I Hate You Too
"Hmph." A dark, shadowy reply to the beginning of another day. The morning light trickled into the long alleyway. Blood-crimson eyes slowly opened up as they took in the bright beams. A hand brushed through jet-black fur, with streaks of that same blood color. Shuffling forward, the creature gazed upward at the sun. A cloud blotted out the light, before he ran off again. He traveled swiftly and smoothly at maximum speeds; dodging and cutting through rows and rows of cars. The gossamer hedgehog paid no mind to the angry honks and drivers. The road bended suddenly, and the pathway was once again familiar. Racing down the streets he stopped abruptly at one cozy, little home. He knocked quickly, and tapped an angry and impatient foot at the lack of response.
"I'm coming!" an energetic voice finally called. A face popped out and then grinned.
"Well, looky who it is! It's…"
"Shadow…Shadow the hedgehog." He finished before the blue one. He pouted almost comically before mockingly joking,
"Sorry, Mr. Ultimate Life-form!" Shadow gave a stern look and turned away.
"Fine, fine, come on in." The blue hedgehog sighed and motioned inside. Shadow turned once more and smirked at the naïve hedgehog before stepping in. He was greeted by numerous faces.
"Hiya, Shadow!" a pink hedgehog nuisance cheerfully exclaimed.
"How've you been doing?" a young, witty kitsune remarked. Merely grunting at everyone until, the last friend said "hello".
"What've you been up to, Shadow?" Shadow glanced toward the forgotten figure in the corner of the room. She sipped a bit of tea and smiled at him when he acknowledged her existence. Her bright, shimmering eyes danced with happiness. Shadow moved away and sat on the opposite side. The bat's eyes scrunched up with anger, and she sniffed; turning away from the guest.
"C'mon guys, not now!" The blue hedgehog, Sonic, pleaded.
"They're always getting into some sort of predicament!" The pink one, Amy, scoffed.
"Well, they weren't like that when they were both on the doctor's side…maybe he's just bored and trying to get some fun in his life." An echidna replied lazily.
"Oh, Mr. Shadow!" A bright bunny in an orange dress, Cream, said.
"Chaaoo!" Her trusty companion, Cheese remarked directly after her.
"Does this always happen?" Cream inquired Tails. She was young, and frequently querying everyone.
"Uh, not really, but to them…it's everyday life." Tails laughed nervously. Everyone began talking, scolding and arguing. Until, the dark hedgehog finally spoke, frankly, very agitated,
"Can you all just be quiet?" Everyone's mouths shut and fear crept unto the young children's faces as Shadow shot them a death glare. The young kids, like Cream, were here so Shadow was careful of his words. He wasn't about to curse right now. They were all annoying. The sleek hedgehog meant well…for himself. They were too noisy, just like Eggman and his maniacal laugh. The silence that filled the room was suddenly apparent to Shadow and he felt uneasy. The other blue hedgehog couldn't stand the stillness…it was to be expected.
"You don't have to be so pushy about it." Sonic bravely whispered. Shadow waved a stray hand to signal the start of the talking once more. Why should he care anymore? It felt odd…all the same anyways. The red echidna sighed,
"How's anybody supposed to live with him?" Shadow shot him a cold, hard glare. Knuckles backed down.
"So, Rouge, you busy tonight?" Knuckles flashed a bright smile changing the subject completely. The young bat-girl rolled her bright azure eyes and replied slowly.
"Knuckles the echidna, yes, surprisingly I am busy; I'm busy running my club!" She moved a lock of ivory fur out of her eyes and relaxed again while genuinely smiling at the defeated look on Knuckles's face. The echidna scoffed and settled down into a chair, his mood shifting quickly.
"Fine! I have other plans, Rouge the bat!" He replied in an agitated tone of voice. Rouge knew very well otherwise. Knuckles had probably been looking forward to spending time with her. Didn't everyone? She thought a little too vainly. Everybody else laughed at Knuckles' stupidity. Shadow smirked but, then stared out the window again. The clouds had gathered and rain splashed down onto the hard ground. It was calming, hearing the raindrops. He still seemed lonely and excluded from everyone. Tails the kitsune noticed this and whispered to Sonic,
"Maybe we should try to include Shadow in our conversations." Tails hopefully waited for an answer from the blue hedgehog. He thought for a moment about what to say, tapped his chin while thinking hard and then strode on up to Shadow.
"Hey, buddy…" Sonic started.
"I'm not your buddy." Shadow cut him off. Sonic gave Shadow an annoyed look but merely replied,
"Yea, yea, okay. So, I was wondering, you know how you're always staying in that cold alleyway?"
"Yes, and what about it?" Shadow carefully answered.
"Well, you wanna stay at my house tonight?" Sonic gave a funny-looking grin and placed a hand on the hedgehog's shoulder but, Shadow turned it down, shoving off the unwanted hand.
"No." his cold and harsh reply came as quickly as he'd shoved.
