Sonic's P.O.V

I can't believe that kid is Shadow... my rival. I gave him a quick tour around the house, and he was staring at the ground a lot of the time. Every time I noticed, I made a joke or two which got me an eye roll or sarcastic comment, but I didn't mind. As long as he stopped feeling bad for himself.

--

Eventually I took him to the guest room. "Need help getting on the bed?" I ask as he walks over to it. He shakes his head. "I don't need help." He's being a lot nicer than I thought he'd be. It takes him a couple of attempts before he manages to climb on the bed. He didn't even get in the covers yet and he's already exhausted from his little attempt at getting on the bed. Haha. Get it? 'Little'? Heheh. Yeah, you do, I'm hilarious.

Anyways, jokes aside, Shadow looks really upset, but mostly tired. I walk over and pull the covers over his tiny body, and make sure his little head pokes out so he can breathe. He's really drowsy right now. "Is there anything else you'd like to tell me..?"

He hesitates and then nods a bit. "The bullies I told you about... the ones that beat me? They also stole my chaos emerald." His ears lower. I became shocked and a bit angry. "What?! Shadow! You know how important those are! How could you lose one?!" "I'm sorry... I know I screwed up... but I'll get it back, I pro-" I cut him off. "No. You've done enough. Where were you and what did they look like?" "But I wanna help! I'm not useless!" "Shadow. Enough. Tell me what they look like." I say in a demanding tone. "No! I'm gonna help! I wanna fix what I messed up!"

I roll my eyes. "Shadow, I'm not gonna let you get hurt again, you're basically the definition of exhausted right now, and it's a man's job, not a-" I stop, seeing the hurt in his eyes when I say this should be done by a grown hedgehog. "Shadow, I-" "One was a male gray wolf in a black t-shirt with a skull on it and black shorts, another was a female red fox wearing black leggings with an orange crop top, and the last one was a male blue cat wearing a green tank top and black jean shorts. There, you got their descriptions, now go." "But, Shad-" "I said 'go'!" Jeez, what I said must've really hurt him, huh..? "Ok... fine. I'll leave... I'm sorry, Shadow. Goodnight. You can come with me in the morning." I say closing the door.

Shadow's P.O.V

A 'man's job'?! Who does he think he is?! I'm gonna-! "Ok... fine. I'll leave... I'm sorry, Shadow. Goodnight. You can come with me in the morning." I can- What? Before I can respond, he exits the room. I curl up under the covers and sigh. I soon drifted off to sleep...

Sonic's P.O.V

I feel really bad about what I said to Shadow. I wanted to apologize again and again and again, but he's tired and needs rest. I went upstairs, into my room, curling myself under the covers, turning every which way. And I drift off to sleep as soon as I find a comfortable position...

--

I woke up the next day pretty early. I stretch and go out to do my morning run as always.

--

When I return I see some waffles on the table and a plate in the dishwasher. Where'd this come from? I thought for a moment and came to only one conclusion. Shadow. I go into the guest room to find nothing but a note.

It reads; "Dear Faker, I made you breakfast as a thank you for letting me stay with you. I will let you handle the bullies on your own, but I went to the library to look into my situation. I want to see if there are any records of it anywhere. I also stole 30$ from you to buy some books as well. Sorry not sorry. Signed, Shadow." Wait, he did what?! I check my wallet and count the money inside. He stole my money! Damn faker! I can't BELIEVE this!

I go back into the kitchen and eat the breakfast provided for me. I must say, he makes good waffles. I eat pretty quickly and wash my plate, putting it in the dishwasher. And he washed his own plate! Ok, fine, I can't stay mad at him... damn it! Shadow?! When did you become so considerate, damn it?! I can't stay mad at you anymore!

Shadow's P.O.V

I hate being called cute and adorable by everyone I pass by. Everyone keeps asking me 'Are you lost little one?' or 'Hey, kid, come with me, I'll take you back home.' or 'Awwww... you're so cute!' I'm sick of it already. But, I can take advantage of this. I knew Faker wouldn't be mad at me for leaving if I did something nice for him. And he won't be able to yell at me if I put on an innocent act.

I have a bag filled with books. I 'unintentionally' used all the money I stole from faker. Haha, Sucker... I thought as I continued to walk. Usually, I'd chaos control to his house, but I still don't have my chaos emerald back, unfortunately.

--

After a long and tiresome walk, I find my way back to Faker's house. I collapsed on the doorstep from the long walk. The bag I was dragging along with me was heavy and I had to take a long walk to get here. Not to mention, my legs are much shorter now, so I took more steps as well.

I laid down next to the front door breathing heavily. I look up at the now unreachable doorbell and groan. I force myself to stand. I stacked the books I bought up and reached up on my tippy-toes to press the button. When I finally pressed it, I fell down as the books slid, giving me a hard landing. I groaned, too tired to get up.

Sonic answered the door. He looked down to see me down on my side on the ground. He rolls his eyes and grabs the bag of books, hanging it on his shoulder like it's no problem. I watched in utter disbelief and shock. He picks me up and holds me on his shoulder, closing the door.

He walks over to the couch. letting the bag of books slide off his shoulder, making a little thud sound and he sets me down on the couch. I lay down immediately and he chuckles. "You tired, Shadz?" I hum and nod. He chuckles a bit more, resting his hand on my tiny body.

