Candlelight Kiss

"Aurgh, dammit!" Sonic pushed his hands into his quills, messing them up.

An orange fox next to him glared. "Sonic," he said firmly, "Language."

With a frustrated growl, he stopped his cursing. Instead, he distracted himself by looking across the room towards the big window. Outside was the roaring wind and the dramatic swaying of trees. Its leaves were still green, but if you paid more close attention, the edges were tainted a fading red and yellow. The sky was getting dark, spraying a gray mist on the huge canvas, also known as the sky.

The loud pitter-patter echoed slightly in the house the two stayed in as the roof was being punished. Every time Sonic and the orange fox's ears would twitch.

The blue hedgehog sighed. Seeing no reaction from his companion, he sighed again, louder this time. Either he didn't hear him, or he was just ignoring the blue fur ball.

He sighed. Yet again. So loud and obvious, that even a half deaf person would notice. But the fox didn't react at all, he just sat there, typing on his white and orange computer.

Tap, tap. Sonic turned around and looked at the younger one. "Tails." he said. Tap, tap, tap. "Your computer is going to run out of batteries someday."

Tails' gaze didn't leave the small but bright screen, but he replied, "You're right," the small creature bent his head down and squinted at the corner of his screen. "I only have about thirty minutes left of the batteries. Hey, you think the library around here would be open? After all, it's been four days since we'd lost power."

Sonic rubbed his face. "I dunno, maybe." After he'd tried so hard to get Tails to talk to him, he was only rewarded with questions that he didn't even care? He didn't think it was fair.

"I'll go and see then. If it's open, do you want me to charge anything there?" he paused and waited for an answer. Sonic opened his mouth to reply, but before he could utter a syllable, Tails quickly hit his head lightly. "Nevermind, I forgot that you don't use electronics."

The small animal quickly took out a bag from under the table he was working on and put the computer and its black charger in. Tails paused. Then made a small sound as he rushed upstairs. Muffled bangs and clangs passed through the think roof that was the second floor.

"Ow…" Tails' childish voice reminded Sonic that he was still just a kid. He could just imagine the small kitsune rubbing his head with those big blue eyes sparkling…

Sonic shook his head. What if Tails has trouble getting there…? Coming back? No, he can't just let Tails go there alone, even if he would most likely be bored until his brain starts cooking itself in the silent library with books and billions and billions of words. He needed to protect his baby brother. No more lives will be put in trouble for at least today. He swore to Chaos.

Then a knock sounded at the door.

Sonic's thoughts evaporated as he scrambled up from his chair and walked to the door. 'Who would be outside and knocking at our door at this time?' Sonic wondered as he twisted the silver knob.

The moment it was wide enough to walk through, Shadow passed the blue doppelganger without a word. His dripping wet quills left droplets of rain water in his wake.

Sonic stared at him incredulously. His eyes widened in disapproval even more as the dripping wet black and red hedgehog plopped down on one of his fluffy sofas. Everything near him was wet now. Great. Just great.

Before the blue hedgehog could close the door, Tails rushed down the stairs, both hands full of wires and electronics. Sonic could tell his Chaos Emerald Radar was about to fall off of its wire and onto the ground. But luckily, the fox dropped all the contents into the bag and walked to the door. And right before his left foot hit the floor outside of the house, he turned around to Sonic and said, "Well, at least now I don't have to worry about you doing something wrong and getting yourself in trouble."
Sonic gave him a puzzled look, but Tails only nodded his head back to the wet hedgie on the cream colored sofa. "Shadow can take care of you."

Before Sonic would retort something back, Tails walked out and shut the door. Shadow stifled a laugh. Sonic glared. "What's so funny, Emohog?"

Shadow's deep laughter didn't stop. "Even the kid knows better than you, Faker. How do you expect me to ever respect you?"

Sonic stomped angrily over to him, but before he could reach and grab Shadow's soaked shoulder, he hit the ground with a thump. Now his butt ached…

"Ah!" he yelped. Such a shame, he had forgotten about the watery mess the other had made…

"Landed on your behind?" his counterpart chuckled without looking at him, folding his arms.

Sonic growled. "Hey, it's your fault, your mess. Clean it up before I—"

"Before you what? Slip and fall again, maybe on your nose?"

