First fanfiction I've ever written. Not the best by far, but practice does make perfect, hopefully. : And if the tenses aren't consistent, my apologies, I did my best.

Enjoy!

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Valentine's day was never Shadow's favourite holiday. In fact, one could say he hated February 14th. And though he would never admit it to anyone, not even himself, it was obvious he was more than a little jealous. Even though the holiday was too commercial for anyone's taste, they all still enjoyed it with their lovers and families, giving eachother mouthwatering chocolates filled with butter cream and caramel and exchanging freshly cut, bright red roses with a smell that complemented the chocolate.

Shadow, however, had no one to give or recieve any of these little treats. Even when Maria was still alive, they had never celebrated the holiday together. Neither of them had any clue about Earth holidays, so they spent the day as they would have any other; just playing hide and seek and other childish games.

So here the dark, brooding hedgehog is, sitting on the windowsill of his 47th floor apartment, staring out the window. It is rather cold, but he doesn't mind; his thick fur keeps him warm enough. Despite his best attempts to convince himself of that, he still shivers as a cold gust of air invades through the window and right past him. Drawing his knees closer to his chest, Shadow looks down at the streets below. People are walking together, gloved hand in gloved hand or wrapped up in eachother's embracing arms, their rosy cheeks being warmed by the other's body heat. Shadow snorts and looks back at his feet. He scrutinizes his boots for a moment with a glare that could burn through them if he had heat vision and gets off the window sill. He stretches, cracking a few bones in the process and makes a beeline for the door. This room is suffocating him, he is sure; maybe he just needs to get some fresh air.

As Shadow makes his way for the stairs, he passes by another couple, making out against the wall, roses on the floor probably dropped from the surprise kiss. Moans and other noises escape the couple as Shadow gives one last angry glare at the floor, speeding by as he suddenly feels the need to get out of there even faster. He finally makes his way to the doors and bursts through them. The cold immediately, biting at his fingers and tickling his nose, also causing him to instinctively wrap his arms around himself for heat. The black creature finally looks up and sees the cement sidewalk packed with people of all ages in couples. The view here is no better than it was at the window, Shadow thinks to himself, miserably. Wrapping his arms tighter around his middle, he looks down at the sidewalk and begins to walk to the park.

Shadow has kept his head down the whole way, miraculously not bumping into anyone. The surrounding people seem to sense his bad mood and steer clear of the downer, moving on with their happy lives. Uknown to the hedgehog, however, another hedgehog has been making his way from the opposite end of the sidewalk. As if choreographed, they bump into eachother in a head-on collision, sending both of the anthros to a dazed position on the ground. Shadow, not wanting to lose face, regains his composure first and gets up. He murmers a sorry and offers a hand to the person he has bumped into, but quickly retracts it upon seeing who it is.

Staring up at him was a blue hedgehog with lime-green eyes. The hedgehog gives him a big smile, flashing his pearly whites. "Takin' a walk, Shadow?" he asks.

"I could ask you the same, Sonic. Where's Amy Rose? I'd expect she'd be keeping you on a leash today," Shadow replies with a neutral face. He once again offers a hand to help up Sonic. The blue hedgehog doesn't take the hand but quickly bounces up and brushes off the invisible dirt that covers his pelt. At the mention of Amy Rose, Sonic's grin falters into a nervous smile. "Uh… I kind of… ran away from her…" he says sounding ashamed, rubbing the back of his neck and finding the cement quite interesting to look at. "So what are you doing here, Shads?" he asks, his cheeriness returning.

"I needed to get out," Shadow replies plainly. "Since you're out here as well, would you like to come with me to the park?" he asks. Maybe spending today with a friend will do me some amount of good, Shadow contemplates, attempting to convince himself that this is a good idea.

"Sure, I need to get out as well," Sonic replies, shrugging and lowering the arm that is still on the back of his neck. They both set off in the direction Shadow had been going in, not saying another word until they reach the park.

The city park is a particularly beautiful place, even in the dead of winter. The snow is usually cleaned up quite fast by the city workers, leaving the park benches dry to an acceptable degree. As the two hedgehogs arrived, Shadow lets out an audible sigh of relief. No one is here, surprisingly. He figures they are all inside, curled up warm and dry on sofas watching TV and munching on popcorn, occasionally exchanging a peck on the cheek or smooch on the lips. He shakes his head, the jealousy getting to him again and goes ahead of Sonic to sit on the nearest bench and closes his eyes, leaning back against the bench. Sonic stares at his feet for a moment before deciding to sit next to Shadow, though on the other side of the bench.

As they sit in silence, Sonic takes a moment to look around the park. "Nice place, isn't it?" he inquires, attempting in vain to make conversation. He all too soon realizes this as Shadow makes a curt nod. Wrapping his arms around his middle, Sonic stares at his knees. Shadow cracks an eye to see Sonic. His expression softens as he ses the poor blue hedgehog shivering.

You cold?" he asked, knowing the answer he would recieve and the true answer.

"No," Sonic replies stubbornly, never lifting his eyes from his knees and clamping his arms around himself tighter, as if trying to conceal the shivering. Shadow scoots over next to him and swiftly put an aroumd around the cold youth. Sonic almost jumps out of his skin, thinking for a short moment Shadow was going to hit him or something of the sort, but this was totally unpredicted. A small blush quickly finds its way to Sonic's muzzle as Shadow holds Sonic a bit tighter. Shadow smirks as Sonic twitched when he put his arm around the boy. For the moment, he has forgotten it was his most despised day of the year. He smirks and lowers his arm a bit so he can place it around Sonic's waist, making Sonic nearly jump in surprise again. Shadow then scoots over closer, letting their sides touch and giving Sonic more warmth

Sonic wasn't expecting that, either, and whimpers softly in surprise at the sudden warmth. It feels nice against his cold fur and so does the hand around his side. He sighs in defeat as he realizes Shadow's won this little game. "Thanks, Shadow. I feel all warm and fluffy now," he says sarcastically with a smirk. Shadow smirks back at him and Sonic rests his head against Shadow's shoulder. The younger hedgehog closes his eyes and so does Shadow. They don't notice the flurries falling down on them, as if celebrating Shadow's victory.