Vacation(Completed)

Missing Rings

Running back to the castle Sonic thought about the last two days. Did Shadow even like him back? He thought that they were really close especially when they had started to hold hands and cuddle. Sonic kept thinking of an excuse. They were tired and being woken up Shadow could've been in a bad mood. Its why everything was burned and he defeated Eggman so easily. But he called Amy his girlfriend. Maybe he didn't want anyone to know? It did kinda seem like Shadow. Trying to keep his reputation, but he'd have to ask Rouge.
Sonic arrived home to see his mother walking by. "Hello Sonic dear. Where were you? You guys missed breakfast and lunch. I started to get worried." Sonic could just smile. "Yeah, sorry about that mom. Me and Shadow were up late so we slept until it was almost lunch. But we missed lunch because well.... There was something back where I lived that we needed to do. Bad guy to defeat well more like Shadow to defeat." Sonic said and left to his room with a wave. It was like their families thing instead of saying bye. "Hey Sonic? What's wrong with Shadow?" "Yeah dude. He seemed like like in a bad mood but said it was nothing and that he was tired." Manic and Sonia said as they walked up to Sonic right before entering he entered the room. "Uh, yeah. Well that's classic Shadow, not wanting people to worry. He really is tired though. We've been staying up late so he was tired when he got up, we had to leave to deal with a bad guy. Made a mistake of teasing him and now his deadly robot can never be fixed." Sonic joked but it sounded a little scary he had to agree. Waving he walked in. "Tell him I said sleep well." Sonia called from outside. "Me too." Manic said. Was it always like this or was it just because Shadow was there? Shadow was already on the bed sleeping soundly. "I guess you heard her." Sonic whispered to himself. He walked over and sat on the bed, scratching behind Shadows ear and earned a purr. Didn't he do this last night? He was pretty sure he did. He remembered being asleep and then hearing his name he woke up a little but thought it was a dream. They were rubbing cheeks when Sonic scratched behind Shadows ear and then he heard the other purr. The ear started to flicker before Shadow mumbled something. "What?" Sonic asked before Shadow grabbed his hand. "I told you to stop. I'm sleeping." Shadow mumbled louder so Sonic was barely able to hear. "Your supposed to be having fun. Not sleep all day." Sonic said as Shadow let go of his hand. "No! I'm tired. I'm sleeping all day. Now stop." Shadow huffed as Sonic began to scratch behind his ear. "You can't exactly make me. I'm not a robot you can destroy." Sonic responded as Shadows ear continued to flick. "No but I can destroy you. But there would be guts everywhere and I'm sleeping. Sonic, stop!" Shadow finally broke and pinned Sonic. "You win!" Sonic gave up. "Good." Shadow mumbled and his eyelids closed. "I'm so tired." Shadow yawned a little before laying down on Sonic. "Shadow? What are you doing?" Sonic asked as Shadow began to purr. "What does it look like? I'm going to sleep." Shadow said it like it was the most obvious thing. "Are you awake the slightest bit because if you haven't noticed, your sleeping on me." Shadow just remained still and quite. "Nope. Your dead asleep." Sonic sighed. He was just gonna have to wait for Shadow to wake up. An hour later Shadow woke up. "What happened? Headache." Shadow growled as he got up from the warm thing. Looking down Shadow face palmed. He hoped he didn't fall asleep on Sonic. He didn't exactly want to play the question game and luckily he didn't. They finally did join them for a meal. Shadow was tired the rest of the day. So when the sky was just turning dark and the sun was just going down, Shadow u expectantly jumped down the window and ran into the forest. Sonic followed but noticed that Shadow had looked slow. He found Shadow seated next to Anastasia. "Sorry but were gonna have to stay again, no exploring tonight maybe a walk but we need to wait for Sonic.  