Chapter Text
Snow flurried through the air, the delicate pinwheels of ice catching fleetingly on striped and blue quills only to melt in an instant from the heat of their exertion.
The two hedgehogs, at this game for too long to realize heavy grey clouds had begun to snow on them, tumbled interlocked across the frostbitten earth.
They would have crushed the lavender bushes that normally filled this valley and tore up the loamy soil under shoe if it weren’t for the depth of autumn driving the flowers into dormancy and hardening the ground.
Shadow took a jab to the ribs, allowing Sonic a contacting strike meant the blue hedgehog would need to close the distance between them. Both of their reaches were exactly matched, and they’d done this combative dance too many times to count. Shadow knew how to win against his rival.
So when Sonic stepped in close, light on the balls of his feet to dodge Shadow’s fake-out leg sweep, the dark hedgehog was shocked to find himself on his back instead of the blue menace.
Strong fingers circled the hybrid’s wrists, and with a grunt of effort, Sonic pinned Shadow to the frozen earth.
“Will you just listen for a second?” Sonic demanded in between puffs of crystalizing breath.
It was strange, Shadow thought, for Sonic to be winded so soon.
Usually they could be at this for hours and Sonic wouldn’t break a sweat. Maybe they had been, and they were just out here throwing punches in between sprints for much longer than the dark hedgehog had realized. Time just seemed to pass in a blur when Shadow was alone with Sonic.
Now the sun was hidden, behind grey clouds yes, but also Sonic’s unwieldy quill spikes that spanned Shadow’s vision as the blue hedgehog kneeled over his rival.
“I don’t care, Faker,” Shadow snapped on reflex and worked a leg between their torsos. With a powerful kick, he launched Sonic off of him.
The blue hedgehog flipped in the air and landed in a low crouching heroic pose, “Don’t think you can take a little deep talk, Shads?”
Standing up with an unamused roll of his eyes, Shadow resisted striking with a chaos spear. Instead he took the moment of Sonic catching his breath to brush off the little bits of winter-killed lavender sprig off his pelt and out of his quills.
The striped hedgehog twisted at the waist, looking down his back in case he missed any clinging leaves or clumps of dirt but his pelt was relatively clean. This late into the autumn and his dark fur had thickened considerably, making grooming routines take far longer than he was willing to tolerate.
Maybe if someone else bothered to comb through my quills it would be more of a luxury than a chore, Shadow thought, brushing a few sharp twigs out of his quills, Like anyone would dare to get behind my guard and try.
Across a frozen stretch of ground, Sonic watched his sparing partner closely. He was still poised to dodge or spin dash but his adrenaline was hard-lining and a tremble ran up his spine.
With his back turned, Shadow didn’t notice how something ardently fascinated flashed across Sonic’s expression when looking his rival up and down. And just as quickly the hero’s attention moved onto the speckling snowflakes landing upon striped quills.
They still melted but not quiet as quickly and heralded the inevitable change of the season.
Between one clouding breath and the next, adrenaline fully dropped out of Sonic and the blue hedgehog relaxed where he stood. Throwing out his arms and pushing himself off balance, Sonic let gravity take hold until he thumped backwards onto the hard ground.
Shadow looked up at the sound, hackles rising on instinct only to spot Sonic lying flat on his back, arms cradling under his head, and gazing languidly up at the darkening sky.
Not exactly a vigilant pose, Shadow thought, and after an impassive moment, crossed the few yards of frosty earth to stand over the other hedgehog.
“Giving up?” Shadow grumbled and kicked an air shoe at Sonic’s outstretched leg.
“More like I’m giving in,” Sonic laughed airily.
And in a snap of movement too quick for the naked eye, he swept Shadow’s legs out from under him again, bringing the dark hedgehog down to his level.
Shadow landed heavily on Sonic, not trying to catch his own fall when the blue menace was so determined to bring him down in a heap.
His snarled rebuke intensified when Sonic’s laughter deepened and he could feel the resonating amusement against his chest.
The hybrid pushed off his rival roughly, a dusting of warmth quickly wiped off his muzzle as he rolled to the side. Yet Shadow saw little point in getting back up and didn’t move to put any more distance between himself and Sonic.
