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“Shadow!”
Shadow was sitting on his bed in the corner of Maria’s room, reading a fairytale book she’d given him before she left for her tests. He was startled by Maria yelling out his name and leaping onto his bed.
She bounced as she wrapped her arms around the ebony hedgehog, who—despite hugging her back—looked at her in confusion.
“What’s wrong, Maria?” Shadow queried, and Maria giggled.
“Happy Birthday, little sibling!” She exclaimed, hugging him tighter.
“Birthday?” Shadow whispered softly before Maria grabbed their hand and pulled them off of his bed.
“Come on!” Maria laughed, dragging Shadow out of their room and through the ARK corridors. Maria was going a lot faster than she should’ve been, but Shadow didn’t pay too much mind.
For now…
“We’re gonna make a cake, and have a party, and open presents, and– um, dance! And we’re going to watch your favourite movie too!” Maria explained as she dragged him into the kitchen. She started searching the fridge and cupboards while Shadow just followed, hand interlocked with hers.
“Um, why?” Shadow asked softly, and Maria giggled.
“Because it’s your birthday, silly!” She replied, “I want today to be special for you!”
Shadow studied the food she was pulling out, seeing flour, eggs, sugar, baking powder, cocoa, milk, and butter stacked up on the kitchen counter. The girl grabbed out a mixing bowl and wooden spoon, mixing together all the ingredients as she sang songs and rambled.
Shadow watched as she placed the cake in the oven, setting a timer on the stove before grabbing their hand again.
“Quick! Come on! I wanna show you something!” Maria exclaimed in excitement, pulling Shadow through the ARK corridors once again.
“Maria! Hermana! Slow down!” Shadow exclaimed. While Shadow could run a lot faster than Maria was currently going, it wasn’t safe for someone in her condition.
“It’s fine, hermane!” Maria laughed, not slowing down, “Come on! We’re almost there!”
Maria led Shadow up a set of spiral stairs which led up to the main observatory of the ARK. Shadow watched as she stumbled in the blue heels their grandfather made her wear.
“Maria! Slow down!” Shadow said again, but Maria ignored him, still running up the spiralling stairs.
“We’re almost there, Shadow!” Maria called out over her shoulder, “We– we…”
Maria’s shoe didn’t stabilize on the next step properly, causing her to slip and fall backwards. Shadow quickly held onto her tightly, using himself as a pillow for Maria to land on so she didn’t hurt herself.
“Maria?” Shadow whispered, shaking her shoulder.
“Oof, that wasn’t good,” Maria replied, and Shadow helped her stand up again.
“You need to be more careful, Maria,” Shadow said, shaking their head, “You could end up hurt.”
“Sorry Shadow,” Maria apologised, running the toe of her shoes along the step she was standing on.
“You don’t need to apologise, just… be more careful,” Shadow said, holding Maria’s hand and starting to walk up the stairs slowly, “Now, what did you want to show me?”
“Oh! It’s called Comet Kohoutek! They can’t see it from Earth anymore, but we can still kind of see it from up here in space!” Maria explained, rocking her and Shadow’s joined hands back and forth, “Grandfather said it might be one of our last chances to see it!”
The two siblings made their way to the observatory, watching as the comet ripped through space in the distance.
—
Shadow sat up in his bed quickly, his breathing heavy as he processed the new memory he’d been shown in his sleep.
Once they’d gotten their breathing back to normal, he groaned, running a hand down his face. He swung his legs around, hanging them off the side of the bed as he reached for his communicator. There were a few messages from Rouge that they could probably read later.
10:37am
19th June
Shadow narrowed his eyes at the date. June 19th. It seems familiar somehow, but he couldn’t quite put his finger on it. He stuffed the communicator into his quills. Shadow stood up, slowly walking out of the bedroom and heading down the stairs of Sonic’s house.
They could hear the clanging of dishes downstairs, meaning Sonic was already up and had probably gone on his run already.
Once they’d made it to the kitchen, they could already smell the scent of their favourite breakfast food.
“Are you making waffles?” Shadow asked, standing in the doorway of the kitchen. Sonic jumped, dropping his wooden spoon into the mixture and spinning around.
