Hi! My name is NorthernNightfall24 and this is chapter one of my sixth sonadow story (I dare not post the other 5)! I hope you like it! Professor Applegate, could you say the disclaimer please?

Professor Applegate: Fine. NorthernNightfall24 doesn't own Sonic the Hedgehog or any other characters in this story. All characters belong to Sega and SonicTeam.

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'Why can't they understand,' Shadow thought as he sat on a nearby tree stump. The gentle winds ruffled his fur. 'I don't want to be around others all the time.'

The black hedgehog gently massaged his temples, feeling a little frustrated.

'Why does Rouge invite me to her crazy parties when she KNOWS I don't want to go? Sometimes I wonder what's going on in her head...'

He looked at the cloudy topaz-amberish sky and the falling red, yellow, orange and brown leaves around him, and then looked away.

"I wish they'd just leave me alone," He mumbled.

Ever since last week, Sonic and his friends (except for Tails, 81% percent of the time) have been trying to get Shadow to do new things that he didn't want to do and he had grown quite tired of it. The forest had become his #1 happy place. His own house coming in at #2, but that's only because there's really nothing to do there but eating, sleeping and reading.

'I can't keep trying to avoid them forever...'

It seemed like Sonic and his friends were getting more annoying by the second. It had gotten so bad that Shadow carries around a bottle of Excedrin in case he gets one of those really painful headaches. It seemed to help most of the time, but sometimes, he would take the pills at the wrong moment, and it would make the headache much worse...Today, however, Shadow had ran out of Excedrin and almost had to face the music.

'Why are they trying to make my life...more...stressful?'

(Flashback)

It was another one of those days at Club Rouge. The big-breasted bat had decided to throw a party for no apparent reason.

Everything was going as planned: music was playing, almost everybody was dancing, none of the decorations on the wall fell down, and the food was being eaten at a fast rate. That was until...

"Omg! Let's take some selfies so we can remember this day forever!" Amy giggled.

At those words, everybody, except for Shadow, took out their phones and began taking pictures of one another.

The black hedgehog rolled his eyes at their childish behavior.

Being extremely light on his feet, Knuckles proceeded to sneak up behind Shadow, to get him in a selfie.

"Say cheese!" The red echidna cried.

The black hedgehog became startled and turned around, only to be blinded by the flash of Knuckles' phone.

Shadow blinked and then rubbed his eyes.

"Hey you guys! I just snapped a picture of Shadow!"

"No way," Tails gasped. "He let you take a picture of him?"

"Nah, I snuck up behind him."

Shadow's eyes widened as Sonic, Tails, Rouge, Amy, Silver and Blaze gathered around him and began to snap more pictures of him.

"Show me your pearly whites, Shadow!" Rouge said, pressing her cheek against his and taking a picture.

"Hey no fair!" Sonic cried. "Let me take a picture with Shadz!"

"In your dreams, Sonic."

The azure hedgehog pushed the bat out of the way and squeezed himself next to Shadow and took a picture.

Shadow growled in slight annoyance.

Everybody began fighting over who took the next selfie with the black hedgehog. Sonic and Rouge moved their cat fight to the dance floor, Amy and Blaze were screaming at each other about who looked better, Knuckles and Silver were having an intense staring contest, and Tails, for the the sake of the insufficient memory on his phone, decided to give up and eat some more party food.

Shadow couldn't take it anymore. He needed to get out of there before he got a painful migraine.

"Oh my god," he pointed towards a large window, which was conveniently opened. "is that a poor, helpless kitty, hanging by a branch of that crippled tree, desperately waiting to be rescued by us brave, anthropomorphic animals with somewhat supernatural powers?"

"Where?!" Rouge stopped her cat fight with Sonic. Blaze and Amy stopped their bickering and ran to the window. The big-breasted bat hovered behind them with worry for the poor baby feline.

"Huh?" Tails stuffed another sandwich in his mouth and looked up. "What's going on, guys?"

"We better help that kitty before it's too late!" Sonic became serious rather quickly.

Knuckles and Silver followed Sonic to where the girls were, and Shadow ran out the front doors, thanking God for making it out alive.

Tails didn't notice Shadow leave because he was chugging down a big bottle of Mountain Dew, hiccupping every once in a while.

"Hmm..." The golden kitsune removed the one-liter bottle from his lips and burped. "They don't need my help this time. I'm sure they've got it all under control."

He went back to drinking the rest of the soda.

Shadow ran to his #1 happy place, the nearby forest, for some peace and quiet, not wanting to be at the club when everybody found out there really wasn't a cat stuck in the tree outside the window.

'Note to self: Later on, don't forget to buy some more of that Excedrin stuff at the pharmacy...'

