Archive of Our Own ^beta

Chapter Text

Curling swiftly into a spin-dash, Sonic bolted across the luscious grasses of Green Hill, swerving between the palm trees that littered the landscape. His team kept close behind him, ready for action. It wasn’t a first for Dr. Robotnik to attack so quickly after a foiled plan, but that didn’t mean it wasn’t very unusual. A ball of yellow appeared next to him and swiftly unfurled into the familiar form of Tails. He pulled out one of his gizmos that undeniably had a name Sonic hadn’t been bothered to learn.

“I’m receiving strong energy readings from the Loop-the-Loop! It seems Eggman bought his entire entourage this time!” he shouted over the sound of the rushing wind and explosions in the distance. A bright red-yellow light erupted before their eyes. As the dust settled around them and the team slowed to a halt, Eggman appeared entirely incapacitated on his back in one of his machines. Sonic hopped atop the rotund torso of the mech.

“Y’know Egghead, you can threaten us all you like, but sooner rather than later we always take you down,” Sonic chuckled, tapping his foot on the metallic beast. 

“One of these days I will take you down, you rat ,” Robotnik retorted, his voice muffled from behind the metal mask. Sonic laughed, holding his torso in a mocking display.

“Oh yeah? You and what army?” he continued his mockery, raising his head in anticipation of the snide remark of ‘this army!’ and the aforementioned troops rolling into action. No such words came, and the joke fell into awkward silence.

“Uhm…Sonic?” Amy contributed from below, swinging her hammer down into the ground and leaning on it, arms crossed over her chest, “I don’t think there is an army. He’s come here solo.” Sonic looked around inquisitively, ears perked up as he searched for any remaining badniks in the general vicinity. He hopped down from his defeated arch nemesis.

“Yeah man,” Knuckles started, gesturing to the unfortunate position Robotnik laid in, covered in dust and debris, “he’s literally in a ditch.” Sonic looked around, and much to his dismay, Knuckles was right. His eyes lit up as the next joke graced his tongue.

“Call that a last ditch effort!” he called out, accentuating the word ditch. Knuckles only allowed a slight ‘hmph’ rather than a full laugh. Sonic’s ears flattened on his head as he realised his joke fell flat yet again.

“That was funny! Come on… anyone?” he tried again, offering an embarrassed grin with his arms held in front of him. Amy was about to speak (or, more likely, lecture Sonic on making jokes at inappropriate times), when the ship above them they had ignored for the better part of five minutes, suddenly started vibrating. 

“Aha!” came Robotnik’s voice, full of the usual self-assured mischievous tone, “this army!” As if on cue, the doors to the ship opened and a horde of badniks swarmed down onto them, attacking from every possible direction. 

As the team finally sprung to action as the horde increased, Sonic focused his attention on Robotnik, who slowly started rising from the ditch he found himself in. With a well-timed spin-dash, Sonic pelted him directly into the ground again, and again, and again for good measure. The same red-yellow flash appeared above them, and a crackling ball of energy pelted Robotnik in the chest. 

The energy ripped through the trees and pushed Sonic back slightly as he failed to retain his composure. The ditch only got bigger - perhaps it was more appropriate to call it a crater. The ball of energy ascended again before landing next to Sonic.

“Shadow!” Sonic called out as the dark hedgehog unfurled next to him, cracking his knuckles in preparation for action. Sonic offered Shadow an open palm in the air, and for once, albeit tentatively, he received a high five back. The rest of Team Sonic reconvened with the two hedgehogs when the opportunity arose.

“Seems like a last ditch effort to wreck some havoc,” Shadow commented as the team came into a huddle; Rouge chuckled, earning a glare from Sonic’s piercing emerald eyes when she laughed at the joke he had already told.

It was unusual for Shadow to join the team, unless from afar, but Sonic appreciated the initiative; perhaps the adventure through the Shatterverses helped the black hedgehog learn a lesson or two of his own.

“Can’t believe it’s so soon and we’re working together already,” Sonic commented, winking at Shadow; the rest of the group looked at him with confused expressions.

“When did you two last fight on the same team?” Amy piped up, “surely at least a couple of-”

“Learn to separate dreams from reality, hedgehog,” Shadow interjected, shooting Sonic a grim, knowing look.

“We literally just-” Sonic started, but stopped himself as Shadow’s eyes pierced his soul.

“Sonic and I will destroy the hordes as they attempt to descend, Rouge and Tails, fly up to the ship and attempt to shut down the system, and Knuckles, you stay on ground with Amy and destroy any badnik that slips through,” Shadow continued dealing out the tasks. Yeah , Sonic thought, this wasn’t like Shadow at all.

“Who made you the authority on our team, last time I checked it’s called Team Son-” Sonic started, but the rest of the group had already scattered. “-ic.” He spin-dashed to bounce off one of the hills, meeting Shadow in the midst of the battle. The green eyed hedgehog opened his mouth in an attempt to make a snide remark, but got cut off early.

“Shut up,” Shadow grunted as he threw a badnik to the ground, hovering with his air shoes on full blast; Sonic bounced off the next round of badniks, swarming around him in a cacophonous slurry of metal. If they kept coming, he could hit a combo of over 100 before he hit the ground. 

The droves of enemies thinned out significantly, and with one final dash, the air grew silent. Aiming down towards the ground, Sonic finally managed to find rest on some raised terrain as the onslaught ceased.

“You show up out of nowhere and command my team,” Sonic said after a while, ignoring Shadow’s demand for him to stay silent, earning him a groan from his rival.

“Look, I just wanted to get this over with, and you were more focused on telling jokes rather than stopping this invasion,” the dark hedgehog snarled, rolling his eyes in an overly dramatic fashion. Shadow joined him on the conveniently placed hill.

“Why are you here anyway? I thought you left when you blipped the Paradox Prism to… well, wherever you took it,” Sonic asked, an accusatory glint in his eye; Shadow gulped almost too noticeably.

“Awh, did you finally have a change of heart?” Sonic continued, moving uncomfortably closer to Shadow, causing the black hedgehog to recoil; a growl rose in his chest, “do you heart me too?” Sonic made the gesture to go along with his accusations.

“ No ,” Shadow hissed, baring a fang, “I just… feel as though I should make it up to you. For your attempted sacrifice.” Sonic cocked his head to the side in genuine curiosity.

“Wasn’t you carrying me in your arms through the void your way of making it up to me?” Sonic questioned, pushing down his need to make a silly joke or jab at his rival. Sonic could’ve sworn Shadow was flustered at the question, but chalked it up to a trick of the light made by the sun setting over the horizon.

“Don’t read into it,” came Shadow’s deadpanned answer, as he swiftly pushed himself off the rock formation and with a flash, he disappeared. Tails and Rouge re-emerged from the ship just moments later, and with two more quick flashes of light, both Eggman and the ship disappeared. Sonic quietly cursed Shadow out, wondering why he couldn’t have just blipped Eggman away before the commotion started.

–

Deciding not to follow Shadow’s advice, Sonic absolutely read into the interaction with a degree of study that, had he been studying for a test, would’ve earned him the highest mark. Following the earlier battle, the crew opted to stay behind to clean the abnormal amount of metal waste dropped by the badniks.

Sonic, on the other hand, returned to the beach to clean up the mess made by the stack of chilli dogs he had unceremoniously dropped earlier. It was a shame, he noted, dropping another bun into his bag, that this entire plate ended up on the floor. 

“They’re gross anyway,” Shadow’s unmistakable gruff voice said from behind him, holding a hotdog between two fingers, dangling it as far away from his body as he could. He wiggled it back and forth, watching the toppings drip to the floor. Sonic shot him a look somewhere between surprise (by his general presence) and feigned sadness (how dare he call them gross).

“And you’re here, why exactly? Change your mind about being absolute besties forever and ever and ever with me?” Sonic vocalised in a sing-songy voice that no doubt made Shadow cringe. His rival offered one of his trademark groans.

“No. I just need to make some things clear with you,” Shadow stated, trying to keep his voice steady with a pang of unease concealed beneath his words. Sonic could tell he was about to be scolded, in one way or another. The blue hedgehog remained silent, walking closer to Shadow but remaining at least three paces ahead, as a precaution.

“Have you mentioned the Shatterverses to the others?” Shadow started, tossing the disgusting, sand covered hot dog into the bag Sonic was holding. 

“Not yet, I was about to but our beloved Egghead dropped in unannounced,” Sonic responded, trying to keep the snark out of his voice.

“Good. Do not tell them,” Shadow stated without emotion, turning to leave immediately. Sonic dropped the trash bag and ran in front of Shadow, kicking up sand behind him as his shoes trailed across the beachy shoal.

“Woah, woah, woah, why shouldn't I?” Sonic asked, and immediately broke into his next line before Shadow could answer, “aww, you’re worried they’re gonna be jealous we spent so much quality bonding time together!” Shadow clasped a hand over Sonic’s mouth, hating the way he could feel the blue hedgehog’s warm, moist breath seeping through his glove.

“Ugh, it’s because if someone were to overhear you, or if the information somehow got into the wrong hands, we would be in deep, deep, shit,” Shadow nearly whispered, his face mere centimetres away from Sonic’s. He pulled back quickly, crossing his arms over his chest. “I’m risking it even speaking to you, hedgehog.”

Sonic cocked his head to the side; his rival made a good point, but keeping secrets from his friends? That was low, even for him. Shadow scoffed, attempting to leave again. Sonic’s confused expression contorted into a sly smile.

“On one condition,” the blue hedgehog started, his smile growing; he took Shadow’s hmph as a sign to continue, “tell me where you put the Paradox Prism.” Shadow rolled his eyes, but decided to risk it. He got ever so closer to Sonic and pressed his muzzle closer to one of the hero’s infuriatingly twitchy ears, and spoke in the quietest, most threatening whisper.

“My house.”

Before Sonic could ask another question, Shadow seemed to blip from existence.

Rather than answering his question, the revelation did much to quell his hyperactive mind. After the quickest cleanup he’d ever managed, he couldn’t stop thinking. What started as a brisk wander, turned into a manic pacing back and forth on the sand, stepping into his own footprints as he walked in an endless circle. First of all, Sonic didn’t even know Shadow had a house in the first place - perhaps he imagined him as a dungeon dwelling rabid beast. Second, if Shadow had a house, where even was it? Was it even in Green Hill? Maybe it was in space? And crucially, third, why would he even reveal that to Sonic? 

He’d know well enough that if he told Sonic where it was, the blue hedgehog would do absolutely anything in his seemingly infinite power to locate it, and pester Shadow at his house when he least needed it. Sonic was so deep in thought he didn’t even realise when the rest of his team approached the space in which they attempted to host their picnic.

“You alright, buddy?” Tails asked as he approached, snapping Sonic out of his trance; he promptly shook his quills out, and stumbled over his words in an attempt to say yes. He ignored the weird look from his friend and swiftly took a seat upon the picnic blanket Amy laid out beneath the palm, joined promptly by the rest of the crew. 

“What were you saying about ‘the craziest thing’ that just happened?” Knuckles questioned from the boulder he was propped up against. Sonic’s face dropped in dread; okay he thought, time to lie my ass off.

“On my way to the mountain, I ran into Shadow, and he attacked me out of nowhere! And while we were fighting he knocked me out real, real bad, and I hallucinated that you all got, uhhh, thrown into different corners of the known universe, and I couldn’t fight Egghead alone, and he actually ended up winning! Isn’t that totally bonkers, crazy, and insane?” Sonic explained in one breath, words slurring together into a garbled mess. He took a breath and continued,

“Then when I came to, Shadow looked like he felt really, really bad about what happened, and gave me some advice that I should actually be part of the team, because otherwise we would lose. So when I arrived that’s the reason why I was acting differently.” Everyone in the group gawked at him like they saw a ghost. Sonic’s breathing was deep, compensating for how quickly he had talked. After a prickling silence that lasted just a little too long, Amy cocked her head to the side and smiled.

“That was… interesting,” she started, voice laced with just a dash of a condescending tone, “but that does explain your absence.” Tails raised a finger, as if to signal it was his term to speak.

“That being said… I think you should go on rest for a while. I think you’ve been hit in the head a few too many times recently,” he chuckled awkwardly through his words, knowing that Sonic hated the word ‘rest’, “Knuckles, you’re in charge while Sonic recuperates and I, ahem, run some tests.” The echidna offered a small shrug and a quick shift of his brow, but ultimately, he didn’t say a word.

“Why don’t we just get started with this picnic,” Sonic suggested after another silent moment elapsed. Amy sprung into action, unpacking the contents of the comically large hamper she bought with her, as the rest of the team fell into casual conversation.

All the while, unlike himself, Sonic sat in contemplation. All he could think about was Shadow, his elusive words, and the subtle blush that Sonic arbitrarily decided was real and not a trick of the light.

Chapter Text

As a hero trapped in eternal travels across the world (and, after recent events, across dimensions), Sonic found no need for a permanent home. 

He drifted from couch to couch, occasionally having the luxury of Amy’s spare bedroom, or Tails’ workshop hammock, but between his belongings strewn haphazardly amongst the locations, he didn’t consider any of these places his home .

Tonight, it was bizarre to be back in Green Hill, and it was even stranger to lay there without the looming threat of something (bar, of course, the baseline threat of Dr. Robotnik being in the general vicinity). He had chosen Knuckles’ house for the night, or rather man-cave as he called it (Sonic did find it a little weird for Knuckles to call himself a man, but stranger things have happened); it wasn’t a bad place to stay, bar the grating snoring coming from the mezzanine where Knuckles slept.

Even more bizarrely, Sonic found it hard to chill. Despite his colourful past, Sonic never found it hard to kick back and relax, even if minutes prior he could’ve been on the brink of death. Every time he closed his eyes and allowed himself to have his guard down, his brain would concoct a horrifying visual of his friends - the ones in the Shatterverses - trapped, enslaved, in pain. Just as they had been when he found them. 

Did returning to Green Hill reset the progress? Was Thorn Rose a tyrannical monster again, unknowingly starving the Scavengers in the treetops? Did the Chaos Council resume their dictatorship, forcing the Resistance underground again? Was Knuckles the Dread the captain of the Angel’s Voyage again? That last one wasn’t so bad, but the rest were undeniably horrible.

Chaos , Sonic thought, running a hand through his quills; they’d been flared out by the panic and refused to lay comfortably, this adventure really did a number on me. He wished he could tell someone, anyone , about what he thought, but of course, the only person he could tell was none other than his rival - his very cryptic, yet weirdly helpful, rival. 

Shadow was another loose end Sonic really didn’t know how to tackle. The black hedgehog’s gaze felt different that day, Sonic realised, as if something troubled him, more so than usual. It was no secret that Shadow was a troubled individual, any other being having experienced that degree of trauma would long have ceased to try, but Shadow persevered. As much as they butted heads, Sonic held a great degree of respect for the other hedgehog.

Sonic closed his eyes again, shutting out the moonlight that sneaked through the cracks of the wooden door blocking the entrance to the cave. This time, however, when memories would flood his darkened vision, they were not unpleasant like the others. The hero reminisced how Shadow had helped him, from the start to the end.

When he was being tested by the Chaos Council, and Shadow had appeared in an apparition, it filled him with hope; on subsequent occasions when he hit enough speed, and Shadow would appear next to him, a smile graced his face. The pair had worked together before, albeit as part of a larger team - it had never been just the two of them.

Shadow carrying him with urgency across the void, not allowing him to fade, was the standout of the adventure. Yes, Shadow had saved his ass a few times prior, but this occasion felt particularly special. His sides tingled as he remembered what it felt to be carried, clutched, and saved. It was a unique feeling he couldn’t quite think about in detail since it happened.

As the sweetness overcame the other negative thoughts, Sonic found himself drifting off into a shallow sleep, a smile creeping upon his lips. He clutched the blanket he’d been offered, thoughts of Shadow’s heroic actions replaying in his mind. Perhaps the whole adventure was not as bad as his tinge of anxiety made it out to be.

The bliss didn’t last too long, as only a mere hour later, Sonic jolted awake, gasping for air faster than it could leave his lungs; his quills flared out and a cold sweat overcame him, feeling it bead on his muzzle. Knuckles stirred in the lofted bedroom above, and Sonic became incredibly aware of his surroundings.

The blue hedgehog quietly slipped his shoes back on and discreetly exited the cave into the chill of the night; he stumbled as he walked, knees buckling and shaking below him. A shaky hand grasped at his dishevelled chest hair, pulling at it to the point of pain as if trying to remove his racing heart from his ribcage. Coughs started surfacing from deep in his chest as he found it hard to breathe, vision blurring around the corners.

He had never felt so terrible, utterly helpless - perhaps this is what dying felt like. Sonic collapsed onto the sand, punching into it with his free hand in an attempt to ground himself. He desperately needed to clear his head - and fast - or else he might hyperventilate himself to death. Sea spray from the advancing waves peppered his face, which despite being severely hydrophobic, was not currently the worst thing in the world. Part of him was tempted to run into the water knowing well that he can’t swim, just to see what would happen.

A tiny pang of lucidity brought him to his senses, at least partially, when a wave crashed against his leg, sending another, deeper shiver, across his entire body. Choosing not to risk it with the vast endless ocean, Sonic did what he did best. He ran.

His legs carried him as fast as they could go, round and round the beaches of the island as tears streamed down his face; his rapid heartbeat felt like nothing under such high speeds, even as he stumbled more than usual. The blue hedgehog looked up to the sky as he approached the loop-the-loop; the moon seemed bigger than normal that night, captivatingly beautiful, and Sonic couldn’t help but be enamoured by it. Perhaps basking in the moonlight could help him deal with the panic.

Digging his heels into the ground, the hedgehog slid to a halt, and with a well timed spin-dash, he propelled himself atop the loop-the-loop. Hunched over, he started to slow his breathing with his hands braced against his knees.

