Chapter Text
This was a mistake . Shadow should’ve turned tail and run the minute he had a chance to. And yet, he didn’t. It was late on Christmas Eve, and Shadow would rather do quite literally anything else than be stood right outside the door of a house where five people that he had previously nearly killed resided.
Shadow had an oversized scarf wrapped around his neck for what little protection against the subzero temperatures he could get. It was a gift from Sonic, who couldn’t wait the two extra days until Christmas to give it to him. Regrettably, Shadow did genuinely like the thing. It was made from red and yellow yarn, having been carefully crocheted, Shadow honestly had no idea where Sonic had gotten the thing, but honestly, he was just happy to have quite literally any protection from the cold at this rate.
Shadow stood outside the door for a few more minutes, internally yelling at himself to stay, or leave, or do something rather than just stand there. Shadow took a deep breath and lightly knocked on the door three times. “One moment!” A voice called from inside, from what Shadow had been told he assumed it belonged to Maddie, Tom’s wife, and, according to Tails, the only other one in that house with a working brain cell.
The door opened after a moment, “Oh!” Maddie said, she looked genuinely surprised. Shadow couldn’t tell if it was because she didn’t know he was coming (he wouldn't be surprised considering what he’s learned about Sonic thus far), or if she was just, not expecting him to actually show up. Honestly, if it was the latter, it would be more than understandable, considering how their last meeting went with Shadow kicking her husband in the face. “Tails said you were coming!” Maddie said with a smile.
Honestly? Shadow didn’t believe that smile for a second. Even if Sonic and Knuckles had proudly proven that they were incapable of keeping a secret, and thus enacting any kind of betrayal, he couldn’t say as much for Maddie, Tom, or even Tails, though, Tails didn’t seem like the type to lie like that.
“Uh, yeah,” Shadow said after a painful minute of fumbling for the words.
“Oh! Is Shadow here!?” Sonic’s voice yelled from inside the house, but not a second past before he shot out beside Maddie, he roughly grabbed Shadow’s arm and pulled him inside.
“Hey! You actually came!” Tails said, looking up from his laptop and waving to Shadow.
“I am surprised,” Knuckles said, looking at Shadow, “Welcome.” And with that Knuckles turned his attention back onto the TV.
The living room was cozy, there was a fire burning in the fireplace, with blankets strewn about. It reminded Shadow of Maria’s room. He should’ve never come here.
“Oh! Hi Shadow,” another voice said, Shadow turned his attention to Tom, “Don’t worry about the whole beating me over the head thing,” Tom lightly patted Shadow on the back, “I have dealt with much worse since meeting a certain blue problem.”
“Hey!” Sonic yelled, zipping over to Tom from wherever he ran off to, “I am not a problem!”
“Tell that to the government agents who show up on a monthly basis, because someone keeps being super noticeable!” Tom retorted, rustling the quills on Sonic’s head.
“It’s not only me! Tails and Knuckles have both caused problems!”
“Not nearly as many as you!” Maddie said, sitting down next to Knuckles on the couch.
“I do have the statistics if you want to check,” Tails said with a shit eating grin.
“You’ve been keeping score!?” Sonic yelled, running over to where Tails was sitting by the fire.
“Can I see?” Shadow asked, as he sat down beside Tails.
“Do not.” Sonic looked horrified at the thought of what Shadow could only assume were the amount of crimes he had committed being brought to light.
Tails looked up at Sonic and grinned, he turned his attention back to his laptop and pulled up a graph that showed that Sonic has by far the most incidents that caused government agents to show up, with Knuckles being in a distant second, and Tails not far behind him.
“You rigged it!” Sonic accused, “you’ve caused way more problems than I have!”
“No he hasn’t!” Tom called from the other room.
“And I’m at least subtle about my crimes,” Tails argued.
“Rigged!”
“Is he always like this?” Shadow asked.
“Yes,” Maddie, Tails, Tom, and Knuckles all answered in unison.
“You guys act like it’s a problem,” Sonic said with a wide grin.
“Because it is,” Maddie replied.
At this point Shadow zoned out as he watched the group argue and shoot lighthearted jabs at each other. He didn’t belong here. Even though Tom had forgiven him, and Maddie had happily let him inside, Shadow wasn’t a part of this family.
