Chapter Text
Shadow couldn’t sleep that night, much like other nights. So he ran, as fast as he can, to keep himself from thinking. All he wanted was to feel the wind in his quills, the sound of the wind in his ears, and the smell of the earth around him.
He guessed that was too much to ask for when he saw a blue streak pass by him. It was odd that he didn’t sense the chaos energy that the other contained. But it surprised him when there was no quips, no challenges directed towards him. Sonic just went past him and left. No words said. No race started.
That’s what worried Shadow, even if he would never voice it to anyone. His rival didn’t even seem to notice him. Something was up and he was going to figure out what it was.
~~~~~~
Sonic couldn’t keep the nightmare out of his mind tonight. He just had to run it off. So he did. He went to run through the forest to keep his mind off those terrors that tried to keep his mind wandering, trying to keep him from a peaceful sleep.
He kept running, challenging himself to match a speed that he couldn’t even remember anymore. But he tried anyway. Maybe tonight he could remember that energy. Maybe tonight the nightmares of his past will stop. Maybe he could finally let go of what happened. Maybe, maybe, maybe.
While he was running he passed Shadow. He knew he did, he could recognize that black and red form from anywhere. But tonight he didn’t make a joke about how he couldn’t sleep, or silently challenge him to a race. He just wanted to run. It’s what he does best.
He didn’t notice the ebony hedgehog start following him. He just wanted his mind off his past. Even if he put in the earring he hasn’t worn since he was a hogglet. Even if he wore a scarf that shouldn’t be his in the first place.
It was like his body was on auto pilot. He kept running. He kept trying to get that image out of his mind. He wanted to forget that moment. But all he could see were scared emerald eyes staring at him, then gone after he had blinked.
He was pulled out of his thoughts by the sand under his feet, he didn’t even realize that the terrain had shifted. Then he looked up.
Stifling a yelp, he skidded to a stop a few feet from the shore.
“Fuck…” he muttered. He sighed and turned back towards the forest. He was met with Shadow a few feet in front of him.
“What are you doing this close to the ocean, Faker?” Ebony asked Cobalt.
“Didn’t realize I went this far. Why are you asking?” He tried to fake a witty attitude.
“What’s up with you?” Turns out he failed.
“Nothing, just couldn’t sleep and went on a run, no doubt the same thing you’re doing.” He answered, not meaning to sound annoyed.
“You passed me by and didn’t seem to notice me.” Shadow deadpanned.
“Just not in the mood to race right now.” Sonic was getting tired of this, he just wanted to keep running.
“You normally are.”
“Tonight’s different, so what?” He didn’t realize his voice went a tad lower than usual. His fur slightly turning darker.
Just as he said that, the sound of badniks come through the air and to their ears.
“Damn, can’t a hedgehog go on a run uninterrupted?” Sonic scowled before running in the direction of the battle.
“What’s up with him?” Shadow asked no one before following the cobalt hedgehog towards the fight.
~~~~
“Oh hohohoho! Did I interrupt nap time you blue pineapple?” The doctor asked as he sent badnik after badnik out.
He was met with an angry glare from his nemesis instead of a witty quip. Strange. All the same though, he was gonna squash that spiky nuisance tonight.
Shadow came up and saw that half of the badniks were destroyed. It was faster than usual, and that’s saying something.
Something was definitely up with Sonic tonight. He didn’t hear him lightheartedly tease Eggman, or make any quips to him. His fur and quills were also a shade darker, and the split moment he saw his rivals eyes, he could’ve sworn they were darker too.
“Not gonna leave me any, Faker?” Shadow teased while spin dashing into a couple of crabmeats.
He was met with silence. He tried to lighten up the mood like his rival always does, but it seems they’ve swapped personalities.
“What, not gonna tease him?” He asked as he ran towards the cobalt hedgehog, that was knocking every badnik down that came towards him.
“Just trying to get this over with.” Sonic answered coldly. He then ran off and destroyed a few more badniks before turning towards Eggman. His fur and quills now definitely a shade darker.
