Chapter 12: For the Very First Time
Sonic was surprised when the next touch that came wasn’t hot pain searing through his back, but instead a gentle, almost…affectionate stroking along his side. His eyes opened again, surprised.
“Shh…what is wrong, your muscles have tensed up as if you would go into seizure…” Shadow murmured close to him, still trailing his hand over Sonic’s blue fur, fingertips brushing over the skin over his ribcage.
The blue hedgehog took a few seconds before he could reply. His head turned once more towards Shadow and his tone sounded strained.
“I…thought you wanted to rip out my quills?” the blue hedgehog half-asked, hoping his voice wasn’t as shaky as he expected it to be.
“Want is kind of the wrong word, Sonic.” Shadow chuckled a bit and his ostensible slave immediately felt a spike of fury flare up inside him at the other taking this so lightly. Sonic tried to cling to that anger, which was so much better than the paralyzing fear…
“Yeah, but you’re still gonna do it. Wouldn’t you expect anyone about to be tortured to ‘tense up’?” Sonic snarled, still refusing to meet those crimson eyes where he had believed to see softness once…he tried to twist away from the hand petting him but it was futile.
“Torture?” Shadow’s fingers halted. “What did you think I was going to do?”
“Tear holes in my back and burn them out with glowing coals, Shads. That, obviously,” the shackled hedgehog snapped and was glad to feel the hand finally dropping away from his side. When Shadow didn’t say anything for the next few moments, though, Sonic in the end gave up and turned enough to look at his supposed Master, too morbidly curious what was going on now.
Emerald eyes widened slightly as he saw the other one all but turned to stone, sitting on the table and staring at his own hand held in front of him. The black hedgehog’s posture was slumped and his face was expressionless, yet his eyes…his eyes were just as soft as Sonic was sure they had been just hours ago, but now they also spoke of a sadness that wavered between the wistful and the bitter, and of a disappointment that had hurt badly.
“…Shadow?” Sonic finally asked, completely unsure as to what was going on right now, but also sensing that perhaps his flayed back was not top priority of the agenda anymore right now.
“You thought I was going to actually tear your spines out. You thought me capable of doing this to you,” Shadow spoke quietly and blue ears had to twist towards him to understand his words.
“Well, you-” Sonic started, but the black hedgehog interrupted him again, still talking in that quiet voice.
“I know I’ve done some…questionable things in the past. But I thought you had seen me differently. I thought you…actually trusted me.”
“But I did!” the blue hedgehog protested, “Right up until - and then you seemed so - and I thought you were mad at me and wanted – and – and - and what were you actually planning to do?” Sonic finished, emerald now confused.
“It doesn’t matter. I’m not going to force this charade on you any longer. I’m sorry for putting you through this,” Shadow sounded tired. “I’ll go out there, take that bulldog out and open your shackles. Then we can blast out of the castle, find and challenge Black Doom,” he said, simultaneously reaching back into his quills and taking out the key they had fought so viciously over only hours ago. “Just hold still so I can open your collar. Later, I can distract Black Doom and when you get the Emerald, Chaos Control home without m-”
“No!”
Shadow blinked. He had just been about to insert the key into the lock that forced the choker around Sonic’s neck, but now the blue hedgehog twisted away from him, looking up into his eyes.
“Shadow, I won’t leave you here. I’ve watched you choosing your own demise over a future once, I won’t let you do it again - I mean geez, you really don’t learn, do you?”
The black hedgehog frowned, a part of him noting that Sonic was probably referring to their joined fight against Biolizard.
“But…what about…this afternoon you almost broke my knee to get at this key,” Shadow stated, wondering what was actually happening here.
“Yeah. I wanted to say I’m sorry,” Sonic said, looking away again, then raising his gaze once more, waiting for an answer.
“Then…you don’t want me opening your collar?” the black hedgehog asked, disbelief clearly evident in his voice.
Sonic gave a wry smile. “It would ruin our little play, wouldn’t it? And also such a shame about your acting talent.” He paused, as if considering whether to go on and then added quietly, not meeting Shadow’s gaze: “…and I don’t mind it so much anymore, either.”
There was a pause. Shadow brushed once more over bound blue, even softer now.
“Sonic…”
The blue form flinched, then visibly relaxed underneath his touch. When Sonic spoke again, it was with the first genuine smile of this day. “We can do this, Shads. Together. I’m sorry for thinking you would…you know.”
