Rivalry of the Heart
-----
Pairing(s): Sonic x Chris, Shadow x Chris
Summary: What if it wasn't Sonic who fell in Chris' pool, but instead... Shadow? And what if Chris had a sepcial connection with the Chaos Emeralds? Eggman isn't going to like this...Or is he..?
-----
Chapter 1;
A Shadow In The Pool
-----------------
Chris silently watched as the sky grew dark, the stars barely seen thanks to the light of the town nearby. It was a Friday night, and all his friends were home, enjoying their families before bed...
'Man, I feel lonely,' Chris sighed, laying his head on his crossed arms, which were comfortably resting on the window's ceil. Staring up at the night sky, stars twinkling weakly, he wished, 'If only something interesting would happen once in a while...'
"Young Master! Its time for bed!" Mr. Tanaka called from just outside the boy's room.
"All right!" Chris called back, removing himself from the window; though a bit reluctantly. A light flash pulled him back, however, but staring at the sky, nothing seemed to had changed. "Odd," he whispered aloud, "I could of sworn..."
"Young Master!" Tanaka called again.
"I'm coming!" Chris turned his attention to the sky once more, before heading to his family's butler's side. 'It was probably just my imagenation...'
--
The blinding light the Chaos Emeralds had caused was starting to fade away from the flustered hedgehogs' vision. They had been in the middle of a fight over the Emeralds Eggman had collected, but now... Where were they!
Blinking friendly emerald colored eyes, the blue hedgehog tried to force the light out of his vision faster, but it didn't seem to work. It was only after voices from other than the two and horns honking did everything clear up. And to his surpise, they were surrounded by beings almost like Eggman; only nowhere near as ugly and egg-shaped.
The black furred hedgehog glared daggers at the said people; uncomfortable under their gapping gazes. Unable to take it any longer, he shot a look towards the other before making a dash for it.
"Shadow, wait!" the other shouted, causing people to gasp in shock.
"I-it can talk!" a female voice stuttered out.
"That's too big to be a hedgehog!" a male's gruff voice shouted this time.
"Who cares what it is? Get out of the road!" another male roared, enraged.
'Whatever these people are, aren't as friendly as they look,' Sonic, the blue hedgehog, thought. But before anything else could be said, he dashed after the other, who had a couple miles ahead of him.
But he caught up easily, as usual.
"HEY!" Sonic yelled, shooting Shadow a glare, "Where do you think you're going! We still haven't finished our match!"
"..." Shadow shot the other a peircing, crimson glare, but smirked as he offered, "Why not a race, then? Will that get you off my tail?"
"As long as I win!" Sonic smirked himself, but it was less cruel and more cocky than Shadow's own.
And with that, the two sped off, quicker than the speed of light and leaving a black and blue trail in their wake.
--
Chris was finally tucked into bed, in the mist of a dream about humanoid animals that played, laughed, and enjoyed themselves with otehrs around them; Even when a fox would usually hunt and eat the rabbit, instead of picking flowers with it... But it was a dream, so nothing really made sense.
Suddenly, something dark over shadowed the cheerful meddow the creatures frollicked. Something huge, and held a powerful aura. A powerfully evil aura!
Chris looked up at the sky, suddenly apart of the dream world instead of just watching. The dark figure, which now blocked most of the sun, stretched out a huge clawed hand; Made of pure darkness. It was slowly moving to Chris' frozen form. Its hand was even BIGGER than Chris himself!
'Its just like one of those Godzilla movies...!' Chris thought to himself, which was the only thing he was able to do from fear, 'But whatever this...thing...is, isn't on the good side!'
Just then, the hand closed from above and around Chris, darkness capturing him; Literally! But that didn't last long, as light started shining through, causing the monster to recoil with a cry of pain. And where did the light come from? Why, Chris' chest plait; Where his heart was suppose to be.
Gasping, Chris tentatively moved a hand to touch the said light and was overcome with a relaxingly warm feeling. Like there was another pressense inside of him, almost like a mother's touch, but you were the one taking care of the child...
'This...is odd...' Chris thought slowly, sapphire orbs drooping lazily, 'But...very...nice...'
--
"What wrong? Running out of steam?" Shadow smirked, turning a glance over his shoulder at Sonic.
"I'm going to make you eat those words, Sha--Whoa!" Sonic yelped, skidding to an adrupt stop.
