More Than Words|Sonic Father's Day One Shot 2015

It was that day again…right.  

For most, today was a day to celebrate; a day to show how much you appreciate them and spend time with them.  For Sonic however…he just couldn’t get into the spirit of the day.

Isn’t today supposed to be…I don’t know, happy? The hedgehog thought to himself as he got off the train.  It was a beautiful day and many people had taken advantage of that to enjoy outings in the Mystic Ruins region.  On his way to his brother’s workshop, the blue hedgehog had seen most of the citizens of Mobius enjoying the day.  Barbeques were alight with embers of coals and fire, the aroma of various foods, including his favorite chili dogs in the air.  

Still…not even the scent of chili dogs could quell the feeling that Sonic had in the pit of his stomach.  In fact, it seemed to do the opposite…making him feel worse.  For you see, Father’s Day to him was a reminder of what he was missing out on…something that he had lost a long time ago and knew he would never get back.  It was more torturous to him than what it was truly supposed to represent.  

Sonic remembered the good times they had for the short time they did have together, but still, it felt so…unfair to him.  He hated to admit it, but he felt so jealous of the other families that were spending time together.  The kids playing with their fathers and reuniting with loved ones, while his family in its entirety was torn apart.  He never did try to think about this for long on any normal day.  But on a day like today, it just felt like it was thrown at his face at every turn.  He knew that wasn’t anyone’s intention, but that was how it felt to him, and he had to correct his train of thought when his mind went to that dark place for those moments.  

Wanting to just to get to his destination quickly, Sonic picked up the pace, quickly making it to Tail’s workshop.   He was about to knock on the door when he noticed something that caught his eye.  Nailed to the door was a note that read…

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Hey Bro!

Sorry I’m not home right now.  But feel free to come on in, I just had to run out for a bit so I should be back soon.

Tails

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Heh…guess that’s what I get for being away for a month. Sonic thought as he scratched the back of his head.  Tails had been busy working on a few projects, so Sonic had been traveling on his own taking advantage of Eggman not causing any trouble for the past two months.  He must’ve been planning something big, but no use worrying about it now.  They would be ready when the mad doctor decided to strike again, but until then, a little rest never hurt.

Accepting the fox’s invitation, Sonic turned the nob on the door and stepped inside.  The lights were off, but that didn’t stop the sun from shining through the windows.  Beams of light in slight hues of colors brightened the main room of the small living portion of the workshop.  

The hedgehog sighed, tapping his foot as he thought to himself.  Let’s see…what am I gonna do while I wait for Tails to get back?

His eyes drifted to the closest thing in the room, the couch. I could just take a short nap while I wait…

He then quickly shook his head. Nah, that’s kind of lame.

Even though Sonic did take a few rest stops from time to time, he really just wasn’t sure he wanted to do anything right now.  He did want to do something to take his mind off of what today was, but he wasn’t sure exactly what.  He had hoped that Tails was already here, but he would just have to wait for his brother to come back home.  It was such a weird feeling, like he was stuck in some sort of Limbo of emotions that he just couldn’t decipher.  He knew he had to eat something, but didn’t feel hungry in the slightest.  He knew he was tired, but didn’t feel like sleeping.  

“Ugh what’s wrong with me?” He muttered, though he already knew the answer.  Sonic knew exactly what was wrong with him; it was the same every year for a while now.  Allowing a sigh to escape him, he walked over to the couch and sat down, but then suddenly leaped up when he felt something strange and heard a strange sound that he wasn’t expecting. “Whoa! What?!”

He blinked a few times and looked at what it was he had sat on.  Something had been stuck between the couch cushions, the corner of what looked to be a piece of paper.  

“Probably some of Tails’ notes from his project he’s been working on.”  Sonic said as he laughed to himself.  He knew that the fox always was working on something and this wasn’t the first time he had found notes and blueprints scattered around the small house.  He then reached down to take the piece of paper out from the couch. “Better get this out of here before something happens to it.”

Gently and carefully, Sonic took the paper out of the couch.  “There we go.”

He was going to just set it down on the coffee table when something caught his eye.  He caught a glimpse of his name on the paper…at the very top… That was when he noticed, this wasn’t a blueprint…it was a letter addressed to him.  He raised an eyebrow in slight confusion.  “What the-?”

This wasn’t something that Tails normally did.  He had left notes for Sonic before, like the one on the front door since Sonic often goes away for long periods of time.  However, this looked way too formal and it made the hedgehog second guess what the nature of this message was before even reading it.  Which brought another question…should he read it at all?  Or should he ask Tails about it when finally came home? Should he even let Tails know he found it at all?  This could be a rant note or something…something that the hedgehog was never meant to read.  But that made no sense either.  Sure the hedgehog and his brother picked on each other once in a while, but never to any extent for them to be mad at one another.  They were brothers.  So this being a rant note was highly unlikely to say the least.  But then…what was it?