“Chaos,” a voice from beside him sighed, “you look like shit.” Sonic snapped his head to the side, catching Shadow’s eyes in a fleeting glimpse; for once, Sonic remained speechless. Shadow offered a hmph , continuing his silent gazing at the moon; the hero took a seat beside Shadow, although kept his distance - the last thing he needed right now was another lecture about personal space. Sonic gripped the edge of the loop’s upper platform, claws poking through his gloves.

“I don’t know what’s wrong with me,” Sonic stated after a quiet moment, but received no response; he glanced again at Shadow, who’s eyes were now focused on Sonic, darting from his frantically moving eyes, to his dishevelled quills, and to his hands straining against the edge of the terrain.

“I… I’ve dealt with horrible stuff happening to me a lot,” Sonic continued, voice wavering, “but something about this entire situation has left me… left me so much worse, man.” The blue hedgehog tried to keep his speech controlled, but even that was difficult, evident by the trembling lining his words.

“You just need to sleep it off,” Shadow offered, his voice marginally softer than his standard inflection; Sonic looked at him through wet, weary eyes, “ah.”

“Every time I close my eyes, I can see them, Shadow. I see - no, I feel - their suffering. How can we be sure that the change we made persisted? We appeared back here before the Shatter incident, does that mean their worlds are back to how they were before I arrived?” Sonic spoke softly, fighting back sobs - it was entirely unlike him to be this devoid of any energy, and under normal circumstances he would never let his rival see him in this state. 

“Does it matter? You got your friends back, isn’t that what you wanted?” Shadow questioned, pulling his legs up off the side of the loop to sit cross legged, facing Sonic. The hero copied his move, facing the dark hedgehog eye to eye.

“It doesn’t make their pain any less real. It’s like I can feel it,” the blue hedgehog continued, picking idly at the grass atop the loop. He met Shadow’s eyes in a stifled beat.

“Sonic, listen-” Shadow started; Sonic noted how soft Shadow’s voice was when saying his name, not even a hint of his usual sharp tone, “I’m not surprised you had a panic attack, and I’m surprised it took this long for you to experience one. It was only a matter of time until everything caught up to you.” Sonic cocked his head, letting it rest on his shoulder. Shadow continued,

“I know how you feel - vulnerable, broken, useless. I know that feeling of utter helplessness. I know that feeling when panic takes over and you feel like you’re dying. Trust me - I’ve been through deeper shit than you could ever imagine.”

Sonic sighed, letting his head fall into his hands; a shaky breath escaped through his gloves. Shadow shuffled minutely closer.

“I just… I don’t know what is wrong. It’s awful not being able to tell anyone about this, about how I feel,” Sonic sighed, wiping his eyes harshly with his gloves, only making them more red.

“You have me, dumbass,” Shadow pointed out, under his breath; Sonic looked up, a confused, almost unreadable, look on his face.

“R…really? It’s already weird enough you’re actually talking to me right now without trying to punt me into the ground,” Sonic questioned with a raised eyebrow; for a moment, the hero could’ve sworn Shadow snickered.

“Just because we’re rivals, doesn’t mean I hate you,” the dark hedgehog nearly whispered, a twitch attempting to become a smirk in the corner of his mouth, “I mean it.” Sonic couldn’t help but gawk.

“You’re impulsive and foolish, yes, and your IQ may terrify me at times. Your eating habits are repulsive and, chaos, your voice gets on my every nerve. You get into stupid situations on a daily basis and only seem to get out of them through sheer dumb luck,” Shadow said, counting on his fingers every quality he listed; Sonic’s brow furrowed in confusion.

“Sounds like you’re describing someone you hate, y’know?” Sonic chuckled awkwardly, running a hand through his quills.

“But, if you’d let me finish, there’s more - although I’m adding ‘interrupts me’ to my list,” Shadow continued, “you’re loyal to your friends, and have the purest heart of any being I’ve ever met. You’re powerful, and as much as I hate to admit, you can be funny at times.”

“So why do you always act like you hate me? Sure, you’re acting all nice now, but the moment the morning rolls around and we’re caught in battle, you’re just gonna call me names,” Sonic asked, returning to picking at the ground.

“Routine. I guess somewhere along the line…” Shadow trailed off, and for the first time in a while, looked away from Sonic, “somehow, somewhere along the line I fell into this routine, and it became the norm.” Sonic remained silent.

“I can see you’re hurting, Sonic - but I know you’ll make it out,” Shadow continued, finally turning back to his companion.

“This routine… c-can I break it?” Sonic asked tentatively, voice barely beyond a whisper.

“What do you mean?” Shadow asked back, his question genuine. Sonic continued,

“I don’t hate you, you don’t hate me - why can’t we just be-”

“Friends?” Shadow finished the sentence before Sonic could; the blue hedgehog nodded, almost ashamed by his question, “fine.” Sonic’s eyes opened wider than he thought to be possible, ears twitching rapidly. Shadow rolled his eyes slightly, but his lips were slightly upturned despite this.

“Thank you,” Sonic smiled, offering a nod of acknowledgement, earning one back from his companion. The two sat in a comfortable silence for a minute, both staring at the moon.

“There’s one thing I wanted to ask,” Sonic piped up, turning his attention back to Shadow, “why are you here, in the middle of the night?” Sonic could see Shadow’s quills stiffen, and this time, his cheeks were definitely dusted with pink.

“Just… thinking about, ahem, someone,” Shadow squeaked out; Sonic almost laughed, having never seen Shadow so embarrassed about something.

“Is it her?” Sonic asked, flicking his eyes up to the sky; Shadow shivered a little, and looked down at the ground.

“Actually… no,” he finally responded, eyes darting quickly to Sonic, and back to the ground; before his companion could ask who it was, Shadow cut him off, “I’m not telling you.” Sonic finally laughed.

“All right, all right, I’ll keep, hah, quiet,” the hero responded, interrupted by a yawn, “chaos, I really need sleep.” Sonic looked around a little, taking in the serene, moonlit scenery. His ears flattened at the realisation he would have more dreams.

“I’m scared I’ll have another nightmare,” he finally whispered, tapping his fingers on his leg in a rhythmic pattern, stalling his impending doom, “and then panic and consider drowning myse-”

Sonic cut himself off and coughed awkwardly, trying to cover up what almost slipped his mouth. Shadow looked at him in concern; the dark hedgehog followed up with a defeated sigh.

“Just this once… I’ll let you sleep in my company. Up here, on the loop, under the moon. If I see you stirring, I’ll wake you,” Shadow sighed, shuffling closer to Sonic, “but this is a one time thing, strictly one time.” Sonic seemed to understand the severity of his own situation if Shadow of all people offered to stay by his side.

“Thank you, Shads,” Sonic smiled, genuinely this time, as he curled into a ball by Shadow’s side. Moments later, he felt a hand upon his quills, stroking gently and lulling him into sleep.

Chapter Text

As soon as the morning sun peeked over the edge of the horizon, Shadow pulled himself away from Sonic and shuffled to the other end of the loop-the-loop. Sonic had only woken up once, a gasp leaving his lips as his chest rose and fell in quick succession. His quills had flared up and his eyes were wide, Shadow noted; he had reached for Sonic’s hand to ground him, whispering reassuring affirmations in an attempt to subdue the panic.

Come morning, Shadow had begun questioning his life choices; this entire situation was bizarre, even for him. Had he truly gone soft, helping out his rival at such a vulnerable time. He needed to talk this through.

With one last look at the sleeping hedgehog beside him, Shadow gently descended the loop, mind running amuck as he replayed the events of the previous day. With nothing left to lose, he decided to turn to the only person he had a semblance of a friendship with.

—

It was rare for Rouge to wake up early, but conveniently Shadow had been given a spare key to her place to let himself in as he pleased. Although he didn’t visit much - as if to keep up his lone wolf reputation - he didn’t mind being there no matter how much he denied it.

Rouge’s place was built into a hillside, with high ceilings above panelled walls, filled with luxe furniture in the sprawling open plan layout - all features that screamed ‘Rouge’. The door to her bedroom was still shut, and by the sound of the subtle music coming from inside, Shadow could tell she was still asleep.

Despite the host being currently asleep, Shadow made himself at home on the couch; he reached for a magazine on the end table, flicking through the most recent gossip. It wasn’t particularly riveting literature, but it was enough to pass the time.

Shadow didn’t even realise Rouge emerging from her room as he was engrossed in a story about some sort of love triangle, which he would deny to no avail when asked about it. He only noticed her presence when she flapped her wings in an attempt to stretch them out.

“Morning,” she eventually yawned, clearly unbothered by Shadow’s presence, “what the hell are you doing here so early?” She waltzed over to the kitchenette, pressing some buttons on an elaborate coffee machine that looked borderline stolen from a coffee shop.

“Reading,” Shadow huffed out, ruffling the papers in his hand, “and I think I’m going insane.” Rouge chuckled.

“Hon, you already went insane years ago,” she remarked, stirring some sugar into her coffee; she started pouring another cup. Shadow didn’t bother to respond, opting to wait until Rouge eventually made her way over to him.

With two coffees in hand, she placed one in front of the hedgehog, and finally sat herself down across from Shadow in an armchair, hand wrapped around the cup resting on her chest as she sunk into the soft leather. She cast Shadow a look that read ‘speak’.

“I made a friend… I think,” Shadow sighed, with an expression on his face that would match more had he said ‘someone killed my dog’. Rouge couldn’t help but laugh.

“And that’s why you’re sulking around my place at the break of dawn?” the bat asked, attempting to conceal the chuckle lacing her words.

“I don’t make friends,” he huffed, crossing his arms over his chest with a sulking expression on his face, “and especially not with him .”

“You befriended Sonic ?” Rouge asked, seemingly knowing exactly who Shadow meant by the tone of his voice. Shadow groaned.

“He found me last night when I was watching the moon,” Shadow explained, pausing to allow Rouge to talk; when she stayed quiet, he continued,

“He was hurting, like something was bothering him. I… I saw myself in his eyes. He hurt how I hurt, and something in me snapped.”

“And you’re telling me you didn’t run away when he found you?” Rouge questioned, accompanied by a quirk of the eyebrow. Shadow sighed deeply, running a hand through his quills; he had to tell Rouge a white lie.

“A few, uhm, days ago, Sonic went away to investigate a potential Eggman base, and I followed him,” Shadow started, concocting an elaborate cover up for the actual story, “somehow, Eggman actually outsmarted us, and set a trap that wasn’t designed to hurt, or incapacitate us - it was made to kill.”

Rouge set her cup down on the table, barely touched save for two small sips. Shadow buried his head in his hands.

“Sonic got hurt,” he eventually managed to get out, his voice muffled, “gravely… and I realised I… I realised I cared . I grabbed him and carried him to safety, I couldn’t just leave him there.”

“You did what was right, Shadow. I’m sure you would’ve done it for anyone else,” Rouge reasoned, although her voice was unsure.

“Since then, I’ve realised that I really don’t hate him as much as I say I do… I like his company,” Shadow confessed, to which Rouge’s eyes widened.

“Oh, I cannot believe my eyes and ears,” Rouge exclaimed, “you aren’t a cold hearted bitch!” Shadow couldn’t help his lips turning into a gentle smile.

“I saw him last night. He was having nightmares about the experience, like a full blown panic attack. We talked, actually talked and… he’s really not all that bad,” Shadow continued his story, “he asked if we could actually be friends, and for some reason I said yes.”

“And you’re upset that you let your guard down because you’re Mr. Grumpy and don’t let anyone into your life and especially not your rival?” Rouge asked, and the absurdity of his woes finally hit Shadow. He couldn’t help but laugh a little.

“Apparently so,” Shadow chuckled, finally taking a sip of his coffee; Rouge mirrored the action. 

“Relationships are fickle by nature, always changing,” Rouge mused, leaning back into her chair, “I wasn’t always friends with the team, but over time I’ve grown to appreciate them, and eventually confide in them as friends.” This time, Shadow gave her a look prompting her to continue,

“I also found Sonic annoying at first, but eventually I learned to appreciate his energy and dedication. Amy became one of my closest friends, a gal-pal if you will. Tails proved helpful with any technology I need, and the kid doesn’t make a bad architect either.”

“You missed one,” Shadow piped up with a slight smirk. Rouge rolled her eyes.

“You know the situation between me and Knuckles is complex. You know full well that we are very on-again off-again,” the bat groaned, “why do you even care anyway? It’s not like you’d ever be romantically involved with someone…” Rouge stopped mid sentence, and squinted; Shadow shot her a look that meant something between ‘shut up’ and ‘I’ll kill you’.

“Unless you and Sonic were to be more than friends,” she snickered, risking the consequences. Shadow looked like he could kill her.

“You’re insane,” he said instead, suppressing the urge to scream a string of expletives at her, “we’re barely friends. How dare you insinuate that.”

“Why else would you ask about my situation with Knuckles?” she reasoned, throwing her hands up in exasperation.

“Because I like to rile you up about it!” Shadow shot back, “I don’t get what you see in him.”

“And I don’t particularly see what you see in Sonic,” Rouge smirked with a wink.

“For the last time, I am not interested,” he responded, a snarl on the tip of his tongue, “talking to you was a mistake.” Rouge’s ears flattered and her smirk turned into a pout; part of the reaction was genuine, but for the most part, Shadow knew she greatly exaggerated her emotions.

“Awh, hon, who else do you have to go to if not me,” she stated, and despite how much Shadow wanted to argue, she was right, “finish your coffee, and join me for my morning jog. We can talk more about… whatever this is.” She finished with a wave of her hand in Shadow’s general direction.

“Fine. I’ll take the run, but I am not making small talk,” the black hedgehog eventually agreed, taking a long sip of his drink. Rouge only offered a signature snicker.

—

For once, Rouge actually respected his wishes of not talking during a run; perhaps she’d been swayed by him opening up earlier, or she genuinely felt bad for Shadow.

It wasn’t entirely unusual for Shadow to have conflicting or unpredictable emotions. His friendship with Rouge was a slow build, established on many years of them working together; he hadn’t even noticed at what point they went from exchanging strictly business information to gossiping about last week’s episode of their favourite telenovela.

On their run, his eyes kept darting up to the top of the loop, half expecting to see Sonic still curled up and asleep, basking in the late autumn sun. Rouge took note of this, commenting on the brightness of the sun on one or two occasions.

He didn’t see Sonic at all that day, and he couldn’t help but wonder if he even remembered what happened last night - perhaps he had gone back to believing Shadow hates his guts and only goes along with his mad ideas for the sake of rivalry.

The rest of his day was spent in the comfortable silence of complete solitude - between catching up with some actual reading (unlike the trashy magazines Rouge read) and short combat training, the day went by quickly. Days without adventure, without threat, were pleasant - but a part of Shadow craved violence, craved the feeling of letting himself go while beating up some badniks.

With the end of the year drawing close, so did sunsets; Shadow hadn’t even started his day before it was already ending. As the clock struck seven in the evening, he headed out for the night, his favourite spot upon the loop awaiting him. The grass had started to wear out under where he sat, leaving a patch of short, stubbly grass that would turn into mud the moment it rained.

His nightly routine had rare surprises, and as such, seeing Sonic sat in his ‘pondering patch’, threw him off kilter entirely. He blinked a few times, wondering if he was seeing a ghost, but a small wave from the blue hedgehog ensured him this was most certainly reality.

“What are you doing here?” Shadow asked, taking a seat beside his new friend.

“Sittin’,” Sonic responded, his voice lacking the usual charm, “this place has a nice view.” Shadow kicked one leg over the edge, and kept the other tucked in.

“I know,” Shadow agreed, turning his head towards the rising moon.

“Did you stay all night?” Sonic asked, glancing quickly at Shadow, “you were gone when I woke up.”

“I left at sunrise,” the black hedgehog answered, “visited Rouge, had a coffee, went for a run.”

“Thank you,” Sonic smiled as he spoke, head cocked to the side. Shadow pulled his leg up and sat cross legged, facing Sonic. The blue hedgehog mirrored his pose, hands grasping at the grass the moment he got the chance.

“Don’t mention it,” Shadow replied, a small smile urging to show on his face.

“Did you sleep at all?” Sonic asked, attention focused on the rather elaborate grass ball he was rolling.

“No,” the other hedgehog responded, “I come here every night to think, to keep my mind focused and clear.”

“So you… never sleep?” Sonic asked, brows raised in surprise.

“I am the Ultimate Lifeform, I don’t use as much energy as the average Mobian.” Shadow explained, “I take power naps.”

With the declaration, Sonic broke into laughter; it was warm and melodic, Shadow noted, and genuine unlike his regular snarky snickers. His eyes scrunched shut, a smile reaching the corners of his muzzle with ease.

“You’re like a cat,” Sonic commented, “wreaks havoc at night, naps during the day. Ooh, ooh, ooh, do you like cardboard boxes, perchance?”

“I am not a cat,” Shadow deadpanned, “and my opinion on cardboard boxes is none of your business.”

“Aww you’re totally an adorable little kitty,” Sonic continued with the bit, much to Shadow’s annoyance.

“Don’t push your luck,” Shadow bit back, but there was no anger to his tone - there’s worse things to be compared to. With a laugh from Sonic, the two settled into silence, watching as the moon slowly creeped over the horizon, the late autumn sun battering their backs with warm rays. 

“How come I didn’t see you around today?” Shadow spoke eventually - it was unusual for Shadow to initiate conversation, but with Sonic, it felt natural. Sonic turned to him, ears flicking as if suspicious at the question.

