Chapter Text
Sonic had just woken up. In a couch, which, for only a second, confused him, until he remembered he was currently staying at one of Tails’ labs.
A bad storm had come suddenly and put a halt to any plans he might’ve had, so he had to seek shelter. Upon remembering the lab and the fact that’s where Tails currently was as well, he decided to spend the night. It wasn’t something he did very often nowadays, but sometimes the weather could be vicious and Sonic happened to end up near one of these labs.
He didn’t particularly mind though, Sonic thought as he sat up. It was always nice to get the opportunity to spend some time with Tails, obviously. The two are always chatting and meeting at random places, whether it's just to hang out or to defeat a certain egghead and his troops again, but it had been a little while since they had a sleepover.
Even though he would only really get to talk more properly to Tails now, in the morning, since he showed up at nearly midnight, soaked head to toe and only exchanged a few words with his friend before haphazardly drying himself and basically crashing into Tails’ couch.
Sonic, as usual, had been all over the place. Never one to stay in one place for too long, he had been off to explore the continent. Trying to find new places had always been one of his favorite things to do, ever since he was a child. There was nothing quite like it.
Just before the storm, in fact, he had been in a race with Shadow. He decided to take a turn he hadn’t before and his rival predictably attempted to follow his shortcut. They ended up finding a geyser just out of the mountainous path they were in before, completely secluded. It erupted right as they had arrived, creating a beautiful sight.
Time had almost seemed to slow down as they looked at it, the race momentarily forgotten as Sonic appreciated it. He managed to catch a glimpse of Shadow at that moment, who, as far as Sonic could interpret from Shadow’s limited expressiveness (which was something Sonic was actually becoming quite good at), looked just as enthralled.
Sonic shook his head at the memory. Even if that image seemed to stick in his mind for some reason, he cast it aside to focus on the current moment. Opening the blinds to the window near the couch, he took a look outside. The rain had already stopped, and the sun was out once again. He could smell the wet grass from here, admiring the field and its blooming flowers.
Right. Spring was coming!
Sonic was already itching to head outside and run off to Chaos knows where, but held that desire in as he instead got up and headed towards the makeshift kitchen.
Of course, Tails was already in there.
Sonic had a sneaking suspicion that his friend hadn’t actually slept at all, if the way he yawned and the reddened eyes were any indication, probably staying up to work on an invention once again. Still, Sonic decided to refrain from commenting on it. This time.
“...Oh! Sonic, you’re awake!” Tails expressed as he caught a glimpse of the hedgehog. “ Decided to sleep in this time?”
Sonic glanced at the digital clock in the microwave, noticing it was already past noon. “Yeah, I think your couch really missed me!” He joked as he stretched his back.
“I’m not surprised, it has been a while. You’ve been all over the place recently.” Tails got up from the stool he was sitting in, heading towards the counter.
“Yeah, yeah, but when am I not?” Sonic shrugged.
“Ok, fair.” Tails shrugged as well as he fished something out of the cabinet and threw it towards Sonic. “Here, since you came over, I grabbed a little something for you!”
Sonic caught the offering, recognizing the wrapper and its contents immediately. “Ah, it had been some time since my last chillidog!” Sonic beamed.
“...has it really?” Tails asked sarcastically as he sat back down with his own lunch, which seemed to be a sandwich.
“Yeah, it’s been like, what, three whole days?” Sonic made his way over to the stool opposite of Tails’, sitting down and preparing to take a bite, until he remembered something. “Oh, you know, it was actually really funny. I had actually managed to get Shadow to try one of these! He hated it! Maybe a little sad, but his reaction was priceless!” Sonic couldn’t stop himself from laughing in the middle of his sentence.
“...Uh-huh.” Tails looked unimpressed, on more levels than one.
“Yeah, you’d have to see it to believe it.” Sonic shrugged at Tails’ response, and proceeded to take a bite out of his chilidog. “He’s missing out, though. This is great! I’m guessing you just bought it? It’s still warm.”
“Well, yeah! I was planning on maybe inviting you to go out for lunch, but since you were still asleep I decided to head out myself to grab these. I figured that, even if you weren’t gonna stick around for long, you’d at least stay to say hi.” Tails said as he rubbed the back of his head.
Sonic snorted, and reached out to noogie Tails’ head. “Aw, cmon bud!”
“Argh- Sonic!” Tails gasped, although his tone was light and he laughed. Tails was fairly used to this at this point.
