Author's Note: This is probably the fastest I've ever updated. Actually, I originally wanted to have this out on my birthday, but I didn't quite make it. Though giving myself a deadline did seem to motivate me to write faster.
Disclaimer: I don't own Sonic and I never will. Any issues I have with that I'll just have to deal with in therapy.
Love Hate and Everything in Between
Chapter 1: Welcome Back
This was not how Sonic had expected his Sunday to go.
It had started out normal enough. He had gotten up, ate breakfast, watched a little TV, and went on his daily run in the Mystic Ruins. It was what he did pretty much every Sunday. At least when Amy wasn't dragging him off somewhere, or when Station Square wasn't in chaos because Eggman didn't seem to realize that Sunday was supposed to be the day of rest. But the truth is, normal never lasts very long. Not when you were Sonic the Hedgehog.
He had been halfway through his usual route. He had just stopped by the lake for a moment to admire the water and maybe catch his breath a little when he saw it. A dark clump under a distant canopy of trees.
The site alone hadn't been enough to immediately set off warning bells, but it had been sufficient to peak Sonic's curiosity. So he had decided to investigate the mysterious figure, thinking that it was probably an odd cluster of rogue plants, or something along those lines.
He had been wrong.
It took Sonic a long second to process that yes, this battered crumpled form he was looking at was a body. It took even longer for it to occur to him that if this person was still alive, it might be better to maybe find a way to help him, rather than just standing there like an idiot staring at him.
With this in mind, Sonic moved a little closer, crouching down to scrutinize the stranger's face. He had just been guessing the gender before, but on closer inspection it was clear that he was indeed male. And judging by the amount of dirt covering his body, he had been out here for at least a couple of days.
"I guess you're a hedgehog like me." Sonic observed, noting the head spines.
As much as he hated to say it, this hedgehog was most likely dead. Sonic didn't have to be a doctor to know that his wounds were serious, and they had clearly gone without treatment for far too long. But he checked his pulse anyway. Just in case.
He pressed his palm over the unknown hedgehog's neck, and for a few seconds it seemed like Sonic's assessment had been correct. But then he felt a tiny flutter against his fingers, dangerously weak but undeniably there.
"Pretty resilient aren't cha? So close to death, and yet still hanging on."
There had never been any doubt that Sonic would help this person. Even if he had been dead, he would have contacted his family, or at the very least he would've buried him. He was supposed to be a hero after all. Helping people (even completely random bodies that were basically lying in his backyard) was what he did.
Trying to be as gentle as possible, Sonic reached out and cradled the broken figure to his chest. But despite his attempt to be careful of the hedgehog's injuries, he must have brushed a sensitive area, for from the dark one's lips emerged a muffled whimper of pain.
"I'm sorry. I'll try to be careful, but I have to get you out of here, and that means carrying you."
Sonic wasn't really sure why he was talking to him. The hedgehog was unconscious after all. It wasn't like he could actually hear him. But he kept at it all the same. Perhaps some dim part of him was hoping that his voice could somehow give this creature strength. He would need it.
But how was Sonic supposed to get him out of here? Logic told him to run to the hospital as fast as possible. But the hospital was too far away, and the last thing he wanted to do was jostle more injuries going at high speeds.
He would have to take the hedgehog home with him. Hopefully, Tails would be able to take care of him. Though Sonic would still have to risk running. It was at least a thirty minute walk from here back to the house, and he wasn't sure if his passenger had that long.
Lightly, Sonic pushed the hedgehog's head into his chest in an effort to keep the wind from smacking him in the face and started walking. At first, he kept his pace slow and easy, but gradually he began to accelerate faster and faster until the scenery was just a blur whipping past him.
The blue hedgehog glanced down at his companion and smiled. If you didn't look down at his damaged torso, it almost looked as if he was merely sleeping.
I'll save him, he thought fiercely, feeling strangely protective. I have to save him. And if Sonic hadn't known that the action would only cause the hedgehog more pain, he would have tightened his grip.
"Stay with me, buddy. You're going to be fine."
In all honesty, Sonic had no idea if these words were true or not, but at the very least saying so made him feel better.
