Together (Sonadow)

8

*Sonic's POV *
"Can you two please talk to each other?" Maria spoke, Shadow nodded, making flour fall off his head.

"I need to take a shower first." Shadow sighed, then walked to his room.

"Dad?" Maria said, then shook her head. "I'm sorry. Sonic." She corrected herself. I chuckled and put a hand on her shoulder.

"It's okay. You can call me dad if you want to." I looked at her. "Maybe you should stay the night with me today. Let Shadow and Rouge have a talk tonight, and we will be back tomorrow?" I offered, making her smile and nod at me. "Let's clean this up."

Maria and I spent the entire time Shadow was showering, cleaning the kitchen until it was as clean as Shadow had it before.

"You should also take a shower." We turned to see Shadow walking with a towel over his shoulder.

"Right. I should. But what about my clothes?" She asked.

"Rouge left -" Shadow stopped himself. "Actually. Just grab something from my closet. I'll wash your clothes while you take a shower."

"I can wear Auntie Rouge clothes." Maria crossed her arms.

"No, you can't." Shadow and I said in sync, we looked at each other when we realized it, then looked at Maria. "Just go grab something from my closet." Shadow continued.

"Fine." Maria left, leaving Shadow and I alone.

"She's staying the night with me." I spoke after the awkward silence was beginning to be too much.

"Why?" Shadow crossed his arms.

"I want to spend time with her too." I answered, making Shadow roll his eyes.

"Talk." He demanded.

"Don't treat me like a pet. Talk right, damn it." I clenched my fists.

"Fine." Shadow walked to the couch and sat down. "What happened that day?" He asked, trying to remain calm. We both didn't want to fight when Maria was around. That part was obvious.

"Are you actually going to listen this time?" I said as I walked closer but remained standing up. I only earned a glare from him, but he remained silent. His way of saying he would listen. "Fine." I sat down on the single couch in front of where he sat and started talking.

I explained to him how things actually went down. From his viewpoint, I knew he could have only seen certain things, not being able to notice why I did what I did. I explained to him everything, from the positions we were in to how my train of thought went in that moment. I explained why I had to go for Tails first and how I launched myself in front of the attack that was directed towards Rouge because I hadn't been fast enough to get her out of the way. I explained to him everything with detail as he remained silent and listened.

"I'm sorry." He finally said after I finished talking. My ears going up as I processed what he said. "I should have let you finish explaining."

"Yeah. You really should have." I said and rested back on the couch.

"What are we going to do about Maria?" He asked, changing the subject.

"Look, I want to help her. I really do, but I don't know about you, but I don't see myself ever ending with you. You've got absolutely no idea of everything I've gone through and put up with, and you clearly will always blame for everything that goes wrong. We could never work. I don't know how we ever would have git together to begin with, but that's not us now."

"That's not true." We turned to see Maria walking to us. She wore a G.U.N. training t-shirt and some sweatpants. "You two are meant for each other. If you would just give each other a chance."

"Maria." I stood up and walked to her. "I am sorry, but Shadow and I would never end together."

"He's right." Shadow said with his arms crossed. "Is there anything else we can do to help you?" He stopped, we looked at each other, then took a step away from each other as we both had the same idea. "Never in a million years." Shadow scoffed.

"And you think I feel any different?" I scoffed as well.

"No. There's no other way." Maria softly and sadly chuckled. "Even if you two were to even have a one night stand, I wouldn't want to go back to a future where our family is broken." She said sadly. "Could I at least stay here until I am gone?"

My ears dropped at hearing her say that. I walked to her and hugged her tightly. I felt a deep connection to her that it hurt badly to see her so sad and broken.

"I'm so sorry." I said and nodded. "You are welcome to stay with me as long as you can." I rested my head on top of hers, feeling a knot in my throat as I tried to hold myself back from crying. I had to stay strong for her.

"You're welcome to stay here as well. But we need to make sure the others don't see you." Shadow spoke calmly, for once.

"Thank you. I'll make sure I stay hidden, don't worry. As long as I have the chaos emerald with me, I should be fine and won't really have to go out." Maria said as she hugged back. "We should go then. You should talk to Rouge. She needs you to listen to her."

"I'll call her to come over after work." Shadow said as Maria let go of me and walked to Shadow, then hugged him. He tensed up and hesitated but hugged her back as he looked away. I smiled, and he immediately glared at me.

I still didn't like being around him, I knew the moment Maria was gone, we would go back to how we were, even if he had apologized. I was not going to let Shadow step all over me again. I was not going to put up with it anymore. But while she was around, we had to keep up the act. We had to try to get along. She wouldn't be here for long. The least we could do was give her her final days with the family she lost.