"I don't need your dumb sympathy, I'm fine." The dark hedgehog frowned at the kitsune who had brought up the suggestion. Sonic's face fell; he walked up back to the crest-fallen kitsune and said,
"Well, I tried." Tails sighed and went back to tinkering with his new experiments. Ever since Rouge and Shadow had come back once more away from Eggman's side, the hedgehog had been moody. Everyone else did well though. Sonic was toying with Eggman frequently, Amy and Cream always cooked, sewed or played in the flowers, and Knuckles usually helped with Tails and who were always busy with anything mechanical. Rouge took up a job and managed her own club, Club Rouge, while Shadow had resorted to living by himself in an alleyway. He felt too proud to slink up to them and plead for a place to stay. He sometimes felt horrible, what kind of great person deserved to live in an alleyway? Other times he took it as fate and let it be. His moods were always unexpected and different everyday. The hedgehog was smart enough to know that he was lonely lots of times though. He visited the comrades often; they usually all met at the blue hedgehog's house. Feeling no obligation to stay any longer he got up and started toward the door. It was boring and nothing was including him. Sonic's voice rang loud and clear as he asked once more,
"You sure?" the dark hedgehog stopped momentarily but continued without throwing a glance behind. He slammed the door and vanished into the now rainy day. Mist covered his tracks and everyone sighed again.
"He's always so arrogant!" Amy stated.
"No doubt about it!" Knuckles agreed. Sonic glanced over at both of them,
"I think all he needs is a real friend, he considers us losers…"
"No, really!" Knuckles mockingly replied. There was a touch of annoyance and anger in the echidna's voice, but thankfully no one picked up anything except his sarcasm. Sonic scowled and dropped the matter. Rouge placed down her cup abruptly and thanked Amy and Cream for the little treat.
"I have to be leaving now, you never know what kind of people will stay at my club!" she winked at the young girls and they nodded in response. Knuckles growled,
"For all I know, she's off to find that stupid, stuffy, son of a…" The snow-white bat smacked Knuckles upside the head. While clutching his head, Knuckles bent down in apology, his eyes never leaving the floor.
"Now, why would she try to visit Shadow?" Amy asked the down-trodden echidna.
"He'd probably just turn her down for whatever she asked for." The pink hedgehog responded again. Knuckles nodded and slunk back into his chair, embarrassed. He'd always been an overprotective echidna; whether it was the master emerald or Rouge herself, he was wary. Everyone laughed and waved "good-bye" as the white bat flew off into the distance, her plum wings slicing the air as she went. Thoughts were racing through her mind. When she arrived promptly at the club she slipped in, soggy and tired. She ran up the stairs into her room above the club, changed quickly into a plain, somewhat tight purple dress and applied more makeup. She couldn't help herself. The bat had always wanted to please the eye. Checking every last detail to be sure she was flawless, approvingly, she stepped out her door. Coming back down, she noticed a shady person in the corner. Recognizing it as Shadow, she was a little surprised. She really didn't know who would show up at her club. She chuckled slightly. Now why would he be here? She questioned herself. Knuckles was right…except it was visa versa. He'd come to her club, that wasn't the same thing. It was strange. Rarely did he ever talk to her anymore, or better yet, visit. She thought it was because after they'd both left Eggman, there was no reason for him to see anyone anymore. It was funny seeing him again…alone.
"Hey, what are you doing in my club?" the bat playfully grinned and Shadow smirked.
"I'm allowed to come, it's a public place." Rouge sighed; she never got a straight answer from the mysterious hedgehog.
"No, I mean really." Shadow glanced up from his laid-back position and responded sharply,
"Well, you don't see many clubs do you? Thought I might check out the only one in town." The bat raised an eyebrow but saw his point. She was slightly hurt by his choice of tone nevertheless but what could a girl expect? Rouge asked herself once more. Inhaling deeply she stepped into her own hell,
"You don't always have to be the shadowy one, stop trying to act cool." She remarked only to laugh nervously. Talking back to him…that usually did it in for her. That was making fun of his attitude. She was almost certain that he would leave and shoot her one of those gazes that were hard and made you apologize, inside and out. The hedgehog kept quiet though, not moving a muscle. He didn't like being noticed. Thankfully, he didn't strike back with any harsh tone so the bat took it a step further. Rouge wasn't the type of girl to take "no" for an answer, that much anyone knew right off the bat. (No pun intended XD) She reached over, grabbed his arm tightly and dragged him an empty seat. Rouge felt weird actually making the ultimate life-form do what she wanted to do, but it was possible. The uncomfortable hedgehog glanced away, but let her take him. He would be dragged back to the same place either way. Just repeating the same action would draw more attention. This place wasn't much more than a seedy pub. The shifty hedgehog angrily retorted himself. He hated the drunk men, the suggestive women, all of that. Immediately a golden cat girl and her friends surrounded him. He was disgusted by their comments already,
"Well, look at this hedgehog."
"Never seen you around here."
"Mmm, neither have I, but I'm about to learn a little about you mister." When Rouge noticed this, she felt a twang of jealousy…absent-mindedly she shooed that thought out of her mind and flew over to the little group leaving her station at the microphone. People noticed her lack of entertaining her guests now, but let it slide.
