Rivalry of the Heart
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Pairing(s): Sonic x Chris, Shadow x Chris
Summary: What if it wasn't Sonic who fell in Chris' pool, but instead... Shadow? And what if Chris had a special connection with the Chaos Emeralds? Eggman isn't going to like this...Or is he..?
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Chapter 2;
Cat Food And
Good-bye Kisses
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The morning after the incident in the pool at midnight, Chris found himself out on the balcony, talking to his mother on the phone as Mr. Tanaka poured some healthy tea for the young master. The two hedgehogs were in their own "hiding" places while Tanaka did his work, so Chris didn't worry too much about the two.
"Oh, Chris, why would you do such a thing so late at night?" his mother's voice called through the phone, sounding worried.
"Its not like that, Mama," Chris replied, smiling a bit nervously, "You see..." Turning blue sapphire orbs up to Sonic, who watched him lazily on the roof top, he continued, "A cat fell in and I couldn't just leave him to drown..."
"Oh, you are so kind," she sighed, relieved, "But promise me not to do anything so reckless again, all right sweetie?"
"Yes, Mama," Chris nodded, even though he knew she couldn't see it.
"Well, I must be going," her voice spoke, a bit reluctantly, "I love you, Chris. Good-bye."
"I love you, too, Mama," Chris smiled softly, hearing the sound of his mother's lips smacking the phone before doing the same. That done, he hung up the phone with a light blush now on his cheeks.
Hearing a grunt, Chris looked up just in time to watch Sonic jump from his spot on the roof to sit on the balcony railing closest to the young orange haired boy. "So, this cat..." Sonic started a bit grumpily, "Was it Shadow?"
At the sound of his name, the dark furred hedgehog walked out of his hiding place, which happened to be behind a couple of tall flowered plants. Glaring at the other, Shadow grunted, "I'm not a cat."
"I'm sorry," Chris frowned, worry coming to his eyes, "I didn't mean to upset you. Its just that hedgehogs here are a lot smaller. Like this," he added, showing the height with both his hands, "But you're different. You're both a lot bigger and can talk!"
"Hn," Shadow grunted, stepping up to be at Chris' side but appearing not to care.
"How did you learn to talk, anyway?" Chris asked, turning questioning eyes up to Sonic.
"I dunno..." Sonic mumbled, glaring down at Shadow for being so close to the boy, "Its too far back, I can't remember."
"Oh..." was his slightly disappointed and sympathetic reply. But before he could say anymore, the phone in his hand began to ring, and so turning his attention away from the two. "Moshi moshi?"
"Hello, Chris?"
"Ah! Hello, Papa!"
--
Shadow silently watched as Chris finished another conversation on the phone, this time with this human he called "Papa" and not the female now known as "Mama." Hearing the click as a signal of being able to speak again, Shadow started to ask, but was cut off by Sonic's annoyed sniff and shake of the head.
To Shadow's amusement, though, a blush struck Chris' cheeks at this, along with a cute, shy smile. Shaking it off, Chris suddenly asked, "What do you eat?"
"Eat?" Shadow asked, blinking in shock. He had forgotten about food after being sent to this world and the boy before him wasn't helping those nonexistent thoughts.
"What do hedgehogs here eat?" Sonic, always the curious one.
"Well, I checked on the internet and it said they like to eat this," Chris explained as he walked over to the table Mr. Tanaka's tea was last placed and set the phone down, picking up a dog bowl and showing the contents to the blue hedgehog.
Blinking in curiosity himself, Shadow watched as Sonic picked up one of the funny looking brown pieces; Sniffing, scanning with emerald eyes, and finally, plopping it into his mouth. And the dark one was pleased with the result.
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'It...tastes...HORRIBLE!' were Sonic's thoughts as he hacked and stuck out his tongue to get the vile taste from his mouth. 'How in the world...No, how in THIS world would any animal or man want to eat something so...so...VILE!'
"Ah, are you okay?" Chris yelped, shocked by Sonic's sudden reaction. He wasn't expecting THIS of all things, after all.
"Wha-what in the hell was THAT?" Sonic gasped between coughs and hacks, trying to remove the horrid taste from his mouth as best he could.
"Ahh...Well," blushing with a shy and nervous smile, Chris held up the bowl as if it held all the answers as he simple spoke, "Its cat food."
'Cat...Food...?' Sonic's eyes widened slowly, the look of disgusted turning to one of horror at the mention of the animal Chris had spoken of on the phone with his mother. 'First he calls Shadow a cat, and now he's feeding me cat food? This is INSANE!'
Jumping up to his feet, still perched on the railing, Sonic made a spitting motion towards the garden bellow them, scowling in frustration at the whole cat subject, even if the boy meant nothing bad by it. It wasn't his fault he didn't know what hedgehogs ate in the anthro's world. But Sonic didn't care at the moment. All he wanted was a good meal. Something to fill up his empty belly. And this...cat food... wasn't going to cut it.
"Listen," the blue hedgehog spoke up, sniffing a bit with his anger, "I'm going to snatched up some real food in town. I'll be back later."
Just as Sonic was about to jump down from the balcony railing and run off to fetch some of this said food, Chris' sweet voice stopped him in his tracks as he cried worriedly, "But its not safe for you to go out. What if someone sees you and get caught? They might think you as some alien or dangerous weapon, how animals can't talk, and perform odd tests on you!"
