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Sonic cracks his joints, grinning. "All right, who's next, Dodon Pa?"
The tanuki smiles. "Next, you'll be up against Team Vector."
"Oh, the Chaotix? Heh, piece of cake—”
Tails's expression is pretty serious though, his eyes on the track. "Not the Chaotix, Sonic."
"What do you mean? Who else would Vector have on his—” Sonic turns to follow Tails's gaze. There's Vector, all right, sauntering towards Sonic, Tails, and Knuckles. To his left, though, is Silver, who waves as soon as he sees them. And to Vector's right...
"Well, well, look who it is." Knuckles sounds entirely too smug. "It's your other favorite guardian, Sonic."
"Knuckles, shut up," Sonic grounds out through gritted teeth.
"Or what, you'll punch me?" Knuckles scoffs.
Tails is waving back in greeting to the other team. "We're gonna lose," he says.
"Tails!"
Tails stops waving and turns to Sonic. "You're already blushing," he says matter-of-factly.
"It's been a while since I've seen her, okay?" Sonic huffs, even more aware of how warm his face is now that Tails has unhelpfully pointed it out. "Some teammates you guys are."
This isn't how he wanted to see her again for the first time since the war. He's been wanting to visit since they beat Eggman a month ago, but given his extended isolation on the Death Egg, he hasn't had a moment to himself.
Dodon Pa is on the other side of the track now, talking to "Team Vector." Vector and Silver nod and look determined. Blaze nods as well, a serious expression on her face. She then shifts her gaze beyond Dodon Pa to rest on Sonic. Her expression softens into a gentle smile, and she waves. Sonic weakly smiles back, hand half-raised in greeting.
"We're so gonna lose," Tails says again.
When Dodon Pa teleports them to the starting line, Blaze's car winds up next to Sonic's, at the back. Sonic swears that Dodon Pa did that on purpose. Is the race track warmer than usual, or is it just him?
"Eyes on the prize, guys," Tails says through their teams-only comms.
"He means we need to focus on winning, Sonic," Knuckles adds. "Don't get distracted."
Sonic grips his steering wheel and very deliberately looks ahead at the starting lights. "You're distracting me right now, Knucklehead."
"I don't have to do anything for you to be distracted by me."
"Get a room, you two," Tails says with a sigh.
The countdown lights change. Sonic's engine roars to life, and so does Blaze's beside him.
GO!
Sonic rockets foward as the light changes. Blaze does the same, tearing down the track beside him. Dodon Pa must have made her car a speed-type too. Sonic grins. They round the bends in perfect sync, as if fighting alongside each other in battle. Soon, they've left everyone else behind.
Blaze opens up a public comm link between them. "Hey."
Dodon Pa designed the cars without private comms. Sonic knows that this was to encourage teamwork, but right now, he's really wishing he could just talk to Blaze where nobody else can hear. "Hey yourself. You get an invite too?"
"I did. Marine is quite upset that she couldn't come along."
Sonic barks out a laugh. "I'll bet."
"She also instructed me to win." He can practically hear the grin in her voice.
"Hmm, you might have to disappoint her. 'Cuz you're gonna be eating my dust!"
"Ha! A bold claim. Do you have the means to back it up?"
"Just watch me!"
As they round another bend, Blaze pulls ever so slightly ahead. Sonic can see her better now, and she catches his eye and flashes him a sharp-toothed grin. He returns one of his own.
Blaze starts to pull away into another turn, but Sonic spots a shortcut up ahead. There's a part of him that's tempted to follow Blaze the long way around, but he'd never hear the end of it from Knuckles if he did that. Well, he'll just have to see if he can come back with Blaze some other time. Maybe on foot and out of view of the main track—
His comms screech to life, and he practically jumps out of his car as Blaze's, Tails's, and Knuckles's voices shout all at once:
"Pay attention, Sonic!"
He looks, just in time to plow right into a giant blue wisp cube and go spinning out into the wall.
Sonic's airbag inflates, obscuring his view but not his hearing of a few cars shooting by.
"Sorry, Sonic," Silver says through the comms. "It was just too easy."
Sonic groans, sliding down in his seat and covering his face with his hands.
(He never does get the chance to ask Blaze for a private loop.)