"You know what, I think you should actually help me up, considering if you didn't come in here, I wouldn't be on the ground like this. And if you could do me a big favor after you finish cleaning up, I would like you to not bother me. I'm not going to force you outside in this weather, but just don't do…do your things."

"'My things'?"

"Yeah, you know, whatever you do that always ticks me off."

"Ah, being badass?"

"…I wouldn't call it badass. I would take out the bad and add 'hole' after the ass."

Shadow didn't reply. Surprised, Sonic turned to his direction, only to watch the dark hedgehog get up and walk in front of him. "If you're going to insult me again, you might as well go somewhere else, not directly in my face, you know."

Shadow sneered and held a gloved hand out, making Sonic blink in surprise. Was his rival who was just an ass before holding his hand out for him?

His impatient yet indifferent voice snapped him out of it. "Well?" said Shadow, "Are you going to take it or not?"

Dumbfounded, Sonic took the soaked hand and stood up. He watched his rival look out the window, which was now darker, and it strained Sonic to see properly. "So, do you have candles?" Shadow asked.

"Uh. Yeah, they're in the bathroom's drawers."

"Match?"

"Have it in my quills."

"Good, you're some use after all."

*XXX_XXX*

Shadow flipped through the drawers, taking a whole bag of scented candles in a bag out.

The tiled walls were a reddish cream color—some shade of pink, Shadow guessed. A white bathtub sat in a corner. The curtains were a light blue color. Shadow's shoes tapped on the mini-tiled floor, orange and yellow dotted his vision. There were two sinks, the one on the left was messy, the one on the right was clean and polished. Shadow guessed the left one was that blue and retarded hedgehog's.

Shadow looked out the small window on the end of the bathroom, and saw that it was still pouring. 'Maybe I should stay here for a while.' He thought.

With that thought in mind, he walked out and looked for Sonic, who was waiting downstairs.

*XXX_XXX*

Sonic tapped his foot impatiently. Shadow should've been done since ten seconds ago. Eleven. Twelve. Thirteen. Fourteen…

Sonic growled as he saw black, red and yellow shoes at the top of the staircase. Finally.

"What took you so long, slow poke?" asked Sonic.

"No one does things without thinking, idiot." Shadow replied. "Oh. Right. Except for a certain Faker…who I may be talking to right now."

Sonic shook his head. "I think I'm getting used to your insults now. You throw them at me, I bounce it off…" He said.

Shadow scoffed.

"And throw something lovely back at you!"

Red eyes widened as he quickly reacted and put a hand in Sonic's face, preventing him from touching him. "Naw, c'mon Shads, lemme give you some luvin'! Hugs! Ya need hugs, man!"

Shadow slapped away the hands that were getting too close—close enough to wrap them around his waist—with his free hand. After he was sure they were both turning red underneath the gloves, he let go of Sonic's face. Well, he found a sweating hedgehog panting madly. Who would've known he would look so pathetic? And maybe a little funny?...Not to mention…it looks kind of adorable…

"Idio—" Shadow cut himself off. He didn't want Sonic to swarm over him again. Nor ever. The other was…stupid and all, and fun to tease and insult, but he'd rather…keep him at a safe distance. What always confuses him is when people say: Keep your friends close, but keep your enemies closer. Did that even make sense? Even so, how close are you supposed to get?...Not too close, Shadow thought. Not like what Sonic was just now.

"Oop, do I hear an insult coming on?" Sonic put a hand to his twitching blue ear. "Go on, say it."

A glare.

"So…are you still gonna say it?"

A 'hmph.'

Sonic smirked. "And that's how I'm going to teach you how to be nicer."

Silence.

"Ahem, do we still want to see?" Shadow changed the topic.

"See? Oh." Sonic looked around and just realized how dark it had gotten. Better light those candles or else they're going to be blind like a bat with their mouth and ears muffled. "Yeah…"

Sonic took the small box of half full match and handed the small green box, brown on the sides to the dark spike ball.

Their fingers brushed, but it didn't feel like anything because of the layers of cloth they wore. It startled Sonic a little, though, because he couldn't really see Shadow. But he stood and watched as Shadow set the candles on the table and took out a match. Scratch, scratch. The match tip scraped against the sandpaper sides as friction started heat. In a blink, the piece of wood was alit and a small but bright flame struggled to survive and last. It danced and wiggled as wind tickled its burning body, but it was split in half when Shadow brought it close to the candle rope. Sonic closed and rubbed his eyes. The sudden brightness was unexpected and his pupils needed time to adjust. But when he opened them again, Shadow was gone, and so was the newly lit candle.