“Tails had me tested for… actually not sure,” Sonic exclaimed, rubbing his left hand on his right arm, clenching at the elbow, “bloods, temps, all that nasty jazz. Scanned my brain and hoo… I don’t wanna be him when he looks at it, my thoughts are all over the place.” Despite the touchy subject of medical procedures that made Shadow’s skin crawl, he found some humour in Sonic’s misguidance in relation to his own brain activity.

“He can’t read your thoughts, silly,” Shadow explained, “he’s just checking for activity in different parts of your brain when exposed to different stimuli - I assume he showed you pictures or prodded you around with a sharp point.” Sonic nodded.

“Look who’s Mr. Science all of a sudden,” the hero joked, winking at his companion.

“After all the procedures and tests G.U.N. did to me, I became fairly well versed in the stuff,” Shadow explained, the subtle smile from his lips dissipating as he recalled the memories, “why did the fox get you tested?” Sonic’s cheeks flushed a bright pink.

“They asked me why I was so…” Sonic started, waving his hand as if looking for the right words, “teamwork-y all of a sudden. So I, ahem, told them you knocked me out and I had a vision of them all leaving me and Eggman winning - which, mind you, is kind of true - and the only takeaway Tails had from that was ‘that’s one hell of a concussion, fascinating’.”

“Nice lie, good job,” the dark hedgehog congratulated with sarcasm lacing his words, clapping slowly to drive home the point, “you made up a lie somehow worse than the original story.” In the blink of an eye, Sonic tackled Shadow to the ground, pinning his arms to the side.

“Shut up, will you,” Sonic growled with a hint of a playful tone gracing his voice, “at least our cover is intact.” Shadow pushed off with his legs (with help from his air shoes), reversing their positions, albeit with one hand free while the other held both of Sonic’s hands out of the way.

“I could punt you so hard into this ground right now,” Shadow snickered, placing his free hand on Sonic’s chest; through the fur and his gloves, he could feel Sonic’s heart going haywire - at this rate, it was bordering on concerning.

“Oh but you wouldn’t. You’re too nice and soft now. Look at me, I’m Shadow, I’m a friendly loser,” Sonic continued riling up the hedgehog currently pinning him to the ground. Without warning, Shadow raised his hand and curled it into a fist, slamming down directly next to Sonic’s head; the hero didn’t even flinch.

“Like I said,” Sonic started with a smirk, “soft, friendly loser.” Shadow wasn’t about to let himself get riled up, and removed his fist from the ground, and instead let his fingers trace the outline of Sonic’s side, eliciting a shiver and a high pitched, screeching laugh.

“Okay, okay! You’re still scary!” Sonic called out, squirming under the relentless tickling, “stop tickling me! I can’t breathe!” 

“I can’t believe for so many years I tried to destroy you with force, and all it takes is tickling to rip you apart,” Shadow commented; the dark hedgehog loosened his grip on Sonic’s hand, opting to instead tickle behind the hero’s ears. In a moment of Shadow’s guard being down, Sonic again reversed their positions, relentlessly attacking Shadow’s sides with his own manic fingers. 

“Sonic! Stop! I, hah, teehee , can’t, hee hee, ” the noises escaped Shadow’s mouth before he could think; for once, Sonic listened, and stopped the incessant tickling.

“Dude,” he started, suppressing his laughs under a wide smile, “ that’s your actual laugh? Chaos, I think I understand the whole dark and broody spiel now, that’s wildly embarrassing.”

“I hope you lose your rings,” Shadow commented, weaving his way out from underneath Sonic while the hero’s guard was down.

“Oh, I heart you too, Shadow. I hope your life is long and prosperous,” Sonic winked.

“I’m surprised you know a word as long as prosperous,” Shadow smirked, returning to his favourite cross-legged position as Sonic did the same.

“I’ll have you know I know a lot of long words,” Sonic corrected, raising a single finger, “antidisestablishmentarianism.” Shadow couldn’t help but furrow his eyebrows at the absurdity.

“Yeah… I have no clue what it means, but I know it and that’s what matters,” Sonic admitted after a quiet moment. A yawn escaped his lips.

“You’re tired, go to sleep,” Shadow advised, watching as Sonic stretched out all his limbs in an attempt to wake himself up. With a smack of his lips, Sonic shuffled over to Shadow and curled up by his side.

“Goodnight,” Sonic simply whispered, eyes closing; a serene silence fell between them, broken up only by Shadow’s deep sigh once he realised Sonic was serious.

So much for a strictly one time thing, Shadow thought, but placed his hand on Sonic’s quills regardless, stroking them in a consistent rhythm.

Chapter Text

The Chaos Council’s endless stream of robots surrounded Sonic and Shadow, caught in the midst of a battle within New Yoke City; the rest of the resistance had been downed, forced to retreat as the threat grew to new levels. 

The number of Eggforcers was too much for the pair to handle, exploiting every wrong move and lack of focus; within a moment of his guard being down, Sonic was knocked down.

Shadow was by his side in no time, offering a helping hand to propel him back into battle, and promptly returned to skating around the robots in a futile attempt to confuse them. A portal opened up behind them with a crackle.

“Get in there!” a voice sounded from below a manhole cover, propped open slightly to reveal cyan eyes staring directly into Sonic’s own, “we’ll be okay!” Shadow returned to Sonic’s side; the pair stared directly into the other side of the portal, the vast void presented in front of them.

“If we lead the Eggforcers into the void, we can push them into the pit,” Shadow suggested, grabbing one of the robots beside him and thrusting it through,” come on! Get as many as you can!”

“On it!” came Sonic’s response as he whizzed into action, spin-dashing furiously in an attempt to corral as many of the robots as possible into the portal - Shadow did the same.

It was a matter of seconds as the events unfolded - Sonic ran into the portal, working on smashing the bots over the expanse of the pit below them, as Shadow thrust the last remaining few through the portal. The black hedgehog jumped through the portal as the last Eggforcer reached Sonic. Despite looking powered down as evident by its blacked out eyes, it fired its gun with the last reserves of its energy directly at Shadow’s chest, and careened into Sonic from the recoil. With a whoosh, the portal closed and the powerless robot fell into the expanse below.

Sonic’s back slammed into a rock floating within the void, the force enough to break a few ribs; he winced as he regained his footing on another rock. Shadow’s lifeless body lay on a rock below.

“No!” Sonic screamed, pushing off to join his comrade. The hero placed his hands on the wound, applying ample pressure; his gloves became soaked with Shadow’s deep, almost black, blood. The injured hedgehog coughed, sputtering his way through a string of expletives.

“No, no no no, don’t do this to me Shadow,” Sonic breathed out, taking his companion into his arms in a warm embrace.

“I’ll be fine,” Shadow managed to squeak out through laboured breaths; Sonic finally allowed himself to look down at the gaping hole in Shadow’s chest filled with a black slurry of blood and fur. His eyes fluttered shut.

“Shadow, please, please, surely you can get out of this. You’re the Ultimate Lifeform. You’re an immortal being, man, you can’t go like this-”

Sonic’s pleas were cut off by another rock colliding with theirs, pulling Shadow out of Sonic’s grasp and sending him careening to the depths below. In the vast expanse of the void, Sonic was falling - fast. He could see Shadow’s body falling into the void. The hero called his name, voice cracking with each pained scream. 

As the bottomless pit of the void approached, Shadow’s body started fading, eyes closed; Sonic felt his own energy leaving him, vision blurring as a terrible searing pain spread through his body. He managed to touch the tip of Shadow’s fingers with his own, opening his mouth to make a sound that never came as he felt his heart shatter into pieces.

“SHADOW!” Sonic called out, jolting himself awake.

“Woah, woah, what is it?” the dark hedgehog beside him whispered, wary of the late hour. Sonic’s eyes were filled with tears, streaming down his face as his pupils darted from side to side, struggling to focus on the hedgehog in front of him. Sonic lifted his hands and looked at them intently, shaking as he did so; he flipped them over repeatedly, as if inspecting them. His eyes darted to Shadow suddenly.

“I… I had a nigh-nightmare t-that you…” Sonic started through broken sobs, breath hitching with every syllable. Shadow shuffled over, closer to the shaking hedgehog, wary of his flared quills; not knowing what else to do in this situation, Shadow placed his arm around Sonic’s form, wiping the tears from his eyes with his free hand.

Shadow never had the need to comfort anyone but himself; even Rouge was easy to deal with, though her woes were primarily caused by the constantly changing nature of her relationship with Knuckles - three breakups within a month was not normal, even he knew that. Sonic’s issues were far deeper than any of the surface-level stuff Rouge went through, but in a backwards, twisted way, Shadow could understand this more than the bat’s relationship troubles.

“Deep breaths,” Shadow whispered, shushing as Sonic’s sobs turned into uncontrollable hiccups; the dark hedgehog closed his eyes.

He remembered what it was like when Maria was still alive - sometimes, after stressful days of testing and experimentation, he would shut himself off and break down into tearful panic, unable to calm himself. She would hug him, stroke his quills in a steady motion, and hold his hand as he worked himself through the panic attack. She whispered words of reassurance and half-empty promises that it’ll all be alright.

Protectiveness was in her nature, and despite his reputation as a vigilante anti-hero and general brooding personality, that protectiveness rubbed onto him. It still felt fresh to him, how it made him feel to be so protected in the arms of someone who knew his pain, who could relate to his pain.

“It’s okay,” Shadow whispered, taking one of Sonic’s hands in his, “I’m here. I’m not going anywhere.” He moved the hero’s hand to his chest, placing it upon his own rapidly beating heart.

“They shot you,” Sonic squeaked out, his meek and feeble voice drenched in sorrow, “and you fell into the void.” Shadow pressed Sonic’s hand further into his chest to further drive home the fact that he was still alive; the hero’s breathing eventually slowed, and he moved Shadow’s hand to his own chest, letting the dark hedgehog feel his increased heartbeat.

The two sat in heavy silence, broken only by the sound of the wind howling occasionally; despite his heart slowly coming down to a more acceptable level, Sonic could not stop shaking.

“I’ve had nightmares before,” the hero whispered, moving closer into Shadow’s side in a subconscious search for warmth, “but they’ve never been this vivid or well… nightmarish.” Sonic bought his legs up to his chest, letting himself be entirely enveloped in Shadow’s warmth.

“I guess somewhere along the way I started caring… about you,” Sonic admitted, “I don’t know how it happened, it’s like one day I realised I cannot live without you.” Shadow remained silent, letting Sonic vent out his feelings and frustrations.

“This all happened so fast. I don’t know what’s wrong with me,” the hero choked out dejectedly, “if you told me this time last week that I’d come to you of all people for comfort, I would - no offence - jump head first into a spike trap.” Shadow couldn’t help but let out a chuckle.

“I feel the same way, but I don’t think there’s anything wrong with me - or you for that matter,” Shadow confessed, “almost losing someone makes you realise just how much you care.” Sonic finally offered a short lived smile.

“I suppose you’re right, Shads,” Sonic breathed out, “look at me, I’m a mess.” He let out a chuckle following his declaration.

“Want to know why I agreed to be friends?” Shadow stated after a short beat; Sonic only responded with a quick nod. The dark hedgehog looked away to avoid Sonic’s prying eyes.

“When I was holding you and carrying you through the Void, I saw you for who you truly are. A hero,” Shadow continued, “you’re a hero who will stop at nothing to save even the smallest corner of the world. A hero ready to sacrifice anything. And I realised in that moment that if I - if we - were to lose you, we’d all be doomed. And…” 

Shadow’s voice trailed off before he could finish; Sonic’s silence prompted him to continue, and with a sigh, he eventually mustered up the courage to say what was on the tip of his tongue, 

“And I would miss you. I would miss our runs, and our spars. I would miss seeing you in the midst of battle. I don’t think I could deal with that sort of loss again. Anytime I watch the moon, I am not only reminded of Maria, but I think of you too.”

Shadow finally chanced a look back at his companion, and noticed how his cheeks gained a soft rosy colour, visible in the blue-hued glow of the moon above them. His mouth was pulled into a tight smile, emerald eyes focused on Shadow’s own, boring deep into his soul. In the blink of an eye, Sonic had tackled Shadow onto the  ground behind them in a tight, warm hug.

Hugging was another action that Shadow was not accustomed to as a generally touch averse individual - however, with Sonic, it really wasn’t all that bad. After the initial shock of the action wore off, Shadow reached up to hug his companion back, squeezing gently, to which Sonic squeezed back. The blue hedgehog shuffled to rest in the crook of Shadow’s neck, breathing hot air onto his fur; it sent a shocking shiver down his spine, followed by a deep exhale.

“Thank you, Shadow,” Sonic finally said after a moment of silence, “I… I really appreciate you… and everything you’ve done for me.” Shadow chuckled gently, allowing himself to sink deeper into Sonic’s tight embrace.

“Please don’t go before I wake up,” Sonic added, before fully drifting back into his slumber. 

Perhaps friendships weren’t all that bad.

–

“SHIT!” 

Shadow stirred as the vague form of a blue hedgehog beside him shot up from the ground. 

“Shit, shit, shit,” Sonic frantically yelped, patting down his quills to lay flat against his head in his trademark style. Shadow’s immediate thought was that his companion was having another panic attack or nightmare.

“It’s okay, I’m here,” Shadow reassured, adjusting his eyes to the bright sun above them, “are you alright?”

“I’m supposed to be at Amy’s - right now,” Sonic exclaimed. Shadow sat up, moving a hand through his quill and quickly noticing his own less-than-presentable state. Had he really just slept through the night?

“Is it important?” the dark hedgehog asked, brushing residual dirt off his side and gently rubbing his chest fur to help it lay flat.

“It’s literally her birthday,” Sonic answered, “chaos, I am so dead.” 

“Just tell her you overslept,” Shadow reasoned, accompanied by a shrug, “doesn’t seem too out of character.”

“Shut up, will you?” Sonic shot back; Shadow made a zipping motion across his mouth, followed by throwing the metaphorical zip off the loop, “oh, you know I wasn’t serious.” Shadow crossed his arms over his chest and raised a brow.

“Ugh, just talk,” the hero eventually sighed, “wanna race there?” 

“You’re on,” Shadow grinned, kicking his air shoes into action.

“I knew you couldn’t resist a little challenge,” Sonic laughed, getting down into a starting crouch.

“We may be friends now, but we are rivals first and foremost,” the dark hedgehog responded, mirroring Sonic’s position - the hero chuckled at the remark, and without warning, shot off with a blast of air. Rolling his eyes at the obvious jump start, Shadow pushed off the loop and promptly started his wild chase after the speeding hedgehog ahead of him.

Shadow eventually caught up to Sonic, gently pushing him to the side in an attempt to catch the blue hedgehog off guard; Sonic rolled into a ball and tried to swipe under Shadow’s legs, but the dark hedgehog saw the move coming, jumping over the ball of cobalt energy.

Pulling ahead in Sonic’s confusion, Shadow took a sharp left to veer off the well trodden path, weaving between a thickly wooded area of Green Hill. Sonic followed him, as evident by the pitter-patter of his shoes hitting the leaves on the ground. Each crunch was louder than the last and autumnal leaves kicked up in a flurry around him.

The scene was beautiful, with the golden hue of the mid-morning sun reflecting off the residual dew. Sonic’s laughter filled in the gaps between the wind rushing through his quills, and soon enough, a chuckle of his own reverberated through his chest. Sonic pulled up beside him, beaming almost ear to ear.

Usually during their races, Shadow focused on winning, on proving his worth and defending his title as the Ultimate Lifeform - for once, he didn’t feel a need to be better, only to live in the experience. His moment of glee was cut short, as Sonic swiped in front of him, throwing him off balance and tumbling into the thorny undergrowth. Soon enough, the sound of soles hitting the dusty ground entirely disappeared, leaving Shadow to pull himself up back to his feet.

With a grunt, he dusted himself off and picked out the thorns that had stayed lodged within his body from the fall - Sonic would pay for this. With new determination, Shadow soared into a blurry sprint, focused on making his way out of the forest. As the trees thinned and the sun grew brighter, he could see Amy’s bungalow in the distance, a speck on the horizon. In closer view, he saw the vague blur of Sonic running towards it.

Kicking off as hard as he could with each push of his shoes, he slowly closed the gap to Sonic as Amy’s house appeared barely a hundred metres away. Sonic glanced over his shoulder, eyes widening for a moment as he saw Shadow lunging at him, tackling him to the ground. The pair rolled into Amy’s front lawn, and finally stopped within centimetres of her open door.

“What the hell?” Amy asked, bending down to look at the pair of tangled hedgehogs, a mess of blue and tan limbs amongst black and red. The two attempted to pull apart, coughing and sputtering as the dust around them settled.

Sonic was the first to jump up out of the mess, bringing Amy into a tight hug; she tensed under him, undoubtedly surprised by the sudden action. Shadow sat back, dusting himself off as he watched the other two hedgehogs exchange pleasantries.

“You cheated,” Shadow piped up when he saw an opening within their conversation, “throwing me into the thorn bushes was not cool .” Sonic pulled away from Amy, and leaned over Shadow with a cocky grin.

“And when has ‘being fair’ ever stopped me before?” he asked, hands on his hips as he tapped his foot on the ground, “I won fair and square!” Shadow shot up.

“Bullshit,” he snapped back, stepping on Sonic’s foot to drive home his point, “rematch?” Sonic glanced back towards Amy standing with her arms crossed in the doorway. Shadow’s face flushed in embarrassment.

“Everyone’s here already, come in,” she said, moving to the side of the door to leave ample room to walk in. Amy looked at Sonic, almost beckoning him inside with nothing more than a gaze, and followed with a quick flick of her eyes to the dark hedgehog standing in the middle of the front lawn.

“I’ll see you soon, Amy. Happy birthday,” Shadow smiled in the most neutral way he could. Sonic shot Amy a quick look, and turned back to Shadow.

