#chaoxfix writes

here ya go!

///

It’s always something with those two, Knuckles thinks when he sees the Tornado touch down, engine smoking, and passengers worse for wear. He shakes his head at them, already telling himself that he really has to draw the line somewhere, that he’s helping no one when he’s constantly bailing these two out of whatever shenanigans they’ve gotten themselves into. 

No way is he intervening. Not even when he sees Sonic – visibly singed, and limping when he hops out of the Tornado. Knuckles is a rock. Wholly unmoved by their plight. 

It lasts for all of three more seconds.

Tails flies out of the Tornado then, looking strained, like the movement is painful. Knuckles has already taken a step closer to investigate. That’s when Tails falls out of the air, leaving Sonic to scramble to catch him. He does, barely, and only by grabbing Tails’s scruff. But the movement unbalances Sonic, and they land in a heap. 

Knuckles sighs. 

It wouldn’t be the worst thing to help him, he begrudgingly admits. As long as they don’t need the Master Emerald.

With that in mind, he shakes his head, already cursing his lack of willpower. But they do seem to need help, even if it’s only a safe place to sleep and heal. As long as they don’t need the Master Emerald, Knuckles supposes he can live with that. 

Sonic and Tails are still in a heap on the ground when Knuckles arrives. He peers down at them, and only Sonic blinks his eyes open to look at him. 

They glare at each other for a moment, each testing the other’s willpower. 

Then, Sonic gently nudges Tails to wake him up. 

Tails yawns and rubs his eyes. “Hm?”

Knuckles waits patiently for the little fox kit to notice him, and prepares himself for the inevitable startling. It passes quickly – to his surprise, Tails seems happy to see him. 

“Hello to you too,” Knuckles says after a beat. “Should I even ask what happened?”

“Robotnik,” Tails says seriously, in that too-old-for-a-little-kid voice of his. Smart, but with childish lilts on many of his words. “Can we stay here for a little while? Sonic got really hurt.” 

Sonic huffs. He gently smacks the back of his hand against Tails’s arm, but Tails just smiles. 

“Please?” Tails adds. “We’ll be good houseguests this time.”

It is definitely not what Sonic was getting at, Knuckles thinks. He can’t even picture Sonic trying to raise Tails to be polite. Whatever polite attitude he has is surely due to whoever raised Tails prior to… however it is they met. 

Knuckles tsks. “It’s fine. As long as Robotnik didn’t follow you, you can stay here. But once you heal up, I want you off my island.” 

Tails looks immediately relieved. “Thank you. Hear that, Sonic? Knuckles let us stay after all!”

Sonic makes a movement with his hands that Knuckles doesn’t catch, but that makes Tails pout. 

“He will too have food,” Tails says. Then, shyly, glances up at Knuckles. “...Right? If we do have to catch it ourselves, that’s okay too of course, I was just, um, wondering.”

Knuckles’s eye twitches. But he keeps his temper in check. For now. “I have soup,” he says flatly. “That should do it for you two until you can forage for yourselves.” 

The promise of food, it seems, finally is enough to rouse them. Sonic slowly gets to his feet, with Tails struggling to help him, and between the two of them, they finally get upright. Tails attempts to help Sonic walk, but Knuckles doesn’t trust the fox kit’s shaky legs as much as Sonic seems to. 

“Stop.” 

Tails and Sonic blink up at him with twin confusion. “What?” Tails asks. 

Knuckles easily pushes between them. Without a word, he slips one of Sonic’s arms around his neck, so he doesn’t have to lean on the kid to walk. 

Truthfully, Knuckles is surprised Sonic is letting him – but even though he must be in pretty rough shape, it has to be a relief not to make the little kid prop him up. Even though Knuckles is deeply skeptical at Sonic’s abilities to shepherd a little kid, it’s clear he cares about him and doesn’t want to burden him. Which is only right, seeing as the kid can’t be more than five. 

Tails, even more than Sonic, looks relieved. “Thanks, Knuckles,” he says. Then, he starts to step forward with shaky legs of his own. 

Knuckles uses his free hand to grab him by the scruff. 

Sonic makes a choked sound and tries to squirm away, but Knuckles doesn’t give him the chance to.

