SoyScoutSmasher

Snow crunches beneath your feet as you walk. Two mugs of steaming liquid in your hands, your own breath giving off the same mist in the biting cold. You probably should have been wearing another jacket on top of your current one while you were out here but you’d never been great at having sense.

Luckily it seemed as if you weren’t the only one lacking sense as you spot the shivering form of Surge standing at the boundary of Super Awesome Base Sigma, it still surprised you that name stuck. When Surge sees you, her fight or flight kicks in before realising who happens to be approaching.

“Don’t you have a party to be attending?”

“I could ask you the same thing,” you respond, handing her a mug of cocoa. She accepts happily and quickly sips some while you wrap your arm around her to pull her close. “You are fucking freezing, why didn’t you grab a jacket?”

“Didn’t think it’d be so cold,” She mumbles into your neck, wrapping her own arm around you. “And didn’t expect to be out here so long.” She barely whispers the last part and you almost miss it.

“Hey,” you pull her off and look into her eyes, which seem to be looking everywhere other than you. “You did great, almost two hours straight you were in there.” She looks at you when you say that, probably trying to see any hint of sarcasm. “As far as I’m concerned now, you’ve spent as long as you need being social. If you want to stand out here until everyone leaves I don’t mind. As long as you get a jacket so you don’t freeze.”

“Nah, I’ll come back in, I was startin’ miss you anyway,” She pauses to look out at the snowy planes surrounding the base. “Just, can we stay here a bit longer?”

“Of course, still gotta finish this cocoa anyway,” Smiling at her as she sighs out of relief, looking back out to the snow. “I definitely prefer normal snow to whatever that weird blizzard was.”

Surge Snorts in response, “Yeah, I’m glad that shit was a one-time thing. If I had to deal with wearin’ snow shoes all the fuckin’ time I think I’d lose it.” She kicks her foot out to show off the barely attached tennis racket that was currently keeping her from sinking into the deep snow whenever she ran. It was a thing about the base’s terrain that you found out pretty quick when regular snow started falling, whenever Sonic or Surge tried to run, they’d almost immediately flop onto the floor.

It took some looking into but eventually, you all decided it wasn’t worth the effort to find out and thus the tennis racket shoes were made for whenever Surge went outside and for whenever Sonic came to visit.

“I dunno,” You snicker, “It’s kinda fun being faster than you for once.” She gives an exaggerated gasp in response and you have to quickly stop her from getting into a running stance.

“Oh, those are fighting words.”

“No they aren’t, I’m not racing you,” she groans, “I’m not dealing with you being freezing the rest of the party, you’re probably already going to get a cold from being out here without a jacket so long.” She grins.

“Don’t lie, you like it when I’m cold,” She pulls you close, “You get to hold me close without anyone judging.”

You pull her closer so your bodies are touching, “I can do that anyway.” Both of you stare into each other’s eyes for a moment before slowly leaning in.

“There you two are!” Kit’s voice interrupts both of you and startles Surge so much that she lets off a bolt of lightning.

“Gah, don’t fucking do that Kit!” She grumbles, crossing her arms. “I coulda’ zapped your eyebrows off or something.”

He raises one of said eyebrows at this and walks closer. “What are you two doing out here anyway? Everyone was wondering where you ran off to.”

“I was trying to find Miss brooding over here.” You point your thumb at Surge, who appears to have recovered from the shock by now.

“Brooding? Psh, if you thought that was brooding you ain’t seen nothin’,” She demonstrates this by stepping out of the light slightly, crossing her arms, looking out at the snowy plains and putting her back against the wall. Before shooting off quickly, “That’s Cold.”

Snickering, you look back at Kit who shares a similar expression. “People noticed we left?”

“Well yeah? This whole party is pretty much for the three of us so obviously, people are going to notice if two-thirds are missing.”

The only response Surge gives is a shrug and an “Oops.”

“Well we’re gonna go back now anyway, I don’t want Surge to catch frostbite.” As the three of you begin walking back to the party, Surge grabs your hand. Acting as if it’s for balance but you can see the tinge of red on her cheeks, even in the dark. It was funny how she could do intimate things like sitting on your lap without batting an eye but little things like hand-holding still turned her into a flustered mess.

You were happy you had something to hold over her though, it certainly made reigning her in when she was getting a bit too feisty with someone easier. Surge was certainly better at talking to people now but she still had that bravado built in, which could sometimes get out of hand. Not that you were complaining, you fell in love with the headstrong hero persona anyway, if she became some boring shy girl suddenly you’d be slightly disappointed.

“You really should have brought a jacket Surge.” Kit comments as Surge let out a large shiver, causing you to pull her closer and link your whole arms instead of just your hands.

“Yeah yeah, I get enough of that from them I don’t need to hear it from you too Drippy.”

“S-sorry ma’am” Kit puts on a show of bringing back his stutter from before at the use of his old nickname. Making you laugh and Surge roll her eyes as you all enter the base and rejoin the party, with Kit announcing, “Found them kissing next to some dumpsters.” Before walking off towards Tails and Cream. The announcement of what you were doing got a lot of ‘Aww’s and ‘eww’s from everyone in the room before they go back to what they were doing.

Quickly pulling off your jacket and wrapping it around Surge, who gracefully accepts, you look around at all the people before deciding. “Alright, mingling time.” And you drag Surge off to the closest group of people.

Said group happens to be Blaze and Silver. It was quite a happy coincidence that both of them happened to be visiting at the time of the party, you weren’t entirely sure that either of them would travel through dimensions and time respectively to go to a party. “Hey guys,” you greet as you and Surge approach, Silver’s eyes brighten as he steps away and immediately you know why as you prepare yourself and both of you began chanting the rhythm of your ‘secret’ handshake.

“Up, down, left, right, bump, kick, twist, jump, slap!” Blaze and Surge both roll their eyes at your and Silver’s antics. When you two first met it was while you were still repairing the base, he happened to be visiting and Sonic decided to drag him along because his powers would be helpful. And they certainly were, but that’s not why you liked the goofy hedgehog. He was just fun to be around, well you thought so at least. Surge found him mildly annoying but managed to push that aside for your sake.

“I struggle to understand how you two can remember something like that.” Blaze’s words are disapproving but the smile on her face shows it’s not genuine.

“You’re just jealous of our moves princess,” you flex and Silver does something similar, making the other two laugh. “Anyway, thanks again for coming you guys, glad stuff happened to line up and make it so you could show.” You return to Surge’s side and Silver returns to Blaze’s as you thank them.

“Hey, no problem,” Silver smiles, “Even if I wasn’t already here id certainly have wanted to come, uh well I would if I knew it was happening.”

“I concur, if I knew about this party’s existence I would likely find myself attending anyway.” You find yourself smiling at their words and you go to thank them again before Surge interrupts you, clearly bored with the thank-you talk.

“So, Blaze… How about that sparring session?” She grins, to which Blaze once again rolls her eyes. Surge had been trying to get Blaze to spar with her for a few weeks by this point, any time she saw the princess she would ask. It came about after stories of her power reached Surge’s ears, thinking that it would be cool to battle with someone of that calibre she had begged the cat for a duel but she politely declined at the time. Which led to Surge asking for it every time they met.

“I do not think this current weather would lend itself well to you or me.” Blaze politely declines.

“Ugh,” Surge groans dramatically, making you all laugh before she grabs your arm and drags you off, “These guys are lame let’s go talk to someone who isn’t a buzzkill.”

Apparently, the people she decides are not buzzkills are Rouge and Omega. Not exactly what you would call the best company, well Rouge was fine but Omega? He was certainly set in his ways at least. You could never get Rouge to fully explain how she got the robot to come along to the base a couple of times she did. Just giving vague explanations of promising him some Eggman robots would be there.

“YOUR PARTY LACKS PROMISED EGGMAN ROBOTS.” He always spoke in that tone too, you don’t know if it was because he was annoyed at being dragged away from his destruction or if he always talked like that.

“Oh don’t blame them Omega, they couldn’t know that Eggman’s threat was fake.” Rouge’s voice lacks the sarcasm you would expect to the laced within that statement, which gives you some slight insight into how she must have gotten him to come along.

“Hey Omega.” You greet.

“Hey big guy!” Surge greeted. She really liked Omega, she had said before that he was pretty much her idol at this point. ‘His whole thing is destroying Eggman robots! I wanna do that!’ was what she said, when you asked why she liked Omega and not Sonic for that reason she had claimed, ‘Cuz Sonic has all those boring morals and whatever, Omega is full-on!’ You stopped any questioning after that.

“ORGANIC WEAKLING, HALF ORGANIC HALF WEAKLING.” He greets you both, making Surge grin wide and Rouge laugh slightly.

“Enjoying the party?” you ask her, already knowing Omega’s reply.

“It’s passable, though most parties would seem slightly disappointing after the galas I’ve been to.”

“You mean the galas you’ve robbed?”

“What’s the difference?” She smiles, before apparently remembering something. Pulling out an envelope and handing it to you. It had your, Surges and kit’s names on it. Glancing back at Rouge to see if she would explain she simply nods at you to open it. Which you do, finding a card saying ‘good job’ on the front in very plain text.

Opening it fully you find the rest of the card is also pretty blank. Only a few words are written in what you would consider the neatest handwriting you have ever seen. “Congratulations,” you read out loud as Surge looks over your shoulder. “From Shadow,” huh, you didn’t expect a card from him. He had come to help one time, probably being dragged along by Rouge in the same way Omega had been. Though Shadow was somehow even less helpful than the robot, he picked up about one piece of trash before moving off to brood somewhere.

You didn’t mind though, apparently, Surge had found him at some point and they talked. She refused to tell you what it was about though, but you could tell it went well because she seemed to have some weird pep in her step afterwards. Nothing extreme but it felt like some weight was off her shoulders. Shadow had apparently taken a liking to Surge, and the two had met up on a few occasions now. If you were a person of less faith you’d have been starting to think it was an affair.

Shadow had been invited to the party and while you had correctly assumed he wouldn’t come, you weren’t expecting anything, so this was a pleasant surprise. “He asked me to give it to you, I assume you’ll also show Kit?” Rouge asked, which you confirmed. Deciding now would be as good a time as any you move off from her and Omega to head towards where Kit is talking with Cream and Tails still.

Actually, now that you were closer you saw that there were two other people, a bee that rang some bells but not enough for you to remember a name and Gemerl, Cream’s defence robot. When you got up to the group and gave a quick hello, Surge grabs Kit and moves off to show him the letter.

“So, you guys enjoying the party?” Cream was the first to answer.

“Yes! It’s so nice to see everyone here and happy.” She looks around with a big smile on her face. Oh, the joys of innocence. Cheese apparently shared that sentiment as they floated about above Cream, a similar smile on their face. Gemerl gives no answer but the fact he doesn’t state his distaste makes you believe he’s enjoying it enough. Or at least he doesn’t hate it.

“Only Cheese today?” you ask.

“Yeah, the other Chao weren’t interested in the idea of a party. I hope you’re not offended.”

“Nah, it’s cool. Would probably get a bit hectic with more than one anyway.” Since that first time interacting with Cheese, you’d mostly gotten over your whole fear of Chao, it wasn’t easy and a lot of the time you wanted to just give up and go back to avoiding them like the plague, but you knew it would be a bad idea. Especially since you saw cream more than you expected by this point. Vanilla had apparently not been as angry about the first time Cream had come to help and gotten stuck in a blizzard as you thought. When you saw Cream again the next time she came to help you were surprised to see her, let alone see her mother and three new people you had never met.

Speaking of them, that’s when you pieced together who the bee was. Charmy was part of the Chaotix detective agency. They had come to help with the base at some point, though you think they did more snooping around than actual help that first time. You didn’t mind though, if they found something on Eggman that would help mess with him that was fine by you.

“How about you two?” You address the bee and fox.

“I’m having fun.” Charmy squeaks out, doing a little flip in the air.

“I think I’m just glad to see that my code is holding up for the door codes. It was such a pain in the neck to do so I was scared I took too many shortcuts.” Tails glances at the door nearby with a look of slight fear.

“Well no issues yet, If we run into any I’ll give you a call.” He gives a small nod, still looking slightly anxious about the whole thing. That’s when Surge returns with Kit, who for the most part doesn’t seem happy or unhappy about the whole letter. You assume he probably wasn’t as surprised about the Shadow thing as you were.

Saying your goodbyes to the four, you and Surge move on to the next group. Which is Big and Froggy, sitting at one of the tables quietly. “Havin’ a good time big guy?” Surge asks as you approach, to which big turns and smiles.

“Yup.” Is all he says and after a second of seeing if he is going to say anything else you respond.

“Glad to hear it.” And walk off, he really was a man of few words. Not that you minded, he proved himself to be a nice guy. Spotting someone else who had apparently proved to be a nice guy, you approach Vanilla and Vector.

“Hello you two, lovely party.” Vanilla smiles.

“Yeah, you guys really know how to put on a shindig.” Vector agrees. Though you can see the slight strain on his grin.

“Espio’s looking for more leads isn’t he?” The way Vector looks away pretty much confirms it.

“Not exactly,” You turn to Vanilla as she speaks. “He heard Omega mention the threat Eggman gave you and wanted to check it out.”

“Oh, uh, that wasn’t an actual thing. I’m pretty sure Rouge just told Omega that so he’d show up.” You clarify. You hadn’t heard a peep from Eggman, not even since you took over this base.

“That’s what I was sayin’ but that’s Espio for ya, always gotta check it himself.” Vector states. He wasn’t wrong, Espio was definitely the most determined of the three Chaotix to find any scrap of information about Eggman in the base. It took some convincing to get him to not rip up all the work you’d already done to fix the place in order to check every last inch.

“The perimeter is secure still.” Espio appears at your side suddenly making you and Surge jump.

“See, told ya so.” Vector boasts, to Espio’s displeasure.

“There is nothing wrong with being thorough Vector.”

“Well, we appreciate the sentiment.” You thank him, getting a curt nod in response. Deciding that now would be a good time to move on you step away.

“I still don’t think Espio likes me,” Surge says once you are out of earshot. “Thinks I got off too easy or somethin’.” Her tone is casual but you can see the slight hurt on her face, she still struggled with the whole debacle of her past sometimes, feeling guilt over what she did, it took a lot of convincing to get her to stop blaming herself and accept that she had already done her time.

“Well after we start kicking robo-butt and saving people I’m sure he’ll change his tune,” You grin at her and she half returns it. Deciding to get a distraction you spot a certain Pink hedgehog talking to a shiny beetle. “Heya guys, how you liking the party so far?”

Both of them turn to you as you speak. “Well I’d like to say it’s great but I’m not sure it’s fair for me to compliment my own work.” That’s right, Amy had been a huge help in planning this thing. She seemed to have a good brain for parties. Not that she was the only help, you had a certain excitable lemur practically begging you to let her help. Of course, you wouldn’t say no but you did have to reign in her ideas much more than Amy’s.

“Then compliment the stuff Tangle did and leave the complimenting of your work to the rest of us.” You grin at her and she smiles. Turning to Jewel as she speaks.

“It is a very good party Amy, you and Tangle very much outdid yourselves,” she turns to you and Surge after that, “It was definitely worth it to take some time off and come celebrate, I believe that is a testament to the quality.”

“Whoop Whoop!” Surge yells, startling Jewel, “We got the pencil pusher to get out and Part-ay, I’d say that’s an achievement.” Jewel gives a slight glare at the nickname but you quickly interrupt.

“Well if anyone questions it I’m sure you could get away with saying it was, expanding your reach to new settlements.” She laughs a little at that. It had been a bit of an experience getting in touch with the restoration to become slightly ‘official’ help. Surge had been against it at first, claiming she didn’t want any of that ‘lame-ass red tape’ keeping her from saving people, but eventually, you convinced her that being at least loosely connected to the actual restoration would be helpful.

“Thank you again for being so cooperative with the whole process. I know you would much rather do things your own way.” She says mostly to Surge.

She waves her hand in dismissal, “Eh, it’s fine. Rosy managed to change my mind about the whole thing.” Grinning at Amy as she goes red and hides her face.

Oh yeah, at some point Surge had decided she wanted to test Sonic’s claim that Amy was the best hammer user in the world. Safe to say, that was confirmed by the briefly broken bones and bruises. “How many times do I need to say sorry for you to forget that.”

“None! Because I don’t wanna forget, it was amazing!” the sparkle in her eye makes you laugh a little. Out of the corner of your eye though, you spot Tangle approaching. While this would usually be normal you knew this meant Whisper was currently on her own, having seen the two talking together earlier. Taking this opportunity, you step away from the group claiming you needed to use the bathroom, though when Tangle joins the group Surge understands what you’re really doing.

Whisper stood on her own in the corner when you found her, apparently going unnoticed by the rest of the party-goers which seemed to be fine by her. When you approached, however, she gave a small smile and wave. “Hey, how’s it hanging?”

“I don’t like parties,” She whispers quietly as you sit lean next to her. “But this one is okay.” Most people wouldn't be happy to hear that but coming from her? Massive compliment.

“Sweet.” As you stand you notice one of her Wisps peeking out from her coat, it takes her a second to notice but when she does, she lets it out and it floats up next to you. Mumbling its usual gibberish. The Wisps were cool, you’d always liked them, unlike Chao for some reason.

“How is she?” Whisper asks, and you know immediately who she was talking about.

“She’s alright, don’t tell anyone but she’s pretty fuckin’ scared about this whole thing. Keeps getting worried that she’ll show up to help and people will run away from her instead of the actual threat.” It was odd that Whisper was the person you usually shared the most about Surge with, considering their past and current opinions towards each other. You had brought up Whisper once to Surge and the reaction she had made sure you never did again.

You also didn’t ask Whisper about it, figuring if it got Surge so worked up it was probably pretty bad. What it did mean is that you had no idea what their whole deal was. All you knew right now was that Surge didn’t have any negative feelings towards Whisper and Whisper was absolutely not ready to interact with her outside of simple yes or no questions. It wasn’t great and meant you had to do what you currently were whenever you wanted to interact with her while Surge was around, but it worked well enough.

“She’ll do great.” Whisper responds, taking back the Wisp into her cloak. She looks up and glances towards the group Surge is currently with.

“Hey, don’t worry about it. You’ll be ready when you’re ready.” She sighs but gives a slight smile at that. Before pushing herself off the wall and picking up her mask.

“I’m going to take a walk, tell Tangle I’ll be back soon.” With that she quickly walks out of the door, not waiting for a response.

Deciding to go talk to the lemur herself you trot back over to the group, which has since lost Amy but had gained Sonic. Realising the danger that he and Surge probably pose you quicken your pace and are relieved to see him and Surge not about to try and race around the entire base like usual.

As soon as you get close enough to be spotted you’re entangled by a tail. “There you are!” you laugh as Tangle wraps her arms around you too, feeling barely like rubber bands compared to her tail.

“Here I am,” She releases you and looks at you with glee in her eyes and you immediately know she’s waiting for your decision on the decorations. She had asked you earlier but you had simply said you needed more time to take them in. “Okay okay, the decorations are… phenomenal.” She lets out a squeal and pumps her fist. The rest of the group laughs.

As Sonic tames his snickering he jokes, “Careful Tangle, they’ll be asking you to decorate their wedding next.” Another bout of laughs, excluding you and Surge who simply shy away in embarrassment. Tangle gasps and gets the look of wonder in her eyes again. But a look from you and Surge lets her know not to ask, so she simply pouts for now.

“Oh yeah? So when’s she gonna be decorating yours and Amy’s then?” Surge claps back at Sonic, who immediately stiffens and goes slightly red. Causing the third set of laughing, making Jewel leave because ‘I’m gonna throw up if I keep laughing’.

As Sonic and Surge get into their usual arguing and ‘playful’ insulting you and Tangle talk about the decorations. Her asking for your individual opinion on each so she can make sure she gets it right ‘in case I ever need to do something else for you’. Eventually, she spots Whisper returning and bids you farewell, luckily by that point Surge and Sonic had stopped their quill measuring contest and were talking about the best kind of Eggman bots to destroy.

“So, you guys are gonna be officially part of the ‘ESSWBHS’ squad soon, how’re you handling the pressure.”

“The what now?” The long acronym was completely lost on you but apparently, Surge knew exactly what he was saying.

“The Eggman Sucks So We Break His Shit Squad. And to answer the question, I have never been so pumped! Finally, we get to smash shit legally.” That was a very odd choice of name but who were you to judge?

“Oh right,” You take a moment to think. How did you feel about the whole thing? Well scared and excited were the most prominent emotions you felt currently. It was pretty dangerous so obviously, that’s where most of the fear came from but the excitement was harder to pin down. You didn’t think it was simply just cause you wanted to smash stuff, but you also didn’t think it was something righteous like wanting to make the world a better place. Maybe it was more in the middle. “I think I’m pretty excited but yknow, also a bit afraid. Never done anything more than smash a couple of Badniks so something this scale? Well, I guess we’ll find out if I’m cut out for it.”

“Of course, you’re cut out for it!” Surge reassures you, Sonic nodding along. “Even if ya ain’t good at the whole smashin’ shit. You got us here, you’ve already done most of the work til this point.” You flush at that and turn away, embarrassed. You didn’t really think you’d done that much but appreciated the words anyway.

“Yeah exactly! You’ve done so much already, why start second-guessing now?”

“Yeah, you guys are right. No point thinking about going back now.” You smile at them both and for a brief second it's calm but then Sonic opens his big mouth and ruins it.

“Who knows, maybe you guys can outshine me and Tails someday.” His shit-eating grin gives away the fact it's a joke but clearly Surge doesn’t care about that part.

“Oh yeah? You wanna try that blue boy?”

“Always.” He grins.

And both of them shoot out of the door as you sigh.

———————————————————————————————————————————————————

“And then he does a fucking flip as he flops on his face! It was so funny you shoulda’ been there.” Surge laughs her ass off as she retells the story again while you get ready for bed.

She and Sonic had finished their race in record time, with Surge being the apparent winner. Though not without both of them coming back shaking like trees in the wind and covered in snow. It took a while for them to both warm up and by the time they were back to being able to talk properly the party was ending. People took their leave slowly until it was only you Surge and Kit left at the base.

Pretty quickly Kit had gone to bed and wished both of you a good night. Leaving you and Surge as the only ones awake, which also didn’t last too long as both of you retreated back to your room. You were getting ready for bed as Surge explained the race again while sitting on your bed. She was wearing an oversized shirt now, her previous outfit being way too soaked to keep wearing.

“And then you tried to taunt him and fell on your ass didn’t you?” Her smile dies slightly and turns into a frown as she grumbles about how he tripped her. Laughing, you finally return to the bedroom from the en-suite and after briefly considering you grab her arms and lift her up. She raises an eyebrow as you do so until you start dancing with her, well you start dancing and she starts stumbling over her feet repeatedly.

She was a hopeless dancer and you knew it, but that never stopped you from trying. These impromptu dances were your favourite as she always tried so hard and made the cutest face while focusing. She had gotten slightly better over the months but still couldn’t really keep up. You didn’t care though, her skills weren’t why you did it.

“I love you.” You say it without even thinking, and she flushes even more.

“I love you too,” she stumbles again and lets out a huff. “Even if you make me do stupid shit like this.”

You laugh again before deciding you’d tortured her enough and quickly turn off the light before pulling her into bed. Laying in each other’s arms as sleep slowly takes you.

Tomorrow would be the first day of really being heroes.

Wonder what that will be like.

Crunching snow could be heard throughout the forest as a lone girl trudged through the sparse trees. Eleven had been living in the forest for a month now, eating whatever animals she could find to keep herself alive. While it was certainly not ideal, it was still better than what likely awaited her if she dared to go back into society, if she went back to Mike. All that awaited her was more experiments and more time locked in a cell. At least out here, she had freedom, even if the cost was sleeping in the freezing snow.

She at least had the jacket she had managed to take from the hunter who had found her. She felt slightly bad but also knew that he would have survived a simple hit to the face, and likely could afford a new jacket. Though it only served as a reminder of how fragile her security out here was, anyone could come across her and ruin everything. Close calls weren't something she was comfortable with, which often led her to be very jumpy and even more untrusting.

All of this meant she should have been more alert when a hand suddenly flung out of a tree in front of her.

Startled wouldn't even begin to describe what Eleven felt, dread would be more accurate. Frozen in fear she stood watching as the hand slowly became an arm, which slowly became a whole humanoid crawling from the tree. Though it wasn't as if they had just been inside the tree, it was as if they were just appearing from thin air and the tree was simply there for show. If it wasn't for the telltale glowing and her knowledge of what they were she would have believed it was simply her mind playing tricks on her. However, she knew better, she knew this wasn't her mind or eyes playing tricks.

This was something from the Upside Down, something clawing it's way back into her world. If not for her general state, both from the shock and generally from being out in the wild for so long, she would have used her powers immediately to remove this creature before it could do anything. Luckily for them, however, she was still stuck in place by the time they noticed her. Both of them simply stared, unmoving.

Save for the arm that they appeared to use to pull themselves from the Upside Down, whoever this was looked mostly normal. They stood tall, likely taller than anyone she had known before, even that police chief. They wore a tank top as their only upper garment, though there appeared to be some sort of jacket hanging off of their shoulder. They wore a pair of black leather pants, filled with patches of other discoloured material, likely from some self-repairs. Combat boots which their pants were tucked into. Strangely, they were wearing a gas mask, which also appeared to have some self-repairs, the right eye being completely duct taped over. Their hair was short and the colour seemed faded, almost grey.

“Hey,” they spoke with a calm voice. It was quiet, hoarse and muffled by the gas mask, but in the complete silence of the forest, Eleven could hear them clearly. “I didn't see you there,” came their voice again. Eleven couldn't find her voice right now, she just continued to stare wide-eyed. Initial surprise had worn off but it was replaced with a new surprise, the fact you spoke to her so human-like. “Are.. your parents around?” Asked the stranger, still looking at Eleven, or at least the gas mask was. This time Eleven managed to give a shake of her head, 'no'. The stranger seemed to look side to side, confirming what Eleven had just told them, before they spoke again, “Do you have parents?” This question made Eleven recoil slightly, she hadn't expected such a question to be the second thing something from the Upside Down would ask her. Once again she shook her head, 'no'.

Almost as if eased by the fact that Eleven had no parents the stranger slowly relaxed their posture, which just showed that they were even taller than they initially seemed. Next, they slowly brought their hands up to the mask on their face, and slowly they pulled it up to remove it. As they did this Eleven once again noticed their right arm, it was completely alien to look at. Purely black and almost appearing to be made of bone, it looked hard and spikes protruded from many points on it, one large spike was at the top of the shoulder. The hand itself was more of a claw, with sharp points as fingers.

Under their gas mask, Eleven didn't know what to expect, if it would be just like the hand and be unrecognisable or if it would be like the rest of the stranger, just human. What she ends up seeing is a mix of both. Their face was generally very normal, the first thing that stood out was how the right eye was bandaged, being completely covered. However, the second thing that was a lot more alarming once noticed was the third eye sitting in the middle of their forehead. Stranger even was the constant stream of a blood-like liquid that leaked from the eye.

Speaking of the third eye, it was now staring directly at Eleven, their regular left eye also was but that was less concerning right now. Their gaze wore Eleven down quickly and she found herself shrinking as they continued to almost study her before they suddenly spoke up again. “You know where I just came from don't you?” Eyes continued to study Eleven as they said that, and even now they almost seemed to be trying to get their answer from her body language alone. When she must have taken too long to respond for their liking they continued “And don't try to lie to me, I'll see right through it.” If not for their serious expression, Eleven would have thought that was kind of funny.

Eleven knew she had to be careful with this person. They were seemingly capable of travelling between the Upside Down and the regular world, and while she would be confident in her abilities to take someone like that on a regular, she had been living in the wild for a month and that took a toll on her energy reserves. Even if she could take this person down it would likely incapacitate her for too long.

With this in mind, she finally found her voice to respond, “The Upside Down.”

The stranger nods at this, looking away from Eleven now, they seem to study the location they are in. Eleven just continues to stare at them, still contemplating what to do with a side of gawking at their inhuman features. Their third eye appears to close after a few seconds of looking around, their left eye remains open as it falls back onto Eleven.

“Why are you out here, on your own?” They ask plainly.

“Hiding.”

“Hiding? What are you hiding from?”

“Bad men.” Their features morph to surprise at this answer, they had been expecting something like an animal, either from the Upside Down or just from the regular world. Bad men were something else entirely. It could mean anything from government agents to some bullies picking on a kid who seemed easy to make fun of. Either way, the stranger found themselves kneeling to be more level with the child in front of them before continuing to ask.

“What do these bad men want from you?” Their features had softened after the initial surprise, which wasn't something Eleven was expecting from them considering their demeanour a few minutes ago. However, their question was something Eleven didn't even really know herself, she just knew it would be bad, a fact which must have shown on her face as the stranger continued, “If you don't want to share that's ok, I'm hiding from something too so I know that sometimes you have to be tight-lipped.” The expression was foreign to Eleven, but she had silently appreciated them not continuing to press for what she meant about the bad men.

While kids running away and hiding in the woods wasn't exactly something the stranger thought was impossible, it was something they didn't think this situation was. The fact that the kid had been invisible to them before they came here already spelt the fact that something was off about them, but with how they were talking now, that just confirmed that there was something deeper here. They look away from Eleven as they debate within their mind on if they should say what they were thinking of saying. Before they could think about it for too long they already began to speak.

“Would you like to hide together?” Surprising Eleven, who was expecting more questioning of what she knew, an offer of help like that wasn't something she had expected at all. Her stunned silence must have made the stranger think they needed to continue, “I don't think I'd be able to sleep well if I didn't at least offer, y'know?” Eleven didn't. She was still busy being surprised about the offer, she was thinking it over in her head now. This person was a complete stranger and they were at least somewhat connected to the Upside Down, two things which screamed alarm bells to not trust them, yet Eleven found herself considering the offer. Being alone in the wild was starting to take its toll, she could tell. Again, she seemed to have taken too long to think about it as the stranger once again spoke, “If... If you need time to think about it, that's ok. If you decide you would like to then just look for the smoke, I probably won't be far.”

Eleven just watched as the stranger left, snow crunching under their feet as the trudged away. Her mind was still somewhat reeling from the whole encounter, except now she suddenly also had the fear of the fact she let someone who saw her leave. By the time she managed to snap out of her trance the stranger was already long gone, their footprints in the snow visible but quickly fading due to the now falling snow. Deciding on the spot that she needed to find the stranger, whether she was doing it to take their offer or if it was to make sure they didn't say anything about her was something she would think about on the way.

——————————————————————————————————

The stranger sat at their quickly made campfire, attempting to warm themselves as they adjusted to being back in the normal world after a long time in the Upside Down. The heat was always the thing that they missed the most, it was so cold in there. The backpack they once wore was now strewn up on a tree, using some sort of pulley system to keep it off the ground. Their jacket was draped over a log which they then sat on, they still only wore the same tank top on their upper body.

Slowly, they pulled a knife out from its sheath on their leg. The blade glistened in the light of the fire, it was a regular-looking combat knife, standard issue. They studied the blade for a moment before they brought it to their right arm, the inhuman arm. Sucking in a breath they draw the blade across their arm, cleaving off a chunk of black as they do so, satisfied with the sharpness of the knife they continue. Bits of black fell to the ground as they cut it away, the sound of scraping making it clear the arm was made of a bone-like substance or at least one that sounded like bone.

It was this sound which allowed Eleven to find the stranger's camp so easily, the scrapes echoing into the trees for anyone around to hear, which was luckily only her for now. The sound confused her but she assumed it was some sort of fire-starting material, she had heard of being able to start a fire by simply rubbing two sticks together. However once she managed to get within looking distance of the camp she was confused to see a fire had already been started, she was also startled by the fact the stranger was already looking at her. Mind you she had not been trying to be quiet but the fact they had heard her over whatever they were scraping was concerning.

As the stranger looked at Eleven, she noticed some things about them had already changed, The third eye on their forehead was nearly unnoticeable, being only a faint line now, and the blood flow had seemingly also stopped. Their arm looked much less inhuman now, resembling a normal human arm more than a beast's claw. Though they were still clearly recognisable, mainly because the arm was still pure black. When Eleven managed to catch their eyes they just stared at each other for a moment before the stranger spoke up, “You want to take me up on that offer?” A small nod was the only response they got from the girl, but it was enough for them to scoot across the log they sat on, making room for Eleven to sit on.

Eleven sat on the log, and as she did that was when she noticed the black shavings on the ground and the knife in the stranger's hand, which explained the scraping sound. They sit in silence for a moment as the stranger simply looks at their blade, searching it for any damage. When they seem satisfied they slide the blade back into its sheath and stand, pulling on the jacket they were previously sitting on. Again they sit, and a silence overcomes the pair as they sit in front of the fire, slowly warming themselves up. The fire the stranger had made was much bigger than any that Eleven had ever tried to make, hers were usually small. Both because she wants to stay hidden, and because she could never really make them bigger even when she tried.

“You got a name I can call you?” Snapping out of her daze Eleven looks at the stranger, who returns her stare.

“El.” She held off on giving the full name, if this person was untrustworthy letting them know she was named a number likely would give away the rest of her story quickly.

“El. Nice and short, I like it.” They respond after a moment, giving a small smile. “I'm Y/N.” They offer their hand, which after a short hesitation El takes and gives a meek shake. They go back to watching the fire in silence for a moment before Y/N speaks up again, “I am human, just in case you were wondering, I know that might be hard to believe” They let out a small chuckle. While it wasn't exactly a surprise to hear they were human, it was somewhat a surprise to hear them specifically tell El this fact. She appreciated the fact she could be sure about it now anyway.

Before a comfortable silence could settle between the pair El felt Y/N grab her, pulling her close to them. She makes a noise of surprise and quickly looks up at them to see why they had done that, however, she notices that their third eye had opened again, the same stream of blood flowing from it again. They also had what looked to be a revolver in their other hand, held up as if they were expecting to shoot at something. Whatever had set them off was completely unknown to El, she hadn't heard or seen anything which could potentially be a concern.

As El goes to ask what Y/N was doing, they quickly shushed her, continuing to stare out at something El was completely unaware of. At some point, they aimed the gun towards the thing they must have seen that El had not. However after a moment they retracted the gun again and slowly they seemed to become less tense, their hold on El loosened and she was able to move away to look up at Y/N properly. The third eye was still bleeding but it looked as if it was slowing, they had also holstered their revolver once more. Eventually, they looked over at El too and caught her gaze. “I guess I should explain that.” El just nods in response.

Y/N turns their body towards El and slowly takes off the glove which was on their right arm, one which she had not even noticed they put on. “When I first entered the Upside Down it was because of an accident, and this accident caused me to lose my right arm and eye.” Y/N brings their arm up and into the light of the campfire for a moment, before bringing it towards their face and slowly lifting the bandages on their right eye. Beneath the bandages was a large scar, and a severe lack of an eye. “While I was in the Upside Down, I was... Influenced by it. That's why I have this weird black arm and the eye on my forehead.”

“How long?” El interrupted Y/N to ask.

“How long was I in the Upside Down?” El nods at their question. “A few months at least, maybe a year or two. Time is hard to keep track of in there.”

“Superpowers?” El again interrupts to ask.

“Um, superpowers? I don't think I would call what I can do superpowers but I can do some, unusual things.” They respond, slowly bringing their right hand in front of them, picking up a small handful of snow. They then close their eye, while the third eye stays open, they then move their hand forward and El watches as it seems to just disappear in front of her. Before she can exclaim at what she is seeing the hand is brought back, with no snow. “I can.. reach through, to the other side. Which means while I'm here I can reach into the Upside Down, and when I am in the Upside Down, I can reach into here.”

El nods at this, thinking before she asks something else that is on her mind. “Gate?” It's very vague and to most people that would be a complete nonsense question, but Y/N luckily knew exactly what she was talking about.

“You mean when I came out of that tree?” Again El nods. “That was something I call a rift, a smaller version of the gate. I can open them at will with my arm, and it lets me enter the other side completely, unlike when I just reach over with my hand only.”

El absorbs this information and ponders it before blurting out the other thing she was burning to ask since seeing Y/N. “Eye?”

They let out a small laugh at her blunt question, before explaining “This eye is special, it lets me see into the other side. Usually, I have it closed because as you saw, it likes to bleed. But it is helpful to see into there sometimes, especially when I want to cross over.” They seem to have a thought as their face shows their newfound curiosity. “That reminds me, I couldn't see you when I was crossing through the rift. Do you happen to have some superpowers too?”

Y/N's gaze falls on El and she feels nervous at the attention. She was debating internally if she should show them or not, on one hand, they already were so open with her, but on the other hand, there still was the chance they were dangerous. They may have just been waiting for her to reveal who she was to strike. Right now though, she wanted to push the paranoia away, she wanted to have someone to trust with this information, to have someone who she could be open with. “Yes,” she simply said, looking away from them.

Y/N watches as she looks away, not understanding her apparent apprehension in telling them. Though it does make sense that she wouldn't want to be the most open if she is being pursued by some bad men. “Would you like to tell me about them? Or show me if that is easier?” Y/N tries to ask as softly as they can, giving a small smile to the girl, who turns to look at her shortly before looking down in contemplation. After a moment of thinking, she gives a small nod, turning to the fire.

Both of them watch as one of the logs on fire is slowly lifted into the air on its own. Y/N doesn't even notice El's hand being held up or the blood now coming from her nose, being too enraptured with the show of powers from the girl. They were impressed, to say the least, telekinesis was certainly something new, even after a long time in the Upside Down. After a while the log fell back into the fire, El having either exhausted enough energy to stop or being too nervous about sharing her powers to continue.

“Woah”, a simple one-word answer was all the reaction Y/N gave initially, their mind had caught up to what their eye had seen and now their brain was finally trying to catch up on it all. “That was.. very cool,” they eventually added, realising that the single word was probably not enough. They also decided that after seeing El's still expectant face, she must have been expecting a bigger reaction. Unfortunately being in the Upside Down for as long as they had made Y/N probably much less impacted by things like this than others would be. Still, they smiled at El after the compliment, something which the girl did reciprocate slightly after a moment.

Blood still stained El's upper lip as she smiled at Y/N, forgetting to wipe it away momentarily. Once Y/N pointed at El's face she realised immediately without any words even needed to be exchanged, though that didn't stop Y/N from commenting. “Do you always get nosebleeds when doing that?” Nodding at the question El's smile slowly leaves her face, thinking back to previous times she has had to use her powers, though the change in mood is short-lived as she looks back at Y/N who was smiling somewhat wider, “Heh, what is it about supernatural powers and causing people to bleed?” They ask rhetorically with a grin, one which is quite contagious as El's smile has once again returned.

Being with someone who could relate to her felt new to El, she had just spent a long time with others who could not really understand her or what she could do. It was refreshing, to say the least, and made her feel more comfortable with her newest friend, well hopefully newest friend. It wasn't the same feeling as when she met Mike, it was a different kind of connection. It was closer to what she had felt with Joyce, protective would be the best word to describe it. The use of her powers had likely caught up to her when she yawned, surprised with herself almost she notices Y/N looking at her now, the grin from before more of a gentle smile again.

“Maybe it'd be a good idea for you to get some shut-eye.” The suggestion of sleep did seem appealing to El, but there was a feeling in the back of her mind about if it would be a good idea. Not only was sleeping always an opportunity for someone to find her defenceless, but she had also only known Y/N for a short amount of time in retrospect. These thoughts, however, were mostly trumped by her other thoughts of how exhausted she really was, maybe if she just thought of Y/N as a protector she would feel safe enough to finally get a good night of rest out here. Keeping herself awake even longer was likely a bad idea too, if she got tired enough it's not like being awake would be any better than being asleep. With all this in mind, El nodded at Y/N to answer their question.

After receiving their answer Y/N moved towards their bag quickly, making El slightly confused before they narrated what they were doing. “Sleep usually doesn't come to me easily, but luckily.” They pause as their hands rummage through the bag*- before finding whatever they were looking for “I still kept a sleeping bag.” They finish the sentence, presenting the rolled-up sleeping bag they now have in their hands. Slowly walking over to El they unwrap it, laying it out next to the log they were both sitting upon. Looking at El after setting it up, they realised that she probably had no idea what it actually was. “Ok so, this is a sleeping bag and it's kind of what it sounds like. It's a bag that you sleep in.”

Looking at the sleeping bag El's eyes squint, before she gets up from the log and crouches next to the opening of it, looking back up at Y/N. “I get in?” She asks, looking unsure of what to actually do.

Y/N nods at her question before adding, “You probably want to take off your shoes first though.” Following the advice, El slips off her shoes before entering the sleeping bag, head first. It takes Y/N a moment to realise what she was doing before they speak up, amusement quite clear in their voice. “Um, El, you don't go in that way.” They stop, small chuckles leaving their mouth as they cover it. El slowly removes whatever parts of her had gotten into the sleeping bag and looks up at Y/N with a questioning look on their face. “You go in feet first, so your head is sticking out of the hole.” The laughs had stopped but they still had a smile on their face as they explained how the sleeping bag worked.

Understanding how it worked now, El slowly shimmied her way down into the sleeping bag, until only her head was visible, once again she looks up to Y/N, who just smiles down at her. “What now?” she asks, not really knowing what to do now.

“You, just sleep.” Y/N states, slightly unsure of what El was expecting. The answer, however, seems to satisfy the girl as she just nods and looks up to the sky before closing her eyes. Y/N just watches her for a moment, before moving their attention to the fire, which was still going quite strong, but if they wanted it to go for the whole night more fuel would likely be needed. Though they did not want to leave El on her own yet, especially in case she was still awake, that wouldn't look the best.

Thus they just sat, watching the fire, the stars and the girl who was the first person they had spoken to this much in a long time. Their thoughts wondered as they observed the girls breathing slowly change over time, showing that she had now fallen asleep. Of course, Y/N was aware of how Hawkins was odd, and that came along with some odd people, they were a prime example of that. A child with powers like this was new though. Or at least if it wasn't new, then Y/N had worse perception than they thought.

The night turned to day quicker than either Y/N or El likely wanted. As much as it would be fun to just sit at a campfire forever both of them knew that it was likely not a good idea to stagnate like that and stay in the same place. El because she knew that eventually, someone else would find her, and there would be a lack of food and other necessities. Y/N because they knew that eventually their body would reject this world once again and they would be forced back into the Upside Down, which meant El would be left alone, which was not what they wanted. Unfortunately, the list of people to who you could bring a superpowered girl in Hawkins was quite limited.

As such, there was a routine that was adopted by the pair. Find somewhere nice and secluded to camp within the woods, then camp for the night, then find a new spot the next day. That worked for a while, but it unfortunately only satisfied one of their worries, Y/N was still left with the anxiety of leaving El on her own, yet still, no one came to mind that they could bring El to.