Obviously this spar was over but he didn’t feel like leaving just yet. It was confounding, since last spring Shadow had been less inclined to Chaos Control away the moment their spars were called off.
Lingering around each other while they both cooled down had become something of a habit for them both. Time was funny like that, it had a way of smoothing over the harshest edges and weathering the fiercest storms. And Sonic was nothing if not resilient to Shadow’s storms.
Flopping onto his back beside the blue hedgehog, Shadow let the late autumnal air dry the sweat clinging to his exercise-warmed body and tucked away the disconcerting feeling that he wanted the sun to set slower tonight.
Just a little longer in the light, he thought, ears twitching at the sentimentality of himself.
“Gonna let me talk now?”
“Do what you want,” Shadow sighed, knowing one way or another Sonic would make himself heard.
“Well, with that sweet invitation,” Sonic snorted sarcastically, “Seriously Shads, listen — I’ve been putting it all off for some time now but this season I don’t think I can. This winter is going to be cold, I can feel it in my bones. And deprivation isn’t fun believe me I’ve been down that road. No matter how many naps I take on the beach it’s just not enough to stave it off. You know how it is! Or maybe you don’t with the whole alien thing…”
“Would you just spit it out already?” Shadow snapped. Sometimes he thought Sonic spoke just because he liked the sound of his own voice.
“I’m talking about my hibernation!”
Shadow’s jaw ticked and he bit the tip of his tongue.
The hybrid didn’t need nor want to hear about Sonic’s broken sleep schedule or hedgehog instincts that didn’t affect him.
Shadow had read up on species information that he’d not been educated on when living on the Arc. He knew all about hedgehog life cycles, cultural habits, and even courting and mating rituals. (Those last ones were thanks to Rouge and Rose’s reading suggestions after one very agitated spring in which Shadow had taken out frustrations he didn’t understand on both a red echidna and a blue hedgehog). Frankly, Shadow didn’t have any patience to talk out hedgehog instincts with Sonic, he’d barely sat through listening to Silver during their bi-annual lunches.
But something heavy in the usually lofty look on Sonic’s face stilled the hybrid from Chaos Controlling away and he nodded for him to continue.
“I’ll be dead to the world for a few months and nothing I’ve been doing has curbed these instincts. I’m going to crash soon and I know I’ll owe you one but—,” Sonic interrupted himself with a large jaw-popping yawn, covered mostly with a hand clamped over his muzzle.
Shadow raised a brow-ridge, slightly surprised to hear Sonic admitting out loud that he was experience oncoming hibernation symptoms. It was quite the turn around from just last week when the blue hedgehog was gloating that he ‘never needed to sleep it off like that’.
Truthfully, Sonic had been loudly and frustratedly dreading his hibernation for weeks. He knew it was coming, all hedgehogs could feel it when unavoidable sluggishness and instinctual burrowing took hold.
But of course Sonic had been cocky, thinking he could outpace his own body’s demands.
Menace, Shadow rolled his eyes.
Mobian hedgehogs only hibernated once every few years and for some it was even rarer.
Silver and Amy had both been in similar drowsy states earlier that month, and were now dropping like sleep hungry flies.
But unlike Sonic, Amy had grown up accustomed to the roughly three-to-five year cycle of hibernating and accepted that she would have to nest down as soon as the signs appeared. Rose found that crocheting blankets was both soothing to the nesting urge and kept her warm when the chills set in.
Silver, on the other hand, had never hibernated before. He’d grown up in a perma-volcanic winter where cold weather was a dream and long rests were impossible. The futuristic hedgehog had been rather frazzled when he’d first felt the instinctual need to burrow and it took both Sonic and Blaze to get him calmed down enough to stop flying in anxious circles.
Blaze had come across dimensions with an offer for him to stay safe in her castle in Sol and Silver had been unduly grateful.
Shadow didn’t need to busy himself with such things and Sonic, with his energy, rarely did either.
But once the blue hedgehog finally took notice of the signs this year, the ones screaming at him that he would need to go into deep sleep to rejuvenate and replenish — he’d been in fairly big denial about it.
The most obvious sign, beside the lethargy and chills, was the need to burrow. Sonic had been hiding things away for weeks. Soft blankets, non perishable food and the like, all sorts of preparations while simultaneously refusing to admit that he was nesting.
