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When Sonic woke up in the morning he was quickly in shock and awe with his body and amount of pain his body was currently experiencing. Every little twitch that he would accidentally make caused a surge of intense searing pain that started from his spine and would its way down to his arms and legs.
In short term: Shadow was right. He did feel the effects of the Chaos Overload and it did feel ten times worse than last night.
"Why does it hurt?" Sonic whined closing his eyes, which felt like a huge amount of effort on his part. He wished that he was back in bed with blankets over him to hide from the world, but alas, here he was, on his boyfriend's couch being monitored.
"It's because you overloaded your system with too much Chaos Energy," Shadow informed him as he continued to type, "And that's about the seventh time you've asked this since you woke up two hours ago."
"Well this sucks and I hate it. And when did you get a laptop?"
"Rouge brought the laptop over so I can do reports and being working while taking care of you. This is also the fifth time you've asked this question."
"Why are you keeping count?" Sonic groaned.
"Because it amuses me," Shadow answered with a smirk, "Oh and that's the second time you've ask that question."
Sonic just groaned at the answer that he was provided.
---XXX---
It was Sonic's third crawl to the bathroom to heave up whatever was left in his stomach within an hour that Shadow decided that he worked enough for day. The blue hedgehog was in definite need of support than any reports were at this very moment. He walked over to the bathroom door and lightly tapped at the door.
"You alive?" Shadow asked. All he got was a dishevelled groan as a response. Sighing, the hybrid slowly opened the door, looking at the poor hero who was curled up into fetal position beside the toilet.
"Make it stop..."his voice was barely over a whisper. He felt the other's hand brush against his back rubbing it gentling.
"Do you think you can walk to the bedroom?" Shadow asked. He could feel the other shake his head no. Sighing, he picked the blue hedgehog off the ground, cradling him like he was a newborn infant.
"This is humiliating," Sonic protested, his voice raspy.
"I can put you down," Shadow offered which caused the other to squirm closer into him.
---XXX---
"Did you know, that in another place, you're a knight?"
Shadow looked down at the blue hedgehog that hadn't said a word to him in the last hour and a half. He was finally able to keep a few sips of ginger ale down and had fallen asleep shortly after that, using the Ultimate Lifeform as his personal pillow. Sighing, he put the bookmark into his book that he was reading and decided to humor the blue hedgehog.
"What?"
"Yeah! You, Knuckles and Blaze. I got taken to this world by a sorceress named Merlina to fight the Black Knight, who was King Arthur because he was being all controlly by this scabbard, so I defeated him and took the scabbard back to Merlina but it turned out that SHE was the BAD GUY the whole time! There was no King Arthur! So me and this talking sword named Caliburn- who called me naive way too much- beat her and it turns out Caliburn was Excalibur and I was King Arthur the whole time!" Emerald eyes looked in ruby ones that were utterly confused.
"You were Lancelot."
"I think the overload has left you delusional," Shadow said as place the back of his bare hand on Sonic's forehead.
"I'm not delusion--wait. When did you take your gloves off ?"
"When you fell asleep," he told him as he pulled away his hand, "I took yours off as well."
"Huh? Sonic murmured out in confusion looking down at his own bare peach hands, "Oh, so you did."
"It feels like you have a low grade fever, which isn't uncommon for overloads." He glanced down at Sonic, who was too busy studying the other's hand to have noticed anything that he said.
"I didn't know the stripe ran all the way down your hand. That's kinda cool," his voice sounded so intrigued on his new discovery as he followed the stripe down his arm to where it ended on his middle finger.
"Yes well it's not often I'm seen without gloves," Shadow sighed contently, enjoying the other's gentle touches, "I think you and Rouge are the only ones have seen without them on...other than the Professor and a handful of his colleagues that got to study me."
Sonic trailed his finger down the stripe one last time before intertwining their hands together, "I like your hands better without them but I do get it," he sighed, receiving a squeeze from the other as silence came over them.
"...what was she like?" Sonic asked cautiously, breaking the silence. Emerald eyes looked up at the rubies that were staring down at him.
"What was who like?" Shadow questioned.
"Maria..."
That caused the hybrid to stiffen up. He knew the question of the girl would come eventually but he had always put it in the back of his brain thinking that it would never come up.
"I know the ARK is a whole touchy subject in of itself, so you don't have to answer if you--"
"You actually remind me a lot of her," Shadow cut him off, "Her wit and charm could get her out of any situation that she got us into. She was exceptionally bright, but being a Robotnik, there's no real surprise there. Anytime that she got sick, her stubbornness would come out, saying that she was going to beat this. She had a great passion and love for the planet that she was so hell bent on getting there one day," a heavy sigh fell out of Shadow, "I just wish she was able to see it."A squeeze from Sonic's hand gave him reassurance.
"Do you think she would be happy for you for what you have done?"
"A thousand times yes. She always chose my happiness over hers any day. It's why I'm here today. It may have started off rough but everything turns around in the end." He looked down at weary tired eyes.
"She would've loved you."
---XXX---
Evening time came around and Sonic was finally able to keep something down in gut. It may have been just chicken broth but it was something none the less. The after dinner, the two had gone back into Shadow's bedroom for some more R&R on Sonic's part.
"Did you know that I was a werewolf at one point in my life?"
"I think the overload fried you brain," Shadow sighed at another really odd beginning to another really odd tale. Small vibrations started from the bedside table as a call from Rouge came in.
"Please enlighten me with better conversations," Shadow answered, getting a jab in the ribs from Sonic.
"Probably not, but Knuckies and Fox Boy won't leave me alone until I make sure Sonic's okay," Rouge laughed on the other ended.
"He's fine," Shadow sighed, "Just trying to convince me that I was a knight and he was a werewolf."
"Werewolf is true! I was there for that one!" Tails yelled in the background. Shadow gave strange look at his phone and then down at Sonic who looked up at him with a sly smile.
"Anyways, I gave Towers a vague excuse saying that something had happened with Sonic and you being the only with knowledge of Chaos Energy and such were able to figure out that it was a Chaos Energy Overload and also being the only one with Chaos Energy knowledge was the only one that was able to take care of Sonic. Towers says you've done enough reports so I'll be back for the laptop tomorrow. In the meantime you are to take care the Hero of Mobius and make sure he's back on his feet at tip top shape."
"Understood. Well I'll talk tomorrow then."
"Yep! Good luck!"
Shadow hung up the phone and let out a huge sigh and he closed his eye and rubbed his face.
"Werewolf?"
"Werehog was what Tails and I affectionately called it," Sonic laughed. Shadow finally opened his eyes are looked at the blue hedgehog.
"Are you going to tell me this tale of you being...a lupine... like... creature?"
"I thought you would never ask!" Sonic gleefully said snuggling in closer to Shadow.
"It all started when I tried to foil another one of Eggman's schemes to rule the planet...."