Sonic is speeding through the streets of Westopolis, weaving through cars and avoiding pedestrians, sometimes running up the sides of buildings to leap from roof to roof as a change of pace. He can’t come up with a good reason to be out here, not when everyone else is working hard and/or wondering where he is. What else is he supposed to do, though? There’s still no sign of trouble, so he might as well go looking for some.
So far, the search has proved entirely fruitless. Just people on the streets. Nobody he can see seems to be doing anything even remotely shady. Which is good, he supposes. Better less evil in the world than more of it, no matter how boring it is.
And it’s really boring.
Maybe Knuckles would be up to brawl? Or Tangle? She usually has something exciting going on, that paintball match was super fun, even if he lost. Sonic considers dashing over to her place before remembering where Whisper also is. It may not seem like it right now, but trouble does follow him wherever he goes, and he knows better than to bring that to them. Tangle might be happy about it. Whisper sure wouldn’t be.
He feels bad about wishing for another world-ending-stakes event to happen. It’s been too long, he can handle it, he always does. If it turned out that Eggman was simply busy preparing for something huge, he’d be fine with it, that’s enough payoff for the wait to be worth it.
Alas. He still has to wait to find out.
(Shadow is watching from atop skyscrapers in Westopolis. He’s investigating a particular signature of energy he already knows. Why Sonic is here is none of his business, but having not encountered the hedgehog in months, now suddenly he’s in the area? It’s not his business, yet Shadow decides he’ll observe from a distance anyway.
Observe from a distance, he tells himself.
It’s been a while since anything interesting happened.)
Sonic brings himself to a halt while hopping rooftops. In his periphery, he could swear he caught a glimpse of something golden in the evening sun. Now, he doesn’t want to get ahead of himself, but last he checked Amy doesn’t live in Westopolis, and there’s only one person he can think of that wears gold otherwise.
When he turns his head to look, nobody’s there.
(Observe from a distance, he tells himself.
Where Shadow was just seconds ago, Sonic now is. From someone’s balcony a level down, he can hear the hedgehog tapping his foot on the concrete. He isn’t looking for an interaction today.)
“Shadow..?” he tentatively calls out, maybe quieter than he should’ve, considering the dark hedgehog is only barely slower than Sonic is and could probably be out of the city entirely by now.
He gets the feeling that’s not the case, though.
Acting unbothered in a purposefully smug way, he rests his arms behind his head and turns around on his heel. “Fine, be that way. I guess you didn’t want to race after all.”
(Observe from a distance, he told himself.
It really has been a while.)
“You know I’d win.”
Expertly hidden from his rival, Sonic’s face lights up in a wide smile. He composes himself before he whips back around again, fully prepared to provoke Shadow as much as he needs to for him to initiate. A race, combat, anything, he’ll even give him a head-start.
“When you never have before?” he taunts, when he knows well Shadow has won enough times to count. “I’d like to see that, faker.”
Shadow narrows his glare, unmistakably smirks, and is gone in the instant. Due north, Sonic notes, and readies himself to catch up.
In the end, he hasn’t got a clue who won. Shadow insists the victor was himself, and Sonic denies like he always does, but you know what? Sure. Shadow won. He may as well have.
For the first time in what feels like forever, Sonic is genuinely, properly tired. He can hear his heartbeat in his ears like a stopwatch counting milliseconds. He doesn’t even know where they are right now, somewhere in a mountain range? It doesn’t matter. Finally being pushed to a challenge was exhilarating. Not to say his friends aren’t fun, but sometimes it’s very apparent that they just can’t keep up with him. Shadow can, and thank Gaia for that. Sonic was one more day away from going stir crazy, not having any evil plans to foil, any catastrophes to prevent. Not anymore!
The two of them stand on the narrow edge between two mountain faces. He’d say the sun is long gone, but its light still paints the sky. No wonder. A heated race takes up only minutes, hardly even that, sometimes.
“We should really keep in touch, don’t you think?” Sonic asks, fully aware he doesn’t own any device capable of communication.
Shadow doesn’t even look at him. “Why do you say that?”
“I dunno. It’s annoying having to run into you on accident. Wouldn’t it be fun to race more often?”
“I’d rather not deal with you more than I have to already.” the dark hedgehog sighs.
Sonic barks out a laugh against his better judgment. “I’m not that irritating, am I? You had fun, don’t lie,”
“I did, considering I won,”
“Sure you did.”
A quiet breeze fills the moments pause in conversation, and to him, it feels longer than forever. The clouds overhead are still warm and orange. The moon tonight is full as it can be.
“I don’t have any means to contact you,” Shadow starts, earning all of Sonic’s attention, “but if you want to race again, I won’t make myself scarce,”
Sonic hums, tilts his head. “Is that so?”
Shadow nods. “Just come looking.”
And then, he disappears with the sun.
