It wasn't that he didn't remember how they got in this ridicules situation; it was the fact that he did remember the absurd series of misfortunate events that led them into this problem that bothered him.

How in the seven Chaos emeralds did he end up in this situation?

Not only was he practically buried alive, in the belly of the earth, in the dark, dingy depths of a collapsed coalmine, the smell of rust, dirt and dust tickled his nose, scratching at the back of his throat, but to make it worse, he had the massive, thick furred arm of a giant beast wrapped around him, protective, keeping him separated from the cold, harsh non existent ground below. He was sore and achy, his head hurt, and it was hard to breathe from the way his protector clutched him.

The smell of blood was becoming rank over his shoulder, as he very well knew it wasn't his. The warmth that once dribbled from the back of his neck and trickled down his spine was a clear sign the one mounted atop of him was the one bleeding. The sensation of those giant and sharply nailed fingers clasped tight around his much smaller waist was frustrating, and the sheer silence along with the utter darkness only aggravated him more.

A small cough escaped his throat, blinking every few seconds, hoping for some sort of light to show a glimmer of hope through the dark, to break the blinding nothingness before his eyes. The heat of their bodies pressed together made his own heart pick up a few beats, before he had managed to settle himself into his prior stoic state. It was not the time to panic, not that he was one to allowed himself to, but they've been in this situation for a long time and his body may have settled still, his companion seemed to tremble just a bit every now and then, weakened more and more by the massive weight atop the both of them as time passed them by.

"Knucklehead… had better get here soon," a raspy voice grumbled right above his ears. The figure propped atop of him trembled again, and debris could be heard and smelled as it sent dust and pebbles echoing noises around them. "I don't think I can keep the ceiling propped for long; my back is starting to hurt." The voice continued, waning with exhaustion as the firm grip around his waist began to ease, just a bit.

"Keep yourself together, faker." His companion replied, "If you'd just let go of me, I'd be able to blast us out."

The other trapped person gave a weak laugh, "Shadow, honestly, you're the only thing keeping me propped up. If I let go, either the ceiling will fall on our heads, or the beam below would snap." He explained, "Not that you weight all that much, I'm heavier than you in this body, but your weight is still enough to throw us off balance if you move away." He continued, a hint of concern in his voice, "And believe me, last thing I want right now is to fall into a bottomless pit, especially not on top of you. I sure don't want your spikes jabbed into me."

Shadow heaved, and gave a small cough as some dust slipped into his throat. More debris crumbled from the ceiling and the body above him shook, a small noise of pain was clearly heard.

"Faker, you cant hold the both of us any longer." He argued, his free hand faintly touched around the floor, or what he could reach of it anyway, but he was much too far away and feeling around the sheer darkness to actually find anything. "Just loosen your grip, let me handle this."

"No." came the short reply, a strained groan followed as more debris and dirt crumbled.

Shadow felt his skin twitch like that on the back of a cat, when a large chunk of what he assumed to be the ceiling swooshed right past his head. He blinked at the darkness, his body tense and his senses on high alert. He grit his teeth in frustration. But then the werehog right above him moved again, pulling him closer and off the floor where he had his feet pinned into a metal beam, keeping the larger hedgehog steady.

By doing so, the werehog leaned over him more, forcing the smaller hedgehog to be enveloped under the massive coat of thick fur even more.

Shadow wouldn't have minded so much, if only his backside wasn't wedged between the larger male's legs so tight. His own tail didn't have much space to move, to the point that it ended up wedged between his own cheeks. To make matters worse, he could practically feel the others well concealed privates pressed against his bottom. He felt his face grow uncomfortably warm at the mere thought, and struggled with his toes to keep firm on the floor.

He was strong enough to keep the larger male standing, as Sonic seemed to lean more and more onto him for support to keep himself standing. And yet, Sonic kept pulling him closer and closer, and the feel of that hand against his lower stomach was making him extremely uncomfortable. It also made his mind wonder to unwanted places.

It was times like this he wondered why the damn hell he even liked the blue hedgehog so much.

His ears flattened on the back of his head, his eyes were half closed, though blinking made no difference seeing how damn dark it was in there current predicament. "We were merely asked to scour the mine, get the damn kids to safety, and get out." The dark hedgehog said, irate and silently fuming with rage, "Couldn't you keep your damn yap shut for a change? You and your damn howls were the reason the whole damn ceiling fell in the first place." He muttered.

"Well yeesh, sorry I was having such a good time, mister personality." Sonic replied in a not-so-hurt tone of voice. His thumb brushed over Shadow's stomach, which ultimately made the smaller male tense and stiffen, his fur bristled and his spine arched. Shadow nearly pulled his feet off the beam in a natural reaction to curl and protect himself, but he quickly caught himself from doing that when only one knee managed to buckle slightly under him, before he shoved it back onto the support below them.

Feeling the slight loss in balance, the werehogs voice was tense but no less friendly, "If I knew we were gonna end up like this, I would have brought a flashlight." He continued, a hint of laughter in his voice. "Having something warm to cuddle with isn't so bad though, seeing how cold and damp it is down here." He somewhat purred, his thumb continued to stroke the dark hedgehog.

