Belong

Chapter 12 - A New Look

"WHAT HAPPENED TO YOU?!?"

Venice smiled sheepishly as Silver rushed at him the moment he and Sonic entered the Restoration HQ again, the light grey hedgehog presumably having laid in wait for them to arrive. Despite Sonic going as fast as he could with his easily-startled charge, it had still taken a while for them to get back, and Venice felt chilled to the bone. His friend grasped him by the shoulders, running his hands through his quills and turning him left and right, glancing him over with an astounded look on his face. "You're all wet, and you're freezing! SONIC!"

With Silver's ire shifting towards him, Sonic wasted no time in saving himself for the time being, blasting away with a "I'll-go-grab-a-towel-be-right-back!" He disappeared through the hallway before either of them could even blink. Staring after him, mouth wide open, Silver clearly didn't know what to make of the situation. Managing to shake himself out of his stupor, he turned to Venice once more. "Are you hurt?" he asked, worry and concern palpable in his voice. Venice simply shook his head in return, before burying it in Silver's much warmer shoulder. Despite not being gone for long he had missed his lookalike terribly. Silver wrapped his arms around him and rocked him gently as he had done so many times before.

After a few seconds Silver very carefully flicked his ear. "We can't stay in the hall like this, we should go back to our main hub," he explained when Venice glanced up, displeased. He knew Silver was right, this was the main entrance and they were probably getting in the way. Looking over Silver's shoulder he also noticed there were some people giving them very intrigued looks, no doubt alerted by Silver's hollering. Quickly stepping away from the hedgehog he nodded tensely.

Silver grabbed his hand and pulled him deeper into the base, just like the first time he had come here. Unfortunately his friend seemed convinced that making him run would help him warm up somehow, and he entered the communication room with aching legs and short of breath. Well, at least he felt sort of warmer now... slightly.

Between his wheezing Venice piped up his ears at the sound of footsteps coming back. His attention turned towards Sonic, who came rushing at them with Amy in tow. The pink hedgehog had probably been alerted by Silver's ruckus and got filled in by Sonic. Stopping next to him, she looked him over quizzically. "Oh, dear," she sighed as her eyes met... her coat! He had ruined her coat! He froze up entirely, a tremble that was not at all related to the cold making its way up his spine. But she didn't appear mad when she gently unbuttoned it and pulled it over his arms, uncaringly throwing it in a corner of the room. "Let's get you all dry first," she told him as she grabbed a towel from Sonic's hands and wrapped it where the coat had been. Sonic put another one around his head, and Silver grabbed a third one and put it around his midriff.

Getting dried off felt quite nice, a lot nicer than Venice would have thought. It certainly helped that they weren't in the freezing ruins of the future, where Silver had given him a bath shortly after their first meeting. That had been extremely cold and thoroughly unpleasant. This felt a lot better, he thought as he leaned fully into Silver and mushed his forehead into him, his antics making the others laugh. He thought he could feel something building up in his throat, that made his chest feel warm and his body relaxed, though he had no idea what it could be. It had happened before, when he had fought and made up with Silver in Frozen City, but just like that time nothing came of it. With three people he was dried off a lot quicker than he would have liked, and the feeling disappeared soon after.

Wrapping him in an unused towel (it seemed like Sonic had taken every single piece of cloth available in the base with him, presumably as a peace offering), Silver gently lifted him up and placed him on one of the crates pushed against the wall. "Here, take off your gloves and shoes, those are wet too" the psychic hedgehog told him. Venice obeyed, pulling away the now-familiar fabric around his hands and kicking off his shoes with his heels. Silver wrapped another towel around his lower legs and bundled him up further in his cosy cocoon of fabrics. Sitting down next to him, he pulled Venice partially in his lap and began to run his fingers through his quills and tuft of fur, painstakingly going past every spine and strand of hair. "Just checking if you really didn't get injured," he explained at Venice's quizzical look.