Light of Ichor 3

“But if you close your eyes
Does it almost feel like nothing changed at all?
And if you close your eyes
Does it almost feel like you’ve been here before?”

Pompeii __ Bastille




Waking slowly, Shadow’s ears twitched that morning as he heard movement upstairs. He opened his eyes and blinked a little owlishly at the sunlight streaming into the living room and stretched languidly. His eyes lidded peacefully in the living room.

Maria was alive, her son-in-law could cook spaghetti, and her ugly floral couch wasn’t the worst thing to sleep on. Folding his arms under his chin, Shadow lounged for a moment more on the couch and released a contented sigh. Quickly though, his ears drooped a little.

He owed Rouge an apology. A big one. Technically he owed Sonic an apology too, but he wasn’t really keen on admitting that to the blue blur. Shadow frowned. He needed to pay Doctor Eggman a visit for tricking him.

Feet pounded rapidly on the stairs. Sitting up, Shadow looked towards the kitchen to see Rosie nearly trip on the last step of the stairwell. She bobbled and wobbled, socked feet sliding on the wooden floor before she turned into the carpeted living room. She wore a pair of pink leggings and a bright pink and yellow shirt.

“Good morning, Shadow!”

He nodded towards his new acquaintance, saying, “Good morning.” Rosie plopped on the couch next to him and extended her shoes toward him.

“Tie these for me?”

Her words almost came out more as a command than a request. Shadow took the small shoes, wondering when Maria or Rosie’s parents would wake up. Surely they were far more qualified to do this than he was? However, Rosie waited for no one and immediately put her legs up on the couch and shoved her feet into each waiting shoe. Then, she waited for Shadow to tie them.

Nervously, Shadow’s quills twitched. He stole a glance to his own shoes before looking at Rosie’s laces. His were just slip-ons. He’d never tied a shoe in his life. Come to think of it, he wasn’t sure he’d ever tied a knot before in his life either. Even Maria had worn slip-ons aboard the ARK. Instead of voicing his concerns, Shadow pressed his lips and took up the lacy challenge before him.

Almost immediately, Rosie piped up, “You’re doing it wrong.”

His red eyes flicked her way. He lifted a brow, asking, “You know how to tie your shoes?”

“No,” she said, pursing up her lips and narrowing her eyes, “Gramma still helps me. Don’t you know how to tie shoes?”

For some reason, at the slightly condescending tone of a five year old, Shadow’s irritation rose. “You don’t know how to tie shoes.”

She huffed and crossed her arms. “I’m five,” she said plainly to him, “and you’re old. You should know.” Before he could respond to that, she grabbed the laces too, saying, “You pull it under like this—and then yank them tight! Then, um, you make bunny ears.” They fought for a moment trying to make the loops stay. “And then the bunny goes in his hole, but there’s so many holes I don’t know which one.”

The two struggled a moment more. Shadow ended up pulling the loops through each other and completely canceling them out and they had to start over. The second time he picked a different bunny hole and made some mess of a knot, but Rosie proclaimed that it was wrong.

“Then why don’t you do it?” Shadow said in annoyance, letting the laces drop and crossing his arms.

Rosie mimicked his position. “Because I don’t know which rabbit hole is the right one!”

“Then how do you know I haven’t picked the right one?” Shadow argued. He gave a gesture to her shoes. “They’re tied, aren’t they?”

“But they’re not tied RIGHT,” Rosie complained right back.

He opened his mouth to respond, and catching sight of someone from the corner of his eye, he looked up sharply. Maria stood leaning against the wall in her pajamas with a bemused expression on her face. Shadow resisted the urge to blush while at the same time he wanted to know exactly how long she had watched them struggle. Rosie looked up too.

“Gramma! Can you tie my shoes? Shadow doesn’t know how to tie shoes.”

Disgruntled at the child’s insistence on how he was doing it, Shadow watched Maria tie her shoes for her. It seemed simple enough. Besides, which way did it really matter how they were tied?

Shadow slipped his own shoes back on, and Rosie immediately went running out of the house to play. He could faintly hear Walter and Clara upstairs in the spare bedroom. That was the only reason he was on the couch, as the family had spent Saturday night with Maria as they always did.

Maria sent him a cheeky little smile. “Do I need to teach the Ultimate Life Form how to tie shoes?” she asked.

