A sort of epilogue

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"Scoot over."

Sonic just smirked at the demand and scrambled away to the side, saving just a little, tiny part of the blanket for Shadow. Who brought his own blanket and didn't need Sonic's anyway. Sonic then put away the comic Tails had brought for him, and carefully turned to lie on his side so that he could put his arms around Shadow.

"So how's the world doing?" Sonic then asked jokingly.

"We're suffering a great deal without our hero and saviour among us," stated Shadow in a sarcastically pompous voice. "But GUN has started to clean up Main Street."

"And Tails?"

"Isn't he usually in his lab?"

"Maybe," Sonic said, grinning. "And Knuckles?"

"I reckon Rouge took him away to go and snog somewhere," said Shadow dryly, and Sonic snickered. They both fell into a gentle silence after that, Sonic sobering up a bit and nuzzling slightly into Shadow's neck. The black hedgehog looked a bit awkward for a while, as if he wasn't sure how you did things like this, or just afraid to harm Sonic's lungs…

…but then, as the cruelness of reality seemed to fade a bit, he put his arm around Sonic and closed his eyes, the blue hedgehog finding this so adorable that he almost didn't notice as Shadow stole his pillow.

-He yanked at it, and eventually they both managed to fit their heads on the pillow, though they had to lie face to face. Did Sonic mind? Hell no. Shadow had gorgeous eyes when he wasn't glaring at you, and anyway… warm and soft. That's how it felt to lie here, at peace at last…

(The press hadn't suspected Sonic yet)

"…Shadow?"

A sleepy 'yes', was the mumbled reply the Ultimate lifeform offered him.

"…Can we still go on that date?"

Shadow opened one eye, giving Sonic an exasperated look. "If you suggest Soleanna, then I swear-"

"I was actually thinking of Adabat," interjected Sonic. First Shadow stared. And then he started smiling in that way which was 100% happiness but looked weird as shit, and then Sonic started to grin like an idiot because it was so contagious, and then Shadow started snickering, and-

They lost it.

Not even feeling pain in his chest anymore, as if in some weird, euphoric fantasy world or whatever, Sonic just laughed and laughed, and Shadow was laughing, and oh Chaos why the heck was this so funny – his stomach was starting to ache but hahahah hahahahah-

What was he even laughing at? What was so funny?

-He couldn't take it anymore. Sonic tried to stop, gasping for air, and sweet Chaos – Shadow stopped laughing too because else Sonic would probably have started again and oh no

…And even more laughter bubbled out of him, and like, he was pretty sure he was clinging to Shadow like a love-sick koala but who cares? It was just him and Shadow here, and he wanted to frigging celebrate having won this – this fight, war, kinda thing, and jeez-

It took five minutes for Sonic to stop completely, and by then he was so out of breath that he just lay there limply, occasional hiccups or fits of giggling erupting from him. Shadow gave him another exasperated look, but when Sonic winked at him, then he just buried his head in the pillow, ears going red like his streaks.

So Sonic considered all of this a success (as always) despite the painful clenching in his chest when he tried to breathe more deeply…

"…Faker?"

Shadow turned to glance at him, looking both annoyed and sleepy. Like Sonic had woken him up, but eh- "Yeah?" he mumbled.

"The date?"

Shadow looked confused for about three seconds, but then recognition lit up in his eyes and he said softly, "Sure. Pick you up on Monday?"

"Yeah." Sonic smiled. "Monday's perfect."

THE END

THANK YOU READERS FOR EVERYTHING! Congratulations if you read this far, thank you all so much for all reviews/favs/follows, and have a good day/night! –love from the author.