*The beginning of this chapter involves light to moderate sexual content.


9 - No Longer Just Friends - 9


Afternoon, 3:00 PM

Even now, even at this very moment, he was still toying with him. He had him literally in his hands, and he could strangle the brat if he wanted to. Sonic knew this, and he still decided to throw more fuel to the fire. But, that was Sonic for you. He didn't care if the Devil himself stared into his very soul, he'd spit right in his face and laugh at him. No matter how much Shadow tried to ignore his words, no matter how much he tried to keep his distance, he couldn't control himself any longer. He wanted to wait to confess his feelings, but this asshole of a crush was making that impossible. He couldn't deny it any longer—He wanted Sonic and by God did he want him badly. He knew it was just a crush, but now something else was screaming inside of him to just do something to him. Do the very things Rouge tried to do to him all those years ago. Do that and...And more. And more...And even more...That thought scared him, because he didn't even know he could want to do that to someone else. And he kind of wanted Sonic to do it to him, too.

...Damn it, why did he have to make everything so fucking difficult!?

"...What did you say?"

"You heard me." The hero retorted. "I want you to hurt me with something else." His voice grew huskier the more he spoke. "I want you to press me harder against this wall. I want you to fuck me up."

"...!" Holy shit, where was this coming from? "W-Will you shut the fuck up already!?"

"D'awww!" Sonic teased as he poked out his lips. "Poor itty bitty baby ultimate life form's scared of lil' ol' me?"

"Sonic I will kill you, and no one will find your body when I'm done with you!"

The blue one's eyes glowed into a dangerous neon green as his voice deepened threateningly. "You ain't gonna do shit, you big fuckin' pussy."

The striped one's eyes turned into a furious hellish red. "Mother fucker-!" He slammed his fist into the wall beside Sonic's head. He gripped his hand onto his jaw, forcing his peach lips to part.

Shadow dived in, pressing his lips into his.

It was so rough, that he was bruising his mouth and his own. But he didn't care, he didn't care about anything anymore. After half a minute, the pent up GUN agent broke the kiss, allowing them both a second to breathe. Now lightly panting, they stared at each other hungrily. The fire in their eyes wasn't dying out, however. This was far from over. Shadow growled and pressed a rough kiss on him again, gripping Sonic's arms and pulling him closer. He felt the hero wrap his arms around his waist to close any possible space between them. Hushed moans and light gasps echoed in the secret stone stairway, the pair shamelessly not concerned if they so happened to be caught. They broke the second kiss for a moment for some air, only to continue where they left off with yet another fiery kiss. Their thighs and legs brushed up against each other, grazing lower areas of great weakness. Their hands eventually found each other, grasping and interlocking their fingers. They couldn't get enough of each other, acting as if they would never see each other again after this. As if the very world was ending, coming to take them out along with it. And if that did happen, neither of them cared. They just wanted this moment to last forever.

It felt so good, it felt so wrong yet so right. Like it was something they should have done ages ago, or like they were releasing a tight lock on Pandora's box of hidden desires. The touching, the attention—It was everything Shadow wanted. This was all he ever needed and he needed so much more of it. He wouldn't stop until he could taste the forbidden fruit that he's been too afraid to touch for so long. But the moment didn't last forever like he hoped. After all, they needed oxygen. They slowly broke their consummation, and panted heavily. Shadow cautiously took a step back, the glow in his eyes slightly fading. His face was hot red, all the way up to the tips of his ears. He just did that. He really just...Kissed him. Not once, not twice, but three times in a row. He swallowed nervously. He did this all wrong. He didn't even confess properly, he didn't do anything right. He let Sonic get in his head, he let him get to him so easily.

Did he ruin it? Did he mess everything-

"Heheh..." A dark laughter drifted in the steamy air. Sonic clapped his hands together a few times as he laughed harder. "Hahaha..." He licked his lips sensually and darted his eyes directly into Shadow's. The glow in his eyes never decreased. "That was so cute...You're so inexperienced." He slowly took a couple steps forward in the tight space, causing his prey to back against the wall. Shadow completely had it wrong. He didn't corner Sonic, Sonic cornered him. The hero's cheeks were red, but he wasn't nearly as beet in the face as Shadow was. "You had me thinkin' I was actually in trouble, that I wouldn't be able to keep up. But it's obvious now," The hero's smile became increasingly ominous with every passing second. "You've never done this before, have you?"