“Come on, you’re here already. There’s cake!” Sonic explained as the dark hedgehog turned away, “I’m sure Amy doesn’t mind - the more the merrier!” Amy had a mildly uneasy look on her face, but hid it behind a soft smile.

“Sure, come in, Shadow,” she added, “Rouge is here too.”

Shadow had never been inside Amy’s house, despite having walked past it a few times; it was neatly decorated with pastel tones on all white furniture, with picture frames covering the entire wall above a fireplace. On the mantle, she kept little trinkets as well as a multitude of birthday and greetings cards.

As he emerged into the living room from behind Sonic, the laughter died down and the chatter ceased - all eyes were now on him. Despite being part of the team in one way or another for a good number of years, he didn’t participate in social gatherings, and as such the others were still wary of being in his vicinity in casual circumstances.

He locked eyes with Rouge across the room, sat on the middle section of a three seater sofa with Knuckles to her right - she patted the spot to her left, beckoning him forward. Shadow chanced a glance at Sonic as he moved with Amy towards the kitchen; Tails passed him an envelope as he walked past, which he promptly tucked into his quills.

“Fancy seeing you hare,” Rouge mused as Shadow took his seat; she shuffled impossibly closer to the echidna beside her, offering the hedgehog almost too much room, “tagged along with blue?”

“I raced him here. Somehow got invited inside,” he responded, crossing one leg over the other, slouching back into the incredibly comfortable sofa, “back together with your arm candy?”

“She wishes,” Knuckles piped up from beside her, “I could never stoop down to her level.” Rouge snickered.

“Hon, I can feel your tail waggin’. Stop lying to yourself, you want me,” the bat responded, eyes half lidded. Shadow made a fake gagging noise.

“You’re gross,” he commented, “both of you.”

“Oh you want this too, you’re just too thick to realise it,” Rouge dismissed with a wave of her hand; Amy appearing from the kitchen holding a huge cake caught her attention, “ooh, cake.”

Sonic emerged from behind her, promptly taking a seat on the arm of the sofa next to Shadow, balancing precariously on the narrow surface. He struggled finding balance, leaning on Shadow for stability. He felt crushed under the weight, his left ear pushed down into his head as Sonic placed an arm on his head, eliciting a groan from the dark hedgehog. Once the candles were lit, Sonic started off singing ‘Happy Birthday’.

Shadow wasn’t one for singing, and kept silent; however, noticing the eyes on him, as well as a gentle shove from Sonic, he reluctantly joined in, clapping half-heartedly with the rest of the group. As Sonic clapped with a gleeful laugh, he lost his balance, starting to topple over the armrest; in a split second decision, Shadow lunged sideways, catching Sonic by the waist to stop him from falling. He offered a small smile to the hero.

“Thank you,” Sonic thanked, letting himself be pulled up back onto the armrest, promptly returning to his position of leaning onto Shadow’s head - this time, he also had an arm around the dark hedgehog for stability.

“Welcome,” Shadow responded, letting his lips perk up into a smile, patting Sonic’s hand on his shoulder. As Amy passed some cake along to Sonic, she glanced at the pair with a confused look on her face.

“You two seem weirdly close,” she commented as Sonic took the plate; Shadow’s cheeks flared up with heat, no doubt close in colour to Amy’s fur. Sonic only offered a laugh.

“It’s his punishment for losing our race,” Sonic chuckled, winking comically in a way that was both performative and literally meaning ‘go along with it’, “if he won, I had to admit publicly that he is the superior hedgehog around here, and if I won, he had to pretend to be my bestie all day - clearly you can see who the victor was.”

Shadow rolled his eyes to drive home the point as the group laughed. At least this lie is actually good , Shadow thought. Rouge shot Shadow a knowing look, and leaned over to whisper something,

“Meet me in the kitchen. Two minutes. Make it natural.”

Chapter Text

After two minutes elapsed and everyone was stuffed full of cake, Rouge excused herself (not before all-too-obviously making a subtle move on Knuckles by stroking his arm up and down). Shadow gently pried Sonic’s hand off him, mouthing a quick ‘be right back’, and followed Rouge trying to be as inconspicuous as he could.

She was prowling the cupboards for something, groaning, and eventually settled for a garish pink cup. From a pocket on the inside of her top, she pulled out a small vial filled with a yellowish liquid and emptied it into the cup.

“Shadow, be a dear, pass me the tomato juice in the fridge,” she requested - Shadow wasn’t sure how she knew it was him, but ultimately it was just a Rouge thing .

The dark hedgehog obeyed, passing her the bottle containing the thick, red liquid. She snatched it from him and topped off her cup, immediately diving in for a drink; with a sharp cough, she placed it on the counter beside her and gracefully jumped up to sit on it. Shadow eyed the bright pink cup.

“It’s a bastard’s Bloody Mary,” she explained, “tequila and tomato juice. Tastes about as awful as the proper cocktail.” Shadow’s gaze sharped, glaring into her eyes, as he opened his mouth to speak - Rouge wagged her finger and shook her head as a clear indication she wasn’t done talking.

“Care to explain why Sonic is all over you?” she questioned, eyes in suspicious slits, “if anything, he’s the arm candy around here.” Shadow offered a half-bemused grunt.

“I lost a race. This is the punishment,” he reiterated Sonic’s words from earlier; Rouge scoffed, a half-snort half-laugh escaping past her lips.

“Yeah, and Knuckles is blue,” she rolled her eyes, “your ego is far too large to take on such bets, especially when the ‘punishment’ is friendliness .”

“Get to the point,” Shadow huffed, leaning against the kitchen island behind him, arms crossed over his chest - he met Rouge’s eyes in a stiff beat.

“You like him,” Rouge stated as if it was fact, “don’t try to deny it.”

“Yeah, I like him, as a friend ,” Shadow shot back, “we talked about this yesterday. We are friends now.”

“Friends who cuddle in the night?” Rouge winked, a knowing smirk on her face.

“We do not cud- what? How’d you even know that?” Shadow asked, shaking his head rapidly as Rouge’s words sunk in. She responded by flapping her wings, ruffling the pictures and drawings stuck to Amy’s fridge.

“I flew to Amy’s today, just before sunrise and…” she started, drawing out her syllables in a sultry tone, “I saw you two snuggled up against each other on top of the loop-the-loop.” 

Shadow’s cheeks flared with heat, and he felt his heart drop - this was not going to be fun to explain. The hedgehog braced himself against the counter behind him, gripping the edge of the faux-marble countertop; his shoulders sank and his head was dropped slightly.

“He was already there when I went to rest for the night,” Shadow admitted, “he just let himself into my spot uninvited. He fell asleep, had a nightmare, hugged me when I comforted him, and fell asleep like that - and since my head was forced into the ground , I figured I might as well sleep then to forgo my midday nap. Happy now?” 

“Oh chaos hon, you’re in so deep you’ve looped back around to denial,” Rouge laughed in a sing-songy voice, “y’know what? It’s funnier like this - deny it all you want, but you’ve got a big fat crush on our very own blue blur.”

“Kill yourself,” Shadow barked, to which Rouge laughed, “now explain the alcohol.”

“Hon, if I remember anything about tonight’s upcoming escapades with my angry red boytoy, I think I actually will kill myself,” she laughed, hopping off the counter as she spoke; as she passed by the dark hedgehog, she patted him on the shoulder accompanied with a wink.

He let a minute pass, had a quick sip of water, and rejoined the joyous crowd in the living room, returning to his seat on the sofa sandwiched between Rouge and Knuckles (who were at this point all but actually kissing) and the object of the previous conversation on the armrest.

“What took you so long? I heard you talking with Rouge but couldn’t make out the words over the music,” Sonic asked, his muzzle uncomfortably close to Shadow’s ear, blowing hot air onto the sensitive inner skin. The dark hedgehog shivered.

“Went to grab a sip of water, just made small talk,” he confessed, shooting Rouge a quick look, “not anything important.” Amy stood up from her seat on the armchair situated across from the coffee table; she raised her glass and tapped her metal straw on the brim.

“Time for party games!” she exclaimed, “first up, charades!”

—

Despite his lack of enthusiasm, Shadow didn’t find the games - nor the ‘hanging out’ for that matter - all too bad. Admittedly, he was enjoying his incredible win streak within the party games, easily beating every other member of the team.

The last game for the day was hide and seek, and Shadow hid in the bathtub; Amy was the seeker for the round, and he could only hope she wouldn’t check in there to avoid seeing anyone genuinely using the bathroom.

His wishes were cut short as the door gently opened and a soft patter of shoes across tiles filled the room; in a split second, the shower curtain was pulled back, revealing blue quills and green eyes.

“Oh, hi Shads,” Sonic said, half surprised, “lemme just get in here.”

He sat across from Shadow, knees pulled up to his chest to allow for some room between them. Prior to the truce, Shadow would immediately throw the other hedgehog out, but somehow Sonic bought out his softer side almost too easily.

“You’re not very good at these games,” Sonic commented, smirking, “do you not know that you’re supposed to let the birthday person win?” Shadow cocked his head to the side.

“Doesn’t that defeat the point of it being a game? A challenge?” Shadow asked, genuinely perplexed. Sonic laughed.

“It’s just a social convention - see, for house parties and the like, it’s anyone’s game, but for birthdays, you really should let the birthday person win,” Sonic explained.

“There’s no way that’s true,” Shadow chuckled, eyebrows furrowed.

“Shads, buddy, do you really think I would lose at musical chairs? I am quite literally the fastest being alive,” Sonic continued, and somehow, that notion made it click for Shadow, a blush spreading over his cheeks.

“Listen, this is maybe the second birthday party I’ve been to that isn’t Rouge’s - and parties with her are normally just drinking in silence and watching a shitty romcom,” Shadow tried to reason, but the embarrassment stained his thoughts. Sonic offered a pat on the dark hedgehog’s shoulder.

“I hope you at least had fun today,” Sonic smiled, and Shadow smiled back, nodding.

“I feel a little bit bad though,” Shadow confessed, “I know I wasn’t exactly invited and we’re not friends, but it still feels wrong not giving her a gift.” Sonic chuckled.

“Don’t worry, I forgot to buy her a gift, Tails went out to buy her a gift card on my behalf,” Sonic dismissed his companion’s worries.

“Is that what the envelope was?” Shadow asked as he recalled Tails handing one to Sonic as the pair walked in.

“Bingo!” Sonic exclaimed, but a somber look quickly wove onto his face, “and, my test results from yesterday.” Shadow braced himself for the information, and nodded; Sonic continued,

“Tails said I’m all clear, but he sensed a weird energy - I told him it’s probably residual from me being near the prism the other day, and I think he bought it. Bloods are clear, at least - oh, but he mentioned that something in my brain was weird,” Sonic explained, “he said it’s nothing to worry about, and I quote ‘knowing you, I think this is a false reading’, whatever that means.”

Shadow looked at him with a mix of both concern and amusement. Sonic lifted a finger and pointed generally towards the middle of his head.

“Did he say what it is?” Shadow asked, curious despite Sonic’s bashful attitude towards the issue.

“Ventral Tegmental area, something like that,” Sonic answered, slurring over the syllables in mild confusion. Shadow had never heard of such a part of the brain, but made a mental note to research it on his own time.

“How come you’re hiding in here?” Shadow asked, swiftly changing the subject as his skin began to crawl at the medical discussion, “surely splitting up is the better strategy.”

“Well, I was gonna hide in my- I mean, the guest bedroom, but I could hear Knucks and Rouge talking in there, and uhm… I do not want to be involved in that,” Sonic explained, tripping over his words a little. Shadow’s ears perked up.

“Do you live here?” Shadow asked, and was met with a frantic head shake from the blue hedgehog in front of him.

“Oh no, no, I just spend nights here occasionally,” Sonic responded.

“Are you and Amy like…” Shadow’s voice trailed off and he completed by pushing his fingers together in a kissing motion. Sonic’s eyes widened, a blood-red blush on his muzzle.

“That’s not how it is,” Sonic explained sheepishly, “there was a time she had… this thing for me, but I never had that thing back. It’s been a while since she last attempted to make a move on me so I assume she’s over… well, me.”

“I see,” Shadow mused, eyes focused on Sonic’s very prominent blush.

“I don’t just live here, y’know,” Sonic continued, “some nights I’m at Tails’, other’s at Knuckles’, y’know, always gotta keep moving.”

“So you have no house,” Shadow stated, halfway between a question and a statement. Sonic nodded.

“I don’t need a house though, my current arrangement is a-okay for me - although I think I might avoid Knuckles’ house for a while, I generally do whenever he and Rouge seem to be on again rather than off again,” the blue hedgehog answered, laughing.

“Oh I know, they’re awful ,” Shadow nodded, “did you see them on the sofa?” Sonic laughed out loud.

“How could I not see them?!” Sonic continued laughing, “made me want to grab you in the same way to give them a taste of their own medicine- uh, I mean… yeah they’re gross.”

If Shadow was drinking water, it sure as hell would be entirely spat out at Sonic’s off handed remark; he could feel his muzzle get warmer at the statement, a blush no doubt on his cheeks and ears on full alert.

“Pretend I didn’t say that,” Sonic chuckled after a few seconds passed and Shadow failed to pick his jaw up from the floor, “I’m just kiddin’ with ya.” 

Before Shadow could get another word out, the door flew open, and not even a second later, the shower curtain followed. Sonic put his hands up in defeat, and unsure how to react, the dark hedgehog mirrored the action.

“Awh, well that’s cute,” Amy mused, hiding a laugh as well as she could, “hey, at least I finally won!” She said that last part with a tight glare directly at Shadow. 

“Well played,” Shadow said as he lifted himself from the bath, and left the room without another word, Sonic in tow directly behind him.

Even though the pair were found, they were the last, so there was that to at least boast about; much to Shadow’s disgust, both Knuckles and Rouge looked worse for wear, and based on the sharp glare Amy was giving them, she probably caught them… doing something gross.

The atmosphere died down between the group, bringing forth the end of the party; Shadow was the first to leave, although Tails followed shortly behind, and the pair of ‘lovebirds’ eventually emerged from the bungalow. Sonic seemed to lag behind, and despite part of him wanting to wait for his blue friend, he eventually decided it was time to get home.

–

Sonic stayed behind to clean up some of the mess left behind by the party guests, going around collecting discarded cups and cans, as well as wiping surfaces and sweeping floors - in the meantime, Amy prepped a small dinner in the adjoining kitchen.

The hero joined her there after the living room was clean enough (at least to his personal standards), and deposited the soiled plates and cutlery in the sink. The pink hedgehog peaked over her shoulder as she simmered some meat and veggies over the stove.

“So,” she started, “what’s up with you and Shadow?”

The question took him off guard, like a metaphorical punch to the head; suddenly, cleaning the dishes seemed like the most appealing activity in the world. That being said, Amy was at least owed an explanation.

“We’re friends,” Sonic simply answered, swapping out his gloves for rubber ones to clean with, “had a proper chat and we realised we have a lot more in common than we thought.”

“He looks at you how I look- looked at you,” Amy added, “there’s something between you, it’s undeniable.”

“He’s just not used to having friends, I think,” Sonic attempts to veer the conversation to another course, “he just comes off so… feelings-y and whatever because I’m pretty sure his only other friend is Rouge - and y’know how she is.”

“Look, Sonic, I believe you,” Amy sighed, taking the pan off the heat and turned her attention to the other components of her meal, ”but I really, really think that Shadow has an ulterior motive here. Not in a bad way, mind you, I think he really has changed, I can see that myself.” Sonic sighed deeply, and decided it was best to come clean, at least partially.

“Fine. I almost died, okay?” Sonic confessed, throwing his rubber-gloved hands in the air, “I almost died, and Shadow saved me. We’ve just been closer since then.” Amy placed a dainty hand over her mouth to conceal her gasp. Sonic continued concocting his story,

“I was ambushed, and injured, and Shadow found me and helped me. I don’t want to get into it.”

Amy crossed the kitchen and pulled Sonic into a gentle hug, letting herself sigh into Sonic’s chest; the blue hedgehog hugged her back, rubbing a wet hand down her back, much to her dismay. With a pat on her shoulder, he pulled away.”

“I still think he has… something for you,” Amy whispered, almost as if the subject of their conversation was listening in. Sonic made a ‘ pfft’ sound.

“And I’m telling you it’s nothing - I mean look at how Knucks and Rouge look at eachother, it’s entirely different to how Shadow looks at me, and vice versa,” Sonic rebuked, shrugging to prove his point.

“They’re lustful, not loving,” Amy added, turning back to get to the stove, “but fine, I believe you. I’ll shut up about this.” Sonic offered a chuckle, and returned to the dishes.

–

Shadow picked out a book from his shelf labelled ‘in progress’ and headed out the door at 7pm sharp - at this point, he was already expecting Sonic to be there, ready to disrupt his routine he had so masterfully concocted over the countless years of his life.

As expected, Sonic was laying on his back with a leg crossed over the other, a book of his own in hand which Shadow recognised as a superhero comic. The dark hedgehog offered a quick hello, and promptly sat himself down in his patchy spot.

“Evening, Shads,” Sonic responded, folding over the top right corner of his page, sitting up with his legs over the edge to face Shadow from a more direct angle, “I see you’re also reading tonight?” Shadow flicked the front cover of the book towards Sonic.

“It’s… hmm, what’s the easiest way to explain this,” the dark hedgehog mused, flipping to the back of the novel to read the blurb, “it’s this stupid young adult criminal thriller that Rouge recommended me, but I got about half-way in and realised it was actually a romance book. This character, Chloe, has been hopelessly in love with the mafia boss, Francesco, and I swear every two chapters they come so close to confessing to each other - honestly, the charade between them is more thrilling than the thriller aspect.”

