Dawn.  Ruby eyes as deep as the morning sky slid open to greet the early day.  The dark figure they belonged to rose from his bed, slowly flexing his quills and muscles.  Shadow the Hedgehog growled softly, trying to clear his voice of the husky baritone it gained whenever he was asleep.  He looked over at the digital clock on his nightstand with a lazy flick of his eyes before he strode over to a nearby window.

 

The early morning sky was bleeding various shades of reds, purples, and oranges.  It was a beautiful sight and Shadow simply stood there watching for a long moment, wanting nothing more than to enjoy the view before it was chased away by the bright sun.

 

There was something about Mondays that never ceased to surprise Shadow.  The dark agent rolled his shoulders as he kept his gaze glued on the glass in front of him.  Mondays were the beginning of the work week and hated by nearly every living being on the planet, Shadow included.  He had to get up at the crack of dawn nearly every day of the week, and even on a day off like today he still got up early – his habits too deeply ingrained for him to ignore.

 

Shadow heaved a sigh through his nose.  At least it would be a fairly slow Monday as he was thankfully off duty.  He wouldn’t have to worry about his superiors at GUN breathing down his neck or keeping an eye on his sometimes wayward partner, Rouge.  Heck, GUN intelligence claimed Robotnik had recently been taken down.  No doubt the work of Sonic. 

 

This meant there was nothing trying to destroy the world, cause mahem, or otherwise demand Shadow’s immediate attention.  For once he could finally curl up and relax.  It was a concept Shadow wasn’t fully capable of understanding considering he hadn’t really had a ‘vacation’ in a long time, but the dark agent was fully prepared to enjoy every minute of his freedom.

 

On the other side of town, things did not nearly look as beautiful. The sun had barely risen when Sonic woke up with a pounding headache, his eyesight dizzy; he was sure he was going to be sick. He rolled about, expecting to be in the soft confines of his bed as he let out a groan with a stretch, freezing instantly when the sound of twigs snapping filled his ears. He didn’t move an inch except for flickering jade eyes open, looking frantically around as he sat up in surprise.

‘Why am I outside,’ thought the hedgehog internally, his head whirling about despite his light headedness. He sat up and winced despite himself, but continued to ignore the pain as he felt an array of leaves and twigs littering his quills, identifying the smell of spring time grass. Sonic had slept outside in the past, this was for sure, but Sonic could specifically remember going to bed.

 

‘Wait,’ his mind rushed and he desperately tried to stand, almost falling as he did so; Sonic couldn’t remember last night; period. A twig snapped under his bare foot, which confused the hedgehog since he always ventured outside dressed with his shoves and gloves. ‘Huh?’ He looked down at his hands, and his voice caught in his throat before letting out a yelp; he would have held his hand over his mouth to suppress his shout, but they were currently doused in dried blood, his eyes just taking notice of the rest of his fur, the once spotless peach of his stomach stained red.

 

Sonic looked frantically around the wooded area. He put his hands in desperation through his head quills, pulling at them as he tried to think, feeling as if there were a number of eyes that had literally caught him red handed.

 ‘Oh God,’ he sobbed mentally as he looked down at himself; his legs had also been splattered with dried blood, his fur clumped and sticky with the bodily fluid. Sonic had never fathomed being in such a vile situation, his heart fluttering painfully at the realization that this meant he had harmed a living creature. Normally Sonic was rather passive and gentle when not in the hands of danger or a villain, and he fought not to wretch right then and there at the sickening thought. As he took a step forward, he nearly fell, but the strangeness of the occurrence meant nothing to him as his bare feet moved on their own accord. There was no body, no signs of a struggle; just Sonic stained with incriminating evidence, the hedgehog’s breathing quickly becoming fast as panic consumed him.

His walk was soon replaced with a frantic run, not caring how pained his feet felt as their soles eventually found pavement, nearly tripping more than once when the worry racking his body completely dismissed any signs of grace. Although he was not able to run nearly as fast without his specifically designed shoes, the hero pushed himself with the thought that he was now entering public, stained with someone else’s blood, positive this was not his own. He didn’t check his form for wounds but his gut told him he didn’t have to, that he was not the one injured in this unusual blackout. He fought not to wail as his blue blurred form zipped through the back alleys, trying to avoid life as much as possible as he tried to think past his dread.

 

‘I can’t go home,’ he swallowed as he finally skidded to a stop since first taking off, his body unsurprisingly tense. ‘Tails cannot see this.’ The thought of his younger brother seeing his form coated with blood stung fresh in his pounding mind as he took off blindly. His eyes lit up the best they could in this grave circumstance, knowing someone else he was well acquainted with was only a few blocks away…

 

Back at home, Shadow curled up on his couch with a mug of coffee wrapped in striped hands.  He was oblivious to Sonic’s dilemma only a few miles away, content to enjoy his lazy Monday morning with a book. 

 

Shadow sank further into the cushions of his comfortable sofa, his ruby eyes trailing over the pages of a book.  It was one a female co-worker at GUN had recommended, ‘Blood and Chocolate.’  A sappy romance novel that made Shadow’s lip curl in disgust.  Chaos, this was nearly as bad as the hordes of young girls drooling over that ‘Twilight’ vampire nonsense.

 

The only difference was that this particular story had to do with werewolves.  Oh how ironic.  Shadow rolled his eyes as he continued to read on, fighting back the desire to throw it to the side and exchange it with a newspaper instead.  Oh, if Rouge saw him now he’d never hear the end of it. . .

 

However, Shadow was never one to claim he disliked something solely based off of the opinions of others and thus decided to give the romantic and fanfiction-like book a chance.  So far the book had did nothing to sway his judgment in either direction, so he plowed on through the fluff and gooey romance. 

 

Shadow sipped at his coffee as he continued to get drawn into the writing, never once suspecting that his lazy Monday was soon going to shatter around his ears.

 

A loud crash echoed throughout Shadow’s den, startling the dark hedgehog into dropping his book with a small thud.  There was a hard knocking of someone at the door, obviously wanting to come in.  He guiltily kicked the condemning literature under the sofa, wondering who could have possibly caught him in the act.

 

‘Who would bother me at home,’ Came Shadow’s next thought as he simply stared at his door, debating whether or not he wanted to bother answering it.  Soon it became clear that Shadow’s efforts of ignoring his visitor were futile.  Whoever was at his door was hell-bent on getting his attention, and Shadow grew annoyed with the constant pounding. 

 

Aggravated, he strode over to the door when the knocking continued to gradually increase in tempo, becoming more and more frantic.  He tore open the door, an annoyed glare chiseled like stone on his face, “What?”

 

His gaze landed on none other than Sonic the Hedgehog, standing at his entrance dirty, with wide eyes and slight tremors wracking through his sleek body.  Shadow took one look at Sonic and was able to piece together that something was very, very wrong with the other.

 

Upon further inspection, what Shadow had initially mistaken as dirt was clearly blood.  The dark hedgehog’s eyes widened in mute shock and he took an involuntary step back out of pure surprise.  Sonic was covered in blood. Everywhere. It coated every inch of the hedgehog’s fur and quills, dyeing the cobalt pelt into a strange mix of dark purple and brown. 

 

Several questions sprang into Shadow’s head at once.  Whose blood was it?  What had happened?  Was Sonic of all people responsible?

 

“What...” Shadow repeated again, this time softer.  He was unable to tear his gaze away from the dirty form of Sonic, caked over with dried blood and Chaos only knew what else. He trailed off, unsure of how to continue.

 

“Shadow,” Sonic’s voice cracked with something akin to desperateness, looking pleadingly at the older hedgehog, his breath ragged. He looked over his shoulder, suddenly flinching as if someone had followed him this whole time, turning to look back to the owner of the home. He watched as Shadow looked over his form in what looked like utter shock or disturbance. He didn’t even think of how he appeared when he first approached the home, forgetting in his horror the blood that had mucked his fur usually radiant fur.

“I can explain,” he lied; he had absolutely no explanation. “Please let me in.” Sonic eyes were wide and anyone who knew Sonic well would be surprised at just how glassy they looked. “Please.” He was ready to push himself in by force at this point, which probably didn’t help his ally’s thoughts, Sonic not even aware that both his maw and teeth were stained red. “You need to help me.” He was trembling violently at this point, feeling utterly exposed as he stood outside and reason with his friend.

 

Sonic was begging; Sonic rarely, if ever, begged.

 

Shadow remained immobile as he stared at the frantic hedgehog, the cogs in his brain turning at top speed so he could fully absorb what he was seeing.  Sonic was obviously panicking and Shadow knew he’d be unable to get a coherent word out of the cobalt racer unless he felt at ease. 

 

He needed to know what happened to Sonic.  The pleading, emerald eyes which stared at him with such a fervent need solidified Shadow’s resolve.  He sighed as he realized his day was now officially over and he stepped away from the entrance, holding the door open wider for the blood coated hedgehog to come inside.

 

He said nothing as he turned to walk further into his den, intent on retrieving some towels for Sonic to clean himself with.  He could take a shower in a bit of time, but for now Shadow wasn’t going to let the other hedgehog do a damn thing without getting some answers first.

 

Sonic nearly tripped as he came up the steps, his thin form shivering from head to bare toes as if he was stepping in from a blizzard. He normally would have wanted to kick himself for being so klutzy, but such worries were miniscule with what was currently running through the hedgehog’s head. He turned around so fast to close the door, slamming it shut by accident, the brass of the handle shaking just as hard as Sonic in his grip. It was like his body wasn’t listening; overwhelmed by a plethora of negative feelings as he tried to lock the door and steady his hand, but it was no use. He finally got all the locks completed and he didn’t turn to Shadow, staring at the door as he put his hot face against the cool wood for some type of comfort.

After pulling away, a very uncharacteristic whimper sounded through the room as Sonic studied the bloody imprint of his cheek staining the door, his shoulders shuddering as he bit back a sob.

 

“Oh God,” he repeated his thoughts from earlier, the only thing that seemed rational right now as he was having more and more trouble keeping face. He couldn’t even look at the other, digging his palm into his eyes as his shoulders continued to shake. “I don’t even know what happened.”

His muzzle twitched in the definition of a frown, his stained lips quivering like the rest of his form. “Shadow,” he shook his head, finally letting out an open cry.

 

Shadow returned with a few dark colored towels and tossed them towards Sonic.  He watched as they fell in a pile near the hedgehog’s bare feet.  Analytical eyes picked out the telltale tremors that shook through Sonic’s frame and he felt something painful pinch in his chest at the sight.  Sonic was terrified.

 

Had the hero honestly killed someone...?

 

Shadow disregarded the thought for the moment, more focused on seeing if the blood coating Sonic belonged to the hedgehog.  He didn’t need Sonic passing out from blood loss.

 

 “What do you mean you don’t know?” He asked deadpanned, feeling his heart thump heavily in his ribcage, “I’d hope you know why you showed up at my house covered in blood and stark naked.”

 

He folded his arms over his chest and took a seat where he had previously been reading before Sonic’s interruption.

 

Sonic’s ears pinned to the back of his head, feeling uncomfortable now that he had a moment to remember just how he looked; covered in blood without a single article of clothing on. He felt exposed, not to mention pathetic as he took a deep breath, a trembling paw reaching forward to grab one of the towels. He instantly draped it over his shoulders and held the cloth tight to his body, giving a sniffle as he spoke. His gaze could not leave the floor; this had truly unnerved Sonic, afflicting him to the bones.

“I don’t know; I don’t know at all.” He began to shiver violently again, his small and now red, soiled fangs clattering as he shook. “I woke up like this; I have no memory.” He finally looked up at Shadow, his eyes even more glassy but conveying the truth he spoke.

 

“There wasn’t a body-“Sonic immediately felt his intestines react, the organs clenching painfully in his gut as he his knees buckled, putting a hand to his mouth as he suppressed a gag; he couldn’t even mention the idea of what had possibly caused this. He only spoke after a deep breath, tearing his hand away from his muzzle. “What am I saying; this is a nightmare. This is all a nightmare; I’m just cracking up.” He shook his head. But it wasn’t, looking down at his ungloved hands to see his fingers stained red, the hedgehog’s wall of bravado falling again as he bit his lip, trying to silence the whimper that managed to escape.

“I’ve never killed anyone,” he swallowed, although it was painful. “I don’t kill; I do everything in my power to fight people and never kill them; hurt them if necessary, yeah, but kill them?” he spoke to Shadow, the words tumbling from his mouth before he could stop them, all these questions being asked just a failing attempt to comfort himself. “I don’t kill!” His lip trembled, again forgetting his pride as he acted out purely out of sadness and fear.

 

He remembered the blood splattering his fur and he took the towel surrounding him, rubbing it desperately with bags under his eyes; he looked utterly exhausted, as if he was running around all night. More quiet sobs racked his body as it hurt to swallow them down, continuing to shiver as he wished the towel could absorb all the blood off his body, but it was caked on very well; it was if he had been covered in whoever’s blood for some amount of time.

 

Shadow had seen and heard enough. Obviously Sonic wouldn’t be able to see past the blood on his own hands to give him a straight answer – if that was even possible at this point.  Sonic seemed to have utterly no recollection of what had happened to him.  Shadow was willing to bet that if he had a chance to take a hot shower and get the crusted blood off him, things might come more clearly.

 

If Sonic had to scrub off a few layers of skin and fur to give him even a shallow feeling that he was clean, then so be it.  Shadow crossed over the room to settle a hand on Sonic’s blood soaked shoulder, uncaring that his glove was now soiled beyond repair.  “C’mon,” He said sternly, ruby eyes piercing into distraught emerald, “Pull yourself together Sonic – we don’t have time for this.”

 

“If you killed someone, we need to find their body,” He plowed on heedlessly, saying the words he knew Sonic couldn’t, “If you didn’t, we still need to find out what happened to you to put you in this state of being.”

 

Firm hands guided the trembling Sonic towards the bathroom, “Wash up. We’ll deal with this when you don’t look like you’ve been rolling around in a butcher’s meat locker.”

 

Part of him wanted to say more to Sonic.  To reassure him that this was probably a misunderstanding and that everything was fine.  But Shadow wasn’t going to look Sonic in the eye and lie to his face.  No.  Everything pointed to a murder of some kind.  Sonic, the hero of Mobius had killed someone.

 

An image of Sonic’s bloody fangs and muzzle flashed in Shadow’s mind’s eye and he had to suppress a shudder.  An over active imagination be damned!  Shadow mentally swore and he shook his head to try and break free of those thoughts.  Sonic hadn’t eaten anyone.  That was ridiculous.

 

‘As ridiculous as Sonic killing someone...’ A traitorous thought rang in his head.

 

Shadow sighed and fetched a spare toothbrush from one of his cabinets, “Use this for now. I’ll get you something to wear.” He pulled out a few new clean towels from a nearby rack as the ones Sonic were currently using would have to be thrown away.  Shadow glared at the bloodstains, as if willing them to jump off the fabric through force of his evil stare alone.

 

“I’ll be outside if you need me,” Shadow muttered as he left Sonic standing alone in the bathroom, his own thoughts in turmoil.

 

When the hand made contact with Sonic’s shoulder, he outwardly flinched, which was unusual for the always welcoming hedgehog.  The bags of his eyes looked greatly pronounced as his emerald gaze locked with crimson, listening to his words.  Hearing Shadow speak the phrase ‘If you killed someone,’ so easily made his stomach again lurch, the hurt in his eyes painfully recognizable.  He swallowed down the bile with a choked breath, giving a nod towards Shadow’s reasoning.  ‘He’s 100% right,’ he said, his feet moving on their own accord limply, the little life that was left in Sonic’s eyes merely a dim speck.

 

He was relieved that Shadow had welcomed him the use of his shower; the sticky feeling of his coat was not only uncomfortable, but Sonic was sure he was beginning to smell the foul substance; if it was his mind playing tricks on him, he wasn’t sure, but he none the less felt ill about it covering his body. It was as if he was in a trance, his face unusually gaunt even though his mind registered what Shadow said as being slightly cruel; it was none the less true, Sonic looking as if he had slaughtered someone brutally.

 

As he they entered the bathroom, Sonic stood uncharacteristically silent in the corner, his eyes tracing the lines of the tiles on the floor as he tried to focus on anything to distract himself.  It was no use. ‘No,’ the refusal was faint though as a traitorous tear rolled free from his eye; his heart uncomfortably fluttered, as if someone was squeezing the life out of it. He closed his eyes and made sure to wipe it away when Shadow’s back was to him, to not raise suspicion of its presence.

 

It took every fiber of Sonic’s being to wait for Shadow to leave, the door shutting closed as he stood there in the chilly room, his arms wrapping around himself despite being sickened by the thought.  A few more tears escaped and trailed down his bloody face, a trembling whimper sounding from his throat.  He gazed over towards the mirror finally and all the sickness that plagued him came back full force; he only needed to take one look at the blood that stained his whole front and face.  Sonic turned to the toilet quickly, running over to deposit whatever remained in his stomach into the porcelain.  His eyes widened as he watched a deep, red liquid project from his mouth.  ‘That is blood!’ his mind screamed, and he couldn’t stop it from coming out of his quivering lips, not struggling to fight the natural desire to up heave.  Sonic didn’t know if this was from he himself internally, a huge amount of fear coming over him.

 

He openly sobbed when he finished, completely breaking down as he held his face in his hands, unable to stop his emotions from flooding out.

 

It was while before Sonic left the bathroom and once he did, Shadow was there and waiting with a fresh set of gloves, socks and sneakers.  The shoes weren’t flame-resistant like Sonic’s were, but Shadow figured it was a better alternative than running over cement in bare feet. 

 

The shower hadn’t miraculously cured Sonic of his distress, but at least he looked slightly more sane and together than he had when blood was covering every inch of his body.  Shadow silently passed over the clothes to the hedgehog and folded his arms over his chest, doing his best not to think about what kind of trouble the typically strong and cheerful Sonic had gotten himself into.

 

“Take me back to the beginning where you remember all this started,” Shadow said uncompromisingly, looking over at Sonic with a carefully constructed mask.  He wasn’t sure if Sonic could hold on that long, but if there was even the slightest chance that Sonic was innocent it was worth investigating, “You need to take me back there.”

 

He stood firmly, knowing that one of them had to keep a level head and some semblance of control during this insanity.  And to think... he thought he was going to have an easy and calm Monday morning.

 

Sonic had soundlessly slipped on the articles of clothing, at first not answering Shadow’s question as the hedgehog looked at him with all seriousness. A normal Sonic probably would of made light of the situation, and yet Sonic reminded himself a normal Sonic wouldn’t harm an innocent soul.

His lips moved but no sound came out at first. He looked so tired, not to mention the utter devastation that had been evident since Shadow opened the door. His skin was sore from the searing hot water he used to wash away the blood, the creature sitting uncomfortably across from the hedgehog he ran to. He was playing with a string that had gone wayward from the seams of the cushion.

 

“I don’t,” he swallowed and stopped himself as he tried to regain some control over his trembling voice; he felt utterly weak, which made him only feel worse. “I don’t remember.”

Finally, Sonic’s eyes locked with Shadow’s as they stared back solemnly.

 

“The last thing I remember is making dinner for me and Tails. Tails left to go into the basement; he was adding new parts to the Tornado. I went upstairs, not planning on doing much since it was a quiet night.”

The thought of Tails made his heart clench; ‘How am I going to tell him this?’ He hated how his bottom lip began to tremble, once again feeling pitiful. A huge collection of thoughts, all of them dark and unpleasant entered Sonic’s mind as he tried to keep it together in front of the other.

 

Shadow breathed in through his nose as and he wished that he had more experience with comforting people who were upset.  He only knew the sort of compassion Maria had showed him while she had been alive, and there was little to no chance of Shadow walking over to Sonic and giving him a hug.  The dark hedgehog looked over at his blue rival, his hands dropping to fold over his knees.

 

“Sonic,” Shadow said again, this time trying for a more gentle tone, “I need you to tell me what you do remember – at least from the time you realized what had happened.”  He never once removed his gaze from Sonic’s, needing to see if there was even the slightest amount of hesitation in the hedgehog’s actions.

 

Shadow honestly found himself believing Sonic had no recollection of events.  The hero’s track record spoke for itself in that regard.  Shadow didn’t really believe Sonic could kill someone if he was in a sane state of mind.  The racer was more than capable of killing if he was so inclined. 

 

But he wasn’t inclined, nor did Shadow ever believe Sonic would ever harbor the urge to hurt another living creature much less kill them. 

 

That was why Shadow needed to know where Sonic had woken up, in what state had he been in, or even if he remembered anything unusual when he woke up.

 

The fact that he was covered in blood would be the obvious exclusion.

 

“I’ll take you,” Sonic nodded. “I remember where it was. It was in the forest not too far from here.” He felt like this memory would be burned into his mind forever. “And if,” he hesitated, swallowing. “If we find something, you need to escort me to the police.”

He studied Shadow, his tone serious. If Sonic killed, justice would be served; he was not about to let himself go unpunished for something so…

 

‘Low,’ filled in his mind, shuddering outwardly. He knew what this would mean; the press would have a field day. His stomach dropped as he imagined how disgusted the public, his fans, his friends would be. His ears folded back as he saw a mix of angry faces, people screaming at him as he is lead to the court building to rule his fate, in handcuffs as people picket to put him on death row.

He shuddered outwardly as he listened to Shadow continue speaking, but he had a whole other slew of thoughts at the moment.

 

“I don’t remember last night at all; it was like a blackout, like someone drugged me or something.” He looked at his hands as a quick image of them bloody came into his mind, and he abruptly decided to sit on it instead. “I woke up in the forest, my head was killing me. I found it kind of hard to walk, felt like I was going to throw up.” He shrugged, looking at Shadow as if he knew the answer to why.

“I threw up blood before the shower.”

The agent’s thoughts churned with these new pieces of information.  He didn’t want to imagine just why Sonic had thrown up blood.  Whether it had been from some internal injury or a random bout of cannibalism, all Shadow knew was that he didn’t need to entertain any more thoughts of what Sonic might have done.

 

It was obvious that even now, Sonic was trying to atone for something he may or may not have done.  The hero always tried to do what was right, no matter how condemning it was. If it was to ease his own guilty conscious or rectify a broken part of Sonic’s moral code the agent didn’t know, nor did he care to find out.  He was interested only in finding out the truth and hopefully clearing Sonic’s name so they wouldn’t have to go through the hassle of an arrest.

 

“I’ll take you in if it’s necessary, but there’s no point in thinking about it now,” Shadow eyed the hero as he made strides for the door; “We’ll deal with the rest later.”  He waited impatiently, crossed striped arms over the tuft of fur on his chest as he eyed Sonic, “Coming?”

 

As Sonic stood, his knees felt weak from both the guilt and the horror that this was all frighteningly real. He made his way quietly over to Shadow, his ears still pinned back and his eyesight stuck on the floor. He finally looked up as he left the house. A dark glare came over his face, one that was more akin to Shadow’s looks as he gazed at the sunny skies and the beautiful weather. Anger welled up in his chest; anger at the world for being so gorgeous after Sonic had (possibly) committed murder, and anger at himself for whatever the hell was running through his mind at the time for him to even have an inkling of a desire to hurt someone.

 

“Am I a psycho?” he looked at Shadow as the other closed the door, and although this may have sounded slightly humorous, it was spoken without jest. “If this really is a nightmare, Sonic, feel free to wake up at anytime!”

He turned away from Shadow before he could receive an answer, taking off in the direction he came. He was happy at least that his footprints didn’t leave a bloody trail, that some part of his body wasn’t covered with blood.

 

Shadow tore off after Sonic and caught up. He kept pace with the other, feeling somewhat disturbed by Sonic’s question.  The flat and lackluster way the hero had spoken sent an odd sense of foreboding down Shadow’s belly.  He wasn’t used to seeing Sonic so... lifeless.  The dark agent kept pace with him as they ran out of Shadow’s apartment complex.  They kept moving past the city limits and into the surrounding forest where eventually Sonic gradually slowed down to a jog.

 

Shadow stood a distance away while Sonic poked around the area for a moment before visibly recoiling.  The dark hedgehog walked closer to investigate and a mound of disturbed leaves with smears of blood coating the dead plants.

 

“This is the area,” Shadow confirmed.  It was more of a statement than a question as he crouched near the area.

 

Sonic took the lead first, even if he knew something horrible was bound to come up in his search. It only took a few minutes for him to dig through the brush and find something he didn’t want to see, jumping back to see blood coating the foliage on the ground. He tried to concentrate on his breathing as Shadow crouched to investigate, trying to repeat ‘It will be okay,’ as a mantra in his rushing thoughts as he stepped past the other to continue. His breathing increased as more disturbed leaves became apparent, becoming more abundant and bloodier the more he moved forward.

 

In the quiet of the area, the sound of Sonic giving a strained up chuck could be heard from where Shadow was standing. His body couldn’t help itself, trying to vomit despite nothing else being left in his stomach, only thick strings of saliva being the outcome. Sonic came across a long, winding trail of blood, which still appeared wet due to the amount saturating the ground. The sight made him ill and weak, and he turned away as he composed himself and wipe his mouth across his arm. The trail appeared to wind down a steep incline, which would mean the two would have to make their way down to see what the path held.

 

One of Shadow’s ears swiveled over to Sonic where he could clearly make out the soft sounds of the hero’s dry heaving.  He turned to see what had upset the other in such a way, ruby eyes following a trail of heavily mussed up leaves and soft dirt that had been soaked through with blood.  Slowly his gaze followed it down the steep hill. 

 

Whatever was on the bottom was well out of plain sight.  Shadow got up to stand near Sonic’s trembling form.  He took in how pale the hedgehog was underneath his deep cobalt fur and settled a gloved hand on the thick bark of a nearby tree.  He looked at the thick path of blood and the disturbed vegetation, his stomach plummeting down to his feet.  There were clear signs of a struggle... The scene was incriminating and damning if nothing else.

 

Shadow frowned as he turned towards the agitated form of Sonic.  The proud hedgehog wasn’t looking very well, not that Shadow really blamed him considering their circumstance.  He cleared his throat to gain the other’s attention and looked at him rigidly, “Maybe you should stay here while I take a look around.” He suggested.

 

If Sonic really had killed an innocent person, the amount of blood loss and disturbed wildlife suggested the attack had been... rather violent and brutal.  Shadow very much doubted Sonic would want to see the condition of body – or what was left of it.

 

Sonic clung desperately to the tree, digging his nails into the thick bark as Shadow joined his side, his breathing ragged. He refused to look back at him, tears welling up in those big jade eyes, rolling freely down his face. He nodded solemnly all while still refusing to look back at the other, agreeing with the idea.

 

“Go,” he did not want Shadow to see him like this, his shoulders hunched over as his head hung. He used his gloved hand to wipe the tears quickly from his muzzle. Sickened wasn’t even the proper word to describe his current feelings, knowing very well what that thick trail of blood meant, the stark crimson like a route to whatever lay at the bottom of the hill.

 

‘I’m so fucked,’ Sonic cursed internally, his mind racing. ‘What have I done.’ He waited for Shadow to leave, praying he was out of ear shot when he fell to his knees and sobbed, his tail going between his legs like the frightened animal he was.

 

Shadow cautiously made his way down the hill, careful not to disturb the surrounding area any more than it already had been.  He crept his way down with practiced ease and looked around.  The morbid trail lead off to the side, where a thicket of bushes were gathered.  Apparently whatever Sonic had gotten his hands on had curled up behind there to die in peace.

 

Dread coursed through Shadow as his feet automatically lead him over towards the bushes.  He could barely hear over the pounding of his own heart as he settled gloved hands on the brambles and pushed them apart, exposing the torn and curled up body below the vegetation.

 

Shadow’s face settled into stone and a mix of emotions hit him all at once.

 

“Hey Faker, get down here,” Shadow shouted, his voice sounding strange to even his ears, “You need to see this!”

 

The wait was deadly, Sonic still on his knees as his thoughts were frantic. What was Shadow going to find down there? After so, how was he going to even look at Sonic? The thought of Shadow’s reaction was making him ill again, and he fought not to up chuck as he heard Shadow call for the hero to join him.

He used the tree for support as he stood on his thin and shivering legs, making his way down the incline, having a bit of trouble as he shivered violently due to his nerves. He followed the bloody trail, his heartbeat the only sound in his ears as he made his way closer and closer to Shadow, watching him stare down at what he assumed to be the body.

 

He took a deep breath and leaned over Shadow’s shoulder, his face falling at what he saw.

It was a deer; the throat was torn out brutally, a pool of thick blood underneath it staining a good portion of the fawn fur. One of its legs was highly mangled as well, and large claw marks had skimmed their way down its side. It was dead, and probably had been for a little while, its large, black eyes lifeless as it stared at nothing.

 

“It’s…” Sonic continued to lean over Shadow, his eyes studying the corpse for a while. “It’s a deer. I don’t eat deer.” He looked over at Shadow with confusion, blinking; but to say the least, the weight that had been lifted off his chest felt absolutely to die for. “I couldn’t have killed that! Look… Look at those wounds!”

 

A rather wicked smirk flitted across Shadow’s face as he eyed the confused racer, “Tsk, hunting down poor feral animals, hasn’t Bambi been through enough yet?”  He surveyed the rather broken looking corpse, “I don’t suppose you want to contact its family, do you?” He quirked a skeptical eyeridge.

