Chapter 7: Footbath

Sonic woke up. He still wasn't really used to the hotel since he always stayed outside.

The soft crimson sheets covering him were half on the floor and half hanging by his leg, the white sheets under him are slightly wrinkly from his weight. Half the number of pillows landed on the floor, but they were still white. The walls were a nice and traditional white-ish cream color. The rug underneath them was a mix between red and orange. Across from the two double beds was a long counter made out of dark polished wood with a cushioned chair with a striped design pushed in the space between its legs. Next to it was a metal safe. And next to that, was a floor lamp. On the right of all that was finally the window to add a little natural light to the room. It had those Japanese style windows made out of wood and rice paper. On that side of the room also had two comfortable looking cushioned seats with a small square table in between, already set up with two tea cups made of glass and several back-up paper cups on the side. A few packs of tea were stacked on the side as well. A small lamp hangs from the ceiling above the small relaxing spot with the view of another building across, and with a view of a busy street below spotted with trees.

Huffing, he sat up and jumped out of bed. First official day at Japan, it should be a clean, fresh start.

"Yo, Knuckles, wake up," the blue hog chirped, shaking the earlier addressed echidna. "First day in Japan, better not sleep in."

Knuckles didn't move a bit, so Sonic just decided to keep on poking him and saying, "Knux, Knux, Knux, Knux, Knux!" He was enjoying this quite a bit.

Well, at least before a spiked hand met his face in one smooth movement and sent the other falling flat on his back into his own bed. His sharp quills almost made cuts in the sheets, if not for the hedgehog blunting his quills at the last half millisecond.

"I get it," muttered Knuckles, getting out of bed and walking to the bathroom.

After both getting ready and freshening up, the stood at the mirror on the side wall, near the door. Blue and red reflected off the mirror, and it caught a glint of pearly white teeth. "Both lookin' pretty sharp, eh?" said Sonic, grinning, as he bumped the other on the arm.

"Yeah, yeah. Let's go." He tried to hide his smile, but did poorly as they walked out the door.

Sonic skipped over to room 406 and knocked. "You ready, Shads?"

There was no response on the other side. After a few more seconds, the door opened and a slightly damp hedgehog walked out, a light sheet of steam seeming to surround him. Hot damn, Sonic muttered in his mind. He looks sexier than I thought…

Slightly flustered at the sudden thought, the azure whirl wind looked around awkwardly, trying to avoid the 'hot zone.' Shadow's husky yet careless response brought him back. "Yeah, ready."

Just when they were about to go down the hall, the door next to Shadow's room opened and a blue and white mobian walked out. "Hey, Shadow. You're going? I was just going to go downstairs. Can I join your group?" He wore the exact same thing he did yesterday. Gray-white jacket, dark purple scarf, black tank inside, and laced black combat boots. Shadow didn't know if it was just him, but he could've sworn he saw a certain glint in that hedgehog's deep purple eyes that are just a shade lighter than his scarf.

"Sure." The black and red male said.

Sonic's smile widened. "Heh-hey! You've been making new friends without us? I feel so offended!"

As those two talked, Knuckles went and knocked on the rooms his friends were in and told them they were going downstairs for a quick breakfast. They all agreed to meet down there later.

After that, the four walked down the hall, introducing themselves.

XXX

Shadow looked away uneasily as he brought his toast—covered in Japan's Peanut Soft—to his lips and bit off another piece, making a slight crunch sound.

The two hedgehogs kept glancing at the black male. The sound of every bite sounded so heavenly, anyone would've wanted to take a chomp out of it. Or, rather, the guy himself…

Sonic's breakfast was a plate of toast covered in American's traditional Skippy peanut butter with a cup of creamy orange drink with bits of peaches floating inside. (it didn't taste as weird as it looked) It was pretty simple.

Brisk was slightly different. He had regular bread and a cup of iced tea with a few strawberries on the side.

Knuckles had a bowl of miso soup and a bagel with fresh blueberries sticking onto the layer of cream he'd smothered the bagel with. He had regular water.

Shadow, however, was a completely different story. He had already eaten three pieces of toast covered with the same sugary peanut butter. On his plate sat a section of fruits, and a small muffin next to it. To help the food down, he had an iced orange juice on the side. It was much more sugary and held more calories than the others.

