Work Text:
“Your pacing is stressing me out,” Sonic said, cutting off Silver’s rambling. The lethargic hedgehog reached out and yanked the cowboy onto his hammock. “Chill out.”
Silver was a bounty hunter and so far he’d not managed to find and catch a single one!
Not even the hedgehog who was currently snoozing on him!
How could the blue hedgehog be so calm when someone was actively hunting him down? What was wrong with this guy?
“I still am going to bring you in,” Silver huffed.
“You’re free to try,” Sonic replied, his eyes closed and arms crossed behind his head. “Just not during naptime.”
This
was such a dangerous criminal that no one but Silver was willing to take up the task of hunting him down for?!
Silver would have felt insulted if not for the fact that the guy had been evading even Silver’s most well laid plans with an annoying amount of ease.
Ugh, Blaze would never let him hear the end of this…
Silver glanced over to the other hammock occupant, now seemingly snoozing, mouth agape and snoring.
Well, a small break wouldn’t hurt. Silver pushed his hat over his face and closed his eyes.
“Hey, guys, sorry I’m late,” Sonic said, walking up to the table of Meh Burgers.
“Finally!” Eggman tossed his arms up, the contents of his burger going flying. “I had to hold up threatening the village until you got here.”
“What took you so long?” Amy said with a frown. “We told you we were eating at twelve, didn’t we?”
“Yeah, well, uh, something came up,” Sonic winced. “Couldn’t exactly get away.”
“Was it that Silver guy again?” Tails complained. Sonic nodded.
“He’s from the future and can read minds!” Sticks claimed, in her classic Cassandra of Troy way. “You have to be wary of him!”
“If he’s giving you too much trouble, Sonic,” Knuckles said, punching his fist. “I could help with pest control.”
“Nah, it’s fine, Silvs doesn’t do any harm in the end,” Sonic waved away Knuckles’ offer, leaning on the back of Tails’ chair. “He’s just a bit high strung.”
The group paused and shared a look before looking over at Sonic.
“Silvs?” Amy questioned.
“Yeah?” Sonic said in response, uncertain what Amy was asking. “It’s my nickname for him.”
“You’ve got a nickname for him already?” Eggman said. “Well, that’s new.”
“What?! Why are you all looking at me like that?!” Sonic leaned back, throwing his arms up. “Ugh, I’m going to get a chili dog.”
“Hurry back, I have had to reset the bomb timer eight times already!” Eggman yelled after him.
The minute Sonic is gone, another hedgehog runs in, struggling to keep his cowboy hat on.
It had made him look really cool when he first showed up, all mysterious and aloof, like a lone ranger or something from all those movies.
It had made him seem intimidating when he decimated Eggman’s machines without lifting a finger and then declared he was hunting down Sonic himself.
Now, he just looked like a kid on Halloween as he frantically scrambled after the apathetic blue hedgehog in his poncho and oversized cowboy hat.
This was no expectation.
“I’ve got you now, Sonic the hedgehog!” Silver started, his voice raising to a fever pitch. He had, for some inexplicable reason, a fishing net. “I- hey, where’d he go?”
Sticks narrowed her eyes at the white hedgehog while Tails motioned to the inside of the Meh Burger, Sonic visibly fishing out his coupons while waiting in line.
“Thank you!” Silver said, dashing inside with the fishing net.
The group watches as Silver shouts something unheard at Sonic, the blue hedgehog turning to him unphased. They watch as Silver throws the net, Sonic easily sidestepping it.
That is all pretty normal. What isn’t normal is what happens next.
Sonic laughs and picks up the net, handing it back to Silver before stepping back into place. Silver hesitates for a minute before tossing the net, this time where Sonic would be rather than where he was.
Sonic grinned and pulled the net off of him, patting Silver on the back. He holds out a coupon to Silver, which the other tentatively took.
Sonic, in a move very unlike himself, wrapped an arm around Silver, pulling him into line next to him.
Eggman dropped his coffee.
The gang watched as Sonic and Silver went through the line, Silver collecting his food, food Sonic paid for, before going on his way.