“No,” he said immediately, drawing himself straight. The reaction was almost a formal one, and it was especially odd with Maria. “I think I understand how it works.”

She nodded and pointed a thumb into the kitchen behind her. “Want some breakfast?”

“No thank you,” he replied, shaking his head. “I . . . I need to go,” he said reluctantly, shifting on his feet. “I need to see the Doctor.”

Understanding lit at once in Maria’s eyes, and it wasn’t a happy look. Her features screwed up some as she put her hands on her hips, saying, “That cousin of mine! I begged and begged him to tell you that I was alive, but he refused! He wanted your power all for himself, of course, and I didn’t know how to get a hold of you otherwise. When I heard you were alive again, I was lucky when Rouge came tracking me down and told me she could find you.”

Shadow paused, feeling something within him chill. He licked his lips before asking, “When I was alive . . . again?”

Maria’s brows cinched too. “Yes,” she said with a frown, “the first time I asked Ivo to tell you I was alive was the first time I saw you on TV when you stole that green Chaos Emerald.”

Hate boiled hot immediately. He fought to keep his voice level as he said tightly, “You mean when I was trying to destroy the world, your cousin knew you were alive, and DIDN’T tell me?”

There was hesitation. Shadow pressed his lips tightly, and Maria knelt in front of him, knees creaking with age. She put her hands on his shoulders. “Shadow,” she said carefully, “I know you’re angry, but please don’t do anything foolish.”

“Foolish?” Shadow all but snapped. His entire body was coiled with tension as he sought not to lose his temper in front of Maria. He took a deep breath, saying steadily, “The Doctor used me as a weapon and lied to me in order to get me to comply. I—I would have never tried to destroy the world had I known you were alive!”

“I know you wouldn’t have,” Maria told him, her hands squeezing his shoulders as both a gesture of comfort and restriction. “I don’t blame you, Shadow.”

“Ivo Robotnik is to blame,” he said hotly. He pulled himself out of her grip. “I’m going to have a CHAT with the dear Doctor.”

He turned to head towards the door, and Maria followed, saying, “Shadow, stop! Unless it really will be a civil conversation, I’m not letting you go!” Shadow ignored her, pushing open the front door, too furious to listen. “Shadow, violence is not the answer! Shadow—Shadow the Hedgehog, you stop RIGHT NOW!”

At the tone of voice he had never heard her use before, Shadow halted at the bottom of the porch steps. Rosie, who had been struggling with a hula hoop, let her toy drop to the ground as she gasped at Maria’s motherly tone.

“Is Shadow in trouble?”

Shadow’s ears flatted angrily before perking straight again. There was a beat of silence, and finally, Maria said, “Not yet, he’s not. Rosie, could you give us a minute to talk alone?”

“Okay . . .” Rosie nervously cast a glance over her shoulder at the dark hedgehog before disappearing into the house.

His hands clenched and relaxed twice before Maria crouched in his line of sight again. “What are you going to do, Shadow?”

“What does it matter?” he asked peevishly.

“Shadow.”

He crossed his arms and turned his face away, glowering to the side. “I told you,” he muttered, “I’m going to have a chat with the Doctor.”

“That doesn’t sound very truthful to me.”

“You want the truth?” he said back a touch too scathingly. His red eyes flashed at her. “I’m going to go give the Doctor a piece of my mind and wreck as much of his laboratory as possible for deceiving me.”

Maria’s eyes hardened a little. “Shadow, you know violence isn’t the answer,” she argued.

“It’s worked just fine for me so far.”

Her lips pressed and she said, “I just don’t want you to do anything you’ll regret.”

“Trust me,” Shadow muttered harshly, “I’m not going to regret it.”

“I know, and that’s what scares me! You can’t do this, Shadow.”

His temper snapped. “And what are you?” he snarled, “My mother?”

She seemed to recoil a little at that, and she rested back on her ankles submissively as she knelt in front of him. Shadow’s ears drooped backwards momentarily, and he jerked his chin away from her. An uncomfortable silence spread between them as Maria’s fingers twiddled nervously in her lap.

Finally, she murmured, “Shadow, I know I can’t make your decisions for you. I just . . . You know how I feel about violence.” A small pause lurked as large as an elephant before Maria whispered softly, “You’ve changed.”

