"So uh, how can I help you?" The blue hedgehog asked sheepishly, trying to hide his feeling of curiosity. He never thought Shadow would be flower type of guy and now he badly needs explanation. He literally never saw the obsidian hedgehog show even slightest interest in flowers. Although… he is also aware that dark hedgehog is usually very reluctant about letting other people get to know him. So, for now it seems like playing it cool is the best option. This is his specialty anyway.
“No need for help. Actually, I just came by to see if there was a new delivery, but… speaking of which, I never saw you here before. The great hero of Mobius finally decided to settle down and get a job?” Shadow replied with a smirk. He wasn’t going to give Sonic any chances to win this invisible fight of dominance between them, already bringing up his strong card.
It wasn’t necessarily as good as he thought, mostly considered the circumstances the obsidian hedgehog didn’t know about just yet. Sonic laughed for a while upon hearing these words, and Shadow decided to fight against his face muscles trying to form into a small smile.
“You wish! I’m still free as the wind, buddy,” he exclaimed happily and spread his arms, as if to prove his point, “however, if you must know, life is boring, and I really mean super boring without Egghead trying to take over the world every now and then,” blue hedgehog released a small pout at that part, however, it lasted only couple of seconds before he was back to his old cheerful self, “so, after we helped rebuilding the city and all I decided it would be best to help people out in their lives. Maybe I’m not having as much fun as I would have smashing Crabmeats, but I’m still helping out. Miss Shana handles this entire store alone, not to mention she had to start from a scratch after her store was demolished during one of Infinite’s raids… so yeah, here I am, helping out like always!”
Shadow’s smirk turned into something softer, something he didn’t bother acknowledging. He turned his gaze to flower vases and noticed the way the flowers tangled after being put in there. Sure, he barely started his journey with flower arranging, but the only person that would not notice how bad Sonic is at handling fragile objects would be someone with very, very poor eyesight.
“Have it your way then. However, if I may… you don’t necessarily seem to be exactly skilled at what you are doing in here… Gladiolus may have pretty strong stems, but with the way you put them in there I think they might end up breaking anyway. Why not try out some other stores? I heard Don Fachio recently opened another hot dog stand in Park Avenue, isn’t it more your thing?”
Well, that definitely succeeded at riling Sonic up. Hero looked at him in an angry manner, puffing his flushing cheeks.
“Hmph! Well, if you have to know, I did offer my help there, and after a day I got fired! Me, who saved this planet more times than I can count, got fired! Sure, I ate one chili dog…” dark hedgehog gave him pretty disbelieving look, which slowly caused the blue hero to spill the beans, “or two…”
The persistent stare of Shadow’s didn’t help sugarcoating the story. Sonic’s angry resolve broke and now he just looked purely embarrassed as he looked away from these intense ruby eyes.
“Okay, okay! I ate ten of them!” He raised his arms in a gesture of surrender, “But can you imagine how difficult it is when you have to look at them all day, and they are so close and all you have to do is just prepare them and they’re yours… Just don’t tell Tails please, he still thinks I work there!”
The blue hedgehog looked at him with pleading eyes and this situation was just too ridiculous. Shadow couldn’t resist releasing short, honest laugh. That was nearly too much.
“I don’t think he would be very surprised, but sure, I don’t see why not.”
That was all that was needed for Sonic to go back to his default cheerful mood.
“But yeah, I don’t know all that much about handling flowers, unless picking flowers for Cream counts,” Sonic laughed nervously and scratched his ear, “however, you seem to know quite a bit about flowers, much to my surprise…”
It was Sonic’s turn to smirk this time. “Big bad Shadow developing a soft spot?”
Shadow’s face was pretty emotionless as he was contemplating whether or not he should take the bait. Their play-fights usually contain bickering and teasing, but today he felt himself giving in a little.
‘Maybe I’m getting sick or something,’ he thought, because otherwise there was no way he was giving up fight as easily as he was doing so now.
“So what if I am?” was his only response. “Well, nothing really, I’m actually really glad…” he noticed Shadow’s questioning look, “that found something you enjoy, I mean! You don’t seem to enjoy many things overall… ugh, sorry, what am I talking about, I guess I don’t know that much about you to come up with judgement like that…” “Well, that was rude, but I do accept your apologies.” Shadow sighed and crossed his arms, “so, you gonna let these poor flowers break or are you gonna do your job properly? I know it’s more of volunteering than an actual job, but I still assume you want to give the best performance possible.” “Of course! Can’t expect any less of me, I’m perfect at everything I do!” Sonic stroke one of his typical heroic poses – chest straight up, full of pride, eyes shining with playfulness and his grin wide as ever. He even went as far as to show Shadow thumbs up and for a split second dark hedgehog seriously wondered if maybe, by any chance there is some more news reporters nearby, currently taking yet another picture of the hero of Mobius for their newest issue.
A smirk made its way back to Shadow’s face.
“Well, clearly not perfect enough to keep flowers from dying. My eyes feel actual physical pain from looking at these struggling carnations…”
Before the blue hero could come up with any comeback, the dark hedgehog already touched the flowers and began fixing their position in vases.
“Look,” he pointed to the bottom of the vase, “it’s not actually that hard to put them in there, but you have to do it slowly and carefully and make sure stems don’t get tangled up in the process. This is why it’s called ‘putting’ flowers in vases and not ‘throwing’. What you did in here, though, could definitely be called throwing.” Sonic looked at him with curiosity the whole time and he was glad that, for once, he managed to get Sonic’s attention.
“Now, why don’t you try the same with other flower vases? I’ll see how you’re doing.”
“Alright! This ain’t that hard, I’m sure it’s pretty easy once you start the right way…”
Blue hero fixed the remaining vases and looked at his work with content.
“Thanks, Shadow! So, am I going to see you here more often or…?”
Hm, good question. Are you?
“Perhaps, yeah. Someone’s gotta make sure you don’t get fired again, right?” he smirked, and this time it sure earned a reaction he hoped for. “That was one time, Shadow! One time!”
This sentence sounded tense, but this situation definitely wasn’t. The happy, peaceful atmosphere could be felt in the air.
