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It was an average Friday night, no Eggman schemes and no full moons to worry about. Which also happened to mean that it was game night in the Prowers’ household. Sonic was at the stove preparing red sauce for dinner, another tradition within game night itself when the doorbell rang. He grimaced as the grating noise fell upon his ears, seems like they’ll be needing a new speaker for the doorbell. By the time he lowered the temperature on the stove and got to the door the button was pressed again, and again. He opened the door to see Amy getting ready to mash the doorbell yet again.
“You have a key to the house Ames, you should know by now it’s kind of an open door policy with you.” Sonic leaned on the doorframe before Amy pushed him away getting into the house. She ignored the blue hedgehog and sat down on one of the stools by the kitchen counter. “Excuse me for trying to use my manners and asking to be invited before coming in. Besides, it's common courtesy to open the door for a guest!”
Sonic chuckled as he closed the front door, following Amy to the kitchen and pulling out dough from the fridge. “I think you should know by now that I’m not exactly the king of manners.”
“You would think by now Shadow would have taught you a thing or two, especially with how much time you two have been spending together recently.” She sighed wistfully and nabbed a strawberry candy from the counter. “Once again teaching Sonic the Hedgehog how to be normal falls upon my shoulders. In fact, how about we have a pop quiz right now on accepting gifts?” She smiled and pulled a small box out from her purse.
Sonic’s eyes widened and he stopped kneading the pizza dough. “Aw, Amy now what did I do this time to earn such a gracious present?” She hopped off of the stool and walked over to Sonic’s side. “Hmm, now what have you done?” She tapped a finger under her chin for a moment. “We’ll say this is a gift for not giving us food poisoning the last two times!”
“Oh come on I’m not that bad at cooking am I?” Amy just looked up to stare at countless food stains from failed attempts and explosions. “Ignore that. Besides, I got pretty good at not poisoning people when I met Tails, you just love being mean to me.” She huffed and opened the box in her hands, pushing it towards Sonic. “Now if I was so mean to you would I have gotten you this?”
Within the box was a bracelet that looked strikingly similar to Chip's collar, the only difference being that the gem happened to be in the bracelet, not poking out. Sonic swallowed when he saw it. “Amy-”
“If you don’t like it, you can tell me. I saw you wearing one pretty similar a while ago and then you suddenly stopped. I figured you got tired of it until I saw it in a case in your room. You don’t like to keep a lot of stuff I know that, but clearly that bracelet was so important to you that you don’t wanna ruin it during an adventure.” Amy sighed and smiled. “I just wanted you to have something similar that you won’t have to worry about as much, ok?”
Sonic swallowed before cleaning off his hands and smiling, grabbing the jewelry box gently from Amy’s hands. “It’s beautiful. Really.” He stared at the box before Amy grabbed his wrist. “Don’t just stare at it doofus! It’s meant to be worn.” Sonic used his other hand to scratch behind his ears. “I don’t know, I don't want to get it dirty…”
“It’s a high quality silver that won’t get ruined while you make pizza. Besides, I got it so you wouldn’t feel bad about wearing your other bracelet and ruining it. Now put it on and scootch over, you have no finesse with the dough I swear.” She side tapped Sonic pushing him away from the main counter space. Giving him time to get the bracelet set over his glove before he set the pot of red sauce next to her. “Soooo pretty boy, how are you and Shadow doing?”
Sonic almost dropped the pot of marinara before setting it down and clearing his throat. “Hah, what do you mean? Things are how they are with him, just two buddy rivals who happen to race each other every now and then.” Amy raised an eyebrow before smirking and pouring the sauce over the dough. “Every now and then, sure. You know I got coffee with Rouge recently and she said the darndest thing.”
He grabbed cheese from the fridge before laughing awkwardly. “Now what could you mean by that?”
“Well she just said that Shadow’s gone out almost every night for the past few weeks. Ever since Tails called him for help there’s been barely any sight of him around the apartment. Peculiar, isn’t it?” Amy took the bag of cheese from Sonic’s hands as she continued. “Not to mention, she asked him to go to game night and would you believe it he said yes! For the first time in the year you’ve hosted these he’s finally coming around. In fact she even told me he didn’t even argue about going, he just said yes and walked away.”