Shadow felt a burn in his throat that spread from his face to his chest, as he spitefully snarled to himself, grateful for the blinding darkness. He swore, if his face blushed any brighter, it'd be the only source of light in this damn cavern. "I swear to whatever deity you worship, blue hedgehog! When we get out of here, I am going to skin you alive, strangle you with your own intestines, and then use them to hang you by your damn tongue while hammered with jagged, rusty nails!" he hissed, spikes bristled, they slightly scratched against the werehog's chest.

Sonic chuckled, but Shadow couldn't tell if it were amused or bemused, for the largest male didn't reply to that at first.

"Did you hear something?" the raspy voice of the werehog said in a hushed tone, suddenly alert.

Shadow reached with his mind, perking his senses to listen out to any foreign noise. He heard cluttered noises, then what sounded like rocks hitting something metallic. Voices followed as he sensed something familiar approaching. With relief, Shadow caught himself smiling. Finally, help has arrived and will… find him and the damned blue hedgehog in the most embarrassingly awkward pose to ever be imagined.

He wondered if dropping himself into the pit below was more merciful to his pride.

"Oh sweet Maria, I hear Rouge's voice." the dark hedgehog muttered, identifying the voice, "I am never going to live this down…"

"Aw relax, Shadow." His companion said cheerfully, "It could have been worse. We could have actually ended up caught doing it." He said as he gave a low suggestive growl.

Shadow fell silent as his head suddenly felt as if it had burst into flames. He grit his teeth so tight, he could have sworn he felt them grind with sparks against one another like flint stones. He wanted to jab the werehog so badly with his elbow, hopefully enough to burst through the ribcage and stab that heart repeatedly with bitter vengeance, but the last thing he wanted was to end up splattered down a bottomless pit with the idiot on top of him.

To suffer such a ludicrous death just felt so humiliatingly degrading.

"Oh Maria, have mercy on me," he said through grit teeth. "Blue hedgehog, I'm Warning you!" he growled, a bit too loudly than intended.

They both tensed at the ceiling and floor both shook, the loud and almost thundering sound of large amounts of debris and stone falling from a short distance beyond them was enough to keep them both alert. There was silence as noises came from beyond, muffled as they were blocked by large amounts of dirt and stone.

Shadow felt his heart settle down, and yet he could feel Sonic's heartbeats beat against his own spine. He was so pressed against the hedgehog's chest, he wondered how the larger male held him so awkwardly, and yet kept the ceiling atop of them leveled. It had been so dark, he could barely picture how that was like.

Inwardly, he jumped as he felt something brush against the inner side of his thighs. Again his fur bristled and his body tensed. He jerked his head a bit, as if expecting to see what it was, only to be welcomed with a nervous chuckle.

"Eh, sorry about that, it's just my tail." Sonic spoke, "Didn't mean to scare you." He said a bit too casually.

Shadow managed to hold back a seething hiss of anger, so as he wriggled a bit, feet pressed against the floor again, he tensed as Sonic's hand against his chest twitched. He turned his head again to try and figure out what it was that made the larger male twitch, when he felt something sticky drip on the back of his shoulder, and then something warm dripped on the back of his neck. His heckles stood, and a cold sensation hit his stomach.

Just how badly injured was he? He knew Sonic got a nasty hit on the head before the ceiling fell, but he hadn't really had a good look at it before everything went dark. "How bad is your bleeding?" the smaller male asked, a mildly concerned tone evident despite himself, "And don't try to cover it up, faker. I can feel your blood dripping on me." He said briskly, perhaps more demandingly than intended.

"Erm, it's just a forehead scratch. It doesn't hurt, it just bleeds a bit." The werehog replied. "And the bleeding already stopped." Sonic audibly muttered, sounding a bit weary.

Just then, more rumbling came as light peeked from the far side of the cavern. Shadow squint for a minute, eyes adjusting to the bright glow that beamed at them, almost blinding them from where it shot out of the many tiny holes in the debris littered wall. Digging could be heard as Rouge's voice came louder, followed by who Sonic recognized as Tails and Knuckles.

The first to tear down the wall was Rouge, who entered with a powerful flashlight in her grasp and a smile of relief graced her features, before her face blanked, eyes wide, she blinked, took a double take, and then quirked a highly amused brow.

Shadow figured he should have taken his chances with the pit.

Shadow felt himself shrink in shame of his current position. "One. Word." He began in a threatening tone, swallowing his embarrassment, his free hand now mercilessly clutching the werehog's hand over his stomach.

Rouge grinned, and casually placed her hands on both Knuckles and Tailes' bugged out expressions, when they stood gaping on either sides of her. "We have no witnesses." She stated, not a question. Simultaneously, Knuckles and Tails nodded, before she slowly withdrew her hands.

Shadow looked away as the bat approached, his face much too flushed to meet her eye to eye.

"Damn, Sonic, that's quite a predicament you got yourself into." She softly commented.

Sonic tried to shrug, but it was hard when he was using one hand, and the upper side of his back and shoulders to keep a gigantic part of the ceiling from crushing them into the floor. His feet with his spiked boots half dug into the dirt floor beneath them, a crossed metal beam was the only thing supporting all the weight he was carrying.

