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"I never knew you were a hugger."
Shadow rolled his eyes and despite the current situation, felt a slight smile tug at his lips as he looked down at the blue hedgehog that was currently being drained of his life force in his arms.
"Do you want me to save you or not?" Shadow bantered back.
They held eye contact that spoke too much to convey into words, he had never felt this drawn to emerald eyes that seemed to be loosing it's electric sparkle in them every second that ticked by.
...
He kind of wanted to kiss him.
But their eye contact was cut short when Sonic suddenly jerked and went limp.
Never in his life had Shadow felt so worried.
He immediately started to pick up more speed, using with all his might, all his strength, speed into this one step that just might save or kill Sonic. He pushed forward feeling the rippling energy against his body as he created not one, but three sonic booms.
The adrenaline was something like never before, never had his heart pound so fast as he tried his damnedest to reach the portal. He could feel the weight in his arms start to lessen, meaning only one thing that he refused to address in this current state of time.
"Hang on Sonic!" He yelled as he dashed forward tightening his grip on the blue hedgehog's sides as if to tell himself that he's still here, he isn't dead, this isn't going to be like last time.
A flash of light surrounded him and Sonic, so bright that he had no choice but to shut his eyes as he felt the weight disappear completely.
He hit the floor a second later, panic settling into his features as he tried to stand up with legs that refused to stop shaking. Because this isn't happening.
He isn't dead.
Shadow tried as he might to calm himself, to stop the shaking of his hands and legs, to stop the overwhelming feeling of tears that had already cascaded down his cheeks. To calm his irregular breathing.
This isn't the first time this had happened.
But he had to pull through, calm himself because there's no way Sonic died, he's probably up in the temple fightimg Eggman, with his friends...
Right?
Shadow had no time to contemplate as he placed all power in his air shoes, skating his way up the mountain so much quickly than he initially wanted too. The tears had been swept away in the wind from his sheer speed, drying up his eyes in the process that it felt cold to even blink.
He stood at the top watching with immense relief when he saw a streak of blue run around the place, trashing badniks that hid in every nook and cranny. Sonic eventually seemed to catch him in the corner of his eye, they said nothing to each other only nodding.
Shadow picks the Chaos Emerald from his quills and choas controls to the Paradox Prism.
"Shadow?!" The doctor exclaimed in shock, "What are you doing here?!"
Shadow scowled feeling a deep satisfaction from the next words that escpard his lips.
"I am the ultimate lifeform. I go wherever I want."
He had one hand that gripped the Paradox Prism tightly, not that he was afraid he might fall, but more to ground himself that this would be the end of this adventure before chaos controlled away.
Sonic knows he should be thanking Shadow right now. He doesn't know why he isn't. He wanted to, it's the least he owed the dark hedgehog for saving his life but Shadow was no where to be found.
He tried going to the places he knew Shadow liked, Shadow's shared apartment with Rouge (but the bat had said Shadow didn't want anyone to know where he was going another dead end). He flopped down on his bed and shared at the ceiling.
He was supposed to meet his friends for a picnic at the beach today. He had been looking forward to it but now he barely cared about it. (Not to be rude to Amy's amazing party planning skills)
There was however one place he hadn't thought to even look.
He shot up from his bed, quickly stuffing his feet into all too familiar shoes and ran, a sense of deja vu forming as he raced down the path he had taken when trying to stop the Chaos Council. His speed allowed him to run vertically upwards, up to the hole in the temple that had been created by Eggman.
There in the middle of the area, walking around the place aimlessly, was Shadow.
Sonic watched as Shadow's ears perked up at the newcomer, turning his head to peer at Sonic, by the look on his face, Shadow didn't expect anyone to come find him.
"Heya Shads." Sonic called enthusiastically as he slid down the entrance of the cave.
"Sonic." Shadow murmured.
He walked slowly to the black hedgehog that was turned away from him, looking at the dent where the Paradox Prism had been in a few days ago.
"Surprised to find you here, didn't think of you as the reminiscent type. But then again, I didn't know you were hugger either."
