6: Relationships for beginners
"Sorry, for the hugging. I guess, I needed that.," Kylie apologized, while they walked next to each other through the hallways, their destination not too far away now.
She had noticed, that Sonic had tensed suddenly, and she had understood it as the crossing of some kind of border, which was, why she had let him go again quickly.
"No problem, I'm...rather surprised, that you could, actually.," Sonic replied in a mumble, thoughtfully.
He had, after a minute, realized, that Kylie had been closer to him than anyone in the last few weeks and out of a reflex, the reflex, that had kept everyone at bay so far, he had tensed up and raised his quills, which had forced Kylie to let go.
"What do you mean?," Kylie asked surprised. "Well, since weeks, I keep everyone at arms-length, even Shadow and Tails. You are the only one, who could actually touch me. I'm glad, that Shadow had not been here to see it, he would have killed you.," he added dully.
"...Is everything okay with you two?," Kylie asked carefully. "Yeah, besides Shad's jealousy driving me up the walls and me pushing him away all the time. We're totally fine.," Sonic growled.
"I see..." Kylie interrupted herself upon seeing, that they were standing in front of the white painted door with the milky glass window in its top half, that was one of their private wards, as the letters on the glass indicated.
Figuring, that Sonic would probably be more talkative, when there wasn't a chance of someone listening in, she opened the door – and looked directly at the two mobian girls staring at her, seemingly frozen in place.
Sonic noticed, that she didn't enter and moved to look past her and also at the girls. One of them was a yellow furred mongoose girl, about fourteen years old, with long purple hair and brown eyes.
She was in the process of wrapping the arm of the second girl, a cat with light turquoise fur, yellow eyes and a slim, long tail, who seemed slightly younger. The cat wore a black training suit, that needed a repair desperately, judging by all the rips and tears in and the missing fabric, while the other girl wore a green mini-skirt and light blue t-shirt.
"Again?," Kylie asked with a raised brow, she didn't seem overly surprised to see them, neither together, nor in this place.
"What can I say? Mirrors are evil.," the cat shrugged. "Okay, whatever. Would you speed it up a bit, so that I can use the ward, please?," Kylie asked.
"S-sure!," the mongoose squeaked, suddenly blushing like crazy, tying the bandage, apparently harder, than she had intended, judging by the yelp she earned, quickly putting the used utensils away. When she was done, she took the hand of the other girl and rushed them out of the door with a more than average speed. It was hardly, what Sonic could achieve, but definitely fast.
"She can always reach such a speed, when she's scared.," Kylie explained. "She was scared of us?," he asked confused. "No, just embarrassed. She was highly motivated to get away from her big idol." She winked at Sonic and led them inside. The hero looked for a second after the duo, before he followed her.
"Take a seat, if you like, I'll just change into something cleaner.," Kylie told him, pointing to the table, on that the cat had sat before, while closing the door gently.
Sonic just shrugged, walked to it and hopped up to sit on it, while Kylie walked to a wardrobe in the far corner, opened one of its doors and got out a lavender lab coat, that she switched with her blue one, throwing it carelessly in a corner.
"Alright, let's start with this." She went to a cupboard, opened it and got out something, with that she returned to Sonic, letting herself plop on a stool with wheels in front of him and held out a small rectangular box out of white plastic to him. In the side facing Sonic was a hole.
Sonic scowled, recognizing the object. "Kylie, I. Am. Not. Pregnant!," he hissed, knowing, that this box tested, if someone was carrying. He had seen Scourge performing this test on the Island.
"No, really?," Kylie replied sarcastically. "I knew this the second you wanted to come with me alone. No pregnant mobian would go completely alone with a human – even if you trust me.," she added, when Sonic already wanted to contradict. "This little thing here can more, than just what you think. Come, now."
Giving up, but still convinced, that it was a huge waste of time, Sonic obeyed. He winced, when the needle pierced his bare finger tip and pulled out to suck the digit, while Kylie watched the box.
For a minute, they sat in silence, before Kylie's face lit up. "Ha, I knew it!," she grinned proudly.
Looking up, she smiled in Sonic's confused face. "I can reassure you, that you won't die. The blood you saw in the bathroom wasn't blood at all, just a coloring caused by certain hormones. It was to inform you, that you will somewhere in the next seven days ovulate. This is actually rare, you know? Most ukes are informed of it the day it happens, your body instead gives you an early warning."
Sonic blinked at her owlishly. "I'm going to do- what?," he asked, completely confused. Kylie's smile vanished and she frowned at him for another minute, looking him up and down, as if searching for something. "Sonic, do you...know, how babies are made?," she asked slowly.
Immediately, Sonic felt heat creep up his cheeks. "W-well...," he stuttered, scratching his quills. It was quite obvious, that he had no idea. He knew the basics, of course, that a seme and an uke/a female were needed and sex, too, but that was it. So far, he had never really needed to think about it...
"Okay. Nicole!," Kylie called in the empty room. "Yes?," a voice asked out of nowhere, making Sonic jump. "Please be so kind and ask Mali to reserve a place for Sonic in our next sexual education class...and one for Shadow, too.," she asked. "Of course.," the voice replied and fell silent.
"W-wait a minute, I-," Sonic tried to protest, but he was a little overrun there. Kylie turned to him. "Sonic, you will not argue with me and go to this class.," the woman told him strictly. "Ovulating means, that your body gets ready to conceive a child. It will be your most fertile time of the month – and you have apparently not a single clue about what this means. You will take this class, so you'll learn, what your body is telling you, how you can avoid getting pregnant and many things more. I'm sorry for being so strict, but I don't want to ever read a newspaper with the title 'Sonic the Hedgehog pregnant – I didn't know, that this could happen, he says'.," she added.
Sonic swallowed dryly. Yeah, he didn't want this either. "Alright, but I don't see Shadow taking this class with me.," he conceded. "Oh, semes and ukes go to separate classes. It would be highly embarrassing, if a seme would learn, how an uke's system works in detail, trust me. And if he declines, I'll have Mephiles drag him there. He would for sure love that.," Kylie chuckled.
Sonic smirked. He still remembered, how often the two had clashed two years ago, so he could imagine that, too.
"So, this wasn't blood?," he asked, switching back to the previous topic. "No, it wasn't, but it probably looked like it in the first second. This hormone causes urine to take a red to reddish-brown color and a certain smell. It informs the uke and semes smelling it, that he either will ovulate, or is already. The semes sniffed out and followed the scent for miles, if necessary, in the past."
Sonic grimaced. "Sounds disgusting." Kylie shrugged. "This were the older days, many things had been different back then.," she replied.
She pushed herself away from Sonic, while still sitting on the stool, the wheels on it rolling her over to a desk, where she was getting a clipboard and a pen, before she returned to the hedgehog the same way.
"Alright, now I want you to tell me all you can about the symptoms you have and when they started, as much as you remember.," she explained, getting ready to write down everything she would hear.
Meanwhile:
Sitting in the foyer wasn't exactly a fun doing, but it was definitely better than being around a ghost, Amy thought.
Still, watching Mali type away was getting old quickly and she wished, that something would happen here, anything would be fine.
She perked up, when the door opened and she turned around expectantly, but it was just a human deliverer, having a hand truck with him, on that were stapled several boxes of all possible sizes, it seemed.
He pushed it over to Mali's desk and got out a clipboard. "I've got a delivery for-" "Don't bother, I'll come over.," Mali interrupted and let her wheelchair bring her around the desk and to him.
The young man watched her with a dropped jaw, letting her take the clipboard and check the deliveries personally.
His eyes stayed glued to her, but like with Shadow before, Mali simply ignored it. She seemed used to such a behavior.
"Seems all alright. You can just leave it here, thank you.," she said eventually and gave him back the clipboard, after signing the papers.
He took it, still with a dropped jaw. "E-excuse m-me, b-but...d-did those hedgehogs do this to you?," he stammered, gesturing helplessly to her wheelchair and whispering, as if 'the hedgehogs' could jump them any second.
Mali stared up to him for a few seconds, before leaning back and exhaling. "Yes, they did.," she answered calmly.
The expression of her eyes hardened. "If those four hedgehogs hadn't found me in that side alley, hadn't heard my screams, pushed my attacker to the side and done everything in their power to save me, I would be either paralyzed from my neck down, or dead. And there doesn't pass a single day, in that they don't come to me to apologize for not being able to save my ability to walk."
Her glare turned cold and calculating. "So, do you have the balls to apologize towards me for ever assuming, that I'm held as a helpless prisoner?," she asked with a snarl.
"I...er..." The poor man had fidgeted the whole time under her glare and after her question, he just fled – and the mobians could say, that they had never before seen a human run this fast.
Mali rolled her eyes at his retreating figure, shaking her head. "Such a coward.," she muttered, before turning to the boxes.
"-embarrassing. Really, I thought, I'd die.," a voice suddenly said and everyone turned around to see a light turquoise furred cat and a yellow furred mongoose come in the foyer through the hallway Sonic and Kylie had disappeared to, the latter of the girls was blushing madly.
"Nobody ever died from blushing. And I should know that – I'm an expert for near death-experiences.," the cat replied, throwing her fist against her chest.
The other girl looked at her. "That's no reason to be proud.," she frowned. "You think?," the cat asked surprised.
"Mina, DJ!," Mali called them and the girls looked over to her. "Could you help me with these boxes? A few of them need to be brought in the kitchens.," Mali told them, gesturing to the abandoned handcart. It didn't seem strange to the girls, that the handcart didn't have an owner.
"Sure, no problem.," the cat grinned and they came over to get the boxes she meant. "Everything okay? You seem a little upset!," she noticed, just before she could grab the first box.
"Yeah, yeah. Everything's fine. People just seem to think, that today is 'We anger Mali'-day, or something like that.," the young female sighed. "Really!? Tell me, who angered you, and I'll make them pay!," the cat suggested eagerly.
Mali raised a brow. "DJ, last week you got yourself a concussion by opening a door. I don't see you taking revenge for me anytime soon.," she deadpanned.
"You have a few accidents and soon you aren't trusted anymore with blowing your nose on your own.," the cat, apparently DJ, pouted. "Didn't you somehow manage to break your nose once doing that?," Mali smirked.
Tails, Amy and Knuckles, who listened in involuntarily, sweatdropped. This girl was apparently a walking accident...
The cat just grabbed a few boxes and raised her nose in the air. "I won't grace this insolence with an answer.," she grumbled and went away.
Mina and Mali exchanged a little grin, before the mongoose grabbed her share of the luggage and ran after her friend.
Mali smiled after them, before returning behind her desk, leaving the last few boxes on the handcart.
She grabbed the telephone, dialed and put it to her ear, waiting. She drummed her fingers impatiently, before finally hanging up and dialing again.
"Come on, come on...," she mumbled, before she straightened. "Finally, what took you so long!?," she snapped.
