"You don't have to leave- you can stay with me ... I can make you happy- I'll do anything to get you to stay -" 

Sonic wouldn't look at him.  

Why wouldn't Sonic even look at him.  

"Please,  please I don't want you to leave-i know you need to go. .. maybe that you weren't even supposed to be here in the first place ..." 

Blue was talking fast- desperate - couldn't they find another way? 

"I have to go back home,  what it comes down to -" 

There was a pause as Sonic's tail twitched- Blue felt his very soul shrivel at the pure apprehension he suffered in his gut- it actually ruffled up his fur ... 

"Is that you were ... well ... fun ... but" 

What?

"I have someone,  someone else,  my Shadow." 

Oh no.  

"Wh.... why did you sleep with me if you were with someone else?" 

Blue shoved the question into Sonic by actually physically shoving him in anger.  

Sonic turned quickly, a single finger raising to touch his muzzle as he scratched it absently, looking like he was coming up with something on the spot when - 

"I dunno,  you smelt good." 

"Get out." 

"I thought you could make me happy." 

"Leave,  don't come back -I seriously can't believe you." 

"That was the plan .... yea." 

Blue turned around,  walking away swirly without a second thought. 

Blue shot up in bed-inhaling loudly,  the sound scratching his throat and constricting his neck as he did so - He shuddered after - what was that?? His hands slid down his thighs as his knees pressed together as he caught his breath.  

He hadn't been breathing.  

Was that why there was a mounting anxiety in his dream? Or was it from that crushing feeling of rejection he was waiting to receive? 

Both felt awful... 

"Sonic?" 

Blue's emerald eyes raised to meet concerned red irises- Shadow-god-when had he come in? Blue's fur raised up a bit in surprise-as he was examined by heated hands.  

"I heard you gasp- you were hyperventilating- what's wrong?" 

Chaos,  he was so attentive.... 

Blue felt a smile tug at his mouth,  a dopey one that slid across his features playfully.  

"Nothing..." 

Shadow stared, snorting after a second,  lowering his hands, free of those rings,  and the gloves,  and reaching behind his hedgehog to gently rub that soft velvet tail. 

"Ok-I just wanted to check" 

Shadow slid into Blue leaving forward to nuzzle him.  

"Yea... you're fine" 

He chuckled.

The bed was so soft and inviting, housing a heart that was beating hard, broken and twisted and … upset. 

Blue found himself reciprocating the soft caresses, rubbing his face into the gentle hand, Shadow’s short nails gently scratching up and behind his ear, looping ito skim through the soft fur as Blue melted into the touch, curling his shoulders upwards as he lowered his head to accept the affection, the sound of loud purring leaving him as Shadow seated himself, pulling the lean form into a gentle and heartwarming hug, enveloping his body in soft warmth. 

Blue slid into the feeling and pressed his muzzle with harsh intent into Shadow’s shoulder, the darker agent’s eyes widening marginally, as his partner, distressed over something, fell silent in his grasp. 

“What’s wrong?” 

The question caused Blue’s ears to perk up-

“Wrong?”

He nervously backed up from the embrace and began to rapidly climb out of bed- 

“N-Nothing- nothing’s wrong!” 

He tried to sound nonchalant but his voice was cracking and he was trying to run so fast it was laughable- Shadow caught his hands and steadied him as he stepped off the bed, turning him to face him, pulling him closer and looking at him, those red irises watching him as he slid his emeralds off to face some corner of the room- unable to lock eyes right now. He wasn’t feeling well, and he didn’t want to talk about it- at all. 

“I know you’re going through something right now, you don’t have to tell me- but you don’t have to run away from me just because I asked about it either...you can just relax Sonic.” 

Sonic, right-

He could remember it so clearly, when Sonic showed up, and in between all the havoc, mentioned “well what are we gonna call ya? Blue?” And Blue simply shrugged and said “I am Blue.” causing a entire chorus from Eiffel 65 from the other male that pissed him right the fuck off. 

His attempt to flee was cut short and instead he caved and sought Shadow’s comfort, since it was so freely offered. The two of them laying out over the bed, Blue burrying his head in Shadow’s chest as the agent pulled himself further up the bed snorting, Blue could be so unmanageable sometimes because for some reason he’d never gotten any good at expressing himself. This caused a lot of problems in their relationship whenever either of them had had an issue, because between the two Shadow had gotten VERY good at using his words, and Blue had just continued to stay the same, unwilling to learn and unwilling to open up. 

It was odd, because it made Shadow think something had happened to the happy-go-lucky cerulean to make him like this, afraid to be vulnerable and unable to really express emotions, or even constructs. He would always try to distract Shadow when they got into arguments with things they could be doing instead, which wasn’t so bad, since almost one hundred percent of the time, when Shadow was mad, Blue had a habit of offering up sex as a way to make him forget about what he was even mad about, which Shadow would be pressed to admit, actually did make him forget about quite a lot of things that pissed him off. 

“Why are you so afraid? Hm?” 

Shadow whispered, barely audible, only to receive a very significant and immediate answer. 

“I want for things to be ok, all the time, I’m not afraid.” 

