Archive of Our Own ^beta

Chapter Text

It’s been a year .  One whole year since robotnick died, one whole year since he saved the world , yet again. One whole year, since shadow died .

Even though they had spent very little time together, he still felt deep remorse for him, he knew what he was going through, the loss of a loved one, the grief , the pain he felt, & the want for revenge . Even after all he’d been through , he still managed to get past all of it, and change his perspective of the world. And that was something sonic admired about him.

He still couldn’t believe shadow and robotnick were dead, he could have used chaos control, and got away, he was the “ ultimate life form”, there’s no way he could be dead. But then again, it’s been a year, and no sight of him. What’s a hedgehog supposed to think?

Things have been pretty quite since. Sure, occasionally some random punk would do some small crime, but usually the police could handle them.

As for Sonic, he started taking karate classes, parkour classes, gymnastics, etc, etc. He wanted to actually learn to fight. He had realized that, maybe knuckles was right, he was an “ Untrained and unskilled warrior”, or however he put it. During that fight with shadow, it really kicked into him that, maybe, he wasn’t as good at fighting as he thought. Sure, he’s taken down robotnick a couple times, but, he was super half of the time, and, he had help. And yeah, during the fight with shadow, he got in a few kicks and punches, but shadow did the same, yet somehow better. And even though he hit him all the way to the freaking moon, he was still in his super form, and he wanted to fight, with just his strength, no super emerald magic powers or anything, just him, just sonic.

Guess, the saying is true, you really do gotta “Live & Learn”

But the moon, that had to be one of the best things he’d ever witnessed. The view of the earth with the sun, and the stars, it was truly breathtaking. That was also when he was able to get through to shadow, and help him see past all the guilt, grief, pain, and everything else he had felt. Then, they saved the world, destroyed half the moon they had just “bonded” on, and then, shadow the hedgehog sacrificed himself for the world he once hated.

Now is the present day. Sonic had just got out of gymnastics, and he was waiting for Tom to pick him up, he would usually run home, but his legs were always so sore after, that Tom insisted that he’d come to get him.

Toms truck pulled into the pick up lane, and he opened the door for sonic.

“Hey bud! How’d it go today?” He asked, putting the truck into park mode.

Sonic climbed Into the passengers seat of the truck, and buckled himself in. Ever since knuckles completely destroyed their last one , Tom went out and brought another. This one, however, was taller, and was funner to get into.

“It was good.” sonic replied, “ That Italian kid is back though, always bragging about how him and his brother have a plumbing business with their dad, and always trying to rub it into my face that he’s going to make it to the Olympics one day, and be the most ‘popular’ one there. But, I think we all know that if I were to dedicate myself to that as much as him, I would easily outrank him.”

Tom laughed at sonics last remark, and they continued talking about Sonic’s day until they arrived home.

“Welcome back blue hedgehog & Lord of the doughnuts.” Knuckles said , greeting them at the front door.

“Hey Knux” Sonic said, making his way inside, and hanging his uniform up.

“Hey there knuckles, have you seen Maddie anywhere?” Tom asked.

“Ah yes, her and the yellow fox have just gone   on a journey to the super of market’s right before you arrived. I stayed here, to guard this sacred ground in their absence.”Knuckles said, with a proud expression on his face.

“Oh, alright then, I was going to ask if she’d like to go with me to pick up some dinner, but looks like she’s not here, would you two like to come with me instead?” Tom replied.

“I am afraid not. If we were both to go, no one but ozzy would be here, and he is not fully trained in the ways of the warrior. So I must humbly decline your offer.” Knuckles said, looking over at ozzy, who laid comfortably in his bed.

“It’s alright Knux, I was actually going to lie down until dinner, so you can go with Tom, don’t worry.” Sonic said, while yawning.

“Very well.” Knuckles said “ I shall accompany you to retrieve dinner. Let us go now.”

Knuckles and Tom made their way out the door, and to the truck. Sonic watched as they pulled out of the driveway, and drove away into the street.

“Yayuh!” Sonic said, rushing up to his room.

“Looks like im hedgehog of the house, once again!” He ran back downstairs towards ozzy, and said to him, “ Sorry man, but I’ll be right back, prove knuckles wrong about your training, you’ll be okay!” And with that, he ran back up to his room, opened the ceiling window, and climbed out.

Truth is, he wasn’t really tired or that sore today, he’d just been itching for the chance to go out. Tom & Maddie had gave him a curfew for two weeks, since he recently tried to pull another “Blue justice” stunt, and it was past that curfew time right now. But no one was home, so no one would know. He just ran, ran wherever he felt like. Those parkour classes had really paid off, he was able to go places he’d never been before, there was nothing stopping him!
That was, until he stopped. He saw something, no, someone , up ahead. He crept between the trees to look closer, there was a mysterious red glow to them that intrigued sonic to investigate. As he got closer to the figure, he stopped, too shocked to move any further.

“Shadow…?”

Chapter Text

Sonic stood in silence for a while, too shocked to move, to shocked to put words together and say them, to shocked to even believe what he was seeing.

“No, no it can’t be.” He said, laughing a little, and brushing his quills back, “Shadows been dead, I’m just hallucinating, right? That’s not really you shadow, Is it?” He continued to laugh in denial, and turned around to walk away, when suddenly, he heard a response.

“Why are you here, out of all places, did you really have to come here?” Shadow said, turning fully around towards sonic, and making his way towards him. “You have no purpose here, so I’d appreciate if you left.” Shadow seemed to have a calm & tired, yet agitated & cold tone to his voice, sonic hadn’t heard him in so long, he would have forgotten what he sounds like, if not for him sounding like his favorite actor, Keanu Reeves.

Sonic didn’t answer immediately, he was still processing the fact that, shadow might not be dead after all.

“Is it really you shadow?” He asked, now being able to move himself towards the somewhat gloomy hedgehog, “ What are you doing here?” He asked. “I thought you were dead this whole time, I thought you and robotnick died in the explosion, how did you even-“

“I thought I told you to leave.” Shadow said, crossing an arm and rubbing the inside corner of his eyes.

“I, I know, you did say that, but, c’mon man, I thought you were dead , is it wrong for me to want an explanation as to how & what you’re doing here?” Sonic asked, while making a clearly confused expression.

“ Well, you can see me clearly right in front of you, im alive, is that not enough for you?” Shadow asked, turning back around, and walking away.

“Wait! No, it’s not enough! I promise I’ll leave after, I can’t be out for long anyways, just, please, tell me how you did it, how you’re alive.” Sonic asked, as he ran over to shadow, keeping up with him to make sure he wouldn’t leave.

Shadow stopped walking, closed his eyes, and took a deep breath. He then turned around to face sonic, “ You know your very persistent, right?”

“Yeah, I’ve been told that once or twice.” Sonic said, now glad that shadow wasn’t leaving anytime soon.

Shadow put his hand onto Sonic’s shoulder, and teleported them inside a seemingly familiar building, it wasn’t somewhere sonic was used to being, but he’d been there before.

“Where are we…?” Sonic asked, looking around the room.

“Do you really not know where we are right now?” Shadow asked, with a bit of frustration in his voice.

Sonic simply shook his head no, and made a quick shrugging expression.

“This is, the laboratory where I spent my first years on this planet. I was taking a look around to see if I’d left anything behind, that was, until I heard something run across the rooftop. This building is old, and damaged, so while you ran atop, clueless, it created some rubble here inside.”

Sonic took a look around, this room seemed tidy, for the most part, but he was right, there were small concrete ceiling tiles, and concrete pieces on the floor.

“Ohh, so that’s what’s familiar about it, this is where you left me & my brothers to die to a black hole!”

“I went outside to go see what had caused the commotion, and that’s when I saw you. I wasn’t going to chase you, so , I teleported up ahead of you, so you would stop.” Shadow turned around again to face sonic, who was now giving him an awkward stare.

“Oh, sorry.” Sonic said, looking around in embarrassment, “ I didn’t know where I was going, I was just going out for a run, that’s all. I don’t have set places to stop at, or pass by, I just, run.

“Anyways.” Shadow said, rolling his eyes in judgement, “ To answer your question, Robotnick, nor I died in the explosion, I chaos controlled myself away at the last second, and the doctor set up a shield around himself.”

“Wait wait wait, robotnicks alive?! Oh great. If he’s alive, how come he hasn’t tried anything?” Sonic asked, he seems to be worried, yet also still curious at the same time.

“The doctor was in a state of coma for 7 months. Even with the shields, the shock of the explosion still effected his body, and when he got back to earth, the amount of pure oxygen sent him into shock, &, pairing up with his inguries, he collapsed. Agent stone was able to locate the two of us, and bring us to proper shelter, here, back at the lab. We stayed here those seven months, and when the doctor awoke, Stone was able to take him to a proper home, he insisted that I’d come along, he said something about, how it wasn’t good for me to be back here for so long, especially since, I still haven’t fully , recovered. He didn’t want any bad memories to apear in his absence, and he was right, it would probably be best for me to find another place to stay, so that’s what I did. We gathered our belongings, and bid our goodbyes.”

Sonic sat in silence for a moment, still trying to absorb all of this sudden information.

“So, if you aren’t staying here, then, where are you staying?” He asked the eerie hedgehog, who seemed to have a serious staring problem.

“That’s none of your business, faker.” Shadow said, turning around, giving his back towards the other hedgehog. “I’ve given you all the information you wanted , so you may leave now.”

“Aw, for real dude? It’s just one more question it’s not tha-“

Before he could finish, sonic was shot with a cold, menacing side stare.

“Okay then… read you loud and clear” he continued, backup up, raising his arms in a surrending jester, and zipping off back home.

He made it just in time, on his way, he passed by Maddie’s car. Luckily,  they didn’t see him, as he was hidden behind the trees. He made it home before anyone else, opened the roof window, and climbed in. He rushed over to the bathroom, to get rid of any evidence that he’d been out , after he finished cleaning off, he made his way to his bed, and plopped in.

Not long after, Maddie & tails arrived, then followed by Tom & knuckles.

“Hey sonic,” Maddie said , as she opened the floor door, peaking her head through. “How was gymnastics?”

“Hey mom,” sonic said, with another fake yawn, and stretch. “ It was good, I got tired again so i came to lie down when we got home.”

