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Sonic knows he shouldn't be outside right now. Why Eggman decided to attack in the middle of a rainstorm, Sonic may never know, but what he does know is that it's annoying. Everyone else has already left, stating they could just clean up all the badnik scraps once the storms over. Of course, that would be the reasonable thing to do.
Which is why Sonic's not doing it.
Dragging another chunk of metal off the water-logged road, Sonic's ears flick as rain continues to pour down. He should go home. Tails is probably worried right now, and if he gets sick, the poor fox will just get more worried about him. But he can't leave all this metal scattered everywhere, that's just a safety hazard. '30 more minutes,' he tells himself. '30 minutes, then I'll go home'. Nodding to himself, he sets a timer on his phone (shoving it hurriedly back into his quills, trying to prevent any water damage), and continues clearing up the streets of Westopolis.
~ ~ ~ ~ ~ ~ ~ ~ ~ ~
By the time his phone rings with the timer he set, the streets are mostly cleared, all the scraps piled up in less hazardous areas. Sonic rubs his temple, the beginnings of a headache forcing their way into his skull. The weather hadn't improved at all; in fact, it somehow became worse. The air feels electric, lightning surely approaching. Feeling like a wet pillow, Sonic attempts to wipe the water from his face, but only messes the fur there further. Giving up, Sonic heads home to Green Hills, the comfort of a warm house too much to resist.
Entering the home, Sonic notices Tails sat at the kitchen island, some gadget in hand. The fox's head turns as Sonic walks into the kitchen, taking a note of his brother's appearance.
"You look like a wet rat," Tails comments, eyes focusing back on his tech. Sonic huffs, grabbing a towel from the back of a chair, attempting to dry off.
"Thanks, it's what I was going for," Sonic responds, the towel quickly becoming saturated with water. "Everyone get home okay?"
"Knuckles is staying with Amy until the storm's clear, but they both got back just after I did." Tails messes with the gadget a bit more, before placing it gently on the counter and standing up, yawning. "I'm gonna get some sleep, you should too."
"I will, 'night Tails." Tails smiles, before walking out of the kitchen and heading upstairs, presumably to his room. Sonic watches his brother leave, before placing the towel back over the chair. The headache from before decides to come in full-force, Sonic closing his eyes and wincing as the front of his head feels seconds away from exploding. He walks over to the sink, grabbing a glass from the draining board and fills it with water. He takes some Advil, praying to whatever gods are out there that he's fine in the morning. He turns off the kitchen light, going upstairs to his bedroom. He barely takes off his socks and shoes before collapsing onto his bed, falling asleep as soon as his head touches the pillow.
_________________________
When Tails wakes up in the morning, it's to an unusual silence, the only sound being the rain outside hitting against the window. This instantly makes the young fox suspicious. The last time it was this quiet at 9am, he woke up to the kitchen being on fire. Sue him for being worried. He walks downstairs, taking a look around for any sign of his brother. The blue hedgehog is nowhere to be found, no sign of him having woken up before Tails. He tries to think nothing of it; maybe Sonic's just decided to sleep in. So, he grabs some cereal from the cupboards and pours himself a bowl of rice krispies.
By the time his bowl is empty, there's still no sign of the blue blur, the house still just as quiet as it was when Tails first woke up. Tails starts to worry again, and before he can second-guess himself, he heads upstairs towards his brother's room.
Knocking on the door yields no results, causing Tails to push the door open slightly. "Sonic?" Tails whispers, just in case Sonic's still sleeping. The bed comes into view, blankets piled high upon the mattress, and Tails can see a pale arm peeking out over the side of the bed. "Sonic? Are you okay?" he asks, fully stepping into the room and shutting the door behind him.
A groan comes from the mountain of blankets. "I feel like I got hit by a truck." Sonic's voice is strained and hoarse, and Tails can tell it hurts to speak.
"I told you not to stay out in the rain yesterday."
Sonic's only response is a whine, the sound being rather pathetic for the 'Hero of Mobius'. Tails... is at a loss.
Sure, he's been ill plenty of times, Sonic always taking care of him (not that he doesn't usually, but he gets extra special treatment when he's sick). But Sonic rarely gets sick himself. Tails has no clue what to do in this situation.
Sonic coughs, the action rattling his entire body, and Tails knows he has to help somehow. "Do you want some medicine?" he asks, not expecting his brother to refuse.
"...Okay," Sonic responds after a couple seconds. "Ibuprofen and paracetamol are in the kitchen."
Tails quickly leaves the room, heading downstairs into the kitchen. He grabs a glass from the kitchen and fills it with water, then he takes the medicine box from a shelf, finding the requested medication with ease.
He takes the stuff back upstairs to Sonic, the hedgehog in the exact same position as before. Tails forces Sonic to sit up, and he quickly takes the medication, laying back down almost instantly. Within seconds, the normally hyperactive hedgehog is back asleep.
