Sonic Allergy + Tails Helps Sonic

Sonic Allergy


Sonic the Hedgehog had just finished foiling the plans of his nemesis Dr. Eggman, and so the world had been saved once again. It was a hard battle that involved quite a few fights, destroyed robots, a partially destroyed hideout, and snarky comments between the hedgehog and the mad scientist, but Sonic was more than satisfied that he’d come out on top yet again. After bidding his defeated enemy farewell, he decided the best way to celebrate was to hang out with his best friend, Miles Prower, or Tails as he preferred to be called.

Once he’d arrived at Tails’ workshop, Sonic told him nearly everything there was to be told about what he’d been through - how Eggman would attempt to take over the world, and the ways the hedgehog had outwitted him and caused his plans to fail. Even though the two of them had saved the world together multiple times before, Sonic admitted he hadn’t thought to ask Tails to come along on his recent adventure. It was alright, though, because Tails was proud of Sonic for setting things right once again - that was what he was best at, after all.

That being said, it wouldn’t be long before the two of them found themselves trying to make sense of something strange that was going to happen - something that didn’t involve evil in any way, but was still unusual, nonetheless. And what made it strange was that it involved Sonic sneezing… a lot.

“Wow, Sonic, that’s amazing!” said Tails; Sonic had just finished telling him his story. “And it’s alright, you didn’t have to ask me to help you; I was a bit busy myself, anyway.”

“Oh, really? Good to know,” Sonic remarked. “I’m just glad everything’s back to normal.”

“Me too,” Tails said in agreement. “If I may ask, what would you like to do now?”

“Well, I got a lot of time on my hands,” said Sonic, “so I was thinking we could play some video games, see a movie… get some chili dogs…”

“I knew you were gonna say that,” Tails said, and he and Sonic shared a laugh.

“I haven’t really thought of it, though, but I’ll let you know if I think of something,” Sonic added.

“Sounds good,” said Tails. “There’s something I have to make a few adjustments to, anyway.”

Tails made his way over to one of his machines, then picked up a wrench that happened to be nearby. As he got to work, Sonic thought to himself. There seemed to be at least a dozen things he and Tails could do together now that Eggman was out of the way…

Just then, however, something unexpected brought Sonic out of his thoughts. His eyes widened and his pupils shrunk, and he could feel a tickle in his nose. His eyelids lowered, and his mouth fell open as his breath hitched. He was going to sneeze.

“Huuhh… Aaaah-choo!”

Sonic brought his upper body forward as he released his sneeze, and just like that, he’d brought his forefinger up to rub his nose.

“Bless you,” Tails said, without looking up from what he was working on.

“Thanks,” Sonic replied. He gave a light sniffle, but that brought the tickle back into his nose. He pulled his hand away from his nose, lowering his eyelids once again. His nose trembled rapidly for a few seconds.

“Heeehhh… Tchooo!”

He doubled over with a second sneeze, this time into his wrist, then resumed rubbing his nose; however, he used his entire hand to do so, rather than just his forefinger.

“Bless you,” Tails repeated.

Now that he’d finished making his adjustments to this machine, he put down his wrench and turned around. The first thing he saw, however, was Sonic with his hand underneath his nose.

“Hey, Sonic, are you feeling alright?”

“Yeah,” Sonic claimed, although the fox could tell he wasn’t being sincere, "but for some reason, I still need to... to..." He pulled his hand away from his nose again, his eyelids lowering once more as his nose twitched. Before he could finish his sentence, he sneezed once again, this time into his arm. "Aaaah-choo!!"

"Hmm, that's strange..." Tails said as Sonic rubbed his nose once again. "I hope you're not coming down with a cold."

"Me, neither."

Not long after Sonic had finished rubbing his nose, he found himself coughing a bit into his fist. As he then cleared his throat, his other hand went up to wipe his eyes, both of which appeared a bit watery. Tails looked at him with an expression of clear concern.

"Um, Sonic... You don't look so good."

"I don't?" Sonic asked. He tried to give another sniffle, but couldn't feel any air moving through his nostrils. "I don't feel that great, either..." Another nasal inhale, still nothing. "...ugh."

Tails placed his hand on Sonic's forehead, but he didn't feel warm. He removed his hand, and Sonic cleared his throat again.

"Hmm, you don't have a fever, so I don't think you're getting sick,” Tails mentioned.

“However, there is one thing I know of that causes these symptoms..."

Sonic wanted to take a guess what that was, but before he could get a word out, his eyes widened and pupils shrunk for a brief moment, and then he sneezed again. This one, however, was quite a bit louder and more forceful than the other sneezes he'd released in the past five minutes - and he was too late to bring his arm up to sneeze into.

"HAAAAAHHHHH-SHUUUUUUUUU!!!"

"AH!" Tails winced in surprise and disbelief at the sound of the sneeze; it had startled him quite a bit. Once it had passed, however, he exhaled to calm himself down, and then looked back over at Sonic, who was again rubbing his now slightly red nose with his forefinger. "Gesundheit."

"Thank you," Sonic replied. "And, uh... sorry about that." He apologized with a rather audible sniffle.

