After exiting Iggy's castle, Peach had a frown on her face, not necessarily from having gunned down living beings, but from something else…

"What is wrong with you!?" said Peach. "How could you want to torture an unarmed Koopaling!? What are you, some kind of a monster!?"

Shadow crossed his arms. "If the world calls me a monster, then so be it. I'm just doing what I can to make this world a safer place for the innocent…the helpless…the powerless."

Peach smiled. "You know, you may be a cruel, heartless monster, but I think you're really handsome, too!"

"Hmph."

While maintaining his usual stone face, Shadow couldn't help but feel a little tingly, knowing that Peach called him "handsome". As for the Princess…

"Hey there, Mr. Grumpy Face!"

Shadow groaned. "Seriously, Princess? Like I don't get enough of that from my best friend?"

"It's OK to feel sad sometimes! I just want to let you know that I'm proud of you for wanting to protect the people you care about! Come here!"

Shadow's Hedgehog Sense went off, but before he could do anything, Peach hugged him. His eyes widened, and he let out a confused, frustrated gasp. Furthermore, he wanted nothing more than to stop being smothered with such feminine affection. Actually, no matter how tough and badass he fancied himself, his iron front collapsed when faced with a woman's touch. The fact that a woman – never mind a woman he was barely acquainted with – was willing to give him such a sweet, caring gesture meant so much to him. That, and he enjoyed how Peach – like many women – was so soft, warm and cuddly. And wait…was that Chanel No. 5? Knowing that the Princess was also wearing the same perfume that Rouge overwhelmingly preferred, he just wanted her to hold him forever and ever.

Peach enjoyed Shadow's touch, too. While not overly fond of his brutal methods, she found him to be much softer than she initially imagined. What really helped was the fact that he had chest fur. To Peach, hugging Shadow felt like holding a giant plush toy. Granted, he was a sentient plush toy that could kill people with a .44 Magnum, but still, she was willing to overlook that, especially considering that she had fun practicing with firearms. Even if he wasn't Mario, she thought he had his own special charms. Overall, Peach was looking forward to further adventuring with Shadow and felt totally relaxed holding him.

"Um…Princess…should you even be doing this? Aren't you already in a relationship with Mario?"

"Relax, Shadow! Mario and I are in an open relationship! Besides, I just did this because I…"

Just then, a loud grumbling sound could be heard, which set off Shadow's Hedgehog Sense.

"Are you OK, Princess?"

"Yeah, I'm just hungry, that's all."

"Then why don't we find somewhere to sit down and eat?"

"Good idea!"

Peach let go of Shadow, and after they took a few more steps, she pulled out a pink-and-white beach towel from her backpack. She then set her backpack down and sat on the towel.

"Come on, Shadow, sit down!"

Shadow obeyed Peach's command and pulled out a backpack of his own from hammerspace. He then pulled out one of the sandwiches that Rouge made for him, while Peach pulled out a wrap of some sort.

"Hold on, Princess…"

Peach lowered her wrap before she could take a bite from it. "What is it, Shadow?"

"Before I eat, it's customary for me to pray."

Shadow offered his hands, and Peach set aside her wrap and took his hands. He then bowed his head, and she followed.

"God, if you exist, thank you for bringing us together for this meal and thank you for providing us with the food to make it possible," said Shadow. "May this continue for as long as we live. Amen."

After that, Shadow and Peach ate. Shadow nodded after chewing for a bit.

"That smells delicious! What is that?" Peach took a bite of her wrap.

Shadow swallowed. "It's pastrami. Not my favorite sandwich meat, but I really love the way my best friend prepares it."

"You must be so lucky to have a friend like that!"

"Truth be told, she can be overbearing at times, but overall, I'm grateful to have met her. She's my favorite person in the entire world."

"Awww, that's really sweet of you to think so highly of her!"

Shadow nodded. "That aside, what are you eating?"

"It's a grilled chicken and avocado wrap!" Peach took another bite.

"I've never really been a fan of avocado, but my friend makes a really nice guacamole."

"Ooh, interesting! Does she cook a lot?"

"Owing to her job, she doesn't always have time to cook, so she often brings home takeout or has me do the cooking." Shadow took another bite.