He gripped Shadow’s shoulder tightly as he said as much, straining to do so- and Shadow found himself furrowing the lines between his ridges trying to discern what exactly that meant. It must have meant something deeper than he let on. Blue was the type to not rock the boat, Shadow watched him get treated unfairly at certain times by his own company and shrug it off with little to no emotion. A lot of things just did not get to him at all, or barely scratched the surface of his ability to perceive it as being unfair in the first place. 

Maybe he just didn’t feel, and when he did, he didn’t know how to express it because he often never had to. He had seen Blue mad, and it was often shown through visual cues, when he finally did express himself, it was usually one or two sentences that were so well crafted, and pointed, it was impossible not to take him seriously. 

“No one won’t be ok if you talk to us, no one would be mad at you for being honest with us.” 

“I love you.” 

Shadow froze up. 
WHAT?

What the fuck had brought THAT out? Sonic NEVER once had managed to say that, he said it in different ways, used his body or brought him home rare things from nature, certain stones, or precious water, things he used to show he cared, but he had NEVER managed to say THAT.

“I love you too…”

And just like that, Shadow forgot what they were talking about… again. 

--

When Blue left Shadow’s house he felt, different. There was a lot he had to unpack, about his sexuality and his biology, that Shadow had informed him about. The land moved beneath him swiftly, at a pace that he set for himself, slower than his usual speed, taking his time and trying to get his mind off of it. 

Even though nature could usually get his head out of the clouds, this wasn’t the case for this time, he couldn’t imagine a world before the one he had now bumped into, before he was a thirsty slut for powerful males. He didn’t wanna humor the concept as being true because he didn’t want it to be. Yet he couldn’t just ignore the facts. 

Landmarks flashed along his sides, barely recognizable as trees, rocks, grass flying along behind him like green rain and dust cascading behind him like sand storms. He didn’t know where he was going, didn’t care, didn’t want to know. Heading into unknown territory was a part of the adventure after all. 

He knew at some point he had passed Tails workshop, the red and white of his plane, and the shack barely lodging itself in his memory because his speed had increased so astronomically. He wanted to return to something, but it wasn’t a place, it was a feeling, he wanted to return to a time before now, somewhere where he didn’t have to think about anything like this, where something like what his body was like, or how he behaved, were not things he would have to question. 

It bothered him a lot to think that he wouldn’t have known about this...maybe ever, if it wasn’t for how out of control it was. The ground began to run thick with slickened mud, as ran began to pour and thunder began to rage, he must have ran into or near a swamp region- the sensatin cooled his senses and brought him out of it- but- something else entirely different brought him out of it more. 

The water- the water- 

He slammed his feet into the ground and dug his palms into the grass, mud digging deep into the soles of his shoes- stumbling as he stopped braking, throwing himself into a short hop. His quills dropped low as he raised his eyes skyward towards the clouds-most of them blocked out by gigantic mushroom caps- not believing what he was seeing. Not believing this was real. 

“What is this?” 

The water was touching his fur, and coming down hard on him, IT was striking the ground and coating in rich colors of … pink. 

“What?” 

He couldn’t believe it, it was only doing this to organic material- rocks remained their gray or neutral tones of brown, but the moss that clung to them were a colorful coral pink. Just like his fur. 

It wasn’t just all that though, what was worse, was the FEELING. Something HORRIBLY wrong was happening here… It wasn’t a thunderstorm, or the sense of the temperature, this all wasn’t the same as Blue just being a little afraid of something like that- or the change in atmosphere. 

This, ran, deep. 

Something- VERY WRONG was happening.

He was dripping wet, soaked as the rain began to come down harder, causing him to shake his head and slap his hands at either side a few times to try to change what he was seeing. 

When he opened it he couldn’t help but inhale in shock. The world had been a murkey swamp just less than ten seconds ago, and this pink water had now spread this shade all across the entire area, Blue jerked his foot up looking down at his shoe only to see the golden buckle and familiar white and red material hadn’t at all switched. He squinted, barely able to even make anything out anymore as he covered his hand over his face, the deluge of water pelting his coat so hard he could barely move, much less see, or even hear anything beyond the pounding of the water. 

His ears slid down to protect themselves from receiving any more water inside of them, twisting back against his head as he placed his hands above his head using his forearms to protect his eyes from the rain as he searched out a place to retreat to from the storm. The wind was buffering him so hard he couldn’t even walk straight. 

Just as he was getting a semi handle on the place, he heard a growling noise, unlike anything he had ever experienced before- something rattling just after, his ears flipping up briefly only to twist back against his head just as fast- the sound was nearby, but he couldn’t barely make out from where. 

The grass around him was getting trampled down beneath a coiling rustling sound, rising from all around him in a circle, and as his eyes opened- he saw nothing but bright pink- and scales, and- 

“No….way” 

A large serpent, unlike anything he had ever seen before, was raising skyward from the water, from the collected materials of pink this- thing was ….it was raising into the sky, stopping to look down directly at him, at HIM. 

