(no subject)
Casting his eyes across the field he found himself searching, desperately, for any sign of the familiar sweep of head feathers. There was nothing but the clash of metal on metal and the burst of steam as fire and ice met, furiously, thrown by seers with as much accuracy and venom as the hiss of arrows.
Dodging to the side to avoid the fall of three or four of them, he sped off in the direction he'd last seen the hawk, green eyes flashing over to red as he moved at speeds beyond that which should be possible. All around him, he watched flames and frosts falling just as equally. stomach twisting, lightly, at the sight of it, he pushed himself on, purposefully. He had to put an end to this, somehow, someway. It was his fault in the first place and he knew it.
Skidding across the slick of snow, he stopped, finally, able to see a cluster of fire soldiers go flying in a burst of glimmering snow. Heading that direction it didn't take him long to spy two-tone green again.
His heart gave a leap at the sight of it and just spurred him on to moving faster. He did not even bother announcing his presence, though he didn't have to. The flicker of flame around him was more than enough to catch the siege's attention and Sonic had a moment to meet bright, angered blue before he was dodging to the side.
The shock of ice was close, close enough that he could feel it through the protective hover of heat he kept around himself at all times. It didn't slow him down, though. He came out of the dive at a run, moving towards the siege who had gone from standing on the snow to floating several feet above it. gritting his teeth a little, Sonic didn't slow down, barrelling towards the hawk at a breakneck speed.
"Jet!"
The cry was lost to a sudden spear of cold and ice again, the arctic air bursting through his bubble of heat and making him hiss at the temperature change. He managed to avoid it, all the same, though it was by bare fractions at most. Pulling himself from the snow he bolted again, just as another icy spear hit the ground where he'd been not a second before. Fiery eyes focused on the hawk hovering in the air, Sonic mentally began to work out how to actually get up to him. He could jump that far, but only just barely. His speed would tap out, very quickly, and it would leave him in the air and vulnerable. No, he had to hit fast and hard. There would be no second chances at this.
Twisting in the snow, he nimbly avoided another chunk of ice, feeling the ground tremble, lightly, under his feet as it impacted, only the speed of his feet keeping him from getting hit by flying icy shrapnel.
He didn't have his weapon drawn, knowing it would just be another random factor to this and he had to keep things as controlled as he possibly could. He had one chance at this. Only one. After that, the choice was something he would never want to make. Not that he would be likely to survive to make it.
Skidding in the snow again he continued to dodge the magical projectiles as quickly as he could, just barely making it each time. So long as he could continue on, that was all that mattered. Catching up to the hawk was proving difficult, but be damned if he was going to stop, either.
He felt the rip of ice along his arm, hissing at it but ignoring it, knwoing he had gotten to close to that one. He didn't stop, though, green eyes burning to red as he forced the air right by the wound to superheat all in a flash. there was a sear of agony but it lowered to a throbbing, afterwards, the hedgehog knowing the wound had been cauterized. His gaze never wavered from the form floating in a swirl of frozen crystals and flickering power.
Weaving back and forth he waited, watching intently. If he could just get the hawk to throw one of those ice bolts in the right place. It took a few dodges and tries but, finally, one hit at just the angle he needed. Turning around, he sped back the direction he'd come. It left him vulnerable, he knew, his back to the hawk, but he swerved and skidded, scrambling and pushing away from a lance that came too close for comfort, feeling more pieces of razor thin ice biting into him in places.
He turned again, sharply, sending up a cloud of snow all around him, rolling to the side as ice bit into the frozen ground again, scrambling to get to his feet properly and taking off as fast as he could move. As he did he saw that his tactic had worked and the hawk had followed him back just a few feet. It was just enough and, lowering his head against the shrieking winds and screaming snow, he pushed himself harder. All around him the air heated, further and further until he was nothing but a roaring fiery comet, streaking across the snow in a burst of vaporizing water and steam.
He hit the long spear of ice at such a speed that the second he touched it, it was vaporizing as well. Fast as he was moving, though, he kept ahead of it. Before the hawk had any time to react, the flame knight had launched himself from the disappearing ice lance and thrown himself at the floating frost siege.
