A/N: Okay, so. I only have a vague idea of where I'm going with this. It's going to be a romantic friendship story, but Silver's gay ass is pre-guaranteed to be more obvious about it than Sonic.
So, uh. Wherever this goes, hope you enjoy reading as much as I enjoy writing. Blasted Apotos (Night) the entire time writing this for atmosphere
Also rated T again because I have no control over my cursing tendencies
Silver hummed, perusing the night streets with interest. He was still honestly surprised that the time travel thing worked. The big corp behind the madness was looking for recruits, and it wasn't like he had a family, so he'd just volunteered himself for the experiment without much thought. Time travel had always fascinated him in stories and things, and as a kid he spent a lot of time fantasizing about it. Though to be fair, back then it was fueled a lot by the desire to have parents. He's long since moved on from that.
Time travel's just cool as shit, right? The complication only arose when he appeared here without his Chaos Emerald. According to the lady in charge of his specific expedition, he'd be going about 200 years into the past. He wasn't sure what that meant for him now, honestly. It was hard to panic in such a beautiful place. It's been hours since he popped into existence here, a place the locals refer to as "Apotos". Silver wonders absently if this is the place that would become the lab one day, or if he was shot to some random location.
Most of the people here seem to be humans, which is just a little bit boggling. He didn't know a lot of humans back home. At least the currency was still the same, miraculously- that food stand over there was lookin' pretty good to his empty stomach. He bounded over enthusiastically.
"Hey, Mister! What are you selling here?"
When the man in question looked at him, the first thing Silver noticed was his mustache. Incredible. He grinned real big.
"Why, we've only got the best ice cream in town! But don't take it from me," the man chuckled, "What can I getcha tonight?"
The hedgehog, despite feeling particularly adventurous today, was a little grateful it was something he knew. Spending money on new food and not liking it later sucked. He thought it made sense that ice cream would still exist though- well, maybe that it existed in his own time. It was pretty legendary. Legendairy. Shut up, Silver.
"I'm kinda new here, so… What do you recommend?"
"Ahh, a tourist. In that case, you gotta try the Pride of the City. I'll have it ready for you in a jiff!"
"Sure thing!" Sifting through his ring pouch, Silver couldn't help smiling. The people here were so friendly. After forking over the appropriate cash and receiving what looked like the fucking god of ice cream cones to his untrained eye, he took a seat on the stone steps across the street.
Silver gazed around more from his spot. This place might seriously be the most beautiful thing he'd ever seen. His own hometown was widely considered beautiful too, but maybe because he grew up there he just didn't see the allure.
Here it was blinding. Almost literally, during the day; white is so reflective. If he's stuck here for good, he thought, this might not be such a bad place to be. He wondered briefly what that would mean for the experiment proctors. They saw him go in the machine. If he didn't come back, would they know? Or would time reset itself without him and put some other volunteer in his place? The hedgehog had considered paradoxes and things all throughout his childhood, but now that he might very well be in one, he found it dampered his mood slightly.
Not gonna think about it anymore. For now he'd enjoy this ice cream, and later he'd start searching for his emerald. Or… maybe tomorrow. Searching around in the dark wouldn't do much but sleep deprive him. Plus he still sort of wanted to bask in the atmosphere. And he had to fill out those questions too.
A hulking figure to his right took priority attention suddenly.
Okay… whoa. That guy looked like he ate toenails for breakfast. But he was also very fluffy, and seemed to be chatting amicably with his companion. Little Flying Dude next to his shoulder there was loud enough that if they were closer, Silver could easily eavesdrop. Not that he had any reason to, just. Y'know, intrusive thoughts.
He blinked in surprise when the big guy made eye contact with him. Woops. Caught staring. The grey hedgehog smiled sheepishly and waved. The stranger, who looked super out of place here honestly, shot him a raised brow and approached. Silver didn't really expect the encounter to go beyond an awkward passing, and was kind of unprepared for the new, gravelly voice addressing him.
"Hey, you new here?"
The red… what was he? Silver would ask, but he didn't want to be rude. He looked equally as intrigued, though, landing stomach-down on the larger one's head and placing his little hands under his chin. "Yeah, I've never seen you before! Are you visiting from somewhere else?"
In Silver's time, or at least where he was from, people didn't really strike up conversation with strangers. But he was totally coming to love this, even with the initial discomfort. People chatting with anybody just because they could. People feeling so comfortable and at home in their environments that they could connect with just about anyone they came across. It made a warm, giddy feeling bubble in his chest.
"Uh… yeah, you could say that." He smiled, standing because it felt awkward to sit while his peers weren't. He's pretty sure talking about the time travelling thing is fine so long as it doesn't hit media or anything, but knows he probably wouldn't be taken seriously anyways. The big guy gave a smile of his own. "Well hey, if you ever need a guide or anythin', you're always welcome to come find us. We're not exactly pros on the place either, but it's still nice to have new company sometimes." Little Dude looked very much like he agreed.