"…Shadow?" asked Sonic. He looked around.

"I'm not gone, Faker. I'm just placing the candles in your kitchen. Do me a favor, bring me the other candles?"

They didn't do much after lighting all the five candles, one in the kitchen, bathroom, living room, on the counter next to the front door, and another one on the dining table. After fussing over how it wasn't bright enough, Shadow silenced Sonic's whining as he made the room brighter. How, you ask? Simple. The dark hedgie used mugs. He flipped them over so the bottom is facing up and placed every candle on each mug. Sonic was standing there, goggle-eyed. Even Tails hadn't thought of that…The Ultimate Lifeform is named correctly, alright…

After that, about twenty minutes was gone. Sonic groaned. Time was passing so slow…

Shadow distracted himself by reading a book that he picked out of a small bookshelf in the living room. He plopped down on the other sofa that he didn't ruin, and began reading The Tale of Despereaux. It wasn't long, true, but it was fascinating how the little mouse fell for the beautiful human princess. It was sad yet heartwarming of how the mouse can't really be together with the princess, but yet they still shared a lovely friendship. He was just about half-way through the book when he was interrupted by the fidgety blue blur.

"Aww! SHADOW I'M SO BOOOOORED." Whined Sonic.

"Distract yourself. Read a book like me or something."

"BUT-!"

"Don't bother me."

Sonic grabbed a pillow nearby and started hitting it. Out of frustration, Shadow guessed, and maybe also to annoy him until he gave in. Sadly, it's working. Shadow was very pissed.

The black hedgehog glared at the other menacingly, and snarled, baring his canines. "Do you draw?" he forced the words out of his teeth.

"No. Why would I? I run. That's about the only things I do. Oh, yeah, I also eat chilidogs. And…nope, that's about it."

"…Then go and find something to eat," Shadow answered.

Sonic eyes lit up and uttered an okay. He dashed into the kitchen. A gloved hand pulled against a metal handle leading to a bigger cupboard. It creaked a little as it opened. Sonic peaked in.

Nothing really stood out for him. Just boxes of cereal and candy. Hidden behind the big boxes was a smaller box of pop tarts, cinnamon flavored. A bag of marshmallows laid on top of it. Some weird idea started to form inside Sonic's head. He grabbed the poptarts and the big bad of marshmallows and kicked close the cupboard roughly. He hummed as he opened another cupboard, and rummaged through the stuff Tails had bought and collected. Different types of tea leaves. Green, red, wulong, those flower teas and others. Sonic wondered if Shadow would want tea…

Then his emerald gaze settled on coffee. Half and half, black coffee, cream n' sugar…Maybe Shadow would want coffee instead of tea…?

Hey, wait a minute, why was Sonic thinking of Shadow all of a sudden anyway? Because he came in soaked? Huh…maybe he needs some hot water. But then that led Sonic to the same question again. Does he want tea or coffee?

Meh, screw it, he's bringing both.

As he arrived back at the living room with a shivering slightly hedgehog on the sofa, he sat all the contents on his hands down on the table in front of the furniture.

"Hey, Shadow?"

Shadow grunted, a bit annoyed that he's being interrupted again. But nonetheless, he said, "Yes?"

"Do you want coffee or tea?"

Shadow brought the book down from his face and glanced at Sonic. Why was he asking what he wanted to drin…Oh. He'd brought tea and coffee bags…

"You shouldn't drink coffee at all Sonic. Especially not a night, and especially not you. I would like to have the tea, though. Red tea," he said, then started reading again. "Oh, and if you ever want to try a different kind of tea, just add orange peel to your tea. It works."

Sonic scrunched his eyebrows. Orange peel? Why would anyone add that to tea?...Ah well, that's his Shadow knowing all sorts of weird things.

Red and white sneakers shifted and Sonic stood up, bringing the coffee bags with him back to the kitchen. Sonic stood there, thinking.

'Hmm…How am I supposed to get hot water? I suppose I need to boil it…But how? Ah, using a pot. Okay. So let's just fill it with water…' Sonic thought as he opened the faucet up and filled the pot with water. After it was half full, he turned it off and set the pot on the counter. He made a ruckus of sounds, clanging and banging, trying to find the gas stove he saw Tails buy and use the other day.

