Chapter 1: The Walls
Summary:
“Boys, enough! It’s going to explode!” Rouge called, flying her way over and attempting to swipe the disc from the feuding hedgehogs, only for the disc to start glowing and sizzle.
“Rouge, MOVE!” Shadow called, shouldering her out of the way, only to collide with her as the disc finally imploded in each of the hedgehogs hands, sending them in opposite directions.
“ROUGE!”
“SONIC!”
“SHADOW!”
Notes:
First chapter yippee
edit: made some grammatical and spelling corrections. Why is auto correct my mortal enemy
Chapter Text
Groaning with a throbbing headache, Sonic opened his eyes. “My head….” he groaned, rubbing at his temples.
He jumped in his seat, scrambling to sit up when he noticed three pairs of eyes hovering over him in concern.
“Uh….hi?” Sonic said, uncomfortably shifting under the weight of everyone’s gaze
“Oh my god, you’re okay!” Amy was the first to move, pulling the blue hedgehog into a hug.
Sonic patted her back with a sheepish smile. “What happened here? You guys are acting like I was dead or something”.
“..We weren’t sure what Eggman’s new tech did to you” Tails elaborated, his ears drooping.
“Eggman’s new tech?” Sonic asked.
“Yeah, you really don’t remember?” Knuckles asked, scratching at his head, a habit he had picked up from the blue blur.
Sonic shook his head, “Well don’t leave me waiting”.
“Well…uh, Eggman attacked as usual….” The fox began.
—-
Earlier…
Sonic leaped out of the way of several lasers, sporting his usual cocky grin and attitude. “Wow, Egg head! You’re totally losing your touch” he taunted, faking a yawn.
Eggman practically growled, slamming a bunch of buttons on his flying console. But to no avail, Team Sonic and Team Dark defeated every single bot he sent their way.
“Well, I guess it’s time I unveil my new tech, since you want to see it so desperately” Eggman shouted, letting out an evil laugh as he produced a dingy looking disc.
“…A disc? Wow, you really have given up!” Sonic goaded swiping his thumb under his nose.
“Not just any disc, how else should I describe it? Hmmm? A bomb, mayhaps? Catch, Sonic!” Eggman cackled, sending the disc flying towards the mobians.
“Stay back!” Sonic called to his friends, just the same time as Shadow called “I’ll take care of this”.
The two hedgehogs met at the center, each of them catching the disc on one side. “Ummm, Shadow, let go” Sonic said through his teeth, yanking the disc towards himself.
“Let go? What are you, a child?” Shadow growled, and despite his words, he tugged the disc back in his direction.
“Boys, enough! It’s going to explode!” Rouge called, flying her way over and attempting to swipe the disc from the feuding hedgehogs, only for the disc to start glowing and sizzle.
“Rouge, MOVE!” Shadow called, shouldering her out of the way, only to collide with her as the disc finally imploded in each of the hedgehogs hands, sending them in opposite directions.
“ROUGE!”
“SONIC!”
“SHADOW!”
Right away, everyone started flocking towards the mobians involved. Amy leaned down towards Sonic, frantically grabbing his wrist and letting out a sigh of relief when she found a pulse.
Omega scanned over Shadow’s vitals. “ALL VITAL SIGNS STABLE, JUST KNOCKED OUT” he stated robotically.
Rouge grasped at her side where she fell on hard with a grimace, making her way over to Shadow. She fell to her knees dramatically beside him, sighing in relief.
She squinted at Shadow’s wrist, picking it up and examining it with a confused look. “…What?” She muttered.
“We should move Sonic to his hut” Amy said, hovering worriedly over the blue hedgehog.
“Um, forgetting about me, gang?” Eggman suddenly said, angry that the attention wasn’t on him.
Amy turned to him with a murderous glare, heaving her hammer over her shoulder. She started approaching him like they were all in a horror movie.
“On second thought….see you losers!” Eggman called out, flying away.
Amy turned back to Sonic, heaving him over her shoulder like he was just a couple of grapes, Tails and Knuckles close behind.
“Is he going to be okay?” Tails asked.
“He’s Sonic, he’ll bounce back” Knuckles comforted the fox, placing a heavy hand on his shoulder.
—-
Present…
“Oh right, the stupid disc thing” Sonic said. “It wasn’t very clever, just an explosive”.
“I’m not quite sure. I’m going back to pick up the pieces so I can examine them further” Tails piped up.
“So, do you really feel fine?” Amy asked.
“I’m fine, Ames. Just a little banged up” Sonic assured the pink hedgehog.
Despite his words, Amy still hovered around Sonic the rest of the day just to make sure he was fine.
—-
“How long was I out?” Shadow asked groggily, splashing cold water on his face.
“About two hours” Rouge replied, taking a sip of water. “Do you feel any different?” She asked.
Shadow shook his head. “This could’ve all been avoided if that blue bastard wasn’t such a fool” he gruffly complained.
Rouge chose not to comment on that, because with the way she saw it, Shadow was just as bad. She continued to stare at his hands and wrists.
“What are you looking at” Shadow growled, suddenly feeling the urge to hide his hands from her intense gaze.
She smacked her lips. “…Nothing”.
She must’ve hit her head pretty hard or something, because she was pretty sure that she could see thin red string wrapped around his fingers and wrists, trailing out past the door.
Shadow narrowed his eyes at her, but didn’t question her further, simply heading to his bedroom and slamming the door shut.
Rouge blinked and wiped at her eyes, yet the red string across the floor never disappeared. So, she did the next best thing, and decided to see where it goes.
She looked around the apartment, making sure that no pesky hedgehogs or nosy mechanical roommates were following her, and darted out the front door.
“…Now to see where that leads” She said to herself, following the numerous red strings laid out across the soft grass.
—-
She found her way to Sonic’s hut. The bat placed her hands on her hips, her ears twitching at the sounds of voices beyond the door.
“Sonic, please just let me check for any injures” Rouge heard the pink hedgehog say. The voices neared the door.
“I swear I’m fine” Sonic replied, leaving the hut and almost bumping straight into the bat.
“Oh, uh… hiya Rouge!” Sonic greeted nervously. Usually the bat didn’t lurk around his hut.
Suddenly, Rouge’s lips quirked into a wide smirk, having a faint idea of what exactly was going on.
This only caused Sonic’s nerves to flare, his foot starting to tap.
“Rouge! How’s Shadow doing?” Amy asked with a friendly smile.
“Oh he’s just fine” the bat replied, her smirk only growing wider.
“…Well, okay then” Sonic was getting too antsy and turned back inside. Rouge watched the red string wrapped around the blue hedgehogs fingers and wrists disappear behind the door. Her eyes flitted to the red echidna inside the hut, talking to Tails.
“It was nice seeing you, Rouge. Give Shadow my best” Amy said, giving the bat a friendly solute before heading back inside as well.
“…Oh I will” Rouge muttered, a plan already forming in her head. ‘This will be good’ she thought to herself, turning back to her shared apartment with Shadow and Omega.
Chapter 2: August
Summary:
“…What if I knew the location of a certain damn chaos emerald?” Rouge asked, smirk growing at the surprised expression on Shadow’s face.
“You’re bluffing” he growled, about ready to storm out of their shared apartment.
“Am I? I guess you’ll never know. Unless you come to the Christmas party” Rouge teased.
A forced sigh from Shadow stopped her in her tracks. “Fine.“
Notes:
⚠️TW⚠️: Shadow-typical violence, PTSD, blood, knives, Shadow has hallucinations
(See the end of the chapter for more notes.)
Chapter Text
Quietly munching on coffee beans in the kitchen, Shadow thought about yesterday. Something about Eggman seemed suspicious.
It seemed out of character for him to just throw a plain bomb out at them. Plenty of his tech came equipped with bombs, so what made that one so special?
“Something was definitely up with him” a voice sounded from beside him. Shadow about jumped out of his skin.
Shadow faced his supposed to be long-gone sister with his lips pressed in a thin line. Maria flashed him an apologetic smile for scaring him.
“Seriously, Shadow. Something is wrong” Maria warned, stepping forward and placing her hand on his shoulder. He couldn’t feel it. The thought made him nauseous.
“You’re not real” Shadow muttered, shoving past his sister. Despite his dismissal, Maria remained stubbornly at his side.
“Don’t be like that, Shadow” She replied.
Shortly after his second run in with his so called father figure, Shadow began to start seeing Maria.
She seemed so real. They would have conversations. She acted exactly as she did when she was alive. Yet he could not reach out to her. It was torture. He knew she was just a hallucination.
“Y’know, you should get out once in a while. You can only brood so much in a day” Maria teased, settling in on the black hedgehogs leather couch.
“How about you get out of my head instead?” He snapped, quills bristling. Losing her the first time was tough enough. The universe seemed hell-bent on making him relive her death over and over.
Maria simply rolled her eyes at his curt reply. “Forgive me for wanting the best for you, Shadow”.
Before he could open his mouth again, Rouge had appeared from her room. “Is someone else here?” She asked, peering from the corner of the hallway.
Shadow turned towards the couch, finding it empty. He swallowed the emotions threatening to bubble up to the surface. “No”.
Rouge eyed him warily, but sauntered her way to the kitchen, and started to make herself some toast. She knew better not to push Shadow. He would come to her if he needed her.
“So, Amy’s throwing her annual Christmas party tomorrow. Interested?” The bat asked, sprinkling cinnamon over her toast.
Shadow about lost his head with how fast he whirled towards her. “Tch. No. I don’t waste my time with parties”.
Despite his answer, Rouge grinned. Shadow suppressed a shiver. He braced himself for whatever would come flying out of her mouth next.
“…What if I knew the location of a certain damn chaos emerald?” Rouge asked, smirk growing at the surprised expression on Shadow’s face.
“You’re bluffing” he growled, about ready to storm out of their shared apartment. His ears flicked at the sounds of crashing outside. Omega must be lurking about out there again.
“Am I? I guess you’ll never know. Unless you come to the Christmas party” Rouge teased, having finished her toast and about to head back into her room.
A forced sigh from Shadow stopped her in her tracks. “Fine. If you are bluffing, I will disembowel you” the striped hedgehog threatened.
Rouge let a smirk take over her face. “Wouldn’t dream of it”. With that, she wandered back into her room.
As soon as her door clicked shut, Shadow reached back for his bag of coffee beans, only to sharply recoil at a sharp pang on his pointer finger, blood making its appearance through his gloves.
“What the fuck?” Shadow muttered to himself, pulling his glove off to find a cut across the side of his finger, though it was closing rather quickly due to his rapid healing.
He examined his finger further, finding nothing. Maybe he was starting to hallucinate injuries too. It wouldn’t surprise him.
—
“Sonic! Get your lazy blue butt in here!” Amy called from the kitchen, the hefty scent of potatoes and carrots filling the blue hedgehogs nose.
His ears flattened against his skull, and he reluctantly joined his pink friend in the kitchen, who was currently chopping onions.
“Can you be a dear and help me chop some onions? I have so much on my plate” Amy asked, though it sounded more like an order.
Amy was making her famous Christmas stew, which had to be prepared a day early from how long the broth took to cook.
“Sure thing” Sonic agreed, picking up a knife and getting straight to work.
“I’m also going to need your help decorating the tree later” the pink hedgehog continued, hovering over her stew.
Sonic had to keep himself from groaning. Amy was one of his best friends, but she has a horrible habit of being bossy around the holidays. Things always had to be arranged a certain way.
“Sounds like I don’t have a choice” the blue blur teased, scrunching his nose as the onion fumes started to make his eyes water.
Amy only giggled in response, lightly tapping Sonic’s shoulder as to not jostle him from cutting.
“So who’s all coming to this anyway?” Sonic asked, tongue poking out in concentration as he chopped away.
“Uhhh, Knuckles, Tails, Silver, Blaze, Omega, Rouge, and Shadow” Amy recounted, listing off her fingers as she spoke.