Shadow said nothing and walked further away from Sonic. A silence hung over their heads, which wasn't particularly awkward, just tense as they both know there were words they wanted to say to each other.
Sonic broke the silence though, after a few minutes.
"Do you think about what... happened to them? Nine and everyone else?"
Shadow hummed in thought as Sonic started to walk up next to him.
Then a nod.
"You're not worried about them are you?" Shadow asked turning to face Sonic.
"No. I trust Nine enough that he'll make sure everyone would be fine." Sonic murmured, looking down, "You know. I still haven't than-"
"No need." Shadow stated, cutting Sonic off. "Don't thank me. I'm only doing what anyone else would've done in the situation."
"Yeah but- but if it were anyone else trying to save me, I would be dead right now." Sonic pointed out, reaching a hand out to Shadow and immediately pulling back when Shadow turned to face him. (get it?)
"I don't want to think about that." Shadow pointedly said, crossing his arms.
"Okay but-" Sonic stopped mid sentence to place a hand up, Shadow closed his mouth promptly. "-Let me finish. I still have to tell you that I'm extremely grateful that you saved me. Really Shadow.."
Shadow scoffed and friend away again, "Don't get used to it."
Sonic smiled, "Wouldn't dream of it."
The feeling of Deja Vu hit him like a truck. He remembered saying the same thing to Shadow just before they entered the Grim. He smiled fondly at the memory unaware of how Shadow was looking at him.
He snapped out of bit when he realised.
"A-anyway, just.. Thanks Shadow. I might've never seen anyone else ever again." Sonic paused, thinking of his next words. "But I guess you being the last thing I'll ever see is nice too."
Unbeknownst to the blue hedgehog, Shadow blushed in the darkness the slight glow of the last beams of sunlight reflecting his body, hiding his face in the darkness.
"Don't say stupid things like that.." The ebony hedgehog said anyway.
"But I mean it! I was totally ready (he was not) to die! And like your face being the last thing I ever see isn't as bad as I thought it'd ever be!" Sonic replied with genuine earnest.
Shadow groaned and slowly sank to the ground, sitting there on the floor, his finger aimlessly tracing circles on the stone floor.
"What am I going to do with you?" He murmured, looking up at the blue hedgehog.
Sonic snickered and followed suit, sitting down to Shadow a little too closely. He tried not to focus too much on how their shoulders bumped, how their knees were pretty much touching. And Sonic could feel the ghost of Shadow's fingers beside his own.
They said nothing, Shadow drawing random circles in the floor while Sonic was just content with the silence watching the black hedgehog.
"I really thought I was going to lose you." Shadow blurted out.
Sonic hummed, "Really?"
"Yes. I will admit that I had a mild panic attack when I realised you weren't with me when I entered Green Hill."
Huh.
"I- You do care!" Sonic exclaimed enthusiastically as he instinctively dragged Shadow into an embrace.
The dark hedgehog sputtered as he was unceremoniously shoved into peach fur, too shocked to even return the impromptu hug. Instead settling on an act of indifference but didn't remove himself from Sonic's grasp, scoffing as he slightly (and very slightly) wrapped the tips of his fingers around Sonic's sides.
"Hey Shadow?" Sonic whispered into his top quill.
"What."
"I love you."
...
Silence before-
"What?"
"You heard me."
Shadow pulled his head away from Sonic looking into emerald eyes, looking for any sort of hint that Sonic was maybe probably just messing with him to see his reaction.
"You're not serious are you?" Shadow asked.
"I don't know to be honest. I've been kinda thinking about you a lot lately more than a normal amount that's for sure. So I just you know, wanna see how it might work if we maybe, tried dating?"
Shadow's jaw dropped at the sheer caucasity of this bitch.
But he couldn't say he didn't liked the idea.
"Fine sure whatever. I don't care." Shadow uttered, pushing himself into that peach chest once again, liking the feeling of how the short fur bristles his muzzle.
"But you do."
"I do not."
"Yes you do."
"Whatever."
He liked the way soft lips brushed the side of his face.