Heyo, looks like I actually managed to update relatively quick compared to my usual pattern. I recently got Team Sonic Racing for my birthday and I've just been playing it constantly instead of working on anything else. So far I've just been maining Silver over everyone else, though I also dabble a bit with Rouge because I love her just as much. If only Shadow weren't an asshole in this game, Rouge would be my main.

Word Count: 2,452

~START~

As it turned out, Mephiles didn't need to sleep. Nor did he need to eat or...actually, he didn't need anything really.

This discovery had initially perturbed Silver on a somewhat basic level, as he'd had a hard time wrapping his head around the concept of not wanting to eat or sleep— even for recreational purposes. But the more time he spent around Mephiles, the more it made sense.

For one, Mephiles sunk most of his time into reading about boring old history— and if not that, then he'd be outside stargazing on the roof, or taking a midnight stroll; mostly things done in the dark where no one was around, or awake, to bother him. Which, believe it or not, made communication pretty difficult if Silver did say so himself.

And he did say so.

That's actually how he found himself at the local library, weaving between shelves like a shark through a sea of books. He found Mephiles sitting at one of the tables in the far back of the building, looking through page after page of Soleanna mythos and legend— something to do with the dark beings past if Silver remembered correctly. Honestly, this is what he'd been up to for the past few days, as uninteresting as it was.

The current working theory so far was that Mephiles was actually one half of the god Solaris, and his current amnesiac state had to do with a fluctuation in the time-space continuum, caused by the erasure of the god's existence after a certain era. But again, it was just a theory. One Silver had a very hard time believing.

At least Mephiles was having fun with it...probably… It'd be a lot easier to tell if he just had a mouth to emote with.

"Can I help you," Mephiles asked without even glancing up. He was clearly engrossed in whatever he was reading, flipping a page nonchalantly as Silver pulled up a chair and flopped down next to him.

"You left without me," Silver pouted.

"As I'd said."

Silver glared lightly before bringing his arms up to rest on the table, using them as a cushion for his head. He stared at the pile of books Mephiles had sought out within the hour or so he'd been holed up there, wondering just how many the dark hedgehog intended to slog through until he'd be satisfied. There were several tomes lying about the round table, all ranging in various sizes—some of which Silver couldn't even read the titles of.

Golden irises shifted focus to the book Mephiles currently held, a royal purple novella-length journal. On the cover, it depicted what Silver assumed to be Soleanna's castle, framed by the rising sun. The title...was in Latin, but that wasn't what had caught Silver's eye anyway.

"Solaris looks terrifying," Silver deadpanned, and Mephiles didn't even have to look just to figure out what the psychic was referring to. Setting the book down, Mephiles finished off the page before responding.

"It's inaccurate," he began, lifting his head to see Silver leafing through the closest book. A reserved sigh escaped him. "Unfortunately, most of this journal is mere speculation. It conflicts with newer archives and flat out contradicts itself with every entry."

Closing the dusty old tome, Mephiles slid it away in favor of grabbing a different book, one with an actually legible title. Silver watched him with mild interest, nuzzling further into his arm pillow as the quiet ambiance of the library began to lull his senses to a dull buzz. The book he'd been fiddling with slowly shut as his powers stopped brushing through it, leaving only the occasional rustle of pages from Mephiles' handbook to remind him where he was.

Silver allowed his eyes to slip shut for just a moment— just long enough to rest them. His body relaxed, tiredness seeping in from the night prior spent chasing Mephiles through the dark. Which, suffice to say, he'd lost that battle. And run into several trees in the process.

He still didn't see why Mephiles couldn't just humor him… Was sleeping really that bad? Silver didn't think so. Actually, what was he thinking about…? He should probably… Ask…

A soft noise drew Mephiles' attention away from the volume he'd been skimming. Looking up, he found Silver dozing lightly; the culprit is one of the golden bracelets around the psychic's wrists. The metal made a faint scraping noise as it dragged against the table, going unnoticed by Silver as he unconsciously shifted his arms. Mephiles' ear twitched.

His gaze lingered for a moment, before dropping down to his own wrists and the pearly white rings that wrapped around them. Plenty of civilians in this era seemed to prefer the same sleek futuristic style Silver boasted, but Mephiles was perfectly content to stick with what he had— no matter how archaic they may be. They were just like any other Mobian accessory after all, minus the fact they were attached to his body.

Returning to his book, he tried to push away the lingering thoughts of why he was so different from the other denizens of this time. He was already well aware this form was not his own— Silver had made that abundantly clear, but it still didn't answer any questions.

