Hey, this is a oneshot to get me back into writing. Bad vibes from Mask Off scared me off of posting for a bit, so I'm slowly working myself back up there to update.
Exhausted was a good way to describe the two. After having spent the last hour or two exploring what seemed to be an abandoned base, which was Sonic's bright idea, the hedgehogs had ran into Eggman as he was shipping supplies out of the old base an into his newest one. They fought nearly endless waves of leftover badniks, struggled to escape traps and puzzles so intense that Eggman himself explained was the main reason why he was leaving as it was tedious to solve them every day, and barely scraping past causing an explosion, they were left bruised and beaten with no real win for them other than leaving with their heads.
They were now in Shadow's house, being more of a large flat than anything else, and in his bedroom. Sonic had spent all about five minutes wandering around and getting scolded at (but not listening) when he touched something that was hands off before getting bored and flopping down on his made bed, ruining the sheets and sleeping nearly as soon as his head touched the pillow. It took Shadow tugging the sheets off the bed for the hedgehog to get up and remember why they were there in the first place.
"Who knew your place was so big!" Sonic marveled again, glancing back at the ebony hedgehog as he tossed a box of something onto the bed. "What's your rent even like?"
"I don't know," Shadow replied. "GUN pays me well for what I do, so I don't pay for wherever I live for the time." blood dripped onto the floor in a slowly growing puddle.
"For the time?" Sonic once again flopped backwards onto the bed, but luckily was wide awake. Shadow wasn't entirely sure if a wide awake Sonic was better or worse than Sonic that was dead asleep.
"I move every few months or so. I don't like to keep put, and the less people that know where I live, the better." he answered, sitting down with no care for where Sonic's head was at the moment. The blue hedgehog did not move but turned his head, bruised cheek resting against tense muscles of Shadow's outer thigh.
"Not even me? I have to call you or Rouge every time I want to find you, but most of the time I just find out outside, asleep in trees or on roofs." He shrugged. Shadow shrugged, too.
"I'm used to being secluded, and Rouge is used to locking me outside my house when she needs me to be social." he finished, not keen on continuing the conversation. He coughed a bit roughly and wiped blood from his nose.
Sonic nodded a little lately and sat up, turning around so he now faced the ebony hedgehog's back.
His back was scarred with many burn marks from when he knocked the blue blur back from a rogue, aflame badnik that exploded right before it could cause an every bigger flame. He admired the singed fur and the dark red exposed wounds underneath. Shadow sure was strong to not complain about these.
Slowly, Sonic reached for the open medkit and pulled out a cream for burns, looking over his own red, swollen knuckles and fingers. Shadow had yet to turn or even say anything else, and Sonic could have sworn he saw him look over when he grabbed it, so he sucked in a short breath and laid a thin swipe of the cream over Shadow's back. Right away, the alien shuddered and straightened his spine.
"Sonic!" he yelped, turning around with his brows furrowed and ears pinned back. "What are you doing?"
"Helping ya out...?" The blue hedgehog squeaked, a bit taken aback from how abruptly Shadow tried to end his help.
The agent seemed to pause for about a single second too long then turned away, whispering "carry on, but warn me next time" as if he wasn't about to tear off the hero's head.
But, Sonic smiled and nodded. Shadow had realized he couldn't exactly do what Sonic wished to himself, being as the burn laid on his back smack dab in the middle right between his quills, and allowed him to help! So, that was a plus in his book.
"Alright, it's still gonna be cold and you'll feel a little numb back here." he warned, and Shadow's arms lowered from whatever he was doing, letting himself relax enough to push his back out for the other to apply the cream.
"Used to it by now, Sonic." Shadow sighed.
Sonic smiled a bit to himself as he slathered the cream on, not using too much and not too little either. Shadow's back, as expected, was covered in super small and superfine quills that went in one direction and faded as he went lower towards his tail, but touching another hedgehog's back, a male at that, was a bit surprising.
A small, cute idea made its way to the front of his brain and Sonic grinned, switching his entire hand for just his finger and tracing a letter onto Shadow's back.
"I don't think that's how it works," Shadow warned, a bit of a bark in his words as his already tensed muscles braced for another attack, but Sonic only giggled and drew another letter. "Are you spelling something?"
Sonic nodded, but Shadow didn't see, so he said it out loud "Yeh," he chuckled "You'll never guess what it says!"
"Let me guess, are you spelling 'Sonic?'" Shadow answered a bit bluntly, and based on how Sonic's 'N' seemed to end as fast as it started, he was correct.
