Work Text:
“How’d you get this scar?” Sonic asked behind Shadow, brushing his quills.
“What scar?” Shadow asked, frown clear in his voice.
Sonic shifted a bunch of his quills out of the way before tapping the back of his neck. “This scar. It’s pretty big.”
The scar was thick and jagged, covering half of the back of Shadow’s neck. A couple spots reached toward the side of his neck, like something had torn his skin from right to left.
One of Shadow’s ears twitched, and all of a sudden, his back straightened, shoulders tensing as if preparing for a battle that wasn’t coming. Sonic instinctively pulled his paws away, knowing Shadow’s tendency to bristle his quills when upset.
“It’s nothing.” Shadow said after a moment, spoken too blank, too… careful.
Sonic knew how Shadow felt about his numerous scars, most of them shielded by his thick fur. He’d always seen them as failures, saying that they were proof of every mistake he’d ever made, but he’d never outright hidden them, or refused to speak about them.
Sonic placed a gentle paw on Shadow’s shoulder, thumb stroking over another unseen scar that he so often pressed kisses to, which never failed to get a smile out of Shadow, despite the annoyed huffs he gave if Sonic drew attention to these little imperfections in his skin.
“You don’t have to tell me if it makes you uncomfortable.” Sonic started, softly squeezing Shadow’s shoulder. “But you know you can tell me anything. I’m here for you, darling.”
Shadow was still facing away from him, but he knew Shadow was blushing by the way the tips of his ears turned just a little green beneath his fluffy fur.
“I know.” Shadow replied, shoulders slowly relaxing.
When he didn’t continue, Sonic let the subject drop, once again running a brush over Shadow’s quills. Shadow’s tail swayed lightly over the bedding beneath them, flicking against Sonic’s leg. The sight of it made Sonic smile. Shadow hardly ever expressed himself through words, but being raised around humans meant he never really learned how to hide the physical ways his body expressed emotion. He had no other Mobians to learn from and imitate, and the humans gave him hardly any attention that wasn’t Project Shadow-related, so they never thought to point out how Shadow’s tail wagged when he was happy or content, or the way his ears pinned back when he was pissed off or drooped when he was upset. Sonic didn’t mention it either, because it was absolutely adorable to him, and he didn’t want Shadow to feel self-conscious about it.
A few minutes passed in silence, and Sonic had all but forgotten about the scar until Shadow finally spoke again.
“I did it to myself.”
Sonic’s eye ridges furrowed, confused at first. It took him a moment to even remember what they’d been talking about before. “The scar?”
Shadow nodded. “It was… necessary.”
Sonic stopped brushing again, setting the brush down on the bed to give Shadow his full attention. “Why?”
“I needed to make sure I couldn’t be controlled anymore.” Shadow’s voice shook almost imperceptibly.
Sonic shifted forward a bit until he could wrap his arms around Shadow, resting his chin on Shadow’s shoulder. He sighed softly, leaning back into Sonic, minding the sharper parts of his quills.
“I was always seen as a hazard.” Shadow murmured, one of his paws finding one of Sonic’s, resting over his stomach. “From the moment I was created, the scientists knew that they needed to take extra precautions when handling me. They needed to make sure that I could be terminated at a moment’s notice if I ever tried to harm them.”
Sonic’s arms tightened around him silently, showing his support without interrupting.
“They put this device in my neck. It was… a bomb, essentially. A kill switch. All it would have taken was a single button press, and-“ Shadow’s voice cracked. His eyes squeezed shut, pressing more of his weight into Sonic as if he could protect Shadow from the memories.
He would, if he were capable. He’d pluck every bad memory out of his head until all of the pain and horror were nothing more than faded stains, finally washed away.
“The first thing I did after escaping stasis was tear the device out of my neck.” Shadow continued. “I knew G.U.N. didn’t want to use it, or they would have done it decades ago, but I just… I couldn’t risk it. I couldn’t let anyone have that kind of power over me.”
Sonic nodded in understanding. “Must’ve been terrifying.”
Shadow shrugged. “It didn’t hurt for long, and I healed quickly. I just wish it healed… better.”
Sonic turned his head to kiss Shadow’s cheek. “I like your scars.”
“They’re ugly. I’m not supposed to scar. I’m not supposed to let myself become injured enough to scar.”
Sonic’s paw slid up from Shadow’s stomach to his chest, thumb tracing another scar just above one of Shadow’s ribs. He’d memorized the locations of all of Shadow’s scars, kissing every single one, tracing them over and over again until they’d been imprinted into his own heart.
“They’re beautiful.” Sonic argued lightly, making Shadow huff. “They are!”
“They make me look weak.”
Sonic clicked his tongue. “No, I think they make you look strong.”
Shadow gave him a sideways look. “How?”
“Every scar is a battle you won. They left their mark on you, but you were the one to walk out of those encounters a winner.” He tapped Shadow’s rib, right over a long, thin slash. “You earned this one on a mission, right?” Shadow nodded, and he continued, “Someone was dumb enough to try and stab you, so you broke their hand.”
“Wrist.” Shadow corrected, sounding a little choked up.
Sonic’s paw slid back down to his stomach, bypassing firm muscle until he found the scar just above Shadow’s hip. “This was from the Black Arms invasion, right?”
“Y- Yes.” Shadow confirmed, but Sonic didn’t need him to. He’d remembered every story Shadow had told him about them.
“One of the G.U.N. agents thought you were on Doom’s side, so he shot you. You knocked his ass out cold and walked outta there like it was just a paper cut.”
Shadow let out a snort, sounding just a little caught off guard.
His paw moved again, this time to Shadow’s back, stroking one of the long scars that started near his shoulder blades and ended at his lower back. He had two of them, identical where he’d once had wings rip his flesh open suddenly.
“This is from what happened in White Space.” Sonic said, without a hint of doubt. “You got some freaky powers from Doom, and used them to kick his ass all over again.”
“You make it sound so much more impressive than it was.”
“It was impressive, and these scars prove it.”
Shadow sighed. “The one on my neck… it wasn’t a battle, and I wasn’t the winner-“
“You’re wrong.”
Sonic could practically hear him roll his eyes. “Oh, am I? Then, who lost? When I tore open my own neck to break something that probably wouldn’t have even worked, who was I beating?”
Sonic smiled. “Everyone.”
That left Shadow silent.
“Every scientist who ever hurt you, every G.U.N. member who tried to kill you, anyone who ever thought, for even a moment, that they could use you for their own gain; that’s who you beat. That scar is proof that you gained your freedom, and that nobody can ever take it from you, no matter how hard they try.” Sonic heard his breath hitch. “I’d say that’s the most impressive battle you ever won. If that isn’t strength, then… I don’t know what is.”
He didn’t get a single second to react before Shadow was turning around, throwing himself at Sonic, causing them both to fall back on the bed. Sonic wrapped his arms around Shadow on instinct, nuzzling one of his flattened ears.
“…I love you.” Shadow mumbled into his fur, audibly overwhelmed.
Sonic chuckled, paws petting over the scars along Shadow’s back, and said, “I love you too, Shads.”