Archive of Our Own ^beta

Chapter Text

“Who wants another s'more!”

From across the campfire, Tails let out a pained groan while Knuckles punched a fist in the air. With a devilish grin, Sonic tossed his friends the base supplies of the graham crackers, chocolate, and marshmallows, Knuckles catching his with enthusiasm and Tails with a great deal of reluctance.

It was just the three of them on their camping trip that night, Tom and Maddie trusting them just barely enough to leave them unsupervised for the evening while they had their date night knitting, baking sourdough, crafting ventriloquist dummies, or doing whatever lame new hobby they had picked up in their spare time. The trust was a very fragile thing, though, if the sheer amount of threats and exclamations of I swear to all that is holy, if you guys cause any sort of trouble, you are all grounded! were any indication.

Sonic smiled at his two friends as they settled in to toast their marshmallows (or in Knuckles’ case, burn to a charred crisp), but the expression was strained. Because truth be told, despite the warm company he found himself surrounded by, the glow of the fire between them, and the sweet treats he held out in offering, Sonic was far from content.  

Everything here… the camping, the s'mores, the friends... it was all a distraction from the thoughts that had been plaguing his mind the past few days. No, the past few weeks. Ever since he had saved the earth from Robotnik’s weapon of mass destruction, there had been one thing occupying his brain, one person who he couldn’t stop thinking about.

Shadow.

His doppelganger, his rival, his nemesis… but at the end, his ally. If only for a brief, fleeting moment in the span that they had known each other, but it had been a moment nonetheless. After he had lost control of the Chaos Emeralds, the power bleeding from him as his unconscious body had plummeted towards Earth and away from Robotnik’s ship, he hadn’t seen him. Tails had told him that the Chaos Energy within the weapon had exceeded capacity and blown up with both Eggman inside and Shadow pushing it away and out into the cosmos. According to Tails’ calculations and theorized simulation of the blast, both of them should have been deceased.

But Sonic didn’t believe it. If Eggman could come back from the dead twice, then Shadow, with the godlike power of his Super form, could survive an explosion in space. Right?

Sonic wasn’t entirely sure why, but he wanted to believe that to be the case.

He had spent far more time searching for Shadow than was justifiable. All of the debris from the blast had been examined excessively— multiple times over the past few weeks. Looking for something, anything to indicate that he was still alive. A shoe, a quill, a footprint… Sonic wasn’t picky. But despite his efforts, he didn’t find anything. No sign of life, though no corpses either, and it was this lack of evidence towards Shadow’s demise that had Sonic cling to some odd, unfathomable glimmer of hope.

He wasn’t sure why he cared so much. And because of this, he didn’t bother bringing up his internal storm of conflicting thoughts and emotions to his friends or parents, because he knew if they started to ask him questions, he wouldn’t have any answers.

What he did know, though, was that if Shadow was alive, he had no one. No friends, no family, no place to go. And it was this thought that constantly haunted him and made it impossible for Sonic to truly enjoy living life. Even now, with Tails and Knuckles by his side, happily chattering away as they ate their s'mores without a care in the world, Sonic couldn’t help but sit there and think about how all the treasures he possessed were the things that Shadow didn’t have.

“Sonic? Hey, Sonic? Are you listening?”

The hedgehog in question blinked as he realized he had zoned out again, tearing his eyes away from the dark forest behind them to turn towards Tails.  This had been a recurring problem as of late, one that seemed to have no remedy. “Er, yes?”

“If you were listening,” Knuckles demanded from across the campfire, leaning forward so that his elbows rested on his knees, “then what was I saying?”

Sonic licked his lips, offering his friends a weak, apologetic shrug for the absolute fictitious garbage he was about to utter. “Uh, that your, um, fists are really big… and that you’re one million percent? Muscle?” As he spoke, his voice steadily rose in pitch, delivering his entire answer as a question.

By some miracle, he managed to guess the correct response. “Actually, yes. That was exactly what I was talking about. Perhaps you were listening.”

Tails, unfortunately for Sonic, wasn’t buying it. “You were doing that thing again,” he said in a soft tone as Knuckles began to stuff his face with more s'mores, temporarily exiting the conversation due to his muscular physique being acknowledged and bringing him momentary satisfaction.

“Doing what thing again?”

Tails extended Sonic a flat look. “That thing where you stare pensively out into the forest and completely ignore us?”

“Oh,” Sonic awkwardly laughed, “yeah. That thing.”

“Is everything okay?”

Sonic grimaced, sucking in air through his teeth before averting his gaze from Tails. “I…” he began, before hesitating. Because what was he supposed to say? Yeah buddy, I’m totally fine, except for the fact that I can’t stop thinking about the darker, eviler version of me who tried to kill us multiple times and who I only worked together with for a brief moment because we had to in order to save the world. Yeah, remember that guy? I can’t get him off my mind, and I don’t know what to do about it.

He always told Tails everything. Well, almost everything. He still hadn’t told him that the reason his plane had inexplicably broken down a month ago and had been out of commission for a week was because Sonic had tried to use the engine to heat up a chili dog by dropping it inside, before realizing that he had no feasible way to get it out, nor did he think he would ever share that little secret. But anyways, glancing between his best friend and where Knuckles was busy applying a heavy dollop of whipped cream to his confectionery creation, he decided that this was neither the time nor place to talk about his strange obsession.

And quite frankly, he wasn’t sure if that time or place would ever come around.

Sonic sighed, running a hand through his quills. “Yeah Tails, I’m okay, thanks for asking.” He offered his friend a weak smile, because it technically was the truth. He was okay. It was Shadow that he was concerned about.

“The fox is asking if you’re okay because you clearly need another s'more.” Knuckles took a large bite of his own treat, the excessive whipped cream sagging off the edge and dribbling on to his gloves. He didn’t bother to swallow before he spoke. “As of right now, I have eaten three more than you. And this time, you need to add way more cheese whip. You didn’t add enough to your last one because you are weak and unworthy.”  

“He didn’t add cheese because you’re the only one here who likes that topping, Knuckles.” Tails stuck out a tongue, making a face. It was important to note that between the three, Tails constructed the most normal s'mores, opting for the basics of graham crackers, chocolate, and marshmallows toasted to scientific perfection. No extra stuff necessary. “That stuff is disgusting. Right, Sonic?”

As his friends spoke, Sonic had begun to tune them out once more, his gaze drifting back out to the forest. It was so dark out there, so cold, so lonely. Is that how Shadow was feeling right at that moment? Dark, cold, and lonely?

“Sonic?”

Sonic blinked, looking back towards Tails and Knuckles with a sheepish expression. He had been caught doing the thing… again. And only about a minute and thirty-six seconds had elapsed since the last time his attention drifted. Holy crap, he needed to get a grip.

His mind racing to come up with an excuse, he found himself confronted by Tails’ look of genuine concern, and Knuckles’ look of confusion. “I, uh…” he stammered, wracking his brain for an excuse, for something to explain his odd behavior that preferably didn’t involve bringing up Shadow. Because that would not only be weird, but also wildly random. Sonic could probably count on one hand the number of times they had brought him up since the conclusion of their latest adventure.

Eventually, he settled on saying, “I think I ate too many s'mores. I don’t feel very good.” Both were true. He had eaten too many s'mores, and he really didn’t feel all the good, but the important footnote here was that those two things were unrelated. Not that Tails and Knuckles needed to be privy to that small, tiny detail. “I might have to go on a run to clear my head.”

“Weak and unworthy,” Knuckles reiterated with a disappointed shake of his head, having the decency to at least swallow before he spoke this time. “There is a reason I am the champion of the s'mores and you are not!”

Sonic stood up to take his leave, patting Knuckles on the shoulder as he passed by. “You know what, man, you can have that title. It’s all yours.”

His voice and delivery had been completely sarcastic, however, since Knuckles didn’t understand the subtleties of tone and body language, he punched a massive fist into the air in triumph. “Aha!” he cried out with far more enthusiasm than the situation warranted, “I am victorious once again! All must bow to my might and power as the king of the s'mores!”

Tails had a slightly different reaction to Sonic’s departure. “Are you sure you’ll be all right, Sonic?”

Sonic gave him a tired, indulgent smile as he ruffled the unruly tuft of fur on his head. “I’ll be fine, buddy, thanks for asking. I’ll be back soon. I probably just need to go run off some of this excess sugar or puke in a bush or something.” It wasn’t exactly a lie. He really had eaten a few too many s'mores in a desperate attempt to keep up with Knuckles and prevent him from gloating about his superiority. It had been futile, of course, but that didn’t mean that Sonic was going to let it happen without trying.

And with that, Sonic turned his back on the fire and his friends, venturing out into the dark, chilly forest that surrounded them. Behind him, he could hear Knuckles offer Tails the can of cheese whip to top off his s'more, thus sparking a debate about whether such a thing even belonged on s'mores in the first place.

To be honest, it was a conversation Sonic didn’t really mind missing out on.

For what was perhaps the first time in his life, he didn’t feel like running. Sure, it may have helped cool his head, but it was dark out and he wasn’t really in the mood to trip on an errant tree root and faceplant. That, and there was far too much on his mind, too many things weighing him down to feel like he wouldn't even get a good run if he tried.

Soon, the dim light of the fire faded behind him, and Sonic was completely alone in the forest. It was not unlike his early days on earth, back when he had lived in his cave and had no one. He remembered how lonely he had felt, how desperate he had been for someone to talk to, much less a friend. Those had been some of the worst days of his life, especially in the winter when the Montana snow had been thick and cold.

He wondered if perhaps his own experiences were why he couldn’t stop thinking about Shadow. Because he knew what it felt like to be alone, how soul-crushing and depressing it had been.

Sonic sighed as he walked. Perhaps he would go out and look for him again the next day, if only to ease his consciousness. To ease the guilt he felt about having unintentionally abandoning Shadow in that crucial moment, leaving him alone to push the massive weapon away from earth’s orbit to save the planet. To ease the guilt that he knew exactly how Shadow had felt, and hadn’t been able to do more to help him.

Maybe he would try Siberia. There was always a chance that he had missed some of the debris in the snowy, mountainous landscape, and perhaps he could pay his old friends at the bar a visit and—

Snap.

His ears perking up, Sonic froze. In all of his rumination, he had completely neglected to see the figure standing in front of him, only the outline of their form visible in the gloom of the forest.

Okay, so that definitely wasn’t creepy at all.

“Um, hello?” Sonic called out warily, his fingers flexing by his side as he prepared to either fight or run. His recent track record of running into mysterious creatures seemed to always result in his butt being handed to him, so he didn’t want to be too cocky just yet. “Super creepy person standing in the middle of a dark forest? Can I help you?”

In front of him, the figure didn’t move or say anything, which was somehow creepier than if they had.

“Excuse me, I don’t know if you know this, but just standing there and not saying anything when I ask you a question isn’t really helping you seem any less like a weirdo.” Sonic hated the way his voice wavered and betrayed some of the nerve he felt. He was supposed to be a super awesome, super cool hero, and super awesome-super cool heroes didn’t get scared by random people who hung out in the forest in the middle of the night, and yet, here he was. Just a little scared.

(For the record, Knuckles would have lost his mind by now, but that wasn’t really important at the moment.)

With a gulp, Sonic prepared to walk forward and approach the strange person standing in front of him… however, after a moment, they lifted their head ever-so-slightly, revealing two crimson eyes that gleamed ominously in the dark.

Sonic’s jaw dropped. There was no mistaking who this was.

“Shadow?” he asked incredulously, not trusting his eyesight in the inky forest. It didn’t really help that the hedgehog’s fur was, well, black, making him blend in nearly perfectly with their surroundings. It made sense that Sonic hadn’t known who he was or that he was there in the first place.

The figure in front of him grunted in response, stepping forward into the small clearing and revealing that it was, in fact, Shadow. “Of course it is. Who else would I be?”

Sonic let out a sigh of relief. Which was kind of an odd reaction, given that Shadow was hands-down the toughest foe he had fought yet, and he had no idea if he was hostile or not at the current moment. “That’s fair, though you would be surprised at the number of zany, colorful characters that just seem to show up around here. It’s honestly a little weird.”

Shadow sniffed derisively. “Don’t associate me with your idiotic friends,” he scoffed. “I look nothing like them.”

An awkward laugh escaped Sonic’s lips. “You know what, you’re completely correct. You’re a little too goth and edgy… you’re going to need more than the red in your highlights to fit in with us.”

For some reason, Sonic’s quip caused Shadow to react rather strongly, his scowl deepening into a sneer as he crossed his arms sharply across his chest. “It’s bold of you to assume that I want to do something as stupid as sit around a fire and eat gross, sugary food and sleep in a forest for no reason,” he groused, pointedly turning away and sticking his nose into the air in a picture of disgust.

Sonic was about to respond by saying that listen, I know the way that Knuckles makes his s'mores is pretty nasty, but don’t lump the rest of us in with him! when he had a realization. How had he known what they were doing… unless…? “Wait, hold on, were you… spying? On us?”

And then, once Shadow did nothing other than glare at him with vitriolic scarlet eyes, Sonic had a second realization. Something that was far more important than any of the meaningless banter they had engaged in thus far, the very thing that had been occupying his mind for the past few weeks.

“And wait another second, what? You survived?”

Shadow’s face scrunched up, displaying yet another expression of displeasure. In the back of his mind, Sonic wondered if he always looked so grumpy and sour. “Of course I survived,” he practically spat, as though he were offended by the insinuation that there was even a chance that he hadn’t. “I don’t know why you would expect anything else.”

“I— you know what, that’s completely understandable, that’s on me,” Sonic said, lifting his hands up in mock surrender. “But, at the same, can you blame me? We all thought you, well, died.”

Shadow let out a derisive hmph! “It’ll take more than a giant explosion of Chaos Energy in space to kill me, you obnoxiously blue hedgehog.”

Sonic wisely chose to ignore the insult as he pressed forward. “Yeah, but if that’s the case, where have you been? I’ve been looking everywhere for you.”

Shadow’s demeanor shifted as he tilted his head towards Sonic, a strange glint in his eye that very well could have been a trick of the dim moonlight they found themselves standing under. “You… were looking for me?”

Throwing his hands up in the air, Sonic let out a groan of exasperation, as though it was the most obvious thing in the world. “Well duh, of course I have been! What, did you think I would just, I don’t know, forget about the guy who I turned all super and crazy and golden with and saved the world?!”

Shadow didn’t say anything, simply looking at Sonic with an unreadable expression on his face. Almost as if he were studying him, and Sonic shifted uncomfortably under the sudden scrutiny he faced. “Yes,” he answered truthfully after a long, drawn-out moment, and in that moment, where they were, who he was talking to, came crashing down on Sonic all at once.

“Shadow…” he asked slowly, as though he were talking to a skittish animal (which was technically not an incorrect way to describe the situation), “why… why are you here?”

There was another pause, this one longer than the last. Shadow merely stared at Sonic, harsh and unblinking, before seeming to come to a decision as he straightened his posture and puffed his chest out. “Coming here was a mistake.”

He turned to walk away, but before he had the chance to skate, or teleport, or exit in whatever dramatic fashion he chose to, Sonic leapt forwards and shot a hand out, clamping it around Shadow’s wrist. The reaction was instant, the contact causing Shadow to whip his head back towards Sonic and pin him with a glare so venomous, so scathing that Sonic nearly released his grip on instinct. The silent promise in Shadow’s eyes that if he didn’t let go, he was probably going to punch him in the face did not go unnoticed by Sonic, however, instead of shying away, he narrowed his eyes and tightened his hold, consequences be damned.

“Let go of me.” Shadow’s voice was low and menacing— more so than usual, which was honestly quite impressive.

“No,” Sonic responded, and he was thankful that none of the terror that gripped his heart as he stared into the face of the creature that could give him a black eye (if he was feeling nice) bled into his voice. Sonic had a pretty big ego, which meant that something such as a voice crack would be the most embarrassing thing, like, ever.

Shadow’s frown deepened, attempting to pull his arm away. Sonic’s grip only tightened. “Release me. Now.”

“Not until you tell me why you’re here.”

The frown on Shadow’s face shifted into a scowl, revealing a pair of fangs that glinted dangerously in the moonlight. “That’s none of your business, hedgehog.”

“Um, well, yeah, it kind of is my business, dude. If you’re skulking and lurking around the forest in the place that I live in, with my friends nearby, I kind of want to know why!”

For some reason, there was something in Sonic’s statement that pushed Shadow over the edge, for with a crinkling of his nose, he lifted up one of his massive shoes and planted a kick solidly in Sonic’s abdomen before he had the chance to react. Instantly losing his grip, he was knocked backwards, sliding across the forest floor until his momentum was stopped as he collided with the base of a tree not too far away. Even though Sonic could tell that he was going to have a pretty sizable lump on his back the next day, he knew that the kick had been a very minimal display of violence on Shadow’s part. He knew what he was truly capable of. He had held back.

That didn’t stop him from complaining about it, though. “Ugh, dude, that was so not cool,” he moaned as he sat up, rubbing his back. The spot was tender to the touch, but miraculously, no ribs had been broken.

From across the streak in the dirt that stretched between them, Shadow looked down at Sonic with an expression of displeasure. “I told you to let go,” he growled, his fists clenching at his side. “It’s your fault for not listening to me.”

To be fair, Shadow did kind of-sort of have a point. Still, that didn’t stop the throbbing sensation in Sonic’s body that made him release an unbecoming groan. “And I just wanted to know why you were here,” he retorted, trying and failing to keep the pain from seeping into his tone. Shadow had already called him a weakling once; he didn’t want to provide any additional evidence to support that claim. “That’s not even that crazy of a question.” With a grunt, he picked out some of the sticks that had gotten caught in his quills, tossing them to the side as he grimaced. The dirt from his unceremonious slide was embedded into his fur… it was going to be real pain in the butt to clean later.

Shadow watched Sonic’s pitiful attempt at grooming himself with disdain, but didn't say anything. Which honestly wasn't all that surprising given that he didn't speak all that much to begin with, but still. Sonic needed an answer. 

"I'm going to ask you one more time," he said with more firmness, more force than he had used before. "Why are you here, Shadow?"

There was a beat, and then Shadow finally spoke. “I think you already know the answer to that,” he muttered, turning away from Sonic.

He paused, and Sonic’s eyes widened as he realized what was about to happen. Pushing himself to his feet and swallowing the scream of protest his aching muscles threatened to release, he reached a desperate hand out towards his rival. “Shadow, wait!”

It was too late. Without another word, Shadow teleported away, leaving Sonic alone in the forest with his hand still stretched out towards nothing. The only evidence that Shadow had ever been there, other than the bruises on Sonic’s body, was the disturbance of the low mist that clung to the mossy ground.

Biting his lip, Sonic lowered his hand to his side in contemplation. Okay. What the heck had that been all about?

He felt incredibly conflicted and confused about the whole interaction. On one hand, he finally had his answer to Shadow’s fate. He was, for better or worse, very alive. This in itself opened up so many questions, though, such as how did he survive? What had he been up to? Where had he been for the past few weeks?

And most importantly, the question that Sonic had wanted answered the most—why was he in Green Hills, of all places?

In the silence of the forest, Shadow’s last words echoed in Sonic’s mind. I think you already know the answer to that.

Sonic's fingers curled by his side, the ghost of Shadow's wrist still echoing in his hand. He wasn’t entirely sure that he did know the answer.

But that brought him to why he was conflicted. While he felt a very odd, strange sense of relief at Shadow’s survival (and this unsettling feeling was something he would have to examine and unpack later), it was only one side of the coin. Shadow was dangerous. He had proven that countless times again; just because he had a change of heart when the fate of the world was at stake, didn’t necessarily say much about his morals. For the majority of the time that Sonic had known him, he had been hellbent on revenge. Sure, their little chat on the moon had shown a shift in perspective, but the truth of the matter was, Sonic didn’t know Shadow. And because of this, he couldn’t be trusted.

But even with that lack of trust, he hadn’t come here to harm him. Well, Sonic had been harmed, technically, but that was self-inflicted and ultimately beside the point. If Shadow had wanted to cause conflict, he would have attacked Sonic and his friends while they were distracted with their s'mores. He had already demonstrated quite clearly that he could easily take the three of them on in a fight, no distractions or tricks necessary. Not choose to reveal himself when Sonic was on his own, away from the campsite.

Sonic sighed as he turned away from where Shadow had disappeared. Enough time had elapsed that the mist had settled in to fill the space left in his absence, and now the only proof that Shadow had ever been there at all were his memories and the aches on his body.

Lingering here was pointless. He needed to return to his friends before they got worried, or even worse, decided to come out and look for him. Sonic needed some time to reflect on his walk back before deciding what to tell them. Oddly enough, there was a sliver of hesitation within him, one that made him uncertain if he wanted to tell Tails and Knuckles what had happened and who he had just encountered in the forest.

And by the time he returned to the campsite, that sliver in his chest had blossomed into a full-blown flower of doubt.  

“Sonic! There you are!” Tails exclaimed, leaping to his feet upon seeing him. “Where have you been? We were just about to come looking for you!”

“Yes, and point at you and laugh at you if we found you doing something embarrassing!”

Tails gave Knuckles a tired side-eye before turning back to Sonic, who had returned to his seat by the fire without saying anything. “Sonic, you look troubled. What happened? Is everything okay?”

Knuckles merely laughed, a stark contrast to Tails’ panicky concern. “Ha! He looks sweaty and pale and sickly because he probably threw up all of his s'mores! Ha ha!”

Under most circumstances, Sonic would deny such an insulting claim. Him, not capable of keeping a few measly s'mores down? Please. He was built of tougher stuff, he didn’t have the stomach of a wimp. He couldn’t afford to, since running as fast as he did had the propensity to be a nauseating experience at times.

However, the alternative of denying Knuckles’ accusation would be to tell them truth. To tell his two best friends that while in the forest, he had come across Shadow, who was very much alive and not dead, and that after a few cryptic words that literally made no sense, had disappeared off into the night.

The indecision in his chest took root, sending up leafy tendrils that got lodged in his throat and rendered him unable to talk. He should tell them the truth. They were a team, friends, a family, and family told each other everything. They didn’t keep secrets.

And yet, as he opened his mouth to speak, to tell Tails and Knuckles that Shadow was out there and they had to go find him, he hesitated. Because even though Shadow was dangerous and unpredictable, it didn’t seem like his intent had been to hurt Sonic. He had just seemed, well, lost. Confused. Purposeless.

And how would he manage to convince Tails and Knuckles that he wasn’t a threat? That they didn't need to go out and find him and stop him before he could cause irreparable harm to the Earth?

The answer was that he didn’t think that he could. So with that in his mind, closing his mouth, Sonic swallowed thickly.

“Well?” Tails prompted him, and it occurred to Sonic that he had just been sitting there, staring at them in silence.

Blinded by the spotlight he suddenly found himself under, Sonic panicked and latched on to what Knuckles had said, that being the first thing to spring into his mind. “I, uh, yeah! Whew! That was honestly pretty crazy, but I feel much better now! Stomach, empty! So, um, guys? Maybe try staying away from the cheese whip, I think it might have gone bad.”

Knuckles laughed at him again in a voice thick with mirth, while Tails arched an eyebrow. “Sonic, you’re covered in dirt and you have twigs stuck in your fur.”

Sonic didn’t miss a beat. “Oh yeah, do I now? Well if you think I look bad, you should see that bush, if you know what I’m saying.” He chuckled awkwardly, placing his hands on his hips in a false display of confident bravado. “Sonic one, random bush in the forest that is totally empty and has no alien hedgehogs that look suspiciously like me in it, zero!”

“Yeah…” Tails said uncertainly, “…um… sure.”

“Now, where were we?” Sonic asked, not dropping the act for one second. Not with the way Tails was staring at him in suspicion, far too smart for his own good. “Oh yeah, that’s right! We were going to scare Knuckles by telling him spooky ghost stories! Isn’t that right, guys?”

At Sonic’s suggestion, Tails slightly relaxed, whereas Knuckles had the complete opposite reaction. “Yeah, I suppose it is that time!” Tails said at the exact moment Knuckles exclaimed, “Oh no, we are not doing that!”

Struggling to conceal his sigh of relief, Sonic practically lunged for the flashlight, and casting it across his face at an eerie angle, launched into a story that probably would need a few passes through an editor before it could ever be considered for publication.

(Not that the quality really mattered, because Knuckles was really just that easy to scare.)

Later in the evening, after many stories had been exchanged and the fire had dwindled to a few smoldering embers that cast a dim glow around the circle, Sonic laid in his sleeping bag, staring thoughtfully at the sky. It was quiet, save for the humming and buzz of the forest around them and the sound of Knuckles’ snoring as he slept beside Sonic.

Tails, on the other hand, was still wide awake, as he cut through the silence with his soft, whispering voice, one laced with uncertainty. “Sonic, we’re your friends, correct?”

“Of course, Tails,” Sonic responded without hesitation. “You guys aren’t just my friends, you’re my best friends. My family.”

“So then, you would tell us if there was something on your mind, right?”

It was a clear night; there were no clouds to obstruct his view of the stars that twinkled down upon them. Sonic found himself distantly wondering if Shadow was staring at the same sky he was.

“I tell you guys everything,” Sonic said after a moment. He hated the fact that it was a blatant lie, and yet, he still couldn’t bring himself to tell them about Shadow. He tried to justify it to himself by thinking that he was doing it for their own good, that he didn’t want to make them worry.

However, he knew it was deeper than that. And that thought made him deeply uncomfortable.

“Okay, Sonic, I believe you,” Tails murmured, and Sonic could hear the poorly-concealed sleepiness in his voice. “Best friends forever, right?”

Sonic smiled softly, the gesture directed towards the sky but meant for Tails. “Best friends forever,” he agreed in a whisper. “Good night, buddy.”

As Tails drifted off to sleep beside him, Sonic continued to stare towards the stars. He would tell them in the morning… maybe. Or maybe if he saw Shadow again, he would bring it up. But not now. Not when he didn’t know why Shadow was lurking so close to them, likely observing them from the edge of their campsite at that very moment.  

The thought leaping unbidden to the forefront of his mind, Sonic suddenly became aware to the high likelihood that he was being watched, being examined. Lifting his head up, he looked across the clearing of their campsite to see what he swore were two glowing red eyes staring at him, unblinking in the dark night.

Freezing in his sleeping bag, he could do little else than stare back with wide eyes as he sat there paralyzed.

And after what felt like an eternity, even though it was probably no longer than ten seconds, Sonic finally willed himself to blink, and when his eyes opened, he found himself staring at nothing. The shadowy figure that had been watching him was gone.

Letting out the breath he had been holding, Sonic laid his head back down onto his pillow, his heart racing. Shadow’s presence, while somewhat relieving, brought up so many questions.

Primarily, of all the places in the world, why are you here, Shadow?

As he stared wistfully up at the starry sky stretched above him, Sonic heard Shadow’s voice respond in his head, deep and raspy and carrying a lifetime of hurt and burden in his tone.

You already know the answer to that.

And as he drifted off to a restless sleep, Sonic had a sneaking suspicion that he did.

Chapter Text

Sonic didn’t see Shadow for a while after their encounter in the forest.

He had been on high alert for the first week, always checking over his shoulder, his ears perked and fingers curled, ready for action. But even when Shadow hadn’t appeared, nor any murky figures that vaguely resembled him, Sonic found it hard to relax. Primarily because he still had no idea why Shadow had been skulking around in the forest in the first place. He hadn’t received a direct answer, and his imagination couldn’t procure anything other than very outlandish, nefarious reasons.

Maybe he wanted to blow up the moon.

Oh wait. That had already happened. And that had been Knuckles, Tails, and Eggman’s fault. 

Or maybe he wants to exact his revenge on me for abandoning him at the Eclipse Cannon, since revenge is sort of his thing.

That one was a little more valid. But then again, since Shadow hadn't died pushing the ship away from the planet's atmosphere, then what vendetta would he have against Sonic? It didn't make any sense. 

Despite his racing thoughts that ran faster than his feet tearing through the dirt at top speed, Sonic found no resolution. And even worse, he had no one to talk about it, because as the days passed and Shadow failed to reappear, he figured that informing everyone about his survival would cause more problems than he would want to deal with.

In fact, he could almost hear what they would say in response, their voices clear in his ear.

“We need to go inform G.U.N., now.”

“Using my gadgets, I can locate his Chaos Energy signature so we can find him and take him down!”

“I must go search for him, so I can punch him! In the face!”

“Or, maybe, we could just show him how to make sourdough?”

Yeah, no, none of that would do. Especially the last one.

So he continued to brood and contemplate, though unfortunately for him, his pensive reflections did not go unnoticed by his friends and family.

“You seem kind of distracted, buddy,” Tom had commented one morning at breakfast.

Sonic had tried to laugh it off, and failed miserably as he instead sounded like a dying animal which unfortunately for him, attracted the attention of the rest of the people at the table and hadn't been the intent at all. “Me? Distracted? What in the world would give you that idea?”

Across the table, Maddie extended him a concerned expression. “Well, for starters, you’re putting strawberry jam on your toast.”

Sonic raised an eyebrow. “So?”

Maddie’s concerned expression flattened. “Sonic, you hate strawberry-flavored things.”

Pausing mid-bite, Sonic looked down at the toast he had suspended in the air. To be fair, she was absolutely correct. Sonic found that strawberry foods tasted too sweet and fake for his personal taste, and because of this, he let the lump of half-chewed strawberry jam and bread in his mouth fall out and onto the table with a resounding plop!

Across from him, Tom let out a groan, pinching the bridge of his nose between his fingers. “Hey, Sonic, what did we tell you about table manners?”

Sonic sighed. “Don’t let food fall out of your mouth when being dramatic,” he recited mechanically, “ even if it’s really funny, for your information!”

To his right, Tails offered his input in between bites of his scrambled eggs. “I mean, it was kind of gross, if I’m being honest.”

Knuckles, on his other side, laughed. “You have no sense of humor, fox. That was hilarious!”

While Sonic was flattered that at least Knuckles found his slapstick funny, he felt a bit conflicted. Being supported by only Knuckles wasn’t exactly a compliment.

“Listen, people, sometimes a guy just wants to try new things! Is that really so strange to see?”

Everyone at the table gave each other a dubious look before turning back to Sonic, and after a beat, they all said in impressive synchronization: “Yes.”

So much for always being supported by his loved ones.

But anyways, to prove his point that he definitely wasn’t just acting spacey and he really did want to try new things such as strawberry jam on his toast, Sonic had forced himself to eat the rest of it. It was horrible and vile and disgusting and literally the worst thing he had ever eaten, but it had shifted some of the attention off of his strange behavior, and for that, he figured that it was worth it.

Even without the constant scrutiny he found himself under, Sonic still struggled. No matter what he did to move on with his life, he couldn’t stop thinking about Shadow. About why he was in Green Hills. About how he was still alone. About how he had nowhere to go, no one to turn to.

And so, one evening, Sonic decided that he needed to go on a nice, long run to take his mind off things. It was the only way he could think to distract himself, since his family was obnoxiously perceptive to the fact that something was bothering him, they just couldn’t figure out what it was.

(Though to be fair, how could they? It was widely accepted that Shadow had died, and it was very unlikely that Sonic of all people would be the one to care so much about his well-being in the minuscule chance he had survived.)

Regardless. Allowing himself a few minutes to stretch out his stiff muscles, Sonic didn’t waste any time taking to the roads. He decided that he didn’t want to go very far, figuring that staying within the county of Green Hills was probably a better idea than sprinting off to somewhere crazy like the Panama Canal, the Patagonia Mountains, or worse, North Dakota.

There were few things he could imagine that were worse than North Dakota. Yeah, sure, it bordered Montana and all, so one could argue that it wasn’t all that different, but still! Have you met the people there, or one should say, the lack of people there? Sheesh. What a bunch of weirdoes.

Anyways. As he began his run, the anxious, pensive energy that had been building up under his skin the past week was finally released, and as he flew through the trees with a crackle of electric cerulean trailing behind him, Sonic couldn’t help but let out a genuine laugh.

The wind in his fur, the crisp smell of the forest, the feeling of his feet slapping against the ground… it was all so exhilarating, and as the miles passed by in a smear, his worries fell away, melting behind him. Sonic was on top of the world, and now that he had really gotten going, there was nothing that could stop him now.

That is, until he collided with something in his path hard, knocking the wind out of him and throwing him off his feet where he landed directly on his face and slid a few feet in the classic scorpion pose, all before tumbling over himself in a mess of limbs.

Ow. That had hurt.

“Ugh, who put that rock there,” Sonic moaned as he swayed to his feet, clutching a hand to his head. Shaking himself to fix his swimming vision, he noted with dismay that during his roll through the dirt, he had soiled his gloves. It kind of begged the question why he chose to wear white in the first place when he lived such an active, outdoorsy lifestyle, but that was beside the point.

Sonic had been busy picking clumps of dirt and rocks out of his quills and blinking the stars out of his eyes when all of a sudden, he heard the rock that he had collided with groan. Freezing, his head snapped up; he didn’t think that rocks could make noise, but hey, there was a first for everything.

However, as the rock moved, which was definitely not possible, Sonic realized that what he had hit wasn’t a rock at all.

It was Shadow.

“Watch where you’re going,” he growled from where he sat sprawled in the dirt, his normal rasp sounding weak; clearly, he had gotten the wind knocked out of him much like Sonic had.  

Sonic could only stare incredulously. “Watch— hello? Watch where I’m going? No, you watch where you’re going. You walked in front of me!”

Shadow stood up, dusting off the dirt on his legs as he did so. It didn’t do much to fix his disheveled appearance (being hit by an alien blue hedgehog running three hundred and twelve miles per hour had the tendency to do that to someone), but it was certainly a start. “You think this is my fault? What kind of lunatic runs through the forest at top speed?”

Sonic opened his mouth to say something along the lines of super cool people, that’s who, when a second, much more pertinent thought hit him. “Wait a minute,” he said, waving his hands around as though to disperse their previous line of conversation, “you’re… still here?”

Shadow levelled a glare at Sonic over the tip of his nose. It was kind of hard to take him seriously with the amount of moss and dirt clinging to his fur, but Sonic figured that he didn’t look much better. “Obviously.” Before Sonic had the chance to answer, Shadow turned to face him fully, his shoulders falling back as he squared him up. “Why do you keep following me?”

Sonic stared at him. “Following you... excuse me, what? I don’t know if you were aware of this little detail, but, I sort of live here?! If anything, you’re the one following me!”

Shadow scowled at him, letting out a derisive hmph! and Sonic figured that was the closest thing he was going to get to Shadow acknowledging that he kind of had a point.

Sonic hesitated. He wanted so badly to ask why, why of all places in the world, Shadow chose to hang around Green Hills, Montana, however, he bit his tongue. The last time he had asked that question so directly, he had gotten a shoe in his stomach and a tree against his back, not to mention the clods of dirt that had been embedded in his fur and had taken about an hour in the tub to scrub out. No, he was not going to be so foolish this time around, even though he itched to ask the question once more.

In his silence, though, Shadow seemed to come to a conclusion, his face contorting into a picture of disgust. “This is pointless. I’m leaving.”

Internally, Sonic panicked. No, he couldn’t do this again, he couldn’t have Shadow walk away and leave him alone with his thoughts, with all of his questions unanswered. He didn’t want to let him out of his sight, scared of spending another indefinite span of time until he had the opportunity to see him again.

And do what when that opportunity arose, he wasn’t quite sure, but that didn’t exactly matter at the moment.

In a rush, Sonic called out to him in a pathetic, desperate voice, “Wait!”

Surprisingly, Shadow did wait, if only because of the despair coloring Sonic’s tone. He lifted an eyebrow in question, and seizing the moment, Sonic rushed forward with the first thing that popped in his mind, the dumbest excuse he could muster to get Shadow to stay.

“Well, since you’re here, are you up for a little race?”

It was the only thing he could think to say, and Sonic almost kicked himself at how lame he sounded. Not that races were lame, no, far from it. However, this was Shadow he was talking to, not Knuckles or Tails. He wasn’t friends with him, not in a way that would make it normal to ask him to partake in any sort of fun activity.

Understandably, Shadow scrunched his face up in confusion, the permanent knot between his brows somehow deepening. “What?” he asked, almost sounding offended that Sonic would ask him such an insane question.

Sonic swallowed awkwardly. Welp, it was too late now. He had to commit to the bit, otherwise he would look even more lame than he already was. “You know, a race? Where two people run from point A to point B and see who the fastest one is? That kind of race?”

“I know what a race is. What I’m asking is why on earth you want to do that.”

Sonic stared at Shadow as if he had grown a second head, really trying to sell that Shadow was the crazy one for questioning him, not Sonic for asking such a ridiculous thing in the first place.  “Um, because that’s what I was doing before you so rudely interrupted me? And because it’s fun?” he asked incredulously, on some genuine degree not able to comprehend Shadow’s criticisms. He knew the guy was kind of a grumpy pants, but this was taking it to a whole new level.

“What’s fun about it? It seems rather purposeless.”

Okay, now Shadow was just being crazy. And with that, Sonic's defense became a little less of an act. “Purposeless? I beg your pardon? I’ll have you know that the purpose is to see which one of us is faster, which one is the superior hedgehog. Unless, of course….” Sonic trailed off, a mischievous grin lighting up his features. “You think that, oh, I don’t know… you might lose to me?”

The challenge couldn’t have been more obvious if he had tried, and as predicted, Shadow took the bait. His back stiffening as he clenched his fist, he took a menacing step towards Sonic in a clear threat. “I would never lose to you.”

Ignoring his ominous body posture, Sonic’s grin deepened. Shadow was exactly where he wanted him, and by that, he meant that he was still here and hadn’t yet left. Perfect. “Oh, is that the case? Then why don’t you go ahead and prove it to me, hm?”

Shadow’s fist lifted as he brought it to rest right in front of Sonic’s nose, the message loud and clear. “You’re on.”

With a laugh, Sonic batted the threatening hand out of the way with a light move with the back of his hand. Despite himself, he felt a thrill of excitement course through him, though whether it was at the prospect of a new competitor or spending time with Shadow, he was uncertain. “That’s what I thought, new guy.”

Drawing a line in the dirt with the tip of his shoe, Sonic settled into position behind the crude marking while Shadow stood beside him, his arms folded over his chest as he gazed down at Sonic despondently.

“Are you going to say your lame catchphrase again?” he asked, not bothering to hide the disgust in his voice.

Sonic snorted. “One, it’s not lame, it’s awesome, and two, you’re just saying that because you’re jealous that you don’t have one!” Patting Shadow on the calf in fake consolation, Sonic didn’t miss how Shadow flinched away at the contact, pulling his leg back and settling a displeased gaze upon Sonic. “Don’t knock it until you try it!”

Shadow’s eyes narrowed. “I’ll knock you up.”

Sonic blinked, thrown off guard for a brief moment before quickly recovering. “Um, yeah, no offense, dude, but I don’t think that means what you think it does.” And before Shadow could ask him to clarify, because truth be told, even Sonic didn’t know what it actually meant, just that it was like super inappropriate, he pointed towards a mountain peak off in the distance, the tip a faint purple smudge no bigger than the last digit of his thumb.

“The first one there wins,” Sonic explained, completely making up the rules as they went along because Tom and Maddie weren’t there to mediate, and he wasn’t about to run off and go get them and then have to explain what the hell he was doing, racing the guy that was supposed to be dead like it was an average Tuesday afternoon. “And no teleporting or doing whatever that flashy move you like to do is, that’s cheating. This is a running race, so no cheap tricks!”

Shadow scoffed as he lowered himself down in the dirt next to Sonic, his gloved hands digging into the moss to stabilize himself. “That’s what someone who is scared of losing this stupid game would say.”

Sonic returned Shadow’s scoff with a bark of laughter straight in his face. “Me? Scared of losing? Ha! I don’ know if you were aware of this, but I’m kind of-sort of the fastest thing alive. If anything, I’m scared that I’ll cream you.”

And before Shadow could say anything in response that could be misconstrued as being inappropriate, because he seemed to have a real knack for unintentionally doing so, Sonic continued talking. “On my mark!” he announced, and beside him, Shadow crouched lower, his body mirroring Sonic’s as they both tensed their muscles in preparation to spring forward. “Ready…. Get set….”

Around them, time stood still, and Sonic took a deep breath, willing the energy in his core to spring to the surface. It raced over his quills like electricity, a living extension of himself. As he closed his eyes in concentration, he could feel Shadow do the same next to him, the golden spark of his Chaos Energy that materialized in the air so familiar and yet so foreign to Sonic. It was like a compliment and a repellent to his own power all at the same time, and the tumultuous reaction couldn't help but fascinate Sonic. 

But enough of that. He had a race to win. 

“Go!”

And with that, both hedgehogs tore off, leaving nothing but gouged earth behind them as they began their race.

It had been going well for the first thirty seconds, Sonic only a few paces ahead of Shadow and unable to gain any more distance on him no matter how he quickened the strike of his shoes against the ground, when he felt something push up roughly against his shoulders. Glancing to his side in shock, he found Shadow body checking him, the surge of his Chaos Energy mingling both uncomfortably and delectably with Sonic’s own power.

“Ow, hey!” Sonic exclaimed, veering away with stumbling steps as the energy prickled and zapped and drew him in all at once. “Dude, what the heck?!”

“You never said anything about not fighting!” Shadow shot back, and Sonic let out a groan and threw his hands up in the air even as his feet continued to move at a speed impossible to discern with the naked eye.

“Well yeah, because it was heavily implied!” Ducking under a fist that would have collided with his cheek if he had been a second delayed, Sonic lost his balance and found himself having to curl up into a ball to roll for a few yards before popping back up. “This isn’t how races really work, you know!”

“Those races seem rather boring,” Shadow snarked, and in all fairness, Sonic found himself unable to argue.

Still. This changed some things. “Well, if that’s how you want to play it,” he muttered under his breath, right before slide tackling Shadow and sending them both tumbling into the underbrush. By some miracle, Sonic ended up on top, pinning Shadow underneath him. The world spun around him, the sudden departure from his maximum speed enough to make him dizzy, but with a brief shake of his head, he plowed through the sensation.

He didn’t waste a second in leaning down into Shadow’s face, who glowered up at him and struggled under his firm grip. "Oh, what's this? Hm, this is so odd... you seem like you're not really enjoying yourself, even though playing this way was your stinking idea." With a snort, Sonic sat back, finding more satisfaction in Shadow's enraged expression than was probably normal. “See you at the finish line,” he quipped, right before launching himself off of Shadow’s torso and taking off before the hedgehog he left in the dust had the chance to respond.

Even with his head start, he could sense Shadow hot on his heels, and before long, Shadow was right behind him. Stumbling, it took Sonic a moment to realize that Shadow was attempting to step on the heels on his shoes, which was not only incredibly childish, but very ineffective as well.

“If I didn’t know any better, I would think that you’re trying to kill me!” Sonic called over to him. “Which would make it what, the sixth time you’ve tried to do that? Don't take this the wrong way, dude, but your track record kind of sucks. Do better.”  

Instead of taking the bait and engaging in Sonic’s goading like had been intended, Shadow merely narrowed his eyes, instead focusing his rage on running faster so that he was shoulder to shoulder with Sonic. They were climbing the final mountain, the peak visible and not too far off, and Sonic willed his feet to carry him just a little faster as he sprinted with his shoulder braced against Shadow’s…

…just for both of them to reach the top of the mountain at exactly the same time, skidding to a hasty stop right at the edge of the cliff before they would have gone careening over and into the valley below.

Due to the fact that their shoulders had been locked as they summited the peak, the result was technically a tie. Still, not one to easily admit defeat, Sonic was quick to defend his title. “I think,” he said through heavy breaths, “I won that one.”

“You need your eyes checked,” Shadow retorted. He too, was slightly out of breath, if the way his voice was lowered was any indication. “I was clearly the winner.”

Sonic laughed. “I guess that just means that we’ll need a rematch.”

“Rematch?! You were lucky you got one race out of me,” Shadow grumbled, his nose crinkled in a sneer.

Sonic was about to inform him that a race against the Blue Blur, the fastest thing alive, was a privilege and that Shadow should be thankful he had the opportunity to race against Sonic, when he caught a glimpse of the sky behind Shadow. “Whoa,” he said breathlessly, walking past him to the edge of the cliff they found themselves precariously standing on. "Do you see that? The sunset is amazing tonight.”

Beside him, Shadow stood frozen as he turned and caught sight of the sky, his typical scowl shifting as his eyes widened, wonderous and unblinking. As Sonic glanced over towards him, he could see the brilliant colors reflected in his expressive stare and the true sense of awe flickering in their depths. It was a strange sight, to see the knit in his brow relaxed and his mouth parted in reverence, a far cry from the tight, displeased line his lips usually made.

Making his way over to the edge of the cliff that dropped a nauseating distance to the valley below, Sonic sat at the edge with his legs dangling recklessly over the side. Turning back towards his competitor, Sonic patted the spot on the rock next to him. The motion tore Shadow’s eyes away from the horizon, and the hesitation, the reluctance he held within his gaze was almost enough to make Sonic regret making such an impulsive offer in the first place. He should have known better, Shadow’s coexistence with him was a delicate balance after all; look at him wrong, and he would vanish like an apparition with a flashlight pointed upon it.

However, after a couple long moments of standing behind him, Shadow took a few slow, agonizing steps towards Sonic, and with a great deal of trepidation, sat down next to him. Well, not quite next him; there was several feet of space separating them, though instead of being offended, Sonic found himself rather relieved.

They settled into a comfortable silence, Sonic figuring it was better than talking, because while he was quite chatty and did prefer to talk in lieu of quiet, he didn’t quite know what to say to Shadow that wouldn’t repel him and make him run away. And so, biting his tongue, he said nothing.

And to his surprise, it was Shadow of all people that broke the silence.

“Maria had always told me about sunsets. That they were one of the most beautiful things she had ever seen.”

Every muscle in Sonic’s body froze. Was Shadow… opening up to him? Granted, this wasn’t the first time— they had technically shared a vulnerable moment on the moon, but that had been slightly different. Sonic had almost killed Shadow while in his Super form, and they had both needed to take a moment to reflect on their grief and the choices they had made to lead them to that exact moment. Emotions had been running high, and they had needed to settle their differences in order to team up and save the world. To find a common ground about something other than the fact that they were alien hedgehogs. 

But this… this was unprompted. Completely random. They weren’t in danger, weren’t out of time, and most importantly, weren’t on the freaking moon. And because of this, Sonic knew he would have to tread carefully, to hold Shadow’s vulnerability with a delicate grip to prevent him from crumbling and slipping through his fingers like sand.

Unfortunately, being emotionally eloquent had never really been Sonic’s strength, and so his response ended up being a bit, for lack of a better term, abysmal.

“Is that, uh, so?” he ventured carefully, his tone guarded and cautious.

Shadow nodded distantly, his eyes never leaving the horizon, as though if he were to look away, the brushstrokes of pink and orange hues would disappear. “I never got to watch them with her, but she would sometimes try to describe them to me. I suppose she did her best, but nothing could have possibly prepared me to see this in person.”

Shadow blinked, and in an instant, all the wonder and appreciation reflecting the vivid sky in his gaze disappeared, leaving behind doubt and bitterness. “I shouldn’t be here,” he said suddenly, the delivery harsh in his raspy voice. “I don’t… I don’t know what I’m doing.”

He got up to leave in a sharp, abrupt move, his fists clenched tightly by his side. It was all so quick that Sonic, for once in his life, found his reaction time to be lagging, to be slow. “Shadow—” he began, but was cut off by a crisp slicing motion by his counterpart’s hand.

“No. I shouldn’t be doing any of this. It’s… wrong. This is all wrong.” He turned away from Sonic, tearing his wonderous gaze away from the sunset that had begun to fade into a myriad of inky colors, the once vibrant shades dulling. “I don’t deserve…. I need to leave.”

And with that, a spark of energy crackling around his form right before he disappeared, he was gone.

Which left one very puzzled, bewildered Sonic behind, standing alone on the cliff overlooking the valley of Green Hills.

First of all, what was with this guy? Was he not capable of just walking away like a normal person? Why did he always need to teleport dramatically? Yeah, sure, it was cool, but also a little unnecessary. Like, he didn’t need to constantly rub it in his face that he had some fancy-shmancy power that Sonic didn’t possess; it was just rude.

But second of all, his parting words left Sonic feeling mildly perturbed. He had begun to say that he hadn’t deserved, well, something, Sonic just wasn’t sure what.

And once again, Shadow had left before Sonic had the chance to ask him what he meant, leaving Sonic with more questions than answers. For the second time in a row.

“Oh Shadow,” Sonic murmured to himself as the last sliver of sun disappeared behind the mountains, taking the vestigial colors of the sky with it. A chilly breeze wafted over him, ruffling the leaves around him and making his fur stand on end as a light shiver wracked his body. “What am I going to do about you?”

Chapter Text

When Sonic finally reached home, the sky had well descended into twilight, the lights from the flickering streetlamps the only thing guiding him back. And as he approached his house, there was only one thing that was on his mind, only one thing that sent his feet into a frenzy.

He was late for dinner. Tom and Maddie were so going to kill him.

At least, not unless he killed himself first. It was Taco Tuesday, also known as the most important day of the entire week. Sonic swore under his breath as he sprinted up the stoop, not caring about the wind he kicked up that jangled the windchimes and threatened to knock them off where they hung. If Knuckles had eaten all of the tacos before he even had the chance to sit down, he was actually going to—

“Sonic!” Maddie exclaimed as he entered the living room in a rush. “There you are! We were just about make our tacos, you almost missed it!”

It was impossible to miss the look of disappointment that befell Knuckles’ face. Sonic shot him a pair of finger guns in retaliation. “But you see, I didn’t.”

Knuckles let out a groan and pounded a fist on the counter.

After they had all served themselves, Tom decided to start the conversation by asking about Sonic’s whereabouts. Which was a shame, since Sonic had thought he had gotten away with it and wouldn’t have to deflect the fact that he was late because he had been racing Shadow the Hedgehog and watching the sunset with him like they were some cringey, lovestruck couple on one of Maddie’s favorite rom com garbage movies. “So Sonic, where were you this evening? It’s not like you to show up late for Taco Tuesday.”

Sonic took a crunchy bite out of his taco. It was perfectly crafted, as always. Tails always added too much queso, Knuckles drenched his in the spiciest salsas that made one question whether there was even a taco hiding under all of it, and Tom and Maddie made boring, bland tacos that weren’t creative in the slightest. Theirs sucked. “Well, first of all, I wasn’t quite late, and second of all, I was… oh, you know,” he said offhandedly without missing a beat, hoping that his lackluster answer would be sufficient enough to sate the masses.

Unfortunately for him, it wasn’t. “Um, no, we don’t know, buddy,” Tom replied.

“Okay, fine. I was out going on a run and got caught up watching the sunset.” Sonic took a handful of chips from the bowl in the center before Knuckles had the chance to hork them all down, hoping that the fact he was kind of telling the truth would be enough for him to slip under the radar. He was historically a horrendous liar, his poker face something that needed some serious work.  “What can I say? The Earth can be so beautiful at times, and sometimes I just want to stop and admire my home.”

“Aw, Sonic!” Maddie exclaimed before Tom could jump in and express his doubt, and Sonic flashed her his winning smile. She was the weak link in the group when it came to stuff like this, always finding anything remotely sappy that Sonic did or said to be the most precious thing ever. That singular time he had sat down with her and watched the show she liked about one person going on a bunch of dates with a bunch of people and finding love through process of elimination (yuck, and also, the whole concept was super weird) was something he would never hear the end of, no matter how hard he tried to shake it off. “That’s so sweet!”

Knuckles laughed, and Sonic mentally prepared himself for the mocking he was about to endure. Anything that Maddie found cute, Knuckles saw as a weakness. “I think it is a sign of your inferiority as a warrior that you allowed the sunset to distract you from the tacos!” He settled both of his fists on the table and leaned forward menacingly. “So you should just give them to me, since you are not worthy.”

Sonic stared at Knuckles with a deadpan expression. “Yeah, no offense, but… no. I won’t.”

Knuckles frowned, standing up from his seat and positioning himself so that one foot was on his chair and the other was on the table, planted dangerously next to his plate of food. “Then in that case, I challenge you, hedgehog! To a battle of the ages for your remaining tacos!” he announced, punching a fist in the air that missed colliding with the chandelier by a few close inches.

Beside him, Maddie’s eyes widened as her mouth opened and closed, clearly debating if it was worth saying something about. Tom simply rested his forehead in his palms and shook his head. There really wasn’t such thing as a normal dinner for the Wachowski family, it seemed.

Despite the challenge, Sonic wasn’t rising to take the bait, at least not yet. “Can’t you just go get some more leftovers? Or something? Why does everything always have to be a battle to the death with you?”

“There are no more leftovers, for I have already eaten all of them in order to supply my one million percent muscles!”

“One, that’s not even grammatically correct, and two, I kind of fail to see how that’s my problem?”

“Hey now, kids!” Tom intervened, finally deeming the escalating back-and-forth worth stepping in for. “No fighting at the dining table! Go take it outside, or something.”      

“Or just don’t fight at all,” Maddie supplied with a shrug.

From next to Sonic, Tails finally spoke for what Sonic realized was the first time that evening. “You can have my leftovers, Knuckles, I’m not really that hungry right now.” His voice, his body language, his whole demeanor was dull, and it was unusual to see his friend, normally so bubbly and full of life, seem so dejected.  

Sonic paused, turning towards Tails with a concerned look on his face. However, before he could ask if he was okay, Knuckles let out a triumphant, “Aha! Victory is mine! You have my gratitude, fox!” And with that, lunged across the table to steal the food.

Throughout their taco-themed dinner, it had completely slipped Sonic’s attention that Tails had been sitting there the entire time not saying anything, staring pensively into his unfinished food. But now that Knuckles had reached over and was currently grabbing fistfuls of Tails’ leftovers, not even bothering to retrieve a spoon as he scooped up the guacamole in his gloves and dumped it in a heap on his plate, Sonic realized that something was off with Tails. He looked troubled, and Sonic felt guilty for not having noticed it sooner.

Turning towards Tom and Maddie, Tails cleared his throat. “May I be excused from dinner? There are a few things in my workshop I want to finish up before going to bed tonight.” His polite demeanor was in direct contrast with Knuckles, who was currently laughing and chewing with his mouth open as he stuffed his face with Tails’ relinquished tacos.

Giving one look between Knuckles’ messy display before him and Tails’ back as he made his departure, Sonic made an instant decision. “Um, me too,” he said, and before waiting for permission from either of his parents, he pushed away from the dining table and chased after Tails.

From behind him, he heard Maddie call out to him. “Hey, don’t forget, boys! We’re watching that new episode of La Última Pasión tonight, so you don’t want to miss it!”

Sonic internally groaned, before throwing her a thumbs up and a big smile over his shoulder. “Of course, wouldn’t want to miss it for the world!”

He actually would miss it for the world. And far less. He would miss it for freaking bingo night at the senior center (which he had been dragged to with Tom once before, and had wanted to pull at his quills and scream with how long the whole ordeal took. He had no idea anyone could be so damn slow). However, Tom and Maddie enjoyed it, and they loved when they all spent quality time together as a family, and so Sonic indulged them.

And catching up to Tails in their backyard with minimal effort, gently tapping him on the arm, Sonic decided that in order for them to spend their picture-perfect-high-quality-family-bonding-time together, he would need to check in with his best friend first.

“Hey, Tails? Buddy? Is everything okay? You seem…” he hesitated, noting Tails’ grimace as he looked back towards Sonic. “…Well, off.”

Tails tried and failed to hide his grimace before averting his gaze. “Um, Sonic?” he asked, his hands clasped in front of him in an uncertain picture. “Can I… show you something in my shed, and talk to you? About it?”

Sonic only slightly paused at the doubt in his voice before following him farther out back to the workshop. “Yeah, of course Tails, what seems to be the matter?” Upon seeing Tails’ face, his blood ran cold with realization and he froze along the path, even as Tails continued walking. “Oh God. You’re going through puberty, aren’t you. Listen man, no offense, but this seems like something you should talk to Tom about. He loves imparting wisdom and being helpful… it makes him feel special.”

“Puberty?” Tails asked, before shaking his head as he opened the door to his workshop, motioning for Sonic to follow him inside. “No, this is something far worse.”

“What could be worse than puberty?”

The lights flickered on, revealing the extent of the interior. After defeating Eggman (the second time that is, and the fact that there were now three instances in total was both embarrassing for his nemesis and two too many), Tom had converted his old shed in the backyard into a workshop for Tails to do, well, Tails things. Sonic wasn’t really sure what it all was, just that it was really complicated and way above his comprehension level. There were a lot of half-finished projects, pieces and parts, and tools lying around, and Sonic couldn’t decipher a single thing of it. The only thing that made sense to him was Tails’ plane parked in the corner, but even then, if you were to ask him to do anything other than ride in it as a passenger, you would be out of luck.

But anyways. Tails was concerned about something, if the worried knot that bunched between his eyebrows was any indication, and as Sonic walked up to join him at one of the many contraptions littered throughout the place, his heart sank into his shoes as it dawned on him what the problem was.

See, he might have been dumb as rocks, but even he could tell that the piece of paper the machine had spit out, the end of the receipt still attached, was an energy reading. And boy oh boy, were those some pretty severe, pretty long scribbles on that sheet.

“There was an energy spike this evening,” Tails informed him, though for once, Sonic didn’t need the explanation, because if he really wanted to (and truthfully, he didn’t), he could tell Tails the time, place, and reason for the surge. “And I’m not really sure why.”

Sonic laughed awkwardly. Even though this would be the perfect time to tell Tails just exactly why his machine had printed out a reading so strong, the extent of the wave bled over the edges of the paper, he almost instantly decided not to. Not with his head still swimming and confused by his most recent encounter with Shadow, not with his strange parting words on the cliffside. He still needed to process the entire interaction, and unfortunately, his chaotic dinner with his family hadn’t been very conducive to that.

And so, he continued his lie, his farce, his charade to his best friend. “Oh man, that really is weird! Maybe your machine is busted? Have you ever considered that?”

“That’s the thing. The first thing I did was run a diagnostic test. And the truth is, the machine seems to be working just fine.”

“Oh?” Sonic said, not really knowing what else to say and running out of excuses in his head for the spike of energy.

“Yeah, and the strangest thing is, I’ve only seen one thing capable of producing this level of power.” Tails turned from his machine, pinning Sonic with a look so concerned, he almost folded and told his best friend the truth in that very second if only to wipe that expression of worry off his face.

He didn’t though, and swallowing thickly, he waited for Tails to finish. To deliver the news. To tell him what he already knew, because he had seen the culprit what was now twice.

“Sonic… I can’t believe that I’m saying this, but I think that Shadow is alive. And he might be right here in Green Hills.”

Yep. Tails knew. And Sonic had been an idiot to think that he wouldn’t be able to figure it out.

But that also didn't mean that he was ready to talk about it and tell the truth. And so, in a questionable, split-second decision, Sonic doubled down on his growing lie.

“What? No, that’s crazy. Shadow died in the Eclipse Cannon, along with Eggman. You said it yourself— they sacrificed themselves to save the world.”

Tails hesitated. “Yeah… but maybe… he didn’t. I mean, you survived against all odds, didn’t you? Maybe Shadow did as well. He did have the power of the Chaos Emeralds on his side after all, and we haven’t been able to find them since.”

Sonic hated how much sense Tails made. If he hadn’t already seen Shadow with his own two eyes, he would have been convinced by the sound logic. “I only survived because of you and Knuckles," he argued, grasping at straws. "But anyways, when were these readings? Maybe I accidentally triggered your machine to go off while I was out on my run today?”

Tails shook his head, much to Sonic’s dismay. “I don’t think so,” he said, and Sonic would almost be offended if he knew it wasn’t possible. “You go on runs all the time, and it never sets off my machines like this. No, something else was the source, and unless we have a bigger problem on our hands, the only person who could have created a surge this massive is Shadow.”

Sonic hesitated. Once again, this would be the perfect chance to tell him. He was hard pressed to even imagine a more ideal opportunity to tell Tails the truth, that Shadow was, in fact, alive, and right there with them in Green Hills. It would be so easy to release the secret he had been holding so close to his chest and share it with his best friend, taking the weight off his shoulders of the truth that haunted him.

But something strange and twisted in him won out, and he bit his tongue. Swallowed the truth, and chose to try to comfort his friend instead.

“We’ll figure this out Tails, I promise,” Sonic said, patting Tails on the arm. His friend only looked marginally consoled, the knot of concern still crossed between his eyebrows. “Now, what do you say about coming in with me to watch that new episode of La Última Pasión with everyone else?” At Tails’ hesitation, his tone shifted from upbeat to downright desperate. “Please, Tails, you have to come with me. You can’t leave me alone with them. You know how feral they become when that show turns on.”

The tension in Tails’ body dissipated, and he let out a small laugh. “Okay, okay, I’m coming. But only because I want to see if Gabriela chooses Juan or Pablo this week. The anticipation has been killing me!”

“Dude, you know she won’t choose between either of them this week. They’re going to drag out this dumb subplot for at least two more episodes, I can almost guarantee it.”

Tails made a noise of disagreement. “Mmm, I think it will be more like three.”

Sonic gave him a look, a competitive look, complete with a glint in his eyes. “You wanna bet on it?”

“Oh, you’re on!”

Later in the evening, after the episode had ended (and wasted thirty minutes of their time because as was predicted, Gabriela still hadn’t made a choice, and this was the fourth week in a row of this conflict which was actually ridiculous. Sonic figured that the writers had run out of ideas), and everyone had gone to bed, Sonic found himself alone in his room and along with this, his thoughts.

The entire events of the day came crashing down on him.

Sonic ran his hands through his quills, gripping at them so tight it began to hurt. What was wrong with him? Like seriously. What was wrong with him. Why couldn’t he tell Tails the truth about Shadow’s survival? He had every opportunity to, several even, and yet….

He hadn’t.

It didn’t make sense. It wasn’t like he was even that close with Shadow, hell, he barely freaking knew the guy and was more or less his enemy, and he was best friends with Tails! Tails had been nothing but kind and supportive to him, always there for him, and Shadow… well….

Shadow had insulted him, beat him up, almost killed Tom, almost killed his friends, attempted to murder Sonic more times he could count, tried to incinerate the entire goddamn planet, and despite the extensive list of grievances Sonic should have held towards him, he couldn’t help but have an odd soft spot for him, a fascination that couldn’t be quenched.

Which was so beyond messed up. But then again, so was thinking about him, spending time with him, and hiding his survival from everyone, because on some deep, fundamental level, he knew that it was wrong.

He knew that Tom, Maddie, Knuckles and Tails wouldn’t approve. They had no reason to, and why should they? Not after Shadow had proved himself to be so dangerous. Not after he had attempted to kill all of them.

(Some more than others. While Maddie hadn’t been personally targeted by Shadow, not being punched in the chest or almost sucked into a spooky-marble-turned-mini-black-hole, she did technically live on the earth, so she was more or less on Shadow’s past hit list along with the rest of the global population).

But anyways, technicalities aside. Tom and Maddie’s most recent advice towards him echoed in his head, bouncing off the walls of his skull in a way that threatened to give him a headache. “Make good choices!” he heard the ghost of their voices say, and he sighed. Choosing to keep Shadow’s survival a secret, especially when he had chosen to linger around Green Hills of all places, was literally the opposite of a good choice. In fact, it was a very bad choice.

But at the same time, was it really that bad of a choice? When Shadow hadn’t shown himself to be antagonistic just yet, when he hadn’t dealt Sonic any serious harm or threatened to hurt anyone else?

Sonic thought back to the moment he and Shadow had shared on the edge of the cliff, a quiet moment of solitude overlooking the sunset. How Shadow had opened up to him unprovoked, sharing something vulnerable about his past. Talking about Maria, even when Sonic could see how mentioning her name brought so much sadness and anguish to his face. There was so much more to him than the gruff exterior he wore as armor, and for some reason, he had decided to show Sonic a glimpse of his true self, even if it was only for a fleeting moment.

Which reminded him….

Walking over to his desk, Sonic opened up the top drawer. He pulled out the comic book resting on top— his favorite edition of the series, with pages soft and worn from how many times he had read it— and opened to the first page. His hands pausing their reach for what he had been searching for, Sonic read the note written in crisp albeit slightly sloppy handwriting, his fingers lightly tracing the edges.

               Sonic—

               For my very own superhero. You inspire me every day to make good choices and make the world a better place.

               Love, Tom  

His heart swelling as a faint smile ghosted his lips, Sonic paused, remembering why he opened his comic in the first place. Because resting next to the heartfelt note Tom had written him, pressed up against the fading ink and tucked away in the cover page of the comic book, was the photo of Shadow and Maria that Sonic had found within the old G.U.N. base.

If you were to ask him why he had chosen to take it, slipping it into his quills when Robotnik hadn’t been looking, Sonic wouldn’t have a straightforward answer. After all, he had barely known the guy at that point, and the girl next to him had been a complete stranger. It was only later that he had learned her identity, making the significance of the photo even more somber, even more heartbreaking.

By all accounts, he should have just left it, a relic in a haunted past. Allowed it to be sucked into the mini black hole and forgotten once and for all.

But there was something so soft, so exposed about the photo, that it had given Sonic pause. The rare smile that had graced Shadow’s face— a smile that Sonic hadn’t yet seen for himself in person. The way he seemed happy, and so juxtaposed to the angry, broody persona he donned in the present. The way he leaned into Maria, clearly comfortable in her presence. Truth be told, it fascinated Sonic, to want to know who this hedgehog had used to be. And to discover that if somewhere beneath his hackled, prickly quills, there were still the remnants of him hidden away.

Even looking at it now, Sonic felt a pang in his heart. One that bled for what Shadow had lost and who he had become.

Tearing his eyes away from where Shadow smiled up at him, he wondered if Shadow could ever, would ever look at him like that. And why Sonic wanted that, why he cared so damn much, he wasn’t quite sure, but what he did know was that there was something about Shadow that drew him in, that made it so that he couldn’t look away.

With a great deal of reluctance, Sonic placed the photo, faded, ragged, and beautiful that it was, back into the cover of his comic book. Putting it away and closing the drawer, he walked over to his windowsill, looking out into the calm night with a deep exhale. Shadow was out there, likely. The fact that he had encountered him twice now made Sonic think that he probably hadn’t left Green Hills. Where he was staying, though, Sonic hadn’t the slightest clue. He hoped that it was better than the cave he had personally resided in when he had first stayed in Green Hills for a few lonely years, and that Shadow had at least found some barn or attic to camp out in while he did Shadow Things. Sonic wasn’t entirely sure what that entailed, but he had to imagine that it was super edgy, super cool, and super Hot Topic.

And hopefully those Shadow Things weren’t putting anybody in danger. As far as Sonic was concerned, Shadow wasn’t a threat… yet. But the moment that he was, Sonic would tell everyone and finally make the right choice.

However, until then, until Shadow proved himself to be a genuine problem and threat to his family, Green Hills, and even the Earth as a whole, he could remain Sonic’s little secret.

Because after all, Sonic thought to himself as he turned away from the window and prepared to go to bed, what was the harm?

Chapter Text

Over the course of the next few days, Tails didn’t bring up the surge of Chaos Energy again, and thankfully, nothing else happened to trigger it. After spending the rest of the week on edge, both with his decision to keep Shadow a secret and with Tails’ own inadvertent knowledge about his survival, Sonic finally relaxed as the weekend hit. Especially since that night, Friday night, was a very special, very cherished night.

It was one of the most important events of the week, right after Taco Tuesday: family game night.

And unfortunately for Sonic, Tails, and Knuckles, they were losing. Bad.

Tails wiggling around on the floor wasn’t really helping their predicament, as Sonic and Knuckles alternated between yelling increasingly outrageous guesses at him, each one more wrong than the last.

“The ocean!” Sonic speculated. “Wait, actually, the little squiggle above the ‘n’ in the word piñata!”

“A dead fish!” Knuckles called out. “Or no, a dying fish!”

Sonic swatted Knuckles on the arm. “Give me a break, that is clearly a snake who forgot how to walk!”

In front of them, Tails gave both of them a look of pure bewilderment, as if they were the crazy ones and he wasn’t currently writhing silently on the ground. Making a crossing out motion with his arms, he popped to his feet and mimed out the baffling action once more.

“Are you kidding me? Don’t do the same thing again!” Sonic bemoaned, and next to him on the couch, Knuckles nodded in agreement.

“Yes, try something new, fox!”

Tails paused what he was doing and lifted his hands up in a helpless shrug, and before he had the opportunity to switch gears, Tom interrupted him by shouting out, “And, time!”

“I was very clearly spaghetti!” Tails exclaimed now that his vocal cords were freed, to which Sonic and Knuckles stared at him as if he had introduced them to a talking wart on his face and called it ‘Tails Jr.’

“What?!” they both said at the exact same time, right before Knuckles said, “I like my answer better,” and Sonic complained, “So what was with pouring stuff on yourself?!”

“That was the sauce!” Tails groaned, and in response, Knuckles pounded a fist on the table in angered realization and Sonic slapped a palm to his forehead.

“Why couldn’t you have just pretended to eat out of a bowl like a normal person?!” he demanded. “Why did you have to anthropomorphize the noodle?!”  

“It was my artist’s interpretation!” Tails shot back. “I really wanted to convey how long and wiggly it was. It made sense to me at the time!”

“Yeah well clearly it didn’t, since neither Knuckles nor I got it!”

Besides them, Tom and Maddie attempted to calm them all down, though they did a pretty mediocre job given how they couldn’t help but laugh through the whole argument. “Now boys, it’s just charades,” Maddie said with an indulgent smile, one that only someone who was winning the competition by a landslide would make.

“Yes, just charades,” Knuckles grumbled, “and yet, we are losing five to zero.”

Tom gave them all a self-satisfied grin. “And all we’ve got to say to that is… try to keep up.” Sonic rolled his eyes; he might be a sore loser, but then again, Tom was also a sore winner. “Why don’t you three watch us and see how the masters do it?”

Sonic was about to snark that he didn’t need to see Tom and Maddie school them for the sixth time in a row, since they had already guessed what the other one was almost immediately after starting because they were freaking married for crying out loud, when the words died in his throat as he caught sight of something out the living room window, out in the rainy evening.

It might have been a trick of the light. However, Sonic could have sworn that he saw two red, glowing eyes staring in, and the sight of them made his body freeze and his blood run cold.

He locked on to it, his own gaze narrowing in question and trying to decipher whether those eyes were real or a distortion of the rain reflecting the lights from inside the house. They were unmoving, unblinking, and unwavering, and even though Sonic knew that it was probably nothing, there was a feeling deep in his gut telling him otherwise. After all, it wouldn’t hurt to run out there and make sure that he wasn’t just seeing things… right?          

At least, that’s what Sonic told himself as he hastily excused himself from family game night, sprinting out into the night before anyone had the chance to ask where he was going and why he was leaving.

“No one likes a sore loser, Sonic!” he heard Tom call out after him, and shouting back over his shoulder, he yelled in response, “I’ll be back for my turn, just give me a second!”

Because truthfully, checking the forest where he had thought he had seen Shadow of all people would take only a moment. Just a quick scour to ease his conscience and convince himself that he wasn’t in any immediate danger, so that he could head back inside and hopefully make it so that they didn’t get swept by Tom and Maddie. Even though he had resigned himself to losing with Tails and Knuckles, that didn’t mean that he was going to accept a big fat goose egg as their final score. 

These thoughts came to a halt as he came across the very thing he feared he would find.   

Sonic didn’t know why, but he was shocked to see that Shadow actually standing out in the forest, just beyond the bushes that lined their property. He blinked a few times to try to clear the heavy rain from his eyes, attempting to see if it was just a figment of his hyperactive imagination, however, no matter what he did, Shadow still stood before him. Glaring, and apparently very, very angry.

“What’s up?” Sonic asked as casually as he could, trying not to betray his surprise or minor irritation at the fact that he had forsaken the warm interior of his house and left his family momentarily behind to come outside to investigate what was a very valid concern. “Are you having fun just lurking out here in the dark and watching us?”

Shadow let out a huff. “I wasn’t watching you.”

“Oh yeah? So, what would you like to call it then?”

Shadow didn’t seem to have an answer, if the way his lip curled downwards was any indication.

“Okay, so… are you going to come in and join us, or stand out in the rain like a freaking weirdo?” Sonic placed his hands on his hips, tapping his foot against the ground to convey just how displeased he was. The rain was making his fur mat down and get all ratty, which meant he would have to take a shower later that night, which sucked because Sonic was a shower-once-a-week guy and he had already taken his weekly shower two nights ago. In essence, confronting Shadow in the rain for spying on them was a real inconvenience.

In response, Shadow glared at him. “Leave me alone.”

“Um, yeah, no, that’s not how this works, dude. You don’t get to just stand outside and watch us and then act like I’m the problem here.”

“The only problem here is that you keep approaching me,” Shadow snapped, his nose crinkling in disdain. “I’m not doing anything. So I don’t know why you feel the need to come bother me about it.”

“Oh come on,” Sonic said, not willing to give up so easily. “Didn’t we have a touching moment at the sunset? Remember that? I really thought we were getting somewhere up there!”

“That was a mistake,” Shadow glowered. “All I want is to be left alone. Why can’t you understand that?”

“Oh yeah, is that so? Well, call me crazy, but people who truly want to be alone don’t sit outside houses watching the people inside like creepy lunatics!” Sonic exclaimed. “So I’m going to ask you one more time. Either you come in and join us, or you tell me what your deal is!”

Shadow’s eyes narrowed. “I choose the third option,” he growled, and Sonic realized with a belated start that Shadow had crouched down, his body tensed and sparks of golden Chaos Energy sizzling over his quills.

And instead of reacting with caution or fear, which was probably the appropriate response, Sonic merely let out an irritated groan. “Dude, come on, really? You want to do this now, on game night?” Shadow didn’t respond (probably because he had no idea what game night was), the amount of Chaos Energy surrounding him only increasing. “Ugh, fine,” Sonic relented, dropping into his own defensive crouch and willing his power to manifest around him. “But just so you know, that’s really not cool of you to interrupt game night like this. I’m very unhappy.”

Shadow made the first move, and his lunge was so quick, even Sonic had a difficult time reacting before he could make contact, struggling to lift his hands in time to meet Shadow’s opened claws that extended towards him. Their hands met in a powerful impact, fingers locking together as their energy collided and in the back of his head, Sonic prayed that Tails’ machine wouldn’t be able to pick up the burst. He knew it to be a fruitless wish, but he made it all the same.

“I’m going to make you regret coming out here and following me,” Shadow spat. “You should have just left me be.”

Sonic grimaced, not missing the way that Shadow’s energy began to creep up his arms, snaking around his limbs in a tantalizing, albeit repelling way. With a grunt of exertion, he sent his own power crawling forward and watched with satisfaction as Shadow squirmed in discomfort at the electrifying sensation. “Okay fine, message received! You don’t want to come in and you don’t want to tell me what’s up. That’s fine, good for you! A little weird, but listen, I won’t judge!”

Shadow bared his teeth at Sonic, sharp fangs flashing dully. “You are so annoying,” he seethed, pushing against Sonic’s hands with a surge of power that dislodged their grip on each other and left Sonic wheeling. Using the opening, he grasped at Sonic’s chest fur with a fist and swung him in an arc over his head that was only stopped by Sonic being thrown against the ground.

With a grunt of agony as his shoulder bore most of the impact, Sonic didn’t even have a moment to process the burst of pain before he looked up and saw Shadow descending straight onto him, his hand curled into a fist that was definitely going to leave a mark if he landed his hit. And so, thinking quick, Sonic curled up into a ball and spin-dashed out of the way, leaving nothing but an electric blue streak behind him as Shadow made impact with the spot he had just been in.

“You’re going to have to be a little quicker than that!” he laughed as Shadow made to attack him again, doing a backflip over a sweeping kick he aimed for his knees, enough power behind the move to dislocate something had it landed. “Fastest thing alive, remember?”

The fastest thing alive, unfortunately for Sonic, wasn’t immune to the slick mud beneath his feet, and so with comical timing right after he had teased Shadow, he slipped and fell on his back. Before he had the chance to lift himself up, he felt the weight of something heavy crash down on him, and through the haze of the downpour, realized that Shadow had capitalized on his blunder and was currently pinning him against the ground with his body.

“Oh come on, that’s cheap and you know it!” he yelled up at Shadow by lifting his head off the ground, his cheeks flushing involuntarily with the super lame way he had tripped and fallen.

Shadow slammed his head back into the ground with more force than was probably necessary. “I don’t care,” he retorted in a low rasp. “Learn to keep your balance.”

Sonic squirmed and tried to escape, but Shadow only tightened his grasp around his wrists and dug his sharp knees farther into Sonic’s sides. Pausing as he realized his struggles were pointless, Sonic tried to search the face of the hedgehog above him, looking for any signs of the person who had stopped to watch the sunset with him, who had told him about Maria. Who had agreed to race, who had coexisted with him in a peaceful, fleeting moment before fleeing the scene.

However, only seeing the pain and anger painted upon Shadow’s face, not a single remnant of that vulnerability was visible. Man, Sonic didn’t know what was going on, but what he did know was that Shadow was really going through it.

And right now, he was about to take it out on Sonic’s lovable, pristine face.  

“You know, I was just coming out here to be nice!” Sonic heaved, eyeing the fist the Shadow lifted and knowing that it’s intended target was probably going to leave a black eye or a broken nose. “If I had known I was going to fight with my crazy lookalike in the cold, wet rain and get my fur all dirty, I would have just stayed inside!”

Shadow sneered down at him. “You should have,” he snarled, right before sending his fist straight down towards Sonic’s cheek. Luckily, Sonic was able to twist his neck away and avoid impact, Shadow grunting as his entire fist became engulfed in mud, and using his distraction to escape, Sonic lifted both of his feet so that they were pressed against Shadow’s torso and kicked him off.

Shadow let out a guttural sound as he rolled away from Sonic, but since he was far more composed, was able to right himself halfway through his slide and settle into a crouch that was unfortunately very cool and badass.

On one hand, Sonic hated the competition, finding these repeated beatdowns that left him achy and bruised to be a real nuisance to his daily routine. On that front, Shadow’s presence here in Green Hills was quite insufferable. But on the other hand? He felt a great surge of thrill at the challenge, even though he was drenched and shivering and should definitely still be playing (and losing at) charades with his family and friends.

“Is that all you’ve got? Are we done here with your little tantrum?” he taunted. “Did you get everything out of your system?”

His goading worked, if the way that Shadow’s power flared up was any indication. “Not even close,” he rumbled as he flexed his arms and cracked his knuckles, the energy swirling around him charging up much to Sonic’s exhaustion.

However, before Shadow had the chance to leap forward and reengage Sonic in their petty little squabble, they were interrupted by a loud whooshing noise. Glancing up, Sonic was shocked to see a helicopter flying overhead, the aircraft flying so low over the trees, it barely cleared the tips. Lifting a hand to shield his eyes from both the rain and the blinding light that briefly passed over them as it flew by, Sonic let out a noise of surprise. “Is that a G.U.N. helicopter? Why are those yahoos here?”

In front of him, Shadow had similarly paused and covered his eyes from the onslaught of light, however, he recovered from the intrusion faster, stepping forward to land an open-palmed thrust to Sonic’s chest. With a sound of pain, he went tumbling backwards through the mud, only stopping his belly slide that was exacerbated by the rain by digging his hands into the ground and leaving finger-sized trenches as a trail.

“Oof,” Sonic grunted as he finally came to a stop and wiped the wet filth from his eyes, smearing it further into the fur on his face. “Why are you like this?!”

Shadow loomed in front of him, the hand that had struck Sonic hardening into a clenched fist held out in front of him in a clear threat. “Leave me alone, hedgehog. Don’t approach me, don’t talk to me, don’t follow me. This is your final warning.”

Sonic shouldn’t have been surprised when Shadow teleported away for what was the third time in a row, however, instead of calling out after him and attempting to embark on a pursuit, he merely pounded a fist into the mud. Despite his desire to stop Shadow from running off like a coward, like he always did, the G.U.N. helicopter was a little more pertinent, it not exactly being a mystery who they were here for. And so, without even so much as glancing over his shoulder to see if he could still see Shadow in the rainy forest, he sprinted back to where his family was waiting, kicking up a spray of mist as he did so.

He arrived just in time to see the helicopter touch down on the grass in front of their house. At this rate, the lawn was probably used more as a landing pad for all of G.U.N.’s various aircrafts than a front yard, but Sonic digressed. It made more sense than landing anywhere else in the heavily forested surroundings, even if it came at the cost of tearing up the grass and leaving deep scars in the earth every time they touched down and took off.

Grabbing a towel from the kitchen on his way into the living room, Sonic came upon Tom, Maddie, Knuckles, and Tails already standing, the four of them looking towards him with accusation upon their faces. As if the super loud, rude helicopter outside was somehow his fault (which to be fair, wasn’t a completely unfounded assumption). “Uh, guys?” he said as he wiped himself off, the mud transferring onto his questionable choice of using a white towel to clean himself up. “I think we have some guests outside.”

Tom just about threw his hands up in the air in exasperation. “You think we missed the super loud helicopter that flashed a bright light into our living room?”

“I think what Tom is trying to say,” Maddie supplied sweetly, right before her sugary expression slipped into something a little more foreboding and threatening. “What did you do this time?”

Sonic immediately thought of Shadow out in the rain, still unaccounted for but hopefully miles away due to the sighting of the helicopter, before internally shaking his head. “Uh, other than saving the world a few weeks ago? Absolutely nothing. I’ve been nothing but a saint!”

“Saints don’t drink the last of the orange juice straight out of the carton and replace it with tap water,” Tom replied, to which Sonic scoffed.

“Yeah, sure, but I don’t think replacing OJ with water is the reason G.U.N. is here. Unless you tattled on me?”

The five of them made their way to the door, Tom and Sonic taking the lead while Knuckles, Tails, and Maddie trailed behind. “Yeah, well, I suppose there’s only one way to find out.”

However, before they were able to open the door, it was kicked down on its hinges by a pair of nondescript military guys— the type of generic men you would cast in a movie to portray what one would think two low-ranking army grunts would look like.

Beside him, Tom threw his hands up in the air for the second time that evening. Something told Sonic that it wouldn’t be the last. “Oh for the love of—have you guys ever heard of knocking? We were literally just about to open the door for you. That was so unnecessary.”

In contrast, Knuckles folded his arms and nodded in approval. “Speak for yourself. I approve of their methods.”

“Yeah, that’s because you’re not the one paying for it,” Tom muttered under his breath. “I wouldn’t even be surprised if you don’t know what money is.”

“Tom, be nice, we have guests” Maddie said tightly, nudging him in the arm with a forced smile on her face. And then in a slightly louder, friendlier tone, she called out, “Can I interest either of you gentlemen something to drink? Water, seltzer, or juice perhaps?”

“Yeah, well, we’re out of orange juice.” Sonic intercepted, not wanting their two intruders to get any crazy ideas. “So if you want tap water, I can get that for you instead.”

The soldiers simply stared at them, since their job was only to look intimidating, point their guns at stuff, and never say anything of substance. Sure, they could bark out generic orders and let out manly yells when the scene called for it, but accepting an offer for something to drink was strictly out of their pay grade.

No, the person with the autonomy to accept tap water poured out of an orange juice carton walked through the door just a moment later, her gaze narrowed, lips pursed in a thin line, and her hair slicked back without a single strand out of place.

Sonic didn’t even bother to hide his groan at Director Rockwell’s entry. And to be completely fair, it was just a little warranted. “Oh man, this lady again?” he whined. “Couldn’t G.U.N. have sent us someone who doesn’t hate us?”

“No,” she deadpanned, not bothering to hide the look of disgust on her face as she looked down upon Sonic. Their distaste for each, at least, was mutual. No one-sided feuding going on here. “I’m the only one qualified to do this.”

Tails tilted his head to the side in question as she motioned for someone behind her to pass her what appeared to be a very fancy, very black briefcase. “Do what?”

Director Rockwell gave him a withering look that clearly conveyed that his impatience brought her a great deal of displeasure, however, she refrained from verbalizing it. Whether it was due to some sense of professionalism, or the fact the Tails was the least obnoxious, least offensive one of the group, it was difficult to tell. “Deliver this,” she said as she opened the briefcase, revealing a very thick document that she lifted out of its cushiony coffin and offered to the five standing before her.

Sonic, being the quickest one of the group, snatched it immediately out of her hands. “Give me that,” he muttered as he flipped through the pages in a flurry. After about five seconds, he handed it to Tom with a huff. “I can’t read half the words in this garbage. You try.”

Tom, quite literally being an adult and a little more level-headed, briefly skimmed the papers before looking up towards Director Rockwell. “I’m sorry, but what is this, exactly?”

“Not written in English, that much I can tell you,” Sonic responded, to which Director Rockwell rolled her eyes. She really wasn’t bothering to hide just how much she didn’t like him, and in a way, Sonic kind of respected it.

“It’s a legal contract,” she explained with thinly-concealed disdain, and from Sonic’s position on the floor, it was kind of hard to not think that she wasn’t turning her nose up at him.

“No offense, but couldn’t this have been done in an email? Or maybe a phone call? I’m not really sure the giant helicopter and breaking down our door was necessary.”

Director Rockwell gave him a look, one that Sonic decided to mentally dub the I really hate Sonic look since she seemed to do it so frequently. “This is a strictly confidential document. Any other form of delivery would be highly compromised.”

“Okay, yeah, sure, but why do we even need to read this in the first place? We did kind of save the earth after all, so unless this is a very long-winded thank you card, I kind of fail to see what the issue is?”

Her look transformed into a full-on sneer. “Well, allow me to provide you a brief summary,” she bit out tersely. “Theft and demolition of G.U.N. property, explicit collaboration with recognized enemies of G.U.N., fragmentation of the moon—”

“Hey now, shattering the moon was Eggman, Tails, and Knuckles!” Sonic retorted, pointing his fingers out on either side of him towards the culprits. Instead of looking indignant at being thrown under the bus, both of them nodded and shrugged in guilty admission. “I had nothing to do with that!”

“Yes, and yet, you are all part of Team Sonic, are you not?” The smile she offered their trio did not reach her eyes, the expression severe and mocking. “Therefore, each one of you are collectively responsible for the actions that you three commit as a whole.”

Sonic stepped forwards with a clear intent to intimidate, and maybe it would have worked, if he had been any taller than Director Rockwell’s knees. “And all of those things we had to do in order to stop the Dr. Robotniks from destroying the world,” he countered.  “Not to mention, one could argue that the destruction of the moon could be blamed on G.U.N. for constructing Gerald Robotnik’s weapon in the first place! I mean seriously, what was even the intent behind building that thing? And giving him his freedom for it? Seriously? He literally looked evil. I have no idea what you guys possibly expected to happen there.”

Director Rockwell narrowed her eyes. “Then perhaps you should review the contract. That should clear everything up and ensure that legally, we are all on the same page.”

“Hey Tom?” Sonic whispered in a voice so painfully loud, literally everyone in the room could hear him, and that was even with the blades of the helicopter chopping away in the distance. “How are we supposed to review this thing if I can’t understand any of it?”

Beside him, Tom let out a long, suffering sigh. “It means I’m going to have to hire a lawyer,” he said in a completely normal voice that negated Sonic’s half-hearted attempt to be stealthy. “Which is probably going to be very expensive. I don’t know if people around here realize this, but I’m a cop in a small town in the middle of nowhere Montana. I don’t exactly have the highest salary.” Turning towards Maddie, he gestured vaguely towards Sonic, Tails, and Knuckles. “They probably don’t even know what that word means.”

As if to prove his point, Sonic perked up. “I’m sorry, did you just say salami? That sounds really good right now.”

Knuckles had a similar reaction. “I too, would like the salami!”

“Count me in as well!” Tails added with a pump of his fist even though out of the three of them, he definitely knew what the word ‘salary’ meant. He just really wanted to be included.

Ignoring them, Maddie gave Tom a comforting pat on the arm. “Don’t worry honey,” she said. “I can cover the lawyer. And the door. And… the lawn.” She sighed. “Geez, parenthood is really expensive.”

“Yeah, especially with these three. I think they probably cost about five times what a normal kid would cost, each.”

Sonic shot them both a thumbs up. “Five times the cost, and five times the fun!” he effused, and next to him, Tails and Knuckles nodded enthusiastically.  

Tom rubbed at his temple with his hand.

“If you guys are done with the banter and the quips,” Director Rockwell interjected, not appearing to find their back and forth amusing in the slightest, “I will take my leave. Call us when you would like to return a revised version of the document, or if you are ready to sign it. You have a deadline of one month.”

And with that, not even giving Sonic the chance to say a one liner that would be super funny and not at all cringe, she made a hand gesture towards the soldiers flanking her, and obviously it meant something to them because they all departed in swift unison. Out the broken door, across the torn-up lawn, and into their helicopter, which took off within moments of everyone boarding. The blast of air from the takeoff shattered the living room window, and for the third and final time that evening, Tom threw up his hands in exasperation.

“Well,” Sonic said after they had left, the helicopter nothing more than a distant hum that could barely be heard over the rain that blew in through their now-broken window, “that kind of sucked.”

Chapter Text

The next day, after G.U.N.’s impromptu and borderline rude visit, Tom announced to everyone that he was going to go into town to go meet with a lawyer. “And have them do what, I don’t know, so don’t ask me,” he had said, seeing the intent clear as day on Sonic, Tails, and Knuckles’ faces.

“I was just going to ask what a lawyer was,” Knuckles had said as Tom had shut the door on them, looking mildly disappointed as the sound of his truck started up before fading into the distance.

“I’m just offended that he didn’t invite us, quite frankly,” Sonic commented. He had half a mind to sprint over to town and beat Tom there and see for himself just what this lawyer person thingy was all about. It sounded pretty important, and Sonic hated being left out of important things.

“Why would you want to go?” Tails asked. “I feel like you would be bored out of your mind. You get bored waiting for your food to heat up in the microwave.”

Tails, of course, had been right, and Sonic should have listened. (That was a common sentiment, it happening so many times where Tails would advise Sonic not to do something and Sonic would do it anyways that he no longer bothered with saying ‘I told you so.’)

Because as Sonic raced into town and waited for Tom to show up for a good twenty minutes, he found himself horribly dismayed by the whole ordeal. Sonic had never understood the phrase ‘bored to tears,’ however, after watching Tom and the portly, balding man who claimed to be a lawyer, whatever that meant, talk for the better part of the hour and get nowhere with their discussion, Sonic had decided that he might actually cry. And so, he threw in the towel and declared himself done with spying, for the day at least. Spying was supposed to be fun and juicy, after all, not mind-numbing and coma-inducing.

After that, with a chunk of his morning wasted, Sonic decided to go on a run. The early air was crisp and fresh, the dew on the grass accumulating on his quills as he ran, and the birds singing in the air around him. It was an idyllic morning in Montana, one that represented only a small fraction of the year that wasn’t bitterly cold and frigid to the bone.  

Sonic had been enjoying his run when all of a sudden, he paused, digging his heels into the ground and carving out two ravines in the dirt as he skidded to a stop. He recognized this part of the forest; he recognized the view just beyond the trees, the creek that waterfalled down the slope just to his left, and heck, he even recognized the funky rock on his other side, the one that looked like a funny face if you tilted your head ninety degrees to the right and squinted your eyes.

He was near his old cave.

Something overcame him, something wistful and tranquil. It was in moments like these, in between the shenanigans and tomfoolery of his family and friends, when he had a chance to stop and breathe, that he would reflect about how far he had come. All the people he had met and friends he made along the way. And more importantly, where he had originated from.

Plucking a pink flower from a patch of clovers near his feet, Sonic decided that he would go pay a brief tribute to Longclaw.

It would be the first time he would visit the cave after rediscovering it with Tom on his B’earth’day, and for that, Sonic felt a little guilty. But still, he figured that taking a moment to remember his deceased mentor now was better than never, and so with a tight grip around his clover bloom, Sonic dashed over to where he knew the entrance would be.

Dropping in, he took in a deep breath before sighing. The cave still had that musty cave smell, which if he had to describe it, was a mix between mildew and dirt and pine needles. It was equal parts dank as it was nostalgic, and with his old childhood memories playing behind his eyes, Sonic walked over towards his mural of Longclaw and set his paltry offering down in front of it.

He gazed at the mural, reaching out a hand to gently place upon it. He really needed to come here more often, if only to get a break from the antics of his family and friends (and by that, he mostly meant Knuckles. The others were pretty innocuous).

“I miss you Longclaw,” he murmured, pressing his head to where the painting of her rested for a brief moment before pulling away and turning around…

… and freezing in his tracks.

That was odd. The cave looked, well, different. Almost as if it had been rummaged through, almost as if it had been lived in.

A wave of unease washed over Sonic. Yes, something was definitely different about his old home. Things weren’t how he had left it, his once-discarded possessions unusually tidied up and organized in a way Sonic would never do, given that he was quite the messy guy.

He thought back to the last time he had been in the cave, realizing with a start that it was the same day G.U.N. had conscripted him, Tails, and Knuckles to go fight what they would discover to be Shadow the Hedgehog. And that had only been a few weeks ago. Idly walking over to where his old beanbag chair rested, Sonic noted with some odd prickles that traveled down his spine that there was a lump in it, almost as if something had been sitting on it recently.

Right then, as if on cue, Sonic heard a dull thump in the dirt behind him, right in the spot beneath the entrance to the cave. And accompanying the soft sound that made Sonic nearly jump out of his shoes, was a very distinct, deep, raspy voice.

One that sounded quite outraged.

“What did I tell you about leaving me alone?!”

Sonic spun around, embarrassed about how he was unable to prevent the way his quills stood on end at the shocking intrusion. “Shadow?!” he exclaimed, his voice filled with equal parts dread, shock, and caution.

“You,” Shadow seethed, stepping towards Sonic menacingly. “Everywhere I go, everything I do, you’re always there. I’ve already told you to stop. Following. Me!”

Sonic took a step back from the furious hedgehog in front of him, but there was one prominent thought shining from the back of his mind, and that was that Shadow’s behavior confounded Sonic to no end.

If he truly wanted to be left alone, he probably wouldn’t have chosen to stay in Green Hills… right? For a guy that was obsessed with his space, he wasn’t really taking an active role in making it possible for Sonic to respect his request. For example: entering Sonic’s old home. Not very conducive for being left alone, especially when Sonic was already inside.

If he didn’t know any better, he would think that Shadow had an ulterior motive for staying. There was something keeping him here, and the more Sonic interacted with him, the more his suspicions towards what that reason might be solidified.

But there was no time to get into that, at least not in the current moment, as Shadow was currently advancing rather militantly towards Sonic. And so, in response, Sonic lifted up his hands in defense, frantically waving them around in what was supposed to be a placating manner, but probably just fanned the flames of Shadow’s fury even more. “Hey hey hey, hold on just a second, I wasn’t—” he cut himself off as he watched Shadow crouch aggressively, knowing from their last interaction (or in other words, fight) just exactly what that stance meant. His heart skipped a beat, and all of a sudden, doubled down on his denial. “I wasn’t following you!” he continued, must more frantic and flustered than before. “This is my old cave! This is my old home! I had no idea you would be in here!”

“You’re lying,” Shadow growled, the sound punctuated by the dangerous crackling of Chaos Energy snapping around him.

“No, it’s the truth!” Sonic exclaimed. Geez, this guy was combative, stubborn, and just an all-around real pain in the butt. He really was the whole package. “See, look!” Placing his hands up in surrender as he backed up until his quills hit the wall, he pulled the vines away that concealed the painting of him and Longclaw on the rock. “This is me. I drew this when I first came here to Earth. Okay? This is my old home. I’m not lying to you.”

Shadow paused, the energy dissipating. “That’s you?”

Sonic let out a suffering sigh. “Yes, obviously!”

“It looks nothing like you.”

“Dude.” Sonic leveled Shadow a flat look. “It literally is me. See the blue? And the spikes?” He gestured at the painting by tracing a large circle around it, as if pointing at it emphatically would somehow change Shadow’s mind.

Which, it was important to note, it did not. “I don’t see the resemblance.”

“Come on, man, I was like five when I drew that!”

“And it is pathetic, even for a five-year-old.”

“You’re hopeless,” Sonic groaned.

“And you have about five seconds to prove that you’re not following me, before I come over there and kill you so that you can never do it again.”

“Okay, fine, overreaction much? Since you want to be difficult…” Sonic muttered as he stepped away from the portrait, searching the neat clutter of his defunct home for something else to prove his ownership. He didn’t miss how Shadow’s focus locked in on him, the intensity of his gaze bringing Sonic a great deal of discomfort. He made a note to add that to Shadow’s dismal package; the guy didn’t do anything like a normal person. It always had to be amped up to the tenth degree.

But anyways. Finding one of his old shoes, and trying to ignore the potent smell, Sonic lifted it up by pinching it between two fingers and holding it out a full arm’s length away from his body. “What about these?”

“That’s disgusting,” Shadow groused. “And also doesn’t prove anything.”

Sonic looked at his shoes in dismay; Shadow was right, of course. These shoes were from when he was a child. They literally could have belonged to anybody, and if anything, worked as evidence against this being Sonic’s old home due to the wild difference in size.

“Okay, well…” he began as his eyes frantically scanned the dark and dingy space, trying to fight the rising panic as he could literally feel Shadow’s patience beginning to wear thin from across the room. His gaze locking in on his old CD collection, he sprinted over in a smear of blue, perusing them with swift fingers. “My old CD collection! Of course!”

However, as he rapidly flipped through the library, he grimaced, and his expression only became more and more exaggerated with each CD he found.

That’s right, he realized, I left these all behind when I moved because of how garbage they were.

“Well?” Shadow asked, clearly impatient and not understanding the intricacies of music taste and what was taking Sonic so damn long.

“Um, well, we’re just going to pretend like these don’t exist.”

Shadow’s brow furled, his eyes glowing in annoyance. “I’m tired of these games, hedgehog.”

“Yeah, well, I’m tired of you not believing me,” Sonic shot back, out of ideas to prove his ownership of the highly valuable, in-demand piece of property they stood in. “I think we’re both fed up right now, buddy!”

”Why are you even here?” Shadow growled in question, and Sonic gave him an incredulous look.

“Are you kidding me? If anything, I should be asking you why you’re here.”

Shadow scrunched his nose at Sonic, the action somehow contorting his mouth into a line even more displeased than it usually was. “I don’t have to tell you anything.”

Sonic only hesitated for a millisecond before hurling an accusation upon Shadow, a conspiracy that had been developing in his mind with every interaction they had experienced thus far. “You have nowhere else to go, do you.”

The sharp way that Shadow turned towards him, accompanied with a murderous glare, would have been enough to stop literally any other being dead in their tracks. Tom, Sonic distantly thought, probably would have thrown his hands up to cover his face in defense because even though he liked to act like a super cool, super tough cop, he was secretly just a little softie.

But Sonic was unfazed, countering Shadow’s glare with an impassive look of his own. One that told him that he wasn’t scared, and was expecting some sort of confirmation, some sort of answer.

“Well?” he asked as the hedgehog in front of him broke eye contact, shifting his glare towards the wall. Towards his (totally awesome and not at all bad) painting of him and Longclaw.

And to his relief, Shadow relented. “No,” he said bitterly, “I don’t have anywhere else to go. There is nowhere for me in this world. I don’t belong here.”

