Work Text:
"Espio… please, I'm begging you, don't do this!"
"Babe, listen to me—"
"You're trying to kill me! I'm not letting you come near me!!"
"Silver, you're throwing a tantrum!"
Silver finally let out a shriek and dragged himself backward across the bed. "If you come any closer I'll scream for Vector, and then you'll have to answer to him!"
"Vector's not around here."
"I'll call Charmy!" Silver put every ounce of strength he had into the threat.
"Best case scenario, Charmy shows up and says 'you two playing without me?' — and then he does the same thing to you before I even get the chance!" Espio let out a breath of pure exasperation.
"Espio…" Silver whispered in horror.
"Babe?" Espio raised an eyebrow.
"No!!!"
"Silver!!"
"Over my dead body."
Espio pressed two fingers against his closed eyes and rubbed. "Fine."
Silver's face lit up. "For real???"
"No!" Then he shouted, "Charmy, get him!!"
Charmy shot out from under the bed and grabbed Silver from behind, and Silver — the poor, betrayed hedgehog — stared at Charmy in shock and yelled, "What do you mean?!"
"I knew you'd never agree to let me do this, so I had to bring in backup for this."
"Espio spent hours talking to me and we finally settled on the ice cream you two hid." Charmy chirped happily from behind Silver's head.
A smirk spread across Espio's darkened, terrifying face. "Would you believe I offered him forty bucks and he still said no?"
"And you decided to give him my ice cream?"
"It was worth it."
Silver, who couldn't bring himself to use his powers to free himself from this bee, heard that and tried very hard not to slam his boyfriend into the wall just to burn off some anger. But it was too late to scheme — Espio had already lifted up that terrifying object and said, "Just hold still and relax." Silver used every vocal cord he had to make enough noise and chaos that maybe, just maybe, a miracle would happen and someone would come save him.
No luck. Poor Silver.
The thing was close to his eyes now, and as it was dragged around them, Silver was physically informed that he had lost.
"Charmy, you can go!" Espio said quietly to his winged friend, and Charmy immediately dropped the white hedgehog and slipped out the door, disappearing from view. Silver was breathing hard, tears welling in his eyes from the brightness of his own ceiling light, spilling from the corners — and Espio wiped away each annoying drop with his thumb.
"Well?"
"I hate you."
"Did it hurt?"
"…Still hate you." Which was his indirect way of confirming it had.
"Come on, Silver, you've always wondered how I do my eyeliner."
"But I didn't think it was some stupid sharp pencil!" Silver was starting to sit up, but Espio pressed his palms on his boyfriend's shoulders and laid him back down.
"So what exactly was this sharp pencil going to do to you, that you've been screaming about it for two weeks?"
Silver showed him his eyes, which he still couldn't see properly. "It could blind me!!!"
Espio held up his fingers. "How many is this?"
"I'll kill you!"
"Good, you can still see." Espio, with zero ceremony, lowered his hands and leaned back over Silver's eyes, getting back to work on the eyeliner.
"Can you un-furrow your brows?" Espio stared at him. "Please?" He'd said it so gently and smoothly that Silver couldn't resist.
His eyes looked calmer now. A few minutes passed, and beside Espio and Silver, one or two crumpled tissues with black stains had started to pile up.
"You're the worst makeup artist in history!" Silver grumbled under his breath.
"That's because I'm not a makeup artist at all," Espio deflected. "Also, your eye shape is different from mine — this is my first time practicing on these."
"Are you saying my eyes are ugly???"
"Where in that sentence did you hear 'your eyes are ugly'???" Right then, Espio's hand slipped and the tip of the eyeliner pencil jabbed Silver's eyeball.
It was a tiny hit.
Very, very tiny.
But with the scream Silver let out, you'd think Espio had stabbed him.
"Sweetheart, sweetheart, calm down, I swear nothing happened—" Espio, more terrified than Silver of the scene he was causing, held his hands up in front of him.
"YOU KILLED ME."
"You're still breathing—"
"YOU KILLED MEEE."
