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Shadow was convinced his eyelids were made of lead. Not because they actually were, but because they kept slipping closed every chance they got. Slumber was tempting, but he had no time for such luxuries. Ever since the nationwide quarantine had started, it had become increasingly more difficult to keep up with the classes and lectures he was required to attend online. Time became nothing to the coal coloured hog at this point, and all he could tell was he was supposed to attend a two hour long (to his dismay) lecture on Zoom at ten- a couple of minutes away. He sipped at the cold brew he had placed on his desk to keep himself awake.
The meeting loaded, and he took a few seconds to fix his posture before his camera started working on his laptop.
He expected a large amount of people to appear on the screen, but all it showed was a lone blue furball. A few seconds passed before Shadow realised the furball was another student, looking just as sleep deprived as himself. He seemed to be a hedgehog, or maybe a tenrec. Most likely a hedgehog. Upon seeing Shadow, he smiled and held his hand up to wave at the camera.
“Hi.”
“Hello,” he managed out. The other hedgehog perked at the response, taking it as an invitation to start a conversation.
“I wonder where everyone else is,” he started. “Maybe there’s online traffic or something.”
“Yeah, maybe.”
There was a short silence between the two, but strangely enough Shadow didn’t find it uncomfortable. A hand found the edge of the mug his iced coffee sat in and brought it to his lips. Coral eyes glazed over as he stared blankly at the screen, waiting for the professor and the rest of the students to show up. Online traffic. What even is that? Was it when a large amount of people attempts to access the same website and it crashes? Hm, maybe so. Shadow sipped at his drink for a few more seconds. No-one had arrived in the call, and he was growing impatient. The clock on his laptop caught his attention.
10:09 PM.
“Are you kidding? How can it be ten at night?!” His blue classmate seemed to have noticed as well. They both brought their hands to their faces in unison, Shadow pinching the skin above his nose while the other just rubbed at his eyes. “Guess we’re both idiots, huh?”
“Tired, yes. Idiocy? Not on my part.” Shadow stated bluntly.
“Play the exhaustion card. I’m too tired to argue,” Coincidentally, his statement was followed by a yawn. “What’s your name, anyway? I don’t think I’ve seen you around before.”
“I haven’t seen you, either.”
“Don’t avoid my question, edgy mc eyeliner face.”
Shadow scoffed at that. The red that lined the lids of his eyes was completely natural, thankyouverymuch. He took another long sip to prepare himself, then gently placed his ceramic mug onto the desk.
“Shadow. What about yourself?”
“Shadow? No way, that’s too weirdly coincidental to be a real name. There’s no way your mother predicted your emo-ness. Try again.”
Shadow sat up in surprise.
“Excuse you?”
“I’m just sayin.”
“It’s Shadow. How about you, smartass? Tell me yours.”
“I’m Sonic, fastest guy on campus.” He stuck a thumb into his own chest, emphasising his show-off attitude. Shadow openly snorted at that.
“Sure, sure. And you said my name was ridiculous,” Shadow took a moment to sip his coffee once more. “You’re Sonic, and you’re fast. Sounds a little ironic to me.”
“Mhm, well you have your secrets and I have mine.” Sonic stated plainly, a smile stretching its way across his face. His fingers started drumming on the desk quietly. Shadow lazily observed Sonic’s setup, noticing that he had a microphone mounted with a pop filter. His desk looked neat, actually. There must’ve been LEDs along the desk or something, because the hedgehog was enveloped in a soft blue glow. That didn’t change Shadow’s idea that this hedgehog’s fur was naturally blue. Just because the lights themselves were blue didn’t mean he couldn’t see the difference between someone with white fur and blue lights, and blue fur with blue lights. As an animation student, Shadow knew his colour theory, dammit.
Shadow’s desk setup wasn’t too different; however, he didn’t mount any LEDs on his workspace. They run along the walls behind him, sitting just in the point where the wall and the ceiling connect. He liked it that way, in Shadow’s opinion it looked like the room was being outlined like a 2D drawing. He snapped himself out of his daydream.
“So what’s with the fancy mic?”
“Oh this? I’m a music major so I needed one that was sorta better than a laptop microphone, haha.” As if to prove his point, Sonic brought his hand up to adjust the microphone. Giving the pop filter a soft tap. “What’s your major?”