This entire situation was awkward. Shadow could barely remember the times when he and Maria argued. They were always few and far between, and they made up quickly. This was . . . different. She spoke to him in a way she had never spoken to him before; he spoke to her in a way he had never dared. He hadn’t expected to be fighting with her so soon.

Avoiding her gaze, Shadow looked at the morning dew on the grass. “You’ve changed too,” was all he could muster up.

“Well,” she said, finding a small smile for him, “I guess we’ll just have to get to know each other again, right?”

Wanting to believe her, Shadow looked up and nodded. “Right.”

Her gaze softened, and then she heaved a resigned sigh. “Well, I know I can’t stop you,” she said, standing back up. She hesitated. “When will you be back?”

“Tonight,” he said immediately. Shyly, he looked away, admitting, “I want to see you.”

That really did make a smile bloom on her face. “My door is always open for you,” she told him. She looked at him seriously. “Be careful.”

He tried not to squirm under her gaze. He knew what she really meant, and by Chaos did he want to ignore her. Instead, he just nodded and beat a hasty escape, quickly igniting his skates and traveling to Eggman’s base in the Scrap Brain Zone.

She was letting him go and trusting him to do the right thing. He didn’t really know what the right thing was; only that it clearly didn’t involve violence, according to Maria. She probably expected him to sit and have a good spot of tea with the mad doctor, but Shadow inwardly scoffed at that. Talk out their feelings like nice mature adults? That was likely with the kind of temper tantrums Eggman could throw.

Shadow thought about it more as he skated, and the lull of familiar motion purged him of the most of his anger. By the time he drew into the Scrap Brain Zone, he had his game plan. As long as Eggman was civil, Shadow would be too. Otherwise, once provoked, he wouldn’t worry about how much of the doctor’s base he trashed. As he walked up to the giant steel fortress unharmed, Shadow considered, and then decided that he’d take back a Chaos Emerald as compensation.

Taking his leisurely time in finding Eggman, Shadow walked through the sizable base, looking down long grey corridors with glaring fluorescent lights. Taking a peek in each room as he went, Shadow found various closets full of broken robots, half-finished robots, storage, generators, and all sorts of other items needed for being an evil scientist.

He found Eggman in a lab, meticulously welding a small item. The automatic doors whizzed shut behind him. The round man didn’t look up as Shadow entered, saying cheekily, “Well, did you have fun on your little day trip?”

Leaning against a filing cabinet, Shadow took a deep breath to steady his displeasure. Crossing his arms, he replied coolly, “Of course I did, Doctor.”

As he spoke, Eggman’s welder turned off. His head popped up and he burst, “You mean you did?” and then, he hastily corrected himself, “O-of course, it had to be satisfying to see that Mr. Schmidt got what he deserved. After all these years.”

“Certainly,” Shadow said with velvety smoothness, “but I don’t take kindly to being lied to, Doctor.”

Eggman drew himself up to size and took the small item he had been working on to a spherical contraption to the side. “Well,” he said gruffly, “you didn’t ask for specifics. You just asked who shot Maria, and I told you. I didn’t lie.”

“A lie of omission is still a lie,” he said with a hard edge lurking under his silky tone. His hands clenched tightly on his elbows as he leered at Eggman from across the room. “You have an exceedingly bad habit of withholding information from me, Doctor, and the consequences could be ugly.”

“Of course I’m not lying to you, Shadow,” Eggman said again, tinkering here and there with his newest machine. Finally, he turned and looked at Shadow fully, his expression collected behind blue shades. “We both agreed:  information for information. Or, as with your lack of information, at least some hard labor to earn the knowledge I have.”

“Ah, but you misunderstand me, Doctor,” Shadow crooned. He stood from his idle slouch and approached Eggman with a glint in his eye. His lip curled as he asked, “How long did you think you could hide her from me?” He was pleased to see Eggman blanching, his mouth already opening to cut him off. He didn’t let him.

“Maria asked you herself for you to pass on the message that she was alive and wanted to see me,” Shadow snarled angrily. “You withheld this from me. So when were you going to tell me she was alive? When I finished working off my supposed debt to you? When you succeeded in creating your Eggman Empire?” He couldn’t contain a scoff at that. Crimson eyes glinted, and he growled, “Or perhaps you would have told me when I nearly annihilated the planet!”

