Author's P.O.V.
"Quiet!" Manic glared at his brother, who accidentally spoke too loudly. "Save your chats for later, will ya?" He whispered.

"Oh whatever." The azure hero chuckled quietly. "Ma should be talking to the commander already, I don't see Rouge or Shadow anywhere though." He whispered as he followed his brother.

"I don't know..." The green Prince mumbled. "We're close to the Commander's office."

"How exactly are you planning on stealing this?"

"I'm gonna destroy it first, then you will see it outside the building." Manic chuckled quietly and slowly entered the office then let his brother in and quickly locked the door again since it was already locked in the first place.

Sonic nodded. "Okay, I'll help you look for it." He said quietly then started looking around the office trying to find the control.

The other one looked around as well, he found it and smirked. "Sonic. Come here." He whispered and reached for the machine.

"I don't think so." Shadow growled lowly as he appeared in front of Manic.

The hero pinned his ears done at hearing Shadow's voice. He looked up at their direction and quickly dashed in front of Manic. "You cannot hurt him." The azure one growled lowly.

"You're not one to tell me what to do." The dark hedgehog growled back. "Now back off before I actually kill you this time." His ear kept twitching since the noise was louder from being close to the machine.

"Manic... Destroy the control... I'll keep him busy." The hero mumbled to his brother and looked back up at his now rival. "I'm not leaving, seems like you'll have to kill me."

"Your loss, idiot." The Ultimate Lifeform quickly dashed to his ex, about to grab him from his already bruised neck, knowing it'll be weak but the hero quickly dashed behind Shadow.

Having a history together, the smaller one could not bring himself to hit, kick or punch the ebony one. He kept running around making sure Shadow was distracted to get Manic.

"Stop running!" The agent growled loudly as he kept trying to attack the smaller hedgehog.

While all this was happening, Manic was trying to destroy or deactivate the machine, but it was well protected.

"Come on, bro, what's taking you so long?" The smaller one called out to his brother as he began getting tired after a while. He had been jumping over some stuff from the office as he ran, he began slowing down without noticing. "Shad, come on, you used to be faster." The hero chuckled at his rival even though he was clearly hurt to see him this way.

"I'm trying bro!" Manic bit his tongue as he tried to work faster.

"Because I'm not stupid like you!" Shadow started getting pissed off, he quickly grabbed the younger one's wrist and pulled him closer then kicked him roughly on the head.

The hero gasper and fell on the floor then held his head in pain. He pinned his ears down and groaned from the pain then slowly looked up to see Shadow, who knelt down and grabbed the other's neck and pressed on it as he charged a chaos spear. "You're dead now, Hedgehog."

The hero moved his hand up to his and tried to push it away as he gasped for air, clear that he was in pain. "M-Manic...!" The hero half-whispered, half-shouted at his brother to hurry up.

"Shit!" Manic dropped his ears as he typed even faster.

Before the green Prince could destroy the machine, Shadow chaos speared the azure one, aiming for his head, but he missed from the noise that abruptly got as loud as it could and hit his ear instead.

The dark hedgehog quickly grabbed his ears and hissed loudly, he fell on the floor and tried to take the speaker off, not being able to handle it anymore, he usually didn't touch it because the nice would get louder, but now it that it was maxed, he took the opportunity and pulled on it, but before he could do so, he fainted. The machine did that on its own, as a defense mechanism, in case Shadow tried to destroy it.

The azure one covered his ear in pain and yelled loudly. He passed out soon after since he wasn't able to breathe correctly.

