@speedshoes : i let you win! / sonia (or anyone you have the muse for!) / accepting!
"Puh - lease, you did not." Sonia brushes at her skirt, smirking, comfortable - in - that - way - that - isn't - comfortable. She hasn't been able to explain it to any of them, the dual splices of relief and horror through her cells. She's smiles at Sonic, who is not her brother, but who looks and talks so much like her brother. Who's pouting, the way her brother does ( or she thinks he does / she can barely admit to herself that she's forgetting bits and pieces of them the longer she stays ) whenever she beats him in a spar. Her heart breaks and heals, rapid - fire, breaks and heals again, like a bone that doesn't have the time to realign before it heals all wrong. "I may not be quite as fast as you, but I've got you beat at strength, easy."
If she closes her eyes, ignores the lack of smog in the air, she could pretend that she's back home with her Sonic and her Manic, play - fighting like they always do. It's so fucking miserable, to be beside such a close echo and know it isn't the real deal. Her heart can't decide if it's taking comfort from it, if the loneliness is abating, or if it's just a different kind of wound, a slower kind of bleeding. How can anyone survive it without half - cracking, to see her brother and know that she is not his sister? Can anyone blame her for pantomiming a relationship she misses so badly she cries more nights than she doesn't? Just enough to keep her from going completely insane. Not enough to stop her from wearing down to the marrow.
The bone's healing all wrong. Sonia laughs anyway, closing the distance to slug his arm, like she'd do with her Sonic. Is it a betrayal of her brother to love this Sonic, to feel relieved at the opportunity to play pretend? Is it cruel to this Sonic, that she can't see him as himself but as an echo of the brother she misses so badly? A slower kind of bleeding has to be better than a gaping wound. "Don't worry," she says, has to be careful not to say bro, voice all teasing condescension, "You'll get better!"