Chapter Text
Shadow’s heel connected with a dented metal chest plate and sent the badnik skidding backwards across icy pavement. Red-lined scanners remained fixed on the substation and all but ignored the hybrid hedgehog between it and its target.
Without a moment lost for the combat bot to recharge an attack, Shadow launched forward, coiled in a battle ending spin-dash.
Steel broke open and unspooling wires, visible between cracks in the metal, gave weak attempts at sparking any offense. With a final swift kick to the Egg Pawn’s domed head Shadow took out the final badnik.
Its metal husk crumpled like the rest of its fleet, defeated without ever reaching the cables and transformers of the electric substation. The attack had been quick and ill-timed — for the badniks.
Shadow just happened to be skating through the small Eastend village of Daytrip, heading out after delivering life saving diphtheria serum to their little clinic.
The badniks hadn’t been trying to hide what they were doing, these make and models of Egg Pawns were built like wrecking balls, lacing any developed programming beyond ‘destroy target’.
But why then were they set to target a rural village’s substation? And why this grid on a forgotten island? Shadow rolled over the questions the badniks posed and the last pawn’s scanner light blinked out. It hadn’t a chance to send a compromised signal back to its factory of origin.
Pathetic, Shadow scoffed and lifted a wrist to speak a curt message into his communicator. The embedded microphone picked up the gruffness of his voice and sent it off as a text to Prower.
Stopped another attack.
Bots didn’t take out the power grid this time.
Update on storm tracking?
The message, usually instantaneous, took a spinning few seconds to be delivered as the snow storm worsened the connections between communication towers. The Mobian islands, rural and practically untouched by the mainland’s human population, had a sparse network system set up by Prower a decade ago. Though they worked well through many crises over the years, the towers had never faced wind sheer as they did now with this winter weather.
Shadow didn’t fully understand the technology, he just utilized it when Rouge wasn’t around to do the relay for him, but he could recognize the effects this blizzard was having on something as usually reliable as Prower’s tech.
The fox’s response came back just as slow.
A flurry of question marks followed by a colon and open parenthesis and then a simple two word text: getting worse.
Damnit, Shadow swore under his breath.
Stay on storm watch.
Do you have an impact range yet?
The slow sending circle reappeared over the screen as the communicator tried in vain to work quickly.
Since the snow had begun to fall three weeks ago it hadn’t stopped.
Though there were dips in the intensity, and every few days the sky would lighten from dark grey to shine weak rays of sunlight through the clouds, this winter was relentless. Even the warmer hours around noon only resulted in the top layer of snow melting into slush, and then freezing again over night, creating dangerous layers of heavy snow and heavier ice like some kind of frigid tiramisu.
The blizzard was the worst the Mobian archipelago had seen in a century. The snows and chilling winds were localized to the islands so far and hadn’t yet crossed over the ocean to the main land which essentially cut them off from the rest of the world.
It was strange, both the veracity of the storm and the containment of it, that had Shadow on edge.
The uptick in badnik attacks, all of which were focused on power plants like the one the dark hedgehog had just stopped, only furthered that edgy feeling that something was wrong even if he couldn’t sort it out yet.
Shadow wasn’t the only one with suspicions either and both Prower and Knuckles were taking precautions.
Angel Island was relentlessly affected by the storm due mostly to its elevation but Knuckles kept his post without complaint as he always did. Over the weeks he’d been building up stores of dried fruit rations and distributing resources to rural towns that needed wood to burn or food to eat.
And between hard work as a tower control coordinating emergency relief, (much like the delivery of medicine Shadow had just run), Miles was working diligently on tracking the storm and building prediction maps to better forecast the sudden weather event.
With the mainland out of contact from the downed and slowed communications, Shadow wasn’t beholden to G.U.N. reaching out to their favored hybrid-for-hire for the time being.
He could give his time and attention to holding up his end of Sonic’s pre-hibernation bargain.
Taking out badniks before they caused major problems and keeping an eye out for the Mobians in distress that called Northstar, South, Westside, and Eastend home, had become his most pressing responsibility.
It was more strenuous and time consuming than Shadow had expected when he’d agreed, probably more than Sonic had been thinking when he’d asked too.