"It's alright." Tails reached into his pocket, pulled out a tissue and handed it to Sonic, and he blew his nose. "I was going to say that you might be allergic to something."

"Yeah, probably." Sonic sniffled, wiping his nose with his tissue. At least his blow was enough to clear his sinuses for the time being. "At least that'd make sense." Another sniffle, and he lowered his tissue from his nose. "But what do you think I'm allergic to?"

"I'm afraid your guess is as good as mine," said Tails. "And in order to find out, we'll have to experiment."

Sonic didn't like the sound of that, but before he could comment on it, he sneezed again, bringing his tissue back up to release into. "Aaah-choo!!"

"Ugh..." Sonic wiped his red nose again, his eyes still looking a bit watery. In spite of this, he had a bit of a defeated look on his face now that he’d heard what his friend had told him. “Oh, alright… I guess we don’t have a choice.”

“But before we get started, I’m gonna go get a few things,” Tails told him. “I’ll be right back.”

With a nod of understanding, Sonic balled up his used tissue and threw it behind him, with that same tissue landing in a nearby trash can.

Tails handed Sonic another tissue from his pocket in case he needed one, then walked away from him. With that, the hedgehog began to wait for his friend to return, sniffling and rubbing his nose as he did so.

A few minutes had gone by since Tails had brought up the idea of experimenting to find the source of Sonic's allergy symptoms, which hadn’t gotten any better. It seemed like Sonic had to sneeze at least once every minute or so, and his eyes and throat wouldn't stop itching. Not to mention, his nasal passages would sometimes become congested, even when he'd just finished blowing his nose. That was almost as annoying as the frequent sneezing - almost.

"Aaah... haaah..."

Sonic could feel another sneeze coming on, ostensibly from how much he'd been thinking about what he could be allergic to, or perhaps how much his allergy had been bothering him. He brought his hand up to rub his nose a couple of times, but that didn't do anything to relieve the tickle in his nose. He pulled his hand away, gave a final inhale, and then it happened again.

"AHHHHHH-- CHOO!!!"

“Bless you,” Tails said, walking over to him as Sonic rubbed his nose again with his forefinger. In one of Tails’ arms was a small box, which held a few substances that were known for causing sneezing. “Are you feeling any better, Sonic?”

“Not really, to say the least.” Sonic blew his nose again and wiped it with his tissue.

“Yeah, I can tell.” Tails put the box down on a nearby table, which happened to be cleared off. “Are you ready to see if we can’t figure out what’s causing your allergy?”

“I guess,” Sonic replied with a sniff. “I don’t like where this is going, though.”

“I’m not looking forward to it, either, honestly,” Tails said in agreement. “I know how hard it is to have allergies, so if this makes you feel worse, I’d like to apologize.” With the next thing he said, however, he gave a smile. “But if it makes you feel better, I’ve brought you some more tissues.”

He brought a brand-new, freshly opened box of tissues out of the box and handed it to his friend, and Sonic managed a little smile to thank him. Once he’d balled up his used tissue and thrown it away, that was when the experiment began.

Tails reached into the box he had next to him and pulled out a flower, which he showed to Sonic.

“One of the most common allergies is to pollen, which comes from trees or flowers,” the fox mentioned. “So it wouldn’t surprise me if this flower made you sneeze.”

“Wouldn’t surprise me, either.” Another sniffle from Sonic.

Tails held the yellow flower beneath Sonic’s nose, and the hedgehog took a couple of sniffs. It smelled good, but from the center of the flower, a few tiny grains of pollen drifted into his nostrils. Almost as soon as they’d made it in, Sonic’s eyelids lowered as his breath hitched, and his nose wiggled quite a few times. He inhaled once, then released two somewhat mild sneezes, bringing his neck forwards each time. Both of the sneezes were uncovered, however, so Tails could see a bit of saliva being released from his mouth.

“Aaaahhhh… Tchooo!! Nnntchuu!! Ugh…”

Sonic rubbed his nose once with his forefinger, then brought out a tissue to blow his nose.

“Hmm, only two sneezes?” Tails acknowledged as Sonic rubbed his nose with his tissue. “Well, it makes sense if it does make you sneeze, but I don’t think you’re that allergic.”

Tails placed the flower back in the box, then picked up a small bag that held a gray substance.

“By the way, another substance that can cause allergy symptoms is dust,” Tails said. “I don’t think I’ve seen you sneeze from it before. Why don’t we give it a try?”

“Well, I guess it couldn’t hurt,” Sonic mentioned. “But just go easy on it, okay?”

“Don’t worry, I will.”

“Okay.” Sonic lowered his tissue from his nose as he prepared himself for what was going to happen.

That was when Tails removed a pinch of dust from the bag, then took a deep breath, and blew it into Sonic’s face. But instead of sneezing immediately, Sonic winced with an audible “Ack!!”, and then found himself coughing loudly into his arm, to Tails’ surprise as well as concern.

“Sorry, Sonic!” the fox apologized. He closed the bag, placing it back in the box. “Are you alright?”

Once he was done coughing, Sonic rubbed his watery eyes with his fist. He could feel his nose growing a bit runny from the dust.

“Y-yeah, but I…” His eyelids lowered again, and his nose twitched once more. “I… Huuuh-choo!!”

