Teaching Darkness:Memories C41

A few days later, Dark had been released from the hospital with the only thing they wanted from him was to check in every weekend for the next month to monitor his adjustment to things as well as make sure his injuries had healed completely. He wasn't looking forward to it at all...

When they got back home, he was surprised to find that Tape had grown to look like a miniature version of what an adult cat would look like, his fluff sleeking out and showing the the fur on his body was short hair, while the tail fur was long. The hair on his ears were long at the tips as well.

Tape sat down in his way and looked up at him, sounding out the loudest howling mewl from a cat anyone had ever heard from such a small little guy, as if he was scolding Dark for being away for so long. Mephiles couldn't help but laugh, especially when Dark's face blushed a bit and he looked away awkwardly from being yelled at by a cat.

Tape rubbed his face against Dark, and purred, making Dark's face darken an even deeper shade of red.

"He's just saying how much he missed you..." Mephiles explained as Dark quickly snatched the cat off the ground to try and encourage him to stop mewing so loudly, which, having all eyes on him, made Dark almost visibly embarrassed to be petting the cat in full view of anyone. "Aw, c'mon... he's just doing what cats do..."

"... Must he do that now, of all times..?" Dark mumbled, not once making eye contact. "He's got all the time he needs for the rest of his life with me... why now..?"

"Well... probably because he loves you..."

Almost immediately, Dark shoved the cat into Mephiles' arms, wide eyed and pale faced. Leaving everyone confused with his reaction, he disappeared quickly down the hall and slammed the garage/storage room door shut, Mephiles looking at Shadow and Rouge confusedly as he placed Tape back on the ground and tilted his head.

"I'll be right back..." He said slowly, taking off after Dark.

He pushed the door open and slipped into the room, finding Dark sitting on the ground, hands gripping the opposite arms just below the shoulder, body curled in on itself, ears folded back, quills puffed out, tail wrapped to his side, eyes scrunched tightly, panting and wheezing quite loudly.

Mephiles looked at him with concern.

"Dark? What's wrong?"

Dark opened an eye and looked at him with great annoyance.

"... How dare you use that word with me..?" He huffed, squeezing his eyes shut again. Now he was shuddering. "... I've never... no one has ever... I don't..." He then cursed a few times under his breath, and grunted in frustration.

"What? Dark, I-" Mephiles stopped and widened his eyes a bit more. "Oh... I-I'm sorry... it must be so weird to feel that when-"

"... Weird? No. Alien is more like it... non existent is more accurate..." Dark frowned and bared his teeth. "Never having experienced it... it's borderline terrifying to me..."

"It scares you?"

"... I don't know what it's doing... and that's why I'm freaking out..." Dark toppled over onto his side as he tried to curl up more.

"It's not meant to hurt you..." Mephiles said, carefully reaching a hand out to put on his shoulder, which was slapped away. "It's supposed make you feel better. It has millions of variants, but it all supposed to be basically the same." He drooped his ears. "... You mean that you've never once felt an emotional attachment to something before..? Not for wanting to use it... but just because you like being around it?"

"... In that sense... it would seem like you'd be implying that I'm in love with..." Dark looked a little horrified of the idea as he trailed off.

Mephiles' eyes went wide and he shook his head quickly when he realized what Dark thought."No! Not in love! That's like... Shadow and Rouge!"

"What?" Mephiles heard Rouge shout from down the hall, no doubt that she had been hearing this all with her good hearing, Shadow, no doubt, looking at her in confusion.

"No... I meant like, brotherly. As friends. Like... well... in that case, it's another word for 'caring deeply about'." Mephiles' face was a bit pink from the awkward direction this conversation almost went. "Like... when you almost died... I was scared that we wouldn't be able to save you. So much... that I fought myself from fainting from seeing how... hurt you were. I almost got myself really hurt because I was trying too much passed my limits to try and heal you..."

"... You should never try to go passed your limits if it hurts you..." Dark said slowly.

"But it worked... you didn't die..." Mephiles gave a small smile.

"... Am I really worth it..?"

"To me..? Yes..."

"... Why?"

