Chapter Text
Ever since knuckles had woken up, something felt off. He couldn't quite place what until sonic came crashing into the bottom of the stairs at angel island.
Oh great, probably another crisis sonic will bring to angel island.
Sonic sat there for a while before taking a deep breath and getting up, running to knuckles with a forced smile.
"Hey knux. Just thought I'd stop by"
"You mean crash by?" Knuckles asks, not amused.
"Yeah, anyway can we spar? I REALLY need to blow off some steam" sonic sounds slightly erratic at this, his foot tapping and he's obviously sweating.
"What happened?" Knuckles asks, crossing his arms.
"Nothing you need to worry about. It's stupid. Let's just... Spar!"
"Ok...?" Knuckles is a bit hesitant but then again, he has wanted to fight someone for a while now. And he knows sonic doesn't like being fussed over.
Before knuckles can react sonic spin dashes him, knuckles grabs sonic and throws him back down the stairs before pouncing on him, but sonic dodges, rolling to the side before running head first into knuckles.
The fight lasts a while until knuckles comes to a realisation that sonic is letting himself be hit and is egging knuckles on to do more. He looks slightly frantic. Knuckles jumps and pins sonic to the ground
"Seriously, what's going on with you?" He asks seriously.
"I don't get what you mean...?" Sonic mutters, trying to push knuckles off but knuckles pushes sonic back down. "Urh, fine. I'm... Having some issues. I just feel like I've been messing everything up lately. A majour hit to my ego" sonic was speaking before he could think. Why is he telling knuckles this...? It's not like he'd get it.
"What else?"
"Huh?" Sonic is confused. And a bit worried.
"If you're acting like this. You've done something. Or something has happened"
"Get off" sonic mutters
"What?"
"Get off of me!" Sonic thrashes. Knuckles hesitates before getting off. Sonic stands up. He laughs a bit "oh my Gaia! Can't anyone just! Let me be! I... I need to go"
"Sonic wait-"
"Knuckles please....!" Sonic begs looking up. "I... Why am I doing this...? I should have went back and fixed it..."
"Fixed what?"
"The Chao.... Surge.... Everything! I need to fix it! I always do!"
"Sonic just sit down... You don't even have to talk to me. Just calm down-" but it's too late. Sonic has already sped off, jumping off the island with his hover board.
As sonic hovers through the air he's stopped by a... Storm? But he sees no clouds
He looks down and sees lightning coming out of the hospital. SURGE!
Sonic flies down and jumps through an open window. He starts running, and runs past some GUN soldiers. But then sonic stops. Would him being there really help her? Or would it make her worse?
Then he hears someone stop behind him.
"What are you doing here faker?"
Sonic turns around, it's shadow. Sonic takes a breath. "Is she ok?"
"She uhm... Her body rejected medication. But... She healed. Quicker than expected but she's really out of it."
"But will she be okay?! What about kit?!" Sonic is visibly distressed. Shadow is taken aback by it and is unsure how to proceed.
"She'll be fine. It's not your place to worry so much. Calm down."
Sonic is still visibly antsy. Shadow doesn't know how to comfort sonic, or if he even wants to. Before he can think shadow positions himself to run. "Pathetic. You were so slow to get here. I bet you can't even get to the Chao garden before me" he speeds off
Sonic's hear drops. He... He still never went back to fix the Chao garden! He can't let... "WAIT UP IM SERIOUS!"
Sonic runs after shadow. Ignoring every spar shadow tries to initiate. He just runs. Once again breaking the sound barrier and beyond. He gets to the Chao garden and ends up falling flat on his face sliding.
All of the Chao look lost. Saddened at their burrows being caved in.
Sonic pants for a second before going over and starting to fix them.
A few seconds later shadow comes over. A bit bewildered at how not only did sonic go faster than usual, but also he... Didn't fight and now he's silent.
"What is going on with you?!" Shadow shouts, a bit more aggressively than he meant to be.