 

Now that Sonic’s fears had been put to rest, Shadow felt more than inclined to grill Sonic over this.  After all, Shadow had probably gone into early cardiac arrest about three times since the frantic Sonic had first arrived at his den covered in blood.  It didn’t explain how Sonic had gotten here or even why he had a mouthful of deer blood down his throat.  That could have been a result of many reasons, and for now Shadow was simply relieved to know that Sonic hadn’t killed anyone.

 

He hadn’t even killed the deer.  That much was obvious by the massive wounds inflicted on the deer.  And it wasn’t just on the poor animal alone.  Large and vicious looking claw marks were scored deeply into the trunks of nearby trees.  There were dug up ditches and trenches, probably done by something strong and heavy – most likely by the same beast that had been hunting the deer.

 

Apparently the beast had been marking out its territory and hunting grounds. Shadow observed the area, his gaze drifting around.  He tore his attention away and looked over at Sonic, a smirk pulling at his lips as he remembered that he wasn’t through teasing the other.

“Shut up,” Sonic gave a gentle push to the other, no power behind it. His smile came back a bit for a moment, and he tried to suppress a blush. Shadow without a doubt was not going to let him live this down, so automatically he resorted to defending himself through playful banter. “Excuse me for freaking out when I saw myself covered in blood.”
    
He pulled away from the hedgehog to step over the bloody debris, moving towards the deer’s limp form. For some reason, his stomach still flipped uncomfortably. He ignored it, just thinking it was his nerves, studying the lifeless body before him. ‘What a waste,’ sounded through his mind, and a weird look came over his face. He didn’t know where the thought came from, and he quietly kneeled in front of the creature to get a better look at the damage done.

“Jeez,” he made a grimacing face. “Whatever killed this did a good job. But… why was I covered in blood?” he looked back at Shadow. “Maybe I was trying to stop it, get in the middle? But that doesn’t even explain my black out!” he stood up, walking further into the wreckage of whatever did this, examining the deep claw marks afflicting one of the damaged trees. “Poor tree; what was this thing? It must be big.”

 

“Whatever this thing was, it’s probably the reason you were knocked out,” Shadow settled a hand on the base of one of the torn up trees.  He touched the clawed up area, looking with interest as he fit his hand in the claw marks, “It looks like you came out better than your ‘victim’ did.”  He quirked an eyeridge, “I can only assume he wasn’t hungry, or didn’t find hedgehogs that appealing.”

 

He smirked wickedly at Sonic and began to walk back up the incline, “Now that this particular brand of hysteria is over, let’s get out of here.  As much as I love tromping around in ankle deep deer-blood, I think I’d rather get out of here.”

 

“Yeah, after that whole joyful experience, I need a nap.” The brilliant, bright smile that Sonic usually dawned flashed across his muzzle despite him still looking weary. After all the panic had melted away, his exhaustion was returning, but this was not going to deter him from his usually up beat personality.
    
He moved up the hill behind Shadow, and for once, he took his time as he appreciated life. As he reached the top of the hill, he took a deep breath, ignoring the blood scattering the ground. Even though the forest scene was a depressing sight, he couldn’t help but feel such relief at the fact he hadn’t murdered anyone, which lead to the fact that he wasn’t insane, and concluded that he wouldn’t need to make a trip to the police station tonight.

 

‘Still,’ thought Sonic. ‘Poor deer.’ At Shadow’s comment on the creatures dislike for hedgehogs, his kind smile turned into a playful smirk.
    
“Oh, faker,” he couldn’t help himself, having the desire to tease of course. “This is me we’re speaking about, not you. He just must have been full.”

 

“But yeah, I’ve had my fill of the forest today; actually, for a few days, if you believe it or not.” He sighed deeply as the two hedgehogs made their way out of the forest, and Sonic trailed a bit behind Shadow. He hesitantly put a hand on the other’s shoulder, stopping him in his tracks. “Shadow,” Sonic paused. “Faker, I guess I owe you a thank you… Or an apology for getting you so worried.” He sneered once more, hoping the small joke towards the end distracted the other from the pink that was threatening to make itself noticed. He was now realizing just how worked up he appeared when he ran to the other for help.

 

Shadow rolled his eyes and shrugged off Sonic’s hand so he could continue to walk unhindered.  He was feeling no small amount of relief that Sonic was back to his bouncy and playful self.  Shadow had been getting unnerved by the blank stare in the normally lively jade eyes, “I wasn’t concerned, Faker.” He denied, despite the fact that he had been extremely so – not that Sonic needed to know that particular detail.

 

An eyeridge arched towards Sonic and he sighed as they both took their time walking through the woods to get back into familiar territory, “You should probably find something to eat.  You vomited everything else in your stomach.  Out of worry, no doubt,” Shadow shot back.

 

He looked up at the sunlight peeking through the thick foliage of the trees and wondered if that creature was still running around.  Shadow would not relish the prospect of running into it while hungry.  If it could knock Sonic out, which was their current theory why the hedgehog couldn’t remember what happened, Shadow would not care to fight it.

 

Not that he couldn’t outmatch that Faker if he wanted to, it would just put a cramp on his day.  Although Sonic was right.  If the creature was really hungry, it would probably aim to eat his rival before Shadow, assuming it could work its way through their spines.

 

He dismissed the thoughts with the slight shake of his head as he turned his gaze towards Sonic, surveying the other to see if he actually was alright.

 

Sonic let out a joyful laugh at the teasing, not at all bothered that Shadow shrugged his hand off, his laughter a wonderful sound compared to his past sobbing a few moments ago. “It’s alright Shads, I know you were, you just need to be the Big, Bad Faker.” He winked at the other, the light in his eyes blinding as the pain in his chest from before completely dissolved.

He was ready to run, dying to despite him feeling a bit tired, still speaking happily despite the insult Shadow threw towards him. “Stop trying to direct attention from the anxiety you felt for me, Shadow, it’s totally not working.” At this comment, he pulled ahead a bit as he expertly jogged backwards for a couple of strides, grinning tauntingly at the other; a ball breaker ‘til the end.

 

He turned back to walk properly, his thoughts basically mimicking Shadow’s. Just what type of beast caused that? He imagined a ruthless one, Sonic relieved he wasn’t the cause of the deer’s lost life. He thought back to Shadow’s comment on his vomiting with a bit of a sideways look towards the other, but it brought up the fact he had thrown up blood; how the hell did that happen? Sonic planned on finding out just what had inhabited this forest if whatever it was planned on turning up again; he just hoped it was some pack of wild dogs or something.
    
‘When did Station Square ever have wild dogs?’ He blinked and ignored this thought, hoping that this was just some freak occurrence, that it was nothing to worry about as he had a bit of a happy bounce in his step as he trailed in front of Shadow.

 

Shadow eyed the excited hedgehog, unable to believe this was the same Mobian who had been seconds away from having a mental break down just a few minutes ago.

 

“Think what you will, there’s no use reasoning with that thick skull of yours anyway,” He said finally, in no hurry to quicken his pace.  He cast one final look behind him as they reached civilization, watching the rapidly disappearing shapes of trees in the distance. 

“Ah faker, that’s the beauty of it,” Sonic too looked behind him for a moment, despite feeling something irk him deep in his stomach; he tried not to think there was unfinished business left behind in the forest. “I don’t think so—I know so.”

 

---

The run home had felt amazing. The breeze, both how it smelt and felt across his now clean cobalt fur, had woke him up enough to take the long way home. Shadow had departed halfway to his own place, more than likely sick of Sonic ambling on anyway, the blue hedgehog suppressing a chuckle at the thought; little did he know that he was probably returning home to catch up on some deprecating reading.

Sonic reached the door to his and Tails' place, looking through the bush besides the mailbox to find the false rock housing the key. After opening the lock and tossing the manmade stone elsewhere, he opened the door with a large smile towards his humble abode. Moving quickly through the small foyer – Sonic could swear since purchasing this place, he hadn't spent more than five minutes in there, he entered the kitchen with a deep inhale; ah yes, it was Tails turn to cook tonight, and he more than likely was making Macaroni and Cheese – the shapes, always. The fox stood on a stool to help him reach the stove, Sonic giving a smile at the adorable sight as he crept closer before throwing his arms around the vulpine's middle.

"Hey!" Tails looked over his shoulder in shock but smiled when he realized who it was. "Oh, Sonic! Hey, where were you all morning?"

Sonic didn't respond right away, only tightening his grip a bit and nuzzling into the soft fur of his shoulder. He thought back to his panic earlier, about how many of his thoughts revolved around his little brother, and was relieved that nothing was going to come between the two. He finally pulled away with a ruffle to the other's bangs, stepping towards the fridge not too far away.

"Ah, nothing Tails, I visited Shadow for a few hours," He lied, which was not a habit for the hero since he usually found it easy telling Tails many of his deepest secrets, knowing he could trust him; but this was something he did not want his younger sibling to worry about. "Nothing to worry about." He lifted the jug of water he was looking for from the fridge and sipped it straight out of the mouth piece, not bothering for a glass. "Whatcha making?"

"Macaroni and cheese shapes." Said Tails with a grin, stirring the boiling water. He was young, but had more knowledge than Sonic and most of their friends combined, so the hedgehog knew he could trust him enough to not hurt himself.

"I guessed that; Mondays is always macaroni night." He sniffed the air. For some reason, even though he usually enjoyed the meal, he wasn't feeling particularly excited about it.

"Are you hungry?"

"Not exactly," stated Sonic, rubbing his chin. "I haven't really been hungry all day." At that moment, his exhaustion chose to return and he gave a yawn, looking back to his friend as he moved towards the door frame. "I'm actually going to turn in early tonight." He looked outside the window; it wouldn't be too long until the sun would start to set.

"Alright," Tails was surprised to get a refusal; when does Sonic ever turn down a meal? "I'll leave some in the fridge for you, you might want it later."

"Alright, good thinking." Sonic smiled back at him and brought the gallon of water with him. "I'm taking this!" Tails just nodded with a bit of a roll to his eyes, but the smile remained none the less.

Sonic made his way through the den, which was filled with mismatched pieces of furniture and little trinkets of Tails left about; it was a typical male household, since Sonic made no attempt to decorate it nicely let alone ever yell at Tails about putting his things away. After a quick run up the stairs, literally a second for Sonic even in the shoes given to him by Shadow, he made it to his bedroom as he forced the door open.

His possessions littered the floor, not an inch of carpet was free to step on. He just stepped on his things freely, not that he really cared about them much anyway if they were strewn across the floor, sitting himself down on the edge of the bed. His bones felt weak but he still took the few moments to pull the shoes off his feet and leave the water on the nightstand before stretching out on the bed. He arched his back, scratching a hand through the quills in a way without harming himself, before turning over and flopping onto his stomach. His emerald eyes were half lidded for only a few minutes as he stared out the window in front of him, the sun beginning to glow orange; he fell asleep with the beautiful sunset on his mind.

Shadow had returned to his den to predictably curl up on his couch with his smutty novel so he could enjoy what was left of his rather strange Monday. So caught up was he in his reading, Shadow never noticed the slow ticking of hours passing him by until he found his living room swathed in darkness.

Should anyone question whether or not the Ultimate Lifeform was enjoying said book, he would venomously deny that he ever even read it. However, one would most likely be able to catch Shadow smuggling the book into a private area should he choose to finish it in peace.

For purely educational purposes of course...

He had just getting to the climatic part of the book, having been drawn into the romance and the story just as dusk was settling. The shadows in his living room grew long and dark, but the ebony hedgehog paid them no attention. He was far too preoccupied with the growing tension between the female lead and the male she was lusting over to notice how swiftly night was falling.

The cell phone near his nightstand rang out like a shrill alarm and Shadow stiffened in surprise. He looked around in his dark living room, the glow from the phone's LCD screen illuminating the area with a sickly green light. His gaze fell on the caller ID and Shadow nearly groaned when he saw Sonic's name flicker across it.

'What does that Faker want now?' Shadow thought in frustration as he reached for the phone to flip it open, "I don't suppose you can stop harassing me for a day, could you?" He barked into the receiver, clipped tones signifying his annoyance at being bothered at home for the second time that day.

However, he trailed off in a second the instant the sounds from the other end of the line registered to him.

The line was fuzzy with an array of noises in the background before whomever picked up the phone and dialed responded. It sounded like glass was breaking, furniture being thrown callously; the sounds were soon followed by a shrill yelp. Finally Tails, who's shivering was evident even in his tone of voice, spoke desperately into the phone.

"Shadow," he sobbed, his age able to allow him to cry freely. "Please come here, Sonic—"

Before he could finish, the line was severed. The dial tone sounded into the receiver, leaving Shadow to wonder just what the hell was going on.

The dark agent stared at the dead line in shock. Uncertainty knotted in his stomach as he fought to understand what had reduced the normally mature fox to tears. Something was wrong — that much he had gathered. It sounded like Tails was being attacked by something.

Sonic probably had gone on a run of some sort to clear his head, leaving the fox at home alone. Shadow sighed as he abandoned his book and strode over to the door, swiftly throwing it open and tearing out of his den. He'd have to hurry and hope Tails was smart enough to take care of himself long enough to get to Sonic's.

He tore off in a blaze towards the other end of town. Sonic might have taken his sweet time going home before, but that was because he hadn't been able to move at top speed with the shoes he had borrowed from Shadow.

The agent on the other hand was not at such a disadvantage. He tore off at a blinding speed, knowing that soon whatever had been attacking Tails could manage to pin the vulpine down and attack him.

Shadow was mentally running through a list on what or who the mystery assailant could be. Eggman was out of the picture, so he could be knocked off the list. An experiment gone wrong – with the genius fox, anything was a possibility.

He was still thinking about it by the time he arrived at Sonic's den. He could hear the clear signs of crashing and something large rummaging around within. Shadow grasped the door and let it swing open. Immediately he paused as he took in the hugely damaged room. It was littered with stuffing from the couch and shards of glass coated every inch of the thick carpeting. Shadow walked inside cautiously. "Tails?" He called out.

The rustling inside halted; whatever it was going berserk in the house hold had heard Shadow. Large footsteps from upstairs boomed above the agent, the ceiling scattering little pieces of dust from the impact. The stairs, which had a few steps cracked down the center from some time of powerful force, creaked as whoever tore this house to shreds made its way down the stairs, leaping down the next few steps with ease.

Its form, although huge, was covered in the shadows of the night since most of the lights had been pushed over and the bulbs smashed. A window close by draped moonlight over the floor as one large, foot revealed itself in the glow, its piercing talons clacking against the wood. Soon enough, the beast had coated itself completely in the light, an emerald eye glinting dangerously as he eyed what had interrupted its searching.

The creature was a dark, navy blue, its chest which was normally peach now a light azure. Long, soft fur cuffed its massive clawed hands, the same light blue dripping from its head quills. It would have looked exactly like Sonic if it wasn't for the ears curling inwards like horns, one of the said appendages giving a twitch. Its lips sneered back as they revealed massive, dripping fangs, wet with drool that pattered onto the floor as if it had just seen a meal to ravish on. A low growl escaped from its throat as it stalked closer to Shadow, the ground vibrating with each step.

If this was Sonic, he looked absolutely furious at the intruder. But this couldn't have been Sonic…right? It suddenly reared itself on all fours and lunged at the other, reaching its arm out as if it somehow became elastic, reaching to swipe with all its strength towards the hedgehog in front of him.

Shadow's eyes had widened in utter shock the instant the huge creature's form had lumbered into view. He remained absolutely still as it registered to him that this angry beast was none other than the hedgehog he had seen just a few hours ago.

"Chaos," He breathed as he took in the bulky form, his traitorous heart hammering in his chest. Ruby eyes met dark jade, searching for any sign that Sonic recognized him. The warning growl that was vibrating in Sonic's chest told otherwise, as did the sudden attack from one stretchy arm that seemed to reach twice the distance he should have been capable of.

Relying solely on instincts, Shadow leapt to the side, narrowly avoiding being run through by a massive hand. His mind was still playing catch up, but his body was reacting immediately to Sonic's attacks. Years of training aboard the ARK was what saved his life when Sonic's second arm came flinging out at Shadow. The dark hedgehog neatly ducked under it and darted to the side, his thoughts reeling.

Normally Shadow held the slight advantage over Sonic whenever they fought indoors, but he was finding himself at a disadvantage. It became exceedingly evident that despite the fact that Shadow was a lot faster than Sonic in this form, he couldn't dodge the other forever. The wolfish-creature that had replaced Sonic was every bit as strong as his former self had been fast, leaving Shadow with a very good reason not to get caught.

The floor was splintering badly underneath Shadow's feet, Sonic's attacks tearing up the ground with terrifying ease. No matter where the dark hedgehog ran, he couldn't escape this insane version of Sonic. He pivoted sharply when he found himself running out of options and pulled on the chaos energy that burned within him.

He wordlessly flung a bolt of chaos energy at his assailant, praying that it would do more than singe the werehog's fur.

The creature snarled when his arm missed its target, his hand grabbing at the floor, long nails dragging across the ground to create massive scars in the wood. He leapt again at Shadow, his second arm just missing him as he avoided it expertly, his fist instead making contact with a cabinet in the kitchen before smashing it in two. He pulled himself free in quick retaliation, skittering across the slippery floor before it would crack beneath his footsteps, charging after Shadow with a deep, reverberating bark.

His arms would stretch almost unnaturally as they would just miss the fast moving hedgehog, smashing to the floor with a sickening crack of wood. Sonic's breath was ragged, the beast mindless as it only had a desire to foil the reason for interrupting him attaining his shivering prey upstairs, his emerald eyes dilating as they struggled to adjust in the light. Unfortunately for Shadow, darkness was his element, only existing in the night so his senses were highly attuned. He again lunged after the other as Shadow was bringing him in literal circles around the house, potholes dotting the ground from Sonic's massive form.

The creature paused for a second after receiving a bit of a shock from Shadow's chaos spear, but continued in their chase after giving a humorous sneeze in response.

Finally, a hand reached out and took grasp of the other's thin ankle, taking a hold of it before throwing him into the air and slamming him down to the wood, the floor cracking beneath Shadow's form. He pulled himself forward, on all fours again as he eyed the hedgehog beneath him, saliva dripping down onto his furred stomach as he growled with a sharp-toothed frown. He licked his lips; maybe the fox wasn't to be his meal after all. Yet the beast hesitated as he continued to stare down at Shadow, leaning forward to take a deep inhale of the ivory fur dressing his chest. Before he could make another move on his captive, something heavy came down on his head. The resulting crash knocked the Werehog out clean to fall directly on top of Shadow in an excruciating amount of dead weight.

Tails stood shivering behind his passed out form of the animal, clutching a cracked television set he had managed to lift before tossing it to the side, giving a cry about what happened in the past half hour and what he had just done to his big brother.

Shadow, who had been attempting to buy some time by darting around to confuse the beast, grunted in surprise when one of those stretchy arms finally caught him around the ankle and jerked him into the air. Before the sense of vertigo could grip Shadow, he was sent plummeting hard into the ground, his head cracking against the floor.

Dazed, Shadow attempted to get up, but found that he was too late. The creature had already clambered on top of him. He fought to come up with something to do. Obviously his chaos spear hadn't done a lick of good. The beast had simply taken the blast of chaos energy to the chest without so much as batting an eye.

Shadow's heart thudded as he watched Sonic's lips curl back in a feral snarl, exposing a dangerous row of sharp, saliva coated fangs. He let out a pained grunt and tried to squirm away when a dollop of drool landed on his pelt and began to soak through. Shadow could read the mad and clearly ravenous look in Sonic's eyes.

He closed his eyes, not wanting to see that hungry mouth descend on his throat and couldn't help but jump slightly when he felt Sonic's muzzle bury itself in his chest fur and inhale deeply. Shadow had thought only cats played with their food before they ate it, and wondered if Sonic was going to kill him the same way that deer had died

Then, suddenly a huge and heavy weight collapsed on Shadow, causing the agent's eyes to snap open and lose all the oxygen he had been holding in his lungs. Sonic had collapsed entirely on him, his massive weight pining him to the torn up ground better than his stretchy arms ever had.

Shadow grunted and squirmed, fighting for a mouthful of air around the beast that was currently attempting to crush his diaphragm. With agonizing slowness, he managed to squirm out from underneath one of Sonic's powerful arms and crawl dizzily to his feet. He looked around, one of his hands creeping up to rub at the sore spot on his throbbing head. He spotted the frightened looking kit standing behind Sonic's crumpled body and headed towards him.

"Thanks," Shadow growled softly, not wanting to startle the scared looking fox.

Sonic was out cold, his long tongue hanging out past his fanged teeth. He let out a groan of pain unconsciously, his voice noticeably lower, but did not do much more than quietly breathe. Tails immediately joined Sonic's side despite his fear, taking a massive paw into his tiny ones.

"What," Tails stared at Shadow. "What happened today?" his voice trembled. "He said he was with you all day."

His little hands squeezed as he held his big brothers, which was terrifyingly larger than it usually was, Tails actually needing both of his to hold it properly. He looked back over to Sonic before more tears rolled down his face, as if he had forgotten a few moments ago when his sibling had crashed out of his bedroom and charged at him with hunger and maliciousness only in his eyes. He knew somewhere deep down Sonic had to be inside this beast, even if he couldn't find his way out.

Shadow sighed and sat down on one of the ruined chairs that seemed like it was still mostly intact. His head gave a painful throb from his rough landing and he looked at the fox, feeling almost as though he was cross-eyed, "He was."

He took a moment to collect himself before realizing that even though Sonic might have been unconscious now, that did not mean he would remain that way for long. "I'll tell you the story once we get him tied up," His voice left no room for argument. Sonic obviously in no state to differentiate between friend or foe, and Shadow was not looking forward to fighting round two with the beast.

"Get some chains from your workshop and make a call to Knuckles," Shadow grunted as he wrapped his arms around one of Sonic's massive shoulders and attempted to lift him up. His head screamed in protest against the idea, but his survival instincts were kicking into high gear and promptly suppressing the need to hunt down an extra-strength Excedrin, "We're going to need him."

With that, Shadow began to drag Sonic over towards a closet where he hopefully wouldn't wake up and begin to tear things up. The ruby eyed hedgehog watched as the scared kit scampered off to do as he asked, leaving Shadow with the unconscious Sonic.

The dark agent looked at the transformed shape of Sonic. It was becoming painfully clear just why Sonic had woken up covered in the deer's blood. He had turned into this... creature. Sonic was just lucky that he hadn't caught Tails' scent last night, otherwise– ... Shadow's gaze turned towards the torn up house.

--Otherwise Sonic's earlier fears about having killed someone would have been realized.

Shadow looked back as Tails returned, dragging the heavy chains he used to keep the Tornado planted and secure in the hanger. "Did you get in contact with Knuckles?" Shadow inquired as he began to loop the chains around Sonic's body.

Sonic was completely unconscious, not helping an ounce as Shadow dragged him towards the closet. He rested inside of it, inhaling deeply and exhaling with a long rumble of his vocal chords. Tails approached Shadow and handed him the chains, nervously wringing his small hands as he watched the huge lumbering beast that was his brother, not hearing Shadow's question at first.

"Huh?" he asked rather unintelligently, something fairly unusual, showing just how focused he was on watching the other fearfully.

"I called him—he doesn't sound too happy, let alone awake, but he should be coming." He nodded softly, looking at Shadow expectantly, waiting for what happened during the day.

Shadow nodded and finished tying Sonic up to the best of his ability before shoving the giant beast in the closet. He dragged the remains of couch, followed by a dresser to shove up against the closet door. It probably wouldn't stop Sonic completely if he was really determined to get through.

He turned towards Tails once he was finished burying Sonic in a mass of furniture, sitting down on the tattered couch. He beckoned the trembling fox to join him by the torn seats, his mouth set in a grim line. "Earlier today Sonic came over to my house covered in blood and with no memory of what he had done the previous night," Shadow hastened to continue when he saw Tails' face abruptly lose all color, "We checked it out and it turned out to be a deer's blood. Sonic felt fine so he decided to go home and get some rest and think about it later."

The agent frowned and his cheek twitched, "Obviously we know what's been responsible for his memory loss now." He eyed the closet, "He's not going to be happy when he wakes up in there."

There was silence after Shadow finished, the two-tailed fox giving a nod as he looked at his entwined hands. He actually stood for a moment, moving towards one of the damaged cabinets and searching through it with a bit of difficulty, until he came out with a bottle of pills for Shadow's headache. He offered it to him before speaking, watching as the other made use of them. When he settled back down against the cushions, his feet barely just missed the ground.

"Maybe…" he looked thoughtful for a few moments. "I think it has to do with Eggman." He gazed over seriously at the hedgehog that saved his life. "Sonic and I were the only ones to face him the other day." He rose from his spot on the couch, motioning for Shadow to come. "We have a while before Knuckles comes; I have to show you something." He took him to the door leading down to his workshop, one of the only parts of their home that Sonic couldn't get his clawed paws on. The massive room was filled with trinkets, gadgets, and machines whirring as their gears churned, little beeps sounding here and there to show they were functioning. He brought Shadow to his work table, revealing the blue chaos emerald he and Sonic obtained from their last encounter with Robotnik. It wasn't glowing strangely enough like they usually did; rather this one was dull and completely lifeless.

"Sonic and me arrived to his base, you know, expecting usual Eggman antics. Sonic went in by himself, but for the most part, he told me Eggman was just standing there, as if he was expecting him to waltz in, a huge, wicked grin on his face. All the chaos emeralds were lined up, and Sonic of course channeled up the energy to turn Super," as he spoke, he lifted the seemingly dead chaos emerald in his hands. "But he had been waiting for that; he tricked Sonic, he stepped over and kneeled before him as if he was giving in with a begging plead, finally going to turn himself over…

"But then he just captured Sonic in this…weird, glass machine. As I said, Sonic went in alone, but I kept close by in the Tornado, so I didn't see what was going on. He didn't say much after that, other than the machine had somehow triggered him to turn from Super to normal despite having gold rings." Tails shrugged. "He brought out all the emeralds to me and I've been trying to figure out what has been wrong with them ever since." His frown grew. "I think it's obvious now his changing has something to do with this."

Shadow frowned and he plucked the blue emerald from the table, turning it over in his hand. His frown deepened further as he tried to sense a flicker of ambient energy emanating from the emerald. There was nothing, only a foreboding sense of emptiness. The usual hot pulse of chaos energy that Shadow was used to feeling from the emeralds was ominously absent.

It would also explain why Sonic was forced from his Super form while drawing on the emerald's powers. He settled it down and he looked over at the fox, "You have all seven, but they're little more than decorative paper weights at the moment." He nodded and rubbed his hand over his disheveled fur.

"I'm not sure how their lack of power and Sonic's transformation is related, but it seems to correlate," Shadow muttered as he eyed the young kit, "What else do you know?"

"That's it," he shrugged. "Sonic didn't tell me much else, but he did go to bed with a bit of a headache." He looked thoughtful. "Other than that, he didn't say anything else that happened in there." He shook his head. "But I know he certainly wasn't expecting this."

Tails face instantly became upset again at the thought of his brother, finding a pair of keys to unlock one of the drawers on the desk, swinging it open to reveal the other six emeralds. "So far, I haven't come up with much about what's afflicting them, but I obviously didn't think the situation would be this dire," He shook his head once more. "So foolish of me.

Tails pulled away from his desk as he stood near the stairs, looking over his shoulder to the GUN agent.

"What are we going to do about Sonic?" the way he looked over at Shadow, with tears beginning to form in his huge topaz eyes, could melt anyone's heart.

It was with a great deal of effort that Shadow managed to keep a straight face after staring into the eye of all that was cute, fluffy and adorable. He sighed and looked at Tails firmly, his arms folded over the tuft of fur on his chest.

"We'll have to wait him out, he'll turn back to himself in the morning," Shadow said firmly, sounding far more confident than he really felt. How did he know Sonic would turn back to himself? Just because he had done it once didn't mean he would again. It was probable he could eventually turn back... but...

There was no use frightening the fox more than he already was. If Tails started crying because of something Shadow said, it would just be the topping on a day that had been far more hectic than Shadow ever thought it could possibly become.

"This will all make more sense in daylight," Shadow walked back into the room, his ear twitching as he heard faint scratching at the door. Apparently their local monster had finally managed to wake up, "Try to get some sleep Tails. I'll keep an eye on things down here..." He growled edgily.

"Alright," he nods. "You're right. When he wakes up and he's able to be spoken to, maybe I can run some tests on him? We'll have to see tomorrow." As the two moved up the stairs, Tails continued to talk, "He could possibly be the first specimen of real lycanthropy! I know…I know it's bad, but I can't help but think it's a little fascinating." He weakly smiled through his sadness, of course always looking at situations through a logical stand point.

As they came back to the destroyed living room, the faint noise of scratching at the door could be heard in the houses silence. Sonic was definitely awake, making marks in the wooden barrier with his claws to the best of his abilities in his chained up state. A muffled whimper broke through the thick barrier in front of the door.

Tails couldn't suppress a giggle, "He kind of sounds like a puppy."

A puppy that had wanted to chew his head off.

A puppy that hit like an eighteen wheeler and salivated like a starving man. Hell, he wasn't even house broken yet. Shadow scowled and glared over at the door, ignoring how the whining became more pronounced. His migraine had yet to break, so Shadow was feeling whole heartedly unsympathetic to the giant Werehog.

