The ebony hedgehog's ear twitched, and a low growl escaped his throat, just as it had every 10 minutes since 2 A.M. As it was now 9 in the morning, Shadow was a very tired hedgehog. The source of his exhaustion lay cuddled harmlessly against his chest, snoring softly. When she had walked in three hours earlier, Rouge had had the nerve to call the little blue devil cute.

A ruby eye twitched, she might well think that but then she hadn't been the one who had been woken up by a fog horn of a baby in the small hours of the morning. And what was worse was that the mini Faker's reason for summoning his ebony furred rival was so that he could have a life size Shadow the Hedgehog cuddle toy. Any attempt the Ultimate Lifeform made to return the sleeping terror to his crib had resulted in a car alarm's worth of shrieks from the little brat.

"I was created as the perfect weapon," Shadow growled down at his unwitting captor, the small peach hands still tugging on the older hedgehog's fully white chest, "not the plaything of a child!"

Even as he spoke Shadow tried to repress memories of tea parties with a small blonde haired girl. Maria was far less annoying than his shrunken rival. Footsteps echoed in the hall. Shadow froze his teeth bared in defence, baby hedgehog clutched close to his chest.

Tails peered carefully around the door, "Has Amy come back yet?"

"No." The hedgehog shook his head and slid along the sofa to allow the young fox to sit next to him.

"Are all girls crazy when it comes to guys?" Shadow nearly choked at the fox's question, flinching from the blue eyes that gazed up at him, brimming with curiosity.

"Not in the way Amy acts." Hesitantly, Shadow turned back to Tails, "Everyone is capable of doing strange things for the sake of affection… Sometimes I think if Sonic just paid Amy more attention she wouldn't act as wildly as she does."

For a moment, Tails stared thoughtfully into space, "I wonder if that's why Knuckles and Rouge fight so much."

"Tails?" Somehow the ebony hedgehog managed to keep himself from laughing.

Innocently, Sonic's sidekick glanced up, "What is it, Shadow?"

"If you continue to say things like that in Rouge's house or around Knuckles you may find that Amy is a civilised girl who can be easily reasoned with." Shadow's eyes held a grim look.

Flopping back against the cushions, Tails let his namesakes twist wildly, "Living organisms are complicated."

Staring down with a look of disgust at the baby drooling on his fur, Shadow spoke again, "That's why my best friend is a robot."

Suddenly a loud pounding sent the already dented door trembling, "Open up Batgirl! Amy says you have something important in there and there's no way I'm letting you have a Chaos Emerald."

From somewhere in the apartment's kitchen, Rouge screeched, "Oh great, that idiot echidna got tricked again!"

Wordlessly, Shadow passed Sonic to his adopted brother and shooed Tails towards the back room as he went to deal with the inevitable fallout. Just before the fox left however, his blue eyes caught Shadow's gaze.

"Do you think maybe Metal Sonic might want a sidekick?"

Well after my laptop deleted the original file for this story I decided to cut my losses and start on other projects. Astonishingly however this story is still getting some interest four years since I last posted anything! So since I've never really liked that this is the only unfinished story in my list, I've decided to start again and try and get this finished. Don't worry since I now have the next two chapters typed out and ready there won't be another four year wait for a new chapter.