"Riiiinnnngg!" Silver's alarm clock wailed, waking up the slumbering hedgehog. He slammed down on the off button and threw his covers off with gusto. He had a date today.
Quickly making his way out of bed, he jogged to the light switch to illuminate his room, and then to the bathroom to clean his body. The hot water poured over his sterling quills, removing the toxins from the day before, fixing his bed hair. Silver grabbed his special soap with scented flakes to further clean himself. He did not use his special (not to mention expensive) soap often, but today was as special date: he had a date today.
Silver rinsed his fur one last time before turning the nozzle off. Hot steam enveloped the small apartment bathroom as Silver removed the shower curtain to grab his towel from the towel rack. His instinctively reached for his towel, which was always in the same spot, yet he felt nothing. Silver rubbed his eyes to remove the water and saw that his towel was missing.
"Oh no!" he shouted. "Where did my towel go? This can't be happening! I have a date today!"
Haphazardly, Silver tried to shake off as much water as possible in the bathroom before leaving to search for his towel. Once he had thought he was dry enough, he stepped out of the bathroom, and his wet feet instantly left foot prints on the carpet of his bedroom. He hurriedly made his way to the door. Silver figured that Sonic had done the laundry last night and forgot to tell him to get his towel out of the dryer. So, the grey hedgehog made his way to the washer-dryer combo that was through the kitchen.
Being oblivious to his surroundings, Silver did not see that Sonic was awake watching the news in the living room as Silver made his way to the dryer completely exposed.
"Whoa, hey! Looking good, Silver!" Sonic wolf whistled at his unclothed roommate.
"Sonic!" Silver screamed, nervously grabbing a couch pillow to cover his privates. "Why are you up so early? You are never up when I am!"
"I think the better question is why you are walking around the house naked," Sonic shot back with a bantering tone. "Do you streak through the apartment every morning or is this a special occasion?"
"For your information, I do not streak in the apartment. I am looking for my towel. It wasn't in my bathroom, so I figured you left it in the dryer."
"I figure you would be right!" Sonic confirmed Silver's assumption. "Hey, you should probably get it and get ready for work. You have a date today."
Silver shuffled his way to the living room, making sure he did not expose himself anymore to his azure roommate. Once he got out of sight, he tossed the pillow and took his towel out of the dryer.
"Well, since you are awake, you can help me pick out my outfit for today," Silver reasoned with Sonic.
"Oh, goodie! I'll be in your room in about five minutes," Sonic smirked.
Opening the door to his room, holding his towel tightly around his waist, Silver thought about what he should wear for his date today. He continued drying of his fur as he laid out some possible contenders for today's apparel. A knock came at the door, and Silver wrapped his towel to cover himself again. He did not t ogive Sonic a double take of what he had seen earlier.
"Come in!" Silver welcomed Sonic into his room.
"So, here is what I was thinking: I could wear my pink button up with burlap colored slacks, or I could wear my green and white striped polo with cargo shorts. What do you think?" Silver looked at Sonic for his thoughts on the matter.
"You should go with the first one. The second one will make you look like you are going on a safari," Sonic chuckled a bit at his own joke. Silver thanked him for his input, pushed him out of his room, and started to put on the first outfit for his date today.
Silver made his way to work in the sluggish traffic of Station Square. His finger tapped repeatedly on the steering wheel as he anxiously waited for the day to progress. He groaned and hit his head on the wheel: he hated having to wait all the way until lunch to see his date, his biker date, his rugged, dark, biker date, his sexy hedgehog of a date. Silver shook his head to remove any lewd thoughts. 'I can't start fantasizing about him now! It will just make it awkward later,' he thought.
After dealing with the morning traffic, Silver made his way through the parking garage of his work and found his spot. Silver hastily grabbed his work materials and brief case from the backseat and opened the door. With his hands full, he has to shut his car door with his behind. The door slammed loudly and Silver heard a clunk and shattering of glass. Near his feet sat the rear view mirror of his junkyard quality car.
"Okay, now I REALLY need to find a good mechanic," he said while setting his things down to pick up the broken car part. Silver decided to through it inside the trunk as he made his way up the office.
