#( thread 🔺 privacy or safety )

[ironbonds]

"Don’t you believe me?" { To Knuckles! } || @heroichedgehammer || angsty question starters ( accepting )

" I don't. " It hadn't been a very good start to the Resistance. They'd had Sonic one moment, and then Knuckles had to drag their mutual little brother away from where Sonic had gotten himself beaten to a pulp. A few weeks passed, and all had been going well until their insistence that Sonic was no longer among the living...

Honestly, he was surprised he'd put up with them for that long.

" Tails 's fine. He c'n make a death ray out of paperclips, and he knows we can't take out that jackal without some help. If anything, kit's probably safer away from us. " The Resistance was a target, a rather large target despite their hidden base. All it would take is some well placed torture and anyone could give up their position.

Tails was too stubborn to let the jackal or even Eggman do anything to him while there was a chance for him to find his brother safe and sound.

And while the echidna needed to be realistic to lead a veritable army, there was definitely a part of him that wanted nothing more than to ditch it all and help his brother find their lost family.

" We leave him alone. He knows how to take care of himself, and I doubt he wants to see us right now. "

[ironbonds]

It was all he could do to sigh. He wasn't about to stop her from finding out the same thing he'd told her. He'd ask someone from what remained of the tech group to keep an eye on her, whether it was through a communicator or a little spy drone it didn't really matter. But Knuckles wasn't about to let her out of the Resistance base without some way of making sure he could get to her if she needed help.

Sure he trusted others, Silver and Rouge and any number of others helping them, and Tails and Amy were included in that. But when someone so obviously isn't seeing reason in favor of their emotions? Well...

The humans had a phrase that he didn't like, but fit well in this situation. Giving someone enough rope or something along those lines... though in this case he supposed it was a leash.

" Ya won't listen to reason... Stop by the techies and grab somethin' we can use to bail ya out. And before ya get the wrong idea, I don't approve. I actually condemn what you're doin', but you're stubborn and I can't stop ya. " He stayed silent for another moment, turning and looking at her over his shoulder. " 'f I hear ya try to force 'm back, you'll have more t' worry 'bout than losing one friend. "

Yes, it was a threat. Tails' well being was a very high priority for him, especially with his other brother not here to keep him safe. He trusted the kit well enough to let him wander about and stay out of sight. his brain worked in overtime on a normal day, and now it would work in his favor.

But an argument with Amy meant that they would draw attention, and any baddie in the area would go after them. Without tech, he was a sitting duck, and he wouldn't let her live down anything that she might inadvertently cause that harmed the kit.

She'd stared him down before, but his back to her made her pause. It was like a gap between rivalling flames.

Neither of them wanted to be in here. Stuck in here, telling and watching and waiting from miles away.

She was watching him crack.

For a moment, she was kind again. She was sorry. She understood. She felt him burning and twisting and writhing inside, no different from her, no different from Tails. If she could just get a hold back around what she was good for, she would stop this wringing and wailing right here. She would drop it all, hit her knees, and embrace him. Never mind if it ever made them agree. Maybe, for once, she could make him feel okay.

She remembered what Tails had been like before he'd gone, quiet, faded. Nothing she said worked. Of course he ran. They all wanted to run to the fight. Knuckles wasn't wrong.

But her fingers felt white in her palm. Ached with fear.

'Trust 'im.' Faith. Trust.

Believe, with all her heart, that everything would be okay. Tails never let them down. No one got the best of Tails. He'd be okay. Tails was a hero.

Sonic was a hero. Her hero.

"I don't," she said. "I can't."

She turned heel, and made to leave.

"I have to find him."

[ironbonds]

She really didn't understand. Instead of thinking of it from his perspective, she seemed to be looking at is as preventing them from losing another friend. Which... he understood. He absolutely understood the thought process. Tails was precious to all of them, but at the same time, they'd been keeping him here while he made things for them.

As far as Knuckles was concerned, he had earned himself freedom.

But here where no one else would hear the two of them about to tear each other's throats out? He was finally allowed to just let himself feel everything he'd been ignoring.

" Ya really think I want him out there any more than you do? He's MY brother too! But I also know that locking him in here is not gonna help any of us. Ya know what happens when he's stressed? " He wasn't upset that she had pulled away from him, but he would move into her space in his anger. " He turns into mute, not talkin' to anyone. And then, 'cause the one person who can calm 'im down enough to get him out of that is gone, he'll only get worse. "

He wanted to punch something, let out the anger and frustration he was feeling. Knuckles was a man of action, and being trapped here was just as frustrating for him. He'd rather be out there knocking heads together, not telling other people who to knock together. A fight would be great right now, but he didn't want to hurt Amy or anyone else here. So he did the next best thing.

He turned around and sat, breathing for a moment in an attempt to calm down even slightly. Sure he could stay here until he was calm, but that could be hours. He had to leave eventually.

" 's better for 'im to be out there, where he feels like he's making progress, than spinnin' his wheels in here with us. " A sigh, thumping his head on the wall in front of him. " Ya go out there lookin for him, and you'll get both of ya killed. Just... trust 'im... "

She didn't fight him, there—dragged away, into the hall and to a back room.

"What? No, I—! How could you—?!"

Not what she meant. Not what she meant at all. Amy's expression grew wide and hot from a frothing turbine of indignation and hurt. Knuckles' grip ached when it squeezed, not so much from its own pressure—he'd stopped just short of that—but from what he'd just implied alongside it.

