Chapter One: Watching After
xoxox
Droning away with propaganda and advertisements, the small, outdated television in front of the two hedgehogs lit the fronts of their faces and figures. It was Friday evening, a night for all to celebrate the end of the work week. The atmosphere in the living space of Tails's workshop, however, was a bit too heavy to call a holiday. One of the hedgehogs stared at the television with blank uninterest, more stoic than usual. His scleras and face were tinted blue in the electric glow, and his black ears were half-flattened, completing the prominent attitude that was Shadow.
The other attempted the same stature, although was failing miserably, adjusting the way he laid on the couch every handful of minutes. His short blue tail and ears were twitching in almost-worry, his half-spiked quills digging into the already-torn couch backing. There was subtle anticipation on his features, painted on by a generally uneventful week, world-domination-attempt-wise. And, perhaps, something else.
There was one event that had occurred between the hedgehogs that was creating the blue one's obvious discomfort, and the black one's carefully hidden breeze of thoughts and anxieties.
xoxox
The previous Tuesday, Eggman had attacked a small city of Mobius, chosen specifically for its' location. It was a beach, leading out into a massive lake. He had brought a small fleet of aquatically designed robots with him, a problem that Sonic had called extra allies for. Because for once, the evil "genius" had remembered Sonic's one true weakness; water.
The battle had been tough for the blue hedgehog. Not because Eggman was a challenging opponent, hell no. The mad scientist was ninety-nine times out of one-hundred easy for Sonic to pummel, even in a matter of minutes, with no help from anyone. This particular battle was tough because the Hero of Mobius couldn't fight back.
Eggman had planted his airship far enough over the lake for Sonic to not be able to access by jumping, and he was sending wave after wave of enemies towards the shore where the hedgehog paced frantically. As if that wasn't enough trouble for him, the villain also was sending out energy attacks created via Chaos Emerald and bombs from his airship constantly, with Sonic stuck dodging frantically across the sand. He felt helpless. He knew Tails wouldn't be able to fly the Tornado out over the open lake without getting shot down immediately, so that was out. No one from Team Sonic had an ability strong and fast enough to get the blue one to Eggman without swimming, so, in a last ditch attempt, Sonic had called Team Dark.
The two teams were in friendly terms the last time they had met, but something had felt a bit different during the Tuesday co-op battle. Shadow was, seemingly, concerned for the allied teams' safety. Which was strange to say the least, he usually appeared to barely care for his own teammates' lives. Along with that, he surprisingly opted to stay on the shore with a certain frustrated blue hedgehog.
Shadow had said the reason was that his "personal" Chaos Emerald was taken by none other than the genius they were trying to take down, but Sonic had seen the black hedgehog Chaos Control without the help of an Emerald many times before. It always took almost all of his Chaos Energy out of him when he had to, unless there was an Emerald relatively close to him… which there was, Eggman had one at the moment… so it was possible and definitely an option in the circumstance. Let alone, Shadow had Chaos-fueled jet skates that would give him the boost he needed to get across… right? And, at least to Sonic's knowledge, Shadow was fine with water...
Shadow had never left the shore, and although a bit confused, the blue hedgehog didn't mind a bit. He had been dodging for at least fifteen minutes straight. Although not even close to physically tired, his mind was. It was mentally penalizing for Sonic to stand idly by while his friends risked their lives for Mobius.
Furthermore, there was an added factor into all of this… Several times, Sonic had caught the ebony hedgehog glancing his way, as if there was something to watch, spectate, even protect. It was strange behavior to contrast the uninterested, cold Shadow he was used to. Even during the battle, Rouge, while taking a breather on the shore and speaking to Sonic, had revealed that her team leader had been shutting himself into his designated room at the Team Dark base more frequently. He allegedly always gave the excuse that he "needed thinking time to himself." Something was obviously plaguing Shadow's mind, and good or bad, Sonic wanted to find out. He didn't have to wait long for an answer…
It was half an hour into the battle, and the addition of Team Dark had turned the slow losing battle into a fast progression of everyone giving their all, hitting harder, and dodging faster because they felt the tides change in their favor. The feeling was unmistakable.
