Chapter Text
If the blue rat was honest with it, he would say that it was not sure from how it came to this situation.
A moment ago was of the most comfortable thing put to bed against the wall of a cave, enjoying the nature, when of nothing, it was swallowing ground and the knees being scraped. But knowing strange that it could become its life in a good gust, he would say that everything initiated for not having breakfast.
And go that it was right: What had not he learned since it cannot initiate the day with the empty stomach?
Chaos knew that it was becoming in a bad mood when he did not eat well, or when he did not eat in general, since one was feeding every two for three as what they were serving in the only restaurant of existing fast food of the people, and it would be to be too optimistic to call good meal to what they were serving in Meh-burger.
Although anyhow it compensated it later having lunched a big meal in-
No, it erases that. It compensated it eating up four chili-dogs in Meh-burger, that technically was arranging the error of not having had breakfast. Although without doubts, he was repenting of this decision at this moment.
The blow centered on its stomach was in charge to irritate Sonic straight against one of the trees of the area, causing a sickness for the blow that had happened against the crust of the tree.
But our hero did not have time to recover since the following minute it was being pulled by one of its ankles to be attacked again by rapid handles, assertive kicks, drafts in the air and blows against the soil that were leaving it worse than a few moments ago.
It was a brutal drubbing from which the blue hedgehog could not escape and that unfortunately you got lost, it had not presupposed to describe it, so you will have to be content with your imagination and a brief description of the damages. It is your fault for not being there.
Sonic fell down facing the soil with a dull blow before trying to raise and to meet face to face the metallic shoes of its rival, Shadow The ‘Emo-Punk-Villain’ Hedgehog.
It seemed that the hedgehog ebony was on the point of saying something when…
Buagh!
“That's disgusting!” there shouted the hedgehog ebony, its shoes rocket now silverware of green vomiting and pieces of something that Shadow did not want to find out that it was. So much for keeping them clean.
After the vomiting of its shoes shook uselessly, knowingly that would be needed more than that to take from them the smell and the spots, the crimson eyes were fixed in the agonizing hedgehog that was mouth below opposite to a very dry puddle of its own vomiting. ‘Pathetic’, thought Shadow before the sight.
To tell truth, both hedgehogs had not found one to the other since Shadow had joined the group of villains of Eggman, before leaving them on having realized as pathetic that they were.
And speaking about pathetic beings. That Shadow remembered of that time, its rival had not presented to himself so pathetically when they fought.
Dweeb? Yes. But pathetic? The hedgehog before its feet had to be a faker, because if he had learned something of the brief interaction that both had, it is that the blue hedgehog was anything less than.
Something was happening, and was going to extract the answer to the being lower than its feet like that out to blows.
And while Shadow was thinking about how to extract the truth to Sonic, the last one alone could suffer having lost its breakfast – lunch, now not only he was feeling sick, but also he was feeling hungry and miserable. Brilliant.
“Hey Faker, what happens to you?” grunt the hedgehog even in foot while there was moving away a foot of the moribund hedgehog that it had turned to lean on the soil “Stops being pathetic and fights with me.”
Sonic complained in answer.
“Today I am not of humor, Shadow” answered the moribund hedgehog while it was crawling far from its vomiting and was wrinkling the face for the morning sickness. “Do not you see that I am suffering?” It questioned the hedgehog, doing a vague gesture of its state while it was placing its face again against the soil.
Perhaps it was being exaggerated, the blue hedgehog clearly was not like that when Shadow found it, in fact, was well. But the smell of the vomiting, and they were not helping the sickness to think with logic, and it is not like that it was going to bother in analyzing what he had just said.
Definitely, one was regretting having eaten this four chili-dogs.
Shadow, without reacting before its clearly miserable state, only breathed heavily “In this case, you must have thought it to yourself better before inciting me to a fight” he answered the hedgehog ebony while it was crossing of arms.
‘Perhaps it is right’, thought Sonic, still without moving of its position in the soil. ‘I could have gone away to another place where Shadow not-’, it is then that its mind finally reaches it and recalls what Shadow had just said.
What the-?
Sonic lifts his head off the ground and confronts Shadow “Incite? What are you talking about?” asks the hedgehog confused “It was you who appeared out of nowhere and began to beat me like a madman” he reproaches even without getting up, and it is not like he thinks to get up. He is still dizzy and his legs do not respond to him.
First dead rather than make a fool of himself before Shadow's egocentric.
"Don't play the idiot," Shadow bites, showing his teeth, "You invaded my territory and entered my cave, obviously you did it to provoke me" he replies while frowning more.
Shadow's frown at this point seemed to be his default expression, which only made Sonic wonder how he didn't get wrinkles yet. But that wasn't important.
The important thing here was the theater that Shadow had just set up to justify his actions.
“Your cave?”
“Yes!”
“How was he supposed to know your cave was? It doesn't have your name written anywhere" the blue hedgehog chided as he grimaced in utter confusion.
From Sonic's perspective, he was just relaxing in a random cave that he found by sheer luck with the intention of staying away from town.
Although it seemed that he had found it by bad luck, because clearly that cave had to be Shadow's, apparently.