“Sounds like this book isn’t so stupid, you seem fairly fond of it,” Sonic chuckled, “what’s next, you like pop music too?” Shadow chuckled, finding the page he was on by the number alone.

“Well, I primarily enjoy progressive music, but I indulge in what’s popular as well - especially being friends with Rouge I constantly get exposed to new songs,” Shadow explained, “so yes, I do like pop music.” Sonic laughed, shuffling closer to Shadow, and plopped his head on Shadow’s thigh. The move made him jump a little, but ultimately it wasn’t the weirdest sensation anymore. Sonic pulled out his comic again, returning to the page he was on before Shadow joined.

They sat in a comfortable silence, broken up only by the flipping of pages or a gasp from Sonic at anything he found mildly shocking or amusing. As the sun fell beyond the horizon entirely and the moon started peeking up ahead of them, Sonic placed the comic beside him, but stayed in the same position as before.

Sonic yawned and pulled his hands close to his body, legs curling in slightly as he started to doze off; Shadow continued reading, partially because the plot was actually getting good (turns out, Chloe was part of a rival mafia family), but mainly to keep himself occupied through the night as Sonic slept.

“Can you stroke my quills?” Sonic asked through a yawn, half lidded emerald eyes staring up into Shadow’s, “helps me sleep.” Shadow offered a small smile, and placed his right hand in Sonic’s quills, while the book rested in his left. As Sonic drifted off and Shadow continued stroking the blue quills, a low rumble presented itself under his hand.

Sonic was purring, and it was the purest feeling Shadow had ever experienced.

Chapter Text

Overnight, Shadow managed to finish the entire book, and by the end of it, his other hand was sore from where he stroked Sonic’s quills practically all night long. Whenever he would stop, Sonic would start tossing around in his lap, almost as if he could sense it through the deepest reaches of sleep.

Sonic finally woke up as the sun rose over Green Hill, hitting his eyes directly. He groaned as he opened his eyes, adjusting to the bright light. A gruff ‘morning’ escaped past his lips; Shadow didn’t even know that Sonic’s voice could go that low.

“What are your plans?” Shadow asked as Sonic lifted his head from the dark hedgehog’s lap, blinking rapidly.

“I need to stop by Tails’ place today. He wants to retest my brain,” Sonic answered, hopping to his feet to stretch, “wanna come along?” Shadow nodded with a shrug of his shoulder.

“I don’t see why not - although I have a couple errands to run first,” Shadow added. Sonic offered a small smile.

“Of course, you can’t just spend all day every day by my side, haha,” he responded, an awkward lilt to his words, “meet me there around four, okay?”

“Sure,” Shadow stated, getting to his feet, “I’ll see you soon.”

Sonic offered a nod and bolted off into the distance.

–

The errand didn’t take all day like he’d expected. It had boiled down to helping Rouge out with her broken coffee machine, followed by a long debrief of her quote-unquote ‘escapades’ with Knuckles; Shadow wished she had spared him the details, but ultimately Rouge was never one to avoid taboo subjects.

After Shadow excused himself from her house, he took a leisurely run to the other side of the island to Tails’ workshop, letting himself in through the wide open door. Sonic was already there, playing a card game against his fox friend.

“Greetings,” Shadow stated, taking a seat on a beanbag chair pulled up to the small table.

“Better late than never, tut tut,” Sonic reprimanded him, accompanied by him shaking his head. Shadow rolled his eyes.

“I’m a minute late,” he groaned, sitting back with his arms across his chest.

“Late is still late,” Sonic mused, wagging a disapproving finger. Tails slammed down his last card.

“Uno Out,” he deadpanned, standing from his seat to walk over to the primary console; with a press of a button, the large garage door closed, and dozens of white neon lights turned on. Tails continued,

“Now that Shadow is here, we can begin testing. Sonic, you first.”

“How come you needed me here? You didn’t make that clear when we talked earlier,” Shadow asked, but before Sonic could answer, Tails spoke up,

“I need a control subject to verify results. You’re the closest being to Sonic, being a male hedgehog in the same age range. I’ll test Sonic first, then you, and you can be on your merry way. I promise it’s not painful, I’m just analysing some brain function.”

“I know how brain scans work,” Shadow reassured, “get it done with quick, fox.”

Sonic took a seat in the white chair and Tails placed a device on his head, almost like a helmet, but with hundreds of tiny wires poking out; the blue hedgehog relaxed in his seat. With a beep, the machine started, and a graph reading started coming out of a small printer on the desk.

Tails hummed as he analysed the readings, holding up a chart to compare to; within a minute, the machine stopped, and Tails pulled the reading out. Another stifled beat filled the room.

“Just like last time. It’s all coming back normal except for one reading,” Tails said, spinning the graph around to the two hedgehogs, “this huge blue spike should be reading at around 20, but it’s up at 80. That’s normal in some circumstances, but for Sonic it seems abnormal - though it might be a machine error.”

“My brain is fine, Tails,” Sonic groaned, taking the helmet off; Shadow took over from his seat, and placed the device over his head. Tails started the machine again after a few adjustments to the placement. The readings started coming in, and Tails slowly read off the page and compared to Sonic’s results.

“You’re all clear,” Tails proclaimed as Shadow’s readings spewed from the machine before coming to a sudden stop, “hmm, while this confirms my machine is working, it also means that there is definitely something up with Sonic’s Ventral Tegmental area - I’ll deal with that later. Are you sleeping here tonight?”

Shadow took the helmet off and hopped out from the seat. He looked as Sonic’s eyes flicked between the door, the hammock in the corner of the room, and finally settled with a knowing look directly into the dark hedgehog’s eyes. His lips upturned into a smirk.

“I have other plans,” Sonic mused, winking at Shadow - he hated to admit how the action sent a distinct tingle through his entire body. 

“What could you possibly be doing in an 80 mile per hour wind storm?” Tails questioned, peeking up at the display above the desk with a weather radar - he was right, as a massive patch of blue was approaching the island.

“I didn’t know there was a storm coming,” Sonic mused, eyes glued to the rapidly approaching rain patch; a loud roll of thunder shook the tools on the shelving racks.

“Maybe if you actually spent time here you’d know. You’ve been gone every night and none of us know where you’ve been going,” Tails recalled his words from earlier, “I get it. You like your runs with Shadow, I just don’t know why you do them at night.”

On one hand, it’s good that Sonic’s lying skills were convincing enough to the point that everyone believed them, but on the other, the whole lying to everyone was getting tiresome - perhaps Shadow shouldn’t have been so harsh on Sonic those few days ago when he asked the hero to keep his adventures in the Shatterverses on a down-low. Regardless, Sonic’s charm was working, and ultimately that’s what mattered.

“We- I should get going,” Shadow stated as the rain started to batter the building, “this rain is only going to get worse. I’ll see you soon.”

“I’ll go get your blankets, Sonic,” Tails stated, opening the workshop door with a quick press of a button on his console, “see you soon, Shadow.”

As Tails waltzed out of the workshop and into the small house attached to it, Shadow caught Sonic staring directly at the loop-the-loop, currently being subjected to the steadily growing winds. Despite Tails already welcoming Sonic into his home for the night, an idea crossed Shadow’s mind.

“You can sleep at my place,” the dark hedgehog uttered, although the absurdity of the thought and the accompanying words soon caught up to him, “you know, just in case you have another nightmare or panic attack.”

“I’d love th- yeah! Sounds like fun,” Sonic stumbled over his words slightly as he nodded in a feverish manner, “race ya there?”

“Don’t need to ask me twice.”

As the hedgehogs set out into the torrential downpour, Tails returned to the workshop to find it empty. The notion proved his hypothesis - Sonic’s brain was really not okay.

—

The ground below them had become too soft to run comfortably on, and by the time they reached the forests at the north-west side of the island, the pair had to slow down considerably. Sonic kept close behind Shadow, seeing as he had no clue where the dark hedgehog even lived.

“This was a terrible idea!” Sonic called out over the howling wind. Shadow let out a sarcastic chuckle.

“I can still send you home,” the dark hedgehog added, looking over his shoulder at the sorry sight of Sonic’s mud stained shoes and legs; his eyes went wide at the suggestion.

“No, no, please ,” Sonic begged, brows furrowed in a mock innocence, “surely, we have to be close!”

Shadow took a sharp right without another word, walking into a small cave; in the far end, there was a single red door and a matching faux-window on the back wall.

“Home,” Shadow uttered, carding a hand through his quills looking for a key, “wipe your shoes before you come in.”

Shadow fumbled with the keys a little as they slipped in his wet, gloved hands; the door opened with a satisfying click, revealing a small atrium decorated in dark colours.

Shadow followed his routine as he always did - first taking off his air shoes and leaving them at the front door, and promptly stepping into his fuzzy slippers. Sonic followed behind the dark hedgehog, wiping his shoes on the mat provided, though unfortunately, there was little he could do to clean them. 

Instead, Shadow observed as Sonic followed in his footsteps by taking the shoes off entirely, opting to leave them at the doorstep. With a quirk of his brows and a quick ‘oh’, Shadow opened the shoe rack positioned by the door and passed Sonic an equally fuzzy, albeit bright pink, pair of slippers which were arguably too small for his feet.

“You have red paw pads,” Sonic pointed out as he trailed behind Shadow into the next room, “edgy down to your toes.”

“I’m too cool for you to even begin to comprehend, hedgehog,” Shadow chuckled, settling into his fabric sofa pointed directly at the hardly used television - Sonic sat down awkwardly beside him, leaving enough room for at least two more people between them.

“I never understood why you called me hedgehog - I get when Knucks does it, since he isn’t one. But you’re a hedgehog too,” Sonic mused, attempting to make conversation.

“I’m not a hedgehog though - in fact, I’m not even Mobian. I’m a hybrid, something neither here nor there. Therefore, your argument is null and I have the same right as Knuckles to call you ‘hedgehog’.” Sonic laughed, settling further into the sofa.

“Shadow the Hedgehog, ” Sonic pointed out, to which he was met with a scoff.

“Shadow the Hybrid sounds terrible,” the dark hedgehog pointed out, “I look like a hedgehog, behave like a hedgehog, live like a hedgehog, but at my core, I am not a hedgehog.”

“Okay Mr. Philosophy over here getting all existential,” Sonic rolled his eyes as he spoke, “you’re a hedgehog to me.”

“Fine. I’ll stop calling you ‘hedgehog’,” Shadow relented, almost too easily, “I guess saying your name every once in a while wouldn’t kill me.” Sonic beamed at the statement, eyes pulled into crescents; the blue hedgehog had sunken into the sofa entirely by now, foot pulled up onto the couch. Shadow couldn’t help but stare a little at the soft tan paw pads on his soles and the miniscule, clearly well groomed claws that extended from each toe. Shadow’s eyes lingered for a moment too long, before he turned his attention to Sonic’s hands in his lap.

The hero fiddled with the cuff of his left glove, pulling back on it as if in contemplation to take them off - Mobian hands were sensitive after all, Shadow remembered, hence why members of the species wore gloves to protect them. The black hedgehog himself didn’t have the same sensitivity issue - seemingly where the Black Arms biology took over - although still wore gloves to fit into the custom. 

He was first to make the move, slipping his gloves off from under his inhibitors, and neatly placed them in his lap, folding them up; he placed them on the side table to his right. Shadow could feel Sonic’s piercing glare on his bare hands, his paws , and in the corner of his vision he saw the hero’s hands twitching to reach for them.

Shadow placed a paw in front of Sonic, allowing the hero to study them intently; he traced a gloved finger across the red stripe running down his middle and ring fingers, before flipping it over to study the crimson paw pad, each of which led to a sharp black claw. There was some left over evidence from when Rouge painted his nails with a clear glitter polish, although Sonic didn’t comment on it. Sonic pressed a finger into his palm.

“Is it not sensitive?” Sonic asked, running his finger across the red patch, “you don’t seem to be reacting at all.” Shadow shrugged with a shallow huff.

“Like I said. I’m not fully Mobian, and don’t have the whole sensitivity issue like you and your friends - I just think the gloves look cool and help me fit in,” Shadow explained, slowly retracting his hand from Sonic’s - he missed the feeling, but didn’t want to admit it just yet.

Sonic finally bit the metaphorical bullet and pulled each of his gloves off, eye twitching slightly as the fabric grazed his paws, although this didn’t stop him; within a few seconds, he held his bare hands up and smiled gently at Shadow.

“Pink,” the dark hedgehog commented, placing a finger against Sonic’s palm, to which the hero winced at the contact, “I wasn’t expecting your paw pads to be pink.” Shadow moved his index finger up Sonic’s own, other fingers trailing in tow, until their palms pressed together. Sonic chuckled.

“Big hands,” he commented, noticing how Shadow’s claws extended at least an inch above his own. Shadow didn’t dare move away, savouring the electric feeling of his bare hands on Sonic’s own - it felt simultaneously so wrong yet so right. Sonic started curling his fingers down to intertwine them, but pulled away before Shadow could do the same. An awkward tension filled the stifled air between them; Sonic coughed.

“Have any movies?” the hero broke the tension; Shadow quickly shook his quills out to refocus; he rose from his seat, and walked over to the large TV and the cabinet below it. He stored a few DVD’s he’d collected over the years in a small box, organised alphabetically and colour coded by genre for his convenience.

“What genre?” Shadow asked, flicking through the movies looking for his own personal favourites, “I have action, rom-com, horror, or documentaries.” He heard Sonic shuffling behind him.

“Surprise me,” the hero answered.

Despite being a fan of horror, Shadow’s fingers floated above the small block of pink tagged cases, running a claw over their spines; he wasn’t one for comedies or romances, so the temptation to pick a rom-com of all films was unusual. They were normally reserved for when Rouge wanted to come over, and were never used for his own entertainment. Shadow shot a look over his shoulder to Sonic, who had now turned on his side with his head resting on the arm rest, arms curled around his body and knees up as high as they would go. It was cute.

Banishing the thought from his head, Shadow picked up a random case from within the rom-com pile and placed the disc in the DVD player. As the TV booted up, Shadow ventured into the kitchen, passing by Sonic with a subtle smile.

Thinking back over their years of knowing each other, Shadow recalled that Sonic didn’t particularly enjoy coffee, but did remember that the hero liked hot chocolate, as evident by the three or so mugs of it he had at Amy’s party. He scoured the pod basket for his coffee machine, and eventually settled on a mocha - hopefully the chocolate would overpower the taste of the coffee. As Sonic’s drink poured, Shadow picked out his coffee for the evening - a vanilla latte; he wasn’t a fan of milky drinks, but it was good for quiet evenings spent indoors.

Shadow couldn’t help but feel that the whole experience felt domestic . It was rare for him to have guests over, and even rarer to have them stay overnight - Sonic being in his living room, shoeless, gloveless, was driving him crazy. Was it right to touch paw-to-paw, to drink coffee together at such a late hour? Was it right how badly Shadow wanted Sonic to fall asleep on the couch with Shadow there? He needed to talk to Rouge the moment Sonic left the next morning.

Shadow didn’t even realise how hard he was gripping the counter until the tip of his claw broke off, leaving a blunt end; he growled under his breath, finally reaching for the finished mocha before switching out the pod for his latte. As the second coffee slowly poured into his cup, he took a quick detour to the built-in closet in the corridor, reaching up for a big fluffy blanket.

He brought it back out to the living room, and placed it on Sonic’s curled up form, eliciting a small squeak from the blue hedgehog; Shadow couldn’t help but chuckle at the noise. Sonic thanked him under his breath, offering a small smile, followed by a yawn - they hadn’t even started the movie and Sonic was already falling asleep.

As the machine beeped to signify the end of the pour, Shadow paced over to the kitchen, and bought the two drinks out with him, placing them on the coffee table just in front of the sofa. Sonic harboured a shocked expression on his face, thanking profusely for Shadow’s kindness. The genuine thanks brought a warmth to Shadow’s face.

Sonic grabbed the remote from the table, followed by the cup; Shadow watched as his companion took a sip, and appreciated the way his face didn’t contort in disgust.

“Really Shads?” Sonic laughed, pressing play, “this cheesy slop? Have you no movies about, I don’t know, a dog-loving mercenary hell-bent on vengeance? High stakes, borderline impossible missions?”

“I picked at random,” Shadow defended, “besides, this one isn’t even that bad. It’s unique, it’s cheesy, it’s romantic, it’s dramatic. What more could you want?”

“It’s stupid. I mean, really, her memory loss is so unbelievable,” Sonic rolled his eyes, but settled back into the couch, clearly intent on watching the movie regardless of his criticisms, “I also don’t like the main actor. He’s stupid.”

“Shut up and watch the film,” Shadow scoffed, taking a sip of his coffee; he was met with a laugh from Sonic.

“Oh, make me,” Sonic muttered under his breath, almost inaudible; Shadow’s ears twitched at the statement, mind short circuiting; he’d heard Rouge used the same words on Knuckles before, which always ended on the two violently making out - Shadow was sure (if not only to quell his racing thoughts) that Sonic meant it as a joke.

Shadow decided to forgo a response, instead attempting to focus on the movie; it was silly, he had to admit, but not having to think was ideal for Shadow at that moment. Sonic shifted beside him, moving from leaning to his left, to an upright position, until he finally settled leaning to the right, his head on Shadow’s shoulder. He felt the blanket move, until he was engulfed entirely by the black fluffy fabric.

The blue hedgehog nuzzled into his shoulder slightly, fur rubbing on fur causing a friction between them; below the blanket, Shadow felt a soft paw weaving around, finally settling within his own palm. He cast a glance down to Sonic, cheeks no doubt burning up as red as his highlights, but Sonic was looking away - not even at the movie, just into the distance.

Sonic’s breathing slowed with time, but his heart was racing; even as he drifted off into sleep, Shadow could feel the thrumming of a heartbeat through their now intertwined hands. The end of the movie drew near, but seeing as Sonic was already fast asleep at the climax, Shadow made the decision to move him into bed.

