Chapter 14: waking up (MATURE: sexuality)

Shadow kept a constant guard over Amy Rose, each day caring for and tending to the weakened female's every need. She had mostly slept for the few weeks' time, rarely regaining consciousness, which made him concerned over her health. She was thinning, barely able to eat, and when she wasn't passed out, she seemed heavily drugged and almost unresponsive. But there was some recent improvement to her condition. The rare occasions she did become alert were beginning to increase, and she appeared to be getting more responsive to her surroundings, but with Amy still so weak, Shadow watched over her endlessly- seated near her in the bedroom, rarely venturing to his own living quarters for some well deserved rest.

One evening, as he awoke from a brief repose in his own bed, he heard a soft rustling of sheets and a faint groan coming from across the hall. Rushing into the room, he found Amy shifting around on the bed as though she were having a mild nightmare. He sat down next to her, trying to still her body with one hand while leaning over to rub her forehead with the other, softly calling her name to encourage her to awaken. Her eyes slowly opened, blinking like someone waking from a heavy slumber as she tried to focus on the hazed shapes before her. His expression eased as she finally blinked the last of the sleep out of her eyes, and weakly rolled her head against the pillow to look at him.

"Shadow? What's happened to me? Everything hurts, and I feel dizzy. I'm so tired I don't think I can even sit up." she fretted to him, as he stood and leaned in further to pull her up into a more comfortable position. Amy had weakly grasped onto his shoulders, but couldn't hang on for very long, and her arms slipped down off his biceps to dangle at each side of her exhausted body. After helping her upright, he sat down next to her so she could see him and talk directly to each other.

"To be honest, I am not certain what all has happened to you, but you have been unconscious for days. Do you remember anything? Waking up before now or even how this ordeal began?" Shadow wanted to know, and finally piecing together his own past made him desire to spend time with his one and only interest, Amy Rose.

After remembering her from his forgotten past, Shadow realized two things: he had found intense emotions and feelings for her twice, and he knew he felt love for Amy Rose. Before his arduous fall to Earth, she had swayed him to save Earth, and he had intended to return to the ARK and express his new found love for her that had so quickly developed, but his memory loss and damaging concussion made that past completely lost to his mind. After reawakening, his temper and increased violence was extremely pronounced. It was a textbook example of a damaging frontal lobe concussion. The victim often has some memory loss, and the anger and violence tend to be highly noticeable. With brain injuries taking a long time to heal, Shadow couldn't be expected to be any different. And yet somehow, with the odds working against it happening twice, he found himself once more drawn into loving the pink beauty seated before him, this time the emotion building slowly over time and becoming much more profound.

"I can't remember anything. I was seated on the couch, covered by your blanket, but everything after that I'm confused on." Amy looked up to him sadly. "What am I going to do Shadow? I'm afraid. What if I never get my memory of that night back? I don't know what happened or even if someone did anything to me."

Shadow posed to her in a confident smirk. "I'm sure you will eventually remember. I did." He eagerly gazed back at her, his half sided smile growing larger than previously, while she struggled to understand what it was he was trying to impress upon her.

'Is Shadow….. Flirting with me?' Amy pondered it, eyeing him suspiciously. He wasn't acting the same. He was relaxed, almost cheerful, not acting with the tense aggression of his usual personality. He was almost smiling to her- SMILING. Amy didn't know whether to be thrilled or wonder what could have possibly happened to him in her hazy, dazing sleep. "Are you okay Shadow? You don't seem yourself- not that it's bad or anything." Amy paused a moment and shyly questioned, in a slightly hushed whisper. "Nothing... HAPPENED with us, right?"

Shadow returned to his usual coldness. "I am perfectly normal, and I did not do anything I should not have to you Rose. After finding you unconscious at Doctor Robotnik's base, I brought you home, dressed you, and placed you in your bed."

Amy's eyes went wide at hearing she was undressed. 'What really happened to me?! I was NAKED?!' As Amy flustered over her thoughts Shadow stood to leave the room. "What could've possibly happened that I was undressed?! You didn't bring me home like that did you?!"

Shadow frowned a little. "My conclusion is since the androids were working on you that they must have undressed you to take care of whatever medical condition you had. The doctor said his robots found you, but neglected to say in what condition they were in." Shadow turned away. "And by the way, you were covered in a sheet. I never touched you in any sexual way, since you are obviously wondering that as well. Now if that satisfies your concern, I'll get you something to eat."

Amy sat and watched as he left the room. 'Stupid stupid STUPID! He probably thinks that I think he raped me or something! Why am I so stupid?! I have a crush on him! I don't want him to be afraid to even touch me!!'

Shadow was storming about the kitchen. His temper was flaring. 'I finally realize I love the girl and she doesn't even want me to touch her! She acts like I am a pervert and took advantage of her. It wouldn't surprise me if she thought I had sex with her!' Shadow slammed down his fist. 'Why do I bother?! Why do I allow these emotions to affect me? I am designed to be perfection, not swayed by some girl that strikes me as beautiful in every possible way a female could be… Damnit, I am torturing myself again.' Shadow growled to himself as he quietly walked back with a meal for the injured pink hedgegirl. He paused before entering when he heard her speaking.

"Why am I so dumb when it comes to cute guys? I have to set this strait. I can't let him be mad at me for acting like a fool and talking like I think he's a pervert. That's the last thing I would think of him! Oh, I hope Shadow is in a good mood today."