I also need to know the collar size. So look, here's some rope I made from braided vine. This will have to do until I make a real one." Shadow said and made two measurements and put one around her neck. "You need new stalking skills Sonic." "Thank you for noticing. Now let's go for that walk." Sonic said playfully. The trio walked around for a bit but ended up looking at flowers and collected a few, which Anastasia then ate. They were apparently edible, good tasting, and good for health. Shadow suddenly then fell to his knees. "Shadow! What's wrong?" Shadow could only answer first with a grunt. "I feel drained and exhausted. Chaos!" Shadow yelled in frustration of realizing something. "What?!" Sonic was beginning to freak out. "My.... Inh- I'm just going tp say my golden rings. They're missing." Shadow said as he looked around the ground on all fours. "What? Don't you need them?" Sonic asked as he helped look. "Yes! Their important for my survival. I'll die without them. They keep my Chaos Energy. If I don't have it then it drains away, that's why I was so tired today." Shadow said but stopped and sat down. "And I'm still tired. I think I just need some rest." "No!" Sonic ran to Shadow and picked him up. He knew how that went. The person dying would say they were tired and needed sleep. They'd close their eyes only to die. "Don't sleep Shadow! Uh don't worry! I'll find them!" Sonic said in panic. He couldn't take Shadow with him. "Anastasia, come here. I need you to take him to the castle right here. Your gonna need to get someone's attention to open the door, show them Shadow. Stay by his side and make sure he doesn't sleep, if they don't take him then bring him back here." Sonic said as he put Shadow on her back. Shadow was awake enough to hold onto her as she dashed off quickly. "I need to look somewhere else." Sonic said to himself before racing off. He went back to Shadows place hoping to find Rouge.
He did find Rouge and all of their friends, she had thrown a sleepover. "Rouge! I, we, he needs you! Shadow needs your help! We can't find his rings and he's probably gonna die any minute!" Sonic bursted in as he yelled with his heart beating fast from fear. "What do you mean? What happened to them?" She asked as she got up and quickly walked to Sonic. "Shadow was tired the whole day. We thought it was from staying up two nights in a row but we were outside when he fell to his knees almost collapsing! Then that's when he saw them gone!" Sonic said as he and Rouge had their break down attack. "Uh okay! Guys we need to look for them! Shadows life depends in it, and so does the worlds, technically. We need Shadow, he's our only hope for Möbius to remain safe after we're gone." They all agreed and Tails took them back to where Shadow defeated Eggman earlier. "Tails, what are we doing here?" Amy asked with uninterest. "Shut it Rose!" Rouge snapped as Knuckles held her back. "Rouge, you sound like Shadow saying 'Rose'. That's what he calls her cause he can't remember her name. He probably wouldn't even remember 'Rose' if it she wasn't pink." Sonic said as he laughed a little making Rouge do the same. "Amy, were looking for Shadows rings not a cat fight." Knuckles said as their attention was turned to Tails soon. "Well that Chaos Blast was pretty large. So I'm gonna guess it should be here. I thought he had to take them off but I guess it'll do it on its own if he needs it to." Tails said. "Now here's some flashlights, you'll need them." Tails handed everyone one. The search began with Sonic and Rouge being the most hard workers. Sonic was the hardest worker though since he'd run back and forth checking more then twice. At the end nothing was found. "Shadows gonna die!" Rouge wailed as Sonic trued comforting her. "Rouge, its okay. I don't think he will, he's strong. He'd also want you to be strong. And if he does die, I think he had a happy life with you in it. And he wouldn't be alive forever then, its sad but even sadder to watch everyone go but you remain. I'm pretty upset too but the search isn't over until I drop dead. If Shadow dies, I'll never stop looking for them." Sonic said as she calmed down slowly. "Thanks Sonic. But where else can it be?" Rouge asked. "I don't know, I'd suspect the castle but he was really tired after the fight. And we've only been in our room, the dining room, and the forest where we realized they were missing. But we already checked. And I'm pretty sure Shadow would've noticed if it we were in the dinning room or our room and they just popped off." Sonic said as they looked around them as if they'd get answers. Amy's golden rings twinkled in the moonlight. Rouge gasped as she looked at them. She grabbed Amy's wrist. "You bitch!" Rouge yelled making them all look at the two. "What's wrong with you Rouge?!" Amy yelled. "What's wrong with me?! Look who's