(End Flashback)

So far, everything was fine. Sadly, for the black hedgehog, this also meant...

'Dammit! That faker's probably looking for me. Maybe I should've went to my house instead...'

And Shadow was right, as soon as he finished his thought, he heard footsteps and excessive crunching of leaves behind him.

Shadow turned around slowly and crossed his arms.

"What do you want, faker?" he said coldly.

"I came to see if you were okay...again." Sonic replied, scratching the back of his head.

"I don't need your compassion and sympathy," Shadow growled and began to walk away from his rival. "so just leave me alone, will you?"

"Shadow, wait!" the azure hedgehog gently grabbed Shadow's arm. "Please, just listen to me for once in your life."

"...Alright then," Shadow sighed and turned to face Sonic with a look of boredom across his face. "say what you have to say."

Sonic let go of Shadow's arm and looked down.

"Look, I'm sorry about what happened a few minutes ago."

The black hedgehog suddenly began to become interested.

"We should've considered your feelings and let you be, but you shouldn't have tricked us either. You could've just told us to leave you alone...All in all, please don't stay pissed at us."

Shadow stayed silent and looked at his rival with a faint smirk across his tan muzzle.

'Well,' Sonic thought, flattening his ears. 'I tried my best. I know for sure he isn't gonna forgive us...'

"Okay..." Shadow's smile grew. "I forgive you...and the others. And I'm sorry I tricked you guys."

The azure hedgehog stood in shock. Did Shadow just forgive them all? Did he just solemnly apologize for his wrongs without hesitation? And was he smiling a little bit? Surely, this was NOT Shadow the Hedgehog.

"Uh, Shadz?" Sonic asked. "Are you feeling okay? You're smiling and you rarely ever do that."

Shadow chuckled at the expression on his rival's face and ignored the fact that the azure hedgehog used his not-accepted pet name.

"I'm perfectly fine, Sonic."

"You...called me...Sonic..." the azure hedgehog was confused at this point.

"Well, that's your name, is it not?"

'Maybe being around Sonic won't be as bad as it used to be,' Shadow thought. 'It seems he actually gained some...common sense. This is also quite amusing.'

Sonic said nothing. He was at a loss for words.

The black hedgehog turned around and proceeded to walk away.

"Hey, where are you going?" the azure hedgehog made himself ask another question.

Shadow stopped."To take a walk in the forest for a while." he paused and then continued walking. "You can join me if you want."

Sonic honestly didn't know whether he should catch up with his counterpart or not. Maybe, it was a trap. Or maybe it was a chance to get to know Shadow better...

Sonic decided to take the risk.

"Shadz, wait for me!" the azure hedgehog caught up to Shadow.

**It's time for a commercial break! Did you know that sniffing Rosemary actually improves your memory? Okay, back to the story!**

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The two hedgehogs walked next to each other in silence, taking in all the beautiful scenery. There was the faint sound of birds chirping and leaves swishing on the branches of trees due the cool autumn breeze. There were some gray squirrels nearby chewing on some acorns and waving their bushy tails every now and then.

Above them, there were a few hawks scouting the area, looking for food. Unfortunately, one of the hawks spotted one of the gray squirrels, dove in on the poor rodent and swooped it off the ground with its sharp, black talons.

Shadow watched in horror at what happened and could've swore one of the gray squirrels shed a single tear...

Sonic couldn't take anymore of the slight silence and decided to ask another question.

"So, Shadow...why do you like to be alone all the time?"

Shadow thought for a moment, somewhat thankful that the azure hedgehog had opened his mouth again.

"To think about how things are what they are and why things happen for a reason..."

"Okay. Do you like cupcakes?"

"Yes."

"Uh...Besides being by yourself, what else do you like to do?"

"I like reading, sleeping and being sarcastic."

"Favorite holiday?"

"That would be between...April Fools and Christmas."

'So, Shadz does have a sense of humor...' Sonic thought. He asked another question.

"How come we never see you on New Year's Eve?"

"My New Year's resolution every year is to sleep in on New Year's day and try not to leave my house for anything whatsoever."

"...Do you know what Never Forgotten is?"

"What is that? Some type of homosexual anime chapter book or something?"

Sonic's sweat dropped. Shadow was somewhat right about the homosexual part.

"...Nevermind. I'll, uh...tell you about that later. Um...have you even seen the show "The Powerpuff Girls"?"

"...Yes. And strangely enough, it was...to my liking..."

The azure hedgehog snickered at Shadow's previous response.

"...Any weird dreams lately?"

The black hedgehog looked at Sonic for a brief second.

"Why are you so interested in my life all the sudden?"