"You cook too?"

Shadow simply nodded.

"Wow, you two sound like you really complement each other!"

Shadow swallowed. "If I wanted to, I could live out in the wilderness. However, there are times when I appreciate having a roof over my head and somebody to talk to."

"Well, people are social animals, so it's only natural that you'd want somebody to talk to!"

"Actually, I'm going to be brutally honest: I hate most people on this planet. The only reason I don't murder them is because another friend of mine made me promise to give everybody a chance to be happy." Shadow finished off his sandwich.

Peach put a hand on Shadow's cheek and smiled. "I know sometimes the world sounds like a scary place, but really, most people are inherently good! I'm sure if you keep your friend's promise, then you'll grow to like people more!"

Shadow stared deeply into Peach's blue eyes. The more he looked at her, the less he found himself able to resist her. He saw so much of Maria in her that it was pretty much impossible for him to hate her, even if she didn't totally agree with his methods. Then, for some reason, Peach frowned.

"Shadow, are you OK? Your face is turning green."

It was at this moment that Shadow realized that he was blushing.

"Will you excuse me for a moment, Princess?"

Shadow broke away and headed for a boulder not too far away from their little picnic spot. He then slumped against the boulder and took a couple of deep breaths, after which he whipped out his Droid Razr Maxx and dialed Rouge.

"Hello?"

"Rouge, it's Shadow."

"Hey Shaddy! How are you?"

"Other than the fact that I'm feeling hot, I'm all right. How about you?"

"I'm doing fine! Is there anything specific you wanted to talk to me about?"

"You mean other than the fact that Princess Peach is such a lightweight when it comes to witnessing living beings getting shot by a .44 Magnum? No, not really."

"Look, I understand if you're not too fond of Princess Peach, but please try to see things from her point of view! She's not known for being a badass warrior guy like you, you know!"

"Perhaps not, but she seems to have a little too much of that 'Maria' vibe going on for my liking."

"Awww…does Shaddy need me to reach through the phone and give him an Extra-Special Hedgie Huggle?"

"Rouge, as much as I like you, I'm going to hang up on you if you keep being so cheeky."

"I'm warning you, buster, if you do that, I'm going to put tomatoes in all your sandwiches for a week!"

Shadow sighed. "OK…you win."

"There we go. Now, let me ask you: are you and Peach getting along otherwise?"

"Thus far, we're doing OK. We had a few close calls so far, but we got out all right."

"Glad to hear it! Listen, I gotta go now, but if you try to reach me and I don't pick up or otherwise respond right away, I promise I'll get back to you soon enough! Have a good night, Shaddy!"

"You too, Rouge."

Shadow hung up and returned to Peach, who had finished her wrap and was now eating some strawberries. He froze when he saw this, thinking about how attractive she looked with a strawberry between her lips.

"Is everything OK, Shadow?"

Shadow didn't respond for a moment, but then he nodded. "I'm all right."

"Oh, nice!"

Shadow reached into his backpack and pulled out a Cara Cara orange, which he promptly peeled.

"May I have a couple slices of your orange?" asked Peach.

"Only if you'll trade me a couple of your strawberries."

"Of course!"

And so, Shadow gave Peach a couple slices of his orange and got a couple of strawberries in return. When she took a bite of one slice, Peach let out a pleasant "mmm!"

"This is an interesting orange!" said Peach.

"It's a Cara Cara orange," said Shadow. "The growing season is rather limited, but I find their taste to be superior to traditional oranges. I go to great lengths to obtain these sometimes."

"I can see why!"

After finishing his strawberries and orange, Shadow pulled out a can of Pepsi. At the same time, Peach pulled out a can of Polar Orange Dry. When he cracked open his Pepsi, she gently thrust her Polar Orange Dry towards him.

"You want to toast?" said Shadow. "To what?"

"To the spirit of international cooperation and peace among all citizens of the world!" replied Peach.

Shadow nodded. "Fair enough."

Shadow and Peach toasted and drank up. Once they'd finished their drinks and took care of all their trash, Peach took her beach towel and packed it up.

"Actually, before we leave, I have to show you something else…" said Shadow.

"What?"

