A/N: I can't concentrate on my work anymore ;w; So I'm writing again. This time, let's go through the mind of the Shadzter~ It's incredibly rare to have a fic of Sonic, Amy and Shadow without there being a love triangle. Why hasn't this cliched sonamyshad trend died off yet? It's so annoying. No offence. The next time I see another sonic-cheating/yelling-at-amy-and-amy-goes-to-shadow-like-a-crybaby story, I'm gonna kill a bitch.

Ages - (Takes place directly after Sonic Adventure 2)

Sonic - 15 Years

Amy - 12 Years

Shadow - Physically 15 Years

Tails - 8 Years

Knuckles - 16 Years

Rouge - 18 Years

Disclaimer - WHY WON'T YOU LET ME OWN SONIC? SEGA WHY?

~(x)~

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It was absolutely bizarre, the world around him.

Having spent almost all his life since his creation, observing the rich cobalt planet, a million miles away from its atmosphere was nothing compared to what he's experiencing in the alluring world itself.

Outside, in the starry vortex, Earth seemed so big, so mysterious, making the Ultimate Life Form and his blonde companion herself seem very insignificant to it. Being in the depth of mother nature herself was another story to tell. An extraterrestrial euphoria yet tainted with bitter-sweetness from the loss of his best friend. Space Colony ARK has always been his home, their home.

What should have been admiration and astonishment as soon as he set foot upon this fated planet was blinded by a frenzy of violence and a thirst for a sea of red.

It only took one soul to flip the trigger and bring him out of his state of animosity. A young girl with a personality just as sweet as her name.

Amy Rose.

Before him, the petite girl was mingling with the pearl furred bat, a subtle friendship growing between them despite their differences earlier on. As he closely observed, he noticed how they both gained satisfaction from teasing the red echidna lounging on the alter on the floating island they were currently residing on.

His gaze then drifted near the pool, where the two tailed kitsune seemed to be conversing with his big brother, as well as playing with odd little chao creatures.

Sonic The Hedgehog.

The blue hedgehog was like the other half to the pink hedgehog. Whilst Amy used her way of words to break him out of his maniacal delusions, Sonic used his actions. He can't lie, that blue brat does have one nasty swing. Nevertheless, he owes his life to them both. Without them, Shadow would have mercilessly let the ARK crash onto Earth and the devastating collision would have wiped out the whole of humankind. Heck, Sonic himself miraculously found his body in a comatose state after crashing down on Earth from the battle against Final Hazard on ARK and helped him revive.

Coming back to reality, Shadow glanced back at the scene, only to see that the speedster wasn't there. Odd.

"Yo Shadz!" A harsh slap was given against Shadow's back and instinctively, a scowl took place on the hedgehog's muzzle. His burning ruby irises pierced his nonchalant blue twin with a venomous glare whilst Sonic's cool emerald eyes twinkled with youth.

"Firstly, don't call me Shadz," Shadow began, wiping away any of Sonic's 'germs'. "...and next time," WHACK! "Don't touch me!" Shadow admonished after delivering a slap upside Sonic's head with double the force. The blue one merely chuckled out with a wheeze and held his hands up as if he was surrendering.

"Okay, okay! Hahah! Sorry about that Shady." Insert Shadow grumbling. "I was just wondering if you wanted a race? Tails is busy with the Chao and Knux and Ames is preoccupied with Rouge. I'm kinda bored here."
"So I'm your last resort? Hmmph. I refuse."

"Wha? He-eyyyy. Shado-oooow! Race me!" Sonic whined out, irking the Ultimate Life Form immensely. For a hero, this boy certainly is immature and cocky. Though;

"What you see is what you get. Just a hedgehog that loves adventure; I'm Sonic! Sonic The Hedgehog~"

As Shadow recalled, heroism is only a natural thing that came along with Sonic's traits due to his heart of gold. It was something that he did out of his free will, not out of an order. Meanwhile, Sonic was oblivious to Shadow's thoughts, constantly babbling about how no one was giving him any attention. Truly a child. It made more sense to why he would do so much for the world; he's naive. Or so Shadow thought.

"Sonic! Hehe! So-ooonic!" Amy's girly voice chimed through the air, grasping both hedgehogs' attention. The bluer of the two let out an awkward teardrop till her body collided into his with her infamous bear-hug. One that often leaves the the opposing person quite breathless, literally. Watching Sonic's muzzle change into a red hue was quite oddly amusing for the ebony hedgehog whilst Amy carried on nuzzling her blue beau.

"Amy-yyyy! Get a grip man- sheesh! Gimme a break!" Heeding to his words, Amy pulled away slightly with a mischievous smile, opposing Sonic's tired looking pout. Shadow quirked an eyebrow at their unusual behaviour. Shouldn't a boy like Sonic be just as smitten as the girl before him? Why does he seem like the wiser one now? Most importantly, Sonic is the fastest thing alive, he could have avoided her in a split second. So why didn't he?

