'It's kind of like a repeating process' Tails thought. Tails was tinkering around with inventions, while cream watched. She found it very amusing to watch Tails at work. Tails looked over at the amused Cream, sitting on his washing machine.
"What is this think you are making?" Cream asked.
"It's a better device for finding chaos emeralds." Tails explained. He walked over to Cream and sat next to her. He turned it on and his 3 emeralds appeared on a blue grid.
"Wow. But, why?"
"I'm not sure either, we'll see." Tails and Cream got off the washing machine and started to walk out of the basement. Tails placed the new device on a shelf near the stairway. They walked up to the metal stairway, and appeared in the hall way. "I don't know, Cream. I just lost my interest in many things." They walked down the hall to the living room where Sonic laid down on the couch.
"You know, we need to figure something out," Sonic said. Tails and Cream looked to Sonic as he spoke. "Where are these guys?"
"I don't know, we won't be able to track them down with machinery."
"Come on, Tails."
"Seriously."

--

Another day past, and another night to fill the empty town. Seemed nice, nothing happened since the night before. Shadow felt that they were intimidated by him.
Shadow walked the streets, passing the usual shops, candles, candy, food. When you go down these streets for a couple years, you remember everything. Shadow came up to a small snack shop. Shadow would become a little strange at this point.
'Should I get something or no?' He thought. 'I am hungry, but I'm not sure if I should get something.' Shadow just stood in front of that snack shop, thinking over and over again. The quote comes to mind: "Shadow, stop thinking so hard." 'Darn that Amy.' Shadow walked inside the snack shop. He felt the cold air hit him as a bell rang.
"Hello," the cashier greeted.
"Hey," Shadow said back blankly. Shadow walked down one isle and looked at the snacks. Shadow grabbed a bag of chili cheese chips. Shadow walked to the cashier to buy the chips.
"That's it?"
"Yes." Shadow gave the cashier a card, and got it back. "Why is it lonely here at night?" Not something Shadow would ask, but he was probably curious.
"I don't know, it's a good question." Shadow walked out of the snack shop, hearing the bell again. Now the warm air of the outside crept on him. Shadow started to eat his chips from the big bag. He found a bench on the same path he walked down and took a seat. Continuing to eat his chips, he thought about life in general.
'Strange creatures.' Shadow thought. He was still the same ol' shadow. He didn't do much, and criticized a lot. Something hit him, he froze. His thoughts, began to freeze reality. 'Something isn't right here.' Shadow stood up, threw his chips in the trash and began walking again.
'Something leads me.' Shadow was following his thoughts, the future, a message, what is it? It was all too sudden. Shadow turned down an alley way that led to a boat dock. The boat dock had a small factory like building near it. Shadow walked between two of them, and turned a corner near crates. He looked at the ocean and saw the lights of the other side of the town being mirrored. The other town was much smaller compared to the side he lived on, but there were enough lights to show reflection off the water.
Shadow just stood there, waiting.
"Hey sexy," He heard. Shadow turned around and saw the dark blue hedgehog girl.
"My counterpart," Shadow said.
"You should call me that." She walked closer to Shadow, and her gold bracelets began to shine in the city lights. "You're pretty cute, you know that?"
"Hmph." Shadow stared at her, her clothes, her red eyes, her gold bracelets. Azuru kept looking at him too, she had the urge to touch him.
"So, aren't you going to tell me your name?" Azuru tilted her head slightly, and the only orange stripe on her quill became noticeable. It blends in so much with her skin.
"Shadow."
"Cute name." Shadow actually blushed. Was Shadow beginning to fall in love? With an "enemy"? 'The name fits well. Hehe'
"Yeah. So, why are you here?"
"I'm not sure, but I just met a cutie."
"Cutie?"
"Yep."
"Don't change subjects." Shadow got somewhat frustrated. He noticed Azuru pulling out an emerald. "You can use chaos control?"
"Yes, I can. Such stupidity."
"Really though, why?"
"Hehe. Sorry, you're so cute when you get frustrated."
"Dammit! Come on!" Shadow was indeed embarrassing himself.
"Hehe, see ya!"
"What? No!" Azuru began to run, and jumped into the air. Shadow pulled his false emerald. "Chaos control." He teleported in front of Azuru.
"Woah! Wow." She hit Shadow in the side of his head, and Shadow retaliated with a high kick. The kick caused her to fall to the ground but she landed on her feet. "You're a fighter too, I see." Shadow fell to the ground, landing safely.
"Will you no answer the question?"
"Maybe next time." Azuru started to giggle.
"Give me a break." Azuru started to run and Shadow teleported right in front of here again. From this sudden surprise, Azuru threw a punch and hit Shadow right in the check, Shadow put his let foot behind him, to keep balance and threw his own punch. With a right hand, Azuru caught his fist and threw a punch at Shadow's stomach. Shadow caught her fist, and high kicked Azuru. Azuru caught herself, doing a back flip with her hands touching the ground as she went back. She started to rise into the air…
"Chaos blast!" She yelled, pointing her hands out. A ball of energy shot at Shadow, but Shadow jumped up and pushed off a nearby wall of a factory. He went straight towards Azuru.
"Is that all you got?" Shadow said as he got closer. Shadow ended up hitting her on the head, causing her to fall, Shadow teleported to the ground and hit Azuru in the back as she came down, sending her flying to the other building. She landed with her feet, and pushed off the wall toward Shadow. Shadow ducked and grabbed Azuru by the neck, and threw her into the wall behind him.
She got out of the broken-in wall and punched Shadow in the face twice. Shadow was taking steps back, Azuru jumped into the air, and flew down at Shadow. She hit Shadow straight in the head, slamming him to the ground, causing the cement to crack.
"What power…" Shadow muttered. Shadow put his hands on the ground near his head, leaned on them and kicked up at Azuru, causing her to fall to the ground. Shadow jumped, turned to a fall, and attempted to hit the defenseless girl. Azuru opened her eyes to see a red and black ball coming at her. She moved quick enough to dodge Shadow. She jumped onto a wall as Shadow got out of his spin. Azuru jumped into the air again.
"Not again," Shadow said. Azuru smiled as her hand began to glow…
-
"What if I want to do something else than teleport?" Shadow asked.
"I'm not sure if you can." Tails said. "It's a fake emerald, you know?"
"Yeah."
"Well, if you want to a different ability, concentrate a lot of energy." Shadow looked at the colorless prism. "It may work."
-
'It might have a stronger power with all that energy.' Shadow thought. Shadow held out a hand toward Azuru. He began to concentrate energy, and his hands began to glow.
"HA! Using a fake emerald?" Azuru blurted out. "Chaos blast!" Another ball of energy shot at the almost-defenseless hedgehog. Shadow smiled.
"Chaos—," Shadow put his right hand over to his left arm. "Spear!" Shadow flicked out his right hand back to position, and a yellow X appeared at his hand. The x was three times bigger than usual.
"No way." The x-spear flew towards Azuru. It hit the blast-ball, causing it to explode. The spear continued at Azuru at a fast speed. "He has a lot of power." The spear hit Azuru, causing a slight explosion. Azuru fell down to the ground with a crash. Shadow walked over to the fallen hedgehog girl. She laid on her back, there were burn marks on both arms showing where the chaos spear hit.
"You shouldn't underestimate me." Azuru opened her eyes to see Shadow. Shadow stared at the dark blue hedgehog girl, her body, her personality, began to cloud his thoughts. He could see everything… Is he actually starting to fall in love? Shadow turned and started to walk away. Azuru began to moan a bit. Shadow stopped and turned. He noticed Azuru moving her right arm a little bit over to her left arm. Shadow walked back over to Azuru, he knew she was hurt. He kind of felt strange doing this. He held his right hand out, and started to heal Azuru, but the hits in her arm became light blue scars.