Luckily, they wouldn't need someone to come to mind, as eventually, that person presented themself, in an unorthodox fashion.

The pair had come across some sort of box while travelling through the woods, and deciding there wasn't really any reason not to look in it, they did. They found what appeared to be some, if slightly confusing, food rations. For some reason El was almost certain she knew who left them, Y/N wasn't sure how she knew but they also didn't really question it, the two had been together long enough that they trusted El for the most part, and if she said she knew who left them then Y/N wasn't one to disagree.

After taking the food from the box, Y/N decided that camping near it was likely not the best idea, but El seemed to want to remain close for some reason. Eventually, the pair managed to compromise and they camped near the box but still far enough away that if someone went to check on the box they would not see them, at least not without looking harder than most people would.

Even after the night, El seemed dead set on remaining near the box. Y/N was even more confused by this point, and El did not seem particularly keen on explaining why she was so dead set on watching the box. When night came the next day, however, Y/N got the answer. As both of them watched the chief of police, Jim Hopper, go up to the box and place more food within it, after looking quite surprised at the fact it was empty. He had looked around after searching the box and both Y/N and El had to duck quickly to avoid him seeing them.

This was the opportunity, both of them thought, however for different reasons. El was unusually confident in a decision which would normally make her very uncertain, the decision to go up to someone who she barely knew. She had some suspicions about the chief for a while, and knowing that he was leaving food for assumedly her just confirmed these suspicions. She was fully aware of the fact she and Y/N could not camp out in the woods forever, and this was what she considered a golden opportunity to get out of the woods. From her interactions with the chief before and her general understanding of what being 'chief of police' meant, she was sure that he could take or make somewhere that both her and Y/N could be safe. From the elements and from the bad men they both ran from.

Y/N however, saw this as an opportunity for another reason. Recently they had been having symptoms which they knew were due to being in the regular world for too long, they knew that time was short before going back to the Upside Down would be necessary. And the chief of police, well they knew he was lazy and not the best at his job, but they also knew he was not a bad man, and seeing a girl randomly in the woods had to be one of those situations where you did whatever you could to make her safe. Caution was needed though, if who and what El really was got found out by Hopper it could be very dangerous.

“You should go with him” “We go with him”

Both of them spoke at once to each other, turning to face each other at the same time, making it so they both saw the other person's surprised expression. Gears within their heads turned as they processed what was said. Y/N was the first to speak up after however.

“El, I can't go with him, but you also can't stay here with me forever.” Their words came out with hints of sadness and guilt. Sad that they could not stay with El and guilty that it took this long to have a conversation about any of this.

“N-no. You come too” Came El's reply, her face was filled with shock as she made no effort to hide the emotion that she felt from Y/N's words. She was sad and almost angry with them, why did they not want to go with her, had she annoyed them? Did they not like her? Was this a trick to get rid of her?

“I can't El, I just can't. Please just go with him, he can keep you safe.” Y/N pleaded, they were scared that Hopper would leave soon and this opportunity would be lost.

“You keep me safe,” El argued back, her face morphing into anger before quickly switching back to sadness “Why can't you too?” She quickly asked, with her own ideas of why still flooding her mind.

“I just can't” Y/N tried to emphasise, but they knew better by now. El would likely keep this up as long as she could talk, which meant they needed to just rip the bandaid off and explain why. “I-I can't stay here much longer, my body is starting to reject this world and I need to go back into the Upside Down soon.” Their facade of being calm had shattered at this point and the hurt was obvious on their face.

El's own face change from sadness into despair after hearing that, her eyes filling with tears as she processed the thought of losing another one of her friends. She couldn't think of any more words at this point, she just stared at Y/N, whose own eye was now starting to get filled with their own tears. Luckily they seemed to think of something to say.

“I c-can visit maybe, when I'm feeling better I can find you I promise.” Desperation laced their voice at this point, Hopper was likely very close to leaving and there was not much more time for them to convince El. The girl in question finally broke down, tears flowing down her face as small sobs left her throat. Y/N quickly wrapped the girl in a hug and tried to calm her down, but that just led to their own tears beginning to fall. “Please El, I can't protect you. If you go with him, I at least know you are safe.” Their voice pleaded with her.

After a moment of almost silence, with the only sounds being small sobs leaving both of them, El speaks “O-ok.” she stutters for a moment before continuing “Promise you visit?” She asks, Y/N pulls out of the hug to look her in the eyes, she still looks sad but there is a layer of determination in her eyes too.

“Yes, I promise to visit.” Y/N smiles again, even if their eyes betray the emotion they truly feel. Luckily that seems to be enough to finally convince El to go with Hopper. Both of them stand quickly and Y/N looks in the direction that they saw Hopper walk off into before looking back at El, “You saw where he went right?” Getting a nod in return from El they quickly grab her hand and they both start walking in that direction.

After some walking they luckily see Hopper standing in front of his truck through the trees. He seems in thought and Y/N takes this chance to once again turn to El and quickly crouches down to bring her into another hug, which she easily reciprocates as they both clutch each other tightly. Eventually, however, Y/N pulls away again looking into El's eyes.

“I'll miss you.” The soft whisper comes.

“Me too.” Her own soft response comes.

El slowly moves away from Y/N and with a small encouraging hand gesture from them, she begins to walk towards where Hopper still stands. Her walking makes enough noise that Hopper notices and looks to where she exits the woods, moving from his slight lean on the truck to stand up straight.

“Hey, kid.” Are the two words that leave his mouth, surprise evident on his face. He clearly wasn't actually expecting to see her, but there was also relief on his face from finally finding her.

“Hi.” Is El's simple reply. Her own face still shows some hints of the emotional roller coaster she just went through, but she does well enough at hiding it for now.

“You wanna.. come with me?” Hopper eventually asks, pointing his thumb at the truck, to which El simply nods, walking over to the truck where Hopper manages to instruct her into the passenger seat. Before he gets into the truck himself, however, he takes a look into the woods thinking he saw something glowing. After looking for a short moment he decided it was likely nothing, he has higher priorities now anyway.

——————————————————————————————————

El sits alone on the couch in the cabin she now calls home, the TV in front of her showing some random movie that she has no idea what is about, not really paying much attention. Her hair is longer now, still short but nowhere near the shaved look, it was a while ago. Her clothes are also in much better condition, with no tears or patches in sight. For once she actually appears to be quite relaxed.

Behind her, however, something slowly walks to be right behind her, completely unaware of this presence she just continues to watch the tv, even as a claw slowly descends down onto her head, hovering an inch or two above the newly long hair. It stays like that for a while, until the figure begins shaking a small bit. The figure then moves its hand to be closer to her neck, now hovering a small bit above the collar of the T-shirt El was wearing. The figure again stops, the small shaking starting again, though this time it is more intense.

Still completely oblivious to what is happening behind her El turns her head to look into the kitchen of the cabin, the motion of which causes the figure to quickly move its hand back to avoid being touched. El's vision quickly finds the person she was looking for and her eyes quickly move to be focused as she also lifts her hand. An empty can which was once on the side slowly lifts into the air before suddenly flying forward, hitting Hopper in the back of the head where he stands.

“Gah, I know I know, I'm going as fast as I can kid.” He says without turning, his back still towards the now pouting girl sitting on the couch.

“Go faster.” Is her only response as she turns back towards the tv, satisfied with her rushing of Hopper. Still entirely unaware of the figure behind her, their other hand is now also present at El's head level.

Hopper finally finishes what he was doing in the kitchen, picking up the bowl of homemade caramel popcorn he turns towards where El is sitting only to notice the figure behind her. Upon noticing this figure he jumps in surprise, almost dropping the entire bowl. Luckily only a few pieces of popcorn fall out onto the floor, which he quickly decides can be tomorrow's problem. El notices the weird episode from Hopper and once again turns her attention away from the tv onto him with a look of confusion evident on her face.

“You ok?” El asks, sitting up from her laid-back position. Her concern for the man is only second to her concern for the popcorn which now lays on the floor. Hopper, having regained his composure, looks back towards El.

“Yeah yeah I'm fine, your friend just surprised me.” He says dismissively, also assuming that El was already aware of the figure behind her, which she was not.

“Friend?” She asks, even more, confused than before, however, before she can turn around she is lifted from her sitting position suddenly. Suprise would likely be an understatement, as the girl screams at the top of her lungs, her powers also seeming to happen as second nature as the figure is pushed backwards quickly, while she just falls back onto the couch before quickly moving to turn around and look at whoever grabbed her.

Once she finally realised who she was looking at her face instantly changes from fear to joy. She leaps over the back of the couch and quickly runs up to the figure who now has its arms open as they crouch down.

“Y/N!” El shouts, not as loud as her scream but still loud enough that Hopper is glad the cabin is secluded. The person in question quickly wraps El into a hug, which she immediately reciprocates as she is lifted into the air and spun around. The hug ends quickly as Y/N puts El down and smiles widely at the girl.

“El!” They mimic her tone both of them grin at each other, Y/N's eyes begin to study the girl noticing that she was wearing a shirt that they hadn't seen before. “New shirt?” they ask with a raised eyebrow, a quick nod is El's response to the question, doing a small spin to show it off to their friend. A cough from the police chief brings both of them out of their reunion as their attention is drawn to him. “Hopper,” Y/N says with a nod and another big smile directed towards him.

“Y/N, late again.” He says a small amount of humour in his voice as he finally sits down on the couch El once resided on. Said girl has quickly climbed back into the middle of the couch and is already patting the space next to her while looking directly at Y/N, who takes the girl's frantic patting seriously as they quickly move around the couch to sit next to El, not wanting to climb over the back as she did, god forbid they accidentally knock the whole thing over.

“Not any later than I usually am Chief, I just decided to clean up before I came out.” their words are directed at Hopper even while they ruffle El's hair with their left hand. Both El and Hopper look towards them and notice that those words do have truth in them, the third eye which is usually left over is already gone, along with any signs of blood leaking from it. Their right arm also appears to be already filed down to be humanoid again, which Hopper realises means the bathroom is likely covered in the usual black shavings again. “I was also standing behind El for like five minutes so that didn't help.” They add to their previous sentence, a smug look on their face as El's own face turns into shock, surprised that it took her that long to notice them.

Hopper grumbles something about having to clean up the arm shavings again, but he still offers both Y/N and El some of the homemade popcorn, which both of them happily take a handful of, and both give a nod towards the chief after tasting the snack.

Y/N and Hopper look towards El as both of them realise the tv has stopped playing whatever was on previously. Said girl holds her hand out as the VHS moves from the counter and into the VHS player which Hopper rented for this occasion specifically, the movie Hopper picked begins to play as the three of them settle into the couch and get comfortable. Y/N handed El a tissue to deal with her already oncoming nosebleed.

As the movie starts El looks at Hopper and then at Y/N, smiling to herself as she relaxes between both of her protectors.

After the emotional roller coaster that was last night, none of you was very keen on getting up. The crusty bed you all lay on, as disgusting as it was, kept you all lounging around for almost an hour after you were awake and talking. Eventually, you did manage to crawl off of it and get started with the day, you had a base to reclaim after all.

One short call to Tails later and you’re all patiently waiting to hear about how the turnout goes. “So, what’s the plan for when whoever decides to show up, uh shows up?”

The look Surge and Kit give you makes any confidence in how this was going to go fizzle out. “Plan?”

——————————————————————————————————

When a shuttle, you assume to be carrying whoever decided to come along and help, begins to settle down near the base, you’ve managed to at least come up with the bare minimum of what could be considered a plan.

The first thing you’d do would be secure the dormitory area, at least then you’d have a safe place to stay even if the rest of the base was a lost cause. That meant cleaning out the trash and making sure the structure was stable enough to not fall on you while you slept.

You’d just have to make up the rest of the plan as you went, you were sure it’d come to you eventually, just needed a bit of inspiration and hope, a bed not next to exposed copper wiring would give you that.

After the shuttle lands its occupants all filed out you took count, eight people in total. Six more than you were expecting honestly so you’re happy, however, you can feel Surge tense up next to you at the sight of some of them. Unfortunately, before you can ask about it the new group is already approaching, with Sonic at the front.

“Hey, guys!” he greets cheerily, once within earshot.

“Hey Sonic,” you respond simply, waiting for him and the group to get close enough to stop walking before continuing, “Bigger turnout than I was expecting unless they’re not here to help and you just thought it’d be fun to bring some friends over.” You smirk but secretly have some part of you that dreads the idea that this was actually going to be some hostile takeover. Not that Sonic had ever given you an indication that he would do something like that, but you never know. And this group was kinda intimidating other than two of them.

There’s Sonic and Tails obviously, and then there’s another hedgehog with pink quills. There’s a wolf and a lemur standing side by side. A rabbit who looks a bit young to be doing manual labour but you wouldn’t judge. A bat who looks familiar but you can’t put your finger on why. And finally, a very large purple cat, who appears to be holding a fishing pole and a frog.

“Somehow I doubt this place is ready for a house party,” Sonic smirks back after giving the whole base a quick look over.

“Yes, we’re here to help.” Tails adds after it’s clear Sonic wasn’t actually going to answer your question.

“Oh right yeah, introductions and all,” Sonic steps back and clears his throat before introducing the group. “Here are the selfless souls who will be making sure this whole thing doesn’t take years. First, we’ve got me and Tails, obviously.”

He gestures to the pink hedgehog next, you think you’ve seen her before but don’t remember her so it must have been in passing. “This is Amy Rose, former leader of the resistance, tarot card extraordinaire and the best hammer swinger I know.” Said pink hedgehog giving a small wave and ‘hello’ apparently embarrassed by Sonic’s praise. Or maybe just nervous about meeting someone new, you didn’t know either way.

“Ain’t tarot cards part of that whole future vision mumbo jumbo?” Surge’s voice reminds you of her and Kit’s presence. Surge for her part doesn’t seem very affected by all the new people. Kit, however, is currently half hiding behind Surge while looking at the crowd. Before you can say anything though, Sonic continues with introductions.

“That’s Tangle and Whisper.”

“HI!” Their greetings are the opposite of each other as Whisper silently gives a small wave after Tangle’s outburst.

“Here’s Cream and- hey wait, where’s Gemerl?”

“Oh, He’s helping mother with something. I can be useful too you know.” The last part of her sentence comes off more defensive.

“Yeah, I’m not saying you aren’t I just uh, yknow. I thought he was your protector and all and I really don’t want to get on Vanilla’s bad side by forgetting him, heh,” Sonic takes a moment after that before introducing the next person. “This is Rouge-”

“That’s where I recognise you!” Surge’s outburst makes you jump, everyone else seems to have had a similar reaction. “You were on that wanted posted in the police station.” She seems proud of herself for remembering that, crossing her arms. You’re not sure if she was proud of herself for remembering now, or if she’s proud of the fact she and Kit aren’t the only criminals here.

To her credit, the only response Rouge gives is, “Well I hope they got my good side at least.”

“Then there’s Big and Froggy, I’ll let you guess which is which.”

“Hello.” Big’s voice is deep and somewhat monotone, but he looks nice enough, you do wonder what he plans on doing with the fishing rod though.

“Okay well that’s all of us, you guys want to introduce yourselves now?”

You quickly introduce yourself before going to introduce Surge, “This is Surge-”

“I’m their girlfriend.” She puts her hands on her hips, a wide grin spreading over her face.

“Uh, yes you are,” You awkwardly continue, slightly embarrassed. “And this is Kitsunami, Kit for short.” He gives a small wave to all the new eyes on him and you get the thought that he and Whisper might get along.

“Cool,” Sonic claps his hands together, “So, what are we doin’?”

You quickly go over your plan with the newcomers, explaining the areas on a crude map you drew while planning earlier. With the amount of manpower you now have at your disposal, your initial plan feels very inefficient so you decide to spread everyone out a bit more. Also playing towards each of their strengths, well the ones you can tell just from looking at them.

Amy, Tangle, Whisper and Cream are all on cleaning duty, taking out the trash and getting rid of any invasive plant life they find. Rouge is checking the roofs for any issues, might as well do It while you have someone who can fly. Big is sticking near the first group to take anything too big for them, and in case they need a door opened, they really could get stuck sometimes. Tails is going to be checking any electrical equipment to see if its dangerous or even if it could be used for something useful in the future. Sonic, the only one not too pleased with his new job, is going to be running the trash bags you all fill to the nearest place to get rid of them.

“Did you guys really have to bust all the bots before we got here?” He sounds disappointed when he asks, to which Surge laughs and you snicker. His act of being annoyed falls away pretty quickly when he starts running trash bags back and forth, clearly not actually disappointed with his job being the thing he is best at.

As for you, Surge and Kit. You are acting as a sort of foreman, overseeing each of the groups. Surge sticks with the first group to act as a tour guide so they don’t get lost, Kit does something similar with Rouge, owing to the fact his hydro-pack also makes it easy for him to traverse the rooftops.

After setting everyone off to their jobs you take a moment to glance at the plan you’d made before moving off.

——————————————————————————————————

The first person you run into is Tangle, who was happily throwing trash into a bag she was holding with her tail. It was only now that you noticed her odd tail, it almost seemed like another arm with how she was using it. It didn’t take her long to notice your staring and she stopped her work to look at you sceptically.

“You better be looking at me because you think it’s cool and not cause it’s weird.” You quickly assume this is a similar situation to Tails, growing up with something that made them different usually led to some unpleasant encounters.

“Uh, can it be both?” Tangle gives you a look but eventually shrugs.

“Yeah I guess, so you think it's cool?” Her enthusiasm from earlier returns as she drops the bag she was filling and begins flexing her tail.

“I think everyone who has some weird ability like you are cool, well everyone who doesn’t use it to be evil or whatever.”

“Wish everyone was as cool with it as you.” Her glum tone all but confirmed your theory. You wanted to be sure though.

“I’m guessin’ you had the same issues Tails had growing up then?”

“Eh,” She shakes her hand horizontally, “Not entirely, I wasn’t bullied or anything, not explicitly. It was more like I was excluded from stuff cuz of it. ‘Oh you can’t do this Tangle, your tail would make it unfair’.”

“Yeesh.”

“Yeah I don’t know what my tail had to do with chess but whatever, I had Jewel at least so it wasn’t like I was a loner.”

“That name’s familiar.” You could swear you’d heard of a Jewel before, same as you remembered something about Amy.

“Oh yeah, she’s the leader of the restitution.” Oh right, that’s why it felt similar. Tangle had a proud look on her face now, you assumed that she was proud of Jewel but maybe there was something else.

“You’re really in with the big wigs huh? Sonic, two of the leaders of the biggest resistance in the last however many years. Any big-shots you don’t know?”

She makes a show of thinking, putting her finger on her chin and looking up. “Hmm, nope! I know ‘em all. That’s me, Tangle the people know-er,” You laugh at her display and go to say something else when Whisper walks into the room. She freezes upon seeing you though and moves to leave, but Tangle stops her. “Hey don’t walk off again, I’ll never finish cleaning if it’s just me.”

Realising that you’re the issue, you quickly excuse yourself and leave to go find someone else.

——————————————————————————————————

Amy is the person you find next. Well, Amy and Big. Well, Amy, Big and Froggy. You weren’t expecting much talk from Froggy though, or Big to be honest. He came off like the strong silent type, though he also might have just been a bit slow.

“Oh Hi!” Amy’s voice snaps you out of the stupor you got yourself into, maybe you were the one who was a bit slow.

“Hi, uh, getting along alright?” Big moves off to keep cleaning, leaving you and Amy with nothing more than a hum. No wait, he was just humming to himself.

“Yep, almost got this room cleaned up,” you can tell she’s been working hard, you can barely see any trash left. “This whole place will be sparkling in no time.” She smiles and you can’t help but reflect it.

“You guys work fast, is speed a hedgehog thing?” You snicker.

“If you only looked at Sonic and Shadow you’d think that. Me and Silver disprove it though.”

“I’m guessin’ Shadow and Silver are hedgehogs too then?”

“Yep! Silver’s a hedgehog from the future who came back in time to help prevent a calamity,” heroes really were a tight-knit group weren't they. “Shadow, well I don’t really know much. And if I really think about it, I don’t think he’d like me to say anything actually. Sorry.” She looks away a bit sheepishly.

“Nah I get it, some people have secrets they want to keep,” You glance at the doorway, “I wouldn’t go ‘round telling everyone about Surge and Kit after all.”

She stops picking up trash to look at you briefly, a small grin on her face. “So you and Surge huh? From what Sonic told me, she doesn’t strike me as much of a romantic.”

“Oh, she really isn’t. I mean she’s great, but romance is one of like four things she sucks at. She calls me ‘bro’ more than my name some days,” Amy lets out a laugh at that. “What’s got you interested in my love life anyway? Is your star sign stuff saying we’re a bad match or something?”

Pouting she stands and crosses her arms, “I’ll have you know that my fortune telling is legit, not any of that ‘mumbo jumbo’ Surge was talking about.”

It’s your turn to snicker now, earning more ire from the pink hedgehog. “You didn’t answer the first question.” Relaxing a bit, Amy thinks back to what you even asked before realising.

“Oh right, I just think it’s cute. A perfect love story.” She lets out a dreamy sigh and you can guess why.

“Ah I get it, you’re jealous.” She snaps her head at you when you say that.

“W-what?!”

Putting your hands up in defence you explain, “Not of Surge or me, of the whole ‘love story.’” You smirk at her reaction, her face going red for a different reason.

“N-no idea what you’re talking about.” She moves to go back to work but you grab her shoulder to stop her, stooping to a whisper.

“Hey, I’m not gonna act like a mind reader. But Sonic only put actual effort into introducing one of you guys.” She glances at Big, who is very clearly not listening, sitting down and talking with Froggy.

Amy lets out a sigh, “I just don’t think he likes me in that way… I don’t think he likes anyone in that way. Too busy being a hero.”

“Pshh, I doubt it. But even if he doesn’t, surely it’d feel better to get those feelings out rather than letting them linger in limbo.”

“I’ve tried, but it feels like he doesn’t even acknowledge it sometimes. Feels like there’s someone up there specifically making it so we can’t even talk about it.”

You glance up briefly, “Nah, even if there is some big shot up there pulling the strings, why would they bother with preventing two specific people from getting together? That’s just stupid.”

Amy doesn’t argue but doesn’t agree either. Deciding to move to another topic as you finish up this room, you begin asking her what it’s like to lead a resistance, quickly getting her talking about the monotony of admin work.

——————————————————————————————————

It doesn’t take long to finish cleaning the room once you get Big to start helping again, once all three of you get to the next doorway you leave the two to work and move on to check on someone else.

That someone else ends up being Cream. You quickly worry about the fact she’d been left on her own until you spot the yellow and blue creature helping her collect the debris on the floor.

The Chao ends up being the one that notices you first, making some babble that causes Cream to turn around. “Oh, Hello.”

You find yourself staring at the Chao even after Cream greets you, “Hey,” is all you manage to get out.

“Are you okay?” Cream asks after a few too many moments of you just staring at Cheese.

“Huh? Oh yeah, I’m fine, just haven’t seen a Chao in… a while.” You haven’t seen one since childhood, and you kind of wished it stayed that way. They creeped you out for some reason, maybe you had some trauma you suppressed or maybe it was just one of those irrational fears. Either way, looking at this blue and yellow floating thing was making your skin crawl.

“Do you not like them?” Cream was apparently more observant than you thought.

“Ah, well it’s not that I don’t like them it’s just, I find them a bit, creepy. Sorry, I hope that’s not offensive.” You weren’t expecting the first person you’d tell about your fear would be a child but here you were. Cream seems to be in thought for a minute before a look of steely determination comes over her.

“Well if you’re just scared then I’m sure we can help, Mr Sonic is always talking about turning fear into motivation.” Giving her a short look, then giving the Chao a short look, you try to weasel your way out of doing anything.

“I appreciate the offer, but yknow, maybe this would be better to do later,” Your words die in your throat when you see her face change from determined to disappointed, “O-okay we can try something now, but just a test. See if it’s something I can work on.” That gets her looking positive again.

“Okay!” She quickly leads you to a crusty-looking table and chair, both of you sitting as the Chao lands on the table. “Let's start simple, just hold Cheese.” Staring at her, confused for a second, you then realise that’s the name of her Chao.

Holding your hand out shakily you watch as the Chao lands on your palms and stands there for a few seconds. It’s not as bad as you expected but you still wanted to get it off of your hands for most of the time it stayed on them. After what feels like an eternity, Cheese takes to the air again and leaves your hands Chao-free.

“Okay, that wasn’t too bad.” You try and claim while rubbing your hands against your legs under the table.

“If you’re as scared of them as you made it seem, that was great!” she beams at you and you return the smile though much more restrained.

“M-maybe in the future, we can try something else. Assuming you’d be okay with that?” You’re not sure if you’re asking Cream or Cheese but both of them nod so you’re satisfied. And luckily your exit from this whole situation comes as you hear a loud thunk above you, followed by some loud words you can’t make out.

“I’m gonna go make sure Kit didn’t just knock himself out, catch you two later.” With a two-finger salute, you make your way outside and are surprised to see Rouge coming down from the roof holding Kit’s Hydro-pack. Your initial surprise wears off and suddenly you’re concerned.

“Hey, uh, what are you doin’ with that?”

Rouge seems surprised by your presence as she turns to face you, her previous expression returns quickly though. “Oh, your little fox friend told me to refill it. He had a little tumble because it ran empty mid-flight.” That story checked out for the most part, it explained the loud bang you heard and you know Kit had a tendency to run out of water without realising sometimes.

“Right, why’d he get you to do it instead of doing it himself?”

“Cuz she can fly so it’s easier.” Kit’s voice above you makes you jump as you turn to look at him. He seems fine but you can see he’s a bit shaken from the way his eyes are unfocused. But for the most part, he seems fine so your worry about him mostly dissipates, you’d ask him how his tumble went later.

“Right, yeah that makes sense.” Rouge seems to get some smug satisfaction at being right and moves to leave before Kit interrupts her.

“Wait! I didn’t show you how to fill it.” He moves to jump down but you stop him this time.

“I’ll show her, don’t sweat it,” The look you get of Kit after saying that makes you defend yourself, “It was one time, I’ve learnt my mistake.” His look of disbelief continues but you ignore him and walk off with Rouge towards the nearest water source.

“You don’t need to keep looking at me like I’m about to fly off with this thing.” She holds up the hydro-pack to demonstrate but it doesn’t do much to settle your nerves. You knew she was probably strong enough to carry it away easily and you’d have no way to get it back. You knew Sonic wouldn’t bring someone to help who he knew would steal anything important, but you also knew that-

“You’re not here out of the goodness of your heart, I’ve heard enough stories to know that.”

She holds her hand on her chest in mock offence before smirking, “And what do you plan to do about that?”

You consider her for a minute before responding. “Nothing,” she raises an eyebrow but gives no other response. “It’s not like I’m gonna be able to stop you from taking something, I’d rather you didn’t but we don’t really have the same ideas of what’s important.” That seems to get her attention more.

“And what do you consider important?”

“Stuff that makes the base run, things we need to survive, Surge and Kit,” you list them on your fingers. “And I kinda doubt any of those are things you’d want to take or could take for that fact.” You remembered the power sources here weren’t gems or anything and were probably about fifty tonnes.”

“Hm, I’m not sure about that. Kit is quite the little gem.” She smirks and you have to take a longer glance than before to see if she’s joking.

“Good luck getting him away from Surge, pretty sure both of ‘em would die before leaving each other.”

“Not including yourself in that?”

After brief consideration, you realise that you, in fact, didn’t include yourself in that. “Well, I’d hope I’m included but I’m also not an egotist.”

“Are you implying I am?”

“Well, I’m pretty sure you’re not giving all the gems you take to charity, takes some amount of self-love to keep that much stuff ‘cause it looks pretty.”

“And here I thought I would be able to have a day of not getting judged for my hobbies.”

The snort that leaves you sounds mocking at first but then you let out an actual laugh, “I’m hardly one to judge, you know who I’m dating right?” she raises an eyebrow again, “If I had something against criminals I’d be single. Plus the first thing me and Surge even did together was steal from Eggman.”

Neither of you talks for a while after that, silently walking towards the water source. When you reach it, you decide to just fill the pack yourself, finding it easier than trying to teach Rouge, the walk back to Kit is similarly silent until you speak up.

“If you find anything sparkly that you wanna take, and it won’t cause the whole base to collapse, then just take it.”

The briefest look of surprise overtakes her face before it changes to a smug smile, “What makes you think I needed permission.”

“I know you don’t, but if anyone catches you, you had permission so it's fine.” A second of silence follows that before she speaks again.

“As if I’d get caught.” She lets out a small laugh before taking flight back to the roof where Kit was waiting for her. You watch him test it before nodding and the two of them move off again.

Not sure what to think of the whole interaction you simply go back into the building, walking straight into Tangle and Whisper exiting the room they were cleaning earlier. Upon noticing you, Whisper again goes quiet and almost moves behind Tangle, who notices you after seeing Whisper’s weird behaviour. “Oh, good timing! Do you hate Whisper?”

“Tangle!”

Thoroughly confused you look at Whisper. Did you hate her? Uh, the better question right now was did you know her? “Uh, no? Am I meant to?”

“See,” Tangle says to Whisper, ignoring your question. “She thought you did.” That confused you.

“Oh, uh sorry if I came off that way.”

“No, it’s not…” She cuts herself off, trying to find the words. “I do not like Surge and she does not like me… I had assumed you would share that distaste.” Huh, you didn’t think Surge really had a history with anyone other than Sonic.

“Oh,” You scratch the back of your head, “Well I don’t remember her mentioning anything about you honestly, so either she didn’t want to tell me or she’s forgotten.” Knowing Surge it was probably a combination, she didn’t really put effort into remembering people unless she liked them or liked messing with them.

“Huh, that must be kinda disappointing.” Tangle reminds you that she’s there. Both your and Whisper’s looks make her shrink back a bit.

“You know, if you were thinking that I’m kinda surprised you decided to come along and help. I mean I appreciate it and I’m sure Surge and Kit do too, even if they won’t say it,” The looks that Tangle and Whisper individually give you make it clear that it was probably a similar situation to what just happened now. “This a common thing?” you look at Whisper who gives a silent nod.

“Woah would you look at that, trash to be picked up!” Tangle quickly moves off, a bit too quickly as she trips and almost falls. With one last glance to where she ran off you, you look back at Whisper.

“You should probably make sure she doesn’t get herself hurt.” With a quick nod, she moves off to follow Tangle, giving a short glance back before moving out of sight.

After all the talk of Surge you decide now would be a good time to check on your green girlfriend. Though wanting to find her doesn’t mean you’ll actually be able to. Luckily she makes it easy for you this time when you are almost made roadkill by her and Sonic before they manage to pump the breaks and stop themselves.

Well, Sonic stops himself, Surge skids for a few seconds before crashing into you. Barely able to keep yourself from falling over with her added weight, you lift yourself back up and try to shake her off. Realising that she is actually latched onto you now. “Are you hugging me or are you clinging to me out of fear?”

Surge snorts as she leans back, “Me? Clinging to you? Out of fear? HA! As if,” You give her a look and her smug grin falters slightly before she pulls it back and detaches herself from you. “Anyway, what are you doin’ out here bein’ a roadblock? Me and blue boy are trying to race.”

“Aren’t you mean to be a tour guide? And aren’t you meant to be doing trash runs?” you question them both, Sonic puts his hands behind his back and lets out a whistle.

“I may have gotten slightly distracted.”

“I definitely got distracted. These dweebs can find their way around now anyway I showed ‘em enough,” Surge had turned away while talking but as she finishes she twists back towards you, “So you gonna answer me why you’re sittin’ out here doin’ nothin’?”

“Excuse you, I have been standing here for like twenty seconds,” she squints at you, “Okay well technically I’ve been here like 10 minutes but I was talking to Whisper and Tangle.” She squints harder.

“Eh whatever, slacking off is part of the job. Come on spiky, first to do thirty laps wins.” She speeds off and sonic quickly joins her after a brief ‘you’re on’. You don’t even bother trying to tell them to actually do some work and instead decide you might as well finish the set and check on everyone. With that in mind, you start looking around for a certain two-tailed fox.

——————————————————————————————————

It ends up taking a lot longer than you expected to find Tails. First, you managed to find Big somehow fishing inside the building, apparently, there was enough water leaking through the ceiling to make a lake. You found Cream and Amy talking while slowly clearing up some leftover stuff. Whisper was trying to work but Tangle was also trying to distract her, though when you gave her a confused glance she quickly pretended to work. Kit and Rouge were nowhere to be seen so you assumed they were still on the roof.

Tails ended up being further away than you expected, you’re pretty sure you didn’t tell him to come to where he did but you kinda gave up on your plan by that point, not like everyone was following it anyway. When you got to Tails he was rooting around in a broken Badnik, not what you were expecting but you assumed he had a reason.

“Hey Tails.” he gives a small yelp at your voice and spins to look at you before relaxing.

“Hey-” he gets a shock before he can finish talking and quickly retract from the Badnik to rub his hand, “Shoot that hurt.”

“What you rooting around in a Badnik for anyway?”

“Well, after we had to hack into a few terminals to open doors I remembered something Surge mentioned a while ago. About how Starline had messed around with Eggman’s codes for doors and all that. I was hoping that we’d be able to do the same thing, so you guys could get some new codes,” He vaguely gestures to the broken-down Badniks before continuing, “I thought there might be a head Badnik that had overriding code but I’m starting to think there isn’t one.”

You bite your cheek as you look over all the scrap. Would Eggman do something like that? Now that you thought about it, would Eggman be a problem? Would he ever want this base back? If he ever did you’d definitely want your own codes. “Can you do it even if there isn’t an overriding code?” he gives a nod. “Okay well, if you’re up to it, I think those would be a good idea. In case Eggface ever comes back.”

“Sure! I think these Pawns are a lost cause so I’ll just have to work it up with my own code if that’s alright?” this time you nod and he smiles.

Then something neither of you was expecting happens and snow starts falling.

“Uh, ain’t it a bit early for snow?”

“We shouldn’t be getting any for at least a few more weeks, this is weird.” Tails grabs his tablet and quickly begins pressing buttons, you decide now is as good a time as any to get back inside and quickly drag him with you as he keeps fiddling with his gizmo.

——————————————————————————————————

When you get back to the dormitory entrance you happen to see Rouge and Kit also moving inside, increasing your pace you catch up to them and learn they also decided to come in due to the sudden snow.

When you get to the main lounge you find everyone else also gathered and talking about the sudden blizzard. “Tails! There you are bud, think your gadget can tell us why we’re suddenly in the Icecap Zone?” Sonic is the first to talk, you can tell he’s antsy from this, as his foot is tapping the floor rapidly.

“Um, not exactly,” Tails places his tablet onto the table and folds his hands. “I can tell it’s not natural but, that’s about all I can tell.”

“So we don’t know why it’s happenin’?” Surge asks, to which Tails nods.

“Think it might be Eggman?” Amy asks.

“No it couldn’t be, he announces his plans,” Sonic argues, to which Tails adds.

“It also lacks any of his usual flare, he does robots. But I can’t find anything active in a few miles on my scanner.”

“So it’s just some bizarre random weather?” Amy asks again, to which Tails nods.

Everyone looks a bit grim at this.

“Maybe we should get out of here until it passes?” You ask, not really wanting to be stuck in some unnatural snowstorm. Everyone else seems to share the sentiment and you all make your way to the exit to leave, only to be met with a less-than-stellar sight. The entrance is completely covered with snow already.

“How fu- fricking heavy was that snow?” Surge shouts

“It was barely even sprinkling when we got in.” You respond, baffled by the sheet of white. Surge seems to get an idea as she jumps into the snow, disappearing into the white. Only to fall out almost immediately after, shivering

“O-okay It’s n-not just covering the d-door.” Tutting, you quickly help her up and hug her to try and warm her up.

“So what do we do now?” Tails asks.

“If we had knuckles he could probably dig us a path to the shuttle,” Sonic says, before correcting himself, “Not that we’d be able to take off.”

“We’ve gotta send off a distress beacon, if this storm doesn’t end soon we might be stuck here longer than we can actually stay.” Amy reasons, to which you all agree, so she moves off to make a call. Hopefully, there was still service.

“Well, since we’re gonna be stuck here anyway,” Tangle starts, moving towards the snow doorway before continuing. “Who wants a snowball fight!?”

——————————————————————————————————

When the snow finally thaws enough for you all to leave it's a slow slog to the shuttle, the snow had melted enough that Tails had decided he could take off so you all had made your decision to get the hell out of the frozen wasteland that Super Awesome Base Sigma currently was.

The mud and snow made it quite a difficult journey, especially since half of you had colds by this point. One by one you all load onto the shuttle and Tails manages to make a shaky takeoff, towards wherever you were going to land and finally warm up, you wouldn’t say no to somewhere like Lava Reef Zone right now.

You’re lucky to have the two living heating pads that are Surge and Kit next to you right now. Surge was essentially shocking herself right now to warm herself up for you and Kit was just warm in general with his fur. Both combined meant you hardly felt the cold right now.

Even if it was quite unpleasant, SABS was quite nice to look at with all the snow, though it was definitely weird how it cut off so suddenly. Maybe when it was natural snow you’d be able to enjoy it. For now, though, you were just enjoying the peace and quiet, Surge was practically already snoring and Kit was doing something on the phone he had gotten at some point during your snow stay. Which meant it was practically silent on the shuttle. Sonic was up front with Tails and Tangle was busy wrapping herself and Whisper in her tail for warmth.

Amy was quietly reading and Big looked like he was already asleep. Rouge was checking her nails and grimacing. Cream was the loudest person in the whole shuttle currently and that’s just cause she was talking to Cheese.

All in all, you find yourself closing your eyes and letting yourself relax, placing your head against Surge’s and slowly succumbing to sleep while listening to her gentle breathing.

This was nice.

Next part

There had been houses at Y/N’s previous school, just like Hogwarts. The method for being placed into a house, however, was much different there. Back at his old school, it was simply a random placement, though it could be changed with enough pleading to the upper crust of staff.

All of this meant when Y/N discovered he would be put into a house chosen by a magical talking hat he was moderately confused, but even more intrigued. Even after spending some time within the school for the Triwizard Tournament, he had never heard of the hat. How the hat worked was a mystery to him, ‘Maybe it just picks one at random,’ was his initial thought, however, that theory was quickly dismissed upon watching how it seemed to debate with itself over a person's characteristics. ‘Maybe the professors feed it information from the student's past.

This theory was also quickly dismissed. While he had not heard of this hat he had heard of many students being surprised by their letter of invitation to the school, which meant they probably didn’t have to send in an application which would leave very little for the hat to be told.

“L/N Y/N.” His thought process was interrupted by the professor reading out names, McGonagall was her name if his memory served him right. Realizing she was calling his name because it was his turn to be sorted he quickly moved forward to sit on the stool planted in front of the professor, with the hat falling upon his head quickly after.

“Hmm, what’s this?” The hat spoke though Y/N could not tell if it was simply in his head or actually talking at this point. “A 5th year, you’re not part of my usual group.” Its words were dragged out, almost slurred as if it had drunk one too many butterbeers. “Well, there is certainly a mind filled with that knowledge.” The compliment to his intellect brought a small smirk to his face, though it fell shortly after hearing its next comments, “Not a brave bone in the body, and certainly less kind than smart.” While the hat was likely correct about both of those things it certainly wasn’t something that he wanted to be said straight to his face. “Hmm, but there’s more than intellect, there’s drive. Yes, I see, heaps of it.”

“That’s the 5th year who transferred isn’t it?” Ron whispered to his friends.

“Well, I don’t exactly see any other 5th years standing up there waiting to be sorted” Came Hermione’s response.

Since the train to Hogwart’s, there had been rumours of a 5th year transferring from another school to theirs. It was an easy rumour to dismiss initially, why would someone transfer so late into their learning? The rumour became harder to deny once they saw the student towering over the 1st years.

“SLYTHERIN!” Boomed the hat's final decision.

“That's gotta sting,” Ron once again whispered to his friends, who mostly gave him a look in response. He clarified, “Transferring schools just to end up being put in Slytherin, I know I wouldn’t want to be in that situation.

In actuality, Y/N felt none of the meaning that comes with being put into Slytherin, other than the fact he will now be wearing green robes. The infamy of the house was lost to the 5th year, back at his old school the houses meant nothing in reality due to their randomness, there were no stereotypes about them because there was nothing different between them.

Little did he know how much of a difference the house he had been forced into would make.

Luckily it did not take long at all for the upsides and downsides of which house he was placed in to show themselves. He quickly discovered that Slytherin was the most hated house, by all the others at least. It seemed as if all other Slytherins loved the house so much it didn’t even matter that everyone else hated them.

The benefits of this were that he could simply sit at a populated table in the library and it would immediately clear out. The detriments came during classes which required him to pair up with another student. During said classes, it usually ended the same if he was able to pick a partner and if he was not, in both cases no one was happy to be paired with him.

Overall he still had yet to make a decision on if he was happy to be in the house or not. What he had decided by this point however was that he did not like Draco Malfoy. Before joining Hogwarts He knew nothing about the Malfoy family, after one week it felt as if he knew more about Malfoys than his own family. Draco spoke of his family plenty of times, almost always going into how he was a pure-blood, an idea that Y/N had only half grasped by now.

The other students he had met so far seemed much more tolerable, but by his standards that wasn’t too much better. There were those in his own house like Vincent Crabbe, Gregory Goyle and Pansy Parkinson, all of which were barely more tolerable than Draco simply because they let him do much more talking. It seemed in the end that Slytherin simply contained the most irritating people. There were certainly people in other houses that annoyed him but none to the degree of his own housemates.

It didn’t take much time for him to learn about the Golden trio, as they were mockingly called by Draco. Harry Potter, the boy who somehow made Voldemort disappear before he could even walk. Ronald Weasley, a redhead from a very large family, mostly seemed to have the personality trait of being Harry’s friend, at least from how everyone described him. Then there was Hermione Granger, a mudblood as Draco called her. She was the one who interested Y/N the most out of the three contrary to popular opinion of Harry being the poster boy. Something about her simply seemed different to the others, maybe it was her tenacity to become a witch even after all the prejudice due to her heritage.

One character Y/N had yet to properly meet before today was the easily mockable Neville Longbottom. The mockery was easy due to both his name and apparently his previous reputation for being awful at all magic, though he had yet to see that. Currently, all Y/N could see about Neville was that he had no idea how to look for a book in a library. He watched the Gryffindor search over the potions shelf three times, not once trying to look somewhere else or even simply ask the librarian where the book was.

Eventually, even Y/N, who could usually manage to ignore others' plights, was starting to feel some amount of pity for him. Which eventually led to him walking up to him as he started to search the shelf for the fourth time.

