The sunset captures Sonic's attention as Mangey flys him above the trees, some bigger trees still sticking . The orange light warms his soul and reflects off his emerald eyes it reminded him of the diary he first met Tails on Westside Island back on Mobius. The cool vibrant sunset makes Sonic grin, being able to remember that evening was just what he needed at the moment.

Mangey descends onto a series of wooden walkways and let's go of Sonic. Sonic turns around and looks over at the sunset as Mangey lands on the planks and stands next to Sonic.

"How long have you been alone?" Sonic asks.

Mangey gives Sonic 4 fingers, "Four years... Must've been rough for you"

Mangey takes Sonic's hand and tugs him over to the centre of where all the wooden walkways met, a large dead treet with a massive trunk and hollowed out interior. Sonic immediately notices flowers set in some spots throughout, curious he asks Mangey about it.

"You planting a garden or something?" Sonic asks.

Mangey shakes his head and sits down by the tree, his eyes pointing straight at the wooden floor. It takes Sonic a second to realise what it is and he sighs when he does.

"...Memorials. Sorry... What happened? I mean if you don't wanna tell me it's cool"

Mangey turns his head away from Sonic, the hedgehog decideds to not pry further and he sits down next to him so he can try and comfort him.

"If you don't wanna tell me how you lost your family... Do you maybe wanna show me what you do for fun?"

Sonic notices Mangey's ears perk up and the fox looks up at him, Sonic looks into his eyes, he can see the happiness building up inside him. Mangey jumps up excitedly laughing like a happy kid and gets up running off so he could go get something, when he comes back he's holding what looks to be an old crate full of stuff.

The thing that gets Sonic's attention is an old notebook which he opens, on one page there's a neat sentence written on it.

The hungry little fox scurried up the tree.

And written below it was the same thing but with slightly less legible writing which Sonic is quick to figure out is Mangey's. He flips through the book while Mangey sits next to him and sees whoever was living with him previously was trying to show him how to read and write.

"Some nice folks you must have had" Sonic says.

Sonic flips to another page and sees a crude drawing of him and what looked to be another hedgehog holding hands, it makes his eyes go wide and he looks at Mangey who tilts his head in confusion like a puppy.

Sonic taps the page with the drawing with his finger, "Is that... Me?"

Mangey nods excitedly and embraces Sonic affectionately. Sonic lets him, while he lets Mangey hug him he begins to wonder if there was a version of him that lived in this universe, but one thing he knew for certain...

"...There's a Ruby of Lust here... Which means... Answers"

---

Back on the jungle floor the two foxes have set up camp for the night, Nine comes back with some fish impaled on his mechanical tails and his sweater tied around his waist, wearing a black tank top to below so he's not exposed to the elements. Meanwhile, Tails just sits infront of the fire staring into it, Nine sighs as he puts the fish on the sticks and puts them over the fire to cook, Tails looks up at him and then back towards the fire as if it's the only thing to see at the moment.

"You're still worried about him?" Nine asks.

"...Yeah" Tails responds, his chest feels like has a whole in it.

"He'll be fine" Nine says sitting next to him.

"How do you know?" Tails responds.

"If it's one thing I know Sonic is, he's resourceful" Nine goes.

Tails looks over at Nine, still frowning and full of worry.

"Besides he loves you... Um or us, I don't know... I know he'll be okay"

Tails sniffles and let's Nine bring him close, "So is there anything I can do so you don't feel like shit?"

"I don't know... I'm cold" Tails responds.

Nine suddenly licks Tails' cheek, the fox feels his face turn red and his heartbeat pick up as if he'd been jumpscared. Tails shouts and jumps off the rock he's sitting on falling onto his back and looking up at Nine with embarrassment on his face.

"What the fuck?!" Tails shouts.

"I mean since Sonic's not here I could warm you up" Nine says with a smug grin on his face.

"Not funny!" Tails shouts, even more flustered by Nine's flirtatious behaviour.

Nine then proceedes to slam his hand next to Tails's face. The fox is frozen, unable to process what's going on, Nine had him pinned yuka don style, and to make things even more rainbow, he decided to lick his lips and press his face on his.

"See already warmer" Nine teases, nuzzling his cheek

"Get off, get off, get off, get off, get off!"

Nine instead wraps his arms around Tails which makes him scream and squirm even more. Tails' face turns redder as Nine holds onto him like a plush toy. Nine physically stronger than Tails, is able to keep Tails on him, eventually he gives up and crosses his arms, face still red and growing ever more humiliated by Nine's teasing.

