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Tails likes to think he knows Sonic very well. Like the fact he loves bubble baths, how he talks to himself when he thinks no one’s around, the way his gaze lingers on, with a little, peaceful smile on his face when they all lounge in living room together.
And last but not least, Tails certainly knows which expression Sonic makes when he is curious about something. His face lits up, eyes are wide and sparkling as his lips part, words eager to come out. Right now,the suspecting victim is Tails.Yes,Tails knows how the saying goes, it should be ‘unsuspecting’ victim but it doesn’t quite fit the situation as Tails knows what is coming for him all to well.
He is about to be bombarded by questions.
“Hey Tails! Whatcha doing?” Sonic asks, leaping from the couch to the place right near Tails, and their shoulders bump. Tails places his device to the ground on his other side to signal Sonic has his full attention, and turns his head to him, so that he is facing him.
“Just tinkering.You know,the usual.” Tails says with an awkward laugh, and Sonic smiles in response.
“So I’m not interrupting anything?” Sonic asks, a habit they all finally got him to adopt. In the past Sonic was excited, maybe too excited that he had a family now, so he interrupted almost any task. When he made Tails lose attention, causing a project to explode, Maddie put her foot down and told him to always ask if he is interrupting when people are working on things.
“No, you aren’t. What do you have in mind?” Tails asks with a smile, appreciative that Sonic respected the task at his hands.
“So, I’m Sonic the hedgehog, right?” Sonic says, thumb facing his chest. Tails nods, one brow raised up. Knuckles tears his gaze away from the television,and lays on his side, deciding that Sonic’s frequent stupidity is more entertaining than anything on the magic box, and laughs.
“The hedgehog has finally lost his mind!” He exclaims, and Sonic shakes his head to the sides as Tails desperately tries to keep his giggle in.
“Shut it, Knux. I’m going somewhere with this.”
“I can see that.It is the asylum.” Knuckles says, snorting as he nudges Tails on his back as the fox kit giggles. Sonic looks at both of them, and frowns.
“Oh, c’mon! Hear me out for a second, will ya?!” Sonic says with a huff, and Tails stiffles his giggles, while Knuckles rolls his eyes.He moves his body to the edge of the couch, so that his face is inches away from Sonic’s. Sonic puts his hand on Knuckles’ forehead, fully aware that the echidna does it to purely piss him off.
He is succeeding so far.
“This big red doofus is Knuckles the echidna, correct?” He says as he pushes Knuckles by his forehead, making him collapse back onto the couch. Tails notes the way Sonic always makes his voice thicker when he says Knuckles’ full name, as if announcing him before a boxing match, and finds it very amusing.
“Correct.” Tails, deciding to humor him, answers with all the seriousness he can gather.
“And you are Miles Prower. Why? Are we the odd ones out?” Sonic finally asks the question, and Tails stalls,thinking over how he could satiate his brother’s curiosity without giving so much details over his past.
“It depends.”
“Depends on what?”
“Where you live, of course! On Earth my name fits right in. On our home planet, tribes like echidnas and owls don’t have last names, and that’s why you guys don’t either.” Tails explains, and Sonic hums, nodding.
“That makes sense. I always thought it was because, you know, we are orphans.” Knuckles is now sitting straight on the couch, attentively watching his brothers’ faces for any sign of distress. It’s a sore subject for all of them,Knuckles lost his parents,Tails got abandoned, and Sonic doesn’t even remember his life before Longclaw.
“That wouldn’t be the case since the fox obviously has a last name despite being an orphan himself.” Knuckles says, Tails flinches, and Knuckles gazes at him apologetically.
“I know, but like, he was left in an orphanage, right? I thought they at least registered his name or something.” Sonic says, Knuckles nudges him, which makes him look at Tails.His eyes are fixated on the ground, and he gribs his arm, counting on the grasp to ground him. His eyes are misty, and Sonic berates himself for even bringing up the subject. He hooks his arm over Tails’ shoulders,pulls him to his side, and rests his head on top of the kid’s head. That seems to take him out of his train of tought, as he quietly sighs, and leans his head on Sonic’s shoulder.
“I’m sorry for bringing up bad memories, bud. I just… wonder how the name system works on our home planet.” Sonic gently says, and Tails reaches for Sonic’s other hand, squeezing it.
“I get it, Sonic. You didn’t mean to upset me. It’s just… “ Tails tries to pry himself away from Sonic’s embrace as his words trail off, but Sonic doesn’t let him, and Knuckles sits on the other side of his youngest brother, sandwiching him in place.Tails groans, he really doesn’t have a way out of this conversation now.
