Shadow had long since dozed off himself, curled up in one of the two chairs provided per bed, head laid back and posture overall relaxed. He had waited for thirty minutes-- enough that Finn would have woken up, his injuries were severe and he was just tired more than anything-- before finding himself wanting to nap. He checked his messages, talked to Sonic for about a full minute before the hedgehog ended the call by falling into a puddle of mud, and was informed by Tails that something was up with Omega. He simply replied to tell Rouge to give him a kick or two, and he'd be fine. When Tails only sent back a text angry frowning face, he laughed and put his communicator away. Then, after ten more minutes of staring out into space, Shadow was down and out for the count.

Cream had come in a couple of times to check on them, each time successfully waking Shadow up, as no one could sneak around him without him knowing, but noticed that Finn was healing fine and was actually asleep, not napping, and told him. Of course, she took the opportunity to braid the jackal's hair as she knew she'd never get the chance again. Shadow even rooted her on.

But, Shadow's not-so-pleasant slumber of a dreamless sleep was interrupted harshly but Finn springing up in bed, clutching at his furred chest so tightly that Shadow saw his claws dig into his skin. He folded back his ears and waited as the other calmed down, and, eventually, Finn's breathing returned normal and he regarded Shadow with a pleading stare.

"I'm..." he started, then shook his head and looked to his lap. The hand that was still on his chest was bandaged, and he pulled it away to look at it in confusion. "Hey."

"Hello," Shadow answered "Nightmare again?"

Finn nodded and turned to sit, facing Shadow but looking down. The hedgehog groggily pulled himself into a proper position. "Yes, but worse. I hated how it felt..."

Shadow raised an eyeridge but let him trail off. It came as no surprise to find out that having a gem shoved into your body was painful, but he didn't expect Finn to still have nightmares about it.

"How did you stop them? The nightmares?" He whispered, curling his tail around himself carefully. Absentmindedly, he touched the scar on his chest, and then his face. Shadow could only shake his head.

"You don't," he wanted to lie, but it wouldn't help. "You just... get over it."

Finn paused, then breathed deeply. Shadow also suffered from nightmares, too, he remembered. The Maria thing was probably one of them, but Shadow seemed to be fine any other time.

He blinked and nodded, swinging his legs over the side of the bed and standing. Without much thought, he held out his hand for Shadow to take, and the other stood up with his help. For a second, through the thin fabric of the bandage, he felt a buzz of energy. Apparently Shadow didn't as he turned and started to leave, getting about ten steps away before Finn hurried to catch up to him.

His mind wandered while he followed a step behind Shadow, just off to his right but not at all paying attention to him. Shadow had said something, but when he realized the other was off in his own little world he simply crossed his arms and continued on.

Finn remembered that Shadow had gotten a call, from who he didn't know, informing him about the bandits that had taken over what he assumed was previous Resistance territory. From what he was told, their leader was a goat, but that was all he really knew about them. And, based on what that annoying bat told them, they had been near the area they were spotted. So the person he heard approaching could have possibly been one of them. But, with zero evidence other than hearing something he had to leave the idea be and turned back to Shadow.

"You said something?"

"I did about five minutes ago," he snapped, but quickly calmed down in the blink of an eye. "Silver and Knuckles have some stuff for you to help them with, but I can't be with you because Omega kept signalling while Tails was giving him a tune-up and no one can understand his signals but me."

Finn's tail bristled at 'I can't be with you,' then flattened back down so he wouldn't see. "Okay," he could tell Shadow noticed "But none of us have a good history with each other."

"I don't think that really matters, they just need your help to set up some rations to be shipped. You three can sit in silence the entire time, I'm sure no one really cares about socializing right now." Already, Finn could see his attention shifting when an odd, quiet beeping pattern. He didn't have much knowledge in morse code, nor did he actually know how Omega even worked as he seemed more human than robot, but nothing sounded remotely familiar to him.

"Fine." Shadow frowned in confusion towards him, but shook it off and pointed him off to the direction of where the other were waiting before leaving.

Finn watched him go. His hands curled into tight fists as he saw Shadow open and then go behind a door, closing it behind him. He stared at the door for a long time, so long that people in passing questioned if he was alright or waiting on someone in there, but he quickly whispered that he was fine and hurried off to the place he was very late showing up to.

"Finn! There you are!" Silver huffed, not at all too happy to see him walking through the door. Honestly, the feeling was mutual, but he didn't say it. "Sonic would have been here on time."

Sonic this, Sonic that, whatever. He wasn't Sonic.

