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Shadow the Hedgehog adjusted his quills. His fingers ran through the crimson streak that protruded the otherwise ebony scheme that dyed the fur of his mammal body from alien origins. He ruffled them from behind where some dipped down and others spiked up, and the movement tugging at his head from where they sternly poked out from massaged his mind deep inside.
You could say he was content.
Through his gloves he could feel the dampened gloss painted slick across said quills, and the moisture tickled the skin of his fingers once it had the chance to seep through after Shadow held his hands to them for just long enough. It cleansed them, giving them a cold yet refreshed scent. He rubbed up and down them, as if to soothe thoughts and power concentration.
He breathed out a warm snigger. His intentions contrasted its regular use as a genuinely warm smile accompanied it, and the small whisper that broke through smoked out into a fuzz of fog against the chilled air before him. Shadow felt a shiver to the tip of his nose, and with a gentle scrunch, he knocked away the droplet of water hanging on for dear life.
It was only a drizzle, but through his eyes captivated by the most hypnotic of crimsons, Shadow saw it as torrential. Enough to cause a treacherous flood! Where the water trickled from the dimly darkened clouds like tiny crystals, he saw an entire river pummel from the concealed sky in huge diamonds. When the wind blew in a softened swoosh, he heard a spine-tingling clap of thunder.
That's why he needed to bless her with welcoming shelter quite soon.
And that's why you could label him as so satisfied with the circumstance.
Because this circumstance had been looming over Shadow for a few weeks - following him like a haunting ghost even when he wasn't outside where it would usually spring to the most importance. Whenever rain decided to strike and murder the joyous luminance of any trace of the sun with miserable greyness and a damp touch to the air overpowering a lenitive warmth, it would unsettle him.
But today he had the courage to solve this.
Shadow patted his quills from behind once more, his gloves acting like a regular towel slowly drying them and tapping the last few droplets that clung on deep inside them away. He stood by the door leading to the back of his house, and awaited his beloved (Y/n). He could feel his patience melting as if the need to wait were to be a frustrated flame growing too close to the candle.
The scent - she has one more minute.
Shadow leant his head up so he could examine the sky's poor condition in a little more detail. The clouds seemed lighter in shade and the rain that spilt from them seemed lighter in influence, judging by the few that sprinkled themselves across his hand that stopped any from intruding the precious and irreplaceable deep red shine to his eyes as he pressed it to his forehead.
Miaow
Shadow snapped out of concentration hell bent of studying the sky, glaring at it with hatred until the clouds took the hint and allowed the blue to return against their will. He glanced back down with a small smile, a rumbling sensation crawling from his ankle to his knee. Soft too, angelic.
There she was, in all her beauty - varnished in heavenly white in neatened tufts normally spread fuzzy, but a little disturbed by the cold drizzle. A majestic feline, always posed proudly to prove her significance. Fur flourished more prominently at the tip of her tail and around her neck, sculptured more like a masculine lion but still with such feminine glory. Blue broke through the white within her eyes glossed with affection when the time was right.
And she had decided, that time was now.
Shadow leant down so his fingers could explore the breathtaking fur to the very top of her head, the cat climbing up his leg before he even had the chance to reach her via his own accord, she was that desparate. Water gripped the very tips of the strands, and were slicked back with every touch. She rumbled so hard she felt explosive, those gorgeous gemstones slammed shut in crescents risen in a glow of pleasure.
"What was it you wanted to show me?"
That voice.
Shadow stopped dead in his tracks, midway through a caress that tickled the feline's spine and ended once her tail did. He corrected his quills again, just to make sure, and pressed the door. It creaked at the hinge, maybe from the cold, and (Y/n) peeked her face and fingers through as soon as the crack had widened enough.
It always felt like a romantic arrow had smitten both their hearts when their eyes collided in time - Shadow deeply admiring the august (e/c) galaxies never absent from sparkles of interest and sweetening enthusiasm, with (Y/n) caught in a daze by that awe-inspiring bloodred universe sending shivers down her spine through all its nasty little secrets aglow in those aurulent bolts.
It wasn't long before (Y/n) recognised the reasoning for her wished for arrival, another feline form of speech breaking through the cat's tiny mouth so widely it shattered the pure white of her muzzle with a flash of pink inside and a shimmer of ivory from her jagged teeth, ferocious fangs.
Miaow
She performed a little stretch, paws forward and hips back. Without the need for close inspection, her bones broke the smoothness of her body when in such a stance, perhaps revealing unhealthy skinniness underneath. She pushed her little toes forward, her claws popping out and scraping the surface of the patio before the door. Her mouth reopened, the roof indented with the spine of a fish she could really go for right about now with the shade of a divine tuna or salmon...
Oh how she needed something to enter than deflated little stomach of hers! Of being such a regal nature, she never had the eagerness to even try and catch a bird or mouse that traced the garden with her when she visited - she saw through her stunning blue eyes that those sort of activities were only for those scumbag strays, but like it or not she was one.
At least that's what Shadow assumed.
(Y/n) gasped as soon as her (e/c) eyes landed on this creature of perfection, her appearance denying any chance of being a resident to nowhere but the streets and her little ears perking up. It was the reaction you could guess to be for holding a baby for the first time or being given a puppy as a gift, and she instantly held her arms out with a significant alteration to her voice's volume.
"Hello, sweetheart!"
"Awww, you're so pretty!"
Shadow chuckled only to himself, entertained by his girlfriend's shift in approach once she saw exactly what he had summoned her to see, and wondered why he was ever tense in the slightest to reveal this cat to her. All that sent his stomach into tangling vines and crawling ivy now was the reveal that he had been secretly caring for this animal unbeknownst to her.