He couldn't look away, he couldn't lie to him. He just couldn't. Those eyes...His eyes...Why couldn't he look away? Why did it feel like something was locking his focus? It was like his gaze was paralyzing him, and it wasn't just because of his feelings for him. It was something else. Something with energy he couldn't describe. Something vulgar that he was hopelessly attracted to.

"..." Shadow was definitely caught off guard. "...What...does that matter?"

Why was he intimidated by this? And why did he enjoy being in this daunting presence?

"You are adorable, you know that?" One would think he was teasing him, but his tone and voice was so eerily profound and unsettling that it felt like a threat. "I'm so proud of you for trying, Shads. But that ain't gonna do, not at all." He could clearly see it, the blue aura surrounding his entire body. It was radiating off of his figure like a Molotov fire. "Baby, if we're gonna do this, we're gonna do it right." A finger was placed onto his mouth, and rubbed itself slowly down to his bottom lip. Sonic pressed his thumb down against it, slightly creating an opening of Shadow's mouth. "Now it's time for this youngin' to show you a thing or two." His feral fangs revealed themselves, and Shadow could feel his own latent animalistic instincts kick in. His body felt hot, as if it was lit on fire. He felt like he was burning alive, his skin scorching into ash. No...No, that wasn't possible.

That's when it hit him.

Touching himself late at night, growing hot, these lingering feelings of arousal: Aren't these all symptoms of mating season?

T-That can't be, Shadow was never susceptible to such a phenomenon!

This couldn't be happening. It couldn't! It was biologically impossible! "W-Wha..." Shadow shuddered. "What the hell...are you...doing to me...?" He whispered as he gripped his fingers into the wall behind him. "What have you done...?" He stifled a moan as he felt Sonic press his pelvis against his lower abdomen. "And why...have I wanted this for so long...? I don't get it..."

He suddenly felt his lips against his neck, his hand caressing the side of his face. "You've been stuck in my mind every single day," Sonic whispered. Even though Shadow was immensely flustered, he instinctively leaned into Sonic's touch. He pressed small pecks up his throat, and under his chin. "I've never felt like this either, not with anyone I've ever been with." He finally hovered his mouth over his. "You're driving me insane, and I'm gonna make you feel everything I've pent up." That's when it happened, the moment Sonic was dying for. They connected their mouths completely, this wouldn't be a mere kiss anymore. Feverishly, yet gently, Sonic lightly pushed his tongue inside. He immediately liked what he tasted: Coffee. He knew Shadow was nervous and clearly bewildered as to what to do. To make him feel more comfortable, Sonic stroked the side of his face and went farther back to delicately rub the back of his head. His other hand rubbed down his side and held his waist, lightly pushing his lower body closer. He then rubbed it upwards, planting it within his chest fur. He laced his fingers through it, and he could feel a low purr dwelling within Shadow's throat.

He could taste Sonic's tongue, and his breath. He had recently brushed his teeth, he tasted like mint. Suddenly feeling a little frisky, Shadow decided to try and keep up with this new game of theirs. He ever so slightly brushed his tongue against Sonic's. When he did, the hero made a pleasurable groan. He liked that he was finally trying to dance this dance with him. He did it again, and he felt Sonic grip his fingers in his chest fur. That felt good, really good. As their tongues pushed more and more against each other, Shadow decided to do something else. He had to show that he wasn't scared, that he could handle this. It didn't matter what Sonic was, who he was or what kind of power he had, he would never let him win. He admitted, he had him on the ropes at first, and he nearly pushed him completely into submission, but he wasn't going to let that happen. He couldn't, he'd never let himself live it down. Shadow lowered his hand towards his side, but he reached back father behind. He found the very ample, plump thing he was searching for, so he groped it. Hard.

"...!" Sonic gasped sharply, breaking the kiss immediately. A string of spit broke between them as he shivered from Shadow's touch. "Mmmnn," His tail started wagging in anticipation. "Mmhmhm~" He bit Shadow's bottom lip and nudged his knee in between his legs, rubbing it vigorously against his crotch. "Sneaky, aren't we? Tryin' to compete with me?"

"A-Ah..." Great Chaos, that felt amazing. "A-Aaah...!" He clenched his eye shut from the immense pleasure he had never felt before. Was this what it was like to be intimate with someone? If it was, he could get used to that. "S-Sonic..." He choked out, his voice weak but his body thriving with desire.