He gave another sneeze, this one also uncovered, and some clear mucus began to drip from his nose. As Sonic brought his tissue up to wipe it off, Tails took a moment to think about how Sonic had reacted to the dust.

“Hmm, I’d say you have a mild dust allergy,” said Tails. He looked down at his hand for a moment, seeing there was still some dust on his fingertips. He brushed it off, taking care not to send any into the air in case Sonic still needed to sneeze. “But I don’t think that’s what the problem is, either.”

Sonic blew his nose for a second, then resumed wiping it with his tissue. Once he thought he was ready for what Tails would use on him next, he balled up this tissue as well, watching as Tails reached his hand into the box. As soon as he saw what he picked up next, however, his eyes widened in what seemed to be horror.

“Oh, God--!“ He brought both of his hands up to protect himself, shutting his eyes in anticipation.

“What?” Tails had just picked up a feather, one that was white in color, barely three inches in length, and quite soft to the touch. “Is something wrong?”

Sonic opened his eyes, then put his hands down, taking a couple of deep breaths as he tried to calm himself down. Luckily, it wasn’t long before he’d recovered.

“Sorry, Tails.” With the next thing he said, he blushed a bit, looking away in slight embarrassment. His hand went up to rub the back of his neck. “You do know I’m really ticklish, right?”

“Yeah, but it’s not like I’m gonna tickle you with this,” Tails said. “I’m just gonna tickle your nose a couple of times and see if it makes you sneeze. I mean, it is possible that you might have a feather allergy, but we won’t know for sure unless I use this on your nose…”

“Okay,” Sonic replied with a nod. “Go for it…”

With that, Tails held his feather underneath Sonic’s nose and proceeded to move it back and forth. Before even five seconds had gone by, however, Sonic’s nose began to tremble again. His eyelids lowered, and his breath hitched.

“Aaah… Haaah…” inhaled Sonic.

“Here it comes!” Tails cried hastily, knowing exactly what was going to happen. He removed the feather from the hedgehog’s nose, then braced himself for the upcoming sneeze.

“HAAAAHHHHH…” Sonic’s final inhale, accompanied by a climactic backward jerk of his upper body, made it seem like this sneeze was going to be another one of his big ones. But when it finally came, it was the complete opposite. “Choo!”

In just under a second, the sneeze was over. Tails opened his eyes, his pupils shrunken in disbelief. He looked back over at Sonic, who was rubbing his nose again with his forefinger.

“…That’s it?”

“I guess so,” Sonic replied, looking a bit sheepish.

But Tails just chuckled, amused now that he'd heard the anticlimactic sneeze.

“I gotta say, I didn’t see that coming. Bless you, Sonic.”

“Thanks.” Sonic continued to rub his nose as Tails placed his feather back in the box.

“Well, there’s just one last thing I haven’t made you sneeze with yet,” said Tails. “But I’m afraid to try it.”

“Well, what is it?” Sonic asked, then removed his forefinger from his nose.

Tails reached into the box, pulled out the final object that was inside, and showed it to him. When he saw what it was, however, Sonic’s eyes widened once again.

“Wait… Pepper? Are you kidding me?”

“I’m afraid not,” said Tails. Indeed, he was holding a pepper shaker in his hand. “We all know how much pepper can make you sneeze, but it was the first thing I had in mind when I was trying to figure out what was making you sneeze.”

“But don’t worry; if this makes you sneeze even once, I’ll never use it on you again. I promise.”

“Well, if you insist…” Sonic looked a bit nervous about what was going to happen. If anything, he was glad he still had some tissues available after the amount of sneezing he’d been through. He had a feeling he was going to need them even more after he was done with this…

Tails held the pepper shaker for Sonic to see, then turned it upside down and shook a single puff of pepper onto Sonic’s nose.

It was safe to say that his reaction was instantaneous. Sonic’s eyes widened and his pupils shrunk for a brief moment, and his nose began to tremble rapidly and furiously in response to the small cloud of black pepper. Then his eyes fell closed as he moved his upper body backward, inhaling desperately.

“AHHH… HUUUH… HAAAAAH…!!!”

Knowing exactly what was going to happen, Tails put down the pepper shaker on the table, then plugged his ears with his forefingers. That was when Sonic exploded with three loud, forceful sneezes, bringing his upper body forwards each time.

“AHHHHHH-CHUUUUUUU!!! HAAAAH-CHOOOOOOOO!!! AAAAAHHHH-TSHOOOOOOOO!!!”

Sonic’s throat was aching by the time he’d finished releasing his triple sneeze - not to mention, his nose was now a bright red shade and running quite a bit. With a loud sniffle and watery eyes, Sonic rubbed his nose slowly with his forefinger.

“…ughh…”

Tails removed his forefingers from his ears, then looked over at Sonic in disbelief as well as concern. With the exception of the other sneezes he’d released earlier, he hadn’t heard Sonic sneeze that loudly in a while…

“Oh, my… Gesundheit, Sonic!” said Tails.

“Th-thanks…” Sonic replied, still rubbing his nose. He brought his tissue up to blow his nose, trying to clear the mucus from his sinuses as well as his nostrils.

