"This isn't funny Tails."
Sonic furrowed his brow and made a whimpering puppy noise. He was looking at the book Tails had given him from the used book store in town.
"I never said it was supposed to be funny, I thought it might help you." The fox replied.
He and Sonic were in the commons area inside before School. Tails had dragged Sonic out of bed early so that they could get some extra help with Sonic's heath class before school hours. Almost no other students were there, because who wants to wake up super early for tutoring?
"I'm trying to get you help with your class, and I found you that book."
"But Tails! The sun hasn't even gone down yet! And this book looks like it was made in the 70s!" Sonic griped in a whiny, tired tone of voice that was close to the equivalent to a small child who hadn't had his nap yet.
"It's still a very good book." Tails took the book from Sonic and looked at the cover. The cover had a drawing of a teenage hedgehog boy looking at himself in a mirror in his bathroom. He looked very pale and scrawny from the back but in the mirror, his reflection showed a furry wolf with his eyebrows raised and his mouth in a puzzled position with fangs poking out. The title read, in a very scholarly font: "Growing Up with Lycanthropy- A guide to changes young werewolves might face during adolescence"
"Tails, I don't need a book about puberty."
"Sonic, just please read it so that you don't fail, okay?"
The sun started to set outside. Sonic watched it through the windows with a snarl on his face. He raised his middle finger and started to yell at the sky.
"YOU KNOW WHAT THE MOON, THE SKY, THE STARS, THE TIDES, THE PLANETS CAN GO DO? THEY CAN GO FUCK THEMSELVES!" He screamed. "WHAT DID I DO TO DESEVE THIS SHIT CONDITION?!"
Tails put his hands on Sonic's arm. "Sonic! Don't be so loud. You didn't do anything wrong. You just were unlucky, okay?"
"BUT I'M THE MAIN CHARACTER!"
"I know you are, but just please calm down. I know that sometimes you hate this, but it's just something that you're gonna have to live with." Tails tried to calm him down with encouraging words and a hug. Sonic glared at him.
"You know I could kill anyone here if I ever let myself off leash. I could bite you and spread my condition onto you, but I don't, because I have a strong will that prevents me from committing to any of those animalistic actions…"
"Yes…I know, I've read all about werewolves and the Lycanthropic condition."
"Then why. Aren't. You. Afraid?!" Sonic pushed Tails off of him as he began to shift into his werewolf form. Sonic's eyes began to glow a brilliant yellow, and he quickly became a dark shade of blue and a lot more muscular, his nails turned into sharp black claws and his muzzle got longer with sharp canine teeth now protruding from it. Usually this didn't hurt as much because Sonic had gotten used to changing every night, but this night was almost a full moon night, the moon was in the phase of Waxing Crescent. These transformations near and on the full moon were always more violent and painful for Sonic, as he became even more beastly, larger and way more aggressive that normal.
The small orange fox hid behind a lunchroom table that was folded up against the wall, he knew better than to be near Sonic during this type of transformation. He learned that the hard way the first time it happened, and he ended up with a broken back and deep clew cuts in his chest and his face. Luckily Amy was there to take him to the Emerald Town Hospital.
Sonic looked around once the transformation was over and regained his composure. This time he looked more wolf-like than he normally did. "Tails? Tails, wher'd you go?"
"Over here." A shaky light orange arm and a brown gloved hand waved from Tails' hiding place. "A-are you done?"
Sonic looked over himself. "Yeah, it's safe to come out now. I'm sorry this scares you."
The fox slowly came out of his hiding place and Sonic sighed. "I really don't want to go to tutoring right now. The werewolf was now panting and very warm to the touch.
"Sonic, it's okay."
"I'll go anyway." He walked towards the main hallway. "I don't need to fail."
Tails started to run behind him. "Wait up! I'll go with you. I don't have anything else to do right now."
What they didn't know was that a pink hedgehog hid in the wall as a shadow. She didn't want to be seen, just in case she'd be accused of stalking by the wolfman she loved so dearly again. She partially emerged from the shadows to check her phone. Her claws tapped on the screen as she typed a text.
To all those who care, Happy Early Valentine's Day
She sent it in Group Text.