It was Sonic’s turn to sit on the stool as he melted deeper into the cushion the more Amy talked. Muzzle practically set ablaze with each and every word she said. “He’s just becoming more social that’s all” He grumbled into his arms and sat up straight again. “Can’t a guy try and make more friends geez.”
Amy hummed and clapped her hands together, seemingly finished with the pizza setting it in the oven. “I’m not saying Shadow can’t have friends, in fact I think it’s wonderful that he’s finally connecting with people.” She suddenly appeared by Sonic’s side, a sly smile across her face as he jumped up from his seat. “I’m just saying you look how I did when I first met you.” She then grabbed Sonic’s arm pulling him to the sink. “Now! Wash your hands, we’ve gotta get a fox out of his lab before more people show up and you and I both know that’s a group effort.” She winked before setting her hands under the sink.
“Jeez they weren’t lying when they said every rose has its thorns” Amy glared as Sonic shifted up the new bracelet above his gloves. “Joking! Though, on a serious note could you please keep this on the down low.”
She smiled and nodded. “Not even trying to deny it huh? I’m happy for you.”
“It’s not that it’s just- ow!” Sonic pulled his hand out from under the sink. “Geez Amy I didn’t know you liked to burn your hands off with how hot the water gets.” He set his hand gently over the bracelet before pulling it away and shaking it. “Even the bracelet is still hot which is- yeah this isn’t normal what?” He started to unclasp the bracelet, growing panicked and even ripping off one of his gloves as it just continued to burn.
“Sonic stop, you’re just hurting yourself even more!” Amy grabbed Sonic’s wrist before pulling the other hand away, only to see blisters on the ungloved hand, and scratches on the wrist with the bracelet. She pulled the bracelet off in one fowl sweep before examining the damage underneath. “Yeah, we definitely need Tails. You could have just told me you had a silver allergy before putting on the bracelet!”
Sonic examined his wrist and winced, the fur was partially singed from where the bracelet had sat, and some half formed blisters had gotten popped in the attempt to take it off. “I didn’t even know I had one.” Amy just sighs and heads into Tails’ workshop, Sonic following behind her.
Tails had already pulled out the medkit sighing. “Alright I heard yelling, what happen-” He looked up. “Oh my gaia! How’d you burn yourself that bad making pizza?” Tails quickly grabbed Sonic and pulled him to the extra chair by his desk. Making yet again an increasingly familiar scene over the years.
“He didn’t even put the pizza in the oven. Turns out he’s like deathly allergic to silver.” Amy set the bracelet before shooting a knowing look at Sonic. Said hedgehog flinched as the doorbell rang yet again.
“Amy, could you get that for us? This doesn’t look too bad and we should be back out soon.” Tails gave her a strained smile and Amy just nodded, leaving the room without an argument. “So, silver allergy huh? I guess we could play it off as that. Man, I really should have given you a full check up after you transformed again.”
Sonic winced slightly as Tails started to clean his wrist. “Look-” Tails gave him an unimpressed stare. “Hey I’m not about to say something stupid give me a chance here!” He sighed and continued. “You couldn’t have known, I couldn’t have known, Amy definitely had no clue either, and it’s just a little burn or two, no harm no foul.”
Tails purposefully held an alcohol swab over one of the scratches a little harder than necessary. “So, Amy doesn’t know it’s still happening? I thought we agreed on telling people Sonic. Before the next full moon, you know, which happens to be coming within a week.”
Sonic chuckled and looked away. “Yeah, yeah, I know. Look I’ve been busy-”
“If you call running around with Shadow busy then sure.”
“I’ve been busy.” Sonic continued. “And I haven’t really had time to approach the idea of the fact that I still kinda sorta turn into a monster sometimes. I want to tell them I do, it’s just, complicated.”
“Things would be a lot less complicated if you just said “Hey guys, remember that whole incident a month and a half ago? Yeah I still turn into a werehog on full moons.” I don’t want to rush you but if things like this keep popping up they’ll start to ask questions on their own.” Tails sighed and wrapped up his brother's wrist. “You’re lucky Amy was too distracted to call you out on the claws, and it’s close enough to a full moon that even I can tell your teeth are a bit… sharper.”