On the shore, Sonic and Shadow seemed to be doing fine. They exchanged battle one-liners, the energy akin, but more positive from when they were faced against each other in space near the ARK all that time ago. The two shouted out instinctively at close calls, warned the other of incoming attacks. The Ultimate Lifeform was, somewhat intensely now, watching the back of the blue blur as he pulled complicated and appealing jumps to avoid being hit.
Everything was smooth until Eggman seemed to realize he was now losing. Smugly pulling out a trump card at a last second, as he so often did, was usually just added fun for the blue hedgehog. This time, it had been an unwanted change of pace to the hedgehogs' nimble dodging spree.
A long-armed robotic claw had protruded from the distant airship, coming closer at high velocity. Sonic was in the middle of a mid-air twist to avoid a small artificial Chaos Spear thrown his way, thus his back was turned away from the lake for a split second. A second was all it took for the claw to roughly grab him by the midriff and yank him out of midair, towards the airship and the deep, lapping water. With a violent jolt, Sonic exclaimed "What the-!" at the cold, sharp talons scraping the skin under his fur as they latched around his form. He saw the land beneath him turn to a murky blue, felt the wind tearing through his quills, and heard Shadow hoarsely yell an exclamation of "No!" before feeling a wave of fear surging up from the pit of his stomach.
Sonic didn't even get a chance to scream out before the claw plunged him into the deep water. All around him, he felt the suffocating, heavy liquid closing in on his form, his eyes wide open and burning. A panic like a warning siren set into him to couple with the fear. He moved his legs as fast as he could, he flailed his arms helplessly, all to no avail. He felt his chest tightening, his head began to ache from pressure as he was dragged deeper into the lake… There was a dense haziness beginning to coat the hedgehog's senses... His limbs failed to move any more… Everything began to darken… His lungs screamed for air… Was this an ending?
Without warning, the claw that was forcing him deeper into the lake snapped open from his body and retracted back to the surface, leaving his body adrift. Sonic feebly opened his eyes to see it ascending… and saw another shape coming closer to him along with it. His eyes wearily closed once again, just in time for the hedgehog to feel a sudden, firm hold of his forearm. Then, another arm wrapped around his torso, and the first hand adjusted itself. Sonic felt a bit of movement, and then he lost control of the breath he was holding to the water, everything becoming numb at once.
'No… Shit! Stay with me… please, Chaos…' was not the only thought running through Shadow's head as he witnessed the air leaving Sonic's mouth in bubbles, the blue quilled head drifting back as his consciousness was lost. The dark hedgehog kicked his legs harder through the resistance of the liquid, not willing to give up. How he wished his skates worked this far underwater… though he was lucky enough with not having to breath like a normal lifeform, being able to hold his breath for minutes on end without panicking.
The surface came closer by the second, the light from above tantalizingly close. The final efforts were made, and the two were met with air, Shadow lifting Sonic's dead weight to the surface. Shadow blinked and panted, frantically looking up at everyone who had stopped fighting out of concern for the two hedgehogs. The dark one's ruby eyes met the teal ones of a particular bat, and he called out to her.
"Rouge! I know you are trained in CPR," He began, his voice hoarse with added volume and physical strain, "...I need you to save the faker,"
Rouge looked taken aback and mildly confused. "I have a few questions… but they're not for now," The common, suave smile, although tainted with worry, returned to her face as she descended towards her teammate. "3 years of babysitting classes better not fail me now…"
Lifting Sonic by his underarms and then switching to bridal style, the bat began hastily carrying him to the shore, her wings working harder with the added weight.
Close enough to the surface for them to work, Shadow began focusing his Chaos Energy into his jet skates, causing them to flare up and push him into the air. His entire form was dripping and his quills were drooping slightly from the weight of the water, yet that didn't make the unmistakable cold anger on his face any less frightening.
His skates siphoning a relatively large amount of energy from him due to being airborne, Shadow boosted towards Eggman's airship, hovering inches above the water as he traveled. Once the dark hedgehog was a few feet from the mad scientist, he stopped.
"Doctor…" Shadow said out in an almost rueful manner, the smirk on his face and his closed eyes hiding a burning rage.
