Nighttime. The world was about as quiet as it was allowed to be. Shadow kept walking up the side of the cliff face, the gentle incline needing only a small bit of effort to climb.
The moon. It was black tonight. Hidden away as it should be; what was the point of light in the darkness?
Shadow felt himself relax; it was hard to get some good brooding in when his home was infested with two loud and colorful nuisances. Every thrilling, irritating interaction filled him with dread, and yet he hadn't tried to stop it completely yet.
Why? It would be easy enough to drop-kick them both out of his cave, into the ocean, out of his life. Being around those two caused him pain, literal pain, a rip of burning bile that tore from his throat to his gut until all he could do was push, push, push...
But never enough. He never pushed enough. And they were still there.
Shadow glowered at the moon, noticing a sliver of brightness on its side, a crescent that was easy to miss, but once he saw it, it was impossible to ignore. Rouge and Omega... Two stains in his home that he couldn't remove no matter what he tried. Even now he had to run away from his cave, away from Rouge's obnoxious snoring (she still denied that she snored) and Omega's charging hum (Shadow swore it was pre-recorded and played as a joke, there were no places to charge in the cave and Omega could be recharged with solar power and there was no sun at night inside of a cave so how in the world?) and walk walk walk away until his head was clear again.
Too bright. Too vibrant.
(He wasn't afraid.)
And now even the quiet of solitude felt empty.