The dark hedgehog slowly stood up, careful not to disturb his sleeping companion, and scooped up the blue form in his arms. Sonic wasn’t all too heavy, and with some light steps, Shadow moved Sonic into his bedroom, setting him down onto the hardly-used bed. The hero stirred, saying something akin to a ‘thank you’ and a ‘goodnight’. Shadow offered a small smile, and turned to leave, though muttered a goodnight of his own while still within earshot.

His hand lingered on the door knob, but he couldn’t bring himself to close it, instead looking fondly at Sonic’s chest slowly rising and falling. In the interest of keeping an eye on him in case of nightmares (at least that’s what he told himself), Shadow kept the door open and sat on the sofa again, in clear view of Sonic on his bed.

It only took about half an hour for Sonic to stir in his sleep, groaning at something as he tossed and turned; the noise made Shadow’s ears twitch incessantly, but it wasn’t enough to make him concerned just yet. It was only when Sonic yelped that Shadow rose to his feet and slowly trekked to the bedroom, kneeling at the bedside.

He took Sonic’s hand in his, clutching it; he watched as Sonic’s expression softened, brows unfurrowing and his breathing returning to normal. He rubbed his thumb up and down his companion’s hand, shushing quietly, helping Sonic make it out of the nightmare; the dark hedgehog moved closer to whisper in his ear,

“I’m here, Sonic… I’m here.”

Chapter Text

For the third night in a row, Shadow broke his routine of being awake at night and sleeping through the day; it was only when the communicator on his right inhibitor buzzed repeatedly that he finally stirred. At some point during the night, Sonic had curled into his hand and arm, holding it tight in his own grasp. Shadow could almost describe it as indirect cuddling.

“Rouge to Shadow, requesting permission to land, over,” the voice over the communicator crackled from beneath Sonic’s form. The blue hedgehog stirred as Shadow blinked the residual sleep from his eyes.

“Permission…” Shadow started, trailing off into a yawn, “permission granted, over.”

Within seconds, his front door opened with a gentle creak, followed by the shuffling of shoes being taken off and slippers being out on. Shadow turned to Sonic with urgency.

“Sonic, listen to me,” he started, shaking the blue hedgehog awake, “Rouge is here for… something, I don’t know. Make yourself scarce, do not make a sound. If she finds out you’re here I am dead .”

Faster than Rouge could take off her outerwear, Shadow bolted out of the bedroom and took upon his position in the living room, holding a newspaper in his hands. 

“Morning,” Rouge vocalised as she entered the living room, “someone’s a little sleepyhead that wouldn’t return my calls for the last half hour.” Shadow gulped; he was done for.

“I didn’t get my nap yesterday, so I slept at night,” Shadow attempted to cover up the true story, “I just woke up.”

“Mhmm… and is that why you’re reading a newspaper upside down?” she asked with a snicker lacing her words, “boy, hanging out with Blue so much recently has knocked all the sense out of you.”

Shadow’s cheeks burned at the accusation; he exhaled sharply, placing the paper down on the coffee table. Shit , he said internally as his eyes widened upon noticing the two cups left from the night before. He could only pray Rouge didn’t notice.

“Why are you here?” Shadow asked, attempting to stir the conversation away from whatever he and Sonic were up to. Rouge took a seat on the armrest of the sofa, one leg crossed over the other.

“I’ve received reports that there is an active Eggman base on an island twenty miles south from Green Hill. I think you know what that means,” she stated, “get the team, and meet there at midday.”

“Is the team necessary? I think between you, me, and Sonic, we can easily take on an Eggman base,” Shadow asked; within a second of his question, Rouge’s lips bent into a smirk.

“Awh, you want to spend even more alone time with Blue? You are absolutely smitten,” Rouge chuckled, “okay. If you think you can take it, be my guest - hell, I’ll let you two handle it alone .”

“Fine, fine, whatever,” Shadow dismissed her, not even bothering to deny her claims anymore; he picked up his newspaper again, right side up this time.

“I’ll see you later, hon,” Rouge smiled in a sickeningly sweet way, before her face contorted into a smirk again, “bye Sonic!”

Shadow’s eyes widened, and in a split second, he was up by Rouge, eyes boring into her soul. He opened his mouth to speak.

“I can sense these things,” she laughed, waving a hand in the air, “and between the two mugs, his gloves on the sofa, his shoes by the door, and the movie case being open I could put two and two together.”

“Not a word,” Shadow bit, baring fangs. Rouge dismissed him again with a laugh.

“Awh, did you cuddle? Did you kiss? Did you f-“

Shadow threw a hand over Rouge’s mouth and forcefully moved her to the door, throwing her coat and shoes out after her.

“You’re insufferable,” he groaned as she got dressed up.

“And you’re smitten.”

Shadow stepped out from his house, locking the door behind him; his face sunk.

“We need to talk,” he started, stopping Rouge in her tracks from leaving; she turned with her head cocked to the side in intrigue. The look prompted Shadow to continue.

“How do you feel when you’re around Knuckles,” Shadow asked, leaning against a cave wall; heat rose to his cheeks.

“Well, aside from, y’know… that… I feel safe, and warm. Like I can be unapologetically myself,” she spoke, her voice lacking its flirty lilt, instead being truly genuine, “I know we aren’t the world's most perfect couple, being so… on and off. But ultimately I care about him, and I think - I hope - he cares about me too. I hope there’s a world out there where we’re, I don’t know… better together.”

Shadow waited in silence as Rouge poured her feelings out.

“Why do you ask? You never care about this, you always gag when I even mention him,” Rouge continued.

“Friendship with Sonic is easy… far too easy,” Shadow sighed, sliding down the wall behind him with his knees brought up to his chest, “it’s safe… and warm. Just like you described.”

Rouge walked over to Shadow and took a seat beside him, offering a pat on his shoulder. He sighed deeply and continued,

“We held hands while watching a rom-com last night, we laughed over hot drinks under a blanket, and we fell asleep together - kind of. I woke up to him cuddling up to arm and all I could think was that I want this forever.”

“I’m not saying this to rile you up, I’m actually being genuine here,” Rouge started, “I really think there’s something between you two. I can see how he looks at you, and how you look at him. It’s sickeningly soft.”

“Do you think I have…” Shadow trailed off with a lump caught in his throat, a stifled breath threatening to escape, “feelings… for Sonic?”

“I can’t tell you that. That’s for you to figure out,” Rouge answered with a sigh, offering a small smile to her friend, “I’m with you, Shadow. Feelings are difficult, and more so for you - but I can tell whatever that experience you had with Sonic that brought you close together really affected you, and your relationship.”

Shadow remained silent, focusing on his rapid heart rate that he attempted to slow with deep breaths. Rouge patted his knee and rose to her feet.

“Just because you opened up to me doesn’t mean I’ll stop teasing you though,” she smiled, “loverboy.” Shadow  let out a shallow, half-hearted chuckle, and stood up as well.

“Thank you,” he offered Rouge a small smile as he started heading back inside.

“Don’t mention it,” she smiled back, flapping her wings in preparation for her flight, “and good luck - with whatever this is , and today’s mission.”

Without another word, she dashed out of the cave and into the bright blue sky. Shadow took one final deep breath and re-entered his house.

Sonic stood by the door to the bedroom, the blanket draped over his shoulders, hugging his frame; his fur was entirely matted and his quills were in complete disarray, but ultimately… Shadow found it a smidge endearing.

“Morning, sleepyhead,” the dark hedgehog found himself saying, met by a chuckle from Sonic, rubbing his eyes with the back of his hand

“Morning, Shads,” he yawned, looking up and down Shadow’s form, “you’re bright red. Are you alright?”

Shadow looked towards the closest reflective surface, a modern full body mirror near the front door; his muzzle was spattered with patches of deep crimson, nearing in colour to his highlights.

“Rouge got way too into details about… stuff, and it made me flustered,” Shadow lied, scratching his quills, “she is uh… very descriptive and it grossed me out.”

Sonic laughed with a shallow tone, a hint of awkwardness woven between each strained exhale. An uneasy look was hidden beneath a smiling facade.

“Why was she here anyways?” the hero asked after a moment, waltzing over to the sofa while trailing the blanket as he walked. Shadow sat down beside him, in the same arrangement as the  night before.

“There’s an Eggman base some miles south of here. She wants me and you to take care of it,” Shadow explained, hands to himself as Sonic’s posture remained uneasy. The blue hedgehog drew a deep, shaky breath.

“Why did you ask me not to show myself to Rouge? I mean, she figured it out anyway and you didn’t exactly hide all the evidence either,” Sonic asked, stumbling over his words; Shadow couldn’t help but notice how his companion grabbed and kneaded at the blanket trapped between his palms. He took a breath of his own.

“Rouge thinks… chaos, there’s no easy way to explain,” Shadow started, fumbling; he refused to make eye contact, choosing instead to stare intently at Sonic’s paws, “she thinks there’s something going on between us. I was worried that her seeing you here would make her blab our ears off about it.”

“Does it make you embarrassed that she thinks that?” Sonic asked, gaze softening slightly from what Shadow could see just outside of his field of vision.

“No. Not so much embarrassed, it’s… weird. It just makes me feel weird,” Shadow admitted, allowing himself to meet Sonic’s emerald eyes, “not even a bad weird. Just… I don’t know.”

“Amy said something similar to me,” Sonic piped up, “she said there’s, and I quote, ‘something between you’. Something the way we look at eachother.” Shadow’s ears flicked; the words sounded eerily familiar.

“That’s what Rouge said!” he eventually exclaimed; Sonic offered a knowing chuckle, finally loosening his grip on the blanket. The blue hedgehog leaned forward slightly.

“Do you?” Sonic asked after a beat, “y’know… have ‘feelings’ for me.” Shadow exhaled awkwardly, brows furrowed up in mild shock at Sonic’s brashness.

“I don’t think so?” he ended up saying, which was somehow worse than a ‘yes’ or a ‘no’. Sonic burst out laughing, a genuine smile on his face for the first time all morning; Shadow couldn’t help but laugh at the absurdity.

“I’ll take that as the ‘verdict is still out’,” Sonic added after a moment with the same smile refusing to leave his lips. Shadow partially wanted to ask the same question back, but deep within him, he knew either a confirmation or a denial would throw him into more mental anguish.

“So…” Shadow started again after a pause, “Eggman?” Sonic sprung to action at the name, fists on his hips in a mock-superhero pose.

“You betcha!” Sonic exclaimed, eliciting a small, hearty chuckle from Shadow; he determined it was nice to see Sonic back to his usual peppy self, and as selfish as it felt to admit, he wanted more of it all to himself.

In no time at all, the blue hedgehog was dressed in his usual attire; Shadow joined him by the exit of the house, feeling awfully domestic as they both exited the house that they both slept at through the night. Weirdly, as Shadow locked the door, he realised he could get used to it.

Hopefully, Sonic would see his house as a good change of pace from staying at his other friend’s houses - quiet movie nights would be a great way to spend more time together with his new friend. A blush crept up his face as he remembered how the blue hedgehog was curled up by his side, holding hands under the soft blanket. It felt safe, and warm… just how Rouge described her relationship with Knuckles.

The pair walked together, shoulders rubbing against each other as they strolled through the wood; Shadow didn’t miss how Sonic made a conscious effort for their pinkies to gently brush together. Whenever Shadow felt the hero’s hands brush against his, he shot him a look - every time, Sonic was looking away, clearly intently focused on the scenery ahead or a particularly funny shaped rock.

“Where is this island?” Sonic asked after a moment, pulling ahead of Shadow, although his hand remained slightly behind him, as if beckoning the dark hedgehog forward.

“Twenty miles south. I reckon I can probably Chaos Control us there,” Shadow responded, slowly charging up enough Chaos energy to transport the two of them. He reached forward, grabbing Sonic’s hand in his own, “careful. This might make you a little dizzy.”

Sonic grabbed him harder, squeezing their fingers together until they were entirely intertwined; he followed this with a nod signifying for Shadow to teleport them to the island. Shadow offered a nod back, before closing his eyes to transport them.

They were greeted with a gravelly shoal, every single loose pebble crumbling below their feet. Sonic tried to let go of Shadow’s hand, but promptly lost his balance; the dark hedgehog caught his companion's hand in an attempt to stabilise him. Sonic squeezed his hand back in a gesture vaguely meaning ‘thank you’.

Sonic started walking, evaluating the surroundings; it was an uninhabited island, Shadow also noted, evident by the lack of any man-made buildings. He noticed one area that was off - a small opening marked with a red circle in the slate rock formations a few metres from the shore.

As Sonic paced around, his hand was still connected to Shadow’s; the dark hedgehog would feel his the hero squeezing periodically, similarly to how he paws at the blanket or pulls at grass when sitting down. Shadow made no effort to let go, instead allowing himself to be pulled around.

“No evidence of traps,” Sonic mused, kicking up some of the grey pebbles, “seems the only logical way is down the suspiciously Eggman sized hole.” 

At that moment, Shadow finally found the strength to let go of Sonic’s hand, preferring to be at the ready in the event an attack was about to happen; Sonic did the same. The dark hedgehog watched as the hero copied every low-grade action film and ‘reloaded’ his fists; where normally Shadow would find this the lowest of the low presentation of pure cringe, he found the strength in himself to chuckle with a warm feeling weaseling its way into his chest.

“Bring it on,” Sonic smirked, beating Shadow to the hole, disappearing in it with a small hop. The dark hedgehog descended slower with aid from his air shoes. The bunker was primarily narrow cave walls, reinforced by square steel beams to prevent them from collapsing. It was eerily quiet, as if the project was already abandoned before it could even get off the ground.

“Weird…” Shadow commented as he ran a hand over the dark stone walls, “I wonder why Rouge asked us to investigate here, she claimed it was ‘active’.”

“I wonder how deep this thing goes,” Sonic mused as they approached a crossroads, “the lack of badniks or traps is suspicious, unless this is just the entrance.”

“Look who’s all smart and serious the moment Eggman is involved,” Shadow couldn’t help but chuckle, taking off down the left corridor, “this is a better look on you than snarky Mr. Nice Guy.”

“I’m serious when I need to be,” Sonic shot bak, following Shadow rather than exploring on his own, “long words and all.”

“Oh yeah? Come back with a definition for ‘antidisestablishmentarianism’ yet?” Shadow smirked with a wink. Sonic’s muzzle flushed pink.

“You know damn well I haven’t, smartass,” he scoffed with a playful lilt, “although I’ll have you know that I learned an even longer word! Pneumonoultra-”

Before Sonic could finish his sentence, a siren sounded out within the bunker; the sound of rubber tyres on the rough ground and a distinct motorised hum emanated from the end of the corridor. Within seconds, a horde of botniks emerged from the shadows, approaching rapidly.

It was nothing more than what they were used to, and both hedgehogs quickly sprung into action, bouncing off the walls and the botniks in quick tandem, a flurry of organised chaos crackling with energy. Chaos spears bounced around the cavern, destroying multiple at once, while Sonic bounced off a few in a quick combo. Through all the fighting, Shadow refused to pay attention to the enemies below, eyes instead focused on following every one of Sonic’s moves.

Once the horde fell, the pair picked up the pace in exploring the compound; with each corridor, a siren would sound, and more badniks swarmed the two, but never more than what they could take on. Short words of encouragement were exchanged between them, urging them both forward. The corridors finally ended with a large metal door emblazoned with Eggman’s sigil.

Shadow grabbed Sonic’s hand again, teleporting them to the other side of the door and into a large atrium filled with bizarre machines. Eggman appeared over a monitor hoisted in the air.

“Right into my trap the two rats fall,” he cackled over the intercom, tapping his slender fingers in enjoyment, “welcome… to the Eggman Traps and Hijinks testing facility!”

Every fluorescent light in the bunker flared to life, illuminating the countless machines within the hall; Sonic immediately bounced into action, aiming directly at a huge spike trap. The moment his body crossed the threshold of the trap, the top fell down, trapping him between the two spiked plates. Shadow’s eyes widened as a cold sweat rushed over him - this was so much worse than anything Eggman had previously made, just like in his fabricated story to Rouge. It was a complete self fulfilling prophecy.

“Is he stupid?” Eggman asked over the TV, seemingly confused by Sonic’s brash action, “uhm…” The monitor flashed to black and the trap raised, revealing Sonic trapped on the spikes; they pierced his skin inside out, but luckily for Shadow, his companion was still alive, albeit barely.

“Help,” the hero managed to get out, before falling silent; immediately, Shadow plucked him up from where he lay stapled, careful not to rip him off too fast. He applied pressure to any wound he could as his breathing sped up - luckily for the both of them, Eggman seemed to leave a ‘self-destruct’ button in easy reach of the door the pair just teleported through. Shadow pushed the button and explosives almost immediately started echoing behind them in the corridors.

The dark hedgehog held Sonic’s frail, bleeding body in his arms, wary of the detonating explosives behind them as he teleported out of the collapsing bunker directly into his own home. The hero’s eyes fluttered shut, his ragged breaths caught between stifled sobs; Shadow winced at every noise, each groan piercing a red-hot dagger through his heart. 

He was bleeding from every limb and there wasn’t a single part of him that wasn’t bruised and battered; every quill stood at an odd angle, pricking Shadow’s paws through his gloves as he attempted to lean Sonic’s head backwards to keep his airways clear. Shadow couldn’t slow his own breathing and his vision darkened around the edges. As soon as Sonic was in a safe position, Shadow ran to the linen closet in the corridor in search of anything that could be used as a temporary bandage.

After ruffling through boxes of blankets, he finally settled on a light blue sheet and ripped it into long strips as he raced back to the living room. Sonic sputtered something, a vague string of sounds akin to words that Shadow couldn’t piece together even if he tried.