Sonic stopped chopping in surprise. “Shadow is coming?”.
“Yeah, it’s a little odd. I wonder if Rouge blackmailed him to come” The pink hedgehog joked.
“I’ll bet you five dollars on that” Sonic grinned, narrowing his eyes in a way at her that just dared her to rise to his simple challenge.
“You’re on!” Amy agreed, popping her knuckles since she knew it bothered Sonic.
He shivered in response, “Stoooop” he pouted, ears pressing down. Amy only laughed in response.
Sonic peered back down at his task, finding it hard to see due to the amount of tears in his eyes. He heavily blinked, leaning forward and pressing too much weight on the knife he was holding.
Before he could stop it, the knife sliced through the side of his pointer finger through his glove.
Sonic cursed, bringing his injured finger to his mouth and sucking at the wound to soothe the pain.
“Are you alright?” Amy asked, grabbing the other hedgehogs hand to examine herself.
“I’m alright, just a cut” he assured her. Without replying, Amy left the room and returned with a bandaid, carefully applying it over his wound.
“Thanks, Ames” Sonic smiled, giving her a small side hug. The pink hedgehog heavily flushed in response, going back to fretting over her large pot of stew.
“Hey Sonic?”
“Yeah?” The blue blur replied.
“Do you ever….?” Amy regarded Sonic with an unreadable expression.
Sonic tilted his head to the side. “Do I ever… what?” He pressed.
Amy shook her head, and turned back towards the stew, chewing her bottom lip. “Never mind”.
Sonic frowned, but continued his chopping anyway. Amy’s humming filled the awkward silence.
—
Standing at Amy’s front door next to his best friend, presents in hand, Shadow heaved a dramatic sigh. His displeasure was obviously readable.
“Can you at least pretend to act like you want to be here?” Rouge begged, popping her hip out like she did whenever she was irritated.
“Be grateful that I am here at all” Shadow advised, trying to ignore the growing ball of anxiety in his chest at the sight of the amount of people inside. It appears they are the last to arrive.
“It’s going to be okay, Shadow” Maria assured him, suddenly at his side, grabbing his hand. even though he could not feel it, he gratefully squeezed her hand.
The door flung open, Sonic’s wide smile enough to irritate Shadow. “Rouge! …Shaaadow” The blue blur dragged out, smiling in a way that made Shadow want to knock his teeth out.
“Sonic” Rouge replied, going in for a hug. Shadow could feel his cold heart shrink three sizes in disgust at the affectionate display.
“Please, come on in” Sonic said, stepping to the side to allow them both to enter. Despite every organ in Shadow’s body screaming at him to turn around, he wanted that damn fourth chaos emerald, so he reluctantly entered.
Immediately, his senses were overwhelmed. Different colored lights hung from the ceiling, the smell of freshly-baked cookies, and the tree being so bright that it was almost blinding.
He shrunk in a little on himself. He wasn’t sure he could do this. But he would, for the emerald. He was going to kill Rouge if she was lying.
—
Rouge stepped outside to examine what was causing so much noise, and to look for a certain hard-headed echidna.
What greeted her was certainly unexpected.
Knuckles and Omega locked hands on a table, each of them fighting for the upper hand. Silver cheered them both on, while Tails seemed uninterested in the display.
She lingered a bit more, and witnessed Knuckles press Omega’s arm fully down, cheering in victory.
The bat saw her chance. So, she took it.
She put on her most confident appearance, and sauntered up to the red echidna. “My, my, I do like a man who can do a little heavy lifting” she ended her flirt with a wink.
Knuckles scowled, though the bat didn’t miss the flush building on his muzzle. “If you’ve come to make fun of me, you might as well leave”.
“Make fun of you? I would never” Rouge clutched at her chest, smirking as it only seemed to rile Knuckles further.
“Oh yeah? How about an arm wrestle?” Knuckles grinned wickedly.
Rouge thought for a moment, then shrugged. “Alright”. She took her position, gripping the echidnas hand firmly.
Obviously, Knuckles had her bested in strength. That didn’t mean Rouge would give in.
“Just admit that you wanted to hold my hand” the bat flashed a sultry grin and fluttered her eyelashes.
Knuckles turned as red as his fur, sputtering nonsense, his grip faltering. Rouge saw her chance, and quickly drove his arm flat on the table.
“What?! No fair! I declare a rematch!” Knuckles barked, getting in her face. Rouge only smirked in response, checking her nails despite them being covered by her gloves.
“Maybe another time, lover boy” and with that, she sauntered off inside. She grinned at Knuckles sputtering.
Now onto her main objective.
With enough searching, she quickly found the brooding hedgehogs hiding spot. He was silently peering at the pictures Amy kept on her wall. A particular one of her and Sonic.
“Having fun?” The bat asked, not missing the subtle flinch of the hedgehogs shoulders.
“Sure” he deadpanned, crossing his arms. Rouge’s eyes flitted to the red string wrapped around his fingers.
“Cmon, get out there! No one can get to know you if you’re hiding” Rouge pushed, leaning into his space.
Shadow leaned away, “Precisely” he replied, his lips quirking downwards. It seems like the black hedgehog wasn’t going to budge, so Rouge would turn to her other option.
She huffed in reply, and went off to find Sonic. It was easy, as he was in the kitchen eyeing the stew, licking his lips.
“Careful, Blue. Lean far enough and you’ll fall in” she teased. Sonic turned towards her, smirking and placing a hand on his hip.
“Rouge! Enjoying yourself?”
“Oh I certainly am. I do have a question though”. Playing to Sonic’s curiosity was a good way to isolate him.
“Oh?” He asked, tilting his head in interest. The bat grinned and dragged him towards Shadow’s general area.
“Could you point me towards the restroom? A girl’s gotta freshen up”.
“Oh, uh, sure! Down the hall, second door to the left” Sonic guided.
She followed his instructions, peeking back and grinning when Sonic targeted Shadow as expected, being he was the only one around.
—
“Whatcha doin’?” Sonic asked, catching Shadow red-handed with a picture he had picked up.
Shadow scowled, carefully setting it down and turning to leave. “Haven’t I heard enough out of you?”
Sonic simply stepped back into his field of vision. “You wound me, Shads” the blue blur knew Shadow despised the nickname.
Shadow bared his teeth, the sight of his sharp fangs only making Sonic more excited. “Don’t call me that”.
“What? Shads?”.
Shadow growled, yanking Sonic forward by his arm and dragging him to the front yard.
“Boys, please don’t fight on my front lawn! I just planted some petunias!” Amy’s voice fell on deaf ears.
“What is your problem?” Shadow snarled, baring his fists.
“Moi? Problem? Never!” Sonic teased, narrowing his eyes with a smirk. Shadow’s quills bristled.
He wanted nothing more than to punch him in his stupid blue face. So he did.
He tackled Sonic to the ground, successfully landing a punch to his cheek, only to sharply recoil.
Sonic stopped struggling for a moment. “Shadow?”.
The black hedgehog stared down at Sonic with an unreadable expression, holding his own cheek.
“Pinch me” Shadow muttered.
“What?” Sonic replied.
“Pinch me, now” Shadow ordered.
“Geez, fine! You can be such an asshol- ow!” Sonic whined, rubbing at his arm. He paused in the motion. “Wait, what?”.
Shadow stared at the hedgehog underneath him in horror, and swiftly got off of him. He just stood still.
“…Shadow?” Sonic tried weakly.
“I need some air” the black hedgehog muttered, kicking his air shoes to life and skating away.
Rouge watched in horror as the scene came to an end. The red string dragged behind Shadow as he skated away.
The bat approached Sonic, helping him up, before setting the course to fly after her best friend.
—
Shadow sat on a ledge over a body of water, his ear twitching at approaching footsteps.
“…Shadow? What happened there?” Rouge asked, sitting beside the brooding hedgehog.
“You won’t believe me” he muttered, striped arms wrapped around his knees.
“Try me” Rouge softly offered.
“When I….punched the Sonic… I..- I felt it, Rouge” Shadow confessed. It broke Rouge’s heart to see the confused and sad look on his face. A sight he never offered anyone else.
The bat sighed. “It must all be connected” she muttered to herself. Shadow turned to her, confused.
“What do you mean?” He asked.
Rouge winced slightly. “Remember a while ago when the three of us got caught in that explosion?” She began lightly.
Shadow nodded, staring at her intensely. Anyone else would’ve ran for the hills.
“Well…, ever since then, I’ve seen….weird things”.
“What kind of weird things?” Shadow asked, hope leaping up his chest. Was his sister not a hallucination after all?
“Red string. Wrapped around your hands…connected to…” the bat went on.
Shadow clenched his jaw. Of course it was a hallucination. “Connected to?” He pressed.
“Sonic. Connected to Sonic” She finished.
Shadow stared at her like she grew a second head. He stood up abruptly, shouting loud enough that nearby birds scattered.
“Connected to WHO?!”
Notes:
The way I have no idea how each chapter is gonna end 💀 I legit just start typing and hope for the best (hopefully it’s not obvious)
Chapter 3: Swim
Summary:
“Sonic just about jumped out of his skin at the feeling of claws digging into his fur. He whipped his head down, only to see that the black hedgehog was not touching him at all. Their only point of contact was Sonic’s hand tightly gripping the other’s arm.”
“What. The. Hell” Sonic said.”
Chapter Text
Shadow sat brooding on his cool leather couch, head in his hands. He was about one step away from shouting at Rouge, who was making a lot of noise in the kitchen.
He chewed heavily on his lip until it bled, rocking slightly back and forth unconsciously. Out of all Mobians to get linked to, it had to be the blue bastard.
“It’s not that bad” Rouge tried to soothe, placing a piping hot cup of tea in front of Shadow, and pushing it towards him.
Despite it being scalding, Shadow took a hefty sip, hissing at the heat. The pain was grounding.
“Don’t you dare” Shadow growled, quills bristling. He felt like his body was no longer his own.
Rouge frowned at his hostility, biting her tongue from giving Shadow her brand of tough love. It wasn’t what he needed right now.
“What does this even mean?” He muttered.
“I…I’m not sure. It obviously had something to do with Eggman’s new tech. I couldn’t see the strings until it exploded” Rouge said.
“Then I know what I need to do” Shadow grimaced, standing up abruptly. He needed answers. Now.
“The emerald” the striped hedgehog demanded.
Rouge heavily sighed, before heading to her room and retrieving the emerald. Shadow tried to ignore the anger flaring at it being just under his nose.
“Try to take care of yourself, hun” Rouge said, handing him the green emerald. It wasn’t near as brilliant as Sonic’s eyes.
Wait.
What the fuck.
Shadow almost physically slapped himself. The bond must be messing with his brain. He needed to get it severed as soon as possible.
He only offered the bat a grunt before he blipped out of their shared apartment.
—
“Sonic, don’t it’s too dangerous!” Tails called in a panic, reaching out towards his brother-figure.
“Danger is kinda my whole thing” Sonic replied with a wolfish grin, readying into position.
“You can’t do it” Knuckles said, his expression serious.
“Watch me!” Sonic called. With a push of his feet, he put his full weight on his hands and raising his upper body so his legs were in the air.
“No way!” Tails said in wonder.
Sonic grinned, rolling back onto his feet, and leaned onto the echidnas shoulder. “A deals a deal!”.
Knuckles scowled, slapping five dollars into Sonic’s waiting palm with such a force that it made his hand tingle slightly.
Suddenly, the blue blur was on the floor, calling out in pain, hands slapped over his muzzle as he thrashed slightly.
“Okay, now you’re just being a baby” Knuckles dead-panned. He didn’t hit Sonic that hard.
Sonic shook his head, tears springing in his eyes. Tails leaned down towards Sonic, lips downturned in a concerned frown.
“Sonic? What’s wrong?”
“My mouth huuuuurts” Sonic whined, palms still covering his mouth.
Tails’ ears tilted to the side. “Huh?”
