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Shadow stands and despite his clenched fists and stiff demeanor, Sonic feels something… cautious about the darker hedgehog. Shadow's eyes are on the floor, shifting slightly but never looking up. Sonic had seen plenty of power poses from the other hedgehog, he was typically stone-faced and commanding, but this felt different.
Shadow took a breath, and that’s when Sonic figured it out. Shadow was nervous.
“I have a question,” Shadow says haltingly, still not looking up, “if I could.”
Sonic leans back, relaxed, and maybe trying to show Shadow he can relax too. “Sure! I bet you’re dying to know more about this new world you’re in now! It’s been fifty years! You’ve missed all the best things! Like Star Wars! Oh, we need a marathon. Right. Now.”
Shadow’s permanent scowl deepens for a moment and Sonic swears he sees confusion instead of anger. Sonic falters.
“Was the rambling too much? Yeah, the rambling was too much— what’s your question, big guy?” Sonic says, rocking on his feet and putting his hands on his hips. Shadow seems very serious about this, and sure the hedgehog was serious about most things -all things really- but this time, this time felt different.
“I…” Shadow’s face molds even more, shifting from more obvious confusion back into something like a scowl but it almost seemed… pained.
Sonic’s face fell. Yeah, this was a lot more important than Star Wars.
“Why do we look the same?” Shadow asks, finally lifting his gaze to face Sonic. It hits Sonic then too, that Shadow doesn't seem to feel other things without the scowl, can’t maybe, but here is the closest Sonic has ever seen him without one. Don’t get him wrong there’s still definitely a scowl there but it’s softer. Shadow is being vulnerable with him.
And his question takes Sonic off guard as well, out of every question Sonic could think Shadow would ask —which is a lot by the way when one exists at the speed of sound— that was not the one he thought Shadow would prioritize.
It also… well it makes him sad.
“We’re hedgehogs dude,” Sonic says like it’s obvious, because to him it is. “Did nobody tell you that?”
Shadow's scowl takes over again, but he directs it to the floor once more. Sonic likes to think it’s because Shadow isn’t mad with him, but he is aware sometimes he says stuff that isn’t too nice by accident.
The darker hedgehog shakes his head. "No, I was told I was The Ultimate Life Form.”
“You’re kidding.” Sonic deadpans, now whole body deadpanning really, arms dropping to his sides like they suddenly gained twenty pounds. Except Shadow doesn’t ‘kid’, he wasn’t sure the hedgehog knew what a joke was.
Shadow's scowl turned up to him, and Sonic raised his hands and waved them. “Wait wait wait, okay.” Sonic ponders, hand on his chin before snapping and pointing, “I have to admit it is catchy, and if you’re one of those then that means I’m one of those. And I’m a lean mean blue butt-kicking machine! It would be a good title to add.” Sonic preens a little, shifting on his feet. He is the fastest being alive after all, he needs titles for this!
Shadow's brows furrow again. “No, you’re not The Ultimate Life Form, I am.”
Sonic gestures between them with both hands this time. “Yeah but we’ve established we’re the same kind of being, that means if you are, I am too!”
“You are blue,” Shadow says with a finality that is both utterly confused and dismissive. As if being blue disqualifies him, if anything that’s just another reason he needs the title!
Sonic shrugs. “And you’re black and red! I don’t think hedgehogs are either of those colors, but maybe ‘ultimate life forms’ are!”
Shadow scoffs, but he starts cautiously again, “I heard… “You were called an ‘alien’ once, those are things not from this world. If we are the same, that means I came from where you come from.”
Sonic sucks in a breath, eyes widening. Oh.
“Well, for me,” Sonic starts slowly, trying to figure out how to word this. For once, he took it slow. “I had to leave my world behind…”
He is still sad about it, about Longclaw, he misses her nearly every day.
He raises his gloves, clenching a fist as blue electricity arcs across it. “My powers were too dangerous, bad guys wanted it. I wasn’t sure how or why, but it wasn’t safe for me there because of it. I fled here, which was an accident actually- I was supposed to go to this stinky mushroom planet that had NOBODY on it! I’d be utterly alone! Tch- Yeah, no thanks! But I’m here now and found people I care about, and who care about me. I’m still powerful, dangerous, or whatever, but I’m not running away anymore. I was just a kid, I’m still technically a kid, I shouldn’t have had to leave home like that, but I found a new one where I feel safe and I still have my powers and I can use them to help. Nobody should feel unsafe in their home.”
