Archive of Our Own ^beta

Chapter Text

“Shadow,” Maria turned to him, face serious even as the child in her arm squirmed and blew snot at whatever as in his direct line of sight, “We’re parents now.”

His feelings of horror were muted by the sheer absurdity of the situation they were in, “No, we’re not.”

“And we can argue about it all you want,” she insisted, almost ignoring him, as again she cradled her cousin as if to shield him from any harsh reality, “But not in front of the baby.”

“Maria.”

“You’re a father now.”

“No.”

“And I’m a mom.”

At this. Shadow paused. Because the concept of Maria being a mother was less ridiculous than the idea of him being a father. A good father, at any rate. Maria would absolutely be a good mother. But that wasn’t the point. At least, he didn’t think it was. The idea to keep resisting had fizzled out of his brain the minute his focus has turned from fact-based argumentation to imagining how well Maria suited the role.

She was too good at this.

Shadow shook his head, “We don’t know the first thing about taking care of a baby.”

“We’ll learn,” Maria turned and started walking back towards the bassinet, placing her cousin into it, “No parent knows what to do the first time around, they have to figure it out.”

Ivo babbles something unintelligible, likely in educated protest. Shadow can see a lot of Gerald in him. Baby brows furrowed and fists raised as he carries on about the importance of being prepared both emotionally and financially before bringing life into the world.

Maria lovingly cups the infant’s face and his rant dies down into adorable blubbering. Surprisingly, the baby lets it go as she moves away and he silently and patiently sits in his bassinet without further comment.

Shadow can sympathize. He’s been on the other end of one of Maria’s method of distraction via loving adoration. It’s hard to keep one’s train of thought when she start squishing one’s cheeks.

“Don’t pout baby Ivo,” Maria said, bopping the child’s nose, “Daddy Shadow’s on board, he just has to act a little grumpy about it, because it’s only been the two of us for a while and he’s not the baby anymore.”

“I was not the baby,” Shadow informs - rather than whines to - the child in front of them. Ivo looks at him with such an unimpressed air that he might be calling his bluff.

“You were so the baby,” Maria says, smiling.

Together. They sit and stare and her baby cousin for a moment, who similarly stares back at them. Gently, Shadow can hear Maria nudge his elbow with her own. Playful.

He smiles and returns the gesture.

They were apparently parents now.

Chapter Text

“They want to take Shadow away from us, Maria!”

That’s what her grandfather had said.

Obviously, it stood to reason that Shadow had to be the priority. And she as good with that. Most of her best ideas came from rescuing Shadow from things like testing and high stress environmental exercises.

She knew how to escape from most anywhere in the facility.

So heading to the front doors of her grandfathers top secret government laboratory was definitely not the move.

“Here - this way!” She had urged both her grandfather and Shadow into an ill-used maintenance hallway.

“Maria -!” Shadow had recognized it immediately, and held some worry about Gerald knowing about it, but given the circumstances -

“It’s okay, we don’t have time,” she insisted, believing things to be the case. It was the only way they could get shadow away from all the scary agents who had once been her grandfather’s underlings.

Or had it been the other way around. Had it always been that her grandfather had been working under the thumb of GUN’s control.

It didn’t matter. At the time, not much did. Only getting safely out with Shadow. Like always.

As such, down the laundry shute they went.

“We’re going to have a long talk about keeping secret escape routes from your grandpa, Maria,” Gerald had said, hurriedly squeezing his sizable stomach through the hole as the boot steps of the agents grew closer, “- after we get the heck out of here!”

Like with all unsavory things. The issue of soiled linens and garbage disposal were best kept away from taxpayer shadow corporation headquarters. They got a shipment of fresh uniforms and such bi-monthly. But whatever proved unsalvageable was washed and set for extraction on the outskirts of the facility.

They fell directly into the opening of the laundry truck. Cushioned by piles upon piles of freshly pressed clothing and standard issue bunker sheets.

Gerald shot them an accusatory stare, “is this how you got out to go to that bowling tournament?”

They sheepishly dug themselves into the laundry. Somewhere in that very garage was a motorbike. Shadow had had an entire vacant road to practice how to drive it between the lab and the event, with Maria behind him and directing their route with a map and her trademark moxie. It had been their best scheme yet. A memory they often looked back to with pride, even though they had been scolded severely for it.

Her grandfather rolled his eyes, haphazardly swimming between the sea of fabrics until he reach the window to the front of the truck. It was left abandoned because no one was preoccupied with doing their job in the middle of a siege. So similarly, Gerald could very easily locate the keys hidden in the dashboard glove compartment.

“Houston - we have liftoff!”

Maria began scampering into the front of the truck -

“No, Maria!” Her grandfather snapped, though he was gentle even as he frantically started the truck and the tires began screeching. “You have to keep Shadow out of sight! They’ll be looking for a hedgehog and his brilliant BFF!”

That made sense. Maria flopped back down into the laundry. Noting how Shadows face had a severe quality to it.

“Professor - I can help!”

Maria’s heart caught in her throat.

“Oh, you will, m’boy…” Gerald responded, voice taking on a peculiar and darkened tint that Maria had never really liked, “…you will.”

She had very little time to think on it after the bullets started raining down on them. The sharp marks of the ones just barely making dents in the back door of the truck.

Maria had let out an involuntary scream. And Shadow had acted entirely on instinct to protect her.

In a flash. Using his powers. He practically teleported out of the moving truck. Throwing towels and whatever he had grabbed on his way out onto the aiming agents and whatever guns they were firing at them.

“Shadow!”

She could hardly stand to see him put himself in that kind of danger.

“That’s it, Shadow!” Her grandfather crowed, “give them what-for!”

It was a difficult thing. Needing her best friend to be okay while her only living family member egged him on. If they thought of him as a weapon, didn’t this prove he was?

No. He was protecting them.

She knew as much even as they hit the truck somewhere close to the exhaust pipe.

“Grandpa!”

“Uh-oh…” Gerald groused, poking his head out the truck window, “Shadow! Asistencia por favor!”

In a flash of light, Shadow was in the passenger side seat, “What do we do?”

“I’m going to need you to give us some juice,” Gerald hurriedly explained, “Electric cars won’t be a thing for a whole generation - but most government issued vehicles get the goodies waaaaay before the mass market does!”

He held up on of Shadow’s quills.

“I’m gonna need you to focus your energy on powering this hunk of junk’s battery to turbo charge us out of here!”

Maria peered through the front window and saw Shadow frown anxiously, “I don’t know if I can.”

The back of the truck flew open.

In an instant. Maria was clinging onto the window for dear life. The pressure of the truck going at a high velocity while helicopters flew above them causing her to feel as if she were being sucked out a straw.

“Maria!”

“Now, Shadow!” Gerald yelled, dreadfully focused on the road ahead, “Do it now!”

Shadow locked eyes with the frightened girl.

In that moment. She knew that he would do anything to keep her safe.

She blinked and Shadow was behind the truck. As if pushing it with the power of his body. She saw his red glowing powers emit from his shoes and blanket the back completely.

“Shadow it’s dangerous!”

They were still being shot at, after all. But it didn’t it deter Shadow from enveloping the entire vehicle in his energy. Maria could feel the truck gain speed. Its engine pushed to the limited of its design. But it didn’t matter. Her grandfathers hypothesis was proven correct.

One minute they were surrounded by GUN operatives.

The next.

Shadow had zoomed them all to safety. Miles upon mile ahead of anywhere and anyone who was trying to hurt them.

“GREAT job, my boy!” Gerald practically jumped out of the now smoking truck. Mindful of the engine that was still sparking with Shadow’s energy, “Simply REMARKABLE, son!”

“Shadow?” Maria couldn’t see him from where he’d been pushing the truck. She scampered out of the back, frantically looking for her friend in earnest, until she saw the outline of his body curled up underneath the wheels, “SHADOW! Grandpa - he’s hurt!”

“Oh, no -“

Gently, she touched the hedgehog’s shivering body and pushed him onto his back. Shadow’s eyes were closed in pain, but he weakly peered up at her, “m-Maria…”

“Shadow…”

“He’s been shot,” Gerald said, kneeling behind her, “Hang in there son, it feels a lot worse than it is.”

“How can you say that?!” Maria snapped. Shadow’s arms were scraped and bleeding, and that’s only what she could see, currently.

Gerald looked at her in bewilderment. It was the first time she’d ever raised her otherwise respectful voice at him. But he let it go. It was a human moment.

“We’ll fix him, Maria,” he said, less brazen and more like the gentle old man she knew him as, “come on, sweetie, help me lift him up and we’ll go someplace nearby - I happen to know someone who owes me several little favors…”

Maria was hesitant to give Shadows fragile body to her grandfather. But she couldn’t carry him on her own. So she let him take Shadow from her arms. Walking close as he led them to their unknown future.

Chapter Text

“You got shot at again.”

Shadow shivered as Maria ran her fingers over his fresh grazes. Even though she had practice now in patching him up, he would never get used to having her hands on him. It felt nice in a way he couldn’t explain. But because she did so with worry and heartbreak, he couldn’t very well enjoy it either.

“It’s not as bad as it looks,” he said, echoing the words her grandfather has said in what felt like a lifetime ago.

Shadow placed his hands over hers, stopping her from fussing further. He’d rather she pay attention to the movie playing in front of them. They’d found a semi abandoned theatre in the city they were currently staying in. They’d play a few matinee shows, nothing new or trendy, but they both preferred older movies.

It reminded them of home.

“I wish you’d stop helping him,” she said, mouth less a pout and more an angry scowl, “if he wants to risk his life for his stupid project, let him.”

“You don’t mean that,” Shadow said, but these days he wasn’t sure if that was true. Maria was growing more and more suspicious of the professor.

Gerald built his eclipse canon slowly but surely. Dismissing concerns and outright lying to his granddaughter whenever she voiced protest or question to the growing set of schematics that read more like he was building a massive weapon rather than a rocket they would use to launch into space and live in peace.

She was the grandchild of a genius, after all. She knew the difference between a spaceship and a gun.

Shadow was more susceptible to Gerald’s promises of peaceful escape. After all, he had come from space. It was possible to live up there, at least for a while as they figure out how to proceed.

They were living on the lam down on earth, sneaking around, trying to gain some semblance of normalcy as Gerald smuggled and traded for parts for his project. In the daylight, Maria and Shadow would walk about whatever city they found themselves in, between alleyways and backstreets, and find things to do. Places to shop. Movies to see. Anything that felt free and far from the oppressive work her grandfather did.

Because at night, Gerald would get to work building his grand design.

Sometimes he would employ Shadow’s help. Breaking into other GUN facilities to get the parts he needed. Maria hated it, but it was also one of the only times she was left to go over her grandfathers notes.

She had them spread out between them even now.

“He’s building a weapon, Shadow!” She said, showing him copies of what she’d found - she spent hours in the library xeroxing, “Look! Look at this power core - it’s not to make the ship run, it’s to siphon your power into something set to shoot at something big!”

Shadow turned away, “Maria -“

“He’s lying to us!” She insisted, “He’s lying to me! He’s using you! We have to stop him and tell somebody!”

“Who can we tell?” He countered, “GUN? They would try to hurt you - just to get to me!”

“I would rather be hurt than for him to hurt the planet!”

“Don’t say that!” Shadow snapped. Aware thay they were yelling in middle of an empty theatre. They did that a lot these days. Argue. But there was nothing for it.

He couldn’t keep Maria safe while she insisted on fighting her own grandfather.

Couldn’t she understand that? The professor did. Gerald insisted that everything they did was for her sake. He would tell Shadow constantly that without his help, they’d find some way to talk her and put her somewhere miserable. And what was Shadow, really, but a tool whose purpose was simply to protect her?

“Don’t say that…” he repeated, softly as Maria’s eyes laced with tears, “…I don’t know what I’d do without you.”

It’s the same thing he’d told her under the stars.

Maria shed a tear, moving to embrace him in a tight hug, “I don’t know what I’d do without you either, Shadow…”

Even after months on the run, her hair still smelled faintly of flowers. Like the ones that grew specifically around their old home. A special strain of experimental flora. He missed how they seemed to glow under the moonlight. But mostly. He missed how Maria looked so calm and serene as she smiled with him - out in that field where she outshone everything for miles. Stars above and plants below.

She pulled away before Shadow could linger on the memory, “Which is why I can’t lose you to whatever he’s planning! You have to help me figure it out and stop him before we all make a big mistake and they tear us apart forever.”

Shadow saw the earnestness in Maria’s eyes. Her desperation. The quiver of her lip as she pleaded. In that moment she almost sounded just like her grandfather - and yet it was Maria’s words that pulled at him quicker than Gerald’s ever could.

He was a fool to fight her. It was impossible. Whatever she asked of him, Shadow knew it was only a matter of time before he bent to her will. Wherever it led them.

“What can we do?” He says, not in total defeat, as he places one of his hands over where she placed her own pm his shoulder, “Without the professor, who would take of you?”

“We can take care of each other,” Maria said in earnest, as if the idea that either of them were incapable of independence was absurd, “I’ll get a job.”

“A job.”

“Yes, now don’t interrupt,” she smoothed over her hair and sat on her knees to face him, the movie playing overhead them utterly forgotten, “I’ll get a job, and we’ll save up until we can get our own place to stay, and in the meanwhile we’ll also be working on exposing GUN and stopping my grandfather from blowing up the planet!”

“You don’t know he’s -” Shadow sighed, by now also facing her, “Maria…what if he really is just building us a home? What if the weapon is for defense and not attack?”

A traitorous thought occurred to him as Maria seemed to be prepping to contradict his argument. Shadow lets it linger a bit. Afraid of his own assumption. But he is also desperate to know - with all things involving Maria, it’s a need he has. To know with certainty what she wants.

“…Or is it…that being with me isn’t enough?”

Maria’s face goes lax with shock and pain. As if the suggestion had physically hurt her. And even that is not enough for Shadow to know with certainty of her answer. Perhaps he caught her true intention. Perhaps he wasn’t what she truly wanted. That the planet, and all its inhabitants, mattered more to her than the alien freak that once had been her only companion.

“Don’t say that, Shadow.”

He feels himself exhale.

Maria pulls herself towards him again. But this time, she buries her face in his shoulder. Shadow allows himself to bask in her touch. He’s so tired of fighting her. Of feeling as if she will slip away from him at any moment.

“You’re more than enough for me,” she says against his fur. The sensation enough to make his knees buckle if he were not already knelt before her, “I don’t want to have to leave the planet just to be with you.”

Be with him.

The words pulled at his chest in such a way that Shadow so rarely allowed. An idea he had. A fleeting hope he never let get any air. Because to do so would be the ultimate mistake, for all that he was the ultimate life-form.

“This is your home, too,” Maria pulled her head up to look at him, cupping his cheek to hold his gaze, “Remember? You shouldn’t have to run away to be accepted.”

Home.

Yes. She was also just echoing words they have spoken before. Under stars long gone but brilliant as ever. For Maria, the earth was home. One she hoped to share with Shadow, who had none he could recall. That’s all it was. All it would ever be.

But even that was enough, when it came to her.

“If the professor is truly planning to harm the planet,” Shadow spoke, honest and noble when it came to her, “I promise you, Maria, I will do whatever I can to stop it.”

She smiled.

“We both will.”

Chapter Text

Gerald Robotnik was going to blow up the planet.

Well. That wasn’t necessarily true. There was a possibility that he might blow up the planet, if the world governments did not bend to his will. But it wasn’t an absolute unless they responded to him in the allotted time given.

Now, looking down at the beautiful Earth for the first and possibly only time, Maria began to detest her grandfather’s arguing of semantics.

“How could you do this to Shadow, grandfather!” She yelled, hearing her voice echoing in the otherwise empty bridge of Gerald’s monstrous machine.

He’d tricked them. Inevitably. But it was Shadow who was currently trapped in a tube of suspended animation while Maria tried to reason with her erratic guardian.

Gerald had insisted that they needed Shadow’s power to launch the machine. That after the initial high voltage of energy, he wouldn’t have to do it again for at least a few years. And by then - who knew what wonders they would see?

A pleasant lie. A horrible rouse.

The reactor had siphoned far more energy from Shadow than the hedgehog could stand. It was enough to launch them into space to be sure - but it had also amassed enough ammunition to arm the canon to bursting.

Shadow had collapsed under the strain. Falling into Maria’s arms as her grandfather insisted that he recover in what he had said was a healing tank. Like the one who used to have in his laboratories.

But it wasn’t.

Shadow was trapped in suspended animation and her grandfather was ready to ransom the planet.

“Maria, I know you’re in a rebellious teenage phase where you don’t listen to your grandpappy very often,” Gerald said, a tilt of frustration finally seeping into his voice as he tried not to snarl at her, “but I reaaaally need you to start getting with the program here.”

“No -!”

“Ah-!”

He shushed her. A warning look on his face as Maria shot him a petulant look of defiance. As he slowly walked towards her, she stepped back.  It was clear now that she couldn’t trust him. Not after what he’d done to Shadow.

Gerald took her by the shoulders, a manic look on his eyes, “We’re on the precipice of a new age, Maria! The world in the hands of the Robotnik family!”

“And what if the world governments say no?” Maria shot back, “What if they refuse your offer to rule them like a crazy dictator and decide to stand and fight!”

“That’s what the canon is for!”

“Grandfather -!”

“You and I,” he said, voice darkening, “Are the only strain of the human species that is worth preserving - and you and SHADOW -“

Maria froze, “Shadow?”

“Yes! You and Shadow - we can make a new world! A BETTER world! In your image! Where you two will be safe and free to create whatever life you can dream up! Destroy it, even - if  that’s what you want!”

“Destroy it? Like how you want to destroy every human down on earth - is that all creating life is to you?”

“Humanity is a failed experiment!” Gerald snaps, letting her go and flailing about the expanse of the window, “Millions of ignorant, selfish people traipsing about without a thought in their heads but to harm one another - but I’M the bad guy for giving them a good excuse to work mindlessly?”

“But that’s not all humanity is!” She said, pleadingly, “the earth is filled with good people! Honest people! And yes, some of them hurt each other -“

“Like your father hurt your mother.”

Her breath caught.

Gerald shot her a patient, yet hardened look, “Your louse of a father knew your saintly mother was too ill carry a child - and I’m not saying you’re not a blessing -“ He paused looking at her with a darkened glint, “but it’s his fault she isn’t here with us. It’s people like him who act recklessly with the lives of others! Not me! So you are going to stay put and let me handle this ROBECCA!”

Maria gasped.

Gerald seemed to blink back into himself at the sight of her stricken face. Confusion overtaking his features as she stared up at him in dawning horror. He tilted his head, as if to ask her what was wrong. And Maria could only shake her own with teary eyes.

“You called me by my mom’s name.”

He blinked.

Slowly. An old man with misplaced memories , recalling a moment in time that had changed everything.

“Well…maybe if you stopped acting like her?”

It was enough to send her running.

“Maria?”

She had to get to Shadow -

“Maria get back here -!”

“You said my father abandoned me when mom died!”

“He did!”

“That’s not what it sounds like!”

Her grandfather gave chase as she rushed around the circular deck. She just had to get back to Shadow, and together they would both be able to stop Gerald and his eclipse canon from  firing.

“Ma - it’s actually much worse than it sounds like! He actually left you way before I even found out about their little affair -!”

“You’re lying!”

“- and I had to take care of you both! I had to watch my little girl die and it wasn’t even NIDS that took her it was  -“

She tripped, only feet away from where Shadow floated unconsciously. But before she fell to the floor, she felt the firm grip of her grandfather grab onto her forearm and hoist her up until she was face level with him. His not quite-snarl but very displeased with her face greeting her as he panted.

“Got you.”

No, he didn’t.

Maria held a quill in her hands. One she used to launch Geral Robotnik back across the deck and away from her.

It was only for emergencies. Shadow had given it to her almost as soon as he had recovered after the night they all escaped GUN. He’d been afraid that if she were ever to be without him. That she would have at least a part of him charged and ready to protect her: one of his quills kept hidden from even her grandfather.

Of course. She figured that it also didn’t help that Gerald had a quill of his own. He was always licking it in his weird way. But she supposed that his quill and her quill created a polarizing charge that made the blast twice as powerful as it would’ve been otherwise.

So powerful. That it also sent Maria the rest of the way back.

Her back collided with the base of Shadow’s holding tank. Hard enough that the air escaped her lungs and her vision blurred - blackening around the edges.

She would’ve remained there. Curled into a fetal position and suffering small shocks along her aching body.

But a soft red glow pulsed above her consciousness.

“s…..shadow?”

His slumbering form floated above her. Helpless and unable to do anything she knew in her heart he’d be doing if he were awake. Shadow might listen to her grandfather - almost militantly at times - but she knew that Shadow would never let Gerald harm her the way he had. Not on his watch. Not if he could help it.

But he couldn’t help it. Not now. Not trapped like he was.

Only she could be the one to step up and put Shadow and the world first. Over her own health. Her own safety.

No matter what happened to her:

Shadow would do the right thing.

Maria twisted painfully. Aware that she probably only had a few moments of waking thought. She had to get Shadow out. She had to free him.

He was the only one she had left in this world.

Shakily. Maria lifted her hand toward the control panel hidden under a circuit board. If she could wake up - weaken his suspension just enough - then he would be able to break through the science that held him captive.

“p-please, Shadow….”

Her fingers pulled and pressed whatever sequence of buttons her mind could still process would override the tanks directive.

“…..do it….for me…for all the people…on that planet...”

The last thing Maria remembers thinking as she fell at the base of Shadow’s tank was the hope that he would keep his promise and do everything he could to save the earth.

Sayonara…Shadow the hedgehog…

Chapter Text

…maria?

Shadow felt weightless. Trapped in what felt like an endless dream. A nightmare. As he had no way of knowing whether the girl he vowed to protect was safe in the care of her once-beloved grandfather.

Shadow.

Her voice called to him. As it often did. But he could not move to head it as he so often did. His hands would not listen. Failing to press against the confines of the glass surrounding him.

I beg of you.

He felt a surge of his own energy from somewhere outside his prison. Potent as if he had expelled it himself. He knew it could only be one thing. A quill of his for her to use in dire emergencies.

Strong enough to kill.

Maria!

He panicked under the nothingness surrounding him. The image of her lifeless body manifesting unprovoked before him. Whether it was GUN. Or Gerald. It was so real that it was as if it were sheered into his head.

Of Maria. Holding the key to his release. His freedom. His safety. Of her choosing him over her own life. For the sake of….

What?

Other people? A planet that wasn’t his. Did she really care that much about a world that hunted and hurt them? Of a place filled with dishonest humans who build weapons and organizations that sought only power and control?

Was that all he was? A thing to be used, one way or the other -

Please do it for me…

No.

For all the people…on that planet...

He couldn’t bare the thought. The idea that that was the only thing she wanted. He knew it wasn’t true. That it couldn’t be true. Maria Robotnik was a beacon of light in a world full of darkness. Of doom.

Whatever she asked of him.

Whatever she wanted.

Shadow knew that she only spoke with the love in her heart.

“MARIA!”

Chapter Text

Disoriented.

The first thing Shadow can make sense of is a headache inducing disorientation.

He’d used his power to release himself from the holding tank Gerald had put him in. His fist breaking through the glass as he caught himself from falling into the shards below.

Remarkably enough, he hadn’t cut himself at all, but was immediately plagued with the pressing fear that his destruction had reached Maria in some way.  Shadow half expected to see her staring down Gerald in some heroic fashion, given her stubbornness and sense of justice.

Instead. He found her body lying motionless on the floor.

“MARIA!”

He felt his powers surge him back. A flash of light engulfing him before he found himself skidding on his knees next to the girl who meant the world to him.

Maria’s back was turned to him. Her hair draped over her face.

“Maria…” his hands shook, unsure of whether to touch her but selfishly unable to keep himself from doing so anyway. He wasn’t even sure if she was breathing - a horrifying thought of its own - but the sight of her closed eyes sent a sharp stab of pain into his core, “no…no, no.”

Where was Gerald?

He couldn’t focus even as his eyes scanned the room. It wasn’t a priority. Only Maria was.

“Stay with me,” Shadow begged, pulling her body closer, “Please I don’t - I don’t know what I would do without you, Maria -“

There had to be something. A thought. An option. Shadow laid her body gently - -always gently - back onto the floor as he tried to remember bathe basic CPR training they’d both endured at the base.

“Please, Maria,” he breathed, trying to keep his hands pressing onto her chest in the rhythm they’d learned, “one, two…” he didn’t even have the presence of mind to consider his lips over hers as anything other than a method of getting air into her lungs, “PLEASE, I need you!”

One two

Three four

One two

Three four

“Please!”

A surge of power flowed through his hands.

“Maria, please!”

A shock was sent through Maria’s body. Causing her back to arc even as Shadow moved to catch and cradle her body back into his own. She choked in his hands, her face struggling to regain her pallor. Shadow threw thought and reason to the wind as his mouth once again slid over hers and he gave her the very breath in his lung - his entire life if needed - to ensure she could come back to him.

Her body was alight and stiff with the static of his power.

But in the next moment;

Maria sighed into his mouth. Her body going lax even as Shadow moved his head back to scan her face for any discomfort or further lack of oxygen.

Her eyes gleamed with tears as she looked up at him, “Shadow…”

“Maria,” he held her close. Pressing his face against the side of her head. Already he could feel her sobbing, fearful she would start choking again, and yet -

And yet, something within Shadow locked itself entirely to her every fiber. Her every breath. The very fabric of her being seemed to meld and inseam into his own. That same electric feeling of his powers expanding to include Maria into Shadow’s very essence and instinct.

“You saved me, Shadow.”

She whispered into his fur.

“I saved you,” he said, almost a prayer, “I saved you, Maria.”

The words spoken felt like a groundbreaking cosmic significance. A shattering of some long planned injustice.

His powers not just a tool to destroy. But to save. His hands not just fists for fighting. But hands that could heal.

A warrior. An Ultimate being.

But something. Else.

Something so much more.

“He lied to us,” Maria spoke, her fingers digging into his quills, “Grandfather lied about everything - even about my dad.”

Shadow frowned. Memories of her soft fairy lights and a secret shared with him that he’d sworn to keep. He hadn’t kept it well. Even then, he’d sided with Gerald, thinking it was what was best for her. How wrong he’d been.

About everything.

“I’m sorry,” he said, digging his gloves into her soft hair, “I’m sorry I didn’t believe you - about your dad, about the cannon….”

Maria shook in his arms. A mixture of relief and miserable vindication radiating off her shoulders.  Shadow shut his eyes tight at the feeling of remorse that overtook him at her cries.

It wasn’t enough to apologize, it wasn’t enough to undo how badly he’d undermined her feelings. And so Shadow gathered what courage he could, to address the root of why he’d acted the way he had. The reason, when an excuse would be insulting.

He held her close, voice barely above a whisper, “I was so afraid of losing you that I agreed with anything the professor said.”

It was as close to a confession that he had ever been able to muster.

Maria shifted in his arms, pulling back just enough to gaze back into his eyes. He let it happen. Fearing and accepting how it was likely the last time she might’ve ever let him cradle her. Justly so. In his opinion. He could allow her that choice. Her autonomy. Despite how much it caused his arms to numb and chest to ache.

Instead of being horrified. Instead of anger or rejection at so fickle an excuse. He saw in her eyes a soft and teary shimmer of empathy.

Reciprocation. Perhaps.

“Why would you lose me?”

She asked.

As if the very idea was an absolute impossibility.

“Because…”

Shadow. As always. Was drawn to the inevitable gravity of her. The truth pouring out of him like water spouting from a faucet: how easy, it turned out, to let it fall from his lips now that he was so close to truly losing her.

“…I love -“

The alarms blasted overhead.

Shadow anxiously looked about as the red lights and loud noises echoed around them. He still couldn’t see where Gerald was, yet he hoped that the professor hadn’t intentionally left his granddaughter to die.

“What’s happening?” He asked, animal nerves on a pointed edge.

Maria scrambled out of his arms. The loss upsetting enough that Shadow instinctually followed after her. She gave him her hands to hold, as she too, looked toward a specific panel of computers.

“The reactor is overloading!” She gasped, her gaze snapping back towards him, “The failsafe was supposed to engage in the event the nations didn’t answer in time, but there’s too much energy now and the programing’s confused.”

Shadow cursed inwardly, “This is my fault -”

“Shadow -”

Maria cupped his chin, tilting his head back to look at him, “We trusted him. None of this is on us.”

His throat constricted, a sense of determination overriding what guilt gnawed at his conscious.

“We’ll make it right,” he said, stepping back but not yet letting go of her hand, “I’ll try to move the canon away from Earth - can you delay the meltdown and figure out a way off this satellite?”

Maria grinned, shrugging, “I’m a Robotnik.”

“The best one I know,”  Shadow agreed with a grin of his own.

This time. He did let her go. Stepping back entirely and focusing his energy on what he had to do outside the station. His ring suppressants had to go - he couldn’t chance not being strong enough to move the canon before it fired on the innocent people below.

Power flowed through him as Maria watched him start to hover in the air. Expression breathless even as Shadow felt more alien than ever before.

Even when Shadow himself felt the most frightening. Maria looked at him as if he’d put the stars themselves up in the sky.

“Wait!”

Maria stepped forward as Shadow began to pulse, nearly ready to depart.

“What is it?” He said, scared of some miscalculation they’d overlooked.

Instead. He saw Maria smile as she placed her hands over his shoulders. For once, he towered just a bit above her.  She had to go on her tiptoes to properly reach for him.

To kiss him.

Shadow blinked. Breath caught as Maria’s lips pressed against his own. His power did not harm her. And she did not fear it.

Maria’s eyes were radiant as she let herself fall back to look up at him,

“Good Luck!”

Chapter Text

Gerald had not been truthful towards them.

Neither had GUN, but in terms of knowing who to work with, it was obviously going to be harder to defraud a sketchy government organization that had its hand in almost every sector of security that existed. And growing Italian restaurant chains, apparently.

It had been an act of rebellion on Maria’s part that had led both she and Shadow to some form of independence. After all, she was the granddaughter of a genius, and though she usually used her intellect for pranks and mischievous outings, it was not remiss that her abilities could be used in more dire circumstances.

Gerald had been imprisoned. Justly so, in the eyes of the planet he had almost been successful in blowing up. But Shadow had still felt somewhat guilty about their part - or rather, his own part in the unraveling of the professors mind.

After all, it was Shadow’s powers that fascinated Gerald. The dream of a sustainable fuel source strong enough to rival the sun. Initially, Shadow had been relieved to find a productive purpose to his strange abilities. A cause that would make the fear and anger around him dissipate into one of acceptable and perhaps even appreciation.

But it wasn’t so.

Gerald had been ready to ransom the earth.

The reason’s for this spiral were too intangible to ever make sense of. Walters had made it his personal mission to unravel the Robotnik tragedy from the root after the professor had taken both his granddaughter and the asset into disappearing with him.

Gerald had had two children. An estranged son that Walters now had to look for in light of recent events. And a very sickly daughter who he had devoted himself to for years before her untimely death during childbirth.

It was an odd occurrence. The daughter had developed NIDS - a very rare, very deadly immune disease. It was remarkable that the professor had managed to even keep her alive for as long as she did.

Robecca Robotnik had only been a few years older than Maria when she’d given birth to her.

This tidbit had Walters mind going into upsetting places. It wasn’t so much that teen pregnancy was uncommon - Lord knows he’d seen half his class have the scare when he was in high school before being drafted to the war - but given Rebecca’s condition, it’s a wonder why Gerald had allowed it.

It grew clear the more he investigated that Gerald hadn’t, in fact, allowed it.

There’d been no father on the birth certificate. Though the grapevine insisted there HAD been a father. A quiet, romantic young intern from Peru who’d been assigned to Gerald’s ever growing team. The boy had been an MIT graduate at a very young age and the rumor mill had painted a very chaste, adorable courtship between him and the young Robotnik girl.

Then it all got dark.

The boy had all but disappeared. His very existence from Gerald’s program but a blip and his history dissolved into whatever happened BEFORE meeting the love of his life, as it were.

Walters immediately suspected foul play and what was worse - every avenue he followed corroborated the notion.

What was sadder was Robecca’s life after the fact.

It would’ve made sound sense to dispose of any proof of her and her paramour’s union. Gerald was hardly a man of god, even if toward the end of his life he’d acted as if he were a god. But if for no other reason, surely carrying a child made out of wedlock to term would’ve severely aggravated Robecca’s condition.

Yet Gerald’s notes suggested an alternative reason to keep the unborn that would develop into Maria.

There was some suggestion of a genome transplant. Various alternative treatments that would’ve made Maria more living parts imperium. Miracle umbilical cord serums. Some plasma here and there. Her kidney once it grew enough, and so many other things Gerald would be taking from her for the sake of her mother.

Maria would not have survived into adulthood.

The more Walters dug, the more reports he could find on Robecca’s lamentable imprisonment. At one point inducing her into a coma to maintain a healthy equilibrium between keeping her alive and gestation.

Gerald was a madman possessed.

It had to have been an act of God - if not Robecca’s own inward desire to save her daughter from her pending fate - that had made the cesaron procedure a complete failure. It would have been risky for a healthy woman to undergo the surgery at the stage medical science was currently on. But a young and sickly girl who’d been forced into mediated sleep?

Walters had wept. Imagining what a relief death must’ve felt for the poor girl.

But as it was. No one had batted an eye to ask questions of the good professor. His daughter dead. Her lover unpersoned. Gerald was heralded as all but a saint to take Maria into his arms and into his life.

A beautiful. Healthy baby girl.

Had he loved her at all? Walters wanted to believe he had. No person could ever be pushed to such cruelties if they had not, in their own twisted ways, loved with the same level of profoundness.

By the time Walters had met them both, they seemed the picture of a loving if broken family. And with Shadow thrown in the mix -

Walters had been a fool.

Lord knew what horrors both children had had to endure while on the lamb with Gerald Robotnik. And yet. Even with her grandfather in custody and the threat of being separated from the only family she had left. Maria insisted that she and Shadow had taken care of each other. And would continue to do so no matter what GUN tried to tear them apart.

He had a choice to make.

Clearly. Shadow had done the physical work of setting the canon away from the earth. And although the MOON had taken a very sizable hit, and every government at large insisted that this was a clear sign of danger that his power’s could inflict, Maria Robotnik insisted that the alternative would’ve been making the planet into Swiss cheese.

“Shadow’s a HERO!” She railed while waiting in the holding cell (an absurd directive to place two children in jail), “You should be thanking him for saving everyone on earth - especially everyone currently in GUN headquarters!”

Gerald had set the canon to their main base - a new and shiny building in the center of London which didn’t have much of their toilets running yet. Walters didn’t think he’d live to see the day they’d be able to implement eye-scanning or whatever gadgets they were suggesting.

“Maria’s the one who you should be thanking,” Shadow said, coming up behind the girl defensively, “She managed to keep the reactor from total meltdown. I don’t think any Robotnik could’ve figured out a way to re-stabilize my chaos power - she’s the real hero.”

Said hero smiled brightly at her companions words. They glanced at each other with a fondness that sent warmth in Walters’ chest.

Adorable.

“Hmm,” he coughed, trying to regain some semblance of professionalism, “Be that as it may, you’re both testifying that Gerald’s actions are indefensible - that you both have been trying to stop him for months before he forcibly took you to space and made Shadow use his chaos energy to arm the canon.”

The pair eyed each other nervously, but it was Maria who shrugged, “Yeah, and?”

Walters breathed out a laugh.

It’s a commendable story. The way these two tell it, Gerald practically held his own granddaughter at gunpoint and strong armed Shadow into doing most everything. From breaking into GUN facilities (of which they had ample evidence of) to powering the machine he’d built. And though yes, there was evidence that Shadow had been held captive after his use was over with, and it was through Maria’s quick thinking that she’d incapacitated her grandfather and freed her friend, the order and manner of things still felt like a highly-edited action adventure.

It left them entirely blameless, to be sure.

But it made Walters highly suspect.

“And -“ he said in response to Maria’s quip, “With your grandfather under due process and looking at a long bout of imprisonment - who am i supposed to release you to? Especially since you insist that you’re not leaving Shadow for anything.”

Maria’s brows nit, “I’ll get a job.”

“A job.”

“Yes!” She said, in a manner that suggested she’d argued this before.

Walters looked at Shadow in exasperation, “Is she always like this?”

The hedgehog looked at him with stern seriousness, moving to hold Maria’s hand in earnest “I trust her.”

Well, then.

Again, Walters feels a notion of warmth plague him. The very bond between these two made him feel like he was intruding by the very  merit of breathing around them. And it wasn’t as if he WANTED them separated. Lord knows he’d tried to stop the raid on their home in the first place. The plan had always been to apprehend Gerald and his strange chaos research - Shadow and Maria had been collateral damage.

Yes, they might’ve eventually called for the hedgehog to be under lock and key - but insofar as he was besides the young Robotnik girl, Shadow seemed perfectly docile and manageable,

Maria was another matter altogether.

She had her family’s blood coursing through her veins. And as sweet as her mother had reportedly been, Maria’s eyes betrayed a glint of determination in them that Walters had only seen in Gerald’s own eyes. Only hers were focused on one directive: keep Shadow safe.

And vice versa, so Walters gathered when looking in Shadow’s own eyes.

He sighed, “Look. I can’t have you two unsupervised. No matter how long you two have been roughing on your own, i need someone to be held accountable and keep Shadow under control and YOU -” he pointed at Maria, “out of trouble, young lady. So I’ve taken the liberty of tracking down your uncle.”

“Uncle Jean?” Maria perked up.

“You know him?”

“I mean…sorta?” She shrugged, “Grandfather…never really talks to him anymore. They had a big argument when I was little and he went away.”

Walters hummed, “Well…he and his wife are somewhere in the Andes mountains, but they have a place in the States that we’re going to go to while we wait for them to rendezvous with us.”

An archeologist. A far cry from his father’s work, but Walter’s can only assume that that very difference led to their falling out.

He slid the report on the family across the desk to where Maria could peruse the files, “You might already have a baby cousin - we’re not sure of his age yet but he’s the reason they’ve taken so long in returning, but they assure me you both would have a room waiting at their house and warm food on the table by the time they make it back.”

