"Ahem... where are you going, Sonic?" Tails asked the blue hedgehog, who got up around 8AM, so he could head for the Canyon and wait for Shadow there. But he got stopped by Tails, who happened to just conveniently visit the hardware store, for he needed to get some new tools for his inventions and saw Sonic walking in sneaky fashion across the village.
"For a walk? Is that... something I shouldn't do, or....?" Sonic raised an eyebrow at the way the other's tone indicated the hidden suspicion and Sonic wasn't THAT oblivious to not notice it, while acting innocent.
"Come with me," Tails replied instead, paying for the new tools he managed to get he gestured with his head for Sonic to follow him and the blue hedgehog sighed before indeed following the twin-tailed fox boy towards his workshop. Upon arrival, Tails set the bag with the tools down and started tinkering with his newest invention by the work table.
"So, spill it, Sonic. I know, that something is off. You.. were different yesterday," he spoke up and glanced at Sonic to make sure he won't run away from the conversation.
Sonic held his hands together and nervously twiddled with his thumbs, feeling defeated under Tails' observations.
"Well, alright... first, promise me, that you won't tell anyone?" he said in questioning tone with a nervous smile on his face. Tails made a gesture with a wrench in his hand over his mouth as if zipping it up and nodded afterwards.
"My mouth is sealed," he promised, giving the hedgie a sense of comfort and safety.
"Okay, so... it's about Shadow," Sonic forced the words out through the lump in his throat, originally expecting rather Amy having this kind of conversation with him, for she was a sweet and caring person, who was willing to help with relationship stuff and such. Tails was kind and caring as well, but not really an expert about relationships, hence Sonic chose his words wisely to avoid any misunderstandings.
"Shadow? What about him?" Tails asked curiously while unscrewing some screws and replacing them with a new ones in a metallic plates of his creation he worked on for a few days by now.
"I.. I am worried about him, for some reason. He never showed up yesterday," Sonic replied carefully, completely leaving out the part about Shadow never answering his attempts of connection via the communicator he gave the hedgehog practically behind Tails' back.
"You know, even someone like him can get busy or something sometimes. Though, I wonder why you seem to like him," Tails spoke in serious tone, now carefully applying some wires to the creation.
"I.. WHAT? I don't like him!" Sonic got instantly defensive, his face turning red and sort of betraying him by revealing the truth in subtle way.
"Sure you don't. Then why worrying about him and blushing so bright?" Tails finally looked at him, getting his suspicions confirmed by the sight of the flustered hero.
"I don't know! Maybe because you sorta ship us here right now?" Sonic panicked and tried to somehow talk his way out of this, not wanting any of his friends to know about his little secret crush exactly on the ebony brooding hedgehog.
"Ship you? No, I just stated the obvious~" Tails smirked and continued his work on the creation.
"Yeah, whatever," Sonic brushed it off the best he could while waving his hand in denial gesture.
"I noticed, that recently he comes to the village without picking a fight with anyone, though. Did anything happen between you two?"
"I convinced him to stop hurting you all," Sonic admitted, trying his hardest to not blush any darker.
"Wow... okay, good, that he actually listened to you," Tails replied and gave Sonic a soft smile.
"I had to do it, Tails, because... I just couldn't handle it anymore, the way he always attacked you all first," Sonic sighed and the fox boy placed his hand on Sonic's shoulder for comfort.
"Regardless of the reason behind his actions, I am relieved, that he finally stopped. And.. thank you for that, Sonic. You are a good friend to us all," he said in genuine tone, making Sonic smile too now.
"I am doing my best, hehe," Sonic chuckled while blushing a little for a different reason this time.
"If it's okay with you, I will see you a bit later, buddy," he added, excusing himself once again, so he could see Shadow.
"Let me guess, you're going to see Shadow," Tails straight revealed his suspicion openly, making Sonic jump and gulp nervously.
"I-I, well, don't get mad, please," Sonic pleaded him with puppy eyes - which Tails found hard to resist - knowing, that he can't hide it from the fox anymore, so he just dealt with it.
"I am not mad, Sonic. Just.. please, be careful. You never know, what he might be capable of," Tails said in concerned tone and gently patted Sonic's shoulder for comfort and as a sign of support.