Soon after, the rest of the group got downstairs and met up and quickly took a seat at the table next to the four after getting their breakfast. Everyone was pretty happy, chattering away and discussing what they wanted to do.

When Amy came over, Knuckles immediately stood up and left for the other table. He knew the girl wanted to sit next to her boyfriend and he respected that, but mostly because he didn't want to hear the sickly sweet voice of hers, masking the obvious irritation.

"Hey Sonic," she said as she smoothed out her dress from behind to make sure the short dress was tucked around her legs and sat down.

"Mornin'," the blue hedgehog smiled and kissed her cheek.

"Gosh, it's the first day in Japan! I wonder what we're going to do…" the girl giggled and took a bite from her jelly covered toast. "Mmm, the toast here is really good!"

Sonic nodded. "Yeah, it is."

Awkward. What else does he say now? He panicked a little. He always knew what to say. Why can't he do it now?

Then, his eyes averted to Brisk. He seemed to be inching slightly closer to Shadow, who was also in a very awkward position. Part of Sonic felt pity, another part felt relief since he wasn't the only one, and part of him felt…anger. It was very subtle, but he felt uneasy. Brisk wasn't in the black one's personal space, but it just seemed a little too close for a friend he's just met. Sure, maybe they've hit off really good, but that would be very shocking since Shadow never really talks much to anyone who approaches him, much less 'friendly.'

Shaking his head, he returned his attention back to his girlfriend. "You know, I was thinking if we could take the first day easy since we might have a little jet lag. I'm not really sure what the time difference is, but I don't feel like going crazy today. You want to hang around?"

"Oh, sure! I wasn't really sure what I wanted to do today. Maybe we could learn a little Japanese together so we don't always have to rely on Rouge and Shadow. You know, because it's a little tiring to always translate everything for a whole group of eight people."

Sonic smiled and nodded. "Yeah, sounds like a plan."

Just when the blue hedgehog was about to leave the table, he froze for a millesecond. Didn't that mean Brisk could have Shadow all to himself…? No. No, he's over-thinking it. Of course Brisk wouldn't like Shadow. Chances are, he's straight.

When he cleaned up his mess, he walked towards the elevator for going upstairs to Amy's room. On the way up, he went over to Shadow and tapped him on the shoulder. "Be careful not to get fat, sugar." He winked and laughed at the pun he made.

Sonic saw Brisk smirk. "Nice one," he heard him say. The green eyed hero just laughed without turning around. When Amy caught up to him, he held hands with her and disappeared into the elevator when the doors closed.

Shadow felt a little empty, now that his doppelganger's joke has worn off. Thankfully, the mostly white hedgehog was there to distract him a little. Or is that not a good thing?

"He's taken?"

"Yeah."

"Hmm…"

Shadow looked at him strangely. "Why?"

"Nothing, I'm just curious. Well, I'm going to introduce myself to the rest of your friends now." The little pat on the back sent shivers down Shadow's back. Geez, does he have an off button where he has a normal temperature…?

XXX

After studying simple greetings and sentences like, 'where is the restroom', the couple laid back and started testing each other.

"Okay, how do you say good morning?" Amy asked.

"Uh…oheyo…gozaimasu?" Sonic half-asked, half-answered.

Amy laughed softly. "Close. It's ohayo gozaimasu."

"Oy…alright. I'll work on that. Your turn. What's sweet dreams?" asked the blue blur.

"It's...it sounds like English, right? Suu ito dorimu?"

Sonic smiled. "Correct."

The pink hedgehog yawed. "Speaking of which, I'm a little tired. Mind if I sleep for a bit?"

Saying his approval, he half sat/laid down next to his now napping little angel.

Just when he was about to doze off as well, a knock sounded at the door and his eyes snapped open again. Slightly annoyed, he got out of bed and opened the door. "What's up…" he muttered, then, seeing who it was, he woke up fully. "Oh. What's up, bro?"

He looked at Sonic with his big baby blue eyes sheepishly. "Sorry if I woke you. Anyway, Brisk has been here in Japan for a while and he told us that we could have some kind of foot bath near out hotel. Like, really near. We can just walk there. Except, we kind of need to wear kimonos. It's in the closets here…" he pushed the mirror next to the door sideways, and a small closet made out of wood was hidden behind it.