“O-Of course not, Shadow!” Eggman stuttered, backing away a couple of steps as Shadow advanced with a look that could kill it was so sharp. “Y-Your mental state was so fragile, I was afraid—”

“My mental state?” Shadow interrupted. He gave one flat laugh and cut, “No, Doctor, I highly doubt you were ever going to tell me Maria was alive. No, you were going to allow me to keep believing she was dead in order to keep me in line as your own personal weapon.” His hands trembled with the urge to destroy something, but he held himself in check for Maria, instead expressing himself with the words, “I am NOT happy.” That didn’t sound very threatening. Maybe he should have worded that differently.

“I never said she was dead!” Eggman said almost shrilly in his defense. He pointed his finger at Shadow, saying, “I never said to you that Maria was dead. I did mention she was shot, but you were the one to assume that she was dead!”

“And you never once attempted to correct me even though you knew she was alive!”

Shadow clenched his fists and took a deep breath, striving to control his temper. Clearly this effort was visible because Eggman harrumphed, “You did see her, didn’t you? That’s got to be the only reason my base hasn’t been leveled yet . . . Then what do you want? Why are you here?”

His ears twitched. “To tell you that I am through working for you, and I’m here for a Chaos Emerald.”

“And you think I’m just going to hand that over to you?” Eggman asked hotly.

Shadow’s lip curled, and he crooned, “You will if you don’t want me to level your base and take it anyways. I’m offering you a chance to cut your losses, Doctor, before I cut them for you.”

Eggman’s mouth pressed. His thumb roved restlessly on a pant leg, as if itching to press a button and sic some robots on him before he grunted, “Fine,” and began to walk off. Shadow followed him out of the laboratory and deeper into the base where Eggman led him to a series of vaults. He chose one and entered a pin, revealing the white Chaos Emerald. Begrudgingly, he handed it to Shadow. “Satisfied?”

The edge of Shadow’s lip quirked up. He gave him a slight, mocking bow. “Thank you, Doctor. I expect this won’t be the last I see of you.”

Eggman grumbled indistinctly. Shadow smirked and immediately let the Chaos power warming his palm flood into his system. Utilizing a Chaos Control, Shadow teleported all the way back to Central City, saving hours of travel. Feeling the nearly addictive rush of Chaos energies, Shadow released a gratifying sigh. Eggman had three Chaos Emeralds—he should have taken another. Instead, choosing to stick with his original plan, Shadow sadly lamented the Chaos Emerald he held before traveling to the nearest shop to get it wrapped. Then, he trekked deeper into the city to Club Rouge.

Shadow hesitated at the door to the club. What if she was working? The back of his neck prickled. He didn’t fancy walking up to G.U.N.’s headquarters to find her. They didn’t exactly have the fondest of history. What was he even going to say? He hadn’t really thought about it much. Maybe he was hoping an awkward “I’m sorry” would be enough and Rouge would let him off the hook. He certainly had enough to bribe his way into her good graces, but that didn’t feel proper.

He stood for some time contemplating in front of her club’s door and finally decided he might as well see if she was there. He rapped on the door and waited. When no answer was forthcoming, Shadow wondered if she had even heard him. It seemed to be a sizable club. He knocked again and received no answer, but just for the record that he had really tried, knocked one more time.

The door yanked open angrily. “Clearly the club is—”

The word “closed” died on her lips as she regarded Shadow with a hint of suspicion. Teal eyes darted to the small package he held before back to his face. He had never seen her in anything other than her cat suit, so seeing her in silky purple pajamas was jarring. She crossed her arms—which to Shadow, put herself on display far more than necessary—and said simply, “Shadow.”

His ears dipped back a little at her haughty tone, but he knew he deserved it. Avoiding her gaze, he asked, “Can I come in?”

She seemed to debate this. After a moment, she stepped aside to let him inside and shut the door behind him. The club was dim, but the lights above the bar had been turned on. Rouge walked up to it and sat down on a stool, so Shadow followed suit. He sat the package down on the bar, making her attention slip to it briefly before she hiked her chin up at him. “So?”

His hands held the edge of the stool, and he pressed his lips. Looking down at his lap, he admitted, “I . . . wanted to apologize.”

