Chapter 12: Restless Hearts

Shadow and Espio walked side by side down the sidewalk, blending into the crowd as best as possible. Ahead, their target, a portly badger, stopped in front of a restaurant window, perusing the menu written on a sandwich board by the door. Espio directed Shadow by the elbow to a magazine stand, selected one of the newspapers, and glanced through it. The words blurred for a moment and he blinked his eyes a few times before they cleared.

"So that's why you were at the auction?" Shadow asked, standing beside the chameleon and checking the target.

"Yes. He made a little detour there this morning while I was tracking him." He glanced up, noted their target moving on, and handed a few rings to the cashier operating the stand for the paper. They were on the move once more, staying at least a dozen paces behind as Espio instructed. "What I still don't get is why you were up for auction again."

"He's crossing the street," Shadow said quickly, avoiding the topic.

Their target hurried along a crosswalk and into an office building on the other side of the road. Espio stopped Shadow from following and jerked a thumb at an internet café. "We'll keep watch and wait for him to come out."

The café wasn't particularly busy and they found a table in the corner. Beside them, employees walked back and forth behind the L-shaped counter, brewing coffee, topping it with piles of whip cream, and calling out order names. The whole place smelled of sugar and strong coffee beans, and was far too bright and trendy for Espio's liking. He preferred a quiet, modest tea shop any day. Shadow was equally unimpressed, but kept any complaints to himself.

Espio sat with his back to the wall and a side view of the street. Shadow sat beside him, intensely focused on the office's entrance. "Don't be so obvious," Espio said, setting aside the newspaper and logging into the laptop.

"This is what you do all day?" Shadow asked. Someone bumped into his chair as they picked up their order and he shot the person a dirty look.

"Not always. Sometimes it's all day in the library going over old newspapers to track missing persons. Sometimes it's getting evidence of infidelity. Today just happens to be embezzlement and I get to leave the office." He took out a flash drive and plugged it into the laptop, bringing up the multiple financial records the Chaotix detectives had been provided with.

"This seems beneath you," Shadow said, flipping through the newspaper.

To anyone else, it might've come across as insulting and degrading his work. However, Espio knew he meant no offense and that it was, in the hedgehog's own way, a compliment of his talents. "I know it's not as exciting as G.U.N. work, but we're still helping people. I'm sure you've been on missions like this before where you need to track people and gather information."

"Not usually," he said. "Rouge lives for that part of the job. I'm usually called in when it's time to act."

A cheerful waitress approached them, sliding a menu on the table. "Hi there. Can I get you two anything?"

"Tea, thank you," Espio said.

Shadow didn't look up from the news article he read. "Black coffee."

The waitress wrote down their orders and left them as Espio reviewed the financial statements. The embezzlement was clear to the trained eye, as every month, micro-payments appeared here and there. Fifty rings, seventy-five rings, sixty-seven rings, all to various business expenses like office supplies, corporate lunches, and travel. Small amounts that most people wouldn't notice and wouldn't be flagged by any systems internally, all electronically wired to another account.

Yet when compared to the actual receipts and logs for the same days, those expenses were nowhere to be seen. Their target was skimming money off the top and likely had been for a long time.

He realized that Shadow was peering at him. "How long have you been up?"

"A while," Espio said, stifling a yawn. Sleep had eluded him little by little over the weeks. Waking up ten minutes early here, falling asleep half an hour later there. It became worse over the past few days as he tossed and turned for hours for a speck of shuteye. Feeling useless lying in bed, he'd thrown himself into the case fully, scouring every detail nonstop to solve it. Even when Charmy and Vector offered to help, he refused them, needing the distraction.

He was more than grateful to receive the tea when the waitress handed it to him and downed half of it, ignoring the scalding pain on his tongue. Shadow sipped his own coffee, crinkled his nose, and set it aside.

Within minutes, Espio received that extra pep he needed and pointed out the micro-payments on the screen. "Right here. See those amounts? Those are where he's skimming the funds, but then if we look at his bank accounts."

He brought up another window. Shadow scooted his chair around and Espio became keenly aware of how close the hedgehog was to him. They weren't often with heads inches from each other outside of sparring, during which his ruby eyes were intense, driven, as though the thrill of fighting pumped his blood so hard to reach his eyes. Much like Espio's heart beat at that moment.

"There's no deposit in his funds," Shadow said.

Espio took a deep breath and avoided looking directly at him. "Right, which means the money isn't being wired to him directly." He highlighted the sequence of numbers where the deposit went and turned the laptop towards Shadow. "Meaning either he has a separate bank account or someone else is getting the money."

"Like who?"

Espio shook his head. "That's what I'm hoping to find out by tailing him. And he's lead us to our first clue." He nodded to the building across the street and typed in the address. "That place leases out offices to plenty of businesses in the city. Chances are one of those might have to do with our thief."

"Makes sense," Shadow said, watching him pull up the building's listed offices.