After all, Sonic hadn’t a clue that a blizzard with dreams of onsetting the next ice age would arrive so soon after he went down to burrow. And the Mobian population was handling the winter as best they could.
Which was to say - barely at all.
The tropical islands were not accustomed to sleeting rain that froze roads into sheets of black ice or the meter deep drifts that crippled supply lines and buckled their power grid. And while Miles and Knuckles did their best to help, most of the work fell on Shadow.
And though he wouldn’t admit it even to himself, the cold weather was beginning to affect him.
Shadow recognized how he’d been more irritable as of late and had gone to bed each night with his energy nearly depleted. Fighting badniks wasn’t strenuous but skating with heat-venting jets over ice and snow all day was giving him lactic acid build up in his calves and thighs. His regenerative power had felt almost dormant, as if the chaos energy flowing through him was trying to stop internal hemorrhaging he didn’t know was there. This dearth of regenerative energy was something he’d only experienced when recovering from the mutinous damage Black Doom had done to his body a few years ago.
Now standing over the remains of a dozen badniks he’d spin-dashed into wreckage, Shadow actually had to pause and catch his breath. The frozen air grated on his lungs and he could practically feel his energy waning.
But worse than the tiredness the hybrid-hedgehog couldn’t shake, or the fur-itching annoyances that had dogged him since the snow proved to not be letting up — was the cold.
Shadow ran hot, always had, but in the last few days he’d been chilled to the bone and couldn’t ever seem to get warm.
Steaming hot baths with a fizzy vanilla sugar bath bomb Rouge had gifted him for his birthday hadn’t helped and even curling up with a heating blanket at night wasn’t enough to lull him to sleep.
By the time dawn tried to break over the islands and Shadow was back outside in the snow he was fighting shivers that spasmed up his spine each time the wind picked up. Even his socks were soaked through with slushy snow melted from his shoe propulsion which further lowered his internal temperature and worsened his mood something fierce.
To combat this chill, Shadow had taken to wearing one of his old sweatshirts. It was a simple cotton blend of charcoal dark fabric that he’d picked up during a long mission in Holoska. He had tossed the sweatshirt into a drawer in his apartment and promptly forgotten about it until this blizzard set into his bones and drove him to go looking for it.
Shadow wasn’t sure if the adverse reaction to the cold was from his hedgehog side or his alien spliced dna, or possibly some combination of the two. But if this was how all hedgehogs felt in the winter time he couldn’t blame them for going to hibernation. Sleeping through this sounded dull but at least he’d be warm.
Shadow thoughts moved then, as they often did lately, to Sonic and how he was fairing.
Menace probably has frostbite on his nose from leaving that damn window open, Shadow thought cynically.
In the little time the hybrid had been inside Sonic’s house he knew it was in no condition to withstand this harsh weather.
The fireplace was broken with no sign of another heat source, the cans of chili and those protein bars were hardly good sources of nutrients, and there was little evidence Sonic had even attempted to winterize the cabin.
He hadn’t even left a faucet dripping to make sure the pipes wouldn’t freeze during the night.
And Shadow hadn’t been able to lock the door when he’d left a few days ago. That meant leaving Sonic open to an easy surprise attack.
With the increase in badnik activity on Eastend it was only a matter of time before…
Something like panic twinged in the dark hedgehog’s heart, startling him so much by the sharpness of it that Shadow nearly sliced through the lower lip he didn’t realize he was gnawing at as he got lost in thought.
That blue hedgehog is going to get himself frozen, starved, and kidnapped all in his sleep!
Shadow was snapped out of the storm of his own thoughts when he finally received a loudly pinging response from Prower. It was in the form of a long string of icons, forward slashes, and colons all of which Shadow couldn’t begin to decipher.
Why does the fox have to speak in code?
Whatever the emoticons meant Shadow could surmise they were not good, if the snow already starting to cover the husks of badniks was anything to go off of.
This winter was going to get a lot worse before it got better.
The hybrid’s jaw ticked and his thumb hovered over the talk-to-text button before he bit both the bullet and his pride to ask.
Have you checked on Sonic?