“Thought so,” she said with a slight purr. “For what?”

It was clear what, but Shadow allowed her to milk his apology for all it was worth. “I’m sorry for not believing you,” he started, trying to remember to tick off all the boxes. “For attacking you. For the things I said. I was wrong. I should have believed you.”

“And for being a prick.”

His lips thinned in annoyance, but allowed, “And for being a prick.” He leaned his arms against the bar, looking down at its shiny surface. He heaved a small sigh and said, “I’m sorry. I should have trusted you.”

“Funny how you can actually trust me to tell the truth, isn’t it?” she said, but she was smiling at him now. “Apology accepted. So how are you now? You must be doing pretty good if you can apologize without grinding your teeth flat.”

He spared her a roll of his eyes at her teasing, but his lips twitched against a smile. “I owe you,” he said softly, feeling warmth in his chest when he thought about Maria. He pushed the package her way.

“I knew this was for me,” Rouge said with a flash of her teeth, snatching up the box. “You better be glad you didn’t lead with this. I can’t be bought, you know.”

As she ripped the paper off, something close to a wry smile made him shake his head. “I’m sure even you have a price,” he said, but not maliciously.

Rouge shot him a look as she opened up the box, but the second she lifted the lid, she gasped, “Whoa, BABY!” and snatched the gem out of the box. She ogled the white Chaos Emerald with awe, cupping it with both hands. She shot him another suspicious glance, asking, “You’re really just giving this to me?” She was putting her body between him and the emerald already, as if she expected him to yank it away like some kind of cruel joke.

Instead, Shadow just nodded and said, “It’s yours.”

“Oh Shadow, you shouldn’t have!”

Shadow flinched, nearly knocked off his bar stool when Rouge suddenly flung her arms around him. He barely managed to jerk his head down enough so Rouge didn’t cut her arms on his spines, which left his face buried uncomfortably in her shoulder. He had to swat at her to get her to let go, and she almost immediately returned to preening over the beauty of her white Chaos Emerald.

“You sure know how to flatter a girl,” Rouge said to him, turning over the gem in her hand. “You certainly bring out the big guns for apologies, don’t you?”

Satisfied that the day had gone exactly how he had planned, Shadow stood from the barstool. “Sure,” he said evasively. “You take care of that.”

“What?” She whirled around on the barstool, tearing her eyes away from the jewel for just a moment more to look at him. “You’re leaving already?”

“Yes,” he said with a nod in her direction. “I . . . I have a place to return to.”

Rouge’s gaze softened marginally. She gave him a small, close-mouthed smile as she teased, “You hurry back to your Maria. Who knows? Maybe I’ll stop by for a visit one day. She seemed nice.”

Shadow nodded, saying, “Of course. Another time, Rouge.”

She was nearly uninterested in goodbyes now, standing from the bar stool with her gift shining in her hands. “Sure thing, Shadow,” she said, “I’ll keep this baby safe,” and chuckled to herself, as if he had requested her to watch over the emerald.

Shadow just shook his head to himself as he left the dim club, squinting in the suddenly bright afternoon sun of the day. His heart lightened as he realized he had the entire afternoon to spend with Maria. Speeding off in the streets, Shadow tried to squish the unease at trying to relearn who his best friend was. She was still the same Maria, even if she was a little older and a little wiser. Finding the Melrose subdivision and the little yellow house Shadow was already beginning to associate as home, Shadow’s brows rose at a wisp of smoke coming from the backyard.

He stopped at the door, wondering whether he should knock or just walk in. He could hear voices on the inside, and it stuck him as too many different voices to just be the family. Hesitantly, he knocked, and a hush spilled through the inside. Shadow’s eyes narrowed in suspicion.

The door opened. Just a crack. Maria peeked through with a wide grin and an impish twinkle in her eyes. He shrank just so. “Maria,” he asked hesitantly, “what’s going on?”

She jumped back and flung open the door, shouting, “SURPRISE!” with a choir of voices behind her. Shadow’s feet welded to the floor as he counted not only Rosie, Walter, and Clara, but also Amy, Tails, and SONIC.

“Welcome back from the dead, buddy!” Sonic hollered with a grin. “And to the reunion of friends! We’re grilling out!”

