Spooky

Chapter 20

-Shadow's POV-

I step back into the room, freshly cleaned, teeth brushed. I had passed Scourge when getting out of the shower; he takes shorter showers than me, it seems. We brushed our teeth together, then headed back up to our room. On the way there, we ran into Sonic and Amy (the latter of which technically shouldn't be here) in the kitchen, and to my surprise they greeted us with friendliness. Sonic only picked on Scourge a little bit, and with a surprising lack of malice—closer to playful banter, but with a little awkwardness. Something's changed between the two of them, and honestly, I'm glad. Scourge has enough enemies as is. I stretch, yawning a bit, and hear Scourge shut the door behind me. "So," he asks, "What do you wanna do today?"

I turn to face him, scratching my chest beneath my tank top. I'd gone with a simpler pattern today—one of the plain Panic! At The Disco shirts—and some only half-destroyed red jeans. Scourge, as always, is wearing just his leather jacket, which he adjusts as I think of a reply. "We could do just about anything, really," I reply, eyes drifting around the room. I feel a bit lazy today, to be honest, and I don't really wanna go anywhere, but what do we have to do here...? I blink into the rather empty room. My bed holds no answers, nor does the nightstand or the window above it. Eventually my gaze lands on my Xbox, and his eyes follow mine. "Why don't we just stay here and play something?" I suggest hopefully.

"What've you got?" He inquires, stepping towards me.

I crouch down, pulling my duffel bag out from under the desk. Rifling through it, I pull out an extra controller, then some game cases to examine. "Uhh, Grand Theft Auto 3, The Witcher 3, Dark Souls... bunch of shit I've never played, really. I look back at the system. "The only game I actually played was Inside, which isn't a disk game."

"Any multiplayer games...?" He sits down next to me, rather close, his legs criss-crossed.

I shrug, looking over my shoulder at him. "We could try looking on the online store, there's probably something free there." He nods and rubs at one eye, seeming still sleepy. I lean forward and turn on the TV, then the Xbox, plugging in both controllers and handing one to him. He gratefully accepts it, and then I scoot back and sit down comfortably next to him. The two of us nestle into this little corner between my open suitcase and the desk, sitting close together, almost too close. The memory of my dream flits into my head briefly; I reach over and grab my phone off the desk, keeping my head turned away from Scourge. Shut up—Now isn't the time. We're just going to chill out, play some video games, and relax. I need to relax. I check my notifications as the Xbox finally wakes all the way up, and Scourge starts noodling around trying to find the Xbox store. After I've checked my messages, then Pokémon Go, I lock my phone again and direct him to it. We poke around, find some really bad-looking free games, and pick the one that seems the worst, to make fun of it. Unfortunately, said Terrible Game has a half-hour download.

"Ugh, you gotta be kiddin' me..." He groans, stretching his back by bending over backwards, with his hands on his face, growling.

I shrug. "Eh. What can you do." I recline against the table, lazily checking the time as I put my controller down beside me. There's a pause; Scourge relaxes, his hands dropping into his lap. I hear him drum his fingers on his bare feet for a moment, making little bored noises with his mouth, half-beatboxing but not really settling on a rhythm.

The emerald-furred hedgehog turns to look at me; I'm busy letting my eyes go out of focus as I stare out the window. "Hey, Spooky?" He asks. I grunt in reply, blinking to 'reset' my vision, then looking over at him. "Do you, uh, have any plans for Homecoming?"