Faith the Echidna belongs to me. Hell, she is me.

Third Person POV

Sky holds Shadow's hand tightly as they walk to her father's house. Frost has already gone to retrieve his mother and brother. She presses against Shadow, feeling a chill go up her spine as she thinks of her best friend. Ever since Shadow's been here, Frost has been acting differently, like he's always trying to one-up the black hedgehog. Just the other day he challenged Shadow to see who can eat the most pancakes just because Shadow said he was "starving." Sky believes it to be some stupid guy thing.

"Sky," Shadow murmurs suddenly. Sky looks up at him as he stops in front of Boston's place.

"Yes?"

"I want to take you out later, just you and me. Is that okay?" Shadow requests, looking her dead in the eyes.

"Well, yeah, I'd like to, but I have to make Blitz's cake. You're helping me, remember?" Sky reminds him, smiling warmly.

"I meant after that, Sky," Shadow chuckles softly, nudging her forehead with his nose gently.

"Oh, well, okay then," Sky purrs, kissing his cheek lovingly. "I can't wait."

Shadow grins and takes her hand in his. They both walk up the steps to Boston's house.

Boston has been given a new house by Blaze. It's closer to Sky's place, so he can check up on her often and she can do the same for him. His new house is bigger than the shack he was living in previously, and he seems comfortable.

Sky opens the door with her key and they both step in. Boston greets her with a giant bear hug. Sky gags and struggles for air.

"Daddy, please! You're… crushing me!" she gasps, though she's absolutely elated to see her father.

"Oops! Sorry, honey," Boston apologizes, dropping the smaller gray hedgehog.

He nods to Shadow. "Hello."

"Hi," Shadow says back awkwardly with a small wave.

"Where's Frost?" Boston asks, coughing and looking past the couple for the white hedgehog.

"He went to go get Cloud," Sky answers with a nod. "Flicker's coming too."

"Great…" Boston mutters sarcastically. "Uh… Silver and Blitz are here already. In the den."

Sky nods. "Okay, Daddy." She leads Shadow into the living room, where Blitz and Silver are both sitting on the floor with someone unfamiliar: a pretty female chocolate brown echidna with caramel eyes (shut up, I was hungry when I created her). Sky drops Shadow's hand and a growl rises in her throat.

"What the hell are you doing here?" she snaps, her eyes narrowing.

Shadow looks at her, confused. "Who is she?"

"Faith the Echidna," Sky grumbles.

Faith rises, extending a hand to Shadow with a smile. "You must be Shadow. Silver has told me a lot about you. I'm sorry I couldn't meet you before, but, well, I was busy training. Boston told me that Princess here has a new love squeeze. It's good to finally meet you."

Shadow takes the hand warily. "Same to you?"

Faith laughs. "I know it must be weird, meeting your girlfriend's arch rival and everything."

"Arch rival?" Shadow turns to Sky, raising an eyebrow. She's glaring daggers at the echidna, her arms crossed.

"Yeah, arch rival," she sniffs. "She's always showing me up in front of my own father."

Boston walks in, looking baffled, and scratches the back of his head. "…Did I mention that Faith was here?"

"No." Sky wheels around to glare at her father. "Why would you invite her?"

"She's my apprentice. How could I not?" Boston mumbles, twiddling his thumbs. "She hadn't been in my new house yet."

"Neither had I!" Sky scoffs. "If I had to wait, she could've too!" Shadow touches Sky's shoulder.

"Sky…" he warns.

Sky frowns and stalks out of the room, brushing past her father coldly. Shadow looks at Boston, who appears guilty. He glances at Faith. "Sorry, Apprentice. I never will understand your rivalry."

"Faith shrugs. "It's okay. She's just pissed because I beat her all the time. I've learned to ignore it."

Shadow looks interested. "What do you mean 'beat her all the time'?" he asks the brown echidna.

"You see, when we were training, Boston would always pit us against each other and I'd always win. Since the eighth time, Sky's declared me her arch rival and swore that she would hate me forever."

"Was it that you beat her or that you and Flicker-" Blitz begins to say, but is cut off when Silver knocks him over and clamps his hand over the younger's mouth.

"Shut up, Blitz," he growls at his brother, clenching his teeth. "She can still hear us."

His eyes flit back and forth warily, and he creeps across the room to peek around the corner. Faith takes his place kneeling beside Blitz.

Shadow blinks. Sky is known to know what's going on even when she's not in the room. Her telepathy reaches that far.

"Is the coast clear, Numbah Two?" Faith whispers.

"All clear, Numbah One," Silver answers, saluting. They all relax.