“You can tell us anything, you know that, right?” Sonic says, and Tails looks up at Knuckles, who also nods vigorously like this it the only thing he has been ever sure of. Maybe it is.
Tails squeezes Sonic’s hand in his, trying to gather up strength.
“I wasn’t named.” Tails quietly says, clenching his eyes shut. His head is slightly ducked down, as if Sonic and Knuckles’ reactions might physically hurt him.
“Neither was I.Knuckles was the name of my tribe, and I took it to carry them along as I live.” Knuckles says, and Tails gasps, too suprised to keep his eyes closed.
“That’s very honorable of you, Knuckles, but why weren’t you named?” Tails asks, and Knuckles gets that he wants to have more time to be ready to tell his own tale. Knuckles’ warm gaze catches Tails’, and he places his heavy hand over his head, patting it affectionately.
“In my tribe, a warrior can only be named after his or her first victory. The chief, the elders, and the parents would give a name based on the warrior’s skill and strength.My tribe didn’t last to see my first victory, that’s why I couldn’t be named.” Knuckles says, with a peaceful smile on his face, it makes him feel content to share his people’s traditions with his new tribe.
“That’s so cool! It’s like how Hiccup was called the Dragon Master!” Sonic exclaims, and Tails snorts, Sonic can find a movie reference to literally any situation, it’s a talent on his own. Knuckles shakes his head to sides,but his smile betrays his supposed disapproval.
“Not quite, as the scrawny boy had a given name before. But you are right about it being based on his talent,as he gained the title of Master of Dragons with taming the night beast.” He explains calmly, and Sonic nods, suprised that Knuckles remembers the movie enough to give this explanation.
“Do you have any example of this from your tribe, Knuckles?” Tails asks, now curious about how the naming process of Knuckles’s tribe worked.
“Of course! My father was named Ragnar. It means Advisor in battle. He was a strategist, and always led his tribe to victory with minimal damage. Not unlike yourself, fox.”
“Like me? But… Tom! He got hurt because of my plan! I can’t possibly be like your father!” Tails argues, clenching his fist as tears fill his eyes on. Sonic and Knuckles exchange a look, they know, Tails tends to blame himself for things out of his control, but it never occured to them that he still could be carrying the weight of Tom’s injury. They were all occupied with helping Tom and Maddie the best they can that they didn’t realise just how deep Tails’ pain ran.
“Tails, look at me.” Sonic gently touches Tails’ muzzle, turning his head towards him. Tears land on his thumb and he is quick to wipe them away with a gentle swipe.
“It wasn’t your fault. You could have never guessed Tom’d choose to imitate Walters, and Shadow’d attack him for it. He was just at the wrong place at the wrong time.”
“But… If we never brought them along… He wouldn’t be hurt… It was all because of my plan!” Tails stutters between his sobs, and Sonic pulls him into his chest without hesitation. The kid cluctches Sonic’s chest like a lifeline, his only anchor from slipping away in grief. Sonic rubs gentle circles on Tails’ small back. They exchange glances with Knuckles again, both searching for the right words but falling short.
“I guess I didn’t make the case any better,did I?” Sonic mumbles, and Tails lifts his head up.
“What do you mean? You didn’t form the plan,I did!”
“But I said that using the master emerald isn’t the right choice, so we needed their help. And after Tom got hurt, I got angry at you when you only tried to comfort me.”
“You apologised, Sonic, and we forgave you.” Knuckles chims in, he can’t bear to see both of his brothers blaming themselves anymore.
“Yeah, I apologised for leaving you guys behind. But I didn’t apologise for yelling at you two. You were as sad as me,yet I was the only one to lose my cool. To top it off, that isn’t even the worst thing I’ve done.What a leader am I…” His voice breaks at the end, and he furiously rubs on his eyes. He has to comfort Tails, but here he is, making himself the center of the problem again.
“We all know that only you could make an echidna warrior, a kid genius and the ultimate lifeform follow your lead.” Knuckles says, placing a hand over Sonic’s shoulder.
“You broke our oath, you hurt our youngest, and declared a fight on me, yes, those are all your failures. But you try to make up for it, everyday, and you have us. Together we can heal each other, that’s what you taught me.” Knuckles concludes, and embraces both of his younger brothers. Tails giggles as he is squashed between. He breaks the hug, and takes Tails’s muzzle between his hands. He recalls his father used to do that to him, and always whispered that he feels like he is holding the whole universe in his hands.
Knuckles now understands the feeling.
