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Sonic was thrilled when he got home, seeing his boyfriend’s jet boots placed nicely against the wall.
His excitement took over before he could toe off his sneakers, soles patting on wood and carpet as he scopes the house for the man of his hour. It wasn’t particularly hard, given that it was roughly dinner time and he could already smell Shadow’s delicious cooking wafting from the kitchen. Turning into the threshold, Sonic held his breath and slowly crept up behind the other. An ebony ear flicked but the hedgehog didn’t turn, nor did Sonic stop his advances.
Pale arms drape themselves over Shadow’s shoulders from behind, Sonic standing on his tippy toes to see over the other’s shoulder. “Sooo, what’s for dinner?”
Shadow scuffs, arms crossed over his chest—Sonic swears they’re glued like that. “Not even a ‘hello’? You seem to always think with your stomach first.”
“C’mon, the way to my heart is through delicious food, can you blame me?” Sonic grins, nuzzling his cheek under Shadow’s ear into a soft spot of quills.
Another scuff and the beeping of a microwave. “Hot pockets.”
He can feel Sonic practically vibrating against his back with excitement. “Please tell me it’s the Philly cheesesteak ones, please, please, please—!”
“Yours is, yes,” Shadow caves, yet he can’t help but smile due to the other’s joy.
Sonic has to stop himself from running laps around the house. Instead, he channels that energy into hugging Shadow tighter while babbling his enthusiasm. The ebony hedgehog can only roll his eyes with a hand coming up to cover Sonic’s own. “Calm down. You act like we don’t eat these almost every day.”
“Stop judging me!” Sonic whines, arms falling from around Shadow to hang at his sides. He glances behind him at the island table before jumping up to sit on it, legs kicking back and forth. Shadow looks behind his shoulders at the cobalt hedgehog, then back to the microwave in front of him as it beeps again.
Sonic watches as his lover plates the hot pockets with some chips they had stuffed haphazardly in their cupboards, most likely from late-night snacking by either himself or Tails. Speaking of—
“You know if Tails has eaten or do I gotta whip him up a ham and cheese one?” Sonic asks with a tilt of his head.
“I made his food first knowing he’s been in his workshop all day. I also didn’t know when you’d be home so I didn’t want yours to go cold,” Shadow explains, picking up each of their plates to carry into the living room. Sonic jumps off the counter and goes to follow before Shadow is turning on him, glaring down at the other’s feet. “Take your shoes off before you dirty the place.”
Sonic’s complaints get drowned out as he trudges back to the front door to kick off his sneakers while Shadow disappears into the living room. He advances over to the couch Shadow is already seated at with his plate in his lap and leaps over the backrest, scrambling for his own plate sat on the coffee table. Shadow gives him a sideways look. “Necessary?”
“Nope,” Sonic pops, flinging a chip into his mouth. “Sooo, what’re we gonna watch?”
Shadow motions to the remote, silently permitting Sonic to choose their entertainment for the evening.
After some browsing, Sonic selects some kind of superhero TV show for them to binge as they eat and talk. When they get done with their food, Sonic is the one to clean up before returning to snuggle up against Shadow, conversation and show picking back up as the night draws on. At some point Tails joins them for an episode, laying against Sonic as the hedgehog catches him up on the plot. Shadow only quips in when Sonic forgets important aspects or details that he himself found enjoyable. Otherwise, he lets the brothers chatter amongst themselves. Once he’s acquainted with the show, Tails bids them a good night before withdrawing to his room to no doubt spend all night catching up from the start.
Shadow suggests they turn in themselves, noting the time after they’ve finished half of the first season, to which Sonic starts rattling off objections and pleading for ‘one more episode pleaaaase.’ Shadow simply switches off the TV and stands up from the couch, causing Sonic to flop down onto the open space with a startled shriek. “Rude!”
The ebony hedgehog can’t help but grin and offer out a hand for the other to take. Sonic can’t feign being mad for long as he beams up at Shadow, taking the offered hand and allowing it to tow him to their room. He swings their interlocked hands softly back and forth. It makes Shadow smile fondly in secret as he opens their door.