With each wound that soaked the light blue fabric, Sonic’s breathing grew more laboured and his eyes refused to stay open; Shadow couldn’t stop the stifled sobs rising in his chest. Tears brimmed his vision as the blue turned to red beneath him.

Red blood on blue fabric brought back less than savoury memories of Maria bleeding out upon the console, faltering as she released Shadow down to Earth; he couldn’t bear another loss like that.

“Stay with me,” Shadow whispered to Sonic as he wrapped the last bandage on his lower left leg, “I can’t lose you.” Sonic reached a limp hand up to Shadow’s, placing his dirty gloves upon Shadow’s bloodied ones; a small smile adorned his muzzle, finding happiness even through the pain. Shadow shook the tears out of his eyes.

“I’ll be fine,” Sonic finally managed, attempting to sit up, “if we just keep the blood in my body where it’s supposed to be, haha.”

The chuckle at the end of his sentence was weak, but so distinctly Sonic that Shadow finally believed he would be okay. Shadow pulled his gloves off, tossing them haphazardly elsewhere in the room, no doubt leaving a bloodied stain on the hardwood floor. He brought the hand up to Sonic’s face, cradling it while swiping a thumb across his muzzle, clearing the wetness left by the hero’s tears.

“I lied earlier,” Shadow admitted, “Rouge… she didn’t even mention Knuckles. I… I…”

Shadow trailed off, pulling his hand off Sonic’s face. His face burned, although it was hard to see the blush below the layers of blood that slowly started caking on his fur. Sonic didn’t respond, his eyes shut as his breathing slowed to a more comfortable pace - Shadow deduced he fell asleep.

“I asked her how she felt around him, and I realised that how she feels with him is how I feel with you,” Shadow finally started talking again after Sonic didn’t wake back up, “warm… and safe. Like I can be unapologetically myself. But when I asked her if she thinks I have feelings for you… well, she told me to figure it out for myself.”

Shadow shuffled impossibly closer, bringing Sonic’s head into his lap; his hand quickly found its way to the hero’s quills, working on detangling them. Sonic shivered slightly under the touch, but stayed silent and asleep.

“I think I’ve figured it out,” Shadow confessed, “between teaming up together to save the Shatterverse… to almost losing you to the void… to becoming your friend… to becoming whatever we are now… there is something here. I guess what I’m trying to say is…”

Shadow took a deep breath, making sure his companion was still asleep. He continued,

“I care about you. So much. Too much. More than friendship… something neither here nor there. And I want to explore these feelings… and I wish you could be awake to respond to me, to either accept and welcome me or shut me down before I get too comfortable in this new routine… but somehow rehearsing this while you’re sleeping is better-”

“Bold of you to assume I’m asleep,” the voice in his lap muttered.

Chapter Text

Shadow jumped up, causing Sonic’s head to hit the hard floor; his face only burned hotter and hotter, eyes wide like a deer in headlights.

“Ow,” Sonic muttered, lifting himself back up with a substantial amount of difficulty, “I just - hah - wasn’t saying anything because I can - hah - barely breathe.”

“Pretend you didn’t hear anything,” Shadow huffed out. The dark hedgehog started pacing as Sonic pulled himself up further, sitting up with a wobble.

“Kinda hard to uh…” Sonic started, hiding his face behind a dirty gloved hand, “kinda hard to - ah - pretend that you didn’t basically confess to me.”

Shadow kneeled down to Sonic’s level again, looking into his eyes with an emotion he couldn’t figure out. Sonic’s gloved hand covered his own.

“I’ve screwed this all up,” Shadow sighed, breaking his gaze to stare at his companion’s injuries, still bleeding through the fabric and dripping onto his floor.

“It’s not as bad as you think it is,” Sonic mused, wincing as he turned slightly onto his side, “do you want to talk about this later?”

“I’d like to,” Shadow whispered, gaze soft as he brought a tentative hand up to Sonic’s cheeks, wiping off tears of pain mixed with blood, “let’s get you patched up.”

“Tails has a machine,” Sonic stopped awkwardly mid sentence, taking a deep breath before he continued, “it speeds up healing.”

“Do you think you can hold on if I use Chaos Control? I don’t want to put unnecessary strain on you,” Shadow asked, brows weaving in concern; Sonic managed a small dismissive chuckle.

“Just because it makes me slightly dizzy, doesn’t mean I can’t withstand it,” he smiled; the second part of his sentence came out much quieter, closer to a whisper, “besides, I only stumbled earlier as an excuse to keep holding your hand…”

Shadow chose not to acknowledge what Sonic said, but filed it under ‘talk later’ in his mental catalogue - a section of which was overflowing with topics he wanted to discuss with Sonic once he recovered.

“Okay,” Shadow said after a short pause; he slipped a hand under Sonic’s back, and the other under his knees, raising him up to his chest, “hold on tight.”

Sonic grabbed (although loosely) onto his chest fur, eyes strained shut and the world turned around them - in no time at all, they found themselves in the middle of Tails’ workshop.

“What the FUCK!?” Tails screamed as he felt the pang energy behind him, his head whipped out uncomfortably, “what happened?!”

“Language,” Sonic managed to cough out, eyes still shut as he curled into Shadow’s chest, “accident.”

Tails wheeled in a gurney, dressed in a yellow fleece blanket rather than linen, which Shadow transferred the bleeding hedgehog onto. Tails immediately started analysing every one of Sonic’s injuries.

“It was one of Eggman’s traps, one still in testing at his facility,” Shadow explained, “he’s lucid enough but the bleeding isn’t stopping despite my bandages.”

Tails pulled off the light blue fabric strips and discarded them on the floor in a bloody heap; from beneath the gurney, he pulled out a box filled with dressings, gauze, and other medical equipment.

“You did well,” Tails commented as he examined the wounds, “you saved him, Shadow.”

The words reverberated in Shadow’s chest, and a small smile slowly adorned his lips; him and the fox never had a particularly good rapport, so the small amount of praise and thanks felt like a nice change of pace.

The fox started cleaning each wound thoroughly as Shadow looked on, feeling a sharp pang in his heart every time Sonic winced. Layers of gauze and bandages eventually graced each cut, wrapping every wound with absolute surgical precision. Shadow couldn’t deny how smart and attentive the fox was - not only was he a good inventor and scientist, he didn’t make a half bad medic either.

“Okay,” Tails said after a while, “let’s run some preliminary tests before we can hook you up to the healing cabinet.” The fox lifted the gurney into a half-upright position, leaving Sonic at a 45 degree angle. Shadow allowed himself to step forward to get a better look at Sonic’s face.

Now that the blood was gone from his face and he looked overall cleaner, Shadow could finally take see the subtle blush on Sonic’s muzzle as he leaned over; his emerald eyes seemed to flick between every part of the dark hedgehog's face, breath shaky as Shadow examined him.

“Thank you,” Sonic muttered, his hot breath mingling with Shadow’s own, “can’t believe you’ve saved me twice now.”

“Don’t make me do it again,” Shadow scoffed playfully, finally pulling back once he was convinced that Sonic’s face was clean enough.

“Maybe I like being saved by you,” Sonic whispered, out of earshot of Tails who was setting up some equipment, “you’re like… my knight in shining armour. I could almost call you my Lancelot.” Shadow took a step back.

“I think we need to see if your brain is okay before you say such things,” Shadow chuckled.

“Has my brain ever been okay?” Sonic chuckled. Shadow couldn’t even think of an answer to the question, option for silence as Tails put the familiar helmet over Sonic’s head.

“Hmm,” the fox mused as the readings started, “it seems you’re not all too bad - some fluctuation in activity from previous testing, but nothing ridiculous - come Shadow, I’ll explain it.”

The dark hedgehog leaned over the fox, looking at the readings as they came out of the machine; Tails pulled out a blue folder labelled ‘Sonic’ and flipped through it, finding a page with similar patterns to the ones displayed on the readings currently printing.

“This slip here is from a few weeks ago, it’s from our routine check-up,” Tails started, then reached for a grey folder labelled ‘miscellaneous’, “here’s your readings - this is what a perfect healthy brain looks like, it’s actually remarkable that you have textbook readings, but not all too surprising.”

“I am the Ultimate Lifeform after all,” Shadow mused, partially to himself. Tails didn’t seem to acknowledge it.

“Sonic’s readings from his check-up differ marginally from yours, but still within the range of being healthy. These are the tests from when you two had your fight before the Paradox Prism went missing, and the re-check from yesterday,” the fox continued, pointing out two of the readings, “like I said before, it’s all clear except for this one larger spike - it’s on both of the readings, so it has to be legitimate. Oh, and here…”

Tails trailed off, pulling the reading out of the printer as the machine stopped. He continued, 

“Some of the readings are slightly off from the usual, but that’s to be expected given the accident - but this anomaly has appeared three times now… say, Shadow, do you know what the Ventral Tegmental area does?”

Shadow shook his head, trying as hard as he could to wrack his brain for any mention of it - the professor had given him multiple rundowns of his various functions while on the ARK, but it was only surface level. Tails reached for a thick white book on the desk-mounted shelf.

“Primarily this part of the brain controls winning and reward - it’s kinda why you feel happy when you win to put it in layman’s terms - but studies have also linked this area to how we feel love. They say love is a drug sometimes, and this is probably why - now normally I would go with the first definition,” Tails explained, then paused, “but I have two issues with this - one, Sonic has never shown this much activity there despite how often he wins, neither big wins like defeating Eggman or small wins like beating me at Uno have ever set this off. Two, he is quite literally on the brink of death right now, the greatest possible loss… and yet, the readings speak for themselves. I think…”

Tails trailed off, catching his breath after having spoken so much on just a single inhale. Shadow could tell what the fox was about to say before the words even left his mouth.

“I think Sonic might be in love,” Tails finished his sentence, “I just… I don’t know who he could be in love with. I could also be entirely off base here but science doesn’t lie!”

“Y-yeah,” Shadow chuckled awkwardly, “Sonic? Love? Very interesting indeed.” Tails shot him a weird look, but quickly shook his head and turned towards Sonic.

“Okay! You’re stable enough for the healing cabinet - I’ll be back in a few minutes, I think it’s in the back warehouse,” Tails spoke up again, hopping out of the room. Shadow slowly headed back over to Sonic’s side.

Sonic looked at Shadow from where he lay on his back, but his head remained in the same position - the most insane side eye the dark hedgehog had ever seen. The notion edged a chuckle out of him.

“What’s so funny?” Sonic asked, turning his gaze back to the ceiling.

“Oh, nothing, you just looked… silly,” Shadow explained, “world’s most intense side eye.” His laugh continued as Sonic exaggerated an eye roll.

“My neck hurts, alright?” the hero rebuked with a playful degree of feigned anger, “your laugh is silly.” Shadow clutched his heart in mock agony, tilting backwards as if an arrow had pierced his chest. Sonic broke character and snorted.

“I really do like this version of you, Shads,” Sonic added after their back and forth exchange of laughs, “funny and silly and cute and warm and all those good qualities - not Mr. Broody McBroodface, the king of Emoville.”

Shadow didn’t miss the third word in that string of qualities that Sonic described, but didn’t acknowledge it - partially because it fell under the general ‘we can discuss it later’ category, and because Tails finally wheeled in a moderately large machine.

It was a wonder such a small individual such as Tails could not only build something so advanced, yet also wheel it around like it was nothing more than a shopping trolley. After all this, Shadow had a newfound respect for the young fox, and perhaps, could even offer to take him for some ice cream at some point down the line.

Shadow observed as Tails connected cuffs to Sonic’s wrists and ankles, similar to how the dark hedgehog wore his inhibitors. They were loose, but stably locked in place; Sonic looked weirdly comfortable, as if this process had been completed on him many times before.

Tails flicked a switch… but nothing happened. Shadow watched on in irritation as the machine fizzled and sputtered as the fox hit it repeatedly on the side. With a dismissive shake of his head, Tails flew up to a hatch at the top of the device.

“What the… Sonic, where is our chaos emerald? The purple one that should be in the Healing Cabinet?” the fox interrogated the hero, who had a guilty look on his face.

“I gave it to Knuckles,” he admitted, “I can’t believe I’m saying this but he wanted to win over Rouge with it.” 

“And you gave in?! Just like that?” Tails pressed further, stopping his flight to drop to Sonic’s side, “you don’t even approve of the relationship, why would you help?”

“Hey hey hey,” Sonic started throwing his hands in the air in defence, followed by a wince as the movement made the bandages on his arms chafe the wound, “I just said their making out is gross and that Knuckles needs to keep it in his metaphorical pants - I’m happy for them to date.”

“Stop bickering,” Shadow finally interjected with a roll of his eyes, and reached into his quills; from between them, he fished out his green chaos emerald and passed it to Tails, “I will need it back soon to teleport back home, so it better get back to me in one piece.” 

Tails thanked him profusely, fumbling with the gem slightly before lifting it into the top compartment. With another flick of the switch, the device whirred to life and an electric current pulsed from the wires and into the cuffs. Shadow could feel the energy in the air pricking at his skin and causing his fur to stand on its end; it was a bizarre device and he didn’t dare question why or how it worked (and how Tails managed to figure it out), but ultimately, the results spoke for themselves.

While the gashes in Sonic’s body weren’t entirely erased, they did seem to tighten up; the blood coagulated quicker, darkening almost immediately, while bruises slowly faded to a yellow/brown rather than purple. 

Sonic was visibly relaxed, as if every muscle in his body was loosening up with the current; his eyes fluttered slightly with every pulse, but they seemed lively below his eyelids. A small smile adorned his muzzle, head finally turned towards Shadow; he mouthed the words ‘I’m okay’ and turned back to looking at the ceiling.

Only a minute later, the machine stopped again, and Sonic was back on his feet. The cuffs were unhooked from his limbs, allowing him to stretch them freely after the trauma his body had just experienced. As Sonic was stretching, Tails beckoned Shadow over to the machine.

“Firstly, this is yours,” the fox started, handing Shadow back his emerald, “and thank you again for saving him. Second… he’s not entirely okay yet, remember that. His dressings need to be changed again soon, and ideally he’s going to need a bath to get that gross, caked on blood out entirely. Would you like him to stay here?”

Shadow immediately knew his answer.

“Absolutely not - I mean, thank you, Tails, but I got him into this mess, and I’ll get him out of it.”

“Whew, okay,” Tails exhaled, “he’s impossible to get into the bath, just to let you know. No running faster than 30 miles per house till… Friday at the earliest, and absolutely no strenuous activities of any kind. The Healing Cabinet is basically a Chaos Energy injector, which as you should know by your own fast-healing capabilities, speeds up the body’s natural regeneration process - so he’s not healed, he’s just better.”

Shadow nodded in acknowledgement of Tails’ rules, making a mental note of everything he said. With a quick goodbye and another thank you (as well as an invitation to ice cream that took the young fox off guard), the dark hedgehog hurried back to Sonic. The hero smiled fondly as Shadow ran an arm around him, stabilising him, before teleporting them both back to the middle of the living room. In its current state, it looked more like the scene of a crime rather than a lounging space. Sonic chuckled.

“Sorry for lunging into that trap - I’ve never seen anything like it!” Sonic apologised as he took a few tentative steps forward towards the couch, still stumbling slightly on his unsure legs.

“Neither have I, and I also don’t think Eggman expected it to be that violent - he seemed kind of surprised on the intercom,” Shadow added, following Sonic to the sofa. The two settled into their respective comfortable positions from earlier.

A silent, awkward beat stuck between them, neither wanting to start the conversation now that it actually came time to talk.

“So…” Shadow started, refusing any form of eye contact with Sonic.

“You like me,” the hero filled the gap, “and I… am still trying to get a grip on how I feel.”

“Is that a rejection?” Shadow asked, even though he knew that wasn’t the case.

“No, no, not at all. I just… I don't really know how I feel,” Sonic reassured the dark hedgehog, eyes wide at the accusation, “I think… there’s something here that I can’t place and maybe if we talk it out I can understand it better.”

Shadow nodded, shuffling closer to Sonic now that he knew Sonic felt something other than friendship; the hero seemed to notice and slowly plucked off his gloves, allowing Shadow to take his bare hand.

“I like this, for example,” Sonic started, lifting both his and Shadow’s paws in the air, intertwined at the fingers, “whenever we touch like this, where it would normally feel uncomfortable and borderline painful because of the sensitivity, it instead feels electric and good and it send this insane shiver down my spine.”

“Humans hold hands a lot,” Shadow commented, squeezing his hand against Sonic’s, “I’ve held hands before, with her, for comfort. With you, I hold them because I like the physical feeling of connection to you.”

“Exactly,” Sonic nodded, then pondered again for a while, “I like closeness, and I find myself subconsciously looking for any way to have it - be it having an arm around you under the guise of stability, or using you as a pillow. I like it.”

“You cuddled my arm all night,” Shadow added; the hero in front of him chuckled.

“Your scent is soothing - I can tell you wear lavender cologne. And listening to your breathing, and your heartbeat, and everything that proves to me that you’re alive and well makes everything feel so… so mellow.”

“The way you laugh as well,” Sonic continued before Shadow could interrupt, “and how your voice is pleasant when you’re not threatening me. How you help me through the panic and the nightmares. How you understand me. I like so many things about you, so how come it is this difficult for me to determine if I like you?”

Shadow reached up to Sonic’s chest and placed an open paw on his heart, feeling the fast beating beneath the fur. A soft smile crept to his face.

“Your brain may be messed up a little, and that’s okay,” Shadow mused, “but your heart betrays you - I can feel how it beats when you focus on me.” Sonic shuffled forward slightly, their knees now knocking as the hero kept leaning as far as he could.