"Faker. What are you doing?" Shadow asked from the living room.

Sonic yelped as a smaller pot fell on his head. Thump.

"…Sonic?" Shadow asked worriedly. Getting no answer, Shadow got up and walked into the kitchen. Of course, there was a huge mess. A pile of pots and lids was on top of Sonic.

Shadow sighed. Of course he couldn't trust Faker to do much of any house work. He had probably no experience with eating anything besides canned food and snacks when Tails or someone else wasn't around. How did he ever get the crazy idea that Sonic could actually boil water? Without power?

After getting Sonic to get up, Shadow told him to watch how he's going to boil the water so the next time he won't be such an idiot. Shadow put a bottle of gas in the gas stove and locked it. Placing the pot over the stove, he turned on the heat and blue flames burst from under the pot. After a while of watching the water slosh back and forth, Shadow put the lid on.

The dark doppelganger poured hot water slowly into a light blue mug that already had a small amount of tea leaves in the cup. The cup itself had words on it, saying, "Sonic's the name, I've got all the fame." Instead of the old, "Sonic's the name, speed's the game."

He handed the steaming cup of tea to said hedgehog. Only then had he realized: "Sonic, you only got a cup for yourself?"

Sonic stopped blowing on his tea and looked up. "Oh. Oops…Maybe we can share it. I'm too lazy to get another cup."

Shadow snagged the cup away from Sonic before he could take a sip. His trade-mark smirk appeared on his tan lips as he wrapped it around the edge of the cup and took a small sip. "That fox is a smart kid."

"Hey!" Sonic said, and put a hand to the cup, trying to get it back, but in vain. So he did the alternative. Sonic moved himself closer to the cup, to Shadow. "I'm drinking the rest because you took the first sip."

"No you're not."

"Oh, yes I am."

"We'll see about that."

And as soon as the last word came out of his mouth, Shadow twisted around kept the cup as far away from Sonic as he could, which, was not very far. Sonic forced his head up and dunk the liquid down into his mouth and swallowed it with a satisfying sigh. He shivered as chills went down his spine as the hot and warm water traveled down his throat, down to his esophagus, and trickled into his stomach. It was indeed good tea that Tails had picked.

Shadow grabbed the cup from under Sonic's hands and clutched it close to his chest. "It's mine." He laughed. "It's soooo mine."

"Whoa, huge personality change…" Sonic smiled.

Shadow's smile turned into a smirk quickly. "Ha, you fell for it." Shadow drank the whole cup of warm liquid and sighed as he fell back into the soft sofa.

Sonic frowned. "Dammit, you ass." He took back the cup and looked at what's left of it. Soaked leaves.

A few minutes later, Sonic was bored again. Well, not exactly the same as he was before, since the tea was starting to take an effect on him. He sat next to Shadow and leaned on his shoulder, looking at the book he was reading. "Is that interesting?" asked Sonic.

"Yeah. It's about a mouse who is very risky and abnormal. I mean, hell, he's in love with a human princess and was born with open eyes."

"Ah, really? Hmmm, reminds me of that movie I was starred in, Sonic 06…Remember when Sophia had to kiss me? Augh, that was so awkward. I mean, why did she have to be as Elise? Couldn't it have been, I dunno, someone else?"

"What do you mean by someone else? That pink girl?"

"Uuuuuuum…No thanks." Sonic laughed. "I mean, she's a nice girl and all, but she's too obsessed with me. Maybe Blaze?"

"No. That future hedgehog will be even more pissed. Even after I kicked him in the head in the movie…Call that funny. It felt so good to kick that naïve hedgehog in the head and knock some sense into him…"

"Hmm, let's see…I don't really think Rouge would fit that scene…So I don't think any girls fit in that character. Ugh, that sucks."

"Why, do you want guys?"

"Guys? Please, why would I?"

"…Maybe you're gay." Shadow smirked.

"Oh yeah? What about you yourself?"

By that time, Shadow had already closed his book and held it one hand. Their faces were so close and full of confidence, it's almost as if they were sure they'd won a contest. But it was so…close…

"I'm not telling."

"Well," Sonic said, outstretching his legs and moved away from Shadow. "I'm bi, if that's gonna be inspirational."

"Duh, I've known all along you were. It wasn't as if you were hiding the fact."

