"You Can't Keep Doing This"

Shadow stood at attention with Rouge on his left and Omega on hers. In front of them stood the Commander of the G.U.N, Abraham Towers. He was appraising a file with a red stamped "Confidential" on the front. He'd been doing so for the past five minutes, well after Rouge had summarized the contents. Shadow fought the urge to tap his foot or scoff in impatience; actions most indicative of that Blue Hedgehog.

"Amy may have mostly forgiven him," he thought to himself, "But some of us do not need to emulate everything about him. I'm an adult and I can stand here for as long as the Commander would like to continue wasting my TIME making us stand here doing NOTHING."

Once Christmas was over he'd been tasked with mission after mission. At one point there'd been three of them in one day. They were mostly inane things like tailing an Egg-henchman or searching for Criminal homesteads and bugging them. They'd had some interesting ones, but nothing that required extensive travel or had a greater overall impact. Eggman himself had been unreasonably quiet and so little of the criminal underground had been making any moves as of late either. Everything had been so DAMN quiet and yet they'd been stuck doing busy work for almost a week straight.

That was not an exaggeration. Shadow had not had any sleep or time off since Christmas. He had not the slightest clue about how his green house was doing. His nursery business was still closed from Christmas. He hadn't done any maintenance on his bike in all that time. He hadn't even seen the inside of his room since he left to go ice fishing with...

"Ah... shit," he thought to himself, "I haven't spoken to Amy since then either."

While the drop into freezing waters had been decidedly unpleasant the party afterwards had been... rather nice. Amy, despite the Blue blur's presence, had been gracious ("Mostly," he thought with a mental chuckle as he remembered her mocking gestures). She'd introduced him more formally around, been the conduit to most of the conversations and helped warm him up.

"Literally," he thought fondly, then sadly, "She shouldn't have had to jump in. I'm usually much quicker than that."

As Shadow contemplated learning how to swim, an offer Amy had made once the weather turned warmer, he felt a quick and painful nudge on his left side. Without flinching his eyes moved to meet Rouge's. Annoyed ruby conflicted with a more exasperated aqua. She'd been at the party too. While he would normally not begrudge her presence (hell, he'd even say he normally enjoyed her company), she'd been distant during that party. She'd elected to stay silent and watch the entire time. Even while he was preoccupied with Amy or one of the other guests, he'd felt her eyes on him, calculating, deciphering, making up some new scheme he wasn't sure what. Normally that meant more fun for him in the future. He'd been excited after the party was over to touch bases and see what she had in mind. Instead all she'd said was, "You'll see..."

"Meaning she wants me to be the butt of her joke," he thought tiredly, "Whatever that is. I hope Omega gets a laugh at least..."

"Good work, team," The Commander finally stated, "Operation: Mantis Knight was a resounding success it seems. It will be nice to know that the planted bugs can be used as kill-switches should these vermin get too far out of hand..."

Shadow's ears pulled back and Rouge's face fought a snarl. The Commander simply smiled, "Forgive my choice of words, the Rat-Pack gang has been a thorn in the President's side for far too long. I've fought for jurisdiction on this case for two years. It's good to know the United Federation will be free from their trafficking ring, even if it won't end in arrests."

Shadow's ears reverted back into place and Rouge's smile became much warmer.

"Rouge, you are dismissed," The Commander ordered, "Get some rest, you deserve it. Shadow, Omega, I need a word with you two."

Rouge gave them an exaggerated yawn and waved at them lazily, "Have a good night boys! I'll see you in the morning~!"

Shadow's ears fell- it meant they were in for another overnight mission. He quickly schooled his face back into a blank slate and faced his Commander with squared shoulders. The corner of the Commander's lips twitched but his own mask held as well.

"The Heir Apparent of the Acorn Kingdom and her fiance have been invited to celebrate the New Year in Soleanna. Princess Sally has personally requested that you and Omega be included in her entourage during her stay."

Shadow frowned, "Rouge was excluded?"

"I asked that Rouge be excluded as she has been working without sleep for far longer than most mere mortals should," The Commander assured him.

Shadow's eyes twitched, "Lucky Bat..."

"Sleep is for the weak," Omega quipped, "Let Comrade Rouge sleep, we shall have our own fun!"