Tails sits on the edge of his brother's bed, thinking. He doesn't know how to properly take care of Sonic, and he seems pretty sick. The fox isn't sure what to do.
Out the corner of his eye, he sees Sonic's phone light up with a notification. He takes it from the nightstand and unlocks it. It's just a silly cat photo from Amy, but it gives Tails an idea.
He can't take care of Sonic, but one of his friends can.
That leaves him with another question; who to ask. He scrolls through Sonic's contact list, crossing people off in his head. Definitely not Amy or Knuckles; even if they could get here, neither of them would be able to look after Sonic properly. Rouge almost passed out last time she saw someone be sick, so not her. He almost crosses off another name mentally, before reconsidering.
Shadow could help. If he remembers correctly, he has some medical knowledge, and it would definitely help having help from an actual person instead of Google. But he hovers over Shadow's contact.
It's no secret Tails and Shadow have a... complicated relationship. Sure, Shadow used to fight with everyone, but Tails just pisses him off or something. Even when he became more 'friendly' with the group (as friendly as Shadow could be, anyway), he still continues to fight and pick on Tails more than the others. Of course Tails fights back, but there's always been this air of discomfort between the two.
He doesn't have another option though. Sonic is sick, Tails doesn't know how to care for him, and Shadow has the ability to help. Tails opens the texts between Shadow and Sonic, and starts typing.
@@@@@@@@
Sonic: hey, you probably know more than i do, so how do i take care of a sick sonic??
Sonic: it's Tails btw
Shadow: I'm on my way.
Sonic: you're what.
@@@@@@@@
Well then. Shadow's coming over. Not the direction Tails thought this morning would go, but the more he thinks about it, the more it makes sense. He places Sonic's phone back on the nightstand after plugging it in to charge, and heads downstairs to wait for Shadow.
____________________________
Shadow teleports into Green Hills, a tote bag slung over his shoulder, rain surrounding him. When he got a message from Sonic, he had been relieved, as it's not often the blue hedgehog goes a whole morning without messaging the other. That relief quickly turned into concern when the message wasn't actually from Sonic, but Tails asking for help. Despite his... issues with the young fox, Shadow's concern for Sonic eventually won over. Which is why he's here, stood in front of the house shared by the two brothers, tote bag full of supplies in hand.
He knocks against the front door, barely a second passing before it's opened. Tails gives him a look that Shadow can't decipher, before wordlessly stepping to the side to let him in. Shadow enters the home and turns to look at the fox.
"He's up in his room. Stayed out in the storm clearing up Westopolis last night, and got some sort of cold or flu from it," Tails informs him. Shadow nods sharply. That sounds like a very 'Sonic' thing to do.
"Has he had any medication?" It wouldn't be good to accidentally overdose his boyfriend after all.
"Some paracetamol and ibuprofen about 30 minutes ago. He fell back asleep immediately after taking them, so he hasn't eaten anything since yesterday. If you hurt him, I'll break your neck."
He raises an eyebrow at the end sentence. "I wouldn't dare. Why would I hurt him when he's vulnerable? That's too easy of a win."
"I didn't mean while he's sick. I was talking about," the fox waves his hand in a circle, "you and him. If you, like, break his heart or something." Tails sighs, the sound surprisingly heavy from the nine-year-old. "Listen man, I don't know what I'm doing. Just don't hurt him. I don't care that you and him are together, or that you don't wanna tell anyone yet. That's none of my business. But at the end of the day, he's my brother, and I won't hesitate to get revenge if anything happens to him."
Shadow doesn't know how to respond. He honestly hadn't expected Tails to ever say anything like that to him, and he feels a bit of his aloof personality slip away.
"I have no plans of hurting him," he says, surprising the fox with how soft his voice is. "And if I ever do, you have full permission to beat the hell out of me. I- I care deeply about him. I wouldn't be here if I didn't. Now if you don't mind, I'd like to go take care of my sick partner." He walks past Tails, bringing the bag with him upstairs. He makes his way across the hallway to Sonic's room, knocking gently on the door before opening it.
Sonic... looks pathetic, if Shadow's being honest. His eyes quickly adjust to the dark room, and he immediately walks over to his boyfriend, placing the bag next to the bed gently. He sits at the edge of the bed, running his gloved hand through the quills peeking out over the covers. His action causes Sonic to lean up into his hand, his head fully emerging.
"Shadow?" Sonic sounds like hell, words dragging themselves out of his throat in obvious confusion. Shadow continues petting his boyfriend's quills in comfort.
"Tails messaged me on your phone. Asked me to come over and help." That wasn't exactly true, but what Sonic didn't know couldn't hurt him. Sonic hummed, the sound clearly hurting the blue hedgehog. Shadow rakes through the bag he brought, pulling out a water bottle and a straw. He coaxes Sonic to sit upright, opening the bottle and sticking the straw in it before holding it in front of Sonic's mouth. "Drink. It'll help your throat."