She deflated a little again. "Sorry. ...No, I'm really sorry. I'm just having a bad day." She chuckled tiredly. "Yes, this can also happen to me.," she smiled. "...Right, could you come over and do my job for a while? I need to go to the garage. ...Already tried that, nobody's answering. And I can't ask one of the robots. Remember the drama last time? We needed two weeks to find all of Bokkun's parts again. I should be happy, if they leave my wheelchair untouched. ...Er, no. Last time, you almost dehydrated down there. I get, that you are into this inventing and researching and tinkering, but you have no mate or brother/sister, who provides you with food down there. So I'm doing this – and you replace me here for a bit. ...Five minutes? Alright, I'll get going then, bye. And thanks!"
Hanging up, she moved back to the remaining boxes and proceeded to take them on her lap, when Tails approached her shyly. "Er...S-sorry, c-could I please come with you to this garage?," he asked carefully. What he had heard in her talk just now had sounded so tempting! Inventing and researching and tinkering – this was, what he loved the most! If there was such a place here, he needed to see that!
Mali blinked at him and then at the two others behind him, looking determined not to let the youngest of them alone with her. Looking back at the fox and seeing his innocent curiosity, she chuckled. "Under one condition."
"Which one?," Tails asked immediately and stumbled a little, when Mali pushed the box she had had on her lap in his arms. "You carry the boxes.," she grinned.
"Alright..." Kylie wrote down the last few notes and then checked, what she had written down before.
"Could you tell me about those dreams? I mean, do you remember them?," she asked thoughtfully, reading the point in her notes, that indicated, that Sonic was lacking sleep because of them.
Sonic blushed. "W-well...do I have to?" "Sonic, right now, I need to know everything. Besides, I'm a doctor – and your friend. Nothing, that you will tell me in here, will leave this room."
Well, technically, she was a veterinarian and had never sworn this oath of silence, that other doctors did, since her usual patients had no say in that matter (literally), but she meant, that they were friends and as such, she would keep his secrets.
"And what about this 'Nicole'?," Sonic countered. "Nicole?," Kylie asked loudly, not missing a beat. "Yes?," the same voice from before answered. "Would you please block yourself out of this room, until the end of the day?"
"Of course." And it became suddenly silent. "Problem solved.," Kylie told him, smiling proudly.
Sonic frowned in thought. He remembered this voice now, it had warned him and his friends of the flying dark seme earlier, before he could crash into them. He made a mental note to ask about this later.
"Do you really think, that you will need all day for this examination?," he asked instead. "No, but I rather put a big time limit on it and not a small one. I hate it to rush, when it comes to medicine. Now, the dreams."
Sonic groaned internally and looked down. "Fine.," he gave up. "Those dreams always start the same. Shadow and me are about to... well... do...well... do 'it'..."
Chaos, that was embarrassing. Kylie, however, wasn't commenting at all, she was simply listening, giving him all the time he needed, without asking for details.
"We just...well, do, what we usually do, when we're alone, but in my dreams, I always want...more, I think. We're always interrupted, every time by something different. Last time, it was... Perringten... halfway rotten."
"Definitely a not very nice way to wake up.," Kylie commented, moving away again, rolling over to the desk, grabbing one of the books she had lined up there, opening and leafing through it, stopping sometimes to read a sentence, before leafing further, until she had found whatever she had looked for and carefully read.
"I see.," she mumbled to herself after a minute, or two. "Sonic, would you agree, that the second halves of your dreams, the ones, that are always different, become worse every time?," she asked, still reading.
"Absolutely.," Sonic nodded without hesitation. Between Tails and Cream almost barging in the room and a halfway rotten Perringten were dimensions.
Kylie frowned. "Okay, this might become a problem.," she declared, put the book aside, grabbed another, leafed through it and opened a double page at the beginning, her index finger going through the lines.
"In what way?," Sonic asked, not sure, if he could interrupt her. "Your mind is trying to tell you, that your body is ready for the next step, meaning getting intimate with Shadow...all the way, you see?"
"Yeah..." Kylie was thankfully still distracted and didn't see Sonic pretty much changing color from blue to red behind her.
"It is absolutely normal, that the mind of someone your age starts to imagine the first time. And here is, where your problem starts. You already had your first time. It was rape, but that doesn't interest your brain. It needs the information, so it simply takes it. Your mind, however, refuses to put Shadow in the position of the rapist and forces you to wake up, before the dream can escalate. This caused your lack of-"
"Kylie." The strangled word shut the woman up immediately and let her turn around. Sonic sat, where he had been sitting, but this time, with his hands on his knees and his head hung low.
"...How do you...know of the rape?," he asked silently. He did remember all of the details, if only in his dreams mostly, but Kylie had never been part of this. So, how could she know? Sure, she had been the one telling him about the miscarriage so she had been bound to know, that something had happened, but they had never talked about whose young he had lost. Shadow hadn't mentioned Kylie either, when he had recalled what little he could remember of that dreadful day...
Kylie froze, her hands starting to shake and she quickly held them to her chest to stop the trembling.
"I...I've been there. When it happened.," she whispered, forcing the memories back, that threatened to crawl out of the corner of her mind, in that she had stuffed them.
Sonic's head snapped up at that and he looked at her. He saw her shaking and sighed, his ears pressing to his skull. "I'm sorry.," he mumbled, averting his gaze again.
"Did you just apologize for being raped?," Kylie asked, with a microscopic hint of amusement in her voice.
Sonic shook his head. "No. For never asking about your feelings in this whole thing." "You have been through a thousand more things than me, so it's okay." "It shouldn't be. We're friends, as you said, but I never..."
"Sonic, stop. You had enough things on your plate, it was good, that I wasn't your top priority. Besides, I was in therapy and I have my children, I had help. I wasn't just sitting on the streets, slowly dying, having nothing. And just so you know, back in the hallway earlier, you helped me more in two minutes, than my therapist did in a month."
The two exchanged a small smile, before Sonic asked the dreaded question, "What...did you see?" He wasn't so sure, if he wanted to know, but the question, how they escaped this situation, was something, that neither of them had been able to explain, yet.
"How about I'll tell you later, when we are in my office? I need some time to collect myself and I rather have Shadow with you, if he can touch you, or not. Okay?," she suggested.
Sonic agreed. Shadow's presence did have a calming effect on him, he couldn't deny it. Besides, if Kylie needed time, he would give it to her.
"Good. Now, as I said, your mind tries to protect you, but from your dreams getting worse, I fear, that the lack of sleep is weakening it and it is only a matter of days, until you will relive the rape – with Shadow as the infamous star. I'm not sure, what it will do to your conscious mind, or worse, your instincts.," Kylie finished sadly.
Sonic swallowed dryly. "A-any suggestions?," he managed to get out. He was already reserved enough towards Shadow as it was, this would make it worse...
"Yes, actually." Kylie closed the book, grabbed a sticky note from a staple of those, pulled it off and scribbled on it, sticking it to the desktop afterwards. "There is a herb, that we are cultivating here. It will help you sleep, not deeply, though, so you will still wake up to loud noises, or shaking. However, you won't dream, you'll sleep too deeply for it. You should take it for two weeks, then you can try to sleep without it. If those dreams appear again, I'll prescribe them to you once more. They have no side effects, besides a very deep, comatose sleep, if you take far too many at once. I will ask Nicole to calculate the ideal dose for your metabolism, then I'll give it to you."
"How would this Nicole know about my metabolism?," Sonic asked confused. "Hm? Oh, right, you were in the bathroom, I almost forgot. You see, Nicole is an AI, built and programmed by Eggman to find a way to destroy you.," Kylie explained casually. She was currently going through the room, collecting things out of cabinets and cupboards and putting them on a table on wheels, that she pulled after her.
"And why are you having her?," Sonic asked confused. Eggman usually only abandoned his inventions, when he had destroyed them to scrap metal.
"Eggman is kind of trying to date me.," Kylie shrugged. Sonic shuddered at the mere image. "Why?," he asked, unable to wrap his mind around this. Then again – when could he understand Eggman's motives, before he revealed them?
"You can thank Tails for that. He accidentally provoked Eggman and now he is determined to prove, that he is 'charming', by bribing me – as the only female person he knows – into dating him. He gifted me several robots and Nicole so far, but he can forget it. Doesn't stop him from trying.," she shrugged.
"And I thought, that seeing Eggman in nothing but a pink tutu in one of my dreams had been the craziest he could ever get.," he mused, making Kylie pause for a second.
"Thanks, Sonic, that is a picture I won't get out of my head for a while.," she sighed, before continuing her doing. "Anyway, Eggman fed Nicole with lots of information about you, so she is rightfully an expert for your vitals and system."
"Why would he give you such an useful invention? I mean, he wouldn't give something up, that he could still use against me. He knows, that we are friends.," Sonic wondered. Eggman was crazy, but not stupid, he knew this better than anyone. The mad doctor had to expect, that Kylie wouldn't give him back any of his bribe-gifts, if it could harm her hedgehog-friend.
"Because Nicole 'rebelled' against him." He could practically hear her rolling her eyes, while standing with her back to him. "She learned a lot about you the further he programmed her, of course, and one day, she 'dared' to ask a question. He shut her program immediately afterwards and didn't get her out again, until he gifted her to me." "What question?," Sonic asked curiously. "She asked, why Eggman would want to harm someone, who does only good."
Sonic couldn't help, but snicker at that. "A classic Eggman. His inventions and plans had had always a tendency to backfire.," he grinned.
"His robots are a testimony of this.", Kylie agreed and returned to Sonic, with the table and the stool, that she pushed with her knee closer to him.
Sonic eyed the instruments on the table warily. Did he ever mention, that he hated examinations?
"Alright, let's look in your other symptoms, then.," Kylie declared and took an electric thermometer in her hand.
Immediately, Sonic's ears pressed down tightly, as if they knew, what she had in store for them.
Kylie saw it, of course. "Sonic, how am I supposed to measure your temperature like that?," she asked, scolding. "You know, my ears are rather...sensitive today, so, yeah...," he tried to find an excuse.
Kylie raised a brow. "Is that so?," she asked and Sonic nodded quickly, hoping to get past the plastic tube in his ear.
"In this case, okay." She put the thermometer back, turned away and went to another cabinet. "Then we'll measure the temperature rectally.," she said, as if thinking out loud, while opening the door of it.
Sonic paled. Rectally, as in...!? "W-wait!," he quickly exclaimed and Kylie turned very slowly around to him. "Yes?," she asked, as if she had absolutely no idea, what he could possibly want. "I... er...think, my ears will be fine.," Sonic reassured, trying to save, what was left of his dignity. "If you say so." Kylie closed the door, returned and took the thermometer again.