It wasn’t until Tails had barked at him — telling Sonic right to his bewildered face that his nest had to be finished at this point — that he finally accepted the reality of it.
Sonic would need to burrow for three solid months, all through the coldest time of the year. There would be no racing, adventuring, or saving Chao in distress — or whatever it was he did in his spare time, Shadow thought archly.
The weather was changing undeniably now. Snowfall was sticking to fur and the ground and Sonic needed to be in that nest soon or his hibernation would bring him crashing down out in the elements.
Even as he sat on the frozen grass beside Shadow, little trembles from the cold worked across his shoulders and he blinked heavier and heavier as sleep tried to claim him. Yet Sonic refused to go easily, pinching subtly at the soft tissue of his forearm to force himself awake.
Like a cute kitten trying to hold its head up even as sleep dragged his drowsy face down… Shadow thought unbidden, only to dismiss it with a rough shake of his head.
Sonic wasn’t cute! Not like that.
Handsome? Sure, Shadow huffed under his breath, he wasn’t blind, But cute? Hardly.
“…and I know Knuckles and Tails can handle saving the world while I’m getting my forced rejuvenation or whatever,” Sonic was saying, bringing Shadow out of his thoughts, “but it would be way easier to sleep knowing you were watching over stuff too.”
Shadow frowned, “Did you think I would abandon the world just because you’re not around to bait me into your terrible plans?”
“I know you secretly like my ideas, Shads, and obviously I don’t think you’d abandon anything. You’re always looking out for stuff in your own way and you’re always there when the world needs you. So just tell me you got things handled and I can rest easy okay?”
Sonic had pushed up onto his elbows as he spoke, meeting Shadow’s gaze and pining him differently than before.
He was no longer holding Shadow against the cold ground in a fierce spar that was far friendlier than either would admit, but instead grasping at the hope he saw in his rival.
If Sonic couldn’t be around, he needed to know that Shadow would be.
The dark hedgehog looked away first, tracking a large snowflake as it landed on the soft fur of Sonic’s shoulder. His hand clenched, tearing up a patch of frosty grass to keep himself from brushing the ice chip away.
“Fine, hedgehog. I’ll look after things while you’re asleep.”
Sonic’s smile was bright enough to melt any snow or heart, “Thanks Shadow, I knew I could count on you!”
Sonic would only need to hibernate for three months.
Shadow only got two weeks in before he went to see him.
Bambambam!
A heavy fist pounded against the door, Shadow’s annoyance rising with each minute his knocking went unanswered.
Since the snow had begun to fall it hadn’t really stopped. Winter didn’t come to the islands like this, they were a tropical paradise a majority of the year, especially compared to lands like Holoska. But a severe cold snap had pushed southerly and was covering the Mobian archipelago in a weeks long snowstorm.
While the weather had affected villages and towns up and down the islands, Eggman was fully undeterred from being an utter nuisance.
The Robotnik had launched a never-ending barrage of attacks since Sonic had turned in. Not that Eggman knew the blue blur wasn’t with the waking world and yet, while all of his plans were admittedly half-baked, Shadow couldn’t shake the feeling that Robotnik was testing whether or not anyone would show up to his attacks.
Each and every time Shadow did.
The dark hedgehog had meant it when he said he’d keep a watch over things for Sonic’s sake. He may care for the world in a different way than Silver and Sonic did but Shadow had his reasons for heeding the hero’s favor and looking out for things while he was the only hedgehog able.
But seriously — two weeks and sixteen attacks later and Shadow was starting to understand why Sonic’s hibernation had come on so hard.
His body obviously needed the break.
But that didn’t mean Shadow wasn’t going to give Sonic a piece of his mind for all the extra effort it took to pick up his slack.
Bambambam!
The door didn’t budge, no sound emanated from inside, and Shadow ceased his knocking with an agitated growl.
Damnit, hedgehog.
Taking a step back Shadow cast around for any sign of life or proof of occupancy. He was right outside Sonic’s supposed residency, the one he kept off any record for his own privacy.