"How long will this 'fun' last?" asked Shadow.

"They'll be staying for three days," Towers answered, "I ask that you also keep an eye on them and see if you can't plant your own Mantis knight on them while we're at it..."

Shadow scoffed, "To what end? They've proven themselves trustworthy plenty of times over. They're harmless."

"Harmless is not a word I would use to describe them. They have Sonic the Hedgehog as the future Queen's Consort of the Acorn Kingdom," The Commander countered, "While you're at least a match for him, you can't take on all of his friends on your own. Their security grows stronger with every day and while I believe in King Nigel and Princess Sally... any future generations may have their own ideas on how to make the Kingdom that much stronger. The more assurances I have that anything they have planned we can counter, the better. "

"And the Ultimate Life form is totally okay with a political nightmare once Tails and Rotor find out...?"

"In that case, why not a regular bug?" Shadow offered, "The diplomatic consequences of an offensive mech being discovered could be dire; especially after we were personally invited to a royal party. They may not have the military or trade lout to bring about any real consequences, but they've made extremely powerful allies around the world, including a majority of the Federation. It would be a shame if we were to prove ourselves as untrustworthy as we have been in the past."

Omega and Commander Towers stared in shock. Towers was the first to shake himself out of his stupor, "That's... an astute observation. However, we court a political nightmare regardless of what is planted. We would not be their first suspect if it was capable of legitimate harm. We would be if it was simply a monitoring system. Plant the Mantis. Team Dark will be responsible for monitoring its feed and reporting on the findings every week. Understood?"

Omega and Shadow saluted the Commander, "Yes, sir!"

The Commander nodded, "You are expected to rendezvous with Princess Sally's court at the Soleanna Royal Port in three hours. I suggest you get moving. Dismissed!"

Shadow and Omega left the office. As they headed towards Omega's quarters in the building, said robot swiveled his head to face Shadow.

"Query, Comrade Shadow."

Shadow raised an eyebrow in response.

"Why would you haggle with the bossy meat-bag? We've been told before by Comrade Rouge that missions are non-negotiable."

Shadow frowned, "Because I'm right and he's just being paranoid again. We can do anything they can but even better."

"So you'll defy him?" Omega asked, "If so, I have suggestions on how to make it truly worth it!"

Shadow stopped paying attention as Omega began listing all of the destruction they could wage upon the poor country. His hand found it's way to the small bug-shaped mic as he tossed the question around in his head. Over and over he thought he could simply say no, he wouldn't defy the Commander. As much as he felt Abraham paranoid, he had a point. They needed to be checked in their power every bit as much as the G.U.N did.

Still, he couldn't help but think about a certain pink hedgehog's reaction if he were discovered.

"We are required to switch out some of the fireworks at least!"

"No, Omega, we are most certainly not," Shadow groaned, "Especially not with legitimate missiles."

"Would it not be appropriate to destroy the other half of the moon? It is an abomination to nature!"

"I said no, Omega."

"But it would be FUNNY!"

Shadow would have answered but he saw a ring appear in front of the harbor. He nudged Omega to shut up and stand at attention. He forced himself not to mess with his own military dress, heavy and uncomfortable as it was.

"At least it's not sweltering," he thought. The black wool clung to him in a way that Rouge had deemed, "Stunning" once. It felt nice at the time but knowing he was stuck in this thing with white dress pants of all things felt almost as ridiculous as the dress shoes that had to replace his rocket shoes for the occasion.

Shadow couldn't help but give a sullen sigh as Sonic and Sally disembarked from the vessel. He knew it meant he would see no action for the next three days. Even if he did, he would not be allowed to participate. No, he'd have to use that time to plant a damn Mantis into their midst like some damn coward in the night. Then he'd have to spy on them and everything they said and did like they were some gang of reprobates.

Shadow shook the guilty thoughts away. Still, he couldn't even find joy in Sonic's quick and graceless descent from the ship, his anxious face, or the ridiculous old-fashioned military get-up he had on. This part of the ceremony wouldn't take to long- all they had to do was debrief and direct everyone to the correct carriages but the Welcoming Ceremony at the Palace? That one would last for hours and he would have to accompany the fool for three days with only one of the Princess' ladies in waiting as company.

