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The white disk that was the moon rose above the treetops that night, illuminating the outline of a hedgehog as he sat perched in one of those trees, his legs dangling from the branch he was sitting on.
The night was always the same. It was August, so the air was thick and Shadow's muzzle was damp as if he had been out there for hours. However, he had only been out there for a few minutes. It was just that damp out. Shadow's eyes felt heavy as he felt sleep nearly overwhelm him.
It all felt the same as if the days and years were just repeating over and over. It was a radical theory, but color sounded radical to a blind man. Didn't Sonic have a habit of sitting in odd places like on roofs and trees? What was Shadow doing there? Shadow felt his motives were unimportant.
"Woah, hey! What are you doing in my tree?"
Out of all of the trees in all of the forest, Shadow had to choose the one Sonic preferred to sit in. Shadow sighed and rolled his eyes.
"Oh, my bad. I didn't see your name on it."
Sonic swung on the branch above and inserted himself between Shadow and the tree's trunk.
"Ah, no. It's fine. But that gives me an idea on how to mark it next time."
It was really unnecessary to mention that Sonic was smiling as he did and said all this. Shadow often wondered if this expression of his was plastered on. His heart feared any other explanation. That was also a radical theory, but a comforting one.
Shadow felt awkward and swung his head around to continue staring into the leafy abyss below them. That was probably a steep ravine. Maybe there was a cave or an old mining camp down there. Then again, though, it could just be thick trees.
Sonic tilted his head and frowned, noticing his discomfort. "But really, what are you doing here?"
"Wasting time before bed," was his quick reply. Shadow yawned and wiped the tiredness from his eyes with his fingers.
"Looks like you have no need for wasting time," Sonic told him, slowly beginning to smile again. "Your eyes are watering you're so tired." The blue speedster pointed at him.
Shadow turned around and sure enough, his scarlet eyes were saturated with tears. "I don't really get tired, though. I just run out of energy."
"That's the same thing," Sonic pointed out once more. Shadow started rubbing his eyes again. "We should head back inside. It's nearly eleven, and everybody's already out like a light for the most part."
A puff of air and Shadow begrudgingly agreed. "Fine."
Walking past a row of hedges, the hedgehogs could hear frogs and insects-- the sounds of night. Here in the grass, mosquitos were everywhere, circling their heads and ankles. The light of the moon illuminated their path-- most everything else was swallowed up by darkness.
After entering the house, the sounds, the bugs, and the dark went away and instead were replaced with balmy silence, cool air, and the glow of a lamp.
The two hedgies tried to be extremely quiet and careful as they walked towards their rooms-- Sonic's being right at the top of the stairs and Shadow's being further down. The soft carpet perfectly muffled Shadow's usual heavy, metallic footsteps as he crept passed all the occupied rooms to get to his. Once there though, Shadow enjoyed a restful sleep.
---
Eyes flying open at the sound of a rather noisy bird by his window, Shadow found the early morning atmosphere saturated with yet another sound-- singing. It was quiet but still entirely audible even with him being entire rooms away from the source of it. Shadow kicked the thin sheet off of himself and crawled out of bed.
Should Shadow get an early start on breakfast, continue the novel he was reading, or play a game like SA2 or Shadow the Hedgehog? A sudden vision of a drooling and famished Honest helped him make that decision, and Shadow made his way downstairs.
Cutting up peppers to put in the eggs, Shadow started to lose himself. The smell of everything was dizzying. The stove had warmed the whole room. It wasn't entirely uncomfortable yet, nor borderline stifling, but that might have simply been due to how out-of-it he was feeling just then.
"How's it coming along?"
Shadow spun around to see Sonic at the other side of the island, perched on a stool and leaning on his hand.
"The breakfast, I mean."
The Ultimate Lifeform cut his eyes at his azure rival and turned back around, resuming chopping the red and green peppers on the bamboo cutting board.
"Oh, it's coming along."
When Shadow brushed the pepper slices off the cutting board and into the eggs, the juices of the peppers rolled down the sides of the egg mass in the center and onto the surface of the skillet, inciting a small sizzling sound.
"That smells really good," Shadow heard Sonic say behind him.
