MVA (but it's sonic) 2

Chapter 13- Gift of Speech

It had been a few hours since Sonic had left, but the others hadn't noticed his absence yet. He was rather quiet in the facility, more-so after he had shut himself in, even if only temporarily.

The young fox was buried up to his ears in work, the work that he had put on himself. He had been working probably since when Sonic had left for his little run around, but he didn't know that. Still, he was there, hunched over his desk with instrument in hand.

"You're going to ruin your back doing that, you know." Shadow said at the doorway.

"Wha- Sh-Shadow?!" The fox jumped then instinctively covered his workspace with his arms. "Wha- what are you doing here?"

"Wondering what you've been doing? I assume you're still worried about Sonic. That's why you're hunched over your desk here, right?"

"Ah, well, that's part of it."

"What are you talking about?" Shadow stood closer to him, a brow raised.

"I.... Ah whatever." He moved himself away from the table and presented what he was creating.

Laying on the table was a pair of shoes. Thick ones made of synthetics and foam, but instead of the traditional rubber soles, they were made out of metal and other high heat resistant material's. Underneath were many holes made to expel out energy.

"Are those.... Rocket shoes?" Shadow puzzled. His head tilted to one side.

"Yeah, I sort of wanted it to be a surprise, but..." the fox fiddled with his hands as he trailed off.

"Why did you make these?"

"Well, I don't know... with what's happening to Sonic, I figured we might need a little something extra for the long run." He scratched his head and nervously admitted. "Though, thinking about it, I might just be forcing work on myself so I don't have to keep worrying about him."

"Why do you think we'll need something like this in the future?"

"I don't know... call it a hunch?"

Shadow examined the shoes. Despite all the metal, it looked rather comfortable, even just a little bit. The design of them was really nice too. The beautiful red soles came in contrast with the black and white base. Wait...

"Are those... for me?" Shadow said.

"Uh, yeah! I know you're sort of accustomed to the shoes the facility gave you, but I thought that you... might wanted an extra pair?"

He looked back down at the shoes, examining the jets below that were painted gold to match his inhibitors. "Can I try them on?" He asked.

"Y-Yeah! I want to see if they fit!" He slid them off of the table and graciously held them out to the dark hedgehog in front. "I still need to do some tweaking, but they're basically in perfect working order!"

"... And they aren't going to explode on me? Are they?" Shadow said with suspicion.

"UGH! You blow up a fighter jet and then almost set off a nuclear bomb ONE TIME, and all of a sudden no one trust you or your work anymore!"

Shadow sighed and took them from the foxes hands. That was confirmation enough. To be fair, the fox hasn't blown something up in months, yet. He slid them over his feet, over the rings that kept him stable and alive. A perfect fit.

"Huh, not bad." He smirked.

"I also got these for you." Tails said and held out a pair of white gloves that were missing their fingers to him. Another gift for the hedgehog. "I know you don't wear any. But I thought that you'd like them as well."