“It feels like I got burned” Sonic said, sitting up slowly. He pressed on his tongue, wincing when the skin was still tender.
“Did you go and piss off a witch or something?” Knuckles asked, eyes wide.
Sonic groaned at his red friend. “No Knuckles, there are no witches. We’ve been over this several times”.
“That’s what they’d want you to think” Knuckles whispered, looking side to side like one would conjure randomly.
Sonic rolled his eyes, fully standing up. “How could this have happened?” Tails asked. The blue hedgehog shrugged in response.
“What is going on out here?” Amy asked, suddenly appearing with her hands on her hips. Knuckles narrowed his eyes at her.
“Sonic burnt his tongue” Tails answered.
Amy turned to the other hedgehog with a confused expression, but grabbed his wrist anyways, dragging him into the kitchen.
The pink hedgehog shoved cold water into Sonic’s hands, the blue hedgehog letting out a grateful sigh once the water hit his tongue.
“What’s going on?” Amy asked. She could tell Sonic was stuck in his head by his zoned out expression.
“The fact that I seemingly burnt my tongue on nothing” the blue blur replied, tapping at his lip. Something was wrong. He couldn’t quite place it, but something felt off.
“That certainly is….something” Amy said, leaning on the counter in thought.
Sonic was brought back to the events of yesterday. How Shadow had looked at him after punching him. How he felt the pinch himself when the black hedgehog was the one pinched.
Could they somehow be…..? No way. That’s impossible. Maybe he really did somehow piss off a witch.
Sonic was yanked out of his thoughts by the pink hedgehog. “Have you heard from Shadow? I’ve been worried about him ever since he stormed off yesterday”.
“Not really. He probably just had a stick up his ass like always” Sonic replied. Despite his harsh words, he really was worried about the black hedgehog.
Suddenly, an idea popped up into his head. He should just go find Shadow, find out what’s really going on. It obviously involved Sonic. Hopefully, he didn’t make the guy uncomfortable.
“I’ve gotta run, Ames”. He didn’t think to stick around to hear her reply before he was already dashing out the door.
—
For miles, he just ran. Shadow was extremely hard to find. Usually, the striped hedgehog would come find him.
Despite having no idea where he was heading, he felt a strange pull on his chest. Like he was being guided.
Too stuck in his head, his chest suddenly started to burn a little and he slammed into a broad chest.
Landing on his ass with a wince, Sonic regarded whatever he ran into. His heart lurched into his stomach at the sight.
Angry red eyes peered down at him. It was none other than Shadow himself. His hands were curled into tight fists, looking seconds away from turning tail.
“Shadow! Just the guy I was looking for” Sonic beamed, jumping up and brushing the dirt off from his fur.
“Not now” Shadow growled, kicking his skates to life.
“Not so fast!” Sonic stood directly in the black hedgehogs path, despite the very real possibility that the other could forcibly remove him.
Shadow gritted his teeth, “What.”
“What exactly happened yesterday?” Sonic asked. The pulsing in his chest was becoming hard to ignore.
Despite Shadow having a face of steel, his body language had tells. Sonic could tell that he had thrown the black hedgehog off by his shoulders slightly tensing.
“You got in my way and I kicked your ass” the striped hedgehog brushed off.
Sonic resisted the urge to grab his neck and strangle him. His eye twitched in annoyance. “You know what I meant”.
“Out of my way, faker” Shadow sneered, stepping forward and pushing the blue blur to the side.
Only, Sonic had predicted the other’s avoidance, and grabbed his arm, unapologetically gripping so hard that his claws dug in.
For only a moment, Shadow had a look of pure terror on his face. It was gone like it had never happened.
Sonic just about jumped out of his skin at the feeling of claws digging into his fur. He whipped his head down, only to see that the black hedgehog was not touching him at all. Their only point of contact was Sonic’s hand tightly gripping the other’s arm.
“What. The. Hell” Sonic said.
Shadow violently shrugged out of his hold, only to be yanked forward by the chest fur. Sonic winced at the slight pain blossoming across his chest.
“Explain. Now” With how close he was to the other’s face, he could see every little detail. The sweat on Shadow’s brow, the widening of his pupils, and the way his eyes flitted to Sonic’s lips.
Sonic’s heart leaped in his throat, emotions bubbling up to his throat that he spent years shoving down. He couldn’t help but glance at Shadow’s lips, too.
With a fluid movement, Shadow surged forward and knocked their skulls together, pulling his signature emerald from his quills and blipped away.
“Ow!” Sonic whined out to the empty wilderness, holding his head. The pulling on his chest returned.
He allowed himself a moment to process what had just happened. All he could think about was Shadow looking at his lips. After all this time….? Could he…?
Sonic shook his head, trying to physically shake away those thoughts. He had spent years bottling his feelings for Shadow, and he wasn’t about to let them burst out again.
When a million different scenarios of kissing the striped hedgehog flooded his mind, he had the inkling that it was too late.
—
..Earlier
Humming happily to himself, Eggman scrubbed himself of any remaining dirt, basking in the pink bubbles that threatened to spill out of the tub.
“Orbot! Cubot! Fetch me my crackers and cheese!” He ordered loudly.
The two bots came flying in, carrying a large tray of Eggman’s favorite snack. “Your snacks, sire” Orbot said, carefully placing the tray in front of him.
“Ooo! Bubbles!” Cubot said excitedly, yelling when Eggman swiped at him to get away.
Their squabbling was suddenly interrupted by a bright green flash. The three of them froze like they were in a sitcom.
Shadow opened his mouth, only to abruptly close it at the scene unfolding before him. He was truly at a loss for words.
“Well this is awkward” Orbot added unhelpfully.
“Can’t a man bathe in peace!?” Eggman shouted, throwing a piece of cheese at Shadow.
The black hedgehog dodged with a dead-pan, simply walking outside to wait for the man to finish. He shivered to himself, the scene burned behind his eyelids.
After sending his henchmen away, Eggman threw a pink fuzzy robe on and met Shadow in his living room.
“Cheese and crackers?” The evil genius offered.
“What does your new device do?” Shadow asked, getting right to the point.
“Uh, which one? That’s very vague” Eggman replied.
Shadow had to fight the urge to face palm. “The disc shaped device in our recent encounter”.
“Oh yeah, that. Why would I tell you my deepest, darkest secrets?!” Eggman screeched.
The black hedgehog simply stood up, allowing the chaos energy in his body to gravitate towards his palms, a red glow encasing his hands.
Eggman let out a girlish shriek, “Okay, okay! Fine! It was supposed to disintegrate you rodents on the spot but it malfunctioned!”.
Shadow scoffed, “Clearly”
“I did some testing, and turns out it soul bonds the two nearest people” he went on.
“What does that mean?” Shadow growled, causing Eggman to flinch back.
“It means that you feel whatever pain the other does!”.
Shadow paused, processing the information that he was just given. “It doesn’t force attraction?”.
“What? No!” Eggman questioned.
He shoved down the panic crawling its way up his chest and into his throat. Now was not the time to have a panic attack.
“Undo it” he demanded.
“Well uh, the two would have to somehow fuse their energies together. In the process, your energies were split in half and absorbed by the other. So, you would have to find a way to super-charge your energies and transfer it to each other” Eggman explained.
“And what is the best way to do that?” Shadow prompted.
Eggman paused, looking sheepish. “How do I put this lightly? Oral….uh…connection”.
Shadow paused in his tracks. “Are you saying…that hypothetically…these two individuals would need to kiss”.
“Yes” Eggman replied.
So many emotions jumped to the surface that he blipped out of Eggman’s lair, landing on soft forest ground in the middle of nowhere.
Shadow started to hyperventilate, grasping at his arms. He would….have to….
“Breathe, Shadow” a gentle voice urged beside him, taking his hand. His breath stuttered.
“Y-You’re not really h…here” Shadow gasped, clutching at his throat, claws poking through his gloves and scratching at his throat.
Maria grasped his hands in hers. “Copy me” she guided, breathing in slowly through her nose, and out through her mouth.
He gave up, following her instructions. He slowly felt the tightness in his throat loosen, his breath slowing down.
“Why did it have to be him?” He questioned.
“Would you rather it be anyone else?” She asked gently.
He fought the tears springing in his eyes. “No”. Admitting it out loud scared him. He had wanted this for such a long time. He never acted on his feelings, because just as he had lost Maria, he would eventually lose Sonic.
The curse of immortality.
The two sat in silence for a little while, the blonde leaning on his shoulder. She rubbed her hand up and down Shadow’s arm.
“I miss you” he whispered, terrified that she would disappear.
“I know” she gave him a sad smile. “You need to talk to him”.
Shadow sighed in defeat.
“I know”
Notes:
Y'all I have so much going on rn so I may be a little slower on getting requests/updating these chapters. Please bare with me
Chapter 4: Slow Down
Summary:
“It’s about time you two kissed” Rouge commented, failing to keep a few more snickers in.
“No, it’s not” Shadow replied, taking a few deep breaths to quell his urge to disembowel his bat roommate.
“...Suree. Like you haven’t wanted to kiss Blue for years” she teased, dodging a weak punch thrown her way.
Notes:
⚠️TW⚠️: blood, violence, torture, needles, Shadow’s experience on the Ark, Sonic’s experience on the Death Egg
Y'all I'm so sorry I took forever on this one. The ao3 author curse is real 💔🥲. Anyways I finally wrote a long chapter praise me 🙏🙏
Edit: made some grammatical and spelling corrections, as well as a very tiny tweak to the storyline
(See the end of the chapter for more notes.)
Chapter Text
Slowly opening his eyes, Sonic moved to stretch, but found his movements were limited and much slower.
His fur felt wet. Everything felt wet. No matter how much his heart raced, his breathing remained forcefully slow, granted he could barely breathe at all.
Trying his best to focus his eyes, he felt his heart drop to his stomach at his surroundings. White walls, a control center, and the only light coming from whatever he was contained in, the green light bouncing off the walls. It almost reminded him of a hospital.
He tried to walk forward, but his feet were left slowly and uselessly flailing, as if he were floating. Pushing his body to move further, his face suddenly smashed against a wall of glass.
He grunted at the impact. He rubbed at his face to stop the sharp sting, and tried to get his lungs to work. “Hey! Anyone out there?! Could use some help here!”. The strange liquid he was marinating in muted his cries for help.
He banged his fists against the wall of glass, yet the thick liquid he was encased in made it seem like he was simply tapping on it. He growled in frustration.
Suddenly, a bunch of men in white coats burst into the room, and Sonic’s natural response was fear, every bone and organ in his body screaming at them to get away from him.
His heart rate desperately tried to beat as fast as it could, yet he fixed his face to not show what he was truly feeling. He wouldn’t give them the satisfaction.
‘What the hell is going on here?’, he thought to himself. Why was he suddenly thinking as if he’s been here before? Sonic thought he would remember something as traumatic as being stuck in a tube, yet he has gotten knocked around quite a lot. Maybe it was something he blocked out.
He could just barely hear the men talking, his ears flicking at a familiar name “Shadow” and a gesture towards him. Sonic tilted his head in confusion, turning to look behind him. The ebony hedgehog was nowhere to be found.
He found himself backing up until the quills on his back met yet another glass wall. The scientists? Doctors? He wasn’t sure, but one of them reached for the console, pressing a button.
Suddenly, the thick liquid started to drain, and Sonic almost sighed in relief at the pressure on his lungs disappearing. Yet, he couldn’t help the rising fear trying to claw its way through his chest.
The men started to approach him, equipped with thick gloves and some type of armor, and Sonic found his quills bristling and his teeth baring, his eyes glancing at the stick one of them was holding, a stick that Sonic knew from personal experience was a taser.
They opened the door, multiple scientists practically tackling him, lifting him up by his under arms. He received several tases to the ribs as he flailed, his cries of pain and numerous calls of “Stop!” fell on deaf ears.
