#'(only with you though. bc somehow i trust the emotionally stunted bastard the most with this shit)' | Explore Tumblr Posts and Blogs

fleetsonourgecentral · 2 years

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Hello hello! I hope everything has been going well for you. I had a prompt idea pop into my head, and rushed to type this out before i forgot lol. Anyway, I was wondering if you could write Sonic having a nightmare and/or suffering from the aftermath of one and Scourge helps him through it? Or the other way around, if that speaks more to your muse. I just really want to see these two learn to be more vulnerable around each other, and there is little doubt in my mind that these two have issues and really need a hug. Have a good week!

Omg how did you know I love writing about characters having nightmares... how did you know...

~~~

One of the downsides of travelling with someone was the lack of privacy options during the night. Sonic had grown to tolerate travelling with other people - although the slower speed always got on his nerves, no matter how necessary it was - but he'd never liked sharing his sleeping space with them. On bad days he was quick to awake at some of the most minor sounds, and being stuck with several other people shifting and mumbling in their sleep or getting up in the middle of the night for some water was a terrible thing to combine with that.

And on worse days, well. Even the thought of waking someone up because his stupid brain gave him a bad dream made his skin crawl.

It wasn't that he thought sleeping around someone was a show of vulnerability. Having a nightmare in front of someone, though? That was a completely different story.

Thankfully, nightmares weren't common for him, and the rest of the Freedom Fighters knew to keep their mouths shut and not bring it up if they ever caught him having one. It was the least he was owed after saving the world's ass time and time again. Occasionally Amy or Tails tried to make him, eurgh, open up about them, but for the most part he was left alone, and they were never brought up while travelling.

Still, despite learning to tolerate travelling with other people, he couldn't help but mentally cheer whenever he could do so alone at his own pace. So getting a new mission that required speed and small numbers, and thus no group of slower friends holding him back? A blessing he was long overdue.

Well, sort of. He wasn't travelling alone, but it was Scourge who was tagging along, and the good thing about travelling with Scourge was the slower speed thing was no longer a problem.

The bad thing was he had no idea if Scourge would keep his mouth shut on the off chance of a nightmare arising.

So when they settled down for the night, was it really any wonder Sonic volunteered to take watch?

With a sigh Sonic rolled his neck for the third time that night. Just because he'd chosen to take watch didn't mean he liked it. Honestly, he was tempted to lie back and get some rest. Not sleep, he'd be just awake enough to spring into action if anything happened, as unlikely as that was, but just doze a little to rest his eyes and energy.

Maybe it was dumb to offer to take watch in the first place. They'd chosen a spot secluded enough that they wouldn't be easily spotted by any of Robotnik's troops, and fear for their safety wasn't even really a concern in the first place when he'd pitched the idea, although he'd tried to make it seem like it was, and brushed off Scourge's call of "bullshit" with a comment about being the more experienced Freedom Fighter, and thus the one more equipped to decide what was and wasn't safe, so shut the fuck up.

Scourge had rolled his eyes but reluctantly backed down, muttering about being too tired to deal with his "paranoid bullshit." The fucking hypocrisy.

No, safety wasn't his concern at all. His concern was that stupid, stupid nagging voice in the back of his mind hissing "but what if tonight's a bad night?" over and over, even though there was no fucking reason to believe it would be other than having gone several months without one.

It wasn't that he didn't trust Scourge. He did, against his better judgement. Somehow the fungus fucker had gradually kicked in the hesitations he had about lookalikes and became a trustworthy ally on the battlefield and a surprisingly hilarious friend. He was cunning and a jackass who didn't whinge about Sonic's attitude (usually) and a fierce fighter who didn't give a shit about the "morals" of fighting dirty, an attitude the Freedom Fighters desperately needed. "Clean" fighting was a nice sentiment, but just not practical in a lot of situations, and Sonic couldn't say he cared too much about Scourge's dirty tactics. Rather their side than the enemy's, after all.

Against all odds and previous bad experiences with lookalikes, Sonic trusted Scourge with his life.

