Sonic awoke in the middle of the night to the sound of the waves outside. He stared at the green, bamboo wall, blinking a couple of times. He wasn't sure why he had woken up, but he simply chose to ignore it. He closed his eyes and rolled over, intending on cuddling his partner - now husband - Shadow.
His hand touched an empty space. Sonic opened his eyes once again, noticing that the sheets on Shadow's side of the bed had been peeled back.
He sat up and glanced around the room, unable to see Shadow anywhere. Perhaps he had gone for a walk? Even still, he wanted to check up on him, just in case. He climbed out of bed and slipped on his shoes, and left the shack.
He didn't have to go very far. As soon as he got outside he saw Shadow standing on the shoreline and staring out to sea. As Sonic approached him, he couldn't help but take in the scenery. The palm trees and their large green leaves were blowing gently in the breeze. The moon was high in the clear, inky black, star-filled, night sky, it's bright, silver glow reflecting off the rippling waves as the foamy white froth came breaking onto the golden, sandy beach.
Sonic paused behind Shadow and studied him closely. He seemed to be deep in thought and was completely oblivious to his surroundings, judging by the fact that he was allowing the water to wash over his shoes.
A small part of him didn't want to disturb him, but a large part of him was worried and wanted to speak up. Was something wrong?
Sonic called out to him. "Hey Shadow."
It didn't register at first, but Shadow noticed his presence mere moments later and turned to face him. "Oh, hello Sonic. I didn't know you were up." He responded. "Sorry if I disturbed you."
"It's okay, you didn't disturb me at all." Sonic told him. "But what are you doing out here?" He asked.
"I was just... thinking." Shadow replied, glancing over his shoulder at the waves.
"About what?" Sonic pried.
"Everything." He said simply. "I just... I never thought we'd get to this point." He added, fiddling with his wedding ring by twisting it on his finger.
"I know how you feel, it took forever to find this spot for our holiday, and that flight was such a drag." Sonic replied, smiling at him.
"No, I don't mean the honeymoon, I mean..." He trailed off. Shadow turned around to look at the vast, blue ocean. "I never thought we'd get married." He finally stated.
Sonic didn't say anything. Instead, he walked up to Shadow and stood alongside him. He wanted to listen to whatever he had to say.
"I never intended on being with anyone. When I first met you, I didn't think I'd fall for you. I mean, you, of all people, my rival. But when we first got to together, I didn't think I'd ever get to this point, and yet here we are. I didn't think I'd let myself get wrapped up so much in your life that I would eventually become apart of it." He paused, glancing at Sonic, and the blue hedgehog returned his gaze. "But I'm glad I did."
Shadow glanced back at the horizon. "I remember when Eggman woke me up from that endless sleep. I left that GUN base, and I was greeted by a whole new world. I got to feel the warmth of the sunlight on my fur and touch the grass, instead of simply observing the planet from space. And in that moment, I realised why Maria loved this place so much." He paused once again, and closed his eyes. His own words pained him. "I wish she could've been here. I wish she could've seen how happy you make me. You are the only one that could ever make me smile other than her. She would've loved you."
"When I lived up on the ARK with Maria, I would look at the Earth through a window and listen to Maria's stories about it. I didn't think I'd ever be able to come here and experience it all for myself. After Maria died, I never thought that I'd be able to live without her..." Shadow stopped, turning to look at Sonic. His gaze remained fixated on him this time. "But then you came into my life and I learned how to live again. To love." He said, giving him a small smile. "I was still learning about this world, and you helped me. You showed me so many things, and introduced me to so many people. I have to thank you for that."
"You always say that life is one big adventure. At first, I didn't understand, but now I do. Every step we take is apart of the journey which is our lives. And I like to think that us getting married is just the beginning." He stated, continuing to fiddle with his ring. "I'm glad I got to go on this adventure with you, and I hope it never stops... And, I want you to know that I am truly grateful for the joy you brought into my life. I don't think I could've gotten this far without you." Shadow finished.
Sonic smiled warmly "Well, that goes both ways, Shadow." He replied. "To tell you the truth, I didn't think we'd get to this point either. When we first got together, I thought you'd eventually grow tired of me. But then I realised how dedicated you really were to our relationship. And now we're here, tied together by these rings." He said, looking down at his own ring. "I wouldn't have it any other way."
