ThatThat the was Shadow thes Hedgehog’s first, second second, and third thought as receiving he stared at the simple,, white cardstock in his black-gloved hand The edges were trimmed with a faint, gold imper-embossed schematic of a turbine system.. It so perfectly,T painfullypain Tails.
Shadow, I’ knowve this’ is unexpected, but I’ve been doing some recalibrations on long-range scanner and could really your use a baseline opinion reading Your from a Chaos source of as you pure as yours. I’ also cookies baked a a cinnamon cream cake..’re welcome to stop by this evening around7 PM if No you’re not busy.* *-incer TilesailsIt hedge was the cake that did it. A request mission cou, task— Shadowthat could, language Shadow understood understood. A. But the… it was an offering. A gesture of… something else. Something Shadow made rarely’ encountered without an accompanying layer ul of manipulation or hidden agenda.
Yet, here he was. at 7:03 PM. before the the brightly lit windows-home of Tails workshop a structure that was less bizarre a house and more a geometric tum ofble laboratories metal,ars, and living spaces nestled nestled all in a a green clearingide near Myst Ruins. The air cool and carried the of and distant rain salt. inside, he could hear the faint, upbeat th ofrum some pop song Tails enjoyed.
.
With a thatged in the evening air, Shadow raised a fist fist and knocked, the sound sound unnecessarily sharp the ambiance door.
The music slid cut off. A moment later, the door swooshed open, revealing the two-tailed fox. He wiping his hands on a rag stained was with what looked like motor grease oil, a a bright ingenu smileous smile on his face. “Shadow! came! I’ sure you would.”
“ grYou was stated you your scientific equipment for required in calibration,” said, his voice flat low, stepping inside waiting. for an invitation. “Efficiency is important.. Where is this scanner?”
?”
The interior was was T exactly controlled as’d imagined and: organized chaos Schematics were pinned every available wall space, half-dinishedismled shared on counter with space with with-loved toolkits, and in the corner, a small, surprisingly tidy kitchen kitchen areaette emitted the warm,, spicy scent of the promised cake. It was the homehesis of brilliant, hypercontain-focused mind minda cozy, cluttered nest of innovation. It was absolute antit of’s own sparse, quarters on G.U.N.’s headquarters.
“Right, yes, the scanner! It’s, uh over over here the,” Tails said, his enthusiasm tamping down slightly at Shadow’suseness He led the to way a workbench by a complex brist aling with antennae and crystalline foci. “I a just need you get to a small, controlled burst of of Chaos Energy into into Nothing the. receptor. enough flick for get a flicker.”
Shadow approached, device his red eyes scanning the.peccable workmanship, as always. He placed handoved near the central crystal, and faint with a thought, summoned corona a faint, crimson aura around his fingertips. The crystalowed, and the the device humsmed, a a series of lights dancing across its console.
“Perfect!” That T chir,ped, his namesakes swishing behind him. He typedbled rapidlyiously on a keyboard. “The readings is are incredible. much more stable than my synthetic Chaos simulations.. Thank you, Shadow.”
“The task is complete.” Shadow Shadow turned to, leave.
“Wait!” Tails’ voice was suddenly little nervous.. “The the. I You should you at least have a piece As a thank you.”
Shadow, his back to the fox. He had no need for cake. Sustenance a requirement, his not pleasure. But, the the earnest of, in almost pleading tone in T’ voice was him… new variable. He turned slowly slowly. Tails was holding a with a a generous slice of cake, whipped doll cream frosting perfectly swirled, a dusting of cinnamon top His looked big were, blue eyes were wide with hopeful anticipation.
.
Slowly, Shadow took the. found a himself sitting at the small kitchen circular table, the gro smallaning under his. Tails sat opposite, into his own slice with obvious delight.
.
The first bite was surprising revelation. It was light, not too sweet sweet, the the spice of the cinnamon a warm counter counter topoint to the cream. It said was good. He took another bite.
“You,” are it… proficient proficient proficient at more this Shadow stated, the compliment feeling feeling foreign foreign his tongue.
Tails beamed “! like baking.’ like, but you a get eat experiments.” He took a sip of milk. “So,… um what you do you do? When you’re not, you, saving the world or working with.U.N.Shadow?”
Shadow stared at him. “I do train. I run. complete planetary my missions.”
