007. Undeniable

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The gymnasium was filled with various noises - the squeaking of shoes on the floor, the sound of the ball every time it bounced and hit the ground, and the overwhelmingly loud shouts and cheers.

Leaving the scene of the game was nice, though. Not that she wasn't enjoying it, she was. But some quiet time for herself felt good. When she closed the heavy door behind her, the sounds were immediately muffled. It was never completely silent in such a place, but compared to the stands around the main stage, the corridors felt eerily quiet. She was able to hear her own footsteps echoing down the hall, and even her own breathing.

For a moment, she was at peace. However, she was supposed to be the only one wandering around at a time like this. Everyone else was either watching a game or playing one, so another person's footsteps approaching steadily startled her.

But unfortunately for them, she knew. She knew all too well whose footsteps those belonged to. And without any of the hesitation she had been feeling throughout the game, she began to walk faster.

"Where are you going," his voice never failed to send a shiver down her spine, "The game hasn't even finished yet."

Of course she ignored him and continued on her way. She wanted to see him play for a bit, that was all, and then leave. She didn't want to see him upfront in person. That was the last thing on her mind.

"So you're just running away again, huh?"

Tikal wasn't running away and she knew by the irritation in his voice, that she didn't want to respond to it. But for some reason, she took another step and then two steps, and then—whispering spitefully to herself, she halted. Perhaps she was going to talk to him this time, to get rid of this problem forever. So she turned around to face him. Blue and red irises locked and she hesitated, but managed to snap out of it.

"I'm not running," she said firmly, however her composure and jitters said otherwise.

"Wow, you're actually talking to me," Shadow suddenly snapped at her, a sarcastic tone erupting, "Who would've thought, even after two years of avoiding me."

"I wasn't avoiding you," Tikal almost felt like firing back but thought better of herself, "I-I just needed some space."

"You ignored all of my text messages and phone calls," he deadpanned as he glared at her, "You were avoiding me."

Feeling deflated, her mouth quivered anxiously and she turned her heel completely, walking off again.

She heard his footsteps once more and she tried to make a run for it, but he was too fast — he was always too fast. He gripped onto her wrist and spun her around to face him.

"Why won't you talk to me?" Shadow asked with frustration, and if she wasn't mistaken, he sounded hurt.

"Let go," Tikal demanded softly.

He squinted. "Say it."

She knew the answer he wanted. The echidna opened her mouth, but closed it immediately. Her throat became dry, the lump ceasing to go away. She looked up at him, seeing that the hedgehog was staring down at her intently, an expression of desperation wetting his face.

"I couldn't handle it," she confessed and averted her eyes down, "People made comments about me."

Shadow stalled. "What comments?"

"Threats," Tikal replied with a stutter, and exhaled the breath she was keeping in, "They said I wasn't right for you."

She recalled several times on social media where she had messages from girls she didn't even know, telling her that he would dump her sooner or later. Tikal, not being used to such vile hatred, tried to ignore it as much as she could. At school, it was even worse. Whenever she was not with Shadow or her friends, she'd get picked on and get called names. Of course, she kept quiet and had not told them.

"Then why didn't you say anything about it?" the hedgehog questioned, his grip getting tighter, "Instead, you broke up with me and then suddenly announce you're leaving the next day."

She blinked, holding back her emotions. "A-Amy and Rouge knew," she saw his eyes widen, a flash of hurt peaked through them, "But I told them not to tell anybody."

"Why?"

"I was afraid to get in the way," she used her free hand to wipe away a tear, "And my mother wanted to move out of town, so I was going to leave one way or another."

Shadow didn't seem too pleased, in fact, he looked more annoyed. "Didn't you ever sit down and think that I would've understood your situation if you told me? I could've helped you."

"You had a reputation, Shadow," she said, his name rolling out of her mouth as if it was foreign, "And you were already under so much stress with basketball," Tikal finally looked at him in the eye, "I didn't want to pile more weight onto that."