"I saw you bothering poor Shadow, so I thought I'd give you a taste of your own medicine." Amy snickered, rubbing her nose against his and then resting her head on his chest. Sonic simply sighed and shook his head, his arms on her shoulders. The immortal hedgehog peered into Sonic's eyes, marvelling at how they softened for a brief moment. So perhaps, Sonic has his mature moments?
"I wasn't bothering him, I was trying to get him to have some fun." Sonic's voice carried traces of exasperation, directed at his rival's lack of socialisation.

"Ooh! Don't worry Shadow, at least the rest of us know that your way of socialising with us is by being in our presence," She quickly narrowed her eyes at Sonic. "Unlike SOME people." The rest of pink and blue's banter went on deaf ears as Shadow once again wallowed in awe at the budding rose.

The last person to say something like that was none other than his...his Maria.

On ARK, after being 'born', his life was nothing but getting prodded and experimented on by masses of scientists, day in, day out. Maria was his source of fresh air; she would do her best to chase the scientists away when they'd intrude on their privacy and quiet conversations. Some more humourous than others.

"If he didn't care, he wouldn't even be in your presence good sir. Now please, do not pressure him into mingling with others. I highly recommend fascinating Earth stories to get his attention, but please do not treat him like an animal. He's my best friend!"

Albeit the way the sentence was phrased differed compared to Amy's; it still screamed Maria to him. Luckily, unlike most of his memories, when it came to Amy, they would come to his mind smoothly, like a gentle caress of a mother's touch on her newborn child's cheek.

Blinking back to the present, Shadow witnessed a smug Amy skipping towards Tails, leaving behind a grumbling Sonic. The boy himself was vigorously rubbing his lips with the back of his hand, glaring at the girl while she stuck her tongue out at him. His face completely red until he realised how he neglected Shadow's presence.

"You-did-not-see-a-thing!" Sonic spat out with gritted teeth, his quills marginally riled up, evident in how they were beginning to stick out of their usual majestic shape. A light pink residue remained on Sonic's lips. 'These two are a lot more comically complicated than I thought...' Shadow mused to himself.

"What is this girl to you?" The older of the duo blurted out, earning a dumb "Huh?" from the blue blur himself. "Did I stutter?" Shadow kept on a genuinely curious expression, at the same time, Sonic's confused face morphed into slight displeasure. Why is everyone always curious about what happens between him and Amy?

"She's just one of my best friends, that's all." The defence that Sonic held in his tone was not something that Shadow expected. "Even though she thinks she can get away with a few kisses and all that nasty stuff..." Sonic subconsciously rubbed his lips again with a glower on the ground, leaving Shadow trying to decipher the mind of his speedy comrade. The more he tried to understand him, the more puzzles he came across. It was as if Sonic was an onion and he carried along numerous layers. To get to the core, you had to peel away those layers with a force and judging by Sonic's expression, only very few can see him at his rawest form.

This in return leaves him dishevelled because Sonic keeps a strong barrier, an image, something that he'd hate to get tainted. An ego to balance out his perfect heart.

"Why do you care anyways?" Sonic crossed his arms, his eyes now arching in interest, losing his fit from earlier on. He knew that the hedgehog before him was one full of questions, but questions like these?

"I don't know..." Shadow answered honestly, both their eyes back on Amy as she played with Tails and the group of chao. "She's very peculiar- I haven't seen her in action."

Going through the battles which seemed like eons ago, Shadow carried on. "You keep the foxboy around because of his brains and the echidna because of his strength. How does the girl benefit your team?"

"You make it sound like I'm using them," Sonic gave a deadpanned look at Shadow. "All three of them are my closest friends. We've been through a lot. They chose to fight by my side. It's mere luck that their strengths are beneficial to our victories."

"And what of Amy Rose?"

"She has a huge ass hammer that whooped everyone's butt enough to last us a lifetime." Shadow gave an incredulous look, as if to say '...Her? HER?'. Sonic nodded and continued. "The angrier she gets, the bigger the hammer gets. Heck, these days Knuckles and I can't lift the hammer anymore let alone use it." Shadow just couldn't fathom what he was hearing. Such a spunky yet bubbly young girl with a deadly weapon? Whoa.

"That's not all though," Sonic chuckled at Shadow's expression, enjoying his 'What the hell!?' moment.
"Please don't tell me she carries around a machine gun..."
"Hahah! You should be a comedian!"
"I'm serious."
"The world would be doomed if that were to be the case. Anyways, as I was saying, Amy is like the glue in the team. She keeps us together, nurses us, likes to spar once in a while. She's the heart of the team. She's got the biggest heart of us all."

"A big heart, huh?" Shadow muttered out loud.
"Yep~" Sonic rubbed a finger under his nose, as if he was proud of her.

"Even sparing the enemy?" The air suddenly seemed cold between the two. Any earlier laughs or smiles were now lost as Sonic slowly turned his head to Shadow with a look of bewilderment.
"Wha-What?"

"You mean you don't know?"
"Well- uh, I mean she did stop me from destroying Gamma during the Perfect Chaos incident...but you weren't there...what exactly are you talking about?"

"Sonic, she's the one who talked me out from destroying Earth and got me to help you fight the Biolizard." Sonic's disorientation was wiped off clean and was replaced with apprehension. "Knowing fully well of what I was capable of and I could have ended her life without mercy, she stood her ground."