"No," Sonic pouted, fixed the other's fur, then wiped off his hands. "Anyway I'm done with your back."
The agent merely grunted a thanks and carried on with his own injuries.
Sonic didn't have much to tend for; a few scrapes, cuts, scratches, the many bruises, the burns to hand around, and of course his sore feet from standing in one place too long while trying to solve a puzzle were all his problems, so he simply washed and rubbed them down alcohol then wrapped them up.
As he admired his arms for their new bandaged look, a sharp, quiet gasp made him turn his head.
Shadow was picking at some skin on his chest that had become flayed, touching the sore spot with a single finger and wincing the entire time. He couldn't see it because it was so far up, but the thin yet deep cut still looked painful.
"Need help?" Sonic offered, but Shadow turned him down, pulling a thin shard of glass from his chest and setting it on the table.
"I'm fine, thank you." He looked over his shoulder, and seeing Sonic so overly wrapped that he looked like a mummy amused him a bit. The glass had probably come from the time where he had gotten frustrated and busted through a glass pane that, in reality, was simply there and not hindering them whatsoever. He half told Sonic that he should recheck his bandages while he dealt with his bigger wounds.
Such bigger wounds Sonic found out about right away.
Shadow hissed and slapped Sonic's hand away from his arm. "I can care for myself." he frowned, eying the large laceration traveling up his forearm to stop just a few inches from his elbow. He had to get it from falling into a surprise spike trap, and had he had his emerald with him he would have been able to save himself, but noo. Sonic said he didn't need it, they were just exploring! The icing on the cake was Sonic falling in right after him and landed on him instead so he could jump out and save himself. The prick.
"I caused it, so let me help you!" Sonic shot right back, snatching up the bottle Shadow was just about to use on himself. The wound was still bleeding, so deep he could see things he didn't want to see ever in his life, but Sonic wasn't very bothered.
"Why should you? I'll heal a few days, you won't. Care about yourself." Shadow huffed, but did nothing else to stop the blue hedgehog from helping him.
"Well, I heal kinda fast too. Just... helping you along, y'know." Sonic trailed off staring at the wounds Shadow had already fixed or covered up. He even had a patch on his head, why he wasn't sure, but suddenly realizing how much Shadow saved him was a punch to the gut.
"You really are strong," he whispered, realizing he was done with Shadow's arm and basically putting it in a cast now with how thick he laid the bandaged. Shadow simply took it from him and unwound it to a good enough length and cut it. "How did I not notice these?"
"As I said, I heal fast." he said mysteriously, again stiffening up when he touched a sore spot again. This time, Sonic helped by rubbing something onto the area but Shadow didn't argue for once.
Shadow, in turn, took down Sonic's more stylish bandages to make them more proper. The hero hid his frown at the action and merely let Shadow work, as he clearly has had practice in doing this. Too much he might add, but then again saving the world wasn't always the easiest job, and someone was bound to get hurt. Better them than some civilian he'd always say. His eyes instead, focused on how clunky Shadow was moving.
"You're really stiff, too."
"Wouldn't anybody be with you around?" The agent half heartedly joked, closing his eyes and kicking his shoes off finally. "I'm going to rest now, you can see yourself out."
Sonic didn't move as Shadow fixed the medical box and set it on the bedside table, right next to the large shard of glass he pulled from his body. The agent lifted the covers, laid, but didn't lay them back over his body mainly because Sonic was still on top and it was such a pain to get him off in the first place.
Finally, when he was sure Shadow was comfy, he got up and laid right next to him, back to back. He felt the tense hedgehog slowly begin to relax.
"Are you really going to sleep in my bed?"
"Yep. Gonna stop me?"
Shadow did not answer, so Sonic took that as a no. What he didn't figure out until two conversations later was that Shadow had long fell asleep.
"Shad," he tried, again, this time getting a response of a grunt. "I'm sorry for getting you so hurt today. I really didn't think that would happen. Are you mad at me?"
"Sonic..." Shadow groaned "I'm not mad, it's alright. I'm just tired, okay? Please sleep."
"Yeh." Sonic rolled onto his opposite side to hug Shadow, the hug lasting a bit longer than a few seconds, lasting all the way til the morning light.
xoxo
Shout out to Kazar(thelion) for helping me get out my rut lol
anyway, what I said up top is true. i got such a heavy backlash from Mask Off that I got too scared to update it and deleted the chapter that was going to go up, in fear it was terrible.
i don't have much to say, really.
was gonna make Shadow's blood green, but said 'nah' and fuck it, still red.