He is My Master

71: Dear My Friend

                 *******EXCLAIMER*******
I DO NOT OWN THIS NOVEL IM MERELY TRANSFERRING IT TO WATTPAD CHECK OUT THE ORIGINAL AND GIVE KUDOS TO AUTHOR Chiisai Kitsune ON FF.NET HERE

     https://m.fanfiction.net/s/4256772/74/

Sonic woke gradually this time, no nightmare jolting him awake but rather a hurting body slowly reasserting itself and trying to nudge him into getting it water, food, painkillers and, possibly, a bathroom. Sonic blinked blearily as the familiar surroundings of Tails' medbay/lab swam into view around him and he sighed, tension leaving him as apparently, all was well with the world (if they had managed to transport him here and he was still in one piece). Trying to sit up let him wince, pain flaring up underneath the bandage on his hip, but even that was tolerable. As long as all his limbs worked, no joint was bent at a weird angle and there weren't any hallucinations of twerking Robotniks in the room he was fine.

"G-guys? Hello?" he called, his throat only spasming a little at the first syllable as his vocal cords scrambled to work properly again. He wasn't particularly hurt that there was no one there watching his sick bed - in fact, if there had been any single person always sitting at Sonic's bedside when he was out of commission from some adventure or fight or other, that friend likely would have gotten halfway through most of Dostojewski's oeuvre in the first year alone, Sonic privately thought.

"...yeah? Sonic, that you? You awake?"

"Either that or this is the suckiest dream ever. Ow." Sonic winced again as he shifted his legs to dangle over the edge of the lab table, but still managed to give a small grin to Tails hurrying down the staircase. "Hey, kiddo. Thanks for fixing me up."

"That's okay. It wasn't actually all that bad," the fox kit gave a somewhat lopsided smile and handed Sonic a glass. "Here, got you something to drink."

"Cheers," Sonic accepted the water gratefully, gulping it down in the hopes of sounding less like a geriatric woodchipper in the near future. "How long was I out? Everyone else okay?"

"Just for most of the afternoon. I managed to finish the transporter in the meantime," Tails replied cheerfully. "Everyone else was fine, too, they're mostly upstairs now. There were one or two paparazzi that showed up because someone took a picture of you and your doppelgangers, but Shadow, uh...chased them off."

"Ah," Sonic winced. "Are they...?"

"We think there were fishing boats closeby where he threw them over the cliff?" Tails ventured. "In fairness, he did warn them...."

Sonic groaned a little, finally standing up. "Yeah, funny how people never seem to realize that when he says he will toss you off something, he means it. Where's he now?"

"Upstairs," Tails trailed after him as they ascended the staircase. Sonic's ears pricked up as he started to hear Shadow – or, as he realized, the other Shadow, arguing with his.

"Yes, well, I do not see the need nor the sense in you training us anymore."

"Do you."

Sonic entered the hallway, where the stand-off was taking place – the royal Shadow was facing toward him, arms crossed and glaring at Sonic's partner, while Shadow himself was mirroring the pose, back turned to Sonic and Tails. (To be fair, though, Sonic didn't need to see Shadow's face to practically picture the raised eye ridge and unimpressed stare.)

"Yes." The other Shadow huffed at this point. "I see clearly now that we need to be better than you."

"Oh really?"

Sonic's glance briefly flickered over to Rouge who was leaning in the doorway of the kitchen, looking highly amused at the scene. His own double was sitting on the lowest staircase leading up to the second floor, also watching the display and looking torn between embarrassment and something like...affection?