“Ah– Oh! Morning Shads,” Sonic greeted and Shadow chuckled fondly at his antics. Shadow walked over to Sonic and wrapped his arms around his waist, leaning into him and resting his head in the crook of Sonic’s neck.
“Hehe, you’re cuddly this morning,” Sonic giggled, returning the embrace.
“Why are you making waffles?” Shadow mumbled, still not fully awake.
“What?” Sonic said, and Shadow sighed, leaning back to look at Sonic, but not putting any more distance between them.
“You hate making waffles,” Shadow explained, “You say they take too long and are too difficult.”
Sonic barked a laugh, “I did say that, didn’t I?” Shadow nodded slowly in response.
The waffle maker beeped from behind Sonic, signalling that the waffles were done. Sonic let go of Shadow and spun around to take the waffles out of the machine.
“I felt like doing something nice for you today,” Sonic explained, and Shadow raised an eyebrow.
“But you’re nice to me everyday,” they pointed out, and turned back around, rolling their eyes.
“Well, today’s different.”
But how?
Sonic gestured for Shadow to sit down, and he complied, watching as his partner finished making breakfast. A plate of waffles covered in ice cream and a cup of coffee beans were placed in front of them.
“Bon appetit,” Sonic said, but in a Spanish accent.
Shadow snorted, “That’s French, you idiot. It would be ‘disfruta tu comida’.”
Sonic groaned dramatically as he sat down on the bench stool beside Shadow.
“Yeah, yeah, whatever,” Sonic drawled, “If I really cared, I’d say it in Japanese.”
Shadow chuckled, “Do you know what it is in Japanese?”
Shadow knew damn well he did; they just thought it was funny when Sonic got all cross about Shadow not believing he was Japanese.
(It was a long running joke at this point, and even though Shadow knew Sonic could speak his native language, Shadow still taunted and Sonic still fell for it.)
“Of course!” Sonic exclaimed, “It’s ‘o shokuji o o tanoshimi kudasai’. Thank you very much.”
“You’re an idiot,” Shadow said fondly.
“Your idiot~” Sonic replied, and Shadow just turned back to his food.
Once the two had finished their meals, Shadow started to stand up to collect and clean their plates, but Sonic quickly stopped him.
“Īe! I got it!” Sonic interrupted, swiftly stealing the plates from Shadow’s hands before he could protest.
Shadow rolled his eyes but still sat back down in his seat. They would never understand this hedgehog.
Shadow still smiled softly as he watched his partner scrub the dishes clean. After a few minutes, Sonic looked back at him as he dried his hands, smiling softly in return, causing the corners of his eyes to crinkle in joy.
Sonic bounded over to Shadow, sitting up on the kitchen bench rather than the stool and swinging his legs.
“Alright! I was thinking, would you be alright with going out on the Dark Rider to get some snacks? I got a list!” Sonic asked, and Shadow nodded in conformation.
“Sweet! Afterwards, I’ll meet you outside and we can go for a walk,” Sonic continued.
“A walk? Why not a run?” Shadow queried. He had no problems with walks, but Sonic was the world renowned ‘Fastest Thing Alive’. Why did he want to go on a walk?
“I mean, if you wanna run, we can run,” Sonic said, “but there was something I wanted to show you, and we gotta walk to do that.”
‘Quick! Come on! I wanna show you something!’
Shadow furrowed his brows as the short memory replayed in his head, and Sonic’s face shifted to worry.
“You good, Shads?” Sonic asked carefully, and Shadow nodded.
“Yeah… yeah.”
Sonic looked at them skeptically, but didn’t push.
“Well then! You gonna get going?” Sonic asked, jumping off the counter and grabbing a piece of paper from his quills, handing it over to Shadow.
“Um, sure,” Shadow replied, studying the list Sonic gave him. It was mostly full of snacks Shadow enjoyed, and before he could question it, Sonic was already talking.
“Welp! I’ll just be here! I’ll come out front when you’re back and we can go on that walk, hey?”
Shadow nodded in agreement, then grabbed his leather jacket and walked out to the garage. The Dark Rider was placed in the center of the garage, with a high quality fabric sheet over the top to protect it from dust.