Well…it is addressed to me… Sonic thought, reasoning with himself.  But still…Should I…?

Not meaning to, he managed to catch a glance at the first sentence.  

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I know how hard today must be for you.

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“What?”  This ultimately caught Sonic’s attention, leaving the hedgehog more confused than before.  Tails knew, that was obvious to him, but…why bring this up in a letter?  While he knew it was sort of wrong to do so, Sonic had to find out what was with this letter and what it was about.   Taking a deep breath, he brought the letter closer so that he could read it properly.

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Dear Sonic,

I know how hard today must be for you.  

Growing up, we both lost our parents, so…I kind of get what you’re going through.

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Sonic stopped reading for a moment, raising an eyebrow. “ ‘kind of’?  More like exactly, but okay.”  He really didn’t mean for it to sound so literal, but it was kind of reassuring to him to reestablish that.  It made him realize that while what he was going through, the loneliness, the knowledge that he would never spend a Father’s Day with his own father or any day for that matter like he used to when he was young…that he wasn’t the only one that was going through this.  Tails…like him…had also lost his parents when he was just a young kit.  For a moment, the hedgehog did feel selfish for thinking he was the only one that felt this way about this day.  He really should have known better…however, it’s hard to remember that when you are overwhelmed by that strong sense of loss.   Poor guy…sorry Bud…I should’ve thought about you more…

The hedgehog continued to read, finding himself sitting down at the couch as he read carefully.

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You never seem to show it, but by how I used to feel…I think I get it.  You might be wondering what I mean by ‘used to’, let me explain.  

Do you remember back when we first met?  I was alone.  No one cared about me; no one took the time to even think about me; I was picked on mercilessly by other kids.  However, unlike other kids…I didn’t have anyone I could turn to.  No one stuck up for me; no one consoled me; no one believed in me…I had no one in my corner.

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That’s right I remember. Sonic thought as he held back a short growl. I never thought I’d ever wanted to kick another kid’s teeth in until I met one of them.  Though he never actually did anything, he really didn’t have to being the hero of Mobius and all.  Having them see him take out a few of Eggman’s robots was enough for those kids to back off.  Realizing his fuse had been lit and his temper was rising for a moment, he quickly shook it off and continued to read.

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And then you came along.

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At least he thought he was going to be able to read more before he read that line.  He tilted his head, a little confused.  “Me? ...what did I do?”

He then focused, the words commanding his full attention.

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For the first time in what felt like a long time…I had someone I knew had my back, someone who was willing to stand up for me; be there for me, no matter what happened.  It was something that you were never obligated to do.  No one forced you to; you did it because you wanted to.  And that wasn’t all.  The one thing you did for me that meant more to me than anything else…you accepted me…and you believed in me.  No matter what crazy idea I had or what strange contraption I came up with, you were behind me one hundred and ten percent.  Even if you didn’t get half of the things I said, you still trusted me and believed in me enough that I knew I could do it.  Even when I messed up, you always told me “You’ll get it next time Bro, I know it!” with that big smile that always gave me the confidence I needed to believe in myself just as much as you did.

And isn’t that what family is?

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Sonic really didn’t know what to say or think at this point.  The letter actually stopped right there, unfinished, but still at what felt like a sort of close that would continue.  He felt a small quiver escape his throat as he swiped his hand quickly over his eyes.  Tails could be coming in at any moment; he couldn’t let his brother see him like that now could he?  But man did he feel completely touched.  How could he forget that while everyone he looked up to was gone, he still had someone who was looking up to him?    

It was then that he heard the doorknob slowly turn, his ears and eyes shot toward the direction of the door as the light came in.  As his brother took a step in, Sonic hid the letter, seeing that the fox had not noticed him at first as he had absentmindedly opened the door.  Sapphire eyes met his at an instant, surprised at first, but then a smile beamed across his face when he recognized the ‘intruder’.  “Sonic.  You’re back.  How’s it going?”

Sonic laughed, though a little more nervously than he intended as he answered. “Oh, you know; same old, same old.”

His brother caught on quickly, it was obvious as the fox raised one of his eyebrows, crossing his arms as he stood at the door with a sigh.  “Okay what happened?  Did you and one of Eggman’s robots tear down a building while fighting again?”

