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Sonic usually made it out of fights with Eggman without much damage, just a few scratches here and there but never anything grand. He would usually walk around with a couple of bandages here and there for a day or two and that would be it.
That's why he knew something was going to end wrong when just starting the fight he immediately got a very nasty cut across his right shoulder, making it that everytime he raised his arm the wound would get squished and more blood would come out. It stung really bad, but he was able to ignore it while still continuing to focus on the fight, however, that became harder to do when he was suddenly grabbed on the head by a robot and got his face smashed against a concrete wall, most likely breaking his nose and leaving the hero bleeding non stop. When this second incident happened Shadow got closer to him, abandoning the rest in favour of making sure Sonic was okay, and because of this, when Sonic was hit a third time, by one of the flying badniks' laser beams right above his left knee, Shadow decided that it was enough for the blue blur.
He was sure the rest could deal with it now, many of the robots had been destroyed, Sonic was simply having more trouble given how hurt he was.
"Sonic." Shadow called as he walked up to the blue hedgehog, who quickly turned to face him, a thick trail of blood running down his face from his nose that he had chosen to ignore. The hybrid put a hand on Sonic's unharmed shoulder, and before the blue hedgehog could question him about it, he teleported them away from the battle, right into what Sonic quickly recognised to be Rouge and Shadow's shared apartment.
"Dude, what's that about?" He asked as he watched Shadow walk away from the living room, leaving Sonic behind, however, the blue hero was quick to follow his rival across the hallway, limping on his good leg. Shadow simply groaned as an answer, making Sonic frown in frustration. "Eggman's still out there!" He insisted, but Shadow continued to ignore him, entering the bathroom and looking through the cabinets. "Whatever, I don't know what has gotten onto you, but I'm going back." Sonic simply said as he turned around and walked out of the bathroom, but he didn't get very far, since Shadow once again grabbed him by the shoulder and teleported them back to the living room, then pushing Sonic onto the couch and dropping a first aid box next to him.
Sonic looked at Shadow with a raised eyebrow in question, however, the hybrid completely ignored him, instead, he went to the kitchen, and Sonic only heard the tap going off before Shadow got back to the living room, a wet rag in hand as he sat down next to the hero.
"What are you doing?" Sonic asked, even if he had already realised what Shadow intended to do, it was just a little hard to believe. He and Shadow were rivals, and he was under the impression that the hybrid greatly disliked him, so of course, he was surprised to see that Shadow was trying to take care of his wounds, and voluntarily, on top of that.
Shadow wordlessly grabbed Sonic's hand and placed it right in front of the hero's face, and after a second, Sonic understood what he was trying to say. "Ah, right, sorry." He muttered before pressing his nose with his fingers and lightly leaning to the front, now breathing through his mouth. The hybrid simply hummed in satisfaction.
Shadow then kneeled on the floor, getting a closer look at the wound in Sonic's leg, however, the hero decided that it was better for him to look away, believing that not seeing it was going to ease the pain. The hybrid then grabbed a gauze pad from the first aid kit and started applying pressure to the area above the blue hedgehog's knee to stop the bleeding, getting him to groan lightly at the pain.
"Are you not going to talk to me?" Sonic asked quietly after a second or two, his voice sounding nasally since he was pressing on his nostrils. Shadow looked up at the other hedgehog for a second, and Sonic felt his chest tighten when he noticed the worry in Shadow's eyes. Was Shadow really that worried for him? This wasn't even the most damage he had gotten during fighting, he had been worse, so maybe the hybrid was exaggerating a little bit. But to be honest, Sonic couldn't complain.
It felt nice to have Shadow so worried about him, even with how selfish that sounded.
Shadow sighed as he once again stood up, and got back up on the couch, grabbing the wet rag he had gotten earlier and started softly dabbing it against the hero's skin, cleaning the blood from the wound in his shoulder that had already stopped bleeding on itself.
Sonic almost melted at the tender touch.
Shadow's hands were capable of giving the worst hits, they were capable of destroying even the worst of Eggman's robots, of summoning the most concentrated balls of pure Chaos Energy, of handling the Chaos Emeralds as if it were nothing. Shadow's hands were extremely powerful and dangerous at times.
However, those same hands were now treating him with the tenderest of cares, taking care of his injuries as if he were made of porcelain, about to break if mishandled. And as Sonic looked at Shadow's face and found him frowning, focused on his task and worried as well, he felt his chest flutter and his face heaten up. He didn't even notice when his hand fell from his nose, not covering his nostrils anymore as he was now too lost in thoughts, just staring at Shadow and letting his thoughts go crazy with possibilities.
When the hybrid noticed that Sonic was no longer holding his nose, he got a bit closer, inspecting it, making the hero's breath hitch at the sudden proximity, however, Shadow didn't notice this, instead, he lightly dabbed the rag under Sonic's nose, cleaning that area as well and holding his face still with the other hand on the other hedgehog's cheek. Sonic couldn't help but lean into the touch, getting Shadow to stop abruptly what he was doing to look at the other with slight confusion on his face. The hero could feel his entire face heaten up.
"Sorry, 's just-" Sonic tried excusing himself. He regretted it as soon as he spoke, feeling that he might've ruined the nice atmosphere that had settled between the two, however, he couldn't just stop talking now, so he continued. "It's weird to have you being so gentle with me…" He finally said, his words getting out in a sigh.
Shadow frowned lightly before slowly retreating his hand, however, Sonic quickly reacted and grabbed the hybrid's hand with his own, not thinking at all over his own actions. "I-I mean! Weird good!" He quickly added nervously, and Shadow's expression relaxed. "I definitely could get used to this…" Sonic mumbled, still not letting go of Shadow's hand, then chuckled softly. "Who knew the Ultimate Lifeform could be so tender?" He asked half jokingly, getting Shadow to roll his eyes.
