~Symbiosis~

"One...with the leaves…"

He exhaled slowly, his eyes shut and the world around him dissolving into his own thoughts.

"Breathe…"

He inhaled, taking in the earthy scent surrounding him. The bark underneath him scratched at his legs as he shifted his position. He curled his tail around the branch tightly. He was several feet off the ground and falling from there would be more than just unbecoming.

A brisk breeze danced past him, chilling his scaly skin. The onset of fall had brought lower temperatures with it. While most he knew would be shivering against the harsh winds, Espio the Chameleon simply felt himself growing more and more sluggish as the temperature dropped.

He already knew Vector could feel it as well. The crocodile had been vocal enough about his distaste for how lazy and depressive the cold made him. As for Charmy, the bee was restless during the winter, though he remained reluctant to leave the house. He had this strange habit of holing up in mountains of blankets and buzzing his wings seemingly pointlessly. He insisted the buzzing warmed him up, but Espio was hesitant to believe it. It was probably just an excuse for Charmy to make noise.

A sudden gust rustling the leaves above him snapped him back into reality. He inhaled sharply, willing himself to focus again. He could sense the falling leaves fluttering around him, their colorful hues leaving an image in his mind despite remaining unseen.

"One with the leaves…"

"Hey! Espio!"

The chameleon tensed in surprise, eyelids snapping open. His gaze darted downward to find a certain blue hedgehog staring up at him, a goofy grin on his face. Espio wasn't sure when he'd even gotten there.

"Whatcha doing up there?" he asked, swiping a finger across his nose. Espio huffed, pursing his lips.

"Meditating," he replied curtly.

"Oh, cool," Sonic said, "Sounds fun."

Espio growled slightly.

"I don't appreciate distractions."

"Nah, it's okay," the hedgehog chuckled, "I'll meditate with you."

Espio opened his mouth to retort, but the hedgehog was already starting to scramble up the tree to join him. Without the kind of innate climbing ability Espio possessed, Sonic had a hard time getting up, but he managed to brute-force his way up to the branch anyway, dragging himself up gracelessly.

"You? Meditate?" the chameleon quipped.

"I'm always up for trying new things," Sonic said through heavy breaths as he positioned himself more comfortably on the branch, "Besides, you and I, like, never hang out."

Espio's eyes narrowed.

"This isn't about 'hanging out'," Espio declared sternly, "The meditation I'm undergoing is a communion between my soul and nature. It requires unwavering mental discipline and a great amount of focus. It's not a social activity."

"Hey, I hang out with nature all the time. Can't be that hard."

Sonic was failing to get the point, it seemed. It was slightly irritating.

"You can't just sit in a tree and expect to understand the leaves," the chameleon explained, "You have to connect your soul with theirs. You have to connect yourself with their breath. Breathe the way they do."

Sonic's face scrunched up at that.

"Breathe like the leaves? Do leaves breathe?"

"Of course."

Espio reached up, pinching one of the crimson leaves above his head between his fingers. He took care not to rip it from the tree as he stared intently at the veins running across it.

"Leaves breathe like all other living beings do," he said, Sonic moving closer to stare at the same leaf as him, "They take in the air we breathe out and, when they exhale, they create the air we inhale. It's the symbiotic relationship fauna and flora share. Each depends on the other for the air they breathe."

"Whoa," Sonic muttered, emerald eyes sparkling in wonder, "That's deep."

"My power of camouflage is drawn from a deep understanding of the natural world," Espio continued, "I commune with nature and it bestows its secrets upon me."

"I thought it was just a chameleon thing," Sonic said, fidgeting restlessly, "Everyone knows chameleons can change color and all that."

"We can," Espio answered, "but true camouflage is more than a shift in hue. It's a method of blending into your surroundings so perfectly that you become completely invisible."

Sonic let out a contemplative hum, nodding slowly.

"I think I'm starting to get it…"

Espio let out a breath. Sonic was silent for a moment, staring off into the distance. Just when Espio thought he was done with the questions, though…

"Can you teach me?"

Espio's brow furrowed as he gave Sonic a confused glare.

"The meditative techniques I use have been used by my clan for generations," he asserted, "I trained for years in order to master them."

"I'm a fast learner."

Espio huffed. That wasn't the point and Sonic knew it.

"All right. All right," Sonic finally muttered, raising his hands defensively, "I get it. Ancient chameleon ninja secret, right? I'll get off your back about it."

Espio pursed his lips. This time, it was his turn to let his gaze silently wander to the surrounding landscape. What Sonic had said wasn't exactly true. He'd severed ties with his clan a long time ago and what he practiced now was hardly proper Meitokage ninjutsu, but Espio wasn't quite ready to admit that he'd mangled his clan's ninjutsu like he did. He didn't know if he'd ever be ready to admit that.

"I connect my soul to the souls of the leaves," he finally said, crossing his legs a bit tighter, "That's all that you need to know."

