It was rather late for lunch, but Sonic insisted that food was required, the sooner the better.

"Come on, Shadow! I'm starving to death over here!" he whined, making puppy eyes and kicking at rocks on the sidewalk.

Shadow sighed, shaking his head and looking around at the surrounding stores. "What are you hungry for?"

"Um…" Sonic took a moment to think, glancing at a relatively theme-less pizza place. "How about pizza?"

Shrugging, Shadow crossed the street in front of Sonic, whose eyes boredly drifted towards Shadow's green sweatshirt. Why was Shadow wearing clothes, anyhow? Guys didn't normally wear more than shoes and gloves, and that was just tradition. Maybe he was self-conscious, but why? And why green?

Shadow turned and looked at Sonic, eyebrow raised. Cars honked.

"Might want to get out of the road, Sonic!" she called, the aforementioned hedgehog staring dumbly at her before finally getting a move-on. Shadow laughed. "What's up with you, anyways? It's practically every time we talk that you mention food!"

Sonic shrugged as they walked into the pizza parlor. "I guess I'm just a big eater. What kind of pizza do you want?"

"I'm not hungry. However, I may cadge off of whatever kind you get."

"Cadge?" asked Sonic, the two of them getting in line for the register.

"It means mooch. Or steal. Whichever," said Shadow, the line growing shorter as they approached the cashier.

"Some vocabulary you've got, there," joked Sonic, ordering a table for two and a large supreme pizza to be delivered to it.

Shadow shrugged, smiling. Sonic was simply pleasant to be around. If only all of life were so simple.

Sonic drummed his fingers against the booth's table as he awaited the impending pizza.

"What's taking them?" he asked, agitatedly slurping his already-nearly-empty soda.

"Hey, Sonic?" said Shadow, carefully unwrapping a straw so that the wrapper crumpled. She set the crumpled wrapper on the table before taking the unwrapped straw and dipping in her water. Sonic stared, confused, as she held her fingertip against the end of the straw, removed it from the water, and relaxed her finger while the straw tip was over the crumpled wrapper. The water from inside the straw was released and soaked the wrapper, causing it to unwrinkle and writhe as if a living thing.

"Whoa! How did you-? What-?"

Shadow smiled. "Try it when you get a refill."

However, the pizza arrived before then, and Sonic eagerly dug in, watching Shadow clean up the remains of the "living straw wrapper". That was a pretty interesting trick, Sonic had to admit, but his attention eventually returned to the question of Shadow's attire.

He was tempted to mention it, but he didn't want to offend Shadow. It was personal, so Sonic attempted to drop the thought, but it was still a mystery to him.

Sonic's attention snapped back upwards when he realized that Shadow was staring at him.

"What?" asked Sonic, quickly taking a bite of pizza as a cover. Shadow still stared, a bit of a confused glare, from Sonic's standpoint. It was moments like this he wished he could read minds.

Shadow didn't know how to react. A few minutes ago, Shadow had been looking between Sonic eating and the décor of the restaurant. Then Sonic had stopped eating and started staring. At Shadow's chest. Yet there was nothing there to look at! She was just wearing a plain, green hooded sweatshirt; no decals, no markings, no excuse there. She was somewhat happy to say she had nothing overt in the front, as other women did, so that was out…

"What were you staring at?" asked Shadow, her arms now crossed over her chest, to prevent further examination.

"Why do you wear clothes?" asked Sonic, a little too quickly. He gasped at his own response and choked on his pizza a moment before downing the last of his soda to recover.

Shadow raised an eyebrow. "Because it gets cold sometimes in Redwood Park. Why?"

Sonic seemed stunned at so simple an answer. "I was just spacing out, I guess," he muttered, in answer to Shadow's original question.

Shadow smiled a bit, waving it off with a joking "Finish your pizza" to Sonic. Sonic grinned sheepishly, and complied.

'Crisis averted,' sighed Uncharted Territory, sliding into the booth next to Sonic.

'What do you mean?' thought Sonic, still munching on his pizza as Shadow took out his newly-charged phone.

'Well, he seemed a little irritated that you were staring,' muttered Uncharted Territory, putting his hands behind his head and relaxing, his skin-tight leather pants squeaking against the shiny red seats.

Sonic looked back up at Shadow, who was tapping away at his journal and occasionally glancing around the restaurant or out the window. 'Seems okay to me,' he figured, leaning back in agreement with Uncharted Territory, who paused a moment to adjust one of his bangles.

'Speaking of which,' muttered Uncharted Territory, an odd look in his eye. "So, Shadow… We doin' anything tonight?"

Sonic raised an eyebrow, confused. Uncharted Territory? Addressing Shadow? What was he-?

"I didn't have anything planned. You want to do something?"

Sonic was aghast. 'Please, please don't do that again,' thought Sonic, terrified.

'What?' asked Uncharted Territory, just as laid-back as ever, 'you said it.'

"Did I say that out loud?" asked Sonic, to try to confirm his sanity or lack thereof.

"Say what out loud?" asked Shadow, looking up from his phone.

Sonic stuttered, eventually just giving up and going back to eating, leaving Shadow very confused.

"There's a movie theatre in town. Anything you wanted to see?" suggested Shadow, intent on lessening Sonic's awkwardness.

"I don't know. What's on?" replied Sonic, between bites of pizza crust. He froze up again after saying so, almost as if embarrassed.

"That one movie based on that kid's show is out. It's supposed to be PG-13 though. Don't know how that works."

"I saw some posters for that one," said Sonic, setting down his pizza for a minute. "It looks pretty good. How much are tickets?"

"I'll buy," offered Shadow, a couple of movie tickets well within her budget. Sonic thought a moment, and nodded.

"As long as I buy popcorn. You got to have popcorn."

Shadow smiled a bit, glad to have loosened Sonic up a bit.

There it was again, she noticed; that strange idea: loosening Sonic up; cheering him up; making him relax. What was making him so uptight in the first place?

Uncharted Territory elbowed Sonic in the side. 'Get a seat in the back; it's the best make out spot.'

Sonic shook his head briefly, standing next to Shadow in line for movie tickets.

Shadow noticed and nudged Sonic's arm. "You okay, Sonic?"

"Yeah; just spacing out again. Sorry."

Shadow smiled and sighed. "At least try to focus on the movie, okay?"

"Okay," said Sonic, rather seriously in response to her joking tone.

"It was a joke, Sonic."

"Oh."

Shadow absently munched his popcorn as Sonic watched him rather than the movie.

"Sonic, why have you been so spacey lately?"

"Huh?" responded Sonic, as Shadow looked up from the film to view him instead.

"I don't know. I think we're doing something fun and then you just clam up and things get …gauche."

"Gauche?"

"Unsettling. Uncomfortable? Awkward, I guess. Gauche."

'I don't think he likes you,' thought Sonic, toward Uncharted Territory, who sat in the row behind them. Uncharted Territory stuck his tongue out, apathetically.

"I don't know, Shadow. It's kind of hard to explain."

Shadow smiled. "The weird problems are the best ones. Try me."

'Well, my inner demon of lust has appeared in my head and wants us to hook up. What can I do?' jawed Uncharted Territory, as unsympathetic as they come.

"Well," started Sonic, "I'm on call, you know. Something cataclysmic could happen and I would have to go to the other side of the world or something at any time! And we're having fun and it feels like… I mean, I'm gonna miss it when I'm gone. Fighting bad guys and stuff is fun and all, but…I'll… Miss you."