“Are you actually looking for a book or are you trying to look busy? Because either way, you are doing a poor job.” He spooked the boy with his words apparently because Neville quickly spun around with a face of shock at the sudden voice. Neville seemed to be conflicted after the initial surprise, he wanted to brush you off immediately because he was expecting your next comment to become much more mocking of him no matter his response.

“I’m looking for a potions book.” He replied after some thought, though not enough thought he realized as he added, “Dr Mardovia’s healing tonics and treatments, specifically.”

“Did you think to ask the librarian if that book was even on these shelves?” Y/N questioned rhetorically as he quickly continued, “If you did you would realize that the only copy this school has, for some reason, has been taken out already.” Neville’s face fell at this news, which caused Y/N to feel some pity for the boy, “Luckily for you, it was taken out by me, and I happen to almost be finished reading it. You can borrow it after I finish reading to copy whatever it is you seem to be desperate to know, I will need it back to make more notes after.” Neville's face lit up at this fact.

“Really? Thanks.” He said as he realized you weren’t pulling his leg, contrary to what he was expecting of a Slytherin. He then asked another question, he didn’t expect to ask someone from Y/N’s house, “If we’re both making notes we could work on them together?” His tone was very apprehensive, however, as he realized who he was asking right as he started talking. Y/N looked quite surprised by the offer, and Neville watched as he seemed to ponder it for a second before shaking his head quite strongly.

“No, I work much better alone.” He spoke curtly, before continuing, “Thank you for the offer but, no. I will bring the book to your painting tomorrow.” After that, he quickly walked away and out of the library altogether. Neville was mostly confused by the interaction's sudden end, so much so that it took him all the walk back to Gryffindor’s common room to realize

“How does he know about the painting?!”

The Fat lady just looked at him confused.

Y/N usually woke up early most days but today he woke up earlier than usual. After his run-in with Neville the previous day he realized that he had not specified any time at which he was going to show up at. While he could have simply just waited somewhere else such as the great hall, he did not like the idea that he could potentially miss him.

In the end, his best idea was to wait outside of the doorway to the Gryffindor common room until Neville or someone who would pass the book along to him exited. It was not the best plan, not only because the time window that someone could leave was over an hour, but because he would have to get there before the curfew was truly over. Luckily he was very confident in his own ability to get around the castle without being found, and also the fact he could easily claim he forgot about the curfew.

After a few minutes of walking, he found the specific painting he was looking for, the fat lady as she was so affectionately called. By that point curfew had ended so she luckily had no reason to be concerned with his presence, he could simply just be admiring the view for all anyone knew. That didn’t stop the fat lady from questioning him, however.

“Any reason you are just standing and staring at me?” She sounded calm, but she was ever so slightly concerned. The last time something like this happened she was slashed several times with a knife, the security trolls gave her some reassurance but since Y/N was a student and already happened to be right in front of her they likely wouldn't end up doing much.

“Heard some students talk about a ‘Fat Lady’ painting in this tower, thought I’d come to take a look.” He lied. Only partially, he had heard of this painting from other students, considering the fact their common room entrances were meant to be at least somewhat secretive it was a bit of a concern that so many students had let it slip so far. The fat lady eyed him suspiciously at this comment, so he made an extra one to try and get a bit of good favour, “I guess I should keep looking ‘cause I don’t see one around here.”

“Oh, my aren’t you a charmer.” The Fat lady replied, her suspicions mostly wiped away with the compliment. Her sudden change in mood was just as quickly changed again when she began to swing backwards, having been opened from the other side. From within the corridor stepped Neville to Y/N’s relief.

“Didn’t expect you to be this early.” He spoke shortly after getting fully out of the painting, the fat lady swinging closed after him, a slight frown on her face from the realization that the Slytherin boy’s compliment was likely hollow.

“Wasn’t expecting it from you either, I realized after our meeting yesterday that we did not specify any time so I decided to come here as soon as it would be possible to avoid missing you,” Y/N replied in one quick breath, the confidence he once had to compliment a painting fizzling out as he started talking to another person. “I’ve got the book here.” He added after, holding out the potion book for Neville to take, which he quickly did.

“You have no idea how thankful I am for this.” He spoke excitedly, quickly opening the book to browse through. Y/N had turned to step away before Neville spoke up again, “Um, I only need it for one potion, I can do it real quick if you want to just wait here and I can give it back straight away.” He paused, “So you can finish your notes and all that.” He finished with a nervous smile. Y/N studied his face for a moment before silently nodding, moving away down the stairs so that Neville could get back into the common room without spilling the password.

He would have declined and just asked for the book later but he did quite need those notes. There was also the issue of how to get the book back if he did leave now, he didn’t remember if he shared any classes with Neville. Internal conflict over, he decided to just wait as Neville said he’d only be a short while, he could stand for a few minutes at least.

Unfortunately for him, standing outside of Gryffindor’s common room meant his path just so happened to cross with the golden trio today.

“What are you standing around here for Slytherin?” Ronald asked, the venom in his voice when he said Slytherin was palpable. While Y/N was aware of the general distaste towards his house by most students the way that the redhead spoke made it sound personal.

“Waiting for someone so I can get my book back,” Y/N replied simply, not particularly in the mood to be arguing with people.

“You’re the one that gave Neville that book?” Harry then asked, once Y/N nodded he added another question, “What’re you playing at?” His tone wasn’t as venomous as Ron but it still clearly had some anger and something personal behind it. Hermione seemed to also be judging him from the way she squinted, however, she kept her distaste inside for now.

Y/N stopped leaning against the wall before responding, “I’m not ‘playing’ at anything,” he used air quotes when speaking. His own distaste could be heard in his voice, though it was much less pointed towards the three in front of him and much more for the particular conversation they were having. “He needed the book and I had it, I’m waiting here to get it back.”

“Yeah right!” Spat Ron, “You probably put a hex on it to make him piss himself or something. Now you’re just waiting to see it all go down.” His anger was flowing now, at this point Harry seemed to get the idea that Ron may have been going too far, but that didn’t stop him from continuing, “How’d you figure out where our common room is anyway, you threaten him into showing you?”

After that comment Y/N had enough and pushed Ron back, making him trip over himself onto his back. “I don’t know what your fuckin’ problem with Slytherin is, but keep me out of it.” He spoke with clear anger in his voice, and all three of the Gryffindors were surprised by the outburst. The situation was usually flipped, with them getting the earful from a Slytherin before one of them snapped. “The reason I know about your common room entrance is because of loose-lipped dumbasses like yourself.”

The three just stared after his outburst, not knowing what to do at this point. Ron almost looked ashamed as Harry and Hermione looked down at him along with Y/N. He tried to speak, “Sorry I d-”

“Save it.” Y/N cut him off still angry, he turned to the others, who once again returned their attention to him before he continued, “Tell Neville I’ll come to get my book back later.” He stormed off quickly after finishing.

“Nice job Ron,” Hermione said a moment after Y/N was gone, glaring down at him on the floor as Harry helped him up.

“I didn’t hear you stepping in to stop me,” He growled back at her.

“She also didn’t accuse someone of hexing a book in their first conversation.” Harry pointed out, only to also be scolded by Hermione.

“Don’t you get high and mighty after you accused him in the first place, honestly you two sometimes” She grumbled as she also turned and walked away, she knew what it was like to be discriminated against for something you didn’t control. While she still held some inner disdain herself from all the abuse she has taken from Slytherin over the years, she’d never accuse one of something like that without even meeting them first.

Ron and Harry simply stood at the bottom of the stairs for a moment, thinking about the whole situation, before there were some footsteps behind them.

“You guys didn’t happen to see a Slytherin out here did you?” Neville asked slightly nervous. The other two boys simply looked at each other awkwardly.

——————————————————————————————————

Chapter Text

It took a while for Y/N to calm down after his run-in with the golden trio, after thinking about it more he could see why there was disdain towards his house. Draco Malfoy made it clear that he enjoyed the misery of seemingly everyone else, and considering the number of negative things he has to say about the three Gryffindors it was clear that they were a common target.

That didn’t mean he liked what they had said, he was still annoyed about it. The fact that they seemed to hate him just for the colour of his robes and scarf. Maybe they would hate him anyway even if they got to know him, but at least then there would be a chance and he could have some input, but no, they just had to assume he’d be like Malfoy.

“Heard what you did to weasel boy,” Speak of the devil. Malfoy stared down at Y/N, who lay on one of the seats in the Slytherin common room, with a smug look on his face. Y/N simply looked back with a blank expression. “Though maybe next time you should teach the rest of them a lesson too.”

“What lesson would that be? That Slytherins are all exactly what they assume us to be?” Y/N questioned with a sneer, he wasn’t in the mood for Malfoy’s praising insults.

“No. That Slytherins aren’t to be trifled with.” He responded, a sour look taking over his face.

“It’s that attitude that has the rest of the school itching to find any reason to hate us.” Came Y/N’s reply as he stood from the seat he was on. “What reason do you have to hate those three anyway? They insult your precious pure blood or something?” He spat, to which Malfoy’s face seemed to quickly fill with annoyance.

“Ha! What is there not to hate about them?” He quickly retorted, continuing with a rant, “You’ve got Potter, the precious little saviour of the wizarding world with his stupid little scar. Then there’s Weasley, a disgrace to the words pure blood with his poor little muggle integrating family.” He paused, with his face seemingly changing from annoyance to pure disgust as he described the final person, “And finally there’s Granger, the mudblood who seems to think she deserves her place here with the real wizards and witches because she can cast a few spells.”

Y/N’s fists balled up as Malfoy described the trio. He could see why someone would maybe have some distaste for Harry, that always came with someone who was famous for something they hadn’t even had a say in. Ron and Hermione, however, had stupid reasons to hate them, the same type of reasons that they had to hate Y/N. Prejudice.

“I was wondering why everyone seemed to hate Slytherin.” He turned to walk away as Malfoy seemed offended that someone would dare walk away from him, however, Y/N just added, “Thanks for showing me.” Before he started walking away, leaving Malfoy teeming with rage at his comments.

After his little outburst at Malfoy, Y/N was almost feeling better until he got into runes class, late. Due to his less-than-punctual arrival, he was left with only one available seat, one next to Hermione Granger. His opinion of her was still sour from yesterday, even after learning she had a pretty good reason to dislike Slytherin, it didn’t excuse her behaviour towards him.

As he sat down neither of them spoke. He just brought out his book and began taking notes on what professor Babbling was writing on the blackboard. Unfortunately for both of them, this class happened to be one which would require them to partner up. As professor Babbling explained that the school had run into some issues with creating enough items with the runes engraved for them to have one each, so they would be working In pairs, and their scores would be shared.

While at first both of them seemed to be able to act diplomatically, it quickly fell apart after Y/N had corrected one of Hermione’s translations. This seemed to start a battle of passive-aggressive remarks about each other’s work. This argument was only stopped when Babbling reminded them that their marks would be shared, which managed to get them to stop and go back to working in silence.

As the assignment came to a finish all the students were asked to hand in all of the words on the item they could translate so it could be compared to the complete translation sheet Babbling had. Most students seemed to pass, some doing better than others but generally, most seemed to have almost the same score. The only pair which was different was Y/N and Hermione.

They were both asked to wait outside after class, which led to the assumption that they had failed. The looks that each of them got from their classmates as they left the classroom told a whole story of how this would immediately be passed around as a rumour. The two top students in a class had failed due to their inability to work together.

“I told you we were looking too much into that specific carving,” Hermione said after some moments of standing in silence. “They were clearly looking for us to decipher the words, not the letters.” She spoke almost condescendingly, with her arms crossed as she looked away from Y/N.

“OH I’m sorry,” Y/N quickly retorted sarcastically. “I would have expected little miss perfect to understand doing more than expected and thinking it would go well.” He continued bitterly.

“What is that supposed to mean?!” She asked angrily.

“I heard about your stunt in 3rd year, taking every single elective class.” He responded bluntly.

“Where did you hear that from?” The anger seemed to leave her voice, almost sounding scared now. If he knew about the extra classes did that mean he knew about the time turner, that would be really bad.

Y/N just huffed, amused, before turning to look away. “Malfoy’s mentioned it in almost all of his rants about how you. I was slightly impressed someone could manage that much” The last part came out quieter. This both calmed down Hermione, and also slightly flattered her ego. It also set her off again though. At least no one knew about the time turner, but Malfoy was still mouthing her off to people. She went to speak but was interrupted as the classroom door opened, professor Babbling calling them both back in.

They both stood at the front of the classroom as Babbling sat at her desk, looking at the sheets of parchment in front of herself. “Now then, which one of you decided to try and decipher these as letters instead of words? When we have barely gone through the first half of this alphabet?” Her tone was difficult to figure out, she sounded annoyed but almost impressed. Both Y/N and Hermione didn’t speak initially, nervous about what the consequence of doing so would be.

“It was me pr-”

“We both decid-”

Both of them spoke at once, interrupting each other. They also then both turned to face each other, a look of surprise on their faces. Y/N had intended on taking the blame for the mistake himself. Hermione had intended on sharing the mistake between the both of them equally. Professor Babbling simply looked at both of them with the same expression, expectant.

“I thought I saw one of the words was carved differently so I decided to try translating it by letters instead of words. It was my fault professor.” Y/N quickly spoke up, before Hermione could.

“Is that true Miss Granger?” Babbling asked after nodding at Y/N.

Hermione hesitated for a moment before speaking, “Yes professor,” she paused for another second, “but it wasn’t all him professor. I also thought it was strange so I agreed to try and decipher the letters instead of words. It was both of our faults not just Y/N’s.” This might have been the first time he had heard her say his name out loud. He stared at her confused, he was trying to take the blame but she seemed determined to share it for some reason.

“Is that so?” The professor’s expression had switched from questioning to almost smug now, as she turned back to Y/N. “Trying to take all the fame yourself are you?” These words confused both Y/N and Hermione. “10 points to Slytherin and Gryffindor.” She said proudly after, both students looking even more perplexed than before, taking a glance at each other before looking back to the professor for an explanation. “The runes on your item were inscribed poorly, which meant one of the words was incorrect. Your decision to look into the letters instead of the words meant you got a different answer to everyone else but an answer correct for your specific item and using the knowledge you have not even been taught yet. Very impressive.”

Y/N and Hermione were both still dumbfounded by the information as they continued to look at the professor. She simply laughed and told them to enjoy the dinner feast, ushering them out of the classroom

It took a moment for both of them to realize they had to start moving, still in shock from the fact they hadn’t failed their assignment but had passed it so well that they got house points for it. Neither said anything for a moment.

Y/N didn’t know what to think, they had just had an argument where he was starting to expect Hermione was right and he messed it up for them, but now that had been spun around. Was he meant to start mocking her because he was right all along? Surely he couldn’t do that after she was trying to share the blame while they both thought they were in trouble. Unless she somehow knew they were actually getting praise not punishment, but surely then she would have taken all the credit?

Hermione’s inner conflict shared a similar sentiment to Y/N, if not in reverse. She was debating thanking Slytherin for his contribution as it had paid off but now she was wondering if that was his plan all along, to make her feel stupid and take all the credit. The way that he spoke to the professor however made it seem much more like he was trying to take the blame like she was.

“Thanks fo-”

“Thank yo-”

Once again they both tried to speak at the same time, interrupting each other. This time however it was Hermione who spoke again first. “Thank you for convincing me to use letter translations instead of trying to use words,” Her tone was sincere with a tinge of reluctance, she was thanking a Slytherin for their help after all.

“Well thank you for trying to share the blame when it looked like we screwed it up,” he replied, just assuming that was in fact what she was doing. The slight look of surprise on her face nearly confirmed it for him. After the thanks, neither of them spoke again for a moment, before Y/N added, “We should get going if we want to make it to dinner.” With that he began to walk towards the great hall, Hermione following shortly after.

They walked side by side for a short while in silence, the halls were mostly empty by now, which meant they were probably already missing the feast, but neither of them sped up yet. The silence by this point was starting to feel awkward to Y/N so he attempted to start some form of conversation.

“You think anyone else’s runes were also broken?”

“Hm, I doubt it. Everyone else seemed to pass mostly fine, if they had an entire word missing they would have probably lost a lot more points.” She replied after some pondering.

“Maybe they also used letters instead of words to translate” Y/N fired back with a small grin. “I’m sure there’s at least one other person who has been looking ahead in the runes books.”

“Well, I’m sure that no one else was asked to stay behind with us.” She reminded him smugly.

“Touché” He responded with an amused huff as they continued towards the great hall. Both of them seeming to forget their vendettas against each other for the time being.

They were both still talking even as they walked into the great hall. Hermione had eventually taken the lead which meant Y/N was taken straight to the Gryffindor table, somewhere he suddenly realized was probably not the best place to be. The sudden realization came when he looked around and saw plenty of Gryffindor, and a few Slytherin staring at him as he stood.

Hermione also seemed to suddenly realize what they had done as her friends looked at her with surprise and a smidgen of annoyance at her bringing a Slytherin to their table. Before either of them could come up with a reason why Y/N was at their table Neville, who was luckily sitting close by, spoke up.

“Oh Y/N! I was hopin’ I’d run into you at some point, here,” He turned to his right and quickly offered the book he had borrowed earlier back to him. Y/N took a moment to realize what was happening before quickly taking the book and checking it to make sure it was the right one. It wasn’t that he didn’t trust Neville, it was more that he didn’t trust the two other boys who were staring into the side of his head.

“Thanks, Neville.” He said somewhat quietly, realizing that Ron and Harry were looking at him. Luckily their stare-down was interrupted by Hermione who gasped.

“You’ve got that book?!” She exclaimed, quickly realizing she probably said it much louder than intended and had caught even more people’s attention as she and Y/N realized they were both still standing. Hermione quickly sat down at the table to avoid the stares, but Y/N stayed standing. He knew that sitting at other houses’ tables was allowed, but he also knew it would probably be a bad idea. Unfortunately, that didn’t usually stop him.

“Why does it seem like everyone needs this exact book?” He asked as he sat next to Hermione and Neville. The former’s surprise was much more shown than the latter, who looked surprised but didn’t seem too bothered by it. The tension was quickly brought back to the conversation as Ron spoke up.

“Some of us actually have to try in potions. Not all of us get special treatment.” He grumbled the last part. While Y/N found that annoyingly rude he couldn’t exactly counter that argument, Snape certainly did have a preference for his own house’s students and he did not make any attempt to hide it.

Y/N just ignored Ron and turned to Hermione, who seemed to be somewhat scowling at the said redhead. “Did you want to borrow it too?” he asked, which once again seemed to surprise the witch. She stared at him for a moment, trying to figure out if he was playing some sort of game, similar to how Neville was when he offered. “I mean, I can’t give it to you now, I need to finish the notes I was planning on making yesterday.” He added after she stayed silent for a moment. “But once I’ve finished I can let you know?” He wasn’t sure what was possessing him to offer this but seeing her face light up made him feel something in his chest.

“That’d be great,” She whisper shouted, learning her lesson about being too loud quite quickly. The small moment of joy was quickly snuffed out as a certain white-haired boy seemed to appear at their table.

“I didn’t expect much from you after your outburst today but I must say this is low even for you L/N,” His words were directed at Y/N but the way he looked at everyone surrounding him made it feel like much more of an insult to them.

“What’s that meant to mean Draco?” He responded, getting to his feet once again and glaring at said Slytherin.

“It means I’m surprised you’re sitting with the mudblood after all the things you said about her this morning.” His words seemed to shock everyone at the table, including Y/N. Sure he’d grumbled about the Gryffindors while walking into the Slytherin common room he’d said nothing more than a few indirect insults. And Malfoy had been nowhere near enough to actually hear any of that.

Everyone was now looking at Y/N, waiting for some kind of response, but he just continued to stare at Malfoy, face no longer confused but annoyed. Ron and Harry looked the angriest, they knew Hermione bringing a Slytherin to their table was a bad idea. Neville looked mostly shocked, he’d thought Y/N had been quite nice if a bit cold while talking to him. Hermione was mostly confused, she felt angry but also sad. She had truly thought you were a different Slytherin but it seemed as if that was just an act.

Upon seeing the fact that no one was saying anything Malfoy took it upon himself to continue, “Oh my, it looks like you’ve all been made fools.” He laughed, his lackeys Crabbe and Goyle laughing along with him. “You should have heard him in the common room. ‘I can’t believe I was insulted by a filthy mudblood’ He was ruthless.” Malfoy continued, still laughing.

The three Gryffindor boys at the table all now looked at Y/N with pure anger. If it had been an insult about something else they’d likely care less, but they all knew how much Hermione’s heritage became a point of sensitivity over the years. The only one who did not seem to be angry was Hermione herself, and that was only because she was now confused. She hadn’t insulted him, or said anything for that matter, during their first meeting.

What made all of them become just as confused as Hermione was when Y/N laughed himself. “Thanks for disproving your own story Draco.” He said very smugly, to Malfoy’s confusion.

“What?” was all he could ask after that, he was completely lost.

“If I called her a mudblood that’d be quite hypocritical wouldn’t it?” Y/N said even more smug than before. The Grin on his face went from cheek to cheek by this point. It took everyone a second to realize what he said before they all looked at him shocked.

“You’re…?” Hermione was the only one who spoke, looking up at him curiously. He didn’t bother clarifying however, he just laughed again and stepped out of the seat he was still standing above.

“Thanks for my book back, Neville.” Was all he said before he walked off, out of the hall. Leaving everyone to their shock. Truth be told he didn’t know if walking out was allowed, and he also didn’t know if it was a good idea considering the hunger he felt later that night, but it was worth it for the dramatic exit.

Malfoy eventually stormed off grumbling to himself and his lackeys, leaving the Gryffindors to their confusion. Neville was the only one who spoke up, “I thought he seemed a bit nice for Slytherin, no wonder.”

They all seemed to share similar sentiments. Hermione was the one who felt mostly relieved however, she would have felt very stupid if after all that he turned out to be a blood purist like Malfoy. She felt quite happy at the fact that there was another muggle-born she knew, though the fact he was in Slytherin did somewhat concern her.

“Guess that explains why he was so annoyed at us for talking bad about him for being in Slytherin,” Harry spoke somewhat glum. Not only had they been accusing someone they didn’t know just for their house, but they were also accusing someone who was likely not even welcomed by his house for his blood. Talk about a bad combo.

——————————————————————————————————

In hindsight, telling Malfoy that he was a muggle-born to win an argument may have not been Y/N’s best idea. Even before the end of the day, it seemed like the news had managed to travel throughout the whole school by the time he settled into his bed. It took barely 5 seconds after entering the common room for the first insults to start getting thrown his way. The hate came from seemingly everyone, no one seemed to oppose it at least.

He didn’t stay in the common room for long after that, quickly moving away to the library. It ended up being a good choice as he managed to survive the rest of the time before breakfast without anything else being said. The brief period of peace did not last when he entered the great hall, however, immediately having some snide comments from Pansy Parkinson. There were some looks from the other houses too, though those were at least not directly giving him any trouble.

A particular group of Gryffindors looked at him particularly closely as he picked up some toast and quickly left the great hall again.

“I hope that blows over for him quickly,” Neville said, looking back down to his food as Y/N left.

“With Malfoy? I doubt it,” Harry voiced his doubt. The rest of the group seemed to share his sentiment as they went back to their food. Hermione was still thinking about what had happened yesterday. Malfoy claimed that Y/N insulted them behind their backs, particularly her by calling her a mudblood, but if he was also a mudblood surely he had no reason to use that as an insult.

She stood up suddenly, surprising the rest of her friends. When she stepped over the bench and turned to walk away without saying anything Ron spoke up.

“Where are you goin’?” His tone wasn’t particularly aggressive but it certainly wasn’t happy either.

“I still need that potions book off him.” She said, with less conviction than she thought she had. Thinking about it, she didn’t exactly have to go get it now and could easily just get it during potions later, which they both shared. “And I want to see if he’s okay,” She said that part more as a mutter, but the others still heard. Ron particularly seemed displeased with this.

“Really? You’re gonna go check on him even after the shit he said?” he seemed genuinely surprised at the concept. Harry nodded as Ron spoke, clearly sharing some sentiments.

“I thought you two of all people would understand what it’s like to be picked on, especially by Malfoy,” She responded with an annoyed huff as she stormed off. How could they just treat Y/N like he deserved to be bullied for his heritage? Sure he had been somewhat unpleasant during their first talk but he seemed to be the opposite of what a Slytherin usually was like the rest of the time, what with helping Neville, and the conversation they managed to have after runes class yesterday.

Finding where he had gone wasn’t too hard for Hermione, he had left a literal breadcrumb trail with the toast he was eating. Eventually, she ended up in the library, which seemed pretty obvious now that she thought about it. There weren’t exactly a lot of other places available that this time. She saw him sitting at one of the desks on his own after searching the library for a moment, deciding to just walk up to him casually she pulled one of the chairs at his table out and sat down, surprising him.

“Oh, uh, hi?” he awkwardly whispered, looking around himself quickly.

“Hello,” was all Hermione could think to respond with, completely forgetting why she came here in the first place. They both just stared at each other for a few seconds before she suddenly remembered she had to say something else. “Um, I was wondering if you were done using Dr Mardovia’s healing tonics and treatments?” Choosing to leave out the fact she was also checking if he was okay after all the abuse he seemed to get in the great hall.

“Right, yeah. I finished my notes earlier today. The books back in my dorm though.” He stated, checking the watch in his hand he quickly added. “But if I go fast I could probably get it before classes start.” Standing up quickly pushing his chair back in and grabbing the book he was reading. Hermione also quickly stood before realizing she probably shouldn’t follow him to his common room, he probably wouldn’t want to get in trouble for showing her its entrance, even though she already knew.

“We have potions together later today so I guess you could give it to me then?” she seemed unsure.

“I mean, you could just come with me now.” He replied, starting to walk out of the library as Madam Prince started to usher them out of the library for talking.

“Are you sure? I don’t want you to get in trouble for showing me where it is,” She said back worriedly, but Y/N just laughed.

“What are they gonna do? Take away house points?” he just smirked at Hermione who was starting to get flustered with the whole conversation. “Trust me, I’m over Slytherin by this point.” He began walking again, Hermione hesitating before jogging to catch up and follow him.

It didn’t take them much time to reach the Slytherin common room entrance. Then Y/N surprised Hermione by saying the password straight away, right in front of her. She didn’t exactly know if it was against the rules to do this but she was certainly shocked to see his complete disregard for secrecy. He walked straight in, before turning back to her and seeing her stand at the entrance unmoving.

“You can come in if you want. There’s no one else here.” He watched her for a moment before shrugging and turning back to walk towards the boy’s dorm entrance. She debated it in her head before quickly following again. If this had turned out to be a trap she’d have fallen for it hook line and sinker, luckily it wasn’t, but she was starting to berate herself for being so careless. “I’ll be back in a second.” He disappeared out of view and she was left alone in the common room.

Now that she really thought about it, if anyone else showed up this would look particularly bad. She was just glad professors didn’t go into common rooms without a specific reason, if she was caught here by Snape she’d probably have a heart attack. Fortunately, that didn’t happen and Y/N quickly returned with a thick book in hand.

“So I just checked and this actually is due to be back in the library today, and considering we have like 5 minutes before classes are meant to start I don’t think we’re going to manage to get it swapped over in time.” He told her, disappointment starting to show on her face before he quickly added. “I’ll still give it to you though, just maybe during lunch. We could meet up in the library.” He spoke a bit quieter looking away from Hermione as he did so.

“That works for me, I can still get some reading done before potions today.” She smiled, which he returned once he turned back to look at her. That was when the door to the common room opened again and the person both of them least wanted to see walked in. Malfoy spotted them immediately and his face was sent straight into a sneer as he walked in with his goons following closely behind.

“What do we have here? Looks like the mudbloods are already bonding over their dirty blood. Did you break in Granger? Or did L/N smuggle you In?” he smirked as he spoke, Crabbe and Goyle both snickering as they waited for the other Slytherin to respond. Y/N didn’t say anything though, he just looked at Malfoy. “Cat got your tongue? Are you going to say anything? Maybe if you apologize I won’t report you to Snape, I’m sure you’ll ge-”

“You talk too much Draco.” Was all Y/N said, interrupting Malfoy who recoiled in a mix of shock and disgust as Y/N grabbed Hermione’s arm and pulled her out of the common room? Leaving Malfoy red and seething as he stared at the entrance.

Once outside the common room Y/N let go of Hermione’s arm and turned back to the entrance as it closed. “Thanks,” she said quietly as they both started walking away, expecting Malfoy to quickly follow and wanting to avoid his presence for now.

“Don’t mention it. I’m sure Draco will do that enough himself.” He sounded slightly bitter. “Sorry to get you involved like that might have been better if you waited outside. At least then he wouldn’t have something to tell Snape about.” His tone quickly became apologetic.

“If I was outside then he probably would have accused me of something anyway, and I wouldn’t have someone to shut him up for me.” She said smugly back to him, a hint of genuine appreciation to boot.

“Trust me, annoying Draco is my pleasure,” he said with a smirk as he stopped next to the outdoor exit, Hermione stopping and turning to him too. “I guess I’ll catch you at lunch?”

“Yep, library?”

“Yep,” they both smiled at each other for a moment, before going their separate ways to class.

Y/N’s first class seemed to drag now that he had something he was looking forward to. Did he say looking forward to it? Well, when you’ve been dealing with the snivelling bullies of Slytherin for long enough any interaction with someone else is something to look forward to.

Hermione seemed to be feeling the same, though she tried to justify it by claiming she was just excited to finally read the potion book she’d been looking for. Luckily she didn’t have to deal with Ron or Harry in Arithmancy so she could go a few more hours without explaining why she seemed to be a bit happier than usual.

Eventually, lunch did roll around and Y/N quickly made his way to the library to wait for Hermione, truth be told he didn’t know if she was just going to show up for the book or if they were going to be studying together. Either way, he’d likely be spending this whole lunch in the library, maybe he’d go to the great hall in the last few minutes to see if any food was left to grab.

Getting to the library first, Hermione looked around to see if she could spot Y/N before deciding to just grab a seat and wait for him to show. Though once again she was somewhat questioning the legitimacy of this meeting, perhaps she was still being a bit too careless with this. Luckily that thought was quickly squished when she saw him walk through the doors, spotting her quickly and making his way over.

“Fancy seeing you here,” he said quietly, to which she just smiled slightly. Pulling out the book Y/N hesitated before handing it to her. Hermione took it excitedly and almost immediately began swiping through it before catching herself and looking back to Y/N, intending to thank him but seeing him on the brink of talking again she held herself back. “I was wondering, maybe, since I’ve already read it, I could maybe help you with it? If you’d like that, I’m not sure if you’re a solo reader, I kno-”

“I’d like that,” She just said coolly, stopping his rant. He stayed quiet for a second before nodding, a ghost of a smile gracing his face.

“Okay cool,” he whispered and realizing the awkward angle they were sitting at he quickly moved his seat around to be sat on the same side of the book as her.

They managed to get a few pages in before Hermione spoke about something other than the book itself. “How are you handling the ‘Mudblood’ hate?” she used air quotes when saying mudblood to apparently show how she thought of the word.

“It’s not that bad, the insults at least. The worse part is now I’m getting dirty looks from even the Slytherins. At least before they’d just ignore me.” He seemed very calm about it while Hermione was almost outraged. She’d been dealing with hate for her heritage for her whole school life so she knew how bad it could be, but considering the fact, there were also people hating Y/N for being in Slytherin it seemed much worse for him.

“Well, you’re fine in my books. You are a prime example of a good Slytherin student.” She spoke with a voice she hoped was reassuring. Y/N went slightly red from the compliment, muttering a simple thanks in return, as they both got back to the book.

Hermione ended up being very grateful for Y/N’s assistance as it turned out Dr Mardovia was quite passionate about his work. Which meant he’d usually have a few words of useful information and then a few paragraphs of useless drivel about whatever he was describing. Y/N, having read the book already, knew where these parts were and they could easily skip them and get back to the useful information.

By the time the end of lunch bell rang both of the students were surprised, it felt as if the lunch had passed by in seconds. Y/N took back the book gingerly and looked apologetic as he spoke, “Sorry, guess I got distracted. If you still want to we can try getting here before curfew and swap it over to you then?” he asked hesitantly.

“It’s okay I was just as distracted, is a very interesting book, ignoring all the pointless stuff.” She replied with a smile on her face, as they both walked out of the library she spoke again, “We have double potions now don’t we?” when Y/N nodded at her she continued, “well then, we can just sit together and I can use the book that way.”

“That works for me. But do you think the rest of your friends will mind?” He asked. From how their interactions seemed to have gone so far this felt like a slightly bad idea and he didn’t want to end up causing more issues for Hermione.

“Well, then they will have to deal with it.” She said simply, Y/N smiled slightly at this. Even if he had only known her properly for a day or two she already had been nicer to him than anyone else in the school during his whole stay.

As they arrived at potions class Ron and Harry both looked surprised to see Hermione with Y/N. They were even more surprised to see the pair both smiling and Hermione laughing at a joke the Slytherin had said. Neville looked quite pleased to see Y/N again and even joined their conversation as Snape began to usher them into the classroom.

The joy that was once being felt by Y/N and Hermione was quickly sapped away as Snape asked to speak to them privately. Bringing them away from the rest of the class. Malfoy could be seen watching the scene play out with an ugly grin on his face.

“Would either of you two care to explain why a Gryffindor was inside the Slytherin common room?” he asked with his trademark sneer towards both students.

“I brought her there professor, I was getting a book from my dorm for her to borrow and didn’t realize other houses couldn’t enter our common room.” Y/N quickly explained before Hermione could even get a word in.

“You may not have known, having only joined this year, but Miss Granger has been here five years. Plenty of time to learn the rules.” He spoke with what felt like pure malice. “10 points from Gryffindor, if I hear of this again it will be detention for you both,” He quickly left the pair after he said that, returning to the rest of the class who had started to become rowdy while waiting.

“Fuck, Hermione I am so sorry I didn’t think he’d single you out like that,” Y/N said turning to Hermione who surprisingly just had a smug grin on her face as she stared back.

“Oh please, 10 points is hardly anything to cry about.” She laughed out, confusing Y/N. She decided against elaborating and simply walked back to the class, Y/N following shortly after. They ended up at a table with Neville but managed to avoid Malfoy, Ron and Harry, much to the latter two’s confusion.

Malfoy ended up staring at the two for most of the class, which didn’t seem to bother them, particularly as they just worked on their own potion. Y/N brought out the potion book soon into the lesson, which Neville also ended up sharing in order to get his potions completely correct.

“I can’t believe you admitted fully to being at fault and he still only went for Hermione,” Neville said at some point during class, they had told him about what happened when he asked.

“Yeah, it’s fuckin’ stupid,” Even after Hermione said it was fine Y/N couldn’t help being annoyed at the professor.

“Especially since I’m pretty sure he made up that rule,” Neville added which made Y/N look at him in shock before Hermione clarified.

“It’s up to each house’s head what the policy of other students in their common rooms is. Clearly, Snape decided he wanted to be just as discriminatory as his students want to be.” This just annoyed Y/N even more, Snape had made a rule specifically just to screw with other houses and didn’t even think to tell anyone about it. Luckily Neville said something which seemed to cheer him up straight away.

“Guess that means you’ll just have to come to our common room in the future mate.” He said it so casually but to Y/N it was the most shocking thing he’d heard all day. Is someone offering to do something outside of class or studying?

“I mean won’t that be super awkward?” he said, nodding towards the table with Ron and Harry on it.

“Didn’t I already tell you about that?” Hermione said, once again smug as she began to quote herself, “Well, then they will have to deal with it.” All three of the students were smiling by this point, which was quickly interrupted by Snape coming over and insulting Neville and Hermione’s potions.

Which was even more insulting because Hermione and Y/N had switched seats and that was his potion that Snape said looked like it wouldn’t be something an ogre would drink.

After spending that first day together, Y/N and Hermione quickly became accustomed to each other. They weren't joined at the hip like Ron and Harry but they were certainly closer than previously. They now paired up often during runes class, complimented each other's potions during potions class and Y/N even occasionally sat at the Gryffindor table during feasts. Though that was often only when Ron wasn't at the table yet or had already left, he warmed up to Y/N the least out of the golden trio.

Neville and Y/N also had quite a budding friendship. While not as intense as Neville, Y/N enjoyed botany so they had many conversations about it, to the disdain of anyone else around them.

Hate still came from most Slytherin but it died down somewhat due to Y/N's usual lack of a response. The only ones who still seemed to be going full force were Malfoy and his goons. Y/N had taken to never sitting at the Slytherin table anymore, either stealing a bit of food and retreating somewhere else or sitting with the few people who didn't move away as soon as he got close.

Things would take a turn after another potion class in which Hermione, Y/N and Neville all sat together.

The agonizing two hours of potions class eventually came to a close as Snape decided to give them all an essay which had to be 20 inches long to the dismay of most who heard. Ron and Harry came over to Hermine, Neville and Y/N at the end of class as they all began moving towards the great hall. The conversation was mainly held between the golden three but Hermione would include him whenever she asked a question.

Even Harry included Y/N but much less as he was still somewhat untrusting of the Slytherin. Ron was quite quiet and didn't include Y/N in conversation at all, but at this point, it was less to make a point and simply from forgetting he was even there. Neville had left to talk to Dean and Seamus at some point.

As they got closer to the great hall Hermione seemed to end the conversation with Harry and Ron as they moved into the great hall, Hermione and Y/N staying behind as she seemed to want to talk to him before they ate, however, she got interrupted before even getting a word out.

“Going somewhere mudbloods?” Malfoy’s voice interrupted them as they turned to leave. Turning back to him they watched as he sneered with his two lackeys backing him up as always. “Hope you didn’t lose us too many points L/N.” So it had been him that told Snape about them both being in the common room, which made sense, he was that kind of coward. They turned to leave as they did before but then Malfoy brought something out from his robes and spoke again. “Maybe you won’t run away like a coward when you see I have this.”

He held a red book in his hand, it had a blank cover but was clearly worn with use. Y/N’s eyes widened at the sight of it, Hermione was mainly confused but upon seeing his reaction she turned back to Malfoy, clearly, it was important.

“Where did you get that?” Y/N snapped, he sounded angry but even more, he sounded scared.

“Found it,” came Malfoy’s voice as he relished in Y/N’s panic. “I think I’ll read some of it to everyone here, very interesting diary you have.” This really set Y/N off as he pulled out his wand but Malfoy quickly pulled out his own and he pointed it to the book instead of Y/N “Ah ah ah, I wouldn’t do that if I were you.” Immediately that stopped Y/N who dropped his wand. “Good, now as I was saying,” Malfoy opened the book to a random page and began reading.

The particular entry he read was quite disturbing, it spoke of kidnappings, experiments and other things which made everyone turn to Y/N in disgust and fear. Even Hermione backed up a step. The mood changed, however, when Malfoy got to the end and read a particular line.

“Little Y/N will be going into his 4th year of school this year. Soon I will be able to tell him all about our operation, I’m sure he will be overjoyed.” Even Malfoy who once held full conviction slightly faltered as he read that line. His distasteful tone came back in full force as he started talking again, however. “Looks like your blood isn’t just dirty, it’s also completely insane.” Some Slytherin students laughed at this but most of the audience stayed silent at this point. Y/N was mortified but managed to plead with Malfoy.

“Okay, you’ve had your fun now give it back.” He tried to be forceful but his voice betrayed him as it quivered. Malfoy looked at him with disgust before a wide grin came to his face and he closed the book.

“Of course,” It was foolish to believe he was actually going to give it back but even knowing that Y/N went to catch the book as Malfoy threw it towards him. “Incendio!” The book instantly turned to ash as the spell hit it. Everyone seemed stunned before many of the Slytherin still watching began to laugh. Y/N just looked on in horror at the pile of ash in front of him.

“What on earth are you all-”

Professor McGonagall came out from the great hall, after watching the students at the doors stand still for minutes. She stopped herself talking when she saw the falling ash and Y/N on his knees in front of it, tears beginning to flow from his eyes. Hermione had gone to do something to Malfoy after the spell was cast but he quickly retreated into the crowd and was impossible to find. She then quickly crouched next to Y/N and hesitated before putting her hand on his shoulder, making him turn to her. His face just looked broken.

McGonagall ordered all the other students into the hall or back to their rooms and quickly approached the two students remaining, looking with pity at the boy. “Was he hurt?” she asked Hermione, who was clearly much more stable currently.

“Malfoy burned a book of his, I think it might have been a family member’s diary.” She added, not answering McGonagall’s question directly but she was able to understand the situation with that information.

“You have my permission to take him to Gryffindor’s common room if you wish for privacy. I will attend to Mr Malfoy shortly.” She said with a nasty tone, clearly the boy’s name left a bad taste in her mouth.

Hermione helped Y/N to his feet and began leading him to the common room. McGonagall looked down at the pile of ash and quickly cleaned it up before returning to the great hall.

It took a while to reach the common room, as Y/N was somewhat struggling to walk at his usual pace. He had managed to stop crying but his eyes were still bloodshot and puffy, tears still threatening to fall at any point. The fat lady let them in straight away not even batting an eye at the Slytherin being brought in. They quickly found a spot at the edge of the room and sat down. Hermione rubbed his back as he breathed in and out shakily, wiping his eyes a few times before they were actually dry.

They sat in silence for a while before Y/N spoke, “It was my brother’s diary.” Hermione nodded as he continued, “He’s gone now, it was the only thing I had left from him.” His voice was shaky and it felt as if he was about to break at any point. Hermione didn’t say anything, she couldn’t think of anything to say. She just waited for Y/N to keep talking, while still rubbing circles on his back. “He was a bad person, but I didn’t know that for a long time. I always thought he was a good person, he was always a good brother. Until the day he told me what he was doing.”

Y/N stopped speaking, looking up at Hermione, who just looked back at him with her soft brown eyes. They stared at each other for a moment before Y/N managed to find his voice again, looking away.

“He was part of a group, they did bad things, like what you heard in the diary. When I started my fourth year he planned on telling me about it. It was a few months into the year when he found me at night and brought me into a room their group had. He started explaining what they did, and why they did it. I was terrified, my world flipped upside down.” He pauses for a second before continuing, “I ran out of the room back into the corridors, and he followed. He started yelling that I had to understand, I had to. He grabbed my arm and began dragging me back and, and-” He stopped as he sucked in a deep breath, sobs threatening to break through his voice but he managed to control himself before finishing the story, “I pulled out my wand and I just said the first spell I could think of to get him off me, it was diffindo.” Hermione gasped softly making Y/N look up at her. Her face showed her absolute horror.

“And it?” she asked after a moment to compose herself, Y/N nodded.