The cabin was a small thing, built rather ramshackle but still standing, and located deep in the foresting woods at the foot of Eastend Island’s centering volcano. One of Prower’s workshop outposts was on the other side, closer to a valley where there was room for a runway. The fox wasn’t currently there, he was snowed in on Cocoa Island. The closest civilization was a rural village on the southern coastline.
Hidden away from all that was this remote safe house that Sonic had built half a decade ago. The blue menace didn’t use it often, always so overly fond of dosing in meadows and couch hoping by his close friends’ generosity.
Shadow never really figured wanting that kind of mobility, not when his multi-year lease on an apartment with Rouge and Omega brought him such a sense of stability. The dark hedgehog liked having a home to call his own. It wasn’t until Knuckles had let it slip a few years ago that Sonic also secretly had his own place that Shadow understood why he kept it under wraps.
Just walking through one of the local villages with the Hero of Mobius was an exercise in patience. Everyone and their mother wanted to stop him, grab a picture and a fraction of his time.
For all his restless energy though, Sonic was endlessly patient with fans and well-wishers, but he was also deliberately evasive and kept much of himself private. Sonic was just some hedgehog by his own measure, yet everyone wanted a piece of him. Shadow found it exhausting and nerve-frying, he certainly couldn’t hypocritically judge Sonic for wanting a little peace.
So in learning he had a house tucked away on a mostly forgotten island like this didn’t surprise Shadow. In fact it had dragged a sigh of relief from him to know Sonic had somewhere he could go be safe and alone when he needed it.
Not that I care where Sonic goes to lick his wounds and recoup, Shadow thought with a huff and refocused on the task at hand — making it clear Sonic knew he was taking this favor seriously and that he sure as hell owed him big.
Taking a look around the front of the house, Shadow noted there was no mailbox, front door mat, or even an address that he could use as confirmation but still he was certain this was Sonic’s little hidey hole.
The exterior was a series of rough exposed logs and a smokeless chimney that was felled as part of the thick forest. There was no trail leading through the woods and up to the door save for the one Shadow made getting to the emergency beacon on Sonic’s communicator. It wasn’t actually going off, Shadow just had Rouge hack into it so he’d have coordinates on the other hedgehog’s location. The compass tracker on his own communicator indicated that he was at least in the right neck of the woods.
But the front windows to the left and right of the door were dark with drawn curtains and nothing, certainly no blue hedgehog, stirred inside.
So where the hell was he?
Shadow dropped his gaze back down to the door itself, he could break it open with little effort, Chaos Control inside, or he could try —
Idiot, Shadow growled under his breath and pushed the unlocked door open on its squeaking hinges.
Stepping inside the unlocked house, Shadow was near immediately tripped on a pile of discarded red boots piled high in the entrance. Kicking the mess aside, Shadow let the door swing close and instantly his senses were put on alert.
If he thought it was cold outside with the falling snow and the chilly breeze coming down off the mountain, it was downright arctic inside the cabin.
And more off-putting than that was the arrant silence that suffocated the dark hedgehog.
This kind of quiet and he could hear his own blood pulsing in his ears, this still and the soft whoosh of circulation sounded like the inside of his stasis chamber. The dark fur on the back of his neck rose.
“Sonic?” Shadow called out, his voice carrying far but no response came. After another too-loud heartbeat, the hybrid stepped further inside, ready to strike or defend come what may.
Shadow didn’t look for a light switch, his eyesight was genetically altered to fair better than most, but he did search every corner of the cabin for something familiar to put his tension at ease.
It became apparent that the outside of the house was deceptively designed, hiding just how much space was packed within.
To Shadow’s immediate right was the cluttered living room. The couch was relatively nice but the flat screen tv was sat directly on the floor and the coffee table was actually just stacks of paper and hardback books, dvd boxsets, and video game cases.
There was the fireplace with a mantle holding at least a dozen snow globes and a soot filled hearth. It was less surprising there was no smoke from the chimney as there was no wood or starter kindling. Shadow doubted Sonic had installed any other way to heat the cabin and judging by the smattering of flicky excreta at the base of the inner hearth it was likely birds had taken up nesting in the flue.
On Shadow’s left was a well outfitted kitchen with a small dusty-blue fridge in the far corner and a butcher block for a center island. A deep basin sink took up much of the available counter space and Sonic’s communicator watch was left on the kitchen window sill.