"If you fire a gun for any appreciable amount of time, you need to disassemble and clean it. Let me show you how…"

Shadow set down a plain white towel and broke out the gun cleaning kit.

"Before you start cleaning your gun, eject the magazine and pull the slide back to eject any rounds that are still chambered," said Shadow.

Peach obeyed Shadow's directions and successfully ejected the chambered round. He then took the ejected round and put it back in the magazine.

"Now, using your left index finger, press the disassembly latch release button on the right side of the gun and rotate the disassembly latch clockwise with your left thumb until the latch stops," said Shadow.

Peach did so.

"Having done that, pull the slide and barrel assembly forwards along with the locking block, recoil spring and spring guide."

Once again, Peach followed Shadow's directions.

"Apply slight pressure to the recoil spring and spring guide. Be careful, the spring is under pressure, and you don't want to lose it."

Taking a deep breath, Peach continued to disassemble her Beretta.

"Now, slowly lift the spring and spring guide and gently release the spring."

Still rather nervous, Peach did her best. She needn't have worried too much, for she managed to release the spring without it shooting off and getting lost.

"Moving on, you'll have to press the plunger on the locking block inside the slide, and then take out the barrel locking assembly from the slide."

Peach did that without too much difficulty.

"OK, the Beretta is disassembled enough for what you'll need to do," said Shadow. "To clean the weapon, you start off with the barrel. Take this push rod and attach the round metal brush to it."

Peach took a push rod from Shadow and screwed on a round metal brush meant for .40-caliber and 10mm pistols.

"Push the brush back and forth through the barrel for about 30 seconds to loosen all the buildup from unburned powder."

Peach did so, While she was doing that, Shadow unloaded his Model 29, grabbed another push rod from the gun cleaning kit along with a round metal brush for .44-caliber pistols.

"OK, I'm finished with the barrel," said Peach. "Now what?"

"Now, unscrew the brush from the push rod and hand it back to me," said Shadow.

Peach did so, and Shadow handed her a dowel attachment with a loop and a small cotton patch.

"Attach that dowel to the rod, roll up the cotton patch a bit and then thread it through the loop in the dowel. You'll also need to put two drops of oil on the patch…"

While Peach was following Shadow's directions, he handed her a dropper bottle of FrogLube gun oil. She put a couple drops of oil on the patch.

"Spin that patch as you push it through the barrel, and once you've done that, remove the wet patch, put on a dry patch and run that through the barrel."

Again, Peach obeyed Shadow's orders.

"Now what?" asked Peach.

"Run another wet patch through the barrel, and then another dry patch," replied Shadow. "You want that barrel to be as clean as possible."

Once again, Peach followed Shadow's directions without fail. He then handed her a toothbrush.

"You also want to take care of the slide," said Shadow. "Take this toothbrush and brush inside the slide near the ejection port and firing pin, as well as all along the inside of the slide."

While Peach was cleaning the slide on her Beretta, Shadow took some time to clean his Model 29. That was what he really liked about revolvers: aside from having generally higher firepower and just looking cool, they were also simpler to maintain. All he did was run a brush and some patches through the barrel and the six chambers on the cylinder, and he also used a couple of drops of oil for the extractor, hammer and trigger assembly.

"OK, Shadow, I think the slide is clean now."

"Good. Before you reassemble that pistol, take the gun oil and lubricate the inner slide rails as well as the top and bottom sides of the hammer."

Peach took the gun oil and used a couple of drops for the slide rails and the hammer.

"Do you remember how to reassemble the gun?" asked Shadow.

Peach nodded. "I think so."

"Good. Just make sure the safety is on, the barrel is perfectly aligned with the slide, the locking block lugs rest in their housings and that the head of the recoil spring guide goes in the center of its groove in the locking block. Also, make sure the slide is lined up with the frame before resetting the disassembly latch."

Though somewhat bewildered by Shadow's directions, Peach did her best to reassemble the Beretta. Fortunately, everything seemed to fall into place.

"Ready to go?" asked Shadow.

Peach nodded. "As ready as I'll ever be."

"Good. Where's our next destination?"

"We head to Soda Lake next."

Criticism is gold. Negativity and nitpicking are pyrite.