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Sonic hides it very well. Shockingly well, given how indelicate he is in all other facets of life. If Shadow wasn’t enhanced the way he is, he doesn’t think he’d have noticed. Even now, he could convince himself he’s… well. Projecting. But he doesn’t make errors like that. He has never made errors like that. He is, fundamentally, flawless.
Sonic, not so much.
It makes it hard to be near him. Other lifeforms are difficult to predict. He knows what Sonic will do–sometimes. Sonic falls into patterns–sometimes, and then he breaks out of those patterns and does something weird and everything must be recalibrated and recontextualized for Shadow to make sense of him at all.
“Heya, Shads!”
Annoying.
Shadow ignores him.
Sonic outstrips him easily, running backwards and grinning at Shadow, hands tucked behind his head, wind visibly whipping around him.
“Fancy seeing you here!”
Shadow ignores that too. Sonic is likely trying to provoke him. To do what? Unclear; a couple months ago, it would’ve been to race (if he was in a good mood) or spar (if he was in a bad mood).
“Oh me? What am I doing all the way out here?” Sonic says, holding one hand theatrically up to his ear, speeding up as Shadow tries to skate past him with a growl of frustration. “Thank you SO much for asking. I’m just out for a run, and then I see my buddy Shadow, and I’m like man, I haven’t seen Shadow in ages! Where has he been? What’s he been up to?”
Shadow keeps skating, trying not to look at him. It’s only after a couple seconds that he registers the last part might have been intended as a question.
“Was that directed at me?” he says.
Sonic slows down and laughs. Reflexively, Shadow mirrors him and they come gradually to a stop on a cliff by the ocean. The smell of salt is thick in the air and the sky is electric, blue.
“I mean, yeah,” Sonic says, smiling at him. He’s electric, too. “Where have you been, dude?”
“What do you mean, where have I been?”
“Well, I haven’t seen you around lately.” Sonic isn’t looking at him now, instead fussing with the cuffs of his gloves.
“I’ve been around,” Shadow says unhelpfully. “Have you been looking?”
“Yeah! I mean. Not– not actively, but yeah!”
Shadow grits his teeth—Sonic’s already abnormally fast heart rate is a little faster now. Either he’s lying or he’s flustered. For both of their sakes, he tries not to notice.
“Did you need something?”
Sonic laughs again. The wind catches in his quills a bit, the soft rustling sound crisp with Shadow’s enhanced hearing. He can’t quite tell what the laugh is about—it makes Shadow want to shake him. More soft rustling. This, he knows. The grass. Short noises. The reeds. More billowy. Easily distinguishable. Is it odd how familiar he is with the way Sonic’s fur sounds in the breeze?
“Nope.” Never able to stay still for more than a second, Sonic squats down to stretch his legs. “I was just wondering where you were.”
“Why,” Shadow says, getting frustrated.
“What, is it so weird to want to catch up with your friends?” Sonic smiles in an easy sort of way. “I just wanted to see if you were around, man.”
He’s close, now—inoffensively close, just close enough to be heard over the crash of the waves. Close enough for Shadow to smell his sweat and pick out the different shades of blue in his fur (the sunlight bleached teals and ultramarine closer to the base of the follicle, deep blue like ocean water). Shadow itches to get moving again, but something keeps him there on that cliff. Sonic itches, too—tapping his foot, fidgeting, eyes darting. But he stays.
Based on the way Sonic is reacting, Shadow has missed something about the conversation. He traces back through it, trying to put things together.
“I suppose I have been more reticent as of late,” he says cautiously.
“Well, that’s okay!”
“I know it is.” Suspicious.
“And I know you know, I just want you to know that I know.”
He frowns, tracing that back. “Whatever, faker.”
Sonic laughs at that, a flash of his teeth (enough to see the canines, and Shadow traces them carefully in the millisecond they're visible, sharp and bright white in the sunlight) and he zips over to sit on the edge of the cliff, dangling his legs over it. Shadow walks that way too, sitting down before he even realizes that’s what he’s doing.
“I haven’t had a lot going on,” Sonic is saying, kicking his legs as Shadow observes him. “Eggman’s been really quiet lately. I feel like he’s sitting on something big. Like... I don't know. Maybe an egg. Kinda worried, to be honest.”
“He hasn’t shown any signs of attacking,” says Shadow. In spite of himself, he intends for it to sound comforting, but it comes out serious.
“I know, that’s why I’m worried! It’s weird, right? I kinda want to check on him, see if he’s alright. Make him a care package, maybe.”
Shadow fixes his quills, and then folds his hands over each other, rubbing one finger against another to feel the texture of his gloves. Sonic flops over on his back, still kicking his legs, and he—well, he’s just looking at Shadow, eyes bright but soft. He looks close to smiling.
“Oh man, this reminds me, I’ve been meaning to ask you what you use in your quills? It smells really nice!”
What reminds him? Ah- he’s changing the subject. Shadow says brusquely, “Conditioner. Oil, once a week.”
“What kind?” Sonic rolls over twice so he’s laying right next to Shadow. The heat of him is more apparent, and it’s not unpleasant. It’s getting close to winter and Shadow never liked the cold, as much as he was built to tolerate it.
“Why, faker, are you trying to copy me?” Shadow says, frowning. Sonic likes that. His soft almost-smile turns into a grin.
“Maybe I am,” he teases. “Tell me your ways, oh ultimate lifeform, so I can join you in perfection.”
“Some secrets are better kept as secrets.” Reluctantly, Shadow is pleased—he finally looks away from Sonic and out at the sea, only now realizing he’s been staring nonstop since they met up. How embarrassing.
“I suppose we can’t all be ultimate, huh?” Sonic grins. “It would kind of take away from your ultimateness.”
“Anything but that,” Shadow says dryly, tamping down on the pleased feeling that rises up again as Sonic laughs. That feeling makes him want to do…something. Something unwise. He’s not sure what, but with Sonic involved, it’s bound to be unwise. And it wouldn’t do for Shadow to indulge himself.
Sonic looks awfully happy, Shadow notes, feeling a bit of a drop in his stomach. It wouldn’t do to indulge him, either.
Shadow gets to his feet.
“Ah- Going already?” Scrambling a little, Sonic props himself up on one elbow.
“There wasn’t anything you needed me for,” Shadow says, intending it as a question. Given that he’s embarrassed, it comes out stiff and impersonal.
Sonic looks up at him, the echoes of a smile on his face. Absence doesn’t suit him. On a day like this, where salty air whips around them and his eyes catch the sunlight, emerald-bright and gleaming, Sonic should be smiling at him. He should be full of life. Never caught half between and rippling with memories, like a ghost. Like Shadow. He shouldn’t have the same reservations that Shadow does—or maybe he should have twice as many.
The thought makes his brow crease.
“Nah, nothing in particular,” Sonic says. It sounds like he’s agreeing and also like some kind of admission, and like something else and Shadow really doesn’t want to worry about the something else, so he just nods and turns away.
He doesn’t think about how long Sonic might’ve lingered on that cliff after he leaves.