“That’s nice to hear.” She replied, with a smile on her face. “Well, your dad and brother are back from getting dinner, so why don’t you come join us at the dinner table? You know it’s best not to keep knuckles waiting when it comes to family meals, we know how he can get…”

“Yeah, you’re right.” Sonic said, getting up from bed, and making his way down the ladder with Maddie. They both arrived to the dining room, and had dinner with the rest of their family.

Chapter Text

About a week passed since sonic last saw shadow. Well, since he first saw him, technically. On his free days, he would go about searching for him, no luck. And on his days he had classes & clubs, he couldn’t go out and search for him, on those days, he still had his curfew.

Now was the start of a new week. Most his  classes had ended last week, so he only needed to attend karate twice a week, and community services one a week with the rest of his family. He was also ungrounded, so that helped . He decided that today, he would try searching places that felt more, “Shadow like”. Places that shadow would feel comfortable in, apart from the rest of the world. The last week, he’d just been searching random places, hoping that he’d be there. Well, since that didn’t seem to work, he used his brain a little and found a better way.

“ Hey mom?” Sonic yelled from across the living room, “ Can I go out for a bit? I need to stretch my legs, they hurt after having to sit here for two hours while knuckles forced me to binge watch ‘ La ultima passion’ with him.”

Maddie laughed a bit, and replied  “ Sure sonic, go ahead, just don’t be out for too long okay? We were planning on going out later to Wades birthday party, remember?”

“Yeah I remember, I’ll make sure to get him something on my way back don’t worry, i won’t forget.”

He stood up from the living room couch, gave his arms & legs a quick stretch, ran to the living room door, and said:

“Be right back!”

And with that, he was off in a flash.

Sonic tried looking in places he thought shadow would want to go, or, wherever he though shadow would want to be.

He checked more abandoned buildings, underneath bridges, forest, alleys, you name it.

He checked for a good while, for about almost two hours. He decided to check one more spot for the day before calling it quits, he still had to make it back home after all.

He decided to go to the woods near Greenhill, he didn’t know if he could expect shadow to be there, it was a nice lonely, & quiet place, but if shadow knew sonic lived in Greenhill, he doubt he would want to stay there, even though they saved the world together, sonic felt as if shadow still had some sort of grudge against him.

He checked the whole woods, inside logs, inside trees, everywhere. He assumed maybe he’d set up camp somewhere if he really was here, but turns out he was wrong.

“ Damn, I guess he really isn’t here huh?”

Sonic sighed and kicked the ground in frustration, “ Where in the world is Shadow the hedgehog ?”

Just as he was leaving, he stopped, and remembered, his cave was nearby. Wouldn’t harm to go check it out right? It’s been about a year since he’d been there, why not check up on it?

He ran towards his old cave, he knew these woods like the back of his hand, so he still very clearly remember the way there. As he arrived, he stood atop the entrance for a minute before entering, there were so many memories here, he hoped nothing had happened to any of his belongings.

He opened up the wooden door he and Tom placed, to prevent any more rain damage. Then , he jumped down into the hole, and landed on his feet. He took a moment to look around, observing everything in the room. Things had changed. His items were still there, but most things had been shoved into a corner, and there were, new things, and the place was, surprisingly, cleaner? It almost seemed like, someone had been living here while he was gone, thank goodness they were respectful enough not to mess with any of his things though.

He walked around the room, looking to see who might have been here. He reached towards a roller skate that had been knocked over on a table, when he stopped, he heard something.

Before he could even think, he rolled down into a spin dash, and rolled to the opposite side of the room, and sure enough, he was right. As he got out of his spin dash, and stood up, he looked across the room, and there shadow was.

Chapter Text

After the ark explosion, Shadow & Dr. Robot nick went to go live with Dr. stone, who, despite being “fired”, accepted them with open arms. Shadow got along quite well with stone, though, most of Stone’s time went to taking care of robotnick, and fixing things up for when he awoke. After the doctor woke from his coma, and they went their separate ways, shadow needed a new place to stay. He looked around, not knowing where exactly to go. He tried underneath a bridge, too noisy. He tried an abandoned house, too dirty. He tried camping out in the woods, too many animals.

He was running out of ideas, he didn’t want to have to resort to his last option. Which, was, going and finding sonic.

Shadow couldn’t trust many people, only a select few. Dr. Stone, partially Dr. Robotnick, and sonic. While he didn’t know sonic that much, & that long , and he hadn’t seen him since they saved the world together, he felt like he could trust him. He was able to get him out of that mentality he had, and bring him into the light. He was also willing to put his life on the line to save others, and if that’s not something to make oneself trustworthy, than what Is?

Sonic was really his only option, though he didn’t know much, he felt like he would help him, he did before, he would probably do it again. Shadow knew sonic lived in green hills, G.U.N information Dr. Stone hacked into told them that. So, shadow made his way there, and as he was about to leave the woods, and enter the roadway to town, he stopped, and remembered. He remembered the fight they had, right before they saved the world, right before sonic and him talked, the fight about Tom. Would sonic really help him? He injured his father, badly, he didn’t even know if he was okay, he had no way of finding out unless he went to go check himself. But would sonic really help him if he was so mad about what he’d done, that he punched him to the moon ?

Probably not. He didn’t want to risk it, he didn’t want to bother, he’s already done enough, he didn’t want to just show up and act like nothing had happened. So, shadow turned around, back into the woods, back to figuring out where tf he was gonna go, when all of a sudden, he tripped, and fell. As he got up, and checked on what he tripped on, he noticed, it was a door, but in the ground? Out of curiosity, and not caring what was down there, or what would happen, he opened it, and hovered down into the hole, where, he noticed, it was a cave.

There was no signs of anyone living there at the moment, it looked abandoned, it wasn’t necessary utterly discussing & super dirty, like the abandoned house, some deep cleaning & organizing could easily get rid of that, it was a suitable size, so, he decided, that this is where he’d stay.

Now, he’d been staying there for almost 5 months. He turned the cave into his own, with a bed, lighting, his items he had at the lab while he stayed there, and random things he’d got along the way.

Today, he needed to go and get food for the week, in order to not be caught going into a store, it was simple really, he just brought a tote bag, & chaos controlled into a closed food shipment truck so no one would see him, grabbed what he needed from there, and did the same for every item he needed for the week. He didn’t care if it was robbing, he had no other choice, it’s not like he could just go walking into a costco or something.

He didn’t really need much, as the “ultimate life form”, he didn’t need food in order to stay alive, he just simply ate to keep his health & body in a suitable way. He didn’t want to loose energy, so he ate whenever he felt like it, or whenever he’d finished working out.

On todays run to get food, he remembered that he forgot to bring his bag to store everything in, so he chaos controlled back to the entrance of the cave, ( he doesn’t teleport inside, he doesn’t want to accidentally teleport somewhere he didn’t mean to, and knock something over accidentally) where he was greeted with an open door. He vividly remembered shutting it, so that ment someone had entered.

He peeked inside before entering, and to his surprise, he was greeted with a familiar face.

“ Sonic?” He thought, “ What is he doing here? He shouldn’t be here, how did he even find this place?”

He then saw sonic reach towards one of his belongings, Maria’s roller skate. Before even thinking he teleported  1 1/2 feet behind sonic, prepared a punch, and swang, only to be greeted with air instead of an annoying, blue head.

Chapter Text

“Shadow!” Sonic said, with a shocked look in his eyes, did shadow really just try and punch him?

Without a response, Shadow turned around, and lunged towards the other end of the room.

Sonic instantly reacted, and rolled into a spin dash again, this time, jumping out of the cave, onto the ground above.

Shadow followed him, persistent on making a hit. As sonic ran, avoiding being hit, shadow followed.

“Shadow! Why are you trying to attack me man? I thought we were way past that!?”

As he finished his sentence, he dodged a side punch from shadow, who now ran aside him.

“Tell me what you were doing in there.” Shadow replied, once again, throwing a punch at sonic, only to be met by sonics arm, who had blocked the attack. No matter how many times shadow punched, sonic dodged, or blocked it, guess all those classes he’d been taking were finally paying off.

“Can a guy not go visit?” Sonic said, this time, dodging a kick, grabbing onto a tree, and leaping up to the next one. “I was actually looking for you, when I came across my old cave, so I got curious to see what it looked like currently, when all of I sudden I get jumped out of nowhere!”

“Old cave? What are you talking about? I’ve been living there for the past months, so there’s no way it could be your…old…cave.”

Shadow began to realize, that, what if sonic wasn’t lying? The cave had definitely been used before, could he be telling the truth? Had that been Sonic’s cave before he took over?

“Uh yeah, it is? My first seven years on this planet I lived in there, I haven’t lived there since Tom & Maddie took me in. Though, I try to check up on it whenever I remember.” Sonic said, while sitting himself atop the tree branch he was on. “ Did you say you’ve been living there? Is that where you’ve been these past months?”

Shadow sighed, he’d gotten the whole situation wrong, he needed to calm down.

“Yes, I have. I wasn’t aware that it was your place of home previously, it seemed abandoned, so I took the opportunity and stayed.”

Sonic hopped down from the tree branch, “ Ohh, makes sense, I woulda done the same if I’m being honest. Still though, why’d you get so mad? A punch to the head isn’t exactly the best way to greet someone.” He said, putting a hand on his hip.

“I’m not sure why I got so mad, I guess, I got upset when I realized what you were trying to grab, so, I acted without thinking.” Shadow responded, still trying to calm his nerves. “That roller skate means a lot to me, so I’d appreciate if you’d leave it alone.”

“Oh, my fault, I didn’t know, it looked knocked over so I was just going to pick it up , that’s all.” Sonic said, now having a rather embarrassed and sympathetic look on his face.

“Just, don’t do it again.” Shadow said, turning around, and walking away.

“Again?” Sonic asked. “Is that an invitation to come over I hear?”

“Do whatever you want,” Replied shadow, “ we both know you’ll just do whatever you want anyways, and, it’s not like I can do anything about it, it’s technically also your place.”

“Seriously man, how did you not notice? I mean, did you not see that big mural on the wall?” Sonic said, laughing, and crossing his arms.

“Mural? That shitty drawing? That was supposed to be you? If that’s you, then who’s the one next to you?” Shadow asked, with a look of suspicion and curiosity now on his face.