“Here,” Knuckles says mildly, “Let me carry you.” 

It’s not as though he’s giving Tails much of a choice, of course, seeing as Tails is still held up by the scruff. But Knuckles thinks it’s extremely polite of him to at least explain. 

“Are you sure?” Tails finally asks, in a small, uncertain voice. 

Knuckles just grunts. Instead, he answers Tails by scooping him up and resting him on his hip. Tails seems to know what to do from there, saving both him and Knuckles the embarrassment of saying another word about it. Still, his namesake tails swish uncertainly even as he loops his legs around Knuckles’s middle.

“...Thanks,” Tails finally says, voice small as he buries his nose into Knuckles’s white crescent patch. 

“Next time don’t get injured,” Knuckles says flatly. But there’s warmth in his voice despite himself. 

here u go!!! this was a lot of fun to write, i decided to go with classic!sonic and modern/older!tails <3

///

Tails is halfway through an errand – dropping off seed packets to Vanilla to repay her for the flowers she donated for Amy’s birthday – when a portal appears out of the sky. 

A blue hedgehog drops out, which is just par for the course. When Tails was younger, he probably would’ve been worried and called out for him. But seeing as this has happened at least once a month for the last several years, Tails no longer wastes the adrenaline. 

Instead, Tails simply reacts. He flies a little faster than usual, and as always, hopes to catch Sonic before he hits the ground. 

(Not that he’s all that worried even if he doesn’t get there in time. Sonic has a tendency to break falls with his face, and it’s never done serious damage before, even falls from space. Tails doubts it’ll start hurting him now.) 

Still, as Sonic falls, Tails can’t help but think it’s odd timing. He wasn’t really expecting Sonic back yet, seeing as he was visiting the Wisps. It doesn’t take that long to travel to and from Planet Wisp, but Sonic was planning on spending at least a few days there. For once, they really weren’t expecting any trouble from Eggman. Though of course, that’s always what Eggman wants them to think, so maybe Tails should’ve known better. 

Either way, Tails will probably get an explanation once his brother has safely touched down. 

…It’s not until Tails actually catches Sonic that he realizes his mistake. 

happy birthday friend!! may it be a fun filled day!

---

Tails has been glued to his communicator for hours now. 

Occasionally, Sonic is sure that he’s taken a break to blink, maybe even to munch on the pile of snacks Sonic left next to him. But other than that, nothing. 

Not that Sonic has been here the whole time, of course. Once he saw that Tails was busy, Sonic went on a quick jog through Emerald Coast to give him some time to finish up whatever genius invention he was cooking up. Oddly enough, no one was around anywhere near Emerald Coast, leaving him with plenty of time to catch up with some of his little animal friends. (They’re doing great, thanks for asking.) Station Square was just as quiet as Emerald Coast, too. A few people were out and about, so Sonic waved at a few people who didn’t seem to notice him. Kids, mainly, and focused pretty intensely on a video game they were playing. There were a few adults, too. Positively glued to their phones, those guys – but these days, it’s par for the course. Sonic usually gets a few of them to look up, though. 

But by now, that was hours and a half-baked adventure ago. Now that Sonic’s back, he’s surprised to find Tails still exactly where he was, which is why he gets a strange prick of worry in his stomach as he thinks back through his trek through Station Square. 

They couldn’t possibly be linked, right? 

But… Tails isn’t even tinkering with something. Seriously, who is this kid, and what’d he do with Sonic’s little bro? 

Sonic perches on the wing of the Tornado, watching and waiting for any sign that Tails has even noticed him. 

Nothing. Not even an ear flick or a tail swish. 

Man. Whatever he’s focused on, it really does have all his attention. 

Enough is enough, Sonic decides – and skillfully hops down until he is instead perched on the coffee table. Toes teetering off the edge, but perfectly balanced. 

To Sonic’s surprise, Tails doesn’t even look up. 

“Earth to Tails,” Sonic says, moving closer. Tails doesn’t blink. 

Sonic’s brows furrow. “Did you hear me?” he asks, stomach starting to sink. “Tails? Hello?” 

He waves a hand in front of Tails’s face. Nothing. 

Aw, man. This could be bad. Really bad.