Sonic rejoined the group, having already eaten his chili dog.
“Alright, something about a bomb, let’s hear it,” Sonic said, sitting down next to Tails. “...What?”
“What was that?” Tails exploded.
“Oh, I knew you had a heart, Sonic!” Amy said at the same time.
“It’s a robot Eggman built to replace Sonic! Where is he, Eggman?!” Sticks wheeled, pointing at the human man.
“This isn’t one of mine!” Eggman defended himself. “Is he maybe sick?”
“Maybe he’s sleepwalking,” Knuckles said, walking over and picking up Sonic from under his arms and lightly shaking him. “Sonic, wake up!”
“Why are you guys all acting so weird?!” Sonic demanded, pushing himself out of Knuckles’ grasp.
“Because of how you just treated Silver!” Tails said. “Sonic, you don’t act like that around the random citizen or even us! Let alone someone’s who been annoying or threatening you!”
“Silver hasn’t been either,” Sonic said, to a chorus of gasps. “What?! He’s not annoying!”
“What about threatening?” Amy asked.
“Not to me,” Sonic shrugged.
“Is that why you let him touch you?” Amy asked, putting on her Shrink glasses. “You’re normally not comfortable with physical trust unless it’s someone you know and highly trust.”
“Stop talking to me like I’m psychology,” Sonic said shortly, crossing his arms. “He’s honestly not that bad of a guy! A little high strung, sure, but passionate and fully committed to his ideals.”
“Compliements? Without having to pull them out of you like teeth?” Eggman said. “That’s a new one.”
“Why are you guys being so weird?” Sonic leaned forward on the table.
“We’re not the ones being weird, you are!” Eggman shot back.
“You build bombs for a living!” Sonic countered.
“And you disarm them for a living, shush!” Eggman crossed his arms.
“I’m slightly nice to one guy, who honestly needs someone to be nice to him, and suddenly you all are acting like I have an alien in my brain or something!” Sonic rolled his eyes.
“Such a thing is not out of the realm of possibility,” Sticks says, standing behind Sonic with a face mask and a scalpel held in her gloved hands. Amy got up and navigated Sticks back to her seat.
“Look, we’re done with this pointless and stupid conversation, either Eggman will start monologing about his bomb or I’m going home,” Sonic said, shutting the conversation down.
The group all glanced at each other but Eggman did launch into his villain spiel so it was dropped for the moment.
Silver walked along the sandy beaches of Bygone Island, his boots crunching against the thin grains.
The sounds of the ocean was reassuring, distracting Silver from his plight.
The ocean was wide and blue and it seemed to swallow the sinking sun within its watery darkness.
Silver wished it would swallow up Sonic the hedgehog. Silver was supposed to capture Sonic but it seemed impossible!
Sure, Silver could probably freeze Sonic in his place and send him packing tied up on the first ship outta here but Silver had only succeeded in freezing Sonic once.
Once! After that, whenever Silver approached with that plan in mind, Sonic would move too much and too fast for Silver to catch.
So Silver had resorted to other plans and none of them, none of them worked!
Sonic didn’t even seem threatened by Silver’s presence anymore! No one did!
But Sonic especially. He kept talking to Silver, like they’re friends, like they’re more than just a criminal and the bounty hunter chasing him.
How can Sonic be so relaxed, so calm, all the time?
Silver couldn’t manage to relax even he was off the job, even when he was on an island, looking out onto the sea.
“Silver!” Sonic calls out and Silver makes a face.
It’s not that he dislikes Sonic, Sonic is… funny and an asshole, in a good way, that is, and he’s unendingly loyal and caring to his own.
It’s just for some reason, he seems to have decided Silver is a part of his own and he doesn’t know how to feel about that.
Silver follows Sonic’s voice up a palm tree, seeing Sonic reclining in the upper branches.
“What are you doing?” Silver asks.
“Drinking some coconut,” Sonic replies, lowering his unnecessary shades to look at Silver with his hypnotizing toxic green eyes. “Wanna try?”
“...Sure,” Silver sighs and floats up because there’s really no point in saying no and he would actually like to try.
