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Sonic was beautiful. Beautiful and kind and strong.
He stepped into every situation, determined to do his best in it. He never hesitated to help a friend, he looked out for others, even at his own detriment.
How couldn’t one look at him and not fall in love?
Silver certainly found himself head over heels, not that he knew it for quite some time.
Silver was from a nightmare, after all. Any mention of love was restricted to burnt books, there was no time for or people for those kinds of feelings.
Romance was a vague and distant idea for Silver, an idea Silver dismissed frequently. That kind of thing wasn’t his to know, his to feel. Romantic love was never in the cards for Silver as far as he knew.
His attachment to Sonic was bizarre and an unknown variable in Silver’s life.
He knew friendship, he knew familial love, but what was this? He’d heard of love, had seen it, but to feel it was a whole different animal altogether.
This pounding in his head, the thing in his chest, what was it, what could it be?
At first, Silver dismissed it.
Then he dismissed Sonic. Perhaps, it was some disease and Sonic was spreading it to Silver, since the chest thing usually happened with him present or, at the very least, on Silver’s mind?
Nope! That actually made it worse because Sonic wanted to know why Silver was avoiding him and Silver didn’t want to worry Sonic so now Sonic was sad which made the chest feeling become painful.
So that didn’t work.
Silver didn’t know what to do. He didn’t know who to turn to!
He’d found himself turning to Sonic for help multiple times when it came to things in the past, well, present, but whenever he even tried to mention something, his mouth became clammy and his throat squeezed shut.
There were certain things that made it worse, like touching Sonic or Sonic smiling, Sonic when he smiled made it go crazy, oh, or that one picture Sonic had of him and Silver cuddling.
It wasn’t Sonic’s phone’s lock screen anymore, Sonic had changed it after but it was pretty much seared into Silver’s brain forever.
It was a mental image that brought a lot of comfort as well as the chest feeling to Silver. He remembered that moment as being warm and safe, he remembered the feeling of nothing on his mind but just how nice it was to be there with Sonic.
The chest feeling had been there in that moment but it had been little more than a blanketing warmth at the time.
What was this feeling and why did it haunt him whenever he was by Sonic?
Silver, at the time, had thought of only two people to turn to and, thankfully, the two were usually together.
“I need your help,” Silver said as he broke into Amy’s heart shaped house through the window.
“Hello,” Amy said. “Why are you in my house?”
“I think I’m dying,” Silver said, sitting down next to Blaze.
“You have a key,” Blaze said, sipping a cup of hot chocolate.
“What?! If you think you’re dying, why are you here, go to a hospital!” Amy screeched, jumping up from her seat on the couch.
“Rose, I think he’s exaggerating,” Blaze said, offering her cup to Silver.
“I’m exaggerating,” Silver nodded, taking the cup and sipping. “But I could seriously use both your help.”
“Ugh, you worried me,” Amy grumbled, sitting back down. “What’s the issue?”
Silver explained the chest ache feeling, as well as the events leading to its emergence. Blaze and Amy both stared at Silver like he’d admitted to using bleach to make apple cider.
“Should you tell him or should I?” Amy asked Blaze, turning to her girlfriend. “He’s your adopted brother.”
“I’ll tell him. You’ll just confuse him,” Blaze said, leaning forward and placing her hands on Silver’s shoulders. “Silver. We believe you are in love with Sonic.”
Silver blinked for a moment, feeling as if someone had told him he was growing a third leg.
“Huh?” Silver eventually said.
“Now, only you can know this for certain, but judging on how you’ve described how you feel when you think of or are around Sonic, you could be in love with him,” Blaze went on. “How you feel, is exactly how I felt when I fell in love with Amy.”
“But… I don’t understand,” Silver said, pulling away from Blaze’s grasp. “Why would I fall in love with Sonic?”
Blaze and Amy shared another look and Amy took over.
“Well, Silver… Why do you like Sonic?” Amy said. “A person often falls in love with the qualities they admire in another.”
“Um,” Silver fidgeted. Surely, they were wrong. Silver? Love? Sonic? “I… I admire his convection and his kindness. Oh, and his loyalty. He’ll never give up on you, no matter what.”
