Chapter Text
It started small.
When you were younger, you'd get this strange feeling sometimes, like you were being watched. On the playground, in the classroom, even in your own room. At first it was frightening. You felt like you were being stalked or hunted, but didn't know how to express it to your parents. How could Tom or Maddie protect you from something you had no proof existed- or weren't even sure of yourself? You could just be imagining things again. You'd always been imaginative. Drifting off, daydreaming in class, always more focused on a book or a drawing yet somehow still breezing through your schoolwork at Green Hills High School. Always more excited for a movie or a comic than interacting with your classmates.
Maybe that's why he'd taken a liking to you.
Over the years, you came to understand that your stalker was not malevolent, like the type your cop father had warned you of. Sure, he wouldn't tell you much about himself, and you'd never seen him in person, but a definite friendship had formed. At least you thought so. You really had no way of knowing how many friends HE had. At first you were convinced it was some kind of elaborate prank. Who would go so out of their way to show such an interest in talking to you, yet not reveal their identity? Beyond his name, "Sam", which didn't match any of the other kids your age.
But the more you talked to him, through the notes you exchanged, the more you could sense the truth in his words. That he was lonely and needed someone to talk to, even though he didn't say it quite like that. That he was different from other kids in a way he refused to admit. The fact that he always got your messages no matter where you left them, like he was following you around, and that the notes he left were always a step ahead of you. The way he would never say no to a warm meal left on the windowsill, like he didn't have anyone else to make them for him, and how, no matter how hard you tried, you could never catch him coming or going.
Eventually you'd bought a set of walkie talkies with your own money for convenience. It took a bit of convincing to get Sam to use his, though. Despite being the one to reach out with the first note all those years ago, he was always reluctant to try new stuff. He always ended up loving it in the end though. You felt like you knew him so well despite never seeing his face before.
Occasionally you would casually suggest meeting in person, but he was always quick to shoot down the idea. He'd say he was sick with something contagious, or he was busy that day, even though you both knew it wasn't true. You never really pressed him on it because you knew there had to be a reason, but you never stopped asking either, hoping one day he'd say yes. It wasn't until one fateful, stormy night that he finally agreed.
~
"Sam? Are you there?" you said into your walkie talkie, sitting on your bed. It was around 8pm. The rain pattered against your window, accompanied by the occasional distant sounds of thunder. After a few seconds, you heard his voice back.
"...yeah. I'm here," he sounded tired. Must be one of those bad days. The days where he wasn't so chatty, but would never really tell you why.
"Oh. Good. I was starting to think something was wrong. I've been trying to talk all day," you said, hoping you didn't come off as clingy.
"...I want to see you," Sam spoke, more like he was making an objective statement than a request.
"...what?" you replied.
"I want to meet. To see you, in person. For real this time."
"Really? Like, right now? Tonight?" you glanced out the window at the storm.
"Yeah. Is that ok?" Sam asked.
It wasn't great weather, and you definitely weren't allowed out of the house this late, but there was no way you could miss this opportunity. Not only was this a chance to finally put a face to your best friend's name- who knows when or if he'd ever want to meet again- but it sounded like he needed you. Needed someone to be with, to comfort him. Your heart sort of raced at the thought but you brushed it aside like you'd done many times over the years, trying to stop yourself from catching feelings from someone you'd never met in person.
"Yes. I'll be there," you responded, before pausing for a moment. "Um... where is 'there', exactly?"
"You know the baseball field? The one just a few blocks away from you."
"Oh, yeah. Okay, I'll be right over." Sam had known where you lived for a while now even though you'd never really told him. Just one of those things he knew about you but not the other way around, but you were excited for that to change tonight.
You opened your closet door and grabbed a sweatshirt and a rain coat off of the hook. Tom and Maddie were downstairs watching TV. As far as they knew, you were already asleep, and the rain was the perfect cover to sneak out the window. You slipped on the hoodie and pulled down the sleeves of the coat. It was a little small for you. Looks like you were going to get wet, but there was no time to try to find a bigger one. Who knew if Sam would change his mind. Your mind was already racing at the thought of meeting him after all this time.