"I know, I know. I'll be careful," Sonic replied with a faint blush on his peach cheeks and in a second he was gone, while Tails got back to his work.
☆•~•☆
The nice morning slowly transitioned into a cloudy afternoon, as the hours passed by and much to Sonic's disappointment, there was no single sight of the black hedgehog. The azure hero waited for two hours straight in the Canyon area, running around, even taking a small nap or just mindlessly wandering around during the whole time. He wondered what happened to the ebony male, that he seemed to not show up even today.
"That's weird... Shadow, where are you?" he spoke to himself and then widened his eyes, when he remembered the one conversation he had with him right here on top of the canyon. Where Shadow suggested, that Sonic should stop seeing him. Did Shadow take it to his own hands and stopped seeing Sonic instead?
Panic filled Sonic's core and it made the hedgehog instantly speed off towards the hidden cave, that was home for the ebony hedgehog.
"Please, be there.. please, please..." Sonic quietly prayed while heading towards the cave and once he arrived, he felt highly nervous and tense, only hoping, that the black hedgehog was inside.
"Shadow?" Sonic cupped his mouth with his hands and called his crush's name, but received no answer.
"Shadow, you there?" he tried again and then carefully stepped into the cave, looking around he didn't notice anything different. All the furniture pieces seemed to be unchanged, yet also... untouched. Has Shadow not been here at all?
"Shadow?" Sonic called the hedgehog's name again, hearing his own voice echo through the cave and afterwards, silence filled the place again. Looking around the place Sonic noticed the communicator resting on the nightstand, which finally explained the reason behind Shadow never answering his calls. And it also confirmed his suspicions about Shadow's absence from the previous day. If the hybrid wasn't here, then... where was he?
"Shadow... where did you go?" Sonic asked nobody in particular, since he was alone in the cave. Releasing a heavy sigh he turned around and walked out of the cave, where he sat down by the entrance and held his knees close to his chest, thinking hard about this whole issue. Mainly how and where he could find Shadow, if he wasn't even in the hidden cave.
Several minutes later he realized, that maybe Shadow might be in some trouble and the first person popping in the front of his mind was of course the mustached man. Finally regaining determination he stood up and speeded off, heading towards Eggman's lair
☆•~•☆
Orbot and Cubot were currently mopping the already clear enough floor in Eggman's laboratory, while the villain himself was standing in front of a display cabinet, where he had his Fuzzy Puppies collection put on display - the rarest pieces of course, for he loved those the most.
"Is he going to stare at the puppies for the whole day?" Cubot asked his robotic round-shaped brother, who shrugged and wiped the invisible sweat off of his crimson metallic forehead.
"Beats me. You know well, how much our master loves to enjoy the - for him - perfect sight," Orbot replied quietly, not wanting to disturb the mustached man from his favourite hobby.
"Yeah, but.. it's pretty strange, even for someone like our master," Cubot dared to admit and finished the cleaning as he set the bucket with the water and the mop aside.
"It's what it is, not like we can do anything about it," Orbot shrugged again, not seeing the villain's behavior as any special issue to be bothered by.
Just then, the security system suddenly set off, launching the alarm due to an intruder's presence in the lair.
"Grrr, can someone enjoy at least a day without interruptions?!" Eggman groaned in displeasure and glared at the two robots, wanting to put the blame on them, but knew, that it wouldn't make sense at all.
"Orbot, Cubot, take care of the intruder!" he ordered them and the robots saluted unisono before heading towards the entrance, where they found the intruder fighting against the badniks, easily destroying them with his infamous spindash attack.
He paused after seeing the two robot brothers, kicking one last ladybug badnik straight to its robotic face he rubbed his hands together over his job well done.
"Hey, you two! Is Eggy home? I've got something to discuss with him about," he spoke to the two robots, but before they could respond, there was a rustling noise coming out of the speakers, followed by Eggman's raspy voice.
"There is nothing to discuss about, you blue hedgehog, so I suggest you to return to your little village, before I make you leave, personally!"
Sonic listened while looking up at the speaker and grinning in response he even softly chuckled.
"Go ahead, Egghead. Why don't you start with facing me directly, face to face, ya know? Like man to man," he spoke confidently, perfectly hiding everything else inside.