He grabbed a helmet before walking over to the bike.
They took the sheet off, stepped over and onto the bike, then started the engine. The engine roared as he revved it. Once he accelerated, he sped down the dirt path leading to his home and onto the highway. The main city was only a few minutes drive.
Shadow eventually made it into town, grabbed the snacks on Sonic’s list (plus a few more things he noticed missing from the fridge), then drove back out of town. When they made it back to the dirt road leading through the forest to Sonic’s house, Sonic was already there.
Shadow stopped just next to their blue counterpart, pushing up the visor in his helmet.
“What’re you doing?” Shadow asked, and Sonic smirked.
“Waiting for you, slow poke,” Sonic teased, grabbing the groceries from Shadow’s handlebars and sped back inside. Before Shadow could get off his bike to help, Sonic was already back, pushing him back down to sit.
“Come on, we gotta go now!” Sonic exclaimed, sitting on the back of Shadow’s bike. Shadow sighed, rolling his eyes as he revved the engine again.
“You’re a pest, erizo,” Shadow complained.
Shadow could hear the smirk in Sonic’s voice as he said, “well you’re stuck with me now! Let’s go!”
Shadow sped off without much more warning than that, causing Sonic to yelp and clench Shadow’s waist tightly. The ebony hedgehog blushed slightly at the contact.
They made it into the city, and Sonic kicked Shadow’s right shoe just before a turn, giving him direction on where to take them.
Eventually, they ended up at a park, which was exhibiting a large range of statues and information signs throughout.
Shadow parked his bike, and Sonic grabbed their hand and led them to the very left end of the exhibit.
“I did some research, and I found out that this exhibit opened up a few weeks ago. It’s like a ‘This Last Century’ thing,” Sonic explained, stopping at the start of the trail, “it starts at the 1900’s and goes all the way to the 2000’s.”
Shadow’s eyes lit up, and he was filled with excitement. He loved history and learning about what he missed in stasis or before he was created.
“Let’s go,” Shadow prompted, and Sonic nodded enthusiastically. The two walked through the exhibit, hand in hand; Shadow reading signs and studying sculptures as Sonic explained any information he knew about the topics.
When they got to the 1970’s, Shadow paused on one sign. It was talking about space events at the time, and mentioned a name he’d heard before.
“Comet Kohoutek…” Shadow muttered, and Sonic looked over at what the ebony hedgehog was looking at.
When Sonic shot Shadow a questioning glance, Shadow said, “I recognise that name — of the comet — I’m pretty sure Maria showed me it.”
Sonic nodded slowly, and kept rambling about different events in each decade. By the end of the exhibit, Shadow had been given the basic rundown of the 20th century, with a few fun facts and questions to research.
“Are we going home?” Shadow inquired as Sonic started walking away.
“Nah, not yet,” Sonic replied, checking his communicator, “There’s this cafe I wanted to show you.”
Shadow hummed in agreement and let Sonic lead him to a small cafe on a street corner. It was a cozy space, from the looks of outside, but when they stepped inside, Shadow was surprised.
There were cats. Everywhere.
Shadow looked over at Sonic, excited, and Sonic spread out his arms in a ‘ta-da’ motion.
An older looking human lady walked over to the couple, greeting them softly.
“Hello, dears, how can I help you?” she asked.
“Just a table for two, please,” Sonic requested, and the old lady led them over to a free table near the window.
“This place is amazing,” Shadow praised, and Sonic beamed.
“Really?! I searched for this place online for forever! I’m so glad you like it,” Sonic said, his tail thumping against the seat. Shadow smiled softly and thanked Sonic.
A small black and white cat leapt up onto their table, and Shadow slowly reached out a hand to pat them. The cat nuzzled into his hand, and after a few moments, a few more cats made their way over to Shadow.
Shadow’s full attention was put on the cats as he patted them, but after a few moments, he looked over at Sonic, who was giving him a dopey grin with half-lidded eyes.
“What?” Shadow whispered, and Sonic blinked.
“You’re like, the cat whisperer or something. It’s cute,” Sonic said, and Shadow blushed.
“You just need to be gentle,” Shadow pointed out, and Sonic chuckled softly.