“What the actual fuck is going on?!” Sonic shouted. The men didn’t even so much as twitch in acknowledgement.
They shoved him onto a table, quickly strapping him down, the restraints made of some sort of cool metal that uncomfortably dug into his skin.
The blue blur felt himself start to hyperventilate, struggling like a fish out of water. A man approached him with a syringe, slowly leaning towards the blue hedgehog like he was in some sort of horror movie.
He let out a scream as it got closer to his arm, helplessly trying to press himself closer to the table to avoid it.
–
“NO! NONONO!” Sonic shouted, sitting up in a panic so fast that it made him lightheaded. He drew in on himself, wrapping his arms around his torso where could just faintly feel the buzzing around his ribs.
A few stray tears dripped down his face, which he furiously scrubbed out of his fur. He struggled to breathe, letting out a few quiet whimpers as he curled further into a ball.
His door flew open, a concerned fox quickly padding over to the blue hedgehog’s side. “Sonic? What’s going on?” Tails asked, nervously hovering over his older brother, eyes wide and ears attentive.
Sonic took a shaky breath to collect himself. “Just a bad dream, buddy. Sorry to wake ya” he replied with a nervous grin, staring down and playing with his fingers to avoid meeting the concerned gaze of his younger brother.
“....Do you want some company?” the fox quietly asked, shifting nervously in his spot.
The blue hedgehog regarded him for a moment, then pulled the covers aside to invite the fox in. Tails slotted himself into Sonic’s space, pressing his side into Sonic’s and curling his way around the blue blur’s body.
Sonic sighed, slinging an arm across the fox’s back. His purrs started to loosen the pressure around Sonic’s throat, his heart rate starting to slow to a normal speed.
He opened his mouth to say something, only to let a fond smile grace his features at the sight of the other’s relaxed face. He scratched idly between Tails’ ears. “Thank you” Sonic whispered.
Feeling too restless to sleep, he settled into his position. The comfortable weight settled onto his chest gently reminded him that he wasn’t going anywhere anytime soon. Sonic found he was quite okay with that in the moment.
–
Rouge sat idly sipping at her tea, her ear twitching in growing annoyance at the sound of heavy shoes trailing back and forth throughout the apartment.
Shadow rubbed at his chin, pacing back and forth, running every possible simulation in his mind of telling Sonic about how to deal with their little soul bond problem.
“Sweetheart, I love you to death, but will you please stop pacing before I wring out your neck?” Rouge asked, rubbing at her temples out of annoyance.
The striped hedgehog growled in frustration, plopping himself onto a chair and crossing his arms as if he were a toddler throwing a tantrum.
“Now, tell me what’s going on” the bat calmly asked, continuing to sip at her tea.
Shadow contemplated for a moment. He could lie, though he was sure the nosy bat would probably somehow find out sooner or later.
“I know how to sever the bond” he began.
“That’s great. How?” Rouge replied.
“Sonic and I have to supercharge our energies…and then…” he trailed off, clenching his hands into fists, his claws digging into his palms.
“...And then?” the bat prompted when it became obvious that Shadow was not going to continue,
“.. .Andthenwehavetokiss” he said through gritted teeth, resisting the urge to pull out his head quills.
Rouge spat out her tea in shock, a few snickers falling from her lips. Shadow flinched at the display, ears pressing flat against his skull. He wanted a hole to open up underneath him.
“It’s about time you two kissed” Rouge commented, failing to keep a few more snickers in. The black hedgehog frowned at her teasing.
“No, it’s not ” he replied, taking a few deep breaths to quell his urge to disembowel his bat roommate.
“... Suree. Like you haven’t wanted to kiss Blue for years ” she teased, dodging a weak punch thrown her way.
“No I have not! ” Shadow exclaimed, yanking gently at his upturned quills, growling a little in response. He did not want to kiss the hedgehog! Not even a little bit!
…Though, he supposed the blue hedgehog did have nice lips. His blue fur made his emerald eyes pop. His smile could melt anyone within a five mile radius.
The striped hedgehog shook his head like his thoughts had burned him. He did not want to kiss that blue bastard!
Rouge watched his inner turmoil with a grin, crossing her legs. Perhaps this ‘soul bond’ was exactly what the two hedgehogs needed to finally tie the knot.
The striped hedgehog suddenly pointed an accusing finger in her direction. “You are wrong, and I will prove it” he growled, storming out of their apartment with heavy footsteps.
Rouge simply chuckled to herself, shaking her head at his dramatic exit. “Idiots” she muttered to herself, finishing off her tea.
–
Sonic yelled in victory as the tv displayed his win, getting up to do a little dorky dance. Knuckles scoffed at the view, swatting at the blue hedgehog’s flailing arms.
“I call for a rematch! You cheated!” the red echidna exclaimed, crossing his arms.
“All I hear is the epic whinings of a loser ” Sonic sing-songed, flashing his friend a cocky grin.
Knuckles turned to Tails. “You watched the match. You saw he cheated, right?” he growled, getting in his face.
The fox shrunk slightly at the weight of their gazes. He was torn between telling the truth or remaining loyal to his older brother. “...Um”
Knuckles barked out a laugh, roughly slapping Tails’ back. “I think we have our answer! You. Rematch” the red echidna demanded.
Sonic groaned, shrugging. “I still think you’re just a sore loser, but I’ll happily kick your ass again” he said with a wide grin, picking back up the controller.
“Hey, Sonic, can we talk?” Amy asked almost timidly, which was wildly out of character for her.
“You aren’t going anywhere until you give me a fair rematch” Knuckles said, regarding Sonic with a frown, a competitive fire dancing in his amethyst eyes.
“Now now, Knuckles, you’ll get your rematch. Just give me a sec” Sonic replied, following his pink friend to a separate part of the house.
“What’s up?” he asked with a grin, hands on his hips. He watched Amy open and close her mouth like a fish.
“Uh… so i’ve been wanting to talk to you about this for a while…” she begun.
Sonic felt his foot start to tap anxiously, his grin morphing into something more nervous-like. He dreaded these types of conversations.
Amy seated herself on a chair, gesturing for the blue blur to do the same. The pink hedgehog brushed her quills off her shoulder nervously. “...So um..” she tried, working herself up to it.
“...You know what, never mind, maybe this isn’t the best time” she decided, standing up to leave.
“Now hold on, if you need to get something off your chest, you should do it” Sonic replied, gently pushing Amy by her shoulders to sit back down.
She smiled nervously in return, picking at the cuffs of her gloves. “...Okay…here goes”.
“I like you, Sonic. I REALLY like you…like in a romantic way” Amy confessed, cringing at the sheer amount of times she said ‘like’.
The blue hedgehog sat dumbfounded, jaw slightly hanging open. He certainly didn’t expect this.
Amy had a feeling of what Sonic’s answer would be from his reaction. She abruptly stood up. “I’m sorry, just forget this happened”-
Sonic stood up, tugging her back by the arm so she was facing him. “Amy, I care so much about you….but, I don’t….. feel that way about you” he confessed.
Her bottom lip quivered slightly, and she fought tears from forming in her pretty green eyes. “...Right! That’s okay!” She said almost too cheerfully, trying to break from his strong grip.
The blue hedgehog frowned, and pulled her into a hug, trying to push down his guilt from the feeling of Amy’s wet face on his shoulder.
She slowly returned his embrace, sniffling quietly. “Tell me this won’t ruin our friendship” she whispered.
“It won’t, I promise” Sonic replied quietly, rubbing her back, Amy sighed in relief.
“Are you going to be okay?” Sonic asked, pulling back from her.
“I will be” she assured her friend. She smiled brightly, despite her eyes being so glossy that she could barely see.
Sonic heard Knuckles’ complaining about him taking too long, so he patted her shoulder, turning to leave.
Before he could get too far, he swore that he saw familiar striped quills lurking outside of his window. He rubbed his eyes, seeing no one there. He shrugged, going to return to the whining echidna.
—
Shadow stood creepily in Sonic’s bushes. He had been staring at the front door for at least five minutes now.
He paced back and forth violently with no pesky bat roommates to stop him , trying to run every possible outcome in his head, gnawing heavily at his bottom lip.
Oh, who was he kidding? The blue bastard was either extremely predictable or incredibly unpredictable.
Puffing out his chest, he decided he was going to really do this. He has kind of left Sonic in the dark this whole time. The blue hedgehog deserved to know what was going on.
He quickly primped his quills, and walked up to the front door. He raised a heavy fist to knock, only to pause in his step. Through the window, he could see the blue hedgehog and his pink friend hugging.
He stood there, absolutely frozen. Out of all scenarios he ran in his head, he didn’t account for this one. It was no secret that Rose had a thing for the blue idiot, but Shadow didn’t anticipate him returning it.
Suddenly, Shadow felt like the biggest idiot in the world. Of course he liked her. Who wouldn’t? She was pretty, caring, and stubborn. All of the things that the blue hedgehog values.
Shadow awkwardly coughed. He should go home now. However, before he could turn away, Sonic was patting Amy’s shoulder and briefly turned, emerald meeting ruby.
He quickly high tailed it out of there, leaving the others home in a green flash. He tried and failed to keep the emotions from bubbling out of his throat as he teleported back to his apartment.
Shadow practically burst through his front door, his chest heaving as if he had never known air. Rouge sat up in concern, her brows knitting together.
“Oh honey, what happened?”.
Shadow stiffly walked over to her, sitting next to her and burying his face into his gloved hands. He took a moment to steel himself.
“I can’t do this” he muttered, silently leaning into the hand she had placed onto his shoulder.
“Yes you can” Rouge shushed, squeezing a black-furred shoulder. He let out a reluctant sigh. He wouldn’t dare admit this to her, but her touch grounded him.
“Speak of this, and I’ll kill you” he weakly threatened.
“I know” the bat replied with a grin.
Shadow wandered over into his bedroom, huffing. Being the Ultimate Lifeform, he didn’t really need to sleep. However, he suddenly felt like he hadn’t slept in years. The black hedgehog toe’d off his skates, and climbed into his bed.
He took a shaky breath, and allowed his eyes to flutter shut. He’ll try again tomorrow. He was just so tired.
The bat waited until he was definitely asleep, and tip-toed into his room. She looked through practically every nook and cranny, assuming that the black hedgehog would’ve hidden it somewhere clever.
Turning to her best friend's sleeping form, she grimaced. “Sorry Shadow” she muttered as she dug through his quills, pulling out a lush green chaos emerald.
Since obviously neither Sonic or Shadow were going to confront their problems like adults, it seemed like the bat was going to have to take it into her hands.
–
Shadow slowly blinked his eyes open, groaning at the pain in his back. It felt like he had slept on concrete.
Suddenly shooting upwards, he realized he was in fact, lying on concrete. He looked over the small room he was in, all gray walls and iron bars.
It was a jail cell.
The black hedgehog shakily stood up. It felt like he hadn’t eaten. And by the sour smell, he hadn’t showered either. Wrinkling his nose in disgust, he was confused. Didn’t he shower yesterday?
He went to idly scratch at his chin, only to realize that his hands could not move. He peered down, noticing that his hands were cuffed together. He scoffed to himself, wasn’t it enough to have him in a jail cell? Then again, he could bend those bars as easily as he could breathe.
Examining the rest of his body, he realized that he was covered in bloody scratches, bruises, and his head was pounding. Something was clearly wrong. Whatever injuries he received, usually healed within seconds.
Looking around the room once more, a few scratches in the concrete caught his attention. Stepping closer, they looked like…tally marks? There had to be at least a hundred of them.
‘Where the hell am I?’ he thought to himself, failing to keep his rising panic at bay. He didn’t do well in tight spaces.
“Look who’s finally awake” a modified drawl sounded.
That voice sounded vaguely familiar. Someone he hadn’t heard from in a long time. Someone he thought he would never hear from again.
“Infinite” Shadow growled, turning towards the masked jackal. How the hell did he manage to pull this off? Was Rouge okay?
