Work Text:
Sonic isn't entirely sure when it happened.
All he knows is that after that whole shatterverse fiasco was dealt with, Shadow finally moved into an apartment with Rouge in Green Hill, for whatever reason(Sonic likes to imagine it's because he secretly has a soft spot for him, but that edgelord probably wouldn't ever admit it if that were the case).
After the move made Shadow more prone to visits by Sonic, the rivals started to formally invite each other to races, as opposed to the typical impromptu arguments-turned-competitions they were used to. Over the next few months, those scheduled races turned into scheduled hangouts, and genuine arguments into playful banter exclusively.
Then, when Amy announced that her legendary annual New Year's Party would require every guest to come with a partner of some variety this year, Sonic was surprised when Shadow immediately came to mind for him.
The hybrid hated parties, that was no secret. But this would be his first New Year's since moving to Green Hill! Being alone for it would be kinda sad, even for an introvert like him.
Besides, Rouge shocked everyone some months prior when she showed up to Sonic's birthday party with Shadow in tow(though anyone could guess he was probably coerced into coming via bribery).
So, yeah. It clearly wasn't impossible. Just really really unlikely and a huge pain in the ass! So why couldn't Sonic see himself going with anyone but the Ultimate Lifeform?
.
.
.
"No."
Sonic popped the question some chilly December morning, though the weather didn't stop either hedgehog from enjoying their ice cream cones on the park bench they claimed.
Naturally, Shadow said his answer without a hint of hesitation and the blue blur could only sputter in disbelief.
"Wh-- but you didn't even consider it!"
"I don't need to. What kind of person celebrates something as monotonous as the passage of time?" Shadow casually continues to eat his ice cream as if he hasn't just dropped a bombshell on Sonic.
"Wait wait wait..." Sonic points at him in disbelief, "You're telling me you've never celebrated the New Year? Ever?"
"No. Uh..." Shadow fakes a cough and mumbles, "Maria wasn't allowed to stay up late..."
"...Oh. Oh! " Sonic's eyebrows flew up, "Yeah, that, uh...makes sense."
"Yeah."
The conversation dies for a bit and silence takes its place, before Sonic ignores the tension and clears his throat awkwardly.
"...Welllll, this can be your first! C'mon, you should totally come. It's great! We play tons of games, like fukuwarai, koma, sugoroku, and...well, we used to play karuta, but Knuckles always eats the cards, so I wouldn't get your hopes up this year. Anyway, once dinner is ready, we all get together and eat osechi-ryouri. Amy arranges all the juubako herself, but she changes it every year, so it's always a fun surprise to see what you're gonna get! When we finish dinner, we all get to pound our own mochi for dessert. It's usually almost midnight once we're done eating it, so we all go outside and watch the last of the firew-"
Sonic's rambling and Shadow's rapt eyes on the rambler in question are both interrupted by a faint beeping coming from within the hybrid's quills.
"...You don't, like, have a bomb in there or anything, do you?" Sonic half-jokes nervously. It certainly wouldn't be the weirdest thing Shadow's kept in there.
Shadow just rolls his eyes, taking a pager out from his spines to read it. He sighs (almost disappointedly) and stands up to leave, "It's G.U.N.. Another last-minute mission. I have to go."
"...Oh." Sonic's quills droop and he looks downward like a sad puppy. Then, he mentally slaps himself across the face and shuts that down instantly. Since when was he this obsessed with hanging out with Shadow?!
He perks up a bit. "...But you're gonna come to the party with me, right?"
Shadow freezes for a second, mulling something over. Eventually he turns away and mumbles "...I'll think about it."
The Ultimate Lifeform dashes away on his air shoes, and Sonic pathetically thinks he misses him already.
.
.
.
Naturally, an 'I'll think about it' was not nearly enough to keep Sonic patient.
Sonic bothered Shadow about the stupid invitation every time they hung out afterwards. Every. Single. Time.