Shadow, on the other hand, ignored Sonic completely and continued to run... Over the unfinished bridge! 'What a looser,' the black furred hedgehog mocked, 'Sonic is even scared of heights as he is of water? How patheticly sad.'
"Shadow, wait!" Sonic cried, but the other was too far off now to hear his cry. With a shrug, he mumbled, "What the heck?" before turning on his heels and running back the way the two came. Skidding to another halt at the beginning of the brigde, the blue hedgehog took a deep breath, before dashing as fast as he could to the edge of the bright before shooting off into the air, just as Shadow had done not so long ago.
"I'm not beat yet, Shadow!"
--
All the beautiful mixture of lights were starting to get to Shadow. This world...was too different from his own. And yet...something about it was calling to him, as if he belonged here. Or, belonged somewhere on this planet; be it in one certain area or at the side of one of these humans...
'But no one will EVER replace Maria,' Shadow scolded, scowling at the town bellow him, 'No. One.'
Suddenly, Shadow's deep train of thought was broken when gravity made its pressense; Pulling Shadow down from his earlier harmless air gliding. And before the dark hedgehog knew it, he landed with a loud;
-SPLASH!-
...in a freakin' pool!
--
The calming warmth was ripped away by the familiar sound of splashing water when one, usually Danny, would do a cannon ball in his family's swimming pool. 'But...who'd be crazy enough to swim so late at night?'
Blinking back sleep and rubbing his eyes cutely with the back of his hand, Chris slowly risen from the comfort of his bed and stumbled slightly over to his trustful window. Looking through the cool-feeling-glass-against-his-forehead, he was greeted with the bright glow of the family pool. And a strong rippling of water, which proved something fell into it.
'Oh no!' Chris snapped awake, eyes wide, 'What if its the silly squirrel again? He almost died last time for jumping around on the diving board!'
Spinning on his heels, Chris rushed out of his room and down the stairs, all the while trying to be as quiet as he can. Didn't want to wake Mr. Tanaka or Ella. But in no time, he reached the twin glass doors that would lead to the backyard, and more importantly, the pool!
Pulling the door open with the lightest of trouble, how he was more awake than his body, Chris jogged over to the pool's edge and scanned the body of water. Searching for anything out of place. Anything.
'There!' Chris thought as he spotted something black and sluggish movement; Whether it was thanks to the water or the fact that who ever it is was, maybe, most likely, running out of air. Chris prayed it was just the former before jumping in, diving deep to the bottom of the pool to reach the black form.
Swimming the rest of the way down, Chris was met with something glowing a peircing crimson color, but shrugged it off. He instead snatched what he guessed was the arm to the animal, how his skin felt fur; wet fure, but that couldn't be helped.
His grip tightened only lightly when he felt the other struggle from his touch, and soon after began to swim towards the surface once more. 'Man, this guy is pretty heavey...' Chris thought as he swam.
--
'I can't believe this!' Shadow thought darkly, glaring at the blurry hand that he knew held his wrist, 'Some stupid kid is helping me! I bet Sonic put him up to it...'
In no time, Shadow was pulled out of the water completely, hacking a bit from accidently swallowing the pool's water. He felt the hand on his wrist being moved to his back, running up and down it soothingly, almost lulling Shadow to a peaceful state before remembering just who he was and knocking the warm hand away.
"Don't touch me!" he grunted, his throat hurting a bit from his coughing fit.
"Y-you can talk?" a voice full of curious innocense was his reply, almost shocking the hedgehog.
Turning crimson eyes to meet gentle sapphire blue, even though he tried not to, Shadow's breath was taken away by the mear sight of this boy. His chidlish face, gentle expression, and the kind aura that seemed to be shooting at the hedgehog unmercefully reminded him so badly, so greatly, of his first friend and crush, Maria.
'But, that's impossible...' Shadow thought, eyes wide, 'No one can compare to my Maria! No one...' Locking eyes again, he couldn't shake off the resemblence the two had on each other. 'Now if only his hair was longer and blonde...' Shaking the thought off with a blush, Shadow glared.
--
Chris couldn't believe it. The helpless animal he saved wasn't so helpless looking now. And he could talk, too! The glare he was now reseaving reminded him greatly of a spoiled cat, like the one his mother tried to give him, but she "accidently" ran away.
Blinking a bit, he timidly tilted his head to the side, asking as gently as you could, "Are you all right?"
