Faker

I care

After dashing away Sonic felt a deep regret and berated himself for leaving like that. Right now, all he felt was the need to just get away to somewhere secluded and quiet. Where he could tend to his thoughts and feelings alone. He ran over long meadows and hills leaving behind a trail of footprints and a blue blur. Eventually Sonic noticed that he was being followed, and this made him feel conflicted. Should he stop and wait for whoever was following him? He shook his head, he felt to upset and being alone was his first priority.

An idea popped into his head, the forest nearby had been one of his favorite places to go to whenever he went out just to escape his friends and civilians. With a sharp turn into the forest and sea of tall trees with different shades of green and oranges. Lately the hot summer began cooling down into a breezy fall and the trees were starting to change their colors and the leaves would start to fall soon.

It would be harder for a normal person to climb up one of these trees, but with Sonic's speed he easily jumped high into the air and landed on a thick tree branch. He steadied himself to keep him from falling and nearly dropped to his legs and slumped against the tree. The leaves and branches covered him up from anyone passing by so he was safe up here.

A dejected sigh left him, his plan on just conversing with Shadow went up into flames horribly. If anything, he most likely just made himself look even bigger a fool in the ebony hedgehog's eyes. His ears folded back down sadly, he glumly let his legs dangle down, they swayed forwards and backwards suspended in the air. He felt miserable and more depressed than earlier, he didn't know what to do with himself and it felt like there was nothing he can do and it felt like he ruined his chance to try to change that with Shadow.

There was a distant sound his ears picked up on and Sonic curiously glanced down with listless eyes. To his surprise it was Shadow who cursed loudly, the ground crunched under his feet and Sonic realized he was tracking him, by searching for his footprints. He felt a little glad he chose there to jump so Shadow can't find him that easily.

Minutes passed and a frown settled on his lips when Shadow didn't give up looking. Everybody else would've stopped and grew bored looking for him, and chalked it up to Sonic being in a different spot by then. Those times when he watched Tails, Knuckles, or Amy give up finding him had hurt a bit. He was there in plain sight most of those times but now he choose to keep himself hidden and ignore the pang of pain. It was confusing to see Shadow continue and he voiced it out without meaning to.

"Why are you following me?" Sonic whispered, he shut his mouth quickly with a hand when he soon found out Shadow could hear him. Shadow's red hues met his in an instant and zoomed in on him. A sort of bitter feeling crept up into his chest, he bet Shadow was only here because Rouge forced him to look. He schooled his features to not show anything he was feeling.

"Why are you hiding?" Sonic shrugged, he didn't know what to say or what to make of Shadow being here. 'If I just 'be my self' I can annoy him and make him go so he's not wasting his time on me. I've bothered him enough.' Sonic thought to himself.

"I asked you a question first." He muttered, if being childish means Shadow would leave then he will be childish and petulant. Shadow merely blinked and he hesitated, did he really want him to leave though?

"Rouge thinks you're not okay, and that I should come and check on why." Shadow answered, it felt like there was a sharp pain in his chest. Of course. He had to bite his tongue to keep the crestfallen feeling he felt. Shadow was here because of Rouge. And Rouge didn't want to waste her own time so she just sent him. So, he was right. Everyone didn't care enough to try actually knowing Sonic or caring about him.

"Well go tell her I'm fine, just tired is all." His ears twitched up and he looked at Shadow with confusion written across his face. 'What is Shadow doing?' He asked himself. Shadow sat down and made himself cozy with his back against a tree. Shadow shut his eyes and lay his head back. "Aren't you going to. Ya know go?"