With his nightmares, though? That wasn't something he was ready to expose to him yet. Not even out of fear he'd be seen as weaker or less capable for them, or out of worry they'd be used against him somehow, which was the reason he kept them hidden from everyone except close friends. It was just... a lot.

Better to just not sleep in front of him and avoid the risk entirely.

Ugh, now he remembered why he never bothered with this "taking watch" shit. He was always more likely to overthink about dumb shit if he had the whole night to himself doing nothing but sitting and watching without something or someone to keep him entertained and distracted.

Cracking his neck, Sonic settled back against the rock he was leaning against. It was a quiet night, no midnight adventurers or obnoxiously loud birds or bugs, not even any wind ruffling the leaves on the trees. Peaceful, just like the nights he remembered from when he was younger, before Robotnik came to be. If he closed his eyes he could almost pretend he was back to those days, lounging on his back and stargazing on the roof of Kintobor's old laboratory.

One day. One day they'd beat Robotnik for good and he'd be able to have as many peaceful nights as he wanted; not every night, that would be way too boring, but some nights. Depending on how much action he wanted. Any fights he got involved in would be on his terms, not tethered to stopping every scheme he stumbled across regardless of if he was in the mood for fighting or not.

His eyes fell on Scourge, who was sleeping a couple of metres away, lying on his stomach with his face buried in his elbow.

He hoped Scourge would stick around to see those nights, too. He'd probably get bored of them, even quicker than Sonic would, but that was fine. He would provide good company for the nights Sonic didn't want to sit around and spend the night in peace. He was always up for finding something fun to do no matter the time of day, something his other friends just weren't down for, and it would be fun to run around looking for ass to kick together without having to worry about a threat as huge as Robotnik looming over them.

With his eyes on Scourge it was impossible to miss the stuttered hitch in breath even if he wanted to.

There was no threat, nothing to be worked up over, a simple shift in someone else's breathing pattern was all that had changed, but somehow Sonic found himself on full alert anyway. He sat up, staring intently at Scourge, cataloguing every little twitch just in case something was wrong. Scourge's breathing grew heavy, his face screwed up, his hands balled into fists as he made a pitiful attempt to curl in on himself. A shuddering inhale, a flinch accompanied by a... not a whine, or a whimper, but some kind of noise that was definitely unpleasant-

Oh.

He hadn't considered the possibility of Scourge having a nightmare.

Sonic was torn between watching in case the nightmare escalated and made Scourge hurt himself or looking away in some kind of attempt to respect Scourge's privacy. He'd never been on this end of the situation before and he had no clue what to do. Should he wake him up? Leave him be? Stay sat down and pretend he hadn't noticed anything, or leave and come back when Scourge woke up, pretending he had something to deal with and conveniently missed the whole thing?

Fuck, he wasn't good at shit like this. That was what the rest of the Freedom Fighters were for. He didn't even know if he hated or was grateful for being woken up from his own damn nightmares, how was he supposed to know what Scourge would want?

For an entire minute he sat and stared helplessly at Scourge, frozen in place despite the urge to just shake him awake. He didn't want Scourge to continue whatever awful dream he was having, but he also didn't fancy getting punched in the face, which was a very likely option even when Scourge was awake, never mind half asleep and still pumped full of adrenaline.

Finally, though, Scourge jerked awake with a strangled gasp, still for only a moment as he refamiliarised himself with his surroundings before he pushed himself up on shaky arms, still panting.

Sonic averted his eyes just as Scourge's landed on him.

He half expected Scourge to call him out for sitting and watching him during his nightmare; he sure as fuck wasn't shy about calling him out for anything else. But surprisingly, he didn't. He just kept staring at him in silence, wrestling his breathing back under control as his gaze drilled holes into Sonic's head. Sonic didn't turn to look at him, just stared straight ahead like he was very dedicated to his self assigned role and hadn't been contemplating dozing off for the past twenty minutes.

"You still up?" Scourge said at last.

