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Shadow woke up in the middle of the night, feeling rather uncomfortable.
Now, he did have struggles with insomnia and sleeping in general, so randomly waking up in the middle of the night was nothing out of the ordinary for him, but this was different.
He felt like he was boiling.
He quickly sat up and tossed his blanket off in hopes that it would cool him down, though this only seemed to backfire, as his body struggled to adjust to the temperature shift.
Now feeling far too chilly, he shakily grabbed for his blanket, though he was trembling too much to get a good grip.
He couldn't understand what was going on. He was the ultimate lifeform, why was he feeling so rotten?
His vision in his left eye began to cut out and he couldn't stop the panicked whimper that escaped him. Something was very very wrong, and he didn't know what to do.
Stone, ever the light sleeper, began to wake up at the distressed noises coming from the hedgehog, whom he had taken in as a sort of son.
It took him a second to register what woke him up but, once he did, worry immediately filled his gut as he sprung to his feet.
A moment later, he was at Shadow's side.
"What is wrong?" Stone asked, but Shadow was shaking too much to answer. The effort of trying to speak even made the alien retch.
Stone touched Shadow's forehead and quickly retracted his hand upon feeling how hot the boy was.
"You have a fever" Stone informed, though he wasn't sure whether Shadow even heard him. "A rather bad one, as it seems. If you were human, I'd take you to the hospital immediately, but I fear they wouldn't know what to do"
Shadow didn't say anything, for he was far too preoccupied with how horrid he felt.
Picking up on this, Stone decided that words probably weren't the best usage of his time, and he instead turned to action, helping Shadow lie back down and going to get a damp, cool rag.
He put a blanket over the hedgehog, hoping to aid in the tremors a bit, and set the rag behind Shadow's neck. He then dampened a second rag and put it on Shadow's forehead.
Shadow began to drift off at this point, exhaustion and illness finally taking hold and bringing him to the realm of sleep.
As he slept, Stone set up a few monitors to alert if Shadow's vitals suddenly changed, and pulled up a chair to sit next to the alien as he slept.
Poor kid, he thought as he began to drift off. The store's staying closed in the morning... He's more important.