"You like that~?" Sonic hushed sultrily. "You like it when I touch you there? Or," Shadow suddenly felt his knee rub underneath his buttocks. "Here~?" A hefty moan was his response. "Nmm, yeah? Is it there?" He stuck out his tongue and slithered it against the corner of Shadow's mouth. "You want me to lick you up? Hm? You want that~?" He felt Shadow rub his fingers against his arse, and Sonic felt his own legs part. "Mmnn, fuck...Keep touching me like that..." He squeezed it, the blue blur's legs shuddered against themselves and his thighs closed instinctively. Then when he felt Shadow's fingers intercept between them and rub him from underneath his crotch, he started to lose it. "A-Aahh...Yeah, don't stop..." He praised erotically as he continued thrusting his knee against Shadow's pelvis. "Don't stop, don't stop..." He pleaded as he leaned his head against Shadow's shoulder. He gripped the biohog's hips with his palms and thrusted himself against him. "The way you touch me feels so good..."

They grinded against each other desperately. They were both so needy, needy for each other. "F-Fuck..." Shadow thrusted back against him, clutching his back as he moaned. "I c-can't...this feels-" He dragged his fingers down his back. "Sonic...!"

Sonic moaned back just as alluringly. "Shadow-"

"Shadow? Can you hear me? You've been in the same place for almost an hour. Just checking in on you."

...

...Shadow held up his wrist to activate his holographics. The time appeared in red text:

3:45 PM

...

...Oh.

The fun's over, it seems.

Panting but slowly catching their breaths, the two hedgehogs reluctantly separated themselves. Sonic backed away, not looking at him but clearly intoxicated with lust. Shadow was in the exact same boat. "..." He held his wrist close to his lips. "...I'm," He had to take a moment to find his second wind. "I'm fine. Thanks for checking in, over and out." He pushed that through his teeth, he had no desire to be talking with anyone right now. His lips suddenly felt dry.

Something...Clearly just happened.

But it did happen. They can't change it, and they can't change what most definitely would have happened if Rouge hadn't called in. Yeah they probably would have messed around-But honestly? Didn't even matter. Nope, not one bit. They had more important things to worry about. Like...Yeah! Investigating this hideout, for example. Right. Yeah...That. He looked down at his chest fur and saw how much Sonic roughed it up and attempted to fix it. He'd probably have to properly groom it later. Sonic meanwhile was still rather unpredictable. He was leaning against the wall with a hand on his hip, looking at nothing. His eyes were blank, the neon green glow in them completely gone. The glow in Shadow's had disappeared as well, their sex drive depleting almost instantly from that interruption. That was a good thing, though. Totally. Totally a good thing...Anyway, time to get moving. Their jobs weren't done, not yet. Shadow cleared his throat and silently gestured for Sonic to follow by nodding his head towards the end of the stairs. Nodding back, Sonic did as he was told.

They made going down a single flight of steps, the longest task of the entire mission.

Sigh.

They finally made it to the true hideout. One could tell both that the corridor and this room was man made, so Infinite must have made his men dig this little pocket of space. Shadow pointed to the other side of the room without saying a word, wordlessly instructing Sonic to check that side while he checked this side. He saw the hedgehog nod once and headed in the direction he requested. There were a few desks and drawers. In the back was a very large desk, the biggest one in the room. It was thick and had a longer length than the others. That was no doubt Infinite's desk. He was about to go check when he saw in the corner of his eye, Sonic tapping his knuckles against the left wall, the most far point of the side of the room Shadow requested for him to search. His blue ear listened closely to the noise his taps were making. He then backed up and eyed the wall up and down, before lifting his leg and swiftly kicking his foot directly against it. Instead of causing a bunch of bricks to crumble and fall, the wall...dented. Bricks weren't supposed to do that. That wasn't a real wall. With a slightly frustrated frown, blue chaos energy suddenly surrounded his entire head, before suddenly charging forward.