Eggman realized that Sonic was pissed and turned tail. “It’s too late in the night anyway, I’ll try again later.” He said as he was fleeing. He didn’t have enough badniks at the moment and no big plans either. He caught the hedgehog at a very bad time and didn’t want to be on the receiving end of it right now. He chose the right choice.
Sonic watched as Eggman left, still on the edge of Dark. Shadow was keeping an eye on Sonic to make sure that he didn’t go full Dark. Once Eggman was out of sight, his fur and quills went back to the bright royal blue it usually was.
He let out a sigh and turned to start running again.
“Wait. What’s going on with you?” Shadow asked “You ignore me when you’re running past me. Then you snap at me.”
“Just not in a good mood tonight Shadow .” Sonic replied. “Just… just trying to clear my head.”
“From what?” Shadow tilted his head a little.
“I’m not gonna talk about it.” Is all Sonic gave before he sped off again.
Shadow had known the blue hedgehog didn’t talk about his feelings. But the way he was acting made the ebony hedgehog know that he needed to talk to his rival about this.
Sonic didn’t even use the nickname he always did. It was worrisome. So, Shadow ran after him.
He knew that he wasn’t going back to sleep, not after the fight. He nearly went Dark too.
“Fuck..” he muttered as he ran. Now he has to burn off more excess chaos energy. “Should’ve kept my cool, at least I have more of an excuse to run.”
Then he saw a streak of gold pass him by. Damn, he just wanted to clear his head, and burn off chaos energy thanks to Eggman, not race or spar.
“Faker, what’s going on?” Shadow asked, slowing down to run next to Sonic.
“Nothing, Shadow , just… leave me alone!” He didn’t want to talk, or race, or anything like that. He just needed to run.
So that’s what he did, he sped up and passed Shadow, trying to lose him in the forest.
He’s ran through that forest enough times to be able to dodge all the trees, bushes, stumps, and rocks. He just needed to get away.
He didn’t realize he was running towards a destination that he didn’t want to go to with what happened.
“ Not now… ” He groaned once he realized he ran into a field of tiger lilies.
“Come on!” A voice yelled over the vermilion colored flowers. “We need to get back before Uncle pulls out his quills!” You could hear a southern accent as she spoke.
“But one last race? Pleeeeeeaaaseeee?” A light blue hedgehog pleaded as he ran up to the voice, he also had an accent. His chocolate brown eyes looking up at the ocean teal hedgehog with cobalt blue quills here and there. Her eyes were emerald green with gold and blue bangs above them.
“We can tomorrow, right now Uncle chuck wants us back home. We don’t wanna worry him now, do we?” She crouched down to meet the younger’s eyes. She clicked her tongue then continued. “Tell ya what, I’ll make us some chili dogs for dinner, and we can race again tomorrow. Deal?” She offered.
“Ok! Deal!” He was bouncing on his toes at the offer of his favorite meal.
“Race ya back to the Tornado!” He said as he ran, leaving a trail of blue through the field of flowers.
The older hedgehog shook her head then ran, leaving a trail of teal behind her.
He didn’t realize that he stopped in the field of flowers until he felt a gloved paw rest on his shoulder. He jumped, whipped around, and backed up, startled by the touch. His emerald eyes met with maroon ones staring at him.
“Oh, it’s just you. Don’t scare me like that!” Sonic scolded Shadow.
“Sorry, you were just standing there.” Shadow apologized, looking around the field. “Beautiful flowers..”
“Tiger Lilies.” Sonic said, crouching down to pick one of the flowers. When he came back to standing, he was staring at the flower.
“Do… Do you come here often?” Shadow hesitated, he wanted to help Sonic, but didn’t know what to do.
With a sigh, Sonic nodded, turning his head to look out into the field. Shadow could have sworn the cobalt hero’s eyes looked sad, even if his face was blank.