“Uh, first of all, language! Second of all, yes, pretty good for a five year old i would say. I drew it on my first night here on earth, the person I drew myself next to, is longclaw. I wanted to have a way to always remember her, or give her value at least. That night was hard for me, I was all alone in that cave, with nothing but a bag of rings.”

“Is she the one you mentioned that day on the moon?” Shadow asked, now seeing how Sonic’s facial expression changed, he seemed to be thinking hard, or having flashbacks to that day.

“Yeah, she is.” Sonic replied, clutching his left arm with his right hand,  looking At the ground, and taking a deep breath. “But, that’s not the point right now,” he continued, pulling out his phone, “ Ugh, it’s already four, I should be heading back right now, Tom might get worried. It was nice seeing you after looking for you shadow, now that I know where you live, not in a weird way of course. Don’t be surprised if I pop by for a visit sometime.”

With that, sonic waved goodbye, and ran off, leaving shadow there, who just stared as he ran off.

“Tom..” shadow said to himself.

Running home, he suddenly remembered, “oh my goodness, I forgot to get Wade a gift! I’ll have to stop by some random store real quick.”

He ran into the nearest store, which happened to be a bakery, he paid for a quick box of assorted desserts, and rushed his way home.

Chapter Text

Sonic made it back home, but barely in time. He stayed out longer than he expected, he just hoped Maddie wouldn’t be upset with him.

Sonic opened the front door, nervous as to what he Maddie might say to him.

“Hey mom, I’m back!” Sonic said, setting the box down on the nearest table, and wiping his shoes off on the doormat.

“There you are Sonic, that was quite a long run huh? You were out for about two and a half hours, and you didn’t respond to my text, so I was beginning to get worried.” Maddie responded, making her way to the front door.

“Text, what text?” Sonic asked, pulling out his phone from his shoe, and looking for said text.  “Oh, yeah you did, sorry I don’t notice. I mean, I was out running all about, so I didn’t notice them in the moment, and plus, it was in my shoe!”

”All right, then.” Said Maddie. “I get that, but next time your going to stay out for more than an hour, make sure to let us know, and check in with us, okay? If you want, I can ask Tom if he’d consider getting you a watch, that could make things easier for the both of us.”

”That would be nice, thanks mom. And, yeah, definitely, time just flew by today, I won’t make that mistake again.” Sonic said, giving Maddie an awkward smile.

”Did you get Wade a gift like you said? We’re going to leave in about an hour, so if you forgot, we’d have to leave earlier to make a stop by somewhere.”

”Yes actually! I did, totally didn’t forget.” Sonic said, picking up the box again and showing it to maddie.

” You actually remembered? Wow, I’m surprised, but that looks nice, leave it by the counter will you? And set the card down with it.”

” You got it boss!” Sonic replied, making his way to the kitchen, grabbing the birthday card, and setting it atop of the box. “Make sure Tom doesn’t eat any, I think there’s a doughnut in here.”

” You think?” Maddie asked, while laughing a little.” Didn’t you pick them out?”

”Well, sorta, I just pointed to the top row and asked for one of each, I don’t really know what Wade prefers so I got him a mix of everything.” Sonic replied, walking towards the stairs. “But, I’m going to go get some new socks on, I’ll be right back down, keep an eye on that box for me!”

Maddie continued to laugh, and covered the box with a spare kitchen cloth, and made her way to go get the rest of the family.

When everyone was ready, they grabbed Wade’s gifts, got in their truck, and made their way to Wade’s house.

When they arrived, they walked up the stairs towards to top of the roof, Wade had selected the roof of the sheriffs station for his party.

”Hey! It’s the Wachowski’s!” Wade said, rushing over to them. “Glad you guys came! I’ve been going crazy here all by myself with my ma’ & sister, my sister is very crazy.” He continued, whispering on that last part.

“ That I can confirm.” Said knuckles. “I have met the whipple family before, and while his mother is a kind and skilled warrior, his sister lacks the ways of the warrior, and is built on her ego.”

” I heard that!” Wanda said from a table on the other side of the roof.

” Anyhow, happy day of birth Wade.” Knuckles said, about to give Wade a handshake.

” Thanks bud, but I think I’ll pass on the handshake, I haven’t finished my grip training yet, I don’t think my hands can handle that again.”

” Very well. Continue your training, and soon, you shall master the shaking of hands.” Knuckles said, pulling his hand back.

” Happy birthday Wade!” The rest of the family said. 

“Sonic went and got you some pastries, and the card is from the rest of us.” Maddie said, handing the gifts to Wade.

” Oh sweet! Thanks sonic! How’d you know I like the stuff from cafe chaotix?” Wade said, taking the box from Maddie.

” What can I say? I had a hunch you’d like em’.” Sonic replied, with a proud look on his face.

” You know the last time we were here, is when you took the master emerald and went all super! And saved the world and stuff.”

” Yeah, heh, I remember that.” Sonic replied, looking around nervously.

”of course I remember that, how could I forget?”

”Anyways,” Tom budded in. “ Let’s get this party started, shall we?” He asked.

“ Yeah!” Wade excitingly exclaimed.

They had a great time at Wade’s party, They played roof hockey, roof bowling ball, they did usual party activities.

During the end of the party, just as everyone was helping clean up, Wade happened to notice something in Sonic’s quills.

” Woah sonic, you got a lil something in your hair, well, quills, you know what I mean.” He exclaimed, pointing to a spot on sonics quills.”

” Huh?” Sonic asked, reaching to the spot on his quills, and pulling out a small pieces of black fur. “ What the, what’s this doing in my quills? Is this, shadows fur?” He thought to  himself. “It must’ve fallen out when he was trying to hit me”

” Oh, looks like some of my fur got a little dirty haha, I went out on a run earlier, so I must’ve gotten some mud stuck on my fur.”  He continued, trying to find some excuse to cover up the fact that it was shadows fur, he didn’t know if shadow wanted his existence to be known, I mean, if he was hiding for a whole year, he probably didn’t want people to know he was alive.

” Oh, that’s funny.” Wade replied, not paying attention to it it anymore, and finishing what he was doing.

“ Oh sonic, did you not shower before we left?” Tom asked him.

“ No actually, I’m going to take a bath when get home, I just changed my shoes really fast, I didn’t want to deal with my fur getting all puffy, even if I shook it back to normal it would still be all humid.” Sonic replied

” Alright then, but first thing when we get back your showering, all right?” Tom said.

” I know I know, you don’t got to tell me shower, I was already planning to, I’m not a stinky person.” Sonic replied with a unamused face.

They all finished help cleaning up, said goodbye to Wade & his family, and went home. They were halfway through their drive, when suddenly, the lamppost around them went out, and the power of the surrounding buildings shut off.

” What? A power outage? But, Sonic’s here in the car with us, what could have caused this?” Tom asked, looking at the back seat just to make sure.

” Haha, real funny.” Sonic said sarcastically. “ Maybe they’re working on the power, and they had to shut it off for a while?”

”Maybe, who knows?” Maddie said.

They arrived home, and made it inside.

” Aw shucks, there’s still no power huh? Guess we’ll have to use our phone lights.” Tom said, turning on his phone flashlight, and hanging up the keys.

”Not a problem.” Knuckles said, suddenly lighting up with his red energy. “ I can serve as a light for those who need assistance going around the house.”

” While he does that,” Sonic said, “ I’ll run to the local ministore and get some candles and real flashlights for us, I’m sure they’ll still be open, I have cash, and like knuckles, I’m practically a walking light.” He continued, as he too lit up with his blue-colored energy.

” Alright sonic, be quick this time, and especially since you won’t be able to use your phone this time.” Said Maddie.

” I won’t, I won’t, promise, I might go check up on Wade, see how he’s doing.” Sonic replied, then rushing out the door

He went to wades house, where he & his family were doing okay, they already had everything they needed, so they didn’t need anything else.

” I wonder what caused that power outage,” sonic thought, “ Usually one this big does come come from me, I really doubt they were doing construction this late at night. I should go check on shadow, see how he’s doing, the cave doesn’t have much of power-fueled things from what I saw, just some lights and a fan he added, but still.”

He ran towards the cave, and opened the door, expecting to see a brooding hedgehog, but was greeted with nothing.

” Shadow..?” Sonic said. “ You in here?”

He walked around the room, there was no one to be seen.

”What in the world happened here?” He asked himself, “ It looks like a fight went on or something, and I know it’s not from when me and and shadow fought earlier today, we fought outside, I made sure nothing in here would get damaged.”

He looked around the room, things were trashed, knocked over, & scattered. He then noticed that in the middle of the room laid an, egg drone?

“ What’s an egg drone doing here? I thought Shadow and robotnick were on good terms, did shadow get attacked? Is this why the power went out?”

Before he could think anymore, he jolted out of the cave, he didn’t know if the drone was still active or not, he didn’t want to risk it. 
Just as he was about to leave, he heard a familiar voice.

” Sonic!” Shadow said, it was unclear from where, but he was in the area.

”Shadow?!” Sonic responded, rushing over to where he thought he heard shadow from.

” What happened in there?” He asked shadow, “ Did you get attacked or something?” 

“Now’s not the time for explaining, I don’t even know myself.” Shadow said, punching an egg drone out of his way. “ These things just showed up, out of no where, and I’m not sure why robotnick sent them, he has no reason to.”

“That’s weird, but I’m always down for a little fight with ol’ eggy.” Sonic replied, ready to fight, when all of a sudden, he felt, doozy? He fell to his knees, and looked for shadow, who was also on the floor, passed out. 

“What’s, happening…” Sonic said, before he dozed off to sleep.

Chapter Text

Sonic awoke in a darkened room, he felt surrounded even though he couldn’t see anything, it made him feel uneasy. He got up from the floor, and felt his head, how long had he been out for? Where was he?

He made his way fully up on his feet, and lit the room with his energy.

“ This isn’t good. ” He thought, pulling out his phone, trying to checking the time. “ Crap, it’s dead, what time is it? I was supposed to be back home, who knows how long I’ve been here for, Tom & Maddie are probably worried .”

He looked around, hoping he’d figure out a way to escape, when he found shadow, who was also laying on the floor.

“Shadow!” Sonic exclaimed, rushing over to him, and shaking his shoulder. “Shadow, you alright man? C’mon wake up!”

Shadow awoke to the sudden movement. He opened his eyes to see sonic, shaking him awake, looking worried. He got immediate flashbacks, is this how Maria would have seen in her perspective, if she had managed to make it?

