Shadow growled and threw his white shirt into the laundry basket. He made his way upstairs and looked in the medicine box in his bathroom. He found cotton swabs and used all of his strength to stretch out his arm and clean his back. He winced at the pain. There were some places he wasn't able to reach so he had to give up on those. He closed the box and stood half naked in front of his bathroom mirror. His mind wandered to Amy and wondered if she was really alright and if she did take and use the medicine. Suddenly his phone went off and he jumped up. He walked over to his phone that was on the bed and saw that it was a call from Knuckles. He quickly opened it.
"Shadow, about the swinging incident this afternoon, it's been investigated. When the stage prop crew were preparing the props, they didn't notice that the rope was thinned out. I already gave them a good yelling, so how would you like to proceed with this incident?"
Shadow had a different suspicion when this came up, "Are you sure you investigated thoroughly?"
"People from the stage prop crew said so themselves."
Shadow clenched the phone to his cheek, knowing it wasn't true. Something was up, but for now he would act like it was okay, "Since you said it was investigated thoroughly, I'll leave it to you to handle."
"Would you like me to fire them?"
"Like I said, it's up to you, but a situation like this better not ever happen again."
Knuckles let out a sigh of relief as Shadow hung up. He turned his head and looked at Producer Robotnik and Sally Acorn. He glared over at Sally, "You of all people know Shadow doesn't like conflicts on his set. This time, for Robotnik's sake, I helped you cover this up. But if this happens again, Shadow will know everything."
Sally smiled sweetly at Knuckles, "Thank you director." Her hand trailed over the top of Robotnik's fat thigh.
...
...
...
Even though there was a big incident with the swing, the next day shooting had resumed. Amy and Shadow had scenes to shoot that afternoon, and the scene was to be shot in the city. Amy's character had just found out that Shadow's character would be coming back for overseas, so they had planned to meet up. The two of them got in touch again, so Amy's character was a little dazed as she walked down the street. Shadow would see her, and follow her. She was about to cross the road, almost hit by an oncoming car in the midst of her mindlessness, as Shadow grabbed her by the wrist and pulled her out of the busy street, back onto the sidewalk.
Everything was fine until Shadow went to grab her wrist, his hand pausing in the air. Knuckles yelled cut, then asked him, "Why did you pause?"
Shadow apologized, "Sorry, let's go again."
This time, he succeeded in grabbing her hand and pulling her to him. When she turned to look at him, she could sense something was off. She couldn't tell what, but from her end it looked like his teeth were gritting for about a second. The two of them stared into each others eyes for about ten seconds before Knuckles cut the scene, "Great job, let's move onto the next scene."
But during those ten seconds, it was like their minds were having a conversation with each other.
"What's wrong?"
"Nothing."
"Are you hurt?"
Shadow pulled away from Amy, and she watched him go. He strode over to Tails, who handed him a water bottle. Shadow said nothing but kept going towards his personal van, sliding the door open and sitting inside. Tails was worried and followed him to the van. He saw Shadow with a sick complexion. His eyes trailed over his blue shirt, noticing little red dots on the outside. "Shadow, why is there blood on your back?"
"Fuck." Shadow whispered. He took the shirt off his back, revealing the deep and nasty gash on his fur. Tails jumped, "Shadow, why didn't you tell me you were this hurt!?" The fox started looking for some ointment through his bags. He went to the car keys, "I'll take you to the hospital."
"Don't you dare." Shadow glared at him, "No. And don't you dare tell anyone I'm injured either."
"If you start sweating, then it will get infected." Tails tried to persuade him, but Shadow shook his head.
"No, but I do need you to do something for me." Shadow looked over the set, "I need you to investigate and figure out what exactly happened with the swing yesterday."
"Didn't Knuckles say it was because of the carelessness of the crew?"
"If I believed what the director said to be true, do you think I would have asked you to look into it?" Shadow looked over at the fox, who nodded.
"Leave it to me."
Shadow was silent for a moment, before opening his mouth, "Silver is supposed to be treating everyone to dinner tonight right?"
"Yes, he just received some type of grammy or something. So he said he was going to treat everyone as a way to celebrate." Tails looked at Shadow's back again, "With your back, you shouldn't attend. You shouldn't drink alcohol either."
"It's not a big deal." Shadow said again, then pointed to the back seat, "Grab me a shirt from in there."
Silver booked a big party room at a buffet place. Everyone in the crew turned up. When Cream and Amy had gotten there, they were the last ones to show up. The sofa's in the party room were packed. Upon seeing her enter, Silver's eyes lit up as he walked around the room to greet her with a kiss to her cheek. She smiled at him and Shadow could only glare from the other end of the room. Silver smirked when he felt Shadow's glare from the side of the room. He put a hand on Amy's waist and pointed to Shadow, "Look, there's a spot open by Shadow. Go ahead and sit on in wont ya?"