Right, we’re in an English and Language conventions class. Of course he wouldn’t know what I’m studying. Shadow paused for a moment before bringing his tablet into view.
“I’m an animation student.”
“Oh, dude that’s so cool! I’ve always wanted to learn how to draw.” A soft laugh came from Sonic’s end of the call, as he adjusted his posture and looked into the camera on his desktop. Shadow took a moment to appreciate his smile. It might’ve been his sleep deprived brain talking, but this other kid was pretty cute. “So you would’ve been pretty set with staying at home even before the quarantine, huh? Like I know animating takes a long time so wouldn’t you have worked at home a lot?”
“No, actually. I mean yes, I stayed at home a lot to finish work, but when I could get the chance I used to go out and have coffee with a close friend of mine. Sometimes I’d bring my tablet and we’d draw together.”
“That sounds neat! Didn’t think mr gothic would even have any friends.”
“Ha, Ha. You’re a comedian.” Shadow let a smirk slip onto his features, finishing off his ice-brew. “I’m gonna take a wild guess and say you had a whole lot of friends before this pandemic?”
“You’d be correct! Well- sort of. I know a lot of people but my main group isn’t that big.” He quickly corrected himself. “This whole quarantine thing is really messing with me, though. Like, it’s not just because I can’t see my friends, but I don’t think my treadmill can handle me abusing it anymore.”
“Then stop using it.”
“Are you kidding? I’m the fastest guy on campus and I need to run somehow! I haven’t been out on a track in weeks, and it physically hurts.” Sonic exclaimed in astonishment, waving his hand dramatically.
Shadow rolled his eyes sarcastically. Of course the music kid would be dramatic. Maybe he’s a theatre kid. But when coral coloured eyes flicked up from the empty mug he’d been staring at, said music kid was gone from his screen.
“What-?” Shadow managed out quietly, wondering how long he’d spaced out. A few more seconds passed before a gloved hand jutted into frame, holding what seemed to be a bag of potato chips.
“Got em!”
“Got what, exactly?” Shadow opted to ignore that he completely zoned out.
“Snacks, duh. You want some? I’ve got sea salt chips, gummy snakes and these cracker things.” He showed each bagged item to the hedgehog on the other end as he mentioned them.
“Hedgehog, we can’t physically share food through the screen-“
“No, I know. But its fun to think so, right?” He flashed another one of his electric smiles at the camera, giving Shadow a small buzz as he felt the warmth slowly make its way up to his face. “So what do you want?”
Shadow sighed, letting a small smile make its way onto his face.
“Two crackers and a red snake. Please.” And just as promised, Sonic carefully picked out two crackers and a red snake, putting them at the foot of his desktop monitor.
“The red ones are always the best. None of that nasty yellow snake bullcrap.”
“What, you have some sort of personal vendetta against yellow snakes?”
“No, they just taste the worst.” Sonic made a sour face, as if remembering the taste of the yellow coloured gummy. Shadow chuckled at that.
Once again Shadow caught a glimpse of his empty mug. He flicked his eyes from the hedgehog on the screen, and to the piece of porcelain on his desk. Then, an idea swam past so fast he almost didn’t catch it. Almost. His hands started working before he even told them to, making quick work of unplugging his laptop from his tablet, and the charging cable. He picked up the Mac, holding it with one gloved hand and following the path he usually took to get to the kitchen with it. He heard a voice come from his computer and realised all the other hedgehog would be able to see is his chest. Whatever, he’ll live.
“Shadow what are you doing-?”
Shadow didn’t say anything, just setting his computer down in a position so Sonic could see him and the bench he was about to use. He flicked the kettle on to boil.
“So how do you like your coffee?”
“I’m so confused, what’s even happening right now?”
“I’m making you a coffee.” Shadow stated with the utmost sincerity. He retrieved two clean mugs from the cabinet above him, placing them gently on the table. “So how do you have yours?”
Sonic laughed at that, the sound filling the dark hedgehog’s empty kitchen.
“I’m sorry you just-” He wiped an invisible tear from his eye before settling his attention back to Shadow. He gazed fondly through the screen, a warm smile settling on his features. It wasn’t his usual toothy smile, just a rather relaxed tug at the corners of his lips that suggested he was enjoying himself. “You just look so cute right now.”
That remark sent more heat to Shadow’s face, but he played it off as the water finishing it’s boil. Sonic went silent. Perhaps he realised what he said to me?