Eggman grinned right back at the opposition. "Oh, if it isn't Shadow the Hedgehog! Have you come back to reclaim your l-"
"Let's just make this quick, Doctor." The ebony hedgehog boldly cut him off, spitting his name a second time for emphasis. "I didn't want to do this today because of… more personal reasons, but I've been pushed to it by none other than you."
The Ultimate Lifeform turned his head slightly for a split second and made a very subtle "back away" motion with his gloved hand, flicking his burning gaze into the remaining three member's eyes. He saw the fox boy and the echidna nod slightly and begin to back away, along with Omega.
"Watch this, Dr. Robotnik," Shadow remarked, almost excitedly.
"Wait, what are you-" Eggman sputtered.
With that, Shadow gathered the remaining Chaos Energy within him to his core.
The hedgehog then shouted those two familiar words.
"Chaos Blast!"
It was a weak one, but at such close proximity to Eggman, plus all the previous damage done to the airship, it was just enough. The shockwave radiated out of Shadow's body and struck the airship, finally disabling its communications to the aquatic robots and shutting down the airship's own annoying avalanche of attacks at the shore. Smoke erupted from the motherboard as the machine choked and rattled, matching Dr. Eggman's struck expression. It quickly revolted to rage and the mad genius barked out, "This won't be the last battle we have, Shadow Robotnik! I will be back!" His face suddenly turning to a loving and caring, but obvious facade, he added, "Oh, don't worry… I'll keep your precious Emerald nice and warm for you… Toodles!" Letting out a frighteningly mad-sounding laugh, the Doctor started up his airship once more and clunkily hovered off to the other side of the lake.
Suddenly feeling very drained as the Chaos Emerald in Eggman's ship moved farther from him, Shadow quickly skated across the water back to the shore, the others following him in subtle awe and newfound respect. It was when the blue figure on the shore became within detail distance that the dark one remembered one of the reasons why he was feeling so damn tired in more ways than one.
Speeding up as the cobalt form caught his eye, he glided to the shore and immediately belined to Sonic. The Hero of Mobius was currently laying on the sand, his wet fur darker a shade or two and plastered to his lithe muscles, his eyes closed, seemingly blissfully. A spike of… a mostly foreign emotion to Shadow, buried within his memories on the ARK, drove through his thoughts. There was a closer observation, and the peach chest was seen roughly and meekly rising and falling.
Rouge was kneeling next to Sonic, her usually reckless and confident eyes tainted with worry. "He… I was able to revive him…" She started, her voice low, "But after he started breathing again he just... passed right back out, and I couldn't wake him again… I think something might be…" the bat looked up into her teammates eyes, her eyes glazed with… worry? "Off… about him? Please try to wake him up, Shads?" Rouge looked at him with that somewhat pouty, asking smile, coated this time with hope.
Shadow sighed slightly, his still wet gloves pinching between his closed eyes. "I'll… see what I can do. Thank you, Rouge." He added as she stood up slowly and started walking over to Omega.
"C'mon, faker…" Shadow muttered to the half alive form of the blue blur as he kneeled by him, unsure of what to do. The dark hedgehog had awkwardly tried a medley of techniques on Sonic: talking into his ear, and then yelling, punching his arm lightly, pinching his cheeks, slapping him, rolling him over, splashing lake water on his face, even tickling him, (which was much out of the dark one's comfort zone, so he had to be desperate…) Nothing seemed to be working.
Out of ideas, Shadow let himself think as he paced the wet sand around Sonic's body, his ears flattened in distress. Feeling himself begin to breath faster under the stress, he closed his eyes… and a small idea tugged at his thoughts.
If Sonic had swallowed any water, which he certainly had, it would definitely be in his stomach. That water needed to be out of his system, and the reflex of forcefully vomiting due to a punch in the gut would wake anyone, Shadow concluded. At the time, the remedy had seemed believable to the violent hedgehog.
Kneeling again at the side of the cobalt body in a way so he had a good angle over the peach belly, Shadow pulled back his fist. "This isn't like me… but… sorry about this, Sonic…" he muttered lowly to himself as he gave the opposing hedgehog a heavy pound to the stomach, Sonic immediately bolting up in reflex, his eyes snapping open.
