Work Text:
Sonic is terrible at hiding his feelings.
Ask anyone who’s ever had the fortune (or misfortune as some may say, not that he ever believed or made fun of those certain individuals right after) of meeting him. When someone tried to corner him, his good mood would straightaway sour and appear as a slight frown on his face. When he saw an acquaintance walking at the other side of the street he would promptly be at their side with a witty joke to match.
He was also horrible at being tied down, by commitments or by ropes, as many have found out (usually by the hard way).
Point is, he never had to scramble to find an excuse to stay with anyone, especially some such as Shadow before, not like this and not like now, having found him sitting in a coffeeshop with his usual dour face.
(even if the last months he was fighting to hide these new blooming feelings from him, scared of frightening him but also scared of himself most of all for feeling this way in the first)
“Hey there, sunshine,” he had winked, already by his side before he could let himself think further and trying to squish himself next to the dark hedgehog. He just grumbled in response, looking down at his full bowl of coffee beans (the baristas still didn’t know what to do with that, evidently), trying to fix his attention anywhere else but near him.
“…You’re talking to me, aren’t you,” he muttered after an uncomfortable minute of Sonic nosing over his shoulder and checking out the contents of the bowl. He blinked at the easy acknowledgement, before his smile got even wider.
“Yep! Looks like you got something there, haven’t you?”
“Hands off, hedgehog,” and he got his bowl and held it over his head to make his point clear, baring his teeth warningly. “These are mines.”
He laughed, somehow squishing up to him even closer as he pushed his chair closer and leaned over with his head. “Relax,” he pulled out teasingly, face upside-down. “I’m not for strong coffee stuff. Bleh.” And he stuck out his tongue for extra effect, getting a grunt in return. “Anyways… what brought you to this humble coffeehouse?”
Shadow wrinkled his nose, the light from the window next to him dappling over his dark spines. “Rouge said I needed to interact with the ‘common people’,” he said, making quotation marks as he set the bowl on the far side of the table. “I… don’t have much choice, considering she won’t buy me any more food until I got out at least once and I quote, ‘feel the sunshine’.” He cocked his head at the blue hero. “…You’re not mocking me.”
Sonic caught himself staring at him seriously for a second, shaking it off to grace him with a lopsided smile while holding one of his feet up to the stool. “Nah, I can definitely see the problem.”
The Ultimate Lifeform blinked. “Really?”
He nodded vigorously. “You clearly haven’t seen the beauty of the world in daytime, Shadow. And I’m going to correct that.”
And before he could utter a curse at the Blue Blur, he was yanked outside and forced to run for the fate of his arm (in the grips of Sonic, who might’ve made a slight blush come upon his face, if only for a second).
And then they were flying.
Shadow, while used to being dragged around by Sonic metaphorically, wasn’t expecting the phrase to suddenly turn literal, especially this morning of all days.
Try as he might, he couldn’t wrench his arm away, not that some foreign part in him wanted to distance anyways. All his efforts of ignoring him, of pushing him aside, of remaining impervious to the sight of him around the place with that blinding grin and a warm aura—none of it compared to the feel of him right by his side with his hand slotting perfectly around his arm.
It reminded him of the sun. Too bright and stubborn to get the hint, but beloved by everyone who basked in their presence.
(he wanted him to let go, he wanted him to hold him closer?)
“Sonic,” he gritted out instead, feeling said arm stretched to give a discomforting tingle. “Stop this foolishness at once.”
Looking back with a grin to knock the rocket shoes off his feet, he skidded to a stop, allowing momentum to make Shadow stumble. “If you want me to let go, you better race me then!”
And while he scoffed, he loosened his body and looked down at their clasped hands.
Wait. “Hand in hand…?” he trailed off, hesitantly as the other kept holding on to him.
Sonic beamed, swinging his hand in response. “Yep! So you know where to go, of course.”
“Couldn’t you just tell me?”
“Then it wouldn’t be a surprize!”
“You’ve already thought of a place,” he stated dryly. Not a question, as most should be wise to when remembering the speediness and recklessness the blue hedgehog indulged in daily.
He chuckled, before tugging at him impatiently and jogged by the tips of his shoes. “Unlike certain people,” he drawled, “We normal folk can’t always just teleport to where we want to go. And before you point out that I'm far from normal and I'm a supersonic hedgehog who's too annoying for his own good need I remind you that you," poking Shadow's chest, "were just eating raw coffee beans."
"Excus-"
"Go!" And with a shout, he pulled Shadow away with a cheeky smile to match his curse.
Passing the town in a flash, the agent taking only a second before catching up and even pulling the hero as he got ahead sometimes, through rugged hills and fields of green.
(Shadow, for one, wasn't too adverse to a touch he would've though he would've hated)
(Sonic was just happy that he was able to be by his side for once, nothing between them)
“Go right!”
Sonic shoved him for good measure, trying to steer Shadow to the direction he wanted to go. “No, this is the way!”
“I swear hedgehog, are you trying to get us killed?”
“No offence but I’m pretty sure,” he panted, kicking away from a tree to avoid a painful hit, “that there are more peaceful ways for me to kick the bucket than whatever you’re afraid of.”