"See you like it~" Nine says, planting a kiss on Tails' cheek.

"Fuck off!" Tails shouts.

"Yep, you like it"

"I'll gouge your eyes out"

"Aww he's threatening me"

"Uggghhhhh"

---

Night has fallen and Sonic is looking around for any sign of the ruby he's in search for, walking around the wooden platforms, high above the trees below. Mangey comes from behind him and gives Sonic a pelt blanket.

"Oh thanks" Sonic says.

Mangey barks and grins at him, Sonic feeling how chilly it was pulls him over and wraps it around him too. Sonic sits down and just decides to stop looking for the ruby, it's dark, the only source of light at the moment a fire Mangey set up and the stars in the sky providing something to look at other then just complete blackness.

The drawings in the notebook he saw were still swimming in his mind, so he decides to ask about it.

"Those drawings in the book I saw... What were they of?"

It takes Mangey a second to realise what Sonic is talking about, when he finally does realise what Sonic is asking him he immediately turns away from Sonic. The hedgehog tries to look at Mangey's face but he turns away again, he tries one more time and the fox buries hid face on the wooden floor. Sonic doesn't even bother trying to see his face again because he knows why Mangey is getting shy.

"What a coincidence..." He says blushing slightly, and looking down at the trees below.

Mangey does look, back at Sonic slightly, albeit hoping he doesn't turn around and notice he's looking at him.

"Is that why you had that little sob fest back there, you thought the Sonic you knew was alive. Heh, well I'm not him so uh... Sorry..."

Sonic sighs and turns to him to see if he was finally able to look at him. Sure enough, Mangey was indeed looking at Sonic, he's still, he looks calm, blushing a tinge too.

"I uh, I come a different universe, it's a lot different from this one" Sonic explains to him.

He takes his phone from a pouch in his bag and opens his phone to show Mangey.

"This is my world... It's called Mobius" Sonic says, swiping through his photo gallery, showing him the various cities, sights and locations, until he reaches a picture of himself taking a selfie with Tails at the Heartburn Lounge back in Nightstar City.

"Oh uh, that's Tails, he's uh like you but um, how do I say this without being a jerk, brighter"

Mangey rests his head on his shoulder as Sonic looks at the photo of him and Tails hugging eachother in another picture.

"He's the best..." Sonic says looking at him with happy eyes.

"Ruv"

Sonic flinches at looks Mangey surprised to hear him say that, the fox is still looking at the picture on his phone.

"I didn't know you could talk"

Mangey tips his hand around a little, Sonic nods slightly understanding what he's saying.

"Oh, okay, that's cool"

Mangey stands up and takes Sonic by the hand to a spot within the large dead tree to a spot that's covered with a large wood plank, sort of like a door, he slides the plank to the side and let's Sonic go in first.

Sonic can't see anything so he gets a small flashlight from his bag and turns it on, he finds a candle stick on a table and looks back at Mangey to see if he'd be okay with him lighting it. He doesn't seem to have a problem so Sonic takes a lighter from his bag and lights the candle, the room is now illuminated and all over the wall are what looks to be polaroid photos, Sonic puts the lighter and flashlight in his bag and looks around at the photos in awe.

"Whoa... Tails would definitely love this" Sonic says as he looks around at the pictures.

Sonic notices a trend in the pictures as he looks at them, they seem to mostly be of that universe's version of him and Mangey together and they looked to be pretty intimate with one another in quite a few of them too. The hedgehog turns and sees what looks to be a bed and a table, and a bucket with a green camo bandana in it, Sonic reaches inside the bucket and picks it up, it feels unwashed and dusty on his gloved hands. He can definitely tell it fit his style, and that there were memories behind it, it was as if he could hear the laughing and joyous sounds of him and Mangey together as he held it in his hand.

Mangey takes Sonic's hand as he continues staring at the bandana and looks into his eyes, purring quietly. When Sonic looks into the feral Mangey's eyes, he sees no animosity in him, no wild animal instincts ready to make a jump, just a lonely, misunderstood fox who lost the one thing he loved the most.

Mangey and Sonic move ever so closely to eachother, the bandana still intertwined between their hands, and their lips connect with one another's, sweet and sour.

Sonic's heart feels like warm soup, a perfectly seasoned cup for the soul while Mangey's heart feels sugar sweet, a feeling he's been yearning for a long time. Chest to chest, tongue to tongue, the two wrap their arms around one another and just kiss in the candle light. Because he hadn't felt that way in a long time, Mangey is trembling slightly, love is a new emotion for him all over again, but at least Sonic is there to help him feel it again.