The ivory hedgehog was leaning against the wall and holding a clear plastic cup with some very light brown liquid and ice inside, topped with whip cream and a straw. The smell was too faint to pinpoint. Knuckles, however, was wrist deep in a bag of grapes and refused to come up for air it seemed. He simply grunted a greeting. Finn, being the good sport he was, grumbled something along the lines of 'hello'.

"Nice hair." The echidna snickered, and it took the jackal running his fingers over his hair to realize that a few locks were braided near his ears. Whatever. Braids were viewed highly in Jackal Society.

"What am I doing here?" He sighed, the question sounding more like a long word as he walked up to one of the many, many boxes stacked against the wall, one on top the other. The rest were flat and yet to be set up and filled.

"Work with Knuckles. He stacks, you take them down and load them on the truck outside." Silver explained. Seemingly, Knuckles was taking a break from socializing for the day, but the jackal didn't mind too much. All the echidna did was narrow his eyes and mumble something about Sonic. Finn rolled his eyes.

He looked over to the stack of boxes and walked over to them, pressing his hand on the top-most box and pushing up. It was incredibly heavy, and actually just out of reach. Standing on his tail was an option, but... He didn't feel like arguing that he should stack and Knuckles take them out. There was a dolly he could take them out on, as a door lead to outside, where just outside the window he could see a truck waiting for the rations. His ears flattened against his head.

"Okay."

As soon as he agreed, they sprung into action. Finn was alarmed for a second, watching Silver lift five boxes, reform all five, and fill all five with various items just to toss one at a time to Knuckles who caught them with a grunt and stacked them, but he hurried to not look stupid.

The top box was his enemy, but he got it down and tried not to cave under its weight as he took it onto the dolly. The second was lower, and the third, fourth, and fifth, none of them any lighter though. He could only stack them three high on the cart before it got too high to see over. But, apparently he wasn't working fast enough when Knuckles gave him a solid glare. Finn quietly snarled and pulled the cart outside.

Luckily he didn't have to load them himself, there was another mobian there who tossed the boxes in, where another inside the large box truck stacked them once more. He thanked them kindly and went back into the Room of Hell to rise and repeat.

Over and over, Knuckles would glare or even do Finn's job for him if he didn't move faster. Silver was a bit nicer in his display of disappointment by only making one or two boxes at a time, letting the jackal know he had to speed up.

This was his first time, they had to calm down! The other people were going to get their food, right!? They wouldn't die this day if they don't get their damn peas right this instant!

When his temper flared, he felt a warm pulse beneath his palm and quickly took a breath, hurrying along by dragging out three-stacked boxes instead of two. Sight wasn't needed, he supposed.

Shadow told him his emotions controlled his energy-- or ay least they fueled them, and if he wanted to keep his powers a secret, his temper had to be one too.

Three-stack became four, and four soon became five, until Finn was almost being crushed but he refused to get upset about it. He even ran back and forth with the dolly to get them to stop thinking he was so weak, so inferior to the almighty Sonic who could do this job in a heartbeat!

'Temper, temper,' he thought, mentally apologizing to the box bottom he torched a bit when he placed it in the truck. It was a bit more than half, he could control himself, he could make it to the end. He went back inside and started putting more boxes on his cart, he was making a pretty sizable dent in the echidna's pile, he only had three stacks left, but then again Silver was making five at a time so it didn't mean much.

The jackal paused at a box that wasn't fully sealed nor filled correctly, knowing it would spill over in the truck, and went to fix it. Without his second glove, the tape stuck to his fur as he tried endlessly to fix the broke box. He could be calm. He could be nice. He could be gentle. He wasn't a brute like his mom and dad.

Mom and Dad, mom and dad. The two worst people in his life, could they really be called that? The tape didn't stick anymore. They tossed him out his own home, his birthplace, all because he was sick and didn't want to care for him properly! All because he stole food to survive a night and worked for money to buy himself medicine, which would constantly be taken and dumped if he didn't hide it good enough because Jackals Didn't Take Medicine. The tape stuck to his fur and fully ripped off the box.

"Finn!" Knuckles shouted, just then deciding to speak. The jackal glared.

"I CAN'T GO ANY FUCKING FASTER, OKAY!?" He snapped, breathing heavily and picking up the box, launching it over his head into the corner where it burst at the seams and spilled its contents in a pile. Most of whatever was inside broke apart and leaked. His hands glowed a deep, red heat. "Fix your damn boxes, Silver, and don't complain about not having Sonic every goddamn ten seconds because sur-fucking-prize, I'M NOT SONIC! I WILL NEVER BE AS FAST AS SONIC!"

