Translated byleonardo408

Chapter 2

That night after his visit to the ultimate life form's house, Sonic found his curiosity and doubts over what he had read were beginning to gnaw at his mind again, making him restless.

The blue hedgehog was becoming frustrated over these thoughts that wouldn't let him rest. He wanted to act like nothing had happened but who would have thought he was this curious?

He was determined to not let his stupid brain interfere with his friendship with Shadow; since it almost convinced him to visit his house at that moment and ask him face to face. Rather than chance it, Sonic set off on a long trip to clear his head.

His trip lasted roughly one week. That afternoon, as the sun was setting, he found himself in front of that door again. This time however, he hesitated to knock.

"Hi! Well, I just got back from a trip and…No, no", he practiced, muttering to himself what he would tell his friend.

"Well, I'll get to the point. The last time I was here I read some of your things…and I read something weird that caught my attention and I wanted to ask if-"

"Do you want the book?"

The poor hedgehog nearly fainted from the scare. Shadow had opened the door and had found Sonic talking to himself with his back to him.

"Huh? Ah! Hi", Sonic greeted, feigning his normally cheerful tone. He was, however, ignored by the older one whom went back inside and soon came back with a book in hand.

"I got it the day before your visit", Shadow answered in a serious tone and tossing it to the other whom easily caught it. "It was a gift so you can keep it. I have things to do, so good bye", with that Shadow closed the door before the other could say anything.

Sonic froze as he processed what had just happened and studied the book in his hands.

"But…this is…" he studied the beautifully colored cover, "a manga…?"

He could do little more than go home.

That night, as he was getting ready for bed, he made up his mind to go back tomorrow and return the manga to Shadow. However, seeing as he was bored at the moment, he decided to at least scan through the book. What could go wrong, right?

He sat down, picked up the book and leafed through the pages. To his surprise, he stopped at a specific page and panel that almost made him faint. He slammed the book shut.

"What was that?!" he yelled with a traumatized tone, taking a few seconds to calm down.
He picked the book up again and searched for the one page.

"What the…?" he trailed off, the page still shocking him.

The page had a beautiful illustration of a black fox with blue eyes happily receiving the attentions of a dark blue panther with green eyes.

"They look like…"

Sonic examined each detail on the page, amazed with the attention the creators had put into the drawing.

"They're both guys!"

Against his better judgment, he read the dialogue.

"Does it feel good, Daiko?"

"Y-yes *gasp* it feels real good, Zai"

The entire page had small 'gasps' and 'moans' written around the scene.

The hero could read no more and threw the manga to the other side of the bed. He got up and begin to pace in his room.

"Why would anybody do this? Why would anybody buy this?" he thought still shocked. "Wait…Why did Shadow buy this?!No, he said someone gave it to him". He stopped walking and picked up the manga again, "Why would they give this as a gift?!"

In that moment, he took the chance to read the title

"From Enemies to Friends and Friends to…"

The cover picture was of the two protagonists with their backs to each other.

"I'll read it", he sat back down, convincing himself that he had nothing against homosexuality and could read this calmly. "I'll just read it as if it were any other love story"

That was the plan. However, as he read further into the book, he would get shocked an often drop the book. Even so, he persisted, willing to finish the book.

"Wow!" he exclaimed as he reached the last page.

"We hope you liked the short story we made. To our friends, the protagonists, they did not like it one bit. Buehh! Those are the consequences of losing a bet XD.
Thanks to all for your attention. We'll see you all again!
Att: Hikari and Eiko Lilium :3"

"They did it for a bet? Poor guys…" he placed the book back on the small night table and lied down peacefully on his bed.

"At least I learned a few things", he said smiling.

About 25 pages in, Sonic learned that although he didn't enjoy this particular type of literature, it was still a love story. It had its' racy parts, as well as sad, dramatic and many funny parts. He even felt happy when the two characters were able to express their feelings for one another.

"After all", he yawned, "it wasn't that bad", he mumbled as he fell asleep peacefully.

The next morning

"Ahh!" Sonic stretched as he got up, looking at the time. "It's late, but at least I slept nicely!"

"Sonic! Are you going to eat breakfast?" Tails yelled from the other side of the door.

"I'm going, little brother!", he yelled back, jumping out of bed and opening the door to greet the fox "Good morning!"

"Good…morning…" Tails responded, visibly uncomfortable.

"What's wrong, Tails?"

The fox pointed discretely to Sonic's lower half, the other following where he was pointing.
"Wha-", saying nothing more, Sonic ran to the bathroom, leaving the poor fox by himself.

He quickly took off his dirty clothes, and got into the bathtub.

"It had been a while since that had happened", he thought while warm water ran down his face. He liked the sensation of the water, if only in the shower.

"I think the last time was when I had a crush on Sally and I dreamed that…" he thought for a moment. "What did I dream of last night?" he tried and failed to recall his dream.

He decided it wasn't that important and went back down to join Tails for breakfast.

The little fox was fine. They had lived together for so many years that he didn't really care too much for this morning's awkward situation.

"What are you doing today?" asked Sonic, drying his quills with a towel as he sat down to eat.

"I still have some work to do on the Tornado, and then I'm eating lunch at Cream's house. Do you want to come?" the fox asked.

"No, thanks. I'm gonna go see Shadow. I have to give back a book." he answered as he started eating, "Mm, delicious!"

"A book? He let you borrow a book?" the other said surprised.

"Yep"

"Hahaha Comics?"

"Hey! What's so funny?" he protested.

"Hahaha that it's you!", when he was finally able to stop laughing, "I'm sorry, Sonic. What was the book about?"

"Well, actually it's a manga" The answer had the fox cracking up again.

"Haha I'm sorry it's just haha I can only imagine"

In the end, the laughter from the fox made Sonic start laughing as well.

After breakfast, Tails left to buy something for when he went to Cream's house. Meanwhile, Sonic stayed to practice what to say to Shadow.

He wasn't sure what to tell him about the manga. That he liked it or didn't? And how was he supposed to tell him that that wasn't what he was talking about? He wanted to find the right words to make this less awkward.

"Shadow, thanks for the manga. It was good…No! No, I can't say that. What would he think!" the hedgehog paced around the living room while he practiced.

"Shadow…Thanks for the manga! It wasn't bad, but it was a bit weird…I can't say that either! What if he thinks that I'm just a homophobic idiot?" each wrong sentence made Sonic pull at his quills as he became more nervous of looking bad.

"Shadow! Thanks for the manga, I read it last night. But I wasn't talking about that when I talked to you yesterday…Yeah, that could work", he said, satisfied. His small victory was short-lived as he thought of the possibility of the other hedgehog asking him what he thought of the manga.

This could take a while, not to mention he still had to explain why he was snooping through Shadow's laptop.