It worked!
Shadow backed up warily as his faker quickly pulled himself to his hands and knees and threw up a surprising amount of water. After he was finished, Sonic scooted away from the sand patch he had vomited on and sat down weakly, his head fuzzily twirling and his body shivering slightly with the sudden trauma.
"Yo…" the blue blur said sickly and looked over at Shadow with squinted eyes. "What…happened to me? Feels like… like... " he trailed off and rubbed his forehead with a soggy glove.
Shadow moved over to Sonic and took a risk by sitting down on the ground a few feet in front of the other hedgehog. His blood-red eyes averted the other's cloudy emeralds with an only partially-hidden nervousness.
"You… you almost drowned, because of one of Eggman's dirty last resorts," Shadow stated.
If the blue hedgehog were to be drinking anything, he certainly would have done an aggressive spit-take. "What!? A-are you serious?" He suddenly raised his voice, the black hedgehog unflinching.
"Yes. I'm certain," Shadow replied confidently.
"Uh, I'm sure that if I almost drowned, I would remember it," Sonic asserted with a tone.
The dark one certainly had been thinking differently of his blue counterpart the past few weeks, but this conversation was beginning to remind him why there was once a deep rivalry between the two. "If your soaking condition doesn't prove anything, then I don't know what to tell you." he shot back, refusing to let his growing irritation show through.
Sonic took a look at himself and glanced back up, and turned his snout to the side a bit. "Yeah, ok, I almost died. Whatever." He looked straight at the dark hedgehog. "Can you at least tell me the epic story of how I cheated death again? Because I apparently blacked out for all of it this time,"
Shadow inwardly gulped, and at the same time was amused. Of course the prideful Hero of Mobius wouldn't admit his greatest fear, even though everyone already clearly knew it. "I don't think you'd wanna hear it, faker. It's not good for your reputation as 'headstrong hero,'" He continued dancing around the subject, wanting to slow down the inevitability of explaining his motives, especially in his opposer's current condition.
"Just tell me, Shadow. It's gonna haunt me forever if you don't," Sonic was clearly getting just as irritated as the hedgehog sitting across from him. Shadow knew he had no choice this time… so he began to recount, very simply, how he had saved the blue hedgehog from the depths of the lake. Sonic's face had been alarmingly blank as he was listening, changing from a subtle listening face to only a tiny bit confused as the striped hedgehog revealed it was he who saved the blue blur. After he was done, there was a moment of silence while both hedgehogs had their eyes plastered at the ground, for different reasons.
"...Why?" Sonic finally spoke up, and it was the question the other was dreading. Luckily, Shadow had an excuse at the ready.
"No one can hold their breath underwater as long as I can," he said a bit too quickly for his liking. Damnit, the quickness made it a blatant lie to the real motives he had, a true and honest fact as it was.
The blue hedgehog shot a disbelieving glance at the black one, one eye ridge pressed down in sarcasm, emeralds gaining back their playful sparkle. He didn't even have to say anything to make his ebony counterpart uncharacteristically squirm at his accusing glare. Shadow's eyes darted back and forth, something obviously begging to be said.
This went on for a moment or two before the Ultimate Lifeform decided that the escape had become futile, Sonic's relentless emerald eyes reading his body language like a book.
"I did it because…" Shadow let out an exasperated breath, and inhaled again. "Because I care for you…" The dark one squinted his eyes closed, ever so afraid of the response he would get and already hectically considering what to do in the face of sure rejection.
Although, keeping his eyes closed prevented him from seeing the utterly shocked and priceless face of Sonic the Hedgehog, the azure hero not sure how to feel when one of his guiltiest and most denied dreams had just come true.
"Shadow…" the blue one said softly and carefully.
The dark hedgehog opened his eyes a crack, quickly scanning Sonic's face for any signs of anger, disgust, confusion… and he got… a smile? Shadow's gaze widened and he was met with a happy grin stretched over a peach muzzle, green eyes filled with an emotion he hadn't seen in them before. Suddenly, the damp blue body lunged forward and wrapped his arms around the black one's torso.