"God's I hope it's someone interesting at least," he thought to himself, "I should have at least argued to have Omega at my side at all times. The last thing I want to deal with is some simpering, shallow, unaccomplished waste of..."

"Shadow?"

Shadow was pulled out of his misery spiral by a young pink hedgehog in an oddly intricate green court gown with gold filigree embroidered into it. She held her hands loosely in front of her as though holding a water-lily and as she stepped forward it was with her head held high and an easy smile on her face. It lent her a grace Shadow had never seen in anyone before, much less Amy. He felt his heart stop beating for a moment as green eyes looked on imploringly at him.

"She looks... amazing" he thought with wonder.

"You okay, there, buddy?"

Shadow's head swerved to face Sonic, who's face held a bit of... something unreadable that Shadow couldn't quite understand. Sally beside him gave a small concerned smile and nodded encouragingly at him to address Amy properly this time. He wasn't sure which reaction was worse.

He gave a low growl and fought off the blush in his cheeks, failing miserably, of course, "You all look ridiculous."

Amy's smile only grew more cheeky as she pulled out a small gold fan, "You're just jealous you didn't get to dress up like we did."

She tapped him on the arm with the fan, "Come on, were you raised in a barn? Gimme your arm and we can get this show on the road!"

Shadow glared but conceded. He blatantly ignored the tittering ("Yes, tittering," he thought to himself with bitter loathing and embarrassment) and gently led Amy to the carriages behind the Princess, Sonic, the cyborg rabbit and her coyote husband, and the rabbit teenager and the twin-tailed fox from Christmas. He could hear Omega's great stomping footsteps behind him to lead the brown lynx away. He helped Amy up into the carriage and fought not to slam the door behind him. He practically threw himself into the seat, making the entire compartment jiggle like a bounce house. He scoffed in response and trained his eyes out the window with his arms crossed.

"You look really good too, by the way."

Shadow refused to look at Amy, but his face softened and his blush intensified, "Hmph."

"Seriously! You'd think the black would just blend everything together but it really suits you!" Amy beamed. She paused for a moment then giggled, "No pun intended!"

Shadow's lips twitched but his eyes were still focused on the window. He refused to break under Amy's stare.

"No one blames you for staring by the way," she said gently, "I don't get to dress up like this a lot. And the designer for these dresses is a prodigy with the needle and thread. She's really fun too! I'm sure she'd design something really cool for you if you asked nicely~"

"Clothing is worthless," he barked, "And I wasn't staring. I was... lost in thought."

"What about?"

Shadow snapped towards Amy, "N... Nothing that concerns you!"

Amy's eyes widened, a hurt look prevailing in them that made Shadow's stomach turn. She raised her hands and murmured, "Alright, geez, don't shoot the messenger. I'm sorry."

His ears folded back. He thought for a moment about apologizing but instead relegated the ride to absolute silence by looking out the window again. It was a shame Amy decided to veto that decision.

"So what have you been doing since Christmas?" she asked, "I haven't seen you in a while."

"Working."

"Missions, the nursery, or both?"

"Missions."

"Anything cool?"

"I'm going to put what is essentially a ticking time bomb in your care so I can spy on you and your friends," he thought to himself with a grimace. Instead he answered softly, "None of your business."

Amy's eyes narrowed but she didn't push, "I wish I'd known you were coming. I would have brought your Christmas present with me."

Shadow's face paled and his heart stopped, "...Return it."

"What?"

"Return whatever you got me... I don't need it."

Amy's eyes watered but her fists clenched and she snarled, "Maybe I will! Grinches don't get gifts!"

Shadow gave a forlorn 'hmphed' in response.

"What the heck is your problem!?" she exploded, "Is it because you're embarrassed? I said it was fine..."

"Just because you say shit is fine, doesn't make it fine," he snapped back.

"But it's totally okay for you to just tell me to go screw myself?"

"I didn't say that!" he stood menacingly. Amy's shoulders squared up, completely unintimidated.

"No, what you said was 'Return the gift, I don't need it!' BEFORE you even opened it! You have so little faith in my gift that you just know you're going to hate it and you want me to get rid of it for you!"

"That's not why I said that!"

"Then why wou-"

Amy's voice broke and she began to cough. Shadow's ears snapped back at attention. He recognized that cough. As Amy hurriedly pulled out a water bottle and chugged half the bottle, he glared at her.