“I’m surprised you’re still standing. You do have an infuriating habit of refusing to stay down” the jackal smoothly commented, checking his nails as if this were a casual conversation.
“What the hell are you on about?” Shadow snarled, to no avail. It was like the jackal didn’t hear him.
“I should just kill you right now. It would be so easy” Infinite taunted, getting close to the bars, his normally dull eyes bright.
“Feel free to do what you want with him, but leave the blue rat alive. Serves him right to suffer” an irritatingly familiar voice sounded, stopping the jackal from ripping Shadow’s larynx out.
…Eggman? Blue rat?
“Ugh, fine. I do rather like watching him suffer” Infinite replied, opening the cage and practically scruffing Shadow, his nails painfully digging into his neck.
The striped hedgehog thrashed in his strong grip, grunting as he was thrown into a different room, not all different from the last one, except for the walls that seemed to be made out of metal.
“You know the routine. You’ll pretend to be all big and tough, and then you’ll finally scream. Shall we skip to the last part?” the jackal rambled, yanking his thick gloves off to reveal wickedly sharp claws that almost rivaled Shadow’s.
Shadow bared his teeth at the jackal, ready to rip his throat out using only his sharp fangs, only to pause at a reflection on the wall.
The image he was met with was Sonic, wearing a pained expression. There was an underlying sense of fear that Shadow could only tell by the tenseness of the blue hedgehog’s shoulders. It shook Shadow to his core. Never had he seen the blue hedgehog in such a state.
He peered at his own hands. He was still met with the thicker material of his gloves covering claws meant to tear and his famous inhibitor rings. Risking a glance back at the reflection, he was still met with determined emeralds.
Suddenly, hands were seizing his jaw to force him to look up, meeting his masked abuser. The black hedgehog felt the sudden urge to spit on him. So he did.
The jackal recoiled, wiping the spit off of his metal visor. “...You’ll regret that” he growled, lunging at Shadow with teeth and claws.
Shadow let out a pained yell at the agonizing feeling of teeth ripping into flesh.
–
Shadow startled awake with a sharp gasp. He checked his surroundings, met with the sight of his dull bedroom. He was back in his apartment, with no sounds indicating his bat roommate.
He cringed at the sight of claw marks left in his sheets. Those cost him a hefty amount of rings. Taking a moment to calm himself, he assessed his situation. He wasn’t covered in injuries, he didn’t smell, and his hands were not cuffed together.
He had nightmares daily, sure. Although lately, he stopped telling the difference between nightmares and revisiting horrific memories. He was sure he had never been in that situation though.
…Though he knew someone who had.
Sonic had gone missing for six months. Shadow was aware that he was kept prisoner, but the blue hedgehog was reluctant to spill any more details.
….Was he reliving a memory? Perhaps the soul bond did more than just connect them on a physical level.
…Did Sonic really go through that?
–
Placing her heart-shaped pen down, Rouge grinned to herself. She knew just how to get those two idiots together. Sonic could never turn down a challenge, no matter if it was a suicide mission or as simple as who was able to hold their breath for longer. It was a weakness many abused.
The bat decided to write a passive aggressive letter to the blue hedgehog, basically challenging him to a fight. It suggested that Shadow was superior to him. The blue blur would not be able to resist.
She flew her way over to Sonic’s home, ringing the doorbell, quickly getting out of sight. She hoped that this’ll work.
–
“Dude, shut up, I have totally fit two chili dogs in my mouth be-” The doorbell cut Sonic off from his line of thought. He turned away from Knuckles.
“This isn’t over” Sonic said with a grin, flinging the door open and staring confused at the note left on his porch. Who the hell leaves, let alone writes letters anymore?
Plucking it off the porch, Sonic had to resist rolling his eyes. Of course, it was Shadow. The guy liked to stick to his outdated customs.
Reading the letter, he felt a competitive fire slowly build in his chest. He gasped in horror, “He DOES NOT have a bigger-”.
“What is that?” Knuckles asked, narrowing his eyes in suspicion and gesturing to the letter in Sonic’s hands. The blue hedgehog let out an irritated huff, throwing it at the echidna.
“It’s from someone who’s about to get their ass kicked” Sonic said with a cocky grin, dashing out of his house before anyone could stop him.
Knuckles read through the letter, noticing the heart signed next to Shadow’s name….like…
The red echidna sighed. Sonic was an idiot. “Wait, how does she know if he has a bigger-”. A loud crash from the kitchen sounded. Knuckles dropped the letter and went to check on the fox.
–
Sonic pounded on the black hedgehog’s front door, foot tapping impatiently. The guy had a lot of nerve to talk a lot of shit yet leave him standing here.
Shadow opened the door with a growl. “What’re you doing here, faker?”
Sonic felt his eye twitch in annoyance “You know why i’m here, faker” he goaded, a wicked grin on his face at the growing irritation on his rivals face.
“You have something you need to say?” Shadow said, a challenging glint in his eyes.
“You sure did” Sonic growled, yanking Shadow forward by his chest fur and slamming him face down into the earth.
When the black hedgehog jumped back up, the blue bastard was already blasting away in a sonic boom. He kicked his air shoes to life with a growl, following the blue trail.
“You have the nerve to attack me in my own home and then run?!” Shadow barked, harshly bumping into the blue hedgehog’s shoulder.
“I know you’re not talking” Sonic called back with an irritated laugh, simply bumping Shadow back.
It went on for a while, the two hedgehogs exchanging insults and the other trying to get the lead. Eventually, Sonic felt his irritation reach its peak and tackled the striped hedgehog to the ground.
Shadow fought with teeth and claws, slicing through Sonic’s skin as if it were made out of paper. The blue hedgehog watched the same wounds appear on Shadow, only to heal instantly. Lucky bastard.
The striped hedgehog responded by kneeing Sonic in the stomach, flinging the other off of him. He placed powerful hands on blue shoulders, ignoring the sudden rush of air leaving him. He didn’t need air as much as Sonic did.
“What is the meaning of this?” Shadow sneered, digging his claws in.
Sonic let out a pained yelp, deciding to sink his teeth into Shadow’s wrist. Not expecting it, the black hedgehog winced and dropped his guard, allowing the blue blur to regain his place over him, sitting all of his weight on his hips, effectively pinning Shadow.
“Don’t act like you didn’t leave that note at my door” Sonic growled, getting in Shadow’s face. He shook off the stinging pain buzzing on his own wrist.
“Note? I didn’t leave a note” The black hedgehog replied, struggling under Sonic’s strong grip.
“Sure you did. I mean, sure, you have some biological advantages, but bragging about your oh so big muscles and smarts is a really shitty move” Sonic replied.
“Why would I need to prove my superior strength in a note? Whatever fool left that note obviously wasn’t me” Shadow growled, surging forward to knock his skull against Sonic’s only to miss .
Sonic froze at the feeling of warm, chapped lips on his. Anger momentarily forgotten, he sat still in shock, not kissing back but not pulling away either.
Shadow pulled back with a surprised grunt, staring wide-eyed at the blue bastard on top of him. Sonic brought his hand to his lips, a hot flush creeping up his neck.
“...Well geez, if you just had a crush on me, all you had to do was tell me, not leave some aggressive note” Sonic teased, fluttering his eyelashes.
The black hedgehog growled, shoving the other off of him and standing up, brushing the dirt out of his fur. “That was an accident” he said, trying to swallow the panic rising up his throat.
“...Sureeeee, yeah, whatever helps you sleep at night, man” Sonic replied with a teasing smile.
Shadow turned to him with a growl, grasping Sonic’s jaw with clawed hands. “I could crush you right now”. He tightened his grip to further prove his point.
Sonic only smiled at him, “You sure you’re not crushing on me? Hah, get it? Crush?”.
Shadow gave an annoyed sigh, tossing the blue hedgehog to the ground as if he were a weightless doll. He turned to leave so he could crawl into a hole forever and disappear, but stopped at Sonic’s voice.
“Hey uh, Shadow?”.
“What.” the blue hedgehog growled.
“..Do you recognize these woods? Because I sure don’t”
The striped hedgehog peered at his surroundings, and to his horror, found that he didn’t recognize them either. No matter, he could easily get out of this.
He reached into his quills, a pathetic whine stopping him. “Don’t just leave me here!” Sonic called out, scrambling to his side.
“Fine” Shadow relented, allowing the blue hedgehog to cling to his arm. He dug through his quills once more, pausing once the green gem was nowhere to be found.
“What’s wrong?” Sonic asked.
Shadow continued to dig through his quills, trying to not let his panic show. He could’ve sworn that he left it in there.
“Shadow, what’s going on?” Sonic pressed, grabbing onto his arm.
The black hedgehog stopped searching through his quills with a tired sigh. “The emerald isn’t on me. Looks like I’ll have to find somewhere to stay for the night” he said with a grimace.
“You?! What about me?!” the blue hedgehog whined.
Shadow pinched at his nose. “If you want to follow me, fine. I won’t stop you” he muttered, already walking forward to find somewhere to stay. It was getting dark fast.
The blue hedgehog remained at his side. He thought back to that kiss. The black hedgehog seemed adamant that it was purely accidental, but Sonic had learned his tiny tells by now.
Shadow had an awful habit of scrunching up his nose whenever he lied. The stillness of his ears was another tell.
“…So are you finally gonna tell me what’s been going on this whole time?” Sonic asked.
Shadow sighed, ignoring his bodily instinct to run. He knew this question was coming eventually.
“How much do you know?” The black hedgehog asked with a grimace.
“Well, I know that for whatever reason, we can feel each others pain. Now, spill” the blue hedgehog demanded.
“…We really need to find a place to stay for the night” Shadow decided, walking ahead of Sonic.
The blue hedgehog resisted the urge to slap the shit out of the other. He was tired of all of the secrets. He could tell that he wouldn’t be able to get it out of Shadow at the moment.
Eventually, they found a cave. Sonic resisted the shiver that tried to run through him. Crawling into the tight space reminded him of concrete walls and iron bars.
Shadow watched Sonic’s subtle reaction with a frown, suddenly understanding the blue blur’s hatred for small spaces.
Shadow was no better, but he did a much better job at hiding it.
“You never talk about your past much” Sonic suddenly started.
Shadow tensed, hoping that his fear wasn’t confirmed. Sonic may have relived the hell he suffered.
“There’s nothing to talk about” Shadow rebutted. His arms suddenly felt really itchy.
“Shadow, I saw it. Hands were all over me and there was this tube and-…” he cut off his sentence with a shiver.
Sonic watched Shadow’s face closely. He remained emotionless, but his fingers twitched.
“…I’m sorry you saw that” Shadow muttered, refusing to look the blue hedgehog in the eyes.
Sonic frowned at the others resistance to opening up. Although, Shadow could’ve easily ditched Sonic a long time ago. This is probably the closest he would get for a while.
“I didn’t know what you really went through during the rebellion” Shadow whispered.
Sonic tensed, grimacing. He thought he would die with that information. His friends couldn’t know, they would worry too much.
Sonic allowed himself a weak chuckle, but said nothing else. It was completely dark in the cave by now. There was not really anything else to add.
The blue hedgehog almost jumped out of his skin at the feeling of fur brushing against his. He had forgotten Shadow could see in the dark.
Something seized in his chest when the black hedgehog gripped his hand. Sonic squeezed back, hearing a shaky sigh from his rival. Although, the title was starting to feel incorrect.
He let himself fall asleep to Shadow’s slow and rhythmic breathing. Maybe being linked to him wasn’t so bad.
—
Cackling and humming to himself, Eggman took a look at his creation. More like a re-invention. He quickly glanced down at his blueprints and scribbled notes, tweaking at a few more places.
“Biscuit?” Orbot asked, holding up a tray to his boss.
“Not now, Orbot” Eggman dismissed, hitting the circular bot with the tray.
“More for me” Cubot shrugged, stuffing the bread into his face, despite not having a mouth. Or a stomach.
