FOR YOUR HEART-BOOM

☆Ch1

The ebony hedgehog was indeed standing right in front of him with his usual unapproachable posture with his arms crossed over his chest and unreadable frown on his face.
"About time you showed up," he said quietly while looking Sonic up and down in a judging manner.

"About time? Shadow, do you realize, what's the time right now? Look around, the entire village is-" Sonic got defensive, but before he could even finish the sentence, he got harshly grabbed by his arm and with a blip he disappeared along with the user of the teleportation. Sticks was hiding behind a barrel, witnessing this from distance she gasped and cupped her cheeks.
"I can't believe I was right!" she said to herself in shock before rushing off to her shack, most likely to try to make up a plan how to save Sonic from the alien hybrid.

Shadow re-appeared with Sonic on top of a big canyon, where they usually hangout together in secret and none of them ever speaks of it in front of the others.
"Ow, you could have been more gentle," Sonic whined as he rubbed his arm after Shadow let go of it. The ebony hedgehog just rolled his eyes in response and sat down while hanging his legs over the edge of the huge rock. Sonic carefully watched him and tilted his head, wondering, why Shadow does not attack him like he usually does. And also, why he showed up this early. Normally, Shadow always arrived to the village during the afternoon hours, so this morning was really strange mystery to Sonic.

"Do you want to stand a hole in there or what?" Shadow growled in slight annoyance without even looking at his companion as he stared off to the distance, actually liking the canyon area a lot, he liked to enjoy the view up here and just relax. Sonic flinched a little before finally sitting down next to the dark male, keeping a respectful distance from him, since they weren't the closest buddy-buddies. At least not yet.
"Why did you come so early?" he couldn't hold his curiosity back anymore and just let the question out of his mouth, which was only one way ticket to either a good or bad result with no return.

Shadow remained quiet for a while, his saffron cheeks caught a little pinkish shade, but he kept his face away from the other's eyes, as to keep the blush hidden. His reasoning was simple, he just wished to spend more time with the blue hedgehog, for some reason, he enjoys his company and no longer finds him that much annoying. Mainly because the azure male helped him multiple times in the past few months, even though he could just let him be or push him away, just because Shadow seems to be the bad guy, who only likes fighting and hates every aspect of friendship and love.

Sonic, however, is a hero with his heart in the right place, thus, he is willing to help even such dark and brooding mobian like Shadow. Besides, he definitely can see more in him, than what all Shadow lets on. And those were the tiny cracks in the ebony hedgehog's shell, which only Sonic seemed to be able to notice, when everyone else failed. And due to that, Sonic became somewhat special to him, unique even. One of a kind.

Right now, he wanted to somehow express his gratitude, but doing so by words was surely out of option. Shadow is a hedgehog of actions, not words. He barely talks about anything in general, not to mention his own feelings, which he still stubbornly considered a weakness.
"Shadow? Are you... alright?" Sonic asked him carefully, afraid to upset him. Shadow sighed and looked down at his hands, that he rested in his lap, even softly twiddled with his inhibitor ring on the prolongued black-red cuff.

"I'm fine," he said shortly in response and his left ear twitched twice upon the nervousness now filling his being.
"You sure?" Sonic questioned him while raising an eyebrow, making the other finally look at him. Shadow opened his mouth to say something, but then closed it again and repeated this motion a few more times like a fish on a dry land before turning his head away and letting out another sigh. Sonic quietly snickered, finding the hedgehog's behavior kinda adorable.

"Alright, how about we race?" he suggested to save him from embarassing himself here and stood up to prove the meaning of his words. Shadow got up as well and dusted himself off.
"I'm up for such challenge," he said confidently this time as he looked at Sonic with a mischievous smirk and suddenly teleported down to the solid ground between the huge and tall rocks.
"Hey! That's cheating!" Sonic complained and spindashed down towards the ground, landing skillfully next to his opponent, who gently punched his shoulder, surprisingly.

"Stop whining, hedgehog!" he growled in playful manner and speeded off before Sonic could even respond. The azure male groaned in displeasure and instantly followed right after him, easily catching up on him, for now.
"Let's have it as a rule, though, what do ya say?" he asked him as they ran next to each other - ahem, Shadow of course skated, while Sonic actually ran.
"What rule?" Shadow played oblivious as he skillfully skated around some fallen rocks of various shapes and sizes.

"No teleporting!" Sonic replied in serious tone, which Shadow rolled eyes at.
"Have anyone told you how boring you are?" he deadpanned, disliking this rule, for he wanted to have some real fun. And teasing Sonic with his teleportation was sort of fun to him, even though he never expressed it on the outside.
"Then why do you spend time with me, Mr. Edgehog?" Sonic smirked at him confidently, turning the other's wording against his opponent. Shadow's cheeks turned slightly pinkish and the hedgehog rather accelerated, using the full potential of his air shoes to skate in the highest velocity he could possibly reach.

Sonic kept smirking, knowing well, that he just now got under the other's skin and speeded up, feeling actually refreshed now as the tiredness completely abandoned his body.
"So, I am not THAT boring at all, right~?" he dared to tease his opponent. Shadow gritted his teeth and tried so hard to not express, how flustered he was.
"Shut up!" he hissed as hatefully as he could muster.
"Make me!" Sonic challenged him and afterwards, they both remained quiet as they raced through the canyon, then headed towards the wild jungle and lastly they ended the race on the far side of the island beach, both of them skidding to a halt in front of the ocean waves, panting heavily. And they were in draw! Again.

"Oh man.... do I.. ever show ya, that I am the faster one?" Sonic leaned onto his knees with his hands and tried to catch his breath while staring at his shoes and the soft sand particles underneath his feet.
"I will believe it once you prove it, hedgehog," Shadow said calmly, recovering from the race faster than the other. Sonic ended up sitting down on the sand and looking up at his companion he smirked daringly.
"Oh, one day I will prove it to ya!" he stood stubbornly for his words and Shadow, surprisingly enough, softly snickered in response as he stood there with his arms folded over his chest.

"Sure you will~" he even teased him playfully before staring off towards the ocean and taking a deep breath he exhaled afterwards, enjoying the light breeze playing with their quills and also the nice scent of the ocean mixed up with the jungle behind them. Sonic subconsciously did the same, taking the scent in he found it soothing for his senses.
"Ya hungry?" he asked his dark companion and looked at him again, fascinated by his crimson stripes and how they contrasted against the nearly pitch black fur.
"Maybe a little," Shadow admitted with a sigh and glanced down at his rival, noticing him still wearing the scarf, which brought a certain memory to the front of his mind and caused some questions pop up in his head. Yet, he didn't feel confident enough to ask any of these questions, so he just pushed them aside, for now.

"Alright, wanna join us at Meh Burger?" Sonic asked him while standing up and dusting himself off.
"Tch, we're not friends, remember? I am not going to join those fools," Shadow scoffed, rejecting the offer of the hangout with the others.
"Hey, they are my friends, not fools! You should really at least try it some day, maybe then you wouldn't be so much hated by them," Sonic defended them, because each of them was special and unique in his eyes and they all were very important to him. They were basically a family to him and without them, he would be just as lost and lonely, like the ebony male in front of him.

"Who said I don't want to be hated? I don't care what they think about me," Shadow huffed in response, keeping his voice still so calm.
"If you really don't care about that, then why not join us?" Sonic shot back at him with a little smirk appearing on his peach muzzle, which quickly disappeared after he saw Shadow suddenly vanishing to the thin air.
"Could have thought," Sonic chuckled softly to himself, taking it with humor before rushing back towards the village, so he could wait for the Meh Burger owner to open, so he could get something to eat.