“I’m sorry for making you think it.”
The edges of the Ultimate Lifeform’s mouth twitched just slightly and for a while they just gazed at each other silently, the dim glowing of the coal basin making this the most romantic torture chamber possible.
“…so, uh, what were you actually planning to do to me?” Sonic asked quickly as the moment had passed and Shadow also unconsciously shuffled his position, feeling awkward for no reason. The question of the other brought him right back on track, though.
“Just relax and you’ll see…don’t move.”
Sonic did as he was told. And then couldn’t help but shiver as he suddenly felt Shadow reaching inside his spines.
It was something that happened only very rarely. It was a prickly job to reach into a normal hedgehog’s quills, but Sonic’s were sharper than Death’s scythe. The only one who could handle herself in there without getting her hand cut up so far had been Amy, having an innate knack since being a hedgehog herself. It was no wonder that Shadow had told his supposed slave to keep still, because moving on Sonic’s part would surely have meant injury no matter his species…
But even so…since the azure hedgehog’s back was basically a blue-spiked death-trap, it had rarely been touched at all. For Sonic, it had always been his weapon, his way of carving through enemies, his last line of defense. Feeling Shadow’s fingers carefully picking their way through this jungle, going in deeper than hardly anyone else had ever been permitted, having him invading like this, he felt…vulnerable. And almost embarrassed.
When Tails had been little, they had often played a game that consisted of Sonic drawing letters, pictures (or later, simple technical parts) on his back with his finger and Tails guessing the word he was writing. They could only play the game one-way round, obviously, but Sonic had never minded, just being happy when Tails was happy, too. Yet it had always mystified him whatever had given the little fox such a kick out of it.
Then Shadow’s fingers touched down on the sensitive short-furred skin underneath the quills, skin that had hardly ever been touched before and Sonic knew. A shudder ran through his entire form and his fists clenched as he tried to suppress it, eyes once more squeezed shut.
When he opened them, he was looking at one of his own small spines, held leisurely in front of his face between two white-gloved fingers.
Sonic blinked. “…a quill? But…how…I didn’t feel anything, how did you-?!”
Shadow smiled slightly. “Look more carefully, faker. It’s one of your old quills. Already dead when I pulled it out.”
Sonic’s lips formed formed a silent ‘o’. Of course. Quills were growing all the time, old ones falling out when they were disconnected by a fresh spike growing from underneath. Female hedgehogs actually had special quill brushes to make sure all old ones were sorted out immediately, while most males just waited until they came out eventually, underneath the shower or in bed. (And it was the wives of those hedgehogs constantly complaining about constipated drains and unloved surprises when sitting down on the husband’s mattress…)
Really rich females sometimes even got quill treatments, similar to human women getting peelings. (Sonic knew because Amy had dragged him along to one, which had been one of the most boring two hours in his life). It consisted of a beautician painstakingly going through your fur and picking out every dead quill, even the ones that were still a bit attached, then polishing the lot of them and encouraging new spines to grow back faster.
Which was exactly what Shadow was doing to him at the moment.
“But…won’t they notice it’s my old quills?” he asked, hoping he had his voice under control.
Shadow smirked. “That’s the beauty of it. First, your spines don’t grey out like others’, and second, an old, blunt spine of you is about as sharp and flexible as a new one of any other ‘hog. They won’t suspect a thing.”
“You sure?” Sonic asked warily, already way too distracted by Shadow’s hand at the edge of his peripheral vision creeping towards his back again.
“Yes,” Shadow said, “Now just close your eyes and and relax…”
Sonic obeyed, even if he kept his eyes open. Shadow worked on him in silence, the black-furred hand reaching in again and again. Sonic wanted to squirm badly at first, the touches not only ticklish for him, but also buzzing like electricity into his body. Just like when Shadow had brushed against him when putting the leash around his neck.
Is that what love is? Sonic wondered, swallowing with a dry throat to keep himself from emitting a pitiful whimper as Shadow’s fingers once again carefully sorted through his quills, finding their next target. That feeling whenever somebody touches you?
He had heard about butterflies in the stomach. About weak knees, hot ears, and wagging tails. Being in love with somebody on 220 volt had not been part of the stories.
Sonic tried to press himself flatter against the wood, but of course he could only achieve mere milimetres that way, and if Shadow was noticing that, he didn’t act on it.