Walter clicked the tongs in his hand to punctuate his statement, and before Shadow could gather his bearings, Amy was practically on top of him, grabbing his hands. “Oh Shadow, I’m just so happy for you!” she said, sincerely close to tears. “You and Maria are finally back together! Oh, she even baked a cake for you, come in!”

She dragged him into the house that was suddenly too full for Shadow’s taste. Rosie grabbed his opposite hand, bouncing up and down with her hair done up in pigtails. “We’re having a party for you!” she said excitedly.

Shadow looked helplessly over his shoulder for Maria, and she was pressing her lips, trying her best not to laugh at his floundering. She said, “I didn’t realize you had so many friends, Shadow!”

It was on the tip of his tongue to deny them when Tails suddenly piped up, “I can’t believe you’ve never had a surprise party!”

“Yeah, shame,” Sonic said with a grin. Shadow stared at him, disconcerted to see the blue hero in Maria’s living room. “We figured a surprise party was the perfect way to celebrate! You need some more parties in your life, buddy.”

Rosie came in front of Shadow again, saying, “Wanna go play?” and at the same time, Shadow’s sharp quills brushed a balloon behind him. It popped thunderously behind him, and the skittish hedgehog nearly jumped out of his skin.

Laughter filled the house. Shadow flushed. Sonic was doubled up, nearly unable to control his laughter, but Maria took the distraction to move closer to Shadow, leaning down to ask, “Are you all right?”

Seeing the concern in her eyes, he didn’t want to ruin the surprise party—she had made a cake for him!—and instead unglued his mouth to say immediately, “I’m fine.” It was a lie, and Maria knew it.

Maria smiled at their company, saying, “How about we all head outside? There will be more room in the backyard.”

Walter’s eyes widened. “Oh! The hot dogs!” and he dashed through the kitchen to the outside.

Rosie whirled around and punched Sonic’s stomach. “Race you!”

She bolted immediately with Sonic on her heels, and Shadow somehow doubted Sonic would lose, even if she was a child. Tails followed Sonic, and Amy helped Clara along, the girls chatting excitedly about the not-yet-born George.

Shadow was a little impressed with Maria’s maneuver to get everyone out of the house. She crouched in front of him, asking, “Are you really all right?”

He jerked a shoulder noncommittally, saying, “A little overwhelmed.”

A soft smile touched her features. “I could tell,” she told him. “Your friends came by to see you earlier, and since you were gone, we thought a surprise party would be fun.”

“They’re not my friends,” he said automatically, but there wasn’t real malice in his voice.

Surprise flooded Maria’s face. “They’re not?” she said. “They certainly acted like it. They were so excited to throw together the party.”

He supposed they would be excited. Unable to articulate quite why he didn’t want to view them as friends or why things were so awkward in the first place, Shadow just pressed his lips together. When he avoided her gaze, Maria asked gently, “Shadow, are you really all right? If you don’t want to be here, we can go somewhere else.”

He almost took her up on the offer. Somewhere quieter, alone where they could talk and he wouldn’t have to suffer a party. Instead, he happened to glance towards the back windows of the kitchen to see Rosie running outside. She stopped at the window, pressed her face against the glass and stuck out her tongue at him. She giggled as she ran off. Sonic was chasing her, and he stopped at the window to make a face at Shadow too before resuming pursuit.

He could smell the hot dogs cooking. And, Maria had made him a cake. Suddenly filled with the urge not to disappoint people, Shadow finally hedged, “I . . . It’s fine.” To make his statement seem more genuine, he took her hand to tug her back to her feet. Inwardly, he steeled himself for battle, saying, “Let’s join them.”

Maria smiled widely, saying, “All right.” She paused. “Also, you had the best facial reaction to the surprise!”

Shadow flushed a little at her teasing, and they headed outside to join the festivities. The greeting they gathered alone was almost enough to make Shadow think he could endure the party. Shadow kept himself at a distance from the others as Sonic and Tails more than happily played with Rosie. Dinner was nearly ready when they suddenly realized they had forgotten Rouge, so Sonic sped off to pick her up. He returned several minutes later with a very disgruntled Rogue in sweats and a presentable tank top who proclaimed, “Next time when a lady says she has her own transportation, you listen to her!”

