A/N: so long since an update aiyyyyeeee

but im back

but my proofreading isnt here to make the A/N's for me anymore as he's retired so I have my bff doing it for me now ( luv ya maxie )

truth be told im not that into sonadow anymore ( more into some.. other ships you see eue ) but I literally promised myself that I would finish this so i will? it'll just take a long time

P.S. has anyone else noticed that the intials of this story literally spell out SWaGS ? cool right i didnt even notice until now

plus i still like this story idea so lets do this

Chapter 3: An Interesting Encounter

"Uhm," The cub somehow managed to keep a sturdy voice despite their body's obvious quivering. "Hello!" Brilliant Tails, you've made yourself the target.

The fox clenched the handgun tightly as the hedgehog didn't bother to respond right that instant, Tails stared up onto this mysterious man towering above him, his gleaming rubies seemed more focused on observing the whole room then to pay attention to him. Well, at least he didn't look armed in anyway, the fox let out an internal gasp of relief but struggled to catch back that breath as the hedgehog faced them. An odd chill ran down their back as they heard their deep voice.

"I had a feeling I wasn't going to be alone in here," the male had placed a hand onto his hip and backed away from the kid, walking around the place some more before continuing to talk. "Is there anyone else in here with you?"

"Er, n-no." Tails wanted to slap himself in the face for sounding so meek. Man up, dammit. "It's just me."

"I see." The hedgehog started walking back over to him, Tails' hands felt clammy as they held onto their gun but stood paralyzed as he stared right into his red orbs. He.. walked right past him? And.. up the stairs.. oh no.

Tails' turned heel and run up the stairs after him, he'll be damned if he was going to let this guy disturb his setup. Soon, he was right in front of the man, preventing him from reaching the few final steps up to the balcony.

"Wait! You can't go up there?"

The ebony stranger cocked an eyebrow at the young fox. "Might I ask why?"

"I-It's.. uhm, dirty up in there! And it stinks a lot! Like bird poop! I was just in the middle of cleaning it until I heard you come in!"

The hedgehog had his brow up still. "Bird poop? But, this is an indoor balcony, how could you have bird poop in there?"

"Eh, didn't you see all the birds in the trees around us? We have an infestation problem here if you know what I mean." Tails' tried his best to sound casual as possible, but the hedgehog had been staring right at him.

"Hm." The man had scrunched up his nose slightly before turning away to walk back down the stairs.

"Whew!" Tails smiled a bit before following suit. So far so good, maybe if he could somehow managed to get him out of here in this way, he won't end up as fox stew! And hopefully before Sonic came home, if he turned out to be a good guy then he wouldn't want Sonic getting all up in his business.

"What's a kid like you doing way out here?" Tails' ears twitched a bit and looked up at the strange man.

"What's a guy like you doing way out here?"

The man paused for a second to think, "It started out as a bird took something very valuable from me, flew away and lead me here. Then I found this place and got curious."

"Oh." The silence rang deadly in the room, Tails understood why he had come but still wasn't sure what the man's motive might have been. The stranger brushed past the young fox again to go towards another section of books, this time not minding his two tails. Tails was reminded of a little something.

"Hey.." He spoke up. The ebony male turned to face him. "Aren't you in the least bit freaked out about my.." He trailed off as the stranger looked through him, those eyes were practically weapons, Tails thought, but still tried to finish the sentence as the young adult looked slightly puzzled.

"Aren't you going to comment on my mutation?"

"Mutation?"

"Er, my tails?"

The man kept his arms crossed and continued to look down towards the kid, this certainly wasn't helping Tails feel any more safer.

"Now, answer me this: Why would I do that?"

Tails was confused. Literally everyone, everyone, had commented on them. About how much of a poor, disgraceful sap he must've been. A freak show! Someone who must've been disowned by their own family. Someone who would never find love or, dare they say it, have a family. Sonic was the only exception, Sonic liked his tails. Sonic was practically his guardian angel ( pun intended ). He had saved him from all the endless taunts thrown his way, he had raised him when his mother died, he had always been the one to go to because he had no one else. And now this man, this normal man, is here, telling him why should he ever poke fun at him?

"W-Well, why not?"

"Have you been teased about it before?"

"Er, yes.. sir."