"Ooooohhhh…alright. Well, who's going?"

"Brisk—of course—Shadow, Silver and I are, along with you, too, if you're going."

Sonic could've sworn his heart tripped for a millesecond when he heard a certain name mentioned by Tails. He shook his head mentally. "Sure. Meet at the lobby?"

Tails smiled and nodded. "See ya later!"

Right when his twin-tailed friend closed the door and was probably a good few feet away from his door, he realized that he never got to ask how to put it on.

He stared at the kimono.

XXX

Tails and all the others were already at the lobby when Sonic arrived. His kimono was draped over his arm.

Just before Tails could ask him why his wasn't on, Sonic answered it for him. "I don't know how to put it on."

"Chaos, Sonic, you should've just told me that before I left!" said Tails.

Sonic scratched his head. "Yeah…I forgot to right when you left."

The twin tailed kitsune shook his head and laughed. "Silver, you know how to put it on, right?"

The albino hedgehog nodded, and helped Sonic out as they walked to their destination, which was only about 150 feet away from the hotel.

"There," Silver hummed as he brushed off some of the dust on Sonic's kimono. Said hero looked down at himself and felt a little silly wearing it. The blue flowery patterns imprinted on the white fabric just didn't seem like something he would ever wear. After all, he rarely wears any clothes.

However, when he turned to all the others they didn't look too bad. Huh. Guess it's just me and my mind, then.

Sonic refused to let his gaze linger on a certain dark furred handsome beauty.

Brisk sat next to Shadow, who sat next to Sonic, who sat next to Tails, who sat next to Silver. The foot bath was like a warm pool of water kept in by a ring of smoothed granite, where the people would sit on while letting the warm water relax themselves. The bottom of the footbath were laid with dark, smooth, and small rocks which was used as a natural massage because of the smooth bumps it had.

Brisk laughed as he dipped his feet in the warm water. "Remember how I said I'm pretty much always cold? Well, this is probably the only time I'm warm."

The rest followed suit and either shivered or sighed happily. It felt good and relaxing alright...The slight breeze was the perfect temperature, and it looked like a clear day overall. The sky was a light blue with some parts faded white because of the clouds. The sun blended in with the sky and the white puffs with its light colored rays shining down onto the ground, warming it up. It also made the water in the footbath shine.

Sonic sighed and threw his head back, closing his eyes and enjoying his time out. "Hey Tails?" he murmured contently.

"Yeah?" Tails replied with the same tone.

"Remind me to take footbaths more often...They need to be taken care of more after all that running."

The orange one laughed. "Sure thing."

Silver added a side comment, laughing at Sonic, "I don't even have to walk if I don't want to."

After a little bit more of relaxing, Tails announced that he was going to head inside again. Brisk went in shortly after, too, leaving the outcast, the hero, and the psychic alone.

Sonic got tense after the two left. Sure, there's still Silver, but…look at how close their hands were! The dark one's right hand pinky was less than a centimeter away from Sonic. Less than a centimeter! He didn't know how to react though, as much as he wanted to just at least brush his own pinky past his. Of course, he could make it seem like an accident, but he didn't want to risk it. What if Shadow could tell? Or find it awkward even if it was just an accident? Nope, not doing it.

"I'm done here." Shadow muttered before taking his soaked feet out and slightly shaking to get some of the water droplets off. Then he slipped back into his slippers (that went with the kimono) and headed back into the hotel without another word.

Sonic was just about to follow when Silver stopped him. He bore a smirle. Something between a smirk and a smile. "You have no idea how much fun reading people's minds can be." And with that, he set off towards their hotel as well, leaving Sonic staring at him and figuring out that Silver now knew his embarrassed side and thought.

GUYS! I have a question. Should I include a lemon? If yes, then I won't have a writer's block for another seven chapters after they confess with each other. If no…well, those seven chapters will not exist, and there will probably lots of problems with ideas for this story. Please give me your opinion! Please? When life gives you lemons…well, you decide. You want a lemon or not? It's sour.

AND YES. I know. I haven't updated in almost a month! I'm sorry! D: I can't guarantee that I won't be updating faster, but I can promise you that I'm not ending this. I'm already up to seven chapters! That's the farthest I've gotten in a real story after I got the hang of writing decent fanfics! :D See ya guys next time, then. Bai~~