TW/CW: Poverty, abandonment, corporal punishment, flogging, brief mention of blood

⭐️

Manic knew stealing was wrong.

Of course, that didn't stop him- survival was survival, and those who could afford pearls and silk had plenty to go around.

So, a necklace here, a purse there, really couldn't hurt. At least, that was what he thought.

How was he supposed to know the bracelet he stole was from a "visiting aristocrat?" A class Eggman was fond of, for whatever reason.

"Thief!" The woman screeched, standing up and pointing at him as he ran down the street. And there must've been more badniks in the streets that usual, considering so many surrounded him at once. The East Corner was usually so negligent.

The bots grabbed him, shaking the bracelet out of his hand. "Cease, thief." A robotic voice ordered. Manic didn't want to cease, knowing what happened to thieves.

"Fuck. Off-" He demanded though gritted teeth, managing to kick one of the mechanical law enforcers in the head. Unfazed, the badniks dragged him to the Town Center.

Where criminals were made an example. 'At least not executed," he thought as they took his jacket and shirt. They forcefully pulled him onto one of the platforms, chaining his wrists together and tethering them to the hook on the wooden boards.

"Just sit still." One of the enforcers - the few hybrid officers left, the one that could hide their sympathy enough - whispered to him. Switching back to an authoritative voice, he asked, "What else in your possession is stolen goods?"

'Oh, everything.' Manic thought. His jacket, his shoes, his spiked bracelets, every meal he ate.

"That was it." He said.

The enforcer knelt down, noticing the dull shine of the pendant that hung around Manic's neck. The one thing Manic really owned. "It's mine." He whispered, narrowing his eyes at the enforcer.

Without a word, the enforcer nodded and stepped back. He grabbed the whip from the nearby stand and took a deep breath.

"For the theft of the bracelet, five flogs!"

Manic trained his eyes to his hands. Five? That didn't seem too bad, he could handle-

Ripping pained exploded I'm his back- burning through his flesh and spurting blood onto the wood. He lurched forward, letting out a scream before letting his throat close up with phlegm.

The whip came down again, and he refused to scream. To give anyone the satisfaction of watching the tears burning in the back of his eyes fall.

Again.

Then again.

And after what felt like a million years, it ended. He felt his body give out as he felt onto the platform. His lungs struggled to get any air in, his body twitching with pain.

The badniks didn't even give him a minute to recover before the uncuffed him and dragged him off of the platform. He was thrown off into the pavement. The small crowd that had gathered quickly dispersed.

Manic coughed up phlegm and forced himself to his shaking legs. He stepped forward and immediately stumbled into a wall. His blurry vision didn't exactly help him as he pushed himself into a nearby alley.

He fell onto a trashed mattress and tried to catch his breath. The hedgehog shut his eyes tightly and covered his face with his arms.

'Just breathe.' He told himself. He begged himself. If he gave up now, no one was coming to save him. If he gave up now, he would die. That was it.

Manic didn't have any family to take care of him. He did once, but he didn't really count them.

From what he knew, a small group of thieves found him on the doorstep of a moderately rich family. Well, found the basket he was in. Without looking inside, they snatched up the basket, and were apparently mortified when they saw that there was not money or food in the basket. But a child.

Instead of handing him over to an orphanage and risk getting caught as thieves, they taught him how to steal and survive on the streets.

Before promptly leaving when he was ten.

And since then, it was him. And only him.

He had this conversation with himself a million times a day.

'Don't give up now, or else you're gonna die. Because no one is coming to help you. No one is coming to save-'

"Manic, right?"

The green-haired hedgehog nearly fell off of the mattress. No one here knew his name- he didn't tell anyone his name.

He looked up, the blended colors finally separating. He was faced with a blue-haired hedgehog who smiled nervously and waved.

His hair was tied up, though messy and ruffled. He had tanned olive skin with vitiligo patches on his face, and green eyes (though his left one's cataract was milky white).

But Manic's gaze paused on the hedgehog's necklace. A pendant identical to his own. The one left with him in the basket.