Sonic looks up, not realizing he had taken to looking around his home. He knows he gesticulates a lot, and talking about his earthly home makes him both sad and happy. Shadow looks… devastated.
“Shadow?” Sonic prompts, wondering if he had said something wrong. “Um, you okay? Your eyes are doing the shaky-anime thing, I didn’t even know that was possible—“
Shadow closed his eyes, scowl fixed in place, but he still looked in pain. His mouth trembled.
“My… home-” he said, choking on the word. His eyes opened and Sonic could see how lost he was. “My home did not… I have power and it… they…”
Sonic took a step forward, “Hey, deep breath, buddy. If you don’t want to talk about it—“
“They killed her.” Shadow spat, scowl on full display yet the pain never left. Maybe… maybe it had always been there from the start. “She made me feel safe, and they killed her. She said it was my home, but it wasn’t safe, not without her. They did take my power, they used it, used me. And they took… the one… the one person I had… it should have been me. ”
Shadows' voice shook, wet with emotion, and Shadows' scowl completely disappeared as he spoke. It happened slowly, brows lifting, bared teeth turning to harsh pants. His fists opened to shaking fingers and his eyes widened with shock.
A tear dripped to the ground, soundless. Shadow lifted a hand to his face, wiping at his cheek and then his eye. He stared at his trembling hand, damp with tears. Confusion edged in over his sorrow and pain.
“What is this?” He asked quietly, possibly unable to speak any louder.
Sonic… Sonic had never dealt with sorrow like this, at least, not someone else’s. He had dealt with his own, on his own, in that cave. He had sobbed through drawing that picture of Green Hills and himself and Longclaw, in so much pain and being unable to do anything other than cry. Mourn. Shadow had lost someone dear to him and never had the chance to truly feel it. His focus on revenge had only delayed it, and he had stopped running.
“You’re grieving,” Sonic said gently, taking another step forward. “It’s… crying is something we do in response to loss. We cry because it hurts. It’s okay to cry.”
Shadow wiped at his eyes again, taking shuddering breaths and more tears replaced the ones he wiped. His breathing hitched and— Sonic took two quick steps, but he was still too far away when Shadow fell to his knees. He’s sobbing harshly now, gross cries of primal sorrow. His own personal hurricane working to shatter him.
“It hurts,” Shadow says through his tears, a broken sound, scared and confused and angry all in one.
Sonic is quick to sink to his knees beside him, hands outstretched and ready to help as Tom or Maddie would for him. He hesitates if only because he had never been on this side before, but he also knows exactly what Shadow is feeling. It hurts.
Shadow curls, hugging himself as he sobs. Sonic can’t do nothing. He places his hand on Shadow's shoulder, only for the weeping hedgehog to flinch under his touch.
Sonic backs off as the other glares through his tears, defensive and scowling. But all Sonic can see is fear, that’s all his gruff exterior was for. To hide his fear, his pain, his loss.
Shadow must see it on his face, how Sonic isn’t a threat, but he can’t stop the defensive behavior, he can’t stop crying either.
Sonic uses his speed, the power he chooses to use to help others. He grabs a blanket, the fluffiest one but not too fluffy that gets caught on his quills. He ends up grabbing the one from his time with Longclaw. Whatever material it was didn’t exist here on Earth and sure Earth had some blankets that worked too but most fabrics meant for blankets were just a little too scratchy and could get caught on his quills like Velcro. But this one was made for him, meant for him, and meant a lot.
Shadow is still there when he comes back, not that he really expected anything to happen in the .2 seconds he was gone. Sonic holds the blanket in his hands, it has long since lost the smell and feel of Longclaw, but he rubs it between his fingers anyway. It had helped him, it would help Shadow.
He draped it over Shadow, over his shoulders, and down around his huddled form.
He still shakes. He still sobs. His hands grab the ends of the blanket, pulling it tighter around himself. He mourns, grieving for someone who had been dead for fifty years, but he had held hands with yesterday.
And Sonic stays.