His eyes lit red at the thought, he lifted his upper body up, scooting back a little in shock.

“Hey man, it’s alright, sorry for waking you up like that, just wanted to make sure you’re okay.” Sonic replied, holding up his arms, & now looking relieved.

Shadow took a moment to process what was happening, how he got here, where he was. All he remembered was being ambushed by eggdrones, sonic coming In to help fight, and then, the two of them passing out.

“Where are we?” Shadow asked.

“ I don’t know, all I remember is getting knocked out all of a sudden, and then waking up here.” Sonic responded, getting up again, and stretching a hand out towards shadow.

Shadow got up on his own, not pushing Sonic’s hand aside, but not accepting it either. Then, he too lit himself up, to make the room brighter.

That’s when, the lights turned on, and they realized that they were surrounded in a room with eggdrones.

“What the hell?“ shadow said, getting into a fighting stance.

“Did robotnick kidnap us?!” Sonic exclaimed, also getting ready to fight, and looking around to see how many egg drones there were.

“Precisely.” A familiar voice said, while entering the room. It was Dr. Ivo Robotnick himself.

“You two were too busy trying to fight off all of my precious creations, that you didn’t realize I was emitting sleeping smoke around the ground, making you faint and fall right asleep. Of course, the smoke was quite sheer, making it invisible to people who don’t pay attention.”

“Robotnick.” Sonic said, clenching his fist and firming his stance. “ Why did you even take us?  Why did you take shadow? I thought you guys were on the same side!”

“ Ha! Why would I trust anyone who teamed up with you? If you ended up convincing him to save the world, why would he want to help me rule it?” Robotnick responded.

“He’s right about that.” Shadow said, “ I no longer mean no harm to this world, and I will not aid in the destruction, or ruling of it. However that doesn’t fully mean I am sided with him, or you, I’m not associating with anyone.”

“ Eesh, okay dude, hanging with me isn’t as bad as you make it seem.” Sonic replied to shadow, with an unamused and insulted expression.

“ What your saying makes no sense,” sonic continued, now turning and facing towards Robotnick. “ What about Dr. Stone? Sure, he didn’t help save the world, he wanted to rule it with you, but he still sided with me & Shadow, and so did you, did you forget? He even took care of the two of you for almost a year!”

“ Silence hedgehog!” Ivo snapped, pressing buttons on his gloves, and surrounding the two hedgehogs body’s with lasers. “ Stone and I are two completely different matters in this situation. Stone may have ‘helped’ with shadow, but he only did so because he didn’t know shadow wasn’t working for me. If I was able to tell him, he would have never offered. I never wanted that freak to stay with me while I was in coma, and I’m sure he wouldn’t either. No one would. He started the destruction on the world, and now everyone is praising him for saving it? No no no, I don’t think so.”

Shadow paused. Staring into deep space, tightening his fist, He was angered, but he couldn’t express it in the moment, He could only think. Think about how Robotnick was right. He wasn’t doing good for the world, he was just fixing his mistakes. He should've died in that explosion. He had already done so much, he didn’t even belong on this planet in the first place. He was just an alien freak who brings and does nothing but harm and destruction.

Sonic immediately noticed shadow spacing out. Robotnick’s words must’ve gotten to him, he seemed angry, & irritated, but he almost seemed to be controlling that anger.

Shadow then bolted towards the surrounding eggdrones, taking them down, one by one, with fury in his eyes, and fist. Sonic immediately did the same, and sprang into action.

“You really think these little things are enough? Or is this all your old leftovers?” Sonic asked, while kicking an egg drone out of his way.

“ Oh, no,” Ivo replied, with a thuggish smirk plastered across his face, “ That’s not even the start.”

Just as the two finished taking down the egg drones, the doors opened again, and in came a enormous machine, with arms as big as Ivo  himself, a body as big as a car, and a seat placed atop, with none other, than Dr. Stone sat upon it.

Chapter Text

Dr. Stone entered the room upon an enormous robot, who knew that the robots he’d been making for Ivo would be used to attack shadow?

“Stone..?” Shadow asked, as his eyes widened, and he felt his arms loosen from their firm stance.

“Shadow,” Stone replied, his expression seemed to contain some bit of remorse. He sighed, and continued, “I’m sorry, but the doctor’s right, If I want to continue working with him, then I mustn’t work with anyone who opposes him, and unfortunately, that includes you.” He moved the robot towards Ivo, who stepped atop its hand-like claw, and was carried to the top where the cockpit was located.

“See?” Robotnick asked, “I told you, even the closest people to you will eventually turn their backs on you, nobody would want to be around someone like you .”

Shadow snapped at this, his anger couldn’t be contained any longer, he knew Robotnick was right, but he couldn’t handle it, he didn’t want to think about all of that, the sad reality that is, that no one could trust someone like him.

He teleported towards the robot, attempting to kick an arm off, but failed. He tried multiple times, but the thing hardly budged.

Sonic noticed this, and he too tried, but also failed.

“What’s this thing made out of?” He asked “why can’t we get any hits in?”

“I don’t know.” Shadow replied, “All I know was that stone made this, not Ivo.”

“I have an idea.” Sonic said, moving close to shadow, and whispering a quickly made plan in his ear.

“That might work,” Shadow whispered back, looking at the robot.

“Ha! These imbeciles think they can come up with something, how funny!” Ivo said, pointing at them, laughing, and holding his bald head.

Shadow then teleported out of sight, and sonic remained still.

“Aw, did he leave you? How sad. I guess I can settle for just you instead.” Said Robotnick, moving the robot closer towards sonic.

“But sir,” Stone exclaimed. “This room was made so that he can’t teleport out, so he can’t be gon-“

Before he could finish, the robot was kicked from behind, making it start to fall over. Sonic then ran towards it, forming into a spindash, and piercing it from the stomach, and coming out from the back. The robot then landed on its front, causing Stone and Robotnick to crash atop of each other. Shadow then picked up one of its legs, and slammed it on the ground, causing it to break off.

“Gah!” Ivo exclaimed, crawling out of the cockpit. “Why didn’t you warn me before?!”

Stone followed him out of the cockpit, “ I tried sir, I apologize.”

Shadow then pried the rest of the door open and made his way out. Sonic followed after him, trying to figure out where they were.

“Where even are we?” He asked shadow, running around the area, looking for something he might recognize.

“Not sure.” Shadow responded, following the path In front of him.

“Why don’t you teleport us back to green hills? We’re out of there, and who knows how long it’ll take them to catch up to us, we’re not that far away.”

“I can only teleport when I know where I am, and where I’m going. Right now, there’s no sign of where we are, it’s just the middle of a snowy forest, not much to go off of.”

“Oh, I guess we should look around and see, I’m not sure how long we’ve been out for, my parents are probably worried by now, and I can’t text or call them, I’m out of battery.” He responded, puking out his phone, and pressing the power button to prove it was dead.

“Out of battery? How could you call them if it’s not plugged in?” Shadow asked, with a confused expression, and while starting to walk ahead.

“You really gotta get caught up with the times huh?” Sonic asked, walking alongside shadow.

“Those are out dated, now, we have mobile phones that don’t need to be plugged in to use, you just charge it and use it wherever there’s service.”

“Huh. Sounds like the device stone got me, when we were, acquaintances still. He gave it to me incase I ever wanted to reach out, but I couldn’t figure out using it, so I haven’t touched it.”

“Oh!“ Sonic replied, “ I can help you with that, it’s not that hard, tails showed me how to do mine, so I’m pretty sure I could help ya’!”

“It’s not a necessity, I’ll be fine with out it.”

“No,no, i insist, besides, while I’m at it I’ll give you my number so we can stay in touch, you know?” Sonic said with a shrug.

“Do whatever you please.” Shadow replied. “It’s not that important to me anyways.”

They walked in silence until they saw a light in the distance.

“Wait a minute, maybe if we ask there, they can tell us where we are!” Sonic said, pointing towards the area.

Shadow seemed unsure of the idea, he didn’t say anything, but his expression made that clear.

“You don’t have to go inside if you want, I know you probably think people don’t like you, but that’s not true.” Sonic said, with a comforting smile.

“Fine. Let’s go.” Shadow replied , as they both ran off towards the shining light ahead of them.

As sonic got close to the building, he noticed that something seemed familiar, like he’d been here before.

“Wait a minute.” Sonic said, as he moved towards the door. “Something about this place seems familiar.” He then opened the door, and walked in. He was then greeted with silence for a few seconds, before the place erupted in cheers. He was then swarmed by an army of people, who threw him up in the air, raising him up and cheering.

“Ohh, now I know where we are, we’re in Siberia!” Sonic said.

“Siberia? How do you know that? And what’s going on?”

Sonic explained when he came here with tails, and won that round of Pivonka, and became the champion there at the bar. He was then let down, and offered a table at the front.

“Don’t worry shadow, you can come on in, these people know me, they’re nice! Well, maybe not at first but they know me now so I’m sure they’ll be cool with you.” He told shadow, waving a hand for him to come inside, and pointing his hand to the empty seat next to him.

Shadow hesitated at first, but then eventually made his way inside, and sat down across sonic.

“Now that we know where we are, I can just teleport us back, why do you insist on us stopping here?”

“Relax dude, it’s nighttime, my phones charging, and besides, I’m kinda hungry, it wouldn’t hurt to get a quick meal, am I right?”

“…I guess.” Shadow responded, resting an arm on the table, and looking down at it. “After sorta being tranquillized, and fighting, I suppose I am kind of hungry.”

“That’s the spirit!”Sonic said, as the waiter came to their table, and they each pointed to what they wanted on the menu.

They sat in silence waiting for their food to arrive, and when it did, they ate with no interruptions. After they finished, it was closing time, and the rest of the customers left.

Sonic grabbed his phone from the charging port, and typed into Google Translate to ask if they could spend the night if they needed to. The employee nodded, and went to go get them a blanket.

“ I asked the head employee, and she was  okay with it, so I think we should stay the night here.” Sonic said. “There’s hardly service out here, so my text to Tom and Maddie will take a long time to send, and we’re both tired in a lot of ways, so it would probably be best.”

Shadow let out a sigh, and waited a little before responding. “ That’s fine. I’m not in any rush to get home, so I don’t care what happens. Teleporting takes a lot of energy, and I don’t think I have that much anymore right now.”