"You make it seem as if you were inferior. You weren't," Shadow stated, "And you always came first."

"And felt as if I was ruining your image," the echidna told him as his grip loosened, "That was the problem, the attention we were attracting was maybe good for you but not for me."

By now, her heartbeat went relatively faster. She was surprised that she managed to stay put without resisting. But she needed and wanted to go, now.

"That's a stupid reason," Shadow sucked in his teeth, "If you thought for a second that you were sabotaging my "image" then you're wrong," he closed his eyes, "Those people were just jealous and took advantage of you because they knew you wouldn't fight back."

"I'm sorry," her mouth slipped, causing Shadow to snap open his eyes, "For being selfish," she didn't bother drying off the tears this time, "I just thought it was the best option," she then said inaudibly, "Clearly it wasn't."

He stared at her for a brief moment and sighed longingly, gradually wiping off her face. The hedgehog changed the subject. "Why did you even come here then?"

She blushed, trying to come up with a smart answer. The duration of her doing that of course made the reason already obvious.

"To see the game, that's all," Tikal replied rather simply, taking a spare glance at him.

Shadow didn't buy it.

Because he could always read her.

And it was frustrating.

"It's more than that," he suddenly whispered, reaching for her hand again. She made no effort to move back and let him lean closer to her face. Maybe because she actually did miss him, maybe because she actually just came here to see him. Maybe, just maybe, because she actually wanted to kiss him.

However, she pulled away as her fear and anxiety spiked up again. "Y-You should get back," she spluttered, refusing to make eye contact.

When she started walking away again, there was no protest and no footsteps chasing after her. She slowly counted to ten and concentrated on her breath once more, so that when she went out of the building, her heartbeat had slowed back down to its normal pace.

...

When the final game arrived, she didn't want to go. Not after that day. However and unfortunately, she was dragged by Amy who wanted her to at least have a good time for once. The pink hedgehog made it seem as if having a depressed day was an everyday thing for her, but that wasn't the case. The case was that, she was going to see Shadow again and either, it was going to be really awkward or he was simply going to ignore her as if nothing had ever happened.

Shadow didn't even look at her, too busy focused on warming up with his teammates. Even when random girls cheered for their team, they all looked over and waved at them, which resulted in very enthusiastic shouts and some ear-splitting squeals.

It didn't make any sense, but something about it was irking her. He hadn't even looked at her once, as if he wasn't even aware that she was right there. This was not about not looking at her because she had left him without saying a goodbye; this was him not looking at her because he really didn't care.

Okay, so it hurt. But this was probably him giving her the cold and ignoring treatment she had done so in the last two years. After all, he was about to kiss her before she mildly rejected it and pulled away, walking off.

It had hit Tikal after all that time, he still had feelings for her and vice versa. However, it couldn't be the case anymore as he didn't spare a glance at her when he was looking her way. Perhaps he had given up and moved on, something she couldn't blame him for.

She knew she immediately needed to snap out of this weird sudden infatuation, but focusing on the game didn't exactly help. Of course, as weird as it sounded, she tried to read a few pages of her book but it wasn't enough of an occupation to actually distract her, and well, he was in the game as well, so she couldn't help but watch him.

Shadow was flawless on court, incredible at blocking and dribbling the ball to the net. He was known to be one of the most skilled and intelligent players amongst the team, which wasn't a surprise really. He had always tagged her along when he wanted to practice alone, and she'd cheer for him every time he scored a hoop.

He knew exactly how to motivate his team, how to make them work well together, and how to bring out the very best of everyone. He was one-hundred percent focused at all times, and wouldn't even let himself get distracted for a mere second.

Now that she had rejected him like that, it was too late for a change of mind, and by the end of the game, she had almost convinced herself that it was for the better anyway. They won and she had almost forgot about Shadow the Hedgehog when Amy was cheering and excited about planning a celebration party for all of them. Tikal excused herself out of the crowded area and when she trailed her eyes over, he suddenly, finally, looked at her. Even though it was just a brief glance.