"You… healed me." Shadow began to walk away once more. "Wait!" Azuru got off the ground.
"What?" Shadow asked as he stopped.
"I…" Shadow turned around.
"What is it?"
"I just want to…." They heard a strange sound. They both looked up to see a blue plane with a peach kitsune inside of it.
"Shadow!" Tails yelled as he circled around the two hedgehogs. Azuru and Shadow looked back at each other. Azuru held her emerald out in front of her.
"I'm sorry." Azuru said. Azuru closed her eyes and she disappeared. The plane that Tails was in landed near Shadow. Tails jumped out.
"What happened?" Tails asked.
"She fought." Shadow replied.
"What?"
"That girl. Azuru."

"Well, what happened?"

"We fought."

"That's why I'm here. Sonic said I should check this out, because my emeralds were glowing like crazy."
"Then he has the idea."

"Yeah."
"Let's go." Shadow and Tails walked over to the plane and got in. Tails flew the plane back home. Shadow looked out the window and began to think of Azuru.
-

Meanwhile, back at Tails' house, the whole gang sat around, talking about nothing important.

"Yeah, remember what that happened?" Knuckles said laughing.

"That was funny, you should of seen his face Amy," Sonic said.
"You guys are mean," Cream said.

"Come on, you two were into it!"

"Cream, it's ok," Amy said. Cream was blushing at all this nonsense. Completely flustered.

"Come on Sonic, I… I just…" Cream began to stutter. The laughs from Sonic and Knuckles were too much. "I love him."

"What?!"Sonic and Knuckles yelled. Cream smiled.
"See boys?" Rouge began. "Laugh what you want, but this girl has love for someone."

"Oh boy," Sonic said in a strange tone.

"When are you going to tell me you love me?" Amy asked.

"But… I have."
"Say it again." Sonic was motionless, frozen. He needed a distraction. He got it when Tails and Shadow walked inside the house. Sonic noticed a bruise on Shadow's face.

"What happened?" Sonic asked.
"My counterpart came." Shadow replied.

"No way," Knuckles said.

"Yeah," Shadow started. "We are the same. She can use chaos control." Everyone flipped out.

"Well, give us the play by play." Sonic said. Shadow looked at Sonic with a confused look. Tails went up to Shadow and whispered in his ear.
"He means tell him everything," Tails whispered.