Sonic waved his good hand and snorted. “Pshhh no way.” He then looked at his hand with an eyebrow raised and towards Tails again. “You can’t really tell right? Because then we might have more issues with the press than our friends bud.”
“I can only really tell because I know what to look for, but maybe keep your open smiles on the down low for the next couple of days.” Tails packed away the med kit and sat his hands on his knees. “You’re overthinking a lot of this, you know none of our friends will really care, at least in the way that matters to you.”
“Yeah, yeah” Sonic sighed. “I told you I’d tell them by this full moon and I’m sticking to that ok, you know I don’t break my promises if I don’t have to, ok?” He held his arms out for a hug and Tails reciprocated. “I know, let’s get out there, they're probably starting a fire by now.”
Outside of the house Shadow was parking his motorcycle, Rouge hovering down on the ground next to him. “You excited to see big blue again? I’m sure you are, I mean you haven’t seen him for almost two days now, and aren’t you impressive bringing out the motorcycle too. I thought I was being forward with the knucklehead but you’re really showboating.”
Shadow grumbled and pushed her away as he took off his helmet. “It’s not like that and you know it. Me and the hedgehog are just friends, nothing more.”
“You know it won’t hurt you to admit you have feelings, and it’s pretty blatant for anyone with eyes to see that you do have them.” Rouge swiped a little dust off of Shadow’s shoulder as he grumbled. “Besides, I think you two are good for each other, I’d maybe even go so far as to say you’d be great for each other.”
Shadow brushed away the hand and glared. “You and I both know he doesn’t feel the same way about me, even if I so happened to have these “feelings” you’re talking about it wouldn’t matter. Now let’s go inside, I can’t ruin another friendship and he’s already dealing with enough right now-”
“Hold on there buster” Rouge grabbed Shadow's hand. “You really think he doesn’t care about you like that, at all? You have to be blind to not realize that Blue’s been crushing for you for ages.”
“There’s no need to joke, Rouge. I am well aware that the hedgehog has no room for a relationship that will just hold him down.” He stood with a hand on his hip, his usual glare a bit deeper than usual.
Rouge cooed and gave Shadow’s head a pat. “You sweet summer alien, you know it’s almost cute to see you worrying about slowing him down and not the other way around.” Shadow growled and Rouge put her hands up in the surrender motion. “I get it, I won’t force you to think about it too hard. Let’s get inside before we’re just late and not fashionably late, kay?”
Shadow sighs and stomps to the front door. “That was what I was trying to do before you so kindly decided to have this useless conversation.” He knocked on the door twice before having it be swung open by Sonic before the third knock.
“Shadow! I almost thought you wouldn’t make it.” He pulled Shadow inside and motioned for Rouge to follow, a smug look on the bat's face. “Welcome in the both of you. We’re just setting up uno, pizza should be done after our first match, then we’ll probably play monopoly as long as everyone agrees to not kill each other, the usual.” Sonic spoke with his hands like usual before Shadow grabbed his arm.
“What happened here? You didn’t have this when we last met.” Shadow examined the new bandages closely before Sonic pulled his arm away and shrugged. “Bad run in with the oven, the usual, it’s nothing to worry about, I promise.”
Sonic walked deeper into the house and Rouge gently nudged Shadow with her elbow. The dark hedgehog just rolled his eyes and walked forward. Like Sonic had mentioned they were just getting the uno deck out, Amy calling herself the “card master’ giving everyone their cards. Sonic sat down on the ground next to the coffee table and pat the floor next to him. Shadow took up the spot and Rouge sat on the other side of Shadow. Of course Rouge gave Knuckles a wink as she sat down, exchanging another knowing glance to Amy.
“Okay guys, you know the rules and no fighting at the game table. If you need to go rough house you can do it outside! Since our group is bigger than normal we might run out of cards to pull from before someone wins, if that happens you just have to skip a turn until it gets back to a color you can play, got it?” Amy sat in the middle of the couch next to Tails and Knuckles. Everyone gave their own words of affirmation and she smiled. “Okay, I shall go first.”
The moment the first card hit the coffee table the entire room went dark, aside from one glowing hedgehog. “Aw man, a breaker must’ve went out.” Sonic sighed and stood up before he realized everyone was staring at him. “What’s up? Why are you all looking at me like I made the power go out?”