Silver was weirdly touched by the sentiment- more than likely because he already felt so relaxed here and all the good vibes were starting to get to him. Big Dude's demeanor was totally different from his appearance, and he felt a bit bad about his earlier assumptions. He didn't really need an escort, but making friends sounded fun. "You sure?"
"Yeah, o'course. Not every day I run into another hedgehog, anyways." He chuckled a bit, but seemed to choke slightly on the last note. Like he was unused to his voice, the smaller noted. Maybe he was actually sick, and his real voice sounded like the calls of a beautiful mermaid. Wait. "Another? You're a hedgehog?"
Is this what hedgehogs in this time looked like? Heck, how do you play it cool here, Silver? You totally just gave yourself away. If this is the past of hedgehogs (he didn't remember reading anything about this in the ancestry books), then acting surprised should be super weird. Maybe he can say he was cooped up in a house his whole life. With uhh, foster parents.
...Did they have the foster care system 200 years ago?
Big Dude looked a little uncomfortable now. Oh no, did he upset him?
"...Yeah. I'm a hedgehog. Little hard to tell right now, I guess." He threw in a light chuckle at the end, but it was clearly less enthusiastic than before. Little Dude flew down from his head and looked Big Dude in the eye, like he was asking permission. Silver's racing thoughts came to a slow.
Okay... judging by his tone, he must be an outlier of some sort. The time traveller hadn't just made a fool of himself. Though he couldn't deny feeling bad about dulling someone's perfectly good mood.
Little Dude piped up, dragging him from his introspective stupor. "Sonic's a werehog!"
"...A werehog? Like, as in werewolf?" Big Dude… Sonic? Nodded, probably amused with whatever face the grey hedgehog must have been making. "Yeah, I guess. Wound up in an accident a while back, and now when it gets dark out I turn into this." The self-conscious glance to his hands made the lighter hedgehog feel briefly awful.
"Oh. That's… pretty neat." Taking a chomp of his ice cream like a fucking heathen, Silver pondered on it. "Well, I'd love to join you guys some time, if you're really cool with it."
Sonic's smile felt more genuine this time when he threw up an affirmatory thumb. "Absolutely. My name's Sonic. Sonic the Hedgehog." Silver wondered why he had to repeat his name like that. "And you can call me Chip!"
The little red dude… or, Chip, flew up closer to his newest friend, happily holding out an… unwrapped chocolate bar. Cool. "Want some chocolate?"
The hedgehog couldn't help but grin at his endearing enthusiasm. "Yeah! Chocolate's always good." Eagerly accepting his gift, Silver laughed. "My name's Silver the Hedgehog. It's nice to meet you two!"
They looked to each other, grinning big. "It's nice to meet you, too!"
Silver, almost giddy by now, briefly considered stuffing the chocolate into his ice cream... but decided it was loaded enough and stored the treat away for later. "I'll definitely return the favor before I leave."
Chip looked surprised, but didn't protest. Good. Let the world be good to you, buddy. Sonic shifted his weight to his left leg. "How long you gonna be in town?"
"Uhhh… Well, I'll have to find something before I can leave anyways, but... I was thinking maybe a couple of weeks? The proctors only set me up for one, but it's not like they'll be any the wiser when I get back." He laughed. According to his manual, the Emerald should take him back to not long after he left. Assuming he managed to locate it. It was when he caught onto the puzzled looks from his newest companions that he realized he probably said too much.
Woops. So much for keeping quiet.
"Proctors? Whaddyou mean by that?" Chip asked politely. "Are you being tested?"
Sonic didn't have much to add to that, but was clearly still curious. And, y'know what? He travelled through time. If that's not the coolest bragging right he'd ever get, nothing is. These two seemed trustworthy enough.
"Mmm, not really. If I tell you, you gotta promise not to spread it though." A beat. "And promise not to make fun of me, because I'm not joking."
They both looked a lot more interested now. He supposed they hadn't expected it to be that big of a deal before bringing it up. It was only when Sonic nodded, with a "Yeah, sure thing.", that Silver elaborated. Actually being about to spill the beans was exciting- man, 200 years ago, did people even consider time travel? How off the wall was this going to be for them?
He took another clean bite from his ice cream because it was starting to melt, and placed his free hand on a hip triumphantly. "I'm actually here from the future!"
A nearby old lady chuckled lightly, and he shrunk slightly into himself. Oops.
Sonic looked surprised, but not like, super surprised? He would have expected more probably. The sentence must have rocked Chip's world though, because his jaw was totally slack and he had his hands on his cheeks now. "From the future!? Wow! That is so cool! Sonic, isn't that so cool?" Silver looked to the werehog, whose eyes were a little more attentive, and who stood a little less casually.
"Yeah! That's… From the future? You're not pulling our legs or anything?" He crossed his arms, not exactly skeptical, but looking for more. They took that pretty swell, in his professional opinion. No laughter or looks screaming 'oh no, this kid is crazy'.
