Don't let the tea get you down

Shadow woke up with a start, he did not remember falling asleep... he realized then he was in Cream and Vanilla's house... it wasn't too hard to guess, seeing as the room smelled of lemons. His ears twitched, outside he could hear birds twittering and leaves rustling, as well as the steady rush of traffic. Downstairs he could hear a knife thudding repeatedly into a cutting board, and a kettle gently whistling. He also heard quiet conversation, but couldn't understand what was being said. He sighed and leaned back with his arms behind his head. He stared at the ceiling. Why did he have to get sick? Heck, having his mind controlled would be better than this, admittedly, being sick meant he didn't have to race Sonic, which was great, but not being able to go out for a run... having his throat feeling weird, and his ears being hypersensitive....? Not good. His ears twitched again as he heard water being poured, and feet on the stairs. Vanilla opened the door, smiling, she was carrying a tray. "Good morning Shadow, Cream and I made some ginger and honey tea for your throat, and we washed some grapes for you in case you feel the need for them."

"GRAPES!" They heard a yell in the street, Shadow clapped his hands over his ears. Vanilla smiled and called out the window.

"I'm sure Cream will set some out for you too Knuckles, just knock on the door, I'm a little busy so Cream will answer alright?" Knuckles practically stampeded towards the door of the house. Vanilla turned back to Shadow. "There are also some earplugs on the tray, in case you want to go to sleep, or ignore any sound from outside." And still smiling, Vanilla left the room.

***

Shadow had put in the earplugs in only five minutes after that, he'd gotten annoyed with listening to Knuckles eating grapes. Now he sat in merciful silence, quietly drinking the tea, he'd noticed that it got spicier if left sitting, but he liked it, so he only drank the occasional sip now and then, and occasionally popped a grape into his mouth to counteract the spiciness. They were nice and sweet, bursting with only a little bit of pressure. He breathed in dozens of different smells, mostly lemon, grape, water, ginger, honey, and.... he frowned. Chili. Sonic had to be near then. Sure enough, when he took out the earplugs for a second, he heard Sonic's voice downstairs, he immediately put the earplugs back in, put the mug of tea on the tray, lay back, and fell asleep.

***

Sonic grinned at Shadow. "Seeing him sick is a little weird..." Knuckles agreed. It was very strange, especially seeing the black hedgehog sleeping in Vanilla and Cream's house... he was surprised that the hedgehog hadn't changed the smell of the room from lemon to gunpowder. The echidna guessed that Shadow was fine with the smell, either that, or he couldn't smell it. Maybe his nose was clogged. He looked around. No that couldn't be it... there wasn't a tissue box in the room... He noticed Sonic sneaking forward.

"What are you doing?" Sonic paused and grinned at him.

"He has earplugs in, if we took them out and yelled loud enough, maybe he'd throw up!" Knuckles was disgusted.

"Sonic how could you?"

"It would be funny, seeing the Ultimate Life-form throw up..." Sonic's ideas were paused by the hand of Knuckles, who knocked him out and grabbed him.

"Vanilla?" She looked up and gasped.

"What happened?"

"He was going to try to make Shadow puke so I had to knock him out." Vanilla tut-tutted.

"Put him in one of the guest bedrooms please, and lock him in if you'd like, I'll have a word with him when he wakes up." Knuckles nodded and did as he was asked to. When he came back down he started having more grapes.

Shadow woke up feeling strange...... he realized why when he saw Amy leaning over him, eyes wide. "ARGH!" He didn't actually hear her scream, he just knew she had..... he thanked heaven that Vanilla had given him the earplugs. When the pink hedgehog finished screaming Shadow pulled the earplugs out.

"What do you want?"

"Um... well..." Shadow looked at her. "Everyone wants to see you downstairs." She finished, smiling nervously. Shadow frowned, "everyone"... that would include..... he groaned, Sonic. Of course. He shrugged.