He just hoped Sonic wouldn't get out before dawn. Shadow didn't feel like wrestling with him again, puppy or not.

---

Sonic had assumed he slept in today, he was feeling awfully tired yesterday after all. He yawned and then attempted a stretch, before his eyes snapped open. It was pitch black, and he noticed he couldn't move. He swallowed with a 'gulp' as he instantly became nervous, taking a deep breath as he tried to rationalize.

'Alright Sonic, relax. You have been in worse situations than this before.' Even though this was true, he was not expecting to wake up again in a terrible condition like last morning, but of course, the life of a hero is never dull. He squirmed a bit, kicking at his surroundings to gage where he was. His hands had some use, but not much, and he identified by the sound of metal as he moved across the floor that he was chained up. He kicked the wall with one of his movements; okay, he is in a tight space.

He tried his best to squeeze free of the binds, sweating as he did so, giving a few deep breaths after struggling for a few minutes. He guessed the next option was the best thing to do in this situation:

"Uh," he voice was muffled behind the door and the furniture covering it. "Hello?!"

Shadow was one very cranky hedgehog. It had been difficult to get any sleep when the Werehog would occasionally let out a mournful howl in the middle of the night, but Shadow's only other option was to let the salivating beast out to try to kill them all again.

Needless to say, Shadow didn't get much sleep.

He had finally managed to squeeze in a few hours of rest, and he was left dozing on the remains of the couch when he heard a soft cry from behind the closet door. His ear flicked in the direction and he recognized the voice being higher and more legible than the Werehog's had been.

"Sonic?" He asked no one in particular and began to shove furniture out of the way. He took a deep breath and prepared himself for the worst. Slowly he opened the clawed up door and spotted the familiar and thankfully normal form of Sonic, wrapped up in the heavy chains and looking completely ridiculous.

The door opened and Sonic saw an exhausted looking Shadow standing before him in the door frame, finally letting in light to the small room, the younger of the two blinking upwards. He looked to the side, then down at himself chained, before resting his big emerald eyes on the other.

"What…" he let out a laugh. "What happened? Is this a joke?" he couldn't help but smirk. "Shadow, did you do this? You would be into this type of-"

His speech was cut off when the other immediately closed the door.

"Hey! Faker, it was a joke! Let me out!" he kicked at the floor under him and wriggled in his spot.

Shadow had every intention of letting the blue hedgehog sit in the closet for as long as possible and letting him simmer in his time out box for that annoying quip. Shadow was just thankful he had managed to cut him off before he could finish his lewd joke.

Unfortunately, he could hear Sonic growing increasingly more obnoxious as the seconds ticked by and knew Tails would eventually come investigate what was keeping Shadow from letting Sonic out; other than annoyance, nothing really. But Shadow held firm in the belief that he was doing the world a favor by preventing Sonic from running around.

Reluctantly he opened the closet door again, "Any more smart remarks and I'm leaving you in there for a week." Shadow said shortly.

Sonic decided that his best tactic was to annoy the hell out of Shadow, since this usually did work in getting what he wanted from the GUN agent. He kicked the floor and the door, wriggled in his spot as he continued to just spew nonsense, hoping his voice was more annoying than a car alarm.

"Hello, hello, hello, let me out! Let me out! Let me-" The door opened. "Finally!" he pouted playfully at Shadow's next comment. "Fine, I'll be good. Can you please undo these chains, and possibly let me know what happen—"His voice caught in his throat again as Shadow moved to assist him in undoing his chains, getting a look over his shoulder at some of the damage done to his home.

Tails heard the speaking from his room, having difficulty himself sleeping last night with everything going on, rushing down the stairs to see what was up. "Is he awake?!

As Shadow was freeing him from his metal hold, Sonic didn't notice Tails looking happily over the other hedgehogs shoulder, moving his head to get another view of the devastation in the house hold.

"What…what…" he couldn't even speak, dying to move so he could investigate his living room and kitchen being in shambles.

"Unfortunately," Shadow replied to the fox over his shoulder as he finally managed to unlock the chains and let them off of Sonic's body, "If you didn't need to run your tests, I would have suggested leaving him in here for a few weeks."

"That sounds like a good idea to me," A new voice said gruffly from the side. The burly form of a red echidna walked into the room from the kitchen and eyed the dumbstruck hero, "Calling me back from my duties to baby sit a hedgehog. Pathetic."

Sonic was not laughing, his quills noticeably bristling as he stood, ignoring that once again he was bare of any article of clothing. He pushed past all of them and his lips quivered at the sight of his house, naked hands curling into fists as he turned to the three others in the room. He moved to speak, but nothing came out of his mouth out of anger or shock, one couldn't be too sure. Sonic focused back on the destruction and he stepped over the holes in the wood before finally turning back to others in rage.

"What the hell happened to my house?! Tell me this is a party that's gone wrong; first problem, why wasn't I there!? Second," he took a deep breath. "Was it really necessary to break my floor, my cabinets…" he gasps. "Is that my television!?" it was currently resting where Tails had thrown it, the screen sporting a major crack down the center.

"Who did this," Sonic's fists were shaking in anger, a far cry from his usually gracious demeanor. "I want an answer. Tails?" he looked to his little brother, knowing he'd tell the truth.

Tails looked noticeably nervous, the tips of his fingers tapping together in tandem as he was lost for words. As an instinct, he stepped behind Shadow as he was drawing short of the actual answer, even if he witnessed it with his own eyes.

Sonic's mouth went agape at his little brother's reaction. Who the hell did this?!

Knuckles shrugged and leaned against a doorframe that was now missing a few chunks of wood from its molding, "Don't look at me. The place was trashed by the time I got here." Not that the echidna looked as if he truly cared. He seemed to be enjoying Sonic's unpleasant reaction more than was logical. Not that Shadow blamed him; the agent was having a bit of a problem keeping his laughter to himself.

Shadow bit the inside of his cheek to prevent himself from smirking at Sonic's reaction to the state of his house. It was a bit ironic actually as Sonic had been the one to tear up every square inch of the place. He barely resisted the urge to roll his eyes when the fox skittered behind him for protection from his brother's wrath.

"You did it a rather large portion of it," Shadow said flatly, his gaze drifting over to the television, "Although Tails is responsible for breaking the TV. It wasn't his fault though."

Tails looked at Shadow with an adorable glare, while Sonic's look on the other hand was much more vicious. "It's not funny!" he spoke to both of them, looking between Knuckles and Shadow with angry eyes, knowing the two probably secretly enjoyed his turmoil.

He moved towards the living room, almost tripping over one of the potholes in the room, finding it strange that once again his legs were wobbly like yesterday morning. The headache wasn't there, but his limbs still felt so strange, which didn't help the awkward feeling of being so exposed in front of his friends. He moved to examine the stairs and turned abruptly with a fumed air as soon as he spotted a few of the steps had been cracked down their middle. He heard Shadow's comment and whirled about angrily. "I did it," his voice went into a shout once more. "I did it!? That's absurd; I didn't do this to my own home! I was asleep upstairs until I woke up chained in this closet!" he looked to the said alcove, the door sporting nasty looking marks in the wood from the inside.

Sonic had barred his teeth, which didn't have remotely the same gravity as it did yesterday since he only sported small canines, much different from the massive ones his mouth dawned the night before. Tails had hidden further behind Shadow's legs, since the only shocking reminder of the Werehog was the other's eyes; the emerald glare looked every inch like the beasts last evening.

The blue hero took notice to Tails' reaction, and when he reached out to grab him to see what was wrong, Tails immediately shivered and whimpered as he avoided the other's hand.

Sonic guessed the feeling in his chest was something akin to being stabbed in the heart.

"Seriously," he was becoming worried, and it showed in his tone. Tails reaction did not sit right with him, and the piece of ceiling that fell to the ruined floor did not help matters. "Tell me what happened." He just couldn't believe Shadow's answer.

"Right, because I just love to see you get naked," Shadow muttered sarcastically, "Two days in a row."

"Do you honestly believe we would have stripped you naked, chained you up, and throw you in a closet that was barricaded with several hundred pounds of furniture if you didn't deserve it?" Shadow asked Sonic flatly, "Look around you Sonic." He gestured to the torn up room, "Don't you think it looks somewhat similar to the clearing you woke up in yesterday?"

"You turned into a werewolf of some kind," Shadow shook his head, "You tried to eat Tails, and he called me for help."

Sonic noticeably flinched at the suggestion of the horrific scene yesterday, listening to Shadow's words as he just stared, his ear twitching once or twice as he absorbed the suggestions in his brain. Slowly he looked around; he studied the claw marks marring the floor, finding them frighteningly similar to the day before. There were only two differences; they were indoors, and there wasn't blood scattered across the ground. He shuddered and finally spoke, his glare melting away moments before and now replaced with an upset expression.

"I tried to eat Tails?" it was the one piece of information that had upset him the most, and it hurt even more when he watched his little brother look downwards to avoid Sonic's stare.

"It's true, Sonic." His voice was quiet. "You turned into some sort of lycanthrope."

Sonic didn't know what the hell that was, but he took Shadow's answer of 'werewolf' instead. His lips quivered as he tried desperately to process this information, before blushing swiftly. He was naked in front of Shadow, again, for the second time in a row. He moved to look over the living room and found a small pillow with a massive tear on it, picking it up before grimacing at the heavy amount of drool on it. He held it above his groin and looked at the others with a bit of pink on his cheeks, the cushion leaking slick saliva on the floor as it started a puddle.

"I'm a Werehog?" he asked the others, blinking; 'The life of a hero is never dull', he reminded himself, yet this was too much.

Knuckles let out a bark of laughter at Sonic's meager attempt at covering himself, despite the fact that it was wholly unnecessary since the hedgehog didn't even wear pants. The echidna strode off upstairs, presumably to Sonic's room so he could fetch the hedgehog a decent pair of gloves, socks, and his trusty shoes.

"It would appear so," Shadow nodded and surveyed the blue hedgehog, "Tails said he can run some tests. He thinks it has something to do with your last encounter with Eggman."

Sonic looked thoughtful as he continued to clutch the pillow in its spot, noticing Shadow's stare as he abruptly showed him his back. "That's more than likely the answer." He sighed in irritation; Wishing he could see this 'transformation' with his own eyes, this seemed almost a little too wacky, even with all the things he had seen, saved, and experienced in his short lifetime.

"Sonic," Tails knew his best friend would flinch at his next sentence. "We're going to run some tests." And flinch Sonic did, the hedgehog giving a grimace.

Sonic's undeniable fear was water; it was rarely spoken about, the hero avoiding the topic as much as possible, believing Tails to be the only living creature to really know about this lifelong terror. But something that definitely put him on edge? Doctors, medical equipment, and testing, even if it was by his intelligent sibling. This meant more than likely, blood would be taken. 'I guess a little blood is worth the life I took from that deer.' A huge pang of guilt sounded through his chest.

"Really?" he scrunched his nose, sounding unwilling. "Can't we just cut to the action, go out there and find Eggman, and serve his butt on a plate to him?" Sonic really had a bone to pick with him this time; two bad mornings in a row, and all the hedgehog wanted to do was get a good days rest in.

"As appealing as the idea of ruthlessly beating the doctor into submission is, I think it would be more relevant if we find out what's wrong with you and work on discovering a cure," Shadow eyed Sonic, then turning his gaze towards the torn up house. A small smirk worked across his face, "Either that, or we work on house breaking you."

He was glad that Sonic was taking this better than he would have thought, but Shadow was still worried. In the daylight, their options seemed brighter, but Shadow realistically knew that the day would not last forever. When the day passed them by and the moon rose, Sonic would turn back into the creature he had been the previous night.

Shadow had to suppress a slight shiver as he recalled just how frightfully close he had gotten to having the Werehog chew a hole through his abdomen. He just hoped the added strength of Knuckles would be enough to restrain Sonic when night fell.

Sonic's blush darkened from pink to red as he glared over his shoulder at his older counterpart, trying his best to ignore the comment. "I guess, easy for you to say, you're not going to be the one getting prodded with needles and such." He shivered.

He was taking it surprisingly well, but what was he to do, not having a single shred of memory toward last night's disaster. He moved to investigate the damage done with an angered pout, taking a moment to appreciate with some worry the claw marks both on the walls and the floor. He only had himself to blame for everything that happen (except his television, which was only broken albeit because Tails was provoked into doing so), his furniture and entertainment set ruined completely in ruin. He examined his beloved Wii that now had been reduced to bits of white plastic with a hole in the ground where it once was, his ears drooping. "I guess we won't be staying here for a while." There was sadness in his mumble, quickly disposing of it as he turned back to Shadow with a neutral tone.

"What are we going to do about tonight? Is this going to happen again?" he looked between Tails and Shadow for an answer.

"We don't know, Sonic." Tails felt terrible for his brother. "But hopefully we can uncover some information today."

"It seems like we're going to run out of houses soon if this keeps up," Knuckles pointed out as he returned, carrying Sonic's clothes, "I haven't seen the 'Werehog' that did all of this, but we obviously can't keep you out in the open and you're certainly not going to tear up my island."

"Perhaps we can use one of the older warehouses in Radical Highway?" Shadow suggested, looking over at the gathered group, "No one seems to go by or use those any longer since the construction was never completed. Knuckles and I could prepare the area while Tails tests you for any anomalies." He eyed Sonic.

Sonic didn't know what to think of himself being reduced to a warehouse, his ears pinning to the back of his head in thought; he didn't bother to ask Knuckles how his room fared, since it already looked like it had been hit by a bomb before this whole fiasco. He took the gloves and shoes that were offered to him as he slipped them on thoughtfully, looking up at the three of them.

"That sounds fine, I've been there once or twice, no one really goes by there except some homeless folk," he nodded, sounding surprisingly composed, even to himself, "Tails and I will complete the testing while you guys go and check it out." The hero didn't want him there for the process anyway, since he was rather shaky when it came to medical equipment. He looked over to child scientist before kneeling in front of him, affectionately brushing his bangs from his eyes as he hesitated; Tails could identify the guilty look in his stare, and he smiled at him in hopes to cheer him up.

"After the testing, I'm dropping you off at Amy's."

"Why!?" asked Tails, clearly sounding upset. Sonic was keeping his foot firmly to the ground, though.

"Because trying to eat you once is more than enough of a reason to keep you away," He gave a single laugh in hopes to lighten the mood. "You can still see me during the day, promise." Anyone could see Tails wanted to protest, but Sonic stood before he could get a word in. "In the next few days, I know what my mission is; find Eggman and get to the bottom of this. I'd rather not forget my nights anymore and go on a vicious rampage in the process." He gave a noticeably bitter mumble.

Shadow looked over at Sonic and grunted, "It's not just your mission alone Faker." He eyed the distressed hedgehog, "The Doctor decided to make an enemy of me when he drained the Chaos Emeralds of their power." He hissed, "That's something I simply cannot ignore."

He walked with Knuckles towards the door, his gaze drifting over towards Sonic and resting on the hedgehog. "We'll be back in a few hours and we can decide where to search for the doctor then."

He couldn't quite suppress the feeling of anxiety that welled within him when he met the unsure jade eyes of Sonic. Shadow didn't know what he was getting involved in, but he knew that he was already neck deep in something that there was no turning from. He bit the inside of his cheek and looked away, feeling almost as if every step was taking him deeper and deeper into an adventure where there was no end in sight.

---

Sonic and Tails had spent most of the afternoon on some type of unspoken edge, the two Mobians eerily silent unless it was necessary. Miles could see Sonic was clearly off elsewhere in his thoughts, but he was far too busy trying to compute any possible cure or answer for his friend and his massive, salivating problem. His blood work came out normal, his fur samples matched perfectly, as well as his finger prints. Nothing was coming up weird on the scans. The small fox read through the paperwork with frustration, ready to pull clumps of fur from his head as his technical machines were giving him no output.

Sonic, who looked worn-out despite getting some sleep last night in the closet, would coax his brother into relaxing by pulling out his usual feel good attitude. He'd give a clever comment to him or a laugh here or there, something akin to his usual spunky personality; but when he thought that his brother wasn't sneaking a look, his true feelings would break through the mold. He looked exhausted, worried, and strangest of all…vulnerable; even in front of his younger brother, who Sonic without a doubt felt the most comfortable with, would Sonic rarely show this hidden side of him.

Tails was dropped off at Amy's with a ton paperwork; leather-bound books, his laptop, and all seven chaos emeralds. Sonic went, and of course thought up some lie to wriggle his way out of hanging out with her. She, too, asked her crush what was wrong, but Sonic swept it off with a disinterested air, before taking off to leave a distraught Tails at the door.

The hedgehog had a few hours to himself; he had no desire to return to the house, let alone see Knuckles or even Shadow. He sprinted his way as far as possible from both of their locations, not exactly having a destination as he took off for over an hour of straight exercise. He focused on the air blowing through his quills, the earthy scents filling up his nostrils, and how the welcoming sun seemed to be smiling down on him as a reminder to enjoy his memory as it lasts. He could tell by the cooler breeze it was well past the noon, and it was time to turn back. The hedgehog reluctantly ran back towards his home, the last couple of miles much slower (for the hero, anyway) and dragged out as he felt this strange pit of despair growing in his stomach.

Elsewhere, Shadow surveyed the torn up and battered warehouse with a practiced eye. Knuckles had gone off in search of a fuse box and they had been pleased to see that the warehouse still had a bit of juice. It was large with a tall ceiling and fluorescent bulbs flooding the room with light. That would play to their advantage when it came to dealing with the Werehog who fought so well in the darkness. Shadow could only hope that the bulbs were high enough out of Sonic's stretchy reach.

The big space would be good for Sonic when he turned and give him enough room to roam about comfortably. The doors, like in most ware houses, were made out of a heavy type of steel that bolted shut from both the inside and outside. Shadow didn't think that would be much of a problem seeing as the Werehog hadn't been able to figure out how to work the doorknob in the closet, so opening a complicated warehouse door would most likely be out of Sonic's skill range.

Of course there was always the option that Sonic would just attempt to break through the wall, and with the Werehog's terrifying strength, that was a valid option. Shadow just hoped it wouldn't come to that.

It had taken a bit of cleaning and adjusting, but the two Mobians had managed to set up a decent area for Sonic to be comfortable. Shadow didn't want Sonic to feel like he was being imprisoned, but there was really only so much he and Knuckles could do to make the area feel cozy with nightfall only a few hours away.

Shadow ran a hand through his quills, wondering with a slight twinge of anxiousness how Sonic was doing. This couldn't be easy on the hero. After all, who knew where or how he was going to wake up come morning? What if Shadow and Knuckles weren't able to contain Sonic and he escaped? It was true that they were a fair distance from the city, but the night was long and the Werehog could certainly make tracks if he wanted to.

Knuckles didn't seem too concerned about Sonic's transformation, but he hadn't been facing down sharp rows of teeth like Shadow had the previous night. Shadow was just lucky that sleep was a luxury for him and not a necessity. Otherwise he would be close to passing out from exhaustion since he had barely slept the night before. Fighting a mad beast would be the last on Shadow's list of things to do.

By the time they had finished cleaning the area and getting it set up and equipped, it was well into the afternoon. Shadow was heading back to Sonic's den alone as Knuckles had stayed behind to finish bolting down everything that could be lifted to the ground.

The dark agent slowed to a halt outside of Sonic's house and cringed. On the outside it looked completely normal save for the fact that Sonic's lawn needed to be mowed. He strode up to the house and pushed open the door, immediately revealing the disaster zone which had previously been Sonic's den.

The house had barely been touched since Shadow's and Knuckles's departure. Sonic truly didn't even have it in him to clean the place of its destruction, since most of it was too far into disrepair anyway. He would have to hire contractors to get this place back on its feet and a hell of a lot of cleaning maids to get it looking at least slightly normal and inhabitable.

"I'm back," Shadow called out, looking around for either Sonic or Tails. His stomach flipped uncomfortably as he took in the horrible damage done to the den. It was worse once he came back to it after being away for half a day.

Sonic, who already figured Shadow would be back soon, had taken a seat on the couch (still out-of-place in the kitchen), and for a rare moment in the hedgehog's life, just remained still and noiseless. The hero just couldn't bring himself to look at the harm he did to his own home, not wanting to remember the situation for as long as possible. It was bad enough he was furious at the mad scientist who created this problem, and how he was basically instructed to not go after him like some type of small child. Sonic loathed being told what to do, and Werehog or not, this was not going to change.

He was exactly like that when Shadow came in; sitting with his chin propped up on his palm, elbow sticking into the top of his knee. He said nothing to Shadow, looking tired after the previous few days and the run that he hoped would get him at least slightly exhausted; he hoped his strenuous amount of activity carried over to the Werehog. He just stared up at Shadow with a mild face, looking like he had a hundred things to say, but not even a peep escaped.

Shadow met Sonic's gaze and for a long moment said nothing, simply staring at him with wordless meaning. He took in just how tired Sonic appeared. Between transformations and the back-to-back sleepless nights, the hedgehog looked spent. "Everything has been set up at the warehouse. We're ready for you at any time." He looked over at Sonic, spotting the bags underneath the hero's big emerald eyes, "You look like hell." He noted.

"I don't know why," Sonic replied lazily and with just a hint of sarcasm coloring his voice, one of his feet began a slow tap against the couch, "It's not like I haven't had a full nights rest in the past two days, tried to eat my little brother, and gotten my body hijacked by some rabid man-eating beast – oh wait a second..." He trailed off, giving Shadow a distinctly grumpy look.

Shadow said nothing in retaliation at first. He stepped over a piece of wallpaper that had been ripped off the wall, stepping past the grumpy hedgehog and the seat he inhabited. He took one more look around the disheveled living room before looking towards the blue hero with a face of stone.

"There is someone out there who always has it worse, Faker. I expected you to know this better than anyone."

He stepped towards the couch silently, tiny pieces of glass cracking under the soles of his rocket shoes. "The longer we take, the more time we have to worry about sunset." He ignored the glower he received at the mention of the hero's time limit. "Do not make me get you to come by force."

After last night's shenanigans, Shadow was not taking no for an answer, Sonic demonstrating just how dangerous in this form he could be.

Sonic watched the dark hedgehog, feeling his stomach twist a bit at Shadow's words. His dark friend was, of course, right, but that didn't mean that Sonic had to like it one bit, "You started it." Sonic childishly stuck his tongue out at Shadow and blew him a raspberry, trying to hide the ball of nerves and anxiousness beginning to knot even tighter in his belly at the mention of sunset.

He hated being told what to do, and hated not having a shred of control over his life even more. Heck, even when Sonic was in control of his mind and body, he was still getting ordered around by Shadow. The hero was highly tempted just to stay rooted on the couch until his crush had to drag both him and it to the warehouse. He folded his arms over his chest and looked out at the window, his ears folding back against his head as he fell into silence.

Shadow didn't reply to Sonic's small childish outburst. The hedgehog was thicker than molasses, as usual, and, as expected, their current situation didn't seem to have made much of an impact on Sonic's irritating quips.

Still, it would never be said aloud, but Sonic was terrified. He was scared of becoming an uncontrollable monster that didn't know friend from foe. The very thought that he ran the risk of hurting one of his friends while he was like that scared him even more. He closed his eyes and tightened his grip around his fawn arms, trying his best to keep his breathing calm and even. Sonic wouldn't be able to stand the idea of hurting them.

Sonic was putting himself and his trust wholly in the hands of Shadow and Knuckles. Trusting them to keep him contained, keep the surrounding civilians safe, and most importantly keep themselves safe. But did he really have any choice in the matter?

He had absolutely none.

Sonic felt sick and his empty stomach churned, not having had much of an appetite for the last few days. Nothing seemed to stir his hunger, and Sonic highly doubted he'd be able to stomach anything right now...

He turned emerald eyes towards the sky, willing nothing more than for the daylight to last forever.

A black ear twitched as Shadow heard Sonic's stomach make an odd squelching sound, a mixture between a snarl what sounded like the engine of a dying car. Apparently the hero was either hungry or nauseous. Regardless of the reason, Shadow just hoped that would translate to the Werehog and slow the beast down for a bit.

"Are you coming or not, because I doubt you're in any condition to fight me off," Shadow said blandly, looking over at the curled up form of Sonic idly, "I will drag you the entire distance if I have to." And if he had to, Shadow would not be a happy hedgehog.

Sonic stood reluctantly, his body feeling like lead. He was so very tired, and his mind pleaded with him to sit back down. "I'd still kick your butt, faker." The voice wasn't very convincing since he sounded exhausted, and judging from the sound his stomach made, hungry. "Having the desire to eat would be nice, but no, that has to be going for me nicely too, of course." He spoke to Shadow as he made his way through the wild destruction he himself inflicted, not looking fazed by the horrendous amount of damaged goods in his home.

Stepping outside, he refused to look back at Shadow and most of the trip to the warehouse was silent, with Sonic trying to hold back his tongue in fear of saying something testy. He knew it wasn't Shadow's fault at all for what was afflicting him, but he was just a tad bit on edge with everything going on and his current exhausted state. He didn't even want to run there, no matter how shocking the idea may be, and was really not looking forward to the prospect of transforming tonight.

"So, did you and Knuckles make the warehouse a shanty, cement prison to be my new, 'home sweet home'?" he finally acknowledged Shadow, knowing that the other hedgehog really had been surprisingly helpful in these past couple of days. Shadow didn't have to let him into his home when he was drenched in blood, didn't have to escort him to the forest when he was sick and on the verge of tears, and didn't even really have to help protect Tails last night. Sonic tried his best to give a weak smile as he waited for an answer.

"We made it livable," Shadow replied readily enough as he pushed the door to the warehouse open. He looked over at Sonic's exhausted face, then again at the dimly lit area they had fixed up. Shadow just hoped it wouldn't be torn up immediately by Sonic's night form the instant he showed up. They would run out of warehouses very quickly if that was the case, "That was all we could manage on such a short notice."

He strode inside, looking at the area appraisingly. Knuckles had done a good job at bolting everything to the ground and walls from the looks of things, and the echidna was now busily attempting to set up a radio line with Tails. "Make yourself comfortable," Shadow shrugged as he took a seat on the floor near the door – they hadn't bothered keeping chairs around.

Sonic walked through the doorway a few feet behind Shadow before placing his hands on his hips, taking a long look around the building after his first few steps. "Wow," he stated with a smack of his lips. "Did you guys do all this for me?" His new residence was basically bare except for a few crates and heavily dusted corners, graffiti and tags covering up the dank, moist walls. The loud dripping of a pipe sounded shamelessly through the silence in the room, Sonic taking a deep inhale of the stale air. "Talk about welcoming."

He spotted Knuckles to the side trying to make use of some type of wire, smirking as he tried to lighten his own mood. "Look at Mr. Homemaker over here; I wish I just had a camera." He took a seat a few inches away from Shadow, watching Knuckles with a bit of a growing smile. It slid away just as quickly as it came, the worry of the ever nearing sunset making him grow more and more unsettled as the minutes ticked by. Of course, he was paired up only with the two most talkative people he knew, and neither of the two seemed to be going out of their way to distract him.

It wasn't not long until Sonic became antsy, itching to do anything to relieve the tension in his mind. Looking to the other furs for an answer to his problems, he stared from Shadow to Knuckles as he chewed on his lower lip, unable to find the words to voice his growing discomfort.

Knuckles let out a faint growl, signifying his victory over the old technology he had been messing with. "You can go ahead and bite me Blue, who's a handyman now?" He smirked, quite pleased with himself over his ability to put the radio to good use. Tails would be able to key into their frequency so he wouldn't be left in the dark about his brother.

Shadow watched as slowly the walls of the warehouse slowly became painted with the soft hues of the setting sun. He eyed the echidna and nudged Sonic with his foot, "Are you ready?" He asked, interrupting the blue hedgehog before he could respond to Knuckles' goad.

Sonic didn't realize when he teased Knuckles that the sun was on its way to disappearing below the horizon; this also meant the loss of his rational thought, his memory, and whatever else came with turning into a Werehog was shortly going to take effect. He was terrified, but tried to hide this as he finally looked to Shadow in response to his question, his mouth giving a bit of a twitch.

"Uh," he watched as the sun sunk lower and lower, his thoughts obviously elsewhere as he tried to think up an intelligent answer. "I don't think I really have a choice in the matter." He laughed weakly as his eyes were wide and anxious, squirming visibly in his spot. Only a second went by before he stood, running fingers messily through his head quills; it wasn't like he really cared about how he would look considering his appearance was changing very shortly. He had never been awake in his transformation, sleeping the past two times, but he figured that it was a good sign; it mustn't be painful if he didn't wake up…right?

"I just want to say," Sonic paused before speaking, taking a deep breath as he looked back towards the two others in the room. "I just want to say I'm sorry beforehand if I...if I do something wild and," He looked thoughtful as he shyly switched his gaze to the ground while wringing his hands. "You guys are great friends." He stated this softly, looking between the two gravely, the words truly heartfelt.

The sky was beginning to turn blue and Sonic walked away, staring up at the high windows which didn't reveal much but slow moving clouds. He swallowed, his breaths becoming ragged as he looked frantically from side to side, knowing the moon would show through the glass pane very shortly.

Shadow watched Sonic alertly, standing quite the distance away with Knuckles. He judged that it was roughly the distance of Sonic's arm span in his Werehog form, if a bit more. Shadow didn't want to get gutted by a furious Sonic not five seconds after his transformation.