You grabbed your rain boots from the closet and slipped them on as well, putting the walkie talkie in your coat pocket and unlatching your window. You'd never had a reason to sneak out of the house before, given that you had pretty much zero social life and Tom & Maddie were mostly reasonable parents. Best to not let them find out about this. They probably wouldn't be super mad at you, but you wanted to spare yourself a patented Tom Wachowski lecture. You flipped off your light switch, carefully climbed out the window and closed it most of the way behind you, clambering out into the damp night.
~
"I guess since you're about to see me, you should know, too... my real name isn't Sam," not-Sam's voice spoke through the device. "It's... Sonic."
"...Oh. Okay. Uh... why didn't you just say that? Before?"
"I don't know. Sam's a more human name."
You stopped walking.
"Are you not... human?"
"Please don't freak out."
"Ok. I'm not freaking out. Actually, I'm freaking out a little. Just moderately. Though that does explain a few things." You took a deep breath, trying to calm down and process this new fun fact.
"...hey, um, I probably should've said this earlier too, but... I don't want you to get scared when you see me. I... look kind of... weird."
"...how weird?" you asked, getting more nervous. As nice as Sonic had been to you, you couldn't help but feel like you were wandering into some sort of trap, even after all this time, but you still wanted to give him the benefit of the doubt. "Like... I want to be prepared here. How many limbs do you have?"
"Um, four? I think?" Sonic said on the other end. "The head doesn't count, right?"
You breathed a sigh of relief. "Hah! No, yeah, head doesn't count. Four is good. Sorry, I didn't mean- I would still like you if you had more than four limbs, you know, I just- jeez, I'm already screwing this up."
"Don't sweat it," Sonic said. "Uh, I don't want to surprise you, though. Are you sure you're ready to see me?"
"...yeah?" you replied. "I mean, I came all this way. Can't go home empty handed, right? You already know what I look like, it's only fair."
You paused, waiting for his response, but there was none. The light rain created an eerie atmosphere, drizzling down on the empty field. You swung your flashlight around looking for him, feeling kind of silly being out in the open like this. The light glistened against the falling raindrops and metal of the backstop.
In a single instant, he was suddenly in front of you, as though he had teleported. He looked like some sort of anthropomorphic cartoonish blue mouse-cat thing. It was kind of mesmerizing. He had big green eyes that took up most of his face and tiny, slightly luminescent spikes styled sort of like a slicked-back haircut (or maybe that was just how they grew). You said the first thing that came to your mind, maybe the most honest thing you'd said in a while.
"You look beautiful."
"Wh- beautiful?! I am not beautiful! I'm cool, and- mysterious! You should be mystified right now!"
"...sorry?"
There was an awkward pause between the two of you. The rain ran down between Sonic's blue quills and your raincoat. He emitted a sort of faint blue glow that was mesmerizing in the storm, amplified by the falling water.
"...don't be. I'm actually relieved. Despite everything, I honestly expected you to... scream. Or run away, or something," Sonic said, looking at the ground. "You're the first person who's really seen me, since I got here," he rubbed his eyes with his hand. You couldn't tell if he was wiping away rain or tears. "It feels so... nice. To finally get seen by somebody. To not run away for once."
Suddenly you realized you maybe didn't know him as well as you'd thought. You hadn't even known his real name until tonight. Hearing him talk like this, in person, it was clear his words carried a heavier weight than you'd assumed. To think he hadn't really spoken to anybody like this in who knows how many years. Living in hiding, observing but never interacting, until reaching out to you.
"So, I'm the only person who knows what you look like?" you asked. "Well... I like it. I mean, you. How you look," you hoped he couldn't see your blush in the rain.