“It got him in the neck, he fell down right away clutching his throat.” Tears were falling from his face again and Hermione moved to wrap her arm around him now. “The reason I cared so much about the book is that I thought it would hold answers, I thought it could tell me why he was so evil. But I read it so many times and never found any answers, he must have just ended up that way.” He broke down and the crying came back in full force.

“Y/N I’m so sorry.” Hermione choked out, she felt awful for him as she pulled him into a full hug, wrapping her arms full around him as he began to cry on her shoulder, wrapping his own arms around her.

“Thanks, Hermione,” he managed to say after a moment of composing himself before the tears began to fall again. They sat like that for a while, just holding each other. Eventually, Y/N managed to staunch the flow of tears again but they stayed within the embrace, the only sound in the room coming from the fireplace and their gentle breathing.

——————————————————————————————————

Eventually, more Gryffindors began to flow into the common room. Most of them seemed to pass Y/N and Hermione without even looking, though those who did look were confused, annoyed or repulsed. Luckily it seemed as if most students wanted to go straight into their dormitories so not many stayed in the common room.

Two people who certainly seemed as if they would stay in the common room were Harry and Ron. When they had first arrived and seen the other duo sitting together Ron had made his way over with an expression showing his clear distaste for what was happening, however, after getting closer he seemed to lose steam and simply sat down. Y/N was confused by this, mainly because by the time he turned back to Hermione her face had returned to being neutral.

Harry didn’t seem annoyed with Y/N but his tone was certainly confused as he asked, “What’re you two doing here? We didn’t see you at dinner so we thought you might be in the library or something” The last part was directed towards Hermione.

“We came up here after what Malfoy did outside the great hall,” Hermione replied before Y/N could even begin to think of anything. Harry and Ron looked shocked before Hermione added, “McGonagall gave us permission.”

“We heard Malfoy incendio’d a book,” Ron said, it was a statement but the tone came out more like a question.

“It was Y/N’s brother’s journal,” Hermione replied again before Y/N could say anything, he appreciated it. He didn’t want to have to go through telling the story again. Fortunately, upon seeing the other two boy’s confused expressions she turned back to Y/N to ask, “Would you like to tell them?” Her voice immediately became much softer.

“Could you? My throat feels awful.” He responded with a small sad smile, and so Hermione began to recount what Y/N had just told her, keeping her voice down so that the rest of the common room couldn’t hear.

“Bloody hell.” That was all Ron said in response, Y/N expected more, maybe an insult but the redhead almost looked sympathetic.

Before Harry could also respond however another Gryffindor came up to the quartet. Neville went to speak but quickly stopped before he could get out a word after seeing the expressions of the four in front of him. He regained his composure after a second and spoke, “Uh, McGonagall wanted to see you two. She said to go to her classroom,” It was directed at Y/N and Hermione who looked mildly surprised. “And I heard what Malfoy did, he’s rotten. Sorry bout your book mate.”

“Thanks, Neville,” Y/N said back softly, he appreciated the sentiment. He and Hermione both stood after Neville walked away and made their way over to the entrance after saying goodbye to Ron and Harry.

The walk to the transfiguration class was quick, mostly due to not wanting to be past curfew but also because the empty hallways of Hogwarts always became eerie after dark. Upon reaching the classroom they knocked on the door and were quickly brought in by the professor and instructed to sit on the opposite side of her desk.

“Now then, would you two tell me what happened?” McGonagall asked, and after looking at each other for a second both Y/N and Hermione began to recount what had happened outside the great hall. Describing how Malfoy had taken a book from Y/N’s trunk in his dormitory, how Malfoy had read from it before casting incendio and then how he had slunk away into the crowd. “Well your story is certainly different to Mr Malfoys’s,” she spoke after a moment of silence following their recount of the story. The duo looked slightly shocked at the professor after.

“Do you not believe us, professor?” Y/N asked with some amount of desperation in his voice.

McGonagall let out a small chuckle at this, a smirk on her face as she spoke again, “I only said his story was different, not that I thought it was more believable.” The duo brightened at this and put their full attention on her as she pulled something out from under her desk, a red book. Their eyes immediately widened at this and McGonagall just said, “It really isn’t a difficult spell, I’m surprised you didn’t cast it immediately.” Y/N simply looked relieved but Hermione held a small bit of embarrassment, she had managed to forget about that spell somehow. “I suppose it is a good thing you didn’t, as the pile of ash served as evidence against Mr Malfoy’s claims.”

“Is he going to get in trouble professor?” Y/N asked, his voice was much timider than either of the two in the room expected. Hermione expected him to be overjoyed at the idea of Malfoy getting in trouble, but the look on his face confused her greatly.

“Indeed he will Mr L/N, what he did was dangerous and entirely against school rules. I would have expected you to be happy about that fact.” McGonagall said, she also seemed confused but much less than Hermione. Y/N’s face seemed to change to one of dread as he looked down. “Is there something wrong Mr L/N?” Her tone wasn’t harsh but it held a certain authority which made Y/N shrink into his seat as his face became conflicted.

He eventually let out a tiny whisper, but neither McGonagall nor Hermione seemed to hear as the professor asked him to repeat it. “I’ve been getting threats,” it seemed to pain him to say this.

“WHAT?” Hermione shrieked at this, her face was pure shock, and a smidgen of anger. He looked up at her with a bit of shame and regret as he then turned to McGonagall who shared a shocked expression but seemed to be able to keep it retained to her face and not her voice.

“I believe Miss Granger has the right question Mr L/N, what threats are you speaking of?” She managed to regain her composure quickly and her tone turned back to the authoritative one she used before.

Y/N was apprehensive, he looked back at Hermione who had managed to calm down but still looked quite angry, though it didn’t seem to be directed at him as when she saw he turned around it shifted to concern.

“I’ve been getting letters since I revealed I was a muggle-born. They are mostly insults and empty words, but some of them are threatening to do things to me.” He didn’t go into specifics but the look on his face seemed to say enough as McGonagall didn’t even ask what they said but instead who they were from. “They never have a name, but some of them are signed… ‘From the real Slytherin’ or something like that,” he paused before saying who sent them, clearly afraid of what it would cause.

Hermione just seemed to start fuming more and more as the conversation went on.

“And why did you not come to us about these letters?” Her tone was now getting into the territory of discipline.

“I thought they might have just been a normal thing, like a hazing. I didn’t take them seriously until now I guess,” he muttered the last part, clearly embarrassed.

“Well, I can assure you that they are no normal thing and will be treated very seriously. Have you kept the letters?” He nodded at her question so she continued, “Well then, I do not believe it safe for you to return to your dormitory. As much as I am confident no one would try anything I still do not think it would be wise. I will not force you but I will offer you the Gryffindor common room as a place to sleep until this situation is handled.” Now her tone was back to authoritative but now with some amount of softness.

“I’m not sure if the Gryffindors would appreciate that,” He began but upon seeing Hermione’s expression he changed his tune, “But I guess they’ll have to deal with it.” This made the brunette grin as she turned back to the professor, who had a small smile on her lips now.

“Well then, I do believe you two should be back to there then. I trust you will be able to take him back there Miss Granger?” she just nodded at the professor as the two of them began to leave. “Oh before you leave,” McGonagall stopped them, twisting her wand as a pillow and blanket appeared in Y/N’s hands. He just looked up at her in thanks and nodded before the two of them began walking up to the common room.

When the two of them arrived back at the common room it was past curfew even for them, the fat lady eyed them suspiciously but still allowed them entry when Hermione gave the password. There didn’t appear to be anyone else in the common room anymore, the rest of the Gryffindors appeared to have retreated to their dormitories. This included Ron and Harry, who Hermione was half expecting to still be here.

“Got quiet quick,” Y/N said after a moment of them just standing in silence. He walked over to the largest couch and placed the pillow and blanket down before sitting down on it himself.

“Yeah.” Was all Hermione said in response, sitting down on the same couch as him.

They both looked at each other for a second before turning towards the fireplace. It was relaxing to just stare into the flames, he could see himself falling asleep in front of this easily. It was just the waking up that frightened him, what if another Gryffindor came down and questioned why he was there, what if one came down and didn’t question why he was there but just jinxed him without even waking him up first? His spiral into paranoia was interrupted by Hermione.

“So, are you going to sleep?” Her face almost seemed hopeful as Y/N turned to face her.

“Eh, as relaxing as this place is I think it’ll take me a while to get adjusted.” He smiled at her, he was about to add how she can go up to her dorm and get sleep but she interrupted that thought as she spoke first.

“Good,” she didn’t say anything else initially and walked over to where her bag had been placed earlier when they initially arrived in the common room after class. Returning with a book, opening it and continuing, “I have been waiting for someone else to read this with. I’ve heard it is very good.” She showed him a book called Lord of the Rings.

They read for about an hour before Hermione seemed to get a bit too tired to continue. The system they came up with was that they would each read a page out loud and then alternate. At this point, however, Hermione was beginning to slur her words together and almost dropped the book a few times.

“Hermione, you gotta go to bed, I don’t want you to pass out and fall into the fire,” Y/N said with a small chuckle as she swayed dangerously close to the edge of the couch before turning to him and pouting a small bit.

“I don’t want to leave you on your own for your first night.” She held the pout but her voice seemed genuine. It may have just been the heat from the fire but Y/N could swear he saw a slight blush on her face as she said that. He debated in his own head for a moment looking at her, truth be told he didn’t want to be alone either, but there was only one long couch so only one of them was getting a good position.

“Well if you insist on staying down here then you can take the couch.” He said standing up as Hermione began to disagree. “I’m the one intruding and making your stay down here, at least take that so I don’t feel bad.” He smiled at her and she relented but then insisted he at least get the blanket, which he didn’t disagree with.

He ended up making a makeshift mattress on the floor next to the couch, at first he was doing it closer to the fire but after almost setting his robes on fire in his drowsiness he decided going closer to the couch would be a good idea. Hermione just seemed to watch as she lay down now, the lack of sleep clearly getting to her as she fought to keep her eyes open.

Eventually, when he finished making his bed for the night and laying in it Y/N spoke quietly to Hermione who seemed to be looking down at him. “Thank’s for today. And I guess for every other day too. I know I wasn’t exactly nice at first but you-” His talk was interrupted as a finger glossed over his mouth and Hermione shushed him from above. He almost looked insulted as she giggled before speaking quietly.

“No more talky today, sleep time.” And with that, she closed her eyes and seemed to almost immediately fall asleep. Y/N felt a bit embarrassed, both at the fact he was accidentally keeping her up and the fact she had essentially rubbed her hand over his face.

He didn’t manage to fall asleep straight away, his mind was still wandering between everything that happened today. He also kept stealing glances at Hermione, she had turned the other way in her sleep and now all that he could see was her bushy hair hanging off the couch. It was one of these times he looked at her, however, that he was startled to see her staring at him.

“Hi,” he just said quietly, not even sure she was awake.

“Hi,” she responded also quietly. “Why are you awake?” she added after almost a minute of silent staring.

“Just thinkin’ about stuff, today was quite eventful.” He said with a smile, her eyes seemed to crinkle as she returned the smile. “Why are you awake?”

“Just checking you’re still here.” She said this even more quietly and she almost looked slightly embarrassed.

“Don’t worry, I’m not gonna run off randomly in the night.” He could see that his words didn’t particularly soothe her worries so he got a bit bolder with his actions, “Gimme your hand,” she quickly dropped her arm off the couch for him, quicker than he expected. Slowly he intertwined their fingers so that they were holding hands. His face quickly grew red, and so did Hermione’s but he couldn’t see that, but neither of them pulled away as Hermione then started swinging her arm a small bit. “Just so you know I’m still here.” He whispered barely audible, and he didn’t know if he was justifying it to Hermione or Himself.

Either way, she had no issue with it as she quickly fell back asleep, a smile on her face that he couldn’t see. He slowly managed to relax and eventually closed his own eyes as sleep quickly overtook him.

Both Y/N and Hermione were early risers, which was very good as that meant both of them managed to wake up before anyone else had even gotten into the common room. This didn’t stop them from being embarrassed by themselves, however.

Y/N woke up first and was initially confused why he was staring at the Gryffindor ceiling but after one attempt to move his hands later, he remembered everything that had happened. Quickly his face went red at the fact he grabbed Hermione’s hand in his sleepy state. He initially considered trying to pull his hand out of hers but after seeing her start to stir he froze and just lay still while she woke up.

Hermione went through the same confusion as she woke up looking around before her eyes found Y/N’s. She also froze for a moment before they both looked at their hands, and neither pulled apart as they both sat up. Neither of them looked at the other.

“Did you, um, sleep well?” Y/N asked awkwardly after a moment with a hesitant smile on his face.

“Y-yeah, did you?” She replied a small smile on her face too as she turned to him.

“Mhm,” he nodded. Looking back at their joined hands they finally separated them letting out a small laugh each. “Sorry about that I just sorta did it without thinking.” He said with a crimson face.

“No it’s okay, you were just reassuring me.” She smiled her face scarlet.

“Oh, so you remember that talk? Thought you might have just been sleep-talking, heh.” Y/N laughed. Both of them fell into silence after that, a slightly awkward one. “Thanks for staying down here with me.” He finally said.

“Of course, what are friends for.” She smiled shyly at him. It was the first time they had affirmed their friendship, and already Y/N was wondering if that was all he wanted by this point.

Unfortunately, their moment together was interrupted by a redhead coming downstairs.

“Why’s your boyfriend sleeping on all our seat cushions?” Ginny asked, her previously confused face twisting to one of smugness as Hermione quickly grew even redder.

“Ginny!” she wailed, though she quickly adjusted her volume after realizing it was still quite early.

“I don’t hear you denying it,” Ginny smirked even wider before quickly dodging the pillow that was thrown at her. Quickly after that Hermione stormed off upstairs, but not before taking a glance back at Y/N who was still sitting on the floor. They smiled at each other before she retreated to her dorms, he assumed to get freshened up.

Now that it was only him and Ginny in the common room she quickly walked over to where he was now standing up. She glared at him, sizing him up before smirking and nodding to herself, grabbing one of the cushions and moving to sit down in one of the seats.

Y/N stood for a moment before walking over to where she sat, now reading a book she must have brought down with her. Sticking his hand out for her he spoke, “Y/N L/N,”

She looked at him before taking his hand and saying, “Trust me, I am aware. Ginny Weasley.” Smiling at him as he showed his shock openly.

“I’ve known your brother for almost two months now and I’m pretty sure he’d not touch me with a stick still.” Her smile grew at this.

“That sounds quite Ron-like,” this time his smile grew as he moved to put the cushions back to their seats, beginning to talk to Ginny about Ron until Hermione returned to the common room, much less red and much more casual.

This was how the next few days seemed to proceed. After Harry and Ron had come downstairs and had been filled in on what Hermione’s and Y/N’s meeting with McGonagall was about Harry immediately offered Y/N to use their bathroom and he quickly took the offer. The group then moved to go down to the great hall before being interrupted by McGonagall herself.

She informed the group after Y/N confirmed it was fine for the rest of them to know, that their investigation into the letters was ongoing and if Y/N wished he could keep sleeping in the Gryffindor common room until it was deemed safe to return to his dorm. He took that offer immediately.

The day continued normally after that. They managed to avoid Malfoy and all was going well until the night as the rest of the group went to their dorms, Y/N and Hermione were left as the only two in the common room again. Y/N once again tried and failed to convince her to go back to her dorm and once again they resigned to sleep in the common room together, this time however Hermione forced Y/N onto the couch as she took the floor.

“You made this look a lot more comfortable than it is,” he laughed and offered the couch again but she denied still. Like the time before Y/N hesitantly took Hermione’s hand into his own, and she once again didn’t pull away.

Things went on like this for quite a while, the investigation into the letters was seemingly bringing up nothing as the handwriting continued to not be a match to any known Slytherin. Not that Y/N was complaining. He went from having no friends, to having one friend to have more than he could count on one hand.

It was during one of the nights Hermione was destined to sleep on the floor that she said, “I thought it would get more comfortable after a while,” Y/N watched her for a second before talking without thinking.

“We could just share the couch,” He had said it so casually but quickly afterwards realized what he said, and looked up to see Hermione wide-eyed. He immediately regretted his words and tried to excuse himself as he became a stuttering mess before Hermione interrupted him.

“Okay,” He again snapped his eyes to her face to see her looking with a smug grin, though he could also definitely see her face was completely red. A smile came over his features as he pushed himself up against the back of the couch as much as he could. She laid down and tried to keep some distance between them but quickly found that to be a fruitless endeavour as she began to fall before Y/N grabbed her and pulled her back.

“You know, most people would find it weird for a boy and girl to sleep so close when they’re just friends,” his face was smug but also lit ablaze as so much blood rushed to his cheeks at Hermione’s proximity.

“Well,” She started but immediately stopped, muttering something.

“Well?” Y/N asked.

“Well maybe we shouldn’t be just friends,” Hermione muttered slightly louder this time, looking away from him. Y/N’s smug mood dropped slightly at that but quickly came back as he spoke again without thinking properly.

“Oh I see you’re finally sick of me,” Hermione looked at him quickly after he said that, shocked and about to correct him before seeing the smug grin on his face, and her face set into a scowl. “Ohhhh you meant something else?” When Hermione just continued to glare at him his smile dropped as he suddenly was afraid that she hadn’t meant something else. The way her face immediately became concerned reassured him though.

“No of course I’m not,” her tone was soft but also shy, the same as her eyes as she struggled to keep them on him.

“So does that mean you’re asking what I think you’re asking?” Some of his smugness came back but it was much more reserved as he asked.

“Well, that depends on if you’d say yes or not.” She replied finally breaking eye contact again and looking to the side.

He almost went to make another joke but seeing how fragile she looked while asking this stopped him and he took a hold of her hand, “Are you asking if I want to be your boyfriend?” she just nodded, turning back to look at his eyes. “Then yes, yes I will.” Upon saying this her face broke out into the biggest smile he’d ever seen on her as his face started to rival it.

The remote location of Tails’ workshop wasn’t too much of a concern for the three guests. Kit could get some peace and quiet, Surge could run around a lot and you were just happy to be there. The cool gadgets were just a bonus.

When you all arrived at the workshop it was late at night, which meant bags would have to wait. You, Surge and Kit just crashed on the couch and armchair. Surge’s insistence on having the armchair makes you groan as you both try to fit on it in any comfortable way. Kit watches amused as he lays down.

“You guys better not do anything icky while we’re here. My hearing is too good to tune it out.” The idea makes you two flustered as you continue attempting to get comfortable in your current pile of limbs. Eventually, you reach a position that doesn’t give you an ache in your neck and respond to Kit.

“Yeah yeah, just try not to snore.”

Kit is the first to fall asleep, Surge joining shortly after, and you finally manage to while listening to her gentle breathing.

——————————————————————————————————

Morning comes much sooner than you’d have liked, the sunlight flowing through the window getting in your eyes and making you squint. Glancing around, you realize you are the first one awake. You also realize how uncomfortable whatever position you and Surge managed to get into while sleeping is, so you slowly untangle yourself and step out of the lounge.

Towards voices talking in the kitchen.

“So where are they planning on staying? Unless you plan on keeping them here for however long it takes to build a house.”

“Well they did host us every time we went over there, but I don’t think they’d want to stay that long. Oh, good morning.” Tails greets as he notices you.

“Morning Tails, morning Sonic?” you realise the hedgehog is who Tails was just talking to.

“Don’t sound so disappointed.”

“Hey, I’m not disappointed, more just confused.”

“What? Can’t I visit my favourite reformed villains? Hmm, maybe not favourite but in the top three… maybe five.” You laugh at him, he really did have a lot of reformed villains as friends didn’t he?

“Fair enough, what were you guys talking about then?” you inquire after nodding at Tails who silently offers a hot drink.

“Wondering what your plan is now.” Sonic quirks a brow, and you just shrug, which surprises him. “You don’t have a plan?”

“Nah, at least I don’t. They do,” you point a thumb over your shoulder in the direction of the lounge. When Tails looks over after finishing your drink he again greets someone.

“Oh, good morning Surge.” Before you can turn around to greet her too she slumps against your back, wrapping her hands around you.

“Mornin’.” You snicker at her tired voice.

“She’s not a morning person,”

“No one can be a mornin’ person if your sleep is as shitty as last night.” She yawns before continuing. “Why’d you pick the armchair?”

“YOU picked the armchair, not me.” She only grunts in response.

“Well ain’t this a sight.” Sonic grins as he taunts. Upon hearing his voice Surge practically uses your back as a spring considering how fast she detaches from you and turns to glare at the blue blur.

Recovering from the sudden momentum you take your drink off Tails finally, who had been waiting to give it to you. Sighing you turn to watch the brewing insult match about to start between Surge and Sonic before you turn to tails and whisper. “Wanna go do something while they butt heads?” he nods and begins to lead you away into another room.

——————————————————————————————————

When the two speedsters finally realise you and Tails have left they also realise that they can hear the TV from the lounge on and quickly rush in to see what you’re both doing. Getting there first, Sonic unfolds the scene of you and Tails playing something on the console while Kit somehow sleeps through it all, his claim of being able to hear better than anyone else apparently a lie.

Sonic immediately claims the armchair, smugly looking at Surge who now has nowhere to sit, until she looks at you and gets a smirk on her face. When you see her approaching you to go to move and give her room to sit but she stops you when she just flops back into your lap, making you let out an ‘oof’ at the sudden impact. She keeps the smirk on her face but you can also see the slight blush so you let it slide and keep playing, that whole thing had cost you first place and you were eager to get it back from the fox boy.

Apparently the TV, you talking to Tails and the two speed demons arriving had not been loud enough to wake Kit, but the small grunt you’d let out at Surge’s actions was enough as he began to stir. When he finally sits up and begins rubbing his eyes he is assaulted by everyone telling him good morning, making him jump as he clearly didn’t expect everyone to just be sitting in the lounge.

When you and Tails finish your race, he offers Kit a drink and then goes to make it, freeing the spot next to you which you point out to Surge, but she just swivels to put her legs onto Tails' spot and leans back against the armrest. Rolling your eyes, you offer the controller to her after seeing that Sonic picked up the other one. Not missing a chance to try and win something against the hedgehog she takes it immediately and they get to racing.

Tails comes back soon with a drink for Kit, and upon seeing his seat is now taken up by some tenrec legs, decides to just sit on the armrest next to Kit. “So, now you guys are all awake, do you wanna talk about what you actually plan on doing?”

“Winning this race,” Surge replies with a look of concentration.

“In your dreams tazer,” their creative insults for each other would always surprise you. Luckily Kit actually answers Tails' question, and by proxy yours, since you didn’t really know what the plan was either. They had listened to you for the past months so you put your faith in whatever idea they had.

“Well we thought about what we could do and considering our powers, we figured we could do some good for the world. Then considering our past, we figured we should do some good for the world.” You frowned at this, were they still feeling guilt over their pasts? You thought they’d managed to get over it but clearly not. Before you can voice this though, Sonic surprisingly speaks up.

“You guys don’t have to do anything, all that junk is in the past now so don’t feel like you owe the world for it.” He pauses as he goes around a tight corner before crossing the finishing line. “But hey, I’m also not gonna discourage any would-be heroes.” Turning to grin at Kit and Surge, the former in encouragement, the latter in mockery as he placed first and beat her.

Before Surge can mutter any expletives though, Kit speaks up again. “Well, I don’t know if ‘hero’ is what we’re going for.” Glancing at Surge, who you have taken the controller off of so she doesn’t break it. “Even if you guys don’t hold our past against us, there are people who do.” Looking down now Tails fiddles with his hands at the memories from your old town. “If we tried to do what you guys all do we’d probably get mistaken for villains again, but it’s okay!” he adds after seeing the melancholy look on everyone's faces. “Even if we can’t do that kind of hero work we can still help with things.” Now when he looks at Surge she looks back with a big grin.

“Okay, so that’s the overall plan, what’s the ‘right now’ plan?” you ask, which Surge answers.

“Egg base Sigma is getting its second re-branding.” No one says anything for a moment and Surge’s grin turns to a frown.

“Uh, I appreciate the, uh poetic-ness of turning that place into somewhere good. But is that really a good idea?” Surge was still dealing with the trauma of her ‘creation’ and you really didn’t think going to the very place that happened. Her frown softens as she hears the concern in your voice before she can justify their choice of location Kit does it for her.

“Yeah we thought about that and, well we thought that we could change it from a place of bad memories to one of good memories.” He enthusiastically smiles, while it eases your mind that they know the issues that will be there you aren’t fully convinced.

“Okay well excluding the whole mental part, do you actually have a plan to fix that place up?” Sonic asks, quirking a brow.

“Yeah, Sonic has a point. After Starline… well that place is probably teeming with security and rust at this point. Plus it’s massive so that would be a lot of work.” Tails continues.

“Well yeah! That’s the point. Sure we could just build some lame regular house in a few days, but fixing up a whole desecrated Eggman base into a super awesome fortress? That’s way more rewarding.” She waves her arms around in exaggeration and almost clips you in the face, apparently just realising you’re still there she loses all her bravado and looks away. “Uh, if you’re cool with that? We can still do the regular house if you want.”

You take a moment to contemplate. You couldn’t let them do it on their own cause not only does it sound kinda fun, but the idea of them dealing with that place on their own also didn’t sit well with you. “Nah, you can’t get rid of me that easy.” Her face turns back to you and looks surprised, but quickly turns to ecstatic. “Though we might want to at least make a small ‘lame house’ to actually sleep in while we do the big part.” She traps you in a hug as you say the last part.

“Well if you guys are actually doing something that big do you um, think you’d need any help?” Tails asks.

Kit jumps at the opportunity, “I think we’d take all the help we can get.” Tails’ expression lights up at this. Sonic also gets a look on his face as he stands up.

“If Tails says there are bots to bash then you can count me in too.” Slapping his fist against his palm, “Now that I think about it I’m sure there are a bunch of people who’d be interested. Maybe I’ll make some calls, with your permission of course.” He only adds the last bit after the glare Surge gave him. He could help sure, but he’d be damned if he wanted to try and take this project away from them. Also, she was pretty sure a lot of his friends hated her.

“Well, we planned to scout the place out on our own first. But after that, we’ll let you know.”

Sonic nods at Kit before getting a call which he tends to with an apology. Tails addresses the three of you after watching Sonic leave. “When were you planning on scouting the base? I’d be able to drop you off if you want, I’ve got nothing going on for a few days.”

Apparently, they intended to do it right now, which meant you all had to pile into the shuttle that brought you here again, all your baggage still unpacked, which you supposed worked out since you were already moving to the next place. As you sit down you realise how tired you really are, the bad quality of your sleep apparently catching up as you find yourself drifting off while listening to Surge and Kit talk excitedly about what they want to do to the base when they can get it cleared out. You hear something about a race track before you fall asleep, head falling onto Surge.

——————————————————————————————————

You’re startled awake when the shuttle lands.

“Oops, sorry! The terrain around here is rough so the landing was uneven.” Tails’ voice comes from the pilot seat. Looks like you’re already here, seems like Surge was also having a nap judging by the look on her face. Kit looks ready as ever, his hydro-pack on his back already.

Realising you should follow his lead you grab your gauntlet and pull it on, checking its charge to make sure it is actually charged this time. “You ready?” Surge asks, you nod which prompts her to ask another question, “Remember what you learned?” That was right, Surge and Kit had given you a crash course in fighting a few weeks into knowing them after the people from your previous town started getting more and more aggressive in how they treated you three.

You weren’t going to get any awards and would probably still get your ass kicked by most people but you could handle a few bots by now. Nodding at her again you flex your arm, “Ready to cause some damage,” she grins wide as Kit meekly corrects you that you only wanted to damage any Badniks and that you needed the actual buildings intact.

As you depart the shuttle and say goodbye to Tails, he hands you a communicator. “If you guys need any picking up use that and I’ll come as soon as I can.” You all thank him and he takes off back home.

“So what’s the game plan?” you ask.

“This,” without any other explanation Surge sprints forward into the facility, the sound of combat immediately reaching your ears. You and Kit glance at each other before he moves forward with his hydro-pack and you sprint ahead on your boring legs. When you reach Surge there are already some destroyed Badniks, but there are even more arriving from all over. They’re all rusted as hell and seem to barely be functioning.

Surge is having the time of her life, zapping Motobugs, smashing Egg Pawns and spin-dashing Egg Knights. She’s had to keep her energy under control for ages now and finally being able to let it all out is exhilarating. Keeping in mind that the buildings can’t be smashed takes a second to get used to but eventually, she gets a rhythm that lets her bounce off the walls without making a hole.

Kit is much more restrained in his destruction, while he did enjoy it, it wasn’t like he was dying to get it out. He’s acting as more of a support right now anyway, making sure you and Surge aren’t hit by any Badniks you can’t see. He also has to make sure he doesn’t exhaust his water supply too early, with no clue when there would be somewhere to replenish it in the base.

You were struggling more than the other two. While you were holding your own for now it was obvious that you couldn’t keep this up for too long. You were blocking attacks, shocking some of the bots back and gritting your teeth at the pain that came with punching metal. More importantly, the laser Tails added to your gauntlet were performing way above expectations. It was cleaving through Badniks like butter. You just had to make sure you-

“Shit!” didn’t run out of power. Stumbling back from the Egg Pawn’s grab you quickly turn tail and sprint away to get some breathing room. There were still too many bots to call it a finished job but you couldn’t just leave it to Surge and Kit. Well, you could but you still would prefer to have a way to protect yourself.

Before you can properly think of a plan of action you’re interrupted by the ground shaking, and a shadow suddenly overcoming you. Spinning around you’re met with the sight of a Super-Badnik, it’s bigger than you expected and before you can react it swings its battle-axe down.

Luckily you’re saved by a green blur dragging you to safety. “Hey! Don’t just stand and stare!” Surge berates you as she quickly checks to make sure you’re alright.

“Sorry, never seen one that big before.” You notice the other Badniks have scattered at the arrival of the Super-Badnik. “Plus my gauntlet is dead, think you could give me a hand there?” you grin and present your arm. She takes it and sparks flow through the metal as it is pumped back to full.

Turning back to the new arrival you see that Is being held back by Kit, for now, Surge jolts forward and quickly assaults the Badnik. Spin-dashes, kicks, shocks. All seem to do nothing as it tries to swipe her away. “What’s this fucker made of?” she growls, dodging another swing with its axe.

“I think it’s a prototype!” Kit warns as he pulls its arm back to prevent it from grabbing Surge.

Seeing how the physical attacks have no damage you get the idea to try your laser. “Watch out!” you shout as you charge it up and let it fly, it barely brushes against its torso but you can see clearly that it did damage, the metal where you hit glowing orange and malleable. Realising that this is your best bet you come up with a plan. “Surge!” you call and wave her over, Kit continuing to restrain the Badnik as you explain what you plan to do with Surge. “Okay, just keep giving me charge, I’ll handle the rest,” she nods, not completely sure about your plan but trusting you.

You start charging a powerful blast, the energy being put into it getting replaced by Surge immediately as the palm begins to glow brighter and hotter. Eventually, it starts to become too much and you scream for Kit to get back as you let the blast fly. It rips straight through the Badnik, making a Big the cat sized hole through its torso, luckily missing any buildings behind it.

Ripping the gauntlet off quickly you see some superficial burns on your hand and arm, nothing that won’t heal on its own but now that it’s exposed to the cold air you can certainly feel it.

“Shit, you shoulda’ used less.” Surge worries as she barely avoids touching the burns. Her eyes glanced up at you in concern, before switching to emotion more like she was scolding you. “I could have taken that thing eventually.”

“Yeah but then you’d be out of the fight the rest of this visit, and I know how much fun you were having. A goofy smile takes your face as she fights her own smile tugging at the corners of her mouth.

“Uh, sorry to interrupt but we got more bots coming back.” Kit points out, and he’s right. Seems like the other Badniks were afraid of the Super or something, but now they’re back.

“Alright, play time’s over.” With one last glance towards you, Surge boosts off with Kit following close behind. Deciding that you had enough action for today you grab your gauntlet with your good arm and quickly retreat to somewhere the bots don’t find you.

——————————————————————————————————

It takes a good twenty minutes before all the Badniks are destroyed. From your vantage point, you occasionally yell out locations of the Badniks who attempt to do some kind of ambush, they aren’t very good at it though.

When no more robots show up you hop down to ground level and quickly rush over to the two exhausted fighters. Kit had taken off his hydro-pack to check the reservoir, noticing it was nearly empty. Surge was bent over, hands on her knees catching her breath.

“I needed that, but wow, the after part sucks.” She gasps out, eventually straightening herself out and stretching, you get an idea as she pushes her arms above her head. You lean over and kiss her on the cheek, it wasn’t the first time you’d done it, but you kept them rare. Mainly because it got you the reaction she gave right now, which was to freeze up completely, get the strongest blush you’d ever seen and not move for a good ten seconds. When she does move, she holds a hand over her cheek for a second before puffing out her chest, “Never mind, I’ve got my second wind. You ready for some more Kit?”

“Uh, unless you want me to spray them with a gentle mist I think we should be a bit careful until I can find a water source.”

“Wouldn’t Starline have kept the original filler somewhere here?” You ask, to which they nod.

“Yeah it’ll be somewhere, just gotta remember which building is actually one.” Surge trails off upon seeing one of the doorways open. “Well might as well start with the one we don’t need to break into.” Walking forward with purpose you and Kit follow.

“We’ll need to get Tails to trash all the Eggman stuff here, tech-wise at least. I don’t want any weird automated stuff happening.” You mention.

“Probably want to get rid of anything Starline left behind too.”

“Yeah.”

While walking around you don’t find any more Badniks, most likely all of them responded to the fight outside and none were left, at least that’s what you hoped. You briefly considered the idea that you’d have to call tails and go back to his house for the night. That’s before you all run into the dormitories, which are worse for wear than you’d like but clearly could function as a temporary residence.

You observe the distinct lack of any decoration in either of their rooms and then the overdecorated room which you can only assume belonged to the late Dr Starline, he seemed like the kind of guy you’d love to punch.

The rest of the base is mostly uninteresting, except for one room. The dramatically made room with one terminal at the end of a long walkway. From the way, Surge and Kit react you can guess this is where they found out about who they are, but you’re pretty sure you remember them saying they didn’t find out who they were, before Starline.

That’s what they spend the next hour or so looking for, well Kit looks for it, and you and Surge mess around. It’s only when Kit has scraped through every file that he finds something.

“Finally moving forward with my project, I have located two specimens who will make fine subjects.” The video cuts to Surge, clearly before her personality change, “First is a Tenrec, I believe she will make a fine replacement for Sonic, and then the Fennec Fox,” the footage then cuts to Kit, “The Tenrec will be Surge, and the Fox, well I’ll figure out the name later on.”

You suddenly move forward and pause the video, confusing Surge, Kit and even yourself. Not realising what you’d done until Surge said your name and brought you out of your stupor. “H-huh?”

“Why’d you pause it?” She’s not angry, just confused. Maybe a tad annoyed actually.

“I… I don’t know, I just…” then it clicks why you paused it. You’re scared. Scared they’ll find out who they were, and they’ll like whatever that was more than you. It’s stupid, you knew them, they wouldn’t leave you just like that, you should be happy for them. Finding out who they were. But you couldn’t stop the tears building in your eyes at the idea of losing them.

“What?” she just asks, still confused but a bit more annoyed at your erratic behaviour.

“N-no It’s nothing. I’m fine I just need some air, y-you guys watch the video without me.” You try to act tough but your voice is breaking and tears are starting to drip from your eyes.

“No, what’s wrong? You don’t just start crying like that for no reason.” she stands fully and grabs your arm, unfortunately, the one with burns which she doesn’t notice. You whimper as you try to think of some excuse but her grip on your arm is making it complicated. “You don’t want us to watch the video.” She says after a moment, grip tightening. She’s angry now, “Why don’t you want us to watch it?” she asks aggressively.

“S-stop,” you plead, but she doesn’t she just reiterates her question, pulling you closer to her as she bears over you, she’s probably close to breaking skin by this point, the pain is becoming too much as you stutter, “P-please, you’re hurting me.”

Your words shock her, eyes going wide she finally notices that she grabbed your bad arm. Immediately stepping back and releasing your arm, eyes watching the mark on your arm. You don’t give her the chance to say anything though, you just run off. Obviously, she could chase after you but she just watches the empty doorway, Kit speaks up after a second.

“A-are we going after them?” She turns, they probably should, you were their friend, hell you were her partner. But they’d been interrupted doing this once, and she didn’t want it to happen again.

“N-no, they’ll be fine. Just has to let off some steam. We’re so close now, we have to see it through.”

And so they do, finding out all of Starline’s plot to turn them into who they are. By the end, they don’t feel better, they probably feel worse, to be honest. Which wasn’t even the worst part, the worst part was Starline’s contingency.

“Sleep,” Surge immediately feels the drowsiness come over her as she slumps and tries to regain her strength. Kit feels the effects too as he tries to cover his eyes with his drooping hand. “Of course, I doubt you two will ever find these files, but if you do I want to be sure you don’t get any ideas. Don’t worry, ill be along soon enough to set you back in line.” He laughs after that last sentence and then the video loops.

“Sleep,”

She can feel herself slipping, eyes drooping.

“Sleep,”

One eye was closed now, she was fighting with everything she had to stay awake.

“Sleep,”

She was done for, all she could think of was how she regretted not going after you.

“Sle-” The recording is interrupted by a loud crash. Surge takes a moment to realise what happened when she pries her eyes open to see you standing over her. Tears in your eyes still but you are looking concerned.

“Surge?” you ask, kneeling down.

“Y-yeah?”

“Are you okay?” she nods meekly as you address her, you nod and stand up, moving over to Kit.

Surge just lays there for a while, after you check on Kit you join them on the floor. None of you can think of anything to say, that is until the communicator Tails gave you starts beeping, realising it's a call, you answer.

“Hey guys! It's Tails, just wanted to check if you’re doing alright. You didn’t call so I assumed you’d found somewhere to stay but I thought I’d check anyway.” He sounded nervous and happy at the same time, you could not say the same for yourself.

“Uh yeah we’re good Tails, the bedrooms here are in good enough condition to stay in so don’t worry.” You pause for a second, glancing at Kit and Surge, “Uh, I’ll call you back tomorrow to talk about bringing our stuff alright?”

“Alright!” the call cuts off after that and the room is plunged into silence again.

“I’m sorry I left.” You say to both of them after a while, neither of them knows how to reply so they let you continue. “I was scared that if you saw your past, you’d want to return to it. You’d want to leave me.” You sigh deeply and wipe your eyes again, “It was selfish, I shouldn’t have done anything. It’s your guy's choice what you do.” You don’t really know what happened but walking in on them both being hypnotised meant you didn’t really want to ask questions.

You don’t end up having to as you feel two pairs of arms wrap around you from the sides. “Well, it’s my choice to stay with you.” Surge whispers.

“Yeah, we’d never abandon you,” Kit adds.

Fresh tears begin springing up in your eyes as you smile at their words. “Thanks,”

“I’m sorry I hurt you, and we didn’t come after you.”

“It’s okay, I needed the time to think anyway, probably a good thing too so I avoided whatever that asshole was doing on the screen.” You all glance back at the screen which was now smashed, some random rubble having been thrown at it. Surge hums in agreement before standing and offering you a hand up.

All of you walk out of the computer room slowly, taking your time getting to the bedrooms. Kit takes a glance at his old room before turning towards you and Surge as you stand at the entrance to her room. “Could I stay with you guys tonight? I-I don’t really like the idea of being alone.”

With a quick glance at Surge to see if she was fine with it you say, “Of course.”

Packing into the room you quickly strip the bed while Surge looks around for spare bedsheets, or at least anything slightly clean. Kit checks out the bathroom. Eventually, Surge finds a bedsheet but nothing else, luckily it’s not too cold inside the base but still, you all decide to share the bed for warmth. Totally not because Surge and Kit are still shaken from the whole Starline on the big screen.

It takes some time for Kit to fall asleep, his gentle breathing slowing as his body turns off for the night. Leaving you and Surge alone, this time she decides to take the reigns and kisses you on the cheek, which is actually a first for her. “I love you,” she whispers, observing your very flustered face with a smile, “Even if I found out I was dating fuckin’ Gaia himself I’d still tell him ‘sorry, found someone better’.” You smile at her words.

“You have such a way with words.”

“And don’t you forget it” responds a little too loudly, making Kit mumble something and turn over.

“Alright well Miss wordsmith, time to join our fennec friend and get some shut-eye. Long day tomorrow.”

“When did you get so boring and responsible?”

“When I met you.”

“Oh, so before you saw my awesome raking skills you were wild and untamed?”

“Shut up,”

She snickers quietly as you shake your head, but you still had a smile on your face. Both of you finally stop talking eventually and simply look into each other’s eyes for a moment.

“I love you too.”

“I know.”

“Yeah, but I felt like I had to say it ‘cause you did.”

“Well, it is appreciated.”

“You’re being sarcastic.”

“Of course not.”

Sighing, you finally close your eyes and let out one final whisper.

“Love you Surge.”

…

“Love you too.”

Previous part

Ping

Groaning, Bonnie lifts his head from a pillow, groggily reaching for his phone sitting on a small bedside table. The bright screen burns his eyes as he tries to rub the sleep from them, slowly he adjusts to the light and is able to make out a notification.

“Hey, how are you doing?” it read, from Freddy. He was sleeping over at Chi’s house to be closer to the rest of their friend group. He and his younger brother Fred lived a fair distance further from the rest of them, being a slight bit out from town in the countryside, so they thought it would be a good idea to stay at a friend's house which was in closer proximity to the rest. It was purely a coincidence that Freddy happened to be dating Chi’s older sister Chica, and that Fred had a crush on Chi herself, who unsurprisingly, also had feelings for the younger Fazbear.

Fazbear… sounds familiar right? That’s probably because it’s the name associated with one of the largest pizza restaurant chains in America. And yes, Freddy and Fred are both the children of the original creator, who appears to be bad at naming things when observing how he named his children.

Back to the original point, Freddy was at Chi’s and was for some reason texting Bonnie at 2 am.

“I feel like shit” Bonnie types out slowly. It was true, he did feel like shit, he had caught a cold a few days prior and it was sticking, it may have been the flu but that’s a thought that would be put off until he couldn’t walk. “The cold hasn’t gone away yet” he added to his previous answer.

“Damn, your body really knows how to be comedic” Responded Freddy. Bonnie couldn’t think of anything comedic about this situation, but trust in a Fazbear to fumble something good out of a bad thing. “The timing I mean, the same week we are flying out to college, you get sick as a leper.” Right, they were getting a flight tomorrow.

“I find nothing comedic about it, if anything it’s a tragedy.” Bonnie texted back.

“Don’t be a drama queen, It’s a cold, not the bubonic plague you big baby.” A small smile grazed Bonnie's lips as he read Freddie's text. They had always bantered between each other like this, but it was somewhat more absent recently. Everyone was busy packing and getting ready for college so there weren't many chances for conversation.

