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Abe was awoken from his- albeit restless- sleep by a shout and the sound of something breaking. He groaned, rubbed his eyes and looked around his room while consciousness slowly returned to him. He had no pets roaming around, no family staying with him, but.. that’s right, he was now in possession of an angry alien hedgehog who was currently sleeping on his couch.
With a sigh, the commander pushed himself up and made his way out of the bedroom. He trudged through the empty halls and into the sparsely decorated living room. The scene in front of Tower had him fully awake in an instant. Beside the mantle, the alien in question, Shadow, was leaned over the remains of what used to be a grey vase. Thankfully there were no flowers in it and no water to clean up, but the pieces were small and spread out on the hardwood. What the hell happened? Upon further inspection, Shadow was panting, scrabbling to grab the ceramic shards off of the floor with his bare hands. Abe coughed into his fist, and Shadows eyes immediately shot upward. His eyes were wide, glowing red with barely any pupil in the center. Unconsciously, the human took a cautious step backwards. It seemed neither knew what to say, and they ended up staring at each other for an uncomfortably long few seconds.
“..If you keep gasping like that you’re going to pass out.” Out of the several things the commander wanted to say, that was what ended up falling out of his mouth. It seemed to snap the hedgehog out of the trance he was in, because he immediately looked back down began collecting the shards again.
“Why do you care?” Shadow shot back, baring his canines.“Perhaps because you’ve already woken me up, broken my vase, and I don’t want to have to deal with anything else tonight, especially not picking you up off of the floor.” Shadow hissed at that. He stood up and carried his handfuls of said vase to the trash can. Abe simply just watched him, too tired to do anything else. Seriously, what time was it?
Abe let his eyes wander over to the analog clock on his wall as the hybrid sauntered back into the living room to pick up more shards. 2:49, it read. Why was Shadow even awake at this hour? A gasp drew him from his thoughts and back to the alien on his floor. Pieces of the vase fell out of Shadow’s hands as one hand grabbed the other. A muddy, green substance was oozing from his palm and onto the floor. Abe scoffed.
“This is why you should use a broom. Get up.” As the man made his way closer to the pile of rubble, Shadow shot up and started taking steps back. Abraham walked right by him and into the kitchen. He walked back in with a broom and began sweeping up the ceramic remains, grumbling the whole way through. He felt a pair of red eyes staring daggers into his back while he worked.
“Are you going to go clean that, or are you just going to keep getting blood on my floor?” Red eyes looked at the ground, where a green puddle was accumulating, and scurried off to the bathroom. Abe rolled his eyes and emptied the contents of the dustpan into the garbage. It’s far too early for this. He heard the sound of the sink running and trudged back to the kitchen. He propped the broom up against the wall, and grabbed a towel from the counter.
The commander was just about done scrubbing the blood from the floor when Shadow slowly padded back into the living room. He opened his mouth to speak, but Abe beat him to it.
“Are you going to tell me what all of this was about?” Shadow growled and crossed his arms. He didn’t seem like his normal, brooding self however. He just looked, tired, curling into himself and avoiding eye contact. Shadow was always stubborn, even when the two were children. If he didn’t want to speak, it would be a waste of time to try and get him to.
“…Fine. I get that you dislike me, but breaking my things isn’t going to change the fact that you’re staying here.” Abraham rolled his eyes and turned around to go back to his room. That made the hybrid break his silence.
“Stop acting like you’re above me! You think you’re so high and mighty, don’t you?” Shadow barked with a growl that had the man stopping in his tracks. “What are you even talking about?” The commander turned around to find Shadow much closer than he was before.
“Oh please, don’t act like you actually care! You’re just waiting.. waiting for me to slip up so you can send me away!” Shadows face was scrunched up, his body rigid, panting once more. “That’s why you took me in, isn’t it? So you can keep an eye on me, and give me away to G.U.N. when I least expect it so they can- can experiment on me?? Well, I won’t let you!” Before Abraham could even think, clawed feet swept under him and he was on the floor with a thud and a grunt.
“Seriously? Shadow, that’s not it at all, pull yourself together!” Tower’s defense only seemed to make the hedgehog angrier, familiar orange sparks beginning to lick at his limbs. “They wanted to take you, to- lock you away for the ‘good of humanity’ but I wouldn’t allow it! I volunteered to take custody of you because it was the only way you’d have a chance to truly live!” The human struggled to his knees, eye level with the feral alien. His teeth were bared and and his claws out.
“Liar!” Shadow snarled. He turned to run for the door in the kitchen, but without his air shoes, the commander was able to grab his arm and pull him down to the floor. He could feel how the hybrid was trembling.
“Shadow, listen to me. I know I can’t stop you from running away, but if you do, then I will call Team Sonic and they will find you. If G.U.N. finds out you ran away, then I can’t guarantee they’ll let you get away with it.” Shadow kicked Abe’s stomach and wrenched his hand away, but he didn’t make any moves to get up. The lightning died down after a few moments and he stared into the commander’s eyes. His expression was one he’d never seen before, big crimson eyes full of tears.
“I hate you.”
“I suppose I deserve that.” That made Shadow pause.
“Why are you doing this? I tried to kill you. I almost destroyed the world.” The commander shook his head and and looked down at the ground.
“Maria.. she loved you so much. She was always fighting for you, even if nobody else saw you the way she did. I think we both know she wouldn’t have wanted you to rot in a cage forever.” Abraham couldn’t help the smile that creeped onto his face. Shadow stared for a moment, mouth agape and tears streaking down his face. He quickly wiped his eyes and picked himself up from the ground. Tower’s wounded stomach protested as he tried to do the same. He heard the hybrid scoff, and to his surprise, offer a hand down to him. He took it in his own and the hedgehog yanked him upright.
“I..” Shadow started, then shook his head. He rubbed his hands down his face before trying again. “I had- a nightmare earlier. I woke up and.. fired a chaos spear without thinking. It hit the vase.” I’m sorry was left unsaid, but Tower knew better than to press further. He sighed and began walking down to his room once more.
“Goodnight, Shadow.”
…
“…Goodnight, Abe.” Perhaps living with an angry alien wouldn’t be so terrible.