Okay... so... I'm continuing again...
Shadouge shippers, you'll be very happy with this chapter ;P
It was well over an hour before it had stopped. Mephiles, being as exhausted as he was from the days events, had fallen asleep after he had cried his remain strength away.
Shadow shifted the crystalline hedgehog enough to where he could slip his hands under his legs and pick him up to carry him back to the bed. Once he was set down, he rolled onto his side and curled up without waking up at all. He was definitely out like a light…
Shadow sat back down in the chair, and ran a hand through his quills.
…
…
Maybe he had more in common with the shade than he thought. After all, the two had similar origins, and the both of them were victims of misunderstandings… they were as they were because of that.
Shadow had been somewhat callous towards even his own friends to a point because of what he had lost. Perhaps he was like that because he was afraid to get so close to those he really cared about… afraid he might have a repeat…
But, after fifty years in a coma, and now almost two years after his reawakening… it was quite apparent that it wouldn't happen again, and he was now becoming gentler towards his friends… especially Rouge…
Mephiles was as he was mainly on Shadow's part… because of his sudden sealing into the Scepter… Mephiles spent the first ten years of his life in complete and total darkness with nothing to deviate his mind from what would haunt him for the rest of his life: The deaths of all the Soleanna scientists that had been killed because he had been brought into existence from an explosion…
He had never had any friends, nor had he ever heard of the concept before the first week he had met Team Dark, and therefore had nothing to think about how his actions would affect something as he set his sights on total annihilation of time itself.
He didn't know any better…
Just as Shadow thought he was doing the planet good by killing all the "heartless" Humans that had wiped out his loved ones and destroyed the lives of those who had had a hand in his creation. In his mind… he thought that the planet didn't need any Humans for its protection, because Humans were once viewed to him as a self-destructive race of beings…
But, the both of them had been saved through friends… most notably… Rouge…
"… Rouge…" Shadow said to himself softly before letting a small smile crawl onto his face.
He let a small laugh escape him…
It was Rouge who had helped the both of them…
And he had been the only one who hadn't bothered to thank her…
But…
He'll change that…
"Okay, fine! He's on a leash now! Happy?" Rae said loudly as she clipped the lead onto Jak's faded green color, the both of them frowning at the personnel. "I don't see why he has to be… he's well behaved without it… it's just gonna make him rebellious…"
"I'm sorry, Rae…" Thizon was part of the small group of people who had tried to explain to the thoroughly confuse fox about the rules. "But he needs to be leashed… it's just the rules…"
"Okay… but I still say he's better without it… it's not like he's diseased or anything. He checked out great at the vet last month, in fact… he did well without me having to follow the vet to the back when they were making sure he was up to date on his shots…"
"Thank you, Rae…" Thizon nodded as the twin tailed fox picked up her dog.
"Whatever helps…" Rae said slowly, her tails twitching before she forced a smile. "I'm not in trouble… am I?"
"Why?"
"For breaking a rule…"
She received a collective laugh, to which she frowned before taking that as a good sign.
"I don't think they're going to hold this against you, Rae…" Rouge reassured her.
"Oh… okay… so… now what?"
"We could head back to the room… I'm sure he's woken up now…"
"Oh, right…" Rae grinned, setting Jak back down, but keeping the loop of the lead around he wrist. "Hold on, for a moment… I just got an idea…"
Rouge blinked and followed her into the gift shop and the fox made a beeline for several shelves of many bean filled plush toys of many sizes, shapes, styles and colors. There were red heart shaped tags clipped to either their left ears, hands or wings.
Rae dug through several piles of the plushies, making a few comments here and there as she tried to find a particular one.
"Dotty, Ears, Neon, Purr, Silver, Zip… Ah ha!" She held up a black and white plush dog with fuzzy, floppy ears. "Frolic's not exactly like Jak… but she'll do…"
The fox oblivious to the stare she received from the bat as she made her way to the counter happily, searching in her tails for some Rings.
