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the-last-quest · 1 month

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A Nine graffiti fic where Nine makes poor decisions in the name of making art.

(idk I’m bad at summaries)

[2312 words]

Nine rolled over in his bed and glanced at the clock resting on his bedside table.

2:35 AM it read, the red glow of the clock shining down on the young fox.

Normally Nine would curse his poor sleeping habits. Staying up late or waking up at absurd hours in the morning, a byproduct of living in a city where time never seemed to matter. Right now though he was at least a little thankful for it. Even though he couldn’t 100% guarantee that the other two members of the household were asleep, there still was a higher chance he could do what he had planned without getting caught.

Nine tossed off his blanket and hopped out of bed. He flicked on a lamp illuminating the blank wall in his room. During the previous week he had moved around the furniture and posters in his room in order to give himself a blank slate. It's not like he had a lot to move anyways, even though it had been a while since he settled here in Green Hill there wasn’t much of his own decoration in the room. Well that was going to change tonight.

Everything hinged on what was in the bag that was currently sitting in Nine’s closet.

Nine’s attention was first drawn to the bag earlier that week when Tails was giving him a tour of the lab. He didn’t really need the tour, already having snooped around before he and the other fox became at least civil to each other, but having someone who knew all the ins and outs of the lab certainly drew his attention to things that he didn’t notice before, namely a bag full of spray paint.

Which led him to now, pulling said bag out of his closet. He unzipped the bag and dug around in it removing the cans from the folds of clothes that he had shoved in between the cans to quiet them when he smuggled the bag into his room. As much as he wanted to criticize the hedgehog’s poor can packing he couldn’t help the smirk that grew on his face when he noticed a distinct lack of a rattle as he unpacked the cans.

He flipped a can over and his suspicions were confirmed as he found what he was looking for, a magnet at the bottom of the can, holding the mixing ball still within the can of paint. Maybe he should give the hedgehog more credit, if only a bit.

Nine didn’t know how important silence was when spray painting here, but back in New Yoke, as loud as the city was, it was still important to be as silent as possible in order to keep an ear out for any stray eggforcers, so he was quite familiar with these magnets. Maybe after this he should ask Sonic about it.

As Nine pondered about that he picked out a black paint can, and removed the magnet from the bottom. He bit his lip as he glanced towards the wall that he and Tails shared. He made his way over to the wall furthest from them and tried to mix the paint as quietly as he could. Thankfully he picked a fuller can so the mixing ball wasn’t too loud. After mixing the paint Nine sprayed a couple of puffs into the air, checking it, before placing the magnet back onto the can.

Now with the paint mixed up and the wall space cleared and ready Nine was hesitant. Did he really want to do this? He bit his inner cheek as he started to question himself more. Sonic did say he could decorate his room however he wanted but he was sure that this isn’t what he meant. If the hedgehog really did care so much about art would he get mad about him using his paints?

Nine shook those thoughts away. Sonic wasn’t like that. He’d probably make some stupid joke about it or something.

He kept repeating thoughts similar to that as he tried to steady his nerves. With a deep breath Nine brought his hand up and started to paint. He’ll deal with what Sonic thinks when he finds out.

It wasn’t anything at first. Just random lines as Nine got used to spray painting again. It had been a while since he last painted. Paint was hard to come by in New Yoke, the fox often having to resort to digging through the garbage for even the slightest chance of finding something useful. Nine had run out of most of his supplies before Sonic appeared, and of course he didn’t have the time to attempt to do any art during the whole shatterverse event.

A smile grew on his face as the motions of painting came back to him. He still didn’t attempt anything too big but as he grew more and more comfortable he started to paint some loose doodles of whatever came to mind.

Once he felt like he was warmed up, Nine stepped back from the wall to admire his work. A small feeling of pride bubbled up as he looked at the doodles. Sure they weren’t the best things he ever did, but chaos did it feel good to get back into the groove again.

Of course that's when reality had to hit him again, the smell of the paint finally registering in his mind.

Nine stifled a cough as he pulled his shirt over his mouth and nose as he made his way towards the window. He was already pushing the noise with the paint, if he broke out into a coughing fit he was sure he would at least cause some concern.

He threw open the window and leaned out as far as he could in order to get as much fresh air that he could into his lungs.

Maybe it wasn’t the smartest thing to spray paint in a room with no ventilation and no face protection but even as Nine suffered through his poor decisions he could already feel himself itching to start painting again. This time though he would be at least a little bit smarter.

Now that the window was open there was a slight breeze that made its way through the room.

‘Good’ Nine thought to himself as he brought himself back inside, he wouldn’t have to turn on a fan to get air circulation in the room.

Back in his room Nine went to his drawers and rummaged around in the for a second before he found what he was looking for, an old bandana, one of the only things he brought from his home back in New Yoke. The bandana, while not being the most effective face covering, was what he would use whenever he would venture out into the city to make art. He could probably do better with the covering, get a covering that would actually protect him from the chemicals inside the paint, but something about the bandana called to him in this moment, one of the only positive memories that he held from the city.