He knew that going in. He shouldn’t be so affected by this, but watching the group celebrating Christmas does little more than bring back memories of the few Christmas Eves and Christmas nights he had with Maria. Once-happy memories now corrupted by her loss and the pain that followed.
“Hey, are you okay?” Tails asked, his voice hushed to not draw the attention of the others.
“I need to go,” Shadow replied, getting to his feet.
“Alright,” Tails said, he thankfully didn’t press further.
And with that Shadow left without a word, the minute he stepped outside he started running, it wasn’t long before he heard footsteps following behind him. He skid to a stop on that same mountain where he and the others had talked a few days prior.
“Why are you following me?” Shadow growled, turning his attention to his three pursuers.
“Those two to make sure you were okay,” Knuckles said, his voice blunt.
“And you didn’t?” Shadow narrowed his eyes at Knuckles.
“You do not appear to be physically injured,” Knuckles replied.
“Look, you don’t have to talk to us if you don’t want to.” Tails walked forward, a neatly wrapped box in his hands.
“It would be really cool if you did talk about it, just saying,” Sonic butt in, giving Shadow a thumbs up.
Tails rolled his eyes, “Even if you aren’t staying, we’d still like to give you your presents,” the fox handed Shadow the box. It was wrapped in a yellowish-orange and white striped paper. It was small and had a good weight to it, Shadow had a pretty good guess for what was inside.
“More impressive hedgehog, this is for you.” Knuckles dropped a hastily wrapped package into Shadow’s hand. It was heavy, really heavy.
“And of course, I already gave you my present, because I’m way more considerate than these losers,” Sonic said with a wide grin.
“Don’t listen to him,” Tails said.
“Thanks…” Shadow said, he honestly wasn’t sure how to properly process any of this. Everywhere Shadow went he wasn’t ever seen as a person. In the Ark Shadow was at best a potential tool, and at worst he was an oddity to be studied, and that ended with him being put into stasis for 50 years. After Shadow awoke he was a means to an end for the two Robotniks to destroy the Earth. He was manipulated into using his care and anger over Maria and her untimely demise as a motivation to destroy the world Maria loved so much.
“If you need us for anything you know where to look,” Sonic said, as he patted Shadow on the back once more.
“Thank you,” Shadow said again after a moment, and he ran off, this time he didn’t hear anyone coming after him.
✦ . ⁺ . ✦ . ⁺ . ✦
That night, while Shadow was looking for a place to stay, he had stumbled upon a mostly barren cave, with the only things there being an old, dusty bean bagchair, and a few forgotten items that had once been well-loved. Shadow walked around the place for a few short moments, eventually pulling away some vines to reveal a poorly drawn mural of a certain blue hedgehog and an owl.
Sonic used to live here.
It didn’t really make sense to Shadow. Sonic had lived with Tom and Maddie since he arrived on Earth, hadn’t he? But if that was the case, what was this place? Sonic had mentioned the loss of someone close to him in their conversation on the moon. Maybe Sonic and Shadow shared more similarities than either of them had assumed.
Shadow sat down on the beanbag chair, he had a lot to think about.
✦ . ⁺ . ✦ . ⁺ . ✦
On Christmas Day Shadow finally allowed himself to open the presents Tails and Knuckles had got for him. Knuckles had gifted him an abnormally heavy rock with Shadow’s name roughly carved into it. Lord knows where he had found it, or how Knuckles had carved it. Shadow honestly didn’t have much use for it, but he supposed it was the thought that counts.
Tails’ gift however were a pair of limiter rings. They looked near-identical to the one’s Shadow had lost. There was also a folded up piece of beneath them, Shadow flipped open the note.
Merry Christmas, Shadow!
I hope these limiter rings work well enough for you! I tried to match your description as close as possible, if they’re too strong or too weak, let me know and I’ll see what I can do to improve them!
your friend.
Tails.
Shadow placed the rings over his wrists. He felt a sense of warmth he hadn’t felt in a long, long time. These gifts gave him hope that maybe, maybe, he could find a place or a family for himself, even if Sonic’s wasn’t the one for him.