“I’m going to cough on you so much tomorrow” Threatened Bonnie.

“Yeah right, like your wheezing ass could catch up to my pristine self” Gloated Freddy. They could go back and forth with things like this for hours if they let themselves, but Bonnie knew they both needed to sleep.

“Whatever Freddy Fazbore. I'm gonna head back to the sleep that you interrupted, you should too.” He placed his phone back on his bedside table before laying back down, catching one last text from his friend.

“WEAAAAAAK”

…

The next Morning

The sound of an alarm is universally agreed to be one of the most annoying things to hear, especially when someone is just waking up. This was even more of an annoyance when you hadn't slept well, which is something pretty common when you are sick. As a result, it was quite evident that Bonnie didn’t wake up in the best of moods. The next piece of evidence was the loud slam of his fist on the alarm clock.

Groaning as he sat up Bonnie slowly managed to start his brain and wake up. Sleep is never easy for him to get, when there is also the stress of a flight the next day, it becomes even more of a problem for him. The cold was just a cherry on top today, and that cherry felt more like a kick to the teeth.

The morning routine of shower, clothes and breakfast was something engraved into Bonnie’s brain, which made it somewhat easier to autopilot while the gears in his brain were still dusting off and starting to turn. A cold shower likely would wake him up faster, but it would also probably put him in a worse mood, which wasn't something he wanted to deal with for the rest of the day, so he powered through the usual lukewarm water and carried on.

For clothes, it would be best to go with something comfortable for today, flights are long and usually uncomfortable enough already, and he didn't need the extra discomfort of some poor-quality jeans. Eventually, he settled on a pair of sweatpants and a purple sweater. He liked purple if you couldn’t tell by looking at anything he owned. Purple-coloured walls in his room, purple-coloured phone case, purple-dyed hair, the list goes on. 

Breakfast was the final thing on his agenda this morning, and it also happened to be the thing he was worst at. Usually, it’d be something simple, like toast, cereal, or maybe eggs. The problem was the fact they didn't have any of that, his mom hadn’t gone grocery shopping this week, and she’d be busy with extra hours at work, which meant Bonnie had to find something else to eat for now. Pacing around the kitchen, his eyes looked around for anything which jumped out at his eyes. When nothing catches his attention he decides to give up on the idea of eating this morning, he had to catch the bus and could probably eat something later.

While quickly putting on his shoes and grabbing his bags, Bonnie spots a small note left on the front door, from his mother.

“Sorry I couldn’t say goodbye in person sweety, work needed me early today. Have a safe trip and call me as soon as you arrive, I want to hear about everything.” -  <3 Mom, Bonnie smiled at the note, placing it into one of his pockets before quickly jogging out of his house to a nearby bus stop.

At Chi and Chica’s House

Public transport wasn't one of Bonnie's favourite ways to travel, the people in his town weren’t bad, he just didn't like it in general. It was only made worse by the fact he had to carry a decent amount of luggage, and he was still having coughing fits occasionally. Even after specifically trying to get the bus early so that even with a few delays he would still arrive on time, Bonnie ended up late because the driver decided to completely skip the stop he was planning on getting off at, meaning he had to walk an extra half mile or so with all his bags. But he arrived at the meeting spot eventually, seeing the rest of his friends already there outside, talking and packing their bags onto the taxis.

“So you didn’t die in ya sleep” A voice with a gruff Irish accent came from nearby. Turning his head to meet the voice Bonnie sees his redhead friend, Felix, more commonly referred to as Foxy as per the man's own request. No one really asked why more than once, and he never gave the answer the first time they would ask. It was just something he had done from the moment Bonnie had met him.

Foxy was an interesting guy, he was from Ireland originally but moved to America when he was still quite young, he still had quite the accent though, Bonnie didn’t want to think of how strong it would be if he still lived there. He had short red hair that he usually didn’t bother to comb so it was always scruffy. He was also one of the taller members of their strange group, only shorter than Maggie and Mari. His personality was also something to behold, extroverted to a fault, making him both great and terrible to talk to. He was loud and always had a lot to say, not that he was rude, he would always listen to what others were saying, well he tried but sometimes his excitement would get the best of him.

“No but I feel like I've just come back from the dead,” Bonnie says back to his friend, opening his arms for a hug, only slightly expecting one. Contrary to his belief Foxy does embrace him, though only shortly.

“Still got that cold then eh?” Foxy grins as he separates from the sick male. “Well hopefully you can get some more rest on the plane, as for now, you should your bags in the taxi, we’ve been waiting for you so lucky you're still stuck with us” He points towards a decently big van-looking vehicle which sits on the driveway of the house in front of them. Nearby there is another similar van which seems to have all its doors closed, as opposed to open. Foxy likely spots Bonnies looking towards the other vehicle so he decides to clarify, “Ah, that’s the other taxi. They can only fit 5 in each so we’ve split them up. You’re with me, Chica, Freddy and Bel.” 

“Ugh, did you have to lump me with her?” Bel, or Bonnabel if you were fancy, wasn’t Bonnie’s favourite person. He didn’t really have anything against her, she was just quite prone to teasing or in some cases, ‘pranking’ people if you can call putting glue into someone’s shoes while they are in gym class a prank. The worst part was that Bonnie would usually receive the worst of all, for seemingly no reason. But when she wasn’t doing her usual shenanigans, she wasn’t too unpleasant to be around. She could be quite funny and even occasionally nice. However, the moments that she lets her personality traits that aren’t mischievous out are few are far between.

“Weren’t my choice lad, the Fazboys did the taxis since they are the ones paying for them.” Foxy explains as he walks back towards the taxi himself. Bonnie slowly followed, dragging his luggage with him along the floor. Freddy and Chica both appeared to already be in the taxi with their bags packed away. They do spot Bonnie however and the latter is the first to welcome him.

“Bonniee! Glad you made it, we were getting worried that you would miss the flight” Chica said quickly. Chica was nice, she was one of Bonnie's oldest friends, from back in kindergarten. She was one of the shorter girls, with hair matching that, only going down past her ears slightly. It was as blonde as you can get while still being a yellow colour, she may have dyed it but you wouldn't be able to tell. Her personality matched the brightness of her hair too, she was always positive and kind, even to people who likely didn't deserve it. They first met when she helped him to the nurse when he tripped and hurt his knee.

“He’s still late though, even though I beat him here and I went to sleep wayyy after him” Freddy spoke before Bonnie could respond. Freddy was Bonnie’s best friend since childhood, they’d known each other since before they’d even known Chica or Foxy, meeting at one of the Fazbears very own restaurant as children, in one of the play pits where Freddy was too shy to talk to the other kids since he was ‘special’ there. He wasn’t like that anymore though, Freddy was almost as much of an extrovert as Foxy now, though quite a bit less loud and talkative. He did have the looks to go with his confidence too, being quite average in the height of the group, with long brown hair which he often tied up into a man bun.

“Shut up you, or I won’t let you stay over next time” Chica defended Bonnie, in a mostly joke-like manner, but with some seriousness. Enough to get Freddy to stop his joking at least. As the couple continue to talk Bonnie moves to the back where he finally can stuff his bags away and have some breathing room. Keeping his backpack on him, as it contained his essentials, he shuts the trunk with the rest of their bags and gets into the back of the van. As foxy said it appears to be a 5 seater, not including the front two seats but those weren’t for customers. Chica and Freddy sit on the middle row, with Foxy, Bel and Bonnie in the back, in that specific order, unfortunately. 

“Ooooh, is little Bonnie still sick?” Bel teases while poking Bonnie’s chest. “Don’t cough on me, I don’t want to catch whatever disease you have” She continues, causing Bonnie to groan.

“Keep that poking up and I’ll be puking on you instead” He threatens, frowning at her, causing her to laugh.

“You wouldn’t dare, you couldn’t pay for the cleaning of the taxi if you did that.” She responds. As Bonnie is about to retaliate again Freddy chimes in, sounding annoyed but clearly faking it, he’s likely just as amused as Bel is.

“Don’t start already, It’s been minutes and we still have hours to go, if I have to deal with you two lovers bickering the whole time I’ll go insane.”

“Hey! We aren-”

“Ew! No he-”

Both Bonnie and Bel start to respond, but one glance at Freddy's smirking face shows that an embarrassed excuse is exactly what he wants, so they both seem to stop at the same time. As the taxi begins to move, small talk among the rest of them starts, with Foxy talking about a new show he's been watching while Freddy mostly pretends to listen for the 3rd time and Chica gives her full attention.

This is going to be a long ride. 

When the two taxis finally arrive at the airport it's starting to get light out, which makes it easier to get their bags from the trunks and inside the building, but it also means that it's about to get a whole lot busier here. That is shown straight away when it takes them 10 minutes to even get close enough to the map of the whole airport to actually read it. Finding where they can actually enter the building takes another 5 minutes, but they finally get in and are safe from the bitter fall air, it isn't particularly cold yet, but the wind is enough to send a chill down your spine.

Checking in is as painful as usual for any airport, with the clerk taking their sweet time to even notice the group of 10, then taking even longer to let them in so they can check in their luggage too. Bonnie’s bag ends up being slightly too heavy which results in him having to move some stuff into Freddy’s bag to even the load, hopefully, Freddy doesn't mind having another guy's pants in his luggage for a few hours.

When they are through that they also have to deal with the pains of security checking them, which goes more smoothly for Bonnie, but less smoothly for Bel, though Bonnie doesn't know why the metal detector goes off so often for her, eventually, after another scan in a different machine they let her pass through.

When finally free in the airport the group decides to get food, much to Bonnie’s joy as he still hasn’t eaten today. They separate into multiple groups in the food court, Bonnie sits with Chica and Freddy. Foxy goes off with Maggie. The rest sit at a larger table. The food that they end up getting is just some random fast food place burgers and fries, mainly for convenience and the fact that none of them could be bothered to go anywhere else. The food is as expected, however, something which isn’t expected is Chi saying something which she likely meant to say a lot quieter.

“You wore a metal piercing and forgot to take it off?!” Immediately afterwards, a decent amount of the food court looks over while she and seemingly Bel both look embarrassed. Bonnie can guess who Chi was yelling at then. As most of the court stays in silence, people slowly go back to eating their food, ignoring the random screaming girl.

As Bonnie finishes his food, a conversation starts at their table between Freddy and Chica. One of those sappy couple conversations, the kind of talk that you never want to be the third wheel of, because it just ends up awkward. Though it seems that neither of them cares that Bonnie is resigned to sitting there not knowing what to do. As a result it's up to him to manage to excuse himself, which he does by using the classic excuse of

“I'm gonna go to the bathroom quick”

Standing up before either of the other two can respond he walks away from the table as quick as he can without seeming suspicious. He spots the bathroom quite quickly, and speedwalks in there, as it turns out he actually needs to use it. After relieving himself and washing his hands, Bonnie exits the bathroom but then decides that he isn’t ready to return to sappy talk at the table. Looking around where he is, he spots some nearby stores which appear hundreds of times more interesting than what Freddy and Chica discuss, so he heads over to browse for a while.

Airport stores are almost always only selling one of three things: Perfume, candy or jewellery. This particular store seems to have all three, and even though Bonnie isn't particularly a fan of any of those types of things, it can still be entertaining to browse the pretty rings, the strangely named sweets or the awful combinations of smells in a perfume bottle. 

“Elderflower and white chocolate, burnt toast and toasted bagels, rose and blood from rose thorn cut, old lamp oi-”

“I thought a cold made you lose your sense of smell, and then I see you looking at perfume?” Bel seems to appear out of nowhere, “Are you sure you’re not just faking being sick just to get attention” She smirks as Bonnie stands up from the crouching position he was sitting in to read the labels. Trying to think of a comeback Bonnie stands silently for a moment before responding.

“At least I only lost my sense of smell and not my common sense. Miss metal piercing.” It’s not an amazing response but it's enough to shut Bel up for long enough for Bonnie to slip past her and move back towards the Food court. Muttering some insult about Chi being a loudmouth before running back towards the court too, Bel quickly catches up to Bonnie. As they both arrive back to the whole group, which seems to have reassembled.

“Alright, that’s all of us then, let’s get going to our gate” Freddy announces. It’s only now that Bonnie gets out his ticket to see where he is actually seated. Unfortunately for him, it appears the ‘Fazboys’, as Foxy put it, got him a middle seat, whether that was on purpose or not, he will not bother to find out.

Waiting for the plane to actually start accepting passengers is usually one of the most boring parts of a trip, but with a wait of at least 30 minutes, Bonnie decides that it would be a perfect time to get a little extra sleep, even though he's about to have a lot more time to do that on their 5 hour Flight.

While he is unsuccessful in actually managing to get any sleep, he does manage to at least relax with his eyes closed, listening to some of the others' conversations to pass the time. It’s strangely calming, the gentle murmur of his friend's voices combined with the constant noise of an airport, either announcements or the public talking over each other. It creates an ambience that lets him sit there, not thinking about anything.

Of course, the moment is immediately broken when their flight announces that it is taking passengers and he is shoved by Foxy awake, which while helpful so he doesn't miss the flight, he may have appreciated a nicer way of doing it. He gets up, grabs his backpack as he carries on, and follows the rest of his group as they slowly begin to board the plane.

Luckily it goes rather smoothly, the desk worker takes his boarding pass and passport on the first try so he easily gets past and walks down the usual tunnel into the plane itself. It's somewhat packed but not claustrophobic, though he hasn't gotten to his middle seat yet so it can still get worse.

And when he arrives at his seat, it does get worse, as he is sat in the middle of Bel and some random stranger. While he doesn’t like strangers, they are probably still better than her, in the regard that they won't actively bother him.

“Ughh.” He can assume from the groan she did when she saw him standing behind her that she is also not too happy about this. 

“Blame the Fazboys, not me” He repeats something similar to Foxy earlier, without even realising. He quickly stows away his backpack above and gets in his seat while Bel stands there, seemingly more annoyed every second. 

“I don’t know, it might be more fun to blame you,” She says as other passengers start to push so she has to sit down. “I just don’t know how long I can annoy you without getting bored” She follows up.

“I’d prefer if it was zero seconds so I could just sleep,” he says, already wanting to close his eyes again just from sitting down.

“Maybe I’ll let you sleep then” she starts, leaving enough of a pause to give some false hope to Bonnie, before crushing it by saying “And then I’ll wake you up every time you start to actually get some, yeah that’s a way better plan, thanks” She smirks at him.

Ugh

It took a total of four months for Surge to work off all of her community service hours. Even after you took a whole hundred and fifty off for the Eggman base raid. The process was far from as bad as she was expecting though. Turned out that being able to actually talk to people, sleep on a comfortable bed, eat good food and generally not be stuck in a lousy cell made things easier.

You’d obviously been a huge help in the whole situation, letting both her and Kit into your home and taking responsibility for their punishment. It also meant there were no more interactions with the abusive prison guards.

Kit was also a massive boon in her newly found enjoyment of life. When she was separated from him for so long she expected their reunion to be underwhelming, or plain old bad. She expected him to have realized he didn’t need her and would be better off on his own. That was almost the complete opposite of what actually happened. After the first few days of being back together, she realized how he still had some leftover programming, making him way too agreeable with her.

At first, she also didn’t really notice, until you pointed out the fact that he was agreeing to watch some shitty reality show that he had already told both of you he hated. Surge had apologized for that, feeling bad she had somehow forgotten and accidentally forced him to sit through two hours of garbage TV. She became much more aware of when it was happening after that, asking Kit if he was doing something just cause of her. A lot of the time he was, but at the same time it wasn’t like he hated Surge and generally he was a nice kid. So usually he’d end up doing it anyway, just with the knowledge he’d chosen to do it, which gave all of you some peace of mind that the whole conditioning would break eventually.

Overall, the past four months had been great. There had been ups and downs of course, life wasn’t perfect, and she appreciated that fact now. Still, everything had to come to an end eventually, she and Kit still had no idea who they were before and even if they knew it didn’t matter anymore, they still wanted to know. There was also just the fact they wanted to get away from this town, sure it had good memories and a few good people, but not being accepted into it even after what they’d done was wearing on everyone, better to get out now.

She stood outside, staring at a large field near your house. Soon the two-tailed fox would show up with some fancy flying gadget, she just hoped he realized how much shit they’d be bringing. Even if she’d not really miss this town, she’d miss your house, good memories were made in it. Sure there were some bad ones too but they never really were bad in the end, just bittersweet.

Look at her, getting all nostalgic. Well, when your life’s as short as hers you do not want to wait years to reminisce. Tails would still be a while so she could do to spend some time thinking about what had happened.

The first memory that comes to mind…

———————————————————————————————————————————————————

567 hours of community service left.

When Surge finally got to sleep in a bed again she thought she’d never wake up. Starline at least got that right. The prison cot she’d been in for weeks prior could never match up, the chair she’d been using for the past few days had also been an improvement but nothing could live up to a real bed.

The first night had been difficult though. She wasn’t so used to being comfortable it took her a while to actually get to sleep. When she woke up she was in a panic, thinking she’d been taken back to Starline’s lab, but no, she was still in the bedroom you’d given her.

The second night had been more of an issue, Kit clearly was in shock the first night which meant Surge was smooth sailing, the second night though. She could hear him through the walls, considering they had adjourning rooms after all. He was talking in his sleep now, she heard her name a few times, surprisingly she also heard yours. That made her hope he was simply having a dream about you guys all doing something and not something Starline had made to get him to break down if he was separated from her.

The third night was the worst, it was a horrible nightmare that she couldn’t even remember. All she could remember was fear, and the fact she didn’t want to go back to sleep. She went downstairs to do something to get her mind off it, the TV would be quiet enough if she set it to a low volume. Not expecting to see you already downstairs watching TV she let out a sleepy gasp.

“Oh, hi Surge,” You smiled sleepily at her once you noticed she had come down the stairs. “Can’t sleep?”

“No, I uh, had a shitty dream.” She clumsily explained, finally walking over to the couch to plop down on it too. “What about you?”

“Hm, same thing pretty much.” She gave a hum of acknowledgement, so you’d both had nightmares that night? Funny. Both of you sat there for a while, the TV playing some mindless movie neither of you paid any attention to. That’s when suddenly Kit screamed upstairs, the two of you sharing a brief glance before you blinked and Surge was gone. An afterimage trails all the way up to Kit’s room.

Surge slammed his door open, expecting an intruder or something. Instead, all she saw was a quivering mess under the blankets, one with two big ears. Said mess pulled its head out of the blankets at the sound of its door being opened, revealing what no one was confused about, Kit. While Surge was expecting it to be Kit under the blankets she wasn’t expecting him to barrel into her faster than she could realize. She chalked it up to being tired and not being slow.

“Woah bud, what’s wrong?” She asked, trying to imitate that soft voice you manage to do for both of them when they’re stressed. The only response she gets is some muffled sobs and generally a very wet-sounding cry. Luckily that’s when you finally reach them, huffing from having to run so suddenly.

“What’s wrong? Was it an intruder or something?” you ask quickly, afraid of the idea that someone is breaking into your house.

“Uh I don’t think so, but he ain’t sayin’ anything?” Surge honestly doesn’t know what else to say. You contemplate for a moment, glancing at Kit’s still shaking form.

“Go set up with him on the couch, I’ll be down in a minute.” She wants to argue but Kit’s shaking convinces her to take him downstairs. You take a few minutes upstairs before coming down. “No break-in, at least not one I can see.” If she’d known that’s what you were checking for she would have done it herself. You don’t come over to the couch as she expects though, you move to the kitchen, coming back after a moment with three mugs of cocoa. Before taking your previous seat next to Surge.

Eventually, Kit’s shaking stops and he pulls away from Surge, wiping the last of the tears out of his eyes. “Thanks,” he barely whispers.

“Drink the cocoa, it’ll probably help your throat,” you advise him, only when you look over to tell him that you realize how close you and Surge are, practically shoulder to shoulder. She apparently doesn’t realize, probably too focused on Kit, who does as you say and drinks some of the cocoa. Surge soon follows suit and does the same, finally prompting you to take a sip too. “So, was it a nightmare?” you ask him after a moment, and he just nods.

Surge grumbles, “This house built on an ancient burial ground or summin’? Why’re we all having nightmares on the same night.” She makes a good point, though you don’t think this house is built on any burial grounds.

“Heh, I don’t think so. Maybe it’s just fate, getting us all together like this so we can watch…” you trail off as you have no idea what is actually on TV by this point. “You get the idea.” You smirk at them.

Kit smiles a bit and Surge snickers. The three of you then go back to watching but not actually paying attention to whatever is on TV.

It takes a while but eventually the fox falls asleep again, you only notice when Surge points it out, not sure what to do. “Don’t do anything, I mean unless you wanna go back to bed, then I’ll take care of him. If you want to stay and are fine with it just let him sleep I’d say.” She gives a cautious glance at him, and as she does so you finally realize she has her hair down, she looks cute with it natural. Not that she wasn’t cute with It up, but that was more pretty than cute.

“I got somethin’ on my face?” you fail to notice her turning around and, flustered, you turn away and mumble something about being in thought. She snickers before Kit mumbles something himself, and then spreads out, pushing Surge into you so your shoulders are now touching, her hair also being pushed onto your shoulders now. Neither of you moves for a moment, before glancing at each other, not saying anything. You both figure the other will say something if they don’t like it and decide to just stay like you are.

———————————————————————————————————————————————————

When Surge wakes up the first thing she notices is that she’s on the couch, then she remembers what happened and notices that Kit Is gone. Finally, she notices that she can’t really move her arms, which is when she realizes it’s because you’ve got your arm wrapped around her and she has hers around you.

Brain malfunctioning, she just sits there. It’s not uncomfortable, just unexpected. Honestly, it was probably the most comfortable she’d been in a while, she would die with that information though. Kit though?, he’d live with this information freely, as he walks into the living room, noticing Surge finally awake he smirks.

“Good morning,”

“Not a word,” she replies quietly, not wanting to wake you up. He just keeps his smirk and puts up his hands in fake surrender.

“My lips are sealed.”

With that, he retreats upstairs and Surge watches until she hears his door shut, sighing she adjusts herself slightly before resting her head against you.

With a smile on her face, she closes her eyes and lets sleep take her again.

——————————————————————————————————————————————————

Kit walks up next to her, bringing her out of her thoughts.

“He still not here?”

“Nope,” she responds.

“Huh, thought he’d be quicker.” Kit had been bringing some stuff out while she stood here, she’d already brought out all her stuff to get packed so she used that as her excuse to slack off. “What are you thinking about?” he could always tell when she was deep in thought.

“That night we all had nightmares.” Kit snickers at the thought, clearly knowing what part Surge was thinking of. He gets a glare in return, “I’m not judging, it’s a nice memory.”

“Yeah,” it wasn’t the only one though. “Remember when we tried to bake them a cake?” Another snicker, but this time not at her but at both of them.

———————————————————————————————————————————————————

234 hours of community service left.

“Okay, so we have the ingredients right?”

“Yup, double, triple and quadruple checked.” Kit had been adamant about them doing something nice for you. Surge had agreed it was a good idea but had also been completely clueless about what to do so let him take the lead.

They had found a good recipe online that looks simple but was still impressive enough. Basic chocolate cake, chocolate frosting, and some strawberries on top for garnish. Easy.

——————————————————————————————————————————————————

“Okay, it says beat the eggs,”

“Don’t have to tell me twice!”

After they manage to clear the egg off of the walls and themselves Kit turns to Surge.

“Okay maybe try to use a normal person’s strength and not your strength.”

“Ugh fine.”

——————————————————————————————————————————————————

“Mix the batter well”

“How well?”

“I don’t know, it doesn’t say.”

“Five minutes is probably enough.”

——————————————————————————————————————————————————

“Bake in the oven for thirty minutes.”

“She’s going to be home in like fifteen, what if we just bake it at a higher temperature.”

“I don’t know if it works like that, but worth a shot I guess.”

——————————————————————————————————————————————————

“I’m back!” you close the front door behind you after calling out. Bags in your hands you quickly make your way into the house and cross into the kitchen, only to be surprised by the mess, in the kitchen and on the people.

Surge and Kit both stand in front of the oven, looking about as suspicious as they possibly can. “Welcome home!” Surge starts, “Uh you must be tired after that shopping, why don’t you go take a nap for uh, four hours.” Even she can’t make the smile look convincing.

“What did you do?” They both instantly stop pretending and look guilty as they separate, revealing the oven. On top of it lays what you could only describe as charcoal in the shape of a cake. Walking over to it you give it a once over, then another as you find that they’ve put some icing on it to try and hide how black it is, but somehow the icing is burnt too.

They both stand behind you, Kit’s ears are pressed completely against his head and Surge is one sound away from running away into the distance never to come back.

“We thought i-it’d be nice to make y-you a c-cake but um, we d-didn’t really k-know what we were doi-”

“You guys make this for me?” you ask, turning around to look at them, neither of them can actually get the courage to look at you though.

“Uh, yeah. Sorry, it’s my fault, I wasn’t very good at listening to Kit and well I got a bit-” She cuts herself off as you let out a choked sound. Oh god were you crying, was it that bad? Before she can say anything else though you turn around and pull her into what she at first thought would be a death grip but is actually a hug. You make some sort of hand gesture at Kit who takes it as an invitation and walks over to hesitantly join.

“Thank you,” you whisper between tears, confusing the hell out of the two.

“Uh, what? We uh, fucked it up royally and made a mess while doin’ it.” Surge was still ashamed but more than that she was confused.

“It’s the thought that counts,” you whisper softly after you get your tears under control.

“So y-you’re not mad?” Kit almost whimpers out, though the confusion in his voice is evident.

“Why would I be mad that you guys messed up at something you’ve never done before?” you pull away after a few minutes to look at them, both still embarrassed but less afraid of you suddenly hating them. “If I was gonna be mad at anything it’d be that you didn’t ask me for help, but it was a surprise so that can be excused.” You laugh.

Surge and Kit look at each other for a moment. Even after living with you for some time, they were surprised by your ability to just forgive mistakes like that so easily. If only everyone was as forgiving.

“You know, that might not be a half-bad idea, but not tonight at least.” You turn around to look at the dirty kitchen then turn back around to look at the dirty people. “Why don’t you two go get cleaned up, ill clean up here and get stuff set up for the movie night.” They share another glance.

“A-alright, sorry again for the mess.” You wave him off and he scampers up the stairs. Surge stays for a moment longer.

“You forgive so easily, how?” She looks lost, you frown and walk up to her taking her hands in your own.

“It’s not easy. Some people I probably won't ever forgive, but something like this? It’s hardly worth a grudge.”

“You say that about all my mistakes.” Surge whispers, trying to keep her eyes dry.

“Cause it’s true,” she can't hold back tears at that and you hug her as she begins to softly cry. Burying her face into your neck as she sobs. “You can forgive them, and they can forgive you.” You whisper.

———————————————————————————————————————————————————

“Huh, I wondered why your eyes were red when you went up to shower.”

Surge chuckles before looking up at the approaching sound. An odd-looking shuttle-like vehicle. The typical yellow-blue colour scheme immediately makes it obvious who is in there.

“Hey guys!” Tails climbs out of the pilot seat and walks over to Surge and Kit.

“Hey Tails!” Kit yells back, walking forward to meet him. Surge stays where she is and just watches, it’d been a long time since anyone from the ‘heroes’ had come to visit. Though she supposed it wouldn’t be like that in the future wherever they went.

“Hey Surge,” Tails greets her as he and Kit walk back to the house.

“Hey tail boy.” That makes him huff before smiling slightly. Out of all the heroes, Tails was one of the ones she liked the most. He was smart, pretty funny and didn’t have an ego the size of a Death Egg.

He looks towards the house, before turning to the luggage. “It’s been a while since I’ve been back here.”

“Yeah, you guys haven’t visited in ages.” Kit mentions, sounding slightly hurt.

“Sorry, we’ve had some stuff coming up that’s been taking a bunch of time.”

“It’s cool, thanks for agreeing to help us move out of this dump.”

“Hey, it’s not a dump. It’s got… Character,” he studies the house again.

“Not the house, the whole damn town.” She clarifies, to which he nods, taking a final look at the house.

“Should I go say hi?”

“Nah they’re busy with something, let’s just get the bags on board.”

As the three start packing bags onto the shuttle Surge thinks back to the first time Tails had visited, when he’d brought the annoying blue blur along with him.

———————————————————————————————————————————————————

164 hours of community service left.

“Come on blue boy! I know you can go faster than that!” Surge’s voice rang out through the field.

“Calling me slow? You just signed your own defeat warrant buzzkill” Sonic responded, preparing another spin-dash. Surge just grinned and readied her own. Both of them set off at lightning pace, flying forward.

Across the finish line.

“Another photo finish!” your voice sang as you looked at your camera which again showed nothing as you hadn’t been able to actually get a picture of either of them.

“Ugh!”

“Really?”

They both march over to you to look.

“I see some green there definitely.” Sonic boasted

“Uh, no shit loser? We’re on a field of grass.” Surge retorted. She wouldn’t say she was sick of him, but that would be lying. Then again it was better than actually trying to kill him and getting embarrassed that way. “Also you know it's death warrant?”

“Yeah I know, but I’m not trying to kill you so it wouldn’t make sense.” He brushed some nonexistent dust off himself, “Not my style.”

“Goody two shoes,”

Before Sonic can respond with his own insult a certain fox’s voice yells out.

“Done!” which makes you gasp and shove the camera into Surge’s hands and sprint over to where Tails and Kit are sitting, a little workshop of sorts set up. You take the gauntlet tails offers and quickly look it all over, grinning at him. He beams at you as you praise it.

“Looks amazing dude.” Slipping it on you can already feel its improvement over the old version. The wiring and metal are no longer digging into your arm, it's lighter, it looks cooler, and if what Tails said he’d add was actually added then… “Does it have charge?”

“Uh no but if I can get it enough charge in about five minutes if you-”

“Nah don’t worry I got this. SURGE!” you yell after brushing him off, slightly to his confusion before he realizes what you intend to do.

“Uh you know that’s like dangerous right?” He asks as Surge stops in front of you with a questioning look on her face.

“Yeah, but I trust her.” Face turning from confusion to a grin as she understands what you’re getting at. She begins rubbing her hands together quickly, to the confusion of Tails and Sonic, who has since walked over and started watching too. “Let's get this baby amped up.” You pull your hand back and Surge does the same, before you both slap them together. The high five sending a loud crackle through the glove as it instantly charges to full.

“Woah,”

“Sheesh, why don’t we have a cool high five that does that Tails?” Said fox just glares at his brother.

“Alright, now how do I actually use it?” Turn back to him and he instructs you how to activate the weapon.

Pushing out your arm you aim away from anyone and towards a large rock sitting at the edge of the field. Following the steps Tails gave you, the gauntlet begins humming, then starts glowing before finally a single line of energy shoots from the palm, scorching the rock where it is hit. Some stone even get’s liquidized because of how hot it is. Eyes practically glowing you turn back to the group. Who all share similar expressions.

Kit and Sonic are amazed, Tails is smug and proud and Surge has a grin so wide you’re surprised her face doesn’t split in two.

“Now that’s what we could have used back at that Egghead base,” she says, walking over and after looking at you for permission, looking over the glove. Kit also comes over to inspect it while Sonic and Tails stand back.

“That’s pretty cool buddy, which reminds me, how’d you two manage to get in contact to set this whole shindig up?” Sonic asks Tails in particular but leaves it open for you too, glancing at the fox you realize he’s relying on you to answer.

“Well I knew the great Sonic the Hedgehog had a genius little brother, and I knew that they were pretty involved with the whole trial for S and K. So I figured there might be some info on the court docs, and there was. So I got in contact, we talked for a while about the whole thing and then I brought up my gauntlet Id been needing to upgrade and asked if he knew any people who’d be able to help since I assumed he’d know a bunch of other little geniuses.” He smiles at the praise before finishing the story himself.

“But then I mentioned how I would probably be able to help out myself. It took some planning but eventually, we were able to come out.”

“And you got me to come out by telling me Surge and Kit were spotted out In the open in a field.”

“Technically the truth,” Sonic stares for a second before Tails adds “And don’t pretend you haven’t been having fun.”

“Alright fine it’s been pretty fun, thanks for that zappy,” he grins at Surge who responds with a smile more like a grimace, but you can’t tell if it’s genuine.

“Yeah whatever Sonic the Headache.”

Following the insult match that came after that, you invited the two heroes in to have a drink before they had to head off. But when they saw you had a games console they were on it in seconds In a two versus-two against Surge and Kit.

They ended up having to crash at your place that night because they played for so long.

You didn’t mind, it was a fun night.

——————————————————————————————————————————————————

“I don’t know how you guys slept on those couches for so long, I think it was the worst night’s sleep I’ve ever gotten.” Tails recalls as he picks up the final box and brings it over to the shuttle. You’d still not come outside by this point.

“Try sleeping in a prison cot for a few weeks before you try again, really gives some perspective.” Surge jokes as she sets down her final box too, glancing back at the house. She really expected you to at least come out and say hello to Tails, maybe you were taking this whole thing more severely than she first thought.

“Maybe we should go check on her,” Kit suggests.

Before Tails or Surge can respond you walk out the front door. Suitcase in hand and a long jacket around your waist. “Hey Tails,” you greet as you reach the shuttle, him giving his own greeting back. “Sorry I took so long, just you know, saying goodbye hurts.” Surge nods, wrapping you in a hug which you reciprocate.

No more words are shared as you turn back to the house you’d called home for so many years. Finally leaving to new horizons, you glance at Surge and Kit before stepping onto the shuttle, them following behind quickly. Surge places herself next to you and you waste no time wrapping your arm around hers, as she rests her head on you.

Oh yeah, she forgot her favourite memory from this town, you’d be surprised it's a favourite based on how it starts. But things worked out funny like that. Looking out the window to her left at the sunset as the shuttle takes off, she thinks back to that moment.

———————————————————————————————————————————————————

57 hours of community service left.

“Hey, I like you, will you date me?”

No, too robotic.

“Hey, can we try dating please?”

Too desperate.

“Hey sugar, how bout you share some of your sweetness with me and go on a date?”

Too, awful, in every way.

Surge sighed to herself in the mirror, she’d been trying this for a while now. Practising asking you out. When she realized that she liked you as more than a friend she did not know what to think at all, she figured it was hopeless and she should kill it with fire before it even got the chance to turn into anything. Unfortunately, or maybe fortunately depending on how asking you went, she did not do that and now it had festered into something she could barely hide.

Deciding that she was done for tonight she turns to leave the bathroom, only to see a face she really did not want to right now.

“Oh don’t give me that face. You know you’re happy to see me!” Starline.

Holding her breath she attempts to just move past him but can't bring herself to actually move through his ethereal body. So she just stands there like an idiot, just like he tells her she is.

“You know, maybe I can help with your predicament. I believe the best course of action is simply to give up. You already know they won't like you back.” His voice snarls at her, and she steps back in fear. Eyes wide at the idea of you hating her for it.

“Stop,” she barely whispers, trying to be quiet.

“Maybe it would be better if you told her now that I rethink. That way she would throw you out and you’d be in the streets where you belong.”

“Stop it, shut up,” she says louder.

“Or perhaps there is an even more optimal solution… I’m sure I don’t need to spell it out for you but considering your… lower intelligence I think I have to.”

“Shut up!” she yells now, forgetting the housemates she has, who are now waking up and starting to realize something is wrong.

“Everyone would be better off, happier, safer, it really is the best choice… You should-”

“GET OUT OF MY HEAD!” she screams at him, clamping her eyes shut. The apparition is apparently surprised at being interrupted like that as it goes silent. Only once she opens her eyes she doesn’t see Starline but sees you and Kit. She collapses to the floor as she grips her head, tears flowing freely from her eyes now.

She can’t breathe.

“Surge,”

She can’t breathe.

“Surge!”

She can’t breathe.

“SURGE!”

Suddenly she’s not on the bathroom floor, she’s in her bed. No, scratch that, she’s in someone else’s bed. One quick glance around gives her the information she needs, it’s your bed.

“Surge,” a voice above her whispers, she looks up and sees you looking down at her, a very concerned look on your face. “Are you okay?” your hand gently strokes her cheek and she can’t help but lean into the touch. As you slowly help her sit up she realizes she was in your lap, making her red face even redder.

“What happened?” her voice is hoarse and her eyes are sore.

“You had… an episode in the bathroom. You were yelling something and when me and Kit got there you became unresponsive.” Oh, it wasn’t just a bad dream then. “I’m not going to ask you to tell me about It tonight, or ever if you don’t want to. But I am going to ask that you let me help, please.” Your face is pleading and she can feel herself on the verge of tears again.

“Just stay with me for tonight, please.” You nod immediately and Surge is about to lie back down when she has a thought. A weak thought, but a thought. “C-can you promise to not hate me, for tonight?”

You gasp at her words “Surge, I could never hate you.” She wanted so badly to believe you but she couldn’t, the words in her throat dying as she looked at you.

“I… I think I’m in love with you.”

That was not what you expected honestly, the look of shock on your face sends Surge into damage control mode as she begins to panic and she mumbles out some jumbled words. Tears leak from her eyes again before you stop her.

“I think I love you too.”

She manages to look at you through her blurry vision, did you actually say that? Was this a mind trick? Did she actually die on the bathroom floor?

“I, never said anything because it felt wrong.” There it was, you couldn’t date her because she was a freak. “It felt like taking advantage, so I decided to avoid doing anything about it. But if you’re… if what you said is true then, I am willing to try.” You smile at her gently but she can see you are delicate at this moment, being vulnerable like this.

“I want to try.”

You nod at her and she smiles a very crooked smile. “Okay, let’s give it a shot then.” You return the smile and gently bring your arms around her to bring her close to you as you pull yourself and her under the blankets. Both of you laying on your bed in each other’s arms as she rests her head on your chest.

Suddenly having a panic attack on the bathroom floor doesn’t seem all that bad if this is the outcome.

Heh, thanks Starline.

Previous part

"Showtime already?! I am experiencing a malfunction, the recharge cycle is not completed." Freddy speaks to himself in the mirror. His battery is only half charged, but for some reason, he activated early and ended the cycle.

After looking into his own eyes for a moment Freddy turns to look at the rest of his room. The red-lined wall with different pieces of art from children, most of them quite crude, but he loved them nonetheless because of the thought that was put into them. The rest of his room is filled with a couple of things, mainly Fazbear themed merchandise and decorations, such as his trash can themed after himself.

Slowly he wanders towards the large window connecting his room to the rest of the Pizzaplex, the curtains are drawn most of the way, a small sliver of glass is still visible. The area on the other side of his glass was empty, no guests, no human staff, It must have been late, his internal clock was saying it was almost midnight but it could have been a malfunction, he seemed to have a lot of those recently.

Turning back towards his dresser Freddy spots something out of place, a pair of shoes coming out slightly from under the dresser. He walks towards the piece of furniture and lowers himself down to look under. Beneath is a person, sitting in a huddled position with their knees pulled to their chest, they stare into Freddy’s eyes as he looks at them. It takes a moment for Freddy to process what is happening but he eventually realises what he is seeing and speaks up.

"Excuse me but this area is not meant for guests."

"S-sorry I just, this was the closest place I could see and get into so I-I just came in and saw you sleeping or whatever and decided I could hide under the desk for a bit" The person quickly responds, fumbling with their words. Freddy takes this moment to scan them, seeing if they have a guest profile that would allow him to find out more about them.

"How odd, you do not have a guest profile that I recognise, who are you?" He says after finishing the scan.

"I-I'm Y/N" Comes the reply, Y/N hesitates before putting their hand out, for a handshake presumably. Freddy sees the action and grasps the hand with his own, taking care to not cause any damage by accidentally gripping too hard. After shaking hands both of them look at each other for a moment before Y/N speaks again "Can I come out of here now?"

"Oh, of course," Moving aside as he says it, Freddy observes the person as they stand from under the dresser. While they brush themselves off he asks, "What were you trying to hide from in here?", the question seems to startle them as they look up quickly at him, before glancing to the window of his room, or at least the small bit of glass that is still visible.

Looking back to Freddy, Y/N has a somewhat concerned look on their face before they speak, "The security guard, she knows I'm here a-and is looking for me, but I think there is something not right with her." Their tone is both worried and sceptical as to if they almost don't trust their own word about the security guard being strange. However, Freddy can tell they are being honest, to some degree at least, working in the place he does, knowing when people are lying comes somewhat naturally.

It only occurs to Freddy now that he does not appear to be connected to the main network, as a result, he cannot contact the main office or anything for that matter. "I appear to be disconnected from the Pizzaplex network," he speaks his thoughts.

"I-I think it was the security guard. The other animatronics seem to be doing things that aren't right either." Y/N responds. It seems plausible to Freddy, his own malfunctions could be a result of this security guards misdeeds, though now that he is in safe mode the glitches haven’t occurred at all. Maybe this person had a point to what they were saying. However, if there were malfunctioning animatronics around, it could be dangerous for a human.

"I believe the best choice of action would be for you to leave the Pizzaplex if there are malfunctioning animatronics. I may not even be exempt from these glitches so we should move with haste, the main entrance should still be open." He says, having planned out what he would say already, perks of being an AI. Y/N looks at Freddy, their face being unreadable for him.

"O-okay, let's go then" Y/N responds, moving towards the door of Freddy’s room. However, Freddy speaks up before they can reach it.

"The door will be locked now, and I am currently unable to unlock it myself due to being disconnected from the network." He ponders for a moment before continuing, "There will be a manual way to open it from the other side, you will have to reach there on your own, however."

"Oh, how, how do I get out then?" Y/N asks, turning back to Freddy with a nervous look. The thought of being alone out there wasn't the most thrilling thing, but they would do what they had to. Freddy then turns towards the other door in his room, which appears much less public and much more maintenance.

"That door will lead to a back room, it has a vent which will allow you to get back into the rest of the Pizzaplex, and from there you can reach my door." He pauses for a second and stands more straight before his chest cavity opens revealing a present. "Take this, it is a Fazwatch and it will allow me to contact you from a distance. It also contains a map of the Pizzaplex". Y/N quickly walks to Freddy, they bring their arm up but look into Freddy’s eyes for a second before reaching in and taking the present, cranking the arm on the side to open it. The watch fits nicely on their wrist.

"Thanks" Is their simple response, smiling down at the watch, before looking back towards the door and walking to it. Taking a quick peek inside, they wave towards Freddy before moving in, the door closing behind them.

Now that he is alone, Freddy has a moment to himself to think and get in a bit more charging while he's at it.

Was this person, Y/N, telling the truth? Was the security guard doing something to the others? Was she doing something to him? He couldn't tell at this moment, but he does know that the glitches he has been experiencing are quite detrimental, and he could very much do without dealing with them. However he cannot remember any of the other animatronics acting strange, or if they had he hadn't noticed, which wouldn't be a good thing considering he is meant to be their friend.