“You’re so gentle. It makes it cuter,” Sonic replied, and Shadow blushed harder.
“You’re a pest.”
“You love me~” Sonic teased, but Shadow just smiled back.
“Yeah, I do.” It was Sonic’s turn to blush, who quickly turned his head to hide it.
Shadow snickered at Sonic’s reaction, then laughed harder as a small, hyperactive cat jumped up onto the table and right onto Sonic’s head.
“Wh– hey buddy! What’re you doing up there?” Sonic asked, cocking an eyebrow as he looked up at the cheeky cat.
After a while, the two hedgehogs had ordered and received their drinks, which they were now sipping on as they chatted and laughed.
Shadow’s ear twitched as they picked up a noise, and they turned to see a group of Mobian teenage girls whispering and glancing over at Sonic and Shadow. The ebony hedgehog just shrugged. It was usual for Sonic to get attention while they were out and about, this was no surprise to him.
Shadow just went back to listening to whatever Sonic was rambling about.
“-- the whole freaking workshop was covered in soot and–” Sonic cut himself off as the drink he was holding in his gesturing hands spilt all over the table, “tawagoto,” he muttered under his breath, quickly standing up.
“I’ll be back, Shads,” he said as he stepped out of the booth, “just needa get some napkins.”
Shadow nodded in understanding, watching as Sonic walked over to the counter to ask for some napkins. The blue hedgehog spoke to the old lady so effortlessly, and obviously forgot his reason for going over to the counter and instead engaged in a casual conversation with the owner.
“Um, excuse me?” a voice said from beside him. They flinched slightly, his ears shooting up and his quills bristling as they looked over to who was talking.
It was one of the girls he saw before, a tall rabbit Mobian with pink fur and a yellow shirt with baggy jeans.
“Are you Shadow the Hedgehog?” she asked, a glint of what Shadow thought was hopefulness in her eyes.
“Um, yes,” Shadow answered awkwardly, running his fingers over the bumps in the table.
“Yes! I knew it!” The girl exclaimed, turning back to her friends—a shorter cat Mobian and a taller sheep Mobian.
“My name’s Aubrey, I’m a huge fan of yours,” the rabbit said, bouncing on the balls of her feet, “you’re like, super cool and strong and I really admire you.”
“Really?” Shadow couldn’t help but ask, and Aubrey nodded.
“Yes! The way you helped Sonic fight the giant laser thing in space, and when you defeated that alien race, and all the fights you helped Team Sonic with,” the girl rambled, counting on her fingers, “Mostly the way you fight no matter what the world throws at you!”
Shadow studied the girl for a moment, “Is that so?” He tried not to come off as rude, he really did. Aubrey didn’t seem to mind his questioning.
“Yeah. You probably know that the media used to say unfair stuff about you all the time,” she said, “I never thought it was fair. They don’t know anything.”
Shadow remembered from a few years ago, the media had put report after report about his battles and how dangerous he was. Whenever they went out, they’d get cursed at or people would run away. He still gets it sometimes, but not nearly as much. It still made him anxious to go out sometimes.
“What’s going on?” Sonic asked as he walked over to the table, a large handful of napkins in his grasp.
“Oh! Sonic!” The girl exclaimed, and her friends yelled out to Sonic too, which Sonic replied to with, “The one and only. Whatcha doing over here?”
“I was just telling Shadow about how I’m a big fan of his,” Aubrey explained with a grin, and Sonic grinned back.
“Is that so?” Sonic asked, a lot more enthusiastically than Shadow did, and the girl nodded.
“Yeah! I um, I did a drawing of you, if you’d like to see it,” she said, turning back to Shadow.
“Oh yeah!” Sonic exclaimed, sitting back down and wiping up the spill drink. Shadow just nodded, prompting the rabbit to pull out her phone. After pressing a few things, she handed the phone over to him, the phone turned over to landscape.
Shadow took the phone, seeing a drawing of him sitting on a motorbike, gun in hand. Shadow recognised it as them driving down the streets of Westopolis, the sky dark red and littered with Black Arms soldiers.
