Work Text:
You’re a better friend towards me than I deserve. I don’t think a normal friend would offer to take me on a leisure trip in their biplane just so I could clear my head. Sonic was a no-show again. It’s been spinning in my head for a while and I hate this cycle of falling in and out of love with him.
The view is really beautiful from so high up. You point to the sunset in the distance, pink and yellow, just like us. Well, I’m partially colorblind but I take your word for it. I know it has to be right, though, because even from behind you I can see you have that dumb smile when you discover something you like. And now that I’ve noticed you’re all flustered and trying to act stoic and tough. For a genius, you sure short-circuit easily, eh?
You pop a mint in your mouth, like you’re rebooting by doing something familiar. Why don’t you offer me one? Don’t you know it’s the chivalrous thing to do, you silly geek? Giving you just enough time to make an ‘eep’ of protest I reach in front of me for the container and check the nutrition facts.
Just as I suspected. On top of high levels of sugar, each tablet has enough caffeine to give Eggman and a few of his robots a cardiac arrest. You really shouldn’t be taking these so close to nightfall, you know. You’re going to stay up way too late. Is that what you want?
Or is that what you normally do? Crash out on your disorganized work desk with your head in some book beyond my comprehension? It’s not a contest; you don’t have to work so hard, matching Eggman’s mechanical prowess or Sonic’s quick thinking, or Knuckles’ resilience, now that I think of it. As if you’re trying to outpace all of us, including me, you even remembered things about my schedule, like that I was supposed to have a date today, or random factoids about my life, like what my favorite song is. Was that actually more deliberate than natural? There’d be no reason-
A jostle makes me lose my train of thought. Below us, there’s nothing but a vast body of water, and at eye level dark clouds encompass us as if they’re threatening to suffocate us whole. Are we really going to be flying through a thunderstorm? Your grip on the control stick is so focused that I have to verbally remind you to close the convertible top.
Are you alright?
You don’t look alright.
You’re beginning to speak in one-word sentences. Something about a spare parachute folded up on the right side of the cockpit. But that would do no good when the only place to land would be the ocean. Don’t you have experience with thunderstorms?
What’s even more disconcerting than the environment is your behavior. I don’t think I’ve ever seen you like this before, even in the most tense confrontations against Eggman or any foe or challenge.
There’s a brief flash of lightning. You turn around and our eyes meet. And I see someone who thinks he’s a coward.
“Help.”
You're so quiet that it's impossible to tell whether that was a voiced prayer or a dire command. But without asking I unbuckle my seatbelt and unceremoniously make my way to your side in the cockpit, clearly meant for a single pilot. I don’t know what any of these buttons or signals mean. All I can do is overlap your hand with mine as you steer, as if I’m assisting guiding an Ouija board's planchette.
You begin to breathe again, and I notice that I do too. It was just a small thunderstorm and we’re out of the worst of it. Still, you take no chances, flying miles and miles, the calm darkness of the night beginning to capture the sky.
Part of me can’t help but feel like you wanted a challenge like that to happen. You wanted to show me that you could be just as reckless and wild as my hero.
Like, you actually like me yourself. Call it a woman’s intuition.
I definitely could be wrong, though, so I say nothing. Eventually I let go of your tired hands. You look into my eyes again, pleading with me. As if you couldn’t say three words that you wanted to say to me even as you thought you might die. You could literally face your worst fears, but not this. And now more and more things are beginning to click.
Immediately I hate you for it. You nearly got us both killed because of your selfishness. You could’ve avoided all of this if you would have just suggested a shopping trip to the mall instead. You don’t know anything about love, romance, or dating. You don’t understand how much I love Sonic.
How much I love Sonic… maybe you do, actually. I’ve blabbed to you about him for hours. I sit awhile in this new normal silence, the only sound being the white noise of the steady engine, before I ask myself if it hurt you to hear that. Not too much, right? Especially since you’ve been willing to help arrange dates between us. Buy me frivolous things. Be there for me when he ditched last minute.
We finally land. I don’t know where we are but it’s stable, solid earth. You breathe a heavy sigh in your seat. While it would be nice for us to find a hotel to check into, being snuggled against you in this cramped cockpit isn’t the worst feeling in the world.
For the first time in my life I wonder if I had misinterpreted the prophecy of what I thought those cards had told me years ago. If Sonic’s not really the one for me. The thought of having been wrong for so long is a bit scary but also strangely liberating. I don’t want to give up completely on the idea, but it is something worth thinking about, when I’m in a better position to think.
Despite all the caffeine in your system, you’ve somehow managed to have fallen asleep. And I decide that’s not a bad idea.