Return to the Underground

The Best Birthday Ever!

Sonic was sitting on the ground, leaning against a nearby tree, a look of complete misery and sorrow on his face. Not that his friends could see his face very well; he was staring down into his lap. Shadow was sitting next to him, their shoulders brushing.
Amy, at some point during the story, had taken her hammer back out, but now the mallet rested on the ground. She couldn't be angry with him now. Not when he was like this.
Almost all of the audience was gaping at him. Not that anyone could blame them. He had been able to hide this for years.
Tails, being the closest one to Sonic (both physically and bond wise) other than Shadow, tried to comfort him. "Son-"
Before he could even complete the hedgehog's name he bolted off at supersonic speed.
"Sonic!" Shadow shouted, skating after his little brother.
The fox's ears folded down. He couldn't help feeling like he had caused Sonic's pain at the moment.
Knuckles, however, knew better. "Come on, kid. Let's see if we can find him." Sonic needed friends right now, whether he wanted them or not.
"I'm coming too!"
Knuckles shook his head at the impulsive girl. "No, Amy. Me an-"
"Why not?!"
The echidna took a deep breath. Amy could be really annoying when she wanted to. "Amy, you can't." He held up his hand as he saw her about to protest. "Sonic is probably really upset right now. Me, Tails, and Shadow are the ones closest to him. We'll have a better chance to help him than if everyone came at once."
Amy gave a slight huff, but did mumble an agreement.
"Will Mr. Sonic be okay?" Cream asked, worry eminent in her eyes.
Tails glanced to Knuckles; the kit truthfully wasn't sure. He had known Sonic for the longest (besides Knuckles [and, technically, Shadow]) and had never seen him like this. He wasn't used to seeing his big brother so depressed.
Big brother. It seemed weird calling him that. Now that he knew about his siblings (other than Shadow).
"He'll be just fine." Knuckles seemed to be talking to Tails more than the small rabbit that had asked the question.
She seemed happy with the answer though. "Good! You'll make sure he'll come back just as happy and fun as ever right, Mr. Tails?"
Tails smiled down at the ten-year-old and nodded. The childish naïvety seemed contagious. "Yeah. Yeah, we will."
Charmy started buzzing over all their heads. "Yeah! It's no fun when he's all sad!"
"Big Blue needs to stop being so blue."
"He's still Sonic, royalty or not."
Tails felt better hearing all his friends. He looked over to Knuckles and nodded. Time to find Sonic.
It didn't take long for them to find him. He was sitting on one of the loops a good distance away from his birthday party, just staring off into the distance. Shadow was sitting next to him, his arm wrapped around his shoulders again as he stroked his quills and back, trying to console him.
Tails airlifted Knuckles up and stood there for a minute. He wasn't sure what to do. Luckily, Knux was there to help. He stood behind the fox and whispered in his ear, "Don't worry about it, Tails. He hasn't changed; just talk to him. Come on." He dragged Tails over to the hedgehogs, Tails getting butterflies with each step.
Sonic didn't notice them until they were a few feet away, although Shadow had noticed them immediately, thanks to his enhanced hearing. He turned to them, trying to put on a brave face. It didn't work. "Hey, guys."
"Sonic, are you okay?"
"Yeah, buddy, I'm fine. Just some memories comin' back." He laid down, putting his hands over his eyes. "It's kinda hard."
Shadow empathized with him. He also had memories that pained him to think about. He reached up to lightly rub one of Sonic's blue ears. Shadow was the only one who could touch Sonic's ears without him having an immediate knee-jerk, accidentally-elbow-someone-in-the-face-or-gut response.
Tails somehow sympathized with him. He hadn't had any family before Sonic; he had been all alone. Sonic had lost his. That must be one of the loneliest feeling in the world. "You're not alone, Sonic."
The blue blur looked up at his friend, a questionable look on his face. "Huh?"
The kit shifted uncomfortably. "Well, you've still got Shadow, and Knuckles and me, and all the others. They were all talking about how they want you back to your old self: happy and fun." He rubbed the back of his head sheepishly. "And I do too."
Sonic smiled at his adoptive little brother. He could tell what was gnawing at the fox. "Don't worry, li'l bro. I'll be back to normal in no time."
Tails's ears flicked his up when he heard him say 'li'l bro'. He suddenly relaxed. His biggest worry had just been taken away. He sat down next to his best friend, who put his arms around him. Shadow scooched away to give the two best friends some space.
"Thanks for comin' up here, bros." He looked back to the echidna. "You too, Knux."
Knuckles only nodded.
Tails leaned into Sonic. "Ya know... I was kind of worried."
"'Bout what?"
"Well..." He paused for a second, building courage. "You and Shadow are my only family, and when you told us about your brother and sister, I felt like I might have been just a... replacement. And when you ran off, I couldn't help but feel like it was my fault."
"That's a lot of worry over little ol' me." He tightened his grip around the fox's shoulder. "Don't worry, Tails. You'll always be my little brother. Triplets or no triplets. And it wasn't your fault when I ran off; I just needed to clear my head."
The two-tailed fox smiled gratefully at his big brother. He wasn't about to lose his family.
"Come on, guys." Sonic got up and helped Tails stand as well. "I think we ought to get back to my party."
When they returned, everyone cheered. Sonic smiled. They didn't seem mad at him or anything. Although, he guessed he might get a mallet to the head later.
"Sonic! You're back!" Amy was ecstatic.
"Yep! And better than ever!"
Amy giggled, happy to see Sonic back to normal. "Now that's the Sonic we know and love!" She jumped at Sonic, tackling him in a bear hug.
Sonic fell to the ground. "Whoa!"
Suddenly, there was a yell through the meadow, "DOGPILE!"
Then about twelve people on top of them, all laughing their heads off. Cheese floated to the top of the pile, exclaiming proudly, "Chao!" This just started the laughter right back up.
Shadow simply rolled his eyes and sighed, shaking his head in fond exasperation at their antics, before joining in, being careful not to squish Cheese.
"Oof!" everyone grunted as another 77 pounds was roughly added to the dogpile.
At the bottom, a certain hedgehog was looking to his friends piled on top of him (luckily, Omega wasn't one of them.) "Best birthday ever!"