Reluctantly, Sonic straightened his ears and jerked, when Kylie grabbed his right one gently, so it wouldn't move again. Carefully, she inserted the tube and waited for the small device to do its job, watching, how the hedgehog's left ear twitched and flickered, as if it tried to run, in case she would 'abuse' it, too.
She shook her head. "You are a phenomenon, you know that?," she asked with a deadpanning voice.
The left ear stopped twitching and turned to her. "What do you mean?," Sonic asked back. "One second you comfort me like my oldest and best friend – that you are, don't get me wrong there – and the next, you act like my son, when he was six and tried to bribe his pediatrician with his pocket money to escape his shot."
Sonic chuckled. "Did it work?" "In his dreams, maybe.," Kylie replied. The thermometer beeped, signaling, that it was done.
Kylie pulled it out and looked at the small display, while letting go of the ear. "You do have a slight temperature, but it might have something to do with your vomiting earlier, it has probably put a strain on your already weakened body.," she announced.
"When was it measured last?," she added, scribbling down the exact number on a second sheet of paper on the clipboard.
"Er..." Sonic frowned in thought. "Before I moved to Angel Island, I guess." "You moved to Angel Island? When?," Kylie asked surprised.
"Eight days ago, why?" "Sonic, when I asked you to tell me everything, what did you think I meant?," Kylie chastised.
"You said symptoms.," the hedgehog defended himself. "Besides, why is living on Angel Island so bad?"
Kylie rolled her eyes, while she went through her previous notes. "The problem is, that you are there very close to the Master Emerald, that gives out constantly energy." "So?"
Kylie frowned at him, abandoning her notes for a moment. "You have apparently no idea from the effects Chaos Energy has on the body.," she stated, continuing her doing.
"Well, it's refreshing and can heal wounds and some minor illnesses...," Sonic listed up. "Yes, it is and yes, it can – if it is channeled. If it just flows, without anyone controlling it, it can make certain illnesses and even wounds worse."
Sonic's eyes widened. "That's possible?," he asked, completely surprised by this. "The energy helps all living things – even if they just consist out of one cell, like bacteria and your very own cells, that your immune system is built out of. In the worst case, Chaos Energy could make an illness or an infection on a wound last longer, since it's fueling both sides equally. And judging by my notes, that was, why you were getting worse lately."
Sonic needed a second to process that. "Why would Knuckles not tell us that?," he finally asked, although he didn't expect an answer.
He got one anyway. "My guess is, that Knuckles didn't know about this. He lived on this island for his whole life, his body probably adapted and channels the Chaos Energy unconsciously, it's used to the constant energy flow. Your and your other friends' bodies, instead, aren't, but since you normally don't spend much time in a row there, especially when you aren't well, you don't notice it.," she explained.
"Why were you on Angel Island in the first place? Did you have a fight with Shadow?," she changed the topic.
"Huh? No, this was more to stop Knuckles from killing kittens." And he told her of the echidna's and Shadow's madness lately.
Kylie listened attentively and sighed, when he finished. "And I had hoped, that Eggman finally gave up on me.," she grumbled, before turning to Sonic. "Their behavior is pretty confusing, right?"
Sonic nodded. "Yeah. I mean, I get, that Shadow is worried, but he is overdoing it and I have not the slightest idea, why he and Knux make a competition out of this." He paused. "You don't think, that he's having a crush on me, do you?," he asked, feeling worried. He liked and respected Knuckles, but as a brother-like friend, not in this way. Any other feelings would just complicate everything...
Kylie chuckled. "No, I don't think so. They just clash, because they are the same type of seme, that's all."
"Type of seme?," Sonic repeated. He was too engrossed in their talk to notice, that Kylie was currently taking a blood sample from him. "All living beings can be divided in certain groups, that define their general character. And Shadow and Knuckles belong to the group of the so called 'Protective semes'."
She paused for a second to scribble Sonic's name on the blood sample and proceeded to check further vitals, while she continued, having the hero's undivided attention all the time, "Protective semes are very...well...extreme, I think is the best word. They have the strong will to protect the ones they love – family, friends and mates alike. However, every Protective seme has his very own concept of keeping their loved ones safe and since Shadow and Knuckles both belong to this type and have partly the same people they care for, they are bound to clash. When they get aggressive towards each other, then just because their instincts tell them, that the other has a total wrong way of keeping you safe. Right now, as you are in a bad condition, their instincts get a little out of their way. It should normalize, when you start to recover. You should move off Angel Island, though."
Sonic nodded in agreement. By now, Kylie just needed small taps on certain parts of the hedgehog's body, to get Sonic to shift in the position she needed him in to check whatever she wanted.
"What type of uke am I then?," the hero asked after a moment. "Definitely the Confident type. Most ukes pretend to be confident, but only the likes of you can keep it up in dangerous situations. Those, who pretend to be confident, but aren't, are called Masked ukes."
"What type is Silver?," Sonic asked, still completely unaware of his blood pressure getting measured and written down. "He is a Timid uke, they get scared easily and blush pretty much every time they are spoken to by strangers."
"And Scourge?," Sonic asked, remembering the green furred, blue eyed hedgehog, who was looking quite like him – and had gone through more hells, than he had, on the Island. "I'd say, that he is an Introverted uke, he doesn't really let anyone close to himself." "What about Mephiles and Fleetway?," the hedgehog continued.
Kylie chuckled. "I see you are interested. Alright, Mephiles is of the Guard type. Unlike the Protective ones, the Guard types care the most for their mates, long before their family and friends, but they let their mates have more freedom and range, than the Protective ones. They stay always close enough to be there for their mates, if they need help. As Mephiles can be at Silver's side in a second, he gives him the utmost freedom. As about Fleetway...I don't know. His behavior is far too unpredictable. If he and Scourge have ever a relationship, it will probably become clearer. Most semes are showing their type after finding a mate or boy-/girlfriend, not earlier." Kylie stood up and Sonic wondered, when exactly she had sat down...
"Alright, I'm done with most of the examination, but there are a few scans I would love to do, too. We would need to go to another room, though.," she explained.
Sonic blinked and looked around, noticing the small band-aid on his arm, a sign, that she had taken a blood sample from him. He peeked towards the clipboard and noticed far more notes on it, than before their talk had started.
"Hehe...I need to pay more attention, huh?," he chuckled. "You just need some proper sleep, your mind is exhausted and can't process too much at once.," Kylie replied reassuringly, grabbed her sticky note with the name of the herb for Sonic from the desk, the blood sample and the clipboard. "Come, let's go.," she nodded and Sonic jumped off the table. "Whatever.," he shrugged. "Highly motivated, huh?," Kylie chuckled and led them out the room and down another hallway.
She stopped shortly after, in front of a door with the word 'LAB' on it and knocked. "Thilo? Are you there?," she asked loudly.
"Just a second, don't go, I'm coming to you! I'm almost there!," a voice shouted, but not from behind the door, as Sonic noticed and he turned to look down the hallway to see a butterfly mobian rush towards them.
He had large blue wings, that started to become gray here and there and scraped along the walls, without hindering their movements in the slightest.
He wore a black overall, that seemed too big for his meager figure. His feelers were of an orange color and framed his face like hair, while his actual hair was black and short. His eyes were also black.
He landed in front of them, out of breath, as if he had run there. "I'm sorry, really, I am. Mali put this Tebian in my care and it took me forever to get him to stay.," he rambled his apology, while he caught his breath.
"No worries, I'm glad, that you could convince him. I'm sure, that Veit can need some rest.," Kylie replied calmly.
"True. Although, it shouldn't have taken this long, it isn't difficult to lie to the brute after all, his brain isn't exactly used often. He actually thinks, that my wings are blue because of my diet."
"Well, it stopped him from killing you.," Kylie smiled. "Yeah." The dark eyes slid over to Sonic. "And I'm guessing, that you are the one, because of whom this charade was necessary.," he stated, looking the hero up and down.
Sonic just shrugged. He had a strange feeling with this mobian, as if he was analyzing him.
"Thilo.," Kylie called and the male turned his attention away from the hedgehog and towards the human.
"Would you be a dear and analyze this blood sample, please?," Kylie asked, holding out the sample.
Thilo grinned. "That's my job, isn't it?" He took the glass tube. "Anything special I should look for?," he questioned. "No, I'd like to have the full spectrum."
The male grinned. "And here I thought you wanted something difficult.," he chuckled. "Give me 30 minutes and I'll have the results."
"Thanks. I'll be in my office.," Kylie explained. "Alright." The male nodded and slipped in the laboratory, closing the door behind himself immediately.
Sonic frowned at the door. "Like talking with a psychologist, huh?," Kylie asked and he blinked and looked up at her.
"Thilo is Blush's uncle and a profiler. It is his specialty to analyze others to foresee their behavior. He just wanted to test your reaction with his sentence.," she explained.
Sonic nodded in understanding. He had the feeling, that this butterfly had pretty much tried to do an x-ray of his soul. If they would have talked more, he would have probably gotten a complete picture of him.
Kylie indicated, that she wanted to go further and he followed her. "Why is Blush's family working here anyway? I saw a few of her sisters here, too.," he mentioned, but not, when he had seen them.
"Blush's family members are mainly assassins, but they do pretty much everything, if they are paid for it enough – and if they like the mission. I met Blush first and when she heard of all the hatred and actions the uke-haters had done so far, she wanted to help and asked her family for support. Her sisters won't stay all the time, they will leave to fulfill another mission now and then, Thilo is working for real here, though. From what I know, in Blush's clan are the females stronger, they only listen to the male chief, but to no other male. Thilo isn't half-bad, but as he's a male, he doesn't have much to say. The males are either the chief of the clan, which is Blush's father currently, or they are trainers, guards and/or nurses to the females and that's it. Most of the time, they have nothing to do – they aren't even allowed to reproduce. Here, Thilo can do a lot more, which is why he left the clan. Er...if you meet Blush, don't ask her about her uncle. She is forced to pretend, that she never had had an uncle in the first place, because of this dishonorable leaving; clan-rules, you know?," she added.
"What would be an honorable leaving?," Sonic wondered. "Death – or so severe crippling, that doing anything assassin-like would be impossible." "Okay, I'd prefer the dishonorable leaving.," Sonic stated with wide eyes. "Tell me about it."
They entered another room, in that were several machines. Sonic just sighed, while he entered after Kylie. Those things had 'Hold still!' written in neon colored, metaphoric letters all over them. What a bore.
"Alright, please lie down there, okay?," Kylie asked and pointed to a bed with a smaller machine next to it, while she walked to the only cupboard in the room. "Er...are you sure?," Sonic asked. With his quills, he would rip the fabric of the bed...
"Sonic, we are treating many hedgehogs here, all of our equipment is prepared for everything hedgehog-related.," Kylie replied, having guessed his thoughts obviously.
"Okay..." Reluctantly, the hero let himself down on the bed, watching Kylie return with something, that looked like a folded piece of silk.