Why could he only remember the god of some now defunct kingdom and nothing else? Where had he come from; what era? Why was it that only he and Silver were unaffected by the changing time stream? The more he thought about these things, the more uncertain he became.

Putting those queries aside for later, Mephiles eased back into his studies. Silver's soft breathing was the only accompaniment to the quaint silence, and it was just so easy to pass the time skimming paragraph after bulky paragraph. He rather enjoyed the methodical process of it all, actually. It gave him plenty of time to ruminate on what he knew.

Over the past week he'd spent watching society fall to ruin, it'd become glaringly obvious to him that he preferred solitude and solace away from others. He didn't particularly care one way or the other what became of the people around him, should they die and pitter out as a species-and perhaps that made him the slightest bit evil.

Either way, Mephiles found humor in knowing Silver to be the same.

As much as the ashen hedgehog would try and pretend, he just couldn't hide the general apathy he felt towards this world and its inhabitants. Even from just a glance, it was plain to see Silver had no friends here; no real connections. Mephiles was the first person of whom Silver had eagerly reached out to, and he knew why.

They both knew why.

A low, ominous chuckle escaped Mephiles as his eyes lazily drifted from word to word. In the peaceful ambiance of the library, it was just so easy to let the minutes trickle by.

The front door slammed open as Silver marched through, pointing a glare at the dark hedgehog lounging in their recliner. His scowl deepened at Mephiles' lack of acknowledgment, not even so much as lifting a finger to greet him. A huff left Silver's lips as he shut the door a bit more forcefully than intended, rattling the walls of their small abode. Mephiles still had yet to look up.

"I can't believe you left me. Again," Silver hissed, though the effect was muted slightly by the bendy straw still in his mouth.

"As I said I would," Mephiles agreed, flicking his gaze up from the cube puzzle in his hands. A mouthless smirk crossed his features, "again."

Silver grumbled something under his breath before tossing his empty milkshake cup at the dark being's head. Unsurprisingly, Mephiles just brushed it aside, knocking it away in the direction of Silver's bed and returning to his puzzle. The psychic groaned and snatched the container up in his telekinetic hold, along with the straw, and deposited it in the nearest trash can—which just so happened to be by his bedside table. Hooray for that at least.

The sun was beginning to set over their little woodside home, and Silver wasn't exactly in the mood to sleep after napping the day away. No thanks to Mephiles who'd just left him in the library…

Silver dragged his feet over to the bed, kicking off his shoes before jumping onto the plush twin-sized mattress. He buried his face into his pillow before adjusting to stare over at Mephiles. The dark hedgehog was still fiddling with the cube puzzle, getting farther with it in an hour than Silver had in over a month. So, at least the very least, he knew it wasn't rigged.

"You know," Silver piped up, satisfied in momentarily breaking Mephiles' concentration. A bout of silence followed, leaving the incomplete thought hanging, and cluing Mephiles into the fact Silver had spoken just for the sake of it. "I had my doubts," Silver continued after a bit, absently trailing his index finger around on his comforter, "but you really aren't anything like Shadow."

This made Mephiles pause.

He took a moment to scrutinize this new information, reorganizing what he knew of this 'Shadow' individual before returning his attention to the multi-colored cube in his hands.

"Is that so."

"Yeah." Silver rolled onto his back, wincing slightly as he needed to adjust his longer quills so they didn't tear up his blanket or otherwise break. Sometimes being a hedgehog was just so inconvenient. "You look a lot like Shadow, but that's it," he trailed off, narrowing his eyes at the ceiling.

"Mhm," Mephiles hummed thoughtfully, though he didn't comment further. Not that Silver really expected him to.

These short faltering conversations of theirs were beginning to get on Silver's last nerve. His fingers twitched, aura wavering in and out of focus, leaving him with the faint desire to crush something—someone, perhaps. But no, the feeling was shoved away almost as soon as it'd come.

An easy, practiced smile settled on his lips, and he brought his arms up above his head, assuming a somewhat relaxed posture he'd mimicked from Sonic. He heard a grunt from Mephiles, soon followed by a low utterance of something Silver was becoming all too familiar with by now, but he ignored it.

"Find anything about your past?" Silver asked.

"Nothing that concerns you," Mephiles replied dismissively.

"Humor me."

Mephiles raised an eye-ridge at that, glancing over to see Silver staring off into space. That annoying smile had retreated for the time being, allowing a more neutral look to take its place. And with that, Silver was almost tolerable. Almost.