With their newfound privacy, Sonic can’t prevent himself from catching Shadow’s other hand in his own and letting them stand behind the closed door in peace. Shadow’s thumbs rub absently over gloved knuckles, his eyes slightly downcast to avoid direct eye contact. While he loves Sonic stupidly, old habits to evade attachment die hard. Yet, when Sonic’s leaning in just a hair, Shadow looks up to latch ruby with emerald and how the hell did he ever hate this guy? This stupid, blue idiot who he’s found himself stupidly in love with. He’s still surprised this fiery ball of speed reciprocates his feelings, and a little part of him believes he doesn't deserve this, but the utter awe that Sonic is looking at him with silences the self-loathing.
That foolish look has him meeting Sonic halfway into a multitude of soft kisses, all of which the cobalt hedgehog smiles softly through. His hands release Shadow’s to graze scarlet and ebony quills, leaving Shadow to trace circles into the fur on Sonic’s sides. Sonic attempts to stifle his giggles between kisses but it only spreads contagiously to Shadow, making him grin in turn. Ultimately, the giggling prevents them from any more chaste kisses and Shadow is shaking his head fondly, allowing Sonic to get his unrestrained amusement out against his shoulder. Once they taper off into little snickers, Shadow has to insist they move to the bed to relax and Sonic is in no place to disagree.
They separate finally to grab their own devices; Shadow, his laptop, and Sonic, his phone. Sonic throws himself onto his side of the bed and snuggles under the covers, already tapping open his phone. He stops to look up at Shadow, waiting.
Shadow’s halfway done with moving his laptop and its charger from his desk to his bedside when he notices the other staring. He raises an amused brow, knowing exactly what the blue blurr is waiting for. It’s confirmed when he completes setting up his laptop after laying against the headrest and Sonic is shuffling to snuggle up against Shadow’s side, finally looking back at his phone to scroll through social media. Shadow can’t help but roll his eyes before starting to work between responding to emails and reading reports.
Occasionally, Sonic’s phone will blare some random song activated by a post and he’ll apologize softly before frantically flicking past it instead of just turning his phone’s volume down entirely. Shadow finds he doesn’t mind because it’s Sonic, despite the fact that years ago he would be irritated beyond imagination about it.
Time goes by with Shadow still working, though Sonic eventually puts his phone down on the charger after catching up with a variety of posts and messages to rather cuddle up closer to Shadow. He watches as Shadow types away at an email and abruptly the weight of his exhaustion is tugging him down, eyes blinking slowly as his head starts falling heavily against Shadow’s side.
In a split second, Sonic jolts, shaking his head to snap him awake. His jostling doesn’t go unnoticed. “Falling asleep there?”
“Nu-uh,” Sonic objects, nuzzling into the fur under Shadow’s ribs. “Just… feelin’ cozy.”
“Uh huh,” is Shadow’s inconvenienced response before he goes back to typing, then back to reading. Sonic briefly scans parts of the report before growing bored at all the serious information. He instead focuses on the ebony hedgehog’s breathing against his ear and tracing lazy patterns into dark fur. What this uptight, ‘Ultimate Lifeform’ sees in him, he has no idea. But he knows everything he sees in Shadow.
Behind that edgy and cold façade is someone who never got to know there’s more to life than following orders, enacting revenge, and obtaining powers to enhance his proficiency. They’ve lived totally opposite lives and yet Sonic thinks they make a fine pair (totally without bias). He’s had the honor of seeing Shadow’s trusting, caring, and less-assholey sides, all of which Sonic holds dearly to his heart.
Lost in his loving reminiscing, Sonic didn’t realize his eyes had drifted shut for a few minutes leaving him to doze off. He jolts awake again and notices that Shadow’s still working, the small clock in the corner of the screen communicating the exceedingly late time. Sonic would have been asleep hours ago normally.
Shadow’s fingers stop tapping across the keys as he looks down at the cobalt hedgehog against him, who is clearly two seconds away from dropping dead. “Are you trying to stay awake because of me?”
Sonic’s silent for a second before he mumbles, “…Maybe.”
“Just go to sleep, Sonic.”