"I screwed up shadow. I'm a big screw up!" Sonic shouts. He feels comfortable voicing this around shadow. He won't try to comfort him. Won't pity him.
But shadow does something unexpected.
He sits next to him.
Shadow touches his chest. Then balls it into a fist. Watching as sonic finished fixing the burrow.
"Why do you feel like that...?" Shadow asks.
"I feel like... I'm not me... Anymore. I was confident. I could always do it, and sure I still can. But I dwell over everything now. I feel weak. Like I can't keep myself together anymore... I'm so tired... I'm a wreck"
"If that's so bad then what about me? Am I a wreck?" Shadow asks looking up at Sonic. Sonic hesitates for a moment.
"No... You have a reason for everything. You're allowed to be upset after everything"
"And you aren't? You have reasons to be upset. I've... I've never been able to talk to you because I wasn't sure if you were genuine or... Pretending. How could anyone go through everything you have and be okay?"
"I have to be okay! The world relies on me being okay. And it's..."
"Crushing?" Shadow says scooting closer to sonic. Sonic brings his knees up to his chest.
"Y-yeah. I... I don't know how to deal with anything. I've never had to deal with my stupid feelings before... And I can't do it."
"I get it..." Shadow pauses. "I know a lot of people rely on you. And you can't exactly show weakness" shadow pauses again.
It feels to weird to comfort someone else. Especially sonic. Every instinct shadow has is telling him to insult sonic. Tell him to get over himself. But his stomach is twisting in knots and is telling him that doing that, isn't what's needed right now.
Shadow has overheard vector, cream, tails, Amy... A lot of people show concern towards sonic. And he knows sonic is a good liar. Good at hiding everything
So if he is going through trouble that stresses him out enough that everyone notices... This could be bad
Shadow is pulled out of his thoughts realising he never finished the sentence. He forgot what he was going to say.
He felt his hands slide onto Sonic's shoulder. They make eye contact.
"You can fall apart on me. I'll be okay. I don't know if we can fix whatever is going on... But we can try"
The words coming out of shadow's mouth feels foreign. But it seems to work as Sonic's face untenses
Sonic feels a slight lift in the weight off his chest. And he let's out a breath he didn't know he was holding.
He feels his cheek. He isn't crying. But he feels like he was.
"I... Thank you. I really appreciate it." Sonic smiles. But it immediately falters, he feels exhaustion overcome him and he lays back on the grass. Some Chao climbing over him.
Shadow can't help but think, if sonic is feeling anything like what shadow has felt. He nees to know... He needs to ask.
"Do you ever... Feel like hurting yourself?" Shadow asks. He knows the answer is no, but he wants to know.
"What do you mean by that?"
"Like... Killing yourself? Have you ever... considered it... Or had it comes across as Like... As a thought?"
"No." Sonic says suddenly sounding a bit concerned sitting back up.
"Would that answer change if the world or your friends didn't rely or care about you?"
"No! I... Oh geez, have I really made people think that I would do something like that...? No! I'm greatful for my life. To be here. I'm sorry if I made you worry like that...!"
"No! No... It's just that. I've felt that way... So I was worried you did too..."
Sonic let's out a sigh. "As much as it would be great to exist without feeling anything... Like bad. But then again, that's what makes living... Living right? We wouldn't be people if we were happy all of the time. It's just frustrating. I'm feeling bad and I can't fix it."
Shadow let's out a sigh of relief. Sonic stands up.
"I think I made knuckles and the others worry a bit... I'm gonna go... Talk to them. Could you update me when you find out surge is okay? I just need to know"
Shadow nods. "Yeah. I will. Remember. You can... Come to me? I'm not good at feelings but we can just... Do whatever you need."
"Thanks shads" sonic runs off.
After a few minutes shadow runs back to the hospital. He stands outside surge's room. She was awake. Sleepy looking. But they brought in Kit and they're reunited. "What now?" Shadow asks the scientist.
"They'll be placed in therapy."
"Good."