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Shadow didn’t know what he had been thinking when he bought the chocolates. In fact, he’s pretty sure he hadn’t been thinking at all. He saw them in the store and somehow the stupid romantic part of his brain overrode his logical thinking and by the time he was thinking clearly again, he had already bought them. That same part of this brain had him stuffing the round, red box of chocolates into his quills before he set out to find Sonic for their race, even though he had no intention of delivering them.
They usually had their races Friday evenings, but Sonic had asked for a rain check since he had accidentally double-booked with Amy. Typically, Shadow would have given him hell for having the audacity to forget about their long-standing weekly race, but once again, that stupid part of his brain clung to the hope that Sonic had postponed their race so they could meet up on Valentines Day instead. But, as expected, when Sonic arrived at their meeting spot, he didn’t greet Shadow any differently: he didn’t profess his love for Shadow, or give him flowers, or otherwise acknowledge the date. He simply shot out a greeting and sped off.
Shadow was on his tail in a second and... surpassed him quite easily. “Already tired? Pathetic.”
“As if!” Sonic said and pulled ahead for a few moments. A few short moments as Shadow easily pulled ahead again.
Unnerved by this behaviour, Shadow swiped at Sonic, who only dodged in the last second, despite the fact that Shadow had barely been trying. “Focus,” Shadow growled.
“Focus on this!” Sonic sped through the forest, jumping off trees and dashing through bushes. Shadow thought he had finally gotten into the race, but Sonic quickly became distracted, once again allowing Shadow to pass. Shadow decided enough was enough.
As soon as they made their way into a clearing, Shadow lunged at Sonic. Again, it was a maneuver Sonic should have easily been able to dodge. Instead, he felt the full force of Shadow’s body barrelling into him. They rolled through the grass, stopping with Shadow sitting on top of him.
“What is wrong with you?” Shadow demanded.
“Nothing’s wrong!” Sonic denied. “Get off me and I’ll show you wrong, er- not wrong... how right I am?” He brought his arms, mimicking a boxer.
Shadow just stared at him, unimpressed with Sonic’s failure to construct a sentence. Not to mention the fact that Sonic was asking Shadow to get off rather than just shoving him.
Sonic met Shadow’s eyes with his own defiant gaze, that quickly fell as he realized that Shadow wasn’t moving. Sonic sighed and let his arms fall to the side. “Alright, fine.”
Shadow took that as his cue to get off, allowing Sonic to sit up beside him.
Then Sonic said something extremely shocking.
“I’m tired.”
Shadow froze.
“Are you dying?”
Sonic huffed out a tired laugh. “Mentally tired. I could run around the world ten times and still have energy left. Nah, I just spent the whole day outsmarting hordes of fans trying to give me chocolate.”
“I see.” Shadow ignored the way his stomach twisted. “How awful it must be to receive so many chocolates.”
“It is though!” Sonic threw his hands in the air. “Half of them put something weird in the chocolates, half of them actually expect me to date them because they gave me a gift, and half of them try to guilt me into kissing them when I don’t take their chocolates.”
“That’s 150% percent.”
“Whatever.” Sonic waved him off. “Either way, all of them ignored that I said I wanted people to donate to charity instead of giving me chocolates.”
That was news to Shadow. If he had known that, the chocolates currently hiding in his quills would instead be in the garbage. He looked away from Sonic, feeling extra ridiculous and wanting to hide his bitter expression. “I’m surprised you don’t accept any of them,” he said, forcing his tone to be even. “I was under the impression that you loved chocolate.”
“I do, which sucks cause if I took one, then I’d have to take them all. Or else there would be a repeat of a few years ago, where a war broke out for who could get their chocolates to me first.” Sonic shuddered.
There went Shadow’s last hope of Sonic accepting his chocolates, which some part of him still thought was a possibility for some reason. “Seems taxing.”
Sonic shrugged then leaned back on his arms on the grass. “Yeah, well, I’m sure you have it rough too.”
