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Big's still not really sure what all happened to be honest. Why he even ended up in that White Space or what exactly went down at Sonic's birthday party. It's not like it really matters. He's got Froggy back and his favorite fishing spot is untouched; so all in all, he'd consider it a pretty good end to a long week.
He knows Sonic saved the day again somehow, he's pretty sure of that. Sometimes it's a little hard to keep up with what Sonic and his friends are up to next. He's always glad when they do rope him into whatever adventure they're on, but Big never really minds when he just crosses paths with any of them either.
He's pretty sure that black and red hedgehog he saw in the White Space has always been a little more distant. Especially with how Sonic talks about him whenever he stops by Mystic Ruins to try his hand at fishing and to visit that lab on top of the cliff. All Big knows is the guy is pretty quiet. A bit serious. Nothing like Sonic really. Though...Shadow did kinda smile at him the same way Sonic does.
Froggy ribbits from his perch on his shoulder and Big rolls the fishing pole's cork handle between his fingers.
“You're right, Froggy.”
It is a good day. It's a quiet, unbreezy morning. Even Froggy knows it's a perfect one for fishing with the lukewarm weather and the sun beating down on the water the way it is. The glare will keep them covered up well enough from the fish if they get a little too curious. Everything's exactly the way he remembers it being before the whole fiasco—that is everything except for a familiar dark-furred hedgehog sitting at the end of the dock.
“Oh...” Big blinks, ears perking up.
Froggy croaks, a webbed foot stomping into his fur pointedly.
Shadow doesn't turn nor acknowledge him in the slightest despite the fact Big isn't trying to be quiet. He figures that's okay. He gets kinda distracted around water too. There's always a lot to look at, and sometimes he watches the fish dart about and play without actually catching anything. It looks like Shadow's doing the same here, his legs dangled off the end of the low dock, shoes and socks removed and settled near the piling closest to him. There's a quiet splash as the hedgehog slightly disturbs the surface, his bare paws ankle deep in the brackish water.
When Big approaches, the dock creaks under him. His sandals shuffle over the water-bloated and sun-splintered boards. “You come here to fish too, Shadow?”
Shadow's quills puff up like a startled urchin. Big can't help but think about how the shape reminds him of the starfish he finds in the tidal pools on the north end. Everything's almost the same except for those shocks of red that stand out like a warning. Big learned pretty early on that bright things, especially in the water, usually mean ‘stay away’. His thicker gloves generally help him with handling all the different critters he reels in, but even he knows there's some stuff you just don't want to get too close to.
Shadow seems nice enough though. He's pretty sure the hedgehog doesn't bite either.
Shadow looks over his shoulder and Big notices how vibrant his eyes really are. It's kind of like Froggy's smaller cousins. The cherry-red tree frogs that reside in Mystic Ruins, the same ones that Froggy always seems a bit wary of. He knows they're poisonous despite how tiny and adorable they can be. Sometimes he can't help but reach out and try to touch them the same way he pats Froggy on the head, even if he knows he shouldn't.
“I didn't realize this was your fishing spot," Shadow says, extracting his feet from the water and pushing himself up. “I'll find somewhere else to rest.”
“I don't mind if you stick around. Froggy doesn't either. Right, Froggy?”
Froggy croaks loudly and enthusiastically.
“See?” Big says slowly with a smile. “He likes the company.”
Shadow hesitates, eyes darting away before he settles back down again. It's different from before. Big remembers Shadow holding his gaze a bit unerringly in the White Space. Like Shadow was looking all the way through him or something. Not that he really minds it, sometimes Sonic does the same and even Amy when either of them get to talking a lot. Though, it was the first time that someone really looked at Big like that and waited for him to finish every word without rushing into the next sentence right after. The slower pace of it all was kinda nice.
Big looks around where Shadow's sitting and the dock in a slow sweep. There's no rod or cooler. There's no bait bin or bucket or filet knife or really anything for fishing laying around beside what he carried here in his own cooler and on his fishing rod. Maybe Shadow didn't come here to fish then. Maybe he just came to look at the water. He's done that himself quite a few times, especially in the early morning when the sun rises. He wonders if Shadow's ever seen it before, the way the sun turns the whole lagoon into liquid fire as the waterfowl wake up.
“Did you wanna borrow my rod?” Big asks.
Amy's borrowed it before, Cream too. He showed both of them how to fish after that time Froggy got lost and there was that showdown with the robot copy of Sonic. He still doesn't quite get what the guy was after exactly, but he had found Froggy after and that had been that. Now that he thinks about it, Sonic has used his fishing rod too. Despite the semi frequent drop-in's, Sonic just never seems to bring his own along. And Tails even helped him make improvements to its design when the fox used to live here more often. The umbrella upgrade is still Big's favorite thing on a good and rainy day when he doesn't want to get his fur too wet, but he still wants to join Froggy in splashing in the puddles.
“I wouldn't want to break it by accident,” Shadow says.
Big laughs at that, deep bellied and amused. He's used his fishing rod to smash pesky robos before and hook himself onto things, a little bit of fishing is nothing really. “Oh, don't worry. You won't hurt it.”
Froggy ribbits his agreement.
“It's very sturdy,” Big holds out the rod towards Shadow.
Shadow eyes it skeptically and then grabs the handle in unsure fingers. “But I don't even know how to fish…”
“That's okay.” Big smiles. “I'll teach you if you want.”
“Hey, you've got a bite, Shadow!” Big says, leaning forward where he's sat on the lip of the dock.