Shadow peered over Maria’s shoulder as the girl flipped through the pages - both engrossed in the possibility of a new family. A better one, with any luck.

“Ivo Robotnik…” Maria read, glancing up at Walters, “You have a name but aren’t sure how many months old he is?”

“A preemptive birth certificate,” he mouthed the words with the exact air of snooty intelligence it was told to him, “He’s already got double - triple - multiple nationalities and citizenships across the globe. Something about securing his future. You Robotniks sure like to do whatever you want.”

The girl smiled, “Only for the ones we love.”

Shadow dug his mouth into her shoulder. A faint blush overcoming his face that Walters chooses to ignore lest his sanity suffer for it.

“Pack your bags, you two. You’re going home.”

Chapter Text

Dear Maria Robotnik,

If you are reading this, it means that both me and my wife Helen are dead.

In our research, we discovered multiple things of interest that have unfortunately jeopardized us and the life of our child, Ivo. No matter what has become of us, rest assured that we have done the outmost to secure a lofty and bright path for our son. He will want for nothing, monetarily, and his intellect will lead him to wherever the funds we are leaving him will direct him as the best place and use for his capabilities.

All he would truly need is a family to guide him.

Baring that, we are positive that Ivo will find a way to make it in this cold, cruel world of ours. No doubt that you, too, have suffered the injustices my father so often waned about. Do not in any way feel obligated to care for a cousin you barely know - seeing as you are also a child left adrift in this world.

I am told you look a lot like your mother.

My wife tells me I should impart some personal and emotional verbiage to this last will and testament, and this is my effort to do so. I am very sorry that I could not save your mother, my dear sister Robecca, from the clutches of our rapidly mentally declining father.

He loved her too much. I was the son who struck out on my own, a shadow, he would say, of his own intellect. My career was useless in the saving of Robecca, though she was the one to encourage me to pursue it, stating it made no sense to study medicine simply for her sake.

Though I was unsuccessful in seeing justice for the boy she wrote to me about, it is in the interest of departing this world with a light spirit that I confess that I am positive my father, your grandfather, Gerald Robotnik, did in fact murder the man who helped bring you into this world..

My deepest condolences.

From what your mother wrote to me, they were both very happy, and determined to find a cure for her illness and run away together. I am sure they would’ve cared for you severely. My wife says this feeling is love.

The GUN operatives that hounded us for months will not likely discover the parting of my wife and I until evidence of our demise quite literally manifests right under of their noses. They are not an efficient agency, no shadow government organization is, I fear.

It would be in our best interest that you keep the knowledge of our deaths on the DL (this means on down low, my wife assures me you would know what this means, but i endeavor to be thorough in my use of slang).

This would ensure that all rights to Ivo and the money, property, and what have you smoothly transitions under your direct care with nary a hitch. We have had our lawyers and several hours of paperwork prepared months in advance, anticipating such necessity given our work.

GUN will be held at bay with actors who will masquerade as me and my wife for physical interview, and glowing reports on you and your alien friends progress under our care. There are multiple contingencies placed for whatever GUN will require of you while they think they are monitoring your life with us.

There’s been an effort to place you in a brilliant private school, though as a Robotnik I am sure you will find the curriculum dull in due course, even if you might find your fellow primates stimulating. As such the option for independent study has also been applied to your future.

I am unsure as to the level of intelligence of most hedgehogs, but we have also endeavored to do the same for PROJECT Shadow.

We were hoping to be able to meet you.

Perhaps we could’ve have taken you and your alien companion on our archeological expeditions. They do not seem of much interest to Ivo, but it could be that he lacked the engagement of other children. My wife informs me that i can be what is referred to as “a pill”.

Regardless. If it is in YOUR best interest to inform GUN of our fate right way - it is more power to you. Once again, in the event you choose to strike out on your own, Ivo’s life will remain strictly schedules as far as we could reasonable plan.

Becoming an orphan might be a good thing for him, maybe it will give him perspective on the merits of emotional intelligence. A nurturing independence. A check on any hereditary egomania.

My wife disagrees but we cannot attest for such things from where we are seeing it now. And we are dead, in the instance you are reading this.

I really wanted to try being a family again.

I think my son might grow up to be a better man than I. Perhaps the kind of man to rival even my father’s brilliant mind. But more importantly. One day he might be a better father than us both.

I don’t know what I would’ve done had something happened to you the way it did to your mother. I am glad you are alive. Please endeavor to stay alive.

And please be very, very happy.

No matter what you choose,

Jean and Helen Robotnik.

Chapter Text

Maria sobbed quietly as she came to the end of the electronic letter.

A wave of grief and sorrow overtook her. Wondering if the whole of the Robotnik family was cursed to suffer loss and loneliness. That the concept of family was as elusive to them as their never ending quest to fulfill their chosen genius.

It wasn’t fair. She thought.

She kept losing her loved ones.

“Maria?”

Only Shadow remained.

She felt him lightly touch upon her shoulder. Peering over it to the holographic words that floated above what at first glance had been regular parchment. Maria handed it to him, no longer needing it, and noted absently how Shadow’s eyes scanned the entirety of the message in half the time it’d taken her to do the same.

Walters had dropped them off, as promised. The home was cozy and warm. With a welcome packaged left in the dining room table that assured the GUN operative that they were due to arrive the vert next day and that Maria and Shadow were welcomed to rest and wait for them in the meantime.

Maria had been too nervous to sleep.

She’d never really met her uncle. Let alone his wife. And though a baby cousin seemed a fun proposition. She hadn’t felt sure of unpacking what little things they had in a room that felt…intangible. To say the least. Until she was properly welcomed.

“Will you sleep with me, Shadow?”

Maria had curled up into the living room couch. Beckoning the hedgehog with puppy eyes and outreached arms. Part of her almost relished how her offer had made him blush, the tips of his quills tensing as he stood in front of her. Heart obviously racing.

“What if they arrive later tonight?” Had been Shadow’s only opposition.

“Please?”

His ears lowered. The fact that she had to insist taken as some kind of slight he couldn’t bear to have made her endure.

Maria watched him swallow his anxiety. Another thing that made something squeeze in her chest even as she fought a smile. And nod as he quickly scampered into the couch with her.

Maria always got her way.

At least when it came to Shadow. And that alone caused her to finally allow her to smile against his forehead as she pressed him into herself. Shadow was always shy about cuddling. He was so small that he could reasonably bury his face into her stomach. But she liked to place his face right below hers.

She liked to feel his cold, wet snout pressed against her collarbone. His mouth fumble and worry because he was too close to her skin, until eventually he’d either relax or forget to pay attention to it. And his lips ghost just over her breast.

Shadow was a big old worrywart. So nervously shaking in her arms to such a point that she found it adorable. Ultimate Lifeform. Ultimate softie.

His too-fast heartbeat always lulled her to sleep.

And if she woke up with him firmly gripping her body as if to never leave it in the morning, well…That’s exactly why she liked to sleep next to him.

“I don’t understand,” Shadow breathed, breaking Maria’s otherwise happy yet distracting thoughts, “How could they know this would happen, yet could do nothing to prevent it? They planned for failure but didn’t have any means to ask for help?”

He was looking at the letter as if it had personally insulted them both. Her, specifically.

“Maybe they didn’t have a choice,” Maria offered, graciously.

Shadow looked at her tear-stricken face and did not appear to be as sympathetic to their plight, “We’re telling GUN.”

“They asked us not to!”

“Maria, what are we going to do with -“

The doorbell rang.

Maria’s breath hitched. She glanced at Shadow. Who similarly looked stricken. Before he teleported himself to the front door window to peer at whoever was outside.

“It’s some sort of mail…person?”

She had to give him props for not assigning meaningless gender to a profession, but it did little to clarify why said person was there in the first place.

Maria stood from where she’d been sitting on the floor and started walking towards the front, “Do they have some sort of package?”

“Yes? I think.”

She reached for the handle.

“Maria -“ Shadow momentarily looked as if to reach out and stop her. But one look into his eyes and she saw earlier moments where he had similarly held her back, after they’d escaped her grandfather’s labs that fateful night.

It didn’t look like he was invested in ever fighting her on something again.

Problem for another time, Maria resumed twisting the doorknob to reveal the figure currently standing outside her uncle’s doorway.

They were largely unassuming. Thought tall and therefore difficult for Maria to make out any defining features she had wished to obtain if she ever need to identify them in the future.

“Are you Maria Robotnik?” The person asked.

“I…yes?”

“Sign here,” they shoved a clipboard in front of her, along with am unremarkable pen.

Maria tried to scan the contents of the paper in front of her, but the person waved the pen in front of her face until she took it, and similarly shook the clipboard until she signed.

“What - would you -?” Absently, she noted a large cardboard box next to the person almost as soon as she finished signing, but when the clipboard immediately retracted, her attention was once again fixed on the strange, tall person in front of her.

“Thank you,” they said, stepping back only to pause a moment, “…and I’m sorry for your loss.”

It was like taking a bullet to her heart.

But no sooner had they said as much, they immediately poked the large box that had been sitting next to them, dismantling the thing easily and completely to reveal a floating. Egg-shaped device that hovered above the ground.

It was open at the top.

Exposing a sleeping infant inside.

“A BABY?” Maria gasped.

The person was already jogging hallways across the street.

“YOU CAN’T JUST LEAVE A BABY HERE!”

“Maria!” Shadow stepped up behind her, his voice just as shocked as she felt, he immediately zeroed in on the escaping delivery person, “I’ll follow them!”

“No!” She grasped onto his arm pleadingly, “Please dont leave me here with a baby right now Shadow!”

Too flabbergasted to process the words she had just said, Shadow glanced between her and the pseudo stork in what appeared to be a similar train of racing thoughts that she was feeling on her own end.

And then the baby started to cry.

“Shadow!”

What Shadow was supposed to do, Maria didn’t know. All she did know that there was a baby in the front porch crying his baby eyes out and she was only just fourteen and feeling far too heartbroken to withstand such sad little sounds.

“Let’s go back inside,” Shadow ushered them all into the house. And that felt nice. Good, even. The kind of responsible behavior that Maria was looking for at the moment.

The weird floating egg hovered into the living room and allowed Shadow to herd them into the kitchen. The palm of his other hand hesitated over, likely sharing her fear that touching it would cause it to drop and harm the infant inside. But as they all walked further, the hi tech baby carriage came to a stop and slowly descended .

Little legs emerged from hidden pockets along the bottom that transformed it into a baby bassinet. Lightly vibrating and rocking little Ivo into calm, not crying little hiccups.

Maria hugged her body and stared, “…baby Ivo?”

The baby blinked. Eyes darting towards her as if he recognized his own name, despite appearing barely a year old.

“I’m -“ Maria felt her throat constrict, swallowing the lump within it and trying on a brave face, if for no one else’s sake but the babies, “My name’s Maria - I’m your older cousin, Maria Robotnik.”

The sound of their shared surname caused the baby’s mouth to curl only briefly. A little baby smile. A little baby boy.

“And this is Shadow!” She continued, taking Shadow’s hand and beckoning him forward.

Her hedgehog seemed nervous at the prospect of being so close to a human baby, but none the less he stepped closer and waved, “You must be the long lost grandson.”

Maria smiled at the awkwardness of his tone. But if she found it cute, Ivo took it as a challenge, and babbled something incoherent back at Shadow with a frown.

“He’s talking to you!” Maria grinned, taking the baby’s menacing look in stride, “Shadow go pick him up!”

His body seized up at the notion, “I don’t think -“

“Go, go!”

Heckled. Shadow allowed her to push against his back and propel him on. The baby locked eyes with him, Shadow taking a second to slowly raise his hand and how him that he meant no harm. Baby Ivo glanced at Shadow’s gloved fingers and slowly returned the gesture of raising his hand and wrapping along Shadow’s index finger. Human baby and alien lifeform.

Maria wished she had a camera to capture the moment in its sincerity.

Ivo proceeded to stuff Shadow’s finger into his mouth in an attempt to bite him.

“Hey -!” Shadow protested, muffled my Maria’s immediate laughter. The baby gummed uselessly at his gloved appendage, and when Shadow tried to pull back, he only succeeded in taking the baby with him as Ivo nearly toppled out of the bassinet.

“Watch it!” Shadow held the baby’s body with his free hand, preventing him from falling, “Stop! Maria -“

She was still laughing, “He likes you!”

“He’s attacking me!”

Before she could respond, the shrill sound of the phone ringing echoed through the kitchen.

She locked eyes with Shadow. The baby had tackled him to the floor, but otherwise his attention was a sharp as ever, and he proceeded to nod to her, trusting her ability to handle whatever or whoever was on the other line.

She would not take that trust lightly.

Maria slid next to mounted phone on the kitchen wall, pulling the phone out and tentatively placing the speaker on her ear, “Hello?”

“Maria!”

It was Walters.

“H-hey, commander…” Maria saluted, but then awkwardly dropped her arm, as he couldn’t see her, “what’s up?”

“I just got off the phone with your aunt and uncle - they told me they left you w the baby for a bit while they went grocery shopping for dinner, said I could call to check on you all.”

Maria sucked in a breath, surprised at his words before remembering the ones she’s read over the holographic letter.

Her aunt and uncle had placed contingency plans to fool GUN. Whoever he talked to, it was unlikely it was the real, living them.

“So how is everything? Good?”

She glanced at Shadow, whose ears picked up on their conversation easily. He looked wary, but did not offer any suggestion that she ought to confess as he had done earlier. Baby Ivo was pulling at his muzzle.

“Y-yeah, everything great. They’re really great,” Maria felt herself cringe, the reality of her loss still hanging over her, “the baby - their son is adorable.”

Alone. Is what he was. Baby Ivo was all alone in the universe, save for herself and Shadow.

“…Are you sure everything’s okay?”

Again, her breath faltered. Was it obvious just by her voice that her world was once again hanging by a thread? She had managed to keep herself and Shadow together, but it was only dependent on them having some sort of guardian that could  vouch for them.

“Maria?” Walters’ voice cut through her rapid thoughts, “You know you can tell me anything right? If you’re in over your head -“

The baby began shouting in high pitched tones.

Maria saw him wrestle with Shadow’s face, the hedgehog trying his best to keep him docile while exhibiting such gentleness that she momentarily forgot she was on the phone.

“Maria -“

“We’re fine ,” she said, almost snippy as her brows furrowed, “Everything’s fine - right, Shadow?”

Shadow blinked at her tone, but was so distracted by Ivo grabbing at his snout that he hurriedly answered loud enough for Walters to hear, “We’re - ugh - we’re fine!”

“Oh…kay,” Walters intoned, hesitant, before repeating with more confidence, “Well, if there’s anything -“

“I think I hear them coming up the driveway, I gotta go, Commander!”

She slammed the receiver and hung up.

For a moment. Maria stands in front of the phone. Her mind blank - not even the question of whether she has made the right choice enough to push through the white noise in her head.

But then as the moment passes, that same white noise evolves and morphs from a singular, emotionless tone -

To the sound of her cousin slowly blabbering into quieter, cuter little sounds behind her.

Maria turns. Met with the imagine of Ivo curled up on Shadow’s lap. He’s managed to settle down enough that Shadow can sit up in peace again, as Ivo frowns and paws at his gloves as if he’s assessing how efficient they are. It causes another short giggle to fall from her lips.

“Maria?” Shadow ventures, voice quiet but with some concern glazing his brown eyes. He still hasn’t mentioned anything about her not telling Walters right away. Not that he liked Walters much, in any case. But she was still aware that it was a conscious choice that Shadow was making.

As such. She hugs herself again. Action that causes Shadow’s eyes to flicker across her body. She’d love for him to hold her at a time like this, but there was also something about little Ivo blubbering on his lap that brings its own kind of comfort.

She smiles reassuringly, stepping back towards them with open arms, “Here, let me help you with that.”

She bends to take Ivo in her arms, brushing up against Shadow who meet her halfway and hands him to her. Ivo, ever the perceptive infant it turns out, refocuses his baby talk to apparently reiterate to Maria his findings regarding the state of Shadow’s inhibitor rings.

“What’s that?” Maria tilts her head as she listens to the baby carry on. Ivo makes an effort to point at Shadow’s hands as he prattles on, “…Well i guess he could wash them, you’re right.”

Shadow and Ivo let’s out a sounds of protest - Ivo because it wasn’t what he was saying at all, Shadow because he’s a stickler for keeping his gloves clean.

Irregardless, Maria continues to laugh, turning away to put her cousin back in his strange little egg contraption.

“We still have to figure out what your uncle meant by having contingency plans,” Shadow spoke as he trailed behind her, “How far could they have possibly planned for - and what do they mean by leaving you responsible for everything?”

“I don’t know,” Maria replied honestly, “Maybe they mean like…adopting Ivo?”

Again, and quite at the same time, both Ivo and Shadow let out an exclamation of alarm.

“They can’t expect you to do that,” Shadow said, incredulously, “You’re barely old enough to take care of yourself.”

Maria bristled, defensive, “Hey I can certainly recall that i was the better cook between you and grandpa when we were on our own there!”

“That’s different.”

As if to agree with him, Ivo began babbling again, smacking is little hands on her collarbone.

”Do you think he’s hungry?” She deflected.

In a blink, Shadow was zooming around the kitchen until he stopped at one of the overhead cabinets, “…There’s baby formula here.”

“Think you could -?”

Without further prompting, Shadow took the formula and once again began zooming around in search of neatly cleaned and ready bottles. She then saw him speedily read the formula instructions and proceeded to gather the material to mix it - putting tap water in a separate bowl and popping it in the microwave while he shook a fresh bottled water into the bottle.

Maria felt the corners of her mouth curl upwards. For all that he was protesting the notion, he certainly looked as if taking care of an infant came naturally to him. Even Ivo was looking in rapt attention at the hedhog’s antics.

A warm feeling blossomed in her chest as Shadow tapped his foot waiting for the otherwise slow microwave to finish heating. She carried her cousin along the oven and procured a mitten from the handle.

“You’ll need this not to burn your hands,” she smiled, handing the cushioned oven mitt to him.

Shadow flushed, an adorable shade visible only along the lines of his muzzle. He took the mitts just as the micro waste beeped and proceeded warm the bottle water by placing it into the bowl.

Again. He had to wait for the natural progression of time to work the rules of thermodynamics.

They waited by the kitchen counter. Shadow standing atop of a stepping stool Maria was guessing was probably meant for her, if she’d been shorter than her uncle imagined. But it worked well for Shadow now, as it allowed him to place his hands on the marble as Maria and the baby stood beside him.

“It’s too much of a responsibility,” he said, at length, “and we risk angering GUN more than we already have. They’re itching for an excuse to break Walters’ deal.”

“Maybe,” she said, and left it at that.

Because really, what else could she say? It’ll work out, Shadow! We can do it together, Shadow!

The last thought lingered in her mind more than she cared to admit, as she watched Shadow finally pour the formula to the exact measurement and shake thoroughly. With his speed, it took all of a second.

“…here,” he quietly handed the bottle to her.

Maria took it with a nod, barely having to plop it into Ivo’s mouth before the infant took it into his own hands and began hungrily sipping from the nozzle.

He fussed in her arms a bit, Maria struggling to lean him a bit on his back so he wont choke. She was afraid to drop him - but Shadow hovered his hands below her arms until she gathered her bearings and expertly held Ivo comfortably in her embrace.

Again, the warmth spread unbidden. Maria cradled her cousin as Shadow reluctantly ran his hands over his head. There was conflict in his eyes that she hated to see. As if he felt differently than what he otherwise said. Which wasn’t uncommon for him, truthfully. But how to convince him? And did she want to.

Baby Ivo glanced between them innocently. Hunger overriding his remarkable intelligence at the moment. The letter did claim that he would likely be smart enough to handle whatever life threw out him. But emotionally - in moments like these were greater things than a person’s moxie - how would he fare without a family?

What if he began to hunger for companionship? Understanding. Those were things both she and Shadow knew much about. They’d endured it together. They could teach her cousin a thing or two about it.

Couldn’t they?

She wondered on it, her own thoughts conflicting as Ivo peacefully drank away - Maria holding him, and Shadow petting him.

Shadow’s eyes softened, “…you are good at it, though.”

Maria smiled, “So are you.”

He let out a laugh, more incredulity overtaking him. Maria was used to his self deprecation but there was something about it here, in this moment, that caused an ache in her chest. Shadow often thought of himself as an alien monster - but he wasn’t one, not to her. And she doubted very much he would be to Ivo.

The baby plopped the bottle away from him. Burping loudly. Shadow took it away and washed it in record time. Done a dry by the time Maria once again made for the bassinet.

It tugged at her more and more as she walked. How would baby Ivo make it in this cruel world? Their grandfather imprisoned. His parents dead. And his only cousin washing her hands of the responsibility of caring for him.

It felt needlessly unfair. Cruel, even.

And it wasn’t as if either Maria nor Shadow wanted it that way. They were good people. They had always made the best of any situation they were in. Even now, saddled with a baby dropped on the porch, they had both taken it in themselves to at least feed him and hold him.

And Shadow was good to her. He would be good for her, and Ivo. And she might not have any real skills at child rearing, what with note quite being fifteen just yet, but was it any different than her tinkering away in her grandfather’s laboratory? She’d learn. They both would.

They had each other.

“Shadow,” Maria said, turning around with her baby cousin in her arms, “We’re parents now.”

Chapter Text

Baby Ivo had not been in their initial plans for their new, better future.

For Shadow, it had been more a matter of practicality. Of prioritizing Maria, after months of being her grandfather’s puppet. He wanted to make good on his promise to truly take care of her.

But he had also promised to trust her.

“I think he’s finally falling asleep!”

Shadow watched Maria lightly push Ivo’s bassinet. Even though the contraption was set to do so on its own. There was something so genuine, so soft, so utterly Maria that propelled her to add a bit of human warmth of an otherwise mechanical object meant to curtail baby wailing.

It tugged at his chest to see her smiling over the droopy eyed baby.

His heart did go out to the orphan. It seemed like a perilous curse for the young Robotniks to be denied parental figures. In a way it only made sense for one of them to step up and fill the role on their own - and if had to be the older of the two.

His dear Maria.

She raised her arms in victory as the younger cousin finally drifted onto sleep, “We did it!” She whisper-yelled.

It’d been an eventful day. Ivo didn’t cry so much as make his needs known through gestures and very meaningful stares. He looked far older than a baby his age ought to be.

Maria got up from where she’d been sitting cross legged. By way of returning the blood flow to her legs, she began hoping and twirling around into the dimly lit living room.

“So,” she said, coming to a stop mid twirling with a smile for him, “What should we do now?”

The answer to that would be too immeasurable for him to answer, so he settled for something more in the short term, “I guess we could unpack…”

“Nooooo,” Maria slumped, rubbing at her stomach (he tried not to stare) “I’m already stuffed full from the pizza we ordered for dinner, I’m in no state to be moving and hanging things!”

She went forward and took his hands into her own, pulling him into the darkness of the living room. Shadow felt himself blush, though he’d never admit to it, and allowed her to lead him in a half-waltz until they reached the couch. He sat awkwardly as Maria plopped herself in front of him. The lights of the outside street corner haloed the outline of her hair.

From his angle, Maria looked tall, intimidating, and very, very pretty.

“I was thinking we could maybe do some other stuff…” she said, voice coated in honey as she reached out to play with his tuft of white fur.

Shadow felt himself seize up, watching as Maria leaned forward with half lidded eyes, “Ah, Maria -“

She paused, pulling back, “What’s wrong?”

Shadow pulled his lips into a tight line, already regretting his choice to deny her. She sounded so genuinely confused. And what was wrong with her trying to kiss him? He obviously wanted her to - at least, now that she wasn’t, he did. At the moment he had felt the need to stop her, for some reason. And now he felt foolish. Unworthy.

He didn’t have a right to say no.

At his silence, Maria blinked, as if coming to her own realization, “…We never talked about the kiss, did we?”

Shadow felt a sense of shame and dread wash over him. It’s not as if they’d had any time to. He was more concerned with staying with her. Of refusing to leave her side no matter what the GUN agents did. And Maria had felt the same way.

He thought that they held some sort of agreement on the matter. All the little glances. The way her hand held his and squeezed it whenever she or he was nervous between the holding cell and being dropped off in this suburban household.

He shouldn’t have stopped her. To mention it at all could lead whatever they had to crumble between them.

“I’m sorry,” he said, a rushed whisper as he shook his head, “It’s okay - we can keep -”

“Shadow, don’t be sorry,” Maria cooed in a hushed tone, utterly distracting his thoughts as she cupped his face in her hands as she so often did, “We can talk about it - we should talk about it. I didn’t mean to rush you.”

His mouth parted, but no words sprang forth. Rush him, the ultimate life form, a being so fast it felt as if nothing could ever catch him.

Nothing but his fragile feelings, it seemed.

“Did you want me to kiss you?” Maria asked, soft as ever.

“Yes!” Shadow nearly blurted, tempered only by the knowledge they had a sleepy baby in the other room.

Her lips curled into a smile, her thumbs brushing against his fur as she once again leaned forward.

But then she stopped, pulling back again, “…Did you want me to kiss you…like now? Right now?”

“I -“ he was having trouble articulating his wants, choosing to nod frantically into her hands, instead.

This time. Maria’s grin was more mischievous, as she slowly - far more slowly than before - began leaning back into him, “…Did it feel nice? When I kissed you before.”

Again. Shadow nodded. Feeling small in her hands.

“Did you…like it? When I kissed out before.”

Another nod. And Shadow closed his eyes, unbidden, in expectation that she would do so again. His had been opened when she did the the first time. And even remembering the first time was enough to send a shiver he no doubt she felt course through the back o f his skull.

But no kiss came.

Shadow opened his eyes again to see Maria somewhat smirking above him, her left thumb pressing against his bottom lip as he let it go lax at her touch.

“You have to say it, Shadow,” she said, applying the slightest pressure as she fixed her gaze to his mouth.

He felt himself drowning beneath her. Say it? What - that he liked it? That he…wanted it. The very idea sent another shiver through him, but this time it went down instead of up.

He felt helpless as he looked at her pleadingly.

She shook her head, leaning her face ever so much closer to his waiting mouth, “Shadow…if you dont say it…I wont…do it.”

The urge to cry possessed him.

But he was better than that. Wasn’t he? He could fulfill a simple request. And what was the harm, really? He wanted it, he did, he -

“I -“ he faltered, begging with his eyes to be allowed a bit of amnesty on the subject. He wasn’t well versed on it - wasn’t prepared to -

“I’ll stop if you don’t…” she said warningly, lovingly - love, another thing they hadn’t discussed. Which sent another spiral of emotion through Shadow’s head, “Did you want me to stop?”

“No!” He said, just loud enough that her eyes widened. He could very well see the way her irises pooled into a black abyss as she watched him. Hungry, he thought. And the idea pushed him into yet another realization.

“…Then say it,” she said, voice taking on a breathy sound.

Maria was hungry for him. She wanted him.

The yearning he felt overcame what embarrassing thoughts told him it would be pathetic - if a little humiliating to do so.

“Please,” he begged, self esteem to the wind, “I - i liked it. I like it. Please, kiss me again.”

Maria sucked in her breath. A look of near mania overtaking her eyes before she captured his lips in hers and caused him to forget seeing it entirely.

The feeling of warmth dropped from his chest to the core of his stomach - erupting, or so it felt, into a blazing fire he couldn’t control. Maria’s lips on his was maddening on its own. But here, without the fate of the world exploding around them, it was all the more overwhelming. Exciting. Consuming.

Shadow felt one of her hands drop to tug at the tuft of white fur on his chest. He made a noise at the urgency of her, of her need, and whatever he had thought he had seen in her eyes was nothing compared to the way her body responded to his own. His tail was all but wagging behind him, self-control completely forgotten as Maria wrapped her other hand carefully around the quills at the back of his head.

She licked at his lips, and he was lost.

All Shadow could hear - could feel - could taste was Maria. Her tongue dancing around his own as his eyes finally closed for good. The sensation of her hands on his fur, on his quills, her mouth sliding against his - he felt himself coil tighter and tighter in her embrace.

Her clenched hand pulled his chest forward, upwards to meet her hungry mouth. The movement cause his hips to buck - a feeling that sent a wave of disorienting pleasure between his legs. Again he moaned, naught but a dog more than a hedgehog under her. He wanted to chase the feeling - to buck and thrust against her stomach uselessly as instinct took over what his mind was utterly unaware of.

Shadow felt such a hardening tightness between his legs that tears began to form at the corners of his eyes. If he could beg now, he wouldn’t hesitate like he had before, no, he would happily plead for her to fix whatever he felt was about to explode inside of him.

As if noticing his mounting distress, Maria began to leave a trail of open mouth kisses along his muzzle. His own lips selfishly trying to chase her. Desperate for her touch. But he couldn’t pull her down - his arms uselessly lax between them. And as she trailed further up his face he could do nothing more than lick pitifully at her jaw, until he felt her kiss the corner of his eye. Drinking in his very tears.

He erupted, to be sure.

Shadow felt a rush of raw energy expel from his body. Some of his quills launching themselves across the room at the feeling of total euphoria overtaking him before a sense of urgency chased it away.

“Whoa…” he heard Maria breath.

“I - m’sorry,” Shadow whimpered, eyes struggling to open as he felt his body go putty against her frame, “m’sorry, Maria -”

“Shh, Shadow - it’s okay -“

“ - didn’t mean to -“

“Shh,” Maria kissed him, far more chastely, on his forehead as she leaned him back. Shadow was vaguely aware that she was looking between their bodies - at her own, specifically.

“Umm…” she said, sounding a bit useless herself.

This time, Shadow was sure that tears were actually falling from his eyes, “I’m sorry -”

“Noooo,” Maria cooed, her lovely voice overshadowing his growing dread as she ran her hand over his forehead, “It’s okay…it’s fine, i’lll - I’ll do laundry and —”

She shuffled in front of him. Her legs stretching out around his body as she moved to sit back. Shadow watched in helpless devotion as Maria pulled at the bottom of her shirt. His eyes widening as her stomach was exposed to him - and not only that - but her plain beige bra that covered her chest and sat along her now naked shoulders.

Naked.

Shadow felt his mouth agape.

“See?” Maria shrugged, her body draped over the couch as she looked up at him, “M’okay…”

Shadow watched her shallow breaths with rapt attention. The curve of her collarbone dusting with redness that immediately endeared him, despite the circumstances. Or perhaps because of them. It felt all at once such a silly thing to fixate on, yet he pushed himself forward to lay his lips over that expanse of skin, as if to tell her how dearly he liked it, how much every part of her filled him with this yearning that burned.

Maria gasped, jolting her body against him. Shadow felt either of his hands move to steady her by the waist. A grip that was meant to assure her, but caused the remains of his mind to mush as it tightened - possessive in a way he’d never allowed himself before. His veins singed with feeling almost akin to his chaos energy. A need to show her how ardently he needed her love.

“Okay!” Her voice echoed sweetly above his head as he peppered kisses along the nape of her neck, trailing a path as she had done earlier, “…okay - yeah! Um- oh!”

Shadow had to be in the very throes of madness, because he was so sure he’d begun smiling in between each devoted kiss. Maria - his precious Maria - always the babbler even in situations like this. So full of emotion, that she couldn’t help but vocalize her thoughts, even if they were basically a serious of halted words.

“o-Oh! Oh! Shadow -” her voice pitched, causing him to look up at her in earnest. Fearful he’d done something wrong, taken too much without an offer given clearly.

He placed a hand over her chest, intending to lay it on her erratic heartbeat, ears pulled down as if he’d been reprimanded, “What is it?”

Maria had that look about her again. As if there was anything about him that made him appear incredible in her eyes, yet also provoked her into wanting to devour him.

Devour him. The realization caused Shadow to shake, the hand over her chest squeezing her breast unbidden. A wordless noise escaped Maria’s lips as her eyes closed in what he was increasingly understanding was pleasure. But before he could process it entirely, she dipped her head and began kissing him again.

Kissing Maria was beginning to feel better than the air he breathed.

She began rocking against him, similarity to what he’d been doing before. Shadow held her, his hand firmly pressed at her back while his other groped her chest. If he could live in this moment, he would, heat and longing once again consuming the front of his mind.

“Mmm…mmm!” Maria pulled back, her tongue barely escaping Shadow’s own as he mindlessly chased the closeness of her. Even now, she was generous with him, allowing him to properly kiss her back, losing whatever train of thought she had before pulling back again and taking a whole breath, “I need -”

His gaze followed movement between them. Her hands were frantically running down her body until they reached the fly of her jean skirt. Shadow felt entirely out of his element as he watched her finger fumble with the button. With the zipper as she pulled it down.

He felt his own saliva pool inside his open mouth until he was forced to close it and swallow.

“Can you…can you help me out here?” She said, slowly and shakily.

He nodded without thought. Anything for her.

Maria began pulling down her pants. Stiff and slightly irate at the resistance her otherwise trendy clothes posed.  Shadow, ever the obedient puppy for her. placed his hands over hers and helped pulled them further down. On his hands and knees, he pulled and pulled at her pant legs. Nearly out of his mind with the way her skin was slowly reveal to him. Even the bandaid over her knee was charming - and attractive, in some way he’d never considered before. Would have never considered before. Because to see Maria harmed in any way was usually the opposite of attractive. It was fear inducing. Panic riding.

But here. And now. When Shadow was able to finally yank the pants off her ankles.

When he finally had the chance to look back up at her.

Shadow found himself unable to resist the way he fell ever so desperately more in love with her.

Maria was a vision. Legs askew as her otherwise unassuming undergarments greeted him kindly. A pool of something staining the base of her panties (the words cause his brain to break) as a waft of her precious, potent scent seemed to overtaking his senses

Her hips buckled open wider, her hand ghosting lightly along the inner lining of her underwear, just along her thighs.

“Can you, um…” Maria swallowed, tracing her fingers along the seam, her other hand beckoning him forward, “can you….get over here real quick?”

Shadow felt his mind melt out of his ears.

He nearly rammed his face right into her exposed legs. His wagging tail a grounding reminder that he was still a physical being, and that this wasn’t happening in his head.

“o-Oh-kay!” Maria gasped in tandem to his actions, her legs shaking around him, “Nevermind! This is better! You - you do that, oh -!”

Shadow felt his eyes close at her aborted praise, his hips rubbing along her long legs. His mouth was just over the top of her underwear.  His nose. Poking at her belly button in such a way that he would’ve been embarrassed had he not lost his mind seconds before.

Maria keened at the weight of his head over her lower body. Her legs jolting without her knowledge against his own. The effect was instantaneous - Shadow began mindlessly humping at her leg as he felt her push his head further down her panties.

“The - there!” Maria gasped, pushing her hips ups as his mouth made contact with the cotton covering, “Shadow - right there! Please!”

Please - was an understatement. A needless pittance. Shadow was almost ashamed she even had to ask, and like a being possessed, quickly corrected his oversight by clamping his lips over whatever skin he could fit and sucked.

“Oooooh!” Maria buckled beneath him, her other her leg crossing over his shoulders and pushing his body down. He’d nearly forgotten what his own body was doing to her trapped leg, as resumed his ministrations in earnest.

The taste of her was addictive.

A tangy, sweaty flavor ruined only by the fabric that covered her. In the back of his mind he begged for her garments to leave, or be torn away, but he was too caught up in the aroma wafting around him to do anything at the present.

“Oh, Shadow!” Maria cried, her hips bucking and bucking and her hand clenched around his quills, “Shadow!”

He felt his tongue roll out of his mouth as a gush of her liquid current cascaded through her panties and into his waiting maw.

Shadow wasn’t altogether sure if his eyes were still open, all he could see was what he was sure to be God.

His own hips petered to a stop. Leaving him unsure if he had made a mess on her again. Maria’s head was rolled back against the couch cushions. Her breathing ragged yet controlled as Shadow pressed his cheek against her stomach.

He was in love with her.

That much was clear. His entire body chemistry had changed ini less than a handful of minutes to be totally and utterly dependent on her own. Shadow could feel his frontal lobe start to rearrange itself, built from the ground up with the new directive that he belonged entirely to her. Body and soul.

Body, which felt utterly spent above her.

Shadow shivered. Feeling her fingers slowly let go of the nape of his neck. If she could’ve bit him, he knew he’d be done of whatever life he’d previously led and devoted himself to becoming a being of her own invention. A sorry, useless thing that did whatever she told him.

As if he wasn’t already.

But Maria’s needs overrode his own. As Shadow slowly came back into himself. His usually urgency returned.

What had he done? What had they done? What had she asked him to do?

All pressing matters that felt irrelevant as he became more and more aware that Maria was probably getting cold even with his body covering half of her own. Shadow pushed himself up, his arms feeling weakened after the excursion they’d just faced, but he pressed on.

He got onto his putty-feeling knees and looked about the room for some blankets - speeding once he fixed on a wool fleece on the sofa chair. He nearly tripped as he used his powers, a thing unlike himself, but he skidded back towards Maria. Dropping her exposed form with the warm fabric.

“Mmm…” Maria made a noise of contentment. Stretching her arms even as her eyes remained closed, “Thank you….”

Shadow felt the earlier, less violent warmth spread over his chest.

He ran his gloved hands over her hair. Feeling bold after everything else they’d just done. To do so now felt even more audacious, in fact, because he’d wanted to do run his hands through her hair for ages, thinking it a sacred act. And yet, even after bulldozing through several other, more intense acts, it still felt as sacred to him to as he initially imagined.

To feel her hair even through his gloves. To actually know what he meant as he caressed her.

Everything else…

Everything else was…new. Strange. Half of which making no sense to him. Less so to wonder where Maria knew to do them. He’d have to ask her about it, but knew even then his old embarrassment would probably prevent it. Which was annoying, given the circumstances.

“Shadow,” Maria’s voice pulled him from his thoughts, she was bundling herself up with the fleece and moving to sleep on her side, “Come to bed…you’re thinking too loud.”

Probably.

Shadow hesitated less than an instance. Because really. After everything else they just did, snuggling up against her back felt like a silly boundary to have between them. Not like last night, where the prospect felt too intimate.

Intimate.

The word poked at him now. But Shadow was forced to ignore it. He was too tired, after all, and being too tired he also allowed himself the rare pleasure of wrapping his arms around her middle while he was still conscious. He usually only allowed himself the impulse after entering REM sleep, where he wasn’t in charge of his actions. But now -

Now. Who could possibly blame him a bit of possessiveness?

