Shadow felt nothing at first, but the more he thought about the drug, the more it made him depressed that it was gone. He just sat on the couch in Amy's apartment, trying to ignore his splitting headache and watching the TV with his other acquaintances. The other animals sat in chairs around the TV or on the floor, except for Rouge who chose to sit on the couch with Shadow. As the sunlight dissipated and twilight set in, rain clouds began to cover up the oranges, yellows and reds in the sky. The wind also picked up, and Amy shut all the windows. "Can someone turn up the thermostat?" Shadow asked, "It's freezing in here."

"It's the middle of summer." Knuckles replied, "It's actually too hot in here, in my opinion."

"Yeah," Tails added, "if you're going to change the temperature please turn on the air conditioning."

"Alright, forget it then." Shadow responded, annoyed at being teamed up against. By the time the sun had set completely and it was beginning to rain, Shadow spoke up again. "Okay, now you guys must be joking. It's freezing!"

Sonic, Tails, Knuckles and Silver all shook their heads. "Nope. Still fine in here."

"Hmph. I'm going to bed." Shadow said in response, getting up. He looked to Amy for guidance.

"Your room's the last one on the right." She called out, hardly glancing away from the TV.

On his way to the bedroom Shadow tried to keep his teeth from chattering. He wished so badly he had that drug with him. It would make everything so much better...

"Hey Shadow." He heard Rouge's voice right before he moved his hand onto the door knob.

"W-what?" He stuttered, being as cold as he was.

She walked up to him until they were fairly close. The bat tried to put her hand on his shoulder but Shadow swatted it away. "This is called withdrawal. I know it's not fun, and it's going to get worse, but in time it will go away."

"N-no, I'm f-fine. Really-y."

She just shrugged her shoulders and opened the door for him. "Sleep well." She knew he wouldn't, though.

Shadow sucked in a breath and entered the dark room. He went straight for the queen-sized bed and crawled under the covers. Despite his pride, Shadow wanted to thank Rouge. "Hey," he called out before she closed the door.

"Yeah?"

He awkwardly smiled, even though his teeth were nearly chattering, and gave her another small nod. Rouge grinned from ear to ear as she shut the door softly behind herself.

-XXX-

Shadow tried his very best to stay warm, taking up all the blankets and wrapping them tightly around himself, but they made no difference. He felt the freezing cold despite the fact that he was madly sweating. He wished Rouge was with him to make him feel better, but he was sure she was nice and warm in her own bed. After a while of this extreme discomfort he glanced at the clock. It was eleven. Yep, she was probably nice and content under the spell of sleep.

Deciding to go to the bathroom and splash some warm water on his face, Shadow got up and wrapped himself in a soft grey blanket, hoping not to lose too much more body heat. As he stood up, his vision got spotty, which wasn't a shock after being idle for so long, but the purple blotches wouldn't seem to leave his vision. And once he processed that, he began to notice that the world around him was now spinning. To top it all off, he was pretty sure that dark figure in the corner of the room was coming his way. He tried to get away but tripped on the blanket and fell face first onto the floor. "Uhh..." He moaned, trying to pull himself up. There was blood dripping onto the floor. He felt his nose and decided that it was the location of the bleeding, but then more blood began to fall. His cheek? His forehead? His eyes? He could've sworn his whole face was falling apart until a blinding light severed the entire picture. The light hit him like a laser beam and burned his skin. He was now blazing hot, clawing at the floor in a desperate attempt to get away.

But then he heard someone shout, "Shadow! Are you okay?" He looked up to find that it was just Rouge, who had come to check on him.

"No, I'm not okay! I think I'm dying!" He wanted to yell it but didn't want anyone else to know the pain he was in.

"Okay, shh... calm down." Rouge sat down on the floor next to Shadow and he slowly sat up straight. She put her arms around him and kept going, "shh.. it's okay Honey, it's okay..."

"I'm... too... hot..." She let go of him and pushed the blanket away. Rouge was about to leave and he whispered,

"Don't leave me..."

"I won't, I promise you. I'm just going to get something to make you feel better." When Rouge came back a minute later, she was holding a moistened towel. She saw that Shadow had laid back down on the wooden floor, but she decided not to try to move him. Instead, she just sat down next to him and gently laid the towel on his forehead.

Shadow sighed upon feeling the cool touch of the wet fabric. It felt so nice against his feverish skin.

"...Thank you..." The words were so barely audible that Rouge almost didn't hear them, but the room was completely silent otherwise, so she could. Instead of replying with words, she just caressed his cheek with the back of her right hand and smiled slightly.

After a few minutes of this, the towel was room temperature again and Shadow was more or less cooled off. "Let's get you back in bed." She said, doing her best to help him up and set him back onto the mattress. She sat down on the side of the bed and watched him silently, until he took her hand in his shaky one and they studied each other's eyes.

"Rouge..." He mumbled.

"Yes?"

"...Don't you... dare... pity me..."

She chuckled. "I won't, Honey. I won't."

-XXX-

The following morning, Sonic woke up happily to the chirping of birds. He got a great night's sleep, and he hoped Shadow did too. He was well aware of the effects of withdrawal. As the blue hedgehog strode out to the kitchen, he saw everyone sitting at the table eating cereal, oatmeal or toast. "Anyone seen our junkie?" He asked, getting negatives from everyone.

"We haven't seen Rouge either." Tails replied.

So Sonic decided to do some snooping. He walked back into the hall of bedrooms and saw that the door to Shadow's was hanging open slightly, but it was dark inside. When he poked his head in, he saw Shadow lying on his side with a look of discomfort on his face, his fur matted and sweaty, while Rouge laid next to him, fast asleep. The oddest part was that they were holding hands.

Sonic chuckled and ran back to the kitchen. "Found 'em both."

"Aww... Rouge decided to keep Shads company!" Amy cooed, resulting in a giggle from Silver and a smirk from Tails and Knuckles.

"Whatever makes him happy." Sonic said, grabbing a bowl and a spoon, "I can only imagine what he's going through right now."