I'm Fine - One Shot

"Why is he acting this way?" Tails whispered to Sonic, trying to keep Shadow from overhearing.

A short distance away, Knuckles cautiously approached Shadow, who was slouching against a tree, gritting his teeth and squeezing his eyes shut.

"Hey, Shadow? Buddy?" Knuckles asked nervously.

"Shut up!" yelled Shadow.

Knuckles jumped back. "Okay, bye..."

"I think he's upset with Eggman..." Sonic whispered as Knuckles came over.

"He's acting cold, even for Shadow," Knuckles mumbled.

"He's fought Eggman plenty of times, this time shouldn't make him so grumpy," Tails pointed out.

"Maybe it's because tonight was poker night," suggested Knuckles, wrapping some gauze around a cut on his arm. "The entire game blew up when he was about win."

The three of them watched Shadow closely as the black hedgehog remained still, his arms crossed and his face frozen in anger.

"That could be it," agreed Tails.

Shadow started to uncross his arms, but then winced ever so slightly and left his arms in their position.

Sonic snapped his fingers in realization. "No, that's not it! He got hurt and he's too prideful to admit it!"

"Of course!" Tails gasped. "That was a pretty brutal battle, and Shadow did take that one hit to his left arm."

Knuckles winced. "That did look painful. We all got pretty banged up." He finished with the roll of his gauze, making sure his own wound was bound up properly.

"Well, if he's hurt, then he probably could use some of this." Sonic took the gauze from Knuckles and made his way over to Shadow.

"Hey, there!" Sonic tried to sound cheerful.

"What do you want?" Shadow growled through gritted teeth, narrowing his eyes.

"Well, that fight banged us all up pretty bad, and we figured you probably got hurt too," said Sonic, tossing up the roll of gauze and catching it with one hand. "I thought maybe you'd want some bandages."

Shadow scoffed. "I'm fine, thanks."

Sonic bit his lip. "Are you though?"

Shadow widened his eyes, his pupils glowing slightly. "I said I'm fine!"

Sonic took a step back. "Okay, okay..."

"That didn't go well," Tails mumbled.

"No kidding." Sonic made his way back to Knuckles and Tails, tossing the gauze back to the echidna. "Well, if he's gonna be a baby about it, what else can we do?"

"Sonic!" Shadow called.

Sonic froze. "Um... yeah?"

"Didn't I challenge you to a race after the game?" Shadow gestured with his right hand to the decimated poker table off to the side. He kept his left arm tucked away. "The game is clearly over."

Tails shook his head. "If he's hurt, he should not be running around until we know how bad it is."

Sonic gulped slightly. "Uh... you know what? I have to do something."

"You said you were free," Shadow countered.

"You did say that," whispered Knuckles.

Sonic rolled his eyes.

"Come on, let's go." Shadow straightened, clenching his teeth and keeping his left arm still. He walked towards Sonic and the others.

"He's definitely hurt..." Tails mumbled. "And it's gotta be bad if I can tell from this distance."