Maria settles against his body. A breath of contentment escaping her lips before finally succumbing to slumber. Shadow felt himself chase after her even in dreams, pressing his nose into her shoulder blades and breathing her in. Her hair and skin a pleasant scent he could get lost in.

The baby started crying.

“I’ll get it,” he volunteered, already halfway across the house and changing the crying Ivo’s diaper in record time. He made sure to rock him with more gentleness than his speed usually allowed.

Ivo was asleep just as soon as he’d been awoken by his own mess.

Satisfied. Shadow returned to Maria and her back.

A smile of pure bliss on his lips

Chapter Text

“Do you think all Robotniks eventually get….that way?”

Maria was currently in the process of feeding baby Ivo his gerber baby food - a process that was very messy and made messier by the fact that he kept trying to use his fingers to make art in his baby chair tray.

Yet even with that distraction, she still appreciated Shadow’s slight…trepidation, she supposed, at calling her extended family a bunch of nut jobs.

“I don’t know,” she shrugged, swooping the spoon in her hand in an airplane motion into her cousin’s mouth, “My mom wasn’t - or at least she didn’t have time to sound like she was.”

“Maybe it’s only the male Robotniks, then.”

Ivo let out a baby wail of protest.

“Shadow,” Maria frowned, looking towards where the hedgehog was working in the kitchen, “You’re going to give him a complex.”

“Sorry…” he sheepishly shrunk behind the kitchen counter. A timer dinged in the distance, prompting him to move over to the stove and flip

Several pans he had simmering there.

Maria watched as Shadow sped along the room. Popping bread into a toaster. Heating up Ivo’s water for his formula. Eggs and bacon were already almost in a nice crispy readiness, before he seemed to decide that they would also want pancakes. Starting at once with the gathering of flour and more eggs.

She smiled, “You know you don’t have to do all that…”

“I want to,” he responded simply - mixing his concoction with a wooden spoon faster than the electric stirrer probably could. The only real problem was that after Shadow poured the scratch pancake mix into yet another pan, he had to wait the appropriate time for it to cook.

Maria kept in a laugh.

That was Shadow’s main issue with cooking - the waiting. He could whip up ingredients and get everything ready, but he learned the hard way that putting the stove on high didn’t make food cook any faster than he could keep it from spoiling or burning.

Shadow tapped his foot impatiently on the kitchen tile, before deciding to occupy his time with cleaning up the kitchen instead.

This time, she did laugh, “You’re using a broom when a vacuum is right there?”

Her uncle Jean seemed to be stock full of all the latest gadgets and gizmos that likely cost a mini fortune for any other household to afford in the year 1975. Sure, she was used to slightly more advanced tech, given she grew up in military bases that paid her grandfather a ridiculous salary to produce modern marvels that wouldn’t see the light of day for years, but it was still impressive that her Uncle seem to collec fairly on-trend appliances for every day use.

One would think he’d want nothing to do with robotics, given how estranged he was from Gerald.

The blur that was Shadow stopped in front of her and the baby, “Done.”

Maria rolled her eyes, but continued to grin. Baby Ivo was still stubbornly playing with his food, prompting Shadow to peer at the mess he was making.

“Is that…a math problem? Of some kind?” He asked, brows quirking.

Maria took a moment to look at Ivo’s mess and found that her earlier assessment that it was art had been incorrect. She turned her head slightly to see it from the baby’s point of view.

“It’s…a quadratic formula,” she said, recognizing the patterns.

Baby Ivo babbled something nonsensical before opening his mouth. Maria blinked, but proceeded to stuff the Gerber Baby mixture of squash and yams into his waiting mouth. He ate it happily and went back to work.

“Okay,” she piped, piercingly , “We have a smart baby. That’s good, right?”

She looked toward Shadow, who crossed his arms, “A Robotnik through and through.”

“That’s not a bad thing!” Maria protested, crossing her own arms, “Unless you think i’m gonna go nuts one of these days?”

“I didn’t say that,” Shadow countered, “I’m saying we know very little about your uncle or his intentions - what he was working on with his wife or -”

“We know that he trusted us with Ivo,” she interrupted, aware that the baby was becoming interested in what they were saying and not wanting to upset him.

“They trusted you with Ivo,” Shadow sighed.

And maybe that’s what was truly bothering him. That even though they both practically saved the world. That they’d been given a safe haven to stay together. Shadow himself was still at a complete standstill when it came to knowing where he came from - or figuring out what he could do for the world without GUN using him as a weapon.

Maria surely didn’t want him to be one. She wouldn’t allow it. And seeing that Ivo was already spitting out formulas while other babies were spitting up formula - it was only a matter of time before the organization also would want to involved her baby cousin in whatever fear-mongering “defense” plans they’d think up.

It was enough to overwhelm her.

But Maria was a Robotnik too. And she seemed like the only one who had a grasp on what family was supposed to be. So until she had a moment to figure everything out  - it was high time they all started acting like one.

“Let’s tour the house!”

Shadow and Ivo gave her a curious look, “Tour the house?”

“Yes,” she got up, “Ivo’s new to this house too - and we cant all be sleeping in the living room and kitchen can we?”

Shadow’s maw seemed to blush at the mention of their current living room sleeping situation, “I suppose not…”

They still haven’t talked about it, not that Maria didn’t find his evasiveness adorable, but she felt an eagerness to tackle it head on by way of setting their rooms up.

After all. She’d woken up very much not half naked after she had fallen asleep very much half naked in the first place. Her body covered in a snuggly oversized  sweater which very clearly proved that Shadow had woken up to put it on her at one point. Charming hedgehog that he was.

She sort of wanted to kiss him senseless just remembering, honestly.

“And it also gives us a chance to go through every room…” she continued, pushing against her ulterior motives to reassure the more pressing issue, “Yknow - see if we can find any clues about what Uncle Jean was studying? Maybe this whole house is a base.”

The idea apparently delighted Ivo, who clapped enthusiastically.

Shadow slowly warmed to the idea, “It does seem strange that this place is so…normal, considering.”

Maria nodded, offering her hand to hold as she freed her baby cousin from his baby chair. Ivo clung to her shoulder as she rested him on her hip, turning to give Shadow a mischievous grin.

“Lead the way Daddy Shadow!”

He was definitely blushing now.

=

They spent a while investigating every room in the house.

Or at least, Shadow was trying to investigate every room in the house.

Maria was more preoccupied with pointing out the more mundane and practical uses of nearly every single inch of sqaure footing they came across.

“We have a laundry?” She gasped, leading her baby cousin in a sweep of the admittedly nice-looking appliances, “Look! It’s attached to a mud room - wouldn’t that be adorable once Ivo starts wearing little boots and comes traipsing in through the back door?”

Shadow felt his face redden for the hundredth time that morning. He was trying to see if any of the hardware secretly harbored weapons or wiretaps, but Maria’s words were incredibly distracting.

She spoke with such confidence - that they’d be here years from now, raising her cousin as if he were their own.

Their own. Together, Shadow still couldn’t wrap his mind around just last night - let alone the concept of her continuously calling him Daddy Shadow. But she seemed intent on doing just that. Sending him off kilter with every suggestion that This Room would be perfect this and That Room would be great That.

He carried on out of the room with the pair following him into the hallway.

“Look, Ivo!” Maria’s voice held such softness as Shadow glanced behind him to see her pointing at the empty walls, “This is where we’re going to hang all your baby pictures as you grow up!”

He babbled something incoherent, causing Maria to laugh.

“Well of course me and Shadow will be up here with you!”

Shadow could only hope. But even in hoping, he felt like he was on treacherous ground. This whole thing could blow up in their faces. So to speak. And they’ve yet to find any scrap of useful information in the whole house.

There were hardly even any pictures of Maria’s uncle Jean, nor of his wife Helen. It was as if the entire property - from roof to floor - had been built to be the perfect image of suburban conformity.

But that’s simply not who the Robotniks were.

Maria opened the first bedroom and gasped loudly, “Is this the nursery?”

Shadow zoomed inside to check for any traps.

Not that Maria waited for him to give the all clear before stepping right in and looking around, “It is! Gosh - who decided yellow was a neutral color? We should paint one of the walls red - what do you think Shadow?”

He stopped in the middle of the extremely yellow room, “I think you’re not taking this seriously.”

“And i think that a house is just a house,” she countered, lowering her cousin to the ground so he might crawl around his own living space, “What are you hoping to find, Shadow? More dastardly Robotnik plans? I think it’s pretty clear that this whole place is a front to keep GUN off our backs for a while.”

Shadow deflated, realizing that he probably looked a fool running about searching for problems while Maria was trying to imagine making this house into a home.

Their home.

“I’m sorry,” he said, stepping towards her, “You’re probably right - it’s just that i can’t let anything happen to you again because i was too trusting.”

He reached for her hands, placing them firmly into his as he looked up at her starry eyes. She looked taken aback at his honesty - which wasn’t surprising. Shadow himself felt like he was far from the reserved, timid hedgehog he’d been when they lived in the labs.

Things were different now. They were different.

He knew better to keep things bottled up now, knowing that he was once at risk of never being truly honest with her about his feelings. Shadow nearly lost her - forever - up in space. During the raid, even. And nearly almost every moment in between when he’d been too stubborn to trust her judgement.

He wanted to trust it now.

“Well…” Maria bit at her lip, action that arrested Shadow’s attention entirely, “…maybe we can find something in my aunt and uncle’s room?”

He smiled.

It was a rare occasion that Maria entertained his overprotected bouts of paranoia, but he wasn’t about to complain. Maria scooped up Baby Ivo back into her arms and lead them back into the hallways in search of the master bedroom. There were at least two spare rooms not currently in use, so Shadow doubted that there was anything of suspect there. And at the end of the hall was what they both believed to be where the two adults would have allegedly chosen to be their shared bedroom.

A bedroom for parents.

For husband and wife.

Shadow swallowed an irrational sense of nervousness as Maria opened the door. It was remiss to feel as if they were intruding in an adult space. After all, they’d been given absolute authority of the grounds. Or at least Maria had. And it wasn’t as if the room would remain vacant even if such had been the case, the adults who once owned it, if they ever did, were no longer in need of it.

It looked fairly normal inside.

“Okay,” Maria breathed, once again putting down Ivo on the lush room carpet, “You check the walk-in closet, I’ll check the dresser and under the bed.”

Shadow nodded, taking a moment to look into her eyes once more, “Thank you, for doing this with me.”

She smiled at him, a rare moment where she was the one who looked bashful, “I’m with you no matter what, Shadow.”

The words meant the world to him.

Therefore. Before he could properly talk himself out of it, Shadow used his powers to jump up and give her a light peck on her cheek. Near enough to her mouth that he could almost taste the cherry chapstick she often used.

It only took a moment. A blink and he was off into the walk in closet.

But for what little time it took, Shadow wished he could stay there forever.

=

“Maria, i think i found -“

She was crying next to the bed.

She hadn’t meant to crying next to the bed on the lush and surprisingly comfortable carpet floor. Even baby Ivo had waddled next to her at her tears. But she couldn’t help it.

Not after what she found.

“Maria!” In a flash, Shadow was next to her, already a comfort she longed for - she hadn’t called to him, not thinking to do so in light of what she found taking up her immediate thought - but having him here now made her feel cared for in such a way that she leaned the side of her body against his waiting chest. Allowing him to hold her to him.

“What happened?” He asked, voice urgent. Maria watched him place a protective hand over Ivo’s head. Her heart squeezing at the sight.

He was going to be a great dad.

“Maria?” Shadow caressed the side of her face not pressed into his chest, pushing back her hair which always seemed to overlap her headband. Maria basked into his touch, a part of her thrilled he was getting bold about touching her.

But what she needed now was comfort, not an excuse for heavy petting. So Maria lifted the photo in her hands up towards Shadow, “Look.”

He took it, eyes widening as he realized what he was seeing, “Is this -?”

“I’ve never seen my mom before.”

Ivo crawled into her lap, action that prompted her to likewise give in and curl into Shadow’s body. They were like a little, compacted family - living in a huge house none of them had ever been in before. In a room for two people who were never going to use it again - if at all.

Like the family in the picture.

“She looks just like you,” Shadow said, tilting the photo so that Ivo and her could see it again.

It was from a time before tragedy had struck the Robotnik family. Gerald looked surprisingly handsome - he had his hair and less of a gut than when he’d been raising Maria and using Shadow for personal gain. His two children were next to him; her uncle Jean a short and scowling little boy who had mud tracked over his pants. And Maria’s mother, Robecca, in a gorgeous long dress and meek smile on her face.

Shadow flipped the photo over, something she’d forgotten to do, wrapped up in seeing her mother for the first time.

“ Mom was supposed to be in this picture, but she got sick that morning and we decided to take it together as a gift for her, ” Shadow read aloud, his eyes darting to the bottom of the picture, “ Happy Birthday Mom. Where did you find this?”

“In this shoebox,” she said, picking up the unassuming treasure trove she’d found hidden underneath the bed.

There were more things inside it. But she’d been overwhelmed by the first picture laying front of center. Shadow took the box and rummaged through its contents, finding delicate momentos and what appeared to be parts of various childhood projects scattered about. Maria held Ivo as Shadow searched for something, her curiosity as to what causing her to look into it again.

“What are you -?”

“There,” Shadow gasped, stuffing his hands into the bottom and carefully pulling up a pile of neatly stacked papers. He looked at Maria with a sad emotion, before handing the pile off to her, “Your uncle said your mother would send him letters.”

Sweet, attentive, amazing Shadow the hedgehog.

He took Ivo from her arms, allowing her a moment to dedicate herself to absorbing everything she could about the one person she wondered about the most.

Maria’s hands shook as she held the letters in her hands. Her mother’s penmanship - her little doodles in the margins, even the way to spoke was perfectly preserved in every curve of each sentence.

“Dearest Jean…

He asked me to marry him! By the time you read this, me and my precious Mario might already be bound together as husband and wife.

Hopefully by then, I would have gotten the courage to tell our father. Mario thinks that he will be thrilled, but I am not so sure. You know how father is about my health - wait until he finds out that I’m expecting a child of my own soon!

We’ve decided to call her Maria, after our mother. I know you already told me the probability of having a boy is just as likely but I’m sure it’ll be a girl. I even attached my counter-equation to show you how serious about it I am -“

There is as a small drawing of her mother sticking her tongue out. Maria laughed, some tears escaping her eyes as she snuggled up against Shadow and continued,

“I know you think the data doesn’t support it, but I’m truly feeling much better these days. Yes, even though a hefty percentage of my nutrients are going to the baby right now, I think it’s just as important to have a reason to live that makes NIDS a survivable illness.

I feel so much more alive having found someone who truly loves and understands me. Don’t get me wrong, Father has been a constant and caring figure through my life, but I fear his quest to find a cure for me is leading down a dark and desperate path.

Maybe the news of my engagement and the baby will finally open his eyes.

If it does, I do hope you can find time from your excavation to come and visit. You should bring your assistant, Helen! She sounds like such a lovely and attentive person - and you have never described anyone in such great detail before”

There was a heart squiggle in lieu of a punctuation mark.

“I think she might like you too, given the way you say she’s consistently good at deciphering your “Robotnik eccentricities” - and I want to meet her face to face!

Me and my Mario, you and your Helen, and even Father will have to let go of his petty squabbles.

I know you’ve been on the fence about my dear fiancé, but I assure you that he only signed on to intern for Father because he wants to use robotics to help save the planet! He says alternative energy could mitigate the damage done by drilling for oil. And he thinks Father’s robots can help preserve and clean up endangered habitats.

Isn’t that a beautiful dream? He has so many wonderful ideas. You and him will get along well, I think! And when I get better, he wants to take me to the Andes so we can start exploring the wonders of the world - and you’re invited, along with Helen and our Father.

We can be a big happy family again.

I’m looking forward to it,

Your dear sister

Robecca Robotnik

P.S. I sent a photograph of me and Mario!! Isn’t he the cutest? Send me a picture of Helen, too!”

The idea of actually seeing her father - for the first time! - lead Maria to sit upright as she frantically looked between the pages in her hands.

“Shadow…”. She let out a breath, slowly lifting what she assumed to be the mentioned photograph, “it’s - it’s my dad!”

It was a group photo of Gerald’s old staff. With her father, Mario, towards the center next to him - and more importantly, next to her mother.

She had penned little hearts around her fiancé, adoring and childish as she appeared in the picture. Robecca couldn’t have been any older than Maria was now, maybe by two or three years. Her father also looked fairly young, likely a boy genius prodigy in his own right, to have been picked to be Gerald’s personal assistant.

Maria couldn’t stop her tears from falling freely now. They were holding hands in the picture. Discretely enough that one wouldn’t be able to tell unless they were looking for it. And she was.

How often has she held Shadow’s hand in the exact same way? Smiling brightly like the whole world wouldn’t be able to bring her down.

She turned the photo around, as Shadow had done before, in order to read more of her mother’s words.

My dearest Mario - see how he’s holding my hand? He’s always making sure I never fall <3

One day I’ll send you a picture of me, him, and our beautiful baby girl.

In less than a year after the date, neither of them would even exist. Maria would’ve been taken under the care of Gerald. And he would erase any evidence that she had once been wanted and loved.

Maria sobbed openly onto the back of the picture. Careful not to drench it but unable to move.

Gerald Robotnik had taken everything from her.

“Maria?”

Everything. But Shadow.

He gently wrapped his arm across her shoulder. Looking at her with his soft brown eyes. Maria noticed how Ivo had drifted to sleep in his arms, and even though Shadow would still not admit it, it was clear he was cut out to be a kind and gentle parent.

The kind of dad she hoped her own would’ve been.

“…are you okay?” He asked, gently rubbing the back of her head.

She leaned into his touch, closing her eyes, “I am now.”

Without a second thought, Shadow moved to nudge his forehead over hers. A comforting gesture he often did when she was distressed. But now the significance of it seemed to blossom behind her shut eyes.

He meant to support her. Comfort her. But also he meant to let her know that he was there for her - that he was hers, the same way she was his.

And she wanted that. Maria couldn’t believe how much she needed to feel that someone in this world belonged entirely to her. That there was truly nothing and no one who could separate her from the love and safety she felt now.

She had lost so much, but she would never lose Shadow.

Maria pushed herself up, pursing her lips to kiss him.

For a moment. She felt Shadow ever so-slightly stiffen. Yet for the second it took for her to wonder if she’d done something wrong -

In the next, she felt Shadow melt into the kiss himself.

Her heart fluttered. Unable to contain the joy she felt at his reciprocation. Despite the despair of the day. The hardships and sorrow. She basked in the knowledge that the kiss they shared on the eclipse canon had not been a one off.  That their shared looks and tender touches had meant exactly what she intended.

That last night had been a culmination of something built up over their entire time together. A thing they could share and explore between each other, without fear or shame.

As long as they had each other, she felt truly safe and at home.

Maria smiled into the kiss as it broke. Their foreheads still affectionately rubbing.

“Thank you, Shadow.”

She felt a huff of warm breath ghost over her face, “Don’t mention it.”

Together. They gathered the shoebox and Ivo and took him back into the kitchen. The pancakes that Shadow had left on a low shimmer had begun to blacken, funnily enough, and Maria couldn’t help but tease him about it. Ever reminding him how she was the better cook precisely because she didn’t forget she left food on the stove.

Shadow mumbled something about the unreliable nature of kitchen timers as he set the table in record time.

Ivo slept soundly in his little egg-like contraption.

“You should drink something first,” Shadow said, placing a cup of orange juice in front of her, “Replenish your strength.”

“I’m fine, Shadow,” she smiled, but drank a few sips to appease him anyway. It’s not as if she wasn’t grateful for his ever compassionate attention.

“The eggs, too.”

He set a plate in front of her.

Shadow sat down next to her as they both got started on a proper family breakfast. Their first in a very long time. Even in the labs, they rarely spent the mornings together, and when they were on the run with Gerald, there hadn’t been time to have proper meals.

It was nice.

She grinned into her eggs, “You forgot salt.”

Shadow sighed and passed her the shaker.

“So,” Maria ventured, recovered enough to broach the subject, “What were you up to while I was crying into a shoebox?”

He breathed a short laugh as he ate his own eggs, “It’ll keep until after breakfast.”

“Aw, c’mon!” She protested, “now I’m curious! It has to be bigger than a box full of my uncles memories…”

“Maria,” Shadow spoke her name with gentleness, placing his hand over hers, “I’m really glad you found pictures of your parents and your mom’s letters.”

She squeezed his hand back, “Thank you, Shadow.”

They exchanged smiles and resumed eating, hands held as a pleasant, companionable silence enveloped between them. She could get used to this. Baby sleeping in the other room. Eating breakfast made by her favorite hedgehog in the world. What more could a girl ask for, really?

Shadow grinned into his orange juice, sensing her growing excitement, “…Its just as important as what I found underneath your aunt and uncle’s closet.”

“You found what!”

=

The light of Jean Robotnik’s underground secret laboratory slowly lit up as various contraptions and gadgets came to life.

A slew of screens booted up, as various programs began running in the background of a main security system, showing various angles of the house, inside and out.

Shadow, Maria, and a sleeping Ivo in her arms, emerged from a hidden elevator that lead directly into the hidden laboratory. He tried to keep his sense of vindication in check as she slowly stepped into the hi-tech area, cleverly hidden under the unassuming house.

She turned around and around, overlooking every inch of the expansive space, before once again meeting his eyes with an incredulous expression,

“…We have a basement!”

He let out a laugh, “A little bit more than that, i think.”

“Yeah,” Maria laughed, careful not to wake the baby in her arms, “It definitely adds to the square footage, though. - and look at that, we can even see into the neighbors backyard with this set up!”

She went toward the main computer panel. Reaching for the control panel and keyboard. Shadow felt a little apprehensive at the prospect - only wanting to show her what he’d found. But as he trailed behind her, his nerves calmed as he saw her expertly maneuver her uncle’s programming, just as she once had a practiced ease of doing so with Gerald’s own programming.

“A Robotnik through and through,” he said, stepping up beside her.

“Well…” she shrugged, pleased with herself, “We gotta know how deep this goes, right?”

He agreed with her, though silently.

Whatever waited for them, they’d face it together.

Chapter Text

Maria and Shadow spent the better part of the next few days nosing about her uncle’s secret lab.

So far, they came across various research notes and a map full of archeological sites he and his wife had been in the middle of exploring. But nothing in regards to their last known location. Or what caused their disappearance in the first place.

It was as if they had been gobbled up. Or had purposely covered their tracks.

“Do you think GUN suspects that your uncle has all this hidden away under their nose?” Shadow proposed, looking over a mess of xeroxed historical text, “It could be why they sent us here in the first place.”

“Maybe,” Maria mused, pushing her back against her uncle’s hi-tech chair as she considered the possibility, “but I don’t think they’d be able to understand any of this, even if he was around - it’s not like his research on these strange owl symbols and weird temples could be directly transferable into building weapons for them.”

As far as they’d be concerned, at any rate. GUN preferred tangible projects. And her uncle’s research regarding this…ancient energy source and even more obscure doomsday cult didn’t strike her as something they’d be interested in helping him fund.

It was the technology around them. The fact that her uncle could possibly replace her grandfather in the making of weapons of mass destruction, that might’ve had more to do with them desperately trying to find the remnants of her family.

And now there was baby Ivo to consider. Maria would rather die than allow GUN to snatch up her baby cousin and indoctrinate him in militaristic pursuits.

As if on cue. Baby Ivo made a noise of interest.

Maria smiled.

Her cousin seemed very at home these past few days. The inner workings of the laboratory a stimulating prospect to the young infant. He often knew where to find things before either Maria or Shadow thought to look for them in the first place.

Even now. Ivo had waddled toward a fixed point in the room.

Shadow hummed, going over to where little Ivo was pawing at something in one of the lower shelves, “What do you got there, little guy? A book?”

Maria turned in her (her uncle’s?) chair.

She never got tired seeing the two like this. Shadow tenderly holding the baby while Ivo himself babbled on about whatever was currently on his hands. Today it was a book.

“Charlotte’s Web,” Shadow read the title aloud.

“Oh, I love that book!” Maria grinned, hoping over to where her boys were standing.

“It’s in French,” Shadow informed her as he passed it to her.

Maria immediately began looking through the pages, “And it’s annotated! Cool.”

“Can you read French?” Shadow said, clarifying his point.

“Bien sur, mon amour!” She winked, grinning as Shadow blushed at her words, likely suspecting they were flirtatious as he muttered about something about Robotniks and their penchant for languages.

Ivo made a noise as Maria looked over the novel. The hardcover was well-loved, the spine indented evenly and the pages marked at the edges or highlighted in certain passages. She wondered at something, noting the handwriting in the margins.

“…Did your Mommy Helen read you this book, Ivo?”

If he understood her question, he didn’t let on. Choosing instead to tap at the pages. Maria was careful not to let him wrinkle or tear at the paper. But he seemed familiar enough with them that she wasn’t truly worried.

It caused her heart to ache. The thought that he might barely have any recollection of his parents. Even though they clearly had built a life for him here.

They even thought to include her and Shadow in it. And she had yet to feel like she had truly paid them back for the kindness.

“Maria?” Shadow’s voiced pulled her from her thoughts, ever the voice of concern.

She smiled, pressing the book against her chest, “Let’s take a break!”

Ivo made a noise of elation. But Shadow glanced at the monitor that Maria had left open, and the information plastered on the screen.

“Well -”

“C’mon, Shadow!“ Maria insisted, already pulling him and the baby to a corner of the lab,  “We’ve been down here for days - don’t you think we need a break?”

Shadow pursed his lips, but allowed himself to be led into their makeshift love-nest.

They really had been down here for days.

There was a fridge packed with TV dinners and all sorts of beverage that had supplemented their meals, morning noon and night.

If Ivo needed anything, Shadow quickly went upstairs to get it. Not missing a beat. And for all that was charming and helpful -

Maria was starting to get stir crazy.

She laid down on a bundle of sheets and pillows she had gathered from upstairs. They’d even slept down at the lab, at the very least with Maria convincing Shadow to curl up with her and her cousin when they both felt too tired from all the research they were pouring over.

They hadn’t the privacy to engage in any…funny business. What with the baby being with them. But that was fine. Really.

Maria was more than sated by the fact that she’d gotten a string of nights where Shadow was curled behind her. A protective yet possessive new development that was currently the object of her pure elation.

Hence. Love nest.

“…wish you’d stop calling it that,” she heard Shadow mumbling, likely as a result of her singing something to that effect under her own breath.

Maria giggled. Settling down with her two boys in front of her. Ivo sat on Shadow’s lap, excitedly bouncing at the prospect at being read a story that had likely been a thing he shared with his own mother.

She again felt a tug of pain around her heart as she opened the book, fingers ghosting on the written margins and ink smudges. Her aunt must have looked over these pages hundreds of times. While she’d been expecting, with her newborn strapped against her chest, perhaps, and maybe up until the point she’d disappeared from his life entirely.

Maria’s eyes stung just thinking about where they might’ve left off. A bookmark lodged somewhere towards the tail end of the novel. 

“Are you sure you’re okay?” Shadow asked again, worry coating his voice.

She nodded, clearing her throat and preparing her vocal chords.

Maria had promised herself that she’d teach Ivo more than just how to be a world-class genius. That she would prove to him that being a Robotnik was more than hidden labs and endless research. Taking a break from all the work of the past few days was just the ticket.

 “Chapitre un : Avant le petit-déjeuner,”  and then, to make sure Shadow was hearing, Maria repeated in loud English, “That means Chapter one: Before Breakfast.”

His quills bristled, “I know what it means!”

Ivo shushed him.

Maria focused on the words before her as she began reading aloud in earnest.

=

“Wait - so the townsfolk think that Wilbur is a miracle?”

“Well, they think the writing on the web means he’s special.”

“But Charlotte’s the one who wrote it.”

“Yes, but she did it for Wilbur.”

Shadow crossed his arms, determined to explain his point, “But without Charlotte to say he was special in the first place, they would’ve never thought it on their own.”

“They’re friends, Shadow, of course she thinks he’s special,” Maria argued back.

“But he’s not.”

“Shadow!”

“They would’ve killed him already.”

“They’re not going to hurt him,” She said, pointedly avoiding the kill word as she eyed the baby still in his lap,   “Charlotte is going to do everything she can to save him.”

“It just feels wrong,” Shadow insisted, “It’s like Charlotte is getting the short end of the stick. She’s the one who’s special, not Wilbur.”

Ivo was the one to glare at him, vocalizing harshly at the up-tenth interruption he’s had to endure because Maria liked to banter with Shadow at a moments notice.

Shadow lowered his head, sheepishly, “Sorry…”

“Be nice,” Maria said, warningly yet softly to the baby.

Ivo buried himself further into Shadow’s lap with a huff.

She smiled at his antics.

Shadow noted something hanging from a section of the pages, a red ribbon that he pointed out, “What’s that?”

“What’s -?” Maria lifted the book in her hands. Noticing what he had, “Oh, that’s probably just a bookmark.”

She opened the book where the ribbon lay, finding a folded mark that looked akin to a greeting card, though it only took up half the page. Ivo let out a happy squeal at the sight of it, pointing at the shiny lamination and the strange symbol etched in gold marker.

It looked like a…priest? Of some kind. With horns and a long cloak-like body.

“Do you recognize it?” Maria asked, lifting the bookmark to give it to him. Ivo shook it with glee, the shimmering lights bouncing off of it the more likely reason he was familiar with it.

He was a baby, after all. 

Maria giggled. Gently taking it back from the infant.

“It looks like it opens up,” Shadow said, wrapping his hands around the baby, who attempted to make grabby hands at it.

“Let’s check it out,” She unfolded the bookmark to see what might be inside.

Maria’s eyes widened immediately.

“What -“ she pulled the bookmark closer, “Shadow, it’s handwriting.”

Shadow’s heart started thumping, “Whose? What does it say?”

It could be some kind of clue, or a password or –

“I think it’s Aunt Helen’s,” Maria said in awe. She reverently scanned every inch of the card, reading what it contained aloud, “…Like the egg sack at the end of this story. I am leaving you my magnum opus.”

“Egg sack?” Shadow couldn’t help but ask, face scrunching.

“It’s kind of a spoiler, but by the end of the story, Charlotte gives her babies to Wilbur for safekeeping, they’re in an egg sack,” her gaze hovered over Ivo, a saddened smile on her lips, “You were her magnum opus, Ivo.”

The baby curled his toes playfully.

Shadow frowned, something tugging at his chest. For all that Maria’s cousin was far smarter than the average infant, he seemed utterly oblivious to whether he even had parents, at any point.

“Does it say anything else?” He asked, noting how Maria’s face was awash with grief.

She looked again at the handwriting sprawled across the bookmarks card,

“Like the egg sack at the end of this story,

I am leaving you my magnum opus. My son, who will likely not remember his mother’s voice, no matter how often and how long I have read chapter after chapter to him.

Please look after our dear little Ivo. He has his father’s intellect, but I fear he also has his mother’s fragile heart. It will break without love to nurture it.

Even my husband Jean needs tender affection, at times, as all Robotniks eventually do. After the passing of his sister, and being barred from seeing his niece, he locked himself up in this very lab you have likely found this book in. I was his assistant, then. 

And then I became his wife.

This book is proof that the Robotniks are more than what they pursue. That there is love hidden at the center of what drives them. I read a story to our son, and his father emerged. 

May these pages bring you closer to ones you love.

Helen Robotnik.”

“You and your aunt would’ve gotten along well,” Shadow finds himself saying, before cringing at his own thoughtlessness.

The last thing Maria needs is to be reminded of how few living relatives she had, and how she lacked the relationships she so desperately wanted with them.

But instead of the pain or sorrow he had detected mere moments before. It was affection that graced Maria’s face. Her eyes, though laced with tears, shimmered over the bookmark card as if to commit it to memory.

Shadow watched as she traced her fingers across her aunt’s handwriting, before placing a tender kiss over the words and closing the bookmark once again. She put it back between the pages whence it came. A gentle promise that they would get to where her aunt left off.

Maria closed the book and let it sit on her lap, looking at both he and Ivo with renewed pep, “We should get out of this stuffy old basement.”

Oh.

“Are you sure?” Shadow hadn’t expected her reaction to be so different from the earlier letters she’d received before. But it was, and it was hardly as if he wanted her to be stuck in her grief.

“Yeah,” she nodded, a look of determination between her nit brows, “I mean – I’m not saying that we should stop trying to figure out what happened to Aunt Helen or Uncle Jean - like at all! But…we can’t stay sequestered down here for days on end, waiting for GUN to raid us again or until we make a breakthrough, can we?”

She locked eyes at him then. Something vulnerable shimmering in her eyes.

Shadow could’ve easily reasoned that he could very well spends weeks down here, and not feel the exhaustion that likely lingered in Maria and even Ivo’s psyche. But that was the very thing that made him pause.

If it were up to Shadow. He wouldn’t stop until he could, with certainty, emerge with the knowledge that he and Maria would be safe here. That they could build the life she wanted for them and her baby cousin without fear of the very things she just mentioned.

He’d volunteer himself to the arduous task. Volunteer his time, body, and mind to securing their future.

But that wasn’t what Maria wanted.

Shadow could see it in here eyes. Her lingering gaze as she waited for his response. Maria, as ever, wanted more for Shadow than the endless thrum of a laboratory around them. She breathed life and wanted life with him.

Shadow couldn’t deny her it, even if he tried.

“You’re right,” he said.

He could feel the relief radiating off of Maria as she sighed into a smile. Shadow felt relief of his own as she bridged the gap between them. Not to kiss at or tease him as was her way these days, but to hug him tightly. As she always did when she wanted him to know how much she cared for him.

Shadow could spend an eternity locked in her embrace.

But they were smothering Ivo.

The baby squealed between them in protest, causing Maria to pull back and giggle.

“Sorry, little guy,” Maria apologized, taking him from Shadow’s lap as she rose to stand.

She really did look like something near-biblical whenever Shadow watched her carrying little Ivo in her arms. More so even now, with the overhead lab lights shining over her head as he looked up at them both.

“Okay – so no more sleeping in the lab if we can help it!” Maria said, pulling him from his thoughts, “And no more frozen dinners!”

“I can live with that,” Shadow chucked, lifting himself up as well.

“And we gotta start making the upstairs feel more like home,” Maria took his hand in her own, looking at him with gentle seriousness, “I mean it, Shadow, no matter what – happens, I want for us to try to actually…live and be happy here.”

The trepidation inside Shadow’s heart prevented him from giving an immediate yes. It was too much of a risk. An unknown.

Yet, as Maria said, the only alternative to enjoying the world upstairs was to lock themselves below, fearing the worse. And though instinct urged him to do that very thing. To keep her safe – to keep her and Ivo safe. Shadow could not discount his other instincts, also.

The urge to shelter them. To see them thrive and grow beyond his petty fears. The idea of Maria nesting – as it were – with the baby as he protected them both set his heart ablaze with a need he couldn’t describe.

“Okay,” he breathed, giving into her with the same ease and loyalty he always felt once he stopped fighting it, “Where should we start?”

Maria smiled brightly, “Let’s go pick out our rooms!”

She pulled Shadow by the hand as she took both he and Ivo toward the hidden elevator that was waiting to return them all to the world upstairs.

Chapter Text

They emerged from the basement with a spring in their step and a semblance of a plan.

There’d be time to look over every bit of info they could, but for now, Maria wanted to focus on rebuilding their family – away from government conspiracies and secret agencies that seemed hellbent ripping her away from those she loved.

They’d find out what had happened to poor little Ivo’s parents. They’d figure out how far they could trust GUN. But more importantly, or rather, more urgently, she would make sure they wouldn’t lose themselves in the process.

“So what do you think?” Maria said as they re-entered her aunt and uncle’s old room, “Is this enough space?”

Shadow cradled Ivo in his arms, trying to keep the baby from pulling on his quills, “For you? I guess it’s much bigger than your room at the base - and with the baby’s room down the hall, i can take one of the guest rooms across from his.”

Maria giggled, endeared by Shadow’s constant penchant for being protective.

“Well, yeah, that’s a good idea …” she said, her tone taking a playful tint as she approached him with open arms, taking the baby from him,   “but I was sort of thinking we could…. share . This room.”

Shadow gaped at her, hands frozen in place from where he’d been holding the baby.

“W-what…do you mean? By that.”

Maria grinned into Ivo’s hair, “I mean…that you and I can sleep here. Together. Sharing the bed, even.”

Ivo mouthed at him, blowing a baby raspberry at his slack expression as Maria tried not to laugh. Shadow really was adorable whenever she caught him off guard.

“I – but I don’t –” he stammered, suddenly looking around the walls as if they were rigged to cave in on him.

“What’s the big deal, Shadow?” She smiled into her words, “Mommies and Daddies share a room all the time, don’t they?”

The exact wording she chose sent a fresh shade of redness over Shadow’s fuzzy muzzle, “m-Maria!”

She took his hand, leading him to the big, queen size bed in the middle of the room. Shadow barely gave any resistance that wasn’t verbal stuttering as she pushed him up into the mattress, following him on her knees as the flustered hedgehog scampered backwards until his quills hit the bed frame.

“See?” Maria grinned, zeroing in on him, “There’s plenty of room for both of us, and if Ivo -“ she plopped the baby down on Shadow’s lap, “- ever wants to cuddle, he can come right up and sleep between us!”

Shadow sent the baby an incredulous look, as if he were in on Maria’s scheme to emotionally overwhelm him.

She laughed as the two glared at each other. Snuggling up to the hedgehog’s side and relishing how his body seized up at her brazen actions. The bed really was too big for either of them. But they could grow into it. And now that Shadow didn’t have to sleep in a healing tank any more, given that he wouldn’t be doing any strenuous work (of a fashion), it didn’t make sense to take up more rooms than they needed.

He always used to spend the night with her back at the base, anyway, whenever he could. There was no reason to stop that now.

Maria smiled, grazing her lips over the shell of Shadow’s ear, “Besides…after the other night I think it makes more sense to share a bed than a couch.”

Shadow’s energy crackled around his body.

Maria let out a shout - but not one of pain or fear. Ever since he’d saved her on the Eclipse Canon, Shadow’s power’s hardly even hurt her.