He felt a trickle of worry twist in his gut as he watched the shivering hedgehog. Not even the usual carefree Sonic could hide his tremors from Shadow's sharp gaze. He could see the knots of tension twisting underneath cobalt quills, Sonic's gloved hands curling into tight fists by his sides, and the telltale sign of the other's anxious jittering.

Shadow's thoughts were following Sonic's, mainly out of morbid curiosity. What would the transformation be like? Would it hurt? Would it be slow and gradual? Part of Shadow wanted the moon to hurry up and rise so his burning questions could be answered, but another, larger and more sensible part of him wanted to delay the inevitable as long as humanly possible.

He took a small step forward as he watched twitching blue ears begin to droop with worry. Shadow stilled and steeled his nerves. It was foolish for him to even think to stand even a step closer to Sonic, not when he was minutes away from turning into a frothing beast. The sentimental comfort he could offer Sonic now by standing beside him would mean very little if he was torn to shreds in the process.

He watched as the warehouse slowly darkened and the sound of Knuckles flicking on the brighter fluorescent lights echoed in the large room. Shadow stiffened instinctively when the bright beams of white light began to peak through the warehouse windows. It was time.

Like the calm before a storm, nothing happened at first, which surprised the anxious hedgehog as he fidgeted in his spot. Sonic's ear gave a twitch as he looked around, his eyes finding both Knuckles and Shadow standing off the side; the two of them looked tense, if not as much as he himself was. They just watched in silence, every member of the room holding their breath. Sonic gave them one final small resemblance to a smile until he faced the moonlight, the light slowly draping across him as he tried to face it with as much confidence as possible.

He was compelled to close his eyes and he did so peacefully, until strangely his body started to quiver... Quiver wasn't even the word; it was as if he was vibrating as his whole body was racked with shivers like sickness from a horrible fever. Sonic strained to gather a deep breath as a small noise akin to a mixture of a mumble and whimper escaped his trembling lips. The hedgehog struggled to open his eyes as he turned to face his friends, his hands clutching his head until he finally dropped to his knees, clawing at the ground desperately as his ears drooped, his breathing now wildly ragged.

The tear of clothing ripped through the room past Sonic's soft muttering, which only grew progressively louder. His small hands turned into massive clawed mitts, one of the huge palms caught in the motion of dragging across the ground, and the talons caused small slashes in the cement. His eyes snapped wide open as his fur suddenly grew longer, his teeth barred and gnashing as they, too, elongated in length. The hero's once-trimmed cobalt coat mutated to look navy and shaggy, his ears lifting from the back of his head as they too grew and curved inwards. His typically tiny fangs were now pointy and dangerous, the thick ropes of saliva returning as they already splashed to the floor.

He arched his back to accommodate the addition of muscle on various parts of his body, including his shoulders, arms, and legs; his tail even grew a bit longer and fuller in its hair. As the transformation continued, his voice reverberated gradually deeper, his small whimpers and mumbles turning to growls and snarls.

It only took a minute more for Sonic to raise on all fours, licking his lips as he watched the two other furs in front of him who were frozen in shock, a dangerous growl escaping his throat. His eyes had a feral gleam in them in the casted white moonlight. With his lids narrowed, he took a calculated step forward, side stepping as he began to move around them in a circle like an animal spotting its prey.

Knuckles's breath caught as he finally took in the Werehog everyone had been clamoring about. His barbed fists were clenched as he watched Sonic closely, not quite registering the danger they were in just yet.

"That was... pretty cool," Knuckles muttered to no one in particular, wide violet eyes glued onto the prowling Werehog that was stalking all the more closer to them.

Shadow also had to admit watching Sonic transform had been nothing short of breathtaking. Seeing the metamorphosis for himself had been astounding. The experience of Sonic's lithe body turn into that of the powerful Werehog's was not anything Shadow was likely to ever forget so long as he lived. However, he refused to be as taken in by the awe inspiring sight as Knuckles was. He had seen and been victim to some of the damage Sonic was capable of. Letting his guard down around the Werehog was practically inviting death into his lap.

"Focus, Knuckles," Shadow said sharply, shifting slightly so he could put some distance between himself and the hulking figure of Sonic. He watched as those dark, jade eyes followed his every movement and schooled his face into a mask of readiness.

The beast was calculated in his steps, moving with the grace of the perfect hunter, his ears twitching to every tiny drip from the unseen pipe in the room. In the light of the warehouse, the outline of muscle in his fur gleamed to show just what power resided under his skin now, so much different from the lean build of the hero's usual physique. The long tail behind him swept to and fro from time to time as he watched both Knuckles and Shadow for any movement; it was as if somewhere deep in his subconscious, he could remember just how formidable these two creatures were.

He was surprisingly quiet on those massive paws of his, his steps silent except for the small tap of nails on the ground. Slowly his lips pulled back into a threatening sneer, another wave of drool hitting the cement as a bark boomed through the building. He was already leaving a dribbling trail since leaving his spot of conversion.

Sonic the Werehog was waiting; waiting for the two others to make the first move before he struck. He stuck out an arm in front of him and stretched the muscle a bit in an act to show off its abilities, only to heave it back to his personal space with marks in the stone below; he was as cocky as his rational doppelganger.

"Is... Is he taunting us?" Knuckles demanded, voicing the exact thing Shadow had been thinking. The ebony hedgehog merely snorted and his ruby eyes gleamed as he eyed the Werehog.

"It would appear so," Shadow muttered, wondering if the display of power just now was the Werehog's attempt at showing off his dominance, part of Sonic's personality leaking through that wild persona, or a mixture of the two. Shadow was willing to bet the latter.

The agent kept a patient eye on the Werehog, studying the growling creature crouched in front of him. It was clear Sonic wasn't going to attack them first. At least not immediately. He seemed as if he wanted to gauge their abilities before planning out a way of attacking, just like the predator he was. Shadow's eyes narrowed and his body tensed.

If this creature had any sense of Sonic's personality though, Shadow knew that the Werehog's patience would soon run out and he would attack, regardless. Especially with hunger driving him.

Shadow had prevented the Werehog from finding its meal the previous night, and Sonic hadn't eaten much during the day. He wondered just how ravenous the beast was. Slowly, Shadow shook his head.

Regardless of the reason, they couldn't let Sonic get the advantage. They would have to attack hard and fast to keep him restrained.

"Stick to the plan," Shadow muttered to Knuckles and slowly broke away from the echidna, drawing the Werehog's attention to him as he did so. Earlier in the day when Knuckles and Shadow had been cleaning the place up for Sonic, they had come up with a plan to restrain the Werehog. They hadn't informed Sonic of it since they didn't know what the inner workings of the Werehog's mind were, but the plan was simple.

Shadow would draw Sonic away from Knuckles, giving the echidna enough room to edge around into a blind spot and grab a hold of the Werehog from behind. With any luck, Knuckles would be able to stick the Werehog with a sedative Tails had prepared for them just in case. Shadow felt a twinge of anxiousness course through him at that. He only hoped that Knuckles was strong enough to restrain the Werehog. He wasn't terribly sure now that he got a good look at the Werehog in the light.

At Knuckles's answering nod, Shadow took off abruptly, not yet moving fast enough to outstrip the Werehog.

Sonic took a deep inhale of air as he watched the two other speak softly, both ears swerving forward to focus on the sounds. The conversation was short lived as Shadow suddenly took off towards the left, setting off the trigger in the hero's muscular legs as he propelled himself off the ground to rush right after him. He moved quickly and ruthlessly, completely entranced by Shadow's thin form gliding so sleekly through the room. As he skittered a bit across the floor, he just prevented himself from colliding shoulder first into the foundation's wall, only to get a grip of his feet again. Similar to daytime Sonic after first waking up from the transformation of Werehog to hedgehog, the difference on his changing body caused inelegant movements as he adjusted to his limbs. Shadow was much faster than him in this form, which infuriated the Werehog to no end, even more so than what seemed natural to him; no doubt it was the competitiveness that he normally felt towards his older counterpart.

Sonic the Werehog did not like losing much like Sonic the Hedgehog, but he was a tad bit more violent about it.

He snarled after Shadow as he worked hard to keep up with his racing partner's skates, doing a pretty good job of it considering Shadow really had an advantage on him at the moment. As his arms stretched forward much like last night to get a hold of him, he growled in agitation as his grasp just skimmed the hedgehog's leg. He was starving, yes, but this was not what was driving the beast to go after Shadow. A different type of craze dotted his eyes as he panted wildly behind him, his tongue hanging out of the side of his mouth as he left a cascade of drool behind. Sonic recognized his scent from yesterday as soon as the Werehog became conscious, and his lips peeled back into an unusual, almost sadistic smile; it looked so unlike Sonic with those massive rows of fangs in his mouth, the hedgehog snapping his jaws in frustration as his last reach was missed once more.

Shadow swerved and dodged around Sonic's reaching hands, gritting his fangs as he ran. They were once again in a confined space, so Shadow was unable to pick up enough speed to move safely and completely out of Sonic's reach. The small advantage Shadow had gained by moving first was rapidly shrinking as Sonic became more and more accustomed to his body.

Sonic was closing in on Shadow, and the dark agent knew he couldn't avoid him forever. After all, Shadow only had so much room to work - even as large as the warehouse was, it was difficult to maneuver. Especially with such a hulky beast on his heels.

He just hoped Knuckles would be able to get into a good place soon. Shadow hadn't expected the Werehog to be able to move quite as fast as he did, so it was taking a bit more precision than they had previously expected they would need.

The hedgehog grunted slightly as a clawed hand glanced off of his side, coming far too close for his comfort. Shadow turned sharply, smirking over his shoulder as he watched the Werehog connect heavily against one of the walls. His eyes were widening a second later, however, as Sonic didn't seem to notice the impact and continued to charge after him without so much as a care.

So distracted was Shadow, he never noticed Sonic shooting out another one of those stretchy arms and catching him around the ankle for a second time until he was jerked backward in mid-stride.

The creature thought intelligently as he opted to completely drive his body off the ground, falling to the floor as well, but securely gripping Shadow's thin ankle in his mitt. He stood up on the other three as he dragged Shadow towards his burly form hurriedly, his long tail waving behind him like a flag of warning.

Shadow was brought completely underneath him and similar to last night, the creature glared down at him with sopping wet jowls. His massive fangs were pearly white at the moment, but it would be easy to imagine them coated in blood from the deer's torn esophagus a day or so ago. He licked his lips as he flipped Shadow straight onto his belly in one swift unpredictable move, only to crawl between those skinny legs and tower over him with another sinister leer across his muzzle.

He lowered his head with a soft growl to meet the side of his former rival's cheek, the sound not nearly as threatening as the ones that rumbled out from his throat previously. Air blew out of his nose after taking a deep inhale of the fur between Shadow's neck and shoulder, his warm breath exhaled onto the skin like a bull in the fighting ring. His large jaws opened up to reveal massive fangs once again, a clawed hand moving to grasp behind Shadow's head quills to hold him in place as his mouth descended to the side of his neck.

Shadow held absolutely still, holding his breath until his lungs burned for oxygen as Sonic's snuffling muzzle buried itself in his neck. He didn't like how his head was being held in such a way that his vulnerable neck was on full display to Sonic and those cruel fangs. He felt too exposed. Too trapped.

The Werehog felt Shadow wince below him, which made it all the more delicious as he softly nipped the skin, giving it a gentle suck before releasing it with a purr.

Shadow twisted his body underneath Sonic in an attempt to wriggle away from that hungry mouth, but all he managed to do was flop a bit. The Werehog had a firm grip on him, and a grunt escaped Shadow from his effort and the sensation of those wicked canines dancing around and tasting his skin.

"Any day now Knuckles," Shadow growled lowly, knowing the Guardian was already probably attempting to draw in close to the Werehog to pull Sonic off. The agent just hoped that Knuckles would get there before Sonic got tired of his little taste test and decided he was too hungry to wait.

His heart was thudding in his chest and Shadow very well thought he was going to be eaten. Shadow didn't want to admit it, but he was afraid. The position Sonic had put him in effectively kept his legs trapped and he was in too vulnerable an arrangement to even twist his head much less get away.

Soon one nip turned into two, and two fell into three, Sonic's ministrations getting a bit rougher as he was intending to leave welts on the skin. He gave another suck as he clutched the fuzzy flesh between his fangs. He changed his strategy after a few more affectionate bites, opting to give a long lick up the addicting fur of Shadow's neck, stopping over the warm thumping of his friend's pulse; his eyes dilated as he enjoyed the way he made Shadow's heart race, giving a gentle nip to it before switching to the other side of his throat, leaning Shadow's head to the opposite direction to expose the soft hair on the other side.

All while he did so, nipping and working on the expanse of muscle before him, talons gently raked their way up the side of Shadow's leg; the movement was shockingly gentle from the mitt that had once handled him so brutally, and not to mention without a doubt intimate.

Shadow was left gasping in a mixture of shock and... something else entirely as it suddenly became all too clear what the Werehog had in mind. Obviously Sonic was hungry for something other than food, and he wanted it from Shadow of all people. His pulse quickened, and he closed his eyes in an attempt to keep his breathing and heart rate under control. It didn't help any that his stomach was doing odd flips that seemed to coincide with the throbbing bruises that were sure to be forming on his neck soon.

The soft footsteps of an astonished Knuckles finally coming to life vibrated into Sonic's ear drum, the hero whipping his head up from his prey so fast to snarl at the echidna behind him, his eyes feral in possessiveness as he fought to convey his ownership of the creature below him through his glare; he was willing to fight if necessary to keep his hold on Shadow.

Needless to say, Shadow had never been happier to see Knuckles in his life, even though Sonic seemed to be thinking quite the opposite if Shadow could tell by the snarl reverberating in the Werehog's chest. Shadow could feel it vibrating against his back due to the manner in which he was pinned.

Knuckles was staring into the furious and possessive jade eyes, knowing full well that, if he didn't do something soon, the Werehog would just try to mate a resisting Shadow right then and there. Slowly he sunk down into a crouch and his lips pulled back into a challenging snarl to match Sonic's.

It probably wasn't as threatening as the Werehog's as the echidna was missing the rows of dangerous fangs, but Knuckles sincerely hoped that Sonic would deem him enough of a threat to his prospective mate that he would get up off of Shadow to take care of him. At the very least that would give Shadow enough time to get out from his compromising position.

Sonic took in the stance with a further narrow of his lids, drool dripping down between the cracks of his gritted teeth. It was a challenge that, of course, the Werehog would take - the perfect way to show off his skills to his prospective mate. His elastic arm moved out to lash out at Knuckles, infuriated when the echidna managed to get away. At this point, he figured he could always catch Shadow later to finish his intentions, the dispute far too important to let it slip away.

He finally moved off Shadow with a warning growl towards his desired, as if this would frighten him enough not to move from his spot. He turned fully towards Knuckles, the fury from earlier boiling even more due to the interruption. He moved towards him with another lash of his claws, skittering after him like he had with Shadow earlier. He didn't realize in his desire to get rid of Knuckles that Shadow was rising from his spot, despite Sonic's warning snarl.

Shadow swiftly darted over to the abandoned tranquilizer Knuckles had been carrying, growling with irritation. Enough was enough. Shadow was through dealing with Sonic's nonsense, and that last encounter was far...closer than Shadow had ever imagined it could be. He fought back a blush as he uncapped the syringe and tested it. Oh he was going to enjoy this...

He watched silently and circled around the fighting pair. Sonic was currently on the offensive, the snarling Werehog furious at the Guardian for his interruption. Knuckles was too busy avoiding Sonic's stretchy arms and massive paws to pay any mind to Shadow. That was fine, Shadow had a bit of a personal vendetta against the Werehog now... Knuckles didn't need to be in on the loop.

The Werehog was furious for the interruption on his copulation attempt, eyeing Knuckles with a hateful glare, roaring as a gargantuan hand constantly moved to thwart the echidna but to no avail. Sonic gradually tried to strategically move Knuckles closer and closer to a corner, wanting to trap his prey and do away with him before making another 'move' on his prospective mate. He took no notice to Shadow circling around them, too overwhelmed with anger as he licked his lips and gave a close snap to Knuckle's leg, as if remembering his hunger from earlier.

The dark agent waited for an opening before he, too, leapt into the fray, pouncing on the Werehog's back and jamming the syringe home into his meaty shoulder blade. Shadow let out a growl as he injected Sonic with the sedative, pulling the syringe out and neatly leaping off and to the side. He looked anxiously up at the Werehog, wondering if that was going to do the trick or not.

Tails said it was strong enough to take out an elephant or Doctor Eggman, since the two were synonymous.

Sonic didn't even realize when Shadow leapt up behind him, sticking him with something sharp. He snarled and diverted his attention from the crimson offender to snap at Shadow now, again livid at the midnight hedgehog. He growled and took a few steps closer to punish him, until his legs begun to wobble, the Werehog's ears perking in confusion as he looked around for an answer as to why. His eyesight was gradually getting dizzier and dizzier, and he was dropping without control over his back haunches. The drug worked fast; the shot sent it straight into his bloodstream, and having an empty stomach probably didn't help.

He whimpered and let out a tiny howl as he was now reduced to completely laying across the ground, his eyes half lidded and dilated wide as he began to slobber all over the immense paws his muzzle rested on.

Shadow strode over to the sedated Werehog and bent down to eye the green-eyed beast face-to-face. His lips pulled back into an angry snarl, baring his tiny fangs threateningly at the Werehog. It wasn't going to be taken seriously considering he had a certain lacking of sharp fangs. His ears pinned back as he asserted to show his dominance to the nearly comatose Werehog.

"I am no one's bitch," Shadow snarled, ruby eyes gleaming challengingly at Sonic. He held up the empty syringe, "And if you do that again, you'll be getting more of these jabbed in places that are far more unpleasant."

The Werehog had a distant look in his eyes, the emerald glassy as they tried to focus on Shadow speaking menacingly in his face. He spotted him baring his teeth but made no effort to growl, using his last bit of strength to lift his head before Shadow could back off. That large, pink tongue licked him dead on center on his lips, causing Shadow to freeze as he was drenched in slobber, before Sonic was forced to drop his head once more.

His ears drew back and he let out a befuddled whimper towards his current vulnerable position, trying his best to curl up in the present woozy state. The world was spinning and it was much easier to just close his eyes, managing to turn onto his side with his lax muscles not helping much.

He gave a twitch here or there, nothing more than that, his breathing even, regulated and a much different cry than when it was ragged. His long tongue hung limp out of his massive jaws and to the cement floor, adding to his puddle of saliva.

Shadow eyed the curled-up Werehog and had to fight the very childish impulse to kick him. A small snort by his side told Shadow that Knuckles was trying hard not to laugh at his current situation.

"I'm going to go wash his excrement off," Shadow muttered deadpanned, glaring over at the echidna. He was practically covered in saliva from his shoulders up and Shadow wondered how high this was going to drive his blood pressure to rise. He strode over to a towel, ignoring how Knuckles had fallen outright in peals of laughter, using it to dry his muzzle of Sonic's thick saliva.

Shadow went into a room at the side where Knuckles had stowed a hose they had used to wet down the main area. Peeling back soiled gloves, He turned it on with a grunt and crinkled his nose with irritation as the cold, metallic water immediately soaking through his dark pelt. He winced as the cold water thudded against the abused areas on his throat, reminding Shadow of he had gotten them. The dark hedgehog's ears pinned against his head.

Why hadn't the Werehog ripped his throat out when he had the chance? It was more than obvious Sonic the Werehog had been interested in pursuing things far more intimate with Shadow... The question was why.

His thoughts raged back and forth, considering reasons that seemed unlikely as well as illogical. Shadow's stomach twisted with uncertainty as his hand rose to rub against his abused shoulder, fingers threading through the quills on his back gingerly. All of those questions could go unanswered for now, but there was something that continued to disturb Shadow.

He should have felt angry with Sonic for violating his personal space and getting so intimate. But the fact that Shadow wasn't feeling as disturbed over that... and it was that fact that annoyed him more than the actions themselves had.

The sunlight had been shining through the warehouse for a few hours by now, illuminating the sleeping form of a cobalt figure. The hedgehog was passed out cold still on his side, drool leaking from his lips but not at all compared to the hefty amount of saliva that was there the evening just passed. A single ear would twitch from time to time, mostly from the pipe still sounding away somewhere close by. Sonic had finally gotten the sleep he desired, the two others letting him rest for a bit.

His rest was cut short without warning, Sonic's eyes snapping open as ice cold water splashed across him. He awoke with a shake of his head, feeling confusion at just why he was so dazed. He blamed it on the hunger already making itself aware by his stomach growling loudly, since he was in the dark about the sedative; but first, to get clarification about the water literally splashing into his face.

"Hey! What in the—" water began to fill his mouth humorously and he attempted to drag himself away on the ground, spitting it out besides him. He was confused to why his legs felt like lead weights, not responding well as he tried to move them so he could get away from his mystery offender.

Third day in the row to a rude awakening; Sonic was not happy. The water stopped assaulting his face when the culprit squeezed the green hose in their fist to cut off the stream, the hero looking up at an unhappy looking hedgehog.

"Shadow," Sonic shivered with the ice cold water dousing him. "I hope you have a pretty good explanation for why you just did that." He spoke eerily calm, taking a deep breath to get a hold of his temper. He told himself that it is more than likely because of something that happened last night, but this does not help his bitter thoughts much. Sonic was hungry, freezing cold, and grumpy once again. The next morning better turn out better than the previous ones or Sonic was going to flip just like his beastly doppelganger. His quills were drooping with frigid water, the hedgehog shivering as he still tried to move his legs, confused to why this was happening.

Shadow merely glared at him, holding the very hose he had used to wash himself off during the night like the weapon it was. He hadn't gotten a wink of sleep, his thoughts having run themselves into the ground and he was very, very unhappy. Shadow was incredibly tempted just to loosen his grip on the hose to let the spray continue assaulting Sonic.

"I figured that if I had to take a freezing hose shower to wash off your slobber, you won't be opposed to such treatment since you slept in the equivalent of a small pool of it," Shadow said blandly, his eyes narrowing challengingly at Sonic. This revenge was petty, but oh it felt so good...

Furthermore, he was shifting uncomfortably from the thick bandages covering his neck and shoulder. Like he had expected, the werehog's assault to his neck had resulted in rather potent hickies that could be seen even through his dark fur. Despite the fact that they were just simple bruises, Shadow rather preferred not to explain to Sonic how he had gotten the rather suggestive injuries. He just hoped his accelerated healing would get its rear in gear so he wouldn't have to walk around with the bandages any longer than he had to.

Sonic tried not to let out an angry laugh towards the ridiculous situation. He looked away with a shake of his head and a lick to his lips, trying to do away with his embarrassment with the lovely thought of slobbering all over faker. After a few moments of working with his legs, they gradually gained more and more movement, letting out a sigh of relief when he could bend both knees.

"Why couldn't I move my legs," He swallowed, hiding his nervousness with a weak smile. Sonic is already sick of this lack of control on his body at night, as well as the loss of his memory. It made him unnerved and restless with his thoughts, which was something the cool, confident hedgehog tried to avoid. Sonic waited to hear this was somehow Werehog related, dreading the outcome that was to be uttered.

He caught sight of the bandages on Shadow's neck and shoulder before quickly averting his eyes. Not wanting to bring attention to it just yet, Sonic knew he was the one to cause the wounds, fighting to swallow the daunting question; his legs aren't working quite right, and he harmed Shadow. Excellent, wonderful morning.

To top it all off, once again, Sonic was bare of any clothing. "I'm hungry." It came out fast, Sonic putting a hand to his stomach to distract these increasingly annoying thoughts. "Please tell me we have something to eat, faker."

Shadow nodded as he watched Sonic readjusting to his deadened limbs until eventually he was gained full mobility, "We were forced to sedate you became too..." Shadow struggled to find the words to describe just what Sonic had become. Horny was a good word to use, but he doubted that would help settle Sonic's mind one bit, "...wild."

"I apologize that we didn't inform you about it, but we didn't know how well the information would have been processed by the Werehog. We didn't want to lose any shred of an advantage," He tossed a towel and a fresh pair of gloves and socks to the naked hedgehog so he could dry up and get dressed, "We have food prepared in the side room for you."

Shadow kept his gaze firmly locked on Sonic, noticing very clearly that the hero was avoiding his gaze. So much the better, if Sonic avoided asking uncomfortable questions, Shadow wouldn't be forced to give uncomfortable answers. The dark agent's stomach flipped tensely as his bruised neck gave a pointed throb under his itchy bandages.

Sonic stared at Shadow for a good minute as he tossed him a towel and clothes before finding his voice again. He spoke after the clothes landed on the ground, taking the towel hesitantly. "Drugged me? You had to drug me?" This was still so surreal to Sonic, and after quickly drying himself, the hedgehog slipped on the gloves and socks. A part of Sonic was slightly annoyed that his friends actually drugged him, but they had a valid point. Sonic let it slide this one time and he swallowed down his frustration. "Alright, you have to get a picture of me like this or something, I'm dying to see what I look like." He smirked a bit despite how horrible the situation was. "Tell me, do I even scare you, faker?" he teased as he stood up on wobbly legs, but happy to see he didn't fall over when walking.

He stepped close to Shadow, now openly letting his eyes focus on the bandages he was dying to ask about. "Tell me I didn't hurt you that bad." He said, taking another step closer to try and examine it before Shadow could get away. "Let me see this, it probably looks cool." He said, obviously as a joke, wanting to make some type of light of the dreaded circumstance. The hero was without a doubt hungry, but the guilt he was feeling made him need to hear the answer to how this happened, of course to justify his actions but without failing to poke fun at Shadow.

"You were as frightening as a fountain of slobber can be," The dark racer growled at Sonic, giving his rival a 'hands off' glare.

Shadow's ears pinned back as Sonic darted in close and peeled back the top of his bandages anyway. The hedgehog was so damn grabby! He growled with frustration and took a step back, trying to keep himself out of Sonic's reach. However the blue hero persisted, obviously wanting to see if he had truly hurt Shadow or not.

"Seriously? I sound pretty kick butt in this form, obviously if I can knock you around," he noticed instantly that Shadow did not want to reveal this wound to him one bit, which of course made him smile; Sonic figured the faker knew by now just how unrelenting he could be . "Just show me, Shads. It can't be that ugly." He knew this was going to be a hard task, but he kept on pressing playfully anyway. With his speed, it wasn't hard to take a hold of one of the corners of the bandage, trying to peel it away until a swift hand caught his wrist.

"C'mon Mr. Sensitive, let me see! I can't say sorry unless I see that sucker." He said with a bit of a chuckle.

"No means no hedgehog!" Shadow growled as he swatted at Sonic, edging out of his reach. However, Sonic managed to snag the loosened part of his bandages when Shadow had let go of the hero's wrists for a split second. Shadow's continual movement backwards caused the wrappings to loosen and get pulled off. Shadow froze as his neck and shoulder became exposed and he had to fight the impulse to cover his throat with his hands. There was no use anyway.

Sonic's face was close at the time of unveiling, his eyes at first narrowed until opening in utter shock when the bandages completely came off in his fingers. Sonic was expecting a scratch, maybe a bite, a gash of some sort; there was no such affliction. There was, however, massive welts covering both sides of his neck and some on his shoulder, Sonic staring at it in silent shock for a moment. They were large and dark enough to even see through the hedgehog's midnight fur, and who ever caused them had a pair of lock jaws. His astonished stare lingered there for a while, until meeting Shadow's gaze with a rich, growing smirk.

"Who did you see last night, faker?" he asked; this was too much, Sonic having every intention of poking fun at the more serious of the two. "Silly me thinking you were here trying to help your friend." He gave him a playful push, raising an eyebrow as he waited for Shadow to come up with some sort of defensive retort, all while trying to fight the weird feeling he got in his belly at the idea of the faker taking off and leaving to see someone else; he told himself it was just from his hunger.

"I knew you'd be into this stuff!" he laughed, slapping his hands together in his hysterics, stepping back as he leaned a bit forward in his chuckling before straightening out. "Chaos, check those out. Was she a vampire or something?"

Sonic obviously had no clue of what he did to Shadow last night, continuing to laugh at the others expense unknowingly; little did he know those were the marks of a Werehog, not a vampire, quieting down enough to hear Shadow's answer.

The fact that Sonic was obliviously laughing on about the bites and hickies he had inflicted on Shadow's throat without so much as a tickling memory annoyed the dark hedgehog. Shadow knew he shouldn't take it out on Sonic since it wasn't his fault he had attacked Shadow with all the ardor of a dog in heat, but he wasn't in much of a forgiving mood while the other was busting a gut laughing over the ordeal. He snatched the bandages back from Sonic's limp grip and his lips pulled back in an aggravated sneer.

"Werehog actually. Thanks for asking," Shadow growled as he began to re-wrap his bruised throat.

The little chuckles that were slowing dying down with his laughter had disappeared at that point. Sonic gave Shadow an instantly strange look. "What?" he inquired, obviously still thinking this was a joke. "Haha, you wish." He teased, waiting for something to come from Shadow's frown to rid of the awkwardness, anything.

Shadow just glared at him, Sonic instantly noting the fury he was directing towards him, the older hedgehog looking like he was ready to tear him a new one. Sonic's smile slowly slid off, watching as he began wrapping it up with the bandages he peeled off. "You're kidding me, faker, I imagine."