"Uh…yeah, I didn't." What a lie. He'd been trying to hide it as best as he could for five whole years now! No one's noticed it until Shadow just comes along and says, 'Oh, I know you're bi, it's so obvious.'

Even if the two didn't know, the place was getting romantic for some weird reason. Perhaps it's because of the candles. Even when Sonic was wide awake, his eyes fell half-lidded. They were staring intently at Shadow's crimson ones, which were half-lidded as well. The rose scented candles reached their noses and it made it even more romantic.

Sonic shivered a little from the cold, and that broke their gaze. He stood up and lifted the blanket from under him and wrapped it around himself. "Aren't you cold?"

"Well, I'm Ultimate Lifeform, so therefore I'm not as sensitive to the cold as you are. But…I suppose a blanket wouldn't do much harm." And so he copied the blue one's earlier actions.

With closed eyes, they unconsciously inched closer to each other, closer to the warmth they longed for secretly. They didn't even notice what was happening until their shoulders bumped and brushed softly. Shadow was the first to snap open his eyes, but he didn't stop moving closer to Sonic. And Sonic didn't really mind either. He felt warmer now…but not so much enough. Yet.

Their hips were now touching. Thighs. Legs. Waist.

…Forehead.

Sonic reacted first. He threw his arms around Shadow's neck and hugged him for a few seconds. Ahhh, the warm fiery feeling finally spreading through his guts and out into his arms and legs. It was a satisfying, shivery feeling.

But Shadow gradually pushed Sonic back. Sonic felt embarrassed and a little stupid now. Why did he do that? Of course Shadow wouldn't like it. How could he have just lost himself and just went by his instinct? Stupid, stupid, stupi—

Shadow suddenly leaned forward again, and closed the gap again. Their lips brushed gently and hovered over each other neatly.

Sonic's heart either skipped a beat, or was beating way too fast to be normal. His face flushed as he squeaked a barely audible whimper. He wasn't expecting that. He wasn't ready. It caught him by absolute surprise. Which, wasn't fair. At all.

The blue one tightened his hold on the other's neck and deepened the kiss just a little. Soft moans escaped from their throats, mixed together and forming some sort of harmony.

No woman could kiss like a man, that's for sure. That's why Sonic's craving of someone who could satisfy him was finally fulfilled. Electrical jolts were sent down everywhere his skin made contact with the other and it made him dizzy to no end. He felt like he was going to faint any second.

Shadow felt Sonic heat up remarkably. He wondered if he should stop, but when he pulled away for only an inch away from the other's peach chest, Sonic pulled him back. Cleary he didn't want him to stop.

Something in the dark hedgie's mind clicked and an idea formed. He pushed Sonic down against the sofa and slid a hand up his abdomen and up his waist, slowly traveling towards his chest. The gloved hand rubbed sensually when he reached a soft and furry spot of Sonic's peach chest, forcing a groan out of the blue speed demon.

"Ahh, Shadow…" Sonic panted.

Then the hand slid to the left and pinched a part of the sensitive skin. Sonic let out a squeak so high, it sounded hoarse.

And all the while, they were still making out. Then, Shadow stopped his actions and frowned. Sonic opened his eyes and stared questioningly at Shadow. Shadow then twitched his lips in a small smile.

"I know what's wrong." He got off of
Sonic. The cobalt hero was going to whine, but before he could do that, the light from the candle died out. "The mood was wrong. This is more of a lustful activity than romantic, isn't it?" Shadow smirked, and got back onto Sonic.

Sonic blushed, but said nothing.

And there they were on the sofa, making love on the sofa, alone. Hell, Sonic was most likely never to forget this boring and painful week of the power outage. But he sure was glad it had went out. This secret wish he'd never thought of happening is actually happening.

But hey…what if Tails come back…? Meh, fuck that. Shadow didn't seem to have any doubts when he started doing this to Sonic, so there must be nothing wrong. Maybe Tails was staying outside…

As guilty as that may feel, Sonic was glad that Tails wasn't coming home until tomorrow. Shadow really had a way of making his way into your life. It's only been a few hours and he'd already replaced his baby brother.

And to think…this all started with a mere power outage.

…And maybe a candlelight kiss that led to the string of crazy and bizarre events.

Fin.

I know. That was horrible. *cries* I can't write ANYTHING these days…TT~TT Review and tell me what's missing…because I KNOW something's missing…