"Clearly you knew, it's the only explanation why you're here."
Forget the theater. What?
“What kind of mental leap is that!?” Sonic yelled in disbelief. By then his dizziness had subsided enough, so he groped to his feet to face Shadow.
Shadow clearly wanted to retort, but Sonic wasn't about to let him accuse him of something that he obviously didn't do.
This time he was going to express himself clearly.
"Listen man," Sonic began, approaching Shadow, "I didn't know the cave was yours, okay?" He clarifies while he touches the other hedgehog's chest with his finger “I found the cave, I didn't see anyone inside, I went in and sat down. That. Is. All.” He emphasized each fact and word poking the ebony hedgehog, with a clear lack of fear of what that could cause.
It's not like he cares at this point. Sonic was so done.
His day had only gone from bad to worse, starting with him waking up without breakfast, to this moment where everything he'd eaten for lunch had been unceremoniously expelled from his stomach. All this without counting the clear pain that he felt throughout his body from the beating he received for free no less than 10 minutes ago.
And his interaction with the emo punk hedgehog was clearly not doing any better, that is, they were accusing him of trespassing. What the hell, Shadow?
“Look, you know what? I'll get out of here” Sonic cut off just as Shadow was about to retort, or bite his finger, at this point it was pretty obvious that the ebony hedgehog was seeing red and was going to get even with the first thing in front of him. Read: Sonic.
But Sonic had had enough of being a punching bag.
“I'll go drown in my misery somewhere else,” he said, surrounding the other to return to the cave for his things. And I could leave it at that, Chaos knew he did, but he didn't want to give up a fight without a punchline “you more than anyone else should know how important it is to drown in pain” there, now he could walk away gracefully.
Or elegant enough that he could while limping.
'Fuck. Shadow did do a number with me', Sonic thought as he tried, and failed, not to show how much the blows hurt.
Although the next thing Shadow said next made him stop.
“What are you talking about?” Sonic at the question turned to see Shadow, who had a stiff look on his person.
The blue rat, confused, focused more on Shadow's face. This one didn't seem to be any different from his normal semi-frowning poker face, except that it looked more... Pale?
Strange.
“What not to drown in misery and pain in something common of the emos?” Sonic asked without thinking. Honestly the blue rat didn't know why he said that, that is, not a few moments ago that Shadow was making him eat dirt in the most humiliating way possible.
The expected thing was that before that the ebony hedgehog would jump to attack him again.
But it was not the case.
"...That's not what an emo does." Contrary to what he thought, Shadow answered his question with a now completely confused face.
Which only made Sonic's confusion grow even more.
'Well, I didn't expect that' “No? So why- Wait.” Sonic's confusion was instantly replaced by an asshole grin that only made Shadow grimace “Did you just confirm that you're an emo?”
“No! I did not do it!”
“You totally did it!” cackled the blue hedgehog while clutching his stomach from laughter, or from pain, at this point the hedgehog himself no longer knew, he was concentrating on something more important.
Who would have expected that Shadow the Hedgehog himself would admit that he was a full-fledged emo?
“I'm not an emo!” Repeat the aforementioned while he approaches his rival who kept laughing out loud in his place “I'm just clarifying what an emo doesn't do!”
“Sure.” The hedgehog answered as he calmed down and looked at his rival who was standing in front of him with his fists clenched at his sides, but without attacking him.
For the injured hedgehog, this would be the perfect moment to point out that what Sonic was doing was the same thing Shadow was doing a few moments ago: accusing him of something without proof.
But Sonic was tired, he was hungry and he just wanted to be in a quiet place to rest. He just wanted to sleep and drown in his misery, like he said before. Therefore, with that in mind, Sonic knew that he would have to be the voice of reason to try to get out of there alive and with his bones intact.
"Okay, you're not an emo, can you please forget what I said and let me go?" He started raising his hands in surrender “I was serious when I said I wanted to drown in my misery.” Now, that made Shadow stop, and for a second Sonic could bet the other was considering his proposal.
Though he didn't want to get his hopes up. With everything that had happened today he might as well end it all with a beautiful blackout from a concussion courtesy of his self-proclaimed rival.
It would literally be the icing on the cake of his whole bad day.
However, once again things turned out differently than he had planned.
“Good.” Said the aforementioned rival of his while he relaxed in a neutral pose “You can go.”
And again, Sonic could only witness everything with a face of utter confusion.
“That? Oh really?” Asked the hedgehog to which his rival affirmed by shaking her head “Will you really just let me go like that?”
“Make no mistake, Faker, I will still fight you.” Shadow growled as he crossed his arms “However, taking into account your current state, a fight against you right now is not worth it, it would just be a waste of time.”
“Sure, Shadow, whatever you say.” Sonic answered resignedly. Honestly, he shouldn't have expected less from his rival, that is, they just confirmed that Shadow is an emo. An empathetic action in response to his all-miserable state was not something he should have expected.
But it wasn't as if he was going to contradict her, he already had to tempt fate enough.
Therefore, the blue rat just turned around and continued on its way back to the cave. Yes, he was going to leave the place, but he wasn't going to leave his things in Shadow's cave, thank you very much.
