Work Text:
The long grass swayed in the sea scented wind. The sky was cloudy overhead, teasing the small island below it. His back was turned, his form sitting with his knees to his chest. He would’ve blended in if it were any darker, but the remnants of midday sun through the clouds teased the world.
“You’ve been gone four months.” Shadow said, stepping just in the peripheral vision of the other hedgehog. And by month three, they’d been looking for him.
“I’ve been gone for longer.” Sonic replied, humor in his exhausted tone.
“Yes, but with no news or social media sightings? Calls, texts, letters-” Shadow paused, tone turning accusatory, “No postcards. ”
Sonic winced below him, finally looking up at him, “Okay, I deserve that one. No postcards is a criminal offense.”
“Hmph.”
They ignored the unspoken part. The part that whispered ‘we were worried you were dead’.
“How’d you find me anyway?” As if he knew they’d been run ragged checking every inch of the world. “It’s way sooner than I expected.”
“Your brother made an educated guess. We… Everyone was worried.”
Lines of worry drew themselves around Sonic’s eyes, “Did he-?”
“He only told me.”
He let out a sigh of relief, “Smart kid.”
“You raised him.”
An odd sort of smile graced his face, “Yeah…yeah I guess I did.”
Shadow crossed his arms, looking away and towards the not so distant waves gently caressing the beach. There were remnants of a boardwalk that led inwards to the grassy area. Skeletons of buildings dotted down what looked like had once been a quaint little town.
“Ran into an older woman when I was investigating the main town. She said she wasn’t sure she’d even be alive for the day you’d come back to this place.”
“I wasn’t sure I’d ever come back, period.”
Tails certainly hadn't thought of it first. It was a simple what-if thought, that came from a moment when he wasn't even trying to figure out his brother was. And he knows the fox has been busy, especially with the fact he's been helping GUN with -
Shadow took a long look at the blue hedgehog. He knows at least that he's been eating well enough, he's seen what he looks like when Sonic has been in a situation with low food. There's deep circles under his eyes, suggesting that he hasn't been getting enough sleep. Not that he's ever known Sonic to get a full night of sleep unless exhaustion took over anyway, but he gets most of his rest from small naps throughout the day. A habit learned due to necessity.
Nonchalantly as if he were talking about the weather he said, “You know, we already have estimates that it’ll take years before we get through the entire contents of his will.”
Sonic snorted, “No really? I could never have guessed.”
Shadow continued, “Apparently some of ‘his’ land he actually owned through false identities and forged paperwork. GUN is confiscating the ones with bases, but you’re already the proud owner of several random plots of land.”
Sonic ran a hand across his face, groaning, “Do you know how hard owning property is-”
“I own a house.”
“It took so much paperwork getting the land for Tails’ workshop-”
“You were fourteen.”
“And now I own random pieces of land who knows where-”
“Across several continents.”
“Across several continents! That’s ridiculous!” His tone lowered, sounding more subdued, “It’s just I don’t understand why. Why he left it all to me… I mean why not Sage?”
“She says she already has access to nearly all his files and that’s all she needs. She’s been helping us process everything and it seems he left her ‘puzzles’ to access the files she’s locked out of.”
“Yeah but-”
Shadow put a hand on his hip, “Don’t tell me you think Metal would want anything from him.” There were murmurings that Metal Sonic had absconded with certain items already. Weapons that were missing, and other such things. He wasn’t going to tell Sonic that right now though. He had enough on his plate.
“No, it’s just- why me? I mean.”
Shadow paused, trying to see if he wanted a genuine answer to the question. When he didn’t continue speaking, Shadow said, “Maybe it’s because you’re the only organic person he considered family.”
Sonic groaned “Ugh, that doesn’t make sense! What about you?”
“What about me?” He asked with a raised brow.
“His grandfather literally created you, doesn’t that make you more family-ish?”
He waved it off, “Maybe if he’d known me before , but at the end of the day we had no personal ties.”
“Ugh.” Sonic put his head in his hands, “It’s so much easier helping other people with their emotions.” He looked up towards the cloud filled sky.
As if the sky would answer, he questioned, “Why did he… And why do I… why do I miss him?”
There, the heart of the matter. It all came down to this. This was the origin, the ending, the once was and the never will be again.
“Maybe,” Shadow ventured, cautious,“Maybe because in some odd way you considered him a father.”
A horrified sound escaped him, oddly gargled and cadaverous “No-”
“And he considered you a son.”
“No- You’re wrong, there’s no way-” His voice trembled, and he started to his feet before he physically tore himself away from Shadow’s gaze. Someone even seeing the possibility of tears was still a wound to him. All these years later… Some sort of odd double standard Sonic held himself to that he’d never understood.
His shoulders were tense as he asked, “Do you see the house down there with the cabinet, one of those ones built into the actual wall?”