“Are you alright?!” Tails sounded genuinely worried.

“Yeah… I guess.” Sonic wiped his nose with his tissue once he was done blowing.

“Are you sure? I think I might have overdone it,” said Tails. “I’m so sorry, Sonic.”

“It’s alright,” Sonic replied with a sniffle. “I just didn’t think I’d sneeze that much.”

“Neither did I. I mean, it’s true that pepper can make you sneeze, but… my goodness…”

Sonic just sniffled, still moving his tissue back and forth against his sensitive nose. He was still feeling a bit sneezy now that he’d tried the pepper, but at least he’d gotten it over with. The only problem, however, was that the two of them still hadn’t figured out what Sonic was allergic to…

Now that Tails had finished making Sonic sneeze with everything he’d gathered, he placed the pepper shaker back in the box where he’d gotten it. As he moved the box aside for the time being, Sonic gave another sneeze, but it wasn’t nearly as audible as many of his other ones had been; it sounded more like a “Nntchh-- Ugh…“ than anything.

“Well, it seems everything we’ve tried has made you sneeze at least once,” Tails acknowledged as Sonic rubbed his nose with his arm. “But we still don’t know what you’re allergic to.”

Sonic responded with another audible sniffle, followed by another.

“Well, whatever it is…” He removed his arm from his nose, and then his free hand went up to rub one of his eyes again. “I wish it didn’t make me feel like this…”

“Huuhh-tchooo!! Nntchuuu!!” He released two more sneezes, then rubbed his nose with the back of his hand.

“Well, I suppose I could try to help you stop sneezing,” Tails stated.

“Okay, but how?” Sonic sniffled once more.

Tails thought for a moment, then came up with an idea. He wasn’t sure it was going to work, but he still wanted to try it.

“Why don’t you try not to breathe through your nose? If you don’t inhale what’s making you sneeze, maybe you won’t need to sneeze as much.”

“Okay.” Sonic nodded, then brought his tissue back up to wipe his nose.

For the next few minutes, the hedgehog breathed through his mouth, trying not to get too much air into his nose. That being said, he could feel a faint tickle beginning to build at the edges of his nostrils, but he rubbed them a few times with his hand to keep the itch from getting any worse. It seemed to work, as he didn’t begin inhaling, but he was more than certain that it wouldn’t be long before another sneeze would escape.

“Oh, and in case this doesn’t work,” Tails mentioned, “you can also hold your nose shut for a few minutes.”

“Maybe, but that’d probably make it even harder for me to breathe,” Sonic explained. He cleared his throat a bit.

“Oh, right,” said Tails. That was when he got another idea. “By the way, Sonic, I’d like to share something with you, if you don’t mind…”

“Sure, what is it?” Sonic rubbed his nose again.

“It’s a little strategy I tend to use when I feel a sneeze coming on,” Tails explained. “If I want to hold one of my sneezes back before it comes, I start rubbing both sides of my nose with my thumb and index finger. Like, for example…”

“Ah, ah…” Tails lowered his eyelids, acting as though he was going to sneeze. He then brought his thumb and forefinger up to his nose, rubbing up and down a few times. A few seconds went by, but no sneeze followed, nor did any further inhales.

“Well?” Sonic asked.

Tails pulled his fingers away from his nose. “I wasn’t going to sneeze, silly; I was just demonstrating.”

Sonic put his hand to his face for a moment, then pulled it off. “Part of me knew that.”

“It doesn’t always work,” Tails went on, “but it does relieve the tickle in my nose - at least, for a while. But what I’m trying to say is, what if you tried rubbing your nose like that the next time you needed to sneeze? Do you think it’ll keep it from coming?”

Sonic thought about what Tails had told him. He couldn’t recall trying anything like that before…

“Well, I guess I could give it a try,” Sonic replied, balling up his used tissue.

Just as he finished saying that, he felt the tickle in his nose return, and his nose began to tremble.

“Ugh…” Sonic groaned a bit, his eyelids lowering as a couple of tears formed in the corners of his eyes.

“Alright, you ready?” Tails asked. “Now try rubbing your nose the way I just showed you.”

“Okay. Here goes…”

Sonic brought his thumb and forefinger up to the edges of his nose. With the tip of his thumb against one side and his forefinger against the other, he began to rub up and down. He didn’t want to inhale through his nose, but he couldn’t help himself; a couple of light sniffles slipped out, even though they didn’t seem to affect the tickling sensation in his nose.

As he rubbed his nose, Tails looked on, a hopeful expression on his face.

“Well, is it working?” Tails wanted to know.

“N-not really… I think I still have to…” Sonic tried to say, but he couldn’t finish his sentence. His eyelids lowered, and his fingers slipped away from his quivering nose. “H-heehh… Haaaah… Aaaaah--“

Before he could sneeze again, however, he pressed his forefinger underneath his nose. A pause followed, and then he opened his eyes, his pupils slightly shrunken.

“Um, Sonic?” Tails asked, and the hedgehog looked over at him. “I wouldn’t do that if I were you... The last time you tried that on yourself, you sneezed pretty loudly. Remember?”