“Is it okay if I kiss you?” Sonic asked out of the blue, “maybe if I do I can tell how I feel.”

“I’ve never kissed anyone before, Sonic,” Shadow replied, his velvet voice wavering between surprise and nervousness, “but yes. You may… you may kiss me.”

Shadow closed his eyes, unable to look into Sonic’s piercing green stare. The breath on his muzzle grew hotter and a breath of his own hitched in his throat.

“It’s easy,” Sonic whispered, “we just…”

But the connection never came. Shadow peeled open his eyes slightly, observing as Sonic pulled away, and pressed back in with his lips pursed. He was clearly figuring out an angle of attack on Shadow’s lonely lips, but nothing seemed correct.

“I can’t do it,” Sonic sighed, settling for a kiss on Shadow’s cheek; the spot burned as Sonic pulled off, staring down at Shadow’s lip. The hero went in again, kissing further down the dark hedgehog’s muzzle, edging closer and closer to his lips.

Shadow chased Sonic’s lips with his own every time the hero pulled off, but the timing was never quite right. It was only after another agonising minute when Sonic reached for Shadow’s shoulders, his eyes glazed over with a strange, distant look, almost as if he couldn’t focus on the dark hedgehog at all.

“Hmm,” Sonic hummed, so quiet Shadow had to do a double take on the noise, “maybe… just maybe… I think Amy was right. I feel… I feel…”

Before the hero could finish the sentence, a pair of lips shut him up.

Chapter Text

It lasted only a second before Sonic literally jumped back, suddenly standing up next to the sofa in a blur. He breathed heavily, a hand clutched to his chest and he attempted to regain a steady rhythm.

“I’m sorry!” Shadow exclaimed, his ears pulled back and an awkward smile on his lips.

“No, no, I’m sorry,” came Sonic’s rebuttal, followed by him taking a seat on the sofa again, “it legit shocked me - like an energy sparking in my body.”

“The spark…” Shadow muttered under his breath, eyes wide as his muzzle flared red.

“Not like that, not like cheesy crap,” Sonic dismissed Shadow’s previous statement, “like… electricity sparking, an electric shot.”

“I’ll have you know I like cheesy crap,” Shadow faked a pout, “but I didn’t feel anything.” Sonic grabbed his arm suddenly, pulling it forward.

That’s when Shadow noticed that all of his fur stood on end, on every inch of his body. He couldn’t help but laugh - the kiss was so monumental it caused actual static between them.

Sonic leaned in again, his eyes flicking between Shadow’s eyes and his lips; their breaths mingled together as the hero grabbed Shadow’s hand in his.

“But I like it,” Sonic whispered, planting another kiss on Shadow’s lips; it was his turn to jump back from the shock.

“What the hell…” Shadow sighed, “is this going to keep happening?”

He planted another kiss on Shadow’s lips from another angle, another spark; the process repeated countless times, each touch causing their fur to stand on edge. Sonic finally stood up, grabbing Shadow up with him.

“Last attempt,” Sonic whispered, bumping his nose into Shadow’s; he took the lead from there, bringing them closer together with a strategically placed hand on the small of the dark hedgehog’s back while his other tan paw cupped his face.

Shadow took a deep calming breath, and allowed himself to lean forward, catching Sonic’s lips in the middle; finally, as if by movie magic, they settled. No shocks, no static, no energy - just pure feelings exchanged between them. It lasted a mere few seconds, but in that time, Shadow realised that yes, he did have a crush on his rival-turned-friend, and yes, he was now kissing said crush.

“That’s the one,” Sonic gasped, joining their lips again, deeper. It wasn’t intense, but it lasted longer; he could feel the hero making tiny movements, but he stayed as stiff as a board. Shadow could feel how tense he was as his muscles begged for a release, and with a subtle poke of Sonic’s tongue at his bottom lick, he gave in.

Where he expected Sonic to delve deeper, the blue hedgehog instead pulled off for a breath, and attached again for one last small peck; Shadow’s face was clasped between two paws by now, and big toothy grins graced both of their muzzles. Sonic started laughing.

“So many years spent fighting and bickering for it to come to this… kissing my biggest rival,” Sonic kept snickering as he talked, “I can’t believe this is real.”

“Better believe it,” Shadow mused, locking their lips again; he attempted to lead this time, making small albeit unsure movements. Sonic giggled into the kiss, clearly realising that Shadow had no clue what he was doing. 

After a few more seconds, Sonic pulled off and flopped back onto the sofa, holding the sides of his face while laughing. Shadow joined his side, arms touching and knees knocking together with how closely they were sat together.

“What’s so funny? Was I that bad?” Shadow questioned, a small worry weaseling into his chest; Sonic answered with another small peck on the dark hedgehog’s lips.

“You were great, Shadow,” the hero smiled, lacing their hands together, “I cannot believe it took this long for me to realise how I feel for you.”

“And me,” Shadow added, “chaos, why were we ever rivals?”

“Because someone, read you , didn’t reveal yourself to be a big softy until a certain someone, read me , got myself into a lot of trouble,” Sonic mused with an underlying snicker.

“Dumbass,” Shadow smiled and leaned in for another kiss - however, before their lips could touch, the communicator on Shadow’s wrist beeped, “oh, come on!”

“Rouge to Shadow, come in,” the feminine voice crackled, “update on the mission?”

Shadow groaned as he moved away from Sonic and pulled the communicator out from beneath the inhibitor ring on his left wrist; Sonic pouted and whispered something to himself.

“Egg base neutralised, over,” Shadow spoke to the small device, “Sonic is injured. I’ll be staying at home till tomorrow. Do not come over. Do you copy?”

“Absolutely not,” Rouge chuckled over the communicator, “I know you have no food over there, I’ll deliver some groceries later - just hang up a glove on the door if you’re getting freaky-”

“Fuck you,” Shadow spat, and turned the communicator onto silent; he turned to Sonic, “sorry. You know what she’s like.”

“She knows,” Sonic chuckled.

“Mhm…” Shadow hummed, shuffling closer to take Sonic in his arms; his hands made their way to the hero’s back, rubbing slow circles between the quills, “so does Tails.” 

Sonic shot up, unintentionally hitting Shadow in the jaw with enough force to make a regular person black out - the dark hedgehog was lucky he was made to withstand forces far greater than that. Despite that, Shadow still felt the sting and rubbed his jaw a little to quell the tender feeling.

“Well… he doesn’t know exactly what’s going on but- okay, you remember that thing that’s wrong in your brain?” Shadow started, “well, that bit controls the high feeling from stuff like… love and kissing. Tails is a smart kid, he put two and two together and he could tell something was going on.”

“But he doesn’t know it’s you, right?” Sonic asked with his cheeks flushed red; Shadow offered a soft chuckle.

“Not as far as I could tell,” he reassured the blue hedgehog currently going through some sort of internal crisis, “so, what? Rouge knows, Tails knows, Amy has suspicions - that just leaves Knuckles.”

“What are the chances Rouge has babbled about us to him?” Sonic asked, “I mean - they’ve only been together again for what, like five days?”

“Based on past experiences, they don’t seem to do much talking…” Shadow trailed off with an awkward, toothy smile, “they’re not exactly in a relationship, they’re more… glorified friends with benefits if anything.”

A silence fell between them, broken only when Sonic hummed a quick ‘hmph’, slumping his head against Shadow. The dark hedgehog watched as Sonic’s eyes scanned the wounds on his body, tracing a free hand over the bandages that became more speckled with blood as they sat. A small part of the wound was uncovered, which Sonic started picking at without so much as a flinch; all the while, he refused to meet Shadow’s eyes as the air around them tensed.

“Will it always be like this now?” Sonic asked, more to the room than directly to Shadow, “I used to be the hero, the fastest being alive and who everyone asked for help - but it feels like I constantly get myself hurt and I need you to save me.”

“You’ve been through a lot recently, Sonic,” Shadow started, his voice soft as he carded a hand through Sonic’s quills, feeling the blue hedgehog start to tremble slightly, “it doesn’t make you any less of a hero.”

“How can I be the hero everyone perceives me as when I can’t even be sure I’m doing the right thing - that I did the right thing,” the words wavered on the blue hedgehog’s breath as he spoke them, “just because we got out of the Shatterspaces alive doesn’t mean that they’re okay too - a ‘hero’ who only saves himself is no hero at all.”

When Shadow took another glance at Sonic his eyes were glazed over and distant, not focused on anything in particular. Shadow knew that eventually the Shatterspaces would crawl into the picture again, no matter how much he tried to steer any conversation about them in another direction. The entire experience had messed up something within Sonic’s psyche that not even Tails could detect.

Shadow specifically took the Paradox Prism to his house in hopes that everything would go back to normal and Sonic wouldn’t spare it - or him, for that matter - any further thought. The adventure the two had, and between the back-and-forth saving each other, altered something in their camaraderie, and the feeling of rivalry slowly slipped away.

When Sonic had asked him where the Prism was in exchange for his silence, he assumed that the blue hedgehog would seek his house out through any means necessary - never did it cross his mind that he would be the one to bring him over. What he hadn’t anticipated, was that Sonic didn’t even attempt to find the Prism for the two days he’d now spent at his house - Sonic was here for him, not the Prism.

“Come with me,” Shadow sighed, biting the metaphorical bullet, and placed his hand in Sonic’s before the blue hedgehog could do any more damage to the wound on his leg that he’d been picking at. The hero obliged, rising to his feet with trembling legs.

Shadow led him through the house with gentle steps, past the kitchen and into the long corridor; the bathroom was down the far end of the hall, door slightly ajar, but Shadow’s attention turned to the door beside it. He fished a key from within his quills and gently opened it, pulling Sonic in behind him.

The locked room served as storage, mainly filled with bits and pieces he’d picked up on his adventures, old guns, some stuff from the ARK - but most importantly, the Paradox Prism hummed in the middle of the room. Sonic approached it, a trembling hand outstretched and ready to touch it.

“If you go, I’m coming with you,” Shadow said, a warning to his companion; Sonic’s wrist fell limp, resigned from his task; he put his hand back towards Shadow, beckoning the dark hedgehog forward. Shadow wasted no time in grabbing it, taking a deep breath before they both touched the Prism.

When Shadow opened his eyes again, his feet were on stable ground, surrounded by the purple haze of the void; Sonic’s hand was still in his with an iron grip as the blue hedgehog used him for balance.

“What the…” Shadow breathed out as he came to his senses, looking around at the void which looked nothing like he remembered. An intricate highway system was constructed to all the gates, with a large structure akin to a pergola at the convergence point of them all. 

“Chaos…” Sonic gasped, eyes lighting up as he looked around the place, “they did it, Shads!” The blue hedgehog let go, suddenly full of energy, prancing around with newfound vigour. 

“Looks like the gateways got fixed when we returned to Green Hill,” Shadow commented, “I wonder if they all built this up when the Chaos Council stopped being a threat.”

Sonic beamed, the light in his eyes returned to former glory with every possible colour around them reflecting within them; Shadow couldn’t help but smile back, grabbing Sonic’s hand to bring him into an embrace.

“You’re their hero, Sonic,” Shadow whispered, bringing their foreheads together, “even if I have to save you a million times.” 

Sonic bought their lips together into a tender kiss, long but entirely forceless and full of love, hums of appreciation exchanged between their mouths. Shadow was still new to the sensation, making every single quill stand on end with the sparking feeling it sent through his body - even if it felt unusual, Shadow never wanted to go back to not knowing how it felt.

“And look,” Sonic said after a moment longer, outstretching his arms, “it seems the Shatterverse has stabilised so even without the Prism energy in me I’m just fine.” Shadow nodded in agreement, eyes still locked on Sonic’s.

A noise erupted from one of the gateways, followed by the pitter patter of feet on the highway and sing-song voices of casual conversation; Shadow looked over at the source - the portal he remembered as the one to the Boscage Maze - from which five forms emerged, each belonging to a different member of that world.

“Look at the middle,” Shadow whispered into Sonic’s ear; the blue hedgehog obliged, eyes locking on to the figures, followed by his jaw dropping.

“Thorn!” he shouted across the void, waving his tan arms frantically towards them, “and the gang!”

“Go to them,” Shadow smiled, “you have some catching up to do, I’ll rest here for a while, come find me when you’re ready to head back.”

Sonic planted another kiss on his lips, a quick peck to show his appreciation, before sprinting off into the centre of the highways; he watched as the blue hedgehog exchanged long hugs with each member, excitedly zooming around them as his laughs echoed through the void, gracing Shadow’s ears. With a soft grin, Shadow perched himself on the rocky structure of the Green Hill gateway, and resigned himself to meditating in the expansive quiet.

–

Sonic returned close to two hours later, waking Shadow from his meditation - which, even though he refused to admit it, had turned into an impromptu power nap. 

“Morning, sunshine,” Sonic smiled, crouched down in front of Shadow; the dark hedgehog studied Sonic’s features for a moment, his eyes wide with glee and his smile the widest he’s seen since the whole ordeal.

“I wasn’t sleeping,” Shadow muttered, but was betrayed by a yawn escaping past his lips, “how is everyone?”

“Better than ever,” Sonic started, drawing a deep breath, “Nine is fully a good guy now, the Chaos Council is nowhere to be found, Thorn and the Scavengers made up and the Boscage Maze is regrowing, and, ah lemme catch my breath, and Black Rose has found SO much treasure as Captain and - and - and -”

“Calm down, Sonic,” Shadow chuckled, taking Sonic’s hands in his as he came to his feet, “has it put your mind at rest?”

“I feel better, just knowing they’re safe,” Sonic smiled, gentler now, “I… I don’t think I’m all one-hundred-percent better now, but at least I can shelve this adventure and put it behind me.”

Shadow offered a reassuring smile, and turned to the Green Hill gateway; Sonic’s hand remained glued to his as the pair walked through the glimmering portal and re-emerged back in Shadow’s spare room. As if on cue, the front door opened and slammed shut.

“I’ve bought food - and company!” Rouge’s unmistakable voice travelled through the corridors, echoing off the walls - a distant chatter filtered in after her, a cacophonous drawl of voices blurring into one. Shadow couldn’t help but roll his eyes, but held on to Sonic’s hand as they walked through the house. 

Rouge was already setting up by the time they got to the living room, Knuckles at her side as she unloaded a large bag filled with cakes and other snacks, while Amy started brewing up a handful of coffees in the kitchen and Tails tinkered with the audio system by the TV.

“Hey everyone,” Sonic said from behind Shadow, “what’s the occasion?”

“Afternoon Sonic!” Amy was the first to pipe up, “it’s Thanksgiving today! While Mobians don’t typically celebrate this holiday, I thought it would be a cute excuse to get together and chat.”

“And since you’re still injured and staying here, I asked Rouge for directions to Shadow’s house so we can bring the party to you,” Tails explained, finally done with his little project as soft piano music filled the room.

“You told the fox my address?” Shadow asked, turning to Rouge with a displeased glint in his eye.

“For once in her life the bat kept her mouth shut,” Knuckles stated before Rouge could defend herself, “I got it out of her in response for-”

Before Knuckles could finish his explanation, the bat covered his mouth with a palm, staring daggers at him while mouthing something akin to a ‘shut the fuck up’. At that point, Shadow could only accept his fate as ‘Amy’s Birthday 2.0’ unfolded around him. 

Unfortunately, Shadow’s house wasn’t built to host more than three people at an absolute maximum, so with the six of them seating became a problem; Knuckles and Rouge ended up sharing a pillow on the floor, while Tails relegated himself to a desk chair wheeled over from the corner. The three hedgehogs got the luxury of the couch.

Chatter filled the room, ranging anywhere from talks about the weather to the most recent episodes of sitcoms, and anything in between - it wasn’t until Rouge pointed it out after an hour passed that the rest of the crowd noticed Shadow and Sonic had been holding hands the entire time.

“How did this happen?” Tails asked after Rouge’s reveal, finally invested in something other than talking to Rouge about some gadget’s he made for her recently. Shadow stalled for a moment, letting out a drawn out ‘uhh’ as he deliberated on what to say.

“I knew it!” Amy exclaimed once she caught on to the conversation, “I did a tarot reading for you and I pulled some very interesting cards.”

“That’s unethical,” Shadow commented before Sonic could respond, “surely, that’s an invasion of privacy.” 

“Eh, I do it all the time,” Amy shrugged, “I can predict when those two are going to break up or get back together.” She pointed an accusatory finger at Knuckles and Rouge getting far too comfortable on the pillow. The bat in question then turned to Sonic.

“So what is the deal here? Is there a label you can even put on this - like some sort of rivals-with-benefits situation?” Rouge asked, “do you even know how to kiss? Actually, don’t answer, that’s gross.”

“Between this literally happening this afternoon and you dropping in unannounced when I told you not to come over, we haven’t discussed it yet,” Shadow answered, “and I’ll have you know, I do know how to kiss, I am not an idiot.”

The notion seemed to shut her up, and the metaphorical microphone being passed around the room landed with Knuckles. He opened his mouth to speak with a raised eyebrow, casting a glance between the two hedgehogs.

“You never answered Tails’ question,” he asked. Sonic turned to Shadow and crept up on his ear.

“Please can I tell them?” he whispered, flashing the best puppy eyes he could muster.

Shadow looked around for a moment, taking in the sight in his living room - he’d gotten used to Sonic’s obnoxious friends by now, and in the safety of his own living room hardly anything could go wrong. Would telling them about the Paradox Prism change their perception of him, or worse yet, Sonic? Perhaps being caught out on the elaborate lie would strain the team… or it could mend them. Sonic was ready to tell them anyway, so he could only trust it was the right thing to do. He looked Sonic in the eye, red hitting green, and nodded. Sonic finally started talking after his smile spread wide across his muzzle.

“Okay, okay, so the craziest thing happened a week ago…”