Sonic blows through his teeth, flexes his fingers, and slowly reaches for the communicator. It’s silly, but he knows how much Tails usually booby traps his gear. Sonic should be bracing himself for military grade spy-work. Actually, maybe it’s not too late to loop in Rouge for this?

No, too late, already committed. Sonic steels himself, then yanks the device out of Tails’s hands.

For an instant, Sonic considers it a success because the device doesn't blow up the instant it leaves Tails's hands. However, it quickly tips back towards failure when Tails pitches forward, eyes rolling up in his head. 

“Okay, worse, that’s definitely worse,” Sonic mutters. He sets the device down without looking at it – Chaos only knows what was on that thing – then sits down with Tails propped up in front of him. “C’mon, buddy, you awake yet?” 

Tails’s ears twitch. 

It’s probably not a good sign that even that is such marked improvement. Still, Sonic lets out a sigh of relief, then scoops him up to hug him to his chest. “You’re gonna be just fine,” he says. “Just wake up, okay? Whatever’s going on, I’m gonna need some backup.” 

That seems to do the trick. 

Tails’s ears prick up, and he cracks one eye open. “Backup?” he says, voice sounding faint and far away. “What for…?” 

Sonic laughs, half anxiety, half relief. He ruffles Tails’s bangs. “I’ll fill you in once you’re all there,” he teases. “For now, just promise me you’ll give screens a break until we figure this out?” 

Tails glances up, where his communicator is sitting on the edge of the table, giving off a strange staticky sound. He looks tempted, suddenly, so Sonic waves a hand in front of his face to keep his attention. “Hey! Seriously, I just free you from that thing and your first instinct is to go back?”

Annoyed, Tails just bats his hand away. “Is this just another intervention on screen time?” 

“It is when it’s actual hypnosis!” 

Tails opens his mouth to argue – but closes it just as quick, lips quirking to the side. “...This whole thing better not have messed up my Minecraft session,” he finally grumbles, but doesn’t reach for his communicator again. To Tails's credit, he does still seem pretty out of it, and he's always a little grumpy when he first wakes up.

Besides, at least he's awake and talking again. Still, despite his relief, Sonic can't help but shake his head, a nostalgic look on his face. “You know, I think I actually predicted this a couple’a years ago…” 

“No way, you don't get to claim that," Tails says, knowing immediately what Sonic's referring to. "You predicted we’d do this to ourselves naturally, and this is clearly Eggman tech.”

“I dunno…” In a flash, Sonic is upright, grinning with hands crossed behind his quills. “You get the same look on your face when you’re coding for too long.”

Tails scrunches his face up in an adorable pout. 

Sonic just grins and pokes his nose. Then, he offers him a hand up, hoping Tails is feeling well enough to stand and get back out there. “Now c’mon,” he says cheerfully. “You’ve gotta help me prove your theory right.” 

Tails only pouts for a second longer. But as always, he takes Sonic’s hand and pulls himself to his feet. It seems to shake off the last of the communicator’s hook on him, and once he's up, he stretches out and limbers up, already getting ready for an adventure.

“Okay,” Tails says, already looking much more alert. “You said hypnosis… How serious are we talking?” 

“All of Station Square for the last couple of hours,” Sonic says. “That’s bad, right?”

“Yes, but…" Tails trails off, sounding confused. "You have a communicator of your own. Why weren’t you affected?” 

Sonic rubs the back of his head. He definitely won’t admit that he almost never checks his phone unless someone calls twice. Instead, he glances to the beautiful day still happening outside the lab window. The bright, sunny, windy day he’s still itching to get back to. “If I have to guess,” he says with a playfully heavy tone, “I’ve just touched too much grass today.”

here ya go!

///

The day is saved, Sonic’s friends are all safe, Eggman’s retreated, the rubble is being cleared, and the sun is even coming back out. All in all, a 10/10 adventure, if Sonic does say so himself. 

He thinks so, anyways, until he spots Silver slumped over against a chunk of concrete. 

Alarmed, Sonic skids to a stop and whips a u-turn. 

“Silver!” he exclaims, ducking down until he’s in Silver’s field of vision. Or, he would be, if Silver wasn’t squeezing his eyes shut like he’s injured. “What’s wrong, are you hurt? I thought you said you were fine when Amy was taking a head count-” 

“I’m not hurt.” Silver says it like he means it, but he also says it like he’s barely managing to get the words out, so sue him if Sonic doesn’t believe him. “I’m seriously. You can go home, Sonic, I’ll find my own way back.” 