There was just enough room near the door for a two-person dining table, although there were no chairs around the table and it was covered densely with take-out flyers.
Based on the lack of address Shadow wasn’t entirely sure how Sonic would get anything delivered.
Crimson eyes roved over every piece of furniture and dim corner, spotting nothing that should be great cause for concern. Other than Sonic’s terrible house decor standards.
And yet Shadow couldn’t shake the feeling something was amiss.
He’d shown up thinking Sonic wouldn’t be that deep into his hibernation yet and so Shadow could give him an earful about all the messes he’d needed to clean up in the hero’s absence.
But this quiet was unnerving for anything having to do with the chatty ball of energy that was Sonic.
You better be okay, Shadow gritted his teeth, setting down the Sonic’s communicator he’d picked up when searching the main part of the house.
On the far side of the living room, between the pantry door and the floor TV was the start of a dimly lit hallway that led further into the cabin.
Not pausing to take off his air shoes, Shadow strode down the hallway. If he felt any discomfort in breaking and entering into Sonic’s supposed house he didn’t show it.
The first door Shadow opened was to a washroom and his expression scrunched distastefully when spotting right away the hand towel being used as a bathmat.
He knew Sonic spent little time in this hideaway, it was hardly more than a base for him, but couldn’t he take a better care to make it nice?
The next door was a linen closet, lacking any spare sheets and housing far too many cans of chili and individually wrapped protein bars besides washed towels. Closing the door with another disgruntled snarl, Shadow was growing ever more concerned how Sonic had been able to raise his genius fox brother when he barely kept himself in sorts.
Maybe that wasn’t fair, Shadow thought, continuing down the hallway to the last door on the end.
Sonic had always taken great care of Prower and seemed perfectly capable of building a home. This house simply wasn’t that place, not by a long shot.
At the last closed door in the house Shadow didn’t hesitate to push inside. He was fully prepared to tell Sonic off for the total pain the last two weeks had been and bite his head off a bit for leaving his door unlocked and alarming Shadow out with his too quiet house. Maybe he’d reprimand him for not even owning a shower curtain somewhere in there.
But the sight that met Shadow behind the last door froze his tongue to the roof of his mouth.
Sonic’s bedroom was just as desolate as the rest of the house, set up for functionality only. This wasn’t his home, but a safe house, and it showed.
The room held only a smattering of furniture including a small dresser, a lamp without a lightbulb, and a king sized mattress piled high with blankets and pillows.
It took only a quick glance around the room to know Sonic could only be holed up in one spot.
Beneath that blanket pile, winter thick azure quills spiked out, belonging only to a menace of a hedgehog.
Shadow didn’t realize he was holding his breath until he saw the mound of blankets dip with a subtle motion of someone rolling over in their sleep.
So he was here. Deep enough in his hibernation he didn’t hear me knocking. Typical.
The hybrid took a step towards the pile of blankets and the hedgehog within, noting that he shouldn’t have been surprised to see the mattress was propped up only on a box spring. Sonic didn’t even care to get a frame for his bed.
No wonder you’re always resting on low hanging branches or between strong tree roots - you’re used to sleeping like an animal.
Shadow was caught mid-eye roll by a shockingly chilled breeze combing through his upturned quills. He followed the icy wind back to its source, a window facing the dense woods on the far side of the room. Charcoal-grey curtains fluttered from the outside air as the window had been left ajar.
No matter where he was, including burrowed down for hibernation, Sonic needed to feel a breeze through his quills.
Shadow ignored the open window and the danger it posed bringing in that much cold air and closed in on the bed, (it really was more of a nest), in search of a sign of life from Sonic.
When the blue hedgehog had said he’d be “dead to the world” Shadow assumed he was being hyperbolic.
Now Shadow wasn’t so sure.
He found Sonic splayed out on his back, nose lifted to the ceiling and blankets wrapped up to his chin with his mouth hanging open enough his back molars glinted in the low light.
Shadow frowned, he was sure the blankets had shifted earlier, that he was breathing. The dark hedgehog’s fingers twitched, maybe he should check for a pulse? And was just lifting a hand when Sonic let out the loudest honking snore Shadow had ever heard.