The employee came back with a huge, thick blanket, and handed it to them, saying

“Вот ты, одеяло, чтобы ты и твой парень не простудились.”

Sonic took the blanket, as she walked away, turning the lights off, leaving only the fireplace on.

“No idea what she just said, but I’ll take it.” He replied, tossing one side of the blanket to shadow, and sitting underneath on his end, with his arms wrapped around his legs.

“Last time I was here, In this exact spot, it was me and tails who spent the night here, after dancing out butts off we really needed the sleep.” Sonic said, laughing, and laying down with his back faced towards shadow.

“Goodnight shadow.” Sonic said, closing his eyes, and falling asleep.

“Shadow too laid down, his back also faced towards sonic. He waited a while before closing his eyes, and saying “Goodnight.”

Chapter Text

It was around 8am, the sun had arose, but not the hedgehogs. For they lay comfortably on the floor, underneath one blanket, embracing each other in a warm hug. Now, you may be asking, how, and when did this happen? They were sleeping on the opposite sides of the blanket, so surely they’d stay that way, right?

Turns out Shadow’s a sleepwalker. Sonic found this out the hard way. He was deep in his sleep when the blanket was tugged away from him quickly, exposing him to the cold air, the fire in the fire place was dying down, and he had adjusted to that blanket, he was fine until that woke him up. He waited a while, while just reaching for the blanket with his hand, before he then turned around to see what the commotion was, and was met with nothing. Nothing? Wasn’t Shadow laying next to him? Where could he have gone? Did he leave already? So much as to being nice enough to say goodbye.

Sonic got up from the ground, and walked around the room looking for shadow, the small light from the fire could only do so much, it was still hard to see. He quickly found him, unexpectedly, Shadow was standing in front of the door with the blanket on his shoulders, he was just standing there, (Menacingly…) staring, not making a sound.

“Hey, Shadow? You good?” Sonic asked, rubbing his eyes, while making his way over.

Shadow didn’t respond, at least not immediately. He waited about 5 seconds, before his ears perched up, and he slowly turned around. His eyes still closed, his body slouching, he looked like a zombie for crying out loud.

He stared again for a couple seconds, before he said something that caught sonic off guard.

“Maria…?” Shadow asked, his eyes slowly blinking open, one after the other, yet they were still droopy. It seemed like he was fighting the urge to stay asleep.

This shocked sonic, He didn’t think it would be like shadow to mistaken him for her, right? He didn’t know him that well, but there’s no way he could.

“ Is he, asleep? ” He asked himself, placing a foot behind him, slowly stepping back, and raising his hands in front of him.

“Uh, sorry man, it’s just me. Are you having a nightmare or something?”

Shadow took steps closer, and sonic took steps back. Shadow reached a hand out, but just barely, before it dropped down to his side again. They had made it all the way back to the fireplace, and they stood there in silence.

“Well, now that your back over here, uh, you should probably lay back down, you seem a little weird right now, no offense, but you just don’t look like your well , ‘should probably get some sleep you know?” Sonic said, as he gathered the pillows,and brought them closer to the fire place.

Shadow stood and watched, his eyes now slightly open, urging to shut themselves, but he was half awake, he couldn’t help it.

Sonic knelt in front of the fire, he then grabbed a piece of fire wood that was next to the fireplace, and tossed it into the dying fire. The fire expanded, it’s flames grew, the heat intensified just the right amount, the light was just as bright as it needed to be, any brighter and they might have trouble going to sleep.

Shadows eyes opened ever so slightly more watched as the fire grew in front of him, his body immediately covered in goosebumps, his eyes then widened a lot more, he took a step back, breathing through his mouth , his breaths became faster, His pupils dilated, his body shaking, all he could think of in the moment were memories, memories of fire, memories he didn’t want to think of any longer,  memories of the day everything was taken from him, by him . He had no time to think of anything else, his body lunged towards sonic, pushing him a little away from the fire, softly tackling him to the ground. It wasn’t much, he had barely any energy, all he practically did was knock sonic to the ground.

Sonic wasn’t expecting this, shadow came at him so fast, he wasn’t even doing anything, he was just sitting in front of the fire, watching as the flames consumed pieces of the wood.

Shadow then wrapped his arms around sonic, shaking in fear, holding his grip onto sonics head, holding him like he was trying to protect him, and holding him as close as he can.

“Get, away.” Shadow said, with a breath between each word, “I can’t loose you again, it’s not my fault, I promise.”

Sonic laid there in pure shock, what was happening? Was shadow, really hugging him?

“ This is awkward. ” He thought. “ He’s probably sleepwalking, and having a nightmare, he probably doesn’t even know it’s me, but, I’d feel bad to ruin or interrupt whatever he’s thinking about, he mentioned some thing about Maria, he probably thought I was her, and was just trying to protect her. ”

Sonic accepted his fate, he used his free arm to grab the pillows that were behind him, and placed them underneath their heads, shadow already had the blanket on him, so he just grabbed one end of that, and went to bed.

“ Great, now what am I supposed to tell him in the morning? ”

Chapter Text

It was now morning for the two boys, they each   were fast asleep, next to each other, they’d been in that same position since last night.

The bar was beginning to open, the employees were setting up, causing a lot of commotion and noise. This woke the both of them up, sonic being the first to awake.

He squinted his eyes while they were shut, slightly adjusting his arm and his head from thier position against shadows chest.

“Five more minutes…” Sonic said, while still being half asleep.

This caused shadow to wake up aswell. As he awoke, he took a breath in, blinked a couple times, and moved his head a little bit, looking around.

Sonic moved at shadows movement, he also moved his head, just enough so that they were  both staring at each other, still embracing each other in their arms, and barely being awake enough to realize what was happening.

They stared at each other, for about five seconds, barely being able to keep their eyes open. They then both looked up behind them, to where they saw a group of employees staring at them from above, aww-ing, & holding their hands together next to their cheeks.

Sonic then snapped out of his tiredness, realized, and remembered that he’d fallen asleep with shadow.

“Oh, God!” Sonic said, as he used his hand that was on shadows chest to push himself away. He then sat up in a crouched position, holding his legs, and placing a hand on his eyes, rubbing them so he’d fully wake up.

Shadow also snapped back to reality, Looking at sonic confused, still trying to make sense of why he was laying with him that close , and why they were, hugging each other.

“Sorry,” Sonic said, with his head still down, looking towards the fire an employee had just started. “I know your probably real mad n’ confused, but first, let me explain, before you get the wrong idea.”

“Please, do tell.” Shadow said, with an unamused & unconvinced face:

“Heh,” sonic giggled, “I swear, I know it sounds way too fake, but what I’m gonna say really happened!“ Sonic then turned his head towards shadow, and adjusted his sitting position so he’d face him. “Last night, you started sleep walking, and ya’ took the blanket with you. So, I went to go find you. Only for you to be standing in front of the door, not even moving, you were just standing there like a zombie.” He waited a couple seconds so shadow could gather the information, before continuing. “Then, when I went to go see if you were alright, you, mentioned someone… ”

Shadow’s ears twitched when he heard that, “Who…did I mention?” He asked, you could hear some sort of shaking in his voice, like he was anxious for the answer.

Sonic hesitated to answer for a bit, he knew this must be a sensitive topic for him, but it seemed like he really wanted to know.

“You mistook me for Maria.” He said. “I knew you were sleeping, obviously. But then even after I told you it was me, you still were confused, and you sorta tackled me to the ground, while you mentioned something like,‘get away, I can’t loose you again’ and, that it wasn’t your fault.” Sonic finished his sentence, and stared into the burning fire once more, his eyelids drooped down, as he spaced out into his thoughts. He knew it wasn’t real, shadow didn’t mean to do any of that, but he couldn’t stop the thought about it. Why did it feel so good? To be held like that, to be hugged, to feel the warmth of the fire, the blanket, and the feeling of his warm fur, it was a nice feeling, a feeling of comfort. He hadn’t felt that way since he was little, when longclaw would take naps with him after a long day, or even just embrace him in a loving hug. But this, this somehow felt, different..?

Shadow took a moment to process this information. “ Damnit. “ he thought. “I  thought I was done with the sleepwalking. Did it have to be tonight, out of all nights? ” He raised his head to look towards sonic, who was still glancing at the fire, lost in his own thoughts.

He sighed before getting up onto a knee, and lifting himself up, seemingly dusting himself off. “My apologies , I had no intention of doing any of that, I must have been too deep into a dream or something.”

Sonic looked up at him, and also got up from the floor. “Yeah, I assumed that, don’t sweat it, I won’t tell anyone about anything, promise.” After he finished talking, he made a lip-zipping motion with his hand, and winked an eye to seem playful.

Shadow scoffed, rolled his eyes and head, and said “Whatever, get your things, we should get going.”

“Yeah, for sure, I’m way past out my curfew.” Sonic replied, with a slight giggle. He ran over to the bar counter, unplugged his phone, and returned the charger to an employee.

“Well, my message sent, but there’s still no service, right now, must be all the snow or something, cause I didn’t get a text back.”

Shadow was returning the blanket & pillows to another employee, his back still turned to sonic while he said “or maybe they just haven’t responded dumbass.”

“Wow, okay looks like someone woke up grumpy.” Sonic replied with an unamused face.

Shadow didn’t reply, he only made his way  over to the front door.  While he went, he yawned, and a single tear drop fell from his face. His eyes were struggling to keep open, he had to force himself to stay awake.

Sonic sped over towards shadow, he caught a glimpse of his face and noticed. “Are, you crying…?” He asked, his mood changing from joyful to concerned. “Sorry, it’s probably because I brought her up, isn’t it? My bad, I didn’t mean to, I know it’s a sensitive topic for you, I really-“

“No.” Shadow interrupted. “ My eyes tear up in the mornings, and I yawn a lot , I don’t know why, but I do. I’m fine.” He continued to walk, thanked the employees at the door, and made his way out.

Sonic stood there for a second in relief, he then caught up to shadow. “Well, I’m gonna be complaining honest, I don’t know where to go from here. Last time I was here with tails I called tom and had him throw us a ring to get us where we needed to be. That was also like a year and a half ago though. Speaking of, how come my phone worked back then, but not now? That’s weird, it should work, but anyways yeah I don’t know.”