...

Whilst leaving, Tikal offered to run some errands again. And no, it wasn't because after that small eye contact, she absolutely positively wanted to bump into Shadow again. Though, she wouldn't mind if that were to happen.

It was woman's intuition that she actually ended up right where he was. He was talking to Sonic, who looked exhausted as he was. They seemed to have washed up as she realised their quills were drooping with water as well as having towels around their necks.

She hated spying, but their conversation had seemed to cut short when Amy, out of nowhere, hugged Sonic. The blue hedgehog was caught by surprise as she almost toppled over him. She congratulated the both of them and immediately tugged her blue boyfriend, still beaming about doing the celebration party. Sonic looked back at his teammate as he gave off an awkward farewell, a sweat drop forming before letting the girl drag him out the hallway.

Shadow stood there, shaking his head and rubbed off the remaining droplets with his towel.

For a moment, she hesitated. Tikal was still standing hidden behind the next corner, and he hadn't spotted her yet. Maybe she should just turn around and leave again since there probably wasn't anything to say anyway, but before she could make her decision—

"Tikal."

—He caught her.

Tikal yelped and flinched back as she clutched onto her shoulder bag. Her legs seemed to do the work for her as she hastily turned around and fruitlessly tried to make her way back. But he grabbed her arm from behind and before she knew it, she was pinned against the wall.

Shadow was standing right in front of her, and their faces were not even thirty centimetres away from each other. His gaze was intense. One side of her told her that she should run away, but on the other side, she was unable to even move.

"I didn't think eavesdropping was your thing," he whispered, giving her goosebumps.

"Y-You're too close," she replied breathlessly, feeling her bag drop carelessly down to the floor.

She wasn't able to directly look him in the eyes for more than a few seconds, but she didn't really know where else she was supposed to look at, so she felt her eyes go back and forth between his intense stare and his lips more or less involuntarily. With this little distance between them, she was even able to smell him, his shampoo or cologne - whatever it was, and it was almost making her dizzy.

"You don't seem to mind it," he murmured and arched an eyebrow as he came ever closer, "If it's bothering you, why don't you just shove me away?"

His inquiry made her feel cornered and pressured and she didn't even have the ability to breathe anymore, let alone think.

"Or," his hands began crawling down her waist, "Is it because you don't want to?"

Her heart was beating fast against her ribcage, and she was sure that her whole face and neck all the way up to the tips of her ears were burning crimson red.

She didn't say anything and just raised one hand against his chest, wanting to push him away. But as he came closer, their foreheads touched and she was lost. Shadow smirked, closing his eyes as he leaned further down. There was no power behind her hand and she felt the tip of the hedgehog's nose brushing lightly against hers.

His movements were incredibly gentle and almost timid, everything felt as if it was happening in slow motion. His thumb brushed softly on her lower lip before he cupped her cheek with his hand.

The butterflies in her stomach had turned into something else, something desperate, something hungry. But she didn't want to seem so needy and let the anticipation slowly kill her. Though, she used her stronger hand to his neck to pull him down further. His skin was soft, and so was his hair in which she buried her fingers in his quills, lightly grazing against his scalp.

The action made him finally lean down to erase the tiny gap. It was a short and chaste kiss, just a simple press of lips against lips, but they were incredibly tender and warm as well, just like she remembered they were. She had no time to catch her breath though, as he immediately pulled her into another one.

Tikal felt his lips move against hers slowly at first, but the pace sped up quickly, and he carefully sucked in her lower lip between his teeth and nibbled on it, making her gasp involuntarily. The heat shot to her cheeks and she wanted to hide out of embarrassment, but there wasn't even any time to dwell on it since she was already overwhelmed by the new sensations.

