but it was some sort of comfort in this whole situation. Tails was easy; he was either in his lab or with the survivors. Well, “lab” would be better, as it’s just a small area where Tails wrote endless scientific formulas and sketched some machines until he passed out. Whisper… was always alone. Cream was always with a group, but quiet and looking like she didn’t want to be there. Espio was with everyone else, as was Silver. It wasn’t hard to locate everyone.

Which made her wonder why she could never find Sonic.

She didn’t blame him for always being absent; he had to run almost all the time now. She thought now that everyone was stuck in the carrier that she could easily find him, but it seemed that Sonic was still an expert at avoiding her. A part of her said that she shouldn’t bother with finding him, that she had taken enough of a break and should go back to thinking of plans and checking supplies. The other part said shush the heck up. Amy decided to listen to the latter part.

Since she’d already checked on everyone else (Tails was asleep, and she took a small detour to give him a blanket), she knew where the blue blur wasn’t, at the very least. That left the storage room, the makeshift infirmary, and a few random spots here and there they hadn’t found a use for yet. She checked the storage room first. After all, Sonic might’ve gotten hungry. No one was supposed to take supplies (including food) without express permission, but Amy tried to be understanding.

The only thing in the storage room was what was already there. A bunch of crates and stashes of whatever people could salvage. The room was too orderly to look normal, a side effect of having a bunch of nervous, tense people on board; if there was something to clean, it would be cleaned. That left the infirmary and random spots.

The infirmary was bare, save for one unfortunate survivor who’d twisted his ankle during evacuation, and his wife who was watching him as he slept. Amy briefly paused her Sonic search in lieu of making sure the male was still doing OK. After ensuring all was well, she left.

That left the random spots. Amy wasn’t able to think of why Sonic would be there, but she could ask when she found him. Amy checked two random little rooms before she spotted cobalt blue out of the corner of her eye. She turned and saw none other than Sonic the Hedgehog, looking like he’d been run over by a truck. She would’ve gone to talk to him, but Silver caught her attention. He thought one of the control screens for the aircraft was glitching. Which, to be fair, it was glitching, but it was just from overuse, and Amy fixed it quickly. It did, however, mean that she had to get back to work.

So she let Sonic be, just this once.

------

By the time they actually got to Angel Island, Sonic felt ready to die. He couldn’t feel anything in most of his body, which was a blessing, but that meant the little part that could still feel was on fire. The second he was free, he abused the numbness in his legs to run all of the infection away, until he could remember all the smaller pains that still plagued his body.

His chest protesting the workout and little energy to sustain it, his calloused and probably bleeding feet lamenting the overuse, and his legs shakily trying their best just to keep up from collapsing. Even his arms were tired, and all they did was be arms. He had to keep running, though, he had to keep running.

And so he did.

He ran until finally he was clean and could head back. When he finally got to everyone, though, he felt it again. Had he pulled something during the run? It shouldn’t be happening again so soon. His body didn’t seem to care, though, as he could feel parts of muscles starting to tense and lock up. Sonic hastily retreated back into the cover of trees, hoping no one saw him. He kept going for maybe a minute until his lehs shut down and he fell onto a very fortunate slab of stone. Or, probably a collection of rocks and dirt.

------

Amy had been waiting for Sonic to return, and she didn’t miss it when he did. She’d stood up and made her way over, only for him to get a foggy look in his eyes and run off again. Confused, and honestly a little annoyed, Amy ran after him. He was faster than her, even now, but he didn’t make it far before falling over.

Wait, falling over?

Amy picked up speed and rushed over to the hedgehog’s side. Sonic looked to be having a seizure of some sorts, but also not. He was clearly in pain, and the spotted tiny patches of the virus grow and shrink.

“Sonic! What’s happening?”

He looked at her, as if he hadn’t noticed her run up to him (had he not?). He looked scared, but Amy was more concerned about the clear pain in his eyes. The tears, the bloodshot eyes, and the bags. His pupils were little pinpricks. He opened his mouth, as if to speak, but nothing came out.

Amy’s hands twitched, anxious to hold him and tell him that it was going to be alright. She couldn’t do anything, though.

“Sonic, help me!”

“I can’t!”

Was this what Sonic felt like back then? Useless? In the way? A hindrance? She bit back the wave of uncomfortableness that came with those thoughts. Right now, Sonic was in pain and he needed help.

“OK. Sonic, breathe, OK? In, out. In, out. C’mon, in and out.” She tried to coax him into normal breathing, but it wasn’t working. She could tell that he was obviously trying to, clutching his lungs and focusing so intently on her face, but he just couldn’t. She was no help.

She thought it had been about two minutes until Sonic seemed to recover himself. First, his hands stopped twitching, and the rest of his body seemed to follow suit. Sonic took a deep breath, coughed, and shakily got to his feet.

“A-amy, I can explain,” Sonic said. Amy gave him a concerned stare. “Stuff like this just happens sometimes. It’s alright, though. I can handle it. No need to worry-“

“Sonic, I think it is very obvious that I am going to worry.”

“I know, I know, but I’ve figured it out, so I know when it’s coming and I’ll just go away for a bit.” Sonic gave a shaky smile, as if that made it all better. It did not.

“No! That isn’t OK! What if something happens while you’re gone? We need to know where you are, Sonic.” Amy pressed.

“Heh, if you needed me when I’m like that, then I wouldn’t be of use anyways,” Sonic said bitterly. He seemed to catch himself. “But I’ll… try and go somewhere not too far.”

“That’s something, at least,” she grumbled. “Just promise me one thing.”

“Sure.”

Amy looked at Sonic in the eyes. “Make sure you come back after each one.” Sonic’s eyes widened in surprise.

“Of course.” He said.

That’d be a lie.