Shadow frowns. Weirdos. "What the-"

"Faith and Silver have been playing this game when Sky leaves the room since they were younger," Boston explains quietly, his eyes flashing with amusement. "Because Silver can tell where she is, he checks to see if she's in the same vicinity, while Faith stands by in an attack position." Boston chuckles. "They've been playing for years."

"It's not a game anymore, Boss," Faith tells him, running her fingers through her quills. "It's life or death now. She's gotten stronger with the Force."

That's also true. Sky has taken the opportunity to hone her skills and stretch her telepathy to the limit. She can even get inside Shadow's mind, something she's been trying to do forever.

"Should I go check on her?" Shadow offers, feeling out of place.

"Could you? I don't want her breaking my windows again," Boston tells him urgently.

"Break your win-"

"Just go." Boston shoves him out of the house, slamming the door behind him.

Shadow whips around, thinking of some very creative responses to this, but upon hearing Sky sniffling, he thinks better of it.

"Sky? Are you okay?" he asks, taking a seat next to her on the steps.

"Just peachy," Sky grumbles.

"You don't look all right to me," Shadow says.

"No duh, Captain Obvious. My own father prefers his stupid apprentice over me," Sky murmurs. "Why is that? Is she better than me?"

"How should I know? I don't even know this girl!" Shadow reminds her, throwing up his hands. "And he's your father, Skylar. He loves you. Hell, he doesn't even want me to ask you to-." He stops himself right there. Crap, I almost ruined it!

"Ask me to what?" Sky asks, her gaze softening. She scoots closer to him. "Are you going to tell me or am I going to have to find out for myself?"

"You'll find out soon enough," Shadow mumbles, pushing his nose into her fur.

"But what if I can't wait?" She pouts, looking up at him with limpid blue eyes.

"Let's just say, it has something to do with what we're going to do tonight," Shadow whispers, his lips meeting hers.

"Oh, yuck! You guys came here just to do what you can do at home anyway?" a disgusted voice sounds from up the path.

Shadow sighs and looks up to see Frost and Flicker leading a small-framed, frail, pale blue hedgehog, their mother Cloud, by the arms. The comment came from Flicker.

"Why are you two out here and not in there?" Flicker continues, holding his mother's arm tightly. "Did the Boss-man kick you out already?"

"No," Sky scoffs. "Faith's in there."

"Ah, yes, Faith. Your arch en-e-may," Flicker snickers, exchanging a look with Frost.

"Go back in, she can't hurt you while you're in your dad's house," Frost tells her.

"I never understood why you too fight so much anyway," Cloud rasps, looking at Sky with warm green eyes. She breaks away from her sons to take Sky in a tight embrace. "How are you, dear?" She eyes Shadow. "And who's your good-looking friend?"

"Hi, Auntie," Sky says with a smile. "I'm doing better. And this is my boyfriend Shadow." She motions to him as she states his name. Shadow finds himself blushing as he shakes the aging hedgehog's hand. It's obvious that Cloud has been close to Sky's family for years. He might need her approval as well if he expects to marry Sky.

"How are you feeling?" Sky continues.

Cloud kisses her cheek and smiles as well. "I'm well, lovely. I'm glad to get out of the house for once. Flicker and Frost have been keeping me under house arrest."

"For a good cause!" Frost protests, appearing worried. "I don't want you getting sick again, Mom."

"I won't, Frost, don't worry about that," Cloud soothes, ruffling her son's fur lovingly.

Flicker taps his foot impatiently. "Can we go in now, please? I have to ask Boss if he got my thingy yet."

"Your thingy?" Frost snorts.

"Yes, my thingy." The older white hedgehog shoulders his way past the others and walks into the house. Frost and Cloud follow him, leaving the door open a crack.

Sky looks at Shadow and shrugs, taking his hand and leading him back inside.

"Cloud seems… nice," Shadow comments, putting his arm over her shoulders.

"Yeah. She's like my second mom," Sky says with a small smile. "Actually, she's more like my first mom. She took care of me more than my actual mom did. I love her like I love my father."

"I see." Shadow's grip tightens on her shoulder. He's never met Sky's mom. Ever. In fact, nobody really mentions her, especially not Boston.

They go back into the den, where Faith is hugging Flicker and grinning.

"Flickster! I haven't seen you in foreva!" the brown echidna says.

"Heya, Phoenix," Flicker greets her with a smile. "How's ole Vincy-boy doin'?"

"Vincent? Oh, he's good. He's just surfing the Universe all on his lonesome," Faith answers with a shrug.

"Vincent's her boyfriend," Sky whispers to Shadow, who nods. "They've been dating for almost a whole year now."

Frost goes to hug Faith as well.

