A/N: The sentence 'Sonic curled around him like he curled around himself, protecting him from the outside world with his quills' jumped into my head and gave me such strong imagery that the story wrote itself. English is not my first language, spell-check is magnificent but still doesn't catch everything, so please notify me if you come across anything weird.

Enjoy!

Sonic's ear twitches when Tails wakes up with a whine emanating from his throat. Unconsciously he registers the sound as Tails' 'woke up from a nightmare' sound, and his brain reacts accordingly. His ear twitches again and with a tremendous effort he opens one eye. He doesn't even have to utter a sound to mark that he's returned from the land of the dreams, because Tails' night vision is a lot better than Sonic's.

"Sorry, Sonic," whispers Tails. Sonic notices that Tails wraps his two namesakes firmly around himself. Sonic suppresses a weary sigh and opens his other eye, sitting up at the same time.

"Talk," he orders, also in a whisper. After a second's hesitation it all comes pouring forth from Tails. He talks about the nightmare, about the jumble of images plucked from horror movies Sonic has let him watch (which he still regrets) and the events of the days prior to this night, mixed into one menacing hallucination tormenting Tails.

And then Tails clumsily stumbles into a more frightening conversation.

"I thought you were dead," whispers Tails, and he hugs his tails to his chest. "You were dead and gone and I didn't know what to do. I felt so angry and this time I wanted to kill Eggman, but at the same time I felt sad and horrified and you were gone and I, we all thought you were-"

Tails can't complete his sentence and finally, finally he dares let go what has been cooped inside for too long. Sonic pulls the smaller fox into his lap and holds him, muffling Tails' sobs.

Sonic curls over him as best as he can, like he curls into himself when he's protecting his body from the outside world with his quills. It's the best protection he can offer his little brother, and Tails gladly holds on, his sobs growing weaker by the minute.

Tails' eyes are lidded and red, and Sonic mumbles nonsense words in a low voice until the eyelids slowly droop down. Tails' hold on Sonic's body slacks, but Sonic's hold on Tails' is as firm as ever. He can't imagine what the tyke went through when he fell from the Ark in that pod. Truth be told, he hadn't even thought about it.

He escaped, of course, and at the time the destruction of the planet weighed more heavily on Sonic's mind than Tails' mental distress. And after it was all said and done, it slipped his mind, as he WAS wont to do.

This nighttime outburst once again shows him that it isn't easy being a big brother. So he curls around Tails as best as he can, uncomfortably warm and incredibly tired. But he will keep watch, making sure that he will wake the fox at the first sign of nightmares.

He himself has gone through space and back, and Shadow's death is something which he will have to come to terms with. He wants to sleep so badly, despite the nightmares he is sure to have, and his eyes burn.

A sound at the door of their room alerts him to another presence. Two, actually.

"Mr… Mr. Sonic?" whispers the young rabbit, clutching her 'bestest friend on the whole wide Earth', Cheese to her chest. "Can we sleep with you?"

Sonic isn't usually one to notice puffy eyes and nervous gestures, but Cream's whole body trembles, making it hard to miss. He frees an arm from Tail's grasp and beckons her closer.

"No problem," he says, and with a half-hearted squeak of joy she runs up to the bed and hops on, Cheese still in her arms. Without regard for personal space she snuggles up to Sonic and sighs happily.

"I'm glad you're still alive, Mr. Sonic," she says in a happy and loud voice, and all of a sudden Sonic has to swallow hard. Stupid Shadow dying, it has whacked up his whole mental resilience. That, and the exhaustion, he tells himself.

"Me too, Cream, me too," whispers Sonic, and Cream puts her hand in front of her mouth.

"I'll be quiet," she says in a nearly inaudible whisper, and wraps her tiny arms across Sonic's waist, not reaching all the way. With a happy sigh she leans her head against him and closes her eyes. Cheese, still half-asleep, whispers "chao" and is off to la-la-land as well.

Now, with three beings clutching on to him and depending on him to ward off bad dreams, Sonic tries to wake himself up more, lest he nods off. A mental fog descends onto him, and gravity pulls his head forward until he catches himself and jerks his head upright. This continues for about fifteen minutes before a third shape knocks on the door.