"Sonic?!" Manic dropped his ears and gasped then quickly ran to the phone the Commander had in there to call Aleena. "Ma! Please, tell me you're close! Sonic is injured!"

~~~
The azure one slowly woke up after a while and groaned quietly. He slowly opened his eyes and looked around as he tried to sit up.

He was in his room in the castle, he had his ear bandaged, a part of it was cut off by the spear. No one was around, but there could be heard Manic and Sonia's voice from outside.

"Is he awake...? I have to see him."

"I don't know sis... Let him rest... He needs a lot of energy to see Shadow again after what happened..."

The azure hero sat up correctly then stood up. He walked to a mirror and dropped his ear when he saw the bruise around his neck. The prince looked up at his bandaged ear and hesitantly took off the bandage then let a tear roll down his muzzle. He shook his head and walked to where he had heard their voices coming from. His throat hurt so he couldn't talk.

"I don't care. I need to see Sonic!" Sonia scoffed and opened the door then dropped her ears when she saw him. "Sonic...?" She put her hand in front of her mouth. "What happened to your ear?"

Sonic tried to talk but he frowned when he felt pain and shook his head. He moved his hand to his neck and signaled at them to get him a journal and a pen.

"One sec." Manic walked away and went to get his brother what he asked for.

"Sonic... I'm so so sorry you had to go through this..." The Princess let a tear out at thinking how much pain her brother was in.

When the green hedgehog gave his brother the journal, the smaller one wrote on it. 'I'm okay, don't worry. What happened after I fainted?'

"We took you out of there. Mother is in court with the Commander, she's trying to free Shadow from G.U.N." Sonia answered. "He's in the room at your left. He woke up a few minutes ago..."

The azure one dropped his ear since his injured one still hurt. 'Is he okay...?' He was scared of seeing Shadow.

"He's fine... He doesn't remember anything after G.U.N. used that machine on him. We... Told him what happened..."

The smaller one slowly nodded. 'Leave. I need to see him.' He showed them what he wrote and waited until they left then walked to where they told him Shadow was at.

The dark hedgehog was curled up in the blanket, facing the wall as he quietly cried, wanting this to be a dream. He was afraid that his now ex-boyfriend was going to accuse him of using or leaving him. He was afraid that he won't ever trust him again.

The smaller one looked at his ex and walked slowly to him then sat on the bed to get his attention. He wrote in the journal and pulled on the blanket then showed him the journal. 'How are you feeling?'

Shadow quickly looked at the azure hedgehog and pinned his ears down when he saw the bruise and his ear, he immediately sat up and hugged him tightly as he tried to calm down. "I-I'm s-so sor-rry..." He sobbed. "I-I w-as-sn't going t-to l-leav-ve y-you...!"

The smaller one hugged back and rested his head on his shoulder. He tried to talk but he groaned instead of the pain. He slowly pulled away and looked at Shadow then grabbed the journal. 'I know.' He showed him what he wrong then wrote on it again. 'It's okay'

"I-it's-s n-not-t... I-I betrayed y-you..." The dark hedgehog wiped his tears. "I-I... I h-hurt y-you... W-when I promised-d I w-asn-t going t-to..." He felt horrible about what he'd done. He hesitantly moved his hand to his ex's neck and rubbed it lightly as he started healing it. "I-I understand i-if... Y-you want t-to break up w-with m-me... If... We're even still... Together..." It hurt him a lot to say those things, but he knew he deserved it after what he did.

The azure one lifted his head slightly to let him heal it then shook his head slowly. He was afraid it will hurt him more if he were to talk so he wrote down in the journal. 'Do you want us to be together? I know it wasn't your fault that you did all of that.'

"I... Yes..." Shadow slowly nodded. "But... I'm afraid that this will happen again...." He pulled his hand away when he was done. "Or that you... Won't trust me..."

"I-" The hero coughed. "I trust you... I know you wouldn't do that to me, Shad."

"You do...?" The Ultimate Lifeform dropped his ears in surprise.

The smaller one slowly nodded. "Yes Shadow, I trust you... I'm sorry that I didn't know this earlier, I should have known something had happened." The hero looked down.

"It's... Understandable." Shadow sighed. "Will you go out with me...?" He hesitantly asked and smiled very slightly, hoping that the azure hedgehog will say yes. "I promise I'll be more careful this time..."

Sonic was about to say yes when he stopped himself. "On one condition." He said in a serious voice to let him know he was serious about what he was going to say. "Don't ever, EVER make me promise something like that again."

The dark hedgehog dropped his ears and slowly nodded. "I promise..." His smile disappeared completely.

"I love you Shadow... and I do want to be with you." The azure one said softly. "I don't want to lose you."

The agent slowly nodded and held Sonic's hand. "I love you too... I promise I won't do that again..."

The smaller one smiled softly and squeezed his hand. "Thank you."

Shadow nodded again and looked down at their hands. "You should go get some rest. I'm sorry about your ear."