The spinning circle returned, crawling around the holo screen long enough that Shadow’s fur began to itch beneath his sweatshirt.
Why the hell did he ask that? Of course Tails was looking after his brother. He must have stopped over a dozen times by now—
Shadow’s spiral of thoughts halted when the fox responded.
A thumbs down, a capital X and P, followed by a bunch of lower case z’s.
Was that a ‘no’?
Dark brows furrowed and he nearly sent off another message before thinking better of it.
Why would he go through hoops with asking this fox when he was already on Eastend island? He could skate over now and check for himself.
Shadow shook out his quills, this was inane, he should just go home. Yes, his apartment was quiet without Rouge or Omega there right now, but he’d have the heater running and his own bed to collapse onto.
A decent bed but without his own favored blanket to keep warm by it wasn’t half as comforting. Not since that menace had decidedly gotten sticky fingers as a hibernation side effect.
Still standing over defunct badniks outside the substation, Shadow looked to his right and the black ice road leading into the village.
The thatch-roof buildings were all clustered together and thin cobblestone paths ducked quietly between them. Oil lamps dotted the street but were not yet lit and the second floor apartments of the villagers were shuttered to the cold. Only a few ventured outside, bundled up with wool scarves and knit hats to the one open grocery market in town before trudging through drifts to get back home.
Shadow could skate through, grab a coffee from the local café attached to the market building, (with the hope it warmed up his bones somewhat), and then Chaos Control back to his apartment in no time.
A frown pulled at Shadow’s muzzle thinking about the quiet journey back to his quieter apartment and he turned to look in the other direction.
An invisible path curved between trees weighed down by snow, leading deep into the woods and towards a tiny cabin few even knew was there at all.
He’s probably fine, Shadow told himself.
But a whispering voice, maybe it was his conscious or maybe just instincts, disagreed.
With Sonic’s nose for trouble he’d probably have a pipe burst in the middle of his hibernation, he’d drown and then freeze solid in that disaster of a nest. He wouldn’t thaw until spring and Shadow would have lost any patience for him by then.
Damnit, he swore again, this time it wasn’t for himself but for the blue menace.
Shadow was already brushing snow off his shoulders and kicking his air shoes into gear before he could mull it over another second.
Sonic’s cabin was much the same as Shadow had left it. The curtains were drawn, the front door unlocked, and the chimney remained stone cold.
And yet, closing the door behind him, Shadow instantly picked out small signs of life for a hedgehog that was supposed to be in hibernation.
At some point in the last few days a light in the kitchen had been flipped on, the small window above the sink was cracked ajar, and two tin cans emptied of precooked chili were left out on the counter.
At least there wasn’t an ice skating rink forming in the kitchen from a burst pipe, Shadow thought, And the roof hadn’t caved in from the snow’s weight.
These were small reassurances and yet as soon as they crossed the dark hedgehog’s mind, a curling breeze slipped through the open kitchen window, bringing snowflakes in to wet the sill and crystalize every puff of air Shadow breathed out.
“How can you manage to sleep when it’s this cold inside?” Shadow swore aloud on another icy huff and strode across the house in a few paces.
He snapped shut the window, and although it cut off the draft, the house was still relatively freezing and Shadow lost a fight to a shiver that wracked up his spine beneath his sweatshirt.
Keeping a dark ear perked in the direction of the bedroom, Shadow listened for the distinct snores of a blue hedgehog that didn’t quite make it down the hallway.
He began to rifle through the kitchen. Rouge would be proud, he thought with a derisive chuff.
Shadow wasn’t looking for anything in particular, possibly a box of matches and scrap paper would be good. He could try getting some use out of the fireplace and actually heat this ice box of a cabin. Or maybe the blue menace had a few of those individual paw-warmers stored away in a drawer he wouldn’t notice missing.
The dark hedgehog didn’t find anything of the sort, but instead yanked open the cupboard door above the stove to find a surprisingly large selection of spices, (the sudden waft of aromas caused him to sneeze), as well as a bear-shaped bottle of honey and an open box of sleepy time tea.
Muzzle scrunching not distastefully at the choice, (he would have preferred something with caffeine), Shadow settled for the only option. He searched high for a mug, finding a mismatched collection of them on a shelf by the refrigerator, and pulled a teabag from the open box.