Grrr-snrkk-phewww, Sonic snored, grr-snrksnrrk-pheww
“So much for sleeping like a dormouse,” Shadow huffed in a grumbling whisper, ears flicking back at the grating noise coming out of the other hedgehog.
The hybrid hadn’t realized how much tension he was holding in his back until Sonic made another horrid locomotive sound and the spring-like tightness of his spinal column loosened.
He’d seen the blue menace sleep before. Doze the day away beneath a palm tree, take a hedgehog nap on the wing of the Tornado, or nod off when he swore he could stay awake for a whole movie marathon.
But hibernation was different.
Shadow had looked into the phenomena after their spar during the first snowfall. He was curious about this natural bodily response to the winter that he simply didn’t have. His spliced genetics and his ability to pull restorative energy from Chaos meant that Shadow didn’t need to burrow for three months every four-ish years to regain strength and survive incredibly harsh climates. But it was something that affected the hedgehogs around him and if it was so impactful to Sonic that he personally asked Shadow to take his place while he slept, then Shadow needed to know the real risks, and any possible benefits, of hibernating.
The book he’d been recommended by the reference desk staffer at the Station Square Library was thorough and every page flip had set him more and more on edge.
Mood swings, swollen under-eye bags and a weakened immune system were some of the milder symptoms of putting off hibernation. Shadow had read quickly through the passages on hallucinations, waking night terrors, and involuntary microsleeps that were all risks if a hedgehog tried keeping themselves from hibernating.
He’d been unsettled from that alone and turned to a section near the end only to discover there was danger in sleeping too hard and long when hibernating as well. If a hedgehog’s nest was disturbed, the temperature dropped too far, or they put off sleeping for long enough they crashed, then other health hazards were raised.
Starvation, muscle atrophy, vein thrombosis, transition into a permanent sleeping state — all of it had cleaved through Shadow and he’d snapped the book closed, returning it within an hour of checking it out.
Sonic wasn’t ill, Shadow told himself again, he knew and understood this. But even if his hibernation went smoothly he would be lethargic at best and comatose at worst.
Shadow didn’t want to see Sonic like that.
Dead to the world.
Dark-furred ears flattened against his skull, What a horrible phrase.
“You’re fine,” Shadow growled aloud to himself although he’d meant them for Sonic, the words echoed around the still room.
Sonic’s snoring hitched at the gruff sound and Shadow froze where he stood.
He may not have expected him to be this deep into his hibernative state but he also didn’t want to wake him.
A moment passed where it seemed that Sonic would pull himself out of slumber but he only snapped his jaw shut, smacked his lips dryly, and rolled over to dig into the blankets and pillows for a warmer burrow.
Shadow let out a silent sigh, he didn’t know whether Sonic was a heavy sleeper or not, but if his nest was too disturbed he could react violently.
In rolling over in his nest, Sonic had exposed the thick spines of his back. The spiny needles were a hazard on the best of days but in this current state Sonic had no conscious control over them.
Shadow’s caution at possibly disturbing the blue hedgehog fell away when he noticed a flash of white caught in the spikes of Sonic’s quills.
What in the…
Carefully, Shadow kneeled on the bed and the mattress dipped slightly under his weight. Sonic’s quills remained lax as if wholly unaware of the threat of another powerful hedgehog in his nest.
Not that Shadow was a threat to him. The hybrid would never stoop too such a back-stabbing betrayal. He wouldn’t even shake him awake for a spar when Sonic was at such a disadvantage.
Shadow hadn’t even been willing to use his inherited Doom mutations on the blue blur when they’d been fighting in White Space, he sure as Chaos wouldn’t play dirty and attack Sonic when he wasn’t capable of fighting back.
Still, the other hedgehog should have reacted more to Shadow’s close proximity. Even deep in sleep he’d be able to smell another lifeform trampling in and disturbing his nest and his spines should flex and bristle protectively.
But Sonic remained relaxed and untroubled, his snoring picking up again and somehow louder than before.
Shadow’s fledgling concern for Sonic’s apparent lack of survival instincts was doused when he was able to tug the white fabric he’d spotted free of azure quills.
He knew exactly what it was before he’d even gotten a good look at it.
