In the Morning
A/N: Something cute. Something sweet. Something to melt your heart into a puddle from the adorableness that I wrote. If not, you have no soul lol. T only for mild language in one scene but K everywhere else.
He's the coolest...
Shadow held the rabbit close to his chest; soft snores vibrated from his chest that Cream could feel on her back. The old hedgehog was warm and soft—something the young rabbit enjoyed about the otherwise gloomy hedgehog. As he slept his ear twitched and he moved, cradling her closer. Shadow murmured in his sleep, making Cream smile as she snuggled closer to him.
Cream closed her eyes and fell asleep, a smile on her little snout. She liked spending time with Shadow; making him a puddle of cuddliness whenever the two were alone together. She viewed him as an adoptive father—something Shadow viewed himself but was yet to admit to the young rabbit. He was afraid of what her mother would say. He's gonna be sixty-nine later in the year chronologically so to be as Cream's stepfather would be awkward. Nonetheless, it didn't stop him from feeling the warm feeling he had for the rabbit.
It was around three or so in the morning when Cream woke up. Shadow's arm was around her little waist keeping her close to him as he remained asleep. His breathing was slow and calm; every exhale could be felt on her neck signaling how close he had her in his arms. She felt the need to use the bathroom but couldn't bring herself to wake up Shadow. She tried to gently wiggle out his arm, but his hold tightened. She attempted it again and this caused the hedgehog to stir slightly. He remained asleep however, so she left little option.
"Mr. Shadow?" Cream whispered. The hedgehog continues sleeping, that is until the rabbit manages to wiggle her hand free again awkwardly shake his shoulder. He mumbles in his sleep.
"What?" Shadow mumbles, half-asleep.
"I need to go to the potty Mr. Shadow. Can you let me go?" Cream asks. Shadow unwraps her from his arms and she exits the bed after climbing around him. Once she came back, she snuggled into his arms again and he resumes holding her.
"What time is it?" Shadow mumbles. Cream looks over at the clock.
"It's 4:45AM Mr. Shadow." Cream whispers.
"Alright..." Shadow yawns, his canines flashing. "...few more hours til mornin'..." He unwinds his hand to scratch under his muzzle, an itchy little bump irritated him from his previous shave. Once his itch was relieved, he nuzzled his muzzle on the rabbit's head, his nose tickled her ear.
Shadow literally snored in her ear all night. She didn't mind though; she found his soft rumbling to be a calming sound. Shadow falls asleep again and Cream does so too, enjoying the warmth Shadow gave her.
X-X-X-X
It was 8:15AM when Shadow woke up, Cream still in his arms. His ear twitched before he yawned, his canines showing once again. The young rabbit was already awake but didn't move, smiling as Shadow shifted and placed his arm back around her.
"Cream, you awake Dearheart?" Shadow asks her huskily. Cream smiles but pretends to be asleep. He gently shakes her in his arm instead.
"Dearheart it's time to wake up." Shadow huskily tells her. When he shook her again, she lightly giggles and his acute sense of hearing picks it up. Shadow then smirked, knowing exactly what Cream wanted him to do.
"I know you're awake Cream." Shadow says playfully, his voice still husky and sleepy. "You just want you're old Uncle Shadow to do this!" Shadow tickles her and she squealed with high-pitched laughter. Shadow found it adorable. His smirk said it all.
"Mr. Shadow!" Cream calls out his name through giggles. "Stop!" Shadow stops, chuckling deep within his throat.
"That's for pretending to be asleep." Shadow then taps her nose. "And that's for being adorable."
"I'm adorable to you Mr. Shadow?" Cream asks.
"Yes you are Cream." Shadow said on an out of character silly voice while nuzzling his nose with hers making the rabbit giggle. He looks onto her little brown eyes before she suddenly kisses his scratchy cheek. Shadow's smile becomes lopsided as he grew confused.
"That's for being my best friend Mr. Shadow." Cream says sweetly. She kisses his other cheek. "And that's for being awesome."
Shadow blinked. His smile remained on his snout as he absorbed what just happened. The young one kissed his cheeks and told him he's her best friend. Shadow never viewed himself as the friendly type, but Cream had softened his heart for the better. He puts his head down to hide the redness of his cheeks and Cream giggles. She knew the elder hedgehog was smiling as he blushed, and she found it adorable.