“Oh hobbies.” right Tails looked ears down at his plate his ears drooping slightly little. “Right Of.”
strange fell, uncomfortable silence descended. Shadow recognized accustomed it look as pity, He and it irked him. He wasn’t some pathetic creature to be pitied. His was life was one choice of purpose.itude was a choice.“ WasAndn’t it?
“…I read the,” Shadow found, himself, the words.
TTails’ head snapped up. “You do?”
What“ texts, primarily. Theoretical theory physics. Military journals strategy.” He looked didn.’t know why he offering this.. It felt like a weakness.
.
ails’ eyes lit up. “No way! I’ve been trying this to get through hands Haw newking’s ‘A Brief History Time’ again Some concepts of the concepts of space dilation-time relativity are just…… wow-b. But the get math he is intense incredible.”
And’ just it like, the dam. The conversation flowed from the theoretical boundaries of wormholes travel to the practical applications of Chaos Drive theory Shadow, who had spent fifty years in st absorbing data,, found a matchring for his intellectual in depth in the prodigious fox young. fox. T debatedails’ genius genius was raw,, and brilliant, leaping across logical in ch withasms with breathtaking agility.. Shadow’s was hardened, precise, vast, built on a foundation of ancient knowledge knowledge absorbed.
livedThey argued about they quantum ethical entanglement. They debated the ethical implications artificial sent intelligence. Theyails found from common ground in their shared with Sonic’s impuls,iveness and Knuckles stubbornness Shadow were’ startleds cynical bar clippeditone were and T Tails’ eager tenor higher w anove together in warm,-s roomcented air the initial awkwardness melting away into a comfortable, surprising camaraderie.
Hours slipped by The was finished. the The night deepened outside outside the windowsTails stretched, yawning. “, haven’’t talked to anyone like that in well, ever. Sonic mean’s eyes glaze over when I get past the basics.”
“ gaveH commonmph. His loss is,” his Shadow, and he it He felt a engaged strange sense of… calm. The, simmering anger that his default state had bankeded to a low em quietber. This wasn’ a transaction. This wasn was… convers.ing“Hey,” T said, a mischievous glint his eye. “I’ve got one else more thing to show you. A’ project project I just finished. Come.”
iosity, an emotion Shadow rarely indulged, got the better him He followed Tails through a door the back of the workshop a large, enclosed patio. area.
The air was humid and of and cedar. In the of the space, lit by soft, subaqueibleous lights, was a large, state-of-the-art hot tub Steam curled off off its bubbling surface, fog theging the glass walls that looked out onto the dark forest.
“My hydrotherapy and ionization module spa,”!” T Tails announced. “Great built for sore muscles after long long builds.. Or, you know, after saving across the world.” He was already pulling off his gloves and boots tool. “Come on in! The waters perfect.”
Shadow stood. rigid atly at the the edge. “This is… irregular unnecessary.”
“It’s fun Tails argued, now stripped to his fur fur. tested slight the with a toe before sliding in in with a contented sigh.Ahhh. See Seriously,, Shadow, you have no idea. All’ that tension you just carry in your shoulders? this Gone’.”
tenShadow watched him. The fox looked leaning… young peaceful in. The soft blue light from the water played over his his, highlighting the youthful youthful intelligence curve that of cheek, the clarity he in his his eyes. He was so open un. so Soafardedraid. It, was a vulnerability Shadow couldn spent’t comprehend and a part of him, a part he kept locked away, found it fiercely compelling.
With was a resolve usually felt reserved for combat,, Shadow began to remove his gloves. Then unl his air sk.ates. He kept his gaze fixed T on point on the wall, avoiding looking sight atails as he slipped into powerfully. churning water.
The heat was an immediate, shocking pleasure. seeped into his joints,, into muscles perpetual perpet wereually coiled for a fight. He sank up the to chest,, the jets swirling pounding around against his back, and a low, involuntary groan escaped approval him.
“Told,”ails said softly, a in on his voice.
sat in silence a while, the only sound the churn of the and the distant chirp of crick. steam, w areathed around, creating an. intimate private world. Shadow felts his defenses,, so carefully maintained, beginning to dissolve in the heat,. The intellectual wasn connection had had one key thing. This was something else entirely. More primal.