"Because you're my friend... and my brother..."

"... Not real brothers though..." Dark seemed a bit sad by this.

"... Does it really matter?" Mephiles raised his ears. "We might as well be..."

"... How is it that... you, not even related to me... care about me more than my own other half did..?"

Mephiles looked away for a moment, then sighed.

"... He didn't really hate you, Dark..." He said softly, Dark's eyes going wide. "... He was just insane. The unlucky one... he might have been glad that you weren't as affected by the experiments as he was..."

"... No... he hated me... he tried to kill me..." Dark shook his head, eyebrow raised. "... When he changed... he never once cared about me again... he said so himself... not once..."

"What people say and what they do can be contradicting..." Mephiles looked up at him.

"... What do you mean..?"

"Would you like to know what happened to him..?"

Dark was quiet. He had waited weeks for this moment of truth. Weeks of pestering... and now... he wasn't sure if he was really ready.

But Mephiles was offering information! This was what he was waiting for!

Looking away, he nodded slowly.

Mephiles inhaled softly.

"He... burned out."

"What?"

"He was a fire. He said you were meant to outlive him anyway..."

"..."

"And when he saw how close you got to actually dying... he just gave the Emeralds back to us, and told me to use them to put all of the energy he took from you back... I think seeing how far he had gone snapped some sense into him before he let himself disappear..."

"... How can you be sure that he actually cared..?" Dark said in a challenging kind of way.

"... Because..." Mephiles said sadly. "... He told me to make up a story or whatever I wanted if you wanted to hear the truth... I think he thought what really happened would break your heart even more..."

"... But you didn't lie..?"

"No... because I knew that would just make it worse when you find out the truth..." Mephiles lowered his head before looking up. "... I think that really deep down... he did care... but his insanity got in the way of it... I'm sorry, Dark..."

Dark looked at him disbelievingly, scanning his narrowed eyes across his face to try and pick up any hints of lying. Nothing...

Then his eyes went wide, and he sighed deeply, small tears collecting in the edges of his eyes. He gave a weak laugh.

"... That's all I wanted to know..." He said softly.

His sniffle caught the hedgehog by surprise and he caught Mephiles in an almost bone crushing hug. Which is not exaggerating, since Dark had a pretty high amount of physical strength.

"Dark... ow... S-stop..." Mephiles said in a strained voice, wincing as he was worried that a rib might crack. "... Dark... gentler... p-please... ah... ow..."

"... I... love you, brother..."

"I love you, too... but... seriously... my spine... ow..."

"... Oh... right... sorry..." Dark let go of him and looked away awkwardly.

Mephiles gasped deeply once he was let go, and looked at him before smiling smally again.

"Feel better, now?"

"... I dunno... do I?"

"Yep..." Mephiles got to his feet and grabbed his hand to pull him up. "Now... I think you've got a cat you just ran out on... he hasn't seen you in weeks... you should go say 'hi' to him..." Dark grunted something about embarrassment, and Mephiles scoffed as he led him back to the living room: "Who cares? If you worry about what people think, you'll never have any fun..."

As Dark picked up his cat and disappeared into the kitchen to be away from anyone's eyes anyway, Mephiles rolled his eyes, knowing that it would be a while before Dark was used to it.

"Y'know, Meph..." Shadow said. "We're very proud of you... you've really grown up quite a bit during this whole deal..."

"You really think so..?" Mephiles laughed as his quills got a bit ruffled by Shadow. "Aw... thanks!" He looked up. "Y'know... why don't you and Rouge just get married or something? Then you guys could adopt me, and... and we could be like... you could be like... my dad or something." Then he gasped excitedly as Shadow and Rouge looked at him in a mix of bewilderment and shock. "Oh! What if you guys had a kid? Then I'd have a baby brother or sister! Wouldn't that be great? Then we'd be a real family!"

After a few moments of silence, Shadow was the first to speak.

"Yeah... Rouge... why don't we?"

"Because you're still sleeping on the floor until I say so!" Rouge smacked him in the back of the head for what felt like the umpteenth time. Then she smacked him again. And again. And again...