"I'm Ultimate in every sense of the word, hedgehog." The dark hedgehog said quietly, not making any effort in getting his hand out of Sonic's hold. The hero smiled widely. "Hey, you're talking again." He whispered, barely audible, however, Shadow was close enough to hear. And to feel the warm, tingling sensation of Sonic's breath against his skin.
When did they get so close?
"You're making me wish I kept quiet." Shadow said, also half jokingly, making Sonic fake a pout. "Oh, come on, Shads, you were being so nice just now." He complained, still in a joking manner. They both knew it, they were simply playing. "Well, I wouldn't have to 'be so nice' if you weren't so stupidly reckless." Shadow mumbled, and raised an eyebrow in question when he noticed Sonic's smile widening.
"Is it really that, or is it that you were worried about me?" The hero asked teasingly, his voice sounding lower and quieter. Shadow's eyes widened slightly before he frowned once again. "Keep this up and I'll kick you out." He threatened, however, Sonic knew that it was an empty threat. Shadow wasn't even looking at him as he spoke. "Aw, come on, will it really kill you to admit that you care about me?" Sonic kept teasing, and Shadow rolled his eyes. "Are you really that desperate?" He asked, however, the hero decided to ignore that comment, instead, he kept smiling.
"I'll go first, if it makes it easier for you." The blue hedgehog said, his voice soft and sweet, taking Shadow by surprise as Sonic's hold over his hand gave a quick squeeze.
The hero's eyes had been half lidded during his teasing act, but now they were big and full with a sentiment that Shadow didn't even begin to comprehend. Or maybe he just didn't want to comprehend yet. Whatever it was, green emerald eyes were almost boring holes through Shadow as they stared at him with such… Tenderness, it was almost too much.
"I really care about you, Shadow." Sonic finally confessed, and even if the words had sounded so effortless, so soft, so caring and so sweet, it had been a hard confession to make. It had taken Sonic so much effort to get the words out, but he was proud of the delivery.
Especially when he saw Shadow's face. All surprise, blushing cheeks and the obvious puzzlement, having trouble deciding whether to answer with a snarky remark or an honest confession. The hybrid finally sighed as he looked away and tightened his hold around the wet, already drying rag, under Sonic's own hand.
"I… I care about you as well." He whispered, and if Sonic hadn't been so close and paying so much attention, he might've missed it. But he didn't, and instead he got such a strong feeling blooming from his chest, the widest smile ever shown taking place on his face even without his own knowledge as he felt the need to crush Shadow in a strong hug, but he didn't, he just squeezed his hand once more.
And they stayed in silence for a couple of minutes more, just sitting there, taking in the feeling of the other's company. No words were needed for both hedgehogs to know that something had changed between the two, what would be of their rocky relationship now that those sweet words were exchanged? To be completely honest, Sonic didn't care about that at the moment, he was too lost in Shadow's warm presence to care about what was going to happen once their moment there was over.
Shadow eventually got back to taking care of Sonic's wounds, finally covering them, hiding them from sight, as if nothing had happened, and once that was done, the hybrid got out of the living room, putting his stuff back on their places.
And Sonic was left alone on the couch, that is, until his phone went off. He quickly answered when he saw that it was Tails calling.
"Hey, bud." He said as soon as he picked up the phone, and heard a relieved sigh. "Sonic! What happened to you? Where are you?" The kid worriedly asked, and Sonic felt super guilty for not having told his little brother of his situation. "Got a little hurt, Shadow brought me to his apartment." He explained, and just as he said that, the mentioned black hedgehog got back to the living room, and didn't say a word, having noticed that the hero was on the phone. "Are you okay?" Tails asked, still worried. "Yeah, no need to worry!" The blue hedgehog assured, and after that he heard the young fox sigh, not fully convinced, but more relaxed. "What about Eggman?" Sonic asked after a second. "He's gone now, everything is okay." Tails answered, kind of dismissively. "Rouge and I will be getting to the apartment soon." The young fox then added, and Sonic hummed. "Yeah, okay, see you, then." He said as he looked at Shadow out of the corner of his eye. The hybrid was looking in another direction, arms crossed and ears standing straight up. "Yep! See you." The two tailed fox said before hanging up.
Sonic sighed as left his phone to the side, wordlessly looking up at Shadow, lost in thought.
"Thank you." He finally said, and Shadow brought up his hand to his face as he looked away. "It's nothing." He muttered as he shrugged. "Well, for me it is something." Sonic insisted as he smiled, and Shadow simply sighed. He couldn't deny that, so he simply didn't even try.
"You won't be able to run for a while." Shadow informed as he sat back down next to the blue hedgehog, looking over his bandaging work to make sure that he didn't miss anything. He knew he didn't, he had been extremely meticulous with it, he had previous experience, however, he just wanted to occupy himself with something else that wasn't Sonic's face.
The blue hedgehog gave a long sigh. He already had imagined it, not being able to run, but actually hearing from the one that treated his wounds made it more real. Luckily for him, his healing time would be shorter because of the Chaos Energy on his system, but it still sucked.
"Well, you know what would make the recovery process better?" Sonic asked after a second, a small smile on his face as Shadow looked up at him and raised an eyebrow in question. The blue hero chuckled softly before answering. "If you would visit me."
Shadow narrowed his eyes at the other hedgehog, to which Sonic chuckled once more. "I'll… Consider it." The hybrid said, and the other boy smiled widely. "I'll be waiting for you, then!"
Shadow did end up visiting Sonic fairly regularly, and even if he told Tails that it was simply to make sure that he did a good enough job taking care of Sonic's wounds. But the blue hedgehog knew the truth.
Still, if Shadow wanted to keep it a secret, he was fine with that.
He already knew and that was enough.