It got to a point where even Shadow's boundless resolution hit a breaking point in the middle of a race with Sonic, in which the blue blur would not shut up.
"--and I guess the tradition used to be that we would celebrate it in, like, February or something? 'Cause of the lunar calendar? I dunno. But I've heard from Tails that in Denmark, people will go to their friends' houses and smash plates against their door to wish them luck in the New Year. Crazy, right?!" Sonic yaps endlessly and, despite their speed breaking far past mach 1, the finish line they had decided on seems so far away to Shadow now. He would be impressed by Sonic's lack of need for oxygen to continue talking if it didn't irk him so endlessly. "Speaking of New Year's, you didn't forget about the party, did you? You know, the party? The one at Amy's? That I invited you to? Wouldn't it be cool if you went with me? Yeah, that'd be awesome. Actually, you'll never guess what happened at last year's--"
Sonic is cut off by Shadow essentially body slamming into his side at full speed. Though, due to the velocity, they both wipeout and skid harshly against the snow, finally stopping with Shadow pinning him to the floor, a scowl creasing his features.
"If I say yes, will you shut you mouth?!?"
Sonic's dazed confusion from the crash is quickly replaced with a massive grin ear to ear as he nods enthusiastically.
"Y-Yeah. Yes! Yes. A hundred percent, man! I will be quiet as a mouse. My mouth is zipped. Not a peep from me. No sirree--"
Shadow slaps a gloved palm over the offending mouth and leans in closer, stressing his every word. "...Pick me up from my apartment. 7:30 sharp. Don't be late. And for Chaos sake, take a bath beforehand. Your quills are filthy."
With that, Shadow speeds away, leaving Sonic bewildered and joyful, yet also as disgusted as Shadow upon realizing that his fur really was completely matted and his quills were, in fact, absolutely filthy.
.
.
.
The day came and, of course, Sonic was running late. Ironically, the fastest thing alive tended to be tardy to pretty much everything all the time.
It was already 8:00, and although Amy was probably used to his tardiness enough by now to expect it and not hold it against him as harshly, Shadow would probably flay him if he didn't get his ass over to that apartment ASAP.
So he finished up the final tweaks on his appearance, stuck a pair of New Year's glasses for Shadow and a New Year's headband for himself into his quills, then set a quick pace for Shadow's apartment. Unfortunately, Shadow lived on the complete opposite side of the island, so he was definitely going to be even later than he already was.
His concentration on running was broken by a sudden flash of bright light and a delayed boom! that reverberated in his chest and made him jump out of his skin enough to trip and nearly faceplant into the snow.
His head darts left and right, looking for the intruding sound. Another sets off in the distance and he realizes that the fireworks signaling the start of the party have begun.
He releases a tense breath in relief. Despite his mesmerization with the flickers of light reflecting in his eyeballs, it also serves as a reminder of just how late he is. So, he starts on his run again, picking up the pace a bit more.
The fireworks continue in discordant succession on his run, each minute-long show of flashing lights meant to signal the start of one of the many New Year's parties undoubtedly occuring.
Even when he gets to the mountain Shadow lives on, there are still a few booms to be heard far away from the mountain range.
He increases velocity to run up the mountain where that familiar wooden hut sits, unusually built only halfway up its slope. The location was clearly intended to keep unwanted visitors none the wiser, the mountains hiding the abode from all sides, but Sonic could recall many a time that the hidden location didn't fool him and he came over just to poke Shadow's buttons.
He stops at the door and quickly runs his fingers through his quills and brushes off his chest fur as best he can, in a way he would never do if it wasn't Shadow's door he was in front of.
He steels himself and reaches out to knock on the door, but the door pushes open slightly when his knuckles brush against its wood.
Sonic lets himself in, but he doesn't miss the oddity of such carelessness from Shadow as to leave the door open.
"...Shadowww? You here? Sorry I'm late, but we can head over now!"
Sonic is met with an eerie silence, aside from the house's echo mocking his words incongruously.