“And that’s why you’re here, aren’t you. Because if even I can fit in and find a home in Green Hills, then maybe you can too.” At Shadow’s genuine look of surprise at Sonic’s inference (which therefore confirmed that his suspicion was true), Sonic smirked. “Yeah, I might look stupid, and act stupid, and be stupid, but I get things right once in a while.”

Shadow glowered at him, but it lacked the usual edge he possessed, the action somehow coming across as defeated. “You don’t know what you’re talking about,” he replied in what was certainly a futile attempt for self-preservation, the tone of his voice sounding just as defeated as his expression.

“Oh, but you see, I do,” Sonic said, not relenting in his push for Shadow to hear him, to understand. “Because believe it or not, I was in your shoes not so long ago.”

The glare that Shadow extended him softened ever so slightly, a hint of confusion shining through, and Sonic took this as an invitation to press forward.

“I came here with nothing but my satchel of ring portals and a map of planets to travel to if this one failed. I had nobody. I knew nothing about this place. I was completely and utterly alone. So trust me, I know what it feels like.”

Shadow looked skeptical, but to Sonic’s relief, he wasn’t outright hostile. Yet. “So then, what happened?” he asked cautiously after a long, drawn out moment. “What… changed?”

Trying to hide his secret elation at Shadow’s engagement, Sonic took a moment to gather his thoughts. He still had to tread carefully, after all; he didn’t want to say anything to trigger Shadow’s irritation and fury. The guy was a minefield of unpredictability and hasty, aggressive reactions. “Well, after years of hiding from and stalking the residences of this town and pretending like I was their friend—” at this, Shadow gave Sonic a very judgmental look, one that he tactfully ignored, because even though his parasocial relationships had been quirky, could you blame him? “—I finally got to meet one of them, not very far from here, actually. And the rest is history.” Sonic couldn’t prevent the soft smile that tugged at his lips as he remembered the first time he had met Tom, and how he had been shot in the thigh with a tranquilizer gun and locked in a cage. Ah yes, fond memories. “We became friends, and then shortly after, Tails and Knuckles came through their own portals, though it is important to note that Knuckles and I were not friends at first.”

“That doesn’t come as a surprise to me.”

“Yeah, and in fact, I’m pretty sure the first time, we met, we fought. And he kind of beat me up but only because I let him and I wasn’t really trying that hard.”

Shadow scoffed. His posture now, at least compared to when he had first entered the cave and saw Sonic, was almost completely relaxed. His frown remained, sure, but he didn’t look like he was itching to fight anymore, and for Sonic, that at least counted for something. “I’m sure.”

Sensing the shift in atmosphere, Sonic let out an easy laugh, his own tense muscles easing up a bit. “It’s actually a little funny, now that I think of it. My first encounter with Knuckles was exactly the first time I met you. And look at where Knuckles and I are at now! Best friends,” Sonic said with a genuine smile, one that Shadow responded to with a scowl. “And I think it’s because of that, that I think that you and I can be, well…” Sonic hesitated, feeling as what he wanted to say would be too much for Shadow to hear, and not to mention, too much for him to say. “You know what, never mind.”

Thankfully for him, it seemed like Shadow didn’t follow Sonic’s line of logic. “You act like being friends with him is an accomplishment.”

“Yeah, well, if you’ve ever met Knuckles, then you would think that it’s pretty impressive.”

“I met him. And I wasn’t impressed.”

“Nothing impresses you. So… that doesn’t really mean anything to me.”

“You impressed me.”

Sonic blinked, just before his jaw almost hit the floor. “I—excuse me, what?!” he stammered, reaching up to clear out his ears. There was no way he had just heard Shadow right. It wasn’t possible. “Did I just—did you say…?”

Shadow ground out a tch, glancing away. Clearly, he regretted saying anything, Sonic’s overreaction not helping the situation. “Don’t read too much into it.”

“Oh, you better believe I’m about to read into it,” Sonic grinned as he stepped forward, getting so close to Shadow that he was forced to look back at him and unfold his arms to place his hands uncertainly in front of his chest, as if he didn’t know if should shove Sonic away or put up with the sudden proximity. “Let me guess, was it the first time we met? When I chased you while you rode your motorcycle? You’ve got to admit, that was pretty cool of me.”

Shadow's brow furrowed, but curiously did not step away from Sonic. “The first time we fought, it ended up with you handcuffed to a rail on the top of a building.” He snorted. On anyone else, it would have sounded unbecoming, however with Shadow, it came out as incredibly condescending. “You were pathetic. A weakling in our first battle, if you could even be generous enough to call it that. And when you followed me, even though I explicitly told you not to, you were nothing more than a nuisance.”

“Gee, thanks Shadow,” Sonic muttered with a sassy roll of his eyes. But then remembering that he had just gotten a compliment from none other than mister dark and broody Hot Topic highlights himself, Sonic quickly reoriented himself. “Wait, okay, so if said you were impressed by me, and it somehow wasn’t the first time we fought, then when was it?”

“I’m not telling you.” The only indication that Shadow was uncomfortable was the way his lip twitched, nearly imperceptible, but noticed by Sonic due to how closely he studied the other’s face and the fact that they were still nearly pressed up against one another. “I shouldn’t have even said that in the first place.”

“Oh come on, I promise I won’t make a big deal out of it, just tell me! Please?”

“Maybe next time,” Shadow commented, and for some reason, that made Sonic freeze, his body going rigid as his eyes flitted towards Shadow’s in question.

Next time. It was a promise, an omen, a premonition. One that Sonic found himself not at all being opposed to.

Next time.

When did it become like this? When had it become normal, when had they begun to make promises that each time they met would not be the last? And worst of all, why didn’t Sonic mind all that much? Why did he feel, dare he say, excited?

“Next time,” he repeated dully as he took a step back that restored some of the space between them, as though he were in a trance, and in front of him, Shadow seemed to realize what he had asserted. However, he curiously said nothing, choosing to simply watch Sonic with a guarded, closed off expression, waiting to see what he would say next instead of denying what both hedgehogs knew to be true. That there would be a next time, whether either of them wanted it or not.

Sonic swallowed. With this unspoken truth out in the open, exposed for both of them to see, he figured that this was as good a time as any to take the next step. To ask the question he had been asking Shadow and himself ever since he had encountered his counterpart that dark night in the forest he had been camping with his friends. The thing that Shadow said he had known the answer to, but only recently felt like he had figured it out, if the way this conversation was going was any indication. “Shadow… if you want to be left alone, then why are you here? Why haven’t you left Green Hills?” He took a deep breath, steeling himself for the strong reaction he knew he would receive. “Is being alone really want you want?”

Surprisingly, Shadow didn’t react with anger, or violence, or curse words, or any of the usual stuff he was known to be associated with. Instead, he gave Sonic a genuine, raw answer. “I want to be left alone,” he started, a pensive look coloring his face. “But I’m also lonely. And I don’t…” Shadow cut himself off with a sharp breath, and upon making fleeting eye contact with Sonic, abruptly looked away. “I don’t know what to do.”

Sonic paused. In front of him, Shadow looked on edge, as though he didn’t know if the course of the conversation, the controversial topics made him want to run or fight. “Well,” he began slowly, drawing out the word as he bought himself some time to think, to choose his next words carefully to not scare Shadow away. “You can start by talking to me?”

That was enough to draw Shadow’s gaze back to Sonic, however, for the opposite reason Sonic had intended. “Why would I want to do that.”

“Because I’m here to help you, dude. I want to help you.” At Shadow’s indignant glare in response, Sonic interpreting it as Shadow being far too stubborn to accept help from a being he viewed as inferior to himself, Sonic let out an exasperated sigh. “I am probably one of the only people on this planet who can even begin to understand what you’ve been through, and what you’re currently feeling. Doesn’t that at least count for something?”  

“No,” Shadow retorted almost immediately, but even Sonic could tell that the response was hollow, as if even Shadow wasn’t convinced at his answer.

“Okay then, well…” he hesitated for only a moment before diving in. Before taking a risk. Before saying something that might take it all too far. “You're not going to be lonely, because I’m here with you.” Sonic leveled him a smirk, one that he intentionally made as insufferable as possible. “Whether you like it or not.”

“You’ve got that right,” Shadow muttered to himself, but somehow, didn’t look entirely upset by Sonic’s tenacious statement. And at that, Sonic let out an internal sigh of relief. He hadn’t chased him away… yet, at least.

A tense silence settled over them, and realizing that Shadow was content to just sit there and not say anything, Sonic took it upon himself to continue the conversation. “So… Shadow…” he began, not really knowing where he was going with his half-hearted sentence when he paused, sucking in air through his teeth as he looked around. What he saw wasn’t exactly good, which normally would be the end of it, however in this moment, gave him something to talk about. “How long have you… um… been living here?”

Shadow’s ear flicked, and that was the only indication Sonic got that he was embarrassed. Or maybe it was annoyance. Honestly, with his permanent scowl and furrowed brow being the only expressions Sonic had ever been privy to, it was kind of difficult to pick up on the subtleties of the moods he wore. In order to do so, he would have to really study Shadow by getting all up in his space with saucered, unblinking eyes, and that would be incredibly uncomfortable for both of them.

“Since the Eclipse Cannon.”

It was a statement that was said with enough threat, it effectively shut down any mockery Sonic may have been able to belt out.

Or at least, it should have. “Yeesh,” Sonic replied without thinking, “And it’s looked like this the whole time?”

Shadow looked around as if he were seeing it for the first time. As if he had just realized the squalor conditions he had been residing in. “Is this not…” he hesitated, looking towards Sonic with confusion as the knot in his brow eased up minutely. “…normal?”

Sonic could do little more than gape at him. “Um, yeah, no? This isn’t normal, like, at all. In fact, I think living in a prison would be better than this.”

“I lived in a prison for nearly my entire life,” Shadow reminded him coldly. “It was nothing like this.”

Sonic grimaced. Welp, that was incredibly awkward. He would have to maybe try to do a better job at not reminding Shadow about that.

And so, instead of apologizing because he had a feeling if he did so, Shadow would punch him in the throat for showing him any sort of sympathy or pity, Sonic changed the topic. “So…” he said as he rocked back on his heels, gesturing vaguely to the deplorably decorated cave surrounding them. “Let’s start by making this place feel more like a home, hm?”

Chapter Text

Shadow’s reaction was far from the thrill Sonic had hoped to receive. “What,” he simply stated, his glare somehow hardening in intensity.

“You heard me!” Sonic replied, doubling down since he wasn’t going to let some moody, broody hedgehog ruin his fun. “You and I are going to redecorate!”

Shadow glared at him. “And why in the world would we do that?”

Sonic let out a dramatic sigh. “You’re a real piece of work, did you know that?” he said as a pessimistic aside, right before stepping back into his boisterous persona and flinging his arms out to the side in enthusiasm. “We’re going to redecorate because it is fun and apparently you live here? In this dark, depressing hole in the ground? For some odd reason? When there are so many other places to go?” At Shadow’s unamused sneer, Sonic quickly got back on track. “But mainly, because it’s fun!”

“I fail to see how this is fun at all.”

“Are you questioning my taste in fun?”

“Yes.”

“Oh come on Shadow, we do lots of fun things together! Did you have fun when we…” Sonic started, then abruptly stopped as he realized that at this point, most of the things they had done together had involved fighting one another. Yeesh. However, there was one thing they did with minimal violence, and so latching on to that, Sonic restarted his sentence. "Did you have fun at the race?”

“No.”

Sonic pointed a finger at him. “Liar!” he accused, and at Shadow’s harsh expression, quickly retracted his finger, but not the statement. “You know what, I think I understand. You probably have no idea what fun is, and that’s okay! I am here to help you! And for starters, I’m just going to let you know right now, that racing is fun and feels good. Got it?”

Shadow looked away, something painful flashing across his face for a brief moment before it was concealed with a deep frown. “I know what fun is,” he muttered, and Sonic didn’t miss the way his fists clenched by his side.

“Okay then,” Sonic said, drawing out the syllables as he evaluated Shadow’s words and tone and body language and concluded that something Sonic had said hadn’t sat right with him. What it was though, he didn’t have the emotional intelligence nor self-reflective capability to deduce it. “If you know what fun is, then tell me Shadow. What’s fun for you?”

Shadow looked him up and down, as though he were gauging whether or not Sonic was seriously asking him that. “That’s a very personal question.”

“Yeah, and? I’m about to help you transform this sucky place into a home. I gotta know what you like so I can do a good job decorating it.” With an easy laugh, he sank into the old, ratty beanbag chair behind him, and then quickly stood back up when it released a cloud of filth upon impact. He coughed and tried to wave the dust away before continuing to speak. “That would blow if I put a bunch of effort into making this dumb cave look cool if you hate it. I would trust my judgment for décor if I were you, of course, but then again, you’re…” he paused, gesturing vaguely at Shadow’s stormy figure and trying to prevent the grimace on his face as Shadow glared back at him, “…you, and so I have a feeling our tastes might be a bit different.”  

Shadow glared at him for a moment longer, before his expression softened to a miniscule degree. “So you… want to know what I like.”

“Yeah, and no saying ‘nothing.’ That’s totally something you would do, and let me just say, it’s a lame, cop-out answer.”

“This seems dumb.”

“Yeah, well, so is living in a hole in the ground, so if this is what you like, then by all means. We can leave it as it is!”

Shadow paused, mulling over Sonic’s words as he looked around the cave in contemplation. It was pretty depressing, and Shadow seemed to realize this as he looked back towards Sonic with his face contorted in pain. As if he couldn’t believe that he was about to participate in this garbage.  “I like… music. Like a record player.”

Sonic nodded, trying not to betray his thrill at Shadow’s engagement with his antics and act totally normal, totally cool about it. “Okay, we’re switching to CDs because it’s not the 1970’s anymore gramps, but please. Continue.”

Shadow glowered at him, but somehow continued without reacting much more than that. “I would like… lights. Strung along the wall.” He paused in contemplation as he looked around. “Yellow. Or pink. I suppose I don’t have a preference.”

“Pink is a choice, but okay, what else?”

“Something to watch movies on.”

“Okay, and just so you know, movies aren’t in black and white anymore, they come in color now, just so you don’t freak out when you see one for the first time.”

Shadow crinkled his nose at him, and Sonic had the sneaking suspicion that maybe, just maybe, the seventies were not as archaic as he had thought and didn’t solely rely on black and white television. “I also would enjoy a guitar.”

Sonic raised a brow at him. “You play?” he asked, unable to prevent the curiosity from leaking into his voice. Shadow playing guitar would be an unexpected thing for them to bond over (and maybe even duet?!) but at this point in the game, anything would work to get him to closer to Shadow. He wasn’t picky.

Shadow shook his head. “No… I don’t.”

“Hm, okay, odd request then,” Sonic mused, trying to conceal some of his disappointment over Shadow’s confession, “but don’t worry. I’ve been learning a few tunes on mine, but I’ll lend it to you so you can practice shredding.”

“I don’t want to shred your guitar,” Shadow said with a confused tilt of his head, and Sonic sighed. He constantly forgot how obtuse Shadow could be. How there were so many things he just didn’t seem to understand. He supposed that growing up in a highly secure military base and then being frozen in stasis for fifty years had the tendency to stunt one’s understanding of the world, but then again, it could also just be the fact that he was... well... Shadow. 

He wasn’t going to let it discourage him, though. “Don’t worry dude, I’ll show you,” he promised in earnest. “But for now? Wait here. I’ll be right back.”

Without waiting for him to respond, because he knew it would be something negative or demeaning, Sonic zipped out of the cave and ran home. He didn’t waste a single second as he went straight up to his room, deciding that he didn’t have the time to squander bantering with his friends and family. A part of him was scared that Shadow would choose to leave in his absence, and so he had to make this quick.

Tearing through the stuff in his room was devastating, but easy. Though he loved his belongings, he had so much stuff, almost too much stuff, and so with the thought of making Shadow smile (and what a difficult task that would be, Sonic was aware, but then again, he always did enjoy a challenge), Sonic began to dismantle his idyllic setup.

He tore down some things over here, some things over there, and was in the middle of selecting his favorite CDs from the shelf near his window when he was interrupted.

“Sonic!” Tom exclaimed, behind him, the bewilderment clear in his voice. “Doing some remodeling up here, buddy?”

Sonic jumped with a start, his head hitting the bottom of the shelf he had been raiding his CD collection for. Letting out a hiss in between clenched teeth, he quickly straightened up and turned to Tom with a guilty smile on his face. “Dad! Um, hello. Yes. No? I’m just….” Sonic paused, rubbing the back of his smarting head with an idle hand, as if the motion would remove some of the pain that throbbed in steady increments. Ouch, not only did that hurt, but it had been incredibly lame.

“You’re just…?” Tom prompted, stepping over the pile of CDs Sonic had been compiling next to his unplugged audio player and speakers, the conglomerate a huge mess of equipment and wires.

Panicking, because he wasn’t ready to share that he was assembling his favorite stuff to go decorate his old cave so that the guy who had tried to kill them multiple times (and almost succeeding with Tom) could have a nicer place to live, Sonic ignored the question completely and changed topics in a manner that was not at all abrupt and very smooth. Unlike that sentence. Woof. “How was the lawyer?” he asked while throwing his full body posture into appearing to be genuinely interested, leaning forward and placing his hands on his hips with an exaggerated expression on his face. “Actually, never mind. You don’t need to answer that. I spied on you guys and it looked dreadful, so honestly? Thanks for not letting us come along with you to that. Much appreciated.”

If Tom was fazed by the fact that Sonic confessed to spying on them, he didn’t show it. “We started to go through the document, and well, there’s a lot.” Tom ran a hand through his hair, and Sonic realized just how exhausted he looked. Just how much he went through on behalf of Sonic and his friends. And at this, Sonic felt a dull pang of guilt. “I’m going to meet up with him at the end of the week to review the key points of the file. He’s going to summarize it and dumb it down in a way we can actually read, thank goodness. But I will say, what we’ve looked at so far isn’t all that great.”

Sonic’s bravado faltered at the genuine answer. “Tom,” he began, for once dropping his snappy, snarky act as he stepped forward tentatively, a look of concern on his face. “Should we be… worried?”

Tom seemed to realize that he had more-or-less trauma dumped on Sonic, and quickly dropped the gloom and plastered a big smile on his face. A phony smile, Sonic could tell, but a smile nonetheless. “No, of course not! We’re taking care of it. You don’t need to worry at all, in fact, why don’t you go back to—” he paused, motioning vaguely at the space around them. “—vandalizing your room?”

Sonic turned around with a dry smack of his lips. To be completely fair, it did look pretty bad. Which meant he was going to have to do some damage control; one that preferably omitted the truth of Shadow’s current presence less than a mile away.  “I’m just doing a bit of spring cleaning,” he offered weakly, hoping that the way he puffed out his chest in faux confidence would be enough to placate Tom.

“Sonic, it’s the end of Summer. Fall is starting soon.”

Sonic let out a contemplative hum. “Oh. Well then, I’m doing a bit of late-summer early-fall decluttering!” he declared instead.

Tom gave him an impressed look, one that Sonic was not at all deserving of. “That’s very mature of you, Sonic. Don’t tell me that you’re finally growing up?”

Putting up his hands with a disgusted look on his face, Sonic made a guttural noise. “Ew. No offense, I saw the grown-up stuff you did today, and honestly? I wasn’t all that dazzled. That looked like it sucked.”

With a strained laugh, Tom attempted to smile, though it came out more like a pained grimace. Like he had just eaten one of Knuckles’ spicy salsa-centered tacos with no water nearby to quench the heat. “Yeah, you could say that again,” he muttered under his breath before straightening up and pinning Sonic with an easy-going look. “Well, just wanted to see what all the commotion up here was. Maddie and I are about to go into town and get an estimate to get the living room window replaced.” He sighed. “Which is probably just going to get broken again when they come back. So truthfully, we should just wait until then.”

“Oh what, you don’t like the sheet of plastic we have duct taped over the giant gaping hole in our living room?” Sonic snarked with a sassy quirk of his brow.

Tom snorted. “Not particularly, no,” he retorted.

“Well I think it provides a nice breeze and atmosphere. Really nails that open-air floor plan, I think it’s excellent interior design choice.”

“Yeah, until the temperatures drop and it starts snowing soon. I bet it will be a real treat then.”

Sonic was about to fire off a sarcastic comeback in return, when a stark realization hit him. Was Shadow going to stay in that cave all winter? Sure, Sonic had done it for a few years, but when it had gotten really cold, he would find a place in town or the surrounding houses to settle down on the below-freezing nights. There were a few blizzards every year, with heavy snowfall frequently in between, and if Sonic didn’t exercise the correct precautions, it was easy for him to get snowed into his little cave.

He would have to do something to ensure that Shadow wouldn’t have to go through what Sonic had endured.

“Well,” Tom said in absence of a response from Sonic, who was currently staring in contemplation at the ground with a finger pressed to his mouth in a picturesque image of thoughtfulness, “anywho, I just wanted to see what you were up to. Maddie and I will be back soon, so have fun ransacking the place. Just try not to make a mess.” He gave the pile of speaker equipment and CDs a withering glance. “Or, I should say, more of a mess than you’ve already made.”

Sonic gave him a snappy salute. “On it, captain!” he called out, and as Tom left, surveyed his pile to see if he had forgotten anything.

He had accumulated quite the collection of stuff. The stereo equipment and CDs, his favorite beanbag chair, strings of lights he had hanging on the walls (that notably weren’t pink, but Shadow would just have to deal), an older TV from the basement that was so ancient, it still had a slot to insert discs (which was a wild concept for Sonic), and his acoustic guitar (which he was still puzzled at why Shadow wanted since he didn’t know how to play)... yep. It was all here.

Despite himself, Sonic sighed. Oh brother. This was going to be difficult to carry.

However, Sonic was determined. And so, stepping towards his pile, he prepared to gather his selection of entertainment when something in the corner of the room caught his eye.

His comic book collection. His most prized possessions.

He knew Shadow hadn’t asked for any comic books, and yet, Sonic couldn’t help but feel as though it was because he didn’t know what they were. While he hadn’t exactly snooped around his old home and searched that closely, he didn’t recall seeing any graphic novels lying around. Maybe he would ask him what type of stories he liked, and then Sonic could narrow down the options. He didn’t want to accidentally trigger Shadow with some of the intense content his stories had the tendency to contain; he knew that the dude had an extensive and traumatic past and he didn’t even know the start of it. Just that after all that had happened, he was a very angsty, very angry guy.

However, speaking of his comic books, that reminded him….

Sprinting over to his desk, he opened his top drawer to reveal his prized comic book. Opening it up gingerly, he revealed the photo of Shadow and Maria sitting inside. Faded, flimsy, and speckled with grime, but precious nonetheless.

Oh man, he thought to himself with a bright smile splitting his face that met the one Shadow looked up at him with, he is going to love this.

Tucking it safely away into his quills, Sonic went over and quickly gathered up his things. He could barely see where he was going, but he knew the way to his cave by heart. He could do it blindfolded, backwards... even on mirror mode. And so, once he felt like he had everything secured in a comically large pile that towered over his head, he sped over from the Wachowski home to what would soon be the Shadow the Hedgehog home.

He was still waiting there, to Sonic’s minor surprise. A small, nagging part of him had suspected that in his absence, Shadow would have realized that this whole thing was stupid and way too sappy for his taste and gotten scared off, as he had before. Just like after the first time they talked, at the sunset, or their most recent fight. It always seemed to end with Shadow overthinking things and teleporting away in a flash of Chaos Energy.

But no, he was still here, and Sonic let out a miniscule sigh of relief at that fact. “Okay!” he called out brightly in an attempt to hide his elation that Shadow hadn't left. “This is the best I could do!”

He set the pile down, presenting it with a flourish of his hands to a very dubious, unimpressed Shadow. Which was a fair reaction; the haphazard way that the collection of things tumbled over one another was presented in a rather unappealing way.

“I did my best,” Sonic explained, coming to the conclusion that when he compiled his things in a disorganized way such as this, it all looked pretty lame. “But we’ll have to wait a bit to actually use this stuff. I’m going to have Tails make some sort of portable power device with one of my quills or something, so until we get that a lot of these things won’t work, but I guess we could start setting them up?”

Shifting his skeptical gaze from Sonic’s sacrificial offering to the hedgehog himself, Shadow surprised Sonic by saying, “Okay.”

Sonic blinked, right before a wide smile grew infectiously upon his face.

“Don’t look at me like that.”

Sonic quickly wiped the cheesy expression away. “Yep, you’re totally right. This is a super serious, no-fun zone. Got it. Shadow’s house now, you stole this place from me which is totally okay because it sort of sucks, so I gotta follow your rules.”

Shadow let out a hmph!, but didn’t say anything more. And so, the two of them got to work revamping the dismal cave.

Or at least, Sonic worked for about thirty seconds, before he decided he couldn’t handle the awkward quiet.  And so, fishing through his quills (which at this point essentially functioned as a purse), he pulled out an old portable audio player and hit shuffle, the tinny sound only slightly hurting his ears as it hit certain frequencies.

Across the room, Shadow flinched. “That sound quality is horrible.”

“Would you rather we do this in silence?”

Shadow glanced between Sonic and the outdated portable music player chugging away in the center of the room, before saying, “No,” and turning back to what he had been doing.

Sonic shook his head. This guy. This freaking guy. Everything just had to be so damn difficult with him.

Over the course of the next hour, the two hedgehogs worked amicably alongside each other while not speaking, and if Sonic was being honest, it was kind of nice. Usually, he had the tendency to fill silence with jokes and comments and other unnecessary things (the weeks after he had learned to make farting sounds with his palms pressed against his mouth had been particularly insufferable), but for once, the urge didn’t strike him. He was perfectly content humming along to his songs that were definitely from the time before he came to Earth, all while Shadow lurked around like a black cat in the corner of his vision.

And before he knew it, the last thing Sonic had to do was fluff up the bright new beanbag chair he had brought over, kicking aside the grayed, dusty, and deflated one in a minor act of revenge for making him look like a loser earlier before setting the upgrade down.

“All done!” he announced, rather pleased with himself, and marking the first thing he said to Shadow in over an hour. For him, that was quite the impressive accomplishment.

Shadow didn’t seem to be nearly as appreciative as he should have been, however. Both towards Sonic's silence and their combined hard work. “It still looks the same,” he commented flatly, surveying the cave with crossed arms.

Sonic waved him off. “We’ll hang up posters or something later. You’re such a Debbie Downer, did you know that?”

Shadow sniffed. “I have never met anyone named Debbie in my entire life.”

“Yeah, and that’s probably a good thing,” Sonic commented drily, before turning to fully face Shadow. His hands felt a bit clammy at the anticipation for what he was going to do, and he was thankful for the fact that he was wearing gloves. Otherwise he would get his nasty stress sweat all over the photograph he was about to pull out, and that would be no good. “Oh, and Shadow, before I leave and let you brood on your own for the rest of the afternoon,” he said, cautiously approaching him and closing the distance that separated them, “I have something for you.” Reaching into his quills, he didn’t miss the way Shadow tensed up, his body slightly shifting into a defensive pose as Sonic went to grab something unknown.

However, his stance relaxed as Sonic revealed it to be a piece of paper, narrowing his eyes in confusion. “Here, Shadow,” Sonic said as he held it out in offering. “Something for your new home. I think you might like it.”

Shadow took it from him tentatively, his eyes lingering on Sonic for a beat too long before he lowered his gaze to look at what he had been given. And upon realizing what it was—the photo of him and Maria—Sonic could see his face, his body, everything crumble.

“Sonic… I…” Shadow began, his gaze softened and vulnerable as he reached out to hold the photo with a ginger grasp. Sonic was unsure if he had ever seen Shadow be so gentle with something, so kind, so considerate. However, the moment was fleeting, as Shadow snapped his head up with a glare so potent, Sonic couldn’t help but flinch back. “Why do you have this.”

Sensing the dangerous shift in aura, Sonic took a step back, lifting his hands in defense as he did so. “Whoa, don’t get the wrong idea, I…” he began, before swallowing thickly because truth be told, he had no idea what to say.

“I’m going to ask you one more time,” Shadow demanded, stepping forward so that his chest nearly brushed against Sonic’s, and it took everything within Sonic’s power to not gulp and take another step back. “Why. Do you have this.”

“Listen, Shadow, I know this looks really weird but… well…?”

Shadow leaned forward, so close that the fuzz on their muzzles wisped against one another, but there was nothing intimate about it. It was a pure, downright threat. “Well?”

Despite the ominous warning, Sonic found himself unable to think clearly with the sudden proximity they found themselves in. He could feel Shadow’s breath come out in sharp puffs, and was too distracted, too lost in the stormy red of Shadow’s furious eyes to step away. Blinking to break himself free from the trance he found himself in, Sonic glanced down to the photo Shadow still held in a daze. “I found it at the G.U.N. base,” he said distantly, unable to focus clearly and hear his own voice. “And it… it seemed important. I had only interacted with you once, but I could just tell that this picture was special somehow.” He looked back up at Shadow, the stark difference before the person softly smiling up at him from the photo and the person glaring murder at him clear as day. “I’m… I’m sorry. I should have just left it.”

Sonic took it back from Shadow and went to tuck it back away in his quills, not having the heart to dispose of it in front of him, not wanting to tear it down the center and symbolize the split that had occurred between Shadow and Maria and shatter the soul of his counterpart even more than it already had been. However, before he could put it away, Shadow shot a hand out, seizing Sonic’s wrist with an iron grip. Sonic let out a muffled noise of surprise despite himself, his eyes flitting up to meet Shadow’s in question.

What he found was not a look of anger like he had been expecting, but instead one of anguish. Of pain.

“Don’t,” Shadow said, his voice low and husky and full of a million emotions Sonic couldn’t even begin to place. “I… I overreacted. I should be the one who should be saying sorry.”

Sonic blinked in surprise. Shadow… apologizing? Well, that was unexpected. It didn’t even have a spot on his mental bingo card of things he thought Shadow to be eventually capable of.

In front of him, Shadow appeared uncertain. Conflicted. As though he didn’t know what to say or do or think. “May I… see it? Again?” he asked in a voice that was so soft, so vulnerable, Sonic didn’t think he had ever seen this side of him. Not on the moon, and not at the sunset. 

He gulped, dumbfounded. “Um, yeah dude,” he responded awkwardly. “You’ll have to just, uh, let go of my wrist first.”

Realizing that he still was holding Sonic in a death grip, a squeeze that had only grown in intensity as the minutes passed, Shadow hastily let go and took a few steps back, restoring the distance between them. Sonic rubbed at his wrist, in the back of his mind bemoaning the fact that it was definitely going to ache for the rest of the day. Holy cow, for a guy that was so small in stature like Sonic, he was freakishly strong and powerful.

But not dwelling on it, because the last thing he wanted to do was make Shadow feel worse than he already seemed to, Sonic held out the picture in offering. And with tentative hands, ones that shook if Sonic didn’t know any better, Shadow took the photo from Sonic and held it with a gossamer grasp, as though he were scared that anything stronger than the most delicate touch would make it disintegrate in his fingers.

(To be fair, the picture was quite old, so it was kind of a valid fear.)

“Sonic…” Shadow began, before stopping himself with a thick swallow that bobbed his throat. He looked up at Sonic, his eyes big and moist with what Sonic suspected were unshed tears, though it was rather difficult to tell in the dim light of the cavern. Sonic was probably just making an unfounded assumption, because let’s be honest, Shadow the Hedgehog would never cry. He was simply too badass. “Thank you.”

The sheer emotion was suddenly too much to handle, and so the only way he knew how to react was to downplay it. “Hey, don’t mention it man. I can go get a frame for it at some point, the old one shattered so I got rid of it.”

Shadow didn’t say anything, just merely nodded as his gaze dropped back down towards the flimsy photograph he held.

“I was thinking you could hang it up next to my mural of me and Longclaw,” Sonic continued, not knowing what to do with the heavy silence that blanketed them. Goodness gracious, was he awful with emotional stuff like this. He was really trying his best. “Even though you don’t think that self-portrait looks like me at all. That’s pretty messed up, by the way, I’m still mad at you about that.”

Shadow still didn’t respond, the only acknowledgement Sonic receiving that he had heard him at all was a faint flick of his ear.

Sonic cleared his throat awkwardly. It was probably time for him to go; he had long overstayed his welcome here. “Hey, Shadow?” he asked tentatively, and at the trepidation lacing his voice, Shadow finally tore his focus from the photo of him and Maria and looked at him. “Is… there anything else you need right now?”

Are you okay? was the question he wanted to ask, but he refrained, already knowing that the answer would be no.

“I think….” Shadow swallowed and averted his gaze. Unable to look at Sonic, unable to look at the picture he held. “I think I just need to be left alone for a little while.”

Sonic nodded in understanding. This was a remarkable improvement over how Shadow had historically asked for space from him; notably, no punches were thrown or insults exchanged. He could see it in the tense way his muscles alternated between being clenched and relaxed, that he longed to take his frustrations and anger out on someone, but held himself back.

And recognizing the restraint Shadow displayed and knowing full well what he was capable of, Sonic found himself deeply appreciating it.

“Yeah, um, no problem, Shadow.” He reached out a hand, fully intending to place it on his Shadow's shoulder, however paused at the last second, leaving his hand floating, hovering in the space between them. He didn’t know how the contact would be received, if he would be pushing his luck, if it would be too much, too soon. And so allowing his hand to fall back to his side, Sonic bit at his lip in deliberation. “I’ll just… see you around? When you’re ready?”

Shadow didn’t confirm his question, but he also didn’t deny it either. He just simply kept his gaze trained away from Sonic, and he supposed that was the most he could expect out of him at the moment.

“Goodbye, Shadow,” Sonic said as he took his leave, and as he ran home through the forest, wondered not for the first time if he was making a huge mistake.

Chapter Text

Sonic didn’t go back to the cave for the rest of the week, not really knowing how much time Shadow really needed to be alone. Truth be told, it could be anywhere from a few hours to a few months, and not wanting to risk provoking his ire, he figured it would be in his best interest to avoid him completely and let Shadow initiate when he was ready. Though he had definitely gotten better about his… how should he say, impulsivity, Sonic didn’t want to risk it. He preferred his bones intact and not broken, thank you very much.

Still. That didn’t mean he couldn’t take care of some other things on Shadow’s behalf, namely, the portable energy source that they needed to actually use the stuff they had set up in the cave. With it all dark and cold and lonely, it truthfully was still a pretty lame place. And that’s how he found himself in Tails’ workshop one Friday evening after dinner, tapping his shoe nervously as he asked if Tails was capable of creating such a thing.

Tails took the request in stride, right before asking Sonic the very thing he had feared would be addressed. “Sure… but what do you need it for?”

Luckily, Sonic had been anticipating this question. In fact, he had practiced his response multiple times in the bathroom mirror, repeating the phrase so many times that the words had begun to lose meaning and sound numb to his ears. “I, um, think it would be cool! To have. Around? For things. Like outdoors… and stuff? Do you know what I mean?” He extended Tails a pair of finger guns, hoping that somehow, the cheesy emote would be enough to patch up his staggering display.

Unfortunately for him, it didn’t. “Um, what?”

Crap. Even after all that practice, he had still panicked and managed to mess it up.

Stupid, stupid, stupid, Sonic mentally berated himself, right before pinning Tails with a toothy grin. “I mean, I think it would be cool to have for the next time we go camping! So we can watch movies, or listen to CDs, or whatever.”

Thankfully, Tails seemed to buy it. “Oh! Okay, yeah, that sounds like a lot of fun, Sonic! I can do that for you. It shouldn’t be too hard.”

Sonic let out a mental sigh of relief. “Thanks Tails,” he said, and this time, the finger guns he gave his friend were standalone entities that didn’t have to compensate for anything. “Oh, and make sure you put normal outlets on them? None of those weird plugs they use in Europe. I think that was my least favorite part of London, by far.” Sonic paused. “Well, that and the fact that Tom almost died. That kind of sucked too.”

Tails let out a weak laugh. “Yeah, that wasn’t a lot of fun. I could probably do without having something like that happen again.”

“Yeah,” Sonic agreed, right before freezing as he belatedly recalled the reason that Tom had almost died. Shadow punching him in the chest (and apparently breaking his arm? Sonic had no idea why Tom had worn the cast, when the site of impact had clearly been on his torso, but he digressed) had left quite the impact on his memories of their London experience.

And he realized that in keeping a Shadow a secret and in the vicinity, he wasn’t really doing all that good a job of protecting Tom. And for that, Sonic felt a monstrous creature of guilt begin to claw away at his insides.

It was almost strange, the way these pangs of guilt would strike him at the most random, inopportune times. Moments of clarity when Sonic would realize that his ever-growing spiderweb of lies surrounding Shadow, poised like a black widow in the center of it all, was far more convoluted and deep than he had ever intended it to become. 

Completely oblivious to Sonic’s internal monologue of shame, Tails glanced towards the clock and let out a gasp. You would think that they had missed something important, which was actually not that far from the truth. “Oh geez, look at the time! Sonic, we gotta get going, or we’re going to be late for family game night!”

Sonic groaned. “Oh man, you mean the weekly beatdown inflicted upon us by Tom and Maddie? You know, I’m actually starting to think they might rig the games. There’s no way that they’ve beat us the past five times.”

As they walked back to the house, they reminisced about their past losses, the most recent one being charades. And somehow, in the back of his mind, Sonic couldn’t help but think that Shadow would really enjoy the game nights and be pretty good at them. Or at the very least, better than Knuckles... though to be fair, that was quite the low bar.

It was a shame that Shadow joining them wasn’t possible at the moment. And to be honest, with the way things were going, Sonic wasn’t sure it would ever be possible.

By the time they entered the living room to find Knuckles, Maddie, and Tom waiting expectantly on the couch, Sonic was practically bursting with anticipation for that night’s challenge. “All right, spill. What game do you guys have planned for us tonight?”

Tom and Maddie gave each other a conspiring glance before turning to give their opponents a big smile. The expression, though meant to be warm and friendly, put Sonic on edge. There was something about it that screamed danger to him, something predatory in the way they bared their teeth. 

“Pictionary!” they said in unison.

The reaction from the three was varied. Sonic let out a cry of anguish, Tails cheered and pumped a fist in the air, and Knuckles turned his nose up with a sneer.

“Oh come on, really?” Sonic exclaimed in exasperation, right before turning to Tails. “See?! What did I tell you! They definitely rigged it! There’s no way we are winning this.”

Tom let out an odd noise that sounded like it was a cross between a groan and a laugh. “Oh lighten up you guys, what’s the big fuss? It’s Pictionary! It’s going to be oodles of fun!”

“First off, you did not just say oodles,” Sonic said with a pointed finger that was used to really emphasize just how ridiculous that word was. “And second of all, are you serious?! Knuckles can’t even hold a pen, much less draw! How in the world are we supposed to compete against you two with him bogging us down?” He turned to Knuckles with a quick raise of his hands in surrender. “No offense.”

And instead of being offended over being so blatantly insulted, which would be a very normal, expected reaction from him, Knuckles clenched his massive hand into an even more massive fist, the pen destroyer if you will. “I crush the pen in my grasp because it is thin and weak.”

Sonic rolled his eyes. “Yeah, and then you get black ink all over your gloves and make a huge mess.”

“And then I have to wash it out,” Maddie sighed. “Yeah, Tom, are we sure we want to play this one? Couldn’t we do something more simple, like Monopoly?”

Tom gave her an incredulous look. “More simple, and you suggest Monopoly? I don’t think these three know the first thing about real estate development and venture capital. Or how money works.”

Sonic snorted. “Uh, yeah, because that sounds boring!”

“I think it actually sounds rather interesting and intellectually stimulating. I would love to give Monopoly a try!” Tails offered, and upon realizing that their genius fox son would absolutely destroy them at that game, Tom and Maddie glanced at each other, nodded in agreement, and simultaneously said:

“Yep! Pictionary it is!”

And that’s where they found themselves. Playing a game they were destined to lose before it even started.

Maddie started out strong, but then again, that was a surprise to absolutely nobody.

“A hippopotamus on a skateboard!” Tom called out within twenty seconds, and as Maddie nodded excitedly, they let out an insufferable cheer that indicated they won the first round.

Because when Sonic went up to draw, he wasn’t quite able to get the face right for what was supposed to be a tiger (and as he was drawing, he couldn’t help but think of Shadow critiquing his self-portrait and had a depressing realization that perhaps his squatting counterpart had a point about his lackluster artistic skills), and don’t even get him started on the fact that the tiger was supposed to be gardening. And as a result, the whole thing turned out looking more like a party clown scaring a bunch of kids.

(It didn’t come as a surprise that neither Tails nor Knuckles were able to guess what it was supposed to be. Knuckles was even a little scared of the drawing, crying out that he hated clowns and found them terrifying and begged for Sonic to scribble out the whole thing.)

After Sonic, Tom went, and when he drew something that looked nothing at all like the president of the United States making first contact with aliens on Mars, and Maddie somehow guessed it correctly, all three of them let out a cry of protest and indignation.

“Oh come on!” Sonic bemoaned. This was getting ridiculous. “Show me the card! There’s no way that was written on there!”

His eyes widened in surprise as Tom presented the card with an insufferable grin and it actually did say ‘The President of the United States Making First Contact with Aliens on Mars.’ What the actual heck. Who even came up with these things?! Probably losers with nothing better to do with their time, that was who.

Next it was Tails’ turn to draw, arguably the most competent of the group. However, since he was not only their best illustrator, but their best guesser as well, even the most elite accomplishment in drawing would not have been enough for Sonic and Knuckles to guess.

And boy oh boy, did they have some bad guesses.

“A rock! With moss on it!”

“A lint ball from the dryer!”

“A hairball thrown up by a cat!”

Their ridiculous guesses continued for the rest of the turn, and a minute later, when the hourglass signaled that time was up, Tails let out a pained groan. “It was a taco!” he exclaimed, and the whole interaction was very reminiscent of their charades debacle the previous week. Some things never changed.

“What?!” Sonic demanded, rubbing his eyes and leaning forward to make sure he was seeing things right. “Then what was the thing next to it?!”

“That’s Knuckles putting an ungodly amount of salsa on it!”

Sonic and Knuckles both groaned and slapped a palm to their forehead, because now that Tails pointed it out, it was actually very obvious.

After another homerun of a turn by Tom and Maddie, there was only one player left. And of course, already down 2-0, Sonic knew that their team was doomed. Because their final player, the last one coming off the bench and onto the court, was none other than fists for brains himself (as Eggman had so lovingly called him).

The way that Knuckles gripped the pen was already an indication that things were going to go very poorly very fast. He held it like a toddler, clenching the comically small marker in a gargantuan fist that tensed and squeezed as he drew a heavy, uneven line upon the paper.

And as the hourglass ran out of time, all Knuckles had to show for his intense efforts was a circle. He had drawn so slowly, that within the time limit of the minute, that was the only thing he had managed to put down on paper. As he stepped away with a look of great accomplishment and pride on his face, revealing the wobbly line, his concentration had apparently been so intense that he neglected to notice that he had gripped the pen so hard that it had cracked, the ink from the marker bleeding out all over his white glove.

“Um, Knuckles, you got a little something on your…” Sonic started, and upon seeing Knuckles’ very fierce, very serious expression, quickly backtracked. “Actually, you know what, never mind.”

Beside him, Tails continued to stare at the simple drawing in stupefaction. “So… what was it supposed to be?” he ventured cautiously. Neither he nor Sonic had been able to guess; Knuckles had blocked their view for the entire minute and had only revealed his masterpiece at the very end.

Knuckles looked at him like he was an idiot. “A circle,” he said as if it was obvious, and to be quite fair, it kind of was.

This time, instead of slapping one hand to their face, both Sonic and Tails buried their faces in both hands in defeat. That had been horrible. An absolutely pathetic showing.

Of course, after the third round, the results were clear. Once again, Tom and Maddie had won, signaling the end of the shortest, lamest, and most anticlimactic game night they had ever had.

Instead of gloating and high-fiving Tom in a well-earned victory, Maddie turned to Knuckles. “All right buddy, let’s go clean you off,” she said, and Knuckles flinched and levelled her with an intense glare.

“A true warrior is not afraid to get dirty!” he argued, stepping away and clenching his fists, therefore spreading the ink around even more.

“Yes, well, you already got dirty, good for you, and so now what we’re going to do is change out your gloves and put these old ones in the wash.” At Knuckles’ look that screamed nothing short of combative, Maddie sighed and changed tactics. “A true warrior looks presentable so that his opponents respect him! Have you ever considered that?”

Her manipulations worked, if the way that Knuckles’ frown eased up was any indication. “I… never thought about it like that…” he mused, pressing a glove to his chin and smearing the marker ink onto his chin as he hummed in thought. Maddie let out a suffering sigh, and completely ignoring her, Knuckles reached a decision. “Pretzel lady! I demand we clean and change my gloves at once! To strike fear into the hearts of those who face me!”

Used to Knuckles’ abrasive and boisterous demeanor, and already accepting the exacerbated mess he had made, Maddie simply smiled at him and shook her head. “We’ll be right back,” she said to the rest of them as she began to lead him away. “Tails, can you go find and set up Monopoly? I think we’ll give that a try tonight, seeing that Pictionary lasted a grand total of twenty minutes.”

“Actually,” Tails said, and if he had been wearing glasses, he probably would have adjusted them in a very nerdy, know-it-all way, “by my calculations, it was eighteen minutes and twelve seconds.”

Maddie gave him a sweet smile that was only a little strained and exasperated. “Thank you for the correction, Tails.”

Tails gave her a thumbs-up, completely oblivious to the minor dose of sarcasm she had spoken with (which to be fair, was very understandable since Maddie generally wasn’t a sarcastic person), before turning around to accomplish his task.

As Maddie led Knuckles away and Tails ran off to go find Monopoly, an excited pep in his step at the prospect that for the first time ever he might actually win at family game night, Tom placed a firm hand on Sonic’s shoulder.

“Yeah, yeah, I know,” Sonic sighed. “You guys beat us. Again. For the fifth week in a row, and yes I’ve been counting, but no, not because I’m a sore loser! It’s just because I need to keep track of how many I need to win to make it even.” He perked up as a though occurred to him; a way to settle the score… or at least, make a dent in it. “Hey, new idea! How about for next family game night, we participate in a foot race! Doesn’t that sound like oodles of fun, as you like to say?” Sonic paused, before repeating the silly word, rolling it around on his tongue. “Oodles. Oodles. Oh man, you’re right, that is fun to say! Sorry for ever doubting you.”

“Sonic, can I speak with you in private?” Tom motioned with his head towards the door, gesturing for Sonic to follow him. “In the other room?”

Sonic’s heart dropped just a little. Those words, spoken in that exact sequence, was never good thing. He had no idea what he had done (though actually, he did have one pretty big, black and red thing that was the likely culprit), but whatever it was, he was in deep, deep trouble.

“Ominous much?” he attempted to jest, and upon seeing Tom’s rather serious expression, he swallowed thickly. Oh no. He definitely knew about Shadow. There was no way he didn’t know, not with that freaking look he had just given him. Oh man, Sonic was so screwed.

And by the time they had made it to Tom’s office, Tom sitting behind his desk and Sonic in a huge, cushioned chair that dwarfed his frame and made him look smaller than he already was, he couldn’t take it anymore. The suspension, the anticipation, it was killing him!

“Whatever it was, I didn’t do it!” Sonic blurted out. “I shouldn’t have lied, I was just scared about how you guys would have reacted, but it was wrong, and I know that it was wrong, and I didn’t mean to put you all in danger and—” he abruptly cut himself off as he noticed that Tom was staring at him with a look of pure bafflement on his face, one that indicated that he didn’t have the slightest idea what Sonic was talking about. Or about Shadow’s existence in their literal backyard. And so, panicking over his blunder, he stammered out, “I mean… meow?”

Tom continued to stare at him in bewilderment. “What?”

Sonic stared back at him. “What?”

“Huh? Wait, no, you can’t just ask— you know what, never mind.” Tom tilted his head in confusion. “What do you mean, you’ve been lying to us and putting us in danger?”

Sonic hastily waved him off. Shoot. The only good thing about his panicked confession was that he didn’t namedrop Shadow and had unintentionally left things pretty vague. “It was just a blanket statement to cover all my bases,” he explained smoothly, even though it really wasn't that smooth at all. “Ignore me. What did you actually want to talk to me about…?”

Luckily for Sonic, Tom merely brushed off the strange interaction with a perplexed shake of his head before blinking away the confusion and settling into a more serious demeanor. It made Sonic uncomfortable to see his dad like this, his fingers steepled beneath his chin and his expression stern; no vestiges of the fun, silly Tom who had played Pictionary with him less than fifteen minutes ago remained. He was all business. Sonic had no idea what had happened, but it must have been a big deal. Serious enough to take him into his super grown-up and very important office, and serious enough to pull Sonic away from Knuckles and Tails to address him directly.

“I wanted to talk to you about the legal document that G.U.N. left us a week ago.”

Eugh. Yeah, that was pretty serious, much to Sonic’s chagrin. Gross and not fun at all to talk about, but thankfully not about Shadow, and for that, Sonic let out an internal sigh of relief.

“Was the lawyer able to actually read it?” he joked weakly, rendered uncomfortable by the abrupt shift in Tom’s demeanor. “Because I’m telling you, that thing was not written in any language found on planet Earth.”

“Oh, he was able to read it all right. And the contents are….” He paused, sucking in air through his teeth. “Well….”

“Pretty bad?” Sonic supplied.

Tom nodded. “Yep.”

“Well, what are you waiting for? Lay it on me, I can handle it!” Sonic pumped an enthusiastic fist with a cocky smirk, just to really sell that he wasn’t bothered by the impending threat. “You’re telling me that you literally witnessed me turn all cool and golden and save the world from insane evil geniuses with horrible tastes in facial hair, but don’t think that I can handle some legal crap from the Guardian Units of Nincompoops? Please. Give me a break.”  

Tom didn’t react to Sonic’s brash, over-the-top display, instead taking a deep breath. “Sonic, they essentially want to claim ownership of you. They argue that based on your power and past decisions, you need to be locked away and controlled by G.U.N. for the safety of the planet. They’re calling it ‘rightful supervision.’”

Sonic’s triumphant fist and the self-assured smirk that had been painted on his face dropped in an instant. “What?!” he finally exclaimed once his brain caught up with what Tom had said, processing the insane information. Tom had been right. This was bad. “They… they can’t do that! Can they?”

Tom gave Sonic a helpless shrug. “Well, if we sign the document in its current form—”

“No,” Sonic said, “I’m not signing anything. Nope. I can’t… they won’t….” His breath came out in ragged, short bursts, his muscles tensed and his nerves on fire and jittery. He needed to get out of here, he needed to leave, find his rings and portal to another planet, there was no way—

“And I’m not going to let you,” Tom said hastily as he saw Sonic begin to spiral right in front of him, reaching out over the expanse of his desk and placing a comforting hand on his arm. As if to ground him in place and prevent him from running away— something that Sonic was still strongly considering in that moment. “That’s why we have the lawyer. We’re going to revise it and return it to them with new conditions... conditions that won’t lead to you becoming their property.”

Property. For some reason, that struck a nerve within him, did something strange to his stomach and left him feeling deeply unsettled. Sure, he hadn’t exactly been seen as human for a while, because newsflash, he wasn't, but he had never been treated as a possession or a thing to own. Well, other than maybe Eggman, but then again, he was the bad guy, so an attitude like that was kind of expected.

Either way. It didn’t make Sonic feel really good, in fact, it almost made him feel a little nauseous.

“Tom,” he said with a minor break in his voice, his distress bleeding through even though he tried to swallow it down. “Why would they do this? I thought we were friends with them?”

Tom’s lips pressed into a thin line, as though he were contemplating what to say next, or rather, how to say it.  “It seems like with Commander Walters’ passing, some things have… changed.” He chose his words carefully, Sonic could tell, an underlying twinge of bitterness lacing his words. Sonic took a moment to think. Now that Tom mentioned it, with the Commander’s passing, his relationship with G.U.N. really had changed. He had chalked it up to the circumstances: them being framed for stealing the first key, to breaking into G.U.N.’s London headquarters, and everything that had snowballed out of control after that. (Teaming up with Public Enemy #1, aka Dr. Robuttstink probably hadn’t done much to fix their image either). But now that the circumstances had passed and been explained, there was still a sense of animosity between Sonic and G.U.N. A tension so thick one could cut it, a general feeling of distrust that hadn’t been there before.

“I miss him,” Sonic said, and it was the genuine truth. Commander Walters had always been on their side, at least, for the most part. But still. He had been their friend, and now the only person left behind was the crazy and disdainful Director Rockwell who hated Sonic’s guts more than Knuckles hated holding the pen like a normal person during Pictionary.

Tom patted Sonic’s arm again, offering him a soft smile. “Me too, buddy.”

Sonic sat up in his chair, his spine stiffening as his features settled into one of determination. “We can’t trust them.”

“No,” Tom agreed, “and that’s why we won’t be signing the document. You’re not their property. You are Wachowski property, through and through.”

Sonic met Tom’s cheeky grin with one of his own, appreciating the attempt to lift the somber atmosphere of the room, before the expression was wiped clean off his face a moment later.

Because with an abrupt spark of clarity, Sonic realized that the same thing he was scared of, the prospect of his freedom being stripped away causing him to freak the freak out, was exactly what had happened to Shadow.

They had experimented on him. Used him. Exploited him. Owned him, like he was nothing more than a thing to possess.

Sonic had always felt like he had understood why Shadow was the way that he was. He had seen where he had grown up after all, in that musty, cramped, depressing base. That wasn’t really conducive towards turning out like a normal, not-constantly-angry person. And that wasn’t even mentioning Maria; the very people who had treated him as nothing more than a piece of property were the same ones who had killed his only friend.

Yes, Sonic had done a lot of reflecting about Shadow (which was totally not weird at all, just for the record!), and in his time spent thinking about him, had felt like he had come to understand, to empathize with what he had experienced. And because of that, his heart broke for what Shadow had gone through, and in the current moment, his soul feared that he himself would be subjected to it next.  

Because even after fifty years, even with new people running the dang thing, G.U.N. was still the same. They wanted to own and control Sonic, likely under the guise of protecting the world and humanity. Sonic wasn’t stupid. He knew what they had wanted from Shadow, and it certainly wasn’t his dazzling personality. Sonic, on the other hand, had quite the wonderful, exuberant personality, but he knew that his power was even more enticing, and though he wasn’t quite on the same level as Shadow’s Chaos Energy, he was pretty dang close.

Making eye contact with Tom, he realized that he was looking at Sonic with concern, a long moment having elapsed since the last time he had spoken. “Dad…” he said slowly, the title something Sonic only used whenever he was feeling emotionally vulnerable or caught off guard, and this was certainly a very emotional, very vulnerable moment. “Are they really going to take me away?” He hated how small his voice sounded, how scared he felt. How he shrank into his chair and wrang his hands together, not really sure what else to do at the moment to cope.

Standing up abruptly from behind his desk and coming around, Tom swept Sonic up into a hug, one that was deep and protective and enveloping and made Sonic feel all warm and loved on the inside. “I’m not going to let anything happen to you,” he whispered, causing Sonic to reciprocate with a squeeze of his own. “We’ll never let them take you guys away from us.”

Despite himself, Sonic melted into the embrace with a slump of his shoulders, his body just about going limp. Sometimes, in moments like these, he couldn’t believe that he had gone so many years of his life without this love. Without this support. And of course, as he pulled away from Tom and managed to say “Thank you,” in a choked, hoarse voice strangled with all kinds of cringey emotions, he couldn’t help but think of Shadow.

And how he hoped that one day, he could provide him the same support Sonic got from his own family.

Realizing that the moment had dragged on for a beat too long, and the emotions were far too heavy even for his own liking, Sonic attempted to lighten the mood with a silly little quip. Doing that was his specialty, after all. “Did anything in the file even say the words ‘thank you for saving the world?!’”

Tom rubbed the back of his head with his hand. “Um… no. It didn’t.”

Sonic groaned. “Oh, come on! Of course they didn’t. That’s just ridiculous.”

“I know right? Now,” Tom said, attempting to infuse the same upbeat bounce into his voice Sonic had and only falling a little short. He blinked away invisible tears— clearly, the hug had moved him just as much as it had Sonic. “Are you ready to go lose to Tails in Monopoly?”

Sonic rolled his eyes, but the action was done in good fun. “Only if a win for him counts as a win for all three of us.” He smirked. “I mean, according to G.U.N., we’re all Team Sonic, right? We’re one single unit?”

However, even as they went to rejoin the rest of their family in the living room and continue their game night, their conversation about G.U.N.’s intentions lingered in the back of Sonic’s mind. And by the time he found himself in bed later that evening, he was convinced of one thing.

Next time he saw Shadow, he was going to speak to him about G.U.N.

Chapter Text

After Tails unsurprisingly won at Monopoly, he celebrated his victory (and by extension, Team Sonic’s victory) by getting straight to work on the contraption that Sonic had requested. 

He had completed the portable generator over the weekend, apparently having literally nothing better to do with his time since the whole thing took him two days to complete. Upon presenting it to Sonic with an exhausted, limp flourish, Sonic had expressed his great appreciation right before asking if the way his hands trembled and shook was normal.

“Of course I’m okay! This is just the typical reaction to pulling two all-nighters in a row and sustaining my energy levels with copious amounts of coffee. Some sleep with melatonin gummies and a weighted blanket at an optimum temperature of two hundred and ninety Kelvin should do the trick to bring me back to normal.”

“First of all, who the heck is Kelvin? And why are there two hundred and ninety of him?” Sonic asked, genuinely confused. He had literally never met anyone with that name in his entire life, much less two hundred and ninety. “And second of all, Tails! For the last time, if you want to stop being so short, maybe ease up on the coffee?” Sonic said, and he hated how much he sounded like Tom in that moment. There were some fates that were worse than death, and turning into his parental figures was near the top of that list. “Or at the very least, quit complaining to me about your lack of height!”

“Well, I had to drink it! Otherwise, how else was I going to meet your deadline?”

“Hey now, pump the breaks, pal! When did I ever say anything about a deadline?!”

Tails quirked his head to the side in confusion. “You told me to get it done for you as soon as possible. And here it is. Done, as soon as possible.”

Sonic let out a groan. “I didn’t mean it literally!” he exclaimed. “Oh great. Now Tom and Maddie are going to think I’m the bad guy in this scenario. Which listen, normally I am! But also, for the record? I’m not, at least not this time!” Grabbing Tails by the hand and ignoring his cry of protest as he made a futile effort to paw at his workbench to stay behind, Sonic dragged him back to the house. “You’re going straight to bed because this little stunt you pulled is very not healthy and also very not good for you. Geez, for someone so smart, I would think you would take better care of yourself!”

Good grief, Sonic really, really, really hated how much he sounded like Tom in that moment. He had half a mind to go find some earplugs so he wouldn’t have to listen to himself scold Tails for neglecting his health for the sake of a science project.

With that being said, he was still immensely appreciative, and as Tails passed out the moment his head hit the pillow, Sonic whispered a 'thank you' in his ear as he tucked him under the covers and took his leave.

And now, a few days later, Sonic sat at his desk pensively staring at his new portable energy generator. He had tried to spend his evening after Taco Tuesday reading a new issue of a comic book he had received in the mail that afternoon, but found himself distracted.

Distracted by what exactly? At this point, it really shouldn’t come as a surprise that he couldn’t get none other than Shadow the Hedgehog off his mind. Last he had seen him, he had asked for some time alone. Which Sonic was more than willing to comply with, but that had been days ago. And now, staring at his new energy source that gave him a very valid reason to go visit his little secret, Sonic closed the comic book and made a decision.

He was sneaking out.

Tom and Maddie were cuddled up on the couch watching a movie, Tails had gone to bed early since he was still recovering from his sleep-deprivation-stunt from the weekend, and Knuckles was… well… out doing Knuckles things. Which probably meant he was in the backyard punching boulders. Who knew, it probably wasn’t all that important.

(Though Sonic would quickly find out that it actually was rather important to be aware of Knuckles' whereabouts. But we’ll get there in a second.)

Tucking the generator under his arm, Sonic tiptoed down to the kitchen, making sure to avoid Tom and Maddie in the living room. The last thing he needed was for them to ask him why he was raiding the fridge when they had just eaten dinner a mere half hour ago. The leftovers from their Taco Tuesday dinner were all neatly put away in containers, and so grabbing a paper bag from under the sink, Sonic stealthily packed all of the stored ingredients away. This plan of his, albeit last minute, was brilliant; he had no idea what Shadow had been eating while he stayed in Green Hills. Probably leaves and berries and dirt if Sonic had to guess. The taste of a taco would likely blow his mind, and Sonic couldn’t help but smile to himself at the thought.

Grabbing a second bag to make carrying the generator easier, Sonic gathered his things and quietly snuck out the back door.

Resisting the urge to let out a celebratory yell and do a little victory dance once he made it across the backyard without being detected, Sonic quickened his step, preparing to jump into his maximum speed. And he had been just about to take off into the evening when he heard someone call his name.

“Sonic?”

Sonic froze, the deep, thick voice calling out from right behind him sounding just like…

Oh no.

Knuckles.

He spun around slowly towards the source of the voice, a huge, guilty grin plastered across his face because yep, that was definitely Knuckles standing next to that tree over there. His red fur was incredibly difficult to mistake for anything else.

Internally, Sonic was freaking out. Play it cool, play it cool! he repeated to himself like a mantra, the stupid grin not dropping from his face as he attempted to salvage being caught doing something that would be impossible to explain. “Oh, hey there! Knuckles! Didn’t, uh, expect to see you out here! In the middle of the forest. Why, um, are you out here?”

Knuckles pinned him with a suspicious look down the length of his nose. Sonic’s stumbling and stammering wasn’t really helping his cause… he really needed to get better at his fibbing. “Training,” he replied curtly as he crossed his arms. “But I could be asking you the same thing, hedgehog. Are those our leftovers from dinner?”

Sonic laughed nervously. Knuckles could be quite scary when he got into a bout of demonstrating his food aggression, and the sharpened points on his fists were looking particularly lethal at the moment. “I’m, uh, just going out for a quick run! And I’m bringing myself some snacks. Nourishing your body after you exercise is very important, you know!”

Knuckles nodded slowly, the strange look not leaving his eye. “You’re going for a run at night?”

Sonic waved at a hand at him, a simple flick of the wrist to brush off his ridiculous declaration. “Pfft, no, why would you think that I’m doing that?”

“Because it is the setting of the sun.”

Sonic glanced over his shoulders to find golden light filtering through the trees, a vivid shade of orange casting odd shadows throughout the brush. Making an idle popping sound with his lips, he realized that Knuckles was absolutely correct. For once. Turning back, he scrambled to spin this on Knuckles, to make him seem like the crazy one for even questioning him in the first place. “And I don’t know if you were aware of this Muscles, but I am the fastest thing in the universe. I’ll be back before you have the chance to split ten boulders in half with your fists.”

“Is that a challenge?”

Sonic smirked. Knuckles had taken the bait... hook, line, and sinker. “Absolutely, big guy.”

“I will prove it to you! That my fists are faster than your feet!” And with that, Knuckles turned on his heel and took off into the undergrowth.

Sonic let out a dramatic sigh and wiped at an imaginary drop of sweat beading on his forehead. “Whew, that was a close one!” he said to no one in particular, perfectly content to narrate his inner monologue for the sake of the audience. “Now where was I? Oh yes, I was about to go drop in unannounced and visit my secret, edgy lookalike who lives in a cave in the forest. I don’t see how this could possibly go wrong!”

With a comical lift of a foot and a theatrical windup, Sonic took off in the direction of his cave, reaching it in record time in the dwindling light illuminating the forest. And peering over the edge of the entrance and not seeing anything immediately visible inside, he decided he would have to speak up.

“Shadow?” Sonic called down the dark hole, figuring that it would be better to announce his presence rather than drop in. He might have less manners than the average teenager, but that didn’t mean that he couldn’t make an effort every now and then. “Are you down there?”

Waiting for a response and not receiving one, Sonic worried at his lower lip. Had Shadow, by chance, left?

He glanced around the forest. The sun had just set, and the dusky purple sky was steadily darkening.  He could always go back. However, he had already gone through all of the effort to sneak out, and without giving it much more deliberation, leapt down into the cave.

It was dark inside, Sonic straining his eyes to try to catch a glimpse of his former foe. His efforts were futile, however, given that his fur was black and red. Not super conducive to being spotted in dim lighting, if Sonic had to be honest. “Shadow?” he called out again, walking around and still somehow not finding him.  

He had been just about to give up and head out, figuring that he would try again the following day when he heard a dull groan sound from behind him. Turning around with a bright smile on his face, Sonic found Shadow curled up in a ball in his new beanbag chair, eyes bleary and narrowed at the intrusion.

“Why are you here.”

“Oh man, there you are!” Sonic said, trying and failing to hide the relief in his voice. “It is very dark and depressing in here. You really live like this?”

See, the joke here was, not only was this how Sonic used to live back in the day, but he had also been the one to attempt to help Shadow fix it up.

Shadow didn’t seem to find much humor in it, though, as he rolled his eyes and turned over. “Go away,” he mumbled, but it was lacking its usual bite and so Sonic took that as an invitation to press forward.

“Now why would I do that when I brought you so many goodies?” he exclaimed, trying and failing to hide the grin on his face as Shadow turned back around, curiosity apparently getting the better of him. “But of course, if you would rather I just take them back with me, I could always, oh, you know, go away….”

Shadow sat up, rubbing at his eyes before pinning Sonic with an intense glare. “Show me.”

Now, the grin on his face split into a full-blown smile, and as was the law of the universe, any emotion of extreme happiness displayed by Sonic had to be met with an equally extreme emotion of negativity from Shadow. “If you say so…” he drawled, right before setting everything down and revealing it with a jazzy wave of his hands.

Shadow stared at it for a beat before looking back up at Sonic with a flat look on his face. “I don’t know what any of this stuff is.”

Sonic took the lack of a positive, exuberant reaction in stride. “First of all, this is the juice we’re going to use to power this place up—” at this, Sonic patted the portable generator on the lid, his blue quill lying dormant and asleep within the clear glass chamber, “—and second of all, this is a special surprise for a special day of the week! It’s Tuesday, so you know what that means!”

“Of course I don’t know what that means.”

Sonic ignored Shadow’s demeaning comment that was absolutely valid. “It’s Taco Tuesday!” Shadow frowned as he opened his mouth to speak, but before he had the chance, Sonic cut him off with a wag of his finger. “Nuh-uh-uh, before you ask, ‘what’s a taco?’,” at this, Sonic lowered his voice and infused as much edginess and roughness into it as possible, much to Shadow’s clear disdain, “I’m going to show you what a taco is. And then you’ll eat it, and be all like, ‘yummy yummy in my tummy,’ because that’s just how good they are!” Somehow, his second attempt to mimic Shadow was even worse than the first, but perhaps that was because Shadow would literally never say that string of words, ever.

And Shadow apparently felt the same way. “I will never say that. Ever.”

“Yeah, well, that’s what you think because you’ve never had a taco before, duh!”

Shadow sighed. “You are so annoying.”

Instead of being insulted, Sonic gave him a wink. “It’s part of the package, buddy, take it or leave it. Now, before we get started with the tacos, what do you say we light this place up, hm?”

Letting out a disgruntled noise, Shadow complied, pushing himself out of his beanbag chair and trailing Sonic, watching more than helping as he excitedly began to plug everything that needed power in. After a few minutes of figuring out the best way to insert the plugs in a way that wouldn’t be a fire hazard, Sonic finally finished and leapt back with a satisfied placement of his hands on his hips. “Ta-da! Wow, look at that! Pretty neat, huh? What do you think of it now Shadow?” Sonic asked, vividly remembering the last time they had decorated, Shadow had grumbled that it all looked the same as the crusty cave had before. But this? With the cozy lights and decorations all vibing out? This was a true transformation; it finally looked something like a home.

Shadow’s mouth twisted, though with what emotion, Sonic couldn’t say for sure. “It’s satisfactory,” he stated, and even though the reaction was lukewarm at best, Sonic still internally celebrated as though Shadow had dropped to his hands and knees and kissed Sonic on the shoe in gratitude.

Ah yes, a guy could dream.

Shaking off the fantasy, Sonic zipped over to the other bag holding the taco ingredients, ruffling Shadow’s quills as he performed the unnecessary stunt. But could you blame him? He was just so excited, and when he had so much hyped-up energy, the only way he could think to release it was with sprinting.

As he began to take the contents out and place them onto the dirt ground, which was incredibly unsanitary, Shadow walked over to join him. He adjusted his quills with an annoyed look on his face, though surprisingly, didn’t look angry, just confused as he stood over Sonic. “And this is… tacos?”

Sonic didn’t feel like correcting him and telling him that these were the ingredients rather than the final product, figuring he would just show him anyways. “Yes sir! The stuff’s a little cold,” he explained sheepishly. He motioned for Shadow to sit in front of him, a request that was begrudgingly obliged. “Which doesn’t really matter for the most part, I mean, could you imagine if the sour cream was heated up? That would probably be a little nasty. And don’t even get me started on—”

“What is this?”

Sonic glanced over to where Shadow was standing behind him, finding him pointing an accusing finger at the bowl of guacamole. Upon brief reflection, Sonic couldn’t fault him for singling it out; it was literally a gross, green pile of goop with nasty-looking chunks in it, and the fact that the edges were already slightly browning wasn’t really making it appear any more appealing.

“Oh that? Just the best thing ever, and also the most expensive add-on you will ever have to pay for.” At Shadow’s look of continued confusion, because to be fair, Sonic’s explanation didn’t really answer his question in the slightest, Sonic let out a huff. “Dude. It’s guacamole.”

“This is guacamole?!” Shadow exclaimed, and Sonic paused because he didn’t think he had ever heard Shadow say something so passionately without it being also combined with anger or any of the adjacent emotions. Fury, rage, ire, wrath… somehow, Shadow gave unique meanings to all of those words. It was truly quite incredible.

Turning to the guacamole with a quirked brow, wondering how something so innocuous could invoke such a strong reaction, Sonic said, “Uh… yes? Does this… mean something to you?” The underlying question that Sonic didn’t ask, but was written in fine print was How in the world do you not know what tacos are, but you know what guacamole is?!

Shadow’s response didn’t make Sonic any less baffled. “Agent Stone was going to make me guacamole while the Robotniks raided the G.U.N. base. Though I never got to try it.” He gave the guacamole a dubious glance. “I guess I wasn’t expecting it to look like this. He clearly didn’t get very far.”

“Agent Stone made you guacamole? What?” Sonic’s mind was struggling to produce the mental image of such an interaction occurring, and so he gave up before his brain overloaded and started sparking and pouring smoke out of his ears. “Let me guess, his secret ingredient was poison. It had to be. Do you recall having a very severe stomachache after eating a bite?”

Shadow paused, a look of guilt crossing his face. Which was strange... that was definitely a new one. Sonic didn’t think that it was even possible for Shadow to feel guilt; he seemed very unapologetic in every blunt, aggressive, or violent thing he did. He never even showed a sliver of feeling remorse.

Especially after all those times he’s hit me, Sonic mentally grumbled. Granted, it had been a decent chunk of time since their last physical altercation, but Sonic wasn’t completely relaxed yet. While his bruises may have healed, his ego certainly hadn’t.

“I actually didn’t get to try the guacamole,” he said after a long pause.

“Oh thank goodness. Because if you had tried it, you probably would have been dead by now.” An idea lit up in his head, and Sonic snapped a finger excitedly at Shadow. “Oh. I understand now! You didn’t try it because you saw him slip a little vial out of his sleeve right? One that had a skull printed on the side? With purple, bubbling liquid inside? And when he put a drop of the liquid into the guac, a big puff of smoke came up that spelled something ominous like ‘death,’ right? So you decided that hm, maybe this is poisoned! And then didn’t eat it?”

For some strange reason, Shadow didn’t seem to be at all amused by Sonic’s comedic characterization of Stone that was ripped straight out of a cartoon from the early 20^th century. No, instead he said: “I… have something to confess.”

“Oh no,” Sonic said, completely overlooking Shadow’s somber tone and continuing straight on with his joshing, since that was what he did best. “Let me guess. You’ve finally realized that I’m faster and the rightful winner of our race?”

“What? No.”

“What about the fact that my power is objectively cooler than yours, even if I can’t teleport quite like you can? Which, nice magic trick, by the way, I would like to see you pull a bunny out of a hat next, or maybe guess the card I’m holding. Think you can say ‘abracadabra’ for me next time? Perhaps an ‘alacazam?’”

“Not even close.”

“Okay, yeesh, tough crowd,” Sonic mused, rubbing idly at his chin, right before a new idea came upon him. “Oh! I got it! You find all of my jokes hilarious and think I am the funniest person you know, and the only reason you don’t laugh is because you’re worried that it’ll go to my head and feed my ego!”

Shadow crinkled his nose in disdain. “The more you keep guessing, the more I want you to stop talking.”

Even though he got rejected (which, ouch), Sonic visibly brightened at this. Last time Shadow had said something along those lines in response to Sonic’s incessant heckling, he had told him that he wanted to hit him. Now this, this was a remarkable improvement! Was it still a little antagonistic? Sure, but it didn’t prevent Sonic from screeching Progress! in his mind right before continuing to be the absolute nuisance that he knew he was being.

“Ugh, fine! If it’s not those things, then it must be my devilishly handsome good looks.”

“This might be hard for you to comprehend, but it’s not actually about you.”

“Oh.” Sonic’s ears flattened at this new bit of information, his deflation causing him to miss that fact that Shadow hadn’t exactly denied his last assertion. Sonic hated it when things weren’t about him; he had really been hoping that Shadow had been about to praise him. There was just something about a compliment from him that made Sonic feel all warm and fuzzy on the inside, and even though he couldn’t quite place his finger on what that feeling was, what he did know was that he craved it more than was probably normal.

But anyways. That got a little sidetracked. “Okay, well, if it’s not about me, then I haven’t the slightest clue.”

Shadow hesitated for just a moment, his lips pursing together tightly before he finally spoke. “It’s about Agent Stone.”

Sonic was taken aback, even though it should have been obvious based on the direction of the previous conversation. That worshipping, orbiting nutjob? Eggman’s loyal minion for no reason other than he was the only one who could tolerate the Doctor?  His obsession with Robotnik had always struck Sonic as strange; he couldn’t think of a single likable, redeeming quality about his nemesis, and yet, Agent Stone had still been beguiled anyways.

“Agent Stone? That dweeb? What’d you do, insult his facial hair? Or maybe his taste in employers?”

Shadow, unfortunately for Sonic, didn’t seem to find much amusement in his asinine suggestions. “It’s a little more serious than that,” he admitted slowly. Deliberately. As though he were scared that Sonic would judge him for what he was about to say, which was ridiculous because one, Sonic didn’t really care all that much for Agent Stone purely on the basis of the side of the conflict he had chosen, and two, because Shadow had done far more reprehensible things. Sonic found it hard to believe he would be surprised by whatever it is he had to say. He was still here, attempting to befriend him despite their history, and Shadow mistreating Agent Stone wasn’t really going to change that.

“I…” Shadow began, before trailing off and starting over. “I may have left him behind in Eggman’s Crab Ship when it got flooded in the sewer by your fox friend.”

Sonic didn’t even have the thought to inform Shadow of Tails’ name upon the reveal of his confession. That… that was actually a tad bad. Nowhere near the top of the list of nefarious things Shadow had done, but that didn’t exactly make it good either.

“And how… does that make you feel?” Sonic ventured carefully, knowing that the words he wanted to say such as good, he probably deserved it wouldn’t be received very well at the moment. And they also wouldn’t be very nice.

“I did what had to be done. I had a job to do, a goal to work towards. He was not essential to my mission objective, the Doctors needed my help, and so I teleported away the moment we were hit. And yet….”

Shadow hesitated and bit at his lip, prompting Sonic to press forward. “Yes?”

After a moment, he let out a sigh. “I can’t help but feel remorse. I feel guilt about having left him behind, because he was one of the only people who showed me kindness after I came back out of stasis. And I… I wonder if he even survived.”

Sonic couldn’t help but scoff. “One thing about those two lunatics, Mister Mustache and Beard Bum, is that they somehow manage to survive even when you think they died. It’s actually kind of obnoxious. I wouldn’t be surprised if they both resurrected for some inexplicable reason to antagonize us for a fourth time.”

(If this had been a sitcom, Sonic would have stared knowingly at the camera).  

But it wasn’t a sitcom, so the conversation continued without an awkward pause accompanied by a laugh track to fill the eerie space. “Ivo Robotnik said the same about you. That you were impossible to kill,” Shadow retorted with a raise of his eyebrow, to which Sonic responded with a smirk.

“Well, yeah, because not only am I super cool, and the fastest being alive, and criminally good-looking, I also happen to be one thing. Unstoppable.”

Shadow quirked a brow. “That’s rich coming from the guy who passed out after our collision in Tokyo and woke up handcuffed to the rail on top of a building.”

Sonic was about to point a finger at him and fire something snappy back when he froze, hearing the tone in Shadow’s voice and seeing the cheekiness in his expression. The lightening of his permanent scowl, the playfulness that Sonic could swore danced in his eyes. No way. No freaking way. “Was that… a joke? Shadow?”

The slight smile, so faint it may not have even existed, that tugged at the corners of Shadow’s mouth vanished in an instant. Sonic nearly swore; he had been so close, gosh dang it, so close to seeing that fabled expression Shadow never wore. He really shouldn’t have said anything. “No,” Shadow said firmly, his severe mask slipping into place as his frown reappeared. As if there hadn’t ever been the ghost of a smirk peeking back at Sonic, begging to be released in full bloom.

Sonic tried not to dwell on it and took it in stride. “Listen, anyways,” he said, “it happened. He’s probably fine. He usually is, I wouldn’t get too worked up about it. Now, what do you say we start our Taco Tuesday?!”

Shadow bit at his lip, but didn’t say anything as Sonic gestured to the grand display of Tupperware resting before them. After he felt as though the ingredients had been properly presented, he settled in and got to work while Shadow watched in bewilderment. “I could let you make your own taco,” he explained, “but at the same time, I don’t trust you. You’d probably do something weird like make one with just sour cream and meat on it. And so, you can watch me make this first one, and then give it a go for your second one. Think you can handle it?”

Shadow frowned as he watched Sonic expertly craft a taco and hold it out in offering, looking only mildly offput. “This is supposed to be food?”

“Yeah, and it’s good food. Just try it? For me? Please?”

Huffing, Shadow took it from him reluctantly. “Fine. But I’m not trying it for you.”

Sonic chose to interpret this as Shadow was absolutely trying it for him, and leaned forward with wide, expectant eyes as he chanced his first bite. His own taco sat neglected, sad and wilted in his hands as Sonic chose to watch Shadow instead of eating it.

Shadow remained expressionless as he ate, which caused Sonic to break down and excitedly ask, “Okay, so… how is it?”

Shadow paused, taking slow bites. “It’s… not bad,” he said after a long moment. “Certainly the best thing I’ve eaten since coming here.” There was another pause. “Well, that isn’t saying much, since this is the only thing I’ve eaten since coming here.”

Sonic just about dropped his uneaten taco. Which would have been a real shame, since it would have fallen straight on the dirt. “I’m sorry, what?!” he said in a voice so loud, it echoed and bounced off the walls of the cave. “No offense dude, but how are you still alive?!”

“My Chaos Energy makes it so that I don’t have to eat as much as the people on this planet do. My body generates its own power, which allows for me to go long periods of time without needing external sustenance.” He paused, grimacing. “However, if I don’t eat for a while, it makes me… sluggish.”

Sonic let out a gasp of realization. “Oh, so that’s why you were laying all sad and mopey on your beanbag chair when I came in?!” he exclaimed with a palm full of salsa and guac residue to his forehead, getting it all over his fur. “Oh man, I thought you had just been depressed or something! What a relief!”

Shadow huffed. “It was a part of the reason,” he mumbled to himself, right before taking another bite of his cold, mediocre taco. Glancing up towards Sonic, he frowned in disgust, though it surprisingly wasn’t because of the taco. “You’ve got something.” He gestured to his own forehead to mirror what he saw on Sonic, and Sonic looked at him in confusion. “In your fur. Right here.”

Sonic looked up, his brow furrowed as he attempted to see where Shadow had been pointing at. “What? Where? I can’t see it.”

“Of course you can’t see it, it’s right above your eyes.”

“Where?”

“Oh, for the love of… here.”

Sonic froze as Shadow grabbed a napkin and leaned across, suddenly finding their faces inches from each other. He lifted the napkin and began to gingerly dab at Sonic’s forehead, and Sonic could do little more than gape and stare as Shadow narrowed his eyes in concentration. Sonic felt his pulse quicken, because he didn’t think he could remember a single time Shadow had done anything so gentle to him. Every time they touched, which was a lot if you counted the sheer number of kicks and punches they had exchanged, had been with the intent to cause harm, but this? This was entirely new.

Granted, Shadow wasn’t touching him, the napkin was, but it was still enough to make Sonic’s gut clench in a funny way. Probably because it was so weird… right?

After a few long, agonizing moments, Sonic averting his gaze from Shadow even though the latter’s focus was entirely zeroed in on Sonic’s forehead, Shadow finally pulled back, and Sonic took a quiet, gasping intake of air.

And for some odd reason, Shadow didn’t seem to think anything of the entire interaction, seeming more annoyed than anything. “There. That was a one-time thing. Don’t do it again.”

For some odd reason, Sonic really hoped that it would happen again. He chose to keep this opinion hidden from Shadow, though, knowing that the reaction would be far from favorable. So in response, he took a large bite of his messy taco and nodded mutely.

They ate in silence for a few minutes longer, Sonic regretting the fact that he hadn’t had the foresight to play one of his albums before they settled down. Now it would be far too awkward to get up and pop a CD into the player.

Shadow didn’t seem to mind the silence though, taking slow, deliberate bites of his taco as he stared off into the distance, clearly deep in thought. About what, Sonic was dying to know, but his mind was preoccupied by other things.

Because as he watched Shadow finish off his taco, trying not to overthink just how strange it was that something so dangerous and powerful was currently coexisting with him without trying to sock him in the face and eating food mundane as a taco, something occurred to him. One of the reasons he was here (and trust him, there were multiple), triggered by the recent events with his family. The very thing that struck fear into his heart that only Shadow had experienced.

Sonic took a deep breath. Here went nothing.

“Shadow… Can I ask you a question?”

Good heavens, he hoped that this wouldn’t ruin the impeccable moment they had created. But Sonic really needed to know.

Shadow let out a huff as he finished his last bite, going to wipe his gloves off as he swallowed. There was nothing on them, appearing pristine as always, so the action was more out of politeness than anything. “That was a question.”  

Sonic smiled weakly, but the expression didn’t reach his eyes. He was nervous. On edge. There were things he needed answered, things that he needed to know. “It’s a bit of a personal question,” Sonic began slowly, not missing the way that Shadow’s demeanor shifted at this reveal. It was an odd thing about him; the guy was almost allergic to opening up and being vulnerable. Almost as though he were scared. “Promise that you won’t get mad, or run away, or take it out on me?”

Shadow folded his arms firmly across his chest. “I will make no such promise.”

Sonic sighed. He figured as much. “It’s about G.U.N.” he ventured cautiously.

Shadow’s ear flicked. It was the only betrayal of his surprise about the sudden shift in topic. “What about them.”

He was in dangerous territory, he could just feel it. He would have to choose what he said next very carefully. “How did they… treat? You? When they….” Sonic trailed off, wanting to say when they owned you, but not being able to get the words out. Not only because he feared what Shadow’s reaction would be if he were to say it directly, but because it was his own anxiety over his potential fate that squeezed a clawed grip around his fluttering heart.

“You want to know about how G.U.N. treated me?”

It was unmistakable, the shift in aggression in Shadow’s tone, the slight rise in his voice that indicated that the question Sonic had asked was mildly distressing. However, for once, the underlying anger wasn’t directed towards Sonic, but rather, towards them. Unable to speak, and not knowing what the correct words to say were, Sonic nodded mutely.

“Why?”

In that moment, Sonic decided to evade the truth, figuring that it would do neither of them any good for Shadow to know about G.U.N.’s intentions for Sonic. The dude had enough on his plate as it was. “Because I want to know if they are good guys or not.” At Shadow’s incredulous reaction, as though the answer was obvious that they were not good guys in the slightest, in fact, they could easily be classified as bad guys, Sonic hastily clarified his statement. “Shadow, I don’t know exactly what they did to you. But I want to. I want to understand.”

His explanation seemed to be enough for Shadow to stop questioning him and finally answer, though his words were barbed and thorned. “They saw me as a freak. They saw me as a monster. I could see it, the look in their eyes. They were scared of me. They didn’t see me as anything more to exploit and to control, and if it wasn’t for the power I possess, my Chaos Energy, they would have disposed of me a long time ago.”

“Shadow, I—” Sonic began, but was cut off as he continued to speak, apparently having more to say.

“They only saw me for what I had to offer them. I wasn’t a person. I wasn’t even an animal. I was a thing to use.”

Sonic swallowed thickly. It was unfortunately what he had feared, Shadow confirming what a secret, tucked away part of him had already known. “I’m sorry that they treated you like that.”

Shadow sneered at him, though the expression was dull and lifeless. It looked more self-deprecating, more like a defense mechanism. “Don’t give me your pity.”

“I’m being serious though! No one should deserve to feel like that. Especially not you.”

The sneer on his face receded, but it was replaced with something a little more melancholy and resentful. “Why not me? There’s something I don’t understand. You look like me. You’re an alien freak to these people, just like me. You possess power beyond what this world can comprehend… just like me. And yet, when you came here, you found friends. You found family. And I can’t understand how you did it. I want to know why this world welcomed you, but scorned me.” At this, Shadow looked away, a mixture of dismay and rage painted on his face. Sonic fought to keep his arm by his side, the urge to reach a hand out to comfort Shadow once again fighting to break free. “You’re seen as a person, not a monster. And I don’t understand why.”   

But I’m not seen as a person, Sonic protested weakly in his head, at least, not to G.U.N. I am just like you, Shadow. In more ways than you realize.

However, he wasn’t ready to tell Shadow that yet, to share the details of the contract that would give them ownership over Sonic. He didn’t want to provoke his fury, and he also didn’t want him to know that if G.U.N. was interested in stealing Sonic’s autonomy from him, someone who had never been owned before, then they certainly wouldn’t hesitate to do the same to Shadow. And so, swallowing the context down, he instead said:  “But… you had a family too, Shadow. You had people who cared, and who loved you.”

“Maria’s gone,” he said bitterly, and to be fair, Sonic should have expected that response. “And I was a tool for the Professor. That’s all he saw me as, he was just better at hiding it than the others. And I was so blinded by my love for Maria and my rage when she was gone that I was never able to see him for who he truly was, not until the end at least.” With a sigh, he stood up from the floor and went to sit down dramatically into Sonic’s favorite beanbag chair, the heaviness of the flop and the subsequent sound the pellets in the bag made being almost enough to lift the somber mood. It wasn’t, though, not as Shadow tucked his knees up against his chest, wrapped his arms around them, and rested his chin on top, staring dejectedly off towards the wall. “I’m alone in this world. Completely, utterly, alone.”

Sonic had a sudden stroke of clarity. All of those times Shadow had yelled at him to leave him alone, to go away, to mind his business… it had been done out of self-preservation. As a way to take back control from a world that had turned its back on him. Because after all, if Shadow could push people away, then it meant that he wasn’t the one who was rejected. And that thought made Sonic’s heart want to break into two.

Without thinking, Sonic went over to the old, dusty beanbag chair and dragged it in front of Shadow. He tore his eyes away from the wall and looked up at Sonic in confusion, but didn’t lift his head from where it rested on his arms and didn’t do anything to stop him. Carefully, not wanting to move too fast or sudden, Sonic lowered himself into the chair so that their knees were almost touching. Unlike Shadow, however, he sat down with far more decorum, recalling that the last time he had flopped down onto it, it had released a cloud of filth not unlike the mushroom formation of a nuclear bomb.

Somehow, Shadow didn’t flinch away from the sudden contact, from the mere inches that separated their knees, and for that, Sonic felt a huge sense of relief. Hunching over to make himself seem smaller, he looked up into Shadow’s eyes, and all he found was Shadow gazing listlessly back at him. The fight was gone, something that was uncanny and foreign to see in his usually narrowed, usually angry gaze.

Even though Sonic had frequently wished to see Shadow be anything but mad, this hadn’t quite been what he had in mind. This depression didn’t sit right on his face. And in that moment, Sonic vowed to himself that he would do everything in his power to never allow Shadow to feel like that ever again.

“You’re not alone, Shadow. Because I’m right here with you.”

Shadow let out a huff, the breath tickling Sonic’s face. However, he didn’t look away, and certainly didn’t sit back. “You don’t know what you’re saying. You have your own friends and family. Don’t waste your time on me.”

“But Shadow, why can’t you understand that I—”

However, Sonic wasn’t given a chance to finish his thoughts, Shadow cutting him off with a sharp motion of his hand. “You should probably go. Thank you for the tacos. They were tolerable.”

Sonic nodded, knowing that was his incredibly polite way of asking for space. Again. Gosh, why couldn’t he have a normal conversation with the guy without it always ending with him asking Sonic to leave? He could at least find some solace in the fact that Shadow now used his words instead of his fists to end their interactions, but that didn’t make him feel any less sad for their hangout being cut short. If Sonic had the choice, he would stay as long as he could.

This is what you get for bringing up G.U.N., a small voice whispered in the back of his head, and Sonic waved it away. He had his reasons for asking Shadow about his past. He could feel bad for making Shadow talk about it without feeling regret for having done so.

Standing up and restoring the distance between them, and wondering why he felt a little sad about it, Sonic walked over to where they had been eating dinner. He moved to put their leftovers back into the bag, before hesitating and realizing that Shadow had only eaten one taco and was probably still very hungry. With quick, practiced motions, he made two more, placing them in one of the empty containers and holding it out to Shadow in offering.

He accepted without a word, and slinging the packed bag over his shoulder, Sonic prepared to leave. “All right, Shadow. I’ll be back in a few days. Is that okay with you?”

Shadow blinked in surprise, and for good reason. Sonic verbalizing concrete plans was a new development for both of them. “Yes, that would be acceptable.”

“Anything in particular you want to do?”

Shadow shook his head, his expression severe and looking completely uninterested at the prospect of another playdate, but Sonic could see right through it, especially as he caught the way Shadow’s eyes flitted towards the guitar sitting in the corner. A grin tugged at the corners of his mouth; yes, that was certainly something they could do. “Understood,” Sonic said with a wink, and whether Shadow caught on to Sonic’s plan or not, well, that would just have to wait until the next time.

As he readied himself to leap out of the cave and head home, he was halted by Shadow calling out to him one last time, his words placing a metaphorical hand on his shoulder and stopping him in his tracks.

“Oh, and Sonic. One more thing.” Sonic turned back, alarmed by the sudden shift in Shadow’s tone. The harsh gruffness that lined the edges, the sudden manifestation of quiet, seething rage. “You want to know if the people at G.U.N. are the good guys? Let me tell it to you. Straight. Up.” The emphasis he placed on those words, the intensity in his smoldering, crimson glare, was enough for Sonic to shrink back, even from across the expanse of cave that separated them. “Good guys don’t enslave people for their own gain. Good guys don’t build superweapons capable of decimating the planet. And most importantly, good guys don’t kill children.”

Sonic swallowed thickly, nodding after a moment because he didn’t trust himself to speak. And as he left the cave, leaving the glowing lights behind that leaked out into the chilly forest, Sonic’s stomach did a funny twist. Because for once, he found himself agreeing with Shadow. He was right. Good guys didn’t do those things. And the fact that Sonic had been allied with G.U.N. for so long, when they had this extensive history of mistreatment and abuse and all-around horrible decisions, made him feel ill.

Chapter Text

Shadow’s parting words about G.U.N. stuck with Sonic the whole way home.

In fact, he barely reacted when he was greeted by Knuckles in the backyard, his arms crossed and a smug look on his face. “Ha!” he exclaimed upon seeing Sonic trudge out of the surrounding forest, his approach only visible by the porch light. “I have beaten you once more! It seems like my fists are, in fact, faster than your feet!”

“Knuckles,” Sonic said slowly, not really having the fire in him to dispute the fact that there was no way that statement was even remotely correct, “how long have you been waiting here?”

The warrior rolled back his shoulders in pride, an insufferable smirk upon his face. “Two hours.”

“Dude, what? And you’ve been sitting here waiting for me the whole time?”

Knuckles looked at Sonic in confusion, as though he hadn’t the slightest clue as to why Sonic was surprised by his statement. “Well, yes? How else would I gloat at my victory over you?”

He had a point. Not a very good one, but it was a point nonetheless. Acquiescing with a weak thumbs up and a feeble, “You know what, yep, you win this one bud,” Sonic walked straight past him and went up to go to bed.

And then proceeded to not be able to fall asleep.

Because he had gotten his answer from Shadow. The exact thing he had feared had been confirmed. G.U.N. had treated Shadow poorly and like property, and they intended to do the exact same to Sonic.

He obviously had to do everything in his power to prevent that from happening. That much was obvious. But beyond that, there was a bigger problem preoccupying his mind. Something that lingered in the back and slowly crept forward, until he was forced to confront it and stop thinking about himself for once.

He had to continue keeping Shadow a secret.

If not only to preserve the sacred trust he knew he was betraying with his family, but to protect him from G.U.N. The less people who knew about his existence, the safer he would be. Because if G.U.N. was bold enough to assert that Sonic was their property due to the danger he posed society, with all of his protections from his friends, family, and the town as a whole, then they sure as hell weren’t going to stop with him, not if they knew about Shadow's survival. Arguably, between Sonic and Shadow, the latter was the more dangerous one, both due to his elevated levels of power as well as his history of questionable choices.

The questionable choices had been something constantly plaguing Sonic's mind, though he made a conscious effort to overlook them. Which had been a shame. As of late, Sonic had begun to imagine the possibility of integrating Shadow into his family. To sending out tentative feelers to his sort-of-not-really friend to see if he would be interested in ceasing his spelunking lifestyle and joining the Wachowski’s as their newest kid.

It was almost too easy to imagine. Shadow on their team for game night, participating in Taco Tuesday, watching their cheesy shows with them, and everything else in between. Something about it felt natural and right. Even though it wouldn’t feel that way at first to his own family, given their history with Shadow, but Sonic knew after enough time, they would all warm up to him, just as Sonic had.

But no. For a multitude of reasons, things would have to remain as they were. With Shadow in the forest, and Sonic living what was becoming an increasingly difficult double life.

In order for him to see Shadow, it wouldn’t be in the context of his family home. No, it would have to be in the privacy of his old cave, safe from prying eyes who wouldn’t and couldn’t understand the delicacies of their intricate relationship.

And so, the following night, unable to contain his excitement towards seeing Shadow again, Sonic returned to the cave after dinner. It was a risky move, both from the angle that his increased levels of absence were soon to be noticed by his family, and both from the angle that there was a high possibility he would be overextending his welcome with Shadow (which could lead to some very violent and disastrous outcomes if he wasn’t careful).

However, Sonic couldn’t care less. The itch under his skin to see Shadow again (which was totally normal and definitely because he was concerned about the guy’s wellbeing and wanted to make sure he wasn’t an inherent threat to his friends and family) just begged to be scratched, and the only way to sate the crawling sensation was to go drop in unannounced.

And thankfully, Shadow didn’t react nearly as harshly as he did the previous time, though that wasn’t to say that he was super friendly either.

“You’re back already?”

Shadow sounded surprised, but not entirely hostile. Simply taken aback. And that for Sonic was about as blatant of an invitation as he was ever going to get. “Don’t sound too excited now,” Sonic quipped with a wag of his finger, and Shadow’s mouth twisted strangely in response from where he sat in his beanbag chair. “Did you miss me?”

“Not really,” Shadow said after a long moment, and Sonic couldn’t help but wonder if that was the complete truth. He didn’t have much time to ponder the implications of Shadow’s odd response (since he didn’t outright say no), however, as he gestured towards the small bag Sonic carried with him. “What’s in there? More taco?”

“More leftovers,” Sonic corrected without bothering to address the grammatical incorrectness of 'more taco?' as he held out the container of soup and plastic spoon in offering, before setting them off to the side when Shadow didn’t immediately take them. “For later, I guess. Wasn’t entirely sure how hungry you were going to be.”

Shadow’s gaze shifted suspiciously from the soup to look back towards Sonic. “Why are you here.”

“To hang out with you, of course!” Sonic exclaimed with a pair of finger guns and a wink that did nothing more than elicit a look of discomfort from Shadow.

“Why would you want to do that?”

Sonic’s finger guns dropped as he let out a suffering sigh. Seriously, every step forward with this guy always resulted in two steps back. “Really, dude? Why is this such a hard concept for you to grasp?” He placed his hands on his hips, bending over at the waist so that he was eye level with Shadow. “I’m pretty sure I even told you last time that I would be back! This should not come as a surprise to you.”

“Do you have a purpose in being here?” Shadow reiterated, and Sonic had to swallow another sigh as he straightened up and walked over to his own beanbag chair, tossing it over to where Shadow sat before continuing on to the object of his desires, beckoning and calling his name from the corner of the room.

“Actually, I do, believe it or not.” He grabbed his guitar and just about cannonballed onto his musty beanbag chair, kicking a leg up casually as he settled in right across from Shadow. Who, it was important to add, didn’t look anywhere near impressed, simply raising a questioning eyebrow in response as Sonic pinned him with a wide grin and decided that this was as good a time as any to give Shadow a long-winded backstory he absolutely did not care or ask for. “You know, I never wanted this specific instrument. I actually wanted an electric guitar. They’re like, way cooler. But Tom told me that before I could get one, he was going to give me his old acoustic guitar to see if I was actually serious about learning how to play since he thought I just wanted the electric one to make as much loud noise as possible.” There was a beat as Sonic reflected, and then ultimately decided it wasn’t worth denying the truth. “He was right, of course. I really just want to be super rock and roll and loud. But since I’m trying to prove myself to him, I did actually learn how to play a few songs. Kind of.”

Surprisingly, Shadow didn’t seem to be all that irritated by Sonic’s long monologue, which was a new development. Usually, Sonic’s ramblings caused him to lash out both physically and verbally. But instead, he leaned in, his gaze fixated on Sonic as he listened intently. “Show me.”

For some reason, Sonic hadn't been expecting that borderline-eager response as he froze, a sudden wave of anxiety locking him in place as he merely stared awkwardly back at Shadow. He didn’t know where this sudden nervousness came from; it was unlike him to get stage fright. He played for Tails and Knuckles all the time, however, glancing up and locking eyes with Shadow for a split second before tearing them away and smacking his lips as he refocused on his guitar, Sonic realized that this scenario was very, very different. “No judging,” he said, the intensity with which Shadow stared at him making the heat rise to his cheeks in what had to be self-consciousness. It wouldn’t make sense for it to be anything else.

“I will make no such promises,” Shadow said, and with a sigh, Sonic realized that was the best response he was going to get.

And so, closing his eyes to completely block Shadow out from his peripheral vision, Sonic started to play.  It was a simple song, nothing crazy, just an uncomplicated progression of chords that was easy on the ears and fun to mess around with when it came to the order of which strings to strum. There was a melody Sonic could have plucked out on top of the chords if he was a bit more advanced of a player, but he wasn’t, and so he kept things basic and unambitious.

