*Sonic's POV*
I decided it was best to come clean. There was no reason to lie to him. Actually, he may be the only one who would be able to talk to me about it. Not like I needed any advice, I had accepted it when it happened.

"Right. Well. Maybe because I don't age." I shrugged, wanting to break this softly to him. I patted the spot beside me for Shadow to sit, and he did. Staring at me, only blinking once as if trying to process what I had just said.

"Wait." His ears perked up, and he finally snapped out of it as he finally realized what I meant.

"Yeah. It happened a few months before we stopped Eggman. I was infiltrating in one of his bases by myself, and something happened. I wasn't aware of what Eggman was working on at the time, and I had a chaos emerald with me. I guess he nearly had all of them except for yours. Getting near his experiment caused it to blow up, and I was caught in the explosion. Whatever he had been working on nearly killed me, I should have died, actually, but I woke up with all my wounds healed." I shrugged and chuckled softly.

"It's what I get for being stubborn and going alone. But if I had gone with someone else, they may have ended like me as well. So, in a way, it was good I was alone." I kept talking. "I didn't tell anyone, not even Tails. I just decided to accept it and move on. There's nothing I can do anyways so why worry about it?"

"Are you insane? How could you not have told us?" Shadow raised his voice, letting out a soft growl with his words.

"Like I said, it's not like anything could have been done to reverse it."

"And you live your life like nothing happened. How can you? How can you get close to others so easily? How can you even consider being with someone?"

"Because I'd rather live in fear than not live at all. I'd give anything to live a single mortal life with the people I care about, but at least this way, I get to be the one to protect them forever until the end." I smiled at Shadow, patting his shoulder. "Look, we've gone through some stuff most people won't even begin to understand. So I understand why you've always been so edgy and grumpy, but maybe it's time you open up. What's the point of having this ability if you're not going to use it to be by your friends and family."

"Yet you left yours." Shadow crossed his arms.

"I had my reasons."

"I'd like to hear them."

"I'm sorry if you feel hurt that I left. It was not what I intended." I sighed.

"Me? No, Sonic. The rest of your friends."

"It sounds to me like you were too." I added, then nodded when I saw he was starting to get mad. "Shadow, listen. We all met each other and dedicated our lives to protect the world from Eggman and any other threat that came our way. I was the leader of my team. We spent days sometimes not eating well or sleeping well because we were always on high alert. We were just kids. It shouldn't have fallen on us to protect literally everyone, but it did. And it was the life we knew. We only knew to be around each other and 'follow the plan'. We didn't get the privilege to live a normal life. So when the threat was gone, I knew it was best for my team if I separated from them."

"But -" I raised my hand before Shadow could interrupt me. Letting him know I wasn't done talking.

"It doesn't mean that I didn't care about them, that I didn't love them, that I abandoned them. I left because if I had stayed, they would still follow me around and not live their lives. I love them too much for me to do that to them, that's why I left." I sighed.

Shadow remained quiet, I guess I left him speechless. Maybe he wasn't expecting me to say any of that. After so many years, I could only imagine what he may have thought about why I left.

"You were going to live the rest of your life without ever seeing any of us again, weren't you? That's why you were hiding?" Shadow finally spoke.

"I have to admit, I am still trying to get over all the trauma we went through. Seeing you just brought back a lot of memories, and I panicked. But yeah, I honestly wanted to stay away from everyone. I mean, I knew someday I would bump into you, and I'd have to explain why I was still, well, alive. But I didn't think I'd be this soon." I laughed and stretched as I stood up.

"You're an idiot." Shadow pinched the bridge of his nose as he thought of anything else to say.

"Come on. After all these years, do you still feel the same? You still don't want to get attached to anyone? How was it so easy for you to leave Rouge behind? Or let her go, I don't know what happened. What DID happen?" I decided to ask, looking down at him as he remained sitting down.

"Rouge couldn't bring herself to leave me behind, so I left." He looked away.

"You ass. You did the same thing I did."

"How very prince of you." Shadow said when I 'cursed'.

"Right. I've worked at a bar for 6 years, like I'm keeping my prince tone with everyone." I scoffed. "Anyways, you see, you did the same thing I did. You left because you knew it was better for her if you weren't in her life, even if it meant you'd be gone for the rest of theirs."

"Fine." Shadow agreed, which gave me time to look at the time.

"Great. I'm glad to hear we are on the same page. I'm going back to sleep before I have to go to work. You decide if you do want to go out or not." I waved at him as I walked upstairs and went to my room.