Dib07: I have been getting gorgeous feedback, so you all deserve more! Thank FullRings for this next installment, and this chapter is dedicated to her!
Sadly this is quite a shortish chapter, but it will gear up for chapter 5 when we go back to Shadow and his mental insecruities. So today, we welcome more Sonikku! Is that how you say it in Japanese? XD Anyway, enjoy!
Chapter 4: Time Away
Sonic lay on the sofa, old, donated blankets piled up on top of him to keep the cold at bay. He had chosen not to sleep with Shadow. With the way the hedgehog elder had acted, he preferred to keep away while he figured things out in the meantime. Shadow had been hiding these concrete emotions for too long, and they had wrapped and tangled up inside of him like knotted wire so that they could never be straightened out.
It hurt, that Shadow was like this. Sonic was determined to make their relationship work, despite the uphill struggle he would no doubt have to endure.
'You don't love me!'
'I do! Why else do you think I stayed!'
'Prove it, you stupid hedgehog!'
The anger and violence echoed in his ears long after they had retired to sleep. Even the walls seemed grim after their fight.
"I'll make it work." He smiled reverently, touching the bloody pad cupping his damaged eye that Shadow had taped hastily on.
Unable to sleep, the aspirin already wearing thin from holding back the damp pain, Sonic sat up and wrote some lyrics down on a sheet of A4 sized paper with excitement. There was a lot he wanted to do in The Derelict, and he would prove Shadow wrong. There was nothing wrong with the bar, and not every human was perfect, but everyone deserved a chance to listen to some good music.
At last, the sunshine came through the curtains at around 7:00am. Sonic left the sofa, folded his dusty blankets away and prepared a good breakfast for Shadow. Something elaborate. Something really good and that he'd enjoy to no end to help put their differences aside.
He fried up two eggs, toasted some bread and poured out orange juice, not sure if he wanted to go through with frying up actual meat as well to conjure up some bacon. In the end he did two hash-browns that Chris had taught him how to make, and added some strawberries. Upon making the finishing touch, Shadow came down, looking awful. His fur was ungroomed, and bags hung under his eyes. It looked like he hadn't had much sleep, either.
"Morning." He said straight away in his husky voice. "About last night…"
"Forget it. It's over!" Sonic said with a bright, cheesy grin, "and here's your breakfast as a formal apology!"
Shadow nodded, still looking guilty. He scratched his chin and wearily approached the lovingly made breakfast on a tray with a freshly picked rose on the side where the napkin rested. "Where's yours?" He stated, "didn't you make yourself some?"
"I… I already ate." Sonic said, crossing his arms at his back and comely smiling despite the facetious lie. "Now, enjoy! I'm going out!"
"Where?" Shadow asked without looking up. He slid into the chair and started cutting into his eggs and toast.
"Urm… to the chemist. To buy… vitamin supplements before I go into work for rehearsals."
"Sonic, you were never very good at lying." Shadow gulped down some juice to help the bread go down. "Now tell me again. Where are you going? …And there's something else…" He said, "I made almond cake two days ago right after we moved in. And it all went except for one piece. Did you eat all of it?"
"For starters, I'm not lying!" Sonic said, unable to hide the bitterness that went with the tone. "And I do need to go into work! And yeah… that cake was really tasty. Sorry. It was me."
"Stupid hedgehog." He said, rolling his eyes. "It took me all afternoon to make that mutherfucker. Say, how's your eye?"
"Slightly less painful. Makes me look wonky with a bandage! And I can't wink anymore until it heals up!"
"Well, glad it's better. Off with you then, but be back by two o'clock in the afternoon."
"But that's…"
"Tut tut. No arguments." Shadow waved him off dismissively before getting back to his breakfast. "Then we'll play a game."
"Game?"
"Yes. Now go."
XXXXXXXXXX
"So, how did you get this again?" The human adult dipped a cotton bud into a disinfectant solution and smeared it lightly over Sonic's bruised bottom eyelid. The eye and lids included had swollen since last night. The bloody pads had been removed, and Chris acted straight away in fear of infection. It was a messy job. Already the eye was weeping yellow fluids.
"I uh… hit myself with a toilet brush…"
"Riiight. Sonic, old pal, you gotta do a lot better than that." With gentle care, Chris used another swab and used it to wipe the building fluids out of his tear duct. Sonic had jumped onto the train to get to Martha Street where Chris worked as a part time veterinarian. He could have run here, but that may have made his eye a lot worse. "Personally, I'm not as narrow-minded as you may think, big guy. This is definitely what we call a black-eye, where you've suffered direct hemorrhaging from a very violent force. You should consider yourself lucky. If this toilet brush had been anymore violent, it would have popped your eye right out."
"Thank Dowa you're a vet-man doctor."
"Veterinarian." Christopher corrected for him.
"Or who else could I have gone to?"
"Somewhere where they make glass eyes for idiots who don't know how to handle a toilet brush."
