AI-less whumptober Day 1
Collapsed lung
"It wasnāt until after the exhilaration of Sonicās victory over Robotnik had worn off, and the buzz of excitement at the prospect of having not one, but two, possible friends had faded, that Tails became fully aware of his injuries"
Set after the battle with Robotnik at the end of the second movie
WARNING: self-surgery
Full ficlet below the cut
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It wasnāt until after the exhilaration of Sonicās victory over Robotnik had worn off, and the buzz of excitement at the prospect of having not one, but two, possible friends had faded, that Tails became fully aware of his injuries.Ā Heād obviously known that his chest and head had been hurting a lot since he woke up on that island, and he had found himself unable to fly after Robotnik hit him with a blast of energy inside the giant robot, but he hadnāt given any of it much thought at all because there were far more urgent things going on.
Like having to help Sonic, the battle with Robotnik, Sonic gaining the power of the master emerald but letting it go again, getting invited into the group hug with Tom and Maddie and Sonic, and, to just to add to the impossible things that had happened that day, forming a new 'tribeā with his first ever friends, Sonic and Knuckles.
Now, however, sitting on a comfortable seat in the house of Tom and Maddie, with Sonic talking rapidly beside him, Tails could barely focus on his new, but familiar, surroundings for the pain of his injuries.
The base of his tail and some of his ribs were probably fractured, which wasnāt too bad.Ā Those things, which heād sort of noted earlier, would just heal on their own without anything needing to be done.Ā So would the possible concussion, which Tails had, at first, figured to be responsible for how exhausted he felt.
But it wasnāt to blame.Ā At least, it wasn't only to blame.
That exhaustion, added to the sharp stabbing pain with each inhalation and the cough he kept trying to suppress so as to not draw attention to himself, told him that at some point, probably when he hit the side of a metal platform inside the robot, the injuries to his chest had caused a lung to collapse.Ā The right one, specifically.Ā Thatās why it was hard to breathe, not nervousness as heād first thought and quickly claimed when Sonic asked him about it.
In that moment, realising that Sonic had noticed him starting to give in to his injuries, Tails had been trying as hard as he could to hide all of his symptoms from the others.Ā Heād told them he was fine, not badly hurt at all, and lied when Maddie examined his injuries, not revealing any of the tell-tale signs of the most severe of his injuries, which she'd surely have diagnosed immediately had he been honest.
Tails knew Maddie wouldnāt mind treating any of his injuries.Ā He knew that she was kind and caring - Tom, Maddie, Sonicā¦they all were - but Tails couldnāt help but lie.Ā He didnāt want to cause problems.Ā He didnāt want to add to their stress or do anything that might make them regret allowing him to stay with them.
Tails wasnāt part of this family.Ā He might be Sonicās friend now, he might have formed a pact with Sonic and Knuckles to protect the master emerald and each other, but that didnāt mean he belonged here, nor that he was wanted or had any right to stay.Ā If he caused trouble or inconvenience, his tentative place here could be gone almost as soon as he'd been gifted it.
So he stayed silent, forced himself to hide his shortness of breath and the searing pain each time he inhaled, and pretended to be engaged and listening to what was being said.
He just needed to hide it from them until a pause, a break when he could go find somewhere to hide for just long enough to deal with this collapsed lung on his own.Ā It wasnāt serious.Ā He had at least a few more hours, probably a day or so, before it risked becoming life-threatening.
Which was really lucky, because the chance to escape didnāt come until long after nightfall.Ā Tails had lamented heād felt too nauseous to eat any of the pizza they ordered for dinner, which had been handed over through the massive hole in the lounge wall by a bemused human.Ā The kid had never tried pizza, but heād seen Sonic have it a lot, and he said it tasted amazing.Ā But the mere thought of consuming anything made him feel so ill he might have thrown up right there had he tried.
Maddie and Sonic and Tom had all been concerned when he didnāt eat, but he claimed it was probably just the concussion or because he was tired, and they didnāt question it.Ā At least, they didn't push further on the matter, other than to suggest an early night.Ā Going to bed straight after dinner, which was great, because that would be Tails' chance to take care of his injury.
Except, Knuckles didn't come upstairs to go to sleep with Sonic and Tails.Ā The echidna warrior seemed to think he needed to guard the hole in the wall, despite Sonic insisting that Green Hills wasnāt dangerous and no one was going to attack them during the night.