“Excuse me for a moment.” Shadow told the other politely, before turning off his microphone on his computer. He walked off frame calmly, then proceeded to scream.
“What the FUCK! Why HIM?! StOP!” He shouted at himself, the anger at his own feelings getting the better of him. He knew exactly what this all meant. This was not some sleep deprived episode, but he could really feel that this stupid blue hedgehog was getting to him. Shadow knew crushes were hard for him to develop, but that fact that he’d probably known this blue hedgehog for a little over an hour and he already wanted to squash the butterflies that were taking real estate in his intestines right now was not helping.
Shadow collected himself, turning the mic on his laptop back on.
“I usually have my coffee black. Unless it’s iced, then I usually have it with quite a lot of milk and sweetener.” Shadow said coolly.
“Iced latte’s are where it’s at, my dude. If not, just however you think would be fine.” Sonic chuckled.
Shadow took it upon himself to go the full length and make an iced latte for Sonic. Sure, it wasn’t barista quality, but it would pass. And yeah, he wouldn’t actually be able to drink it through the screen, but Shadow figured he could just enjoy Sonic’s beverage after their little call ended.
But Shadow found himself wishing he didn’t have to hang up any time soon. Isolation didn’t bother him. being rather introverted and the fact that most of his work could be done within the comfort of his apartment. His attitude didn’t change at first. Shadow treated the mandatory quarantine as if it were a crunch week, where he would usually stay inside anyway. Soon enough it became boring, and he found that his tablet couldn’t hold his attention the way it used to. Sure drawing was fine, but he discovered that his weekly meetups with Maria at the café downtown were going to be postponed until everyone was allowed to go outside again. His small group of friends seemed even smaller as everyone was conveniently busy and never had any time for him. Shadow hadn’t had a full conversation with someone in two months. He lived alone, after all.
The two hedgehogs made small talk as they shared imaginary food, both of them too sleep deprived to care if it made any sense. Topics whizzed by in a blur, each one more engaging than the last. Shadow had touched on the fact that he uses rollerblades as his form of transport and exercise, and because he can’t get out anymore he has started skating around the tiled sections of his apartment. He made sure to leave out the fact that he mainly slipped his skates on and rolled around his residence because he was way beyond bored, however. Sonic mentioned that he’d had to call his (adopted, Shadow assumed. Otherwise he wasn’t sure how a hedgehog could have a fox as a sibling) brother to pick him up after his car broke down on the way home from somewhere in Montana after visiting family, and that they ended up making an adventure out of it together when Sonic had spotted some delinquent steakhouse along the way and insisted they spend an hour there. They had gotten in so much trouble for heading off course that night.
To make things fair, Shadow told him of the time he had spilled a whole glass of cranberry juice on his friend’s rug, and how she didn’t talk to him for a whole week. Although it took a lot of hard work at the time, he had managed to erase the stain from the white carpeting and delivered it back to her safely.
Albeit not as adventurous as a steakhouse trip in the middle of the night but it was enough to satisfy both students in their conversation. Shadow had relocated back to his desk, failing to plug his macbook back in as he conversed with the other. His screen was filled with a piece of paper from the other end.
“…Why are you covering the camera?” Shadow yawned out.
“I’m not covering it, I’m showing you something. Duh.”
“Your camera won’t focus on whatever you’re trying to show me.”
“Aw, well hang on let me fix it.”
The blue hedgehog fiddled around with some markers an the paper he had previously presented to Shadow. When he returned it to it’s position in front of the camera, the darker hedgehog could see ten bold numbers scrawled across the page.
A phone number.
Shadow took a moment before he wrote it down on a notepad. He moved his pen down a couple of lines on the paper, jotting his own number onto the page and holding it up to the camera for Sonic to see. A snicker came from the other end of the call just before both boys slipped back into a tired conversation.
It was around four in the morning when zoom meeting was silent. Shadow and Sonic had successfully blacked out before ending the call with each other, Sonic leaning back in his chair and sleeping in an upright position while Shadow laid his head onto the desk in front of him. They’d both be feeling that when they woke up, that’s for sure.
His laptop died at around seven the next morning. Shadow didn’t come to until around midday, and when he did he awoke to a message from an unknown number. He knew exactly who it was, and he hated that it made his breath tremble. So, he unlocked his phone groggily and punched in the contact name.
SONIC :)
Fuck, he missed the lecture.