Sonic mutters incoherently into Shadow’s fur, arms trying to wrap around his waist in a ditch effort to cuddle. Shadow chuckles, lifting his arms and back to allow him. With the cobalt head on his chest, it’s hard to see his laptop’s screen fully so he opts for finishing his work in the morning, shutting the device and setting it aside in favor of a book. Sonic mumbles against the movement, eyes flicking awake desperately so he can keep up with Shadow. Almost immediately they’re dropping shut again and his face nudges deeper into the tufts of white fur on Shadow’s chest.
One hand hovers above the two to hold the book at a level Shadow can read while the other combs gently through cobalt quills. Despite his best efforts, Sonic loses his fight against sleep, and it tugs him down into soft snores and sleepy murmurs. He twitches now and then, little spurts of energy that lead to small jolts of his limbs that Shadow finds criminally cute.
A lifetime of work has led to Shadow’s unhinged sleep schedule and he’s well aware of it. He can go days at a time without sleep, and when he does decide to go down, he stays up late just to wake early. It’s how he optimizes his time to not waste huge portions of his days merely sleeping. He doesn’t even do it intentionally; no alarm to wake him or anything, it just happens naturally and he’s okay with that. It saves both him and Sonic from hearing an obnoxious alarm in the mornings.
His sleep habits only come into play with the fact that Sonic adores his beauty sleep. Any time he isn’t running around Green Hill or feasting on trashy food, the speedster is most commonly napping. After a long day of helping his friends, the most he’ll do is keep a small conversation going while cuddled with Shadow before passing out in the soft embrace, to which he’ll at least wake up at double-digits time in the morning—Shadow rarely lets him sleep up until afternoon hours.
Shadow is not at all bothered by Sonic’s need for more serious sleep. Due to the cobalt hedgehog’s excessive use of energy throughout his day-to-day life, Shadow would be concerned if he didn’t need more sleep. The only one annoyed by Sonic’s sleeping habits is Sonic himself. Something about not wanting Shadow to be alone and being able to spend more ‘precious time’ with him or some other cheesy shit that made Shadow want to cringe out of love.
Chaos, he loves this hedgehog.
Eventually, Shadow grows bored of his novel and determines that’s his cue to attempt to sleep. He bookmarks the page he’s to resume on and leaves the book on top of his laptop. Switching off the lamp casts the room in darkness and Shadow tries to tackle the challenge of laying down while there’s a snoring hedgehog on top of him. Luckily, Shadow has come to know that Sonic is perhaps the heaviest sleeper when his mind is put to it, so he has no fear of awakening him as he maneuvers them both down. Sonic’s arms stay nestled around him, murmuring nothing against his chest. When Shadow is satisfied with their arrangement, he wraps his own arms around the blurr, evidently pulling the other on top of him. Their legs slot together under the covers and Sonic shifts around in his sleep when his hold slacks on Shadow. Sonic serves as a blanket over him and Shadow relishes in the weight soothing the stress edging his mind.
Shadow absently strokes through cobalt quills as he closes his eyes waiting for sleep to take him.
———
The sun has barely risen over the horizon, casting twilight into the room through draped curtains. Shadow rubs his eyes as they blink open, squinting as a stray ray of light shines directly in his face. He goes to get up but is stopped by pale arms entrapping him. Looking down, Sonic is still nosed up against his chest, drooling. Shadow grimaces and pushes the other’s head away to keep the drool off his fur and Sonic just snores against his pillow, arms still trapping Shadow to the bed.
While he itches to start his day—to not waste any valuable time—he can’t help but stare at Sonic’s resting face; at the small flick of his ear and utterly soft expression he sports. Shadow hates when the sheer existence of this irritating hedgehog gives him butterflies, albeit he secretly loves it as well. He would rather be caught dead than for people to learn he runs the back of his hand just a hair away from Sonic’s cheek while the speedster sleeps. He’ll spend the few minutes he’s trapped in Sonic’s arms to study every little feature and love Sonic in peace. No worries about the other’s pestering if he gets caught admiring or stealing touches. Just utter blissful silence as he presses the lightest of kisses to Sonic’s face—they’ll be given again even when he wakes up, but this is for Shadow’s conscience only.