“Sure, but how are you supposed to return to the future if you can’t even sit up straight?”

Silver groans and rubs his head. “Can you quiet down?” 

Sonic’s ears twitch. He hadn’t thought he was being that loud, but he does, at least, honor the request. “Okay,” he says, quieter. He looks around for enemies that might have snuck up on them, but no luck. “...Why are we whispering?” 

Silver groans and rubs his head more vigorously, at his temples. “Why are you saying anything at all?”

It sounds like Silver is just being rude again, at first. But… he’s clearly in pain. Sonic frowns, trying to puzzle it out. He taps his foot, irritated with himself for not automatically knowing the answer. He’s sure he knows the solution to this one, but what…? 

“Do you have a concussion?” Sonic asks, in a very tiny whisper. He’s not really sure how to treat them, seeing as he has an incredibly durable head and so do Knuckles and Amy, and he’s never, ever, ever let anything get close enough to Tails or Cream’s heads to risk finding out if they’re as durable yet. 

“A concussion-?” Silver finally blinks his eyes open to try and peer up at Sonic in pure confusion, but he’s still squinting in the afternoon light. He winces, then squeezes them shut just as fast. “No, it’s not a concussion. It’s just a headache, I’m fine.” 

Oh. 

Well, Sonic thinks, that’s a lot simpler. 

The only person he knows who gets regular headaches is Vanilla – Sonic always figured it was just something people got when they got old. Silver’s younger than he is, but maybe it has something to do with him being from the future. 

Or, he realizes a beat too late, having powers that stem from his mind. Huh. 

Fortunately, Sonic knows just the thing for headaches. “Wait right there,” he says, in that same quiet voice. “I’ll be right back with just the thing.” 

He doesn’t wait for Silver to tell him not to bother – “It’s no use!” is what he thinks he hears as he runs off, but that could just be his mind playing tricks on him. Instead, he pops into the nearest nurse station and grabs what Cream always gets her mom when Vanilla says she has a headache. 

Ice, earmuffs, water, and an eye-mask. Sonic thinks Vanilla often takes some medication, but he’s not sure what type, and also Silver’s got a pretty horrible immune system so he doesn’t want to risk giving him something that’ll make him feel worse on accident. 

When Sonic returns with an armful of supplies, Silver is laying on the concrete. Sonic can’t help but feel guilty if this really is from Silver overusing his powers. 

Every time Silver comes from the future, it’s always to help with a crisis – or to prevent something bad from turning into a crisis. He might have a personality that Sonic can’t quite figure out – maybe it’s as changeable as that timeline of his, who knows – but he’s still dependable in a pinch. 

Sonic just hopes that these will help him feel better. 

Sonic drops into a crouch beside him, then carefully slips on the earmuffs. “For the noise,” he says, still in a quieter voice than before. Silver looks up at him, baffled, but when he winces at the light, Sonic presses the eye-mask into his hands, for Silver to put on himself. 

“Water will help, and the ice will make it feel a little better too. I made sure the ice pack is extra durable so you won’t prick it open,” he adds, noting the way Silver’s front quills stick straight up. “Just try it, alright? I dunno what fancy stuff you use for headaches in the future, but hopefully this is good enough for now.” 

“We- well, it depends on the timeline,” Silver says, reaching for the ice pack first. He lets out a sigh of relief once it hits his head, shoulders immediately losing their tension. “But… in the one I just came from, this is a lot better.” 

Sonic quirks a smile. “Well, I’ll leave you to it, okay? Unless you’d rather I speed you off somewhere a little less, uh…” He gestures vaguely to the rubble around them both. 

Silver waves a hand, then reaches up and ties the eye-mask around his head. “No, this is perfect, I think this rubble is comfier than the concrete bed I was using before… Thanks, Sonic.” 

Sonic grins and shakes his head in bemusement, though Silver can’t see it. “Happy to help. And drink that water!”

“I will, I will.” To prove it, Silver opens the recyclable plastic bottle, and tips it to his mouth.