*Sonic's POV *
"It's probably Rouge, can you open it?" Shadow asked as he remained calm around me. I nodded and walked to the door then opened it. My ears perked up and noticing it was not Rouge who was there.

"Mr. Sonic?"

"Cream?" I asked shocked. "What are you doing here?" I let her in.

"I came to see Mr. Shadow." She walked in taking me by surprise when she suddenly ran up to Shadow and hugged him. His ear twitched and picked her up, not making eye contact with me, I could tell he was embarrassed. 

"I..." I chuckled softly.  "I didn't know you two were close." I went to sit down again but I kept looking at them. Shadow was explaining to Cream what he was making.

*Shadow's POV *
"You're killing me." I said lowly to Cream and she giggled.

"I didn't know someone was here, did you want me to leave?"

"No. I'll walk you home after you eat. It's getting late." I sighed and put her back down then continued cooking, asking for Creams help every once in a while so she felt needed.

"Did you walk here by yourself?" I looked up to see Faker standing at the entry of my kitchen.

"My mom walked me close by, she needed to run some errands and I like spending time with Mr.Shadow." Creams response made Faker smile and look back up at me but I tried to not look at him.

"That's sweet." He looked back at Cream and she nodded. I passed the plates to Cream and Faker and we sat down to eat.

I had made chicken parmesan for all of us. It felt strange and uncomfortable being around Faker but I tried to ignore the feeling and tried to act casual. He wasn't being as annoying as he usually was, he was respecting my space and wasn't bombarding me with questions. Which also got me curious. Why wasn't he?

"Will you help me collect some flowers on the way home?" Cream asked me as I cut the chicken for her not wanting for her to use the knife.

"Sure." I simply answered.

"Didn't know you had a soft spot for kids, Shad." He started eating, clearly enjoying the food. "It's so good. Thank you."

I nodded and kept eating. After that he insisted on washing dishes as I stayed at the table with Cream. She was humming a song and I softly smiled. She was the only one who I could be soft with.

"You should do that more often." My ears perked up then I cleared my throat as I realized he saw me smile.

"Shut up."

"Are those your only words?" He laughed then looked at Cream. "We should take you home now."

"Okay!" She cheerfully stood up and walked to the door.

We walked her home and made sure she went in before we left. As we continued walking we realized it was beginning to turn dark and as we reached his house we noticed that Rouge was waiting there.

"I can go home on my own, Bat." I rolled my eyes as we reached the door.

"I just wanted to see if I need to post your picture or not." Rouge laughed and looked at Faker. "How was he?"

I felt like I was being babysat by the way she was talking.

"He was surprisingly nice to me. Didn't even raise his voice." He answered her and invited us in.

"Well, progress. Maybe this should be done more often." She answered and he shrugged.

"As long as he's not trying to kill me." He handed us some water then we all sat down in the living room.

"So why were you actually pushing Shadow to be with me?" He asked making Rouge look at him confused. "Come on, Rouge, I'm not dumb."

"What do you mean?" Rouge asked acting dumb.

"I'm not telling you two anything about him or his family." He crossed his arms. "Shadow, it was nice spending time with you, learned more about you but I think we should call it a night. I'm leaving tomorrow." He sighed.

*Sonic's POV *
I wanted to believe Shadow was truly trying to stop hating me, even if it was just by being blackmailed. It was a nice and fun day being around Shadow, I tried to keep some distance knowing he still barely tolerated me but I knew this had something to do about the night before.

"Blue, I don't-" Rouge said but I cut her off.

"I don't know what you two are planning but I do know the royal family has its secrets and has higher power over GUN. I don't trust you." I confessed. "Not when it comes to this at least."

I hated talking this way to her, she was a close friend after all but I couldn't risk it. GUN also hated my family for always going against them.

"I decided to leave as early as tomorrow. I'm picking up some stuff from Tails house then I have to go. I hope you understand. This isn't something I can act careless about."

"Who are you?" This question took me off guard. Shadow leaned forwards, resting his arms on his knees as he looked at me. "The Hedgehog we know wouldn't talk like this. Wouldn't kick Rouge out of his home. He would have asked me thousands of questions today."

"So you're confirming that you used today to learn about something?" I asked, avoiding his questions. "Listen, I really shouldn't have even let you guys that I knew him. He is very private and very careful with who knows. I can't let GUN find out."

"We heard you last night." Rouge blurted out when I stood up wanting for them to leave. I froze.

"What?"

"We heard you talking to the fox. Well, fighting with the fox." Shadow stood up, he crossed his arms as he watched me.

My ear twitched nonstop as I was getting angry but I tried to remain calm. I took a deep breathe knowing it was not the time to get mad then walked to my room and they followed me. Rouge asking questions nonstop about my family and what I was doing and what happened last night. I tried so hard to remain calm but it was getting harder and harder.

I grabbed my backpack that I usually took to the castle then started walking away but noticed Shadow was blocking the door. "Shadow, please." I said sounding annoyed. "This is not something that concerns you."

"Let me help~ I'll make it easier for you~" Dark said in my head making me lowly growl.

"We just want to talk to you, Hun. You can trust us."

"If I could trust you then you wouldn't be stopping me from leaving." I scoffed.

"Fine." Shadow simply said and stepped out of the way letting me walk through.

"I'm sorry Hun. We really didn't mean it in a bad way. It's just, last night you were acting odd and we overheard your conversation. You would understand if you were to be on our shoes."

"I'm someone who's trying to protect the royal family from literally everyone in the world. Do you think that's easy to do?" I answered then dashed off making sure they weren't following me to the castle.