Surprisingly, the party became a little more bearable with Rogue around. She sat next to him as the conversation filtered around them, content not to try and drag him into conversation. Sonic more than filled the silences with his big mouth, telling stories of defeating Eggman, along with the stories of how he and Shadow first met. Shadow was so uncomfortable at Sonic’s retelling of him trying to destroy the world that Rouge kicked the blue blur from under the table and Maria swiftly and skillfully managed to steer the conversation in another direction.

After dinner, Walter ended up pulling out a game called cornhole for them to play, and both he and Rosie ended up being highly competitive. Due to Rosie’s pleading, Shadow stood for one game before shrinking to the sidelines with the highly pregnant Clara. He and Rosie lost to Maria and Walter.

And then finally, FINALLY as the sun was setting, Clara and Walter both said they needed to be getting home. School started tomorrow for Rosie, who whined and whined about wanting to stay a little bit longer. With another hug for Shadow, in which he taught her the proper way to hug him so she wouldn’t hurt herself, the small family left. It also signaled the end of the party, and Sonic and co. all left too, Rouge huffily telling Sonic that she would fly home.

As the last of them cleared out, Maria began cleaning up leftover cups and loading the dishwasher. She smiled at Shadow in the sudden quiet of the house. “There. That wasn’t so bad, now was it?”

He was drained and tired, but it hadn’t been . . . awful. “I guess not,” he said evasively. He picked up some dishes and brought them over to her. “I don’t relish doing it again anytime soon, though.” Somehow he figured he’d be seeing them a lot more than he wanted to.

Maria laughed then, saying, “Well then, I doubt you’ll want to be here next weekend. Clara’s having her baby shower and this house is going to be filled with strange women.”

He cast a bemused glance her way and said, “I’ll be sure to avoid the house that day.”

Chuckling, Maria turned the dishwasher on and wiped down the counters. “I want to do something with you,” she told him.

Interest piqued, Shadow lifted his brows. “What?”

She just ginned and shook her head, saying, “Hold on, let me put on something more comfortable.”

She hurried upstairs with a spring in her step, and Shadow waited downstairs. Trying to be helpful, he closed the blinds against the night, and Maria returned in her pajamas. She took his hand, saying, “Come on.” They headed out to the fenced in backyard, and before Shadow could ask what they were doing there, Maria sat and pulling him down with her. “Stargazing!” she said cheerfully, and she flopped on her back, blond and grey hair sprawling in the grass.

Amused at her, Shadow lay on his back and looked up at the night sky with her. It was quiet except for the crickets, and he stared up at the starry sky, like glitter smeared over black.

He heard Maria give a soft laugh. “I’ve always wanted to do this with you,” she admitted quietly. “It’s different looking up at the sky instead of down, isn’t it?”

Shadow glanced over to her. A faint smile was pulling her lips, but her eyes were far away. “I used to think Earth looked pretty small,” she said to him. “I knew factually that it wasn’t, but for the longest, I didn’t realize it would be . . . THIS vast. I always feel like a speck on the face of this planet when I look up at the stars. Sometimes it’s nice to put into perspective how small we really are.”

His eyes lidded briefly. Turning to look up at the endless sky, the moon gleaming half full, Shadow released a breath and closed his eyes. Maria’s hand laced in his, and for a while, they lied in companionable silence stargazing.

She was right. It was very different looking up at the sky instead of down on it. Everything about their lives was very different from what Shadow remembered. Sometimes, he found himself trying to pretend everything was still the same—Maria was still the same Maria, she was young and full of life, and they were still best friends. But they didn’t live on the ARK anymore. She had a job. A family. A life she had lived without him.

Shadow’s heart sunk like a rock. His whole life was changing too fast for him to catch up to it. Sonic and his friends were trying to begin a friendly relationship with him. There was a toddler who wanted to play with him and looked up to him. He was being adopted into a family that consisted of more than just Maria and Dr. Robotnik. He was still struggling with the idea of a more domestic life.

But, as he closed his eyes, feeling the familiarity of having Maria’s hand in his, he could almost pretend nothing had changed at all. They might be changed, and the circumstances might be different, but they were still friends. He took solace in this thought and squeezed her hand, for once looking forward to what the future may hold.

After a moment, Maria’s hand squeezed back.