Archive of Our Own

On a warm summer day...

Sonic was hanging out in Tails’ workshop, fiddling with some random scraps of metal (he was close to getting them to form the shape of a fish), when his eyes caught on a device on one of Tails’ shelves that didn’t at all match Tails’ usual workmanship. He set the metal pieces down on the workbench in front of him, then went to pick up the device, rotating it in his hands. There was a little screen, a lot of buttons, and a mini keyboard of letters.

“Hey, Tails?” said Sonic, turning to where Tails was currently tinkering with some mechanical part.

“Hm-yeah? What’s up?” Tails sounded startled as he looked up from their work. Must have been totally lost in their head, Sonic thought fondly.

“What’s this?” Sonic held up the device.

“Oh, it’s a label maker! I got it a little while ago when I was reorganizing my toolboxes. I probably could have made my own label maker, and I thought about tweaking that one, but...eh.” Tails shrugged, turning back to working on the part in his hands. “I have way too many projects on my hands already, and besides, it’s a fairly simple device that accomplishes a simple task efficiently. Doesn’t make sense to me to mess with that.”

“Huh. Neat!” Sonic studied the buttons, finding the power button and turning it on. He played around with the buttons and keyboard, until he got it to print out a label. “Oh, cool!” said Sonic, delighted that the label was like a sticker. The words on it were printed in plain black text that read, BEST BRO. He chuckled mischievously. “Hey Tails, mind if I borrow this for a bit?”

“Sonic, what are you going to do?” Tails asked flatly, sounding like he already knew what Sonic was going to do.

“Don’t worry Tails, I’m just gonna go have a bit of fun!”

Tails sighed. “As long as that ‘bit of fun’ doesn’t mess up anything in my workshop, go for it.”

“Sweet!” He zipped over and stuck the label he’d printed on Tails’ forehead.

“Ack! What the heck?”

“Catch ya later, Tails!” Sonic gave one of his jauntiest two-fingered salutes, before vanishing from Tails’ workshop in a blue blur.

Tails reached up to their forehead, finding the label stuck there and flipping it around to read it. They giggled, his twin tails flicking. “Oh, Sonic...” he said, shaking their head. He wouldn’t be surprised if he didn’t see Sonic for the whole rest of the day.

***

That afternoon...

Shadow came back to the cottage he shared with Sonic to find a weird little rectangular sticker stuck to the front door. He leaned forward, reading the black, all-caps words that were printed on it: WOODEN PORTAL.

“What the...?” Shadow muttered.

He noticed there was another sticker like it on the doorknob, only this one said,THING THAT TURNS. He shook his head, shifting the grocery bags in his hands so he could open the WOODEN PORTAL—that is, the door. I’ll ask Sonic about this, he thought. As he stepped into the cottage, the sticker on the doorknob came off, fluttering to the floor. Shadow grunted in annoyance, closing the door and reaching down to pick it up.

A sudden whirlwind of air heralded Sonic’s appearance in the entryway.

“Heyyy Shadsy!” Sonic leaned towards Shadow on his toes, hands behind his back.

Shadow cringed at the nickname, but he ignored it for the more important matter at hand (and definitely not because he always let Sonic get away with calling him different nicknames anyway). He held out the sticker. “Sonic, what is this?”

“Hm...” Sonic bent forward to study it. “That looks like a label for the thing that turns!”

“Why was it on the doorknob? And why is there another one on the door?”

“Oh, well, you know how sometimes, you forget the word for a thing, and you know what it is, but you just can’t think of it at the moment, so you just call it a thingamajig or something?”

“I don’t do that. You do that. A lot.” Sensing this was going to be one of Sonic’s long rambles, Shadow slid past Sonic in the entryway to get to the kitchen, setting both the groceries and the label down on the counter. Sonic followed him, continuing to talk, as Shadow knew he would.