The kissing stops, a string of saliva connecting their mouthes. Mangey breaks it and takes a moment to catch his breath, he takes Sonic's other hand and presses it on his chest. Sonic can feel his heartbeat, it's like that of an animal, beating maybe just as fast as his. Mangey jumps in Sonic, pushing the hedgehog to the ground, looking into his eyes before kissing him again, his body feels sturdy and strong, Mangey's body feels soft to Sonic's hands, his fur is a bit coarse but Sonic doesn't mind.

When the two separate again, Sonic chuckles nervously, "Oh man... I really do have a thing for foxes..."

Mangey laughs and nibbles on Sonic's neck, the hedgehog rolls on top of him and he freezes and looks into Sonic's eyes before wrapping his arms around him and touching noses with him, purring softly.

"Heh, you can be really nice when you wanna be huh?" Sonic says, grinning smugly.

Oh boy, was he not ready for what Mangey was going to do next. The fox grins at what Sonic said which makes Sonic gulp nervously.

"Why are you looking at me like tha-"

Mangey suddenly rolls Sonic onto his back and kisses him aggressively, when he's done kissing Sonic he pushes down on him aggressively. Sonic's starts panicking internally, wondering where all this strength and excitement came from.

"Oh man" Sonic goes, completely devoid of any of that confidence he had earlier.

Mangey takes his place in-between his legs and looks Sonic square in the eyes as he does, Sonic grunts audibly because of how assertive he was being. He licks his chops like a wild wolf and begins to go up and down on him while panting loudly, excitedly, to Mangey it's a thrill and to Sonic it's a mix of pain and pleasure.

Sonic can't think about anything else now that he's got him where he wants him, he wants to try and get Mangey to slow down but he's into it which at least makes him somewhat happy. Sonic puts his hand on his stomach as he continues to bounce around on him, the little fox is exhausting him with how aggressive he is.

"Ah slow down-"

Mangey can feel his body getting warmer, drooling slightly from the pleasure Sonic bought him. Sonic looks up at him and sees him enjoying himself, the mix of pain and pleasure he was feeling from him riding him like a horse making it hard for him to think at all. The fox doubles down on the pounding and leans over to kiss Sonic again, kissing him as if he was never going to see him again, when he's done kissing Sonic he licks his face and straightens himself back up.

The fox suddenly slams himself down on Sonic hard enough to make Sonic shout, he's no longer bouncing around on him, but rather shimming himself on him while his tongue hangs out, breathing like he'd just finished a run. Sonic groans, he knows what he's trying to do now as Mangey puts his hands on his stomach and looks into his eyes with a lovesick smirk, satisfied didn't come close to describing how he felt.

Sonic at his limit can't hold it in anymore and he lets it all go into the crazed fox boy, Mangey shouts loudly and lets his head sling back as he feels his insides get warmer and stickier, the pleasure, the nerve clenching pain, doesn't allow him to keep himself from letting go either and he does all over Sonic's stomach.

"Ow..." Sonic whispers, feeling the pain in his legs.

Mangey wipes his mouth while panting heavily and leans over to Sonic to touch noses with him.

"Right... Four years" Sonic says through laboured breathing.

Mangey gets off of Sonic and lays down on his chest, closing his eyes, grinning with satisfaction. Sonic wraps his arms around him and rubs his back gently, the hedgehog's heart feels warm as he tries to sit up, Mangey holds onto Sonic as he sits up and looks down at him.

"So you like it rough... Good to know..." Sonic says as Mangey licks his face affectionately.

He wraps his arm around the exhausted Mangey and puts his hand on his chest, over his heart, the heartbeat of a satisfied, happy fox. Mangey smiles and him and chirps.

"You wanna wash up?" Sonic asks.

"Mmm" Mangey goes, emersed in Sonic's chest.

"I'll take that as a yes" Sonic responds.

Sonic musters as much energy as he can to stand up, despite how wobbly his legs felt and carries a laughing Mangey in his arms like a bride out of the room.

Below the tree line, was a small lake where Sonic deduced Mangey washed himself. It was surrounded by flowers and bushes, plenty of privacy and nice smells to go around, bioluminescent plants provided multicoloured light with warm shades of blue and green.

Mangey takes off his gloves and shoes and pulls a reluctant Sonic in the water with him while giggling and chittering excitedly. Sonic, though uncomfortable with the idea of bathing in a lake, couldn't say no to him, he looked so happy smiling with his big sharp teeth which started to grow on the hedgehog.

