Sleep. Sweet, sweet sleep. I forgot how good actually sleeping felt. And I dream more often than I ever gave myself credit for! It's become sort of a luxury the past few days. Oh, I missed it. And sure. I haven't stayed in my own bed lately, but I get a free night's stay and plenty of perks to it; so I can't really get my quills bristled over it, now can I?

It felt like you were floating through a relaxing river. You weren't getting wet, yet the white noise of forests leaves, wind, birds and the current of the water drifting on it's way with a few splashes here n' there, and I just let it take me away… Sighing. Relaxing. After all, I finally cou–

BEEP BEEP BEEP BEEP BEEP BEEP BEEP BEEP–

UGH, what the…? I groan, lifting my head up from my kind of upgraded cot, yet not an actual bed by my standards, finding red clouds and stars chuckling and wishing me a good morning, as my eyes and ears drifted over to the bright blue light coming out of the side of my wall to the right.

The light showed the usual calculator numbers and text it always did; buttons that would let me communicate with my friends, the updates on the weather and a countdown to my next training session. I didn't even care about the bigger numbers on the thing yet, as I slammed two fingers down on the talk button.

"If this is who I think it is, this better be good!" I groaned. I was more awake than I wanted to admit, but I still wanted to sleep a little more.

"I'd consider a impromptu training session with me a good thing, wouldn't you? Gerald's asleep, Tails is asleep, and I'm a little on the bored side." Eggman didn't even mention if it was just training, or a mech fight or not. Probably left it for me to figure out, but I got a little more on the coherent side when he started talking about how bored he was.

My eyes darted around the room and the intercom. I usually did that. Never could sit still, but. I finally landed on the big numbers I ignored earlier and I gasped slightly when I finally took them into account.

4:57 AM

FLYING CURRENTLY: SOUTH OF EMPIRE CITY

"So perhaps we could get to work on your combat skills against my mechs. Or a few new actual 1-on-1 tips–"

That WORKAHOLIC JERK!

"GO TO BED!"I shouted at him. Partially 'cause I wanted to sink back into that river again, partially 'cause Eggman usually doesn't sleep in favor of his "work", which in this case is taking potshots at my sleeping schedule.

"Come now, Sonic, I get plenty of rest. Especially since it's been your initiative to make sure of that."

"But you're still up at 4 AM doping up on coffee and now YOU'RE DRAGGING ME DOWN WITH YOU! GO. TO BED. EGGHEAD!"

"And here I thought I heard Gerald right and you were asking for some sort of spar earlier." He spoke back, teasing me a little. I twitched a little as I heard that through the speaker. That was true… but not NOW!

"I worked through what had to be done especially to work that into my busy schedule. Oh well! I suppose I'll just dismantle the work I did on the Egg Viper Mk 2, then."

Another twitch.

"… 'scuse me? That's what you were working on?" I said, just before swerving my lower body upwards to sit on the edge of my bed. My fingers still on the red rectangle talk button.

"Oh, did I say I worked on everything today? I meant I meticulously moved things around to get the rough weapons online tonight."

I fell silent. I could just feel that urge earlier to fight something coming back. He was getting me excited, he was PURPOSELY working me up. Also my brain got a memory jog and reminded itself, 'oh! Right! You wanted to fight something! C'MON LET'S FIGHT SOMETHING!'

It's either fight, or sleep. And technically, this was Eggman's own version of puppy dog eyes. … In a way.

We were both silent. I breathed in the indecisiveness I put in my own atmosphere. I think I made it obvious how I'm stuck between the worst choice ever. 'Cause…

"Well?" Was how he broke the ice.

"… So you worked on the Egg Viper 2 today?" The question slipped out pretty fast. Acted before thinking on that one.

"Yes."

"Just so you could fulfill my action cravings."

"Partially. That and my own self-indulgence."

"Oh, so I'm not alone here~?"

"I think you know the answer to that one, Sonic."

Silence. Again. I was leaning more to his side for now… Aw, dang it. I smiled and chuckled a little.

"… You manipulative jerk." I said as I could just HEAR him smirk on the other side.

"I win round one, then."

"OI! IT DOESN'T WORK THAT WAY!" I said, throwing my blanket off of me and jumping out of bed. I was still sleepy, but the adrenaline rush of the banter was taking care of that.

"I figured that was what we put in the extended terms and conditions of our little scoreboard, since you wanted your puns and ridiculous quips to count. Isn't that a bit of a double standard?"

"Ugh, you're the same as ever, McNosehair!" I shouted back. Jeez, I couldn't help but laugh through that. Oh well.

"Meet me in the training room in 30 minutes. I'll need to change into another jacket."

"Oil n' stuff?"

"More or less, yes."

"Well, guess I'm winning round two with the race!"

A sigh was my answer. I chuckled as I could obviously tell he didn't want to respond to that.

"Just get to the training deck, hedgehog."

"Fine, Eggman, fine~" I finally lifted my fingers up, slipping my shoes on and walking with confidence out the door to my room.

Being woken up at 5 AM just to fight a mech's not something I wanted to be part of this deal, but eh.

It's fun all the same. I knew he wouldn't quit playing with his toys for long!