He found himself lost in the music, remembering how Tom had taught him how to play once upon a time with gentle words and guiding hands. How Sonic had gotten so frustrated since he wasn’t automatically good at playing, and how Tom had turned it into a life lesson about how anything worth doing was never going to come easy, and that the most beautiful things in life were the things you had to work for. It had been sickening to hear in the moment from how pandering and corny it was, but now, with nothing but his guitar and the acoustics of the cavern around him complimenting the tune nicely, Sonic couldn’t help but somewhat appreciate it.

Despite himself, Sonic felt a smile tug at the corners of his lips. It was ironic; in a way, the message kind of reminded him of Shadow.

Shadow.

Suddenly remembering that he had an audience, Sonic’s eyes flew open as the song died out, finding Shadow staring at him with such an intensity in his gaze, Sonic wondered if he had somehow found a way to tick him off without even having to open his mouth. Such a thing would be impressive and totally in character, of course, but it still left him feeling mildly exposed and on edge.

Nothing could have prepared him for what Shadow actually demanded.

“Again.”

Sonic blinked at Shadow in surprise. “A—Again?” he squeaked, before coughing and lowering his voice into a much more manly and respectable tone of voice. “Why do you want me to play it again?” he asked, and realizing that the lower octave sounded just about as ridiculous as his voice crack, coughed once more and returned his voice to its normal pitch. “Don’t you want to hear me play something else?”

“You know another song?”

Sonic couldn’t help the mild offense that seeped into his tone. What was he, a one trick pony?! (He kind of was, but that was beside the point.) “Well, yeah, duh,” he said. He could be very humble when the time called for it, and apparently, this wasn’t one of those times.

“Play a new one then.”

Swallowing some of the nerves that had resurfaced now that he was speaking to Shadow once more, Sonic refrained from protesting and got started on the second one. And once he was done with that one, his audience still wasn’t satisfied.

“Another.”

Sonic let out a dramatic sigh, but complied. He had saved his least favorite for last, secretly hoping that he wouldn’t have to play it. But nope, since Shadow was a demanding, greedy stinker, he was going to have to suck it up and play.

This time, he tried not to lose himself in the music like he had before, a little more acutely aware of Shadow’s fervent eyes on him. And after he finished that one as well, Shadow’s thirst still wasn’t quenched.

“Another one.”

Sonic should have expected as much, but that didn’t make him any more gentle in his exasperated response. “I only know, like, three songs, dude.”

“Then learn more.”

Sonic just about laughed in his face, though he couldn’t exactly argue with Shadow’s logic. “Yeah, I could, or….” At this, he flipped the guitar around and held it out in offering towards Shadow, who stared at the instrument with a look of bafflement that bordered on fear. Upon sensing that Shadow had no intention of taking it, Sonic thrust it into his hands, depositing it into his lap with a hollow thunk! “You could always learn to play yourself!”

Staring down at the instrument as though it were going to rear its head and bite him, Shadow’s hands sat curled uncertainly in the air above the guitar.  “I don’t know how to.”

Sonic rolled his eyes. “Well, yeah, that’s obviously why I said that you need to learn!”

“I don’t know anything about music.”

Sonic really wanted to roll his eyes again at how obtuse Shadow was being, but refrained for the sake of redundancy. “And you think I did when Tom handed this to me? No, I had him teach me.”

Shadow gave Sonic a flat, uncertain look. “I don’t think Tom will want to teach me.”

There was an awkward pause, right before Sonic catapulted right over it with the grace of a clown subbing in for an acrobat. “Who said anything about him teaching you!” he effused, completely glossing over Shadow’s implication. The thing they both knew but never spoke of. That he knew exactly what their predicament was, why he was Sonic’s little secret.

“Well if he won’t, who will?”

“I’m going to teach you, duh!”

Shadow’s look of uncertainty deepened, though for different reasons. “You can teach me?” The underlying question, unspoken out of some odd sense of politeness, was you’re good enough at playing guitar?

“Okay, no need to be insulting, dude,” Sonic deadpanned, even though both of them knew what a true insult from Shadow was and that his somewhat innocent question came nowhere close to what he was capable of. “Pick any one of those three songs I just played, and then I’ll prove it to you that I am perfectly able to teach you how to play!”

Shadow was silent for a moment, staring pensively at the guitar as he spoke before finally reaching a decision. “The last one.”

Sonic sighed. “Of course you would choose that one,” he griped. It had been the first song Tom had taught him, and was a far cry from the heavy metal Sonic had initially wanted to play. Something he had protested and begged to be taught instead, but no, Tom had insisted Sonic start by learning one of his favorites, a classic from the band Sonic could only name three of the four members (because to be fair, what did the last guy even do other than bang on the drums with a big wacky grin on his face?).

If Shadow was annoyed by Sonic’s dismal response, he didn’t show it. “What’s it called?”

Sonic shrugged. “I don’t know man, something about a guitar crying. It’s kinda lame and sappy, but honestly? Sort of fits your vibe so you know what, good choice!” He shot Shadow an enthusiastic thumbs-up right in his face, to which his counterpart sneered at with an unamused look. Taking it in stride and retracting his thumb before Shadow did something atrocious like try to bite it, Sonic pressed forward. “I think there are lyrics or something, so if you really want me to learn them, I can go ask Tom to share them. I’m sure it would bring him a great deal of joy… goofy things like that make him happy.”

Shadow nodded slowly, as if mulling over Sonic’s offer in his mind. “I think I would like that,” he said after a moment, and Sonic internally sighed, belatedly wishing that he hadn’t made the offer in the first place. Because even though yes, Tom would love to teach him the words, it would probably be accompanied by questions as to why Sonic was asking, and if he was really unlucky, yet another life lesson that would feel like the equivalent of an unskippable cutscene in a video game. 

Snapping a smile onto his face, he brushed off the prospect of his undesirable homework and leaned forward eagerly. “Now, what do you say we get started?”

Miming how to hold the guitar, Sonic nodded in approval as Shadow obediently copied his movements, surprisingly without any argument or pushback.  This was the easy part, and although things were going fine so far, Sonic was cautious about getting his hopes up. “I’ll teach you the first four chords. That should be enough to get started. Now place your fingers here, on each of these spots.”

Shadow frowned in concentration as he attempted to conform his fingers to fit the spots that Sonic was pointing out. Sonic attempted to show him how to bend his digits by mirroring him, but no matter how hard he tried, Shadow’s knuckles simply didn’t move the way they were supposed to. His gloves were obstructing the other strings, or simply in the wrong place, and fed up with his instructions yielding no positive results, Sonic wordlessly reached over to move them himself.

He should have realized that physical touch of any kind that was intentional, not violent, and not fleeting would have been too much for Shadow. And upon reflection, it may have been a good idea to give him a verbal heads up, based on the strong reaction Sonic received.

“What are you doing?!” Shadow demanded, tearing his fingers away and out of Sonic’s grasp.

Undeterred, Sonic reached up and grabbed Shadow’s hand and placed it right back on the neck of the guitar where it belonged, ignoring his indignant response and the way Shadow emitted a displeased noise of complaint. “Showing you how to play guitar, obviously!”

“By touching me? Couldn’t you just have explained it to me or something?”

“Yeah, well, I was trying that, and obviously it hadn’t been working!”

"This seems incredibly unnecessary." 

"Listen man, do you want to learn how to do this or not?" 

Shadow let out a huff, but didn’t continue to argue and Sonic took that as an invitation to continue. He resumed bending and adjusting Shadow’s digits, though after a minute of unsuccessful results, finally relented. It was a crazy concept, but even his fingers were combative, which made sense since they seemed to love to curl up in a fist and punch Sonic every opportunity that was available.

“Dude,” he said, looking up and giving Shadow an accusatory glance. “You need to relax your fingers. Stop fighting me.”

Shadow growled, though it was more out of frustration for his own klutziness than Sonic’s directions. “I’m trying,” he grumbled. “But this is….” His eyes flitted up towards Sonic, and making brief contact, hastily looked back down to where Sonic was still manhandling his stiff fingers. “Unnatural.”

Sonic shrugged, completely missing the implication and double meaning of Shadow’s words because yes, he really was that dense. “Yeah, well, it’s going to be awkward at first, but you’ll get used to it over time.” He laughed as he continued to alter Shadow's grip in his hand. “Trust me, if I can learn how to play, there should be nothing stopping you. We practically are the same, after all.”

A few seconds passed, and Shadow’s patience wore thin. “I can’t do this,” he groused, ripping his hands out from Sonic’s prying grasp.

“What? Sure you can. All you have to do is relax, and—”

“No, you’re not getting it,” Shadow snapped, causing Sonic to sit back and pull himself away to give space to the sudden explosion. “My hands are made to destroy. They’re not made to—I can’t—create things.”

Sonic regarded him for a moment before shrugging. Typical Shadow, always being so doom and gloom and down in the dumps. “You need to stop being so pessimistic,” he responded lightly, figuring that it would be the best way to lift his spirits. “An attitude like that will prevent you from actually learning, and then I’ll look bad because I was the one who was so confident about being able to teach you.”

“I’m not being pessimistic. It’s the truth.”

“Says who? You?” Sonic said while pointing at him, before directing his finger to point down towards the guitar. “Whatever the people at G.U.N. told you, however you think the world perceives you, it’s not the truth. You can do more than just destroy things, Shadow. And I’ll prove it to you.” Reaching down to gently wrap his hand around Shadow’s and completely ignoring the way his fingers tensed within Sonic’s grip, the one that had been attempting to position itself on the neck of the guitar, he directed him back towards the proper playing position. “We’re going to try this one more time. And remember, I need you to relax.”

Shadow let out a deep breath, and then surprisingly, complied. His fingers loose and fluid, Sonic was able to position them in place in less than a minute, and upon being satisfied with their placement, indicated for Shadow to use his other hand to strum the guitar.

With some uncertainty, Shadow drew his thumb down the sequence of strings, clumsy and uneven, and yet, the chord still sounded sublime. Slightly out of tune, sure, because Sonic was the kind of guy who never bothered to adjust the strings because that was boring and took all the fun out of playing, but still. It was beautiful, complete, and bounced off the walls of the cave; somehow, Sonic had managed to deliver on his promise.

Which he was not at all surprised about. “See? Look at that! Oh, look at me, I’m all dark and scary and can only destroy things, meh,” Sonic mocked in his signature deep, raspy voice he only used to imitate Shadow. “Give me a break, I knew you could do it. But only because you had an excellent teacher, I must add!”

Completely ignoring the way Sonic mimicked him and made a complete butchery of his voice, Shadow could only look down at his hands in awe, his mouth slightly parted as he beheld the guitar and the lingering echo of the sound he had created.

“Hey, Shadow? You good? I mean, it was impressive, yeah, but we still have three more to do.” The question Sonic really wanted to ask was “Are you going to have a crisis after every single one?”, however, wisely refrained as even he could recognize that the current atmosphere wasn’t really conducive to his silly little jokes.

In front of him, Shadow licked his lips and nodded, still staring at the guitar and not bothering to look up at Sonic. “Three more,” he repeated. “Uh, yeah. Got it.”

With each chord that followed, Shadow was less and less resistant to Sonic’s guidance, and by the time that they were on the final one, Sonic could have sworn that he almost leaned into the touch, his fingers nearly craving the guidance to be granted the power to play the final part of the sequence. It was strange, to see Shadow’s progression from being so wildly touch averse that he bared his teeth and snarled to compliantly allowing Sonic to shape and mold his hands with his own, but Sonic didn’t overthink it. It simply meant that his prized pupil had finally realized the merit of Sonic’s teaching abilities. About time.

Because after all, Shadow the Hedgehog, craving contact? Don’t be absurd. The guy was about as prickly as a cactus, and that wasn’t even considering the literal quills he had on his back because he was technically a hedgehog, after all.

But anyways. As Shadow followed Sonic's instructions and began to play the four chords in order, Sonic nodded in approval. While the transitions were choppy and unrefined, the notes themselves still sounded correct, and as Shadow practiced playing the sequence, it finally began to resemble the song Sonic had so reluctantly played.

Somehow, it sounded more melodic when Shadow played it. Even with his lack of practice and skill, there was something raw about the emotion he imbued in his notes, sending pangs of loss and melancholy deep into Sonic’s core. Despite the fact the song had been something he had been resistant to learn at Tom’s dogged insistence, something about the way Shadow played it made him realize what a lovely piece of music it was.

And seeing him knit his eyebrows in concentration as he focused on the instrument below him, Sonic couldn’t help but find himself intrigued by what he saw. Because even though it wasn’t the gentle smile from the photo of him with Maria Sonic had been searching for, it was still something delicate and soft.  A consolation prize he didn’t even know he had wanted.

However, after a few rounds of strumming, Shadow glanced up towards Sonic, breaking the enchantment he had fallen under. “My fingers hurt,” he admitted almost in shame, and yep, that was enough for Sonic’s mind to come screeching to a halt and ground itself in the present.

Taking the guitar back from Shadow and shaking the remnants of wonder from his brain and out his ears, Sonic settled in to play his own tune once again. While teaching was fun, he still far preferred to play himself. “What made you so interested in the guitar anyways?” he asked, idly plucking away at the strings in a noncoherent string of notes that didn’t sound half bad.

Shadow stared at Sonic with an odd expression on his face, something that was reminiscing and wistful before he looked back down towards the instrument Sonic held. “It was… Maria.” His eyes remained glued to the strings as Sonic continued to pluck away, entranced by the music and the movement if Sonic had to wager a guess. “She used to play the guitar for me.”

Sonic played a bad note, froze, and then adjusting his grip, attempted to resume strumming as if nothing had happened and his surprised reaction hadn’t been clearly conveyed through his acoustics. “And, uh, she never thought to teach you?” he tried to joke lightly, right before internally cringing at how mediocre the delivery had been.

To his relief, Shadow didn’t seem to take any offense. “She had intended to. But we ran out of time.”

Another bad note. “I see.” Sonic really hated how awkward he was, and how he never knew the right things to say. Give him a tough crowd, he could always make them laugh (sort of, not really). But this, Shadow’s past and trauma… he was way out of his depth with this one.

Luckily, Shadow didn’t seem to mind, and if anything, took it as an invitation to continue speaking. “There was a song she would always play for me. It was my favorite.”

Sonic latched on to the conversation topic like it was a buoy and he was a man about to get sucked down a whirlpool. “Oh yeah? What was it called? Maybe I can learn to play it for you.”

Shadow stared at him with wide, saucered eyes for a long, drawn out second, before blinking the surprise away and settling his face back into his neutral scowl. “I don’t know.” His scowl deepened, but this time for a reason completely independent from anger. “But even though the last time she played for me was over fifty years ago, I can still remember it as clearly as if it were yesterday.”

This time, instead of playing a bad note, Sonic forgot how to play altogether.

Fifty years.  

That was an incredibly long time to be stuck frozen in time… sometimes he forgot how long Shadow had been imprisoned. “That was how long you were…?” Sonic trailed off, almost scared to say the word in case it would trigger Shadow and shatter the tenuous trust, the peace they had somehow managed to establish. The fact that Sonic had made it this far along in the conversation without a threat or physical blow was honestly astounding.

And fortunately for him, Shadow finished the sentence for him. “In stasis, yes. For fifty years.”

Sonic blinked. Somehow, until that very moment, he hadn’t had to comprehend the fact that Shadow had been frozen a period of time about three times the years Sonic had been alive, at least, not until he said it himself. The entire concept sounded incredibly nightmarish. Frozen and suspended, unable to move, or think, or speak… especially that last thing, Sonic wasn’t sure if he could exist like that. Blabbing was the one thing he was good at, right after being blue and fast, of course. Either way, stasis sounded like it sucked.

Well, at least that was what he thought. Because as he locked eyes with Shadow and studied him, to the point that his counterpart bristled and looked away, it occurred to Sonic that he had absolutely no idea what stasis had actually been like. And, as per his own guidelines and desire to understand Shadow better, he decided in that moment that he was going to ask a rather invasive question. Because if he didn’t know what he had gone through, how on earth was he supposed to be there and support him?

(To be completely honest, it was just mental gymnastics for him to excuse the fact that he wanted to be nosy.)

“Shadow, what was stasis like?”

Shadow snapped his head toward him before narrowing his eyes suspiciously. “Why must you always ask such deeply personal questions?”

Sonic shrugged unapologetically. “Because I’m a deeply personal guy?”

With a twist of his lips, Shadow didn’t seem to have much to say to that.  “Is this something you really must know?”

Tucking the guitar against his stomach, balancing his elbows on his knees, and settling his chin into his hands, Sonic leaned forward with wide, acute eyes and an anticipatory nod.

For a moment, Shadow looked like he wanted to protest more, however, sighed a moment later and gave in to Sonic’s wiles. “I was suspended in time. My body was frozen.”

“So you basically took a really long nap?”

Shadow frowned. “Not exactly. While my body was paralyzed, my mind… was not.”

“So you mean you were awake the whole time?” Sonic gasped as something occurred to him. “No way. Like sleep paralysis?! Wait. Did you have a sleep paralysis demon?! Was he all big and scary and cool and talked to you while you were frozen in place? Can I guess what he looked like?”

“No.”

Sonic ignored him. “Okay, okay, here goes. I think he had… three eyes, and they were probably all red and yellow and scary, with two big horns, and he probably had huge clawed hands because that would be sick, and he also spoke in a deep scary voice and floated in place because why not—”

“Now you’re just being ridiculous.”

“Am I wrong though?”

“Absolutely.”

Sonic’s lips pursed, not quite believing Shadow, but deciding to drop it anyways. “So if there was no super cool and scary sleep paralysis demon, then what was there?”

“It was just me trapped in my mind, reliving the last moments I had experienced before being frozen. I couldn’t actively think, but I could feel things. Memories. Emotions. Feelings.”

Sonic decided to push his luck. Which he shouldn’t have, but he really couldn’t help himself. “What kind of feelings?”

Shadow gave him a side-eye as if to gauge his intentions, and upon seeing that Sonic appeared genuine, slowly answered. “Anger. Fear. Loss. Sadness. Loneliness. All of these things I felt when I woke up, and still do. It’s… it was hard. To let go of those feelings. And truthfully, I haven’t yet.” Shadow paused, drumming his fingers along the side of his beanbag chair as he thought, and that was the only indication Sonic had that discussing his stasis was a difficult topic for him to relive. “I could hear her play the guitar. On an endless loop.”

Sonic widened his eyes; for some reason, that was the most shocking part of the whole thing. “You must be real sick of that song,” he speculated drily.

“That’s the thing. I’m not,” Shadow admitted. “I need to hear it again, just one more time.”

“Well, do you know what it’s called? Maybe I can look up the sheet music so we can learn it together,” Sonic offered with a genuine smile as he inched forward, creeping even further into Shadow's personal space.

“No, I don’t, I—” Shadow frowned as he cut himself off, as if realizing what they were doing. How close they were sitting, how intimate they were being. That what they were talking about was, in his words, deeply personal, and despite the barriers he constantly erected to keep others out, they were being dismantled one by one. “I don’t even know why I’m telling you all this,” he just about growled, a sliver of his past aggressions shining through for a fleeting moment. “You don’t deserve to know these things about me.”

Sonic paid his sudden shift in tone no mind, instead sitting back in his beanbag chair and running his thumb down the six strings of his guitar as he played a somber chord. “Um, you're telling me because we’re friends, and friends tell each other everything?”

Sonic hadn’t really thought before he had spoken, though to be fair, he never did. And because of that, the fact that he just labeled him and Shadow as being friends completely slipped through his filter, and as both of them locked eyes with one another in realization, Sonic in fear and Shadow in shock, the temperature of the room plummeted and time came to a still.

Because now that those words were spoken to existence, they couldn’t be taken back.

Although in all honesty, Sonic wasn’t sure that he would want to take it back. Because it was the truth. He wasn’t entirely sure when exactly it had happened, but there had been a shift. One where instead of them fighting and arguing and ending their interactions in a dramatic huff, there was something more tender between them. One where they decorated a home together, made dinner, shared stories, played guitar. Those weren’t things that enemies did, no, far from it. These were things shared by friends. People who cared for one another and enjoyed each other’s company.

Shadow seemed to similarly be reflecting on their brief history of interactions, biting at his lower lip in indecision. He was torn right down the center of his body, one half not knowing if he should agree and the other wanting to protest. It was written so plainly on his face, and Sonic felt a stab at guilt from putting the guy in such a tough, vulnerable position. Shadow, he had figured out as of late, was notoriously bad at handling his emotions that weren’t anger, and he could only begin to imagine the magnitude of thoughts racing through his head at that very moment.

And then, he finally spoke.  “We are not friends,” he said after a long, pregnant pause, but the words were hollow and weak, as though even Shadow himself wasn’t convinced and he was saying it for his own peace of mind.

Sonic could have just left it. He could have laughed it off, agreed with Shadow’s statement, and gone back to playing the guitar and pretending like they hadn’t just accidentally veered into dangerous territory due to a slip of his tongue. But since he was Sonic, he couldn’t just ignore it, what was now out in the open for both of them to see, hear, and feel. So instead, he said: “You really think that, Shadow?”

Somehow, the indecision on Shadow’s face grew even deeper, his brow furrowing not in anger as it so often did, but rather confusion. As if now that he thought about it, he wasn’t entirely sure. “No,” he finally responded after another hefty moment, “I don’t really think that.”

Sonic opened his mouth to say something, however, cut himself off as he noticed the time on the CD player in the corner, and his heart just about dropped into his shoes. “Oh man,” he swore, “look at the time! I had no idea it had gotten so late, they are so going to kill me if they noticed that I’ve been gone so long!” He slapped a palm to his forehead. “And I forgot to set up my elaborate decoy in my bed! Ugh, I am so dead.”

“You seem to still be alive to me,” Shadow commented, though the words were distracted. They were tinged with something akin to deep worry and thought, the contents of their previous conversation and the subsequent confession Shadow inadvertently making clearly causing him a great deal of distress.

Too fixated on his impending doom if he didn't hurry up and get out of there, Sonic wasn't able to address Shadow's concerning demeanor. “Yeah, for now at least! I won’t be for long if I don’t get going!” Sonic cried out in dismay as he shoved the guitar into Shadow’s arms and pushed himself off the old beanbag chair. “Bye Shadow! I’ll be back soon to hangout again! Make sure you practice those guitar chords! This was fun!”

Sonic ran out of the cave so fast, it didn’t even occur to him that this was the first time in their recent string of meetups that didn’t end with Shadow running away or asking for space.  And if he would have slowed down, he would have seen the look of mild sadness that crossed Shadow’s face, and the way his posture ever-so-slightly drooped as he watched Sonic take his hasty departure from the cave.

What he did see, though, emblazoned behind his eyes as he ran, was the image of Shadow looking tenderly at the guitar as he played, and the haunting notes echoing throughout the cave as he imbued them with fifty years of heartache and pain. And allowing a sad smile to cross his face as he jogged home, Sonic found himself thankful that he had unwittingly labeled them as friends. Because after all he had been through, that was the exact thing he felt that Shadow needed.  

Chapter Text

Sonic should have known that sneaking out in the middle of the afternoon would be a risky move.

And yet, a few days after his night playing guitar with Shadow, he did it anyways.

He had tried to play it cool. Tried to be normal. He didn’t want to be too suspicious, after all, and visiting Shadow two nights in a row was definitely something that shouldn’t be repeated, not unless he wanted his secret being exposed. However, that didn’t prevent the fact that the longer he spent away from his newly-labeled friend, the more he thought of him, almost as if he needed to compensate for not seeing him.

It was a painful existence with only one remedy. A singular cure.

And that’s how a few days later on a Saturday, when Tom and Maddie had decided to head into town for a few boring adult errands, Sonic tiptoed through the kitchen and out the back door, taking a detour to avoid the chances of running into Knuckles, or worse, Tails on his way out.

His escape had been smooth. It was the return that was going to cause some issues, but we’ll get to that in a second.

Because right now, all that was on Sonic’s mind as he dropped down into the cave and greeted Shadow with an enthusiastic wave of his hands, was that Shadow was acting odd. Reserved, or at least, more so than usual.

No matter what he said, no matter what he did, he was unable to get much more out of him other than a few one-word answers that were lackluster even for him. It was a unsettling, which caused Sonic to decide that the best thing to do would be to switch tracks. And so, pulling out one of his favorite films that was literally about fast cars and had themes of family, two of his most favorite things in the whole world, Sonic put on a movie for them.

In a way, it made things easier. The talking was minimal, Sonic providing most of the commentary while Shadow grunted and made noncommittal noises of what Sonic assumed was affirmation, but couldn’t be sure. It was always kind of hard to tell with Shadow.

However, the movie couldn’t protect him forever, and as the final scene came to a close and the credits began rolling with flashy fonts and a hard rock song jamming in the background, Sonic turned nervously towards his companion. He had been ramping up to do this for the entire second half of the movie, his mind racing and his body jittery, and now the time had finally come.

“Shadow…” he began as he laced his hands together and contorted them in an odd, fidgety way, “…is everything… okay?”

Everything in Shadow’s face, his posture, his aura, screamed ‘no.’ However, his eyes flitting to Sonic before refocusing on the credits rolling before them, he shifted in his beanbag chair. “Yes,” he replied curtly. And then, coughing awkwardly, managed a contrite, “Thank you for asking.”

The forced formality and politeness in his tone was enough to indicate to Sonic that something was, in fact, very, very wrong.

Although, stupid as he may be, even he was able to read Shadow’s body language and decipher that this wasn’t the time or place to ask about what was bothering him. He wanted to, of course, both because he cared and was awfully nosy, but for once, he let his filter take hold and refrained from pressing. “Um, okay,” Sonic eventually said instead, erring on the side of caution in his choice of words. “But uh, if you ever need to talk, um, you know I’m here, right?”

The delivery, like most sentimental things Sonic said, was awkward and chopped and could have been a lot better. It didn’t help that it was his attempt to emulate the peculiar, structured speaking methods used on Maddie’s dating reality shows that Sonic occasionally found himself forced to watch, their scripted and stilted words never a reflection of how normal people spoke.

Instead of saying anything and confessing what was bothering him like Sonic had hoped that he would, Shadow simply nodded and looked away.

His mouth shifting into a thin line, Sonic glanced at the time. It was getting kind of late, and if he didn’t get going, he would run the risk of running tardy for dinner. He had already had too many close calls of that nature to want to dawdle any longer. “Uh, all right! Yep!” He did a little fist pump as he stood up, and immediately regretted it for how lame he knew he must have looked. Shadow’s raised eyebrow in judgment certainly didn’t help his case. “Well, good talk,” (it really wasn’t), “that movie was good,” (it was actually quite mediocre), “and I had fun!” (that was the only true statement, but that was because for Sonic, anything he did with Shadow could be considered fun).

“You’re leaving?” Shadow asked, and if Sonic didn’t know any better, he would say that he looked forlorn. Disappointed.

Trying to shove down the guilt that ate away at him, Sonic nodded. “Yeah, unfortunately man. I’ve got to get back before they call in the pizza delivery without my input. Believe it or not, but I live in a house full of sickos who like to put mushrooms on everything, even on my half of the pizza! Like seriously, have they ever heard of the word ‘disgusting?’ If you look it up in the dictionary, it’ll include a description of mushrooms in the definition. I’m not even kidding.”

Shadow gave him an odd look, and instead of inquiring about what a pizza was like Sonic expected him to, he surprised him by instead asking, “When will you be back?”

Sonic blinked in surprise at the forwardness of the question before leaning forward with half lidded eyes and a smug smirk tugging at the corners of his lips. “What, do you miss me already?” he asked sarcastically, and upon Shadow’s sharp scowl in response, straightened back up to full height with a laugh. “I don’t know. Probably a few days. Why?”

Shadow studied him for a long moment before looking back towards the television. Sonic had no idea why he found it so fascinating, especially now that the end credits were over and all that remained was a black screen that reflected Shadow’s pensive gaze and the distance between him and Sonic. “Never mind,” he said after a long moment, after Sonic had concluded that he wasn’t going to say anything at all. “I’ll see you in a few days.”

Sonic pursed his lips. Well, that had been weird.

However, remembering that if he didn’t skedaddle, he was going to be resigned to picking off slivers of mushroom on his pizza for dinner that night, he took his hasty leave. “Well, if that’s the case, I’ll catch you later then!” He offered Shadow a twirl of his fingers, a wave that was flamboyant and exuberant. “Toodles!”

The minute he leapt out of the cave, curled in a ball with a fancy burst of blue power as he landed a few feet away, Sonic buried his face in his hands. Because what in the world, why did he say ‘toodles’ that was just about the cringiest, uncool thing that he could have said, and normally it wouldn’t be that big of a deal, but the fact that he said it in front of Shadow of all people was enough to make him want to cry or puke or scream or even go home and never return to the cave ever again out of pure, unadulterated shame.

Taking a deep breath, Sonic ran a hand through his quills and attempted to calm himself. He also didn’t know why he cared so much; usually he didn’t pay any mind whenever he would do something that was more cringe than funny or cool, and that happened more times than he cared to admit. It was just Shadow, after all, so why did it matter so much to him? He shouldn’t care.

And yet, he did care. He did, in fact, care a great, immense deal about what Shadow thought of him.

Sonic oscillated between feeling deeply perturbed and aceepting of this realization, right before it decided that it didn’t matter because at the end of the day, he had unironically said ‘toodles’ and had absolutely meant it. Ugh.

He was so lost in thought about how uncool he had appeared in front of Shadow, that he completely neglected to notice Tails standing in front of him, a baffled look on his face and a small device in his hand that was currently emitting a frantic string of high pitched beeps.

“Sonic?”

His head snapping up, Sonic’s eyes widened and his mouth hung ajar as it immediately dawned on him that what he had just stepped out into was easily a worst-case scenario. Tails. Was here. Right outside Shadow's cave.

And he had just watched Sonic exit it. 

Eyeing the gadget that Tails held, even his technologically-impaired brain could deduce that it was an energy reader, the very one he had used when they had first encountered Shadow. And it didn’t take a genius to realize who he was tracking, and that in leaving when he did, Sonic had been graced with a last-ditch attempt to maintain his secret before everything came spilling out.

His feet may have been fast, but his mind was slow, as in the wake of his silence, Tails continued to pester him with questions. “What are you doing coming out of that cave?” There was a beat. “And did you just say ‘toodles?’”

Sonic tactfully ignored the first question. Because to be fair, the second one was far more pressing, and something he needed to dispel immediately. “No, I did not just say ‘toodles,’” he rebuked, placing his hands on his hips and leaning forward with so much sass, that he wanted Tails to feel like the ridiculous one instead of him for saying something so weird, cringe, and Tom-adjacent in the first place.

Tails wasn’t falling for it, however. “Were you saying goodbye to someone?”

At this, Sonic faltered. “I—uh…” he began, but wasn’t able to manage much more than that as he awkwardly trailed off.

And unfortunately for him, Tails did not relent. “Sonic…” he said as he slowly stepped forward, a look of apprehension and suspicion crossing his face. The beeping in his device grew louder and quicker with each step, the screeching noise practically blurring together until it was one long, uninterrupted scream. “Who’s down there?”

There were a couple of seconds of delay before Sonic guffawed, which was a fancy way of saying he attempted to laugh and instead sounded like he was choking instead. “Who is— you want to know— what?!” His stammering was punctuated by nervous laughs that contained the intent of being placating, but unsurprisingly fell short and were actually quite nerve-wracking. “There’s no one down there, Tails, don’t be crazy!”

Sonic needed a lot of things.

A sanity check, a chili dog, a dental cleaning… but right now, at the top of that list, he really needed acting lessons. Because hoo boy, was he really blowing this. He could not tell a believable lie to save his life.

And Tails seemed to catch on to this as he took another step forward with a narrowing of his eyes, his gaze darting back and forth across Sonic’s strained smile that bared more teeth than a normal one would. “So if no one’s down there…” he said after a long, arduous moment, “… then you wouldn’t be opposed to me seeing if the cave is the source of my energy reading, would you?”

An single, opportune sweat drop slipped down his temple as Tails began to walk past him, and it would have been comical if it weren’t for the fact that Sonic was so terrified. His secret was about to be revealed, and unfortunately, he was going to be caught right in the middle of it. There would be no playing it off, no pretending like he had been completely oblivious to Shadow’s presence in Green Hills.

His family would never trust him again. And why should they? Sonic’s actions were far from deserving of such a thing.

He had to prevent Tails from going down there and seeing Shadow. At all costs.

“Wait!” he called out to Tails with enough desperation in his voice, that his friend stopped and turned with an inquisitive raise of his eyebrow. “You can’t go down there!”

Tails’ ear flicked in confusion. “Why not?”

“Because… um….” Sonic began to snap his fingers, as if the repetitive motions would somehow fire the neurons in his brain to think of something, anything to say. And somehow it worked, as he instinctually blurted out: “It’s a surprise!”

Now, Tails stared at him flatly. “A surprise.”

“Yes!” Sonic said while pointing an excited finger at him, the lies flowing more smoothly now as his mind caught up to his mouth. “I’m working on something down there, and if you see it before it’s done, you’ll spoil the fun! It’s what I needed that portable generator for, and maybe that’s the energy reading your machine has been picking up on? It has been working awful hard, perhaps I need to go give it a rest, heh-heh!"

If these had been the fabled acting lessons that he so desperately needed, Sonic would have gotten a grade of B-plus.

Because the important outcome was that Tails somehow, some way, bought it.

“Oh, okay Sonic,” he said somewhat reluctantly as he shut off his energy-reading device, bringing a blissful silence to the forest as the shrieking beeps were terminated. “If you insist that it’s a big surprise, I guess I’ll have to believe you.”

Sonic drummed his fingers against his thigh, only feeling a mild stab of guilt at taking advantage of Tails’ trust in him like that. It was only minor due to his crushing fear of the consequences should Tails go down into his cave and see Shadow, though he didn’t even allow himself time to dwell on it because now, it was time for a distraction, and it needed to happen fast. Luckily, he had the perfect excuse for them to leave right up his sleeve. “Now, uh, what do you say we head back? We don’t want to miss out on ordering the pizza, right buddy?”

At this, Tails lit up, and Sonic mentally cheered as he saw his diversion work.  “Oh yeah, we’re having pizza tonight, aren’t we!”

“Yeah, and if we don’t hurry, they’re going to put mushrooms on it! We gotta go, now!”

For the record, Tails didn’t care whether he had mushrooms on his pizza or not. However, he was a loyal friend, and so he took off with Sonic, flying behind him and only keeping up due to Sonic significantly reducing his speed from what he knew his maximum to be. He wanted to keep an eye on Tails, as well as not be a complete jerkwad and leave him in the dust.

However, as the house came into sight, Sonic caught a glimpse of Maddie on the phone through the kitchen window, and digging his shoes into the dirt, took off so that he burst into the kitchen within a split second. He didn’t have a moment to waste.

“Hold the phone!” Sonic shouted at the top of his lungs as he threw the kitchen door open with a slam! “Literally! Hold it!”

Stalking up to her with purpose in his step and steady resolve in his gaze, he pointed to the phone and held out an expectant hand. Glancing down at him in surprise, Maddie hesitated, and then said into the phone, “Um, pardon me. I think I’m being hijacked.”

Sonic took it from her and cut right to the chase. This was purely a business transaction, after all. “Hello, hi, no mushrooms on the pepperoni side. Yes, I think that is a horrible combination of toppings, yes, it should be illegal, and no, I will not be accepting any feedback on the matter at the moment. Thank you.” He handed the phone back to Maddie, who simply gave him a bewildered side eye as she tentatively accepted it without a word. “There. I saved the pizza. And about fifty cents now that we’ve removed a topping from half of it. Those add up if you’re not careful, you know. The whole concept of ‘build-your-own’ is a scam and you need to be more mindful.”

The bewildered look did not leave her face as she slowly returned the phone to rest on her cheek as she clumsily continued the order, Sonic’s intrusion clearly throwing her for a loop. Sonic tried not to be too bothered by the fact that she didn’t thank him for his granule of wisdom, chalking it up to be a work of charity that didn’t need recognition. He could be so altruistic at times, it was truly incredible.

His hard work paid off as the pizza finally arrived a half hour later, and unable to prevent the huge smile that split his face as they all settled in with a slice, Sonic dug in with gusto. Not having to pick mushrooms off a pizza could really make or break an evening, if you were to ask him.

But what could definitely break the evening was Knuckles’ ever-present food greed.

“Hey, come on Knuckles, save some parmesan for the rest of us, geez!”

Making pointed eye contact with Sonic that was threatening because that was just how Knuckles was, he reached for another packet of cheese. “No,” he said, right before opening it and dumping another pile onto his slice.

Turning to Maddie and Tom, Sonic lifted his hands up in an exasperated gesture that clearly stated guys, a little help here?!

While Tom looked confused, Maddie read his message loud and clear. “Don’t worry, boys,” she said in reassurance, “we ordered plenty of extra parmesan packets. There should be plenty for everyone to go around.”

“Yeah,” Tom added as he caught on to what Sonic’s dramatic plea had been about. “We would be pretty stupid to not do that after the fight that broke out last time.”

The fight, of course, being between Sonic and Knuckles after Knuckles had hoarded all of the parmesan packets and used them on a whopping two slices of pizza. There was something off about the guy, Sonic was convinced, where he felt the need to cover any sort of food in a topping that had no business being converted to the main meal. It was unnatural. It wasn’t right.

But anyways. Maddie had been correct; there were many extra cheese packets floating around this time. With a big smile on his face as he reached for one, and tastefully ignoring the aggressive look Knuckles gave him across the table, Sonic prepared to enhance his already exquisite slice of pepperoni without mushrooms. It wasn’t pizza night without tacky parmesan that tasted a bit like sawdust, after all.

However, his smile was wiped right off as Tom made a casual comment that had a multitude of layers of implications and accusations.

“We’re surprised that you made it on time for dinner tonight, buddy,”

The only indication that Sonic was caught off guard was the fact that he opened the parmesan packet with a bit more force than necessary, spilling cheese crumbs all of over his plate and missing his slice entirely. It was a good thing Maddie had grabbed extras. “What? Don’t be insulting.” He attempted to pick up the specks of cheese between his forefinger and thumb and sprinkle back on his pizza, and was met with limited success. “I’m literally the fastest thing alive in the entire universe. It’s impossible for me to be late!”

“He’s right,” Maddie added. She, unlike Knuckles, added a very minimal sprinkling of parmesan to her pizza because she, unlike Knuckles, was a normal person. “You haven’t really been around recently. What have you been up to?”

Across the table, Tails gave him a look. Sonic decided that he didn’t really like that look. It made him squeamish. Uncomfortable.

And so looking away from Tails and towards the rest of the table, he attempted to play it cool. “Oh you know, the usual, running, and jogging, and sprinting, and um—” he swallowed nervously before shifting tracks. “You know, I’ve really been trying to get in touch with nature recently, like, yoga, and third eyes, and chakras and stuff.” He had no idea what he was talking about, just regurgitating the stuff he had seen Maddie do when she did her weird pretzel moves that Sonic knew would break his bones if he tried to replicate.

And somehow, this sporadic tactic seemed to work, at least on Maddie. “That’s really neat Sonic. Does anyone else have any updates on what they’ve been up to?”

Sonic tried not to let out a sigh of relief at the blissful change in topic that was thankfully not about his increased levels of absence.

Of course, right before Tom ruined it by reminding him of something that had been lingering in the back of his mind, haunting him constantly no matter how he tried to shake it off. “G.U.N. comes back in two weeks.”

Tom let out a sharp hiss as Maddie pinched him under the table. “Any other updates?”

Sonic chanced a side-eye towards Tails, wondering if he was going to mention the mysterious readings on his device, or the fact that he had found Sonic acting suspicious in the woods, or the fact that he thought that Shadow was still alive, however, he remained silent. Much to Sonic’s appreciation.

“Anybody?”

For once, even Knuckles remained silent. As did Sonic; he wasn’t about to stand up and announce to the table that he had finally labeled him and Shadow as friends without getting punched in the face and felt like he was making real progress on their relationship. He was proud, yes, but also not to the degree that he figured it would be worth forsaking his secret.

“Nothing? Well, okay, I guess I can go into great and excruciating detail about the plans I have for the garden now that a new catalogue came in the mail….”

Sonic wanted to groan, though refrained as he realized that this topic, dull as it was for him, was a far preferable alternative to having Tom talk about G.U.N.’s inevitable return and Tails saying anything that would place Sonic under more scrutiny than he already faced. In comparison to those things, flowers and gardening was a lovely topic.

And though he would be reluctant to admit it, Maddie’s descriptions of the flowers in season and how she planned to arrange them was actually kind of interesting. Idly listening as he savored his delicious, mushroom-less pizza, Sonic settled in to having a lovely evening with his friends and family, a small glow lighting in his chest as he basked in the banter and conversations exchanged over the dinner table.

Well, at least, he had been having a lovely evening, right before Tom had to go ahead and ruin it by slapping him across the face with a chore after everyone was done eating.

“Hey, Sonic!” he called in a sharp tone, causing Sonic to freeze in his tracks. He was about as fast at running as he was at skidding to a stop, much to Tom and Maddie’s disdain at the tire marks he tended to leave on the tiled floor whenever he did that. “Where do you think you’re going?”

Sonic laughed sheepishly. He knew exactly what Tom wanted from him. That didn’t mean that he wasn’t going to try to get out of it, though. “Um… up to my room to read a book so I can become a more well-rounded person that is a valued and educated member of society?” He was really going for the guilt trip right now; if Tom could somehow be convinced that he was going to go up and do wholesome activities that were not filled with degeneracy and debauchery, then perhaps he could be convinced to let Sonic leave… right?

Wrong. “Not so fast there, pal,” he said with a fold of his arms. “It’s your turn to do the dishes tonight.”

Sonic let out a noise that sounded like a hybrid of a groan and a sigh. “Oh, come on, really? It’s my turn again?! Didn’t I clean the dishes up, like five days ago?”

“Yeah, and in that time span, Tails, Knuckles, Maddie, and I all cleaned up dishes as well. It’s your turn tonight buddy.”

Sonic wasn’t ready to accept that deplorable truth for an answer. He wasn’t giving up just yet. “Tails!” he exclaimed frantically, turning to his friend who looked almost scared with the fervor and desperation with which Sonic spoke. “Tails, please man, you gotta cover for me! I’m begging you, please Tails!“ His commitment to the bit was quite honestly astounding. He literally had nothing else going on that evening. At this point, his resistance was driven purely by stubborn laziness.

And Tails didn’t seem to mind enabling it one bit; he really was Sonic’s bestest friend. “Sure!” he chirped, right before making eye contact with Tom, and wincing under his scathing, watchful glare, shied away and amended his statement to be: “Um… I mean… no. Sorry.”

Sonic was turned to where Knuckles was standing, ready to beg him to do the dishes instead, however, Knuckles was no longer standing beside him. He was gone.

Ignoring that random detail that may or may not have significance for later, Sonic wheeled back to face Tom, who simply held out a washcloth and arched a knowing, infuriatingly smug eyebrow. Finally giving up and snatching the rag with enough sass that may have warranted a time out for being naughty, Sonic resigned himself to his fate.

It wasn’t that terrible. Not that he would ever say that out loud and admit that he had made a big deal out of nothing for the sake of being dramatic, because then that would be admitting that he was wrong. And Sonic was never… okay, fine, rarely… (okay, fine, usually not) wrong.  

Because five whole, agonizing minutes later, Sonic finished his task, threw in the literal towel, and finally exited the kitchen, his steps slow and heavy from exhaustion. That had been horrible. Absolutely, downright terrible. He hated manual labor, that is, unless it included him running at speeds never before reached. Then it was tolerable.

And it was with this crestfallen attitude that he climbed up his stairs and found Knuckles trespassing on his hard, wooden floor. Lying on his back, staring up at the ceiling.

Well… trespassing was a rather strong word, since he had technically been his roommate not that long ago. Knuckles had officially moved out of the attic and into the basement a month or two prior, right before their first encounter with Shadow. The documented reason for divorce according to the courts was ‘irreconcilable differences,’ which almost always meant that there was a juicy story hiding behind the legal jargon. And in this case, it was the fact that Sonic didn’t really appreciate being sleep-punched by Knuckles every other night. It didn’t lead to very optimal resting conditions, even if he would have tried Tails’ method of taking melatonin gummies, using a weighted blanked, and setting the thermostat to a scientifically proven temperature.

(Tails had also moved into one of the spare rooms on the ground floor around the same time, but it wasn’t for a reason as dramatic as Knuckles’. It was mainly because he wanted the ability to stay up as late as he wanted to tinker with his gadgets and gizmos. And Sonic wanted the space to film his trendy dances on his trendy dance app that were definitely super awesome and wouldn’t be cringe and outdated within a few months).

But even so. Seeing Knuckles up here wasn’t unusual, but having him moping and sighing on his cold, uncarpeted floor was definitely out of the ordinary. It was dramatic enough to the point that Sonic decided to tiptoe back the way he came and pretend like he hadn’t seen him in the first place, however, as he turned to do so, he stepped right on the creakiest floorboard that had ever existed.

Turning with a speed slower than anything Sonic thought he was personally capable of, he pivoted to find Knuckles staring up at him with a wide-eyed, baleful expression. Oh brother. This version of Knuckles was definitely uncommon.  

But first, damage control. “Hey there, buddy! What’s, uh, up? I definitely wasn’t about to try to sneak out of here before you saw me, so don’t try to accuse me of it! In fact, don’t even think it!”

Knuckles barely reacted, simply lifting a hand in a paltry greeting. “Hello, hedgehog.”

Yeah, whatever this was, it seemed kind of serious. Biting at his lower lip, Sonic made an easy decision to settle down and sit next to Knuckles; he no longer had his beanbag chair, and if he had to guess, Shadow was probably sleeping in it at the moment. He seemed to love that thing more than he loved brooding and being edgy, which was honestly saying something. “Hey, Knuckles, is everything all right? You’re not threatening to defeat me in hand-to-hand combat like you usually do.”

Beside him, Knuckles sighed. “Indeed, inferior blue hedgehog, you know me too well. There is something bothering me, something that makes it so that I do not want to fight you.”

“Oh, well that’s a relief,” Sonic said as he stood up to leave, solely addressing the last part of Knuckle’s statement. He chose not to respond to the insult because he knew that in Knuckle’s down-in-the-dumps state, bantering with him wouldn’t be fun, it would just be depressing. When Knuckles was sad, he would become self-deprecating, and Sonic was about as bad at being uplifting as he was at being slow.

“Are you not going to ask me what is bothering me?”

Sonic paused, turning back to him. “Oh, I didn’t realize that I needed to? Usually you just say what is on your mind whether I want to hear it or not. I kind of figured that this would be the same scenario.”

Knuckles gave him a look so plaintive, so pleading, so desperate, that Sonic had not choice but to sigh and sit back down next to him. “Okay, okay, fine. What’s bothering you, Knuckles? What’s on your mind?”

A small smile crossed Knuckles’ face. “Oh, I am so glad you asked!” he exclaimed right before slipping back into his melancholic state. “I fear that I have failed in my purpose as warrior.”

Sonic hesitated. This again? He could have sworn they had engaged in this conversation not that long ago; was the third defeat of Eggman really enough to send him into a depressive spiral again? “I’m sorry to hear that Knucks, what’s making you feel that way?”

“The Master Emerald. I haven’t recovered it since the Eclipse Cannon. No matter how hard I have tried to look for it, I have not been able to find it.” He squeezed his eyes shut. “It is my one and only mission as an Echidna Warrior. If I cannot successfully guard the Master Emerald, then I am not worthy of my title. I am useless.”

Sonic felt a different squeeze grip his heart. Oh. Yeah, that was pretty serious, and something that hadn’t even occurred to him. Which, oh boy, that was bad. That had never even crossed his mind. How had that not crossed his mind?!

The Chaos Emeralds were perhaps the most powerful things in the entire universe. How could he have completely forgotten about them?!

To be fair, he had been busy…

…with the exact person who might have an idea of where they could be hidden.

Sonic lifted himself up and off the floor, offering Knuckles a hand to raise him up. “I’ll help you look for them, Knuckles,” he promised, to which Knuckles visibly brightened up. Accepting Sonic’s hand, he rose to his full height.

“Really?” he asked with pure excitement, and then not even a moment later, his demeanor shifted into something more severe. More serious. “No. I cannot accept. It would disgrace me as a warrior to rely on help from an outsider, especially one such as you.”

At this point, Sonic was used to Knuckles’ passive aggressive insults. “Dude. Come on. Just let me help.” At Knuckles’ stubborn resistance, his mouth twisting in indecision, Sonic sighed. “You literally gave them to Wade for safekeeping. Which, nice choice, by the way. I can’t think of anyone more scary or fearsome than that jelly-donut enthusiast.”

“I agree!” Knuckles exclaimed, completely missing Sonic’s sarcasm.

Which Sonic was accustomed to at this point, so he ignored it. “If you can trust him, can you trust me?” He clasped his hands together. “Please?”

There was a long, drawn-out moment, and right as Sonic resigned himself for having to humiliate himself further by begging Knuckles to allow him to help by shaking his clasped hands together, making his eyes big and watery, and getting on his knees, Knuckles relented with a sigh. “Fine. I will enlist your help. But if you are to find them, you are to return them to me.”

That request was easy. “Of course, dude, I actually prefer my fur to be the color blue over yellow, believe it or not.” Sonic let out a laugh. “No offense to Tails.”

Offering Knuckles his hand yet again, they exchanged an enthusiastic handshake, and with that, Knuckles took his leave with a notable bounce in his step and a squaring in his shoulders. Sonic shook his head fondly. For a guy so uptight about his moral code and honor, and insisted that he do things on his own, he sure did seem to love his companionship with his friends and the help that they lent one another.

But anyways. Catching sight of his bed, Sonic couldn’t help but let out a massive yawn. He was exhausted, and for good reason. That had been a long day filled with a lot of significant interactions with a lot of significant people. The Chaos Emeralds, G.U.N., Shadow… they could all wait. He was going to curl up in bed and pass out and deal with all these things the next day…

…starting with Shadow and the Chaos Emeralds.

Chapter Text

“I don’t think I understand.”

Sonic let out a sigh. “What isn’t there to understand? It’s called Slapjack. You slap the Jacks when they’re on top of the pile. It’s not that hard."

“And why would we want to do that?”

“Whoever slaps the Jack first gets the pile of cards underneath it,” Sonic explained, distantly thankful for Knuckles having entered his life and extending his patience far past what it had once been. Otherwise, he would have abandoned this endeavor with Shadow fifteen minutes ago. “The goal is to obtain the entire deck. The person who runs out of cards first loses.”

Shadow nodded pensively, watching Sonic shuffle the cards with a careful eye. He seemed to be in a slightly better mood than when they had watched a movie together the previous day. There was still some lingering remnant of his withdrawal and distance, but instead of asking him what was bothering him outright, Sonic figured it would be a better plan to ease him into things. Lull him into a false sense of security (by a card game with exceedingly simple rules that Shadow was making more difficult than Sonic had ever thought possible), before springing the question on him. One that would go something along the lines of hey, I know that being dark and broody and edgy is kind of your thing, but you’re being a little excessive with it, so what’s up?

Yeah, so maybe he’d have to work on his delivery. But that was what the card game was for; not only would it butter Shadow up, but it would give Sonic time to prepare how to check in with him in a way that would be suave and smoother than Juan and Pablo in La Última Pasión.

Finishing up his shuffling, Sonic began to deal the cards. “Okay, next rule. We don’t just slap the Jacks.”

Shadow looked up at him with such pure, unfettered confusion, Sonic almost wished he had just left it at the first rule. “But you just said it’s called Slapjack because that’s what we slap. There’s more?”

It was a very valid question, but Sonic didn’t really feel like acknowledging it because his fingers were itching to play. “We’re going to slap two more things. Doubles and sandwiches. Do you need me to explain what those are?” As Shadow continued to stare at him with enlarged, bewildered eyes, ones that erased all remains of the permanent frown that graced his features from just how lost he was, Sonic nodded in defeat. “Yeah, that was a dumb question. I definitely need to explain them.”

“What’s a sandwich?”

Deciding not to waste his time describing the food to Shadow and instead pretend that he was asking about the cards, Sonic finally finished dealing, the deck split evenly in two between them and facing down. “Doubles are when two cards of the same number are placed one right after the other. Pretty straightforward.” He gave Shadow a look, one that dared him to challenge him on its simplicity, before plowing onward. “Sandwiches are when two cards of the same number surround one of a different number. Like 8-7-8, for example. Or Queen-Ace-Queen. Not that difficult.”

That last part was him trying to speak it into existence.

Shadow nodded slowly like he understood, and the brief relief that Sonic felt at the gesture evaporated at his next question. “If it’s called Slapjack, then why do we also slap the doubles and the sandwiches?”

The urge to pinch the bridge of his nose, just like Tom so often did when Sonic was troublesome, was becoming overwhelming. “Because it’s fun, listen man, don’t overthink things. Just slap the pile of cards if there’s a Jack, double, or sandwich. Please. No more questions. Just do it.”

Shadow looked skeptical, but obliged and fell silent. Taking a tentative pause to see if he would say anything else, and relieved when he didn’t, Sonic played the first card from his stack, placing it face-up in between them. And when it was Shadow’s turn to place a card, he plucked one from his own stack, stared at it for a good, long second, and then placed it face-up on the pile in the center.

Which was definitely cheating, whether he intended it to be or not. “No looking at your cards before you place them. Just flip it over and onto the pile.”

Shadow’s mouth twisted with uncertainty, the scowl back on his face, but he didn’t argue.

The game started out relatively uneventful. However, after there was a King placed by Sonic, a random number not worth mentioning (for the sake of laziness) placed by Shadow, and then another King placed by Sonic, with a triumphant grin, Sonic slapped a palm that sparkled and cracked with blue electricity down onto the pile, therefore winning the first round. And in front of him, Shadow sat with no reaction from his hand and wide eyes staring down at the cards.

That is, right before his surprise settled into something furious and indignant as he glared up at Sonic and snapped, “What the hell was that?!”

Sonic smirked at him as he spread the top few cards. King, unimportant number, King. “Sandwich.”

Shadow sat back with a frown, and Sonic had to fight the urge to laugh. He should have anticipated that Shadow would take this incredibly seriously and be very competitive. It would be foolish to have thought otherwise. “I don’t like that rule. It is very stupid and contrived.”

“You’re only saying that because you’re a sore loser,” Sonic retorted as he placed the stack in the center at the bottom of his own deck, gifting Shadow with a winning grin.

Shadow glared at him, appearing like he had more he wanted to say, however, held his tongue with a crinkle of his nose as he redirected his attention toward his cards. Only mildly surprised that he hadn’t started a physical altercation over his loss, Sonic resumed the game.

Just for a few turns later, for Sonic to eagerly slap at the first Jack of the game.

Noticing Shadow’s hand still floating in the air and not even flinching at the reveal of the titular character, Sonic couldn’t help but shoot him a little line of witty banter. “Hey, I don’t know if you were aware of this, but the objective of the game is to slap the Jacks. Not sit there with your hand hovering over it. It’s called Slapjack for a reason, not Hoverjack.”

Shadow let out a genuine, unadulterated growl as Sonic collected his winnings with a smirk. “I’ll slap you,” he threatened, much to Sonic’s thinly concealed glee. Was it weird how much fun he was having with this? It was definitely weird how much fun he was having with this. Almost to a criminal degree.

“I’d love to see you try,” he taunted, and just as Shadow settled back on his haunches and prepared to lurch forward to probably deliver on the invitation, Sonic held up a finger. “But just so you know,” he interjected, “any sort of physical fighting means that the assailant has to forfeit five cards from their deck in the center, which, in case you weren’t paying attention, is a punishment and the opposite of what you want.” At Shadow’s bewilderment, which intermingled with his rage, concocted a peculiar expression on his face, Sonic hastily explained the backstory. “You can thank Knuckles for that rule. We had to implement it with him because he tends to get a bit… handsy.”

For some reason, Shadow glowered at this, and Sonic wasn’t really sure why. It could have been the mention of Knuckles, his misuse of the word ‘handsy,’ or simply the rule that prevented Shadow from throttling him on the spot. It was honestly quite difficult to tell.

But anyways. What was important was that Sonic’s joy about heckling Shadow and getting under his skin was brought to an abrupt halt at the next round.

About twenty cards in, they had amassed quite the mound in between them. So far, there had been no doubles, no sandwiches, and most importantly, no Jacks. Whoever would be the winner of this round would rake in some serious winnings and have a solid chance at being victorious.

So when Sonic placed a Jack a few cards later, he was quick to slap his palm down onto the cards, the smacking sound satisfying and celebratory in his win.

However, his elation was cut short as Shadow’s hand slammed down on his with more force than a closed-fisted punch from Knuckles. And as a result, Sonic let out a yelp that was higher pitched than he would care to admit as he withdrew his hand and clutched it to his chest, giving Shadow a hurt and accusatory glare. “Ow, geez! What the heck dude! What was that for?!”

“It’s called Slapjack. So I slapped the Jack.”

“Yeah, and my freaking wrist!” Sonic held it up and let it dangle limply, supporting the joint with his other, unslapped hand. “Does this look dislocated to you? Oh God. This thing is definitely broken… I think I need a doctor. Or Maddie. Do you know CPR?!”

Shadow gave him a look of pure, judgmental disdain. “You’re overreacting.”

Sonic, who was currently hyperventilating, shaking his wrist loosely around, and decidedly not overreacting, gave Shadow an incredulous stare. “Says the guy whose wrist didn’t just get crushed!”

With a roll of his eyes, Shadow grunted. “Give me that.”

He leaned over, grabbing Sonic’s wrist before he had the chance to pull it away from the person that destroyed it in the first place. One hand braced the injured wrist by laying their palms flat together, and the other steadied the top, and for some odd, unfathomable reason, Sonic felt his breath hitch. It was definitely because of the fact that Shadow had injured him and had the capability to worsen his condition… nothing else.

Shadow’s hold, despite Sonic’s initial reservations, was gentle, his fingers tracing over the bones and joint as he clearly searching for something: a break, a hiss of pain from Sonic, anything. And despite the pain he felt throbbing from his injury, it wasn’t his main focus as Sonic felt his heart skip a beat; never before had he seen Shadow so intent and focused, and dare he say, gentle. It was in stark contrast with what he had exhibited with the guitar, for the movements of his fingers when he played were clunky and uncertain. No, now, he was assured, confident, and above all else, if Sonic didn’t know any better, caring.

It was a new side of him he hadn’t seen yet. And despite himself, Sonic could do little more than gawk.

“Your wrist seems fine,” Shadow commented as Sonic stared, and that was enough to snap him out of his trance as he rolled his eyes dramatically.

“You barely looked at it,” he snarked, to which Shadow looked up at him with a raised, questioning brow…

…right before he pulled back the cuff of Sonic’s glove so that it rested at the base of his hand, right where his palms began. And just like that, Sonic froze and his heart skipped yet another beat as Shadow’s fingers carefully poked and prodded against his blue fur, which was soft and silky from being protected by the fabric and seldom seeing the light of day. “Does it hurt when I press on it?”

Sonic licked his lips nervously, and wondered if Shadow could feel his quickening pulse under the delicate skin of his inner wrist. While he didn’t feel pain from the applied pressure, he didn’t feel super comfortable either, the sudden intimacy of the gesture something new and foreign that Sonic had never before experienced. “Um… no?” he squeaked out, and oh goodness, his voice definitely just cracked, and he needed to get a hold of himself, because why was he acting like this?! This was pathetic. Embarrassing.

And Shadow seemed completely oblivious to it all. “Then you’re probably fine.”

However, right at that moment, as if he suddenly realized what he was doing, and the fact that he was delicately holding Sonic’s hands between his own and basically stroking him and he had been the one to initiate the contact, Shadow let out an inaudible hiss and released his grasp as if it were searing to the touch.

Sonic withdrew his own hand with haste, clutching it against his chest as his mind and heart raced. That… had been weird. From start to finish.

“Um, should we… keep playing?” For once, it was Shadow speaking, his eyes pointed away from Sonic and towards the wall as his hands, the ones that had once punched and hit Sonic and had now just caressed him if Sonic were to be brutally honest about what had just happened without sugarcoating it at all, curled up into tight fists in his lap.

Making an unintelligible noise of agreement, because that was the only thing he was capable of doing at the moment, Sonic gathered up the cards with clumsy hands. And as he began to shuffle, his fingers stiff for a reason that he couldn’t tell was because of his injured wrist or Shadow’s touch, he noticed that Shadow’s eyes drifted from their spot trained on the wall to return to the cards, intently watching their movements.

Sonic swallowed thickly. Everything about that entire exchange had been unsettling. Despite this, his mind snapped back to his original objective with this whole stunt, forcefully shoving the peculiar and mixed emotions that begged him for attention into the back of his psyche, and Sonic reoriented himself. Did that whole... interaction, if you wanted to call it that... count as buttering Shadow up? Maybe. He did have a deeply personal question to ask, after all, and what better time to do it than directly after a deeply personal moment?

(There were probably a million better times. However, this didn’t prevent Sonic from awkwardly licking his lips and doing it anyways.)

“So, what’s been bothering you, Shadow?”

Shadow apparently didn’t like that question, for his eyes fell from Sonic’s back down to the cards. Or perhaps instead, his hands. It was impossible to tell. “Nothing. Deal the cards.”

“Not until you tell me what’s wrong.” Sonic was adamant, almost desperate as he seized the change in topic to distract the weird way his hand still tingled from Shadow's touch, hoping that in redirecting his focus elsewhere, he could more easily compartmentalize it.

“There’s nothing wrong. Now deal.”

Sonic wasn’t giving up so easily, no matter how dark and demanding Shadow’s voice was that made his fingers subconsciously move to obey. “Was it something I said or did?”

Shadow’s lips twisted in hesitation, and while he didn’t confirm it, he also didn’t say no, and so Sonic knew he was on the money.

“Okay, okay,” he said as he set the cards aside, rifling through his memories of times he could have ticked Shadow off (and trust him, there were quite a few), before settling on a particularly egregious one. “Listen, if this is about all those times I imitated you, look, I’m sorry, it was just a joke, even though your voice is unnaturally deep, just think of it as flattery! I wish I sounded as manly as you, honest.”

Shadow gave him a withering look. “It’s not that.”

“Is it about how I definitely won that race we did that definitely wasn’t a tie?”

“No.”

Sonic puffed out his cheeks as he let out a big exhale, wracking his brain to think of other ways he had potentially insulted Shadow. “Hmm, what about me sweeping you in Slapjack just now?”

Shadow shook his head, and with that, Sonic gave up. “Okay, well, gee man, I’m at a loss on this one. You’re going to have to help me out and use your big boy words. I’m straight up out of guesses.”

“You really have no clue?” At this point, after Sonic’s outlandish guesses, each one more ridiculously wrong than the last, Shadow finally acknowledged the truth that there was, in fact, something bothering him.

Sonic threw up his hands. “Obviously not, otherwise I think I would have said it by now!”

With a noise of discontent, Shadow’s face contorted into something that was a hybrid of disgust, discomfort, and disdain. Whatever it was, he didn’t look pleased. “It’s the fact that you called us— consider us…” he hesitated, closing his eyes before finishing with a weak, “…friends. That’s… that’s what’s been bothering me.”

Sonic blinked. That’s what this was about? “Oh, that? That’s the big issue?” As Shadow stared back at him with an expression that confirmed that he was being dead serious, Sonic placed an apprehensive hand on his hip. “All right then, fine, I’ll bite. What’s the matter with us being friends?”

“You don’t know what you’re offering.”

Sonic raised an eyebrow in question. “Um, yeah? I do? What?”

“You wouldn’t want to be my friend. Not if you knew what I was capable of.”

“Dude,” he exclaimed, fighting with every fiber in his being to keep the frustration from overpowering his voice. “I’ve fought you, raced against you, and I’ve saved the world with you. And, I’m still pretty sure that you just broke my wrist playing a card game. I think I know what you’re capable of.”

Shadow rolled his eyes at Sonic’s last statement, clearly not amused. “Your wrist is fine. Stop being dramatic,” he said, right before settling back into his serious, pensive state. “If you knew what I truly was, you wouldn’t be nearly so adamant.”

“That you’re what, a superpowered alien freak like me? Newsflash pal, and I’m not sure if you were aware of this, but we’re literally the same. It’s kind of uncanny and weird. In fact, it would be odd if we weren’t friends, if I’m being completely honest.” He scoffed. “Just because you possess godlike power and have a lot of pent-up anger doesn’t mean you never get to have friends. That sounds like a totally unnecessary and self-inflicted punishment, if you ask me.”

Sonic paused, the conversation so far being a rehash of their previous heart-to-hearts. It was pretty redundant if you were to ask him, and he had a sneaking feeling that Shadow was already aware of all of this. “But that's not what this is about, is it?”

Shadow shook his head, but didn’t say anything more than that.

Which was all the invitation Sonic needed to press forward. “There’s something else on your mind.” And as Shadow didn’t outright deny his claim, looking away with a scintilla of guilt, like he had been caught, Sonic slapped a hand on his thigh and pointed the other one toward him in accusation. “I knew it! I freaking knew it! Come on, Shadow, spill the beans!”

Swallowing thickly, Shadow hesitated.

Feeling a wave of energy that compelled him to do something particularly obnoxious, Sonic began to chant. “Spill them! Spill them! Spill them!” he cried out incessantly, pounding a fist on the ground to punctuate his heckling.

And Shadow seemed to hate it. “If I tell you, will you stop yelling at me?”

“Only for a little bit!” Sonic admitted candidly, before continuing to pound and chant, “Spill them! Spill them! Spill them!”

“Okay, fine,” Shadow snapped, and at his relenting, Sonic let out a cheer and fell silent, giving his fist a much-needed break because oh boy, punching the hard ground full force was not a very nice thing to do to his hand. It was already sore and tingly from Shadow's abuse, and would definitely leave a bruise the following day.

But anyways. As Sonic caressed his injured hand, exacerbated by his still-throbbing wrist, Shadow finally (for lack of a better term) spilled the beans. “I think… I’m scared.”

Sonic perked up, his achy hand forgotten. Now they were finally getting somewhere, outside of the repeated self-deprecation of being superpowered aliens that didn’t exactly belong on this tame, soybean world. “Scared of what?”

Shadow took a deep breath. For once, he didn’t retaliate against Sonic’s personal question, apparently at this point, accepting them for what they were and actively engaging. “I’m  scared of being attached. I’m scared of growing close to someone again. I—” at this, he took another long inhale, and upon his exhale, elaborated. “I never want to feel the way that I did when I lost Maria. Never again.”

Sonic nodded slowly. What Shadow said made sense, and yet, he didn’t completely agree with his line of logic. “It’s hard, to experience loss and not be worried about going through that again,” he said slowly. “But you can’t go through life constantly scared of what you might lose. That’s no way to live.”

“It’s easier.”

“Is it? Because last I checked, you quite literally sought me out here in Green Hills because you were lonely. Because you had nowhere else to go and no one else to turn to. Because what you need is a friend. That’s the whole reason why you’re here, isn’t it?”

Shadow frowned at Sonic, clearly not appreciating being called out before he swiftly diverted the subject. “I don’t want it to seem like I’m moving on. Like I’m replacing her.”

Sonic nodded once more because for the second time in that conversation, what Shadow said made sense. And this one he could empathize a little more with based on his past experience with Longclaw. It had been how he felt when he had first come to Earth; how could he remember her if he were to replace her with someone else? How would that be respectful to her sacrifice? However, as the years of isolation had stretched on, Sonic had been forced to come to the realization that his memory of his mentor could live within him as he continued to live his life. He could carry her with him wherever he went, even when he was fishing with Tom and watching reality dating shows with Maddie.

It was something he had been forced to accept on his own, though, and all he could do for Shadow was offer him guidance. “You can’t live your life in the present stuck in the past," Sonic eventually said. “Things from the past can live within you even as you move forward, and you can choose to honor them in what you do, the choices you make, and the relationships you keep.”

Despite Sonic’s shocking display of wisdom that would leave even Tom clutching at his chest in proud awe, Shadow looked uncertain and didn’t respond, his lips pressing into a thin, pensive line.

The ball, it seemed, was still in Sonic’s court, and so he decided to take a risk. “What would Maria want for you?”

This seemed to take Shadow aback, and his initial reaction was one of offense, his eyes narrowing and irises erupting into a dangerous, crackling crimson glow. It was fleeting, however, as he processed what Sonic said, and really stopped to consider it.

And after a long moment, one that spanned more than a minute if the CD player in the corner was correct, Shadow finally spoke. “She… would want me to have a friend.”

Sonic didn’t miss the way that he spoke in a singular tense, but chose not to address it. “Well then!” he exclaimed enthusiastically as he clapped his hands together in sharp accentuation. “I think that kind of settles things, wouldn’t you agree? So, what do you say, Shadow.” He held out a hand in offering, and to his relief, Shadow didn’t immediately slap it away. “Friends?”

There was beat, and if Sonic didn’t know better, he would say that he saw the corners of Shadow’s lips quirk up in the ghost of a smile, right before vanishing as he blinked. “Friends,” he agreed, and then placing his hand in Sonic’s, shook it firmly.

His grip was warm and firm. It reminded Sonic of when they had settled their differences on the moon to turn Super and harness the power of the Chaos Emeralds, their hands clasping in a moment of truce and brief camaraderie. However, this time it was different, almost significantly so. While that initial shake had been forged for a mutual goal, their hands nearly battling for dominance with how tightly they gripped one another, this time it was softer. More gentle. There was something changed in the way they grasped each other, and as Sonic glanced up from their hands to look into Shadow’s eyes, he could tell that Shadow sensed it too.

It was overwhelming enough to make Sonic hastily release his grasp, and as if he had nearly the same realization, Shadow did the same. And though the intent had been to restore some space between them and end the moment that had serendipitously sprung itself upon them, Sonic couldn’t help but miss the feeling of Shadow’s hand in his as he pulled away.

Right before he caught himself. Well. That had been a strange thought.

In a panic, because there was an odd blanket of tension that had settled over them that Sonic wasn’t entirely sure what to do about, he quickly latched on to a different topic to divert his attention towards, something he should have brought up at the very beginning instead of saving until the very end.

(However, reminiscing on the strange moments that had occurred between him and Shadow thus far in that evening, could you really blame him for being distracted?)

Sonic cleared his throat, and unceremoniously announced, “Okay, moving on!” And instead of appearing offended or irritated at the rude transition, Shadow looked almost appreciative, as though he had been having the same exact thoughts on the matter as Sonic. “So, on to business… um, do you happen to have the Chaos Emeralds, by chance? They kind-of sort-of belong to Knuckles. He let me borrow them right before the Eclipse Cannon.” Sonic paused, before correcting the inaccuracies in his storytelling. “Well, he didn’t technically let me borrow them, I kind of stole them from the guy who he chose to protect them, but listen, the details don’t matter! The point is they’re not mine, and I need to give them back.”

Shadow tilted his head in query as he turned from Sonic and walked away. Which was rather abrupt and disrespectful, though Sonic held his tongue as Shadow approached Sonic’s old dresser. Rummaging through what had once contained nothing more than gloves and socks (which wasn’t all that different from his current wardrobe, to be fair), Shadow returned holding none other than the seven Chaos Emeralds in his palm. That had been easy... almost disappointingly so. “Is that what these are called?” he asked as he held them out in offering, and Sonic nearly dropped to his knees and started kissing Shadow’s shoes. He didn’t, it was important to note, because even though a lot of weird things had been going on that evening, that would by far take the cake. Regardless. He was tempted.

Sonic let out a sigh of relief as he accepted the offer and held the seven gems in his hands. It was crazy to think that such colorful, small things were capable of inducing such an intense transformation. And yet, he could feel them calling to him, charming and taunting him with the promise of power.

It was challenging to resist their beckon. Pulling out his ring satchel, Sonic hastily placed them inside, letting out a sigh of relief as they were sequestered away and out of his sight and grasp. He had no idea how to consolidate them back into their Master Emerald form; that was strictly in Knuckles’ jurisdiction.

"That was oddly easy and convenient. What, no catch? You don't want to fight me to keep them? Argue a bit for fun?" 

Shadow gave him a dour look. "No, not really."

Sonic let out a laugh as he tied the string to the small bag closed. “If you say so! Thank you, Shadow,” he said earnestly as he tucked the sack back into his quills. “Knuckles will be super happy to have these returned to him.”

“I didn’t do it for him.”

Sonic blinked. Of all of the possible things that Shadow could have said in that moment, that was by far the most unpredictable. He would have honestly expected him to find a way to hold hands with him again instead of that, with all of its implications and unspoken confessions. “Oh, um, well… thanks anyways?” The intense gaze that Shadow pinned him with, something strange swirling in its depths that Sonic couldn’t quite put his finger on, set him on edge. Was he missing something here? “Uh, well, I should probably get going and bring these back to him. Thanks again, Shadow.”

“Yes, you need to get back to your family and friends. I’m sure they are missing you very much.”

Sonic paused, the sourness in Shadow’s words being unmistakable. But that was impossible… why on in the world would he be, dare Sonic say, bitter?  “Shadow…” he began tentatively, taking a nervous step towards him. “Are you—”

Shadow cut him off by letting out a hmph! and looking away.

Flexing his fingers, Sonic swallowed awkwardly. And then, feeling the weight of the satchel in his quills, the gems being surprisingly heavy despite their puny size, remembered that he had an objective to complete. And so, with a promise to return soon, he gathered up his things and prepared for departure.

And on his run home, Sonic felt deeply disturbed. Because he didn’t know why, but he couldn’t shake the feeling that things with Shadow had just gotten a lot more complicated.

Chapter Text

Though Sonic was excited to return the Chaos Emeralds to Knuckles, the retrieval from Shadow still baffling with how easy it had been, when he got home, Knuckles was already sleeping. And not wanting to wake him (because as has already been established, his friend had a nasty habit of punching things in his sleep and that nasty habit was worsened if he was woken up, and the last thing Sonic wanted in return for his good deed was a black eye), he decided to wait until the morning.

His slumber was restless. And whether that was because of his perplexing interactions with Shadow, the Emeralds calling to him from their satchel in his desk drawer, or the fact that he had stayed up until one in the morning filming and editing new trendy dances for him to post that would only get a handful of likes and were so not worth the hours and effort he placed in them, he couldn’t tell. It was probably a combination of all three.

But either way, the next morning, he woke up exhausted and with tired bags under his eyes, and even though he would have liked to go back to sleep, he knew he had a limited window to catch Knuckles before he left for the day to go do his Knuckles Things. Which, it was imperative to add, were not as cool as Sonic Things, but at the same time were definitely cooler than Tails Things, so at least Knuckles had that going for him.

Going down to the basement, he politely knocked on the door. And only hearing Knuckles letting out intermittent grunts from the other side, he entered to find him in the middle of bench-pressing a boulder, and how he got a thing so massive through the doorframe, Sonic didn’t know and didn’t care to ask. “Uh, hey Knucks!” he called out tentatively with a big grin on his face, making sure to maintain enough distance between them in case his presence startled his friend into accidentally chucking the boulder at him, which may sound outlandish, but with Knuckles, wasn’t entirely impossible.

Thankfully, Knuckles placed the boulder down beside him without much fanfare that kept all of Sonic’s bones intact and not crushed. “Hedgehog,” he greeted in mild confusion. Not only was it unusual for Sonic to be up this early in the morning, but he also typically didn’t seek out Knuckles in his room, instead electing to leave him in his dark abode to meditate and train and not get in the way. “You look horrible.”

Sonic’s grin remained on his lips, but his eyebrows furrowed, and that was the only thing that indicated that Knuckles’ blunt comment had any impact on him.  “Um, thanks?” he managed, because he wasn’t really sure what else to say to the astute observation.

“It wasn’t a compliment. You have bags under your eyes, your fur is messy, your shoes are scuffed and dirty, your gloves—”

Now, the grin was fully dropped from his face as Sonic rolled his eyes and held up a hand to cut Knuckles off.  “Okay, okay, yeah, I get it dude, geez. Do you want to start pointing out my character flaws next?”

“That would take far too long,” Knuckles responded with complete seriousness, and Sonic nearly let out a groan as he wished that he would quit using sarcasm around his friend when he almost always took it literally. “Why are you here?”

Latching on to the question that thankfully diverted the discussion from Sonic’s handsomely dashing looks (not) and his charismatic persona (also not), he danced passed Knuckles into the room and shut the door behind him. “I have a little early Christmas present for you!”

“Christmas is six months away.”

Sonic struggled not to sigh. “Yeah, that’s why I said it was early.”

“Will it be a better present than what you got me last year?”

“Absolutely,” Sonic promised, right before pausing. “Wait. What was wrong with the gift I got you last Christmas?”

Last Christmas had been Knuckles’ first celebration of the holiday. So to be completely fair, it was understandable that Knuckles wouldn’t have an adequate gauge on what made a good—

“You got me the paint for the fingernails.”

Oh yeah. That gift had kind of blown chunks.

But it wasn’t Sonic’s fault! Okay, maybe it was. But truth be told, he had wrapped all of the gifts in the same wrapping paper without labeling them, and forgetting what belonged to who and also being too lazy to open to check and then have to rewrap them, had simply written random names on the presents with a wish that it would turn out.

(Spoiler alert: it hadn’t.)

Tails and Tom’s gifts had gotten swapped, as had Knuckles and Maddie’s. And not wanting to admit that he had messed up, Sonic had doubled down on the fact that he got Maddie a punching bag and Knuckles a set of nail polish, coming up with some elaborate and flimsy explanation on the spot about his rationale behind the presents.

Never mind the fact that Maddie was strictly into exercises that were low-impact such as yoga and swimming. And it went without saying that Knuckles exclusively wore gloves and Sonic wasn’t even sure if the guy possessed fingers under those glorified oven mitts.

But anyways. Last Christmas had been a fluke, yes, Sonic could admit that, and now he was going to make it up to Knuckles. Unintentionally of course, but now that it had gotten brought up, Sonic was absolutely going to use the circumstances to his advantage to cover up his past blunder and he would do it shamelessly because that was just the kind of guy that he was.

“This is nothing like last Christmas!” Sonic explained hastily, not wanting what was supposed to be a wonderous moment marred by his past misstep. “This is far better, I promise. See?” He revealed his satchel with a flourish, waving his fingers around it as if it would make the entire thing appear more enticing.  

Knuckles was not charmed. “You got me a brown sack?”

Sonic stared at him. “What? No, it’s inside the sack.”

“The sack is the wrapping paper? This is already not a good Christmas gift.”

“Ugh, Knuckles, this is not actually a Christmas gift, just please take it and open it for the love of God. Please.”

Frowning as he accepted the offering, because to be quite fair, Sonic’s ring satchel was a little gross and dirty from all of their adventures around the world, Knuckles wordlessly peeked inside. And then, his frown transformed into a brilliant smile as he caught sight of the seven Chaos Emeralds, the sack disappearing into a massive fist as he swept Sonic up into a hug and lifted him high off the ground.

“Oh, hedgehog!” he exclaimed with more joy than the time he had hit a home run in baseball on his first try, which was truly saying a lot about the level of ecstasy he was currently conveying.  “I could do that thing where I press my lips to yours, I am so happy!”

“You mean a kiss?” Sonic squeezed out as he felt his ribcage get crushed by Knuckles' one million percent muscles. Though he had been reluctant to think that such a thing was possible, because even though he was an idiot who could barely perform basic addition on a good day, even he knew that one million percent was not a thing. But now, on the receiving end of it, he began to reconsider his preconceived notions.

“Yes! Yes! One of those!”

“Yeah, no offense dude, but I think I’ll pass,” Sonic grunted as Knuckles retaliated by hugging him even more tightly. “Not to mention, I don’t think kissing on the lips means what you think it does.”

He had seen Tom and Maddie perform the egregious action more times than he could count (and thought was socially acceptable), and each time he had been subjected to it, he had made sure to make a big spectacle about how gross he thought the whole thing was. Like seriously, ew.

Of course, he was pretty sure that his explosive and theatrical reactions only pushed them to do it more, which was totally nasty and not cool, by the way, but he digressed. Kissing seemed gross, he didn’t like to witness it, and he sure as hell didn’t want to participate in it. End of story.

Knuckles squeezed him even harder, and Sonic couldn’t prevent the groan of discomfort that tore free from his vocal cords. He patted Knuckles awkwardly on the back, or perhaps it was in a silent plea to let go, and right before he thought he might pass out from a lack of oxygen, Knuckles’ hold released and his feet were returned to the ground.

Taking a deep, wheezing inhale, Sonic felt himself go lightheaded at the sudden flood of air in his lungs. “You have a funny way of showing your appreciation, Knuckles,” he commented drily once he regained the ability to speak, stretching his back and attempting to crack it. “I can’t think of many other people who think that breaking ribs is a way of saying ‘thank you.’”

“It is how I show the love,” Knuckles said as he brandished the seven Emeralds in his hand, allowing Sonic one last tantalizing glimpse at them before he crushed them between his hands. And then, peeling back his hold to reveal the renewed, comically large green gem in his fist, he flexed to accentuate his point. “With my one million percent muscles!”

“Yeah, well, I’m feeling the love,” Sonic stated with sarcasm, “at the cost of losing feeling in my arms. But anyways, word of advice, now that you put that thing back together, maybe don’t give it back to Wade. When I stole it— I mean, won it from him in a very intense trial by combat, he was using it as a puck to play hockey. I don’t think—”

“He is a strong warrior with a strong heart. It is outside of your jurisdiction to question his methods. I’m sure he had a very good reason for doing what he did.”

Sonic sighed. “You know what, I tried,” he muttered to himself, the words oddly reflective of the very things Wade had said right after Sonic had taken it out of his outstretched hand. Seriously. The dude had practically begged for it to be stolen.

“Although, I do have a question for you.”

Completely missing the shift in demeanor from elated to pensive that was more rapid than Sonic reaching top speed from a complete stop, he twisted his torso as he tried to work out yet another stubborn kink in his back. Knuckles' hug had really done a number on him. “Yeah, go ahead man. Shoot.”

“The last person to have this was that far more impressive hedgehog,” Knuckles said slowly as he studied the gem in his hand, as though it would reveal the truth in its faceted depths. And in a way, if you were to strain your eyes, Sonic’s reflection did look oddly like Shadow glaring out at them from within the core of the gem. “Where did you find this, Sonic?”

Sonic gulped nervously. It was rare for Knuckles to use his name and not refer to him as ‘hedgehog’ or some other moniker— this was pretty serious. He wanted to slap a palm to his forehead; he was an idiot for not having seen this coming. In his excitement to return Knuckles’ treasure to him, he had completely neglected to conjure up a reason for how he had come upon them, one that didn’t include the obvious connection they possessed with Shadow.

“Oh you know, I found it just lying around?”

Knuckles frowned, and Sonic shifted from foot to foot. His friend could be quite scary when he wasn’t being his usual goofy self, and right now, he was downright terrifying. Not that Sonic would admit that of course, but it was moments like these that made him happy to be on the same team. “Really. All seven of them. Together?”

“Yep, I…” Sonic laughed weakly, and the shrug he offered was even weaker. “… just got lucky?”

Knuckles gave him a strange look, one that was critical and skeptical as he walked over to the stand beside his bed and placed the Emerald down with a heavy thump. And then, turning to face Sonic, a hand lingering behind on the gem so that all he could see was his dark reflection that nearly looked like Shadow shining back at him, Knuckles spoke.

“You know, hedgehog, sometimes, a warrior may be faced with a difficult choice. One that will forever shape his path and trajectory. One that will make or break his status as being honorable. Or perhaps, even, legendary.”

Sonic raised an eyebrow as he tore his eyes away from his unsettling reflection. Um, okay? He hadn’t the slightest idea what Knuckles was saying, or where he was going with this, but he kept his lips sealed, waiting to see if he would elaborate.  

“That choice comes at different times for everyone. And it differs in severity for every warrior. But it will arrive, at one point or another. A choice that will define who you are in your mind, body, and spirit.”

Now he was just being cryptic, and this time Sonic didn’t hesitate to call him out on his puzzling words. “Nice wisdom, Knuckles, but mind saying that again in English? I don’t speak riddles.” He scoffed. “Besides! I make choices all the time. Like whether to get a bowl, burrito, or taco when I go to Chipotle, or whether I should steal and hide all of Tom’s right socks or all of his left socks. I wouldn’t say those define me as a person, just so you know.”

“This is not a joke, hedgehog,” Knuckles said firmly, and Sonic instantly bit his tongue from saying another quip. The look on Knuckles’ face was dangerous, and he knew it to be in his best interest to not provoke his ire, not when he was like this. “You are on the cusp of your next big choice. The one that will define who you are. It would be wise to take it seriously.”

Though Sonic dropped all pretenses of joking, he still found himself befuddled by what his friend was saying. And so, tilting his head to the side in genuine confusion, he asked, “Knuckles, what are you talking about?”

Knuckles’ eyes narrowed. “If there is something out there we should know about, hedgehog, it would be in your best interest to inform us.” He stepped away from the Emerald, his touch trailing behind to come to a rest at his side as he began to walk towards Sonic. “We are a team. A team should trust one another and tell them everything, but as of late, that is something that you haven’t been doing.” He came to a stop in front of Sonic, who wanted to turn and run away from the sudden confrontation he found himself subjected to, but his feet stayed rooted to the floor no matter how hard he willed them to move. He was paralyzed. Frozen. Stuck.

 “And that is the choice you must make. If what, or who you are protecting, is worth sacrificing everything that you have built here. The bonds you have forged. The team you have found in us. The oath we have made to each other.”

Sonic felt his mouth go dry as Knuckles’ words started to sink in. Oh God. He knew. He knew. He absolutely freaking knew.

“So tell me, Sonic,” and there he went using his name again, just to highlight the severity of the situation, and made Sonic’s heart just about beat out of his chest in retaliation. “What will you choose?”

Sonic opened his mouth to answer, but no words came out, and in a panic, he closed his lips and could do nothing more than stare at Knuckles with wide, frantic eyes. Knuckles knew. About Shadow. About everything. And to be honest, Tails probably knew too, but didn’t have the gall to address him like this. He had been an idiot to think that his sketchy actions, words, and absences would slip under either of their radars, and here he was, finally forced to admit the truth.

However, right as he was about to confess, the words bubbling to the surface in an incoherent mess that he struggled to swallow back down, he was spared from having to answer by a knock on the door. The sound made him both jump out of his skin from how on-edge he was, as well as feel a huge wave of gratitude toward the distraction. “Sonic? Is that you in there?”

“Yes!” Sonic cried out in relief, much to Knuckles’ displeasure as his face contorted at the interruption. “Yes, mysterious, disembodied voice from the other side of the door, it’s me, Sonic! I’m in here! Please, come on in!”

In front of him, Knuckles appeared to be slightly annoyed by the intrusion, but stepped back so that he was standing next to Sonic and facing the door, his arms folded over his chest in irritation at his confrontation being cut short. And then, with a jiggle of the handle, none other than Tom entered, which honestly was to be expected since his voice sounded nothing like Tails or Maddie, and it would have been very concerning if anyone other than those three people were to have walked through the door.

“Tom!” Sonic exclaimed. “Whatever the question is, yes! Yes! A million times yes!” His words sounded like what the people on Maddie’s dating show would say when they got proposed to and accepted with tears and enthusiasm, and Sonic didn’t mind the embarrassing comparison one bit. 

“I was just looking for Sonic to—hold on, is that the Master Emerald?” Tom interrupted himself as he caught sight of the reconstructed gem sitting behind them on Knuckles' bedside table, before waving his hands around to interrupt himself yet again. “Wait, did you guys lose that thing after saving the world?”

Sonic and Knuckles stared at him with a bewildered look on their faces, their previous altercation momentarily forgotten in light of Tom’s ignorance, before nodding slowly.

“Really? How did I not know that? That seems like a kind of important detail.”

Sonic nudged Knuckles in the side with a smirk on his face, to which Knuckles stared at him in bewilderment and borderline offense at the subtle gesture. “Imagine not knowing,” Sonic whispered with a conspiring laugh, all the while neglecting to acknowledge the fact that he too had been completely oblivious to the Emerald’s disappearance. He had been the one to return it, after all, so he deserved a pass.

“Where did you find it?” Tom asked, right before he paused, an inquisitive look crossed his face. It was something Sonic didn’t like the looks of, and Tom’s next words confirmed his suspicions.  “Hold on a second. Wasn’t the last person who had it technically—”

Not wanting to rehash the touchy subject yet again, because the whole reason he had been so relieved to have Tom unexpectedly barge in on them was due to the fact that he had essentially been cornered about Shadow’s existence, Sonic hastily held up his hands and made a pumping motion with them to prevent Tom from reopening that can of worms. “Listen, it’s a long story, and unfortunately for all of us, I don’t have nearly enough time to get into every single excruciating detail, so what if! And stick with me now, we completely forget about it and just be happy that it’s back?”

Tom looked uncertain, and Knuckles even more so. Sonic stood in between them with a cheesy grin on his face and his hands on his hips, hoping that the nonchalant posture that definitely did not look overeager and appeared convincing enough (which, it was important to note, it didn’t).

“Well then,” Tom said after a long, drawn-out moment, evidently reaching the conclusion that whatever Sonic was hiding would have to wait. “Sonic, can I borrow you for a second? I want to have a little chat about something.” There was a beat. “Again.”

Sonic decided that he didn’t like the tone in Tom’s voice. And so, giving Knuckles a shrug that was only mildly apologetic because whatever was going on with Tom was infinitely better than talking about Sonic’s little black and red secret that happened to rhyme with the word ‘Shmadow,’ he followed Tom dutifully out of Knuckles’ room, up the stairs, and into his office.

And due to the location, he knew exactly what they were going to talk about.

Tom cut right to the chase, which Sonic was honestly ill-prepared for since he was still reeling from his conversation with Knuckles. “G.U.N. comes in less than two weeks.”

Sonic let out a small huff, annoyed that for once, his suspicions weren’t wrong. Why couldn’t Tom call him up here to talk about comic books, or video games, or literally anything else? “Yeah, thanks for the reminder,” he snarked, though the sass was thin and lacked its usual sharp bite, instead sounding muted and weak. “Why don’t you keep a countdown on the fridge so everyone can see just how many days we have left? And do it in a bold red marker with a lot of exclamation points and stars drawn around it so we can pretend its super exciting and not at all terrifying?”

Tom paused. “Would that… make you feel better? If we did that?”

“No, it absolutely would not!” Sonic exclaimed, unable to keep the rising panic from coloring his tone. “Why in the world would that make me feel better?!”

“How was I supposed to know that?!” Tom said back, clearly a little flustered by Sonic’s outburst.

Sonic waved a hand, prepared to get back on track. “So let me get this straight. We give them this when they come back," he said with a gesture to the thick stack of paper on Tom's desk, which he could only assume was the revised iteration of the legal contract Director Rockwell had so kindly and personally delivered not too long ago, "and then wait for them to return with their own version of it? And we just go back and forth until both of us sign it and reach an agreement?”

“Yeah, that sounds about right, yep.”

Sonic stared at him. “We’re going to go back and forth forever. There’s no way we’ll ever be on the same page about this. This is so stupid.”

Pinching the bridge of his nose, Tom nodded. “Tell me about it.”

“And so if I don’t sign it, they can’t do anything?”

Tom shrugged. “I mean theoretically, no. Or, of course, they could just completely ignore the document and try to take you by force….” He trailed off, and upon seeing Sonic’s look of horror that would have been comical if it weren’t for the fact that the situation was so dire, he quickly backpedaled. “Which we obviously aren’t going to let happen, by the way.”

The idea made Sonic deeply uncomfortable, and he dealt with it by shoving it away and changing the subject. “Have you told Knuckles and Tails all of this yet? Do they know what’s going on?”

Tom pursed his lips, and for the first time in a long while, Sonic saw the cracks through his normally infallible, confident armor showing. And in that moment, seeing him look so uncertain, it suddenly dawned on him that Tom was just about as lost on what to do as Sonic.

It made sense, of course. Could you really blame the guy? Because when you stopped to think about it, and I mean really think about it, his whole world had been turned upside down in the most spectacular fashion only a few years prior. He had gone from being a small-town cop with big dreams to move to San Francisco, his goals just within reach, when it had all become upended by a spunky blue alien hedgehog thing that had unceremoniously been dumped in his lap.

Being a parent was hard. But one day finding yourself the parent of an interdimensional teenager with the power to run at the speed of sound and cause cataclysmic events, well, even Sonic could imagine that it would be overwhelming. And that wasn’t even considering the additions of Knuckles and Tails, who in Sonic’s opinion, were way more of a handful than he was, thank you very much, let’s not get things twisted now.

And yet, despite the spontaneity of his parenthood, Tom had somehow managed it. Without any prior experience of raising kids, he had managed to do a pretty fine job. So fine, in fact, that until this moment, it had never occurred to Sonic that Tom might actually not really know what he was doing.

And so, with an apprehensive look in his eyes and a pursing of his lips, Sonic waited to see what Tom would have to say.

What he confessed was shocking. “Knuckles and Tails… aren’t exactly in the document.”  He smacked his lips awkwardly. “At least, not to the same degree that you are.”

“I’m sorry,” Sonic said, holding up a hand, “come again?”

“They’re mentioned in a slightly different way. You see, G.U.N. doesn’t want to own them… or rather, not in the same way that they do you.”

Despite himself, Sonic felt a wave of relief crash over him. He was the one they wanted, his friends were more or less safe. It was the one good thing to emerge from this conversation.

“So… if that’s the case, what do they want with them?”

“They want them detained. Locked up. House arrest, basically, with their freedom bargained on working for G.U.N. and doing missions for them. So, I guess you could say that they would be forcefully employed.”

Okay, well, that actually didn’t seem all that much better than what they wanted with Sonic. It sounded more like indentured servitude, which wasn’t a word Sonic was at all familiar with, but he got the general concept well enough. “We should tell them,” he eventually said. “They deserve to know.”

Yes, the irony of what he said was not lost on him, not after the conversation he had just had with Knuckles that still rattled around in the back of his skull. And no, he didn’t have time to address it at the moment, the issue of G.U.N. being too prominent to even consider the fact that Knuckles knew about Shadow and oh God, what was Sonic going to—

“I’ll talk to them,” Tom promised him. “You don’t have to worry about it. Anyways, there’s a reason I called you in here, and it wasn’t just to remind you about you-know-who. Here. If you want to read it.” Tom handed him a packet, one that was slim and skinny in comparison to the behemoth stack of papers he had sitting on his desk. “I know that legal files, or any sort of reading that isn’t a comic book aren’t exactly your thing, so I asked the lawyer to draft up a summary for you.”

Sonic picked it up tentatively and flipped through the pages. He was rather disappointed with what he saw. “Where are the pictures? I’m not reading this dump if there aren’t any pictures,” he said, and if you thought he was joking, well, you would be sorely mistaken. He was dead serious.

“The lawyer said it would be an extra fee to get it illustrated.”

Sonic nodded in understanding as he closed the file and tucked it under his arm. “I’ll definitely, uh, maybe look at this. Probably.” There was a pause. “Not.”

Tom groaned. “Sonic,” he said in warning, to which Sonic laughed.

“Kidding, kidding!” he exclaimed, though it was important to note, he was not kidding in the slightest. Once again, he was dead serious. Sensing that there was nothing else that Tom wanted to tell him, and kind of exhausted from the conversation as a whole, he stood up from his chair. “Well, this has been fun, and uh, thanks for this—” at that, he dangled the file in between two pinched fingers and waved it back and forth, much to Tom’s obvious displeasure, “—but I think I’m going to do something, literally anything other than read this. No offense.”

Tom rolled his eyes, but it was done in good nature. “Yeah, go on, you crazy kid. Go run super fast or something, or do whatever it is… you like… to do.”

Sonic saluted him, not needing to be told twice to go on a run, before he paused, halfway out the door. “Oh, and Tom?”

Tom, who had already gone back to perusing through the papers because he was an adult and that was the kind of dreadful stuff adults did, glanced up at him with an eyebrow raised in question. Clearly, he was anticipating that Sonic would say something particularly stupid.

Which for once, he was wrong. “Thanks again. I really don’t know what I would do without you.”

And with that, Sonic took off, the papers that had the potential to seal his fate grasped firmly in his hands.

Chapter Text

As he left Tom’s office, Sonic took extra care to sneak up to his room without encountering a single person. He was adamant on not having another encounter with Knuckles, knowing that if the righteous Echidna Warrior with his high and mighty code of ethics were to manage to corner him again, he would be forced to continue their previous conversation and confess the truth about Shadow. Tom interrupting them had been a fluke, and Sonic wasn’t one to spit in a blessing’s face.

Once he managed to reach the attic without running into Knuckles or Tails, Sonic tossed the papers Tom had given him onto his desk and made his way towards his bed. He lifted a hand up to his eyes to block his view of himself as he passed the full-length mirror in the corner, not wanting to catch a glimpse of his haphazard state. His severe lack of sleep from the night before, compounded with the double-whammy of discussions he had engaged in that morning combined into something greater (or in this case, worse) than the sum of its parts, and he had a feeling his reflection looking back at him would more closely resemble a zombie than a bright, zippy alien hedgehog.

Flopping onto his bed and conking out the moment his head hit the pillow, he slept through the rest of the morning and well into the afternoon, and when he arose from his slumber with the sun past the midway point in the sky, he remained locked away his room as he anxiously bid his time.

He knew what needed to be done. He needed to talk to Knuckles, Tails, and the rest of them. It was time. Heck, it was past time. He should have done it from the very start.

However, despite his intentions, he didn’t, failing to even seriously consider leaving his place of safety and making his way down to the main floor of the house.

And he would have stayed up in his room wasting away with his superfluous pastimes that did little to distract from the raging turmoil that tornadoed within his brain, however, Maddie eventually came knocking on the door and informed him that it was time for dinner. Because as his stomach growled in a feral attempt to claw for his attention, he distantly realized that he had skipped breakfast and slept through lunch and was very, very hungry. Ravenous, even.

So, with heavy steps, he made his way to the dining room.

Dinner was… tense. And that was putting it lightly.

Perhaps it could be argued that it was all in his mind. However, with the way that Knuckles glowered at him across the table, and Tails awkwardly bit his lip as he avoided Sonic’s gaze, the only thing that shrieked in his mind at top, piercing volume was they know, they know that I know they know, and this is so incredibly awkward and painful and oh my God they all know.

Hastily excusing himself before dessert, which was sacrilegious and practically unheard of and didn’t elude a questioning comment from both Tom and Maddie as he literally fled the room, Sonic didn’t waste a single moment escaping from the Wachowski house and the menacing miasma that had enveloped the property in a thick, oppressive cloud.

While normally, his visits to Shadow were preplanned and with the sole intent to spend time with his secret friend, for once, there was a secondary objective. And that was to avoid Knuckles and Tails.

Yeah, yeah, he knew it was bad! No need to remind him about it. Sonic knew he would have to talk to them eventually. He couldn’t avoid his problem forever. But in the meantime, he was more than content to close his eyes and pretend that he did not see it, to pretend that everything was fine and normal and not on the brink of collapsing right before him.

And that was where he found himself currently; sitting next to Shadow in his old cave, settled in his old beanbag chair with a comic book he had grabbed on the way out while his secret friend and the source of all (or at least most) of his problems practiced the next set of chords Sonic had taught him.  Shadow’s surprise toward Sonic’s abrupt appearance had been minimal, and if Sonic hadn’t been so agitated about the circumstances he had escaped from, he would have almost noticed the hint of excitement and dare he say, a fetal smile tug ever-so-slightly at the corners of his lips.

