right skimming, I cannot let you dangle "the one where Tails says 'fuck'" in front of me without asking about it, do pray tell or I would like to see a snippet :)
A snippet you shall receive! This is from the upcoming chapter of An Unstoppable Force Between Static Stars. A good chunk of that chapter is being rewritten, but I'm pretty sure this part will stick around in some fashion! Once I get back to it, we'll be picking up with Eggman's rise to power and the establishment of the Resistance.
“Not all loose ends can be tied up. Sometimes we don’t get the closure we deserve.” Knuckles raised his arm, cautious in the way he reached out to Tails before laying a paw on his good shoulder. “But we don’t let it hold us back. We keep going. It’s what Sonic would ask of us, isn’t it?”
Tails couldn’t look him in the eyes. Not as old memories flickered through his mind one after another.
On the Space Colony ARK… “I’m counting on you, Tails.”
At the core of the earth… Super Sonic met his gaze for only a moment, mouth drawn in a firm, tight line as an unspoken request passed from him to Tails.
As he was pushed into the elevator—their only escape from Planet Wisp… “See you on the ground, buddy!”
From over his shoulder, as he worked on disengaging Eggman’s life draining machine on the Lost Hex… “I’ll never doubt you again.”
Hiding amongst the rubble of Starlight City, Sonic’s grip tight on his shoulders; the phantom sensation haunting him as Knuckles held him in the present instead… “There's no one I trust more than you to get us out of something like this. I'm sticking with you, bud, okay?"
… then why did you go?
Tails swallowed thickly, then finally lifted his gaze to meet Knuckles’s. “I’m not giving up on him. And he wouldn’t ask me to.”
This time it was Knuckles who took a step back, a deep crease forming between his eyes as they closed. Though Tails hadn’t made the same mistake he’d had with Sonic—forcibly shoving himself out of his grasp as he left Sonic’s hand to try and reach for him—he still felt a knot of guilt twisting in his belly as Knuckles retracted his hand. In some intangible way, he’d still managed to push his friend away.
“When I track him down, you’ll still help me get him back, right?” he blurted out, panic suddenly seizing him and startling Knuckles into opening his eyes.
They stared at one another. Unsteady, unbalanced; Tails had never felt the lack of Sonic so keenly when it was just him and Knuckles. It was clear, watching the resignation on his face, that Knuckles agreed with him. They were each attempting to share a role that had never been intended for either of them.
Shoulders set stiffly, Knuckles only nodded.
It had to be enough for now.
They had to be enough.
