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generic-sonic-fan · 16 days ago

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Omega's Observations: Inside/Wired

Summary: Tails tells Omega about Shadow’s recent visit to his workshop.

For @teamdarkweek. 2047 words.

Omega observes that Tails is quieter than usual today. This would be irrelevant, if not for the fact that the fox is currently elbow-deep in his chest cavity.

He waits until Tails withdraws to grab another tool from the workbench to speak. “YOU ARE HIDING SOMETHING.”

“Huh?” Tails turns around. “No, no, it’s nothing.”

“YOU ARE A TERRIBLE LIAR.” Omega gambles.

Sure enough, the fox’s face falls. “You got me there. But I’m serious. It’s not a big deal, just something about Shadow.”

“INFORM ME OF YOUR HESITATION ABOUT SHADOW.”

“Nothing to hesitate about- just something he brought up the last time he visited me.”

“ELABORATE.”

Tails folds his hands together. “It started something like. . .”

—

“Teach me how to solder.”

“Hmm?”

Tails lifted his welding helmet, only to find Shadow standing in the door of his workshop, his arms crossed and his foot tapping impatiently.

“Oh! Shadow! I’m sorry, I didn’t see you come in.” Tails put down his welding torch.

“Teach me. How to solder.” Shadow wasn’t asking.

“Well, sure? Is everything alright?”

“Yes.”

“So, no particular urgency? The thought just struck you?”

“Please.” Shadow finally said.

“That’s better.” Tails said, before feeling a little bad about it. “Follow me. I’ll get a soldering kit out.”

He had to search only a little bit to find his old soldering iron- he hadn’t used it in a while, not since Sonic had gotten him a new one with all the bells and whistles on it. But it would be better to start Shadow off on a simpler one. Tails then grabbed a coil of solder and a little bottle of flux.

He brought them all over to his workbench.

“Pull up that stool?” Tails gestured to an extra rolling stool in the corner as he grabbed his own.

Shadow did as asked, but he didn’t sit in it like Tails had intended. Instead he stayed standing, studying intently as Tails moved to plug the soldering iron in.

“Alright!” Tails set the soldering iron down and clapped his hands together. “Let’s start with this: what do you already know about soldering?”

“It is a technique that can repair wires.” Shadow replied. Tails waited for him to elaborate, but he didn’t.

“That’s okay. I’ll start by going over the components and what they do.” He picked up the soldering iron again. “This is the iron, and it is used to melt the-” with his other hand, he picked up the coil of solder “-solder, which is a filler metal used to help rejoin the two halves of the wire.”

Shadow nodded.

“But, before you do so, you want to clean the site of joining with the flux.” Tails set the solder down and picked up the bottle of flux. “Well, it’s not just cleaning, it also helps the solder actually stick, but you get the idea.”

Tails set down the flux and then grabbed the iron. He turned it on and set it to the correct temperature. In only a few seconds, a wisp of smoke trailed off the end. He then unwrapped a bit of the solder and held it to the end of the iron, causing it to melt and coat the tip.

“Now you’ll just want to-” Tails looked down at his bench and realized he didn’t get out anything to actually use as an example. “Can you grab some spare wires for me to show you with?”

“Where would those be?” Shadow asked.

“Oh, in the back somewhere. Anything on my shelves will do as long as it isn’t attached to anything.”

Shadow disappeared. He did not return. For about a minute, Tails was worried he’d gotten lost back there before he showed up again with a handful of small wires. The way he carried them was strange; gently, as if he was holding a baby bird.

“Great! Hand me two with stripped edges, please.”

“Stripped?”

“The bare metal, instead of being covered by the insulation.”

Shadow handed him two bits that had their bare copper showing.

“Now we’ll want to twist them together,” Tails mimed the motion.

Shadow copied with the actual wires, before handing them over. Tails placed them against the workbench and tipped the bottle of flux, splashing them with the clear liquid.

“Most solder that you buy from stores already has a little flux in it, to make sure the solder sticks, but I like to apply extra anyway since I’ve got it.” Tails explained.

“I see.” Shadow replied.

“Now that that’s done, you can melt the solder onto the wires. You don’t need to put a lot- just enough so that the twisted portion is coated.”

Tails touched the soldering iron to the wires, transferring the bit of solder he’d already put on the tip to the wires.

He then handed the iron to Shadow. “You try!”

Shadow looked at the iron, then the bundle of wires. He gently tapped the tip of the iron against the wires, not long enough for any of the solder to transfer.

“You can do it with a bit more authority, you know.” Tails suggested.

Shadow’s eyes narrowed. He pressed the tip of the iron against the part of the wires that was still bare, this time adding enough solder for it to drip down and onto the plastic insulation.

“Too much! That’s okay. All it does is stink up the place.” Tails waved his hand over the bit of melted plastic to fan away the fumes. “The solder will still hold. That’s what’s important.”

“What now?” Shadow asked.

“That’s it!” Tails replied. “We just wait for it to cool. It cools pretty fast.”

“It’s. . .” Shadow stared at the two joined wires, now tinged a silvery color from the solder. “Vulnerable.”

“It is exposed,” Tails agreed. “We can add a heat-shrink tubing to insulate it again.”

He stood from his stool and started digging on his shelves for those little heat-shrinks. He found one shoved beneath an old circuit board; it would do for this little practice session.

He returned with the little black tube between his fingers. Shadow was still staring at the wires.

“Usually, you want to slide one of these on before you join the wires if the wires are already part of a system,” Tails explained as he gently pushed Shadow’s hand out of the way and threaded the tube onto the now joined wire, “but for our purposes let’s pretend we remembered to do that.”

“What now?”