Mangey sits on Sonic's lap and rests his head on his chest, sighing and closing his eyes. Sonic looks down at Mangey's hands and sees how clean they are despite the rest of his fur not being the cleanest, the thing sticking out most to him were his well manages claws which were visible from his fingers.

"You take good care of your claws, but not your fur...." Sonic says as Mangey lets him examine them.

Then he remembers something...

"Oh crap, I know what'll help your fur!" Sonic says snapping his fingers.

He steps out of the lake and goes to his bag, inside was a fur management kit Tails gave him. Mangey tilts his head to the side as Sonic looks over at him with a smirk.

Sonic spends the next few hours washing and grooming his fur. Mangey doesn't really like it much, struggling the entire time Sonic cleans him.

"Ahhhhh!" He shouts as Sonic rubs the soap on his fur to clean.

"Oh come on, it's not that bad! Did you get the soap in your eyes?! I told you to close them dude!"

"RAAAAAHHHHHH!" Mangey shrieks as Sonic rubs the soap in his hair.

"Stop squirming!" Sonic shouts.

When he's done however, Mangey can't help but stare at himself in a mirror Sonic holds up to him, he puts his hand on his face so he can feel his newly cleaned fur and he gasps when he feels how luscious and renewed it feels, it even smells good too.

Mangey looks up at Sonic and smiles at him, a tear streaming down his face. Sonic jumps when he hears him sob and runs over to see if he's okay.

"You okay?"

Mangey nods and puts his hand on his chest, then to Sonic's while smiling still.

"No one's ever done anything that nice for you huh?"

Mangey embraces Sonic and kisses him on the cheek, Sonic laughs and holds him tight too, "You're welcome"

"Ruv..." Mangey goes.

"Yeah... Ruv..." Sonic goes, kissing his forehead.

---

When Nine wakes up in the early hours of the next morning, he comes out of the tent Tails and him had set up the previous night with a green towel and a change of clothes. He was off to find a clean lake he could clean the dry sweat off his body. Eventually he does find one after peaking through a shrub and sighs.

"I thought I'd be looking forever" Nine says as he takes off his tank top.

Once he's in he submerges himself in the water and closes his eyes, peaking his head out after a few seconds. He hears the sound of a twig snapping and opens his eyes, looking around at his surroundings and then he notices his clothes and towel are gone, he's just in time to see who stole them and he quickly climbs out of the water to chase the thief down...

Tails looks back at Nine laughing as he runs away from him with his clothes in his arms.

"Get the fuck back here!" Nine shouts.

"You're gonna have to catch me if you want them back!" Tails shouts, laughing as he runs from Nine.

"You asshole!" Nine shouts angrily.

He jumps on the side of a tree and springs himself towards Tails and lands infront of him, still soggy and wet and breathing heavily from all the running he was doing. Tails comes to a dead stop when Nine lands in front of him and starts laughing as Nine punches his shoulder repeatedly.

"What did fuck did you do that for?!" Nine shouts.

"Consider it revenge for teasing me last night" Tails responds with a smirk.

Nine snatches his clothes and towel from Tails as he continues laughing his butt off infront of him. Then Tails stops laughing, something about Nine has his attention... A familiar smell, he gets close to Nine who jumps a bit when Tails gets close and sniffs him.

"You didn't use your cleaning kit yet right?" Tails asks.

"I didn't get the chance to" Nine responds.

Tails looks down at the floor and thinks for a second, then he looks back up at Nine who smells himself and notices he has conditioner on his fur.

"Sonic..." Tails says, realising what this meant.

He runs back towards the lake, Nine follows after him, putting on his cleaner clothes and running after Tails. When Taiks gets back to the lake, scoops up some water and sniffs it. He can smell the conditioner, shampoo, some more cleaning products... And Sonic. He looks up around him and finally notices the giant tree sticking up threw the tree line above.

He pulls his goggles over his eyes and presses a few buttons, a pair of tracks could be seen leading up to the tree and then they disappear, Tails lifts his goggles off his face and looks up, Nine does the same.

"He's up there?" Nine asks.

"...Yeah... He's okay... That's good" Tails responds.

Nine puts his hand on Tails' shoulder, the fox turns around and hugs Nine tightly, even though he's still soaking wet.

"Let's pack up and fly up there" Tails says.

"Right" Nine responds.

With that the boys run back to the camp so they can pack up the camp and go find Sonic. Tails feels eager to see him again, his heart filled with hope. Which begs the question, will there be conflict...