“Oh, right. Sorry.” Sonic pulled his forefinger away from his nose, but barely a minute went by before he exploded once more. Indeed, it was quite loud. “AaaaAAAHHHHH-- TCHOO!!!”

And just like that, his forefinger was back underneath his nose. It was a good thing that his nose didn’t start running after that sneeze, although the insides of his nasal passages felt quite congested.

“Bless you!” said Tails, a bit emphatically.

“Ugh…” Sonic just groaned a bit as he rubbed his nose again. Tails could hear him emitting a couple of loud sniffles. “This is really getting on my nerves…”

“I know,” Tails replied, sympathetically. “And it’s too bad my idea didn’t work. Maybe I should try rubbing your nose instead…”

Not long after he’d suggested that, however, the fox’s eyes widened and his pupils shrunk. Something had occurred to him, and it wasn’t something he was happy to have thought.

“What’s up, Tails?” Sonic asked, wiping his nose with another one of his tissues. He must have blown his nose again, but if he had, Tails hadn’t heard.

“Sonic, could you hear me out for a minute?” Tails started, and Sonic nodded as he balled up his tissue and he lowered it from his view. “Do you suppose…” The fox wasn’t sure his friend was ready to hear what he had to say. “…you might be allergic to me?”

Sonic stared at him, eyes wide. He couldn’t believe his ears.

“What did you just say?”

“I mean, I did make you sneeze one time by tickling your nose with one of my tails,” Tails mentioned.

“Yeah, but-- Haaah-chooo!!” Sonic turned away from Tails as he sneezed into his arm, then resumed as he rubbed his nose with his forefinger, “wasn’t that days ago?”

“It was, yeah. But you didn’t start sneezing today until after you met up with me, right?” Tails asked, and Sonic gave another nod. “Not to mention, I was there during most of your sneezing attacks, so…”

“Tails, we’ve been together for as long as I can remember,” Sonic said. “We’ve gone everywhere together, done everything together, defeated Eggman a hundred times…”

“Yes, but they say it’s possible to develop allergies to animals if you spend enough time with them,” said Tails. “Especially animals with fur, such as myself.”

“Well, I don’t think I’m allergic to you, Tails,” Sonic replied. “I can see where you got that idea from, but I don’t think it’s true.”

“Oh, okay. Sorry I brought it up,” Tails said.

“It’s alright.”

Not long after Sonic had replied, however, Tails could see his nose begin to twitch again. He could see his eyes begin to water again, too.

“Ugh…” Sonic wiped his eyes once again with his hand, and then closed his eyes as his breath began to hitch. “Aaah… Huuuh…”

“Oh, no…” Tails whimpered in concern; he knew exactly what was going to happen. “Not again…!”

“Haaaahhhh--“ Even though his vision was growing blurry, Sonic motioned toward his nose, indicating to Tails that he wanted him to stop his sneeze somehow.

“AAAAHHHH--“ Before Sonic could release yet another sneeze, Tails placed his forefinger underneath his nose. It was the only thing he had enough time to do at that point, but to his surprise, the sneeze didn’t follow. Sonic opened his eyes, then sighed. He felt like his breath had returned to normal.

“Thanks, Tails,” said Sonic.

“Sure, Sonic,” Tails replied with a smile. “I’m not gonna put my hand down, though, until we’re absolutely sure that sneeze is gone.”

“Good idea.”

A few seconds went by, and Tails did put his hand down. But not too long after he’d done that, Sonic released three more powerful sneezes, all of which caught Tails off-guard.

“AHHHHHH-SHUUUUU!!! HAAAAHHHH-TCHUUUUUUU!!! Aaah, AAAAAHHHHHH-CHOOOOOOOOO!!!”

“Ugh!” Sonic sulked, an expression of annoyance upon his face as he rubbed his nose again with his forefinger. He brought another tissue out from his box so he could blow his nose again.

“Oh, my gosh…” Tails looked at him, his face a mixture of horror and disbelief. He took a few steps back. “Sonic?”

“Yeah?” Sonic sniffled again as he wiped his nose with his tissue.

“I think we should spend some time apart,” said Tails. He paused for a couple of seconds, as if Sonic didn’t get it. “Until you’re done sneezing.”

He then turned and walked away from Sonic. He didn’t leave this room of the workshop, however; he stopped once he’d gotten to the doorway, then turned back to look at Sonic. They were about a foot away from one another at this point.

Now realizing that what Tails had told him might have been true after all, Sonic sulked, this time in pure dismay. He gave a couple more sniffles, but they weren’t as audible as they were before. Sometimes he brought his hand up to rub his nose again.

“I’m sorry, Sonic,” said Tails, looking a bit guilty. He couldn’t help but feel like it was his fault Sonic couldn’t stop sneezing. “It’s bad enough I made you sneeze with all those different things earlier today…”

“Yeah, but it’s not like we’re not friends anymore, right?” Sonic asked. “And besides, I can’t stay mad at you.”

“I know, and I’m glad you’re not, but…” Tails sighed a bit, turning his head away in slight sadness. “It’s just that I hate seeing you miserable like this. I wish there was something I could do, a way I could help you feel better…”

When he looked back over at Sonic, he saw that he was rubbing one of his teary eyes with one of his tissues. It almost looked like he was trying not to start crying.