"I-I'm Sonic." The stranger said quickly. "And I need you to come with me-I swear I'll explain, I just need you to trust me." He kept glancing over his shoulder, as if he was being watched.

Normally, Manic would respond with a snarky "Screw off" or "As if." But his eyes were glued to the necklace.

Sonic must've taken his silence as acceptance, since he reached over and pulled Manic up to his feet. The movement caused Manic's head to ring again, his vision blurring over again. He blinked for a very long time, and when he opened his eyes, they were at the metal fence separating the East Corner and the South Corner.

"Why... why are we..." He trailed off, watching as Sonic pulled open a lower part of the fence. "It's that electric?" He muttered, having tried many times to climb over it.

"Tails has that under control." Sonic said, helping Manic slip under the now-disabled fence. He didn't bother asking who Tails was, he could only focus on his pain and confusion.

Sonic helped him back up to his feet once they were on the other side of the fence. "Don't worry, we're not too far from a safe space." Sonic assured Manic, who nodded dumbly.

After a bit of walking along the outskirts of the South Corner, Sonic stopped by the fence that separated the Corner from the territory of the kingdom.

"Where are we... going?" Manic asked, watching as Sonic again pulled up the fence.

"A secret place my friends and I made years ago." Sonic explained, getting the two under the fence then heading off into the woods.

Again, Manic felt everything blur and watching minutes they were at ... a cabin? A clubhouse of some sort, he guessed.

Sonic led him inside and helped Manic onto the couch. "Alright, Tails, I need some bandages and whatever the heck that gel Amy made for cuts, it works for everything." Light footsteps rushed from the room the two hedgehog were in, then came back. "Thanks, buddy." Sonic nodded and turned his attention back to Manic.

A soothing, cold gel was spread across the welts on his back left from the whip. The room fell nervous and quiet, except for the the small whimpers from Manic and his shaky breathing. Still, he refused to cry in front of anyone here.

Finally, Sonic finished dressing the lashes and helped sit Manic up.

"Okay, here. I picked these up when I found you." Sonic handed Manic his shirt and jacket. "And I should probably explained what's going on..."

Sonic took a deep breath.

"We're siblings, apparently Queen Aleena's lost kids, we're supposed to rise up to defeat Robotnik, and we also have a sister too. I got this from an Oracle, and our necklaces are proof.

The room was quiet for a minute, and for as stupid as all of that sounded, Manic felt inclined to believe him. After all, it explained a couple of things and he wasn't exactly in a position to turn down answers.

"Cool...?" Manic decided to say, tilting his he. He typically rolled with the punches in life, but those was admittedly a curveball.

"Anyway, are you hungry?" Sonic changed the subject, wanting to linger on this topic for as short a time as possible.

"Always." Manic answered, nodding. Sonic nodded back, then retreated to a different room. A small, two-tailed fox with a tired get sweet face followed Sonic. Manic assumed that was the "Tails" Sonic was talking about earlier. The name was very fitting.

When Sonic came back with food, he turned on the small TV. Most likely to avoid further conversation with his stranger of a brother.

The two munched on day-old flicky roast, not that Manic seemed to notice the unfresh taste. They occasionally stole glances to each other, aware of each other's presence and the unsure of what to do about it.

That was when a pink-haired, green-eyes girl came in. Her curly hair was fluffed by the humidity of the woods, while the quills stuck out oddly. Her sun-kissed skin was dotted by scattered freckles, like pepper to the face and arms. And her puffy red dress looked like it belonged on a doll rather than a hedgehog like herself, with all its ribbons, bows, and lace. Her body was strapped with belts stuffed with leaves, flowers, roots, and everything else from the forest. The shine in her eyes reminded Manic of a fairy.

Sonic smiled with something like relief. "Amy! Aren't you a sight for sore eyes..." He said as Amy shut the door behind her.

"Are you aware you have a warrant out for your arrest?" Amy asked, smiling like it was funny.

"And what? Are you here to drag me over to Ro-butt-nik?" Sonic asked sarcastically.