(Y/n) confidently reached out, not at all considerate of the usual guidance to allow the animal to come to you, but in this case specifically, that manual could be burnt. The cat waddled up to (Y/n) straight away, pressing the top of its head into the palm of her hand raised above. (Y/n) scratched the cat's head softly, and the seemingly lavish feline melted into the affection from the first touch.
Within seconds, she was spread across the segment of flooring before (Y/n), taking a sigh of relief personally that the wretched rain could leave her pristine coat alone. The cat held its little paws up, a fuzzy stomach awaiting a rub, with her bright blue balls of beauty gazing right into (Y/n)'s soul. The (species) couldn't resist, her hand travelling through every inch of the creamy white fur so soft she could have mistaken it for unalloyed velvet over her belly vibrating in soft purrs.
And the hedgehog composed himself to speak.
"I have been taking care of her myself."
(Y/n) glanced up, the urge to hear more blazing her eyes in a bolt of white lightning across the (e/c) storm not electrocuting Shadow's confidence to continue in the slightest. He explained how this cat would come to visit regularly. He explained how he would watch her leave in peace after a short pet, and how he prayed she had a home somewhere as she vanished under or over the neighbour's fence.
(Y/n)'s heart sank at the last elucidation. She ruffled the cat's belly again, the enjoyment seeming to be sucked clean. She could feel her ribs, strong against her thick skin and fur coat. She held her hand around the feline's chest, and it became more obvious her body was frail all over. She trembled, not just from purring. (Y/n) stood up with a sigh, reaching out into a dreary garden, and her arm shivered as soon as it met the chill of the breeze still caked in water.
"Come in, silly." She giggled softly, dragging Shadow inside the house so he wouldn't have to burnish those quills one more dang time!
Crouched beside one another and with hands refusing to break away from each other, Shadow and (Y/n) allowed their minds to fall into the trap of deep thought. (Y/n) kept one hand in the cat's belly at all times, shuddering softly whenever she would give a deep purr or grip her forearm with those little paws, padded prominently with adorable and rather squishy pink toe beans. Her knuckle rubbed underneath the delicate animal's chin, and from her eyes smiling closed and her head rising further up, (Y/n) could tell she enjoyed it.
"It's very sweet of you to be looking after her, but why didn't you tell me?"
Shadow tripped up his words before they even left his mouth.
He might as well be nothing but honest.
"I was trying to make sure she didn't already have a home before I introduced you to her because I knew you'd love her."
(Y/n)'s (e/c) nebula starstricken by his wonderful kindness witnessed his hand balance atop the cat's head, rubbing his thumb back and forth just above her darling little pink nose.
"...so we could keep her."
(Y/n) felt her heart stop, while Shadow's couldn't be throbbing any harder. He thought every vein in the whole of his body could burst from the unbelievable tension he never would have assumed to occur from such a tiny decision, but it soothed as soon as (Y/n)'s cheek touched his shoulder.
He watched her hand slide all the way across the little cat, running her fingers down her throat absent from a collar and over her tummy groaning like hunger was the end of its tether. Her ribs felt like knives jutting through her skin, and sharp enough to tear (Y/n)'s finger if she wasn't too careful, even under all that fur. Speaking of which, it seemed untouched by any damage from a distance, but close up, a few grazes intruded the skin underneath and twigs that hung on jammed at her fluffy belly.
"Have you fed her at all?"
Shadow nodded, his cheek brushing against the smooth (fur/hair/quills) of the finest (h/c) atop (Y/n)'s head.
"Only a little. I didn't want to go too far in case she really did have a home." He clarified.
He could feel (Y/n) grinning against his shoulder, the very tip of her smile that would always send butterflies through his stomach tickling his neck. Her gentle breaths hazed over his chest and weaved themselves deep into the fur much like the complexion of the feline's that held its place right there. He felt her fingers break between his own until every single one was intertwined, and she sighed into the warmth of his neck that sent a buzz right down into his pumping heart.
She felt the same way, and Shadow's darkened voice speaking of completion of such kindhearted actions by none other than his stunning self sent a tingle down her chest and infected her heart with that clunking virus that sent it into frantic pounds. It was like his past had given him that charming sense of responsibility, and that his heart still held that caring nature as a seed embedded deep within that fifty year old crack to grow when he saw fit.
(Y/n) pressed a short kiss to his cheek, their hands separating with their fingers still feeling magnetically drawn to one another as she headed for the kitchen whose tiled ground faded through until the ridge of the doorway to the back yard. Shadow could feel a glow of gratitude shimmer across his cheek, and with arms enlightened with the compassionate aura he knew (Y/n) could sense inside of him to scoop the feline from the floor.
One arm cradled the opulent cat as if she were a newborn child, the heat radiating from her silken body almost surprising him. He felt the little animal wriggle to gain more preservable comfort, and she snuggled deeply into his neck, her whiskers scraping ever so softly to his blackened quills. Shadow brought his other hand no longer closing the door to shatter the framed painting of the dreary outdoors pillow the feline's tail, and guide her into the safety of the home he had been begging to introduce her to since laying his thunderstricken garnets onto her against his chest.
"I think it's time we gave her some more food."
"And, maybe a home."
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Author's Note - This is kinda based off a true story because this is how I found my cat!! 🐈 Thank you all again for the lovely comments and help for this book to reach 65K reads only last night!! (for me, anyways!!) 😆 Who else finds it really cute for Shadow to be a cat person?? 🥺
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