Sonic hid his nervousness with weak laughter, which really didn't do much to help his cool guise. He eyed Shadow, waiting for an answer, even a cynical mutter; but Shadow just continued to glare him down, the blue hero knowing that the black hedgehog was even more pissed off than when he greeted him.

Shadow merely continued to watch Sonic, pleased to see that the hedgehog was at least starting to sweat now. Sonic knew he was in trouble. Shadow waited a very long and pregnant pause, savoring the feeling of having thrown Sonic out of his ridiculous laughing fit. He narrowed his eyes and prowled towards Sonic, ruby eyes gleaming behind a mask of no emotion.

"It seems the wilder side of you finds me appealing," Shadow growled as he eyed the rapidly paling Sonic, "A bit too much actually, enough so we had to sedate you."

The silence in the room was deafening after Shadow's booming proclamation, Sonic taking a ridged step back as his first response. A rush of thoughts went through his head as he chewed anxiously on his bottom lip, looking from left to right.

"Uh," his voice cracked softly, the hedgehog suddenly feeling so small, a far cry from his confident personality. "Wow, okay. I don't…I don't even know what to say." Before he could stop it, he flushed horribly, turning away as he tried to hide it. "Was," he's dreading the answer to this. "Was Knuckles there?"

The hedgehog was bound to tease him for as long as he lived at this rate; he could only imagine the torture Knuckles was going to dish out at him the next time he saw him, which was more than likely very soon. His heart was beating faster as his ears lowered to the back of his skull, looking up at Shadow while trying to fight off a pitiful, guilty gaze.

"Shadow, I'm sorry, I didn't have any control." Sonic spoke rather quickly and softly, his mouth suddenly dry, trying his best to explain himself. "That's…that's not me!" he said defensively; was there a tiny hint of desperation in his voice? He didn't know if he should be angry, upset, or trying to laugh it off, but one thing was for certain; Sonic was mortified.

Shadow didn't give Sonic the comfort of acknowledging his apology or desperate attempts to justify himself. He continued to watch the fidgeting hero impassively, taking secret pleasure in the other's discomfort. The reminder of Knuckles put a bit of a crimp on his joyride though, as the echidna hadn't been able to stop shooting Shadow secret, amused smirks over his shoulder.

"Knuckles saw," More than he ever likely wanted to see in the entirety of his whole life. Shadow's lips twitched in a scowl, "He's the one who got you off of me." He continued ruthlessly, deciding Sonic's feelings on the matter could go straight to hell and burn there for all he cared.

Sonic's temper was gradually rising, which did not help the shame that he was feeling previously. "You know, when someone says sorry over something that, I don't know, they don't have control over, it's usually compassionate to at least recognize it." He snapped back at him, giving a glare despite the blush weakening the effect.

"What do you want me to say? That I enjoy waking up naked and exposed, only to be greeted with a hose full of water in my face? Does that seem right? Do you think it's fair that I have to wake up with no memory to know I put moves on you; that my other friend had to tear me off of you in some ridiculous lust, only to drug me!" all the past frustration from the last few days shot from his mouth before he could rationalize. "I'm glad you're taking this like the sensible, sympathetic creature that you always are, it's making me feel a hell of a lot better!"

There was quiet between the two hedgehogs once more, Sonic tensing before taking a deep breath, the hush in the room producing a buzz in his ears. "I'm sorry," he stated, having more difficulty this time keeping the despair from his voice and face. "This is just a lot to process, I didn't mean to yell; that's obviously not the right way to apologize." He pulled at a few head quills with one hand, looking even more frustrated and ashamed for blowing up so emotionally. It certainly didn't help his case as trying to pass this off as nothing. "I just want food." He turned around, unable to look at the other anymore as he moved to the other room, feeling like his embarrassment and the tension was choking him along with the weight of Shadow's stare.

Shadow sighed as he realized Sonic did have a very valid point. He was simply aggravated after running off of two days of no sleep and elevated levels of stress. Relaxing was a luxury that Shadow very much enjoyed, and his body had grown used to being able to sleep at night. The adjustment would take some getting used to. Be as that may he had no reason to take his frustrations out on Sonic, prime a target as he was.

On top of everything else, the whole ordeal with the Werehog's advances had unsettled him all night long. Shadow had been jumpy the entire night during his watch, whenever the Werehog gave a grunt or twitch, and not for reasons the dark hedgehog was familiar with. It was almost as if he had been... excited, interested... intrigued.

Why hadn't he cared so much about the Werehog's intimate touches? Shadow should have been attempting to blow Sonic's brains out against the wall with any blunt instrument he could get his hands on. That was the reasonable and logical reaction one would have had when they were faced with the prospect of being forcibly mated by a creature about roughly three times the size and girth of himself.

What was aggravating Shadow was the fact that he wasn't all that bothered by it. The idea of being with Sonic in that way wasn't nearly as repulsive as he originally thought it would be... It hadn't been rough and the Werehog hadn't been trying to mistreat him. That wasn't a typical forcible mating. No, the Werehog had been gentle and protective. Ridiculous as the thought was, Shadow couldn't help but wonder what would have happened had Knuckles not interfered. Would Shadow have consented to the Werehog's slobbery advances...?

Shadow was afraid of what the answer could be. The knowledge that he didn't know for a fact what he would have decided was all the more annoying, as that left an uncertainty factor he could not predict.

He eyed the blue hedgehog before him, deciding that perhaps a truce was in order so they wouldn't try to kill one another before lunch. His ears flicked slightly and he turned his head towards the side room where he had retrieved the hose, "Your food is in there."

Sonic heard Shadow's voice behind him and he halted with a wince, taking his time to turn back around on his heel. He stood there, his ear twitching timidly as he shyly looked over towards Shadow. "You comin' with?" inquired Sonic quietly; a small smile accompanied by light pink on his muzzle was thrown the agent's way, rubbing his arm out of further nervousness. "I promise not to slobber on you this time."

It was his own way to show he truly felt horrible for what he attempted on Shadow. The embarrassment was what really got to the hero, knowing deep down exactly why he so eagerly tackled Shadow in choice of a mate. He could tell himself all he wanted that it meant nothing, that this strange Werehog form was just in heat, but it was all just a lie to make himself feel better.

He just knew somewhere, at least in a few parts of him, he liked Shadow just a bit too much. Sonic of course never planned on telling the other hedgehog this, these feelings being harbored to in privacy.

"I could eat a horse," he threw Shadow a playfully pointed look as they made their way to the other room. "Don't respond to that, by the way. What did you and Knux get to eat?"

Shadow kept stride with Sonic, the soles of his jet shoes clicking against the hard warehouse floor. It sounded so loud in comparison to Sonic's socked feet silently padding across the ground. He turned to look at the hero, pushing open the creaking door and walking over to the rickety table. He was purposefully not going to think about the Werehog or Sonic slobbering all over him. It had taken an extremely long time for all that saliva to get removed from his fur.

"Knuckles went to the grocery store about an hour ago to get us something to eat. Tails came over early to drop off your breakfast," Shadow grabbed a paper plate that had an aluminum cover over it. The fox hadn't lingered long as he still had work to do. Tails had wanted to wake up Sonic to say good morning, but Shadow had firmly insisted that he just leave. Sonic hadn't gotten anywhere the amount of sleep he needed over the past few days, and who knew when Sonic would next be able to get to rest.

Shadow crinkled his nose with disgust and crimson eyes narrowed as he surveyed the hot plate in his hands, "Smells like that radioactive chili dog nonsense you enjoy." Shadow pushed the plate over to Sonic, obviously having absolutely no appetite for it.

He was trying not to think about Sonic's previous comment concerning Shadow's habit of being rather callous. The hero was hotheaded, but he didn't typically lose his temper like he had, even if Shadow had been needling him. Sonic was under a lot of stress, and Shadow wasn't helping with his harsh comments and attitude. Shadow was still annoyed and holding a grudge, but he could keep it to himself until they managed to get everything under control.

Shadow wondered if he was still capable of compassion. Obviously he was having difficulty expressing it to the terrified faker. He distractedly threw a bundle of napkins at Sonic, knowing the hedgehog was about to make a mess with his foul smelling food.

After picking one of the chairs for a spot, Sonic watched as napkins landed haphazardly across the table top, some falling to his lap. Shadow showed him his back and Sonic thought he might have detected a thoughtful look in Shadow's eyes before turning away completely; it was almost as if his thoughts were elsewhere. Before Shadow could face back to spot his ogling, Sonic quickly diverted his vision and reached towards the plate sitting directly before him, his stomach alerting him with a growl. He unwrapped the foil only to stare down at the meal Tails had so sweetly brought over for him, sitting still in his seat as he made no action to move.

It was made exactly the way he liked it; there were four of them doused in chili, a little shredded cheddar on top since Tails' was the lover of extra cheese, with onions and peppers sprinkled in the mix. They were still warm thanks to the tin foil, sitting there, begging to be finally eaten…and Sonic just stared.

After a few moments, he narrowed his eyes and took one to pick it up, giving it a sniff. He inspected it, turning it over in his hand and examining every angle of his favorite food before setting it back down on the plate with wide eyes.

"I don't want this." It was muttered in a whisper. He couldn't even stop the words from coming out of his mouth, looking as shocked as the hedgehog across from him.

Slowly Shadow's head jerkily turned almost as if it were made of wood. Ruby eyes fell first on Sonic, then on the chili dogs the hero was so notorious for loving. He merely stared at Sonic for a long moment and then his eyes abruptly narrowed.

"Excuse me?" Shadow asked, almost as if he hadn't heard correctly. Sonic was lifting his nose to chili dogs. Sonic the Hedgehog was turning down the food he was absolutely and heartedly in love with. It didn't even sound right in a sentence. Shadow's eye twitched slightly and he growled slightly, "You haven't eaten in nearly three days. What's stopping you from inhaling them like you typically do?"

He frowned slightly, wondering if perhaps Sonic wasn't feeling so well after all. Perhaps turning into a Werehog had other side effects aside from overactive salivary glands; Shadow couldn't help but be a bit worried over this particular development.

"I don't know," he looked as confused as Shadow. "It just doesn't look right, doesn't smell right; it just doesn't look," he paused as he tried to think of the right word. "Appetizing to me right now."

He picked up another one with a clearly upset frown, as if he was racking his brain to understand where this sudden dislike was coming from, trying to hide his despair. Chili dogs were his favorite food, he had eaten two at least once a day for years; it was like a fix for the hero. But he just couldn't stomach them, and he put it to his lips as they trembled, willing himself to take one bite, before letting it fall to the plate whole.

"What else do you have?" he was up in a blur and already at the fridge before Shadow could answer, digging through the food with reemerging hunger. He picked out a bunch of radishes, making an openly disgusted face. With every vegetable and fruit, he went out of his way to completely ignore or even grimace at until spreading every disinteresting item away from the shelf, his eyes widening at his find.

It was a steak, wrapped in plastic and Styrofoam, looking unsuspicious as it did raw; Sonic crouched in his spot, ears perked forward and his eyes wide. His tongue licked his lips but he said nothing to Shadow, watching the piece of meat as if it would spring legs and try and get away.

Shadow quirked an eyeridge as he watched the hero clean the refrigerator of its content except the steak he had been planning on making himself for lunch. It was clear what Sonic had his eyes on and Shadow sighed, reaching over his rival's shoulder to pluck the steak from its spot in the fridge. He waved it in front of Sonic's face with a snort of amusement, watching as jade eyes followed its every movement.

"I wasn't aware you were such a picky eater faker," Shadow muttered as he walked away from the refrigerator with the steak, aware of Sonic on his heels like a hungry animal. It appeared as though Shadow was looking forward to a lunch of frothing and uranium soaked chili dogs while Sonic enjoyed his steak. Shadow resisted the urge to roll his eyes. Only Sonic could manage to stop eating for so long and then finally decide to empty the fridge in a hunt for something 'appetizing.' He was such a drama queen.

As Shadow purposefully wriggled the meat in front of his face, he literally had to suppress the urge to pounce forward and yank it out of his grasp with his teeth. Shadow dangled it tauntingly from his fingers, the hedgehog sniffling yet never taking his eyes away from it, even as Shadow moved to the counter for what Sonic assumed to prepare it.

"I'm," he clearly sounded distracted by the beef sitting defensively in the open, still in its wrapping. "I'm normally not picky at all." With the hero's metabolism, he was a living garbage can when it came to food, eating how much of whatever he wanted. With force, he tore his eyes from the source of his desire to Shadow, his eyes instantly switching to those bandages on his neck; jeez, he felt like a wild animal.

He stood about a foot away from Shadow and the juicy steak on the counter, crouching so he was eye level with the ledge. "I want that." He finally admitted out loud, licking his lips to prevent himself from salivating much like his doppelganger.

"Really, I couldn't tell," Shadow muttered dryly. Seeing how Sonic was eyeing the steak with all the lust of a starved man, Shadow scowled slightly and began to heat up a pan, "Chaos Sonic, at least let me introduce the steak to fire before you attack it, packaging and all." Keeping one eye on Sonic and another on the steak, Shadow carefully began to discard the steak of its wrappings.

If he didn't know any better, he would have thought Sonic would simply attempt to steal the steak and run off with it. Whether to eat it or elope, Shadow really didn't know at this point. He threw some spices in the mix and tossed the steak on the pan, watching it as it sizzled as it was slightly more entertaining than the drooling hedgehog that was hovering nearby.

After a beat, Shadow's gaze flickered over to Sonic, he wasn't going bother asking how the hero wanted it done. The carnivorous look in the hedgehog's eyes was somewhat akin to what Shadow had seen in the Werehog's hungry gaze. Thus it wasn't too far of a leap for the agent to assume Sonic wanted his steak rare done. If even that.

Sonic bit his lip and his ears folded back to his cranium, taking a deep inhale as it fragrantly sizzled in the pan Shadow chose before placing it on the hot coil. His stomach let out an audible growl and the hero had enough embarrassing himself for the day, not thinking it could get anyway worse, what with the previous announcement of lustfully attacking Shadow; the horribleness of this day was proved further with his display of animalistic hunger towards the meat. With one more longing look toward the meat, he stood up and made his way reluctantly to the table.

He sat back down in his previous spot, his eyes constantly looking back to Shadow from the corner of their vision to watch him cook it, the smell driving him internally hysterical. One hand tapped in an antsy fashion on the wood, a show of his usual impatience, the other patting his jiggling leg. It was taking all the power in the usually controlled hedgehog to not stand up and rip it out of the pan and eat it raw; he needed some decency and pride by the end of the day. One ear would twitch from every crackle and sound of the charring meat being turned over, giving in to looking over his shoulder as his anxiety became more apparent as the minutes ticked by.

"You don't have to cook it for long," stated Sonic hurriedly, feeling like the other had been cooking on the stove for hours. He looked over at the clock on the device Shadow stood before; it had only been about seven minutes.

Shadow sighed and looked vaguely back at the impatient hedgehog, and then he turned back to the stove to finish the steak. Whether Sonic liked it or not, the dark racer wasn't going to give him the steak raw and further damage his already starved system. Shadow could survive without sustenance for quite a while, but Sonic on the other hand could not, and he wasn't planning on adding food poisoning to the list of Sonic's ever growing problems.

He didn't need Sonic's vomit on him in addition to his drool.

The sounds of Sonic's anxious shifting from behind him grew all the more pronounced until it got to the point where Shadow couldn't ignore it any longer. The meat was still mooing, but Shadow supposed it was good thoroughly enough so Sonic wouldn't run the risk of spending the rest of the day on a toilet. He put the steak on a plate and strode over to Sonic, "Would you like utensils, or would you prefer to eat it with your hands alone?" His lips pulled at the corner in a smirk.

Sonic blinked up at the ceramic plate in Shadow's grasp, thinking to himself for a moment. 'That's actually a good—' he cut himself short before the word 'idea' could filter through his mind, his eyes narrowing in annoyance.

"Oh, haha; it's not like I haven't eaten for days or anything," he stuck his tongue out playfully when the plate was placed in front of him, looking down at the steak as if it were a precious artifact. The hero switched his gaze back up to Shadow with wide eyes before he stood for a fork and knife. "Thank you."

He wasted no time as he used his speed to his advantage, standing up and grabbing utensils in a flash before he was back in his seat, slicing the steak crudely. A deep breath was taken by the hedgehog to suppress his hands from trembling, again licking his muzzle to prevent himself from drooling. He couldn't believe how much saliva was rushing from his throat to his mouth, his pupils dilating as the meat in his hold couldn't even be cut fast enough by his standards.

Sonic punctured his fork into a large wedge of the beef and frowned at the 'squish' the action produced, watching tiny rivers of blood leak from the piece as he lifted it off the plate. His stomach again growled for care so Sonic stuck the cut into his mouth, chewing it before swallowing it.

Soon one piece became two, two became three before Sonic was eating it ravenously, the normally talkative hedgehog not once looking up at his rival as he dug in animatedly, completely too focused on the meal before him to pay any care to Shadow.

Shadow watched with a mixture of fascination and awe as Sonic devoured his food. Rolling his eyes, he turned towards the abandoned chili dogs and took one, wrinkling his nose with disgust as he took a bite. He would have to eat lunch sooner or later, even if he didn't want to submit his internal body to the sickening lava that was a chili dog.

He watched as Sonic polished off his plate, quirking a slow eyeridge, "Please don't tell me that you're still hungry. That steak was large enough for two meals." He rapped his fingers idly against the table, taking his time to chew the sloppy meal. Shadow supposed it was... edible. He got up to fill two glasses of water and pushed one towards the satisfied looking hero. Taking a sip of his water, Shadow eyed Sonic idly, he was glad this warehouse was fully equipped for them to crash in. It might not be the most glamorous of places, but at least it had enough working appliances to get rid of the need for them to make too many trips out and draw attention to this place. The less people who knew they were here the better, and now that they knew that this place could withstand a Werehog attack that made it all the more valuable.

Shadow took in the hero's posture. Sonic looked a bit relaxed, if a bit damp from the cold shower he had received earlier in the morning. He leaned an elbow on the table and set the glass down, keeping his gloved fingertips slowly tracing the rim. He focused instead on the glass half empty, looking through it to see Sonic's distorted image through its plastic-like coating – there would be no actual glass stored in the warehouse should the Werehog get a bit rambunctious.

"How're you feeling?" Shadow asked before he could stop himself, never once pulling his gaze away from his cup to look at the hedgehog he was addressing. He closed his eyes and breathed out through his nose, feeling far more conflicted than he had a mere day ago. One full day ago the biggest extents of his problems were the fears that someone would walk in on him while he was reading his sappy romance novel. Now he was here with Sonic, a cursed hero who morphed into an insane Werehog come sunset.

Despite what he might deny, he was worried about the other. There was only so much stress one could take before they reached a breaking point.

Sonic pushed the plate away, finishing the massive slab of meat impressively quick, letting out a content sigh as he patted his full stomach under the table.

"Not bad, Shads," he eyed the chili dogs that were supposed to be his, picking at his teeth a bit with a finger. "Can't stop feeling like you got the better end of the deal." The hero scowled lightly, still upset with his yearning to eat his most precious of meals, but still not being able to bring himself to do it. "I'm plenty full by now."

"I know you're not a fan of those," he motioned towards the food Shadow was taking his time eating, leaning over to a point a paw towards the other. "But Tails learned how to cook those from the best." Sonic's usual grin sprang across his face as he put a thumb to his chest, a refreshing sight in these past few hectic days.

It fell quiet after that, Sonic letting Shadow eat as he tried his best not to focus on those bandages standing blaringly out against his ebony fur. He felt his heart beat strangely fast as he sat back and tried his best to hide his snooping, switching up from his fingers entwined together beneath the furniture to the hidden bruises when he sure Shadow wasn't looking.

For some strange reason, despite the embarrassment those forgotten lustful actions produced, a part of him strongly desired that Shadow wore those welts proudly, like he himself had given Sonic permission to afflict them. He had to fight back a visible flinch as he reminded himself that they weren't at all like that, the courageous blue hero even too frightened to bring them up again in conversation; he imagined Shadow was bitter, possibly even appalled by the idea by them, and his once satisfied stomach twisted painfully.

How could he blame him? At night, he turned into this raging, drooling beast that seemed to not have an ounce of moral or social decency; how could he expect Shadow to enjoy that? Sonic was sure even a tough fighter like himself would keel over if Shadow knew those actions were feelings he harbored locked away somewhere in his psyche, struggling to escape and only finding release through his strange transformation.

He heard Shadow's voice and replied as quickly as possible as he geared away from such thoughts. "Uh," he thought for a moment. "Full and content, happy to say." His stare, which was trained hard on the hands in his lap, suddenly looked back up at Shadow modestly. "How about you?"

It seemed like the rational thing to say, considering Shadow had been nice enough to ask; it was a rarity Sonic wanted to continue, and he hoped it coaxed away these agonizing thoughts that Shadow might be judging him by the intimate kisses he attacked him with. The hero felt slightly guilty as he remembered his harsh words from earlier, frustrated at losing his temper in a time of stress. He was usually so trained, so good at taking the initiative as a leader, being that firm column for people to lean against; to use him for guidance and safety, never one to give into his anxieties. Although yes, this did involve those dead Chaos Emeralds now residing in Tails work shop that were oh so important to the GUN agent, Shadow really didn't have to stick around, help control him, take his horny pent up frustration coming out in the form of a ravenous beast, let alone cook him a steak.

He was slightly envious of his doppelganger. Sonic, who turned away from no fear (except from water) felt like his pride was burned; that the slobbering wolf of a creature could make a move on faker before he. He wondered, what did Shadow feel like? Was his fur as soft as he imagined? How did he taste? Another part of him currently concealed during the light of day sure as hell knew, Sonic contemplated sourly.

Sonic quickly again tried to rid of these ideas, hoping it didn't show on his face as he waited for the other's answer.

Ears twitching at the delayed answer, Shadow eyed Sonic silently. His lips twisting at the corners into a dry smirk as he contemplated his answer. To be honest, he wasn't doing nearly as bad as he could be, in that he didn't turn into a salivating Werehog when the sun set. So if Sonic was doing decently well, then Shadow had no room to complain, "Content as I can be given the situation," He replied easily enough.

Shadow's deep gaze returned to his glass, watching slightly as the surface of his water rippled and fluttered out towards the edges of the cup. "Hm..." He frowned as he noticed how odd that was, he hadn't so much as touched the glass, he eyed Sonic's shifting feet, deciding the hedgehog must have kicked the table. Distracted, Shadow took a sip and scratched at his bandages.

The sound of the warehouse door being lifted up filled Shadow's ears and he let out a soft groan as he realized Knuckles had returned from his errands. The echidna strode into the kitchen and smirked over at Sonic, violet eyes gleaming with mirth as he took in Sonic's disheveled state. It was obvious that the events from the previous night were playing through the Guardian's head, and Shadow knew there was no point in attempting to threaten Knuckles into silence. That would be as effective as intimidating a door knob.

"I bet you slept well," Knuckles looked over at Sonic with mirth as he reloaded the fridge with things they were bound to need.

Sonic lifted his own glass as Shadow inspected his, not really paying mind to the shudder since he was busy taking a sip anyway. The sound of the massive, steel door leading to the building being pulled up and slamming down to the cement floor scent a shockwave of dread through Sonic, his face showing such. His ear twitched and he looked over his shoulder at the ever nearing form of Knuckles before switching quickly back to Shadow sheepishly, feeling like he should say sorry, anything to somehow make up for the teasing the both of them were probably going to endure.

Knuckles and Sonic had always taken punches at each other, both physically and verbally, in part of their competitive friendship and he was preparing himself for the abuse to his pride he was about to be suffering shortly. He looked down at his hands now crossed on the table before switching a pointed look in the echidna's direction when he dared to utter such a phrase, his tongue gleaming over the teeth hidden behind his lips in silent annoyance. He didn't respond to the statement at first, finding clever comments seemed to escape him at first as he tried to think of one appropriate.

"As well as one can sleep as a drug induced werewolf trying to suck at your rivals neck, I assume; not that I'd know with the lack of memory, really." Might as well get rid of that elephant standing awkwardly in the room. He stood with a skid of the chair behind him, taking his plate and depositing it into the sink with a frigid air. "Hope you got plenty of meat, I'm one hungry wolf it seems." He shot half jokingly, but not without a spiteful glint in his eye towards the red fur. He was at this point ignoring Shadow desperately, not able to look at him as he tried greatly to hide his humiliation.

"So in other words you slept like you normally do," Knuckles drawled, leaning against the counter. He picked out a bag of grapes and eyed Blue as he popped one in his mouth. He chewed thoughtfully and smirked, "Although I gotta admit Sonic, I didn't know you had those types of moves in you. Very bold – not that I need the pointers."

Shadow merely ducked his forehead in his palm, feeling rather like he wanted instead to do anything else besides relive the previous night. Even rolling around on broken shards of glass was a notch higher than having Knuckles tease Sonic for his behavior last night. Especially since the net of torment was wide enough to drag Shadow into its grasp. There was no escape.

Sonic instantly went flustered, pink undeniably washing across his muzzle. He tried not to gnash his teeth as he let out an angry breath of air through his nose, feeling tempted to grab that bag of grapes and throw them at the echidna.

"Bet you enjoyed watching, Knucklehead." The usually unmovable hero spat, moving forward to push a muscular shoulder. "I'll try to keep it private next time, unless Shadow doesn't mind the show." Turning on his heel with one more nasty glare towards Red, he went back to his seat to flop back into his spot, shutting his lids to still avoid looking at the other hedgehog. He ran a hand through his damp quills with a frustrated sigh, trying to pat down some of the loose strands. Sonic had little success and he literally just dropped his forehead to the wood with a small 'thud'; one could imagine the annoyed, wavy lines that would have appeared above his messy quills if this were a cartoon.

"Don't drag me into this foolishness," Shadow said shortly, his heart giving a rather strange flutter at Sonic's last statement. What did that stupid Faker mean by 'keeping it private unless Shadow didn't mind'? His thoughts spun with the suggestions and Shadow took to glaring a hole into Sonic's forehead.

"Well someone has to chaperone you frisky kids," Knuckles snorted, not at all affected by Sonic's glancing shove. He folded his arms over his chest, even as he popped another grape in his mouth. Obviously the echidna was delighting in Sonic's discomfort. The fact that Shadow was also subject to his teasing was only an additional bonus.

Sonic finally lifted his head. "Don't you have an emerald to make love to?" the hedgehog declared defensively, quickly cutting off his response with another inquiry. "Do I have an extra pair of sneakers anywhere? As much as I adore spending time in some moist, stinking cement prison, I would love for some fresh air."

"What was this place originally, anyway? Some type of hangar?" he was curious, wondering just why it was abandoned. His feet were firmly on the ground and a small shudder just barely glimpsed under his socks, not thinking much of it; maybe the place was falling apart, it seemed feasible.

"Yeah, the same place where you left them yesterday" Shadow snorted and jerked his head back into the room they had been in previously. He was certainly glad Sonic had managed to divert the attention away from the fiasco that had been last night's display of debauchery and onto topics that were a bit more G-friendly.

Knuckles jerked his head, disappointed the game had been deterred for the moment but deciding to let it go for now. He could always bring it up again for another round of teasing, there would no doubt be plenty of opportunities, "Tails looked up the license for this place while we were setting things up. Apparently this place used to be some kind of butchery. We haven't had a chance to explore a lot of it, but there's supposedly even a huge meat locker." His lips twitched slightly, "So yeah Sonic. If you get really hungry we can store your meals there."

"I wouldn't see the point of going there. Sonic isn't going to be a Werehog long enough for that place to be of any use to us," Shadow muttered. He on the other hand had stilled slightly at the mention of the meat locker. That wasn't knowledge he had been made aware of when selecting the place to contain Sonic. His frown deepened slightly and his fingers tapped against his arm, not at all willing to go anywhere near something that could simulate the freezing effects of a stasis chamber. Those feelings were just a bit too haunting for Shadow to handle and he was going to draw the line somewhere before it became an issue.

"Sounds perfect; y'know, I could of swore I smelt this scent of dead animal that just wafted in the air here. What a fitting place for a Werehog." Jade eyes rolled in their sockets. Shadow looked unhappy at Knuckle's previous statement, but the blue hedgehog decided to spare himself being berated at even mentioning Shadow looked anything resembling upset, the black hedgehog probably not wanting to speak of it anyhow. He stood from his spot again, running his fingers through the back of his head quills with a stretch and a sigh.

"Alright, I think you both saw enough of me last night, I'm heading out of here." He moved towards the doorway, looking over his shoulder. "Try not to miss me too much." He winked back at both of them before making his way towards his shoes, wanting to get out of their before Knuckles could continue the teasing he probably wanted to dish out further on the hero.

As soon as Sonic was out of earshot, Shadow turned towards Knuckles impassively, his face an unreadable mask. He waited a beat, ears straining as he listened for the crack of a sonic boom, signifying the blue hero was well on his way and had no chance of coming back in to overhear the conversation.

Knuckles was still chuckling quietly, obviously thinking something to himself that would make Shadow a very unhappy hedgehog. Thus Shadow chose not to think about whatever the Guardian was and decided to get down to business. It was clear that thanks to the Werehog's previous actions the night before, they would have to take measures to ensure something like that didn't happen again. This time Sonic would be expecting to wake up slightly drugged. However while the plan remained the same, they would change it up a bit...