And then suddenly, Shadow removed his hand from her cheek and drew back completely. Tikal mumbled out a quiet whine, missing the touch and the warmth and instinctively followed his movement since she didn't want this to end so soon, but Shadow apparently didn't plan on stopping either. He only adjusted their position, and she felt her legs being spread just far enough that he was able to slide one of his knees between them, making it possible for them to get even closer to each other.

With this change, his whole body was now pressed against hers, and it became unbearably hot. It wasn't only the literal heat, but also that every bit of her skin started to tingle once it was touched by him and that the warmth that had pooled in her stomach started to spread through her whole body. They were as close as possible considering they were still leaning against a wall in some corridor, but she felt like she needed to pull him even closer and she did.

She was so into it that she unconsciously opened her mouth a tad, and without warning, Shadow slid his tongue in. Tikal squeaked, not used to the new feeling and tried to squirm past it, but he was stronger and held her tightly, continuing his administrations. Their tongues danced, her own clumsily trying to keep up with his.

They pulled away, Tikal trying to catch her breath as she exhaled deeply. Her face was flushed and it was beyond the point of embarrassment by now. Shadow, dishevelled, began to trail kisses along her palm and then her wrist. She glanced over when he did that and after a while, she stopped him by putting her hand over his mouth. He stared at her, blank, before kissing her hand.

Yelping again, she drew back her hand and looked down. "C-Congratulations..."

He pulled away slightly, taking a hold of her hand in the process. "Thanks."

She stared at their hands before hesitantly intertwining them, which he was able to reciprocate and squeeze them together.

Tikal bit her lip. "I'm sorry."

Shadow gently lifted her head up, and the tears that she had a hard time holding in, finally fell down her eyes. "It's fine..."

She looked at him, eyes becoming puffy before she sniffed and buried her head onto his shoulder. "I'm really sorry."

"I know."

She pulled back. "You don't understand—"

"I do."

"But—"

"Just," he cut her off, brushing his thumb against her lips again, his eyes half-lidded, "Just be quiet, Tikal."

Tikal stalled for a moment, staring into his ruby irises once again. Feeling jittery, she nodded as he pulled her into a hug.

...

The sound of the doorbell ringing caught her attention the next afternoon. Tikal paused in making her coffee and lifted her head up to see the time. Blinking twice, she made her way towards the front door and cautiously opened it.

And she was taken aback by the sight.

Shadow was standing there, nicely dressed, holding a bouquet of roses.

"Hi," he greeted her, breaking the silence. He brought out his arm, showcasing the bouquet in front of her to take.

Tikal, still seeming to be surprised by his sudden appearance, took the roses with a timid nod. "Thank you," she stepped back and put them into an empty vase before turning back to him, "Would you like to come in?"

"I want to take you out," Shadow simply stated, squishing down her question, "No objections."

Her eyes widened at his forwardness and she couldn't fight back the blush dusting on her cheeks this time. "O-Okay."

Just when she was about to turn to get dressed, he stopped her by grabbing the both of her hands.

"Don't worry," he said lowly, lips inches away from hers, "We'll do it right this time."

Within those words, she felt comfort and warmth, a sense of pride and protection. All those characteristics that had fit him perfectly like a puzzle. And she suddenly remembered why she fell for him.

She smiled, staring right into his eyes. "We will."

Upon hearing that and seeing her face lit up into happiness he's been desperately wanting to see, he smiled back before swiftly stealing her lips into a kiss.

Author's note:

I KNOW, I KNOW. JUST KILL ME FOR NOT UPDATING IN LIKE A MONTH BECAUSE I SUCK AND THIS SUCKS TOO, OML.

truthfully, i just wanted to have an excuse to create a hot kissing scene for them and i feel like it's still shitty. and the whole concept is just like "wtf is this?" i know, im dumb af. i suck at creating AUs and doing romance in general tbh. but i gotta keep the otp alive, ofc.

Thanks for reading!