The bleeding was from a horizontal cut across the forehead and over one eye, it bled a bit and clearly forced the werehog to keep that eye shut to prevent the blood from going into it. Of course the blood was a bit dry, thus Sonic couldn't quite open that eyelid anyway, as the dried substance had clearly crusted over the eyelashes and sealed it shut. Nothing a bit of water could scrub of, so it was nothing to worry about.

Shadow, on the other hand, had his feet set to one side as his back was bent, in a peculiarly suggestive angle, and pressed against the werehog's massive body. One arm was caught in the larger male's grip, as the other was free and clutched to the clawed hand. Shadow's feet were like a third leg that propped the two of them on the metal beams that crossed under them, their low and slow creaking showed that they handled their weight just fine, but the dirt the crossed beams rested on was starting to crumble.

It didn't help that they were at least four feet diameter away from solid ground with a seemingly bottomless pit below. The pit seemed like a water well, but Rouge wasn't too sure what a water well would be doing in the middle of a godforsaken coalmine.

Rouge peeked into the hole, but couldn't see anything. A small rock broke from the edge to roll its way down. A moment passed, and Rouge didn't hear it hit bottom. That was not a good sign. But then her bat senses hit and she detected the faintest of faint noise, and it sounded like something hitting the body of water. How deep, the water was, however, she wasn't sure.

"So, what are the odds we'd get out of this one?" Sonic finally spoke.

"As good as the odds of Shadow not murdering you once you're home free." Rouge chimed.

Shadow snorted, but said nothing, to which Sonic gave a weak, discomforted smile.

Knuckles, during Rouge's assessment to the situation, had latched onto the walls to scale the ceiling and determine how bad the damage was. On his way down, he grumbled and made his way to the awkwardly trapped hedgehogs. "Well, there is another support beam keeping the large ceiling attached to the piece you're holding, Sonic, but I don't suggest letting go, or else it'll cause a domino reaction and pull the rest of the beams from their base right on your head." He explained briefly, "If I had known any better, I would have brought the Master Emerald with me and Shadow could have just Chaos Controlled us all out of here. The beam won't last more than a few seconds before the whole place should fall apart." He concluded.

"Well, lucky for me, I thought of that." The bat said happily, and reached into the crack of her breasts to produce a green emerald.

The echidna's jaw dropped, before his expression morphed into something torn between irritation and amusement. "You are just so full of surprises, aren't you, Bat girl." He somewhat barked, causing the ceiling to rumble and rain a bit of debris over them.

When everyone shot him a scolding look, he put a hand on his head and apologetically smiled.

Rouge then carefully stepped onto the beam, making sure it actually supported her weight, before she walked over to the trapped hedgehogs, smoothing a large smile at how flushed the dark hedgehog looked. The soft tint of red coloring Shadow's otherwise orange tan skin made him look absurdly adorable, to her point of view, and his sheepish looks didn't make it easier for her to hide her smile, either.

"Here you go, handsome. Think you can work with this?" she offered him the jewel.

Shadow accepted the gem with his free hand, then he perked his ears, a confused look on his face, he glanced at the bat with a puzzled expression. He whispered in a hushed tone that only Sonic and Rouge could hear, being the closest, "But… Rouge, this isn't the Master Emerald."

Rouge grinned and shushed him, "Don't be a spoil sport." Then winked.

Where Sonic sniggered, Shadow rolled his eyes. Unaware, Tails and Knuckles eyed each other confusedly before the fox finally spoke.

"I think we need to be close together in order for Chaos control to include us, correct?" he began, carefully slinking closer to the beam, he didn't want to risk flying in fear the propelling of his tails might cause more debris to drop. "Think you can teleport all of us in the same time, Shadow?"

"Yes, just come close and be quite." The dark hedgehog muttered.

Rouge dug her hand into the werehog's arm, seeing how they were both occupied, and how Shadow didn't have any free hands to spare, and then reached for the fox, who timidly accepted it, before reaching a hand to the echidna who gripped back, yet did not dare step onto the beam. It may have seemed solid, he still didn't want to risk anything.

"Once we get out of here, I expect to get that back." Knuckled grumbled while he stared at the back of the bat's head.

Rouge merely smiled, not bothering to look back.

Sonic heaved a weak laugh, "Okay Ultimate Lightshow, show us what you got and get us out of here, cause my arms are killing me."

Shadow snorted at the larger male, "Once we're out of here, I'll show you what it's really like to be killed." Which only elected a cheeky grin from the larger blue male.

With that, Shadow gradually ignored everything to focus on the Chaos Emerald in his grasp. It took a moment for the dull glow to shimmer in the heart of the gem, before it brightened in green and yellow pulsating energy. A moment passed before the dark hedgehog flashed his eyes wide and summoned the energy of chaos. In a blink of an eye, he called out for the powers of chaos control, and the group vanished in a blink of an eye.

Merely seconds passed as the support under the collapsed ceiling vanished, before the mine and cavern soon pummeled into the earth at frightening speed.

Whatever happened after that, however, remains a mystery.

End