“Cubot stop, you’re gonna fry your circuits!” Orbot warned.
Ignoring the squabbling bots behind him, he pressed a button, grinning when suddenly the hunk of metal hummed to life.
When circular red eyes peered back at him, Eggman squealed with glee, rubbing his hands together.
“Welcome back, Metal Sonic”
Notes:
hue hue hue is here and ready to kick gum and chew ass 😈 (pls don’t hurt me)
Chapter 5: Right Here
Summary:
Shadow held his bleeding midsection, groaning at the unpleasant sensation of his flesh pulling itself back together. A pained yell caused his ears to twitch.
He felt his heart skip a beat.
Sonic.
Notes:
Y’all im so sorry this took FOREVER. Between work and figuring out a plan for this chapter took a while lol.
⚠️TW⚠️: temporary major character death, trauma, panic attacks, blood, gore?? Maria typical violence
(See the end of the chapter for more notes.)
Chapter Text
Sitting up slowly, Sonic rubbed the tiredness out of his eyes, wincing at the pain that ebbed at his temples. Cringing in disgust, the heavy scent of metal and gunpowder overwhelmed his senses.
He felt his heart seize in his chest at the revelation. An alarm equal to a tornado siren blared throughout the place, scientists fleeing the scene. The shouting of gunmen filled the air.
The blue hedgehog recognized this place. It looked eerily similar to the lab he was in. He shivered at the memory, even though it wasn’t his to begin with. He felt an overwhelming urge to find something, no, someone.
He launched to his feet. Despite having never been here himself, his body moved on autopilot. “MARIA!” the name was ripped from his lips, his throat threatening to close in on itself from the amount of ash in the air.
He searched every corridor, feeling like he was moving in slow motion. He was running out of time. Flinging another door open, the blue blur felt his quills bristle at the sight he was met with.
A blonde girl was surrounded by gunmen, her bright blue eyes meeting Sonic’s panicked emeralds. He moved on autopilot, though the room felt like it was elongating, the voices of the soldiers filtering in and out of his ears. Everything was distorted, as if he was in a simulation.
Just before he reached out to grab her blue sleeve, shots were fired. Sonic felt like something was off. This wasn’t how it happened. Nonetheless, he felt his heart shatter into pieces as the girl fell to the floor in a bloody heap.
Suddenly, the ground caved underneath him. His fur suddenly had a golden glow, and he was falling rapidly towards earth. If he focused his gaze enough, he could see a golden blur racing towards him. He heard a faint call of Shadow’s name.
He felt like he was on fire. Sonic let his eyes flutter shut, just as he started to enter the atmosphere. He felt helpless. All he could do was hit the ground.
–
Sitting up and gasping, the blue hedgehog struggled to catch his breath, his lungs overwhelmed from the sudden onslaught of oxygen. He sputtered for a moment, before forcing himself to take a deep breath. He was fine. There was no threat present.
Sonic turned to his left, finding the black hedgehog in a not much better state. Shadow was curled in on himself, frantically scrubbing at his arms and head, as if he was covered in insects.
The blue hedgehog knew exactly what Shadow saw. Sonic could still feel the scratches lined across his body. Almost losing himself to cyber corruption had unfortunately left some lasting effects. He frequently saw red crawling across his fur.
“Shadow” Sonic whispered, his throat feeling a bit weak.
The black hedgehog flinched heavily, meeting Sonic’s eyes. Shadow visibly swallowed, trying to will the panic from his features. All he managed was a pathetic whimper.
“Let me help you” the blue blur said, reaching out his hand.
The striped hedgehog looked as if he was going to bite off Sonic’s hand, but didn’t reject him when he came closer. The blue speedster hesitantly clamped a firm grip on Shadow’s shoulder, squeezing gently.
“Try to match me” Sonic coached, purposefully breathing deeply so the other hedgehog could follow.
Shadow gasped for air for a little bit, a few strained wheezes crawling out of his throat, but slowly matched Sonic’s breathing. He wrenched a desperate hand over Sonic’s, squeezing almost painfully.
After a few moments, the black hedgehog, visibly calmer, awkwardly cleared his throat, gently moving out of Sonic’s hold. The blue hedgehog smiled.
“Feeling better?”
Shadow merely grunted in response, messing with his inhibitor rings. The tension in the air was so thick that the blue blur began to tap his foot.
“What did you see?” the black hedgehog suddenly demanded, his ears pressed flatly against his skull.
Sonic smiled awkwardly, scratching at the back of his neck. “I think you already know”.
Shadow pursed his lips together, his fur sticking up in every direction and his quills bristled. Sonic understood afterall, he also felt slightly violated. He never intended for anyone to find out the things Shadow had.
“We need to deal with this damn bond” Shadow grimaced, abruptly standing up and exiting the cave.
The blue blur sighed, joining the brooding hedgehog. “Do you even know how to ‘deal with it’?” he asked, putting air quotes around Shadow’s former sentence.
The black hedgehog visibly froze, looking anywhere but at Sonic. The blue blur felt irritation prickle at his skin. How the hell was he supposed to do anything about it if he didn’t know how to go about it?
“Well?” Sonic pressured, hands on his hips, foot tapping impatiently.
“None of your business” Shadow growled, shoving past Sonic.
The blue hedgehog felt an irritated smile bloom across his face. He was tired of waiting. Listening to his impulses, he tackled Shadow, catching the black hedgehog off guard.
“What the hell?!” the striped hedgehog shouted, struggling under the blue blur’s weight.
Sonic felt his eye twitch at the sight. He let the anger bubble out of his throat. “What could possibly be worth hiding?! After all of the hell we’ve been through the past few years?! You’ve seen the most vulnerable parts of myself, and vice versa! So what the fuck could be any worse?” he spat.
Shadow stilled under the blue hedgehog, his eyes widening. Sonic didn’t lash out often.
“Get off of me” Shadow said quietly.
Sonic allowed the other to shove him off. He felt like he finally got through to the striped hedgehog.
Shadow sat quietly, a blank look on his face. Anyone other than Sonic would assume he had checked out, but the blue hedgehog knew the others' mannerisms well enough that Shadow was simply thinking on his approach.
“When Eggman’s new tech exploded a few days ago, it linked us together. It’s why we can feel each other's pain and why we have been dreaming about each other’s experiences” Shadow began.
Sonic rubbed at his chin in thought. This wasn’t the craziest thing he’s ever been through. But not the least either. He wasn’t ready to face the amount of emotions bubbling through his throat at the fact that out of all people to get linked to, it was Shadow.
Shadow, who was a ball of anger, who was blunt, rude, and untrusting. Shadow, who was selfless, sacrificing, and kind in his own roundabout way.
Sonic came to the conclusion that there was no one else he’d rather have this problem with. Maybe it would bring them closer. Maybe it would tear them apart. Sonic’s heart pounded against his ribcage.
“So how do we deal with it?” Sonic asked, hand on his hip.
“That’s the difficult part” Shadow mumbled, mainly to himself.
Fighting the irritation threatening to build at the black hedgehog’s continued resistance, Sonic tried to filter his energy through digging his claws into his own hip.
“Well….we would need to supercharge our energies. And then….”
Sonic huffed through his nose. “Yes?”
“We would need to kiss” Shadow finished.
Sonic felt heat creep up his chest and spread across his face, his mouth hanging open. Maybe this is the craziest thing he’s ever experienced. He was practically making ‘guh’ noises like a fish out of water.
“Wipe that stupid look off of your face” Shadow growled, crossing his arms and looking anywhere else but at the blue hedgehog.
Sonic rapidly shook his head back and forth, trying to physically shake off the amount of emotions he was currently feeling. Suddenly, a smirk grew across his face.
“You sure you don’t just wanna kiss me?” he teased, his eyes going lidded as he leaned into the black hedgehog’s space.
Shadow scoffed, shoving Sonic roughly away. The blue hedgehog didn’t miss the violent flush of his ears, though. His grin only grew in response.
“Don’t be ridiculous” Shadow practically snarled.
It spoke volumes to Sonic that the black hedgehog was still here, rather than blipping away or skating off when he usually flirted with him. Maybe Shadow was growing soft.
“There’s an easy way to supercharge our energies. Just one issue, though. I have no idea where any of the chaos emeralds are” Shadow said, chewing on his bottom lip.
“I’ll take care of that” Sonic replied, grin apparent.
“You know where they are?” Shadow asked, eyes narrowing in suspicion.
“I practically breathe them at this point. We’re made of the same chaos energy so I just let it guide me” Sonic explained.
“Did you steal the emerald from me?” Shadow suddenly accused, pointing a finger in the center of Sonic’s chest.
“Um, no” Sonic replied, pushing Shadow’s hand away.
Shadow only huffed in response, crossing his arms and looking away. The blue blur scoffed, tapping his foot in annoyance. This faker was going to be the death of him.
“So how are we going to get out of here?” Sonic asked, watching Shadow pace back and forth like a mad man.
“I’m not sure” the striped hedgehog replied, continuing to pace wildly.
Sonic merely shrugged, then started walking in a random direction, not waiting for the other to catch up.
“Where do you think you’re going?” Shadow called after him. Sonic could practically feel the vein popping out of the black hedgehog's forehead with the way he spoke.
“No clue” Sonic replied with a grin, arms crossed behind his head. He had to fight it from growing when Shadow reluctantly joined his side.
“We’re going to get lost” Shadow grumbled quietly.
“Like we already aren’t?” Sonic rebutted, receiving the punch to his shoulder with a grin, knowing that Shadow would simply feel it right back.
Shadow shook out his own shoulder a bit, huffing in annoyance. It only served to make Sonic’s grin wider.
–
It seemed like they had been walking for hours in silence. It was unnerving. Sonic would make a quip every now and then, but Shadow was currently like a brick wall.
“Yknow, crickets are cool little dudes. I mean, they sing like all night. How do their little lungs not get tired-“
“Sonic. Shut the fuck up” Shadow groaned, pinching at his brow, ears flat against his head.
“Ugh, rude, I was just saying-“
Shadow tackled the rambling hedgehog to the ground, wrenching a hand around his throat to cut off his air supply.
Sonic let out a stifled growl, trying to wrestle Shadow off, only for the black hedgehog to slightly release his grip, staring at him blankly. Sonic was silently grateful that Shadow decided not to crush his windpipe.
“Shadow?” Sonic said after a small coughing fit.
The striped hedgehog swept his eyes down Sonic’s body, causing the blue blur to flush slightly. Now that he had Shadow’s full attention, it was slightly intense.
Crimson eyes stopped at peach lips. Sonic’s heart skipped a beat. When Shadow hesitated, Sonic cupped his face, thumbing gently at his bottom lip. Receiving no resistance, he slowly leaned in to allow Shadow to pull away if he wanted to.
He didn’t. Their lips met, gentle but firm. Shadow hummed into the kiss, tilting his head to kiss Sonic deeper.
Sonic let a small groan slip, nipping gently at Shadow’s bottom lip, running his gloved hands down Shadow’s back, careful of his quills. The black hedgehog made a small noise of approval in reply.
Shadow suddenly pulled back, leaning away. “We can’t do this” he whispered.
“Sure we can” Sonic argued, tugging at heavenly chest fur to reconnect their lips.
Shadow leaned away, getting of the blue blur. “We can’t” he muttered, standing up and brushing the dirt from his fur.
Sonic laid on the forest floor for a moment in disbelief, but soon peeled himself off of the dirt.
He truly felt hurt. Although, he now understood why he was so distrustful.
Sonic simply swallowed his feelings, and continued to walk beside Shadow in silence, his lips still tingling.
—
Eventually, the pair finally found their way home. Sonic returned home, Shadow hot on his heels.
A frantic fox came stumbling out from the hallway, fur noticeably disheveled.
“Sonic?! Where the heck have you been?” Tails questioned.