It was the exact opposite, actually. She now felt a thrill at every pulse he emitted. As if her body was perfectly in tune with his.  

It had been the exact same way the other night - feeling Shadow’s excitement had bolstered her own and caused her to react almost entirely on impulse. Boldly asking for things she’d only ever read about discreetly back when they both lived in the base. And further looked up when she was given free-reign to go into libraries while they’d been on the run.

It was exciting. Knowing that he wanted her so much he couldn’t control himself.

“My quills,” Shadow said, moving from her side to immediately gather the quills that had flown about in his embarrassment.

Maria pouted. Watching him ignore her. It wasn’t as if his quills were particularly dangerous, what with her grandfather constantly licking at them like the weirdo he was -

But she should probably keep baby Ivo from doing the same.

Maria scampered to stop her cousin from putting one of Shadow’s errant quills in his mouth, having found one lodged in the bed frame with his tiny baby fingers.

“ Whoa , there buddy -”

Too late.

Ivo let out a yelp. Electricity briefly manifesting along his face. Maria held him to her chest and flicked the quill away, but he’d already slobbered over it, “Well…that can’t be good for the baby.”

“Maria…” Shadow looked at her patiently, moving to take the baby from her arms.

Suddenly. Maria did not feel as in control of the situation as she’d been when she was flirting just a second ago, “What? He’s fine! For all we know, it’ll…stimulate his brain or something!”

“That’s not –” Shadow inhaled, “We need to talk about …the other night.”

She was afraid of that, “What’s there to talk about? Didn’t you…like it?”

“I –” he paused, trying to gather his wits, “It’s not about that.”

“Of course it is,” if he didn’t like it, Maria could understand, she would even pull back a little, if it came to it.

But as of now it was obvious to her that they were on the same page when it came to their feelings.

They’d just spent a string of warm nights cuddled up together as a family. And though she loved that feeling of intimacy and protection. She felt a circuit of energy between them both that couldn’t go ignored.

She didn’t want to mess that up by cutting off their relationship entirely. Even thinking about it sent her emotions spiraling and her mind adrift.

“I…liked it,” Shadow said, at length, causing Maria to let out a breath she’d been holding, “I - I really liked it, Maria but - I barely even know what it was. I could’ve - hurt you, I felt entirely out of my own control.”

Maria felt a wave of relief, her shoulders relaxing as she crossed the bed to take Shadow’s hand into her own, “Don’t worry about that, Shadow…we’ll figure it out together, like we always do. And i’ll teach you all the things i read about while we were on the run!”

Shadow blushed, “You read about all that?”

“Well, yeah,” she shrugged, “Unlike you, little mister, I actually keep up with my independent study!”

Ivo began to fuss in Shadow’s arms. She saw his nose twitch, and a brief look of disgust overcame her favorite hedgehog’s features before she gathered that the baby needed changing.

“We’ll talk about it later,”   Shadow said, moving to leave the room, “Besides – we still have all day to – figure out what to do.”

She watched him open the door to the master bedroom, “I guess…”

He nodded, absently. The mess in Ivo’s diaper a far more pressing concern as he strove out into the living room.

Maria groaned as they left her on the bed.

She fell back onto the mattress. Feeling the expanse of it around her. She truly didn’t want to set up shop in such a big room, in such a huge bed, if it meant she’d be alone in it. With Shadow down the hall playing sentry when he could be cuddled up next to her instead.

Maria felt as if she’d spent her entire life making do in rooms not meant for her. But when Shadow walked into it, it hardly seemed a struggle anymore.

She kept thinking about her aunt Helen’s words. How she’d been her uncle’s assistant, then his wife, and their child had nursed away that persistent Robotnik curse of them drowning in their own emotions.

Well, Maria now had their child. And as much as it pained her, she had also made a vow to cherish him in their honor. And Shadow was more than her assistant – he was her steadfast companion. Her friend.

And after the kiss they shared in the Eclipse Canon - so much more.

She’d never felt more alive than when Shadow had kissed her - and kept kissing her. The night after vowed to be parents to her little orphaned cousin.

And he was being so wonderful to her and Ivo, that it just made sense for this yearning to start to overtake her, body and soul like a fever she dared not fight. To want to smother him with her lips and more. Prove to him the depth and desperation of her feelings for him.

Loving Shadow was akin to breathing air.

And she was determined to show it to him.

“This isn’t over, Shadow the Hedgehog.”

Maria marched out of the room.

Some redecorating was in order.

=

Maria had come out of the master bedroom insisting that she help Shadow change Ivo, even though Shadow had similarly insisted that with his speed, it made more sense for it to be his job.

“Shadow, the key to a happy marriage is for both spouses to take equal responsibility as primary caretakers,” Maria had said, very casually wiping Ivo as Shadow stood like a deer in headlights. The words marriage and spouses causing him to short-circuit.

“Now,” she said, handing him the dirty diaper, “ You can throw the mess this time, and I’ll do it next time!”

The smell of it jolted Shadow right out of his stupor. And thought it did slow him down a bit, what because of his sensitive nose, it was also entirely besides the point, no matter how much it made Maria laugh.

He put the thought of marriage and spouses firmly in the back of his mind.

“I’m gonna start unpacking,” she announced, heading towards a wall of boxes that had been shoved on the far side of the living room when Walters had dropped them off at the house.

“I can’t believe GUN kept all this,” Shadow half-grumbled, because what he really wanted to say was that he couldn’t believe GUN had tried to keep all their things from them.

When Gerald had burst through the doors that fateful night. Neither he nor Maria had had any time to properly pack anything of sentimental value. Or anything at all, really. Immediately thrust into running away.

Maria had even gone without shoes for a while, having helped them escape with nothing but her socks on. The memory set a blaze in Shadow’s heart. One of the first things he’d done upon recovering from gunfire had been to produce a pair of blue flats for her to wear.

He’d stolen them. A thing that had greatly upset her at the time. Not because the act of stealing itself was wrong in and of itself, but that given the context they were in, he’d had no choice but to steal for her.

Gerald hadn’t given it any mind.

Maria’s voice cut through his thoughts, “Well, Walters said that GUN almost ended up burning our stuff, so we’re kind of lucky he convinced them to pack it all up instead.”  

He watched her use a box cutter to open the front most package with a deep-seated frown, “Walters is GUN, Maria.”

She looked back at him with a funny expression, morphing into a grin, “Shadow - are you jealous of Walters?”

He bristled, “No!”

“Coulda fooled me,”   she shrugged, rummaging through popcorn packaging to find items of their past life, “Every time he got near us you were practically snarling at him!”

Ivo made a baby sound that was suspiciously like laughter.

“I’m saying that we can’t trust him,” he insisted, crossing his arms, “And it looks like your uncle didn’t trust him either.”

“Well, to be fair, Uncle Jean never met Walters - he didn’t trust GUN in general,” Maria leaned her entire upper body into the box - causing the lower half of her jeans to stick out, which of course included her butt, which was nearly wagging as she stubbornly searched inside the cardboard instead of just dumping things out.

Shadow tried not to stare, “…that’s what i mean…”

Maria jumped back up to look back at him, her hair beautifully disheveled, “What was that?”

He blushed, “…nothing.”

With another shrug, she dived back in.  

Shadow sat next to Ivo on the living room carpet. Hoping for a distraction. Instead, he found the baby glaring at him in disgust, which did not make him feel any better.

“Ah-Ha!” Maria emerged from the box, her arms pulling something up, “Found it!’

Shadow saw a familiar shape unearth from their packed up belongings, a thing he hadn’t realized he missed in their time on the run, “Your guitar.”

Maria scampered to where the two boys sat, excitedly placing her second most prized possession on her lap. Ivo was immediately interested, which caused Shadow to hold back a smile.  

As much as the Robotniks favored technology in all aspects of their genius, he found their flair for the arts and the dramatic a far more endearing quality.

Maria struck a few chords as she messed with the top nodes, a pout forming on her lips, “Aw, man, it’s out of tune…”

“I guess Walters didn’t think of that.”

She playfully smacked at Shadow’s knees, “Jealous!”

No , he thought, petulantly. But it did somewhat please him that the commander wasn’t infallible. Even if in regards to something that also meant a lot to Shadow. Hearing Maria practice her guitar in the past had been a curious thing for him, he hadn’t really gotten the concept, but now he looked forward to hearing her start again. More appreciative than ever before that he’d be around to see her improve, when things had been so unsure before.

“Never mind,” she sighed dramatically, smiling at her baby cousin, “I’ll fix this up later, and then I’ll teach you how to play all the songs i know!”

The baby voiced something unintelligible, pawing at the base of her instrument.

Shadow took the neck of the guitar and gently moved it to his own lap, “I can tune this back up while you unpack.”

She quirked her head at him, “You remember how?”

He nodded, “I probably have a better ear for it, too.”

“True,” Maria laughed, getting back up to stand, “Okay! I’m gonna try to find my fairy lights!”

Shadow felt his ears prick, “…You still want to do the bedroom?”

“Mm-hm,” Maria hummed, sticking her tongue out at him, “Unless you want me to set it up here?”

The suggestiveness of her tone caused Shadow to blush.

He wanted to drop the subject, actually, but insisting on it seemed to leave him flustered and in no way able to keep arguing with her, so he let it drop. Focusing instead on tuning her guitar.

Shadow heard her huff, but she simply picked up one of the smaller boxes and shuffled back towards the hallway.

Ivo flopped around until he successfully butt-crawled in front of the ultimate life form. He looked pensive. But not in a way Shadow could decipher. And it was easier to focus on the chords Maria taught him, his sensitive hearing trying to pick up the perfect way to twist and turn the knobs so the sound would be flawless when she played it.

Ivo blinked at him slowly.

“She likes to tease me,” he said, only feeling slightly bad that he was trauma-dumping on an infant, “I don’t think she actually knows how much it affects me, though.”

And that was the truth. As much as it was embarrassing to admit.  

Shadow had no doubt that Maria meant whatever she said, whenever she said it. She was honest like that. Admirably so. It was Shadow who was the problem. He read too much into things. Hoped for more than he should. Ever since meeting her for the first time in his healing tank - he always found himself wondering. About her intentions. About why she even took time out of her own to get to know him. Be around him.

If Shadow was a being that questioned why. Maria was the inevitable answer of why not.

But that wasn’t…enough for him, though he was loathe to think of it that way. With that word. Maria would always BE enough. More than enough. He would do anything for her.

It was just that -

Ivo babbled a questioning noise. Making Shadow aware that he wasn’t elaborating any of this aloud. He glanced at the hallway. Conscious that Maria would probably be preoccupied given the size of the box she’d taken with her.

He clenched at the neck of her guitar, looking down at his crossed knees, “I love her.”

Silence.

And then Ivo let out a shout.

“Shh!” Shadow implored, almost clasping a hand over the baby’s mouth, which felt excessive, “Not so loud!”

Ivo furrowed his baby brows at him. Maybe he was being ridiculous.

“I –” he took a breath, determined to let his feelings out, “I do, I do…love her. It’s just that -”

Shadow sighed.

It was just…what? That he hadn’t allowed himself to even think it, let alone feel it as often as he’s been feeling it these days? That if it were up to him, and not his constant string of nerves, that he would march right up to her and announce his undying love? That if it were up to him, he’d spend every waking moment spouting I Love Yous to her, holding her hand, raising her cousin, sharing this house with her, let alone a room -

There.

“She makes it….so real,” he confesses.

That was the root of it. Shadow was a creature who’d spent hours imagining a life with Maria…in theory. Theories were nice. They were largely conceptual, intangible to actual perception unless you went out of your way to prove it. And if you couldn’t prove it, well, then you were just having silly daydreams. Nice…cozy little daydreams you kept to yourself. Because to tell them to the one person who occupied your thoughts and fantasies would ruin it all. Destroy the fragile hope you had in your head.

It was unobtainable. And therefore, it was safe.

Until it wasn’t.

From one moment to the next, Maria had become someone Shadow could actually have. Someone he could dare think about in that way - and not only think about. Maria herself was determined to make it so she was also someone he could…hold, and not just in comfort. In familiarity. But something more. Something so tangible that it made him feel adrift in the vacuum of space.

“She kissed me on the Eclipse Canon,” Shadow said, for the first time allowing himself to state it as fact, and not as if it had been a fever dream, “And then she…” his eyes lingered over the couch, “…did it again, a few nights ago.”

Ivo followed his gaze, oblivious to what Shadow was actually remembering, which was fine, really. There was no reason to traumatize a clearly intelligent baby with any more facts outside of kissing.  

“I liked the kiss,” he reiterated, because that much would always be true, “And i like - I love her. It’s just that i love her - so much. It always feels like…so much, when I’m around her that I’m…afraid.”

Ivo looked at him blankly, clearly not following his train of thought.

“I don’t know what i am,” Shadow continued, “What if i - hurt her? She’s always so - sure of what she says and does, that i get caught up in doing everything she says because i trust her. I’d do anything for her…but I’m afraid I’ll end up doing something that will push her away, because she asked me to, and i…mess it up.”

It’s always been a possibility. Maria was intuitive, sure, highly intelligent as all Robotniks are. But she was still a teenager, and goodness knows what age Shadow was, even though he often felt wildly too young in moments like these.

As sure as she was, what if she asked of him something that…blew up in their faces? Book-smart, confident, and in theory she knew what she was doing…but in practice? With something as…inhuman as Shadow.

It would be entirely his fault.

Anything. Good or bad. Just remembering last night, how enraptured and enamored he’d been to obey her every word. Shadow knew that as with all things, he’d give into her eventually. Blindly. But if he didn’t have some trepidation - reservations - she might push headfirst into something they weren’t prepared for.

He was afraid he wouldn’t be strong enough to hold those boundaries for long. That all too soon, he’d stumbled right into her, caution to the wind, and might hurt them both in the process.

“I said I would trust her,” he said, at length, “and I do…it’s me that i don’t trust.”

“Shadow!”

He nearly jumped out of his fur.

As it was. He only suffered a slight shock from his own quills as Ivo happily extended his arms towards his older cousin with happy babbles. It set Shadow’s heart distractedly alight to know the baby was already so used to her attention, eagerly seeking it out. But more pressingly, the hedgehog had a lingering fear of whether Maria had heard anything he’d been saying.

But, no.

Maria’s posture betrayed nothing of the sort. In fact, she looked characteristically amused by whatever it was she was hiding behind her back, standing in the open hallway.

“Guess what i found~!” She said in a sing-song voice.

He tilted his head as to catch whatever it was, “What?”

“Ta-da!”

She produced two items - carefully held between her fingers as she showed them off to Shadow and her baby cousin.

He felt himself smile, “Your rollerblades.”

Maria couldn’t stifle her giggling, “What say you that we start redecorating in style?”

Shadow felt the pull of her - the pull to be with her - ebb away his previous misgivings that he was confessing to Ivo. It was always like that, it seemed. It might always be like that, he felt. Despite his worry. Despite his penchant for holding himself back -

It was inevitable. To want to follow her. Her joy was simply too infectious.

“Okay,” he nodded, petting the top of Ivo’s head as he scrambled up and gently placed her guitar safely on the couch, “Where do we start?”

Maria squealed in delight.

=

“I found our record player!” Maria excitedly peeped, rushing in her rollerblades toward the nightstand to plug it in, “We can finally put some music on!”

She heard Shadow zooming around the room, quickly cleaning all the areas she had reorganized to her liking. It was the job he’d apparently assigned himself. Ever the helpful hedgehog. But it also made it so that he was doing one thing while she was doing another on the other side of the house.

That simply wouldn’t do.

“Did you find your collection?” Shadow asked, distractedly making sure Ivo was not at risk of ramming his head into a sharp corner as the child walked.

Maria kept from rolling her eyes in a good natured way as she set up the player. Shadow had a penchant for saying things were hers even when she referred to them as theirs . It was something she tried to dissuade him from, but he’d yet to kick the habit.

“The, uh - it’s in the big one over there? I think that’s also where all my sheets and pillows are –”

He zipped past her. Quickly and efficiently taking the largest box where she wanted it. In her rollerblades, the air around him caused her to spin around as he passed, causing her to fall into a fit of laughter.

She’d missed being able to ride along in her rollerblades. She’d never be as fast as Shadow, but something about being swooped up in his orbit had always made her feel alight.

Ivo was waddling about the room. Confused and apparently upset that they were both now running around him at speeds that were not humanly possible. But as Shadow laid the box down and took the carefully packed records from between the her sheets, Ivo found himself something to do. Wrapping himself in her blankets before Shadow could stop him.

Maria giggled, reaching over to where Shadow had laid the records, “Ah - this one’s my favorite!”

She carefully slid the record in, mindful that this would be the first song int their new home and she wanted it to start playing perfectly.

The first few guitar riffs instantly sent her back to happier times. Back to the moments where she’d been more than content to teach Shadow anything - even the silliest of dance moves.

“Oh, Ivo!” She reached down to pluck her cousin from his cocoon, flopping him around in her arms, “Daddy Shadow and I are gonna teach you all the best songs and all the greatest hits!”

Besides her, she was well aware of Shadow’s continued reaction to her calling him daddy. His blush absolutely endeared her, but it was the fact that he slowly stopped correcting her which excited her more.

“…you’re the one who taught me all about it, remember?” He mumbled, a little embarrassed.

Maria twirled around with Ivo in her arms, reaching out to include Shadow in their impromptu dance, “But now you have your own opinions about music! You gotta share that with our baby.”

Again he blushed, but he also swooped himself in and laid a protective - and a little possessive - hand across her back, to keep her steady as she led them all into a shimmy.

Shadow was adorable. And it took everything in her not to bend down and plop a big wet kiss against his lips.

Instead. She returned his gesture of a few days ago. And left a light peck against the corner of his mouth.

Shadow’s powers crackled around them, “Maria -!”

But it was Ivo who let out a slight protest, causing Maria’s attention to divert for a moment, “Don’t get jealous, little Ivo, here’s one for you!”

She smooched her cousin’s cheek with a raspberry.

The baby laughed.

Shadow pouted as he watched her. Likely a little jealous himself, not that he’d ever admit it. One of the cute things about him was his penchant for playing it cool when he so clearly basked in her attention. Which Maria would be happy to give him, if he wasn’t so stubborn about letting her kiss him.

He stepped back, hands flexing, “…What next?”

Maria bit her lip, rolling toward the dwindling pile of boxes, “It’s these but -!” She held out her hands, preventing him from snatching them up with his powers and bailing, “You have to help me put up a tent in the bedroom!”

She watched his shoulders bunch and fall as if she’d trapped in with her words. And perhaps she had. He seemed to think the more efficient he was with helping her redecorate, bringing her boxes and taking out its contents, the less likely it was for her to ask him to stick around and participate.

Well, she didn’t exactly need a laborer, she wanted her partner in crime.

That was the thing with Shadow. He was so used to being…used, she supposed. A tool that was told to do things for study and profit. When Maria had mentioned unpacking and redecorating the house, it only made sense for him to fit himself into the role of worker - a mover and handyman waiting for her order.

But this was to be their home.

And she wanted him to have a say.

“Well?” She insisted, eyebrows raising.

Shadow looked about as uncomfortable with the idea as he’d been before. But instead of running into the hills as she feared he might, she saw his eyes war inwardly before he breathed deep.

“Okay.”

He obediently relented.

Shadow moved forward to take the boxes she pointed out. Even without his speed he was still much stronger than her, and could load up on the boxes if he piled them safely enough. Maria grabbed a small duffle bag and trailed behind him at a distance, Ivo in her other arm.

She watched as Shadow tentatively entered the master bedroom.

Maria had found her fairy lights. But the bed was still largely askew and her usual tent hadn’t been put up. There was still much to do, and she was determined to make Shadow a participant.

He’d spent so much of his time alone in his tank before she’d moved to the base. And then when she had made her grandfather’s quarters as cozy as possible, Shadow had eventually wandered in like a moth to a flame. And she’d welcomed him.

This time. They’d make this place for them, from the start.

As such, Maria Robotnik made the Herculean effort of keeping her wandering hands to herself, thank-you-very-much . In order to keep them both on track.

A task which felt monumentally draining as watching Shadow effortlessly move furniture around was almost breathtaking, given how otherwise mundane the act was.

“Is here good?” Shadow asked, the nightstand lifted above his head as he strained his muscles to keep it suspended.

It was unfair, is what it was.

Ivo thought it was hilarious. Flapping his little baby hands as Shadow would, on occasion, flip heavy objects around to entertain him.   For Maria, it was like she was a starved animal with a piece of meat being waved in front of her.

Shadow had always been strong, physically fascinating to boot, which was the very reason the scientists studied him. But every so often, Maria would catch him on his way out of the sanitization station - wet fur dripping all over his body, a look of annoyance more than exhaustion on his face, and she’d find herself staring dumbly at him thinking Oh…well that’s very interesting, let me just think about this image whenever I’m alone for the foreseeable future.

She’d always been somewhat aware that she found Shadow ridiculously attractive - for a hedgehog and then in general - and today of all days she was finding it hard to keep her composure.

“Maria.”

She blinked. Realizing she’d been staring and said nothing in response to his query. Ivo looked up at her in mild disgust.

“It’s fine,” she said, immediately correcting, “There’s fine, i mean.”

Shadow’s lip quirked but he set the nightstand down.

Oh, he had to know what this was doing to her.

Maria hopped up onto the bed, which had been moved, and reached up to throw more sheets up on what was now a canopy hanging over the mattress. It was much larger than what their tent had been back at the base. And in many ways, it felt far more intimate.

“Careful!” She heard, then felt, Shadow wrap his arms around her waist as she stretched upwards. It was enough to give her pause, thinking that he was surely giving her mixed signals, but when she looked down at him, she found Shadow’s face bashfully burrowed into her side as he looked up with his puppy dog eyes, “…I don’t want you to fall.”

How was she not supposed to want to kiss him?

No - bad Maria. She forced herself to the task at hand and made sure her lights draped over the fabric the right way. Enough to light up the space when the bulbs overhead weren’t on, but not near enough that she would be afraid of the bed catching fire. That was a thing. She had to be aware of things like that.

Maria’s breath caught as she felt Shadow lift her.

His arms felt taunt around her waist. The power in them so fierce yet he was so gentle with her body. It was enough to make her fingers shake as she tried to focus on the string lights and not the fact that his nose was pressed up against her ribs. Ticklish and cute.

She couldn’t help but smile, “Okay…and…timber!”

“What -?”

She pushed her body back.

Shadow’s legs gave in, knees bending as they both fell backwards into the large mattress. Ivo was safely judging them from the floor. Watching as they both fell into hapless laughter and pain filled groans.

“ Why ?” Shadow laughed through his pain.

Maria tried to wiggle her hurting back off of him, “You were tickling me !”

He huffed. Sounding more like himself from before the GUN raid. He was always so offended by her senseless little jokes. And though this one was not her best thought out prank, it did keep her from acting on any other, more handsy feelings.

At least, it was supposed to.  

As Shadow unburied himself from under her, Maria likewise moved away from him, finding when she looked toward him that they were laying side by side, at eye level.

As they gathered their breath, Maria took a moment to notice the red specks in Shadow’s otherwise brown eyes. They had always been there, but something about his powers had made them more prominent since they had come back from space.

Now that she had a moment to think about it, when she awoke in his arms after he’d saved her life, his eyes had practically glowed.

They were a low shimmer now,  

As if he burned with an emotion she couldn’t possibly decipher.

“Shadow –”

He jolted to sit up, “Are we ordering pizza tonight? I think it’s too late to start cooking dinner.”

She felt herself sigh.

A tease, is what he was.

But, no, that was unfair of her to think. Shadow very clearly had some sort of hesitance when it came to acting on their mutual feelings, and she didn’t want to rush him, lest she risk pushing him away.

And that was the one thing she absolutely didn’t want to do.

Maria got up from the bed, defeatedly going to snatch the bedroom phone from off its receiver, “Okay…but you have to order this time – you have more of a grown up voice!”

He bristled, “I do not!’

“Yuh-huh,” she grinned, mischief back on her mind as she crawled back on her knees to where he sat on the bed, her thumb hitting speed dial, “You sound like a proper father of a year old baby boy and the stubborn husband of a wife you wont let kiss you.”

Shadow’s powers crackled around them, “Maria -!”

“ Hello - Tony’s Pizza? ”

Maria all but cackled, pushing the phone into Shadow’s fuzzy chest, where he frowned and took it like it severely offended him, putting his mouth near the receiver, “Yes, hello, I’d like to place an order -?”

She smiled as she gathered Ivo onto her lap, listening to Shadow talk as if he were discussing things of outmost importance and not, perhaps, whether they wanted half olives and half extra pepperoni.

Maria loved Shadow’s voice. Whether it was laced with insecurity or held that alarmingly low growl he’d developed during her grandfather’s stint as a world dictator. He had such a deep and rough tone that made anything he said sound nice.

Shadow finished the call, handing the phone back to her, “You might have to tip him, they were almost closed for the night.”

“It’s not like we’re strapped for cash,” she shrugged, eagerly placing Ivo safely atop the bed as she went to properly hang up the phone. They had found a lockbox full of dollar bills under the bed they could use for these very takeout emergencies.

From behind her. She could hear Shadow let out a pouty hmmph . And when she turned he had taken Ivo on his lap. Brooding.

Maria practically pranced back to sit next to them both on the bed.

She leaned her body over Shadow’s, “You’re the best daddy ever!”

Not for the hundredth time, Shadow’s shoulders tensed, but the enraptured look on Ivo’s faced as he glanced between them caused him to cradle the baby’s head on his shoulders and relent.

“…don’t mention it.”

She gave him a light peck on his cheek.

The tips of Shadow’s ears twitching in utter embarrassment was oh-so worth it.

Chapter Text

Shadow waited anxiously as the pizza delivery was scheduled to arrive.

Staying in the master bedroom was beginning to feel more and more like a death trap. The bed especially both inviting and terrifying to him in a way he couldn’t even begin to explain.

When Maria wasn’t throwing herself all over him, Shadow ran the risk of wanting to lay down. To admire her fairy lights as he had so often done back at the base. To imagine himself accepting her offer, and giving into her whims and –

Well, his imagination ran wild if he indulged too much in the fantasy.

As such, Shadow found himself jumping from up the bed and suggesting they go set the table for the oncoming pizza.

Maria had pursed her lips, “Why? It’s not like we can’t just eat in the living room or bring it back here…”

Oh, she was being pouty at him.

Usually, when Maria wanted her way, for minor, trivial things back at the base. She’d start to pout and whine about how unfair Shadow was being with her, until he felt bad enough to be roped into her schemes.

The last time she’d used that tone, they ended up driving a stolen GUN motorcycle to Reno.

He was not to be trusted when it came to resisting Maria’s pout.

Shadow glanced between her and Ivo, a bit of trepidation on his voice, “…Maybe we can all eat out on the roof, today. And tomorrow i promise I’ll try to cook us all a proper dinner.”

Maria perked up immediately, “Really?”

“Yes!” Shadow promised, thanking goodness for small mercies.

“Okay…” Maria smiled, sounding aware that he was trying to get her out of this treacherous room. But she jumped up jovially and held Ivo against her hip, “Let’s go, baby, we got some picnicking to do!”

Shadow had sighed in relief as she and her cousin exited the room.

It’s not that he disliked the idea of sharing a room with her. On the contrary, he liked it very much. And like all things he liked, he knew better than to indulge in it.

The implications ran wild within his mind.

She kept using words like…marriage. Husband and wife. Spouses. And she was starting to refer to Ivo as their baby. Which sent another spiral of emotion through his chest.

This room was simply too much for him to process at the moment.

He would rather help Maria in finding practical picnic supplies around the house.

“…Well, I can’t find a proper blanket,” Maria was saying as he entered the living room, “But we can use one of the thinner ones we still have to sort out.”

“Gotcha,” Shadow nodded, getting to work. This he could do. Simple tasks. A checklist of work. It felt just as comforting as it did back in the base.

Maria the brains,, and Shadow her devoted brawn.

He did regret the logistics of actually getting them all onto the roof to eat. In addition to the blanket, Maria had gone about looking for some pillows, as well. She settled for whatever spare throw pillows they could find and slowly had Shadow take all their dinner items up onto a flat portion of the roof which had the added benefit of shielding them far and out of sight from the rest of the neighborhood.

By the time all of twenty-eight minutes had passed, he was beginning to feel like a busboy.

“Where is he?” Shadow thumped his feet impatiently, as they watched TV from the living room couch.

Next time, he was definitely cooking. It felt less torturous than waiting for someone else to give them their meal.

Maria laughed, trying to get Ivo to pay attention to the old movie she and Shadow had seen before, “Thirty minutes and it’s free –”

The doorbell rang.

They jumped at the sound. Not yet used to expecting any company in this strange, picturesque suburban town.

Maria got up, jogging happily to the door, “Don’t you hate it when they make it just in time?”

“No, it means we get to eat sooner!”

She laughed, mindful of keeping the door just open enough so that Shadow wouldn’t have to hide somewhere.

“Tony’s pizza – here’s your order!” A voice said from the front porch.

“Thanks, here’s a tip!”

“Hey, you’re the cute girl who answered the other night too, right?”

Shadow saw red.

In the second it took Maria to let out a shaky “Um –” (which only further caused Shadow to enrage) he had gone from the couch, to nearly bursting through the window.

“Get off my porch,” he barked, using the “grown-up voice” that Maria had earlier dubbed, before angrily slamming the door in the delivery boys face.

Shamefully enough he’d allowed himself the satisfaction of watching the lanky teenage hooligan run on his heels and away from the house at the sound of Shadow’s growling.

“We’re not ordering from Tony’s again,” he said, hands clenching as he turned back towards his family.

It was the glassy, hungry look that Maria gave him afterwards that told him that he might’ve overdone it. Possibly.

Not that he regretted it.

“Okay!” She said, breathlessly even as a smile tugged at her lips, “Let’s get up on that roof!”

Rather than watching the movie, Ivo had decided to stare at them both in disapproving judgement.

Shadow cleared his throat, beckoning Maria onward as she quickly handed him the pizzas and scooped up her cousin.

She waited for him to led them all out the back of the house.

Everything had already been set up above. Shadow quickly setting the pizza boxes down before zapping himself back down to where Maria was waiting to hand Ivo off to him.

But he felt suddenly…unwilling to leave her alone.

So Shadow scooped her and Ivo up in his arms, cradling them both against his powerful body.

The glassy look in Maria’s eyes returned as she was held against him.

He felt himself blush, “It’s…easier this way.”

She didn’t argue his point.

=

The stars were almost as nice as they were back at the base.

Obviously. They were not as bright. The lamplights of the cul-de-sac causing some pollution to an otherwise clear night sky. But for a moment, Maria felt like she could breathe again. They were finally far away from run-down cities and shabby apartments. She had nowhere to be that wasn’t with Shadow, nor had she the fear that Gerald would ask him to steal something or other in a GUN facility hidden in some underground bunker or condemned building. While she waited for him to return to her, alive but severely scathed.

They weren’t running from place to place. They weren’t trapped in a military base with secret agendas.

For once, they were simply…in the moment. Together.

It set something in her heart at ease.

“Do you think it’s a little too cold for Ivo?” Shadow asked, watching him messily slather cheese all over his face, even as Maria tried to feed bits and pieces of a slice of pizza into his mouth. It was fine, they could give him a bath tonight.

She smiled at his concern, “Would you run in and get it if i said yes?”

Shadow pouted.

Yes, she felt like teasing him again, because obviously he’d proven that he’d jump at the chance to provide any little thing for her and her baby cousin.

And though he made a show of thinking on it for several seconds, likely trying to remember where he had seen Ivo’s baby clothes compiled, in the end Shadow quickly scurried into the house and practically launched himself right back up with the baby jacket in hand.

“Here,” he said, holding it up.

Maria laughed, taking the garment, “You really are the best, Shadow.”

Leaning forward, she kissed the tip of his nose.

Shadow blushed, bristling somewhat, but it was Ivo who glanced between them as if he’d been denied seeing something he was eagerly waiting for. He was doing that a lot lately, and Maria wondered if he was waiting to see them properly smooch.

She laughed at the thought.

“What’s so funny?” Shadow asked, struggling to keep cheese from running down his gloves.

“I think i see our neighbors’ roof from up here,” Maria deflected, peering over to whatever her eyes could see as she nibbled her slice of pizza, “It’s supposed to be home to a sheriff and his family.”

“A sheriff?” Shadow frowned, “Do you think he could be a hidden GUN operative -oh!”

Maria flicked at his forehead, “Don’t start being paranoid about our neighbors! Uncle Jean already has a creepy list of everyone on the block in one of his databases…”

He looked as if he approved the idea, actually. Not that he would voice it aloud, now that Maria had voice her critique.

“Stop sulking, Shadow.”

“I’m not sulking,” he sulked, taking a bite of his pizza.

She giggled, “You’re cute.”

This time. She was aware that Ivo was looking straight at them. Likely taking note that Shadow didn’t always get a kiss when Maria called him cute or any other type of pet name. She felt proud of him for being thorough in his investigations, as a proper Robotnik should. And she decided to be natural with her affections, as to not taint the data he was amassing.

But as they didn’t kiss. The baby pouted, demanding attention from Maria that she wasn’t already giving. He pawed at her cup filled with coke.

“Do you think he’s old enough to have a sip?” She asked.

Shadow shook his head, “Even if he was, he’ll be up all night.”

“True,” Maria picked her cousin up instead, rubbing her face against his messy one, “Sorry, Ivo, but daddy’s being strict tonight!”

“You’re the one who asked!”

“Well, someone has to be the fun parent, and I call dibs!” She said happily, smiling as she inadvertently showed that her face was now as filthy and slathered in cheese as the baby in her arms.

Shadow blinked at the sight. Before abruptly starting to laugh, almost choking on his own voice.

“Hey-!” Maria protested.

“I- ‘m sorry! It’s just - ”

“What’s so funny, huh?”

“Your FACE!”

Maria gasped, realizing too late what she had done. Ivo started smacking his sauce covered hands all over her neck, “Did you do this on purpose?”

Ivo babbled an affirmative.

Shadow continued to laugh. A thing that cause Maria to stare at him in awe, unable to decipher why. Maybe because it reminded her of happier times. When Shadow and her would get up to mischief - making a mess of the base with a cart full of pastries and how they ran into it.

He sounded…rich. Alight with a peace she longed for him to keep.

Maria let out an amused hum, “So you think this is funny, huh?”

Shadow nodded. Wiping his eyes.

“Okay, then - Join in!”

Maria launched herself, baby and all, into Shadow’s chest. Hoping that he was immediately assaulted with the gross feeling of melted cheese and cold tomato sauce in his fur.

“NO!”

“Yes!”

The baby squealed.

Their laughter echoed through the night air. Never mind that they now all had to take a much needed and proper bath. It was worth it. At the moment.

Maria didn’t want to be anywhere else in the world.

=

It’s not that Shadow was adverse to taking off his gloves.

When they had carved him out of the meteor they’d found him in, Shadow could barely recall any pertinent memories beyond faint blurs and deep confusion. But he knew he hadn’t arrived with any hand or footwear.

His claws had been long and sharp.

Unkept.

Feral thing that he had been, he’d slashed and threatened anyone who’d come near him. Gerald Robotnik being one of those people. And it had also been his idea to provide the gloves in the first place - as a precaution, he’d said.

A protection. For his hands. 

For others he might hurt.

“Need any help?”

Maria’s voice called to him as it always did: only now she was calling to him from the bathtub where Ivo was wide eyed and attempting to eat the bubbles around him.

Shadow tried to suppress his grin, “I don’t think you should leave a baby unsupervised near water.”

“Look at you, Mr Knowledgable,” she quipped, ensuring her cousin stayed afloat as she poured water over his body with her cupped hands, “where’d you get that little factoid?”

“There’s baby books lying around,” he admitted, unwilling to look like a know-it-all when really he’d just fast skimmed a few chapters here and there between research data.

“Hmm. If only you were this diligent when we were given homework back at the base!”

Shadow bristled.

Ivo let out a questioning noise, to which Maria happily informed, “I don’t think Daddy Shadow ever turned in a single assignment in all the time we studied together!”

The audacity of such a statement baffled Ivo into stunned silence. 

“I think I’ll leave my inhibitors on,” Shadow said, eager to change the subject. His powers weren’t exactly electric, but he didn’t want any sort of shock happening while they were all near water.

“Sounds good - get over here and help me with his hair!”

Appropriately chastened, Shadow made his way to where Maria was kneeling beside the bathtub. Ivo was splashing around, sleepiness forgotten, and Maria was attempting to pour the bottle of shampoo without fear of it hitting directly into his eyes.

“I’ll try to be quick,” he informed the infant, hovering his bare paws over his head. Ivo’s attention was arrested by the newness of seeing his hands uncovered. A trait he shared with Maria, who had likewise treated the revelation as the coolest thing she’d ever seen, per her wording.

He smiled at the memory.

She had always treated him, his heart, his feelings, and his body, as something far more precious than either he nor the scientists had ever given second thought to.

Maria tilted the bottle of shampoo over the distracted infant, “Okay…one….two….GO!”

In a flash, Shadow gently scrubbed the product into the child’s thin hair. Careful to keep his neck secure and his eyes save from any leakage. He had some practice in hair care. He loved to brush Maria’s hair, whenever she was too lazy or asked him to with her puppy dog eyes, and on occasion when it was damp he’d wring it out and dry it for her too.

It made him a bit embarrassed to admit that doing things like that for her was the highlight of his every day chores.

Maria’s giggle caught his attention, “If we ever run out of Uncle Jean’s trust fund we could open up a salon - AH!”

Ivo splashed harshly at the water below. Causing a wave of it to engulf both Shadow and Maria entirely. He was beginning to feel like he ought to get use to his fur being messy, now that they had a child to look after, but he still felt the right to be miffed at the prospect.

Maria giggled, pulling at her soaked clothing, “More laundry!”

Instinctively, Shadow shook his head. Water getting everywhere as he dried his fur.

“Hey –!”

He stopped, sheepishly, “…sorry.”

“It’s okay,” Maria pushed him, playfully, “It’s not your fault i don’t have the luxury of super sonic drying power!”

