Work Text:
Race
(takes place after Silver rejoins. Sonic has only been in a few races up until this point)
“Racers, take your marks!”
Shadow pushed off gently, guiding his skateboard to the starting line before stopping it firmly. Rouge followed, lining up next to him.
“You ready to win this race?” She said with a wink and an encouraging smile.
Shadow rolled his eyes, a slight smile playing at the corners of his mouth. The rest of the racers took their spots along the starting line. Shadow noticed the new kid roll up next to Amy and Knuckles.
I didn’t know he raced, let alone with that group… Shadow thought to himself.
Amy and Knuckles weren’t rude, per say, they just had a different way of interpreting Shadow’s actions.
Like most people, it seemed.
Sure, Maybe Shadow didn’t always wish the other team a good race, or maybe he didn’t always wave back when Amy had tried to befriend him, but that didn’t mean he was unfriendly, let alone someone to actively avoid.
Maybe it was because of his dad. People could assume the apple didn’t fall far from the tree. That thought hurt most of all. Shadow was nothing like his dad and he never wanted to be.
Shadow dug his heel into the ground, waiting impatiently for the race to start already. The racers held their breaths as the stop light above changed from red to yellow.
Here we go
The starting shot was fired, prompting the racers to push off quickly. Some people fought for small leads, as the pack hadn’t quite separated yet. Shadow quickly maneuvered his way up to the front, pleased when he saw an empty track in front of him. He glanced back quickly, trying to spot Rouge in the herd. He quickly swiveled his head back up front when he heard someone coming up beside him.
Sonic
For someone who had never raced at Green Hills until a few weeks ago, Sonic was a decent skater. As the race stretched on, Sonic keeping up beside Shadow the whole time, he realized he’d underestimated the newcomer. Shadow and Sonic kept fighting for the lead, Sonic smiling like a dork the whole time. He must’ve noticed Shadow watching him, as he decided to crack a joke.
“Y’know, Shadows are supposed to stay behind you,” he said with a teasing grin.
Shadow didn’t react, didn’t even roll his eyes. A first, for him.
Sonic tried again, clearly trying to get under his skin. “What, cat got your tongue? Or are you always so broody?”
Shadow huffed, getting annoyed with this idle chit -chat.
“I’m here to race, not to socialize.”
“Well that’s a shame, I figure someone as pretty as you would have more friends,” Sonic said with a wink and a stupid grin.
Shadow faltered for a minute before regaining control of his board. He watched Sonic push ahead of him, taking the lead.
“Shake it off, Shadow!” yelled Rouge from somewhere behind him.
Shadow growled underneath his breath, he would not let this blue haired idiot get in his head like that. Shadow pushed off, building speed as the track went down hill. Up ahead was a riskier short cut, high chance of messing up, but it would save him enough time to catch back up to Sonic.
He took the rail, cutting the corner and getting him just in front of Sonic. Shadow must’ve messed up his dismount as his board landed beside Sonic rather than in front of him. Shadow tried to swerve his board the other way, hitting Sonic's board and knocking him off balance. Shadow quickly regained his control as Sonic lost his. Shadow didn’t think much, figuring the rookie would get himself sorted out. He heard the scrape of wheels on pavement, turning around for a second just in time to watch Sonic’s board roll out from under him, causing him to fall.
Shadow angled his board sharply with his back foot, drifting to a stop. He saw other racers coming up behind him, but tunnel vision prevented him from caring. Silver was only a short ways behind Sonic when he lost control. Silver skidded to a stop beside Sonic, shooting an angry look at Shadow before kneeling down at his friend’s side.
“What are you doing?!” Rouge yelled as she caught up to him, her tone seemingly angry, but Shadow knew she genuinely wanted to know why he stopped. He wanted to say something, but he didn’t. Rouge skated past him, along with Amy and Knuckles. The finish wasn’t too far ahead, she could always circle back and check on him after winning.
Knuckles ended up winning the race, Amy keeping Rouge from coming up beside them by swerving like crazy across the track. The two immediately circled back to go help Sonic off the track.
Shadow hadn’t moved from his spot when Rouge rolled up to him. She looked mad.
“What is wrong with-”
Rouge didn’t finish that sentence, seeing the distress in Shadow’s eyes. Anytime Shadow presented an emotion other than disinterested and aloof, it was serious.
“Hey, what’s wrong? What happened out there?”
Rouge’s hand hovered over Shadow’s shoulder, unsure if he was wary of physical touch at the moment.
