Under the Name of Love (Sonadow)

Chapter 10: I Love You

"Amazing, this type of potential is nearly as strong as chaos 0!" exclaimed the mad doctor.

"Maybe a little more... now, if this chao continues to acquire energy from animals, he could become even STRONGER and BETTER! And stealing animals is so much easier than kidnapping chao to be honest."

Sonic and Shadow heard from afar. The blue hedgehog grinded his teeth as he could not tolerate these experiments anymore. But Shadow talked.

"Sonic. Let's make a plan right now."

"Okay. Uh..."

Sonic wanted to lift his hand, but he was grabbing something. Little did both of them realize that their hands were together even after Eggman's whole sinister commentary. The blue hedgehog blushed and quickly let go of his hand.

"Sorry, Shadow... I didn't mean to hold your hand for that long."

"It's okay." he said with such sincerity. His eyes locked into his, but Sonic broke the gaze first.

Do you forgive me when all this time you've been mad at me? Just when I realized the problem, I still feel guilty. It hurts more when I...

Now Shadow was seeing something strange on him.

Fortunately, it was now Eggman's lunch time, so he left the laboratory with fiery chaos alone.

"Sonic, it's time. We can go help release the mutated chao."

"Alright!"

The duo finally showed themselves to the kidnapped victim who was emitting large flames around its body. Sonic slowly walked towards the dome.

Don't worry bud! Do you remember me? We are here to save you!"

Chaos immediately recognized him and lowered its flames. Sonic smiled gratefully while Shadow gradually figured out the programming to remove the huge flask. When he finally did so,  the chao happily reunited with Sonic and Shadow. Fiery Chaos hugged the blue blur for the first time. Sonic was glad albeit a bit nervous if suddenly its flames burst out. However Shadow kept staring at them suspiciously, in which Sonic noticed.

"Is there anything wrong, Shadow?"

"I think..." he stated his thoughts, "I think this chao is a girl."

"Wait, what? How can you tell?"

Shadow stuttered. "I—I can just tell, okay?"

But then the alarms sounded and Eggman spit his sandwich out frustrated, he returned and is shocked to see his enemies saving the chao.

"WHAT!?" he shouted. "HOW DID YOU BOTH EVEN ENTER HERE? I HAD CAMERAS INSTALLED AND MY ROBOTS HAD EXPLICIT ACCESS TO THE BASE!"

Sonic chuckled. "Let's just say I have a very intelligent partner by my side!"

You could have worded that differently... Shadow thought to himself.

"GRRRR, I'LL MAKE YOU PAY FOR THIS!!" 

The angered doctor acted before thinking as he had not expected this at all. He sent out one of his stronger robots, but its efficiency was not as great as the one Sonic and Fiery chaos fought last time. It was definitely larger in size compared to a regular egg robot, with more missiles installed on it. 

Sonic pushed Fiery chaos behind him, although he knew she could fight, but he just did not want her flames to come back. Regardless, the mutated chao ran the other side of the robot's circumference and ignited all of its fiery powers. Sonic jumped and attempted various homing attacks on its torso, where a few nuts and bolts busted out. Shadow meanwhile, took the advantage to run around and seek for its weak spots, and realized that its only capable attacks were the missile shots. As he figured this out, the missiles were sent towards him, and Shadow easily dodged them all, without even the use for chaos control. Either way, Shadow jumped, and instead, used chaos spears against the back of the robot, where the missile box suddenly exploded. 

"NOOOO!!!!!" Eggman shouted in the back as Fiery Chaos suddenly heard him and started sprinting with ire. The doctor jumped in fear and quickly fled the scene, closing all doors with special security measures. Fiery Chaos turned around and saw Sonic hit the robot's head multiple times, but in order to completely defeat it, she jumped on top of it as well and gave it a few more blazing punches. 

The huge egg robot finally combusted in flames, and the three of them watched it explode  together. 

Shadow grabbed his chaos emerald once again, shouting at Sonic simultaneously. 

"Hold my hand and her hand, quick!"

His friend did so as ordered, and they ended up teleporting somewhere far from the base, now in the middle of a deep forest. Birds chirped in the distance, and leaves fell gently as if they danced in spring.

Sonic and Shadow saw each other.

He smiled at him but Shadow separated his hand from him, crossing his arms and looked at the mutated chao instead. Sonic was about to sigh, but he took time to think for a second. It was the perfect time to confess.

"Shadow... thank you so much."

He looked back at him now, curious.

"I know, I know. I understand now. This whole time, I could have slowed down for you, think about your own thoughts, your own feelings, but I never did. Instead, I... would just get ahead of myself, do things before even thinking about you. Acting and going away. Maybe, maybe I was just running away from my fears. Fears of getting to know you more. I won't let that happen again. I promise I'll stick with you, who you truly are, and flourish this friendship even more. No more playing around! I want to get serious with you. Is that it, right?" 

Upon hearing these words, Shadow blushed with his mouth slightly open. He had finally heard the exact words he wanted to hear for so long. This was so reminiscent of the Sonic he remembered. The one, long ago at the ark. The one that tried desperately to save him from falling. The one that will eagerly listen to you up close and personal.

As a result, Sonic saw him smile tenderly. It had been a long while since he had seen this smile. He could not even remember when was the last time. Sonic cherished this so much, because this sole action proved he finally got the answer that Shadow wanted. It was time to reconciliate, and both hedgehogs shook their hands willingly. 

Sonic grinned even wider because he felt something bigger was going to happen between them. However, Fiery Chaos, who had been sensing a strong romantic tension the entire time, giggled to herself before she sneaked up behind Sonic and pushed him against Shadow, causing both hedgehogs to fall down and collapse on each other.

Sonic had no idea what had happened. The only thing in his sight was Shadow on the ground, his face so near his own. Crimson blush accumulated quickly on his muzzle, and his serious friend only stared at this, dumbfounded. Without thinking much, Sonic got up in an instant and helped Shadow get up as well. 

"Uhhh, GOTTA GO!"

He ran at the speed of light. Shadow tried to reason out this whole strange incident before he came back out of the sudden.

"I'm taking her with me!" Sonic grabbed Fiery Chaos's hand and rushed without any form of hesitation once again. 

The harsh wind agitated the trees around Shadow's circumference. He stared away in shock as  his heart pulsated in happiness. 

"Sonic...I..." he uttered the words alone.

I love you.