Shadow was going to mention something about it possibly being useful for when they opened up the salon she was talking about -

But then Maria pulled up her shirt.

His throat went dry.

She pulled it off herself with ease. Without a care that he was right there. A mere inch or two next to her. Shadow couldn’t help but look at how the wet clothes had left her skin damp. Pearls of water flowing over her budding chest. And even further down her navel.

It hardly seemed like the thought crossed her mind that he could be staring -

Or perhaps. It had occurred to her.

Shadow blushed. Forcing himself to look away.

He noted Ivo was smiling right at him. Likely performing another experiment in his quest to see them properly kiss. 

Great, now he was being accosted by a baby Robotnik.

Shadow wasn’t sure if a baby his size even knew what a real kiss was supposed to look like, but apparently it was in Ivo’s head now, and the little Robotnik was intent on gathering data.

“Shadow?”

He nearly jumped where he was kneeling.

“Yes?” He asked, turning back toward Maria.

Only to come back to face with her standing upright and pulling down her pants. Her panties were red, today. He didn’t know why that mattered to him, suddenly, but there it was. The first thing he could focus on.

Shadow could feel the blood draining from his head to - elsewhere.

“Could you dry off little Ivo?” Maria’s voice asked, somewhere above him (was he in heaven?), “I need to take these wet clothes to the laundry room.”

He swallowed at nothing. Lump in his throat almost painful, “Mmm-hmm.”

When he actually had the thought to look up at her (horrible idea, really, his mouth began to water as he drank up the sight of her soaked body), he found Maria smiling, “Thanks!”

She waved at Ivo before scampering out the bathroom door. In nothing in her underwear. Like a magnet, Shadow watched her go - gaze fixated on the way her panties hugged her backside. Another thing he didn’t realize he was interested in…assessing.

Terrible. He was being absolutely terrible.

Shadow immediately decided to glare at the baby, “Did you plan that?”

Ivo was gingerly holding onto a bath bubble. Interest gone since his orchestration hadn’t resulted in a kiss. Shadow felt himself suppress a sigh, counted to ten, and reached for a towel to start the process of getting Ivo out and dry.

He was currently between two Robotniks in the middle of an experiment.

And he was the test subject.

Chapter Text

Maria was elated.

The look that Shadow had given her in the bathroom had been practically heart-stopping. But she had had the presence of mind to prevent herself from jumping his bones then and there. 

You couldn’t do that kind of stuff in front of a baby, after all.

But she did allow herself to feel desirable. Attractive. And as she finished putting away her wet clothes, she wondered if she should stay in her underwear – just to see if Shadow would do anything further.

She giggled at the thought. But knew that it was more flight of fancy than foresight. Shadow might desire her as much as she did him. But she didn’t figure he would be the one to start anything without her coaxing him first. At least, for now.

She had to remain objective in her quest. She was a scientist. A Robotnik.

Maria had to do this right.

There was a knock-knock on the laundry door, “Maria?”

“In a second!” Instead of acting on her impulse, Maria erred on the side of caution and put on a robe she’d found tucked away. It didn’t make her body feel flattering, but it assured her that Shadow wouldn’t go running away at the sight of her.

When she opened the door, she found Shadow looking decidedly away at his shoes, in case she wasn’t decent. His gloves were back on, unfortunately, and he’d bundled Ivo up in a fluffy towel. The baby waved up at her, flexing his hand toward her own still-damp hair.

Maria leaned on the door, endeared, “All dry?”

Shadow nodded, still looking down. And as adorable as it was to see him squirming in front of her, due to his own feelings, she decided to take pity on him and renege on acting coy.

She took Shadow’s hand and led him down the hallway, “Come on, I set everything up in the nursery.”

It really was an oppressively yellow room.

Even Shadow started scrunching up his nose at the intensity of the shade, which made her giggle, “Maybe there’s some paint cans in the garage we can use?”

“They’d probably be yellow paint.”

It was likely, but still funny enough to make her laugh.

They set Ivo down in what appeared to be a baby changing mat, safely secured atop a sturdy cabinet drawer where all his baby clothes were neatly packed away for him. Shadow held Ivo’s head and back as Maria put a fresh set of pajamas on the baby, who was already dozing off as they worked in peaceful silence.

Shadow smiled as she started to hum a lullaby.

“You really are good at this, you know?” he said, softly as he’d say any accolade he’s ever given her.

Maria blushed, but playfully nudged at his elbow wither own, “Well, I have some great help.”

Shadow let out a huff, but didn’t fight her for once. Instead, he helped her place Ivo in her arms, the infant already half-asleep as he baby-mumbled nonsense against her chest. She cooed at his adorable little pout.

Maria laid the baby down in his freshly made baby crib. In his freshly cleaned nursery. In the house his parents had built for him.

Ivo was already fast asleep.

She’d never felt this responsible for anyone before. He was so small. And though yes, he possessed an intelligence they still had to figure out. He was also just a baby. And needed help. And affection.

A mother’s love.

Maria still wasn’t sure if she was truly capable of providing such a necessary element to a child’s upbringing. But she was determined to try.

Especially if it meant Shadow was with her.

She looked at him now, catching him staring fondly at the baby, “He’s starting to look like a Robotnik.”

“Let’s hope his cute little button nose doesn’t get all big and weird like grandfathers,” Maria laughed, before draping her arms over the crib bars and wistfully sighing, “So…”

Shadow jumped a bit, glancing at her, “…so?”

She smiled, moving to take both his hands into her own. He let her, as he often did, but with an additional tremor in his grip that informed Maria that he know exactly what she was about to suggest.

“Do you think maybe it’s time for…us to head off to bed?” She said, a playful tilt in her voice.

Shadow blushed, but did not back away for remove his hands, though he did look decidedly away from her, as he’d done in the laundry room, “Maria, I –”

“We don’t have to do anything!” Maria insisted, only half self-resentful that she genuinely meant it, as part of her really, really wanted to do things. But her rational side repeated that what she actually wanted was Shadow, so that part of her took the reigns, and pulled Shadow ever closer as she stared into his reddish eyes, “We could just…cuddle. And stuff.”

Instead of relief. Shadow’s eyes betrayed a sense of frustration. Of disappointment. In himself, perhaps, as the idea that he might want to…do things, also, captured the forefront of Maria’s mind. And that he feared she might no longer be interested in pursing that, due to his hesitance.

Well, she was interested. Very much so.

It was very hard to keep her composure at her suspicion, “Please, Shadow? Just for tonight?”

That caught his attention.

His reddish eyes widened as they finally looked back into her own. What was it about her words that had triggered this intensity? Was it the specificity of this particular night or…the scarcity she implied? That she wouldn’t offer it after this (she would) that he would get one chance to decide (he’d have endless ones, really) and if he chose wrong –

Shadow could never really choose wrong, in her eyes, yet she anchored herself to the desperation she felt in his hands when he gripped her as if she’d slip away from him.

“Okay,” he said, the same desperation coating his voice as he nodded.

Maria smiled, unable to understand why it consumed her so utterly whenever he succumbed to their joint desires. It was almost intoxicating, so much so that she found herself leaning in to kiss him properly on the mouth.

Shadow’s powers crackled but he did not pull away as he did before. It sent a thrill through Maria, either from the energy itself or her own emotions, which spurred her further to nibble on his bottom lip. It was enough to make her dizzy, the way Shadow pushed up against her, moving his mouth against her own.

Maria felt her mouth open wide enough to devour him whole, before realizing she was breaking her promise.

“Sorry!” She pulled back, instantly, almost ripping her hands away from his, “I’m sorry – I said no kissing and –”

“N –” Shadow bit his lip, a look of despair on his face as Maria watched him struggle not to move forward into her space. Instead he pulled his hands from where they hung in the air, worrying at his gloves as he looked at her, “n-No, I – kissing…”

He was practically drowning in front of her.

But Maria didn’t want to influence his decision. She stayed back as Shadow eyed her with the same pleading look he had the other night – that night – and felt her breathing grow heavy at his yearning disposition.

Shadow swallowed, “I – I think kissing...is fine. I think – that kissing is fine.”

Message received.

Maria reached out to him then, noting how Shadow didn’t flinch or grow uncomfortable when her fingers carded through the fur of his shoulders and down to his chest. She couldn’t help but smile as she felt up the white tuft of fur that was still damp from the bath earlier, thinking that the next time it got dirty, he might let her help him wash.

It was an exciting thought. And the way Shadow closed his eyes at her continued caress made it apparent that he was expecting another kiss from her soon.

But she didn’t want to wake the baby.

First and foremost. They had to be responsible parents.

“Let’s go to the other room,” Maria said, smoothing her hands down Shadow’s arms until she could tug him out of his trance. Shadow’s brows knit, either in dejection that she didn’t immediately start kissing him again as she did before, or at the idea of going to the master bedroom he was determined to be afraid of.

Either way, he pouted as they went down the hall.

With the night well under way, Maria didn’t bother with turning on any lights outside of the string of fairy lights already plugged in. It really was starting to look like home, only they’d never done anything as exciting back at the base when under the canopy of that tent.

So, really, this was so much better.

Maria led Shadow in by the hand, obsessed with the way he wouldn’t take his eyes off of her. It made her all the more aware of the fact that she was still wearing nothing but a bathrobe, and that her pajamas had been firmly set on the bed, which she made an effort to shit on top of now, so as not to bring any attention to it.

With any luck, she wouldn’t have to change at all, tonight.

Maria bit her lip, pulling Shadow closer until he was also sitting next to her, “You know…you’re gonna have to take off your shoes, mister. This is a proper grown up bed, after all.”

He blinked, a little caught off guard that she returned to teasing him, but then he looked down at his shoes and seemed to understand that Maria was also being practical. Though it appeared to miff him to forget something as simple as not wearing shoes in bed.

It was just good manners.

But if Maria thought that teasing him would break the spell he was under, she was sorely mistaken. As Shadow immediately went to discard the air shoes he rarely went without. It was absurd how much such a common, every day action for her seemed to distract her so utterly when it was Shadow who did it.

The red lines of his legs went down to his feet, the same as with his hands. And it was particularly dizzying to think that as far as Shadow was concerned, he was practically naked now. Maria felt her stomach clench as he pulled his legs up and tucked his feet in, almost kneeling next to her.

Shadow fidgeted under her gaze, “…now what?”

Maria blinked, unsure of how she’d gotten this far, but in the mood to try her luck further.

 “Your gloves?” She said, glancing down at them.

But he pressed his hands into his lap, “Why my gloves?”

“Well, I’m only wearing a robe –”

“Where’s your nightgown –?”

“Never mind!” Maria reach for his hands, slowly dislodging them as she leaned and leaned until Shadow slowly started to lay on the bed, with her inches above him, “Let’s just…relax.”

His reddish eyes shimmered in the moonlight as he looked up at her, “Relax?”

“Mmm-hmm,” she squeaked, half aware of her own mind becoming mush at the very real situation she found herself in. Shadow was under her, and she was wearing nothing but a robe, and she really, really wanted to kiss him right now, “Are you…feeling relaxed yet?”

He kept staring at her lips, which was driving her crazy, “Mmm-hmm.”

Maria felt herself huff into a smile, “Do you –” her face hovered over his own, “Do you think…that it’s okay if we start kissing now?”

Shadow practically squirmed under her, “Yes.”

Unlike last time, Maria did not force him to ask her twice.

His tongue practically leaped to meet her own. A soft, yet deep moan morphing between them as Maria closed her eyes and felt more trembling energy emit from Shadow’s body and into her own. It wasn’t the powers that felt electric, though. It was Shadow – the fact that he wanted her, that he was desperate to have her, even if he hesitated at first. Maria felt herself keen against his lips as her hands roamed around his chest and his own clung to her shoulders.

The possessiveness of it was maddening. So unlike the gentle, reserved hedgehog she had come to adore. It was new and exciting – enchanting, in a way Maria couldn’t properly describe. It caused the slightly uncomfortable wetness to start between her legs again. And since she was only wearing a robe, she felt it stick between her thighs as she mouthed over Shadow’s muzzle. Panting against him with a need she only barely understood from all her reading.

“Shadow…” she breathed above him, unable to articulate everything she wanted to say – that she loved him, that he was great at this kissing stuff, that doing it more than three seconds was the best she’s ever felt in her life – “I want – I –”

He nodded against her, his eyes half lidded as she spoke to him and he clenched his fingers in her hair, “w – okay – I – whatever you -”

Clearly, words weren’t going to be much help between me. Maria pressed her lips against him, relishing the feeling of his hand at the back of her head, deepening the kiss. If it was childish, she didn’t much care, as her feet swung in pure elation at his attention. At the feel of his other hand moving from her shoulder, to cupping along the side of her face as Shadow bit and moaned against her.

Maria felt a fire light inside her, at Shadow’s physical interest.

It pressed against her abdomen. What Maria knew to be Shadow’s un-sheathed cockhead harden and stand at attention between them. She couldn’t believe that the act of kissing her was enough for him to react so strongly, and the thrill of it sang in her veins as her mouth watered in wanton desire for him, in turn.

Maria began peppering hot, wet kisses down along his jaw, and further onto his chest as she slid her body down against his.

Shadow gasped, his stomach trembling, “m-Maria –”

“Please,” she pleaded, almost sounding animal-like herself, “I just –!”

She couldn’t say. Not because she didn’t want to. But because she was so overwhelmed with emotion that they insisted she had to act on them, instead.

But the look on Shadow’s face gave her pause. Maria had to stay objective. She couldn’t risk his expression turning from earnest desire into fear. She couldn’t bear it if she put him off from this indefinitely. She loved Shadow and wanted him to feel as good as she did.

“…want to kiss you,” she found herself saying, “I just want to kiss you, Shadow, please?”

She felt her hands roam along his chest down to his legs and Shadow, almost instinctively, pushed himself up to look at her. At what she wanted to do, with eyes that burned so hot for her that she felt she might melt under his gaze.

He moved his legs apart and reached to pet her hair in that infinitely tender way of his, “…You’re so beautiful.”

How on earth was she ever supposed to not want him?

Maria closed her eyes at his touch. Her carnal desires overflowing as she finally settled herself against his crotch, mouth seeking without censor the base of the cock in front of her.

“Ah –!” Shadow let out a moan, his hips rocking up and brushing his length against her.

It felt so…warm, almost molten as Maria moved her lips along the base, feeling the vein underside pulse and throb even with her feather-light touches. She wanted desperately to actually reach for and touch it, but the remaining reasoning of her brain insisted that she promised: kisses only and was determined to stick to the oath.

“m-Mari-aaah! Ah –!” Shadow was alight beneath her. So powerful yet so alluring vulnerable that Maria was tipsy on the idea of pleasing him.

As such, her mouth began to work itself up his length, lightly licking and biting until the taste of him was ingrained into her mind. She wasn’t even touching herself, her nails happily digging into his hips as she relished on Shadow’s grip on her head clenching and unclenching in an almost gentlemanly way.

He liked it, he liked her, and Maria felt like she was on cloud nine.

“Nnn – ,” she panted between kisses, “nnnn, Shadow –”

He was so – salty, so uniquely delicious to her, that by the time her lips reached his cockhead, Maria was compelled with an overwhelming need to suck on him – the way he had done to her the night before.

“Aa – aah!”

Shadow’s powers burst around his body, Maria of sound enough mind to open her eyes and watch as the tip of his cock bounced and expelled a string of what she knew was cum into the air. It was so much that she felt almost beholden to it, and she couldn’t imagine being able to put her mouth over him and swallowing it, as she had read it done in her research.

Though, at the moment, it felt like something she really wanted to try.

Whatever degeneracy she had planned evaporated at Shadow’s distressed keen, and she looked up to find him frowning at his own release, almost to the verge of tears as he pushed himself further up.

“I’m – I’m sorry, I keep –”

“No!” Maria pulled herself up, carefully and gently running her hands up and down Shadow’s trembling body, “No, no, no, Shadow, it’s okay! Really! It’s normal – it’s – fine, you just came, is all.”

He looked at her frantically, reaching and pulling his hand away, “…it’s normal?”

“Yes,” Maria breathed, pushing herself to give him a quick kiss on the cheek, before continuing to caress him, “It’s – it’s called an orgasm and…it’s kind of flattering, actually.”

He looked up at her in earnest, “It is?”

She nodded. It felt silly to admit, but it was, “…it means you liked it.”

Her hands smoothed down his fur, catching some of the residue that clung to him in her fingers. She could probably find a whole mess dribbling down his cock, but she promised to keep her hands to herself. She promised to kiss him. So she pulled her hand up to look at the remains that coated her fingers and found herself entranced at the sight.

Maria closed her eyes and allowed herself to lick at Shadow’s spend, knowing that he was watching her do so. If this were any other time, she’d feel embarrassed by her actions, but couldn’t bring herself to feel it now, when he so clearly needed reassurance.

 “…you taste really good,” she said, blushing anyway.

But whatever nerves might’ve crept up on her, vanished the instant she opened her eyes again and saw Shadow moving in to kiss her lips against her still lingering fingers.

Maria’s heart leapt as she watched him open his mouth to card his tongue between her hand and into her own open mouth. It was as if he was intent on licking his own cum from her mouth, and the thought caused her to refocus her attention to her aching core, left ignored in her single-minded question to have Shadow however she could.

Well, her body made itself known now.

“Nng – s-Shadow,” she panted against his roaming mouth, shocked and awed when in the next minute, he took her hand and efficiently licked it clean for her.

He pressed a hot, biting kiss against her wrist, “…want to make you feel good.”

Oh.

“…oh,” she said, unable to think of anything more intelligent to say.

Shadow wrapped an arm around her back, pushing her close until his mouth once against found her neck and kissed at the sensitive skin.

“Oh ~ kay!” Maria gasped, feeling how Shadow still held her wrist with his other hand, even as his grip around her tightened and his lips peppered around her collarbone.  

Was this feeling pressed against her breast a product of the rough texture of the bathrobe between them, or a pure, molten desire that only sprung when he touched her with heated tenderness?

“I want –” Shadow repeated against her chest, his body starting to move against hers, “ – want to make you feel good – tell me how, please tell me –”

“b-But –” Maria felt her eyes roll back, “You – you said only – only kisses –”

Shadow ripped open her robe, causing her breath to catch on her own words. Maria felt herself shiver, but not at the sudden chilly air ghosting over her now exposed body, but at the ardent -  adoring gaze in Shadow’s eyes as they roamed over her.

He set her down on the mattress, her back firmly rubbing against the robe as the rest of her bloomed open for him like a flower. Maria was made all-to aware of the fact that she truly was naked aside from the robe. That her breasts did not have the luxury of a bra to hide them, and that just below, across the chasm of her body, her own vagina spread unbiddenly as her legs were firmly set at either side of him.

The mess she had felt between her legs before nearly gushed as he kept staring at her.

 “…You’re so perfect,” Shadow said, almost like a prayer.

Maria moaned, even before he leaned down to lick along her navel, up between her breasts. She had never  even remotely considered herself to be a beauty – let alone perfect – but to hear Shadow say as much with such certainty lit a wire in her brain she  would not soon forget.

It wasn’t so much that she’d ever believe it. But that Shadow believed it proved to be a monumental revelation.

Maria shook as Shadow kissed along the base of her right breast, moving to wrap his mouth around her nipple and sucking at it with urgency. She felt herself wrap her legs around him, as she had done that other night. Even without direction, he seemed to know exactly how to make her feel good, by simple merit of needing to have his mouth on her.

“Oh, Shadow –!” she keened, feeling her cunt brush up against his fur in a wet mess.

Shadow released her nipple with a pop of his mouth, his eyes lidded but entirely focused on her, “p-Please…tell me what you – I want – ”

Maria bit at her lip, the back of her hand hiding part of her face as a bout of  shyness decided now was the time to overtake her, “You – ?”

His head dipped again, as if he remembered suddenly what he had done the other night, at her instruction. Shadow created a trail of kisses and desperate licks as he slowly made his way between her legs.

Shadow came to a stop, looking directly at it in such a way that Maria felt her whole body turn red. His gloved hand reached for the bush of hair she had, and with the same reverence he did the hair on her head, lightly brushed it.

Her nether lips clenched against air at his tender touch, bringing his attention back at his goal. Audaciously enough, Shadow looked up at her, capturing her gaze as he lowered his mouth onto her soaping count.

He was absolutely going to drive her crazy one of these days.

“O-oh!” For now, Maria settle for being radiantly pleased with him, open mouth moaning at the feel of his tongue sliding between her folds and immediately causing her legs to shake around him. She reached for his head, fingers carding through his quills in a way she hoped was as affectionate as how he had pet her earlier, but some part of her was aware of how little control she had over her body when it came to Shadow’s mouth on her.

It was a vicious sensation. His tongue curling and protruding until Maria felt her back arch at the feeling of his talented organ inside of her. Oh, it sent her mind absolutely curtailing into a spiral of heated emotion she refused to suppress any longer.

“s – Shadow –!” She pulled at his quills, bringing his gaze back up to hers, as he dislodged himself from her cunt with widened, lust filled eyes.

“What’s wrong?” He said, his warm breath still ghosting over her mound and making her miss the connection, “Did I do something wrong, what –?”

“N –” she shook her head, words a struggle to get through but she carried on, “No, Shadow, please, could you – p –put your – fingers – inside? ”

He stared at her, as if her request had to register before he looked at his right hand and thought about something. Maria was about to ask what that something could possibly be –

When she saw Shadow use his teeth to pull his gloves from his hand.

Maria’s heart leapt in her chest. She hadn’t even thought as far as asking him to use his bare hand – just needing him in any way he felt comfortable – but the sight of it now had her thighs clenching around him.

He looked at her again. The same intensity as before as he slowly put his hand where she wanted it urgently. The feel of his pads sliding through her folds was enough to set her trembling but it was a moment later, when one slow – pointed finger entered her body that Maria froze in pure elation.

Her mouth was set to a silent moan. Shadow inserted himself with practiced ease, watching her still, the way her body stiffened as he pushed and pushed.

“I-in –” she said through her tight breath, “ – in and – o-out —”

He followed her words. Moving his hand and gaining more room as he fingered her deeper. Maria could hardly even believe that some part of him was inside her – that they were so close to even more than that –

“…Do you like it?”

Shadow’s voice was almost enough to push her to the edge, her head knocking back as she nodded, “Yes!’

“Do you – really like it,” he asked, his voice cracking just by watching her let go of her inhibitions.

“Yes – Shadow, yes, you’re so good – Aaah!”

She felt him insert another finger, unbidden, as his gloved hand opened her folds more to allow for it. Maria could be anything at the moment, but she might as well be mush whenever Shadow took the reigns of their physical relationship.

“ – want to make you happy,” he said, through her haze of pleasure, “I want – to do whatever you want –”

The words sent her body to an upwards spiral. Searching for a peak that was close at hand. Surely he couldn’t really mean that? Even at their best, Shadow always put up some resistance, and she –

Loved him for it.

She really did. She couldn’t possibly imagine herself with so much power over a boy so devoted that that she felt unworthy of possessing his heart –

“I lo–”

Whatever Shadow was going to say, he chose to stifle immediately as he pressed his open mouth against her clitoris, her body spasming as his fingers pumped in and out of her. Maria let out a shout so deep and long that she feared her very soul was leaving her body. But it was only because she felt so strongly that she would give it to Shadow at that very moment.

Tremors moved along her body as she rocked her hips against his mouth and moving hand. All Maria could think about was how amazing he was, and how incredible she felt at his continued attention. He slowed yet lulled her through the height of her pleasure. If she could speak at all, it would be to tell him that he could do whatever he wanted with her, she wasn’t opposed.

Maria felt her body go languid as Shadow lessened the pressure of his mouth over her clit, his fingers slipping away as he lifted his head again,“…Did you –?”

She felt herself giggle, a little hysterically. He was so absolutely charming that he still had to make sure all of that was positive. How lucky was she?

“Y-yeah…” Maria said, at length, reaching down and petting the top of his quills, “I – I came, Shadow, thank you.”

He leaned into her touch, moving so that his face was pressed agains her palm, “I lov – I wanted to….make it nice, I –”

“It was nice, Shadow,” she laughed, feeling needy for him as she pulled him up by the jaw, “Come here, please, I wanna kiss you.”

He followed her command, crawling over her body until he was face to face with her own. Shadow looked at her reverently, a thing she could never get over even if she wanted to for some incomprehensible reason. They both looked into each others eyes so long that Maria could not precisely recall which of them bridged the gap to slot their lips together, but she supposed it wasn’t that important.

In the same way Shadow had tasted himself on her, Maria could taste her own juices along his teeth and tongue. It didn’t seem to matter as much to her then, but she was sure that for Shadow it was just as incredible to his own pallet.

She wondered what else his advanced alien-hedgehog senses could detect. What he could be feeling and experiencing that far outclassed her own human limitations, even though she felt just as tingly and breathless at his continued kiss.

“D – did you –,” Maria struggled not to break the kiss, but couldn’t help her scientific mind from intruding, “ – g – mmm – get hard again?”

She thought she felt something, but with their sweaty bodies mingling she wasn’t quite sure. Not even Shadow seemed quite positive, as he briefly looked down between them, before pressing more kisses along her cheek.

“Nnn – not –” he licked at her jaw, “ – not really.”

Maria felt herself smile, moving her head to meet his mouth again. It was just like him, not to pay any mind to his own need, in favor of her own, “Y – nng – you wanna – unf – keep going?”

At this, Shadow kissed her deeply. Moving his lips against her as if to bring her back to life – a memory of him doing so back at the Eclipse Canon suddenly flashing across her mind. Was he always this desperate to have her? Even before this – before then? Maria had always kept her thoughts to herself, because Shadow’s issues had always felt bigger than any of her own. But how long exactly could he had been keeping himself back when his current actions spoke to a need like a man needed water.

He broke the kiss. Panting above her face as he rested his forehead over hers.

That was familiar. A comforting action she always relished in. She let Shadow rub and nuzzle over her face, and she thought for a minute that he was scent marking her. She’d read about it in a book forever ago, in an attempt to understand her friend better, and never brought it up when he started doing it while they cuddled.

It felt so different now, but still as sincere.

“L-later,” Shadow spoke, answering her question.

Maria opened her eyes, noting how his own projected loudly and clearly that he did want to continue, but that also, he didn’t feel ready for it.

She, at the moment, also felt she might not be, even though every inch of her screamed the contrary.

“…promise?” She asked, softly against him.

Shadows beautiful red eyes shimmered, as he swallowed loudly,“…yes.”

“Okay,” it was all she needed, really, before moving under him so that they might both lay on their sides. Properly facing each other.

It was a lot, suddenly. To be in such a huge bed in such a quiet room. But she found her hands searching for his. And his ungloved hand clasped onto hers with the same earnestness as he held it before.

In fact, he pulled her hands up high enough to kiss along her knuckles, causing her to blush.

I love you, she wanted to say, but settled for a comfortable, “Goodnight.”

For the first time since entering the room, Shadow smiled back at her, “Goodnight.”

Chapter Text

Gerald Robotnik was going to die.

The hour was looming over him like a guillotine to his head – which, incidentally, would’ve been his preferred way to go, but the international justice system refused special requests to those they deemed criminally insane.

Not that it mattered much anymore.

No, what mattered was to see certain agreements fulfilled, in what little time he had left to fulfill them. As such, he had requested Walters make his presence known to him as Gerald scribbled away at the walls of his cell. But the obstinate young commander was taking his sweet time. Likely in some misguided, self-righteous attempt to punish Gerald further though the unforgivable act of bad manners.

Gerald clicked his tongue, carefully charting the remaining parts of the andromeda galaxy he had left to finish. He has the approximate distance and time mapped out, with a works cited equation scribbled to the side, but he also liked to draw in the space gas. It’s made the place feel more homely.

“Gerald.”

He was in a basement-level containment facility. There’s about three separate locked gates one had to get through to access the main holding cells. The middle gate tended to rattle when it opened, which alert him roughly fifteen minutes ago that Walters had been biding his time until the beeping of the third, airtight sealed door sounded, and the plexiglass hissed open. Further informing Gerald that his military friend was tired of making him wait.

“That’s a handsome new medal on your lapel, Walters,” he said without bothering to look, he was using his finger to shade in some space dust, “I don’t recall receiving a thank you for leaving you so nicely decorated, after my capture.”

“They’re thinking of executing you via firing squad, Robotnik,” was all Walters had to say, “You’ve yet to give them any reason not to – which isn’t like you.”

Gerald snorted, sitting back to admire his work, “She made my perfect Eclipse Canon utterly unusable, didn’t she?”

The silence that sat between them was all the confirmation he really needed. But it still pleased him to know that Walters was fidgeting just behind him.

The fact that they were still thinking about negotiations was so laughably transparent. He had constructed his greatest creation – a weapon that had siphoned the energy of the Ultimate Lifeform. And yet, here Walters was, sniveling on behalf of the world government. They couldn’t hope to replicate it even if they had shrapnel to work with, but it was clear they had little more than an empty husk after his capture.

If they were hoping beyond hope he would give them a copy of their own, they’d be left wanting.

“…she stabilized the reactor core,” Walter said, after a beat, “Which is something our top scientists keep insisting ought to have been impossible for her to do…and then she – seems to have corrupted the programming to such an extent that no one can even hope to unravel it.”

“You ought to check your hard drives,” Gerald smiled, “They’re probably riddled with viruses none of your…brainiacs have noticed yet.”

He heard Walters huff, but not without some fondness, “At least three servers have been downed each time they tried to so much as breathe around your schematics. She floods little faces into the coding – I think she called them emoticons, back at the base.”

Gerald turned from where he sat on the floor. Walters truly did look fetching in his new uniform and fancy green barrette, but it was the stress lines marring his face that truly set Gerald’s heart at ease.

“Maria is truly exceptional, isn’t she?” He said, drumming lightly against his knees in some exotic foreign rhythm he happened to remember, “Such a blessing, that she has a long, happy life ahead of her now that I’m out of the way.”

Walters did not share in his humor, “Do you honestly care about her life that much – after you did everything to try to ruin it?”

“Everything I’ve ever done was for her sake!” Gerald snarled, before remembering that he really had no stake in the matter, anymore, “…just ask…our dear PROJECT: Shadow! I’m sure he’s still keeping her very safe from the likes of me and G.U.N.”

Walters clenched his jaw, as if to work out a thought ruminating in his puny mind. It was rather amusing, as if the act of his neurons connecting was somehow painful.

“I’m not really supposed to tell you this,” the good Commander said, rather stiffly, “But since you’re not long for this world, I might as well. We tracked down your son, along with his wife and newborn child. Maria and Shadow have been staying with them, all this time.”

“Jean?” Now that was a development, Gerald was almost impressed, “And with a wife and baby you say? Whoever did he rope into that scam, I wonder…”

“His assistant, by the look of it,” Walters deadpanned, “She’s actually a very nice lady, from what I read from her report and the mandatory updates we conduct.”

“So you haven’t met her?” Gerald tsked, “Your shiny new rank has gotten to your head, my dear Commander – sending your underlings to check on things these days? After all the months you spent biting at my heels.”

“I’ve been a little busy trying to clean up after your mess, Robotnik,” he said, “It’s not easy trying to coverup the fact that the moon was blasted in front of the whole earth!”

“Meteor crashed into it?” Gerald shrugged, “You’ll figure something out, I’m sure.”

At this, Walters gave him a hard stare. It was obvious that he expected something more out of this conversation, what with Gerald asking to see him personally. But seeing as this was likely  the last time he’d ever see a familiar face outside of the soldiers about to blast his own to smithereens, he wasn’t in a hurry to give it all away.

“Why am I here, Gerald?”

“Can’t you humor a dying man’s last wish?”

“I doubt your dying wish is to talk to me.”

“And why not?” Gerald harrumphed, genuinely offended, “We’ve known each other for years, Jamieson! Let’s not pretend you won’t be sad to see me go.”

“It’s only sad that none of us realized how deep your madness ran sooner,” a look of disgust overcame Walters, very unbecoming of his freshly pressed uniform, “You don’t even care that we found your son! That he’s led a whole life outside of you, while you were busy destroying your daughter’s –!”

“Don’t,” Gerald felt a fire in his chest, the final embers of a rage that has consumed him for decades, “Speak her name. Don’t even mention her.”

If only she had listened to him.

If only that – boy hadn’t slithered his way into the internship that allowed him to be in the same room as his precious Robecca. Gerald could think of hundreds of scenarios – thousands of possibilities that could’ve prevented his daughter from the end she’d been given, yet none served him now, in hindsight. Not even Maria – the unfortunate proof of her mother’s worst mistake, always looking at him with her two-toned eyes. A recessive gene she possessed from her atrocious father.

Confound it all, Gerald could not afford to linger on his nightmarish memories at present. Not yet. He’ll allow himself to descend into blissful hysteria later, when it no longer mattered.

“Besides,” he said, regaining his composure in the minute it took to lose it, a thing he knew often disturbed Walters, “Even if I asked nicely, I doubt you’ll invite my extended family to watch their old grandpappy go off in a blaze of glory.”

Walters scoffed, “Not even you could be that vain.”

“Any arrogance you perceive in me is only equal to the brilliant mind you fail to understand,” Gerald struggled to stand up, “Ugh – just ask, dear little Jean. All the genius I gave him at conception, and he uses it to study rocks…hardly useful for the building of weapons, eh, Walters?”

Though it did have its other uses.

Ah, poor Jean. An utterly useless sibling to his sister – incompatible where it mattered in terms of being a blood sack and organ donor. But a nosey little archeologist that meddled in matters of space gods. Oh, how he ought to be thrilled to have his hands on Shadow now. Poking and prodding at the squid-turned-hedgehog. Aways prattling on in his letters about his little ancient doomsday cult and the meteor he had insisted was foretold in slabs and hieroglyphs.

They must be in great cahoots by now. He and his traitorous hedgehog experiment.

“That is why your still here, right?” Gerald continued, walking towards the bars of his confinement, “Jean doesn’t have the chops it takes to be a viable replacement for me, he’s always been the soft type, we must honor the past to secure our future la-dee-da.”

Walters frowns, glancing away, “He’s…more bookish than he is proactive. He’s taken a university position after returning from South America, to ensure a stable environment for his child and Maria – and Shadow, of course.”

“That doesn’t sound a thing like him,” Gerald recoils, honestly repulsed, “Jean always said he’d rather die than resort to a tenured profession.”

“I supposed some men change when they have children,” Walters said, derisively.

“Not my children,” he countered, “They were both as stubborn as their old man before you. One gave me a granddaughter, trying to be obstinate in getting her way, and Jean liked to dig in the mud. He never had a team when he could go excavating himself – are you sure you found the right man?”

“Who else would it be?” Walters asked, as if Gerald was somehow being ridiculous.

“That’s your problem,” he said, dumbfounded, “Honestly – call me a horrendous father all you like, but at least when Maria was with me, she was making mischief under government supervision. You have her and Shadow playing house with a couple of strangers and their snotty little brat.”

“It’s your son!”

“If you say so,” Gerald rolled his eyes, let him believe it, it’s out of his hands, “I’m only surprised you even have Shadow running about in some banal suburban cul-de-sac. I would’ve thought you’d have him shipped off to the island prison off the coast of Okinawa by now.”

“…There was some push for it,” Walters admitted, not without some discomfort, “And trust me, I did have to fight to keep him out of that place, but mostly it was Maria’s machinations that even allowed for this truce GUN has with the surviving Robotniks.”

Gerald grinned, toothy and knowing, “They’re already trying to get their grimy little hands on her brilliant mind.”

“They want you. But it’s hard to justify letting a man who tried to blow up the planet off the hook. So what better PR than the girl who helped save the world?”

It made sense, really.

Maria had a knack for programming. She grew up deciphering Gerald’s best systems and liked taking his robots apart when she got bored.

There was really only one problem:

“She’ll never do it. You know as well as I do, Walters, that Maria abhors violence.”

Like her disgrace of an uncle, Maria followed her passions instead of her intellect.

She could make an apparatus meant for channeling an alien being’s powers for maximum speed and efficiency, but she insisted in making it comfortable also. Oh, and it has to look cool, grandfather, to express the person’s personality. She hadn’t even met Shadow by that point, and was already advocating for his autonomy.

For lord’s sake, she spent her spare time studying botany. Helping to create a new strain of herbaceous lilium she adorably dubbed lunar lilies. They could cure cancer, if refined right, but Gerald had resolved not to give GUN any more freebies.

Maria cared too much, a weakness she got from her mother.

Gerald sighed, “You’d have better luck snatching up that grandson of mine and molding him into whatever GUN thinks it wants from my tragic little family.”

“I would never – let it come to that.”

“Never say never,” Gerald said, leaning closer, “If not in this life, then some other. The fact is, dear Jamieson Patrick Walters, your only here because you’re down a Robotnik and need some way to secure your new position as GUN’s commander-in-chief.”

Walters glared at him then, a pathetic expression meant to be paired with weaker threats, “I’m not as self-serving as you.”

“Oh, please –”

“And Maria’s a sweet girl –”

“Careful, Shadow might get twitchy if he hears you –”

“ – and Shadow isn’t some mindless monster!” Walters stepped towards the bars, all pretense of military decorum abandoned, “Gerald, please – is this really how you want to leave this world? Shot down like a dog because you refuse to let go of your ego and pride? Give them something – anything! You can’t honestly want to put these two through any more strife than you already have!”

“I gave GUN everything I had,” he said plainly, “There is nothing else.”

“So that’s it then,” Walters eyes shimmered, “You die, and you don’t even care what happens to Maria anymore?”

“I made a deal with the devil – or so my Jeany-boy insists. I’ve had an inkling of how my life would end for years – along with the lives of everyone else on the planet,” Gerald stepped back, gesturing  his hand dismissively, “Maria made her bed with that vile little rodent – quite literally  by now I’d imagine – so it’s up to him to make sure whatever higher power brought him here doesn’t consume her along with the rest of you!”

“What are you –?”

Walters finally took a moment to pay attention to Gerald’s surroundings. Though what he obviously lacked in preservation instincts clearly couldn’t help him decipher what was plainly set before him.

“What is all this?”

“The ramblings of a madman!” Gerald shouts in rapturous glee, turning about the room with open arms, “BASK in it Walters! ”

All around him was the work of his last days on earth. Virtually useless in terms of arming them with anything outside of time and knowledge, but if Walters was as willing to defer to smarter men as he always was, it would be a shot in hell.

