Chapter Text
"Wait. Are you... drunk?" Shadow wrinkled his nose in protest. Sonic smelled bad enough on a normal day.
"It's my birthday," the blue hedgehog replied by way of an answer, and slumped into the opposite seat uninvited.
"Your twenty-first? And you're alone?" Shadow didn't realize how insensitive that could have sounded until the words left his mouth. Well, so what? It wasn't as if Sonic was ever careful about what he said either.
Sonic flashed an ingratiating grin. "Not anymore. Come on, tell me you never tried it."
"I can't get drunk."
"Oh yeah." Sonic's eyes narrowed. "The whole, 'ultimate lifeform' thing."
"Yeah. That." Shadow moved to get up. He used to like this dingy little cafe. People didn't find him here, mostly because the lighting was so bad you could hardly see into the corner booth where he usually sat. And you certainly couldn't get a decent drink here. It was a quiet, respectable establishment that served terrible food, and Shadow liked it that way fine. Less traffic.
"Oh common, don't go," Sonic slurred, suddenly too loud, and hiccupped. "Took me like 2 hours to find you."
"Keep it down," Shadow hissed when the few other late-night patrons glanced their way from across the room. He settled back into his seat, if only to quiet his unwanted companion. "Tell me what you want and then get out of here yourself before they kick you out."
Sonic stared at him with watery eyes. The pupils were a bit too wide. He sniffed, but didn't say anything. Well, Shadow wasn't uncomfortable with silence. He could outlast Sonic any day like this. The blue menace couldn't shut up to save his life.
"I'm taking a break," Sonic said at last, with all the significance and finality of a death sentence.
Shadow took a moment to process. "Okay. How long?"
Another hiccup, and then a dangerous wobbling of the lower lip. "Like... a week? Is that good?"
"Why are you asking me? Did you talk to the resistance about it? You don't even work for them anyway, right? They can't make you stay."
"I know they can't make me stay, but do you think a week is long enough..." Sonic's head flopped forward onto the table and Shadow sat back quickly. "Ughhhh..." Sonic let out a groan.
"Pull yourself together," Shadow snapped. "The adequacy of a week-long break depends on how tired you are. Have you never taken one before?"
Sonic shook his head, chin still resting on the table.
Shadow sighed and rubbed his forehead, feeling the beginnings of a migraine tingling behind one eye. "Well, how tired are you? On a scale of 1 to 10?" he tried, hoping to keep things as simple as possible.
"Uh... Can I say 11? Heh." He chuckled, but it wasn't enough to eliminate that horrifying wobbling in his lower lip. This was going to get very uncomfortable very fast if Shadow didn't think of something. This is why he hated when normal people drank to excess.
"Well why don't you sleep it off and see how you feel in the morning?"
Sonic's eyes darted to the dark, cold windows. The beginnings of a storm were brewing outside, gusts of wind intermittently rattling the glass in its frames. "Can people sleep in here?" Sonic's voice was suddenly very small and vulnerable.
"Wha - ? No. Are you still refusing to get a place? Why don't you stay with Tails or something?"
Hiccup. "I'm... taking a break..."
"Oh my god." Yeah, he was definitely getting a migraine. "Well, you're not staying with me."
Sonic's gaze snapped back toward him. "What? Where do you stay?"
"Uhm... my house? That's where normal people stay."
Sonic stared, seemingly fascinated. "You never told me."
"Didn't think I needed to inform you." But Shadow couldn't muster up much venom. It wasn't as though he got the chance to talk about it very often. Rouge had stopped by a few times, and Omega. He was quite proud of it, even if Rouge did say he needed to learn how to decorate. It was small and basic. Functional. Just the way he liked it.
"Can I see it?" Sonic had straightened again with renewed energy.
"No." He made to get up, for real this time. He dropped some bills on the table for the watery coffee he'd drunk earlier.
"Does it have a couch? Maybe I could - "
"Are you for real? Like I'm going to let you - As soon as you know where it is, you'll be over there every single - "
"No, no, I promise I won't. Come on, I've been better at boundaries, haven't I? Haven't I?" Sonic looked up at him with wide, bloodshot eyes. "It's raining," he added for good measure, and Shadow sighed. Sonic had been better lately. Come to think of it, Shadow hadn't "accidentally" run into him in maybe a month.
"Just don't get anything dirty. And don't tell anybody else."
Sonic was giddy. He tripped on the way to the door and almost sent them both into a faceplant. "Calm down!" Shadow scolded, straightening him back up with a push that was a little too rough. But nothing could dampen Sonic's spirits now. He capered out the door first and held it open.