He completely headbutted the faux wall, and it worked, because all Shadow could see now was Sonic's behind. Before he could look away from such a gorgeous sight, Shadow heard a "Oh shit...!" Sonic's legs kicked backwards and he managed to pull himself back in from the hole he made. He dusted a few pieces of fake bricks off of his head before charging forward again with his shoulder first. Once he made an impact, the fake wall finally fell with a very loud thud. It even shook the ground beneath them. The hero tapped the fallen obstacle to see that it was super dense metal. It was probably osmium, but that was extremely rare to get your hands on. Not to mention stupidly expensive. Sonic simply stepped over the fallen wall and entered the room, which was itself concealed within a hidden room. Why put a secret in another secret? Maybe the most valuable thing they possessed was in there, so he'd check with Sonic later. Shadow turned back to his own task, and got behind the desk.

He pulled out drawers and opened cabinets. He searched for buttons underneath the desk, checked for false bottoms and fake handles that slipped off too easily. But no, he couldn't find a thing. There were just crumpled up pieces of paper that couldn't be read, along with broken pencils and pens scattered from draw to draw, and stained blank pieces of copy and line paper. Useless...Might as well see what Sonic was up to then-"...?" Wait. Shadow paused everything. He bent down and looked at the floor to see a shabby excuse for a rug, one that ran all the way underneath Infinite's desk. In one swift motion, the biohog grasped the crappy excuse of a decoration and whipped it from underneath the desk without even slightly disturbing it. He dropped the rug once he saw an item underneath the desk. There was a perfectly cut out square with a thin handle. There was a small cabinet built into the stone floor. When he returned to the hidden prison, he'd scold Infinite for not warning him about the many secret compartments that were installed in his humble abode. Shadow got down onto his knees and used his hand to lift the cabinet door open.

Ah, a black book. It was nearly too snug in the cabinet, but he managed to pull it out. He stood up while holding the thin piece of evidence, feeling it's light weight in his palms. It felt like it wasn't supposed to be, though. There may have been pages ripped out of it, but it appeared to be some kind of journal. He'd definitely look into that later. He placed it into his bed of quills, where it would disappear until he needed it again. He remembered Rouge once complaining about how she wished she could hide all of her belongings in a bed of hair like they could without anyone noticing a thing. Quills as hair was just the best, honestly. For safe keeping, he whipped around the room real quick to check the other small desks, but he found nothing worth salvaging and he was positive they didn't have any elaborate hidey holes either. He was done here.

He walked into the room that Sonic busted into earlier and saw that there were bunk beds all throughout the room separated by an aisle of empty space, similar to the barracks of a house of soldiers. The ceiling was extremely high, and the room was incredibly spacious. Quickly, Shadow eyeballed the amount of beds in this spacious cut out room. They were all very tall, and held multiple beds. There were fifteen bunks, with four beds each...That was sixty beds in total. Sixty people could rest in here. Looking towards the back of the room, there was a large cut out space in the wall for a very wide and tall steel fridge. They must have stolen a power line and hooked up some electricity to the place. Or maybe the casino never ran out of power, they just redirected the energy. Sonic had already opened it, it was nearly cleared out, save for some spoiled old milk and rotted meats that smelled awful. There was a door on the other side of the room that was open, and it was a large bathroom.

Shadow checked the restroom, one which had several toilet stalls, sinks and showers. Practically a community bathroom, which was a little gross. Guess they really were like a family. They checked underneath every bed, every mattress, and every box spring—Nothing. They checked for any more little secret surprises, but no. Zilch. That transmitter seemed to be the only important-

Sonic's ears twinged to the side. He then turned at Shadow, almost robotically or like he was being led by something. His eyes seemed distracted, he was sensing something. "Yo," He told Shadow, who was starting to wince at this buzzing noise he was hearing. "Take out that transceiver thingy." When Shadow did so, blue sparks kept zapping through the device and into his hand. He flinched in pain and dropped it on the floor where Sonic swiftly slid over to catch it just before it smashed onto the ground. As the hero stared at it, his eyes began to travel from it, to somewhere in the barracks. It was as if he was watching a line move from one place to another, and he was. He was watching his own chaos energy search for the conductor that was attracting it. It sparked across the floor, zapping towards the fridge. Once it settled onto the appliance, it went mad with energy and began trembling against the wall it was positioned against. "It must have sensed another conductor when you moved more into the room, it's in there."