Shadow eyes squinted together as he shot sonic a confused expression. “I understood half of what you just said.”

“Sorry, I trail off a lot when I talk.” Sonic replied , embarrassed, and putting a hand behind his head. “Well, we should get to the nearest town and find directions, race you there?”

“Tch” shadow remarked, with a slight laugh, as he then skated off into the distance.

“HEY!” Sonic exclaimed, “No fair!”

He then took off after shadow, as they made their ways to the nearest town.

Chapter Text

The two hedgehogs made their way to the town, the atmosphere still cold, the snow falling amongst them, it was truly a beautiful sight. Shadow had never seen something this amazing, he’d never seen much more than a dazzling flower field, and the insides of a laboratory. As he ran, he looked around, in awe, taking in the breathing scenery. The street lamps covered in snow, children playing outside, deer frolicking in the snow, was this how the rest of the world was? Maria was right, it’s amazing, if only she’d lived to see it all.

They arrived to the town entrance, where they stopped to look around. Sonic eventually found a tourist stand, he made his way inside and talked to someone. A couple minutes passed as he came outside, holding a pamphlet & his phone.

” I’ve got directions now, thank goodness someone here speaks English.” Sonic said, coming out of the building. “I’ve gotta call Maddie & Tom, let them know what happened,” he continued, handing shadow the pamphlet. “ You can go ahead and explore town if you want, it might take a minute, the reception is bad since we’re far away, and not to mention all the snow.”

Shadow took the pamphlet from sonic, he turned to look at the cover. “ The wonderful spots of Siberia.” It read, with a picture of a cabin covered in snow.

”Take your time, I’ll consider it.” Shadow replied, he most likely would just stay put, he had nothing to do here really, he just wanted to get back to his cave and sleep, normally, without some blue gumball son-of-a-bitch  laying with him.

Sonic stepped aside behind a nearby tree to take his call, shadow stayed put, simply clutching the pamphlet in his hands as he stared at it. Would it really hurt to go and see the town? He had no need to, but as Maria would say, “Every part of the world had something beautiful, you just have to look for it.”

He decided he’d wander around and wait, he folder the pamphlet and slid it into his glove for the time being, he didn’t need it, he just wanted to observe, he had no set desired location.

He wandered around, shops were surrounding him, fountains filled with coins, benches covered with snow, there were hardly people around, thank goodness he checked before hand. The only people around were a few elderly couples, and a couple children playing with snow.

He eventually made it to a small spot, a bench, where a ray of sunlight hit, there was no one around there, and it was facing the most beautiful view of the mountains. 
He sat atop the right end of the bench, as he hunched forward, meddling with his inhibitor rings as he stared into the vast scenery.

Shortly after, an elderly woman came, her hair as gold the sun, her eyes as blue as the sea, and her little blue winter coat keeping her warm. She came with her grand child, the kid ran off to the gated rails of the cliff, looking at the mountains in awe, with a huge open grin on his face .

”Is this seat taken my dear?” She asked, tilting her head ever so slightly, and plastering a smile across her face.

Shadow stared up at her, “…No ma’am.” He responded.

The lady sat in the left side across him, setting her purse down on her lap. Her grandson came running up to her, laughing. As he arrived to the bench, he noticed shadow, sitting atop the bench aswell.

The two stared at each other, until the kid bursted out saying “WOAH! YOUR THE GUY FROM TV!” He shot his pointer finger at shadow, his chin open enough to hit the floor. 

“Ah yes, it appears so hun.” The woman added.

Shadow just stared, he didn’t know what to reply, what had the media been saying about him? He assumed it was all bad things, which was why he avoided the public. Was this kid now scared? Was he going to leave? Was his presence that terrifying? 

Shadows thoughts were interrupted as the kid continued to say, “I can’t believe you made it! Everyone thought you died after you teleported that thing in space and it exploded, you looked so cool, I just can’t believe I’m meeting you right now!” The kid exclaimed, his face exited, And a smile so big on his face that he couldn’t contain.

“Me…? Cool?” Shadow asked himself. Why wasn’t this kid panicking right now? Surely he knew he tried to destroy the world before he tried to save it, right?

“It’s a miracle I made it out, I used up all my energy.” Shadow responded.

”Wow…That’s so amazing how you can do all that! When I saw you on tv, saving the world with sonic, I thought you were just so cool!” The kid responded back.

”I agree.” Said the grandmother. “Not just that, but the fact that you were able to change , and help save the world instead of harm it, that takes a lot i’m sure, I’m glad you made the right decision, after all, I wouldn’t be spending time with my grandson right now if you hadn’t saved us.

They knew? They knew he tried to destroy the world, yet they forgave him? How, why?

”Thank you ma’am, thank both of you for your words. I still don’t know how you can forgive me, but I’m appreciative none the less.”

”Why wouldn’t we hun? You were coming from a place of hurt, of sadness, of guilt, but just being able to see the light, and find your way, that’s something worthy of forgiveness, is it not?”

”I, I suppose so.” Shadow responded, the woman was right, he was thankful, her words were what he needed to hear right now.

”Well, I must get going, I’ve got a long day ahead of my with my grandson, it was nice meeting you young sir.”

As her grandson helped her up from the bench, she grabbed an item from her purse, and handed it to shadow, placing it into his palm, wrapping his fingers over, as she covered his hand with her own. “ Have a nice rest of your day dear.” She said, and she left off towards the shops with her grandson.

Shadow opened his hand, it was a small candy, and a folded paper heart made up of a wrapper from another. The candy had a note attached to it, “ Thank you shadow, enjoy the world, and all it’s beauty. Bring hope to humanity, without light there’s only darkness, but a shadow will show you where to find that light. Find your light shadow, I believe in you.”

Shadow read the note, and yet, another tear fell down his eyes. This one, not being caused by tiredness, this one was different.

He rapidly turned around to find the elderly woman, just to find, she was gone, there was no one in sight, the only thing he saw were the winter leaves blowing in the air.

Chapter Text

Sonic hadstepped aside to phone his parents, they were most definitely worried and upset, after all, he’d been away for about 2 days now, that’s a long time

He pressed the dole button, and not even 7 seconds had passed when the phone was picked up.

”SONIC?” Maddie exclaimed. “Oh my god, where are you, are you okay, why didn’t you come back?”

Before she could ask any more questions, Sonic replied. “ Yeah, I’m good, don’t worry mom, I can take care of myself.” He said with a chuckling scoff.

He explained the situation to her, and Tom, who had came into the call when he heard Maddie frantically asking questions. He told them what happened, and where he was, but left out the tiny detail that shadow was with him.

Maddie sighed, “I’m just glad you’re okay.”

“So am I.” Sonic said, with a slight chuckle. “I should be back soon, I just have to, uh, wait for a map so I can get there you know? Can’t be getting lost again right?”

“Be careful sonic, robotnick could still be following you, I would ring out out of there again, but we’re still on short supply until tails can find a way to get more.” Tom said, you could hear the worry in his voice. “You had us worried, I’m just glad that you were able to get out of there, we’ll have a talk when you get here, ‘Kay?”

“Alright…” Sonic said, lowing his eyelids, and looking to the side with a worried expression. “I’ll be back soon, the powers back on there right?”

“Yes,” said Maddie. “When you left, it turned back on right after, so we were especially worried when you didn’t call, or come back.”

“Hehe, my bad.” He replied. “I’ll try to not get kidnapped more often.”

They exchanged goodbyes, and more reassurance, and ended the call.

Sonic went off to go get another pamphlet, to go see where shadow might have gone

He opened it up, “Hmm…” he said to himself. “Shopping center, no. Ice rink, maybe.” He said, as he turned his head towards the direction of the rink, where he noticed it was crowded with people. “Nope.” He continued. He revised the entire pamphlet, until he came across a place he was certain shadow might be at.

He made his way over, and as he turned the corner to arrive, he noticed shadow, who was standing next to a bench, staring forward, not at the view, but at an empty park in front of him.

“Whatcha looking at?” Sonic asked, as he ran over to shadow.

Shadow didn’t reply, he didn’t even look at sonic, he just stood there, just thinking.

“Nothing.” He said, now turning towards the blue hedgehog.

“Yeah, I could tell.” Sonic replied. He ran over to the gated railing of the cliff edge, put his arms over and started into the view. “I’m surprised you even came out here at all, I thought you were scared of getting seen?” He asked, turned his head ever so slightly so that he’d look back at shadow.

“I’m not scared of being seen.” Shadow replied, walking over towards the view. “I’d just prefer to be avoidant of it, but if it happens, it happens.”

“Ah.” Sonic replied. “Makes senses, I figured you’d be here, it’s the quietest spot, not many people know about it apparently, or at least that’s what the map guy told me. You also looked so surprised when we got here, so I figured you might want to take a look at the scenery, that’s why I got a pamphlet for you.” He continued, now turning his head towards the vast view.

They stood in silence for a bit, the cold winter breeze flowing through their quills, the sun shining in the perfect direction, casting a ray of sunlight on the two aliens.

“We should probably get going.” Sonic said, pushing himself off the ledge. “I’ve already got the map, so there’s really no reason to still be here.

Shadow nodded in agreement, and the two of them made their way back to the town entrance, but just before they were about to set off, shadow took one more glance back, hoping, maybe he’d catch a glimpse of the woman he’d saw earlier, but alas, nothing. He turned back to face sonic, who had the map in his hands, struggling to read it. Shadow sighed, and took the map from sonic, and explained how to read it, just brought so he’d know where to go for right now.

“Ohh, that makes sense.” Sonic said, nodding, and rubbing his chin. “Well then, ready to go?” He asked, grinning, and readying himself into a running stance.

Shadow nodded once more, and the two of them took off back to green hills.

Chapter Text

They arrived to the border of the woods and town, just along the beginning of the road.

“Guess this is your stop huh?” Sonic asked, as he came to a halt.

“Yes.” Shadow replied, also coming to a stop, and turning to face the woods.

“Sorry about all this,” Sonic said, avoiding eye contact, and putting an arm behind his head.

“Really wasn’t expecting any, of that to happen, but it turned out fine right?”

“For now.” Shadow replied. “We still don’t know what exactly robotnick is planning now, and why he even attacked in the first place.”

“Yeah, I don’t think not wanting to work with you is enough of a reason.” Sonic replied. “He probably wants to eliminate all possible people who might stop him, take it from me, I should know.”