"How long have you been like that?"

"Don't change the subject!" Amy berated, "I wanna know why you're being such a jerk!"

"You need to go home," Shadow argued, "You're sick!"

Amy rolled her eyes, "It's a sore throat. It'll go away. You don't get to be a jerk and then act all concerned about me!"

"You're going to make yourself worse!" he growled, "We're stuck here for three days doing nothing but diplomatic nonsense. Tell them you need to go home!"

"I can handle this just fine, Mr. Ultimate Lifeform," she mocked, "And I'm not leaving until you tell me why you're acting like you have a rose vine up your..."

The carriage came to an abrupt stop. Shadow caught himself before he fell back but Amy lost her balance and rammed into him. He caught her, but the momentum threw off his balance. He landed hard on his seat, causing the carriage to bounce him up and out of his seat. He was flung up and into the ceiling, where his head slammed through the roof and got his head stuck...

Right in front of the welcoming party in front of the Soleanna Palace.

Shadow choked, willing himself not to die in such an awful position on this god-awful day. Instead he felt a sharp pull on his legs and he came crashing down back into the carriage. It shook violently from the force, but he felt himself secure in Amy's arms. He fought the overwhelming urge to simply go to sleep and never wake up by grumbling, "You're way too warm, you need to rest."

"I'm not talking about this now," she grumbled back, "Just follow my lead you dork."

She led him out of the carriage and into the crowd of staring, judgmental eyes. Humans and mobians alike cheered and gossiped about the congregation of foreign royalty before them. Too soon they were in front of Princesses Sally and Elise, who were all having polite conversations together when Amy stepped up with Shadow on her arm. She motioned gingerly for Shadow to follow her into a curtsy with his own bow before she spoke.

"Forgive me, your majesties, but I must humbly ask that you excuse Shadow and I for the duration of the afternoon's festivities until tonight's ball."

Sonic gave a concerned chuckle, "I saw you beef it back there, Shadow, you okay?"

Shadow fought a growl of his own, but Amy beat him to his own answer, "I was the clumsy one, my lord, he's just the one who got hurt because of it. Please forgive my rude interruption of the day's schedule, but I'm afraid we require rest before we reconvene for the evening's ball."

Sonic's eyes fell in a concerned look once more but Sally placed a gentle hand on his before addressing Amy, "That did look like a nasty crash. Would this be any trouble to you, your highness?"

"None, whatsoever," Elise assured her before motioning for an older human woman to come to her, "Agatha will see you both to your suite. Please don't hesitate to ask if you need a doctor to attend to you."

"One please," Shadow insisted.

Amy shot a look his way but mere gave a scary, low giggle, "Yes... please... any doctor you have available would be lovely, thank you."

"I'll send for her," Agatha interjected, "Right this way, please."

Shadow was shocked at the contained opulence of the room. He stared longingly at the stark but fluffy and deeply inviting bed that taunted him from another room. Once Agatha reassured Amy that the doctor would arrive shortly and with directions to Sally's suite for the ladies, she left them alone in heavy silence. Crimson and tired met too-shiny emerald as they both sighed.

"You can't keep doing this," Amy murmured.

"Me!?" Shadow asked incredulously, "What the hell am I doing that you aren't?"

"Not sleeping," Amy argued, her hands on her hips, "I did say it was bad for you."

"I'm the Ultimate life Form, I don't need sleep," he retorted, "You're the one who's sick."

"It's just a cold," she tried gently, "It'll go away, and the things I have to do here aren't nearly as exhausting as what you've been doing. When was the last time you slept?"

"That's... not the problem here."

"Oh please!" Amy held up her hand and started counting, "Your bags have bags under your eyes, you're picking fights for no reason, you are WAY clumsier than usual, and your reaction times are way off! Shadow, you're sleep deprived!"

"I'm not..."

"When was the last time you slept?" Amy insisted, "Please, Shadow. You're my friend. You're scaring me."

Shadow's heart stopped and his mouth fell open. He let out a soft sigh and placed two fingers over his growing headache. Finally he murmured, "Since three days before Christmas."

Amy's eyes widened, "Shadow, why..."

