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Sonic didn’t know why he agreed to come to a place with water. But he did, probably to see the joy on his brother’s face when he showed up in summer shorts and sunglasses. Everyone was enjoying the cool temperature of the lake. It was very hot these days in town, and everyone was on the beach, which was why Sonic and his crew had decided it was a better idea to go further to a quiet lake.
Sonic was the only one not in the water, Amy was with Sticks, playing with a beach ball the pink hedgehog had probably found in a random corner of her house, and Knuckles and Tails were just splashing each other, laughing as Knuckles tried to tackle Tails and failed miserably. Amy grumbled as the boys hit her perfectly styled hair with water, Sonic snickered at the situation, until his brother decided it was time he joined the fun, and quickly ran out of the water to pull him by the arm in the freezing water.
The blue hedgehog shouted as his fur stuck to his skin, Tails had let go, which left him trashing around and wiggling like a worm. It was no secret that Sonic was afraid of water, and that he had always been a bit too dramatic about it. Knuckles came to the rescue, or not, picking up the hedgehog from the water before throwing him back where the girls watched as the blue hedgehog screamed and crashed back into the water.
He eventually calmed down and glared at his brother and the echidna laughing at him. “Hey! It’s not funny guys, you know I hate water !” he said, pouting like a child. They just kept laughing, the girls soon joining in “Sorry Sonic ! But you need to refresh too !” Amy said, giggling. Sonic grumbled, mumbling something about how he was already refreshing on the side, he got up and shook himself to take out the water from his quills. He did a quick job to take off his shoes, they were already soaked, he couldn’t run like that, and he hated the feeling of anything on him when he got wet.
He threw his shoes to the side, taking off his shorts next, it wasn’t like he needed them, it was just for style. He ripped his bandana off his neck, throwing it with the rest. The others had gone back to their activities, which left Sonic confident about his next move. He caught his left glove in his mouth, pulling it off, the other one following fast, he quickly checked if his shiny golden ring was still there, snug on his finger, before throwing his gloves with the rest of his clothes.
He got out of the water after rinsing himself from the filth the lake got in his fur, sitting back down in the grass, enjoying the sun slowly drying his quills and fur. He eventually laid down and closed his eyes, intending to nap until his friends were ready to go home. Damn, a chili dog sounded nice right now.
A gasp cut his train of thought, and he opened an eye to see Amy staring down at him with a shocked face. He raised a brow, confused as she called the others over. “Guys look !” she pointed at his hand, mentioning the others to come look “What? What’s up ?” Sonic asked, looking around, sitting up to face his friends. The others stood around him, intrigued by what Amy wanted to show them. “Look ! Here ! Is that a wedding ring ?!” She practically shouted. Oh, so this was what this was all about. His wedding ring. The others gasped and began swarming him with questions.
“Sonic what is that ?!” “Since when did you have this??” “Where does it come from ?” “Why do you have this ??”
“STOP !! Everybody, stop.”
The others stopped talking immediately, staring at Sonic, waiting for his reply, an explanation, anything. “Calm down y’all, it’s just a ring” he finally said. “JUST a ring ?? It looks weirdly like a wedding ring Sonic, since when have you been married, and why did you never told us, and with who ?!”
“Chill, it happened a few months ago, nothing much really ! Its just for the benefits anyways so don’t make a big deal out of it alright ?”
His friends looked at him, then at the ring, then back at him. Amy was squinting, trying to decide if he was lying or saying the truth, the others just looked confused. Knuckles had found a random rock he was showing to Sticks, not even paying attention to the conversation anymore, while Tails just watched on the side, wondering what the heck was happening.
“Uhm, how about we go to Meh Burger and forget that, yeah ? Yeah, okay lets go” sonic quickly said, trying to save the situation. Amy kept intensely staring at him, before backing up and shrugging “Yeah, a burger sounds nice right now, all this made me hungry. But don’t think you’re out of that conversation just yet Sonic !” she replied nonchalantly before turning around towards the others, telling them to pack up as they were leaving.
Sonic stood up as well to get his clothes and most importantly put his gloves back on as fast as he could. He then ran up to the others who had already begun the track back to the village.
On the walk back, Sonic couldn’t help but think about what happened. Was it really that big of a deal anyways ? He never really thought much about it, didn’t think it was something important his friends should know.
