Since I now have three full weeks without lectures (Tet in my country is pretty serious business – so serious that it literally and temporarily puts schools and universities out of business as a result), I may as well spend some precious downtime writing something. This could potentially be a series of drabbles that center around my favorite brothers in the gaming world, depending on my mood and ideas. The series is mainly set after the events of Sonic the hedgehog 2 (although other timelines might arise every now and then). I hope you'll enjoy it.

Disclaimer: I own absolutely nothing.

A Brand New Home

"It is GOOD to be home!" exclaimed a rather energetic hedgehog of blue as he nimbly departed from his daringly exposed spot atop the still airborne aircraft's wing and - in the same wild, carefree manner that somehow still managed to retain some form of practiced gracefulness and elegance with which he had taken off - landed softly on the rich earthly soil of the barren hilltop below.

Stretching the stiff muscles of his back and shoulders, Sonic the hedgehog at the same time opened his mouth and took a greedy inhale of the wondrously salutiferous air, untouched and unspoiled by the hands of men. "Oh how I miss this!" he muttered, a small grin curved at his lips.

Seconds later, the red biplane upon which he had rested his feet for the duration of the journey homeward came down, landing a few feet away from the hedgehog.

"Hey there, little buddy, what took you so long?" asked Sonic in a teasing tone as he turned his gaze toward the exiting pilot of the magnificent combat aerial unit.

"What on earth was that for?" said a high-pitched voice of said pilot as he quickly made his way for Sonic, twin bushy brownish yellow tails swaying back and forth behind his smaller frame. Behind him, a similarly colored robotic dog-like creature followed suit, tails waggling excitedly.

"What was what for, Tails?" inquired the curious hedgehog, head tilted to one side questioningly as he looked at the younger fox, Tails, who was wearing a concerned expression mixed with a hint of anger and a bit of relief.

"You jumped!" the young prodigious pilot answered, eyes narrowed and hands moving wildly to emphasize his point.

"I always jump; I jump a lot in fact. I jumped when we were running through the zones, I jumped when we were trying to catch Robuttnik…" Sonic began to rant. Tails, on the other hand, was anything but amused by his friend's current jovial disposition.

"You...You just jumped off the Tornado before I could make a safe landing!" the cub replied, voice raised a bit as he shot his older friend a version of, at least in his mind, an intimidating glare. Unfortunately, what came out was more of a pout – a very adorable pout that normally appeared on a child's face after that child had been denied candies and sweets. "You could have been seriously hurt."

"I'm fine, Tails, don't worry" Sonic, trying his hardest not to let out the bubbling snickers that threatened to escape his throat, replied calmly and added a dismissive wave to suppress the fox's misplaced concern. "It's perfectly safe for me. After all, I've had practice."

"You've had practice? Jumping out of airborne crafts? Seriously?" asked Tails incredulously, one eye ridge raised and both hands against his hips in a reprimanding gesture, which was rather ironic.

"Yeah."

"When?"

"Just now."

"SONIC! This is no laughing matter, you could have been seriously injured" Tails said again, shocking the chatty hedgehog into stunned silence with the unusual amount of passion that came out with each syllable pronounced. "Next time, please, please, wait until I am near the ground, or better yet, actually on it, before you take off."

"…Okay, okay, I get it…" Sonic replied, hands outstretched and palms open in a placating manner to appease his younger buddy. "I'll try, the key word here: try to refrain from doing it next time around, cool?" he added with a genuine smile to mask the surprise he was feeling.

At the sound of the older being's guarantee, Tails deflated visibly, his shoulders which had been stiff and square dropped at last and a sigh escaped his mouth. Whatever concerned-fueled sentiments that had driven him apparently left, leaving behind a meek and sheepish child that all so much fitted his age. Two sky-blue orbs then left the mundane spot on the earth and looked into the other's emerald own.

"I'm sorry, it was…extremely impolite of me to yell out of the blue like that" Tails mumbled awkwardly, still getting used to actually talking to another sentient being that actually cared to respond, aside from his mechanical pet T-pup next to him. "Now I feel like an idiot...a rude and embarrassed idiot…"

"It's no biggie, kiddo" Sonic said, letting out a humored chuckle as he reached out and ruffled the fox's hair, effectively messing it up. Even in his moment of glee, he did not miss the way Tails' eyes seemed to unconsciously close shut as well as the way his head so subtly leaned forward a few inches, as if to take in and relish the physical contact that for so long he had been unjustly deprived of to his heart's content. Also, Sonic could have sworn he had caught wind of a delighted purr, which had been greatly muffed and made barely audible by the winds of the Mystic Ruins.

His smile fell a little as he ran his hand back and forth, and at one time even stopped behind the triangular-shaped ear and gave Tails a good scratch, hitting a weak spot. The kid apparently enjoyed the act immensely judging from the spontaneous twitch of his lips and the content sighs that came out in stream with each movement of the hedgehog's fingers.

