A/N: I've been feeling awful since yesterday, so awful, in fact, that I've wanted to kill myself. Rather than do that, though, I wrote this fic to cheer myself up.

Shadow the Hedgehog lay on the floor of his room at Rouge the Bat's mansion, shivering like he'd never shivered before, his quills disheveled, a hypodermic needle lying next to him. He'd been having the worst day of his life, and it seemed like no matter what he did, nothing would ever get better. While he was lamenting his situation, his Hedgehog Sense told him that a couple of people were coming to visit him, but he ignored it because he didn't want anything to do with people at the moment. He even responded negatively when they knocked on the door:

"W-whoever it is…g-go away…"

"Shadow, it's me, Amy!"

"And Venus!"

"L-look, I…I'm having a t-t-terrible t-time right n-now…s-so…"

"Shadow, if you're having a bad day, it's OK!" said Amy Rose.

"Yeah, we just wanna help you!" said Venus the Hedgehog.

Shadow sighed. "F-fine. Come on in…"

Amy and Venus entered Shadow's room, only to gasp when they saw how bad he looked.

"Oh my god!" exclaimed Amy. "You look awful, Shadow!"

"What's going on!?" said Venus.

Shadow kept shivering. "I…I've just h-had the w-w-w-worst d-d-day of m-my l-life…"

"Would you like us to help you up onto the bed and talk about it?" asked Amy.

"P-please do…"

Amy and Venus lifted Shadow up and helped him onto his bed, and they sat down on either side of him.

"OK, Shadow, we're here for you," said Venus.

Shadow took a deep breath. "I…so I was unemployed after being laid off from a job a few months ago, and as part of the unemployment office's requirements, I had to show proof of three job search activities each week. Most of these jobs never got back to me, and most of the ones that did rejected me except for this one janitorial job with the Royal Mobian Psychiatric Hospital. I did a job interview with them that went really well – and they even told me I did really well – which gave me hope that I would get this job. Unfortunately, when I E-mailed them back, they said they hired somebody else. I got so despondent that I bought a bundle of heroin and attempted to overdose on it, but all it did was give me paranoid hallucinations and cause me to feel like crap afterwards."

Amy frowned. "Shadow, I can understand if you're feeling sad because you got turned down for a job, but please don't kill yourself! You'd only cause pain to your family and friends!"

"Plus, you have a roof over your head, and any of us will help you out however we can!" said Venus. "We promise!"

Shadow broke down crying and buried his head in his hands.

"I'M SORRY! I didn't meant to anger you! I just hate life so much!"

Amy gave Shadow a hug. "It's OK, Shadow; we're not mad at you!"

Venus hugged Shadow as well. "Yeah, we care about your feelings and want to help you feel better!"

Shadow returned the hug as best as he could and continued crying. Out of all the times he'd ever cried, this one felt the worst out of all of them, as if he'd re-experienced Maria's death a million times over. On one hand, everything just felt so hopeless, like they'd never get better and that the world wouldn't miss him when he was gone, but on the other hand, knowing that he had his girlfriend Amy and his adopted sister Venus caring for him, he felt that flickering glimmer of hope starting to burn brighter. Granted, he still felt awful about trying to kill himself via drug overdose, but knowing that two of his favorite woman cared enough about his feelings to look past that meant a lot to him.

Amy and Venus certainly did care about Shadow's feelings. Granted, knowing what he'd tried to do to himself weighed rather heavily on them, especially Venus, who'd not only had mental health troubles of her own, but had herself come extremely close to killing herself. Nevertheless, they both did their best to comfort the Ultimate Life Form, because they knew deep down inside that not only he was a good person and he deserved to be happy, but that he would also help either one of them out if they needed it. Eventually, Shadow stopped crying, but he continued holding on to Amy while her and Venus kept holding on to him.

"Is there anything else we can do for you?" asked Amy.

"Please…glass of warm milk…"

"I'll get it!"

Venus got up from the bed and headed to the kitchen/dining room to warm up some milk for Shadow, while Amy continued to embrace him.

"Amy, y…you're not mad at me for trying to kill myself…are you?"

Amy smiled. "No, not at all, Shadow!" Her look turned serious again. "Not gonna lie, though; I wish you would've called me first before trying to kill yourself, but I still love you." Her smile returned.

"Thanks, Amy."

Amy giggled. "You're welcome, Shadow!"

Amy kissed Shadow on the forehead, and he let out a happy sigh. Granted, his nerves were still extremely frayed, and he didn't feel like doing anything else, but at least his favorite pink girl still loved him. Speaking of favorite girls, Venus eventually came back with the warm milk:

"Here you go, Shadow!"

Shadow took the glass. "Thanks, Venus."

Venus giggled. "You're welcome, Shadow!"

Shadow drank the milk, purring and blushing as the warm liquid repaired every last inch of his busted nerves. Once he was done drinking, his smile was brighter than ever.

"Feeling better?" asked Amy and Venus simultaneously.

Shadow nodded. "Much. Granted, it still doesn't change the fact that I'm having trouble with finding a job, but I'm glad that both of you still love me."

"Of course we do!" said Amy.

"Yeah, always!" said Venus.

"By the way, is there anything else we can do for you?" asked Amy.

"Well, speaking of purring…"

Amy nodded and pointed in front of one of Shadow's ears, and her and Venus gently scratched him in front of his ears, causing him to purr. He happily embraced Amy as her and Venus embraced him. Life didn't always go as planned, but he was happy to find two people who made it hurt that much less.

NOTE: Venus the Hedgehog belongs to Greybullet/SaberA2/RedHadal

Criticism is gold. Negativity and nitpicking are pyrite.