Shadow did not want to find himself in a powerless situation like he had been in last night. Being trapped underneath the Werehog had forced Shadow to think of things he had no business contemplating. Such was his nature and Shadow was comfortable with the way things were.

"The instant Sonic comes back, we're going to drug him," Shadow said flatly, "Without warning. Hopefully that'll be enough to keep him properly sedated throughout the night."

Knuckles started at the abruptness of Shadow's declaration, looking over at him in surprise, "And how do you suppose we do that? I'm not going to be the one chasing that hyperactive nut around with a syringe." He knew as well as Shadow did that Sonic's first reaction would be to get the heck out of dodge before he could be properly drugged.

"I don't care what we have to do to pacify him," Shadow growled, "Sprinkle it on his steaks or give it to him as an enema – just so long as he doesn't have the ability to tear up this place."

Knuckles looked thoughtful for a moment, popping another grape in his mouth as he made a face. "Sprinkling some in his food should work fine enough; knowing his appetite, another steak will work just fine. He's not going to be happy when he finds out." He warned, but Knuckles couldn't help but smirk. "But I don't blame you for worrying, Shadow."

Shadow threw him a thick glare before standing up himself, already sick of enduring Knuckles sneers alone; besides, he thought, he had to get back to his home for a bit.

He had some reading to do.

It was growing late by the time Shadow returned to the warehouse with a backpack full of supplies and various kinds of meats. Now that it was obvious that Sonic couldn't stomach anything other than red meat, they would have their work cut out for them to accommodate his changing diet.

Arriving before Sonic was imperative, so he wouldn't find out about Shadow lacing his food with drugs – or "happy pills" as the dark agent preferred to call them. Regardless of their name, it should make the Werehog docile enough not to want to hump him, and sleepy enough to tamely curl up for the night.

He strode in, giving Knuckles a noncommittal grunt of acknowledgement before throwing a steak on a pan. Shadow folded his arms over his chest and glared at an interesting crack on the wall, not wanting to pay any attention to his current task. He added the regular seasoning, combining it with a liquid form of the drug which was injected into the meat itself. Cooking Sonic steaks was not a habit Shadow wanted to get into and he rather hoped Sonic didn't get used to the treatment. An annoying snort of laughter by his side told Shadow that Knuckles was finding the scene rather entertaining.

"You know what would complete this lovely image of a fifties housewife waiting for her husband to come home?" Knuckles spoke up, knowing Shadow had caught him with his snickering, "An apron and a warm tray of cookies."

Shadow gave Knuckles a heavy glare laced with differing levels of poison, "You know full well the reason why I'm making this for Sonic," he defended himself, somewhat annoyed that he even had to considering their situation. All the while, Shadow tried not to picture himself as a fifties housewife, it was an image that was far too haunting for him to even consider, and the fact that Knuckles had managed to think it up only made the situation worse.

"Yeah, yeah, to drug Sonic," Knuckles looked at Shadow in boredom, dismissing the agent's explanation, "But the way you seem to know how he likes his steaks done makes it seem as though you've cooked for him before." He hinted.

Quills bristling slightly, Shadow glared over at the echidna sourly, "He was going to eat the steak completely raw if I didn't cook it for him."

Knuckles looked vaguely surprised for the moment at Shadow's admittance and chuckled, shaking his head so his headquills flared out by his sides.

"Face it Shadow, you're just as soft as Sonic is. If not more so," The echidna smirked at the way Shadow had turned the full intensity of his glare on him. Shadow for one, found himself honestly wishing for the company of Sonic over Knuckles's teasing presence. He didn't know how much longer he would be able to take it.

Shadow removed the steak from the pan and set it on a dish, coating it with another layer of the drug. It was fairly odorless and colorless from what Shadow could tell, and in theory Sonic shouldn't be able to notice it aside from a metallic aftertaste – and the blood from the steak would take care of that. He sighed and covered the meal up to keep it hot and waited for Sonic to return.

About twenty minutes or so had gone by before the door to the warehouse swung upwards, clattering as it met the ceiling. The blue hero walked in with a glare towards his surroundings; still dank, still clammy and dusty, still not appealing and most of all, still the last place he wanted to be on the planet.

Sonic had, again, taken the liberty to basically run and participate in a slew of physical activities the whole day, only making a stop by Amy's residence to check up on his little brother. Tails had been surrounded by numerous leather-bound and thick books, some applying to science while others were inclined to the lines of folklore.

"Werewolves in legends have been around for ages, differing by culture. Some account loss of memory when in the Wereform, some don't," Tails flipped the pages to a colossal novel before him, looking up to his older sibling across from him hesitantly. "Many are documented as going into a depressed, nervous state; experiencing weakness, melancholy thoughts in their normal form."

Sonic sighed, lifting the glass of water that Amy had very nicely given him, giving a shrug. "I'm fine, Tails, honestly... Seriously, I've faced worse."

The small fox closed the book and pushed it away, continuing to watch Sonic with bright azure eyes. "How did last night go?"

The blue hedgehog's ears folded to the back of his head; he had no intentions of retelling his embarrassing situation, to Tails no less. "It went fine, they managed to restrain me, and no one was harmed." Shifting in his seat a bit, he prayed his younger brother didn't sense just how uncomfortable the conversation was making him.

'No one was harmed; rather just my dignity. Although someone got a few nice bruises out of it,' Sonic bit his lip, trying to make light of it but held in his laughter to himself, raising his glass to his lips in a better means to hide it.

Tails didn't take much notice, flipping through another book sitting on the table. "That's good to hear."

"And the Chaos Emeralds?" questioned Sonic, standing from his seat; he didn't even need to gaze over at the clock to know it was about time for him to return back to cement prison.

"Not much on them, so far." Sighed Tails, running his fingers through his bangs in agitation. "I'm trying my best."

Sonic beamed over at his brother before making his way over, taking him into a tight embrace. "You always do." His own hand shook through the other's fringe, as Tails gave a giggle.

"Of course," he said with a smile, but he grew somber. "Take care, will you?"

Sonic's grin only grew, paired with a wink. "I always do." Not much else was said before Sonic took off, making sure to avoid Amy, who had greeted him earlier with her usual fawning. The blue hedgehog made his way back to the warehouse, trying to mentally prepare for what he had struggled to forget all day; number one and most importantly, he was turning into a Werehog later that evening. Number two, Shadow was there, currently marked with his hickies, not very happy about the circumstance. And of course, number three; there was Knuckles, who would pounce on any situation to make Sonic uncomfortable, who had witnessed the whole event.

He approached the kitchen a bit timidly, looking inside with his ears perked and a curious face before stepping in. His two friends were sitting at the table, as if waiting for the cobalt fur to return, Sonic moving in slowly with a growing sneer.

Shadow sighed with relief when Sonic made his grand reappearance. He and Knuckles hadn't spoken much, as they were both Mobians of very few words, and obviously Knuckles had grown tired of his game. Apparently Shadow was less fun to tease than Sonic, and for that the ebony hedgehog was forever grateful.

"Look at you two, waiting for me to return. So adorable," the hedgehog looked the plate sitting right before the empty seat available to him, turning to the only echidna of the group.

"What's up with you, Knucklehead?" before red could respond, he waved him off. "Yeah, yeah, interesting." He turned to Shadow, gradually leaning over the top of his chair, an eyebrow raised as he brought himself close to the other. Obviously he had detected the steaks' presence.

"For me?" his grin grew conniving before he stepped back and slid his chair out from the table, taking a seat before lifting the cover off. "I hope you made it the way I like it."

Shadow glared over at Sonic and chewed on the inside of his cheek to bite back a sarcastic reply, "You mean hardly cooked and fresh from the butchery?" He scowled slightly and gave Sonic a dry look, "Don't get used to the treatment Faker."

Sonic smirked up at his black companion, taking the fork and knife placed on either side of his plate. "You know me all too well." He didn't speak much after that, happy to dig in, cutting off a chunk and placing it into his mouth, chewing with a shrug. The hero obviously could not taste the narcotic, also undaunted by the blood that had leaked from the slab of meat, speaking with his mouth full.

"How was your play date when I was gone?" he swallowed, giving a soft laugh. "I can imagine you guys chewed each other's ears off." The blue hero wouldn't be surprised to hear the truth that they didn't spend an ounce of the day together, since neither seemed fond nor hateful towards one another. Sonic continued to feast happily on his meal, looking between them for an answer.

"I went to check up on the Master Emerald," Knuckles shrugged as if it was obvious, turning to look out the windows and making a point not to watch Sonic eat his meal. The echidna could hardly believe they had just roofied Sonic, but desperate times called for desperate measures. While Sonic was sure to be pissed come morning, Knuckles knew the other would eventually get over it.

Shadow on the other hand simply joined Sonic at the table, unconcerned by the events or by the fact that he was responsible for drugging his rival yet again. "I went home to pick a few things up and take a proper shower," He eyed Sonic casually, "I take it you went to visit Tails and Amy?"

That much was obvious. Sonic had to reassure Tails that everything had gone alright, despite the fact that Knuckles had set up a system so Tails could monitor the area. Shadow very much doubted the technologically challenged echidna had managed to succeed in that endeavor, so the poor fox had no doubt been left in the dark for a majority of the night. Tails would most likely have to come by and fix the system himself sometime soon.

Sonic nodded, continuing to cut his meat into pieces he was able to swallow, taking a sip of the water available to him. "Yeah, I stopped by, talked to Tails a bit; not much on the Chaos Emeralds, still." He shook his head; he looked clearly upset by the fact.

His disappointment melted away with his next bite to his meal, only taking a few more moments to finish it up, the plate practically licked clean by the hedgehog who had acquired the bloody and fleshy taste. He pushed the plate away with a stretch to his spine, throwing his arms into the air, and was feeling content with a full belly. Sonic burped a bit, scratching under his arm, obviously unaware that in a few moments, his world was basically about to be turned upside down, and this wasn't even including his transformation.

"I'm assuming neither of you have heard word from Eggman," he turned serious, leaning forward as he studied his companions. "He disappeared like he usually does," he rolled his eyes before continuing, "before this little fiasco started."

"No; GUN Intel has lost track of the doctor," Shadow frowned slightly, folding his hands above the table's surface, "As far as we know, you were the one to send him back to his latest base with his tail tucked between his legs." Shadow leaned back in his chair and frowned.

"I'm fairly certain we can triangulate an area he could have fled to based off of where you saw him last," Shadow continued with a shrug. "In the meantime, I'll make a call to Rouge and see if she can pull up any files concerning strange events in the area. The doctor flocks to unusual problems, so it may give us a lead."

Knuckles frowned at that and nodded slightly, "Just because we haven't seen or noticed anything yet, doesn't necessarily mean that Mobius is unaffected by the drained chaos emeralds." He tapped a gloved fist against the counter top, "I should check back with the Master to see if there are any fluctuating levels of chaos energy."

Sonic listened to both of the two across from him, his own fingers strumming across the wood. "Of course; Eggman runs away like a dog." Sonic tried not to think of a canine's feral counterpart. "Yeah, that works. If we have to, I have no problem recalling where his last base was. I can take you there." He spoke to Shadow directly before turning to Knuckles. He really hadn't even thought of such an idea, but now, it made a lot of sense.

"Yeah," he licked his lips in thought. "I didn't really even think of that. Did the Master Emerald seem alright?" the Chaos Emeralds were obviously another story. "Has this ever happened before?" he sipped his water again, feeling particularly thirsty. "Doesn't seem to be any problems as of yet…"

"I wouldn't be here if there was something wrong with the Master," Knuckles frowned thoughtfully and he looked at Sonic with a stern and unreadable expression, "But I really don't know if the emeralds have ever been drained. I didn't think it was possible. I'll have to look back at the ancient ruins covering Angel Island." He shrugged, "Maybe I can find something there."

Shadow snorted and picked up Sonic's plate before dumping it in the sink, "In the meantime, we have enough work cut out for us."

The blue hedgehog nodded, placing his chin in the palm of his hand, his elbow sitting on the table. "Tell me about it." His lids drooped contently, feeling much more comfortable that way. "Definitely check it out, Knux. I don't know why," he placed a hand to his stomach, looking bothered as he straightened up again in his chair. "But I have this weird feeling in my gut about it, you know?"

Little did he know it wasn't exactly his thoughts bothering him, but the medication the two had used on him to settle him for the night. It was weird; his stomach felt a bit funny; he didn't want to say he felt nauseous, but there was definitely something distinctively troubling it. He leaned forward in his chair, laying the side of his cheek on the table, closing his eyes for a few moments; he figured if either of the two furs had anything else to say, they would do so, Sonic falling unusually silent for the time being.

"I think I remember reading about something like this happening before a very long time ago," Knuckles frowned and looked thoughtfully at Shadow, "I'll go up to Angel Island in the morning and see if there's something we need to worry about, I'll let you know if anything comes up."

Shadow looked over at Knuckles with a quirked eyeridge and shrugged, "I'll see if I can get Rouge to act as a liaison between you and us so you won't have to keep making the long trips between the island and here." Shadow waited patiently for Sonic to squeeze in a cliché joke about Knuckles and Rouge's rather aggressive type of flirting as the hero would no doubt attempt to get a shred of revenge on the echidna. When Shadow was met with silence, he looked back at the blue hedgehog curiously, "Sonic?"

Sonic's stomach was literally doing flips and was beginning to feel cramped, but the blue hedgehog ignored it, forcing himself to lift his head. He rubbed his hand over his eyes, nodding a bit to Shadow's question of him listening. In reality, he hadn't heard a word of what was said, strangely unable to pick up on it.

"Hm?" it took him a moment to respond, opening his clouded eyes to look at the two of them. "What's up?" he obviously hadn't heard an ounce of their conversation. He sat back, unable to sit up straight, his shoulders hunched forward and his hands loosely on his lap. Surprisingly, Sonic didn't find anything strange about this behavior, a relaxed smile coming across his muzzle. "Seriously, I didn't hear a word you said."

Seeing that Sonic looked rather dazed and confused was a clear sign that the drugs were beginning to work their way through Sonic's system. Shadow watched him carefully and rolled his eyes, "Of course not." He waved a hand in front of Sonic's face to see if the jade eyes could follow them easily enough, "Feeling sleepy?" He asked.

Sonic swayed a bit with the hand that trailed in front of his face, the smile never leaving his lips. His stomach ache had completely disappeared at this point. The drug was working fast; Sonic had never really ever been intoxicated before, so the narcotics were, of course, going to take effect both quickly and powerfully.

"Actually," he continued the funny grin of his. "I feel great. First time in a while." He beamed both at Knuckles and Shadow, obviously unaware of his drugged state, especially now with their side effects coming to fruition. "Why," he blinked before speaking, clearly trying to keep track of his words, it was proving difficult. "Why would I be sleepy, Shadow?" he didn't even address him as 'Faker'; he was far too content to do so.

Shadow stared at Sonic, not having expected a reaction like this to the drug, "You were swaying..." He muttered. Knuckles shot Shadow an incredulous and accusing look, as if asking just what he had given Sonic.

"In fact, you're still swaying," Shadow continued, choosing to ignore Knuckles in favor of paying proper attention to Sonic. He reached out to settle his hand on a fawn shoulder, looking at him intensely for other effects the drugs might have had on Sonic.

"Swaying?" Sonic asked, as if it were a joke, giving a soft chuckle with the question, his eyelids further drooping. "Swaying, huh? I'm not meaning to, honestly." He tried desperately not to crack up, but it was proving impossible, smiling further at Shadow's paw on his shoulder. "I think you guys worry a bit…a bit too much about me, you know?" The hero was starting to slur his words, leaning onto the table for support, wobbling a bit but not bothered by the fact unlike his counterparts.

"I'm absolutely," he slammed his fist to the table, not realizing how strong he was being as the table shook under his strength, his movements becoming dragged out and lazy. "100 percent," again, he tapped on the table to prove his point. "Positively fine."

He pulled away and fell back to the chairs support, looking around the room with a blissful and oblivious grin before his eyes fell to the floor; something caught his eye, his smile slowly slipping off in a curious gasp. "What," he pointed to his shoe, the glinting of his buckle catching his attention. "Did you see that?" he looked to Shadow and Knuckles for an answer. "Did you see it blink at me?" he was referring to the glint of the metal from the light, giving another laugh. "It's really nice and shiny, I never really realized how pretty it looks." He closed his eyes, swaying forward a bit before falling back to the chair, obviously not aware of just how ridiculous he looked.

"Can I see it?" he asked the two with innocent curiosity, as if he needed permission to investigate his own shoe, his ears folding to the back of his head.

"No one is stopping you," Knuckles stared at Sonic before turning on Shadow, who for once had absolutely nothing to say in regards to the ridiculous situation. "How much did you give him?" He hissed accusingly at the surprised agent.

Shadow shot Knuckles an impatient look, dropping his voice so the drugged Sonic wouldn't overhear them. Not that the hero would probably care, what with the massive fascination he now held with his shoe buckle, "Enough to drug a Werehog. One that is considerably larger and heavier than Sonic." Really, he should have foreseen this; it was obvious that the drug would do loopy things to Sonic and now the blue racer was higher than a kite. In all honesty, Shadow hadn't really thought it through; having just assumed Sonic would go to sleep until his transformation.

Shadow didn't want to admit it, but he thought perhaps his last interaction with the Werehog was clouding his judgment on how to deal with Sonic now. As a result for his hasty decision, the hero of Mobius was high.

Fantastic.

"Sonic—" Shadow turned around to explain some things to his rival but promptly stopped, his eyeridges shooting up in surprise as he saw the latest shenanigans Sonic had gotten himself into. The hero of Mobius had somehow managed to coordinate his movements enough to slip off one of his shoes and had turned the entire thing upside down on his head, looking rather proud of himself. Shadow lapsed into silence with a quiet Knuckles standing beside him, neither daring to say or do anything.

The ridiculousness of their situation was almost laughable, but neither Mobians could manage to laugh at Sonic's expense. Both knew that Sonic was going to be ripe shit-pissed when he managed to gather his wits.

Sonic looked to the two of them, his movements definitely lagging, but he felt no qualms about it, for once comfortable with his slow pace. The shoe on his head was in danger of slipping, but the smile never left his face, even as he spoke to his counterparts.

"Seriously, you two need to chill," he looked between them, the shoe falling from his head. "Why are you—NO, my hat!" it took him a moment to realize his makeshift cap was gone, giving a dramatic pout, using the table for support as he bent over to pick it up, his hand clumsily spilling his glass of water in the process.

He lifted himself with trouble, unaware his glove was soaking wet, feeling like Jello when his back hit the chair. He ran another hand over his hazy eyes, now realizing something was definitely up, but still unable to think much about it. After pulling his fingers away, Sonic realized how wet they were before finding the cup spilt on the table, looking at the other two with a guilt ridden expression.

"I am so sorry," he picked up the cup and stared at it sadly. "Now it's all empty. I didn't mean to hurt him…"

The silence that stretched between Shadow and Knuckles was nearly deafening. The echidna promptly turned and began marching away. Shadow watched him go halfway for a moment before his eyes narrowed irritably , "And where are you going?" He demanded.

Knuckles turned back to eye first Shadow, then the mournful Sonic who was staring sadly at the puddle of water on the table. "He's talking to inanimate objects and wearing his shoe as a hat." He smirked over at Shadow, "I think that's my cue to leave. He's your problem now. Good luck." He chuckled as he left the irate hedgehog alone with Sonic.

Sonic watched as Knuckles paused, his frown only growing as he watched him stiffly walk out of the room. "Knuckles," he asked, sounding even more upset. "Where are you going? I didn't mean it, honestly!"

Shadow rubbed his temples in an attempt to fight away the beginnings of a migraine. "C'mon, Sonic. Let's get you in bed." He grunted and grabbed a hold of Sonic's arm, pulling it over his shoulder and sliding his arm around Sonic's waist to support the drunken hedgehog. If Shadow had any luck, Sonic would fall asleep before he transformed, "You have a long night ahead of you."

Sonic barely realized Shadow put an arm around him at first. "Why is," he looked down at the touch around his waist, making eye contact with Shadow.

He stared for a moment, looking back down to the arm around him, before meeting his gaze again. "What are you doing?" he whispered, confused, before a faint red tinted across his muzzle. Quickly, the question faded from his one-track mind, shaking his head. "No." he stated suddenly, his hands taking a hold of the table desperately, as fast as possible in his current state. "No Werehog."

Shadow frowned as Sonic twisted in his grasp to cling childishly onto the table. He grabbed hold of Sonic's arm and tugged him insistently. "You don't really have a choice, Sonic," Shadow said patiently, trying to lead the hedgehog gently away. Sonic refused to budge. "You're going to turn into the Werehog whether you come with me or not. We're just trying to make you comfortable before then." Shadow had no idea why he was trying to reason with the hardheaded and drugged Sonic, but he figured it was worth a shot.

"I don't like it," Sonic clung to the wood for dear life as the darker hedgehog managed to drag both him and the table along, the legs of the furniture scraping across the floor. "I don't," he tried his best to pull out of Shadow's grasp, his ears drooping. "I don't want to." He stared at Shadow with foggy eyes, pleading with the older fur. "Don't make me do it. Please."

Sonic the Hedgehog obviously wasn't in the right state of mind, and would beg anyone not to let him turn into a mindless beast which openly attacked his friends.

"That's not up to me, Sonic," Shadow grunted as the table hit the door frame, preventing their progress from going any further. He looked at the dark jade eyes, which were foggy and incoherent along with the drooping ears and tail, and sighed to himself as his heart gave a slight twist at the sad sight. He put his arm around Sonic's middle and hefted him up so the hedgehog's grasp would finally slip on the table.

Sonic at first wriggled desperately in Shadow's grasp, his blush returning even darker than previously as he let go of the table in shock. "Shadow!"

Shadow carted him off to the area of blankets they had arranged for Sonic to sleep, even as Sonic continued to squirm in his grasp, and dumped him on the little nest. He knelt besides Sonic and narrowed his eyes, "Stay, right here."

When finally the older hedgehog dropped Sonic, giving him a firm demand, Sonic took Shadow's wrist and pulled him close. "Where are you going?" he asked. "Don't go. Knuckles can go, but not you." He spoke like a drunk, but failed to realize.

Shadow stopped and quirked an eyeridge at the uncharacteristically timid looking Sonic, "Why does it matter if I go anywhere?" He asked, but relented and sat down next to Sonic. He sighed, thinking that he was getting soft in his old age.

"Because," Sonic blinked thoughtfully, biting his lip before formulating a formidable answer. "Because I need you here." It was the best response he could come up with, even in his haziness trying to protect his feelings. "Where are you going?" This time Sonic asked in a whisper, obviously frightened by not having his company.

Shadow looked down at his wrists which were getting wet because of Sonic's soaked gloves. "I'm not going anywhere."

Sonic finally smiled again, the grin looking warm and content as he nodded at Shadow's answer, his ears perking to the best of their abilities. "Good." He continued to watch Shadow, his head tilting to the side, lazy emerald eyes never leaving the entrancing hedgehog.

Ruby eyes surveyed Sonic and assessed that at the very least the hero was no longer frantic. He slipped his hand over Sonic's, covering the damp glove still clinging to him. He gently pried the other's hand off of his wrist and eyed him, "Why me, specifically? Knuckles would do a better job keeping an eye on you than I could." After all, Red had experience watching and Guarding over his precious Master Emerald.

Shadow couldn't help but wonder if the reason Sonic wanted him around was in some way connected to the Werehog's affection for him. He shook his head fractionally; no, that was a ridiculous leap of logic. At the very best, they tolerated one another's company for the rivalry it provided. If Sonic truly thought they were 'friends' than he needed a bit of logic and reality crammed back into his head.

The blue hedgehog was still staring where Shadow's hand had just been as the said fur spoke, switching to look to the other's wrist where his own fingers had held, then met his fiery gaze. Sonic stared into Shadow's eyes, narrowing his lids a bit further before a smile came across his face.

"I dunno," he answered with a bit of a chuckle, tilting his head more to the side in an innocent approach. "I just," he shrugged, sliding a bit closer, wobbling dangerously close to falling over. "I like you. I enjoy your company, Faker." He stated nicely enough, still unable to tear his gaze from the others; however dazed his eyesight might have been, Shadow's eyes still flared brightly and passionately as they always did.

Shadow didn't move, but reached out to settle his hands on Sonic's arms to steady the woozy hedgehog, "I see..." Shadow blinked and looked at the blue hedgehog, making sure to keep his grip firm on the other, "I suppose there's nothing wrong with that." He admitted, more to himself than Sonic. Enjoying his company wasn't terrible. On occasion Shadow found himself searching out Sonic to occupy his time with a race of some sort or another.

He looked at the drowsy hedgehog, wondering with slight concern how much longer Sonic was going to be able to keep stringing words together. After all, the light was beginning to fade, and sunset would be on them in just a few minutes. However, Shadow couldn't suppress the small smile which tugged at the corner of his lips as he watched the sleepy-eyed Sonic. He was missing a shoe and his gloves were drenched with water. Reminding himself that they would once again rip if they weren't removed, Shadow took one of Sonic's hands in his and began to peel the gloves back.

"Here, I doubt you can coordinate yourself and we're running out of spare gloves," Shadow hummed as he moved to the other hand.

"Yeah, I dunno," Sonic agreed, "I can't control my hands too good." After Shadow pulled his gloves off, he wriggled his fingers and stared at them in fascination. Following the quick inspection, his droopy eyes met Shadow's face again, being caught off guard by his small smile. Before he could stop the words from tumbling out of his mouth, he spoke candidly, placing both of his hands on the floor beside Shadow.

"I like when you smile," he uttered softly, continuing. "And your eyes; they're beautiful." As soon as his admission was finished, a bright crimson flush came across his peach muzzle, and he looked away shyly before meeting his gaze again. "I dunno…I'm sorry, that came from my brain and out of mouth and it wasn't supposed to." He again swayed in his spot, unsure how to rectify what he just stated, but not thinking too much of it.

"But you make," he took a hand and placed it on his stomach before it met one of Shadow's arms gripping his shoulders, one of his eyes blinking before the other. "You make my stomach do flips. And no one has ever really done that before, you know? Not even chicks." He stared at Shadow firmly. "I didn't get it for a while, because," he blinked again. "Because you're so different from me."

Slowly, the smile returned from earlier, lazily spreading out across his flushed face. "But I guess that's why it works, right?"

Shadow jolted, simply doing nothing but holding Sonic up at first. He stared blankly at the other as his words slowly registered. Could it be, that against all logic and reason... Sonic actually liked him? Was that why the Werehog had gone after him? His heart jumped slightly in confusion at Sonic's comments, feeling an odd sort of warmth begin to bloom in his chest.

What the—

"Sonic..." He said slowly, absolutely rigid, "What are you getting at?" He looked at the drugged hedgehog and leaned forward inquisitively, immediately thinking to take advantage of Sonic's inhibited state of mind to pry the proper information from him. In a second, Shadow's motivations had changed from keeping Sonic upright, to interrogating him about this revelation, "Just how long have you felt like this...?"

"Oh man, I dunno," the hedgehog fought to recall where this all started, looking upwards with difficulty, licking his lips in an obvious struggle. "Well, I noticed after the whole ARK incident, you made my chest feel all funny." He made a face as he continued to try and remember. "Made it feel all tight, and beat all fast. I wanted to be around you and try to tease you; I dunno, I joke with almost everyone, but I think...I think I was trying to flirt with you, because you always tried to act so tough and unaffected, and it put a smile on my face when I was able to get you pissed off."

"I guess…it was just a gradual thing," His smile never left his face. "I like you; it took a while to admit to myself, but I do." The hero put a hand to his chest, swaying once again, not realizing how jumbled his phrases are coming out. "I just was always so scared to tell you since you're…you're Faker!" He almost fell back before sitting forward again, subconsciously putting a bare paw to Shadow's knee.

"I felt ashamed because you're so cold to me," He paused. "Well, I thought you'd honestly kick my ass." He laughed for at least over a minute before speaking, forgetting the conversation in that moment. "But then again, who is crazy enough to turn down this?" His free hand pointed at his peach chest, unable to hold it straight as he tried to replicate a sexy look; it failed miserably, since one of his eyelids was closed lower than the other, his head quills appearing messy as well.

"I dunno why I can say it now, though. I think because I feel all funny, you know? You make me feel safe, Shadow. Really," he whispered his last word, giving an assured nod. "More than anyone."

Not for the first time that day, Shadow was at a loss for words. Sonic liked him, and not in a friendly way. But in the romantic sense of the word. Sonic would need a little more than just sense beaten into his head. In all honesty, Shadow had never even considered the possibility of forming some sort of relationship with anyone, much less Sonic. He stared at the other, torn between laughing at the sheer absurdity and continuing his blank staring at the drugged hero. He let out a soft, humorless chuckle, deciding a nice medium would fit neatly.

He was hyper-aware of Sonic's ungloved hand on his leg, the sensitive area giving a surprising jolt through Shadow's body that had his heart jumping to his throat. "You cannot be serious," He said evenly, ruby eyes meeting jade, "You're drugged, delirious, and incapable of differentiating between your shoe and a hat."

Shadow didn't want to think about this and how well it explained the Werehog's affinity for him. It was far more comforting to blame it on the drugs so he could ignore the way his heart was bouncing in his chest. He made sure to keep a firm grip on Sonic to keep him upright, "Besides. You can keep yourself safe." He muttered, unsure why he was continuing this thread.