That she'd ever think of Tails as anything like some machine to be used—

They'd all had to choke down their grief to even function, but that didn't mean she thought—

That's not why—!

She flared, and spilled out. "I mean that he needs us! He wouldn't be acting like this if he didn't! This—" She yanked against him. "Running around alone isn't—" One more time, to snatch her arm from his grip. "—good for him! It isn't safe! It isn't normal! He just thinks so—and he's wrong!"

"Why don't you get that? What's wrong with you?!"

[ironbonds]

She didn't seem to get the reason why he was advocating for Tails, and the more she talked the more it seemed she was a little out of touch. Understandable when the reality of it was that she kept everyone in the resistance safe while he was the tactical knowledge behind their forces.

They each had their strong suits, he supposed.

But it was when she said that He'd be better helping them, that they needed him. Which was true, but missing from her words were what was best for the child genius. Because everyone seemed to forget that he was a good nearly ten years younger than the rest of them.

Gently as he could, knuckles grabbed her arm and pulled her into a quiet room, where they were the only two in earshot. All so he could tear her a new one.

" Did you really just say we need him? He's built all our tech for us, and I think we should figure out how to take care of it on our own. " The warrior let a little bit of his roiling emotions out in his voice. " He watched his brother and his idol get kicked to the ground, and wasn't given time to process it. We immediately put him to work because we NEEDED him to. Openly talked about his brother being dead right in front of him. "

Knuckles gave her arm a squeeze, just on the other side of painful. He needed her to understand that what was best for all of them was not best for the young kit. And he definitely needed someone to think about his well being right now. " I think he's deserves to be left alone. We know where he might go and how to send a message if we need something. "

"I know, but—!"

He's not safe.

Knuckles' expression gave very little away. High-minded, stoic, controlled. No wonder they all trusted him. Usually, she trusted him. She'd been so jealous of that, lately. Jealous of him. He hadn't cracked, not once, while she felt like she was rushing around to paste hers shut all over.

But this time, just this once, she wished he would.

Amy's brow knitted together fretfully. She tried again. "If he was taking care of himself, he'd be with us. He'd be helping us. We need him. He knows we need him. He'd never run off like this if he was thinking straight!"

She was leaning toward him now. Her touch became an insistent, beseeching grip on his hands. "Knuckles, he didn't even tell us he was leaving. How can you say this is better for him when we don't know where he is? You don't actually think he's going to lay low forever—!"

[ironbonds]

" 'n if we find him? Assumin' he doesn't immediately bolt, what're you gonna say? " He knew what he was going to say next was not going to sit well with her, but she needed to understand that Tails could and would take care of himself. He was a genius, and far more resourceful than they gave him credit for.

The fox often times acted his age, forgetting silly things or being the excitable child he was. It tended to throw people off, not expecting him to be someone who could very easily rival or over throw Eggman if he wanted to.

Sonic's influence was the only reason he was a friend and not an adversary.

" We tell him 'sorry we keep sayin' your brother and closest friend is dead, but it's better for you to stay with us' ? I'd leave too. Tails knows how t' take care of himself, Ames. " What he didn't say was that Tails was in far more danger if the two of them went out hunting for him. Right now it was a secret that the young genius was missing, and Eggman and his jackal wouldn't know any better.

" Goin' after him would kill him. I know you're worried, but... " There were so many things he could say. They have a resistance to run, one he was not particularly pleased to be in charge of. They had other friends to think of, and so many lives that would be in jeopardy if they took off to find someone capable of taking care of himself.

" No, we're stayin'. We've got stuff to do here. "

'Leave him alone.'

Amy's fingers balled tighter in her palms, her eyes burning. Knuckles wouldn't be saying this if he'd seen, truly seen, what she had. That Tails was distraught didn't shock her and surely wasn't news to Knuckles—and wasn't that all of them? Wasn't that her, praying to fate in the unbearably quiet gaps between running comm chatter and damage reports and cries for help from sources she couldn't afford to run to herself?

She was terrible at hiding her feelings. She'd never hated that so much before now; rushing off to hide in half-ruined, empty rooms and bathroom stalls at every opportunity was all she could do not to bawl at the console. She had to turn it into something else, to get better at—

But Tails hadn't really been talking to anyone. Vomiting verbal loops of remorse at no one and nothing, at best—and then he'd left with barely a word to anyone. To either of them. Not even a hint of where he'd go. She might not have known until it was too late, if she hadn't been looking for it.

That didn't sound like 'fine' to her.

She slept lightly. She saw things—too peaceful to be nightmares, too bitter to be dreams. She just wanted them to stop leaving—

"'Wants' us? He needs us!" Amy's pointed stride to clear the distance between them sent the corners of scattered map copies fluttering on the desk. "It doesn't matter what he does—they'll be looking for him. He's all alone, and if—and after—!"

Her voice quivered. Before all this, she'd be more assured by reminders of Tails' competence and talent. That died the moment they lost him. If not him—

'Not him,' she'd begged alone into the dark long after it was over. 'Not him, not him—!'

—no one was invincible. No one was safe.

They would not lose Tails.

Somehow, she tamed the knot in her throat. "We have time," she said firmly. She didn't know that, not really; there was no telling what wave would roll over them next. But what else could she say, except what was on her heart? What had to be on his, too?

She leaned toward him, reaching to touch his hand between his spikes. "Let's just—go! Let's go now! Let's go get him!"