"Well shit." She thought. "What am I going to do now?" She pulled at her black gloves and pouted. Another Valentine's Day, spent alone with mom and unfunny Rom Coms and cheap chocolate was in her near future. "You're too young to have a boyfriend, you freak people out blah, blah, blah!" She mocked her mother quietly. Of course, she was supposed to be at home because of her burns, but she had to see-
"No dammit! I gotta stop doing this!" Amy told herself while hitting herself with her palm. "I have to break this habit!" She took one more glance at Sonic and walked away.
"Oh, look who's here. Why if it isn't Ms. Rose~" A dark voice from nowhere called to her.
The pink hedgehog folded her arms. "What is it?"
"Oh, it's nothing…" The voice came closer to her.
"Shadow, come out of the wall, and stop trying to be ominous. It's annoying." She told him through her teeth.
"But isn't this more mysterious, More attractive. A disembodied sexy voice really would turn a girl on~"
He was getting on her last nerve now. "Shadow, you have a girlfriend, stop trying to flirt with me. I will tell Kris, and then everyone will know that you're a cheating scumbag."
"Hmph." The black and red hedgehog started to emerge from the shadow on the wall rather lazily. "You are no fun, and like they don't already know." He smirked and folded his arms.
"I'm not going to let you pull that same shit you pulled at St. Vladislav's."
"Oh yeah, that place, back when everything was fine, my parents were still together, and we weren't mixed in with filth…"
Back in the olden times, about 300 years or so, 18th Century Romania. The high-class vampire society was thriving, being more technologically advanced than the lower-class vampires, other creatures and the human prey, thanks to a certain vampire named Vlad "Dracula" Tepes. There was also a famous private school, made specifically for the children of rich vampires to go to and learn the arts and the progressive sciences that the namesake of the school had discovered and studied. Of course, no normal people would have known or come this far in this era, not yet.
Because the school was a very expensive one, and populated by 90% blue blooded pureblood vampire kids. One can imagine the combination of classist rich kid snobbery and regular vampire snobbery among the students that happened to have more money than others, it was also a small school due to this.
Listening to what Amy is saying would imply that she and Shadow did attend St. Vladislav's at one point. Also implying that they come from very wealthy families. And Shadow really liked to flaunt that around, inflating his sense of pride way past the point where it starts to get obnoxious.
"Shadow, can you stop? You are irritating everyone." Amy tried to take the solid gold pocket watch from the hedgehog who was deliberately positioning it in a way that the shininess caused the light that there was, to bounce off of it and shoot straight into people's eyes. Amy reached for it as Shadow held it high in the air out of her reach. He smirked at her.
"Shadow, nobody likes light shone in their eyes! Give it!" Amy growled at him.
"It's my pocketwatch, I can do whatever I want with it." The dark hedgehog said, matter-of-factily. He curled his lips into a mischievous smile and kissed the gold trinket.
It was a point after school where friends and lovers could unwind and hang out with each other before going home. He and Amy were sitting across from each other, one on a fancy red velvet couch with gold trimming on the edges and another in a wooden chair with red fabric. They were in a common room of some sorts with seating and tables, crystal chandeliers hung from the ceiling, and the walls were papered with dark red wallpaper. Shadow and Amy were relaxing.
Amy sighed and sat up a little straighter to look around and scan the room to see if there was anyone else she knew that she could talk to besides him. The pink vampire's green eyes looked all around for someone she knew. She wasn't the popular type where she knew just about everyone, but she knew a good amount of people that went to the academy because she was generally one of the friendlier vampires that would actually reach out and try to be friends with people.
The pink hedgehog sighted someone that she definitely knew and was more pleasant to talk to, except she didn't think that the friend could see her. The person that she wanted to get the attention of was talking to someone else currently. Amy just kind of stared at the back of her head at first to give her that feeling of someone is looking at you, to get her attention. The violet female hedgehog didn't notice the pink one staring into the back of her long, flowing ponytail, so Amy had to try a different tactic to get her attention aside from staring.
"Hey, ya. Why're you staring at ol' Nebs over there?" Shadow asked while sprawling himself out on the couch. "You know you can just call her to come over here, or else people might get the wrong idea."
