Chapter 8

The next morning, the bright sun softly shone it's rays through Sonic's white curtains as it rose into the heavens, awakening to announce a bright new shiny day.

Sonic slowly opened his eyes out of sleep and yawned, allowing the fresh oxygen to awaken his brain. He rubbed the sleep out of his eyes with his left hand as he clutched onto Shadow with his right arm. When he looked down to see if he was awake yet, Sonic was shocked.

Instead of an ebony and crimson hedgehog, Sonic was holding onto a white fluffy pillow.

"Shadow?" The blue hedgehog sat up, looking around for his new friend, but he was nowhere to be seen in his room.

Sonic got out of bed and went out to the hallway. "Shadow?" He called again, but he got no answer. "Was it a dream?"

Confused, Sonic went to the guest room and opened the door. The sheets from the bed were missing and there was a large urine spot on the mattress. White gloves with red and black cuffs still laid on the bedside dresser. Remembering that Shadow had accidentally wet the bed last night due to a nightmare, Sonic was assured that it wasn't a dream.

But if that was so, then where was the young-minded hedgehog?

"Good morning, Sonic."

Sonic turned around and was greeted by Tails. The fox was wide awake and freshly showered, he must've woke up about an hour ago.

"Good morning, Tails." Sonic greeted back. "Hey, have you seen Shadow? He wasn't in bed when I woke up."

"I thought I saw him heading downstairs before I went into the shower."

"OW!" A painful whine suddenly yelped downstairs.

"That sounded like him." Tails frowned.

"Oh no, oh no, oh no, oh no!"

"Shads, you alright?" Sonic called downstairs.

Suddenly, the smoke alarm went off around the house. Panicking, Sonic and Tails ran downstairs and were shocked to see smoke coming from the kitchen.

"Shadow!" Sonic gasped and ran into the kitchen, Tails following close behind.

In the kitchen, panicking with the handle of a smoking pan in his hands held at arms length, was Shadow the Hedgehog. He turned to his friends and cried out in terror.

"Sonic, Tails, help! I don't know what to do!"

"Put the pan down, Shads!" Sonic gasped and ran to the sink. "Tails, turn the stove off!"

Shadow quickly put the pan back on the stove as Tails quickly turned it off. Sonic reached under the sink and pulled out the fire extinguisher before rushing to the stove. He pulled the pin out and aimed the nozzle at the pan on the stove before squeezing the lever, spraying CO2 onto the smoking fire and putting it out. Tails flew up to the smoke alarm and unplugged it, turning the loud beeping noise off.

When the fire was out and the stove was covered in foam, Sonic put the fire extinguisher down and turned to Shadow, who was currently cowaring in the corner of the kitchen, tears dripping from his eyes in shame. He also seemed to be nursing his hand.

"Shadow, are you ok?" Sonic asked him in a worried tone as he promptly approached him.

"*sniff* Yeah." Shadow sniffed. "I just burnt my hand a little."

"Let me see."

Hesitantly, Shadow held his left hand out to Sonic, exposing the slightly blistering wound to his blue savior. Sonic gently took his hand and inspected the wound.

"Tails, could you get the first aid kit?"

"Sure thing Sonic."

As Tails flew out of the kitchen to fetch the kit, Sonic gently lead Shadow over to the sink. He turned on the cold water and gently took Shadow's hand.

"This will help with the burning and will clean the wound." He explained as he gently guided the ebony's hand underneath the cold running water.

Shadow sighed in relief as the water's coldness quickly numbed the pain.

Although Sonic was glad that Shadow wasn't hurt too bad, he was still incredibly worried and a bit upset.

"Shadow what were you doing? What were you thinking? You could've gotten seriously hurt." He ranted worriedly.

Shadow's bottom lip quivered as he quickly came to terms that he was in trouble.

"I'm sorry, Sonic." He softly sobbed. "I just wanted to do something nice for you and Tails to show my gratitude. I was trying to make pancakes for you, but I was having trouble reading the cookbook. I guess after four years of not using literature, I've forgotten how to read, so I just tried to guess by looking at the pictures."

"Oh Shadow." Sonic cooed gently as he wiped Shadow's tears away. "That's very sweet of you, but you didn't have to do that for us. We saved you because we wanted to, and because it's the right thing to do."

"I still wanted to do something in return."

"I know." Sonic smiled gently as he brought their foreheads together. "You can still do that, but this time, let me help you, ok? I'll read you the instructions as you follow along, ok?"

Shadow smiled, his eyes half-lidded as he looked down to the floor bashfully, enjoying Sonic's closeness.

"Ok."

"Ahem!"

Both hedgehogs jumped at the sound of someone seeking attention by fakely clearing their voice. They turned to the doorway of the kitchen and Shadow blushed with embarrassment when they saw Tails standing there, awkwardly looking at them with the first aid kit in his hand.

"Am I interrupting something?" The fox nervously asked.

'Yes' Shadow thought glumly as Sonic pulled his forehead away.

"No Tails." The blue hedgehog smiled at his younger brother. "Shadow was just telling me that he was trying to make pancakes to show his gratitude to us, but apparently he forgot how to read."

"Well, I guess four years locked away and tortured will do that to you." Tails nodded as he approached them. "Here's the first aid kit."

"Thanks Tails." Sonic took the kit and turned back to Shadow, turning the sink off. "Come on, Shads. Come sit on the chair and let's take care of that burn wound."

Shadow nodded as he let Sonic guide him to one of the dining chairs around the table. He sat down on the chair and held his hand out as Sonic knelt down on the floor in front of him. He opened the kit and pulled out a little white tube with a green label.

"This is aloe vera, a very special burn gel." Sonic explained as he unscrewed the cap and squeezed some of the green gel onto his fingers. "It's gonna be a little cold."

"Ok." Shadow nodded.

With that, Sonic began to gently spread the burn gel onto Shadow's wound. Shadow shivered at the cold touch, and small smile spread across his face at the amazing feeling of Sonic being so gentle with him.

"And now for the bandage." Sonic smiled as he reached into the kit again and pulled out a small square band aid. He pulled the sticker off and gently applied it to the wound, smoothing out the creases. "And there. All done."

"Thank you, Sonic." Shadow blushed behind his smile.

"Hey lovehogs." Tails teased. "If you guys are done here, I cleaned off the foam from the stove in case you want to retry making breakfast."

"First of all, Shadow and I are not lovehogs." Sonic rolled his eyes as he stood up from the floor. "Second of all, it's really up to Shadow."

"Oh, um, yes." Shadow stuttered, a little flustered from Tails comment. He kinda liked the word. Lovehogs. "Yes, I wanna try making breakfast again, with your help of course. But…"

"... But what, Shadow?" Sonic asked him in a worried tone.

"What about my… um…" Shadow's face was beet red in embarrassment. "My little… mess… last night?"

Sonic quickly caught on to what he was saying and he nodded, gently taking Shadow by the elbow.

"We'll clean it up after breakfast." He assured him.

"I'm not even gonna ask, it's none of my business." Tails quickly said.

Shadow smiled in gratitude.

"Thanks Tails, now let's make breakfast and hope I don't burn it this time."