Shadow's smile returned. Perfection or not, he couldn't stop himself from enjoying the thought that she was going to apologize to him and that she thought he was "cute". After relaxing into a calloused stance, he finally brought the small meal he prepared for her to the bed.

"I'm sorry shadow. I'm just a bit confused and I don't want you to think that I think you're a pervert. It's just that-"

"You don't need to say anything Rose. I understand. Just eat, agreed?" Shadow handed her a cup filled with a warmed soup. Amy rested back into the pillows that kept her upright. As she sipped at the liquid meal, Shadow sat at the end of her bed calmly watching her with his crimson red eyes. Amy smiled to him in appreciation and tilted her head back to take a large swig of the fluid, when suddenly her mind flashed quickly over a vision of two sets of red eyes with a metallic sheen approaching her after breaking into her home. In her shock she dropped the cup, spilling the remaining soup on her lap and the covers, and shivered in fright over her sharp memory flash.

"Amy!" Shadow yelled, moving to grasp her and keep her from reacting any worse than she already had or possibly fall off the bed. Holding her tightly to his chest, he felt her calm down and lightly drip tears from her eyes onto his ivory tuft of fur. "Someone broke in Shadow. They broke in and shot me. The two of them watched me pass out with their red deadly eyes. I think they might have been robots."

Shadow thought over what she said. He never saw any robots with red eyes anymore- only Metal Sonic, but after his rebellion against his creator, the doctor had locked him away. He knew the robot was still sealed in his impenetrable prison during Amy's abduction- otherwise the genius would have been on a rampage to recapture him, and too busy to bother with any encounters from either of them, patient or violent visitor. Once she was able to be left alone, Shadow knew he needed to confront the doctor about the whole situation. He looked down to her. Her head was bowed down to his side and her pink coat was getting sticky from the warm broth matting her fur. "We shall figure out what happened to you Rose. Right now let us get you cleaned up and out of this mess."

Amy was placed into the shower, weakly trying to lean against the wall. "Can you handle this? We will figure something else out if you cannot stand long enough." She nodded to him as he turned on the faucet, letting hot water run out from the shower head and onto her lusterless pelt and clothes she had left on to remove once he stepped out so he would not see her nude. The water clung to her coat and the liquid pulled the pink fur close to her body, visibly showing how thin she had actually become. Her ears were held down from the wet, giving her an overall look that made him pity the sorrowful girl. Shadow left her to clean herself and stood just outside the door, listening to be sure she didn't need his help. He waited patiently for her to finish, when he heard her slide down the wall and thud onto the floor of the shower tub. Not caring about vanity, Shadow flew into the room and ripped back the shower curtain. Amy sat uncomfortably on the bottom, legs off to each side looking up sadly. "I just can't stand Shadow. Please, I trust you, please help me shower?"

Shadow paused, aghast by her request, and after taking a moment to process the question, hesitantly removed his own garments. He lifted her up and stepped into the stream, holding her close, and positioned the both of them under it. His eyes stared at her as the water pulled his ears and upturned quills down, so they slumped and only slightly allowed the quills to curve up, while his fur slicked against his skin similar to how Amy's was, showing his definition. She slid her hands up from their resting place on his biceps and wrapped her arms around his neck, locking her fingers together in hopes to be able to help keep her body upright and standing. Shadow looked away from the tempting sight for the items he needed and began to soap her quills and fur with shampoo, letting most of it lather into her fur as it ran down her body. He helped her balance with one hand as he took a plastic bath scrunchy and swirled it over her, mixing in the soap and water to her coat, paying heed to not let his own hand touch her fur and skin. Amy stared into his eyes that refused to make contact with her own. She could feel how tense he was from the uneasy situation he was in. She was naked, and he had nothing on, in a shower, holding her near him and washing her body. Amy flushed when she thought over what they were doing, how erotic it was, and her mind throbbed from being overwhelmed by the rush from her amorous thinking. She began to slip again when Shadow caught her and made eye contact once more. The two paused from movement and stared at each other, hormones racing and sexual tension reaching a breaking point. Slowly Amy began to lean in towards him subtly, her eyes closing impassioned, her lips breaking apart just enough to show him they wanted to press against his own. Shadow let his head tilt to ready for her kiss and his eyes began to close as well from the ardor welled up inside him.

'Don't do this. Not now. This is wrong. Don't do it like this. You won't stop and that will ruin everything.' His mind screamed for him to stop. He knew deep inside if he kissed her he would never want to stop, having gone so long without any tenderness, never being comforted by another's body. He would take her right there, and in her state of health it would do more harm than good. Shadow pressed his eyes tightly shut, his lip furled in frustration, and he pulled his head back away, wanting more than anything to not hurt his precious rose instead of roughly taking her. While he kept his eyes shut and breathed heavily, confusing Amy with his actions, part of him was still vehement on taking her, and his instincts pressing his mind to run over thoughts of grasping her tightly and throwing the both of them against the shower wall, forcing himself inside her lustfully while her fingers raked his back in her own response of ecstasy. Shadow inhaled deeply and forcefully exhaled, sending his desire back down into his repressed emotions. His eyes opened to look at the perplexed female, and as he wiped a clump of lathered soap from her cheek, he calmly spoke to her. "We need to get you back to resting so you can heal." He smiled as his eyelids lowered slightly and his expression eased to show his loving care, making her grin in reciprocation.