Shadow holds the rod in tight fists, rigid and unmoving where he's sat beside Big.
“You've got the hard part done, so I'll leave it to you to pull it up.”
“How?”
“Use the handle,” Big says, reaching over Shadow's arms to tap the handle where it's spinning around the red framed reel body. “And try not to reel too fast.”
“Or what?” Shadow says, voice strained as the reel line hisses out, the handle spinning frantically as the fish scatters further away from them.
“Oh, the line could snap.”
Shadow stiffens at that.
Big chuckles and gestures out towards the water and the runaway fish. “You might wanna grab it before it goes all the way out.”
Froggy ribbits.
The control of the line shifts as Shadow grabs the handle and the rod bends dangerously at the end.
“Okay. Now you pull.”
Shadow pulls the rod and Big watches the point where the line disappears into the water with a disturbed ripple slide a little closer.
Big's ears perk up. “That's it. You can let up on it too.”
Shadow releases the tension. “Now what?”
“You do that until you bring it up.”
Wrangling a fish closer is a bit like how Big imagines dancing with someone else probably goes. There's a kind of push and pull to it and when he can feel a fish fighting at the end of the line, tugging frantically from side to side and then racing deeper down, he knows exactly when to wait for the pause. And there's a patience to Shadow that Big appreciates as he watches Shadow go through the same tangoing motions of fighting the fish. Sometimes Sonic is a bit too hasty with his reeling and moves too fast, and Amy likes to pull too frequently and too soon. Shadow seems more calculated in his struggle with it, letting the line go when he needs to and wrenching control back into his own hands the moment he sees any slack in the line.
But, as Big has found with all the others he's shown how to fish, the patience doesn't always last. Shadow bares his teeth when the fish makes a particularly fast cut away and the line spools out with it. The rod bends in a steep curve. It nearly groans as Shadow pulls as hard as he can and cranks the handle at the same time. Big can see it coming before he hears it.
The snap makes Froggy wince where he's perched on him and the reel’s black and yellow frame rocks straight without the tension that was bowing it. With a long, rippling hiss the broken off line disappears into the water and then everything goes completely still again.
Shadow stares at the frayed, dangling end he reels up. There's no lure in sight.
With his ears pressed back tightly, Shadow looks at Big. “I'll find a replacement for you, I shouldn't have—”
“No, that's okay," Big says.
Big moves Froggy off his shoulder and holds him out over the edge of the dock. Froggy leaps into the water with an excited ribbit and a splash.
“Froggy’ll bring it back.”
After a moment, Froggy lunges back out of the water and onto the dock, his mouth stuffed full. Big cups his hands in front of his belly and Froggy hops into them easily. There's a strange sound and then the lure tumbles out of Froggy's mouth, the hook clicking against the wooden dock between Big and Shadow.
“Nice job, buddy!”
Froggy ribbits and blinks up at him.
Shadow eyes the water and frog-spit covered lure on the dock. “That's…quite useful.”
“Yup. Froggy's a good buddy to have around.” Big looks at Shadow. “You are too.”
“But I broke the line.”
“Yup. It does that. It's okay though,” Big says, grabbing the rod carefully from Shadow's hands. “I'll show you how to fix it so when it happens again you can fix it too.”
Shadow's ears turn down, but it's not the same as the miserable put-out tension from before. There's a strange coloration to the thin fur on the inside of each ear, one that mirrors the slight discoloration on Shadow's snout. Big would chalk it up to sea sickness if they were in a boat, but last he checked the dock is pretty stable. Oh well...there's all kinds of things that can cause someone to go a little green around the gills suddenly.
“Thank you,” Shadow says.
“For what?” Big asks, pulling the tackle box close as he slides the rod’s cork handle into his belt and pinches it against his side with his arm. Pulling at the clear line, he reels it out until he's got enough to tie the lure back on properly and hums to himself as he works. Froggy joins him with his own smaller ribbits and croaks, hopping up between his ears and settling into his fur.
“For being patient with me.”
“Oh? No problem, Shadow,” Big says with a smile aimed right at the hedgehog, eyes crinkling up with the size of it.
There's a deeper flush of green on Shadow's snout again despite the dock standing perfectly still under them. Big's tail sways behind him as he ties off the lure and tugs at it to test the strength of the knot.
“There. Good as new.” Big hands Shadow the rod again. “Here you go. You can try again if you want.”
Shadow's fingers brush his as he takes it and Big blinks at how warm they are.
He's used to Froggy, who always sits a bit lukewarm and even cold on his fur if the little guy's just been in the water. Amy's thrown her arms around him in a hug before, Cream too—but it's not often he's in that much close contact with the others. That's fine by him. He can take life at his own pace out here, slow and always with enough time for a nap or two. The city's are too loud anyways. And smelly. He's only visited a handful of times and there certainly weren't enough spots to sit down and fish for his liking. Froggy’s never liked them either.
He watches Shadow rear back the rod and then flick it quickly out towards the water with a precise and calculated movement. The lure smacks into the water further out than even he's been able to cast it and Big blinks, silently impressed. There's a complete lack of unease to the hedgehog now. The scrunch that was on Shadow's muzzle and brow earlier has all but vanished as he tugs the line slowly and tries to entice another fish to take a bite.
Maybe the city is also too noisy and busy for Shadow. Big smiles to himself. He really wouldn't mind having a more regular fishing buddy out here if Shadow wants to get away from it all again soon.