"This is the best day ever!" he shouted into the chill night air, and Shadow snorted.
"Not what you would have said a moment ago," he muttered. But he wasn't really mad, and Sonic knew it. He always knew it. He fell into step behind him, holding one hand up against the lashing rain, and hurried after him into the darkness.
-
"I turned the heat on." Shadow dropped a folded blanket on Sonic's head. Sonic wrapped it around himself gratefully where he sat at one end of the couch, teeth chattering.
"It's... c-cold in space, huh?" he asked.
Shadow didn't answer for a moment. He walked around and sat down beside him. He was already starting to sweat. Not to mention the heating bill. This is why he didn't have guests.
"Yeah, by earth standards," he replied finally, his voice measured. This was difficult to talk about. Sonic should know that by now.
"B-But wasn't anybody cold? Did you have hot water? Hot food?"
Shadow shot an irritable glance at the other side of the couch, only to find that Sonic was gazing at him with earnest curiosity, without even a hint of his usual banter about him. And since he'd asked like that, Shadow couldn't find any real reason not to answer. "Food? No. Everything was packaged. There was hot water for short periods of time, for people to shower. I think everyone was used to the cold." Shadow spoke casually, staring straight ahead into the braided carpet.
Sonic twined his fingers in the blanket. The storm outside was raging in earnest now. "When did people go to sleep? If it was always dark, I mean. Were you all on one schedule?"
"It..." Shadow's mind was doing that thing again. When he tried to speak, whatever thought he'd started to form rerouted to something else. Something safe. He took deep, calming breaths. "All at once," he got out, fingers digging into the sofa. "Or they wouldn't have been able to... to do the tests." One hand traveled to his left arm, tracing the bumpy scars beneath his fur.
"Oh. Thank you for telling me."
Shadow blinked. Flushed. "No problem."
"I don't have parents, either," Sonic said suddenly, matter-of-factly. "Didn't want me, I guess. Don't know what they're missing, huh?" He laughed.
Shadow frowned, glaring sidelong at him. The liquor must've loosened his tongue beyond the usual, surface-level babbling. He wondered if Sonic would regret sharing this with him in the morning.
"So like, the couple who took care of me were old. I didn't have siblings either. And nobody liked me," Sonic continued cheerfully. He took a long drink from the water bottle Shadow had forced him to take. "The only friend I did make was even more of an outcast than I was." He twisted the cap back into place. Ran one finger along the plastic ridges of the bottle.
"I see."
Sonic looked up at him suddenly, as if realizing for the first time that he was there. "Yeah," he affirmed, laughing again. "So then I was looking at how other people were with their friends. They were always joking around and messing with each other, you know? I thought if I did that, people might like me too. Guess I was wrong." He hiccupped. Choked. Let out a shaky breath.
Shadow frowned. "Oh."
"Y-Yeah. I mean, you don't like me, right?" Sonic scanned him with red-rimmed eyes and a frantic sort of hope.
"Hey." Shadow took the bottle from him and set on the end table. He scooted closer and grasped his trembling wrists. "Hey. Take it easy. You're not yourself right now."
"Is that a bad thing?" Sonic's voice broke on a high note. He searched Shadow's face for some kind of signal. "Tell me you don't, for real, and I'll leave you alone. I know I did it wrong. I know I did it wrong."
"You didn't - stop." Shadow reached desperately for the tissue box. (She had taught him how to do that much). "That's not it. That's not it at all. You didn't - I wouldn't... dislike... someone like you."
Sonic pressed a tissue to his eyes. "Someone like me?" His nose scrunched up in confusion and Shadow had to fight the sudden, mindless urge to laugh.
"Someone like you," he repeated, and took the tissue back to dispose of it. "It's no wonder you're tired. All you ever do is think about other people. I know the signs." He huffed at the memories. These ones weren't safe either, but they were good.
"Oh." Sonic seemed calmer now. He tilted a little, resting his forehead against Shadow's shoulder and closing his eyes. "I have a headache."
"I bet you do." Shadow's own migraine had retreated to a dull ache, for now. He wrapped the blanket more tightly around his companion and pulled him in to rest more comfortably against his shoulder. They were silent for several long moments, and Shadow thought Sonic might have fallen asleep. But then he sniffed again.
"Shadow?" he asked quietly.
"What?"
"Do you think they'll still need me? When I go back."
Shadow closed his eyes, shaking his head. "That's a silly question."