The King

"So," Soul started, "how have you been?"

Shadow frowned. "I saw you less then two hours ago," he said, "what makes you think my life has suddenly changed?"

Soul circled around Shadow, inspecting the clothing he was wearing. Shadow tapped his foot impatiently, watching Soul as he spun around him.

"Well, for one, you look much better dressed. Two," Soul listed, "I'm pretty sure that's the Kingdom's insignia on your chest." He said, pointing at a small red flame on Shadow's jacket. "I know that you are not from around here."

"How could you be so sure?" Shadow asked. Soul never got to answer as he was quickly distracted by everyone standing in silence around them.

The musicians quieted down as the King walked towards the throne, followed by his brother, Manic, and his sister, Sonia, both holding their own masks. Sonic sat down in the throne, as his brother stood forwards to speak to the people.

"Good evening everyone!" He greeted. "I would like to welcome my dear brother, who is finally gracing us with his presence!" Some members of the audience chuckled, causing Manic to smile. "We are gathered today to help find him a wife to rule with and I can see many fit young ladies for this job already."

Sonia took her brother's spot as Manic stepped back. "Remember everyone, you are also here to have a great time. Not everyone has the liberty to be here, so enjoy your time." Shadow frowned at her words, annoyed by the favoritism of wealthier families.

Occasionally, though very rarely, Mephiles would host parties in the castle. They would be open to everyone in the village, though often they would have to relocate to the streets due to the amount of people. Shadow was always pleased by the people smiling and enjoying themselves.

Now as he looked at the higher class all gathered into one huge ballroom, sipping at wine, the women smothered in make-up, hoping to be chosen to marry the king so they could get what they wanted, he felt disgusted.

Both Manic and Sonia had stepped down and merged into the audience. The people began to talk again, the room filling with noise as many people tried to make their way towards royalty. At some point, Manic had made his was back to his brother's side.

Soul was pushing Shadow forwards, in an effort to try to get the pissed look off his face. "Lancelot, this is your chance to take action, you know?" He frowned when Shadow began to push back against his hand, backing away from the king. "Lancelot are you alright?"

"Silence!" A castle guard called out as Sonic rose from his throne. "The king is about to speak!"

Sonic stood proudly, his brother standing close behind him. "I would like to remind everyone once again," Sonic said, "that I am looking for a partner who will rule with me. However there are certain traits I would like them to have." He started holding up his fingers to list the items.

Shadow bit down on his bottom lip.

"I'm looking for a male," the audience gasped, "covered in bright red stripes, blood colored eyes..."

Soul glanced at Shadow, concerned. "I'm sure it's a coincidence Lancelot." He said. "He can't be possibly be talking about you."

"...by the name of Shadow the Hedgehog."

Shadow gasped, quickly covering his mouth to prevent further noise before the audience broke out in confusion. He heard murmurs about Sonic being homosexual, comments over how stupid the king was, and other rude thoughta. He rushed away from Soul, towards the main entrance of the castle, leaving behind the small bag he had his behind the cracked mirror. He hadn't left much in that stupid closet anyways.

Soul chased after him.

"Lancelot, are you alright?"

"Shut up, what do you know?!" Shadow gripped at his head, curling up as Soul stood in front of him, a solemn look on his face.

Soul placed his hand onto Shadow's shoulder. "I may not know much about you, practically nothing even, but I know something's not right." Shadow inched away from him. "Who are you Lancelot?"

"Nobody you need to know about." Shadow mumbled.

Moments passed before Soul sighed and sat down next to Shadow, pulling his knees to his chest. "You know," he started, "I heard that woman talking to you earlier, she was quite beautiful."

Shadow stayed silent, but waited for Soul to continue.

"You're one of Mephiles's aren't you? The Kingdom of Water?" Soul questioned. "Lancelot?"

Shadow nodded, loosening his tight hold around his legs and relaxing. "Yeah. That's where I'm from. Is there anything wrong with that?"

Soul threw his hands up in defense. "Oh no, I didn't mean it that way!" He grinned. "In fact, where you're from is so much nicer than it is here. Mind taking me there sometime?"

Shadow chuckled. "I just might Soul." Their fingers brushed as he moved into a more comfortable position. "I just might."

The two of them returned to the inn they were staying in, Shadow offering to take the couch for that night along the way. That lead to protests from Soul, however Shadow wouldn't budge even as they were both settling down to sleep. They would switch the next day.

The days after the ball were quite peaceful besides the hullabaloo from the citizens of the kingdom, most of them trying to discover who "Shadow the Hedgehog" was. Shadow made sure to walk around with a cape and hood on. Rumours were spread around and eventually there were complaints over why the king would not take a woman as his partner and how much of a failure the ball was.

Soul had made a point to stay by Shadow for the first few days before finally letting him wander around and enjoy just being in the outskirts of the town by himself. Shadow had gotten himself a few jobs, mainly to earn some money to buy souvenirs for friends back home, but he spoiled himself by replacing the things he had lost in the castle.

That was also around the time that Shadow decided he was going to head back to the Kingdom of Water, deciding that he was going to bring Soul along with him, promising Soul a chat with Mephiles, who he was sure had nothing to do anyways besides order Shadow to run around.

"You told me we'd get there in a flash. But how?" Soul asked.

Shadow moved their location to an emptier alleyway before he pulled out his glowing green chaos emerald. "We'll go with this."

Soul's eyes grew in awe as he admired the glowing green emerald. "Where did you get that? I thought they were all missing?"

"Don't question it. Just hold on." Shadow said, grabbing onto Soul's wrist. "I don't want to get noticed by the guards and this requires quite a large amount of chaos energy." Shadow raised up the emerald.

"Wait a sec-" Soul was cut off by Shadow.

"Chaos Control!"

Thanks for reading! There was only a brief appearance of Sonic but he'll appear soon (though not in the next update, sorry).