“Yeah, yeah, yeah!” Sonic laughed, before he let Tails’ head go and leaned back on his seat to continue his lunch.
“So, do you plan on leaving already?” Tails asked as he readjusted his bangs.
“Probably, yeah. It’s a beautiful day outside, now that Spring is arriving.” There were a few places he’d been wanting to visit once the sky cleared up, a list of new locations to go already forming in his mind.
…or maybe, even old locations as well…
“Hey, actually, I was thinking.” Sonic leaned even more on his stool, crossing his leg and holding his seat with one hand while he held the chillidog in the other. “It’s already September, isn’t it?”
“Uhm, yes?”
“So, do you think Little Planet is already around?” Sonic asked, cocking his head to the side with a chilli filled grin.
“Oh! Right, this is around the time Little Planet shows up on Never Lake, isn’t it? Hold on, lemme see.” Tails set down his sandwich for a moment, before grabbing a laptop from the counter and opening it, typing quickly. “Hmm, it seemed like it showed up only a few days ago, actually!”
“Ah, hell yeah!” Sonic leaned forward on his stool in excitement. “Man, I’ve been wanting to visit it again for some time now!”
Tails laughed at his excitement. “Why hadn’t you gone to revisit it before?”
Sonic leaned back again. “Everytime i get the urge to go, it’s just not the season. Bummer that it’s something you can only see one month every year…”
“True, it can be like that sometimes. But… was there any particular reason you wanted to go there in particular?” Tails asked, in what seemed to be a genuine question, although with an air as if Tails already knew the answer.
“Well… Mostly just ‘cause I missed it, I guess. It’d be nice to have a run around the planet without Eggman’s forces being around it, for once. It’s a very nice place with a very nice view.” Sonic answered, before taking another bite of his chillidog. But before he even swallowed it, he simply placed his hand over his mouth and continued. “Although, I was actually thinking, just in case I-”
“Are you going to say you were thinking of racing Shadow there in case you came across him.” Tails deadpanned.
Sonic nearly choked on his chillidog at that. He coughed, before choking out “Wha-” and sitting back up, trying to regain his composure. “I mean, yeah, actually! I was! But, uh, how did you know?”
Tails looked away and fidgeted with his tails slightly, “Sonic, uh, I don’t if you noticed it, but you’ve been, umm… you’ve been mentioning him a lot.”
Sonic blinked. And then, laughed lightly. “...I’m sorry, what? Have I? When?!”
Tails further curled in on himself, fidgeting more. He seemed completely out of his element. “Just, you know… I feel like, most of what you tell me as of late involves him somehow.” Tails looked back at him. “Not just the long winded stories either, even just you, i don’t know, you seeing juice and going on about the time he dropped your juice and didn’t bother to pick it back up or something.”
“...well, he did do that-”
“Yeah, yeah, I know, I’m just saying, like… it feels as if…” Tails looked away again, biting his lower lip. It seemed like, whatever he was thinking, he wasn’t sure how to say it. “As if he’s… been on your mind a lot.”
Sonic wasn’t sure how to react to that. His gaze dropped to the floor, trying to make sense of this.
“I mean, that’s fine!” Tails started waving his hands anxiously. “I, you know, don’t really get too deep into this sorta stuff and-”
“Uhm, Buddy…” Sonic began slowly. “What exactly are you trying to get at?” Tails doesn’t get nervous like this that easily, he was clearly trying to say something that Sonic wasn’t picking up on.
“Uuhhh-” Tails looked away again, holding his tails more tightly, before jumping off his stool and grabbing his laptop. “I mean, I think you know, right? I don’t think I’m really the person to talk about this, anyway, and uhm… I have this one project i really need to get back to! So, I’ll be heading back down to the lab, if you need me!” and just like that, he ran off.
Sonic simply stood in his seat for a moment, blinking.
What the hell was that…
Sonic figured it wasn’t worth pushing, and Tails was likely running on no sleep anyway, so he probably wasn’t in the best state of mind right now. He better leave him be for the moment.
Sonic headed for the door. “OH, IM LEAVING RIGHT NOW BY THE WAY!” He shouted.
“...OH! YOU ACTUALLY REMEMBERED TO WARN ME THIS TIME! WELL, GOOD LUCK!”
Wait, ‘good luck’? Sonic thought as he headed out good luck for what?!
He ignored it, and simply walked out of the door and into the field.