“Huh? What? No, no, nothing like that.”  For once.  Sonic thought to himself after reassuring his brother.  But now it was very apparent that Tails could sense that something was off with him.  Not exactly what he wanted.  While he wouldn’t say that he felt ‘off’, in fact, he felt much better after reading what Tails had wrote.  But he wasn’t sure about letting Tails know he did read the letter.  However, he didn’t want the fox to worry that it might be something else either.  

Tails’ expression furrowed a little, his sapphire eyes gazing directly at him with a slight worry as he softly asked him.  “Bro…you know you can tell me anything…right?”

Chaos. Yep, better tell him before this gets worse.

The hedgehog closed his eyes as he slowly revealed the letter from its hiding place, holding it out to him.  “I…sort of found this.”

“Oh.”  Tails’ eyes blinked at the paper for a moment.  He then chuckled a little, rubbing the back of his head as he looked away.  “Yeah…I was still working on that.  Guess I left it out before I left.  Not quite done with it yet.”

Noticing that Sonic didn’t say anything or seemed to move at all from his current position, Tails chanced a glance at his brother out of his peripheral.  He was afraid that maybe Sonic had read it before it was finished and either didn’t like what it said or if it made him feel worse.  However, what he saw was his brother still holding the letter out him, his emerald eyes bright and vibrant as he gave him a content smile and then asked.  “Did you…wanna finish it?”

For a moment, Tails was taken aback by this in a moment of surprise.  He…wanted him to finish the letter?  Wait no, he’s asking him if Tails himself wanted to finish it, even though he had already read what was there so far.  Tails smiled back at him and nodded.  “Yeah, sure.”  

The kit then walked over to him, gently taking the letter from Sonic’s willingly loosened grip and placing it on the coffee table.  Taking out a pen, he was about to place it on the paper when he noticed Sonic looking towards him.  Tails blinked then placed his hand over the paper, holding back a laugh as he raised an eyebrow.  “Hey, no peeking again okay?”

Sonic’s eyes widened for a moment, he then quickly blinked away the surprise and nodded before he looked away and closed his eyes.  “Right sure, no peeking this time.”

Tails gave him a skeptical look at first and waited a moment, seeing if the hedgehog would try to look.  Realizing he wasn’t going to, he then smiled and then started writing.  

Sonic could hear the pen marks on the paper; his brother’s writing was so quick and fluid that it was hard to discern where he stopped and where he began again.  Then, just like that, he heard the pen marks stop.

“Done, you can look now.” Opening one of his eyes first, Sonic looked to his brother.  He was holding the letter out to him this time.  “Did you…wanna read the end of it?”

The kit’s brother gave him a smile as he answered.  “Of course I do.”  He then gently took the letter from his brother and looked at the paper, finding where he left off and where Tails had just finished writing.  

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You are my brother, but you’re more than that.  You have also been an amazing father figure to me and I know that someday…your son or daughter will think the same as I do.  

You’re the best dad in the entire world Sonic.

Happy “Brother’s” Day,

Tails

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While Sonic was reading, Tails had moved from the other side of the coffee table to the seat next to his brother.  He was nervous, wondering what Sonic had thought about what he wrote.  Sonic wasn’t one to usually express what he was feeling, so Tails could only guess at best.  Still, he nervously tried to ask.  “Sonic? …”

Suddenly, the blue hedgehog embraced him.  This made Tails flinch unexpectedly, this was something that Sonic rarely ever did and now he was really worried about him.  “Sonic, you okay?”

Tails was right…this day didn’t have to be the sad reminder of what he lost.  It was a reminder of what he gained…a brother…and a family.  

“Yeah…Happy ‘Brother’s’ day, Bro…Thanks Bud.”

Tails smiled then hugged his brother back in return.  “Yeah, you’re welcome.”

After the two released each other, Sonic cleared his throat, looking to the ceiling as he rubbed his nose.  “Right so, how about we go and get a couple chili dogs.  Then you can show me what you’ve been working on when we get back.  What do you say?”

The fox laughed as he answered.  “Sure, as long as you tell me what you’ve been up to while you were away.”

The hedgehog laughed as he stood up.  “Oh Tails you wouldn’t believe it.”

Tails followed him toward the door as he continued.  “So I was just running through the Green Hill Zone, minding my own business when suddenly-”

The door closed behind the two as they took off, leaving the house in its quiet serene calm.  The letter and the pen nettled together on the coffee table with the light from the window shining, giving the illusion of the calligraphy glowing in the dim light.  

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The door suddenly swung open, a blue comet dashing in and quickly picked up the letter.  “There we are, not leaving without this.”  He then quickly put it in his quills as he dashed back out the door, looking to his brother outside before closing it again.  “So, where was I?”

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The End?