Shadow was already on it. He boosted forward with his air shoes and charged a punch into the appliance. He hissed at the pain of being shocked by Sonic's energy, but he did just the right amount of damage. The hinges of the doors fell with hard thuds, and the shelves were broken. The now broken evaporator fan inside of it twitched, but something was behind the blade because Sonic's energy was sparking a lot there. It kept shocking him though. "There a way to turn that off?" He asked aloud as he attempted to put his hand inside.

"On it." More blue sparks appeared on Sonic's fingers. He snapped them, and a wave of blue aura flowed across the room before fading out. The sparks were no longer flaring up, they were gone. All Shadow saw left of it was floating blue embers fading into the air. He then grunted to get his fingers in the fan, before yanking it out. He looked down at it, and turned it around. His eyes narrowed when he saw transparent tape sticking down a slim USB. He ripped it off from its adhesive prison and carefully placed it into his quills.

"A USB," Shadow said aloud, wondering what was on such a tiny little thing. "More than likely a bunch of valuable info." He knew it for sure this time, they found everything they needed. He turned to Sonic. "Let's get out of here, I'm tired of this place. We got what we needed." He then walked over to place his hand on his arm, but then he slowly reached down to softly caress his hand. Sonic surprisingly grasped his hand back sweetly. With a small blush, Shadow muttered the words, "Chaos Control."

4:20 PM

In a literal green flash, they were outside of the abandoned casino, still holding each other's hands.

Silence fell between them as they stared at each other.

...

...

...

...Something major just happened, and they couldn't ignore it.

Shadow carefully pulled his hand away, as much as he didn't want to. "Um," He supposed he could start with the second most obvious elephant in the room. "I apologize." He suddenly blurted, causing himself to blink. Why did he have to make things so awkward immediately? "I didn't mean to offend you, earlier. I made you feel stupid and I...didn't intend that at all."

He must have meant the whole "whore" thing. Sonic shrugged with a small smile and handed the transceiver back to its new owner. "I'm over it." He replied. "Yeah, you're a little harsh, I won't lie." He saw Shadow ruefully look to the side. "But I know that already, so I knew you didn't mean it that way." He stroked one of his own longer quills that was hanging over his shoulder, before pushing it to the side. "If I was younger, I would have called you an asshole and given you the silent treatment. Sometimes our fast brains are too impatient for certain things, such as sensitive topics. I've been tryin' to learn how to both tame my own tone and to understand that if it comes from someone else, it's usually not what I initially think." He made a sly smile as he lowered his voice in a gossipy whisper. "Knuckles is the king of saying savage shit without meaning to be mean, Rouge currently suffers from it. But they're working on it." His expression grew a brighter shade of positivity. "People make mistakes, it's not a big deal. At the end of the day, you were trying to say something nice to me. And I appreciate that."

That was good, he didn't hurt him and he took it in stride like he always did. "Thank goodness," Shadow just barely whispered, as he didn't want Sonic to hear him and tease him for it. "Another thing," He added quickly as he hid the transceiver in his quills. "One of the gifts you gave me after the party, that hand drawn picture of Maria," He stared at the blue hedgehog with curiosity. "Did you make that?"

Sonic sheepishly scratched behind his head. "I uh," He stammered. "I hope you didn't take offense to it, I know she's a real tough subject for you. I don't draw very often, so I ain't too good at um...Traditional art. But I thought it would be the best way to immortalize her, and an even better gift. So," He nodded. "Yes, I drew her. I went off of what Rouge told me how you described her. I don't know if it was entirely accurate. I didn't do the ice sculptor though, I ain't that good! Hahaha."

He really was the one who did that? The better question was, why was he still surprised at this point? It was Sonic, of course he made that. He could feel it, he knew it all along. Only he would create something that would take that much care and attention, to craft something that would mean so much to the ultimate life form. Shadow bit his lip, his heart was so heavy at the moment and he was feeling so many different things at once. "I see. Thank you for that. I never had any photos of her, my truest regret," He sadly confessed. "But now she's preserved in beautiful strokes of graphite and color. I can rest easy now, thanks to you. I'll probably keep it for as long as I live."

A beautiful smile graced Sonic's face. "I'm glad, Shadow. That's all I wanted, to make you happy."

He had to say, that smile stunned him for a second.

God he was beautiful, but Shadow forced himself to stop being so mesmerized. "About what happened in the stairwell," And like that he changed the subject and ripped off the band aid. Shadow knew there was a chance Sonic could dismiss this or blow him off, but he had to take a chance because he needed to know. "I say this with as much respect as I have for you, which is a lot..." He clenched his fists. "...Will I be a fling too?"