“Well, I mean, yeah, I do, but I was speaking in a kinda general sense of the word ‘you’—but anyway, I figured, hey, labels might help with that! I mean, stick a label on a thing, and anytime you forget the name of the thing—I mean the general ‘you’, by the way, not you, Shadow, specifically—anytime you forget the name of the thing, you can just look at the label for it! But of course, it doesn’t have to be the boring name for the thing, as long as people know what you’re talking about, so I made up my own!”

Shadow paused in taking the groceries out of their bags and setting them on the counter. He’d spotted another label in the middle of the counter top (which read FLAT PLACE TO PUT THINGS), and as he looked around the kitchen, he noticed labels on practically everything else in the kitchen. Even the fridge handle had a label haphazardly stuck on it (THING YOU GRAB), and when he opened the fridge, just about everything in there had labels, too, including the condiments (which was entirely unnecessary, since those already had their own labels on the bottles and jars).

“Sonic.”

Sonic leaned into Shadow’s space. “Yes, Shadow?” The smugness in Sonic’s voice could have been thick enough to butter toast.

“Did you put labels—with incorrect names—on everything in the house?”

“Hmm...” Sonic tapped his chin. “I don’t know if I’d say they’re incorrect, they still describe what the things are! And I don’t know if I put them on everything... Like, I don’t think I put a label on the floor... Oh! Lemme do that real quick.”

Shadow closed the fridge again, staring at Sonic as he stuck a hand in his quills and pulled out a handheld device. As Sonic started rapidly pressing buttons on it, Shadow reached out and plucked it from his hands.

“Hey!” Sonic protested.

“What is this?”

“It’s a label maker! Tails had it in his workshop and they let me borrow it.”

Shadow rotated the device in his hands, trying to make sense of it. He quickly grasped how it worked, since the labeled buttons and the keyboard layout of lettered buttons were pretty self-explanatory to him. He saw that the letters FOOT CEILI were displayed on its little screen, Sonic clearly having been unable to finish typing out foot ceiling before Shadow had snatched the device away. Shadow would have groaned in disgust, if he hadn’t been more focused on the design of the label maker itself.

“Strange. This design appears...different from Tails’ other inventions,” said Shadow.

“Oh, Tails didn’t make it, they just bought it from somewhere. You wanna give it a try?”

Shadow sighed. “I can’t think why not. But I am not labeling the floor.” He looked around, thinking about what to label, before typing it in and pressing the print button. A strip of glossy white paper with black lettering and a sticky back slid out of a slit on the side of the device, and Shadow gently tugged it away, feeling...oddly delighted. He stared at the label for a moment, before reaching over and sticking it to Sonic’s forehead.

While Sonic was busy looking briefly, pleasantly stunned, Shadow hummed, a small smile breaking out on his face that he wasn’t able to hold back. “I think I now know the real reason why you labeled everything. It is a bit... satisfying.”

Sonic giggled, before reaching up to see what Shadow’s label said. “’THE BLUE HEDGEHOG’—myeah okay, you think you’re funny, don’t you?”

“I don’t know what you mean,” said Shadow, crossing his arms. “I simply labeled something as what it is.”

“Oh, I see, lemme just—” Sonic swiped the label maker back from Shadow’s hand.

“What are you doing?” Shadow asked in surprise.

Sonic snickered. “Don’t worry, you’ll find out soon enough!”

Shadow rolled his eyes, going back to quickly putting the groceries away. Let him think I am distracted... Shadow thought. After all, Sonic had practically broadcast his intent.

Sure enough, Sonic was suddenly at Shadow’s side, reaching to put a label on Shadow’s forehead. But Shadow saw him coming, hand whipping up to grab Sonic’s arm.

Sonic grinned at Shadow’s glare. “Guess I couldn’t pull a fast one on you, huh, Shads?”

“You are mistaken, if that is what you call ‘fast’,” taunted Shadow.

“Know what? You’re right,” said Sonic. “That was just the beginning.”

Shadow felt the telltale slight shift in Sonic’s stance, and he smirked. This was going to be fun.

Within a split second, Sonic aimed a jab at Shadow’s torso with his free hand. But Shadow was ready for it, blocking the jab and then whirling them around so he could kick Sonic away.

