Future-Past

All You Do Is Worry

"And Tails!"

The beep went off and another voice started talking.

It was Knuckles. "When are you getting here? Tails has been waiting for you. You didn't forget about him, did you?"

Sonic sat up quickly. "Shit!" He did forget. He's been so upset over Shadow, he forgot about Tails.

"We're at Rouge's place. Just please come pick him up. He's worried about you." The line clicks off.

Sonic jumps up from the couch grabs his backpack and shoes and races out the door.

Tails is sitting on one of the bar stools. The glass he was drinking out of was empty and he was slumped against the counter. Rouge comes by, patting his head, she says, "Want a refill on your milkshake, Hun?" He shakes his head a bit. The white bat gives him a sad smile. "It will be okay, Tails, he'll be here soon."

"He better be." Knuckles said with a slight growl. "He better hope he has a good reason for being so late."

As soon as he says that, Sonic rushes into the club, seemingly out of breath. Tails jumps up when he sees his brother and rushes over to give him a hug.

"Hey Tails, sorry I'm so late." The blue hedgehog says, returning the hug. Rouge and Knuckles both notice the bruise the hedgehog was sporting.

"It that a good enough reason?" Rouge questions.

Sonic looks up when she talks. "What?"

Knuckles moves to stand next to him. "Sonic what happened to your face?"

Sonic's eyes widen, he almost forgot about that. He looked down at Tails, who was also curious to why he had a bruise on his face. "Uh, don't worry about it. I was just being a klutz is all." He said with an uneasy smile on his face.

The two adults in the room obviously didn't believe him, but he wasn't hoping they would. He just doesn't want Tails to worry.

"Really? You're not usually clumsily, Sonic." Tails said.

"I must have been more tired than I thought. Why don't you go get your stuff so we can leave?"

"Okay!" The little fox ran off to the other room to get his bag. Sonic let out a sigh when he was gone.

"Sonic," Rouge said, grabbing his attention. "What happened?"

The blue hedgehog sighed again. He bit his lip and looked away. "Shadow and I had an argument..."

"Again?" Knuckles said in disbelief.

"Yeah."

"And he hit you?" Rouge asked. Sonic only nodded.

Knuckles growl a bit. "That bastard."

"Knuckles don't get mad." Sonic quickly said. "He didn't mean it. He was just as surprised as I was when it happened. He was just angry."

"That doesn't mean he's allowed to hit you, Hun." Rouge also sounded a bit angry.

"I know, but-" Just then, Tails came back.

"I got my stuff, Sonic."

"We'll talk about this later." Knuckles said low enough so only Sonic could hear.‍‍‍‍‍‍‍‍‍‍‍‍‍‍‍‍‍‍‍‍‍‍‍‍‍‍‍‍‍‍‍‍‍‍‍‍‍‍‍‍‍‍‍‍‍‍‍‍‍‍

Sonic turned to Tails with a smile on his face. "Let's go."

When they got home, the place was still empty. There wasn't even a sign to show if Shadow had come back at some point. Tails ran into his room to put his stuff away, while Sonic walked into the kitchen to start on dinner.

"Tails, what do you want for dinner?" He said loud enough to be heard.

"Can we have mac and cheese?" Tails said as he appeared in the doorway. He walked over the kitchen island and rested his elbows on it to rest his chin in his hands. He watched Sonic as he moved around the kitchen making dinner. After a few minutes, he spoke up. "Is Shadow gonna eat with us?"

As soon as Tails said that, Sonic's face darkened. He gripped the spoon he was holding a little too tight. "No Tails, he's not." He said, trying to keep his voice even.

Tails was silent for a moment. "How come?"

Sonic stops stirring the food and sighs. "He just isn't, okay?"

"When is he coming back?"

The blue hedgehog whirls around so fast he startles Tails a little.

"I don't know Tails. Will you stop asking so many questions?!" The anger was clear on his face and he was shaking a bit.

Tails was upset by Sonic's tone of voice. Tears started welling up in his eyes. Sonic, realizing what he did, calmed down.

"I'm sorry Tails. I didn't mean to yell at you." He moved around the island in front of Tails and kneels down to his height. He pulls the sniffling fox into a hug.

"You've been fighting again, haven't you?" Tails says in a quiet voice.

Sonic pulls away to look him in the eye. "No, not really. We just had a little disagreement, that's all."

"Is that why you were yelling at each other before?"

Sonic looks away, shame clear on his face. The other week they had been talking, which of course escalated to them arguing. Sonic was upset about that fact that Shadow would leave in the afternoon and not return until morning. He would have been fine with that if Shadow told him where he would go. He had been a bit worried that Shadow might have been seeing someone else. That why they started yelling at each other. They must have forgotten Tails was home, there was no way he didn't hear all that.

Sonic let out another sigh. "Sometimes adults argue when things get a little... rough. But they can usually work it out in the end."

"Will you two work it out?"

"I don't know Tails. I hope so."