The man had an irritated look on his face suddenly, then had his hand clasped around his face, sighing deeply as he spoke up again. "Over how you were born, that's disgraceful." He removed his hand from his face and pinned his hands to his sides, looking down at the boy once more.

"I don't know about those pests you had to deal with, but don't worry, I was raised differently. I believe everyone is equal, no matter what." He then walked off into the section of book shelves he had wanted to go to. Tails was still stunned at what the man had said.

Could this man truly not want to hurt him? In any way? None at all? This man is strange, very strange.. Tails liked strange, probably because he was too. Until another thought came into his mind..

Oh no, if he were to tell the officials about Tails staying here, he'd be forced to go into an orphanage. Sonic would have a hard time trying to be with him. Everything would fall apart. If this man walked out of here with that knowledge, knowledge that a child was alone in the woods, their life would surely crumble.

"You seem distressed."

Tails snapped out of his thoughts, and looked back towards the man. A thoughtful look graced onto his ruby reds. Tails began stammering and trying to think of what to reply back with until he was cut off with another sentence from the mysterious guy.

"Are you worried about your guardian?" He looked back down towards the man, only to see him reading again. A folklore book? Isn't he a tad bit old for that kind of stuff? But never mind that, Tails thought about what he had spoken of.

Guardian. Right, I had a guardian. If he were to believe that then he wouldn't have to be told on!

"Er, yes. Actually, I don't think they'd take kindly to you being here." He spoke out in a slightly nervous tone, hoping that would be enough to scare the guy off. He really didn't want Sonic to come home right about now.

"I see." The man's eyes were scanning over another book before closing it and putting it back into the shelves. "You have a rather fine collection of folklore books here. Do you have a fascination for them as well?"

Tails flushed slightly, well, maybe there were some parts of him that bonded closely to his childish heart. "I.. do. My mother always told me about them."

Tails saw a small smile creep onto the man's face, almost gentle.. "I could say the same thing, except it was my sister. She had a fascination for these things more than I did."

Tails felt something inside him shift, it was like he was slowly starting to feel comfortable talking to him, especially about folklore. His ears perked up at the mentioning of his sister. "Sister? Where is she?" His tails wagged slightly.

The man's eyes faltered then faded, he turned his head towards the window and took a moment to breathe. "She's.. gone."

Oh no. Tails suddenly felt like a complete idiot. He didn't know that his sister was dead! How was he supposed to know! But still, it didn't shake off the feeling of guilt he had towards this man. He was beginning to feel like there was more to this man then meets the eye..

"Well, I'll leave you be. Maybe I'll come back here again, I have more books I'd like to read." With that, the ebony hedgehog turned swiftly towards the door. Before Tails could protest, he was already out the door. Tails ran over to the door and saw no trace of him, it was like he was some sort of phantom.. No, Tails don't be silly! Phantoms don't exist! .. But then again, Sonic existed. Huh..

Tails closed the door shut, and sighed deeply. Well, that was.. an interesting encounter. What a strange man. He turned and-

"Hiya Tails!"

An ear deafening screech rang throughout the woods, causing many birds to flee in terror.

"You didn't have to blow my ears out, ya know!" Sonic rubbed at his poor little ears as Tails cleaned up the balcony, chalk and dust were everywhere. Tails glared at his silvery winged friend.

"You scared me!"

"I'm the only one who ever comes here!" Sonic spat back. "You acted as if you saw a ghost or something! How couldn't you not expect me?"

Tails stared at Sonic for a few moments, before going back to cleaning up. Sonic's ears perked up and his face was blanched as he noticed Tails' reaction to what he had just said.

"SOMEONE WAS HERE?!"

"No!" Tails exclaimed. "I was just.. I heard something out there, I was sure it wasn't the birds that did it. I got frightened.." Dammit Tails! Why did you lie to him? He's your big brother! He deserves to know what happened! But that guy did nothing wrong! He didn't hurt him or anything! He was just a bit strange thats all! And interesting.. same thing. He wasn't going to let Sonic come after some poor guy when all he did so far in crime was read a couple things.

Sonic had a suspicious glint in his emerald eyes, he scanned Tails with his ( 50% accurate ) big brother vision. He sighed though, either Tails was telling the truth or he had put up a lot of guard to make his BBV powers ineffective.

"Tails," Sonic started. "You know you can tell me anything right."

".. Yeah."