Sonic scoots over ever so slightly but Silver still finds himself pressed against Sonic as he lands on the top of the palm tree.
“Here,” Sonic says, offering the coconut with a straw sticking out of it.
Silver hesitates taking it but does, sipping the drink up. It isn’t as sweet as he expected, more watery than anything if he’s honest but it tastes good and refreshing.
“Nice, right?” Sonic says, smiling at Silver confidently.
“It’s not bad,” Silver says, even though it’s absolutely delicious. “How’d you puncture the shell?”
Sonic pulls out a coconut, whole, and pulls a loose quill out of his rat’s nest of a quilldo, easily puncturing the coconut with it.
“Your quills are that sharp?!” Silver exclaims. There’s no way that would tear flesh in any way.
“When I’m nervous or on guard,” Sonic shrugs. “They’re actually pretty soft when I’m relaxed.”
Silver moves without thinking, running a hand through Sonic’s azure blue quills.
Sure enough, they’re soft, if not tangled. Silver runs his hand through them, undoing a tangle, pausing when he realizes what he was doing.
“Ah-” Silver felt his face turn red, pulling his hand back. “I’m so sorry, I-”
Sonic’s purring. Eyes wide, face weirdly blank and red, full on purring, as if he didn’t recognize where he was.
“...Sonic?” Silver asked, afraid he’d broken his target. It said alive, not in a catatonic state! That’s the only reason Silver’s worried.
“I think I have to go turn off my laundry,” Sonic says, strangled. “You should stay. Here. you can, uh, see the stars pretty good from here. Bye.”
Sonic leans over, falling out of the palm tree, leaving Silver up there with two open coconuts and a pair of shades.
He’s gone in a blue streak. Silver considers following but he knows he wouldn’t be able to keep up.
He turns and leans back in the palm tree, looking up at the sky.
“Huh,” Silver mutters to himself. “I guess the stars do look pretty good from here.”
“Amy!” Sonic threw open the door to Amy’s hut, face red and looking like he’d just fought off ten bears. “I need your help.”
“Sonic, I don’t want to see you swallow ten chili dogs at the same time again,” Amy said without looking up from her anger management self help book.
“It’s not that!” Sonic cried. “It’s about Silver.”
Amy did look up at that, frowning at Sonic.
“What about Silver?” Amy said carefully, as if she had a guess but wanted to hear Sonic say it first.
“Can…” Sonic’s face turned even redder somehow, glancing behind him. “Can I come in? Please?”
Amy patted the cushion on the couch next to her, closing her book and putting it to the side.
Sonic walked in, almost embarrassed, and sat next to her, hands folded anxiously in his lap.
“I think I like Silver,” Sonic confessed. Amy suppressed a snort. “He- he ran a hand through my quills and his eyes, I couldn’t look away, they were so pretty, Ames!”
“So, tell him that,” Amy said. “You’ve never been shy about speaking your mind before.”
“It’s, it’s different with romance!” Sonic said, looking at her. “I can say what I think about you guys because you’re my friends and I trust you, as much as I don’t act like it sometimes. I know you won’t use what I say against me.”
“...like someone you were in a relationship with did to you?” Amy guessed.
“Shadow still likes to rub stuff in my face sometimes,” Sonic admitted, not seeming to notice or care the way Amy did a double take about that. “But that’s why I don’t know how to feel about feeling like this! I mean, I literally just realized but I’ve been feeling like this for a few days now and I know it’s only gonna get worse.”
“Well… what if Silver was a friend first?” Amy suggested.
“A friend?” Sonic repeated, Amy nodding.
“That’s how these relationships should be anyway. They should be your friend before they’re anything truly romantic with you,” Amy said. “That’s my opinion anyway.”
“But what if he doesn’t want to be friends either?” Sonic asked. “He seems pretty certain on trying to capture me for a bounty I’m 80% sure Eggman placed on me.”
“Now, Sonic, it’s rude to accuse people of something they didn’t do,” Amy said.
“No, that was me, it was for a plot that I didn’t finish a robot for,” Eggman confessed, sitting across from Amy, watching her TV.
