Love Me

Chapter 37: Climb With Me

The sunset captures Sonic's attention as Mangey flys him above the trees, some bigger trees still sticking . The orange light warms his soul and reflects off his emerald eyes it reminded him of the diary he first met Tails on Westside Island back on Mobius. The cool vibrant sunset makes Sonic grin, being able to remember that evening was just what he needed at the moment.

Mangey descends onto a series of wooden walkways and let's go of Sonic. Sonic turns around and looks over at the sunset as Mangey lands on the planks and stands next to Sonic.

"How long have you been alone?" Sonic asks.

Mangey gives Sonic 4 fingers, "Four years... Must've been rough for you"

Mangey takes Sonic's hand and tugs him over to the centre of where all the wooden walkways met, a large dead treet with a massive trunk and hollowed out interior. Sonic immediately notices flowers set in some spots throughout, curious he asks Mangey about it.

"You planting a garden or something?" Sonic asks.

Mangey shakes his head and sits down by the tree, his eyes pointing straight at the wooden floor. It takes Sonic a second to realise what it is and he sighs when he does.

"...Memorials. Sorry... What happened? I mean if you don't wanna tell me it's cool"

Mangey turns his head away from Sonic, the hedgehog decideds to not pry further and he sits down next to him so he can try and comfort him.

"If you don't wanna tell me how you lost your family... Do you maybe wanna show me what you do for fun?"

Sonic notices Mangey's ears perk up and the fox looks up at him, Sonic looks into his eyes, he can see the happiness building up inside him. Mangey jumps up excitedly laughing like a happy kid and gets up running off so he could go get something, when he comes back he's holding what looks to be an old crate full of stuff.

The thing that gets Sonic's attention is an old notebook which he opens, on one page there's a neat sentence written on it.

The hungry little fox scurried up the tree.

And written below it was the same thing but with slightly less legible writing which Sonic is quick to figure out is Mangey's. He flips through the book while Mangey sits next to him and sees whoever was living with him previously was trying to show him how to read and write.

"Some nice folks you must have had" Sonic says.

Sonic flips to another page and sees a crude drawing of him and what looked to be another hedgehog holding hands, it makes his eyes go wide and he looks at Mangey who tilts his head in confusion like a puppy.

Sonic taps the page with the drawing with his finger, "Is that... Me?"

Mangey nods excitedly and embraces Sonic affectionately. Sonic lets him, while he lets Mangey hug him he begins to wonder if there was a version of him that lived in this universe, but one thing he knew for certain...

"...There's a Ruby of Lust here... Which means... Answers"

---

Back on the jungle floor the two foxes have set up camp for the night, Nine comes back with some fish impaled on his mechanical tails and his sweater tied around his waist, wearing a black tank top to below so he's not exposed to the elements. Meanwhile, Tails just sits infront of the fire staring into it, Nine sighs as he puts the fish on the sticks and puts them over the fire to cook, Tails looks up at him and then back towards the fire as if it's the only thing to see at the moment.

"You're still worried about him?" Nine asks.

"...Yeah" Tails responds, his chest feels like has a whole in it.