The expression on the hedgehog's face didn't change, but a flicker did seem to flash as soon as he had spoken.
Gulping a bit, Chris tried again, "If-if you need a place to rest, you can stay here. If you want, of course..."
A grunt came from the creature, turning his stern eyes away from Chris, a hint of a blush on his yellow-ish cheeks. "My condition is none of your concern," his deep voice grumbled out, "As for your offer.. I might steal something of yours or kill you in your sleep, so why offer such a thing to a complete stranger?"
"I guess...I just wanted to help," Chris answered shyly, a bit taken aback by the dark furred animal's words, "You can't not trust everyone you meet, you know..."
Those crimson eyes shot back at his soft blue, looking as if searching for something in them. Slowly as if time itself was slowing down, the hedgehog was leaning in closer to Chris, their breathes gently mixing with the others. Just as a blush burned his cheeks, realizing just what was about to happen, a loud crash of something falling through a tree, branches cracking and leaves violently fluttering, before it ended with a dull thud on the ground just behind him.
'What in the--?' Chris thought, shocked, and turned his head to see just what had caused the awful noise.
--
Sonic couldn't feel his toes. Or legs. Or his arms, body, tail, spikes, ears...namely, he couldn't feel a thing but a dull ache. Even though the pool's water was his enemy, Sonic silently wished it was that he had fallen into instead of the tree.
"Oh my, are you okay?" a worried, but gentle voice asked almost amediately after his rough fall. He could almost feel the arm touch of fingers, most likely belonging to the speaker, but they stopped from desending to his battered from when a familiar voice spoke up.
"Leave it," he spoke in an ordering tone, "Before you get infected with his nasty deceases...I wouldn't want to stay in your house with that all over you."
"Y-you mean..?" a hopeful tone came into that wonderful voice.
"Sure," Shadow replied with a shrug, "I have nowhere else to go."
"That's great!" Man, that happiness was even making Shadow look giddy, "But we have to be quiet. I don't want anyone upset so early at night."
"Fine."
"W-wait..." Sonic's voice cut in, arm shakily out stretched as he snatched a bundle of fabric; Wet fabric.
"Ah! Are you okay? Where does it hurt?" the worried tone returned again, with a moan of displeasure from Shadow that his plan to leave the blue hedgehog out there to die had failed.
"Everywhere..." he grunted out, forcing one green eye open to get a look at the boy.
His remaining breath was tooken from him at the sight of wet, pale skin, floppy, yet soft orange colored hair, and gentle sapphire orbs that spoke of every hidden emotion; Which, at the moment, was filled with worry, gilt, and a tentative look of wanting to help in any way he could.
'Damn...' was the only thing Sonic could put into words at the sight before him.
A soft smile curved up the boy's face as he gently spoke, "Lets get you inside. I'm sure you'll feel better in the morning..."
--
It took a bit of begging, but Chris finally won over Shadow and was now helping both hedgehogs find a comfortable place to rest for the night; In his bedroom!
The blue hedgehog seemed to want to sleep on his window ceil, but Chris was able to pressuade him to rest in a much softer spot, what with his wounds and all. As for the black furred one... He seemed a bit reluctant to leave Chris' side but even more reluctant to let his guard down anywhere near the other humanoid animal.
In the end, though, Chris was now cuddled inbetween both, on his own bed. With a pleased sigh, he let his eyes flutter closed, enjoying the warmth both animals gave him that his blankets could not. It was only just as sleep was about to claim him did one of the hedgehogs speak.
"Almost forgot..." it was the blue one, with his cocky, deep voice, "The names Sonic, Sonic the Hedgehog."
Smiling softly, Chris replied, "My name is Christopher Thorndyke...But you can just call me Chris."
"All right...Chris," Sonic cuddled even closer to the said boy's side, being lulled into a deep sleep by his warmth.
Just as Chris was about to do the same, a deeper voice cut in with one simple word; "Shadow."
"Huh?" Chris slurred, blinking his eyes tiredly at the other hedgehog in question.
"My name," he spoke again, muffled a bit by Chris' pajamas, "Its Shadow."
"Oh..." with a relaxed sigh, Chris let out a tired, "Okay, then... Good night, Shadow..."
"...'Night," Shadow replied softly, blinking up at Chris' face as he drifted back to sleep. Crimson eyes flashed in the dark room, before he, too, became too comfortable to remain awake.
-----
-tsuzuku-