She stopped next to Sonic, unfolded the thing and placed it on his body like a blanket...a too short blanket, since it only reached from his shoulders to his hips.
Sonic let her, frowning, since it hadn't sounded like a blanket out of silk, when she had put it over him – and it definitely didn't feel like it. In fact, it rather sounded and felt like poking tinfoil, when he stabbed his finger in it experimentally.
"What is that?," he finally asked. "A special foil, that is needed for the ultrasounds of mobians with fur or feathers.," Kylie explained, getting something, that looked like a giant tube of toothpaste, out from under the machine next to her and shook it up and down.
"For mobians? So not for humans?" "Humans and amphibian/reptile mobians have easily cleanable scales or skin, it only takes a few paper towels to get this stuff here off. Fur and feathers, however, need several washings to get rid of all remains, so someone invented this foil. It allows me to see everything I need, without interfering with the machines and without dirtying your fur.," Kylie explained.
"Okay, and what do you need to see?," Sonic asked. "I want to take a closer look at your organs, your heart, lungs and digestive system, to be precise."
"...Why?" "You've been sick for a while now and close to the Master Emerald, which isn't good, as I already explained. Not to mention, that you are vomiting very often and your stomach gets easily upset lately. I just want to make sure, that your heart, lungs, stomach and intestine are intact and didn't get damaged during the illness, since I couldn't hear something suspicious earlier. Sometimes, there's only something found, when looked at, not listened to. There is always the chance for damage, if someone is so sick for so long.," Kylie explained, squirting a good amount of a clear, colorless gel on the foil, in the middle of his torso.
Sonic gulped. He knew little to nothing about medicine, since he was usually unconscious, sleeping or daydreaming during examinations, so he was unaware, that there could have been damage inflicted by an illness. If he had only thought about it sooner. Was it...maybe too late already...?
"-nic? Sonic!" he jumped and quickly turned around to Kylie. She gave him an unamused look. "I know, that I probably chose a few words wrong, but could you please try and relax? Your heart and lungs are working too fast for my eyes to see them properly.," she complained.
He blinked. "Oh.," was all he could say to that. Thanks to his metabolism, his organs worked faster than normal ones, even when he was completely relaxed. For doctors, that wasn't so bad, they could still make out enough. When he was nervous, though, the movements were becoming too fast for normal eyes. Kylie probably just saw blurs.
"Er... sorry.," he apologized. Kylie smiled. "Just try and keep calm, this is just to access, if there is any damage, I never said, that there might be. I'm just trying to be on the safe side, okay?"
"Are you always on the safe side?," Sonic asked. "Even when it comes to spontaneous rescuing missions.," Kylie smirked, remembering, how she had prepared to bust Tails and the others out of the Uke Institute, gently sliding the ultrasound device over his chest.
She frowned at the monitor next to her, that was turned away from Sonic, and sighed. "Alright, let's try it in a different way. Anything fancy you want to talk about?," she asked conversationally.
The hero blinked at her, confused. "Well, talking will hopefully distract you a little and slow your heart and lungs down a bit. So? Anything you have ever wanted to know?"
"Er..." Sonic frowned, thinking hard, but nothing came up, he was still too distracted with his worry. He had never thought, that he would ever fear for his life this often in a row.
"How about we talk about Shadow and you?," Kylie suggested and Sonic jumped, more at the sudden interruption of the silence, than the topic, his heart, if possible, beating even faster now.
"W-what do you mean?," he stuttered. "Well, before we reached the private ward, you said something about Shadow being very jealous and you pushing him away all the time. Would you like to elaborate?"
"Um..." Sonic was very sure, that he was blushing like crazy again. "It's up to you, it was just a suggestion.," Kylie shrugged.
Sonic hesitated, but then sighed. Well, Kylie would for sure not laugh... "It's just...since those two years, whenever Shadow tries to...go farther than making out, I'm pushing him away. It's always...like I'm on automatic, I barely notice it, until he stops and then I see my own hand pushing him away from me. But that's not all. Sometimes... I'm even pushing him away, when we aren't making out.," he admitted slowly, looking away.
"Do you have an example?," Kylie asked, interested, while dividing her attention between the monitor and Sonic.
"Well, in the winter after the whole Island-incident, I got pretty sick. Tails said, it had something to do with my body decompressing from all that, or something like that..." He frowned, trying to remember the exact words, but gave up pretty quickly. He had been out of it, when Tails had formulated his diagnosis, so he couldn't possibly succeed.
"Anyway, I was having a pretty high fever for a little over a week, so my friends and Shads took turns in watching over me. Shad doesn't need so much sleep, that's why he took over the nightshifts. Whenever Tails retired for the night, I immediately grabbed him and pulled him in bed next to me, to...well... cuddle, I guess, but when I heard Tails in the mornings, coming to my room, I pushed out Shadow, so that he landed on the floor. Every time. Why? I just don't get it.," he ended, forgetting temporarily, that he had been talking with someone. He still remembered Shadow's hurt look, haunting him for the ten days he had needed to recover.
"It's pretty easy, actually." Kylie had no problem with reminding him, that she was still there. He jumped again and turned to her.
Kylie looked at the device in her hand, carefully shifting its position. So carefully, that he barely felt it. When she was satisfied, she turned back to the monitor. Only then, she spoke further, "To cuddle with your seme is a sign of weakness, a sign, that you wish for protection and comfort. There is nothing wrong with that, don't be mistaken.," she added, when Sonic started to protest, although she couldn't even see him opening his mouth. She knew him well, didn't she?
"Everybody has a right to let go and be comforted, even heroes. Still, accepting the comfort is seen as a sign of temporal weakness by all mobians. You didn't want Tails to see you cuddling with Shadow, because he is your little brother and you didn't want to appear even weaker in front of him, than the sickness already made you. I experienced Tails' worry first hand, don't forget that. Since this illness was a consequence of the Island-mess, he would have returned in this hyper-worry and -guilt. You tried to protect Tails this way."
Sonic frowned, letting her words sink in. "But when we were making out, Tails was always out of range, he couldn't even hear us! Why would I push Shadow away still?," he asked confused.
"That doesn't have anything to do with showing weakness and making Tails worry.," Kylie explained, using her free hand to press a few buttons under the monitor. "What let you push away Shadow were your instincts. They were trying to protect you." "Protect me? From what? Shadow would never hurt me!," Sonic bristled.
Kylie looked at him, then she took a deep breath, took a few paper towels, cleaned the device she had used and put the device to the hook designed for it under the monitor. She took off the foil and bunched it together like crumbling a piece of paper, throwing the ball in a bin next to the door, allowing Sonic to sit up. He still looked pretty upset.
"Sonic, your instincts try their everything to protect you. If they wouldn't trust Shadow, then you wouldn't be together at all, okay?," she told him calmly.
Sonic nodded, calming down. "Good. Now, your instincts still live in the older days, they are unaware of how the times have changed. According to them, every time you two sleep with each other, you run the risk of getting pregnant. And there was a good chance, that your body couldn't take that strain until now."
"But...you said, that I'm not doing this ov...ovi..." Sonic furrowed his brow, trying to remember the foreign word. "Ovulating?," Kylie helped. "Yeah. I'm not doing this, yet, so I can't become pregnant, right?"
Kylie facepalmed. "You will SO take this class, my friend.," she sighed with a shake of her head. "Look, your reproductive system has been built out somewhere between your 13th and 14th year of life. In theory, you could have become pregnant since then. Ovulation just means, that you are more fertile. You can still become pregnant outside of it, the chance is just marginally smaller. Besides, most of the time ovulation happens silently, meaning, without any outer signs. If your instincts hadn't protested, you would probably be pregnant now, or already a parent."
She interrupted herself, when Sonic rushed over to the bin and threw up in it. She winced in pity.
This had been probably a little harsh, but it needed to be said – hedgehogs were pretty fertile, which was probably a special measure, that Mother Nature needed to take. It meant more chances for offspring and more chances to let the hedgehog race survive. Since Sonic was an Alpha – one of the few members of the old colonies, who needed a lot of offspring – and he had pushed Shadow away at every occasion there had been, it was pretty obvious, that he was very fertile. One time was probably enough for him to conceive.
And since most ukes didn't have something like a period like females had it – this was solved without blood and over the normal digestive system in an also silent process –, they couldn't even pinpoint, when exactly they weren't fertile. Not even scientific tests had been able to do so so far, it was a pure gamble. From what she knew, the fertile and barren time periods even fluctuated – outside of mating season, at least. It seemed, as if Mother Nature had gotten out the big guns to save hedgehog-kind. According to what she had researched, some hedgehog colonies had been reduced to less than a dozen members by the epidemic, so it was kind of understandable.
Hearing Sonic dry heave, Kylie went to the cupboard and got out two bottles. The bigger one was just water, the smaller one medicine.
She went to the panting hedgehog and held out the bottle of water to him, after having opened it. Tremblingly, the hero took it, taking a sip and spitting it in the bin. "Thanks.," he sighed, taking another sip to hopefully calm his stomach. He remembered faintly, how Mali had said something like ukes getting pregnant the whole year, but it had fled his mind over this whole I think I'm dying-incident.
"Here, drink this. It'll help you." Kylie offered him the smaller bottle with a dark green fluid in it, that didn't look, as if it could be trusted to not be poisonous.
His thoughts were apparently quite easy to guess, because Kylie went to explain, "It's made of different herbs and works as a medicine against upset stomachs, vomiting and nausea. Best drink it all, that should work for a few hours." Sonic grimaced. He was pretty sure, that he would vomit after downing that stuff, but he trusted Kylie not to give him anything bad.
Making up his mind, he opened the bottle and drank its content quickly, before taking a big gulp of water to get the bitter aftertaste out of his mouth. "Better?," Kylie asked.
Surprisingly, yes. He already felt his nausea die down. Nodding, he stood up, his stomach for once not complaining, and gave her the bottle back.
He then faced Kylie properly. "So...will my instincts push Shadow away forever now?," he asked slowly.
"No. As soon as we got rid of whatever is making you push away Shadow and everyone else, they won't stop you anymore."
"They won't?" "No. The ovulation and your dreams are indications, that your body is now ready for conceiving. Of course, the question is, if you are."
"I don't get it. I thought, that I could conceive, since I was 13 or 14 years old!" "In theory, yes. However, that is the case for all ukes and females of the hedgehog race. Yet, barely no one of you ever got pregnant, before being legally adults, thanks to your instincts. They notice, when the body gives signals to be ready and until then, they stop every try of a seme and protect you."
"But when does the...body know, that it's ready?" Sonic felt a new headache form from all the information. "That's something, that not even science can explain, yet. Some hedgehogs get the signal with sixteen, others with 25. It's always individual. With you being almost eighteen, you're of an average age."
She clapped her hands, as if to change the topic this way. "Now, the ultrasound is done – and your innards are as healthy as they can ever be. Two more examinations, two scans, to be precise, and we're done completely."
