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Shadow’s day had started off as he planned for it to; brush his teeth, make breakfast for himself and Rouge, water his plants, make sure the apartment was tidied up, and sit down with a nice book and cup of tea. He bid Rouge a farewell with a hum as she said her goodbyes while stepping out their door, leaving Shadow in silence after the door closed and clicked with a lock. Today was one of Shadow’s rare days off from G.U.N and he decided it was going to be spent with a nice book and some honey vanilla chamomile tea. He silently read through the pages while taking in the silence of the apartment, the faint buzz of the electricity in the walls bringing an odd yet familiar comfort to him.
Though after some time that comfort slowly shifted into an itch, one that made him constantly shift in his spot on the sofa and reread over pages at the realization he wasn’t absorbing the words on the paper. The familiar feeling of irritation bubbling up was a very obvious sign he needed to get up and do something different, so with a sigh he bookmarked the page he was on and closed the book. He stood up and stretched, the satisfying sound of his bones popping filling his ears.
Shadow made his way over to the kitchen and scooped his cup up in the process and made quick work in drinking the little bit of tea left and washing it. He turned around to scan over the apartment in an attempt to find anything he could occupy himself with, though that proved to be futile when he didn’t see anything that piqued his interest in the moment. He fished his phone out his quills and scrolled through it for a moment, burying it back into his quills with a sigh when he was met with the same result.
The thought of going for a quick run crossed his mind and made him glance at his keys that hung by the door, he thought about it for a moment and shrugged. A run didn’t seem so bad and he could even stop to sit in his favorite spot to bask in the sun. So with that decided he stepped out the apartment with his keys in hand and locked the door behind him before zooming off in the direction of his favorite trail.
Shadow kept his skating speed at a minimum when he was inside the city, but it thankfully didn’t take long to get to the outskirts of the city mainly due to how close he and Rouge lived to it and he was soon able to pick up speed when he got to the trail. He skated at a speed where he was able to take in the nature around him and kept moving until his favorite field came into view and headed towards it. He came to a gradual stop in a spot he liked and laid down on his back, closing his eyes and taking in the warmth of the sun. He didn’t know the amount of time he spent out in that field but all he knew was that he stayed out there long enough for the sun to pull him into a light nap.
The distant sound of approaching footsteps woke brought Shadow into a more awake state. Lifting his arm above his head to block out the sun, he cracked his eye open to look in the direction of the sound and saw a blue blur weaving through the trail he ran through earlier. Shadow fought back a sigh and let his arm fall back to his side, ‘Please don’t see me, please don’t see me, please don’t see me,’ He thought, completely forgetting that his black and red fur stuck out like a sore thumb against the greenery that surrounded him.
“Hey Shads!” Sonic’s voice broke through the silence Shadow was enjoying and received a loud groan in reply. “What are you doing out here? Oh wait, let me guess! You were brooding to your heart's content. I’m right, aren’t I?”
Shadow opened his eyes to see Sonic standing beside him, leaning over and casting a shadow over his body. His ear twitched at Sonic’s assumption, “No actually. I was enjoying my alone time and would like to get back to that.” He didn’t bother to hide the irritation in his voice but that only seemed to put an all too familiar grin on Sonic’s face.
“Awww c’mon Shads, you don’t want your good ol' buddy Sonic to hang out with you? I’ve gotten excellent reviews on my company providing skills, some even say I’m the best in the west!” Sonic quipped and tapped at his chin as if he was deep in thought. “Hmmm how can I offer my companionship services to the one and only Shadow the hedgehog?”
Shadow grunted, narrowing his eyes into a glare, “You can’t. Now leave me alone.” He already knew that once Sonic got started there would be no stopping him so he decided to shut it all down in one go, but his efforts were ignored as Sonic proceeded to carry on his bit.
“We can race, brawl, or make flower crowns!” Sonic straightened his back and started pacing in a circle around Shadow, “Or I could just join you in laying in this patch of grass and fill in the silence while you brood!”
“Like I said last time, hedgehog, I’m not brooding.” Shadow’s gaze followed Sonic as he was paced around and he crossed his arms with a huff, “I was enjoying the weather until you came by and ruined it.” He sat up and fixed his few quills that had gone stray from him laying down in the grass for so long, it surprisingly wasn’t as bad as he thought it was. Shadow pushed himself up to his feet before he started walking away, his ear giving another twitch as Sonic started trailing close behind.
Sonic let out a disbelieving scoff, “Me ruining something? I make things better, just let me prove it to you!” Shadow stopped when Sonic zipped in front of him and threw a few air punches at him, side stepping in the same direction as Shadow when he tried walking around him. “Let’s fight like usual, you always seem to be in a better mood after pummeling my face in.”
Shadow leveled him with a flat glare, though he wouldn’t deny that his fights with Sonic did lighten up his mood mainly because it was nice to be on equal footing with someone else and get his mind off things for a bit, he wouldn’t agree with Sonic to his face. He rolled his eyes in annoyance and let out a large exhale “Yeah whatever, let's just get this over with. I’m ready to go back home.”
Sonic let out a small huff in response and punched Shadow in the face without warning, sending him stumbling back and holding his nose, “The ultimate lifeform can’t handle a little punch? That’s new.” Sonic joked with a small laugh, though it was quickly turned into a small yelp when Shadow hit him back with a punch of his own. He stepped back and rubbed at where he was hit on his jaw, looking back up to see that Shadow was wearing the same grin that Sonic was giving him earlier, “Oh it’s on.” Both Sonic and Shadow charged at each other with the full intent to beat the other up.