Sonic almost felt like a criminal to stop any time soon.

After a few seconds longer, however, Sonic retracted his hand. In the instant he could no longer feel the affectionate and comforting gesture, Tails' eyes sprang open and he shot the older a look that could only be described as a mixture between a heart-wrenching pleading and a pout. His innocent orbs were wide open, and so was his mouth but to a lesser extent. Tails looked like he was about to say something, but somehow managed to subdue his thoughts before they could be vocalized from the way he subsequently bit his tender lower lip, both hands promptly tucked behind his back and twin appendages hanging limply on the ground, lacking any and all of the former energy with which they had moved just a few minutes earlier. Tails, at that moment in Sonic's opinion, positively looked like someone – someone mean and evil in Sonic's mind - had unintentionally taken away something of great value to the younger fox.

That heartfelt expression thankfully did not last two full seconds, however, for it was instantly replaced by an extraordinarily wide and cheery smile – 'Too cheery…' Sonic thought inwardly and fought back a grimace as well as a sudden urge to reach out once more.

"Didn't mean to make you worried Tails," Sonic said as he kneeled down to his friend's eye level. "But I suppose it's great that there's finally someone around to reprimand me for being stupid, huh."

"Huh?" Tails sounded, head cocked to one side and ears erected in attention, "What do you mean?"

"Well" Sonic replied with a small smirk as he stood up and began to walk toward a small house a little distance away, "When you live life like me, not many can keep up or even bother at all," he added under his breath. Before Tails could ask him any further, however, Sonic whipped his entire body around and exclaimed excitedly, "So, Tails. Welcome to the Mystic Ruins, and by extension, my humble home. Hold on tight!"

Before the kid could open his mouth to form a reply, Sonic quickly grabbed his hand and forcibly dragged him toward the house with one hand, his other hand holding T-pup. "And by logical extension, yours as well from now on, buddy," Sonic added briefly before picking up the pace, eliciting a resounding yelp from his younger pal and a series of excited barks from the robot.

…

The trio reached Sonic's house only seconds later, much to the unwilling passenger's extreme delight.

"Never. Do. That. Again. Please!" he forced each word out, inserting a breathless pant in-between each syllable and placed one hand over his wildly thumping heart for emphasis. "I'm too young…to suffer from…heart attacks…"

"Oh come on, don't be such a drama queen, kiddo" Sonic replied good-naturedly and placed one hand on Tails' back. Whether or not he had felt the sudden startled jolt, he did not comment on it. "You managed to survive what? Let's see now. If memory serves me right…Oh yeah, a whole armada of birdbrains plus a marathon through deadly zones plus an army of badniks plus an aerial showdown and finally, a burning airplane hurling towards the earth. And you're saying you'll die from heart failure from a simple jog? Nuh-uh, I'm not buying it."

"I didn't say 'die'," Tails defended, "I said 'suffer from'. They are different. Besides, I wouldn't classify your speed as something equivalent to a jog. You see, a jog refers to the act of…"

"Yeah yeah yeah, alright Doctor Bright, let's get you inside first, shall we?" Sonic cut the child off with a smile and hurried him into the small house. "What about the Tornado?" Tails asked before the door was fully open.

"Oh yeah, I almost forgot. Well, tell you what Tails, why don't you and Teensy Puppy here go in and sit down for a bit? I'll be right back in a jiffy after putting the Tornado and the Chaos Emeralds away, okay? Okay!" And with that, Sonic was gone in a gust of wind.

"Where does he get that much energy from?" Tails pondered as he was left alone with his pet and longest friend in front of the large wooden door, "You'd think he would get tired from running around and batting robots for days on end…" he added, eying his pet with an intrigued and also fond expression in his eyes.

His hand then instinctively moved to touch the spot on his head, where Sonic had given him such a comforting scratch behind the ear. The memory of the short-lived moment resurfaced, and with it came a shy blush on the child's innocent face. 'I can't believe I actually…purred…This is so embarrassing!' he thought with a frown. That expression soon faded, making way for a softer and fonder one, 'It was amazing, though…Nobody has ever done that for me before…And that pat, too…It was a bit rough but…nice I suppose…Unlike the ones…No, don't go there, Tails…'

Tails continued to stand where he was and allowed his mind to wander, much to T-pup's bewilderment. His train of thoughts, however, soon came to an abrupt end when he felt a gloved hand on his shoulder.

"What are you doing out here?"

Instinctively, every fiber of his body seemed to gear into life and jerked backward, twin tails swiftly and automatically curling around his upper body in a protective fashion. His breath hitched and eyes widened in surprise until he laid eyes on the one who had snapped him from his latest self-induced trance.

