Friends were nice. Friends are nice. Friends will be nice. Friends care for you. The real ones stick around. The real ones worry about you. The real ones want to help. You can talk to your friends. You can be with your friends and enjoy yourself. Friends are nice to have. If you can have them around.
Sonic texted Amy. She's good with emotions. She's good in general. She's a good friend. She's good is what he's trying to say. Amy responds, she thinks they can talk about the issue at hand. Good. This is good. Okay. He can go and just talk to her. It will be alright. It will be fine. It will all work out.
Sonic goes to the spot. As usual he arrives early. He's just that fast. Good for him. He waits for Amy. He can't stay still for long. Thankfully for him, Amy arrives quickly. She's fast. Good for her. She sits on the bench with Sonic. She looks at Sonic with a comforting look, Sonic looks back in panic and fear and discomfort, so much discomfort. She sighs to herself and then repositions herself to face him..
"What do you think is wrong?"
"That's the problem, Tails won't tell me for some reason!"
Sonic puts his hands to his head. Amy looks at him sadly, sighing to herself. She hates seeing them like this. Both of them, not just Sonic. She misses Tails. She looks around while Sonic cries to himself. She doesn't know how to help. She wants to help. She looks around for anything, maybe someone to help her. But she's out of luck, nobody and nothing. She sighs to herself again. But she at least gained an idea in the process.
"Would it help if I talked to Tails?"
"I have no idea" Sonic pauses to think
"But it's worth a try" he give his signature thumbs up but this time more solemnly. Good enough for now they both think.
So Amy follows Sonic back to Tails and his house. They enter, and the house is cold and unwelcoming. The house is terrible and in terrible condition. It's warranted though. It's not like it's falling apart at the seems, it's just emotionally damaged. Fitting, everything emotionally is terrible currently. This situation is bad, that's obvious. Sonic looks sad. Amy looks concerned. Tails is up in her room. Amy sighs.
"Where is he?"
Amy enters Tails' room. It's surprisingly bright. The light is on. You think it would be dark and Tails would be sleeping or wallowing in sadness. She enters and looks around. Tails is on the bed. She goes over to the bed. Tails is awake but unmoving. Still breathing but unaware. Stuck in thought. Amy looks at Tails sadly. She breathes. Tails is spaced out, willingly. Not terrible, not the worst situation, but still bad. She opens her mouth but then pauses. She wants to think this through. She thinks to herself for a second. She remembers how to speak. So she finally speaks...
"Hey buddy"
"Hey"
"Are you feeling okay?"
"No"
"Why not?"
"Don't know" that isn't true.
"I know that isn't true" Amy confirms
Tails sighs. Looks Amy in the eyes.
"Can't tell you"
"Why not?"
"Too personal"
"Tails, please, these depressive episodes have been happening forever. We just want to help. So please, please, tell us. What's going on? We want to know, we want to help."
Amy looks at Tails. Tails looks at Amy. They are staring at each other. They are staring at each other, not living, not moving. They want to live. But they can't get past this. Neither of them can. Time is a flat circle.
"I want a therapist"
"You know how Sonic feels about those"
"I'll tell them about the problem"
Amy keeps pressing cautiously. Tails won't budge. Amy keeps pressing. Tails won't budge. Amy wants to help. Tails wants a therapist. Amy wants information. Tails can't give that information to her or Sonic. Amy's tired. Tails' tired. Sonic's tired. Amy gets up and asks one more time. Tails won't budge. Amy leaves the bright room, and into the dark hall. Sonic's there, far enough to not hear anything. Amy looks at him.
"What did he say?"
"Tails wants a therapist."
"That's it? I mean-"
"No"
"What else?"
"He won't say"
Sonic had a bad experience with a therapist. Secrets were exposed and Lies and Promises his therapist couldn't keep. That experience is traumatizing for him. An obviously trauma inducing and terrible experience. He doesn't want to go through with it again. Especially with someone who isn't him. He wants some control over the situation, to help but he knows he can do that. He labors with it. He wants to help tails but can he? Especially with his and Tails' celebrity-like status, this was risky, very risky.
"Give me a second"
Sonic walks down the steps and grabs a picture. Of course, he wants to keep Tails safe. He just wants Tails to be fine. But now, those two things have come into conflict. He doesn't feel that a therapist is safe, yet Tails isn't safe. He reasons with himself for a bit. Realizing that Tails will probably find a therapist anyways without him. At least he can kinda be in control of this. At least he can help Tails this way. He does want to help Tails. He does want to protect Tails. So he makes his final decision. But not before picking up a picture of Tails and looking at it.
"Do you know any good therapists, Amy?"
He asked around, landing on a few good ones. He called, checked, and got some recommendations. A few bad, a few better. He worked for days, anything for his little buddy. He finally found a good one, highly recommended. Good for him and Tails. A lucky find. Things just seemed to work out for them. Hopefully, that will continue to be true. Time for therapy. Tails wants it and so does he. For Tails. Maybe now they can get somewhere. That's the goal. Hopefully, that goal can be achieved. They can only hope, that Tails finds that goal and the strength to ask for help at therapy.