Silver’s face softens into a smile, his cheeks warming.
“Oh,” Silver says, lifting his hand to his chest. “It’s happening again. Is this really what love feels like?”
Amy smiles fondly and nods.
“Wonderful, isn’t it?” Blaze says, glancing over at Amy. “It feels like it could change your life, doesn’t it?”
“Yeah,” Silver nods and breathes in. He’s in love. How strange. How nice. “It does.”
“Can you believe it, Silvs,” Sonic said, gesturing wildly with his fuzzy mittens. “A whole town, dedicated to Christmas! And I was born not too far from it! And no one told me! Unbelievable!”
“Unbelievable,” Silver nodded in agreement, slightly tightening his coat on himself.
It wasn’t that cold, not to Silver anyway, but the coat was a reassuring pressure while talking to Sonic.
“On the bright side, we’re here! I think there’s a snowboarding hill somewhere around here. It’s a lot like some of the stuff you liked to do at the Olympics,” Sonic said.
Silver followed Sonic’s pointing to where kids got a sled and were pushed down the hill.
“It’s a good thing we found this place today,” Sonic went on, a constant and comfortable chatter. “I mean, it’s Christmas Eve, any later and I doubt this place will be open.”
“Hm… yeah,” Silver nodded, only half listening.
“Hey, Silvs? Dove?” Sonic said. Silver startled at the second nickname. “You alright? You’ve been kind of out of it.”
“I’m… I’m fine. Just thinking about something,” Silver admitted, crossing his arms.
“Oh?” Sonic leaned in, his warm breath ghosting on Silver’s face. It smelled like mint. Probably from the candy cane Sonic had chewed up a couple minutes ago. “Penny for your thoughts?”
Do not lean in and kiss him on the lips, do not lean in and kiss him on the lips, do not lean in and kiss him on the lips-
“Nothing,” Silver glanced away, clearing his throat. That was close. He had to get a better grip on this. “I’m sorry, I’ll try to pay better attention.”
“No, no, you’re fine!” Sonic was quick to reassure, hurriedly backing up. “Look, I asked you to come because I wanted you to have fun too, if you’re not having fun, I wanna do something to fix that.”
Sonic’s hand reached out and took Silver’s hand, holding his unmittened hand in between his two mittened ones. Silver’s eyes darted down to the hands.
He’d noticed, around the same time he realized he was in love, that while Sonic was indeed very affectionate with his friends, it seemed Sonic couldn’t go more than a few minutes without having one part of him or more touching Silver at all times.
Silver’s cheeks went vivid red.
“I’m always having fun when I’m with you,” Silver muttered, his mouth moving before his head.
“Oh,” Sonic said, his face warming up as well. “Uh, well, that’s good to hear.”
Silver and Sonic stood frozen on the sidewalk, avoiding eye contact and Silver’s hand slowly stealing the warmth from Sonic’s.
“You, um, thirsty? We can get some hot chocolate?” Sonic asked after a moment. “I think I saw a sign for one.”
“Sure,” Silver said, even though he still preferred coffee. “Sounds good.”
Sonic released Silver’s hand, turning and heading Silver down the sidewalk to a tunnel composed of lights. Sure enough, there was a sign promising a nice warm beverage on the other side of the so-called Light Walk.
Silver let Sonic take the lead, one hand on Sonic’s warm coat hood, eyes transfixed on the bright and Christmas lights.
Sonic’s steps were slow and steady, allowing Silver to turn his head this way and that, pointing out the various patterns and shapes the lights made.
Silver’s favorite was the ones in the air, the classic figure of Christmas soaring through it.
Silver stopped for a minute, accidentally yanking Sonic still as he looked up.
After a moment, Sonic started walking again, the sudden moment yanking Silver out of his revelry.
They exited the park of lights after a few more minutes.
Silver excitedly rambled about the lights and the stories he’d heard about the various characters the lights made up.
Sonic piped in every now and then, correcting a part of the story when Silver’s lack of knowledge rose up. He, thankfully, didn’t laugh too much when Silver got something wrong.
