I fell in love with my best friend

ch 3; Telling a friend

'

Shadow knocks at the door to the cave.
A few seconds later, he could hear approaching steps behind the door.
The door starts opening a bit hesitantly.
"Yeah?-..." Knuckles says unsurely while looking at the hedgehog. Eyeing him up and down.
The hedgehog looks somewhat as Shadow, but at the same time, not.
First of all, the hedgehog wears a t-shirt like it's a dress. And Shadow doesn't wear anything that could remind about a dress. He even barely uses clothes at all.
Then, the morbian also looks kinda soft, like girls usually do.
Feminine with longer eyelashes and with hips you could grab with ease.
The hedgehog also looks a bit shorter than Shadow.

Knuckles squints the eyes while furrowing the brows.
" Whom are you?"
Shadow swallows hardly.
" It's me - ... Shadow, I need to talk with you..."
The echidna raises an eyebrow.
" Shadow?... I don't think so... You might look like him... But don't mistake me for a fool... I can clearly see you are female... And as far as I know, my friend is male... Not female..." he grunts and starts rudely to close the door again.
Shadow scoffs while rolling the eyes.
" And that's why I need to talk with you, Knux..." he tells him where his hand grabbed the edge of the door to prevent it from closing.

The echidna glares at him and wants to be left alone. It's not like he dislikes the person in front of him. No, the truth is simple and, at the same time, sad, he doesn't like hanging around others.
If he could choose, he would prefer a life alone, with a cold beer in the hand and enjoying the baseball game on the TV with Shadow next to him on the couch... Alright... Then he wouldn't be alone. But, he wouldn't mind having Shadow around him.
Knuckles narrows the eyes and lets go of the door handle.
" Alright... If you are Shadow... Tell me something only he should know about..." he shrugs before crossing the arms.

Shadow starts humming while trying to find an answer on that.
But at the moment, he can't think out anything, only he should know about him/them.
The hedgehog scoffs and makes a hand gesture with the hand he held the door with.
"... Meh... Never mind... It's not like I have only you as a friend... I have Rouge as well... Even though I wanted to avoid talking with her due to the risk, she would tease me..." he tells him while turning around to walk away.
"... So, bye..." he adds and starts walking away where he only takes like a step and a half when Knuckles swiftly yanks his arm from behind.

"WAIT!" The echidna bursts out with increased heartbeats.
Shadow hums asking and looks over the shoulder at him, partly turned toward him.
Knuckles starts eyeing him in a different light. If you ignore the obvious female part, like the chest, the wider hips, and lighter voice, the hedgehog actually looks very alike Shadow. And even his attitude reminds Knuckles about his friend.
"... Sooo... You are Sh-shadow?" He swallows nervously.

Shadow exhales in annoyance and averts the eyes.
"... I don't know if you are either slow or stupid... But, yes... I'm Shadow... Which I have already told you..." he snorts.

Knuckles raises an eyebrow and stares confused at him.
"... But... How?... I don't understand how you can be female now..."

Shadow sighs and looks back at Knuckles, where he turns toward him. During those movements, Knuckles let's go of his arm.
"... Eggman..." he says short and simple.

The echidna grunts confused.
" Eggman?... What do you mean? Did he do something with you?"

The hedgehog clears the throat.
"... It was during one of the random visits that I did in the name of G.U.N... There I were searching through his place..." he starts explaining where Knuckles nods.
"... And when I opened one of the cabinets, a smoke bomb exploded on me, where I accidentally inhaled its smoke... And... The day after that, I was a woman... " he shrugs.

Knuckles parts the lips.
"... But?... Have you told your boss? I mean... Eggman isn't allowed to hurt any of us due to the contract he signed to avoid jail..."