"Oh," Shadow said. "Simple, she started to play head games with me, she tried to run, but I stopped her. Then she fought me." Everyone started to say random things, such as the usual 'woah'. Sonic seemed somewhat impressed.

"What else?" he asked.
"What else must I say?" Shadow asked back.
"Tell me more." Shadow wasn't really wanting to explain it.
"Tails, do you have a video of what happened?"

"Yes, why?" Tails asked.
"To show Sonic."
"Sonic, go into that room, press the red button."

"Why?" Sonic asked.
"What the whole fight?" Tails responded.
"Oh! Sweet!" Sonic ran right for the work room, and proceeded with what Tails said. Shadow now sat down on the couch to relax.

"Cream?" Tails asked. Cream looked up at Tails with a somewhat sad face. "What's wrong?"

"Oh, nothing," Cream said. Amy and Rouge watched this, maybe one of them will really say 'it'.

"Oh man!" Sonic yelled walked back out to the living room. "That was a sweet fight. Shadow opened his eyes. "So, did you get her phone number?" Shadow was confused at this statement.

'Oh no' Tails thought.
"Poor shadow," Amy muttered with a giggle.

"At least he might learn something from this," Rouge said giggling too.

"Why?" Shadow asked.
"You have a crush," Sonic stated. Shadow tried to stay cool. Amy and Rouge dropped their silverware, attention caught by Sonic's comment.

"No."

"Oh yeah." Sonic started to smile.

"Hmph."

"Shadow's got crush!" Everyone started to chant those words. After about 5 minutes of the chanting, Shadow lost his mind.

"Shut up!" Shadow yelled. The chanting stopped, along with a little bit of laughter.

"Knuckles, they're a perfect match," Sonic said.

"Really now," he replied.

"Two fighters, don't care for much, can get mad easily."

"That alike?"

"Oh yeah." The conversation drifted to some other things, such as, why doesn't Tails make any more inventions. Tails put his hand behind his head and began to scratch, and somewhat smiled.

"I don't know," Tails would say. "Just don't know what to make anymore."

"You should make something that will torture Sonic," Rouge said laughing.

"Hey," Sonic started. "Why me?"

"You deserve it?" Knuckles asked.

"Shoot." Cream slipped outside without anyone noticing. She could hear the muffled sounds of the conversation from inside. She walked into the grass and sat down. She looked up into the stars, and thought about what has been happening. The fights, everything. It was too much for her, she was about to drop down and cry.

Tails was enjoying the time again, but amidst from everything, he noticed Cream wasn't in the house at all.

'Cream?' He thought. He slipped out of the house, but one particular hedgehog noticed this. A blue one.

Tails walked out and saw Cream sitting on the grass, a little ways from the house itself. Tails say down next to the sad Cream.

"What's wrong?" he asked as he put his hand on Cream's opposite shoulder.

"Everything," Cream said. "Too many things are happening."

"It's ok Cream."

"I can't stand it."

"Don't worry Cream, we'll get out of this." Cream looked over at Tails, who was looking at her.

"Are you sure?"

"Of course." Cream and Tails stood up, and were turned at each other. "Cream."

"Tails?"

-"Oh my god, are they gonna say it?" Amy asked.

"We'll see." Sonic said. Everyone from inside the house were looking outside at the kitsune and rabbit. –

"Look, I… uh."

"What is it?" Tails started to feel nervous, shaky, though he wasn't shaking.

-The suspense was killing everyone, would they confess?-

"Cream… I… I love you." Tails finally said it. A surge of energy burst through his veins. Cream's eyes seemed to widen, and her mouth dropped a little. Cream was shocked, she had love for him too, but she didn't know he would say something.

"Oh! Tails!" Cream grabbed Tails into a hug. "I love you too." After a minute, Cream let go, and they grabbed each other's hands.

-Sonic and the others were in total shock. They can't believe they heard the three words come from Cream and Tails'.–

Tails and Cream just stood there, staring into each other's eyes. Now the certain time came, would they kiss?

Cream and Tails obviously looked nervous. Cream took a quick look down and back up at Tails. They seemed to inch closer and closer. Tails and Cream slowly closed their eyes, and closed in slowly. Soon, their lips touched each other. They kept at it for about a minute or so.

-Everyone as blown away, jaw dropped. Sonic was about to yell something.

"Oh… my… god! It's a miracle!" Everyone else started to cheer. "You go Tails!"

"You go you stud muffin!" Knuckles yelled.

"Aww! Cute!" Amy yelled.

"Wow." Shadow said. –

Cream and Tails noticed them cheering, got out of there kiss. They were bright red, embarrassed to the highest they have ever been. The shock burst through their veins. Shivers sent down through the spine. Cream and Tails looked back at each other. They laughed a bit along with the cheering of their friends. Cream and Tails hugged once again.

Cream and Tails will remember this one moment, amidst the trials and problems, love cannot be destroyed. They were both ready to take on anything.

One kiss can say everything, and the rest of the group wouldn't agree more.