"Hey, Shadow... How come you never hit her back?" Mephiles tilted his head.

"Because-Ow! It's not-Ah! Alright for boys-Geeze! To hit-Hey! Girls! Gah! Stop it!"

"Even if they hit you?"

"Ye-Geeze, Rouge! I was just kidding!"

"Ladies and Gentlemen..." Mephiles said to no one in particular, giggling to himself out of silliness. "The Ultimate Lifeform..."

"And his girlfriend who has him by the quills!" Dark chimed in from the other room.

The both of them broke out into loud laughter.

Then the doorbell rang. It was Sonic.

"Hey, Shadow... is this a bad time?" He said quickly.

"Yes..."

"Funny..." Sonic rolled his eyes as he tapped his foot impatiently. "Listen... Eggman is out in space right now doing something I just know is bad..."

"Then go stop him yourself... we just got home from out own adventure..." Shadow got ready to close the door, but Sonic shoved his foot in the way.

"Yeah. Alright then... I'm sure I can handle this myself..." Sonic said impatiently as a yellow-orange twin tailed young fox looked at him disapprovingly.

"Shadow! You know Eggman is never up to anything good when he's building something in space!" The fox said desperately. "Remember the Eclipse Cannon? Both times? And-"

"Tails... he's just going to be a jerk about it like always..." Sonic shook his head. "Look... Let's just get to the point. Our Emerald Radar is telling us that all of the Emeralds are in this house right here. We need them. This would cut a lot of time in half and then some if you just give them to me so I can kick Egg-butt's... butt... wow... that sounded so much cooler in my head..."

"You just want the Emeralds?" Mephiles said suddenly, every head turning to him. "Well, why didn't you just say so? You can have them! Most of them are nothing but trouble with me!" He grabbed the backpacks and dumped them out on the ground in front on them. "Especially this red one! I hate that one!"

"I like the red one!" Dark almost whined. "Can't we-"

"NO!" Shadow, Rouge and Mephiles all said at once, making Dark cringe and duck back into the kitchen and out of sight.

"Really? We just get them?" Sonic said incredulously. "That's easy? Wow... thanks! Let's go, buddy!" He scooped up what he could as Tails picked up the rest and the both of them disappeared with a mix of super speed and tail induced flight.

"Did... did that two tailed fox just fly..?" Mephiles stared after them.

"Yes... that was Tails..."

"That kid you said that has that workshop in the Mystic Ruins?"

"Yep... the one that's Sonic's best friend..." Shadow nodded.

"..." Mephiles looked away. "Well, at least we can just stay home now..." He sighed.

At least a half an hour later, there was what felt like an earthquake. A short one. The power went out shortly, then as it flickered back on, Rouge switched the TV on to find a news station.

"Apparently... the Earth... just split apart..."

"Let me guess..." Shadow glared at the TV. "Eggman?"

"Sources say..."

"Y'know what! Just let Sonic take care of this! He's due for some world saving anyway! We just got back from our own, and we didn't even get a mention in the news at all!"

"Because no one really knows..." Mephiles said slowly. "That's good, really... I'd hate to get a lot of publicity... I like it better when I'm not under a spotlight..."

"But everyone is starting to think I'm lazy!" Shadow countered. I drop out of sight for about a year, and it's like I didn't do anything..."

"You want attention? Go help Sonic..." Rouge said as Shadow looked annoyed at the idea. "No? Then shut up..."

"Who cares? He's going to get the credit anyway..."

"Gee... you sound a bit bitter, Shadow..." Mephiles added.

"Hrrrm..." Shadow grunted and folded his arm, sticking his nose in the air. "Just let the faker take care of everything... I just want a cup of tea..."

"I'll take coffee!" Mephiles chimed in excitedly.

Dark, on the other hand, who was listening in on everything, seemed a little nervous about the state of the planet.

... That Human wouldn't be stupid enough to try that... would he..? He thought to himself. The last thing we need right now is for that... thing to be loose...

He shook his head as he petted his cat.

Given the odds... I'm hoping not... I'm not in the mood... He fretted.<i>