"No way." Amy laughed, making her way to a pulley under a skylight. "Just here for this."

Sonic paused, looking as Amy pulled one of the pulley chains, causing a small dish with a flame on it to rise up- until the skylight automatically opened up and let the dish outside.

Manic tilted his head. "Isn't that dangerous? Having an open flame like that?" He asked.

Amy looked at Manic for a second, as if just realizing he was there. She looked back over to Sonic, pointing to him in confusion.

"My name is Manic." He said.

Sonic just gave a little sigh. "I'll explain later, Ames." He whispered to her.

She nodded and smiled at Manic, "well, I'm Amy Rose. And to answer your question, it's not actual flames. Tails made some sort of a synthetic flame for it. It's a symbol of the Freedom Fighters." Amy explained, closing up the skylight and leaving the flame outside.

Sonic shifted a bit, clearly uncomfortable with the conversation topic. "Amy..."

"I know, I know." Amy crossed her arms, not meeting her friend"s gaze. "The Freedom Fighters aren't a thing anymore, but there's gotta be a little spirit." She tried to encourage, but it didn't have much of an effect on Sonic.

After a tense silence between the two, Amy smiled. "You'll get it, Sonic... You taught me in the first place." She whispered to him. With that, she went over to Manic.

"It was very nice to meet you, Manic." She said, her voice pleasant and friendly as she shook his hand.

Manic paused- most people here weren't this enthusiastic or... nice. At least, from those he met in his life. And he had to admit it was kind of nice. Refreshing to see someone who didn't look at him like they wanted him dead (they, in all honesty, he thought the same.)

He lingered on the handshake for a bit too long, considering Amy slowly pulled her arm back. Manic blinked, now embarrassed. "I- nice to meet you, too... Amy." He mumbled.

Amy smiled, and with that, she left back into the forest as it grew darker. And the two hedgehog were left again in their awkward silence.

"I'm going to check with Tails. He's trying to find our... sister." It seemed odd for Sonic to say, his eyes avoiding him as he fidgeted. "Bye," he said, leaving Manic with his thoughts.

Which weren't nice thoughts.

Manic observed the setting around him, unfamiliar with the warmth the cabin held. It felt welcoming and intimate, like the building had a soul. And that soul was whispering kind words.

He hated that he knew that feeling so little. That he was so unfamiliar with family that he didn't know how to interact with his own brother.

It sucked hard.

In truth, he didn't believe Sonic. He had no reason to not- it was unlikely some stranger would take interest in deceiving him. He was just a homeless thief, nothing that special about him.

But despite believing him, Manic didn't exactly trust Sonic. And maybe that felt unfair or harsh, but he couldn't help that. Even if Sonic was his brother, he was a stranger. And a stranger that seemed far too kind. Sonic had been friendly and had taken care of Manic's wounds. And Manic was also a stranger to him.

Honestly, Manic couldn't assure himself that he would do that for Sonic (like the cowardly, selfish monster he felt himself to be).

Sonic felt like something rare and strange in how Manic viewed people. And that raised alarms. So he didn't fully trust him just yet.

⭐️

"You found her?" Sonic asked Tails, his voice a whisper.

"Pretty easy." Tails nodded, his eyes scanning over to Miles Electric. "Hack into the adoption records the year you were born , sort by hedgehogs, find one that has a majority appearance match percentage, and find the pendant in the pictures."

Sonic paused, smiling at the fox. "Easy?" His short attention could never. Tails just smiled back, holding up the screen for him to see the news articles.

"Got the address. All I need would be your necklace, and we'll be out in less than fifteen minutes." He estimated.

The hedgehog nodded, tapping his foot- an anxious habit. "Are you sure you wanna go? I don't mind talking to her myself." He tried insisting.

Tails shook his head. "Sonic, no. We both agreed that it was less likely they'd spot me sneaking in. And we need to get her quick."

Sonic let out a reluctant sigh, but forced himself to nod. "Okay... just be safe." His gaze went back down to the news article.

'Royal Engagement: Bartleby Montclair and Sonia Windermere to Be Wedded Soon!'