The blue hedgehog lay there, trying to concentrate on a certain rectangle stone in the wall a few metres in front of his face. It didn’t feel bad, exactly. He could almost enjoy getting groomed like that, even if he was bound and hating the fact.
But, as the growing blush on his cheeks testified, it was also a rather intimate treatment. Like in a loving couple the male grooming the female’s fur. Sonic felt a bit…he couldn’t exactly say ‘emasculated’ (despite the de-quilling being basically a female thing, like a human woman getting a wax treatment), but…this whole defenseless thing didn’t sit well with him. Yet, as another useless yank on the heavy steel chains binding his wrists ensured, the metal links clattering against the wood sharply, he had no other choice but to lie down and endure, hoping Shadow never ever looked down into his face.
xxx
“We’re almost done,” Shadow said a while later, now reaching for the pliers and extracting a glowing coal from the basin. Sonic immediately wanted to recoil.
“Yeah? Then what do you need that for?”
“I told you to hold still, didn’t I? Now do it, or this will hurt.”
Sonic did so reluctantly, his heart still quickening its pace in panic. He was completely at Shadow’s mercy – couldn’t even struggle, because that would ensure pain for sure…he held his breath as the coal descended.
…and released it thirty seconds later when anything else would have meant suffocation. The agony hadn’t yet come…Sonic could feel a warmness hovering just about his skin, though, and then he had the distinct impression of a hardened, deadened quill channeling great heat, and then the stench hit his nose…
“Ugh! Shadow, what the hell are you doing to my back?!”
“Gettinck some dice burnmarks on dere. Believe me, de air dowd dere at your end is bedda.”
Somehow, Sonic had the impression Shadow was talking with one hand pinching his nose.
xxx
When Amboss the dungeonmaster entered, Sonic looked devastated. His fur was ragged, his body wet with what Amboss presumed were sweat and tears, and when he spoke, his voice was quivering and hoarse. The chained hero gave the impression that he couldn’t even lift his head anymore, a pitiful attempt at speaking all he could manage before sagging right back onto the table. The emerald eyes had lost their sparkle, dull now like dead leaves. His words were only a whisper.
“Please…kill me and end it…”
And even Shadow had to admit that Sonic was at least as good as himself.
Lazar and Greytail walked in after them, the former giving a dry chuckle at Sonic’s feeble plead. Instead he asked, tongue flicking in eagerness: “My Prince? May we sssee them?”
Shadow only gave him a condescending look. “If you insist…”
Even Sonic had to raise an eyebrow at the amount of quills in the metal bowl Shadow presented, looking like a collection of long, blue pine needles. He had had no idea that there had been such an amount of deadweight in his back.
The purple lizard at first looked taken aback, too. He glanced at Sonic, back at the bowl, back at the coal basin and then at Shadow and the bowl again. He scowled. Then the he took a spike, glowered at it, poked himself, yelped, and then glowered some more.
Shadow pretended to look concerned. “…need a band-aid?”
“A what?!” Lazar snapped, before gasping and hurriedly remembering his place again. “I meant no, my Prince, thank you. No aid required, though I feel honoured you should offer it.”
“And pray tell, what do you think of Sonic, then?” Shadow asked pleasantly, once more laying a hand on the blue hedgehog’s neck, Sonic dutifully recoiling under his touch.
“I, I should think he looks sufficiently broken, my Prince,” Amboss rumbled uncertainly in his deep voice, before a glare of Lazar’s immediately let him snap his jaw shut again. Greytail was unperturbed by the antics of the lizard, though.
“I will record the punishment of amputation of spines and give the report to His Majesty when he returns tomorrow. My Prince,” he finished, bowing smartly and then retreating from the dungeon chamber. Lazar was the last one to remain. The reptile ground his teeth.
“…the punishment hass been carried out. The sslave is yourss again. However,” he (tried) not to snarl, “there iss no verification he isss truly broken. He will remain on the leash and be put to death in cassse of a second breach of law. My…Prince,” he also ended his statement and almost rushed out of the chamber, apparently afraid to fail to contain his anger any longer.
Sonic looked at Shadow, still tied. As soon as Amboss was out of earshot, he hissed:
“That lizard needs to get laid.”
Shadow was pretty certain that Princes didn’t snort, but he thought he could permit himself that one time.
To be continued...
xxx
Aaaand, another update! Not sure when the next one will be, so review please! Fuzzy enough?^^
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