"Don't be shy Mr. Shadow." Cream sweetly tells the hedgehog who refused to look at her. He eventually does, he leans his head over to kiss her forehead and allows her to hug him, the warmth giving both Mobians a feeling of security and happiness.
X-X-X-X
He dressed her up in a yellow dress with a Chao printed on it and helped her put on her shoes. Shadow was gonna take her to the park in the early morning since she's with him all weekend again. They exited the house and Chaos Controlled there, Cream's little hand in Shadow's much larger one. As soon as she got there she runs to the playground and he sits at the nearby bench watching her.
When a human father and his daughter came Shadow watched them closely. The daughter had to be around Cream's age or slightly older. He heard her complain about Cream being there and the hedgehog grew defensive. The man noticed Shadow and the hedgehog heard him tell his daughter that he was probably looking after her.
When the girl looked, Shadow glared. She seemed unfazed however.
"Mr. Shadow!" Cream called. Shadow tore his attention away from the humans and back at Cream.
"Yeah?"
"Watch me!" Cream slid down the slide happily. "Did you see me Mr. Shadow?"
"Yes, I did Dearheart." Shadow called. He looked at the humans again and notice the girl was walking over to the steps as Cream was. When Cream tried to say hi the human girl pushed her down into the sand and Shadow growled out.
"Hey!" The old hedgehog's voice was deep and intimidating.
"AnaLynn!" The human father ran to his daughter, but Shadow was obviously faster, using Chaos Control to appear in front of the girl. He was just barely her height by a whole foot.
"What you think you're doing pushing her down like that?!" Shadow growled as Cream sobbed. He helped her up as the human girl's father came.
"Oh my goodness I'm so sorry for my daughter's behavior. She often bullies other children on playgrounds." The father was visibly shaking as the hedgehog glared daggers at him and his daughter as he helped up Cream.
"Sorry?! All you can say is sorry?! She pushed my little one down the damn stairs! Now she's hurt." Shadow spat as he took Cream's hand.
"Please sir, I swear I'm—"
"Get the hell outta here with that little bitch of yours before I Chaos Spear your asses to the stratosphere!" Shadow threatens and the man runs off with his daughter in his arms. Once they were gone, Shadow knelt down with a worried look on his face.
"Poor Dearheart." Shadow says as he examines the scrape on her knee and arm. "C'mon, let's go back to the house so I can give you some first aid." He took her bridal style and Chaos Controlled back to the house. Once there, Shadow heads into the bathroom and places Cream on the toilet after putting the seat down. He opens his cabinet for some alcohol, ointment and bandaids.
"This will sting little one." Shadow's deep voice mumbles and he splashed some rubbing alcohol over Cream's knee. As expected, she screams from the burning sensation and cries, tears flowing.
"Shh, it's alright Dearheart. I know, I know." Shadow whispers to calm her down. He puts some more on her knee until he takes her arm and does the same thing. Poor little Cream cried but Shadow did what little he knew to be soothing with his words. Because of his deep vocal tone, he sounded unintentionally harsh.
He administers ointment on her knee and arm and after that he bandaids her injuries.
"There. All done." Shadow says.
"W-Why that girl was so mean to me Mr. S-Shadow?" Cream asked through a sob. Shadow narrows his eyes.
"Don't worry about her Dearheart. If anything, your Uncle Shadow was there and was gonna teach her a lesson." Shadow looked into the rabbit's sad eyes. "She's lucky her dad was there otherwise she'd be rushed to the hospital."
"You were gonna hurt her Mr. Shadow?" Cream asked.
"Yes. Bad. Really bad. Worse than she did to you Cream. Maybe even near death." Shadow admitted. He still had some hate towards humans. Cream was slightly nervous by what Shadow just said but didn't say anything else. Shadow picked her up and carried her into the living room so they could watch her favorite cartoons together to make her feel better.
X-X-X-X
Later that night, Cream was asleep with her head on the old hedgehog's chest as he laid on the couch watching the cooking channel. She was so warm as he stroked her large ears affectionately. Once it was late enough, he turned off the TV, carried her with her head on his shoulder and took her to his bedroom to cuddle with him again.
He went to take a freezing cold shower before he slept. The aggressive thoughts of harming the human child who pushed young Cream down made him growl. When he told the rabbit he'd beat the girl to near death he meant it. Humans were the type of people he still didn't —and never will—trust. Shadow may be small to an adult human but like Knux he packed a punch. Small and mighty was every Mobian.
