Hi, guys! It's me, and I'm back with my first-ever Sonic The Hedgehog fic. I know, I know. Blame my freshmen, for they inspired this monstrosity that isn't even fully (or really even partially) written.

Basically, this is what's up for this one- I have something about anthropomorphic characters that makes them impossible for me to write, so for the purposes of this ficlet, Sonic and the gang gave been gijinka-ized, or made into kemonomimi (humans with animal characteristics). This may ruin the whole spirit of Sonic for some of you, but I ask that you be patient with me, especially because I'm a bit out of touch with this fandom. I will, however, but in the time and research to get the personalities of those characters that I'm NOT familiar with (i.e Silver, Blaze, Eggman NEGA, etc) correct. It WILL have a small amount of Sonic X, just because I kind of enjoy it, though it's not canon whatsoever.

This fic, as most to all of my others, will be YAOI/SHOUNEN AI of the Sonic/Shadow variety. It will also contain Knuckles/Rouge, Silver/Blaze, and anything else I feel it needs.

Disclaimer time!

Sonic and Co. belong to Sonic Team and Sega. This will hold true throughout the entire fic, since I have no intention of making new characters of any real significance.

Thank you for your patience and for hopefully reading this A/N that is possibly longer than the chapter! Without further interruption or complication, I introduce you to the Intro/Chapter One of Black & Blue.

The year is 2110, human-animal genetic splicing has been deemed a success. These creatures, first successfully made in Japan, are called kemonomimi. They have a majority of human DNA, though possess some animal characteristics, and the population has grown to the point where they can now reproduce outside of a laboratory. An island off the coast of northern California, called Mobius, has been claimed as a territory of the United States, and is the best-known hybridized society in the world.

Technology has advanced, and energy is now solar and wind based. Security equipment is now installed with lasers, and missiles are now, though on a smaller scale, nuclear based. Things that never could have been imagined at the turn of the millennium are now possible and within reach.

The story begins on the island of Mobius in the city of Station Square. A school has been formed for adolescent kemonomimi on the outskirts of the city, located in close proximity to a high school of humans for maximum integration to society and to promote acceptable social behavior between the two species. The facility is based through the grades of kindergarten to twelfth grade to provide the best educational opportunities for the students. This school is called The Station Square Academy for Kemonomimi, and provides dormitories for those who choose to stay at the school.

The date is August 28, 2110. It is the first day of school.

A bedraggled boy rolled off his mattress and was sent crashing into the floor. He groaned in pain, pushing himself up into a seated position and glancing at the clock, which blinked a florescent green set of numbers that read seven forty-five.

Equally green eyes blinked, and slender, pale hands rubbed the sleep from them. The boy sighed, glancing mournfully back at his lower bunk and wishing that he had enough time to get some more sleep.

Small, triangular blue ears twitched atop his head, picking up the rumbling snore of his roommate bundled in blankets on the upper level of the bunk bed. The boy dragged his hand back through mussed blue spikes of his hair, surprisingly soft, considering his animal of origin.

The boy stood, slender and of medium height, and put his feet atop his mattress to push himself up to wake his sleeping roommate.

"Knuckles," he said, shaking the fleece-covered lump. "Knuckles, wake up. First day of school. We need to get ready so we can pick up the others at their dorm."

Said lump groaned, and a tanned hand reached out from under the covers to bat him away. The blue-haired boy grabbed the hand and tugged on it insistently.

"Come on, Knuckles. You're such a slowpoke," the boy sighed irritably, climbing down from the bunk and padding lightly into the adjoined bathroom.

He made a face when he saw his hair in the mirror, reaching for the sink tap before hesitating- he shook his head and wet his hands, pulling them through his spikes and tugging out a few snarls. He smoothed the azure locks back from his face, pouting when one spike flopped over his forehead.

"Fine," he grumbled. "You win another day, hair. Someday, I'll just cut you all off, and who will be laughing then, huh?" He scowled at himself in the mirror, rolling his eyes as a stuttered snore drifted in through the doorway. "Damn it, Knuckles, get up!"

He took hold of a small, brown bristled hairbrush and threw it at the boy on the top bunk. "Amy's gonna kill us if we're late."

The other boy sat up abruptly, throwing the covers back and rolling over to the side of the bunk, his feet kicking slightly as he reached for purchase on the carpeted floor. Well-muscled and tan, he was easily the boy's opposite, and a good four inches taller as well. Medium-length red dreadlocks fell straight to his broad shoulders, and he walked irritably to the dresser, pulling it open and tugging a red muscle-tank over his head.