“You know nothing—” his own version of a shove, which was more rougher than what Sonic initially expected and had given Shadow a shot of navigating out of the woods they got lost in— “You know nothing of what I’m afraid of.”
“Me?”
A snort. “As if.”
A beat, as they finally exited the tangle of trees. “So, what was that all about? The way you were acting I bet…” he trailed off as he saw Shadow’s face, bleak and tired.
He stopped, almost throwing down both of them down onto the meadow from the force of their speed. “Okay,” Sonic said, dropping the other’s hand (all that warmth, potential energy lost once more between them) and crossing his own arms as he tried to give a serious face. “What’s up?”
“…” He just turned away, standing stick-straight and watching the afternoon sun dipping down from the sky.
The hero opened his mouth but then snapped it shut once more, noticing the way the hybrid looked at him pointedly then at the earth a meter away from himself.
Oh. Oh.
He plopped himself there on the ground, resting his head on a nearby tree from the woods they just left and hummed contently, watching the sky as well. During his time with Shadow, he couldn’t say he learnt to slow down a little. Ironic, for sure, as they were both super-speedy hedgehogs with immense power, but any decisions made around the agent wasn’t something to be rushed.
And through the very painful slowing down of everything, Sonic learnt things about him.
The way he was a walking paradox, just like him: doubting his control and identity and yet having theatrical performances fit for a thousand kings, beating up enemies with a scoff and yet having a soft touch he reserved for those he liked, a cold exterior but a pure heart so much like him.
He was like the moon—craters on his surface and on the inside (trauma, so much pain, so much so that it made his heart ache), cold and mysterious as everyone wanted to traverse him, coming when it was truly dark and yet lighting up the way for those in need as his temper rose and fell like the waves of respect he commanded.
Sonic learnt so much from Shadow; how to read between all the layers and lines he held to himself, how to take it slow and gentle in situations he would’ve never dreamt were possible, how to be strong even with the worst to come (and the worst having happened).
It was only a matter of time until his own world revolved around the hybrid.
“…Why did you take me here?”
He blinked. “Um… I’m pretty sure you’re the one who got us here in the first place.”
“I know that, it’s just…” he looked at him then, eyes matching the sunset. He sighed. “What was below that cliff was not your concern.”
Sonic choked on his breath. “Wait-what? A cliff? That wasn’t there last time!”
“And what was there last time, hedgehog?”
He gave him a quick raised eye ridge, before smoothing out his face with a gloved hand. Looks like even his mannerisms are rubbing off on him. “A plain. A field of flowers. I don’t know, just not a random cliff in the middle of a forest.”
“Now the end of a forest.”
“Not helping, Shads.”
“Don’t call me that.”
“Anything you say, Shads.” He chuckled. He was met with an unamused face. “Okay, okay. Sheesh, talk about an unresponsive audience.”
“Tell me why I’m here hours away from my breakfast with the most useless ‘pit-stops’ that had you cuddling Chao—”
“—Don’t say you didn’t like ‘em!”
“—taking a quick bet about how many of those annoying chill-dogs you could eat in a minute in that random restaurant—”
“—I didn’t actually go through with it, I’m still a minor y’know!”
“—and now you trying to drop us off a cliff. So, please enlighten me here.”
“I… just wanted you to have a good time.” Not looking at his face, not bearing to see the scorn on that handsome face, did he plow on. “And I know you’d think it’s stupid that I would want to show you that, that maybe outside could be nice and maybe this could make you happy so you won’t just disappear on me and this was the best way I could show my feelings towards you and yeah, maybe I shouldn’t.” He hugged himself. “I know I’m a lot to handle, all at once. So if you want me to hide my feelings or something, just say it.”
There was quite, for a while. Then, “This wasn’t bad.”
Sonic looked up, watching a small smile grace his face. “Of all your hare-brained schemes, this wasn’t bad,” he admitted.
He could feel his spirit coming back. “Really?” he asked, a slight teasing lilt to his voice.
Shadow shook his head. “If you keep that up, however, I’m afraid I’ll have to skip out on the next one.”
The blue hedgehog stood in shock, staring at him. “Next one?”
The dark one smirked. “Of course,” and in a flash he had his hand on his cheek, touching it reverently— “You haven’t shown me all of the ways mornings could be good.” And before he could see the others reaction, he disappeared away.
Leaving the hero to absently touch a hand where his was, a giddy smile forming on his face as night befell the world.
A door slam, loud running up stairs and falling down multiple times before a snap to signify Chaos Control. Then, “I hate you, Rouge!” from the bedroom.
Rouge didn’t look up from her nails. “But it worked out, didn’t it?”
“That was the worst excuse ever and you knew that Sonic was there and-and you just knew!”
“Hmm,” she replied, deftly dipping the brush to reapply her coat. “So how are you now, lover boy? Did he melt your heart yet?”
A pause. “Maybe…”
“Well that’s all the reward I need for today, thank you. You’re free to go brooding in that hovel now.”
“So what was that with the coffee place you told me to go to and all that?”
“Oh that. You do know that Big Blue usually get coffee for his brother every few days?”
Silence.
The bat snickered internally as she finished her work and admired it, counting down the seconds until the hedgehog started screaming into his pillow.