"And you know that we always tell each other everything right?"

"I know that."

"So what did happen?" He stared into his fox friend's blue eyes. Tails looked a bit annoyed now.

"I told you what happened already." He turned away and dumped some pieces of wood into the trash bin. Sonic still following behind him.

"But you never told me what it was."

"I don't know what it was. Heck, who knows, maybe it was a ghost. At least, that's what I was thinking at the time. You know how I can be about paranormal and folklore things."

Sonic seemed very unsure that Tails was actually telling him 100% the truth, but took it anyways, the kid was too into legends and stuff.

He sighed again. "Alright then." He threw himself onto Tails' mattress and looked up into the ceiling, there was a window that had shown the night sky clearly above them. Tails liked it that way, he could see the stars and watch Sonic fly back to his home as well as wake up and see him flying down towards him. This had been their home for a good while, he'd like it to stay that way. And the only way that could happen is that no one gets near this area, or comes looking for him and/or Tails. They would be separated, for good this time.

Sonic had to live two separate lives, a prince in a forgotten clan of Sky Mobians, and the other one was a big brother just doing his best to protect and raise his little brother. He much preferred being down here with Tails, rather than be cooped up in the high heavens. The whole clan was bounded to their land and the land below their land, in order to prevent contact with the other world. After the war, his species was lead to believe that all Land Mobians were scumbags. Sonic never believed in them, it was just more meaningless folklore, and soon found Tails who had confirmed his own beliefs. He was just a little boy who had life hit him hard too soon. He sighed as he thought more about home, was it even home?

Home was supposed to be a place where you could feel loved, and free. He only got love, no freedom was ever considered however. Every day, he has to at least spend half a day in his kingdom, above the clouds. He was free to move around in his land above land, but never allowed to go below. No one ever was. Everyone was forced to live above the Land, they could hardly ever go out to scavenge some food anymore. So many people had fallen victim to their stealing gimmicks as there was no soil in the clouds, many of their people have been lost. Though thankfully, never caught.

Sonic sighed, and his wings relaxed. What sort of life was that?

To be a prince of people who were too scared of their own shadows?

To be a prince of people who were trapped in a ring of fire, just like him?

Was that any way to live?

He would rather be a Land Mobian than a Sky Mobian, at least then he would be granted the freedom. He'd happily trade his wings for freedom. Mhm, most definitely. His wings are pests anyways, always getting dirty as they looked as pure as snow, yet shining as silver. He preferred running.

Sonic's ear twitched as he heard Tails yawn, he looked up to see his two tailed friend rubbing at his eyes. He smiled and got off the bed, getting ready to tuck him in.

"You were thinking about it again weren't you?"

".. It's okay bud."

"You really just want to get rid of those wings don't you?"

Sonic smile faltered, but stayed. "The wings by themselves are the bonds to my kingdom, I like my kingdom but wish didn't have to be this way." He wasn't answering the question, but Tails already knew what he was going to say anyways. The wings were in fact the reason why he couldn't go anywhere too far, the reason why his adventurous needs were never fulfilled.

"You never liked having those wings either way didn't you?"

"Heh, no. You know how much they wear me down when I'm running."

Tails yawned again, his eyes half opened and a lazy smile spread over his face. "Yep."

Sonic brushed his little brother's bangs out of his face. "Good night bud." He propped himself up onto the ledge of the far windows he had walked towards and was about to jump until Tails spoke up again.

"Sonic."

Sonic looked back, "Yeah, Tails?"

"You better bring me some more apple juice tomorrow." Tails giggled as Sonic looked offended by what he just said.

"Here I am, thinking you were going to say something touching and you command me to get you some apple juice!" Sonic exclaimed and huffed out in a small burst of laughter. "The nerve of you."

With that, he jumped out the window and flew up into the heavens. Tails looked up at the ceiling window to watch him fly off. He was gone now. Tails usually felt more scared when he was finally left alone, but today was a good day. He curled up in his blankets and stared out the window besides him, his eyes set onto the pearly white glare of the moon, the strange man he had met earlier today was the last thing on his mind before he had been lulled into a deep slumber.

A/N: hope that was good enough for the long ( 7 month ) wait. anyways it's like 3 AM here and im beat so byeeee i'll try to update soon but no promises

Story Last Updated: March 4, 2016