Later, as everybody got home, Tails decided to do a little investigation. Amy had a point, why wouldn’t his brother tell him about it ? Luckily, he had access to some files about people from the village, including Sonic. If he was legally married, the file would confirm it, and most importantly give the identity of the other person involved.
He opened his computer and logged into his files, soon finding Sonic’s as he had already visited it a couple of times before, for medical purposes. Tails scrolled down, scanning the information, he found all the things he already knew : his full name, age, address, medical information… but no sign of a wedding certificate, had he lied ?
He thought for a second and was ready to give up until his eye caught something on the side of his screen. A little window was hidden on the side, drowned by the rest. Tails clicked on it, and there it was, less important information, such as his tastes (why did they need to know that ?), his wins and defeats with Eggman, and honestly a lot of seemingly useless stuff.
At the very end, there was it, a wedding certificate, as Sonic said, dated a couple of months prior, he scanned it, looking for information on the other person. What he saw next almost made him faint :
Spouse : Shadow the Hedgehog
This is to certify that Sonic the Hedghog and Shadow the Hedgehog were united in marriage on the 4th of april 2025 in the presence of witnesses.
We remind the people knowing of this wedding that the principal cause of this union is : tax benefits
…
“WHAT?!”
Tails screamed, Sonic was married to Shadow ?! His rival ?! The guy who attacked the village on a random Tuesday because he got bored ?? Now that he thought of it, it was true that Shadow had been causing less trouble lately. In fact, they didn’t see him much in the past months, Tails remembered seeing the dark hedgehog from far away a couple of weeks ago, but that was it.
Tails took out his communicator, immediately clicking on his brother’s contact to demand answers “SONIC WHAT THE HELL WHY ARE YOU MARRIED TO SHADOW OF ALL PEOPLE ?!” Tails yelled, not even giving time for Sonic to say anything. “Uh… hi buddy ? First of all, watch that language, and second, how did you even knew that ??” Sonic hesitantly replied, looking around his house where the rest of the crew sat in stunned silence.
“It doesn’t matter, you have explaining to do, and I think the others will want to know too so I’ll call them” the fox said proudly, already dealing his friend’s numbers. “Ah… I don’t think that’ll be necessary bud-” “THE HELL DO YOU MEAN HE’S MARRIED TO SHADOW ?!” Amy’s voice detonated from Tails communicator loudly. “Oh…” the fox mumbled, “I understand now, well I’m coming, you still need to explain Sonic. And Amy, don’t kill him please” he stated, making his way to the door, the last thing he heard before hanging up was a muffled “I’ll try” from Amy before the call cut.
The fox flew to his brother’s shack as fast as he could, arriving to see Sonic cornered on his couch by a quite angry Amy, a very agitated Sticks and… what the hell was Knuckles doing ?
He decided it didn’t matter and made his presence known, coming inside and clearing his throat. “Hey guys ! How about you let him breathe a bit ?”
Amy turned around to stare intensely at the fox, before huffing and moving to sit down on a nearby chair with he arms crossed. Knuckles stopped whatever he was doing and nudged Sticks by the arm to sit down as well. Tails went for his brother first, giving him a tight hug before sitting down on the couch next to him. He took out the printed certificate he made just before coming and stared at it before turning to his brother.
“So, will you explain what this is Sonic ? I think we deserve some answers” Amy said, gesturing to the paper in Tails’ hand. Sonic grumbled but eventually agreed. “It’s no big deal guys, we just thought it’d be beneficial and helpful for both of us” He admitted. The others stared, and Sticks eventually replied “Yeah, but why take a government spy out of all people ?” “Sticks, for the hundreds of times, Shadow isn’t a government spy, he used to work for them but not anymore”, Sonic defensively replied. “And that old job actually got him a lot of benefits, so he was the best option, plus he’s not the worse husband ever” he mumbled, a slight blush forming on his face.
The others stayed silent for a while, Amy still looked pretty shaken, Sticks probably wasn’t convinced that Shadow was inoffensive, and Knuckles most likely hadn’t listened to the whole conversation, as he was staring at the ceiling. Tails turned to properly face his brother with a small smile, “Don’t worry Sonic, I respect your choice, if you’re happy with him that’s all that matters” he softly said. “Woah what ? Calm down buddy, we’ve got nothing going on, it’s just for the benefits, we’re not like, actually together or anything” he hurriedly said, he didn’t want his brother to get the wrong idea. “Oh, okay ! Sorry bro, I kinda just assumed…” he trailed off. “It’s fine buddy, but yeah there’s none of that”.