A cup of tea would at least be something hot to hold, Shadow considered. With the window closed his breath no longer came out in white clouds which was a small improvement.
The hybrid had no misgivings about taking from Sonic’s kitchen without asking. If the other hedgehog didn’t want his rival rooting around in his cupboards he shouldn’t have stolen from Shadow in the first place.
Sonic had left his kettle on the stovetop, and after filling it with enough water for at least two mugfuls, Shadow had to finagle the burner until it finally caught and the gas stove was lit.
Leaving the water on to boil, Shadow stepped back and leaned heavily against the kitchen island counter. The flicker of blue flame from the gas stove reflected in the wine red of his eyes and Shadow’s vision softly blurred at the edges.
What am I doing?
The question rattled inside his head for the umpteenth time that afternoon. It had chased him as he’d cut through the woods, dogging his trail and biting at his ankles with every skated step.
Sonic’s dealt with this before, Prower showed no concern, and Knuckles hasn’t mentioned hibernation once. Silver had gone to burrow with Blaze and Amy was content with Vanilla visiting her a few times. But Sonic doesn’t need anyone checking on him.
Dark brows furrowed on the last thought, amending it in his own mind.
He doesn’t need me checking on him.
Scrubbing a hand through his quills, Shadow broke his concentration on the blue flames for anything else to focus on.
He couldn’t stand there and watch water boil, he needed something as easy to take care of as those badniks. Something he could do to help in the immediate.
Pushing off the counter, Shadow swiped the empty chili cans off the countertop and deposited them into the trash before moving to the small dining table where he squared up the various to-go menu pamphlets Sonic had collected.
Many of the items listed on the creased pages were circled with red ink and scribbled alongside in Sonic’s handwriting. It took Shadow a moment to parse his scratched musing but phrases like ‘try with mango powder’ and ‘needs to be caught fresh’ were understandable enough.
Half hidden beneath the menus, Shadow found three different cookbooks. They were not stacked with the other books, dvds, and cds in the living room which struck Shadow curiously.
One was a trade paperback with the pages yellowed and rippled from sitting too close to steam, another was written in the Apotos language with translation notes along the edges, and the last was a brand new cookbook cracked open to a detailed recipe on a dog-eared page.
The finished photo of the deceptively simple chicken and rice dish, printed in an overly glossed state, made Shadow’s stomach reflexively rumble at the sight.
When was the last time he’d eaten?
Usually Rouge’s shouted dinner requests or Sonic leaving mid-spar to go pick something up reminded Shadow to eat instead of relying on his regeneration to keep him from starving.
The few times he’d been hungry enough to let Sonic talk him into joining for a meal were always to little hole-in-the-wall places the blue hedgehog found around the world.
But come to think of it, Shadow had never seen Sonic cook anything besides chili dogs and the occasional s’more and wondered exasperatedly why he even owned a cookbook much less three.
Did the menace actually cook? Shadow scoffed incredulously, yanking open the refrigerator to scan its few contents, How did I not know that?
It felt like something Shadow would have noticed. He’d picked up on plenty of other things over the years.
Like how Sonic enjoyed tree climbing and waterfall chasing on sunny summer afternoons. Or that he practiced acoustic guitar by playing for flickys and Chao but rarely for his friends. And that he preferred listening to music on an old discman and made a hobby of playing competitive rhythm games.
Shadow had asked him once why he liked those video games above others and the blue hedgehog had shrugged almost wistfully, I gotta slow down to stay on beat, I like the challenge in that.
Shadow huffed softly to himself at the memory and let the fridge door swing closed.
A movement out of the corner of his eye and Shadow was whipping around, “Fu—!” He sucked in a gasp, startled nearly out of his cherry red stripes.
Two paces away, blinking drowsily, was that blue hedgehog — of all places!
Sonic was stood right at the edge of the kitchen, glassily watching the dark hedgehog who’d trespassed in his home.
“Chaos, Sonic! Don’t do that,” Shadow hissed, adrenaline setting his quills on end and he had to consciously lower his raised hackles.
When there was not an immediate response from his rival, Shadow paused, surveying the other hedgehog closer.