Now that he thinks about it, sending Y/N out on their own was likely a bad idea, any of the others could find them, or even the security guard could, and if he is to believe their claim that the security guard is up to no good, that would be a bad situation to have. He should have probably given them something more than a watch to help, or even tried to find a way to come with them. They could be in danger now and he wouldn't know, but that was a bad way to think, he had to have faith in them, and he would make it up to them when they got back. That's right, he'd find something to help them more, he just needed something that can help in this very specific situation.

Crawling through vents was not the most enjoyable experience. It was dusty, the metal was cold, and any noise made in it would reverberate a thousand times and deafen them. Which made the sections of vents next to the other animatronic rooms that much worse. Roxanne's motivational speech to herself, what was probably Montgomery breaking his entire room and then Chica shredding it on the guitar. All of them would likely be amusing in their own ways if they weren't all deafening right now.

Luckily the vents don't last too long and Y/N emerges from them into a much larger room of the Pizzaplex, the ceiling was much higher now and covered in neon lighting, which appeared to be on most surfaces upon further inspection. They take a glance to the left and jump, the cardboard cutouts of different characters appearing much more real in the dark corner. There also appears to be a moving wet floor sign, which also had eyes apparently.

Turning to the right, they see what appears to be the animatronics rooms. Decorations are rampant in this area, large statues of each character stand in front of what would probably be their respective rooms, as there is also a neon sign for each of them above the window which looked into the room. So much for privacy.

Unfortunately for Y/N, the large windows went both ways, which meant they had to be careful when going past as to not be noticed by any of the animatronics. Hopefully, they would all stay in their own room and not begin roaming the Pizzaplex, and they also hoped the security guard would be somewhere else by now.

They begin to walk towards what was likely Freddy's room, crouching down low to make themselves as small as possible while they go past the windows which peered into other characters. Luckily there wasn't much need to be stealthy, as both Chica and Roxanne were distracted, looking into their mirror at themselves, and Montgomery seemed to have his room closed off to the public, with the window being blacked out.

Though, the fact the animatronics didn't notice them hadn't helped Y/N's nerves, as they were still quite jittery. The whole place gave them the creeps now that it was closed, other guests were annoying to deal with but without the bustle of the general public, the Pizzaplex became an eerie place. Much too big for two people and a handful of Animatronics.

Reaching Freddy's room was a relief, but was made less relieving by the sight of Freddy looking at them from his window, which just proved the fact that the others could have easily seen them while they walked past their rooms. Pushing that thought aside Y/N continued past the window, giving Freddy a small wave, and walked to where the door to the room was located. A few posts connected with rope blocked them somewhat but were easily avoided, the amount must have been reduced after hours, otherwise, Y/N couldn't see the point of having such a small amount.

Unfortunately, as they tried to open the door, it didn't budge, which came as a surprise to both Y/N and Freddy, who had forgotten what was probably quite an important detail. "Oh, do you not have a Photo Pass? You will need one to open the door. My apologies I assumed you would already have had one."

"Uh, no I-I don't. When I came in earlier the door just opened, where can I get a Photo Pass?" came Y/N's reply.

"You should be able to find one at a convenience counter." Answered Freddy. It would have been nice to know that before they came here, but it was easy to have something like that slip your mind, especially if you were an animatronic who had never had to deal with something like this.

"Al-Alright, I'll try to be quick, just don't go anywhere." They said without really thinking about it, before realising how stupid it was to even say that. Though Freddy didn't seem to mind, a light chuckle coming through the door instead of the watch now, at least he wasn't offended. Now they just had to find a convenience counter, where could one of those be.

Turning back around they move to the main hall area and look both right and left. There didn't seem to be anything that looked like a counter back to the left, but to the right wasn't anything that immediately jumped out either. Though there did appear to be a door or shutter of some kind. Having no other ideas Y/N decides to walk towards it, hoping it would actually open to them at this hour.

Luckily, as soon as they get close to the door It shoots up and gives them safe passage to the next room. Walking into the next area Y/N is greeted with a much darker area, which makes them somewhat frightened, as anything could be hiding somewhere they cannot see right now. They cannot tell what kind of room this is meant to be, on the right there appears to be a counter with screens above it, and some partitions blocking them from approaching, which makes it look like a front counter or just a counter in general. On the left, it appears to just be darkness, though a Mongomery cutout seems to be labelling that area as parking.

Something that catches their eye is the Freddy cutout which has text reading '1 Free Photo Pass!' which was convenient. But that was probably the point of a convenience counter. They approach the cutout and lean down to pick up the present at Freddy’s feet, winding the lever on the side similar to the one which contained their Fazwatch. It pops open after a moment and shoots out their Photo Pass, the force of it making it fly towards the darkness of the 'parking' area.

Dropping the empty present, Y/N approaches where the Photo Pass should have landed, but the darkness makes it difficult to find so they end up mostly just rubbing their hands against the ground in an attempt to feel it. Eventually, they feel something and manage to grab it, holding it very close to their eyes it appears to be their Pass. Standing back up and smiling, Y/N turns back towards the door leading to Freddy's room. However, that is the moment that they feel a hand grab their shoulder.

Y/N was not much of a fighter, or someone who enjoyed conflict, but their fight or flight did not represent that part of their personality very well. Almost as soon as the hand touches their shoulder, they whip around and punch whatever grabbed them straight in the face. Which turns out to have been a STAFF security bot. This is when the other part of fight or flight activates, as Y/N runs off towards the door, the STAFF bot being momentarily disorientated by the punch, however, while they are only distracted for a few seconds, it is enough for Y/N to reach the door.

Clutching their own hand, which was now in agony from punching metal full force, they slip under the shutter door and quickly jog back to Freddy's room. Flashing the Photo Pass into the scanner, the door opens and reveals the bear animatronic, who looks to be smiling.

"Well done superstar!" He exclaims, maybe a bit too loud but Y/N doesn't say anything about that, just smiles back at him. However the smile doesn't last too long as Freddy seems to spot their hand, which is limply being held at their side, this concerns him and causes him to speak "Is your hand ok? Did you injure yourself while retrieving the Pass? My apologies I should not have sent you on your own."

Before he can continue Y/N interrupts "No, no it-it's ok. I ran into a STAFF bot and it scared me and I-I kind of punched it. Which seemed to work but it also seems to hurt a lot." They say quickly, Freddy's face quickly morphs from concern to surprise but he appears to have his questions satiated and he does not ask any further for now. Instead, he turns around and walks back into his room, looking for something.

He begins to talk while he looks, "While we move through the maintenance tunnels there may be the other animatronics or more STAFF bots. If you were smaller I would suggest you could ride within my chest cavity, but I do not believe you would fit." Y/N doesn't know if they should be flattered that he thought of them, or disappointed they don't get to ride in Freddy's chest cavity, as it almost seems as if it would just be a fun roller coaster, just with more exposed joints and wires. "However In the short time you were wandering outside, I found something which may help regardless," He continues, before revealing what looks to be a Freddy animatronic head.

Looking at Y/N almost expectantly, they can't help but be confused at what they are meant to be thinking about the head. "Uh, sorry but how will another one of your heads help?" Their tone is trying to not be condescending towards Freddy, as he did go through some effort to find it to help, but they can't help but be completely perplexed as to how it can help.

Fortunately, Freddy takes the confusion in stride and continues "If you are wearing this on your head, the other animatronics and bots should not be able to recognise you as a human, and will simply see you as another animatronic." He says it proudly and confidently as if he knew it would work. This is mostly reassuring to Y/N, who didn't exactly have any other options which weren't Freddy, so they trusted his judgement. Taking the head off of him, it is quite heavy in their hands but appears to be devoid of any actual animatronic parts, just an empty head.

"T-thanks," is the only reply Y/N can really think of. They move the head around in their hands, placing it onto their own head. It somewhat weighs down their neck and probably shouldn't be worn for too long, but if it helps them escape then they would take the slight discomfort. The eyes appear to be somewhat transparent, probably to allow the real animatronic to see through them, which is good as without that they would be completely blind. "Um, so what do we do now?" Y/N questions, they hadn't really thought of what else they would have to do to get out, so they hoped Freddy had some form of a plan.

"We can move through the utility tunnels to get to the main exit, though we must be quick, if I am spotted outside of my room I will be taken back to it," Freddy states, it was reassuring to know that he knew what he was doing. At least he seemed to know, hopefully, things went smoothly from here.

"A-alright let's go," Y/N replies, moving to the side to give Freddy a clear way to the door. Getting the idea, Freddy leads the way out of the room, Y/N has to go somewhat slower to stay at the same pace as him. They don't know if Freddy is also limiting his speed or if he is just a slow walker, but either way the walk to what are likely doors to the utility tunnels takes a moment. And during this moment Y/N looks back towards the other animatronic areas but doesn't see either Roxanne or Chica, and of course, Montgomery is still out of sight, hopefully, they were just doing something in their back rooms.

When they reach the doors, they open automatically, likely due to Freddy being there, but Y/N is able to slip in while they are open for him. They lead to a staircase in a room that is much less decorated than the previous ones, similar to Freddy's backroom it lacks paint on many of the walls, which made it quite eerie to be here. The back areas that you never visited when you were a guest, and now Y/N was just walking here with the main animatronic while wearing a replica of his head. It was quite a surreal experience when thinking about it in detail.

Darkness wasn't the most fun thing to be back in after the experience with the STAFF bot at the convenience counter, but Freddy being with them made it less frightening to be in. But Y/N could swear they saw something crawling down the walls, but passed it off as paranoia, they were probably just stressed. Luckily the bottom of the staircase came sooner than expected, and that meant they could quickly move to the next rooms and hopefully get somewhere brighter.

So far they hadn't run into any security bots or anything for that matter. Excluding the janitor bot, they saw behind a gate while descending the stairs, and hearing the security guards voice while on the same set of stairs, but they hadn't actually seen her. Unfortunately for Y/N, the lower levels were not much brighter than the staircase, maybe even darker. Passing the flowing water, or maybe sewage, they entered what appeared to be a tunnel. It was likely a pathway behind doors for animatronics and staff to go through without being pestered by guests.

For them, this tunnel would hopefully lead right to the main entrance and Y/N could leave the Pizzaplex without much issue. As they walk, Freddy suddenly turns to Y/N and stops them, speaking "There is a first aid station nearby, there will be something to help your hand there, we should go to it before continuing."

Y/N wants to argue and say that there isn't any time, but Freddy is already moving towards it, so they have no option other than following. The hallways they walk through are unpainted like the previous rooms, sharing that eerie feeling they had gotten. The walking doesn't last too long and, moving past Freddy who had stopped in the middle of a doorway, they spot what appears to be the first aid station that Freddy was talking about. Quickly moving towards it, they open the curtain and step into it, looking around for something to cover the cut they didn't even realise they had.

Exactly as they step into it, however, the security guard comes out of seemingly nowhere and begins speaking to Freddy, luckily for Y/N she doesn't notice them.

"Freddy! What are you doing out here? You're meant to be on lockdown." She says, anger laced in her voice, but also some amount of concern, either for the animatronic, or something else they couldn't tell.

"Officer Vanessa, I do not know how I got here," Freddy lies, something that probably should have been programmed out of him, and the others, but whoever made them had clearly not thought of that.

"Well, that makes the two of us. First, you totally blew it tonight, crashing and ruining the show, which made parts and service put you into low power mode or something as a safety precaution. Then I find out about someone who snuck in backstage, look if you see anything notify me straight away, I've already told the others," 'Vanessa' responds before quickly adding on, "Now get back to your room, I don't want to see you out here again." After finishing she moves away, going through a gate out of Y/N's line of sight.

Quickly grabbing a small bandaid, with a cute design of the animatronics on it, Y/N leaves the first aid station and begins to talk, "I told you she was after me, and that she was acting strange."

"I have not seen her this agitated about something in a long time, there is clearly something going on here. I did not say anything about you to her though, I will make sure to keep you safe, let us go now if you have finished using the station." Freddy responds, making Y/N feel moderately safer, if a 3-meter tall kick-ass robot couldn't protect them, well they were probably screwed anyway.

"Y-yeah I'm done, lead the way," Y/n says, moving to follow Freddy as he moves back to the utility tunnel. The pair walk together in silence for a moment, the darkness continuing to unsettle Y/N. Freddy begins to speak again, however, which allows some brief reprieve from the silence.

"This maintenance tunnel goes under the Pizzaplex, it connects the attractions," he states, looking down at Y/N while he does so.

"So we could go anywhere in the building?" They reply, a small amount of giddiness in their voice. The situation was quite dire but they couldn't help the childlike glee from the idea of going to any attraction worming its way into their voice.

"Correct. Fazer Blast, Monty Gold, Roxy Raceway: they are all accessible down here, usually only STAFF bots with high enough security clearance would be allowed down here, guests are not permitted. Though yours is a... special situation," Explains the Animatronic. That would be useful to know for the future if they managed to get that far at least.

Stopping at what appeared to be a closed-off section of the tunnel, the two see a very strange sight, the security bots appear to be forming a circle around a decapitated head of another bot. It confuses the pair, enough for them to stop walking completely to stare. Both of them being distracted means that they are both very surprised when they hear a voice ring out from behind them.

"Freddy?" The voice is familiar to both of them, belonging to none other than Chica. Both Freddy and Y/N turn around in surprise, Chica stands there, staring at them with a confused look on her face. She then begins talking again, "What are you doing down here? and why do you have someone with you?" Her tone isn't so much accusatory, just confused. The fact she saw right through the Freddy head, however, makes Y/N's blood run cold.

"Ah, Chica, I was simply escorting this guest to the exit, they got lost within the Pizzap-" Freddy is cut off from finishing when Chica suddenly speaks again, a much more panicked tone in her voice.

"Wait a guest?!" She rushes over to the pair and before either of them can do anything she rips the Freddy head off. Freddy goes to say something but cannot find any words to prevent Chica from doing what she does next. She scans Y/N, the blue light turning red as soon as she finishes. "YOU!" She yells, going to grab them, but fortunately, Freddy quickly grabs Chica's arms and pulls her away. Giving enough time for Y/N to come to their senses and begin running away, through the hallway on the right.

"Chica! What on earth are you doing?" Freddy asks, his own tone becoming panicked. Both due to his concern for you now that Chica has shown that the other animatronics could be violent, but also due to concern for Chica. She was usually very joyful and never acted aggressively, but she almost seemed rabid just now.

"That guest! They broke in, Vanessa told me they were very dangerous, said that if we see them we have to bring them to her!" Chica quickly exclaims, wriggling within Freddy's grasp.

"They broke in?" Freddy asks, the idea of Y/N breaking in had crossed his mind but he had the benefit of the doubt and assumed that you had simply decided to stay in his room for some other reason. He drops his arms from Chicas and moves back, looking towards the hallway they had run through. Before continuing "They told me that they simply got lost and hid in my room."

"Well, who do you trust more, the security guard who you've known for months or a brat you've known for an hour at most," Chica's tone is very hostile, which just confirms more that something is wrong with her. However, he knew that if he tried to argue he would get nowhere, Y/N was also on their own now, which was dangerous, if he searched with Chica at least he would be able to help in some way.

"You are right, Vanessa is right, we should bring the guest to her. Shall we search together?" He asks, if she says no he may be out of options.

"Well, Vanessa also said that if we said that if we saw you, we should make you go back to your room," She stops for a second, as if thinking about something before continuing "But I could probably use the help." This was good, as long as he was with Chica he could stop her from harming Y/N, though he had to think of a way to stop her without appearing suspicious.

"Great, let us search then," Freddy says as he begins walking down the hall Y/N had gone down. It was quite drab, and many barrels seemed to have been left down here much too long by the state of them. There was also another staircase, both Freddy and Chica looked towards each other before coming to the silent agreement to climb them, the clanking of metal filling the air as their joints work harder to move them up the stairs.

As they reach the top Freddy notices something which grants him a large amount of relief, he can sense the Fazwatch he gave Y/N nearby. Hopefully, that meant they were hiding somewhere here, and not continuing to run. He just had to think of a way to get chica to leave now.

Before he could even begin to think, however, he is suddenly made aware of how low his power is. He hadn't paid any attention to his battery but it was almost completely empty now, the half-completed recharge cycle finally making its damage obvious. It was the perfect excuse to leave chica, as in this very room was a charging station. However, it was not all good, as this meant he would not be able to continue with Y/N once he found them.

"Chica, I must stop here for now. My charging cycle was interrupted earlier, along with my power efficiency being low I am almost completely devoid of charge," He says suddenly, making Chica turn to look at him with a foreign look on her face.

"Aw, that's alright. Hopefully, they haven't gotten too far now. Have a nice recharge, Freddy!" She says, the tone of her voice almost having returned to what it usually was. It was nice to hear, hopefully, it meant that she would not permanently be like the way she is now. Freddy waves to chica as she walks through a pair of doors on the other side of the room. Freddy waits a moment before speaking aloud.

"You may come out now, Chica is gone," He says, loud enough for them to hopefully hear, but not loud enough for Chica to. It appears he was right, as you emerge from what looks like an empty trash can. Not the cleanest hiding spot, but if it works then it works.

"Oh thank god, I-I thought you might have had to go back to your room, or you would get corrupted like her," They say while wiping themselves down, looking back at Freddy with a smile. What Chica had said, however, did not leave Freddy's memory. He had questions but unfortunately, he did not really have time to ask them. He had only known you for a short time but he had to believe you, or at least he could not believe the Security guard for the time being.

"Do not worry, as long as I am in safe mode I believe I am safe from whatever is making the other act off," He says with his own smile, however it changes to a slight frown as he continues, "However I am afraid I cannot continue with you, for now, my battery power has almost completely run out. I will keep in contact with you through your Fazwatch however, so you will not be completely alone."

The news that they would have to continue on their own was not the most thrilling but they supposed it was bound to happen at some point. They just hoped it would not be too long, and that they would not run into any others. Especially without the Freddy head, which didn't even seem to work. Freddy must have read their mind as he starts talking again.

"I also must apologise for the Freddy head not working, I believed it would as I felt something in my databanks which stated it did work before. However, it must have been an old glitch that has been fixed." He says, his eyes looking down. Y/N feels bad immediately, he had tried to help and while it hadn't gone to plan, he had still protected them.

"I-It's alright Freddy! Even if the mask didn't work, y-you still helped me, and for that, I am very thankful." They say, a smile on their face, which Freddy sees once he lifts his head back up. It makes him smile in return, he then looks back to the doors that Chica had gone through, the idea of them having to follow her was not the most encouraging fact. But he had to have faith in them to manage on their own. He is then given another warning about his low power, so he quickly gives a wave before stepping into the recharge station, opting to talk through the Fazwatch.

"I must start my charging before I am completely devoid of power, my apologies. You will have to continue through those two red doors, however, be very careful, as Chica went through the same ones. You will have to be careful," He warns, tone quite serious instead of the jovial one he had before. He sees Y/N nod to him from inside the recharge station, before they begin to move through the doors.

Y/N's mind is racing as they go through the doors, the idea of being alone with Chica is a frightening one, and unfortunately, one they have to deal with much sooner than they wanted. The path appears to be mostly blocked by a desk with some cans on top of it, looking closely they see if there is a way to move past without making too much noise before they suddenly hear a sound that makes them shiver. It almost sounds like eating, but not a natural kind, it comes from the bathroom that appears to be on their right.

Mustering up the courage to look inside, they peek around the corner to see what is making the noise, and much to confirm their fears, it is Chica, who appears to be eating from a trash pile. It disgusts them but also makes them feel bad for her, it was clear something was wrong with her and not her choice to randomly eat garbage. But unfortunately, she was now in their way, and they needed to do something to move her. They likely couldn't silently move past the desk in the hallway, so they would have to get her to leave.

An idea suddenly comes to mind, moving back to the hallway they look at the cans which are stacked quite delicately, and they know right away what they can do, just hoping that it goes the right way. They push all the cans over, making a large clanking noise that echos through the entire hallway and bathroom. After hitting the cans they move back to the bathroom to lean around, and they see Chica has stopped eating the trash and is now walking out of the bathroom through the other door they are not currently standing at.

Quickly ducking to be completely in the bathroom, Y/N moves through it as fast as they can without making any noise. The distraction worked but it would likely not keep her there for long so she had to move before she came back. The bathroom itself is dirty, the only thing inside being somewhat clean is a Freddy poster saying to 'wash your paws' which would be more amusing if they were not currently in the situation they are in.

As they leave the room, they see Chica staring at the knocked over paint cans and quickly move to be out of sight when Chica turns around, going back to where she was before. Or at least that is what it looks like she does. Y/N however doesn't have much time to think as they quickly move through the new set of hallways they have entered. Luckily for them, these halls are much brighter and actually have paint on all of the walls.

Good fortune doesn't last too long though, as they move through the hallways they come to what appears to be a boiler room of some sort. It seems quite out of place considering the halls they just came from, but they think nothing of it until a gravelly voice rings out at least.

"There you are!" Quickly turning towards the source of the voice, Y/N spots a certain alligator animatronic. Montgomery smashes through a gate, staring at Y/N as he does so. Immediately realising this situation just got dire, Y/N bursts off running in the opposite direction, no longer caring for stealth of any kind, just trying to escape the loud metallic stomping that comes from behind them. It isn’t until they reach the first intersection that they look back and see that he is much closer than would be comfortable. It is also when they hear a second voice ring out.

"Are you lost?" Looking towards this one, Y/N sees Roxanne, taking much less time for their fight or flight to kick in they run the other direction, right as Mongomery jumps for them, causing him to hit the floor and land face first. This also has the accidental effect of stopping Roxanne from running straight for them.

Coming to another area that the hallways split off, Y/N trusts the instincts to run towards light and heads for the painted and lit up hallways once more, not before having Chica burst out from behind boxes running towards them.

"Lost guest over here!" her voice rings out in a sing-song way. Almost like she is enjoying this. Taking no time to think, Y/N runs through the coloured hallway towards some stairs, climbing them as quickly as they can, taking 3 steps at a time. They stumble on the last steps due to overcompensating but quickly stand, taking a glance behind them to see all three animatronics close behind. Turning again they sprint down a hallway to what appears to be a security door.

As soon as they enter the room, the door slams closed behind them. They feel the blast of air coming from the door shutting so fast but it doesn't phase them too much, they simply turn back to the door as they hear banging on it for a brief moment. That is until Freddy's voice comes out of their watch.

"Well done Y/N. You found a security office, you should be safe here as long as the doors stay closed, they were built for highly trained security staff in case of emergencies, I believe this would class as one. The doors should remain closed as long as there is ample power," He explains quickly, however, after taking a look at the power of the door currently being pounded on, Y/N's panic comes back right away.

"F-Freddy! The power is at 15% percent and they are banging on the door already, h-how do I get out of here?!" They ask frantically. Freddy's reply comes almost as quick.

"Do not panic. You should see an interface on the security desk. I will make it accessible to you," He states, taking a short pause before talking again, "there, you will now be able to activate security protocols." He sounds proud of himself as he says it, he likely doesn't get many opportunities to do something like this, the most he ever helps people is bringing a child back to their parents, not stopping someone from potentially dying. Seeing the button in front of them light up and a cable pop out, they quickly plug in their Fazwatch and push it.

"Your Fazwatch is connected to the security camera system now, you will be able to access the cameras from the map," He continues to explain. Quickly checking the map, Y/N manages to check the cameras on the map. First seeing one right out of the office, with Montgomery still banging on the door, though there is no Chica or Roxanne in sight. Changing camera, they see Chica wandering through a square-shaped room, and continue to watch as she crouches down to eat more trash. Still disgusting, but helpful if it distracts her.

Standing up, Y/N quickly exits the office through the door Montgomery is not banging on, moving through the halls to the room they just saw Chica inside of. Though they cannot see Chica currently, they wait a moment for her to appear, deciding to check the cameras again quickly. She stands just out of their line of sight, looking around seemingly confused before she seems to come to her sense and moves around a corner. Looking away from the watch Y/N sees Chica appear from behind the corner they were looking at, and quickly ducks behind their own corner to avoid being spotted.

Deciding that being stealthy is probably the best course of action instead of just trying to run past Chica, Y/N quietly walks to another corner of the rooms inner walls, waiting for Chica to come around the corner again, which she does, making Y/N duck behind the corner once more. This time they move quickly to the double red doors. Pushing them open and moving into a short hallway, which appears to have another set of doors at the end of it. Deciding that stealth is likely not needed anymore, Y/N begins to run, pushing open the second set of doors and sprinting to the exit.

"Freddy Fazbear's Mega Pizzaplex is now closed. Initiation nighttime protocols," The voice of the intercom rings out and sends a shiver down Y/N's spine as they continue to run. However, they appear to be too late, as the shutters to the main entrance begin to close.

"No! no!" They shout as they reach the doors, the shutters barely blocking them from leaving. Well, that's it, they're done for. With the Crazy animatronics, STAFF bots and probably security guards, they would not be able to make it through this night alone, at least they would die somewhere that is interesting, maybe they could go to some attractions before they got caught. That might be fun. But who were they kidding, they weren't excited they were scared as hell. And Frustrated, if they were just a bit faster they could have gotten out. This fear and anger manifest as a single word escaping their lips.

"Shit"

"Language"

Oh right, they weren't alone. They had a 3-meter tall 200-kilogram bear trying to protect them, maybe they had a chance.

"S-sorry, I forgot this is a family-friendly establishment," Y/N's voice came after a moment of silence after Freddy scolds their language. The attempt at a joke came out much less funny than intended, but this was not much of a funny situation so it went about as well as could be expected.

"That is ok, I understand your frustration. Worry not however, the doors will open again at 6 am. I believe there is a good chance you can stay safe for the 6 hours until then," Came Freddy's voice through the Fazwatch, he was reassuring even when he didn't put too much effort into it, he just had that effect. However, even Freddy's reassurance could only help so much. They were stuck in a massive Pizzaplex for 6 hours, with animatronics malfunctioning, crazy security guards and probably some other stuff they hadn't found yet.

"What do we do? I don't know if just sitting in a corner for 6 hours will work," Asked Y/N, while they kind of wanted to just sit in a corner and cry at their situation, it would probably end up leading to them getting caught. So there had to be something more proactive for them to do, even if it was just going to be running away from everyone for a while.

"I think the best course of action would be to get access to the rest of the Pizzaplex, currently you are only in the main lobby and that means if you get in trouble you won't have anywhere to go," The bear replies before saying more, "You will have to get through the first barriers, you will need an Entry Pass for that, I am not sure where one could be found but it will likely be in the area."

"Alright, I'll have a look around," Y/N says, they didn't really have any idea what they were looking for, but if it was anything like the Photo Pass they had, it would be obvious when they saw it. Deciding to first backtrack and check the left side of the entry lobby, finding not much but posters and signs of the animatronics. There were also the seemingly alive wet floor signs, hopefully, those weren’t broadcasting their location to every other animatronics in the building. Having no luck on the left Y/N decides to head to the right side and check there instead.

On the right of the lobby, they found mostly the same posters, wet floor signs and funny looking trash cans. Luckily however there was also what seemed to be an Entry Pass, which seemed to be stored similarly to the Photo Pass, as expected. A janitor bot was also on the right, though it didn't seem too interested with Y/N, focusing on its cleaning. Though when they stepped too close, Y/N got a fight from the bot suddenly shooing them away, no alarm was set off at least.

Moving back to the entry barriers, Y/N scans the Pass and quickly moves through the gate into the main part of the lobby, which featured a very large gold statue of Glamrock Freddy. "I wonder how much that cost to make," Y/N thinks aloud, a rhetorical question but that seems to not dawn on Freddy, who decides to answer.

"I believe it was around three hundred and forty-nine dollars and ninety-nine cents," Calculates Freddy, he can't remember the exact value but he has some memory of workers discussing the statue and that is the approximate value they said. "The statue is made of steel and is hollow, the gold is simply paint, so it was not too costly to make but it has a strong effect on guests who just entered the building, according to statistics."

It was interesting to hear that the statue actually did something and wasn't just there for show, whether Y/N believed that a golden statue had a strong effect on guests, they couldn't tell but if Freddy said he had statistics, there wasn't much of an argument to be made. Instead, they just move on from the statue and look around, there is a security bot roaming the lower section of the lobby, but their path is quite small so it is easily avoided. However less easily avoided is Chica, who seems to have entered the area at some point.

"This area is off-limits," Her voice is glitchy, not like what it sounded like earlier, but more alarmingly she was already looking directly at Y/N. Suddenly remembering what their situation was, they run in the opposite direction, up the stairs to what is probably the elevators to the atrium, unfortunately, none of the doors would open even as they slam their entry pass into the scanners.

"Freddy! The Entry Pass isn't working, and I already have Chica hot on my trail," The rushes sentence comes out of Y/N's mouth as they turn around and see Chica finishing walking up the stairs, deciding that staying still is not a good idea they run off to the right, into a small restaurant looking area. While they do this, Freddy's voice begins to reply, sounding somewhat panicked too.

"Oh, you will need to upgrade your Pass before you can use the elevators. There should be an upgrade machine in one of the stores nearby." The information is useful, if not somewhat vague. But it happens to be that Freddy told them at the perfect time as they sprint through the restaurant, slipping past the security bot who sounds his alarm, which doesn't do much as Cica is already chasing them. Once they descend the stairs at the back of the restaurant Y/N enters the lower portion of the building-in-a-building, which has a bunch of... Prams? Well, children were quite often brought here they suppose.

Something else they spot is a machine, that looks similar to an ATM, but lacks many of the ATM parts. They quickly run to it and have their suspicions confirmed, as it is quite clearly an upgrade machine. They jam their Entry Pass into it quickly, however, the machine decides it is hungry and doesn't give them back the pass after, glitching out instead. Y/N punches the machine slightly, remembering that punching metal full force is a bad idea, but the machine does not give it back. Cutting their losses as Chica has started descending the stairs, they instead hide behind the counter, crouching down low.

Once Chica gets to the bottom of the stairs, she looks around and scans for any signs of the guest she was just chasing. She spots the upgrade machine malfunctioning immediately and quickly walks towards it, staring at it intensely. Though, after a moment she decides that it is no longer interesting and moves to look around the rest of the room. Seeing this as an opportunity, Y/N slips from their hiding spot that Chica came so close to finding and quickly peeks over to try and find where she had gotten to. Spotting her looking through some of the prams, probably trying to find them.

Taking advantage of her being distracted, Y/N moves as silently as possible to the button next to some gates and presses it, the gate immediately opening for them. Chica doesn't seem to take notice, fortunately, so Y/N take their leave and moves through the lobby once again. Still avoiding the other security bot, they move to a safe place at the top of the lobby next to the elevators. Where they begin to speak to Freddy again. "Freddy, the upgrade machine took my pass, w-what do I do?" Their voice is shakey, still fueled by the adrenaline of the chase, and the fear from it too.

"Oh I am sorry, those machines have always been glitchy. You can try looking in a nearby store, they have all kinds of knickknacks, doodads and gadgets in those," He says supportively, while they would love to argue that something in a store probably would not help them get another ticket, they had no other options. Moving into the other store was simple without Chica following them, but they did still have to avoid the security bot that was roaming the top floor. Once Y/N finds the stairs to the bottom floor, which has no such security bot to constantly pressure them, they take a moment to breathe before beginning to roam the shelves.

"So, what would be useful for this situation? I assume a Freddy plush toy won't help me get the ticket out," The attempt at a joke goes over well with the bear animatronic seemingly, as he lets out a small chuckle.

"No that would likely not be useful here, If my memory banks serve me right, there have been cases of teenagers using magnets on ticket machines to break them and get unlimited tickets, though I do not know if the magnets here will be strong enough," Freddy's informative reply comes. A magnet could be easy enough to find, though Y/N didn't know if they should steal, both because then they would have committed a crime above trespassing and because Freddy likely would not like that. Once again Luck seems to be on their side as they see a free prize on a special looking counter.

Winding the crank on the side, they quickly grab the 'doodad' that pops out. Seeing that it is a Mr Hippo magnet, jackpot. "Freddy, I found a Mr Hippo magnet, do you think this will be enough?" They ask as they also push the button to open the gates to the main lobby once more, however, they also notice Chica is once again roaming the lobby too.

"I am not sure, but it would likely not hurt to try it out," Encourages Freddy. Taking the advice, Y/N rushes back to the machine, avoiding Chica and the bot once more. Arriving at the machine, they take the magnet and run it across the side of it seeing if it will stick anywhere specific. It suddenly snaps into place as they drag it and very luckily it causes the machine to glitch and spits out another Pass, unfortunately, it is not the pass they were expecting or wanting.

"Uh, Freddy. I got a Daycare Pass... Not the pass I was expecting," They say, not sure what a Daycare Pass does. Well obviously it gave access to a Daycare, but they weren't sure why one was specifically needed, surely a daycare should come for free with any pass for kids who can't go to the rest of the Pizzaplex. Ignoring the strange choices of this place, Y/N moves to the exit of this restaurant and pram rental combo, scanning for Chica while they wait for Freddy to respond.

"I suppose that is better than nothing, there may be something in there which will allow you to move on further." Taking that advice they move to the stairs once again and go back to the door which they remember having a sign above mentioning a daycare. For one final time, they avoid Chica and the lobby security bot and quickly scan their Daycare Pass on the door to enter.

Within the Daycare lobby, it is darker than the main lobby, with fewer lights active, though it does not lack any decorating. In the centre is an elaborate fountain which is quite pleasing to the eyes, less pleasing to the eyes but by no means ugly is a strange pod. Remembering what happened earlier while being chased by Chica, Y/N recalls that it is one of the animatronic recharge stations. At first, they question why a recharge station would be out here so randomly, but then again why wouldn't it be if the animatronics ran out of power because they couldn't get to the designated area, that would be quite bad. Having a few dotted around the made sense.

Suddenly something comes to their mind, "Freddy, you mentioned earlier that you were in safe mode or whatever and that's why you weren't trying to uh, catch me. Do you think the other animatronics would be the same if they were in safe mode?"

"I do not have a reason to believe they would not be the same, however, I cannot be certain, and in any case resetting them into safe mode would be quite dangerous, as I do not think they would do it willingly," He answers, not the best thing to hear, but knowing that there was at least a bit of a chance that the others could be changed over to Y/N's side, gave them a little bit of hope.

Reaching the end of the Daycare Lobby, Y/N comes to another of the large shutter doors which this place seemed to like having. Even if it didn't appear to be the best type of door, then again these were likely always open during open hours so that guests would have easy access everywhere. Thinking about the thought processes behind many of the Pizzaplexes design choices was a bad idea though. Instead, they opt to just enter the daycare and move on.

The daycare itself is bright, both in a literal sense and in a decorative one. The lights were almost blinding and the colour scheme was something from a child’s dream house. Even from the entrance, Y/N could see the main attraction of this place, a large play area, with a net that seems much too high. As they move through the front area, they realise that there isn’t a clear entrance for them to go through, a slide sits almost begging to be used, but there is also a gate with Freddy's face on it. However, when approaching the Freddy gate, it does not open, leaving them with the only other option of the slide.

Of course, they could just walk over the fence and gate, but they figured that eventually, they would enter the play area to search it so why not start with it, and start with the fun entrance. Decision made, they slip into the twisting slide and even though it is a slightly tight fit, they slide down it quite easily. Landing in the ball pit below, taking a moment to get their bearingsback and look around. From where they stood, there wasn't anywhere to go but towards the larger ball pit area.

Upon stepping into the larger ball pit Y/N notices something coming onto a stage-like platform high above the ball pit. It seems to be a sun animatronic, which they could somewhat remember seeing merchandise and posters of before. Right now the sun person appeared to be preparing to dive, assumedly into the ball pit, which did not seem very safe even for an animatronic, ball pits weren't the best breakers of falls. But that idea does not phase the sun as they dive off into the pit, landing somewhere near the middle.

When they don't come back up from the ball pit, Y/N's first thought is that they might have broken something within themselves by jumping from that height. However as they slowly walk through the ball pit Y/N is surprised by the sun suddenly bursting out from the pit and grabbing them by the shoulders, causing a scream to erupt from them.

"New friend!" Sun lifts Y/N out of the ball pit, though only barely as their feet are still somewhat touching the balls. "You are here quite late, oh oh are we having a slumber party? Wonderful! Wonderful! Where are all your friends? Oh, that doesn't matter who needs friends! Oh, the things we can do, we can finger paint, tell stories, drink fizzy faz until our heads expLOAD!" The loud animatronic talks quickly, giving Y/N no opportunity to say anything themselves, however, Sun had put them down now which was a bit of a blessing. "There is just one rule, keep the lights on," He says with his happy demeanour having a slight dip for that part of his rant.

"O-okay lights stay on, got it," Y/N attempts to appease the sun animatronic. They aren't sure what the best course of action here would be. Sun didn't seem to be hostile or have any intent to harm them. To be honest, did they even need to do anything, maybe if they stayed here they would be safe for the 6 hours until dawn and then they could leave. Something in them said that was a bad idea though, and something else told them they needed to talk to Freddy about what was happening. "Uh, did you mention finger painting? H-how about we start with that," They try to be convincing with their smile and the way they ask.

"Yes, yes! Finger painting it is, just wait here and I will get all the colours your heart could desire!" Sun says quickly, dashing off to someplace Y/N can't see. Luckily he seemed to have bought their disguise, which hopefully will give them enough time to talk to Freddy.

"Freddy? I'm in the daycare, and the sun guy knows I'm here. He doesn't seem to want to hurt me but something about him just seems, off." They ask quickly, half hoping Freddy will just tell them everything is fine and they can sit here finger painting all night.

Freddy takes a moment to respond, but when he does Y/N's heart sinks, "Oh, this is not good. If the Daycare attendant is aware of you, that means his other half is also aware of you." The way Freddy phrases it is quite ominous, what did he mean by another half. Reading their mind Freddy then continues, "The Daycare attendant has two personality types, the sun and the moon. The sun is the happy one you are with now, the moon, he only comes out when the lights are out and he is much less agreeable. The sun would likely not be too affected by any glitches due to the way he is programmed, but the moon is likely much more dangerous due to these glitches."

The lengthy explanation almost makes Y/N's head hurt, they were dealing with a split person essentially, something about what Freddy said was at the front of their thoughts, however. "So if I just leave the lights on, he won't change and I'll be fine right?" It's an innocent question that they are almost completely sure will be used to crush their slight hope.

"Unfortunately it is not that easy, every hour during closed hours all power is rerouted to recharge stations, at those points the lights will shut off no matter what. You must get out of there soon, the end of the current hour is already close," Everything that Y/N had thought about Freddy being reassuring earlier, was completely gone now, the amount he had just crushed any hope they had of this being a situation that could easily be dealt with was immense.

As Freddy says the words, Sun comes back, with a large array of paints. If they hadn't just gotten the worst information this night, they would have been excited to do a bit of painting. Right now, however, the only thing they could think of doing was trying to get out of here. They needed an excuse, what would work though.

"Friend! I have the paints and you have the fingers! What are we waiting for?!" His enthusiasm is unmatched but even that can't shake the anxiety about what is going to happen soon when the end of the hour hits. "So, so, so! What shall we paint the first friend! A nice flower, a certain bear, ME!?" While his smile might have been forced and just part of his face, you could still hear the amount he was smiling through his voice. Trying to come up with any excuse they could, Y/N scrapes the edges of their brain and ends up with probably one of the most common excuses to leave they could think of.

"I need to pee," They say, slightly louder and enthusiastic than they intended, and more than is probably normal. They try to keep a straight face as they stare into Sun's face, the smile not leaving but his enthusiasm has somewhat lowered. Hopefully, that meant he bought the excuse and wasn't about to do whatever the rest of the animatronics were trying.

"Oh no, that will not do! We don't want any accidents now do we? Do not worry I will call for someone to escort you to the nearest bathroom! Then we can start our painting, oh I'm so excited aren't you?!" He asks, or more accurately, shouts because Y/N doesn't know if he wants a reply. It takes them a moment to realise that he said he would call someone, which would not be good as that would likely bring some unwanted attention to them.

"W-wait no! Don't call anyone I, I can go on my own," They smile in an attempt to convince the sun animatronic, however, this time it appears their persuasion was not enough.

"Oh ho but friend you will need someone to come to get you! The door will not open for us alone." His tone is less excited, still loud but not with the same enthusiasm as before. He didn't seem completely convinced but he also wasn't completely denouncing the idea.

"B-but if someone takes me away, they might not bring me back, and we won't get to do our finger painting. Is there not another way out?" They ask, getting a bit desperate, the time was almost up.

"Well, there is something but it is in an area we are not allowed in. Oh but if they take you and don't return we will never get to do our slumber party! Oh, why must I choose?!" He whines out, looking between Y/N and the desk next to what appears to be two brown doors. Luckily it appears the idea of not being able to finger paint is enough to convince Sun, who relents and says "Friend you must go fast, if they find you outside we may get into trouble, and we don't want that do we?" His voice has gotten quieter now, almost an attempt at a whisper but not exactly the best when his voice is still loud enough to hear from far away.

Moving to the desk that Sun points towards, Y/N steps around to the back, peering at the different items that are on it. Sun stands somewhat behind them, observing, fidgeting. He didn't want to get into trouble, but he also didn't want to lose his friend! He would just have to deal with this for a little bit and then they could continue all their fun activities.

After looking at all the different things on the desk, Y/N focuses on the Freddy head, pressing its nose lets out a small honk noise and opening the case to reveal what looks like a security card. Picking it up and looking at it in their hands, they are startled when the lights suddenly shut off. That should not have happened yet, it wasn't the end of the hour yet.

"No! NO! The lights, the lights!" Sun shouts, his calm demeanour completely shattered as he jumps on the desk.

"I-I'm sorry, I didn't realise that it would t-turn off the lights!" Y/N quickly responds

"Turn them back on! Back on! Back o-" His voice is interrupted as he suddenly locks up and falls back off the desk, landing with a solid thump. There are some mechanical noises from behind the desk before an animatronic pokes its head above and looks directly at Y/N.

"Naughty Naughty, you must be punished," The new animatronic says before quickly jumping away, something that seems like it should have been impossible. Y/N was at a complete loss of what to do now, they were told to never turn the lights off and they had done just that. Luckily Freddy's voice cuts through the new silence to give them the reprieve of advice.

"Y/N! What happened? The lights to the daycare have gone out, are you okay?" His voice was filled with concern, luckily for now they were okay but that would probably not last anymore.

"Y-yeah I’m fine, but w-what do I do? how do I turn the lights back on?" The frantic reply came from Y/N's voice quickly, they were panicking more than they first thought.