Shadow's breathing was uneven, and his eyes were blown wide. He didn’t move away from her hand, so Rouge gently placed it on his upper back, tracing small circles up and down.
“If you don’t want to talk, that’s fine. But we need to get you off this track, okay?”
Shadow nodded wordlessly, eyes unmoving from the spot where Sonic had fallen.
Rouge took Shadow’s hand gently, picking up his board for him and walking off the track to a more quiet area, away from so many eyes. She motioned for him to sit down with her, knowing that sitting down usually helped ground him when he got overstimulated like this. Shadow curled his knees up to his chest, placing his palms flat on the ground. Rouge watched him close his eyes, focusing on slowly bringing his breathing back to a regular rhythm.
“Better?” She asked with a small but supportive smile.
Shadow nodded.
“Do you want to talk about it?”
Shadow’s eyes remained glued to the floor, not making eye contact.
“They all think I did it on purpose,” he stated.
“Why would they think that? From what I saw it was clearly an accident, Shadow. People get hurt on the track all the time.”
“Did you see the way they looked at me?” Shadow said, his voice raising with his emotions.
“They all looked at me like I was a monster.”
“You’re not a monster, Shadow.”
“But I hurt somebody! What if it happens again? What if I’m just like my dad?”
Shadow felt hot tears pricking the edges of his vision. He dropped his head to his knees, pulling himself closer.
“Maybe everyone was right about me.”
Rouge was taken aback by Shadow’s words, knowing how much he hated his father.
“Shadow, you are not your dad and you never will be, okay? You’ve never hurt anyone on purpose and you never will. Because you’re a good person.”
Shadow picked his head up, looking Rouge in the eyes.
“You really think so?”
“I know so,” she replied, lightly placing a comforting hand on his shoulder.
-_-_-_-_-_-_-_-_-_-_-_-_-_-_-_-_-_-_-_-_-_-_-_-_-_-_-_-_-_-_-_-_-_-
Amy brought Sonic an icepack from the first aid station while Silver examined his arm. Sonic winced slightly as Silver gently held his arm up, bending and straightening it slightly.
“What’s your diagnosis, Doc?” Sonic joked, clearly wincing through his smile.
“Well, I don’t think anything is broken, but you’ve definitely sprained your elbow at least.”
Knuckles punched a wall, his emotions had been high ever since winning the race.
“Of course the Chaos team would pull something like this, they never liked us anyways and now they’re taking it out on the new kid.”
Amy scoffed, “Knuckles, you can’t just say that! We don’t know if it was on purpose or not.”
“It was obviously on purpose, Amy! Shadow’s skated that rail a million times and has never ‘lost control of his board’ or whatever his excuse is going to be. If he even has one this time.”
“I think I’m with Ekon on this one, Ames. Shadow’s not one to apologize, even if it was an accident.” said Silver, gently wrapping Sonic’s arm with the bandage Amy had found. He handed the ice pack to Sonic, letting him ice it on and off on his own time.
Sonic shook his head, “I think you’re wrong about Shadow. If he’s so bad then why did he stop? Why didn’t he win the race after I went down?”
“Counter point, why didn’t he help you instead of standing there?” Knuckles said angrily.
“You didn’t see the way he looked at me, Knuckles. He looked… almost scared.”
Sonic’s gaze softened, thinking back to Shadow’s frozen expression, the panic in his eyes.
“He did seem upset after the race ended,” Amy offered.
Knuckles rolled his eyes, “Whatever, I’m still not trusting him.”
Silver and Amy helped Sonic stand, making sure he didn’t get up using his bad arm.
“You need anything else?” Silver asked, his voice low and gentle.
“I’m all good Silver, Amy and Knuckles can take me home.” He said, offering up a small smile to reassure Silver that he was in fact fine.
Silver sighed, shaking his head with a small smile, “I don’t know how you stay so positive Sonic. Just remember to let your arm rest, don’t want to stress it further.”
Once Silver was gone, Sonic spoke up.
“You said you saw Shadow after the race?”
Amy paused, not expecting Sonic to speak up and certainly not to ask about Shadow of all people.
“I mean, I saw him get off the track with Rouge, I didn’t exactly see where they went or anything. Why do you ask?”
Sonic shrugged. “I guess I’m worried about him.”
“Y’know, Knuckles would call you crazy.”
“I know, I know. ‘But you’re the one with a sprained elbow, he should be worried about you’. There’s just something about him I can’t quite place.”
“Well, he didn’t really grow up in the best environment. Y’know, with his dad and all.”