Friday's were very busy for Silver. Most of the employee's needed printed documents and presentation posters for Monday's workday. Because the majority of them had to get everything prepared that week, Friday was the last day they had to submit printing requests for Monday. Silver's department would get near 300 printing requests on average. Some were small, like 20 flyers for an example advertisement, but others were very time and ink consuming, like a 10 page packet that needed 30 copies, double sided, stapled, and on colored paper.
With the immense amount of printing requests, Silver was often inundated on Friday. Luckily, Silver spread his work load out between Friday and Saturday. Saturday's the building was not open for business hours, but maintenance workers, custodians, and printers were on the clock. What made this nice is that Silver did not have to work through lunch, being ever more important on the day he had a date.
"Good morning, Silver! How are the printers treating you today? Any paper jams?" A purple cat called out to Silver from the front desk of the printing department.
"Good morning, Blaze! Yeah, we have had four paper jams already on the same printer. I called maintenance about it earlier. They should be on their way down now. How are public relations?"
"Oh, it's the same as usual," Blaze adjusted the microphone headset she was wearing. "Some people have legitimate concerns, others are just a pain."
"Sorry to hear that, Blaze," silver walked toward the counter. "So, what brings you to my neck of the office building?"
"Believe it or not, I need something printed! I know I usually just e-mail you with a digital copy, but I was given a hardcopy by my supervisor and need 10 copies of it."
"Well, you came to the right place! I can have that for you now actually."
"Wonderful! I'll wait here then. So, Silver, are you still rooming with Sonic?"
Silver started to scan Blaze's document. "Yeah, I enjoy staying with him. He may get on my nerves at times, but I really don't mind it too much. Plus, I really don't make enough to live alone."
"You know he teases you because he is into you, right?" Blaze asked the hedgehog slyly with a smirk.
Silver started to blush as he walked to hand over the copies to Blaze. "What are you talking about? Sonic isn't into me like that. I don't even know if he is… you know…"
"I can't say I've ever seen him with a girl. Have you?"
"No, I guess not. But, it doesn't really matter right now. I have a date today with this dark, biker hedgehog."
"Oh, I had no idea you were into bad boys, Silver. Thanks for the copies!" Blaze chuckled and waved goodbye to her friend.
'Just because he is a punk biker doesn't mean he is a bad guy, right?' Silver thought to himself. First Sonic, and now Blaze, both assumed that his mysterious date was bad. 'No matter,' Silver thought, 'I think it might be fun being with a bad boy for a change.'
As the clock ticked on and on, Silver continued completing orders for the day. Blaze's comment lingered in his mind. Could Sonic really be into him? He had never considered the blue blur to feel that way about him, but the more Silver thought, the more he picked up on some hints Sonic could have been giving, like the morning's fiasco. 'Did Sonic not replace my towel on purpose?' Silver thought. 'That horny hog! He had that set up! Why else would he be up that early?'
Silver grunted and started some more prints. He could not believe the arrogance of his roommate, if his assumptions were correct. Silver did not really have convincing evidence that Sonic really was into him, so he just passed the thoughts on for better ones: ones about the date he had in 5 minutes ago.
"Oh my god! I am late for my date!" Silver was so focused on his work that he completely forgot to check the time for his lunch break. He stalled all his current printing jobs and made his way down to the parking garage. Running around the halls of the office, he finally got to the building's elevator and headed down.
Silver's feet swiftly hit the ground as he rushed to his car, hoping that it would start up quickly unlike the last few times. Using his key chain, he unlocked the car signaled by a double honk and flash of headlights. Silver jumped in and pulled out. He could not be late for his first date with the biker.
Silver made his way speedily through traffic. Being late was a pet peeve he had of others: he acknowledged that he was always a very peremptory person. Barely making his way through the tightly filled parking lot of Vector's Café, Silver found a spot near the back. He would have to walk a bit to get to the front door, but it was already 12:15, so being more tardy would not hurt him, but it could hurt his date.
Silver dashed to the front door of the café noticing the familiar motorcycle parked near the front. 'At least my date is timely: unlike me I suppose,' Silver thought. He walked inside with a few sweat beads on his forehead. Shifting his eyes to each table and booth of the café, he saw the black quills with red streaks sticking out from behind a booth near the back of the restaurant. Silver wiped off his forehead, adjusted his tucked shirt, and made his way to his ebony hedgehog of a date.
