Kingdom of Water

"Mephiles, I'm sure he's only back to report to you," Rouge said, "Shadow will be fine."

"He's not fine." Mephiles huffed. "It's only been less than two weeks and recieved a letter from Amy only two days ago."

The two of them walked down a hallway of the castle, towards the area where Tails had detected a spike in chaos energy. Rouge groaned as Mephiles quickened his pace, speeding up to catch up with him.

"Look," Rouge sighed, "I know you care about him but he's probably the best spy we have besides, I don't know, Espio and he'll have a perfectly reasonable excuse to be using his chaos emerald."

"But there another person with him and it's not Sonic!" Mephiles retorted.

"Shut up, I'm not dealing with you today." Rouge increased her pace, rushing ahead of Mephiles. "I'm going to pick up Maria, she'll probably coax more out of Shadow than you ever will."

She rushed away, her heels clicking against the floor as she walked, the sound echoing. As Rouge went her way, she shouted an insult at Mephiles, leaving him standing in the middle of the hallway alone.

"Fuck bats." Mephiles grumbled.

He continued his way towards the energy spike, nodding his head at anyone he happened to pass by. He noticed he was heading towards the throne room, the grandest place in the kingdom and also the most useless place ever.

Mephiles pushed open the double doors, coming face to face with a stranger that had the lower half of their face covered with a mask. Shadow stood a few feet away, looking surprised.

"Who are you?" Mephiles demanded, eyeing the stranger warily.

The stranger stuttered, trying to find words to say as Shadow walked over, slipping his chaos emerald back into his quills. He motioned for the stranger to stop trying.

"This is Soul," Shadow said, "I met him during the trip. We shared a room."

Mephiles watched the stranger, Soul, nod his head in agreement still searching to find words until he settled on bowing. "It's very nice to meet you King Mephiles!" Soul said enthusiastically. "I admire your kind ways!"

"Why, thank you Soul." Mephiles felt quite flattered, though he hid it.

Shadow pulled out a box from the bag he had been carrying, handing it over to Mephiles as he exited the room. "I didn't know what to get you so here's a box of chocolates." He said, pulling Soul with him as he ran away from the throne room.

Mephiles stood there for a few seconds before registering what had just happened. "What do you mean 'here's a box of chocolates'! Come back here!" He shouted, rushing after the duo.

By the time Shadow had made it to his room, Mephiles was only a few feet away. As Soul entered, Shadow slammed the door close and made sure to lock it, hearing Mephiles shouting profanities at him as he pounded on the door.

"Lancelot why are running from the King?" Soul asked, panting from the running he had just done to catch up with Shadow.

"No special reason," Shadow paused, "I just happened to fuck everything up." He sighed and leaned over, resting his head in his hands.

Mephiles's shouting continued for a few moments until he stopped abruptly. His pounding on the door was replaced with light taps that Shadow refused to answer to. The taps soon changed to the doorknob shaking slightly until the door suddenly opened, Rouge standing proudly in the doorway with Maria and Mephiles behind her.

"I picked the lock." Rouge announced proudly. She looked over at Soul, who was frozen in place, and back at Shadow. "Where did you pick up this hunk Shadow? Mind if I take him?"

"Wait, what?" Soul jumped at the mention of Shadow's actual name. "I thought he was Lancelot?" He looked worriedly at Shadow who made a point to look and be as far away as he possibly could at that moment, shrinking behind Maria and Rouge.

"Lancelot? That's just some knight guy Shadow admires, he must have used it for the mission." Rouge sighed, "Messing up relationships again. Troublesome."

Soul stammered, staring at Shadow with wide eyes. "You lied." He whispered. "It was all a lie."

"I know." Shadow said quietly back, not wanting to start a scene.

"I'm sure he did it for both your and his safety Soul!" Maria jumped in. "Shadow always protects people important to him! I'm sure he never meant to harm you, right Shadow?"

"Of course Maria." Shadow agreed.

Maria nodded enthusiastically. "That's right! Shadow even takes care of the orphans more often than anyone else." She said, trying to remember things to justify Shadow's actions. "I recall a time when a prince, Sonic, I think, visited us and Shadow was extremely protective over the children we had living in our home! He even sung a lullaby to Cream, who was just a little baby at the time, poor girl, losing her mother so early."

Soul ignored most of her rambling besides certain parts. "Wait you mean the Sonic? As in the king of the Fire Kingdom? The one that's interested in Lance- I mean Shadow as a partner?"

"That was why you decided to come back? Using the chaos emerald?!" Mephiles fumed. "That would've made everything so much easier! Didn't you listen to anything Amy Rose said?"

"Oh, I'm sorry, I just have a sadistic bastard pining for my love and I can't hear you over my agony! Like you know anything!" Shadow yelled back. "Why don't you just paint your stripes red and steal him yourself? It's not like he announced to the entirety of the Fire Kingdom that he was searching for you to fuck!"

"Shadow! Not in front of Maria!" Rouge cried out.

Maria started to protest against Rouge ordering Shadow around as everyone shouted at each other, Soul joining in at some point and shouting at Shadow that he should have trusted him. The room was in utter chaos for minutes until everyone was either too tired to continue or managed to lose their voice.

They crowded around Shadow's bed, Soul falling backwards onto it. "I can't believe this is all happening so fast." He murmured.

"None of it is your fault." Shadow said, quiet enough so that only Soul could hear him from his position on the bed.

"Thanks Lan- Shadow." Soul whispered back.

Everyone in the room stayed quiet for awhile, not wanting to get into another argument just after they managed to end one. Mephiles began making small talk with Soul, the two of them getting to know each other. Soul was still rather excited that he was meeting and talking to Mephiles.

"So," Rouge started talking to Shadow, "how was your trip?"

Shadow shrugged. "Alright, Sonic seems to be a little more messed up than he was before." He said while searching around in his bag. "By the way, I bought you and Maria some clothes, hopefully you're not gonna burn them."

"Thank you so much Shadow!" Maria said, delighted. "You didn't have to!"

"It's alright I had the mo-" Shadow started before he was captured by Rouge in a bone-crushing hug.

"You never get me anything!" She said, ruffling the top of Shadow's head. "About time you thanked me for everything I've done for you!"

Later, they regrouped in Mephiles's office, where Tails and Cosmos were chatting away, discussing details of another mission.

Cosmos noticed the others upon them entering. "Mother! You're home early!" She grinned at Shadow.

The striped hedgehog patted her on the head, handing her a small box with a piece of jewelry inside. "Yeah, yeah, I'm home."

Behind him, Rouge giggled as Maria explained to Soul why Shadow was referred to as Mother instead of something else. Shadow's eye twitched as Rouge's laughs grew louder.

"Welcome back Shadow, I've already heard about what happened from Mephiles." Tails said, scribbling away on a piece of paper. "I'm already formulating another plan." Noticing Shadow's sudden face of panic, he added, "It won't be for another month or so and we'll be sending Amy Rose or Espio with you, we're still deciding."

"Do you mind adding me?" Soul asked. "I know the area quite well and I have friends who'll be able to help out."

"Sure." Tails said, writing a note at the top of the paper and ignoring the rest of what Soul said. "I'll send you with Shadow, er..."

"I'm Soul."

Tails nodded. "Soul right." He muttered something under his breath but continued scribbling away.

"Well then," Mephiles spoke suddenly, "Shadow, why don't you show Soul to a guest room and then settle down yourself?"

Last update for today! As a reminder, Shadow took care of many children, receiving the name Mama or Mother. The main children (who will be mentioned from here on out) he took care of were Silver, Tails, Cosmos, and Cream.