"I tried again with a coffee plant and it died," Shadow answered, "I got caught up in a string of bullshit at work after the ice fishing incident and I haven't slept since."

"... And you wanted me to return your gift because...?"

"I was caught up with my own bullshit and ...forgot to get you one," he admitted miserably.

Amy paused before she began to laugh. Shadow's ears fell back and his blush came back, "What's so funny?"

Amy shook her head, "I'm just... Shadow! I don't mind that I didn't get a present from you! I got you yours because you've been so nice to me. You don't have to get me anything on top of all that.

She walked him over to a nearby sofa and sat him down, "But it obviously matters to you, so I'll tell you what. I'll save the gift for your birthday or something. Your Christmas gift to me will be to promise me that you'll sleep at least once every three days..."

Shadow opened his mouth to argue but Amy interrupted, "UNLESS you have a huge mission you have to participate in. Whether you like it or not, Shadow, you need rest."

Shadow gave her a pointed look, "Fine. Then your gift to me is to let the doctor look at you. You say I can't keep pushing past my limits, then neither can you. I don't like the sound of your coughing."

Amy rolled her eyes and held out her hand to shake, "Deal. Now go to sleep."

Shadow balked, "Now?!"

"Yes now!" Amy retorted, still holding her hand out, "Ten days without sleep would kill a normal person. After your nap we can stay up until the new years gets rung in. Then it's back to bed to catch up. Deal or no deal?"

Shadow eyed her hand but still argued, "After the doctor takes a look at me. The last thing you want to do is sleep through a concussion..."

"I've seen you barrel through way harder stuff, Shadow," Amy insisted, "You don't have a concussion. We both know that doctor is for me. Go pick a room and go to sleep, Mister."

Shadow glared but couldn't help the admiring smirk on his face. He took a deep breath and shook her hand, "Fine. I'll go."

Amy gave a big grin and lunged for a hug. Shadow flinched but softly folded his arms into a hug as well. He pat her back then got up, pushing Amy off of him. Amy simply smiled in response and waved, "Good night! Don't let the bed bugs bite!"

Shadow stuck his tongue out at her, "I hope your bed is infested with them."

He heard her blow a raspberry before he heard a knock on the main suite door. He largely ignored this and closed the door behind him, listening to Amy describe her symptoms and be checked over. He stayed near the door until the doctor assured Amy that it was the beginning of a cold, if a bit of a nasty one. Once assured, he crawled into bed, thinking about where he was going to hide the white cashmere scarf and gloves he'd gotten Amy for Christmas until her birthday in September...

Back at G.U.N Headquarters

"Commander, you can't be serious!"

Abraham Towers looked on that the furious white bat in front of him, "I've been dealing with too many arguments from your Unit, Agent Rouge. Were you not the one who demanded he be sent on as many missions as we had available?"

"To keep him away from Amy Rose!" Rouge screeched, "She's turning him into a liability! Why would you stick them together for three full days!?"

"Princess Sally Acorn insisted on Agents Shadow and Omega to join her ranks in the festivities. To what end I don't know, but it's an opportunity that I simply could not ignore."

"He's not going to plant them," Rouge argued, "Last time we had an objective with her involved he went DIRECTLY against orders and purposely failed Mission Treasure Team Tango. He didn't even know her that well then! Now they're good friends, maybe even more and you think he won't go ROGUE?!"

The Commander, rather than answer, swiveled his desk chair around and pointed a remote at the projection screen behind him. In it was clear feed from three separate points. All of which were labeled Mantis Knights I-VI. All of them had clear footage of different members of the Freedom Fighters, in the Princess' suite and in Sonic's personal chambers. Rouge looked on breathlessly at Shadow and Omega's completed mission.

"He planted the pod in her hair after their little argument in the Men's suite," the Commander explained, "He planted a second one after his little nap in the Consort's bed. You can't keep coddling him, Agent Rouge. He understands where his priorities lie. I think you need to take the time to reassess yours."

Rouge gave a small relieved sigh, even though she felt no such relief inside, "Yes sir."

"I'm going to let Shadow have a week of vacation after this," The Commander continued, "I suggest you take that time to talk through whatever's going on between the two of you and report back once all this personal business is over. Understood?"

"Yes sir," Rouge reaffirmed.

The Commander nodded, "You're dismissed."