The last part was directed towards Knuckles, the two now completely frozen. His glow disappeared as he rubbed at his eyes in case any stray tears tried to make themselves known.

Finn sniffled and hurried to finish off his load of boxes, taking the dolly over to the door and breaking out into the afternoon sun. The warmth gave him a gentle hug as he stood, watching the other two toss in the boxes.

His body shook, but he breathed. Deeply, in and out, and slowly calmed down. He scratched his chest, turned around, and went back inside.

Silver wasn't using his telekinesis anymore, he had one, single, solitary box, and was carefully taping the bottom of it together, then carefully putting everything inside and taping it up just as slowly. Knuckles, meanwhile, was cleaning up the box Finn had hurled earlier. He had put too much power behind it, channelled his anger from something else into his throw, and the wall's paint had stretched and cracked, and the drywall had fell away to reveal brick behind it. Even the floor beneath was damaged.

Finn lifted a box, turned, and put it on the cart. He didn't make it.

The rest of the packing was entirely silent. Silver still worked a bit fast, even without using his powers, and Knuckles no longer made the stacks so tall, but now after Silver was on a new set he would simply stand there and stare at the ground instead of help the jackal load them.

But, neither looked sad. They didn't exactly look angry, either. It was something, a different emotion, but Finn couldn't pinpoint it and left it alone.

The job ended when the truck was full.

Finn turned and left right away without a goodbye or even a grunt, quickly going over to the door Shadow went into just to get smacked in the face when it opened suddenly to a robot stepping out. He deserved it. It didn't even register to him when Omega buzzed out 'my apologies' while placing his large hand on his head befor econtinuing on his way. Shadow came out right after him, looking around in wonder at the heavy thud that came from the door, but when he saw his friend's nose bleeding and him standing without even attempting to complain loudly, he grew worried.

He lifted his hand, using his glove to wipe the blood away. "What happened? Why do you look so...?" The agent trailed off, noticing the sign of him about to cry, but the tears never came.

Finn simply rose his hand, showed his burned away bandages hanging to his arm by threads. Then, leaned forward, pressing his head to Shadow's chest and listening to his heartbeat. He belatedly remembered that Shadow hated being touchy-feely with anyone.

Right away, the hedgehog cringed, folding back his ears and twitching his fingers to ignore the urge to push him away in his time of need. It was awkward; they were freaking standing in a doorway, and Finn was having a breakdown right when Shadow didn't want to be social. Tails watched it all with a raised eyeridge but didn't question it.

Ignoring how much he hated this situation, his brain switched into Protect Finn mode and he stepped back, turning to guide the jackal to the couch in the room and letting him sit down on it. He dusted off his fur when he was sure the other wasn't watching, though. Tails leaned over Finn's shoulder and gently squeezed his hand. Finn noted that he smelled like oil.

"Finn...? You okay, buddy? You got a pretty nasty burn there, do you want some chocolate milk to feel better?" Tails smiled and, when Finn opened his eyes to stare at him in confusion, the fox smiled more and wagged both tails behind him.

"Yep! Chocolate milk and ice cream makes everything better." He stood up and raced off before the jackal could say anything to him. He wasn't actually burned-- or, at least, it didn't feel like it. He just felt terrible.

Shadow took his place instead and sat on the arm of the couch. Finn found himself frowning when he tried to curl into the cushions just to realize it wasn't as soft as the one at home.

"Want to tell me what happened there?"

"I'm dead meat, that's what. I kept getting pressured so much and I kept getting myself too angry at things I shouldn't be angry about anymore that I ended up snapping at them and throwing a box so hard it made a hole in the wall. I even," he paused, lifting the arm that the bandages were barely holding on to just for it to erupt in phantom energy and circle all the way up to his elbow, finishing off the wrappings so it fell to the ground. "Showed them."

Shadow brought a knee up and rested his arm on it "What did they do?" Finn dropped his arm back to the couch and sat up, feeling a bit better but not wanting to admit talking about his feelings helped. He had to have some pride, right?

"They stopped working so fast, and they all had this look on their faces. I hated it." he tried to mimic them, but ended up failing miserably. At least he got Shadow to smirk out of it, so now they both weren't so down.

Tails came back on the end of his sentence, giving Shadow a small bowl of chocolate ice cream, Finn a cup of chocolate milk and vanilla ice cream before sitting comfortably on the floor with his own bowl of strawberry. It was clear that he gave himself more than the other two.