Sonic has about a quarter of the water before leaning back. Shadow places the water on the nightstand, picking up the phone and unlocking it. He finds Sonic's texts to Tails, and quickly messages the fox, asking him to put some soup in the microwave.
Shadow places the back of his hand against his boyfriend's forehead, the fur there being sweat-soaked and too warm for Shadow's liking, even through Shadow's glove. Leaning back down towards the bag, he takes out a cooling pad, placing it carefully on the heated fur. Sonic sighs, and Shadow can't help push some of the fur surrounding Sonic's muzzle down, running his fingers through it like one of those sequin pillows Cream is so obsessed with at the moment.
Soon, there's a timid knocking on the door, it being pushed open to reveal Tails with a tray in his hands. Shadow gestures him in, and once the fox is close enough he takes the tray from him.
"Is he okay?" Tails asks, staring at his brother's exhausted form. Sonic has been fading in and out of consciousness for the last couple minutes, and it's not giving Shadow much hope in his condition. But Shadow will be damned before he admits to being a quitter, so he gives Tails a rare, timid smile.
"He'll be fine. Pretty sure he's got some sort of flu, but once his body pushes out the infection, he'll get better really quickly. It's getting there that's the problem." He nudges Sonic awake, holding the soup out to him. "Tails made you soup. You need to eat it."
Sonic looks up at his brother, as if only just noticing his arrival. The corners of his mouth turn up in a slight smile. "Thanks, kid. Who knew you were such a chef," he jokes, cutting himself off with a harsh cough.
"I just microwave it," Tails mutters, despite practically glowing with pride. Sonic takes the bowl from Shadow, stirring the tomato soup with the spoon, before carefully taking some of the liquid into his mouth. He hums in appreciation, giving his full attention to eating the soup and not spilling it. Tails takes this as his cue to leave, Shadow once again being left alone with his boyfriend. He removes one of his gloves, Sonic too engrossed in his soup to notice, and runs his bare claws through Sonic's quills, removing any loose ones he comes across.
A quiet rumbling noise fills the room, Sonic practically vibrating with the strength of the purrs. Sonic doesn't seem to be aware he's purring, so Shadow doesn't mention it, lest the vibrations stop.
By the time the blue hedgehog's finished his soup, Shadow has a small pile of the other's quills next to him, and his hand's almost numb from the non-stop purring. Shadow takes the empty bowl from his boyfriend, placing it back on the tray that ended up carefully placed on the floor. Sonic looks up at his boyfriend and smiles, Shadow returning the smile with a kiss on top of Sonic's head.
"You'll get sick," Sonic pouts, but doesn't argue when another small kiss gets placed on the tip of his muzzle.
"'Ultimate Lifeform', remember? I am physically incapable of getting sick." Shadow's smile turns sad, and he can't stop Sonic noticing. "It was- I needed to be able to take care of Maria." His voice turns into a whisper at the mention of his sister. "Sure, the ARK was supposedly 100% sterile, but the professor didn't want to take any risks. What's better than a healer who can't get sick?"
Sonic looks up at Shadow, placing his hand on the other's. "Tell me about her? Something fun?"
Shadow thinks for a moment before responding. "Well, there was this one time... Maria had a bunch of tests done that day, and I was trying to find a way to make her feel better. I managed to sneak into the kitchen..."
As Shadow tells his story, he could feel Sonic falling asleep against him, but trying so hard to stay awake. As he gets to the part about Gerald discovering what he and Maria had been up to (involving a lot of whipped cream and at least 2 smoke bombs), Sonic's head hits the fur on Shadow's chest, the blue hedgehog having completely passed out now. Shadow stops speaking, slowly sliding down the bed until he's a lot more horizonal. He readjusts Sonic slightly, hopefully preventing a painful neck cramp when he wakes up.
He quickly checks Sonic's phone for anything important before placing it back on the nightstand. He pulls his own phone out of his quills, messaging Rouge to let her know he won't be home for the rest of the day (she responds with a winky face, which he ignores), scrolls through his emails for a little, before opening some game Cream had downloaded onto his phone last time he watched over her. Something about moving colourful water between tubes? He doesn't really understand it (or how to delete it), but it keeps him entertained enough while his boyfriend naps against his chest.
He closes the game after getting stuck on a level, switching to his camera (and isn't that wild? A whole camera on a tiny piece of technology) and taking a photo of Sonic. Sure, it's not perfect by any means - there's barely any light in the room so it turns out dark, the angle's weird, and there's a line of red around Sonic's muzzle from the soup - but Shadow finds himself saving it to his 'favourites' folder after a bit of struggle anyway. He quickly checks the charge on his phone (82%), sets a silent alarm for a few hours from now, and places it next to Sonic's, laying his head against the pillow properly. He'll wake up when the alarm goes off to give Sonic some more medication, but for now, he chooses to close his eyes, arms curled around his boyfriend, and drifts off to sleep.