“What do you mean?”
“Fans chasing you down with chocolates?”
“I hardly have fans.” Shadow gently fixed his quills so he could subtly secure the chocolates. Or at least, that had been his intention.
The chocolates were gone.
Shadow tried to convince himself that he had simply forgotten them at home, but he vividly remembered both putting them in his quills and styling them so the chocolates wouldn’t be noticeable.
“Whaddaya mean? You have tons of fans!” Sonic sat up straighter. “You’re saying no one tried to give you chocolates today?”
“Not that I know of,” Shadow said, not really paying attention to his answer. They must have fallen out. The question was whether they fell out nearby, and whether it was worth it to trace back his steps before someone else found them.
“Well, um,” Sonic started pulling grass from the ground. “Do you like chocolate?”
“I suppose...” Shadow said, absently as he scanned the area.
“What kind of answer is that?” Sonic laughed nervously. “So, like, if a fan gave you chocolates, would you take them?”
“I don’t know.” Shadow’s gaze caught on a red lump – the chocolates. “Not that it matters since I won’t receive any.” He stood up. “I have to go.”
“Hey, wait-”
But Shadow was already skating to the lost chocolates. He knocked the box up into the air with his shoes as he skated by and expertly caught it. He breathed a small sigh of relief as he continued skating, convinced the danger was over.
Unfortunately, his relief was premature.
“I wasn’t done talking with- hey what’s that?”
Shadow skidded to a stop, cursing himself for not noticing Sonic had followed him. Shadow often abruptly abandoned their post-race conversations, without Sonic following him. Of course, Valentine’s Day of all days Sonic would deviate from that behaviour.
Sonic stopped a step ahead of Shadow. It was too late to hide the chocolates; Sonic’s gaze was fixed on the chocolates, specifically at the tag clearly displaying ‘To Sonic’. “Chocolates?” Sonic’s brows furrowed. “For me?”
Shadow scrambled to find an excuse. Maybe he could claim he just found them lying there. But no fan could have left chocolates in such a remote location. And there was no way Shadow was admitting they were from him. “A fan gave them to me,” Shadow rushed out. “To give to you.” His arm shot out jerkily.
“Oh?” Sonic took them cautiously. “I’m surprised they gave them to you instead of me.”
“They... they thought I was you. But when they realized it wasn’t me, they asked me to deliver them and ran off.”
“And they were too fast for you?” Sonic smirked, raising a brow.
“...I didn’t want to traumatize them by running after them.”
Sonic laughed at that. “Then why didn’t you give them to me before?”
“After hearing what you said, I decided I would dispose of them,” Shadow said. “But now that you’ve seen them, you can decide what to do with them.”
“Mm-hm?” Sonic flipped the tag. “But it says ‘From Shadow’ on the back.”
For the umpteenth time that day, Shadow cursed his past self. “It- it must be a prank. They must have thought it would be humorous for me to give you chocolates.”
Sonic hummed again, then opened the box and popped out a chocolate.
“What are you doing?”
“What does it look like? I’m trying the chocolate.”
“I thought you didn’t eat the chocolates you received,” he asked, cautiously.
“Not like anyone else saw me take them.” Sonic shrugged then popped the chocolate into his mouth. “Ooh, is this raspberry flavoured?”
Raspberry? “They’re supposed to be chili-” Shadow froze.
Sonic’s expression was carefully blank, but his eyes bore into Shadow, as if challenging him to come up with another excuse. But Shadow knew there was no covering up that slip-up.
Resigned, Shadow turned and left.
Or at least he tried to. Sonic, of course, had no trouble keeping up with him, running alongside even as Shadow avoided his gaze.
“Oh yeah, they are definitely chili. Mind asking the fan where they got them from?”