There was also another couch in the room, and still more room on the couch they were sitting on, but no one wanted to bring it up.

"...What did that robot even say?" Finn changed the subject, watching as Shadow sneered into his bowl. Tails only hummed in thought.

"Surprisingly, Omega was telling us information on Robotnik. He had gotten damaged fighting one of his newer robot models, but managed to lead him off and escape with minor damage. A part of his coding was reset to a code only members of the ARK used, so Shads here could understand him perfectly." He stirred his ice cream around "But I don't like the sound of those robots, though. Omega fought through nearly half before he had to give up, and he's a strong robot."

The jackal had not once looked up from his glass. It was very pretty, yes, but for some reason he wasn't hungry. Or, at least, ready to try whatever 'Ice cream' or 'Chocolate Milk' was. He simply watched the treat slowly melt. "...Did he find out what he was doing over here?"

He still hated Eggman. He was sure Shadow-- heck, anyone would agree that he needed a good beat down. Maybe a good swing by the tail, or a quick plunge in the ocean. Set him straight.

"Yeah, looking for you, but everything was taken care of for now. We still don't totally--"

Finn snapped up, looking at Tails in absolute shock before turning to look at Shadow. He didn't seem phased. "Wh-- How did you--?Why--?"

"When you're friends with me, you're friends with Omega. Omega will never forget a face, and, honestly, during the translations he described you too perfectly for it to be anyone else." Shadow explained but that still didn't mean the jackal was happy about the situation. He finally ate some ice cream.

His eyes widened a fraction at the cold, but he hummed at the flavour. He didn't think he ever had chocolate nor vanilla before-- what else had he missed out on? He shoveled some more into his mouth, completely forgetting about what they were even saying in favour of cramming spoonfuls of ice cream into his mouth and letting it melt on his tongue so he could savour the sweetness. Though, it all came to a screeching halt when the roof of his mouth burned numb and his head began to pound and scream at him in anger. Finn hissed and set the cup down to wrap his tail around himself and press his palms to his head in an attempt to warm his frozen brain.

"Brain freeze," Shadow whispered, in a slightly mocking/joking tone, leading Tails to snicker behind his namesakes before sputtering and coughing, choking on a small strawberry. He quickly fixed himself and snorted in suppressed laughter as Shadow sighed and shook his head, telling the jackal how to make the pain stop.

Silent filled the air, but it was surprisingly pleasant. Finn sighed once the headache finally stopped, taking his thumb from the roof of his mouth and frowning at the sooty taste of bandage remains. He washed it down with a careful amount of chocolate milk.

"So, you finally know. Are you going to tell everyone?" He asked, the question sudden and startling. Shadow bristled a bit and Tails looked at him in pure concern.

"No! Why would I do that? Sure, we may have had a rocky start, but I wouldn't out you like that!" The kit stood up and reached out, hugging Finn suddenly "You're our friend! I wouldn't just out your secret just to get Egghead off our backs. Who knows what he'd do to you."

Hugging a fox. Hugging another dog. Contact with the canine family. A friend. A friend that cared about him. A friend that tried to make him happy. His arms lifted from his chest and he stood, hugging Tails tightly, well beyond the limit where it became awkward and the kit wanted to pull away.

Shadow only whispered for him to endure it, as the jackal needed comfort right now, and Tails chuckled lightly and pat his back. The number of his pack increased.

xox

this is (slightly) longer because of Infinite's Ruby sending me such a wonderful PM!

They even told me they went back and reread some chapters and saw little bits of foreshadowing I threw in-- that really freaking warmed my cold, dead heart, man, thank you so much!!

Shadow's a lil different than the Sonic Games Shadow, I cut off a little of the edge and sanded him down a lil. Still sharp enough to cut, but not so jagged.

and, BluieTheJackal, complimenting my backstory and calling me Speka? You're so wonderful! Thank you.

Admiralkirk, Yep, the sure are! Finn's gotten stronger, though is still too weak to go a full battle with Shadow I figured, since in-game they didn't actually fight ever, with Infinite being rekt when first attempted and then he goes to use the phantom ruby on him for months instead of going one-on-one, that Infinite going against Shadow would be a pretty even fight with no real winners unless the ruby was used for a vision. So, in this story, I made them relativly even. When Finny ol' boy gets stronger, who knows ;) ah

um, I think that's it!

see you tomorrow night with Hive Mind!

like i tried to edit this but I'm like?? so tired. so, so tired.