Even with Sonic going at top speed, it still took ten minutes to arrive at the house. And every second that ticked by only served to make the azure hedgehog more anxious. He hadn't even slowed down when his home came in sight, only coming to a stop when he was within range of the front door. His momentum very nearly sent him crashing through it.
He also didn't waste any time in calling for help. "TAILS!!" Or perhaps yelling for help would be a more accurate term.
Sonic regretted raising his voice almost instantly as the loud noise drove yet another whimper out of his precious cargo.
"Oh! I'm sorry! No more shouting, I promise." Well, at least now he could be assured that his words weren't completely falling on deaf ears.
He wasn't the only one who was irritated by Sonic's call. Tails didn't exactly appreciate being bellowed for, especially when it drove him away from a project.
"Jeez Sonic, yell a little a little louder why don't you? I don't think they heard you in--" The kit's eyes widened when he noticed the injured body in his friends arms. "My God! What happened?!"
"I found him out in the Ruins. He's alive, but he's in really bad shape. You've gotta help him!"
Tails nodded. "I'll do everything I can. Take him up to the spare bedroom and I'll have a look at him."
Obediently, Sonic turned on his heel and made his way up the stairs. "Hear that, bud? Tails is going to fix you up. If anyone can do it he can."
With his line of work, Sonic was constantly getting hurt. Unfortunately, he also had a severe aversion to hospitals, so Tails had acquired a bit of medical training so that he could be treated at home. He wasn't as skilled as an actual doctor, but he could do minor things such as giving stitches and setting the occasional bone. He even had an x-ray machine and a device for blood tests in his workshop.
The spare bedroom on the other hand, was nothing special. Knuckles was the only one to ever stay there, and that had only been a one time occurence. Therefore, neither one of the house's occupants had ever really bothered to do much with it. The walls were beige, the carpet was cream colored, and the bedspread was such a light shade of blue it was almost white. In truth, it was actually a little depressing, and it wasn't the sort of place someone would want to stay long term, but it was perfect for a sick room.
The second Sonic laid the hedgehog on the bed, Tails started the examination. In Sonic's eyes, it merely seemed to be a few minutes of poking and prodding, with the kitsune pausing every so often to write something down.
Finally, just as Sonic's foot was beginning to tap, Tails gave his verdict. "Frankly, I'm surprised he's still alive. None of his bones are broken, but he's burned no less than twenty percent of his body. It wouldn't be wise to move him now, but we should get him to a hospital as soon as possible. I think this is beyond my capabilities."
The blue hedgehog frowned and looked down at their new patient anxiously. It was one thing to know that he was in bad condition, but it was quite another to hear it from the lips of someone who actually knew what they were talking about.
"Do you…think he'll be okay?" Sonic asked quietly.
Tails sighed and shrugged his shoulders. "I don't know. I'm not going to lie to you, Sonic, his burns are very serious. Most of them are at least second degree, and they go right down into the dermis. It's possible that they might have even damaged the bone and muscle underneath. There's also the risk of infection. But he's lasted this long, so who knows? He may have a chance."
"Is there anything I can do to help?" Sonic asked, feeling a bit desperate.
Tails smiled, produced a syringe and drew out a small amount of blood. "I'm going to run a few tests on this to see if he has any infection in his system. In the meantime, you can get him cleaned up and bandage his wounds. Use water to cool his burns down. Anything else could damage the skin."
Almost immediately after Tails left, Sonic headed toward the bathroom. His first task was filling a bucket with cool soapy water and grabbing a dish cloth to go with it. The thought of basically giving the hedgehog a sponge bath (minus the sponge) didn't exactly appeal to him, but you could hardly recognize his species under all that dirt and dead skin, and it wasn't like he could just stick him in the bath tub. With his burns, doing that could induce shock. This was his only option.
Once that was finished, he grabbed several rolls of white gauze from the medicine cabinet. Well, it wasn't actually a cabinet. They used to have one, but as Tails began to accumulate more and more medical supplies, it became clear that more room was necessary. So, they had relocated to a nearby closet. Tails always made sure it was well stocked, and they had everything from bandages and antiseptic to splints and even a wheelchair (which they had acquired a couple years ago when Sonic had broken his leg. The time he had spent rolling around on that thing had been some of the worst couple of months of his entire life.) But for some reason, neither one of them had ever gotten out of the habit of saying medicine cabinet, so the medicine cabinet it remained.