"S…S-Sonic…" he muttered shakily, lips quivering slightly. The face that Sonic was showing was one of absolute awe, and daresay, pity if Tails had ever seen one in his short life. Once his composure had at last returned and awareness restored, Tails loosened his stiff posture and slowly let his namesakes fall back to touch the ground; his shoulders on the other hand, were still quaking slightly in the aftermath of a sudden jump scare that he had for countless times been a victim of in a not so distant past.

"You okay, kiddo?" asked the hedgehog tenderly, deliberating whether or not he should reach out. After all, Sonic had never done this before – taking care of someone who was so obviously scarred and traumatized more than he was willing to admit.

And a child no less.

Seeing the unresponsive and downcast fox cub in front of him, Sonic tried again, only this time his voice was lowered to merely a barely audible whisper, "Tails?"

That nickname finally caught the addressee's attention. The young cub carefully lifted his head up to regard his newly acquainted friend.

"I'm…I'm fine now" Tails said at last, "Sorry for my discourteous reaction. I don't know what came over me and…" he stopped himself from rambling the moment he felt his pet nudging his foot.

Sonic then decided to make a bold step forward, trying to see if Tails would react unfavorably to his advance. When the child said nothing in protest, the hedgehog continued to get closer in the same precarious manner until the gap was bridged, and he was right next to his younger friend.

"Come now, Tails. You have nothing to be sorry for" he started, voice gentle and soft. "It's okay. Tell you what, why don't we get inside, and I'll make you a nice steaming hot cup of coco, alright? I know some killer coco recipes from my travels. How does that sound?"

"…Okay…" came the timid reply, but that was all Sonic really needed at the moment. He was about to open the door and welcome his new buddy in, but a touch on his wrist made him halt and turn around, face scrunched up in pure curiosity. Behind him, Tails was shifting nervously from foot to foot, eyes wandering anywhere and everywhere but Sonic like he was having second thoughts about whatever he was trying to convey.

With a patient smile, Sonic lowered himself to Tails' level and gently placed one hand on his shoulder, prompting the younger to look at him. "What is it, Tails? You know you can ask me anything. And I mean it – anything."

Tails took a few more seconds to contemplate, before he redirected his gaze back onto Sonic. He began to fiddle with his fingers again, and Sonic was beginning to think that the fox himself was not aware that he was doing it at all.

He was not known for his patience. Oh no. Sonic was a creature of speed, of adventures and of thrills. He had neither need nor use for such a virtue, at least, he had not needed it until now. Thus, with great tolerance, Sonic willed himself to wait until the fidgety fox before him was ready to speak.

"…Can I…" Tails finally muttered after an indefinite amount of time had passed, much to Sonic's delight. With an encouraging gesture with his free hand, the hedgehog signaled for the child to go on, and he did just that.

"…Can I have some…mint candies, too?" Tails finished his thought aloud, instantly ducking his head and turning away from Sonic's gaze.

"I don't see why not" replied the relieved hedgehog with a snicker, glad that he had at least made some progress with his new brother in arms. 'Brother?' Sonic bemused, eyes widened momentarily as he contemplated the thought. A few seconds later, his pensive face was dropped, and in its place a warm and genuine smile took reign.

"Come on in," Sonic began as he stood up and moved towards the door while keeping one hand on Tails to guide him inside. "I'll make you a nice, wicked cup of hot coco and some mint candies. You can have as many as you want, how does that sound, little bro?"

At the sound of the endearing title, Tails temporarily stopped walking for a while and looked at Sonic with big, innocent eyes filled with indescribable awe, shock and, oh, was that joy he detected? Sonic himself could not be sure, for it was practically a whirlwind of sentiments inside those orbs, which were brilliant - like the miniature version of the vast sapphire sky itself. Sonic watched a bit more closely as the awe-struck expression on the kid's face slowly melted into an enormously heart-warming and radiant smile – One that Sonic felt he would regret for life if he did not at the very least return the sentiments.

"That sounds absolutely inviting, Sonic!" said Tails.

With a nod, the hedgehog resumed his pace and opened the door. Tails walked in and took a look around the humble abode, the interior of which was rather spacious due to the apparent lack of furniture aside from the mandatory necessities. However, it was cozy, warm and it gave him a sense of comfort and security, qualities that were in essence not too dissimilar to the owner himself. He stood still for another while longer and took in the sight before his very eyes. So this was his new dwelling, his new roof, his new shelter, his new house.

"So, what do you think?" Sonic asked, seeing the child-like wonder in his friend's eyes and chuckling softly. "I normally don't expect any company, so it's a little out of shape…"

"It's perfect!" Tails exclaimed, looking up to the hedgehog with adoration and happiness. Next to him, T-pup barked seemingly in agreement.

So this was his brand new house, and with Sonic…his brand new home.