AN: Self-harm and mild blood warning. See AN at the end.

~Invisible~

Sonic watches as Mario squints at the pill bottle in his hand, reading the instructions printed on the label.

"I need to cut all of these in half..." he murmurs, digging a knife out of the drawer and opening a cabinet for a cutting board. He reaches for the knife before Sonic places his hand over his.

"I got this, you finish sorting."

While Mario hesitates for a moment, he eventually nods and moves on to sorting through another bottle of medication, dropping the tiny pills into his sorter for the week. Sonic meanwhile has finished splitting the pills and shoves the pile towards Mario who reads the instructions on the bottle again before sorting the pills accordingly.

"There," Mario sighs in relief. "Now it's done for another week. Grazie for the help."

Sonic weakly smiles. "Well hey, it's the least I can do, right?"

Mario nods in response, before plastering a smile on his face that looks forced to Sonic. "Well, enough of this depressing stuff. Let's go do something else."

Sonic bites his lip, unsure, but eventually agrees and loops his arm in Mario's. "Yeah... okay."

/~/

The side effects are kicking in. Mario once again reads over the sheet to find that yes - nausea is a common side effect, as well as the headaches he's been getting recently. At least he hasn't been experiencing any of the more severe side effects, like an irregular heartbeat or muscle convulsions. Finally, some good news to come out of this.

/~/

There are days Mario doesn't want to get out of bed. It's like all the energy has drained from his body and left an empty husk behind while his thoughts torment him, telling him that there isn't a point to anything and that he should just give up and not try anymore.

Sonic understands that the medication won't completely cure Mario, but it's still upsetting when he finds Mario curled in on himself staring blankly at the wall. He's come to realize that the best thing he can do is be supportive when his boyfriend is in this state, especially when Mario asks to be left alone.

/~/

There are times Mario completely melts down for seemingly no reason. Sonic holds Mario tightly as the latter hysterically sobs into his chest, clinging to him like a frightened child as he lets his pent up emotions out. Sonic doesn't know what else to do - he hates tears but right now he feels like crying alongside Mario.

"P-P-Please d-don't l-leave." Mario hiccups through the tears, prompting Sonic to hold him tighter, running his fingers through his unkempt hair.

"I'm not goin' anywhere. I promise."

/~/

There's the five days where Mario runs out of medication and they have to wait for Master Hand to get more. It's the longest five days of Sonic's life as he watches Mario go through painful withdrawal symptoms. He's constantly throwing up and can't keep anything down, he's trembling as if he's cold but his forehead is burning up and he looks so frail.

It's a relief when the medication finally arrives and Mario slowly starts to get better after taking some, but Sonic never wants to see Mario in so much pain again.

/~/

What has he done?

The razor falls out of Mario's hand and clatters to the shower floor. Blood drips down his arm and off his fingers, mixing with the water and tinging it pink. He crosses his arms over himself protectively, a fresh wave of tears blurring his vision.

His wrist hurts.

He hates himself.

/~/

Sonic is silent when Mario admits to what he's done. He carefully runs his thumb across the scar, swallowing back bile he feels rising in his throat.

"Mar..." Sonic begins, his voice breaking, but that's all he can get out as tears form in his eyes, and for the first time in his adult life Sonic cries; cries because he hates how much pain Mario is in, cries because he can't do more to help.

He holds Mario tight once he's calmed down, once again promising to never leave him and telling him that he loves him. He means it too, he's willing to go through Hell and back and be right there fighting alongside him.

He doesn't realize that Mario never quite believes him when he says that.

AN: Some of you may have figured it out already from my profile or even other stories, but I suffer from depression and several types of anxiety. This story is the result of several years of feeling like I needed to hide it, but in reality it was the worst thing I could have done as I wasn't helping myself in the slightest. I chose Mario and Sonic as they're the characters I feel closest to right now, and I always turn to their respective games when I need comfort. I understand that many people experience depression differently, so I was just mostly going off of my own experiences. I just needed to let it out, and this was the only way I knew how.

~Steel