“I never took you for an astrology hobbyist, Robotnik.”

“Have Jeanie explain it to you,” Gerald snorted, “if you even found the real Jeanie.”

He heard Walters sigh behind him, the sound of skin hitting the iron bars as Gerald imagine him leaning his forehead on them, “…I was a fool to think you’d have anything coherent to say.”

Gerald let his arms drop. A feeling of precious melancholy overtaking him, finally.

“…greater fool was I to think I could raise a daughter again.”

She had to be just like her.

Robecca had been the splitting image of his wife. And Maria was a perfect copy of her own mother. And they were all kind-hearted – all smiles and tender gazes. If all Robotnik men ended up balding and psychotic, it seemed apt that all Robotnik women shared the same heart and ended up dead.

Death courted them all like a jealous suitor – like a curse he couldn’t seem to shake. Maria had felt like such a blissful exception, and now Gerald was one foot in the grave himself.

Such a cruel twist of fate, he won’t live to see Maria grow old.

“Gerald –”

“Tell her Happy Birthday for me.”

He’ll be dead before then.

Chapter Text

“We got mail!”

Shadow watched as Maria walked in from the front with a sizable parcel in her hands. She had left for a moment to run down to the mail box, even though he had offered to do so quickly for her, insisting that they weren’t going to live the life of skittish shut-ins if she could help it.

He had anxiously waited all of five minutes.

“Here, let me help –” Shadow had no sooner spoken before zipping right in front of her with open hands to carry the packages for her.

Maria giggled, allowing him to take them, “My hero!”

She leaned down to kiss him.

Shadow felt his heart flutter, expecting it to be a deep – passionate kiss like the one she’d given him when they woke up entangled in each other’s arms this morning. Which had been abruptly interrupted when Ivo began crying for attention in his crib.

Instead, Maria gave him a light peck before walking towards the living room coffee table, where Ivo, who had been distracting him with finger-painted renditions of what appeared to be the Orion constellation, was staring at him in judgement.

Shadow blushed.

He had been ripe with emotion all morning.

Waking up next to Maria, her serene face backlit by the sun’s morning rays. Her lips pink and swollen from how much they kissed one another. Once again partially naked as he hadn’t taken off her robe entirely the night before for fear she might get cold, and Shadow himself only sporting one glove, he felt utterly exposed both physically and emotionally.

He had almost confessed his undying love for her in the middle of…touching her.

Multiple times.

And it wasn’t so much that he didn’t want to confess to her – rather than he feared his heart was running ahead of his sensible mind, at present.

He wanted to hold Maria close to him. He wanted to carry her and Ivo in his arms and feel comfortable in this house – in their home. He had said as much last night to her – that he wanted to do whatever she wanted. Whatever made her happy.

It was getting increasingly harder to deny that what she wanted made him happy, too.

“Shadow,” Maria giggled, looking over her shoulder from where she was appraising Ivo’s finger paintings, “Are you gonna stand there all day?”

Maybe. If it meant watching them both.

“Sorry,” Shadow said instead, joining them at the coffee table.

She laughed as he drew nearer, pulling him over to plant another kiss at his cheek, “You’re so silly.”

He was in love with her, but that wasn’t the problem.

Shadow laid the parcels down for Maria to unwrap. A large, brown paper wrapped box tied up in  twine and duck tape. He made quick work of what held it together with a stray quill he plucked from his head. Mindful to keep it away from Ivo, who looked as if he wanted to eat it.

“I think this one is for my independent study,” she said, revealing bound bundles of paperback workbooks that immediately interested Ivo. She handed him an arithmetic scantron, which he pawed at with his paint-covered fingers, causing her to giggle, “Go ahead, little Ivo, you can help me fill them out!”

Shadow shook his head, smiling, “I’m pretty sure that counts as cheating.”

“I would’ve gotten them right, anyway,” she shrugged, a bit of Robotnik pride shining through, she then pushed a workbook towards Shadow, “Besides! Half of this stuff was also for you!”

“Ah,” he said, nearly recoiling at the thought of having to study again, before passing the book  along to Ivo, “I think Ivo might have more fun with them.”

“Shadow! You have to set a good example!”

“You were letting him cheat for you!”

“Don’t change the subject –!”

Ivo held up the scantron – blue and red marring the page, although the child had made an effort to fill in the holes with his teeny tiny fingers.

The sight of it caused both Shadow and Maria to burst into laughter.

Ivo let out a shout. Likely thinking they were critiquing his work. But his frown dissipated when Maria leaned forward to pick him up and hold him close on her lap. It set Shadow’s heart at ease to see her cooing and peppering lighthearted kisses atop the baby’s head while he laughed at her  affections.

It felt…strange, in a way. But for the first time, Shadow allowed himself to enjoy the moment for what it was. Without care or worry about what dangers lurked around the corner. Maria’s words were slowly starting to win him over. The idea of them…being this way. Indefinitely. It was beginning to become more appealing than he usually allowed for.

Shadow had always been in love with her.

Maybe…it was okay for him to finally express it.

“I think we gotta get you out of these paint-stained clothes before I let you keep answering scantrons, baby boy!” Maria said, moving to stand as she looked down at Shadow, “You wanna help me out, Daddy Shadow?”

Maybe – he could believe that Maria genuinely felt the same, as well.

He smiled, easily, rising also, “Right behind you.”

“Last one to the room is a rotten egg!”

Shadow laughed as Maria playfully pushed him back down, sprinting towards and down the hall with an elated Ivo looking down at him in victory.

“I’ll give you a head start!” he called out with a shameless grin, fully intending to zap in front of them in another moment.

RIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIINNNNNNNNNNNNNNNNNGGGGGGGGGGGG!

But in that moment, the ringing of the phone caught his immediate attention.

Unthinkingly, Shadow zapped instead into the kitchen. His thoughts and emotions fully-forwarded to where Maria and Ivo were waiting for him down the hall. He’d be there in a second, after figuring out who could be calling.

It wasn’t important to him, at the moment. He fully intended it to take less than a minute.

Shadow picked up the phone from the receiver with a laugh, “Robotnik residence.”

“Shadow?”

He felt his heart stop.

Whatever he’d been feeling only moments before, seemed to evaporate the minute Shadow heard the voice on the other end of the line. A grim reminder. An unmovable obstacle. Everything that prevented Shadow from giving in and living the life he so wanted to with Maria, reared it’s head the minute he’d allowed himself to forget.

“Commander Walters,” Shadow said, almost out of spite.

“Shadow!” Walters’ voice sounded on the other end of the line. It had a tint of confusion, of incredulous doubt coating it as he continued his thought, “Is that really you, little buddy? They let you answer the phone?”

Shadow glared at the kitchen backsplash, “What’s that supposed to mean?”

Walters hadn’t called since he last spoke to Maria, over a month ago. Why did he feel the need to do so now? And worse, to imply that somehow, the idea of Shadow making his presence known was somehow bizarre. As if it weren’t a thing he thought the hedgehog would be permitted.

“I –” Likely sensing his hostility, Walters cleared his throat on the other end, “I – I’m sorry, I don’t know why I said – I guess it shouldn’t be so surprising, it’s not like anyone can see you over the phone…”

Shadow’s grip tightened around the receiver.

The reminder that he…looked the way he did, that he wouldn’t fit into this house in any way outside of his human-sounding voice, and that Walters would point it out so brazenly was almost enough for him to want to hang up on the Commander.

Instead, he almost growled, “Why are you calling.”

The static on the other end of the line told Shadow that the commander was taken aback by his tone. But if for a moment he was surprised, in the next, Walters’ voice attempted to sound jovial again, “Well, I sort of wanted to say hello to Maria for a second, if that’s okay?”

Not it wasn’t.

And if this was jealousy coiling hot and angry in his chest, Shadow allowed himself to feel it.

Walters had no business asking for Maria. Even if they had been living with her aunt and uncle – it felt remiss for him to try to go other people’s heads. And she had someone to vouch for her now, even in the absence of all of her adult relatives.

“She’s with the baby,” Shadow said, voice hard, before cursing at his own oversight,“…and, her aunt. They’re doing homework.”

“The baby too?” Walters had the nerve to laugh, “What does that entail, putting his square blocks into little square holes?”

If Ivo would have heard it, Shadow could clearly imagine the look of protest and offense he would’ve had.

“He’s a Robotnik,” he said, in the baby’s defense, because the idea of anyone dismissing his intelligence suddenly incensed Shadow in a way he didn’t have time to understand, at present. Ivo was a brilliant little boy.

“…I guess your right,” is all Walters replied, his voice taken yet another turn from jovial to almost…lamentable.

Yet what was lamentable was the fact that he called at all, and Shadow tapped his foot impatiently for the Commander to continue, only to be met with more silence.

“Was there something you wanted?” He asked again, failing to measure his voice into something not hostile.

“I –” again, Walters tried to recover from what sounded like surprise, “Yeah – yes, I just wanted to go over something with the birthday girl –”

“What?” Shadow glanced at the calendar that was pinned over the phone on the wall.

He hadn’t really thought about the date all that much. Since moving into this home, they’d been stumbling around either down in the lab or upstairs moving in.

Maria’s birthday was just a few days away.

“Yeah! I thought we could all get together and that way I could see you both –”

“NO!”

Shadow’s voice nearly crackled through the phone line, his ears picking up on the static that had likely pricked at Walters’s ears. If it hurt him, Shadow couldn’t even feel satisfied, because his reaction had been too explosive not to warrant suspicion on Walters’ own end.

His pulse raced at his own mistake. His own upset. Shadow didn’t want Walters – he didn’t want GUN – anywhere near his house. Especially on a date as important as Maria’s birthday.

It would ruin everything. The commander would figure them out and take her and Ivo away.

“Why not?” Walters’ voice sounded severe, “Why can’t I come over? Shadow, what’s going –”

“We already made plans!” He said, desperation coating his voice as well as anger. It was a blatant lie, but what else could he say? He had to keep Walters at bay, “You can’t just – Maria’s birthday it’s important to her, you can’t just come over to interrogate her!”

“I wasn’t –”

“Yes, you were!” Shadow snapped, “It’s all GUN ever does – you refuse to leave her alone just because she happens to be a Robotnik!”

“Shadow –!”

“You can’t even let her spend her birthday with her family without some hidden agenda!”

“That’s not -!”

“Do you think I’m stupid –”

“No! I don’t!”

This time. It was Walters’ voice that crackled through the line. Causing Shadow to pause.

He’d rarely been reprimanded back at the base. Mostly, after being roped into something Maria had devised – and Gerald had been the primary authority for them both, at the time. Shadow could count on one hand how often Walters had ever raised his voice around them. He’d always presented himself as the reasonable one.

Like most things these days, Shadow had to consider the possibility of it being a façade.

His anger still tempered in his chest, yet he couldn’t let it consume him, not without figuring out what Walters was up to.

“…I don’t – I don’t think you’re stupid, Shadow. I’m – I’m sorry.”

Shadow huffed.

“I mean it. I – didn’t mean to yell, either. I’m just under a lot of –” he heard Walters sigh, “It’s not…your fault. It’s mine, I – shouldn’t have assumed you all wouldn’t have had plans for her birthday already. I apologize.”

“Apology not accepted.”

“Shadow –” another sigh, “…that’s fair. You don’t – owe me anything and Jean Robotnik has been keeping up his end of the deal, so far, so it was wrong of me to try to…meddle.”

“…Yes.”

The second of silence that followed spoke to Walters’ own turbulent emotions, not that Shadow was empathetic to them, “…Is there anything I can do to make up for it?”

“Don’t come over,” was Shadow’s frosty response.

“Shadow, I’m on your side –”

“Then don’t come over,” he repeated, “You want me to trust you? You want me to believe you have Maria’s best interest at heart and not GUNs? Then don’t. Come over. On her birthday.”

The other end of the line was silent, for a moment. Each passing second further proof to Shadow that Walters was only ever looking out for himself. That GUN was always on the precipice of ruining their lives – of ripping Shadow away from the only person who made his own life worth living. Even more so now than ever, with little Ivo involved.

Well, he wouldn’t allow it. Not anymore. If Walters even thought of saying no, he was going straight to the nearest GUN facility and making it known where he stood on the subject of protecting Maria.

“…Okay.”

Shadow felt himself breathe.

“Okay, I – I promise, Shadow, I won’t. You have my word on that – not even as the commander of GUN, but as a man.”

He scoffed, “I know what kind of man you are.”

“Then I’ll prove that I’ve changed. That – neither you or Maria have to worry about being separated anymore. I’m the commander now – I’m not the spineless captain you met back at the base, Shadow, let me prove it to you.”

“…We’ll see.”

Shadow hung up the phone.

=

True to form, Shadow followed her.

Despite any misgivings he had about the room in question. She could count on him to prioritize her and the baby. And that was what she loved best about him. That she could count on him when it mattered. He hadn’t let her down yet.

Though, Maria had been sure he was going to zap himself into the room before they even made it, but it had taken far longer for him to shuffle slowly into the room than expected. It was a bit odd, since he’d finally been in a perfectly high-spirited mood.

“Why the long face?” she asked, already in the process of changing Ivo’s diaper, “You look like someone scuffed your shoes, Shadow.”

She giggled, expecting him to rise to her teasing, as always. But instead, she distractedly heard him mumble a small “sorry” before he went over to the bed with some baby powder and a wet wipe.

Maria couldn’t help but feel that something had changed, even with a wiggling Ivo kicking at his new diaper and tried to wrap her mind around what could have caused the shift.

“Did I hear the phone ring?” she asked, playfully grabbing Ivo’s foot. It had been all of a second, but with Shadow always jumping to do things, she wouldn’t have been surprised if he had gotten to it immediately. It would explain why he took so long.

“Uh –” Shadow took a moment before answering, “…telemarketer.”

“Ah.”

Silence encompasses them, though it wasn’t as pleasant or comfortable as Maria was used to. It wasn’t enough to dampen her own mood, partially because Ivo was distracted by Shadow’s shiny inhibitor rings, which endeared her.

As such, Maria sat sideways on the bed, playfully smiling as she watched Shadow sit the baby up, “So what were they trying to sell you?”

Shadow blinked at her, “Huh?”

“The telemarketer!” She laughed, pulling Ivo further up so that Shadow could help gather his fresh clothes.

“Oh,” Shadow moved to sit on the mattress, “um – a…new bedframe?”

“Well, I don’t think we’ll need one too soon, but maybe we should keep it in mind,” Maria winked, taking the baby clothes he handed her.

Shadow tilted his head in confusion, “What do you mean?”

She grinned, leaning in as if to kiss him. She relished the fact that Shadow stiffened, yet didn’t pull away, as if in anticipation. She rubbed her nose against his own, “We wouldn’t be the first couple to break a bed.”

His mouth gaped, the suggestiveness of her words hitting him all at once, “Maria!”

“What?” she giggled as he pulled away, aware that Ivo was also huffing between them. It seemed the men in her life resented when she withheld kisses, “There’s nothing I take more seriously than you and me sharing a bed!”

“Very funny.”

“I wasn’t trying to be,” Maria reached for Shadow’s hand. He gave her a strange, yet soft look as he allowed her to swing their clasped hands above the entranced Ivo, “After all, aren’t you the one who said we have to talk about it?”

Shadow’s shoulders bunch, something unreadable in his eyes.

They’d been interrupted yet again that very morning. Not that either of them blamed Ivo for it – he did take priority over bedroom shenanigans. And Shadow had been such a gentleman, going to check on him the minute the baby had woken up. Maria had almost been tempted to lay in bed, or at the very least followed him with her slightly soiled robe.

But she chose to put on her big girl pants and start their morning.

If the room reminded him that they hadn’t addressed the elephant in the room, and thus contributed to his change in mood, it made sense to her to broach the subject outright.

“So…?” she teased.

Shadow frowned, “So?”

“Well, I did ask you to stay with me for one night, and then it would be up to you,” Maria said, pulling at his arm, “Maybe we should all pile up in this big old bed tonight?”

She hoped he’d say yes. Even though she had been looking forward to non-baby related cuddles, she was willing to put up with more family-friendly snuggles if it meant Shadow would start to feel more comfortable with the idea.

Though Ivo let out a babble of protest. Likely enjoying his own space.

“I –” Shadow glanced between them, “Don’t think we should discuss it now.”

Maria let out a laugh, “Are you sure?”

“Yeah,” he says, reaching for Ivo and starts pulling at his paint covered clothes, “Help me out here.”

Pouting playfully, Maria graciously allowed him to change the subject by way of changing Ivo, “Shadow the Bossy.”

She noticed him grinning fleetingly, “You wanted to be the fun parent…”

Maria felt her heart light up within her chest, as Shadow continued to blush redder than his quills. Despite his evasiveness, she felt that he was getting closer and closer to feeling comfortable around her – especially when it came to…that.

After all, she had spent the last few nights curled up against Shadow. Down in the lab, where he could’ve very easily chosen not to join them. And upstairs, she’d been perfectly content to keep her hands to herself and cuddle, so long as he stayed with her. It was Shadow who had slowly escalated things.

With any luck, she wouldn’t have to get dressed tonight. In a matter of speaking. And they’d pick up where they left off.

Maria bit her lip at the thought.

“What is it?” Shadow asked, currently preoccupied with keeping Ivo from pulling at his clothing.

“Oh, nothing,” she deflected, refocusing her attention on pulling Ivo’s shirt down with a joyous little “peek-a-boo!” Which caused him to laugh, “ – I was just thinking about the cute little baby clothes we could get him once he grows out of the stuff in the nursery closet.”

Shadow glanced at her, face clouded with emotion she couldn’t decipher, “…already thinking that far, huh?”

“Of course,” she shrugged. Ivo’s little toes flexed as she pulled his pants to cover his soles, he might need socks for the chilly night, “Everyone says babies grow up fast, we got to plan for the future – and done!”

Ivo fell over onto the bed as he grasped at the air above him, babbling something happy by the sound of his voice.

She laughed at his baby antics, “That’s right, little Ivo! You’re already got to spend your first night in your own crib, you’re practically a big kid!”

Maria found herself leaning over to pepper little kisses over her baby cousin’s face, causing him to giggle and squeal in delight.

When she looked up at Shadow again, she noticed the faraway expression on his face, “What’s wrong?”

He didn’t answer her right away, which was troubling in its own right. Made even worse when he couldn’t properly maintain eye contact, “Nothing.”

“Seriously, Shadow,” she insisted, “You’ve been acting weird since the telemarketer called.”

“I’m fine.”

“Was it a telemarketer?”

“Yes!” he said firmly, an edge to his tone that he appeared to regret. He hadn’t sounded this defensive since they were on the run, and they hadn’t fought in a while.

Maria didn’t know what to make of it. Only that she could do nothing but look helplessly as Shadow focused instead on Ivo – who was pulling at his gloves with a concerned pout of his own. It caused her hedgehog to look apologetic, if nothing else.

Maybe she was overreacting. She wasn’t sure why she had doubted him in the  first place, “Shadow –”

“Maria –”

They spoke at the same time.

Shadow seemed to shrink in front of her, “…You first.”

She chewed the inside of her lip, “Well…I was going to let Ivo study with me, were you going to join us?”

Again, that strange look of yearning overtook Shadow’s features. As if the offer meant the world for him, but something kept him from an enthusiastic yes. Ivo was yet oblivious to it, and excitedly bounced at the prospect of a family study session.

Shadow looked down at him with a small smile, but couldn’t maintain it as his eyes returned towards Maria.

“I – I think I should go for a run.”

What? “What?”

A feeling of dread aching in her chest. Shadow wasn’t looking at her anymore. Which made the feeling worse. On impulse, she tried to reach for Shadow’s shoulder. But if her words were what caused him to want to leave, she didn’t want her touch to send him flying away from her.

So she pulled her hand back. Fingers curling and respectfully placed over her lap, “Why?”

“It’s just that –” she watched Shadow look at her hands from the corner of his eye, something regretful in his gaze, “Your…uncle had a map of the neighborhood pulled up in the basement. I’ve been looking at it and I just…want to make sure it’s accurate.”

That sounded like him, at least. Even while on the lamb, Shadow always did a quick run to “case the place” – whatever “place” they ended up in - and make sure it was safe to form a hideout.

Of course. Gerald had always supported him in the task, mindful of GUN operatives or suspicious of his clandestine allies he did business with, in his maddened quest to build the Eclipse Canon.

“But –” Maria halted, trying to compose herself in a way that wouldn’t sound as if she was being abandoned, “If you wanted to spy on the neighbors, why not just go back down and look through the cameras Uncle Jean set up? It’ll be easier.”

And he wouldn’t have to leave her. Is what she didn’t say.

Yet even with her words, Shadow slid himself off the bed, turning to look at her with an apologetic gaze, “I’d just feel – safer, if I knew where everything was through my own eyes. Just in case. For you and little Ivo’s sake.”

“Shadow –” this time, she couldn’t keep herself from grabbing at his wrist before he could pull away form her. Her fingers clasping over his inhibitor ring as he stopped himself from stepping back, “Let me and Ivo come with you, I’ll grab the baby stroller and you can watch over us.”

She could see in his eyes that Shadow was fighting his own instinct at her touch. The part of him that wanted to escape, the part that genuinely wanted to investigate their new surroundings –

And the part of him that always did whatever she asked of him.

“It…” Shadow struggled with his words, almost pleading with his eyes, “It would be faster if went alone.”

Maria couldn’t believe how hard he was fighting her. It was almost as difficult to stomach as when he would do so when they were still with her grandfather. Some part of her felt she had a right to be incensed that he wouldn’t tell her what was going on with him, after everything.

But…another part of her didn’t want to override his autonomy. She had promised to pull back if she had to, and she’d been trying so – so hard to meet him where he was.

For whatever reason she suddenly felt anxious about being left behind. She couldn’t abuse the fact that she held such a strong sway over him.

She pulled her fingers from his ring. Holding instead his hand in her own.

“Be safe, okay?” Maria said, trying to sound as supportive as he often did, when it came to her ideas.

Shadow gave her a quick smile, before he picked up her cousin and laid him comfortingly on her lap. He hesitated only a second longer, his hands hovering over Ivo’s curious head, looking at her again.

“I think it’s…okay. If Ivo sleeps in his own crib again tonight.”

She swallowed a lump in her throat, “…you do?”

“Yeah,” he nodded, but not without some reservation, before adding, “And we – you can I can figure it out…later. When I get back. For real this time.”

It wasn’t a total rejection. But now Maria hardly felt equipped to convince him not to move into the other room. Far away from her. She didn’t feel equipped for much of anything.

How was it that she could feel on top of the moon one minute and lousy the next?

“Maria?”

His hopeful little voice only made her more self-aware of her fault. Was she being selfish? Unreasonable?

She wasn’t sure anymore, but nodded anyway, “…okay.”

Almost relieved, Shadow stepped back, his powers crackling, “I won’t be long – I promise.”

And then he was gone.

Alone again in her aunt and uncle’s old room, Maria let her frustrations seep out. A deep, agonizing growl at her own failure at making Shadow feel comfortable around her.

“Maybe the room is cursed,” she muttered, grumpily, yet regretted it as soon as the words slipped from her lips.

This room used to sport a happy husband and wife. It wasn’t the room’s fault she was fumbling the concept.

Ivo patted her shoulder, babbling what Maria decided where comforting words of encouragement.

“What am I gonna do, Ivo?” She asked, desperate to workshop the problem if she couldn’t figure it out on her own, “I love Shadow. I don’t want him to freak out and bail every time I try to get close to him!”

Ivo was silent for a moment.

And then he let out a shout.

“Hey –!” Maria winced, not prepared for such a strong reaction from the baby.

He seemed absolutely beside himself as he looked at her as if she were some kind of idiot.

“What did I say?”

Ivo rolled his eyes.

Maria pouted, “Look, I don’t think I can take any negative criticism right now, so try to be a little more constructive with mommy, okay?”

Huffing, the baby squished her cheeks with both of his hands, mimicking a mwah noise as her face puckered.

She shook her head, “I can’t just kiss him whenever we have an argument! There’s a thing called consent – that I guess I have to teach you – that means you got of have express permission or at least a blanket understanding that your allowed to – do stuff, with the person you love.”

Frowning, as if committing her words to memory, Ivo took a moment before turning his attention towards the walk-in closet.

He pointed at it.

“I can’t spy on him, either,” Maria turned, setting Ivo back down so they were properly face to face, “Look, kiddo, when you love someone…that means you trust them.”

Ivo tilted his head, much like Shadow had done before.

The sight pulled at her heartstrings.

Taking a deep breath, Maria tried to explain what she felt as best she could, “It means – that, even if you don’t know what’s going on with them, that you know them enough to…believe that they’re going to do the right thing, the best they can, even if your far apart.”

He looked up at her owlishly, entirely engrossed in her words. She wasn’t sure when the conversation had shifted, but she felt as if helping Ivo understand these concepts also reiterated to herself how she ought to proceed.

It had often been that way, with Shadow. He had no one to teach him certain things, and the scientists and her grandfather only cared to study and use him. Whenever he came at her with a problem, it forced her to slow down. To analyze how she understood the word, to better help her friend through whatever troubled him.

In a way, it had always suited her to be the mentor, of sorts. If that made her maternal. Maybe it’d been a sign.

“Me and Shadow promised to trust each other,” Maria said, her throat constricting without her realizing, “And I don’t…know why or what he’s hiding right now, but I know I want to be there for him when he’s comfortable enough to tell me, eventually.”

She took a breath. Saying it aloud helped quell the dread within her that had caused her to react so fearfully. It had to be more than her flirtatious behavior or her teasing. More than their physical relationship evolving.

Shadow had been so…comfortable, today.

So different, so willing to smile and laugh, after everything they’ve been through.

There had to have been some outside influence. A trigger that reminded him to hold back when he was finally moving forward with her.

She had to reminder herself that unlike everyone else in her life, Shadow would’ve leave her behind. Not if he could help it. Not if it were his choice. Maria had to trust that he would tell her what was bothering him. Eventually.

“I just…want to make it easier for him to talk to me,” she admitted. Trying to get to the crux of the matter as Ivo continued to listen, “If he didn’t feel like he has to protect me – both of us – all the time, then he wouldn’t get stuck in his head about it!”

At this, Ivo looked pensive. Ruminating in his babyish way before nodding in agreement.

“So what do we do?”

The baby shrugged.

Maria laughed. Granted, two Robotniks were better than one, but Ivo was still a baby, so he didn’t have a lot of experience to work with. Ultimately, she’d have to answer her own questions. And she wondered how she could prove that Shadow didn’t need to protect her constantly, but that she could likewise protect him.

Frowning, she tried to figure out what they’d overlooked so far, “If only we could figure out what your Daddy Jean meant when he said he hired people to take care of everything…”

He’d obviously been sure of them staying in this house for the foreseeable future.

It wasn’t like anyone in her family to speak without absolute certainty. Which meant they were very likely to receive some kind of word by now. And unless GUN figured them out, she also believed it when her uncle said that they’d be kept away.

There had to be a way to get into contact with Uncle Jean’s associates. Or whoever was supposed to be helping them.

An idea occurred to her:

“We never finished unpacking the school supplies!” she said, excitedly reaching out to a very confused Ivo, “I’ll explain in a minute! But if I’m right I’ll be able to prove to Shadow that he doesn’t have to worry about anything alone!”

Ivo looked skeptical, but kicked his legs about happily as Maria walked them both out of the room.

Chapter Text

He was ruining things.

Shadow had no idea why he was ruining things.

The whole day would’ve been a pleasant, cherished moment in their otherwise hectic life and yet it had been marred by GUN’s ever looming threat. A subject that triggered  Shadow’s own inability to let go and allow himself to enjoy what he feared would be taken from him.

Maria wanted him.

Not…just physically. Which was already enough to send him into cardiac arrest. But she also –

She kept saying that –

Shadow focused on his self-appointed task of physically searching the town for any discrepancies. By now nearly every resident was slowing down and getting ready to either clock out of work or come home from school. A sort of sleepy anticipation even as they went about their day, filling the hours with activities with no real rush to get through them all.

Shadow has the incessant feeling that everything around him was already old, even though the whole of main street must have been newly constructed.

It was a quaint little town. With room to grow and ample space to breathe.

Shadow ran from roof to roof. Mindful of any lingering passerby that might spot him. Though he doubted very much such a sleepy town would notice anything amiss. After all, he and Maria had spent the last few days perfectly sequestered without anyone disturbing them.

Save for delivery boys.

The thought miffed at Shadow now.

He zoomed into Townsquare. Eager to see his checklist done so that he can convince himself to go home. It was a thing with him. To give himself missions and see them through. And though Jean Robotnik had been thorough in his surveillance, it did in fact set a part of Shadow at ease to see to their current surroundings himself.

For instance, Shadow didn’t think of checking if there was a theater before.

He stopped by it now. Pausing at a roof just across from it where Shadow hid behind a sign of a convenience store. He smiled at the thought of telling Maria about it. Memories, no matter how harrowing, of them sneaking into run down theatres while on the run with Gerald were still things he treasured. They were moments together alone they risked above all else, simply because they both needed and wanted for each other.

That was something he was sure of, now.

And it allowed him to feel his chest warm at the thought of returning to that habit. It wouldn’t be half as hard to sneak into this one, if Shadow had to guess. But he might have to figure out when traffic was highest, to better asses when he could go in with Maria –

Because he wasn’t human.

And he couldn’t just walk in with her, otherwise.

His thoughts soured. Causing Shadow to scoff at his own oversight. It was obvious Walters words still rattled in his head. No amount of hoping and wishing could curtail what Shadow already knew was an impossibility.

Maria thought of the future. Constantly. Making plans to live a life worth living. And every time Shadow allowed himself to believe he could be part of it – something always reminded him that he’d be lucky enough to be a minor character.

He was the problem. He was the risk.

Shadow decided then and there that the town was appropriately cased and without much else need to investigate, found himself crackling with his own chaos energy until he was one moment on the roof –

And the next moment very decidedly running into the woods.

It’s not a thing he does. Run.

Shadow isn’t particularly antsy. He spent whatever counted as his formative years hidden away in a military base. On his own, he never inconvenienced the staff with the itch to run about. It was always Maria who encouraged him to ask for more. To seek more room for himself than he thought he needed. Otherwise. The only times Shadow would have ever thought to run was if and when the professor needed him to.

He was fine with walking. He liked taking in the sights, if they were ever granted a respite to explore when on the run with Gerald. And if he hadn’t left it behind, would probably be riding the same GUN-issued motorbike that Maria had asked him to steal with her only a year ago now. In one of her many, many little schemes she’d done to make him feel welcomed.

At home.

Shadow wasn’t running because he wanted to. He was running from his thoughts.

If they caught up to him. He feared succumbing to his own insecurity. Shadow had already done the stupid – stupid thing of leaving the house already. Leaving Maria with that confused look on her face. Leaving both her and Ivo alone.

He was being stupid.

Shadow came to a stop. Somewhere in the middle of the woods where he allowed himself to curse, if only under his breath.

He had never questioned a good thing before.

Whenever Maria gave him an inch. He took it like an animal starving for water. Grateful for it. For her. It was only now that he felt caught up in his own emotions. He even confessed as much to Ivo – an infant – that it all felt too much for him.

And the reason was that he wasn’t human.

Tears pricked at Shadow’s eyes, though he wouldn’t admit it. He couldn’t even take Maria to see a movie with him, meanwhile she insisted on spouting such ardent hopes for a future with him. How could he possibly point out the elephant in the room – without breaking the beautiful illusion she held. Worse –

If he did. If he explained to her his fears, of how impossible it was for him to expect her to live a life where she had to hide him, would she then stop –

Shadow’s breath caught at even the whisper of the thought.

But he had to. He had to be honest with himself, if he couldn’t be with her.

If Shadow sat her down and explained to her all that. Would Maria stop…caring about him?

Would even the look she gave him today. Passionate and palpable. Go away if she realized how limited it would be with him?

Would she look for it with someone else?

That was too much. Shadow couldn’t keep it to himself anymore – the frustration, the agonizing fear and jealousy he felt towards other human beings when it came to Maria’s attention.

Shadow reached down to grab hold of the first thing he could.

That being the base of a tree-trunk.

In any other time, Shadow would be surprised at himself. He’d never really explored his level of strength prior to the GUN raid of his laboratory home, having no need to outside of structured tests. He helped Gerald break into and break so many other labs in the year prior, but it had been a rush of getting in and getting out.

Now. As his claws pricked and pushed along the inside of his gloves, Shadow grit his teeth and pulled until the roots began to unearth and the overhead weight wobbled above him.

By the time he was able to stand upright with the full tree uprooted, his powers crackled and sparked freely around him. With no one else to worry about, he let his powers pulse and consume what emotions he was feeling, uncensored.

Shadow let out a shout. Throwing the tree far and away into the sky overhead.

…which he immediately regretted.

“Damnit!” Shadow cursed, rushing to follow the approximate trajectory of his swing.

He used  his powers to zap himself faster than he could run. Worried that wherever the tree would land would hurt someone if he left it launching the way it was.

Stupid – he was making even more stupid mistakes and not thinking about the consequences!

The more he used his powers to zap from tree top to tree top, the less sure he was of being able to follow the direction of the now curving evergreen. Taking his eyes off of it was fast becoming unideal, and for all of a moment he thought he  lost it “Where is it –?” he immediately began skating toward  it – seeing it leave the density of the woods.

Back towards the houses of the town.

If Maria were here, she would’ve already told him the approximate location it was likely to hit in kilometers. He could calculate for that. Measure his speed. He didn’t know if he could be as accurate on his own.

The tree began to fall.

Shadow’s heart thumped inside his chest. If he could just stop it from falling. Control it before it landed and hurt anyone. What was he thinking? What could he do to keep it up long enough for him to do something?

His powers buzzed and warped around him. The speed in which he ran almost hot as he inched and willed himself closer. Control it. He kept thinking that he had to control his powers – his strength, his speed, the wretched chaos energy that flowed through him and made his loved ones a target.

If he couldn’t keep himself in check –

If he allowed himself to give into whatever made him this way –

Control the Chaos –

Control the Chaos –

“Chaos – !”

Shadow gasped. Leaping into the air high enough to punch through the falling evergreen before it could breach where his neighbors could see. For all of a moment, he felt the color around him dim and blacken – becoming colorless as he focused his chaos energy into a strong enough attack that splintered the tree into teeny-tiny pieces.

“…Control.”

He fell right into a nearby garbage can.

Dozens of woodchips and dust coated splinters descended upon him. The suddenness of it doing  more to make him cough than it being of particular harm. What was worse, the trashcan that had cushioned his fall pinched at his back uncomfortably. Making him groan and roll to the side.

Then he heard a click of a gun.

“Whose there!”

Shadow froze.

Instinct overrode preservation. Keeping him rooted where he was. Shadow could make out the tip of a shotgun pointed right at him from the shadows of the back porch of the house he found himself in. Someone had been sitting where he couldn’t see, while distracted with his own failed landing.

Damn it. Shadow only hoped the shadows of the looming afternoon also hid himself from view.

“I know you’re there! Speak up or I’ll –!”

The stranger aimed the shotgun.

“Don’t!” Shadow spoke, fitfully. He could’ve left a dozen times by now, but this house was close to Jean Robotnik’s, and if this person fired a gun, Maria was sure to hear, and Shadow didn’t want to worry her. He wanted the cops around even less.

“Who are you,” the voice said, “I won’t ask again, gosh darn it!”

“I’m –” Shadow swallowed his nerves, “I’m just trying to get home! I live in the next house over and I – I bumped into your trashcan.”

“Next door?” the voice said. A body leaned forward, shotgun still firmly in his grasp, “You the new neighbor?”

Shadow blinked at the figure. Noting something now that the porch light lit his face, “Are you…? Blind?”

The man, old and grey with eyes just as clouded, scoffed, “If you’re close enough to see that much, you’re close enough for me to shoot your head clean off, kiddo.”

Shadow felt his nerves spike again, stepping back, “I’m – yes, I’m your new neighbor. I’m sorry for bothering –”

“Robotnik!” the old man said, a smile of recognition on his face as he finally lowered his shotgun, “I remember now – you’re that young couple that moved in a year back! I was worried where you all had gone off too, someone told me your little wife had a baby. That right?”

Shadow was at an impasse.

On the one hand. He was grateful that their closest neighbor was a blind old man. On the other, he now found himself accidentally impersonating Jean Robotnik.

“Um –” Shadow searched for what to say, and settled for some semblance of the truth, “Yeah – yes, he – we had a…boy.”

It felt strange to say. Outside of Maria’s teasing, Shadow had never allowed himself to think of Ivo in those terms.

He couldn’t. Not when the possibility existed of the boy being taken from them both.

“Boys are swell,” the old man said, leaning back a bit with fondness in his voice,  “My own son has been thinking about moving back down here, had his fill of the city life,” he chuckled warmly, “But mostly I think he means to retire me from Sheriff duty.”

Shadow blinked, recalling Maria’s words from the other night, “You’re – the sheriff?”

“They still let me pretend, here and there,” the man said, still in his laughing way, “Haven’t had a deputy in a while. There isn’t much by the way of crime in Greenhill, so if ever someone has a dispute, they call me down to have a little chat with the parties involved and I come home to keep watch on this old porch you found me in.”

“Keep watch?” That was rude. Shadow shook his head at himself, “I’m sorry, I –”

Uproarious laughter interrupted him, “Caught you unawares, didn’t I?”

The old man leaned back as he continued to laugh. Happily letting Shadow stew in his own trip up, but in a good-natured way. If he had been intimidated before, now he felt properly made to feel silly.

“Ah, I’m glad we finally get a chance to talk, you and I!” the old man said as his laughter  subsided, “You usually  kept to yourself, and then went off in the dead of night. I bet your wife gave you a good scolding for that – what was her name again?”

“Mari – ahh,” Shadow cursed internally, eyes closing shut at his trip up. Now was NOT the time where he could afford to question what compelled him to answer with Maria’s name when asked the name of the wife he so clearly didn’t have.

“Maria Robotnik,” the old man echoed, sounding pleased, “That has a nice ring to it. I bet she’s a real nice girl.”

Stuck in a lie he couldn’t take back, Shadow could only admit to his own indiscretion, “…she is.”

