{Sonic}

"Faker?"

"Faker, you awake?"

I groan, a familiar voice hitting my ears, which twitched and flicked around to try to find the source of the voice.

Why is it so familiar…?

"Wake up, Hedgehog!"

"Huh…?" my vision is still blurry as I flutter my eyes open. "Who…?"

"Hedgehog! WAKE UP!"

Wait…I know that voice! But it can't be…can it?

"Damn it, Sonic! Wake the hell UP!"

{Normal}

Sonic's vision finally cleared as his emerald green eyes were met ruby red ones.

"GAH!" he screamed, backing away in shock as he finally realized who he was facing. "Shadow?!"

Shadow face-palmed at the other's reaction and shook his head with a groan.

'What did Sprite do to make him react THAT crazy?' he thought as he took a deep breath to keep him from seeming annoyed.

"At least you're FINALLY awake, Faker," he said. "You've been out for a couple of hours,"

"What?" Sonic scratched his head, really confused as he had obviously forgotten the terrible events in the previous night. "Why? What had happened?"

"You don't remember?"

"No…why?"

Shadow face-palmed again and sighed. "Do you at least remember Sprite the Hedgehog?"

"Sprite? Uh, yeah," Sonic bit his bottom lip. "I think…"

Suddenly, realization hit the azure hedgehog like a strong whack to the head and a wild kick to the stomach. He fell to his knees and burst into tears when the events of what the anti-mobian did to him.

Shadow, on the other hand, was shocked and confused on what was happening. He was frozen in place, not knowing what to do as his rival just kept sobbing.

"Uh, F-Faker?" he stuttered on his words as he spoke. "Are you, um, okay—"

"NO, I AM NOT!" Sonic screamed as loud as he could try. "I WAS FUCKING HARASSED, SHADOW! WHY WOULD I BE ALRIGHT?!"

"Calm down, you idiot!" Shadow grabbed the azure hedgehog's upper arms. "Sprite was arrested LAST NIGHT! YOU DON'T NEED TO FUCKING WORRY!"

"I AM NOT WORRIED! I WAS FUCKING AFRAID! I AM STILL AFRAID! YOU THINK THAT JUST BECAUSE THE HARASSMENT HAPPENED LAST NIGHT, IT IS ALL FINE LIKE NOTHING FUCKING HAPPENED! IT IS NOT!"

"WHT NOT?!"

"BECAUSE THIS HAPPENED TO ME BEFORE AND IT IS TERRIFYING!"

The red-striped, ebony hedgehog's eyes widened in shock as he slowly backed away. The azure hero fell into tears again, his hands on his face to keep him from showing his pathetic sight to the ultimate life-form in front of him.

"I…" Shadow felt his throat turn dry in guilt as his eyes lowered and his ears pinned. "I didn't know…"

"No…no one did…" Sonic sniffled his tears, wiping his blurry eyes to clear his vision. "Only two of my brothers knew…"

"What happened? Well, if you don't mind me asking,"

"I…" the azure Hedgehog broke down into tears again, the memory still unbearable to say.

The ebony hedgehog groaned, scratching his head before he shrugged and sighed. He pulled his rival into a hug and rubbed his quills gently. The blue speedster was in shock but still allowed it as he cried onto the ebony life-form's white, furry chest.

"Look, Faker," Shadow told him to ease him. "you DON'T have to tell me if you don't want to,"

"I…I do…" Sonic sniffled his tears and gently pulled away to face his ebony rival. "I just…"

He sighed and nodded. "Okay, I'll tell you…

"A few years ago, when I was like 10, my older brother Ric and I were wearing our clothes and were walking on the streets after shopping for some food for our team, The Freedom Fighters. It was late night so I held onto him and ran as fast as I could so we could return to our place in one place. We also needed to take back the medicine we bought for little brother Gil, who was sick with a fever so he was being taken care of by our Uncle Chuck while we went out.

"Unfortunately, I wasn't fast enough. Some huge, drunk sickos grabbed us and pulled us into an alleyway. They ripped our coats off and dragged their fingers and tongues down our fur and our quills sexually. They kept on harassing us as they took off my pants and…well…"

"They…" Shadow shivered at the thought. "fingered you two?"