"It's just peppers and eggs..."
"Do you need help?"
Sonic sounded concerned for him. "No, thank you. I can manage."
"Oh, well that's fine. Besides, I wouldn't look half as attractive as you look doing it."
Shadow's ears burned, and he tightened his grip on the skillet handle as he worked to stir the egg a bit with his spatula.
"Go wake the others," he said sternly. "It'll be ready any moment now."
Sonic nodded and grinned despite Shadow not being able to see him and took off.
In no time at all, Shadow turned and was faced with all the hungry residents of the house.
The blond cat girl's eyes were blank and her mouth agape as she gripped her utensils so firmly that they may, at any moment, shoot out of her hands and lodge themselves in the wood ceiling above. When she saw the food, her violet eyes somehow stretched further and drool began to drizzle down her chin.
The blonde's metabolism must work at an unbelievable rate. Honest ate so much the previous night that she literally passed out on the couch, but the very next morning she's starving again... So much so that she was losing control of her mouth's saliva production.
When Shadow placed the plate in front of her, the feline made a grateful face and sank her teeth into the eggs and peppers he had prepared. The black hedgehog merely rolled his eyes and handed a plate to the white hedgehog girl beside her. Dina eyed the eggs suspiciously from behind her sole large, pink bang as if they were planning something before stabbing her fork into them and bringing what little she had stabbed up to her eyes to inspect it.
"Is there something wrong with it?" Shadow asked, confused. Dina didn't look at him. Instead she stuck her fork into her mouth and began to chew.
"No," she responded, her mouth now stuffed with food. "It's just... just eggs?"
"What's wrong with that?!" Dina suddenly jumped and covered up her ears, beginning to sweat.
"She wasn't insulting your cooking, Shadster. Dina's just feeling extra hungry this morning. She was hoping for a larger portion." Shadow actually found himself longing for the usual nonsensical things that came out of the blue pineapple's mouth as he was forced to listen to Sonic's present reasoning and apologize to the frightened fan character before him.
"Hey, look, I'm sorry." When he didn't get anything but a sad look, Shadow went to the fridge. "What do you want with it, a chicken wing?"
Dina nodded passionately. "Yeah!"
Shadow's expression softened as he reached inside the fridge and pulled out a wing of chicken left over from a long ago trip to a restaurant whose theme revolves solely around poultry. As he did so, another voice called out excitedly from behind him.
"Oh! Oh! Can I have a bowl of broccoli cheddar soup with mine?" It was Honest. Shadow sighed loudly and spun around.
"Why can't you all just settle with what I cook for you and nothing extra?!" Shadow asked angrily.
Despite forcing Shadow to apologize to Dina for mistaking her disappointment in the amount of food for hypocriticalness, Sonic sided with him this time. "I enjoy your food, Shadow." Shadow looked sharply in his direction. The azure speedster was resolutely eating his eggs at the end of the bar.
"I- Uh- well... Don't think that means anything coming from you!"
Sonic sipped from the can of Chaos Cola he had been drinking along with his breakfast. "No, of course not. 'Cause if it did mean something, that would mean you value my opinion. I know that's not true. Or at least, we can't let anyone else get that impression."
When the dark hedgehog felt his ears begin to burn red this time, it was in front of more people than earlier. This made him angry.
Shadow stomped over to Honest after closing the refrigerator somewhat harshly. He dropped the chicken wing on Dina's plate. "Honest, we need to talk." He pulled Honest out of the room by her tail. She had an amused expression as if what had just happened between the two hedgies was, for some odd reason, entertaining to her.
"Just now, what's up?"
Shadow had pulled Honest behind the stairs, and she was just smiling at him rather peculiarly. "I don't know."
"I know you're lying Honest; it's written all over your face."
"Oh, it is? That's good writing if you can see the face beyond it," Honest told him while gesturing to her still amused face with three fingers, acting as if that had been the answer for which he had been asking all this time.
"Sonic." Another glint of amusement appeared in Honest's eyes. "Why are you suddenly so interested in us?"