He walks deeper into the house and peeks into any doorway he can find, but there's no sign of the hybrid. There's no sign of Rouge, Shadow's roommate, either, but she likely already left for the party, so Sonic doesn't pay it much mind.
Weirdly enough, everything seemed in place.
Then he found Shadow's bedroom.
It was the sort of thing that you might miss if you didn't look closely enough. Everything was mostly tidy. Hell, if Sonic didn't know Shadow so well, he might've turned a blind eye to it.
However, he couldn't help but get a weird feeling at the sight of a completely abandoned cosmetic train case knocked over onto the floor in front of the vanity. Makeup containers spilled out of it, and some had even broken on impact. Sonic screws the cap back on an opened eyeliner and sets it down upright to keep from adding to the puddle of black liquid that already formed on the wood boards.
The blue blur sighs and takes a seat on Shadow's bed. He knew Shadow wasn't a fan of parties, but he didn't expect him to just--
...He almost misses the sound of a sharp gust of air that comes from under the bed as he sits down.
Sonic freezes.
He slowly gets up from his seat on the bed, just to double check. It's definitely not just the squeaky mattress, since the muffled blusters of air movement continue in rapid succession even after he's far away from any creaky springs.
He hears the strange whistly noises, but the window is closed and the lack of cool air brushing against his back to accompany the sound feels...wrong.
Sonic carefully goes down onto his knees and, in slow motion, dips his head under the bedframe.
There, under the bed, lies Shadow.
He's curled in an uncomfortable ball with the both hands on his mouth hardly stifling the short and labored gasps that rip out of his throat. His eyes are squeezed shut and his ears turn meekly downward.
"...Shadow?"
Shadow doesn't acknowledge him.
"...Shadow, it's me."
The labored gasps continue. Sonic furrows his eyebrows worriedly and reaches under the bed.
Only when his knuckle barely grazes Shadow's leg does Shadow react. His eyes fly wide open and he scrambles away from the touch, hitting his head on the bedframe and kicking Sonic's shoulder in his panic. He moves himself as far away from him as possible, pressing his back up against the wall.
With his hands no longer covering his mouth, Sonic could really see the weird sporadic breaths Shadow kept taking, like he was struggling to breathe and yet breathing too much at the same time. Sonic wasn't a doctor, but that didn't seem good.
"Shadow? What's wrong? Is there something I can do to help you?"
Shadow still doesn't respond, only boring his fearful gaze right through him.
"...How about some water? Yeah. Yeah, water. I'll get you--" Sonic nods to himself with false sureness and starts to get up, but Shadow's breathing starts to speed up even more at that and he yanks Sonic's hand towards him with two of his own, closing his eyes and leaning his forehead against the gloved knuckle he had recoiled from only a minute prior.
Sonic doesn't know what to say or do about the weirdly intimate gesture, so he just stays silent and hopes it won't make Shadow's breathing worse.
Sonic's wrist remains pressed up against his rival's and after a few minutes of remaining in the position, he feels the rapid heartbeat reverberating in Shadow's artery slow down to match the much more healthy one that Sonic has. The frantic choking on air ceases steadily and Shadow calms himself with one last deep exhale out.
Finally, he releases the vice grip he held on Sonic's hand.
"...Hey, Shads?"
Shadow doesn't respond again, but at least this time, he actually opens his eyes and looks at him curiously.
"... Don't you wanna explain what...that was to me?"
Instead of getting mad at him like Sonic expected, the hybrid just sighs. Sonic begins to realize how tired he looks.
"...Not particularly, no." Shadow finally responds, rubbing the bridge of his nose with the tip of his fingers.
"...Okayyy," Sonic confusedly accommodates, reaching his hand out to Shadow instead, "Are you at least gonna get out from under the bed?"
Shadow studies the outstretched hand. Sonic almost misses the way he curls in on himself a bit, almost like he doesn't want to leave. However, he slowly takes the offered hand anyways.
Sonic smiles and drags Shadow's body out onto the open floor of the room. The hybrid flips over onto his hands and knees and gets up the rest of the way on his own from there, albeit shakily.
