Blindside Comfort

Cleaning was never one of Sonic's favorite things to do, especially Spring Cleaning. All the hustle and bustle. All the strong chemical smells of cleaning products. And of course, the burning sensation he feels in his eyes when using bleach. However, it was a chore, and it needed to get done. Plus, it helps when all your friends were helping.

Tails was in charge of organizing his workshop (naturally). Knuckles and Amy had taken up dusting, and even Rouge and Shadow were helping with sweeping and mopping the floors. It was Sonic's job to clean the windows, baseboards, and doorframes.

"Now remember to be really careful with that diluted bleach, Sonic." Amy told him for like the umpteenth time that day as she dusted off the light of the dining room.

"Yes Amy, I know I have to be careful." Sonic rolled his eyes as he scrubbed at the baseboard. "You've already told me so many times."

"Well I'm just looking out for you. I wouldn't want you to accidentally get bleach in your eye."

"Amy, I'm sure I'm not gonna get bleach in my eye. I'll be careful."

With one last scrub, Sonic finished the dining room baseboards and stood up from the floor, grabbing his spray bottle of diluted bleach as he did so. He then moved on to his next room, the upstairs bathroom. After spraying the doorframe, Sonic set the bottle down on the counter of the sink and began scrubbing. As he moved closer to the counter, he knocked into it and the bottle fell down, crashing onto the floor.

"Dang it." The blue hedgehog grumbled as he knelt down and picked it back up. "Better be more careful. I don't need this thing breaking."

After spraying the baseboards, Sonic set the bottle down on the counter again, unbeknownst that the fall had loosened the top quite a bit. As he scrubbed the baseboards of the bathroom, he unknowingly began to back up to the sink again. As he got closer, he bumped into it again and once again, the bottle fell down.

As the bottle of diluted bleach fell right next to Sonic, the crash allowed the top to pop off, spilling bleach everywhere. Unfortunately for the blue hero, he was right in the splash zone, and one unfortunate drop of bleach found its way right into Sonic's left eye.

"AAAAAAAHHHHHHHHH!" Sonic cried out as his eye immediately began to burn tremendously from the chemicals spilt within.

Unbeknownst to Sonic, he wasn't alone upstairs. Just down the hall, Shadow was sweeping up in Sonic's room, impressed with how neat it actually looked. He half expected dirty socks and empty plates of chili dogs to be scattered around, but this wasn't the case.

The room was rather nice and neat. The walls were painted a nice silky white that seemed to glow in the white light. Sonic's bed was nicely made with the ocean blue comforter tucked in the corners. There was no clutter on Sonic's dresser, just three different pictures in frames. One of Sonic and Tails, one of the whole team, and surprisingly, one of Sonic and Shadow.

As Shadow stared at the picture of him and Sonic, he couldn't help but feel a little warm inside.

'I wasn't even smiling for this picture. In fact, I was completely against it.' He thought as he stared at his angry and annoyed face, being directed to a certain blue hedgehog, who was all bubbly and cheerful as ever as he tried to get Shadow to smile just once for one picture, but failing miserably. 'He just wouldn't stop trying to get me to smile, and in the end he just went along with it and took the picture anyway… he's got a nice smile.'

At that moment, Shadow heard Sonic screaming from the bathroom and he froze. Never before had he heard such a sound come from Sonic's mouth.

Dropping absolutely everything, Shadow raced down the hallway to the bathroom to see what was wrong. Upon entering, he saw a horrifying sight.

Sonic was on the ground, sitting in a large puddle of bleach, and had his hands pressed against his eyes as he sobbed, tears rolling down his cheeks at the many, one drop after another.

"Sonic what happened?" Shadow quickly asked as he knelt down to the blue hedgehog, trying to calm him down as he pet his quills back.

"CLEANER IN MY EYE! CLEANER IN MY EYE!" Sonic sobbed out, getting straight to the point, the burning sensation getting worse.

"Shit!" Shadow gasped as he stood up, picking Sonic up off the ground and holding him close, like how a mother would hold their child.

Shadow knew that Sonic was using bleach and he knew how dangerous it was once it got into your eye. He realized Sonic needed his eye flushed out, immediately.

Wasting no time, Shadow went up to the tub and stepped in, shoes and all. He turned the tap on to it's warmest setting and knelt down, still holding Sonic.

"Alright Sonic, don't worry, this will help." He whispered to the sobbing hedgehog. "Now I just need you to listen. I need you to lean your head back so that we can flush your eye out with the water."

"*sniff* O-Ok. *sniff*" Sonic whimpered as he leaned his head back, being supported by Shadow's hand.

Quickly, Shadow dunked Sonic's head under the running water, being sure to leave his nose and mouth exposed so that he can breathe.

"Open your eye, Sonic, we need to get that cleaner out." Shadow ordered gently.

Obeying the ebony hedgehog's orders, Sonic slowly opened his eyes underneath the water. As soon as the warm water touched the affected eye, he sighed in relief as his eye was already beginning to feel a lot better.

"Starting to feel better?" Shadow asked gently as he rubbed behind Sonic's ear.

" Much better " Sonic purred.

"Well, well, what do we have here?"

At that familiar teasing voice, Shadow turned to the door of the bathroom and frowned at Rouge, unamused with the teasing at a time like this. The bat was just down the hall opposite of Sonic's room. She was sweeping up in the laundry room before she heard Sonic scream, followed by the sound of running water.

"Shadow, are you trying to drown Sonic?" Rouge teased. "What did he do this time?"

"He didn't do anything Rouge, and I'm not trying to drown him." Shadow growled as Sonic whimpered. "I'm just trying to flush his eye out because he accidentally got bleach in it. Now, if your done teasing about a serious situation, I suggest you go get Tails so that he can make sure that Sonic's eye isn't seriously damaged."

"R-Right." Rouge quickly nodded in surprise before she left to do just that.

"Do you think I might go partially blind because of this?" Sonic whimpered, more tears running down his face, the water of the tap washing them away.

Shadow frowned, his ears pinned to his head. He hated to see Sonic so upset, he much rather see him smiling. He missed that beautiful smile from the azure beauty.

"I don't know, Sonic." He sighed, closing his eyes in thought. "But I do know one thing."

"And what's that?"

Suddenly, Shadow pulled Sonic out from under the water and had him sit up. The pigment in his left eye was faded, showing that his vision may be affected, but Shadow didn't pay any attention to that. Instead, he wrapped his arms around Sonic's waist and held him close, kissing away Sonic's tears before placing a final kiss gently upon his lips.

"Whatever happens, I will always protect your blindside." He purred.

Sonic's face was practically glowing red at this point, but he didn't mind it. It almost seemed like a privilege to see this part of Shadow, and he loved it.

Feeling warm inside, Sonic gave Shadow the smile he loved so much and he kissed him, surprising the ebony hedgehog before he quickly kissed back. A few seconds later, Sonic broke the kiss and pulled back, smiling heartfully at Shadow.

"Thanks Shads, that means a lot to me."

Shadow smiled back and kissed the top of Sonic's head before snuggling him close.

"I love you, Sonic."

"... I love you too, Shadow."