Shadow can only spend so much of his time lounging in bed before he grows restless to work. Regrettably, he carefully pulls off Sonic’s arms from around him and slips out of the sheets, substituting his body with his pillow for Sonic to cuddle into. Like clockwork, Sonic curls up around the pillow, nose twitching as it picks up his lover’s scent on it. Sonic had grown an appreciation for the scent of lavender, coincidentally at the same time he’d grown his fondness for the ebony hedgehog. Shadow has teased him about it a multitude of times—until he remembers the same predicament he has with the smell of fruit and citrus. If Sonic ever found out he’d be utterly doomed .
It wouldn’t be wise to allow Sonic to sleep until he unaffectedly wakes, given that he'd be waking up well past lunch, but he won’t have a chance at staying awake if Shadow bothered him now. He leaves the cobalt hedgehog to sleep longer as he moves his laptop back to his desk to work. Finishing up the last few emails and reports will leave his day open after he wakes Sonic up.
Apparently, one of the reports was longer than he had assumed and time slipped away from him. Dull knocking came from the door and made his ear twitch as he shut his laptop. Getting up to open the door revealed Tails with a waffle hanging from his mouth.
He bit off a chunk and took the waffle in his hand. “I wanted to make sure you guys were awake for breakfast but from the looks of it I assume Sonic is still asleep?”
Shadow’s brows furrow. “What gives you that idea?”
“Seriously? He’d be running up the walls and shoving past you by now to say good morning,” Tails deadpans. “Can you wake him before our guys’ waffles get cold?”
Shadow dismisses his earlier defenses to offer the fox a nod. “I was planning to wake him sooner but lost track of time. Thank you.”
Tails bites back into his dry waffle as he walks off and Shadow shuts the door again, scratching awkwardly behind his ear. How on Earth could he almost forget to wake Sonic?
Strolling over to his side of the bed, Shadow sits facing Sonic and ends up back where he left off, staring at Sonic peacefully. He has to stop himself from falling in too deep and brings a hand up to shake Sonic’s shoulder lightly. Mumbling is all he’s met with.
“Sonic, time to wake up,” Shadow tries to say softly but loud enough to rouse the other. Sonic groans and grips the pillow in his arms tighter.
Shadow sighs, shaking firmer. “I can be nice about this or push you off the bed. Your choice.”
“You wouldn’t dare,” Sonic mumbles, eyes still closed.
Suddenly he’s shoved back and falling the short distance between the bed and the floor, screeching in surprise. “AGHH-!” He hits the ground with a thump , blanket yanking down with him.
Shadow looks over the edge of the bed with a sly grin. “I think I would dare.”
Sonic’s rubbing the stunned sleep from his eyes when he looks up at Shadow, pouting. “That wasn’t very romantic.”
“I gave you a warning.”
“Not my fault you stay up late.”
“And it’s not my fault you foolishly tried to follow in my footsteps. Now get up, Tails heated up waffles for us,” Shadow says, holding out a hand for Sonic despite the bark in his words.
Sonic smiles at his kindness and takes his hand, hauling himself up along with the blanket. The second he’s on his feet and level with Shadow, he drags the ebony hedgehog into a kiss, withdrawing as quickly as it happened. It seizes Shadow off guard, something so rare that it has Sonic grinning as the other’s face flames up. “Cute.”
“Enough out of you.” Shadow turns his head away to cover his embarrassment while he gets off the bed, allowing Sonic to carelessly remake the bed. When he’s done and striding back up to Shadow waiting by the door, he sways to make eye contact with the idiotic smile still on his face and energy already bursting from his seams. Shadow scuffs and brings his hand up to cup the nape of Sonic’s neck, pulling Sonic into another kiss with alarming efficiency. It lasts longer than Sonic’s but equally catches the speedster off guard. Unlike Shadow, he melts into it quicker before they part, pressing their forehead together. Sonic is beaming with victory while Shadow has heart enough to smile.
“Good morning to you too, Shads.”
“Likewise.”