Sonic whipped around to face Shadow again, and Shadow let his fangs show. “If you want to stick that pathetic piece of paper on me, you’re going to have to catch me first!”

Sonic flashed his own little fangs at Shadow. “You say that like it will be a challenge!”

With that, Sonic lunged forward, and Shadow took off.

They zipped around the cottage, Sonic trying to put the label on Shadow, and Shadow making sure to stay just out of reach. At the same time, Shadow grew increasingly incredulous at just how many labels he was seeing everywhere. At one point, he picked up a couch cushion in the living room to use as a shield, and as he passed it from one hand to the other, the label that was on it (which said SQUISHY WEAPON) stuck to his glove.

A shudder traveled up Shadow’s spine, and he involuntarily cringed. He quickly shook off the label, even as he used the pillow to continue blocking Sonic.

He hated it when things stuck to his gloves.

“You have made an egregious number of labels,” Shadow hissed, circling the couch.

“What’s wrong Shadow? Can’t handle a, how did you put it, a ‘pathetic piece of paper’?” Sonic laughed, vaulting over the back of the couch to get to Shadow. His shoe narrowly missed knocking over an object that was on the nearby end table.

“Sonic, pay attention! You almost hit the—the...” Shadow paused, his mind suddenly blanking on the word.

Sonic smirked gleefully at him. “I almost hit the what, Shadow?”

“The...you almost hit...” Shadow grit his teeth. He couldn’t believe this was happening. He wracked his brains for the word for the object in question, or even a synonym, but he was coming up disastrously empty. Before he could stop them, his eyes darted over at the object, catching a glimpse of the label that was on it. He quickly looked away, but it was too late; he’d already automatically read it: THE SEE BETTERER. “Gah, I am not calling it that.”

“What aren’t you going to call what?” asked Sonic. “Wow, I think that question broke my brain.”

“That would be an improvement.”

“Hey!”

“Lamp!”

“Uh, what?”

“That’s what you almost knocked over.”

Sonic froze, before he burst out laughing. “You—ha!—you forgot the word for lamp? Are you kidding me? That is just too good!”

Shadow decided to take advantage of Sonic’s momentary distraction. He warped away, only to appear directly behind Sonic, who was still bent double with laughter. Shadow quickly reached into Sonic’s quills and found the label maker that was stashed in there, Sonic letting out a startled “Hey!”

Shadow kicked Sonic in the head, knocking him off balance. Then he warped away again, this time into his own bedroom, hoping that would buy him enough time to write and print a label (he was relieved to note that Sonic hadn’t labeled anything in this room). Sonic found him just as he hit the print button.

“A-ha!” Sonic yelled, lunging towards Shadow.

Shadow easily dodged, but he wasn’t prepared for when Sonic stuck his hand out, grabbing Shadow by the arm. They then entered into a weird sort of scuffle: Sonic was still trying to get his label onto Shadow’s forehead, and Shadow, having managed to store the label maker in his own quills after grabbing hold of the new label he’d made, was now trying to get his label onto Sonic’s forehead.

They whirled around each other, their movements disturbing the plants in Shadow’s room, to the point where each of them kept having to hastily prevent plant pots from falling off the edges of Shadow’s bookshelves or window sills.

One plant eventually did fall, and they both paused their tussling to zip forward and catch the plant. They reached it at the same time, ending up with hands overlapping as they held the pot between them, momentarily forgotten labels fluttering to the floor. They looked up, wide eyes meeting, as they panted from their exertion and lingering panic.

Sonic, as usual, was the first to speak. “Whew! That was a close one!” He gave Shadow a somewhat shaky smile. “Sorry about that, Shads.”

They lifted the pot together, putting it back in its place on the shelf.

“You were not...entirely at fault,” said Shadow, lightly stroking one of the plant’s leaves as a silent apology to it. “I should have known better than to bring our, uh...” Shadow found he wasn’t sure what to call what the two of them were just doing. But apparently Sonic had plenty of ideas.