"I just want to get to know you better. Is that so wrong?" Sonic replied with innocence in his voice.

"...I guess not."

Shadow looked down at the ground and stopped. Sonic stopped as well and prepared to say something else.

"Shadz...you know you're not alone in this world, right?"

The black hedgehog simply nodded.

"I know the loss of Maria was hard for you and I'm really, really sorry about what you had to go through that horrible day, but now you have other people in your life that will always be there for you. People who you can share your problems or other stuff with. Like me."

"..."

Sonic walked in front of Shadow, who lifted his head to come into contact with his counterpart's vibrant emerald green eyes.

"Shadow...I really care about you a lot and I don't want to see you get hurt, even if you are somewhat immortal. Promise me, if something bad happens in from this day on, you'll talk about it with one of us."

"...I promise."

Shadow was shocked. Never had someone, besides Maria, said something like that about him. It was actually...heartwarming to hear those words after about fifty years. He had convinced himself that he was an experiment gone terribly wrong, but he didn't let that get to him too much.

The black hedgehog began to feel rather guilty for his sarcasm, his tendency to be judgmental and his slight rudeness.

"Why are you being so nice to me? After how badly I treat you and the others?" he questioned.

"Because Shadz," Sonic blushed a little. "That's what friends do. They forgive and try to forget. They try to patch it up and make it better. And plus, that's the only way you know how to react to everything. You don't mean to be mean, you're just angry, confused and misunderstood and many people take what you say the wrong way..."

These words caused Shadow to think for a moment. Sonic was absolutely right about everything that he just said. It seemed like was actually paying attention to what others said and did. Not all people are like that nowadays, so Shadow was lucky to have a person like Sonic in his life. He was almost like...another Maria...

"...Thanks Son-mmfph!"

The last part of Shadow's two-word sentence was muffled because Sonic took the opportunity to kiss Shadow square on his tan lips, and thankfully, he didn't try to slip his tongue in. That would be taking it WAY too far.

The black hedgehog's ruby red eyes widened with horror. His very own rival, was freaking kissing him. On the lips. What the hell was he thinking? What was in that food at the party they just came from?

'Oh. My. FUCKING. God.' Shadow thought. 'What is he doing?!'

But, he kinda liked it. Just a little bit...

Wait. What was HE thinking? Being kissed by your annoying and cocky counterpart is totally gross. And...fruity...

And Shadow the Hedgehog was definitely NOT fruity. He was as straight as a ripe, orange carrot...

Realizing what he had been absentmindedly doing for the last 8 seconds, Sonic released his peach lips from Shadow's and cursed under his breath.

"S-Sonic," Shadow stuttered with surprise, his cheeks tinted with a pinkish hue."w-what...the...?"

Sonic was too embarrassed to explain. Instead, he ran off deeper into the forest with a dark red blush across his face. Shadow just stood there with with a curious and still horrified expression.

'...Okay...'

Without a second thought, Shadow decided to head for the pharmacy to get some more Excedrin, hoping to forget about that fruity kiss by the next day.

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Max: R&R please or Gio will poison your precious Turkeys! (wraps his arms around Nori's waist and kisses his cheek)

Giovanni: No I won't! I promise! (hides a bottle of poison behind his back and chuckles nervously)

Hunter: Gio, you can't hide your shame...

Giovanni: Yes I can!

Hunter: Well, you're not doing a very good job at the moment.

Ataru: Poor plump Turkeys...

Professor Applegate: Yeah R&R this story and I won't silently judge you.

Nori: (blushes due to Max's unexpected and comforting touch) This first chapter is pretty good, Northern. You should write some more.

Me: Thank you, Nori. Anyways, thank you guys for reading chapter 1! Chapter 2 is coming soon!

Professor Applegate: (says sarcastically) Yay. I can't wait to read the next one.

Me: (gives the professor my death stare)

Professor Applegate: (shuts up and walks away to do smart people stuff)

Thanks for your patience! I won't let you guys down!

By the way, do hawks eat squirrels?

R&R and your Turkeys will have eternal life! I will make future chapters a bit longer...Oh, and by the way, the story "Never Forgotten" is real. It's just a little something I'm working on. It will soon be published on the BookWriter app. You can download it on the Google Play Store. Did I mention that there are two versions of this app? The one I have is free, and the one you pay for has other cool stuff you can use to write your stories!

Nori: Ooh! Am I in it?

Me: As a matter of fact, all of you are in it, and so is Jayce and Ayaka.

Nori: No! Not Ayaka! Anyone else BUT her!

Jayce: Hey guys.

(Nori's face becomes extremely red as his ex-boyfriend walks into my room.)

Keep looking out for the next chapter! Don't forget to R&R!