Luckily Tails knew his way around the Wachowski house as perfectly as if it was his own den, so he was able to sneak out and into the garage without Knuckles noticing.Ā The garage was definitely the best place to do this.Ā Quiet, isolated, no chance of being walked in on at this time of night with almost everyone else asleep.Ā Tails could deal with his lung and take some time to rest where he was after, and still get back upstairs before Sonic woke up the following morning.
It would be fine.Ā In the moment he didn'tĀ feel like it would be fine, struggling just to open and shut the garage door, but he knew it would be fine.Ā He could do this.Ā He'd had worse injuries and dealt with them himself.Ā This was a straightforward operation.
Tails grabbed the multi-gadget from his backpack and a bottle of disinfectant from the first-aid kit he already knew was kept on the wall of the garage.Ā Back in his den, he had a medical kit with exactly what he needed for this, most importantly a syringe he could use to remove the air he knew was compressing his lung, but he hadn't seen anything like that in the first-aid kit or anywhere else in the house, and he didnāt have the time or energy to search.
The fatigue and pain were getting worse.
His hands were trembling, his vision blurring.
A rapid acceleration of the condition, or perhaps he was giving into it now he was alone and didn't have to hide anything.
Either way, Tails knew he had to hurry up and get this done.Ā All that was needed was an incision, going through the ribs and into the space around his right lung.Ā Make a hole for the excess air to escape through, and his lung could reinflate, and heād be fine.Ā Able to hide the cut beneath his thick fur after heād stapled it up again.
There was a blade on his gadget.Ā Not long, but very sharp.Ā It should do the trick.
Quickly pouring the disinfectant over it and trying to rub some over the skin where heād need to stab, Tails leaned back against the nearest wall and braced himself.
It wouldnāt hurt that much.
His mind told him it would, made him hesitate, but it wouldnāt.
This had to be done if he wanted to cling to the potential bright future that hung before him.
Friends and a home and a purpose.Ā Things he never thought he'd have, and they were all right in front of him now.
āCāmon, Tails,ā he whispered to himself, his hand trembling and his vision so blurred now he could barely see.
He felt for his ribs, for a gap between two of them near the centre of his chest, and pressed the tip of the knife against it.
Just a bit of pressure.
He flinched at the first sensation of that point piercing his skin.
A bit more.Ā Get through the layers of tissueā¦
āTails?!ā
Sonicās voice shattering the silence made Tails yelp, drop the knife, stumble back, away from the hedgehog until his pain in his chest brought him to his knees.Ā It was getting worse.Ā He definitely didnāt have long, and now he had toā¦he had to explain thisā¦
āWhat the hell are you doing?!ā
The hedgehog was beside him now.Ā Judging.Ā Disapproving.
Tails had let him down.
āDude, seriously?!Ā Please tell me you werenāt about to stab yourself!ā Sonic was still talking, on his knees, his hands gripping Tailsā arms tightly, āWhat were you thinking?Ā Whatās going on?Ā Talk to me, buddy!ā
Was he angry?Ā Worried?Ā Confused?
Tails didnāt know.Ā He couldnāt tell.
But he deserved an answer.
āIā¦my lung collapsed.ā
Tails could barely hear his own voice, but he wasnāt sure why.Ā It was justā¦murky.Ā Faded.Ā Not really there.
āYourā¦o-okayā¦hold on,ā Sonic didnāt sound angry now.Ā He sounded quiet.Ā He didnāt sound much like Sonic at all, really.
Then the hedgehog suddenly vanished, and without his hands on Tailsā arms, the fox found himself slipping down to the floor.
It was blissfully cold.Ā Very welcome.Ā Breathing in hurt more when he was lying on the concrete, but the pain was starting to blur.Ā One breath bled into the next, and that made it more bearable.Ā Constant was easier than coming and going.
Then he was up again.Ā Sitting up, sitting against something warm.
āItās gonna be okay, buddy,ā Sonicās voice was back, āMaddieās on her way.Ā Sheāll know what to do.ā
Tailsā chest somehow tightened even more.
He had caused trouble after all.Ā And now it was even worse.Ā Maddie, and probably Tom, had been woken up in the middle of the night because of him.Ā Heād made Sonic angry and worried, and probably them too now.Ā And, since he could see a blurred red form approaching quickly, Knuckles was bound to be following suit soon enough.
He didnāt sound happy as he spoke to Sonic, but the words washed over Tails without meaning.
Just sound.
No.
Sound had meaning.Ā It carried information.
Noise.
He heard only noise.
Yet, the noise was strangely welcome.
Maybe Tails wouldnāt get to live the life he longed for, that had been within his grasp, but heād die listening to the voices of the first two, the only two, friends heād ever had.
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