Sonic chewed on his lip, looking lost in thought. Espio let out a breath, closing his eyes. He started to try to focus his energy again.

"So, what about when the leaves die?"

Espio was caught off guard by the sudden question, his eyes opening again and darting back to the hedgehog. Sonic, however, wasn't even looking at Espio. Instead, he stared down at the blanket of dead leaves spread across the grass beneath them. Some still held their brilliant crimson, orange, and gold hues, but most had turned an ugly brown as they decomposed against the frigid earth.

"There aren't any leaves in winter," Sonic continued, looking strangely solemn, "They all die out in the fall."

Espio's face twisted confusedly.

"What are you trying to get at?"

"Not trying to get at anything," the hedgehog answered, finally glancing back at Espio, "Just asking. You're meditating with the leaves, right? What's that look like when they're all falling off the trees like this?"

Espio ground his teeth a bit, wondering how he should answer. Sonic almost definitely didn't realize the sheer weight of the question he'd just asked.

"The leaves struggle to breathe in the fall," the chameleon finally replied, "Their host, the tree, is struggling as well. In order for it to survive the winter, it needs to sacrifice the leaves, which are too fragile to survive the harshest months. Fall meditation is a solemn practice. You're attuning yourself to the last dying breaths of the leaves before they're left to the wind."

Sonic's muzzle grew slightly pale, even despite the flush present from the cold wind. His fingers tensed around the branch beneath him.

"Man," he mumbled, "Never thought of it like that."

"It's not sad," Espio said. He was startled, however, when Sonic cut him off before he could elaborate.

"I know. It's life. Things live and things die. Then, they're replaced by something brand new."

Espio's eyes widened.

"Hm?"

"Yeah," Sonic continued, immediately looking more comfortable than Espio had expected him to be, "The leaves die in the fall, but new leaves come in the spring and they're just as pretty as the ones that came before them...so I guess instead of being sad about the leaves that die, you look forward to the leaves that are still to come, right?"

Espio blinked confusedly. It wasn't like what Sonic was saying didn't make perfect sense. It was moreso that Espio hadn't expected such a thing to come out of Sonic's mouth. He'd never heard the hedgehog get so philosophical before.

The chameleon had suddenly been faced with the fact that he'd never thought of things this way before. He'd been taught that fall leaf meditation was centered on death and spring leaf meditation centered on rebirth, but he'd never connected the two things together the way Sonic had. The two things were innately connected. It was because of one that the other was able to occur. Symbiosis…

"I'm off the mark, huh?"

Espio jumped, suddenly remembering he hadn't actually said anything to Sonic.

"No," the chameleon answered quickly, "Actually, you're spot-on."

Sonic chuckled, grinning pridefully.

"Guess I'm more 'attuned' to all this ninja stuff than I thought."

Espio let a quiet laugh escape his lips. He wasn't prepared for Sonic to move, though, starting to climb down the tree.

"Where are you going?"

"Letting you do your meditation thing," Sonic answered, jumping to the ground and landing with a flourish, "Sitting completely still for that long isn't really my thing anyway."

Espio nodded, staring down at the hedgehog as he stretched restlessly. He was trying to think of the right words to say, his brain still having trouble processing the entire interaction they'd just had.

Finally, he decided on something.

"Thank you...for hanging out with me."

Sonic turned back to Espio, a playful look in his eye.

"I thought 'it wasn't about hanging out'?" he teased. Espio scoffed, though he couldn't help but let a smirk cross his lips.

"You have a way of making things different, I suppose."

It didn't seem like Sonic quite understood what Espio meant, but he stood up a bit straighter anyway, placing his hands on his hips triumphantly.

"Well," the hedgehog started, "If you ever want to hang out again, you know who to call."

"I do," Espio replied, "Thank you."

Sonic replied with nothing more than a wink and a hasty thumbs-up before dashing away, kicking up dead leaves as he sped off at high speed. The gusts he created whipped dangerously around Espio, causing him to hold onto his branch a little tighter before they subsided and the leaves settled back down.

Espio sighed, staring up into the colorful foliage. For a minute, he attempted to tune his breathing to match their weak, dying breaths. His lungs tightened as he did so.

How many other things about Meitokage ninjutsu had he been taking for granted because he'd just been going through the motions and making up things as he went?

He pondered this, closing his eyes and continuing his shallow breathing. It seemed-more so he realized-there was still a lot for him to learn.

A lot for him to learn indeed...

A/N: Hello, Sonic fanfiction community! This wasn't how I thought we'd meet, but I'm happy to bring you this one-shot! This was written as a contest entry for a writing contest held by the Sonic Fanfiction Discord server (which you should totally come join if you want to be involved in the next one wink wonk). The server is a steadily-growing community of writers and we'd be happy to have you on board!

This is hardly the only Sonic fic I've written, though, and I'm excited to share more of my work with all of you in the future! Stay tuned!