He hadn’t noticed, though, too preoccupied with his abysmal home life and the way he almost immediately had buried his nose into the latest issue of his favorite comic book series in a pitiful attempt to take his mind off his impending downfall.

They had coexisted in a comfortable silence that was only permeated by the sound of Shadow strumming away at the guitar for quite a long stretch of time, until Shadow paused, looking over toward Sonic. Noticing the break in the atmospheric ambience, Sonic shifted his gaze so that he was glancing up at Shadow in query over the top of his comic book, the newest issue of ‘The Flash’ that had released a week prior.

“Did you learn those lyrics?”

Sonic adjusted his posture, kicking up his feet so that they rested next to Shadow on his beanbag chair. “What?”

Shadow gave the offending limbs a disdainful glance, though didn’t say anything to address them and more importantly, didn’t shove them away. “To this song you taught me. You told me there were words and that you were going to learn them.”

Woof, that was a callback, and definitely something that Sonic had completely forgotten about. At this, he paused, remembering his last conversation with Tom. His mouth contorting into a pensive line, he distantly thought about how there had been no natural time in their discussion of G.U.N. politics to bring up such a mundane thing. “Um, it must have slipped my mind,” he said after a long moment, hoping that his hesitation wasn’t suspicious enough to be further interrogated.

And luckily for him, Shadow didn’t pick up on his strange behavior, instead taking the route of giving him a firm threat. “Don’t forget next time. Or there will be consequences.”

Sonic rolled his eyes, but it was done in good nature. Even though they had reached the level of tentatively labeling themselves as friends, Sonic’s feet literally kicked up and resting on Shadow’s beanbag in a casual display of familiarity, it still didn’t change who Shadow fundamentally was as a person. At least now, he knew Shadow’s doom and gloom to be mostly empty threats.

Sonic looked back down towards his comic book, but this time, he had a hard time immersing himself back into the words on the page, the thought of G.U.N. occupying the forefront of his mind despite his attempts to compartmentalize and squirrel it away. Stealing a glance to Shadow, and panicking as his counterpart lifted his focus from the guitar to lock eyes with him, Sonic quickly looked back down and lifted the book up to partially conceal his contemplative expression at the sudden realization that flooded his being and constricted his chest.

Shadow deserved to know about G.U.N.

Sonic had been reluctant to tell him, fearful of the reaction and consequences of such a reveal. But now, with their return imminent and drawing rapidly closer, their helicopter practically visible as a smudge on the edge of the horizon, he knew that he needed to inform Shadow. He had a right to know, given the abhorrent treatment he had suffered at their hands over the past fifty years.

Gulping, Sonic was thankful for the pages of the comic book to provide some semblance of distraction towards his warring, tumultuous thoughts. However, his sentiments of appreciation were cut short as he actually stopped to process what was on the page. The Flash stared back at him, and ironically, the words highlighted in bold within the speech bubble read, “A hero is someone who isn’t afraid to do the right thing, even if it is difficult!” followed by a panel of him punching the villain in the face with an explosive Kapow!  

Sonic couldn’t help but roll his eyes. Gee thanks, conveniently placed speech bubble that just happens to be relevant towards my inner monologue, he snarked to himself, real helpful. Truly. Don’t know what I would do without you.

Sonic sank deeper into thought, his mind in conflict over what to do and how to do it, to the point that he was so engrossed in his pondering, he completely neglected to realize that his feet began to jiggle nervously, and since they were currently propped up on Shadow’s beanbag chair, were jostling up against his side.

“Stop tapping your foot,” Shadow grumbled, shooting him a glare. “I’m trying to focus.”

Sonic’s gaze snapped up to meet him, before offering up a cheap, sheepish smile. “Uh, sorry,” he said, pulling his feet away from Shadow’s side and curling his toes within his shoes to prevent him from doing it again.

It didn’t last very long, though, before Sonic’s feet began to tap again and this time, upon feeling the soles of Sonic’s shoes jab at his ribs, Shadow let out a withering sigh. “Can I help you?”

Sonic froze, the directness of Shadow's question akin to a spotlight shining right into his eyes, bright enough to sear his retinas and render his mind blank as for how to respond.

And so, all he could manage to say was an eloquent, “Uh….”

His lack of coherence and follow up was enough to pique Shadow’s interest. “Well?”

Sonic’s mind scrambling, he reached out blindly and grabbed something in the back of his brain, something he had been meaning to bring up for a while and now found the perfect opportunity to use as a scapegoat. “Speaking of callbacks from a few chapters ago…” he said, latching on to how Shadow had just done the same thing a few minutes prior, right before Sonic had spiraled into an internal debate about whether he should tell him about G.U.N. or not, “you and I have some unfinished business!”

Glancing between Sonic and where his fingers still sat poised on the neck of his guitar, Shadow cocked a brow, clearly having no idea what Sonic was talking about and seeming to be mildly irritated at the interruption to his intense concentration. The chord he was currently trying to mangle his hands around required an awkward arch of the ring finger, one that Shadow was having a difficult time achieving without blocking and muddling the sounds of the adjacent strings. “Oh?”

Sonic grabbed a twig from the ground and stuck it between the pages of his comic issue to remember his spot in the story, before folding up the book and placing it to the side. “Yeah,” he said with a sly smirk as he leaned forward, settling his elbows on his knees. "We do." 

With a shake of his head, Shadow set the guitar down, sensing that Sonic actually wanted to have a conversation, one that wasn’t compliant with the challenging chord he was attempting. “Okay? Are you going to tell me what it is, or can I go back to playing?”

At his signal of engagement, and now that the guitar was out of the way, Sonic shifted his feet so that they were resting in Shadow’s lap. It wasn’t unlike something that he would do to Knuckles or Tails, however, it did go without saying that Shadow was like neither of them. In fact, he was very, very different. “A while ago. You said that you found me impressive at one point. I want you to tell me when that time was.”

Shadow reacted to the placement of Sonic’s shoes on his thighs with a sharp intake of breath, his hands reaching up towards his shoulders and curling in uncertainty, before glancing up and pinning Sonic with a firm glare. Curiously, though, he did not push them away. “I have no recollection of such a thing.”

“Oh, but I do!” Sonic exclaimed stubbornly as he crossed one foot over the other, prompting Shadow to further react with a grimace and suck air in through his teeth, likely because he found the bottoms of Sonic’s shoes rubbing all over his fur to be disgusting if Sonic had to wager a guess. “Come on Shadow, throw me a bone here!”

“No.”

Rats. Shadow was being difficult, but then again, that’s how he always was, so this was truthfully nothing new. “If you do…” Sonic paused struggling to come up with something that Shadow would want. Something enticing. However, he came up short, because while he could offer a lot of things, Shadow would take an interest in staggeringly few. He was kind of finicky like that, quite the fickle creature if Sonic had to be candid.

But then, his eyes settling on Shadow’s fingers that flexed and curled indecisively above Sonic’s shoes, before darting to the guitar that sat discarded to the side, an idea lit up in his mind. “If you tell me, I’ll teach you a variation of that chord you’re struggling with that you can use in the meantime while your fingers get used to playing. So that you can move on to the next part of the song.”

Shadow looked like he had been about to say no to whatever it was Sonic proposed, however, upon hearing what it actually was, hesitated. “Those… exist?” he eventually said with a confused angling of his head.

Sonic settled him with a sly smirk. “You better believe it, bucko.”

Shadow’s reaction was borderline explosive, but since it was him, it was delivered in a low and menacing growl rather than a sharp shout. “Then why haven’t you bothered teaching me any before?!”

“I don’t know man, it didn’t cross my mind!” Sonic exclaimed, lifting his hands in defense.

“You’ve literally seen me unable to play several chords.”

“Ugh, whatever dude, do you want to take the deal or not?!”

Shadow let out a contrite grunt. “Fine.” His lips curled in a sneer, baring a sharp fang. “The one and only, singular time I found you even remotely impressive was when we transformed with the Chaos Emeralds and stopped the Eclipse Cannon. Now teach me that new chord.”

Sonic blinked. That response had kind of been expected, and made a lot of sense. And he felt like a downright idiot for not connecting the dots on his own.

Distracted from his musing by Shadow gesturing impatiently to the guitar, Sonic held up a hand. “Whoa whoa whoa,” he said, “slow down there, pal. I’m going to need you to elaborate on that. I want details. Praise me!”

“No. That wasn’t a part of the deal.”

“What?! Who said that?”

Shadow leveled him with a fearsome glare as he finally brushed Sonic’s feet off of him and leaned forward to point a blunt finger at Sonic’s chest. “You.” Lifting up the guitar, his glare didn’t abate, and if anything, it only deepened. “You said if I told you when I found you impressive, you would teach me chord variation. Now do it.”

Sonic rolled his eyes at the misplaced display of aggression. Seriously, had the guy ever heard of the word please? If Sonic ever got his act together and dragged Shadow out of the cave and into the Wachowski household, he would need to have Tom and Maddie teach him some basic socialization and communication skills. Because how he was at the moment left a lot to be desired. “Geez, okay, touchy much! Fine, since you asked so nicely….” Although, as he began to point out the places for Shadow to place his fingers instead, he couldn’t help himself from asking more questions. He simply couldn’t resist. He lived for adulations, and compliments from Shadow were truly the cream of the crop. “Was it the way I glowed yellow? Or maybe how I could fly? Or perhaps—”

“Shut up. I’m trying to focus.”

Sonic paid him no heed as he tapped Shadow’s pinky and pointed to a spot a few frets over. “The deal never said I couldn’t ask follow up questions!” he retorted cheekily. “How about my super strength? Or how I punched you in the face so that you landed on the moon? That was pretty sick.”

The venomous glare Shadow shot him indicated that he did not, in fact, think that was very sick. “Do you mind.”

“Yep! Let’s see, where was I? Was it maybe how I—”

Slamming the guitar down, Shadow let out a frustrated snarl. Sonic had half a mind to tell him to be gentle with the instrument, but held his tongue, being fully aware that the reaction was solely a result of his own obnoxious poking and prodding. “If I tell you, will you stop talking and let me play?” he snapped.

Smiling wide, Sonic didn’t say anything, and instead offered Shadow a vigorous and enthusiastic nod of his head.  

Shadow’s nose crinkled in displeasure, right before he relaxed with a theatrical exhale, clearly reaching deep within himself to cool his head and let go of Sonic’s irksome pestering. “It…” he began slowly, before pausing and continuing only after a long, hesitant moment had passed. “Was your tenacity. In the face of assured destruction. How you were willing to sacrifice yourself for the greater good of this world. And above all else, your commitment to letting go of your anger to do this right thing.” And with that, Shadow picked up the guitar again, placed his fingers back on the neck where Sonic had earlier guided him, and strummed out the new chord, the sonorous sound only marred by one singular string that sounded off. It was close to perfection, but not quite right.  

Instead of commenting on it, Sonic stared at him, before breaking out into a wide smile. There was something about Shadow’s praise, delivered in his gruff, irritated rasp, that ignited a smoldering ember in his chest and sent a glow throughout his entire body. He craved that approval from him, that sense of acclamation, though he did have to admit, he wasn’t quite familiar with the word that sounded like ‘tentacle.’ Had Shadow just called him an octopus?

And since it was Sonic, he couldn’t just take it at face value and not make a snarky comment on it. “I have no idea what that first word means, but since you didn’t say it in a mean, growly voice, I’ll take it as a compliment!”

“Ugh,” Shadow groaned, sounding entirely put out by the entire exchange and the fact he had put himself out there, just for Sonic to not fully understand the weight of the praise.  “Now, can you help me?”

Deciding to comply, since he had already pushed Shadow past the brink not all that long ago so therefore any more heckling was probably ill-advised, Sonic leaned forward, using deft fingers to adjust Shadow’s until they sat right where they needed to be so that they wouldn’t cramp up. In comparison to the first time he had physically shifted his grip, this time, Shadow didn’t flinch from the contact, instead looking down with a brow furrowed in concentration as Sonic showed him where he had gone wrong.

And of course, since it was Sonic, he couldn’t do it without some passive, rambling commentary. “Modifying chords is kind of cheating, but like, since you’re a beginner and stuff, who cares. The only one who needs to know is me.” At this, Sonic smirked. “Although I can imagine that still doesn’t make you very happy.”

“Just shut up and show me how to fix it,” Shadow groused, proving Sonic’s point and not sounding very happy at all. And with a grin that was very-poorly concealed, Sonic obeyed, gingerly adjusting the way Shadow’s offending finger sat ruining the chord and pushing it to the left so that the note would shift down a half-step.

This time, when Shadow played, the chord sounded just right. And that ember that burned deep within Sonic’s chest sparked into a low flame as he saw Shadow allow himself a small smile at the instrument, his gaze softening as he began to play the strings in different orders as though he were rolling a new word around on his tongue.

Sonic didn’t know it to be possible, but he found himself jealous of a damn guitar.

Instantly appalled at the baffling thought, he snatched up his comic book and dropped his eyes right back down to the pages as if they were magnetized in a paltry attempt to distract himself from the strange sentiment. However, as he attempted to pick up where he had left off, his vision glossing over the words and pictures without retaining a single sliver of the plot, he gave up shortly after.

He needed a distraction. Otherwise, he was going to do something embarrassing like explode or spontaneously combust into flames.

“Well, now that we’ve established that,” Sonic said as he stood up and brushed imaginary dirt off of himself, without really elaborating what ‘that’ was, “what do you say we switch things up for a bit?!”

Shadow paused in his plucking at the strings and raised an eyebrow. “Um, why?”

Because I’m tired of sitting here and thinking about how I wish that you would smile at me like you do your guitar. And because I can’t read without thinking about G.U.N. and how everyone in my family knows about you and I’m getting restless and anxious and need to use something as an outlet for my nervous energy, okay?

Yeah, no, that would never do, and Shadow didn’t need to know about that. Any of it. At least, in regards to the G.U.N. stuff, right at that very moment.

So, he opted for a noncommittal, non-offensive answer instead. “Because I’m bored and have something fun for us to do instead, so come on!”

Running over to his CD player, a makeshift, improv plan rapidly unfolding in his mind, Sonic powered up the machine and ejected the disc, humming derisively as he saw the album that sat inside. Yeah, no, that wouldn’t do in the slightest. He would need something more upbeat, with a little more pep for his plan to not be a complete, catastrophic failure.

“What is that thing?”

“A CD player,” Sonic replied mechanically before pausing, and then slowly turning back to look at Shadow. “Wait… have you… not used this thing? Yet? This whole time?”

Shadow looked away with a frown, shifting in his chair. “I wasn’t sure how it worked.” He seemed reluctant to admit it, and for good reason. There were literally, like, two buttons that needed to be used, and they were all labeled. It was pretty intuitive.

Sonic let out a groan, but more so at himself than Shadow as he found the case for the discarded disc and put it away. Because to be fair, that was completely expected. He should have seen it coming. “You know what, I can’t even get mad at you about that.”

With fingers that danced over his CD collection, he scanned the options. “I would ask you about your taste in music, but honestly? I don’t think I want to know. It might make me throw up a bit in my mouth or want to point at you and laugh at you for being old.” Finding just the one he was looking for, one with enough guitar for Shadow to enjoy and upbeat tempos for his plan to work, Sonic slipped the disc out of its case. “Not to mention, my taste is far too refined for whatever it is you like to listen to, so I probably don’t have anything you like here anyways.”

Instead of snapping back with a sharp retort from where he sat, Shadow merely let out a noise of displeasure, watching with trepidation as Sonic put in the CD and cranked up the volume as the disc read. And then, when the first track blared at such a scream that just about shattered his eardrums and made him visibly jump back, Sonic quickly lowered the volume down to a much more acceptable level.

Turning to Shadow, who remained wary in his beanbag chair, with an embarrassed grin on his face, Sonic began to tap his foot to the beat and beckoned for Shadow to come up and join him.

“What are you doing.”

Sonic gestured at himself as though it were blatant. “Dancing, obviously!"

“I don’t dance.”

If Sonic had watched his own movie and seen Shadow’s flashback sequence with Maria, he would have known this to be a lie. However, since he didn’t have the power to break the fourth wall outside of minor, throwaway references to his history as a video game character, he was completely oblivious to this fact and unfortunately unable to use it as evidence to refute Shadow’s claim. “Don’t dance, or won’t dance?”

“Does the difference even matter?” Shadow groused. “Neither.”

“Oh, come on Shadow, quit being such a killjoy!” Sonic moaned, completely glossing over the fact that being a killjoy was practically his entire persona. “Just come up here and dance with me!”

At this, Shadow hesitated, something odd flickering across his face and disappearing faster than Sonic could accelerate to top speed. “With… you?”

“Yes with me, unless you see some other brightly colored anthropomorphic animal with crazy, otherworldly powers asking you to dance right now!”

This time, Shadow didn’t outright say no, however, he didn’t accept either as his fists curled and bunched at the fur in his lap. His intense gaze, normally narrowed and lined with subliminal anger, eased into indecision, and even Sonic with his astute lack of emotional intelligence could pick up on how the offer was tearing him up from the inside.

“Come on, man. It’ll be fun,” he followed up in encouragement. “And listen, I know that this is your place and therefore a ‘no-fun’ zone, but just do it for me?”

Reaching down, he held out a hand, one that made Shadow finally lift his head from where he had been staring vacillatingly at the floor. As his eyes flitted in alarm between Sonic’s gentle albeit expectant expression and the hand he extended in offering, his palm up and fingers slightly curled in anticipation, Sonic realized that he was going to have to say something that Shadow would never in a million years say.

“Please?”

Shadow faltered, and then after a long moment, he lifted up a tentative hand, though instead of placing it into Sonic’s and accepting the offering he hesitated, hovering right above where Sonic waited for him to accept.

Seeing that he had paused, Sonic had to resist the urge to sigh. “Any day now, Shadow, my arm’s starting to get a little tired. Not to mention, you not answering is making things a little awkward. Like I’m trying to put myself out here and be nice, so the least you could do is—”

Sonic was cut off from what was about to be a lengthy and obnoxious tirade by Shadow’s hand closing the gap to grab his, the words dying in his throat at the sudden, firm warmth he felt as his counterpart made his choice. The surprise only lasted a moment, however, before a grin stretched at his lips and he lifted Shadow up and off the beanbag chair.

“About time,” he snarked, to which Shadow retorted with a huff, their hands breaking contact much to Sonic’s muted disappointment. “Now, watch and learn! I’ll show you how it’s done, since you apparently ‘don’t dance.’” At this, he gave Shadow a pair of sassy and exaggerated finger quotes, just to really drive home the point that he didn’t believe the asinine assertion.

But anyways.

He knew he had to put on a show. Had to really impress Shadow, and definitely only because he wanted to flaunt his moves and not because he wanted Shadow to think he was cool or anything.  He was grateful that he had been staying up later than was probably good for a hedgehog his age learning and filming his trendy dances, and so with a quick roll of his shoulders and a bounce in his step, he settled into the rhythm of the song.

Sonic didn’t hold back. With a quick two step that he would see breakdancers do before going absolutely feral on the dance floor, he did a few of those before getting right into the meat of dropping down and spinning on his back and kicking his legs around in a wild circle. After he dizzied himself with that, he belted out a sequence of contemporary moves he had seen on his dancing social media app (and honestly, anything you can personally visualize in this scenario will probably do the trick, so go ahead and use your imagination and get creative), busting out a few of his favorites. And then, dropping to his stomach, he attempted to do the worm— the key word here is attempted— before popping up to do quick floss to round the whole thing off with a grand finale of an epic pose with two peace signs crossed over his body.

It was a pretty wicked display, if he had to be completely honest, and there was no way that Shadow wouldn’t be super impressed by it.

However, chancing a glance at the very person he was trying to show off to, he found that Shadow was simply standing there with an apprehensive look in his eye, his expression a mix between disgust and what Sonic could have sworn was fear. Which wasn’t quite what Sonic was going for, but perhaps he was just so overwhelmed that he didn’t know how else to react?

“Pretty sick, huh,” Sonic boasted, choosing to believe his concocted delusions. “Now come on! Why don’t you give it a try?”

Shadow’s lips pursed into a thin line. “I don’t dance like that.”

Which was the exact confession Sonic had been waiting for. “Aha!” he just about barked in triumph as he pointed an aggressive finger towards Shadow’s bewildered face. “I knew you were lying when you said that you didn’t know how to dance!”

Shadow’s surprise settled into annoyance. “I never said that I didn’t know how to dance. Just that I didn’t do it.” His eyes did a once-over of Sonic’s heaving frame, his breathing labored from his sporadic moves, before letting out a derisive sniff. “And especially not like that.”

Pausing in what had been his moment of victory, Sonic straightened, a cheeky glint in his eyes at the opening Shadow had unwittingly revealed for him to strike. “Okay hot shot, how do you dance, then?”

Shadow’s back stiffened, and if Sonic didn’t know any better, he would say that his quills bristled in defense. Or perhaps, a more apt reason would be self-consciousness. “Um….”

And Sonic wasn’t having any of it. “Oh come on,” he groaned, placing his hands on his hips and leaning forward in a teasing manner that was equally parts in jest and equally parts serious. “You can’t get all high and mighty about not liking how I dance, and then not show me how you do it! That’s just bad showmanship, honestly.”

Shadow licked his lips, his tongue darting out before disappearing in a wink. “It’s… been a while.”

“And it’ll be longer if you don’t do it now, so come on! Just show me!”

Still looking hesitant, Shadow shook his head. “I don’t know….”

“Do I really have to chant again? Because I know much you hate the chanting, and I have absolutely no problem with—”

Sonic was cut off as Shadow darted his hands out to capture Sonic’s in his own, blinking as he could do nothing more than stare down at the contact that had been initiated between them and the searing, radiating heat that followed shortly after. Shadow’s hands were thick and heavy in his own, and it took everything in Sonic’s power to close his dropped jaw and tear his eyes away from the liaison between their bodies to look up inquisitively at Shadow.

Who, despite the almost gentle way he held Sonic’s hands, even though his grip was still rigid and firm, gave him a vicious scowl. “Fine. You want to see how I dance? Just try to keep up.”

Sonic quirked a brow, a small part of him wanting to laugh at the stark difference in his demeanor from the last time he had said that iconic line (in essence, all golden and glowy while rolling out his shoulder in preparation to demolish some robots in space, versus now, all black and boring and about to show Sonic how to dance), however, he held his tongue as Shadow began to move with the rhythm, swinging his arms in time with the music and pulling Sonic into doing the same with him.

Um…?

“Okay…” Sonic began uncertainly as he fell into awkward step with Shadow, his eyes dropping and glueing to the ground to make sure he wasn’t stomping on his partner’s shoes and definitely not because he was a little nervous to look up and make eye contact with Shadow for some odd reason, because that wouldn’t make sense at all. “That’s, uh, different.”

Shadow sniffed. “It’s better than whatever you were doing.”

“Excuse me?! I’ll have you know that what I was doing was awesome, thank you very much!”

“You looked like you were having a seizure.”

Sonic had a hot reply poised on his tongue, before the words got caught in his throat as Shadow swung him around, manipulating his body to do something he had no intentions of doing before being brought back in to hold his hands again. It was weird, having him lead them through… whatever this was, because Sonic wasn’t entirely convinced that it was dancing, as Sonic stumbled a bit before righting himself and regaining his footing.

“Stop fighting me.”

Sonic rolled his eyes. “I’m not fighting you, we’re dancing. I think. Is that what you call this…?”

Scowling, Shadow didn’t seem to Sonic’s side comments and quips amusing in the slightest. “You know what I mean. Let me lead.”

Feeling chastised and just a little like a fish out of water, Sonic swallowed awkwardly and obliged, but only because he felt like he didn’t have a choice. This style of dancing, with a partner no less, was mind-boggling and foreign, and loathe as he was to admit it, he did actually need Shadow’s lead. He had no idea what he was doing.

And so, with minimal resistance, he allowed Shadow to release his hold on one of his hands and swing him so that they were both facing out, the arms that connected them fully extending and bridging the gap between their bodies.

Next to him, Shadow lifted his arms in a rolling motion that passed from the tip of his free arm, through his body, and to the other, and when it reached Sonic, Shadow attempted to lift his arm to continue the motion, however, Sonic stood there limply with nothing more than a confused look on his face.

Much to Shadow’s stormy displeasure. “You’re supposed to carry the wave through.” It was honestly hilarious seeing someone so serious and perpetually cross say something with such lighthearted connotations, but that wasn’t what was preoccupying Sonic’s mind at the moment, otherwise he would have definitely made a snarky quip about it.

No, he was focused on something else. “Yeah, yeah, I know how the wave works,” Sonic said hastily in an attempt to cover up the fact that he was currently fixated on the fact that Shadow’s fingers were threaded through and squeezing his own. He didn’t have time to dwell on it, though, before Shadow dragged and guided Sonic to do a frilly little twirl that was super unnecessary and lame and not what a cool person such as himself would do, before pulling him back in so that both their hands were laced together again.

The double contact sent a zing of something shooting up his arms.

And so once again, Sonic let out an awkward laugh and supplied some commentary to conceal the weird twist in his stomach he felt about the electrifying touch, the sensation that made him feel excited and ill all at the same time. “Ugh, I can tell you learned how to do this fifty years ago. Swing dancing is so a century ago, gramps.”

Shadow rolled his eyes, but didn’t say anything. Because not only was he wrong about Shadow’s style being swing dancing, it also wasn’t from a century ago. Sonic was quite simply incorrect on all fronts.

They continued like that through the song, and as the lyrics flew by them and the beat carried on, Sonic began to gain some confidence in the wacky and dated moves. They seemed straight forward enough, so much so, that he decided that he was done following Shadow and ready to take charge for once.

“Hey, I think I’m getting the hang of this!” he exclaimed as he attempted to mimic Shadow and twirl him, the move clunky and weird but not all that bad in the grand scheme of things, feeling a smile split his face as he prepared to gloat that he had done a far better job twirling than his partner had…

… right before tripping over his clumsy feet and stumbling into Shadow, who was forced to adjust his grip on Sonic so that he was holding him at the elbows as Sonic literally faceplanted into his chest fur.

Sonic let out a grunt, the sound muffled by the mouthful of white fluff that stuffed his mouth like cotton balls. Beneath his forehead, pressed flush against Shadow’s sternum, he could feel his partner’s pounding heart, fast and heavy and likely quickened due to the exertion of their tame and lame dance moves. After he took a moment to steady himself, Sonic craned his neck back to glance up, and found Shadow looking down at him with an odd, unreadable expression. And just like that, all attempts and intents to disentangle himself from his awkward blunder were halted as Sonic froze.

He found himself entrapped in his gaze, the intensity of his eyes softening in surprise and the sudden way they found themselves practically embracing one another. Their faces were close enough so that Sonic could see that Shadow’s eyes weren’t a burgundy shade of brown like he had initially thought, but instead, a deep red, flecks of crimson peppered throughout and his pupils outlined by a vibrant ring of gold.

As though he were in a trance, Sonic leaned in to get a closer look, lost in their depths, and instead of flinching away like he would have expected him, Shadow simply stared back, his lips slightly parted as his fingers that gripped Sonic’s elbows and steadied him against his body gave a reflexive squeeze.  And it wasn’t until Shadow blinked, breaking the prolonged and intense eye contact they had sustained while the ambling song carried on in the background, did Sonic realize what he was doing.

With a sharp intake of breath, he pulled back, tearing their bodies away from each other with a sharp jerk as he took a step away, far enough so that he hoped that Shadow wouldn’t be able to hear his racing pulse that hammered in his ears. And staring at Shadow, who seemed just as shocked about the whole exchange as Sonic felt, he could do little more than swallow thickly, his saliva feeling like jelly that congealed in the back of his throat and somehow made his mouth feel gummy and dry all at the same time.

What. The. Heck. Was. That all about.

“I’m sorry,” he stammered as he clutched his hands together, his fingers still burning from the contact and finding solace in each other. “I don’t know what— why I…” Sonic swallowed again with about as much success as the first time, the jelly in his mouth no less thick and obstructive, before starting over. “Thanks, for, uh, catching me. When I fell.”

However, sparing him from his humiliating groveling, Shadow held up a hand. ”Don’t mention it,” he mumbled, his voice thick with something that Sonic couldn’t quite make out as he turned to sit back down in his beanbag chair. 

In between them, the song they had been dancing to ended and a new one began, the lyrics weaving some poetic nonsense about two pining lovers who were struggling to confess their feelings towards one another, which Sonic thought to be pretty on the nose and ill-timed given the whole baffling exchange that had just occurred between him and Shadow. And turning toward the CD player, preparing to go to the next song that would hopefully be about partying, or drugs, or something that wasn’t two googly-eyed lovers (because again, the whole thing was making him feel incredibly uncomfortable), Sonic’s eyes just about popped out of his skull.

The time. It was past midnight, which was way past the acceptable time he could be out. He didn’t necessarily have a curfew, but what he did have was a house full of suspicious detectives intent on scrutinizing and analyzing his every move. This certainly wasn’t going to help his tenuous, fragile case about denying the fact he had a secret friend in the woods who had tried to kill them all on multiple occasions.

(Yes, sometimes even Sonic nearly forgot the fact that Shadow wasn’t just a joy-killer, but an attempted people-killer too.)

“Aw shoot, I lost track of time, again.” He groaned with a palm slapped to his forehead “Time flies when you’re having fun,” or at least in this case, having strangely intimate moments with your secret friend living in a cave in the forest, “right, Shadow?”

Shadow didn’t answer. Just glanced from the time and then back to Sonic with an unreadable, almost concerned look on his face.

Which was a totally normal response from him, since his social skills were kind of stunted, and so Sonic didn’t read too much into it. What he did focus on, however, was the fact that he suddenly felt the urge to yawn and his limbs felt like lead, and he was struggling to muster up the energy to leave and run home. And of course, since he was Sonic, he decided to verbalize this so that everyone could know his sleepy predicament. “Ugh, I really don’t want to run home right now, I’m downright exhausted,” he groaned.

Unable to prevent the urge any longer, Sonic yawned, and nothing could have prepared him for what Shadow said next.

“You don’t have to go, you know.”

Sonic froze mid-yawn, slowly turning to face Shadow with a confused look on his face. He hadn’t just… there was no way he had… had he?

“I’m sorry, what?”

There was only a glimpse of hesitation and uncertainty on Shadow’s face before he squared his shoulders and thinned his lips into a firm, determined line. “You heard me.”

“Yeah, I might have heard you,” Sonic said, miming clearing out his ears and flicking away an imaginary piece of earwax, “but I’m still going to need to you to run that by me one more time.”

“You don’t have to leave. You could…” Shadow paused, his jaw working as his fingers dug into the beanbag chair as if to brace himself for the mortifying thing he was about to suggest, which was, “…stay.”

All Sonic could do at the admission was gawk at Shadow. There were no hints of deception in his face, no traces that this might be a joke at Sonic’s expense, that if he were to accept the baffling and tempting proposition, Shadow would point a finger in his face and laugh at him for being so dumb as to accept.

And so, with his mind racing, his gaze searched his friend’s face for any signs of trickery, but found none. He was completely, one hundred percent genuine. “Shadow… I…” he began, before trailing off as he found himself unsure of what to say next.

Because he wanted to. Oh God, did he want to stay. Nothing sounded more enticing than spending more time with Shadow, and that wasn’t even factoring in the fact that he also really was not in the mood to traverse the creepy forest at night at the moment. Granted, the scariest thing hiding in the woods was standing right in front of him, but Sonic digressed. He still wasn’t in the mood to do it.

However, before he had the chance to get his words together and deliver a coherent answer, Shadow held up a hand and shook his head. “Never mind,” he said sharply, looking away. “Pretend I didn’t say anything.”

“Shadow, I…” Sonic began again, before seeing the time and realizing that for the moment he would have to leave his desires unspoken. There was no way he could have this conversation now, not with the way he felt like his head was stuffed with feathers and fluff. And so, with reluctance, he abandoned the topic and settled on saying, “I’ll… see you tomorrow. Okay?”

Shadow didn’t respond, simply picking up his guitar and resuming playing. He was definitely improving, Sonic distantly noted, because now, he could feel the emotions imbued in the strings, singing out with a raw feeling Sonic felt was significant but didn’t know how to interpret.

To be fair, he was probably just overthinking things.

With yet another glance at the time and a worrying of his lip, Sonic departed, the run back to his house more like a brisk jog due to the dim moonlight that filtered through the trees. The last thing he needed was to trip and fall and be stranded out in the woods, though perhaps, twisting his ankle would give him an excuse to return to Shadow and, for lack of a better term, have a sleepover.

The offer, no matter how he turned it around in his head, was shocking. And perhaps more shocking of all, was the way that Sonic found himself really wishing he had taken up Shadow on the offer.

As he reached his room after sneaking in through Ozzy’s dog door and tiptoeing up the stairs, Shadow’s strange request still bouncing off the walls of his mind, he couldn’t help but catch a glimpse of the packet of papers summarizing the G.U.N. document sitting on his desk, and he felt a twist in his gut completely unrelated to his strange, blooming relationship with Shadow that raised so many questions and provided so few answers.

He needed to tell him about G.U.N. He deserved to know the threat that loomed on the horizon, especially given his history with the organization.

Yawning yet again, Sonic shook his head to clear his mind. He would do it tomorrow, he would bring the mini file to their next hangout. They could talk about it then; no use in pondering it now, not when he had been too exhausted to barely make it home. Shadow’s offer for him to stay had been sorely tempting and he felt yet another pang of regret for having turned it down.

As he fluffed up his pillow and climbed under the covers, he wondered what it would have been like had he stayed. If they would have pulled up their beanbag chairs close to one another, or if they would have combined them to make one giant makeshift bed. If they would have stayed up late telling secrets and sharing stories, the only thing audible to anyone outside the cave the punctuation of their hushed giggles. If they would have woken up in a tangle of limbs the next morning, the atmosphere somber as they made pancakes or ate Lucky Charms for breakfast before they would have to bid goodbye before noon.

With a sigh as he drifted off to sleep, Sonic resigned himself to the fact that such a thing with Shadow would only be speculation, at least, for the time being.

Chapter Text

The next morning, Sonic had about seven seconds of blissful peace before the events of the previous day and the weight of what he needed to do came crashing down on him.

He had two things he needed to accomplish, and a choice of which one went first. Confess to Tom, Maddie, Tails, and Knuckles about the survival of Shadow and his secret friendship with their former foe, or go to Shadow and tell him about the threat of G.U.N.

Sonic wondered if he could pick the third option of reviving Eggman and engaging in yet another high stakes battle with his arch nemesis. At least that would be more predictable than either destination at the fork of the road he currently found himself confronted with.

With a groan as he sat up in his bed, he yawned and let out a massive stretch. Both options sucked. There was no sugarcoating it. The question was, which relationship did he choose to muck up first, Shadow’s or his found family’s?

Glancing between the aptly placed photo of him, Tom, Maddie, Knuckles, and Tails that sat at his bedside table, and then to the legal document about G.U.N. in a comical visualization of his impending choice, Sonic hesitated. He didn’t want to do either, though he figured that if he had to do one, he would take the path of least resistance. And in this case, it boiled down to the sheer quantity of people he knew he would be letting down.

It was decided. Shadow was going to be dealt with first.

Picking up the packet, Sonic worried at his lip. This was it. He was finally going to tell Shadow what was going on with G.U.N. What they wanted with Sonic and how much danger he was in, and by association, how these things transferred over to Shadow as well.

Sonic sighed. He really didn’t want to do this. There was a strong chance that this would induce a permanent change to their relationship. Though, the events of the prior night flashing in the back of his mind, it was honestly rather difficult to even tell what exactly their relationship was at the moment.

Just two good friends who danced rather intimately and stared longingly into each other’s eyes. Yep. Because that was completely normal.

Glancing back down towards the packet to reorient himself, Sonic grimaced as he began to leaf through the pages. He couldn’t just spring this upon Shadow, no, he would need something to offset this horrendous revelation. Something to ease the delivery, to balance the whole thing out so that it became a net zero.

An idea crossing his mind, Sonic tucked the packet away into his quills and quickly made his bed before heading downstairs (something he rarely did, but procrastination was one hell of a drug that would make you do crazy, out of character things such as smoothing a hand over the rumpled sheets to stretch the wrinkles out). His plan was shoddy and ill-conceived at best, however, the intention was there, so he knew Shadow would love it.

He was quick about it. No one was around, and he didn’t want to linger in case that might change. Quickly scanning the selection of framed photos on the table sitting in the hall of the entryway, he searched for the one that would be least noticed if he were to tamper with it, which unfortunately for dog lovers around the world, happened to be the one with Ozzy. Plucking it off the display, Sonic popped the photo out (which kind of further solidified the way that Sonic, Knuckles, and Tails had replaced him) and placed the naked photo back onto the table, hastily writing out ‘Sorry Ozzy :P’ on a sticky note and plastering it over his furry friend’s face.

Stashing the stolen frame into his quills, Sonic felt a sharp pang of guilt. He would probably, maybe (unlikely) remember to run into town to buy a replacement frame later.

But anyways. His two offerings in tow, a new (read: gently used) picture frame and a summarized legal document with the potential to ruin his and Shadow’s delicate friendship, Sonic took off into the forest before anyone could inconveniently appear and take away his illusion of choice towards which deplorable conversation he would have to have first.  

To his mild surprise, he found Shadow listening to music, sitting and staring at the disc player as it belted out some songs. He appeared to be lost in thought, a concentrated frown on his face that was so severe, he didn’t even notice Sonic’s entry into his home.

“You’ve, uh, been listening to some tunes?”

Glancing over at Sonic in mild surprise, Shadow nodded.

“Hear any you like?”

At this, Shadow grimaced. “No. Your taste in music is loud and obnoxious.”

Sonic had half a mind to be offended, but as he paused to think about it, Shadow kind of had a point. And so, with a shrug, he offered Shadow a guilty smile instead. “Yeah, I feel like that was probably a given.”

“I do like this one, though.”

Fishing through the collection of CDs, Shadow tossed him the album in question, and Sonic just about withered up and died on the inside as he saw which one it was. Of course it was the one Tom had given him, an old copy of one of his favorites from back when he was a kid. It had been gifted at the time when Sonic had first gotten the player with the intent to kickstart his disc collection. Honestly, it was kind of ridiculous. Despite the fact that Shadow had punched him in the chest and almost killed him, he and Tom shared a surprising amount of similarities, something that didn’t go unnoticed by Sonic.

Perhaps, under the right circumstances one day, they would bond over their shared taste in boring music.

But anyways. Sonic had come here with a purpose, and though he longed to sit next to Shadow and listen to music and stare at the disc player like a pair of weirdoes, he had to take care of business first.  And so, his throat constricting as he swallowed thickly, he stepped forward. “Listen, Shadow, before we do anything cute and wholesome like watch a movie, or play guitar, or…” Sonic trailed off, the word dance popping into his head, but the connotations of their last experience rendered him unable to verbalize it, so he glazed over it. “…um, you know… first, we have to talk about something that’s kind of serious. Two things, actually.”

Shadow turned to face him, his eyes drifting up and down his figure as a look of confusion crossed his features. “Oh?”

Feeling the weight of the frame (good!) and the legal file (bad!) in his quills, Sonic licked his lips. “Heh-heh, yeah…. Do you want the good news, or the bad news first?”

Shadow only took a couple seconds to mull it over. “The bad news.”

Well. That was not what he had wanted to hear, and so with an enthusiastic pump of his arm, he completely ignored Shadow’s request. “Good news it is!” he exclaimed, to which Shadow frowned and lifted a perplexed hand as if to say what the heck, why did you even bother asking? Which was honestly completely fair, because like, why did Sonic even ask when he already had the answer picked out in his mind?

The truth was, he was a cowardly weenie who was really dreading having this conversation. Give him a break, okay, he was trying his best, even if it truthfully wasn’t very good.

“I have a gift for you,” he explained, his hand brushing past the packet to curl around the frame and pull it out. Foregoing the need for theatrics like he had the affinity to perform, Sonic held it out in offering, a soft and expectant expression crossing his face as he did so.

Shadow’s reaction was not quite what he expected it to be, not for such a sentimental present. “You got me a piece of clear plastic?”

“What? No, it’s—” Sonic paused, cutting himself off as he comically angled his head to ogle at Ozzy’s old frame before looking back up to Shadow and pointing at it in bewildered, exasperated emphasis. “It’s very clearly a picture frame. What in the world are you— what are you talking about?!”

“Why would I need one of those?”

“Are you serious?” Sonic felt like he was actively losing IQ points with this conversation, which was not a good thing since he barely had any to spare to begin with. “It’s for your photo of you and Maria. I promised you I would get you one. Remember?”

Shadow frowned. “You got me a picture frame for my photo with Maria? Why?”

“Oh my— yes.” Trying not to dwell on the fact that for once, Shadow was being the difficult one rather than Sonic, he held out a hand. “May I see it? Please?”

There was a moment of hesitation, and then with slow, deliberate movements, Shadow pulled out the old, faded photo from his quills and gave it to Sonic with a great deal of visible reluctance.

Sonic chose not to comment on the fact that Shadow kept the picture in quite literally the least safe place for it to be, and that was probably very deleterious to preserving the already ancient relic, instead accepting the photo and preparing to place it into the frame. It took an embarrassing amount of effort, because whoever designed picture frames certainly didn’t do it with a friendly user interface in mind, but he was eventually able to finagle it inside. “There,” he said, admiring his handiwork before turning it to show to Shadow. “What do you think?”

The praise he had been hoping for was not forthcoming. “I can’t carry it with me anymore.”

“And why would you want to do that, anyways? Don’t you want to hang it up so that you can see it?”

Shadow's lips twisted in indecision. “But where would we put it?”

It was a good question, one that Sonic hadn’t put much thought into. However, after a moment, an idea occurred to him. “I think I have the perfect spot for it.”

Walking away from Shadow and not waiting to see if he was following, Sonic walked over to where his old painting with Longclaw was displayed. Brushing past the vines so that he could see them better, Sonic apprehend the mural before selecting a spot for the new addition, hanging it up where the rock was painted blue and emulating the sky.

“There,” he said as he adjusted so that it was straight, which was a far more difficult task than one would expect due to the roughness of the rock walls and the uneven nature of the ceiling and floor. “Now you’ll always be able to see it while you’re here at home, and we’ll never forget them.”

Shadow didn’t answer for a moment, and as the silence stretched on between them, Sonic feared that he had done something wrong and somehow managed to offend him. Maria was a touchy subject, after all, one that he always had to tread carefully around.

However, as he turned to cautiously appraise Shadow, he realized that his silence was not due to fury, but instead due to a different emotion. One that Sonic had a difficult time placing on his severe face, but if the way his eyes glistened were any indication, it was one of deep sorrow, appreciation, and dare he say, happiness.

“Sonic, I…” he finally managed to say after a long moment, his voice thick with the emotions Sonic could scarcely believe he was witnessing on him. “Thank you. It’s… it’s beautiful.”

Unable to come up with a suitable response to the exposed display, Sonic responded with a cheeky joke, feeling that if he were to comment on the vulnerable sentiments Shadow was conveying, he would be met with a punch to the gut.  “You’re talking about my mural, right?”

Shadow blinked back some of the moistness in his eyes, the emotion being replaced by a slight, knowing smirk.  Once again, it wasn’t the gentle smile illustrated stunningly on the photograph before them that Sonic craved, but there was something about the expression, the familiarity of it as they engaged in an inside joke, that made something in Sonic’s stomach do an embarrassing flip. “You know I’m not.”

At this, Sonic laughed, harder than he probably should have, doubling over as he clutched at his stomach. And since his eyes were closed as he did so, he missed the way that Shadow’s smirk softened into a gentle smile, basking in the sight of Sonic’s pure, unfettered joy.

However, by the time Sonic had finished laughing, Shadow’s expression had settled into something neutral once again; not quite a scowl, but not quite happy either. “So. If that was the good news… then what is the bad news?”

Sonic, who had been wiping an imaginary tear from his eye, froze. Leave it to Shadow to spoil a perfectly good moment.

“I… have something to show you,” he said with an agonizing amount of effort. With a heavy, reluctant hand, Sonic reached behind him to clamp his hands around the file…  the secret in his quills, if you will. And then, pulling it out, he paused, not knowing what to do other than stare helplessly at the document before grimacing at Shadow. He really should have rehearsed this before visiting Shadow. He was at a complete loss of what to say.

“Sonic,” Shadow began slowly, eyeing the packet with suspicion before looking up to Sonic with the same expression of distrust and caution. “What is that?”

His throat bobbing, Sonic struggled to answer, to say the words that needed to be said.  Because this was it. This was the time to be honest, to let it all out. “It’s… um… well…?”

Shadow raised an expectant eyebrow. “Yes?”

“Uh, well, you see…” Sonic began, the paper crinkling beneath his hands as he clenched at it in anxiety, the pristine condition of the packet deteriorating under his ministrations. “I was thinking….”

“Thinking about?”

Sonic steeled himself for his confession, formulating what he was going to say next in his head, however, at the last moment, some childish, underdeveloped part of his brain took over and made him blurt out something completely unrelated. “You know what? I was thinking that it’s probably time that we break our tie from the last race. It’s been a while, and I think we need a rematch!”

Shadow stared at him flatly. “What.”

Sonic attempted (and failed) to grin as he settled into the familiar pattern of their banter. The conversation that was safe and normal and not charged with the heavy topic of a government organization that was prepared to ruin one of their lives and had already destroyed the other. “You heard me. You and me. Rematch. Right now.”

Shadow pursed his lips at this, looking somewhat uncertain.

“Unless, of course… you’re scared that you’ll lose a second time and solidify yourself as the inferior hedgehog?”

His bait worked as Shadow’s pensive expression quickly settled into one of indignance, his eyes narrowing at the challenge. “Between the two of us, I am the superior life form. There is no chance that I would lose to the likes of you.”

Sonic gave him a cheeky smirk. Hook, line, and sinker. Really, it was too easy. Shadow was far too predictable; it almost made the goading not fun. “So then why don’t you show me, then?”

Instead of pushing back more, their continuing argument something Sonic had been hoping for, Shadow redirected them to their earlier subject of discussion. “Wasn’t there some bad news that you needed to tell me?”  

Sonic blinked, just a little taken aback and dismayed that his attempts to distract Shadow had failed miserably. “What? No, it’s just… I mean….”

Shadow gave him a cynical once-over, almost immediately understanding what was going on. “You’re stalling.”

“Um… maybe…?”

“Fine,” Shadow said with a sigh, “we can race again. But only if you promise to tell me what this ‘bad news’ is afterwards.”

Ignoring the scathing annoyance with which Shadow imbued his words, Sonic let out a whoop and did a little victory dance, one that was a far cry different from the oddly intimate dancing he had engaged in with Shadow not all that long ago. “You’ve got a deal,” Sonic said, unable to keep the relief from seeping into his voice about the fact that his procrastination had somehow worked and that he could avoid the confession about G.U.N. for just a little longer. “You know how long it’s been since I’ve raced against someone actually capable of giving me a challenge? That’s not to say that Knuckles and Tails aren’t fast, except for the fact that they really aren’t, but listen that’s beside the point I just really can’t wait to race right now!”

And with that, he took the legal document, filled with things that needed to be addressed now rather than later, and placed it neatly on Shadow’s beanbag chair. “There, just so you know that I plan on keeping my promise!” he commented, adjusting it with the tip of his finger so that it sat nice and prim in the Shadow-shaped lump in a very ominous way that definitely would not be a significant detail to remember for later.

Shadow’s mouth pressed into a thin line of displeasure and uncertainty, however, he refrained from commenting as he followed Sonic out of the cave and into the surrounding forest.

“This is way overdue,” Sonic rambled as he picked out a spot for them to start, picking up a stick and drawing a line in the dirt for them to start behind. “We’ve been arguing about the rightful winner for weeks now.”

Behind him, Shadow scoffed. “Yes, because you can’t accept the fact that you lost.”

Rolling his eyes, Sonic turned to face him and placed his hands on his shoulders, and at the shocked expression Shadow gave him at the forwardness of the action, Sonic was suddenly reminded of how the last time they had been this close, it had been in their dance the night prior. However, brushing past it, no matter how his mind clamored to linger on the moment, he followed through with the original intent and pushed down hard on Shadow’s shoulders, prompting him to drop into a runner’s crouch. “Why don’t you prove it to me then, hm?” Sonic teased as he fell into line beside Shadow, sinking his fingers into the soft dirt to stabilize himself.

Blinking away his surprise, Shadow settled into something a little more stern and familiar. “Let me guess. Is it time for you to say your catchphrase again?”

“Absolutely,” Sonic responded with smugness. “And honestly? We’ve got to get you one of your own. You would be so much cooler with one, trust me.”

“I don’t do catchphrases. I’m pretty sure we already established that.”

“Must have been a while ago, because I sure don’t remember!”

“They’re corny. And lame.”

“To be completely candid, you just sound salty that you don’t have one,” Sonic simpered. “But don’t worry! I can help you out!”

“Please don’t.”

Sonic ignored him. Because what was he going to do, resist the urge to be corny and lame, just as Shadow had inadvertently accused him of being? Don’t be ridiculous. Of course not.  “Do you have any nicknames we can maybe incorporate into your catchphrase? Other than that time I called you ‘Hot Topic?’ Like any cool nicknames?” He paused, before realizing that he probably needed to elaborate. “Because since you probably don’t know what Hot Topic is, and we should totally go sometime because you would absolutely love it there, I just need you to know that I one hundred percent meant that as an insult. Being compared to that store is not a compliment. Still, you would love it though. Honest.”

“Are we going to race? Or are you just going to keep talking.”

“Oh we’re going to race all right,” Sonic snorted, and Shadow visibly relaxed, though such a reaction was premature as Sonic continued and said, “right after we choose a new catchphrase for you!”

His muscles immediately tensed up in retaliation. “Can we not.”

“Hm, well, let me send it to the jury.” Turning to face the pine trees around them, and by that, meaning absolutely no one at all, Sonic planted his hands on his hips as he cleared his throat and elevated the volume of his voice. “Well guys? What do we think? Can we skip giving Shadow a catchphrase?” He paused, staring off into the forest as he nodded and hummed to himself.  “Oh, what’s that? Request denied?! Oh no, Shadow, I… I’m so sorry. But you know, what they say is law, and so I guess we have no choice. We’re giving you a catchphrase!”

“You’re exhausting,” Shadow groaned, not appearing to be entertained by Sonic’s theatrics in the slightest.

“Okay, okay, hear me out, what if you just said, ‘I am the Ultimate Lifeform!’ Wait, hold on, or better yet, ‘Behold! My Ultimate Power! Eh? Eh? Come on, even you’ve got to admit those are kinda sick!”

“Why would I announce that I am the Ultimate Lifeform. It goes without saying. Everyone should know that.”

Sonic was not dissuaded. “Ooh! Or how about, ‘I am all of me?’ That sounds pretty edgy and cool, huh? Fits your Hot Topic vibe perfectly!”

Shadow frowned. “That last one doesn’t even make any sense. Of course I am all of me. Who else would I be.”

He did have a point, not that Sonic was willing to admit it though. “Um, well, we’ll workshop it,” Sonic promised, finally coming to the conclusion that Shadow was a lost cause on the matter and that his attentions would be better directed to their prospective race. The one that he absolutely needed to win to settle their debate once and for all. “Are you ready? Even though you don’t have a suitable catchphrase yet?”

“I’ve literally been ready this entire time. You’re the one who decided I needed a stupid saying, for some odd reason.”

“Touche,” Sonic said with finger guns, even though there was a strong chance that Shadow would have no idea what that modern phrase meant, and based on his confused expression, he didn’t. “That won’t stop me from saying my own! Just to really prove it to you that you’re missing out!”

“I would really appreciate if you would refrain.”

Sonic ignored him, instead giving Shadow a sassy wink. “Gotta. Go. Fast,” he said, making sure to place extra emphasis on each word to really try to convince his competitor that he was really missing out on not having a catchphrase, though to be fair, with how uninspired his own saying was, it probably had the opposite effect.

Sonic was about to begin the countdown, when something occurred to him. “So, do we need to lay down some ground rules this time? Because last time, I was kind of anticipating just a normal, straightforward race, and I totally wasn’t expecting you to start attempting to beat me up.”

Shadow offered him a rare smirk, and though it wasn’t the soft smile Sonic was searching for, the quirk of his lips lined with something dangerous and competitive, Sonic found that as far as expressions that weren’t fury or annoyance went from Shadow, he couldn’t be all that picky. “No rules,” he said. “Whoever gets there first wins.”

“Anything goes?”

“That’s what no rules means, isn’t it?”

Sonic met Shadow’s competitive grin with one of his own. “Just wanted to make sure,” he retorted. “Are you ready?”

“I’ve been ready this entire time. You’re the one that won’t stop running your mouth.”

With a bark of laughter, Sonic sank lower into the dirt in preparation. “To our mountain, then. Same spot as last time. Ready…. Get set….”

He paused, allowing the seconds to drag out as he waited for an uncomfortably long stretch of time. In the silence, the only thing audible was the air crackling with the energy each of them willed to the surfaces of their bodies in preparation. Sonic turned to stick his tongue out at Shadow, who responded with a roll of his eyes. It was all intentional, you see, these mind games and heckling that Sonic knew would get under his competitor’s skin and would allow him to win the race, or at least amp Shadow up so that he would do something interesting. Sonic lived to be entertained, and Shadow was quite the riveting source.

But anyways. Enough of that.

“Go!” he cried, and with that, their rematch (and distraction from their inevitable conversation about G.U.N.) began.

With a burst of his azure power to propel him forward, Sonic started out with a strong head start, Shadow lagging behind. It was with a great deal of effort that he was able to make it about halfway through the race without any physical contact with Shadow, because Sonic was painfully aware of their strengths; he was more proficient with speed and funny, snappy one-liners, and Shadow was, well, better at everything else. Loathe as Sonic was to admit it, he knew it to be the truth, and if he even had a shot at winning this thing and settling once and for all that he was the rightful champion, he was going to have to stick with what he was best at, which was going fast.

Still. Ducking and weaving between Shadow’s scathing attacks could only last so long, and it wasn’t long before Shadow finally landed one.

It was a blunder on Sonic’s part, as he had diverted his attention from Shadow momentarily to make sure that he properly hurdled and cleared a fallen tree blocking the path. However, upon his landing, Shadow managed to rush forward and knock Sonic off balance with a sharp shoulder, Sonic gasping as their energies intermingling threw him off his step. Squeezing his eyes shut to brace himself for impact he knew was coming as he felt Shadow follow up on the initial hit, a burst of pain that emanated from his back occupied the forefront of his senses before he refocused his gaze after a moment to find his competitor pinning him up against the broad trunk of the tree, his elbow pressed to Sonic’s neck and preventing him from escaping as well as breathing. Sonic lifted his hands in a scrambling attempt to claw them away, though his efforts were futile as Shadow used his other hand to pin his wrists above his head. He leaned in with a snarl as he placed his entire body weight into the forearm choking Sonic, and if it weren’t for the fact that he was currently being strangled, Sonic would have been a little more aware of the compromising way they were entangled.

“Are you aware of the fact that I can’t breathe?” he struggled to whisper out, his voice hoarse and strained from the pressure of Shadow’s forearm against his windpipe.

“Can’t exactly win if you’re not conscious,” Shadow growled in response, deepening the exerted force he was applying. “So yes. I am aware.”

Sonic let out a strangled gasp. “You know, just to be on the safe side and to establish a good example of what proper etiquette for this sort of stuff looks like, I think we really need to establish a safe word. Like maybe….” He trailed off, doing it in such a way to trick Shadow in believing that he was on the cusp of passing out, however, as he closed his eyes, he reached deep into his core and tugged at the source of power that was nestled deep into his chest, feeling it course through his veins and every fiber of his being. And then, opening his eyes and revealing to Shadow the neon blue of his energy that reflected deep in his irises, he grinned. “Watch out.”

Grunting, he willed his sparkling blue energy to burst out of him, the electricity of it snaking up Shadow’s arms and over his body. With a growl, Shadow was forced to tear away as the sensation of Sonic’s power raced up over his skin, allowing Sonic to collapse to the floor and gasp as he took a deep, raspy inhale that seared his lungs. Quickly shaking his head to rid himself of the stars that danced in his vision, he staggered to his feet, willing his body to start to run again despite the haphazard state he found himself in.

As he began to stumble forward, preparing to leave Shadow in the dust, he heard his rival call out from behind him. “Get back here!”

“Um, no, why would I? We’re racing, duh!” And with that, forming an ‘L’ with his fingers and placing it on his forehead, Sonic blew a raspberry before taking off with a wild cackle.

The impact of his taunting was almost immediate. Within a few steps, Sonic was knocked onto his stomach and on the floor, Shadow pinning him down from behind and shoving his face into the dirt with a surprisingly strong hand.

“Where do you think you’re going?!” Shadow hissed in his ear, his hot breath tickling the sensitive hairs inside and sending an involuntary shiver throughout his entire body, one that he tried to suppress as he felt Shadow’s chest pressed against his back. However, Sonic didn’t have much time to process his strange and unwanted reaction as Shadow clenched a fist in his quills, yanking his head back and drawing out a groan from his throat.

“I was going to the finish line, because that’s the whole point of this thing,” Sonic managed to grunt through a mouthful of dirt. “So, if you don’t mind—”

“Oh, I do mind. Very much.” And with that, Shadow shoved Sonic’s face back into the ground and used it as leverage to push himself off and over his body.

Ignoring the way that he kind of missed the weight of Shadow’s body pressed against his own, because just like most things involving his rival, that was a very weird thing to think and feel, Sonic struggled to his feet. His entire front was caked in dirt, so with a quick shake that freed most of the clinging clod, he took off in hot pursuit.

However, unlike Shadow, who seemed to rely on dirty tricks to keep up, Sonic simply quickened his pace until he was nearly bumping shoulders with Shadow. And unable to help himself, he announced his presence with a cheesy quip.

“You know, if I didn’t know any better, I would say that those little rocket boot things of yours are where you get all your speed. Isn’t that technically cheating?”

Closing the thin gap that existed between their shoulders, Shadow knocked into Sonic in an attempt to push him off balance yet again. It only marginally worked, and if anything, only amped Sonic up more. “Oh what’s that? Not even going to tell me I’m wrong?” Sonic snarked. “Or let me guess. You’re just going to let your fists do the talking? That’s cliché, Shadow, even for you. Have you ever tried being original, or is copying the only thing you’re capable of?” He let out a snort of laughter. “I mean, I get that it’s your entire character archetype, to be the darker, edgier version of me, but come on! You’re really going to let that define you?”

At this point, Sonic was just spitballing (although that was honestly nothing new), and apparently, Shadow had had enough of it. “You’re right,” Shadow finally growled, and before Sonic had the chance to incredulously exclaim ‘I am?’, he was cut off. “I am going to let my fists do the talking.”

And with that, Shadow grabbed Sonic by the upper arm, the move so sudden that not even Sonic was able to evade the way his hand darted out to seize him.

With a yelp, Sonic couldn’t resist as Shadow swung him around so that they were facing each other, and before he had the chance to wrench his grip free, they were suddenly flying, and Sonic could do little more than gasp as Shadow’s stupid little rocket boots lifted them off the ground. His eyes wide in panic as they soared up, his breath escaped from his lungs as they reached the peak of their trajectory, gravity beginning to tug at his feet and pull him down. And as Shadow loosened his hold on him, he wasn’t given a chance to panic about his impending fall as Shadow fully let go and followed it up with a solid punch to the abdomen.

The hit he landed was solid, and unable to prevent it from happening, Sonic went flying through the air and into the side of the mountain they were currently scaling.

With a cry of pain, Sonic struck the sheer rock face. By all accounts, the collision should have broken all of his bones. Shadow, for the first time in a while, had not held back, and after Sonic gathered his bearings after a few long, exhausting seconds, he climbed out of the hedgehog-shaped crater with his eyes narrowed. Oh, so that was how he wanted to play it? Fine. Game on.

His face bunching up in concentration, Sonic began to charge up into a ball, willing his energy to the surface and reveling in how it sparked and flashed around his frame. And after a few seconds of gaining power and momentum, he took off, determined to finish the petty squabble once and for all as he flew through the air.

However, Sonic was no longer aiming for the finish line.

He was aiming for Shadow.

Because seriously. After all of the antagonizing he had done thus far in that race, Sonic had been pushed to the brink! Not literally, no, he was actually enjoying himself quite immensely, the challenge and competition that Shadow posed was invigorating. However, he figured that if he could put a stop to his rival with his pure, raw power, he could finally win the race uncontested. Plus, he hadn’t really appreciated being punched into the side of the mountain, even if the rock face had been greatly improved by a Sonic-shaped crater in its formation. If there had been a referee watching their little match, Shadow would have absolutely gotten a flag thrown at him for rough and unnecessary violence.

As Sonic rocketed towards Shadow, his target paused, eyes widening as he realized what was happening. And instantly, without wasting a moment, Shadow halted to a stop and began to charge up his own crimson power, before taking off with a burst of flames from his shoes to skyrocket forward and meet Sonic in the middle.

There was a blinding light as they collided, and the last thing Sonic remembered was the electrifying sensation of Shadow’s Chaos Energy racing over his body before everything went dark.

The crazy thing about being unconsciousness, was that it felt like he was sleeping. Which maybe wasn't that crazy at all, but it was certainly disorienting.

His forcefully-induced slumber was relaxing and blissful, despite the violent way it had been initiated, and he felt like he was floating. Or rather, being carried; his body bobbing up and down and the distant sounds of shoes crunching in pine needles told a different story, before he felt like he was falling again, drifting down, down, down, and into a nice, comforting dream.

“Sonic.”

He frowned. He was currently having a delightful dream about eating chili dogs while at the Chao Garden with Tails and Knuckles (something he would never admit to enjoying, but had actually quite liked the vibes of), and the annoying person calling his name in the distance, obnoxious and rude, was cramping his style. Couldn’t they see that he was busy and doing something incredibly important?! Seriously. It wasn't like he could go back anytime soon; Eggman's swarm of robots had blown the place to smithereens. Currently, it only existed in his dreams and memories. 

“Sonic.”

Around him, his dream of dancing Chao and his friends began to slip away, sifting through his fingertips like sand. Sonic tried to reach out and grab it, to pull himself back in, however, at the sound of his name being called yet a third time, he was forced to abandon the attempt as he drifted back into awareness.

“Sonic.”

His eyes flew open, just to find Shadow’s staring into his own, mere inches away.

With a yelp of surprise, Sonic flinched away, and his harsh and abrupt reaction caused Shadow to do the same, straightening to his full height as he stared down at Sonic with derision. Likely judging him for passing out yet again at one of their energy collisions, while he walked away conscious and unscathed.

Trying to ignore the shock that made his pulse race and skin tingle with adrenaline, Sonic sat up. “Oh God, what happened?” he groaned as he clutched at his head with his hand, feeling the beginnings of a headache begin to pound at his skull. Perhaps striking things with his body at full force wasn’t really good for his mental health. However, he didn’t have much time to ponder this, as he noticed that they were on the overlook from their first race, and that from up there, the town of Green Hills was visible. Or rather, it should have been visible, because right now, Sonic wasn’t able to make out much of anything in the valley below him. “Wait a second, where are the lights of the town?” He let out a gasp as a potential answer occurred to him. “Oh man, were they all abducted by aliens?! Come on guys, quite giving us good ones a bad rap! We’re trying to fit in here!” he exclaimed, shaking a fist towards the sky.

Beside him, Shadow placed his hands on his hips, the action barely visible in the dying sunlight as it slipped beneath the horizon. “It seems that in our collision, we did that thing again.”

Sonic gaped at him. “You mean the thing where we short out the power?! That thing?!”

Shadow nodded, and Sonic’s heart sank.

“In the other city, the power came back on almost immediately. I don’t know what’s wrong with this one.” Shadow let out a derisive huff. “Perhaps it’s due to the puny size.”

Ignoring the passive aggressive insult that was, for once, not directed towards him, Sonic couldn’t prevent the rise of panic that bubbled in the back of his throat. “Oh geez, the power’s not back on… how long have I been out? How long has it been like this?!”

Shadow shrugged.

“You mean you have no idea?! What have you been doing this whole time?!”

“I wasn’t counting the seconds,” he retorted. “Maybe a few minutes? I don’t know.”

Feeling some minor solace at the fact that he hadn’t passed out for a few hours, Sonic attempted to salvage the situation. “Okay, okay, this is fine! No big deal, no need to freak out!” While it might have seemed like Sonic was saying this to calm down Shadow, who appeared to be very unbothered and unimpressed by the whole conundrum, Sonic was absolutely saying it more for his own benefit. “I mean, maybe no one noticed! Right? We do live in a pretty small, rural town after all, so maybe these people aren’t as reliant on electricity and won’t realize that all the power is out. Some of the residents here are kind of primitive, because really, it’s not like—"

And right then, right as he was about to spout out some more justifying nonsense, he heard his name called out in the distance, carried by the wind and making his blood run cold. The syllables were long and drawn out, the sound of it bouncing and echoing against the walls of the mountains they found themselves surrounded by.

“Sonic!”

His ears flattened in trepidation and fear. It was honestly impressive, the fact that he was able to hear Tom yell out to him from this far away, however, the accusation and dare he say anger in his voice was enough to make a pit of dread curl in his stomach. “Oh no, I…” he began, having the full intent of explaining himself, before he heard his name called out in Tom’s furious voice once more. “Shadow, I really have to go, I— I’m sorry.”

And without waiting for a response, Sonic tore off in the direction of his house, away from Shadow and towards the trouble that awaited him.  

Chapter Text

Sonic made it home in less than a minute, zooming over the mountains and through the forest in an erratic, zig-zag pattern with blue electricity streaming behind him. He didn’t know how he was able to run so fast after his head-on collision with Shadow (something he really needed to stop doing if he wanted to avoid getting dumber than he already was), but still, he managed. Tom’s furious call had been more than enough to make him draw deep into his energy reserves.

In a way, though, he almost wished that he had taken a slower pace, taken the scenic route, or done anything to prolong his travel time, because as he found Tom standing right outside the house, he realized that he had no idea what to say.

And so, he did what he did best. Monologue.

“Heya, Tom! Nice, uh, flannel? You got there? Is that a new one? Because I don’t know if my eyes deceive me, but that is definitely a new flannel! I love that you don’t go outside of your comfort zone with what you wear and stick to the basics! A fashion icon, truly. I’m inspired.” Never mind the fact that Sonic literally wore the same gloves, socks, and shoes everyday… that was an unimportant detail.

Unfortunately for Sonic, his shmoozing did not seem to have an iota of an impact on softening the fury in Tom’s face. “Sonic Wachowski the Hedgehog,” he said sternly, and Sonic’s heart dropped as he heard his full name used. Not only did it sound incredibly stupid, but it was never a good sign. “You. Are. In.”

“So much trouble!” Maddie finished beside him, clearly not wanting to wait for Tom to say each word as its own complete sentence, and Sonic almost slapped a palm to his forehead and cursed as he realized that she, too, was standing there. He would have complimented her sweater and cardigan if he had noticed, because like Tom’s flannels, that was about the only thing she ever wore.

And so, quickly switching tactics as he realized that kissing up wasn’t going to get him anywhere, Sonic pointed a finger at each of them in indignation. “Whatever it is, you have no proof!”

“Um, what?” Tom said, Sonic’s hasty defense only having the effect of perplexing him for a brief moment before he got right back into business. “Yeah, we do. You’re about the only creature in existence capable of knocking out power to the entire county like this.”

Sonic wasn’t going to give in so easily. “Oh, come on, it could have been Knuckles!”

“Knuckles has been watching romantic comedy movies on the Hallmark Channel all afternoon. I don’t think it was him.”

“Yeah, he has a really strange fascination with love triangles,” Maddie supplied, before shaking her head vigorously. “You know what? No. We’re getting distracted.”

Sonic shrugged. Shifting blame to Knuckles had been worth a shot.

“What did I say about keeping your races cataclysmicless?!” Tom moaned, throwing a hand in the air as if to plea to the heavens you saw me try to warn him, I told him countless times, this whole incident is not my fault!

And he did have a point. He had said that to Sonic many, many times. “I was trying to break a new record!” Sonic protested meekly, the lie easy since in a way, the record that he spoke of could have technically been the tally of his race outcomes with Shadow.

“Yeah well, next time you try to break a new record, try to do it somewhere we, and other people don’t live!”

“Yeah, like North Dakota!”

“North Dakota, yes, that’s right!”

(Apologies to the approximately 800,000 people living in North Dakota, because according to the Wachowskis, you do not count as real people. The deepest, most sincere condolences).

“Okay, okay, geez, I got it! Message received,” Sonic relented, before clasping his hands together and rocking back and forth on the balls of his feet. Here he went. For all the marbles, to get out of whatever punishment they had in store for him. “So… uh… no hard feelings? Forgive and forget?”

As expected, it didn’t work. “Oh no you don’t,” Tom said with a firm look and an even firmer tone. “You are grounded. For every hour it takes us to get the power back on in Green Hills, you are grounded a week!”

Sonic’s eyes flew open. Those were some pretty high stakes, and not at all an equal measurement of time if you were to ask him. “And, um, how long has it been so far…?”

Maddie checked her watch. “One hour,” she said matter-of-factly, her response prompting Sonic to press his hands to his cheeks and pull down in dismay, exposing his lower eyelids as he did so.

“And the clock is ticking. Now if you’ll excuse me, I have to go call Wade and coach him through how to get the backup generator running,” Tom sighed, rubbing at his temples with his hand as he fished his phone out of his pocket with the other. “This might take a minute.”

“A minute? Try an hour,” Sonic quipped, unable to help himself despite the mountain of trouble he knew he was in and the fact that the weight of his punishment was in the hands of Wade, of all the people in the world. And based on Tom’s begrudging look of amusement and annoyance, Sonic knew that he found it kind of humorous despite the fact that Sonic was the one that caused the whole situation in the first place.

“Honestly, I’m thinking more like two,” Maddie commented, before turning to Sonic with her hands planted firmly on her hips. Sonic gulped. Tom might have been scary when he was mad, but Maddie? A different beast entirely, if she was provoked enough. “Now, part of being grounded, mister, is that you need to go straight up to your room!”

Sonic let out a groan. “But—”

“No buts, up to your room! Where all your toys, games, and comic books are waiting…” she said, before her posture slouched with in mild defeat. “Yeah, I should probably come up there at some point and confiscate all of those things. Once we get the power situation figured out.”

Feeling more than just a little chastised, because to be honest, the last time he had been chewed out this severely was when he had gotten caught eating Ozzy’s food as a midnight snack and effectively starving the dog, Sonic relented and turned to slink up to his room. He made sure to put on a show that he felt very, very bad about the whole thing, knowing that if he was able to pull off the kicked-puppy act successfully, he might get his sentence lifted by a week or two. (How did he know? Because it worked without fail every single time, that was how he knew.)

However, his moping and extreme display of guilt and shame were put to a stop as he ran into Tails at the base of the stairs, just out of view and earshot of Tom and Maddie with his hands clutching the other. He was cracking his knuckles, but not in a way that was meant to be intimidating, but rather, in anxiety. It was a nervous tic, Sonic had picked up over the years, that whenever Tails was perturbed, he would fiddle with his fingers.

He supposed there were worse habits than doing something that Tom and Maddie falsely claimed would give you arthritis in your knuckles, such as gambling, or smoking cigarettes, but he digressed. There was something bothering Tails, and based on the prior events of that evening, Sonic had a strong, sneaking suspicion that he wasn’t going to like what it was.

“Um, hey, buddy,” he greeted cautiously. “Getting kind of dark in here, huh? I wonder how that could have happened, heh-heh.”

He had known that his joke hadn’t been all that funny, but still, Tails didn’t laugh. “Sonic, um…” he started, before giving up and staring up at his friend with wide, baleful eyes.

Faltering in his attempt at boisterous comedy, Sonic didn’t like the look Tails’ face. It spelled trouble, more than what Sonic was already neck-deep in. If he wasn’t careful, this was going to make him drown. “Tails. Are you doing okay?”

Tails swallowed thickly as he attempted to speak again. “Sonic…” he began slowly, the words deliberate, as if he were worried that one single misspoken syllable would ruin whatever it was he was about to say. “My machine picked up on the blast of energy that caused the blackout, except….”

Sonic felt his heart plummet. He knew exactly where this was going, and yet, some fervent, delusional part of himself denied it profusely, holding on to some slim, nonexistent hope that Tails wasn’t about to assert what he thought he was. “Except what?”

“These energy readings… they don’t match anything that I know that you’re capable of.”

It wasn’t the first time they had embarked on this conversation, and so with a laugh and a wave of his hand, Sonic attempted to brush it off. “Oh come on, Tails, don’t insult me! Of course I’m capable of doing something like this, it’s how I got on G.U.N.’s radar in the first place. Remember when I shorted out the power while running around at the baseball diamond? Of course you remember, it’s how you found me, duh! Power outages are kind of my thing, I guess.” And with that, deeming the conversation to be more or less over, Sonic turned to walk away and up into his room, suddenly perfectly content to be grounded if it meant he could avoid this confrontation just a little longer.

Tails did not look remotely close to being convinced, holding up his device as if Sonic would somehow understand the garbled nonsense flashing on the screen. “Sonic, the only person capable of creating a signature like this is Shadow.”

Freezing in his tracks, Sonic slowly turned back around. Tails had only possessed to bring up the forbidden name once before. Hearing it again upon his lips, after so much time and tip-toeing around the topic, was jarring, to say the least. “Oh?” Sonic asked in a weak voice as he fully pivoted to face his friend, caught black-and-red handed.

Tails nodded emphatically. “The blackout to the town was a direct reaction to a strong, cataclysmic spike in power,” he explained as he pointed to the device. “And I recognize it because it was the same exact burst of energy and reaction that happened in Tokyo.”

Sonic attempted to brace his elbow against the display table conveniently placed beside him in a demonstration of nonchalance, however, knocked over the vase resting on top as he settled into the comically suspicious pose. Scrambling to catch the ceramic before it struck the floor, he abandoned the attempt to appear innocent as he straightened. “Oh, you, uh, don’t say?” he managed to squeeze out in a high-pitched voice, and with that, the last shred of attempting to play it cool went up in flames and disappeared in a puff of smoke.

“Yes. It was when you went after Shadow and the two of you fought, and your combined energies knocked out the power to the city.” Tails paused, lowering the device as he pinned Sonic with an intent, questioning look. “Sonic… were you fighting Shadow just now?”

Sonic hesitated, Tails’ verbiage choice making him stop to reflect on what exactly he had just been doing with Shadow, because it certainly wasn’t fighting. He thought of the banter, the jokes, the physical intimacy, and how even though it was quite the extreme display of violence they had both engaged in, fundamentally, there had been no malicious motivations. No intent to harm, the whole thing being nothing more than a friendly competition. “Um, I wouldn’t say fighting…” he eventually said, before clapping his hands over his mouth and widening his eyes as he realized what he had inadvertently admitted to.

Tails’ eyes widened to a similar circumference, as if he didn’t believe that Sonic had candidly confessed to such an insane, earth-shattering thing. After all, he had barely had to work for it; there had been no word play or clever verbal maneuverings, just a simple question that Sonic had answered earnestly despite himself. “You mean to say that Shadow is alive?!” he squeaked, his voice cracking on the last word.

And the volume was not something Sonic could handle at the moment. Hell, this conversation was not something he could handle at the moment, spiraling out of control in a way he didn’t think he was capable of salvaging. So, without thinking, he surged forward and clasped his hands around Tails’ mouth before he could say anything more and attract the attention of the rest of the family before Sonic was ready to sit everyone down and tell them the truth under his own terms and conditions.

“No, I mean yes, ack, listen, it’s complicated,” he hissed, knowing full well that it wasn’t all that complicated and he was just trying to downplay the severity of his falsehoods. Shadow had survived, Sonic was friends with Shadow, and that’s all there was to it. End of story.

Tails looked like he had something he wanted to say, and sensing that he wasn’t going to yell out and alert everyone, Sonic lowered his hands from his mouth and allowed him to do speak. Tentatively, though, with his hands remaining poised at his side in case Tails would do something unpredictable and wild.

However, he didn’t. “Sonic…” he said with a confused furrowing of his brows, his voice a soft hush in the hallway, “…what’s going on?”

For a brief moment, Sonic considered lying yet again, his mind racing to come up with something believable to say, however, he abandoned the endeavor as he caught Tails’ vulnerable gaze. He couldn’t lie. Not any longer. This whole debacle had been going on for far too long; it was time for him to finally stop being deceitful and be honest with his best friend. It was what Tails deserved, and yet, it still didn't make it any easier for Sonic to do. “I’ve been meaning to tell you guys,” he finally said, “and I’ll explain eventually, I just… can’t right now.”

And with that, he turned to go up to his room.

Tails’ voice sounded out behind him. “When?”

“After dinner,” Sonic said sullenly, sealing his fate and solidifying the fact that his grounding sentence was about to be exponentially increased. And then pausing, he turned back to look down at his best friend, to offer him one last apology until he sequestered himself in the attic until it was time to confess the whole truth. “Tails… I’m sorry.”

Not wanting to stay to see the hurt expression on his friends’ face, knowing that the distrust and betrayal would be more than enough to internally destroy him, and he needed some time to gather his thoughts and prepare himself for this conversation, damnit, Sonic turned away with a great deal of effort and walked up the stairs.

Surprisingly, Tails didn’t follow him. Probably because he had taken Sonic’s promise at face value, even though he had done absolutely nothing to be deserving of that trust. And with that, scaling the stairs, Sonic closed the trap door to his room, flopped on his bed, and screamed into his pillow.

Or rather, a very manly yell. Screams were a girly thing, and his expression of frustration, guttural and raw that it was, was definitely not girly.

In a way, despite his distress about his impending doom, he felt relieved. It was time. It was finally time to sit everyone down and do it. And even though it hadn’t happened yet, the mere thought of it occurring within the next few hours was enough to feel as though some of the weight pressing down on his shoulders was lifting. And it felt… kind of nice, in a way. To know that his secret had been more or less shared with at least one person. Perhaps it would feel even better when everyone knew?

It was long overdue. Thinking of the vulnerability on Tails' face once more, the image flashing behind his eyes as his face remained pressed into his pillow, Sonic felt a pang of guilt. He had to tell them all, if only to make things right. Honesty would be the only way to mend the broken trust he knew would canyon between them all at the revelation. 

Sonic’s musings were cut short as he heard a familiar sound and a flash of light shined in his peripheral vision, and lifting his head from his pillow, he was not at all expecting to find Shadow the Hedgehog, of all people in the world, standing right there, right in the center of his room.

“Shadow?!” he exclaimed, his eyes flying wide and his jaw dropping as he stared at his unexpected visitor. “What are you doing here?!”

Shadow didn’t say anything, simply looked around the room with a displeased curl of his lips as he took it all in, before refocusing his sharp attention on Sonic. He looked so out of place in a setting that wasn’t his cave or the forest, standing there with his characteristic glower on his face, and above all else, there was something off about him. Something unsettling that went beyond the fact that he hadn’t yet said anything.

Sonic didn’t bother to pause and examine what that something that wasn’t quite right might be, instead pushing himself off from his bed with a frantic motion of his arms. “Shadow, why are you… you can’t be here! They might come up here and see—”

Sonic was cut off as Shadow vanished in a flash of blinding light, and before he had the chance to react and realize that danger, danger, he was in danger!, Shadow reappeared in front of him and slammed him against the wall with the full weight of his body.

“Shadow, agh, what the heck, man!” Sonic gasped as he felt himself lifted off the ground and pinned against the wall by a fistful of his chest fur, helplessly kicking his feet in a futile and desperate attempt to find purchase on the distant floor.

“When were you going to tell me about this?!” he demanded in a sharp, low hiss, and Sonic couldn’t prevent the gasp that escaped his lips as Shadow held up a thin stack of papers in the hand that wasn’t currently holding Sonic up and in a compromising position.

Oh crap. Oh crap crap crap crap crap, that was the summarized legal file from G.U.N., Sonic had completely forgotten about it and left it behind at Shadow’s cave, and how could he have possibly forgotten about such a major detail?! He was an idiot, a downright idiot, and now Shadow….

He paused as he refocused his spiraling monologue onto the hedgehog before him, and could do nothing more than swallow thickly as he found two red, seething eyes glare at him with more anger and fury than he had ever before seen them display.

And now, Shadow was actually going to murder him. Sonic (Wachowski) the Hedgehog was so, so dead.

Welp, it had been a good run. He had crossed off most of the items on his ever-growing bucket list over the years, however there were a few things he was going to have to make his peace with not ever completing: flipping an egg without a spatula and a simple flick of the pan, defeating Eggman for a fourth time, finding a long-lasting romantic connection as an alien hedgehog freak in a planet full of normies, learning how to do the default dance from Fortnite, buying that replacement picture frame for Ozzy—

“Answer me!” Shadow snarled, and Sonic couldn’t prevent the wince that crossed his face at the vitriol in Shadow’s tone.

Sonic opened his mouth to speak, however, no words came out, no matter how hard he willed them to gurgle to the back of his throat and out his lips. For once, what was a very rare occurrence for him, Sonic was rendered absolutely speechless. He had nothing to say.

And in the absence of a coherent response, Shadow continued to spit venom in his face, tightening his hold on Sonic’s fur and hoisting him up higher against the wall. “Do you have any idea the severity of the threat G.U.N. poses?! What they will do to you?!” His nose crinkled in wrath as he crumpled up the file in his hand and shook it in Sonic’s face. “What this means for both of us?!”

Sonic gasped, finally able to find his bearings and the will to speak as Shadow’s threatening demeanor worsened. “Shadow, I’m sorry, I was going to tell you, I just—”

“When?!” Shadow roared, and before Sonic had the chance to respond, Shadow lifted him up from off the wall and slammed him down onto his bed, Sonic not even having the chance to bounce up and off the squishy mattress as Shadow descended upon him and pinned him in place. Straddling him to keep his legs down and squeezing Sonic’s arms against his body with his thighs, Shadow placed his hands on Sonic’s collarbone to prevent him from getting up. Sonic found himself rendered helpless once again, though slightly more comfortable, and distantly, in the back of his mind, he was thankful that Shadow had the foresight to not bodycheck him to the floor, knowing that the thunderous thump would have been more than enough to attract the attention of any unwanted visitors downstairs.

Reorienting himself from the change in scenery to glare defiantly up at his assailant, Sonic quickly bit out a reply before Shadow could continue to pummel him. “Today! After our race!” he hissed in pain as Shadow placed an enormous amount of pressure on his collarbones. “I was going to tell you today, but the power in the town went out, and so I forgot, and—”

“Pathetic excuses,” Shadow growled in his face, leaning in so that their noses were nearly touching. However, there was nothing thrilling about the proximity, because in the current moment, Sonic was downright terrified. “How long have you known about this?!”

Now there was a question he didn’t want to answer. Not with Shadow in such a state of rage. “I don’t …” he stammered, and at a squeeze from Shadow’s thumbs right on the pressure point at the base of his neck, he gave in. “Okay fine! A few weeks now.”

“And you never thought to tell me?!”

“I did, I did! I just didn’t know how to!” he cried out in agony. “Shadow, I’m sorry. I’m sorry! I just… I didn’t want to scare you, I didn’t want you to leave, not when we were just becoming friends!”

At this, some of the fury crackling crimson in Shadow’s eyes abated as he paused and searched Sonic’s face. And finding nothing other than a genuine desperation for Shadow to believe that he had possessed no ill-intentions, no secret plots to get him recaptured by G.U.N., he released his hold and sat back so that the fur on their muzzles was no longer brushing.

“Enough of this,” he grumbled, swinging his leg over and getting off Sonic, leaving him in a daze on the bed. “We need to leave. Now.”

The weight of Shadow’s words was enough to get Sonic to sit up despite the aches from his unceremonious beatdown as he looked at Shadow incredulously. “Wait, hold on, what do you mean ‘leave?’” he exclaimed, forcing himself to get up to follow where Shadow had walked away from him. “And hold on again, what do you mean ‘we?!’”

At this, Shadow spun around, clamping his hands down onto Sonic’s shoulders hard, anchoring him in place and making him swallow any additional protests that had been positioned on his tongue.

“You and me. We’re the ones they want. So we need to go, before they come here and find us.”

He released his grip, the lack of contact granting Sonic the ability to ask more questions. “Shadow, what are you—”

“I was their property once. You really think they won’t want me back again?!” he snarled, and Sonic balked at the sheer fury in the display, how his fangs glinted in the light in something that wasn’t quite aggression, but more like defense. Like a scared, cornered animal. “I know firsthand what it’s like being locked up in their base, experimented on, seen like a thing, used for my power. Trust me. You don’t want to this to happen to you.”

Recovering, Sonic lifted up his hands in surrender. “No, listen, I understand! I’m not exactly keen on being owned either,” he replied. “But Shadow, I can’t just leave my friends and family behind! That’s not… that’s not right!”

“They’ll manage just fine without you.”

“What?!” he exclaimed, his voice a mix between indignation and shock. “But Knuckles and Tails, they’re—”

“In the document, yes, but not nearly in as much danger as you are. I read it, Sonic, and even though it was written for a five-year-old to read, it was very clear. They want to make you government property, not them. Your friends will be fine. They would only slow us down. You’re the one who’s in trouble.”

“But…” Sonic started, before giving up in a huff and pausing to recollect his thoughts. “But I just got this family! I’m not just going to abandon them, not after everything we’ve been through!” He let out a sigh, running a distressed hand through his quills. “Not after how hard I’ve fought to keep them.”

His attempt to tug at Shadow’s heartstrings, to appeal to any sliver of sentimentality he may have possessed failed miserably as Shadow simply rolled his eyes in disgust. “It won’t matter whether or not you have a family if G.U.N. takes you, don’t you get it? They will understand. It’s for your own good.”

“And so, running away is your idea of what’s good for me?”

Shadow pinned him with a hard expression, one that was intense, determined, and unlike anything Sonic had ever seen on his face before. Not when they had raced, not when they had fought, not even when they had transformed into their Super Forms to save the world. “Yes.”

And to this, Sonic shook his head. “I don’t understand,” he said. “You don’t want to stay and fight? Shadow, we could easily challenge them, together! The four of us! They won’t stand a chance if we all work as a team!”

“No. I’m not sticking around long enough to fight. And neither should you.”

“Wait, so that’s just it? You’re just going to leave? Just like that?”

“Yes. And you’re coming with me. We don’t have much time. They’re probably on their way right now as we speak, so it’s in our best interest to—”

“I don’t get it,” Sonic interjected, unable to allow Shadow to complete his sentence as he cut him off. “Why are you so adamant on running? When they don’t stand a chance against us, when we’re working together? Why don’t you—”

"Because I’m not going to let G.U.N. take anybody else away from me!” Shadow practically shouted in his face, before realizing how abrupt and reckless his outburst had been and withdrew, a frustrated steepling of his fingers pressing into his brow line. There was a long moment that stretched out between them, the echoes of Shadow’s words ringing in Sonic’s skull in wake of the silence that settled over the room. And then, taking a deep breath, he continued. “I’ve already lost the most important person in my life to these people. I’m not… I’m not going to let them take another.”

“Shadow…” Sonic said, not really knowing what to say to the vulnerable confession and instead opting to try to comfort him. “I’ll be fine! It'll be fine. I’ve faced tougher things before! And look, I’m still in one piece, I’m still here!” His reassurances were weak even to his own ears, and Sonic knew the moment that he verbalized them that they wouldn’t work to change Shadow’s mind.

Because giving him a glance of unease, Shadow didn’t seem convinced. “Yeah, well, I don’t want to risk it.” He shook his head. “I can’t go through that again. I just can’t do it, Sonic.”

His name was a rare thing to be heard from Shadow’s mouth. Yeah, sure, it happened here and there, but now? With the thick emotion coloring his tone, making it so that the words were barely audible and intelligible? It was enough to send a prickle down his spine and render him mute as he could do little more than stare, his lips slightly parted as he drank in the way that Shadow stood before him.

A thought occurred to him. After everything they had been through together, the bond they had forged over the past few weeks… was this really the last time he was going to see Shadow? Was fate really so cruel to bring them together just to rip them apart again, just like that? Sonic had already suffered enough during the period of time that he had thought Shadow to be dead after the Eclipse Cannon, and that was how he had felt when he had barely known the guy. But now, with this new, fledgling bond that had been nurtured between them, the very thought of never seeing him again, of losing him, was just about enough to make his heart feel like it was tearing down the middle.

And with that, he realized that was how Shadow was feeling right at this very instant. His face contorted in pain, in desperation for Sonic to listen and go with him, because he too was scared that this would be the last time he would ever see Sonic. Whether it be because he would be forced to leave without him, or because G.U.N. would do something irreparable and take him away forever.

Sonic took a step towards him. It was a small, tentative thing, but it spoke louder than any words he could have mustered up in that moment. Shadow was right. G.U.N. was dangerous. They had done far worse to achieve what they wanted, and Sonic would be a fool to think that they would play by the rules when he was involved. Not when Sonic was a super-powered alien who himself rarely adhered to the playbook. Shadow was correct; he, and by extension, both of them, were in terrible, terrible danger.

Shadow’s gaze softened as he apprehended Sonic’s step, shifting into something of relief as he realized that his demands and justifications had gotten through to him. “Please,” he breathed, any semblance of his frustrations and anger disappearing as it was replaced with pure, unrestrained desperation. “Please, Sonic. Come with me.”

He held out a hand, the palm facing the stars and his fingers curled in anticipation for Sonic to lace them into his own. For Sonic to accept and for Shadow to whisk them away, far away from Green Hills, to a place that would be safe with just the two of them together, against G.U.N. Against the world. And God, was such a thing tempting to Sonic, his own hand lifting up in a tentative gesture of wanting to accept, but uncertainty and hesitation holding him back. Because he knew that the moment that he rested his hand in Shadow’s own, his fate would be sealed, and he would have to leave his friends and family behind forever.

Shadow gazed at him expectantly, his fingers flexing and flaring as he waited, before saying something that shattered Sonic’s soul into a million pieces in such a way that he didn’t know if he would be able to ever fully recover and glue the tiny little shards back together.

“Sonic. I need you.”

Biting at his lip, Sonic lowered his hand so that it was mere inches from Shadow’s, drawing so tantalizingly close that he could swear he could feel the ghost of their gloves brushing together. However, at the last moment, before he fully accepted, his mind seized control of his body and he froze. This was wrong. Tom and Maddie… after everything they had done for him, everything they had sacrificed… he couldn’t just leave them like this. No note, no goodbye… it wasn’t right. And more importantly, Sonic didn’t want to do it.

Shadow frowned as Sonic withdrew his hand, the expression perplexed before transitioning into one of anger as Sonic spoke. “Shadow, I can’t. I can’t do it.” He took a shaky breath, though the exact culprit of the waver in his voice was uncertain. “I can’t leave my family behind. I can’t leave my home. I… I’m sorry, Shadow. I can’t go with you.”

Shadow’s hand lowered to his side in a clenched fist, and his teeth bared in a snarl. “You fool,” he seethed. “You absolute imbecile. Can’t you see that I’m trying to help you?!”

“I know, I know!” Sonic cried out in exasperation. “But is this really the only way? Is this really all we can do? Is run away?”

Shadow’s frown deepened in resolution. “Yes.”

“Shadow…” Sonic begged, his pleading deplorable and pathetic and the only thing he could think to do at the moment. “These can’t be the only two options.”

As was anticipated, Shadow ignored the anguished display. “I’m giving you a choice. You either join me, or stay behind. Either way, I am leaving. Consider this your final offer.”

Sonic grimaced. “Shadow, please don’t go, I just—” Sonic didn’t know what he had been about to say, whether it be I need more time or I need to say goodbye before I come or I can’t lose you again, but whatever it was, he would never know. Because right at that moment, right beneath their feet, there came a pounding on the door, frantic and loud and harried.

It sliced through the tension as both of them gasped sharply and jumped in startlement. They turned to stare at the door at their feet, Sonic in horror and Shadow in vicious distrust. And then, his feet glued to the ground and his fingers splayed in anxiety, Sonic’s body remained unmoving as his eyes darted up to meet Shadow’s, who glared back at him.

Sonic licked his lips. “Uh, who is it?” he called out, his eyes never leaving Shadow’s.

“Sonic, are you up there? There’s, uh, something we need to talk about! Please?”

Panic gripped at his heart. Tails. Quite possibly one of the worst people to interrupt, though to be fair, Sonic wasn’t entirely sure if any of the alternatives, Tom, Maddie, or Knuckles, would be that much of an improvement. “Um, can it wait a sec? I’m a little busy at the moment!”

“This is urgent, Sonic, we kind of need to talk about it now!”

“Hold on just a minute!” Sonic called before he lowered his voice in a hushed whisper to address Shadow.  “Please don’t leave, you don’t have to do this.”

His eyes flickering down to the door before lifting to meet Sonic’s once more, he was distraught to find the decision, the determination in Shadow’s hardened gaze. “It’s time for me to go.”

“Shadow, please, wait.”

Shadow straightened from his defensive posture, turning his back to Sonic as he shook his head in dismay, disgust, and disappointment. “Goodbye, Sonic,” he said, and with that, disappeared in a flash of Chaos Energy as he teleported away.

Something squeezed hard in Sonic’s chest as he reached out a hand in a futile effort to get him to stay, to bring him back, his eyes welling up with thick tears despite every intent to not cry as Shadow vanished right before him. And as he stood there, alone with an ache in his chest he wished that he could reach in an soothe with a gentle caress, he neglected to respond as Tails continually began to call out his name from the other side of the door until he finally gave up and entered anyways.

Sonic kept his back to him as he wiped a phantom tear from his eye. They hadn’t spilled, but they had gotten pretty damn close, and the last thing he needed at the moment was for Tails to ask why he was alone in his room crying, because not only was that super lame and literally not allowed for his character, but he didn’t think that he would be able to concoct a believable explanation, not with the way his mind felt hollow and empty save for the final image of Shadow emblazoned behind his eyes.

“Um, Sonic? Are you… okay?”

Squaring his shoulders and taking a deep breath to steel himself, Sonic spun around, his hands on his hips and as bright of a smile that he could conjure stretching across his face. “Yep, of course I am buddy! I’m doing great! I thought I said that I would talk to you guys about what’s been going on with you-know-who after dinner though?”

Tails looked like he didn’t quite believe him, his eyes narrowing in speculation for a moment before he shook his head. “This is actually about something different, believe it or not. We need you to come downstairs now, even though you’re technically grounded.”

Sonic’s smile, which was already weak to begin with, faltered. If it wasn’t about Shadow, then what else could possess this much urgency? “What’s going on?”

Without hesitation, Tails plowed forward to deliver his message. And the words he said next were so shocking, so stunning, that they effectively wiped the residual, lingering image of Shadow from Sonic’s brain as he realized that at the moment, he had a far larger problem on his hands.

“It’s G.U.N. They’re here. Right now.”

Chapter Text

Sonic blinked. And then he blinked again.

And with that, those two consecutive blinks reflecting the fact that his mind had come to a screeching, screaming halt, he finally processed what Tails had just said to him.

“G.U.N. is here? Now? Why?!”

Tails gave him a mildly dry look, one that wasn’t unlike the time that those two random girls in the Chao Garden had compared him to Detective Pikachu. Which hadn’t been a completely unfair comparison, despite the way it had been negatively received as Knuckles had piled on to the unintentional insult with his goading and mocking. “I mean, they didn’t officially say, though if I had to make an educated guess, it probably has something to do with you knocking all the power out.”

If the circumstances had been different, Sonic would have protested and claimed that it hadn't been his fault, if only for the sake of being silly. He bypassed that charade, though, as he threw his hands up in the air. “Oh, come on. I do that all the time! What makes this any different?!”

Tails arched a brow. “I think we both know why this situation is a little different.”

Shadow was the unspoken component here, but instead of acknowledging it and reopening the aching wound in his chest that was metaphorically still bleeding quite profusely, Sonic ran a hand through his quills as he felt a wave of illness wash over him and clench at his gut. “They weren’t supposed to come for another week! Why are they here early?!” And with that, the hand threaded through his fur paused as he realized something; with his big mouth, he had admitted yet another bombshell for the second time that evening. “Oh no. Did I just accidentally confess something else to you?!”

Fortunately for him, though, Tails shook his head. “No, actually, Tom sat Knuckles and I down the other day and, how shall I say, caught us up to speed with the whole G.U.N. problem.”

Letting out a noise of relief, Sonic just about collapsed to the floor. “Oh thank God,” he muttered dramatically, before gathering himself and asking cautiously, “And how did that go?”

“I mean, other than the obvious bombshell that is G.U.N. wanting to own you and basically have free access to Knuckles and I for their dirty work? About as well as you would expect.” Tails snorted. “And by that, I mean to say that I understood the file almost immediately and we had to take an extra hour to explain to Knuckles what was going on and why he couldn’t just punch them all in the face when they came back.”

“That sounds like Knuckles,” Sonic said, and Tails nodded in agreement. “But anyways, G.U.N. is actually here? And they’re downstairs? Right now?”

Tails let out an exhausted sigh, one that was lined with stress and uncertainty.  “Unfortunately. Tom and Maddie are… to put it nicely… entertaining them right now.”

“Well, if they keep that up for long enough, G.U.N. might just leave on their own accord,” Sonic quipped despite himself and the severity of the situation. He really couldn’t help but take a shot at Tom’s overeager social skills at even the worst of times. “But fine. Let’s go. Don’t want to leave them to all the fun, now do we?”

He began to step down, hoping that Tails hadn’t noticed how forced his pep was as his mind still echoed with the residue of Shadow’s hasty and devastating departure, but before he could do so, Tails leapt up from where he sat on the stairs and closed the trapdoor behind him.

“Uh, Tails? Didn’t you just basically tell me that G.U.N. is being held hostage by Tom and Maddie right now? Shouldn’t we go, like, help them, or something?”

Tails ignored Sonic’s attempts to lighten the mood as he clamped his hands down on Sonic’s upper arms, rooting him in place and capturing his full, undivided attention, Shadow be damned. “Listen to me, Sonic,” he said with a fervent glint in his eyes that immediately evaporated any lingering desires Sonic possessed to say something in jest. “I need you to promise me something. Please.”

Sonic glanced towards the grip that held him place, Tails’ gloves wrapped around his arms, before looking back towards his friend with confusion. “Yeah, anything Tails. What is it?”

“If things somehow go… bad… with G.U.N….” Tails swallowed thickly, his throat bobbing as he took a moment to compose himself before continuing to speak. “I need you to run as far away from here as you can.”

Sonic simply stared at him. Because whatever he had expected Tails to say, it certainly hadn’t been that. “What? Why would I do that?”

“Sonic. You’re not safe here with G.U.N. If they make an attempt to take you away from us, then you need to leave.”

“Tails, I’m not going to leave you guys behind.”

His friend let out a sound of frustration. “Sonic, Tom told Knuckles and I everything in those legal documents. Everything. Knuckles and I… we’ll be fine.” However, even as he spoke in what Sonic assumed to be the most reassuring tone he could muster, he could tell that Tails was uncertain. That even though he was suggesting that Sonic run, he didn’t want it to happen.