After the fox tied the bandana over his nose and mouth he returned to the cans that he had set out.

Most of them were near empty, not that it was too surprising, Nine wouldn’t expect anything more from the hedgehog. It was a bit disappointing that there wasn’t as much paint as he had expected, but it was not too much of an issue, he had worked with less before.

Nine picked up a different can and returned to painting. He’d return to the window often as he painted, either to get some fresh air, or to mix up the paint outside. There was no plan to what he painted, just going with the flow of whatever he most felt like painting.

Eventually that led him to painting a self portrait of himself, similar to the one that he had back in his base. The design was something that he painted a lot back in the city so the motions came naturally to him. It was like a calling card to him, similar to the animation that he made for his hacking adventures. Something that let him leave his mark on the world, letting him be seen without running the risks of any physical altercations, if he ignored eggforcers of course.

He got lost in the act of painting, his window breaks becoming less and less until he could feel his chest begin to ache from the chemicals he was inhaling. As much as he wanted to continue it was hard to justify it healthwise.

The fox took a step back and admired his work. He was able to fill up about half the wall, leaving plenty of space if he wanted to continue on a later date. Satisfied for now he turned off the lamp before he made his way back to the window.

With a practiced ease Nine lifted himself up and over the windowsill, landing onto the soft grass below. It wasn’t his first time he left through this window, and it most certainly wouldn’t be the last.

He removed the bandana and shoved it in his pocket, letting the fresh air enter easier. As he stood outside, taking deep breaths to clean his lungs, he took a moment to take in the silence. It was one of the reasons he snuck out so much, the silence completely different from all the sounds from the city, but there was still the soft noise of nature, a small but stark difference from the silence of The Grim.

Nine’s plan was to head to the lab and to possibly start working on a new project. It wasn’t like he could return to his room tonight, even though he might be dumb enough to paint in there he wasn’t dumb enough to sleep in there.

As he made his way around the house something caught his eye, a splash of blue on the house, hidden somewhat behind a shrubbery. Nine made his way towards it, intrigued, but he was quickly able to figure out what it was.

His plan changed, only a bit as he turned back to return to his room. Maybe just a little more painting wouldn’t be that bad.

~~~~~~~~

Sonic was up early.

It wasn’t uncommon for the hedgehog to be up as soon as the sun rose, energy buzzing under his skin practically forcing him to go for a run to burn it off. He didn’t mind it though, it was nice to have some time for himself out in nature.

It was when he had returned from his morning run when he noticed something was off.

He returned to the house, approaching it on the side as that was the quickest way. About to make his way to the front door of the house he noticed that Nine’s bedroom window was open. That caused him to pause. He was aware of Nine’s habit of sneaking out at night, but the kid was always back in his room by morning.

Sonic made his way towards the open window. Normally he would give Nine his privacy, but right now he was concerned.

Whatever he was expecting when he peered into the window it wasn’t this.

The first thing that he noticed was the smell, the scent of chemicals hitting his nose right away, causing him to let out a couple of coughs. Well at least he knew where his spray cans went.

He had to admit that Nine had talent. He had seen the art he did in his lab back in New Yoke, but he never had the time to appreciate it. And even now he had other matters to attend to, specifically the location of said fox. Putting aside his concern about his location, he was grateful that Nine wasn’t in his room, if he could smell the chemicals from just the window then it probably wouldn’t be healthy if he had decided to sleep in his room.

Sonic decided to look in the lab first. It was his best place to find Nine, he reasoned, as he didn't see any sign of the fox in the living room when he left the house for his run. As he made his way towards the lab he almost missed the last piece of art Nine had made last night.

Tucked behind a shrub was a tag that Sonic had made on the house ages ago. It was somewhat of a tradition for him to leave his tag somewhere on his and Tails’ multiple locations scattered around the world.

He smiled as he saw a yellow tag right underneath his blue one. The fresh paint was a stark contrast to the faded paint of his old tag. He was going to have to re-do them eventually. Maybe he could have Nine tag along.

Plans of having Nine and him paint together began to form in his mind as he continued his way to the lab. And just as he expected he did indeed find the fox in it.

Nine was at his desk in the lab, the computer open on some random program that Sonic wasn't even going to try to decipher, fast asleep, a yellow spray sitting on the table next to him.

Sonic shook his head fondly at the scene. He grabbed one of the blankets in the side of the lab, ones that were there for this scenario and draped it over the sleeping kid.

While he tucked nine in he noticed the bandana and assumed that that was what he used in place of a respirator. He sighed at the poor excuse of a mask, knowing full well that there were proper ones in this very lab.

When he wakes up they’re gonna have a long talk about proper ventilation.

#sonic prime #artist nine is one of my fav headcanons lol #also his lungs are most definitely fucked up from not only this but from his whole life in the city #boys gonna need an inhaler in is future #sonic the hedgehog #sonic #miles nine prower #nine the fox #nine sonic prime #tails nine #my writing

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