Shadow gazed at the dilapidated ghost town. Its bleached corpse had become almost indistinguishable from one building to the next. Shadow was perceptive though, a talent he may or may not have been designed with. He located it quickly, the dark wood had suffered due to years of sun and salt filled air. It seemed it had been in the basement of the home, the foundation visible and its location deeper than the ground around it. He pondered that the worst of the debris down in the town had to have been removed, but the less damaged things and foundations still remained of certain houses. In various places there seemed to be evidence of flame. It didn't take much imagination to picture fire licking up the sides of picturesque houses, his own memory of different situations supplying realistic details.
Sonic took in a halting breath, “My dad put me in that cabinet. Told me to stay there ‘til he got back. He went out to see if could help. The way the ground shook I thought maybe it was an earthquake. Heh, obviously not,” Then his expression changed, irony gracing an uneasy smile, “My mom followed after him. Everything they did together.”
He turned back to Shadow fully, “I stayed there for hours until my hands and feet were numb from stayin’ still in such a small space for so long. Trying to ignore the sounds- At one point a pipe burst, and the room started to fill with water, up to my ankles. I thought I was going to drown but the mainline must’ve been damaged because eventually it just stopped completely.”
“Sonic-”
“You know,” and the blue hedgehog had a full grin on now,wicked and indecipherable, “They couldn't identify all the bodies. That's why the graveyard has that huge memorial stone with all of the names- some there were no bodies to even find let alone identify. I wonder if they had the money they could do that DNA identification thingies now…”
It struck Shadow suddenly, a thought he wished he could've banished that maybe, some version of Sonic’s name was on that stone. Still breathing there would be no body to find, yet it would be a few years before the man before him would become regarded as a famous hero. If the older woman he'd spoken to had learned of his existence due to a news article or gossip column.
“So, it doesn't make any sense that we'd have that relationship because Robotnik is the one who killed my fucking parents, Shadow.” The anger in his tone wasn't robust. Empty, in a way. The expression on his face faded from the unnerving sight it was before.
He let the silence breathe for a moment before he replied, “You've never told me that before.”
He looked as if he had been struck, though no handprint bloomed on his face, “I've never told anyone before.”
Shadow went to open his mouth before Sonic interrupted, “Not even Tails, no.”
In the end there probably wasn’t anyone better to tell than Shadow. Though all their friends had their own problems, none had faced the same amount of devastation that he had. The amount of blood spilled for no reason. Sure, Knuckles’ people were gone, but that had happened generations before him. Perhaps the only one to understand truly might be Silver, but for whatever reason he never mentioned family. That and every time you’d see him no doubt he’d have a different version of events to tell.
No, despite his distress, Sonic had made a purposeful, thought out choice. He’d had months to think it over, after all, and if he’d kept it a secret this long he could’ve taken it to the grave.
So, Shadow switched tactics, his face assuming a mild jeering look to it that was familiar in their long rivalry. Hundreds of races and brawls. “Really, hedgehog, I’d have thought you’d be smarter than this. You’re trying to tell me that love can’t exist for someone who hurt you? Heh, if anyone knows that it’s me.”
He took a step closer, “Do you really think that my feelings for the Professor aren't complicated? Perhaps even more so-?” The jab making Sonic roll his eyes, a small victory, “He tampered with my memories. Created me with the DNA of a genocidal alien species. He used me as a tool, I was created as a tool, and yet I know that despite all his mistakes he loved me. And I, him.”
Sonic was silent for a moment before a very familiar grin crossed his face. His most genuine one over this whole conversation, “I get it, presumptuous of me, I know.”
“I’m glad I didn’t have to resort to knocking some sense into you.” Shadow replied, keeping up the game.
Sonic turned to the town, its ghost ever present. “He was the first person… the only person.” He sighed, then muttered under his breath, meant to be unheard, “Every flower withers. Every world has its end.”
“Sonic.” He stepped forward, grasping his hand in his, “Come home to me… And Tails.”
His eyes widened, touched, before he slid his gaze to the side, “Gee. I’ll make sure to tell him he was an afterthought.”
Shadow jabbed him in the chest, “Don’t you dare, faker.”
The other burst into laughter, and although weariness still was present in his tone it was not so overwhelming that he sounded like he was drowning in it.
“Race back to the main town?” He asked the blue hedgehog after his laughter died down.
“Hrm.” He pondered, before looping their arms together, “Let’s walk awhile first. Enjoy the scenery. Once we get off the island though- you’re on.”
“Alright.” He smirked, “I’ll hold you to it. In the meantime, show me every rock, tree you’ve named and bonded with.”
“Oh my god. Shut up, you’re such an ass sometimes.”
Still, Sonic leaned a little into Shadow as they began to walk, comfort radiating between them. Though he didn’t start telling him about any named rocks, he did start softly describing some of the things that he’d done while he’d been on the island. Small things, but important.
The remnants behind them would continue to be taken back by nature far long after they’d be gone. New roots would take over. The walls would fully degrade. Things would be hidden from the world until only archeologists could find them. One day they would be covered by fresh soil, and new life would begin.