"There are backup generators within the play structure, you must turn those on, and hurry!" Y/N didn’t have to be told twice, they quickly began to move, taking a flashlight from a Freddy head on the wall and turning it on. They quickly move towards the play structure, seeing what was probably the new animatronic in the corner of their eye. Though now that they thought, it wasn't a new animatronic, it was just the Daycare Attendant in their other state, the Moon.

Moon was lurking around, they knew where Y/N was but they knew the rules, they couldn't just get them immediately, they needed a chance. There was no fun in giving someone no chance, no no no, they would give them the head start and then they would chase, chase chase chase, the little rulebreaker would pay.

Crawling through the play structure was somewhat difficult, being a bit too big to do it comfortably, it was meant for kids after all. They made their way through though, turning one of three of the generators before they even saw Moon again. When they did see Moon, however, they were in trouble. He was fast, very fast and very flexible, he moved through the play area effortlessly. Which just meant that Y/N had to get out of the play area to be on a slightly more even playing field.

Y/N runs to the other play area, having decided that they must have found all the generators in the side they were on. Knocking over a few of the stacked up cylinders in an attempt to distract Moon, luckily it worked, hearing the screams of "Rghh, Clean up! Clean up!" Which seemed to give them enough time to move into the other play structure and activate at least one generator, which meant only one more was needed.

Unfortunately, the distraction seemed to have stopped working for now as Moon had entered the same play structure as them, with Y/N having to be as quick as they can just to avoid getting caught. There were close calls with Moon almost cutting them off and almost catching them in the tight tunnels that they were slowest in. However it wasn't until they reached the last generator that Moon got them, it was as they were coming out of the tube, his hand grabbed their ankle which threw them to the ground.

"Naughty, naughty," Came Moon's ominous voice, they slid out of the tunnel as Y/N turned themselves over to look at him, he stood tall and looking down at Y/N. This was it, they were screwed. "Looks like you're going to get your punishment now, hee hee," The shrill laugh sent shivers down their spine, but as they look around for anything they can use to get out of this situation that is when they spot the silhouette of Moon being cast by their flashlight. Using the adrenaline still flowing through their veins, Y/N grabs the flashlight and flings it at Moon’s head.

A loud clank echos through the Daycare as the flashlight hits Moon directly on the head, which seems to distract him or at least knock the sense out of him for a moment. "Rghh NAUGHTY! NAUGHTY!" He shouts, before looking back down and seeing that Y/N had moved, looking up to see them at the final generator, right as they flick it on.

As they turn on the final generator, the lights come on, they turn quickly expecting to see Moon standing there, but nothing is there. Whether he just left or if the lights had disintegrated him, Y/N was slightly unbothered due to how close they just came to probably have something done to them which they would not like.

Moving out of the play structure they move to the door they previously intended to use, but as they get to it and press the button to leave that is when they are suddenly grabbed from behind and lifted again, similar to the ball pit. They manage to avoid screaming this time, though they are still very startled. Luckily it is Sun now and not Moon.

"Bad bad bad! You are hereby banned from Daycare!" Sun’s voice comes from behind, Y/N quickly moves to turn to him and begins spouting apologies.

"I'm so sorry I had no idea that thing would turn off the lights, and I didn't know that the lights being off would be that bad anyway but I'm really sorry!" The ramble comes out almost as one word they are speaking so fast.

"Hmph, well I suppose if you did not know I can accept your apology, and will not ban you for life, but don’t come back tonight! you are banned for tonight!" He replies in his upbeat tone, though more serious for the last part. At least he was not holding it against them, that was nice. He slams the door shut after finishing, which leaves Y/N to just turn around, and see something not so great.

Standing behind them are all four main attractions, though Freddy does look quite out of place right now, standing with a much less aggressive pose than the rest of them. All three of the others speak at once, their voices coming out less organic than before, which would be normal for animatronics if Freddy wasn't proof that these were not normal animatronics.

"Hey, Little Guy!" "Your family is looking for you." "You can't outrun me."

Freddy however stays silent as the other three all stare at Y/N, just waiting. Y/N isn't sure what to do, their paths are all blocked, Freddy wasn't saying anything so he could have been hacked too by this point, the only slight chance they had was the path to the left, which had a somewhat decently sized opening. Taking the initiative, they sprint towards the staircase, Freddy and Chica seeing this and both of them lunging to grab them. Luckily it seems Freddy forgot how big he was, as he trips and completely falls onto Chica, knocking them both to the ground and somewhat blocking the path of the other two.

Behind them, Y/N hears the cries of three different voices, but they all sound the same in their tone. Roxanne, Chica and Montgomery all yell Freddy's name in unison, likely because of them seeing what he just did. Freddy's reply, however, gives Y/N some hope that he is simply acting. "Ah, Sorry Chica my enthusiasm made me get ahead of myself." He spoke like his usual polite self, lacking the robotic tone that the others still had. Y/N couldn't focus on it for too long, however, as the animatronics would be on them soon enough.

As soon as they reach the top of the stairs, however, the lights go out again. Right on time for the hourly power divergence, which was not good. Y/N runs, trying to get to the shutter that led them to this area in the first place, but they run into a block almost straight away when they reach the Freddy gate, as they still cannot exit through it.

This is when the knight in colourful makeup and a nice little hat shows up. Freddy runs towards Y/N, waving in what they think is an attempt to appear passive. When he gets close he begins to talk, explaining his previous action.

"Y/N, I am very glad you are okay. I am sorry I could not have helped more outside the Daycare, but I wanted to still appear as if I was following the same programming as them," The fact Freddy was on their side still was enough to make Y/N feel very happy so they didn't even mind that he had acted, it was quite amusing to see Chica get completely knocked to the floor by him anyway.

Finally reaching Y/N Freddy's presence makes the gate open and they both proceed through it, Freddy leading the way to the recharge station, which they thankfully reach before even running into Moon once. They get to the station which is when Freddy looks back at Y/N, before grabbing them and pulling them into the recharge station with them.

"Uhh is this not dangerous?" Y/N asks frantically, surely a human being in a charging station wasn't a good idea.

"Do not worry, these stations charge with a very safe voltage and current. You should not even feel anything," It was reassuring and once again Y/N found themselves happy to listen to whatever Freddy wanted to say.

However it was during this time in the station that they saw something strange, a Bunny mascot skipping across the windows point of view, it was very strange, to say the least. "Hey, d-did you see that?"

"See what?" The clueless sounding reply comes.

"There was, a bunny looking thing, skipping across in front of the fountain." Y/N was starting to be concerned with their mental state, maybe they hit their head in the Daycare.

"I did not see anything like that, are you okay? Do you need me to take you to a first aid station?" His concern is nice, but a first aid station probably wouldn't help here.

"No, I-It's fine, I must just be stressed heh," The laugh comes out more like a sigh, Freddy seems to notice as he slowly wraps his arms around them. Y/N gave no resistance to the Robo-hug, it was nice, it felt safe. Sadly though, it couldn't last forever and they eventually had to break the hug. "Thanks, Freddy, I'm really glad you're different, I don't know what I’d do without you to help me." Just saying that sent another thought through their mind, maybe putting the other animatronics into the same state would be more helpful than they first thought.

"You seem to be focusing on something," Freddy's voice brought them out of their thoughts.

"I'm just thinking of if trying to get the other animatronics on our side would be worth it. M-maybe you could convince them to go do something with you and turn them to safe mode while they are distracted," It was upon saying what they did that Y/N realised they had no idea how an animatronic was put into safe mode. Thankfully Freddy would be giving a nice lesson about it.

"Well, I'm not sure if I would be able to convince any of them to get into a position like that. Restarting an animatronic into safe mode requires more effort than simply flipping a switch, unfortunately. We would have to get them within parts and service and into the animatronic working chair. It would be quite difficult for me to do so without raising suspicion. I am sorry," It was a lot more complicated than they first thought, but they held hope that it could be done if they managed to think of something.

"It's alright y-you don't have to be sorry. I'm sure we can think of something if we need them, but for now, we should just focus on everything else, like what we should do next."

The hug with Surge lasted about 17 seconds, which honestly surprised you because you were expecting her to punt you into next week for even trying. When she did decide that she was done, she pushed you onto your ass, but you chalked that up to an accident rather than an actual show of anger.

“Sorry,” she mumbles, her voice hoarse from crying. To your shock, pun not intended, she offers a hand to help you up. Once again she is clearly too strong for her own good and you stumble into her as she yanks you off the floor. You laugh a bit but it quickly dies down as you watch her turn away, you hope it wasn’t cause of you.

“It’s fine, I probably should have asked before doing that,”

“No, I… appreciated it.” She once again murmurs, probably out of embarrassment. Truth be told Surge enjoyed it more than she would ever admit. After a lifetime, albeit short life but still, a lifetime, of the only physical contact being punches kicks and spin-dashes, some contact with a person that wasn’t violent or abusive was nice. Remembering when Kit hugged her way back when she still had the Dynamo Cage, Surge regrets reacting the way she had. Both of them probably could have used that kind of interaction more back then.

“Well if you ever want another, you know who to call,” you joke, getting a small ‘heh’ from her as she wipes the last remnants of tears from her eyes. “Anyway, we should probably head back, it’s already starting to turn night and I’m fuckin exhausted.”

——————————————————————————————————

Laying in her bed, Surge thinks about the day’s events. It was certainly more interesting than sitting around raking leaves for some hours, but at the cost of her psyche getting fucked with and her reputation likely taking a big hit, assuming you say something about the hug at least.

It seemed as if there wouldn’t be any more adventures like this, to quote you ‘I think I’m done with special assignments now, a bit too dangerous for my liking.’ While she’d never agree that stopping was a good idea for her, she could see why someone like you would want to avoid almost getting killed daily.

Then again, she had been thinking about what happened, and that included the hug and what Starline had said, well fake Starline at least. She knew he wasn’t real, she just knew the guy so well her stupid brain could know exactly how he’d talk down to her, and unfortunately recreate it. What he said had some truth to it though, she did have thoughts about what she was even trying to do anymore.

Sonic was always going to be number one, she knew that and she begrudgingly could live with it. But if she didn’t become a hero what could she really do? She was built to destroy Sonic, she had some serious power and that would be wasted on something like farming, it would be quite impressive though. Villainy was always an option again but Kit made her realize that she wasn’t exactly cut out for that, plus it would loop back around to Sonic being the number one again and she’d probably end up either dead or locked in a cell for real.

Turning over in her bed she thinks about you, and the hug. Why she seemed to be thinking about it so much was confusing her, she knew she was probably touch starved and latching onto the first person who she could, but even then she didn’t know if she hated the idea. Of course, she doubted you’d be comfortable with the idea, in fact, she was surprised you seemed to stick around even with the small number of things she told you already.

If you knew what she’d really done, what she really was? You’d be gone faster than, well she didn’t need to finish that thought. Still, though, it was an idea, even if it didn’t end up involving you. A friend was probably a good place to start with her re-introduction to society.

That was another point. She and Kit had been determined to find out their pasts, and she still was, but she had no idea where to start honestly. Starline’s labs would have some leads probably but finding them would be difficult, she’d been made to forget so much she doubted she could actually remember where they were located.

This was all tomorrow’s problem though, she was pretty tired and could use the sleep by now. She closed her eyes and let out a breath she didn’t realize she was holding and slowly let sleep take over her.

…

“Pst, Surge.”

…

Was she hearing things? Turning around, expecting there to be nothing, she is surprised to see you standing outside her cell. Blinking away the beginning of sleep in her eyes, she checks to make sure she’s not seeing things. Sure enough, it’s actually you standing there, watching her expectantly.

“Huh?” is all she manages to say, her brain already half shut off for sleep.

“I cut a deal with some people, long story short you’re gonna be my roomie for a while. If you want to at least, figure a house is probably better than being locked in this cell all the time.” She stares at you for some time, her brain slowly processing the idea. Being able to get out of the cell she’d been trapped in for weeks? There had to be some catch. But honestly she could figure that out tomorrow, she was too tired.

“M’kay, lessgo.” She slurs. You grin at this and quickly open her cell’s door, leading the way out of the station, Surge following close behind.

——————————————————————————————————

Surge is surprised by the size of your house when you both arrive there, it’s bigger than she expected for someone living on their own. It even has a double front door, impressive. Inside is more quaint than she expected, not much furniture, kinda empty actually.

“Why’s your house so damn big? You got other roommates or summin?” she asks as you both walk through the door and begin down the hallway.

“Nah, well except for you and blue boy that is. You’re recent additions though.” You smirk at her, and before she can question who ‘blue boy’ is, she sees him in the middle of the living room.

Kit notices her at the same time, eyes widening.

“Surge?” he whispers to himself, but loud enough that both of you hear him.

“Oh yeah, guess I forgot to mention the fact you’d both be here… oops.” The two guests can’t tell if you actually forgot or are joking but neither seems to really care as they stare at each other.

Surprisingly it’s Surge who makes the first move, walking towards Kit, who gets nervous at the idea that she’s mad at him for something he doesn’t even know about. Maybe he really was the reason she only just started her community service, maybe she was mad that he hadn’t escaped or helped her escape yet. Maybe… his train of thought is stopped when Surge hugs him.

“I uh, missed you… drippy,” she said awkwardly. Truthfully she was not very good at this, stiff as a board and hugging a bit too strong, but Kit didn’t care. He was just so happy to see her again, and the fact that she was actually hugging him sent him over the moon. Ever since the time he hugged her he assumed that she was not a physical person, she still might not be, which is why he had to take advantage of this moment.

“I missed you too,” he whispers, wrapping his arms around Surge.

“Aw,” the moment is ruined by the coo you make while watching the two hug. Surge, not keenly aware of the fact they are not alone, snaps back and turns to glare at you. “Sorry, ruined the moment.” Moving to the kitchen to get a glass of water.

Suddenly remembering why they hadn’t seen each other in so long, Kit yelps “Wait! We’re not meant to talk with each other.” Surge seems to realize this at the same time, eyes slightly widening.

“It’ll be fine, I have a plan for when they figure out what happened.”

“Oh yeah? Care to let us know what that is?” Surge growls, if this was somehow a plot to get them both in more trouble she’d be pissed. Turning to look at them, you contemplate for a second before deciding.

“Nah, but don’t worry. Its foolproof, kinda.” That didn’t really ease them.

“H-how come you’re not worried about it?” It was a good question, since day one it’d been a big thing that these two weren’t meant to interact at all.

“Cause the reason was stupid. ‘If they talk they’ll probably start plotting how to bring Starline back and then we’re all screwed’” you say in an exaggerated voice, not realizing the name you just dropped.

“You know about Starline?” It shouldn’t have surprised Surge when she really thought about it, their case wasn’t private or anything. You’d just been treating them so, normally, she thought there was no way you knew about their origins. Suddenly looking sheepish, you glance to the side, letting out a nervous laugh.

“Oh right, heh,” you stop for a second, taking a drink of water before continuing. “I may have, uh, read the court document for your guy’s trial.” For some reason, you sound embarrassed by this fact. “I was gonna get to know you guys normally I swear, but when I came up with this idea I wanted to know why you guys were being separated. Didn’t know if you guys hated each other or like, would explode if you touched.”

Reaching out with her hand, Surge plants it directly onto Kit’s head, ruffling his hair. “Well as you can see, no explosions.” As Kit bats away her hand she laughs.

“Yeah well, you guys disproved that in the first five seconds you guys were together,” you chuckle as Kit tries to fix his bangs. “Anyway, I gotta get to bed. I’d do the honorable thing and offer it to you guys but I need to be up early tomorrow so I’m being selfish. You guys can crash on the couches.” As you say that you point to the long couch and the smaller armchair, both guests finding their way to them. Surge taking the armchair and Kit taking the couch, for some reason. You blink at their odd choice but then decide it’s not that weird. “If you guys wake up and I’m not around just like, watch TV or summin’ just don’t leave the house or like, break shit.”

“Yeah yeah, we’ll be good, won’t we Kit?” Surge closes her eyes and lays back, not seeing the nod Kit gives in response. Satisfied with their answers you move to your bedroom and close the door behind you. Opening her eyes again she sneaks over to Kit. “You think they’re up to something?”

“I don’t think so, they’ve been nice to me so far, and they seem to like you too.”

“Really?” Surge is genuinely surprised to hear that.

“Yeah, she was talking about how you messed up some Badniks and ‘totally saved her ass’ multiple times.”

“Well, I am pretty great like that.” Her confidence is boosted, and she takes a look at your door. If Kit trusted you then she could too, he was the brains after all. “Also good job getting rid of the stutter drippy.”

“T-thanks ma’am,” she watches him cringe at himself, snickering, before deciding to correct something.

“Just call me Surge from now on Kit, no more of the ma’am stuff. I ain’t your superior or anything.” She commands though it’s not really bossy. At least she’s trying to not be, she doesn’t want to end up with him being dependent on her again, and she liked the idea of him having his independence.

“O-okay Surge.”

Even in the dark, she can see his smile, she smiles too. Maybe things were looking up. With that thought in mind, she finally fell asleep.

——————————————————————————————————

Surge is rudely awoken by some loud banging. She doesn’t wake up immediately, deciding it’s probably some maniac in the cell over banging his head against the wall again, he did that for some reason.

Then she remembers she didn’t sleep in her cell and her eyes shoot open, just in time to watch you open the front door down the hallway. Looking over at Kit, she sees that he’s already awake and holding a mug of something. Upon noticing Surge is awake, he gives her a smile and a wave, though he also looks quite nervous while doing so. The yelling down by the front door probably is the cause of that.

“I’m telling you, they are about as dangerous as a ball of lint.”

“Your experience with them alone doesn’t matter if you put ‘em together kid.” An unfortunately familiar voice rings out.

“Of course it does! They’ve both had opportunities to let me kick the bucket but both times they helped me.”

“Clearly they wished to remain undercover until they could regroup and plan their strategy properly.” Chief Grant walks into the living room, you following shortly behind.

“Ugh, give me a break,” you groan, before noticing Surge finally awake. “Oh, good morning Surge.” Your tone weirdly shifts to happy as you greet her.

“Uh, mornin’.” Is all she can muster as a response.

“Look, we all appreciate the fact you are willing to handle these two yourself but you know that we strictly had rules in place that they could not interact. Yet you went and got them both in your house anyway.” Grant pauses for a second, looking at Surge and Kit.

“I know I know, I’m sorry. I just…” you sigh and turn away from them all, rubbing a hand down your face. “The house has been so quiet since, well you know, I just wanted there to actually be some life back here.”

The chief’s face softens at your words much to Surge’s shock, though she keeps it internal as he looks towards her with suspicion. Eventually, he sighs in defeat, the fight he once had deflating at whatever sob story you seem to be telling.

“Okay fine, they may both stay here, but any trouble at all and all three of you will be locked up.” He huffs after another moment, “I will let myself out, I expect them to be right back to their community service too.” He points to Surge and Kit before striding out of the door. The moment the front door shuts, you turn around and sigh.

“Heh, always works,” you’re smug but Surge can see that your eyes are red, so she doesn’t know if you were actually crying or if it was all fake.

“Um, what always works?” Kit asks before she can, almost surprising you. You stare at them for a moment before nodding.

“Hm yeah, I guess I can tell you. Only fair since I pretty much know your life story already.” You laugh at the last part but Surge only cringes. “Well first, you want a drink Surge?”

Taking a moment to think, she then asks, “what you got?”

“Coffee, orange juice or water.”

“The orange juice has pulp,” Kit whispers to her, well that certainly ruled out the OJ.

“Coffee,” a look from you makes her add, “please?” Nodding, you go to work making her coffee. She takes that moment to put her feet up on the coffee table in the middle of the room.

“Feet down,” you say without even looking away, making her grumble but comply. Kit lets out a small laugh at the situation before standing up with the cup he was drinking out of, taking it into the kitchen and placing it in the sink, where he then proceeds to clean it using his hydromancy. “Thanks, Kit,” you smile at him, before taking Surge her coffee, and sitting down on the long couch after. “Didn’t know how you like it so I just made it black.”

“Like my soul,” she jokes in a serious voice before taking a sip. Looking down at the cup in disgusts she glances at you, “Actually I think this is worse than my soul.” Making you snicker. You take back the cup and add some sugar and milk. When she gets it back and takes another sip, she smiles. Surprisingly it actually tastes good with whatever you added.

“Okay, so I said I’d explain,” Kit returns to his seat, now next to you. “You can probably tell this house is too big for one person, well it used to be my family’s. They were pretty high up in the town’s whole political ladder. Or at least used to be, so they got some cool perks, like this house.” Your tone sounds boring while you explain like you’ve had to do it too much. “When they ‘died’ they didn’t bother writing a will so I kinda just got everything.”

“What do you mean ‘died’,” Surge asks, clearly, there was more to that than you were letting on.

Sighing, you drag a hand down your face. “Look, I’ll tell you if you promise to keep your mouths shut. Everyone in town thinks they’re dead and it’s better off that way.”

Looking at each other for a moment, Kit and Surge share a sceptical look. “If you like, killed them to get the house or whatever, we won’t judge. Probably wouldn’t be fair anyway.” You cough at that.

“No! No no no. I didn’t do anything to them, they… well I guess the way to put it is they’re defectors.” That was more confusing, defectors? Who was there to defect to? “You guys know about the whole situation where Eggman took over the world for like half a year?” they nod, “Well it was some time before that, I never expected it and all I got was a shitty note. Some shit like ‘sorry you’re a goody two shoes and we want to be bad’ it was fuckin’ stupid.” Now the look Surge and Kit shared was concerned.

“They didn’t even ask you to go with them?” Kit asks sheepishly.

“Nope, nothing. I had no clue what was happening until they were gone. They up and left. The worst part is, the whole Eggman thing happened the same day, and even if I wanted to tell everyone what happened I didn’t have time. Once I had a chance, I knew it would be a bad idea. They’d think I was a spy or something, probably throw me out. If I tell ‘em now, they’ll question why I said nothing previously and it’ll end the same. Plus, I think them thinking they all died in the war is better than knowing they probably helped the other side.”

You end your rant with a huff, an annoyed expression on your face. Neither of the two knows how to respond, but that doesn’t stop Surge from letting something slip out though. “That’s fucked.” Her eyes widen when she realizes that she said that.

Luckily you just snort, “Fucked is an understatement, anyway yeah, sometimes I use that sob story to my benefit.” You rub your eyes, leaning back in your seat a bit. “I mean I’m also not a freeloader or anything, those jobs I did with you guys, the dam, the Eggman base. They’re not one-offs, I’m usually the idiot taking those kinds of dangerous jobs. Gets me some respect, which also helps when I need to guilt someone into giving me something.” Kit and Surge are surprised at how casually you talk about the whole thing, they’d been so secretive about their situation, yet you were pretty much being an open book.

“So, how much do you know about us?” when you give her a bit of an odd look for the transition she tries to explain, “Well, you’re tellin’ us a lot and we don’t actually know what the trial actually explained, so just wonderin’ if you actually know the whole thing.” You smile at her, before explaining what you know. Which turns out to be pretty much everything. From the fact they don’t know their pasts, they were augmented to be weapons, hypnotized, broke out of the hypnosis, plotted to kill Sonic, changed their minds, and the rest you already knew first-hand.

“Honestly you say my situation is fucked, yours is like triple fucked.” This time its Surge’s time to laugh, Kit let out a small chuckle. “Well now it’s all over and you can live happily ever after.” You say with the tone of a cartoon princess. Surge pretends to gag. “I guess talking about plans would be a good idea though.”

The two agree, but first Kit speaks up. “Um, I’m going to use the restroom first if that’s okay?” after giving him the permission he leaves, which prompts you to turn to Surge suddenly.

“Okay while he’s gone we need to talk.” You’re serious, which slightly scares her, though she’d never admit it. She’s mostly worried you’re going to say you don’t want one of them in your house. “Don’t worry, it’s nothing bad. I just need to know how you want to go about this when it comes to him.” You point towards the restroom with your thumb.

“What do you mean?” She’s genuinely confused.

Glancing back towards the restroom you continue, “Look, as much as he acts as if he’s over his whole artificial attachment to you, he isn’t. There are enough bedrooms for you to both be separate but I’m not sure how that will go with him.” Your face softens, “I’ve been around him while he’s slept sometimes. He says your name in his sleep, sometimes he wakes up terrified begging for you.” Surge is slightly mortified by the idea, the poor kid was acting so well that she thought he was completely fine. “I’ve managed to deal with it, and I don’t want to suddenly lump it on you, and I don’t want to call him out for it ‘cause I know he’ll be so embarrassed.”

“Why’re you tellin’ me this?” Honestly, she didn’t really care either way if Kit was sharing a room with her, “Why don’t you just shove us both in the same room? It’s more convenient.” Your face now twists in confusion.

“I know it’d be easier, but I wanted you to be able to choose. It’s a big thing, I don’t want to just tell you what to do.” That surprised her, though it probably shouldn’t. She was practically a fully grown adult, she should be able to pick for herself, but the more she thinks about it, she never really has been able to. This is probably the first time someone really gave her a choice in something like this.

“We should ask Kit what he wants.” She briefly pauses, “No, you should ask Kit. If he’s still struggling with his thing… he’ll probably just say he wants to do whatever I want.”

“I didn’t think of that. Good idea.” Smiling at her, just in time as Kit comes out of the restroom.

“Finally, I was startin’ to think you fell in the bowl there Drippy. Woulda’ lived up to your name.” She snickers, making Kit smile bashfully. Surge, thinking ahead clearly, walks into the restroom herself, setting up the perfect situation to talk to Kit.

“Okay so Kit, while she’s in there-”

“You guys know I have really good hearing right?” he says with a ‘you serious?’ expression. You just blink at him, until he continues. “I heard what you were saying, about me still being attached to Surge.” Panicking, you go to apologize when he stops you, “No, you’re right. I’m not over it, sharing a bedroom with her would probably make me feel better. But it wouldn’t make me get better. I want to be better, for her, for you… for myself.”

Staring at him for a second you realize he’s serious, “Surge!” Surprised at the call of her name, she quickly fumbles out of the restroom to see what the commotion is, “Uh, jigs up. Kit heard everything we said, heh.” You awkwardly explain. Causing Surge to do the same thing you did and go to apologize, before Kit stops her too.

“No, stop. I don’t need you to apologize.” He stands up, facing her. “It’s not your fault, it’s not mine. It’s.. Starline’s. But that doesn’t matter now, what matters is how I move past it.” He has a strong sense of determination around him, though it falters with his next question. “Just, um, i-if I have a really bad d-day or dream. Can I-”

Quickly grabbing him into a noogie Surge exclaims, “Course you can Drippy! We’re practically brother and sister anyway. I’m always gonna be there for my newly appointed lil bro.” The noogie turns into more of a hug as Kit’s eyes turn into saucers, now getting misty-eyed at the confession from Surge.

“You guys really are just like Sonic and Tails.”

Surge grumbles, “I was just about to offer you to join but if you’re gonna say crap like that-”

You gasp and quickly stand up, “No I take it back, you’re nothing like those losers.” That pleases Surge enough to open the hug for you to join. Which you do without hesitation, it lasts a few seconds before you talk again, “You guys really warmed up to me fast, was it my charming personality?”

“And you ruined it again,” Surge ends the hug, but the mood of the group is still lifted.

“I think it might be more the fact you’re the first person in our life to show us kindness. Well other than Sonic and his friends, but we were programmed to hate them so that takes longer to get over.” Kit explains. Surge rolls her eyes but doesn’t deny it.

“So you guys were super lonely? Guess I can relate.” You half joke, before quickly moving on, “Anyway! Now that we are going to have two new bedrooms we better get to the furniture store fast, unless you two want to sleep on the couches again.

Surge goes to consider it but Kit quickly decides otherwise.

——————————————————————————————————

Turns out that shopping for two people whose whole personalities are pretty much fake and taken from other people is harder than you thought. Surge keeps picking up anything that looks ‘cool’ and Kit has so far got a bed and a nightstand but nothing else. At least Surge realized she should ask before grabbing something. If this was all you’d seen of them you’d never have suspected how they came to be, and especially never had expected them to be programmed killers.

Unfortunately, some patron decided he wanted to remind you of that fact.

“What are you doin’ with those two freaks?”

When you turn to face the badger, at first it’s in confusion. Surge and Kit also turn. Kit seems slightly afraid while Surge seems completely disinterested and goes back to browsing clocks.

“Excuse me?” you ask, now realizing what he’s asking but genuinely too shocked to be angry yet.

“I’m askin’ why you’re struttin’ about with those two freaks of nature? They should be locked in a prison cell, not walkin’ about looking at furniture.” Kit is now looking angry, though it’s still under a layer of discomfort. Surge pays no mind still, she was used to these kinds of comments. You, however, were already fuming.

“And who gave you the right to call them freaks?” trying to keep a level voice, you futilely try to have an actual debate with the walking talking piece of trash.

“Ha, It’s not just me idiot. The whole town knows what those two are up to, you’re clearly the only one dumb enough to fall for their shit.” This made Surge stop looking through clocks and listen properly, were you an idiot for trusting them too easily? Yeah, but did that mean he could say that? No. For now, though, she just listened.

“Well pardon me for having a heart and being willing to let people change. If that’s all you wanted to say to me, you can fuck off, we’re busy.” You hope he does as you ask but that’s when his face lights up.

“That’s it! Now I know why you’re being so stupid, you really are trying to replace your family ain’t ya?” That one gets you to be quiet, and also gets Surge to turn to look at the man, who doesn’t notice her yet. “Yeah I get it now, replace your whole family with buncha lowlifes who got nowhere better to go, until… they all…” He finally notices Surge looking at him, who’s expression of anger has transformed into seething hatred. She slowly walks up next to you.

“Excuse me but we are trying to shop, could you leave us alone.” She flashes him a grin with her razor teeth on full display, making him shudder as he sprints off suddenly. It’s only when she glances at you she sees you starting to cry. Glancing back at Kit, who just shrugs in response, having no more idea of what to do than her. She eventually comes up with the very smart idea of holding your hand, she’d hug you but she wasn’t sure you’d actually like it and doing that in public was probably a bad idea.

Luckily that does the trick as you grip her hand back with the force of a hydraulic press. If she wasn’t reinforced with the metal virus it might have actually hurt. “Sorry,” it’s barely a whisper and surprises her. Though she knows better than to tell someone off for saying sorry, even if they didn’t need to. She learned that with Kit.

“It’s okay.” Her voice is soft to the point that even surprises her, usually, it was at least slightly grave. “Do you want to go home?”

“No, I’m alright, we can keep looking.” She doesn’t really believe you but you flash her a small smile that convinces her enough. When you turn around to keep going Kit gives you a look of concern. “Don’t worry bout me, I’ll be fine.” Neither of them is really convinced but lets that fact slide. So you all continue looking around for furniture to order and buy.

No one commenting on you and Surge’s hands still interlocked.

Next part

Rain was always a strange thing to deal with. If you’re inside, it can be relaxing to listen to, maybe even watch. The drops falling and crashing into the ground with a sound that could sway you to sleep if you listened too long. But when outside it was almost always a different story, feeling them hit your body would be nice for the first few seconds, until your clothes were soaked and heavy. It didn’t help that usually when you were going outside into the rain willingly, there was already something wrong. Maybe someone called you and asked for something, and now you have to brave a storm to get it to them. Maybe you were walking your dog when there was a sudden downpour, and you had to sprint the last mile home.

None of those was the reason Calamitas currently stood outside unmoving. She hadn’t knocked yet, in the 3 minutes she had been here, she didn’t want to knock. Why she had even come here wasn’t clear to her still, it had been somewhat impulsive, then again what non-impulsive decision led you into the rain at 2 am?

4 minutes had passed now, and still, she did nothing. What if they were asleep at this hour? Did they even sleep? Would they even talk to her? Questions raced through her mind as she still did nothing but contemplate. She was confused and quite miserable in her current state of mind, but the longer she didn’t do anything, the worse it would likely get. Maybe slowly getting worse would be better than the other options though, maybe if she woke the Terrarian up and ruined their night of rest that would be the last straw, they would kick her out of the town and she would be forced back to him, the Tyrant.

5 Minutes. With that thought, she decided that it wouldn't be worth the trouble to possibly wake them and ruin things more than they already were. She turned to leave and quickly started down the steps away from their door. The door suddenly being thrown open her jump due to her being more on edge than usual. She turned back towards the open doorway, where they stood. Illuminated by some light from within the house, Calamitas could see that they had some pretty casual wear on, much more casual than she usually saw them in at least.

“So is standing outside peoples doors without doing anything just a hobby of yours?” They asked. Calamitas could hear the smug smirk in their voice alone. It sounded strange to hear it without some other effect, either from their armour or from distortion from some spell that she used to observe them.

“I didn’t know if you would be awake at this hour, and I didn’t want to wake you.” She replied after some moments of thinking if they even wanted a reply.

“Pft, sleep is overrated.” The joke is dismissive but seemingly genuine as the house behind them doesn’t appear to have been lit up in a hurry. They continue after a pause, “If you’re not here because you wanted to observe my door and you actually need something, come in already! It’s dark, wet and depressing out here.”

Calamitas stays still for a moment, debating what to do with herself. On one hand, they are offering to talk with her, which is what she wanted. At least she thinks that was what she wanted, but based on how she is hesitating now, that may not have been it. However her body decides what it wants to do before her mind can think it over, and she begins walking back up the steps to their door. They move to the side to allow her in, and she nods politely as she enters their home.

The Terrarian closes the door behind Calamitas and walks past her towards some of the furniture in the middle of the room. Their house was like brimstone compared to the freezing cold outside, but in reality, it was just slightly warm likely from the somewhat large fireplace currently burning on the right wall. This was the first time Calamitas had been inside someone's home casually and had the time to just look around at what was in it.

When she had first come to this town after the Terrarian had convinced her to join it. There was a period where she was going between many houses in minutes. Dryads, Wizards, an Archmage and even some drunk woman who made eyes at her most of the time she was in the house. It had all been in an attempt to see if any of them knew anything about curses, and more specifically how to break them. Surprisingly, the Wizard, Archmage and Dryad all knew practically nothing of use, but the drunk woman did.

——————————————————————————————————

Cirrus had said that she knew all about curses, Calamitas had assumed it was some poorly timed joke from someone who was clearly too out of it to realise what they were talking about. However, when the Terrarian had listened to what she said, without a single joke, that was when Calamitas thought she may have been more serious than was first thought. Where the so-called Princess’ expertise on curses had come from, neither she nor the Terrarian was willing to elaborate. Which was mildly unsettling, and put an image in Calamitas head that she wished never existed.

Time had come for the curse removal quicker than was expected. When Cirrus had told both Calamitas and the Terrarian to give her some time to get things together, she had thought it would take at least a few days. But no sooner than 2 minutes after leaving, the Terrarian’s phone rang and Cirrus requested them back, at their utmost haste.

Upon arriving back at the Drunk Princess’ house, what they saw in the doorway was no longer a woman in a strange dress and tiara, but the same woman in what could only be described as an awful witch cosplay. Nevertheless, the Terrarian seemed as serious as before, which both reassured Calamitas that this wasn’t some stupid prank, but also concerned her, as even during their fight she had known they weren’t taking it 100% serious.

Alcohol was very present in Cirrus house, and as Calamitas continued to walk through it to the “ritual room”, as previously stated by the Terrarian, she almost felt as if she was going to get drunk just from being in the presence of so much booze. When they entered the room, it was lit by a few candles, which had quite pleasant scents but did not exactly give off much light. It certainly looked like a ritual room, however, symbols were drawn into the floor and walls. Most of them weren’t recognisable, so if they were actually anything of use was unknown.

Calamitas didn’t notice Cirrus pull out a glass and bottle while she was distracted with the decor, so when said glass, full of a pungent liquid was thrust into her hands, she was quite surprised and somewhat hesitant. Though when the Terrarian looked at her and gave a nod, she took it.

Looking back at it now, she was stupid at that moment. Maybe it was the candles, maybe it was the fact that Cirrus was egging her on to drink it, maybe it was even the fact Terrarian was there and doing nothing to stop it. They had brought her all the way back here and had gone through a lot of trouble to supposedly get rid of her curse, if they wanted her dead they could likely have already done it. But looking back on that moment, she knew it was just stupidity, maybe some thought out stupidity, but that didn't make it any better in her eyes.

Upon drinking the strongly flavoured liquid, she immediately had felt dizzy, her first thoughts were that she was poisoned, and she was about to be given a fate worse than death, but as she slumped down to a sitting position, her mind became fuzzy and her thoughts slowed until she fell asleep.

Waking up was a whole other experience, usually, when Calamitas woke up it was to something prodding her, usually because she overslept and was needed by the Tyrant. This time, however, it was her own body that woke her. Disorientating is the best word to describe her feelings when she looks around. The room she was in was average-sized, it held a few pieces of furniture: the bed she lay on, a wardrobe in the corner, a small desk and a chair. The last piece was next to her, a small bedside cabinet. However, the thing of interest was on top of it, a letter.

Calamitas quickly got her bearings and grabbed the letter, looking it over. Her name was written on the back of it, which showed that it was clearly for her. But she hesitated opening it, confusion was still clouding her mind as she tried to remember what had happened before she fell asleep. She slowly tried to get her bearings, her hands moved unconsciously and opened the letter out of almost instinct. When she managed to focus her eyes on the writing, she was somewhat surprised at what she read.

“Dear Miss Calamitas

I’m hoping that if you’re reading this letter then the ritual to remove your curse was successful. When you blacked out I was surprised but Cirrus told me it was important for you to be unconscious for us to do the ritual, and that all she gave you was some of her more exotic booze. After the ritual concluded I brought you back to this room. It doesn’t have too much in it, because it was put together quite hastily but I hope that it will accommodate your needs for your first waking hours. Feel free to make yourself at home, because this is hopefully somewhere that you can call that now.

Terrarian

P.s. Feel free to come to me if you need help with something, I know this is probably a new experience for you.

P.p.s Feel free to come to me too if you need something ;) - Cirrus.”

After reading that, she had a lot of things on her mind. A lot of questions about what had happened. Was her curse really gone? She couldn't feel the previous symptoms of it, the headache, the whisperings in her ears, the horrors when she closed her eyes. But that could all just be because she hasn’t been gone long enough, or maybe the Tyrant hadn’t even realised she joined the enemy. That was the second thing she thought of, had she joined the enemy? The letter seemed to make it clear that she was “welcome” here, but was she really? Would the people of this town forgive her?

The last thing that Calamitas was confused about, ignoring what Cirrus had written (which was just another level of confusion for her), was the Terrarian. They had signed the letter with just that, Terrarian, not a name. Was that their name? It confused her as Cirrus had used her name quite fine so it clearly wasn’t just a thing in this town, but the Terrarian had signed what would seem to be their race. Perhaps she would have to take up the offer of getting help, just to figure that out. No, she couldn’t be reckless like that, she already took enough risk with what she just did.

She just sat for a while, on the side of the bed. The thoughts in her head were Suffocating, she didn’t know what to do, for the first time in a while she was at a complete loss, she had forgotten what it was like to be in this situation. The last time she had been this confused was when she first betrayed the Tyrant, perhaps this was another symptom of her curse and it hadn’t really been removed.

When she finally stood, her legs held her and she was confident enough to walk over to what appeared to be a window, covered by curtains. She opened them and peered outside, it was day and the sun was shining bright, illuminating the entire area she could see from the glass. Her view appeared to be of a small park, or maybe it was just a convergence of roads. Either way, it seemed to have some lights and a bench that had a strange half animal-looking woman on it.

Deciding that she looked outside enough, Calamitas turned back to the room she currently resided in. It would be wise to remain here for a few days, even if she didn’t plan on staying any longer, she needed her strength back. The first thing she can think of is to get out of her robes, while they are effective at what they are meant to do, conduct magic and protect her from harm, they were not very effective as comfortable clothing. Though she doesn’t remember being concerned with comfort before.

Checking the closet she didn't expect anything because the room was only temporary, but there were some pieces of clothing in there. They were pretty basic, and mostly just made up of solid colours with an occasional patterned one. She reached for one of the shirts, pulling it out and inspecting it. The material was soft in her hand and she ran her other hand down the hem of it. She held it against herself and it seemed like it would fit her, maybe it was slightly too large, but she was mostly used to baggy clothing.

Debating on whether or not she should put the fresh clothes on was difficult for her. On one hand, she was particularly uncomfortable in her current cloak and robes, but on the other hand, these clothes were new, they could be cursed or worse. She shouldn’t take risks with stupid things like clothing. It should be an easy decision for her to put the clothes back and continue on with what she was doing, but for some reason she wasn’t doing anything, just standing there holding the shirt.

Tears suddenly began to appear in her eyes, and before she could even realise, they were dripping onto the shirt she was gripping tightly. She was crying, she hadn’t cried in years or at least what felt like years. It was a strange feeling as she slipped down the wall her back had been placed against, she dropped the shirt at some point, instead of using her arms to wrap and hug her knees against herself.

Why was she crying, why did she feel like this? Was everything just catching up to her? Was this another thing caused by the stupid curse? Could she just be feeling emotion for the first time in forever? Whatever it was, it hurt. Back with the Tyrant, crying would be a point of scrutiny, a reason for punishment and rehabilitation. But now, at least she could pretend she was free of him and could let herself go.

The shirt was next to her now, she looked at it with her glistening eyes and grabbed it. She stared at it for a few seconds before she dropped it in her lap and began to undress quickly, sliding the shirt onto her body as soon as she had gotten her robes and cloak off. An impulsive decision, a stupid thing to do. Right now she didn't care, she needed something, anything to stop herself from breaking down any more than she already was. When the shirt didn't burn, did not cling to her body, didn't do anything other than cover her body. She let out a shuddering sigh.

Moving back to the closet with shaking legs, she reached for a random set of what appeared to be normal pants. She quickly slid them on, and when they reacted similarly to the shirt she slumped and again moved to be on the floor as her legs began to give out. She rubbed her eyes to clear them of tears and sat. Doing nothing felt wrong but her body wouldn't move and for now, she was fine with that.

When her body finally seemed to reconnect to her mind, her eyes widened as she looked down. How could she do something so stupid like put on random clothes? She was weak and it was showing finally, It wouldn’t be long before she did something that really fucked things up. As she was wallowing in her own misery, she glanced back towards the window. It was dark now and raining. She didn’t realise how much time had passed, at some point she must have started meditating or something.

She stood, and walked back to the window she had seen the park from before. It was almost impossible to see now, the lights on the street were doing their best but they clearly weren't enough to actually light up the dark night. Turning back away from the window, the letter from before catches her eye, it lies discarded on the floor. Quickly walking over and grabbing it, Calamitas reads it over again and she decides to take the Terrarian up on their offer to talk. Maybe they knew why she felt these emotions. Maybe she had been relieved of one curse and given another in its place.