"Fine... I'll be down soon." He waited until she was out then drank more of the ginger and honey tea and gasped at the spiciness... when it passed (thanks to twenty juicy grapes), he noticed his throat didn't feel weird anymore. He looked at the mug. "I guess that stuff actually works." Then he stood, stretched, and popped his neck, cracked his knuckles, and yawned. Then he went to the door and opened it, he still had the earplugs, just in case, his ears were still sensitive after all. He could hear everyone downstairs breathing or chatting. He knew Rouge at least had heard him come down, because he heard the voices lowering somewhat.

"Hey Shadow!" Shadow didn't have time to get away, Sonic had already come over and grabbed his arm. "How are you feeling?" Knuckles was giving Sonic strange looks so Shadow guessed something had happened.

"What did you try to do to me Faker?" He asked, crossing his arms.

"Me? I didn't....."

"He tried to make you puke, he was going to take out your earplugs and yell in your ear to make you." Said Knuckles. Sonic glared at the red echidna. Shadow was outraged though.

"You what?!" Vanilla stepped in before a fight could break out.

"Shadow, I'm making you more ginger honey tea, there's some orange juice on the table if you'd like, as well as some fruit." Shadow nodded and calmed down.

"Thanks." She smiled.

"Now, will everyone please behave while I'm out? Please listen to Cream, because while I'm out, she's the hostess for you, and owner of the house, alright?" A chorus of agreement met that statement and Vanilla left to get some grocery shopping done. Shadow was eating a mandarin orange when Sonic came over again.

"Hey Shads..."

"Don't call me Shads." Growled Shadow.

"Whatever Shads..."

"Please don't call him Shads if he doesn't want to be called that." Sonic looked at Cream before sighing.

"Fine..... would you like to play a game against me Shadow?"

"What kind of game?" Asked Shadow cautiously, starting to peel another orange. Sonic thought about this.

"How about..." He searched through his brain for a game. "Cards?"

"Oooh... let's play go fish!" Said Cream, looking delighted. Shadow and the others blinked, but then shrugged.

"Fine."

"Alright."

"Why not?"

"Sure." Soon enough, all of them (who would actually play) were seated around a coffee table, with a deck of cards in the middle, all of them held cards. Tails looked at his set, then, keeping his eyes on his cards, he asked, "Does anyone have an 8?" Silence reigned as everyone glanced at their cards.

"No." Everyone said.

"Go fish." Said Cream. Shadow seriously didn't get the point of the game, he was just relieved Sonic hadn't asked him to do something else... "Do you have.... an ace Mr. Shadow?" Shadow looked through his deck, then pulled out two and handed them to Cream, who smiled at him. "Thank you. Your turn." Shadow glanced at his deck, not really caring.

"Does anyone have a king?" He asked, Sonic and Knuckles swore, Rouge and Amy smacked them, and after that little complication, Shadow was given the two kings and he had a set. Cream of course, was delighted by this, and told Rouge it was her turn.

"Does anyone have a 4?" Sonic, Amy, and Shadow handed her fours. "A complete set." Shadow raised an eyebrow. "You can make a set out of three, but when you get a fourth card for the set, it's called a complete set." Shadow nodded. "Your turn Amy." The pink hedgehog smiled and looked at her cards.

"Does anyone have a.... 9?" Again, a chorus of "No" came.

"Go fish." Cream said again.

It went on in that manner until 5:00 in the evening, when Vanilla came back, loaded with grocery bags, Cream and Shadow went to assist her. "Thank you Shadow, thank you Cream." Vanilla smiled. "Now, everyone can continue playing while I make dinner..."

"I'll help you Momma!" Said Cream, going into the kitchen with her mother. Sonic looked at Shadow.

"Can..."

"No."

"What about..."

"No."

"Why..."

"No."

"WHY AREN'T YOU LISTENING TO ME?!" Yelled Sonic, annoyed. Shadow pulled out his earplugs.

"What?" Sonic was now thoroughly ticked.

"Did you even listen to me?!"

"No, I just saw your mouth moving and said no to everything." Sonic stared at Shadow, who put the headphones back in, and went upstairs to lay down.

"Get your butt over here Sonic! We're playing Truth or Dare!"

Shadow had taken the earplugs out and was listening to the game of truth or dare. Rouge started it. "Okay Sonic, truth or dare?" Shadow smirked slightly as he heard Sonic choose dare. "Alright then, go out, buy some spinach, and eat it." Shadow heard Sonic's voice come up faintly.

