Archive of Our Own ^beta

But the individual words made sense with what his body was apparently forcing him into when waking up from sleep in a cold sweat after blurry vaguely threatening-feeling dreams and finding that even in the real world, he suddenly couldn't move a muscle. Not even his jaw would budge, so there was no calling for help if he even could bring himself to disturb the only other occupant of the house. Not being in control of his own body was already a fear that merged with other higher frequency encounters like water situations or temporary disabling injuries, but now it had really come into its own as a standalone terror after several nights of the same waking paralysed routine.

Things didn't make sense when he couldn't move. It was bad enough being trapped in that cell for the time that Infinite had kidnapped him or whatever - defeated was such a… harsh word, since he's here to deny it was a true finisher - to whenever it had just as abruptly unlocked and he managed to fight and crawl and kick his way out of literal space.

But there's no point in dwelling on past situations in Sonic the Hedgehog's life. The current issue however… This was a little more tricky.

Trying to stay mostly awake for a third night in a row was not going particularly well. Sonic had waved Amy off hours ago after a short movie night, insisting she needed good rest to get back to running the resistance-slash-restoration in the morning, plenty more damage control to coordinate that would no doubt continue for months after this first difficult one.

Tails had been busy at a workbench when Sonic peeked in with popcorn on the way back from the kitchen to ask if the kit would like to join them for the film, so it was made sense that he trudged into the living room a fair while after Amy's departure with a yawn and stretching arms.

He rubbed at his eyes and let another, smaller, yawn take over his face as he wandered over to the sofa where his brother was lounged, eyes glued to the television. Tails raised an eyebrow when his tired eyes figured out what the screen showed, and looked doubtfully at his side of his brother's face that didn't turn to meet his judgement, despite an ear flicking in his direction at every little sound.

Not particularly up for playing a waiting game with his older brother right now, Tails sighed and stepped closer without comment of the hedgehogs attention, eyeing the TV again impassively.

"Bit young for this kind of thing, aren't you? Thinking about sorting the place out already?" His low energy jabs based on the plot of the program in front of them (being about older folk selling old things found in their houses when considering moving) didn't elect much more than a disinterested hum that at least proved Sonic was somewhat listening.

Though, it didn't mean he was actually hearing, and on closer inspection, Tails frowned as he realised his brother's gaze wasn't on the flashing screen in the darkening room, but somewhere past or over it, little attention being paid to his actual surroundings.

"Sonic?" Tails waved a hand in front of his brother's faraway eyes and he blinked as though mildly interrupted in the staring, but didn't focus. Tails walked over the to the TV and switched it off, allowing the sudden silence to reign for a moment before prompting again, gentler, "Sonic? Hey."

"Huh?" Suddenly, Sonic blinked rapidly for a second and shook himself slightly, straightening up and wearing the briefest look of surprise before slipping into a small apologetic smile. "Sorry, bud. Just late night TV background stuff, y'know." He seemed to shake his head of the lingering dustiness and seamlessly transitioned into a casual lounge with an easy soft grin, tilting his expression slightly at the fox now in front of him. "Did'y need something?"

Tails raised an eyebrow again. "Well, not sure what I'd need at this time," he replied with a hint of teasing, but a pointed topic of the lateness obvious. Sure enough, Sonic squinted then quickly glanced at a digital timer to the side of the room, confirming Tails' suspicions with a shocked expression at the blinking three followed by even increasing numbers.

"Whoa, when did it get that late?" Sonic muttered, clearly more to himself, before realisation lit in his gaze, looking back at Tails. "What're you still doing up, huh? Did you need anything?"

Tails felt the ends of his tails twitch in concern as he shook his head and walked the few steps to his brother. "No. I'm fine. Just lost track of time in the workshop and only just finished," he replied truthfully, letting himself slump towards the other side of the sofa, Sonic absently bending his legs to give his little brother enough space.

"Mm. Me too, I guess." Sonic made an almost nervous sounding laugh and rubbed the back of his neck with a grimace as it decided to ache from being in the same position for however long.

Tails replied in a similar hum, tucking himself nicely into the corner of the furniture, comfortably padding himself with his tails and fur. He watched Sonic seem to reacquaint himself with the room they were in, split second glances darting from one wall to another until he was satisfied he fully recognised the area, and relaxed a little more into the cushions behind him.

He yawned and Tails was interupted from being about to speak by his mouth betraying into its own yawn in automatic response. Tails wrinkled his nose and suppressed yet another yawn immediately after, catching Sonic looking at him with a grin.