Staring at Chris' innocent face for a few seconds, Sonic smiled one of his famous cocky grins, replying, "Relax. I'll be right back." With that, Sonic jumped down to the grassy land, turned to Chris one more time when he heard the boy cry his name, and giving the redhead a wink, sped off to Station Square for something edible...Like a chili dog, perhaps.
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"Sonic! Matte!"
Huffing a relieved sigh, Shadow turned his stern gaze up at Chris' flustered form. "Forget him," he ordered simple, getting the boy's blue eyes to return his stare with a gentler one. Seeing the worry still in the other's gaze, the black hedgehog only shrugged, replying with an uncaring, "He'll be back. He's like a bad itch. One that no matter how many times to try to scratch away, it will always come back."
Chris stared down at the hedgehog for a moment, thinking his words over before giggling despite the harsh meaning that was directed to the blue runaway hedgehog.
"Shadow, that's cruel," Chris scolded, but it came out more mockingly so, thanks to his sudden bout of giggles. How embarrassing!
Smirking despite himself, Shadow turned on his heels, walking back into the mansion as he called over his shoulder, "I only speak the truth, kid. Only the truth."
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'What an odd bunch...' Chris thought to himself. Though his words may have been insulting to both hedgehogs, he only thought them with admiration. They were much more free then he would ever be. Able to come and go as they pleased, and with such speed! And all he could do was walk around in his family's mansion like a good little rich boy and stay out of trouble...
Sighing, the redhead went back into the mansion himself, sitting down on the couch while watching Ella take his breakfast plates back into the kitchen to clean up. Once the large woman was out of sight, though, the familiar black furred hedgehog made his appearance known, sitting down with a bit of stiffness next to Chris.
"..."
Hearing the almost silent sound of lips moving, but no words accompanying it, Chris turned sapphire blue eyes down at the ruffled hedgehog, watching silently as Shadow tried to spit whatever he wanted to say out. Blinking a bit in curiosity, Chris finally gave a helping hand as he asked, "What is it, Shadow?"
"..." sighing, Shadow turned his hard crimson eyes up to meet Chris' blue, finally mustering up enough will to speak. "I was curious... as to why you..."
Tilting his head cutely, Chris gave another push, seeing as Shadow wasn't going to say any more any time soon with out it. "As to why I did...what?"
"That phone..." growling in frustration, Shadow glared at the boy in front of him for making it even more difficult to speak to him with that cute looking face of his, and yet able to push him to actually speak his mind at the same time, "Why did you...kiss it..?"
A blush slapped Chris' face at this. This question totally threw him off guard!
Chuckling lightly, the redhead ran a hand through his reddish brown locks, looking up at the ceiling, far from Shadow's own piercing gaze. And he thought the crude remark on Sonic making him have a giggling fit was embarrassing! Jeesh!
Silence filled the room, consuming it. If it wasn't for Ella's faint humming in the kitchen, Chris would of felt very small and alone right then. Very small, alone, and burning beet red. But then again, he already felt beet red, so I guess you can cross that part out.
Hearing the sound of Shadow clearing his throat, whether to get Chris' attention to answer his question, or feeling just as awkward as Chris and needing to break the silence, the boy didn't know. But, knowing he'd feel bad for not answering the black furred humanoid's question, and after it took so much of a struggle to get the words out, he finally answered;
"Mama and Papa...Ah, they try to be good parents, even when they're away most of the time."
"..But, what's that got to do with why you kiss a phone?" Shadow asked, suddenly looking oddly cute with that curious look flashing through his usually hard eyes. Which Chris couldn't help to smile sweetly at.
"Its because Mama and Papa, if they were actually here to say good-bye to me when they leave, would give me a kiss from both of them. Its there way of showing their love for their only child, I guess... I never really thought about it before." Giggling a bit at this, Chris added a, "Silly, huh?"
'A kiss good-bye..?' Before Shadow could think of what he was saying, the words of, "I've never gotten one of those..." slipped past his lips. Snapping back to himself, a blush staining his own yellow furred cheeks, the black hedgehog scolded in his mind, 'WHAT THE HELL WAS THAT! You idiot! Of course you never got one! The only one who did say good-bye to you died while sending you into space! You'd never gotten a chance!'
"Really?" Chris chirped, interested with the conversation now. Smiling that sugary sweet smile of his, the redhead responded, "How about I make a promise?"
"...On what..?" Shadow asked, uncertain if this was a good thing or not. Though the kid reminded him greatly of Maria, he still knew nothing on what made the boy tick. He could be a wolf in sheep's clothing, for all he knew!
"I'll make a promise, that whenever the day comes to send you back where ever you came from, I will give you a kiss good-bye. Does that sound okay?"
Blinking up at the innocent smile on the boy's features, Shadow slowly, but surely, nodded his head, replying with a mumbled, "I guess..."
Smiling widely, Chris was about to add something when a blue blur came into the room, bouncing on the couch on Chris' other side. Before he knew it, a chili dog was being shoved in front of his face as a hyper Sonic asked a bit too eagerly, "Wanna bite? Its DELICIOUS!"
With an unsure smile, Chris could only sweatdrop as Shadow began to snap at Sonic for being a careless idiot, which followed by Sonic growling back at Shadow with being a heartless bastard. 'Like I've said before...' Chris thought with a sigh, smiling lightly in amusement at the two, 'What an odd bunch...'
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-tsuzuku-