"Hooray.," Sonic muttered, not so enthusiastically, but he was glad, that Kylie hadn't found anything. "Which one next?," he sighed.
"This one." She pointed to a table with something, that looked like a desk lamp attached to its side on the bottom. "Just lie down on it, on your back – and better keep your eyes closed, or you'll see stars."
"Fine. What does this thing look for?," he asked, while lying down and closing his eyes. "It gives me a very exact picture of your whole body, to the last blood cell. I won't get the results immediately, because of the data mass, but in about 30 to 45 minutes.," Kylie explained, while coming closer and he heard something being switched on, that started to buzz and move steadily towards his ears, apparently it was the thing, that he had confused with a desk lamp.
He heard some noise, that sounded like typing and, how the scanner seemed to stop and shift in position, where it was. It could apparently not take his complete width at once. The noises were going on his nerves and he rather started a conversation again, but definitely not over the same thing. He was glad, that this topic was over and he had no intention of bringing it back up.
"Kylie?" "Hm?," the woman replied, rather close to him. "You told Mephiles, that everyone in a relationship shows off, correct?"
"Yes?" "Then why don't I feel the need to show off with Shadow?" Kylie chuckled. "Sonic, how many people in your range, that you deal with on a daily basis, are in a relationship?" Sonic frowned. "Zero." "There you have your answer." "What?"
"This kind of showing off happens usually between couples. There are always people showing off, that they have a boy-/girlfriend and someone else not, but you don't have this mean trait. If you and for example Silver would hang out regularly, however, you would sooner or later start to compare your boyfriends – and definitely not, because they look like twins."
The scanner had continued his journey during her explanation and was by now so close to Sonic's ears, that he couldn't tell, if Kylie was still talking, the buzzing was too loud, drowning out her voice and any other noise.
After what felt like an eternity, the buzzing stopped and he quickly sat up and opened his eyes. "Everything okay?," Kylie asked, looking concerned. "Yeah.," Sonic replied, picking his slightly hurting ear. Even the thermometer had hurt less.
She smiled, relieved. "Good. I'm sorry, I forgot to warn you about the volume. It's not as loud for humans, that's, why I forgot.," she explained sheepishly. "No problem. So, what's the last thing?," he asked, jumping off the table.
"This scanner here.," Kylie replied, pointing to a huge box with a hole in the middle, that was forming a tunnel through almost the the whole thing, it was closed off at the back. Kylie went to it and pressed a button, that let a thin, rectangular plate, like a table without legs, come out of the tunnel.
Sonic swallowed. He could guess, what he should do and to be stuck in this small room wasn't exactly something he looked forward to.
He didn't have claustrophobia, but being in small spaces invoke in him the urge to run stronger than anything else – and holding still was a struggle.
"Er... what is it for?," he asked, trying to stall. "It's to check your head. I'm a little worried, because the hallucinations appeared a good hour after you fell down a tree and, because you can't remember anymore, on which body part of yours you landed exactly. I want to make sure, that you have no brain damage, that might appear sooner, or later."
"Er...how long does it take?" "Depending on how fast you hold completely still – and that includes stop talking – just about two to three minutes." "You promise?," Sonic asked, worried.
Kylie's expression softened, seeming to notice his problem now. "I promise. There's a speaker in the tube, I can talk all the time to you, even if you can't answer, so you are distracted.," she offered.
Sonic grinned. "Thank you." He was still a little nervous to lie in the small space, but if it was really that fast, then he could manage.
His quills bristled nervously, when he was pulled in the narrow space and he almost jumped out of his skin, when it stopped, trapping him in twilight. "Okay, Sonic, can you hear me?," he heard Kylie's voice from behind his head. "Er...Yeah!," he called loudly, not sure, how loud he needed to talk.
Kylie chuckled, there was a slight crackle to her voice through the speaker. "No need to shout, I can hear you just- Damn!," she suddenly cursed, making Sonic jump once more. "W-what's wrong!?," he asked, worried.
"I'm sorry, Sonic, I'm afraid, this might take a little longer, than I promised.," Kylie sounded mostly annoyed, which was probably a good sign. It was better than worry, or fear, he guessed.
"How much longer? And why?," he asked immediately. "A few more minutes, I'm afraid. Someone played with the perimeters. This machine is constructed to take in all kinds of mobians and even human children, but since every mobian has different perimeters like height, weight, fur, feathers or skin, quills or hair and so on, it needs to be programmed accordingly. And currently, it's programmed to analyze a lizard...a feral one, from the looks of it. I need a few minutes to calibrate it back, and it's actually easier, if you just stay in it, okay?"
"Alright. Who did this anyway?," Sonic asked, not having missed, how Kylie had stressed that one word earlier.
"I'm very sure, that it was DJ, the cat you saw earlier. She loves playing around with technology. There will be a light flash for a second, so don't be alarmed, okay?"
"Okay." Sonic closed his eyes and true to her words, he saw a red flash behind his eyelids for a second, before it was gone again. "Alright, it worked. Just a little longer and we can start.," Kylie reassured him. "Okay.," Sonic repeated.
"So, wanna talk about Shadow's jealousy?," the woman brought up the other half of their topic. "It's fine, just...annoying, that he even tried to go after Tails."
"How did you stop him from that?" "I threatened to break up, if he didn't leave Tails alone. I'm not proud of it, but I had no other idea of how to get him to listen to me." Sonic exhaled deeply, looking at the simple, half-round ceiling above him. "Sometimes, I have the feeling, that I can get him to calm down, but I don't know, how I do this. Is probably an instinct-thing, or something like that.," he admitted. Sometimes, when Shadow was about to lose control, he would notice it and call his name, like earlier, when Blush had poisoned him.
...Oops.
"Er, Kylie?" "Yes?" "I think, I forgot to mention, that I had a...run-in with Blush and her poison.," he admitted, sheepishly.
Kylie was silent for just long enough, that he thought, that the speaker was damaged, before he heard her sigh. "Anything else you forgot or didn't see as necessary information?," she asked annoyed.
Sonic sweatdropped. "Hehe...no, I think, that was it." "Good. Well, I asked Thilo to do the full spectrum with your blood, so he'll find traces of Blush's poison, if there are some. And something tells me, that I don't want to know, why you had a fight with her.," she sighed. "Now, to get back to your problem with Shadow's jealousy. I think, that you are overthinking this. Most ukes in relationships can handle their semes easier, than a newly bought puppy."
Sonic frowned. "How?" "They let their instincts do the work, like you already do sometimes. Take Silver, for example. He knows by instinct, how to call Mephiles to himself, how to stop him and how to reward him."
"...Sounds, as if he actually treats Mephiles like a dog." "Yeah, you can compare it with that. Most ukes and females do that with their mates, they train them properly. In Silver's case, he taught Mephiles, when he calls out of boredom, when in an emergency and so on, he gives him hugs and kisses to reward good behavior and when he does something he doesn't approve of, he starts to cry. Since Mephiles hates to see him crying, it works better than scolding would ever do. His instincts and Mephiles' are working closely together on this." Indeed, Sonic remembered, how easily tearing up had turned Mephiles into a much nicer person in mere seconds...
"Well, I don't see myself starting to cry.," Sonic explained. "Never said you have to. You just need to find your own style. Since you have a public reputation, you will probably do this scolding and rewarding in private. Most ukes deny their semes affection, or put them on the couch, when they want to punish them for bad behavior – unlike dogs, semes remember, why they are punished, when it's done later – and give them an extra of affection, something they particularly like, like a date, or a massage or something like that, and maybe sex to reward them."
"But I actually like...well, the sleeping together.," Sonic admitted, embarrassed. Kylie chuckled silently. "Well, you don't have to punish yourself. Ukes and females have less problems with finding physical comfort in others. If you need someone to hold you, you could just ask Silver for a slumber party – he would feel, that you need comfort and provide it unconsciously."
"...You're kidding, right?," Sonic asked, speechless. He and Silver didn't know each other THIS well! On the other hand, he had been quite clingy back on the Island towards the other two ukes...
"No, I'm not. In older days, ukes and females were sometimes left alone for days by their mates, while they tried to gather supplies, or something like that. How do you think did they sate their need for physical contact, without betraying their mates? They cuddled with other ukes and females. They even went so far to making out in dire times, but never further. Besides, you don't have to punish him, not-rewarding him would do the trick just fine, too."
"I don't know... I'm...not even sure, what he would like..." Sonic's ears pressed down. There was so little about Shadow he knew, and he noticed it only now... He wouldn't know, how he could 'reward' Shads. He seemed to have nothing, that he liked particularly. The list of his dislikes, however, went on and on and on...
"Sonic, what do you think this 'training of mates' is for?," Kylie asked, sounding amused. "Er..." "It's to get to know each other, especially their likes and dislikes. You would be surprised, how many things mates learn from each other, when they just let their instincts do the work."
"Sorry, Kylie, but I really can't imagine that.," Sonic sighed, shaking his head. "If you want to, I can explain this to you. The scanner would be ready now, so you won't be able to ask any questions until the end of the scan, but you can still listen. I'll try to explain as good as I can okay?"
"Alright." "Good. I will be silent for just a second, I need to keep a button pressed to talk with you and I will need both my hands for the activation, so don't be alarmed, okay?" "Yeah, just hurry."
Kylie chuckled. "Okay. The scanner will start to buzz and vibrate at first, which is totally normal. I need you to hold still perfectly and to stop talking, until I get you out again, alright?"
"Er...yeah.," Sonic replied reluctantly and the speaker gave a slight noise, when Kylie cut off the connection.
And already, it happened. His foot and fingers twitched. Whenever he was told to hold still AND be quiet at the same time, he did the exact opposite. One part of himself just NEEDED to move!
He jumped slightly, when the machine around him started to vibrate and to silently buzz. He found himself spreading out his arms against the walls in an instinct to hold himself in the tube.
The speaker crackled. "Sonic, you need to stay still.," Kylie reprimanded. "Er...yeah, right..." Slowly, Sonic returned his arms to their previous position. His feet were twitching restlessly.
"Sonic...," Kylie warned and he stilled – just to have his fingers tap the plastic surface underneath them.
Again a crackle. "SONIC THE HEDGEHOG!," Kylie shouted angrily. Sonic chuckled. Yeah, he tended to do this to people, who wanted him to hold still.
"Sorry. I'll hold still now, promise.," he smiled apologetically, not sure, if Kylie could see it, while he willed himself to relax.
He closed his eyes, the soft vibration and the buzzing, mixed with Kylie's calm voice starting to talk with him keeping him utterly at peace...
Mephiles watched with attentive eyes, how the semes in front of him trained, either working out on their own, or sparring in groups of two to four. He shifted his attention all few seconds to another male, supervising their process.