Many people depicted him as evil and power hungry back then as he searched for the Chaos Emeralds, but the girl had painted their face with determination as they drove through the street. The detail was incredible, with the lighting and colours being extraordinary.
“Woah,” Sonic whispered, “That is sick!”
Shadow was left speechless as he stared down at the artwork. This girl had gone out of her way to draw something this meaningful and detailed, and it was of him.
“I– I don’t know what to say,” Shadow whispered, and saw Sonic giving him a dopey smile.
After a few more moments of admiration, Shadow handed the phone back.
“That’s very kind of you,” Shadow said, and the girl grinned.
“You like it?” She asked.
Shadow nodded, “I love it.”
The girl beamed at him, and Sonic pulled out his phone.
“Do you have any social media?” He asked.
Aubrey nodded, “I have an instagram where I post all my art, that one included.”
“Sweet!” Sonic exclaimed, asking the girl for her instagram, which she quickly recited to him. Sonic nodded, tapping at his phone and a notification showed up on Aubrey’s phone.
“I just followed you,” Sonic said, “Your artworks are amazing! You’re so underrated.”
The girl blushed, “Thank you. I can’t believe you followed me.”
“Of course!” Sonic said, “I love following artists on instagram. I love seeing all their art, and I like using my fame to get more underrated artists out there. You deserve it.”
The girl beamed at him, “Thank you so much! And you too Shadow. I can’t believe I finally got to meet you!”
Shadow mumbled a small “You’re welcome,” before Sonic jumped up out of his seat.
“You want a photo?”
The girl smiled and nodded quickly, and Sonic pulled Shadow up from their seat, pulling him into the photo he was taking on his phone. Afterwards, Sonic quickly sent the picture through to the girl on instagram, before a notification popped up on his screen.
Sonic angled his phone away before Shadow could see, and the ebony hedgehog cocked an eyebrow at him, but he just shrugged.
“We gotta go, miss,” Sonic said, grabbing Shadow’s hand ready to leave the cafe, “It was nice to meet you.”
“You too!” She replied, and Sonic dragged Shadow out of the store, quickly thanking the owner with a promise they’d come back again soon.
“Alrighty,” Sonic said, putting his free hand up to his face in a searching motion, “Where’d you park the bike?”
“Where are we going?” Shadow asked instead of answering.
“Just home,” Sonic answered, “ah! There it is.”
Sonic dragged Shadow over to the bike, forcing Shadow to get on and take them home.
“What’s with the rush?” Shadow asked as he started the engine.
“You seriously ask the world renowned ‘Fastest Thing Alive’ that?” Sonic asked instead of answering, so Shadow just shrugged and took them home.
As they pulled into the driveway down the dirt road, Shadow saw a few of their friends’ cars as he stopped the bike in the garage. As he stepped off, Sonic’s hands covered Shadow’s eyes, causing the ebony hedgehog to ‘tsk’.
“What are you doing, Sonic?” he asked, and Sonic tutted.
“Ah ah ah~ It’s a surprise!” Sonic said, leading the now blinded hedgehog into the house. Sonic stumbled over Shadow’s feet a few times, causing the duo to laugh as they made their way through the door.
Once the door closed, Sonic removed his hands from their eyes, and before Shadow could adjust his eyes in the dark room, the lights already turned on, revealing balloons and snacks and a banner.
“Happy Birthday Shadow!” a group of voices called out as his and Sonic’s friends all jumped out of their hiding spots.
“Birthday..?” Shadow whispered, and a flood of memories came back to him.
“Happy Birthday, little sibling!”
“Come on! I wanna show you something!”
“I want today to be special for you.”
“Let’s make a cake! Do you want chocolate?”
“We’re really lucky we got to see the comet on your birthday, hey Shadow?”
“Shadow?”
Shadow blinked a few times, the room full of decorations coming back into his vision.
“You alright, Shads?” Sonic asked, and Shadow nodded, wiping away the tears that were welling up in his eyes but didn’t fall.
“What is this?” Shadow asked, looking over at the hedgehog beside him.
“It’s your birthday party,” Sonic said with a wink.
“How did you know? I didn’t even know,” Shadow said, lowering his voice for the last part. Sonic’s eyes softened in understanding.