“Well don’t sound so glum about it – uh, what was your name again?”

“Shado –oohh.” Why, why did he keep doing that? What was WRONG with him?!

“Ha! Haven’t heard a name like that since my war days,” the old man said, “Had a buddy named Corkscrew, even his old lady called him that. Pleasure to meet you, Shadow Robotnik, I’m Howard Wachowski!”

He extended his hand, open palm and pleasant face as he waited for Shadow to reciprocate.

He didn’t want to leave a blind man waiting, let alone a decorated sheriff, so Shadow hesitantly walked closer to the Wachowski porch until he could casually extend his gloved hand in greeting.

“It’s nice to meet you, Mr. Wachowski.”

“Come on, let’s share a beer!”

“I really should be getting back”

“And that’s exactly what I want to figure out,” Howard said, handing him a bottle, “a young husband like you, with a newborn baby boy and a little wife at home – now what could have you out here instead of in there?”

The question catches Shadow utterly off-guard.

He’d been asking himself the same thing since leaving the house, yet in his usual way, had reneged on answering it in any meaningful way. To be confronted with it now, and still having no answer, felt like being backed into a corner.

“Cat caught your tongue?” Howard asked, raising an eyebrow.

Shadow shook his head, realizing belatedly that he couldn’t see him do so, “n – No, I just…I’m not really – there isn’t anything…wrong?”

“Oh!” the man said, leaning back to rock in his chair, “So I suppose your just running away to get a bit of exercise, then?”

“I’m not running away,” Shadow grumbled, hating how juvenile he sounded. He was supposed  to at least sound older than he felt he was. Most of the scientists had never cared to know exactly when to age him, but it didn’t matter in the grand scheme.

“So you can answer my question,” Howard said, still keeping a steady rocking pace, “If your as smitten with your girl as you sound, and with a new baby to boot, what’s got you on my porch at this hour, instead of heading off to be with them?”

Everything.

But how to explain it? To a stranger no less, when even mentioning his fears to Ivo had felt like a weakness he couldn’t overcome.

“Well?”

“I –” resented the observation, for one, but Shadow didn’t let himself vocalize as much. Howard Wachowski had no idea the level of pressure he was under. Had no idea about GUN, aliens that  had landed in a meteor, and the fact that Maria and Ivo were ever balanced in front of him. In danger of being blown away.

“I…I don’t know,” he said.

And that was the truth.

Shadow realized it now, as his eyes pricked with unshed tears. He didn’t know, what tomorrow would bring, what telling Maria would accomplish beyond making her worry with him and ruining her optimism. Her prospects of their  future.

He was stuck and unable to decide on his own how to protect his own family, “I’m just so –”

“Scared,” Howard finished for him, his face empathetic somehow, “You sound it, son.”

Shadow was terrified.

“She wants to –” he started, words spilling out of him like a faucet,  “ – build a life here! She keeps – saying all this stuff about – about us, about seeing little Ivo grow up and – and building memories, and framing pictures!”

“Nothing wrong with that.”

“But I’m not – I can’t give her that!” he shouts, his breathing picking up uncontrollably,  “She can’t be – seen with me, I don’t even know if I can keep her safe!”

“Now slow down a bit, son,” Howard says, gently tipping the spout of his beer bottle to Shadow’s mouth, “Have a sip and sit down.”

Without a better idea, Shadow let himself drink, recoiling a bit at the taste, “That’s awful!”

“Yep,” Howard chuckles, pulling Shadow to sit beside his rocking chair on the porch. If he noticed his arms were fuzzier than most other people, he didn’t mention it, “Have a fresh one.”

Shadow accepts yet another cold bottle from the cooler. Drowning to the best of his abilities as much as he could before feeling the effects kick in. It was truly unpleasant, but the brisk coolness did more to calm him than any effects of alcohol in his system.

“What do you do for work exactly, Shadow?” Howard asks, after he hears his breathing slow.

The question does nothing to help his nerves settle, but Shadow aligns himself with the partial truths he’s been spouting so far, “I – um…was in the – the military? For a while.”

“You don’t say, any division I know?”

“It’s…classified,” Shadow sighs, because as far as he knows it is classified, “I – was supposed to help develop alternative energy. It…didn’t pan out.”

At this, Howard let out a huff, “Yeah, they always say that you’re going to save the world when they recruit you…In the end, though, all they do is make bigger weapons and expect you to be the trigger.”

Shadow hugs at his knees. The pressure in his chest aching at the words, “…yeah.”

A small silence passes between them as Shadow takes another sip. It truly is repulsive stuff, but he doesn’t know what else to do to keep his thoughts from despair. Besides him, Howard Wachowski keeps rocking in his chair in a pleasant, almost comforting rhythm.

“So, I take it your commander called you up?”

Shadow scoffs, “He acts as if he’s just checking in and –” he halts, brazenly aware of how close Howard had hit the nail on the head, “How did you – ?”

“You’re not the first soldier who’s ever been kept from retirement,” the other man chuckles, taking a swing of his bottle, “You haven’t told the missus?”

Shadow blushes, but attributes it to the effects of the alcohol and not the idea of Maria being Mrs. anything, “…I can’t.”

“She hates the military?”

“Her grandfather – her whole family really – they were practically killed off every time one of them got involved in the military. It’s just…her, me and Ivo now.”

Howard whistles, “I can see why that would be an issue…”

“It’s my fault. If I weren’t here, they’d have no reason to poke around.”

“Now hold on – if you weren’t here, your Maria would have to do everything alone,” Howard says, not unkindly, “She seems like the loving kind of wife, and I get the feeling you’d hate to abandon her and your baby.”

He would.

Shadow doesn’t have to think about it before knowing in his heart that he agrees, but he also doesn’t feel like his feelings ought to matter as much, “…they’d be safe.”

“You can never know that for sure. The only way to know – is to stick by them. To go through it with them. That’s what a good father and husband does.”

Is that what he was? A husband and a father.

Maria seemed to think so. Even through her teasing, Shadow let himself hope each and every time she brought it up, even though his mind refused to take it seriously. As he had told Ivo – she made it all sound so real, so quickly. To him, it still felt as if they were playing house. Waiting for someone older and wiser to tell them what their actual life will be like.

“Besides, I’m sure your girl will go looking for you in a heartbeat.”

Shadow lets out a laugh. The image of Maria storming GUN headquarters with a frowning Ivo strapped to her back was for a moment so vivid that the idea of leaving them felt especially stupid of him to have considered.

Howard Wachowski was more right than he would ever know.

“You’re right,” Shadow groans, rubbing his face with his hands, “What am I going to do?”

“It’ll be like pulling teeth, champ, but you have to tell her.”

Doubtlessly, he had to, but the matter was when? Shadow considered it to the best of his ability, given that his mind was getting fuzzy with the beer. If he did it now, he feared he’d only put a cloud over her and Ivo’s head in the days leading up to her birthday. And though his practical side argued they could use the time to develop some sort of plan, escape or otherwise, another part wanted to keep the bubble of bliss they found themselves in for as long as possible.

Besides. It didn’t feel…fair. Maria’s birthdays had always been a special occasion at the base. She was technically the only child there, and so Gerald and the other scientists had always gone out of their way to make her feel seen. Even Walters – who was decidedly not his favorite person right now – always broke protocol and allowed for a proper party with music, decorations, and a cake that wasn’t a plain and standard issue pastry from the kitchen freezer.

What a difference a year makes: Happy Birthday Maria, I think GUN is onto us.

“After her birthday,” Shadow said, “That’s when Walters – my…commander, I guess – wanted to come over but I told him to stay away.”

“Good for you,” Howard chuckles, patting Shadow in the shoulder, “What do you have planned for the big day?”

Shadow’s ears dropped, “…Nothing.”

“Nothing!”

“Well, I – I’m not really in any condition to go into town, right now,” he admitted, with some shame, “I’m not – ” human, for one thing, “I can’t…go out much. And I don’t think she even remembers that her birthday is coming up, which makes it worse that I don’t…have anything planned for her.”

“I see,” Howard hummed, stroking his patchy white beard on his chin for a moment before smiling, “Not a problem!”

Shadow jumped a bit, “It’s not?”

“Yep,” he nodded, “You just tell me what you think you need, and I’ll call up all the stores around town – they like to deliver things to me on account of –” he gestured to his clouded eyes.

“I wouldn’t want to impose –”

“Don’t be ridiculous! We shared a beer, that makes us family,” Howard got up with a vocal ache, prompting Shadow to stand and offer help. The other man had a curious grin on his face, “Your kind of short, son.”

Shadow bristled, “…not that short.”

Howard laughed, deeply and richly, stepping around back towards the door of his house, “That’s alright! It’s what a man can do with his size that keeps his wife happy!”

Blushing again, Shadow helped Howard walk back into his home, safely. It was a fairly tidy space, likely because it had to remain organized to facilitate  him walking around unaided. Shadow watched as Howard rummaged through some books in his kitchen countertop, producing a card he briefly ghosted his fingers over. Shadow could recognize brail, seeing that it was part of his colorful military education.

Howard handed the card out, waiting for Shadow to take it, “I mean it, Shadow, you call me and I’ll have it waiting for you in time for Maria’s birthday. That way it’ll be a proper surprise, and she won’t have to go out and buy her own cake!”

Shadow felt his heart squeeze at the offer. Mr. Wachowski was the first human he’d met outside of Maria that seemed a decent person. And with Walters breathing down his neck and Gerald goodness knows where by now…

Well, he’ll need all the help he can get.

“Thank you,” Shadow says, taking the card with a warm smile, one he was sure Howard could hear, if he couldn’t see it.

“Go on now,” Howard grinned, shooing him off, “Back to your wife and son! And no more talk about running off again, you hear?”

Shadow was already halfway out the door, eager to get back to them both.

Chapter Text

Maria’s nerves were starting to get the better of her.

She’d been right in her supposition that her school packet held some clue as to who was running her Uncle Jean’s affairs. She had assumed, with good reason, that though her uncle might’ve enrolled and left her tuition paid, that he had left her academic career largely flexible. In such an event that Maria did decide that a normal scholastic trajectory didn’t suit her, she’d have to approach the school herself and without a guardian.

There had to be someone to represent her interest.

“Ah-ha!” Maria had smiled down at Ivo, who was several pages deep in an astrology book, “Towers & Son Legal Group!”

Ivo set down the textbook in his hands and stood up from the coffee table to peer at the documents in her hands. Usually, the copies of a child’s academic history and profile were given to a parent or legal guardian. Without either in the house, Maria had easily found the envelope filled with her personal information. Her transcripts, her test scores, even some college credits she’d accumulated for fun.

Gerald had been in charge of Maria’s education for years, and she mostly endured standardized testing to prove she was ahead of the curve. When her Uncle Jean had briefly been handed her file, it made sense that he’d attached his legal representatives to her future prospects.

“They have a listed number and address!” she glanced up at the clock over the living room China-cabinet, “It might be a little late to call now but it’s worth a shot.”

She picked up Ivo, who protested the action (“Sorry, little guy I need moral support!”), by the waist and scrambled towards the kitchen phone.

Predictably, the line rang and rang until a generic voicemail informed her that she could leave a message after the beep. It wasn’t necessarily disheartening, but she had to quickly assess whether she wanted to leave a paper trail of her investigation.

She decided to go for it.

“Uh – h-hello,” Maria cleared her throat, trying to modulate her voice to sound more mature, “Hi. This is…Miss Robotnik, and I’ve been informed that your firm has been…assigned my legal counsel, represented under someone named J. Towers. I’d like an update on my uncle’s affairs…posthaste.”

There. That sounded almost as put together as Grandfather used to speak.

“Please,” she added, after a second, not wanting to sound rude, “And, um, I’m sure you already know but in case you don’t you can reach me at this number or via mail –”

“Hello?”

Maria’s heart stopped.

The voice on the other end of the line sounded almost around the same age as Walters, winded and male. She didn’t recognize the voice at all, but wondered if it was the person she was supposed to be talking to.

“Uh…hello?” she said, Ivo clutching at a lock of her hair in nervousness, too. She suddenly wished she’d done this when Shadow was here.

“Wow – I – you sound just like her,” the voice said, almost pained, “You…you must be Maria. Jean’s niece…Becky’s little girl.”

For a moment, Maria felt like she wasn’t inside her own body anymore.

It was one thing to acclimate to the idea of living in her uncle’s house. That she had slowly and surely found evidence of a life and family she’d been denied. She was used to not having parents. Used to the fact that whatever she knew about any of her loved ones were scrapped together bits and pieces that could fit in a shoebox.

It was another thing entirely to be confronted with a living, breathing person who knew the people she spent her entire life wondering about.

“Hello?”

Ivo shouts at the phone, brows furrowed as if to defend her from what he perceived as someone making her upset.

“Is that – is that little Ivo?”

Hearing Ivo’s name spoken aloud by someone else shook Maria out of the trance she found herself in. Her grip on the baby tightened as a sense of protectiveness overtook her. Whatever she felt, she couldn’t let herself be overtaken by her emotions. She had made a promise to be Ivo’s new mother – his guardian. And that meant she had to be strong for him.

For both Ivo and Shadow.

“It is,” Maria said, refocusing to the objective of her call, “And I am. I’m – I’m Maria Robotnik. My uncle listed your firm as my representatives in my student file.”

“Yeah!” the voice said, almost like he was reminded himself, “I mean – yes, I’m – I’m the &Son part of Towers & Son – I’m Joshua Towers. I’m…I was a friend of your uncle.”

 She swallowed a lump in her throat, “…it’s nice to meet you.”

The voice – Joshua Towers, let out an emotional huff, “You have no idea.”

Ivo interjected something in his babbling baby voice, tapping the palm of his hand on the receiver. His anger reminded her of Shadow’s, which was enough to finally make her smile since the call started.

“Haha – sorry, little guy, your dad didn’t like my stuttering either,” Joshua Towers said with fondness, “He said it was inefficient. Not that he was a chatterbox himself, but that’s why Helen was around.”

“You knew Aunt Helen, too?”

“Of course I did. God, we….me, your uncle, and your mom were best friends growing up. When – when Gerald got all…when he separated them, and Jean went away to study archeology, I lost track of them both until Helen contacted me again.”

Maria recalled the heartfelt note her aunt left in her copy of Charlotte’s Web. It seemed that she was telling the truth in how she had to dig her uncle out of his own grief and misery. A lifetime of regret seemed to haunt Jean Robotnik, of which he had been so close to finally breaking free of, before their own demise.

Although it pained her, she couldn’t keep herself from asking, “Do you know what happened to them?”

“I only know that they’re counting on me to help you out.”

She believed him.

If neither she nor Shadow could find any coherent clues in the basement, she doubted the truth of their deaths would be left to a lawyer out in San Francisco. It would’ve been too easy, for all that  she needed closure.

Another time.

“So – ” Maria paused, unsure of how to phrase it, “You’re the one…in charge of making sure I get to keep Ivo? And…the house? And…everything?”

“I wasn’t sure if I’d get to hear from you before I had everything prepared,” he said, the sound of rustling paper picking up through the line, “The firm being on your school paperwork was to make it look like he was being extra precautions for GUN, so they wouldn’t contest his legal guardianship over you, while also leaving you a clue to follow – he said you were a pretty smart kid and would figure it out.”

She smiled, “He said that?”

“Well, Helen translated for him. He actually said you were genetically predisposed to high cognitive function and was statistically likely to rival Gerald’s intellect given that the moon blew up instead of our planet,” he took a deep breath, “Which basically means you’re a pretty smart  kid who would’ve figured it out.”

“Thanks,” she laughed, holding Ivo close.

“Hey – you’re the kid genius.”

Something akin to calm overtook the beating of Maria’s chest. She had actually succeeded in finding out more about what her Uncle Jean had planned by way of finding his lawyer friend. The only thing that damped the win was the fact that Shadow wasn’t here to see her, but she  would tell him all about it when he came home.

“So, what’s the plan? What did Uncle Jean leave for you to do?”

“A whole mess of legalities – but trust me, once I have it all sorted out the world’s your oyster, kid. GUN won’t be able to touch you without signing a waiver.”

“Perfect,” she smiled, nuzzling Ivo’s hair, “As long as I can keep Ivo safe, that’s all the oysters I really need.”

At this, Joshua Towers seemed genuinely emotional, “…you wanna keep Ivo?”

“Of course I do!” the very idea seemed remiss to reiterate, “Aunt Helen left me a note and Uncle  Jean said it was an option in his letter.”

“…yeah,” he breathed, a thick sniff sounding on the other line as if he were keeping tears at bay, “I, uh…I just didn’t think you’d be up for it. I mean, it was kind of wishful thinking on his part, you’re just a kid yourself and your all alone.”

“But I’m not alone! I have Shadow with me, he’s going to help me raise him.”

“Shad - oh!” more papers rustled around, “The, uh – Project Shadow, he mentioned! Right, I almost forgot, um…he’s like…some kind of super soldier, right? All the info on him is pretty much painted in black ink, can’t get through a single sentence without something being blocked out and censored.”

Ivo mumbled something derisive, probably about Shadow being referred to as a soldier, before Maria tried to wave the subject away, “Umm…he’s something like that, yeah.”

“He’s living with you up in Jean’s house, yeah?”

“Yes!” she nodded, suddenly in a rush to get to her main goal, “And, um – I need to know what you’re doing for him, too. I can’t let GUN get their hands on him again.”

“Well…according to the deal your uncle made with GUN, Mr. Shadow is supposed to be under his direct supervision and responsibility. Which…might get a bit complicated once they figure out…what happened.”

The sadness tinting his tone made Maria feel guilty for reminding him about whatever happened to his friend. And yet, she had to press the issue further, “I know – but if you’re going to make it so GUN can’t get to either me or Ivo, there has to be something you can do for Shadow!”

“I don’t know –”

“Please,” Maria insisted, feeling her earlier nervousness return, “I can’t do this without Shadow, Mr. Towers. He – we’ve been together so long, and he cares about Ivo just as much as I do. We’re a team.”

Silence echoed through the receiver, causing her lip to quiver. What good was being free of GUN if they were just as likely to go after Shadow the way they’ve been trying to since the night of the raid? It didn’t matter to Maria if she could live a normal life – she didn’t want any semblance of normalcy without Shadow by her side.

“…I love him.”

Ivo frowned, moving to cuddle her by placing his face at the crook of her neck. For whatever reason Shadow wasn’t here right now – Maria knew he wouldn’t deliberately leave them. And she would make it so he didn’t have to feel like he had to, either.

She’d come so far already. She couldn’t give up now.

“…you really do sound like your mom, you know.”

Maria waited. Wondering if Joshua Towers’ words meant more than he was trying to say. If it would help in convincing him to look into what could be done for Shadow, as well.

“Ah, what the hell – you’re technically my boss now, so whatever you need done, I’ll figure out.”

“Really?”

“Yeah,” she heard a smile in his voice, “Uh – so this…Shadow guy, he’s good to you? And to little Ivo?”

“He’s the best,” Maria said, letting her affection color her voice. An idea occurred to her, suddenly, and she was eager to ask, “Um…actually, I was thinking that maybe you can draw up some paperwork for him and me? Like…something specific.”

“I can already imagine what,” there was something akin to fondness in his voice, before it was tinted with renewed sadness, “You know…I never got around to meeting your dad, Maria, but…I heard that – he made your mom very happy.”

This time, she let her emotions wash over her like a balm to a wound, rather than a tidal wave, “He did?”

“She was crazy about him. The last time we spoke…it was like she’d never even been sick.”

Maria could only imagine the feeling. Something like when Shadow was with her, and nothing was keeping them apart, not even their own fears. If her mother was truly like her, at least Maria could be sure that before Gerald found her out, she had been living in absolute happiness.

“It means a lot to hear you say that.”

“Don’t even mention it, kid,” taking a breath, he continues, “Look – Jean told me it was best not to leave any evidence of us talking for any reason. I’ll delete your message from the answering machine, and if they are keeping track of the phone logs, they’ll only be able to speculate that your uncle’s calling us up for more legal advice. Not really a crime they can investigate.”

“So, we’re not being wiretapped?”

“Hey, give me and your uncle some credit, yeah? A Robotnik and a Towers isn’t an alliance to underestimate.”

“I’ll take your word for it,” Maria smiled, “Thank you…really, I mean it.”

“You can thank me after I finish helping you out,” Joshua Towers said, a smile of his own evident in his voice, “Take care of yourself, Maria.”

“I will,” she nodded, “Talk to you soon!”

“Bye, kiddo – ”

The line clicked off.

Maria let out a sigh of relief, quickly putting the phone back up on the receiver, before spinning Ivo around in her arms in glee, “We did it, Ivo! We figured out so much today!”

The baby laughed as they spun. Causing Maria to fall into a fit of giggles herself.

“Wait until your Daddy Shadow gets back, baby boy!” she grinned, circling them about the room, “He’s going to be so relieved and proud of us!”

Provided he came back.

Maria stopped mid-twirl. A frown on her face despite her most immediate thought reprimanding herself for the idea. Shadow had said he wanted to go for a run. And that wasn’t forever.

When he came back. She’d dazzle him with her gumption, as she always does, and they’d put whatever worries he had and kept hidden from her to rest. And this…icky feeling of abandonment will go away for good.

Ivo vocalizes some concern, which Maria hopes to alleviate with a smile of her own.

“Come on, little Ivo,” she said, walking them back towards the living room, “Let’s have a study session and then afterwards, I promised to give you some guitar lessons!”

Chapter Text

Can you feel life moving through your mind?
Looks like it came back for more - yeah
Can you feel time slipping down your spine
You try and try to ignore, yeah

Shadow lingered at the back screen door leading into the house.

The sound of Maria’s guitar strumming a familiar tune, combined by her soft voice singing less-than-familiar lyrics, washed over him like a soothing balm over his nerves.

She was sitting on the living room couch, guitar in hand as Ivo sat across from her.

But you can hardly swallow
Your fears and pain
When you can't help but follow
It puts you right back where you came

It might’ve been the alcohol lingering in his system. But the words seemed especially relevant to him now. Perhaps he had been running away. Too scared to face his own insecurities. A physical manifestation of the anxiety coursing through him.

But he came back to them. Again and again. And now more than ever did he want the lesson to stick. He was tired of pulling away. They were his family, and he wants to convince himself that not only did Maria mean it when she spoke of a future that included him, but that he could help her see it through.

Live and learn
Hangin' on to the edge of tomorrow
Live and learn
From the works of yesterday

He watched Maria lean over her instrument as she smiled down at Ivo.

Even from the back, Shadow could tell the boy was looking up at her in amazement and wonder. It warmed his heart in a way Howard’s beer never could. To see them both perfectly wrapped in a bubble of contentment.

He entered the home quietly. Intent on joining them in the moment.

Live and learn
If you beg or if you borrow
Live and learn
You may never find your way…

“You added a chorus, since last time,” Shadow said, making himself known.

“Shadow!”

Maria’s face lit up like a star.

She immediately slid her guitar off from her lap, letting it fall into the plush carpet. Even Ivo turned around excitedly at the sound of his voice, sliding himself off of the couch.

They both ran towards him.

He welcomed them with open arms.

Shadow felt Maria ram into him before he felt Ivo cling to his leg below. Her chest flutters as she breathes into a laugh, wrapping her arms around his shoulders. Ivo is drooling.

The feel of their combined weight against his body is the most grounded he’s felt since escaping the ARK facility a year ago now.

“I’m so glad your back,” Maria says against his ear. Her voice is more strained than he had imagined it would be. Relieved, obviously, but also so vulnerable that you’d think she wasn’t sure he was ever coming home.

It would have never occurred to him that that would be something that worried her. Truly and deeply. And it makes him ever so much more aware of how his actions had affected her.

Shadow wraps his arms around her waist, pressing her against him firmly, “So am I.”

He hears Maria let out a happy sigh, digging his nose into the crevice of her neck to further take in her scent in tandem with the comforting heat of her body. Little Ivo is below them, deciding to hug them both, since they’re already hugging. And is now grabbing onto Shadow’s shin and Maria’s thigh, as she’s kneeling.

Shadow remembers what Howard said about size and starts to purr.

The sound causes Maria to shiver in his arms. But she only snuggles into him more. Ivo let’s out an inquisitive shout, but that’s normal, he always thinks that the things Shadow does is interesting and worth investigating. A true Robotnik.

“Hey,” Shadow whispers against her, “Hey – Maria, I’m back. It’s okay.”

She nods, mumbling something into his quills before pulling away enough to look at him.

His breath catches as he notes her eyes were teary, right before she pushes her lips against his in order to kiss him.

Absently. He notes that Ivo babbles something that sounds like “success!” and can almost imagine him pumping his little fists in the air like Maria so often does. But what consumes his most immediate sense is – of course – how quickly she deepens the kiss. Moving and nibbling at his mouth until he has the presence of mind to simply let her in.

Shadow is almost upset at how often he fights her about kisses, he feels so languid and pleased to feel her tongue slide over his own, now. But that’s probably the alcohol in his system making it so his pressing inhibitions stop pushing against it.

Which is also probably why Maria pulls away from him entirely.

“Why do you taste funny?” she said, brows furrowed and crossing her arms.

Shadow blinked. Slowly. His mind still in the middle of kissing her, “Um…”

“Are you –?” she leans in to smell his breath, “Is that –? Shadow the Hedgehog are you drunk?”

“No!” he says, still wondering the very thing himself, “…I don’t think.”

“How are you drunk right now?”

“I –” Shadow paused, mind reeling a bit before he decided to stick to his promise of telling the truth, “ – ran into our blind neighbor and he offered me a beer? Or two?”

“I don’t believe this!” Maria stood up, picking up Ivo before Shadow could reach for either of them. She began to pace the living room in a huff, “Here I am! Worried sick about you and calling lawyers and drawing up paperwork and your off somewhere with our neighbors drinking beer!”

“Maria – !”

“Don’t you Maria me!” she stomped her foot, (Ivo shot him a sympathetic glance), “You can’t just freak out on me when I go and get the mail and when I wanna cuddle and then go off on your own for hours and come back home tasting drunk when I kiss you! That isn’t fair, Shadow!”

“I know!” he says, half-crawling on his knees towards them both, “I know – I’m sorry!”

“I get that I can be really pushy and weird sometimes,” Maria said, tears lacing her eyes in a way that caused Shadow’s heart to ache, “But I feel really bad about it and I don’t want you to leave because I did something wrong –!”

“I won’t!” he said, almost leaping to her side as he grasped at her waist and looked up at her, “I would never leave you, Maria – for anything, I promise – and I won’t run off like that again!”

It felt as if he was already too late with the reassurance, as Maria was openly sobbing by now. Ivo was starting to look distressed on her behalf, which only made things worse. Shadow was a hair breath away from groveling.

Not that he’d think it would help, the way Maria was gasping between breaths, “You’re only saying that because I’m yelling at you!”

“No!”

“Yes! And I’m being bitchy and I don’t mean to be –!”

“You’re not! –”

“I just don’t want you to leave!” Maria said, falling to her knees again as Shadow gently cradles both her and Ivo against his chest, “Everyone always leaves – and everything I do and say makes you think you have to stay and I don’t want that either! I don’t want to treat you like grandfather, Shadow, I’m sorry –”

“Maria –” Shadow cupped her face with his hand and tilted it so that she could look into his eyes, “I want to stay with you! I love you!”

The collective gasp that broke between them could’ve sucked the air out of the very room.

Shadow. Briefly. Considers the fact that the alcohol in his system had not only loosened his tongue, but quite literally loosened all the reasons he’d been holding back on the words entirely.

This isn’t how he wanted to say it. Or expected to.

But at the end of the day. The thought of Maria doubting his devotion to her, even when the reason was her own imagined fault for his lapse. Was more than enough cause for him to admit his true feelings.

“I love you.”

Shadow repeated, this time perfectly aware of how much he wanted her to hear it.

Maria’s face slowly broke into a smile. Her eyes shimmering – no longer with miserable tears – but with the usual brightness that so often enchanted Shadow when she looked at him.

She breathed out, reaching around to the back of his head with her free hand, before pulling him towards her for another kiss.

“I love you too, Shadow,” Maria said, breaking the kiss to nuzzle her nose against his own.

Oh, Shadow shivered at her caress, Oh, wow.

He hadn’t expected to hear it said back to him. Let alone immediately. Shadow had always been under the express delusion that his feelings were entirely separated from whatever Maria’s own feelings were. And yet –

And yet. She had been kissing him often. She had been sharing a bed with him. She kept saying that she wanted to raise Ivo with him – and everything that implied. Even when she didn’t imply it and said it outright – husband and wife, that they were a couple, mother and father to her little orphan cousin.

Hearing her say it, though. Those three words. Without teasing or pretext.

It all suddenly clicked for him.

Not only was he madly in love with Maria Robotnik.

Maria Robotnik loved him back.

Shadow felt himself laugh. Half in disbelief – half in pure elation. He kissed her tenderly, smiling when Maria did not hesitate to kiss him back. Lovingly pecking at his lips and muzzle. Somewhere in the back of his mind, he’s aware that Ivo slid from her grip, not wanting to be between the two love birds, while is mumbling as if to gather data, which would be absolutely hilarious if he weren’t so caught up in pure adoration.

In his mind, her words and their meaning play endlessly in his head.

They were in love. In love. And there was very little his fears could do to ruin things now.

“…the beer taste is definitely ruining this, by the way,” Maria smiles between kisses.

Shadow grins helplessly, “I know, I’ll go brush my teeth.”

They laugh between each other’s lips as they continue to kiss.

=

“So, he lives all alone?”

Ivo had gotten sleepy some time during their kissing session, and had vocalized wanting to take a nap, successfully breaking them apart long enough to tuck him into his little egg-shaped bassinet.

Maria has since lingered by the bathroom doorway as Shadow made do on his promise to wash the beer taste out of his mouth. He’d been explaining in the meantime about their neighbor, Howard Wachowski, who seemed to be a pleasant old man. Plying her hedgehog with beer notwithstanding.

“Well –” Shadow gargled, spiting out mouthwash before continuing, “ – he said that his son was thinking of moving back in with him from the city.”

“Thinking isn’t exactly the same as being sure,” she pointed out, a little miffed on Mr. Wachowski’s behalf, “It’s not really fair of him to take his dad’s job just because he’s blind.”

“It actually sounds pretty reasonable.”

“But what if he sends his dad away?” Maria says, “Then we’ll have some other Wachowski neighbor who might be nosey and mean, instead of sweet old Mr. Howard – we don’t even know his son!”

Shadow laughs a bit at the volume of her distress, “We barely know Howard!”

“We know that he likes you!” she countered, “And that even though he’s ex-military, you don’t think he’s some secret GUN operative sent to spy on us – that means a lot in my book! Anyone who doesn’t make you paranoid has to be trustworthy.”

“He thinks I’m your uncle – I already feel bad about lying to him,” he said, stepping out of the bathroom with a frown and a towel in his hands.

Maria blinked, “He thinks your Jean Robotnik?”

At this, Shadow seems to blush, looking slightly away, “…he thinks I’m…Shadow Robotnik.”

The way those words tickled at her braincells almost instantaneously had to be a world record.

“I see…” she said, practically purring herself as she reached to wrap her arms around Shadow’s shoulders, “And did you tell him about the Mrs. Shadow-Robotnik in your life?”

His blush deepened as he downcast his eyes, almost mumbling his response, “Be serious...”

“I’ve never been more serious about anything in my life,” she said moving in to kiss him.

Maria was never more elated than to hear Shadow moan against her lips, even before slipping his own tongue in her mouth. After their brief declarations in the living room only a short while ago, she rightfully felt over the moon and would be jumping up in down if she didn’t have more pressing matters to push her lips on.

She pulled away with a smile, “Mmm, minty fresh.”

Shadow silently snorted but didn’t move away as he usually did. In fact, he nuzzled against her face almost yearnfully.

“You know, we still have to talk,” he said, almost ghosting over her mouth.

She keened unhappily at his teasing, “We just did. In the living room, remember?”

Sighing, but in a good-natured, if put-upon way, Shadow leaned back to look at her properly.

Uh-oh, she thought to herself, he looks serious.

Which really, didn’t align with her current reality. In her mind, they were knee deep into their honeymoon phase, finally, and she wanted to take full advantage of her emotional high.

“What’s wrong?” She frowned.

Shadows ears flattened, “Nothing’s wrong, it’s just that –”

He stopped again, which was starting to make her nervous once more. What on earth did she do this time? And as if sensing her distress, Shadow reached for her hands to hold in his, which made her feel even more self-conscious.

“…you have to – let me be the one to surprise you, sometimes,” he said, at length, causing Maria to lift a curious brow.

“Surprise me?” She repeated.

“Yes,” he stressed, looking at her softly, “Maria – I love you.”

Hearing the words again, and from his own lips without pressure or urgency, caused Maria to smile uncontrollably.

“And I love you!” She said, kissing him lightly.

She felt Shadow smile into her kiss, briefly getting as lost in it as she was, before pulling back, “I want to – to do things the right way. With you.”

“What do you mean, Shadow?” Maria asked with a laugh. As far as she was concerned, as unconventional as their relationship was, there was nothing Shadow could ever do that could be judged as either right or wrong.

“I mean –”As he was still holding her hands, Shadow briefly rubbed his thumb over her right hand’s ring finger, “ – that I…like – all the…nice things that you say. And that – I want all the nice things you say.”

And as elated as his words made her, Maria still couldn’t help but feel that she was missing something important in what he wasn’t saying. And wondered if she could read him as well as she usually did.

“But?” She offered. Though she hated the way such an amendment made her feel.

“No buts,” Shadow shook his head, “I mean it – I promise that there’s nothing that would make me more happy, Maria. It’s just that I…get overwhelmed. Sometimes. When you…get ahead of me.”

Ahead of –? “What does that mean?”

His lip curls somewhat, his gaze lowering yet again, “Well…for instance…to answer your earlier question, Howard thinks that I’m your uncle, Shadow…Robotnik. And he also thinks that your…Maria Robotnik…my wi – your aunt…and that Ivo is…”

Shadow let his words trail off, letting Maria connect the dots on her own.

And she certainly did.

“Our –?” Maria gestured betweeen them, mouthing the words with a  growing grin, “And that we’re –?”

Shadow nodded, gravely.

“This is great!” she all but chirped, practically leaping back into his waiting arms, “Now I don’t have to pretend that I’m not your head over heels wife!”

He smiled at that, but his eyes betrayed the sense that this was exactly what he meant.

It was then that Maria seemed to grasp the situation for what it was.

As a Robotnik. Her grandfather had always praised her mind as being three steps ahead of the most basic and run-of-the-mill type of person there was. But that also meant she missed certain social cues. Unaware of how most people usually react to her Robotnik eccentricities. The way she viewed the world was almost always in absolutes. Certainties.

If she wanted life to be something specific, she was simply smart enough to make it so, without censor or concern for decorum.

When it came to Shadow, she could slow down. She so often took her time because she knew almost as soon as when she met him that he had no framework for the most normal lived experiences. It was fun, showing him everything she considered important, because unlike the rest of the adults in her life. And even some her own age. He never considered her outlook bizarre. Far from it. He clung to her every word, which made it paramount for her to gather the right ones at any given moment.

As such – when it came to Shadow, and this new, exciting thing developing between them. Maria was becoming more and more aware of how hard it was for her to reel it all in. Because for her –

For her, it was all a matter of course.

They were in love. So it only felt natural for her to consider that they were to each other everything that came with it.

“I mean those things,” Maria said, hoping that the seriousness in which she spoke overrode her nervousness at having to explain, “I do – Shadow, I would never say stuff like that if I didn’t mean it! I love you, and I wanna raise Ivo with you, and you’re my best friend and my partner, and my husband –”

Oh.

Oh, the look Shadow held was so happy yet vulnerable. As if he could burst at the seams, but in such a way that it might be painful, instead of euphoric as it was for her. Because, for Maria, they might as well already be married.

And all that sounded really nice, as he had said, but it also didn’t leave much room to explore it with the one you love. Not at their pace.

Maria started to pull her hands away, “I’ll stop –”

Shadow kept her hands in his, “I don’t want you to.”

“But you just said –”

“I said that I love you,” he gently interrupts, caressing the side of her face with his hand, “And that I – want everything you want. I’m just – trying to explain why I keep…running away. It’s not from you, I promise.”

She leaned into his palm, “Then what?”

“I’m trying to catch up,” he rubbed his thumb over her cheek, smiling for a fleeting second before pulling her forehead against his, “Please, don’t change. I – like hearing you say…all the things you say. Just be a little more patient with me, okay?”

Maria laughed a bit, rubbing her nose over him, “You’re a pretty slow and steady guy for being the fastest hedgehog alive, you know?”

“Trust me, I’ve been thinking about this a long time,” Shadow said, laughing a bit on his own, “I just can’t…believe it’s real unless I get the nerve to say it aloud myself.”

“Then I guess we’re truly a match made in heaven because I obviously can’t shut up about it,” she shrugged with a grin, pulling away to look into Shadow’s eyes, “This is real, Shadow.”

“I know,” he nodded, looking sure of himself, “My head’ll figure it out, soon.”

“Good,” Maria said, wrapping her arms around his neck, “Cuz I already told the lawyer all about you.”

“Pardon –?”

She kissed him happily. Giving herself some grace for this final, teensy-weeny little teasing, so long as Shadow knew she did mean it.

In Maria’s mind, they were already married. But if Shadow still needed some time to be a gentlemen about it, she was more than willing to wait.

They had all the time in the world.

=

Ivo had woken up in the middle of their makeout session.

A thing Shadow was partially thankful for. As he was probably still slightly tipsy, all things considered.

It that didn’t take away from the fact that Shadow had finally been able to articulate everything he’d been holding back. Every thought. Every ardent word he had kept locked away for fear of  rejection – worse, the fear of breaking what bond had existsed between them for years.

But it hadn’t broken things between them. Quite the opposite, in fact. And in those very same years of pining and wishing, Shadow’s wouldn’t have imagined to expect anything more.

The fantasy of being with Maria had become a reality.

More than a reality. As Maria had pressed him up against the bathroom door as she thoroughly made sure he’d brushed the beer taste out of his gaping mouth.