Sonic, even in his confused and inebriated state, easily displayed the hurt that washed through his cloudy eyes after Shadow's dark chuckle and reasoning. He looked away, nodding a bit, now fully relying on Shadow to keep him sitting up. "I guess," the hero muttered quietly. "But no one can do everything by themselves, right? At least not forever; that's what friends are for." He sucked on his bottom lip, still struggling with his words. "But I don't feel this way about anyone else; not Knuckles, Rouge…not Amy. It's just you." He stared at Shadow with suddenly wide eyes, continuing to study the other. "You make me feel different, but it's nice."

"...I know it seems crazy, but it's the truth. I've just," he stuttered as he spoke, obviously nervous. "I was j-just scared to tell you, because I knew you would react this way. I was scared you'd reject me."

Sonic shrugged. "I dunno, at least I tried. You're just," The usually confident hedgehog regained his smirk, a blush still painting the apple of his cheeks. "You're hot, Shadow." His blush thickened; the hand on his rival's leg giving a gentle scratch to his fur. "I used to like watching you run and fight because…" he looked down, biting his lip with a guilty smile, not continuing, "Yeah."

"...I think," Sonic the hedgehog giggled as he moved his face closer to Shadow's. "I think it explains those hickies." He licked his lips openly. "I wish I could remember."

Shadow immediately covered Sonic's hand with his when sparks jolted through him at that sly caress. He pulled Sonic's hand up by his wrist so it wouldn't be in such a distracting place any longer. Once the fawn paw was removed, Shadow made a small sound of relief.

When he looked up, Sonic's face was inches from his and Shadow froze, crimson eyes going wide. He felt rooted to the spot, stuck in the dark emerald gaze of Sonic. He was suddenly aware of both the bruises Sonic had given him on his throat, and of the other's proximity. "Sonic what're you-..." He trailed off slightly, his heart giving a stuttering beat. Shadow wasn't used to being so utterly thrown off his course like this, and he was clawing to get his head back on straight.

He didn't like the strange changes Sonic's admittance was making him feel, and he steadied the drugged hedgehog who was trying his best to keep his head up. They were so very close. Shadow could see the defined curves to Sonic's jaw in his current position and the individual fibers of his thick fur, the dark cobalt illuminated by the dusky moonlight from the warehouse windows.

Wait a second... Moonlight?

Shadow stilled as that thought struck him and his eyes widened, staring over at first the window, then back towards Sonic and his dilating eyes. Immediately all thoughts fled his mind as he realized that they were out of time.

The blue hero pulled away from the black hedgehog, using one of his last rational thoughts to force himself out of the other's proximity, curling on his side to the floor as light quivers racked through his lean form. His shivering wasn't as violent as the previous night, with the drugs in his system relaxing him even as he transformed, barely looking bothered as his hands grew larger, his fangs growing to look pointed like daggers, and his ears curving almost like horns as they lay flat against his head. His fur became thicker, darker and shaggier, the hedgehog's body growing sculpted with thick muscle as he rested contently across the floor, spreading himself with a bit of a whimper.

A flood of saliva began immediately as he lay dazed on the ground, giving a saddened sigh. As Sonic tried to lift himself in his woozy state, his talons skittered across the cement, but both the medication and his strangely flexible limbs made it difficult to walk. The Werehog did not notice the black hedgehog behind him at first with the loss of his heightened senses, confused by his surroundings and his exposed state; naturally, like a wild animal, he was frightened by this discovery, trying to drag himself towards the exit.

Shadow watched the transformation with fascination. It was just as intriguing to see it a second time as it was the first. Seeing that Sonic was attempting to make a sluggish escape, Shadow swiftly got up and darted around the large figure to angle himself directly in front of him. He was immediately back to business, Sonic's admission of his feelings had given him a bit of an idea, and he hoped he could use the knowledge to his advantage.

He steeled himself in front of the Werehog, knowing full well that if Sonic was really determined he could simply blow past him undeterred. Luckily, the drugs seemed to be doing a wonderful job keeping him relatively calm. He stood rigidly, his arms folded over his chest as he watched the Werehog.

Emerald eyes met Shadow's feet as the dark hedgehog stepped quickly to tower over him. Sonic lifted his head to stare dazedly upwards and meet blazing crimson. Shadow's face meant absolute business, and the Werehog's ears folded back with another whimper; his tail began to softly wag to and fro behind him, tilting his head a bit as his mouth opened, letting his large pink tongue to fall to the floor with a 'squish' of a sound.

The Werehog turned completely to his side, muscular limbs stretched out as his tail continued to smack the stone below him. He looked submissively up at the other hedgehog; his big, jade eyes staring up at Shadow, his lids drooped like in the hero's previous form. A content smile spread across Sonic's lips as he revealed the soft belly of his fur to the currently more dominant of the two, giving a tiny noise in between a small yelp and a bark.

It was unbelievable. Shadow watched with amazement as the Werehog tamely rolled over without so much as a growl of warning. Perhaps Shadow could keep Sonic contained. It was possible if he continued to act like a puppy, but he doubted the Werehog would be this tame if he wasn't drugged. Slowly, and somewhat warily, Shadow approached the Werehog. He wasn't so foolish as to have forgotten his last encounter with Sonic's transformed self as he knelt next to the other.

Reaching out cautiously, Shadow buried his hand into the chest fur of the Werehog, rubbing there and on his belly. He spread his fingers and began to scratch the area, just as he would a feral puppy, never once taking his gaze away from the dark emerald eyes or his lolling tongue. Shadow looked at him carefully, wondering just where the snarling and salivating beast he had been forced to deal with the last two nights had gone.

The Werehog drawled out a happy sound, throwing his head back and closing his eyes ecstatically, letting out a pleasured rumble of his throat as he felt Shadow's touch spread across his belly's fur, his mouth wide open and panting as his tail wagged a bit faster behind him. His back leg gave a twitch once every scratch, feeling safe with the hedgehog's whose scent he could now sniff out and detect; it was his prospective mate, the Werehog struggling to lift his head and give the other a lick.

It was useless, and Sonic realized how strict of an eye Shadow was keeping on him, deciding to just stare up at his companion. Jade irises glinted despite still being half lidded and fogged, unable to leave the other who was giving him attention; the glow in his eyes relayed every word Sonic had stated in his drugged up, fuzzy speech.

Shadow's lips pressed together as he saw the purely affectionate look in the werehog's eyes. It was clear by the complete lack of instinctual madness; Sonic's confession was true and not the result of him being completely shitfaced. Shadow breathed through his nose as he rose from his crouch and strode back to the nest of blankets, taking a seat in the large bundle. He looked over at the Werehog still on the ground and patted his lap in a universal gesture for the other to follow him, "Come here, Sonic." He said evenly, ruby eyes maintaining eye contact with the Werehog's.

Crouching down and scratching Sonic's belly was not something Shadow was going to do all night. He wanted to try to put the Werehog down to bed, hopefully before Knuckles got back from wherever it was he had gone off to. Shadow knew Sonic seemed to respond well to him, but he didn't know how well Knuckles would be received. That, and Shadow was honestly curious to see how much Sonic could understand while in this form and how well he would listen.

The Werehog tried his best to lift his ears attentively towards Shadow's request, but they quickly drooped back into place as it proved difficult to keep them raised. With a bit of difficulty, the hero gained enough steadiness to raise himself to his massive paws, moving over to his muse with shaking limbs as he struggled to stagger closer, trying desperately to stand on two legs but falling unsuccessfully. Finally, he resorted to shifting to a more comfortable stride for him anyway, moving on all four feet, hesitantly bringing himself closer to Shadow in unsteady steps.

Sonic curled up beside him with a warm sigh, air blowing through his nostrils to tickle the other hedgehog's fur. Before Shadow could protest, Sonic nudged his muzzle past his arm, instantly beginning to salivate as he rested undauntedly on Shadow's lap. He closed his eyes, letting out a hum of approval, not planning on moving from his comfortable spot anytime soon.

A muscle in Shadow's cheek twitched with agitation as a pool of drool began to form over his legs, courtesy of the heavy mass currently snuggled up against his stomach. Scowling slightly, Shadow wrapped his arms under Sonic's head in an attempt to shove the heavy weight off of him, but once again the stubborn Werehog refused to budge. This amount of affection Shadow was not okay with.

He grunted and attempted to slide his legs out from underneath Sonic so he could stand up and clean himself up. The very last thing he wanted to do was get slobbered on all night long, although that didn't seem like much of an option at this point, at least not if Sonic had anything to say about it.

The Werehog felt a hand desperately try to shove him away, but he closed his eyes tightly in response, giving a small agitated sigh; his head was far too heavy for the other hedgehog to move with all the dead weight of the medication. His tail gave a soft wag behind him, and he turned onto his side so he was now laying the side of his muzzle on the top of Shadow's leg.

He continued to drool freely as he looked down the black fur of Shadow's thigh, his gaze turning entranced. The blue hero licked his jowls before his tongue lulled out to give an affectionate lick to the inside of Shadow's limb; of course the irrational, animalistic Sonic saw nothing wrong with this sweet action. He lifted his head to stare up at Shadow, trying to direct a lick to his lips with a playful whimper.

Shadow yelped in shock at the feel of Sonic's tongue darting in a place far too sensitive and close to his groin for the agent's comfort. He stiffened and gave Sonic's nose a sharp whap, his ears pinning back as he tried to shove aside his momentary shock. His heart was pounding in his chest a hundred miles an hour and a warm flush began to creep up towards Shadow's muzzle, horrified by Sonic's actions. Chaos, if the hedgehog just had any idea what he had very nearly licked, Sonic would be mortified.

"No," Shadow said sternly, "No licking." He stared into the uncomprehending gaze of the Werehog as he tried to get his message across.

Sonic crossed his eyes as Shadow gave a whack to his nose, scrunching up his muzzle at the small tingle of pain that was mostly dulled from the drugs. His lips lifted to reveal his teeth but not in a threatening manner. Surprisingly, his tail just began to start up in response as his tongue drooped from out of his sharp teeth, only taking a moment to stare with lidded eyes happily at the other before he attempted to get another lick on him again.

He managed to get a bit of a lap on Shadow's cheek, pulling away to sniff at the bandages surrounding his neck with a befuddled whimper. The stronger of the two tried his best to delicately take a hold of the material with his teeth, getting a grasp of it without hurting Shadow in the process, trying his best to reveal the marks he had gifted who he saw as his mate with; why wasn't he wearing them proudly? The Werehog didn't understand, and he stopped midway through unraveling the gauze, giving a sound that could definitely come out as confused as he gently placed a paw on the midnight hedgehog's leg.

Shadow grunted as those sharp teeth pulled at his bandages, knowing what the Werehog was going after immediately. He sighed as he attempted to look away from Sonic's pleading gaze, trying not to focus on those drowsy puppy eyes boring into him. Shadow sighed and relented, undoing the bandages at his throat and tossing them to the side. If Sonic was just going to tug them off all night, there would be little point in keeping them on anyway. Shadow very badly wanted to shove the massive Werehog off of him, but if he couldn't even lift Sonic's head, there was no chance the rest of the body would be moving any time soon.

He settled a hand on Sonic's large head and gently scratched him behind the ears, eyeing him with some amusement, "Happy now?" He growled to the Werehog. An ear flicked slightly as he heard the sounds of Knuckles rummaging around in the other room, apparently the echidna had returned from whatever it was that he had been doing. Shadow absently continued to scratch soothing circles behind Sonic's ears, hoping with any luck the Werehog would soon nod off and Knuckles could help him shift the heavy beast off of him so he could get away.

The hero looked in a state of complete rapture, leaning into the ministrations to his fur, gazing with tired eyes toward Shadow's neck; he was quite proud of his work. Sonic leaned forward to give the tiny bruises an affectionately long lap, but let the hedgehog below him give out a sigh of relief; he didn't intend to create more, lowering his head back down to Shadow's lap. He let out a content sigh, drooling freely since he didn't realize how pissed off it made the rational one, closing his lids as he easily got lost in his touches.

He spread himself out on the soft sheets and blankets underneath, his mouth hanging open as his tongue rolled out, but not looking to explore Shadow's thigh again. He turned his face to the side as well as his body, breathing nice and steadily across Shadow's fur, giving a twitch here and there every moment or so; Sonic was easily giving in to sleep, unable to keep his eyes open. The Werehog let out a hum of approval at the GUN agent's touch.

Shadow sighed and stroked his fingers through Sonic's silky fur, watching the gentle rise and fall of the blue furred chest. He was very glad Sonic was simply curling up to sleep instead of deciding to slobber over him again. The welts and hickies would most likely be completely healed come morning, but that didn't mean Shadow wanted to add to their collection.

The content Werehog was covering Shadow in a lovely coat of drool, and ruby eyes quietly surveyed the large, unmoving form. Sonic might not be completely asleep at the moment, but he was far too relaxed and drugged to move a great deal. Shadow struggled to angle his hips slightly, just enough to wedge the large beast up a few inches so he could gain enough leverage to slip his legs out from underneath Sonic's head. His fingers slowly withdrew from the furred ears and Shadow stood up quietly, edging around Sonic so he could make his escape.

The Werehog felt the movement of his captive sneaking away, his ear giving a twitch before he reached his stretchy arms up to take a hold of the midnight hedgehog's waist, dropping him back to the blankets despite his want to escape. Sonic's tail wagged happily behind him, and he slid Shadow to lie back next to him, ignorant to his struggling in his haze. He wrapped his limbs greedily around him, nuzzling his nose into the fur behind the black hedgehog's ear before taking thick inhales of his scent.

It was only a few more minutes until he was snoring softly into the back of Shadow's head, the tone similar to Sonic's usual, but much deeper. Completely knocked out from his medication, he was not in a state to move an inch except for his breathing. A puddle of drool formed underneath them. Shadow was stuck in Sonic's iron clad grip, as he did not intend to let go even in this state.

Shadow for one was rather at a loss as to what to do. He twisted as best he could in the Werehog's iron grasp, only managing to wriggle his way enough to turn around, his face getting buried in the fluffy mass that was Sonic's chest fur. This was not going according to his plan at all. Shadow sighed sourly and stilled, deciding the best way to deal with his current problem was to simply wait until Knuckles came into the room to free him.

In the meantime, Shadow fought back a yawn, ruby eyes drooping slightly from exhaustion. He hadn't gotten much sleep in days, and though he didn't need it to survive, Shadow still found himself quite tired. He let out a soft growl, deciding it couldn't hurt him any if he closed his eyes for just a moment to rest. Sonic was out for the count, Knuckles was still around in case the beast woke up, and it wasn't like Shadow was going anywhere with the unrelenting grip holding him in place.

The dark agent slowly relaxed against Sonic, sighing softly into the chest fur as he slid his eyes closed. In seconds, Shadow was breathing evenly and curled up against Sonic sound asleep. He had slipped into a deep sleep faster than he would have even suspected, but the ordeals from the last few days had truly worn him out.

He didn't even stir when Knuckles poked his head into the room to check on them, violet eyes blinking with surprise as he took in the sight of the two hedgehogs sleeping curled up against one another. A gruff grin tugged at his lips, an odd mix between his typical arrogant smirk and an amused smile. Knuckles flicked the light off and quietly closed the door, letting the two of them get some rest. It seemed like his strength wouldn't be needed tonight.

Rate and Reviewwwwww.

Sorry for the late update, but we return with a new chapter to satisfy your Werehog cravings! Special thanks to Kytrin for betaing this chapter!

 

--::--

 

The warehouse, which was completely bathed in darkness after two particular hedgehogs managed to doze off, was now beginning to bloom with sunlight as the sun rose higher and higher. A warm beam managed to strike Sonic’s face, causing the hero to stir unwillingly, giving a groan of irritation.
    

‘At least I’m warm,’ he thought to himself, his head beginning to pound away freely, wincing with his eyes still closed. Sonic dug his muzzle further into his soft pillow, taking a deep inhale, before snapping his eyes open as a certain scent reached his sensitive nose.

 

He knew that smell. That was Shadow the Hedgehog; his rival, his friend, and crush.
    
Immediately Sonic threw his head back, scrambling backwards despite the pain and wooziness of his body. Feeling lightheaded, he scooted back on the cement, staring at Shadow lying dead to the world in what appeared to be a saliva-coated pile of blankets, his breathing the only movement to show he was still alive.
    
Sonic had been sleeping on top of Shadow, face nudged into the fur of Shadow’s belly undauntedly, and amazingly, the usually frigid agent was allowing it. The frightened hedgehog slowly crawled closer again, as if to inspect his friend to test if this was reality, ignoring the random aches through his body.

What the hell happened last night?!

 

He put a bare paw to his mouth, giving a light tremble. Did he and Shadow…?
    
No, that was impossible. But then again, who knew with the Werehog and its insatiable lust. He looked around the massive room with guilt, as if someone had caught the two red handed.  He put his quivering hand to Shadow’s wrist. He contemplated if what he was doing was right, but Sonic’s legs again felt weak and the rest of his physique felt sick, so he slowly giving the sleeping hedgehog a shake.
    
 “Faker,” he swallowed, nervous. “Shadow, wake up.” Sonic was quickly paling.

 

It wasn’t fair Shadow decided as the sound of Sonic’s voice pierced through his tired haze and disrupted the only full night of sleep he had in days.  He felt a hand on his arm, shaking insistently for Shadow to move.  For a long second he considered ignoring the annoying hedgehog so he could curl up and squeeze in a few more minutes of rest.  But as luck would have it, Shadow became painfully aware of the lack of warmth that had been with him just a few minutes ago, making it impossible to return back to the slumber he was dragged from.

 

Grumbling slightly, he creaked ruby eyes open and was greeted with the sight of a frantic Sonic.  Fantastic.  Something was wrong already?  That would just be Shadow’s luck.  Slowly Shadow sat up on the mound of blankets, rubbing sleep from his eyes and running a hand through his tousled quills.

 

“What’s the matter?” He growled softly, his voice husky from sleep.

 

As Shadow opened tired eyes with obvious reluctance, Sonic kept his grasp on his wrist. “What…what happened last night?” He spoke quickly, not wasting time on asking the question nagging his mind.
    
The black and red hedgehog seemed fine, but who knew; Oh Chaos, what if Sonic knocked him unconscious in his Wereform, and Shadow didn’t remember either? Where the hell was Knuckles, and where did he run off to!? As Sonic sat there in worry, watching the black hedgehog rub sleep from his eyes before answering, something funny struck his ailing head; why couldn’t he remember anything even before his transformation? The worry didn’t mean much compared to what Sonic was trying to deal with now and the aches that ran through his body were equally meaningless.
    

“Why,” he hesitated, trying to word the situation right, “Why was I sleeping on you?”

 

Shadow yawned, one of his ears was folded down and it twitched, trying to flick itself back into the right shape.  He looked around absently, ignoring Sonic’s question for the moment as he took in his surroundings.  It seemed as though Knuckles never bothered to come get him.  Shadow continued to scratch his quills and the side of his muzzle, alertness very slowly coming back to him.  The most likely reason why Shadow was still here and not elsewhere was that Knuckles wanted to let them both rest. 

 

He looked back at Sonic, wondering vaguely why he was being stared at in such a way, “That would be because we slept together.” He stated obviously.

 

 If Sonic wasn’t pale previously, he was now; he stared at Shadow as if he had three heads, licking his lips thoughtfully, confused and disturbed by how the GUN agent found nothing wrong with this. He shifted uncomfortably, a small tint of red coming over his face, speaking only after he found his voice again.
    

“We,” he looked nervously to the side before meeting Shadow’s gaze again. “We slept together? Are you serious?” he asked, unsure how to feel about this.
    

He and Shadow slept together; and the hero had absolutely no memory of it.
    

“Didn’t you try to stop me?!” Sonic finally had enough bravery to muster up the question. “I don’t even remember, faker!”

 

Shadow quirked a slow eyeridge as he stared at Sonic, unable to comprehend why this seemed to be so much of a problem to the other.  “It’s not like I had much of a choice in the matter.  I tried to leave but you would have none of that.”  He frowned, his sleepy mind unable to understand why Sonic was staring at him so strangely, “I don’t see why you’re taking it like this, we just—” He stopped dead as his exhaustion finally fled his mind, leaving him able to clearly think.

 

Sonic thought that he... and Shadow had...

 

The agent flushed as he remembered Sonic’s confession from the previous night and his feelings, which combined with how Shadow had just phrased a rather suggestive sounding sentence left only one alternative.  He hurled a pillow in Sonic’s direction, “Get your filthy mind out of the gutter.”  He growled, more out of embarrassment than anything else, “We fell asleep in the same place.  We did not have sex.”

 

The hedgehog felt like a hundred pounds was lifted off of him, managing to give a soft laugh as a pillow was hurled his direction. His body was still woozy from whatever was affecting him, unable to duck in time as it hit his shoulder, a small smile coming across his face.
    

“Word it right next time, faker,” he took the pillow and threw it back. “Almost gave a hero a heart attack!” Speaking of pain, Sonic’s head throbbed as a reminder, the blue hedgehog raising an eyebrow. “Seriously, what did happen last night? I don’t remember…I don’t remember even transforming.”

After rubbing his temple, he couldn’t help but turn his smile into a sneer despite the pain. “Other than me, thank Chaos, not making a move on you.” Obviously, he had no memory of his attempts of trying to relay his feelings and even trying to woo the other. “Nice to wake up and hear that.” He avoided eye contact as he massaged one of his calves, unable to look at Shadow at the thought of his Werehog counterpart continuing to take advantage of his rival.

 

Wisely Shadow decided to keep his mouth shut about Sonic’s misconception about making a move on him.  That wasn’t information Sonic needed to know, after all there were plenty of things that could give the hero a minor heart attack by the time lunch was out. 

 

The agent wasn’t sure how he felt about Sonic forgetting his drug-induced confession.  He bent his arms over his knees as he stood up sluggishly, stretching out and purring lowly as he felt his muscles loosen up. He was... relieved Sonic didn’t remember.  That way their rivalry didn’t have to change, and Shadow didn’t have to acknowledge Sonic’s feelings.  He could forget about the entire thing, just like Sonic had.

 

He quirked an eyeridge at Sonic’s question, “You really have to ask?” He crossed his arms over his chest and eyed his rival, “I drugged you again.  After what happened the last time I wasn’t taking any chances.”  In other words, Shadow hadn’t wanted to get the excitable Werehog humping his leg... not that it really stopped Sonic anyway.

 

Sonic, who was feeling calm and serene when trying to get movement in his legs back, turned to Shadow with his usual lightening speed. “You drugged me again!?” Unlike the last time, the blue hero did not hide the anger in his voice. “You didn’t even tell me, seriously? Who gives you the liberty to think you can do that?!” his voice rang through the wide warehouse, the blue one fuming.
    

“I understand you didn’t want me to assault you, but seriously, you didn’t even tell me. I doubt the Werehog is rational enough to remember my thoughts during the day, obviously if he tackles and tries to screw you!” Sonic was livid. “You drugged that steak, didn’t you. Chaos Shadow, I trusted you!” He managed to finally get movement back in his legs, looking away as he used the wall for support to stand, beginning to make his way towards the kitchen albeit wobbly, “This is not fair…”

 

‘Right, because what you think about me during the day is so much different than what you think about me at night,’ Shadow thought sarcastically. Ruby eyes watched the angry hero alertly, biting his tongue to prevent himself from saying what was on his mind.  Instead he shook his head.

 

“You’ve attacked me twice as a Werehog, and neither of us knows what goes on in your mind during nightfall,” Shadow eyed Sonic, “I don’t need to rationalize the fairness of this to you. This is about our survival so you should understand I did what I had to do to ensure that.” He rose and smoothed his hands over his dark pelt to comb it down in the places it stuck up from his sleep.

 

He shook his head, “Not that it matters anymore.  It would hardly work a third time.”  Shadow made a face as he remembered the dark blue hedgehog making a move on him whilst drugged, “It only bought us some more time.”

 

The blue hedgehog gave him a bitter look over his shoulder, struggling to make it towards the kitchen. “Whatever,” Sonic was well aware Shadow had a point, but he was extremely upset regardless. “Make sure it doesn’t happen again.” he spat the words a bit, just far too annoyed at the moment as he left the room to cool off.

 

After entering the kitchen and giving a chair a careless push, Sonic took a plastic cup to fill up with water. Pouting to himself, he tried desperately to recall anything from the previous night; he came up with nothing, shortly giving up and assuming things went well since the Werehog was probably just as intoxicated as he had been. Making his way towards the chair he just abused, he took a seat with a sigh and crushed his cup underneath his palm, his ears lowering.
    
He was steadily growing wearier; it was time to get a hold of Robotnik, and he would make sure his punishment did not go lightly. “Shadow?” he calls to the midnight hedgehog, looking in his direction.

 

“What?” Shadow asked shortly, he walked off in favor of something stronger than water.  Caffeine sounded nice, if just for the smell and strong taste.  He needed a good old fashioned cup of Joe.  No need for him to be less than alert when babysitting a cranky wannabe.  Of course there was no sign of a coffee pot in the entire kitchen, so he would have to make a trip to his own home. Not that he would complain.  He could use a bit of time to sleep in his own bed.

 

He directed his gaze towards Sonic, propping an elbow onto the refrigerator so he could give the other hedgehog a long, surveying look.  Shadow knew he deserved Sonic’s ire, but he was in no guilty frame of mind. He felt he had already suffered enough by being slobbered on by a Werehog and hit on by a hedgehog that thought tipping over a glass of water was a national crisis.

 

Sonic gave him a bit of a look, thankful not to be addicted to caffeine, before looking back to the cup underneath this hand before pushing it away gently, “I don’t know…I can’t be in here anymore; this place is making me sick. Where are my shoes?” He obviously didn’t remember trying to make one of them into a makeshift hat.
    
After a thoughtful pause, he stared up at Shadow with his worried jade eyes. “Besides that…what are we going to do about my transformation? You can’t drug me anymore, you can barely control me from what you tell me…what are we going to do?” He looks down before meeting him with a much more confident gaze. “We need to find the man responsible for this; he actually might have some answers!”

 

Shadow ‘s ears folded back at Sonic’s unnecessary reminder of what would no doubt happen again that very night.  He had absolutely no plan to handle the unruly Werehog.  Sonic could easily overpower him in that form if he got so much as a paw on him, and Knuckles could only contain the Werehog for so long.  Despite Sonic’s lumbering form, he was still fairly swift on his feet.  Perhaps as fast as Knuckles.   No amount of strength mattered against speed that was untouchable.

 

The agent found himself rubbing his throat, which was thankfully mostly clear save for a bruise or two.   Then again, his speed hadn’t been of much help in the close quarters of the warehouse.

 

Shadow had to admit, he did have a few undesirable ideas to tame the Werehog.  But all of them involved playing on the knowledge of Sonic’s feelings and using it against him.  As much as he disliked the idea, perhaps it would be the only way for them all to survive this ordeal intact.  Sonic would certainly hate him for it. “I have... a few ideas.”  Shadow said reluctantly, being intentionally vague on the details.  It was clear in his body language that he wasn’t planning on sharing the specifics of his ‘plan.’

 

He looked over at Sonic, “As for the Doctor, how do you plan on finding him before night fall?  Knuckles and I can barely control you in an enclosed area, and we’ve only been fairing well on dumb luck alone.  How do you expect we’d do if you were outdoors and escaped into a nearby town?”  He shook his head, “We need to come up with a way to reach you through the Werehog at the very least before we can attempt to track the Doctor down.”

 

Otherwise, Shadow would merely travel alone.  The idea actually wasn’t unappealing now that he thought of it.  He would be away from the source of his problems, the cause of his uncomfortable thoughts, and he could possibly even make progress without Sonic hindering him.  All this was true, but for some reason he found himself reluctant to leave Sonic alone.  Perhaps the reason behind Shadow’s hesitation was because Knuckles would be left alone to deal with a homicidal Werehog. Not that the Werehog’s attention towards Shadow was much better...

 

Besides, he very much doubted Sonic would find pleasure in sitting by the side lines and waiting while Shadow ran out on his adventure.

 

“I’m going back to my house to contact Rouge and get some coffee, feel free to come along,” Shadow muttered and crawled underneath the table to retrieve the shoe Sonic had used as a hat.  He placed it on top of the table and eyed Sonic from his place on the floor, pointing down at the hero’s leg, “Your other shoe is on your foot.”

 

Sonic sighed; about to retaliate with any excuse possible as long as it got Shadow to relent on the search, but there was a simply delicious view of Shadow bending over, too perfect for the younger hedgehog to ignore. The blue hero innocently looked to the side before focusing back on Shadow’s rear, thinking the agent was occupied; Chaos, it had all the right curves in all the right places, Sonic simply wishing to give it a touch as he subconsciously leaned back to get an even better sight. ‘What an ass…’

 

The hedgehog had long before realized his attraction for Shadow for quite some time now.  He quit denying himself glances at the other’s backside whenever he thought the Faker wasn’t looking and was hoping his looks were subtle.  He wouldn’t be able to look at Shadow if he ever found out about his feelings! He quickly forced his eyesight away as he distracted himself with his shoe, slipping it on with a nod.