The dirt was still wet, small rain droplets painting every blade of glass and every flower petal he came across.
At first, he actually decided to go slow. Simply stroll through the fields, putting his hands behind his head as he walked.
But his mind remained on the conversation he just had. Replaying Tails’ statements.
You’ve been mentioning him a lot.
Had he? Had he actually been mentioning Shadow a lot? Had he been thinking about his rival more than he had realized?
No, of course not. There’s no way he wouldn’t notice something like that. Tails must’ve been exaggerating, taking a few isolated instances and thinking they're related.
…Granted, Tails isn’t the sort of person to do that. In fact, he’s usually the one who calls people out for acting that way.
…But he was sleepy! He probably just got things mixed up!
…This was becoming quite the tiring back and forth already.
And it was probably nothing. It certainly wasn't anything for him to get worked up over. And so, Sonic decided to cast these thoughts aside. It wasn't anything, he needed to focus on the now.
And right now, he had a destination in mind. And there was nothing to a troubled mind that a little cross continental run wouldn't fix!
So, he took off.
There truly wasn't anything quite like the feeling of going on a run for him. Nothing to hold him back, nothing and no one to chain him down, it was pure freedom!
As much as he loves spending time with his friends, this is when he's truly at his element. Running through obstacles, challenging himself, discovering the world by himself.
It's what he had always been used to, after all. His friends might be powerful in their own ways, but few could ever truly reach his speed.
This was his. These were moments just for him, something he had learned from a young age. He was always one step ahead, and as much as he learned to be patient and stop and wait for his friends to catch up, there was nothing as freeing as getting to find new locals by himself, not having to wait for anything nor anyone.
It's not like there were many who could catch up.
…ok, well, not exactly. Some could. For example, Shadow easily could. It was one of the reasons Sonic couldn't help but keep challenging him, as it was rare for him to get good competition on foot. (...even if Shadow is wearing rocket shoes, which does seem like cheating, but Sonic gave up on trying to argue about that.)
Shadow clearly liked the challenges too, even if he was a pretty sore loser at times and-
…Wait, am I doing it again?
He shook his head. No no, that was a topical tangent. There was nothing out of the ordinary about that.
Sonic felt like he was getting way too inside his head, he needed to get his mind back on the tracks.
Just running clearly wouldn't suffice. He needed to be more alert, more involved with the environment he found himself in. So he took a leap and decided to scale up the walls of the various mounts around, jumping off from wall to wall, doing backflips, the works.
Of course, he would never complain about taking it this way. It was tremendously fun! Ever since he started learning parkour moves years ago, he could never say no to any opportunity to put it to the test.
The environment was his playground, the world was his sandbox, every piece of scenery was a new challenge to overcome, and the challenge came in doing it in the coolest and most thrilling way possible!
It didn’t take long for him to catch sight of Little Planet. Even from a distance, it is impossible to miss. And so, catching sight of the lake underneath it as well, he quickly made his way over to it.
It was as he was getting close to Never Lake that he ended up coming across another hedgehog in the distance. Not the hedgehog he had been (apparently) thinking about, but someone which made a lot more sense for him to find here of all places.
Smiling to himself, Sonic slowed down in order to greet her.
“Yo, Amy!” he shouted as jogged over to where she was sitting near the lake's edge, looking up at the looming planet above them.
Amy suddenly shot up at the sound and turned around to face the direction Sonic was coming from. “Ah, Sonic!”
He grinned and waved at her, stopping at a small distance from where she was standing. Said distance quickly vanished as she ran up to give him a hug.
Sonic sighed, and hugged her back. He wasn't much of a hugger, truthfully, but he was already used to her doing this from years of knowing her. At least she learned to not squeeze the air out of his lungs now.
“Mm, I missed you!” She hugged him just a little tighter, making Sonic fear that maybe she didn't actually learn to not squeeze the air out of his lungs.
He pat her back. “Has it even been that long since we last saw each other?”
She leaned out of the hug and placed her hands on her hips as she now looked him in the face. “Eh, a few weeks, give or take. I've been busy recently, so I kinda lost track of time?” She laughed awkwardly.
“Lost track of time, eh? Is that why you wanted to come here? Getting time back?” He pointed up towards Little Planet.
“Haha, no no! I just always like to make some time to come over whenever Little Planet is here. It just kind of became a routine, you know, since it's an important place for me.” She placed her hands together as she looked up at the planet once again.