Their heavy petting had started getting so heated that he’d been half-aware of how easily he would’ve allowed Maria to take things however far as she wanted to – right in the middle of the hallway – before Ivo had begun protesting in abandonment.

“Mmm, to be continued,” she had nuzzled against his nose, almost immediately turning to run back to the waiting Ivo, “Mommy’s coming, little Ivo, don’t worry!”

As she scampered off with a giggle, Shadow took several breaths to gather himself.

They were in love. Maria loved him back. Something about a lawyer.

Wait a minute –

“Who’s this lawyer you keep mentioning?”

Shadow emerged from the hallway, coming upon the maternal scene of Maria picking up Ivo from his little egg bassinet. It was almost enough to make his heart stop, the sight of them both looking so picturesque.

She glanced at him over her shoulder, innocently, “Oh – Joshua Towers. He’s a friend of my Uncle and mom, apparently – he’s been working on the paperwork Uncle Jean told us about in his letter!”

A male lawyer, “Can he be trusted?”

“I trust him as much as I do Mr. Howard Wachowski,” Maria shrugged, carrying Ivo back into the living room before happily gasping, “We should invite them both over!”

“That’s a bit too trusting,” Shadow says, walking into the living room where Ivo, at least, seemed  to agree with his assesment. Drinking his bottled apple juice with impunity.

Maria laughed, noting Shadow’s persitent frown, “Why – are you jealous?”

He bristled, “I’m cautious.”

“Well, if you’d have been here when I called him, maybe you wouldn’t have to be…” Maria pointed out, raising a challanging eyebrow.

Shadow’s mouth formed a thin line. He couldn’t argue the point, “…sorry.”

At this, Maria’s brow dropped. She took him by the hands and pulled him closer to the couch, were she and Ivo were sitting.

“It’s okay, I don’t mean to nag,” she said, caressing her hands over his arms, “I don’t know any specifics yet, but Mr. Towers did say that GUN wouldn’t be able to take the house or Ivo away from us once he had everything sorted out.”

The words caused Shadow to let out a breath he hadn’t even realized he was holding, “Yeah?”

“Yes!” Maria said, pulling him into another nuzzle, “Isn’t it great?”

It was.

Shadow realized, now more than ever, that he had been so worried about his two favorite people that he’d tried running away from his own fears. But as Howard Wachowski had told him earlier, it were here. In their home. Together. Where all those problems would be resolved – provided he stay to see them through.

“It’s perfect,” Shadow said, leaning into her caress.

Ivo let out a protest. Baby bottle flung away as he frowned at them both.

Maria giggled, moving to where the baby lay to pepper kisses all over his face, “We haven’t forgotten about you baby boy!”

He squealed in delight.

Shadow smiled openly as he watched them.

For the first time, after Walters’ unfortunately timed call, he allowed himself to truly believe that he could keep this. The image of them both happily laughing – the family he so desperately wanted to keep safe, perfectly at ease, himself included.

He felt his smile turn into a toothy grin as he stepped away, heading for the kitchen, “I think I’m going to start on dinner.”

“We should go out to eat!” Maria said, suddenly, propping herself up with flair, “To celebrate!”

Shadows quills stood up in surprise, “You know we can’t do that.”

“And why not?” She put her hands on her hips, “We saved the WORLD, Shadow, I think we deserve a parade, not to be hiding out eating frozen dinners or ordering pizza very night!”

Baby Ivo babbled something from where he sat, likely disbelieving that the pair had done something as monumental as saving the world, given how they’d so far been fairly normal around him.

Shadow glanced between them, a bit of trepidation on his face. But it wasn’t so much the idea that caused him to trip up – but how to go about executing the idea. If going for a run had helped him to stop feeling so suffocated and boxed in, he couldn’t deny Maria or Ivo the same relief. They were clearly in need of it.

“I promised to cook dinner tonight, remember?” he said, at length, giving them both a placating smile, “Let me figure that out, and we’ll all go out to have a big family dinner sometime soon, okay?”

Maria blinked. Apparently surpised that he  was being so accomadating. Before breaking into a smile, herself.

“Okay,” she said, picking Ivo up from the couch, “C’mon, baby Ivo, we’re going to get you freshened up while Daddy Shadow burns dinner!”

The infant let out a disapproving shout, shooting Shadow a look of offense at the thought.

“I’m not going to burn dinner!” Shadow said in his own defense, watching them retreat down the hallway.

He shook his head, playfully.

Once they were both out of earshot, Shadow zapped himself into the kitchen. Standing by the telephone. It’s a wonder that a few hours ago, he’d been vibrating with negative emotions in this very spot. Only now, he excitedly fished the little card he’d hidden in his gloves.

He took the phone off the reciever and dailed the number on the card. Patiently waiting as the line on the other end clicked open.

“Evenin’ – Wachowski Residence.”

“Howard!” Shadow smiled, “I was thinking about your offer – I know what I want to do for Maria’s birthday.”

“That’s great, Shadow! Tell me all about it.”

He told Howard everything as quickly as he could while it was still fresh in his mind. Eager to amass the bulk of what he needed before worrying about the little details. By the time Maria and Ivo emerged from the hallway, Shadow was already in the process of cooking.

A plan happily forming as he quietly thought about Maria’s upcoming birthday.

Chapter Text

After Shadow had cooked them all dinner (slightly charred but lovingly seasoned) Maria had coquettishly suggested they snuggle up to watch a movie. A request that was amicably granted. No resistance to be had.

The surprise had lingered well into half of the black and white sci-fi film, where she remembered that the very reason she wanted to lay next to Shadow was for the express purpose of  riling him up in the first place. Which she had, in a way. Cuddling into the crook of his arm and whispering in his ear how romantic it would be, actually, to be carried off in someone’s arm like the woman in the movie.

Shadow had blushed beet red.

But instead of pulling away. Or even suffering a shock along his quills as his cosmic alien energy usually manifests. He seemed instead to commit her comment to memory. And continued to watch the movie. Or at least. His eyes were firmly set on the television screen.

Once Ivo began nodding off. Shadow had offered to get him to bed. To which Maria had similarly flirted that he wanted to rush the baby off in order to get her into bed, instead. Ivo had been more openly annoyed at her comment, being sleepy, than Shadow, who set his lips into a line and looked like an adorable deer in headlights.

Curiouser, and curiouser.

Well, she wasn’t about to discount the lingering affects of alcohol as a reason for Shadow’s leniency. So when she did shuffle into the master bedroom, she half-wondered if they had agreed to share the room since last night.

It felt as if they had talked about everything but the obvious. In hindsight. Shadow had even mentioned their sleeping arrangements before running off, and they hadn’t addressed it in between kisses and confessions.

Maria pouted somewhat. Properly dressed in her blue nightgown now that she had unpacked it from the moving boxes Walters had provided. Wondering if Shadow was going to come through the door, or if she should probably take his absence as a sign of abstinence and shouldn’t go out looking for him like a hungry kitten.

She wasn’t…opposed to waiting. Even though they’d both done…a lot. In recent nights.

But people who generally confess their undying love to each other ought to spend the night together, right?

Maybe she was assuming again.

Shadow had asked her for patience, and here she was, wanting to pounce on him. She had to get better control of herself.

She kicked her bare legs about. Sitting on the large, comfortable mattress for two, she mentally began resigning herself that her adoring hedgehog wasn’t going to come in.

Then the door slid slowly open.

With halted breath, Maria watched as Shadow quietly slipped into view.

His eyes were downcast, glancing up at Maria only briefly before redness overtook his face and he just as softly stepped inside, barely closing the door behind him.

“…I was checking if you were asleep yet,” he said, looking down at his shoes.

Maria wasn’t altogether sure how to approach this and decided to tell him the truth.

“I was just about to tuck myself in,” she said, pulling her legs up,  “…Care to join?”

The look on Shadow’s face was that of self-consciousness, yet he didn’t move away, “…Usually, when…hus – when, um…men get…drunk…they’re sent to sleep on the couch.”

Oh, “Well, I’m not that mad about it…”

How could she be? If a bottle of beer was enough for Shadow to finally be honest about his feelings, she could extend some forgiveness about the state in which he came home.

“Provided it’s not like…a habit you pick up,” she added, quickly.

Shadow nodded. Earnestly enough that Maria doesn’t think she’ll have to worry about him becoming a drunkard any time soon.

He stays on the other side of the room, however, feet shuffling a bit as he lingers.

Maria bites at her lip, searching for words she hasn’t already said. He did know that she wouldn’t try anything, right? Especially if he was still feeling the least bit tipsy. Sure, she hadn’t really gone through with that particular promise as of late, what with things escalating every time they got their hands on each other – but this time she meant it.

If it kept Shadow with her. She meant everything she said.

Yet this room and this bed has been the crux of most of their…marital troubles, for lack of a better word, almost since they had come out of her uncle’s secret bunker.

So in lieu of saying anything, Maria decided to act on her impulse, instead. She settled herself deep into the mattress, leaving ample room between her and one other person. Going as far as to draw the covers over her body as she lied on her side. Watching Shadow with hopeful eyes.

And maybe that was enough. An open invitation without preamble or pretext. For Shadow to be shaken out from whatever held him back before.

He scrambled into the room. No powers. No sparks of energy facilitating his action. In fact, Maria made an effort to remain perfectly still as Shadow struggled to kick off his shoes by the base of the bed frame. She feared if she betrayed any sense of excitement or anticipation, he’d close in on himself again. And that was the last thing she wanted to do.

And it seemed to work. As Shadow only paused to look down at his gloved hands. Half sitting on the bed as if he fully intended to just snuggle up next to her, if not for whatever pressing issue caused him to pause.

“…I don’t want to…scratch you,” he said, softly looking at her, “When I’m asleep.”

Maria felt a slight tremor as she breathed out, “You won’t.”

With that. Shadow’s eyes shimmered red and glowed bright. Before he looked at his hands again and immediately set his teeth to pull them off. There was something about the small sliver of fang that she could see that set Maria to lightly rub her legs together. Discreetly, of course.

Shadow placed his gloves on the night stand. Carefully turning his body until he could easily look down at her laying right next to him. Maria wondered what exactly he saw in her, to pause as if he were looking at something precious.

He drew the covers over himself. The only thing between them a cool, empty space.

Maria felt her fingers dance along the chasm between them, “…And you’ll stay, right? Not just…tonight. But…every night?”

It was a lot to ask, she knew. But she wanted to share this room with him. Not just the bed. But everything this space represented. They didn’t have to do anything. And they might not do much of anything, every night. But it would mean the world to her. And be more than enough. For him to be with her. Here. Out of love and affection. Not just duty or passion.

Shadow slipped his hand into hers, looking at her earnestly, “…I will.”

Maria felt herself smile.

It’s all she ever wanted.

=

Waking up next to Maria was everything Shadow ever wanted.

Officially. That is.

Before. Their sleepovers had been a near-sacred thing. Something to look forward to – to the point where he barely got any sleep, trying to remain perfectly still on his side of the tent while Maria slumbered on.

It would always and eventually end in Shadow entangled against her, in some way. But that very fact is what caused him to look forward to those nights. While he slept, Shadow didn’t have to argue with himself about what was appropriate or how things were between them. He simply acted on his rem cycle.

And Maria was never bothered by it. Always teasing that it was okay to share a sleeping bag, if that’s what he wanted. But a conscious Shadow was one who had set firm boundaries, and so it was often that he’d put up his front, if only with the knowledge that he’d wake up exactly where he wanted to be – in her arms.

With the knowledge that this – sleeping beside her. Was now a permanent fixture in their living arrangements – Shadow felt a certain thrill he’d never indulged before.

When he opened his eyes. And saw a peaceful Maria next to him, sleeping with even breaths and a soft expression. Shadow thought to himself, I don’t have to move from here. And it rocked him somewhat to his core.

Where before, he’d panic and try to dislodge himself from her, while fighting the urge to linger and stare at her as he made sure she didn’t wake. Now, he gave into the urge to nuzzle his nose against her face. Knowing that – against all logic – this is what Maria had wanted and implored him to share with her.

Shadow felt as if he’d died and gone to heaven.

The only real proof that Shadow was still very much alive was the rather pressing presence of his…cock, at half mast.

So that was new.

He was almost ashamed of it. Just being able to sleep besides Maria should’ve been more than rewarding. But apparently his body insisted that it had its own opinion about having Maria’s body against his own.

And it was not as if he didn’t understand it. Maria’s body was somewhat of an alarming thing for Shadow to ever think about for more than a minute. She was lean, and her hair was nice, and the other night he had confirmed a fleeting observation he hadn’t dared linger on prior to their nighttime activities.

Her chest was very perky and cute.

Again, shame rose on Shadow’s cheeks as the thought caused his cock to twitch.

In her nightgown. Blue and very chaste that he had always liked by simple merit that it suited her complexion. Shadow could practically see her pert nipples straining against the fabric. And over the very short time he’d known her, this particular nightgown had become smaller and tighter around Maria’s body.

He’d often noticed, to his embarrassment, how further and further the lining of the dress went up as Maria’s legs seemed to stretch ever longer. And at present, it made him all to aware of how her bare thighs were brushed up against his…private area.

Not, in his opinion, ideal.

Shadow, despite his earlier joy of not having to move, found himself shimming onto his back and staring anxiously at the ceiling. He’d been in the middle of trying to will his erection away, when Maria had snuggled closer, contentedly opening her eyes.

“…mornin’,” she had mumbled, reaching for him with wandering hands. Shadow had shook at her attention, but did not fight as her face caressed his own. Her hands roamed under his chin, turning his head as she nuzzled him back.

Leading into a kiss.

It did nothing to get rid of his…little problem.

Shadow moaned openly. Thanking goodness that Ivo was still, theoretically, asleep. Since he hasn’t called out to either of them for the moment.

He couldn’t imagine having to part from Maria, at present.

Maria hummed happily at his reaction. Deepening the kiss to wear her tongue lingered languid against his sharp fangs. It made Shadow absolutely putty in her hands, the way she constantly played with what he considered to be the most dangerous parts of himself.

It reminded him that he’d gone to bed sans gloves or shoes.

Against his better judgement. Shadow felt himself turning, lips never leaving her own as his clawed hands gripped at her thighs. Feeling her smooth skin underneath the old, very thin nightgown that had been making him crazy for months now.

Maria gasped at his touch. Leaving Shadow to search for her mouth with a panting tongue. It was only a moment before his lips found hers again. And in the interim, he had completely forgotten how very hard he was before feeling himself bob against her body.

“Oh!” Maria said, breaking their kiss for long enough to look down and playfully smile at him, “So it is a good morning!”

“Sorry –” Shadow pulled away.

“Wait –!” she threw her arms around his neck, keeping him, for the moment, lodged against her, “We were just kissing! You said that was allowed.”

He half-smiled at her signature persistence, “This is a little more than kissing, Maria.”

She pouted at that, but not in a serious way, “…I can take care of it, if you want. I know how to better than you do.”

“What about you?”

“What about me?”

Shadow huffed, pressing his forehead against hers, “…I wanna make you feel good, too.”

She shivered in his embrace. Something that he had no idea would be so appealing to him – but there it was. It almost made him all the harder. Imagining that everything he said to her just the other night had been…welcomed, and wanted.

“You make me feel real good, Shadow,” Maria whispered against his mouth.

The way her body moved to press against him was almost sinful – and he flexed his fingers in such a way that her legs spread open as she threw one leg over him. Shadow could practically feel the hot dampness of her lower area, and it matched the strain of his own member, left neglected.

He sighed shakily against her, glancing down at his reddened cock and only slightly thankful that their size difference made it so that he wasn’t at risk of slipping against her – even though that was suddenly exactly what he wanted.

“I don’t –” he bit his lip, rubbing his nose against her own, “ – want to rush anything.”

“I know,” she said, something yearning in her voice, regardless, “We don’t have to – it can still feel good with our hands or mouths – or –”

She stopped. Body moving just a tad as Shadow watched her spread legs flex.

“Or?” he asked.

Maria swallowed, “Can you lay on your back so I can try something? No funny business, I swear.”

Logically, Shadow knew that Maria was fully capable of funny business if she was so inclined. But with a straining erection between them, and his heart so painful out in the open after all this time, he was less inclined not to trust her. He had promised, after all.

“Okay,” Shadow said, obeying her command to lay down on his back. His reddened cocked bobbled in the chill air and made him hiss somewhat. And yet, Maria turned on her side and gave him a glassy look so earnest, he felt as if she could bolt him with leather straps to the bed and he’d be perfectly content to stay there.

Maria’s fingers fleetingly traced up his leg and briefly ghosted his heated member. Before she sat up, swinging her leg over his body.

The sight of her over him, golden bed hair shining in the early morning sunlight, made Shadow reach for the edge of her dress.

“It’s not…sex,” Maria explained, at length, “It’s – it feels like it, but we don’t put anything in and it…feels really good. Or so I read.”

Shadow’s throat bobbed painfully. But he nodded.

Taking his nod as affirmation. Maria gently moves the edge of her dress further up. The sight of her blushed thighs enthralls him enough that when the hem of her skirt is effectively pulled up, seeing the light, blond, wispy hairs over her mound in the daylight makes it so Shadow’s mouth has already watered.

For a moment. He wants to lick and suck on her as he’d done the night before.

But he can be patient.

“I’m…gonna move over you,” Maria said, clearly broadcasting her intent as she moved forward on wobbly knees before him.

Shadow tried to keep perfectly still. But jumped a bit as she reached for his member.

“Maria –”

“Sorry!” she said, voice small. Very carefully, her hand lingered over him, “I – I have to make sure it doesn’t move so – so it’ll sit right.”

Lord, but his willpower was slowly draining. But he refrained from moving any more than he’d already done, and gave her yet another nod.

Maria’s palm was soft and gentle. Causing him to groan silently. Mouth agape. The feel of her hand was so different from her plush lips of the night before – yet even so, he couldn’t help but think the same thing he’d done then: you feel amazing, please don’t leave me.

As pathetic as the rest of him, his libido made him stupidly devoted to her.

He could hear Maria swallow thickly above him, the pressure of her hand keeping his cock pressed against his fur as she moved. Her legs trembled, but the same, humid-like air around her mound hit over Shadow’s groin and kept him firmly in check.

And then –

She slip the petals of her cunt over his cock.

“Uggn, Maria…” Shadow moaned, head thrown back as he felt her juices coat over his aching, dry base that had been left bare and in the open.

He heard her let out a shaky breath, “Y – you’re so…so hot down here Shadow – you’re like a furnace.”

She tightly gasped, moving her hips forwards into a delicious slide that caused Shadow to grasp at her hips. The effect was almost immediate, the added force of his hands causing her to properly grind above his member as they both moaned thickly at the charged sensation.

The weight of her body only made it so her cunt spread over wide and firmly against his aching cock. Already, Shadow could feel him leaking in earnest. But he wanted to feel her move against his hips – and so pulled her body up and down his own.

“Oh -!” Maria shook, her lower body completely lax in his control, “Oh – wow, Shadow, wow, you – you feel so good!”

He growled something unintelligible. Meaning to make her gush over him as he felt her coat his fur in her scent. Whatever he meant, it worked, and Maria groaned hotly against him as she exposed her long, beautiful neck for him to see.

She looked like a goddess, truthfully, and Shadow had always been his enamored little acolyte.

“Shadow!” Maria gasped, mouth open as he rocked her over him, “Oh – god, Shadow, please touch me – OH!”

No sooner said, one of Shadow’s hands moved up to thumb at her nipples. Watching her intently as she pushed her chest against his palm. Without his gloves, even with the fabric between them, Shadow could still make out the little nubs surrounding her areola, and almost had half a mind to tear at her clothing.

Instead, her trembling hand found his own, and she followed the circling of his thumb against her chest as her mound ground over and over the base of his dick.

“Shadow….” She said, barely above a whisper, “I love you, Shadow…”

He could barely think after that.

“I’ve always loved you,” he said back, words gushing out of him as the pressure of her body began to make him throb and ache, “Always – I’ve wanted to - to touch you forever, Maria – please –” he stuttered, feeling her lips flutter against his thick base, “Please, I love you so much –”

She gasped above him, eyes shimmering even as Shadow moved the hand still on her hip to search for the nub just hardened against her mound to ride out what she called an orgasm.

If his words led her to it, he wasn’t sure, but as he rubbed at her Maria nearly fell over him, hurriedly sliding over his cock in a near-desperation to chase the feeling he was giving her. Shadow looked at her utterly blissful expression and almost didn’t need to feel her cunt spasming around him, though it definitely helped as the tip of his cock felt as she utterly engulf him with in new angle.

He could’ve died happily smothered under her, but instead felt his hips buck up against her, causing her to stumble into his waiting arms as he burst and rode out his own orgasm with her body painfully pushed against his.

Shadow groaned. Very easily keeping her up with a strength he usually reserved for missions that involved demolishing buildings. But Maria did not protest, more consciously keeping her upper body up with her elbows as she let out a serious of deep – eager little grunts as he humped up along her folds. He might’ve felt more embarrassed by the ridiculousness of the position if he weren’t so focused on how good it felt.

It felt good. To hold her up. To use his powers for more than just destruction. But her pleasure. To hear her come undone above him as his mouth found purchase along her collarbone and sucked at her skin. Feeling her body’s tremors finally petering off as the last of his own orgasm receded in waves.

It felt good to pull her close to him and not feel like it was overstepping.

That he was meant to. That he had a right to.

To feel the urge to say she was his to protect. For more reasons than one.

Maria sighed, airy and sated. Shadow effectively lowered her body with the same ease he had moved her like a doll, leaving marks along her neck and jugular, until capturing her mouth again.

If had his reservations about sharing a bed with her before, he couldn’t remember them now.

Maria smiled against his face, humming happily, “Mmm, I think we both might need to shower after this…”

“I want to smell like you,” Shadow said, a bit thoughtlessly but truthfully nonetheless. His fur felt atrocious, but he’d rather die than wipe her off of him, at the moment.

Maria blinked at him, before bursting into a sweet laugh as she cuddled into the crook of his neck.

“You drive me crazy, Shadow the Hedgehog,” she said, but didn’t move from where she lay on top of him. Rather, she stroked her fingers through his white tuft of fur in the exact way that always drove him a little crazy.

Shadow reached to hold the hand on his chest in his own. Once again realizing that his lack of gloves made the simple act far more intimate than it had ever been before. To actually feel her soft skin against the pads of his palm was an entirely knew sensation. Almost more heart-stopping than what they’d just experienced together, in bed.

He felt himself kiss the top of her head, action that felt calming and alarming all at once. One day, he might get over this contradiction, but for now he tells himself she wants this too and relaxes into the bed.

Ivo starts to shout for them.

Maria giggles, pulling away, “I got it –”

“No, I got it,” Shadow says, flipping her onto her back with ease. For all of a second, her eyes become glassy and bright again, and he thinks to himself that he should help her out of her nightgown…for reasons.

But Ivo takes priority.

He kisses her gently. Hoping off the bed and putting on his shoes.

“You know you don’t have to do anything to make up for coming home drunk,” Maria laughed, snuggling into the pillows, “I’m totally over it.”

“Well, maybe I’m not,” Shadow smirks, thinking that if his personal penance is simply volunteering to do things for her and Ivo, it was a price happily paid.

“Well, then I’m making breakfast.”

He watched her laying in the middle of the bed as he pulled his gloves on. She looked decadently serene, and with her nightgown still riding up, he was again compelled to stick around and properly worship her.

But they were parents, now.

“You stay in bed a bit,” he said, leaning over the bed to nuzzle her, “Or take a shower if you want, I’ll take care of Ivo and make breakfast.”

She laughed against his face, “Are you trying to spoil me, Shadow?”

Yes. But she had no idea how far his plans went. He still needed to call Howard to make sure all her party supplies have been ordered.

“You’re too sweet to spoil,” he said instead, pulling away as his powers crackled.

She snorted at that, and sat up to announce across the bedroom wall, “Daddy’s coming little Ivo!”

Shadow was out the door in a second.

Chapter Text

For the next few days, Maria noticed that Shadow was acting strange.

Not the kind of strange she could complain about, honestly, but the kind that gave her pause nonetheless, even when the strangeness resulted in her having her way.

For instance, Shadow kept disappearing when he thought she was distracted.

At first, Maria thought she was being paranoid. That Shadow’s rushing around the house was him just feeling more comfortable with exercising his powers in a way he hadn’t been able to back when they lived in the facility.

But every time, he seemed to come back from wherever he kept sneaking off to, he had a huge smile on his face that resulted in him kissing her square in the mouth, unprompted.

So that was new.

Obviously. She wasn’t dumb enough to bring attention to that. She’d only just gotten him to be cuddly with her. And that was another thing –!

Shadow had been far more open to her snuggling up to him. Holding his hand. Sneaking up to smooch or flirt. In all areas but the bedroom – it felt like things were building up and she wasn’t sure how much longer she could act normal about it before bursting.

Not that she was planning on doing anything.

Maria had learned her lesson well enough. If she pushed, all the goodwill she’d been building up since Shadow agreed to share the bedroom with her might crumble. And right now things were great – emotionally, physically.

It was sexually that things had paused a bit. After the nice morning where she had introduced intercrural activities Shadow had refrained from having her touch him like that again. Something about him need to make her happy first, which he had mumbled one night where the wonderful hypocrite had fingered her to completion.

How to explain to a stubborn hedgehog that the prospect of getting him off was almost as intoxicating to her as getting attention from him.

As it was, she was getting pent up. But the mystery about what was going on with them was almost twice as enticing.

Ivo was apparently in on it.

She hadn’t been sure of it at first. But on occasion Ivo would act uncharacteristically unhinged, which wasn’t becoming of his baby genius disposition. Once, while Maria had been changing his diaper on the nursery floor, Ivo had gotten up and ran away from her. Prompting her to chase him half across the house.

It only occurred to her once Ivo had plopped down on the floor and allowed her snatch him up to wonder why Shadow hadn’t easily plucked him from the ground, mid-chase.

He had suddenly appeared right in front of her, smile on his face as he ruffled the baby’s hair and asked what they wanted for dinner.

So what on earth was going on.

Currently, Maria, Shadow and Ivo were lounging about her Uncle Jean’s basement lab. Going over some notebooks that he had left laying around.

She had suspected that perhaps Shadow was conducting research behind her back, against her bid that they leave everything for when they got settled with Joshua Towers’ legal counsel. But he seemed no more enthralled than he had been before. Maybe a little surprised that she had wanted to go down at all, after their last string of weeks they’d taken a much-deserved break from.

Maria almost regretted it now. What if the lab pulled Shadow from whatever spell of contentment he’d been in the past few days?

“Ivo’s looking a little hungry.”

She blinked, looking up from one of her uncle’s field journals that has spoken about a gem-like crystal that offered unlimited renewable energy. But it didn’t really strike her as too important, ancient civilizations always talked about things like that. It was facts turned to fable, things to contextualize why certain things happened. Like calling the sun a god. Or making a black-robed entity as a visual manifestation of doom.

It was theory. Nothing to worry about.

“Didn’t he eat a fruit salad just an hour ago?” Maria asked, glancing down to where they’d left Ivo contentedly creating DNA models out of baby blocks.

But when she focused on him, Ivo’s eyes widened between her and Shadow. Until suddenly, he was knocking down his hard-work in some manner of temper tantrum. Some manner, because it felt more like bad acting than Ivo legitimately acting on hunger pains. He even made loud approximations of booming noises, which Maria knew for a fact was something he felt was beneath him. If he wanted things to blow up, he was a smart enough baby to make it happen.

“Ivo!”

“Definitely hungry –” Shadow’s voice said over the chaos the baby was making, going as far as stuffing an mRNA sequence into his toothless mouth, “I’m going to go upstairs and wrangle something up for him!”

“Shadow –!”

“Be right back!”

He was gone in a flash.

Well then.

Maria huffed. Hands on her hips as she strode over to the bumbling baby. He was very much in-character, to the point where he’d gotten lost in the theatrics a bit and started arranging his blocks into shapes of food. He’d built up an apple in record time.

“Alright, little mister,” Maria said, sitting across from him on her knees, “I’m onto you!”

Ivo gasped up at her.

“Yes, I am!” she repeated, “I know Shadow’s up to something and that you’re helping him by being a little terror and distracting me with your antics!”

Outraged, Ivo made a show of kicking the apple with his foot. Making it crumble.

“Nice try,” she rolled her eyes, “But you and I know that if you were actually hungry, you’d just hand me or Shadow your bottle and rub your tummy – so the jig is up!”

It was actually very adorable. Ivo made his demands known at the slightest inconvenience, so him going out of his way to act more childish to cover for his hedgehog daddy was about as endearing as Maria could take.

Ivo sighed, flexing his little feet as he accepted the loss.

“I just wanna know if it’s something serious! Should I be worried?”

He pointed at the monitors.

“I already told you, it’s not nice to spy on your loved ones,” Maria remined, prompting Ivo to raise an eyebrow, “But if he’s asking for your help, then I can at least ask a few questions – like, why’s he’s being so charming and cuddly and –”

She gasped. Causing Ivo to look at her in alarm.

“Is he cheating on me?”

Ivo smacked her dead center in the face.

“Ow!”

He began to babble a long series of what appeared to be exasperated reprimands. Which, yes, made Maria realize how ridiculous her suggestion was – but she was drawing a blank.

“Okay – dumb question, I admit it,” she said, rubbing the sore spot above her nose, “But it isn’t important, right?”

Ivo puffed up his cheeks, apparently unsure of how to respond.

“Well…does it have to do with the lab?”

He shook his head.

“With GUN?”

He shook his head.

“…With me?”

“Ba.”

“Oh,” Maria gasped, wondering both if Ivo was trying to talk so soon and what about her warranted such high-stakes misdirection, “Well…I don’t know – is it dangerous?”

Ivo shook his head once more.

Okay. Then that meant it was likely something emotional. But that still didn’t explain why Shadow kept coming and going at odd times. And being affectionate after the fact. But aside from confronting Shadow outright, which might not be the move since he’s been trying so hard to be sneaky, Maria wasn’t sure how much more she needed or even wanted to know.

If Shadow had asked her for time, surely that also meant giving him some space, too.

And though, yes, it barred on the hypocritical side for him to be running about goodness knows where after he’d been so anxious about her leaving the house – she couldn’t deny that Shadow had been much more open to going into the backyard and rooftop than he had before. Having their closest neighbor be a kind, blind old man certainly helped in that respect.

And besides. With Shadow being so accommodating, suddenly, she couldn’t rule out the fact that she might be able to convince him to get further out of his comfort zone.

“Okay –” she nodded, smoothing down her hair, “Okay – cool. That’s fine. I’m fine with this.”

Ivo lifted an eyebrow.

“I am! I don’t wanna know anything else!”

The baby seemed skeptical of her words. But no sooner had she spoken them, Shadow emerged from the upstairs elevator. He looked absolutely elated, and there was no telling what was it he had achieved in his sort trip upstairs.

“I’m back!” he said, smiling, but empty handed.

Maria returned his smile. Noting how easy it would be to point out his blunder and confront him about how obvious he was actually being – but. No.

It was more fun to be part of the scheme, rather than spoil it.

She giggled, instead, “With the baby’s food?”

The look on Shadow’s face was priceless.

Quickly. He teleported back up before the elevator could even finish heading down. Leaving Maria cackling on the ground where Ivo was very expressly fed up with the both of them.

“ – With the baby’s food!” Shadow said, materializing back with a few open jars of infant mulch that didn’t at all warrant the time he’d spent upstairs. At the sight of Maria’s renewed laughter, he frowned, “What’s so funny?”

She shook her head, allowing him to set down Ivo’s hearty meal on the floor where they were waiting.

“Nothing,” Maria said, wrapping her arms around Shadow’s neck and pulling him closer, “You’re a very thoughtful Daddy, Shadow.”

He blushed but allowed her to pull him into a kiss. And even wrapped his own arms across her back as he dipped her slightly. She smiled at his intensity, once again thinking that it wouldn’t be so bad to take advantage of how affectionate he was, upon returning to her.

But that would have to be later.

Ivo threw his food about the very important laboratory stuff.

He wasn’t really hungry.

=

For the next few days, Shadow was determined to get Maria everything she deserved.

Howard Wachowski had taken his list of items needed for Maria’s birthday and informed Shadow when he’d receive them at his house.

“Won’t she notice you coming and going with a boatload of birthday supplies?”

“I can…be really fast in a pinch, she doesn’t even know I’m gone.”

They arrived slowly yet surely, as all the locally owned stores either had the items in stock or had to order them express as a personal favor to their sheriff.

“Sorry…I feel like I’m putting you out, Howard.”

“Oh, what nonsense! I haven’t had this much to do and as much fun doing it in years!”

Now, Shadow was a patient hedgehog. Evidenced by him becoming official with the girl of his dreams by simple merit of waiting his own insecurities out. So, aside from some anxiety about obtaining every single item on his list (waved by the fact that Howard would take his calls at odd hours to inform him of what had arrived and what hadn’t) and some noted distraction Maria would always point out in that teasing way of hers. Shadow felt like he was doing a bang-up job at keeping his mission under wraps.

In fact, he was so proud of himself that it wasn’t until Howard had called him early in the morning while Shadow was preparing Ivo’s morning bottle and Maria was happily singing in the shower that he had thought of anything beyond the planning of Maria’s birthday.

“The last of it just arrived!” Howard spoke in an excited whisper, “When should I expect you?”

“I’m with the baby right now,” Shadow said, playfully holding up the phone to where Ivo was sitting on his high-chair, making Punnett squares with his food, “Say hi, Ivo.”

He babbles something that did not sound friendly.

“Hiya, sport!”

Shadow chuckled.

Ivo had made it clear that he didn’t much care for Shadow’s very meticulous planning. When he had roped the infant in on the plan, asking him to distract Maria on occasion to allow Shadow to slip away for a minute or two (literally) Ivo had looked about as put-upon as a baby could possibly be

But he had been imperative these pasted few days, and seemed to stay the course for Maria’s surprise, if nothing else. And Shadow was grateful for it.

“When Maria comes out, I’ll swing by for the mail,” he said, pulling the phone back, “Thanks again, Howard – I mean it.”

“Oh, quit mentioning it, son! Hey – I even have a little extra gift or two for you to give her when you show up.”

“You didn’t have to –”

“I want to!” he laughs, “It’s nothing, really – you’ll like it too!”

“Alright,” Shadow sighs, “See you soon!”

“Say hello to Maria for me!”

“I will.”

He hung up the phone. The smell of Maria’s shampoo seeped into the room in time for him to turn around and see her toweling her hair.

“You will, what?” she asked, pleasantly walking towards Ivo to give him a kiss on the forehead.

Even with a very long, very sensible bathrobe on, Shadow was still stricken by the sight of her damp hair dripping wet lines down her neck.

They hadn’t really…done. Much of anything since they came to the mutual agreement of sharing a bed. Except for kissing and the occasional heavy petting without either of their – personal areas getting direct stimulation in favor of cuddling.

It was beginning to be quite the ordeal. With Maria taking a daily morning showers while Shadow…willed himself away. And he suspected that Maria has been holding back precisely because she wanted him to make the first move – a thing he’s been deliberately holding back on.

He wanted –

Well, he wanted…their first time to be…special.

And he was determined to accomplish said task by way of making sure her birthday went off without a hitch.

“Uh –” Shadow blinks, erring on the truth, “Howard says hi.”

“Aw! How sweet,” Maria says, lifting Ivo in her arms, “Wish I could’ve talked to him a minute – it’s not every day that a neighbor returns my hedgehog to me safe and sound. I ought to thank him.”

“He – was in a big of a rush,” Shadow says, handing her Ivo’s bottle.

She took it, heading back towards the table where breakfast was waiting for them, “Did he want anything specific?”

“Just checking in.”

“Making sure you haven’t developed a drinking habit?”

“Very funny,” Shadow said, mouth forming a thin line.

He watched her cradle Ivo as she gave him his bottle. The infant could more than do it by himself, by now, but he also seemed to prefer being in her arms. Something unspoken between them as they let themselves indulge. If Shadow let himself wonder about it at all, it usually ended in him suspecting that Ivo hadn’t known the comforting touch a maternal hug for very long. And for Maria’s part – well, she’d always been physically affectionate.

It had been one of the earliest indicators Shadow had of his feelings being more than platonic. Laying his head on her lap as she carded her fingers through his quills. I want to stay like this with her, he had thought, and within the second of doing so, he realized immediately that he hadn’t been being literal.

Shadow had wanted to sink into her skin and stay there. Always.

He wanted to feel her, constantly.

“I’m going to get the mail real quick,” Shadow said, awkwardly bringing attention to how he’d been standing there, staring.

“I can go after feeding Ivo,” Maria offered.

“No, it’s okay, you’re still –” for a second, he was reminded that she was still just wearing a bathrobe, legs crossed in such a way that he could see most of her thigh, “…wet.”

Maria gave him one of her sinfully coquettish smiled, “Well, whose fault is that?”

Ivo tugged at his bottle.

“Oops, not in front of the baby…” she whispered, uncrossing her legs.

Thank goodness for small mercies.

“Real quick,” Shadow reiterated, already headed for the door, “I’ll be back in a second!”

She giggled, “Don’t come back drunk!”

Shadow rolled his eyes, but smiled.

Chapter Text

Howard Wachowski was a simple man.

He had buried his own precious wife some odd years ago. Saw their son off to college and then settled into the bustling big city. Some fancy police academy had swept him up in the past few months and it had felt as if he’d never see his boy again. Off protecting and serving in the busy streets of San Francisco.

It was only after Howard had lost his eyesight. That fateful night he had sworn he saw a meteor crash-land into earth. That his son had even bothered to call him at all.

Now, he doesn’t blame Patrick at all. He had a life to live the same way Howard had struck out on his own when he’d been conscripted to the war when he had been a young man. That’s where he’d met his own wife, after all. The most beautiful nurse in his camp.

But in his lonely years he’d grown accustomed to this independence. And feared that Patrick meant to pack him up and send him away. He had hoped, for a while, that the young Robotnik family would offer him a connection that warranted him staying in Greenhills no matter what Patrick said. But they had left town almost as soon as they had arrived, leaving Howard to fear that he had no other option but to put up his sheriff’s hat and admit defeat.

But the Robotnik’s had returned just a scant year later.

And Howard had purpose again.