The fire all around Sonic died then, instantly, vanishing with a crackle and the arctic cold hit him like a ton of bricks. Breath gone from it, Sonic lifted his arms all the same, barreling into Jet and tackling him around the waist, arms wrapping around and holding, firmly, as he drove the hawk out of hte air and into the snow below.
The impact hurt, shocking through him with incredible force, the cold making it worse now that his protective barrier had been let down. It hurt, burning and freezing him swiftly. His limbs were already struggling to respond to him from the frighteningly low temperatures around him. His fingers fairly creaked as he reached up, grabbing hold of the pendant around his neck and pulling, forcing the now brittle metal to snap fairly easily under the pull.
The sudden burst of pain through his middle was massive. Searing and blinding and green eyes widened at it, at the sudden agony and the feel of something shredding through him. Ripping into his midriff and bursting out the back of his chest, gruesomely.
For a moment, all he could do was stare at those bright, maddened blue eyes, unable to believe what he was feeling. Green eyes, already fading quickly, flickered down to find ice. Broad and jagged, razor sharp, driven up through his body, the bright crimson of his life dripping down the length of the familiar icy blade, freezing in rivulets as it went.
He coughed, feeling the burst of heat across his lips as he did, watching the red splatter into the white of snow and feathers both, splashing against the green and orange of a cheek. Jet did not even so much as flinch, watching the hedgehog speared on his blade with a cruel, closed sort of satisfaction.
For a long moment, there was nothing but the silence between them, though Sonic's ears were roaring now, with a dull and rapidly fading sort of pounding. His heartbeat, he knew, skittering and starting to slow a little at a time. He coughed again, wracked through with the agony of dying speared upon ice like this. Jet said nothing, just watching as the colour seeped out of green eyes, impassive and cold.
Gripping the pendant in his hand, feeling the blood dripping down his arm and in between his fingers, Sonic trembled, forcing his frozen, dying limbs to move, pulling a rattling, thick breath into ruptured lungs as best he was able to.
"... it's gonna be okay, frostie." he rasped, pressing the pendant against Jet's chest, right above his heart. He pushed himself forward a little more as he did, forcing that blade in deeper and wincing at it, turning his head and coughing another mouthful of gore to the snow.
"... when you wake up, remember... I forgive you... and I love you..."
Pushed the pendant down against that chest, harder, with a bloody hand as he leaned in and found cold lips with his own rapidly cooling ones, brushing a bloody kiss to them, lightly.
There was a flash of light as he did, from beneath his hand, flaring brilliantly and almost painfully, though Sonic didn't see it, with his eyes closed as they were, and his vision rapidly fleeing from him. He could feel the throb, though, of power, under his hand, as it shot into the depths of the hawk's heart and core, driving in deep and curling around the grip of power that was holding it.
Beneath the dying hedgehog, the hawk bucked at it, blank but bright eyes widening, sharply, as the light shocked straight through him. His mouth opened in a cry, something that was silent, but the sudden roar of wind around the two figures screamed more than enough for him. The snow lifted, sharply, rippling around Jet and Sonic both, curling about them in a ragged and twitching mass, as though it were alive. The wind rose again, sharply, pulling into a high wail as the light from the pendant still pressed against Jet's chest flared again, throbbing, slowly at first, and then faster.
Beat and beat, the light throbbing and making the snow reel and the wind scream like a living thing, rising until it became recognizable as a heartbeat. Throbbing, steadily faster and stronger, pushing the ice and snow beating against it back. Within the bubble of brightness, Jet arched again, wracked through as it pulled at something deep inside him, ripping and yanking, furiously, at the power keeping it's firm hold on him.
Around the beating heartbeat of light, the snow and ice screamed again, in pain this time, as the voice rose and the snow changed. Shifting in colour, changing from white to a deep sort of crystalline black. The screaming shifted, higher and higher, becoming what sounded like thousands of bits of glass grinding and scraping across each other. The light grew as well, pulsing brighter and stronger as the black began to whirl and shudder around it. Wherever they touched, there was a snap and crackle of energy, the black crystals disappearing. They tried to move away, but were pulled back, pushed by the sudden rise of ice.