"Tails? Sonic?" calls a boy's voice hesitantly, and Sonic narrows his eyes at the person silhouetted against the hallway light. It isn't hard to distinguish Chris Thorndyke's form.

"Are you awake?" he finishes in a whisper, and Sonic once again disentangles his arm, this time from Cream's grasp, and waves him inside.

"Join the huddle," he whispers back, eyeing where the relatively large boy will fit on the bed. But Chris solves that problem by curling up into a fetal position, thereby making himself smaller. The boy doesn't talk, but Sonic sees still-wet tear streaks on his cheeks. So he strokes Chris' hair, lulling the boy to sleep with soft murmurs of nothingness.

For Sonic's sense of time at least an hour passes, but when he glances at the clock it's thirty minutes later when a pink hedgehog comes running in. She doesn't even bother to knock or check who else might lay in the bed, she flings herself onto the mattress and holds on to whoever's limb she finds first. It happens to be Tails' leg.

With a sob she buries her head into the orange fur and wails at the top of her voice. Sonic tries to reach her to shush her before she wakes everybody up, but with four creatures hanging on to him it's hard to do. After emitting a second wail Amy seems to notice something's off about the leg she's clutching. Sonic watches her grope the leg, probably looking for his trademark diamond-hard leg muscles. She rubs the fur, and then it finally clicks. She looks up into Sonic's grinning face and she blushes, but then she seems to remember what she came bursting in for. Without regard for Tails' health she climbers on top of him and before Sonic can protest he has multiple pounds of hedgehog hanging from his neck, wailing in his ears and sobbing at the same time.

Tails stirs under all this racket, and Cream, Chris and Cheese also open their eyes to see if their nightmares have transferred themselves to real life.

"Hush, Amy, what's the matter?" Sonic asks softly, trying to lean away from her at the same time.

"You were dea-hea-head!"

"Get off me," says Tails irritably, and he jostles Amy, who in turn hugs Sonic, until his nose gets buried in her soft quills.

"I'm not dead, see? Everything turned out alright," Sonic says around a mouthful of quills. "Now hush, they're trying to sleep."

Amy slowly releases Sonic and Tails takes this opportunity to finally free himself from her weight, by bucking until she rolls off.

"Hey!" she says indignantly, but Tails turns his red eyes on her and she backs down. For once she seems to realize that other people might need the blue hedgehog at the moment as well. And in a truly unique twist, she's willing to share.

She snuggles up to Sonic's remaining free side and imitates Cream as she wraps her arms around him. She does reach.

" 's Everything a'ight?" mutters Chris, and Sonic pries a hand away from Amy's death grip to start stroking the kid's hair again.

"Everything's fine, go back to sleep."

"M'kay," mumbles Chris and his eyes fall shut with Sonic Speed.

With five beings surrounding him on all sides, Sonic starts to feel hot. He might need a shower come dawn. Another one. But the uncomfortable heat keeps him awake, and that's good. He's their warden for the night, their hero, and he needs to act the part, despite his own exhaustion. His presence isn't enough to fool their brains into anti-nightmare-production, so he watches all five for signs of nightmares. He doesn't know how quickly one dreams after having fallen asleep, but he does know it usually takes a while.

So he sits and watches the red digits of the alarm clock go from seven to eight to nine and back to zero and then to one and so on, repeating this cycle at least two times before something happens. He's sweating all over, but still his body (and mind) force him to skip minutes, and all of a sudden the clock shows a six where there should have been a nine, and he knows he's dropped off for a few minutes.

It's the longest he's stayed still while conscious since a long, long time, but the runner's itch has crumbled under the tiredness. He could go for a good run in the morning, but for now, he has to stand guard. He wonders if this is what Knuckles feels.

The numbers jump again and Sonic slouches more and more, until a sound from the hallway has him sitting upright again. He feels dizzy at the sudden move and the lack of sleep. That's going to be a pain the coming day.

Two voices glide down the hallway and grow closer. It takes a while for Sonic's tired brain to make the connection, but by the time the pair comes into view Sonic isn't surprised to see Knuckles and Rouge walk past. They are, however, surprised to see the additions to his bed.