Sonic wasn't offended, he knew why he was asking that. "I don't want it to be, no. If that's what you want, of course." He simply answered, his voice neutral.

"And," Shadow wasn't finished just yet, there was more he needed to know before he was willing to go through with this at one hundred and ten percent. "You know I'm bad at this. I don't even know where that all came from. I still don't quite understand what I'm feeling...I'm still learning and I can be—um," He hated admitting this. "Slow, at this. So," He hesitated. "Will you be patient with me? And if I do something wrong, will you give me the chance to fix it? Help me learn?"

"Yes."

"And you...want...me?"

"Yes. I have for a few days, now." Sonic spoke in raw frankness, and Shadow could tell he was completely serious. "Ever since the party I just—Couldn't get you out of my head. You're really somethin', Shadow. I just apologize for uh...comin' on pretty strong. I flirt a lot but that was a little much, I gotta admit." He tapped a finger to his own forehead with wonder. "Was that the mating season hormones? I turn into a huge asshole during that time, but it usually doesn't make me that aggressive. I have no idea..."

The GUN agent shook his head. "No, I'm glad you did. I wanted to wait to tell you, to find better ground to stand on because I wasn't sure."

"Me either," Sonic sympathized. "I talked with Amy about what I should do, and I asked Rouge if you, you know, swing that way. She wasn't completely sure since she never straight up asked you, but she figured."

That God damn woman, telling his business. "She what? That bitch-" He hissed under his breath, and he saw Sonic giggle to the side. He'd give bat girl an earful later. "Anyway, I wanted to do this right, but maybe that wasn't the best decision. The waiting was killing me, and the flirting wasn't enough."

Sonic chuckled. "Yeah, mating season'll do that to ya." He walked closer to the biohog and placed his hand on his shoulder. "It just became pent up sexual tension and I guess we couldn't handle it for long. We're not the kind of people who have that much restraint, anyway. The clock's ticking, life's too short. We're fast, but I don't think we're moving too fast with this."

Shadow couldn't help but feel a little flustered since Sonic was touching him after everything they did today. He looked at his hand that was now holding his shoulder blade, before glancing at him. "We're not?"

The hero leaned against him with a smile that wasn't sultry, but very joyful. He just looked happy to be next to him. "Amy gave me good advice, and I'm sure Rouge gave you good advice, too. But people have their own definitions of pacing, and I like the idea that everyone has the freedom to choose what they should do—even bad guys. So," He leaned his face closer, causing Shadow to stiffen with reddening cheeks. "I think we're going at just the right speed, because we're going at our pace. We should do whatever we want, whenever we want, however we want. We'll talk about moving forward from time to time, and come to some kind of compromise: Easy. Not a bad plan, right?"

Putting it like that, maybe he was right. Maybe what happened today was the right thing, because it brought them together much faster than he anticipated, and he liked that. He didn't want to wait, he didn't want to take baby steps to have him. But now that he had him, he needed help. He needed to know what he was doing, and that if this was what he truly wanted in the first place. Was this just lust or was there something more? He needed to figure that out. "I like that plan," He said cordially. "With that said, do you mind slowing down for me?" He asked quietly, not sure if Sonic would like the idea of skidding to a stop right after that sudden explosion of intimacy they experienced for each other. "I know I want to be with you. I just don't know how much, or...even if this is what I'm supposed to be feeling. I still need time to process it all, to understand what I'm trying to attempt. I don't like going into a battle without knowing my enemy first, because I don't want to make a mistake that'll cost me my life." He lowered his head. "Rouge said romance was painful. That it can hurt so badly that it feels like it's destroying you from the inside. But she said that because it's so beautiful, it's worth all the despair." He then looked Sonic in the eyes. "I want to know if that's true. Will you prove it to me?"

"Not gonna lie, that's a big ask. I wanna say yes," Sonic replied honestly. "But I gotta tell ya, this is new to me too. I usually don't try to stick with one person, 'cause I never cared about someone that much. Not in this way, I didn't think I could. But I do know the basics of dating and what it could have in store, so I understand the gist. I'll get you that far," He raised his hand from his shoulder, to the side of his face and caressed it. "But after that, we'll learn together what we want from each other. I won't force you to do anything, and I won't pressure you to do things that only I want. I want us to enjoy this together, 'cause it's not fun if only one of us is happy. We'll move slower, but if there's ever a time you wanna push it forward or bring it back down, we'll do that. I don't want our first experience to be bad, so we need to work with each other now more than ever." He rubbed his thumb against his chin. "Deal?"