"...Better?" Sonic pats Shadow on the shoulder in an awkward attempt to comfort and Shadow surprisingly doesn't resist the touch.
"...Yes. Thank you."
"Yeah, no problem. But, uh..." Sonic tries again, despite himself, "Why were you--"
Sonic cuts himself off when the delayed boom! of another firework visible through the window goes off.
Although, however dramatic Sonic's reaction is to the sound, Shadow reacts tenfold.
In a second, the hybrid flinches violently, pupils constricting, and he instinctively snatches a gun that was sitting on his nightstand and points it ahead.
Sonic himself flinches a bit as Shadow rapidly pulls the trigger over and over and over again in his direction, but the pain never comes and he realizes it's empty, relaxing in relief. The clicks of the trigger continue regardless, pointlessly aimed at some non-existent enemy in front of Shadow.
In actuality, Sonic is the only one standing in the gun's line of fire. Yet the blue blur can't even bring himself to hold his hands up in surrender, because everything is suddenly starting to make sense.
In the beat of silence following, the rapid clicks of the trigger slow down until Shadow stops entirely and eventually drops the tension in his arm, furrowing his brows in defeat from the recognition in Sonic's gaze. He's been found out.
He slowly places the gun back on the nightstand and crumples into a frustrated ball on the floor, dragging his back against the wall on the way down.
Sonic's eyebrows furrow and he kneels. He reaches his hand out and can't stop the pity from oozing into his voice, no matter how much he knows his rival will hate it.
"Oh, Shadow..."
"Shut up! Shut up! Shut--" Shadow suddenly yells, before deflating like a balloon in exhaustion, "Just...stop. I don't want it. I don't want it. I don't want your-- your pity."
...Carefully, the blue blur retracts his hand.
"...Okay."
Sonic takes his leg out from under himself and sits all the way down.
"...But I'd like your company, if that's okay with you?"
Shadow's eyebrows furrow, but he makes no move to stop the other, and that's as good an allowance as any.
They sit in silence for a while, until Sonic cautiously tries to speak.
"What were you gonna do?"
Shadow sits his head up a bit and raises an eyebrow, confused.
"At the party. You didn't have to say yes to me, but you did anyways, knowing about...this. What were you gonna do at the party when the fireworks started?"
Shadow sighs and drops the tension in his face.
Sonic looks him in the eye patiently, so he looks down and away, leaning his head on his knee.
"...I thought I could handle it. I thought I was better than this."
And Sonic doesn't really know what to say to that.
So, he takes a deep breath and stands up.
"Alright, what games you got?"
Shadow straightens, and looks up at the blue hedgehog. "...What?"
"Games. Y'know, like boardgames?" Sonic quickly walks over to shut the window curtains, then makes his way to the hybrid's walk-in closet and begins rummaging through it, "What, you didn't think we were just gonna sit here and do nothing, did you? That sounds like a terrible New Year's!"
"I-- No, but," Shadow stands up, "Aren't you going to leave for the party?"
Sonic peaks his head out of the closet, and Shadow is a little startled by how offended the look on his face is.
"Dude, I'd be a terrible friend if I just left you alone on New Year's Eve! Now, about those games..."
Shadow freezes, and stares off into some undefinable spot on the wall, the words echoing in his head.
Friend.
"...I think there's a chess set on the left of the top shelf," Shadow mumbles. He barely hears himself say it.
"Yes! Bingo!" Sonic reaches and pulls the aforementioned chess set out, holding the box above his head triumphantly. He tucks it under one arm and holds Shadow's hand tightly, dragging him down the hallway, "Let's go set this up in the living room, come on!"
.
.
.
That night, Sonic is forced to play with just his non-dominant hand. Shadow squeezes the other one in a painful grip everytime a faint boom is heard in the distance and the handicap leads to him inevitably losing match after match.
Despite this, Sonic does not complain once, nor does he notice when the clock strikes midnight.