Sonic laughed and this jilted Chris' aim and concentration combined.
"Watch it Sonic. Do you want me to poke your other eye out too?"
Sonic calmed down, smiling despite himself. "Thank you, buddy. I like the soothing touch of cool water and ointment on my eye. It feels… sorta nice."
"It's not ointment. It's antiseptic to help stop your infection. Whoever bandaged this up did a shoddy job."
"Hah! It was Shades! I think he was drunk at the time!"
"Figures. Hold still, this is going to hurt."
"W-Why? What are you going to do?"
"Eye drop solution. It'll be like water running down your eye, but you've got to keep it open, otherwise it won't work. Man, wish all my animals could talk and understand my instructions. My job would pretty much run itself."
"You wish! Want my opinion?"
"Not really…" Chris said with a chuckle.
"You wear too much perfume…"
"It's called cologne, Sonic."
"And you wear a white coat. Like a mad psychopathic heart surgeon."
"You're gonna give yourself nightmares. Now hold still and keep that eye open. And no more jokes until this is done."
"Will you buy me a new toilet brush if I'm good?" And he started wagging his little tail.
"How about blinkers?" Chris poured the eye solution above the damaged eye as slowly as he could. Rivulets of the solution came trickling down, and Sonic did his very best to try and hold his eye open. The solution stung like wet fire, and before he knew what he was doing, he had leaned forward, rubbing at it. Chris took his arm and held it down to stop him from irritating it further. "You're still as childish as I remember." His smile was sad. Rueful. "I miss you, Sonic. I thought I could cope, what with a new job and Tails, Amy and Cream keeping me company, but it's not the same."
"I miss you too, buddy. It's hard on me, ya know?" He shrugged casually, "I just try and make things work. One day we should all come over for a sleepover."
"Yeah, got that party coming up to. Your eye won't be better in time."
"Figures." He tried to paw at his eye again. With Chris playfully cursing, he eased an antibiotic pad over it that was cool and soothing. It stopped the fiery pain at once. Sonic sighed against it blissfully. "Man, the stuff you use stinks."
"Sonic, want to tell me what's really the matter?" His voice had adopted more of a serious nature. "You've always been thin, but I can see your bones. And your face deserves an explanation all by itself. Why won't you tell me? I never thought you to be a liar."
"I'm… I'm not…" He hastily imputed, feeling rather ashamed, "it's just white lies, Chris. We all do it."
"Ah, you are admitting that you're lying, big guy?"
Sonic sighed, defeated. He winced when Chris applied a white, soft pad over Sonic's eye that was full of soothing moisture and bound it tight with another one before fixing the pads in place with gauze that stretched around Sonic's head. His main two left quills got included in the wrapping to keep the pad tightly in place.
"Me and Shadow got into a fight." He admitted sorely, "he was upset, and I kinda pushed his buttons. You shoulda seen him. He looked like a monster set for Halloween!"
"I said no jokes." Chris snapped sternly. Worriedly. "He did this to you?"
"Only by accident."
Chris shook his head. Gently he took Sonic into his arms from the surgical counter and placed him on the vinyl flooring. Then he knelt down to meet Sonic's height and softly stroked his ear. "Accidents or not, that was wrong. You're lucky that eye doesn't need surgery. If he does anything like this again, leave him and come back to live with me."
"You know I can't!" Sonic said, exasperated while trying to sound not too indignant. "If I go back with you, I need to travel miles to get to my new job, and we just got this expensive new house. I can't just bail!"
"But if he hits you…"
"I'll just dodge a little quicker." He went to wink, then realized he couldn't. "Besides, we'll work things out."
"But why tolerate him? Why torture yourself?"
"Because he needs me, Chris. He's a lot more insecure than I ever thought he could be. And he has no one else. Don't mistake this for pity. Nope. I'm going to help him. In every way that I can, so that he can reach his full potential and know what true friendship is."
"He doesn't deserve you." Chris said hotly, not amused. "If I see one more bruise or laceration on your body, I'm taking you with me."
Sonic nodded simply out of habit of acknowledgement. "Chris, don't make that promise." Don't make me avoid you too.
"If Tails finds out, he'll go mad."
"So do me a favor and don't tell him. We'll just use the toilet brush excuse."
Chris rolled his eyes. "I swear you're shrinking. You look smaller than yesterday."
"Well, you're growing too tall. Sooner or later that massive head of yours is gonna hit the ceiling."
They both broke out into easy, good natured laughter. As Chris took him into a hug, Sonic knew how much the human adult was missing him. They had got so close during the past fifteen years, doing practically everything together. It had felt like a long summer vacation with him, Chris and Tails. And now this…
It was clear to understand why he was so upset. This was not the future any of them had planned.
Love was unpredictable like that.
Chapter 5 is called The Game. What game does Shadow intend to play exactly? And will it even be a pleasant one? Tune in for next time! :)