Shadow slips into the bed after he was done and holds the rabbit close to him. He was certain his cool fur would make her cold but it didn't it seem so he got comfortable before falling asleep himself.
X-X-X-X
Shadow woke up early this time. He left Cream in his bed as he went to the bathroom to freshen up. He went into the living room to view early morning news. He was tired, scratching under his muzzle at that irritating little bump again. The old hedgehog thought about getting itch cream if it annoyed him enough.
When Cream woke up, he immediately asked how her injuries were. Cream sleepily smiles and tells Shadow they're feeling better. When she asked for them to get kissed to heal faster, the hedgehog knelt down and affectionately kissed her knee, arm and then her little forehead.
Shadow makes them breakfast before he teleports them to another park. There were other children there, so Shadow growls in aggression. Cream's hold on his hand tightens as she looks up at him, smiling.
"Don't worry Mr. Shadow. Nobody will hurt me this time." Cream tells him. The hedgehog looks down at her and his face softened momentarily. She runs off and he watches her closely, red eyes scan everyone else with scorn. He leans against the nearby tree since all the benches were taken by parents. A few Mobians were there so it wasn't too awkward.
Cream played on the playground happily and Shadow watched her every move. The way he looked made a woman uncomfortable when she saw him from afar, but he was unaware of this.
"That hedgehog looks scary." She whispered to her husband.
"Where?" He asked.
"Him standing by the tree there. He looks mean." Once the man saw Shadow, he too seen the nasty glare in his eyes.
"Maybe he's a predator? Where's his kid?" The two humans looked for a hedgehog like him not knowing he was with a rabbit and got worried.
"I don't see a hedgehog like him. Should we warn everyone that he might be a child predator?" The husband asked his wife.
"I don't want to judge him. Maybe he's with someone but..." They both watched as Shadow pulled himself off the tree and saw his ear twitch. The wife visibly shook when Shadow's head snapped right at them and his nasty glare bores holes through them.
"I think he can hear us..." The husband gulped. They got startled when he teleports and appears in front of them baring his canines.
"Who you calling a predator?!" Shadow snapped. "I'm here with the rabbit and that's all you need to know!"
"Woah man, chill we didn't—"
"I'm tired of you humans judging everything I do." Shadow snarls. He was bringing attention to himself and when Cream realized it was because of Shadow she used her ears to fly over to him and she pulled on the cuff of his glove.
"Mr. Shadow! Please don't hurt them!" Cream begged. Shadow's attention went to her then everyone else who looked. Shadow wasn't ashamed of himself. People judged him all the time. He roughly takes Cream's hand and yells Chaos Control and disappears with the rabbit startling everyone.
They arrived at another park. Thankfully nobody was around. He takes her to the swings and gently pushes her. Cream had no idea what happened at the other park, but she knew the old hedgehog was very upset about it. She wanted to ask him but was too scared to ask him and have him pop a vein.
The rest of the day was fine. Shadow took her to an ice cream parlor and they shared a sundae. That's when Cream asked if he was ok.
"I'm fine Dearheart." Shadow said. He sounded venomous unintentionally. He was serious and when he looked up at the rabbit, he saw the worry in her eyes. This made him feel bad inside and he sighs,
"I'm sorry little one. I let anger get the best of me." Shadow admitted. "Humans are strange to me... I'll never get used to them..."
"I thought you said you was friends with a nice human Mr. Shadow. What about Miss Linda?" Cream asked.
"I know she's a human Dearheart. She's not like everyone else from today. She's a special person to me. You're special to me too." Shadow added, he managed to smile a bit at the rabbit who smiled back. They finished their sundae before heading back home.
X-X-X-X
Shadow dropped off Cream at her house. The whole weekend was fun aside from the girl pushing her down and Shadow's meltdown with the couple. Shadow explained to Vanilla of what the human girl did and thanked Shadow for confronting her and treating her daughter. They wave goodbye as he teleported back home to wait to take care of her next weekend.
A/N: I felt bad for making Cream get hurt, but in the end, I made Shadow come to her rescue. Short, sweet and lovable as usual. Until the next Shadow/Cream love from me take care (especially because of the craziness with Coronavirus).