No that wouldn’t be right, would it? Either way, she needed to talk to someone, and the Terrarian offered so why not take the offer. Maybe it was stupid too, it was late and they could be asleep. What reason could she even give for going over out of nowhere? She breathed a trembling sigh out, she needed to do something. Clearly, she wasn’t feeling right, she’d just have to figure out what to say once she got there. She got to her feet and quickly realised that maybe the current clothes wouldn’t be the most appropriate for the rain. Deciding to go back to her more practical cloak and robes meant getting rid of the comfort, but it was better than getting soaked.

Of course, she was soaked anyway, while the clothes themselves were waterproof, or at least resistant, the rain was coming down fast and at an angle where her face was getting hit no matter what. It was unpleasant, but luckily there had been a map outside of the place she was staying, it appeared to be like an inn. But with no one else around it was hard to know exactly. Once she arrived at the Terrarians house, well that's when she realised how bad of an idea this had been.

——————————————————————————————————

As Calamitas glanced around the room which she assumed was the living room, she observed many pieces of strange furniture. On the walls, on the floor and even on the ceiling. There were tables, chairs, weapon racks and even some armour stands, they held what she could only assume were powerful items gathered throughout their journey. The Terrerian themselves was now handling a gun, the revolver they brandished most commonly, at least in the fights Calamitas had observed it seemed.

“So” they begin after the awkward silence. “Did you need something?” they had turned to look at her while they spoke, and Calamitas just stood there for a moment, should she be open about why. Did she even know why? Should she just make something up?

“What did you and the Drunk do to me?” What comes out of her mouth is barely thought through and comes off much ruder than she had expected, which was setting off more alarm bells in her head, she hadn’t felt the need to stop herself from being rude before when talking to people previously.

The look the Terrarian gives Calamitas shows that they don’t have a clue, coupled with the shrug and “dunno” that comes from their mouth. Calamitas felt annoyed at this reaction, she wanted an answer and clearly, they didn’t have one. Anger was an emotion she recognised clearly, and she was starting to feel some bubbling up.

“Well, something must have gone wrong with whatever ritual was done.” She states as if she knew anything about what had even happened.

“Why?” They ask, still seeming to genuinely have no clue what was wrong. And why would they, even Calamitas didn’t know what was wrong, but clearly, something was. She was feeling emotions so much stronger than she ever remembers feeling them, guilt, sadness, all the shitty ones and none of the good ones.

“Because I feel worse than I ever have!” She says loudly, perhaps more than she was intending. The anger building in her felt familiar and she wanted to cling to that, the rage was all she had felt for years, it made her magic stronger and obviously, that was something the Tyrant liked about her.

“That time of the month?” the question leaves their mouth with a smirk, Calamitas suddenly feels the anger skyrocket as both her hands lit with red fire. Clearly not the reaction the Terrarian was expecting they stand and put their hands up quickly. “Woah Woah Woah I was just kidding.” Their eyes are wide as they look towards her, however, their eyes suddenly become smaller as they almost look concerned, “You're really being serious about this aren’t you?”

“Yeah, no shit” Calamitas responds, her voice is laced with venom but is quivering, only when she hears it does she realise that tears are coming from her eyes again. The fire in her hands goes out instantly as she reaches up and wipes the tears from them. “What’s wrong with me?” She barely whispers.

“You said you’ve never felt worse than you do now?” The Terrarian asks slowly after a gap in the conversation, Calamitas nods without looking up. “So all that time you were with the uh, other guy, you didn't get times like this?” They continue, their words being said carefully like they’re expecting her to blow up again and start burning down the whole town.

“No”, again she is barely audible when she replies. Calamitas never felt these things before, why? When she slaughtered innocents she felt nothing, when she boiled a whole ocean and doomed millions, nothing. Why was she feeling now? Even before a curse was given to her it hadn’t been this bad.

“Maybe that was part of the curse.” It sounds preposterous at first, why would she have been cursed to have her emotions removed, her magic usually gets stronger the more emotion she feels. But that was just anger, she realises, anger made her stronger, not other emotions. The more she thinks the more dread she feels, was that part of the curse? Could the Tyrant have realised what was happening when she first left, that she was feeling the guilt from her actions and it caused her to act out? He must have been future-proofing her, making it so she wouldn’t revolt again. But clearly, he kept the anger, it was what made her so strong when he needed it. Now the curse is gone, all those emotions are catching up to her and it must be what is making her feel so awful.

“I'm guessing the silence means you're either thinking about how to kill me, or I'm right?” The voice cuts through the silence easily, and Calamitas is forced to look at them again. Their expression is much softer than before, she really doesn’t remember when someone has looked at her like that. Something other than fear, or anger. She slowly nods, which does not particularly clear up which one of the two things they asked but they seem to appreciate the answer anyway.

They move over slightly on what Calamitas now realises is a type of couch, she sees that the Terrarian is clearly making room for her, the debate on if she should sit starts, but quickly she manages to shut that down and sits, justifying that her legs were starting to hurt. A shuddering breath leaves her as she leans back against the couch. Almost relaxing after being able to get even the slightest bit of clarity on why everything was going wrong.

“I’m just so confused, and for the first time in so long scared. And I want to hate myself for even talking about this but I just can't.” Calamitas whispers, she’s never been this open with people, being closed off was always easier because eventually they’d be cut off and it’d hurt. But she was just so tired of doing that, now that she was feeling she realised how lonely and just how fucking bad she felt.

“You want some tea? I hear it helps with stress.” Such a casual question, Calamitas thinks for a moment, she hasn’t had tea in a long time, or anything just for the taste alone in general. She always remembered it being bitter, but maybe it would help. She gives a small nod and leans forward to look down at her legs, trying to avoid eye contact. Maybe a moment to think would help too.

The Terrarian gets up and moves to what can only be a kitchen, with the cooking equipment, and a small kettle. The sounds of water and drawers fill the house and Calamitas takes a moment to look around the room, and just think of what is even going on. She had the Tyrant's curse supposedly removed and now all her emotions were coming back at once, she felt all the guilt from the horrid things she's done, and that feels so awful it makes her want to vomit.

The feeling of being alone surprises her, feeling guilt almost feels normal but feeling loneliness is strange. She didn’t even realise how alone she really was but looking back it makes sense, the closest person she had was the Tyrant, and that was hardly a good relationship. She felt stupid and weak for wanting something, just a friend, even an acquaintance would be enough.

But did she deserve that, would anyone even want to be friends with such a monster. God the feeling of guilt was getting to her, she’d known she was a bad person but the feelings of guilt really made it worse, she’d never referred to herself as a monster before. As she begins to have another breakdown the sound of a cup being placed brings her out of that headspace.

“Soo.” The Terrarian begins, drawing the word out. Clearly, they didn’t really know what to say, this must have been a strange situation to them too. “Uh, you got a plan now? You know, considering you’re feeling things again?” It’s a question she hadn’t thought about yet, and one that she didn’t want to. She had no idea what to do, what she even could do now.

“I-I don’t know” She struggles to get the words out, it feels stupid to say it, she should have a plan by now, not just running on impulse.

“Alright.” The word is so easy for them to say, ‘alright’, just accepting the fact that she has failed at something, she failed at planning ahead and she isn’t being punished for it. “I guess you’ve had some other things on your mind after all.” The words stunned her, she’s so used to the harsh and strict life that just being let go like this is foreign to her.

“You’re not mad? Annoyed?” she says desperately, almost like she wants to be told that she is a failure, just for the familiarity that it brings. They shake their head at her, a small smile grazing their lips. One more sigh escapes her lips, as she frowns. “Why are you being nice? I’ve done so many bad things, I've hurt so many people. You should have killed me when you had the chance” The words leave her mouth without her really thinking about them, they come out more desperate than she wanted.

A small laugh comes out of the Terrarian, causing Calamitas to look up at them, they have a strange look on their face, and it almost makes her think that they changed their mind and will just kill her now. But they don't, they just look at her. “Y’know, I’m no saint either” The words have a strange dread in them. “I’ve done bad things, some that I don’t remember.” How the sentence comes from their mouth brings a small amount of fear to Calamitas.

“Why” she manages to croak out, not even sure she wants to know the answer.

“When I woke up here, I didn’t remember anything. It was so strange to be in a new world where nothing makes sense, the only thing I know about myself from before then is that coming here was a punishment. Whatever I did before was bad enough that whoever dealt with me, thought I didn't even deserve to live in the same world where I did.” They stop for a moment, thinking over something in their head.

This information was fresh to Calamitas, she had no idea about the Terrarians past and clearly didn’t realise they were essentially a fugitive. The idea that they did worse things in what would be called a past life now. It was a chilling thought, to feel the guilt of something you don’t even remember anymore. Calamitas is snapped out of her thoughts when they begin talking again.

“Then once I was here, I was told by some crazy people that I was some kind of messiah. There have always been crazy people with their prophecies, and apparently, I was in these guys, I was supposed to save the world from tyranny and the terrors from the earth. And I guess I followed that idea, I didn’t exactly have much else to do, which led me here. I've done bad things, just because it's what leads me to an end goal I didn't even pick, I'm no hero. I'm better than the worst bad people but I'm no hero. I mean, what hero would kill their best friend to get closer to a goal they know nothing about.” The last part shocks Calamitas, and her face must show it because the Terrarian goes to elaborate. “The wall, in the underworld. It was a guardian of greater evil and I had to kill it to get closer to that goal. My friend was that guardian, though when he was up here he didn’t appear so horrific. He urged me on when I questioned if it was right, but I never really believed in this cause.” They stop for a moment.

Calamitas is shocked, to say the least, not only because she had no clue about all this, but because she feels something she hasn’t felt. She feels sorry for someone, empathy, sympathy. She feels their pain. The idea of having to kill someone close to you, for something you don't even want to, brings her so much dread she cannot handle.

“Anyway, sorry, I guess I’ve been keeping that in a while. But now do you see that you’re probably comparing yourself to someone much better than you realised.” They say a sad tint in their voice now.

“At least your cause can be seen as noble, I just did dirty work for a horrid person” Calamitas replies. Not feeling much better herself, maybe slightly better about talking about herself to another person because that’s been reciprocated, but when it comes to her guilt, she feels mostly the same. She just nods slightly, knowing that there wasn’t really a way to argue against that.

“Your tea is going to get cold,” they say after a moment, reminding her of the tea sitting in front of her. She picks it up, taking a small sip, not even bothering to debate with herself about if it's gonna be a bad decision. She feels too tired by now. Too tired to think, which is why a question slips out of her mouth so easily.

“How aren’t you dead. And I don't mean literally, I already know that part.”

It only takes a few seconds for Calamitas to realise what she’s said, she immediately wants to take it back, because of how strange the question is. They laugh, however, which was either a polite thing or they genuinely find it funny.

“I guess you mean how I still joke around and do things that would probably be considered nice,” They say, using their fingers to put emphasis on ‘nice’. “Truth is I don’t really know. I guess having a town full of people who encourage me and tell me I'm doing good helps with that, but really I just don't know.” Maybe that was what Calamitas needed, friends telling her that she’s doing good. But that probably wouldn’t help when you’re slaughtering innocents.

“I see,” she says, not being able to really think of anything else that would fit this situation. Clearly, her tone is noticed by the Terrarian by their somewhat concerned face.

“I was being serious in the letter by the way.” It feels as if it comes from nowhere when they say it. “If you want to stay in this town with us, you can. I mean you can also go back to your guy if you really want to” She thinks about that concept and almost shudders, she may not stay here but she certainly won't be going back to the Tyrant. “I can’t speak for everyone here, I know there's some history with Amidas and whatnot. But I don't have any personal bad blood with you, and I'd be happy to be on, well maybe not the same side, but at least not on opposing sides anymore.”

The fact that she now feels shocked by things is still a new feeling to Calamitas, and she seems to be having that feeling a lot in this conversation, but being told something like this was bound to be a shock to anyone, let alone a witch with such a track record and history.

“I, I don’t know for sure yet. But I know that I Won’t be going back to him. So we won't be fighting again, as long as I have my own willpower.” She manages to mumble her response through her hands, which now hold her head. It hurts, but the pain might be good now that she really thinks about it. It might show that she is actually feeling things again.

When a hand gently and gingerly touches her back, she almost snaps up but stops herself. Contact with other people was usually not in a good context for her, usually, it meant a punishment. However this time it was gentle and delicate like she was capable of breaking at even the slightest touch. She’d almost say it feels good as the hand moves slightly back and forth.

“Well, there’s no rush to choose.” They say. She should be hating this treatment, being treated like she's a frightened animal, a child, someone who deserves care. But she doesn’t anymore, she never realised how much she missed people until now. She missed her family, her friends, it was all taken from her so she justifies having some semblance of that back now.

The Terrarian eventually retracts their hand, saying they are going to make more tea. And Calamitas is left, but this time she manages to avoid the building dread in her. She tries to be more positive. Could she really live in this place, the Terrarian said they had nothing against it but the others surely would. Amidas must, she destroyed his kingdom, and surely others would see things like that as a telltale sign she can’t be trusted. She didn’t even trust herself yet, the feelings she had were rabid and she didn’t know if she could even control them.

When another cup of tea is placed in front of her, she utters a small thank you and gently picks it up. The Tea is still scolding, but things like that don’t really matter when you specialise in burning things. Of course, she only takes small sips, savours the flavour. Things like this were solid, concrete, there was no doubt that she liked tea, she had that small comfort. She needed things like that right now.

“So, you mentioned earlier knowing about ‘that part’, care to elaborate?” A sudden question came. It’s a somewhat difficult one to answer, how did she know all the things? Well, she was entrusted with spying so that if need be the Tyrant would have information to use against this so-called ‘Hero’. But could she mention that, would that not make her appear suspicious now as if this whole thing is a ruse? But then again why would you be honest about it?

“I was spying in case you fought the Tyrant, he wanted to know how to beat you.” She blurts it out, deciding that today would be her redemption, stupidly. But as she should maybe expect from this person, they laugh.

“So does that mean you saw all the times I was really cool?” They ask, it’s obviously an overstatement, to which Calamitas responds appropriately.

“I Saw you get bitten in half by a giant eye, is that what you mean?” She responds, almost sounding smug. Though her face remains cold.

Her joke is responded to with boisterous laughter and the Terrarian slapping their knee with such force it became red. “Yeah that was a bit of a stumble, but sometimes it takes dying to remind you that life is fickle.” For someone who has died 7 times, they are quite lighthearted with the topic. Calamitas can’t even imagine what it would be like to die, she doesn't even want to ask about it.

Silence follows that part of the conversation, not awkward, just comfortable, as both people sip the remaining tea left in the cups. The time is 3:34 now, either really early or really late, depending on how you look at it.

“So why are you actually awake?” Calamitas asks, most people need to sleep but she was a bit of an exception, being a powerful witch had benefits, one of them being the ability to not sleep for days at a time.

“Not tired, sleep has been hard to find for a long time, don't know what changed but something about it doesn't appeal, and I’m not ever really getting tired enough to force it.” A cryptic answer, but enough for Calamitas to be satisfied. “What about you?” the question is predictable, who wouldn't ask the same one in this situation.

“Witch magic”, she says, seeing no real reason to elaborate.

“Huh, lucky,” They say quickly, putting their cup back on the table before standing to stretch their body. Calamitas own tea had been finished for a while, so she copies them by placing the cup onto the table, though she remains seated. “How did you get your magic? If you don't mind me asking?” they ask before adding “P-Frosty said he had to train for ages to get his ice magic and that I picked it up quick compared. You seemed to have some real big magic stuff so are you a natural or a nerd like him?”.

She doesn't know what stands out more about what you just said. The fact you called an ancient archmage a nickname like ‘P-Frosty’ or the fact you called him a nerd for having to study magic. “I suppose I'm natural for the most part, but I did have to study some certain difficult spells, such as creating the large cube we had our battle in.”, It was true that most of her power came to her naturally, she did have difficulty sometimes, for no particular reason she struggled with certain spellcasting. The spells would never be focused correctly and would come out wrong, she spent countless hours practising. Not that she had much more to do, especially only having to sleep a few hours a week.

The Terrarian looks at her for a moment before holding out their hand flat in the air, “Hell yeah, natural magic bros”, they say, apparently expecting a certain response from Calamitas, as when she just sits there confused they ask with fake horror “Do you not know what a high five is?” Then when she responds with a slight shake of her head, they gasp dramatically before sitting back down to be on her level. “Ok so, it's pretty much cool people's secret language, you just slap each other’s hands like this' ' they clap their own hands together, “and it's meant to show that you guys are cool. You get it?”.

Calamitas just nods, slightly amused. She moves her hand to the Terrarians and gently slaps it against theirs. They seem ecstatic and stand up again. “You are now the coolest person I know,” they say excitedly. Having someone compliment her like that, felt nice. Before, it was compliments about how well she scorched a village, which looking back on now. They aren't the best things to be getting compliments for. It's enough for her to once again consider their offer of refuge.

She’s still conflicted, but the reasons for it seem to change the more she is getting to terms with emotions. If she stays, it could lead to the Tyrant coming for her again, which could lead to this town going up in flames, even if they aren't hers. But maybe. Maybe the Terrarian was strong enough, maybe she could help. It was a weak hope, but in this world, any hope is something to cling onto.

“I think I'll stay,” she says after a while of deliberation. Looking up at the Terrarian, whose face forms a smile, the biggest she's seen on them so far.

“Whoop,” they say after their own moment of thinking. Their hands went into the air slowly. Calamitas could probably get used to their positivity, it might even balance out her own negativity eventually. “I have no idea what to do next,” they added. “I didn't expect to get this far, to be honest”

“Well I think it's probably my turn to actually do things” She responds, and it was. If she actually wanted to help, she needed to help. Then again, the thought of that was somewhat frightening. She probably needed to get her emotions under control before she could really do anything, and the idea of talking to the other town residents was not something to look forward to. “I don't know if I’m really ready yet though, so if you could maybe keep it quiet that I’m not, trying to kill people, for a while,” she asks hopefully, it was maybe a bit rude to hold the information back, but it would likely be best.

They look at her with the same smile and just nod, which is a relief. It would probably take a while to figure out what she needs to actually do to not feel so strange, and it’s a lot easier to do that without the pressure of other people. The only exceptions likely being the Terrarian and the Drunk Princess.

She had forgotten about her, but suddenly she remembered. The thought that Cirrus would go around telling everyone was a big one, but if it was going to happen it likely already did, so no reason to fret then. At least that’s what Calamitas tried to tell herself. But she had doubts, either way, nothing to do at 4 am, she was probably already blackout drunk if what her house looked like was any telling sign.

Calamitas just lays back against the couch and closes her eyes. “For someone who says they don't need to sleep, you look awfully tired.” It snaps her out of the peace she had, and she just looks towards them. They were right though, she suddenly felt very tired.

“Probably just everything happening, or maybe me not having to sleep was also part of the curse” She jokes, which is odd considering she doesn't remember having a single funny bone in her. The small chuckle from the Terrarian catches her attention though, perhaps she was funny or they just had very low standards.

“That part sounds more like a blessing than a curse if I’m honest,” They say once they catch their breath. It was true, not sleeping did allow for much more efficiency, but part of her found any time she could get good sleep to be the most relaxing part of her life. Maybe that will continue now. “If you need to catch some Zs then I do have a guest room if you also don't want to trek back to the room you were set up with earlier.”

Not having to go all the way back through the cold would be nice, but sleeping in a stranger's house was a bit odd, at least one you barely met. But she argued that if she stayed here then her presence would be harder to find. “Yeah that would be nice if you don't mind,” she asks, trying to be a bit more polite than earlier.

The Terrarian smiles and beckons her to stand, to which she complies, bringing herself to her feet. She follows them as they walk down a hall, noticing the different decorations on the wall, some of which appear to be warded trophies of different creatures. Some of which she recognises, some of which she does not. “Do you need some clothes to sleep in?” they ask, taking her attention away from the trophies. Clothes, sleeping in her cloak and robes wasn't the worst but it certainly wasn’t comfortable.

“If it isn't too much of a bother, that would be nice. These clothes are good defensively but not so much when it comes to comfort.” She says, justifying the reason as to not appear too needy. Whether she was doing that for the Terrarian or for herself, she doesn't really know.

“Alright, I can probably grab some spares quick, I’ll be right back,” They say as they quickly stop and slip into a room at the end of the hall. Coming out again quite quickly with some clothes and handing them to Calamitas. “Here you go, they might be a bit big but hopefully that just means they’re better. Oh and they are clean, I don’t think I’ve even worn any of these before, I usually just have the armour.” Calamitas nods at them and takes the clothes. She was usually the same with her ‘armour’ but that was out of habit and enforcement from the Tyrant, if she didn't need to, why continue?

After handing the clothes to her, the Terrarian then opens another door at the end of the hall and walks in, once again beckoning her to follow. When she enters the room, she finds it sparsely decorated, nothing too much, but more than the room she woke up in earlier. It's also more spacious. “This is the room,” they say, looking towards her. She nods and walks towards the bed, placing the clothes onto it, before turning around. “I'll leave you to it, for now, if you need me I'll probably be in the front room, so just come get me or something,” they say as they walk towards the door.

Calamitas eyes watch them, as they reach the door and turn back around and look towards her. “Thank you,” she says, quickly following up with more “for helping me, I don't know if I deserve it but, I’ll try to repay it to you when I can.” usually saying something like this would annoy her, but currently she just feels slightly embarrassed by it. “Have a good night” she finishes, looking away from them and back towards the bed.

“Don't sweat it, you have some good rest now” they respond before shutting the door while wearing a smile from ear to ear, though Calamitas didn't see that. She was busy focusing on the pillows on the bed. They looked comfortable, she wanted to just flop over and pass out right away, but she decided she should put on the clothes that were given to her. Quickly changing, she still feels strange to be out of the robes and cloak, not sure if it's a good feeling or not she doesn't focus on it, instead just placing herself into the bed and laying back.

Today was good, at least overall it seems like it was good. There were some low points, but hopefully, this would be the start of an upturn in the witches life. Maybe she could do good instead of evil, maybe she could help instead of hurt.

But those were thoughts for another day, she needed the rest after the stress of today. She needed rest after the stress of feeling stress again. It was complicated. But still, as she lay there slowly letting the fatigue take over, she felt happy almost, she forgot how it felt to be happy, to joke with people, to have human contact that wasn’t painful.

She forgot what it was like to smile

But now she could remember.

Surge eyed the gauntlet you retrieved out of your bag a bit suspiciously, she had her fair share of unpleasant experiences with them thanks to Starline. Luckily, yours doesn’t seem to have any kind of hypnotic device, at least not one she can see.

“Stand back and watch brilliance at play,” deciding against mocking your shitty one-liner in favour of actually backing up, Surge takes a few steps back, not sure what to expect. After a few seconds, you push your palm against a keypad next to the door.

Which does nothing

“Huh?” you pull back and try again, pushing it against the keypad. Surge can’t hold back her laugh this time.

“Brilliance huh?” You glare at her before pulling back completely and taking a look at the gauntlet. Your eyes widen when you turn it over.

“Oh, no charge. Shit,” you frown and pull your backpack into your hands again, rooting around in it for a second. “Fuck,” you turn your head to look at Surge for a second, contemplating something. “Okay, so… problem. I have no backup plan.”

Surge’s grin turns into a frown as she glares at you, “Really? Nothing? How’d you forget the battery anyway?”

“It happens, you got a perfect memory or something?” you turn away to stow your backpack again, meaning you miss the look that crosses Surge’s face. “How much energy you got? The only thing I can think of is you run back to town, grab my spare battery then run back?” She contemplates it for a moment, she could do that yes, or she could do something else.

“How about I shock it? See if that can’t get it up and runnin’” she grins at the idea. You do not grin at the idea, in fact, you look horrified by it.

“Uh no thank you, this thing took me ages to make so I don’t want you frying it with your-” Before you can finish, Surge shoots a small amount of electricity into the gauntlet. Making you stiffen up and eyes go wide. “WHAT THE FUCK!? You fucking psycho! That could have killed me!” You yell at her, while she is full-on belly-laughing at your reaction.

“Oh my god,” she gasps out in between laughs. “Your face!”

“It’s not funny, asshole!” you grumble, your hand feels all tingly now.

“Oh come on, it’s kinda funny,” She snickers, finally making her laughs die down. “It was barely even a static shock, you’re overreacting.” You grumble something, still not happy but you also notice that it did at least charge the gauntlet slightly. You quickly pull it off and throw it at the still-recovering Surge, who expects it to be light and is quite surprised when it almost knocks her over.

“Fine, your idea worked, good job. Charge it some more so it doesn’t run out mid-fight or whatever.” She gives it a once over in her hands before pushing a small amount of electricity in, starting low and building up.

“I thought you said there wouldn’t be anything in there.” She asks as she charges the gauntlet.

“I said there probably wouldn’t be. But now I’m looking at this door, I’ve changed my mind. This place hasn’t been touched by looters, so the automated shit is probably still in there. It’s still fifty-fifty on if anything will be powered and working but it’s better to be safe.” Surge nods in response, seeing the gauntlet’s power gauge reading almost full and deciding to not overdo it, she stops and hands it back to you.

“So that thing a weapon? Or just a tool?” she gestures to you as you again place your palm onto the keypad, a small blue flash coming from it as the door snaps open.

“It’s multipurpose.”

You both begin to descend the staircase leading to the lab. Warehouse? Something. Surge Is about to ask what multipurpose means when a turret suddenly appears out of a hole in the ceiling, immediately tracking the two of your’s position.

Surge springs up and goes to move but is stopped by your laugh. Looking back at you she sees you are laughing at the turret, “Come on, that rusted piece of junk ain’t firing.” Your smugness is interrupted by the whirring of the gun, Surge barging into you to move you behind some cover as the turret begins blasting your previous location. “Okay, maybe I was wrong.”

The look she gives you screams ‘you don’t say?’ before she gets up and peeks around the corner to the turret which has since stopped firing.

Only for it to immediately start firing, ugh.

“I thought you were super fast and shit? Why don’t you just run around the bullets or whatever?” it should be an insult but the genuine confusion somehow makes it even more insulting. The simple fact you don’t understand she can’t weave through heaps of junk, the fact she can’t get to something on the ceiling with nothing tall around, the fact that. “Okay geez I fuckin get it, I’m dumb.” She really needed to stop doing that.

Grunting, she eyes the gauntlet. “Why don’t you show off your ‘multi-tool’ then?” you mull it over, thinking to yourself for a second before nodding, moving in front of Surge you push her to the side to get a better look at where the turret is. Taking a quick look before it begins firing, you clearly get an idea.

“Okay, I got an idea. Stand behind me.” Again looking at your stature, she shrugs before doing so, worst case scenario she runs away. You do something with your gauntlet which causes a transparent glowing ‘sheet’ of light to appear in front of you both, nodding to yourself you then move out of the cover into the turret’s line of fire. Surge follows, not really understanding but figuring the light was some kind of shield.

Suspicions are confirmed when the bullets merely bounce off the shield, though her enthusiasm for the whole thing is lessened when cracks appear. “Uh, that doesn’t look good.”

“Just a bit further!” you shout over the sound of the bullet’s impact. She can see where you are trying to get to, a staircase which seems to lead to some kind of control area. Unfortunately right as you are about to reach it, the shield shatters and you both have to duck into separate directions to avoid being shot

Lucky for you, that ends up being the staircase, which you quickly ascend to avoid any more gunfire.

Unluckily for Surge, she ends up finding no cover and has to sprint to the nearest thing, which ends up being some shitty wooden crate which is already starting to let bullets through. “COULD USE SOME HELP!” she shouts, more angry than scared but that is starting to change as the crate is quite literally being reduced to splinters.

The gun finally stops, just before her cover is completely destroyed. Grunting, she leaves her cover and checks the gun, flinching when she sees it is still trying to fire at her. The clicking she hears is a clear sign it’s out of ammo, it wasn’t stopped. Deciding to go give you an earful, she marches up the stairs to the control centre, seeing the door open she enters, seeing you being pinned to a control panel by some robot she has never seen. When you see her you quickly talk, “little help here,”

She quickly makes her way over and yanks the robot off, throwing it to the ground and stomping on its head. Looking back at you, you are very shaken. Your neck is bruised and almost looks burnt. “Thanks,” you rasp out, glancing at the robot as you hold your neck. “Fucker snuck up on me, grabbed me and tried to either break my neck or choke me out. Managed to zap him but couldn’t get his hand off me.” That explained the burns and bruises.

“So that’s why you just left me to get gunned down.” She tries to joke but the look you give her shows that you clearly aren’t ready for jokes yet, so she back peddles, “It’s fine, the thing ran out of bullets before it could do any damage anyway.” She brags, shrugging. In doing so, however, she notices the blood coming from her shoulder. Turning to look at it properly, she sees a bullet grazed her.

“No damage huh?” She turns back to you to see a ghost of a smile on your face. Before she can retort though, she sees your face turn back to a grimace as you stand from your lean and rub your throat again. Huffing she moves away from you and glances out the large window in front of you both, only now realizing that there are some huge doors that are closed on the far wall.

“You think somethin’ here opens them,” she turns to you and gestures with her thumb. You turn to look at them as well before glancing down at the controls.

“Yeah I think so. Just a matter of finding out which.” Scanning the controls a problem makes itself apparent, the labels are all fucked. “Guess we just, well… guess” you say, finding a random big button and pressing it.

Only for all the lights to turn off.

“Not that one,” you turn the lights back on.

Surge presses a smaller blue button and a large crash echoes through the outer room, making both of you glance at each other. “Nope.”

Finally seeing a big red one, you pray it isn't some kind of nuke launcher and press it.

The door creaks and begins to pull apart to reveal the rest of the facility.

“Bingo,” turning to her you hold out a hand for a high five, “We make a pretty good team, yknow.” That makes Surge snort.

“You’d be lucky to get to be my sidekick,” she responds with a sharp grin, she still does the high five though so you see it as a win.

Both of you move to the now open blast door, glancing inside you can see a lot of turrets which are exposed already, none of which seem to be powered luckily. Being cautious still, you take it slow, avoiding many of the fallen robots.

“Still can’t tell if this is a lab or a warehouse,” You state, the number of robots screams warehouse but the floor-plan screams laboratory. Maybe it’s a combo.

“Ugh, I hope it’s a warehouse.”

“Not a fan of science?”

“Something like that.”

Finding a side door which leads to a small janitors closet looking room, you step in and quickly motion for Surge to follow you.

“Okay so if we don’t want to be here all day we should find a way to figure out where this thing we’re getting is.” You pull out the bit of paper the science nerd gave you back in town and mull over it, handing the paper to Surge, which she shrugs at.

Name: Quantum Eonic Trace Harvester Lense

Likely location: Quantum Eonic Trace Harvester

Fragility: Sturdy

Importance: Urgent

Reading over the paper one last time you decide where to go.

“Well, he wants it to power some shit so I say we start with the generators. Wherever they are.” Giving another shrug Surge stands up with you and both of you exit the closet to continue down the wide hallway.

——————————————————————————————————

Your search ends up taking longer than expected, not too surprisingly, Eggman never bothered to make signs pointing to anything. Guess that’s what you can do when you rely on robots exclusively. It means you end up having to search every room individually. The further you go into the facility the more robots there seem to be.

It’s fine at first, Surge finally gets to let out her energy and anger. But after the 13th room of bots, even she is starting to get sick of it. What you don’t know is that Surge is having trouble with more than just the bots. Ever since the Dynamo Cage, she’d been seeing Starline every so often. He came and went whenever he pleased, and even though she knew he was really dead, it still messed with her.

Well, it seemed today he was really eager to get on her nerves.

“And here I thought you were starting to get the hang of your power again.” His voice rang out in her head as she walked down towards the next doorway with you. She had managed to restrain herself from responding so far if she did that would certainly confuse you and she didn’t need to be explaining her whole story yet. “You truly were spoiled with that Dynamo Cage weren’t you?” She just growls at the doctor.

“Yeah, I’m starting to get sick of this wild goose chase too.” You respond to her, not realizing the real cause of her annoyance. “I’m seeing the benefit of coming down here with you though, you tear through those bots like nothing.” You grin at her, “Just make sure you don’t end up running yourself into the ground.

Giving her own smirk she responds to you and the doctor with the same words, “I’m just gettin’ warmed up, you ain’t seen nothing yet.”

Opening another door you finally see what you’d been searching for the entire time, the main generators. “Okay! Finally.” You quickly make your way over and immediately stop, the spring in your step evaporating. “Wait how the fuck do we know what we are actually meant to take?” You glance back at Surge who just looks as confused as you and gives a shrug, you groan.

You both search the room for any kind of schematic or anything which would give you even a slight idea of what you’re looking for. Unfortunately, neither of you turns up anything and are forced to try and figure out what it looks like yourself.

“If only they had brought Kit instead, he would have known what to look for. But no, they brought Surge, the stupid, loud-mouthed egotist.” Surge silently seethed at his words, turning to look away. “I don’t remember why I chose you, perhaps your stupidity made you easier to manipulate,” the doctor laughed from out of her vision. She tried to focus on something else, the sound of you trying to unscrew a screw so rusted you have to hit it with a hammer to get it off.

“I suppose that’s also why you fell for Sonic’s tricks, or perhaps that was the ego. Yes, that seems more plausible, you believe in yourself worthy of redemption. I suppose your goal is no different than mine was, we both wanted you to end up the world’s hero, but without me, you’ll never be number one. Not number two either, in fact, I doubt you’ll ever reach the top one thousand, because at the end of the day.”

“You’re. Just. A. Villain.”

“SHUT UP!” she screams at the apparition. Though clearly she also surprised you as you whip around to look at her. For the first time, she sees clear fear in your eyes, fear of her, and for once she doesn’t enjoy someone being afraid of her. She hates it.

“I-I didn’t say anything?” You ask confused, that layer of fear still on your face as you stare at her wide-eyed.

Surge does what she does best, runs. She sprints out of the room instantly, leaving you confused as she finds herself alone a long way down the hall. As she catches her breath she realizes she’s crying, holding her hands out in front of her she sees them shaking.

Turning back to where she ran from she can see you briefly standing outside the room looking at her, the urge to keep running shows itself but dies down as she watches you retreat back to the room. She just sits on the floor for a minute, until her eyes dry and she gets her breathing under control. Why Starline’s comments got to her so badly she doesn’t know, or maybe it was the look on your face. You were the first person who actually treated her as a person rather than the monster she felt like, maybe she was afraid that was going to change now.

Eventually, she made her way back to the room and entered to see you still messing with the generator, most of its parts now laying discarded on the floor. You look up at her when she enters, “So uh, we gonna talk about it or not?” you look concerned and she doesn’t know if it’s for her or yourself. “I mean I can drop it, just yknow, that was uh… intense.”

“I have a hallucination.” She blurts out after a second, your face turning from concern to confusion quickly. “It, it’s of someone I used to know.” That turns confusion into understanding, at least Surge hopes it is understanding because if not she’d have to explain more and she really didn’t feel like doing that now.

“Right, yeah. I get that.” You respond. “Was it saying some fucked up shit or something?” A nod in response, “That, sounds like it sucks.”

“Yeah,” she barely whispers, sitting down with her back to the wall now.

You work in silence after that, managing to get the part you needed out of the generator. At least you hope it’s the part you need.

“Welp, that’s what we came here for, lets's get out of here.” You offer Surge a hand to help her up, which she takes after a brief moment of confusion and consideration.

“Yeah, I’m sick of this shit hole.” She kicks some random generator part as emphasis.

Exiting the room you both scan the hallway for any bots and quickly begin to make your way down it, but as you pass by an open room on the opposite wall you notice something.

“Wait, I think that’s another generator room.” You stop to approach it, much to Surge’s chagrin.

“So? We already got what we need,” she’s confused about why you’d want to stay here any longer but doesn’t put up a fight as you enter, following you shortly after. The room is much like the previous one, save for a workbench in the corner with some blue paper on it. Finding that more interesting than whatever you’re looking at, she approaches. Discovering the blueprints for the generator you were looking for, with the part you needed labeled on it. “Uh, isn’t this the thing we’re lookin’ for?” She calls out to you

Walking over you take one look at the blueprints before yelling, “Oh my god! It was right here, UGH!” you groan in frustration, deciding to kick the generator in this room out of anger. This ends up being a bad idea as it breaks from the impact, and apparently, it was the only generator holding the place together as the lights flicker off and the room is plunged into darkness. “Uh oh,”

Before Surge manages to comment on your idiocy the lights come back on, but with a red hue. That’s when a loudspeaker suddenly starts up with Eggman’s voice coming through. “Well well well, think you can break into my base do you?” It comes out with a lot of static and lags in a few places, so you surmise that it must be a recording. It says nothing else legible but one of the monitors in the room suddenly turns on with a timer.

Five minutes.

“Fuck!” you and Surge both exclaim at the same time, running out of the room. Only to see the Badniks laying in the halls turning on. Surge looks down the direction you came from, seeing the number of robots blocking both of your ways, and looks back to you. At first, she contemplates leaving on her own, she could easily make it out on her own.

But as she looks back at you and sees the fear on your face she knows she wouldn’t be able to do that. She’d be living right up to Starline’s expectations. Plus she was starting to kinda like you. “Hold on tight,” she says before grabbing your hand, giving you half a second to realize what’s happening before she is dragging you through the facility, your legs hanging in the air.

The sound of your scream echoes through the halls as she sprints, dodging Badniks left and right. In practically no time you’re stood back in the first room you arrived in, finally back on your feet as Surge catches her breath. You quickly glance back at the increasing sound of robotic footsteps, luckily none of the ones in this room is on yet, but you don’t want to know if they’re on a timer or not so you quickly look around to see what you’re dealing with.

“We need to shut that door,” you say suddenly, pointing to the blast doors you opened earlier. “I’ll stop the Badniks and give us time to get out.”

“Uh yeah, or we could just fuckin leave.”

“But what if the Badniks follow us?”

“Who cares? We can be long gone by then,” she can already tell your next reply is going to be something like ‘oh but what if the Badniks go after civilians?’ and she already knows she doesn’t care. “If you want to stay and die here be my guest, I’m outta here.” She moves to leave but finds resistance, which is when you both realize that she is still holding your hand.

You both look at each other for a moment before removing your hands from each other, “Fine! If you want to go, go,” is all you say to her as you run up to the doorway to the control room. She watches you for a moment, conflicted, before sprinting up the stairs to the exit. She stands at the doorway for a moment.

“Ugh, why am I even thinking about this?” she glances back down the staircase, thinking about Starline’s words, and you. What was the point, she brought you all the way to the exit just for you to throw it in her face and get yourself killed anyway. No, she wouldn’t let her work go to waste just because you were stubborn. Did you want to try and be the hero? Well, she was gonna be an even better one.

Running back down and looking around she realizes she can’t see you anywhere, figuring you are still at the doorway she dashes over to see you trying to kick the door down. “Surge?!” you question as she pushes you away to kick at the door herself. When that doesn’t do anything she tries a spin-dash, which barely leaves a mark. “I thought you were leaving?” you accuse.

“The doors locked just like this one,” she lies through her teeth, you didn’t need to know the real reason. “If I’m gonna die I’m at least gonna do it fightin’” she answers.

“Well, that door ain’t budging. We need another way in.” You think for a second before quickly running down the stairs, “I got an idea. Run to the other side of the room,” she looks at you confused for a moment before doing as you say. She watches you bring up the gauntlet’s shield and angle it slightly. “Dash at the shield,”

Confused for a moment she gets into a stance to do so when she realizes what you’re doing and sprints towards you, balling up as she reaches the shield. She collides with it as you push forward and up, forcing her momentum higher and causing her to smash straight through the window.

Landing less than gracefully, Surge jumps to her feet and rushes to the controls to close the door. She’s stopped in her tracks when Starline stands in her way, a maniacal grin on his face.

“Finally deciding to play hero? It’s a bit late for that Surge, don’t you think?”

“Shut up.”

“You know you’ll only ever be remembered as my flunky, my disposable muscle that barely managed to break free of her programming.”

“Surge! Could really use this door closed right about now.” Your voice calls up from below, the footsteps of the Badniks were echoing through the room now.

“Oh, and now you’re going to let your new friend die. Sonic truly is no match for you is he?”

“Shut up!” she was crying again, she could see her vision blurring.

“You’ll both die here, no one will remember you, they will mourn their friend while you are forgotten. Even the Fennec will forget you eventually, nothing more than a distant memory.”

As she stared at the apparition, the Badniks finally started to approach the doorway, the ones with guns beginning to fire towards you, barely being blocked by your shield. “SURGE!” you scream.

“You’ll die, never truly knowing who you are, abandoned by the world and left to rot.”

Finally, something snaps in her, and the idea of dying without ever getting a chance to discover her past life resonates in Surge. She finds herself no longer sad, but angry. Not angry, completely filled with Rage.

“Please!”

With your final call, she finally wills herself to move forward, and after the first footstep, she’s at the controls in a flash, slamming her fist onto the red button to close the door. After the door begins closing she climbs out of the window, landing next to you, making you jump in surprise. As you go to say something about her taking so long, the words catch in your throat as you see her face. Her eyes are practically glowing by this point, before you know it she’s gone and the room is filled with clanks and Badniks being destroyed.

Sparks fly, arms are ripped off torsos, heads are crushed and oil gets sprayed all over you as the shield finally fails. Somehow you find cover and avoid getting riddled with holes as bullets fly.

When the dust settles and you find the courage to look over the box you see Surge standing in the middle of the room, panting. She’s also giving off way more sparks than usual, which is probably a bad sign. Slowly exiting your cover you walk up to her, being sure to stomp your feet so she knows you’re coming and doesn’t end up zapping you. “You, uh, good?”

“No,” she slumps as she says this, the sparks around her dying down too, as she turns to face you she looks more tired than you’d ever seen her. Neither of you says anything else for a moment as you stare at each other, she had pretty eyes when they weren’t glowing bright blue. Actually, they were kinda pretty even when they were glowing blue. You didn’t know why you were suddenly thinking about that, you assume its cause you’d never looked at her this long. She opens her mouth to speak but is interrupted as a loud explosion rings out from behind the blast doors.

Turning to face each other again you offer your hand and Surge instantly grabs it and pulls you up the staircase out, slamming out the door which you previously assumed was still locked. She doesn’t stop after getting out of the Eggman base though, she keeps going for a good couple hundred feet before finally slowing down. A loud explosion goes off in the distance as you assume the base is entirely destroyed.

Surge takes some time to get her breath bath like last time and you turn to look at her, facing her back, your hands still connected. You wait for her to stand fully again before doing something probably unwise.

You pull her into a hug. She gasps as you do so, before placing her hands on your shoulders, at first it seems like she’s about to push you off, but then a sob escapes her and she leans into it.

And you both stand there for a moment, one friend crying into the other’s shoulder.

Next part