The blue hedgehog scratched at his ear in embarrassment. “Shadow and I got a little lost. Sorry buddy” he said with a sheepish smile.
At the mention of the black hedgehog’s name, the fox turned to him with apprehension, his fur sticking up in every direction in caution.
Shadow regarded him with a blank look, arms crossed against his chest.
“What’s going on?” Tails asked, his ears flicking in interest.
“Long story short, we’re linked and we need to get rid of it” Sonic replied.
Shadow looked at him in surprise. The blue hedgehog’s smile was forced and his ears were still.
Tails nodded in thought, his namesakes twitching behind him.
“And how do you do that?” Tails asked.
Sonic flushed slightly, “We need the emeralds. I just came by to let you know that I’m okay”
Tails simply nodded once more, his fur noticeably smoothed out and his ears were less tense.
“Also, I’m starvin’” Sonic said with a grin, heading to his kitchen.
Shadow droned behind him, watching what he was doing with boredom swimming in his eyes.
“You gonna keep followin’ me?” Sonic asked, popping open a bag of chips.
“Are you going to find the emeralds?” Shadow asked, unamused.
“Need to refuel first. Help yourself” Sonic replied with a mouth full of chips.
Shadow scowled, “I’m the ultimate life form. I do not require ‘refueling’”
Sonic rolled his eyes, fixing two chili dogs despite the striped hedgehog’s dismissal. He could hear the silent rumble of the other’s stomach.
When he slid the plate over to Shadow, the black hedgehog took it with a frown, but ate nonetheless. Kicking his feet on the high stool he was sitting on, Sonic felt pride bloom in his chest that he got Shadow to finally take care of himself.
Tails joined them at the table, eating a sandwich. Every now and then, he would eye Shadow suspiciously. The black hedgehog noticed, and met the fox’s strong glare.
Sonic finished wolfing down his chili dog, completely oblivious to the scene developing right in front of him, and smacked the table and stood up. The sudden noise caused Shadow to violently flinch, bumping his knee against the underside of the table.
While Shadow barely had a reaction to the pain, Sonic grabbed his knee with a small wince, rubbing at the area.
“Quit being a baby” Shadow growled, checking his own knee for any bruises.
Sonic stuck his tongue out at the other hedgehog. Suddenly, Shadow stood up and grabbed at the blue blur’s leg.
“Hey!” Sonic said, alarmed.
“Hush” Shadow replied, feeling around and observing the wound. He scrunched his brow in thought.
“What?” Sonic said
“I was the one injured, and my bruising healed immediately. Yours remained” Shadow explained.
Sonic wrestled his leg out of Shadow’s grip. “Not everyone can just snap away their injuries”
“Do you think I’m a genie?” Shadow asked with a ghost of a smirk.
Sonic failed to push down his excitement. Shadow rarely made light hearted jokes.
“I don’t know, let’s check” the blue hedgehog said, grabbing a salt shaker and rubbing it with a goofy grin.
“Ooooh great Shadow, I summon thee” Sonic said, grin so wide it made Shadow want to shield his eyes from the blinding display.
“Stop that” Shadow said, slapping lightly at Sonic’s hands. His tone and face remained reserved, but the tension from his shoulders were gone. Sonic logged it as a win.
Tails watched the display with narrowed eyes. There was no way, right…?
“Don’t you guys have some chaos emeralds to find?” Tails spoke up, shifting uncomfortably.
Sonic groaned, putting down the salt shaker. “Oh, alright. Party pooper” he patted Tails head as he passed him.
Just as the blue blur stepped outside, Tails grabbed onto Shadow’s arm.
“If you dare lay a finger on him-“ the fox began.
“Shaaaaadddowww” Sonic called, shifting from foot to foot like an impatient child.
The striped hedgehog narrowed his eyes at the fox, not quite understanding what he was getting at.
Tails released him, and Shadow remained for a moment. He finally joined the blue hedgehog when his pathetic whines got louder.
Heaving a sigh, Shadow gestured ahead of him. “Lead the way”
—
Knuckles sat on the couch, a bored expression on his face as Silver and Amy rambled on about whatever. He had lost interest a while ago.
“I mean, Silver, you’re from the future. Don’t you think Tarot holds at least a little bit of truth?” Amy asked.
“I believe in it, yeah. I mean, with the amount of shit I deal with, nothing surprises me anymore” the white hedgehog replied.
Blaze returned from making herself some popcorn, seating herself next to Silver with perked ears.
“Exactly! See, Knuckles? You gotta live a litt- you’re not even listening” Amy said with a pout.
The red echidna huffed. “I’m allowed to have opinions” he replied.
“Oooh! How about you let me do a reading for you?” The pink hedgehog offered, her eyes lighting up like stars.
“….I guess I don’t see the harm in it”. Knuckles didn’t have the heart to say no to her.
Amy let out a little excited noise, darting off to retrieve her cards.
“You got a little… uh” Silver motioned to Blaze’s mouth with a smile.
The princess made a little ‘oh!’, quickly getting rid of a stray piece of popcorn, blushing fiercely.
Silver’s smile only widened at her embarrassment, intertwining her fingers with his to try to comfort her.
“I found them!” Amy announced, settling in front of Knuckles to shuffle the cards in her deck.
“Think of a question while I shuffle” the pink hedgehog instructed.
Knuckles nodded in reply. ‘Did Sonic cheat in Mario Kart the other day’ he decided.
As Amy shuffled, a card suddenly came flying out.
She picked it up, a noticeable grimace growing on her face.
“He did cheat, didn’t he?” Knuckles asked.
“What? No, The Tower came flying out” the pink hedgehog replied.
“And that means….?” Knuckles pressed, frowning at the low whistle Silver made.
“A heavy change will occur. A type of change that could destroy everything in its path. Although, I have a strong feeling the cards are talking about someone else” Amy elaborated, a serious look crossing her normally upbeat features. It unsettled Knuckles to his core.
“...Who, then?” Knuckles asked.
The pink hedgehog shrugged in response, staring down at the card with a heavy frown, as if the answer would suddenly reveal itself.
A heavy silence filled the room. “I wonder who it is” Blaze spoke up, shoulders tense. It could be anyone. Certain doom practically followed the group with ease at this point.
–
Finally having six chaos emeralds in his possession, Shadow felt a bit calmer. Of course the only one that was missing was his damn fourth chaos emerald.
Sonic zipped around him aimlessly with a small frown. “Weird, I don’t feel a pull in any direction” he said.
Coming to a clearing that both hedgehogs recognized, Shadow tapped at his communicator, scrolling through his contacts, only to stop at a certain name.
Of fucking course. How could he have not seen it before? Being linked to Sonic must’ve cost him a few brain cells.
“No need” Shadow replied, jabbing the call button.
“What?” Sonic said, placing both hands on his hips.
After a few rings, the bat finally picked up. “My my, a call from Shadow himself. How lucky am I?” she teased.
“Get your ass down here, now” Shadow seethed, bristling at the chuckle he received in reply. Curse that bat for being the only one able to look him in the eye.
“Well that’s not how you ask, is it?” Rouge replied.
“Don’t make me ask again. You better have my damn emerald with you” Shadow growled, ending the call before she could reply.
“Yeesh” Sonic said quietly.
“She’s the reason that we got stuck in the first place” Shadow argued.
Suddenly, Sonic made a face like he realized something. “The letter…” he muttered. A red flush slowly gathered on his cheeks.
“What are you not telling me?” Shadow accused. His mind was reeling from the amount of information shoved into it during the last few days.
“Don’t worry about it” Sonic decided, a determined look taking over his features.
Before Shadow could complain further, Rouge arrived, green emerald in hand, and landed right in front of the striped hedgehog.
“I’m disappointed, Shadow. It took you way too long to notice” the bat said with a teasing smile.
Shadow grumbled, yanking the emerald from her hands. “Finally” he muttered. He could already feel the surge of chaos energy just from all of the emeralds being near each other.
Sonic bounded over to Shadow, watching the emeralds thrum to life, inhaling sharply at the sudden surge of power. Shadow could practically feel the buzzing in his veins.
Just as gold started to creep up Shadow’s ankles, a loud commotion sounded. The earth beneath his feet started to violently shake. Turning towards the cause, the black hedgehog was suddenly tackled to the ground by a hunk of metal, causing the chaos emeralds to scatter.
Shadow let out a sharp yell, quickly taking whatever attacked him by the shoulder and slamming it into the earth. As soon as he got a good look at it, he let a curse slip.
Out of all fucking possibilities, it had to be him.
“Well, hello gang! I noticed you guys were looking a little too happy so I thought it was time to stop by” Eggman announced with a grin, gesturing to all of his tech that surrounded the clearing.
Sonic rapidly pressed the panic button that Tails had installed in his communicator. For once, he looked a little worried. Probably because an old friend came to visit.
“I’m sure you all have met Metal Sonic” Eggman went on, gesturing happily to one of his most impressive creations. A machine meant to rival Sonic completely.
During Eggman’s idiotic monologue, Metal shoved Shadow off of him like he was dead weight, hopping to his feet and assumed a fighting stance. Shadow narrowed his eyes, feeling the chaos energy crackle in his palms.
The rest of Sonic’s friends entered the scene, minus Blaze and Silver. Eggman made a gesture, and all of the badniks took over the field, Metal zoning in on Shadow like an annoying gnat.
The striped hedgehog growled, dodging Metal’s incoming dive, grabbing him by his ankle and slamming him face down into the ground.
He readied his powered air shoes to stomp him out, but Metal revved up his back thrusters, leaving his air shoes unscathed but the fur on his ankles singed. Then, Metal grabbed Shadow by his injured ankle, and slammed him into the ground.
Meanwhile, Sonic and Knuckles fought side by side, smashing Badniks with ease. Tails manned the skies, shooting incoming machinery from his Miles Electric that he had modified. Amy shredded through badniks with a small twirl of her hammer.
Sonic suddenly let out a small yell, kicking his foot out as if he could shake off the pain, allowing a badnik to swipe razor sharp claws across his cheek.
Shadow coughed violently, having landed on the left side of his ribs, but rolled out of the way before Metal could impale him with his engineered claws. Suddenly noticing the damping fur on his cheek, Shadow arched his brow. Metal hadn’t caught him with his claws.
In between traded punches and kicks, Shadow noticed the impatient tapping of the machine’s foot, and an idea came to him like a lightbulb.
Metal was built to mimic Sonic. Maybe that bled into his fighting mannerisms as well.
Shadow waited and waited for a moment that Metal would pause to taunt, just like Sonic did. It was one of his biggest weaknesses. When instead of going for Shadow, Metal swiped a sharp finger under his nose, the black hedgehog decided to strike.
Shadow took Metal by the arm, and whirled him around until the robotic hedgehog was dizzy. Then, he slammed the robotic hedgehog into a nearby tree, the force breaking the trunk in half and causing it to fall.
Waiting for a moment to see if Metal would recover, he joined the others when he didn’t. All the badniks that had previously surrounded them laid in ashes.
Eggman growled, frantically pressing buttons on his flying console, letting out a frustrated yell when nothing helped. He had been defeated.
Shadow regathered the emeralds, all except for one. He couldn’t find the damned green emerald. “Where is it” he growled, frantically searching the debris for the gem.
What he didn’t expect was clawed mechanical fingers tearing across the flesh of his stomach as if it were paper.
He howled out in pain, charging the chaos energy running throughout his veins, and blasted Metal through the midsection. The robotic hedgehog fell to the ground, lifeless.
Shadow held his bleeding midsection, groaning at the unpleasant sensation of his flesh pulling itself back together. A pained yell caused his ears to twitch.
He felt his heart skip a beat.
Sonic.
–
Sonic gave out high-fives to all of his friends, sporting a cocky grin. “Didn’t even break a sweat” he bragged.
Amy rolled her eyes, hoisting her hammer over her shoulder. “Always so humble” she teased.