“What’s going on? You aren’t acting like yourself.” Shadow stepped a little closer to his… rival? No, friend? Maybe.
“I told you, I don’t wanna talk about it.” Sonic said, turning his body away from the ebony hedgehog.
“You almost went Dark back there. Hardly any reason to.” Shadow tried to reason.
“I’m just not in a good mood, okay?!” Sonic snapped, turning back towards Shadow. “I don’t wanna race, and I don’t want to have to argue with you right now!”
“You aren’t usually like this.”
“Okay?! I’m not always the ‘Happy, always smiling, never in a bad mood, hero of mobius’ Shadow ! I’m aloud to have bad days.” Sonic raised his voice, getting more annoyed.
“I’m not saying that, Sonic , I’m just saying that I can tell something is off with you.” Shadow stated. “I just want to help..”
He didn’t realize that he said that last part, even if it was in a lower voice.
“Well, I don’t need it right now.” Sonic willed his voice to go back to a reasonable volume. “Just… Just leave me alone.” His voice becoming softer as he turned back away from Shadow and sat down.
“You don’t look like you need to be left alone.” Shadow countered as he slowly walked closer towards Sonic. He stood a couple feet to the right of him.
All he got in response was a ‘hmph’. So he sat there, overlooking the field of flowers. They were truly beautiful.
~~
They sat there in silence for a few minutes, neither one looking at the other.
Sonic pulled his knees up to his chest and fidgeted with the gold ring in his left ear, staring at the flower he had picked.
Shadow was the one who broke the silence between them.
“How come I can’t sense your chaos energy?” He asked.
Sonic’s right ear flicked in his direction.
“I have an inhibitor on…” Sonic responded. He stopped messing with his earring, resting his paw on his knee.
“You don’t need to keep your chaos energy in check.” Shadow said, starting to slowly spin with one of his own inhibitors on his wrist.
“It’s not for that, it was made to hide my chaos energy.” Sonic responded, no emotion shown.
“Did your friend, the fox kit, make it?” He asked.
Sonic shook his head. “My uncle did, a long time ago.”
“Why’s that?”
“Eggman, before, when he was known as Robotnik.”
That confused the ebony hedgehog. He turned his head to look at Sonic.
“He wasn’t as big of a threat back then, but he was still looking for something. My Uncle Chuck knew that, so he made the inhibitors for me an-” he caught himself before he said too much. It didn’t go unnoticed by the other. With a fake cough he continued to elaborate. “He wanted to make sure I was safe. I didn’t know much about chaos energy, or how to control mine at the time, so while I was still trying to figure it out, he made the inhibitors to keep me from being found.”
“Unk called them ‘inhibitors’ because they inhibited anyone from finding us using chaos trackers.” He finished.
“Ah..” Shadow responded as he was mentally searching the other for any type of item that would do that sort of thing.
Shadow watched as Sonic’s left paw went up to his ear, fidgeting with something. Then he realized that he was wearing an earring.
He mentally smacked himself, Sonic never wears jewelry, that has to be the inhibitor. He didn’t pay attention earlier but he saw the cobalt hero wearing an earring in his left ear.
“How come you’re wearing it now?” Shadow asked as he turned back towards the flowers.
“The same reason why someone would wear a shirt they found that hey hadn’t seen in a long time.” Sonic sighed. “The memories…”
Shadow didn’t see the blue hedgehog start tearing up, nor did he see the flower fall from his paw and land on top of some other flowers.
Only did he turn his head back to the cobalt hero when he heard a shaky breath to his left.
It shocked him, the scene playing out next to him. The melancholy smile on the hedgehog’s face, the silent tears falling down his muzzle. Sonic was still looking out towards the field, both his paws on his knees.
Sonic sighed, “I miss her..” he whispered. He hugged his knees closer to his chest and rested his chin against them.
“If you don’t mind me asking,” Shadow said in a soft tone, so as to not to startle the other, “Who are you talking about..?”
With another sigh, Sonic answered, the smile turning into a small frown.
“My sister…”