“What happened to his dad?” Sonic said, never having heard this information before.
Amy paused again, forgetting Sonic was new to the area and all the school gossip. “Well, his dad’s been in jail since he was in middle school. I don’t know the full story but his dad really wasn’t the best person. Some people think that’s what makes him act like he does.”
“And what do you think?”
“I guess… I think he’s trying his best given his situation. It’s not really our place to assume what’s going on inside his head.”
“Then why does everybody seem to hate him?”
Amy sighed, “That… I don’t know the answer to. I think somewhere along the line people lost sight of what was a rumor and what was true.”
“Maybe he wouldn’t ‘act like he does’ if someone gave him a chance for once.”
Sonic set his board down, stopping it by placing his heel on the end to angle it up.
“Wanna come with?”
Amy nodded, giving him a questioning smile. “I really don’t know how you stay so positive, Sonic.”
The two took off back towards the track where Amy had seen Rouge and Shadow leave.
“Y’know, he might not want to talk to you after all this,” Amy said, her pink hair whipping around her face in the breeze.
“I know, I kind of trash talked him a little out there, I bet that’s what made him lose focus.”
“You trash talked Shadow? Why on earth would you think that was a good idea?” Amy yelled through the wind.
“It wasn’t really trash talking, definitely not my best work.” Sonic said with a laugh.
Sonic eyed the alleyways as he skated past them, searching for a certain classmate of his. He skirted to a stop after seeing something move, angling his board with his back foot.
“You see him?”
“Maybe, I’m not sure.”
Sonic shifted his weight, taking off at a slower pace down the alley. The small street corner opened up into more and more small side roads. It would’ve been perfect for a Green Hills track.
Something black and red skated quickly in front of Sonic, ignoring him or not seeing him in time.
“Woah, my bad dude.” offered Sonic apologetically, as the person who almost ran him down skid to a halt.
It was Shadow.
Sonic wasn’t wrong when he said he was skating, but rather roller skating, not skateboarding
“I didn’t know you had roller blades, that’s sick dude.”
“Stop with the small talk, what do you want?,” Shadow said, crossing his arms defensively.
Amy pulled up a little ways behind Sonic, not wanting to interrupt or scare Shadow off.
Sonic raised his hands in mock surrender, “I come in peace, Shadow. I just wanted to know if you were okay after that race.”
“I’m fine,” he snapped. He must’ve realized how loud he was and spoke again, softer this time. “I’m fine, Sonic.”
Shadow looked at Sonic with a questioning look, “And shouldn’t I be the one asking if you’re fine in this situation? Not really a typical response from someone who got injured.”
Shadow’s voice softened at that last part.
“Well, I’m not a typical guy I guess. If this is about people thinking you did it on purpose, I know you didn’t.”
Shadow groaned, gritting his teeth, “You ‘know’? Sonic, you know nothing about me.”
“True, but I don’t believe what everyone else says.”
“And what do you believe then? That I’m some poor kid with a sob story for the new kid to pity?” Shadow was getting more emotional as the conversation went on. He gripped his arms tightly, nails digging into his skin.
“No, I know you’re a great skateboarder, I know you’ve had a tough life and I know you didn’t mean to hurt me. I believe that you’re a good person that is beating himself up right now because he hurt someone. That’s the difference.”
Shadow pushed off suddenly, until he was right in front of the blue haired boy.
“And what if I’m not a good person?”
Sonic stood a little taller to meet his fiery eyes, “You wouldn’t have stopped.”
Shadow backed down, letting his guard fall temporarily, “What?”
“If you were a bad person you wouldn’t have stopped racing. You would’ve kept on going and finished the race. But you didn’t.”
Sonic saw his words resonate somewhere within Shadow. His eyes dilated and his shoulders fell from their defensive position. Sonic watched him grapple with words, stuttering before finally giving up with a frustrated groan through gritted teeth.
“Why don’t you hate me? Why won’t you just leave me alone?”
Shadow turned sharply on his skates, his body angled away from Sonic. He fidgeted with his fingers, clearly stressed out.
Sonic reached out gently to him, “Shadow, I-”
“Just… Go away,” he said finally, turning away from Sonic and skating off to god knows where.
Sonic was left dumbfounded, his hand still slightly outstretched before he realized, pulling it back with a shake of his head. He heard Amy come up behind him. He turned to meet her, her expression soft, but just as confused as he was.
“What was all that?” she asked with a puzzled yet concerned look.
Sonic shook his head, “I have no clue, Ames.”