Chapter Text
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“Thanks, Miles,” Wade stroked a hand over the surface of the several decade old games console, “No way could I have fixed this old thing myself.”
“No problem. I’m just happy I could help,” Tails beamed back at the human, packing his tools away into his backpack, “I hope it works okay. Wanna try it out?”
“Hell yeah!”
Tails stood back and watched as Wade turned on the console, excitedly talking, mostly to himself, about how the menu screen was just like he remembered, how the music as he opened a game took him back. Tails didn’t really understand much of what he was saying, but the games console seemed to be working well, and the human seemed really happy.
“Looks like it’s working okay,” Tails said at a pause in the action on screen, “I should get going. Tom’s making sushi for dinner!”
“Oh, wait!” Wade paused the game, standing quickly, “It’s pretty dark out. Lemme give you a lift back.”
“Oh, um, I’ll be okay,” Tails replied, smiling shyly, “But thank you.”
“You sure?”
Tails nodded confidently. It wasn’t that far, and Tails knew the way.
“Okay then… Just get someone to text me when you get home so I know you got back safely.”
“Will do! Have fun playing your game,” the fox smiled up at him, “Bye, Wade!”
“See you later, Miles.”
Tails paused at the front door to wave goodbye before heading out into the dark evening.
Usually he hated walking around on his own, feeling echoes of his deep-seated anxiety at the thought that people might be staring at him, at his abnormality. But when it was dark, he could keep to the shadows to reduce the risk of being seen, and enjoy the fresh air, especially if he went through the park. It tended to be pretty empty after dark, and parts were badly lit and easy to hide in if he saw anyone coming.
Not that he really needed to.
Everyone in Green Hills knew about them already, and most people Tails had met were nice, or at least not mean. It probably helped that anyone who might have been mean was scared of getting on the wrong side of Knuckles or the sheriff.
Or Maddie.
She could be scary when she was angry, but she’d never been very angry at Tails. Only a bit angry when he stayed up all night working on his inventions, or when she caught him not wearing protective clothing while using a blowtorch or soldering iron.
Apparently on Earth, wearing just eye protection wasn’t considered enough.
Tails smiled as he remembered the nice man at the garage who had repaired their car, and who had let Tails help him and learn more about how the standard Earth ground transportation worked. He had made Tails wear not just protective goggles and gloves, but a makeshift overall thing that he’d let Tails keep in case he wanted to come back and help out another time.
Tails hoped he’d be able to. He liked the mechanic in the garage, and getting to see all those cars being taken apart and put back together. Repairing broken machines and tech was almost as much fun as inventing new things sometimes, especially when you could upgrade it as you went. Like he’d done for Wade’s broken old games console.
His ears pricked up suddenly.
There were voices behind him, and some part of his subconscious told him that they’d been there for a while, fading into a background as Tails got lost in thought.
It had been one word specifically that had caught his ear and forced him to immediately pay attention.
Freak.
Tails had been so deep in his daydreaming, he hadn’t been paying attention to his surroundings, and whoever those voices belonged to were close.
Now that he was listening, he could hear nothing other than their voices.
Talking about him, not to him, but loud enough he knew they meant for him to hear.
“You think the Wachowskis finally got fed up with letting the wimpy little freak live with them and kicked him out?”
“Shoulda thrown him out. With the trash.”
It was a crude and unintelligent wit, but they all laughed, and Tails had to try really hard not to show that their words were getting to him, taking him right back to his village and his life before he met Sonic.
But he wasn’t there.
He was on Earth, in Green Hills, and on his way home to his family.
Who did care about him. Who wouldn’t throw him out or abandon him like his birth parents had.
Tails clenched his fists and kept walking, determined to ignore the bullies.
One time, when Sonic, Knuckles and Tails had been walking back from the baseball field together, a group of people had started following them, yelling insults at them. Knuckles had wanted to turn back and teach them a lesson, but Sonic told him and Tails that they should just ignore the jerks and keep walking.
If they didn’t react, those creeps would get bored and go away.
So that’s what Tails was going to do.
He wasn’t going to let himself be bothered by their mean words. He was going to go home and see his family and they’d remind him that he wasn’t a freak. He was weird, sure, but that was okay.
Everything was okay.
Except the people following were getting closer, louder, meaner.
If he didn’t walk faster then they’d catch up with him before he was out of the park.
But he was already walking as fast as he could without running, and if he started running they’d laugh and jeer about him being a coward. Maybe they’d throw rocks at him, like people had done back in his village, sometimes managing to hit him before he got good enough at flying to dodge.
He could fight back, but no, he couldn’t.
If he hurt any of the humans, then it would cause problems for Sonic and Knuckles. People would start to treat them like outsiders and freaks and want them gone. They’d harass and bully them, and Maddie and Tom would get caught up in it too, and Tails would have ruined everything for the first people who had ever even cared about him at all.
Tails wasn’t going to fight and he couldn’t keep walking because they were already so close.
He had to run.
But almost as soon as he had picked up speed, he found himself colliding with three tall humans in front of him.
He stumbled back in surprise, banging into those behind.
They were all laughing, talking to each other over Tails’ head, but Tails couldn’t make out the words anymore.
Just the tone.
Hateful, disgusted, repulsed by the freak they were crowding around, towering over, laughing and jeering and mocking.
Tails couldn’t breathe. He couldn’t think. And, as soon as he felt strong hands close around his tails, he knew he couldn’t escape.
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