Shadow cried himself to sleep, and it made Knuckles regret bringing up Maria in the first place. The hedgehog seemed so sad just as the mention of her name...

Knuckles held the hedgehog close, not daring to let him go. He felt utterly stupid for making Shadow cry.

The echidna sighed sadly as he laid back, the hedgehog still in his arms. Shadow just stayed in his peaceful state, but one could still see the tear streaks on his cheeks. Knuckles frowned and held Shadow closer.

"Hey Knuckles!? You here!?" A voice shouted, making Knuckles jump. Sonic walked in, along with Tails, as Knuckles gently rocked the now waking hedgehog back to sleep. Shadow slowly calmed down and snuggled into Knuckles' chest, fast asleep.

Knuckles looked at his two friends and whispered. "Please be quiet. I don't want to wake him."

Sonic just rolled his eyes, but Tails smiled and nodded, whispering, "Sorry..."

Knuckles nodded and whispered, "It's fine. What are you two doing here?"

"We wanted to see if you were still coming to the camping trip tomorrow." Sonic said, not caring for how loud his voice is.

Knuckles sent a small glare towards Sonic before looking at Shadow and nodding. "I should be able to go. I'll see you two then..."

They both nodded and left. Shadow snuggled closer to the echidna, causing him to smile. He held the hedgehog closer and laid down, eventually falling asleep.

________Knuxadow_______

Shadow's eyes opened slowly, and he looked around before meeting Knuckles' tired eyes.

"Hey there, sleepyhead." Knuckles smiled before he sneezed. Then, that sneeze lead into a coughing fit.

Shadow's eyes widened slightly before he rubbed Knuckles' back. The echidna stopped and looked at Shadow.

Shadow gently laid his hand against the echidna's forehead. "You're burning up..."

"I'll be fine."

"You obviously aren't."

Knuckles just smiled gently and cupped his hand to Shadow's cheek. "It's just a small cold..."

"Hey Knuckles!" A voice came from the entrance of the cave. Sonic. "You ready for our camping trip!?"

Sonic and Tails walked in to see Knuckles and Shadow on the couch, Knuckles looking considerably paler than usual. Shadow's ears went back from the sudden guests.

"I'm, uh, kinda sick..." Knuckles said before coughing again. He looked at Shadow and an idea came up in his head. "But Shadow could go with you!"

"What!?" Both Shadow and Sonic shouted.

"Yeah!" Knuckles smiled weakly. "This could give you two time to bond!" He then started coughing again.

Shadow started to rub his back comfortingly, but his mind was frozen. "A-Are you sure you wouldn't rather me stay with you...?"

The echidna smiled softly. "I'll be fine. Sticks can take care of me."

"You can't be serious, Knuckles." Sonic just stood there, sort of dumbfounded. He couldn't believe the turn of events that have happened. "I mean, if Shadow and I went on a camping trip, one of us wouldn't make it out alive."

"Tails will be there to stop that from happening, right Tails?" The young fox was caught a bit off guard by the echidna's statement, but nodded. Knuckles smiled and continued, "This will be a great chance for you two to really get to know each other."

"I know that he's bad. That's good enough for me." Sonic crossed his arms stubbornly.

"And I know he's annoying; nothing else really exists when it comes to him." Shadow did the same as Sonic.

Knuckles chuckled lightly at their arguments before coughing again. "I think you two will have more in common than you think. Besides, I'd like to have my best friend and my boyfriend hang out. Please?"

Shadow sighed. 'The things I do for wanting to destroy my enemies...' "Fine."

"What!?" Now Sonic looked at his rival with disbelief. "You've got to be kidding me..."

Shadow just shrugged. "I'm doing this for Knuckles..."

Sonic glanced at Knuckles, who had a happy smile. He gave an exasperated sigh before saying, "Fine... Shadow can come..."

_________Knuxadow________

"I can't believe I agreed to this..." Sonic mumbled as he, Tails, and Shadow made their way through the woods.

'You aren't the only one...' Shadow thought as he walked behind the two, searching the area with vigilant eyes just in case a threat popped up.

Tails was in an uncomfortable position, being with the two, who literally would fight over a penny on the ground, on a camping trip. The thoughts of what could happen made him more eager to go home than anything. Sonic and Shadow were two powerful hedgehogs that the young fox would never be able to stop. He suddenly regretted promising Knuckles that he'd keep them from fighting...

The three made their way to a small clearance in the forest, the sun shining down brightly on it. Sonic and Tails unpacked their camping gear as Shadow looked around. There wasn't much to see, but he could hear a river approximately a half of a mile away. He noticed a birds nest in a nearby tree and climbed it, sitting upon the branch that held the nest. A red bird sat in the nest, seemingly alone, but Shadow could notice the three eggs snuggled in there.

