As Nine and Silver were passing through a small town, Silver stopped abruptly, before pointing at a building several feet away from them.
“Nine! Look!” He grabbed Nine’s arm when he didn’t stop walking. Nine sighed, before turning and staring in the direction he was pointing. “What is it,” he deadpanned.
“It’s a grocery store! Do you know what that means?” Silver let go of his arm, a smile appearing on his face. “Peanut butter and jelly sandwiches!! Plus, it’s time you tried one. Bet you didn’t have those back in New Yoke.”
Several seconds passed before Nine gave in. “Fine. We can do a quick pit stop for that.”
Silver grabbed Nine’s hand, already pulling him towards the store. “You won’t regret this. That type of sandwich is the best!”
Nine couldn’t help but smile a little at his brother’s enthusiasm.
———
As soon as they went through the automatic sliding doors, Nine lifted a hand to shield his face. Silver glanced at him. “Are you okay?”
“Yeah—just hold on. This fluorescent lighting is kinda blinding me… geez.” His hand dropped back to his side when his eyes finally adjusted.
“Wait, have you ever been to a grocery store?” Silver asked, curious.
“There were some that popped up in New Yoke shortly after the Chaos Council took over, but they soon became abandoned. I visited them occasionally to get what I needed. The shopowners could never afford lighting, so it was always dim.”
Silver nodded. “I never had any grocery stores in Crisis City. Everyone was… gone.”
There was an awkward pause before Nine cleared his throat. “I have a plan.”
“What is it?”
Nine lowered his voice. “You distract the cashier while I grab the supplies we need to make the sandwiches. I’ll run out the back door. This will take about five minutes, and then you’ll go outside to meet—”
Silver stared at him, slightly horrified. “We are not shoplifting.” Then a realization hit him. “Wait… did you shoplift in New Yoke?!”
“I said the stores were abandoned,” Nine said stiffly. “But if you insist, yeah, you’re talking to a professional here.” He froze when he noticed the cashier watching them like a hawk. sh*t, why did Silver have to say it so loudly? He sighed. “Then again, this isn’t New Yoke. Let’s just do this the normal way, I guess.”
“We’re not criminals, I swear—” Silver started to say to the cashier before Nine dragged him away toward an aisle. The cashier just shrugged, rolled their eyes, and stopped paying attention to them.
A few minutes later, Nine held a plastic container with bread loaves inside. They were near the front of the store when he suddenly noticed something. “Hey, what’s that?” he asked, pointing at a row of shopping carts. He strode over to them, before pulling one out. He walked a full circle around the cart, observing it, before seeming to nod in approval. “This seems like a cool invention.” He placed the bread loaves down in it. “Useful, too.”
Silver held back a snicker. A light bulb suddenly went off in his head. Immediately, he said, “I have an idea… how do you feel about riding in the cart?”
Suspicion flickered in Nine’s eyes. “Mmm… sure. But you better not try to pull anything.”
“I would never,” Silver responded, a little too innocently just to mess with him. “Not in a pranking mood right now.”
Nine climbed into the cart, and Silver started to direct it. Then he increased the speed, going faster until Nine side-eyed him. “...What are you doing?”
“This way, we’ll find the peanut butter and jelly faster!” Silver exclaimed.
It seemed efficient, though Nine felt a little wary. “Scratch that. I’ll go at a normal pace,” Silver quickly assured him, slowing down.
He only walked a couple of steps before Nine shook his head. “Nah. Go faster.”
“Are you sure?”
“Duh, silly. Like you said, we’ll find the supplies quicker this way.”
“If you say so…” A mischievous glint appeared in Silver’s eyes. “The ride is starting. Keep your hands and feet inside the vehicle at all times, and here we go!!”
They ended up whizzing a couple of laps around the entire store, Silver laughing and Nine looking like the breath was knocked out of him when they were done. But then he grinned, almost looking maniacal.
“Wanna do a round two?” Silver asked, feeling exhilarated.
“Hell yeah. I’ll keep an eye out this time for the stuff we need.” Nine placed his hands on the rim of the cart, focusing sharply on his surroundings. When they’d gone around the store, he’d never seen so many options before. There was even food he didn’t recognize, and admittedly, he’d never had a PB&J sandwich before. And chocolate? That was something that had existed only in his dreams when he’d first heard of it in New Yoke.
As Silver raced by a row of fridges, Nine stared at the ice cream, the frozen yogurt, the gelato cups… there was so much he’d never tried. And then he saw it. “Stop!” he quickly ordered Silver. When he did, Nine reached out, opened the fridge door, and grabbed a jar of jam. He placed it down beside him in the cart. “Two down, one more to go.”
Silver sped up again, and as he turned a corner, they both saw what was at the end of the path: the fridge containing the jars of peanut butter. Silver dashed toward it eagerly, and Nine felt a jolt of panic. “Silv, slow down,” he hissed.
“Did you say something?” Silver replied, going even faster, seeming unaware that they were about to crash if they didn’t stop.
“I said, SLOW DOWN OR TURN—” The cart skidded dangerously to a stop, the front ramming into the fridge doors. Nine fell back, his head hitting the metal. Cracks appeared on the glass doors, and the jars trembled, threatening to tip over. Silver used his telekinesis to hold them and the doors. Finally, they were still.
“Phew. That was a close one! Are you okay?” Silver asked, a worried look on his face.
Nine rubbed his head. “Stop asking me that.” He sat up, climbed out of the cart, and cautiously opened one of the fractured doors. Anxiety kicking in, Silver held the jars with his telekinesis, not noticing how much pressure he was putting on them, his grip getting tighter… and tighter… until…
Bam.