Shadow looked at the shack and then at the surrounding area "What would I give for a view like this... To see the sun rising over an ocean of blue every day." Shadow muttered. "We should go on more adventures. Why should we settle down in some tiny flat like every other couple out there when we can go and do so much more?" He questioned. There was a moment of silence as he was thinking. "We should go and see the world." Shadow suggested.
"I've already done that, but I'd love to do it with you. Now that we've tied the knot, there's nothing more left to do. We can go anywhere and do anything, nothing is stopping us. Except for, y'know, deciding where to go, obviously."
"I say we just pick a direction to run in and never look back." Shadow replied.
Sonic smirked "I like the way you're thinking, though you'll have to try and keep up with me." He teased, whilst grinning and pointing at himself with his thumb.
"No, you'll have to keep up with me." Shadow retorted, also gesturing at himself.
"Oh yeah?" Sonic questioned, leaning in closer.
"Yeah!" Shadow exclaimed, leaning towards Sonic. Their noses touched.
Sonic chuckled. He and Shadow embraced one another and stared at the sea, just enjoying the view and each other's warmth and company. "Just imagine all the adventures that are on their way." Sonic spoke up.
"I can't wait to start."
A bright orange glow tinted the edges of the dark sky. Dawn was approaching and bringing about a new day. With that new day would come another adventure, something that they would both tackle together. Their journey was just getting started. There was a long road ahead, but they would make it through. They would carry each other through difficult times. There was no end to the lengths that they would go to for each other.
Wherever the waves of life took them, if they ever felt like they were drowning, one could always rely on the other to bring them back to the surface. Afterall, they would always be together.
Till death do us part.
A/N - The first short short I've done in a while.
Short but sweet as they say, hehe. This one once supposed to take a week, but I got kind of lazy, and every day I was telling myself "I'll write it tomorrow."
And the next day would come and I'd say "I'll write it tomorrow"
And so on and so fourth. Yesterday I sat down and said "Yep, I should probably start writing now."
Didn't take me very long, so here I am. Sorry about the wait for such a short chapter. I'm not very consistent with my upload schedule. I don't even have a schedule! :P
I got some art made for the avatar image or whatever that comes with the story if you hadn't noticed. I asked a friend (see summary) to make it and when he showed it to me I knew I just had to make it the new image. I love it so much.
So, the Sonadow Shorts reached 10,000 views as of today. WOO HOO! I just want to thank all of you for coming back and reading and reviewing chapters time and time again. I really appericate it.
In other news, the next couple of Modern/Main Canon themed shorts will be based around some of the games. They also won't hint at Sonic and Shadow being married, so in the contiunity it means it takes place years before Sonic proposes or they just don't get married. I like to think that there are several branching timelines that chapters can be linked to. For example, there is a timeline that follows the games, while another timeline follows Sonic and Shadow just trying to settle down with their own house and such. And for Sonic Boom, there's a timeline where Shadow is present in episodes he didn't show up in and it follows that route, and everyone knows about there relationship, while there's another branching timeline where Sonic's friends don't know about their relationship.
I never set it out like that by the way, but that's a way you could link some chapters together if you wanted to find a coherent story. I'm sure there's one in there somewhere!
There is one chapter that will mention there marriage though, but I'm not saying anymore about it because, y'know, spoilers.
I'm really glad you liked the last chapter, it was nice to see it made you laugh. I don't really find my own writing funny, but I had a ball doing it.
I noticed that there wasn't much of a reaction to the fact that I'm putting these on a (possibly) endless hiatus at chapter 35. Perhaps I should have made a separate chapter for it. That is still happening, just so you know. That's the only update I have on the subject at the moment, if you have any questions, just PM me.
Next chapter is an idea that has been sitting on my to-do list for quite some time. It should be longer than this one was.
One more thing, I hope you liked the descriptions I added for the area of Hawaii they were staying at (I've never been to Hawaii myself). I hope it wasn't too close to what Sonic Boom's setting is like. I was worried that would confuse people. I added those descriptions in for world building, plus I don't want to state what is happening all the time through my omniscient narration.
As always, I hope you enjoyed the chapter and I'll see you in the next one. Hopefully it won't take another week. See you soon.