Sonic had ran into the forest for the fiftieth time. Lucky enough, this time it had to start raining on him. He's been running into the forest nearly every chance he got, now. Only because he had a lot on his mind and it was his only way to cope. Anytime he felt pressured, upset, or broken, he'd run into the forest.
Not a single soul in Green Hill knows why he does. The only actual thing known is that he just runs in their. Not even Tails or Knuckles knows. This day was no different.
Sonic wanted another race with Shadow today and wanted Silver to judge the results this time. Upon reaching the end, both racers were tied up, but Silver kept saying Shadow was further ahead. This eventually lead Sonic to nearly screaming at Silver that it was a tie and just ran off from the pressure.
"What was his deal?" Shadow asked. Silver just shook his head and walked off.
The best for Shadow was to just follow Sonic, if he could see his footprints in the rain, that is.
Sonic was still running. He came to a tree with a hole in it. It was the only place to hide from the rain. He went into the tree and suddenly felt tears form. "I need to stop this…"
Sonic buried his face in his legs. Some reason, he's never been able to tell anyone about his sudden emotions. So he just runs in the forest. He thinks it's the best way to deal with them. But, truthfully, it makes them worst.
Sonic was brought out of his thoughts when he heard someone walking by the tree. He kept quiet and tried to see who it was. The figure he saw seemed to be following some sort of trail. He recognized the figure was Shadow, when seeing those upright quills. He saw the ebony hedgehog turn his head to where Sonic was.
"Sonic?" Shadow called out. The cobalt hedgehog realized why he was here and quickly whiped his tears away.
"H-hey, Shads!" Sonic plastered a smile onto his face. "Why are you all the way out here?"
"Uh… I was just concerned on how you reacted about the race and all. You just ran in here with no reasoning," Shadow explained, sitting next to Sonic, in the tree, out of the rain. "Everything okay?"
It stunned Sonic on how worried Shadow was about him. He knew the next few words were going to make him cry so he just nodded.
"You sure?" Shadow takes his thumb and rubs Sonic's cheeks. "You got dried up cheeks, as if you were just crying."
"How could you tell?" Sonic felt small tears weld up.
"Well, for one, your eyes appear more glossy than usual, and two, tears tend to stain your cheeks, revealing their trails," Shadow explained. "Now tell me what's really the matter."
Sonic felt the tears stream down again and sighed. "I don't know how…"
"How to what?"
"I don't know how to tell my own friends that I'm starting to break and I can't take this anymore!" Sonic began to bawl his eyes out as Shadow held him close and pat his back to calm him.
"Well if you can't tell anyone, I guess- I mean, I won't mind if you vent to me like right now," Shadow explained. Sonic was still crying, making the ebony hedgehog regret his next move. He takes the cobalt out of his embrace and went to kiss his tears away. Sonic stopped crying and began blushing at his rivals move.
"Yeah, sorry," Shadow apologized, trying to land his eyes on something other than Sonic's anything. "Honestly, felt like the only thing to keep you quiet and-"
Shadow stopped when hearing Sonic laugh.
"What's so funny?"
"You!" Sonic giggled and wiped his tears away. "You got so flustered from just kissing me."
"Well what if this was the other way around? What would you do?!" Shadow was blushing now.
"I would do something liiike-" Sonic cut himself off as he pressed his lips onto Shadow's. Shadow was shocked and frozen from this move. When Sonic broke the kiss and saw Shadow's face and his stuttering, Sonic began to laugh once again.
"See?" Sonic pointed out.
"Y-you… w-well…" Shadow was really lost for words. He never thought he'd ended up being kissed by his own rival. "Y-you could have told me you actually liked me or-"
"Hey, I'm pretty sure a kiss doesn't mean anything~" Sonic chirped. He stopped and blushed, "Unless you like me?"
Shadow just kept quiet and looked to him. Sonic just got the message and began to tear up again. He didn't say anything this time. Just hugged Shadow as tears began to form again and fade into ebony fur. Shadow just pet his quills silently.
It was only a few minutes until Shadow got concerned. "Sonic?" the ebony lifted the cobalt's head to see he had fallen asleep on him. Shadow just smiled as he began to drift off to sleep as well. Before he did, he placed a kiss on Sonic's forehead and then lied back carefully, shutting his eyes and start falling asleep.
Sonic was still asleep on Shadow's back, who was carrying him back out the forest. A drop of water fell onto Sonic's nose and woke him up. He saw he was on Shadow's shoulders and then gave a yawn.
"Is something happening?" Sonic asked, rubbing his eyes. Shadow just shook his head.
"I'm pretty sure you might want to sleep in a bed and not a tree," Shadow responded as they reached the exit of the forest. Upon leaving, they saw it was late out. Shadow decided his place was closer and headed there. "Hope you're okay with staying with me tonight."
Sonic just nodded as Shadow reached his home and went inside and set Sonic on his feet. Shadow went to close the door and then lead Sonic to his bedroom. Upon reaching the room, the cobalt hedgehog went to lie on the bed, followed by Shadow.
The two were quiet. Obviously, after all, they are still tired. Though, Sonic wasn't entirely able to sleep with thought of Shadow being right next to him like this.
"Hey, Shad?" Shadow just grunted in response. "I know I'm being needy when I ask this, but… c-can we kiss? Again?"
Shadow just turned over to face Sonic and stayed like that for a minute or two. Finally he went to Sonic and lightly kissed him. It started as a light kiss, until Shadow felt Sonic's tongue brush his lips, less likely on accident, and they began to deepen the kiss. This led to Shadow going on top of Sonic and he nearly brought the blue hedgehog close. He broke the kiss and just brought Sonic closed.
"Um… l-let's stop there, for now…" Sonic just nodded, snuggling into Shadow's embrace. The two began to fall asleep once again.