"That's what someone who keeps watch does, yes."

"You don't stay awake when you keep watch. You, like, half sleep, half keep watch."

Damn. When did he notice that?

"I'm not tired yet."

"Bullshit, but whatever."

Neither of them spoke again for several minutes. Scourge sat up against the rock, drumming his fingers against his knee to a beat Sonic couldn't follow, and joined Sonic in staring straight ahead pretending to scan for threats they both knew damn well weren't coming.

Was Sonic supposed to ask him about it? Pry into the details of the nightmare? For what? Just to seem like a good friend? Fuck, this stuff had never made sense to him. Emotions were a battlefield he was... less than prepared for at the best of times, and for more delicate shit like this, he was far from the first choice for assistance, and he wanted to keep it like that. One wrong step just made things worse for everybody, but the right step changed from person to person, and how the fuck was Sonic supposed to magically know what the correct steps and words for each person were? Fighting robots or the moronic minions Robotnik had somehow managed to recruit was so much easier in comparison.

Again, there was a reason the other Freedom Fighters handled all the emotional shit. And why Amy frequently scolded him for being insensitive.

But the other Freedom Fighters weren't there. It was just Sonic. And as much as he hated dealing with situations like this, he also didn't want Scourge to be fucked off and upset.

But he also didn't want to make Scourge feel like he had to talk if he didn't want to.

"I don't want to talk about it," Scourge said suddenly before Sonic could come to a decision on if he should say something or not.

Well. That made it easier than just blindly guessing.

"Okay."

"Okay?"

"Okay."

Scourge squinted at him. "You're not gonna... try and make me talk about it? Encourage me to open up about my feelings?"

"Nope."

"Not gonna stick your hero nose where it don't belong?"

"I never stick my nose-"

"Yeah you do. That's, like, your whole thing. You wouldn't run around saving people if you always minded your own business."

... Damn it, he was kind of right, wasn't he?

"Look," Sonic said, still not looking over, "do you want to talk about it?"

"Fuck no."

"Then we won't."

Scourge huffed. Out of the corner of his eye, Sonic could see him fiddling with the zip on his jacket.

"... Why? Why aren't you pushing?"

Oh boy, honesty hours. Yay.

He could just brush it off. Say he didn't care, he had better things to do with his time, hearing about it wouldn't change anything because there was nothing he could do to help. He could just be the dick he knew Scourge probably expected him to be.

... Fuck, but he didn't want to.

"I hate it when people try to make me talk about shit I don't wanna talk about," Sonic said. It sounded more like an admittance from how quiet it was, like it was a dirty little secret he was sharing with Scourge and Scourge only. Which it wasn't, he made it perfectly clear that he hated being forced to talk about shit every time someone tried to make him, but... but it was different, somehow, saying it to Scourge under the quiet blanket of the night. "If you don't wanna talk about it, I'm the last guy who's gonna make you."

"... Huh. Everyone just always tells me to talk about shit 'cause apparently it'll make me feel better."

"Yeah." Sonic turned his gaze back up to the sky. "I hear that a lot, too."

They lapsed back into silence, or at least, as silent as it could be with Scourge fidgeting with his jacket. Sonic wanted to say it was a peaceful silence, but the conversation somehow didn't feel... done.

Sure enough, eventually Scourge piped back up, voice so much smaller and... less guarded, somehow, as he said, "You're really not gonna make me talk about it?"

Sonic paused. Tapped his leg as he thought over all the possible answers. He could just keep up the reassurance, or...

Amy kept telling him he was unapproachable and difficult to talk to sometimes, and kept nagging him to work on it. Normally he didn't care because he wouldn't know what to say anyway, but he was the only one around, and if Scourge needed it...

"If you want to talk, you can," Sonic said slowly, hoping he was doing this right. "I'm not... I can't tell you I'll say anything helpful, or anything at all, 'cause we both know I'm shit at this. But I can listen."

Scourge was silent.