"Lookin' pretty tired there, buddy. Think maybe all this inventing needs a rested super genius brain?"

Tails huffed without heat. "You started it," he replied, just to state it. "And anyway, you're also the one watching rubbish TV for no reason in the middle of the night." He gestured to the now blank screen, Sonic's gaze absently following the direction.

"Oh, y'know. Just catching up on normal stuff," Sonic said casually, settling himself more comfortably on his side of the sofa as Tails' lips pursed, reminded of how much of that regular 'stuff' Sonic had missed out on until recently.

"Yeah," he found himself replying softly, gaze also wondering towards the screen without seeing it. "I know." He could feel his eyes getting heavy from the sitting down and quiet alone, small sounds of nature emitting from outside windows of too early birds calling to one another and a mother flicky twittering a telling off to a wandering fledgling.

There was a light chuckle from the other side of the sofa and Tails slowly pulled his tired gaze to his brother, a tired smile meeting him right back. Sonic was more reclined now, clearly not planning to go anywhere anytime soon. It was nice to see, despite being historically unusual and borderline concerning any time more than seven months ago.

But for now Tails was more than satisfied to have his brother so close for so long, and resolved it was best to leave him to the sofa for another night so he wouldn't subtly question how long he was welcome for. The answer, of course, would always be forever, but although by paper and age the place was his, much like how the Tornado's ownership had apparently automatically transferred to Tails over the years, Sonic seemed to act like the house belonged only to the fox who wouldn't always offer the same open invitation every time he was nearby.

This was, of course, borderline ridiculous in Tails' opinion, since Sonic had been sharing everything he owned with him since the very beginning, including food that wasn't enough for one homeless child let alone two, but trying to convince the hedgehog of his neverending welcome to anything was like asking a brick wall to stop being solid and let people walk through when asked.

In any case, he was too tired to deal with anything of the sort right now, so Tails allowed himself another yawn and reluctantly started to peel his limbs off the sofa in a quest to get to his feet and probably find his bed.

But before he could rise, Sonic seemed to straighten up and almost freeze, a hand suddenly held out but stopped from making contact as though afraid. His eyes were wide, no trace of any casual grin on what almost seemed an unusually pale muzzle.

Tails instantly paused in response, tiredness quickly becoming overshadowed by worry. He watched his brother warily. "…Sonic?"

Sonic bit his lip and his outstretched hand curled into a fist that looked clenched tighter than necessary. His eyes flicked away, ears slightly lowered as if just realising the reaction he had made, and he swallowed.

"You could, um, stay. If you want. Please?"

Tails stared. This was such an odd stream of words from his brother that for a moment his overtired worried brain couldnt figure out how to react. It only took until Sonic's ears lowered further and the hedhog started to make himself visibly smaller in the corner of the sofa that Tails quickly reached out a hand as if to physically stop him and blurted out, "I'd love to! Of course!"

It was about as much in order as the ask had been in the first place, and both tired animals just looked at each other for a moment, equally nonplussed.

Then Sonic huffed and cleared his throat and looked away while sticking a long arm out to ruffle the top of Tails' head in a gesture that was very familiar of telltale thanks without ability to handle real intimacy at the moment.

Tails knocked his hand away in mock annoyance after allowing a moment and scooted back fully onto the sofa, settling himself closer towards his brother this time while being careful not to let any of him even accidently touch. Sonic snorted and reached for one of his tails as they tried to fold into their owner, instead draping it over his socked feet as he stretched his legs towards the other end of the sofa towards Tails.

They settled without further talk, easily slipping into positions that suited them both as the night drew towards sunrise. And since Sonic had clearly initiated some measure of contact comfort, when Tails woke groggily to the sound of heavy breathing and too-still feet next to him, he didn't think twice about crawling towards the form of his brother and nestling into the cushion creases of that side of the sofa instead, fluffy head nuzzled reassuringly against soft peach fur able to hear a racing heartbeat settle and breaths slow until a hand carefully and hesitantly landed on one shoulder and thumbed gently, easily quelling rising concern and lulling the young mind back to comfortable sleep.

There wasn't any need to find words to exclaim or explain how this was the quickest the paralysis had disappeared after waking and enabled the fear from blurry vaguely terrifying dreams or memories fade for reality. Instead, Sonic just let the warmth and weight of a missed presence cover the time apart and followed his little brother back into dreams with a feeling of over half a year absent safety.