“And how do you know that you’ll be fine?” Sonic countered. Tails was being ridiculous, and he was growing tired of people telling him to flee like some sniveling coward. “That’s the thing, you don’t know that. So why would I—”

Tails cut him off as he squeezed Sonic’s arms so tightly that it may as well have clinched his blood circulation, his tone and demeanor sharper and more resolved than Sonic had ever seen him be. Some sentimental, core part of him was proud of his friend’s growth, and perhaps he would have expressed this if his mind wasn’t so preoccupied with the threat that was waiting just downstairs. “If something happens, and there is an opportunity that presents itself for you to leave,” Tails said firmly, his fingernails curling into Sonic’s skin through the thick fabric of his gloves as he spoke, “I need you to promise me that you’ll take it.”

His request was enough to make Sonic pause in his protests. The look that Tails gave him, the one that was persistent and knowing didn’t sit right with him. The way he had placed emphasis on the word ‘opportunity,’  like there was something he wasn’t sharing, but was desperately hoping that Sonic would pick up on and understand. Had he… heard the entire conversation with Shadow? Had he listened to his secret friend beg and plead for Sonic to run away with him just moments earlier?

Sonic shook his head, freeing himself of the thought. Even if Tails had, it didn’t matter. Sonic had already made his choice, and Shadow his. He had said his goodbye and left. If Sonic had to wager a guess, Shadow was probably long gone by now, not just out of the town, county, or state, but rather, the entire country (which truthfully wasn’t saying much since they weren’t all that far from the Canadian border, but he digressed).

The point was, Shadow had left and wasn’t coming back. Whatever Tails was trying to allude to, and whatever he thought he knew, was pointless.

In his silence and lack of a response, Tails shook Sonic briefly, recapturing his attention with the brusque action and the words that followed. “Sonic. Please. Promise me.”

The desperation, the plea in Tails’ voice reminded him too much of Shadow. How he had begged him just moments ago with the same ardent intensity to do something so absurdly out of Sonic’s character, that he could barely consider it in the moment and was now left with nothing but sorrow and regret. And not wanting to let down another friend in his life down, unable to do it for a second time that evening, Sonic screwed his eyes shut and let out a defeated sigh.

“I don’t want to, Tails. And I’ll fight before I even think about running, but fine.” His eyelids relaxed, and though they remained closed, the crinkles at the corners of his eyes disappeared as he accepted what Tails proposed he do. “I’ll consider it.”

Sonic’s eyes flew open as he felt something wrap around his body, and looking down in shock, he was surprised to see Tails envelop him in a tight embrace. “I don’t want to see you go,” he murmured into his chest fur. “But I don’t want them to take you, either.”

Those words broke something already shattered within Sonic’s soul, though this time, he was able to blink the subsequent tears away with more ease than he had with Shadow. Geez. He was going to need a vacation to Hawaii (preferably without a lame wedding or an avalanche to crash it) or at the very least, a warm, candlelit bubble bath after this. Sonic didn’t think he had ever felt this drastic of a rollercoaster of emotions before in his entire life, and that was even including the hours of his time he had wasted watching La Última Pasión. But then again, that show was kind of corny, so the entire comparison was kind of obsolete.

Anyways. It took him a moment to gather himself, but he finally managed to encircle his arms around Tails in a reciprocal embrace, the gesture delayed not because of Sonic’s hesitation to display affection, but because of the time he needed to wrangle his emotions under control and accept the realization that this might be the last time he would be able to hug Tails like this, potentially forever.

He mentally shook himself. He was allowing Shadow’s melodrama and overall pessimism to taint his attitude. Sonic was going to be fine, because he always was fine. Because seriously, when was the last time he had genuinely, truly lost? That’s right. Never. And it wasn’t about to start here or now.

Sonic allowed the hug to extend for a few long moments more, before finally pulling away to look down at Tails with a tired smile. “Well, we can’t waste the entire chapter chatting away up here, huh? Word count’s a-wasting. What do you say we head downstairs and see what they want with us?”

Tails let out a small little sniffle, but nodded. The festering guilt that had suffered within him the entire evening intensified at the strong degree of care his friend displayed, and it was times like these that he didn’t know what he done to deserve such a devoted support system, not after he had spent so much of his life alone and isolated in the forest. And now, since he had rejected Shadow’s offer to elope, he couldn’t help but think about how his new friend would go back to living that cold, lonely, and depressing life Sonic had once known all too well.

Sonic mentally slapped himself across the face. He had to stop thinking about Shadow. They had each made their own respective choices; Sonic to stay, him to leave. They would have to deal with the consequences of their actions, and if Sonic’s was being taking into custody by G.U.N. and Shadow’s was living a life of solitude, then so be it. That was what each of them had chosen.

Shadow and Tails’ respective commands for him to run dredged up an old memory, and as he walked down the ladder, he couldn’t help but think of Longclaw, his conversations with his two friends being oddly reminiscent of what some of her final words to Sonic had been, right before he had traveled to Earth.

You have a power unlike anything that I have ever seen. And that means that someone will always want it.

Sonic stepped off the bottom of the stairs and waited for Tails to step off alongside him before folding the ladder up and tucking the trapdoor back up and away.

The only way to stay safe is to stay hidden.

Tails looked up at him with glassy, vulnerable eyes. Sonic felt a lump in his throat at the regard he saw displayed on his friend’s face, and was able to do little more to comfort him than extend a wordless nod.  And with that, they began to walk down the hallway, each step taking them closer to the living room where Sonic knew that his destiny waited, and the current chapter of his life would end and a new one would begin… literally.

Never stop running.

Longclaw’s words haunted him, and yet, was that really it? After all that he had gone through to carve out a life on Earth, all the fighting he had done to keep Green Hills as his home and the Wachowskis as his family? Was running away really the best option for him?

Sonic didn’t know if he had the answer to that. And unfortunately for him, he was out of time to ponder it much longer.

As they came upon the living room and Sonic caught sight of the dismal scene, the first thing he noticed was Tom, Maddie, and Knuckles. They curiously were not sitting on the couch and were instead standing, looking very awkward and uncomfortable with the sheer amount of people (that frankly didn’t belong there) standing in their living room.

Of course, the second thing he noticed was Director Rockwell, accompanied with what had to be a dozen G.U.N. soldiers, though it was difficult to sit down and count them all out, not that Sonic would really want to anyways.  It was dark, the power outage clearly not having been resolved yet (likely thanks to Wade’s impressive levels of incompetence), however, there were portable lights set up outside, shining blinding beams that filtered through the windows from the yard. It reminded Sonic of stadium lights or the ones surrounding the baseball diamond, the harshness casting sharp shadows across everyone’s faces and creating what could only be described as a rather hostile environment.

Everything about it screamed danger, and as a result, Sonic couldn’t prevent the way his hackles raised, his quills flaring in primal defense.

Determined to not let his wariness show in his face, words, or body language, though, he fought to swallow down the rising panic that threatened to choke him, forcing himself to clench his jaw and stare the threat in the face.

“Where is he.”

Director Rockwell was quick, beating him to the punch before he had the chance to say a snappy, sarcastic greeting. Which was a shame, but wouldn’t prevent him from utilizing his obnoxious charm in his response. “Where is who?” He allowed a second to pass for full comedic effect, before shoving a thumb over his shoulder. “Oh, are you talking about Tails? Why, he’s right behind me! Say hi, Tails!”

Despite himself, Tails gave a very meek wave and a meeker “Um, hello?” that he somehow managed to squeak out, sounding very timid probably due to the number of armed soldiers training their guns on him as Sonic unceremoniously shifted the attention to him.

And at this idiotic display, Director Rockwell rolled her eyes. “Don’t play coy with me. Project Shadow. We know that he’s here. Where is he.”

Sonic decided that he was, in fact, going to keep playing coy as he smacked his lips derisively. “First name ‘Project,’ last name ‘Shadow?’ Sorry, not really ringing a bell, I’ve never heard of anyone with that name, and for good reason. It kind of sucks.”

“I’m not in the mood for your games.” She lifted her chin in disdain, staring down at Sonic over the tip of her nose. “We picked up on a surge of Chaos Energy that only he is capable of, right here in Green Hills. We know that he’s here. Where is he?”

“Hold on,” Tom said, stepping forward and earning himself a piercing, distrustful side eye from Director Rockwell. “Are you talking about the little black and red guy? Looks kind of like Sonic? Yeah, well, hate to break this to you, but none of us have seen him around. We have no idea what you’re talking about.” He motioned towards the door with a tilt of his head. “So if you don’t mind kindly leaving the way you came, preferably without shattering any of our windows—”

He was intercepted from his cheeky dismissal by a huff from Rockwell. “Well, just because you don’t know where he is, doesn’t mean that they don’t,” she asserted with a wide, sweeping gesture towards Tails, Knuckles, and Sonic.  

“Ugh, you want to do this? Fine, we can do this,” Tom muttered. Letting out a grunt of discontent, he turned to where Knuckles stood at his right. “Knuckles, have you seen an angry black and red hedgehog running around here recently?”

“I don’t know. I am color blind.”

Tom sighed before settling into a crouch and holding up a hand to whisper over to Knuckles in a voice that wasn’t all that quiet, since literally everyone in the room could still hear him speak. “Hey, buddy, just so you know, the answer to that was ‘no, I haven’t seen him around.’ Should we try it again?”

Knuckles nodded eagerly, accepting the direction with surprisingly little pushback. “No, I haven’t seen him around. Should we try that again?” he recited faithfully and not unlike a robot, and overall not painting a very convincing picture, which was ridiculous because for all intents and purposes, he had no idea that Shadow was alive, much less in Green Hills.

Tom pinched the bridge of his nose between his fingers. “I swear to God,”  he mumbled to himself, before perking up and turning to Tails. “What about you, Tails? Have you seen Shadow around?”

Tails stiffened at the question; if it wasn’t obvious at this point, he didn’t do well in the spotlight. “Who, me?” he asked timorously, pointing a finger towards himself as his eyelids flew open. Tom nodded in encouragement, which only made him let out a nervous, high-pitched laugh. “Oh, Shadow? That guy? I mean, I haven’t seen him, no?”

Of course, the implication and semi-clever wordplay here was that while Tails hadn’t necessarily seen Shadow, he certainly knew that he was alive and in Green Hills, but then again, since he hadn’t been directly asked that, he was going to keep things simple. So no, thank you for asking, but he actually hadn’t seen Shadow, not with his own two eyes at least.

And with that, both answers towards Shadow’s absence being rather unconvincing and pitiful, Tom turned to Sonic. All pressure was on him, which was unfortunate because he was a horrible liar and unluckily for him, had not only seen Shadow, but was rather well acquainted with him.

“Sonic?”

There was something in Tom’s voice that hadn’t been present when he had addressed Knuckles and Tails, an edge of suspicion, of warning. And his eyes flitting to meet his dad’s, their gazes locking, Sonic could see the sternness in his gaze and the question that pinned him in place. The one that was uncertain and was asking Sonic not to prove a point to Director Rockwell, but because he too genuinely wanted to know.

Sonic still had every intent to tell him, of course. With that being said, this was quite possibly the absolute worst setting to do it in, and so with a squaring of his shoulders and a lowering of his brow, he declared, “No. I haven’t seen him.”

For once, his lie was resolute and spoken with such conviction, it was nothing but believable. However, despite the major accomplishment that it was, it still wasn’t enough to dissuade their unwanted visitors.

“You do realize that we don’t believe you, right?” Director Rockwell said with a shake of her head, clearly unimpressed by the Wachowski’s display of denial. “He’s the only being capable of creating an energy spike of this specific caliber.”

“Why does nobody think that I’m capable of doing something like that?” Sonic griped, turning to address the G.U.N. soldiers as if they would respond or even have an opinion on the matter. As was previously established, they were capable of little more than incoherent grunts and shooting their weapons; certainly nothing that involved critical thought. “Like seriously. At this point it’s just insulting.”

Director Rockwell narrowed her eyes, the harsh shadows cast across her face intensifying the expression, before lifting a hand in a crisp, deliberate move. “Search the premises. They’re hiding him here somewhere.”

And to this, Sonic rolled his eyes with a scoff. “Search the— are you dumb? Why on earth would we be hiding him here, of all places? Do you think we’re that stupid?”

Director Rockwell froze in retaliation, her full attention returning to Sonic. “So he is alive,” she breathed, and next to him, Tails lifted his hands up as if to ask Sonic are you serious? The second time in one night, revealing Shadow’s survival through a slip of the tongue? With no pressure at all? Just because you can’t help yourself to not reply to a specific part of the statement that inadvertently reveals the truth?!

Yeah, it was kind of a character flaw. Sonic would have to work on that.  

Not at the moment though... there were more pressing things at hand. Such as Tom, Maddie, and Knuckle’s shocked expressions at the stunning revelation.

It was very difficult to tear his eyes away from them and refocus on Director Rockwell as he let out a weak laugh. “Would, uh, you believe me if I said that I was speaking rhetorically and not literally…?”

Director Rockwell stared at him frigidly. “No,” she deadpanned. “Now, tell us where he is.”

“I’m not telling you anything,” Sonic replied with a cutting edge to his voice. She wanted to be serious and no-nonsense? Fine. He could stand his ground too. “It’s none of your business where he is.”

“Actually, believe it or not, his whereabouts are our business,” she said coldly. “Project Shadow is property of G.U.N. If he is alive, then he needs to be returned into our possession immediately.”

“Shadow is not a thing to be owned,” Sonic retorted, making sure to imbue as much force and mettle into his words as he could. His friend, despite his flaws and the fact that he had abandoned Sonic, was not some science experiment, and the way that he was continuously referred to as such make something wretched contort in his stomach. “And besides. He’s not here. He’s long gone.”

Director Rockwell’s displeasure at this reveal was not apparent in her words, but rather the shift in her body language and expression; the pinching of her eyes, the flare of her nostrils, the mild hunch of her shoulders as she tensed up. However, after a moment, she composed herself, straightening her spine and pursing her lips into a thin line. “Project Shadow can wait. He’s not the only reason we’re here right now.”

Sonic snorted. “Let me guess, do you want to break down our front door again? Maybe tear up our lawn while you’re at it?”

(Normally, Tom or Maddie would have interjected here to offer a supportive comment, such as ‘yeah, we’d actually prefer that you don’t do that,’ or perhaps ‘at least give us some Olive Garden gift cards before you destroy our property.’ However, the disclosure of Shadow’s survival and Sonic’s apparent knowledge about this fun little fact was currently rendering them mute, any potential moments for funny comments or comedic relief completely forgone at the severity of the situation.)

“Hilarious,” Director Rockwell snipped. “And that can all be arranged. After we take you into custody.”

At that very moment, Sonic felt his heart drop through his shoes and into the floor. Because the way she had so candidly, so casually stated that abhorrent intention shook him to his core, and though he longed to ask her for clarification, for her to repeat herself, he knew that he had heard her correctly. And instead of deflecting the bone-chilling declaration with a clever comeback, all he could do was sputter out an indignant protest. “But… you said… you gave us a month and a legal document!”

“Yes, a document that was a mere formality that you are clearly not worthy of.” She clasped her hands behind her back and leaned forward, her gaze flinty and chilling. “You have proven yourself time and time again to be a threat to this planet, and so for that, it is our duty as Guardian Units of Nations to take you, Sonic the Hedgehog, into custody.”

This proclamation was enough to make Tom finally speak up, after the divulgence of Shadow’s survival and apparent existence in Green Hills without his knowledge had induced his silence. “Hold on, lady. I don’t think that’s quite how things work around here. See, I am a police officer, after all, so I do know a thing or two about the law, and I also did hire a lawyer for this—”

Director Rockwell cut him off with a sharp glare that literally killed the words in his throat with how scalding it was. “This is a little above your insignificant lawyer and your silly, unimportant small-town laws.”

“One, ouch, and two, it seems like I’ve wasted money on the lawyer,” Tom groused mostly to himself, before squaring his shoulders and projecting his voice. “And three, I’m sorry, but I’m not going to let that happen.”

“Neither am I.” At this, Maddie stepped forward.

Knuckles joined her side with a cracking of his knuckles, the action redundant and living up to his namesake. “You’ll have to go through me.”

“And me!” Tails echoed.

Director Rockwell hardly gave them a second glance, writing the display off as a corny and cringey moment of family support because ultimately, that was exactly what it was. And it was what the Wachowski’s did best, though in this case, while the sentiments were appreciated by Sonic despite the layers of cheesiness, it was honestly futile.

Because in front of him, Rockwell made a vague gesture with her hands that sent the G.U.N. soldiers into motion, the clacking of their gear and guns nothing short of menacing as they began to step forward. “This is exhausting, and quite frankly? Way more dramatic than it needs to be.”

Sonic didn’t like the way they began to advance around the periphery of the living room, sensing danger in being surrounded, and with that in his mind, he began to back away slowly.

He knew he could stay and fight. He knew he could take all of them on easily. However, their living room in its current state (meaning with all four walls intact and a brand-new window installed just last week) was not a suitable battle ground. Not if he didn’t want his grounding sentence to be increased even farther than it already was, which at this point, if he got out of this predicament in one piece, was going to be exponentially worsened by the fact that G.U.N. was essentially prolonging the amount of time it would take to get the power back on. With Tom’s full attention directed towards their unceremonious guests, he was unable to direct Wade how to boot up the generator, which meant it wouldn’t be solved anytime soon since Wade was essentially useless on his own.

But regardless. Sonic was getting carried away with details that were ultimately very inconsequential towards the current problem he held in his gloved hands. His steps backwards were slow and deliberate, luring Rockwell, the soldiers, and by extension, his family out the front door and to their yard. He didn’t want to move too abruptly and start an altercation while they were still in the house, but once he made it out to the lawn, he could finally give himself the option to fight if he wanted. He was reluctant to, of course, not liking how close Tom, Maddie, Tails, and Knuckles were to the G.U.N. personnel, but he digressed.

Because now, he was outside, stepping through the doorway and into the harsh lights that had been set up on the lawn that now glared directly upon him.  Sonic let out a hiss as a helicopter overhead shined an additional blinding illumination onto him, casting him in a white beam that made it difficult to see what lay beyond the circle. Lifting a hand to cover his eyes at the sudden onslaught of brightness, he blinked in a daze a few times as he struggled to adjust to the abrupt change in environment. The one that placed him in the spotlight and everyone else in the shadows just beyond his reach.

“Enough of this. Surrender yourself, now.”

Grimacing as he lowered his hand from his eyes, realizing that in a moment like this, he needed to see, and damnit he was barely able to make out anything beyond the spotlight he was rooted to the center of… not Tom, Maddie, Tails, or Knuckles, and certainly not Director Rockwell, who was currently a dark, faceless figure who embodied something far bigger than all of the G.U.N. personnel combined, and for all Sonic could tell, was currently nothing more than a disembodied voice. He couldn’t see any of it, just the grass in front of him before it was cut off by the abrupt edge of the circle.

“If you do not submit, we will use force.”

Director Rockwell made yet another hand motion, and the soldiers lifted their guns to point towards Sonic, and even with the weapons aimed upon him, he could barely acknowledge it as his indecision sent him into a panicked spiral. Because now that he was here, Sonic didn’t know what to do. Fight? Give in? Or, Longclaw’s words lingering in the back of his mind, run?! Tails had told him to take whatever opportunity he could to escape in a worst-case scenario (and as far as scenarios were looking, this one was a far cry from a good one), but he couldn’t, not with how he was surrounded, not with how his family stood watching in horror, just beyond his reach. He couldn’t do it. They would never forgive him, and worse, be at the mercy of G.U.N.

He should have lowered into a defensive crouch. He should have willed his power to the surface in a display of intimidation, allowing the implicit threat of his sizzling cobalt energy to speak louder than any of the protests he had uttered thus far. Because obviously, his words meant nothing to them, but perhaps blunt, brute force would?

However, he couldn’t bring himself to make a choice. His mind, body, and soul felt torn in three different directions, and so Sonic did nothing but stand there on the precipice of making a decision without having the courage, the bravery to commit and make the jump.

And as it turned out, he wouldn’t have to.

From behind him, there was that familiar sound again, like something blinking into existence with a whoosh, just on the periphery of his senses. Despite this, Sonic didn’t register it immediately, his attention laser-focused on Director Rockwell and the multitude of soldiers standing before him, Sonic their clear target.

Although, a moment later, there was a shift, a murmur, and though it was difficult to tell in the stark contrast of light, Sonic could see that the guns that had once been trained on him shifted their aims. And after a few seconds, Sonic realized that it was because there was something behind him.

His fingers curling at his side in uncertainty, elbows still bent in defense, Sonic willed himself to turn around slowly, and despite himself, he couldn’t prevent the gasp that tore free from his lips as he saw what, or rather, who it was.

It was Shadow.

Standing right there, on the fringe of the spotlight. His brows furrowed in a deathly scowl, though the expression wasn’t directed towards Sonic, but rather then G.U.N. soldiers and Director Rockwell.

From behind him, he could hear Tails’ voice distantly say “See, I told you he was alive!” and it took everything in Sonic’s willpower not to pull a face as he could only assume that Tails was talking to Knuckles. Of course they had known the entire time and conferred about it. He had been an idiot to think otherwise.

But anyways. He had a far more important thing to address, someone who deserved his full attention as everything in the background melted away into nothing. In the current moment, seldom else mattered to him.

“Shadow?” he asked softly, or at least, as softly as he could with the helicopter blades chopping overhead at a deafening frequency, his voice barely audible to his own hearing. However, despite the quiet volume, Shadow’s ears flicked in acknowledgement, causing a thought to occur to him. One that was devastating and couldn’t help but be asked. “Is that really you? Are you… real?”

“Of course I’m real,” he snarled, but it was obvious that the fury lacing his words wasn’t because of Sonic or his question, but rather the extreme stress of the situation they had found themselves pickled in. Because for all intents and purposes, Shadow’s worst fears, the very thing he had been trying to avoid, were unfolding right before his very eyes, and he was almost as helpless at preventing it from happening as he had been when Maria had been the victim.

Even so, Sonic couldn’t believe it, rubbing at his eyes in a cartoonish move as if the action would reveal Shadow to be nothing more than a hallucination, a mirage that would vanish behind his eyelids. But no, as his hands lowered, Shadow still stood there, fiery as ever, prompting Sonic to ask, “You came back?!”

He scowled, looking almost insulted by the question that was spoken as an accusation. “Of course I did. Why would you have expected anything else?”

“But I thought you— didn’t you leave?!”

Shadow shook his head. “I’m not leaving without you, Sonic.” He took a step forward, and distantly, Sonic heard the calls of alarm that raised behind him from the assembled soldiers at such a minute, inoffensive action. “I’m here to give you one last chance to come with me.”

Sonic opened his mouth to respond, though before he had the chance to verbalize his uncertainty, and more importantly give Shadow a proper response, he was cut off by Director Rockwell’s acrid voice slicing through the thick atmosphere. Of course. In wake of the unveiling of Shadow’s return, Sonic had completely neglected the fact that they still had an audience, and for all intents and purposes, were standing in the spotlight of the show.

“Project Shadow. How nice of you to join us.” The way she spoke, with a tone that was equal parts pleased and derisive, was truly a marvel of her character in how she managed to create such a seamless blend of conflicting emotions. “We were just talking about you, you know. Your friends here were saying that they had no idea where you were, however, it is clear to me now that they were lying and are not to be trusted.” She let out a dry laugh, one that did not contain a lick of humor. “But then again, I already knew that.”

“Um, for the record, this is the first time I’m seeing him,” Tom offered off in the distance, and even though he attempted to infuse some bravado into his voice, there was still an underlying tone of raw shock at the revelation that Shadow was not only alive, but apparently, on cordial terms with Sonic, based on the way he stood behind him without making a move to beat him to a pulp. “Just so that we’re all on the same page about this.”

Director Rockwell’s response was harsh as she made a sharp slicing motion with her hand. “Enough. I grow tired of all of this. Both of you are coming with us, whether it is voluntarily or by force, by orders of G.U.N.”

Shadow’s lips twisted in a sneer, but curiously, he did not respond to her. For all intents and purposes, G.U.N. did not seem to exist to him at that very moment as he redirected his focus towards Sonic, some of the anger receding now that he wasn’t looking at the ones who had ruined his life, but rather, the one who had saved him. His gaze was still firm and intense, though, as he addressed Sonic.

“Sonic. It’s time for us to go.”

And with that, he held up his hand in offering for the second time that evening, and Sonic felt panic grip at his core at the sudden choice that he found himself facing yet again, this time with an audience to witness. He had barely been able to stomach making a decision the first time around, and this scenario? Was infinitely worse.

Because he was tempted. Who was he kidding, he was more than tempted. Shadow was back for him, and he had the chance to mend the wound in his chest that had worsened the longer they had been apart. However, he still couldn’t bring himself to commit, not with his family standing right behind him, and with that thought in his head, he turned back to look at them.

The first ones he looked at were Tom and Maddie, their eyes both wide in shock and fear as they absorbed the situation before them. Sonic and Shadow in the spotlight, the intention of what Shadow was offering clear even if they couldn't hear the words he spoke, and Sonic's indecision illuminated by the harsh light overhead. As he made eye contact with Tom, his banal words of wisdom that life is all about the choices you make... you'll make some good ones, and knowing you, you're going to make some bad ones rattled in his skull with annoying applicability. And as Sonic continued to stare at him with desperation that implored him to understand, he hoped that Tom as well as Maddie would forgive him if the choice he was about to make would be considered a bad one.  

Next, his eyes locked with Knuckles, and like it was a slap across the face, he recalled their discussion a few days prior about the importance of a significant choice Sonic would have to make. Something silent passed between them, and Sonic knew that they both understood that this was it. The choice that he would make that would define who he was, not just as a warrior, but as a friend. This was what was going to shape his destiny and his legacy, and Knuckles seemed to comprehend this as his eyes flickered between Sonic and Shadow.

Lastly, his gaze shifted to Tails. The vestiges of their earlier conversation replayed in his head, clear as if it was being spoken in his ear from how recent it had been that he could recall nearly every word. The command and plea for him to run if the opportunity should arise, the opportunity that Tails spoke of clearly being Shadow more than ever before. And as he looked at Tails with fear and indecision, he could barely make out his friend nod subtly. It was a gesture of encouragement. Of acceptance.

And with that, his mind was made up. It was time. He knew what he had to do.

His body turning back towards Shadow but his head still looking over his shoulder and in the direction of his family, Sonic swallowed thickly. This was it. No going back now. “Tails, Knuckles, Maddie…” Sonic took a deep, shaky breath, forcing himself to make eye contact with his father and feeling his heart pound in his ears with what he was about to say and do. “Tom,” he eventually managed, before shaking his head in dismay. “I… I’m so sorry.”

And with that, he placed his hand into Shadow’s, his fingers latching onto the base of Shadow’s palm and feeling a reciprocal squeeze as he did the same to Sonic. Unable to bring himself to look Shadow in the face, too distraught with what was about to happen, Sonic kept his eyes glued to their bound hands, and as he did so, he missed the look of pure relief that washed over Shadow’s expression and demeanor for a split second before he hardened and extended Director Rockwell one last scathing, murderous glare.

“Finally,” he murmured, and Sonic could feel rather than see the rising surge of Chaos Energy as it gathered around Shadow, tingling and prickling through the connection in their hands as he prepared to make the jump.

Sonic took a deep inhale, and around him, the world disappeared in a blinding flash of white light.

Chapter Text

When the glaring light dissipated, Sonic was surprised to find himself holding Shadow’s hand in the middle of the forest, nowhere near the Wachowski household.

Instantly, he felt a wave of nausea roll over him, and unable to prevent the weakness he felt grip at his frame, Sonic’s knees buckled, and he sank towards the ground. However, before he hit the forest floor, all of a sudden, there was another hand bracing against him, and distantly, through the pounding in his skull as his body acclimated to the abrupt shift in location, Sonic realized that Shadow was steadying him with the hand he still held and a firm grip wrapped around his forearm.

Still, Sonic was dead weight, so lurching forward, he leaned up against Shadow’s torso, forcing the other to shift his stance to accommodate the sudden pressure pushed up against him.

“I think I’m going to be sick,” Sonic groaned into Shadow’s side, which was enough for the latter to adjust his hold on Sonic and hoist him up so that if he did actually throw up, it wouldn’t be onto his black fur. While one might believe that the color white showed stains the worst, the sleek ebony of Shadow’s pelt was a close contender for that coveted position. “I might actually puke.”

“I’d prefer if you didn’t, actually,” Shadow groused as he held Sonic out in front of him, still supporting him, but separating their bodies in a way that showed he didn’t quite trust Sonic to not empty the contents of his gut onto the ground at that very moment.

Taking a deep breath as he staggered back and separated himself from Shadow, Sonic pressed a hand to his temple, as if the touch would do anything to abate the throbbing headache that stabbed at his brain. And with that, he gathered his wits about him to give Shadow a piece of his mind. Because to be completely honest? When Shadow had held out his hand, Sonic had no idea they were going to teleport away. He had thought the whole thing to be merely symbolic, not a literal, physical connection that had needed to happen to spirit them out of there. Which to be fair, was kind of on him, because why else had Shadow offered his hand, but at the same time, the important thing right now was that he hadn’t been expecting it at all.

“Come on man, seriously?!” he moaned, the sound unbecoming and whiny, but effective in conveying his sentiments on the matter. “You could have given me a heads up before you did that! Just a small warning would have sufficed, at the very least!”

“Abracadabra.”

Sonic blinked in confusion, the strange and mystical word sounding odd in Shadow’s mouth, before he realized the correlation and the source of the oddly-timed quip, back when he had taunted Shadow for his teleportation ability by advising him to say cheesy magic words whenever he performed the action.

“Dude, that bit was from like, ages ago! I barely remember that joke, it wasn’t even that funny to begin with!”

Shadow shrugged, and with that, Sonic sank down into a crouch, pressing his fingers into the dirt at his feet to ground himself. The initial shock of sickness had finally passed, but that didn’t mean he didn’t feel any less disoriented and jacked up in the head. He didn’t even care if he was currently looking like a wimp in front of Shadow, his mind was still reeling from everything that had just happened.

He let out a groan as he curled his fingers, digging little troughs in the soil as he did so. “Ugh, I used to be kind of jealous of the fact that you could do that and I couldn’t, but honestly? You can keep that power. I don’t want it. It makes me feel horrible.”

Shadow didn’t react to Sonic’s jibe. “We need to leave. Now.” His tone was filled with urgency and severity, and if Sonic didn’t know any better, a twinge of panic. “My teleportation can only take us so far. And I’m pretty sure they can track us through the usage of my Chaos Energy.”

“You know what, yeah, you’re right,” Sonic said, straightening back up to his full height with a deep breath and reaching back into his quills to pull out his satchel of rings. It would be easiest for them to portal out of there. The possibilities were endless, though Hawaii was sounding pretty enticing at the moment (and hadn’t he just expressed an interest in vacationing there anyways?), or if he really felt like punishing himself and truly staying hidden, they could go back to that bar in Siberia. Shadow, he was sure, would fit in like a glove there, and he had a feeling that the grandma who knitted the red skull and crossbones scarf would get along with him just swimmingly.

However, as he rifled through his quills, Sonic froze as he realized something. His ring satchel. It wasn’t there. And his mind racing to recall the last time he had possessed it, he realized that when he had returned the Master Emerald to Knuckles, he had kept the seven smaller rainbow components wrapped up in the brown sack he stored his rings. And of course, with Tom’s interruption to their whole conversation, he had unwittingly left it behind and neglected to return to retrieve it.

Part of him wanted to blame his negligence on the fact that he had been avoiding Knuckles, and that it definitely wasn’t because he was a bit scatterbrained and irresponsible, but in the end, he knew it was pointless. All that mattered was that his overpowered means of transportation was indisposed at the moment, and now, they would have to do things the old-fashioned way.

The entire time Sonic had been searching for his ring satchel, Shadow had merely observed him. And now that Sonic stood there with an abashed, embarrassed look on his face, he finally asked, “What.”

“My rings,” Sonic explained weakly, lowering the hand that had been threaded in his quills to clasp sheepishly at the other. “I had interdimensional portal rings that could take you anywhere you could imagine. And, uh, I kind of left them back at the house.”

Shadow frowned. “I wasn’t aware that had been an option.”

“Yeah, well, it’s not anymore.”

Shadow gave him a look that conveyed okay? So why bring it up, then?, however, didn’t verbalize his confusion, instead turning to glance over his shoulder and back into the trees. While Sonic had initially thought they had been isolated in the dark forest, as his eyes finally adjusted to no longer being in the harsh spotlight of the G.U.N. helicopter, he realized that they really weren’t all that far away from the Wachowski household. There was a sparse white glow that filtered through the woods, the source undeniable, and in a strangely cinematic, significant way, the thin light cast a strange gleam over Shadow’s pensive face.

“We should get going,” Shadow said as he eventually tore his eyes away from the source of light.

Sonic hesitated, his feet itching to run back to his friends and family. To fight against G.U.N. to keep his loved ones and home. However, even as he turned his body to face the beacon shining through the trees, his foot lifting to take a step forward, or rather, back towards where he had just come from, he was stopped as he felt a hand clamp down on his shoulder.

“Sonic. You can’t.”

Sonic glanced back towards Shadow, his apprehensive expression meeting Shadow’s of resolute sternness. “Shadow, I— it’s not too late for me to go back. I don’t… I don’t know if I can do this.”

“You can, and you will. It’s for the best. They all understand.” Shadow was firm in his convictions, and as he spoke, Sonic realized with dismay that he was correct. Running from G.U.N. was the best thing for him in the current moment, especially with their declared intent to enslave both of them. No balking away now. “Now, is there anywhere we can go? Anyplace you know that will be safe, or should we just pick a random direction and run?”

Sonic had been about to tell him no, he didn't know anywhere else to go and that Green Hills had been the only home he had ever truly known on Earth, when he paused. A thought occurring to him, Sonic’s whole demeanor visibly lightened up. It was going to be throwback for sure, a bit of retreading on an established plot that had more or less kicked off this whole shizding, but it was the only thing he could think of at the moment. The only place close enough for them to reach relatively quickly and allow them to regain their composure before conjuring up an actual game plan.

Levelling Shadow with an infuriating smirk, one that he knew was cocky and insufferable and everything else in between, Sonic commanded, “Follow me.”

Without waiting for confirmation, Sonic took off into the underbrush, and based on the rustling of leaves behind him, he knew that Shadow was close behind him.

The run lasted for a couple of hours, but mainly because Sonic was reluctant to reach top speed. For starters, it was dim out, and he wanted to be careful with preventing any embarrassing falls because of the way his eyes struggled to strain and see in front of him. And the other, more important thing, was that he was wary of triggering another energy burst that would alert G.U.N. of their location. He would have to be very cautious with both his speed and energy exertion, and based on Shadow’s measured steps alongside him, he knew his friend was cognizant of this conundrum as well.

During it all, he tried not to focus on the swirling storm that were his thoughts in his head. The last glimpse he had taken of Tom, Maddie, Knuckles, and Tails haunted him, their pained expressions painted in a permanent picture behind his eyes. Several times throughout the short journey, his thoughts threatened to spiral out of control, however, when he would feel the churning panic begin to rise, he would simply glance over to Shadow to ground himself. To remind himself that there was a purpose in leaving, and that ultimately, it was for the best.

Or at least, that's what he hoped.

Finding and following the curvature of the highway simplified their journey, and using the intermittent streetlights to illuminate their path through the trees, Sonic finally let his tired feet rest as they arrived at their destination. He could smell and hear it before he could see it, the scent of gasoline and junky, fried food intermingling in the air compounded with the roaring sound of revving engines and skidding tires being a clear indicator that they were in the correct location.

“Where are we.” Shadow’s voice was laced with disgust and confusion as they settled in behind the bushes lining the parking lot to witness the chaos in front of them, and for good reason. For all intents and purposes, it kind of seemed like Sonic had pulled them over at a random spot in the road rather than a set destination he had in mind.

“I think we’re in Idaho,” Sonic mused with a finger tapping at his lips, and curiously didn’t make any further jokes about the state such as its association with potatoes or… well, maybe that was all Idaho was really known for. The bottom of the barrel wasn’t all that far down, it seemed. “Or if you’re asking about this fine, bougie establishment, may I welcome you to…” he paused for dramatic effect, allowing a period of silence to stretch between them before spreading his arms out in an enthusiastic flourish. “…The Piston Pit!”

Shadow stared between Sonic and the seedy, All-American bar sitting behind him, clearly not very impressed and just a tad perplexed. “Why are we here.”

“Um, because I’m hungry?” Sonic replied as he dropped the sweeping gesture and turned to admire the bar from afar. “And because I figured we could talk about what to do next over a bite to eat?”

“You’re telling me there was nowhere else to grab food except for this place, out here in the middle of nowhere?”

“Eh, I guess we could have stopped at a gas station or something, but listen! This place is special to me! It’s where Tom and I first stopped when we were on the run from the government, baby’s first runaway plot, you could call it,” Sonic sighed wistfully as he allowed himself a moment to bask in the memories before turning back to Shadow. “Visiting this place again probably has some thematic significance like coming full circle or returning to my roots and highlighting my character growth since the last time I was here, but listen, I don’t know, let’s not overthink this.”

Shadow gave him a confused look, and for good reason, because from his perspective, what Sonic had said made absolutely no sense. However, after a moment, he shrugged and made to step out of the bushes, though he wasn’t able to get very far before Sonic clamped a hand on his forearm and yanked him back down into a crouch.

“Whoa whoa whoa, hold on,” he said, ignoring the scathing glare Shadow extended him at the forcefulness of the action. “I know you’ve been living on your own in a cave for the past few weeks, but believe it or not, we look pretty different from these people. We’re going to need a disguise, or they’re going to either make fun of us or make a call to G.U.N. And frankly? I don’t know which one is worse.”

As Sonic released his hold on Shadow’s arm, he rolled out his shoulder with a perturbed expression painting his features, and even though Sonic had made his comment in jest, he could tell that something in his words had struck a chord with Shadow. “What could we possibly do to conceal the fact that we look nothing like these humans.”

Sonic paused, looking around. “Well, usually in scenarios like these, there will be some discarded clothes placed conveniently around here. We just have to look hard enough, something typically will pop up.”

Pointing towards a rack of clothes sitting along the side of the building, oddly placed yet ripe for the picking, Shadow asked, “What about those?”

Turning to see what Shadow was gesturing towards, Sonic let out a gasp of delight. “Lost and Found, I love it! Couldn’t even make that up if I tried. Good work, Shadow!”  

Skirting the edge of the parking lot, the pair avoided the bright lights shining overhead and snuck over to the box and rack of discarded clothes with the convenient words Lost and Found labeled overhead. And without wasting a second, Sonic began to rifle through the clothes to pick out his disguise and customize his avatar.

The pickings were slim, but ultimately, Sonic thought his outfit was in excellent taste. He found a pair of sunglasses (a staple, of course, to hid his freakishly large eyes), a beanie, what was probably a woman’s cardigan, though he couldn’t be certain, and to top it all off, a necktie that was so long, it dangled in between his ankles. Perfect.

Shadow didn’t fare much better. He had chosen a black, wide-brimmed hat that was almost a fedora and almost very cringe, a pair of glasses lacking lenses that didn’t do anything to hide his freakishly large eyes, and to top it all off, an oversized tropical shirt that would have left even Tom swimming in it.

Overall, they looked ridiculous.

And Shadow echoed that sentiment. “There’s no way anyone is going to buy this.”

Sonic glanced at him before looking down upon his own costume, his lips pursing as he apprehended what he wore. “Honestly? You’d be surprised. The people out here aren’t exactly the brightest when it comes to stuff like this. Either that, or they’re just really, really accepting of those who look different than them.” There was a beat, and then Sonic burst out laughing, the sound raucous and wild. “Yep, nope, that’s probably not the case at all. I think they’re just not that bright.”

Adjusting the knot of his necktie, the thing long enough that it posed the threat of potentially tripping him as he walked, Sonic turned to Shadow with a beaming smile. “Welp, I’m really hungry, and you’re probably not, so let’s go in, shall we?”

Shadow twisted his mouth in uncertainty but didn’t say anything further to argue, and together, the two hedgehogs walked side by side across the parking lot that was currently being occupied by a bunch of gruff bikers and truckers keen on showing off their motor skills. Sonic’s chest was puffed out and his chin lifted in confidence, and Shadow walked a bit more cautiously and hunched in on himself as they stepped out into the open. His trepidation while they walked past the motorcycles and trucks rumbling outside, faded, though, as Shadow’s step faltered as he slowed to take it all in with something akin to wonder on his face, and even though he felt the exact same way about the entire spectacle, Sonic placed his hand on Shadow’s back to keep him moving forward.

Though he begrudgingly allowed Sonic to guide him forward with nothing more than a disgruntled noise of protest, Sonic didn’t miss the way that Shadow looked longingly over his shoulder to where a particularly noisy motorcycle was popping wheelies and pouring out a severe degree of exhaust that probably had the carbon footprint of a giant.

Sonic released his guiding hold on Shadow once they made it through the front door, although, seeing the way that Shadow glanced nervously around at the patrons of the bar, his hackles raising as a grimace stretched across his lips, Sonic was quick to return a comforting hand against his shoulder. In a way, the harsh reaction made sense. Shadow had essentially been living a life of solitude for the past few weeks, and before that, he had been trapped in stasis. That, in addition to the fact that he overall seemed like an antisocial person regardless, made Sonic assume that loud places with loud people weren’t exactly his cup of tea.

But anyways, it was too late now, not with the fact that they were already inside and Sonic’s body cried out in desperation for some sort of sustenance. So, with that being said, Sonic marched up to the hostess stand with Shadow in tow and announced, “Table for two, please!”

The hostess looked up, and upon seeing no one, then down at them, finding Sonic with a big grin on his face and his hands on his hips, and Shadow glowering at the floor under the brim of his hat with his fingers curled into tight fists. She raised an eyebrow, but instead of questioning the odd display, grabbed two menus and said, “Uh, right this way.”

Shooting Shadow an enthusiastic thumbs up with his free hand as she turned their back on them, Sonic shifted his grip, sliding down so that he was holding Shadow's hand and finding the action more natural and easier to use as a leverage point to drag his companion behind him. He could feel it in Shadow's plodding steps, the hesitation that plagued his body as they made their way through the pub. He was reluctant and deeply uncomfortable by all the people around them who turned to stare, which was a fair reaction, so in response, Sonic gave his hand a comforting squeeze and continue to move forward.

In front of them, the hostess stopped at a high-top table, which was honestly a little insulting given the heights of her two patrons, and setting the two menus down on the table, informed them that their waitress would stop by shortly before walking away and leaving them alone.

“Oh man, that was easy!” Sonic commented as he climbed up into his chair, Shadow doing the same across from him. “Last time, they thought I was a kid. Which like, technically I am? Except I’m more of a teenager at this point, I think. And trust me, there is a huge difference.”

Shadow, whose perception of age had been wildly skewed from his experiences and was the subject of many heated debates due to the fifty years he spent in frozen in time, didn’t say anything. Because even though he was mentally and physically the same age as Sonic, who actually knew what he was.

But whatever, not going to explore that touchy subject now, because right at that very moment, their waitress walked up to the table to take their order.

Or rather, she had probably been there to introduce herself and ask if they wanted anything to drink to get started. But not letting her do so much as open her mouth to speak, Sonic cut her off by ordering without even looking at the menu.

“Can we get one bucket of fries, with lots of ketchup on the side, and oh! One big glass of Mello Yello please!”

The waitress only looked mildly put off by the eagerness of Sonic to order, likely because it spared her from having to care about making small talk in hopes of getting a higher tip as she jotted down Sonic’s request, before turning to Shadow. “And for you? What would you like?”

Shadow, his eyes wide at the sudden question and spotlight he found himself under, could do nothing more than stare up at her.

And even though it was just a tiny bit humorous that his friend could do some of the most badass things Sonic had ever seen, such as teleportation, beating him up in a fight, keeping up with him in a race, and overall just being super broody and cool, but apparently got stage fright when ordering food, Sonic stepped in to save him. Because despite the hilarity of it all, he felt a little bad about essentially thrusting Shadow into a social situation the guy was clearly very ill-prepared for. “He’ll just eat off of my plate,” Sonic offered, “and we can always order more if we run out food.”

With a nod, the waitress closed her notepad and began to walk away…

… but not before Sonic was able to nab a pen and a few loose sheets from her pocket as she departed, his speed and slippery fingers sneaky enough to swipe the stationary without being caught. Pinning Shadow with a cheeky smirk, Sonic attempted to twirl the pen, however dropped it on the floor, and as he retrieved it from off the ground, used the non-writing end to point at Shadow in what almost looked like an accusation.

“Okay, now that we’ve taken care of that, it’s bucket list time!”  

The whole display from start to finish was nothing short of bewildering to Shadow, however, he was able to summarize his confusion into two concise words. “Bucket… list?”

“Yeah, you know, a list of things you want to accomplish! I honestly don’t know what it has to do with buckets, something about kicking them, but I’m not one to question it.”

Shadow’s look of confusion settled into one of disdain, his brows lowering into his signature scowl. “That sounds silly and pointless.”

“Oh come on Shadow, you think everything is silly and pointless. And besides! Are you really telling me that there isn’t anything you want to do?” Sonic asked, tapping the pen against the table to accentuate his question as he spoke.

“I want to avoid being recaptured by G.U.N.”

“Shadow, that’s the same as writing down that you don’t want to die or that you want to try to avoid breaking an arm. Is there anything else you want to do while we’re on the run here? Anything else that you want to cross off and say that you accomplished?”

At this, Shadow paused, cupping a chin to his hand as he contemplated what Sonic had said. And then, after a minute of silence, right when Sonic had been about to give up and tell him not to worry about it, that it had been a dumb idea anyways, Shadow took the pen and paper from Sonic’s hands and began to write something down.

Lighting up in excitement as he watched the pen move across the paper, Sonic leaned forward to spy on him, however, was unable to see what was being written as Shadow arced his forearm around the paper to shield it from prying eyes. Biting at the inside of his cheek as the anticipation began to mount to lethal levels, Sonic finally couldn’t take the suspense any more. “Can I see?”

Shadow’s head snapped up with such ferocity, Sonic couldn’t help but slightly flinch back. “No,” he growled, folding the paper up before Sonic had the chance to sneak a peek anyways.

“Oh come on, what do you mean ‘no!’” Sonic exclaimed as Shadow tucked the sheet of paper away into his quills, out of sight and out of reach much to Sonic’s dismay, otherwise he totally would have made a move to grab it. “If you tell me yours, I can tell you mine!”

Shadow sniffed. “You don’t have one.”

“Yeah, but I can make one real quick! Please?”

“Absolutely not.”

Before he had the chance to argue more, he was interrupted by the waitress setting down his food and drink, and deciding that whatever Shadow had written down couldn’t stay a secret forever and that he would find out eventually, Sonic redirected his entire attention towards the comically tall glass of Mello Yello sitting in front of him.

He was parched after everything: his race with Shadow, the subsequent confrontation with Shadow, the confrontation with G.U.N., running from G.U.N…. geez, he had been quite the busy fellow that evening. He certainly deserved the upgrade from water to soda after the crazy day he had been having so far, calories and preservatives be damned.

And so, tilting his head back, Sonic took a long, blissful drink.

“What is that.”

Finishing the draught that had a high chance of making him sick to his stomach in a few minutes, Sonic set it down and wiped his lips with the back of his hand. “Um, only the best drink ever,” he claimed in what was a rather bold declaration (clearly, he had never tried a Redbull energy drink, which was honestly probably a good thing given his age and biology). And without further announcement, he slid it across the table in offering, Shadow only barely reaching up to catch it in time before it went gliding off and into his lap, where it would have likely left a very sticky mess. “Tom calls it a Mello Yello. But I think it’s really just a fizzy lemonade. Here, try it!”

Even though he caught it, it didn’t prevent liquid from sloshing out the sides of the rims, droplets spilling onto the table and his gloves. “Why is it yellow.”

“Uh, because lemons are yellow? Although, I kind of doubt there are real lemons in this particular drink, so it’s probably just food coloring. I don’t know.”

“What does—”

“For the love of God, please. Just drink it. Stop asking questions and just try it.”

Shadow frowned at being cut off, however, lifted the drink to his lips and chanced a sip. There was a moment as he drank, before setting the drink down with a bit more force than necessary as his face contorted into an expression of distaste. “It’s really sweet,” he said despite the overall bitter reaction as he passed it derisively back to Sonic.

“Yeah, well, lemons aren’t, so don’t’ get any funny ideas and try to eat one. They’re actually quite sour.” Sonic lifted the cup and pointed it menacingly at Shadow. “Don’t ask me how I know that.”

As he lifted the cup to take a drink of his own, he suddenly realized that the spot that he drank from had been the exact same place Shadow had rested his own lips just mere moments earlier. And he wasn’t sure why, but that thought in his head, the vivid image it generated behind his eyes, was enough to make him nearly choke on the liquid.

However, gathering himself, he overcame the sputtering reaction as he shook the thought from his brain. It wasn’t a big deal. He shared drinks with Knuckles and Tails all the time (although to be honest, he had recently blacklisted Knuckles because the dude’s definition of a quick sip usually meant that he returned Sonic’s drink to him half empty, and yes, in this specific instance he would not be a ‘glass half full’ guy, thank you very much), so therefore, this was no different. The fact that he had been acutely aware of this fact and mentally called attention to it? Baffling, to say the least.

Sonic decided that sampling a couple of fries would be enough to screw his head back on straight. All of these weird thoughts were definitely a symptom of his persistent hunger. And so, plucking a fry out of the basket and dipping it in ketchup, he began to feast.

He realized, after eating a few, that Shadow was just sitting there watching him, not making any moves to grab the food, so Sonic made a motion to try a fry. With a great deal of reluctance, Shadow plucked one off the top of the pile, took a hesitant nibble off the end, made yet another face of distaste, and set the fry neatly onto his napkin. The guy was lucky that he didn’t need to eat all that much. He was a really, really fussy eater, Sonic was beginning to realize.

Maybe they could try to get some real food at the next place they went to. Because whatever the Piston Pit had to offer in rural Idaho certainly couldn’t be that high in nutritional value.

“So…” Sonic said through bites of food, “…what now?”

Shadow pushed the discarded fry off to the side before turning to stare at Sonic inquisitively. “What do you mean, what now?”

“I mean, you have a plan, right? What are we doing next?”

Across from him, Shadow stiffened. “The plan was to run from G.U.N.”

“Mmhmm, yeah, okay, I’m listening….”

“That’s it. That’s the whole plan.”

Sonic’s jaw dropped, and he was lucky he hadn’t just taken another bite of his fries otherwise it would have dropped straight out of his mouth and onto the table. “That’s it? That’s the whole plan?!” he exclaimed in an indignant whisper. “You know, when you were being all dramatic and theatrical about offering me your hand and begging for me to come run away with you, you kind of presented it in a way that made it seem like you knew what you were doing!”

“The only important part was getting us away from them,” Shadow snapped. “And I accomplished that. You’re welcome.”

“And so you’re telling me you don’t have a single place in mind?!” Sonic’s hands gripped the edge of the table to steady himself from the overwhelming reeling sensation he felt knock him mentally off balance. “Nothing at all.”

“I don’t know if this is news to you,” Shadow hissed as he leaned forward, “but I was kind of frozen in stasis for the past fifty years, and before that, I was locked up on a military base! I don’t know anything about the Earth.” He let out a sigh, looking away from Sonic and averting his gaze. “Maria always said she planned to show me one day, but obviously, that never happened.”

That last sentence he spoke was enough to make Sonic pause, momentarily forgetting the pertinent issue at hand that neither of them had a clue as to what to do next. “You haven’t seen any of the Earth, have you?”

Shadow shook his head. “Not really, no.”

“But you’ve been a few places, right?” At Shadow’s shrug in response, Sonic followed up by asking, “Well, what did you think of Green Hills?”

“Green Hills is boring.”

“Ouch,” Sonic replied, sounding genuinely hurt by the declaration because in a way, Shadow’s opinion felt like a stab to the heart. “Okay, how about Tokyo? That was pretty fun, huh? It was where we first met!”

“Too many people.”

“London?”

“Did you seriously just ask me that?”

Sonic shrugged. Okay, noted. He should have know that the answer to that one would have been dismal.

“So, you really haven’t enjoyed what you’ve seen on the Earth so far?”

“Not particularly, no.”

“All right, well, what I’m gathering here is that I’m going to have to take you somewhere awesome. Somewhere spectacular. Somewhere so cool, it’ll make you actually enjoy living on this planet!”

(When this destination is eventually revealed, you can be the judge of whether or not it is worthy of such a description. And before you ask, no, it’s not North Dakota. As if.)

And with that, a resolution in his mind, Sonic picked up his pen and the notepad he had swiped and began to write. At the top, he wrote ‘New Bucketlist,’ and right underneath it, one singular item:

               Make Shadow fall in love with the Earth.

Across from him, Shadow tilted his head in confusion and attempted to peer forward to see what Sonic was writing, but mimicking what his darker counterpart had done earlier, Sonic covered the paper with his hand to conceal the words. “What are you writing?” Shadow asked as he was forced to sit back in defeat, and with a wink, Sonic folded up the paper and slipped it into his quills.

“You want to make a secret bucket list? Fine. Two can play at this game, pal!”

Shadow rolled his eyes, but otherwise, didn’t argue any further. And with that, the two fell into silence, Sonic people-watching and basking in the rambunctious atmosphere of the bar as he pondered what they should do next, and Shadow settling back into his seat with a scowl on his face, his arms folded over his chest, and his gaze trained on the table before him in mute irritation.

Sonic let him brood. Because as he sat there in the bar with Shadow, across the table from one another with their goofy disguises that barely concealed the fact that they were alien hedgehog creatures, he couldn’t help but reminisce on the last time he had been in this very position in this exact same location.

It had been the first night he had ever spent with Tom. And even though the consequences had been dire and stakes high, back then, Sonic couldn’t have brought himself to care. Because all that mattered to him in that moment, was the fact that he was finally out in the open and experiencing life with someone who he considered a friend, and that in itself had been enough for him to completely neglect treating being hunted like a criminal by the government as the severe threat that it was. Because truthfully? He had been having far too much fun.

The mere thought of it was enough to make him miss Tom even more than before.

Sonic shook his head, trying to free himself of the lingering, omnipresent sentiment. He was with Shadow now.  And in a way, their current situation wasn’t all that different from when he had last been here with Tom. From what Sonic understood, Shadow had spent his entire life prior to being frozen locked up in a military facility, and upon coming out of stasis, had been pretty busy almost destroying the world and then hiding out in a cave in Green Hills. Sure, he had teamed up with Dumb and Dumber (aka, the Robotniks) and technically gotten to see some of the Earth through that adventure, but it wasn’t the same. They hadn’t been his companions, they had only sought to use him. No, for all intents and purposes, this was Shadow’s first time out in the real world with a friend.

Sonic’s fingers curled around his Mello Yello as he took a long drink from it. He really hoped he could provide Shadow the same experience Tom had provided Sonic those few years ago. He wanted to do it for his friend, because after everything he had been through, it was the least that Shadow deserved. And luckily for him, Sonic was determined to make this experience, inopportune that it was, as good and memorable as possible.

As Sonic put the drink down, the last drop finally drained from what had been quite the impressive glass, Shadow finally spoke.

“How are you going to pay for this.”

It was enough to make Sonic pause, because truth be told, he really hadn’t thought that far ahead. He was kind of used to just doing whatever and having Tom fork over the cash to accommodate Sonic’s dreams and wiles. After a moment of thinking, though, an idea occurred to him. “Oh! I have just the solution, Tom taught this one to me. A little nugget of Wachowski wisdom, he called it.”

Pulling out a napkin from under the food, the thin, cheap paper dotted with grease and other unidentifiable stains, Sonic picked up the pen and prepared to write. And then, his tongue poking out of his mouth as he pinned the napkin down with splayed fingers so that it wouldn’t tear as he wrote, he scribbled out the following message:

               I Owe You! :)

See, he almost wrote it out in the colloquial spelling and used ‘I O U,’ but since he knew that Shadow likely wouldn’t understand the clever abbreviation and wanting to avoid a frustrating and pointless conversation if he could, Sonic wrote it out the proper way. And with that, he spun it around to show him, a proud smile on his face that was met with Shadow’s dumbfounded expression.

His eyes scanned the paper before flitting up to meet Sonic’s. “Yeah, this isn’t going to work.”

Sonic’s smile faltered as he glanced up towards Shadow. “What?”

“This isn’t money. What does it even mean?”

“It means, I’ll come back and pay it again some day.” He shot Shadow a wink. “And by that, I mean that I will come back with Tom and make him pay.” There was a beat. “Or maybe he won’t. I can’t quite remember, but I think we got banned from this place last time we came here. Good thing we have these disguises, am I right?”

“What does the colon and parentheses mean…?”

Sonic sighed. He should have known better than to include the little emoticon smiley face, it had been a fruitless hope that Shadow would employ his critical thinking skills and figure it out for himself. “It’s a tonal indicator,” he explained. “It’s meant to invoke thoughts of silliness and happiness. So that hopefully they won’t be as mad at us for dining and dashing.”

“And you think it’ll help?”

“Honestly? Probably not, but it’s worth a shot.”

He placed the note neatly into the center of the table, adjusting the edge with his finger so that it sat nice and straight, before settling back into his chair with an imperceptible sigh. Upon first entering the bar, his initial sentiments had been those of nostalgia, of fondness for his old memories on what was his first big adventure on Earth, and his first time spent with Tom. But now? Wallowing in his recollections, bathing in the past, his mood had shifted. Instead of feeling happy about returning to such a special place that was near and dear to his heart, he instead felt sorrowful. Dejected. Homesick.

Not for the first time, Sonic began to have doubts about leaving. If he had truly made the right choice.

“What’s the matter?”

Sonic glanced up at Shadow, only mildly surprised that he had possessed the wherewithal to ask such a caring question and to have the perception to notice that something had been wrong. However, instead of expressing this sentiment, he instead propped his elbow up on the table and rested a cheek in his hand, selecting a fry and dragging it in a melancholy manner through the cup of ketchup.

“I shouldn’t have left.”

Shadow gave him a flat look. “But you did.”

“They’re probably really worried about me.”

And at this, he shrugged. “Probably.”

It didn’t do much to comfort Sonic, however, instead of giving Shadow the dry, deadpan look he so desperately deserved, Sonic continued to draw his fry in circles around the pool of ketchup, too entrenched in his own wallowing to even consider giving Shadow a hard time. “I should give them a call to let them know that I’m all right.”

“And how do you plan on doing that?” Shadow asked with a quizzical raise of his brow.

It was an excellent question, one that Sonic didn’t quite have an answer to. He didn’t own a cell phone, but then, a memory popped into his head. The whole reason he and Tom had come to this place in the first place had been for Tom to make a call, and he had done it across the parking lot at the gas station, using the—

“Payphone!” Sonic cried out in triumph, before placing his hands on his hips with a wistful sigh and an even more wistful shake of his head. “Oh, rural Idaho, I hope your primitive ways never change.”

Shadow turned to look towards where Sonic had looked through the grimy window, and seeing the incredibly outdated box with the plastic cover all miscolored and cracked from the years exposed to the harsh contrast in summer and winter climate, looked back towards Sonic with a furrowing of his brow in confusion. “That thing is primitive?”

“Um, yes? Haven’t you heard? Payphones are, like, extinct. They only exist in lawless places frozen in time such as here, or in instances of plot convenience. Which is also kind of applicable to our situation.” Sonic paused for a moment to allow the punchline to land, before gesturing for Shadow to follow him. “Now come on, we gotta go before someone else beats us there!”

See, the joke here was that there was nobody scrambling to use the archaic piece of technology. It was free for the taking. But of course, Shadow didn’t understand that Sonic was speaking sarcastically, and so with steps that matched Sonic’s quick pace, the pair snuck out of the bar and jogged over to where the payphone sat at the gas station just across the parking lot, shedding their disguises as they did so.

Sonic had to jump up to grab the handle to open the door to the phone booth, and before he had the chance to tell Shadow he could just wait outside while the call was made, his friend slipped into the plastic box with him, and if it weren’t for the fact that they were two hedgehogs, the space would have felt a lot more cramped than it currently did.

Refocusing his attention on the phone above him, Sonic reached up to grab it, before realizing that it was way out of reach. And with a few pathetic jumps that were a far cry from the normal athleticism he was capable of, he gave up with a huff. “Why is this thing so high up?!” he gasped as he stepped back, his hands planting on his hips as he stared up at the phone dangling out of his reach in dismay. Seriously! He was almost three and a half feet tall, he wasn’t even that short to begin with! Tom had said he was above the average percentile curve for a hedgehog his age, though now that Sonic was thinking about it, he realized that Tom had likely made that entire metric up because what would he know about the average height of alien hedghehogs? Nothing, that was what.

But that was beside the point. If he didn’t swallow his pride and request some help, he was never going to be able to make his call. And so, turning to Shadow, he asked, “Mind giving me a lift?”

Without saying anything, Shadow positioned himself so that he was standing in front of Sonic with his back to where the telephone sat above their heads. Before Sonic could ask what exactly he was doing, Shadow crouched down, encircled his arms around Sonic’s waist, and lifted him up and off the ground.

It took everything in Sonic’s power to not gasp at the suddenness of the move. He had been envisioning that he would get on Shadow’s back like a piggyback ride, or sit on his shoulders, though after a moment’s reflection, realized that he actually didn’t want the soft fur of his belly stabbed by Shadow’s fierce and highlighted quills, so this odd alternative option was going to have to do for the time being. So swallowing his surprise and doing his best to ignore the weird sensation of Shadow’s cheek resting against his ribcage, Sonic distracted himself by clamoring for the phone now that he was hovering eye-level with it.

And it was with the phone in his hands that he realized two things:

One. He didn’t have any money, the coin slot that declared the cost was twenty five cents staring him back in the face.

And two! Even if he did have the money, which again, he didn’t, Sonic had no idea what Tom or Maddie’s phone number was.

Beneath him, Shadow seemed to sense Sonic’s indecision, for he shifted his grip around Sonic’s waist and grunted out a gruff, “Well?”

Sonic stared dumbfounded at the phone in his hand before extending that same look down to Shadow, who glared up at him through red-lined eyes. “Um, slight problem.” Sonic laughed awkwardly, knowing that Shadow was going to react rather explosively to his confession. “I, uh, kind of-sort of don’t know either Tom or Maddie’s number.”

His prediction was correct. Letting out a huff of disbelief, Shadow dropped Sonic so that he unceremoniously fell to the floor, straight onto his rear.  “What do you mean you don’t know their numbers?!”

“I mean, I never bothered to memorize it, because cell phones exist, duh! Why on earth would I waste my precious brainpower on some numbers when I could instead use it on memorizing song lyrics or Keanu Reeves’ movie lines?”

“For situations like this?!” Shadow responded incredulously as he crossed his arms over his chest, and Sonic couldn’t help but feel like a child being chastised.

“I mean, I know the first three digits!” Sonic protested, which wasn’t all that impressive of a claim because for all intents and purposes, the entire state of Montana had the same exact area code. It would have honestly been worse if he hadn’t been sure what it was. “Maybe we could try to combine random numbers after those and hope that something connects and works out for us?”

Shadow stared down at him. “And how many digits are in a phone number?”

“Um… a lot?”

“Yeah, okay, so we won’t be doing that,” Shadow said, and Sonic found himself agreeing. That particular scheme had sounded dreadful and he had regretted it the moment it left his lips.

They sat there in silence, both of them thinking of what they could do next now that contacting the Wachowskis was out of the question. And Sonic had been just about to give up and tell Shadow that they could figure it out later and hit the road, before something brilliant occurred to him, a new idea illuminating in his brain.

“I think I know where we’re going to go next,” he announced.  “Because I know someone who does have Tom and Maddie’s number.”

Shadow’s frown as he glared down at Sonic softened in confusion. “You do? Who?”

Instead of immediately responding, Sonic held out a hand, the nonverbal cue clearly being one that requested Shadow’s assistance in helping him up. And with a roll of his eyes the only sign of hesitation, Shadow reached down and grabbed Sonic’s hand to lift him up with ease.

“I hope you’re ready for a little road trip,” Sonic said as he popped up to his feet with a challenging smirk. “Because we’re going to….”

Chapter Text

“… San Francisco!”

If this had been the movie, there would have been a blast of music as some dubstep outro song played, the words of the destination flashing across the screen as the camera panned over the city before jump cutting to Sonic and Shadow being in the very place they declared they needed to journey to. However, this wasn’t the movie, so Sonic exclaimed the words with flair and wiggled his fingers in a cheap imitation of jazz hands as he grinned at Shadow, and there was no music, no text, and no jump cut to magically transport them to the destination they needed to be (meaning, they would have to do this the hard way).

And Shadow, as was expected, stared back at him blankly. “You say that like I know what it is,” he eventually responded, after he was done appraising Sonic and realizing that he wasn’t going to clarify what a ‘San’ or a ‘Francisco’ was.

Allowing Shadow’s flatness to completely take the wind out of his sails, Sonic dropped his writhing fingers to his side with a huff. “Okay, well, maybe that announcement wasn’t for you!” he retorted without elaborating who exactly it had been for, if not Shadow.

“All right, so why are we going there?” Shadow tilted his head to the side in confusion. “To this… San Francisco.” He spoke slowly, rolling the words over on his tongue as his face screwed up uncertainly. It wasn’t a completely unfair response, after all; the city did have a rather silly-sounding name.

“Because that’s where Maddie’s sister Rachel lives, duh!” Sonic replied. “She should have their phone number, so we’ll just pop in, ask very politely for her phone, and without a singular issue or problem, she will very kindly lend us her cell and we can make the call! And maybe while we’re there, we can play some board games, perhaps bake some cookies, watch a movie… trust me, it’ll be great! She loves me!”

Unfortunately for Sonic, Shadow saw straight through his forced pep as though it were constructed from glass. “Why do I feel like she doesn’t actually like you all that much?”

“What? No! She adores me! I mean, it’s not like I ruined her wedding or anything by constructing a portal directly to it while attempting to outrun an avalanche, getting snow all over the venue of her tropical ceremony in paradise and effectively crashing the party!” There was a beat as Sonic’s words processed in his ears, before he decided to take the alternative route and deflect what he belatedly realized was actually a completely messed-up sequence of events that was very much his fault. “Besides! She blames Tom for that, not me! So I think we should be fine.”

Shadow still looked unconvinced, and for good reason. However, he didn’t push it, instead asking, “And she’ll allow us to call your friends?”

“I’m sure of it,” Sonic said in reassurance. “She’s more or less my aunt… or at least, I think that’s how it works. So technically, by that logic, she’s family! I don’t see why she wouldn’t help us!”

With a derisive hum from Shadow, the pair exited the phone booth and began to venture past the parking lot. However, they didn’t make it very far before Shadow stopped, his feet planting on the pavement as the ruckus in front of them raged on. The bikers and truckers had been at it for a few hours at this point, and for the first time, instead of considering it to be the insanely cool exhibition that it was, Sonic wondered if any of these people had lives or jobs outside of screwing around in the parking lot of the Piston Pit.

But anyways. Shadow had stopped, and it took Sonic a moment, but he could see the intent glowing within his crimson eyes, the desire and decision that rested in the downward curve of his lips. And so, he was hasty to step forward with a firm edge to his voice. “Shadow, no.”

The hedgehog in question turned to glare at him. “And why not?”

“You really think those guys are just going to give us their motorcycle if we ask nicely?” Sonic asked incredulously. “I mean, look at them! They’re literally doing wheelies and kicking up smoke and they just look scary. I don’t think it would work.”

Shadow gave him a funny look. “Who said I was going to ask?”

“You mean… you were going to steal?!”

“Yes. Obviously.”

“Shadow! You can’t do that!” Sonic exclaimed with a wild gesture that waved around in a futile attempt to deter such a thing from happening. “Stealing is wrong!”

Shadow’s funny look shifted into one of genuine confusion. “Didn’t you just technically steal those fries? And the drink?”

Sonic felt like pulling at his ears, and he almost did if it weren’t for the fact that Shadow kind of had a point. “That’s a little different! Those cost, like, five dollars! If that! It might have been four! Those motorcycles are at least ten times the price. I don’t know. I’m bad at math.”

Besides the fact that the Harley Davidson the stereotypical biker dude was ripping in a circle definitely cost more than forty dollars, he wasn’t technically wrong. They were significantly more expensive than a bucket of mediocre fries from the bar in a state known for their potatoes, and therefore, not worth the risk of swiping.

Sonic placed a hand on Shadow’s shoulder, the action meant to both console and steer him away from the tantalizing spectacle on display right in front of them, just within reach. “We’ll find a way for you to ride another motorcycle at some point, Shadow. But right now? It think we’re going to need to find a different way there.”

Shadow turned to face him, likely with a question of what Sonic exactly had in mind for their upcoming trek, before he was interrupted by the front door of the bar slamming open on its hinges. Turning to face the commotion that somehow managed to be audible over the roaring chorus of unruly engines before them, Sonic was dismayed to find that it was their waitress from earlier pointing at them with an infuriated look upon her face.

“Hey! You two! You guys owe me five dollars and fifty cents!”

The fire and indignation in her demand was a bit extreme given the low cost of the situation, but perhaps, it was more about the principle and morals than anything. Sonic laughed awkwardly as his singular grip on Shadow’s shoulder turned into two, using both his hands to step behind and push Shadow towards the road, away from The Piston Pit. “And… that’s our cue! We need to go, like, now.”

Sensing the urgency in Sonic’s tone, Shadow took off in front of him, leaving Sonic’s arms to drop to his side as he struggled to catch up. As they sprinted across the highway and into the forest just beyond the ditch, Sonic’s pace faltered, and as his unsteady feet slapped against the ground, the events from that day came flooding in through his mind, the dam that had been suppressing them breaking and allowing the long sequence of scenes to wash over his consciousness and just about drown him.

And with that, Sonic realized that he was really, really tired.

He slowed to a stop, only doing so because he was sure they were a safe distance from the bar and that the waitress wouldn’t be catching up to them anytime soon, if she truly was so dedicated to pursue them over five dollars and fifty cents worth of cheap bar food. Sonic could do nothing more than watch as Shadow continued on without him, and though it took a few long moments, he finally returned, a glare upon his face and fury in his voice as he skidded to a halt in front of Sonic’s recovering body.

“Why did you stop?!”

Sonic shook his head as he braced his hands against his knees, his body slumping in exhaustion. “Shadow,” he panted as he swallowed his pride to admit something truly embarrassing. “I can’t.”

Emitting a noise of discontent, Shadow glowered down towards Sonic’s hunched frame, his face twisting into an expression of annoyance. “What do you mean, you can’t?” he demanded as he apprehended Sonic from a few paces ahead. “Haven’t we already gone over how this is for the best? That running from G.U.N. is what we need to do?”

Sonic looked up at him, straightening at the waist in perplexion. “What? No, I mean…” he trailed off, his words dying as an exhausted sigh finished the sentence instead. And then, composing himself for the humiliating thing he was about to admit, since his whole shtick was constantly being an energetic, blue battery, he confessed the truth. “I’m a little tired. I need to take a break and rest. Preferably sleep.”

As was to be expected, Shadow was not understanding about his condition in the slightest as he placed an irate hand on his hip. “But we have to keep moving. We can’t stay here.”

“Yeah but—”

Sonic’s weak protests were interrupted by a high keen, a whistle blowing in the distance and slicing through the pacifying sound of chirping crickets and other night noises like a scythe. “Do you hear that?” he asked, turning towards Shadow as a brilliant idea began to unfold from within the depths of his dulled mind.

“I mean, yes, but I have no idea what it means.”

Sonic grabbed him by the shoulders, practically shaking him in excitement before Shadow was able to shrug him off and step away. “It’s a train! Oh, this is so perfect, Shadow! We can just go hop on, and it will do most of the traveling for us!” He let out an easy, anticipatory laugh. “And this way, I can get a little snooze in while we move! How convenient.”

Shadow looked hesitant at the proposal, before nodding reluctantly. “Okay,” he said, “but only because you said it’s moving. We cannot stay in one place for too long, we have to keep running. We can never stop running.”

Sonic’s lips pressed into a thin line, finding himself slightly disturbed by the implications and vehemence of Shadow’s last statement, (because really, running, forever? Yeesh), but decided not to address it as yet another whistle cried out in the night, this time sounding slightly farther away. They were going to have to hurry, or they would lose track of where the locomotive was in the darkness of the night. Catching up to it wouldn’t be an issue, but locating the train should the sound draw too far away would definitely raise a few problems.

Motioning for Shadow to follow him, the two hedgehogs took off in the general direction of where they had heard the whistle’s call. It only took a few minutes before they broke out from the tree line, nearly running straight onto the tracks as they came upon the rumbling series of train cars that passed before them. Rusted, old, and decorated with hideous graffiti, it made for quite the ugly sight.

Beggars couldn’t be choosers, though, so it was going to have to do.

“Not exactly a five-star hotel, but maybe we’ll luck out and find some scratchy bales of hay to use as a bed on board,” Sonic commented as he scratched at his chin, trying to make some light of the abysmal display before them.

Shadow frowned. “This thing moves incredibly slow.”

“Yeah, well, since I’ll be asleep and not moving, any speed is good enough for me!”

Humming in irritation, Shadow lifted his nose up towards the spectacle in a picture of disdain. It was easy to assume that he was drawing a comparison to the motorcycles back at The Piston Pit as the outdated means of transportation chugged along in front of them, likely concluding that it wasn’t too late to go back and steal a bike. “Where is this thing even going?”

Sonic shrugged. “I have no idea! But it looks like it’s going west-ish? And sort-of-west is the exact direction we need to go in!”

Shadow turned to give him a perplexed look. “How do you know that this direction is west?”

“I don’t.” There was a pause as they stared at each other, Sonic with vacancy and Shadow with bewilderment, before Sonic stood up and waved for Shadow to accompany him. “Now come on, let’s go! Otherwise we’re going to get left behind!”

He took off into a run, drawing deep within his energy reserves to accelerate to a decent pace. However, because he wasn’t nearly as tired as Sonic, Shadow was able to skate ahead with ease, passing him to run up along the side of an opened car. With a leap and a boost of flame from his boots, Shadow launched himself up into the train, before turning down to appraise Sonic.

“Come on,” he called down to Sonic as he braced himself against the edge of the open frame, shifting his stance so that he was bending at the knees as he held out a hand in offering. The signal couldn’t help but transport Sonic back to his room earlier that same evening, and then the yard of his house— the last two times Shadow had offered his hand— finding himself reliving the tumultuous moments in an immersive flashback before he shook the vibrant image out of his head as Shadow said, “Grab on.”

With one last burst of juice, Sonic quickened his pace so that he could clasp his hand into Shadow’s, a sigh of relief escaping his lips as the hedgehog above him pulled him into the train car with minimal effort contributed from Sonic. His feet lifted off the ground and for a moment he was flying with the only thing tethering him to reality his hand grasping at the lifeline before him, and then he touched down onto the floor of the carriage next to Shadow.

“Thanks for the lift,” he said in earnest, and before giving Shadow a chance to bite out a dismal reply that would include every word except that of ‘You’re’ and ‘Welcome,’ Sonic disentangled their hands and walked away from the precarious edge to examine the interior of the carriage.

What he saw wasn’t particularly impressive, but since he was determined to make sure this little road trip of theirs was fun (as well as the fact that the whole concept of being on the run and sleeping in a train car was just a tad novel and exciting), Sonic decided to ham it up.  

“Oh man, just look at this place! Nice rustic walls, floors that may or may not give us splinters, some hay in the corner, and the ambience! I mean seriously, the sound, the smell, and just take a good, long look at this beautiful view!” Sonic gushed, motioning with a sweep of his arms to the dangerous way that the train car was open on both sides. And perhaps the view would have been all right, if it weren’t for the fact that it was dark out, so who even knew what they were supposed to be looking at. “Isn’t this great, Shadow?”

Shadow turned his nose up in distaste, clearly lacking Sonic’s enthusiasm about the amenities. “There are no beanbag chairs. So no, it isn’t great.”

Turning to give Shadow a puzzled look, before realizing that he was being completely serious, Sonic couldn’t prevent the grin that spread across his face at the oddly-specific claim. “The fact that you use beanbag chairs as a metric for how nice a place is just goes to show how well I’ve taught you,” he said, wiping an imaginary tear and adding in a fake sniffle for good measure. “I’m so proud of you, truly.”

Shadow let out a grunt as he looked around, not deeming Sonic’s theatrics worthy of a response. “There’s nowhere for you to sleep.”

“Hey now, no need to be such a downer!” Sonic argued in jest. “That’s what the hay is for!” And with that, eager to prove his point that this whole thing was actually not that bad and that the hay would make for a good resting place, Sonic dove headfirst into the pile, completely submerging his body for a split second before immediately popping back up to his feet. He instantly regretted it. “Aw man. The movies made hay look way more comfortable than it really is. This is just scratchy and itchy.”

With a groan, Sonic sat down and began to pluck out the pieces of hay from his fur, the regret deepening as the stubborn shards stuck to his quills and poked at his skin.

“That was stupid,” Shadow commented as he stood over Sonic and watched him begin the painstaking process of preening himself. “Even for you.”

“Yeah, yeah, yeah, laugh it up buddy, before I toss you into the hay pile and see how you like it,” Sonic snarked as he flicked a piece away and onto Shadow’s shoe, where it bounced harmlessly off and onto the floor. “Besides. If you’re not going to help, you can just do us both a favor and keep the unneeded commentary to yourself.”

Shadow rolled his eyes, and without saying anything, moved to sit down next to Sonic. Sonic ignored him, of course, or at least, he ignored him until he felt the strange sensation of Shadow’s fingers rifling through the quills on his back, carding through a spot that was certainly impossible for Sonic to reach.

Naturally, Sonic paused, his eyes flickering over towards Shadow without moving his body, cognizant of the way that Shadow’s fingers were currently threaded through his fur. “Uh, what are you doing?”

“What does it look like?”

Sonic licked his lips, not really knowing what to make of the situation and ultimately finding it easiest to try to brush Shadow off. “Listen, while I appreciate the gesture, you don’t have to. I think I’ve got it—”

“Just shut up and accept the help,” Shadow snapped, and not wanting to push back against the vitriol that colored his tone, Sonic fell silent without further protest.

And because there was no talking, he was more or less forced to focus on the sensation of Shadow’s fingers in his fur and quills.

It was… nice. Calming. It felt right, somehow, which was strange, because Sonic had never before received help in cleaning himself off. But now, with the almost tantalizing sensation of Shadow’s fingers raking through his pelt, going so deep as to brush against his skin that lay beneath, Sonic couldn’t even remember a time he had felt something so soothing and nice. Despite this, there was an underlying tension that existed between them, and Sonic could sense it mount higher and higher with each piece of hay that Shadow removed and discarded to the side.

Shadow seemed to notice this too, for the silence and the intimacy of the grooming didn’t last all that long as he was quick to speak up and puncture the unsettling atmosphere that had settled over them like a blanket. “Why did you even think that covering your entire body in hay would be a good idea.”

Sonic shrugged. “I thought it might make you laugh. Which it didn’t, unfortunately for my fur and pride.” He paused as a thought popped into his head, and attempted to turn to look towards Shadow, who immediately kiboshed the movement by fastening a hand on top of Sonic’s head and cranking his neck straight. Not that such a thing was going to stop Sonic from asking his question anyways. “Wait a second. Do you even laugh? Can you even laugh?”

Shadow’s initial response was to yank particularly hard at a sliver of hay wedged deep in Sonic’s quills, inducing a wince and a hiss of pain from Sonic. Then, there were a few moments that passed, before Shadow finally said quietly, “It’s… been a while.” There were a few more moments, and instead of simply fishing through Sonic’s fur for more sharp fragments in silence, he continued to speak. “Certainly not since coming out of stasis.”  

“I see,” Sonic murmured to himself as he flinched as yet another piece of hay was roughly removed, the extraction no doubt plucking out some tufts of fur with it. Shadow’s idea of helping didn’t seem to prioritize Sonic’s comfort; it seemed, being solely focused on the task at hand. But even as he grimaced, he couldn’t help but ruminate over the fact that there was nothing more that he wanted in the entire world than to hear his friend laugh.

He wondered what it would sound like. If it would be deep and raspy just like his voice, or perhaps, if it would be melodical instead, similar to the peal of a bell. If it would be harsh and sharp like his overall demeanor, or something softer and more soothing, like the side of him he preferred to keep hidden but was visible through the cracks in his angsty façade.

And while Sonic didn’t know what his laugh sounded like, what he did know was that he wanted to hear it, just as much as he wanted to see that hidden, soft smile Shadow had worn in his photo with Maria.

The last time he had laughed had probably been with her. And that thought, that realization made Sonic incredibly sad.

His wonderings were interrupted as Shadow moved away from him, the task evidently done, much to Sonic’s mild disappointment. He had rather enjoyed the feeling of Shadow’s fingers stroking his fur, though he would never have the audacity to say such a thing out loud. “There, all finished,” Shadow announced as he moved to sit with his back against the wall at the head of the cabin. “Do me a favor and don’t do that again.”

“Um, thanks,” Sonic said as he settled in beside Shadow, making sure that there was a safe and respectable distance maintained between them, one that ultimately wasn’t all that large in the grand scheme of things. Over time, that respectable distance had steadily shrunk, or so it seemed. “You really didn’t have to do that, you know. I’m perfectly capable of dealing with the consequences of my own actions, just so we’re clear about that.”

Shadow lifted a brow. “Weren’t you the one that told me whenever you screw something up, there’s always someone there to help you fix it?”

“Okay, well, that was just a little bit different. I was talking about saving the world, not helping me pick pieces of hay out of my fur!”

Shadow huffed but otherwise didn’t respond, and for once, Sonic didn’t mind. He was exhausted, after all, and though there were few things he loved more in the world than bantering with Shadow, he found himself uncharacteristically lacking the energy to even do that in the moment. However, in the silence, Sonic couldn’t help but think back to his whirlwind of an evening. That upon G.U.N.’s arrival to his home, he had made the impossible decision to leave, the one that Knuckles likely considered to be his defining moment as a warrior. Though whether he, or the rest of his family, would look upon his choice with favor was highly debatable.

With a sigh, and unable to keep his thoughts contained within his head any longer, Sonic turned to his companion. “Do you truly think I made the right choice, Shadow?”

“Are we still talking about jumping into the hay?” he asked in disbelief. “Because I’m pretty sure I already told you that was incredibly stupid.”

“You know I’m not talking about that,” Sonic said, unable to tell through the mirth in Shadow’s voice if he was joking or not. “Leaving Green Hills. Leaving my family. Was that really the best thing I could have done?”

“Yes,” Shadow replied without even a split second of hesitation, of remorse, of thought.

“Was it though? I left them alone with G.U.N. Who knows what’s happened to them at this point. If they’ve been harmed.” Sonic ran a hand through his quills in exasperation, the stress and weight of the fallout of his actions that his family would have to face the repercussions for on his behalf pressing down on him as if he were sitting at the bottom of the ocean. “Do you think they’ll hurt them, Shadow?”

Shadow shook his head. “I highly doubt that your friends have been harmed by them. Because honestly, what would they have to gain from doing such a thing? They want you, us, alive. Holding your friends as hostage seems far more likely route for them to take.”

Sonic’s ears flattened in dismay. “Oh, great. Being held hostage doesn’t sound much better, if I’m being honest.”

“It beats being killed.”

Feeling a stab of guilt as he recalled Maria’s death at G.U.N.’s hands, and his supposed luck in comparison to his darker counterpart's, Sonic’s lips pursed into thin lines as he found himself agreeing. “I guess you’re right.” He leaned back, and despite knowing that the action would look incredibly lame, buried his face into his hands, if only in an attempt to scrub away the flashes of the encounter with G.U.N. that played behind his eyes. They were snippets, warped and taunting, and he had been dealing with the intermittent flashbacks all evening and was growing quite sick of it. “I just can’t get them out of my head. My family. The way they looked so shocked, betrayed, and hurt. I really messed this one up, I think.”

“Don’t fault yourself for G.U.N.’s actions. You wouldn’t have left if they hadn’t shown up and forced you to.”  Shadow shifted beside him, the fur of their thighs brushing for a brief moment that Sonic could only feel rather than see. “They’re the ones that drove the wedge between you and your home. Don’t excuse them by taking all of the blame.”

Despite Shadow's attempts at comfort, which truly should have received more adulations than Sonic was crediting him for, they were ignored as Sonic lowered his hands from his face and let out a huff. “Yeah, well, part of being a good friend is sticking together through everything. Even when things get difficult. Even when it’s easier to leave.”

There was something strange that glimmered in Shadow’s eyes as he turned to study Sonic, and he was barely granted a moment to wonder what he had said to provoke such a reaction before Shadow leaned forward almost dangerously, his fangs flashing as he spoke. “You know, there’s something I don’t understand.”

Sonic didn’t really like the way Shadow was scrutinizing him, with a suspicious narrowing of his eyes lined with an edge of austerity. And so, worrying at the inside of his cheek between his teeth, he ventured to ask, “Yes?”  

“You clearly have a very strong attachment to your friends. And you are very convicted in your beliefs that the choice you made was the wrong one,” Shadow said, his words slow and deliberate, each of them punctuated with his heavy, somber, inquisitive tone. “So….”

He trailed off, and upon realizing that Shadow was going to need a bit of encouragement to finish whatever it was he wanted to ask, Sonic prompted him to continue. “So… what?”

Shadow's eyes searched Sonic's pensively before diving in with a question that Sonic almost wished that he hadn’t asked. “Why did you choose to come with me?”

It was a great question. An excellent one, even. And Sonic would have loved to know the answer himself.

That was a lie. He did know the answer. He just didn’t know if he had the courage to attempt to verbalize it, to manifest it between him and Shadow in the cool night air that blustered about them with words that could do it justice.

But, looking over at Shadow, seeing how his typical scowl had eased into an expression Sonic would almost describe as desperate, aching to know the truth as to why Sonic had ultimately chosen to turn his back on his friends and family for someone he for all intents and purposes barely knew, extenuating circumstances forgotten, why he had sacrificed the life he had built for an uncertain future with someone who was essentially a stranger, Sonic knew that he had to try. If not for his own sense of clarity, but for Shadow’s. For the one who had returned to save him at the risk of his own safety.

Sonic found himself unable to look upon Shadow’s vulnerable face any longer, the emotions swirling in his eyes rendering him mute. He leaned back, training his attention towards the ceiling, and with the contact between their gazes severed, he reached deep within himself and found the ability to speak. “I… see a lot of myself in you. When I first came to Earth. When I didn’t know anyone, or anything about the planet.” He took a deep breath, using the action to fortify himself and press onwards. “I think a big part of why I ultimately chose to go with you was because I couldn’t stand to imagine that you would be on your own again. That you would be miserable and alone in this world. I just couldn’t let that happen, not to you.” His words were genuine because it was the truth. It had broken his heart to imagine Shadow lost, aimless in his destination and ambitions as he traversed a cold, unwelcoming world. He didn’t want such a thing to happen, not if he could prevent it.

Shadow, however, did not seem to appreciate Sonic’s answer, despite the candor woven into the threads of his explanation. “So you’re telling me you did it out of pity?”

Sonic blinked up at the ceiling, before sitting up and waving his hands frantically about to dispel the ridiculous notion as he redirected his gaze toward Shadow. “What?! No, no, I….” he stammered, and then taking a brief moment to gather himself, hurriedly bit out, “that’s not the reason!”

“So if not out of pity, then why?” Shadow demanded.

And the anger in his words, the vehemence behind them was enough for Sonic to forego his careful filter and blurt out something he almost immediately regretted. “I did it because I like you a lot, okay!” he exclaimed in a rush, and then realizing that he had no feasible way to rescind such a raw statement, slumped back against the wall in defeat as he prepared to elaborate. Because good heavens, was something as naked as that going to need a lot of clarification. “Over these past few weeks, we’ve become friends, good friends. I don’t know how, but you’ve become such an important part of my life, and when you left, I, I….” Sonic swallowed, unable to bring himself to verbalize just how devastated he had been at Shadow’s initial departure. How he had felt like his world had ended, had been over, how he had nearly lost the will to live. And if it weren’t for the fact that he had been forced to put on a strong face both for Tails and for when he faced G.U.N., there had been a very strong chance that he would have walked over to his bed, shoved his face into the pillow, and sobbed.

He didn’t want to say this out loud, though, because Sonic knew what it was. A weakness. And while he was certainly close to Shadow, close enough to share these things without being punched in the face for the sappiness of it all, he wasn’t sure he wanted to divulge just the extent that he had come to realize that he had carved his life around him. Much in the same way that Shadow had told Sonic he needed him, Sonic needed Shadow as well.

Sonic’s mouth felt dry. While he might be too much of an emotionally closeted wimp to proclaim that the grip his former foe held around his soul was stronger and deeper than he cared to admit, he figured that if Shadow could confess something as monumental as his reliance upon Sonic, then he could do the same. In a way, Sonic almost owed it to him to be just as vulnerable, to tell his friend that the sentiments he possessed were reciprocated rather than unrequited.

And with that, Sonic willed the words to his parched tongue and accumulated the courage to set them free.

“I realized that I need you, Shadow. Just as much as you need me.”

A heavy silence settled over them at the confession, Sonic fighting to keep a grimace from stretching on his muzzle as he waited for Shadow’s reaction to the weighted words. Or rather, his true reaction, because for a long, drawn-out moment, he merely stared back at Sonic with wide eyes and parted lips, a perfect picture of shock.

And finally, as the train went over a bump in the tracks and jostled them about, more or less shaking him from his stupor, he mustered up a response. “Sonic, I…” Shadow started, shaking his head in disbelief. “I had no idea you felt the same way.”

“Yeah, well—” Sonic was cut off as a particularly frigid breeze blew through the train car, inducing a full-body shiver in retaliation that murdered the rest of his sentence in a brutal fashion. And before he could gather himself to finish his reply, something that was probably going to be snarky and just a little defensive to compensate for how emotionally open he had just allowed himself to be, Shadow angled his body so that he was turned towards Sonic, mild alarm painted upon his face.

“What’s wrong? Why are you shaking?”

Sonic grit his teeth as yet another gust of wind wafted through, this one a little more potent than the last as he tucked his knees to his chest to shield his body from the onslaught. “Sorry, I’m just a little cold. While the open floor plan of this train car is nice in theory, the cross breeze is a bit chilly.” He encircled his arms around his knees as he felt another shudder wrack his frame and cursed himself for being unable to suppress the involuntary reaction. The season had just transitioned into early fall, and while the leaves hadn’t started turning just yet, it was still enough for a crisp chill to settle over the nights and nip at anyone foolish enough to stay out late. “I really wish that the hay was a little more comfortable. Otherwise, I would totally wrap myself up in it.”

Next to him, Shadow looked him up and down, studying him intently. “You’re cold?”

“Yeah, that’s what I just— um… what are you doing?”

Sonic froze as in the middle of speaking, Shadow wrapped an arm around him, bridging the gap between their bodies and pulling Sonic up against him. The action was choppy and abrupt, and for lack of a better term, very not smooth or suave at all, and based on the way Sonic could hear Shadow’s heart thump against his ribcage now that Sonic’s ear was practically pressed flush against it, he could tell that the forwardness had shocked even him as well. “Keeping you warm, clearly,” Shadow retorted as if it were the most obvious thing in the world, and it was only because Sonic knew him so well could he hear the thin waver in his low, flat voice, a bare tremble of uncertainty at his gesture and how Sonic would receive it.

Sonic stayed paralyzed for a few moments more, before his sense of self-preservation perished and his desire to stay warm won out as he forced himself to relax against Shadow’s side with agonizing slowness, as though he were afraid that the hedgehog nestled up beside him would suddenly (and honestly, understandably) realize that what they were doing was far too much and push Sonic off the edge of the train car with a burst of flames from his rocket boots for extra flair. Such a thing did not occur, however, and as Sonic’s cheek pressed up against his shoulder and slid into the crook of his neck, he found himself unintentionally reflecting upon the strangeness of the contact.  He couldn’t recall a time he had been this close to Shadow without fighting him, well, other than the time they had been dancing and he had faceplanted in his chest fur he supposed. But that hardly counted, because that moment had been accidental and fleeting and completely unlike this. No, this was just a little different; it was deliberate and deep and intentional.

Realizing that his breaths thus far had been shallow and cautious, as though even the exhales that puffed through his nose would be enough to scare Shadow off, Sonic forced himself to take a deep breath and restore fresh oxygen to his lungs. In doing so, since his face was essentially buried in Shadow’s shoulder, he took a strong inhale of his fur, his scent flooding Sonic’s nostrils. It was so foreign, and yet familiar at the same time, and Sonic distantly realized why. Shadow smelled like his home. He could catch faint notes of the pine trees of Green Hills, of the wildflowers dotted throughout the forest, of the damp smell of their cave that had long since evolved from being something musty and unsavory to instead be cozy and soothing. It was fitting, Sonic mused to himself, that he would find such comfort in something as inane as even Shadow’s scent.

Suddenly, without warning, the train car was flooded with light, and Sonic was forced to wrench his brain away from Shadow’s tantalizing fragrance as he tilted his head back to discover the source. While for a moment he feared that it would be the lights of a G.U.N. helicopter illuminating the interior of their cabin, he was relieved to find that it was nothing more than the bare, naked moon, broken in all it's shattered glory, revealed from the parting of clouds that drifted past and into the black sky.

With a weak, tired arm, Sonic pointed it out. “Look, Shadow. A full moon. Sort of.” He exhaled softly through his nose and ruffled the hairs of Shadow's cheek as he did so. “Isn’t it stunning?”

The intent of calling attention to such an astronomical feature had been to deliver on his promise and singular item on his bucket list to make Shadow fall in love with the Earth, even if the moon was technically an object orbiting in the atmosphere rather than something connected to the planet. It was in Earth’s inky sky, though, so Sonic figured that counted for something.

However, upon Shadow’s lack of an immediate response, Sonic tore his gaze from the celestial body overhead and towards his partner. His eyelids were lowered into a pensive frown, his lips twisted into something indecisive, and it didn’t take Sonic much thought as to figure out why. The moon was where the fight in their super forms had ended, where the book of their status as foes had closed and their journey as allies, then as friends began. The moment of heartfelt solidarity that, if Sonic had to be completely honest, had started this whole complicated web they found themselves tangled in.

“I think I prefer to admire the moon from down here,” Shadow commented after a long moment, more or less confirming Sonic’s suspicions. “But yes. It is rather nice.”

Sonic let out a contented hum of approval. Looking up at Shadow as he beheld the fragmented moon overhead, the gentle light cast against his harsh face softening the severity of his features, Sonic had a sleepy, fuzzy realization. Never in his entire life had he seen something as lovely, as beautiful as the being that sat beside him.

As his murky thought sank in, Sonic felt his blood run cold, colder than the night air around him, and he stiffened. His mind sparked to clarity, almost betrayed by such an insane thought, and in retaliation, he screwed his eyes shut for a few long, incredulous moments before cracking them open once more to see if anything had changed.

Yep. His opinion remained the same. There was something handsome, something magnetizing about Shadow, the very person he found himself using as a body pillow.

However, instead of feeling a great deal of stress about this revelation, Sonic found himself accepting it. Because as he relaxed and sank further into Shadow’s side, he realized that it was the truth. Shadow was beautiful. There was nothing wrong with admitting it (to himself, at least, he would pretty hard pressed to say such an outlandish thing out loud), especially since he looked so similar to Sonic. In a way, in admiring the hedgehog beside him, Sonic was essentially complimenting himself.

At least, that’s what he told himself, to cope with what was truthfully a mildly disturbing thought.

Sonic snuggled up further into Shadow as he dispelled the thought away, before nearly laughing out loud at what he was doing.  It was absurd; the way he was on a train in Idaho, the way he was about to pass out in the middle of nowhere, the way he was cuddled up against Shadow as if it were the most normal thing in the entire world.

And it was only possible because of one thing.

“Shadow,” Sonic asked, his voice nothing more than a breathy whisper that he struggled to get out, “why did you come back?”

“What do you mean?”  Shadow asked, his voice softened and husky to match Sonic’s.

“I thought you had left. Why did you come back for me?”

Beneath him, Shadow went rigid, his muscles tensing as his spine stiffened. “Isn’t it obvious?”

Sonic shook his head, the action dragging his cheek across the shoulder on Shadow’s fur. He was so soft, to the point that Sonic wondered if Shadow felt the same about his own blue fur. Probably not, but that was just because Shadow’s opinions about things were always negative and dismal. “No, not really.”

Shadow let out a huff and beyond that, fell silent and didn’t answer, and right when Sonic felt the clutches of sleep grip the edges of his consciousness and pull him under, blissfully down into the floor below him, he finally spoke, jerking Sonic back into his state of half-awareness. “I had left, actually. I didn’t make it very far, though, before….”

Sensing that Shadow wasn’t going to finish his sentence as the seconds dragged on, Sonic lifted his head to get a better look at him, the action tormenting as he was forced to abandon the soft fur of Shadow’s shoulder. “Before what?”

Shadow looked away, hiding the expression Sonic so desperately wanted to see illuminated upon his features. “Before I realized that I couldn’t leave without you. And that any existence I wanted on Earth would not be worth living if something were to happen to you. Whether you be harmed, captured, or killed, I couldn’t bear to go on without knowing. So, I came back.”

Sonic couldn’t help but lift his hand towards Shadow’s opposing cheek, too tired to care about the implicit intimacy of the action as he pulled him back so that he was forced to look at Sonic once more. “Shadow…” he began as he searched his face, “… I didn’t know you cared so much.”

“Of course I care,” he said as he brushed off Sonic’s hand with a tilt of his head, just a little harshly, before taking a deep breath to compose himself. “I couldn’t help but think of Maria. How I failed to protect her. And that by leaving you behind, I was willingly choosing to allow the same thing to happen twice. I was abandoning you to G.U.N., and I realized I wouldn’t be able to live with myself if I didn’t do everything in my power to protect you from her fate. To save you.” He pinned Sonic with a dour look, one that was knowing and lined with a hint of irritation. “And it seems like it was a good thing that I did come back. That little talk with G.U.N. you were having looked like it had been going very poorly, by the way. Almost exactly like I told you it would be.”

At this, Sonic rolled his eyes. “Yeah, yeah, you were right, so what.” He had every intent to fold his arms over his chest in a classic image of a pout, though found himself unable to with how Shadow’s arm tucked him against his body. “Happy now?”

“No. I’m not. I wish that it didn’t go the way that it did, truly,” Shadow replied, his annoyance settling into something genuine and raw. Like he was speaking straight from the heart. “I’m sorry that you had to leave your friends and home behind, Sonic. But for what it’s worth, I’m glad that you’re here with me right now.”

“I’m glad that I’m here with you too, Shadow.” Sonic chuckled to himself softly. “Even if we're in the middle of nowhere of Idaho.”

He could distantly feel Shadow’s quills brush against his forehead as he shook his head, the rigidness of their points scratching gently against his skin. “You know, you’re going to have to explain to me the backstory behind the jokes you make about all of these places,” he said, his voice raspy and delectable in Sonic’s ear, almost to an unfair degree. “Half the time, I feel like I have no idea what you are talking about.”