All around the outside of the black gleaming cocoon, the ice was rising again, pulling from the ground and trapping the dark shards of crystal, keeping them from escaping, leaving htem pressed against the sphere of bright light, forcing each of them to collide with it and disappear in a shimmering chime. All collected, the sound was that of a dying scream, rising rapidly as the ice curled inwards, clutching and squeezing and forcing the dark shards of power to press in, unable to do anything but. The scream rose, sharply, as the ice constricted, and then died, all of a sudden, cut off so sharply that it only echoed, faintly, into the white stretches around it.
For a moment, the shell of ice stayed where it was, before it began to crackle. It splintered, quickly, coming apart and falling away in thick, heavy chunks, crashing to the snow and raising little clouds of powder as it fell to pieces. Beneath it, the light was gone again, the heartbeat that had been there, pulsing brightly, gone now. When the ice finally collapsed, all that was left were two figures, one curled, on it's knees, gripping the other tight to it's chest.
The silence lingered, all around the spot, the battle ended when the screaming had begun. Flame and Frost soldiers alike stood, shoulder to shoulder, watching the figures curled in the snow for a long moment, unable to move, shocked to stillness by what had just happened.
The wind picked up again, sighing across the battlefield, slowly, and pulling at head feathers that were once again their proper two-tone green again. Arms shaking, covered with blood, Jet shook, violently, curled around the limp little bundle in his arms. No one dared to move, despite the sight before them, unable to believe what they'd just witnessed, all thoughts of the war a moment before gone again. The hawk trembled, his body wracking with what was visibly a sob, though no one could hear the sound over the slow wail of the wind.
All around him, the snow was stained deep red, the hedgehog in his arms was still and silent, bloodied and broken, limp even when the hawk moved, curling his arms around tighter as he made a soft strangled little sound. The sound rose then, sharply, bit by bit, until it was nothing less than a full throated scream. Ripping across the battlefield, anguished and high as Jet tossed his head back, voice tearing across the frozen wasteland, utterly shattering the silence around him.
The sound echoed, carried by the wind, as though it would reach every corner of the earth as he curled forward again, clutching at Sonic's form, refusing to let go, refusing to move, chest heaving as the broken sounds fell from him again and again.
Brushing a bloodied hand against a fawn cheek, Jet lifted his head, slightly, looking down at eyes that stared back at him, lifeless and grey, the green of them gone along with the hedgehog's life.
"You idiot..." he rasped, voice ragged and breaking, filled with more emotion than he could ever remember feeling. "You stupid, selfless.. i-idiot..!!"
Choking through him as he curled again, burying his face in against the hedgehog's shoulder, able to feel how that body was cooling rapidly with no fire left within to warm it. He stayed like that for a long moment before he realized that one of Sonic's hands was still curled between them. Lifting his own, he curled it around the bloodstained glove, holding it, tightly, able to see the gold chain still hanging from it. He turned it over, turning broken blue eyes on the familiar shape of the Life Pendant, still clutched in those fingers, though they no longer held it with the fervor of before.
Jet stared at it, for a long moment, at the dimmed crystal in the center of it, the spell gone, now, knowing why it was gone and wishing, desperately, that it still glowed. Gritting his teeth to try and stop the anguished sound that pressed at the back of his throat, he curled his fingers around Sonic's still hand, keeping the pendant caught there, holding it firmly between their palms as he turned his gaze back on the hedgehog's face.
"You save me from madness and then leave me?!" he rasped, voice trembling.
"What do I do now?! How do I continue alone (without you)?! How am I supposed to stand in the face of this without you?!"
He shook, wracked through with the rush of pain and sorrow, curling in against Sonic's shoulder again for a moment, unable to stop the broken sounds as they worked through him. Finally, he lifted his head again, dark tracks spilling down green and orange as he watched those dimmed eyes. Stared at them for a long while before bringing a hand up and brushing them closed, gently. Curling his arm around the hedgehog's shoulders he cradled that form close to him, unwilling to let go, his hand still clutching the other one's tightly.