Knuckles laughed and set his cards down. “Probably because we could use you as a flashlight dummy.”
“What? Sonic looked down at his arms and legs to see they were indeed glowing with marks reminiscent of the monsters from the dark gaia incident. “Oh come on another thing I have to worry about- wait” He pointed a finger at Tails and then Shadow. “How come you guys didn’t tell me this happened? So not cool.”
Tails put his hands up. “Don’t point any fingers at me. I’ve barely seen you at night recently, and when I have it hasn’t been this intense. Must be because of how close we are.” He set his hand on his chin, muttering to himself towards the end.
“And I honestly haven’t noticed, well I have but they’ve never been this bright, not to mention I thought you knew. It’s kind of on your body, Faker.” Shadow just crossed his arms and closed his eyes.
“Everybody hold on! Why are we all acting like this should be normal, and why are they-” Amy pointed at Tails and Shadow. “In cahoots about it too. I know you guys don’t hate each other anymore but this is certainly a lot more buddy buddy than it should be.”
Rouge leaned back and sighed. “You know I have to agree with Pinky, something is fishy and you three better spill.”
Sonic grumbled and sat back down, crossing his arms. “I was planning on telling you guys this in a different way but I guess I don’t really have a choice right now, do I?” Knuckles. Amy, and Rouge gave him all a look, different in their own right but respective enough to send across the same message. “A month and a half ago by now the whole world split, we all remember that right? Welllll let’s just say not everything went exactly back into place like it should have.”
“Dude you suck at explaining things.” Knuckles leaned back and sighed. “Do we have to worry about monsters at night again, what’s the big issue here?”
“No! I mean not really, it’s complicated.” Sonic scratched his head.
Tails sighed. “The world is fine and everything is back to normal, trust me I checked, twenty times. He’s just being vague and weird because he’s embarrassed.”
“I am not!. Look, when everything went down I kind of got infused with a bit of Dark Gaia energy, the same stuff that helped make up those monsters. Now at the time of everything I kind of sort of would turn into a werehog? It wasn’t a big deal and it stopped once I got everything put together again. Except for some reason all of the energy didn’t really leave my body, so I’m a little, different?” Sonic shrugged and looked at the group with an unsure smile.
Shadow sighed and rubbed his brows. “You know you can just tell them you’re basically a werewolf now, or werehog as you so aptly named it.”
Amy sat up and put her hands over her mouth. “That’s why the bracelet hurt you, you aren’t allergic it just actually burnt you… Sonic why didn’t you say anything to me before putting it on! I wouldn’t have been mad.”
“Because I didn’t know that would happen I swear! You know I can refuse gifts when I don’t want them I promise Amy. This whole thing is just kinda still new. I mean I didn’t even know I would still transform until the night of the full moon, heck I just found out I glow. I promise I was gonna tell you guys soon it’s just, complicated.” Sonic grimaced before the power whirred up again, lights flickering on and oven beeping. “Aw man that pizza is probably ruined now.”
Rouge just laughed and sat up, dusting her knees. “Oh blue you never fail to keep things interesting. Lookie here, I’ll order us a pizza and we continue off game night, everybody else keep their butts planted until then. Everybody’s fine and we’ve all had worse happen ok, so what if Sonic becomes a big fluffy puppy once a month?”
Knuckles nodded. “For once I agree with the bat, I really don’t see what the big deal is, and I’m hungry.”
“Really? I mean I didn’t expect pitchforks and fire but like it’s not that big of a deal?” Sonic raised an eyebrow and most people around the table shrugged.
“Listen man as your friend I’m gonna keep it real here, I kind of stopped being surprised about things that were Sonic related a while ago. Not that I don’t care but also you kind of get into weird situations a lot more than you might think.” Knuckles shrugged.
Amy sat back down and sighed. “While I wish you would have told me sooner, I agree with Knuckles, and I think we can all agree as long as Eggman isn’t exploding something and we’re all happy it shouldn’t be that big of a deal, right?”
“I don’t care as long as I can beat the fox in uno.” Shadow smirked and picked his cards back up from the table.
“Aw man I thought you finally started to like me, Sonic save me!” Tails looked at Sonic begging for mercy.
Sonic just put his hands up. “All's fair in love and uno little bro, I couldn’t stop him if I tried.”