Sonic yawned, not even bothering to cover his mouth from how tired he was. It was criminal how cozy Shadow was, and the purr in his voice wasn't doing much help in not lulling him to sleep. “Listen, man, all you need to know is that all of my jokes are, like, really, really funny. That should just about cover all your bases, no extra context necessary.”

“You know, they’re really not.”

“Well, that’s just your opinion,” Sonic snipped, though his tone was muddled and faded and missing the clarity and edge he normally possessed. “And your opinion is a bad one, by the way.”

His words were barely intelligible even to his own ears, and with the way that Shadow shifted underneath him so that Sonic could further melt into his side instead of responding, he had a distinct feeling that Shadow had no idea what he had just said. Sonic couldn’t bring himself to care or clarify himself though, not with how Shadow’s grip around his arm squeezed in a familiar, comforting way that just about sent him over the edge and into the abyss of slumber.

Sonic had just been about to pass out when he heard Shadow speak one last time, more so hearing him from the rumbling in his chest rather than his actual voice. “You should get some sleep,” he murmured, and Sonic could not agree more with that sentiment. “Goodnight, Sonic.”

And with that, the exhaustion that weighed down on his mind, body and soul became too much to bear, and so curling up against Shadow’s side, sapping the warmth and scent from his body as the splintered moonlight trickled in overhead, Sonic drifted off and into his dreams.

Chapter Text

When Sonic woke up the next morning, all he could think about was the ache in his back and the fact that he felt cold.

The ache in his back he instantly recognized to be caused by the funky way he had fallen asleep on the floor of the train car. The cold sensation he felt prickle at his skin took a little longer for him to place, and after a moment, he realized it was because Shadow was no longer cuddled up beside him.

Sonic had been rubbing the crust out of his eyes, however, upon this casual realization, he froze. Shadow. Had been cuddling him. Last night.

What the actual—

“You’re finally awake,” Shadow stated from across the cabin, cutting off the curse word Sonic had been about to mentally utter. It was early in the morning, the sky still a dusky periwinkle behind his dark form. “The train stopped. We should probably get off here.”

Nodding as he quickly stretched out, paying special attention to his sore back and not to the fact that he had snuggled up with his former enemy the night prior, because seriously, what was that even about, Sonic joined him at the edge of the train car as they jumped off and into the dirt below.

“Well? Where are we?”

Sonic shrugged. “I literally have no idea. But I do kind of recognize this place from my road trip with Tom that one time, and so as long as we can find a highway, we should be able to follow it to the city.”

Shadow didn’t seem to be particularly soothed by that answer, though falling into step beside Sonic, they began their trek.

The highway was easy to find, given that the train literally traveled adjacent to it. Following the signs to San Francisco was similarly easy, and Sonic found himself grateful that Rachel lived in a nice big city that served as a mileage landmark along their run rather than a more insignificant place like Modesto or Fresno.

It was around midafternoon that they finally reached the city, looking down upon it from the headlands north of the Golden Gate bridge at a scenic overlook. While Sonic was dismayed by how long their travel time took, it was a necessity. He was adamant on keeping a slower pace to not trigger any energy readings or bursts that could be used to track them, and Shadow seemed content to play it safe as well.

Not wanting to waste too much time admiring the city from afar, mainly because there was currently a thick layer of fog that made it impossible to even see the Golden Gate Bridge that was more or less directly in front of them, they continued down towards the city. They didn’t get very far before Sonic turned to Shadow, asking him, “Well? What do you think?”

At this, Shadow gave him a derisive glance. “I don’t think I like it.”

And for Sonic, that answer was simply unacceptable. “What’s not to like? I mean, there’s hills for skateboarding, rails for grinding, and listen, say what you will about the place, but I have literally never seen so many people with blue hair. It’s great. I think everyone here has excellent taste.”

Shadow didn’t look nearly so convinced as they continued to slink through the cramped, hilly streets of the city, attempting to keep a low profile as they darted between parked cars and the limited yard space each of the colorful stacked houses possessed.  

Sensing the animosity Shadow held towards the urban jungle they traversed, and starting to notice a trend that anywhere there were a plethora of people, Shadow would be particularly unhappy, Sonic lifted his hands up in surrender. “Listen, we can explore the city and all of its thematic relevance after we call Tom and Maddie. Okay?”

Shadow still looked unconvinced, however, said nothing. Beside him, Sonic fell silent. There was something about San Francisco that almost enchanted him… the hilly terrain, the funky houses, the salty air that blew fog over them, it was all so mesmerizing. But more importantly, he couldn’t help but feel a stab of nostalgia. This had been the location of his first adventure with Tom, and just like at the bar in Idaho, the parallels were not lost on him.

He started to feel sad again, so he compartmentalized the sentiment, shoved it away, and tried not to think about it too hard.

Before long, they had made it to Rachel and Randall’s. Sonic was pretty surprised he had the directional capability to remember where they lived, and obviously, Shadow felt the same way.

“How do you remember how to get their house, but not the phone number of your friends?”

Sonic brushed him off by lifting a hand, effectively silencing him. “Listen man, don’t question it.”

They walked up the long yard, Shadow trailing behind Sonic. And it was after Sonic rang the doorbell by spamming the button a few obnoxious, unncessary times that he realized that Shadow was not standing next to him and was instead lingering by the steps.

“Dude. Why are you standing at the edge of the porch.”

Shadow looked around, the anxious expression on his face only minutely easing up the furrow in his brow as he shifted from foot to foot. “Are you sure this is a good idea?”

“Yes, I’m sure. Have I ever had any bad ideas?” Sonic asked, and upon seeing the flat glance Shadow extended him, looking like he was fully prepared to list out quite a few bad ideas Sonic had possessed over the brief stint of time they had known each other, Sonic held up a hand and hastily continued. “Actually, you know what, don’t answer that. Just come up here and stand next to me. You’re being weird.”

At this, Shadow’s lips contorted into something uncertain, and before he had the chance to respond to Sonic’s request (meaning, probably deny it just for the sake of being difficult), the door in front of them opened.

The way Rachel’s eyes just about popped out of her head and her jaw dropped to the floor indicated that Sonic, and by extension, his darker, edgier, and cooler lookalike were just about the last things she was expecting to find when she opened the door. For a long moment, she stood there and stared at them, her jaw working as though she were attempting to speak, but nothing came out.

Which meant that Sonic took it upon himself to wave up at her as casually as he could and extend an even more causal greeting, one that completely neglected to acknowledge the absolute shock it was that he had just materialized on her doorstep unannounced. “Heya, Rachel! Long time no see, huh?”

As Rachel continued to ogle at him, which was very rude in Sonic’s opinion because he had literally said hello and the least she could do would be to say it back, there was a voice that called out behind her, one that was very macho, very manly, and very masculine. “Who’s at the door, honey?”

Randall’s voice was enough to slap her out of her stupor, her mouth closing as she gulped and regained her bearings. “You’re going to have to come see this with your own two eyes. If I try to explain it, I might pass out.”

A few seconds passed, and then Randall appeared beside her. However, unlike Rachel, he didn’t completely lose the ability to speak as he beheld Sonic, a perfectly manicured brow arching in question. “Tom’s kid? What’s he doing here?” His gaze shifted, focusing in on where Shadow still stood behind Sonic on the porch, hovering in the background. “And he brought a friend?”

Rachel’s already widened eyes somehow became larger, her eyelids peeling back to a comical degree as she realized that Sonic was not alone and, for all intents and purposes, had essentially duplicated himself. “Oh Lord have mercy, I can’t even believe this. There are two of them now?”

“Didn’t you say that last time when you saw the yellow one with two tails?” Randall asked in what was probably meant to be a light tone, though it came out rather forced and strained instead. It wasn’t all that big of a mystery what had him so on edge, though for Sonic, he was rather clueless to the stress and implications in his voice. He would figure it out soon enough though, you’ll just have to be a little patient. “So wouldn’t there be three of them now?”

“Actually, there are four of us now,” Sonic corrected with a lift of his finger, completely oblivious to the silent exchange Rachel and Randall was having right in front of him with some very pointed, very deliberate side eyes. “If you want to count Knuckles. But I would completely understand if you wanted to leave him out of this. I would probably do the same, to be honest.”  

Rachel ignored him as she fully turned to Randall. “Well, yeah, I might have said that about the yellow one, but look at that one right there! He looks exactly like Tom’s hellspawn. Like, nearly identical. It’s honestly a little freaky!”

Sonic tilted his head to the side. “What’s a hellspawn? It sounds kind of cool.”

With a grunt, Shadow finally decided to speak up, if only to knock Sonic down a peg. “Based on how she said it, I don’t think it was a compliment.”

“Yeah, well, I’m going to take it as one.”

Above them, Randall cleared his throat. “So, kids…” he began awkwardly, the edge in his tone making Sonic and Shadow both redirect their attention upon him and cease what was probably about to be a petty back-and-forth squabble. “What, um, brings you our way?” He glanced out onto the porch, and seeing no one other than the two hedgehogs before him, looked back down upon them. “Without the rest of the Wachowskis?”

Rachel snorted. “Honestly, the only saving grace of this surprise visit is the fact that you didn’t bring Tom with you. Good riddance.”

Sonic ignored her little jab, figuring that it would be in his best interest in the moment to not stoop to her level and engage in a bit of barbed banter. Which meant that he was going to have to suck it up and amp up the sweet-talking charisma he was so famously known for.  “Well, we were in the neighborhood, and realized that we were a little… uh…” Sonic glanced to Shadow for help, and upon seeing that the person next to him was probably one of the least creative and imaginative people he knew, realized that he was going to be on his own for this little bout of shmoozing he found himself engulfed in, “…lost, and that we should probably give Tom and Maddie a call to let them know that we’re all good.”

“You were… in the neighborhood.”

Rachel’s tone was disbelieving, and rightfully so. San Francisco was so far from Green Hills, it was actually kind of absurd. Still, Sonic brushed it off, attempting to play it cool. “Oh yeah. One of our little races got out of control, and next thing you know, we’re in San Francisco! Pretty crazy how that works, huh?”

“And so, you’re here to call Tom and Maddie?” Randall asked slowly. “Nothing else?”

“Yep, just to let them know that everything is okay and that we’re totally fine.” That part was the truth, and therefore slid off Sonic’s tongue like mercury.

Giving each other a look, yet another silent exchange passing between them, Rachel and Randall stepped back, allowing Sonic and Shadow to follow them into the foyer. From there, the four made their way into the living room, and as they came to a stop, Sonic took a moment to glance around. The house was mostly the same as he remembered, save for the egregious number photos of Rachel and Randall displayed everywhere. The degree to which Rachel and Randall seemed to love each other was enough to make his gorge rise. Blech. They were somehow worse than Tom and Maddie, which was truthfully saying quite a lot.

In front of them, Rachel lifted up a hand to prevent Sonic and Shadow from following her any further. “Can you two give us a moment? Just wait right here and make yourselves at home, don’t go anywhere. We’ll be right back.”

And with that, grabbing Randall by the arm and dragging him behind her, the two departed in a rather unceremonious and brusque manner.

Sonic watched it all with an idle scratch of his nose. “Well that certainly wasn’t very abrupt and suspicious,” he mused as he turned to where Shadow was standing right next to him. “They're probably off to get us water or something. What do you think, Shadow?”

Or at least, he would have turned to look at Shadow, except for the fact that his companion was no longer by his side.

Pivoting around, Sonic found him wandering around the room, studying the walls and displays decorating the space. “Are you seriously snooping already? The moment they leave?” Sonic asked incredulously with a shake of his head, before admitting, “I mean, to be completely fair, that’s exactly what I was going to do too, but I was at least going to wait longer than two seconds before searching the place for any dirt on Rachel. Come on Shadow, have some decorum.”

Shadow rolled his eyes. “I wasn’t snooping, just looking around.”

“There’s a difference?”

Ignoring him, Shadow leaned in to study a photo of Rachel and Randall at their wedding (at least, before everything went sideways), before stepping back. “This place seems nice,” he commented after a long moment as he continued to study the photos along the wall, slowly pacing as he drank it all in. It occurred to Sonic in that moment that Shadow had likely never been in a real house before— his encounter with Sonic in his attic right before G.U.N.’s arrival hardly counted. Primarily because it had been a fleeting moment, but also, because Sonic’s little gremlin cave could hardly be considered representative of what a nice, normal home for a nice, nuclear family would look like. “What is their occupation?”

Sonic gave him a perplexed, albeit amused look. “Why did you phrase it like that?”

“What?”

“You said it like an old person. You asked what their occupation was.”

“Is that not the correct thing to say?”

“I mean it’s fine, it’s just. I don’t know. Most people say ‘oh, what do they do for work’ or ‘what’s their job.’ You sounded like Tom when you said it like that just now.” Sonic let out a sharp bark of laughter. “Which means, you sounded ridiculous, by the way.”

Shadow rolled his eyes, but surprisingly, gave in without further pushback. “Okay, fine. What do they do for work?”

Sonic opened his mouth to respond, when he was splashed with a cold, frigid realization.

Oh. Oh no.

His mouth snapped shut as he felt the sudden weight of the trap he had just unwittingly walked them into pressed down upon him like a pile of bricks, struggling to get his thoughts under control and to quell the rising tide of panic that began to pool in his core. Swallowing, he managed to weakly laugh as he said, “You’re, uh, not going to believe this.”

Noticing the abrupt shift in Sonic’s demeanor, Shadow paused in his studying of the photos of Rachel and her happy family, sending a glance towards Sonic. “Believe what?” he asked, his voice laced with an edge of caution.

“Rachel and Randall, you see… uh… well, they’re….” Despite his best efforts, Sonic couldn’t bring himself to complete the sentence. He knew that Shadow’s response would be explosive, and he really wasn’t in the mood to become a corpse, for two reasons. The first one was that he couldn’t think of a worse place to die than Rachel’s living room. That really was the lowest of the low. And the second, of course, was that he still had to call Tom and Maddie and tell them that he was okay; Shadow could beat him senseless (and make him very much not okay) after.

At Sonic’s continued hesitation, Shadow’s angling of his head became a full body pivot as he fully turned to face Sonic, his shoulders squaring back as he glared over at him. “They’re what.”

Sonic clucked his tongue, figuring that he couldn’t stall any longer and that it was probably best to just get it out and deal with the consequences of Shadow’s reaction in stride. “They’re agents for G.U.N.”

Shadow’s retaliation was instant, just like Sonic knew it would be. Honestly, it was kind of ludicrous how predictable he was as he grabbed Sonic’s front with both of his hands and slammed him against the wall. Despite the severe display of aggression, Sonic couldn’t even bring himself to be surprised as he looked up at Shadow from where he found himself pinned, barely able to prevent the roll of his eyes like the sun rising and setting in the sky.  

“Are you kidding me dude? You know, your violent outbursts are getting a little overplayed. Haven’t you ever heard of expressing yourself through your words? I mean seriously. This is, like, the second time in as many days that you’ve slammed me against a wall. I’m getting a bit tired of it.”

Shadow ignored him, and rightfully so. “What do you mean, they’re agents for G.U.N.?!” he seethed, his eyes narrowing and teeth baring as he pushed his entire body weight into preventing Sonic’s squirming body from slipping past him. “You mean to tell me that we just went through all that hassle to escape from them, just for you to lead us right to where they would be waiting?!”

“Look, I forgot, I’m sorry!” he gasped as Shadow shifted his grip from Sonic’s chest to wrap around his neck, gripping at his collarbone and using the leverage to press his head further against the wall.

“How could you have possibly forgotten such a monumental detail?!” Shadow spat. “I should have saved us the trouble of traveling and just let you surrender yourself to G.U.N. when they knocked on your front door!”

“The last time I saw Rachel and Randall was when Maddie and Tom disguised themselves to break into G.U.N.’s headquarters! So technically, I didn’t see them at all!”

“Are you serious?!” Shadow asked, his grip loosening for a split second in incredulity before he deepened it into a tighter squeeze than before. “That’s a horrible excuse!”

Through the searing sensation of Shadow choking him out, Sonic realized that Shadow kind of had a point. It was a horrible excuse, because the entire reason Maddie had dressed up as Rachel and Tom as Randall was so that they could use their status as G.U.N. agents to break in. In fact, it slipping Sonic’s mind was a massive oversight on his part, an insurmountable blunder.

“Your foolish mistake is going to cost us our freedom,” Shadow growled, his voice a low as it rumbled in Sonic’s ear. “We need to leave. Now.”

“Oh come on man, isn’t it a little rude to leave without saying goodbye?” Sonic managed to say. “I know you used to do it all the time when you would just teleport away without saying anything, but maybe now’s as good a time as ever to sit down and have a heart-to-heart about proper social etiquette.”

Shadow opened his mouth to snarl something in return, his nose scrunching in fury at Sonic’s snarky comment, however, was interrupted by Rachel and Randall’s return to the living room.

“Um, what are you two doing?”

Shadow’s head snapped back to look towards their intruders, his grip blissfully loosening, and using his momentary distraction, Sonic used the opportunity to hastily respond before Shadow could say anything overly aggressive. Because with the way his eyes sparked in fury, practically glowing red like the furious demon he was? Didn’t give Sonic a lot of faith that whatever he had to say would help them weasel their way out of the little situation they found themselves ensnared in. “We were just, uh, hugging!” Sonic called over to her. “Yes. Embracing, that’s what we’re doing, because, um, we’re just so excited to be here! Thank you so much for letting us into your home, truly. You are too kind.”

Rachel’s lips twisted in disbelief. “Doesn’t look much like a hug to me,” she said, and beside her, Randall nodded in agreement, his own expression clouded with concern.

“Maybe from where you’re standing,” Sonic retorted, before turning back to Shadow and lowering his voice to a whisper through clenched teeth. “Come on, Shadow. Hug me. We gotta sell this bit.”

Shadow whirled around to face him, the surprise that had lit up his face upon Rachel’s return descending back into one of fury as he beheld Sonic beneath him. “You are not deserving of a hug right now,” he hissed, and unfortunately for Sonic, didn’t play along with his request.

That didn’t prevent him from raising a brow in what could easily be misconstrued as a flirty gesture and giving Shadow a snarky smirk. “Just right now?”

“Never.”

Sonic’s smirk deepened, and before he could taunt Shadow further, Rachel cleared her throat behind them. There was something serious, something no-nonsense in the sound, for in addition to capturing Sonic’s attention, it also caused Shadow to drop his grip on Sonic and turn around to face her. Likely because he recognized it for the threat that it was.

And sure enough, Rachel’s next words were, in fact, very threatening. “G.U.N. has sent out an organization-wide red alert about you two. Care to explain to us what that’s all about?”

Sonic laughed weakly. “Is a red alert, like, a good thing?”

Randall’s stern tone just about wiped the feeble smile off of Sonic’s face; he hated to admit it, but it seemed that Tom could learn some lessons in discipline from the guy.  “It’s a very, very bad thing. You two are in a lot of trouble.”

And with that, Sonic dropped the act as he threw his hands up in the air in exasperation. “Trouble for what, existing?” He scoffed, the sound harsh and laced with the stress of the past few days shining through his waning façade. “Did they even tell you guys what happened? Or just that Shadow and I are two criminals that need to be locked up?”

“They didn’t need to give a reason,” Rachel replied rather matter-of-factly, something that made Sonic want to pull at his quills in frustration. “I know you well enough to be confident that you screwed up big time, somehow.”

“I didn’t though! Not this time, at least!”

Next to him, Shadow let out a low sound of dry mirth. “You did kind of screw up by knocking out all the power.”

“Not helping, Shadow,” Sonic gritted out from the corner of his mouth, “besides, you were equally to blame for that!”

Shadow made a noncommittal grunting noise, and deciding to ignore him, Sonic turned his attention back to Rachel and Randall. “They didn’t tell you the reason we’re in trouble, because what they want to do is wrong!” He was becoming desperate, and even though he tried to reign it in, couldn’t quite get his fervor under control as he continued to speak. “They want to capture us and use us for our power. They basically want to claim ownership of us.”

Randall gave Rachel a hesitant side eye. “I see….”

“And so we did the only thing we could think to do. We ran away. And so what if that makes G.U.N. think that we’re criminals, because being out on the streets is a far better alternative to being locked up away somewhere.” Beside him, Shadow’s brow lowered in determination, in indignation. And in front of him, Randall and Rachel still appeared to be uncertain, glancing at each other in silent deliberation. Sensing that he was at risk of losing their goodwill, Sonic decided to switch angles and to appeal to their status as parents. Surely, they would understand if he could say the right thing to pull at their heartstrings? “Please. We just want to use your phone so we can call Tom and Maddie and tell them that we’re okay. They’re probably worried sick about us. And then we’ll leave. I promise.”

Unfortunately for Sonic, his plea didn’t work, not on Rachel at least. “No. Nope. No way. We’re not going to let you call anybody from our phone, we are not going to be complicit with two criminals! Right, Randall?”

(Fortunately for Sonic, his plea did seem to work just a little on Randall.)

Beside her, Randall remained silent, and as she turned to lift her hands up in a silent demand as to why he wasn’t chasing their two guests right back out the front door, all before calling G.U.N. headquarters, he extended her a grimace, one that clearly indicated he was finding some sliver of sympathy for Sonic and Shadow’s abysmal predicament.

“Oh no. You’re falling for it, aren’t you?” Rachel moaned as she redirected the full weight of her ire onto her husband. “Come on Randall, get your act together. You’re better than this!”

“They’re just kids, Rachel. Would it really hurt to let them call their parents?”

“With what phone?! I am not allowing my cell phone to be used for treason! Do you know what that would mean for my upcoming promotion?! I’ll tell you what it means… it’s not going to exist because I would be fired!” Rachel hissed to him, and to be fair, it was a completely valid point. Despite her protests, Randall gave her a look, and glanced up towards the second story of the house. While the gesture was lost on Sonic and Shadow, Rachel caught on almost immediately. “Oh no. We are not sending them up there and bringing her into this! I will not let them make my daughter an accessory to their crimes! Nuh-uh! No way!”

“We might not be able to help you, not as employees of G.U.N.,” Randall said, ignoring her protests as he turned to address the two hedgehogs before him. “But… I suppose Jojo does have a cell phone upstairs she might let you borrow… if you can convince her, that is.”

“Oh what, you’re not going to pull some twist reveal on us and say that Jojo has actually been a G.U.N. agent this entire time?” Sonic gave Randall a knowing look, one that he couldn’t help. The punchline was just too juicy, simply too ripe to pass up. “Wouldn’t be the first time, now would it?”

Randall allowed a small smirk to curl at his lips, though Rachel, unsurprisingly, found no amusement in Sonic’s jab. “She’s eleven,” she deadpanned without truly answering the question, before shaking her head. “But fine. If it will get you two to leave faster, then have it your way. Now go up there and make your call before I change my damn mind.”

Not needing to be told twice, Sonic gave her a snappy salute and a sassy wink. “You’re my favorite aunt and uncle from Maddie’s side of the family, did you know that?” he said, before turning to head up the stairs without waiting for her to respond. Shadow lingered a moment behind him, however, evidently did not want to be stuck in the same room as two G.U.N. agents, for he was quick to fall into line behind Sonic as they made their way up to the second story of the house.

They had reached the top of the stairs and Sonic had thought they were temporarily done with the headache that was dealing with Rachel, when he heard her voice call out sharply to them from the living room. “And you better not give her any crazy ideas about running away with you, do you hear me?!”

“Yeah, yeah, I hear you!” Sonic called down the staircase before lowering his volume to address Shadow with a cheeky glint in his eyes. “Although to be honest, Jojo running away from this mental asylum wouldn’t really be that crazy of an idea, am I right or am I right, Shadow?” Upon not receiving an immediate answer, Sonic's ear flicked as he looked to see what the holdup was. “Uh… Shadow?”

He turned and found him standing farther down the hall, his posture rigid as he stared at a door. Perplexed by what could have possibly enraptured him to such an intense degree, Sonic ambled up next to him and postured an arm that he rested upon his shoulder. Shadow surprisingly didn’t shrug him off, though granted, after their latest string of physical contact that was becoming more and more frequent, perhaps his lack of a hostile reaction wasn’t all that surprising at all.

Besides. His attention was too focused on the words on the door before them. They were gaudy, bedazzled, and pink, and they simply spelled out, ‘Jojo.’

Sonic removed his arm from Shadow’s shoulder and gave it a congratulatory pat. “Hey, look! You found her room. Which isn’t all that impressive because it has her name spelled out in big glittery letters over the door, but you know what, good for you! I knew there was a reason I brought you along with me.” He lowered his arm to his side, motioning for Shadow to follow him. “Now let’s go! We’ve got a call to make.”

Sonic stepped forward and knocked on the door, and upon not hearing anyone tell him not to enter, decided that was enough of an invitation for him to slowly crack the door open and peek cautiously inside. “Jojo? You in there? Can we come in?”

Jojo was laying on her bed looking at her phone, and Sonic’s face lit up as he caught sight of it before immediately wilting as he got a better glimpse what it looked like. The phone case was also pink and bedazzled, and Sonic let out a mental curse about how he would have to hold such a gaudy thing in his hands before reminding himself that he should be thankful for the opportunity to call Tom and Maddie in the first place.

Upon seeing him, Jojo put her phone away as a look of pure thrill lit up her face. “Sonic!” she cried out, leaping off the bed to run over to wrap her arms around him in a tight embrace, giving him a firm squeeze before standing back to apprehend him with her hands resting upon his shoulders. “What are you doing here?!”

Giving her a warm smile, Sonic shrugged, his shoulders rolling beneath her grip. “Oh, you know, just wanted to drop in and say hello! You know how it is, heh-heh.”

“You came all this way to San Francisco just to say hi?”

Sonic smacked his lips uncertainly as he weakly nodded. Gosh, he was so awkward with stuff like this, especially since the times he saw Jojo were few and far between. Sure, they got along well enough together, but it was always under the flimsy umbrella that shielded them from the storm that were Tom and Rachel’s constant bickering. Somehow, someway, every family visit, reunion, and gathering became centered around the issues those two had with each other, and if it wasn’t so constant, it might have actually been entertaining. Rachel’s wedding was an excellent example of their dismal dynamic, and had just been a singular blip in a long history of tense exchanges between the two.

And so, since he lacked the ability to just outright ask for her phone, Sonic continued to beat around the bush and play along with the ridiculous narrative he had concocted. “Yep, that’s totally the only reason why we’re visiting you right now! Not because we need anything from you at all, nope, that would totally be crazy!”

Next to him, bewildered by his pandering and fed up with how pointless the conversation was thus far, Shadow rolled his eyes. “We need your communication device.” He reached out an expectant, demanding hand, and for the first time, Jojo seemed to notice him, though not of her own negligence. Shadow had been pretty pointedly hiding behind Sonic’s frame, living up to his namesake and becoming his literal shadow for a brief moment while he had studied the contents of Jojo’s room. “Hand it over.”

Jojo could do little more than stare at Shadow, and as a result, Sonic took it upon himself to use the silence as an excellent teaching opportunity. Because seriously, Lord knew that Shadow needed a full semester-long course in communications at the collegiate level with how horrendous his language skills were. “Dude. Two things.” Sonic lifted two fingers, and emphatically lowered them as he touched upon each of his points. “One. It’s a cell phone. Not communicator device. Can you at least try to keep up with the modern world for a second here? And two, would it kill you to say please? You’re kind of embarrassing me in front of my cousin right now.”

The exchange seemed to buy Jojo enough time to shake herself from her stupor, for she turned from gawking at Shadow to give Sonic a quizzical look. “You need my cell phone? Why?”

Sonic grimaced, before coming to the conclusion that with Shadow’s bluntness that left much to be desired, it was probably best if he handled the summarized explanation. And of course, since he was Sonic, this meant that he was still going to beat around the bush and not cut to the chase, because even though he liked to give Shadow a hard time for his lackluster communication skills, his truthfully weren’t all that much better. “It’s a long story, but basically, Shadow and I are on a little cross-country road trip to, um, see the sights! Yes. Montana is fun, but we decided we wanted to explore a bit, get some fresh air, eat some good food, be tourists, and—”

Apparently done with Sonic’s rambling monologue and lack of getting to the point for what was the second time in a row now, Shadow planted a hand on his hip as he cut Sonic off. “We’re on the run from G.U.N.”

Jojo blinked at Shadow’s statement, before she turned towards Sonic with incredulity stretched across her face. “And you came here?!”

The implication in her statement was blatant, and it was why the hell would you travel halfway across the country just to visit two people who work for the very organization you are fleeing from?! Are you actually stupid?! And yeah, so what if Sonic was kind of stupid for that! He had his moments of not being the brightest, and even if they occurred at an above-average rate in comparison to the rest of the population, the slander he was receiving right now was blown way out of proportion. “Okay, okay, so I forgot that both of your parents work for G.U.N.! It was an honest mistake! Geez, you would all think that I did something to get us killed or whatever!”

“You may as well have,” Shadow sniffed, nothing but pure disgust conveyed in everything from his tone, to his facial expression, to his posture. He was still quite peeved at the moment, if it wasn’t obvious.

“All right, well, anyways,” Sonic said, not really in the mood to address Shadow’s frustration as he turned to Jojo. “We really need to tell Tom and Maddie that we’re doing okay. Are we able to use your phone to contact them?” He clasped his hands together, and in a moment of pure desperation, sank to his knees and gave Jojo his widest, greenest puppy-dog eyes he could muster. “Please?”

“Oh Sonic,” Jojo said, not missing a beat as she reached down to grab Sonic by the forearm and gently lift him back to his feet. “You know I could never say no to you!”

“Really? I would beg to differ, because I distinctly remember that one time that you refused to help me prank Rachel at our cabin trip last summer.” He snorted as he recalled the disaster that had been that joint family vacation. “For the record, pouring a packet of salt into your mom’s water while she wasn’t looking would have been hilarious.”

Jojo rolled her eyes, but the action was done in good fun as she unlocked her phone and handed it to Sonic. He accepted it with a delicate grasp, almost in disbelief that after all of their traveling and conversing with Rachel and Randall downstairs, he finally had a method to contact his parents right in the palm of his hand.

His awe only lasted a few seconds before he went to open up Tom’s contact. Clicking through the right buttons with fingers that nearly trembled, Sonic couldn’t believe that the moment was almost upon him. However, right as he was about to press the call icon, Shadow’s hand shot out, wrapping around Sonic’s wrist and yanking the hand that held the phone off to the side. It was sudden, it was abrupt, and of course, it was accompanied with a harsh, barking demand from Shadow.

“What do you think you’re doing?!”

Sonic paused, at first in shock, then confusion as his eyes darted between the phone still held in his hands and Shadow. “Um, I’m making a phone call?” his grip around the device tightened, and Shadow’s grip around his wrist tightened in turn. “What does it look like I’m doing?!”

“We can’t call them.”

“What? Why not? Isn’t that literally the entire purpose of us being here?”

Shadow scowled as he kept his hand on Sonic’s wrist, clearly not trusting Sonic enough to relinquish his firm grasp. “There is a strong chance that G.U.N. has confiscated their communication devices and is monitoring them. It wouldn’t be safe for us to call, it is more likely that they answer than your friends.”

Ignoring the fact that Shadow still insisted on calling them ‘communication devices’ when Sonic had already told him that they were called cell phones, Sonic realized that he did actually have a point. They weren’t at an anonymous payphone; they were about to make a call from a personal phone with an established connection to Jojo and with the ability to easily track them to their location in the heart of San Francisco. If G.U.N. were to realize it were them, they would descend upon the city immediately. “Well, maybe we could try to see who picks up, and if G.U.N. answers, we can try to disguise our voices?”

Shadow gave him a flat look, his grip around Sonic subconsciously tightening. “Have you heard yourself speak? They’ll know it’s you immediately.”

He did have a point, much to Sonic’s chagrin. “Yeah, and I suppose you couldn’t talk either, since you only speak in a deep monotone with no variation or cadence in your speech whatsoever….” With his free hand, the one not holding the phone and held prisoner by Shadow’s lingering hold, Sonic slapped a theatrical palm to his forehead. “Ugh, if only we didn’t have such recognizable and iconic voices!” he lamented, speaking more about himself than Shadow.

Shadow glanced between Sonic and the device, his lips pressed into a thin, pensive line as he contemplated their predicament. “Is there anything else we could do instead from this device? Perhaps send a message?”

“I think the word you’re looking for is a text,” Sonic quipped, unable to help but pile on to the growing list of grievances Shadow committed against modern technology, “but yeah. That should work.”

There was a moment as they stared at each other, long and drawn out, before Sonic cleared his throat awkwardly. “Can I have my hand back now? I kind of need it to send the text.”

“Oh, um, yeah. Sorry.”

Shadow’s iron grasp released, and it took everything in Sonic’s power not to immediately rub the sore spot. Trying to ignore the way burning way the skin Shadow had held lingered, tingling in what Sonic thought could be nerve damage if nothing else, he redirected his focus to the cell phone in his hand. Opening the messaging app, he prepared to type out a short note, however paused before he put a single letter down onto the text box.

“Now, what should I say to them? Obviously, I can’t just send them a text saying that we’re okay. That would be just as bad as calling.”

“Emojis?” Jojo supplied, to which Sonic pointed emphatically at her.

“Emojis, yes! I love it! That’s perfect!” He turned his pointed finger towards Shadow. “Don’t even ask what they are. You can just watch.”

Shadow, whose mouth had been open to likely ask the exact question Sonic instructed not to verbalize, shut it as he angled his body to look over Sonic’s shoulder, his frown deepening as Sonic got to work.

“All right, all right, gotta keep it ambiguous…” he mused aloud as he began to type, scrolling through the multiple pages of emojis to select the right ones. It was a long process since there were so many, but as the minutes passed, he finally constructed his magnum opus. The perfect cryptic message.

Beside him, Shadow continued to read over his shoulder, his eyes narrowed as he narrated the string of symbols typed onto the screen purely for the sake of literal emojis and story formatting not being something that meshed together all that well. “Blue heart… plus sign… black heart and red heart… equal sign… thumbs up?” He turned to Sonic in vexation, his frown easing up at his unabashed confusion. “What does this mean?”

Sonic paused, his finger hovering over the ‘send’ button as he slowly turned to look at Shadow with a mere tilt of his neck. “Are you joking? Or are you actually this dense.” There was a pause, and then feeling the need to clarify himself as Shadow didn’t immediately respond, followed up his question. “I’m being genuine. Like, so real right now.”

Still, Shadow stared at him blankly.

And in response to the profound and absurd lack of an answer, Sonic just about let out a weighty sigh of exasperation. “Dude. It’s so obvious. I’m the blue heart, you’re the black and red heart, and the thumbs up means that we’re doing okay.” He shook his head. “I can’t even believe that I had to explain that to you. That’s five seconds of my life I will never get back, I just want you to know that.”

At this explanation, Shadow glanced down to the phone with a crease of his brows. “Why did you include me in the message?” He jabbed a finger towards the screen in an accusatory manner. “As the black and red heart?”

Sonic subconsciously moved the phone screen away from Shadow’s thick, gloved finger, not trusting him to not fat-thumb the keyboard and add an unintentional emoji to the very intricate message he had so painstakingly crafted. For whatever reason, Sonic had come to a stop over perplexingly endless display of flag emojis (also known as the worst and most useless part of the emoji library), and even though it would have been hilarious for Shadow to accidentally press the rainbow flag staring up at them both due to their precarious friendship and the city in which they found themselves in, Sonic figured that the last thing Tom and Maddie needed was an extra layer of convulsion to the message he already knew they would probably struggle to decipher. “Um, I included the black and red heart because I kind of-sort of ran away with you? What?”

“I mean…” Shadow said, withdrawing his finger and allowing Sonic to relax at the removal of the threat his clumsy gesture had posed, “why would they care that I’m doing okay? Why would it matter to them?”

Sonic was about to brush him off, when he paused as Shadow’s words sank in. Because more or less, Shadow did bring up a good point. Why would Tom and Maddie, who had never before properly met him, who had only suffered at his hands, care about Shadow’s wellbeing? Why would they be happy that he was doing well, when he was the one who had appeared to whisk Sonic away from Green Hills? For all intents and purposes, Shadow was the villain in their story. His safety should not matter to them.

But then again, Sonic knew Tom and Maddie. He knew them as two kind, empathetic, and compassionate individuals who did their best to parent their three alien children despite the difficult circumstances, even when those three alien children did nothing but terrorize and upend their lives. Their patience was infinite, as was their understanding. Sonic had a hard time believing that if they could tolerate Sonic, Tails, and Knuckles, that they wouldn’t also do the same for Shadow. That they wouldn’t recognize him for the lost, scared kid that he truly was. And if they couldn’t see that yet, well, maybe one day they would.

Sonic square his shoulders in confident defiance. “It matters because I say it matters,” he said definitively, pinning Shadow with a look that told him not to question the topic further.

And luckily for Sonic, his gaze of intent worked, as Shadow pulled back and thankfully changed the topic. He gestured toward the screen with an inclination of his head, redirecting Sonic’s attention to the line of emojis. “And you’re sure that G.U.N. won’t understand this message?”

Sonic shrugged. “I mean, you had no idea what it meant, so maybe they won’t either?” he ventured, completely ignoring the fact that an alien hedgehog whose frame of reference was living on a military base in the 1970’s and had been frozen in stasis for fifty years was not at all comparable to a normal human being living on planet Earth, status as G.U.N. employee aside. “Besides. All the people who work there are like, super grown up and old anyways. They probably wouldn’t even know how to unlock one of these things in the first place.”

Shadow let out a grunt that made it seem like he wasn’t completely convinced by Sonic’s declaration, however, didn’t say anything more. Taking that as much of an approval as he was going to get from his friend, Sonic turned his attention back to the phone and the ‘cryptic’ message that stared back up at him. With a deep breath that he held as he lifted a finger to the screen, he gathered the courage to press send.

The phone let out a noise to indicate that the message had been sent, and the emojis popped up into a text bubble on the screen. And even though he wanted to sit there and stare at the screen and wait for a response, he handed the phone back to Jojo. Now that the message had been sent, their location was more or less compromised, meaning, it was time for them to leave.

“Thank you, Jojo,” Sonic said in earnest, his tone completely lacking any edge of jest or silliness as he released his grasp on the phone with a great deal of reluctance. But of course, as was in character for him, he was quick to drop the genuine display as he delivered a sharp elbow to Shadow’s ribs, who had been standing there literally minding his own business. “Go on Shadow, say ‘thank you.’”

Shadow scowled at Sonic, but other than the curl of his lips and the intense lowering of his brow line, otherwise didn’t fight against Sonic’s order as he turned to face Jojo. “Thanks,” he bit out with an impressive degree of muted fury that was certainly meant for Sonic, but unfortunately channeled into the atrocious expression of gratitude.

Jojo, to her credit, didn’t seem all that bothered by the vitriol woven into his tone, pausing as she shoved her phone back into her pocket as she pinned Shadow with an inquisitive look. “You seem angry.”  

Well, that was an understatement, and also super obvious given that Shadow’s whole thing was being constantly mad, so Sonic waved her off. “That’s just how he always looks. Don’t pay him any mind.”

Jojo ignored his command, instead paying Sonic no mind rather than Shadow as she continued to press forward. “Is everything okay?”

The follow up question was enough for Sonic to take a step back in the conversation as Shadow narrowed his eyes in a menacing manner. “Why do you want to know?”

“Because you’re Sonic’s friend, which therefore makes you my friend?”

Shadow’s fingers curled into loose fists by his sides, and for all intents and purposes, looked like he wanted to say something along the lines of I don’t think that’s how it works. However, much to Sonic’s relief, he stood there in silence, biting his tongue as he simply stared at Jojo.

And this lack of response prompted her to continue speaking. “So…” she began slowly, “are you angry?”

There was a long beat, and then another. And after a few of these beats, right when Sonic had figured that he would probably not say anything and it would be best if they just left, Shadow finally spoke with a great deal of evident reluctance. “I… I was. For a while.” He paused, looking towards Sonic, and the clench in his fists eased. “But… I think I’m starting to do a little better now.”

Jojo followed Shadow’s glance towards Sonic, her face shifting in understanding as she turned back to face Shadow. “That’s good. I’m happy to hear that.”

The whole exchange left Sonic completely perplexed. And as the seconds dragged on where no one said anything, he took it upon himself to spare them all from what was becoming a very awkward silence.  “Well, um, thanks again, Jojo! We’ll, uh, see you at the next Wachowski reunion? Maybe? If we can get Tom and Rachel to coexist long enough for that to happen?”

Jojo laughed as she shook her head. “Bye Sonic,” she said with a friendly wave. “And be sure to bring your new friend to the next family gathering, okay?”

Sonic glanced at Shadow, and due to his own reservations and the strict time constraint they found themselves pinned under, did nothing more than swallow thickly and nod as he and Shadow took their leave.

Their walk down the hallway and stairs was done in silence, Shadow because when given the opportunity, preferred not to say anything at all, and Sonic because he was deep in thought.

He wasn’t sure if there would ever be another Wachowski family gathering. And in the slim possibility that there would be one, there was an even slimmer chance that Shadow would be there with him.

The mere thought was just about enough to send him into a crisis.

Determined to not let his growing disturbance show upon his outward appearance, Sonic kept his face schooled into a neutral expression and his breathing steady, and it was only when they returned to the living room sitting at the bottom of the steps did Sonic remember that Rachel and Randall had been waiting for them.

Of course, completely missing the pensive and reflective way the two walked, both for entirely different reasons, Rachel popped up from the couch upon seeing their return and immediately launched into a heated tirade. “We were talking, and here’s the story we came up with. We didn’t see you guys. You two snuck in, used Jojo’s phone without anybody knowing, and then snuck out. Just in case anyone ever asks!”

The bluntness of her delivery and content of her statement was enough to shake Sonic from his musings as he folded his arms and gave her a sassy look from across the room. “Yeah, and in case we find ourselves unfortunate enough to be in a position where G.U.N. does ask us about the details of this little visit, we’ll make sure to put in a good word so you can get your promotion. Won’t we, Shadow?”

In response, Shadow gave him a tired side eye. “Don’t drag me into this.”

“You know what? I think I like this one.” Rachel gave Shadow a look of mild approval, which coming from her, meant quite a lot. “He seems to be about as done with your antics as I am.”

“Trust me. I’ve been done with him for a while now,” Shadow commented drily.

Sonic, who had lifted a very pointed finger and had a hot retort sitting on his tongue, paused at Shadow’s comment, his mouth closing and finger going limp as he slowly turned to face him.  “Whose side are you even on?” he asked incredulously, betrayal plastered all over his face.

“Not yours, that’s for damn sure,” Rachel retorted. “Anyways. Were you able to do what you needed to do?”

Sonic nodded, recognizing an olive branch when he saw one. “Yeah, we did. Thanks for the help Rachel. Or should I say Aunt Rachel? Can I call you Auntie?”

Rachel extended him a withering look. “I’d rather you not.”

Smirking with a cocky arch of his brows, Sonic slipped back into his usual annoying persona. The one that he knew would raise Rachel’s hackles in a way she really didn’t deserve, not after the (albeit limited) kindness she had shown him and Shadow during their visit. “Yeah, well, I mean it when I say thanks for the help, truly. I totally owe you a new wedding after this. Although maybe this time, we’ll try to have it so the entire thing isn’t a big set-up at your expense. Say what you will about how I ruined it by dumping snow all over the place, but I think we do not point enough fingers at Randall for your special day being a disaster.”

See, with commentary like this, it was really easy to tell why Rachel wasn’t Sonic’s biggest fan. However, she managed to maintain some semblance of civility, placing a hand on her hip as she waved him off. “Yeah, yeah, I only did this because even though you’re Tom’s kid, you’re also technically Maddie’s too. And even though I hate to admit it, it does count for something.” She shook her head in disbelief, as though she couldn’t believe that she had just lent Sonic a helping hand at the expense of her pride and, potentially, her job. “You two should probably get out of here. And now, if you’ll excuse me, I’m going to go up and check in on Jojo to make sure she isn’t brainwashed or traumatized. Randall, do you mind seeing them out?” She gave them all a look, one that indicated she was over the whole thing and ready to wash her hands of the entire visit. “And by that, I mean, do you mind getting them out of my damn house already?”

Randall gave her a sweet smile. “Yes dear,” he said, and despite the way it may have appeared to be sarcastically stated, he was being completely genuine and affectionate in his uttering of the phrase.

As Rachel turned to go upstairs and, for lack of a better term, cleanse Jojo from Sonic and Shadow’s influence (evidently, the time Sonic had caused her to sprint around the house yelling ‘gotta go fast!’ was still branded in her recent memory), Randall gestured for the two to follow him out to the front door. Stepping out onto the porch, Sonic turned to thank him one last time for being the voice of reason in his otherwise insane marriage to Rachel, however, before he had the chance to do so, Randall spoke first.

“Oh, and one last thing before you go.”

Sonic froze and his heart sank. This was it. This was going to be the moment that the entire thing was unveiled to be a setup, for Randall to reveal that they had called for G.U.N. and that they were on their way. This was going to be the twist, the betrayal that got him and Shadow captured, Sonic was nearly certain of it.

However, his paranoia was unfounded, for instead of declaring any dastardly or nefarious plots to turn the two hedgehogs in, Randall crouched down so that he was at eye-level with them. “I’m glad you boys felt like you could trust us to come visit,” he said, the words raw and honest. “I know that what G.U.N. is attempting to do right now isn’t the greatest, and I can’t say that I agree with their intentions for the two of you….”

At this, Sonic nodded, relieved that Randall was able to at least somewhat see their side of things.

“However, at the end of the day, we do still work for them, and so there’s only so much we can do to assist.”

Sonic laughed weakly. “I mean, you could always quit?” The suggestion was done in half-jest, but even as he made it, he knew that there was no way in the entire world that Rachel and Randall would quit their jobs as G.U.N. agents. It was embedded far too deep into his character, buried within the fibers of his very essence in a way that it would be impossible to extract without giving him an entire identity crisis. Rachel, on the other hand, was a bit more fleshed out outside of her employment, however, given her stout devotion to Randall, Sonic knew it was unlikely she would up and quit without him.

It was a lost cause, and probably a good thing they were leaving.

In front of them, Randall stood back to his full height. “I wish we could help you two more and let you stay, even if my wife doesn’t agree.” He let out a chuckle at this, shaking his head in what Sonic found to be a baffling display of admiration towards Rachel’s (completely warranted) animosity. His merriment only lasted a few moments, though, before he sobered up, looking down upon them with a expression so severe, so serious that it made something beneath Sonic’s skin crawl. “It’s dangerous out there. I wouldn’t stay in San Francisco long if I were you, not after contacting Tom and Maddie.” He glanced out past the doorway and down the street before training his gaze back down on them, something in his face softening. “You kids stay safe, okay?”

And with that, he closed the door, leaving Sonic and Shadow alone on the porch, alone in the city, alone in the world, with only each other to walk the path that laid ahead.

Chapter Text

There was a beat as Sonic and Shadow stared at the door that had just closed in their faces.

And then, Shadow turned and walked away.

Sonic scrambled to follow him, though as he reached the street and began to march down the sidewalk, Sonic finally called out to his retreating frame. “Um, where do you think you’re going?”

Shadow paused at Sonic’s question, pivoting back to face him. “You heard them. We’re leaving the city. It’s not safe for us here any longer.”

Well, that was not what Sonic had wanted to hear, and so because of this, he could do little more than sputter in indignation. “Wha— huh?! Why would we leave, we just got here!”

“Yes, we did, and now it’s time for us to go.”

“But we spent the entire day traveling!” Sonic protested as he walked up and came to a stop in front of Shadow. “Can’t we spend just a little more time in the city?”

Shadow’s answer was resolute. “No.”

“But there’s so much to do and see here!” Sonic couldn’t help but exclaim, and the thought crossed his mind to grab Shadow by the shoulders and shake some sense into him. Heaven knew that he needed it, however, Sonic refrained as he instead made a wide gesture towards the city around them, a good chunk of it visible from the top of the hilly street they stood upon. “The possibilities are endless! We could go join a business startup and act super pretentious and call ourselves entrepreneurs or CEOs, or we could go visit the super ugly and tryhard architecture of the headquarters for the world’s largest tech companies, ooh! Or we could go take bikini pictures on the beach and pretend like it’s super warm and sunny out and not actually freezing cold and foggy—”

“All of those things sound like a waste of time,” Shadow snapped, and to be fair, he kind of had a point. Hm. Perhaps San Francisco wasn’t all it was cracked up to be after all.

But still, Sonic was undeterred by his rejection because above all else, he was tired, hungry, and not particularly in the mood to take to the road again. The odds of them finding a suspiciously convenient train this close to the heart of the city was slim, and even though they had passed a few streetcar trolleys on their way in, Sonic had a distinct feeling from the clientele that those were more of a tourist venture than a serious mode of transportation.

Wracking his brain for something that wasn’t a tongue-in-cheek joke at the expense of the insufferable tech culture of the Bay Area (or the misconception that the beaches were suitable for any sort of swimwear that wasn’t a thermal wetsuit), Sonic came up with a genuine suggestion. “Okay, what about something a little cooler? We could go tour Alcatraz? I’ve heard that place is kind of neat!” He lifted a finger up in enticement, something that Shadow merely glared flatly at. “An island prison in the middle of the bay. Kinda sick... what do you think?”

“I was literally held captive for fifty years on a place called Prison Island. I don’t really feel the need to go tour the very thing that inspired it.”

Yeah, so Sonic had kind of walked into that one. Though, to be completely fair, he had absolutely no idea Shadow had been confined on a place with a name as unoriginal as ‘prison island’ (and Sonic would have laughed if he hadn't known the context of Shadow’s imprisonment and all he had suffered), but now he knew. Awesome. One more little fun fact about Shadow, under his belt.

New information aside, it still wasn’t going to help him convince Shadow to stay. And so, dropping his peppy demeanor, Sonic switched tactics. “Listen man, I’ll be straight up with you. I’m tired. We just got here. Can’t we spend the night in San Francisco and head out tomorrow?” He gestured out over the vista from the crest of the street they stood upon, where the ocean was visible. The sun was low in the sky, the bottom of it just about to kiss the horizon and sending a refraction of glitter across the waves it sank down into. “The sun’s about to set. I don’t want to run in the dark.”

Shadow scowled, although didn’t protest as he realized that Sonic had brought up a good point. Their stop at Rachel and Randall’s had certainly taken more time than either of them had planned, but then again, that was poor planning on Sonic’s part to expect Rachel to be anything but combative. If anything, they had sent their message and gotten out of there in relatively little time.

“Fine,” Shadow finally gritted out, after he was done frowning at the sun and likely willing it to lift back up into the sky from just the weight of his vehement glare. “We can stay the night. But at the very least, we need to get away from this place.”

Sonic nodded in agreement. That much they were on the same page about.

As the light began to fade, they found themselves exiting the mountainous suburbs and stepping into a small shopping district, crowded and alive with people. And even though Sonic loved the commotion of the city, he knew they had to stay low and hidden, so instead of perusing and wandering like he so desperately wished to do, they kept to the side streets as they skirted around the edges of the main avenue.

At least, until Sonic’s eye caught a shop, and feeling a distinct rumble in his stomach, grabbed Shadow by the arm and pulled him into a nearby alleyway that they were passing. He was hungry, and what he had caught a glimpse of inside, just sitting out in the open and practically calling his name, was going to have to suffice for his evening meal.

“Wait here just a second,” he told Shadow, and before he had the chance to protest, Sonic darted into the shop and returned with his bounty in a grand total of two seconds. Sometimes, it paid to be the fastest thing in the universe. And this was one of those times, as Sonic held up the two oversized drinks in offering, one of them purple, and one of them green. The colors were odd and unnatural, but to Sonic, instead of being an evolutionary feature that screamed poison!, he chose to interpret it as delicious!

Shadow, on the other hand, was not nearly so impressed. “What is that.”

Sonic shrugged. “Dinner, I guess?”

At this, Shadow frowned.  “This doesn’t look like much of a dinner to me.”

He made a completely valid point. For all intents and purposes, the sugary drinks Sonic held would more likely give him a stomachache than satiate his appetite, but since Sonic was very capable of living a life sustained by junk food, he waved Shadow’s concerns off. “Yeah, well, I grabbed two, one for each of us. Which one do you want?”

Shadow’s frown deepened, crossing into something that appeared closer to disgust. However, after a hefty moment, he reached out a cautious hand and grabbed the purple drink out of Sonic’s grasp. He held it out in front of him at an arm’s lengths, swirling it around and studying it with a skeptical eye before glancing back towards Sonic. “How did you even get these?”

Sonic shrugged for the second time in a row. “I don’t know, they were just sitting on the counter. So I figured they were up for grabs.”

“Sonic. These probably belonged to someone else.”

Peeling the plastic seal back so that he could dunk his straw into it, he paused as he glanced up at Shadow. “You think?” He lifted his own green drink up, studying the sticker on the side and searching for any evidence to refute Shadow’s theory. And yep, sure enough, there was a name plastered on the side, curt and glaring up at him in accusation for his accidental theft. “Oops. Sorry Kevin, whoever you are.” And with that, not sounding very remorseful at all, he took a big sip out of the comically large straw…

…just before he spit it all out. Yuck. When he had read the word ‘matcha’ on the side of the cup, he didn’t realize that such a funky word was synonymous to tasting like literal grass trimmings. Although, taking a closer look at the opacity of the green liquid, Sonic didn’t doubt that it was, in fact, grass trimmings blended up into liquid form. What the heck. Who would even enjoy such a heinous creation?

In front of him, Shadow raised a brow in dry judgment and, if Sonic didn’t know any better, a hint of amusement. “Not a fan?”

At his snide comment, Sonic rolled his eyes as he wiped the liquid grass from his mouth with the back of his hand. Ugh. He was going to have the taste of yard trimmings in his mouth for the rest of the evening. “Ha-ha, very funny, Shadow.” He took it one step further by sticking his tongue out and attempting to wipe the residue off his tongue, though as he was met with limited success, gave up and motioned for Shadow to take a drink from his own cup. “Go on, try yours. If you like it, I’ll take it from you.”

Shadow gave him a look, before cautiously bringing the straw up to his mouth and taking a tentative sip.

And just like Sonic, spit out the entirety of his drink, although for an entirely different reason.

In addition to the lilac spray that he spewed out, there were also several black, rubbery balls, tiny little spheres that glinted in the streetlight and sat in a sad heap on the pavement by their feet. And in that moment, Sonic realized why the straws had been so freakishly large; to accommodate whatever those things were. Though based on Shadow’s reaction, Sonic could assume that they weren’t all that tasty.

“What the hell is this? Are you trying to choke me?!” Shadow growled in accusation, his glare shifting from the tapioca pearls sitting innocently on the ground to pin his ire onto Sonic, who was more or less at fault for offering it to him in the first place.

Not that he would take any accountability. “Man, I don’t know, blame that Kevin dude! I didn’t order this.”

Shadow shook his head in disgust, handing the drink over to Sonic in a clear gesture of being done with the whole fiasco. “Disgusting black things. Get out of my sight.”

And with that, chalking the entire thing up to being a big fat failure, Sonic chucked the drinks into the dumpster right beside them in the alleyway. Honestly, the true victim of the whole thing was Kevin, who had likely paid an exorbitant amount of money for two mediocre, oversized drinks that were sampled, detested, and tossed in the garbage by two alien hedgehogs. Poor Kevin.

“Well, now that we’ve experienced that and can cross that off our list of things to do in San Francisco,” Sonic began, feeling more than a little embarrassed that his brilliant idea had been quite the spectacular dud, “should we, uh, find a place to crash for the night?”

Shadow nodded, glancing out toward the street where several pedestrians were passing by. “There’s too many people in this part of the city. We’ll need to go somewhere a little more secluded.”

Sonic paused as he thought for a moment, a finger tapping on his chin as he contemplated. They were in a pretty congested part of town; it would do no good to stay there. And even though they could technically hide out in that alleyway for the rest of the night, Sonic wasn’t all that big a fan of the undesirable stench emanating from the dumpster they stood next to.

Besides. After thinking for a few more moments, an idea popped into his head. One that was far better than hiding out behind a dumpster like a pair of garbage-eating raccoons.

“I’ve got just the place for us to go.”

And with that, he and Shadow began the arduous task of sneaking through the city to the destination Sonic had in mind.

Which, it was soon to be revealed, was Golden Gate Park, just by the southern entrance to the Golden Gate Bridge. If you’re unfamiliar, just imagine a long, winding stretch of lawns, foliage, gardens, trees, memorials, and a bunch of uppity museums speckled along the way. Pretty generic as far as major city parks went, and for the intents and purposes of Sonic and Shadow, was the ideal place for them to camp out and rest in.

The park was serene and empty at this time of night, which was perfect. Still, they kept off the path, walking along the shadows of the bushes and trees lining the paths and fields sprawled out over the column of land. It was peaceful and quiet, and after the long day they had endured, especially the commotion at Rachel’s, it was a much-needed cooldown, a nice breath of fresh air.

However, halfway along their walk, they were interrupted as a large boom! sounded overhead and a bright light flashed briefly across the park’s surface. Next to Sonic, Shadow flinched, instantly dropping into a defensive crouch with a fierce scowl upon his face as he looked up to the skies overhead, his eyes scanning for where and what the threat was. Sonic reacted similarly, though instead of adopting Shadow’s intense posture, his eyes were widened in fear rather than anger for what the potential assailant was.

Although, after a long, drawn-out moment of studying the heavens, there was another sound of thunder clapping and an accompanying burst of light, though this time, the color of the light was green rather than yellow. And with that, upon seeing the sparks of color flash across the sky in a brilliant pattern before fading away into obscurity, Sonic relaxed and let out an easy, albeit mildly stressed laugh.

“What? What is it?” Shadow demanded, his furrowed brow intensifying in his bewilderment as he momentarily shifted his gaze to apprehend Sonic before refocusing on the skies above.

In response, Sonic walked over to him and placed a soft hand on his shoulder, gently lifting him up and out of his defensive, menacing crouch. “They’re fireworks! Oh man, Shadow, we’ve got to get to somewhere higher up where we can get a better view! Trust me, you’re going to love these!”

And perhaps, this will change your mind on San Francisco and help you fall in love with the Earth, he mentally tacked on, but not wanting to display his cards and reveal the primary objective of his bucket list, held his tongue as he turned away from Shadow to survey the park around them.

“Why would I love obnoxious lights in the sky,” Shadow deadpanned, and right after he spoke, yet another firework went off with a roar that made his ears flatten in distaste.  “With a sound that threatens to shatter my eardrums?”

“Um, because they’re cool?” Sonic suggested, not really having an answer much better than that and deeming it a lost cause to attempt to think about it much more. Fireworks were loud, bright, and colorful. What more could Sonic want from something? Those were, like, his three favorite things. “Now, if only we could find a high enough place to—”

He cut himself off as he caught a glimpse of what rested at the end of the park. Nestled up against the base of a large, forested hill, was the perfect contraption for them to get a better vantage point.

“Ferris wheel!” Sonic cried out in what was probably the most excited way someone had ever said the words ‘Ferris’ or ‘wheel,’ save for maybe a child with a propeller hat and a bundle of balloons. However, his excitement was quick to slip away as he let out a groan and threw up a hand in exasperation, the sight of the simple ride inducing a flashback to when he had been in London. “Seriously? What is with these cities all having Ferris wheels in them? Like, why would they choose what is objectively the lamest ride to ever exist when they could put something like a rollercoaster here instead? That would be way cooler.”

Still, he picked up the pace as he began to jog over, Shadow following in suit and coming to a stop beside him at the base of it. He looked up in bewilderment, frowning as he beheld the massive structure. “What is this thing?”

“I mean, it’s pretty self-explanatory. You get into one of those little cabin thingies, and then it goes around for a few spins and then it’s over. That’s basically it.”

Shadow frowned as he turned to glance at Sonic in disbelief. “And that’s supposed to be fun?”

Despite himself, Sonic let out a harsh bark of laughter. For once, he was on the exact same page as Shadow’s obtuse opinions, which was something he didn’t know if he should be excited or concerned about. Probably the latter, to be honest. “That’s what I’m saying! Gosh, don’t you just love it when we agree on things?”

Shadow let out a derisive grunt, one that didn’t really indicate his stance on the matter.

Ignoring it, Sonic continued talking. “Anyways, while I would love for you to teleport us up there, I don’t think we should for logistical reasons as well as the fact that I’m not really in the mood to throw up right now, thank you very much.” He climbed the short and rather inefficient fence keeping any intruders out, making his way over to the base of the ride. “We’re going to have to do this the hard way. I hope you’re ready to climb!”

Sonic brought them to a thin, fragile-looking ladder, one that appeared like it could barely sustain the weight of two puny hedgehogs, much less of a full-grown human. Still, undeterred, Sonic motioned for Shadow to go first. “After you!” he effused.

The climb was a lengthy one, and after a few sweaty minutes, they finally reached the top. The ladder precariously deposited them next to the top of the cabin sitting at the very peak, and since he was first, Shadow leapt over the gap with ease. Despite the fact that the space between the rungs and the roof of the cabin was small, Sonic still accepted Shadow’s outstretched hand of assistance as he stepped over the chasm below. He was beginning to notice a trend, and that was one of Shadow seemingly using every chance he could get to hold Sonic’s hand in his own.

However, Sonic didn’t have time to dwell on it for long, for right at that very moment, a blue explosion of light clapped overhead, not unlike the color of Sonic’s signature power, and both Sonic and Shadow craned their neck back to observe the spectacle in unison. Sonic with a great deal of excitement and admiration, and Shadow with a reserved look upon his face, as if he didn’t quite know what to make of the whole thing.

Letting out a sigh of contentment, Sonic plopped down onto the cold, metal roof, sitting in a precarious way so that his legs dangled over the edge. He liked the smidge of thrill, even though truthfully, he was in very little danger.

“Oh man, look at them,” he breathed, leaning back on his elbows so that he could get a better look at the burst of colors popping in the sky like rainbow stars. “Isn’t this fun, Shadow?”

Shadow, who was still standing beside him and apparently had deemed it unnecessary to sit, didn’t say anything.

Which, of course, Sonic took as an invitation to launch into a monologue that literally no one, especially not Shadow, asked for. “One of my favorite times of year on Earth is a holiday the people here celebrate on a day in July.  Even when I was alone, I loved that one night a year that everyone would set off fireworks. It made me feel like I was part of a celebration, part of something bigger and better than being some lonely hedgehog hiding out in the forest. Though it’s odd. That holiday happened a few months ago, so I’m not sure what the cause for celebration is here.” He shrugged. “Who knows. The people here in San Francisco are a wacky bunch.”

While Sonic spoke, Shadow visibly relaxed as he continued to stare up at the sky, his earlier tension and unease at the sight, sound, and even smell as a faint trace of gunpowder drifted through the breeze that blew past them unraveling at Sonic’s comforting ramble.

“The view’s not any different down here. Why don’t you sit with me, Shadow?”

Finally tearing his eyes away from the sky to look down at Sonic, there was only a moment of hesitation, of indecision on his face before he gave in, carefully settling down next to Sonic. Sonic didn’t miss the way his boots brushed against his shoes, and after he was sure Shadow had finished adjusting himself, turned his attention back towards the show.

Even though he had lived on the Earth for a few years now, Sonic couldn’t help but still be surprised by the beauty it held in store for him, hidden and tucked away to discover.  And even though he had seen plenty of firework shows growing up in Green Hills, he was in a new place with a new person to share it with, and for him, that made it incredibly, undeniably special.

He could see Shadow fidget in his peripheral vision, and although he had relaxed significantly, still seemed a little on edge. Though, as Sonic paused to reflect, that was how Shadow had been the entire time since they had set foot in the city. He had been agitated and testy, and deciding that it would be in his best interest to check in, Sonic turned to face him. “Were you, uh, okay earlier?” he asked, breaking the silence that had extended between them as they had paused to watch the fireworks. “At Rachel’s? You seemed kind of… off.” More so than usual, he wanted to add. Shadow had been quiet and moody, which he always was, but for the most part, he had stayed silent and observed. The house, the people, Sonic. Absorbed it all like a dark, pensive sponge.

Missing the genuine concern clouding his tone, Shadow gave him a flat look. “I mean, other than the obvious fact that you literally took us straight to house of two G.U.N. agents?” he drawled, to which Sonic responded with a meek laugh and an awkward scratch of his cheek. Oops. He had a feeling he was never going to live that one down, and for good reason.

“Heh-heh, would you believe me if I told you I was sorry?”

Shadow sniffed. “Not really.”

At his dismissal, Sonic shrugged. Oh well. It had been worth the shot.

“So that was the only reason you were acting kind of strange? Was because they were G.U.N. agents?” He lifted his hands up in surrender—  a prophylactic measure to prevent any sassy, snide comments Shadow may extend him. “Which! Is totally justifiable, by the way! No judgment here. Thanks for not fighting them, I really appreciate it. That would have probably put me higher on their blacklist than Tom is, which is saying a lot.”

There was a beat, before Shadow said, “They… weren’t the only reason.”

“Oh?” Sonic asked, a simple statement to casually prod Shadow for more details as he fell silent, his mouth thinning in consternation as he stared off into the distance and over the expanse of the gloomy park before them.

And after a moment, Shadow finally spoke. “Jojo… reminded me of Maria. Which was… difficult… to say the least.” He swallowed thickly, his eyes returning to the heavens as a dazzling flash of crimson lit up the sky, highlighting the mild agitation painted upon his features before falling dark once more. “And seeing the photos of them. Their house. They are so happy together as a family, and it all reminded me of what I’ve already known, no matter how hard I’ve tried to forget it. That I have no home. That even after everything I’ve been through, I still don’t belong here, in this world, on this planet.”

At this admission, heavy and weighted with something forlorn, Sonic took a moment to reflect. To pause and select the right words to say, and to do this, he realized he had to do the unthinkable.

He had to draw within his (unfortunately) vast library of Wachowski wisdom.

Throughout the years, Tom had saddled him with quite a bunch of life lessons that Sonic had never explicitly asked for. And while in the moment, Sonic would usually roll his eyes and say something snappy to defuse the emotional thickness of the information Tom imparted, he still internalized it nonetheless. Filed it away in his mind in albeit dusty tomes, though now, as he briefly scanned the spines of Tom’s infinite knowledge, he finally came across something suitable for the situation.

Mentally plucking it off the shelf and blowing away the dust, Sonic prepared to say one of the cheesiest, corniest, cringiest (do you get the gist yet?) messages Tom had ever told him. He was already withering up on the inside as he prepared to say it; he didn’t know if his body would be much more than a shriveled-up corpse when he was done.

But anyways. Here he went.

“You know, Tom used to always tell me this thing about homes. And truthfully, I never understood it. Because, like, obviously I had a home in Green Hills, so I kind of would always brush him off, but recently, I feel like I’ve begun to understand it more.” Since leaving  Green Hills were the unspoken words that hung in the air, not needing to be verbalized for both Sonic and Shadow to understand the implications. “He used to tell me that home is where the heart is. Corny and cliché, right?”

Shadow gave him a look. “Your heart can’t be a home.”

“Yeah, yeah, that’s what I told him too, believe it or not.” Sonic let out an amused exhale through his nose at the memory. “But the more I’ve thought about it, the more I think I understand what he was trying to say. And that is, wherever you have people you care about, that is where your home is. Home isn’t a place, it’s when you’re with people you love.”

Shadow’s frown of confusion eased as Sonic spoke, and by the end of his explanation, Shadow was nodding along. “I suppose…” he said, and in his pause, a burst of fireworks crackled overhead, casting a strange glow over his thoughtful face. “I suppose… I feel at home with you, Sonic.”

Sonic couldn’t help the smile that spread across his face at the admission, because truthfully? He felt the exact same way. “I feel at home with you too, Shadow.”

It was the truth. Even though he was miles away from Green Hills, he couldn’t help but feel a sense of belonging in the middle of city he was wildly unfamiliar with. That even though he barely knew where he was and had no idea where he was going to sleep that night, he was at least with someone he cared deeply about. And that certainly counted for something.

But this sentiment, however, raised some issues. His heart felt like it was ripping down the center, one part of him aching to return to his friends and family back in Montana, and the other content to stay. His feet were metaphorically pulling him in opposite directions, and the more he thought about it, the more torn he felt. His heart belonged to two places, two groups of people that in their current situation, could not coexist. No matter which direction he went, he would always be unhappy.

Above him, a series of fireworks pattered out an intricate pattern. And though it was a stunning display, Sonic couldn’t help but be reminded of the Eclipse Cannon. The fireworks in the sky had looked awfully similar to how it had exploded in Earth’s orbit, the massive detonation visible even in the daylight of the cornfield they had crash landed upon in the middle of the country. It had been terrifying, stunning, and ultimately, the very spectacle that Sonic had associated with Shadow’s untimely death.

Because in that moment, he had believed that Shadow had sacrificed himself. And though he had felt an immense sense of relief at their haphazard plan saving the world somehow working, Sonic could still feel that crushing weight of guilt that had squeezed his lungs and just about stolen the breath from his body.

The guilt about the fact that he had essentially left Shadow to die.

“I’m sorry, Shadow.”

Shadow paused, tearing his eyes away from the fireworks to face Sonic. “What? Why are you apologizing?” His voice was tinged with something cautious, something almost akin to worry, as though he were scared that what Sonic was apologizing for was about to be something that he wouldn’t want to hear.

Sonic missed this underlying tone, however, and therefore did not have the opportunity to ponder the meaning of Shadow’s insinuation. What the implication of what it was Shadow was so fearful of him saying. “I’m apologizing because I left you to die at the Eclipse Cannon.”

Inclining his head in confusion, it was clear that Shadow had not been expecting Sonic to say that. “Why are you apologizing for this?”

“I abandoned you when you needed me most. I left you to handle the weight of the energy ray all by yourself.” Sonic sighed as he ran a hand through his quills at the memory of them side by side, united in a common goal. And he had ruined it by being too weak to hold his transformation, temporarily severing the tenuous bond they had constructed in Earth's orbit until Shadow had reappeared in his life a few weeks later.

“You didn’t abandon me.”

Sonic scoffed in disbelief. “Huh? I literally did. I couldn’t hold my Super form and I passed out. I was too weak to stay with you.”

Shadow shook his head at this. “I pushed you away.”

“What?”

“At the Eclipse Cannon. I pushed you out of the way.”

Sonic paused, turning to face Shadow with a look of bewilderment upon his face. The admission, while seemingly innocent on the surface, carried an undercurrent of a raw, shocking twist. A new revelation, something that shifted Sonic’s perception of Shadow and changed the entire way he viewed their relationship: past, present, and future.

It meant that even as far back as when they teamed up to save the world, Shadow had cared enough about Sonic’s wellbeing to attempt to spare his life.

Granted, he hadn’t done the most stellar job, not that Sonic blamed him for that. Because upon losing his grip upon the Eclipse Cannon’s ray, he had lost his Super form, fallen unconscious, and essentially plummeted towards the Earth’s crust like a meteor streaking out of the sky. Shadow might have saved him from being incinerated by the weapon’s beam of destruction, but Sonic was as good as dead. It was only because of Knuckles and Tails that he had survived the fall, and hearing them tell the story from their perspective, Sonic realized that all three of them had encountered a rather close brush with death.

But then again, Shadow could hardly be put to fault for that. He had been busy saving the world all on his own. Sonic’s weakness had more or less abandoned him to achieve such a herculean task on his own, to stave off the blast with his bare hands and then later, push the ship away with nothing but his palms to the hull and the sheer force of his body.  

Even so. All of these reflections didn’t provide an answer for Shadow’s baffling claim, for his reasoning behind doing such an asinine thing. And because of this, Sonic couldn’t help but ask, “Why? Why did you push me out of the way, when we had been enemies?”

“Because I didn’t want you to die trying to fix my mistake.” Shadow shook his head. “It was my fault we were in that mess to begin with. And so, it was my responsibility to save you as well as the rest of the Earth from complete annihilation.”

That statement slapped Sonic across the face with enough force, he felt himself nearly physically recoil. “Oh man, now I feel even worse!” he all but cried out.

“Why?” Shadow asked with a confused tilt of his head.

“Because now I know that you saved me, and I failed to save you. Because like I said, I left you up there all on your own, whether or not you technically pushed me away.”

Shadow’s confusion settled into something firm and determined as his eyes narrowed, leaning forward in a way that conveyed that what he was about to say next what very important. “Sonic, don’t you understand? You did save me.”

Now it was Sonic’s turn to be confused, accepting the baton from Shadow in a seamless transition. “Come again?”

“When I first met you, I thought you were incredibly annoying. Though to be fair, I still think that.”

At this, Sonic rolled his eyes, though the action was done in good fun as he could tell based on Shadow’s tone and the lightly taunting glint in his eyes that he was saying it (mostly) in jest. Seeing Shadow’s joking side was still something Sonic was sorely unused to, due to the rare frequency of its appearance, but still. There was something about it that made him fuzzy and warm to witness, to be privy to, and he couldn’t help but consider himself incredibly lucky to be graced with something that wasn’t his constant anger and fury.

But anyways. Next to him, Shadow continued to speak, though instead of giving Sonic the praise and compliments he craved from his friend, Shadow resumed his critique of his character. Which was probably warranted just a tad, not that Sonic would ever admit to such a thing. “You were persistent. A constant thorn in my side. Always showing up where you weren’t wanted, getting in my way, saying stupid things, refusing to die…”

Sonic’s eyeroll at this was a little more serious as Shadow droned endlessly on. “Yeah, yeah, are you going somewhere with this?”

Shadow extended him a ghost of a smirk at his impatience, before biting at his lip and saying, “But then….”

He fell silent, with nothing but the booms and claps of fireworks to fill the space between them. And upon sensing that Shadow was struggling to get the words out, to congeal them into a coherent sentence, Sonic took it upon himself to prompt him to speak. “But then what?”

Shadow gulped, and then pressed on. “But then… I realized that you weren’t just some obnoxious, brightly-colored idiot who happened to resemble me, there was something special about you. That you had a big heart, and that you cared about those that you loved. And that if someone like you existed on this planet, perhaps it was worth salvaging after all.” He turned from admiring the fireworks to look at Sonic, his eyes wide with vulnerability and a level of softness Sonic wasn’t sure he had yet seen from him. It made something in his gut twist, and all he could do was stare as Shadow spoke in his low, sonorous, timbre. “After the Eclipse Cannon, as I watched you with your friends and family in your home, I knew I had made the right choice in saving the Earth. And the more I watched you, and later got to know you, I realized that, even in a world without Maria, perhaps there was a reason for me to keep living on this planet.” There was a burst of blue behind him, the color a stark contrast to his fur and the timing impeccable as the firework showered the sky behind Shadow in a stream of sparkles that cast a halo around his sharp quills. “That’s how you saved me, Sonic.”

And then, the cherry on top to an incredibly heartfelt statement, there it was.

Shadow smiled at him.

Sonic almost couldn’t even believe it, as his expression softened and his terse lips turned upwards, revealing that coveted smile Sonic had been searching, aching, yearning for the past few weeks. Although seeing it now, illuminated under intermittent glimmer of the fireworks overhead, Sonic couldn’t help but feel like seeing Shadow smile at him like that was what he had been looking for his entire life.

And here it was, right in front of him.

Sonic couldn’t help it. He lifted a tentative hand, one that was agonizing and cautious, raised at a slow pace so that he could pull back in case Shadow reacted poorly in front of him, in case he were to wince away or flash his teeth or throttle Sonic for attempting to do something so wildly intimate.

However, Shadow did none of those things, his smile only barely faltering in confusion as he did nothing more than watch Sonic lift his hand…

…hover it tantalizingly in the air for a long, drawn-out moment…

…and finally bring it to a rest on Shadow’s cheek, upon the side of the muzzle that so graciously housed the very thing Sonic had unknowingly carved his entire existence around.

Around them, time froze. There was a sizzle in the ebony atmosphere as the world turned and stayed gold, and Sonic could have sworn that the soft glow of the sparks that cascaded overhead like the plume of a waterfall slowed to a crawl through the sky, inching rather than racing towards oblivion. Sonic’s breath caught in the back of his throat, waiting, anticipating for what he knew would be an explosive reaction from Shadow, but it never came.

Because shockingly, instead of severing the contact like one would expect him to, Shadow leaned into it, tilting his head in such a way that deepened the fur and flesh of his muzzle against Sonic’s saccharine palm. He was warm, soft, and above all else, still gracing Sonic with that delicate smile tying strings to the corners of his mouth and tugging them skyward in a delightful contortion.

Sonic could do little more than blink in shock at the reciprocation of his contact. And as it dawned on him that Shadow had actually enjoyed the gesture and that he wasn’t about to get murdered for his audacity, the shower of sparks dazzling like stars in the cosmos resumed their normal pace and faded into obscurity.

He felt dazed and overwhelmed. And so, without thinking, he spoke his thoughts into fruition. “You have a beautiful smile,” Sonic said, even though a word as simple as ‘beautiful’ was far from enough to convey how magnificent he found Shadow’s expression to be. Exquisite, breathtaking, gorgeous, pulchritudinous all came close to describing it, however, none of those words were in Sonic’s regular vocabulary and would probably sound quite silly released from his lips (especially that last one because honestly, how would you even use such an ostentatious word in a sentence without sounding like a complete dingus?), so ‘beautiful’ was going to have to do for the time being.

Shadow hummed in response, and Sonic could feel the rumble of his throat vibrate under the thumb that cupped his face by bracing it along the side of his neck. It rested right on the tender spot beneath his jawline, and in the soft give of the tissue between bone and muscle, Sonic could feel Shadow’s pulse. It was steady and strong, just like everything Shadow was. Confident, determined, poised.

“Do you know how long I’ve been waiting to see you look at me like that?” Sonic asked, feeling his filter slip farther away from his grasp, and surprisingly, not really caring all that much or feeling the desire to scramble to get it back. Under normal circumstances, he would never admit to such an outlandish thing, but here in the heart of San Francisco, under the stars and fireworks, lost in Shadow’s eyes and the lips that entranced him, that was exactly what he did.

Something about his words made the smile on Shadow’s face deepen, and in an instinctual response, Sonic released his own hum of pleasure at seeing a feature so stunning increase in its beauty.

And as he studied Shadow’s smile, he realized something.

There was something tantalizing, enchanting about the curvature of his lips. Something that called to Sonic and beckoned him, and before he had the chance to consider what exactly he was doing, he found himself subconsciously leaning in. Like a ship at sea drawn to the song of a siren, he was mesmerized by their form. The way they had once said such demeaning, vile insults to Sonic upon first meeting him, but now, were parted ever-so-slightly in anticipation, the implication slight to an onlooker but glaringly obvious to Sonic as being an invitation.

Beneath his thumb, as Sonic drew closer, Shadow’s pulse quickened. It matched the pounding of Sonic’s own heart as he used his grip on Shadow’s cheek to pull him forward, though as Shadow melted into the touch with little resistance, Sonic couldn’t help but wonder who was pulling who where. Which one of them was the ground, and which one was the apple falling from the tree, a slave to the mechanisms of gravity, though through the fog in his mind, Sonic realized that the law of gravity was being warped and was actively working on both of them to bring them together. It was mutual. Equal. Just like everything else was with the two of them.

He was close now, close enough to feel the brush of the fur on Shadow’s muzzle against his own, close enough to feel the rapid puffs of breath coming through his nose and tickling his own. Close enough to feel like they were about to become one.

And just like that, looking into Shadow’s eyes, seeing how close they were to each other, Sonic froze.

He… he didn’t know what he was doing. Where he was going with this. What his intentions were. Because what exactly did he think he was doing? Leaning in like this… when was he going to stop? When his face touched Shadow’s? No. That... that would be....

Blinking the stars from his eyes, Sonic hesitated, his hold on Shadow’s cheek faltering as he pulled back ever so slightly. In front of him, the smile on Shadow’s face faded, the enticing curve of his lips slipping into something a little more disappointed, if Sonic didn’t know any better.

“Sonic,” he asked slowly, his enrapturing voice colored with something that Sonic couldn’t tell was concern or hurt. Or perhaps, what Sonic could have sworn that was, above all else, dismay. “What’s wrong?”

The insinuation of his question, the underlying words, were obvious. What the hell were you doing?  

Or perhaps, Sonic had interpreted it all wrong. Instead, maybe Shadow had been saying, Why did you stop?

Sonic didn’t grant himself much time to dwell on it, nor did he have the courage to ask that Shadow elaborate on his motivations for asking such a thing. Instead, he finally allowed his hand to pull away from Shadow’s face, his fingers curling uncertainly in the air as he disengaged and allowed them to hover. “I… I’m sorry,” he managed to say after a long, drawn-out moment. “I don’t know what came over me.”

Shadow’s disappointment shifted into one of confusion, before a neutral mask was slammed over his face as he too sat back. In the depths of Sonic’s mind, he realized that Shadow’s body had been angled forward just as much as Sonic’s had, the curvature of his spine pressing him forward in a way that certainly would have brought their faces to touch had Sonic not possessed the willpower to stop himself and pull back.

“Don’t worry about it.”

Shadow’s dismissal of Sonic’s apology was laced with an undercurrent of pain, and yet again, that disappointment that was not just evident in his voice, but his entire body language as he brought his knees to his chest and looked pointedly away, off into the distant city lights that resumed just at the edge of the park.

Sonic distantly realized that above them, the fireworks had ceased. It seemed that in their little, um… moment, they had missed the grand finale, and now had been plunged back into darkness. The resounding booms had also ended, and now, the only things audible around them were the interminglings of crickets chirping and the distant call of the city, complete with honking horns, driving cars, and a cacophony of a million other sounds that comprised the nightlife of San Francisco.

Amidst it all, Sonic and Shadow fell into an uncertain silence.

A minute passed, and then that minute turned into two. And after an indeterminate amount of time slipped between them sitting there without saying anything— for all Sonic knew, it could have been hours that they sat in tense coexistence upon the top of that Ferris wheel— Shadow finally stood up, his back to Sonic as he surveyed the park and city that lay just beyond the border of trees behind them.

“You should probably get some sleep. We need to leave early tomorrow.”

With his gruff statement, growled out through a voice that was low and raspy even by his extreme standards, Shadow took off, leaping down from the top of the Ferris wheel. Sonic merely watched him go with tired eyes, knowing that after all they had been through, Shadow likely wasn’t going far and wasn’t going to abandon him just like that. So, with those mild reassurances and without having the energy or will to chase after him, Sonic let out a sigh as he dropped down into the carriage they had been sitting upon. The cushions of the seats, while not the best quality, certainly beat sleeping on the hard floor of the train the night prior, and for that, Sonic was somewhat grateful.

Though then again, the train had given him Shadow as a soft pillow to sleep upon. Now, he was just cold, lonely, and only marginally more comfortable. He would take the sleeping arrangements of the previous night over the awkward way he curled up on the Ferris wheel any day of the week.

And as Sonic drifted off to sleep, he couldn’t help but relive his strange encounter with Shadow in his head, playing it over and over in an endless, inescapable loop. The parting of his lips, the lowering of his eyelids, the relaxing of his facial expression… it was all too much, and Sonic knew that what he had seen upon Shadow’s face had been mirrored in his own. That he had been doing the exact same, reciprocated thing, and as it flashed behind his mind, he was struck with a strong, striking realization. One that made him nearly bolt up straight in a cold sweat as he instead tried to cope by squeezing his eyes further shut and curling his fingers into fists that were so tight, he could feel his claws dig into his palms even through the thick fabric of his gloves.

What was that realization, you might ask?

Well, if it wasn’t already obvious, it was the fact that he had absolutely, undeniably, irrefutably almost kissed Shadow the Hedgehog.

Chapter Text

Before we continue, it is important that we establish, or rather, reinstate one crucial piece of information. Something that has been mentioned, albeit briefly in passing, earlier in the story. Something very applicable to the current issue at hand.

Which is, Sonic the Hedgehog found the mere idea of kissing to be disgusting. Downright repulsive. Absolutely atrocious.

The very concept was heinous in itself. The mouths of two people joining in union… all to display what, affection? Love? It was such a strange notion, and something Sonic had assumed to be a strictly-human thing. There were many customs on Earth that Sonic never fully understood, and though he was a pretty go-with-the-flow guy and could appreciate most of the weird, wacky things the Earth had to offer, there were a few traditions, such as kissing, that he had never been able to quite wrap his head around.  

And yet, despite his rather detestable sentiments on the matter, that was the very thing he wanted nothing more in the world to do to Shadow at that precise moment.

As he attempted (and failed) to fall asleep, Sonic tried to shed the urge from his brain, to peel it off like the dead skin of a snake and cast it aside like the hollow shell that it was. However, he was met with limited success, for every time he managed to purge the desire to go find Shadow and do the exact thing he loathed and kiss him with reckless abandon, the desire would always return mere minutes later with a vicious vengeance.

But then again, was it really so bad? To want to do such a thing? To imagine what he would feel like? What he would taste like? To feel his lips captured in Sonic’s own, to fantasize about—

Sonic gave himself a vigorous shake as he felt his mind begin to wander for what had to be the twentieth time that restless, sleepless night that had nothing to do with the chilly night air and the uncomfortable seat he curled up on.

But anyways. He had a bigger problem to face. And that was, underneath his yearning and self-loathing, there was a deeper, more disturbing thought that lurked in the far recesses of his consciousness. Waiting to pounce, waiting for the exact moment Sonic would look away to rear its ugly head and spring the truth upon his frazzled, dismayed mind. Because Sonic wasn’t an idiot. He knew what it meant when you wanted to kiss someone.

It was shoehorned into every movie, even the super cool, super badass ones with enough action scenes to make him feel faint in the head. It was almost unavoidable; there was no such thing as a quality blockbuster without some cliché, contrived romantic subplot. One that was sappy, heartfelt, passionate, and ultimately, something Sonic had never felt himself all that interested in or drawn to.

And yet….

Now he was beginning to understand the appeal. As he thought about kissing Shadow, his wicked imagination gnawing at the bars of the weak enclosure he had set up in a petty attempt to cage it in, Sonic was met with a new problem.  One that was alarming with its implication:

The possibility, no, the truth… that he liked Shadow as more than a friend.

It was an earth-shattering realization. One that he immediately tried to deny when he made the horrifying connection that in wanting to and almost kissing Shadow, he was… (and stick with him now, because the words were difficult to conceptualize in his head, much less say out loud) …romantically attracted to him.

At some point past midnight, Sonic felt the rising urge to throw up, and if it weren’t for the close quarters of the Ferris wheel carriage he found himself attempting to sleep in, he might have simply pulled the trigger to get it out of his system. Flush the toxins out of his body and with it, his unacceptable (and certainly unreciprocated) attraction to Shadow. Because the thought was absurd. Ludicrous, even. Everything about that statement was wrong; it couldn’t be possible.

However, as the night wore on, the moon slowly traveling across the sky as the time dragged past at an excruciating, sluggish pace, Sonic found his willpower grow weak with each passing hour. And by the time the sun began to inch upwards from beneath the horizon, lightening the sky to a delicate lilac with pinkened clouds, he realized he could deny it no longer.

Sitting up in his seat, the early chirping of the birds in the park below dashing any last hopes he had for falling back asleep, Sonic ran a hand through his quills before taking a deep breath in through his nose.

Okay. Here we go. We’re going to use it in a full sentence now.

Exhaling through his nose, Sonic faced the truth.

Sonic the Hedgehog was romantically attracted to Shadow the Hedgehog.

Sonic buried his face in his hands, unable to stifle the groan that escaped from his throat as he finally acknowledged his unfortunate reality. It was a dramatic display, but for the emotional turmoil of the situation he found himself entangled in, more than justified in his humble opinion.

It all made sense, though. His feelings that he was now realizing were a little stronger than being strictly platonic. In fact, he had been an idiot to not realize what it had been sooner. The way Shadow had occupied his every thought and piece of his mind, before and after he had made his presence known in Green Hills. The way Sonic had consistently snuck out to seek Shadow’s company. The way had craved his approval. The moments they had shared, from the guitar, to the dancing, to the games they played, and everything else in between that induced an electrifying contact that Sonic had subconsciously sought out with each subsequent visit.

Sonic disentangled his hands from his face, instead steepling his fingers in front of him to press them to his mouth. Oh man. This was way worse than he had thought it was. He needed more time to grapple with this revelation, to come to terms with the shocking development that he really should have known all along.

However, he was out of time. The sky was steadily brightening, which meant that soon, he would have to face Shadow again. He would have to look him in the face, after nearly kissing him the night before, speak to him, exist around him... how in the world was Sonic supposed to act like a normal person about this?!

Maybe he could just sneak out, run away, and avoid confronting his feelings completely…?

Unfortunately, he wasn’t given much more time to ponder the possibility of escaping, when Sonic nearly jumped out of his seat as he heard a resounding thunk! hit the roof above his head, right before he slouched back into his seat in dismay. Unless San Francisco had really big pigeons, there was only one person that could be.

Scrubbing at his eyelids in a feeble attempt to wake himself up, Sonic took a moment to mentally prepare himself. He knew his eyes were bloodshot and marred with thick, dark bags that were likely visible through the thin, transparent fur of his muzzle, and so hoping that Shadow wouldn’t notice his haphazard state (and even worse, deduce the reason for his disheveled appearance), Sonic climbed out the side of the cabin and onto the roof.

Sure enough, Shadow was standing there, his arms folded over his chest as he surveyed the city that sprawled beyond the gnarled coastal pines peppering the ground and hills beneath them.  And as he turned to face Sonic, his lips pressed in a thin, displeased line and his brow furrowed in something a little deeper, a little more pensive than what he normally wore, Sonic couldn’t help but feel his heart clench and skip a beat. Because as he studied the hedgehog before him, he was met with two very different realizations.

One: Shadow looked about as bad as Sonic felt. It appeared as though he also had experienced a poor night’s sleep after their little moment on top of the Ferris wheel, something that Sonic felt some relief about as he found solidarity in their supposedly mutual struggle.

And two! Even though Sonic had more or less mentally prepared himself for this moment throughout the night, the moment he would once again lay his eyes upon Shadow, he couldn’t help but feel the breath in his lungs get stolen away from him. Because before, when the thought had first crossed his mind that Shadow was beautiful back on the train through Idaho, he had attributed it to his sleepy brain conjuring up insane, ridiculous thoughts. But now, with his newfound revelation that he had feelings for him, Sonic could safely admit that Shadow was, in fact, the most beautiful being he had ever before seen. Even now as he was glaring at Sonic with a pensive, closed-off expression, Sonic felt his heart race at the stunning sight before him, feeling his mind go blank and his mouth dry up in a drought as he found himself at a loss of what to say. What he could even say that would suitably address the intangible thing both hedgehogs knew that existed between them.

Fighting the sandy desert that was his throat, Sonic forced himself to swallow.

Should they talk about it…?

However, seeing the way Shadow’s eyes narrowed, his permanent scowl deepening as Sonic opened his mouth and gathered the courage to speak, he decided that no. They shouldn’t talk about it. Not here and now, at least.

“It is time for us to go,” Shadow said gruffly as Sonic resolutely shut his mouth. The same disturbance that colored his expression was also present in his voice.

Latching on to the question that decidedly did not talk about their near kiss and the fact that somewhere along the way of their friendship, something a little more than just being friends had blossomed between them, Sonic somehow found it within himself to respond. “We’re, uh, hitting the road?” he asked almost timidly, and he hated how uncertain and frail he sounded as he spoke. Not to mention, he hated how Shadow looked at him in disdain. He hated how his arms folded over his chest in derision. He hated how his lips pressed in a thin, downturned line.

He hated how he wanted to kiss those lips.

Sonic winced outwardly and looked away, tearing his gaze away from Shadow’s muzzle. Oh God. Please. Get a grip, he scolded, no, begged himself, and after a few, drawn out moments, he chanced a look back towards Shadow to see if he did, in fact, get a grip over his wretched, intrusive thoughts. Unfortunately, he found that he had less control over his impulses than he had thought. Because looking upon Shadow’s lips once more, he realized that he still did want to kiss them. Desperately.

Oh brother. This was going to be a reoccurring sentiment, wasn’t it.

Completely oblivious to the very transparent array of emotions playing on Sonic’s face like a movie at the theater, (because Shadow too, was just a tad dense with stuff like this), Shadow huffed. “Yes. We’re leaving. And honestly? We should have left yesterday.”

Sonic found himself silently agreeing, but for all the wrong reasons.

Because if he had just sucked it up and went his merry way with Shadow the day prior, then he never would have almost-accidentally kissed him. He would still be blissfully ignorant to the fact that not only did he want to follow through on that missed opportunity, but that there was something more emotional brewing between them beneath the surface.

However, as Shadow made to leap off from the roof of the cabin, Sonic was forced to shove these swirling feelings to the back of his mind. Because a more pertinent problem, other than the fact that he had romantic feelings for Shadow that he didn’t really know what to do with, much less express, was the fact that Sonic wasn’t yet ready to leave. While he wasn’t necessarily attached to San Francisco, he was still somewhat familiar with the city. And whatever awaited next? Would be fresh territory. Something unknown, something terrifying.

Because after this, the retreading of his first journey with Tom would officially be over. He would no longer be able to walk along the avenue of his memories; the minute they left the city, he would have truly, finally left Green Hills and his family behind.

And truth be told, Sonic wasn’t quite ready to do such a monumental thing.

So, in a panic, he reached his hand out towards Shadow’s retreating figure in a frantic attempt to stall. “Um, wait!” he all but cried out, and in the desperation in his voice, Shadow paused and turned to face him. “Do we have to, uh, go so soon?”

Shadow stared at him as if he were insane. Which, in a way, he was; the fact that G.U.N. hadn’t yet descended upon the city and sent their forces combing through the eclectic streets was honestly quite astounding.  “Yes. We’ve established this. We’ve stayed here far too long as it is.”

“But there’s still so much I want to do!” he protested, half for the sake of delaying the inevitable and half because there genuinely were still things in San Francisco he wanted to experience. “I wasn’t kidding when I said that I wanted to skateboard down the hills, or find some rails to grind on! Doesn’t that sound like it would be fun?”

“Those things sound dangerous,” Shadow countered, and through his carefully neutral veneer, Sonic could tell that his patience was wearing thin. For good reason; he was completely justified in wanting to flee the city. Sonic dragging his feet and protesting at every turn was becoming exhausting, or rather, had been exhausting from the minute they had left Rachel and Randall’s house. “It would be in our best interest to move on.”

Shadow turned to leap down from the top of the carriage, likely aiming to catch the ladder somewhere on the way down, however, before he had the chance to jump, Sonic snaked out a hand and seized him by the upper arm.

And just like that, Sonic had a vivid flashback.

He was mentally transported back to the first night he had seen Shadow since his supposed death, back when he had been camping with Knuckles and Tails and gone on a walk by himself to get some fresh air. The very first interaction he had with Shadow after the Eclipse Cannon, the very night that kickstarted this whole convoluted saga all those weeks ago. Back when Shadow had attempted to leave, and Sonic had reached a hand out to grab him and make him stay.

Because even back then, he had felt a magnetizing force that drew him to Shadow, and he hadn’t been able to let him go.

Shadow froze at the contact, his head snapping back towards Sonic with an affronted look on his face. However, instead of being offended like he had been that first night all that time ago and kicking him away with a rough boot to the abdomen, this time his expression was different. It was questioning, and beneath that superficial layer, distressed.

Sonic pulled his hand back, allowing himself to break the contact that bound them. Primarily due to Shadow’s vehement, though slightly pained glare, but also because he was hot to the touch. Sonic’s hand, for lack of a better term, felt like it had been burned. Even glancing down at his glove, he half-expected to find singe marks, though nothing but the white of the fabric stared back up at him. 

Looking back towards Shadow and seeing that he was waiting for him to speak, Sonic hastily pled his case. “Can we do just one last thing before we go?” he requested softly. “Please, Shadow?”

Shadow paused as he fully turned back to face him, leaning in slightly as he scanned Sonic’s face. His expression was unreadable, and because of this, Sonic was completely shocked when he finally sat back on his heels and asked, “Is this something that would make you happy?”

His eyes widening in the handful of seconds it took him to process Shadow’s question, and that for all intents and purposes, he was allowing them to stay just a little longer, Sonic nodded his head in vigorous affirmation. Yes. Grinding on the rails around San Francisco would make him very happy, incredibly so.

Shaking his head, Shadow sighed. “Very well. We can do this one last thing before we leave.” He lifted a finger, pointing it emphatically towards Sonic in something that would have been a threat if it weren’t for the thick context surrounding their odd relationship. “But after that. We’re gone.”

With their plan in place, Sonic allowed Shadow to dismount from the Ferris wheel, following him closely behind. It was very early in the day, and because of this, there were scarcely any people littered throughout the park. As a result, making it out to the highway that lined the coast and would have suitable rails to grind upon was laughably simple.

“Are you sure we need to do this.”

Shadow was staring at the metal guardrail lining the outside of the road that would do a very minimal job in preventing any wayward vehicle from cascading to the rocks below. He looked irritated and uncertain, as though he were regretting going along with Sonic’s ridiculous, childish whims. The ones that focused on playing and having fun, rather than their safety.

Not that Sonic saw it that way, no, not at all. “We absolutely need to do this,” he just about crowed, finding himself more thrilled about the prospect than he probably had any right to be. If anything, he was eager to latch onto the distraction, both from his shocking revelation about his feelings towards Shadow, as well as the reality that they would soon have to leave. “Now come on! These things aren't going to ride themselves, you know!"

Giving himself a running start, Sonic made sure to reach a respectable speed before leaping up and crashing down upon the rail, riding it not unlike a snowboard. Truthfully, he had no idea what he was doing, but as he followed the curvature of the rails as it snaked around the rocky coastline lining the city, he figured that it really wasn’t that much different than riding a piece of debris to outrun an avalanche. At least this time, he wasn’t carrying Tails’ unconscious corpse with him as he did so.

But anyways. Sonic glanced over his shoulder to see if Shadow was following him, just to see his former rival grinding along the rail directly behind him, the metal of his rocket shoes kicking up a flair of sparks as he did so.

It was quite the sight. Shadow, with his knees bent and arms curled about him as he scowled in concentration, all framed by a halo of sparks… it was a stunning spectacle. Beautiful, just like Sonic had concluded that Shadow was over and over again to the point that instead of fighting it, he found it easier to accept the truth of his attraction.

And it was in his distraction that Sonic could do little more than stare as Shadow shot his hands out, and clamping them around Sonic’s body, swung him around with ease so that now Shadow was in the front and Sonic was the one trailing behind.

Staring at his retreating frame in shock, still feeling the searing jolt from where his hands had so boldly grabbed his torso, Sonic scrambled to keep up. Because seeing Shadow smirk over at him as he slid down the rails that lined the highways, radical and lethal in the rare picture of joy he expressed on his beautiful, alluring face, Sonic couldn’t help but feel his mouth part in mute awe, before nearly tripping over a divot and falling down the shallow cliff of rocks that tumbled into the sea beside him.

Sticking his arms out beside him, Sonic hastily regained his balance and footing. Damn. He really needed to get a hold of himself. This was just getting pathetic.

“Struggling to keep up?” Shadow called over to him in a playful jab, and shaking his entranced stupor from his mind, Sonic forced himself to wear a cocky grin in return.

“I was just trying to go at a pace that wouldn’t leave you in the dust!” he shot back, to which Shadow rolled his eyes and angled his shoes so that they sent up a flurry of sparks behind him and bathed Sonic in their smoldering droplets.  

Lifting a hand to cover his face from the rude onslaught, Sonic rolled his eyes. Tch. Show off.

