(I don't own Sonic. I don't know what idiotic psycho would think I do, but I don't.)

"What!"

I glared at him.

"You've become girlier than I thought."

Shadow smiled.

"What do you mean, girlier!"

I clenched my fists.

"You fixed your hair before you sat up."

"So, at least I didn't strand my brother in the Sahara."

I sneered.

"Ugh! I was yelling at him 'cause he tripped me. Eventually he and I started to fight. When insulting me he said 'At least I'm not in love with a…' He cursed you out. So I sorta tackled him and um, well, we don't really need to go into detail do we?"

Shadow was starting to sweat.

"If it makes you uncomfortable you don't have to say anything else."

I looked at him with an expression full of understanding.

"No way. You have to keep going, comfortable or not."

Knux didn't usually show compassion for anyone but if it was Shadow compassion was non-existent.

"Well, I tackled him and punched him for um, a while I guess. I screamed, 'one more chance, take it back!' He disagreed. So I strangled him. He still had a slight grin on his face. So out came the heavy artillery."

"Ooh, I know!"

Stella raised her hand even though it did her no good to do so.

"Chaos Control!"

Stella giggled.

"Maria always loved telling me that part."

Everyone looked at me.

I sunk into my seat.

"It'd be nice if you'd stop telling them about my personal life."

"Heh, sorry Maria."

Stella blushed in embarrassment.

"Anyway. At that point there wasn't a trace of enjoyment on his face whatsoever. I picked him up by the collar…"

Knux interrupted.

"Lemme guess, 'Don't you ever even look at Maria again, got it?' Am I right?"

Shadow nodded.

Knux felt proud of himself, I'm not exactly sure why.

"You didn't have to do that."

I said but was sure I'd do the same for him if I didn't almost kill them with my bare hands.

"I know. I couldn't help it. I curse enough when I'm angry but I wouldn't curse out anyone I didn't know."

A thought occurred to me.

I almost smacked myself for ever thinking Shadow of such a thing, but I couldn't help but ask.

"Did you say something bad about Breeze?"

"Well, yeah, but I didn't curse her out. Besides, what does that have to do with you?"

I nearly cried.

'He doesn't love you back.'

"Shadow, In Xipho's world Shadow is to Xipho as Maria is to Breeze."

"But you're not…"

Shadow began.

"I know but I'm you're friend. I'm seen as a weak spot of yours. Look, being a loyal friend to me doesn't mean you have to kill your brother. It just means be there."

I looked away.

Shadow bit back the urge to punch me.

"Whatever."

Shadow's hand moved to shove me as he walked out but he stopped it.

I was so close to crying.

I didn't want Shadow to kill anyone because of me but now Shadow thinks I don't appreciate what he did.

"Way to go, jerk."

Cream's innocence was down the toilet as of that moment.

"He looked really hurt, Maria."

Stella looked at me.

The other two girls had gone to help Shadow cool off.

There was a pause.

"Maria, can you speak?"

All my energy was going into trying not to cry.

I couldn't even shake my head.

"Maria, are you okay?"

Stella's voice began to get panicky.

"Maria, can you open your eyes?"

My body started to shake.

"Maria, are you okay?"

Stella nearly shouted.

(Meanwhile)

"Shadow, that was really jerky of Maria."

Cream's eyes were wide and full of fear.

"I'm sure she didn't mean it."

Jwan always stuck to the positives.

"Mean what?"

Shadow was acting like nothing had happened.

"That she didn't appreciate what you'd done for her."

Jwan was a bit confused.

"Maria can be such a…"

Shadow picked Cream up be the ears and brought her face level to his.

"I will say this once. Don't. Insult. Maria."

Cream nodded.

Shadow dropped her.

"Maria, are you okay?"

Shadow heard Stella's voice and the words echoed through his body.

(With me)

My eyes opened and tears seemed to flow out of them like faucets.

"I don't freakin' care!"

I shouted.

"He can be hurt! He insulted Breeze! It's reason enough to be mad at him. He can go ahead and hate me all his life because I didn't appreciate his almost killing Xipho! I DON'T FREAKIN' CARE!"

I shouted at the top of my lungs.

'That's not true.'

'I didn't mean any of that.'

'Sure, he had no reason to insult Breeze but I didn't want him to hate me.'

'I wanted just the opposite.'

"I'm hic sorry."

I had lost my control over absolutely nothing.

Then again, so had Shadow.

We're even then.

Shadow rushed into the room flustered.

He was half worried and half enraged.

I had my back turned to him.

"Maria…"

He turned me around waiting to see my expression before he decided what to say.

"hic"

"Uh…"

He hadn't expected me to be crying.

"Sorry."

I smiled but continued to cry.

I thought to hug him but decided that that might just make Shadow guilty and I didn't want that.

"Uh…"

Shadow was absolutely dumbfounded.

"I'm fine now."

I knew he'd come in because of my screaming.

"Uh… good."

Shadow stepped back.

Cream rushed in.

"Shadow, don't do tha… whoa. What happened to you?"

Cream looked at me.

"Mood swings."

Stella sang.

"Hee."

I giggled wiping of the left side of my face with my sleeve.

Shadow cocked his head to the side confused.

Then he smiled.

"Typical."

He chuckled and walked out the door.

"Lucky for you, he understands."

Knux was reminding me that I shouldn't push my luck like that again.

"Yeah, mentally impaired, like me."

I laughed tucking my hair behind my ear.

Stella, Haley, Jwan, Knux, Shadow and I left the ship intending to take a few things up with the gang.

When we arrived it was 10:00 p.m.

"So…"

Xipho smiled but it wasn't his usual kind one.

"What's up?"

"You looked at her."

Shadow grumbled.

"Huh?"

"You looked at Maria when she introduced you to Stella."

"So?"

Xipho obviously didn't think Shadow had told me what happened.

"So… I told you not to look at her."

"Whatcha gonna do 'bout it?"

Xipho challenged.

"Nothing."

I answered for Shadow.

I pulled Shadow off to the side.

"If you kill Xipho then Breeze will kill you and I'm not gonna be killin' Breeze anytime soon."

Shadow sighed.

"Okay. Leave Xipho alone for both our sakes. Got it."

Shadow turned to leave.

'It'd also leave me boyfriend less.'

'Will you shut up already!'

"Hey, um… I've decided to be um… anti-p-p-punk."

Amy's voice was the highest it's been in years.

"But Amy! You've been a punk for so long!"

I was taken aback.

"I know but… I didn't like it and ya know, I am so sorry for all the mean things I said."

She was shaking a bit.

I was afraid she might self destruct in T minus ten and counting.

Then she giggled.

She turned around, looked at Sonic, winked at me, and ran up and hugged Sonic.

"Ack!"

Amy had gotten a lot stronger over the years as well as more responsible and better looking.

Sonic was being crushed in her soft pink arms.

She let go and Sonic dropped to the ground.