The Ultimate Lifeform Slows Down Chapter 13

Maria POV

You know, I had gotten used to waking up to Shadow's little notes for me, but this morning's was different. It was more special than the other ones.

Maria,

I'm off to work and I don't know when exactly I'll get back home since it's an all day shift. If I don't see you today I just want to say you're beautiful and that I love you. Oh, and I hope you don't mind but I gave you a kiss when I left. Have a great day.

Love,

Shadow

I felt a huge smile creep onto my face as I read the note. I have a hard time imagining Shadow ever acting sad and angry like his friends said he did because of things like this. Though it did get me to thinking about what I was going to do today. I got out of bed and look my pajamas off. I looked over to the mirror and looked myself over. I've gotten used to my body looking like a hedgehog, but some things are still kinda weird. I know it's because I got older but my body is more curvy than it used to be. And my tail, it still unconsciously wags sometimes when I kiss Shadow. Not to mention the fact that I've had to buy some bras since my breasts had gotten bigger as well. That makes me wonder, when Shadow says I'm beautiful does he mean cute beautiful or sexy beautiful. I'm sure he would tell me if I asked him. My thoughts were interrupted by the phone ringing in the living room. I quickly put some clothes on and answered it.

"Shadow and Maria's house, Maria speaking." I know it might have been presumptuous, but it feels like it's our house.

"Oh, hello Maria, how are you?"

"I'm doing good Cream, what about you?"

"I'm okay, but I have a problem. Amy's busy dealing with Manic so I thought you could help me."

"Sure, what is it?"

"Well, I don't want to talk about it over the phone. Can you come over to my house please?"

"Okay, do you mind if I eat breakfast first?"

"If you come over now you can have some of my mother's pancakes. They're really good." I could hear the pleading in her voice so I agreed to go. I took Shadow's directions and headed out. I found the house and knocked on the door. As I was waiting for someone to answer I looked around. The house looked very cozy and it had many flowers all around. The door opened and I turned to face a tall rabbit woman.

"You must be Maria," the lady started, "it's so nice to finally meet you. As you may have guessed already I'm Cream's mother Vanilla."

"It's nice to meet you too. And might I say you have a very nice looking house."

"Thank you dear. Now won't you come inside, I just finished making breakfast."

"Okay." I said following her in. I went to the kitchen and sat down next to Cream. "Where's Cheese?" I asked.

"He's sick so I let him sleep some more." She answered.

"I hope he feels better soon. So what did you want to talk about?"

"Can we wait until after we eat?" I agreed and we ate. And it was as good as advertised. Plus the maple syrup was awesome.

"That may be the best breakfast I've ever had Mrs. Vanilla!" I said excitedly.

"That's very sweet of you to say Maria, thank you. Oh, and it's Miss Vanilla at this point of my life."

"Not for long." Cream whispered into my ear. Someone likes Vanilla? Not that anyone shouldn't, I just can't imagine who it is. Anyway, after that, Cream and I sat down on the couch in the living room.

"So, what's up?" I asked hoping she would answer me finally.

"How did you get Mr. Shadow to like you?" If I had a drink I would have spit it out. Good thing I'd learned my lesson with Blaze.

"Why would you want to know that?" I finally got out.

"Well, I need some relationship advice. I like someone but I don't know how to tell him." Okay, now her question made sense.

"Would I happen to know this guy?" I asked. If I knew him I might be able to help out more.

"It's Tails, I have a crush on Tails." She answered.

"Well then you have nothing to worry about."

"What do you mean?"

"Tails is a really nice guy, he wouldn't do anything to hurt you. Plus I saw those flowers he gave you the other day. He likes you, a lot."

"So what do I do?"

"Well, you need to tell him. You could invite him to do something fun and tell him then. If he says he likes you back you're golden. But he might be too shy to say so, so if he doesn't, give him time."

"Is that how it worked out with Shadow?"

"More or less. For me it involved way more time travel and body changing though." I joked. Cream giggled and I knew it would go well.

"Thank you Maria, you're a good friend."

Shadow POV

I got home at about ten at night and boy did I have a story to tell Maria. I unlocked the door and saw Maria sitting on the couch talking on the phone.

"Oh, that's horrible. I knew there was something off about him. Aw, that's so cool! Well, I have to go, Shadow just got home from work. See you tomorrow." And with that she hung up.

"Who was that?" I asked.

"It was Amy. She called saying that Sonic beat up Scourge."

"Why would he do that?" And why couldn't I be there?

"Supposedly he almost violated his sister. And he threw a big party at his house without his permission."

"I knew that guy was bad news. Did Sonic get him to jail at least?"

"No, she said he Chaos Controlled away. But on the happier side, Manic asked Sonic and Amy to join the band for a month and they said yes."

"Hm, we might have to go see that." I mused.

"Maybe, but enough about them, how was your day?" I was sitting on the couch at that point.

"Oh, it sure was interesting. You want to know who I had to protect? The teenage princess."

"It couldn't have been that bad." Maria said.

"Oh yeah? What do you call being hit on all night? I think she's lonely, but I already have you. Though she did lighten up when I mentioned you. And then we ran into Sonic and Amy and it got weird because she likes him too. And then… Maria, what are you doing?" She was rubbing my neck and back area for some reason.

"I'm trying to calm you down since you're tense." She answered.

"It's working, thank you. Oh, that feels so good." Maria giggled when I said that and continued massaging me in silence. After awhile she spoke up again.

"Shadow, can I ask you something?"

"Sure."

"When you say I'm beautiful do you mean cute beautiful or sexy beautiful?" Well, that's an easy question to answer. I turned around to face her.

"Actually it's neither. When I say you're beautiful I mean on the inside. You're so sweet and kind, and that's very attractive to me." Her face got so red it looked like Knuckles' spines.

"Aw, Shady." Was all she could get out. Then I moved my mouth to one of her ears.

"But I would be lying if I said I didn't find you extremely sexy as well." I whispered softly. And with that I moved my mouth to hers and kissed her very passionately. Then she pushed me down onto my back and started kissing me back. I wrapped my arms around her to bring her closer to me. I could feel her tongue trying to get into my mouth and I let her. My hands slipped under her shirt, but that was as far as I was going to go. After about ten minutes we slowed down and started talking.

"I love you Maria, so much sometimes I can't believe this is real. You make me so happy and it's been a long time since I've truly been happy."

"I love you too Shadow, and not just because you saved my life. You are my best friend, you know to make me laugh, you know how to perk me up when I'm sad, and you make me feel really special."

"That's because you are, there's only one of you, and I'm lucky enough to have you in my life." Then there was some comfortable silence until Maria spoke again.

"So, you want to move this to the bedroom?" She asked.

"If you mean sleeping, than yes."

"Of course, what did you think I meant?" She said dismissively. But I heard a hint of disappointment. I have a bad feeling this is going to be the 'I love you.' thing all over again.