But anyways. He was falling behind, and he needed to catch up. Whizzing around a sharp corner of the coastal highway in a blur, Sonic couldn’t help but let out a laugh as the road took a steep dive, and leaning his body forward to improve his aerodynamics, picked up speed and found himself accelerating rather rapidly towards his partner. Through the wind whistling in his quills and ears, he could have sworn that he heard Shadow hum in contentment, and despite not being nearly as boisterous as Sonic’s own declaration of joy, he knew that for Shadow to make any sort of noise of pleasure, he must be enjoying himself quite a lot.

Lowering even further into his crouch, he drew close enough that if he wanted to, he could have reached out and grabbed Shadow by his highlighted quills, although instead of physically moving him out of the way, Sonic decided to take a different approach to pass him. With a great leap, he soared through the air, and planting his hands on Shadow’s shoulders to give him that extra boost to clear him, catapulted over and onto the rails ahead.  

Sonic came to a shaky landing, and once he got the wobbles out of his system, stole yet another glance over his shoulder to see Shadow’s shocked reaction.

His surprise was fleeting yet delicious for Sonic's smug palate, before it settled into a sneer of challenge. It had been all fun and games a moment ago, but now that Sonic was in the lead, all of a sudden, it was serious once more. 

And even though the expression Shadow wore was meant to be menacing and threatening, Sonic couldn’t help but pause to admire it. The fire in his gaze, the passion as he pursued Sonic with a competitive fury that made something spark to life in his core. It was invigorating, refreshing, and it made Sonic feel alive. More so than he had ever felt before.

However, his admiration was interrupted as the road leveled out along the beach to their right, the metal divider tapering off into nothing. And because he was so distracted by Shadow behind him, Sonic neglected to take note of the end of the rails, resulting in him losing his balance and tumbling head over heels into the sand of the beach it transitioned into.

Shadow, since he had more or less been in a similar position of concentration as Sonic, suffered a similar fate. And just like that, the two hedgehogs went sprawling onto the beach, somersaulting alongside each other until they came to a stop next to one another half-submerged in the sand.

Unable to control himself, Sonic began to laugh.

“Oh man, that was so much fun!” he gushed as he sat up, lifting a hand to his face to wipe some of the grains of sand that clung to his eyelashes, hoping to wipe them away before they could migrate into his eyes.

Next to him, Shadow let out a grunt. “I wouldn’t exactly call getting sand all in my fur fun,” he groused, though it was lined with an edge of humor as he sat up beside Sonic, looking down at his black fur in dismay. While the sand wasn’t necessarily camouflaged on Sonic’s blue fur, it stood out quite egregiously on the deep hue of Shadow’s pelt.

Sonic laughed again as he watched Shadow halfheartedly try to brush the sand from his chest and arms with limited success as they stubbornly clung to his gloves and fur. And as his laughter died down after a few moments, quickened by the scathing look Shadow extended him as they sat in the sand of the beach next to one another, Sonic had the irresistible urge to kiss him. Again.

He nearly did, starting to lean in before catching himself and mentally and physically slapping himself, though the physical slap was poorly-disguised behind him attempting to make it look like he was shaking sand out of his fur.

Harried and frazzled, Sonic shot to his feet, unwittingly kicking up a spray of sand that drenched Shadow as he did so and rendering his attempts to clean himself off moot. “Before we go!” Sonic exclaimed, breathless from the adrenaline that coursed through his veins, either due to grinding on the rails of the highway or his close call of kissing Shadow, he wasn’t exactly certain. “There’s one more place I want to grind on.”

He pointed past where Shadow sat, over the tips of the trees that forested the Golden Gate Park and toward the bright red peaks poking out over the outcropping of rock and beach that the highway had wrapped around.

Glancing over his shoulder to appraise what Sonic was gesturing towards, Shadow turned back to give him a displeased look, one that Sonic silently responded to by clasping his hands and shaking them back and forth as he gave Shadow the biggest, most sympathetic puppy eyes he could muster.

With a sigh, Shadow turned back to the red bridge. “Fine,” he groused, sounding none too pleased about it despite the fact that he had very clearly been having fun mere moments earlier along the rails of the highway.

It didn’t take long for them to follow the road to the base of the bridge, and finding the ladder to scale one of the two peaks of the iconic structure was easy. Even though it was a significantly longer and taller climb than the Ferris wheel had been the night prior, the view, when they reached the top, was more than worth the effort.

This time, when Sonic disembarked from the ladder first and onto the vibrant red catwalk extending over the road that rested far, far below them, he turned to help Shadow onto the platform. Just like Shadow had extended his hand the night before, now Sonic held out his own in offering, one that Shadow accepted after a fleeting second of hesitation.

The contact was… electric to say the least. More so than it had any right to be, though after their almost-kiss less than a half day ago and the subsequent ponderings Sonic’s mind had been subjected to, such a sensation only made sense. 

“I’m not going to lie,” Sonic said in a brash, hasty way to cover up the way his heart had pounded as he felt Shadow’s hand in his own, sending up a silent prayer that Shadow hadn’t been able to feel the quickening of his pulse under the fingers that had curled around his delicate wrist. “This thing is a lot bigger up close. That climb was way more than I bargained for… but hey, we made it to the top of the Golden Gate Bridge! That wouldn’t have happened to be the singular thing on your bucket list, would it have?”

Shadow visibly flinched at this question, before he regained his composure by lifting up his nose in disdain. “Not even close,” he retorted tartly, and before Sonic could take it upon himself to press him for details about what it had been, if not scaling to the top of the Golden Gate Bridge in San Francisco, California (Zip Code 94123, United States of America), Shadow followed up with a short quip. Or rather, since it was him, a blunt statement. “I don’t understand why this thing is called the Golden Gate Bridge. It is very clearly red.”  

“Yeah, figured that joke had to be made eventually,” Sonic commented mostly to himself, before turning to address Shadow. “Listen, as has already been established, the people here are a weird, quirky bunch. I wouldn’t question it.”

Shadow huffed and turned to study the waters of the bay before them. Falling into a comfortable silence (despite the thick, unspoken tension that still cloyed the air around them), Sonic turned as well, mimicking his pose as he too took a moment to appreciate the sights.

What he found was a beautiful view.

Sonic stared wistfully out over the city. Surprisingly, none of the fog that typically plagued the metro was present, clearly indicating that the summer months were just about over as autumn came in to replace the city with crisp, clear skies. Not that Sonic knew anything about the phenomenon of June Gloom that cursed the California coast with a dense, marine mist throughout the summer, so for him, all he saw it for was an unusually nice day. One that allowed him to gaze out over the entirety of the city from atop one of the two high peaks of the Golden Gate bridge.

A light breeze wafted up from the open waters of the Pacific behind him, smelling of salt and ruffling his quills. It cleared his nose and his senses, awakening his mind and granting him clarity to the weight of what was about to happen. What needed to happen.

They needed to leave.

Sonic felt a heavy hand come to rest on his shoulder, squeezing in comfort as he continued to study the coastal city beneath him. He didn’t even flinch at the contact, used to the physical comfort of Shadow’s hands at this point, and he didn’t even deem in necessary to glance over towards him as he bridged the connection between their bodies and spoke in a deep, soothing voice. “Sonic,” he said, somehow firm and gentle all at the same time. “It is time for us to go.”

Instead of immediately responding, Sonic simply closed his eyes and took a deep inhale. Shadow was right. They had experienced their fun and certainly overstayed their welcome. They should have departed from the city at the crack of dawn, despite the fact that Shadow had indulged Sonic’s whims and allowed them to grind on the highway rails before they packed up (figuratively, of course, neither had brought suitcases or backpacks, neither did they necessarily need it).

And yet…

The thought of leaving made something in him ache. Something in him decay. And as he finally let out an exhale, releasing the breath he had been holding, Sonic reflected on what that something was.

Upon leaving Green Hills, the objective of making it to San Francisco had been his primary distraction. Go to Rachel’s, contact Tom and Maddie. It had given his mind something to focus on, something to tear his ministrations away from the fact that he had abandoned his friends and family and would likely never see them again.

But now, as Shadow’s hand sank down into his flesh with a lifetime’s worth of burdens, or to be more precise, fifty years of unrelenting pain and suffering, urging him to turn his back on the city and continue down the coast (or wherever it was they could flee to next because Sonic did not want to go straight south and open the can of worms that was Los Angeles for a million reasons that we’re not going to get into right now for the sake of brevity and getting to the damn point), Sonic realized that he couldn’t do it. He couldn’t spend the rest of his life running, darting from city to city, town to town. Not without purpose. Not without the memories of his friends and family haunting him with every footfall that took him farther and farther away from them. Because how long before they left the country? Left the continent? While Sonic wanted to explore the Earth and show Shadow all of the treasures and experiences their vast world had to offer, he couldn’t do it without having a home to return to.

Because even though he had meant what he said when he had told Shadow home was where the heart was, and truthfully, a significant part of his heart did belong to the hedgehog next to him, he couldn’t neglect the part of him that belonged to Green Hills, Montana.

The part of him that belonged to Tom, Maddie, Tails, and Knuckles.

“Are you ready to go, Sonic?”

There was an edge of caution in Shadow’s voice, one that indicated that he was able to read the indecision and internal monologue that rapidly scrolled through his head as though it were the words on a page.

And because of this, Sonic couldn’t find it within himself to deny the truth, to pretend that he was, in fact, okay with leaving San Francisco and continuing on to the next part of their adventure. And then doing it again. And again. And again.

He took a deep breath. “No, I’m not ready.”

The edge lining his voice tapered with Shadow’s next words, not unlike a knife on a honing wheel. Thinner, sharper, deadlier. “What do you mean, you’re not ready.”

The breath that Sonic had taken held stagnant in his lungs as he paused, all the mechanisms in his body coming to a halt as his mind began to kick into overdrive. This was it. He could either give in to Shadow’s request, his demand that they leave, or he could have an honest conversation about his feelings. Which, if it wasn’t already obvious based on the fact that they hadn’t yet discussed the fact that they had nearly kissed the night prior and hashed out all of the details implied by such a brazen display, Sonic was not always the best about.

However, glancing back out over the city, out in the direction he knew he had to travel if he wanted to sprint in a straight line back to Green Hills, Sonic knew he had to suck it up and be honest. He had to tell Shadow his reservations, the doubt that had been festering within him ever since they had left. In the bar, in the train, in the city… the constant thoughts that had pulled his feet back towards the Wachowski household.

He had to go back.

Sonic couldn’t deny it anymore. He couldn’t allow himself to be taken farther from his home, farther from where his friends and family needed him. And so, accumulating his bravery about him, he willed the words that he knew had the propensity to start a brawl to his tongue and spoke them into existence. “Shadow…” he began slowly, “I… I can’t keep running. I have to go back.”

Shadow seemed to expect him to say this, for instead of fighting like Sonic had anticipated, his eyes simply narrowed. “Why,” he demanded coldly, his demeanor icy and frigid amongst the breathtaking day.

This time when Sonic replied, his words were a little more confident and assured. “I need to go help them. I need to show them that I’m okay.”

“You sent your message. They know that you’re okay. You’ll be fine.” Shadow’s words were blunt and impatient, as though he were already done with the conversation and trying to bring it to a screeching halt before it could spiral out of control.

Sonic, however, was not so easily placated. “But that’s the thing, I don’t know if they know that I’m fine! How are we supposed to know that they even received that message? We have no confirmation, no proof!” He ran a hand through his quills in agitation. It was a scary thought, to think that they had gone through all that trouble, risked so much in going to Rachel and Randall’s for a payoff they wouldn’t even get to experience. The original intent had been to call Tom and Maddie, to hear their voice and have them hear his, for both sides to know that the other was okay. But the text message? Despite its relative safety and convenience, left far too much to be desired, and Sonic decided to vocalize this. “And besides! How am I supposed to know that they’re okay? We didn’t stick around long enough to see what their response is. For all I know, they could be in trouble!”

“Going back is dangerous. You know this,” Shadow rasped in a low undertone. “You knew it when you made your choice.”

“Yeah, well, maybe it was the wrong one!” Sonic snapped despite himself, the intensity of the emotions swirling around within him growing to an unbearable degree, and he almost immediately regretted it as he saw a brief flash of hurt cross Shadow’s face, right before it vanished as it was replaced with a deep, dangerous scowl.

Sonic felt a pool of dismay accumulate somewhere deep in his gut, his heart sinking as he wished he could take it back. “Shadow, wait. I’m sorry. I… I shouldn’t have said that.”

“But it’s how you feel, isn’t it,” he growled, before turning away with a dejected huff, the hand on Sonic's shoulder retreating and his eyes lowering to stare at the tips of his shoes. “Of course you would choose them. I was a fool to ever believe otherwise.”

Sonic felt the overwhelming urge to reignite the contact between them with a comforting hand of his own, however, hesitated as the undercurrent of Shadow's words and their delivery sank in. Because just like that, all of a sudden, so much made sense. All of Shadow’s small reactions, his comments sprinkled throughout their time together in Green Hills… Sonic had been a downright idiot for not sensing it earlier. “Shadow, are you…” he started to say cautiously, almost scared to finish the sentence but knowing he had to suck it up and do it anyways, “…jealous?”

Shadow tore his gaze away from the tips of his shoes, though instead of looking towards Sonic, instead turned to look out over the bay as he let out a noncommittal grunt.

Though for Sonic, that gruff, guttural noise was all the confirmation he needed to hear to launch him into a frenzied monologue. “But see, that’s the thing! You don’t have to be jealous, don’t you get it?! You could join my family with me, Shadow, we could be together!” He knew he sounded desperate and crazed, and yet, Sonic pressed forward, unable to bring himself to care. “You wouldn’t have to be a secret anymore. If you just… come with me.”

There was a moment of hesitation in Shadow’s face at this offer, a crinkle in his brow as he turned back to look at Sonic, a glimmer of pained longing shining within the depths of his eyes, however, the moment was fleeting as he instead shook his head. “They would never accept me.”

“What? Sure they would! Tom and Maddie literally have adopted three alien kids over the past few years. You think they wouldn’t add one more? You really think they’d just stop at three?”

“You’re not getting it,” Shadow barked. “I almost killed the one you call Tom. There’s no way I could ever be forgiven for that. Or accepted.”

At this, Sonic waved him off, treating it as trivial nonsense rather than the incredibly valid concern that it was. “Oh come on, Tom’s forgiven me for crazy stuff all the time!” he exclaimed. “Like the one time I thought it would be funny to fill water balloons with fruit punch and throw it at him when he got home from work on a random Tuesday, or ooh! Can’t forget about when I accidentally crashed his car because I got inspired by watching a YouTube tutorial of someone doing donuts in a parking lot.” Sonic sighed fondly at that one, because while disastrous, it had been pretty fun... right before he had drifted straight into a streetlamp. Whoops. “Yeah sure, he was pretty mad for a week and grounded me for two, but listen! Now we look back on it and laugh!” It was a bit of an exaggeration; by this statement, Sonic meant that he would frequently reminisce upon it and laugh. Tom had always seemed to be a bit more annoyed whenever it would get brought up, as though the mere mention of the incident was more than enough to provoke his irritation.

But anyways. Despite the hilarity of Sonic’s examples, Shadow didn’t seem to be at all assuaged by them as his lips pressed into a thin, doubtful line. “I highly doubt they would laugh about me nearly murdering him,” he grumbled. “Or stealing you away from them, for that matter.”

Yet again, Sonic waved his worries away. “If you lived in the same house as Knuckles, you’d be surprised at what you could get away with.”

It was a fairly valid point, but still, Shadow looked unconvinced, so Sonic decided it was time to switch tactics. To quit joking around about water balloon assaults and crashing Tom’s car and put his heart out on the line, just so that he wouldn’t have to endure the pain of being separated from Shadow once more.

And so, in a stroke of fearlessness, he verbalized this sentiment. “Shadow, I can’t live without you.”

Shadow blinked in surprise, likely from the forwardness of the statement, before demanding incredulously, “Then why do you need to go back?”

In response, Sonic threw his hands up in the air in exasperation. “Because I can’t live without them either!”

“Is that so? Because clearly, you can manage just fine without me if you are considering leaving.”

Sonic worried at his lip in response. Shadow just wasn’t getting it, wasn’t quite comprehending the way Sonic felt about him. And granted, he had only truly realized the extent of his feelings literally overnight, but now, faced with uncertainty and division, he knew he wouldn’t be granted the luxury of having more time to ruminate over it.

He had to speak. Now.

And gulping down the nerves, he did his best. “Shadow, you….” he started to say, before the words shriveled up in the back of his throat. He found himself unable to will them into existence, not with the way Shadow looked at him like that, so finding a way to distract himself, Sonic shot his hands out and seized Shadow’s in his own, clinging to him like a lifeline that would ground him in the unprecedented thing he was about to confess. “You make me feel things. Things I don’t understand. You make me feel warm and fuzzy inside, you make…. You make me happy.” Sonic squeezed Shadow’s hands reflexively, as though the contact through their gloves could somehow transfer some of the overflowing emotions that spilled from his chalice and onto the floor below. All Shadow would need was a mere sip to understand, and in desperation, Sonic continued to try to force the liquid down his throat. “The night I thought you left without me, even though you were only gone for an hour, was one of the worst nights of my entire life. I didn’t know what to do once you left, I’ve never before felt so helpless. And that’s why I need you to come back with me. Because now that you’ve become a part of my life, I don’t want to let you go.”

In front of him, Shadow looked torn. “Sonic…” he began hesitantly, “I….”

However, he didn’t finish whatever it was he had been attempting to say, so Sonic’s grasp around Shadow’s hands tightened, and without thinking, lifted them so that they were pressed into the peach fur of his chest, held in such a way that Shadow could hopefully feel Sonic’s heart beat and know that it belonged to him, because he lacked the courage and ability to say something so bold out loud. Instead, he begged. “Please, Shadow. Come with me.”

Shadow licked his lips uncertainly, though didn’t say anything.

Sonic’s desperation reached a fevered pitch as he leaned forward, pressing Shadow’s hands further into the fur of his chest as he did so. Hands that had once grasped that same spot to pummel and fight him, now placed there in a last-ditch attempt to change his mind. “Shadow, please. We have to go back. I have to make sure that they’re okay.”

There was a long moment where Shadow simply stared at him. And then, shaking his head, Shadow withdrew his hands from Sonic’s and took a step back. It was clear from the contortion upon his face that it pained him to do so, and yet, the cold, harsh reality was that he did it anyway.

“I can’t go back. I refuse to.”

Sonic’s hands, now empty and cold, dropped to his side as he straightened. Within his ribcage, his heart cracked into two, equal parts; one for those he had left behind in Montana, and one for the person who stood in front of him.

Well then. This was it.

It was time for him to leave.

Nodding to himself, Sonic turned to walk away, heading towards the edge of the catwalk and towards one of the ridiculously large, girthy arms of the bridge. However, as he prepared to climb up onto the rail and grind down it, he hesitated at the finality of it all. At the loose string he found frayed and waving in the Pacific breeze, begging to be tied into a neat little knot so that he could at least stride into the next part of his life harboring no regrets for what he had neglected to take care of.

This was potentially his last chance to do this. Should something happen, to either of them, Sonic would lose the ability to tender his loose string forever. It would forever remain untied, connected to his soul with nothing to bind it to. Searching endlessly for the only person who could grab it with deft fingers and tether to his own heart.  

Because right here, right now, held the likelihood of being the last opportunity he would have to express how he felt about Shadow.

If he was going to leave, he wanted to do so with no regrets. Was it selfish? Perhaps. And yet....

With these clamoring, pressing thoughts in his mind, all previous hesitations, qualms, uncertainties… they all dissipated. Evaporated without a trace, just like the fog cast over the city had the tendency to do on a particularly hot, sunny day. Because with a burning resolution smoldering within his core, Sonic stepped down from the rail and turned back to where Shadow hadn't yet moved from. His counterpart’s head tilted in somber, dejected confusion as Sonic lifted his chin, squared his shoulders, and marched back to where Shadow stood waiting. There was a purpose in Sonic's step, a resolve that burned deep in his eyes as he came to a stop in front of Shadow, who had done nothing more than silently watch him approach.

“Before I go. There’s one more thing I have to do.”

Sonic didn’t give Shadow a chance to react. To question him. To open his mouth and say anything, before he stole that ability from him by seizing the side of his face between two firm, rigid palms…

…and pulling him forward and mashing their lips together.

It was impulsive. It was reckless. It was messy. It was everything Sonic was and embodied, the perfect summary of who he was.

And yet, it was tender. It was adoring. It was heartfelt. Just as he was known to be brash and abrasive, it also carried the undertones of his softer side, the side that only those lucky enough to truly know him were granted the privilege to see. Or at least, in Shadow’s case for this specific instance, experience.

Beneath him, under the touch of his hands and lips, Shadow stiffened. Sonic could feel his muscles bunch and his jaw clench beneath the hands that held his face in place, and if Sonic’s eyes hadn’t been squeezed shut in nervousness, he would have noticed that Shadow had the opposite reaction with his own eyes flying open, his eyelids peeling back in such shock, that the red fur accentuating his lash line nearly disappeared.

For a long, agonizing moment, one that stretched out as the seconds slowly ticked by like the hands on a clock, Sonic wondered if he had made the wrong choice. If he had completely misread the fact that he and Shadow had nearly locked lips the night before and had instead fabricated the whole scenario in his mind. If the kiss he had just planted upon Shadow’s mouth was going to get him killed before he even had the chance to return to Green Hills, once Shadow snapped from his stupor and deemed it necessary to plant a fist upon Sonic’s chest in a finishing blow that Sonic probably deserved for so unabashedly doing something as insane as pressing his mouth to Shadow’s in a deep, passionate kiss.

However, that retaliation never came, as after a few more seconds passed, Shadow finally relaxed, melting into the kiss as if it were the most natural thing in the world. Beneath Sonic’s palms, he could feel his jaw relax, and a moment later, Shadow leaned in and lifted his arms to loop them behind Sonic’s neck, right beneath the mess of quills on his head, and used the enveloping contact to pull him in closer so that their chests were flush against one another.

Shadow’s body was as warm and soft as Sonic remembered it being from that night on the train. And now that he knew he wasn’t about to get throttled, he became bold and greedy, sliding one of his hands over the surface of Shadow’s cheeks and past his neck so that they threaded between the quills at the back of his head, and with a desperate curl of his fingers, used them as a purchase to pull Shadow even closer into him and deepen the kiss. He couldn’t help the desperation that took hold of his body as he found himself intoxicated by the taste, the touch, everything about him that was simply irresistible and Sonic found that even as he drank from Shadow's cup, he was still thirsty for more.

And yet, despite the fact that he craved, wanted, no needed more, a sudden epiphany hit him, and a rather humiliating one at that. He had no idea how to kiss. And because of that, he had no idea if he was horrible at it or not.

The thought was nearly enough to make him pull away out of self-preservation, of embarrassment to prevent himself from making a further fool of himself. There was no way in hell he was doing an actual good job right now, not with his lack of experience both physical and emotional, Sonic never before having had felt the urge to do anything of this caliber with a single other person in his entire life. However, Shadow must have sensed his hesitation, for his arms that were interlocked behind Sonic’s neck only tightened and therefore drew them closer to one another, and with smoothness that made Sonic go dizzy and lose his train of thought, Shadow tilted his head to the side so that their lips slotted together more seamlessly, the ecstasy of the adjusted position making Sonic completely forget about any of his previously harbored qualms.

Despite himself, Sonic let out a hum of content, the sound passing through his mouth still pressed to Shadow’s and accompanied with a satisfied exhale that puffed out of his nose. He couldn’t ever believe that he had once been so dismissive of the act of kissing. That he had once found it disgustingly heinous. Because now? On top of the Golden Gate Bridge with Shadow’s body pressed to his and their lips moving against one another in a rhythm that was foreign and familiar all at the same time? Sonic felt that he had been reborn. That his life had been dull, gray, and boring before as new colors burst behind his eyes in an overwhelming wave of joy that glowed steadily within his chest.

However, the moment couldn’t last forever, and pulling away after what felt like an eternity, he found himself cracking his eyes open and gazing into the face of Shadow, his normally harsh expression looking as dazed as Sonic felt.  

Sonic’s breath came out ragged— who knew kissing was such an exhausting activity?— before forcing himself to swallow. “That…” he began, and had intended to finish it with something along the lines of was incredible, lifechanging, amazing, wow!

But instead of saying anything, Sonic merely swallowed the words down as reality came flooding back in, washing away the soft glow of the kiss and replacing it with something a bit more urgent. Because every second, every minute he stayed away from Green Hills, the more likely that his friends would get hurt. And besides, he was done hiding. Done running. It was time for him to go back and face the consequences of his actions and power, confront the ones who had sought to tear his family to shreds, and do to them what they intended to do to him. He was going to fight for his family and home. And Shadow….

Sonic paused in his musings as he refocused on the dark, beautiful hedgehog that he held in his arms, truly stopped to study him.

Shadow had managed to blink away the daze from his gaze, though his eyes were still filled with longing, and then, pain as Sonic disentangled himself, releasing his hold in Shadow's quills and the side of his face and took one hesitant step away. And then, another, this time angling his body to turn towards the bay and run until his feet were worn down to the bone or he collided with Green Hills. Whichever came first.

“Sonic…” Shadow began, his deep voice breaking in heartache as he held out a tentative hand towards Sonic, one that was wistful, broken, and desperate.

And even though Sonic wanted to return to the touch, to kiss Shadow again and never let him go and spend the rest of his days conjoined at the top of the Golden Gate Bridge, the endless Pacific on one side and the city on the other, he knew that if he reignited the contact between their lips he would never be able to tear away. That such an intimate caress would crumble away at the wall of resolve he had so steadily placed the bricks down to construct, that he would never be able to return to Green Hills and do the right thing.

No. If he was going to go home to his family, he would have to do it now.

He took yet another step away, and he hated how the action made Shadow’s face contort in agony. “I have to go now,” he said in a voice that trembled ever-so-slightly, before giving Shadow an encouraging nod. “I’ll find you afterwards, okay?”

The words were a promise. They were meant to be reassurance that everything would be okay and that Shadow wouldn’t have to worry about him. That after this was all said and done, they could be together again. Just like both knew they were meant to be. 

And yet, despite how he tried to be uplifting in his parting farewell, something in Shadow’s expression broke. Something that in turn, shattered Sonic’s own heart as he found himself unable to look upon a devastating display any longer, knowing that he was the sole cause, forcing himself to turn away and blink back the moistness that began to gather in his eyes.

He should have looked over his shoulder. To see the person he found bound to his soul by that damned thread one last time.

But he didn’t. He couldn’t bring himself to, knowing that if he were to catch a glimpse of Shadow one last time, he would lose the willpower that would carry his feet away from the Golden Gate Bridge and the person his heart longed for and instead stay behind with him.

As Sonic mounted the rail and cascaded down the broad, red surface that comprised the arm of monumental bridge, aiming for northern headlands before he would change his trajectory and veer inland towards the direction of his home, he couldn’t prevent a lonely, singular tear from escaping his eye as he streaked past, glistening in the morning light as it plummeted down to the sea below.

Chapter Text

When Sonic catapulted off the crimson arm of the bridge, flying through the sky in a blue streak, he couldn’t help but stop on the side of the headlands, needing a moment to compose himself before he took off.

He took a ragged breath. He had made it this far. He needed to keep going.

And yet, he hesitated.

Sonic didn’t turn back. Because some core, subconscious part of him knew that if he were to do so, if he were to look over his shoulder and see Shadow’s dark figure standing at the top of the Golden Gate Bridge, he wouldn’t be able to resist the urge to return to him. He wouldn’t be able to stop himself from sprinting back up the arm the bridge he had just descended upon and leap back into his arms, wrap himself around Shadow so that they could continue their kiss and continue their embrace and continue to express what Sonic only knew could only be their intense love and adoration for one another, something that had been expressed through their words, actions, and everything else that existed both tangible and invisible between them.

No. He couldn’t look back. Already, the mere concept of Shadow still standing right behind him was enough for his heart to pull him back in a forceful tug, for Sonic to wax ridiculous poetry that was equal parts malarkey as it was genuine and raw from his heart.

He needed to keep going.

His feet began to move. The chaparral biome was golden and crispy beneath the soles of his shoes, the steep slope he had landed upon north of the bridge sitting at the deadened cusp of its dryness, before the late fall and winter rains would make the grass lush and green again.

Each step was loud and agonizing.

He couldn’t stop now. Not when he had already done the hard part of initiating the separation and walking away. He had to follow through. He had made his choice.

His stride began to quicken, Sonic cresting the peak of the hill and beginning his trek down the gradual slope, the one that took him away from the ocean and protected him from the refreshing sea breeze that ruffled his fur.

He had to do this. His family needed him.

The descent down the side of the hill unwittingly made his pace hasten; it would have been more effort to restrict his acceleration rather than embrace it as he continued onward. He dodged a shrub to the right, and then darted back to the left to avoid a sharp boulder covered in a peculiar orange moss.

But then again, Shadow needed him too.

He was picking up speed now, almost reaching a respectable clip. Soon, he would be at the bottom of the small valley, and with the momentum he had gained, would use that to easily scale the next hill and hopefully, at that point, he would overcome the mental barriers that were holding him back and finally reach his maximum speed so that he could return home in a timely manner.

Both his family and Shadow needed him.

Sonic stumbled, nearly tripping and falling over a hidden rock that had been hiding in the long, golden grass. Grass that was dead and decayed, waiting for the new rains to replace the hollow husk it had been rendered to by summer months.

Sonic felt a sort of kinship with the grass. Which was ridiculous, and like was previously stated, needlessly poetic. He needed to snap out of his reverie, because all this sappy jargon that was tumbling through his head was clouding his goal. The primary objective he needed to focus on; the reason he was about to leave Shadow behind.

The peak of the hill he was scaling was nearly approaching. It was time to return to Green Hills.

“I’ll be back for you, Shadow,” Sonic promised under his breath, the words more for his own ears to hear and internalize as he spoke them into existence. “Once I take care of this.”

And with that, Sonic sprang into action, summoning his energy about him in a coating of sparking cobalt power as he accelerated into his top speed within the span of a few seconds as he rocketed forward in an impressive blast of energy.

At this point, he didn’t care about the potential power boost that would likely set off any energy readers attuned to his signature. It didn’t matter. Because within the next hour, he was going to be back in Green Hills, and he was going to fight for his friends and family. Stealth didn’t matter anymore. He was going to barge in, full force.

He was nothing more than a blue blur traversing the land, reaching speeds he would have loved to clock in with Tom’s speed radar gun from how close he could tell he was to breaking his previous records. Because the turmoil of emotions within his head, both his desperation to return home and the agonizing heartbreak over leaving Shadow behind, was more than enough fuel to propel him to new speeds and distances. In essence, he was a confused, emotional wreck.

And it wasn’t until he reached the mountains lining Green Hills some short period of time later that he realized that he had wasted the entire journey reminiscing on his past (Shadow) and his future (his family).

Meaning, unfortunately for him, he didn’t have much of a plan.

That had always been Tails’ thing. Because seriously, back when they had been discussing how they were going to infiltrate G.U.N. headquarters in London, who had been the person to come up with their elaborate break-in scheme? Certainly not Sonic, that was for damn sure. No, that task had fallen solely onto Tails, something he had decided to go out of his way to include lifelike visuals to accompany his vivid descriptions because that sort of thing brought him a strange amount of joy Sonic found to be unfathomable.

(And by this, he meant Tails going above and beyond to explain just how many little pieces Sonic was going to get cut up into should he rush into G.U.N.’s defense systems.)

But anyways. He was getting distracted. Point was, Tails came up with the plans, Tails was more or less out of commission, so therefore, Sonic had no plan.

And now, coming to a stop at the edge of the forest that lined his house, slightly panting at how long he had been running for at a speed he wasn’t sure he had ever reached before, Sonic was struck with the fact that he had no idea what to do. Not with the way G.U.N. was camped out on their lawn with an assortment of trailers, trucks, soldiers, and a million other military-adjacent things that Sonic knew was causing irreparable damage to their grass and soil.

He clucked his tongue as he surveyed the dismal scene before him, mildly surprised that there were still so many people present, before brushing it aside. He needed to focus on finding who he had come for, because he genuinely had no idea if his friends and family were even still there. Searching for them within the house seemed like a good place to start, since he certainly didn’t catch sight of them anywhere on the lawn.

His footsteps were careful and calculated as he sidled around to the back, figuring that sneaking in through the kitchen door would be far stealthier than waltzing right down the front, past the multitude of soldiers that lurked outside, and in through the main door. Beneath his feet, he took extra care to tread lightly; due Green Hills being rather north, the leaves had already begun to change and fall to create a crunchy carpet on the ground. And even though the forest was primarily composed of pine trees that didn’t shed their leaves every autumn and winter like the wusses that deciduous trees were, there were still enough leaves on the floor where he couldn’t go traipsing around all reckless and wild.

A pair of G.U.N. soldiers walked by along the back of the house, chatting idly to each other, and Sonic shrank back into the bushes as they passed. And once they disappeared around the corner, Sonic quickly darted across the back yard, just about diving through Ozzy’s backdoor before another patrol could make themselves apparent.

He let out a sigh of relief as he pressed himself against the kitchen door, finding no one waiting for him inside with the barrel of their gun pointed at him. So far, this had been relatively simple, although then again, he had barely arrived. There were still plenty of opportunities for this whole escapade to go haywire.

The house was empty upon an impression, however, hearing a shuffling sound come from the living room, Sonic figured that he would probably find what he was looking for if he headed in that direction.

Of course, almost walking straight into two G.U.N. soldiers confirmed the noise he had heard, though with a quick kick laced with his electric blue energy to each of their torsos, they were quickly knocked to the ground, and other than a suffering groan, neither got up. Well then. That had been rather easy.

“They’re probably okay,” Sonic said offhandedly as he grimaced down towards their unconscious bodies, before shrugging. It wasn’t that he didn’t care, but at the same time… yeah. He really didn’t care all that much, not when he had much more pressing matters at hand.

He was torn free from his mildly guilty musings as a sharp gasp cut through the air. In his surprise at being accidentally ambushed, he had completely neglected to notice Tom, Maddie, Knuckles, and Tails all sitting with their hands cuffed behind them, staring at him in shock. Right there in front of him, out in the open space of their living room.

For a long moment, they simply gawked at him, and because of this, Sonic took it upon himself to cut the thick layer of tension extending between them all with one of his world-famous jokes. Or rather, world-infamous jokes. “Are those the titanium handcuffs? Really?” he simpered. “You know, Tails, when you designed these things, I’m sure you were hoping that they would be used on people that weren’t a part of our team. Have we actually successfully used these in a way that haven’t spectacularly backfired on us yet?”

That seemed to be enough to break them all out of their stupor, confirming that it was in fact Sonic and not some false apparition, because only he could utter something as simultaneously funny and unfunny as that. “Sonic!” all four of them cried out in unison, their voices all a mix of excitement, trepidation, fear, and a million other conflicting emotions that clamored over one another to be heard.

And before Sonic had the chance to get a word in, presumably to make yet another stupid joke or snarky comment that was rather out of place in the situation they all found themselves wrapped up in, everyone began to bombard him with questions, comments, and concerns, as though he were the phone number provided on the back of a bag of chips.

“What are you doing here?!”

“Is that really you?!

“You came back!”

“Why did you come back?” That last one was Tails, who hissed in a low undertone as he struggled uselessly against his cuffs. “And wait. Where’s Shadow?”

Sonic felt a pang in his heart, a knife digging into the wound of his separation from Shadow and twisting in a way that nearly made him clutch at his chest in an instinctive response. However, attempting to keep the pain from infiltrating his expression, Sonic brushed off Tails’ very valid question. “He didn’t feel like joining in on this particular adventure. You all are lucky enough to get just me and my undivided attention!”

Tails gave him an uncertain look, however, was cut off by Tom’s sharp, relieved, and overall shocked demand.

“Sonic! Where in the world have you been?” There was a beat, before he followed up with, “What have you been up to?!”

Freezing at the forwardness of the question and the answer of his time spent with Shadow that unwillingly flashed behind his eyes like a movie, Sonic sucked in air through his teeth as he decided it would be in his best interest to not directly address Tom’s question and instead deflect. “Listen, while a family reunion is nice and all, it’s going to have to wait since you guys kind of look a little tied up right now. How do I get you all out of here?”

“Director Rockwell has the key,” Tails whispered, the only one in the group with enough foresight to not make a big ruckus about Sonic’s return and focus on the task at hand without getting distracted by the joys of his best friend’s return. “And that’s the only way to unlock these things.”

"Yes," Knuckles supplied in a comically loud voice that nearly sounded like a shout after following Tails' hushed undertone. "Even my fists are no match for these silly gizmos. I am ashamed at my weakness as a warrior." 

Next to him, Tails rolled his eyes. "Yeah, well, that's kind of the point of these titanium cuffs, if you've forgotten. They're literally meant to be indestructible."

Sonic resisted the urge to release a bark of laughter, both at Knuckles and Tails' exchange as well as the information that Director Rockwell was the one who held the key to his family's freedom. Some random woman with an impeccably slicked back bun didn’t sound like that much of an obstacle, or even that scary for that matter. This was going to be exceedingly simple; this whole thing would be taken care of in no time at all.

And so, he nodded in confirmation as he straightened up and prepared to leave. “I’ll be right back. I’m going to get the key, and then the five of us are leaving.” He gave them an obnoxious, lopsided grin. “Try not to go anywhere, okay?”

Tails, Knuckles, and Maddie all let out an exhausted groan.

Tom, however, did not entertain the corny quip, instead leaning forward with a glint of serious desperation flickering within his gaze. “Sonic.” His tone was sharp, but not in a cutting way. It was one of worry, one that was almost a plea. “Be careful.”

Sonic paused as he made long steady eye contact with him, seeing the pain and desperation in his face, before nodding resolutely. “I will, Dad.”  

And with that, a lighthearted wink and a cheeky salute as a temporary farewell done with the intent to make them all not worry about what was quite the worrying situation, Sonic turned and exited the living room.

Almost immediately, his jovial demeanor dropped, replaced by one a little bit more pensive and stressed.

He had two options. Sneak around and hope that he could steal the key from Rockwell without her noticing, or (and this was the far preferable option for him), confront her in a big dramatic showdown with lots of banter, back and forth, and ultimately, a large, climactic fight.

Hm, yes. That last one tickled Sonic’s fancy quite nicely. He was always quite the fan of showmanship and theatrics, and this was an ample opportunity for some dramatic flair. And so, without a speck of reservation or hesitation, Sonic strode straight out the front door of the house, and immediately came to a stop as he realized that there was a staggering assortment of G.U.N. soldiers all pointing their weapons at him, and at the end of the cobblestone path traversing their yard, stood Director Rockwell, a smattering of leaves beneath her feet and her hands clasped behind her back as she gazed at Sonic with a displeased expression painting her strict features.

Well then. Perhaps he hadn’t even had the option of stealth in the first place. They seemed to have already known that he was there. The illusion of choice was a fickle thing, after all.

“I was wondering when you were going to show up.”

Sonic ignored her statement, spoken in lieu of a normal greeting and lined with a taunting edge that certainly intended to provoke him, as he instead thrust out an impatient hand. “The key to their cuffs. Give it to me.” Upon Director Rockwell merely staring at him, without saying or doing anything, he took it upon himself to declare his intentions. Which were rather obvious, but still, didn’t hurt to be verbalized for the sake of exposition. “I’m freeing my friends and family, and then you all are going to leave Green Hills.”

“And why, pray tell, would we do that?”

“Um, because I’m asking very nicely?” Never mind the fact that he really hadn’t asked all that nicely, omitting a 'please' or 'thank you' from his original demand. A demand whose power was more or less negated by how he followed it up in such a way that didn’t exactly exude confidence.

Director Rockwell didn’t seem to think that he had asked very nicely either, though to be fair, whether or not he actually had wouldn't have likely had any bearing on her stance or response. “Hm, yes, I don’t think that’s how we’re going to do this.”

“Okay, fine,” Sonic sighed. “How would you like to do this, then? Rock, paper, scissors? Flip a coin?” He scoffed, the mental image in his head of him and Director Rockwell sitting down to do such an inane thing bringing him more amusement than it probably had any right to. “I’d hate to gamble and leave things up to chance, but I feel like in this specific scenario, I can see why you would rather rely on luck versus skill.”

“What’s going to happen is you’re going to surrender yourself. And then we’ll let your little friends go.”

Sonic made a harsh sound that wasn’t unlike the buzzer of a basketball game, before following it up with a barking, “Wrong!” Based on Director Rockwell’s displeased reaction, he knew that he was being annoying and a nuisance, and he was loving every second of it. If G.U.N. was going to attempt to enslave him and tear apart his family and home in the process, then the least they could do was put up with his obnoxious mannerisms and quips, entertaining his wiles for a short period of time before things escalated into something a bit more serious. “Since you won’t give me the key, I’ll just have to take it by force.”

He stepped forward so that he stood at the edge of the porch, and the reaction of the soldiers was for their weapons to shift and follow him in an unsettling clatter of plastic and metal. Sonic resisted the urge to gulp, and in an attempt to distract himself from the mild sting of nerves he felt prickle at his spine at the blatant danger he found himself confronted by, continued to blabber in a semi-coherent string of consciousness. “I’m surprised you didn’t come after me. Looks like G.U.N. has gotten a little incompetent since we’ve parted ways. Or perhaps it was just pure laziness?”

Director Rockwell extended him a flat look from where she stood a safe distance behind the rows of soldiers, clearly not impressed by Sonic’s petty insults. “Why would we have wasted precious resources tracking you down, when we knew you would come right back?”

Sonic paused in his approach, mildly taken aback by the confidence and truth within her words. “How could you have possibly known that?”

“It’s been less than forty-eight hours.”

Sonic fell silent. Had it really only been two days since he had left? Yeesh, it felt like an entire lifetime had passed, the past two days being packed with all sorts of fun, juicy stuff: going to the bar in Idaho, riding the train, visiting Randall and Rachel, watching the fireworks with Shadow on the Ferris wheel, kissing him on the Golden Gate Bridge—

At the fleeting memory that flitted through his mind, both agonizing and euphoric in the conflicting physical and emotional turmoil it caused him, Sonic shook his head in rapid, sharp succession. No time to reminisce on that now, on both the good and the bad from his brash, bold move.

Yes, he needed to respond to Director Rockwell, to speak and with that, distract himself from the memory that haunted his mind and made his body reflexively tense up, feeling the phantom of Shadow’s arms wrapped around his neck and their lips grazing before plunging into an intense kiss. “Is that so? My point still stands, though. Forty-eight hours, and yet, you never made an appearance.” He plastered an insufferable smirk on his face, one that he knew was hollow and flat, not that Director Rockwell would be able to tell the difference. “Admit it, you had completely lost us.”

“Oh, quite the contrary. We’ve been keeping track of you, quite close tabs,” she snipped. Her arms remained behind her back in a clear picture of military excellence even as she leaned forward, a steely glint in her eyes. Her prim and proper pose was in staunch contrast with the messy scattering of leaves at her feet that almost completely covered the walkway and lawn; it seemed that despite occupying their property, G.U.N. didn’t possess the manners to at least rake the damn yard. “All across the country. You do realize that you two are very recognizable figures, do you not?”

“If you’re referring to our dashingly handsome looks then sure, I guess you could say that,” Sonic responded in an attempt to remain lighthearted, because beneath Director Rockwell’s clipped statement, there was an underlying thread of danger, something that held very loose implications that Sonic was beginning to pick up on. “And besides. Don’t pat yourself on the back too hard. There’s no way you knew what we were up to, otherwise you would have done something about it.”  

“Like I said, it was a calculated decision to not waste our efforts when we were certain you would come right back. We knew exactly what you two were up to. The entire time. We saw nearly everything.”

Her words, spoken with an edge of conspiracy, like she knew something that she wasn’t outright verbalizing, made Sonic’s blood run cold as he dropped all pretenses of joking around. Oh no. She couldn’t possibly mean… could she?

Sonic’s throat bobbed, and he decided that the only way to find out would be to ask. “And when you say everything, you really do mean….”

“Yes. Everything. From a small bar in Idaho, to stealing drinks in San Francisco, which is petty theft, by the way, to your little, how shall I say, moment on the bridge.” Sonic’s blood, which had run cold a few moments earlier, began to heat up from embarrassment. “The wonderful thing about living in the modern world is that cameras are everywhere, and well, with the right resources….”

Whatever she began to say after that, Sonic tuned out. Because there was one thing on his mind, one piece of intel that just about demolished him from within as he could do little more than stare at her with his body temperature flushing and heat involuntarily rising to his cheeks.

This was so, so cringe.

And that was not a word that Sonic used lightly. No, not with the fact that he refused to label himself as doing anything remotely cringeworthy, as well as its incorporation into the modern lexicon that carried a whole myriad of implications that ultimately sent it careening towards being a very dated, very unstylish term. But as Director Rockwell gave him a look, one that was knowing and made him squirm in his shoes, Sonic decided that dubbing it ‘cringe’ was the only word fit for the rising mortification he felt prickle at his skin as he realized with stark, humiliated clarity that she knew.

And because of this, he was at a complete loss for words, his mind drawing a blank.

Luckily, she didn’t seem to be expecting much of a response as she continued to speak with no input from Sonic. Her words, though, were far from savory. “It’s a shame. We had been expecting that you would be bringing back Project Shadow with you. It seems that you two shared a special… how shall I put it… bond.”

This time, Sonic did physically react, and that was to pinch at the bridge of his nose between two fingers as he squeezed his eyes shut. Cringe. Cringe. Cringe. He literally couldn’t handle this, a tertiary emotion to the brewing storm of delight and heartbreak he felt about that moment with Shadow. And now, the whole memory was tainted by the fact that Director Rockwell of all the damn people in the world knew. Good grief. If a G.U.N. soldier decided to aim their weapon at him and fire, he wasn’t all that sure he would do anything to stop it. Surely, death would be a far preferable alternative to the petrification that was consuming every fiber of his being at the current moment.

Gathering himself as he lowered his fingers from between his eyes, Sonic decided to finally respond, if only to scramble for what fragmented shreds of self-preservation he could salvage. “Yeah, well, he decided to skip out on this little party,” he hastily stated, just a tad too quickly as he suddenly became acutely aware of how Tom, Maddie, Knuckles, and Tails were definitely within earshot, given they were just in the room within the house. The only way to make what was probably the cringiest moment of his life worse (and trust him, that was not a title he assigned lightly because for every cool thing Sonic did, he had to do something equally lame to balance it all out), was for all of them to find out about his not-so-private moment with Shadow. “Sorry about that. Looks like you’re stuck with just me right now. Maybe next time, include a plus-one in your invitation and I’ll be able to bring him.”

The joke was unfunny and flat even to his own ears, and he had quite the low threshold for humor. However, given the circumstances that rattled him to his core, it was honestly quite impressive he was able to manage saying anything at all.

“No worries. Once we have you, he shouldn’t be all that far behind.”

Sonic didn’t know why, but that more or less did it for him. The implication that they were going to recapture Shadow brought a peculiar, unfathomable surge of anger within him, one that was indignant and defensive about his more-than-just-a-friend. He was wasting his time. Every moment that passed, was a moment his friends spent imprisoned a little longer, and a moment he spent away from Shadow.

He was tired of these games, this pointless back and forth that merely delayed the inevitable. Director Rockwell wasn’t going to relent, and he wasn’t going to give in. They were at a standstill, and ignoring the weapons that were trained upon him in warning Sonic crouched in preparation, bending at the knees and leaning forward as he willed his energy to the surface— mainly in a display of intimidation rather than actual need— as he prepared himself to steal the key from Rockwell.

Because the faster he took care of this, the faster he freed his friends and family and unleashed his might upon G.U.N., the sooner he could go find Shadow.

And with that as his main motivator, Sonic finally lunged forward. Down the steps of the porch and over the cobblestone path that cut through the yard, kicking up the leaves littered along the way as he did so. In an instant, he was right in front of her, the face of G.U.N. that represented everything he detested about the organization, his hand outstretched to tackle Director Rockwell and search for the key before the soldiers even had a chance to fire a single bullet. He was quick, as was the nature of his character, however, right as he was about to make contact and search her pockets, there was a shift in the atmosphere as time came to a slow around him, a shift that rippled the air about him menacingly as the acute scent of ozone flooded his nose.

Before his mind could process what had just happened, he felt himself slam to the floor just in front of Director Rockwell, his cheek smushing against the ground in such a way that he was forced to stare at her shoes. Above him, he could hear her let out a tense sigh, her posture slipping as he could see her slightly relax; clearly, her composure had been rattled ever so slightly at Sonic’s brash move to go directly for her in something that was forward even for him.

To be fair though, she had goaded him into doing it. Something that Sonic was now realizing. Her words from months ago, combined with a smug, insufferable expression upon her face, rang within the confines of his frantic mind: ‘And now, you’ve fallen right into my trap.’  

Somehow, she didn’t say these prime words, which was quite silly in Sonic’s opinion because it would have been the perfect opportunity for a cheeky little callback and to bring things full circle. Oh well. Not everyone could possess his comedic genius and timing, he supposed. “Well then,” she said, a slight waver in her voice that clearly conveyed her relief that somehow, her plan had worked and she had made it out the other side unscathed. Looking up at her with only his eyes, he realized that she was holding some sort of a tablet, and with that, he realized that her hands clasped behind her back hadn’t been borne from some uptight, strict military posture, but instead, a rather childish concealment towards the controls of the gravity pad he found himself glued to. “Before, I hadn’t believed that one single creature could be so idiotic. However, it seems that my initial assessment is correct.” Her face was barely within Sonic’s peripheral vision so he was only able to catch a strained glimpse of it, but he took note of her smarmy, self-satisfied smirk nonetheless. “You are incredibly stupid.”

“Listen, lady,” Sonic grunted out despite himself, struggling through the immense amount of effort it took to conjure up anything coherent from the way his entire face felt like it was being dragged and melted into the pad beneath his palms. His position was incredibly alarming, and he felt a swell of panic rise within him at how compromised he was splayed out on his stomach; however, he was determined to let none of that show within his demeanor. As a result, he decided to default on one of his classic, snappy quips, something he knew Director Rockwell would despise (and was his main motivator in uttering it).  “How did you expect me to remember the gravity pads from a few months ago? Especially when you covered them in leaves to deliberately hide them?! I fail to see how I am being ridiculed for this, when you’re the one that took inspiration from a Looney Tunes cartoon.”

“I didn’t expect you to remember them. That’s why they’re being used,” she retorted with a tinge of exhaustion at Sonic’s jab woven into her tone, and well, to be fair, she kind of got him there. Rats. One point for Director Rockwell, or rather, two if you wanted to include Sonic’s current paralyzed predicament into that tally.

But still. Not so easily dissuaded— because really, have you met him?— Sonic continued to heckle her. “Honestly, using the gravity pad is kind of a cheap move. Kind of overpowered and a copout, all you had to do was what, press some silly little button? If you’re not a coward, maybe you’ll release me?”

Yeah, so maybe delivering it as a question wasn’t as convincing as it could have been.  

Director Rockwell seemed to agree with this sentiment as she sneered down at him in disdain. “No thanks. I think I’ll pass.”

Her answers were curt, but ultimately, it didn’t matter to Sonic; it was good that she was continuing to talk. It gave Sonic time to gather himself, to reach deep within his core to summon his electric energy in a cloud about him before he would spin into a ball and tear free from his restraints. He had done it once to save Tom, Maddie, and Tails; now, he would have to do it to save himself.

Because this time, he knew that Shadow wasn’t going to reappear to rescue him like he had before. No, despite his complacence and comfort Sonic had found within his companion over the past stretch of weeks, despite the fact that he had found solace in their mutual care and protection they provided one another. Sonic was on his own for this one.

With that flashing in his mind, he felt a crushing sensation squeeze within his chest that had nothing to do with the gravity pad he found himself bound to.

Above him, Director Rockwell turned to walk away. “I grow tired of this.” Her shoes began to recede, and Sonic could do little more than watch her departing figure. “Knock him out.”

Well then. Those were not the words Sonic had wanted to hear, and in a panic, he attempted to lift himself off the pad he was stuck to, the concentration that it took him to accumulate his energy and manage to curl into a spiky ball dissipating as he heard steady footsteps approach him. However, his efforts were futile, and after barely managing to lift himself a few measly inches off the ground in a display that he knew would have made Knuckles laugh at his weakness were it not for the dire circumstances, Sonic slammed back to the ground with even more force than before.

His panic grew to insurmountable heights as he heard a new pair of footsteps approach behind him. This was it. He had really screwed up this time. However, unlike when Shadow had screwed up and nearly decimated the world, Sonic didn’t have anyone to help him fix his mess. Once again, he was struck by how completely and utterly alone he was, and that this was really it. His hastiness and lack of a plan was really coming around to bite him in the behind; he should have heeded Shadow’s warning about the danger of G.U.N. and at the very least taken some time to think before charging head-on.

But alas, no time to fix his poor decisions now, and nothing more could be done than add it to the ever-growing list of bad choices he seemed to have the propensity to make as of late. Even though Tom had told him that what ultimately mattered was what was in his lungs (or had it been heart? It was so long ago that Sonic scarcely remembered at this point), Sonic couldn’t swallow the choking feeling that suffocated him and stole the breath from his body that this bad choice was just all-around disastrous, despite his good intentions to save his family.

His family. At least he had seen them one last time, even if the moment had been fleeting. However, despite his small gratitude towards the fact he had gotten to speak with them again, it was ultimately overpowered by the truth of what had happened. That he had failed them. That now, they were all going to suffer because he had been unsuccessful in confronting G.U.N. and defending his home and loved ones.

Above him, he heard a potent spark of electricity. He squeezed his eyes shut and braced himself— he knew the sensation he was about to endure was going to be very unpleasant.

 And, as he felt the tip of something hard contact his body and send him into a spasming fit, he realized that he had unfortunately been correct. The sensation of being shocked until passing out was rather unpleasant, though perhaps he would need to find a more apt description to convey the agony he experienced as his jaw clenched together and he unwittingly swallowed the groan of pain that threatened to escape between his lips.

Maybe excruciating would be a better way to describe it? Or perhaps torturous?

In the end, the semantics didn’t really matter. The petrifying sensation made the corners of his vision darken and his head swim, and right before he slipped into unconsciousness, there was one last thought that flitted across his screaming mind. That while he was relieved he had possessed the courage to initiate a kiss with Shadow right before his departure from the Golden Gate Bridge, and that he wouldn’t be struck with regret at missing the perfect opportunity to press their lips together, he was also devastated at the fact he would likely never be able to do such a thing ever again.

Chapter Text

When Sonic finally came back into consciousness, blinking his fuzzy eyes open with a weary groan, the first thing he noticed was that he was kind of hungry.

He hadn’t been eating much while on the run with Shadow. Over the past forty-eight hours, he had consumed fries, a Mello Yello, a sip of mediocre matcha, and… well… was that really it? Geez. No wonder his stomach growled in complaint every time he shifted his weight as he brought himself into a sitting position, folding his knees under him as he rubbed at his throbbing temple.

Oh. And also, the second thing he noticed was that he was in a cage. That was kind of important too.

Scrambling to his feet and nearly hitting his head on the low ceiling, Sonic looked wildly around. He recognized this cage— it was the one they had used on him in Hawaii during Rachel's wedding. Feeling overwhelmed with dramatic despair, to no one in particular, he cried out, “Aw man, are you kidding me? What am I, some kind of animal?!”

If Director Rockwell had been there, she probably would have told him yes, yes you are. Either that, or she would have informed him that he wasn't an animal, but in fact an alien. There was probably a distinction to be made there, one that she wouldn't hesitate to point out.

But ultimately, she wasn’t present. Sonic was alone. Alone and in some stupid cage that looked like it was made for restraining dogs rather than supercharged alien hedgehogs, and so with that in mind, he attempted to snake a hand through the bars to unlock it from the inside.

At least, that had been his plan, until his fingers grazed against the metal of the latticework and he got a powerful shock that would have probably illuminated his skeleton on the inside had it been a cartoon.

With a sharp hiss, Sonic withdrew his finger, glaring at the metal bars of his enclosure in offense. It was an electric-charged cage. Of course. With gaps too small for him to slip a hand through without touching the edges of the cage, which was really quite unfortunate. “Oh man, curse these comically large and disproportionately sized hands!” he lamented, giving his gloves a despairing look before composing himself and preparing to search for a different method of escape.

After a few minutes of looking wildly around the room, which if he didn’t know any better, seemed to be the inside of a trailer or a truck attachment (and since he didn’t think they were moving, either meant that they had reached their new destination, were still in Green Hills, or stopped at a gas station), Sonic slumped down to the floor. He had no plan, no idea on how to escape. Not with how his failure still stung at his hide, dissuading him from even attempting to break free and make a bigger mess of things than he already had.

With that, he gave up.

And unfortunately for him, the limbo he found himself in allowed him to do some reflecting.

It wasn’t something he was super keen on doing. He was more of an act now, think never sort of guy, which meant that slowing down and contemplating his life choices, specifically the ones that resulted in him being caged like a dog in the back of a military vehicle, wasn’t something he frequently did. But now, with a surprising lack of guards holding him at gunpoint as he sat confined within chrome metal walls, Sonic had nothing to do but think.

The first place his mind went was his family. How he had failed them. How he had made a big spectacle of not only running away, but then returning, just to get himself captured because he was a dolt who couldn’t slow down and take the time to think things through. His speed was his power, but in many instances, was his downfall, and as Sonic relived the moment of slamming down onto the anti-gravity pad in a moment of reckless foolishness, he couldn’t help but wince at his idiocy.

All of that, one big sacrifice, for nothing. He had made such a massive exhibition of it all, just to fail in the most spectacular of fashions. He had let everyone important to him down in one stupid move. Tom, Maddie, Knuckles, Tails, and….

His heart skipped a beat. Shadow.

Sonic grimaced as he felt his gut clench and squeeze in a crippling, nauseating way that had nothing to do with the fact that it was empty. Shadow. He wondered where he was, if he had abandoned San Francisco like he had planned, taken off down the coast never to be seen again. Farther from Green Hills, farther from G.U.N., farther from Sonic. Sonic wondered how long it had taken his feet to move, just how long he had stood atop the Golden Gate Bridge as he watched Sonic disappear into the hills and mountains of the land north to the bay. He wondered if his blue streak as he had explosively sprinted away had been visible and if Shadow had lingered to watch him go before embarking on his own, separate journey in the opposite direction.

At the end of the day, Sonic’s speculations were pointless. He hadn’t even graced Shadow with a glance over his shoulder as he left, knowing himself so pathetic that if he would have seen him one last time, Sonic would have stopped and returned to him. He was weak, so so weak that he couldn’t even leave Shadow behind properly, and couldn’t even properly save his family.

Sonic pulled his knees in close, wrapping his arms around them and burying his face into the soft blue fur of his forearms. This was it. It was really over. He was never going to see any of them again. Tom and Maddie, Tails and Knuckles, Shadow. They would only exist in his memories, until they became nothing more than blurry, sepia-toned images faded in the depths of his ailing mind.

He didn’t even have the energy to cry. No, the only tear he would ever shed, the single, lonely drop that would ever escape from his eye, had already been gifted to Shadow. A testament to something that, just that morning, Sonic had known could only be love, but was now a giant, aching hole where his heart should be.

Sonic doubted that it even still possessed the ability to beat. Even now, he couldn’t hear the usual rhythm of its pumping, nothing but emptiness occupying the cavern of his chest.

With a soft sound of sorrow escaping his lips, he focused inwards, vying for a glimpse of his heartbeat. Trying to hear if it was still there, even after it had been broken into ragged chunks with each subsequent misfortune that had befallen him that day. He doubted it was still functional. There was no way it could be. Not with how he found himself isolated, not with how he knew he would never see any of those he loved ever again.

Thump.

Sonic frowned into his arms. That had been odd. When he was being melodramatic about not having a heartbeat, he hadn’t actually expected his heart to pound against his ribcage in indignant retaliation, sending a full shudder that shook his frame and rattled his bones.

Sonic waited a few more seconds, and right after he had been ready to write it off as some freak accident, his hollow and despairing mind playing dastardly tricks on him that weren’t funny in the slightest, it happened again.

Thump.

An ear flicked. That hadn’t been from within his ribcage. It had been too powerful, too resonating throughout the entire cage and room he was trapped within.

Whatever it was, it was coming from outside.

Thump. Thump. Thump!

Each pound against the walls drew Sonic further and further from the depths of his despondent depression, and as his curiosity began to grow to an insatiable level, Sonic finally lifted his dejected head from his hands…

… just to see the last person in the entire world he had been expecting to find standing right in front of him, blinking into existence in a blinding flash of light and a crisp, familiar sound.

Seriously. He would have sooner expected to see Wade Whipple standing in front of him instead of the person he found himself staring at with a slack, unmoving jaw and eyelids that were peeled back and unblinking.

“Shadow?!”

In front of him, Shadow shot him a murderous glare, one that didn’t even deter Sonic’s excitement as he snapped out of his stupor and leaned forward in anticipation. All he could do was stare in poorly-concealed awe as Shadow wordlessly lifted a fist, conjured a halo of his sparkling red power around his fingers, and punched the controls along the side of the cage with a snarl and a ferocious, animalistic grunt. The control panel sparked as the sound of fried electricity filled the air, and before Sonic could ask what was going on, Shadow grabbed the front of the cage with a single hand and tore it free, flinging it behind him as he stood before Sonic in a fearsome pose of raw power.

Not wasting any time stepping out, thrilled to finally be free and stand to his full height even though the time he had been locked up was laughably short, Sonic began to babble his appreciation toward his savior. “Shadow! I can’t believe it’s really you! You’re actually here?! How? Why! Agh, you know what, who cares, all that matters is that you came back, you have no idea how happy I am to see you ag—”

Sonic was unceremoniously cut off as Shadow grabbed him by the shoulders and slammed him against the wall so that Sonic’s front was pressed flush against it, his stomach flattened and his cheek smushed to the side as Shadow readjusted one of his hands and placed it in Sonic’s quills, using it to pin him in a very compromising position. One that nearly made Sonic gasp with how sudden it was; one moment, he had been relishing in his freedom, and the next, he was trapped once more, albeit in a slightly different context.  

With a furious, husky voice, Shadow leaned forward and growled in Sonic’s ear, “You.”

Sonic’s heart fluttered, for a confusing combination of reasons. Primarily, because the vitriol Shadow toted was more than a little alarming, screaming danger to such an intense degree, Sonic felt his hair prickle and stand on end. That was the rational reason. The second reason was a tad less sensical, and was something a bit more bizarre as Sonic belatedly realized why his heart suddenly beat in a shallow, dissonant pattern.

Was it bad that he found this kind of attractive…?

As Shadow’s grip in his quills tightened as he placed more pressure in shoving Sonic against the wall, Sonic figured that yes. Shadow’s display of physical aggression should not be something that he found to be even remotely alluring, and yet, here he was.

Finally bringing himself to react, Sonic made a popping sound with his lips, a derisive smack that echoed and bounced around the room as he paused, reassessed, revaluated, and realized that the situation was going to need a slightly different approach. One with a bit more tact and care. “Hey, Shadow,” he said slowly, drawing out the syllable of his greeting in an awkward, elongated manner as he laughed uncomfortably. “Um, long time no see?”

The joke here, other than the unfunny reference to a line beaten half to death within the franchise, was the fact that it hadn’t been all that long of a time at all since he had last seen Shadow. In truth, if you were to sit down and actually map it out, only a few hours had actually elapsed. The two hedgehogs, as it was becoming glaringly obvious, had a pretty poor track record of being separated from each other for very long.

Shadow didn’t seem to find Sonic’s line very funny, which was honestly completely fair given how derivative and cliché it was, as he yanked Sonic back by the quills and shoved him away with enough force, Sonic went stumbling across the floor as he struggled to regain his balance. To his surprise, Shadow didn’t follow him up to pummel him or attempt to descend upon him once more, simply glaring at him across the expanse of the room with his fingers curled at his sides as he repeated in a threatening undertone, “You.”

Placing up his hands in a placating manner, Sonic took a tentative step back, not feeling entirely safe with how Shadow seethed at him with clenched fists capable of doing so much more damage than simply tossing him across the room. “You seem upset.” Sonic wasn’t trying to be cheeky, and yet, with his unintentionally snarky delivery in his unintentionally snappy voice, he did sound just a tad cheeky with his retort. Shadow being upset was quite obvious, because even Sonic could recognize that he had every right to be. What the cause of his ire was, and Sonic’s direct involvement in what could only be described as pissing him off.

(Kissing and immediately leaving someone behind, potentially forever, was kind of a messed-up thing to do, Sonic was quickly realizing.)

And Shadow seemed to share this sentiment as he snarled at Sonic, his nose crinkling in justified fury. “Upset doesn’t even begin to cover it.”

Okay, so maybe the word ‘mad’ and all of its infinite synonyms would be a more apt description, but instead of correcting his choice of verbiage, Sonic decided to swiftly defend himself before Shadow decided to turn things physical once more.

“Listen, listen, I get it! You have every right to be angry at me!” he gasped out in a tumbling rush. “But unless you completely took care of G.U.N. before coming to get me, can it maybe wait until after we take care of the big dumb military organization occupying my front lawn?!”

The fists bunched at Shadow’s side erupted in a flurry of his terrifying power, and for a long moment it sizzled and rumbled in the air around them, before he grunted and allowed it to dissipate.

It wasn’t really a response, and Shadow still appeared to be quite livid, but Sonic wasn’t going to push it. He couldn’t afford to, not with his family potentially still in danger. “Okay, great!” he exclaimed nervously, clapping his hands together in a way that made Shadow’s nose crinkle in disgust. Oh man. Sonic hadn’t seen this side of him since the very beginning of this whole mess, back when they would fight in the forest before Sonic had boldly labeled them as friends, but swallowing down his trepidation, he pushed forward. They had to focus on business; domestic disputes could come later. “Now. I know that we probably shouldn’t resort to this, because the morality of it and all that jazz, but it seems like our safest option. I don’t want to risk anything, not with my family’s safety on the line. The Master Emerald. I gave it back to Knuckles, but that was recently enough where it still should be in the basement, and if it isn’t, then Wade must have it, which will definitely waste maybe, like, thirty seconds of our time, since he just plays hockey with it and doesn’t put up much of a fight, so—”

“I don’t need the Emerald.” Shadow’s words were harsh and clipped, and cut off Sonic about halfway through what was turning out to be quite the long, run-on sentence. “Not for what I’m about to do.”

Sonic faltered, worrying at his lip before attempting to argue with the highest degree of caution he could muster. “Um, well, maybe it wouldn’t hurt?” he ventured carefully. “Just to be safe?”

“The only thing that’s going to be hurting is G.U.N. when I’m through with them.” Shadow pointed a finger at him, one that Sonic half expected for crimson lightning bolts to shoot out of and give him a nice, paralyzing shock with how aggressive the action was. “And the only thing that’s going to be safe is you, because you are going to stay right here while I go take care of it.”

It took Sonic a moment to process what he had said, but the moment he did, his protest was instantaneous. “Oh come on, what?” he complained, his hands thrown in the air at the audacity of Shadow’s ludicrous assertion. “What was the point of freeing me if you’re just going to make me stay behind while you go and have all the fun?”

“This isn’t fun,” Shadow growled. “This is serious. You could get hurt. So you’re staying here.”

“Oh what, and you can’t get hurt by them too?” Sonic scoffed, his hands that were still hovering in the air folding over his chest in defiance. “I can take care of myself, you know. You don’t need to protect me.”

“I don’t?” Shadow asked incredulously in a dangerous, dubious tone. “Because I don’t know if you were aware of this, but they literally captured you. They almost had you, and you’re only free because you’re lucky that I got here in time before they took you someplace that I couldn’t follow.”

“I’m lucky? Don’t insult me. The only reason I got captured was because they got lucky.”

Shadow stared at him in disbelief, clearly able to read between the lines of Sonic’s counterargument. He was rather perceptive at the worst of times, and right now was one of those unfortunate times that Sonic’s ego was about to suffer as Shadow called him out. “Did you even have a plan?”

“I had a plan,” Sonic retorted sharply, right before hesitating. And then, with an awkward cough to the side, he confessed the embarrassing truth, one that he was far from proud of and one he knew Shadow would likely throttle him for. “A plan… to run in headfirst without really thinking about it.”

“Imbecile,” Shadow muttered under his breath, before raising his volume with a shake of his head. “Add that to the list of reasons why you’re staying here and letting me take care of this.”

But Sonic wasn’t accepting it. Not without a little more pushback. “Why are you being like this? I’m coming with you. It’s my family and home on the line. I’m not just going to sit by and do nothing!”

“No.”

“Why not?”

“You said you can’t live without me, didn’t you? Well, maybe it’s because I can’t live without you either, Sonic!”

It was the same thing Sonic had told him on the bridge. The exact same statement, almost verbatim. And while Shadow hadn’t necessarily said it back at the time, informing Sonic that he felt the same way, here he was right now. Saying it, living it, breathing it as he stood there with his chest heaving at the outburst.

A lump formed in Sonic’s throat, and he found it difficult to swallow, much less speak. “Shadow…” he began to say, finally managing to only say his friend’s name as he lifted a cautious hand that he slowly extended towards Shadow’s distraught, agonized frame, however, was stopped as Shadow flinched away with an angered, yet pained expression on his face.

“No. Don’t touch me,” he hissed, inducing Sonic to withdraw his tentative hand, wincing back at the hurt seeping into every syllable that Shadow spoke. “I can’t—” he began, before the words choked in the back of his throat and he was forced to swallow thickly as he attempted to speak again. “I’m not letting you face G.U.N. Since this is what you wanted, since coming back here is something that you need to be happy, let me at least take care of it for you. I don’t want anything happening to you. Not if I can prevent it.”

The lump in Sonic’s throat swelled into a boulder. Wedged and thick in his esophagus and trachea, making it a challenge now for him to even breathe as he found himself overcome with a heavy wave of debilitating emotion.

Because that connection Sonic felt towards Shadow, he now knew for certain was reciprocated. In every word and action, Shadow cared for Sonic the same intense, borderline obsessive way that Sonic did towards him.

Blinking away the stars that speckled in his eyes, dazzling him with the sensation of delight at this revelation as his pattering heart felt like it expanded in his chest, Sonic paused as he saw Shadow for what felt like the first time since being freed from his detainment. Because instead of enraged and vengeful, he looked anxious. Nervous. Fearful.

“You’re scared.” Shadow blinked in indignation at this, the bluntness of Sonic’s statement clearly taking him by surprise. Sonic didn’t let the harsh reaction deter him, however, as he pressed forward. “I am too. My entire world is here with me right now, in a very terrifying situation. My family is locked up out there I have you with me right here. If something goes wrong, I could lose literally every single person I care about.” Sonic shook his head, trying to brush off the sudden wall of terror he found himself staring at as he considered that mere, deplorable possibility. “But at the same time, I can’t just sit idly by while G.U.N. has my family, and I’m not going to stay behind and let you put yourself at risk just for me. You don’t need to sacrifice yourself to save me Shadow, not this time.” He took a deep breath. “We can do this together.”

Upon first beginning Sonic’s tirade, Shadow had glared at him with distrustful fury. However, as Sonic’s monologue wore on, something in Shadow’s face had softened, until finally, the tenseness that bunched at his shoulders and furrowed his browline relaxed in a defeated slump as he gave Sonic a weak look. “Okay.” His submission was reluctant, and yet, through the tired submission in his voice, Sonic figured that Shadow had finally realized the significance of what Sonic was begging for. That he had finally understood the need for Sonic to join him on this little rescue mission to defeat G.U.N. “Fine. Together.”

Sonic nearly breathed out a sigh of relief, but refrained as he didn’t want to essentially rub it in Shadow’s face that he had gotten his way. Both with his companion coming back to rescue him, despite the severe contraindication returning to Green Hills had against his values, as well as the fact that he was now being allowed to accompany Shadow in rescuing his friends and family. So instead, he merely expressed his gratitude with a genuine, “Thank you, Shadow.”

To which Shadow responded by poking a sharp finger into Sonic’s chest. “Don’t get hurt. I will kill you if anything happens to you.”

Sonic snorted at this. “One, that doesn’t make sense, and two, geez with the way you talk about it, you act like I want to go out there and get shot or something. Seriously. What am I, a danger magnet to you?”

“Yes,” Shadow sniffed, and well, he kind of had a point. Sonic was quite literally the biggest danger magnet there possibly was… one of the few downsides of being the main character. He was more or less always the target of the plot.

Sonic wanted to lightly slug Shadow in the shoulder for that one, however, recalling how vehemently he had demanded that Sonic not touch him not too long ago, clenched his hand into a restrictive fist as he refrained. Instead, he infused as much smarmy arrogance into his voice, trying to redirect them towards a topic a bit more safe. Something that wasn’t as emotionally charged and sappy as the terrifying prospect of losing one another once more, for what would feel like one time too many, but was rather a familiar steps to the dance of their banter and sass. “Now, are we going to sit in here and talk about our sappy feelings all day, or are we going to go out there and kick some military bozo butt?”

Shadow rolled his eyes at the abrupt switch in tone Sonic swung his way, as well as how generic the one-liner was, sounding like something that could be ripped from a movie with how unoriginal it was (and knowing Sonic, there was a high chance of this being the case).

However, Sonic didn’t give him the opportunity to respond beyond that as he followed up his corny statement with a hasty, “Hold on, how did you even get in here?”

To this, Shadow shrugged. “I picked the truck with the highest number of guards outside and figured it was the one.”

“And you only took care of those ones?”

“Yes. I didn’t want to waste any energy or effort dealing with their entire force, not when I wasn’t sure where you were. My original plan was to find you, make sure you were safe, and then go take care of the rest of them on my own.”

Sonic raised a playful brow, resisting the urge to wink as he struggled to control the mirth that seeped into his tone. “Yeah, well, maybe you didn’t think that plan through very far, because now you’re stuck with me.”

“Don’t remind me,” Shadow groused with irritated downward turn of his lips, wearing an expression of unrestrained, annoyed displeasure.

Sonic gave him a smirk at this, holding out a hand. It was a gesture that seemed to hold a lot of weight between them, with so many instances of profound symbolism, it had long since graduated from being an innocuous, purposeless motion. It meant so much more, and as Shadow looked between Sonic and his hand, and after a long moment interlaced his fingers in Sonic’s own, his pensive expression conveyed that he, too, understood the heavy significance of accepting Sonic’s offer.

It wouldn’t be verbalized, nor did it need to be, as Shadow squeezed Sonic’s hand and teleported them outside with a surge of Chaos Energy. To face the finale. To finally defeat the threat that had plagued Sonic's family and home for quite some time. 

This time, Sonic was prepared, and even though he still felt that peculiar surge of nausea bubble up in the back of his throat, he swallowed the bile and his snarky complaints back down as with a jolt, he realized that right outside the back of the truck they had just been in, was an entire troop of G.U.N. soldiers flanked by an impressive array of miliary machinery and tech, all headed by none other than his bestest friend in the whole wide world.

(He was referring to Director Rockwell, and he was also being incredibly sarcastic.)

Sonic sighed. Oh great. Here they went. Again. These confrontations were getting a little overdone. What was this, the third? Fourth interaction with her? Whatever. It didn’t matter. There was no avoiding it; it had to be done to get G.U.N. out of their home and finally progress to the conclusion of this long-winded story.

“I knew it was only a matter of time before you showed up, Project Shadow.” She smiled, but the expression was empty and thin, appearing more unsettling than anything. "Your return was inevitable, and highly predictable." 

Even though he had gone largely acknowledged, that wasn’t going to stop Sonic from inserting himself and responding. “Listen, Director Rockwell? Scary military lady? There seems to be a recurring pattern here I’m sensing. And that is, you have no idea what the word ‘hello’ is.” Beside him, Shadow gave him an unamused glance, one that was only rivaled by the downright irritated one Director Rockwell extended him across the expanse of grass separating them. However, undeterred, Sonic continued his little ramble. He loved being the center of attention, and with the way all of the soldiers had their guns trained on him (and by extension, Shadow), he certainly was living in the limelight. “Because this is what, the third time? In a row? That you have just started talking without even saying ‘hi?’ Man, even Shadow greets me whenever he sees me, and do not get me started on how stunted his social skills can be.”

Director Rockwell responded to his lengthy rant with a sneer and a simple, “Do you ever stop talking.”

“No,” Shadow groused, “no he doesn’t.”

Sonic ignored the jab (not knowing that this was not the first time Shadow and Director Rockwell would team up against him in an ironic display of camaraderie) as he waved them off with a flippant motion of his hand. “Well, regardless, my point still stands. Hello to you to, Director Rockwell.”

In response, she let out a tired sigh. “We’ve already captured you once. It won’t be any more difficult to take the both of you into custody.”

“I don’t think so.” This time, Shadow was the one to speak, his voice lacking all of the lighthearted silliness that Sonic loved to infuse in his tone whenever he interacted with the menacing military threats. “This is going to go a little differently than when Sonic foolishly barged in here without a second thought. That much, I can guarantee.”

“That won’t be hard to accomplish.” Director Rockwell tilted her head towards Sonic with a tight purse of her lips. “He ran in here without a single plan. Detaining him was laughably easy.”

Shadow let out a scoff that almost sounded disappointment crossed with irritation, an echo of the sentiments he had expressed earlier when Sonic had literally stated that he had not, in fact, had a plan. “Yeah, that sounds like him.”

“Like what, an idiot?”

“Yeah, more or less.”

Despite himself, Sonic looked between the two of them in disbelief, nearly throwing his hands up in the air as he couldn’t help but incredulously exclaim, “Are you guys seriously bonding over this right now? What the heck?”

Director Rockwell gave him a flat, unimpressed look. Shadow shrugged with a dull bounce of his shoulders.

And Sonic was having none of it. He had let the minor team-up slide the first time, but now, he was going to call it out. Regardless of Shadow’s completely valid reasons for being mad at him,  that didn’t mean that he had to freaking side with Director Rockwell just to be petty and get back at him. “Dude. Shadow. This is like, the second time in as many days that you’ve sided with someone who is literally my enemy.” The other incident he was referring to was Rachel, of course. If it weren’t for the fact that Shadow had rather passionately returned his kiss atop the Golden Gate Bridge, Sonic would have some serious doubts about whether or not Shadow was truly in his corner. “Do you mind maybe not doing that?!”

“You deserve it,” Shadow retorted, and to that, Sonic had nothing to say other than a disgruntled roll of his eyes.

“If you two are done f—” Sonic’s head snapped towards Director in alarm and warning at this, his breath catching in a sharp gasp in the back of his throat. To his relief, though, Director Rockwell continued the sentence by saying “fighting,” instead of “flirting,” and for that he was incredibly grateful, just for Shadow’s knowledge of their publicized kiss to be concealed just a tad longer, because that was an entire issue Sonic didn’t want to touch with a ten-foot pole and Shadow was already more than just a little pissed off. “—fighting, then, let’s just cut to the chase. Surrender yourselves now, and save us all the trouble.”

Shadow narrowed his eyes at her. “I don’t think that is what’s going to happen.”

She let out a heavy exhale, clearly expecting such a combative response. It was Shadow she was talking to after all, someone who was arguably more difficult to deal with than Sonic, and Sonic had already cemented himself as being quite the handful on numerous occasions. “Very well, have it your way.” And with that, Director Rockwell made a hand signal, turned her back to the both of them, and walked away.

Sonic watched her retreating frame, having half a mind to pursue her, before he remembered what had happened last time he had done that. And so, hoping to avoid falling into a trap for what was about to be round two, and finding it of the utmost importance to warn Shadow of the possibility, he whispered out of the corner of his mouth, “Be on the lookout for any suspicious piles of leaves. They may or may not be hiding those gravity-changing panels underneath them.” There was a pause. “Don’t ask me how I know that, just trust me.”

Shadow straightened from his crouch, completely ignoring the shifting and preparing of the weapons in front of them as he turned to give Sonic an incredulous, baffled look. “Are you serious? That’s how they captured you?”

Sonic was quick to defend himself. “Oh, what, like that’s a totally normal and predictable thing to do?”

“She was right. You are an idiot.”

Shadow was still upset. It was the only possibly explanation for his bitter, condescending comments, and even though Sonic couldn’t exactly blame him for the vitriol he continued to toss Sonic’s way, that didn’t’ mean he wasn’t going to let it happen. “Can we maybe save the snarky insults until after we’ve taken care of G.U.N.?” he quipped with a bit of an edge to his delivery, taking sudden note of the way the soldiers in front of them seemed pretty close to firing upon them. Now was not the time for banter or jokes or whatever it was they were engaging in at the moment. One could maybe call it flirting, but with the two of them, it was a fine line that needed a microscope to discern where exactly that line was. “Just a suggestion. I don’t know if you’ve noticed, but these guys are kind of the major threat right now and they're literally right in front of us.”

At this, Shadow stepped in front of him, almost in a protective way as he shielded Sonic from the sights of the guns trained upon them. “Fine. Let’s get this over with.”

“Want to have a little friendly competition?” Sonic asked cheekily from behind him, finding himself a little annoyed about Shadow’s protection given that he was more than capable of taking care of himself, thank you very much, but not wanting to make a huge fuss over it as he knew that Shadow was doing it from a place of deep and immense care. “Which of us can take out more G.U.N. soldiers? Tanks and machinery being triple the points?”

There was the sound of a charging weapon that whined in a low keen, but Sonic barely registered it in his mind as Shadow turned his head to the side, glancing back towards him with a single, challenging eye peering back over his shoulder.  “You’re on.”

And with that, the weapon that had been charging fired, though Sonic still didn’t recognize it for the threat that it was as in front of him, Shadow teleported out of existence.

Which left Sonic with absolutely no time to react to the electric net that encapsulated him a mere second later.

You see, normally Sonic was fast enough to evade such a ridiculously telegraphed attack. However, since Shadow had been standing directly in front of him and had blinked away at the literal last moment, Sonic had no choice but to sit there, stunned as the net wrapped around his body and zapped him with a painful shock of energy that sent him rolling backwards through the grassy dirt.

Once upon a time, when that same weapon had been used upon him, it had knocked him unconscious. It had been a while ago at Rachel’s wedding in Hawaii, and while such tricks had once worked at restraining Sonic, now all that happened was the edges of his vision darkened for a moment before he regained control of his fading mind and snapped back to alertness with a fresh shot of annoyance.  “Are you kidding me?!” he hissed as he felt an uncomfortable stab in his shoulder from where he had landed, unable to brace his fall as his arms were bound by his side. He attempted to pry himself free, but the chain was wrapped around him tight, and he could do nothing other than glare as Shadow reappeared unscathed in front of him, sneering down at him in pure, loathing judgment.

And if Sonic didn’t know any better, the hint of a smirk gracing his lips.

“Shadow!” Sonic cursed. “You did that on purpose!”

From above him, Shadow’s smirk deepened as he crouched down to one knee so that he could look Sonic in the eyes. There was a fire of challenge alit in his eyes, something that was a nice change of pace from the unfiltered fury that had been coloring his entire demeanor not all that long ago. “A little competition, you said?” he asked with a tilt of his head to the side, putting on a show of genuine consideration as his eyes narrowed with a mischievous and intense glint. “Have it your way. Just try to keep up.”

Sonic rolled his eyes as Shadow disappeared yet again, the guy not even bothering to straighten up to his full height as he teleported away from his crouching position on the ground. Was he serious? How many times was Shadow going to say that damn line, with that damn smirk? Insufferable. Absolutely, horrendously insufferable.

(And that was precisely one of the reasons that Sonic was enamored with him so much).

With a growl as he watched Shadow start to take out the flock of soldiers systematically, one by one, Sonic only afforded himself a few moments to admire Shadow’s dangerous efficiency before refocusing his attention to the stupid net holding him back from joining the frenzy. By the time he was free, there was going to be nothing left for him to destroy! What the actual heck! That had definitely been a very calculated move on Shadow’s part; calculated, diabolical, villainous, nefarious, insufferable…!

(All of these things were thought with fondness. Despite his irritation at missing out on the fun, a brilliant and jaw-dropping explosion flashing out of the corner of his eyes as he began to wriggle out of the chains and work it down his body, the continual electric zaps nothing compared to his own power but no less obnoxious, Sonic couldn’t help but feel a warm sense of contentment as he outwardly grumbled obscenities to himself. He was simply too relieved to have Shadow back with him, that he found himself rather flexible in overlooking the irritating things that grated on Sonic’s skin like sandpaper).

What felt like an eternity later— but in reality was only a minute— Sonic was finally free. Free, and ready to do some damage to protect his home, his family, and restore some of his dignity towards the humiliating way he had been captured.

To his dismay, Shadow had already done a large chunk of the work. He had since moved on from the conglomerate of military grunts in front of them and had moved on to some of the larger weaponry and machinery, leaving him leagues ahead of Sonic in their little tally.

Sonic snapped out of the awestruck wonder that kept him rooted to the spot as Shadow meticulously worked his way through destroying everything G.U.N. had brought to his doorstep, curling up in a ball, charging himself up in a rather sloppy display of power, and shooting forward into a tank Shadow had just started to make his way towards, the vehicle chosen with the explicit purpose of ticking him off.

Popping up from the tank that stood fizzling on its side, Sonic turned from surveying it with his hands on his hips to glance towards Shadow, who had skidded to an abrupt stop beside him. “Look at this! We make such a great team! Don’t you agree, Shadow?” Sonic taunted, rich words coming from someone who was quite unfashionably late to the party.

Shadow gave him nothing more than a glare and a derisive grunt. He blinked away in a huff and reappeared a few yards away to roundhouse-kick a soldier to the back so that they fell to the floor, and Sonic couldn’t help but think that there had been more force in the action than was probably necessary. Probably because he was imagining Sonic as the victim, no doubt.

Deciding to ignore it for the time being, Sonic decided to focus on the task of defeating G.U.N., trying to ignore the growing pit of unease that had begun to take root from within him. It had been fun for the first few minutes, but as he continued to mow his way through the forces, he began to grow restless. Taking everything out one by one was great and all, but there had to be a more efficient way to handle things, he just knew it. Something that was safer. He could feel it in his bones, in the very core of his being that there was something better they could be doing.

And seeing Shadow’s power flare up beside him, crackling and scarlet and dangerous, a sudden idea lit up in Sonic’s mind.

Their races, when their energies had intermingled, had created disastrous effects. There was something electrifying about their conflicting powers when they combined, the results ranging from mild discomfort in Sonic’s nerves and bones to outwardly knocking out him and all the power in an alarmingly large radius. All of the times it had been triggered in the past, it had been accidental, a result of their mutual lack of understanding about how to control their outbursts when they were with each other. But perhaps… if they were to attempt to recreate it intentionally this time… the results would be nearly identical….

His mind made up, Sonic searched for Shadow, who had since disappeared since Sonic had originally seen his Chaos Energy and been inspired to conjure up his plan. It was worth a try, if only to end this whole thing faster and minimize the risk of either of them getting injured, or worse, killed. This was not the time to play with their food and prolong the battle, no, Sonic wanted this over so he could find his family and afterwards, hopefully make things right with Shadow.

He found the hedgehog in question perched atop a fallen tank, the machinery smoldering and engulfing the area in smoke as Shadow raised his arms out to the side as he began to summon a horde of Chaos Spears. It looked like he was focusing, but Sonic wasn’t about to let that stop him from enacting what he knew to be a brilliant plan. “Shadow!” Sonic called as he dodged a blast from one of the soldiers hiding out from behind the line of trees skirting the yard, yet another net that sparkled and zapped and had the clear intent of electrocuting them into unconsciousness, if he had to wager a guess. Curiously, no bullets had been fired as of yet, something that was relieving but also indicated that their status of being alive was far more valuable than their defeat. Something that Sonic used to his advantage as he continued to tear through the military weaponry displayed in front of him.

“What do you want?” Shadow sounded far from pleased at his name being spoken upon Sonic’s lips, clearly in the zone of firing Chaos Spears at the drones that circled overhead.

“You!” Sonic responded, and immediately realizing just how… er… forward that sounded, quickly scrambled to amend his statement with a haphazardly-cobbled follow-up. “And me! Together!” Yeah, so that didn’t help much. He had to keep clarifying. “We can put an end to this right now!”

That last part finally captured Shadow’s attention (although truth be told, his attention had been captured the minute Sonic started speaking his embarrassing truth, his ears having turned sharply in Sonic’s direction even if he didn’t outwardly acknowledge him any other way), as he fired off his Chaos Spears with terrifying precision before finally glancing over his shoulder in Sonic's direction. 

Silently, Sonic willed his power to gather around his fists and travel up his arms, holding up an open-palmed hand that Shadow immediately understood as he inclined his head, willing his own power to the surface as he now fully turned his body towards where Sonic waited eagerly across the yard.

Shadow crouched down, bending deep in his knees in a pose that Sonic mimicked as they both prepared to meet each other in the middle. There were a few seconds where time stood still around them, as both Shadow and Sonic zeroed in on each other, everything else disappearing into the void, melting into nothingness around them.

Because in the end, none of it mattered. As long as they were together. As long as they had each other.

Sonic nodded to him, unable to prevent the grin from splitting his face as he sprung forward, Shadow doing the same. And with that, sparking bolts of vivid lightning trailing behind them as they met each other in the middle of the yard, Sonic and Shadow’s hands clasped on another in an explosive eruption of light and energy, pure power radiating out from them as they came together as one.

It wasn’t unlike the clasp they had done on the moon, right before they had simultaneously shared the power of the Emeralds to induce their Super Forms once more to save the world. But that had felt different. The power of the Chaos Emeralds had coursed through Sonic’s veins in an exhilarating rush of power, something that he had felt heightened through his contact with Shadow at the time. There had been something unique about transforming with a partner, a sensation that had intensified from the simple knowledge of knowing that he wasn’t alone and had someone who was essentially his equal beside him. It had been exciting, sure, but this? Intentionally combining their eviscerating energies in a resounding clap! that shattered the airspace around them and sent a shockwave through the atmosphere, more powerful than anything they had ever created together before because this time it was intentional, it was in unison, they were finally together again, was different. Sure, it lacked the pure power of the Emeralds, but there was something more intimate about it, in the way that Shadow’s electric energy manifested and danced around Sonic’s own, creating a stab of pain that felt as euphoric as it was agonizing, two conflicting sensations that left Sonic gasping and hungry for more, not unlike the kiss they had shared not all that long ago.

And because of this, even after the main blast had coursed outwards from their bound hands, away from the source of their peculiar and thermonuclear bodies, alien and otherworldly even though they had both somehow managed to find a home in each other and on Earth, Sonic kept his hand wrapped around Shadow’s. He didn’t want to let go. He didn’t want to lose the circuit they had created, repelling and magnetizing all at the same time, screaming at him to both release his hold and to never let go.

Looking into Shadow’s eyes, seeing the rage built up over fifty years immediately soften as he met Sonic’s gaze, Sonic realized that he could never let go.

Around them, there was a quiet murmur as the power that had shorted everything out replaced the hum of machinery with muffled groans and crackling flames, but Sonic didn’t care. He didn’t care about G.U.N., about Director Rockwell, about the absolute state of disarray that was their poor and unfortunate lawn. All he cared about was Shadow, and that he was all right. Unhurt, unblemished, unharmed.

Of course, this wonder was cut short as something suddenly occurred to Sonic. And not willing to swallow it down, because the rush of their battle still flowed like liquid flames through his system and he was amped up, and when he got amped up he had no filter, Sonic began to spout out the first nonsensical and obsequious thought that popped into his head. “Are you serious? You mean to say that we could have just done that the entire time?” His grip around Shadow’s hand tightened, though instead of utilizing it for some emotional purpose such as leverage to do something insane like pull him in for a kiss, Sonic simply shook it in indignation. “Why in the world did we run away?! I think even Knuckles puts up a bigger fight when I play against him in Mario Kart! And that dude can’t even hold the controller properly and has to use tilt controls because his hands are so massive! So I smoke him every time!”

Sonic’s words seemed to cause Shadow to snap back to his senses and realize that, for all intents and purposes, he was still rather mad at Sonic, as he wrenched his hand free, turned abruptly away, and folded his arms over his chest. “Shut it. I don’t want to hear it from you.”

“No, I mean, seriously! You’re telling me that we hyped up G.U.N. as this terrifying antagonistic force to the point that we ran away, for us to take them down in five minutes?” Sonic shook his head, his incredulity shifting into coyness as he shot a smirk over towards his companion. “Talk about an anti-climactic cop-out, am I right or am I right, Shadow?”

Unfortunately for Sonic, Shadow didn’t seem to think he was right at all as he gave him an exhausted glare out of the corner of his eye. “You forget that they literally outsmarted and captured not just you, but your little friends as well.”

“I mean, yeah, well…” Sonic admitted somewhat reluctantly, “okay. You kind of have a point.”

The point being that while G.U.N. was a formidable opponent for Sonic, Shadow was more or less in a league of his own. But then again, was that really so surprising? He had not only managed to match and fight Super Sonic in his normal, non-super form and strike the seven Chaos Emeralds from his body with a simple thrust of his palm, but upon being abandoned by Sonic at the Eclipse Cannon, singlehandedly pushed the decaying weapon away from the Earth’s atmosphere and somehow survived.

Yeah, with accomplishments like that in his resume, it shouldn’t have really been all that shocking that he had been able to assist Sonic in delivering a swift and brutal defeat to their enemy. Especially with the memory of their first encounter flashing briefly in Sonic’s mind, Shadow scaling an overturned G.U.N. tank with flames licking the air around him, surrounded by the carcasses of the organization’s vehicles and weaponry, no. The outcome of their battle wasn't surprising in the slightest.

Sonic opened his mouth to say something to Shadow, something along the lines of thanking him once again for coming back, for helping him accomplish what Sonic clearly hadn’t been able to on his own, when they were interrupted by the sound of crisp footsteps crunching on the charred leaves and a sound of disgust that Sonic had become fairly accustomed to as of late. Something that he wasn't particularly thrilled about, though it did have the merit of allowing him to identify the threat with only his ears as he swiveled to face the source.

It was Director Rockwell. With some of the hairs freed from her bun, flying askew across her face, she had reappeared from wherever she had retreated to. And she looked far from happy.

“Why do you two have to make everything so difficult.” Yeah, she was definitely not happy. Those were not the words a happy person would speak.

And of course, hearing the severity of her tone and deciding to make light of it, Sonic snorted. “Are you serious? I could say the same to you!” he turned towards Shadow and stuck a thumb towards Director Rockwell and quite bluntly stated, “Dude. Get a load of her. Can you even believe this?”

Director Rockwell ignored him, like she seemed to do quite frequently, as she turned her attention toward Shadow; the only person who appeared to be taking her seriously at the moment as he glared lethal daggers in her direction. It was an expression of pure, unrestricted loathing, something he didn’t bother to conceal with crappy jokes like Sonic had the propensity to do. “You know that this isn’t the end. That there will never be an end,” she said in a tone that was agitated and in danger of losing the careful composure she had fastidiously maintained up until this point. “Why do you keep fighting, when you are not welcome on this world? When you don’t belong here?”

Shadow squared his shoulders, his hateful eyes narrowing as he straightened his spine and puffed out his chest in spiteful, vehement defiance.

(This was it. This was going to be his catchphrase. This was his ultimate moment.)

“If this world chooses to become my enemy,” he growled, “then I will fight, like I always have.”

Sonic seemed to also think this was his optimal catchphrase, as he perked up at Shadow’s firm statement. “Ooh, Shadow, that was pretty good!” he interjected, unable to help himself and adhere to the stern, serious atmosphere that had settled over Shadow and his opponent, at harsh odds in their beliefs, desires, values. “You know what? I think that was worthy of becoming your new catchphrase. Do you have a pen and piece of paper so I can write that down for later? So we don’t forget?”

Leave it to Sonic to ruin an otherwise very cool, very badass moment. Even if the line itself wasn’t original in the slightest. Oh well.

Shadow ignored him (which to be honest, he was completely justified in doing so) as he maintained his full attention on Director Rockwell. His eyes narrowed in challenge, as though daring her to do or say anything that would give him the excuse to lash out yet again, because even though he was quite the rancorous, wrathful creature when it came to exacting his revenge and protecting those that he loved, Shadow did ultimately have some restraint. And it was this self-control that held him back from taking out his fury on Director Rockwell, something she probably deserved, but for the sake of Shadow’s character development, would not be receiving.  

No, what she would instead be receiving was a follow-up to his initial badass quote from a slightly (or rather, significantly) less badass game, Shadow lifting his chin in brute, sharp defiance and his eyes somehow narrowing even more as he let out a menacing, almost animalistic growl. “I mean it. If you choose to keep fighting us, then I will have no choice but to continue fighting. I will destroy G.U.N. along with the entire planet if I have to. I will never stop. Not if you don’t.”

Shadow’s cool catchphrase had gone from being inspiring to borderline alarming as Sonic coughed awkwardly, giving Shadow a blunt elbow to the rib as he conveyed his urgent concerns in a hushed whisper. “Um, hey Shadow? Maybe threatening to destroy the entire world isn’t exactly the best look for us at the moment? Especially since you already tried to do that? We don’t really want them to see us as being a problem, and you saying that you’ll keep fighting and demolish the planet is kind of problematic. Just my two cents though.”

Unfortunately for Sonic and his desperate plea, even though he really wasn’t in any sort of position to be making those sorts of demands at the moment, Shadow ignored him, instead narrowing his eyes towards Director Rockwell in what could only be described as an act of defiance. He was doubling down on his assertion, and though it was silent, it was no less powerful than any words he could have chosen to utter at that very moment.

And she seemed to realize this, for tucking some of the stray strands of hair behind her ear in what was a clear attempt to regain some control of the situation through a primping of her appearance, she straightened. “Very well.” She looked down at them over the tip of her sharp nose, something she seemed fond of at the severe disparities in their heights. Yet another thing she desperately clung to in order to convey a hierarchy of power, even though Sonic and Shadow had quite blatantly demonstrated their capability and willingness to reduce G.U.N. as an entity to nothing more than ash and rubble. “Consider this a temporary truce. While the both of you pose an immense threat to the safety of the Earth, if pulling back our conflict is the only way to guarantee the safety of the world we seek to protect by wanting to take you into custody, so be it.”

With a roll of his eyes, Sonic began to mimic her talking with his hand, exhausted with the threats that would maybe come to fruition one day in the distant future, once G.U.N. decided to dust of the crumbs of their failure and reenter the fray of relevance. “Blah blah blah, honestly, you say I never stop talking, but you’re pretty long-winded yourself, you know.” He lowered his mocking gesture, curling his hand into a fist and planting his knuckles on his waist. “Maybe next time, sink a couple more billion dollars worth of taxpayer money into your fancy-schmancy military gear, and then perhaps you all will stand more of a fighting chance against the two of us.”

Director Rockwell didn’t seem to be even slightly amused by Sonic’s jabs, which given the sting of defeat she had just experienced, was rather justified. “You two don’t belong on this planet. And we will find a way to rectify that.”

Sonic frowned, not entirely liking the way that she had worded that as a threat that kind of implied that she wasn’t against killing them if given the chance. Not that she would ever be able to do such a thing, not without some new tech for Shadow to blow up with little more than the lift of a finger, but still. It was the principle that mattered, and either way, Sonic didn’t like it.