"I see only one man here and it's not you!" Eggman replied still through the speaker.
"Sure, I am a girl in disguise then," Sonic rolled his eyes and sighing he glanced at Orbot and Cubot, who both snickered at the sassy hedgehog. Their master seemed to be short against the blue speedster.
"Here, let us take you to him," Orbot offered politely and along with Cubot he led the hedgehog further into the lair.
"Thanks!" Sonic replied with a happy smile, seemingly carefree as he confidently followed the two robotic servants. As they all arrived to the lab, Eggman stood there with crossed arms, frown on his face and if his eyes are visible, he would surely throw daggers at the blue hero with his death glare.
"You two are useless!" he first put the blame on the two servants, which made Sonic stand confidently in a protective manner in front of them.
"Come on, Eggy, cut them some slack, will ya? They are doing their best to serve ya, so show some remorse at least!" he defended the robot brothers, making them 'feel' better and bringing some comfort to them. They would surely rather work for Sonic than their uncaring master. Yet.. without their master - and also creator - they would be lost, for they were used to such life-style and grateful for being created by him. This was their personal freaky circle with no escape route.
"Do not boss me around, hedgehog! Now, what do you want?" Eggman brushed it off with ease and scoffed.
"Have you recently seen Shadow?" Sonic went straight for the point, while usually he would be playing around with his frienemy. Orbot and Cubot exchanged a confused expressions in their robotic eyes before just quietly observing the hedgehog.
Eggman himself got taken aback by such random question and raised a brow over it, for a moment forgetting about his anger.
"Shadow? Why are you, of all people, asking me about Shadow?" he asked in the said confusion and sat down on his hovering armchair.
"Doesn't matter. Just tell me, have you seen him recently?" Sonic brushed it off, suddenly turning serious and felt an urge to tug on the scarf around his neck, the only reminder of the ebony hedgehog.
"Hmmm... not at all, to be honest," Eggman replied carefully and turning around with the armchair he typed something in his computer, then pressed 'enter' button and moved aside to let Sonic see the camera system records. The ebony hedgehog could be last seen two days ago, which was exactly the day Sonic saw him for the last time.
"Since then, I have no idea where he could be and no, he isn't anywhere around my lair, if that's why you even came here in the first place," Eggman explained and shut the records off before fully facing Sonic, who seemed conflicted about it.
"Alright, I.. I think I'll go now, thanks," Sonic nodded and turned around to leave. Eggman raised an eyebrow at the hedgehog's odd behavior.
"I'd never think there would be someone else caring about him this much," he admitted honestly, making Sonic pause and freeze in spot.
"What?" the hedgehog looked at Eggman over his shoulder in confusion.
"Come on, don't play stupid now. I can see it in your eyes, to me, you are like an open book," Eggman elaborated further, which caused Sonic feel the panic rising in his core again and his cheeks turned slightly pink.
He surely didn't expect Eggman, of all people, be so much aware and observant. Seems like there is something special in everyone, the villain included.
"I-I don't know what you're talking about," he still attempted to act obvlivious, but it didn't work of course.
"You like Shadow, don't you," Eggman smirked mischievously, which Sonic definitely disliked.
"Even if I do, what's it to you!" the hero got defensive again, now frowning and slightly gritting his teeth while clenching his fists.
"All our disagreements and conflicts aside, Sonic, I hope you'll find him and bring him back. It honestly concerns me too, the way he just simply disappeared... I hope it wasn't me, who made him leave," Eggman spoke in so genuine tone, that Sonic had an urge to believe him, to trust him in that matter.
"I would, honestly, disappear too, if I had to deal with you every single day," Sonic turned it into sass once again, grinning at the villain, who grumbled something under his mustache in response.
"Nevermind, just go already, before I'll force you out," Eggman made a dismissive gesture with his hand, not wanting to deal with the annoying hedgehog any longer.
"Yeah, yeah, I am going, no worries, Eggy," Sonic replied confidently and walked slowly through the corridor to mess around with the human man, who pulled onto his mustache while groaning in annoyance. A few minutes later, the hedgehog was finally gone and Eggman could relax. A thought about something certain made him frown, as he turned to face his computer to look through a specific file for potential answers to the questions now popping in his head.