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siggiedraws · 4 hours ago

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sudden sunset serenade

Submission by @blurredblu!

In the middle of a room on a perfectly fine day, Silver scowled as if the world was encroaching its end.

“…No,” he decided. The cross of his arms marked the full stop to his wondering. “There’s another way. I know there is.”

And yet, here he was. Sitting. Like some duck.

The rugged, pockmarked device on the table mocked him, the wires trailing from it like breadcrumbs to a trap. Silver’s eyes narrowed at the text scrawled on it in marker, a tower of thoughts, all his mental maths, finally reaching its peak.

“All right.” The table clattered as he stood to his full height. “Time to track down Sonic.”

On that vow, he snatched up the mixtape, unplugging the pair of headphones from it.

—

“So you gave it to him! Nice!” Tails wheeled himself out from beneath the Tornado, grinning up at Sonic. “D'you think he’s listened to it yet?”

Sonic laughed, rubbing at his quills. He had been working on a little project to give to Silver for the past while and Tails was the only person around who would notice, care, and keep quiet about it.

“I doubt it. It’s only been a day. He’s probably got a future or two to save before getting around to—”

“Sonic! Finally!” Silver—appearing out of nothing short of thin air—grabbed him by the arm. “You’re coming with me.”

Sonic blinked at Silver. Then at Tails. Tails blinked back at him. Then, whistling jauntily, wheeled himself back under the Tornado.

Sonic was barely able to blurt his best friend’s name before Silver whisked them both away.

—

Around Sonic was: Silver, a boom box, and an assortment of fruit. Beneath him laid a tartan blanket and grass that raced out and out towards the horizon, to the hills that weaved the baskets, the clouds their arcing, wispy handles, that cradled the day.

Sonic was, among other things, fast. He had no earthly idea how they had gotten here.

“Um,” Sonic said. For once since dragging him out of Tails’ garage, Silver didn’t immediately counter him with ‘not yet’. “What’s, uh, goin’ on, Silver?”

“This.” Silver put up the cassette, its worn colour fading further in the sunlight. “You gave me this. Yesterday.”

Silver eyed him like he was expecting to identify it for a court record. Sonic’s mouth opened, but words escaped him—if things could escape at a hobbling sort of pace more than a sprint, that is. Guarded, he gave a nod.

“I tried listening to it,” Silver continued. “And it…” Sighing gruffly, he messed at his quills. “Didn’t work.”

“Oh, what?” Sonic leaned forward on instinct. “Well, hey, that’s all right. It’ll take a while, but I can make another—”

“I couldn’t make it work.” Silver practically spat the words out, sighing afterwards. “The headphones were way too tight. Or loud. Probably both.” He dangled the headphones that Sonic gave with the tape. “It’s definitely a relic compared to the listening devices we use in the future. ‘Course, none of them"—he looked to the cassette—"worked with this.”

Sonic, sitting back down, gave a hum that hinted at understanding, but it was more of a mirage than a hint.

“Uh huh,” he decided on, diplomatic. “So…” The boom box popped open. Silver fed it the cassette. Sonic’s eyes widened. “Wait a second.”

“Took me a good while to find this, you know that? This tech is old even by today’s standards.” Silver rapped at the boom box with a knuckle, unheeding to how Sonic’s attention started darting around. “I oughta show you the stuff we use in the future. If not just educate you.”

“—Silver.” The name spilled from Sonic like a full glass on a knocked table. “You wanna listen to the mixtape I gave you, which, y'know, is why I gave it to you! I got no problem with that, but…” He was leaning forward again, though in more of a racer’s start this time. “Why am I here?”

“To hear what I think about it.”

Silver consulted a manual that came with the boom box, squinting. Sonic was knocked back flat onto his tail. And the tartan blanket.

“Hey, mind the fruit.” Silver tutted, eventually clicking the cassette into place. “I got it for us. Also, don’t talk while I’m listening. We can talk between songs. Or just afterwards.”

And so, with his leg crossing over another, his weight leaning on his arms, Silver closed his eyes as the music played. Sonic, not so much laying down so much as he was completely flattened, eventually felt around blindly for a fruit to eat.

Microphone fuzz and guitar strums sweetened the wind. At one point, Sonic propped himself on his elbows with a Herculean strength, aiming his face in Silver’s general direction. His eyes were still closed. His finger still tapped on the blanket to the beat of the song. The only difference that played out in Silver’s reactions were on his face. Most of all, beneath his stern, ever frowning eyes, he was smiling. Like a baby leaf swaying along to a breeze, or ripples scurrying out towards a shore, his mouth curved in a short, simple line, a snippet of the trajectory of each rhythm he listened to.

Part of Sonic wanted to race for the hills without looking back. Whatever part of him mustered the means to hand the tape to Silver lingered long enough that, short of looking at Silver a while longer, he simply slumped back onto the blanket and threw an arm over his eyes, burying a huff into his wrist.

—

When the songs ended, the sunset a nectarine ripening by the hour, Silver roused as if he had to stray from pillow-soft dreams.