And in the end, he decided not to grace it with a response, allowing those to be the final words of their conversation as Director Rockwell narrowed her eyes once more, and after a long, tense moment, barked out an order for the remainder of G.U.N.’s troops to pack up and retreat.

Sonic could hardly believe his eyes. It almost felt like a fever dream, watching the people and vehicles gather up and file off their property in a prim, orderly line. Granted, they still left quite a large amount of smoldering wreckage on their lawn, courtesy of Shadow’s rampage— and Sonic highly doubted they would be returning to clean that little mess up, which probably meant that it would fall onto his shoulders as some sort of life-lesson-doubling-as-a-punishment from Tom— but still. What was important was that G.U.N. was actually leaving, and as the last truck peeled out of their driveway, kicking up mud as the industrial tires dug into the soft earth in one last obscene gesture that could probably be equated to a middle finger as it disappeared around the corner and took off, Sonic let a shocked laugh of relief escape his lips.

They had done it. They had actually managed to stave off G.U.N., for the foreseeable future at least. Who knew when those miscreants would return to be a complete and utter nuisance in the future; all that mattered at the moment was the fact that Sonic was home, Shadow next to him, and his family was probably still in the house, locked up in their titanium cuffs.

The thought crossed Sonic’s mind, and he resisted the urge to sigh and rub a frustrated hand between his eyes. Oh wonderful. Director Rockwell had likely neglected to unlock Tom, Maddie, Knuckles, and Tails, and had almost certainly taken the key as some sort of ‘screw you’ to the Wachowskis about having been chased out of Green Hills. This was going to be a bit of a pickle to figure out, or rather, for Tails to figure out, because when it came to stuff like this, Sonic was next to no help at all.

Anyways. He would figure that out in a moment. He needed to celebrate and convey his appreciation towards Shadow, and so with a huge beam on his face, crinkling at the corners of his eyes with how far it stretched across his muzzle, he turned to his friend with a big thumbs up.  “Good work, Shadow.” He transformed his thumb into a hand extended in triumphant solidarity, hoping that Shadow would take it, squeeze his hand in his own, and that all of the unspoken things brewing just beneath the thin, fragile surface of their delicate relationship could be forgiven. “Thanks for coming back.”

He flashed his friend a winning smile, one that showed his teeth in a confident, arrogant manner that totally did not reflect the fact that not that long ago, he had been trapped in a stupid little cage as he kept his hand held out in a clear invitation for Shadow to grasp it and shake it in a moment of camaraderie. It was a cheesy gesture, though since Sonic was a pretty cheesy person, it was a fitting celebration for their triumph over G.U.N. (at least, until they decided to act up in the inevitable future and be a problem).

Shadow gave Sonic’s hand a sneer, and for a long moment, Sonic thought that his extended palm was going to get scorned and brushed to the side. However, the sneer settling into a flat line, Shadow swallowed his fury as he schooled his face into a careful mask of apathy, reaching out to reciprocate the gesture. His expression was neutral, betraying nothing as he bridged the gap between them.

Although, if Sonic were to have looked a bit closer, he would have noticed the dangerous glimmer in Shadow’s eye as he took Sonic’s hand, grasping it firmly in his own…

…before using the leverage to pull Sonic into the air over his head and slam him onto the ground in a move that would have even made a professional wrestler shed a tear in how beautifully it was executed.

Sonic, however, did not see the beauty of the violent move, blinking in a daze as he found himself lying with his back in the grass, the weight of his fall punctuated by the crunch of deadened leaves that did a pretty poor job at cushioning his collision with the ground.

“Ow, dude, what was that for?!” he grunted as he began to sit up, however, the action was interrupted as the full brunt of Shadow descended upon him, keeping him pinned to the ground as he placed his hands upon Sonic’s collarbones and his thighs pressed up against Sonic’s torso. Gasping, Sonic was undeterred by the (and oh man, this was kind of an embarrassing thing for him to admit, but in the rush of the moment, he couldn’t think of a single other word to describe it than) hotness of the position they found themselves in, and the way it made something thrilling race up his spine as Shadow glowered down at him in raw rage. Sonic blinked his initial reaction away quickly, however, wrenching himself from his daze as he quickly followed up his exclamation of displeasure with a snappy retort. “Is this how you normally celebrate victories? By slamming your allies to the ground? Because if that’s the case, I have a few pointers about how you maybe shouldn’t do that.”

“You told me to wait until after I took care of G.U.N.” Shadow’s thighs against his sides squeezed, and that thrill of excitement returned with a fevered intensity no matter how hard Sonic tried to bat it away. “They’re taken care of. Now it’s your turn.”

Oh yeah. Sonic had said that, hadn’t he?

Sonic laughed awkwardly, the sound coming out more like a strangled gasp as Shadow’s thighs tightened yet again as Sonic did little more than stare up at him, speechless both due to their agonizingly euphoric proximity and the fact that he genuinely didn’t have anything clever to say back to Shadow. He had brought up a good point, and Sonic had far more important things on his mind at the moment. Such as the stunning shade of Shadow’s furious, borderline glowing eyes, and the angered sneer of his enticing, delicious lips.

And with that, more than a little distracted by his overwhelming attraction for the hedgehog above him, Sonic couldn’t help but ask, “You don’t happen to want to make out right now, do you?”

Shadow physically recoiled as if Sonic had somehow managed to wriggle free and slap him, and in that split second of shock, returned the pressure he exerted upon Sonic’s body twofold in retaliation. “No,” he seethed, and internally, Sonic felt a curl of disappointment flicker in his gut.

Welp. It had been worth a shot.

Above him, instead of preparing to give Sonic a smooch like he had so desperately wished for, Shadow lifted a deadly fist, clearly intending to sock Sonic directly in the face.

Sonic began to frantically protest, however, upon the beginnings of incoherent babblings that gurgled up from the back of his throat about how he preferred his eyes not swollen shut and his nose not broken and sitting skewed to the side, he was interrupted by the sound of someone opening the front door.

And by someone, if the footsteps and voices were any indication, he actually meant multiple people.

Oh man. In the aftermath of G.U.N. retreating, someone must have had the foresight to let Tom, Maddie, Tails, and Knuckles free from the living room. Which on one hand, certainly saved Sonic from having to chase Director Rockwell down and demand that she give him the key to their cuffs, or let Tails figure it out over the course of the next few days, but on the other hand, was very unfortunate because he was more or less about to get into something.

And by that, he meant staving off Shadow’s assault due to how he had kissed and ditched him at the Golden Gate Bridge.

Now, Sonic wasn’t entirely sure that his family knew about the kiss— he would have to ask some very awkward, embarrassing questions to sus it out. He had no idea how much they had been able to hear from the living room within the house when Director Rockwell had so brazenly announced his secret to the world in what was thankfully a rather cryptic delivery. But in the off (and hopeful) chance that they didn’t know that he had made out with Shadow (and possessed the strong desire to do so again even as Shadow decided to resist his wiles and charms and instead attempt to pummel him for his audacity), Sonic decided to inform Shadow of their current onlookers, just to prevent him from saying anything that would incriminate the truth of their confusing and undefined relationship. “Um, just for your information, we kind of have an audience?” he stammered out as he eyed Shadow’s fist that had paused as he, too, heard Sonic’s family approach. “So maybe we can finish this up later?”

At Sonic’s request, his fist tightened in resolve. “I don’t give a—”

“Okay, okay, noted, sheesh!” Sonic gasped out, cutting him off to prevent him from finishing his sentence in what would have likely been a swear and would not be the best look for Shadow’s formal introduction to his family. He already didn’t have the greatest repertoire of interactions with the Wachowskis, between almost killing Tom and abducting Sonic and probably a million more little things scattered throughout, and so having his parents think that Shadow was a bad influence and as edgy as his color palette suggested would not bode well for Sonic’s devious scheme of integrating Shadow into their family.

But he was getting ahead of himself. Because as Shadow slammed a fist into the ground, right where Sonic’s left cheek had been just moments before as he violently twisted his neck to the side to avoid getting a black eye, Sonic realized that in his current state of justified rage, Shadow was in no condition to even consider joining the Wachowskis as one big happy family.

So, in primal defense, Sonic bit at the hand holding him down, really sinking his teeth into it so that Shadow would feel the sharp, cutting force of his incisors through the thick fabric of his glove, and predictably, Shadow withdrew his hand with a hiss.

Freed from the pressure holding him down, Sonic was quick to capitalize on the distraction, lifting his feet to Shadows stomach and kicking so that Shadow went tumbling over Sonic’s head.

“Can you behave?!” he snapped as he surged forward, tackling Shadow to the ground and attempting to pin him down in the same way he had done to Sonic mere moments ago, with limited success as Shadow fought and writhed beneath him. “Believe it or not, I want them to like you!”

Shadow snarled at him. “I don’t care.”

He grappled with Sonic’s chest fur, somehow managing to find purchase and drawing Sonic in close as he tried to wrap his arms around Sonic’s neck for some sort of leverage. Sonic leaned back to dodge the attack, but in doing so, lost his balance and in the small wobble he took to reorient himself, Shadow managed to exploit and knock Sonic off of him.

They rolled around on the floor, all grappling hands and pointed quills trying to gain control of the petty skirmish. “Is this about…” Sonic gasped as he ducked away to nearly avoid Shadow from gouging out an eye with a quill, “…you know what?” He was careful to keep things vague, and luckily for him, Shadow knew exactly what he was referring to.

“What do you think.”

Okay, yeah, that had been a pretty dumb question, and gritting his teeth as he let out a strained grunt, Sonic dropped to a crouch to avoid getting kicked in the side of the head and likely concussed from the speed with which Shadow’s boot whistled through the air.

From behind him, he could hear the quiet murmured speculations of his family, their questions making him have to suppress a sigh of relief as he realized that they had no idea why they were fighting.

Meaning, his secret about kissing Shadow was probably safe… for the time being at least.

“Uh, why are they still going at it? Didn’t they already defeat G.U.N.?”

“It must be some sort of strange, warrior ritual.”

“Um… I thought they were friends…? Why exactly are they fighting…?”

“Just let them get it out of their system. I think this is kind of normal for them.”

He had allowed their words to distract him, and in his diverted attention was knocked off his feet with a sweeping kick to the back of his knees. And with that, Shadow was on top of him once again, this time foregoing his collarbones as he managed to wrangle both of Sonic’s hands so that they were pinned above his head, with Shadow's other hand wrapped around his neck with the clear intent to choke him out.

Ugh. Typical Shadow. Always being so extreme and dramatic about everything, Sonic couldn't help but think to himself.

However, the sensation of being choked didn’t last long as Sonic let out a surprised grunt as Shadow’s weight was lifted off of him, and before he had the chance to call out a taunt, found himself being similarly lifted into the air as all he could do was dangle his feet helplessly as he made a petulant noise of complaint. His efforts were futile, however, as he realized that it was Knuckles that had not only scruffed Sonic by the neck, but Shadow as well, holding the two battling hedgehogs apart with about as much effort as it would take to crush a pen in his fist while drawing a circle during Pictionary.

“Are you two done?” Knuckles asked in a deadpan, unamused tone. One that clearly conveyed that he found their whole squabble to be quite childish, though such a sentiment was probably derived from some sort of jealousy about not being a part of the fighting action. Few things brought Knuckles more joy than to display his physical prowess in a skirmish… well, that and grapes.

“Unhand me this instant,”  Shadow growled, at the same time Sonic replied with, “Um, yeah, sure? I mean we can probably continue this later.”

Even though both of their answers were far from satisfactory, Knuckles released them anyways, allowing them to plop into the dirt with a resolute thump as he huffed and walked away, rejoining where Tom, Maddie, and Tails all stared apprehensively at the two that stood before them.

Sonic, believe it or not, had the tendency to be quite socially adept. It was part of his charisma and charm, as he immediately understood what the situation called for. What it needed to chase away the heavy awkwardness that nestled around them, a certain black and red perpetrator being the sole cause for the tense miasma that cloyed in the air.

So, grabbing Shadow by wrapping an arm around his shoulder and pulling him in close (and not missing the way that he stiffened under the sudden contact, his spine going rigid as Sonic rubbed a friendly hand up and down his arm in a display of amity), Sonic decided that it was time for a formal introduction. That was probably a normal thing to do given the circumstances… right?

And if it wasn’t, then oh well. He tried.

“Shadow, meet Knuckles, Tails, Maddie, and Tom.” Sonic began boisterously, hoping that with an upbeat attitude, he could dispel some of the unease painted upon his family’s face. “Knuckles, Tails, Maddie, and Tom… meet my new friend Shadow.”

Chapter Text

There was a heavy pause that blanketed the front yard of the house, Sonic grinning, Shadow glaring, and everyone else staring at the two of them in mute, unfiltered shock.

Maddie, of all people, was the first to break the tension, the stretch of time that they all stood frozen there extending into the minute mark before she conjured up the courage to finally say something. “This is your….” Her eyes flickered towards Shadow, before returning uncertainly to Sonic, “.…friend?”

Sonic wasn’t really sure what Maddie was implying with the skepticism in her tone, whether it be because Shadow had been their enemy not all that long ago so such a sudden shift in label was perplexing, the fact that they had just been duking it out less than a minute prior, or more nefariously, the fact that they knew that Sonic and Shadow had kissed (making the label of ‘friend’ rather inapplicable to whatever it was that they truly were).

He would have to figure it out if they knew the truth through a tactful maneuvering of social cues and conversation. But first, before he could sniff such a thing out, he was going to double down. Because ultimately, he was technically friends with Shadow… at least on a baseline level. The intricacies of the fact that they were definitely more than friends (though what they were exactly was still uncertain) was something he and Shadow would have to hash out later, after he was done addressing his family.

But yes. That would have to wait. Looking towards his confused and expectant family, Sonic squeezed Shadow more tightly against his side, the action earning him a furious look and was something that Sonic skillfully ignored as he flashed his teeth in a huge beam and said, “Yep! My very, very good friend Shadow.”

Unsurprisingly, Shadow looked like he wanted to murder Sonic, and it was truthfully a wonder that he didn’t throw Sonic to the ground and resume beating him up for such an insulting, inaccurate claim.

Now it was Tom’s turn to step in, the look of bafflement not leaving his face as he entered the conversation. “Since, uh, when? Have you two been…?” Tom finished his question by vaguely gesturing at the two of them with a loose hand, apparently finding himself unable to complete the statement and acknowledge that Sonic and Shadow toted such a label, likely due to how bizarre it still was to him.

Sonic shrugged loosely, the motion jostling Shadow beside him much to his clear and apparent disdain. “Oh you know… a few weeks….” Sonic coughed awkwardly into a hand, the one not wrapped around Shadow’s shoulder and holding him hostage as he forced out the embarrassing amendment to his claim. “That add up to a few months.”

Tom and Maddie’s eyes just about bulged out of their sockets, Maddie’s jaw even going so far as to drop at Sonic’s little truth-bomb, whereas Knuckles and Tails each exchanged a knowing glance. One that clearly conveyed that Sonic’s admission clarified something that they both had already known, and likely even conversed about on several occasions.

“That’s… kind of a while buddy!” Tom eventually said, the first to recover from his surprise. All Maddie could do was force her ajar mouth shut and nod enigmatically beside him.

Sonic shot them a winning smile, somehow pulling Shadow in even closer. “Yep, and that’s why we’re such good friends! Right, Shadow?”

Shadow didn’t say anything, simply glaring venomously towards him. Sonic wasn’t really sure that his silence was a good thing at the moment, but he did find himself grateful for Shadow choosing that over saying anything inappropriate or incriminating towards what the truth of their relationship was.

Oh geez. Speaking of the truth….

“So, I have a weird, totally unrelated and definitely innocent question for you guys….” Sonic laughed nervously, his eyes darting back and forth between his family assembled before him, shifty and unnatural and doing a horrible job at portraying the aura of nonchalance he was so desperately vying for. “So, um, how much did you guys, er, hear? From when I got captured by G.U.N. on the lawn earlier and you guys were in the living room?”

The four of them exchanged a glance, before Tails slowly said, “We didn’t hear anything… why?”

“And so, just to be completely transparent… you didn’t hear anything from my confrontation with Director Rockwell? The first time around?”

Tom and Maddie shook their heads. “No, did you say or do something embarrassing?”

Knuckles pointed a massive fist towards him in a mocking display. “He probably did. Ha-ha!” he cried out boisterously, seeming to find great joy in the idea of Sonic doing something stupid and humiliating. “That must be why he is asking!”

More like Director Rockwell brought up something embarrassing, Sonic thought snarkily to himself, before abruptly shaking his head. “Just so that we’re all on the same page, I did not, and have never done anything embarrassing! You must be thinking of a different hedgehog.”

All four pairs of eyes shifted from Sonic to where he had Shadow pinned against his side, before looking back towards Sonic with complete and utter disbelief. They all seemed to reach the same conclusion; between the eccentricity of Sonic and the badass persona of Shadow, there was no doubt in anyone’s mind that between the two of them, Sonic was by far the more embarrassing hedgehog. Shadow could trip and fall on his face and still somehow make it look cool.

“Anyways!” Sonic hastily said, ready to move on from the conversation before any of the smarter ones before him, namely Maddie and Tails, pieced together what exactly Sonic might be worried about them knowing... especially since the fact that his arm was still laced tightly around Shadow probably wasn’t helping their initial portrayal of their ‘friendship.’ “How have things, uh, been?”

Sonic already knew that the answer to that particularly stupid question (meant as a diversion, mind you, but still dumb nonetheless) would probably be something along the lines of ‘not good.’ And this premonition was confirmed as Tom raised a sassy eyebrow down towards Sonic, letting out a scoff of disbelief. “Not particularly great, I can tell you that much.”

“Oh, what, you didn’t enjoy being confined to the living room for the past two days while they tore up our lawn and my garden?”  Maddie asked Tom cheekily, giving him a sassy grin despite the fact that the state of their yard was definitely more than a little depressing. Especially given that her beloved garden had taken a significant amount of the damage and was more or less rendered beyond repair.

“It was nice to know that my titanium handcuffs worked,” Tails supplied.

“Yes, very proud of you buddy,” Tom commented, only an impressively mild hint of sarcasm worming its way into his voice, before turning to address Maddie. “And I didn’t particularly enjoy being locked up in our living room… especially when we had no idea what had happened to him.” 'Him' being Sonic, based on the vague and agitated hand motion he made in Sonic's general direction. 

That last little tidbit made Sonic’s ears perk up as he looked up worriedly towards his parents. “Wait, did you get our text message we had sent? Or had they taken your phones?”

Tom gave Maddie a look. “Oh, we got the message all right…” he started.

“…well, sort of,” Maddie finished, causing Sonic to arch a brow in confusion. Ugh, he hated when they did that married-couple-thing, where one would start a sentence and the other would finish it while they had a secret, cryptic conversation with just their eyes. Distractedly, Sonic wondered if he would ever get to that point with Shadow, before hastily dispelling the thought that got way too far ahead of himself as he asked a hasty follow-up question to quell the outlandish concept of him and Shadow one day being equated to a married couple from his mind.

“What do you mean, sort of?”

“Well, they had taken our phones. But—”

“But, they had to show us the message because they had no idea what it meant. And they asked us if we had any clues on how to interpret them.”

“Are you serious?” Sonic exclaimed, nearly stunned into a stupor at that particular reveal. “You’re telling me that they couldn’t decipher the message?! Dude. It was like, so obvious!” Well, at least, it had been obvious to him. Shadow hadn’t been able to understand it, not at the time, and apparently, G.U.N. had struggled too.

Tom let out a snort. “That’s what we were thinking.”

Next to him, Maddie nodded. “Instead of telling them what it meant, we just said that we had no idea why Jojo would send us that. Even though we meant that the two of you were okay.”

“Oh thank goodness,” Sonic breathed, at least somewhat thankful that their efforts of traveling all the way to San Francisco to visit Rachel and Randall were not in vain. It would have been incredibly lame if Sonic had taken the two of them into the house of two literal G.U.N. agents just for their message to get intercepted. “Listen, guys? I’m sorry for making you worry. And I’m sorry for leaving you all behind. And I’m sorry for lying about my friendship with Shadow, and the fact that he was alive and here in Green Hills.” Sonic felt Shadow tense beneath him at his name suddenly being brought into the conversation, and he gave him a reflexive and reassuring rub of reassurance. “I’m sorry for a lot of things. This… this didn’t really pan out the way I thought it would, and you four got caught in the crossfire. I’m really sorry.”

There was a beat where no one said anything. However, after the heavy moment of silence, the echoes of Sonic’s apology still ringing in his ears, Tom stepped forward, dropping into a crouch in front of him. His expression was gentle and kind, and Sonic felt a mild, cool wave of relief wash over him, but he still waited in tense anticipation for whatever wisdom, scolding, or other nonsense his dad was about to impart upon him. Knowing Tom, it could literally be anything, though whatever would be, completely and totally justified.

“Do you remember what I told you months ago at our camping trip, before you three took off to Tokyo? About how your choices define who you are?” He placed a hand on Sonic’s shoulder, the one that wasn’t still connected to Shadow in what was now an act of holding him as a lifeline as he stood before his family, the jury of his crimes. “Well, what I said is still true. You’re a good person if you make good choices, and you chose to come back. That was the right choice, and I’m proud of you for that Sonic.”

Maddie stepped forward so that she was standing over them, smiling warmly down at Sonic as she brushed her thigh up against Tom’s shoulder and leaned her weight against him. “Besides! Getting raided by a military organization and destroying our front lawn is just part of the fun of raising you three. We never know what to expect!”

Sonic looked between the two of them, knowing that their kind words were a sign of forgiveness, but still not entirely believing it. “And so you’re… not mad?”

“Oh no, I’m furious,” Tom said, straightening up so that he now stood shoulder-to-shoulder with Maddie. “Furious that not only did you two knock out the power again, but left a monumental mess on our lawn. Do you know how much time this is going to take to fix?!”

Beside him, Maddie waved him off, the gesture flippant and dismissive for Tom’s completely justified frustration. “He’ll get over it.”

Instead of denying it, Tom simply let out a sigh. “Maybe. Probably. Listen, that’s not important, because now, if you’ll excuse me, I’m going to go call Old Jim and see if he can lend us any of his construction equipment. I think we’re going to need it to clean up all of…” he gestured vaguely around their yard, making an encapsulating sweep of the heinous wreckage that cluttered their lawn in an amalgamation of smoke, flames, and destroyed machinery. “…this.”

Sonic opened his mouth to speak, however, what he was about to say must have been quite plainly telegraphed on his face, for Tom abruptly cut him off with an enigmatic point of his finger. “And before you ask, no you are not allowed to operate the heavy machinery. That is strictly for Maddie, Tails, and I to do.”

“Aw, what?! Oh come on, why?!” Sonic cried out in protest, his fingers digging into Shadow’s fur in skin in unintentional retaliation.

While Maddie had initially been playing the very kind role of tempering Tom’s irritation, she now gave Sonic an incredulous look at his small outburst. “Um, do you remember what happened last time we let you drive?” she asked. “You totaled my sister’s car. I still don’t really know why we agreed to let you do that.”

She raised a valid concern, not that Sonic was going to give in to it that easily. The thought of operating a bulldozer, excavator, compactor, or literally whatever they would be gifted with was simply too gnarly, too cool for him to lay down and accept his totally lame fate of being forbidden from doing it. “That was like, years ago! I’ve gotten much better at driving since then!”

“Stealing my truck to do donuts in an empty parking lot of a fast-food restaurant does not mean that you’ve improved as a driver,” Tom deadpanned, not even glancing up from his phone where he was presumably searching for the contact he needed to join Maddie in knocking Sonic’s lofty dreams from his ambitious mind.

“Maybe to you, since you don’t even know how to do a donut!” Sonic retorted hotly. “Ironic, since your name is the donut lord! Perhaps you should practice so that you can live up to your namesake!” There was a pause, and in that brief moment, Sonic reflected upon something Tom had mentioned earlier. And with that, his indignant flurry returned with a renewed and hectic intensity. “Also wait. Why is Tails of all people included on that list?! He’s technically younger than I am! What the heck?!”

“Tails knows how to pilot a plane and helicopter. I think he can manage some construction equipment,” Maddie countered.

Sonic let out a suffering, withering groan, one that was far too dramatic for what the situation called for. Because to be fair, Tom and Maddie did kind of have a point, not to mention a significant degree of authority over him, and out of things to argue with, he reluctantly relented. “Ugh, fine, have it your way.”

“Okay, great. Wonderful. Now that you’ve got that all out of your system….” Tom lifted up his cellphone, brandishing it with a little wave as he began to step away. “I’m going to make that call. I would tell you not to destroy anything, but it seems like it's too late for that.”

Maddie gave Sonic an apologetic smile before she turned to accompany him, probably for moral support, and with that, the two walked into the house and left Sonic, Shadow, Knuckles, and Tails standing awkwardly on the eviscerated lawn.

For a long, drawn-out moment, nobody said anything.  

With a start, Sonic realized that breaking the tension was probably a task that fell on his shoulders. Letting out a thin, strained laugh, he drummed his fingers along Shadow’s upper arm, inducing him to glare down at the offending gesture with a sneer that indicated that he wasn’t the greatest fan of the prolonged contact. Ignoring him, however, Sonic ventured into the uneasy silence. “So…” he said slowly, drawing out the single syllable as he wracked his brain for something to say that wouldn’t elicit a punch from Shadow and make Knuckles and Tails more upset with him than they probably were. “At least this will make our baseball games a bit more even? Maybe we can spice things up with some two-on-two basketball?”

It was a horrible way to break the ice.

And yet, based on the way Knuckles’ face lit up, Sonic knew it had worked on at least one of them. Even though Shadow looked at him with a look of pure confusion (hadn’t they had baseball and basketball in whatever godforsaken decade he had been spawned from? Oh well) and Tails with an expression mild reservation. Although, that could likely be attributed to the fact that the last time they had played baseball, Knuckles had foregone his bat to instead punch the ball, nearly blasting a hole through Tails’ head. That might be the more likely culprit for his lack of enthusiasm.

But no matter.

As nobody continued to say anything, Sonic let out a sigh, his shoulders sagging as he realized that he would have to have an actual, serious conversation with Knuckles and Tails. One that would be made far more difficult with Shadow’s presence, based on the wary expression and stance his two friends wore as they cautiously apprehended the newcomer.

Sonic hated to ask him to leave. But he knew that he had no choice.

“Um… Shadow?” he endeavored carefully. “Would you mind… uh…?”

Shadow glared at Sonic, shrugging of the constrictive hold he had been confined to. Sonic allowed it to happen, taking care to thread his arm in such a way that would avoid poking himself on the sharpened tips of Shadow’s potent quills. “I’ll be right over there,” he said, clearly picking up on the subliminal message and not needing to be asked twice for some privacy.

Sonic gave him a thumbs up and a terse smile, and with a derisive hmph!, Shadow walked away, choosing an upended military vehicle as his destination, and with a flash of Chaos Energy as he teleported away, disappearing for a blink, he reappeared on top of the truck and dropped down to brood from afar.

Sonic gulped. Oh boy. That was not going to be a fun conversation. Granted, he was itching to initiate it, to finally sit down and have a proper chat with Shadow about everything that had happened, but it would have to wait. Right now, he needed to direct his full and undivided attention towards Knuckles and Tails.

And with that in mind, he turned to face them, a sheepish expression painting his features. “So… you guys already knew about all of that, huh.”

Knuckles and Tails nodded. “Yep,” they said in unison.

“For, uh, how long? Did you guys know…?”

Tails was the first to respond. “I kind of knew from the first energy reading I took from a while ago.” Sonic briefly thought back to what Tails was referring to; his and Shadow’s first race during their second encounter in Green Hills. Woof. That had essentially been the very beginning. And Tails had known since then?! That was essentially the entire time! Double woof. “I might be gullible, but I’m not stupid. I knew there was only one possible thing that could cause such a wild spike in Chaos Energy. And no offense Sonic, but it wasn’t you.”

Not even having the energy to be even mildly insulted, Sonic turned to address the other. “And you, Knuckles? What about you?”

“The Master Emerald.” Knuckles crossed his arms, sniffing in finality. “You gave no explanation as to how you came across it, and there was only one other person who had the power and might to transform alongside you. It was rather obvious.”

Ugh. Even Knuckles, who was about as dense as they came, had figured out the truth. Sonic made a mental note that next time he concocted a major, elaborate web of lies such as this one, he was going to really have to step up his game. Tails piecing it together was one thing, but Knuckles was a pretty glaring indicator that Sonic had failed quite spectacularly at keeping his secret friendship under wraps.

(With that being said, Sonic didn’t necessarily plan on cobbling together any more grand, elaborate schemes at the expense of his friends and family. But that was beside the point. What he was trying to highlight here was that he had done a rather shabby, shoddy job at keeping things with Shadow hidden.)

But still, the revelation that his two friends had known the entire time made him pause, unable to help himself in asking them to clarify. “Really? You guys knew the entire time?” he exclaimed in disbelief, his tone bordering on accusation. “Why didn’t you say anything?”

“Why didn’t you say anything?!” Tails shot back, sounding almost fearful rather than angry, like the fact that there was even an issue for them to talk about in the first place was causing him a great deal of anxiety.

“Man, I don’t know, I didn’t know how to bring it up!” Sonic glanced over his shoulder towards Shadow, who gave him a closed curl of his lips in response before looking pointedly away, his nose turning up towards the air from where he sat off in the distance. Biting the inside of his cheek as he turned pensively back towards Knuckles and Tails, Sonic lowered his voice to a hushed whisper, hoping that one of Shadow’s many superpowered abilities didn’t include a particularly keen sense of hearing. “I wasn’t really sure how to tell you guys that I was secretly hanging out with the guy who had tried to kill all of us on multiple occasions! How do you even open for that? ‘Hey friends! You know that black and red version of me, who’s like way scarier and tried to blow up the Earth and tried to literally murder us many times before that? Yeah, we’re friends now, and he lives in my old cave!’ Do you know how ridiculous that sounds?!”

In front of him, Knuckles shrugged. “I don’t know, you seemed to be able to say it pretty easily right there.”

“I think what Knuckles is trying to tell you here,” Tails began in what could only be described as a haphazard attempt to salvage and interpret what their incredibly literal friend had meant, “is that even though it might have seemed difficult, we’re your friends, and we’ll stand by you through anything that comes our way. It’s what makes our team so special, remember?” He offered up a soft smile, one that was tentative and indicative of his adoration towards the bond the three of them had strengthened over their adventures together. “Anyways, the reason that we didn’t bring it up was because we were waiting for you to tell us on your own terms.” Tails gave him a placating shrug, his hands lifting up helplessly as his smile turned awkward.  “We didn’t want to push you.”

“I wanted to test your honesty as a friend and warrior,” Knuckles corrected with a pound of his fist to his chest. “And you—”

“Failed, yeah, yeah, I know. But I was going to tell you, I swear! There just wasn’t a good time, and then right before I was going to suck it up and do it, G.U.N. showed up so that kind of threw a wrench in my plans, and I—” Sonic cut himself off, realizing that his rambling was becoming a bit gratuitous, and even though his reasons were all the truth, it didn’t really change the fact that it had happened. He sighed, took a moment to compose himself, and then tried again. “Sorry. I shouldn’t be coming up with any excuses. Yeah, I really screwed up. I should have told you guys right from the start. That’s on me, and I won’t let it happen again. I apologize.”

Sonic didn’t really know what he was expecting from Knuckles in response to his apology. It could have been anything; a few angry words, a punch to the shoulder… but what he hadn’t been expecting was for Knuckles to plant a heavy hand on Sonic’s shoulder and level him with a firm, though not hostile look. “The path of a warrior is not a straight one.” The hand on Sonic’s shoulder felt heavy and significant— fitting for the wisdom he knew that Knuckles was about to impart. “It curves, it twists, and it turns. There are bumps in the road, but what truly matters at the end of the day is that your intent is pure and you hold true to who you are inside.” His hand finally lowered, and instead of being grateful for its weight being gone, Sonic missed the reassurance the contact had brought. “I understand why you didn’t tell us Sonic, and I am not cross.”

Sonic felt a genuine smile cross his face. Despite his severe disposition, Knuckles was far more understanding and wise than he gave him credit for, and it was moments like these that truly highlighted his pure heart that beat in a steady rhythm beneath his blunt, calloused exterior. “Thank you Knuckles. Truly. You have no idea how much that means to me. And you’re right… no more lies. I’ll only tell you two the truth from now on, no matter how difficult it is for me to do.”

Knuckles gave him a sharp incline of his head— a nod of approval— before his gaze shifted to refocus on where Sonic knew that Shadow was sitting and waiting behind him. “Is he going to stay? I would like a rematch of our battle. He has been the only one so far to truly challenge my might and skill.” He glanced back towards Sonic with a mischievous glint in his eye. “The hedgehog I face previously was—”

“Far less impressive, yes, yes I know,” Sonic said, interrupting him and finishing his sentence for what was now the second time during that conversation. “No need to rub it in. You know what I do have going for me, though, is my amazing personality, so as long as I’m the more likeable between the two of us, then I don’t care if he’s cooler, stronger, or has more powers than me! What’s inside is all that counts, right?!”

His reassurances, that were truthfully meant more for himself more than anything else, fell pitifully flat even on his own ears.

Tails gave him an indulgent smile, before the expression slipped off his face as he looked nervously towards where Shadow still sat atop the fallen truck in dark patience. “He seems kind of scary,” Tails commented, not bothering to hide the minor thread of fear embroidered into his voice.

Sonic, however, waved him off. “I mean yeah, he might look, act, sound, and be scary, but don’t worry! He’s actually not that bad when you get to know him. Kind of.”

Tails looked uncertain, which was completely fair because Sonic’s words were uninspired and lackluster to an excruciating degree, and he looked like he was about to question Sonic some more about it before he abruptly jumped back, the fur on his two tails fluffing up in terror as he took a sharp, jagged step away.

Sonic was about to ask him what had spooked him so harshly, until he heard a dark, familiar, and painfully alluring voice growl behind him.

“Are you done.”

Laughing awkwardly, Sonic slowly turned to face Shadow, offering him a meek and apologetic shrug. “Um… if you want us to be?”

Shadow narrowed his eyes in a way that clearly stated yes. He wanted them to be done. His patience had evidently run thin. Now, it was his turn.

Tails seemed to realize this as he pawed at Knuckles’ arm, grabbing him and beginning to drag him away. “I think we should give you two some privacy,” he eeked out nervously as he began to move himself and Knuckles away from where the two hedgehogs stood staring at them, Sonic in bewilderment and Shadow in threat. “Clearly, you guys have some things you need to work out.”

And with that, Sonic and Shadow were alone.

It was pathetic, but Sonic almost called out for them to come back.

However, he managed to swallow this humiliating sentiment, instead letting out a light chuckle as he pivoted to face Shadow with a strained, pained expression pulling at the corners of his face. “Ha-ha, hey, Shadow,”  he managed to choke out, “are you, uh, still mad?”

Shadow leveled him with a fearsome scowl, crinkling his nose as the ridge of his eyebrow lowered dangerously over his eyes. “Nothing has changed since ten minutes ago.” His voice was raspy, low, and colored with thick, tangible anger. “So, yes.”

Sonic licked his lips. Okay then. Understandable, but to be completely honest, he had been hoping Shadow would just forgive and forget without Sonic having to grovel and deal with his ire, terrifying that it was. Not because he was trying to weasel his way out of this conversation and avoid it, but rather, because he didn’t really know what to say to appease Shadow’s justified fury. What he could possibly do to make his companion let go of his anger and have things go back to how they used to be.

Sonic decided to go straight for the kill, swallowing his desires to pander and dawdle. “Would it help if I said sorry…?”

Somehow, Shadow’s eyes narrowed even further. “Sorry for what, exactly.”

Oh brother. He was going to play this game, was he? Sonic wanted to roll his eyes, but fear at Shadow’s reaction prevented him from doing such a thing as his mind raced through the list of potential instances that could be the cause for pissing Shadow off. And unfortunately for Sonic, there were quite a few to peruse through. “Sorry for… getting captured by G.U.N.?”

“Keep going.”

Sonic clucked his tongue. Time for the next thing on the extensive list. “Sorry for making you come back and rescue me...?”

“More.”

Oh man. Shadow was really going to make him say it, huh? “Sorry for… kissing you on top of the Golden Gate Bridge and leaving you there?”

At this point, Shadow’s eyes were nothing more than thin slits, his crimson irises barely visible and yet fully capable of conveying his outrage. “That would be the one,” he seethed. “What the hell is your problem.”

Sonic flinched back at the vehemence burning in his tone, quickly moving to defend himself before Shadow would deem it a fitting punishment to punch Sonic in the face for his brash audacity. “It was impulsive, okay! I don’t know! I wasn’t really thinking, I just sort of did it!”

“You didn’t think before you did it?!”

Oops. So maybe hadn’t been the best choice of words for Sonic to select, based on the offended and indignant scowl Shadow wore fearsomely upon his face. After knowing him for so long and so intimately, it took Sonic quite a lot to be nervous or scared around Shadow, but seeing his explosive demeanor, a stick of dynamite with a sparkling fuse that was rapidly traveling towards detonation, he knew he had to quickly snuff it out.

“I mean, I did think before I did it! I thought all day about doing it, and I wanted to do it, I just… I don’t know… wasn’t planning on doing it so soon?” Sonic pleaded, desperate for him to understand. “But I knew I had to come back to Green Hills to save my family, and I didn’t want to leave you with any regrets about not having done it, and so I just… kind of… did it?”

It was a rather poor explanation. Shadow’s open display of rage that only deepened as Sonic spoke didn’t do much for Sonic’s confidence as he had pressed forward in his defense. However, as he gulped and stared back abashedly towards Shadow, he was struck with a sudden realization. While he had initially assumed that Shadow was mad because Sonic had left him behind after doing something so passionate on both an emotional and physical level, perhaps….

Perhaps he was wrong.

Perhaps he had misjudged, well, everything.

Unfortunately for him, there was only one way to find out. “Shadow….” Sonic swallowed thickly, knowing that he had to ask the deplorable and invasive question, if only for his own peace of mind whether or not he would like the answer provided. “Did you… not like it? The kiss?”

With that, Shadow’s glowering fury abruptly dissipated as it was replaced by something closer to surprise at being asked such a forward thing. His eyes widened and sharply locked with Sonic's, fierce and almost embarrassed towards being caught and asked such a deeply personal question, before hastily tearing away and refocusing elsewhere. Likely on the crumbled ruins of the tank beside them, though his eyes were hazy and unseeing and truthfully not focused on the wreckage at all. “I…” he began, but curiously, did not finish the sentence.

Which was all the invitation Sonic needed to hastily clarify why he had initiated their lips locking together when this new context made him fear that Shadow hadn’t ever wanted such a thing in the first place. “Because I could have sworn you kissed me back, so if that’s the case and you didn’t want to do that at all, then that’s really messed up of me and I’m super sor—”

“It’s not that," Shadow abruptly said, cutting and dangerous in his interjection before almost immediately backing off and becoming a bit more shy and reserved with what he said next. "I… I did like it.” He made a noise that sounded like he was trying to clear his throat, but instead, came out strangled and garbled. “A lot, actually.”

Sonic’s rambling mouth snapped shut, almost biting his tongue with how abruptly his teeth clacked together at Shadow’s confession. Because he couldn't believe it. Shadow liked the kiss. Sonic wasn’t alone. Shadow had liked the kiss.

“Stop smiling at me like that.”

Sonic hadn’t realized it, but his face had split in a massive grin, canyoning from ear to ear in a portrayal of unadulterated thrill. However, upon Shadow’s grouchy and borderline embarrassed demand, Sonic was quick to wipe the expression off his face into something a bit more neutral. “So, now that you’re here…” he began cautiously, tapping his two pointer fingers together in a display of nervousness, something he wouldn’t be comfortable exhibiting to anyone else other than Shadow, “…you’re going to stay, right?”

At his seemingly innocent, lighthearted question, Shadow reflexively drew back, looking more than a little alarmed before he was able to compose himself with a dejected, firm shake of his head. “I don’t belong here. With you and your family. I would be an outsider.” He looked away, out towards the mountains that poked over the tree line, off in a direction, any direction that would take him away from the Wachowskis and Green Hills, much to Sonic’s stabbing and gut-wrenching dismay. “I’m not… I’m not like you guys.”

There was something that reflected deep in Shadow’s expression, a deep and pensive glimmer in his eye that spoke a different truth, something hidden just beneath the surface that Sonic didn’t need to travel very far down to understand. I’m broken. I’m damaged. I don’t have a place here.

Sonic loathed to see Shadow feel such a detestable sentiment, and so with haste, quickly spoke in a chipper, upbeat tone in an attempt to chase away Shadow’s depressed and self-sabotaging spiral. “And you think you belong somewhere else instead?” he quipped with a sassy placement of his hands on his waist, taking extra care to infuse a layer of joking in his voice, as though he were on the verge of laughing in disbelief. “Are you being serious? This is probably like, the only family in the whole entire world that has not one, not two, but three alien kids. I don’t think adding a fourth is really going to do much at this point.”

Unfortunately for him, his little act didn’t quite work out the way he had planned it, and Shadow didn’t hesitate to call him out for it. “That’s not what I meant and you know it.”

Sonic sighed, dropping his posturing as he shifted his demeanor to one of utmost seriousness. “Listen, Shadow, I get it. I know that this is new for you, and something that terrifies you, and rightfully so. You’re afraid of loving again, to find a new family to form a bond with.” He took a step forward, restoring the space that had stretched between them and was far, all too far apart. “But like I’ve said before. If you live your life scared of what you might lose, to the point that you have nothing worth living for, then what’s the point of living in the first place?”

Shadow stared pensively back at him, and Sonic couldn’t shake the feeling that he looked like he wanted to run instead of fight. Just like he had with G.U.N. But this time, Sonic wasn’t going to follow him. No, he was going to convince Shadow to stay, with him.

And so, he kept talking, no, begging. “They’ll love you. I—” Sonic’s filter, in a rare act of doing its damn job, kicked in at the last second, preventing him from saying something insane such as, I already love you. Which would have been a wild and inappropriate slip of the tongue, and something that he fundamentally knew to both be true and something that would undoubtedly chase Shadow away, out and over the mountains surrounding the quaint valley of Green Hills. And so, coughing awkwardly into his hand, Sonic hastily amended his statement to instead say, “I want you to be happy. If this isn’t something that would make you happy, then you can leave and that can be that.”

“You want me to be happy?”

“Well duh, of course, what kind of a dumb question was that?” Sonic asked, the indecision and hesitation strange to see on Shadow’s face. Normally he was so confident and assured, even when conveying his emotions that were a little more sappy than derision or anger. The uncertainty did not disappear with Sonic’s clarification, however, and so Sonic guardedly added a new question on for Shadow to ponder, one with an answer that Sonic desperately wanted to know more than anything in the whole entire world. “What… do you want, Shadow? To be happy?”

Shadow gave him a look, before glancing away. “You already know what I want to be happy.”

There was something excited that bubbled up within Sonic’s chest at that, but he forced it down, scolding himself for getting ahead of himself. “Um, well, it would still be nice to hear you say it?” he followed up. “Maybe?”

Shadow’s gaze stretched out past the trees surrounding them, over towards the mountains in the distance. Sonic felt himself go rigid, because there it was again; that undeniable urge Shadow had to run, to leave behind Sonic and Green Hills all because he was scared of staying. Sonic wanted to reach out and stop him, pull him in close and wrap him in an embrace, but instead, he forced himself to simply watch as Shadow squeezed his eyes shut.

Finally, after a long moment, Shadow let out a sigh, his face relaxing as he still kept his eyes closed. “You.” And with that, with that one single word, he finally turned to face Sonic once more, his eyelids lifting and revealing the yearning, pining gaze, like rubies in a treasure chest, that lay sparkling underneath. “I need you with me to be happy, Sonic.”

Sonic, who had been holding his breath in great anticipation as he had waited for Shadow to divulge what he had already known, let it out in a sharp exhale. It had been the answer he had been hoping to hear, something that would let him know that the deep and undeniable connection he felt towards Shadow was reciprocated and equal. Well, to be fair, he had already known that, but the reassurance was nice. It had been a long, crazy day, and while there was nothing Sonic wanted more than to hug Shadow and melt into his arms in a tight embrace (and perhaps kiss him once more on the lips for good measure), he knew he would have to settle for affirming words in the meantime.

“And so, you’re not going to leave me?”

Shadow snorted. “I could ask the same of you.”

At this, Sonic openly laughed. Shadow had a fair point with that one, and Sonic got the distinct feeling that he was never going to truly live down the spectacularly theatrical way he had kissed and abandoned Shadow in San Francisco. Talk about melodrama, sheesh. “I guess it seems like we’re even, huh?”

Shadow didn’t return his amusement, instead folding his arms and looking away with a grouchy huff. “Yeah, well, I came back for you. Both times.”

“I can’t blame you,” Sonic replied candidly, easily now that it had been established that Shadow needed him to be happy, in the exact same way that Sonic needed Shadow. “I wouldn’t be able to stay away from me either.”

Sonic shouldn’t have been surprised by how hard Shadow slugged him in the upper arm for that one.

It was light though. There was no true power behind it, none of the awe-inspiring might Shadow had just demonstrated not all that long ago when he had almost single-handedly demolished G.U.N.’s forces. It was just a light punch, something Sonic understood to be a gesture of endearment in a way that only Shadow could pull off.

Still, Sonic rubbed at the spot dramatically, pinning Shadow with a look of faux hurt even as his amusement shone through his eyes and subtle, involuntary twitch of his lips. “Say what you will about us, but I think the fact that you followed me here is just more evidence that you should stay here in Green Hills.” There was a beat, and Sonic decided to take a risk. “With me.”

Shadow gave him an uncertain look. “I’ll consider it.”

“Um, for how long do you need to think about it?” Sonic pressed, knowing he was being annoying but not really caring all that much at the moment. “Like a few seconds, minutes, hours…?”

“I’ll stay for a little while and see how it goes. But no promises.”

Sonic couldn’t help but smile. Because he knew exactly what it was; a promise. It was a tentative one, Shadow not confident enough to fully commit, but Sonic knew the truth. They needed each other. It was impossible to live separate… the amount of times they had been torn apart and reconvened spoke volumes on the truth of their relationship.

It was difficult to say out loud, for both of them. Sonic because he was rather inexperienced with this stuff (meaning, his first kiss had been literally that morning, and he was still honestly reeling from it, feeling a warm surge of thrill course through his veins every time his wandering and insolent mind saw fit to bring the memory to the surface), and Shadow had the emotional equivalence of a prickly and dead cactus, but they both knew it. They both knew that they couldn’t live without the other, not only because each had somehow managed to say it out loud, but also through their actions that intertwined their destinies together.

Sonic’s smile widened as he reached forward, capturing Shadow’s hands in his own in a swift, encapsulating motion. “You’re going to love it here. I promise. Green Hills is amazing.”

Shadow stared down at his hands currently being grasped, a sharp suck of air through his teeth the only indication that Sonic’s brash display had been unexpected. “I’ve already been living here,” he replied bluntly, but his words were distant and distracted as he kept his focus trained down upon Sonic’s fingers curled around his own.

“Yeah, sure, but you haven’t really been living here!” Sonic replied with a tight squeeze. “Hiding out in my old cave and never really leaving doesn’t really count as living somewhere. If anything, it kind of makes you some sort of a weird, loser basement dweller. Maybe I should have brought you some Doritos and Mountain Dew to really complete the vibe you were going for.”

Shadow let out a hum, but otherwise, didn’t respond. Which wasn’t that abnormal given that even Sonic could recognize that comparing Shadow to a mouth-breathing, degenerate basement dweller wasn’t the funniest joke he had ever uttered, however, noticing how Shadow continued to stare at their intertwined hands, Sonic knew that his lack of response was due to something else entirely.

“Shadow, are you… okay?”

Sonic could feel Shadow’s hands flex and tense in his own, almost as though they were crying out to be freed. Sonic couldn’t really say for certain, though, and the thought that Shadow didn’t want to hold his hands made him incredibly crestfallen. “I, um…” he started to say, before licking his lips and glancing up towards Sonic. “This is… a lot.”

Sonic began to pull his hands away, feeling shame at regret for having made Shadow so evidently uncomfortable, however, he was stopped as Shadow adjusted his grip so that he was the one clinging onto Sonic, preventing him from escaping. Confused, Sonic tilted his head to the side. “I’m sorry, is this not what you want? Because I can always stop, if you that’s what you would like?”

Shadow was borderline frantic in how he corrected Sonic. “No, I do, I do want this, I just….”

He paused, looking up towards Sonic from where he had been once more staring at their hands, wearing an expression that could only be described as helpless. He looked lost, scared, overwhelmed, and a million other things that were all stacked on top over an underlying layer of longing, and Sonic knew that if he and Shadow were to ever work their way up towards something more, they were going to have to slowly work their way through the mess levels that concealed the pining desire that sat nestled at his core.

Sonic was willing to do that, and wait for the rest of his life to reach that center of readiness. Whatever it took, he was more than happy to take on the challenge, to embark on the journey that their entangled lives would take them.

“I understand, Shadow. And you’re right. We should… take things slow. Maybe do it right this time. Does that… sound okay? To you?”

For once, Sonic didn’t care about how uncertain and borderline desperate he sounded. Normally, such a thing was a major detractor for his carefully-crafted persona, however right now, he couldn’t bring himself to care. Because all that mattered was Shadow telling him that yes, he did still want to be something that was more than friends, whatever that something may be, rather than literally anything else. Because for Sonic, anything other than a potential romantic partner was truthfully almost unacceptable.

He waited and watched with bated breath as Shadow slowly and deliberately responded. “That… that sounds nice.”

Sonic’s cheeks had begun to hurt from how much he had been smiling throughout their conversation, and Shadow’s agreeance was no help.

And since he was Sonic, naturally, he had to tie a nice little bow onto their heartfelt exchange with a cheesy joke, something that for once wasn’t entirely a sarcastic jest and actually held a sliver of truth as he bravely asked, “And you’re sure you don’t want to make out…?”

Shadow snorted at this, and opened his mouth to probably reply with something rather snarky, however, before he had the opportunity to speak, clamped his jaw shut as he caught sight of something over Sonic’s shoulder. Abruptly tearing his hands away and taking an instinctive step back, Sonic followed his guarded expression to see that Tom and Maddie had returned from making their phone call, and were walking back over with Knuckles and Tails trailing alongside them.

Sonic fought the urge to grimace. He knew he had literally just promised everyone that he was going to start telling the truth, but this was a horrible place to start. Because until he knew exactly what he and Shadow were in terms of what their relationship was, he was going to keep his mouth shut. There was a difference between honesty and privacy, and he felt it was fair to want a bit of the latter when it came to tackling where and how to move forward with the hedgehog behind him.

So instead of saying anything to betray the contents of the conversation he had just had with Shadow, hopeful conclusion and everything else in between, he simply raised a brow in question as Tom shot him a thumbs up.

“Good news! Old Jim is going to bring his construction equipment over within the hour. All I have to do in exchange is help him birth all of his cows next season.” There was a pause. “I honestly can’t really tell if that’s a good trade or not.”  

Sonic grinned up at him. “That sounds easy enough!”

Unfortunately for him, Tom did not return the enthusiastic expression as he shook his head. “Oh, we’re not done here, buddy. Because you want to know what the bad news is? You’re grounded until this entire lawn is cleaned up and restored to its previous condition.”

Sonic let out a massive, dramatic groan, not even bothering to suppress it as he threw his hands up in the air. Good grief. Would he ever catch a break with this nonsense?! “The grounding again? Seriously?” he moaned. “This is getting kind of old. Can’t you get creative with your punishments? Like throw tomatoes at me, or put me in a dunce cap and make me sit in the corner, or something! This unoriginality is literally killing me.”

“Yeah, yeah, yeah, laugh it up, pal. You’re not leaving this property until every speck of rubble is cleaned up and gone.”

Sonic groaned, and then looking towards Shadow, gave him a sheepish grin and an apologetic shrug that loosely translated to, Welcome to the Wachowski family, I guess?, before dropping the act with a tired sigh. The next few days, or however long it would take them to clean up their little (massive) mess, was going to suck.

Chapter Text

“Who wants another s’more!”

In response to Tails’ query, Knuckles let out a cry of affirmation, whereas Sonic let out a groan of despair. Still, even his rather vocal noise of protest fell on deaf ears as Tails tossed a completed s’more across the fire, right into Sonic’s unwillingly waiting hands. He had half a mind to accidentally drop it, to say ‘Whoops!’ and more or less throw the thing into the fire because he was full, beyond full, to the point that even just looking at the sweet treat made his stomach roll over and threaten to send up something undesirable. Sonic really needed to stop going overboard with the s’mores; this happened way too many times for it to be acceptable.

However, staring down at the s’more he held, before noticing the hedgehog that sat next to him, Sonic had a better idea.

“Shadow. Please. You gotta eat this for me. Otherwise Knuckles is going to win in our eating contest again and the last thing I need right now is to have him—”

“You know I can hear you conspire against me,” Knuckles stated flatly across the fire, causing Sonic to pause in his painfully loud whisperings towards Shadow and give him a sheepish, apologetic look. “I hope you understand that betrayal is not an offense I can forgive.”

“Conspire? Betrayal? What—you think—huh?!” Sonic sputtered out his indignation for Knuckles’ completely valid callout, turning towards the black and red hedgehog sitting next to him and pointing an accusing thumb in Knuckles’ direction. “Shadow, can you believe this guy? He thinks that we’re trying to team up and work against him! Pfft! Get real!” He turned back to Knuckles, putting on the most offended, affronted expression he could muster, not really caring that the over-the-top theatrics completely gave away just how facetious he was being. Given that he was talking to Knuckles, such nuances ultimately wouldn’t matter. “No, what I’m actually trying to do is make him feel included!”

Beside him, Shadow let out a disgusted huff of disapproval. “Your oversweet confectionary treats hold absolutely no interest of mine. And you know this.”

Sonic jabbed an elbow to his rib as a punishment for being obscenely obtuse. “Yeah, no offense Shadow, but I’m going to need you to play along a little better than that.”

Shadow grunted, and with that, reluctantly took the s’more from Sonic’s hands. And then, proceeded to do nothing more than stare at it with an expression of plain and simple disgust.

To celebrate finally having finished cleaning up their lawn after G.U.N.’s reign of terror, a week after the whole thing went down, the Wachowskis had planned a little camping trip to get out and relax after all of their hard work.

However, Maddie had been called to a distant farm for an emergency with some livestock, and Tom had decided to go with her to lend a helping hand with her veterinarian duties. Therefore, just for the evening, their little camping trip was just the four of them. It was kind of a shame, in Sonic’s opinion, because he had been looking forward to Shadow having the opportunity to bond with his parents and hopefully, ideally, form some more human connections. Maria had been his only truly good friend from humanity, and every other person that Shadow had interacted with thus far, from the scientists who had experimented on him, to the members of G.U.N., and then to Gerald Robotnik himself, didn’t do a very stellar job at representing the good that people had to offer.

Sonic was confident that Tom and Maddie would help him open up just a bit. They had been able to form a bond with Knuckles; if they could accomplish that, then Shadow would be comparatively easy, regardless of his past traumas.

But Sonic digressed. It was still good for Shadow to be around Tails and Knuckles. The other consideration of experiencing the evils of humanity firsthand was that Shadow had suffered through it alone. An otherworldly freak with no one else quite like him, rather, until now at least. It was good for him to interact with other aliens like himself, because while Sonic had more or less been filling that role, there was something to be said about diversifying and expanding one’s scope of friends.

Although, glancing across the campfire and seeing Knuckles stuff an entire s’more to his face and then swallow it without even chewing once, and watching Tails adjust his protective goggles as he toasted his marshmallow to perfection like an absolute dweeb, Sonic couldn’t help that feel like at the moment, his friends weren’t exactly making the best first impression. But then again, they were being their authentic and unfiltered selves, quirky as they may be, and Sonic realized that he wouldn’t have them any other way.  

His warm reflections were interrupted as Knuckles sat forward, pinning Shadow with an intense, austere look as he pointed a sharp fist in his direction.

Or rather, towards his s’more. “Are you going to finish that.”

Shadow looked between Knuckles and the unblemished, rather plain s’more he held, a slight frown furrowing his brows. It was clear, in the practiced neutrality of his permanent scowl, that he was preventing a more aggravated expression from crossing his features. “No,” he said tersely, though despite the clear implication of Knuckles question towards what he desired from Shadow, the s’more was not relinquished.

It was almost phenomenal, witnessing two blunt, literal, and socially stunted people interact with one another. Next to Knuckles, Tails paused in his careful torching of his marshmallow as he repositioned his goggles on his forehead; clearly, he found the interaction to be fascinating as well.

“Can I have it.”

Shadow blinked, looking down towards the s’more yet again as he mulled over what Knuckles so brusquely demanded. “It was given to me by Sonic.” Shadow’s fingers curled invisibly around the dessert, almost in a protective manner. “It is ultimately his decision.”

Sonic waved Shadow off, brushing away his concerns as he propped a casual foot onto his bent knee and laid back against his log in an attempt to position himself in a way that would ease some pressure up on his irate stomach. “If you’re not going to eat it, then just give it to him. I don’t mind.”

Shadow hesitated at this, though after a moment, tossed the s’more back over the fire where it sailed through the air and into Knuckles’ waiting palms.

He almost immediately shoved the sweet into his face, and before he bothered to swallow, he addressed Sonic through a mouthful of food. “When do I get to fight him.”

Sonic let out a withering groan. “I don’t know man, not here? Not now? We’re trying to have a nice night together as friends. Got it?”

All three of his companions gave him a look. One that clearly indicated that such a label assigned to whatever fledgling relationship that Tails, Knuckles, and Shadow harbored was not only gratuitous, but would take far more effort than cleaning up their demolished lawn over the course of the week to achieve.

Essentially, Sonic was jumping a bit far ahead on something that would need some more time to develop.

“Anyways,” he said loudly, almost to the point of it being more uncomfortable than the looks his three friends had given him, “no fighting Shadow. Do that later, or something. Or maybe never. We’re technically on the same team now… I don’t know, what do you think, Shadow?”

“If he wishes to challenge me right now, I will give him the defeat he deserves.”

Sonic sighed. “Come on, dude, really?” he moaned. “You’re not really helping right now!”

“At least postpone it for a little bit so I can bring some popcorn,” Tails rather unhelpfully supplied, much to Sonic’s exhaustion. Was this how Tom felt? Managing all of their antics? Because this was horrible and Sonic had every mind to start pulling out his quills one by one in agony. He would have to deliver quite the lengthy apology to Tom next time he saw him, as reparations for all of the grievances he had caused over the years.

“Tails,” he hissed through gritted teeth, “You’re not helping either.”

“What? Would you rather watch it without?”

His point completely missed, Sonic slapped a palm to his face.

Before he had the chance to smear his hand down the side of his cheeks in tired agony, and try yet again to pointlessly dissuade a battle from happening at what should have been a nice, relaxing camping trip, Knuckles abruptly stood up. “If we can’t engage in battle now, I shall go rest for our duel. Tomorrow.”

Shadow extended him a cocky smirk, a slight curl of his lips in arrogant challenge. “Bring it on,” he taunted dangerously. “Maybe you’ll put up more of a fight this time.”

Tails yawned, standing up to join Knuckles. “I think I’m ready for bed, too. But not because I want to fight anyone, I’m just tired.” There was a beat. “I would actually prefer if nobody tries to hurt me.”

The two made their way over to the tent, Knuckles disappearing first and Tails lingering by the entrance as he turned back to face Sonic, noticing that neither he nor Shadow had budged from their spots by the fire. “Are you coming to bed with us, Sonic?” His eyes darted over towards the other hedgehog, and with that, he cowered away. “And, er, Shadow?”

Sonic waved him off, deciding not to acknowledge the incredibly uncomfortable and hesitant way that he spoke Shadow’s name. Clearly, Tails still harbored quite a bit of fear surrounding him— completely understandable, mind you, but Sonic knew Shadow as the threat that he wasn’t. “You guys go on ahead, we’ll be right behind you. Shadow and I are going to practice some of the guitar songs we’ve been working on.”

Tails nodded. “We’ll let you guys take the two sleeping bags on the left, if that’s all right with you.”

Sonic wasn’t sure why (who was he kidding, he knew exactly why), but his stomach did a little flip at the thought of sleeping next to Shadow. Granted, it would be in a tent with two other people, but still. The mental image of curling up next to him, feeling the warmth from his body and the gentle rhythm of his breath against his face, was enough to make Sonic’s heart skip a beat in thrilled anticipation.

Of course, as he called goodnight to Knuckles and Tails, he knew that such things would have to wait.

“You want to play guitar?”

Sonic scoffed at Shadow’s question. “I mean, duh, isn’t that why we dragged them out here?”

It had taken a lot of begging towards Tom (and ultimately, the conversation had been cut short as Maddie had received the call that she was needed for an animal emergency out in the countryside), but Sonic had pleaded to borrow it for the evening. His guitar, and technically Tom’s old guitar, had since become Shadow’s guitar. Therefore, Sonic was guitarless, and in order to play a duet with Shadow by the campfire, he was going to need to borrow Tom’s new guitar for the evening, thank you very much.

Tom had given in, but with firm instructions to not be reckless and scratch it, because it had a fresh coat of lacquer and was really not meant to withstand the conditions of camping. Perhaps he would have put up more of a fight under different circumstances as he was dragged out the door with Maddie, but either way, Sonic had called out his promises to care for the instrument and had then hastily packed it up in its case to bring along with him.

It was quite the marvelous instrument. Sonic allowed his fingers to dance over the frets on the neck, plucking out a hyper melody as he warmed up.

Next to him, Shadow gave him a challenging grin as he paused to tune his guitar. It was honestly hilarious seeing him fuss over the precise acoustics of the strings; Sonic never bothered to tune his own guitar, so Shadow’s ministrations would ultimately be lost in their duet, soiled by Sonic’s sullied strings.

“I don’t know why you waste your time doing that,” Sonic commented flippantly, allowing his finger to vibrate upon the fret and making the strong note he had played warble and waver as it faded out behind the crackling of the fire before them. “It takes all of the fun out of playing.”

“I think a better question would be to ask why you don’t do it,” Shadow sniffed in response, testing out a chord and then grimacing as he continued adjusting it. Which was absolutely ridiculous in Sonic’s opinion, because the chord had actually sounded rather pleasant to his untrained ears. “How is it fun to play when you sound awful no matter how talented you are?”

He had a point, one that was accentuated by him immediately following up his profound statement with a perfect, harmonious chord that put anything Sonic had ever been capable of to shame. Sonic sighed, and upon seeing Shadow’s smug smirk, wordlessly handed his own guitar over to his companion, who accepted it with a snarky look. One that clearly said yeah, that’s what I thought, and one that Sonic wanted to wipe off his face with a light, playful slap… though a kiss would probably do just as well, and would quite frankly be preferable. 

Sonic shed the urge with practiced familiarity, distracting himself from his treacherous temptations as he instead posed Shadow with a question. “Do you remember the lyrics Tom taught us?” he asked as he watched Shadow work, not even bother to hide how he studied Shadow’s hands as they expertly moved around the guitar to tune it up into shape. “Or do we need to go over them again.”

Shadow shook his head as he finished adjusting the first string, tightening the knob into something to his liking before moving on to the next one. “They were pretty straightforward. I think I only had five words to memorize, if you recall. You made the song sound rather complicated, but it’s actually quite simple.”

“Maybe your part is,” Sonic retorted, not bothering to admit to the fact that the reason he had made such a big deal about learning the lyrics was because he had detested it so much in the first place. As had already been established, sappy ballads, no matter how beautiful and culturally monumental they could be, were not exactly his cup of tea. “Unlike you, I don’t repeat the same line every time it’s my turn to sing.”

Shadow let out a hmph! as he moved on to the last string, fidgeting with it under confident and practiced fingers. It was truly quite remarkable how his ears were able to singlehandedly tune the guitar without a comparison instrument or device to aid in his adjustments. Sonic couldn’t help but wonder if his heightened musical sense could be attributed to how he had essentially listened to Maria play her own guitar on a mental loop for fifty years, conditioning his mind to pick apart each layered frequency that thrummed through the air with each tug at the strings, but Sonic digressed. His speculations, for that’s all they were, were forgotten as Shadow finished up his individual ministrations of the strings and played a test chord, and evidently pleased with the results, returned the guitar back to Sonic’s waiting hands.

Shifting the instrument in his grasp, Sonic played a practice chord. It sounded absolutely sublime… not that he would ever give Shadow the benefit of knowing that, of course. “It sounds exactly the same.”

Shadow scoffed at this, rolling his eyes as he retrieved his own guitar and readied himself to play. “It’s probably never sounded better,” he replied brazenly, not hesitating for a moment to call Sonic out on his bluff.

Sonic stuck out his tongue at him as he settled in to prepare. Beside him, Shadow did the same. Well, he didn’t stick his tongue out, he wasn’t nearly so childish, but he did lift the guitar into position, nestling it under the crook of his arm as his fingers hovered over the strings in preparation.

Sensing that they were both ready, Sonic took a deep breath, and then counted them in.

Shadow played the chords along the baseline of the song, a simple progressing rhythm that ebbed and flowed as Sonic began to pluck out the melody weaving on top like an embroidered design stitched over a tightly knit fabric. Shadow had advanced exponentially through his practice with the guitar, learning new chords and variations with a dogged fervor that was about as intense as everything else he did. However, despite his dedication towards progressing in his skills, he still lacked the ability to play individual melodies, not quite cognizant enough to read sheet music and pluck out intricate tunes like Sonic was capable of. And it was because of this that he played the chords, and Sonic gladly took the melody.

Before he knew it, chasing the jitters away from his stomach at suddenly having to perform, even though Shadow was doing it right alongside him, Sonic began to sing.

“I look at the floor, and I see it needs sweeping.”

It was unintentional, but Sonic couldn’t help but reminisce on one of his first interactions with Shadow following the Eclipse Cannon. In his old cave, making the decision upon seeing that Shadow had been living there for quite some time, that he was going to help renovate it into something a bit nicer. The cave had been in quite the dilapidated state, but with a bit of work, and sweeping of the floor rather, they had transformed it into a home, filled with memories of many evenings spent in one another’s company.

Shadow remained hunched over his guitar, straining to see where to place his fingers in the flickering and dying firelight, but finding his place, lifted his head up to sing. “While my guitar gently weeps.”

The sound of his deep, mellifluous voice was enough to make Sonic’s jaw drop without a speck of shame. He had never heard Shadow sing before; they had been practicing each of their parts individually. As a result, given that it was their first run-through, it was a little discombobulated and sloppy, but the passion and beauty in Shadow’s words and strumming more than made up for the mild disconnect plaguing their performance.

Shaking his head to clear the wonder from his gaze and snapping his mouth shut, Sonic abruptly realized that unless he didn’t get a grip, he was going to miss his cue. “I look at the world, and I notice it’s turning.”

“Still, my guitar gently weeps.”

Shadow looked over at him and smiled, soft and genuine, and Sonic’s fingers faltered over the melody that he fastidiously plucked out. Damn him, and his attractive allure. Sonic couldn’t resist it. Not a single part of him.

Unable to look at such a lovely expression any longer, unless he wanted his fingers to fail altogether, Sonic cleared his throat and dropped his gaze back to the fret of the guitar. “With every mistake, we must surely be learning.”

This time, their kiss flashed in his mind, hasty and rushed and sloppy and above all else, deep, passionate, and loving. While the kiss itself had not been a mistake, something Sonic was sure to mentally double down on every time a fleeting ghost of doubt passed through his mind, the execution had been… less than ideal. Dramatic and inopportune, and painfully unromantic, Sonic found himself hoping that he would have the chance to rectify his errors in the near future, though he knew he would have to wait for Shadow to be ready. For him to bridge the gap between them and restore what had been lost.

Shadow seemed to have a similar thought about the frenetic nature of their first and only kiss pass through his head as he gave Sonic a look, one that bordered on amusement and annoyance as he imperceptively shook his head and sang out, “While my guitar gently weeps.”

Sonic gave him a weak shrug and a chagrined smile, an action that was actually quite impressive as he pressed on through the song, and it was only when his fingers stumbled ever-so-slightly that he tore his apologetic gaze from Shadow to refocus on the strings beneath him to regroup as he dove into the next lyric.

“I look at you all, see the love there that’s sleeping.”

For the final lyric, Sonic couldn’t help but think of their night on the train, traveling from Idaho to California. How Shadow had pulled their bodies together to keep him warm, and how he had fallen asleep cuddled up next to him. Oh, how he longed to sleep alongside Shadow once again. He had taken such a thing for granted, and now, with the new predicament they found themselves in, Sonic could only live vicariously through the phantoms of touches that lingered in the haunted manor of his mind. He could feel him, smell him, taste him, and yet, he couldn’t have any of it. Even as Shadow sat next to him right at that very moment, the smile not leaving his face as he tilted his head back and closed his eyes to finish out the song.

“Still, my guitar gently weeps.”

Sonic felt a pang of sorrow stab at his gut at the pain laced in Shadow’s melancholic words, and as the last notes of the song faded out, Sonic felt a lump form in the back of his throat, the sadness he felt wash over him in direct conflict with the subtle elation at the fact that they had just performed their first ever duet. For their first playthrough of the song, they had done a pretty marvelous job. However instead of verbalizing this, Sonic took a deep breath in through his nose, and exhaling through the mouth arched his neck back to look at the sky above.

It was tranquil. Sparks from the fire crackled up towards the heavens, traveling a respectable distance overhead before fading into obscurity. Fake stars, that concealed the real thing that Sonic longed to see.

“There’s no moon out tonight,” Sonic commented idly, breaking the silence not because he was uncomfortable, but rather, because he felt the need to share his observation with the hedgehog at his side, their thighs close but not quite touching. “I bet the stars look lovely right now. Too bad we can’t get a good look at them beneath the trees and from the light of the fire.”

Beside him, Shadow made an indiscernible noise as he craned his neck back to see that Sonic spoke the truth. While the moon was hidden, all of its fragments concealed beneath the reaches of the horizon, the stars were no more visible due to the obstacles obstructing their view. “You really think the stars are out tonight?” he asked, his voice distant and filled with something akin to longing wonder.

Sonic shrugged as he kicked a foot up, slouching against the log he rested against as he balanced his guitar on his stomach and plucked out a mournful tune. He had been trying to learn the song Shadow had said Maria had once played, relying on Shadow humming the melody for his recreation of the elusive piece of music, and his results had yielded limited success. They would have to wait for Shadow to become more proficient at the guitar in order to unlock the secrets of the song, both had realized. “I don’t know, probably? Green Hills is kind of in the middle of nowhere, so the lack of light pollution should allow us to see them pretty clearly. Some nights that I go star gazing with Tom, you can see the entire Milky Way with how clear and dark it can get, it’s pretty sick.”

“Milky Way?”

Sonic’s fingers danced over the guitar, his tongue sticking out in concentration before he relaxed and sought to clarify what he had been talking about. “Yeah, you know, the galaxy that we live within. It’s also a candy bar… it’s one of my favorites to get when I go Trick-or-Treating for Halloween. Not that you would know what any of that is, but trust me, I’ll show you. You’re going to love it.” Shadow probably wouldn’t actually love it, Sonic belatedly thought to himself within seconds after making such an outlandish claim, but ultimately, figured it wouldn’t matter. Shadow would participate simply to indulge him, and that was all Sonic could ask for.

He continued to play, and Shadow continued to stare up towards the sky, searching for nothing to be found.  And it was after a few minutes of this, of Shadow staring fruitlessly into the void, that Sonic paused, the movement of his fingers dying out as he let his guitar come to a rest in his lap and turned to face Shadow. Clearly, this was something that was important to him, and Sonic was nothing but accommodating when it came to catering to Shadow’s wants and desires. He couldn’t help it. His happiness mattered immensely to Sonic.

“Do you want to… go see it?”

“The candy bar?”

“What? No, the stars.” Sonic motioned over his shoulder with a tilt of his head, casual in its appearance but rigid in nervousness beneath the surface for what he was about to offer. “We could… sneak off? For a bit?”

Shadow tore his gaze from the heavens above with such quickness, Sonic almost flinched from how abrupt the movement was. “Really? We could go do that?”

His eyes were wide and vulnerable, and if Sonic didn’t know any better, desperate. Glassy in their desire, open in a way Sonic knew Shadow had only ever truly been with Maria. Sonic loved this side of him, the side that shed his rough and calloused exterior and allowed him to see the soft, gentle persona within, the one that became awestruck and yearning at the prospect as catching a glimpse of something as simple as the stars.

And so, understanding the weight of what he held in his hands, Shadow’s soul bared to him and breathtaking in its beauty, Sonic felt a grin tug at his lips as he nodded. Moving quiet now, as he didn’t want to wake his friends, he set the guitar off to the side with a delicate placement, taking care not to jostle the instrument and inadvertently catch anyone’s attention, and pushed himself to his feet.

“Come on,” he said, offering a hand to Shadow to help him up, their fingers interlacing in a way that induced a beguiling shiver throughout Sonic’s body that no one else’s touch could even hope to replicate. “I know the perfect place to view them, not all that far from here.”

With reluctance, he untangled their hands, and with quiet tiptoes, snuck away from the camp, where they could hear the soft snores of Tails and Knuckles from within the tent. Once they made it to the edge of the trees undetected, they picked up their pace, not quite running, but not walking either as Sonic led them through the forest and up the side of the mountain.

It didn’t take very long for them to reach their destination, stepping out of the final clump of pine trees and coming across the place Sonic knew would allow them to get an unparalleled view of the stars.

Shadow’s face lit up in familiarity as he looked around the bare stretch of rock they walked out onto, extending a short way until dropping off sharply altogether, the side of a severe cliff.

“Recognize this place?” Sonic asked cheekily, and in response, Shadow nodded.

It was where they had first watched the sunset together, all of those weeks ago. Back in the very beginning, at the conclusion of their first race. When they had been nothing more than strangers; not antagonistic enough to be labeled as enemies, but far from being close enough to be labeled as friends. They had been stuck in limbo, one where upon reflection, it was clear that both hedgehogs had been inexplicably drawn to one another, craving the company of the other, just lacking the capacity to set such a thing into motion.

It was evidenced in how Shadow had lingered and never left Green Hills. And how Sonic hadn’t been able to get him off of his mind.

There was a scraggly tree that had somehow taken root in the unforgiving granite of the mountain. It appeared to be dead, or at least close to that point, as its trunk traveled low along the ground and its leafless branches stuck out in odd, unkempt directions like the bony fingers of a skeleton. Walking over to it, Sonic sat down and rested his back against the thick trunk that snaked along the ground, and as he settled in, patted to the spot beside him. In response, Shadow simply stared uncertainly at him.

Sonic was having none of it. “Quit standing there. It’ll be easier to see the stars if we have something to lean up against.”

Wordlessly, though appearing no less uncertain, Shadow approached him, his steps hesitant and his body even more so as he slowly lowered himself into a seated position beside Sonic. However, the tenseness in his frame eased as he leaned his neck back against the curvature of the trunk, his gaze traveling upwards to see the stars that Sonic had already been admiring.

“Wow,” he whispered, “the stars are truly are incredible out here.”

He was right. In the darkness of the mountains surrounding Green Hills, unpopulated and unpolluted, the sky had never been more clear. Cloudless and without a moon, there was nothing obstructing their view of the treasures nestled above. Not only were the usual constellations out, shining brighter than ever before, but the swarming sea of stars that traveled in a cascading river, the Milky Way, was visible. Tinted with a vague shade of periwinkle, the conglomerate of distant stars indecipherable as individuals but visible as a whole, Sonic drank it in for a few long minutes, before building up the courage to glance over towards Shadow.

What he found nearly stole his breath away.

Unable to handle it, to witness the soft wonder in Shadow’s expression, all upon his beautiful face that made Sonic want to do nothing else but kiss him, he forced himself to look away and back up towards the atmosphere.

They sat like that for a few minutes, in silence. Basking in the glow of the stars, as well as each other’s company. Slowly, Sonic relaxed, realizing that the near-but-not-quite contact between them was inconsequential as they both admired the midnight sky and all it had to offer.

It was crazy to think how much had changed. That only a few months ago, he and Shadow had been going for each other’s throat. To now, peacefully coexisting underneath a stunning array of celestial bodies that not even the most talented of artists could replicate with a masterful stroke of the brush.

Sonic wondered if this would help in accomplishing his bucket list with Shadow, to make him fall in love with the Earth.

And with that innocent, passing thought, Sonic froze as something more significant crossed his calm, meditative mind.

Shadow’s bucket list. Sonic had nearly forgotten.

He didn’t hesitate to voice his query, slicing through the tranquil atmosphere with something that even he should have known would be a delicate, sensitive topic. “You know, you never did tell me what was on your bucket list,” Sonic commented idly, completely missing the way that Shadow stiffened beside him at the offhand statement. “Did you even write anything down? Or did you just pretend to. That seems very in line with something you would do, if you ask me.”

“I wrote something down.” Shadow’s words were clipped and curt, delivered in a way that clearly indicated he wanted to end the conversation right then and there.

Sonic was dense, however, and didn’t typically pick up on these subtle nuances (though to be fair, if he had, he likely wouldn’t have backed down like Shadow so clearly wanted him to) as he marched right along with their little exchange. “Is that so?” He turned to pin Shadow with an intense, curious look, one that made Shadow draw back and grimace with how eager it was. “If that’s the case, then what was it?”

Shadow blinked, before snapping his head away to stare out into the dark overlook of the mountains that surrounded them, the dim outlines of their form only barely visible under the smattering of stars shining above them. “Um….”

“Oh come on, just tell me! There’s no way it was that bad.”

His grimace returned as Shadow sucked air in through his teeth, looking like even merely thinking about it was enough to give him physical pain. “It’s… a little bad.”

Shadow was doing a horrible job at quashing Sonic’s interest, because now, with that tiny little admission, Sonic’s intrigue was more piqued than ever before. “Well geez, you can’t just say that and not expect me to want to know more now! I’m begging you, Shadow, please?”

Shadow made an uncomfortable sound of complaint, a grunt that sounded from somewhere within the back of his throat, but otherwise, did not say anything.

And sensing this, Sonic continued to plead as this time, he offered up something to bargain with instead. “I can tell you mine first? And then you can go?”

Still looking uncertain, Shadow gave Sonic a hesitant glance. And then, after a few, heavy seconds had elapsed, finally said:

“Okay. Fine.”

Sonic’s celebration was a bit excessive, as he punched a fist in the air and let out an overly-loud, “Yes!” that only served to make Shadow look more and more like he was regretting his decision with each passing moment. However, quickly regaining his composure, Sonic turned back towards him, and shared what his singular item had been with a big, bold grin upon his face.

“My bucket list was that I wanted to make you fall in love with the Earth.”

Shadow stared at him in disbelief for a long, uninterrupted stretch of time, and upon realizing that Sonic had been serious, asked, “That was… what you wrote?”

Sonic nodded, completely missing the pensiveness in Shadow’s expression as he responded. “Yep. Something tells me I haven’t quite accomplished it yet, though. Because I mean, seriously. We went to a bar in Idaho, a very awesome one, I might add, rode a train, and then visited San Francisco. And listen, even I could tell that you hated that place. So I’m going to have to keep working at it, since so far I’ve been unsuccessful.”

At Sonic’s claim, Shadow shook his head. “You did succeed, though.”

“What do you mean?”

There was no way he had succeeded. The two days that they had spent on the run together (and apparently being watched by G.U.N., something that Sonic still hadn’t divulged to Shadow nor did he think that he would ever due to the sensitivity of the content) had been stressful, emotionally charged, and overall very short in the grand scheme of things. Only a fraction of the planet had been seen; believe it or not, there was more to the world than the tiny corner of the United States’ west coast that they had barely even scratched the surface of.

At his side, Shadow turned to face him. “Your bucket list was that you wanted me to fall in love with the Earth, right?”

Sonic nodded. Yes, that was technically what was on there, but there was no way Shadow felt that way… yet. Not with how their journey thus far had been tainted and marred by G.U.N.

Beside him, Shadow continued talking, neglecting to acknowledge Sonic’s dubious expression. “Then you’ve succeeded. Anywhere that you are, I would love to be.” His hand shifted, and for a fleeting moment, Sonic thought that Shadow would reach out to touch him, however, with a curl of his fingers, Shadow’s hand remained married to the cold rock of the cliff beneath them. Much to Sonic’s disappointment. “The Earth is my home. Just so long that I’m here with you.”

His thoughts of dismay about the physical distance that remained between them vanished at Shadow’s admission. It was heavy, it was significant, and above all else, it implied feelings, ones of love.

It made him incredibly excited. And also, a little overwhelmed.

And so, since he was Sonic, as has been established many, many times before, he responded to his crushing feelings of reciprocated romantic interest by abruptly shifting the topic. Because though he longed to tell Shadow that he loved him in return, such a thing felt like too much, especially when they hadn’t yet established what exactly they were in regards to their relationship to one another, so with an awkward laugh, he belted out, “Okay! Well, that was my bucket list! Now it’s your turn!”

The sudden change in pace came as a great surprise to Shadow, if the way his eyes widened and he winced in a snappy motion was any indication. However, he quickly overcame his shock, as he replaced his stunned expression with a scowl and glared away from Sonic.

“I can’t say it.”

Sonic was about to protest, however, before he could get a single word out, Shadow reached up and into his quills, and much to Sonic’s shock, pulled out a small, folded piece of paper. His lips pressed into a thin, terse line as he looked away, deliberately avoiding eye contact as he scowled elsewhere, Shadow thrust the paper out in offering.

Knowing exactly what it was, and too eager to find out what was hidden within the folds of the paper to question Shadow as to why he carried around such a random thing, Sonic quickly snatched it out of his hand before he had the chance to think twice and rescind the gift.

As Sonic tore it apart with fumbling fingers, curiosity burning deep within the pit of his stomach, he froze as he finally read Shadow’s mysterious and elusive bucket list. There were only two words, punctuated with a definitive and determined period that followed behind Shadow’s pristine penmanship. His eyes darting back and forth between the two words, Sonic could scarcely believe what he saw, for they read:

Kiss Sonic.

It was a simple statement, and technically not complete, and yet, it said as much as a thesis on the topic would convey. “You… your bucket list… was to…?” Sonic couldn’t even bring himself to finish his question, allowing it to hang in the air as he continued to ogle the two damning (and thrilling) words that stared back up at him. And then, remembering when they had written down their goals, he asked Shadow incredulously, “All the way since when we first ran away?!”

Still refusing to look at him, Shadow nodded. He looked rather angry, but Sonic knew that it was truly embarrassment. To the oblivious observer, Shadow’s severe features tended to take any emotion and paint it with brushstrokes of fury, but Sonic was able to decipher the subtleties and details lying within each fold and crease of his face. He was definitely embarrassed. There was no doubt about it.

And so, to make him feel a bit better, Sonic took it upon himself to offer up some reassuring words. “Um, well, I guess we technically did this already,” he started slowly, turning the paper over to see if there was anything else other than the objective to kiss him, and finding nothing. “So, uh, you’re welcome? For helping you check it off?”

In a blink, Shadow snatched the paper back, crumpling it in his fist and stuffing it hastily back into his quills. “That didn’t count,” he all but snapped, his irritation not necessarily directed towards Sonic, but rather the undesirable limelight he found himself blinded by with the compromised position he sat in.

“Why not? Was that not technically a kiss?”

Shadow let out a tch. “It didn’t count…” he grumbled, “…because technically, you were the one who kissed me.”

Sonic couldn’t tell if Shadow was being serious or not, but quickly remembering that he rarely joked about things, especially not this touchy topic, he decided to indulge Shadow’s whims. “There’s, uh, a difference?”

Shadow nodded sharply, only once. A single, slicing inclination of his head.  

Not really sure what to say, the only thing Sonic could think to do was apologize. “I’m sorry, you must have hated our first kiss.” The memory of it briefly flashed in his mind, and unlike the previous times he had reminisced on the moment, viewing it with rose-tinted retroactive glasses, he now saw it in a different light. Messy, invasive, sloppy. Underwhelming. Disappointing.

Sonic sighed as in wake of a lack of response from Shadow, he felt the need to keep talking. “It was kind of bad, wasn’t it.”

“Hardly.” Sonic’s head snapped towards Shadow at this, shock making his eyes pop and his jaw go slack at the fact that Shadow apparently didn’t think it had been as horrible as Sonic could recognize it to be. And Shadow doubled down on this baffling sentiment as he followed it up by saying, “I think that kiss on top of the bridge was one of the best things I’ve experienced in my entire life.”

Sonic’s heart skipped a beat, stunned that Shadow would so candidly admit to such a thing, because he truthfully felt the same way. There were few things he could think of that even came remotely close to the ecstasy of their lips locking together… sure, the first bite of a chili dog always brought him a great deal of joy and he lived for his runs when his legs were fresh and capable of reaching his top speeds, but none of it was quite comparable to the delectable sensation of when he had kissed Shadow the Hedgehog.

It may have been a mistake, and surely he was learning, and yet? After everything that had happened, despite the abysmal conditions it had occurred under, Sonic couldn’t find himself to conjure up even the slightest smidge of regret. He simply couldn’t, not when the kiss had singlehandedly redefined his life, curled its fingers around his neck in a choking hold and changed the very fundamental core of his being.

Belatedly realizing that Shadow was staring at him, still waiting for a response, Sonic swallowed thickly. “Oh, really?” he asked, unable to prevent the longing from clawing its way into his voice, despite his best attempts to battle it away. “Is that, um, so?”

Shadow nodded, and Sonic was suddenly struck by noticing how close they were. Their fur of their arms brushed, the way in which their shoulders braced against one another nearly indecent. Their contact over the past week had been brief and practically nonexistent, each hedgehog carefully dancing around the other in an attempt to grant space for them to “take things slow” and “figure things out,” but all it had accomplished was to erect an uncomfortable bubble that hadn’t before existed between them. Once, they had been free and unrestrained in their interactions, but now, they were stilted and restricted.

But now, Sonic concluded as Shadow leaned into him, pushing up some of his weight so that their arms were braced against one another, that need for personal space had been foregone. It brought a great sense of relief over him, feeling the warmth that radiated from Shadow and transferred over through their bodies as he embraced the contact, deepening it with a small push of his own arm against Shadow.

“How did the kiss make you feel, Sonic?”

Sonic suppressed a shudder as he felt Shadow’s breath, warm and inviting, tickle against the stunted furs on his muzzle. The words were spoken in a low, sonorous song, a melody sweeter than anything either of them had managed to play on their guitars thus far. They stole the air from his lungs, and it was with a great deal of effort that Sonic forced a response to his waiting tongue. “Amazing,” he managed to breath, truthfully in awe that he had been able to come up with a word to respond with (because to be completely honest, no words were adequate to describe the delicious and electrifying sensation) as well as the fact that he possessed the ability to say it at all. “The kiss was amazing. More than amazing. I…” I want more. I need more. Please Shadow, give it to me, I can’t live without it, I beg of you.  “I loved it.” I love—

Sonic’s thoughts, racing on the treadmill of his mind, came to a screeching halt as Shadow lifted a hand, one that soared through the air at an agonizingly slow pace before coming to rest along the side of his face, just beneath his ear. Sonic was struck with the familiarity of it, remembering how he had done something quite similar when they had been on top of the Ferris Wheel in San Francisco. When Shadow had smiled, and Sonic had placed a hand along his face to study him, almost kissing him in the process.

Shadow’s fingers curled, threading through Sonic’s quills. “Tell me more.”

It was a quiet demand, one that Sonic could only respond to by gulping as he tried to clear his throat to allow the words to pass through, to give in to Shadow’s request in happy obligation. “I love looking at your face, especially when you smile. I love the feeling of your hand in mine, I love your hands touching my body. I love the feeling of your lips when we kissed, the way it made me feel, the taste… I think about it every day. Multiple times a day. I can’t stop thinking about it, reliving that moment, kissing you, wanting more….”

Shadow’s hand migrated as Sonic spoke, making the task of speech infinitely more difficult as it slowly trailed down the side of Sonic’s face, along his jawline, and came to a stop at his chin, where he gently cupped it between his fingers. His thumb brushed lightly over Sonic’s lower lip, his gaze focusing on the soft skin that he perused as Sonic’s ramblings died out in a pathetic demise. He couldn’t focus, couldn’t think, couldn’t even breathe as he felt Shadow’s thumb roam, pacing back and forth as though it were scouting the area out in preparation for something more.

“Shadow,” Sonic murmured, his voice little more than a breathy whisper as he fought and failed to prevent a tremor from tickling his pitch. “Is this…” he licked his lips, both because he was self-conscious at how intently Shadow was staring at them, and also in preparation for what he knew was about to come next, “…okay? With you?”

Shadow paused, tearing his ravenous eyes from Sonic’s lips to look up and meet his gaze. “What do you want, Sonic?”

If the circumstances had been any different, if Sonic didn’t feel so lightheaded with want, he might have let out a suffering groan. Of course Shadow was going to make him beg. Of freaking course. And yet, despite the dull pang of good-natured annoyance at this fact, Sonic couldn’t even force himself to be irritated or defiant for the sake of his self-preservation, instead immediately giving in to Shadow’s request. “I want you to smile at me. I want you to touch me. I want you to—” Sonic was cut off with a gasp as Shadow’s other hand suddenly made itself known, carving a delicate path up his thigh, past his hip, and settling into the crook of his waist. Sonic nearly flinched away at the suddenness, the intimacy of the touch, but as his body overcame the initial shock of Shadow’s hand being placed in such a sensitive area, he found himself wondering why Shadow had never touched him in such a way before when it all felt so natural. Taking a shaky breath, he forced himself to press forward, to name his true desire that burned in a hot, heavy flame deep within his core. “I want you to kiss me.”

Shadow smiled at this, Sonic basking in that beautiful, coveted expression gifted to him with lidded, sultry eyes that glimmered in subtle, starlit pleasure at Sonic’s admission. Clearly, that had been exactly what he had wanted to hear. “If you insist,” Shadow whispered, and with that, using the leverage of the hand on Sonic’s waist to pull his body closer, and the hand on his chin to tilt his head up, Shadow leaned in, closed the distance between them, and pressed his lips to Sonic’s waiting, eager ones.

This time, instead of being explosive and messy, hasty and brash, the kiss was delicate. Gentle. Everything that a first kiss should have been; warm yet hesitant, soft yet uncertain as neither Shadow nor Sonic did much of anything at first, simply allowing their fragile lips to rest against one another. It was as if they were both shy… now that it wasn’t spontaneous and reckless, it was as though they were hyperaware of everything, each other, the world around them, the stars that watched from above as they each froze, focusing purely on the sensation of their lips grazing one another in chaste, fleeting contact.

It was nice for a few long moments. But soon after, feeling greedy and impatient, Sonic craved more. And with that, he leaned in, closing his eyes as he dove into the kiss that he had been yearning for what had felt like a lifetime, even though it had truthfully only been a week.

(A very gruesome week of intense cleanup, mind you, but as his lips melted into Shadow’s, all of those burdens washed away in the sensation of a kiss that was infinitely better than their first one had been, and that was a claim made before things even truly got started.)

Shadow didn’t hesitate to press back, the grip of Sonic’s chin between his fingers pinching reflexively and inducing a small noise of discomfort from Sonic at the firmness of the squeeze. Shadow’s hold immediately relaxed, his fingers loosening as he redirected them to crawl up Sonic’s cheek, past his jaw, and snake around so that they were gripping the quills at the back of his head. Where they belonged, and where he could gain control.

It was tantalizing, it was electrifying, and all Sonic could think to do with his own useless hands was bring them up to rest against the soft, white fluff on Shadow’s chest, his fingers digging into the long fur as Shadow used his grip on the back of Sonic’s head to steady him as he intensified the kiss.

Their lips began to work against one another, not necessarily fighting for dominance but rather engaged in a dance, much like the one they had done together all that time ago in Sonic’s old cave. For some parts, Shadow took the lead, setting the pace with firm, steady movements, before the power would shift and Sonic would be the one to take control of the rhythm. It was fun, exhilarating, and so focused on keeping his mouth moving in time with Shadow’s, he nearly let out a yelp as there was a shift that occurred elsewhere on his body.

Shadow’s hand on his waist lifted, and Sonic couldn’t prevent the muffled noise of dismay that escaped him. However, his complaints were stifled not due to Shadow’s lips still on his own, but rather, from how he used his freed hand to grab at one of Sonic’s wrists and redirect his touch. His breathing hitching in the back of his throat even as Shadow continued to work his mouth against Sonic’s, completely undeterred by the sudden stiffening of Sonic’s spine at the excited terror of whatever it was Shadow was about to do, he guided Sonic’s hand. Trailing down, down, down, dangerously low, until right when Sonic felt like his heart was about to beat out of his chest in breathless and heady anticipation, he stopped with Sonic’s hand on the outermost, boniest part of his hip, the crux where the torso became the thigh.

Sonic barely had time to process the dizzying place Shadow had positioned his hand, because he returned to Sonic’s other hand on his chest and took a hold of that one as well. Sonic was almost scared to see where Shadow would commandeer this one, however, much to his simultaneous relief and disappointment, his other hand was guided upward, coming to a rest at the small gap of Shadow’s neck between his jaw and collarbone.

And with that, Shadow’s touch returned to Sonic’s waist, this time curling around his lower back and nudging him in closer, almost to the point that Sonic was forced into his lap, however, the pressure abated at the last possible moment and left them sitting next to each other, their thighs digging into one another.

(It was a shame. Sonic wasn’t sure that he would have minded such a compromising position.)

But anyways. Now that Shadow had repositioned themselves, their bodies were able to meld more seamlessly together, seared together with the craftmanship of an expert welder, interlocked in their hands, fingers, and lips.

Sonic was almost thankful that he had already kissed Shadow once before. Because now, he had possessed plenty of time to think and reflect on how to be better, in all of his wandering imaginations and fantasies about the moment now happening in real time, and so because of that, he held himself with more confidence. Assurance. He was no longer uncertain and awkward, but instead, eager as he gently parted his lips to deepen the contact, allowing Shadow to use his leverage with his hands woven through his quills to tilt his head to the side in such a way that brought them even more closer than before.

They continued like that for what felt like an infinite amount of time, before Sonic’s eyes suddenly flew open and he gasped against Shadow’s mouth, an abrupt and striking realization about what he was doing, and who he was doing it with slapping him across the face with the heavy implications of what this whole hot and heavy fiasco meant he would now have to take care of.

Seeming to understand that Sonic’s gasp wasn’t one of pleasure, but rather, alarm, Shadow drew back. “What.” His voice was hoarse and breathless, but beneath that delightful sound that tickled and caressed Sonic’s ear, there was an underlying layer of concerned irritation as he practically demanded, “What’s the matter.”

Sonic licked his lips involuntarily, almost curious to know what Shadow had been feeling and tasting just moments prior before he wrenched himself out of his odd and nonsensical wonderings. “I just realized something.”

Shadow quirked a brow in question, only a mild expression of concern crossing his face at the ambiguity of Sonic’s statement. Truthfully, he seemed more annoyed than anything about the interruption, but seemed to hold back on expressing this sentiment with vehemence as he instead quirked his head to the side. “Oh?”

Sonic offered him a sheepish smile, one that was equal parts embarrassed and apologetic for what he was about to say and how he knew it would likely ruin the romantic mood. “We really need to figure out how to tell the others about this.”

Shadow’s confusion seamlessly transitioned into an exasperated roll of his eyes, as he tightened his grip in Sonic’s quills, inducing a sharp hiss of pain, and smashed their lips together once more. “Later,” he growled as he pulled away and began to migrate across Sonic’s cheek, venturing into new territory as he planted kisses in a steady, uninterrupted trail spanning the length of his muzzle, on track to a new, electrifying, and more sensitive spot. “Or maybe, never,” he continued in a husky tone along the angle of Sonic’s jawline, and it took everything in Sonic’s power to swallow the unbecoming noise that threatened to escape at the provocative and rhapsodic sensation.

“N-never?” he squeaked, his voice wavering and unsteady not due to Shadow’s words, but rather the encroaching press of his lips as he abandoned Sonic’s jawline and began to lower towards his neck. However, at this, Shadow paused, glaring up at Sonic with menacing crimson eyes, causing Sonic to laugh awkwardly and hastily acquiesce, eager for Shadow to continue with whatever it was he had been doing and wherever it was he had been going. “Eh, we can figure it out later, I guess?”

Shadow’s eyes narrowed for a moment, and with that, lowered his mouth back down to that incredibly sensitive spot on his neck, the electrifying touch causing a very humiliating gasp to tear free from Sonic’s lungs.

At this, Shadow pulled back, clearly unable to decipher what had caused such a vivid reaction. “Too much?”

Sonic hated how breathless he felt, how he felt more winded than any of the fights or races he had ever engaged in with Shadow in the past. Who knew this level of, well, intimacy could be the thing that made him taste defeat at Shadow’s hands? Made him crumble and wither away, practically melt in his touch, craving more even as he reached his threshold and couldn’t take it anymore?!

He couldn’t wait for more. He needed more.

“No,” Sonic said, shaking the daze from his voice as he spoke with firm determination. “That was just perfect.”

Shadow let out a low hum of approval, a saccharine song of content as he offered Sonic one of his precious smiles, however, instead of returning to the spot that Sonic craved, he pulled back. “We will have plenty of time for that later.”

Swallowing his initial reaction of disappointment now that Shadow’s face wasn’t buried in the crook of his neck, precisely where it belonged, in Sonic’s humble opinion, Sonic couldn’t help but stammer a bit, flustered beyond repair and downright confused. “W-what do you mean, later?”

“I’ve made up my mind. I’m staying here in Green Hills with you.”

Shadow wrapped an arm around Sonic, pulling him in close.

His next words were sweeter than any kiss they had ever shared, and would ever share. Music to Sonic’s ears, soothing to the touch, delicious on his tongue. “I’m not leaving you behind again.”

Sonic let out a purr of pleasure, reciprocating the contact by snuggling up close to him. “I’m not leaving you behind again either, Shadow. I promise.”

And it was the truth. They were inseparable. Entangled. Intertwined in such a way, both in their bodies and souls that there was no way that they could ever be apart, not again. Sonic nearly laughed; they had both been idiots when they had left the other behind, to think that such a thing would ever be permanent. Of course it wouldn’t have been. It literally wasn’t possible.

Overhead, the stars twinkled down at them, and Sonic took a moment to admire the prickles of light glimmering in the cosmos overhead. It was easy to understand why the stars held such significance to Shadow— not only were they integral to his memories of Maria, but they were stunning. And sitting with their bodies flush against one another, the rise and fall of their chests oscillating in unison, Sonic immediately understood why Shadow had been so enamored with them in the first place. Because truthfully, there was nothing quite like the sensation of stargazing with someone you loved, and as he snuggled in closer to Shadow’s side, love was the only word Sonic could think to describe the way he felt towards Shadow.

Maybe he would tell him at some point. Some other time.

But for now, it would have to remain unspoken. Known, and acknowledged, but not verbalized.

As Sonic continued to study the stars, their beauty nothing in comparison to Shadow beside him, he let out a sigh of content. Because now, they had all the time in the galaxy to spend with one another.  A binary star system burning hot in their cores, scalding to the touch as they revolve around one another, equals and unable to escape each other’s gravitational pull even if they wanted to, they were finally together. And for Sonic, that was all that mattered.