Sonic swayed slightly where he stood, not pushed by any breeze but moved his own slackened balance. His normally handsome style of quills, wind-swept and a little tussled, were sleep-pressed and fanned out all on one side of his head. His bright green eyes were glazed over and Sonic had one sock unrolled to almost knee height while the other was squished down to his ankle.
Shadow realized with a swift jolt that Sonic wasn’t wearing linen pajama gloves, a fact he’d missed days ago over the struggle for the blanket. The dark hedgehog quickly lifted his gaze from the soft fur tufting Sonic’s bare paws, a light blush rising on his muzzle at the gentle impropriety.
If Sonic had noticed he’d been staring, the blue hedgehog didn’t show any sign of it.
“Sonic?” Shadow prompted warily, off put by his quietness.
Blue ears flicked sluggishly, flopping one at a time as Shadow’s words penetrated through the murkiness of his brain fog.
After a few seconds Sonic let out a strange low hum. It was the same kind of noise he made when he was pretending to be listening but had actually tuned out of a conversation.
Shadow narrowed his gaze on the menace.
“Are you awake?”
Sonic gave a lagging nod, “Mmm-hmm.”
Shadow huffed disbelieving, of course he’s a sleepwalker.
“Faker, do you need something?”
“Orange soda,” Sonic mumbled in answer, listing heavily to the side before catching himself somewhat.
Mocha dark ears twitched.
“No. You can have water. It’ll keep you hydrated.”
“Why’re you so difficult,” the blue hedgehog muttered and Shadow didn’t bother rolling his eyes.
“Can you drink water or are you really asleep?” He asked impatiently. Sleepwalking wasn’t a good symptom of hibernation, based on his quick reading it most likely meant Sonic was experiencing nest related stress. It would be best to get him quickly back to bed and figure out how to keep him there later.
Sonic’s answer was little more than a lip-smacking yawn, his pink tongue sticking out before his jaw creaked wide and sharp canine teeth flashed.
“You should go back to bed,” Shadow prompted.
The blue hedgehog looked liable to fall asleep on the kitchen floor in his futile hunt for the bubbly orange pop. Shadow had seen the inside of Sonic’s fridge, the only drinks were a variety pack of flavored electrolyte water and a single bottle of zero sugar grape juice.
Maybe some gentle suggestion would move the sleepwalker back to bed?
“Don’t tell me what to do,” Sonic screwed up his muzzle, glaring at Shadow and his voice cracked on a throat dry from snoring.
Or not, Shadow sighed. Obviously Sonic was just as difficult asleep as he was awake.
“Fine. I’ll get you something to drink,” Shadow pulled down another mug from the cupboard. He filled it with tap water and left the faucet to drip. That would keep the water flowing in the pipes just in case the night got below freezing again.
Shadow held out the cup to Sonic and when the blue hedgehog managed to take it easily enough, and didn’t drop it right away, he let him have it.
Slipping between Sonic and the edge of the counter, Shadow placed a strong hand between azure shoulder quills and steered his rival back down the hall towards his room and nested bed.
Sonic threw his head back, guzzling down water that quenched his thirst but did little for his snore-scratched throat. He didn’t realize they were back in his room until the water was all gone and he was stuck holding an empty mug and hadn’t a sip of orange soda to show for it.
“Sneaky,” Sonic mumbled, blinking hard as if he were trying to wake up but couldn’t fully reach consciousness. He released the mug without thought and Shadow had to snap forward to catch it before the ceramic smashed on the bedroom floor.
“Hardly. Now lay down, hedgehog,” Shadow grumbled, nudging between azure shoulders towards the bed again. He was certain Sonic didn’t know he was still sleepwalking.
The mattress was layered thickly in blankets but most of Sonic’s pillow stash had been pushed off onto the floor in a chaotic mess. Shadow snatched them up without a second thought and threw them back onto the bed.
Swaying at the edge of the box spring, Sonic rubbed hard at his eyes, “Don’t wanna.”
“Now who’s being difficult? I told you to lie down. Or do you want entirely avoidable side-effects?”