His chest constricted hard, he couldn’t breath, feeling like he was fighting the fear that shown deep in his eyes. This wasn’t the same as the previous enemies he’d faced- this wasn’t a feeling of being threatened and a clear enemy, he stood straight slowly, showing no fast movement- feeling much the same as he did when he confronted chaos, only this time, no chaos emeralds. 

His mouth opened, and as he did so, the entire thing flashed brightly, as if in and out of existence twisting away into the wind and the maelstrom, in and out, in and out of existence it felt like, like a presence of power was being flicked on and off by a nearby lightswitch. The sensation was fucking terrifying, causing Blue’s heart to quicken its pace, everything suddenly feeling far too real and far too unreal at once, smashing into each other in a way that made you question your own sanity, while at the same time knowing very well you were very much sane. 
Seconds passed, the creature unraveling before him, its features uncanny and beautiful, entwined in parallel pockets of various colors of pink, its features dripping in sakura petals of rain that seemed to splash onto the Earth in pockets of swirling dust, but the FEELING of it was horrible. It was pain, unlike anything else Blue had experienced, pain and death and decay, not matching the lively appearance of the pink glowing serpant in sensation, and striking him to the core with terror. 

Blue stepped forward, feeling immediately sick and woozy- swallowing hard, still unable to make shit out around him- when- a warmth enveloped him, the sensation leaking just as fast as the rain into him, the smell of Sonic bombarding his senses as the ground was taken from him and he was swept up off the grass and mud and carried, bodily, away from the massive storm, his hand raising outwards towards what he knew must have been still there- only to see- nothing, nothing but rain and pink. 

But that feeling- the feeling of unease, remained with him. Like he had been scarred deeply, and couldn’t ever hope to heal. 

What had just happened? 

“What was that?!?!!” 

Sonic yelled, holding him close as kept running, the two of them coming out the other side as a crushing roar followed after them, the thunder growing in intensity, rocking the entire sky and stripping not downward, but across. 

“I don’t know…” 

Blue clutched his chest, his heart bursting, as he grit his teeth, Sonic taking him away further and further from that feeling, that feeling that made his throat close up, his eyes watering from the pain of it all. 

He felt…

Like…

He was dying…

“Yea me either but I am not about to go back and find out, I fucking HATE water!” 

Sonic swore angrily, he really wanted to know what the fuck was going on, that was some serious shit, but he couldn’t imagine wanting to deal with water getting into his ears, as things stood he was sure Blue didn’t want to either- he seemed pretty shooken up, not at all confident. 

He felt like he was running on dreams of absolution until the ground became far more solid, causing his feet to land solid, the feeling leaving both of them and causing them to both collectively gasp, Sonic nearly fell in the process of landing, not expecting all of his emotions to be completely changed in an instant like that- landing heavily and sliding to a stumble as the two turned to look at the rainstorm behind them- in an area meant for that, it wasn’t really that peculiar looking from afar, but the atmosphere of it all was now encaged in this pink color- the pigment visible from even that far back- and just as Sonic was trying to get a handle on it all, Blue yelled- 

“It isn’t coming off!?”

Sonic turned to face him in alarm, and then realized what he was talking about- the pink color on his fur seemed to have seeped into every follicle, completely changing all the of the colors thereout. It had coated every single strand, from his greenish blue hue, to a more startling pink- Sonic, without thinking, grabbed him, getting a huffy little hiss in response from doing so- 

“Hey it’s ok- it’s ok-” 

Sonic took a moment to calm him down, checking for any kind of deep wounds, or any indication of poison, anything that would make more sense, what was this? Was this dye? It couldn’t be- because HIS fur wasn’t any different kind of color at all- he was still blue, and he had ran through the middle of it. 

Blue was freaking out, he had just went from feeling as though the whole world was ending, something that changed him so completely as a person because he had never had an experience like that, to feeling like- like he WAS a completely different person- because the color of his entire body had changed. 

“Breath- come on- Blue snap out of it!” 

The ground began to pound, the sound of it startling both of them as they turned both at the same time to face the storm- the creature rising upwards to coil over the air as it began to rush forwards across the grounds, painting the ground pink as it began to press onwards, aiming- aiming- both of them could feel it- 

For Blue. 

“IT’S -- IT’S FOLLOWING ME!” 

Sonic opened his mouth- 

“No that’s...that’s not possi-” 

The ground shook around them, rocks twisting and dirt settling immediately afterwards, Sonic growling, turning to face it. 

“!?”

He turned to face Blue, his eyes wide- completely destroyed with fear, this wasn’t right. Whatever it was, it wasn’t right for him, and wasn’t good for him- not with the way he was behaving. 

A grief stricken cry, weak in comparison to the first, raced over the land, brushing all the grass sweeping it towards them, calling in the direction Blue had gone. 

If there was a question before, it was answered now. 

“WHAT DOES IT WANT FROM ME?!?!”

Sonic just didn’t ask anymore, Blue wasn’t gonna run himself- he was frozen in shock, his tail was curled up in between his legs and he was rooted to the ground in terror, practically hyperventilating- he had to do it for him. 

“I don’t know, but if it wants to get it-”

He picked up the shaking, wet, pink hedgehog, pulling him up into his arms and quickly situated him, so that he was holding him

“It’s gonna have to go fast.”