"I… I care for you too!" Sonic replied, only now somewhat uncertain of the context of "care" in this situation.
Everything was confirmed when Shadow returned the sudden embrace, and, in a tone he had never heard before, nearly whispered in Sonic's ear;
"In a… a 'love' kind of way… right?" the ebony hedgehog asked, the nervousness so unusual to hear in his husky voice, the words seeming foreign on his tongue.
"Of course, Shads," Sonic replied warmly.
And thus had begun their relationship. Naturally, the other team members were intrigued at first Shadow's behavior, and then the rescue, and then the hug. It was an awkward reveal, and it was a bit shocking for all of them. Merely a week ago the two could've been considered not-so-friendly rivals, and now look at them.
The two hedgehogs had talked for a while afterwards, taking their sweet time getting home for the very purpose of it. It was revealed that secretly, Sonic had always thought Shadow was attractive, since some of the very first spars between the two. The cold standoffish-ness, the raw strength, the protective ruby gaze that could slice you in two. Not to mention the toned, slim muscle the hedgehog possessed under his sleek, thick midnight fur. The only reason that Sonic had said absolutely nothing about it, not even letting himself think it was a possibility, was because he was so sure that Shadow did not swing his way.
Imposingly, Shadow's attraction to the blue blur was more recently formed. More and more the black hedgehog had found himself thinking about his so called "faker." At first he had thought of it as a longing for an even battle, but more and more it was beginning to feel different. He no longer wanted to hurt Sonic, he instead wanted to keep him from harm's way. Feelings that the Ultimate Lifeform had forgotten how to feel were revealing themselves to him again, each one with a wave of confusion. He didn't know if what he was feeling was right, or normal, and frankly, he was a little scared. It had been so long since Shadow had felt emotions like these. That's why he had shut himself away, it was for honest thinking time.
At the end of their walk home, all had been explained. Everything on both sides was revealed, stories were told, the reasons and evidence pieced together. The love between the two hedgehogs was whole and new to the both of them. It was blissful, and with the resolution of the memory, Sonic was brought back to the present.
xoxox
Brought out of his mind, Sonic's gaze focused and he once again became aware of the dim lighting and bland sitcom in front of him. Glancing over at the other end of the beaten couch, he was pleased to see the object of the memory already looking at him, contentedness glazed over his half-lidded ruby eyes. The blue hedgehog turned his head and body towards his counterpart, and a small smile formed on the other's tan face.
Sonic, without a second for hesitation, inched a foot or so towards Shadow on the couch, and looked over at the ebony hedgehog somewhat expectantly. Not needing further encouragement, the dark one gently moved towards the blue blur, and eventually snaked one arm behind the peach shoulders and under the back quills to pull the blue hedgehog closer. Naturally, Sonic fell into the position, melting slightly into his lover's newfound gentle side.
The two sat like this for what felt like hours but was really minutes, sensing the time go by and idly staring at the glowing screen. Neither was tired, but it felt nice to hold and be held. Nothing was awkward, surprisingly. Both hedgehogs didn't feel inclined to say anything, even though both minds were fuzzily whirling with thoughts and possibilities.
It was then that Sonic, the energetic speedster he was, began to feel the familiar itch in his legs and the restless weight on him once again as traces of the dreamlike state started to vanish from him. It wasn't that he was unhappy, he loved being molded into his midnight counterpart, the blue and black fur meshing beside one another. It was just that he was now full of energy, no longer incapacitated by the memory and stirred from the lack of physical work over the week. He wanted to fight something, something to get rid of all this restlessness. Or, more like someone. Especially someone that could compare to him strength-wise.
Blue was able to stand the itch no longer, and he wriggled away gently from Shadow's side, looking the other hedgehog in the eye. A newfound spark had taken residence in the emerald, and the Ultimate Lifeform guessed immediately what Sonic wanted from him.
xoxox
A/N:
Hey guys, please don't punch someone who just drowned in the gut, this is fiction. Also, I thought I should mention that this short story will likely end up being three chapters, unless I screw myself over and end up having to split one large one into two or something, or the people really want an encore.
Bet you can guess what's goin' down next chapter. Until then, please review or follow!