Shadow sighed, “You should probably get going, they’re waiting for you.” He then turned back around, and started walking into the direction of the woods.

Without thinking, sonic reached for shadows hand. “Wait-“ he said, now looking at crimson eyes that now faced him. “You sure you don’t need help or anything? I went into the cave before I went to go help you fight off egghead, and it looks pretty trashed.”

”It’s fine.” Shadow replied. “It’s my mess, I’ll take care of it, you should be already at your home, don’t worry them even more.” He pulled away from sonics grasp, and continued waking.

Sonic let out a sigh. “Okay buddy…” he said, his face filled with disappointment. “See you later Shad’s!” He shouted, waving his hand in a friendly matter, and setting off. He would have pushed more for a change to help, and talk more, but, for some reason he felt like shadow was annoyed, his presence felt drained, he didn’t want to bother him much, so he left it be. (Surprising for sonic right? He’s known to be a top tier ragebaiter, in any form of media.)
He couldn’t stop think about everything that bad happened in the past two days, he got, well, kidnapped for starters. Robuttstink’s back, he got sent to fricking Siberia, and that thing that happened with Shadow. He couldn’t get it off his mind, why though? It was a mistake, nothing happened. Nothing happened. At least that’s what sonic kept telling himself, but it didn’t work. Halfway through his run home, he pulled himself to the side.

”Gosh.” He thought, leaning his hand against a tree. “What the hell am I thinking? It was an accident, that didn’t mean anything.” His own thoughts were interrupted with another, one of about how soft Shadow’s chest fur felt, how warm it was being next to him, how good it felt to be held like that. Millions of thoughts flooded his mind, he couldn’t contain himself from blushing at the absurd thoughts the was having. He slammed the back of his head against the tree, “Damnit. Why am I being like this?” 

He managed to get himself back together, and sped his way home. Now, he stood upon his doorstep. He nudged at the handle, and opened the front door. 

“Sonic?” He heard a voice say, seeming like it was coming from the living room.

He stepped into the house, where he was greeted by tails, who was in fact coming out of the living room.

”Sonic!” Tails said once more, as he jumped onto sonic, hugging him tight.

”Haha,Hey there bud.” Sonic said, returning the hug.

”Sonic!” The rest of the Wachowski family said, as they too went to go join the hug.

”We were worried about you.” Tom said.

”Yes.” Knuckles added. “It is unusual for you not to return, I had a feeling something dire could have happened.”

”I’m sorry you guys.” Sonic said, barely managing to speak while being surrounded by four hugs.”A lot happened that I wasn’t expecting, I didn’t mean to worry you all.”

”Its alright, the important thing is that you’re safe.” Maddie said, as they all let go from the group hug. “Come on, let me check you for wounds.”

She led sonic to the bathroom, where she got out her first aid supplies. Sonic sat himself up on the counter, and waited while Maddie gathered her supplies.

She started the would treatment on sonic, who had a couple scrapes, and a few bruises.

”What even happened?” She asked. “I know you fought robotnick, but do you mind telling me the details? I really can’t help but worry sonic, I know you can take care of yourself, but, I just wish for you to be more careful sometimes.”

Sonic looked at her, and shot her a smile, trying to calm her nerves. “I know I’m always worrying you guys, but at the end of the day, I always turn out okay, right? I mean, I am a blue alien hedgehog from another planet with superpowers, I think I know enough on how to defend my self.”

Maddie sighed, “And I know that sonic, but, take today as an example. There wasn’t anything you could do about that smoke, and you got taken. And especially because you’re a blue alien hedgehog from another planet with superpowers, people are going to be out for you, and that worries me and Tom.”

Sonic thought about that, she was right after all, and let’s face it, they never knew what could happen, it’s not like they can just travel 200 years into the future and see what’ll happen or something. (No, this is just a silly ref and won’t affect the plot sorry)

He told Maddie everything that happened, and once again, leaving out the fact that shadow was with him.

”That’s a lot to worry about now.” Maddie said, as she finished with her equipment, and started packing it up. “I’ll let Tom know, then we’ll figure I out what to do from there.” She got up, and embraced her son in a hug, “Man, we really should get you that watch, shouldn’t we?” She asked, humorously, trying to lighten the mood.

Sonic laughed, “Yeah! That’d probably be useful.”

They exited the bathroom, Maddie went outside to go look for Tom, and sonic went into the living room where tails and knuckles were.

”How could you defeat a mechanical warrior with such ease?” Knuckles asked, with suspicion.

”Huh?” Sonic asked, as he sat himself down on the couch.

“Sorry,” said tails. “We couldn’t help but overhear your conversation with Maddie, I guess we’re just surprised you mangaged to take something that big down by yourself. Well, that is, if your descriptions are accurate.”

Sonic looked as if tails had said the most offending thing ever. He dramatically gasped, “Why would I be dramatic about my descriptions?” He asked. “They’re very accurate, thank you very much.”

“Even if your calculations were incorrect, it is still impressive that you managed to take it on on your own. Maybe one day you’ll live up to be as strong as that more impressive hedgehog was” Said knuckles.

”Yeah…” Sonic said, avoiding eye contact. “Maybe.”

The three watched a movie the rest of the evening, while Tom and Maddie discussed something. Afterwards, they ate dinner and started to get ready for bed.

While sonic was bathing, and applying shampoo to his quills & fur, (Does he even use shampoo or what soap does he use??) He noticed something loose in his quills, and he pulled it out.

“What’s this?” He thought, as he pulled out a black & red quill. “Shadows quill? How did this get in here?” He asked himself, trying to remember. And when he did, his cheeks turned red, and he sank himself into the tub.

”ughh..”

He finished in the bathroom, said goodnight to everyone, and went up into the attic to his room. He tried to go to sleep, but he just couldn’t. His mind was racing, and so was his heart, but why? He couldn’t sleep still, he kept squirming, it felt like something was missing, he just didn’t know what. He saw a pillow next to him on his bed, and grabbed it to hug, and what do you know, five minutes later, he fell asleep with the pillow in his arms.

Chapter Text

The next day came, and Sonic was still fast asleep in his bed, hugging his pillow comfortably. He didn’t even go to bed that late, yet he felt as if he could sleep for days.

Tom came up the ladder-stairs to Sonic’s room, and opened the attic “door”. He walked over to Sonic’s bed, and sat down on the bottom half, where there was empty space since Sonic wasn’t that tall.

”Hey bud.” Tom said, shaking Sonic’s shoulder, and attempting to wake him.

”mmh…” Sonic grumbled, hesitating to wake up. He rolled over to his right shoulder, and pulled the blanket closet to him.

”C’mon Sonic, it’s time to wake up.” Said Tom, nudging Sonic’s shoulder once again. “It’s already 10:00, and breakfast is ready.”

”5 more minutes…” Sonic hazily replied, squinting his eyes in desperation to stay asleep.

”Sonic, you said that an hour ago.” Tom replied.

”Huh?” Sonic said, snapping out of his tiredness, and sitting himself up. “I don’t even remember that…”

Tom laughed, “Don’t worry bud, I did the same when I was younger. Now c’mon, let’s go eat.”

Sonic rubbed his eyes with his left hand, “Alright, Be right there.” He said with a yawn.

He put on his house slippers, and shook his quills in place. He climbed down the stairs which had already been extended, and found his was to the kitchen.

”Well, look who’s finally up!” Tails said, he was sitting on the stool of the kitchen bar-counter, putting out half his orange juice, and filling the rest with water.

”Dude, what on earth are you doing?” Sonic said, with an offended face. He was acting as if tails had committed the worst imaginable crime.

”Oh, this?” Tails asked, holding up the cup and taking a sip. “I’m just adding water to my juice, it taste way too sweet, so I toned it down a bit!”

“The whole point of juice is for it to be sweet!” Sonic replied, making his way to the island counter, where all the food was plated. He grabbed a pitcher of water, and filled himself a cup. He continued, “If you want something not sweet, there’s water right here man.” He said, taking a sip.

“Alright you guys, let’s settle down our juice argument and serve ourselves.” Maddie budded in, as she handed everyone plates.

Everyone made their way to the kitchen island, where all the food, topping, and beverages were placed. They each filled their plates with a combination of food.

Knuckles stacked a pile of pancakes onto his plate(and placed every imaginable topping available onto his stack), bacon, and a side of eggs.

Tails grabbed just one pancake that he topped with peach jam, a side of hash browns & egg, and some fruit.

Tom grabbed two waffles both topped with butter and bananas, hash browns & egg, some bacon, fruit, and served himself his coffe that was brewing on the stove.

Maddie served herself both a pancake & a waffle that she topped with butter and strawberry jam, eggs, fruit, and a glass of non-watered down orange juice.

And last but not least, sonic plated himself a chocolate-chip waffle covered in cream cheese and strawberry jam, fruit, eggs, and some bacon.

“Eat up everyone!” Tom said, as everyone made their way to the dining room table, and he passed out forks and butter knives.

“Yes, let’s.” Maddie responded. “Me & Tom went ahead and made a big breakfast, to show how glad we are that Sonic’s okay, and plus, it’s the weekend!”

“Aw, thanks guys.” Sonic replied, with a grateful expression.

The family ate their breakfast, and chatted away about things they were all up to, and about the situation that happened previous days ago.

“I’m not sure what to do.” Tom said. “We know Robotnick’s back, and that agent stone is still working with him. I just don’t know how to inform G.U.N, since we’re not exactly still on great terms with them.”

“Well, it’s not like they’re against us still.” Tails added in. “We’re still ally’s, we’re just not communicating as much in the current moment. And I don’t blame them, director Rockwell still blames us for commander Walters death…” He said, looking off to the side. “But we shouldn’t be afraid to contact them, especially about something this serious.”

“The yellow fox is right.” Said Knuckles. “In order to maintain peace and alliances, we must inform them at once.”

“Yes, yes, I know.” Tom said, putting his thumb and pointer finger onto the inner corner of his eyes, and rubbing them. “I’ll let them know, but they’re probably going to want evidence, and they’ll probably try to talk to Sonic about it.”

“That’s fine with me.” Sonic said. “ I don’t care, as long as we find out what to do with baldy-mc nose hair.”

Maddie set a reassuring hand onto Tom’s shoulder. “We’ll figure this out, don’t worry.”