Leaning in he rested his head against Sonic's forehead, gently, makign them meet and staring at eyes he knew would never open again, tears spilling from his own and dripping into fawn. He watched for a moment, his chest hitching and hurting, near blind with the agony, but refusing to look away from that face.
"... now and forever, you will be my only. There will never be another." he whispered, softly, watching those closed eyes.
Leaning in and finding bloodied lips with his own, not caring for the copper nor the cold, fitting to them in a gentle and tender kiss, something that spoke the words that his hedgehog had never been able to actually hear from him in life. He let the loving gesture linger, tears still slipping down his cheeks to drip against fawn. Finally, though, he pulled back, just a fraction, eyes closed, leaving only the barest of spaces between them.
"I love you, Sonic."
Ever so soft and quiet, but steady. He did not stammer or hesitate, though he longed for those wilted ears to actually be able to hear them. The hawk sat there, forehead still resting against the hedgehog's, unmoving, when he he felt a shift of something under his hand. Just a slow undulation, as though something were throbbing, lightly.
Blinking darkened, sorrowed blue back open, the hawk looked down at the hand still clutching to Sonic's as he felt the shift again, low and unsteady, as though it were weak and barely there. The faintest bit of light pushed at the edges of blood stained fingers, barely peeking through. Blinking at it, the hawk parted his fingers a fraction to reveal part of the crystal held in the center of the pendant between their palms.
The faces of it glimmered, lightly, from within, as it pulsed again, slowly, warily, as though it wasn't sure it could do so. Staring at it for a moment in shock, Jet curled his hand around it again, gripping it firmly and turning to look at Sonic's face again.
Bringing their hands up, he curled it in against the hedgehog's shattered chest, not caring for the blood that was rapidly freezing in the arctic air. He focused on those features, watching them intently as he gripped the pendant tighter still, letting the sharp little edges of it dig in he held it with such fervor. Trembling a little, he brushed his fingers against a fawn cheek as the pendant pulsed again, a little stronger, waiting and watching, hoping against everything that somehow.
Unsure of what to do, how to help, he curled Sonic's form closer to him, still, until he could press the hedgehog's hand against his own chest, right above his heart, capturing it between his own heartbeat and the slow pulse of the Life Pendant. There was a pull, then, deep in his chest, something that tugged at his very core and made his breath catch, but that he did not fight against. Felt it pull again as the pendant throbbed, brighter this time.
It could very well be pulling his own life from him and he did not care. Watched Sonic intently before he leaned in again, forehead to forehead, watchign those closed eyes for a moment before he exhaled, shakily.
"... I would give my life, to give him back his own. If it will save him, take it." Jet whispered, softly, barely above a breath.
"I offer my soul for his, gladly."
Another moment where he watched that face, every nuance of it, brushing fingers against fawn, gently, before leaning in and capturing bloodied lips in a tender kiss once again.
The sudden pulse of light was brilliant, surging up enough that Jet could see it behind closed eyelids and even feel it against his hand and his face where it leaked between his fingers. The pulsing in the pendant rose, almost wildly, beating furiously for a moment or two before it evened out again. Throbbing and beating, strongly, as he gripped the pendant and Sonic's hand, both, keeping it caught between both heartbeats, firmly.
The wild beating of the pendant slowed a little and grew steady until, finally, it matched the beating of Jet's own heart. He could feel it, pulling furiously, at his very core, drawing from him as the pulse grew stronger and stronger. The light grew, too, able to feel it burning against his hand, painfully now, but he didn't let go so much as an inch. Nor did he pull away from those lips, keeping them caught just as determinedly as he clung to that hand.
The pulling grew stronger and stronger, but Jet kept his eyes closed against the building, blinding light. It was becoming agony, now, he could feel it, but he refused to move, refused to let go. It would kill him, he was sure, but that did not matter. All that mattered was the limp form curled in his lap and his arms. Feverishly, he pushed the urge to breathe at the hedgehog, willing him to do it. His own heartbeat pounding in his ears and under his palm, he tried to urge Sonic's to do so again as well.