"I'm not saying you should, or that you have to. I'm just saying, if you want to talk, talk. If you don't, don't. Up to you, I don't care either way." Fuck, that was rude. Oh well. Scourge was fluent in rude, so it was probably fine. "Just... do whatever helps."

There. That was the best he could do in terms of support. Happy, Amy?

Scourge stayed silent for a few more seconds. Then...

"It... it was about prison." The words were halting, hesitant. Like Scourge didn't know how this worked either. Like he was trying something new with Sonic. "Nothing... fuck, it wasn't even coherent. Just random shit I thought I'd forgotten about. Stupid inmates I can't even remember the names of anymore, acting like they're hot shit just 'cause they're bigger and stronger and have a whole gang..."

Scourge trailed off, voice shaky. When Sonic turned to look at him, he was running a hand through his quills like he was reassuring himself they were still there.

They used to be shorter when he first arrived, Sonic remembered. Shorter and choppy and just barely long or sharp enough for self defence.

"Guards did nothing, y'know? They didn't care. We was just a bunch of troublemakers who got what was coming to us to them. So they just let fucking anything happen. Didn't give a shit who got hurt or who started fights or who got their shit stolen. Fuck, they kept going on about rehabilitation like it was something they gave a fuck about, but they wouldn't've even cared if someone got killed in there-"

Scourge was shaking, fist buried in his quills and tugging on them as he stared at the ground, face scrunched up in rage.

Sonic hated it. He hated that look on Scourge's face. He hated that there was something much more fragile, much more vulnerable, hidden away under that rage. He hated that there was nothing he could do to make it go away.

Wordlessly, he shifted closer until his arm brushed against Scourge's.

"Just... it was shit." Scourge's head landed on his shoulder. Sonic didn't mention it. "It was shit and I fucking hated every minute of it. That's what it was about."

Sonic hummed. He didn't have anything to say in response, because what was there to be said? But Scourge was already relaxing against his shoulder, so he probably didn't need to.

Instead, he just linked his arm with Scourge's.

This time the silence between them was comfortable. Scourge was done, Sonic was done, they were both done, no more words required. Scourge was still leaning on Sonic, and apparently neither of them saw any reason for him to move, because Sonic didn't push him away and Scourge didn't bother pulling away.

It was nice. The night wasn't cold but Scourge was warm, and it was easy to relax with him leaning on him.

Unsurprisingly, it didn't take long for Scourge to fall asleep. Well. No point in moving him, was there? Sonic was already perfectly comfortable, and he didn't need to worry about waking up with a crick in his neck from an awkward sleeping position since he needed to stay awake anyway. He was on watch after all.

By the time the sun peeked over the horizon, Sonic was slumped over Scourge, cheek smushed against his head, fast asleep.

It just didn't feel like a risk anymore.

#sonic the hedgehog #scourge the hedgehog #fleetway sonic #stc sonic #fleet!sonourge #asks #fanfic #sorry this took so long! writers block is a bitch lol #fr though i've literally been thinking about how badly i wanna write a nightmare fic for these two... you read my MIND...#damn sonic where'd you get all these issues from #man really said 'idk shit about how to handle emotions. I'll try tho. for you.'#no one else znvxnvxng if u told any of his friends sonic tried to be emotionally supportive to scourge they'd laugh in your face #and he sure as SHIT still won't touch his own messy emotions with a ten foot pole #congratulations scourge you've unlocked achievement: future boyfriend willing to fall asleep around you #like good luck trying to get him to talk about his own nightmares in the future. bc he won't. even though he probably should #scourge on the other hand is like 'fuck it. we're already trying hero shit. might as well try this talking thing everyone talks about'#'(only with you though. bc somehow i trust the emotionally stunted bastard the most with this shit)'#U know it's a fun pairing when somehow SCOURGE is the one doing better with the whole emotions thing #not by much. but still.#bc lbr. sonic ain't got a fucking clue. absolutely hopeless #anyways sorry again this took forever! hope you enjoy!

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