Encounters: Beastly (Sonic the Hedgehog AU)

The Night Watch

It was two in the morning.

They were barely awake. Well, Shadow was barely awake. Blaze was probably on her tenth cup of coffee for the entire day, but he couldn't be sure. He wanted to go to bed desperately. "Blaze. Please. There's nothing on the cameras."

"You can go to bed," she scoffed, now doing a sudoku puzzle at Sarah's desk, turned away from Shadow and towards the radio by herself, softly playing a rock station. "No one is stopping you."

"You'll never go to bed then."

"I will, too."

"The first time I ever had you join on a 24 hour watch night, you took it too literally and stayed up for thirty-nine hours before you said something and before I realized you hadn't slept," Shadow still felt responsible at the memory of the once young cadet now ranger before him. "I got yelled at for it."

"Well, you should've told me that we could sleep," Blaze refused to take the blame. She looked up at the cameras and sighed. Her puzzle was getting nowhere and hadn't for the last fifteen minutes - it was extra hard. And she was tired despite the coffee - she was sure Shadow had switched it out for decaf when she wasn't looking. "Fine. Bring your stupid fan."

She stood up as Shadow seemingly pouted at her while grabbing the fan. He didn't seem fond of anyone judging the poor, white old fan. Then again, he didn't hear the slight high-pitched sound that occasionally came from it like Blaze did - her hearing was just better. She got used to it though for the sake that Shadow got sleep, as he too pushed himself. In a way, she figured she should be grateful they had each other on the job to balance one another out. It was times like this that made them both vulnerable to mistakes and better for each other as a team.

Shadow happily brought the fan to the nightstand in between the cots. It wasn't awkward for the two to sleep in the same room - they stayed professional when it came to their work, Blaze's cot was a pile of blankets and a warm sleeping bag. Shadow's was a mere sleeping bag - he thought she was insane for wanting to be buried alive in blankets anytime she slept. The ebony hedgehog practically collapsed on the cot, and Blaze almost felt bad. She knew he was waiting for her to at least lie down so he had the comfort in knowing she was resting her body a little.

He truly doesn't have a mean bone in his body, despite how he looks. Blaze smiled softly to herself, remembering the first time that they met. She was younger, and had been completely intimidated by his red eyes alone. She had put up a front though, to make sure she seemed equally as tough. In a way, as they worked together throughout the summers, their personality rubbed off on one another - and they made sure to keep Silver's personality at an arm's length distance. The white hedgehog gave it hell though.

She turned off the only lamp lit in the room. Just as she slipped into the safety and warmth of her fluffy blankets, her ears picked up a sound.

Scrrrrr

She turned her head slowly to the door, but jumped in shock when Shadow jolted upwards from his cot. His eyes were wide as he blinked at the door. "No fucking way," he whispered to himself.

"What?"

"That's the sound I heard the night...I was here by myself." They both knew he had wanted to say 'the night the wolf was on camera' or something along those lines. It made a shiver run down Blaze's spine suddenly.

Cautiously, Shadow got out of the cot, now on high alert. He didn't want to think that Blaze might be correct on this one - that the wolf was still in the park somewhere.

The dark hedgehog opened the door and looked out into the hallway with Blaze. She had turned off the lights in the main room.

All that lit up the room was the monitor showing the cameras and the air freshener plugged into the wall that had a light in it - as usual. As it had been the night Shadow was by himself and heard the noise.