talking! Or more like who's not talking! Look at her rings!" Rouge said as everybody did as told but didn't understand, except Sonic. Everybody was confused. "I know these are Shadows Amy! I can tell." Rouge said as Amy tried to pull away. "Sonniku, tell her she's crazy. Like when she said you and Shadow liked each other." Sonic looked at Rouge with a sad face before looking at Amy who hugged him. He pushed her off before standing next to the bat who gave him a smile as he returned it. "Amy, stop. Its true." Sonic said as he looked at her with a mad expression. "Which one?" Amy asked as she looked at the ground. "Doesn't matter. But what does is that your not telling the truth. How can you just stand there like nothing? I know those are Shadows rings." Amy scoffed and rolled her eyes. "Yeah. Your just saying it so Rouge doesn't look stupid." Sonic looked her straight dead in the eyes. "Amy. It's not that. I know because I studied them. They twinkle in the light. They shine like gold. And sometimes if you stare at them long enough you start to see  black shining off it. Its like his trade mark on them." Sonic said as he grabbed her wrists and clipped them off. "Besides, they weren't exactly your size. And it didn't look like cheap gold or jewelry." Rouge stated as she glared at the pink hedgehog. "Thanks guys, thanks Rouge." Sonic said before dashing away back to the castle. Sonic quickly made it to their room. He saw Shadow lying in bed with Anastasia laying by his side. His eyelids closed and remained like that for a minute before she licked his face. "You need to stop doing that, it's gross." Shadow said as he wiped it off. "Is he going to be ok?" "Its not looking good to me guys." Sonic turned to see Manic and Sonia with worried faces guessing they let the two in. "Yeah, I promise. Do me a favor tomorrow and tell mom?" Sonic asked as the two agreed. They knew Sonic finally wanted to tell her that he liked Shadow since he was about to lose him. "Shadow?" Sonic knocked as Shadow looked at him. He looked miserable. "We found them. Well more like Rouge. They came off during the fight earlier and Amy found them. She had put them on and was wearing them while we were looking." Sonic said as he put them on Shadows wrist. Luckily it was only two rings and not four, but it wouldn't have mattered. "Sonic. I don't think I'd survive the night but I'll revive hopefully." Shadow said as he sat up and looked at Sonic. "Shadow?" Sonic asked as Shadow looked at him. "Are you sure you'll revive?" Sonic asked, he was going to tell him how he felt but changed his mind. "I'm actually not sure but I'm kind of hoping for it." Shadow admitted as he turned his back to Sonic. He let out a small yelp as Sonic hugged him from behind and pulled him close. "I actually wanted to tell you something else." Sonic said as he began to cry a little. "What?" Shadow asked as he looked at Anastasia. Her eyes held sadness as she placed her head on his lap. "That I..... I love you." Sonic finally said as Shadow stroked Anastasia's head. "For how long?" Shadow asked as he smiled a little. "Uh, I guess for as long as I've known you." Sonic said. "Interesting. I've found out these last three days or so that I like you as well." Shadow said as he couldn't keep his eyes open any longer. "I just really need sleep Sonic. If I'm gonna die or not depends on it. I need the rest if I'm going to survive but then I might die during it." Shadow said, those were his last words before everything had stopped. He took a last breath and went silent. His chest didn't rise or fall, he didn't move a finger, he just remained perfectly still and perfectly silent. "Shadow?" Sonic asked before releasing him and laying him across his lap. "Anastasia, I think he's gone." Sonic whispered as he held Shadow again before crying silently so his siblings didn't hear. He promised them Shadow would survive. Anastasia got what Sonic said and just remained by Shadow. Sonic sniffled before getting up. He left the two on the bed as he walked over to the wall where the window was. He grabbed a stone that had a large scratch on it. It was a hidden compartment. He pulled out a white Chaos Emerald. He hid it there a month ago during a visit. He put back the stone and carried the Chaos Emerald back to Shadow. "I hope this helps." Sonic whispered as he put it into Shadows quill. "Now we just have to wait until tomorrow." Sonic said before snuggling up with his love and the large cat.