It seemed to take an excruciatingly long time for the bucket to be filled with enough water, and when Sonic was finally able to return to his patient, he discovered that in his absence the hedgehog had curled himself up into a protective ball (which was probably not good for his condition). Sonic had to poke him several times to get him back into a position that was easily accessible.
He started with the stomach, where the burns were the most severe. Doing his very best to be careful with his wounds, Sonic rubbed his cloth in circular motions. All the while he had to fight the urge to cringe. Chunks of fur were missing, his skin was red and angry, and the burns looked even nastier when they were clean.
But, amazingly some of the skin was showing early signs of healing, and fur was already growing back in some areas. It turned out that underneath all that filth, his coat really was black. In addition, Sonic was somewhat surprised to discover that he was also had a tuft of white hair on his chest, softer than the fur on the rest of his body and strangely untouched.
Once the hedgehog's torso was cleaned, he dressed the area with bandages soaked with cool water. Sonic then repeated this process with his legs (and other unmentionable regions).
His feet were covered with the scorched remains of what had once been shoes. They appeared to be made of some kind of metal, so it took a bit of effort to get them off, but once he did it was discovered that they had almost completely protected the feet from harm.
"Too bad about your shoes. Looks like they were some awesome pieces of footwear." Sonic remarked, a little remorsefully.
Finally, the cerulean hero made his way back up to the arms and face. He was saving the head quills for last, mostly because he wasn't sure how he would go about cleaning that spiky forest without cutting out a large piece of his hand.
But just when he had started rubbing dirt away from the hedgehog's shoulder blade, he noticed something odd. A thick stream of crimson was running down his arm. For a terrifying moment, Sonic thought it was blood, but then he realized that he was looking at fur. Red fur.
It took a few seconds for Sonic to process what this meant, but when he did, all he could do was stare at the limb, his mind in overdrive. Black, white tuft of fur, red streaks, metal shoes. It couldn't be. Could it?
But his other arm had it too, as did his upturned quills (if the spines had cut the blue hero while he had cleaned them, he hadn't noticed), and for the first time Sonic realized that the hedgehog's face was remarkably similar to his own.
"Shadow." Sonic whispered in awe. But it wasn't possible. Shadow had died. Sonic had watched him fall out into space months ago. No one could have survived that. No one.
Nevertheless, here he was. He looked like hell, but as far as Sonic could tell, he was still breathing. Still alive, if only just barely.
At first Sonic felt, well surprised of course, but also relieved. A part of him had always felt incredibly guilty for not being able to save him during the Ark incident, even though he had been told on countless occasions that there was nothing he could have done. But eventually those feelings began to subside in favor of a wave of horror.
He had just given Shadow a bath. The Shadow that happened to hate his guts with a passion. He had washed Shadow's ass! It was a good thing the dark one wasn't awake, because Sonic's face probably resembled a traffic light right about now.
"If the universe has any love for me at all, you'll never find out about this, Shads. I'm sure you'd murder me. Though if history has taught us anything, you'll probably attempt it anyway as soon as you wake up." Sonic remarked with (slightly nervous) laughter.
And then, as if he was somehow responding to Sonic's comment, Shadow let out a low groan and Sonic suddenly found himself looking into a pair of drowsy ruby eyes.
For the third time that day, the blue hero had to quell his shock. He had been certain that Shadow would be out for at least a couple more days. Maybe he really was the Ultimate Lifeform after all.
Inwardly, Sonic shrugged it off and presented his rival with a warm smile. "Welcome back to the land of the living, Shadow."
I'm hardly an expert on burns. I did look them up, but not everything I wrote was completely accurate. In reality, if someone gets burned that badly they should be taken to the hospital immediately. But I figured the fact that Shadow is the Ultimate Lifeform gave me some leeway on that.
You've all probably already figured it out, but "he" from the last chapter was Shadow and the voice was Sonic. And now for the moment you've all been waiting for. The cookie goes too…(drum roll) everyone who reviewed! You guys all deserve cookies (plus I'm a little afraid of what GintaxAlvissForever's Chocobos might do to me if I don't give her one). See you all next chapter!