Semes training looked quite like an extreme boot camp. They needed discipline to keep their usually scarily strong powers at bay. In older days, semes had plenty of workout with their daily jobs – like hunting, chopping wood, getting water and so on – and the protecting of their colonies and mates.
Here, in this artificial colony, they didn't have these strength-robbing tasks, so other methods needed to be used, so that they were kept under control.
His ear twitched and turned to his right, his eyes following to see a seme with orange fur standing there in a fighting stance, but not saying anything. Semes weren't very eloquent speakers, when it came to fighting and/or protecting, most communicated with only gestures, growls or one-word-sentences, like 'Fight. Now.'.
This one was challenging him with his stance alone. Sighing, since he knew, that he was quite persistent, he let dark purple ribbons grow out of his shadow, their pointy tips blinking like sharp blades and the nine appendages acting like the tail feathers of a proud peacock at first, spreading out, before curling half way around his back and sides, creating a protective shield around these parts of himself.
The message behind this was clear: I won't fight actively. If you want a sparring partner, fight against these, or leave me alone.
The male grinned, accepting the challenge. Baring his fangs and showing off his claws – semes usually trained without their gloves on which equaled bare upper bodies for humans –, he jumped at the artificially made ribbons, that had the consistence of steel, when he tried to cut them.
Mephiles let him try fighting these new 'body parts' of his, that moved without him having to think about it, while he kept looking at the others.
In comparison with the way semes trained, the way of ukes looked like a game. He had peeked on their training grounds a few times – of which Silver and Kylie were happily unaware – and had been surprised to see them rather playing around, just play-fighting and using their powers marginally and more for fun, or to get the children to laugh.
As he had found out later, ukes rarely trained at all and if they did, then merely their bodies, or their brains, because they drew their powers' strength out of their protective instincts. While ukes depended on them in dangerous situations, semes better didn't, because if they would, then they would kill every other seme in sight. They only used their instincts in absolute emergencies.
A scream, resonating in his skull, let him straighten, the ribbons crumble to dust in a mere second, and him quickly transporting himself away, not bothering with telling the seme, that the fight was over. The semes knew, that he didn't just disappear for nothing.
A mere second later, Mephiles already appeared in the room, in that he had left Silver, to see his beloved sitting up in bed with a mix of terror and surprise in his expression. "Silver, what's wrong?," he asked concerned.
The uke blinked, as if getting pulled out of a deep thought and then focused on his seme. "Hi, Mephy.," he greeted with a soft smile.
Realizing, that the younger male was still half asleep, Mephiles sat down next to him. "Silver, I heard you scream. Did something happen?," he gently explained and then asked, petting his cheek, to wake him up a little more. Silver frowned in thought, before he gasped. "Oh, I heard someone scream!," he realized.
Well, Mephiles had already figured that much. Silver tended to scream, when he heard someone else scream, while he was asleep. In the past, Mephiles had liked to watch horror movies, but only done this, when Silver had been asleep in his lap, because he hadn't want to scare him.
Most of the time, Silver had simply slept through the movies, unaware of the horrifying music, the bloodcurdling noises and the screams of the actors, before they turned into a deafening silence, or gargles, that left no guesses to their future. Just once, when an actress had screamed in fear at seeing a monster behind her, Silver had also screamed and woken up, but not remembering, why he had woken up.
Confused, why this one scream had been different to all the countless other ones, Mephiles had tried to find out more about the movie.
To his surprise – and luck – Kylie had advised him to ask her son Alex. He had been surprised, that the woman had trusted him with her child – and, that said child had been actually helpful.
As he had found out, Alex was as infatuated with horror movies, as he himself had been and known the movie, that Mephiles had tried to gather information about. The particular scene in the particular movie, as he had learned, was special, because it was real. The actress hadn't known, what would happen, her fear upon seeing the monster suddenly behind her had been real, not an act. Apparently, Silver had unconsciously felt it – which was interesting, since it had been recorded and the female hadn't been with them in person...
Well, it had been the end of his horror movie passion, since there was always the risk, that a scene like that could appear again in another movie. He could do worse things in reality anyway, the movies had been pure entertainment, like comedies (which those movies were for him, no amount of blood or gore could ever shock him).
Remembering, that there could have been only one other person in the room, that could have screamed, he turned around to see the girl Kari sitting up, with her back to them and seemingly trying to catch her breath.
"Kari!," Silver gasped, having apparently caught up now, too and quickly jumped off the bed to run to her. Mephiles stayed behind, his hand still raised to pet him. He tried hard not to scowl. He knew, that ukes cared for children the most, but that didn't mean, that he had to like, how fast Silver's attention switched over to her.
Silver knelt down in front of the girl. "What's wrong? Why are you scared?," he asked softly.
The girl just continued to shake, but her breathing pattern got a little calmer. She flinched, when Silver placed his hand on her knee and he quickly took his hand off again, as if he had been burnt.
Mephiles had actually the urge to check, if it maybe got burnt and he needed to send the brat to hell for it.
"I'm sorry, I didn't mean to scare you more.," he apologized. Kari just shook her head, as if forgiving him this way.
It was silent for a little while, before Kari gradually stopped shaking. "Better?," Silver asked gently.
The girl nodded. "Y-yeah, sorry for waking you. I just...I just thought, I've seen... Forget it, it had been just a dream...or nightmare." She shook her head and stood up, showing Silver a bright smile. "Thank you for caring – and for saving me earlier."
Silver blushed. "Th-that was nothing, really." "Still, thank you." Kari gave him a brief hug – she seemed to know, that Mephiles would not tolerate a longer contact – before waving once at the seme and running out.
"Silver, are you feeling better?," Mephiles asked, once the girl was gone. The uke grinned. "Yeah, I'm fine, the nap was great." Then he seemed to remember something. "What time is it?," he asked.
Mephiles told him the remote time – immortals rarely kept track of hours passing – and Silver's face lit up. "That's great, school's out!," he cheered, meaning the normal schools outside the Shelter. The schools the Shelter provided were generally having fewer subjects and were therefore giving the pupils more time for playing and other stuff.
Silver loved to use his free time to help the younger children with their homework, since he learned more by this. His curiosity and thirst for knowledge were insatiable at times. Besides, the faster they were done, the sooner they could all play together.
Running around the sofa and giving his boyfriend a tight, long hug, the uke quickly left the room then to wait for the first ones to come from school, leaving Mephiles alone.
The seme smiled after him for a few seconds, before he turned serious. The door slammed close and locked itself.
Dark purple energy started to move in waves off him, starting at his feet, moving along the floor, up the walls and ending on the ceiling, right above him.
This method helped him to make all auras in the room visible. Since auras dissipated usually quickly, it was safe to say, that all auras he saw now were recent. First, he saw the auras he would be able to see, if he changed his sight, originating from himself, Kari, Silver and Shadow, the colorful silhouettes showing their movements, while being here, the darker ones being younger, than the lighter silhouettes.
A few more, stronger waves were necessary, until he had found, what he had been looking for. Close to Kari's gentle, light pink aura was another one, showing a menacing gray color. Unlike the other auras, this one didn't have a shape, It rather looked like a thin veil, like fog.
He narrowed his eyes. As he had thought, the girl hadn't have a nightmare. Someone had been right in front of her, when she had opened her eyes. Someone, who knew, how to mask an aura. Someone, who could as quickly disappear, as he himself could appear. In other words – a threat. Scowling, he disappeared.
He moaned wantonly,while gentle hands traced down his body, the fingertips touching just the right places to send shivers down his spine.
"Sh-Shadow...," he whimpered, his hips bucking against the hedgehog over him, while the rest of his body felt like mush under those capable fingers. "Please... more...," he begged and growling possessively, the seme leaned down to fulfill the request, nipping and licking every single one of the mapped-out places he had found so far, going to deeper located places of his love's body each time, drawing passionate moans out of his uke. He was close, so very close to-
It broke the atmosphere of passion like a hammer hitting a glass orb.
Laughter.
Cruel, cold laughter. His eyes shot open. Their surroundings were completely swallowed by darkness, nothing outside the bed could be distinguished. The only thing he saw, was the pair of huge, glowing red eyes, staring at him without blinking, coldly, calculating, sticking out of the darkness like two ghost lights. The eyes seemed to grow, to wrap around their bed, to squeeze it...
"AAAHHH!" With a scream, Sonic jumped up. Something wet touched him during the upwards movement and he instantly moved sideways away from it, which let him smack his head against something hard, that didn't give way in the slightest.
"Ow..." Groaning, he held his head, leaning against what he saw now was a wall, that was also responsible for his headache.
It took him a few minutes to calm down, to let the pain in his poor skull subside and to realize, that he had just dreamed again.
"Sonic?," a voice asked and he jerked around to it, but it was just Kylie, who looked at him, worried. For a second, he had actually thought, that it was the owner of those scary eyes.
He smiled weakly. "Hey.," he greeted, his voice a little raspy. Kylie smiled softly. "Hey. Another nightmare, huh?" "Yeah.," Sonic nodded. "Wanna talk about it?," Kylie asked with sympathy.
The hedgehog actually contemplated it, but then, his memory caught up to him and he remembered, that he hadn't been in this room before. It was a simple one, with light blue walls and a window behind the bed he sat in. A simple wooden door was opposite the window. There was a little sink in the corner in front of the window and a chair next to the bed, on that Kylie sat. Otherwise, the room was bare of any furniture.
"Where are we?," he asked finally. "This is a room for our employees, when they need or take a break. I'm not a bad employer, if someone needs a nap, they should have the possibility to do so.," Kylie added to her explanation.
"And you thought, that I needed a nap?," Sonic asked with a raised brow. Kylie grimaced. "Not exactly, no." She pointed down on him and Sonic followed her finger and his breath hitched upon seeing, that his arm was completely black!
A shocked second later, he realized, that his fur was just darkened with soot. A formerly white washrag with black stains was held out to him and he took the wet piece of tissue to clean himself off. Apparently, this had been the wet thing, that had startled him earlier. He noticed, that the rest of his fur looked slightly damp and, that his clothes were missing. "What happened?," he asked, while cleaning his arm and hand.
Kylie sighed and ran a hand through her hair. "You fell asleep in the scanner – which made scanning you MUCH easier, by the way – and when I was done, I moved you out of it. I wanted to wake you, when Thilo knocked at the door and asked for a private talk. I stepped out for two minutes – TWO! – and when I returned, you were in the scanner again and the whole machine on fire. Thilo pulled you out, just before the scanner could explode with you in the middle.," she explained, her voice trembling. The pictures were most likely still vivid in her head.
"How did this happen?," he asked. "When I was away, you had apparently a nightmare, due to that you raised your quills and dug through the plastic – which I hadn't known was possible – and damaged the mechanics, which caused you being pulled in the scanner, where your quills continued to shred the machine, so that it caught fire. Thankfully, Thilo smelt the smoke and pulled you out, just before the flames reached you. You had some nasty burn wounds and a slight poisoning, due to the poisonous gases you breathed in unconsciously."
