#prime!shadow

Annoyance,

Agreement,

💫 “You’re Still Here”

Prime!Shadow & Prime!Sonic | Comfort/Fluff/Tickles

Sonic was quiet. Which was… weird.

No humming. No quips. No dumb little jokes about how his fur was still frizzed from the energy backlash when the Shatterverse collapsed. No bragging about how he “totally survived getting deleted from existence by the skin of his quill.”

Nope. He just sat on the edge of the rocky platform outside Green Hill’s slowly-restoring core, legs dangling over the edge, arms limp at his sides. Just watching the stars. Quiet.

Shadow hated it.

“…You gonna say something, or are you trying to be dramatic?” Shadow asked, arms crossed as he approached from behind.

Sonic flinched, clearly startled. “Oh. Hey.”

That was it. ‘Hey.’

Shadow blinked. “You’ve been sitting here for two hours. You’re never quiet for two seconds.”

Sonic gave him a little smile—thin, tired, the kind that didn’t reach his eyes. “Guess I’m just… thinking.”

Shadow narrowed his eyes. “That’s dangerous.”

The joke didn’t land. Sonic gave a weak chuckle, eyes still fixed on the sky. “…Everything’s just kinda hitting me, y’know? I almost didn’t make it. And even though we put the shards back together, Nine still took off. Our world almost stopped existing—I almost stopped existing. And for what?”

“…You tried to fix what you broke.”

“Yeah. And I made it worse.”

There it was. That defeated tone. The guilt in his voice. The slump of his shoulders. Shadow felt his own chest tighten at the sight of it. He knew that look. He’d seen it in the mirror before. That “I messed everything up and I don’t know how to make it right” look.

He hated seeing it on Sonic’s face.

Shadow walked up behind him, arms still crossed. “You did fix it,” he said flatly. “We’re still here. That’s enough.”

“Is it?”

Shadow huffed. “You need a reset button.”

Sonic blinked. “Huh?”

And before he could turn fully around—ZAP.

“GAH!! SHADOW—!!”

Too late.

Shadow had reached forward, grabbed Sonic by the sides, and squeezed.

The reaction was instant: Sonic jolted like a live wire, twisting and kicking and laughing—actual real laughter for the first time since they got home.

“WAHAHAHA WAIT—!!” Sonic squealed, squirming in Shadow’s grip. “WH-HAHAHAT ARE YOU DOING?!”

“Resetting your brain,” Shadow said calmly, now dragging his fingers up under Sonic’s arms. “Clearly it’s jammed.”

“TH-THAHAHAT’S NOT HOW BRAINS WOHOHORK—!!”

“It is now.”

Sonic cackled, trying to wrestle away, but Shadow was relentless. He shifted behind him, pinning him with a knee and digging into that awful spot near his ribs that always made Sonic squeal like a dog toy.

“NOHOHO–!! PFFT-!! SH-Shadow!! STAHAHAHAHAP!!”

“Oh, so now you know my name. You must be feeling better.”

“TH-TH-THAHAHAHAT’S NOHOHOT FAHAHAIR!!”

Shadow actually smirked. “Life’s not fair. Neither is your laugh. It’s annoying.”

“THEN WHY AHAHAHARE YOU DOING THIS?!!”

“Because,” Shadow said lowly, now spidering his fingers up to Sonic’s neck, “if you’re laughing, you’re not blaming yourself.”

Sonic went still for half a second—then burst out into helpless giggles.

“EHEHEHEHE—!! YOHOU SAHAHAPPY NOW?! I’M LAUGHIHIHING!!”

“Almost.”

Shadow leaned in, smirk growing sharper. “One more squeal for the road.”

“Wha—no—WAITWAITWAIT—!!”

PPPPPPBBBTTT!!!

A raspberry to the side made Sonic howl, curling up into a ball and kicking wildly.

“YOU JERK—!!” he gasped, now breathless and flushed and absolutely wrecked with giggles. “I’m gonna get you back for that!!”

Shadow finally let him go, standing up and brushing off his gloves. “You can try.”

Sonic rolled onto his side, still chuckling, eyes glassy from leftover tears of laughter. But he was smiling. A real smile this time.

“Thanks,” he muttered.

Shadow shrugged. “Told you. Reset button.”

A pause.

“…You gonna stay out here with me?”

Shadow sat down beside him without a word.

The stars shimmered above, the chaos finally behind them, and for a while, they just breathed. Together.