“I’ll show you side-effects,” Sonic snorted, and drawn in by the familiar scents of his nest, fell forward onto the bed with a hard thwump.
The blue hedgehog splayed out unmoving, exactly how he landed, and Shadow tossed the last fallen pillow to bounce dully off his back.
What a pain in the quills.
Down the hall the kettle began to whistle and Shadow appeared in the kitchen with a crackle of chaos energy. The short jump, something usually effortless, rolled the dark hedgehogs stomach and he caught himself on the counter’s edge for a brief moment.
Taking a deep breath, Shadow shook off the momentary dizziness and flipped off the stove before the shrilling noise from the kettle could further disturb Sonic.
Shadow had the emptied mug still in hand from when Sonic dropped it and set the red ceramic cup down beside the blue one he’d picked out before. Pulling out a second tea bag, Shadow poured two mugs and left them to steep.
He needed to properly check on Sonic, make sure he wasn’t trying to get out his bed again and also shut that window in his room. The few moments he’d been in there, the temperature was at least ten degrees cooler than the rest of the house.
Stepping back into the room on silent footfalls, Shadow found the blue hedgehog had curled up in a tight ball on top of the blanket pile. His eyes were squeezed shut and trembling shivers worked up his spiny back and out the tips of his soft tufted ears.
Empathy hit Shadow right in his ribs. He knew that kind of cold, had been feeling it every night for the last week, ever since he’d first visited Sonic.
A chilling draft from the open bedroom window swept in, piercing through Shadow’s winter thickened pelt, and on his pile of blankets, Sonic let out a mewling noise of complaint.
“Don’t blame me, you’re the one that left every damn window open,” Shadow growled, when the tea is ready it will help us both warm up, even if he only manages a few sips, “You better not have given me your damn hibernation, hedgehog.”
Sonic shifted at the sound of that rumbling deep voice, lifting his head from the crook of his arm enough to glance up at Shadow. Once, twice, he blinked the dregs of sleep from his eyes.
The hybrid froze, surprised by the focus in the other hedgehog’s gaze now.
Sonic wasn’t exactly awake, those spring green eyes were still glassy and his whole face was dewy soft with drowsiness. But he was clearly conscious of his surroundings in a way he hadn’t been when sleepwalking. There was an obvious dilation in his pupils when his gaze locked on the dark hedgehog in his house and his room.
“Shadow? What are you doing here?” Sonic rasped.
The answer felt obvious when Shadow answered immediately.
“What you asked of me.”
Sonic’s face scrunched in confusion and with effort he pushed himself to sit up on his nest of blankets.
“I don’t remember asking you to break into my house.”
“Strange, that’s exactly what you said before,” Shadow snapped back sarcastically and a flicker of a smile pulled at Sonic’s lips.
“Pretty sure I asked you to look after things, not track me down and watch me sleep,” the blue hedgehog countered and rolled his shoulders back to reach above his head in a long stretch. Shadow kept his attention firmly off the sleep-matted mess of peach chest fur that really needed some fixing.
“How’d you even find me?”
“I have my ways,” he shrugged without elaborating and moved across the room to close the window. ‘My ways’ was just another few words for admitting he’d needed Rouge’s help.
“I have to be hallucinating something fierce this time,” every word from Sonic’s mouth came rasping like sandpaper from his aching throat, “There’s no way you’re actually here.”
“You’re not hallucinating. But if you keep waking up, I'm sure you will be.”
Stifling a yawn, Sonic fell back against the stacked pillows of his nest.
“How can I sleep when I have company to entertain?”
“I was just on my way out. I won’t be keeping you any longer so you have no excuse but to rest,” Shadow commented dryly. He put an end to the wintery draft by snapping the glass closed and throwing the small window lock into place.
“Don’t wanna stick around and tire me out yourself, Shad—,” Sonic’s churlish retort was broken off by a sudden spasming chill. Starting at his socked feet and running all the way up his spine, the minute-rigor sent blue quills piercing through the stacked pillows and fingers twisting in blankets.
The smirk playing at Shadow’s lips fell in an instant and he ducked forward to the bed, a hand outstretched with no idea how to catch Sonic here.
Just as suddenly as the chill began, it ceased, leaving Sonic exhausted and his teeth rattling.
