Cold
Mephiles drank the black coffee from the pure white cup. He ignored the bitter taste as the warmth spread throughout his body causing his spine to shiver in pleasure. It was like a warm hug on a cold December night; a warm hug from his mother whose image was still fresh in his mind. From her waist-length silky midnight hair running down her fully and curvy body to her soft green dress he adored, Mephiles couldn't help but feel a longing for her. He terribly missed her two colored orbs, one that sparkled verdant green and ruby red. He wouldn't ever get to feel her hands rub tiny circles on the fur of his back and her lips wouldn't ever kiss his forehead ever again.
Soon enough the feeling faded and before Mephiles knew what was going the small sips he previously took turned into large gulps. He tilted his head back trying to remember her warm embraces from the coffee. Suddenly the mug was taken out of his hands and that was when his eyes opened, brought out of their desperation. He angled his head to its original position, blinking a couple times. In front of him was Elena smiling widely as she clutched the cup away. She was bundled in a green, over-sized, sweatshirt, black leggings and a red scarf.
It was rather chilly in the middle of December wasn't it?
Elena skeptically looked in the cup and then back to her older brother, a teasing grin playing on her muzzle. "You're drinking this down like Shadow and his pudding. Is it good?" she mused before taking a giant swig herself. Immediately she scrunched her nose and almost spit out the liquid in disgust. The eldest had to keep himself from laughing. "I will never see why you like black coffee. At least put some sugar in it."
Mephiles warmly smiled before taking the cup that was given to him. He soothingly ran his fingers through her quills, careful not to cut himself, before saying, "You of all people should know I don't like sweet things besides you."
The ebony teen blushed a light pink and displayed a bashful smile. Elena then realized something and she frowned. "Are you not cold? It's freezing! I can practically see icicles hanging from your nose."
He put a finger on her nose and said, "You shouldn't be worrying about me. I'm supposed to be the worrier. You're job is just to the little girl everyone loves."
She grunted and puffed her cheeks in annoyance. Elena rolled her eyes and started to take her scarf off. Mephiles lightly gasped as she wrapped the crimson wool around his neck. "Well," she said, "although I do hate it when you call me 'little girl' one of my jobs is to make sure you and Shadow are happy and smiling. After all that is what little girls do."
He couldn't think of what say other then "Thank you." Mephiles touched the scarf and indulged in the warmth it gave him. He got up from the couch he was sitting on and Elena watched him head upstairs. She shrugged and grabbed the remote, turning on the TV. The sound of a certain yellow sponge's cheery laughter caught her attention in an instant.
...
Shadow's nose was blocked by mucus, his head hurt like hell and he wasn't feeling so great today. The blasted cold had already gotten to him and although he was the Ultimate Lifeform he had no idea how he had gotten this cold. It seemed even his sister, someone weaker and exceptionally more fragile than him, had a better immune system. He snorted as best as he could, of course this would happen to him. After all, he always was the one with bad luck.
His scarlet orbs darted over to the sound of the door's creak. Shadow then covered his eyes with his arm once he knew the person behind the door. "What do you want Mephiles?" he asked irritated although he didn't know why he was. He just kind of was. Maybe it was because of the illness.
"I just wanted to check on you," his brother's deep voice replied.
"I'm fine for your information and I don't need you to check up on me. I'm not Elena. Speaking of her, why don't you go make sure she's not crying or something?"
"You're quite mean to her you know?"
For some odd reason that hurt Shadow. He gritted his teeth and commanded harshly, "Yeah well why don't you just leave me alone and maybe I'll think about being a bit nicer."
Mephiles' chuckle irked him further. He whipped his head over to him, baring his fangs and growling. He might've moved a bit too unkindly for his body to take because soon his head started to ache more. Shadow laid back down exhaling in defeat. His cat like ears perked at the sound of the ebony male's footsteps. Too exhausted to do much he just sighed again. "What is it Mephiles?"
"You should consider taking this," he handed the crimson marked hedgehog two green pills, "It'll help with your headache but it won't make you drowsy. I'm pretty sure you wouldn't want to be asleep right now."
Staring at the pills in surprise he quickly took them dry. Shadow then observed the red scarf Mephiles wore and scowled in wonder. "Did Elena give you that?"
The other blinked. He rubbed his hand on the furry fabric feeling each stitch. He nodded looking back at Shadow inquisitively. "Why?" he asked.
"That was mother's favorite scarf. I wonder where she found-"
Shadow almost hit the approaching hand that wrapped the scarf around his neck. He frowned at the itchy but familiar feel of the material. It hadn't appeared to him that Mephiles was walking out the door. "Wait," he exclaimed, nose nasally, "Why are you giving this to me? You were the one closest to mother."
The sturdy body stopped in the middle of the door way. Mephiles' closed eyes opened up half way and dull grass green eyes revealed themselves. His mouth stayed expressionless but twitched at the word "mother." Unconsciously he clenched his hands into fists and said, tone flat, "Yes, but it looks better on you." Without another word he left.
How was he supposed to say it hurt too much to have anything of hers touching him?
…
"No."
"Oh, why not!?"
"Because I don't want you getting sick also."
"Please. I promise I won't."
"Don't make promises you cannot keep."
"Just let me-"
"Elena, I said no and no is no."
The girl sighed in defeat. Mephiles' over-protective behavior made it hard for her to have any type of fun. Most of the time, before she could even think about doing anything out of routine she had to make sure it was alright with him first, and it usually wasn't. With Mephiles, if he said no, then that really meant no. There wasn't any way to get him to change his mind after that. Yes, he was known for spoiling her but not in the way most people think. He was more of an affection dumper.