“If you have a wire cutter, you can trim the joining, but otherwise you can just fold it in parallel before sliding the heat-shrink over it.”

He let Shadow practice the motion and thread the tube over the exposed junction.

“Then you’ll use either a torch, if you have one, or the soldering iron itself to heat it. It’ll shrink tight against the insulation already existing on the wire. Think of it like a patch on a tire.”

Tails took the wire back and used the upper portion of the soldering iron tip to heat the tube. Sure enough, it shrunk tight around the new joining, leaving only a little lump in the plastic as evidence of the break in the first place.

“And that’s it. Pretty easy once you get the hang of it.” Tails smiled.

“I need to practice more.”

“Yeah, it gets easier with practice for sure.”

Shadow grabbed two more wires from the bundle he’d set on the workbench and twisted them together. Wordlessly, he grabbed the iron from Tails’ hands and pressed it against the junction.

“. . . sure, you can practice some more here!” Tails gave an awkward smile.

Shadow poured excess solder all over the wires, resulting in gobs of the metal ringing the plastic insulation. He threw this attempt away and started his next. Twisted the wires together, pressed just the very tip of the iron against the wires.

“Oops, that’s too little.” Tails said. “You’ll want to add more or-”

Shadow pulled on the connection and it unravelled.

“-it won’t hold.”

With a sharp sigh, Shadow twisted them together again.

“Want to use the flux? It might help.”

Shadow ignored him.

He twiddled his thumbs together, before running back into the shelves and retrieving a little desk fan Amy had gotten for him a while back. He set it up on the workbench, pointing away from Shadow’s face, and turned it on.

“There. Now you won’t have to breathe in the fumes.” Tails said. “Ultimate Lifeform or not, I can’t imagine it’s very good for you. Not that they’re making solder with lead anymore- thank goodness!”

Shadow did not reply as he carefully painted the joining of the wires with silver. The only sounds were the hiss of the iron and the whirring of the fan. Tails couldn’t even hear him breathe.

“Is everything alright?” Tails asked.

Shadow grunted something vaguely affirmative.

“Is it Omega?”

Shadow paused.

“If he’s hurt,” Tails said tentatively, “he knows he can come to me any time, right?”

“And when you’re not here?”

“You can call me! I’ll race right on back.”

“Tch.”

Indignation flared in his chest. “Hey! He’s not complaining about me, is he?”

“You don’t get it.”

“What do I not get? I think I’m doing a pretty good job with him, thank you very much, and if he doesn’t like it-”

“You,” Shadow said, “Won’t. Always. Be. Here.”

“Even if I can’t make it back here, that doesn’t mean I can’t phone in and help guide. . .”

Tails noticed brushes of melted solder against Shadow’s gloves as his hands shook.

“Careful, it’s hot.” Tails said quietly, and reached for the iron in Shadow’s hands. “You could burn yourself.”

Shadow didn’t fight him as he took it and turned it off.

“If it would help you feel better, I could start teaching you?” Tails offered.

“I can’t just use chaos energy to heal him like with Rouge.”

“Kind of a bummer, huh?”

Shadow looked at him.

“You know what I mean.”

Shadow sighed. “I do.”

“You don’t need to worry about it for a long time, though.” He put his hand on Shadow’s shoulder. “You’ve got, what, a hundred years or so before I kick the bucket? You plan too far ahead.”

Shadow didn’t reply.

“I’ll teach, and you’ll learn. I’ve always wanted a protege!” Tails joked.

“I already know how to repair some mechanical systems. It’s the electronics I’m not familiar with.”

“Right, your motorcycle is in pristine condition! Omega’s going to be lucky to have you.”

“I. . . thanks.” Shadow muttered at his hands.

“You’re welcome, Shadow. Any time.”

Shadow stared at the tangle of newly-joined wires on the workbench for a while, before placing his hand over Tails’ on his shoulder.

“Want to watch a movie, perhaps?” Shadow asked.

“Sure! There’s this new one Sonic got me and he says he doesn’t want to watch it again but I really really want to see it again. It’s about giant alien robots and they’re fighting, and two of them are friends but things happen and- you’ll have to see!”

Tails grabbed Shadow’s hands and led him away from the workbench and to the couch.

—

“. . . it was a good movie. I think he liked it.” Tails concludes.

Omega finishes sorting this new bit of information in his memory banks.

“Well?”

“HE SEES ME AS FRAGILE.”

“I don’t think so. I think he’s just concerned.”

“HE SHOULD NOT BE CONCERNED!”

“He’s your friend.” Tails replies. “Of course he’s concerned.”

“HE OVERANALYZES EVENTUAL POSSIBILITIES, OVERLOADING HIS BIOLOGICAL STRESS RESPONSE IN THE PRESENT DATE.”

“Yeah, but-”

“IT WOULD BE A GREATER FAVOR FOR HIM TO CEASE HIS NEEDLESS ANXIETY.”

“Learning how to do first aid for your friends isn’t a bad thing.” Tails crosses his arms.

Omega cannot generate a suitable rebuttal to that.

“Given the rate at which you turn back up at my place damaged, it’s good for one of your team to know how to solder.”

“ROUGE ALREADY KNOWS HOW TO SOLDER.”

Tails opens his mouth, then closes it. He turns back to his workbench to finally retrieve the tool necessary to finish the current repair. He sticks the wrench inside Omega’s chest compartment. Tightens a few bolts. Withdraws again.

“It’s just the way Shadow is wired, I guess.”

“I KNOW.” Omega mutters before he can stop himself.

#e-123 omega #miles tails prower #shadow the hedgehog #team dark #teamdarkweek #have a fic that broke my flash fiction streak for this week lol #I'm afraid I don't have much new to say in this one but it still compelled me. very shadow-typical angst in this one.

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