His gloved hand was warm and I'd started to close my eyes. "Y'know, you make pretty good waffles, Shadz." My eyes snap open and I look up at him, confused. "Huh?" "From earlier. Thank you for the breakfast. But you shouldn't run off like that. I wouldn't want someone to kidnap you, y'know?" He chuckles playfully.

He started to pull his hand away, but it's like I couldn't control my body. I gently pulled his hand back, whimpering. It was his turn to be shocked. He looked at me surprised before resting his hand back on my body. I didn't mean nor want to do that. Did I?

He gently grazed my forehead with his thumb. "Thank you..." I mutter. "Uh- you're welcome?" He responds in a confused tone. I felt really out of it. Like I couldn't control my body or my words. Like I was trapped in my mind as what was left of my dignity slips away.

Sonic's P.O.V

Why's Shadow acting like this? Him turning into a toddler doesn't give him the excuse to act like one, as mean as it sounds. I try to pull my hand away, but his grabs it tighter and pulls it back while whining. What the-? "Shadow, gimme back my hand." And there's a sentence I never thought I'd say.

Shadow shakes his head. "Uh-uh." Is he seriously doing this right now? "Uh- yeah-huh. Gimme back my hand." "Nooo... it's waaarm..." He whines. Is he seriously whining about my hand right now? "Shadow. Let go of my hand." I say sternly, earning whimpers from the small black hedgehog.

The heck? "Shadow, don't whimper. Since when do you ever do that? Don't make it a habit. Now, give me back my hand, Shadow. I'm not gonna ask you again." So now I'm parenting my rival? Great, that's perfect, fantastic! Now, I have to fix him AND take care of him.

Can Shadow act normal? I think of ways to bribe him into letting go and I think of the perfect thing. "Shadow, let go or we won't be getting your chaos emerald back." He squeaks and lets go of my hand. I pull it back as he sits up with a pout on his face. "I want it back..." He mutters and whines. "Yeah, yeah, I know, we'll get it back. Just trust me." "Ok..."

Shadow described the bullies for me and I wrote it down. I grabbed my tiny ebony rival and rushed out the door to the abandoned part of the city he'd described. Mini faker was tired, so I held him like an itty bitty baby. So cute.

--

After a while we ended up back at the same place I found him in. I see blood stains in the alleyway he was in when I found him crying. Shadow clung to my arm out of fear which confused and surprised me. I decided not to point out his strange behavior to him, at least not yet, and I held him close to my body.

I see the three kids that Shadow had described, and I see how drowsy he is. I can't let them see him like this... I carefully stuff Shadow in my quills when walking up to the kids. "Hey, kids..." I notice the chaos emerald in the cat's hand. "Nice gem ya got there."

The wolf looked at me suspiciously and then his eyes widened. "No way! You're Sonic the hedgehog!" The other two kids look at me shocked as I chuckle. "That, I am." I smile, trying to seem nice. "Listen kids, I'm gonna need your shiny gem there." The blue cat brought it close to her. "No way! It's mine!" I roll my eyes and walk up to her. I just snatched it out of her hands. "Hey!" "Hey's for horses, not cats."

I playfully wink at them and exit the alleyway. I take Shadow out of my quills. He fell asleep... I look down at him. And put the chaos emerald in his place. After holding Shadow securely, I dash off back home. There we go, our complication was resolved. No harm, no foul.

--

After reaching home, I take the sleeping Shadow into the guest room and tuck him in bed. I give him the emerald to hug as he sleeps so he'll be surprised when he wakes up. I go upstairs into my room and crash down on my bed. I'm not tired so I go on my phone for a little while before passing out.

--

3rd Person P.O.V

Later in the night Shadow wakes up from his slumber. He notices he's hugging something and turns on the lamp to see what it is. "The chaos emerald! How did he-?" He's cut off by his own shock. He squeals quietly and hugs the emerald, stuffing it in his quills.

Shadow hops off the bed and rushes out of the room. He runs out of the room and sees it's night time. He runs upstairs in Sonic's room because he knows he'll be there. He jumps up to turn the doorknob and he jumps on Sonic's bed. He crawls over to Sonic and pounces on him. "Thank you! Thankyouthankyouthankyouthankyou!" His tail is wagging a lot.

Sonic gets woken up by the excited toddler that jumped on him. Sonic is half-asleep at this point. "Shad..?" "Sonic!" Shadow giggles and hugs Sonic. Sonic rubs his eyes and sits up so he can fully awaken. "Shadow..?!" He's shocked. He sees his rival sitting in his lap, hugging him while he sleeps. "Shadow..? Why are you-" "Thank you!!" Shadow's tail wags. Sonic realizes why he's happy and smiles softly at him. He hugs him back. "You're welcome, Shadow."

Sonic hugs Shadow tightly while Shadow, in return, hugs Sonic tightly while smiling. Sonic strokes his quills and lays back down while holding Shadow close to his chest. Shadow nuzzles into Sonic's chest and he even purrs a little, shocking Sonic once more. Sonic just strokes Shadow's quills until he falls asleep. He then slowly drifts off to sleep himself...