There were times when Elena felt brave and she would try to push her brother to let her do what she wanted for example, she wanted to play in the snow. Though, that brave push in her mind usually fled when he got stern. That was around the time where she would give up and go to her room to wallow in self pity. She had once caused Mephiles to get very upset with her and she vowed she would never push him over the edge like that again so she took precaution. But she felt defiant today.
She pouted. "You never let me do anything you big meany."
They both lied on the couch, Elena on top of Mephiles. Her legs curled in and her head lied on his fluffy chest. She played with the strands as she mumbled unpleasant words causing the blue-gray striped hedgehog to frown at her calling her name warningly. Elena got up crossing her arms. A deep frown etched her features and she snapped, "It's just not fair. I'm going to my room before you tell me I can't even go up the stairs without your permission."
She couldn't believe she had just sassed him but it just had to be done. As much as she wanted to turn around and apologize, she couldn't admit defeat. Elena was strong. It wasn't until Mephiles' voice had reached her ears that she doubted how strong she was.
"Elena, get back here," he demanded.
She stopped in her tracks and sighed. She had one giant mouth. Her body faced the, seemingly sounding, semi-angered sibling. The mouth on her muzzle opened with shock to see him glare at her with much anger. Did she really upset him that much?
"M-Meph-"
"I don't have time for your attitude today alright? If you want to go out then I have to also go with you but I can't because I have to keep an eye on Shadow. So don't talk to me like that just because you didn't get your way. Do you understand me?"
Her gulp of spit was somehow louder than her rapidly beating heart. Elena nodded as tears stung her eyes from her scolding. Over normal circumstances, a light scolding would've pushed someone her age to just shrug it off or roll their eyes. But you see, Elena wasn't used to reprimands, well, she wasn't used to them from Mephiles. Each time, out of the little times she had gotten scolded by him, he had this look of anger that triggered the thought that he hated her. Although it was an absurd thought she couldn't help it. Her father had pushed the thought too deep in her mind to ignore.
The eldest of the two sighed sounding tired. Mephiles sucked in air while he ran his fingers through his messy quills. Already he felt bad about what he had said. Even though the words were appropriate he couldn't help but think he could've approached the situation in a different manner. The midnight male snaked his arm on her back and pushed her head on his chest. Elena just stood there in his arms while Mephiles kissed her head and apologized. "I'm sorry Elena. I didn't mean to snap at you."
She opened her mouth about to say how she deserved it, that she didn't need to have an attitude when another voice took her place.
Shadow the Hedgehog climbed down the stairs slowly. He gripped the railing to steady himself from falling. The headache he had once had, had dulled to a minor throb and his stuffy nose was at least tolerable. He smirked as he said, "You can't even go five seconds without feeling bad for yelling at her. You're going soft."
Mephiles scoffed. "I believe the term you're looking for is nice, something you lack. What are you doing out of bed Shadow?"
Completely ignoring the question he continued his taunting. "I remember when you were sixteen you wouldn't even come out of your room. Everyone had to ask before they were allowed in there and if they didn't you would just explode. I wonder where that Mephiles went. I liked him a lot better than sentimental Mephiles."
"Shadow, today is not the day," Mephiles warned.
Elena stood quiet between the two. She backed away from Mephiles' arms finding they were squeezing her.
The crimson marked hedgehog laughed. "I'm just teasing, brother. Oh, and before I forget, Elena," he called. The teens ears perked and she gave him his attention.
"Yes Shadow?"
"I'll take you outside," he said.
Her orange orbs lightened automatically. "Really?" she exclaimed. He nodded with a smirk. "Yes, now hurry and get ready before I change my mind. I'm already freezing and I haven't even gone outside yet." Shadow shivered slightly imagining the cold outside.
"I'll go get ready now! Thank you so much Shadow!" Elena ran to her room, immediately searching for her heavy coat.
Shadow rolled her eyes at her giddiness. It was just snow; frozen water even. What was up with her? They had seen snow before. In fact, they saw snow every winter. It snowed right outside their house! What was the big deal?
The hedgehog was brought out of his thoughts when a hand was on his shoulder. He shrugged it off as soon as he realized it was Mephiles'. Shadow turned to him finding a grin on his muzzle. He raised a brow.
"Weren't you just mad at me second ago, you bipolar hedgehog?"
"What you just did there was very….nice," Mephiles responded.
"Yeah, well, I could hear her whining from all the way upstairs and she needed to stop someway, somehow," Shadow grunted in irritation.
"Yeah, sure, that's the reason why." Mephiles laughed when the other growled. "Anyway," he harshly patted the ruby-eyed hedgehog's back, "Good luck out there. I hope your cold doesn't get too bad."
Shadow blinked and almost choked. "Wait, aren't you coming? You're not going to leave me alone are you?"
"Aren't you funny? Of course not, I'm not stupid. It's freezing out there and I'm not playing with Elena. You're going to have to do that today, little brother."
"Why you-"
Elena ran through them taking Shadow's wrist and dragging him towards the door listing everything they were going to do with cheerfulness. "Wait Elena," Shadow almost pleaded, "Be mindful, I'm sick-"
"That's okay," Mephiles interrupted, "Go full out. He really can't wait to snowball fight with you." A huge, rather innocent, smile was plastered on his face.
Shadow furrowed his brows and scrunched his face up in anger. He stayed quiet but gave Mephiles an icy glare before shutting the door behind him. The eldest turned his back on the chocolate colored door and chuckled evilly. His eyes slanted as he smirked.
"I may not be antisocial but I still enjoy watching you suffer."