Vector, teacup in hand, shoved the door open right at that moment. "What's going on in here???"
Then he saw Silver with both hands clamped over his eyes and Espio standing there, shoulders hunched.
"Espio, what the fuck is wrong with him?"
"I—"
"Espio blinded me!!" Silver shouted before Espio could get a word out.
Blaze swept into the room at full speed, and Knuckles came in right behind her. "Who attacked?" Blaze scanned the room with complete seriousness. "Where are they?"
"What??" Vector stared at her.
"The threat! Where is it!" Blaze said it like it was obvious.
Vector, mid-sip of his tea, gestured toward Silver — face buried in his hands, trembling — and went, "Oh. Huh." And within a second, Blaze's fire-fists went out and she left the room without a single question or trace of curiosity.
Knuckles, unlike Blaze, walked over to the bed. "Let me see what happened."
"None of your business!" Espio warned.
"Shut the hell up, let Silver talk!! Let's see what you did to him."
"I don't wanna say…" Silver whined.
Knuckles shook his head. Then he leaned down toward Silver and offered quietly, "If he's got a hand problem that's bothering you, just say the word and I'll rearrange his jaw to look like your staircase—"
"Yeah, it bothered me…" Silver confirmed quickly.
Knuckles took a deep breath and shot Espio a look full of rage. "You should be ashamed of yourself!!"
"Knuckles, what bullshit are you spouting?" Espio yelled in horror.
Vector, still glued to the doorway, jumped into the argument too. "Knuckles, what's going on??"
Knuckles pointed furiously at Vector. "This son of a bitch is beating Silver!!"
"He's lying!!" Espio defended himself immediately.
"Espio, what the hell did you do, you piece of—"
"THIS IS BULLSHITT!!"
Vector ran over to the bed and said, "Silver, buddy, tell us what he did and we'll do the exact same thing to him."
"He blinded me!" Silver yelled.
"Don't you worry, buddy, we'll blind him right back!" Knuckles cracked his fists together.
Vector put a hand on his shoulder. "Maybe we shouldn't do that!"
"Pussy! I'll do it myself."
Unfortunately, Knuckles wasn't listening to reason, and he was fully prepared to plant a bruise on that chameleon's eye.
Silver, realizing the situation around him, quickly dropped his hands and used his telekinesis to stop Knuckles. "No, don't do that!!"
Knuckles took one look at Silver and screamed in terror, and Vector — mid-sip of his tea — went wide-eyed and spat his tea directly onto the floating Knuckles, who screamed even louder than before.
Espio looked at his boyfriend.
He looked like a monster from a horror movie — all that was missing was the sunlight leaving the room to make it fully terrifying.
"What's wrong?" Silver asked, worried.
"Nothing, nothing…"
"Espio, don't bullshit me, what did you do to me — is one of my eyes gone??"
Vector's laughter had gone loud, and Knuckles was wiping tea off his head and face.
"You look terrifying, Silver!" Vector told him, and stepped back so the mirror on Silver's wall was visible to him.
Silver's face really had become horrifying.
First of all, the original shape of the pencil — before Silver had screamed and smacked it around with his hands — looked like ancient-era eyeliner. But the kind you'd prefer history and art class never mention.
And now, thanks to Silver, it had become fully, thoroughly uglier and more mangled.
He looked at Knuckles and Vector, who were laughing their heads off. "Get out."
He opened his eyes wider, and damn.
Those eyes were now scarier than any of Eggman's weapons.
"Now!!"
Vector and Knuckles bolted out.
Then he looked at Espio, who was swallowing his own saliva more than he was breathing.
"Lie down…"
"Silver…"
"Shut up and lie down."
Espio lay down and Silver leaned over him. "What goes around comes around!" And he picked up the same eyeliner and brought it toward the corner of Espio's eye.
Espio, realizing what Silver was doing, breathed a little easier.
"Well…" Espio smiled. "This is unexpected."
Silver didn't smile.
"Looks like you're enjoying this." And he suddenly dragged the eyeliner hard.
"Silver!!!"