Honest's orange-tipped tail swished behind her. "Sonic's not immortal like you are. He gets impatient," Honest answered while shrugging. Then she suddenly looked angry. "Why can't you just let things happen? Why do you always ask for me to break things down for you? You really are dense." Then Honest made an inquisitive expression. "Or just unapologetically angelic. I'm pretty sure that describes you pretty well. That's a good one. The doctor would be proud." Shadow looked angrily confused. Honest snapped out of her thoughtful state and regarded him calmly. "If you're willing to admit you're angelic, or, well, innocent, then I'll be glad to explain to you why that's an adequate description of your character," she told him hopefully.
But he wasn't. Instead of admitting anything, Shadow simply moved her out of the way and stomped back into the kitchen.
"Of course he wouldn't admit it. Why does he even have a choice, though?" Honest asked herself before going back to finish her breakfast. "I mean, I'm the author. I should be able to force the characters to do whatever I want."
Sonic of course heard her. It wasn't like she had been trying, at least in the slightest, to be quiet while saying those things.
"Force us to do what? Is there something you need?"
"No, no," Honest said, fanning away his question. She hopped up into her stool again and finished what little bit of eggs she hadn't scarfed down already. Feeling the blue hedgehog's eyes still upon her, still curious, Honest spun to look at him. "Hey, can I ask you a question?"
"Sure," Sonic replied. His fingers drummed on the side of his head as he regarded her with a serious expression. Well... any expression of Sonic's that wasn't accompanied by a cheeky grin seemed serious-looking.
"Is there anything you're interested in seeing in my story soon?"
Sonic's eyes became rectangles as the ideas began to flood into his mind.
"Ooh! Nurse Shadster! And swimsuit day at the cafe!"
Honest's eyelids immediately dropped. "When this gets an animated adaptation... maybe."
"Yes!" Sonic exclaimed with a pump of his fist. I swear. After Forces, I'll never see fist bumps and pumps the same way ever again. Sonic really has a way with destroying all commonplace aspects of human life.
"But, what I'm trying to get at here is... What characters are you most interested in me covering?" Honest tried to speak in the softest voice possible in order to stress the seriousness of her question.
Sonic pointed to his face in thought. "Hmm..." He stared up at the ceiling.
Once she had figured that Sonic would never find a way to answer that, Honest sighed. "I was thinking that maybe I should try to shift some of the focus over to you."
Sonic looked even more confused if that was possible. "To me? But-" He started laughing. "What is there to write about me?"
Honest just shrugged as if she had proposed that idea purely on a whim.
"I dunno. I just thought that you might have some things you want to resolve," Honest told him.
Sonic scratched his head. "Can you e- elaborate?"
"Well, you know," Honest replied, looking out into space. "You're an important character, and you're also a very dynamic character."
When Sonic seemed to be becoming lost, Honest swivelled his stool around so that he was facing towards the hallway. "But so is that guy."
There, standing outside the kitchen, was the Ultimate Lifeform. He was standing out there, holding his arms to his chest and staring at his shoes.
"He doesn't have a very good range of emotions," Sonic remarked with an apathetic expression.
"Yeah, tell me about it," Honest said, sounding as if she was also well aware of this fact. Honest shook her head fiercely as if she were very confused. "We're monsters for having fun with him for as long as we have. How are we going to help him?"
The blue hedgehog beside her just threw one of his legs over the other. "I don't know, Honest, but it's your story."
Oh, so now he was throwing the blame on her. To be technical... "If it wasn't for you confusing him so much, I wouldn't be writing about it. It's your mistake."
"You're calling Shadow a mistake? Don't tell him you said that." When Honest turned around and looked at him, Sonic explained. "Well, you know. Due to him being made in a lab, he might take that 'mistake' thing personally." Then he became all thoughtful again. "And don't think calling him a 'happy accident' will anger him any less."
Honest fixed her hair from when she had shaken her head earlier. She did laugh, though. "That wasn't what I was saying." Sonic laughed as well.
Honest beamed. "Alright, then! I said we were monsters, right? Monsters don't follow rules! So, do you have any more ideas?"
---
I'm sorry for asking the other characters to give me ideas all the time. It may take some time to set up the next chapter, so please be patient. Also, how do you readers feel about Chao?222Please respect copyright.ＰＥＮＡＮＡme3sMmfKGo
