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1. Ring
The inhibitor rings, Gerald says, must never come off while she is near; but sometimes Maria insists Shadow takes them off and he does anyway, because he'd rather she could ignore what they mean than he would please the Professor.
2. Hero
When she asks him what he wants most of all, Shadow responds after a pause that he wants to help people; Maria laughs and says that he's off to a good start then, with all the help he gives her.
3. Memory
She remembers every event since and including his birth, because soon they might be all she has, while he remembers them because they're all the identity he has now.
4. Box
"So what, do they want to make a product out of him, for crying out loud- an Ultimate Life Form, delivered wrapped to your door?"
5. Run
He only does it once, but they day they said hang the rules and ran together was the best of her life, she decides- for once it wasn't about training or her illness, it was just about them.
6. Hurricane
The day he's woken up for the first time is a whirlwind of activity and Maria wonders, a little unjustly, if Grandfather was ever this excited at her birth.
7. Wings
Watching Shadow run is like watching him fly she fancies, and the trouble she gets in for spying on the training rooms is worth it.
8. Cold
She went and sat in the cold store rooms, once, scared them all to death; when Shadow asked why later, she said she wanted something other than the regulated temperature of her room for once.
9. Red
He's not sure he likes having red eyes- until Maria comments wistfully how much they remind her of Earth sunsets.
10. Drink
Maria started drinking coffee early on in life, but at Shadow's insistence that it's bad for her she gives it up; the fact it makes him proud helps with the withdrawal symptoms.
11. Midnight
It's hard to tell the time when you're in space, but they make it a ritual to clink glasses every new year's; to another year wasted waiting.
12. Temptation
Sometimes they go and stare at the simple controls to the escape pods, fantasising about what they could do if they just took a few steps into the glass capsules.
13. View
The observation deck allows them to sit in silence- no check-ups, nobody asking how she is, just them.
14. Music
When he sings to her quietly at night she decides, in that moment, Shadow has filled in for her entire family- and Maria has never been more grateful.
15. Silk
When Shadow sees her pouring over photographs of clothes, he nags the Professor until he's finally given what he needs and spends hours making her a dress to match, careful to make sure nobody else sees.
16. Cover
Shadow mentioned it offhand as a joke, but he's not that surprised to see Maria curled up in bed asleep with a book in her arms, head tilted to the globe pictured on the front.
17. Promise
They never promised they would love each other forever- they didn't need that.
18. Dream
Shadow never dreams of Earth like Maria does- he doesn't dream at all because deep down he wants what he has now to last, before they have to face the reality of what's coming.
19. Candle
She gently holds the little baby hedgehog up to the soft flame, and envies him quietly as he reaches out to touch it's beauty unharmed, enhancements doing their job.
20. Talent
The engineers objected when the Professor put Maria in their care for the week, but Shadow had faith she'd prove them wrong soon enough.
21. Silence
When Shadow doesn't talk he's so still she wonders if he's like a wild animal, trying to keep himself from people's attention as a survival tactic.
22. Journey
The first tour he has around the ARK doesn't, young Shadow decides, compare to the one Maria gives him; she makes it all so interesting, and maybe like what he's been told a home feels like.
23. Fire
Maria resented Grandfather's only candid examination of Shadow- fire, because stand too close and you get burned.
24. Strength
He envied how easy it was for Maria to conjure up a strong bright smile like that.
25. Mask
Maria, he noticed, didn't do much of what the other children he saw on the ARK did; she never dressed up, or played pretend, and he rather liked how comfortable she was with herself.
26. Ice
They both know he doesn't mean it, but Grandfather's distance and cold demeanour hurts Maria and by proxy Shadow more than anyone guesses.
27. Fall
Shadow holds his breath whenever she lays sprawled on the floor, caught out by a stray cable or her own feet, always waiting for the news her disease has finally got her in it's clutches.
28. Forgotten
Maria wonders what she'll do when Grandfather has forgotten her forever, lost to his work- will she just be a little ghost, wandering corridors forever, with Shadow following her faithfully as they forget their own dreams?
29. Dance
They both like to watch the other- he for her happy, bouncy steps and her for his deadly smooth grace.
30. Body
Shadow often wonders about his odd markings, but Maria never seems to- he thinks it's to do with that file she snuck a look at once, and doesn't press for fear of upsetting her.
31. Sacred
She is not religious, and she does not believe in a God or Devil, but sometimes she wonders that if they did exist whether she'd thank God for giving her Shadow or curse the Devil for the threat of him being taken from her.
32. Farewells
Shadow has actually practiced a farewell in case anything happens; but he can never bring himself to do said practice out loud for fear of making it too real.
33. World
It gets to the point they're Earthgazing so much that the observation deck is what they call their room, and not the bedroom they're not supposed to share but do anyway.
34. Formal
The one thing that annoys Shadow about Maria is how much she teases him over how he talks.
35. Fever
He never understood why the Professor kept her up in space until she was ill, and suddenly dreams of departure seemed almost terrifying in their danger; if it was so bad up here, what was it going to be like for her down there?
36. Laugh
She got so annoyed that the closest to laughing he ever got was a small 'heh' that eventually she woke him up at 3am and tickled him to death; it worked, too.
37. Lies
It takes her a long time to work out that Grandfather was lying when he said he had made Shadow to be her brother and by that point it doesn't matter- he is hers anyway.
38. Forever
The only thing he's certain of out of everything- his purpose, what will happen to him- is that he'll always be able to see her eyes staring out to Earth, whether they're there or not.
39. Overwhelmed
When it's fully explained to him what he is Shadow is so overwhelmed that he can't even say anything; and all this time he thought he was Maria's, not the Earth's protector.
40. Whisper
The best thing about ARK-wide meetings is Shadow's running and extremely scathing commentary- it's all that keeps her from falling asleep.
41. Wait
The two of them are playing the ultimate waiting game- which one will leave first and how?
42. Talk
Maria, he decided, took far too much glee in explaining a biological fact or two to him; and no matter if he's blushing, he is definitely not embarrassed.
43. Search
She hid them both away once; in a storage cupboard, to see if Grandfather would come and to be disappointed when he did not notice.
44. Hope
Her final hope as she lays on the floor is not for Earth, humanity or even Shadow- for once in her life it's for herself and her own peace.
45. Eclipse
They demonstrate the cannon on a passing piece of space junk and somehow Maria isn't surprised beauty like that can be so horrible; she has to explain it to Shadow, though, because no matter what they say it's he that's the innocent for now.
46. Gravity
Whenever they argue, Shadow always ends up outside her room even if she's not in there; when he feels whimsical it's gravitational pull, when he's angry it's a tether.
47. Highway
Shadow assumed from the first pictures she showed him that Maria loved the wilder, natural areas- he's as surprised as anyone the day she
hangs a panoramic cityscape and a photo of speeding cars in her room, declaring at all who'll listen how lovely the lights are.
48. Unknown
The worst thing about the days before the raid is that they both feel so on edge; it's not that they're expecting it, it's that they don't know if they're expecting it or not.
49. Lock
Shadow tried to lock his heart away in such an obvious way the whole colony knew what he was like, but only Shadow ever saw just how much Maria locked away to stay strong.
50. Breathe
Whenever Shadow can't breathe from it all, he just knows to remember Maria fighting against the world 'til the end, and he can do anything again- fight the world alone in her name, if he has to.