Chapter Text
The buzzer rang out, its sound bouncing off the buildings lining the street.
Shadow groaned, rubbing his forehead as his head pounded, the loud buzzer not helping his headache one bit.
He entered through the door, his air shoes clanging against the concrete stairs and bouncing off the walls hitting his sensitive ears. He had ignored the elevator’s entirely, not trusting the unstable machinery and not wishing to get stuck in a small metal box. He felt himself shudder at the thought. As much as his body protested, he’d take the stairs any day.
Making his way up the two flights of stairs finally reaching the floor his apartment was on. It was a relatively empty space, only a few fake plants here and there in front of other residents doors.
Stumbling his way to the door he tried the door handle, it creaked open. Rouge must of finished her shift early at her club. He wondered how she could handle all of the noise and loud music considering her hearing was also sensitive.
Swinging the door open he stepped inside, closing and locking the door behind him with a click.
He kicked his shoes off and placed them neatly next to Rouges boots, his ears perked as movement could be heard from the kitchen.
“There’s my grumpy roomy!~” the familiar voice of his friend carried through the apartment.
“How’d your mission go?”
“Smooth as always.” he deadpanned, rolling his eyes as he walking into the kitchen where Rouge was perched on one of the countertops.
She was wearing a white fluffy pair of pyjama trousers covered in patterns of different jewels with a light pink bra. She was nursing a cup of tea in her hand, just finishing taking a sip when Shadow walked in.
Rouge looked Shadow over. He was rather rough looking to say the least. His quills poking out in different directions, fur ruffled in some places. She could see a few healing cuts and bruises beneath the dark fur.
She chuckled at the mess her best friend was in. “Looking handsome, handsome.” She smirked, hopping down from the counter.
“Spare me from your teasing, Rouge. i’m not in the mood.” Shadow grumbled, carding a clawed hand through the mess of his quills to try and somewhat fix them. It didn’t help much.
“When are you ever in the mood.” Rouge sighed with a playful roll of her eyes, she placed her cup of tea on the counter before walking over to the ebony hedgehog. She wrapped her arms around the dark hedgehog and pulled him into a hug, resting her head on his shoulder.
Shadow froze for a moment before reciprocating the hug, the tension in his body leaving at the familiar warmth surrounding him.
They spent the next few minutes talking. Rouge spilling some gossip she overheard while working, and Shadow talking about some things that happened on his mission.
“Where’s Omega? i didn’t see him when i returned to the base earlier.” Shadow asked, noting the absence of their robotic teammate.
“He’s at the brothers house, got damaged by a few missiles from some of Eggman’s bots. As the stubborn bot he is, he continued until his systems went haywire. Tails will send him our way once he’s all set.” The bat explained.
Finishing off her tea she popped the cup into the sink to wash later.
“Right.” Both Shadow and Rouge don’t trust G.U.N with their metal partner when it comes to damages, so their next best bet was Tails. Thankfully the young kit was willing to take the job after seeing the state of the tank after a certain… incident. Thats a story for later.
Starting to feel the familiar drag of exhaustion in his limbs he decided it was time to shut down for the night.
“Im off to bed, see you in the morning.” Shadow excused himself as he turned to the short hall where his room was.
“Night hun! sleep well~” Rouge had turned and started shutting off the lights in the apartment, getting ready to get some shut eye herself.
—
Shadow shut his room door behind him, letting out a shaky exhale.
He looked down at his hand that was visibly trembling. He stumbled to the bathroom that was linked to his room, feeling the uncomfortable churn of his stomach and panicked when he realised he was about to-
He made it to the toilet just in time for his stomach to empty itself completely. Sweat dripped from his forehead as his breaths quickened, his claws digging into the paw pads on his palm causing small specks of green blood to form from the punctures.
Making sure he wasn’t about to vomit again Shadow slowly stood up on shaky legs, he looked down into the toilet and froze. An ink black goop substance with weird green floating orbs in it was in the bowl. He quickly flushed the toilet and turned to the sink. Switching on the cold tap he held his hands out under the water and splashed his face, rinsing out his mouth.
What was going on with him? he hasn’t been feeling too well since his mission, he should be immune to most illnesses so he obviously hasn’t caught anything from the agents who obviously don’t take care of themselves.
His nose still hasn’t recovered from being stuck in a meeting room with the humans. Does no one know how to properly take care of themselfs?
Lifting his head from the sink he looked into the mirror, he flinched when in his reflection a third eye was staring right at him from his forehead. Startled he lifted a hand up to where the eye should be but couldn’t feel anything, when he removed his hand the eye was gone.
“…what?” He breathed out.
His vision began to get all blurry, his head pounded and could hear his heart beating in his chest.
A faint yellow glow behind him caught his attention, blinking a few times to get rid of his blurry vision, in the mirror was three yellow eyes staring at him from behind in the darkness. When did the lights turn off? had he even turned them on in his rush?
His breath caught in his throat as he snapped around, stumbling back against the sink, eyes frantically searching the darkness of the bathroom. Nothing.
That wasn’t what he thought it was.. right? he was dead. Shadow killed him a few months ago.
The lights flicker above him as a sudden weight was on his shoulder.
Raw fear ran through his body, quills bristled instinctively.
His head turned and right in his face was the unsightly face of his father the alien warlord, just inches away.
He recoiled in absolute terror, stumbling back and falling to the cold, tiled floor of the bathroom. Quickly moving his eyes back up to the imposing figure that is… no longer there. Scanning frantically around him he couldn’t see any sight of BlackDoom or anything out of the sorts other than his scratched up sink and a slight crack in the mirror.
The light flickered once, twice before switching on, illuminating the previously dark bathroom. Shadow took a moment to calm his racing heart, swallowing down the bile that crawled up his throat.
Rubbing his eyes he got up off the floor and shut the door, walking into his room. The headache has worsened considerably to the point he thinks its about to explode.
Sinking down onto the soft mattress of his bed, the cool pillow easing the pain in his head a little. He groaned as he pulled one of the comforters over himself and curling under the sheets, not caring if dirt of blood stained his bed.
He’ll shower and change his bed tomorrow, right now he just wants to sleep off the aches and pains from the nightmarish two weeks he’s had.
Finally drifting off he fell into a restless sleep, the three yellow orbs haunting his dream.