Amy gave him a look and her eyes flashed crimson. By now the purple hedgehog had finished her conversation and was now writing in a journal using a pen and an inkwell, jotting down her thoughts that she wanted to remember for later, such as for a book or something. The pink hedgehog raised her hand and waved it politely to get her attention.
"Hello, um, Nebula, hi, over here!" She said in a friendly voice that wasn't too soft or loud.
The violet hedgehog girl dipped her pen into the ink and had started a line when she noticed that someone was trying to get her attention. Unfortunately, when she lifted her head up to look the pen had made an ink blot on the page of her journal. She softly made a huff noise and stopped writing, but immediately smiled when she saw who was trying to get her attention. She gathered her things and joined Shadow on the couch, who was not very happy about having to move his legs, but he let her sit.
"Hi Nebula." Amy greeted and shook Nebula's gloved hand. "I haven't seen you in a while."
The purple hedgehog smiled. "Hi you two. I'm sorry I haven't seen you in a while. I went to go visit family, and we stayed longer than expected."
"That's okay, family is important." Amy replied. "But we're glad you're back. Aren't we Shadow?"
"…" The black and red hedgehog was staring at the ceiling.
"Shadow!"
"Oh! Uh, yeah. Glad." He added.
"You're being rude." Amy said to him.
"You're expecting ME to be nice?"
"I expect you to be civil when in the presence of women, is what I expect!"
"Amy, I don't care-"
"You should care!"
Nebula fake coughed. "Amy, it's alright, I know him, and I know he has trouble with other people. He just needs to learn."
Amy looked at her for a moment. "Alright…How was your family? Was it the non-vampire side or the vampire side?"
Nebula looked at her gloves and sighed. "It was the uh, vampire side."
Amy smiled. "Oh, how did it go?" She asked.
Shadow had now shifted his focus from the chandeliers to Nebula. He was holding in the urge to share his opinion. He kept opening and closing his mouth.
"Well, the vampire side of my family didn't really know that I even existed, so it's very awkward to introduce yourself to family, especially when you are older."
Amy frowned. "Oh no, but you did okay with them, right?"
"…They were okay with me, until they found out that I was actually a Dhampir."
Amy looked surprised and looked at Shadow, and then back at her. "What happened then?"
"They asked my aunt how she could have let her brother marry a non-vampire, and they argued for a while. And then they just tried to ignore it, also my cousins were there, and they started to look at me weird, but they didn't want to be mean, so we kinda just visited with each other despite me not being pure of blood."
Amy stood up and hugged her. "I'm sorry that happened to you." During the hug she prayed that Shadow would keep his opinions to himself for the time being.
When Shadow was sure they were done talking, he finally started talking and spread his opinions. "Well I don't think vampires should be with non-vampires either, so…I agree with your relatives." He curled his fingers around the handle of a teacup and lifted it to his lips.
Amy looked back at him with the fires of Hell burning in her eyes, but she didn't want to cause a scene in front of everybody.
Nebula breathed in. "Wow, I didn't think you'd be one of those kinds of people…" She was now visibly hurt and shaken from his words.
"Huh?" He asked. "What kinds of people?"
Nebula pushed Amy out of her hug gently. "I'm sorry, I just need to go." She looked at Shadow with a look of anger on her face, but with tears. "Shadow, I hope you can become more open minded, because this just isn't working if you think I'm not supposed to exist. We are through!" The purple dhampir hedgehog hurriedly left the room with tears streaming down her face.
Everyone had stopped to see what was going on and were now looking at Shadow and Amy in silence.
"How can you be so CLUELESS?!" Amy yelled at him and ran after the girl.
"That was a horrible thing you did to her." Amy told Shadow. "DO NOT make the same mistake again."
"Oh COME ON that was like 300 years ago!"
"It doesn't matter!"
"She's probably dead now so I don't know why it's still relevant."
"You are a dick!" Amy screamed at him and turned into a bat. She flew outside to the courtyard to think and calm herself down. She thought about Nebula and her journal, and how she would write her inner thoughts down and write short stories. What a wonderful creative outlet that must've been. Maybe she needed her own outlet. But what could it be?