"Beanie Babies are a great gift." Rae explained without looking behind her, tails waving happily once she found several Rings to pay for it. "I have well over a couple hundred of these little guys. I know a place to buy them by the bulk, but it's always a luck of the draw as far as what you get. Anyway… these make great gifts… all of mine were bought by someone who cares, so I have plenty of found memories on them."
She handed the Rings to the clerk and nodded with a smile before making her way to the door, following Rouge back to the room.
"I think he'll like this…" She said to the bat simply after she picked up Jak, who didn't want to walk the whole way.
"Oh… he's not up yet…" Rae's ears drooped down some once they came back, her voice laden with disappointment, the plush hanging loosely in her hand. "Okay… I… I can wait… again…"
"Actually, he was up about an hour ago…" Shadow explained to the purple fox, whose tails had stopped twitching as she dropped to the floor and sat down with a THUMP and a heavy sigh. Rae's ears perked up at his sentence as she set the plush on her lap, which received a glare from Jak.
"Was he okay? 'Cause, y'know… we're kinda worried about him…"
Shadow decided not to tell them about the part about Mephiles' hysteria once he set eyes on Shadow's wounds. Instead he told them about the talk that they had had.
"You finally told him?" Rouge smiled at this. "You finally told him the whole truth? What did he think about it?"
"He was a bit astonished… I think he was really shocked, especially the part about Doom… he almost didn't believe me about that…"
"Doom?" Rae perked up her ears even more. "Y'mean Black Doom, the guy with those aliens that tried to take over Westopolis last year?"
"They tried to use the world as a fuel source…" Shadow corrected her, before blinking. "How did you know about that?"
"I've lived in the city for a good five years and counting… something like paralyzing gas is hard for even me, the mistress of selective memories, to forget… So, you were the hedgehog that stopped him?"
"Didn't you see the new special on it?"
"Naw… don't watch the news… changes too much…"
"…"
"So… is he any better?" Rouge tried to steer them back on track.
"A little… I got him to laugh a little before we trailed into the Maria part of the story…"
Pause…
"How… how did he react to that..?" Rouge said a bit hesitantly, hoping it didn't turn out as bad between them as she thought what might have happened.
"He… says he's sorry…" Shadow said slowly, turning his attention to the hedgehog, who was still curled up on the bed, his breathing shallow and steady, obviously still out of it.
Rae had crawled her way over to him and set the plush toy right beside him. Once it touched his arm, he made an involuntary grab for it and within a few seconds, Frolic was wrapped in his arms, hugged closely as he buried his face into the fluffy toy, whispering out a contented sigh.
"I think he likes it…" Rae said with a small grin.
"He's kinda asleep right now because he bawled himself to sleep…" Shadow continued, turning his eyes downward, letting his ears droop down some.
"Why? Is he okay?"
"Oh, he's fine, now… he was crying after I told him about what happened to Mar-"
Shadow stopped and just stared blankly for a moment. He blinked and quickly shifted the subject.
"Hey, Rouge?" He said, his voice quickly regaining his composure.
"Yeah?"
"Mephiles has thanked you for helping him… Right?"
"Yes…" Rouge said slowly, not quite seeing where this was going. "He has…"
"And I have yet to… right?"
"You don't have to-"
She was cut off suddenly when Shadow caught her by the hand, pulled her forward and pressed his lips to hers. All the sounds in the area seemed to have stopped once that happened. Everything… just… stopped…
…
…
Rouge's muzzle darkened a shade of pink around her cheeks before she leaned forward to return the gesture, bringing an arm around his neck as she pulled him closer.
Rae stood in a state of shock, her dog doing likewise, both with their mouths half open, before Rae regained herself and giggled. Jak snorted and looked away with a growl that meant: "I don't get it…"
Shadow pulled away just a little, grinning slyly at the white bat in his arms.
"Thank you, Rouge…" He said softly.
Rouge giggled and nodded a "No problem…"
It's been requested for a long time now for a Shadouge kiss scene... so I've finally gotten to where I can add it in :D
Hope you like this chapter... and yes... I do have well over 200 Beanies... I'm serious!
See ya next time :D