_______

The day passed on like any other. Tom and Maddie were busy making phone calls, and the trio of alien siblings were out in the backyard laying in their ”Fortress of Warriors.” , which was really just a treehouse Tom had placed in so that knuckles would have somewhere that wasn’t the dining room to have his warrior things, and so the boys would have somewhere to hang out, now that they all had their own rooms. (Knuckles had the basement, which he thought would be more suitable for him, and tails had the extra room that was added during house repairs.)

Tails sighed, “I wonder, if robotnick made it out alive, did shadow as well?” He asked aloud.

“That is a good thought.” Knuckles replied. “I believe that the other more impressive hedgehog was more than capable of surviving, especially with those powers of his.”

“What do you think Sonic?” Tails asked, as he and knuckles turned their heads to face him.

“Me?” Sonic asked. He didn’t know what to say, he didn’t want to lie to his brothers, but he didn’t want to potentially say something shadow didn’t want him to say.

“Yeah, he’s more than capable of surviving.” He said. It wasn’t a lie, but he wasn’t exposing anything either.

“Yeah,” Tails responded. “If he did, I don’t know why we haven’t heard from him yet. I get that he still might think the world hates him, but I’d be managed to survive, he would know by now that they don’t!”

“Yeah..” Sonic replied.

“Sonic!” Tom yelled from the ground below the treehouse. “Come down, I think it’s about time we go get you that watch.” He said.

Sonic rushed down from the treehouse, “Finally!” He replied with eagerness. “Let’s go!”

“Would you two like one as well?” Tom asked the fox & echidna.

“No thanks!” Tails said. “I’ve got plenty of communication gadgets if my own, and they’re compatible with any other device!”

“I shall decline also.” Knuckles responded. “It is quite difficult for me to use tiny screens.” He said, holding his hands up.

“Alright then.” Tom said. As he followed Sonic, who had already made his way to the truck.

Tom and Sonic drove their way to the nearest Apple Store. (I think canoticlly sonic has an iPhone, idk) They parked in the nearest parking spot, and made their way in. They walked into the store where they were greeted by an assistant with two long teal pigtails on the sides of her head, and teal contacts as well.

“こんにちは! how may I help you today?” The assistant said.

“Hey there!” Tom said, “I’m just here to get a watch for this lil’ man, he’s been wandering off a lot lately…”

Sonic laughed in embarrassment when Tom said that.

“Sure thing!” The assistant said, “Follow me!”

She took them to their watch section, where Tom let sonic pick out the model and color he wanted. He picked the color white for the watch itself, and red for the strap that goes around the wrist.

“Excellent choice!” The assistant said, as they made their way to checkout.

Tom payed for the watch, and they made their way out with the brand new watch that was now in Sonic’s possession.

“Thanks a lot Tom.” Sonic said, wrapping it around his wrist.

“No problem bud.” Tom replied. “Me and Maddie have been meaning to get you one, and I wanted you to get one you liked.”

They hopped into the truck, and Tom started the engine. “I’m glad that girl was able to help us hook it up to our phones, and add satellite data to it.” He said. “That should be useful, it’s one of the main reasons we got you one!”

“Yeah,” Sonic replied. “That’s gonna be useful!”

They arrived back to their home, it was already around 6:00pm, and Maddie had asked them to get some dinner on their way back.

They pulled over to a small restaurant that happened to be on their way back. They got down from the truck and made their way in.

“Hey there!” The cashier at the ordering stand said. “Will you to be dining or placing an order to go?” He asked.

“To go please.” Tom replied.

“Got you, I’ll go ahead and take it, what can I get for you?” He asked

Tom placed a family order of sliced steak, white rice, steamed vegetables, quinoa, and French fries. (which sonic had begged for)

After waiting about 10 minutes after paying, the cashier brought their food to them, and thanked them for ordering.

On their ride home, Tom asked a question.

“Why did you want extra food again?” He asked.

“Oh, uh, I’ve been really hungry, even after breakfast. So I thought maybe I’d eat a lot right now. And if not, then I’d eat some later in the night.” He responded.

Truth was, sonic was planning on taking some to shadow. Who knows when the last time he ate was. Sure, they are together in Siberia, but when did he eat before that? And had he ate since?

“Makes sense.” Tom replied.

They arrived home with the food, and the family ate another meal together yet again.

They finished up, and cleaned the kitchen, before getting ready for bed and saying their goodnights.

—————-

Sonic waiting until everyone was asleep, so he could run to the kitchen, heat up the leftovers, and take them back to his room. After doing so, he waited a couple minutes before taking off, to avoid suspicion.

It wasn’t too late, it was about 8:30 pm, he hoped shadow didn’t mind eating dinner late.

He arrived to his old cave. The door was closed, as expected. So he knocked before entering. A few seconds after he knocked, the door opened ever so slightly, and he caught a glimpse of crimson eyes staring at him.

“Why are you here.” Shadow asked, opening the door just a little bit more, so he could see the other hedgehog standing before him clearly.

“I brought dinner?” Sonic said, holding up the bag that contained the food he had brought him.

Shadow let out an unamused sigh, “Why. I told you I don’t need to eat.”

“Yeah, but just because you don’t need to doesn’t mean you shouldn’t.” Sonic stated. “How are you ever going to learn what food you like? Or how are you going to gain energy to fight or do whatever you do, you do know that eating and sleeping gets you energized, right?”

“I know that.” Shadow said. “I eat enough so that I can maintain my physical strength, I’ve already said this. And I don’t see how it concern’s you.”

“Woahhh.” Sonic replied, looking playfully offended. “Is it so bad for me to want to look out for a friend?” He asked.

“Tch.” Shadow remarked. “Your ‘friend’…, yeah right.” He began to slowly close the door, when sonic held it open with his hand.

“Uh, yeah, why not?” Sonic asked.

“Last time I checked, friends don’t fight each other across the globe.” Shadow responded, with a serious looking face.

“Well, last time I checked, friends make up, save worlds together, fight alongside eachother, talk together, bond, race, and-“

Sonic cut himself off before he continued speaking, he was about to say ‘sleep next to eachother’ , which is something friends don’t typically do, right? And besides, he knew what the circumstances were, so why on earth was he still thinking about it?

“Yeah, uh, all that good stuff.” He continued. “And we’ve done all that, so why wouldn’t we be friends?”

“Sonic,” Shadow said. “I hurt your father. That’s not forgiveable.”

“Yes it is.” Sonic responded. “Tom’s been understanding about it, he’s perfectly fine now. And besides, you didn’t know it was him, and you were so mad at commander walters, I bet you didn’t even think before acting, right?”

Shadow thought about that for a moment, he was right, all of that was true. But he didn’t know if he could forgive himself for doing it.

“You don’t ever give up, do you?” Shadow asked with another sigh.

“Nope.” Sonic replied. “Are you gonna let me in now?”

Shadow flung the door open so that sonic could catch it, which he did, and he let himself down into the cave. It looked a lot better than the last time he saw it, there wasn’t stuff scattered everywhere, it was all back neat in its place.

“Where should I set this?” He asked, holding up the bag he carried.

“Wherever’s fine.” Shadow responded, as he made his way over to a small mini-fridge he had, and pulled out a water bottle.

Sonic set the bag down on a table nearby, and pulled out the container with the food, setting it in front of one of the chairs. He then leaned against the table, as they stood in silence.

Shadow set himself down on his bed. “Listen…” he said. “I wanted to apologize, about my behavior that night. It wasn’t my intention to say, or do, anything. I wasn’t aware that I sleep talk, let alone walk.”

“Uh, your fine.” Sonic replied, his cheeks flushing ever so slightly at the thought. “Don’t worry about it, I understood what was happening, it’s not your fault.”

They continued to stand in silence yet again, as they avoided eye contact.

“I’f you ever wanna talk though,” Sonic interrupted. “I’m always here you know.”

Shadow looked up at sonic from across the room, who had a reassuring smile on his face.

“Speaking of talking, you said you have a phone, right?” Sonic asked shadow.

“A cellphone?” Shadow replied. “I think so, I just don’t know how to work it. I haven’t bothered with it.”

“I’ll show you!” Sonic said. “Where is it?”

Shadow walked over to a drawer, where he pulled out the phone, which miraculously was at half charge. He walked over to sonic and handed it to him.

Sonic them spent about 15 minutes explaining to shadow how it worked, and what you could do with it. Shadow somewhat understood, he had seen Dr. Stone & Robotnick work with lots of new technology, so it wasn’t anything too unfamiliar.

“It surprisingly has service.” Sonic said aloud, just after he finished explaining what that was.

“Stone said it was already payed for for about two years, I don’t know why for that long, especially since I haven’t even used it.” Shadow stated.

“Ohh.” Sonic said. “Makes sense.”

He pulled out his phone, and said, “Here, I’ll give you my number, so we can stay in touch incase anything happens you know? Or incase you ever wanna talk about anything.” He then typed his phone number, and sent a practice text to himself, to make sure it went through.

“Anddd, there! Now you have my number!”

“Okay.” Shadow said, as he took the phone that sonic handed to him. He then just threw it on his bed.

“Well, im’a get goin’ now.” Said sonic. “I’ll be back for that container sometime! And I’ll text you so you know when to expect me.” He said with a play-full wink. He climbed up to the ladder shadow had set in place, and looked back to say, “By Shads! Night!”

He then climbed fully out, and closed the door before taking off home.

Shadow remained in his cave, he walked over to the table where the container of food laid, and opened the lid. It was surprisingly still warm, it wasn’t hot, and it wasn’t cold, it was just the right temperature to eat. (Sonic made sure it was super hot so it could be warm when shadow ate it)

He began to eat it, and realized that maybe sonic was right, it did taste good.

He finished, and set the container aside. He then brushed his teeth in a make-shift sink he made, and went off to bed. He picked up his phone and looked at it, as he realized that sonic had set his name to “The obviously faster hedgehog, aka blue justice, aka sonic.”

Shadow scoffed and found himself slightly smiling.

9:37pm:

[***-***-**** ] set their contact name to: “Shadow.”

9:37pm:

Shadow set [***-***-****] name to “Blue bother.”

9:39pm:

[Blue bother]: Wow, rude.

Sonic arrived home, and sent that text message, before he crashed into bed, and fell fast asleep.