Amy gulped and nodded. She gathered the courage she had and forced her legs to walk over to Shadow and sit beside him, Cream on her other side. Now that everyone was here, Silver walked over to the center of the party room. He grabbed his microphone and gave a few polite thank you's before smirking. He held up a glass of wine, "But before we toast, we are still waiting on one more person."
"Who is it," Rouge teased, "Your girlfriend?" Some people snickered at her comment and he smiled back.
"Yes, it is."
In that instant, the room became alive at the new voice at the door. Amy hadn't been paying attention. She wasn't all that close to Silver really, so she didn't really care as she played on her phone. However, as the female walked through the crowds and linked her arm with Silver's, people began to talk about how pretty Silver's girlfriend was. Amy curiously looked up, and then tensed. Her eyes widened. Shadow felt her tense next to him and he turned to look at her, "What is it?" He then looked up, and his eyes narrowed at the figure and he growled.
"Everyone, this is my girlfriend, please let me introduce you to... Blaze." Silvers arms wrapped around Blaze's waist as he pulled her closer. Amy's mind was blown as she realized this was her cousin. She was completely confused. Not too long ago Blaze was in love with Shadow. How come she is now together with Silver?
"Well, she moved on fast." Shadow commented. Amy had to hold back a laugh for a moment. Blaze saw Amy, and her eyes brightened. She ran over and hugged her immediately, bringing all the attention with her. "Cousin Amy!" Amy smiled and hugged Blaze back.
"Wow," Rouge turned to Silver, "What a coincidence you'd end up dating a crew members relative."
Amy decided not to ask Blaze how she started dating Silver, as the cat went and took a seat next to Silver. Amy watched as Blaze talked on and on for many minutes to people. She was a good people person as she answered their personal questions. Amy just quietly sat next to Shadow as she watched the scene unfold before her. People began chatting away, all she could hear was drinking, singing, and laughing. All this commotion seemed to have no affect on Shadow at all as he played on his phone. Amy turned and snuck a peak, and saw he was looking over business reports. Even in a noisy place like this, he was working.
Amy sat in the party room bored for a while before she stood up to excuse herself to go to the bathroom. As she entered, she saw Blaze in there fixing her hair and make up. Blaze looked over and smiled at her, "Amy!" She patted her on the head and Amy smiled, "Blaze." She fixed her patted hair and looked over at the cat,
"Hey, how did you and Silver get together? I thought you liked Shadow."
Just the mention of his name made Blaze's face fall. "Well, me and Silver met at a charity event a couple of weeks ago. We exchanged cell phone numbers and met up for a date or two and then started becoming an official couple." She then thought back to her rejection with Shadow, "And with Shadow, he said he has someone he likes, and that it isn't me. There's no point in me going after someone who doesn't share my feelings." The same suspicious feeling ate her up again, and she turned to look at Amy, "You wouldn't happen to know who he likes would you?"
Amy shook her head no, "I don't, sorry."
"Forget it then." Blaze shrugged, "We can talk about it more when the party is over, okay? I have to pee, I'll be right out." Amy nodded and stepped out of the bathroom, and went back to Shadow. Blaze entered a stall, but unbeknownst to her, Sally was in a neighboring stall.
'So I cut the swing to hurt Amy and she ends up being fine. Than Shadow starts an investigation and I have to sleep with the fat man multiple times before I can convince him to cover up for me. Than I have to pay off all the crew members so they don't rat me out... It seems the more I try to crush Amy, the more bad luck i find myself in. But, I wonder, if Blaze still likes Shadow, maybe I can turn some of this around a bit more."
Sally stepped out of the stall and waited for Blaze to step out of hers. The squirrel leaned against the wall with her arms crossed. Soon, Blaze came out of the stall and went to the sink to wash her hands. Sally watched, and as Blaze reached for the paper towels to dry her hands, Sally stepped out of the Shadow's, "Ms. Blaze."
Blaze turned and smiled at Sally, "Yes, may I help you?"
Sally smirked evily inside her head, but on the outside she gave her a sweet smile, "My name is Sally. You want to know who Shadow likes right? I can easily tell you."
Blaze raised an eyebrow at the squirrel, "Oh, you do?"
"Mhm," The squirrel stands next to the cat, "I don't know how often you check twitters most trending. Amy and Shadow made it to the top most searched. She went to Shadow's room late at night and didn't come out for quite a few hours."
Blaze wasn't stupid. After hearing Sally say it the way she did, her eyes narrowed. "In your entertainment industry, how much of your news is real? They're all a bunch of false rumors. And as for Amy, well, I know her better than you."
Sally bit her lip, it seems the family had a tendency to see through things, "How are you sure the person Shadow likes isn't Amy then?"