“Miles, you are so young still. The fact that you are able to stand your ground beside us, and guide us to victory is no small feat. As you age, you’ll only grow stronger, and I’ll be there for you every step of the way.” Tails smiles, and leaps into Knuckles’ arms. Sonic is smiling too, but then his grin falls as he processes Knuckles’ words, and he raises a brow.
“Hey! I’ll be there for him too!”
“Yes. Only when you don’t leave us behind, though, so that’s just some steps of the way, not every.” Knuckles says with a smirk, and Tails breaks the hug, laughing at Sonic as he folds his arms against his chest.
“You are impossible.” Sonic grunts, and Knuckles winks at Tails.
“Didn’t you say, hmm, difficult is done at once, impossible takes a little longer?”
“You did say that, Sonic.”
“That was about a video game!” Sonic says, flailing his arms,and Knuckles laughs.
“I can’t see why it cannot be applied to everywhere in life. It’s a wise Earth proverb.” Tails nods, and Sonic huffs, affectionately rolling his eyes.
“I guess you’re right.” Sonic mutters, desperately trying to sound not too bothered.
“I’m always right!” Knuckles puffs out his chest, Tails snorts, and leans on the couch.The others follows suit, and they relax on the ground for a while, enjoying the peaceful silence.
Then, Tails realises he didn’t explain how he wasn’t named even though Knuckles did. At first he thought he wasn’t ready, and that the others would judge him for not having a name given by parents or guardians. But now that they have assured him that they’ll always be there for him, he finds himself wanting to share secrets he has buried so deep that even he forgot they existed.He clears his throat, making Sonic and Knuckles look at him with welcoming gazes. He has their full attention now, he knows, which only adds onto his courage.
“When I was left at the orphanage, I didn’t have a name.And I guess no one cared enough to figure out a proper name, when Tails was the obvious one.” His throat constricts, and he squeezes his little fists again. Sonic and Knuckles takes his fists in their palms.
“In our home planet, majority of the people have names and surnames like on Earth.So… I wanted to fit in. And thought of a name for myself.”
“Miles Prower. What does it mean?” Knuckles asks, and Tails smirks, but it lacks any humor.
“Say it slower, you’ll get it.”Tails suggests, and Sonic does,as Knuckles looks at him confusedly.
“Wait! Is this a pun for miles per hour?” Sonic says, and Tails nods, eyes downcast, one part of him still dreads their response.
“That’s genius, Tails! It’s because you can fly, right? So cool!” Sonic pumps up a fist onto air, and Tails’ eyes sparkle.
“You really think so?”
“Of course!What do you think, Knuckles?” Sonic nudges Knuckles, daring him to say something wrong with his eyes.
“I don’t understand.” Sonic facepalms, wonders just how hard it could be to just compliment the name, and Tails giggles.
“Miles per hour is used to express the speed of planes!” Tails explains as simply as he can, and Knuckles nods.
“That’s a fitting name for you, fox.”
“Thank you!”
“Wait a minute… You said your village was mean to you. And they used to call you Tails, but we also call you Tails. Shouldn’t we call you Miles instead?”
“Yes, we would not desire to upset you by referring to you with an insult, fox. Allow us to fix this mistake.”
“Guys, I introduced myself like that, remember? It isn’t a big deal.”
“It is. You said everyone calls you that. But it never occured to me that they didn’t say it in a nice way.” Sonic’s voice is firm, but gentle.Tails hums, gathering up his words.
“I… Like I said back at Siberia, I’ve embraced my twin tails. I embraced being weird, because you guys are, too. And there is no one I’d want to become more like, other than my big brothers.” Sonic and Knuckles’ lips part, and they are both holding back tears of happiness.
“Tails, you’ve got three seconds to run.” Sonic says, cringing at how his voice cracks.
“Wha- why?!” Tails says, but his legs betray him as he is already standing up.
“Hedgehog and I’ve got the aggression of love.Run before we squeeze you to your demise.” Tails doesn’t need to be told twice as he immediately starts spinning his twin tails and takes off.Sonic and Knuckles start chasing him without activating their powers.They grin as the kid’s giggles reach their ears. The chase is carried outside to the porch, and it doesn’t take long until they all collapse on each other, Sonic squeezing Tails in his arms and Knuckles’s arm on top of them both.
“We win!” Sonic breathlessly exclaims, and plants a kiss on Tails’ cheek, which makes him groan, and squirm in his embrace.
“Guys. I can’t breathe!” Knuckles is quick to stand up and gather the two in his arms, carrying them back inside.
“Pretzel woman and Lord of Donuts will be home soon. And we have made quite a mess in the house.” He reminds them, making Sonic groan.He sets them on the ground, and they quickly get to work, together as a team.