"Hey, Dork," he says, smiling for the first time Shadow's ever seen. It looks… weird in an unnatural sort of way. "We've missed you around here."

"Aww… I've missed you too, Ice King," Faith purrs, ruffling the fur on his head.

"You know I really hate it when you call me that," Frost mumbles, stepping back and sitting on the couch. "Almost as much as when you and Flicker call me 'Frosty.'"

Faith and Flicker give each other small high-fives at that.

Boston and Cloud have gone to the kitchen to talk amongst themselves, and Silver and Blitz are still sitting on the floor, just taking in all the action. Sky goes to sit next to Frost, and Shadow joins her, leaning back and putting his arm around her shoulders. Frost eyes him with narrowed eyes, but Shadow glares and the white hedgehog turns away with a snort.

Sky gives Shadow a warning look and turns back around, looking irritated. Faith, raising an eyebrow, grins and elbows Flicker, who whispers something in her ear. She giggles and whispers something back. Interested, Shadow slides down to sit next to Silver. He taps him on the shoulder, and the silver-gray hedgehog turns around.

"Yeah?"

"What's the deal with Faith and Flicker?" Shadow asks. "I know they aren't dating, but still."

"Oh, they're really good friends. They also used to date, after Flicker and Sky dated," Silver explains, "but it didn't work out very well because they're too close."

Shadow nods. "I see."

Silver nods also. "Blitz thinks they're in love."

Blitz glares at him. "You know they are! I mean, look at them!"

"Yeah, it looks that way but they are best friends!" Silver argues. "You and Cody are close, but that doesn't mean the two of you are in love!"

Cody is Blitz's absolute best friend. They are practically inseparable, except when Cody has to work at him mom's pharmacy. His mom is Adele, the doctor from the hospital.

"Well, yeah, 'cause Cody and I are two straight guys," Blitz snorts.

Shadow rolls his eyes, losing interest in the rest of the conversation, and scoots back onto the couch. Sky looks at him.

"What was that all about?" she asks quietly as she takes his hand in her own.

"Nothing," Shadow grumbles, stroking her quills absentmindedly.

Boston's head pokes out from the kitchen entrance. "Is anyone thirsty? I actually have fresh water for once!"

For once? Shadow gasps inside of his mind.

Sky nods beside him. "You know that this world was a wasteland before. The water was hard to find and not filtered properly."

Shadow gives a small nod.

"Just pour all of us a cup, Dad," Silver tells him. "Not too much, 'cause we want some tomorrow too, remember?"

Boston nods. "Yes, of course." He ducks back out and disappears into the kitchen.

Okay, it's official. When Sky and I get married, we are definitely going to live back in my time, Shadow thinks, internally shaking his head. He takes an extra precaution to put a mind block so Sky is unable to hear his thoughts.

"So, Blitzy, what're ya gonna do for your b-day?" Faith asks, flopping down in a chair. "I remember my fourteenth like it was yesterday…"

Sky rolls her eyes.

"I think Cody and I are going to go do some major paintballing," Blitz answers with a grin.

"If you do, then you get to clean yourself off," Sky tells him. "Remember the last time; it took hours to get all that effing paint out of your fur."

"Yah, I know, so I had Drew make me an awesome suit to prevent that from happening again," Blitz says proudly.

"Can I come with, Speedster?" Faith asks. "I've been dying to play again. Nearly six months away and I'm ready to kick some ass."

"But you were the cause for me getting paint in my fur last time!" Blitz reminds her.

"Yeah, but if you have that suit-thingy, then that won't happen again!" Faith protests.

"Oh, my gosh, I forgot about my thingy!" Flicker exclaims, jumping up and dashing into the kitchen.

"It's not that I don't want you to come, Faith, it's that you tend to be so damn competitive when you do," Blitz begins mumbles, looking a bit defensive.

"I promise I'll let you take over, I promise! At least for one game!" Faith begins to beg. Funny, because Shadow doesn't think her to be the begging type… "C'mon…"

"Okay, you can come for one game. That's it," Blitz gives in, appearing exasperated.

"Yay! You fill me with great happiness!" Faith cheers, fist-pumping.

"Yeah, yeah..." Blitz waves her off. "You're lucky I love you, Numbah One."

"Thanks, Three." Faith grins at him, and reaches down to ruffle his bangs.

Shadow looks down at Sky as she leans back into him, looking irritated. Shadow sighs. Things are going to be more dramatic and difficult than he thought.

I am so sorry for the lameness of this chapter. I think most of it is due to the fact that Faith is really me in Mobian form. But she's not a Mary-Sue. I had a… weird time writing this chapter. But really, I was just trying to control what I say so I don't seem too stupid.

Well, until next time. Muffin out!