The slip of hand-sewn leather with the black and red cuff could only be one of Shadow’s own gloves.
How the hell did he even get his paws on this?
Lip curled in annoyance and still kneeling on the mattress, the hybrid took a closer look at the blue hedgehog’s nest. He noticed for the first time the sheer amount of mismatched pillows, (annoyingly there was another left glove of his), and the many, many blankets.
One he recognized as Vanilla’s granny-square work and another blanket was gifted from Blaze in traditional woven Sol fabrics. But amongst the cluster was a single cashmere blanket, a cozy swath of plaid, which stood out from the rest.
The dark red blanket was wrapped tightly in Sonic’s hands now that he’d rolled over and was bunched right up to his nose.
That close and Sonic could only breath in the scent clinging to the blanket, clouding his senses. While it explained why he didn’t seem to recognize when his nest had been trespassed, it didn’t excuse his pour situational awareness.
And being on alert may have helped the blue hedgehog as it took only a fraction of a second for Shadow to recognize that blanket and do something about it.
This cashmere throw that Sonic kept so close wasn’t another gift from a friend or a bargain bin grab from a grocery store — it was from Shadow’s own apartment.
He’s worse than Rouge! Worse than that Hawk! Shadow swore over the stolen blanket he’d been searching weeks for.
He’d initially assumed Rouge had just thrown it in the washing machine for a cycle and had accidentally bleached the fabric. It wouldn’t be the first time she’d ruined something of Shadow’s with her complete incapacity, (but total overconfidence), for certain cleaning tasks. Rouge could do much, but laundry and ironing were not those things.
The hybrid may owe her an apology for the accusation he’d snapped at her last week now that he’d found the true culprit.
“Sonic,” Shadow growled as his only warning before snatching up a handful of the plush blanket.
He yanked hard on the fabric, trying to wrest it back from Sonic only to fumble when the blue hedgehog reacted.
Sonic curled tighter around the blanket, his quills bristling for the first time and, most shockingly, he let out a truly pitying caterwaul.
“Nooo,” Sonic growled, yanking back on the blanket and nearly pulling it out of Shadow’s shock slackened grip.
The hybrid froze with his hand bunching up a corner of the cashmere. Sonic had seemed so out of it moments ago, yet this fraught response was...
Wasn’t he supposed to be in a coma? How was he wrestling over a blanket?
Shadow’s surprise spiked again when a groaning huff from Sonic sputtered into a coherent sentence and the blue hedgehog spoke in his sleep.
“Give it back, s’mine!”
Striped quills flared defensively at the sheer neediness in Sonic’s voice. He’d never heard such a fussy plea from the hedgehog.
Sonic gave a strong tug on the blanket, dragging it through the hybrid’s fingers and bunched it up in his arms again.
Shadow’s gaze narrowed and he growled coldly, “No, it’s not.”
Eyes closed and face turned partially into another pillow, Sonic frowned in his sleep and only clung harder to the blanket.
Shadow huffed out a short breath, he would not be bested by a sleeping Sonic.
To hell with that, he thought and gave another stronger yank, ripping the blanket from around Sonic in a single motion.
Sonic openly whined at the loss and curled into a tight spikeball, shivering.
He has plenty of other blankets to keep him warm. And he should close that window. And lock the damn door. Shadow chided internally.
The hybrid had walked right in to his house, his nest, and all Shadow had been planning was some complaining to the sleeping fool about the nuisance Eggman was, (they really should take care of that in a permanent way).
But anyone could have waltzed in on the blue hedgehog and Shadow recognized that with no shortage of annoyance.
And maybe, if he was honest with himself, Shadow had needed to check on Sonic himself. Needed to make sure his rival wasn’t suffering any of those awful symptoms that book on hibernation warned about.
And while he did find him alive, he wasn’t exactly in deep sleep and the window he left open would only worsen his hibernation symptoms if he couldn’t stay warm.
He could be at serious risk of— striped quills refused to lay down from their defensive, protective bristle.
That idea was so uniquely upsetting to Shadow that he didn’t know what to do with the intensity of his reaction beside push it down. Far far down.
The dark hedgehog glanced at Sonic again. Shadow respected him as a strong and capable adversary. Possibly, if no one was around to hear and he’s lost his voice to make any sound at all, he could even call him a friend.
