The Speed of Sound

Putting Your Foot Down

        Five (y/a)s stare back at you through a portal where time stays eternally frozen. A single child is surrounded by adults—her only family. In the photo she seems happy, however, you know that behind those (e/c) eyes are feelings of sadness and loneliness. Day after day she lives her life the same way. No friends, no adventures, no reason for existence. Just a small girl who will never amount to anything, even if her parents tell her again and again that it is not true, that there just hasn't been enough time to discover her true talents and purpose. 

        These faces from so long ago, surely you would have forgotten them if much more time had passed. But now you look at yourself and see how you had changed from before. You have friends and they are heroes! And though you may not be too good at it yet, you try your best to be as strong and courageous as they are, so the next adventures you're taken on will always end in victory.

        Look at me now, Mama and Papa, you sigh and stroke the faces of the (y/a)s with a thumb. I have a chance to be great. You always told me to do what my heart truly thinks best, and it has landed me here. Maybe you knew something like this would happen. 

        Before the golden-stained frame is set down on the dresser, you check the picture for any smudge marks. Specks of dust lie in a thin layer over the glass of the frame from all that time spent idling in the old folks' home. Carefully you wipe them away and blow on the picture frame for good measure. When the family is safe on top of the dresser, you notice that your stomach has been growling for a while. Whew, I'm pretty hungry, and definitely not for bark and wild berries, you think to yourself while sniffing the air.

        The warm smells of cheese and tomato sauce waft from the kitchen, and you wonder how you had not noticed it earlier. Following your nose, you leave the safety of the bedroom, where you had spent the past hour setting your valuables into place. To your surprise, Shadow the Hedgehog is seated at the table with a mug and a plate of scraps from whatever he just finished eating. He doesn't look too happy, despite having a belly filled with, apparently, his own cooking. 

        So he can cook, you ponder, not at all expecting this rough, nasty old hedgehog to have any culinary abilities. You turn your attention to the meal at hand, noting that it has the appearance of a red-sauced lasagna. Will he let me eat this? Slowly you turn your head to Shadow, staring at him wordlessly until he looks up with a scowl.

        "Enough staring and eat already, girl." He growls to himself and takes a sip from the mug, which you assume to be filled with iced tea or coffee like it usually is. While he isn't watching, you grab a plate from the cupboard and pile a large amount of the lasagna onto it. Then you get a fork from a drawer and optimistically sit across from the dark hedgehog. For once you are impressed that he actually made something and decided to share it. You take your first bite of the lasagna.

        You are not impressed with the flavor of the meal.

        Holding back a choking noise, you force yourself to swallow the bit with a straight face. It tastes atrocious! The sauce is all wrong, and the noodles are undercooked and stiff! "It's...good." You give the tinniest closed-mouth smile. "Thank you, Shadow."

        "Shut up," the chef rudely replies. "I already know it tastes like shit." Out of nowhere he attains a newspaper and spreads it out, deliberately ignoring you and ending the conversation before it even begins. But for some reason you are feeling curious about this mysterious houseguest and you decide to inquire just a little further.

        "Where do you get those newspapers?" you innocently ask.

        Shadow utters a humorless grunt of laughter before saying, "I stole them from a Senior Citizen Center in the nearest village. Those people don't need to know what's happening in the world; they forget what they read within the same hour." He says it so nonchalantly that you can't help but gawp at him.

        "That's...that's sort of mean..."

        "Hmph. Somehow I am failing to find amusement in how gullible small children can be," he sneers, aiming a displeased look your way. (E/c) eyes narrow in frustration as you realize that you had been so easily deceived. After the emerald incident, Shadow had probably been completely avoiding any form of contact with the outside world, keeping hidden to the...shadows. You should have known that.

        "I'm not small, I'm a teenager. I was in high school before," you quietly retort, becoming more and more fed up with the man.

        "Much like someone else I know, albeit missing a great amount of education. He definitely acts like a child, the brat... It would have served you well to keep to your educational prison, instead of trying and failing to build yourself an egotistical persona like that blue hedgehog." Wow, he's one to talk.

        Frowning, you leave the table and dump the leftover lasagna into a trash bin. "You know, I could tell everyone that you're here. Then you'd have to leave for good." An ear twitches as the legs of a chair loudly scrape against the flooring. Swiftly looking up, you watch as Shadow prowls to you, throwing his face into your face in a sign of masculine aggression and intimidation.

        "I doubt that will happen, little (y/a). You hardly have the guts to look me in the eye!" His crimson irises are blazing with certain wrath, fully set on making you submit to his superiority. Nevertheless, it is your time to make a stand, and you stare him straight in the eyes.

        "I would," you gravely vow. "So maybe if you keep in line and don't be mean to me, you can stay here. Since, for some reason, I don't think anyone on Mobius would sell you a house, much less allow you to live in theirs. And I'm pretty sure you wouldn't want to go through the labor of making your own because apparently you just like to leech off of others." I bet you forced out somebody to get that cabin in the mountains, you leave unspoken.

        Shadow backs away with the absolute portrayal of outrage, but then his expression drastically changes to a sly smirk. "Finally putting your foot down, I see. I am impressed. Alright, girl, I'll abide by your rules." A sense of pride begins to grow in your chest, making your (y/a) ears perk and (e/c) eyes shine.

        "Great!" you blurt out in a moment of daring. "Oh, and quit calling me things like 'girl' and 'little (y/a).' I have a real name...and you already know it!"

        "Pssh, I shall call you as I wish." The hedgehog waves the request away and starts to head into the living room, before giving the room a last glance and seeing you with your eyes narrowed dangerously. He stops. "... and those names most definitely will not include the words 'girl' and '(y/a).'"

        "Good." You smile as Shadow rolls his eyes and continues into the living room.

        "Don't be so smug...(Y/n)."