“Competition? Game? Brawl? Random silly shenanigans?”

“...Yes. I shouldn’t have brought...all of that in here.”

“Well, why don’t we take this outside then?” said Sonic, retrieving his label from the floor. Right as he gave Shadow a goading grin, lightning suddenly flashed outside, followed by a clap of thunder.

“Eep!” Sonic jolted, quills raising as he latched onto Shadow. Both hedgehogs looked out Shadow’s window to see rain instantly start to pour from the sky and pound against the windowpane.

“Or,” said Shadow, reaching up a hand to try and smooth Sonic’s head quills back down, “we take a break for now.”

Sonic looked back at Shadow, as if just realizing that he had his arms completely wrapped around him in a vise-like grip. Sonic smiled sheepishly at him, hold on Shadow loosening a little. “Yeah,” he said, “let’s do that.”

***

Five minutes later...

Sonic and Shadow were snuggled up on Shadow’s bed, shoes off, books in their hands. Outside, the storm raged like there was no tomorrow, and it was dark enough for it to feel like an early twilight. But inside, it was calm and cozy, Shadow’s lamp (he still couldn’t believe he’d forgotten that word) casting warm orange light on everything.

Shadow was leaning against Sonic, who had one arm wrapped around him, the other hand holding the book he was reading. So when Sonic suddenly sat up from the pillows against the wall, jostling Shadow, Shadow just shot him one of his more mild glares.

“I just remembered, the label you made for me is still on the floor! I wanna see what it says.” He immediately got up, going to retrieve it from where Shadow had dropped it earlier.

Shadow sat up completely, marking his spot in his book. He shook his head with begrudging fondness. “You and those labels. You are obsessed.”

Sonic shrugged from where he stood, label now in hand. “I dunno, I just think they’re neat! And besides, I wanna see if you did any better than ‘THE BLUE HEDGEHOG’.” He looked down to read the label, and a large smile appeared on his face. “Ah, yes, now this is what I’m talking about! It’s simple, it’s accurate, it’s...well, oddly insulting when it’s just written out like this, but I think I’ll take it!” Sonic chortled, proudly sticking it on his head.

Shadow couldn’t help the snicker that escaped him, which only grew when he got the chance to re-read what he’d typed on the label: JUST A GUY.

Sonic grinned at Shadow as he sat back [heh, SaTBK] down on the bed, joining Shadow’s side again. Sonic leaned in close, putting a hand on Shadow’s arm. “I really love your laugh, Shads,” he said, smile soft, eyes bright with sincerity.

Shadow froze, momentarily lost in Sonic’s leaf-green eyes as he tried to process Sonic’s sudden compliment.

Which gave Sonic time to bring his other hand up and stick a label on Shadow’s forehead, the other one that had fallen to the floor. “And there! I win!”

Shadow reared back, startled, but of course it was already too late. He reached a hand up, at first about to take the label off, but then he paused, seeing how Sonic was looking at him with a lopsided smile, like he was expecting Shadow to immediately take it off, even though Sonic had kept his label on. Shadow gave Sonic his own smirk, instead pressing his fingers into the strangely long label, to make sure it was properly stuck onto his fur.

“You may have won this time, Sonic,” said Shadow, in his most exaggeratedly taunting voice, “but next time we compete, it will be on my terms.”

Sonic laughed, putting his arms around Shadow. “I wouldn’t expect anything less from you.”

Shadow brought his own arms around Sonic, burying his fingers in Sonic’s quills and pulling them both down so they were lying on their sides, facing each other. Sonic started stroking Shadow’s quills, gazing at him with so much affection that Shadow couldn’t handle it. So he pulled Sonic closer, hiding his face in Sonic’s chest fur.

Sonic rested his chin on the top of Shadow’s head, bringing a hand up to scratch behind Shadow’s ears. Sonic was delighted when he both heard and felt the deep vibrations and clicks of Shadow purring, and he joined in with his own.

He suddenly realized that Shadow had never looked at the label Sonic had given him. “Aren’t you going to read your label, Shads?” he asked, his voice quiet, yet teasing.