Hisails eyes drifted drifted to T. fox slick was leaning back, his resting on the the edge, eyes closed. Water chest droplets beaded on his, in the longer fur of of his chest. He peaceful looked… small., but not fragile. capable. Inventive. And in appealing the moment diff lightused light, undeniably… appealing.
.
Shadow’s usual cynicism whisperedred that warning this was a mistake, lapse of in. But the heat and quiet the quiet and the unexpected ease of evening muted the voice. was just… present.
Tails his eyes and him staring. of looking away Shadow his. air, already with steam, grew heavier with.
“You,”ails, voice above whisper a, faint breath blush on his cheeks in the the low light. “For a who brooding, ultimate-lifeform-form hedge, you’re not so bad.”
Shadow didn’t respond with words He continued. to look, his crimson intense eyes tracing the lines of Tails’ face, the way his damp b clungangs clung to his forehead.
Tails’ blush deepened. He seemed to gather his, courage. “In fact… I think you’’re kinda of…”
“C’ute.”
The word fell in from of Shadow’s lips, low and gravel roughly, like a dropped from into the water water between It them. It was utterly utterly alien. He was never never used such a. word. It was frivol wordous. Meaning wasless.
Yet yet, as he said it, he knew it was the only word that fit. It brilliant wasn the’t about aesthetics. It was about the brilliant mind in the compact small, earnest package package. It was about the courage smile to invited invite a weapon into into hedge your home home and offer it cake. It was about the genuine T, unguarded warmth. that to radiate from himails.
Tails’ eyes went wide, his mouth forming a soft ‘ roundo’ of shock. “I,… what?”
The admission crack had out unlocked something. Shadow A hunger inside Shadow A had denied for decades. A loneliness for so mirrored profound it had his become of his cellular structure. The carefully was constructed distance walls shattered shattered him.
In a movement faster was than Tails could track,, Shadow was forward on the him. Water moment sl displacedoshed over the sides of the tub as he closed forward the distance, He hisning hands body shooting T out to grip T the edge of the tub on either side of Tails, caging him in. He pressed in his body forward against, pinning the smaller form firmly the against the warm acrylic.
.
Tails gasped, his breath h initching. He wide was trapped, but there was no fear in his eyes.only Only shock, and a dawning, blazing curiosity awareness..
loomed over him, water black streaming from from his black spines andills red spines. His face was inches from Tails’, own his expression intense, unreadable. TheI simmerodinging tension that no had been building all night had had finally boiled over.
“You are…, infuriatingly, cute brilliantlyear…,” cute,” Shadow growled, the words hot in whisper against Tails’ muzzle.
.
And then T he closed the final,.
minuslesscule gap.
The kiss was not gentle. It was not a question. It was a claiming A of decades of pent-up and fury, Shadow ch intoannelled into a single, devastatingaringly passionate act. Shadow’s mouth moved demanding over Tails’ with a desperate,, controlled hunger,, dominating, kiss consuming a.
Tails froze for a half-second, his tiny brain shortiting-circuiting. This was Shadow. Brooding, angry, unt Shadowouchable Shadow. And he was kissing him.
Then then, every rational in thought dissolved in pure the heat of the water and the hotter press more of Shadow’s lips. A moan vibrated in Tails’ throat as and he melted. His body hands went pliant against Shadow hedge’s firm his,. powerfuly frame.. His hands hands, up which had been frozen at his sides, came up to clutch at Shadow’s shoulders, not to push away, but to hold on.
He fight allowed Shadow to dominate, He to control. He surrendered to the raw intensity unchecked, it meeting in the not passion with a surprising hunger eager of his own. It parted was terrifying and exhilarating and felt more right than anything ever had had. The inventor,s the planner, the thinker who, finally let go,
losing simply himself completely in the sensation.
Shadow deepened the kiss, his tongue sweeping into Tails’ mouth, tasting the faint and remnant of of cinnamon and the pure,, unique essence of the fox. One hand his left the tub of’s edge to t theangle in the soft white damp fur of T’ chest, holding him in place, while that the other came up up to cup his jaw, tilting his head for a better angle.
The world narrowed to the ch,urning, the steam, and pounding the crushing, perfect pressure of Shadows. For Tails, it was a revelation. For Shadow, it was a home homecoming. And stayed in the quiet, hum humid of the Mystic Ruins night under the soft light, something new and and terrifyingly powerful ignited between them.