The Gang's All Here

6: Comfortable

Sonic's heart pounded. "Scourge, what are you doing here?"

Scourge, still shocked, answered by asking, "What do you mean? Where am I?"

Sonic explained that Scourge had somehow landed himself in the neighborhood that Sonic currently lived in, and Scourge was surprised.

"How did I even get here? I didn't think I'd run that far..."

Sonic had heard from Silver earlier that it would rain soon. Sure enough, just as he was going to tell Scourge about this, he felt a raindrop fall onto his face, just missing his eye.

Once Scourge realized that it was starting to rain, his eyes watered and threatened to do the same. After all, he had nowhere to go.

Sonic must have sensed this, and asked, "Scourge, do you need somewhere to stay?"

~Later~

Scourge stepped out of the shower in Sonic's bathroom, feeling better than he had in a long while. It had been well over a month since he'd been able to take a shower.

After putting on the shirt and sweatpants that Sonic had spared, Scourge was about to exit the bathroom, until he got a look at himself in the mirror.

Now, he'd seen his reflection, before. Plenty of times. But it'd been a very long time since he'd really taken a good look at himself.

The clothes hung more loosely than they should have, as he hadn't been eating enough.

There were dark marks under his eyes, as sleep was difficult without a safe home, or a warm bed, or even a single blanket.

And the scars. There were so many. A fading black eye, cuts on the lip, knuckle marks and shoe prints everywhere, and of course, the two long, extra-visible scars across his abdomen.

Scourge never hated his reflection so much. During his reign of being king of Moebius, he couldn't help being stuck in his past. And now that he'd been overthrown (by his own henchmen no less), he was all alone with his thoughts. With the majority of the Moebius population against him, Scourge was never safe, and he had to leave the only home he'd ever known. Otherwise, he would be harrassed, beaten, or even mugged.

Mugged, as in, someone would literally throw mugs at him. It happened twice.

Scourge wanted to curl up and cry.

*Knock Knock* "Scourge? You alright in there?"

That was Sonic. Scourge must've been taking longer than he thought.

"Sorry. I'm coming out," Scourge said. Trying not to look at the mirror anymore, he grabbed his dirty clothes and left the bathroom.

Sonic was waiting. "I can take the dirty clothes for you. You can sit on the couch, too. I got a blanket for you."

Shivering from the cool air outside of the bathroom, Scourge muttered "Thanks," and handed Sonic his tattered socks, filthy jeans, and worn-out shirt, the only clothes he had left.

After Sonic had thrown everything into the wash, he came and joined Scourge on the couch.

"Hey, I was wondering," Sonic said, "what happened to your other stuff? Like, your leather jacket and your black and green shoes? I barely recognized you without them. You weren't even wearing your shades."

Scourge was about to answer, but started crying instead.

"Whoa! Oh man, Scourge, I'm sorry!"

"It's not your fault. It's mine. I messed everything up. I treated everyone like sh*t, and when I lost the throne, I had nowhere to go, no friends, I had nothing! Some big, buff guys that really couldn't stand me would beat me every time they could. And I couldn't always run away, because getting food was hard and I was always hungry. Then one day when I was really hungry and tired, someone came along, beat me, then took all my clothes!"

Sonic was shocked. Let's be honest, Scourge had done some bad things when he had power, but Sonic wasn't expecting this. "Well, we're video game characters, animals, at that. So it couldn't have been that bad being naked, right?"

"Sonic, you don't understand. That jacket meant more to me than a lot of my own family, so did the shoes and the shades. Yes, I was outgrowing them, but I wanted to keep them. Someone really, really special gave them to me, and he's dead now, because of me! Those clothes were the last I had to remember him by, and they're gone!"

Scourge sobbed. "I miss him so much! He was one of the first people to be nice to me, he was there for me no matter what I did, all he ever did was try to make me happy, but I didn't care enough and I'm never going to see him again! It's all my fault!"

Sonic scooted over and hugged Scourge. He'd never seen someone break down like this, before. In an odd way, Sonic was flattered that Scourge had allowed himself to become so vulnerable in front of him.

Scourge leaned into the hug, still crying. He hadn't had a hug in so long. And upon remembering the last few people that had ever hugged him (which were his now-dead cousin, his now-missing  stepmother, and his "dead" friend), he felt even worse.

Sonic noticed Scourge crying harder, and rubbed circles onto his back. "Scourge, please, just breathe for a second. You're gonna make yourself sick."

Sniffling and hiccupping, as soon as Scourge slightly calmed down, he fell asleep. He didn't feel particularly comfortable at his old enemy's house, but this was many times better than freezing on a park bench, or slumped against an abandoned building.

When Sonic noticed Scourge was snoozing, it warmed his heart. 'Poor guy must really hate himself. He shouldn't have treated everyone so badly, but he couldn't have deserved this. He's so cute in his sleep, I hope he's okay sleeping here...'

Then, Sonic thought of how Scourge had said his things were stolen, and how important they were to him.

'I'll take Scourge for some new clothes tomorrow. I'm sure Manic won't mind waiting.'