Night
The night where he had been talking with her, yet he could not see her…
"Staring at the Space Colony ARK again, Shadow?" The dark hedgehog's ears perked up slightly at the voice that he had secretly grown to love. But of course he didn't want anybody to think he was growing soft, especially his 'faker' and Rose. He would never hear the end of it otherwise.
In response to her question, Shadow shook his head even though it was partially the truth. His ears picked up light, almost ghostly, footsteps going towards him. Of course her footsteps were soft. Her entire being was soft, her skin, her voice, her gaze. And that was what Shadow loved about her.
"Thinking about Maria too?" she always knew what he was thinking. His emotions were easy for her to read, and so were his thoughts, sometimes, too easy for her. But it did always amaze her how much Shadow kept to himself, and yet, he always lets himself go whenever she was with him. Somehow, that made the two of them feels even more comfortable around the other, even if one of them didn't show it.
"Why won't you leave me alone?" he asked when she sat down next to him on the slightly wet grass. It amazed him that the girl didn't care that her skirt would get dirty. The tribal princess was like a combination of someone who loved to keep peace and stop any form of violence, yet didn't care if she would get dirty form small stains on her skirt to a giant blob of fruit punch on her dress. And that incident did happen at Amy's last Christmas Party. Only, it covered her from head to toe.
"I simply don't want too." Shadow could hear the literal smile in her voice. A slight breeze blew and the trees' leaves rustled. The soft sound of the leaves rustling and the light breathing of Tikal filled the silence very well. And something about those two sounds together made Shadow's heart calm down somehow. Even if it was just silence, he would be calm enough to feel nature talking to him. It was something that Tikal had taught him before, and he held that ability close to his heart.
"Aren't you afraid of me?" he asked the bitter question that had always bugged him. Yes, he knew the answer to the question, yet he didn't want to believe it.
"I've told you countless time, no, I'm not," her soft voice had the faintest hint of annoyance and frustration in it. Still, it didn't seem like she was leaving any time soon. Why wasn't she afraid so him? Wasn't he supposed to scare people and animals off? Weren't people supposed to run away after looking at him?
She reminded him so much of Maria…
"Maria…" Of course he would let that name slip. She was an angel to him, how could he not? And yet, he felt the same connection that he had with Maria, with Tikal. Whenever she was near, he felt his cold heart melt into gunk, a very mushy type of gunk. And he didn't mind at all, which was strange considering that he would mind Sonic talking to him.
"You miss her, don't you?"
"More than anything in the world," he finally turned around to see her, only to find no one beside him. A sigh of disappointment and regret left his lips when he realized that it was only his imagination talking to him. And somehow, a wave of anger had hit him. What was he doing talking to someone he barely even knew, that didn't even exist? He didn't know who that voice belonged to, but it did sound an awful lot like Tikal. And that was when he felt tears prick at his eyes. He loved her, yet he had let her go back freely.
He spent the rest of his night just sitting on the cliff, thinking about why he was so obsessed over the tribal princess. All that while, he didn't see a small pink ball of light float high about him, looking down and guarding him from above.
How could he not even notice that he was speaking to her, she was just not there. Instead, she was looking down and protecting him from above…
A/N: I just felt like contributing to the Shadikal section of his place. It hasn't been active lately so I thought that I might as well write something up for them! They are one of my favourite Sonic pairings!
~Snowy