Sonic screeched, jumping up.
“How long have you been there?!” Sonic said, face red.
“The whole time,” Eggman said. “Look, if you and the little white dork are busy being buddy buddy or kissy kissy, that might work out for me. I’ll call off the bounty.”
“See? Things will work out!” Amy said. Sonic smiled weakly and nodded.
“I’m leaving Bygone Island,” Silver said. Sonic spat out his entire mouthful of coffee, Tails barely avoiding the spray. “Your bounty was called off and proven to be misplaced. I came to apologize for the inconvenience.”
“You’re, you’re leaving?!” Sonic exclaimed.
“Mhm,” Silver nodded. “First ship out of here.”
“...Oh,” Sonic said, clutching his mug like a lifeline. “That’s… uh. Thanks for the apology.”
“You’re, um, welcome,” Silver said, fiddling with the rim of his hat.
The two hedgehogs stood in silence.
“I’m gonna go now,” Silver said. “Uh. bye.”
Silver walked away, Sonic’s eyes trained on him the whole way.
“Why didn’t you say anything?” Amy scolded.
“I panicked!” Sonic said, throwing his hands up. “What was I supposed to say?”
“Oh, okay, Silver, how can we keep in contact, since I would like us to be on friendly terms?” Amy said before scowling at Sonic. “You want to get to know Silver, don’t you?”
“...Yeah,” Sonic nodded.
“Then get moving!” Amy ordered, Sonic immediately getting up and running after Silver.
Silver didn’t really want to leave Bygone Island. But Blaze had called and said Sonic’s bounty was called off so Silver didn’t really have an excuse to stay.
Not that he wanted an excuse. He liked his work, Blaze made sure the bounties weren’t for unjust causes. For the most part, anyway.
Silver just… he liked Bygone Island. He liked the laziness and and relaxed nature of its residents, that even in the face of threats, they could calmly simply walk away, assured in the strength of their heroes.
In the strength of Sonic.
Sonic. Silver was… actually gonna miss the blue hedgehog. For the brief time Silver got to know him, he seemed like someone worth knowing.
“Silver!” Sonic calls out and Silver stops, turning towards the approaching hedgehog. “Silver!”
Sonic stops in front of him, reaching out and grabbing his hand.
“Do you wanna be friends?” Sonic blurts out, his face oddly red, his hands warm and grasping. Silver finds he isn’t against Sonic being graspy towards him. Weird. Not gonna think about that at all.
“Uh, sure!” Silver says because, yes, he would like to be friends. “Being friends sounds nice. I don’t have many though.”
“Me neither,” Sonic admits with a bashful shrug. “I got, I don’t know, maybe four and this one old guy I beat up occasionally.”
Sonic paused, as if he knew what he was about to ask was a stretch.
“You could stay and help us beat him up,” Sonic suggested with a forced casualness. “Or not. You could just stay and… chill. You could use more chill, I can tell.”
“That’s what Blaze is always telling me,” Silver laughed. “But where would I even stay?”
“Me and Tails have a spare hammock,” Sonic says eagerly before toning down. “Or whatever, ya know.”
“I’d love to,” Silver says with a grin. “I’ll call Blaze and let her know I’m staying.”
“Who’s this… Blaze?” Amy, the pink hedgehog, asked, popping out of nowhere.
Sonic took a step back to let her have room in the conversation, unfortunately taking his warm and altogether pleasant hands with him. Not gonna think about that.
“Oh, Blaze is my best friend and boss,” Silver explained. “She’s about my age, yee tall, honestly kind of buff, and has fire powers-”
“Tell her she has a place to stay on Bygone Island if she wants to visit,” Amy cuts him off, nodding at something with approval.
Sonic turned and looked at her, arching a brow.
“What, I wanna make a friend or two as well, Sonic!” Amy protested. “If they happen to be good looking as well, I can’t help what will happen.”
Silver blinked, confused, glancing between the two.
Yeah, maybe he should invite Blaze down.
Silver glanced at Sonic, noting the way he smiled right before he laughed.
There’s quite a number of pretty things on Bygone Island after all.