Shadow stared at the blue house. Of all the people he knew, he just had to be stuck with the annoying Faker. He shook his head. Who was he kidding? He was grateful that he had friends. He just wished that the house didn't have to be so blue.
"Well, what are you waiting for? Hop in!" the cheerful voice of Sonic interrupted his thoughts.
The other hedgehog rolled his eyes and limped into the house using his crutches. "Thanks," he mumbled to Knuckles, who was holding open the door.
"Welcome home!" Sonic cheered as he followed his new housemate in.
Shadow blinked and stared at the inside of the house. It was red. And green. And yellow. And even black. But there was not much blue that he could see. Knuckles passed him with a look of amusement.
"Yeah, I get tired of seeing blue all the time," Sonic told him has he shrugged and led the way to the room where Shadow would stay. Knuckles chuckled in agreement.
The black hedgehog shook his head in bewilderment. I'll never understand that hedgehog.
"Knuckles will be sleeping on the couch seeing as neither of us can do much right now," Sonic added as he headed down a hallway.
"Unfortunately," Knuckles muttered.
Sonic laughed with a free grin. "But you're closer to Rouge now!" he teased.
Shadow blinked. The two had finally gotten together? Well, it was about time!
The blue hedgehog pushed open a door with his leg, his arms still in casts. "Here we are!" he said cheerfully, stepping back to allow Shadow to limp into the green room. "Sorry. I didn't know what you liked, so I pretty much left the room the way it was." At the confused expression on Shadow's face, he added, "I've been planning on inviting you to stay for months."
"Well... It's nice," Shadow admitted reluctantly as he made his way to the bed. He settled himself on the bed with a sigh.
Sonic lingered at the door. "Well... if you want to talk..." he trailed off, arms hanging limply at his side.
The other hedgehog shook his head, frowning at the sight of the casts. "I don't need to talk," he muttered.
"Well, obviously you do since you almost committed suicide!" Sonic blurted, forgetting to use tact.
Shadow growled and narrowed his eyes. "Go away," he uttered with force.
The blue hedgehog winced and backed away. "Well, see you for dinner! Knuckles is making it. I think."
The black hedgehog grunted as he laid back. "I wish you let me die," he muttered quietly, not intending for Sonic to hear him. He stared at the ceiling, drowning in his memories. He didn't know what to do. How could he try to explain himself to someone who was always happy?
A blue ear twitched as he walked out of the room. He shook his head and plastered a playful smirk on his face as he passed Knuckles on the way to his room. "Don't burn the house down!" he called jokingly, with a little more pep than usual.
The echidna gave the hedgehog a weird look as they passed each other. Why is he so damn cheerful?
Sonic slid into his room and let his door close behind him with a soft thud. Immediately, his playful smirk dropped. He sank to the floor as his eyes went hollow.
"Eight years today," he whispered hoarsely to the room.
He bowed his head as tears started leaking out of his eyes unwillingly. Soon he was shaking, but there was nothing he could do about it. He couldn't move his arms that well with the casts, so he couldn't try to hold himself still.
Several minutes passed before Sonic stood up. He walked across the room as if a huge weight was dragging him down. He opened the closet, and closed his eyes in emotional pain.
He removed his gloves, and set them on the floor before fully allowing himself to look at the contents of the closet. It was a closet full of random knickknacks. But at the center of it stood one lone picture.
This picture showed a family. Two blue male hedgehogs, one rather young, a yellow female hedgehog, and a somewhat young green male hedgehog.
Sonic reached out to grab it, but his two casts made him awkward. It fell to the floor, the glass shattering. The hedgehog winced.
"It's all my fault you died," he murmured to the photo. He hadn't made a move to save them, and now he had a second chance with Shadow. He refused to fail.
He sighed as he reached for the photo. "Ouch," he yelped quietly. He drew his hand away to see it bleeding. He groaned and sucked on the wound.
Sonic froze suddenly as his mind drifted to the thought that he wouldn't mind more cuts. "So that's what Shadow's been feeling..."
"Oy, hedgehogs, dinner is ready, and I refuse to bring it to you!" Knuckles yelled, but Sonic was too lost in his thoughts to care.
He opened his diary with bloody hands from cleaning up the rest of the glass. He glanced over all the entries, not noticing the blood smears he left. After flipping through all the pages, he went back to the first entry.
Tears started dripping out of his eyes as he reread his untidy 8 year old scrawl about the day that changed his life forever. Without noticing, he drew a piece glass to him. Absentmindedly, he let it run up and down his fingers, not noticing the new blood that was flowing.
He'd never forgiven himself; how could he? He had cowered in a closet while his family were murdered. He did not make a move to save them, even though he was faster than all of them combined, even at that age.
Sonic squeezed the glass in frustration, not noticing as fresh pain joined the emotional pain. He continued reading. "And here are the murderers," he murmured. Every year he reread it in hopes of figuring it out, but he never could.
This year however... "Wait a minute..." He frowned at the two very different descriptions of two people who he had seen while he hid. They were wearing different uniforms. He closed he eyes, trying to remember exactly what they looked like; his description was lacking in the book.
Sonic grumbled, his mind felt clouded. He couldn't get through it. In his blind frustration, not realizing his actions, he scratched his leg rather deeply with his glass. He gasped at the pain, but his mind was suddenly crystal clear. "Eggman and GUN..." he whispered, horrified.
They both wanted to kill him and had killed his family in the process? That couldn't be... But something told him it was true. One his current nemesis and he hadn't stood up to them back then. What a foolish coward he had been. Tears were dripping out of his eyes at a faster rate, until he was sobbing in a way he had never allowed himself to before.
He curled up on himself the best he could with the casts. He didn't notice how much he was bleeding on the floor. He was just trying to hold himself together.
Shadow grumbled to himself. Normally he healed quickly but he wasn't now for some strange reason and it was really pissing him off. He limped to get the food from Knuckles, wondering how he had managed it without burning anything.
"Fast food. Of course," he grumbled. He sat down on a chair and set his crutches on the floor. He picked at the food, feeling self conscious as the echidna watched him. "Can I help you?" he snapped finally.
"Just wondering you know. 'Cause you're usually so tough exactly why you hurt yourself, but I figure that can wait until Sonic gets here."
Shadow growled. He attacked his food furiously. "It's none of your fucking business, Knuckles. It's my stupid life that was ruined. So back off."
"Okay then..." Knuckles shook his head then went up to Sonic's room. "Sonic?" he called, knocking the door. "Sonic?" There was no response, but, straining his ears, the echidna could hear faint sounds of... crying?
So he did the only thing he thought he could do: wrangle Shadow into getting Sonic.
"Shadow, could you get Sonic? I don't want to go into his room or anything. Besides, I told Rouge I would help her settle in at her house." And away he went, leaving a rather confused and pissed off looking hedgehog.
"Sonic," he growled to himself. Of course that insanely and irritatingly cheerful hedgehog was ignoring the calls for food. Probably wanted a chili dog or something. That stupid fake hedgehog was really getting on his nerves.
But when Shadow opened the door, the sight that met his eyes was unexpected. "S-sonic?"