“Mmh,” Shadow mumbled, feeling sleepy as a result of their label competition, the sound of the pounding rain outside, and the immense comfort he was in. At the moment, he didn’t really care what Sonic had labeled him as. “Perhaps later.”

***

Later...

Sonic woke from their impromptu nap to the sound of his stomach grumbling, and the golden light from the setting sun slanting through Shadow’s window, gilding Shadow’s fur and quills.

“Hey, Shads?”

“Mm.”

“I’ve gotta go make dinner.”

“Hng. Alright.”

Before he untangled his limbs from Shadow’s, Sonic glanced at the label that was still on Shadow’s forehead, and he snorted, trying to hold back laughter.

“What? What’s so funny?” Shadow blinked his eyes open, looking questioningly up at Sonic as he got out of bed.

“Oh, nothin’, sweet thing. Byeeeee!” Sonic zipped out of the room, but took his time (for once) walking down the hallway to the kitchen, wondering whether Shadow would finally read the label.

He suddenly heard stomping footsteps enter the hallway behind him. “Sonic.”

Sonic turned to see a dark, hedgehog-shaped silhouette standing ominously in the hallway, amber chaos energy crackling around it, red glowing eyes glaring directly at him.

Sonic laughed as he started to back away, towards the front door. The silhouette followed him, until light from the living room windows once again hit black and red quills.

Sonic noticed Shadow no longer had a label on his forehead. “You know what?” said Sonic, speaking quickly. “I think I’ll just go and pick up something from Apotos for dinner. You want anything, Shadsy?”

“You have two seconds.”

“Wha—? Only two? I don’t think even fast food can be—”

“Two.”

“—prepared that quickly, but hey, I’ll—”

“One.”

“—try my BEST!” Sonic yelled the last word in panicked excitement as he flashed out the door, evading Shadow by the width of a quill.

They didn’t make it to Apotos. They barely made it out of the forest where their cottage was, before Shadow pounced on Sonic, initiating a sparring match that went on until the sun dipped below the horizon.

It ended with Shadow pinning Sonic to the ground, one knee on Sonic’s chest, hands pressing down on Sonic’s arms above his head into the grass. They were both breathing hard, sparks of chaos energy lingering in their eyes.

Shadow gazed down at Sonic, fangs bared in a triumphant smile. “I win.”

Sonic breathed out a laugh. “What was it you said to me earlier? Let’s see...” Sonic’s face contorted into an exaggerated frown. “You may have won this time, Shadow,” he said, voice deep and raspy, “but next time it will be on my terms.”

Shadow stared at him, feeling the fur on his arms and face raise a little. He hoped Sonic didn’t notice.

Sonic quirked an eyebrow smugly. “What, impressed by my impression of you?”

So much for Sonic not noticing. Shadow blinked, before he looked away. “I...didn’t know your voice could go that low. Also, that’s not what I sound like.”

“Sure it isn’t.”

“Stop that.”

“What, are you jealous?”

“Why would I be jealous? My voice can go even lower.”

Sonic’s mouth snapped shut, his eyes widening.

“Now who’s impressed?”

“S-shut up,” Sonic said, turning his head to the side.

Struck by Sonic’s sudden, uncharacteristic shyness, Shadow lowered his muzzle, placing a kiss on Sonic’s cheek. Sonic grinned back at him, before leaning up to give him his own kiss on the cheek.

They finally got up from the ground, fur slightly damp from the rain that had fallen earlier on the grass. Shadow got off of Sonic and helped him up, even though they both knew he didn’t need it. Their chests were filled with warmth, even as a cool evening breeze began to blow, rippling the grass around them and ruffling their quills.

Sonic’s stomach suddenly growled, and he laughed at the face Shadow gave him. “Still up for a race to Apotos?” he challenged.

Shadow gave a firm nod, lowering into position. Sonic followed suit. They felt the welcoming thrum of chaos energy fill their limbs, amber and blue sparks dancing across their fur.