If Sonic thought this shanty in the woods was a safe place to hibernate then Shadow had no reason to doubt him.
But right then, in the weak sunlight of the early winter and curled up in stolen blankets, hands grasping in slow kneading motions for something to hold on to, Sonic just looked… vulnerable.
Shadow shook his head of the thought and huffed a longer, less agitated sigh.
Sonic had asked him to protect the world while he slept. But the one that obviously needed protecting was him.
The hybrid weighed the blanket in his hand, frustrated with his own hesitancy.
He didn’t need the blanket, (it was covered in blue fur and lemongrass scent now anyway), and Sonic did look like he found it rather comforting in his sleep.
The dark hedgehog snarled a curse as he unraveled the blanket in a flourish, letting it fall softly back over his rival.
The reaction was instantaneous, Sonic grappling drowsily for the heavy fabric and mashing as much as possible of it into his face to inhale lung-fulls of richly roasted coffee, clove, and vanilla bean scent.
Although his face was most certainly covered to the point of suffocation, Shadow knew the blue hedgehog well enough to tell he was softly smiling under all that fabric and the last of his coiled tension unspooled from his spine.
“S’good smell…” Sonic mumbled, “Shadow…”
Mocha dark ears perked, straining to hear more, but Sonic didn’t stir again save for gentle snores and a twitch of his nose.
Shadow sat back on his heels, glowering without any real annoyance at the sleeping bundle of quills.
This aspect of hedgehog instinct was one Shadow knew all too well.
Scents and smells were important to hedgehogs, and more over a significant aspect of Mobian culture. Shadow carried those traits just as strongly even if they had no biological connection to his alien genetics.
Comforting scents, as unique as a fingerprint or quill pattern, was something that hedgehogs intuitively wanted to keep around. They lowered anxiety and heightened serotonin. It was obvious science in Shadow’s eyes, but he also recognized the strange unexplainable aspect, some scents were just nicer to some hedgehogs than others.
He knew Silver kept sambac jasmine flowers growing in his garden, Rose had mechanics kerchief dipped in violet leaf accord always tucked in her purse, and even Rouge, (not a hedgehog but Mobian all the same), had a bottle of perfume reminiscent of saffron and pepper like that echidna she found enticing.
Shadow had his own preferences. Fresh lavender in a vase on his window sill and an open bag of coffee grounds just for the rich aroma on his bookshelf. Of course he also kept dried lemongrass and aniseed in a cloth pouch under his pillow because it reminded him of…
Shadow cut off the trailing through with a fierce huff.
“That blanket hardly smells like anything but yourself now, menace.”
Sonic had obviously stolen it in the mad dash to build a nest, grabbing anything that could be a comfort in the cold months ahead. It wasn’t like the blanket was actually special to him, Shadow told himself, he’s just a bad thief and a terrible planner.
“I will get my things returned,” Shadow growled at the sleeping hedgehog, smacking the one glove he’d reclaimed against the muscle of his thigh as he pushed to stand.
The slumbering hero didn’t respond beyond a loud, throat scratching snore and Shadow scoffed again.
“Come spring and you wake up, there’ll be a score to settle, Faker.”
Shadow turned sharply on his heel then, crossing the bedroom and making it outside before he could let thoughts about scents and hibernation symptoms keep him any longer.
He’d failed to give Sonic a piece of his mind for this world-saving business but at least Shadow had some assurance his rival was not in fact ‘dead to the world’.
In the chilling air on the front stoop Shadow roughly fought back every clawing instinct within him that begged for him to go right back inside the hidden house.
Not to take the blanket or his gloves back — but to ensure that Sonic was warm and comfortable and safe.
How could he leave me to look after the world when the only thing that mattered was—
Idiot, Shadow snarled at himself, double checking the front door was closed but unable to lock it.
For now Shadow would let him sleep, and come spring he would have a biting word and a swift kick for his rival.
“You better make it through this winter,” the dark hedgehog growled to the frosty night air, and pushed off to skate back though the dense forest.
Inside the cabin, bundled up in a blanket of coffee vanilla scents, Sonic’s snoring slipped into a purr and he drifted closer to waking.