Blaze turned and took a dangerous step towards Sally, "If I'm not wrong, you're Sally Acorn right?" Sally took a step back, blinked, and said nothing but nodded. Blaze continued as she stepped closer, "I'm not in the entertainment industry, and I don't know much about what goes on inside it. However, I do know that Amy is like my sister. And, if I'm not mistaken, my Amy took your second female lead from you. Based on that point alone, no matter what you say to me, I will always think you have an ulterior motive. What makes you think that I will be so quick to believe you over Amy?" Blaze turned on her heel and went to leave, so Sally tried one more desperate attempt.
"Last night! Last night there was an incident. She fell from the swing on one of the sets, and Shadow didn't hesitate for one moment to catch her. He even sent her to the hospital. Because of her, he was in a fit of rage and fired the entire stage prop crew!" Blaze turned, a new kind of fire in her eyes as she grabbed Sally by the front of her shirt.
"Now you listen the hell here," Blaze hissed, "I don't care what your motive is. But let me warn you right now, if you even as much as mess with Amy, it will be the end of you. There is nothing in the world more important to me than Amy. If I find out that you have mistreated Amy, either in the past or future, you can gaurentee that I will do everything in my power to have you kicked out of the entertainment industry. Do you understand?"
Sally nodded quickly, her face over coming with worry. Blaze gave her a smile, "Than we're all good here." She released the squirrel and turned on her heels as she exited the bathroom.
When Blaze returned, she got a group of people to play her on twist of rock paper scissors. If you lost, you had to do a truth or dare. Ever since they were little, that's all Blaze ever wanted to play. The room was filled with laughter, and suddenly it became Amy's turn. She summoned rock, and lost every time to each person.
"Amy, truth or dare? If you pick truth, you have to tell us the name of your first love. If dare, you have to go out and kiss the first man you see!" One of the crew members said this to her and her tail wiggled uncomfortably. Shadow from afar heard the two options. Normally he didn't join these types of games, so naturally the group had excluded him, but after hearing what Amy would have to do, he leaned forward. Everyone stared at him in disbelief. Blaze watched him with shocked eyes, her tail twitching. Shadow turned to Amy with a plain and boring look on his face.
"Bring it."
She smirked in return. The pink hedgehog and the black one both outstretched their arms as the countdown started.
3!
Amy remembered how much she hated playing this game in school.
2!
But then she remembered why she loved it.
1!
Because she could always beat Shadow at it.
"Oh Shadow!" Rouge teased, "You lost~ It's truth or dare time, and don't forget to take three shots before you do~" She turned to the group, "What kind of question should we ask Shadow, or if he doesn't want truth, what should we dare him to do?"
It wasn't just the people in the room but everyone in the world who were most curious about the dating history of the lonesome Shadow.
Perhaps it was because everyone had a little to drink that they were a little more courageous... Or perhaps it was because everyone felt a little closer to him after he joined their games... With the help of a little alcohol, someone asked, "Shadow, do you have some you like? When did you start to like them?"
The entire room fell silent. Amy, Rouge, and Blaze all leaned in, paying a bit more attention than the others. Shadow took three shots, downing them quickly as he ignored Tails advisory against drinking with his back injury. He looked up at them all with a cold and straight face.
"I noticed her in the first half of the third year of middle school. At first, she was just someone I noticed. Then I started noticing her a second time, a third time, and so on." He said nothing else after this. Amy felt sadness in her heart as she watched him say this. It had to have been someone they went to school with then. Blaze's eyes looked over at Amy for a moment, Sally's words starting to pull at her heart strings. Then they settled on Shadow.
"Who would have known that Shadow would be so persistant when it came to love?" Blaze said, her eyes giving off a suspicious look. Shadow ignored her as Rouge tagged in.
"She must be lucky if she has Shadow still attached after ten years." A vein popped in the black hedgehogs head as he could feel Rouge look from Amy to him. He ignored her though, and did his best to focus on something else. As the game went on, Amy felt herself getting to know him better as she lost more rounds against others, but won hers against him, making Shadow the loser and the person everytime.
"Do you still like the woman?"
"Yes."
"Did you ever get with her?"
"No."
"Have you ever confessed to her?"
"Wanted to but couldn't bring myself to do it."
And finally, someone asked the question.
Mr. Shadow, what is the name of the woman you like?"
Shadow smirked and downed three more shots of alcohol, before standing up, walking a little tipsy, "I'll sing you guys a song."
"Ah, he's choosing to take his dare."
Shadow stood up on the stage, his voice coming out in slurs as he confessed his love for Amy through song. The microphone picked up his flawless voice aside from being a bit slurred. His eyes stared deep into Amy's as he sang, everyone else was too drunk to notice what he was doing also. Amy flushed a little but pushed the thought away as he continued to sing. However, Blaze, from her seat, saw the exchange. Something made this feeling in her heart errupt even more.
Maybe the Squirrel was right.