The jars exploded, and Nine let out a surprised yelp. Glass flew everywhere, and so did peanut butter.
Nine looked down at himself. Luckily, the glass had barely struck him… but he was covered from head to toe in peanut butter. He sighed, before turning and stalking back.
Silver laughed nervously as Nine approached him with no sign of emotion on his face. He tore open the container with the bread loaves and took out two slices.
Dripping in peanut butter, Nine stared at him for a few seconds. Then with one quick motion, he put the two slices of bread on each side of Silver’s head.
“What are you?” he asked, narrowing his eyes.
Silver knew there was only one right answer. “An idiot sandwich,” he said glumly, hanging his head.
“Idiot sandwich what?”
“...An idiot sandwich, Nine Prower.”
Nine observed his dark hoodie and shorts again, frowning. “It’s a shame. This was my favorite outfit.”
Silver’s eyes lit up, his mood changing to excitement. “I have an idea! We can go—”
An angry yell cut him off. “WHAT HAVE YOU DONE?!” They turned to see the cashier from earlier, standing at the other end of the aisle. Their face was livid as they took in the peanut butter splattered everywhere and the cracked fridge doors. “My manager’s going to kill me. How on earth did you create this mess?!”
“It’s nothing you can’t clean up,” Nine simply replied, before retrieving the bread loaves from the cart. An old memory suddenly flashed through his mind, and he winked at Silver.
Silver looked confused. Nine gestured at the jam jar before mimicking telekinesis. The hedgehog was perplexed when Nine winked again, before finally seeming to understand. The jar floated out, hovering beside them.
The cashier was approaching them now. “Do you have something in your eye?” they demanded at Nine.
He shook his head, backing away toward an exit door. “Not this time.”
Then he pushed open the door, and he and Silver ran out into the night.
The cashier chased them, yelling “HEY!”
But they were already left behind in the dust. The fox and the hedgehog had vanished.
———
Now in another town, the two finally slowed to a walk.
“I can’t believe we just shoplifted… I can’t believe we just got away with it…” Silver panted, completely out of breath.
Nine plopped down under a tree nearby, setting the bread container before him. Silver placed the jam next to it as he practically collapsed beside his little brother. He stared up at the sky, chest still heaving from having run for so long. A full moon hung above, their only source of light in the darkness.
“Do it enough times and you’ll get used to it,” Nine replied, opening the bread container. The peanut butter had pretty much stuck to his body now, and it wasn’t going to be easy to wash it off.
“Yeah… I think I’ll pass on that.” Silver sat up, unscrewing the lid of the jam jar. Then he realized something. “How are we going to spread the jam? We don’t have a butter knife.”
Nine fished something out of his pocket. It was a switchblade, and he flicked it open; the knife gleamed in the moonlight. He held out his hand for the jar, and Silver passed it to him, his eyes wide. “...That also works.”
He spread the jam as evenly as he could on the slices of bread, before making two sandwiches and handing one to Silver.
They took a bite of their sandwiches. When Nine finished chewing, he said, “Ooh, this tastes pretty good!”
“It would’ve been better if it had peanut butter too, though,” Silver said with a sad sigh. “It’s my fault you didn’t get to try that.”
Nine shrugged. “It’s not that big of a deal. Bet there’s another grocery store in this town we can hit up… just as long as you don’t slather another condiment all over me.”
“It was an accident,” Silver muttered, wanting him to just drop it already.
After their sandwiches were gone, there was a long silence. Silver returned to lying in the grass on his back, and Nine decided to do the same.
As they gazed at the full moon, Nine spoke first. “I had a lot of fun tonight. Not talking about the whole peanut butter incident, obviously.”
Silver closed his eyes, a small smile on his face. “Yeah, speeding around the store like total maniacs was pretty cool, huh? I didn’t know I could get that much adrenaline from pushing around a shopping cart.”
More silence. He started to think Nine had fallen asleep when he suddenly said, “I don’t think I’ve had that much fun since I was a kid. Or maybe in my entire life.”
Silver turned his attention away from the moon to glance at him. “But you still are a kid,” he said earnestly.
Nine blinked, trying to keep unexpected tears at bay. It felt like a weight had been lifted off his shoulders, after resting on them for so long. “Yeah—you’re right. I am.” He couldn’t fix his childhood, but he could create new memories, good ones, to replace the bad.
Minutes passed by.
“Silv? You still awake?”
“Yeah, what is it?”
“What were you about to suggest earlier, before that cashier interrupted you?”
“Mm… ooh, right! I was going to suggest that we go shopping for some new clothes, considering… I ruined your favorite outfit. Heh.” Silver winced.
“I remember seeing a mall in this town as we were entering. Wanna head there tomorrow and see what sick outfits we can find for the both of us?”
“Deal!! We’ll walk out of that place in style!”
Nine rolled his eyes, smirking. “Night, then.”
“Good night!”
Though Silver was the only one who ended up falling asleep.
———
Nine spent the rest of the night staring at the pale moon.
It was weird seeing it this clearly. Back in New Yoke, the moon had been nothing but a ghostly orb that could sometimes be spotted through the thick pollution.
A gentle breeze rustled the branches above, and the stars twinkled.
He felt himself relaxing as sleep finally lured him in. He never knew nature could be this peaceful. Then again, he’d never experienced it before he came to this universe.
Though he had no blanket, the warm summer air felt like one. And soon, he drifted away.