 

“Sounds good; at least this time, I won’t be covered in blood and…” He didn’t dare admit to the fact he had been a sobbing mess, instead changing the way his thoughts ran, “You got some meat there? Not tainted by drugs?” Before Shadow could answer his question, he stepped towards the warehouse’s largest room and made for the exit, all with someone’s backside dancing through his head.
    

“At least a TV,” an upset expression crossed his muzzle, thinking back to his back at his damaged abode and his cracked television.

 

Shadow on the other hand, had felt Sonic’s lingering eyes on his backside and didn’t know which was worse.  The fact that Shadow wanted badly to rip the chair out from underneath Sonic’s seated form to get him to stop boring holes into his rear end, or the fact that Shadow was forced to ignore him and pretend to be oblivious so Sonic wouldn’t catch on to the fact that his secret crush had been ousted during the night.

 

“I don’t suppose you know how to read a book.  You can surely survive without your glorious television,” He got up to follow Sonic and rubbed his shoulder, sliding on his jetshoes without a hurry.  “Lead the way.” He muttered to Sonic.  It was a bit uncharacteristic for Shadow to let Sonic lead the way...

 

...But Shadow didn’t want the other to have another opportunity to stare at his butt.  

 

“Awww, reading!?” Sonic responded with a groan, a bit sarcastic. “That’s boring. Besides, what do you read, Encyclopedias?” he gave a chuckle at his own joke, continuing to lead the way, more than glad too. Of course, an idea stroked the runner’s mind as he looked over his shoulder, giving the other hedgehog a charming beam. “Oh Faker~; what about a race, hm?”
    

Before the other could respond, the younger of the two launched off with laughter, oblivious to Shadow’s inner turmoil as he took off, happy to take a deep breath of fresh air and feel the wind through his quills. ‘No matter what happens…I’ll always have this.’ He of course was referring to the fact that he would always have running and nature to bring him true happiness, regardless what went wrong with the whole Werehog catastrophe. Besides…it was one of the only activities that he felt brought him and Shadow together. He looked behind himself to see if Shadow had caught him, jade eyes glinting like the smirk on his face.

 

It was a challenge Shadow’s pride simply could not ignore, especially not with the way Sonic chose to taunt him.  He tore off after Sonic, chaos energy scorching the earth as he fought to catch up with the other.  Between the two of them, a three second head start meant a lot, so Shadow was left having to push himself hard in order to regain the ground he had lost.

 

Eventually he managed to pull himself neck to neck with Sonic, his ears pinned back flat against his head and his arms swinging close by his sides so he could get the least wind resistance against Sonic.

 

Sonic, who had been waiting for Shadow to catch up to him, gave a grin when the black hedgehog reached his side. Like usual, their race was neck and neck, the blue hedgehog’s arms out by his side as his feet moved with almost Godly grace and speed. This is what Sonic lived for and Shadow was the only other creature to give him such a challenge.

 

In fact, for the majority of the race, their positions hadn’t changed so much as a centimeter.  On the occasion that one or the other would pull ahead, their bullheadedness would rise to the surface and the speed would be kicked up another notch.  Nothing changed even slightly until Shadow’s house drew close.

 

The dark agent was tearing on through the park, the chaos energy from his skates scorching a wide path in the grass that would have had Smokey Bear snarling with fury.  Shadow was pouring on more speed, trying to inch ahead of Sonic if slightly when it happened.

 

A small hiccup in the flow of his chaos energy.  For the briefest of seconds, it caused the heel of his right jetskate to flicker off and his leg to jerk up against his will.  The world tilted in that instant, and Shadow’s balance was utterly lost, sending him tumbling across the park grounds at high-speeds that could easily break a normal person’s bones.

 

Shadow’s breath was knocked out of him completely and he instinctively curled up into a ball to spread out some of the impact so he wouldn’t be too sore when all of this was through. He groaned slightly as he came to a halt by a jungle gym, uncurling on his back and staring up at the sky, wondering what had just happened.

 

He was thankful that school was still in session so there had hardly been anyone in the park to see Shadow’s rather ungraceful dive.

 

Anyone except for the absolute last person on Mobius he wanted to see him take a fall like that.

 

The hero, beginning to sweat and watch Shadow try to inch a head a bit further, was quickly trying to follow until it happened; Shadow’s foot, in a show of uncharacteristic clumsiness, flew back and sent the agent tumbling to the ground, rocketing him forward in a tumble of limbs.

 

“S-Shadow!” Sonic called after him nervously and with shock, pushing himself further to try and stop Shadow, failing and watching him roll to a stop to fall lying on his spines. The blue hedgehog arrived at his side with a skid of the dirt below him, taking a hold of Shadow’s shoulders. “Faker, jeez, you alright!?” he asked with slight worry in his voice. After looking him over quickly, his frown quickly turned upside down as Sonic suppressed laughter.

 

 “…Shadow,” he took a deep breath. “That might have been…the greatest thing…I have ever witnessed.” It became too much and Sonic fell next to him in a heap of laughter, hitting his knee as he howled with taunting snickers. “I’m sorry, just…” he was cut off with more chuckling, wiping a tear from his eye as he tried to shake it off.

 

“Shadow, wow; you just made my day.” He offered a hand out for the older hedgehog, biting his lip to hold back further guffawing.

 

Sonic was rewarded with a dark glare from Shadow as the ebony hedgehog ignored the helping hand and picked himself painfully up from the ground so he could sit up without Sonic having to help him.  His tail bone was bruised something fierce and Shadow barely prevented himself from rubbing it in front of Sonic, his ears pinned back flat against his head.  He was lucky he hadn’t broken anything from a tumble like that.

 

“If you suddenly find yourself tripping while going well over one hundred miles an hour, don’t be surprised if you find me nearby with a long stick,” Shadow threatened Sonic darkly, and rubbed his head with a wince.  He was sure to have a few deep impact bruises, but that really was the least of his worries.

 

“I’ll have to remember to avoid it, unlike that klutzy move back there,” Sonic said with a scoff. “C’mon, don’t be bitter, you took it like a big hedgehog.”

 

The look Shadow gave Sonic was absolutely venomous.

 

Shadow slipped off his right shoe and frowned as he inspected the heel.  He wouldn’t have relished falling like that over concrete or while he was racing in a jungle.  He inserted a gloved fingertip into the jet to see what had caused the flow of chaos energy to become interrupted.  A piece of dirt clogging up the jets would have merely been blasted away by his energy.

 

He frowned as he inspected it.  There was nothing blocking the jet, and all the wiring appeared to be intact.  He pressed his palm to the bottom of his shoe, pushing his energy through it experimentally.  It flared back to life as though there had never been a problem to begin with and Shadow frowned, “That’s strange.” He murmured.

 

Sonic watched Shadow inspect the jets of the faulty shoe; he never really understood how they worked, Tails attempted to tell him once just how they did, but Sonic managed to not hear a word of it as he tuned it out. Besides, it was just scientific mumbo jumbo, and he resorted to telling himself Shadow needed them if he ever wanted to keep up with Sonic’s speed.

 

“What’s up with it?” he took it from Shadow’s grasp before he could protest, giving the item a shake. “Screw loose in it or something?” he put it to his ear as he continued to jar it up and down. “I was going to say, you’re not one to lose your footing, Faker.” He gave it back to him after the inspection. “That’s pretty weird. Oh well, let’s just say you lost that one and call it a good race, hm?” he patted the other’s shoulder as he made his way closer to Shadow’s property.
    

“You were gonna lose anyway!” he called happily over his shoulder, giving the other a wide grin.

 

Shadow bared his fangs in irritation and marched off after Sonic, his thoughts still troubled.  There hadn’t been anything wrong with his skate.  Nothing at all.  That meant there had been something wrong with him to cause the chaos energy to skitter badly enough that the jet would cut off. 

 

That annoyed him.  Shadow didn’t make mistakes.  He just didn’t. 

 

“You had a head start,” Shadow grunted as they finally approached his den.  He unlocked the door and shoved it open, in a foul mood.  “I’m going to make the call to Rouge.” And get an icepack for his abused tail.

 

“Excuses Shads, excuses,” Sonic assured as they entered the house, immediately helping himself to the kitchen. He swung open the fridge, giving an uninterested look; jeez, Faker needed more snacks (namely meat), there was just a load of healthy stuff in there. Taking the liberty of opening a water bottle, he took a quick sip before rolling his eyes.

 

Shadow whirled around towards Sonic, ruby eyes flaring pointedly, “Don’t poke your nose around or touch anything.” Shadow stressed, not wanting to have to clean up a mess after Sonic left.  With that, he turned to walk down the hallway to the bathroom to speak with Rouge. 

 

 “Alright, mom; lighten up, I’ll be good,” he watched Shadow take off down the hallway, immediately going through the cabinets with lightening speed, trying to be as quiet as possible. He almost dropped a mug but caught it with his usual quickness, giving a sigh of relief after taking a look around. After searching through the kitchen, the hero moved towards the living room, making himself comfortable on the couch. Nice, spotless, and smooth leather observed the blue hero, who lifted off after looking through a pile of magazines on the coffee table. He fiddled with items on the shelves of a bookcase, removing books and looking through their pages with curiosity as he gave a laugh to himself; jeez, not even a nudie magazine, an embarrassing photo or something else dirt worthy!? Shadow the hedgehog was so boring.

 

Sonic was about to give up his search with a defeated frown until something poking out from under the couch caught his eye, making a grab for the novel. “Blood Chocolate,” he read out loud after scanning the cover, opening up the book to look through the pages. Only a few minutes went by and Sonic was laughing out loud, jade eyes wide, ‘Shadow reads this junk!?’
    

“Hey Shadow!” he called out to his rival. “I think your girlfriend left her book here, or you seriously are much more of a wuss than I thought!”

 

Shadow froze as he heard Sonic’s shout from the privacy of his bedroom.  He had been talking to Rouge about finding Eggman after giving her a rundown briefly of what had been going on.  According to her, the only strange reoccurring activity across the world was unusual seismic activity.  Small tremors and nothing more, all near fault lines so it was nothing terribly strange.

 

Another round of raucous laughter made Shadow’s quills stiffen with annoyance and his eyes narrowed into slits, “Keep me posted if the Doctor surfaces Rouge,” Shadow said flatly, “I need to go kill a hedgehog and save us all a bit of trouble and paperwork.”

 

He hung up the phone and stormed out of his room, feeling a migraine throbbing at his temples along with the ice in his belly.  Sonic couldn’t have found... that... could he?  No.  It was impossible.

 

Yet there Sonic was, stretched out on his couch with Shadow’s romance novel spread open on his lap.

 

“Sonic,” He growled warningly.

 

“Hold on, Faker, hold on,” He licked a single finger and used it to turn the page with a smug smile, eyes never leaving the wall of text. “Vivian just started to meet Aiden; it’s so romantic, Shads.” He looked up with mocking worry in his jade eyes. “Shadow…you…you look upset,” he lifted off the couch, trying his best not to laugh. “Do you…do you need me to hold you?”

 

After asking such a foolish and obviously teasing question he broke out in further laughter, looking back to the book before moving towards the opposite side of the room. “This takes the cake, Faker. Really, I’m surprised. Tell me, do you think of the Werehog when you read this?” a taunting smirk grew across his muzzle. “Maybe I can talk to him, set something up between you two.” Sonic tried not to think of that annoying sting of jealous as he continued to laugh, closing the novel and waving it in his direction. “Shadow, I must say, I was not expecting this. Explain yourself?”

 

“I’m warning you Sonic,” Shadow snarled, unable to stop himself from blushing furiously at his comments.  His cheeks burned with embarrassment but his glare was razor sharp as he slowly walked in an arc around Sonic.  This was humiliating to listen to and take at face value, especially after Shadow’s clumsy fall from earlier.  That, and Shadow was being a good sport about not rubbing Sonic’s confession into the hero’s face.  Yet all at once his face went completely neutral as a certain thought process clicked into place in Shadow’s mind. 

 

Perhaps there was a silver lining in all of this chaos after all?  He could use that knowledge to his advantage, if he could perhaps gain a rise out of Sonic while he was rational, perhaps Shadow would be able to manipulate the Werehog later that night, “You know what Sonic...?” He purred softly, ruby eyes taking on an interesting glint as the pieces of his new game fell into place, “Perhaps you’re right.”

 

“Yes,” A very tiny, sultry smirk crept across Shadow’s lips as he eyed Sonic, “The Werehog certainly does catch my attention. I find a certain appeal to him...” All the while Shadow took slow and purposeful steps towards Sonic, closing in the distance between them.

 

“Oh?” stated Sonic in response, trying to keep his cool but struggling; seriously, now seriously, Shadow found the Werehog attractive?! In his jealousy, Sonic tried to see through Shadow’s rouse, but still managed to feel angry at the thought. He took a step away from the wall to continue his slow travel away from Shadow, giving a tiny sneer in response. “You enjoy having me drool all over you, Shadow?”

 

He moved towards the hallway behind him, calculating his own movements, his grin only growing as he raised a single eyebrow. “I’ll have to keep that in mind; I knew you liked it rough, but wet? That’s a shocker.” He winked at him before shooting down to his counterpart’s bedroom, slamming the door shut and locking it, giving a firm ‘hmph’. Well, he himself had only been teasing, the blue hero trying to rid of the spike of pain in his chest at Shadow’s words. Show him to have a crush on his wild doppelganger, kicking off his shoes to make himself comfortable on the other hedgehog’s bed.

 

“Hey Shadow,” he chuckled. “Hope you don’t mind that I tell the Werehog how nice this bed of yours is…” He runs a hand over the sheets before rolling across it. “Mmmm, quality cotton, hm?” Taking a deep inhale, he blushed faintly; he enjoyed the fact it smelt just like his racing partner, completely forgetting the book at this point as he closed his eyes. He tried to ignore the fact he was going to have an angry Faker on his hands.

 

Well that hadn’t gone quite as Shadow had planned.  He smirked anyway as he tried the door to his room, it seemed he had touched a nerve.  His eye twitched somewhat as he thought about that, his heart giving a strange flutter that he didn’t like. Was he happy that Sonic’s drug induced confession had produced a result? No, impossible. 

 

Focusing instead on what was happening now, Shadow drew his attention back to his door. It irritated him that he had been locked out of his own bedroom, but it was worth it if Shadow’s teasing ruffled Sonic’s quills a bit.  Besides, it was only a temporary block.  He reached above the doorframe and removed a small pin that could be fit into the door’s lock to open it.

 

He slipped it in and opened the door, quirking an eyeridge as he saw how Sonic was spread out on his bed.  “Comfortable Faker?”He growled softly.  At least Sonic had the decency to take off his shoes before completely destroying his made bed.

 

Sonic nearly jumped when he heard the faint noise of a pin becoming removed; crud, he had not considered that, and not a second later Shadow was moving into the room, growling out his question into the air. The hero gave a deep sigh of content as he rolled over to take a hold of a pillow to tuck it underneath his chin, giving Shadow emerald half lidded eyes.
    

“Just a bit,” he grinned, his back arching downwards as his belly brushed against the cool blankets, laying himself right out in Shadow’s view. “My bed is nicer, though.” He had no plans of moving, expecting Shadow to drag him off the mattress, digging his face into the cool sham of the pillow. “Go somewhere else, leave me be for a bit.” Mmmm, it smells so much like Shadow; earthy, sweet, and spicy all at the same time, and he hoped Shadow took in a view of his body. “You’re going to have to drag me off this.” His voice was muffled by the material as he closed his eyes, his short tail wagging behind him in both happiness and jest. "Though, really," he finally removed his muzzle from its hiding spot to face him. "I can't blame you for wanting to join."

 

Really, with the way Sonic was rolling around on the bed, it was hard for Shadow not to admire the way the limber hedgehog moved.  He was lithe, with a tight build and corded muscles that could be seen underneath his glossy, blue coat.  Sonic, Shadow decided from a purely clinical perspective was actually fairly attractive.  Not that it meant anything to Shadow. 

 

Of course not.

 

The only thing Shadow could take that to mean, was that Sonic was extraordinarily vain, and thus had taken Shadow’s compliment towards the Werehog as a type of personal slight.  As it stood, Shadow was not yet finished having a bit of payback and revenge on Sonic. He was handling the new information of Sonic’s feelings for him with all the finesse of a swordsman swinging a two by four.  He quirked an eyeridge and walked over to his bed, sliding over the covers so he was resting next to Sonic.

 

“I hardly need an invitation from you to rest in my own bed,” Shadow murmured.  Once again, his husky voice had dropped down into a soft purr and his dark ruby gaze drifted over towards the emerald eyes peeking up at him from his comforter.

 

Sonic swallowed, watching as Shadow had set himself across the bed; Shadow was definitely attractive as well and unlike Sonic, did not flaunt it let alone act like he knew of this fact. The hero watched as lean legs swung themselves onto his mattress after Shadow set himself onto the bed, admiring that inky black coat that he couldn’t dare touch. The older hedgehog’s voice sent a shudder down his spine, as Sonic had always been secretly entranced by his voice. The blue hedgehog sat up as he tried to give him a confident smile.
    
“I just had to; for all I know Faker, you might be the shy type,” his grin continued to grow. “Quiet, definitely. Shy? For all I know…” he slid himself closer, bringing his maw closer to the others as jade met crimson. “You just might be.”

 

Shadow watched Sonic, shifting a hand across his sheets to slide it gently over the blue hedgehog’s thigh.  “I’m hardly the shy type Sonic,” Shadow growled softly. 

 

‘Wow,’ thought Sonic, his heart instantly beating quickly in his chest as he tried to keep up his brave façade, but he was growing steadily more anxious. Shadow had just put a paw on his thigh, the touch eliciting sparks even if barely there.

 

He could see the hesitant boldness in Sonic’s eyes.  Had Shadow’s ‘flirting’ encouraged such a reaction...? Could it really be called flirting? Not to Shadow, he was just testing his plan for the night out on Sonic like a crash dummy.  That, and Shadow had to admit it was entertaining to watch the blue hedgehog squirm.

 

Ah well, play time was over. 

 

Shadow gave Sonic a hard shove on the leg, knocking the blue hedgehog clean off of his bed and over the side, an eyeridge quirked with disinterest, “Which is precisely the reason you shouldn’t mess around with my things.” He said shortly, going right back to business as he had before.

 

 Sonic had been about to speak before the firm push sent him tumbling off the bed with an ‘UMF!’

 

He fell to the floor directly on his face, giving a twitch as the rest of his body slumped to the ground after almost humorously. ‘Ouch,’ he told himself mentally, stinging in more ways than one, yet reminding himself what he had just done had been a bit foolish; what if…what if Shadow had really caught on? But was that flirting?! The blue hedgehog tried not to blush as he tilted his head to let his cheek meet the cool floor, giving a sigh. ‘Nonsense,’ he reasoned. ‘You just got ahead of yourself…’

 

“Lesson learned,” He said blankly, sitting up to rub the sore tip of his nose. “How could I not learn something after that loving push?” with the support of his bed, he stood up while blowing quills from his eyes. “You suck, you know that Faker?” Sonic felt bitter as he fixed his head quills, though told himself there was no possible way for Shadow to know of his feelings and toy with his emotions; how very wrong he was.

 

“Do I?” Shadow made a show of lying down on his bed, claiming it thoroughly as his own.  He might as well have laid out a sign that said ‘no Sonic’s allowed’. “I’m not the one invading other people’s homes, stealing their books, and then locking them out of their bedrooms.” He quirked an eyeridge, at the hedgehog crumpled below him “And just so the record can show, I do not like the Werehog or your slobbery little puppy kisses.” His nose wrinkled.

 

“Should have known that when you let me inside in the first place,” He smirked playfully at Shadow as he stood up to take a seat on the edge of the mattress, ignoring the fact his rival was intentionally sprawling himself across his own bed. “I’m sorry, the book thing was too much Faker.” He picked the said novel up and tossed it gently onto the nightstand, leaning forward as he kicked his legs childishly off the ledge.

 

“Whatever, I need a shower,” Shadow cut in shortly, still somewhat irritated to see Sonic playing with his book. If Sonic had lost his page, so help him Chaos...

 

The cold water hose at the warehouse just wasn’t going to cut it forever, and Shadow had felt like he had bathed in the Werehog’s slobber the previous night.  He felt ... a bit odd after watching Sonic’s reaction to his shove.  A bit guilty perhaps. Shadow narrowed his eyes, shoving aside the emotion for now. He had learned what he needed to, “Am I allowed to take one? Or do I need to hire a babysitter to watch you while I’m gone?”

 

“Well, I am feeling particularly rowdy today,” Sonic tapped a finger to his chin in jesting thought, trying to hold back a shit eating grin but failing. “Maybe if someone lets me rest in their bed, it just might subdue me.” He looked over to Shadow modestly, hands innocently crossed on his lap; it was too bad the hero’s head was filled with a plethora of thoughts for just what type of trouble he could get into within Shadow’s domain.

 

Shadow glared at Sonic pointedly, “You’ll do well to remember that I know of your little Werehog exploitations that I doubt you would care for anyone to know,” His eyes narrowed slightly, ruby eyes narrowed threateningly, “So you would be wise to hold your tongue about my...” He grunted slightly and folded his arms, “...hobbies.”  To make a point, he leaned over Sonic to snatch up his book in his protective grasp.

 

He slipped off the bed and narrowed his eyes at Sonic, “Do whatever you want, but keep your filthy feet off of my bed.” His nose wrinkled, “You could use a bath too.”

 

“Since when are you so prissy?” Sonic gave a laugh as he lifted his arm and sniffed his armpit. “You smell that? It’s the scent of a real hedgehog. But fine, get your butt in there and I’ll take one.”
    

“And don’t worry Shads, your little secret is safe with me,” He put a hand on his heart and crossed it, to prove that he would truly not say a word to anyone…but maybe Tails…and probably Knuckles. But Shadow did say that he had ‘dirt’ on Sonic, which confused him; just what could he possibly be talking about? Before Sonic could ask, Shadow took off towards the bathroom, leaving him in further confusion.

 

Maybe Faker was referring to his fear of water? Must be, what else could he possibly know!? Sonic tried not to dwell on it much as he leaned down to pull his socks off, slipping himself further onto the heart of the mattress. “Mmm,” he stated out loud, looking content with his lids drooping and his muzzle digging into the pillow; Faker had quite the nice bedroom.

 

Shadow took a hasty shower.  Despite his tough talk, he really didn’t want Sonic poking his nose around in his stuff to uncover Shadow’s private life.  Not that it was terribly private to begin with, but the image of Sonic curled up in his underwear drawer had popped into Shadow’s mind and it refused to leave.

 

...The fact that Shadow had no underwear to begin with meant absolutely nothing.

 

He was rubbing his fur dry with a towel as he walked back into his room to see Sonic curled up tamely on his bed as he said he would be.  Sonic looked so relaxed and at peace.  All the tension had left the hero’s body and he was laying limply, almost completely asleep on Shadow’s bed, snuggled into his pillow.  Shadow sighed slightly, considering for a moment just to let Sonic be for the moment.  He silently watched him for a long moment before he decided that Sonic could get the dirt off of his body first before staying on Shadow’s clean sheets.

 

“Faker, get up.  It’s your turn,” Shadow murmured, rubbing a hand through his wet fur.

 

Sonic heard a quiet voice break through the darkness of his sleep, giving a quiet groan. Rolling onto his side to reveal messy, bed ridden quills, he turned to Shadow with a bit of a pout. “Five more minutes—“ Sonic trailed off at the sight of the GUN agent, emerald eyes studying Shadow as he casually ran a hand through his wet fur.
    

Shadow had yet to dry his midnight coat off, still wet and sticking loosely to his muscles’ frame, tiny drops of water making their way down his fur. Sonic gave a swallow and immediately averted his eyes as he slid his way to the mattresses edge, giving a sigh.

 

“Fine, I’m going. Though I don’t know why…I smell fine!” he teased, though he desperately was in need of a good washing. He reluctantly walked past Shadow with one more look over his shoulder as he made his way to the bathroom, shutting the door quietly behind him. He took a deep inhale, smelling the perfumed body wash Shadow used; it smelt great, the room still steamy and warm from the past shower. He entered the stall, turning on the nozzles as water dripped out of the shower head, giving a content purr; oh man, he needed this, feeling even more relaxed than just previously in the bed.

 

Shadow sighed with relief when Sonic decided to take his shower without a complaint.  There was something about taking a bath that just made one feel... normal.  Even if that sense of normalcy lasted for just ten minutes out of the day. Shadow heard the shower start up again, his ears twitching slightly as he eyed the rumpled sheets Sonic had been laying on just a few minutes ago.

 

He was suddenly struck with a wave of exhaustion.  Shadow really had been running himself ragged, and keeping up with the Werehog was tiresome.  Keeping himself one step ahead of the feral beast was never easy and Shadow was running out of tricks.  The sleep he had gotten the previous day hadn’t really helped him any and ruby eyes lidded heavily.  His body was bruised and aching from his fall. The hot water from the shower merely making the scrapes he sustained sting a bit more. All he wanted to do was tumble into the welcoming embrace of the mattress. The bed looked so inviting.  So warm and comfortable.

 

Sonic had messed the sheets up anyway...

 

Deciding that he really didn’t know when Sonic was going to come back out of the bathroom, Shadow finished drying himself off and crawled onto his bed, grateful he hadn’t bothered to replace his gloves and socks.  The hedgehog nuzzled into his pillow, picking up the faint traces of Sonic in the sheets.  It smelt strangely pleasant and nice, so Shadow didn’t feel inclined to move despite the hedgehog’s funk.

 

Slowly, he curled up on the bed, striped legs splaying out on his side as he slowly drifted off to sleep. He figured Sonic would wake him up after his shower was over with so he could hog Shadow’s bed all to himself. The exhausted hedgehog really didn’t care, just so long as he could sleep for... five... minutes...

 

Sonic exited the shower with a happy grin, taking a hold of the towel Shadow left out for him. He tousled his quills in the material to dry them, stepping towards the mirror as he whipped a bare hand over the moist glass; to think, a few days ago, he was basically sobbing in front of this. Still embarrassed by the situation, he quickly moved away from the thought as he flashed himself a sparkling grin.
    

“Sup you,” he continued to go on to himself. “Yeah, I’m talking to you; that fine hedgehog, right there,” he poked the mirror playfully before slicking his quills back with his opposite hand. “Such a blue devil, you.” Sonic forced himself away from the sink and back into the hallway with a towel hung loose around his hips, entering the bedroom cheerfully.

 

“Yo Faker,” Sonic was ready to show off to Shadow, hoping the black hedgehog would take notice, before he spotted Shadow curled up on the mattress in a similar fashion to Sonic earlier, fast asleep. “Of course you pass out, old man.” Sonic teased as he coasted the towel over his quills one last time before resting himself next to Shadow on the bed. The black hedgehog would probably be upset when he woke up, but what the hell; all the more better for Sonic, who really had an affinity for getting his nonexistent underwear in a twist.

 

“Hey Shadow,” he spoke to his sleeping form. “If you think I’m sexy, don’t say anything.” Shadow continued to lie quietly and breathe evenly, Sonic giving a chuckle. “That’s what I thought.” He patted his side gently before laying his head on a free pillow, watching Shadow as he did so.
    

‘Hm,’ he thought to himself as his lids closed. ‘I have a few hours to relax, no biggie.’ With that thought, Sonic was soon asleep much like Shadow himself, although snoring much louder than his darker counterpart.

 

What neither hedgehog knew or suspected, the hours passed by quickly, the day swiftly bleeding away into night. 

 

A loud creaking and the thud of a few springs beginning to pop loose stirred Shadow from his rest.  An ear twitched and ruby eyes opened slightly, looking up at the dark ceiling groggily.  He frowned slightly, how long had he been asleep for?  Why hadn’t Sonic wakened him up to go back to the warehouse—...

 

The thought trailed off abruptly as a hot surge of air blew against Shadow’s face.  Turning his head slowly, he came face to face with the bleary emerald gaze of the undrugged and awake Werehog, curled around Shadow.

 

He saw the green eyes slowly begin to comprehend what was going on and one large, furry arm snaking closer to the trapped Shadow. Obviously the shifting weight of Sonic’s change on Shadow’s bed had stirred them both. Ice flooded through Shadow’s veins and he stared into Sonic’s sleepy maw.

 

“Oh shi—”

 

--::--

 

Haha, you know you love us. ((brick’d)) If you enjoyed the chapter, please review?

 

Alright, Fanart time! I, SoS – take the whole blame for this.  I forgot to put them in last time – so allow me to make amends. Remember, get rid of the ()!

 

http://()avatar-moonlight-100.()deviantart.()com/art/HTTYW-chapter5-fanart-167531221?q=favby%3AShotsOfSunshine%2F31190021&qo=36  (By Avatar-Moonlight-100)

 

http://()amemusashi.()deviantart.()com/art/STH-Fifties-House-Wife-167547580?q=favby%3AShotsOfSunshine%2F31190021&qo=35 (By AmeMusashi)

 

http://()cobalt-the-raccoon.()deviantart.()com/art/werehog-gift-165604995?q=favby%3AShotsOfSunshine%2F31190021&qo=60 (By Cobalt-the-Raccoon)

 

Let me know if I missed any! I know AmeMusashi drew a ton of lovely works that I bookmarked, but for some reason the site that they were hosted on is down! D’:

 

Thank you so much for sending in your art guys! It makes us both really happy to see that people find this story interesting enough to draw art for it! Zomg!