“Sonic, are you crying?” Tails couldn’t recall any point in the past where he’d seen Sonic like this; he wasn’t the kind of guy who was prone to shedding tears, even when it would have made sense for him to.

Sonic pulled his hand away from his eyes to respond. “No, of course not.” He cleared his throat a bit. “It’s just my allergy.”

He brought his arm up to rub his itchy nose, sniffling a couple of times as he did so. A few seconds later, however, his eyes widened. Something had caught his eye, something he hadn’t noticed until just now.

“Hey, Tails?” he asked.

“Yeah?”

“You didn’t tell me you had that air freshener over there.” Sonic pointed his forefinger to what he was talking about. Indeed, there was a battery-operated air freshener on one of the tables, and from its top it was expelling a fragrant mist.

“Yeah, well, I put that in here so I could get rid of the smell of burning metal when I’m working,” Tails explained. He took a light breath through his nose, then sighed. “Smells nice, doesn’t it?”

“It does, but…” Sonic could feel his nose begin to quiver again. He tried giving a deep sniffle to relieve the itchy sensation in his nose, but it didn’t help - in fact, the sharp inhale, along with the strong aroma it took in, seemed to make it worse. His eyes fell shut, and his breath hitched once again. “Huuuh… Aaaaah…”

With the hedgehog about to explode once again, Tails brought up both of his hands to cover his ears in anticipation.

“HAAAAAHHHHH-TCHOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOO!!!”

Sonic shot his upper body forwards as he sneezed mightily, with a good amount of saliva being released from his mouth and a good amount of mucus being released from his nose. He would have rubbed his nose again right then and there, but there was a problem: he still needed to sneeze. So he inhaled and exploded once again - three times, in fact.

“AAAAAAHHHH-SHOOOOOOOO!!! HAAAAAAAAHHHHHH-CHOOOOOOOOOO!!! Aaaah… HUUUUUHHHHHH-CHUUUUUUUUUUUUUU!!!”

Each one of these sneezes brought more pain to his throat, and expelled more saliva and mucus from his mouth and nose. But once he’d finished sneezing, Sonic's forefinger immediately went to cover his nose as his other hand reached over to pull out another tissue from his box.

"Good Lumina...!" Tails said to himself as Sonic blew his nose, loudly. The fox had a feeling he'd figured out what Sonic was allergic to. As fast as he could, he dashed over to his friend, only stopping when he'd gotten close enough to him. "Sonic, Sonic!"

“Ugh, yeah?" Sonic was wiping his nose with his tissue, holding it in both hands. He still had some tears in his eyes.

"First of all, Gesundheit," Tails said. "Second of all, I think I've figured out what was causing all this trouble. It was my air freshener!"

"You think so?" Sonic sounded like he couldn't believe it.

"As it turns out, it wasn't me that was making you sneeze. You were having an allergic reaction to the air freshener this whole time!"

Sonic looked at him for a few seconds with wide eyes, but then looked over at the air freshener, lowering his tissue from his nose as he did so. He didn't want to take another inhale through his nose, but he didn't have to; the freshener's aroma was tickling his nose again. That was when he realized what his friend was telling him was true.

"I guess I was, wasn’t I?" Sonic reached one of his forefingers up to rub his nose. “Well, that explains why I was sneezing so much…”

“I’ll just have to switch it out for one that won’t make you sneeze, then,” Tails decided. “Good thing I have another one somewhere.”

Tails made his way over to the air freshener, and when he got close enough to it, he switched it off by pressing his forefinger against the power button. As the mist died down, however, Sonic let out one more sneeze into his arm.

“AHHHH-TCHOO!!”

“Ah!” Tails winced again, caught a bit off-guard by the sudden sneeze. He turned around to look back at Sonic, seeing he was rubbing his nose again with his forefinger. Luckily, his eyes weren’t watering anymore, and the redness on his nose was steadily fading away.

Realizing that his sneeze had startled his friend, Sonic looked at him sheepishly. “Uh, sorry about that…”

But Tails responded with a reassuring smile. “No problem. And bless you, Sonic.”

“Thanks.” Sonic continued to rub his nose. Tails approached him, then placed his hand on his shoulder.

“This has been one sneezy day for you, huh, Sonic?”

“It sure has been,” Sonic agreed. “But you know what?” A light sniffle as he pulled his forefinger away from his nose. “I’m just glad I’m not allergic to you, buddy.”

“I’m glad, too,” Tails said with a smile, removing his hand from Sonic’s shoulder. “So now that we’ve figured out what was causing all this, what would you think we should do now?”

“Actually, I haven’t thought of that,” Sonic admitted.

“That’s alright.” Just then, an idea occurred to Tails, something he had almost completely forgotten about until this moment. “Hey, Sonic? The other day, I installed a new TV in my bedroom, and it comes with a free Netflix subscription. Why don’t we check out some of the movies or series it has?”

“Sounds good,” Sonic replied with a smile.

With that, he and Tails made their way out of the workshop. As they went, however, Tails felt a tickle in his nose, almost without warning. He stopped where he was, lowering his eyelids as his mouth fell open.