Sonic’s laughter and banter, and Shadow’s occasional response filled the air as the two fought. They punched, kicked, and grabbed at each other (though this was mainly Shadow’s doing) in an attempt to throw the other. Whoever seemed to be getting advantage in the fight would constantly shift; Shadow would have the upper hand whenever he managed to rush Sonic and hit him before he could maneuver out of the way, and Sonic would have the upper hand whenever he managed to evade Shadow and throw him off with a few swift punches. Though at one point Shadow managed to get a heavy hit on Sonic’s jaw that sent him falling onto the ground and he moved quickly before Sonic was able to get back up, using one hand to hold Sonic down by the head while he reeled the other one back in preparation for his finishing punch.
“It’s over, I win.” Shadow said with heavy breaths and threw his fist down at Sonic. He froze when a familiar scent hit his nose and pulled his hand back, it reminded him of his times during the Ark and the days he had to tend to Maria. Sonic’s protests were ignored by Shadow when he leaned closer to confirm if what he was thinking was true and was met with the same scent from earlier, only stronger due to his closer proximity with Sonic.
“Whoa hey! Getting kinda close there buddy!” Sonic called out and pushed Shadow back to put some space between them before he stood up and brushed some dirt off himself. “I don’t think sniffing your opponent is the norm when it comes to fights.”
Shadow leveled him with a glare, “Stay here. I’m beating your face in if you move from that spot.” He spat out the threat firmly to show he really meant what he said before zipping off and back down the path he came from, leaving Sonic standing there confused. Skating in the city at minimum speeds was completely foregone as Shadow sped to the nearest supermarket and headed straight to the juice section, he grabbed a packaging of apple juice boxes off the shelf and went straight to the counter. Shadow threw down a ten dollar bill that he had pulled out of his wallet and told the person at the counter to keep the change before he sped out the market, he was in too much of a hurry. The speeds he skated got him back to the field both him and Sonic were previously fighting in at record times, and his speed seemed to surprise Sonic too when he looked away from the grass he was running his fingers through to blink up at him in surprise and quickly shifted his expression back to a confused one.
Shadow didn’t give him the time to respond by immediately opening up the packaging and shoving an apple juice box into Sonic’s face, “Drink this.” He ordered, “Your blood sugar is low.” Sonic let out a small ‘oh’ and took the juice without giving Shadow another one of his remarks. Shadow looked Sonic over while he drank in silence, he noticed the faint tremble in his hands and sighed while he sat down. The silence stretched on until Sonic finished his juice and set the empty box down.
“Hey, uh, thanks for that.” Sonic rubbed his neck and let out a small laugh, “I would’ve probably gotten into some trouble if you weren’t here. I don’t like to bring my monitor with me when I’m on my runs, and I guess I was in too much of a hurry to use it before I left.”
Shadow simply hummed in response, “Don’t think too much about it.” He looked out at the field in front of them and interlaced his fingers in his lap.
“So how were you able to tell my blood sugar was getting low?” Sonic asked and looked over at Shadow, pulling his knees up to his chest and wrapping his arms around them.
Shadow stayed quiet for a moment, the memories of his days on the Ark swirling through his head and making him pause. Flexing his hands to break himself out of his thoughts he spoke up, “As you already know I was created with one of the intents of being a cure for Maria’s illness and during the process of my creation I was given a few features that I was supposed to use to assist her whenever needed, my nose is one of them. I’m able to detect when someone’s blood sugar drops too low or spikes too high through the smell of their chemical changes, and was taught to act accordingly depending on your glucose levels.”
“Oh so you’re kind of like a service hedgehog! Was there anything else you did to help Maria out?” Sonic’s question made Shadow go quiet again, his gaze going downcast to stare at the grass. His attention was brought to Sonic when he was nudged on his side, “It’s alright if you don’t want to talk about it, we can just go back to our fight if you want to.”
Shadow gave him a quick look over and handed him another apple juice, “Not yet. Drink some more, that one box wasn’t enough.” He shifted his gaze down to his hands when Sonic took the boxed juice and poked a straw into it. “I was also taught to help Maria out whenever she dealt with harsher days; there would be times I had to apply deep pressure therapy as a way of comforting her, retrieve items when she had difficulty moving, and take care of other various tasks that made things easier for her.”
Sonic set his emptied juice box beside the one from earlier before he laid his head down on his knees, his eyes scanning over Shadow’s expression, “You’re pretty serious about that job too, you were so quick to go get some juice for me. I won’t lie when I say that seeing you rush so much just for something simple made a small part of me smile.” He laughed at Shadow’s small huff in response and softened his expression into a more genuine one, “But hey, I meant what I said earlier. Thank you for looking out for me, it was honestly kind of charming to see you care so much.”
Glancing over at Sonic to tell him that he was thinking too deep into it, Shadow’s words died on his tongue when he took in Sonic’s expression. He only realized he was staring when Sonic gave him a questioning eyebrow raise and swiveled his head to look the other way, the way warmth gathered in his cheeks and at the tips of his ears didn’t go unnoticed by Shadow. Clearing his throat to regain his composure he spoke a simple reply, “You’re thinking too much about it hedgehog.” He could feel Sonic staring holes into his back and if Shadow guessed, that stupid smile that made his heart skip a beat was still on his face, so he stood up and fixed his quills he just realized most likely looked unkempt from the run he just did. “Let's finish our fight, your glucose levels are back to normal now.”
Due to his back being turned to Sonic, Shadow missed the way his eyes lit up at the mention of their fight and listened as he quickly got up to his feet, the only sign of amusement showing with a flick of his ear. Sonic sped around Shadow to stand in front of him and only gave him a grin before launching himself forward in a spin dash. The two fought until their exhaustion forced them to call it a tie and lay sprawled out in the field for a while before they decided to bid farewell to each other for the night.