The shot of agony that ripped through him was sharp enough to have him inhale, brokenly. For a moment he nearly pulled away from Sonic but, before he could, his determination and sorrow drove him to clutch at the hedgehog tighter. CUrled his arm around those shoulders and held him close, locking his arm in place so that he could not slip away from those lips even as another shock of pain ripped through him.
His heartbeat wavered then, suddenly and ominously, giving a skittering lurch that made his chest hurt almost blindingly. Closing his eyes tighter, he refused to move, pushing the heartbeat at Sonic, instead, ignoring his own as he did, focusing on the one in the pendant instead, which beat far stronger than his own, now. Beat and beat and suddenly there was a twitch of movement against his fingers and chest. For a second he thought he'd imagined it, before it happened again, stronger this time.
All in an instant, the body under him heaved, arching sharply and inhaling as best it could through just the nose. The pendant pulsed wildly again, the beat thrumming up to something like a hummingbird's, wild and rapid but utterly erratic. Jet curled his fingers around it a little more, trying to soothe it, to even it, as the pain in his chest grew stronger and stronger and his own heartbeat began to slow, dangerously.
The pendant slowed, evening out a bit at a time as the hedgehog jerked again, in his arms, inhaling sharply as best he could with Jet keeping him held in the firm kiss. THe hand pressed to Jet's chest twitched and tried desperately to grab in return, curling fingers against taloned fingers and the pendant both, gripping it furiously like a lifeline.
Keeping his eyes closed, still, Jet held Sonic as he bucked again, the sudden whimper pressing against his mouth was high and sharp but muffled and Jet cracked blue eyes open to find green ones staring up at him, wide and terrified. The pain in his chest spiked again, furiously, and his heart slowed completely, barely skittering beneath that hand before it stopped.
Blue eyes stared, quiet and thankful, down at green that was staring back, wide and horrified and Jet just watched them for a moment before he let his own close, slowly, as his heart gave another weak attempt at beating but it was alright. It could stop now.
The agonized sound was sharp and harsh and there were suddenly hands against his chest, pushing, hard, shoving him back into the snow. The kiss broke with the cry already ripping from SOnic's lips as the hedgehog followed the hawk back into the snow, grabbing at him, desperately, still clutching furiously to the Life Pendant between their hands.
"No... no! You can't..! Jet! Jet, no!!"
Ragged and agonized as the hedgehog curled over Jet sprawled in the snow. Still covered in blood, his wounds only partially healed by the pendant, Sonic grabbed hold of one of Jet's cheeks, holding it so that he could meet those dimming eyes, his own panicked.
"No! Damnit, I didn't save you for this!"
For a moment he just searched that face, lost, before he brought his free hand down and wrapped it around the hawk's and his own, trapping the pendant within them, tightly. Vision wavering and dimming, Jet saw the colour of those eyes flare to gold and then over to fiery red, brilliant and near blinding. All around him he could feel the earth buck at it. Even dying as he was, he could feel the sudden pull at the lines, something that fairly made the magicks scream, furiously. He blinked at Sonic, wanting to tell him it was alright, but he could not find the breath to do so.
Around the two figures the soldiers that had been watching moved, suddenly, leaping to the side as the lines around them, deep beneath the ground, screamed, suddenly. The snow crust around the field cracked, wildly, splintering and spidering as it began to shatter and part. Everywhere around them the permafrost was parting, swiftly and furiously, disappearing in a rising haze of steam, bursting from the soil in clumps and geysers.
In the midst of it all blue quills rose, straightening and rising, colouring at the tips of them as the hedgehog called upon powers lying deep beneath the earth, buried so far as to have never been touched. Further and further he pushed, hands gripping around Jet's and the pendant, focusing on it, on the crystal and feeling the power of the very world beneath him.
Beat.
Slow. Deep. Primordial.
The pulse that dipped through the crystal was slow but strong, so much so that the crystal began to hum, wildly, at it. Fiery red eyes continued to watch the blue ones before them, never wavering and though his vision was dim and hazed, Jet found that they were holding him, right there, where he was, on the cusp of death. As if in a dream, the hawk watched as those quills seemed to grow longer as they rose, the tips starting to sear with magic, flames leaping to life all around them as they began to go gold.