With comically large eyes Knuckles retraces his steps and leans against the doorpost, folding his arms. He smirks.

"Fanclub?" he enquires, and Sonic grins back, trying not to let his exhaustion show.

"That's adorable," remarks Rouge from behind Knuckles. Sonic's grin falters.

"I'm anti-nightmare fuel," whispers Sonic, and the two take the hint and drop the volume of their voices.

"More like you are their nightmare fuel," says Knuckles, and Sonic shakes his head at the weak joke.

"Don't give up your day job."

"I don't mind if you do that," says Rouge with a grin on her face. "Lots of emeralds on your island, right?"

At Knuckles' angry spluttering she laughs and waves a goodbye.

"Beauty sleeps need time, ta!"

She disappears and leaves Knuckles alone appraising the mass of fur and limbs. He focuses on Sonic, and Sonic doesn't like this one bit. He breaks eye contact and looks down at Tails, whose tails are twitching instinctively every time they encounter Chris' leg.

"Get some sleep, idiot," admonishes Knuckles, but Sonic shakes his head.

"Can't, I have to wake them if they get nightmares."

Knuckles walks closer to the bed, letting his arms fall to his sides. He jabs one knuckled hand at Chris's sleeping form.

"Did they ask you to?"

Sonic shakes his head.

"So get some sleep. You look like you-"

"Went to space and back, I know. But I'm the reason they're having these nightmares, and-"

Knuckles' snort interrupts him, and Sonic lets his sentence taper off. He had no idea what he was going to say next anyhow.

"You really are self-centered, you know that?" asks Knuckles, and Sonic feels his quills rise at the insult. But since he's body-deep in people, he lets them fall back before they cut an innocent limb.

"You think that the near-destruction of the planet, the Biolizard, Shadow's death, and everything that happened before had nothing to do with their nightmares? You honestly think that because you nearly died everybody dreams about that? You nearly die at least four times a year, if you don't count all the missed bullets, rockets, and who knows what else Robotnik blasts at you."

Knuckles once again crosses his arms at the end of his rant, and Sonic fidgets with Tails' fur before he answers. There might be some truth to Knuckles' words. The whole experience wasn't exactly pleasant for them. Sonic eyes Chris' bruises and he has to swallow hard again.

"They need me," he says. "I have to help them. I might not be the main cause of their nightmares, but they still need somebody to shake them when they do dream of the fat dude and Sh-shadow."

"What they need," says Knuckles as he bows closer to Sonic's eyes until they're nose to nose, "is a 'hero' who isn't operating on less than two hours sleep the past three days."

Sonic stares defiantly into his eyes, but Knuckles isn't looking back at him, at least not straight. He's eyeing the dilated pupils and black shadows around Sonic's eyes. He's eyeing the barely-closed off scratches and scars hidden under blue fur, and Sonic feels his stubbornness leave him while Knuckles' purple eyes rove over him, taking in all the signs of exhaustion and pain, both physical and mental.

"I'll keep watch," announces Knuckles as he backs up again. "You go to sleep, and I'll shake them if they're having nightmares."

Sonic opens his mouth to protest, but Knuckles holds up a hand.

"If you don't go to sleep, I'll knock you out. And you know I'll do it," he warns. Sonic growls low in his throat, glaring at the echidna. As usual, the echidna isn't fazed. He smirks.

"Keeping watch is what I'm good at, remember? So. Go. To. Sleep."

Sonic tries one last time to utter a protest, but Knuckles advances menacingly and grudgingly Sonic leans back on his elbows, making Tails whimper in discomfort as one of the sources of heat disappears.

"Some guard you are, letting the Master Emerald get stolen right under your face," says Sonic, but for once Knuckles doesn't rise to the jibe. He brandishes a fist and Sonic lies down all the way. He hears Knuckles settle down against the wall, and Sonic starts counting the ceiling tiles, waiting for his exhaustion to wash over him and carry him off.

He doesn't have to wait long. His brain receives the memo that it's okay to sleep now, so without warning Sonic's eyelids become incredibly heavy, and they start to shut.

"Thanks, Knux," whispers Sonic, but by now he's so far gone he doesn't know whether he said it out loud or just thought it. Either way, it doesn't matter. Knuckles already knows.