After a bit, the others eventually calmed down. Amy, thought probably a bit disappointed, got in her head that it was real, Sticks had left claiming she needed to do some research to make sure Shadow really wasn’t a threat. And Knuckles had also left for… unknown reasons. That left only Tails and Sonic, who had ended up chatting, until Sonic found a piece of fur sticking out of his brother’s head and got in mind that he had to fix it. Which led them to just now, Amy had left, claiming she wanted to give the brothers time to themselves, and Sonic was actively grooming a fussing Tails.
Later, Knuckles was walking around the village mindlessly, just clearing his mind. He saw Shadow walk around suspiciously, looking around him before disappearing in a corner. Eh, basic Shadow stuff, Knuckles concluded. He kept going with his walk, before realizing, Shadow acting casual… that wasn’t good ! What if he tried to steal a tree or something like that. Knuckles stopped dead in his tracks, looking around and listening for any suspicious sounds around.
He waited in silence for a while, which he had to admit was probably a bit creepy. Suddenly, he heard soft sounds coming from the back of Meh Burger, it sounded like… groans ? Honestly he didn’t know, so he just sneaked behind the building to find the source of the noise.
What he saw was… particular. He made sure to stay hidden as he stared a the scene in front of him. Sonic was pinned to the wall, his hands around… SHADOW’S NECK ?! What the hell ?! Didn’t Sonic say they weren’t actually together ? Oh, oh yeah Sonic had probably lied to avoid questions.
Anyways back to the scene, the two hedgehogs were passionately kissing, and admittedly quite roughly. Shadow had his tongue down Sonic throat, and his claws were scratching at Sonic’s waist, leaving small beads of blood in their way. Knuckles quickly left and ran to Tails’ workshop where the others had met again to chat.
“GUYS !! I have very important news” Knuckles announced. “If it’s just to show us a shiny rock you found cool, then at least let us finish our conversation” Amy retorqued. “No, I swear it’s actually important, it’s about Sonic and his so called ‘benefits wedding’ !” The others were invested now, looking at him intensely, and clearly waiting for him to keep going. “I saw… Sonic and Shadow behind Meh Burger… kissing !” he dramatically revealed. The others gasped, eyes wide, Amy had her hand in front of her mouth like she couldn’t believe it, and Sticks had already started talking about another weird conspiracy theory. Tails just stayed still, eyes wide and looking far in the void. Out of any people his brother could’ve chose to date, he chose THAT one ? Really ? “I knew it…” he mumbled, he totally expected that, as it was clear his brother had been lying.
Fast forward a few days, the crew were ready to confront Sonic about the situation. They marched together to his home, determined. Amy swung the door open, ready to scream, but she stopped upon seeing two tangled up people cuddling and purring in Sonic’s hammock.
She could make out Sonic’s blue fur and easily recognized Shadow’s dark one, their shoes were perfectly placed on the side, another hint as to who was in there.
Tails, Sticks and Knuckles followed, the fox gasped at the view, letting out a soft ‘awww’, he couldn’t deny the fact that they looked cute together. Meanwhile, Knuckles looked at the scene with a smug smile, as if to say ‘look at me, I am the reason we found this out’, and Sticks was mumbling something about psychological manipulation or some other theory she had come up with.
In the hammock, the blue hedgehog shuffled, awoken by his friend’s intrusion. He lifted his face from where it was buried in Shadow’s chest fluff. Looking groggily at his friends, still staring at his door. “Y’all can come in y’know… he’s not gonna kill you. Except if you wake him up.” He joked. Tails was the first to approach with a smile on his face “I’m really happy for you bro” he said. Sonic smiled and took an arm out of his cozy position to ruffle his brother’s fur.
“Thanks, buddy, means a lot. Plus you guys don’t need to worry, Shads is taking real great care of me” he softly said, putting his head back to lay on Shadow’s chest, who let out a soft grumble as his hand went to caress his husband’s back.
“Hehe… husband… my husband…” Sonic mumbled with a lovesick look. He purred into Shadow’s fluff, the sound quickly joined by his husband’s own purrs.
The crew decided to leave them alone. Tails waved them goodbye with a smile, Amy just said a quick “bye” with a small smile, and the others followed in silence.
Sonic buried his head deep into Shadow’s fluff, muttering a soft “Love you” before drifting off back to sleep. Shadow smiled, kissing his husband’s forehead before letting sleep take him as well.