Enchanted by the sight, even barely hanging to life as he was, Jet could feel the thrum of the earth all around him, the magic of the lines rising from a scream to something different. All around him the sound seemed to strengthen until it sounded like the very planet was crying out to him, as though singing something he had never heard before. And beneath it all was that rhythm. Slow and deep and powerful and, all in an instant, he realized that what he was feeling and hearing was the heartbeat of the very planet.
Before him, those eyes had gone an ethereal shade, something not even flame could touch, as they shifted from red to green to gold to blue to purple and everything between it. Changing, ever changing, as the familiar blue of fur and quills gleamed, brightly, curled all around with the flames he was notorious for weilding. Different now, though. They held a movement to them that was hard to watch and follow, as though it wasn't even really there. But then, everything about the hedgehog had suddenly become ethereal.
Quills and fur shimmered, flickering with a light that seemed to be coming from within themselves, not from the flames curling around that form. The wounds of earlier seemed to be gone, suddenly, along with any trace of blood or injury at all. Whole, calm, powerful, Sonic curled over Jet a little more, still holding tight to his hand and the pendant, pushing them against the hawk's chest, right above his heart, as he slipped in close.
"Beat."
Just a soft, even command, something that Jet swore was the softest whisper and yet could have shaken the very foundations of the oldest mountains. Immediately, his heart lurched in his chest, leaping to life with a throb that hurt, incredibly, but felt like the most wonderful thing in the world. A second beat, though slow, following the deep and ancient rhythm that was coursing through Sonic and the pendant clutched to his chest. On the third beat, Sonic spoke again.
"Breathe."
The power behind the command forced Jet to obey, helplessly, beak parting as he inhaled, suddenly and sharply, gasping air into his lungs again, feeling them burn from the lack of it for minutes before. His heart lurched at it again, almost wildly, suddenly quickening to twice what it was before, filling the spaces between the slow and steady heartbeat against his chest with extra ones. Reeling at the sudden feeling of both, Jet blinked up at Sonic, slowly, as the hedgehog leaned in a little more, fawn lips curling into a small, knowing little smile.
"Live."
Just soft and quiet, in against Jet's lips, fractions apart, and the flames around Sonic leaped higher, then. Blue eyes widened as they darted at him, curling across him and running through him, flushing him with heat that had him gasping out, sharply at it. The onslaught of warmth and life was almost blinding and the hawk arched at it, unable to stop it.
Before the cry could pull from him there were lips. Soft and warm, pressing against his own, cutting off the surprised sound and muffling it, gently. Blue eyes stared, wide and startled, up at the flickering myriad of colours that made up the ones before him realizing, all in a shock, that what he was seeing were the colours of every form of magic that lay beneath the surface of the earth. Red, green, blue, yellow, purple, white, and even black. Each one swirled and danced through the eyes watching him.
The touch of those lips sent another surge of that heat through him, making his heartbeat skitter and grow stronger still, his chest heaving with the force of it, now, as his form fairly shook under the onslaught of power and just life itself. Mind swimming, Jet could do little but lay there and allow it to happen, hands trembling, taking in the sight of the hedgehog touched by such a deep and ancient power that he looked unlike anything the siege had ever heard of before, let alone actually seen.
Finally, after a long moment, Sonic pulled back from the kiss, gently. Immediately, Jet was gasping for air, pulling it hungrily into lungs that wanted it desperately again, his heart beating strongly in his chest, far quicker than the pendant he was still clutching. His ears were still full of that deep, slow heartbeat, the one that seemed to have wrapped around him, blanketing him in such a powerful but comforting embrace, like a mother cradling her child. The planet itself holding him to it's chest and caring for him.
Swallowing, heavily, Jet lay there, suddenly feeling terribly small and humbled, blinking bright blue up at the eyes above him. Sonic smiled down at the hawk, something that was small and utterly fond. Uncurling his hands, Sonic carefully pried the hawk's fingers from the Life Pendant which was still pulsing, slow and tender and deep.
Taking hold of the broken chain, Sonic slipped it around Jet's neck, curling the broken ends together behind and sealing them together again with a tiny burst of heat. Drifting his hands back around, still smiling, Sonic lay the pendant against white feathers and then placed his own hand atop it, gently, holding it there.