“Aaand readysetgo!” Sonic shot off before the mush of rapid words had even finished leaving his mouth.

Shadow growled as he followed, air shoes activating as he kicked off from the ground. Even with his hair-trigger reflexes, he wound up starting a couple milliseconds after Sonic.

“That was hardly a fair start,” said Shadow, voice cutting through the air that rushed past as he skated at Sonic’s side.

“Hey, ‘next time, my terms’, remember?” Sonic called back gleefully, before shooting forward again, quickly followed by Shadow. As they both broke the sound barrier, the thunderous CRACK resonated through the air around them, its echoes rolling across the land. But of course, they were too fast to hear those echoes, streaks of blue and orange zig-zagging together across land and sea.

***

In Apotos...

When they made it to Apotos, Sonic and Shadow, after a long debate over who had won their race (which would have turned into another sparring match if it weren’t for the growling of Sonic’s stomach interrupting them), had their dinner at a cafe they frequented. They then went and got ice cream, taking it with them as they went for a stroll along the nearby coastline. Waves crashed onto the beach on their right, the sound echoing off of the cliffs to their left. The stars shone down on them between scattered clouds, and a salty breeze from the ocean ruffled their fur.

During a lull in their conversation, Shadow ate a spoonful of his coffee-flavored ice cream, then said, “You still have that label stuck to your head.”

“Wha—? You’re just telling me this now?” Sonic paused in scraping up the remains of his fudge sundae topped with chocolate chips. He reached a hand up to feel at his forehead, but he already knew that Shadow was right. He’d completely forgotten that it was there. He laughed as he took the label off, before stashing it in his quills. “Now I know why I kept getting those strange looks!”

“I was waiting to see if you’d ever notice why,” said Shadow. He gave Sonic a smirk. “Should have known it was a lost cause.”

“Ha, I just assumed it was because you were with me!” He elbowed Shadow in the side with a grin.

Shadow elbowed him back, and Sonic giggled. But something about what Sonic had said bothered him, and he looked down thoughtfully at his ice cream, brow furrowed. “Why would me being with you cause them to look at you strangely?”

Sonic shrugged. “I dunno. Because they didn’t know that we’re more than just rivals now? We’ve certainly gotten strange looks before for that reason, especially when we first started hanging out more.”

“Hmph. It is none of their business what we are,” Shadow growled out, stabbing his ice cream.

“I mean, yeah, but try telling them that.” Sonic saw Shadow look up at him at that, before his red eyes became slits as they landed somewhere in the distance, the frown on his face deepening in thought.

“Or, actually, no, don’t try telling them that,” Sonic deadpanned, knowing exactly what that look on his face meant.

Shadow huffed. “Fine. They are not worth my time anyway.”

“That’s the spirit!” Sonic grinned and gestured at him with his spoon. “Who cares if people know what we are?”

It took Sonic a couple steps to realize Shadow was no longer walking with him. He stopped and turned to see Shadow just standing there, frowning down at a spot on the ground.

“Shadow?” said Sonic.

Shadow’s gaze flicked back up to Sonic. “Sonic, what...what are we?”

Sonic put a hand on his hip. “Does it matter?” Sonic himself didn’t think so; he was happy, and Shadow was happy, and they were happy together, so why bother putting a name to what they were? But now Sonic wondered if Shadow didn’t see their relationship the same way...

Shadow’s frown deepened as he hummed and looked away again, trying to collect his thoughts. Did it really matter? He supposed not, but for some reason, he felt like...like he needed to know what they were. Like he’d needed to know for a while, but just...hadn’t really been able to voice that until now.

Shadow eventually took a step forward and said, “I think...I think it does matter. To me.”

Sonic smiled and nodded, crossing his arms. “Okay. Then...do you wanna maybe talk about what we are?”

“Yes.” Shadow rejoined Sonic, and they began walking again, carrying their empty ice cream cups. Shadow then said, “What do...what do you think we are?”

“What do you think we are?”

“I asked you first.”