"Don't worry. It doesn't hurt that much." The smaller one looked up at him and got closer then kissed his ear.

The dark hedgehog's er twitched at that and looked at his boyfriend. "It looks painful..."He mumbled and tried to reach for it. "I wish I could heal it..."

The hero lowered his ear slightly. "It's okay Shadow..."

"It's not." Shadow pulled his hand away when he saw that and put it down, worried to hurt him more. "I... I'm tired..." He looked away. "Tell your mother that I'll be at my place..."

"Wait... don't leave..." Sonic dropped his ears thinking he didn't want to be around him. "You need to rest too and my mother will want to talk to you after she comes back from G.U.N."

Shadow looked at the hero and slowly nodded. "Talk to me about what...?"

"She's trying to free you from G.U.N. you won't have to deal with them anymore..." The azure one said lowly.

"Oh..." The dark hedgehog lowered his ears. "That's... Not good..."

"What...?" The hero moved closer to where Shadow was sitting, he was now beside him. "Why not...?"

"I mean, that's... Nice but... What do I do now? I don't have infinite money, you know" The Ultimate Lifeform sighed.

Sonic nodded slowly. "I know but everyone here is worried about you. I am worried about you. I don't want G.U.N. to do anything to do again... I don't want to lose you..."

"You won't lose me, Sonic." The dark hedgehog held his boyfriend's hand and squeezed it. "But no one will let me work for them."

"I can help you Shadow. I'm sure we will find a better place for you to work." He rested his head on his boyfriend's shoulder.

This made Shadow smile slightly. "I'm not so sure about that..." He hesitantly wrapped an arm around Sonic's waist. "Everyone hates me." He chuckled quietly.

"That's not true." The hero chuckled and moved closer to his boyfriend. "We can help you. I'm sure if my mother makes some calls, she will find the perfect job for you."

"Perfect? I don't think so..." The dark hedgehog rested his head on his boyfriend's and slowly closed his eyes. "I don't want to be a bother..." He yawned.

"You're not a bother, Shad." Sonic rested back on his boyfriend and purred quietly. The ear that was injured twitched lightly, he wasn't moving it much since it was still hurting him.

"I feel like I am." The older hedgehog felt that and opened his eyes then slowly touched it and started rubbing it on the base, healing it at the same time.

This made the hero purr quietly and closed his eyes. "Shadow, you don't need to do that..." The smaller one mumbled ss his ear stopped twitching.

"I want to." The dark hedgehog purred softly and made him sit between his legs so he could lay back on him.

The azure one lightly blushed and purred louder. "Thank you."

The Ultimate/Lifeform smiled and nodded, finally calming down. "... If you think about it, it's like I marked you..." He mumbled lowly.

The hero laughed at this and nodded. "Well this is a mark that will stay forever, so I hope you know this means you've marked me as yours forever, Shad."

"I know~" Shadow chuckled quietly. "Now you can't cheat on me." He joked.

The prince rolled his eyes playfully and kissed his cheek. "I would never do that, Shad." He chuckled.

"I know." The dark hedgehog yawned. "Neither would I."

"Get some sleep Shad, I'll leave you alone." He purred for him.

"No, you're staying here." Shadow whined. "It's an order."

Sonic laughed at this and stayed in Shadow's arms. "Fine, but you need to sleep."

"I will, just stay here." The taller hedgehog slowly laid down and turned to the side to let his boyfriend lay down as well. "Can you do me a huge favor?"

"Sure, what is it, Shad?" He laid down beside his boyfriend.

"Can you rub my back?" The dark hedgehog lightly blushed as he asked that, he was laying on his stomach.

The hero smiled and nodded. "Sure." He moved to a comfortable position then started rubbing his back gently.

Shadow purred softly and closed his eyes, his face was facing Sonic. He was a little tense since his body felt numb from the training he did at G.U.N. while he was controlled.

Sonic rubbed his back quills trying to help him sleep. He purred a little louder and nuzzled his muzzle.

This made the agent smile and purr louder. "Can you cover me with the blanket...?" He mumbled lowly as his muscles slowly relaxed.

The hero covered his boyfriend and himself with the blanket as he kept rubbing his back quills. "Get some sleep Shad, you need it." He continued.

Shadow hummed and opened his eyes slightly. "I want you to stay here, though." He didn't want to be left alone.

"Don't worry, I won't leave. I'll take a nap with you, Shad." The prince smiled.

The dark hedgehog slowly turned to the side and opened his arms. "Come here." He yawned again. "My fur isn't the softest, I wasn't eating properly all week. And I haven't taken a proper bath either" He knew Sonic would touch his chest fur.

"I don't care." He moved closer and rested his head on his chest fur then nuzzled him.

The Ultimate Lifeform purred loudly and closed his eyes, quickly falling asleep as he held his lover tightly. 

~The End~

*****
So, what do you guys think? Did you like it? Should I make more books with my 'secret admirer'?

As you might've guessed, we had a lot of fun, hence why the chapters are so long. 

Check out my other books and tell me what you think! I've published my first Manourge book, I hope it turns out well.

Love ya!😘