‹⟨Discontinued⟩›°•Rejoice•° [Movie Sonic X Reader]

•°|Prologue|°•

"I smiled. We were under the same sky at least."

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The cloak of night fell away from its shoulders. Slipping past the fingers of daytime like treacle, and painting the sky in it's owner's likeliness. 

The stars, partly covered by a blanket of clouds soared the world from above; the moon accompanying them with a watchful eye. Soon the winds began to whisper their usual lullabies ... though tonight they sounded rather bittersweet.

Half awake, your head rested against the car window as you drove through the city streets. Everything from bright and boisterous advertisements, street lights and other headlights belonging to the occasional passerby skittered away unnoticed. It was a quiet night (for once), a soothing calm after the volcano finished spewing out all the chaos it could muster.

You struggled with the task of keeping your eyes open. The bright scenery around you - although rather beautiful in its own way - wasn't helping at all. Neither was the vehicle's engine. It's humming massaged your aching muscles, relaxing the ones you've overworked and making the idea of sleep more desirable.

All that left you hanging on a thin thread was your thoughts - mercilessly shoving your recent memories in your face over and over, leaving the possibility of rest to be undetermined. After a full year of settling into North Dakota, that streak of everyday normalcy thrived until it was absolutely decimated just the day before. Surprisingly, too. One minute you were shifting uncomfortably in a dress getting poked by Heliconia; the next you were sticky with sweat and running like the world depended on it. 

Which it quite literally did.

It all felt like a dream. A wonderful dream, though. To think if you ever told anyone about such an improbable tale they would think you were crazy at the drop of a hat. But you knew the truth. You knew why the seas suddenly parted near the famous islands. Why the bridge separating your former hometown from the world is now in ruins. How the culprit was stopped in his tracks; left laying motionless with his mind now gone.

And here you were, on your way back to another home that still felt somewhat foreign. Miles away from ... all of that.

Glancing out of the window, you began to mindlessly count all the streetlights that passed by. The dark silhouettes of trees scattered upon the surface of the mountains in the horizon struck you with a resemblance of Green Hills. You still missed the place an awful lot. Maybe the next time you travel there your stay would be longer than mere sixteen hours. You vividly remembered the whistles of crickets that would try to sing you back to sleep late at night.

Sometimes you could catch a few owl hoots filling in the beats of silence left behind. If you were lucky enough, a rare note from nature might decide to let itself be heard in the form of a fawn; scurrying around in the foliage nearby. Your very own orchestra. A symphony that only you could hear, yet still felt like it was being shared. Now, as you watched the world run by your side, you wondered if you could see any familiar wildlife again. 

All that graced your ears was the sounds of other vehicles zooming by, light music wafting from their ajar windows. Just as you shifted to the right into another intersection, the interior of the car was illuminated by pools of light. Line after line; like the hide of a zebra. You watched the show as you passed under a tunnel, a brief change from a speckled sea of black tourmaline. 

Your mother, the driver, was hidden in the shadows most of the time. But when the light hit and brightened her features she appeared as a fuzzy, glowing apparition. While it was short - and you would never admit it to their faces - you were glad you got to spend some time with your parents. It wasn't everyday you'd get to be around them for this long. Even if it was just for the weekend.

Sighting softly as the tunnel abdicated from being your protective cover, you wrung your hands nervously as a rather flustering memory sat at centre stage. Stubbornly remaining in its place at the front row no matter how hard you tried to think of something else; perceptive enough to bother you at your weakest. It wasn't hard to forget, in fact you think it will never meet that fate as it lived effortlessly in your mind rent free. 

A ... special case, it was. One fairytale that sprinkled you with euphoric crumbs and squeezed you with intrigue - whilst simultaneously pelting you with serrated stones of embarrassment and denial. 

At the time you had taken such a delicate action with a grain of salt. But now, with your head a bit clearer, you were more curious than ever. Face flushed and hands becoming even more clammy, you forced yourself deeper into the car seat. Subconsciously running your fingers across the surface of your cheek as the night before came into focus with more detail.

Funny thing, emotions were.

You wondered if he was out there right now, stuck thinking and feeling the same thing.

Massaging your forehead, your attention was suddenly grabbed by the sound of a plane passing by from above. Pressing your face against the window, you managed to catch the phantom flying away, it's lights blinking and flashing in the dark. Your tired eyes remained on its tail until it was too small to make out. Another star in the heavens. It reminded you of the day when you placed your very first step off the aircraft and onto new land.

Unknowingly buying a ticket to witness the trouble the hedgehog had gotten himself into.