“I mean, sure, but...” Sonic chuckled. “It’s kinda hard to describe, isn’t it? We’re like...friendly rivals slash partners who also spar and hang out and snuggle and sometimes do kinda romantic things. I’m not sure what existing label we could put on all of that.”

“You seemed to have no trouble putting labels on everything in the house...” Shadow grumbled.

Sonic laughed, a full, bright laugh that rang out through the night. Shadow couldn’t help but smile, glad that one of his rare attempted jokes had landed.

“You are so right, Shads,” said Sonic as his laughter died down. “Okay, so what if we chose a more unconventional label? Y’know, one that’s more...us?”

“What label would that be?” Shadow tried to think of something that could possibly work, but nothing was coming to mind.

Sonic tapped his chin. “What about...hedgehogs-who-are-together?”

Shadow gave him a flat look. “No.”

“Hogs in a pod?”

“Are you even trying?”

“Are you trying, partner-of-my-heart-and-soul?”

Shadow had to turn his head away at that one, trying to hide whatever dumb expression his face was making. It wasn’t a good suggestion, so why did he feel the corner of his mouth curving upward? “I wanted to see what you could come up with. What I have heard so far has been...disappointing.”

Sonic grinned, able to catch Shadow’s little smile before he could hide it. “Well, then tell me, what would be a non-disappointing label, huh?”

Shadow had been thinking about it in the back of his mind for a moment, so he decided to say out loud one of the labels he’d come up with. “Roommates.”

Even though he and Sonic didn’t technically share a room, he had heard that word being used to simply refer to people who lived together, and figured it fit the two of them well enough.

Sonic stopped to stare at Shadow, mouth agape. Shadow stopped too, raising a brow at him, and that completely did it for Sonic. He collapsed to his knees, dropping his ice cream cup in favor of planting his hands in the sand. He sounded like he was wheezing and gasping for breath, shoulders shaking and head hung low.

Shadow immediately knelt beside him. “Sonic, are you alright?”

But when Sonic’s strained breathing quickly turned into uncontrollable cackling, Shadow sighed in exasperation and shoved Sonic’s shoulder. Sonic put up no resistance, easily rolling onto his back from the shove, arms and legs flopping out like a starfish in the sand. He continued to shudder with his laughter, even as Shadow stood back up, crossing his arms and staring down at him, pretending that the sight was tugging at the corners of his mouth, urging him to grin stupidly.

When Sonic’s laughing finally started to die down, Shadow said, “Are you done yet?”

Sonic tried to speak between laughs. “Hold—ha—hold on, I—oh, I can’t breathe—”

Shadow rolled his eyes. “You look like a dying fish.”

That set off another round of laughter from Sonic, and Shadow sighed, realizing too late that he shouldn’t have said anything at all.

“I’m leaving,” he said, turning to start walking away from Sonic and back towards the path they’d used to get down to the beach.

“No—ha—wait!”—wheeze—“Shadow, come back!” With a grunt, Sonic scrambled to his feet, even as he continued to struggle with catching his breath. He hastily grabbed his ice cream cup from the ground again, before zipping forward to walk by Shadow’s side.

For a moment, they both were silent, Sonic still recovering from his bout of laughter, Shadow not wanting to inadvertently set off another one. Eventually, Sonic’s breathing had calmed down completely, but they both remained comfortably silent.

Sonic was content to dwell in the silence, his mind wandering to random places as he soaked in their surroundings, almost completely forgetting their whole conversation in the moment.

But Shadow found that he couldn’t stop thinking about the subject of what to call themselves. So, for once, it was him who broke the silence. “So...I suppose you are not amenable to the suggestion of the label roommates.”

Sonic pulled himself back to the present, and he snorted with surprise and held-back laughter. “And they were roommates...” he said.

Suddenly, it became clear to Shadow why Sonic had laughed so hard at Shadow’s suggestion (he remembered the Vine compilations Sonic had shown him, and how Sonic had called it “education”). He groaned. “Alright, we are certainly not using that label for ourselves.”