“I– I had a feeling you didn’t know. Rouge showed me some files way back when we, um,” Sonic took a deep breath, “when we thought you died.”
Shadow nodded slowly, “I only just remembered…”
Sonic slipped his hand into Shadow’s, running his thumb over the back of the ebony hedgehog’s hand. Shadow studied the living room of his home. Amy and Rouge had already started conversation with everyone else, giving Shadow time to process what was happening.
They’re too kind to me.
The red, blue, and yellow balloons were hung up everywhere, and the coffee table had been shifted to the side to allow for a larger trestle table for snacks and a stack of wrapped presents. Confetti was scattered all over the floor, which Shadow knew would take forever to clean later.
Sonic must have seen Shadow’s distressed face, because he snorted and pointed at Knuckles.
“Big guy set off the confetti canons that Amy brought while we were setting up,” Sonic explained, “Probably for the best. You don’t really like loud noises, hey?”
Shadow just stared at the room, then whispered, “Why are you doing this for me?”
Sonic tugged at his hand, pulling him over to the rest of their friends.
“Because we care about you.”
Shadow ended up standing beside the table of snacks (which he realised were the snacks Sonic made them get earlier, cheeky bastard), close beside Sonic as he chatted to his friends. As much as Shadow appreciated the effort Sonic had put in for this, he didn’t really like being the centre of attention. He wasn’t really sure what he was supposed to do.
They looked up when he heard Rouge approaching him, and to their surprise, her arms wrapped around him in a hug. Rouge almost never hugged anyone unless it was important or desperate.
“Happy Birthday, hun,” Rouge said into his ear, then leaned back, softly running her hands down their arms before letting go.
“Why didn’t you tell me, roja?” Shadow couldn’t help but ask. By the looks of it, this was supposed to be a pretty damn important day.
Rouge sighed, “I always did something special for you on this day every year, but you never seemed to realise why,” She explained, “I figured eventually you’d remember on your own, like everything else, so I would just give you little presents or do something for you on your birthday. Gaia knows you wouldn’t wanna do anything massive anyways.”
Shadow cocked an eyebrow at her, “Then, what’s with the party?”
Rouge snickered, “Do you even have to ask?”
Shadow sighed, “Amy, huh?”
“Sonic just wanted a hang out, Amy turned it into a party,” Rouge laughed, “You know how she is.”
Shadow chuckled softly in return, “Sure do.”
Rouge grinned at him, and Shadow cocked a brow at her.
“Y’know…” Rouge said, “If we had done this for you a few years ago, you would’ve Chaos Blasted us into next week.”
She placed a hand on their shoulder, and his eyes widened slightly.
“You’ve come a long way Shadow. I’m proud of you.”
Shadow was lucky there were so many people around motivating him to not cry.
“Th–thank you, Rouge. It means a lot,” Shadow said quietly, and Rouge smiled at them softly.
“Okay guys!” Amy announced from the other side of the room, clapping her hands together, “Since the birthday hedgehog is here, we can open presents now!”
Sonic cheered, grabbing Shadow’s hand and leading him to the couch, plopping the two down in the middle. Everyone else grabbed the presents they were giving and sat around the two hedgehogs.
“Here ya go, Shads!” Sonic said, pulling a small box out of his quills. Sonic handed it over to him, and Shadow opened it, revealing an old compass, nearly identical to one that he and Maria used to run around with. Of course, it didn’t point North like it would on the Earth, but it was still fun.
“So you can always find your way,” Sonic said, resting his hand on their thigh, “well, you’ve been pretty good at that already.”
Shadow tilted Sonic’s head towards him and gave him a chaste kiss.
“Thank you, erizo.”
“Me next!” Rouge yelled out, and plonked a big case on Shadow’s lap. They lifted their hands up as the case hit his thighs, leaving his hands hanging uselessly in the air.
“Go on, open in,” Rouge said, and Shadow clicked the case open, which revealed a Heckler & Koch MP5A3. It was a proper model too, not like the fake one they stole at the start of the Black Arms Invasion which had a pump like a shotgun.
“How did you get this?” He asked, and Rouge gave him a sly grin.