“Sonic—” Shadow started and the blue hedgehog cut him off with a forced humorless laugh.
“I’m fine, Shads. Happens sometimes when I can’t get warm. Sucks I didn’t have time before crashing to fix the fireplace huh?”
Shadow stared inscrutably at the blue hedgehog. Was he really so in denial of his hibernation he’d pretend any of this was normal? The sleepwalking and chills were bad enough, but this lucid conversation, Sonic being awake if only for a little while, was completely out of place.
But what could he do? Shadow frowned as Sonic continued hoarsely rambling about his poor hibernation planning, Crawl into Sonic’s nest and share body heat? Make sure he stayed in bed and actually resting by staying close?
Shadow huffed, he’d only be committing more of a nesting taboo than he already was and potentially send his long time rival into nesting distress or territorial aggression.
This wasn’t the ‘dead to the world’ hibernation that Amy and Silver had spoken of when their symptoms were onset and Shadow cursed that the only two other hedgehogs he knew who could possibly shed some light on Sonic’s strange behavior were themselves passed out in their nests for the next two months.
I can’t leave him like this, there has to be something I can—
Driven by a fierce jolt of instinct, and a lapse in his better judgment, Shadow took hold of the hem of his sweatshirt and yanked the cotton-blend up over his striped quills, shucking the sleeves over his inhibitor bracelets in a single motion.
“Here, Faker. Obviously your nest isn’t warm enough after all you stole, and you can’t be trusted to take care of yourself,” Shadow growled and tossed the bundled clothing at the other hedgehog’s face.
The sweatshirt smacked Sonic right on the muzzle before slipping to fall on his lap. He squinted confused at the rumpled fabric, “Wha—?”
And then the sweatshirt fell open over his legs, and recognizing what it was immediately, the softest sweet chirping noise that Shadow had ever heard fell from Sonic’s lips.
If the blue hedgehog said thank you or just another chirpy sweet sound Shadow didn’t hear it. All noise was momentarily drowned out in the hybrid’s ears as what he’d just done caught up to him and he stared wide eyed at Sonic struggling to get the sweatshirt on.
His long limbs were heavy from sleep and his fine motor skills had gone out the window when the snow drifts gathered so deeply.
After a half minute watching Sonic attempt in vain to get both his arms and then his head through the designated sweatshirt holes, Shadow snapped out of his momentary shock and gave in to assist him.
Kneeling on the bed much like he had last time, Shadow was able to get close enough he could help pull the charcoal colored fabric over blue quill spikes without encroaching more than he had to on Sonic’s nest. It took a little longer but Shadow managed to wrestle Sonic’s arms through the sleeves.
When Sonic finally managed to pop his head out and the sweatshirt was fitted over his shoulders, a syrupy happy smile bloomed across his face.
Whatever waking energy he’d had before was drained from him in the struggle against the seizing chills and then smoothed away by the rush of comfort that came to hedgehogs when surrounded by their favored scents. Azure quills finally lay smooth again.
“It’s so warm,” Sonic whispered, almost reverently and Shadow swallowed thickly.
“I wore it on the run over here.”
Another of those sweet chirps escaped from Sonic and he nuzzled down instinctively into the sweatshirt, a riotously giddy purr making his ears tremble from the intensity.
Shadow was wrong, so very, very wrong.
Sonic was adorable.
“Thank you, Shads,” the blue hedgehog murmured and tipped forward to brush his nose with Shadow’s.
The hybrid was too stunned to move or even think about reciprocating the not-so-platonic gesture of touching noses.
“S’my hero.”
Shadow was entirely caught off guard by Sonic’s onset of sleep-drunk honesty. His inhibitions and higher thinking were surely lowered as serotonin and lethargy dulled his few impulse controls.
He doesn’t know what he’s saying. Might as well be sleepwalking again, Shadow tried to justify the clouding riot in his mind. Hibernation is a hell of a thing.
The hybrid-hedgehog sat back on his haunches. The mattress creaked with the motion as Sonic, wrapped up to his muzzle and purring contently in Shadow’s sweatshirt, slid downwards to nestle in blankets and pillows. He was comfortably warm enough now that the torpor-chemicals stirred up in him could easily drag him back under consciousness.