"Hey, girls, why don't y'all take a hike?" Rouge confidently leaned on the table in front of the seductive girls. The group looked up and one of them sneered,
"Why? He your boyfriend?" Rouge colored for a moment then slapped the girl hard. Shadow wasn't a bad guy; she just didn't want to be grouped in the same category as him really. The girl squealed in a high-pitched voice and held her cheek, it was now red and the rest of the girls' eyes bugged out. The golden cat, apparently the leader and the one she smacked, stood up slowly, eyes fiery. The club became deathly quiet. This was a new kind of entertainment for them.
"You wanna make a scene? You want everyone to know about this club and its manager's horrible manners?" the cat spat out getting ready to give Rouge a taste of her own foul medicine.
"No, now just leave." Rouge growled. The cat's tail swished and she replied,
"Not unless I take him with me." She motioned toward Shadow placing a cold, shallow glove on his shoulder.
"C'mon, don't you wanna leave ugly here and come with us?" she seductively asked again, with big eyes. The hedgehog raised an eyebrow and pushed the girl's face away. Too close, he thought to himself. That was the last straw for Rouge; she lashed out at the girl and beat her angrily along with her friends. The bat couldn't control herself. She didn't know why she was defending the hedgehog, he didn't need it. At least she was repaying him for the multiple times beforehand of him rescuing her from distress. The agitated bat kicked, slammed and hit the girls without a sign of let up. People screamed and others ran away from the massacre. Shadow showed no sign of helping the girls; he was just enjoying his show. Inwardly, Rouge was happy he didn't intervene. It would have only made her even more irritable. The girls' faces became splattered with blood. Having no experience in battle or even defending themselves, they weakly got up and sobbed. The group immediately ran away from the site,
"Get away, you monster!"
"Freak!" another girl screamed.
Rouge angrily had everyone leave; the club was closed for now. Shadow had a questioning look on his face.
"They call you a freak?" Shadow inquired out loud. She was far from anything he considered a freak. Rouge was busy shooing away bystanders and telling them to forget everything that happened there. The bat had forgotten Shadow so he kept sitting. She eventually noticed and whirled around to face the lazy hedgehog. Her eyes were spitting mad and seemed to yell at him to leave.
"Does that mean me too?" he asked as he pointed to himself, leaned back in a chair, playing dumb.
"Yes, yes it does!" Rouge wailed, burying her head in her hands and sunk onto the stage next to her forgotten microphone…where she should've stayed. Shadow felt sympathy so he leaned forward, hesitantly. Oh, how he hated to see people cry. It made him feel responsible and not any better for that matter. To try to keep her from crying he remarked,
"Those girls were…"
"Yea, I know." Rouge softened a little but, immediately fired back up,
"Now leave me alone!" she screamed in rage. Shadow felt like his feet were glued to the ground though. He couldn't just leave the poor bat to cry her eyes out. She was previously his partner anyways. That would be selfless; Shadow wasn't selfless, just a little withdrawn. Thinking of how to improve the situation, Knuckles popped into his mind. Maybe he should get Knuckles, they were…together.
"I'm a little upset if you haven't noticed." The bat hotly remarked as Shadow was standing still, deep in his thoughts.
"I'm not blind." The dark hedgehog replied angrily, he was busy thinking. I'm not blind like a bat, Shadow rudely thought. Rouge was deeply hurt by the girls' comments and he knew it. Knowing that he couldn't leave her, he ran his fingers though his thick fur in exasperation. Suddenly, he noticed that it had been oddly quiet for more than ten seconds now. Wanting to make sure she was still awake and with everyone he reached out to tap her shoulder. Surprisingly, Rouge slapped his hand away, sapphire eyes glinting.
"I hate you! Just leave…leave!" Rouge impatiently snapped. Shadow felt completely angry now. His lips drew together tightly and he inhaled sharply. He was just trying to help the poor bat but, he realized that that wasn't an option anymore.
"Fine, I will! Surprisingly, I hate you too!" Shadow screamed back at the ungrateful bat, dragging out the word "hate". Feeling no need again to stay anymore, he zipped off. She called after him as he sped away. Whenever the dark hedgehog tried something it always ended up wrong, why should he care anyways? People seemed to just hate the poor creature. Never again should he make an attempt to do something out of the ordinary, he promised himself. That was a very hard promise…he would just break it… again, the hedgehog thought dully. Those "out-of-the-ordinary" actions were sometimes a touch too difficult and usually, he ended up in the wrong place, at the wrong time. He was still upset when he reached the alleyway he curled up in his cardboard box-home. He thought about everything again. His life, the scene, whatever he did, was a mess up. Why bother? He reassured himself again and gave in to slumber.
AN: Hello. :) This is one of the first Sonic stories I wrote a while ago. I'm actually a seasoned author on DA, but decided to upload these stories onto FF for mixed reviews. Please comment, it helps me! I like critiques, and accept all of them gladly~! And all you silent readers (don't worry, I was one too) if you really like my stories, please get an account and comment~! It's really not that hard! jk, you don't have to, but I love all of you! Swear!