...Then again, one was a werehog- if that's not the stuff of fiction, was time travel really all that crazy to consider?
"No, yeah, I'm being dead serious." He turned to rifle through his bag briefly (which was a little difficult with one hand. he took another bite). "My proctor sent me with a bunch of sterilized question sheets and supplies. Sterilized I guess so we didn't accidentally cause a plague with germs we're immune to in our time. Ah, there we go…" Locating the junk, Silver pulled out a couple of translucent teal slates. "One's for pre-written questions, and the other's for unprecedented observations. There's other stuff too, but I'll spare you the lame details." He chuckled a bit to himself, slipping the slates back away carefully. Couldn't say he was into fall-testing his limited materials.
"I wouldn't call that lame! Wow. To think time travel really exists one day." Sonic mused, big hands resting on his hips. Chip looked two seconds from saying something incredulous himself, but was interrupted promptly. "Wait- You said you need to find something? That something wouldn't happen to be a Chaos Emerald, would it?"
Silver's brows went up. The records did say the Chaos Emeralds existed for thousands of years, but it was still a little shocking to hear a local refer to them. Without prompting, either. Maybe these two knew something about it? Come to think of it, they said they weren't pros on the area. Maybe they're, like, travelling scholars?
"Uh… Yeah, actually. Each unit had a Chaos Emerald, but when I got here it was suddenly gone."
Sonic and Chip looked at each other for a moment, like they were debating whether or not to say something. Eventually, the taller nodded and looked back to Silver guiltily, scratching at his head. "...There's a good chance you'll be here longer than a couple weeks, then."
Chip flew up and sat on his companion's head. "Yeah. You see, there's a lot going on here right now. Uh…" He leaned over and whispered something into a slightly curled ear. Silver knew there were more important things going on, but couldn't help thinking they were kind of cute. Sonic shook his head.
"Okay, so. Thhheee… how do I even explain this… This guy? Big guy called Eggman, with a huge belly and crazy mustache. He's trying to rule the world. So Sonic here went up into space to stop him, but got caught in a trap." The mentioned looked mildly indignant at the reminder. "Then he did some thing that made him look like this at night, split the world into pieces, and all the Chaos Emeralds got drained of their power."
Sonic butted in reassuringly before Silver could even start overthinking that. "But don't worry, we're travelling around getting their energy back! It just takes a while. We've got four down right now. But knowing Eggman, we're probably gonna need them all soon, so I can't let you have one 'til the planet's fixed up."
Silver squinted.
"Alright, but… Like, if I came here with one, then suddenly it disappeared, it... must be because you guys had it or something, right? If you've got them all, that's a fair assumption I think. That probably means there can't be duplicate emeralds. So... what would even happen if I took one?"
Then again, he was pretty sure the facility didn't magically regenerate the emerald he left with or anything. If he took it home, they might still lose it. Or… He shook his head. Time travel is cool, but man this confusion. "Err, no, you're right. Maybe that wouldn't go well. I'll just wait on you guys, then." Waving a hand, the grey hedgehog ate some more at the ice cream, noting it was down to the cone. This really was good. He might be back later.
"Besides," he started, licking his lips, "That just gives me more time to enjoy the area! This place is really nice." His grin must've be infectious, because the other two joined in.
"Can't argue with that. Anyways, we'd better be off. I wanna try sleeping tonight."
Chip looked concerned as it was said, nodding. Being up during the day and nocturnal at night turned out to be a predictably horrid combination. He didn't feel sleepy, but his body was wearing down under the stress."Yeah. Come on Sonic, let's get you some shut-eye."
Silver was too stuffed with sugar and good vibes to catch on to the nuance there. But he did know he'd need to crash somewhere eventually. "Where are you guys headed to? Not to be weird- Sorry, that was a weird way to say that." He cleared his throat. "So I know where I can go to sleep later, I mean."
Sonic chuckled, pointing a thumb in the way of the road he'd explored earlier. Rrrr….Left, from where Silver stood. "There're a couple inns if you follow the bend up here. They're bigger than the surrounding buildings, so you should notice 'em pretty fast." The smaller nodded and smiled.
"Right. Thanks, Sonic." His name came out awkwardly the way it always does when you say someone's name for the first time. "You two have a good night."
Chip's faced glowed, like he just really loved any kind of positive input. Silver could relate.
"'Night Silver! Maybe we'll see you around tomorrow!" He chose not to add anything about seeing how cool Sonic was in his real form. The werehog was already feeling self-conscious tonight, and Chip didn't want to risk straining that any more. Sonic echoed the sentiment, then the two disappeared into the shadows. A poetic way of saying they booked it because neither knew what time it was.
Now that Silver was alone again, sitting back on the steps and crunching thoughtfully on the best ice cream cone ever, he wondered what to do with himself.
Guess he'd just wander some more. Even a handful of hours weren't enough to explore the whole town, so once the idea of dropping sounded good, he could just head back over to that inn. Yeah, that sounds like a plan.