"Actually... one other person sort of knows. There's this guy- his name is Carl-"
Your eyes widened. "Oh my god, crazy Carl- you're the blue devil?!" you gasped. "That makes so much sense... jeez." You gave him another look over, closer this time. He was only wearing white gloves and tattered shoes. You had to draw your own eyes away from his crotch and make it not look like you were checking him out (even though you sort of wanted to, it didn't feel like the time). "Do you normally, uh... not wear clothes?" you eventually asked.
"Oh. Well, yeah. My quills are kind of a natural insulator, so I don't get cold easily... sorry. I know that's kind of weird here."
"I-it's fine, I get it. Quills... so you're like, a porcupine?"
"Hedgehog, actually. Sonic the hedgehog."
"Cool... um- about the whole- I didn't mean you weren't cool, when I said you were... you know. You're uh, both." Jeez, you were laying it on thick. That confidence from a moment ago had been washed away by the rain, and you were reluctant to repeat what you'd said. "Anyway... where do you live? Sorry if that's like, a personal question. I'm just curious."
"A small-ish cave out in the forest... it's pretty far on foot. For you, I mean. I'm super fast, so I can get there no problem, but... do you want to see it?"
"I mean, yeah, but if it's far away, probably not in the rain..."
"Allow me," Sonic said, literally sweeping you off your feet. Before you could process the situation or object to it he whisked you away through the forest. Suddenly you were on your feet again, in the cave. It definitely wasn't what you were expecting when he said "cave". String lights were hung around the walls. He had some furniture, a ping-pong table, some old road signs, and a few stacks of the Flash comics you knew he liked. Sonic wasn't kidding when he said it was a big collection (or when he said he was 'just like' the Flash).
"Welcome to me casa!" Sonic winked.
"Wow... where'd you get all this stuff?" you asked.
"You'd be surprised the kind of things people just leave around," Sonic replied. "I mean, the big stuff is mostly what people leave out for the trash or don't want anymore, like the beanbag, or the crates, or the flags, or the boombox," he said, speeding between the objects in the blink of an eye as he pointed them out. "The boombox doesn't really work but I think it adds a nice touch."
"It's really cool," you said, and it was. You recognized a few of the presents you'd left out for him over the years for various holidays, major and minor, to the point where your gifting frequency had once convinced your parents that you were getting scammed. They all looked well used. Despite how happy Sonic seemed just to have you there, you couldn't help but feel little guilty, having your own room all this time and not knowing he lived in a cave.
"You don't have like... air conditioning or heating in here? What do you do during the winter?" you asked him.
"Well, I cover up the top with plywood," he said. "The lights are battery-powered, so they keep it pretty warm. I stock up on snacks and mostly stay inside unless I need to go out, 'cause of the footprints and all..."
You looked around again. "Do you have any coats?"
"Uh, not really. They tend to fall apart. I'm very spiky," Sonic replied, spinning around in all his quilled glory.
"Oh... right," you yawned.
"Oops. I didn't mean to keep you up this late... you have school tomorrow, right?"
"Yeah, unfortunately. I wish I could stay here, but I should probably get back to bed."
"Bummer. I kinda just sleep whenever, so I'll be up for a while, but if you insist...!" Sonic sped over to you again and in a near instant you were back in your bedroom.
"God- as awesome as that is, a little warning would be nice..." you said.
"Sorry. I got a little carried away." Sonic flashed back over to your open window, perched on the edge. "Uh... see you around?"
"Wait!" you said, stopping him just as he was about to disappear through the window. "Here. Take this." You slid your sweatshirt over your head and offered it to him.
"But... my quills will ruin it."
"Trust me, you can ruin as many of my clothes as you want," you said, causing Sonic's faint blue aura to glow slightly brighter for a moment. You would later find out that that was his version of a blush. Sonic smiled, grabbing the gift from your hands wordlessly and disappearing in a flash. You pressed the button on your walkie talkie, correctly assuming he was already back at his cave. "See you tomorrow."
"Yeah." Sonic replied through the speaker, trying not to sound as giddy as he really was. "Tomorrow."