Honesty is the Best Policy {Comic Edition}

Chapter 21: Eliminating All Doubts

"Hey," she greeted him, her magenta eyes gleaming with curiosity. Despite this, she didn't attempt to carry on a conversation and instead opted to continue staring him down. Honest sat down beside Dina silently. She didn't seem to know this, or if she did, she didn't realize it was Honest. Said blond cat narrowed her eyes and cupped a hand over her mouth.
"Do you guys ever talk? I know you two share at least one class. Algebra II, right?" Dina jerked in fright, caught off guard by the sudden voice in her ear.
"I feel like she's probably passed an answer or two back my way. I sit at the desk behind her," Scourge told her, popping a chicken ball into his mouth and resting his head in his palm as he chewed. Dina's cheeks burned, the embarrassment from getting scared seconds earlier finally settling in.
It was probably yesterday's club meeting. (For more on that, read Limited Edition) If Scourge were to say he had been excited, he would have been lying. Bringing attention to himself was exactly the opposite of what he had wanted, and that's what that club meeting had done. And, as a product of that, the people there that day now had a heightened awareness of him.
"How long have you and Honest known each other?" Dina asked.
And of course they had questions. But why that one?
"Since the beginning, what do you mean?"
"The beginning..." Dina echoed as if she didn't understand the meaning of the word.
"You're not interested in like... I dunno... what I've done to tick off Blue?" Scourge asked, confusion evident in his voice.
"No," the white hedgehog answered simply, absentmindedly fishing around in her cup of chicken balls.
Scourge looked around her at Honest and Shadow. Honest was dipping her chicken balls in honey mustard and getting it everywhere while Shadow was desperately trying to keep it off of the sheet of homework he was working on. Ew.
They seemed so oblivious to what was going on between him and Dina.
Suddenly, someone sat in the seat on Scourge's other side.
"Hey, what are you doing here?"
It was Fiona. Fiona hadn't been able to go to the meeting since she had a student council meeting at the same time. Scourge turned to face the red fox who wore a pleasant smile much like how a serial killer might wear a clown mask. He sighed. "Well, Infinite's no longer an option."
"True," Fiona said. She looked up as Rouge and Akane sat on either side of Honest and Shadow and began to chat enthusiastically with them about one thing or the other. "But why sit here? Do you feel safe around Honest and her friends?"
"Safer than by myself. By the way, have you seen Rosy yet?" Scourge asked her as he started to scan the cafeteria for any trace of the magenta menace.
"No..." Fiona started scanning with him, but she stopped when a thought came to her mind. "You do know Sonic sits here, right?" And then, as if on cue, Sonic the Hedgehog zipped over in a blur of blue and snagged the chair between Fiona and Rouge. Instead of a paper cup of chicken balls, he possessed a steaming hot chili dog in a wrapper.
"How did you manage that?" Shadow asked, his eyes narrowed like an angry cat about to tear up a discarded napkin.
Sonic shrugged. "I just zipped over to the nearest chili dog stand and grabbed one." He stuck his tongue out like the cartoon character he was and sunk his teeth into the chili-covered hot dog. Then, with his mouth full, he said, "Soooo much better than chicken balls."
Everyone seemed to know Honest's weird name for the things except Scourge, it seemed.
Sonic had been smiling, but all of a sudden, once he had seen his dorky evil twin, his face drooped, forming one big frown. "What are you doing here? The whole ordeal with Mephiles's dumb play is over now, so we aren't being forced to work together anymore."
Sonic had no idea that nobody sitting at the table at that moment was on his side. Scourge looked over at Honest and noticed she had her head bowed and was trying really hard not to look at the azure speedster.
Scourge ignored Sonic, not answering him and instead turning to Fiona. "Didn't you have a student council meeting today?" He glanced over at the table where the council usually sat. Marine the Raccoon was sitting there by herself, munching on some sort of sandwich.
"It was a quick meeting," Fiona explained. "Why? Do you want me to leave?" She sounded angry, so Scourge was quick to defend himself.
"No, that's not it at all! I just wanted to know. In fact, I'd like you to hang around so you can deal with Sonic in place of me." He pointed at Sonic, and Fiona turned in her chair to face him, grinning at him and lowering her head.
"Oh, I'll 'deal' with him alright," she said. "Come on, Sonic. Stand up and let's fight."
Sonic looked rather bored, leaning back in his chair. "I can't fight immediately after I've eaten. I'll get cramps."
"Well, that's strange," Fiona remarked, putting a finger to her chin and inspecting the ceiling as if there were something rather interesting pinned there. "I can't seem to remember that from the Adventures."
Honest laughed, her stormy expression disappearing in an instant. Scourge wondered if Fiona, despite not knowing the source of Honest's discomfort, said that expressly to cheer her up. However, when Fiona closed her eyes and smiled in response to Honest's laugh, all Scourge's doubts went away. As much as it was strange to say so, it was rare to see Fiona genuinely happy. But, then again, maybe he was just incapable of making others happy. When was the last time he had seen Manic happy? Then, a vision of Honest from earlier came to him. All he did was show up, and in the blink of an eye her happy mode was activated. In the end, Scourge decided that Fiona and Honest were just impossible to predict.
"Can I ask why you don't want me around?" Scourge asked.
Sonic looked confused. "Can I ask why it's okay for you to be here? Yeah, I'm allowing you to be a citizen here as long as you don't cause trouble, but no one ever said you have to be my friend while you're here."
"Whoever said anything about us being friends? I'm not your friend, I'm Honest's."
"Why?"
Scourge blinked rapidly and pursed his lips, turning to Honest for assistance. Said blond cat girl pulled her smartphone out of nowhere and began absentmindedly typing something via the on-screen keyboard. He was sort of expecting, you know, a verbal response, but okay.
Scourge closed his eyes and sighed before starting to speak again. "Because she's kind to me and sees me for who I actually am. She likes me, and you would, too, if only you would take the time to try to understand me." That caused Sonic to become visibly angry. To be Honest, Scourge had no idea where that came from. He just kind of started putting into words everything he felt just now.
Maybe he shouldn't have done that.
"I already 'understand you'. I'm your twin. I'm the hero, so you're the villain." With that, instead of zipping off the way he had arrived at the table, Sonic instead stood up and stomped away slowly. Scourge watched him go two or three tables away and sit next to Amy Rose who immediately wrapped him up in a spine-snapping hug.
He hated Scourge so much that he was willing to put up with Amy squeezing all the air out of him in order to get away from Scourge.
If anybody at that table had any doubts about what Honest had told them about Scourge and Sonic, they didn't anymore.