*Shadow's POV*
"Sonic." I tensed up when he hugged me. I looked up at Rouge, who was watching us from the door, and hesitated but patted his back when I saw Rouge walking away.

"You scared me." Sonic whispered by my ear as he pulled away. "Im sorry for the hug, I was just... I was just very worried about you." He looked down as he sat beside me. "What happened?"

I looked at his hand. He was wearing an engagement ring. I was too tired to even let myself get mad over that at the moment. I still felt weak, numb even from my emotions going all over the place.

"I took care of the doctor." I said as I looked back out the window, scooting closer to it so Sonic could stay a bit away from me, but he took it the wrong way and simply scooted closer. I had no more room for me to go.

His ears perked up when he heard me explain what had happened. "What did you just say?" Sonic asked as he started to get up.

"I took care of him."

"As in?"

"As in, I knocked him out and tied him up and destroyed every single robot that was there." It had taken me days to do so, I didn't want Eggman to use anything else against anyone else. So after I captured him, I destroyed everything he had worked on in front of him. There were times when I felt myself about to pass out, where I felt like I couldn't keep going. I was thankful his most powerful robots were all in one room when I used the chaos blast to destroy them.

"Why? Why did you risk yourself like that?" Sonic stood up, now getting angry. "How can you be mad at me for acting reckless, and then you do something like this?" He raised his voice at me.

"I have my reasons, Hedgehog." I rolled my eyes, ignoring the fact that I wanted to pull him closer to me again.

"Shadow!" Sonic snapped and grabbed my face as he got on the bed again. This time, he was on his knees and had both his hands on my muzzle. "I know things happened between us that may have changed your mind about asking for help, but you can't be so reckless! You can't be doing these things on your own!" The cold feeling of the ring stung in my heart. I wanted to rip it off.

"You were gone for 3 days! What if something had gone seriously wrong? What, then? You wanted us to find you in worse conditions? Ultimate Life Form or not, you can not do things like this!" He kept raising his voice, talking quick. I grabbed his hands and pulled them away from my face.

"Don’t." I hissed. Sonic froze and moved back at this. "Just don't." I tried to be angry at him, but I just felt numb. Having him this close broke down every single wall that I had rebuilt. How could he do this so easily? How could he make me fall for him this way?

"You could have been seriously hurt, Shadow." Sonic spoke gently. His voice was barely audible. He wanted to get closer, but I stopped him.

"Sonic. Please. Just stay away." I spoke louder, finally. "Leave." I said, trying to sound intimidating like I used to, but I failed. Why do I feel so broken around him?

*Sonic's POV*
I hesitated, but I sat beside him, I stayed quiet this time. No more scolding him, no more trying to tell him to tell me what exactly happened. Just silence. I didn't get any closer than I already was, I just stayed there.

I noticed the way Shadow was looking at me. He looked tired, he looked sad, broken, hurt. It hurt me to see him this way. I wanted to hug him, but I didn't. I just stayed by his side.

I stayed still, resting back on the bed frame. It wasn't until I saw Shadow looking down at the ring in my finger. I looked down at my hand, then up at him. He was still just eyeing the ring. I got up on my knees again, leaned closer to him, ignoring how stiff he got and opened the window behind him. I took off the ring and showed it to him.

"This means nothing to me." I said as clear as I could, then tossed the ring out the window. Shadows' ears twitched as he looked out the window and then looked at me. His eyes widened in surprise. "But you do." I sat back to how I was before, giving him space. 

"Sonic, we got Eggman." Shadow and I both looked at the door as we saw my brother walking in. "Sonia is with Uncle Chuck and our mother at G.U.N. trying to figure out what our next move should be." Manic said while looking down at his phone. "You're lucky Rouge called, but you're still in trouble with Chuck for leaving." He finally looked up at me just as I was standing up. "We need to go. Now."

"Right." I nodded at Manic and then looked at Shadow. "I'll see you around, Shadow." I walked to my brother slowly, my steps sounded louder, heavy with the feeling as if I was saying goodbye to Shadow. As if this was going to be the last time I saw him.

"Sonic, wait." Shadow chaos controlled in front of me before I could reach the door. He closed the door and locked it, leaving Manic outside. He grabbed my neck and pinned me to a wall, his eyes gazing into mine, almost as if searching for something. "I love you." His voice was soft and warm, his free hand traveled to mine, interlocking our fingers as he leaned closer. He closed the gap between us before I could even realize what was going on. He kissed me, his kiss both gentle and passionate. It had a sense of urgency in it.

I instantly kissed back, wrapping my free arm around Shadows neck, pulling him closer. When he pulled away, he rested his head on my forehead, his eyes closed as were mine, yet I knew he was crying, knowing by the tears that landed on my muzzle.

"I love you too, Shadow." My voice broke. I pulled him closer into a hug, and he hugged back immediately, I wish he would never let go.