While Shadow was partially relieved that Sonic hadn’t reacted in disgust or pity, it was evident that Sonic wasn’t taking the situation seriously. To Sonic, Shadow’s feelings were just a joke. He pushed down the pang of hurt from that revelation, knowing he’d have to deal with his heartbreak later, and instead focused on the anger of Sonic never taking anything seriously.
He slowed to a stop, turning on Sonic with a snarl. “You know damn well they’re from me!” Sonic stopped, momentarily stunned by the outburst. “So, I’d appreciate it if you could just reject me so we can get this over with.”
“Reject...?” Sonic blinked, then his demeanor turned sheepish. “Oh, uh, sorry, I just couldn’t help teasing you a little.” He rubbed the back of his neck.
‘Typical’, Shadow thought. “Are we done here?”
“No!” Sonic said, and if he didn’t sound somewhat panicked, Shadow would have growled at him. “Here, these are for you!” Sonic whipped a heart-shaped box out of his quills and shoved them against Shadow’s chest, forcing him to take them.
Shadow felt his ears fold back. “Why?” They couldn't be pity chocolates, since Sonic didn’t know about Shadow’s feelings before that day (at least, Shadow hoped he didn’t), so they were probably some kind of friendship chocolates.
“Why what?”
Shadow didn’t try to supress his sigh at such a stupid question. “Why are you giving me chocolates?”
Sonic had the audacity to look at him like Shadow was the idiot. “Uh, for the same reason you gave me chocolates?”
“Oh really?” Shadow snapped. “Because you harbor secret romantic feelings towards me and dream of taking me on sunset strolls on the beach?”
“You...” Sonic stared at him in shock. “You’re a sunset stroll on the beach kinda guy?!”
Shadow groaned and rubbed his temple. “No. That was just an example.”
“Oh, good.” Sonic breathed out a sigh of relief. “Cause you know me, not really a strolling kinda guy, especially anywhere near the water! But any chance you’re a run across the mountains until the sun goes down and then eat chocolates while stargazing-kinda guy? Cause I was hoping that could be our first date.”
Shadow narrowed his eyes. There was no way he was serious. Was Sonic pranking him? But even Sonic should have enough tact not to play with someone’s feelings like-
“Why are you looking at me like that?! What else do I have to- okay, you know what?” Sonic gave no other warning before grabbing Shadow’s shoulders and hauling him in for a kiss. “You get it now?”
Shadow’s brain took a moment to reboot, before he finally replied, “Which mountains?”
Sonic grinned. “I’ll show you.” The next moment he was on the other side of the clearing. “Follow me!”
Inevitably, they got into several fights on the way, filled with punches to the face, kicks to the shin and elbows to the gut. So a typical friendly fight. They never made it to the top of the mountain. Instead they lay panting from exhaustion in a canyon under the stars.
Shadow ate the chocolates Sonic “made” (he bought a box of chocolates, melted them, and mixed them with coffee beans).
“Why didn’t you just give me regular chocolate covered beans?”
“Believe it or not, I was trying to be obvious with my Valentine's Day gift, which is why I used the heart shaped box. But if I gave you a box of chocolates with a single coffee bean where the chocolates were supposed to be, you probably would have thought I was picking a fight.”
“I thought you were picking a fight anyways.”
“And you call me oblivious.”
Shadow punched him in the arm.
“After you ranted to me about how much you hate receiving chocolates, I think I reacted appropriately.”
“I don’t hate receiving chocolates! At least, not from people I actually know.”
“That detail would have been helpful earlier.”
“Whatever, it all worked out in the end.” Sonic sat up and stretched.
“I suppose...” Shadow sighed.
“What? Do you disagree?” Sonic said, leaning over Shadow. “Do I need to convince you?” He leaned down further and pressed a quick kiss to his mouth. He didn’t pull back far, hovering over Shadow’s face.
Shadow swallowed, them mumbled. “Perhaps.”
Sonic laughed lightly, before dipping down again.
After that evening, Shadow was thoroughly convinced.