Sonic nodded. "Ric, Gil and I all have the same secret. We wear pants ALL the time. Our Uncle Chuck helped us hide our secret by wearing skin-colored pants. It was very private but slightly obvious cause we kinda looked like transgenders to the other Freedom Fighters. Especially with our secret being there…"

"Transgenders?" Shadow scratched his head. "Wait, you said that it was LIKE you three were transgenders but you aren't?"

"No, we aren't,"

"Then…what?"

"We're…" the azure hedgehog gulped. "…hermaphrodites. A SPECIAL kind of herms, actually…"

The ebony hedgehog's eyes widened in realization. "Wait, so the three of you are Class 5 Hermaphrodites?! The ones with a vagina and a penis and the ones who CAN get pregnant?!"

"Yeah…" Sonic sighed and began to tremble. "Anyway, once those sickos found out, they sold us to a slave camp, a little far from the city. Lots of other bastards came to fuck us. They always aim for our asses because they knew we could get pregnant. I was the one who was usually fucked, no matter how many times Ric tried to defend me and himself. I couldn't fight back because…I was too scared…

"Thankfully, Uncle Chuck found out where we were. He pretended to buy us to be his slaves but when he finally got us, we went straight home to the Freedom Fighter Base. Our uncle checked us up to see if we were infected with any STDs, which we luckily didn't get because of our immunity, while Gil hugged us warmly, crying since he was so worried about us. They wanted to know what happened and Ric told them. I was still too traumatized to speak and ran to our bedroom…

"I couldn't sleep that night. I still had nightmares. My sleepless nights went on for days. And from days to weeks and from weeks to months. I couldn't get over what happened. Not one bit. I was visibly frozen in place. I stayed in our room, not daring to leave. Ric, Gil and Uncle Chuck tried to get me to leave and eat with them in the dining room but I didn't. I couldn't. I didn't feel hungry nor thirsty. I let myself starve for months…"

"Oh." Shadow shivered at the sudden tension building up in the room at the other's tale. "Sonic…"

"Hmm?" Sonic blushed a deep red when his ACTUAL name was called instead of the bad nickname as he looked up. "What is—"

His face reddened to the tip of his ears the moment the ebony hedgehog pulled him into a warm embrace, his steaming face on the ultimate life-form's furry white chest as he hugged him back, wrapping his arms around the neck of the other hedgehog.

"I didn't know that the 'Hero of Möbius' can go through so much in a childhood…" Shadow muttered under his breath.

Sonic lightly chuckled. "There's a lot of things no one knows about me. Not even Manic knows…"

"Why?" the ebony hedgehog pulled away to face the shimmering emerald green orbs and placed his hands on the azure hedgehog's warm cheeks. "Don't you wanna tell him? He IS your brother…"

"No, I don't." the hero shook his head with a frown. "He'll worry too much and think I can't handle myself. I CAN handle myself now so I don't need his concern,"

He gently took Shadow's hands into his own, making the ultimate life-down blue as he made eye contact and pleaded, "Please don't tell him, Shadow. Please don't tell Manic, or anybody else, what happened to me. I don't want anyone else to know how weak I was…"

He started tearing so he tried to wipe the tears with his arms and elbows but failed. Shadow could only sigh and shake his head.

"Sonic, you aren't weak," he boldly and sternly told him. "You are never weak. Sure, those damn sickos assaulted you hard in the past but that was because they thought you were a fucking coward since you were young. You've grown stronger than before and you know that. If those bastards were here right now, you'd be able to take them down like shit! Just…trust in yourself, Hedgehog. You're a lot stronger than you appear to be…"

He then paused and sighed then he added, "But, okay then. I won't tell anyone else, even your brother,"

Sonic's eyes lit up and he gasped in surprise. He wrapped his arms around the other again, catching him in a tight, surprise hug.

"Thank you, thank you, thank you, thank you, thank you, THANK YOU SO MUCH, SHADOW!" he cheered, crying out tears of joy.

Shadow's face burnt, turning as red as his stripes and eyes before he smiled and hugged back.

'Anything for you, Faker…'