“Aaah…”

“Hm?” Sonic also stopped where he was, then turned around to look at his friend, raising an eyebrow in curiosity.

“Haaah--“ Tails brought his upper body backward, his eyelids falling shut as his nose twitched. And then he exploded, making sure to put his arm over his mouth. “Choo!”

Tails’ sneezes were almost always mild and quiet - there were a few exceptions, but this wasn’t one of them. Sonic couldn’t help but chuckle as he made his way over to his friend.

“Bless ya, Tails,” Sonic said as Tails rubbed his nose with his forefinger.

“Thank you,” Tails replied with a light sniffle. “Sorry, that came out of nowhere…”

“It’s alright. I can relate,” Sonic replied. “Besides, I didn’t see that coming, either.”

Tails pulled his forefinger away from his nose. “I hadn’t sneezed in a couple of days, anyway. And given how much you’d sneezed in the last hour, it kind of makes sense for me to sneeze, too.”

Sonic took a moment to acknowledge what Tails had told him, then smiled. “Yeah, not wrong there…”

With that, the two finally made their way out of the workshop, with Tails rubbing his nose just a bit more with his forefinger.


And now, the story that serves as a prequel, Tails Helps Sonic:


“Ugh... not again...” Sonic sniffled as his nose twitched slightly, the familiar tickle having returned. The blue hedgehog brought up one hand to rub his nose, but it didn’t seem to help. He could feel his breath beginning to hitch slightly. “Huh... Haaah...”

“Hmm?” Tails turned around to look at Sonic, only to notice his eyes were half-lidded, his irises shrunken and his mouth falling open. “Sonic?”

“Aaaaah--“ Sonic tilted his upper body back, his chest heaving. But the sneeze didn’t come, nor did any further inhales. He sighed quietly and blinked, taking a brief sniff here and there.

“What’s the matter, Sonic?” Tails wanted to know. “You’re not coming down with something, are you?”

“Nah, I’m fine,” Sonic told him. He sniffled, briefly holding a forefinger underneath his black nose. “Unless you count having this weird tickle in my nose as coming down with something.”

“A weird tickle? Hmm...” Tails thought for a moment. “Sounds to me like you’ve got a stuck sneeze, Sonic.”

“Yeah, probably. Ah, haaah...” Sonic was about to sneeze again, or so he thought. He rubbed his nose lightly with his forefinger, but whether he was trying to coax it out or hold it back, it wasn’t working. “Hehh... ghh...”

It was no use, he couldn’t convince the sneeze to come out. Sonic groaned and rubbed his nose again, looking annoyed.

“Ugh, this stupid itch...” Sonic muttered, just audibly enough for Tails to hear. “I’m gonna guess I’m allergic to something and have no idea what it is.”

“Actually, Sonic, a stuck sneeze can have a variety of causes. Not just allergies,” Tails stated. “A lot of them can happen because of a cold, or an unusual scent... and sometimes, for no reason at all.”

“But let’s face it; whatever causes a stuck sneeze, it can be pretty hard to deal with. That being said, the best way to get rid of it is to find a way to make yourself sneeze, or have someone else find a way to make you sneeze.”

Before Sonic could think of something to say, his nose tickled again. But before he could even start inhaling, the itch quickly subsided.

“You know what, Tails...” Another sniffle. “Would ya help me out here with this sneeze?”

“Of course, Sonic!” replied Tails. “Anything for one of my best friends ever.”

Tails then looked around the room he and Sonic were in, hoping he could find something that would make Sonic sneeze. There didn’t seem to be anything, however.

Just then, however, Tails noticed one of his tails flicking around in plain sight. An idea came to him, and he took a moment to ponder over it. He looked back over at Sonic - who sniffled once in a failed attempt to bring the urge to sneeze back to his nose - and then back over at his idling tails.

“I think I’ve got it, Sonic,” said Tails. “But I should warn you, I’ve never tried this solution before, so we might get more than we’re bargaining for... okay?”

“Yeah.” Sonic nodded. “It’s not like it could actually make me sneeze, anyway...”

Tails grabbed onto the base of one of his tails, then turned a little so he could reach Sonic’s face, and began to rub the tip of his tail underneath Sonic’s nose.

As soon as he’d begun, a dull itch made its way into Sonic’s nostrils. They were already reacting to Tails’ tail brushing them. The blue hedgehog groaned slightly as the tickle steadily grew, but remained at the end of his nose. He gave a little sniff, hoping it would help bring out a sneeze or at least the windup for one - but what it did was suck a small amount of hairs from the tail into his nasal passages.

That was where the buildup began.

“Huuh...” Sonic inhaled as his nose twitched, his eyelids falling halfway. The sensation of Tails’ fur enter his nose had increased his urge to sneeze quite dramatically. “Aaaah...”

Sensing that Sonic had began to inhale, Tails continued to tickle his nose with his tail, moving it this way and that. He couldn’t tell what was affecting Sonic more - the tip of his soft tail, or the fact that some of his fur had made it up Sonic’s nose. Either way, it was coming, and Tails was going to help it come.

