Got @weirdozjunkary ‘s STH + PIB AU on the brain so have some sonadow angst :)
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Sonic watched in fascinated horror as the words etched themselves onto the map — this was it. He was so close. Just a few words and this would all be over.
“Star light, star bright,” He would have his lives back. He would be safe from the jackal.
“First star I see tonight,” Everything would go back to the way it was. He wouldn’t be scared anymore… right? All he needed was to make this wish.
“I wish—”
“I can’t believe I fell for it again.”
The voice made the hedgehog jump, and he whipped around half expecting to see a blind eye and two razor-sharp sickles — instead, he saw a familiar striped hedgehog scowling at him from the edge of the star with a little orange fox by his side. Somehow, that was worse.
“Shadow,” He started, only to falter because what could he even say? Every predetermined moral he had was screaming at him that this was wrong, but it was hard to focus on that when his blood was racing through his veins as his heart thundered in his chest. His eyes flitted back and forth between him and the map, its luminescent text drawing him in, “Y-you don’t understand—”
“Don’t understand what?” Shadow spat, his barely-contained anger filtering through his voice as he stalked over to the hedgehog, “That you’ve been playing me this whole time?”
“I need this wish,” Sonic’s hands were shaking — he felt so small like this, cowering away from his rival like some scared little kid. He held the map in front of him like a shield, hiding from those judging eyes that twisted at his heart and head. He needed this. He needed this, Shadow couldn’t understand.
He wasn’t sure, though, who he was trying to convince anymore.
“Do you, now?” Shadow drawled, his lip curling into a sneer, “Your life just isn’t enough? Not up to your standards? No, Sonic the Hedgehog deserves more.”
Sonic felt dizzy as he frantically looked back and forth between Shadow and the map. Shadow stepped closer, sarcastic disgust dripping from his tongue, “It’s not enough to just be a hero, adored by thousands, trusted by thousands.”
Suddenly, the map disappeared from his view, and Sonic looked up to see it grasped within Shadow’s hand, held behind him as he jabbed a finger into Sonic’s chest — his voice rose into a growl as he trapped Sonic in his gaze, eyes like daggers as they bore into him, “It’s not enough for him to have people he knows he can trust in return, is it?”
And then, for the first time since he��d arrived, Sonic looked at Shadow — really looked at him. His nostrils flared as he stared him down, ears flat against his head and teeth bared like a predator about to pounce. He was furious, more so than the hedgehog had ever seen him, but there was something else there that made him stall, evident in the slight twitching of his brows, the way his chest heaved as if he’d just run a marathon, the subtle shakiness of his hand as it clenched around the map like he wanted to crush it — somewhere in those crimson eyes that held so much fury was a genuine pain that he’d only seen him direct his way once.
To have people he knows he can trust… Sonic let out a breath as his posture sagged, the realization hitting him like a ton of bricks. He must have been making a face because Shadow abruptly pulled back, huffing as he glanced down at the map in his hand, “… Yet you’re still running. Still the same ‘Sonic the Hedgehog’ you’ve always been.”
“But I’m not!” Sonic burst, startling himself with the suddenness of it, “I’m not Sonic the Hedgehog! I… I-I’m…”
He coughed out a sigh, shoulders going slack as he caved in, catching Shadow’s eyes and admitting, “I’m on my last life.”
To his surprise, Shadow drew back a bit, blinking as his eyes widened and his scowl dropped. Sonic took it as an opportunity, needing him to understand, “I need to get my lives back, Shadow. Without them, I’m not… I’m not…”
“Not what?” Shadow clipped, “The legend?”
Sonic’s stomach dropped, curling into himself without even realizing it. He wanted to deny it, to correct him somehow, to shake him by his shoulders and scream I’m being chased by the freaking Grim Reaper, but when he opened his mouth, the words wouldn’t come.
Shadow waited for a beat, and Sonic prepared himself for another barrage of insults to come his way. Instead, Shadow just sighed, crossing his arms and shaking his head as disappointment fell off his tongue, “… I truly expected more from you.”
He spared another glance at the map, eyes flitting up to meet Sonic’s before he dropped it at his feet. Sonic all but scrambled for it, falling to his knees and gripping it to his chest. Shadow scoffed above him, and Sonic shrunk under his gaze as he spoke, “Go on, then; get your lives back.”
He leaned down a bit to meet his eyes, those crimson flames making Sonic feel like absolute slime, “Just do us both a favor and keep them out of mine.”
With that, Shadow turned on his heel and stalked off, fists clenched at his sides as he brushed past Tails, who had been silently observing from the sidelines. His baby blue eyes followed the black hedgehog, then turned to find Sonic with a pleading look, almost as if he were silently begging him to stand, please don’t give up, you can’t give up.
And despite it all — the guilt weighing down on his shoulders, the desperate fear coiling in his gut, the dizzying feeling of his priorities battling through his mind — Sonic felt something burn in his chest, stealing his breath and forcing his voice to project out a final, desperate cry, “Shadow! Death is after me!”
And Sonic didn’t know if it was genuine concern on the other’s part, or merely blatant bewilderment at the vagueness of what he’d just said, but against all odds, Shadow turned around, his brow raised in a rare look of raw confusion as he replied, “… What?”
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i wanna see goku and raditz fight like brothers. like BROTHERS-brothers. i wanna see an extended sequence that's like that group of bros bopping and swatting and chasing and skidding and sliding and hopping like bro-sized kitty cats through a house and out into the fucking snow.
except it's two saiyans who can fucking fly, and they instinctively scamper, and one of them is enormous and made of hair, and they are both Grade-A King Shits when it comes to fucking with each other, and they love to chase.
i wanna hear, "FUCK OFF, RADITZ!!!" and then a zillion things falling over while raditz goes barreling through the entire zone, guffawing with hellion glee, and goku comes bounding after him in all three dimensions like a molten pinball.
i wanna hear, "DAMMIT, COCK-ROT, I'M GONNA--!!!" and then goku streaks past, shrieking like a boiling kettle and trying not to pee his pants from laughing so hard and running so fast, and raditz comes bursting around the corner like a tornado full of avalanches.
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23. Things you said before you left
Vashwood
Stampede flavor if possible
💞
things you said before you left
It's not that Vash thanked him, even if that aches in his chest. It's not that he smiled that way either, like he really meant the thank you.
It's the way Vash said his damn name.
Wolfwood.
He says it like it's something good. Something worth treating with care. The way he whispered it on the sandsteamer still feels like it crawled under his skin somehow.
Only Vash could make his last name somehow sound like an adoring petname. Only he could give Wolfwood a name he wants to be called, for the first time in so long.
He hopes he gets to hear Vash say his name again. If he can ask for one thing in return from Vash, for his undue thanks he gave anyway, he wants that.
It shouldn't make his heart flutter like that when he thinks about it again. But a lot of things seem to be like that with Vash.
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