Scream For Me

-5-

(Y/n) marched into the warehouse, fur ruffled with leaves stuck all over it and a swollen eye. "Holy cow!" Sonic yelped, jumping and accidentally tossing his chilli dog behind him. "What happened to you?" 

"Shadow," she snarled into the earpiece. Tails had finished the prototypes and so far, they'd been working. No one had heard a scream from the (a/t) since then and everyone had fully warmed up to her. 

"Um, where is he?" 

"Don't know, don't care." 

"I thought you two were getting along." 

"Nope, nope, nope!" Sonic grimaced. 

"Well, let's get you fixed up," he said. "Can't walk around town with that face." He tried to laugh but it came out forced with the death stare being leveled at his face. "Okay, I'll talk to him." 

"Don't bother. He's as stubborn as they come." 

"Believe me, I know." 

"Oh, look, there he is," Tangle said, pointing with her tail at the door while resting her head on her hand with an amused expression. Shadow stomped into the warehouse, shouting for Rouge, who also startled and flew rather ungracefully over to him. (Y/n) fought the urge to purposefully scream at the dark hedgehog and send him flying into the wall. It seemed satisfying in her head. 

"Uh oh," Sonic whispered. "I can see that look on your face. Don't go all crazy on me." 

"Not on you." 

"Or Shads. He's a good guy, really." 

She internally growled and limped away with Sonic, her ears twisting back to listen to Shadow yelling at Rouge in frustration. Take it outside, please. 

"Okay, there," Sonic said after quickly treating her eye and getting her cleaned up. She stood up and brushed herself off, signing 'thank you'. "No problem. Now, should we go talk this out with Shadow?" 

"Knock yourself out. I'm going to go get lunch." 

"I meant we." 

"Sorry. No can do. Tangle invited me, and I'd much rather hang out with her, than with Shadow." 

"Whatever happened between you guys, you have to work it out." 

"Can I not train with someone else? Now that the prototypes are finished, I could do it with anyone else! Anyone but him!" Sonic took a deep breath to stay calm. 

"Come on," he said. "As team leader, it's your responsibility to work it out and I'm telling you to. So there." He crossed his arms, proud of himself. (Y/n) narrowed her eyes. "Uh, should I be worried? You look really mad." She opened her mouth and suddenly screamed at him. He let out his own scream and flew back into the wall, though not hard, just enough to tell him to back off. "Wow! You really learned something!" 

"Now will you leave me alone?" 

"At least tell me why you're so mad at him so I can at least get him to calm down." 

"He's a stubborn, stuck-up hedgehog and I hate him." 

"That's not true. I saw the way you guys interacted before this little fallout. You liked each other, admit it." 

"Liked. Past tense. And maybe I did, but he's...all in it for himself, you know? It's like he has to prove something, and instead of helping me for me, he's doing it for himself!" 

"Well...he's probably trying to prove to himself that he's not as worthless as he once thought. Especially after he failed Maria." 

"Well, then maybe he should tell me that, instead of making it come out in strict yells and..." She gestured at her eye. "You know."

"He's not doing that to you, is he?" 

"Not directly, but his training exercises are seriously hard core." 

"So much that you're getting black eyes?" 

She blew out a breath. "Forget it. I'll work it out, just don't worry about it." 

"Whoa. Mood swings. Come on, talk to me. You can trust me." 

"I know." 

"I'll punch him for you. It wouldn't be the first time." She let out a silent laugh. 

"What happened to talking?" 

"I'll make an exception." 

"Nah, it's okay. I'll talk to him." 

"What happened to lunch?" 

"I'll make an exception." 

"Okay. Let's go." They walked out to the lobby where Shadow had lowered his tone but was still hissing angrily to Rouge. 

"Ah, there they are," the bat said, seemingly relieved to see them. "(Y/n), Shadow here wants to talk to you." 

"Okay, but you better work it out with no yelling," Sonic said. 

"No promises," the (a/t) said, eyeing Shadow. Sonic smiled nervously and grabbed Rouge's arm, dragging her away. (Y/n) reached up and fiddled with something on the earpiece, switching it to Shadow's.

"Don't apologize," she said.

"Why?"

"Because from what I know about you, change takes time, and I'll let you tell me sorry when you feel ready."

Shadow looked rather taken aback. She squinted at him. "Anyway. If you are such an edgy hedgy," he raised an eyebrow at this, "then why did you open up to me so easily? Even Sonic couldn't seem to get you to do that."

"None of your business," he snapped and her ears flattened. "I'm-" She slapped a hand over his mouth and he glared daggers at her.

"No," she said. "You're not. I know you feel like you have to prove something to yourself, but you don't. Put your failures behind you and stop treating me like I'm something you can use to show yourself that you're not as big a failure as you think. You're not, okay?" She sighed and turned away. "So, training in the morning?"

"O-of course." She lifted her hand in a farewell before lowering her head and walking to meet Tangle and Whisper for lunch.