The one who stayed //Sonadow//

Chapter four.

A small hand pokes the sleeping girls arm. Her pale blue eyes opened as she woke, her eyes meeting wide crimson ones. "Shadow?" she mumbled, sitting up in her bed and rubbing her eyes, "I already read you a story before bed. Is something wrong?"

The young hedgehog huffed and put his hands on the girls bed, trying to pull himself up. The girl chuckled at the young ones' effort and pulled him up, placing him in her lap. "I can't sleep Maria." Shadow told her as he frowned, looking troubled.

"Why is that?" Maria wondered as she flattened Shadows quills, playing with his pointed ears from time to time. "That story you told me" he stated "I don't understand what that one word means"

A small giggle passed the girls lips. "Which word? A story has a lot of words."

Shadow pouted at that fact. He knew that a story had a lot of words, he read many books here on the ARK. Plus, he was the ultimate life form, and being so important, he had to know.

"The 'L word'." The young hedgehog stated, unsure of how to pronounce the word due to being only a year old. Maria giggled again as Shadow said that and turned him around in her lap, looking down at him with a smile.

"The 'L word' means love," she told him and he listened intently "and love is a very strong feeling you feel for someone who means the world to you."

Shadow's eyes widened.

"L-Like you Maria?" he wondered, watching her smile and laugh. That made the young one happy. It made him feel like he just made her day with each smile that spread across her face.

"Kinda" she giggled "but this love is one you feel for someone who you can hold and tell all your secrets to. Someone who loves you too for the small things that you do. This feeling will make your heart beat fast and all you will think about is them."

Shadow listened to each and every word, taking it in and remembering it perfectly. He wondered what it would be like to love like that and who he would love.

For a long time, Shadow would look at Planet Earth from the ARK and day dream about his future love. This 'future love' never had a face or a voice that wasn't his own, but even still Shadow would always watch Earth and wonder if his love was down there somewhere, looking back.

This is what Shadow always thought, but once he was brought down to Earth for the first time, he ignored love, forced it away because he was afraid he would love and loose them just like he lost Maria. It was a thought that frightened him.

He held an angered storm for those who took Maria away and he used that to fuel him to fight, the thought of revenge on his mind.

-

Shadow woke with love on his mind and Maria's name on his tongue. He quickly sat up from his sleep and washed her name from his mouth. It wasn't that he wanted to forget her, that was the last thing on his mind, but it was so he wouldn't bring up the past and hurt from it.

It helped him cope with the situation, to get through it easier.

Shadow sighed and covered his face with his hands. It was almost as if all his emotions could be kept inside if he just pressed his palms to his eyes. The thoughts were harder to force away then tears were, though.

He needed to remove himself from his thoughts, and he knew just where to go. He got up and left his house, already ready because he was too lazy to remove what he wore that night. Sonic was on his mind and that was hard to even admit.

The ultimate lifeform thought of the blue hero, stopping in his tracks for a moment at the base of his tree house. Why was he on Shadow's mind all of a sudden? Just yesterday he wanted nothing to do with him, and now, he was all he could think about.

Since he couldn't get Sonic out of his head, and instead of ignoring him like he normally would, a smirk crossed his face as he went over towards the hero's house. Shadow quickly, and loudly, hammered his fist on the blue hero's door.

Sonic, who was sleeping soundly in his bed, was suddenly startled awake by the loud noise echoing from his door. He buried his head even further under the covers, letting out a loud groan. "N-No ones' home!"

He then heard a low, very deep voiced chuckle. "Fine!" Shadow said "Have fun!"

At the sound of the dark hedgehogs' voice Sonic's heart sped up. His mind numbed at the many possibilities on why he was at the hero's door, laughing at what the hero had yelled and if he was still there. Panic rushed through Sonic at the thought of Shadow leaving, which confused him and only added on to his increasing heart rate.

"Wait!" Sonic groaned, still in bed "Come in!"

His front door opened immediately. Sonic rushed to push the duvet off of his face, and once he had, Shadow, almost silently, shut the door behind him. The hero rolled around in an attempt to get up, only accomplishing to tangle his bed sheets around his blue legs.

"I-In here Shadow" Sonic called from his tangled position on his bed. He turned his head once Shadow stepped in the doorway to Sonic's room, not daring to try and get closer. He looked almost uncomfortable with the situation.

Crimson eyes studied the blue hedgehog before a quiet chuckle escaped tan colored lips. "You are extremely lazy" he pointed out, earning a halfhearted glare as Sonic untangled himself from his covers and sat up. "I think you just get up at the crack of dawn" he yawned and rubbed his eyes.

"In fact I do" Shadow simply stated, crossing his arms, "you get more daylight that way"

Sonic yawned again, hardly putting what the ultimate lifeform just said to much thought. "Hey" he pointed a finger at the dark hedgehog, "don't go telling my enemies I don't get up at the crack of dawn like you. They might use it against me"

Shadow's heart fluttered at the sight of Sonic's tired smile. He only hid it behind a smirk. "Sounds tempting."

However, no matter how tempting it was to tell all the blue hero's enemies about this single flaw, one that even many of his enemies shared, Shadow couldn't do it. It was a stupid joke almost, telling people something so irrelevant about the hero. There was no satisfaction in saying a word about it, so he didn't, he wouldn't.

"Heeeey, who's side are you on anyways?" Sonic whined, narrowing his eyes as he got up. Shadow shrugged. "I don't take sides, less bloodshed and no time wasted."

The hero placed his hands on his hips. "You're not building a good case for yourself with me" he huffed, his voice amused. "When have I ever been able to do that?" Shadow chuckled, his sly smirk almost forming into a genuine smile. He held it back.

"Never ever" Sonic chuckled with him as he shook his head. Shadow's smirk widened a little, "I thought so"