---

Sonic is sat down infront of the sunrise, the rising sun was blinding almost, yet beautiful. Watching it reminds him of the view from back in his universe, the thought of the sunlight hitting the sparkling water soothes him. Mangey comes and sits next to Sonic holding two wood cups, he hands one to Sonic and licks his face.

"Morning Mangey" Sonic says.

Mangey barks and takes a sip of the liquid in the cup, sort of a tea he made to wake him up.

"How did you sleep?" Sonic asks.

Mangey gives him a thumbs up and puts his hand on his shoulder.

"I slept fine... Even though you were squeezing me the entire night" Sonic says, his eye twitching slightly.

Mangey scratches the back of his head, grinning sort of like an embarrassed child.

"It's fine though... Tails does the same thing sometimes" Sonic says, putting his hand on his back.

The hedgehog takes a sip of the tea Mangey have him, it's tart and has a slight kick to it, but Sonic actually enjoys it surprisingly.

"This is pretty good" Sonic says to Mangey.

"Teep" Mangey goes.

Sonic sighs, "It's pronounced "Tea""

Mangey's ear perks when he hears Sonic say that, "Tea?... Tea!"

"You're a fast learner" Sonic says pulling him onto his lap, the hedgehog adoring how much of a goober he was.

Sonic finishes the tea in his cup and presents it to Mangey, "This is a "cup""

"Cup" Mangey goes, smiling excitedly.

"See, fast learner" Sonic says, kissing his cheek.

Mangey moans and rests his head on his chest and laughs happily. Sonic wraps his arms around him and nuzzles his face. Mangey grabs his face and starts kissing him passionately, Sonic puts his hand on his chest, Mangey's chest feels almost like jackhammer.

While the two continue to enjoy eachother's company, a shadow sneaks up from behind them, quietly, like a predator stalking their pray... Sonic suddenly yanked backwards by this shadow before he can even react, and it's no other than Tails who fires a firey death stare at Mangey and he holds Sonic close to him.

"What the hell are you doing?!" Tails shouts, visibly infuriated.

When Mangey sees Tails, holding Sonic away from him, his heart sinks and what rises from the ocean in his heart is hot blooded rage. He starts snarling at Tails, bearing his fangs at him. Nine runs up from behind just as the snarling and growling starts.

"Wh-Whoa! Tails! Wait, he's not hurting me" Sonic says, panicking slightly.

"Why did he take you from us then?!" Tails screams while still glaring Mangey down.

Mangey stands straight up and gets ready to jump onto Tails. Sonic stands up and holds the two back from eachother, the last thing he wanted was for Tails to rough him up badly.

"Tails! Stop! He just wanted someone to talk to, that's all" Sonic says.

"You were kissing him!" Tails shouts.

"It just happened!" Sonic shouts back.

"Kissing him just happened!?"

"He's just like Nine! There was a version of me he loved, and now he's dead! Can you blame him?!"

"Ahhhhh!" Tails shouts, turning away and rubbing his head aggressively.

Sonic shows Mangey his hand and Mangey stops snarling so he can take it.

"See... He's not a threat" Sonic says, looking up at Tails.

Tails rubs his face and looks back at Sonic, seeing how serious Sonic's face was. Tails, reluctantly calms down as well and embraces him.

"I was so worried about you" Tails whimpers.

"I know" Sonic goes, embracing him back.

Sonic lets go of Tails and stands behind Mangey putting his hands on his shoulders.

"Tails, Nine... This is Mangey, he's our resident jungle guy I guess. He doesn't know how to speak really well, but I kinda wanna show him how. I promise Tails, he's not a threat, if he was I'd be in much worse shape, trust me" Sonic says.

Tails sighs and looks at Mangey who just frowns at Tails. Though not very fond of the way he met him, Tails is willing to see if he can befriend Mangey, maybe even create a similar brotherly relationship like the one he had with Nine.

"Okay, fine... I'll trust him" Tails says.

"Whatever" Nine goes.

Sonic looks down at Mangey who nods reluctantly. He breathes a sigh of relief, happy to have defused the confrontation for now. But there's one more thing that Tails and Nine need to know about...

"Now for the second thing I should probably forget" Sonic says.

"What?" Tails goes.

"There's a Ruby of Lust here" Sonic says.

Both their eyes go wide, they look at eachother and back to Sonic, Tails had the feeling something bought them here, he just wasn't hoping it would be one of those gems.

"That means-" Tails starts.

"Answers" Nine goes, finishing his sentence.