Silver thinks he wouldn’t mind seeing Sonic laugh at him though, Sonic had a nice laugh, if not a little scary.
“Stay here,” Sonic said. “I’ll go get us some drinks. You can look around while I do that.”
Sonic dashed over to a line, bouncing from one foot to another, but patiently waiting.
Silver looked around, noting various little stands for local businesses nearby. He walked around, raising the soap and perfume samples to his nose. He paused on one, noting the way it was reminiscent of Sonic, of the smell of fresh grass.
Silver considered purchasing before setting it down and resuming his walk.
Silver paused when he arrived at a jewelry stand. Sonic liked jewelry. Silver wondered if he’d like earrings.
He looked over the various options before stopping over one, plucking it off the stand.
It was perfect, Silver thought to himself, paying with his rings and tucking the small pieces of jewelry into his pocket.
He returned to the hot chocolate line, just in time for Sonic to walk up, two cups in his hands.
“Here,” Sonic said, handing one over to Silver. Silver took the cup gratefully, cradling the warm beverage between his two frigid fingers. He took a sip and pulled away, making a surprised face.
“Is this coffee?” Silver questioned.
“I know how you prefer coffee so I got some instead,” Sonic said, drinking half of his warm drink in one gulp. He pulled it away almost instantly, sticking out his tongue in hopes of alleviating his burning tongue. “Ah, hot.”
“It’s called hot chocolate,” Silver teased, sipping his coffee slowly. “Thank you, Sonic.”
“Of course,” Sonic nodded, making a face as the next attempted drink was still as hot as before.
Silver knew why he’d bought those earrings, why he had accepted Sonic’s invitation to go out on Christmas Eve.
He wanted to confess. Silver had turned his eyes on the two’s past interactions and found his feelings to be seemingly not one sided.
If he could just… see if Sonic felt the same way, might want to be together…
But Silver would have to say something first and Silver would say something.
He just… had to find the right moment.
Sonic tossed away his empty cup, Silver sipping the last of his before dumping his own cup away.
“This place is gonna be closing soon,” Sonic said, watching as the lights went off and the stands started closing. “You about ready to go?”
“Just about,” Silver said, hands fiddling with each other. “Just… uh, wanna do something else before we leave.”
“Fair enough,” Sonic said, crossing his arms over his head. "What do you wanna do? I kinda wanna see if I can climb on top of one of those houses. They're human sized! Weird, right annulmentOh! I can do that!” Silver said. "Uh, is it alright if I pick you up?"
NG, leaning closer to Silver.
Silver scooped up Sonic into a princess carry and glanced around. With few to no witnesses, Silver lifted the two of them up into the air.
Setting the two down on the roof, Silver set Sonic down.
Sonic excitedly darted forward, nearly slipping from how icy the roof was.
"Hey, Silvs, look, you can see your lights from here!" Sonic pointed out with a laugh. "I know I've climbed higher but human architecture is still so weird to me! Imagine being so freakishly tall on the regular!"
Silver took a deep breath, steeling himself.
He could do this. He could do this.
"Dove?" Sonic said and, oh, that nickname sent a thrill through him.
"I see them," Silver said weakly. "Sonic, is it alright I… try something?"
"Huh?" Sonic blinked. "Yeah, sure!"
Silver took a deep breath and stepped close, taking Sonic's hand. He pressed the earrings into Sonic's hands.
Sonic opened his hand, revealing a pair of dove earrings.
"Something to, um, remember me by. But I, uh, also want to give you this," Silver said before cupping his face in-between his hands.
Sonic's lips were cold and chapped but Silver imagined his own weren't much better. Sonic tasted faintly of his hot chocolate.
He hoped he was doing this right. Silver had never kissed anyone before.
When Silver pulled away, Sonic looked absolutely gobsmacked, face so red that he could be mistaken for Knuckles.
"Wow…" Sonic finally said.
"Was that okay?" Silver asked anxiously.
"I don't know how to tell you how long I've been waiting for you to do that because there's no way I would've gotten the guts to do that," Sonic said. "You're probably also gonna have to be the one to propose if we end up getting married."
"Oh, okay," Silver accepted.