Sonic frowned and looked down on himself. His body looked fine to him... "A friend of mine healed them for you, he even managed to get your fur to grow back in."
Sonic just blinked at her. He hadn't been aware, that this was even possible. "Where are my clothes?," he asked, not having forgotten, that his gloves, socks and shoes were gone. "Your socks and gloves were burnt, your shoes miraculously not. I cleaned them and they are now next to the bed, don't worry. As for the other clothes, I asked John to bring you some spares. Wonder, where he is.," she added thoughtfully.
Suddenly, the door was ripped open with a shout of, "-my rules, got it!?", from John, who just entered the room. The man had still short, brown hair and of course eyes of the same color, just as Sonic remembered. He looked rather pale, paler than he remembered him to be, he also looked thinner and had dark bags under his eyes.
He looked down, while he barked that half-sentence he had entered with and as Sonic saw, that wasn't a coincidence: to John's right leg was clinging a mobian hedgehog. He looked a little younger than the hero and had bright red fur. His arms with fawn fur as well as his red furred legs were wrapped tightly around John's leg and he sat on his sneaker – which was, at least for a hedgehog, a quite comfortable and good place to sit. The hedgehog looked up to him, his orange eyes narrowing.
"You're mean.," he pouted. "What's wrong with two people loving each other?", he asked, sounding rather like a small child, than a teenager. "Nothing – if it doesn't happen in MY walls!," John growled.
"But we're roomies!" "No, you just attached yourself to my leg and refused to let go, that doesn't make us roomies."
"But it does – I have a toothbrush in your bathroom!" "And your favorite cereals in my kitchen – but that doesn't make us roomies. You never even asked, if I wanted you in my apartment and you don't even pay a part of the rent!"
"Why didn't you say so? I would have thought of something!" "Yeah, right. You don't have a job, you just cling to me 24/7 – and that's it."
"I could simply ask Mike for some cash." "No way, then he'll have a legitimate reason to appear all three days on my doorstep."
"I really don't see, what your problem is. He's coming for me, not you." "You still make out in MY bed, while I'M present!"
"So put some earplugs in, or headphones, then you don't have to hear us." "And HOW does this stop your quills from digging in my leg?" "Come on, I heal you every time." "Doesn't stop the pain!"
Since the argument didn't seem to stop either, Kylie did so by clearing her throat. Both males whipped around to her. "Are you crazy, married people done with fighting?," she asked, sounding bored, yet amused. John turned red in less than a second. "We aren't married!," he cried out angrily.
The hedgehog frowned in thought, but then looked up. "Pssst, John!," he whispered loudly. "Huh?," the man looked down on him. "If we were married – would we then be roomies?" "Ugh, you're hopeless!" John looked as if he wanted to pull his own hair, but as Sonic could see now, his hands were full: one was holding a white, small bundle and the other a big mug, that was steaming. It looked as if he wanted to throw the mug to have at least one hand free, but the red hedgehog reacted immediately and bit strongly in his jeans-clothed calf, actually drawing blood.
"OW! Are you nuts!?," John shouted, but he amazingly didn't even flinch or spill the steaming liquid in the mug, as if he was used to this.
"Don't waste medicine.," the mobian told him strictly, now acting like an adult, and placed his hand on the bite wound, that started to glow.
When he took it off a second later, there were small holes surrounded by blood in the jeans, but no wounds under the fabric. "There, all better.," he grinned, again a child. "Doesn't. Stop. The pain!," John hissed. "See it as punishment. You know, how I feel about wasting resources." The male had switched back to being an adult.
"We have plenty of this stuff!," John retaliated. "Doesn't mean, that we need to waste it. Plenty runs out, too, eventually, you know?"
"GUYS!," Kylie shouted, seemingly fed up now. "If you just continue to waste everyone's time, you can go outside.," she growled, pointing to the door behind them, that was still open.
The red hedgehog chuckled. "Don't worry, I'll keep him in line." Back to being a child. He stood up and grabbed the things John was actually holding out for him to take.
They seemed to have some kind of secret understanding, an unconscious dynamic, as if they were, besides their fights, best friends.
It reminded Sonic quite a bit of Knuckles and himself. They, too, loved to fight with each other, but stuck together in times of need, showing a teamwork, that they had never trained. Watching the other fight had given them a certain clue of the other's reflexes, so they could work together with unconscious – instinctual – ease. John and the hedgehog seemed to have a similar connection.
The red furred male, who had peach colored fur, that resembled in its shape a heart, in the middle of his chest, came over to Sonic and threw the white bundle, that split itself in two during the short flight, over. The hero caught the bundles easily, they were apparently the spares, that Kylie had mentioned. Sonic was quick to put the clothes on, finding them to be fitting.
"Here.," the red hedgehog gave him the steaming mug. With a confused face, Sonic took it, breathing in the unfamiliar scent.
He saw two differently colored flowers swimming on the surface, one yellow with the bottom part of the petals being a dark red, as if the flower's middle was bleeding, the other had a dark violet color with thin, whitish lines going over the petals.
"Although they look absolutely beautiful and make a simple cup of tea a masterpiece, you shouldn't try to eat them. They are causing severe stomach pain, if they aren't brewed as tea. So, just don't swallow them, okay?," the red hedgehog smiled.
"Sure, er...and you are?," Sonic asked sheepishly. "Hm? Oh, right, you can't know that! I'm Happy, nice to meet you!"
"Your name...is Happy?," Sonic asked slowly. "Not really, I just like my nickname far better than my real name.," Happy grinned.
Sonic grinned back. He could totally understand this – he wasn't too fond of his real name, either.
"How are you feeling now? Are you in any pain?," Happy asked. "Huh? Er... yeah, I'm fine. I banged my head, when I woke up, but otherwise, I'm fine." "You did? Show me!"
Before Sonic had realized it, Happy was next to him on the bed and carefully examining his head. Sonic's eyes widened in alarm. He was too close! ...wasn't he? Unlike with Kylie, his quills didn't rise at all, they simply stayed in place. "Nothing serious, it will probably just bruise a little. Do you have a headache?," Happy asked.
"J-just a bit.," Sonic stuttered, still stunned, that someone was this close to him. It couldn't be, because he was a stranger, right? Since he had kept away from his friends and hadn't tried to go out in public since then, he couldn't tell...
"Then it's good, that one of the flowers also helps against pain. The other is against infection, just in case. Some of the burns I healed were pretty deep, I want to make sure, that nothing got inside of your body."
"You healed them?," Sonic asked, astounded. He had to admit, Happy sounded and acted, as if he had studied medicine...
The male laughed happily. "Uhuh. I'm a healer, after all." "A- what?" "Healers are born doctors – literally.," Kylie went to explain. "They are born with medicinal knowledge engraved in their very DNA, that surfaces, as soon, as they hit puberty."
"So...you'll be a doctor one day?," Sonic asked Happy, but he shook his head. "Nope. You won't find a single healer, who will ever become a doctor, nowhere. The medicinal knowledge we have is WAY too outdated."
"It is?" "Yeah. It's instinctual, that's why. It's medieval, to say the least." Noticing, that Sonic couldn't understand this, he frowned in thought to find a better explanation. "Okay, I'll explain it like that: if someone has a terrible fever, people like our Kylie would ask for possible reasons for this, take a blood sample and give him a few pills to try to take. I, instead, would immediately try to bloodlet."
"What's that?" "An outdated practice to cure fevers and infections. You either put some leeches on the infected body part, or cut it deeply with a knife, to get rid of the 'sick blood'.," Happy explained neutrally.
Sonic didn't say anything, he just stared at him with wide eyes, having turned pale and green at the same time.
Happy, thankfully, caught on quickly. "Don't worry, I swear, I did nothing, that Kylie didn't approve of. ...I actually wouldn't dare to do anything without a real doctor's consent. I sometimes don't even realize, that my methods might be wrong, so I get always a second opinion.," he reassured.
Sonic looked over to Kylie, who nodded in confirmation, which let him breathe out in relief. From what he heard, it seemed, as if he had next to no actual knowledge about healing. A stranger, who couldn't even spell the word medicine, would have probably been a better help, than Happy without professional guidance.
"So, how did you heal me?," Sonic asked. "Easy, I can channel my Chaos Energy to push the natural healing process. I can also stop scarring and influence the fur growth." During his explanation, he had raised his right hand and let a gentle, green glowing energy appear around it, just like before, with John.
Sonic remembered seeing this even earlier. "Is Rio also a healer?," he asked curiously. "Yes and no, he is a so called 'healer-hybrid'. Those don't have the medicinal knowledge anymore, but the same healing ability. They are more common now, the healers are dying out – but as I already explained, that's not too bad. They are better, than us normal healers, since they aren't influenced by the inherited knowledge.," Happy grinned.
"Alright, if that's all, I'll be going to get chewed through by Mali, then.," John spoke up, buried his hands in his pockets and turned to leave.
Happy immediately jumped up, pretty much tackling John's leg and clinging to it like before. "I'll be going, then! Drink your tea, please – and bye!," he waved with one arm, while the other clung to the leg. Before the door had closed, they had already started to bicker again, this time about if Mali would actually punish them for being away for five minutes max.
Sonic turned around to Kylie, once they were gone. "Why is Happy clinging to John like that?," he asked. As natural, as their interaction had looked, he hadn't dared to question it with them present.
"Happy is in the process of healing John." "Healing him? Well, he looked a little sick...," Sonic mused, drinking absentmindedly the tea, that just tasted delicious...for tea.
"That is actually an improvement. He looked far worse, before Happy started his treatment a year ago." "A year? Why is he needing so much time? Does he use, what he calls 'outdated practice'?" "No, but a depression isn't that easily cured." "John's depressed? Why?," Sonic asked, astounded. Back on the Island, John had seemed to handle the whole situation well. On the other hand, that's what he had thought about Kylie, too...
"He had been relatively fine, when he had opened the Shelter, but then, he had seen the results of his and his father's doing. The broken, lifeless hedgehogs. Before, he hadn't really realized the true depth of their condition, you, Silver and the others you were caged with were practically the ones he saw as prime examples for how the hedgehogs would handle the whole situation sooner or later. Seeing the reality, caused a mental breakdown. He locked himself in his apartment, never opened his door, or answered calls or mails. I didn't know at first, that he was away for so long, but when I hadn't heard of him for three weeks in a row, I became worried and asked Mephiles to break into his flat. What I saw, was horrible. He was a mess, had paled, had lost a huge part of his weight, he was barely able to move anymore and hadn't eaten anything in weeks. His apartment looked terrible, too, the dust and not opening the windows at all even caused him to develop a slight asthma. Happy thankfully manages to keep it under control without much hassle."