Sonic looked at the other hedgehog in curiosity. What was Shadow doing? He watched as Shadow held up a finger to the bird. The bird looked at it with curiosity before jumping on the the finger. Shadow brought his finger with the bird on it close to his face, gently petting it with his other finger. Sonic stared in shock, never having seen this side to Shadow. Shadow seemed to have just befriended that bird in a few seconds! Was Knuckles actually right about Shadow...?

No, Sonic dismissively looked away. He knew Shadow way longer than Knuckles, and Shadow was always that same old, mean hedgehog. There could be no good in him. But as Sonic looked back at his red striped enemy, he wondered how bad Shadow really was. He never did anything life threatening to the world; he just simply didn't like Sonic.

Was he really wrong about his thoughts on Shadow?

_____________Knuxadow_________

The stars shown bright, helping the moon illuminate the world in the endless sea of black. A small fire was blazing in the middle of the three. Tails and Sonic were sitting on their sleeping bags, eating s'mores while Shadow sat on the ground, staring into the flames with an expressionless emotion. The three sat in a slightly uncomfortable silence, the crackling of the fire and crickets the only noise.

Tails shifted uncomfortably. He normally enjoyed the silence, but this was too much. He tried to start up a friendly conversation. "Don't you want any s'mores, Shadow?"

The hedgehog in question seemed to freeze in place before grunting a no. Tails' namesakes twisted in a knot as the silence started up again. What was he going to do?"

"Well, uh, I'm going to sleep, so you two don't fight..." He quickly stated before getting in his sleeping bag and closing his eyes. The only problem was that he wasn't actually tired. He pretended to sleep anyway, hoping the two would put the fire out and get some rest their selves.

Sadly, that did not happen. Actually, the silence got even more uncomfortable. Shadow's eyes never left the flames in front of him, and Sonic just kept staring down. Eventually, Tails actually did fall asleep, causing Shadow's ears to flick as he heard Tails' quiet snores.

Sonic seemed to notice too because he finally looked at Shadow. "We need to talk."

"I'm not breaking Knuckles' heart just so you could balance your brain out."

"Not about that! About... Ourselves..."

Shadow now regarded the hedgehog with curiosity. "What do you mean by that?"

"I hardly know anything about you Shadow... Maybe Knuckles was right... Maybe we should get to know each other..."

"There's nothing you need to know about me."

"Obviously there is! You act so different around him, and that means your jerkiness is really just some kind of cover up."

"It's none of your business."

"Shadow, I'm trying this for Knuckles! Shouldn't you try that too!?"

A silence filled the air as Shadow looked at Sonic with burning eyes full of hurt. Finally, he mumbled, "You wouldn't understand what I've been through..."

"Try me."

Shadow sighed. "I was created long ago by a scientist named Gerald Robotnic. He is actually Dr. Eggman's grandfather, as much as I hate to acknowledge it. I was named by Gerald's granddaughter, and she quickly became my best friend... I trained for years to protect both her and the professor, but I failed... I saw her get killed in front of my eyes..." Shadow had to stop there, not wanting to cry in front of his enemy.

Sonic was a bit shocked to say the least. He didn't expect Shadow to say his deepest secret first. He could see tears gathering up in Shadow's red eyes. It was such a strange sight that he had to look away. Then, he carefully took off the sports tape on his left arm, showing it to Shadow.

It was hard to see, but in the light of the fire, Shadow could see lines running down his arm. "Are those...?"

"Cutting scars? Yeah... I use to be bullied for my speed... Didn't really know any better back then... I thought the same as everyone else: that I was a freak... It's, uh, kind of thanks to Eggman that I'm not dead right now..."

Silence filled the air, but it was much more comfortable. Sonic wrapped his arm back up.

"Thank you for showing me..." Shadow said, looking down. "It must've been hard for you..."

"Not as hard as it must've been for you. I couldn't imagine what I would do if I saw my friends die." Sonic replied. "Heh, I guess we both have a past we want to forget..."

Shadow simply nodded as Sonic went on. "You know, you aren't as bad as I thought you were..."

"Same for you..."

Sonic smiled. "Well, I'll see you in the morning... Oh, and Shadow?"

"Hm?"

"Be good to Knuckles, okay?"

"Of course."

Sonic went to sleep soon after that, but Shadow stayed up for a bit. He realized that he had just found out Sonic's weakness, but...

Is it really worth it?