Espio figured he could catch Shadow off-guard this time and asked, "So you were at the auction again because…?"

"Amy asked," Shadow muttered, realized what he did, and glared at Espio for a moment. "Look, she was on the warpath after my day with Cream and the only way to placate her was to sign up for the auction." He snatched up his coffee, took a swig, and grunted. "She also kept Cream far away from it this time. Now drop it."

"Okay, okay." It was nice seeing the hedgehog flummoxed for a change. Although it did little to calm his fluttering chest. He regretted bidding on Shadow, as the few times when they were physically close like this and not sparring, he grew increasingly restless. He hated it, but worse, he hated that he didn't understand why it happened. It was like he wanted to fight, throw himself at the hedgehog, but even when he tried that and they tired themselves out, that restlessness reared again like indigestion when Vector cooked dinner. In turn, he lost sleep dwelling on it, shaken around by its urgent fingers clenching his throat.

Yet leaving Shadow behind to return to the Chaotix Detective Agency at the end of each day proved more and more difficult. When he wasn't fighting off the restlessness leftover from Shadow, he thought of the hedgehog nonstop.

He wasn't an idiot. He was introspective enough to realize what these feelings were, having handled plenty of cases surrounding love. Or infatuation, or summer flings, or any number of variations of the concept. He just didn't understand how or why it happened to him, and why Shadow of all people?

Yes, Shadow was a kindred spirit, very no-nonsense, always seeking to improve, and enjoyed the finer things. Nature's solitude. Not wasting a second of the day. A gentle sunset. The shuriken stars he gave Espio.

The chameleon suspected that's around when this all started. He'd taken the shuriken stars home and considered how Shadow earned them. Participating in that ridiculous auction. The more he thought about it, the more he appreciated him for it. That appreciation blossomed from a seed in his chest and spread throughout his body, like coiling tree roots digging through the earth until it had a hold of him. Now it stood firm, unshakeable, and refused all his attempts to prune it.

Certainly Espio wasn't shallow and materialistic enough that it all stemmed from a gift. There must've been something planted before then and the gift only watered and nurtured that seed. Suffice that there was no ridding himself of it, whether awake or asleep, and his only hope was an involving case.

"He's on the move," Shadow said. The badger slipped out of the office, checked the sidewalk, and hurried on his way. Shadow grabbed his coffee and slipped out of chair. Espio ripped out the flash drive, ignored the momentary ache in his throat as they no longer sat together, and seared it with the rest of the tea. He dropped a handful of rings on the table and left with Shadow.

"Find anything with the offices?" Shadow asked. The badger hurried around a corner and they crossed the street.

"Not anything yet. I'll have to research them later, see if there's any connection. For now, we'll gather more information."

The badger made a few more stops over the next hour. Never for more than a few minutes. Sometimes he would exit with a package, poorly tucking it underneath his coat. Other times, he came out empty-handed. When he finished, he rushed back to his job where Espio started tracking him from this morning, a real estate office not far from the auction hall.

"Obviously a courier too," Shadow said as the badger entered and spoke with the receptionist at the front.

Espio had the same thought. "Yes. But for who? And what was in the packages?"

"What now?"

"Now, we stake him out. See if he goes anywhere else today."

The pair opted to watch the real estate firm from a rooftop across the street. They had a direct view into the badger's office window and the rest of the floor, so they would know exactly if and when he left. However, their target diligently worked well into the evening, never straying for long from his desk except to head to the breakroom and chat with co-workers like he hadn't been up to anything suspicious that day.

The hours passed and eventually evening settled over them. The foot traffic picked up as people eagerly clocked out of work to head home or to one of the night clubs in the area. Still the badger lingered with a few other office workers, burning the late-night candle.

Espio sat beside Shadow on the rooftop's edge, turning one of the shuriken round and round his fingers like a casino dealer dazzling his players with a tricky cut of the deck. He bit down another yawn and stretched his eyes, widening them lest the lids touch for one second. What he wouldn't give for another tea.

"You don't have to stay here," he said. "If you have other things to do."

Shadow shrugged stiffly. "Not really. And it's too late for training."

"Apologies. Sometimes these things run late into the night."

"There's always tomorrow." He didn't sound upset. If anything, he seemed to write it off like it was simply an errand he'd didn't have time for that day.

Pressing the cold metal weapon between his thumb and middle finger, Espio flicked it in circles by one of its sharp edges. Between the long stakeout and his lethargy, his mind had wandered as he played with the shuriken, reboarding the train of thought from the internet café.

It was a thoughtful gift. As he spun it all afternoon, he realized that it was too thoughtful. After all, he and Shadow were of the same mind, that the auction was ridiculous and tortuous, but he suffered through it for Espio. Why? After all, they were only sparring partners. People might call them friends of a sort.

When the answer struck his sleep-addled mind, he nearly dropped the shuriken. He quickly clutched it and the metal stabbed painfully into his palm and fingers. He grunted and Shadow snapped his head toward his fist.