Past the orange peels, apple cores, and skeleton-branches of grapes across the blanket, he made eye contact with Sonic, nectarine juice floating in bright, grassy green. Silver had gone into listening to the tape ready to pay rapt attention, raring to give ample feedback that Sonic could work with for any future endeavours he was thinking of. But the melody wound around his senses like smoke and lightened his mind like oxygen. The music put into something more fundamental than words what Silver always felt whenever Sonic was around: a bone-deep, breath-light feeling as expansive and liberating as the sky above that everything, no matter what, would turn out okay.

“…You’re truly talented, Sonic.” Silver simply shook his head. “I don’t think you needed me to tell you that. Or to even listen to this.” He grinned at the boom box. “Wherever you wanna take this tape, you’re set as far as I’m concerned. I know that’s pretty much nothing in terms of feedback, but…I can’t even find it in me to be disappointed.” He shrugged. “It feels like it was just a blessing to be able to listen to that. So, thank you.”

He aimed a smile at Sonic. Sonic, blinking slow, bloomed in a smile back at him.

“Silver.” A warmth cradled the word—the kind of warmth that bracketed a heartfelt laugh. “The tape’s for you.”

Suddenly, the wind brushed fresh and cool over Silver. He blinked after a shiver.

“I… Huh?”

“I dunno where you thought I was gonna take this tape, but it’s not for a studio for anything. I’ve been playing those songs for a while, yeah, but… Uh.” Sonic rubbed at his nose, glancing aside. “I came up with them while… You know.” He was palming at his quills, now, his face angling further away. “I already said they’re for you, right?”

Silver, in a twilight sweetening from nectarine to peach, realised on a quiet breath.

“…You came up with these songs…thinking of me.” His eyes drifted to the boom box in wonder. “I was your muse? For this?”

Sonic chuckled into his hand, busy as it was palming his tortured sort of smile. “What a way to word it.”

“Sonic, that’s amazing.” Silver crawled forward on his hands, moved as he was, seriousness in every word like it would staple each to the wall of time, to be beheld for eternity. “That’s incredible! Seriously! I… No one’s ever done anything like that for me before. If that…that music, that art is what you think of me, then…” His smile was growing indomitable, usurping the light waning from the sun, a laugh bursting out of him. “I’m so grateful! Thank you!”

He swept up Sonic into a firm hug, practically nuzzling into his shoulder. Sonic, his every finger crooked like they could cling onto the air surrounding Silver’s spines and his face ignited, could only swallow thickly.

“No problem.”

On his weak croak, Silver squeezed him tighter. His heart did a standing backflip. The part of Sonic that hadn’t yet sprinted away from the fuel of his jackhammering pulse was slowly but surely redirecting that energy to summon the power, wherever it may be, to hug Silver back.

Before Sonic’s fingers even brushed the fur on his back, Silver pulled away to press at the boom box once more.

“…Um,” Sonic said, his new catchphrase of the day. “What’s happening now?”

“We’re listening to it again.” The tape in the cassette squealed as Silver rewound it, his sunglow eyes dancing with peach as he grinned at Sonic. “I wanna hear what you were thinking about for each song.”

“What I was…” Sonic’s voice trailed off. He gulped. The sunset had turned scorching. “Uh.”

“Don’t be shy, Sonic! This was the most romantic thing you could do!” Silver grinned, blinding and beautiful and Sonic’s heart was about to give out. “This is a masterpiece and I get to talk to the artist behind it all. Who gets a chance like that? Not to mention I was the muse for it in the first place.”

“I think I left something in Tails’ garage,” Sonic mumbled, making to crawl away. A cyan light kept him in place. “Silver.”

“We both know you don’t live there. Or anywhere.” Silver laughed, letting his PK hold go. “Speaking of which, how about you come visit my place next time? I really wanna show you around now—I can’t have you outdo me in the courting department. I wanna show you that I care about you, too.”

Sonic’s jaw made moves as if to talk, but his brain was overheated for words. He buried his face into his arms and knees in a groan. Silver only chuckled, patient through his smouldering honesty. Sonic, knowing that much about him already, could only tuck away a smile into his knees.

As Sonic’s courage trickled back into him, speckles of blueberries and grapes dove into that glassy bowl of a day, filled with nothing but the ripest of fruit, nothing but riches in flavour as the two hedgehog indulged in snacking away, a morsel and a laugh at a time.

#submission #OH.#AAAAAAAASHGFHFJKHGJKFHKLHJKDLHGFJKLGFD;LFGKHL;KJHGLJHNLKFJMHKLFDGNJKLHJFLKGHJMKL #dude. duuuuuude. DUUUUUUDE DUDED DUDE #YES YES YES YES YESY ESY ESY ESYEYEYEYEYEYEYEYES #YOU WROTE ANOTHER MASTERPIECE FOR MEEEE I CAN'T I CAN'T 😭#I LOVE THIS THANK YOU SO MUCH #IT'S SO LOVELYYYY AWUUUUGHHHHH #GOING FUCKING CRAZY #sonilver #fic rec #READ THIS NOOOOOOWWWW

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