A sigh escaped the dark being. He tossed the solved puzzle behind him, paying no heed to the clatter it made upon hitting the bookshelf, nor the mess it likely made judging by sound alone. Silver's ears tilted towards Mephiles, his attention won.

"As mentioned earlier," Mephiles started, folding his hands in his lap and gazing forward at nothing. "Most of what I've looked into has been inaccurate at best and speculation at worst. Seeing as Soleanna no longer exists in the current time, a large percentage of its culture was lost over the centuries— including its religion and practices."

"You have a nice lecture voice," Silver commented dryly.

"That sentiment is one-way." Mephiles didn't acknowledge the laughter his retort inspired, merely picked up where he'd left off. He continued, "it seems as if Solaris was intentionally erased from the pages of history itself. A plethora of records I've found seem to imply the god lost favor abruptly; there was no steady decline in followers, it happened almost instantaneously."

"Okay, and what does that have to do with your past?" Silver perked up as Mephiles stood and began to pace the short distance between one end of the house to the other, never leaving Silver's sight as a result.

Mephiles stayed quiet for a while, engrossed in his own musings as he walked back and forth through the 'living room'. It would take another minute at least before Mephiles continued his rambling out loud, and Silver was half tempted to throw something to get his attention in the meantime. But he managed to hold off on that; sitting up to watch the other pace instead.

An odd look crossed the dark hedgehog's face, and he turned his back to the psychic—not that Silver could identify the exact expression anyway.

More silence followed, until…

"I don't know."

Silver stared.

And stared.

And stared until his eyes hurt and he had to blink, at which point he stopped to rub them.

"Are you kidding?" he asked, voice suspiciously close to irritation. "Why didn't you just start off with that!?" The ashen hedgehog groaned, flopping back down on his side with a huff. "And here I thought you'd finally opened up…"

"That's rather unfortunate." Mephiles peered back at him, arms crossed and eyes almost twinkling at Silver's disappointment.

"You did that on purpose," Silver mumbled, adamantly refusing to look in his companion's direction. He just knew Mephiles had that stupid smug expression on, he didn't even need to see it to just know. His roommate was the worst.

Mephiles chuckled to himself, as if reading Silver's mind.

Without another word, the dark hedgehog changed course and made his way to the front door. Silver even didn't bother asking where he was off too so late in the evening. The sound of the door opening and then closing echoed somberly in the small house, carrying with it the faint spring breeze.

Silver curled in on himself, letting his eyes slip closed as he absently ran his fingers over the cool metal of his bracelets. He let out a calming sigh, and the shrill squeal of plastic caving in on itself reached his ears from behind— somewhere near the bookshelf. Bits of broken multi-colored polymer pittered to the floor seconds later, mangled and bent out of its once cubical shape. The turquoise glow which had held the pieces dispersed into thin air, leaving no guilty party behind.

"Never mind," he muttered to himself, relaxing into the plush comforter. He still wasn't very tired, but he knew sleep would come to claim him eventually if he only waited. And besides, he needed to extinguish that ugly feeling of...whatever it was Mephiles had intentionally ignited.

It was a shame, really.

Silver had been hoping Shadow's personality wasn't contagious—that the two dark hedgehogs had only looked similar. But now it seemed he had to kill Mephiles. It was the kind thing to do, after all.

He breathed a small giggle, hardly audible even to his own ears.

"Just kidding."

He'd rather be selfish.

~END CHAPTER~

This was a bit of a nothing chapter all around, but I promise things get more interesting in the next one. Mephiles would just rather be difficult as opposed to answering Silver directly, might want to get used to that happening. It'll be an uphill battle for those two to become actual friends, but don't worry, it won't be a slog.

Another thing I wanted to mention is the layout of Silver's house, it's pretty much one room save for the bathroom. I couldn't find a way to organically mention it in this chapter but I wanted the general gist of it to be at least a little known before moving on. When walking into the house, you have the kitchen to your left and a door to the bathroom on your right. Silver's bed is in the upper left corner of the house, along with a bedside table and a trash bin next to that. On the right of the house is the so-called living room, it's just a recliner, a long glass table, a bookshelf tucked into the upper right corner behind the recliner, and a tv on the wall across from all that.

As for why and how Silver even has a house, you'll just have to keep reading. Can't reveal everything in an author's note, now can we? ;)

Get ready for a blast from the past next chapter.

See ya later.