And it wasn't much in there anyway, just a bag filled with three changes of clothes, spare athletic tape, a first aid kit, a thermos full of water, and a Tupperware container full of food he planned to heat up over a campfire later. But it was all he had on hand and he wasn't going to leave without that bag.
On second thought, perhaps he should have brought more than three changes of clothes, after all, one had to be prepared when he was out in the open. But honestly Sonic hadn't planned the trip to the cave in the first place, it was something impulsive that he just did because he didn't want to see anyone.
Which clearly didn't turn out the way he wanted, but he was already thinking about the negatives of his day too much. He thinks of all the bones he didn't break, how he has lunch ready in his bag, how he still has time to take a nap and go hiking-
Yuck. Forget the last bit, a nap and hike? Who was he? A grandfather?
Forget all that, let's just focus on the food. The discomfort and dizziness had dissipated enough for the hedgehog to remember that it now had an empty stomach, so the next logical action to take was to look for food and water to stop feeling empty.
With that in mind, Sonic turned to focus on the path ahead of him and continue walking to his destination. Only to realize at that moment that he was being escorted by hands that grabbed his right forearm and his left shoulder.
'That blow to the head must be more serious than I thought', the hedgehog thought when he saw that whoever was escorting him was none other than his rival. Who didn't seem to notice that the blue hedgehog was looking at him in shock.
"Uh... Shadow?" The badly injured hedgehog called, still with his puzzled look, but without trying to let go. The ebony hedgehog only produced a low growl indicating that he was listening “What are you doing?” asked the blue hedgehog.
“What is not obvious? I am escorting you.” was what the rival of the blue hedgehog answered without looking at him, only concentrating on the road ahead.
“Yes, I can notice that” Sonic answered while an anime-like drop ran down his forehead showing his confusion and clear nervousness. Which was obvious because let's remember: Sonic wants to get out alive there to drown in misery in peace from him. He can't do that if he's dead. "What I don't understand is, why are you escorting me?"
“Tch. You were staggering like an idiot as you tried to walk.” Shadow explained as he turned left next to a tree “This is a steep road, if you fall and pass out you are likely to fall to your death.” highlighted the hedgehog while kicking a couple of stones that immediately rolled downhill “I need a rival at my same level with whom I can fight, a corpse is of no use to me.” ended as he finished climbing to the path leading to his cave where, presumably, Sonic's bag followed.
And speaking of the king of Rome. The hedgehog was somewhat shocked by what his counterpart had said.
On the one hand, he was offended that Shadow was only helping him so he wouldn't lose him as a rival.
However, on the other hand, that also meant that Shadow, somehow strange and only made sense to the ebony hedgehog, really cared about Sonic. To some extent, since she obviously didn't care about him when he was beating him up of his life for a situation taken out of context.
But still, he cared about Sonic.
"Aww, I knew you cared about me," said the blue hedgehog as he flapped his eyelashes jokingly.
“I do not do it!” Shadow replied as he frowned at his rival and restrained himself from breaking her wrist “Just take your things and get out of here, don't you have a small town to protect?” He asked as he stopped to reorient himself on the path and avoid throwing his rival into the woods, again.
Later, Shadow realized that that last sentence had soured the mood of her rival, causing the mocking smile on her face to tighten, thus turning it into a grimace.
It wasn't until he tried to resume the journey that he realized that the hedgehog next to him was not moving, so he, irritated, turned to look at it to claim it.
But he was silent when he saw the bitter expression of his rival. An expression that Shadow had not seen until now.
'Oh? Have I touched a nerve?', The ebony hedgehog wondered as a sadistic idea formed in his mind. Though he managed to hide said thoughts from him behind his well-practiced poker face.
Shadow shouldn't, I mean, he was honest in admitting that a corpse was of no use to him. But, according to his reasoning, if the blue hedgehog was intelligent, or at least wanted his bones intact, he wouldn't physically lash out at Shadow no matter how much he messed with him verbally.
So yes, Shadow shouldn't, but he didn't care. The idiot vomited on his rocket shoe, he might as well be a little mean about it.
"Oh? What's up faker?” Asked the ebony hedgehog with a sinic tone well hidden behind his poker face “Is being a hero giving you problems?”
And sure enough, the grin that was plastered on Sonic's face only deepened further because of Shadow's questions.
Something that the blue hedgehog could only silently curse because, of course, anything he said would only affirm the suspicions of the blue hedgehog's rival. Because that was the truth.
Being a hero caused him problems.
But first dead before admitting it.
“What do you care?” Was all the blue hedgehog answered before dragging his rival in the direction of the cave to, once and for all, recover his things.
'Think about the food, Sonic', the blue hedgehog told himself like a mantra, 'Just think about the food', he repeated this over and over again as long as he ignored the truth that was hidden in plain sight.
Because the truth was that Sonic hadn't ended up in that place just on a whim, or for the convenience of the script.
No.
He ended up there because of the villagers who were currently surrounding said hedgehog's cabin with the aim of finding him and forcing him, for the sake of the plot, to return to acting as the town's hero.
Too bad he was already gone.