"You're a pain in the ass, Sonic," he growled. "And Amy should be able to walk herself to breakfast. She's in seventh grade now- you and I were beating each other up when we were in seventh grade."

The blue-haired boy, Sonic, shrugged with a slight smile. "Yeah, yeah, but Amy is a girl. And you know as well as I do that she could get into just as many fights as we did if she could be bothered to try. It's not her that I'm worried about, anyway." Sonic turned back to the mirror, pulling out a blue toothbrush and lathering small sharp teeth with minty foam.

Knuckles hummed vaguely in agreement, hopping place as he pulled a pair of tight, red jeans over his legs. He then reached for a white-crescent necklace on a thin gold chain, locking the clasp behind his neck and straightening it on his chest. "Yeah, well, Tails will get there, too. If he's anything like you were at that age, he'll be in detention in no time."

Sonic spat the toothpaste into the sink, rinsing it down and sticking the tiny brush under the stream of water. "We both know that he's nothing like I was. He's a good kid, and too smart for his own good." He walked back into the bedroom and to his dresser, sifting through clothes to find what he was looking for. "Do you know what he told me the other day?"

"What?"

Sonic snorted softly, pulling out a pair of blue athletic shorts with a thick white stripe on either side. "He said that the board was thinking of skipping him another grade. It's ridiculous! He's already going to be a freshmen this year, and he's eight. He's going to have enough trouble with the others this year, anyway. If they put him up any higher, he's gonna get eaten alive by the other kids in his grade. They're already twice his age. Sure, he'll whiz through the work and make them wonder whether or not they should just send him to college, but sooner or later, some huge brute that's not half as smart as he is will get pissed about having a kid like him in his grade. Tails will end up hurt, and no one will do anything about it but me."

Knuckles sat on the edge of Sonic's bunk, pulling on socks and his red-and-orange sneakers, green ankle straps crossing securely over the gray tongue of the shoe and fastening on the other side.

"You know that's not true," he said. "You know that all of us would be there for him. It wouldn't be just you, Sonic. We all love the kid. Even Cream would chuck a fit if anything happened to him."

Sonic laughed to himself, pulling on a white tank top and leaving a long-sleeved, lightweight blue shirt unbuttoned over it. He slipped a long, thin chain over his head, its only pendant a plain, thick gold ring.

"I know. Sometimes I wish that Tails could be more like Cream, though, you know? Just a normal kid in third grade, having fun with his friends instead of building laser-equipped planes and god-knows-what else."

The redhead sighed, walking into the bathroom and turning on the sink, talking loudly over the hum of the tap. "He'd never be normal, Sonic. None of us are. We're human-animal hybrids, and Tails is proof of that more than any of us. We got off lucky- me with this ridiculous hair-quill stuff that I can only manage by keeping it in dreads, and you with blue hair and a pair of ears that you could pass of as a headband of something."

Sonic frowned at that, sliding plain white athletic gloves over his hands and fastening the wrist straps. "I guess."

He stuck his feet into his red sneakers, tapping the toes on the ground before sitting on his bunk, leaning over to pull white support-straps through gold buckles. He stood, hands reaching above his head and leaning backwards, spine cracking loudly. Sonic sighed in relief, rolling his neck and hearing that pop into place as well.

"Are you ready?" he asked as Knuckles emerged from the bathroom, flicking off the light.

"Yeah," the redhead replied, reaching to his dresser for a pair of studded fingerless gloves and his keys.

"Alright, well let's get going. We need to make sure that Chip is awake, too… but then again, maybe not. That kid is always starving. It's a wonder that he's not fat. He must have a high metabolism or something, because he's lazy as hell, too."

Knuckles grinned, turning the lock on the inside handle of the door and closing it behind them. "And he's still a shrimp."

Sonic returned the smile before looking at his thin black phone, the face of a pink-haired girl scowling at him along with the words accept video call? He poked the button for yes, holding it in front of him.

"Where are you?" The girl screeched. "Did you forget that Cream has to be at school in forty-five minutes and I have to be there in an hour?"

The boy groaned. "It's Knuckles' fault," he replied, pushing the phone into the surprised and indignant redhead's hands. "Yell at him."

He couldn't help the grin that threatened to split his face as he listened to the twelve-year-old reprimand the high-school senior. Yes, he'd missed this over the summer.

It was good to be back.