“Haaahh, heeh...” Sonic inhaled, his nose quivering more and more as the seconds rolled by. Tails’ tail had been bothering his nose enough, but the tiny hairs that had been on it were making it worse. They were just floating around in Sonic’s sinuses, occasionally touching the walls, and yet, Sonic was reacting as though he had some sort of allergy. “Aaaahhh, ehh...”

“T... T-Taaails...?” Sonic asked, through his hitching gasps. “Hhh...”

“Yeah?” Tails replied. He stopped tickling Sonic’s nose but kept the end of his tail underneath it.

“I... I think I-I’mmm... g-gehhh...” Sonic tilted his upper body back slightly, causing Tails’ tail to slip away from his ever so itchy nose. “...gonna s-sn... HuuuuUUUH...”

Tails’ eyes widened and irises shrunk as Sonic’s inhales increased in loudness. If he could just tease his nose a little more, the sneeze would escape and this would be done and over with.

“EHHHH, HAAAH...” Sonic inhaled, his chest heaving as his eyelids squeezed shut. His nose was rumbling like crazy, and his nostrils were flaring up. “HEHHH-AAAAH...!”

He couldn’t take much more - he was on the brink of exploding, and Tails had to keep going for just a little longer. He was a bit worried about how powerful the sneeze itself would be: perhaps strong enough to blow him away, or Sonic away, or both...

But Tails didn’t have a choice. He turned his head away from Sonic, plugged one of his ears with one of his forefingers, and with the other hand, he swiped the base and tip of his furry, yellow and white tail across the underside of Sonic’s nose.

And at last, with a final inhale and climactic jerk of his neck, Sonic gave the loudest sneeze Tails had ever heard.

“AAAAAAAAAAAHHHHHHHHHTTTTTTTSSSSSSHHHHHHHHHOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOO!!!!!!”

Large amounts of wind and saliva came rushing out of Sonic’s mouth, along with a surprising amount of clear mucus bursting out of his nose. Tails cringed from both the sneeze itself and the mess that it brought, but he was lucky he didn’t get sprayed.

That being said, Sonic still had to sneeze. That massive sneeze hadn’t even blown all of Tails’ fur out of his nose. With no time to rub his nose or do anything, Sonic entered a loud fit, shooting his neck forwards once again.

“HAAAHCHOO!!! AHHHHTCHOOOOOOOO!!!” Although far less long-lasting than that first sneeze, Sonic could still feel mucus escaping from his nostrils. He tried to wipe his nose with his arm, but could only do it once, for a split second, before he had to put it down in favor of resuming the sneeze attack.

“HHHHSHOOOO!! HEHHHTCHOOOOO!!! EHH-SHOOOOOO!!! HUUUHHHHCHOOOOOO!! TTTCHOOOOOOO!!! Nnnh... EHHHTCHOOOO!!! AAAHHHSHOOOOOO!!! HAHHHHH-TSHOOOOOOOO!!!”

Sonic’s eyes were watering and his nose was bright red from all of his sneezes - and he still had to sneeze. But as his fit went on, more and more fox fur was expelled from his nasal passages. And so his sneezes gradually decreased in strength, before the closest to his normal sneeze finished him off.

“AHH-TCHOOOOOO!! HUHSHOOoooooo!!! HEEEEHHH-CHOOoooooooo!! Nnngh-Chooooooo!! Ah, haah... Ah-choo!!! ...ugh...”

Sonic raised his forefinger to his slightly drippy nose and began to rub back and forth. He sniffled loudly, feeling worn out. Tails stood back up, his eyes wide with disbelief.

“O-oh my...” He struggled to speak at first. “Sonic... that, I... That was crazy! Are you alright?!”

With another sniffle, Sonic replied, “Yeah.” It sounded like he’d almost lost his voice, what with all of the sneezes he’d let out. He took a minute to catch his breath before he spoke again.

“Yeah, that was crazy... I don’t think I’ve sneezed that much in a long while.” Another sniff, followed by a bit of a smile. “But what matters is, I’m feeling way better after all that. Thanks, Tails!”

Tails smiled as well, taking a quiet sigh of relief that his attempt was successful. “No problem, Sonic.”

“Oh, and by the way...” Tails reached into his pocket, pulled out a tissue and offered it to Sonic. “God bless you.”

“Thanks.” Sonic continued to rub his nose, but not without accepting the tissue and blowing his nose a bit afterward. That being said, his nose had become so sensitive from all of the sneezing he’d just gone through, the mere act of blowing caused him to sneeze again.

“Haaaahhh-chooo!!” Sonic sneezed into the tissue, his head snapping forward a bit. Then he looked sheepishly at Tails as he wiped his nose with the same tissue. “Whoops.”

Tails chuckled at Sonic’s reaction and blessed him once more. “Bless you, Sonic.”

“Thanks, buddy.” Sonic sniffled a bit as he continued to wipe his nose. “I guess I didn’t realize how much your tails could make me sneeze.”

“Well, I am a fox... You know how soft their fur is,” said Tails. “But at least we got your stuck sneeze out. And if you ever need help releasing another one of those, just let me know.”

Sonic nodded in understanding and continued to wipe his nose for a few minutes. He and Tails didn’t know exactly how the latter’s tail had caused Sonic to sneeze, but that was probably for the best.


The End