That was fair, and he was relieved to know that even Sonic wasn't sure about all of this either. Working with him, though...He could do that, it was a challenge he'd graciously accept. Shadow nodded. "...Deal." Suddenly, Sonic wrapped his arms around him, pulling him close to his body as he laid his head against his shoulder. "...!" This was, what—The twelfth time today he caught him off guard? To feel him breathe against him, to feel his velvet-like fur against his, his perfect figure embracing him...He could barely take it, he didn't know what to do. His breathing was getting faster, and he felt his chest pumping way too much blood. "I...I um..."

"Mmn, you're heart's beatin' real fast, y'know." Sonic murmured sensually. "That for me~?"

Shadow's ears flattened as he knew for sure his entire face was red again. "...Yes." He barely squeaked that out.

"You know you're allowed to touch me, right?"

"W-What?"

"Heheh," Sonic rubbed his hands down his back, causing him to shiver. He placed his hands onto Shadow's wrists and moved them to his waist. "You're allowed to hug me back."

Oh, right. Hug him back, of course! Of course. He knew that. Obviously. "Right-Of course." He pretended to have completely known to do that, he just wanted to make sure it was okay is all. He carefully embraced him back, putting his arms around his lower body. He was just inches away from his ass-Okay no. No. Focus. Focus-

"Or," His fawn lips purposefully brushed against his right ear. "You could touch me right here too..." He tried to push Shadow's hands even lower.

Oh God, he was going to snap. No, don't do it. Don't do it, not now. He couldn't. He didn't want to, it was too much. "N-No...I...Not now." He refused to go any lower, and he felt Sonic's attempt to push his hands downwards stop. "Not for a while, if that's okay?"

The hero made a satisfied smile. "Good! See how easy it was for you to tell me that?" Oh, he was just trying to prove a point. Thank Chaos. "Just keep that in mind. You have control over your own body, not me." He let go of Shadow's wrists. "If you're uncomfortable, you can tell me. I'll be okay, but I want you to be okay first."

He was just looking out for him and promising him that he will never force himself onto him. Everything must be consensual because he wanted Shadow to actually enjoy what he was doing. He was flattered he was showing him that he could trust him, and he wanted him to understand that he didn't have to fear his advances. If he went too far, he could say so. "I...I understand."

"Good, now I'm going to ask you permission for something. Can I kiss you again?"

If Shadow was prone to nose bleeding, he would be leaking right now. "Y-You uh...I-You want to-"

"Kiss you." Sonic repeated casually.

"On the...cheek or-"

"Wherever you want. Your cheek, your hand, or your mouth...Or your tongue." He added mischievously. "But it's up to you."

He hated that he had this kind of inexperience, because he felt like a child asking for candy. But if Sonic was willing to guide him, he couldn't refute that. "On the lips, please?" He asked innocently as he grasped Sonic's hands.

"Mmm~" As he requested, a chaste kiss was pressed onto his lips. He could hear Shadow purring again, which was cute. "You like that?"

"Yes...I do."

"And will you call me tonight?" The hero pouted and made a mocking sorrowful expression. "With Tails bein' on his own and all, I get so lonely sometimes..."

It was entirely and obviously facetious and yet Shadow fell right for it. "Yes, I'd love to." Shadow's hold on his hands tightened a little. "I don't want you to be lonely."

"Nmm," Sonic affectionately nuzzled his nose against his muzzle. "Aww, that makes me so happy." He quickly pecked his cheek before letting go and turning around. "I gotta go, I need to look into something else. Huge pain in my ass, but it's worth checkin' out. If it's important, I'll let you know." He then glanced at him and winked. "Don't forget to call me. Bye~"

And like that, he was gone.

All Shadow could see was a blue streak disappearing within the depths of the city. Winds blew against his face, until they finally calmed and left him alone with nothing but his thoughts.

He then sat on the ground and placed a hand onto his head.

He had a migraine.

The hero of Mobius was now his boyfriend thanks to mating season.


9 - END - 9