Sonic smiled and hummed at that, taking a moment to look at the planet as well. Obviously he knew exactly what she meant. After all, this is where he met her.
“I'm surprised I never see you around here, though.” Amy turned to face him again. “Do I just never happen to catch you here or do you just never visit?”
Sonic rubbed the back of his head as he responded “Heh, yeah, I don't tend to come around here much. It's kinda why I'm here right now, I wanted to revisit it after all this time.”
“I think you chose a good moment, then. It's a nice day!”
“It is! Definitely better than yesterday was. It was pouring!”
“Urgh, true…” Amy groaned. “You know, I had actually planned to come here yesterday instead, but with the rain I basically got stuck in the base. My plans were kinda put on halt while I had to sort out some issues Rouge had brought up.”
“Wait, Rouge? What was she doing there?”
“She gives us some tips on operations every once in a while. Even if sometimes… with a price.” She rolled her eyes. “I think she might be around this area, actually. At least, she mentioned Shadow would be.”
This certainly piqued Sonic's interest, feeling more excitement at that statement than he probably should. “Shadow is also here?!”
“I think so, Rouge said she had managed to contact Shadow when he reached the continent and-” Amy's words suddenly halted when she looked over at Sonic's face again and saw the mischievous grin he wore. “Ugh, you're planning on challenging him again, aren't you.” She groaned.
“Aw c'mon, you're saying it like it isn't a spectacle!” He remained grinning.
“Not since I had to deal with the two of you during the Dodonpa race.” She looked exhausted just by remembering it. “It's like you guys completely forgot our objective as soon as you saw each other.”
“C'mon, we didn't forget! It was just a little challenge to spice things up!”
“All you two could focus on was beating each other in the race! It's like you were in your own little world!” She threw her hands in the air. “Everyone was getting tired of it.”
Sonic thought back to that whole ordeal. Being honest, there is indeed a good portion of it that all he can remember is challenging Shadow. Throwing taunts back and forth as they honed in on taking each other's cars out and barely acknowledged the other adversaries in the race.
“I mean, I was still helping out my teammates! Besides, Shadow is as much to blame as I am. He also got sucked in.” Even if Shadow did seem to snap out of it first. And then pretend like he wasn't just as tunnel visioned as Sonic was.
“Ugh, he definitely did… Although it's always kinda hard to tell with him.” She shook her head. “You can never quite get what he's thinking.”
Sonic decided to take the opportunity to change the focus of the conversation into complaining about his rival. “Yeah… not only with the constant grumpy look, but he's so blunt it comes back around to being too vague.” Sonic rolls his eyes. “It's like he thinks we can read his mind or something. And he refuses to explain himself everytime!”
Amy was about to respond, but Sonic kept going on his tangent. “I mean, sure, it's got a certain charm to it. I can admit that. I can't imagine him being any other way. And frankly, after you spend enough time with the guy you start learning how to read him. I'm sure Rouge can attest to that too.”
“Uh… yeah, she's mentioned something like that…”
“Like, I think at this point I can tell pretty well when it's just his resting face and when he's actually angry at something. Trust me, there's a clear difference! You can tell in his eyes and brow. I mean, yeah, it might be ‘cause I end up making him mad quite often, but I still take it as a win!”
Amy's eyes narrowed for a second, before she shook her head. “Well, can you tell when he's, I don't know… happy?”
“I’m… still working on that one. I don't think he's ever brimming with joy, sometimes I'm not sure if there's ever a single happy thought in his head. But I can tell when he's feeling more at ease, I suppose. And when he's surprised, too! He-”
“Hey, Sonic…” Amy interrupted him. “Have you… been seeing him more often?” There was an edge to her question, like she was trying to get to the bottom of something but he wasn't quite sure what.
It reminded him of how Tails reacted earlier in the day.
“I mean, kind of. We just kinda keep coming across each other and then doing a race or two, but it's always kind of been this way.” Sonic looked to the ground for a second before looking at her again. “But it has been a little different lately! Mainly because of… well…”
“Because of what?” She tilted her head as she asked.
“Hm, how do I explain this… It's kind of a long story.”
“Well…” Amy slowly sat back down near the lake's edge, and looked up at him while gesturing towards the grass around Sonic's shoes. “I've got time, and you know I'm always down to learn about another Sonic Adventure!”
Sonic chuckled, before sitting down in the grass in front of her. “Alright alright, if you insist! Well,basically…”