“A magician never reveals her secrets,” She said with a wink, and Shadow rolled their eyes.
Tails, who was sitting beside Sonic, shifted the box he was holding over to Shadow. They nodded in response, taking it and opening it. Inside was a pair of red sunglasses, which looked way too technical to be casual wear.
“What do they do?” Shadow asked immediately, and Tails’ face lit up due to Shadow’s recognition of his work.
“Motorcycle helmet,” Tails said, “It accounts for your quills and ears unlike human or other Mobian helmets and is compact. It also connects to your phone, and the visor has a screen displayed in it.”
“Oh! Like Batman’s helmet from the Lego Batman movie!” Sonic said, and Tails sighed in resignation.
“Yes, like Batman’s helmet from the Lego Batman movie.”
Shadow smiled, “That’s very kind of you, Miles.”
“Oh! Of course, Shadow,” Tails said, scratching the back of his head sheepishly, “You’re, um, you’re like another parent to me.”
Shadow’s eyes widened in surprise, “really?”
“Uh, yeah,” Tails said, and Sonic was absolutely beaming.
“My turn!” Amy exclaimed, passing an envelope over to Shadow. Honestly, Shadow expected Amy to have the biggest present, considering the party that apparently had to be watered down (Rouge had her beat).
They grabbed their pocket knife from their quills, then flicked up the blade and slipped it under the fold of the envelope, prying open the paper. He reached into it, pulling out two bright pink tickets.
“We missed our chance last time because of an Eggman attack, remember?” Amy said, causing Shadow to look up at her, “I thought you and Sonic could go.”
Shadow slipped the tickets back into the envelope for safe keeping, “That’s very thoughtful, Amy. But I thought you wanted to go with me.”
Amy’s face went bright red, and she coughed into her fist, “Um… I’m taking Blaze with me, if that’s alright.”
Sonic snickered beside him, and Shadow gave Amy a nod in understanding.
“Of course, thank you for the tickets.”
Amy beamed, “You’re very welcome, Shadow.”
Knuckles, who was still standing on the other side of the snack table, reached into his quills and pulled out the green Chaos Emerald. He chucked it over to Shadow.
“Found this. Figured you’d lost it,” Knuckles said, stuffing his mouth with more chips.
“Appreciated,” Shadow stated, then stuffed the emerald into his quills.
“AM I ALLOWED IN YET?” Shadow heard Omega ask, then looked out the window to find him lurking outside.
“Yup! Come in ‘Megs!” Rouge called out as Sonic gave a thumbs up. Omega opened the sliding glass door that led to Sonic and Shadow’s backyard, then stepped inside, holding a small crate.
Rouge covered her mouth as she giggled, and Sonic drummed his hands against Shadow’s leg in excitement.
Shadow stared at the crate.
“What’s in there?” Shadow asked carefully, and Omega placed the crate on the ground.
“CAT.”
Shadow blinked at him, then stood up slowly, making his way over to the crate. They crouched down in front of it, then opened the door of the small crate. A small black cat with bright green eyes slowly stepped out of the cage. Shadow slowly reached towards it, like he did with most other cats, but it stepped back.
“He’s a rescue cat, Shads,” Sonic whisper yelled, and Shadow nodded.
He knew he’d have to be extra careful with this one. Build trust, make it a safe space.
“It’s alright,” Shadow said with a low voice, ducking their head to be at eye level with the cat.
The cat took a tentative step forward, and Shadow reached their hand out again. This time, the cat nuzzled into Shadow’s bent fingers. He smiled softly, then carefully went to pick up the kitten. He moved forward slowly, one step at a time to show he wasn’t a threat, then reached under the cat’s stomach.
They picked up the black cat, holding him close to their chest. The cat looked up at him, then down at the white fluff on his chest and buried his face into it.
“See! Cat whisperer!” Sonic yelled out, causing the cat’s ears to flatten.
“Sonic!” Shadow whisper yelled back at him, and Sonic quickly apologised.
Shadow ran his hands over the cat’s black fur, then turned back to his friends.
“Thank you,” he said, “I really appreciate this.”
Sonic stood up with a smile.
“Anytime, Shads.”