Silver slid into the other side of the booth, facing the dark hedgehog. "I am so sorry I am late. I promise I am never like this. I was so occupied at the office with all these print requests that I lost track of time and-"
"Hey, don't worry about it. Shit happens," the black hedgehog cut of Silver's litany of excuses, shocking him and halting his words.
"Um, uh, yeah," Silver was flustered by the laid back attitude of his date. Pausing for a moment, Silver finally spoke up.
"So, I don't think I ever caught your name yesterday. What is your name?"
"Shadow," he replied, "What's yours?"
"I'm Silver the Hedgehog. Thanks so much again for yesterday. It was so kind of you to do that for me. I'm glad I can repay you this way."
"Sure. While I was waiting, I took the liberty of ordering for the both of us. I hope you aren't a picky eater."
Silver was surprised at Shadow's forwardness. "No, I'm not at all. I love all the food here."
"Alright, good, it should be on its way out soon."
While Silver and Shadow waited for their food, Silver examined Shadow's appearance again. He was wearing a black leather jacket, opened up to reveal what he had underneath it. He had on a heather gray t-shirt which concealed the medallion of a necklace under it.
"If you don't mind me asking, what kind of necklace do you have?"
Shadow reached under his shirt and pulled out a spikey, almost circular, blood red medallion. It was a swirl with spikes poking out from the top and sides. Shadow held it from the chain so Silver could see it better.
"Wow," Silver was awestricken, "That is really interesting. Where did you get it?"
"I made it," Shadow said.
"You made that? That is so rad!"
Two plates of food were placed on the table by a waitress in front of the hedgehogs.
"Here you guys go: two chicken Paninis with homemade potato chips on the side. Enjoy!"
The two hedgehogs thanked their waitress and sunk their teeth into the food.
Silver swallowed his first bite and drank some of his white soda the waitress left.
"You know, I have never ordered this before, but I think I might start to! It is really good," Silver said while reaching for some chips.
Shadow nodded as he started to swallow his food. "Yeah, it is my favorite thing to get here."
After finishing off some more of his chips, Silver decided to get to know his date better.
"So, Shadow, what do you do for a living?"
"I do tattoos and piercings," the darker hedgehog replied.
Silver choked a bit on his drink. "Oh, that is really cool! I can't say I have ever met someone in the field. How do you like it?"
"I love it," Shadow said while swallowing another bite. "I like giving people lasting modifications to their bodies. Piercings and tattoos are the best way to show off your personality and your body."
"Well, that is awesome then!" Silver could not stop smiling at his date. He was so attractive and confident. 'How come he can keep his cool while I am here looking like The Joker?' Silver thought. He hoped his nerves and anxious temperament did not go through to Shadow.
"How about you? I catch from what you said earlier you work in business," Shadow asked the same question back at his date.
"Yeah, I work in the printing department for Robotnik Corp. Anything that needs excessive printing, copying, or coloring comes to me! We are super busy today too. Everyone sends in orders on Friday that I still have to work on Saturday. I do get paid hours though."
"Hmm, sounds like you have a lot to do today then," Shadow said standing up.
Silver stood up along with him. "Yeah, it is about time for me to make my way back to the office, but… um… before I go, could I, like, get your phone number or something?"
"Yeah, I'd be happy to give it to you," Shadow said pulling out his business card. "It has my personal number and workplace address on there if you are ever interested in coming in to get some work done."
"Heheh, I am not sure if I will do that, but thank you for the offer," Silver laughed. "So, how much was lunch? I promised I would pay you back."
"It's already taken care of," Shadow said back to him. "This wouldn't be much of a date if I didn't pay for you, right?"
Silver blushed at Shadow comment. He knew that this was a date, but hearing it from Shadow's lips made it really official.
"Yeah, heheh, I guess you are right," Silver could not stop nervously looking at Shadow. The hedgehog was so generous to have paid for both of their meals.
"Well, I should get going: I have to do a nipple piercing at 1:00." Shadow said. "Call me some time and we can do this again."
"Yeah, I totally will make sure I call! I enjoyed spending lunch with you," Silver said back to him.
"I look forward to hearing your voice again," Shadow said as he turned and walked out of the café, leaving Silver to look at his car again.
'A body piercing expert and a tattoo artist, huh? What have I gotten myself into?' Silver thought as he made his way to the back parking lot, looking at the card all the way there, wondering when to call Shadow, feeling glad he could stare at him again sometime soon.