"R... raw...?"

"Yup, and the muddier the better." With a wail, Sonic went out.

"Okay, while Sonic's gone, we'll let Blaze have a turn, Sonic can have his when he comes back." Shadow listened, straining his hearing... this was getting interesting, if only for the fact that Sonic was being forced to eat muddy food. Sweet vengeance.

"Amy, truth or dare?"

"Truth." Amy's voice came.

"Okay then... why the heck did you scream when you went to get Shadow?!" Shadow could tell from Blaze's tone that she'd been practically dying to know the answer to this.

"'Cause he was sleeping, and I was going to shake him, and suddenly his eyes flew open... I thought he was going to snap my arm off or something!" Rouge laughed out loud at that.

"Snap your arm off? Shadow wouldn't do that unless you were a robot, and even then, he wouldn't do it unless you were an enemy robot." He heard Amy huff. Sonic came back through the door.

"THAT STUFF WAS FREAKING AWFULL!" He complained, Shadow was glad he had covered his ears, so the volume was lowered somewhat.

"Your turn then Sonic."

"Okay. Shadow get your butt down here!" Shadow frowned, came out of the guest bedroom, and down the stairs.

"What do you want hedgehog?"

"Truth or dare?" Asked the blue hedgehog, fiendishly grinning.

"Dare." Sonic thought, rolling possibilities around in his mind... Shadow could practically see the gears in his head trying to turn.

"Hmm... uh... okay then! Shadow, I dare you to..." He got closer to Shadow and whispered in the black hedgehog's ear. "... escape from Cream and Vanilla's care at some point today, and see how long you'll last without it." And then the blue hedgehog stepped back, smirking. Rouge glared at Sonic.

"This dare of yours had better not be endangering his health..."

"Oh no! I wouldn't dream of it!" Shadow almost shook his head at the blue hedgehog's lie...

"Your turn Shadow."

"No, give it to someone else. I'm going to bed." Sonic watched Shadow going up the stairs, with a smirk still on his face.

***

The night was quiet, so Shadow had to be even quieter. He stood up silently, thankful that his hover shoes helped him stay above the floorboards. He went to the window and inspected it, no burglar alarms. Good. He swiftly opened the window and stepped onto the narrow ledge outside it, then shut the window, before dropping silently, his hover shoes kicked in before he hit the ground, so he didn't even make a thump as he landed. He quickly skated off into the night.

Shadow had been away from the house for thirty minutes, and it was raining already. Great. Just great. He could hear the sea, but not see it. He was in a forest, and it was dark. He couldn't really see much other than the trunks of the trees. If he'd inspected them he might have been able to see what kinds of trees they were... but he didn't. His gaze was riveted on a figure deep within the woods. "Maria?" He whispered, uncertainly. The figure turned and reached out to him, then screamed, and started to run. It was Maria. He turned and saw a GUN soldier running after her with a gun shooting at her. Shadow ran after Maria, dodging around trees, thanking whatever god there might be every time he heard a bullet thud into a tree, because if it was thudding into a tree, it wasn't thudding into Maria. Suddenly Maria pushed him and he reeled, falling and holding off a cliff, he was holding onto it tightly, Maria looked at him.

"Shadow... please... escape while you can..." Bullets hit her body, ripping through her flesh and making her body jerk horribly like a string puppet. Her name ripped itself out of his throat, as a cry of despair as he fell... he'd lost her again... again... the last thing he remembered was crashing into the waves

Thanks to reviewers (you know who you are) for giving me ideas...... I'll get the next chappie up as soon as possible, which will reveal why the hell Shadow saw Maria in a forest running from a GUN soldier. ^_^ Of course, the reviewer who gave me the idea might understand what exactly that was but..... . Anyhow, why does Knuckles like grapes so much?! I was munching some and got the idea for the Knuckles parts. ^_^ Originally the chapter was going to be called Shadow vs. Ginger tea, but........ I got a different idea for it and re-named it, and added this part. ^_^ Thanks to all my lovely reviewers! :D