"And how does he help the depression?" "By doing, what you just saw. He stays close to John all the time and carefully extracts the old John out of depressed John. What he spoke today, without Happy's incentive, was the most he had said in months." Sonic's eyes widened. John had spoken like a waterfall with Happy, but without him, he had barely gotten out a word... Yeah, he saw now, what Kylie meant.
"But why is he doing it like...that? I mean, wouldn't it be easier to just follow John around, or something like that?," Sonic couldn't help, but ask, while he finished his mug.
Kylie chuckled. "Easier? Sure. More entertaining? – Not a chance. Happy is a Playful uke, they love it to do everything the fun way. I'm pretty sure, that he can't even imagine another way to help him.," she explained. Sonic just nodded in thought.
"Alright, what's next?," he eventually asked, having just swallowed the last of the liquid. "We go to my office. The examination is done and we can await the results there."
"How long have I been out?," Sonic asked, since he had no way of telling the time, as there wasn't a clock in the room. "...Er...about thirty minutes, I guess. Without Happy, you would probably still be unconscious."
"Shouldn't the results be there already, then?" "Not really. We needed to switch off the electricity for this floor to prevent the scanner from exploding for real, that let all machines reset everything. Thilo needed to start over, too."
"I see. What should I do with that?," he asked, holding up the empty mug with the flowers sticking to its bottom.
"Just leave it here, the rooms are cleaned daily, someone will take it to the kitchen. We shouldn't stall too much time, I rather don't want to leave Knuckles and Shadow alone for much longer, as long, as they are this protective. I'm rather surprised, that the Shelter is still standing.," Kylie sighed, shaking her head, while standing up.
Sonic jumped off the bed, slipped in his shoes and put the mug on the chair she had occupied, before they left the room.
They seemed to be in the same hallway from before, just a little further down. Sonic looked over his shoulder and saw, that the door had the words 'For employees only' on it.
They made their way down the hallway. "So, er... what did you want to tell me about our instincts and how they help relationships?," Sonic asked casually, managing to keep the curiosity out of his voice. His thirst for knowledge was definitely sparked by now. "I promise not to fall asleep this time.," he added with a grin.
Kylie snickered. "You better don't.," she threatened playfully, nudging him gently in the shoulder with her fist. "Anyway, I was trying to explain, that mobians have so to say two personalities each. Their instinct-personality and their conscious personality. The older you mobians get, the more the two personalities drift apart."
"They do?" "Yeah. Mobian children are just bundles of instincts, until they are somewhere around six to eight years old, they hardly do anything, that their instincts don't suggest. After this time span, the children start to mature and have their own thoughts, diverting from the instinctual ones slowly. In old age, the drift is the largest. The instincts suggest at some time for the mobians to just lie down and die – sometimes, this starts up to 10 years or more, before they actually die naturally – while the consciousness wants to enjoy the life and live as long as possible."
"Why would the instincts suggest something like that?," Sonic asked and Kylie was actually glad, that she hadn't told him all that while he had been in the scanner, he would have asked too many questions.
"According to your instincts, 30 is the usual maximum age of a hedgehog mobian. Everything above this is considered a flight risk, so to say about to die every minute now. Someone of the age of 60 is seen as too old for the colony's welfare, since these people can't do anything to support the colony anymore, at least according to the instincts. It is then, that the same instincts subtly suggest, that just lying down and waiting for death to claim you would be better for everyone. Back in older days, it was probably rather practical to have some mouths less to feed and less persons to worry about, but in modern times, it isn't anymore. That's why you don't listen to your instincts anymore from a certain age on."
"Wow, you sure know a lot.," Sonic said, impressed. "You only notice that now?," Kylie smirked. They passed the room with the scanners in it, as he saw from the corner of his eye.
"So, how do the instincts help couples?" "You need to understand, that Shadow is divided in two personalities, too. Conscious Shadow loves your friends to pieces, just because you love them. Instinct Shadow, however, is wary of them, because you let them so close to yourself. To his Protective self, everyone in touch with you is a safety risk."
"But you said, that Protective semes would protect their family, friends and mates alike!," Sonic argued.
"From what I know, Shadow has only Rouge – and probably the killer robot from earlier – as family and friends he had before meeting you. He has probably no problem with Rouge and you interacting."
Sonic frowned in thought. Well, it was hard to say, since he and Rouge had a friendly, but superficial relationship. They could act like friends, but kept touches to a very formal level – if they happened at all. Rouge just wasn't the cuddling type and at times, Sonic had wished for Amy to have her character in this department. But in comparison with Knuckles, who was apparently the same type...
"Why is Knuckles so accepting of everyone then? He had little to no problem with my friends!," he argued.
He still remembered, how Knuckles had reacted to meeting his other friends. He had apologized to Tails for his behavior during their first time meeting and done everything to get the fox to feel comfortable around him, had looked at the bubbly Amy with skepticism, but not in a bad way, had seen the Chaotix, Mighty and Ray with fondness for the younger two and respect for the other three, had seen the Freedom Fighters as acquaintances in the fight for good and Cream as a baby sister, like Tails had become his baby brother. Shadow and Rouge, as well as Kylie, Blaze and Mighty's friends as his newest acquaintances were also – more or less – easily accepted.
To his surprise, Kylie stopped suddenly, bowing her head. He stopped, too, looking at her from the side, confused as to why she looked suddenly so... Well, her face was rather unreadable.
"Sonic, the first impression is for mobians the most important thing. The way you appear in front of someone will engrave itself in their systems. This is, why you were seen as a hero by so many, but not everyone. This was the first thing many saw of you, but others knew you as someone else. I can't speak for Knuckles, but what Shadow saw first, was an uke kicking semes out of the cave – and breaking down almost instantly in the next moment."
She looked up and at Sonic's incredulous face. "In this moment, Shadow's personalities took two different turns. Conscious Shadow fell instantly in love with Instinct Sonic, who fought off the semes, but then, Conscious Sonic broke down and Instinct Shadow latched himself to you. That's the worst constellation possible, because your consciousnesses and instincts were supposed to connect, not doing it in this cross-fashion. The problem is, that Instinct Sonic was stronger back then, than Conscious Sonic and with Shadow's instincts latching to the weak side, Shadow's Protective type was fueled worse than a fire with raw oil. Basically, he thinks, that you couldn't even fight off Tails, should he ever turn on you – and I'm NOT saying, that he ever will.," she added.
"And how can I change that?," Sonic asked, feeling highly offended by what Shadow's instincts thought of him. Would his consciousness think that, too, one day?
"With your instincts. Instinct Sonic knows already, what Shadow's instincts are doing and is for sure highly offended by it."
"Tell me about it.," Sonic grumbled. "He tries to whip Instinct Shadow into shape, but Conscious Sonic stops him most of the time, because he one: doesn't want to appear rude, and two: doesn't want to lose Shadow. He doesn't realize, that punishments won't harm the relationship, but help it."
"So, during those times, when I know, how to stop Shadow..." "You had actually listened to your instincts. Sonic, if you want this to work, you need to let your instincts do this punishing and scolding, and sometimes the rewarding, for you. If Instinct Sonic shows up more, Instinct Shadow will start to see, that he had a wrong picture of you and calm down. Both your instincts will start to get close to each other, as well as your consciousnesses, like it should be." Sonic just stared at her, trying to process that. If that was correct, then... could it really be so simple?
"And how does this getting to know each other work?," he asked, wanting more details. "Your instincts will do this automatically. For example, if Shadow would love to eat strawberries, your nose would notice the smell, your eyes see the remains in the bin, or maybe stains in his fur and your tongue will taste them, when you kiss – and your instincts will immediately register strawberries as a reward. How exactly you use them, however, is for Conscious Sonic to decide." She winked at him.
Sonic contemplated her words. It sounded logical, he had to admit it, but... "Shouldn't I know some of his likes then already?" "Sure you do – of Instinct Shadow. And his likes are fairly simple – having you in his sight and knowing, that you are safe. Every time you are together, you reward him. But since you relay to the instinct part, your conscious mind doesn't think it's necessary to actively remember Instinct Shadow's likes and dislikes. Once you two have the right matches, instincts and consciousness alike, this will be far easier.," Kylie reassured.
Sonic nodded. Still, something wasn't adding up here. "Kylie, how did you know, how our first meeting did look like in detail?," he asked, finally remembering, what had bothered him all this time.
He had told Kylie about their first meeting, he remembered describing Shadow in pretty much every detail...probably more detail, than she had ever wanted to know, but the breaking down and the hugging and so on he had left out. Not even the throwing out of the semes had he mentioned, just that he had fought them off... Now that he thought about it... he hadn't even mentioned the cave!
Kylie smiled. "Didn't you ever wonder, what happened to the Island?," she asked back. Sonic blinked. "Several times, but never having a clue. Shadow guessed, that Mephiles had something to do with it, so I just rolled with it." He shrugged.
Kylie nodded in acceptance, before she went to explain, "It hadn't been Mephiles, but Shy." "The human girl?," he asked with a raised brow.
"Yeah. Don't ask me, why, but Shy has seen the Island as some kind of personal problem. She knocked out the soldiers Towers left there and used her powers to transport the Island away. She was nice enough to make sure, that the soldiers wouldn't drown, before she started to raid the complete building of all evidence and then destroyed the Island to dust. She gave all the evidence, reports, files and recordings to me, after hearing, what we are doing here. I read, listened to and watched a lot of these, so I know quite a bit of what happened on the Island and Paradise."
"But how did you know about the hugging-thing?" There hadn't been a single camera recording their doing in the cave, so...
"They monitored the semes' vitals, while they were on Paradise, to knock them out, should they show signs, that they will become violent...well, too violent, and Shadow's heartbeat was going almost through the ceiling shortly after the camera went dead." Sonic felt his cheeks heat up at that. Kylie chuckled and they continued their walk.
They walked in comfortable silence, before Sonic felt a new question pop up. "Kylie?" "Yes?" "Do semes also educate their mates?" "Not like ukes and females do, no. Their way rather resembles the educating of children. The only thing, that they don't like is, when their ukes either make them worry, or do something stupid, so there is nothing much to change. They usually say something like 'I'm very disappointed in you' – and the guilty conscious most ukes and females have does the rest. Otherwise, they don't do much. Their partners' happiness is their number one priority, after all. Since the ukes and females are usually better behaved and avoid risks, the semes are the ones, that need to adapt to their partners, not the other way round."
Sonic snickered. He couldn't imagine, what Instinct (and Conscious) Shadow thought about him being a hero.
And another chapter done! Sorry, that the end seems cut off - well, it is. I had so much fun writing this one, that I didn't notice, how long it had become. Then I realized, that if I put also the next few passages, that I had cut off, in this chapter, it would become impossibly longer with far more content, that I haven't even written, yet... - and I already needed a day for it as it is now.