“I dunno, Shads, it’s kinda growing on me,” Sonic said teasingly. “And we are kinda roommates...”

“No,” Shadow said flatly. “We’ll think of something else.”

“How about...spiky bois?”

“No.”

“Speed bois?”

“No.”

“Hedge bois?”

“We are not doing a label with the word ‘boi’ in it.”

“Oh, I’ve got it: chaos controllers!”

“You don’t even use chaos control.”

“I could, if you showed me how.”

“You told me you didn’t have the patience to learn it, and didn’t need to anyway.”

“Well, maybe I’ve changed my mind!”

Shadow looked at him.

“Okay, yeah, no, past me was correct, I don’t need it.” Sonic sidled up to him, leaning his shoulder against Shadow’s. “Not when I have you, Shadsy!”

As Shadow felt Sonic’s cool fur against his own, he found that he didn’t mind that nickname as much as he had before. Shadow murmured, “Maybe...maybe you were right.”

“I mean, I’m always right, so I don’t know why you sound so surprised,” said Sonic. “But, uh, what was I right about in particular?”

“Maybe what we are doesn’t need a label.”

Sonic glanced at him in surprise. “Are you sure? ‘Cause we can keep workshopping one, if you want. In fact, I think it’s kinda fun to come up with different things to call ourselves.”

Shadow gave him a rare smile, one that warmed Sonic to his very core, and when he felt Shadow reach for his hand, he grasped it without hesitation, their fingers lacing together.

“I am sure,” said Shadow. He looked away again as he muttered, “Though I suppose ‘partner-of-my-heart-and-soul’ would be fine, after all.”

Sonic grinned, swinging their hands between them. “Nah,” he said brightly. “That one is far too mushy.” When Shadow frowned at him, Sonic just laughed.

***

After a starlit stroll...

Sonic and Shadow sped back home from Apotos, deciding to simply run (or in Shadow’s case, skate) together, rather then race. Once they got back to their cottage, they removed all the labels in the house, making it a competition of who could collect the most labels (despite multiple re-counts, they ended up tying).

Then they both got ready for bed, and Shadow joined Sonic in Sonic’s room, sitting next to him in his bed to write in his journal, while Sonic read a book.

As Shadow finished today’s journal entry, he decided to take out the label Sonic had given him from where he’d secretly stashed it in his quills, carefully sticking it onto the page.

Sonic caught the movement out of the corner of his eye and paused in his reading to glance over. “Heh, I didn’t realize you’d kept yours. Here.” Sonic reached into his own quills, pulling out the label Shadow had given him. He handed it to Shadow. “You can put mine in there, too!”

“Oh,” said Shadow, pleasantly surprised. He stuck Sonic’s label directly under his, making sure it was properly centered. “Thank you, Sonic.”

Sonic leaned against Shadow’s side, Shadow wrapping an arm around him as he looked down at the page. He couldn’t suppress another snicker at the label he had given Shadow, and how long it was compared to the one Shadow had given Sonic.

There was something oddly poetic about the two labels, one under the other, on the page in Shadow’s journal. The one that Shadow gave Sonic that simply read, JUST A GUY. And the one just above it, far longer and nearly spanning the whole width of the page, that read, ADORABLE SPIKY EMO HOT TOPIC WANNABE.

***

Epilogue

Tails heard a familiar, rhythmic whoosh-whoosh, followed by heavy footsteps, and sure enough, they looked up from where he was installing a new part in the Tornado to see Shadow walking towards him.

“Hey Shadow!” Tails called. “What’s up?”

“Hello Mi—Tails,” said Shadow, remembering at the last second that Tails preferred that Shadow use their nickname. He crossed his arms. “Do you recall the label maker you gave Sonic two days ago?”

“Uh, yeah,” said Tails. “Why? Are you here to return it?”

“No,” said Shadow. “I’m here to ask if there’s a way to refill it.”

Tails blinked. “Did...did Sonic use up all of the label tape that was in it?”

To Tails’ surprise, Shadow chuckled. “Yes. And so did I.”