AN: Hi, kids. My recent beta reading work inspired me to post something of my own, so I figured I'd put this up.
I wrote this back in July on a piece of paper that I hid in a notebook and forgot about until a few days ago. It's not very original (nor is the title) but it's something that I felt I had to write. After all, we don't get to see Sonic's emotional side very often.
SA2 feels incoming.
Live and Learn
"Hey, uh."
He wasn't good at these things. Never had been. That was why he'd double-checked to make sure that he was alone before he started this. This... what was this, anyway? An apology? A goodbye?
Something along those lines.
"I know you and me didn't really get along that well, but, uh."
His nose was itching, probably because of all the dust. He scratched it with the back of his hand and shifted from foot to foot.
"I thought I should say somethin'."
He was still trying to figure out what, exactly, that something was.
"Just to warn ya, I've never been a man of few words, so expect this to go on for a little while, a'right?"
He couldn't put it off any longer. Time to take the plunge.
"Shadow..."
He took a deep breath and scratched his nose again.
"You know, you weren't such a bad guy in the end."
The end that had come not fifteen minutes ago. The end that he had never seen coming; the end that nobody in the world had expected. He knew that he'd be reliving it in his dreams for at least the next few months. A person didn't just forget something like that.
"I mean, you were a jerk and you tried to kill me, but honestly..."
He was starting to feel sick.
"... I treated you the same way."
He pressed his cold hands to the glass and spoke directly to the darkness of space beyond it. What Shadow would have wanted, he hoped. Then again, he really didn't know Shadow at all.
"And I don't blame you for..."
Letting go. Killing yourself in front of me. He couldn't say it. Not any of it. The wound was still too fresh.
"... doing what you did. Maybe it was your time. I don't know."
Now he was feeling sick. Hopefully he wouldn't stain his final memory of Shadow with vomit.
He held his breath for a while in an attempt to put it off.
"I didn't know you, like, at all. I'll admit that. But still..."
His throat was stinging. No, he wouldn't, not here. He'd save that for when he went running later.
"I gotta..."
His voice cracked. There, that was exactly why he was glad he was alone.
"Ah, screw it."
He laughed, even though his vision was growing increasingly blurry.
"Hey, ya know, Christmas is coming up. You probably wouldn't have cared about it much, but it's one of my favorite holidays."
He was leaning against the glass, so close that his nose was touching it. He'd have to remember to wipe it clean before he left.
"Anyway, Christmas is a time to be thankful for all the people in your life. Kinda like Thanksgiving, ya know?"
He closed his eyes because he couldn't see anyway.
"And... even though I probably wouldn't 'ave got you anything except for maybe a smack in the face..."
He laughed again, because he had to.
"... I'm thankful that we met."
He had to hold his breath again to keep from crying like the kid he no longer was. That Sonic had died along with his arch-rival.
But the world was still waiting for him, so...
"Just don't come to haunt me in the middle of the night, okay?"
He was smiling, and he would keep smiling.
"Well, that's all I got."
He brushed his hand over the warm glass and finally turned away.
"Sayonara, Shadow the Hedgehog."