Sonic’s grin thinned when suddenly, a searing pain shot throughout his stomach. He couldn’t help the scream that escaped his lips.
Peering down, he saw multiple claw marks deeply ingrained into his flesh, blood quickly dampening his fur.
He saw the panicked looks of his friends, but their screams fell on deaf ears. When he was no longer able to watch his friends become a colorful blur, his knees gave out and he collapsed onto the cold concrete.
He blinked slowly, black and crimson stripes filling his vision. He smiled up at Shadow despite the unbearable pain he was in.
“You’re gonna be okay” Shadow frantically muttered over and over, peeling his gloves off and pressing it across his wounds. There was so much blood that it just easily seeped through the garments.
“FIND THE EMERALD!” Shadow yelled, desperation clear in his normal monotone voice. Everyone scrambled around to look for the gem.
“Has anyone ever told you that you’re pretty?” Sonic whispered, watching Shadow flutter around him.
“You must be really out of your mind, faker” Shadow replied. Sonic could feel wet droplets hit his face every now and then.
Sonic let out a weak chuckle, his eyes fluttering closed. He was just so tired. And oddly cold.
He grumbled when Shadow slapped at his cheeks. “Stay awake” the black hedgehog said, voice cracking.
Why did Shadow look so worried? Why wouldn’t he let him sleep? He’s so tired.
“…Just wanna take a nap” Sonic muttered, unable to keep his eyes open for longer than a few seconds.
“Nonono…” he could hear Shadow mutter, though it was sounding like he was getting farther and farther away.
“…Tired” Sonic muttered, letting himself fully slip under.
—
“FUCK! WAKE UP!” Shadow shouted, shaking the blue blur. It was unnerving seeing someone normally so full of energy so lifeless.
He pounded on the blue hedgehogs chest in frustration, letting the sobs pour out of his throat.
“SHADOW! Here!” Rouge shouted, tossing the green emerald towards him.
Shadow let out a small sob of relief, the emeralds clattering to life and circling around the two hedgehogs.
Sonic’s fur turning golden meant that he was holding on, even if it was just barely. It left a glimmer of hope in Shadow’s chest.
Once both of them had golden fur and upturned quills, Shadow swallowed his pride, and firmly pressed his lips to Sonic’s.
—
Sonic flung his eyes open, letting out a loud gasp. He scrambled to feel across his stomach, finding that there was no incisions.
“Where am I?” He whispered to himself, standing up. He was surrounded in greenery. The sky was a bright blue, highlighting the stars.
It was beautiful.
“You shouldn’t be here” a voice sounded, causing Sonic to almost jump out of his skin.
He whirled around to the source, finding a blonde girl in a blue dress, the same one he had dreamt about.
“You…! Uh, where, exactly, is here?” Sonic asked, scratching at his ear.
“You’re in limbo” the girl replied, like it was simple.
The blue hedgehog just made a small ‘huh’ noise, continuing to look around his surroundings.
“So…like in between life and death?” Sonic asked.
The girl nodded, fiddling with her dress sleeve. “It’s not your time yet. You need to go back”
“I would, but I don’t know how” Sonic replied with a nervous chuckle.
Sonic suddenly doubled over with a cough. Looking down, his gloves were covered in blood, and the claw marks reappeared.
He looked up at the girl in a panic, only to see that she was completely calm.
“What’s your name?” He feels like has seen her somewhere before. Outside of his dreams.
The girl simply offered a small smile. “Take care of Shadow for me”
Suddenly, a blinding light engulfed the surrounding scenery. Sonic turned to the girl to respond, but suddenly felt weak in the knees. Before he could even blink, he fell to the ground.
—
Grasping Sonic by his chest fur, he kept his lips pressed to his. He could feel everyone’s eyes on them, but he didn’t care anymore.
Sonic remained unresponsive. His lips were cold. It was like he was kissing a corpse.
Shadow felt more tears spill down his face.
Suddenly, gloved hands were clutching at his upturned quills, and lips were pressing back. Shadow vaguely heard the emeralds clatter to the ground, their fur reverting to their true colors.
Shadow let out a shuttering breath, kissing Sonic back gently, cupping his peach muzzle.
Pulling back, Shadow noticed that his injuries were gone. Like they had never existed.
He let his eyes rake over Sonic’s face and body, memorizing every detail, as if he was afraid the hedgehog underneath him would disappear.
“Not too bad, faker”
Of course the first thing that flew out of his mouth was outright idiotic.
Shadow growled, punching Sonic hard in the shoulder, and stood up, creating some distance between them.
The blue blur laughed, standing up and rubbing his shoulder. It was then that Shadow noticed that he did not feel it back. It worked.
Shadow watched Sonic regroup with his friends, passing hugs and high fives. Anxiety crawled up his back, reminding him that he does not belong here.
Clenching his fists, Shadow turned away from the scene, and walked home, the green chaos emerald tucked in his quills.
Maybe he was exhausted from going super. Or maybe he wanted someone to stop him. He wasn’t sure.
The walk back to his tucked away apartment was silent.
—
Sonic had just escaped a bear hug from Amy, catching his breath from his lungs being crushed.
He turned, watching Shadow walk away with a frown. He went to go after him, but a gloved hand on his shoulder stopped him.
“Wait for a moment. He needs to process everything” Rouge advised.
Sonic sighed, but stayed put. He was gonna give Shadow a minimum of three hours before he broke his door down.
“Do you know where he lives?” Sonic asked.
Rouge heavily sighed. “This never happened” she said as she texted him the coordinates.
Sonic grinned, watching her walk away to chat with Knuckles.
—
Shadow had been staring at the ceiling for the past few hours. His communicator went off every few minutes. He was sure it was Rouge. She was always reprimanding him for his anti-social tendencies.
He was perfectly content with continuing his anxious spiral until he heard a knock at his door, which soon turned into pounding when Shadow didn’t get up right away.
He knew it wasn’t Rouge or Omega. They had a special knock.
Yanking his emerald out of his quills, he slammed the door open, ready to disembowel whoever decided to disturb him, only to stop in his tracks.
Of all people.
“Heeeeeyyy Shads” Sonic greeted, an infuriating smile on his face.
Shadow’s fingers twitched in the door, tempted to slam the door shut in his face.
“Who told you where I live” Shadow demanded.
When Sonic flashed a guilty smile, Shadow’s quills bristled. He was going to kill that fucking bat.
“Soooo are ya just gonna leave me hangin?” The blue hedgehog continued, leaning into Shadow’s space.
Before Shadow could even chaos control away, Sonic had shoved past him and into his home. He shoved down the murderous thoughts currently floating around his brain.
“What. Do. You. Want.” the striped hedgehog seethed behind closed teeth.
“Are we just not gonna talk about it?” The blue blur replied, plopping himself on Shadow’s nice leather couch.
“What is there to talk about?” Shadow said, staring at the wall past Sonic’s shoulder.
The blue hedgehog stood up, getting so close to Shadow that he had to look at him. The striped hedgehog had to fight the flush threatening to build.
He met Sonic’s glare with a challenging look of his own, fighting the initial urge to flee.
“You’re tellin’ me, that you felt nothin’ back there?” Sonic whispered. Shadow could feel his breath hitting his cheek.
“Nothing” Shadow lied, watching Sonic lick his lips with poorly concealed interest.
Sonic stepped closer, forcing Shadow backwards until his back was flush with the wall.
“What about this?” Sonic said softly, running his hands slowly up and down Shadow’s arms, paying extra attention to the stripes that ran his lower arms.
Shadow shook his head, fighting the full body shiver. His fur was standing up, as if he were about to get shocked by lightening.
“Not even this?” Sonic asked, letting his hands wander to Shadow’s chest fur, twisting and pulling the thick strands gently.
Shadow couldn’t take it anymore.
He answered by grabbing Sonic’s face with both hands, pulling him in roughly into a kiss.
Both hedgehogs groaned. It felt like they were perfectly shaped for each other.
Sonic pressed even closer, tilting his head at an angle to kiss Shadow deeper.
Shadow let his hands wander down, grasping desperately at peach chest fur and arms, gasping when Sonic bit down on his bottom lip.
The blue hedgehog took the opportunity to slip his tongue in, exploring and memorizing Shadow’s mouth.
Shadow couldn’t help the whimper that escaped his lips, flushing in embarrassment. He should stop this right now.
Only, he didn’t want to.
He had almost lost Sonic. He wasn’t going to let go of him now.
Pulling back to catch his breath, Sonic huffed gently, pressing their foreheads together.
“Wow” he whispered, letting out a weak chuckle.
“Wow” Shadow repeated. Every point of contact that Sonic had with him made him feel like he was on fire.
“Wanna do that again?” Sonic asked.
“Don’t be an idiot” Shadow scoffed, yanking Sonic forward by his chest fur and connected their lips once more, relishing in the small yelp that the blue hedgehog made.
“Does this mean we’re boyfriends?” Sonic said with a shit-eating grin, panting after another small break.
“Fine” Shadow grunted, shutting him up once more.
Both of the hedgehogs lost themselves to each other, desperate to never let the other go.
—
Groaning, Sonic blinked his eyes open, ears flattening at the constant beeping of Shadow’s communicator.
The blue hedgehog slowly lifted his head off of white chest fluff, leaning over the black hedgehog to grab the device from his nightstand.
Rouge
‘Where have you been??? I haven’t heard from you or Sonic all night’
‘Ooooohhh wait’
‘Did you two finally seal the deal????’
‘Shadow???’
Sonic laughed to himself, placing the device on emergencies only mode, plopping it back on the nightstand.
He nuzzled his way back into white chest fluff, wrapping his arms across Shadow’s body.
“What’s going on?” Shadow asked groggily.
“Don’t worry about it. Go back to sleep” Sonic said softly.
The black hedgehog hummed, passing out moments later. Sonic curled his body tighter around the other, following soon after, their purrs blending into the early morning.
Notes:
Thank y’all so much for sticking around for the ride. I genuinely had so much fun writing this. Hope y’all enjoyed!
Also new word record 😈😈
the dark reunion (iam_justa_ghost) on Chapter 1 Mon 24 Feb 2025 06:04AM UTC
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quqn (Guest) on Chapter 1 Wed 26 Feb 2025 11:31AM UTC
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froggie505 on Chapter 1 Mon 14 Jul 2025 05:41PM UTC
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froggie505 on Chapter 2 Mon 14 Jul 2025 05:54PM UTC
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SonicIsACertified LATINA (Guest) on Chapter 3 Wed 26 Feb 2025 07:56PM UTC
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grayox27 on Chapter 3 Wed 26 Feb 2025 09:04PM UTC
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Fakerr on Chapter 3 Wed 26 Mar 2025 10:22PM UTC
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froggie505 on Chapter 3 Mon 14 Jul 2025 06:03PM UTC
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Edgy_The_Hedgie (Guest) on Chapter 4 Thu 06 Mar 2025 08:31AM UTC
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lily (Guest) on Chapter 4 Sun 09 Mar 2025 12:54AM UTC
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UndertaleLoveShips on Chapter 4 Mon 31 Mar 2025 11:33PM UTC
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Edgy_The_Hedgie (Guest) on Chapter 5 Mon 24 Mar 2025 07:54AM UTC
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Fruit (Guest) on Chapter 5 Tue 25 Mar 2025 06:10PM UTC
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Kitkatmeow69 on Chapter 5 Sat 29 Mar 2025 05:38AM UTC
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UndertaleLoveShips on Chapter 5 Mon 31 Mar 2025 11:50PM UTC
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Lin_5487 on Chapter 5 Sun 06 Apr 2025 06:50PM UTC
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SkyKiller on Chapter 5 Tue 15 Apr 2025 02:32AM UTC
Last Edited Tue 15 Apr 2025 02:32AM UTC
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froggie505 on Chapter 5 Mon 14 Jul 2025 06:46PM UTC
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cececatcreates on Chapter 5 Wed 10 Sep 2025 12:43PM UTC
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