Sonic's fist shook with the endless possible scenarios that could have played out had Amy made one mistake. Painfully, he looked at the ignorant girl again before marvelling at a simple fact. She's maturing.

"Why didn't she tell me...? All this time, I thought you somehow got your head on straight. But now that I think about it, it makes sense..." Sonic hushed out, his voice slightly above a whisper, like a child's. Shadow knitted his brows and identified more emotions swimming through his eyes. He cared for Amy Rose, deeply. Just as he did, for Maria.

It was then that Shadow realised what he was insinuating. If Amy made the wrong move, said one wrong word, Shadow would have mercilessly ripped her away from Sonic, just like how Maria was ripped away from him. Turns out, he wasn't any better than the soldier that shot the innocent girl. Why is a monster like him given a second chance?

"So, basically, she reminded you of Maria? That's how she got to you?" Surprisingly, Sonic wasn't anywhere near mad. His voice took on a sympathetic soft tone, curbed lightly at her name in respect. He received a curt nod from Shadow and they both went back to observing the group.

A loud silence fell upon them, both hedgehogs now heavy with thoughts.

"Even...even if Amy didn't remind you of her, she would've somehow got your head straight," Sonic smirked.
"How so?"
"For starters, she's pretty fast. And have you forgotten about the hammer? Lethal damage bro." The trust Sonic had in Amy astonished Shadow once more. Those years he's been with her certainly didn't go to waste. Internally, Shadow crossed off 'naive' on his list of the qualities of Sonic The Hedgehog and replaced it with 'confidence' and 'loyalty'. The souls of pink and blue were in an unbreakable sync. Closing his eyes, picturing them both, he could see a bit of himself in Sonic and a bit of Maria in Amy, like they are a reincarnation of some sort.

"We aren't any different, but we just aren't the same..."

Sonic cocked his head at the wiser boy, wondering at who that sentence was targeted at.

"I suppose, I worry that her heart may be her undoing one day." Shadow uttered clearly. The scenario before them changed with Knuckles being chased by a hoard of chao and Tails, Amy and Rouge laughing at his misery.

"Well, luckily for you, I'm keeping an eye on her. I'm her hero after all~" Sonic pulled a cheesy gesture by pointing both thumbs at himself and adding a cheeky wink which in return caused Shadow to roll his eyes.
"Oh yes, her personal own hero whom she may kiss whenever she likes."
"Huh!? Why you-" Before Sonic could pounce on the smug looking hedgehog, he was halted by another question.

"Why didn't you kill me?" The air turned tense again for less than a minute, urging Shadow to continue. "At our first few encounters, you were fuelled with rage and resentment towards me. By the time we got to ARK, you turned everything into a game. Why?"

Sonic let out a smile and put his hands behind his head. The sun shone behind him, giving the cyan teen a surreal appearance.

"Well, I actually was more than happy to get you six feet under at first," He stubbed the tip of his shoe against the ground repetitively and then looked back up at his companion. "But after I found out more about you, who you were, what your story was, I realised you were nothing more than an angry lost baby grandpa." Visibly cringing at his petty insults, Shadow lowered his eyelids.

"So it was sympathy that softened you up?"

"No...nowhere near, I mean sure what you went through was tragic and all, but that's not what got me to stop raging." Sonic admitted. Their eyes interlocked once more.
"So what was it?" Sonic broke the lock and let his eyes rest on Amy's figure.

"I pictured her in Maria's position." Sonic let his eyes fall on the floor, finding his shoes more interesting. "I realised, I probably would have done the same thing in your place."

"So it was...empathy?" Sonic's silence was all that Shadow needed as it was a loud and clear answer enough for him. The similarities between them both grew.

"Eggman pulled a gun at her head," Sonic licked his dry lips, mentally shuddering at the image. "For the first time ever, I imagined his blood on my hands." Shadow's expression was unchanging as the layers of Sonic The Hedgehog began to tear. For the first time, he was seeing the core of the young boy he really is.

"If you say a word about this Shadow, these shoes-" Sonic wiggled his foot in front "Will be shoved down your throat." As quickly as the moment came, it was crushed at sonic speed. Shadow didn't know whether to grimace or to be relieved at the fact that Sonic stopped opening up.

Silence embraced them both once more and their eyes occupied the group before them.

"Blue hedgehog," Shadow broke the silence, his eyes closed for a while before opening them with a smirk. "You never cease to surprise me." A mutual look was shared between them.

Tossing a chao fruit in his hand and spinning it on his finger, Sonic returned the iconic smirk with full force.

"What can I say? I-"

"Don't finish that sentence."

"But-"

"No."

"Eugh you're no fun!"

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~(x)~

A/N: ...I have no life Okay but seriously, this came out of nowhere. I just wanted an interaction with these three awesome hedgehogs (and Silver but he don't come till 06 ;w without any love/sexual tension. I'm just cringing at the way I portrayed everyone in my hotter fics but I guess since I made them all older, it makes more sense. Writing in character is hard! Anyways, goodnight! Please read, review and favourite!