"You're hurt," he said.

"My mistake," Espio told him. "It's fine."

However, the hedgehog already vanished, leaving Espio bewildered. He returned in less than a minute, racing up the side of the building and back into his seat, as though he'd never left. At his side, he had a simple medical kit that looked familiar. He pried open Espio's hand, carefully removing the bloodied shuriken, and cleaned the wound with a cloth from the kit.

"This is what happens when you don't sleep regularly," Shadow said.

"Who says I haven't been getting sleep regularly?"

He dabbed antiseptic into the wound and a fresh stinging pain spread up to Espio's wrist. Shadow snorted and wrapped the hand with a strip of gauze. "Two or three days, I'd say. You're slow, clumsy, and you have bags under your eyes."

All true. As Shadow wrapped the gauze, Espio studied the shuriken, then the man tending to him. Before his stupid handling of the weapon, he'd come to a surprising answer to his musings.

Shadow felt the same as Espio did for him.

That would explain the gift. But Shadow of all people? It didn't seem right. The Ultimate Lifeform. The lethal G.U.N. resource who ran through enemies as easy as blades through grass.

Yet that was only the surface that most people saw. A cold, emotionless killing machine. Similar to Espio in that regard. Anyone who spent time with Shadow knew there was more to him than that. That he was so driven to train because he needed to protect the planet from threats as some sacred duty. That he wasn't distant, merely reserved, speaking only when absolutely necessary. That he cared enough to clean and dress someone's hand, even for some minor lacerations, and tie the gauze tight in a bow, holding that hand for a moment longer than he had to.

"Is this case really that important?" Shadow asked, packing up the medical kit.

"No, not really," Espio said.

"Then why have you been keeping yourself up at night over it?"

He peered into Shadow's eyes, searching for any sign that he was right, that Shadow shared the same restlessness. As usual, the hedgehog was impassive, his emotions under lock and key as always. The only way to get an answer was to drop his guard first, allow Shadow to understand and, hopefully, receive an answer in turn.

Espio wrestled with himself, flexing his wounded hand over and over. He couldn't do that. Yet he also couldn't stand the wrenching and gnawing at his chest any longer. He was so tired. So very tired.

Taking a deep breath, he let himself relax. He glanced at the shuriken, picking it up and staring at it, then at Shadow, letting him see all.

Shadow easily read him, his eyes widening in understanding, and he turned away. Espio looked back across the street at the badger and spun the shuriken. There it was. Out in the open. Nothing else to do now except brace against the sudden cold permeating the black hole in his abdomen after his stomach dropped into his shoes.

An arm slid around Espio's shoulder and he was face to face with Shadow's fluffy chest. He froze at the unusual touch, a million nerves exploding at once throughout. Hot and cold sweats broken out all over his skin and he was at a loss.

"Get some rest," Shadow said, his chest rumbling with each word. "I'll take watch."

He wanted to argue, but his body gave in easily. Closing his eyes, Espio drifted off to sleep and the last thing he remembered was a smooth coffee flavor playing about his nose.

Espio didn't know how long he slept. When he awoke, he realized that he was no longer on the rooftop, leaning against Shadow, but in his bed back at the Chaotix Detective Agency, tucked in and an old lumpy pillow cradling his head.

He propped himself up and gazed about the small, dark bedroom until he spotted the open window. Shadow sat on the sill, one leg dangling out, the other propped up on the sill, his ruby eyes the only thing visible. "The badger left late," he said. "Didn't do anything suspicious." He nodded at a notepad pinned to the wall. "I wrote the address he went home to if you want to check it out later."

"You brought me back here," Espio said, rubbing his eyes. "How'd you know where the office is?"

"I looked it up."

He nodded. "And you knew which room was mine how?"

Shadow turned to the city outside. "The other two were taken."

"And the medical kit?" That got the hedgehog's attention and Espio smirked. "That was in our bathroom. How exactly did you know it was there?" He waited for another sad attempt of an answer. When none came, he continued, "Unless you've been following me home, right?"

"I wanted to make sure you got back," he said. "The city can be dangerous." He threw his other leg out the window, moving to hop off, and Espio's heart sank. He didn't want this to end right here.

"If you want," he said quickly, "you're welcome to stay. Get some shuteye for a few hours."

Shadow glanced back at him and the inviting scene. The bed was small and they would have to lay close together. But Espio knew that neither of them minded that. Shadow swung his legs back in and crawled under the blanket with him. "Fine. But only to make sure you get some sleep for a change. You're no good sparring if you're going to pass out on me."

He wrapped his arms around Espio, who turned to the hedgehog and pressed his cheek against his chest again. For the first time in a long while, the restless desire evaporated completely like water under a hot sun, leaving him with a soothing, comfortable sense of peace and serenity behind that was better than any meditation he ever experienced.