In moments Sonic was completely asleep again, his purrs interrupted by the occasional snore, but Shadow was more awake than ever.
Sonic wasn’t in his right mind. He was sleep addled and out of his senses.
This delirium was just the effects of hibernation. Nothing else.
So why did Shadow’s heart seize in his chest when Sonic called him his hero.
Sonic had asked his rival to watch out for the world, of course he thought somewhat highly of Shadow. Would maybe go so far as to call him a hero.
Not his hero though, Shadow told himself with a rough shake of his head.
Leaving the bedroom door open behind him, Shadow strode down the hallway and back into the kitchen.
The grip on the hybrid’s heart loosened as he continued to mentally talk circles to himself, undoing what Sonic had said round by round until the words were nothing more than snowflakes melting on a windowsill.
He’s just tired, Shadow told himself definitively and pushed to stand. He won’t even remember this when he wakes up.
Shadow half expected the steeping tea to be cold by now but it was still steaming with warm orange blossom and chamomile flavors.
The dark hedgehog grabbed his own mug, and without any sweetener added, he downed the entire thing in only a few gulps. The hot tea was almost cooling compared to the heat Shadow felt on his face and in his chest after whatever Sonic had just done to him. He was warm enough now that even without his sweatshirt he felt no urge to Chaos Control back to his apartment and curl up under a heating blanket.
Leaving Sonic in his current state, simultaneously sleep-drunk and yet deprived of full hibernation in a blizzard that could cause serious damage to him and his safe house just felt inexplicably wrong to Shadow. He didn’t even entertain the idea of leaving like that for longer than it took to reject completely.
Setting his empty mug in the sink, Shadow spooned too much honey into the second cup. The natural sweetener would help sooth a sore throat and a moment later he was back in Sonic’s room. He left the steaming mug on the floor beside the box spring.
He really should have a bed frame. And an end table. Or two — one for both sides of a proper bed.
In the minutes the hybrid was busy down the hall, Sonic had kicked his pillows off the mattress again and had tangled his legs up in the plaid throw blanket he’d stolen from Shadow. The way he was splayed out, bare fingers twitching on twisted blankets, it was almost as if he were reaching out for something he couldn’t quite catch.
Such a bothersome sleeper, Shadow huffed as he went about snatching up the pillows again. This time he just stacked them beside the bed, making a clear path for Sonic if he slept-walked again or needed to use the gents down the hall.
Between one pillow and the next, Shadow realized just what he was doing. Tending to Sonic like he was bed-ridden with illness…
Shadow dropped the last pillow as if it burned through his gloves.
A creeping sense of dread filled Shadow’s lungs, sticky like molasses he couldn’t breath around. Memories of his sister’s starched crisp bed, the faint beep of a heart rate monitor, her brave and pallid face — all pushed to the forefront of his mind.
Please no…you’re going to be okay.. you’re—
A honking snore grated against the roof of Sonic’s mouth, loud enough to snap Shadow right out of his own mind and back to the present.
Crimson eyes latched onto the steady rise and fall of Sonic’s chest wrapped in charcoal fabric. Dark-furred ears angled to catch raucous snores and his lips parted to taste a bright lemongrass scent on the roof of his mouth. Slowly those bittersweet memories of before were folded and put away and all he felt was the warmth of right now.
Shadow let out the breath he was holding.
The blue hedgehog was just sleeping, as soundly and restfully as he could. He was not ill and he wasn’t Shadow’s sole purpose. Sonic was just a hedgehog doing a terrible job of hibernating.
And I’m just doing what he asked of me, Shadow told himself.
He turned to leave the room again, the dread he felt dispelled as Sonic’s undeniable liveliness, even in sleep, calmed the storm of his mind.
He’ll wake up in a few weeks and be itching for a race, whole and hale, the hybrid thought, but will he look at you that softly when he’s lucid enough to mean it?
Shadow closed the front door of the cabin tight between himself and sweet purring snores. He slipped a page torn from one of Sonic’s cookbook into his quills and set off.
The village wasn’t too far, he could make it there and back before Sonic knew he’d ever left.