Fate's Wretched Odyssey

IX

The two hedgehogs' shoes clicked together on the sidewalk as they made their way to the casino. It was just down the road from the Golden Plaza, so Sonic left his car in the restaurant's parking lot to retrieve later. In all honesty, Sonic had forgotten that the casino was open on weekends, seeing as neither him nor Shadow worked there on those days. So it came as a little shock to see it bustling with life.

It felt a little strange to enter without his uniform.

The bouncers nodded when Shadow walked by, the dark male hardly throwing them a glance as he moved to the elevators and scanned his card for the floor his office was situated on. Sonic tailed him, the duo moving silently to the large office that overlooked the whole place before Shadow pushed the doors open, allowed Sonic to enter, and shut them behind his blue employee. Sonic stepped around the rug.

"So? What does my connection with it allow it to do?" Shadow was straight to the point, his red eyes narrowed. He moved past Sonic to his precious gemstone, carefully removing it from the glass casing. Sonic swore that he saw a flash of shock glaze through Shadow's eyes when his gloveless fingers made contact with the shining emerald, but he bit his tongue and remained silent.

"May I?" He asked gently, one hand reaching out. Shadow hesitated for the second time that night, yet he eventually settled and placed the stone in Sonic's awaiting hold. The smaller male was unsure if this was truly a good idea, if what he wanted to show Shadow was going to be worth it. But every instinct in his body howled at him to do so. Doing all he could to ignore the fiery heat that pulsated through his flesh like powerful drums, he brought the Emerald close to himself.

"I'm sorry in advance, but in order to completely unlock the Emerald's potential, I need to get rid of some gear," Sonic laughed, though it was filled with his nerves. Shadow just held a look of confusion upon his defined features, one ear flicking. Until he blinked and looked away when Sonic began to remove his blazer and shirt.

"You could have mentioned earlier if you were going to literally need to strip in front of me," Shadow snarled, clearly unimpressed. Sonic scoffed, "I'm not stripping, you prude." He threw his balled up shirt at the side of Shadow's face. "Relax, I'm just gonna show you how they were used, that's all." Shadow seemed unconvinced, but instead of arguing, he simply sat in his office chair, one hand keeping his head propped up.

Subconsciously, he found himself admiring the small physique of the male before him, examining the way his blue fur and quills rippled over the muscle hidden beneath. Yet, as soon as he realized, he stopped and let a scowl fall back onto his face. Something so small was anything but worthy of his adoring eye.

Sonic held the gemstone in one paw, giving it a small toss in his hand as if testing its weight in his palm. Then he did it again, but instead of falling back down, it floated in place, hovering around the spot near Sonic's shoulder. Shadow blinked. "These Emeralds were the very lifeblocks to the existence of a werebeast. Without them, survival was harsh and unforgiving."

"So they cheated with those fancy rocks?" Shadow butted in, his eyes locked to the Emerald as it followed where Sonic walked. "Those fancy rocks birthed their species. It's why they were so reliant on them." The blue hedgehog's fingertip grazed the stone, and it shone brightly. "If I'm able to get it to tap into the supposed connection you have with it, I can demonstrate how they were most commonly used by the werebeasts." Shadow stood up, taking Sonic's words as an invitation.

He approached his employee, who now held the Emerald in his palms, and placed his hand atop the purple stone. A wave of... Something inexplicable to Shadow — shot through both of their bodies, coiling through their blood and warming them to the very core. Sonic felt his cheeks grow hot, and he did all he could to ignore the heat that was growing in his lower abdomen.