"She's letting you have a second chance, Jet." Sonic said, in that whisper that could move mountains.
"Don't waste it."
Jet blinked at that, brows furrowing a little bit at it, before he realized what it was the hedgehog was saying. Staring for a second, shaken to the very depths of his being by the gravity of what he'd just heard, all he could do was lie there, trembling. Finally, though, he moved.
Trembling lightly, still, taloned hands lifted, curling in against fawn cheeks, feeling the flames surge around his hands again, feeling the warmth and finding it welcome, rather than abhorred suddenly. Tugging, gently, he pulled Sonic back down to him, again, tilting his head and fitting his lips to warm fawn, pressing the hedgehog into a slow, deep and utterly tender kiss.
With a soft sound, Sonic let flickering eyes closed as he fell into the embrace all too easily, wrapping his free arm around the hawk and curling in against him, still holding the slowly beating pendant to Jet's chest. Jet echoed the sound, his own shaking and a little ragged as he let his own arms slip away from those cheeks and around, instead, a hand sliding between Sonic's shoulder blades as the other tangled into long quills, holding gently to try and keep from shaking any more.
Slowly, little by little, the flames curled around the two of them receded, curling back to the depths of the earth where they had come from. As they did, the hedgehog's quills and fur slowly bled back into the familiar cobalt blue of before, slipping away with a faint sparkle in the sighing winds around them. Jet was completely unaware of the change, though, feeling the heat still thrumming through him from where the pendant lay against his chest and where those lips met his own. Wordlessly he poured every ounce of his gratitude and care into the embrace, heart pounding furiously at the understanding of what he had been granted.
Finally, after a long moment, Sonic pulled back, just barely, just enough to break the kiss and give he and the hawk enough room to breath again. Jet inhaled at it, sharply, feeling a little surreal at just how good the simple act of breathing felt, now that he had been without it for a short period. He had been more than ready and willing to give that up, to keep the hedgehog here and alive, but all the same, he was glad to be doing it again.
Sonic, for his part, just smiled, the eyes watching blue ones having returned to their normal green brushed with gold. A gold, Jet realized, that matched the colour the hedgehog's quills had been just a moment before. For a long moment they just lay there, watching one another, silently, until Jet realized that the softness beneath him wasn't the softness of snow, it was soething else. Warm and soft and familiar but not what had been there, before.
Blinking, he turned his head, breaking the gaze he was sharing with the hedgehog to sate his curiousity, unable to help but do so. All around him the white of the snow was gone, pushed back all in a ragged circle around he and Sonic, both. At the edge of it, he could see the Fire and Frost soldiers both, staring at the two of them in a strange sort of wonder, though none of them would move closer.
The snow had vanished completely, replaced, instead, by the bright brush of green. Soft and waving gently in the wind still sighing around them, was grass. Not just grass, but numerous wildflowers, all of different hues and shades, shapes and sizes. Blinking at it in surprise, brows lifted, the hawk stared for a moment or two before looking over at Sonic again, shocked. Sonic, for his part, just gave the hawk a sheepish little smirk, something that quirked up lightly and possibly a little embarrassed.
"... I like flowers." he said, simply.
Jet blinked again, staring at Sonic for a moment, before he grinned. Small at first and then larger and brighter before he laughed, the sound just as bright as the grin he had been wearing when he did. Without a word, he reached up, wrapping his arms around those shoulders again and pulling, dragging Sonic down against him, tightly, as he pushed away from the grass.
Sonic squeaked a little, in surprise, as he was grabbed and rolled, finding himself pushed back into the grass and flowers, blinking up at the hawk, now, ears perked. For a moment, Jet just hovered over him, waearing a soft, fond little smile, something Sonic didn't think he'd ever actually seen on the hawk. Close, certainly. He could remember well the little smile Jet had worn that day, curled close together beneath the bed clothes. This was still different, though. Something else to the curve of it that pulled a particular brightness and warmth across blue eyes.
"What am I going to do with you, hedgehog?" Jet murmured, softly.