Author's Note:

Any of the characters associated with this fanfiction belong to Sega.

Rated T for some sparse swearing, but nothing else.

Shadream friendship fic only.

It was dark.

It was dank.

And it was pouring.

Rain splashed against his Hover Shoes as he trudged through the glossy dark puddles that littered the sidewalk. The paved walkway would have glistened under the bright sunlight normally present during the day, but seeing as it was night, the only thing illuminating them were faint streetlights.

On most days, Shadow wouldn't have minded the rain. The sky would turn a peaceful gray, and the saturated clouds proved that everyone would stay inside, far away from him. And on especially stormy days, lightning and thunder wouldn't bother him either. What good was it for the Ultimate Life Form to be afraid of a mild natural disaster?

But today, the storm was unbelievably bothersome. Annoying, even.

Mainly because the downpour began in the middle of his well-deserved, quiet walk—or run, for that matter. Oh, it wouldn't have been so bad, had he been a mere mile away from his house. Two miles, even. Running back in a split second would have been no problem.

Even now, he could have easily run home, and he was what? Forty, fifty, sixty miles away? Oh, don't blame him. He liked living alone. There was no one around to bother him in isolation, and Shadow had long since realized that his thoughts were always the best company.

That being said, no matter how fast he could run home, he simply couldn't, not in this weather. Mainly due to one itty-bitty predicament with his pride—his joy. He was sure that the apocalypse was nigh based on the amount of bad luck that had been poured out on him because of this just one incident.

Simply put, his Hover Shoes were waterlogged.

Shadow had never been so frustrated with himself in his whole life.

Speeding around in rocket-powered shoes in the pouring rain had not been a good idea. After a few minutes of sliding around in wet turf, the increased traction caused a friction that even the Ultimate Life Form's shoes couldn't handle, and the rocketed shoes had quickly sputtered out without so much as a fanfare.

Sure, he could've ran all the way home; it would have been as easy as kicking a certain 'faker's' butt all the way to the other side of the universe. But running at lightning fast speeds became significantly harder when you had bulky useless boots hanging off your feet that proved no benefit to you when you were running unless they powered on, an endless sheet of rain obscuring your vision from any direction, and quills so waterlogged that you felt like a heavy lump of black and red fur.

Yeah, Shadow didn't handle too well in the rain. Especially in an unidentified territory.

All he knew was that he was in some dippy town that the 'faker' and his little band of 'friends' called home. That alone was enough to make him want to leave. He couldn't go inside one of the disgustingly cute-looking shops and dry off either, because all he'd receive would be grumblings for tracking a floodgates-of-heaven amount of water into the store.

What was worse was that there were enough people milling the streets, and if he had to endure one more suspicious look from another one of these 'lower life forms', he was going to barf all those children's bones he'd had for breakfast.

Just kidding, it was actually Nice Crunchies cereal. Some weirdo had left them on his doorstep, and even though he had been skeptical, Shadow had dared to give them a try. To his surprise, the popped rice cereal was actually quite good. It would've tasted a whole lot better had the cereal box not had a bright sun on it and rainbow smiling flowers advertising BURST CRINKLE POP, but he wasn't about to complain. Okay, yes he was, but let's skip over that, shall we?

To put it in more simpler terms, Shadow was miserable. And irritable. Mostly irritable, though. That's why anyone who dared stare at him would only go so far to cast an annoyedly-confused look. Ask him any questions as to why he was such a state—or any questions, period—and they'd find themselves as a squashed pancake version of their previous selves.

So that's why Shadow found it odd as he stood by a streetside corner in his usual brooding position- one would normally call it sulking, but this is Shadow we're talking about, and he likes to pretend that he doesn't have feelings and just broods coolly all the time—when he felt the telltale pitter patter of rain on his quills pause and a dark shadow cover him like a fog.

Oh great, thought Shadow. Some punk wants to mess with me. No big deal, even if I resemble a waterlogged chipmunk, I can still take them. They don't want to mess with the Ultimate Life Form.

He revved up for an easy winning battle. Instead, when he looked up, all he saw was a pale yellow umbrella embroidered with sickening images of cute-looking baby ducklings in white.

"What the—?" Shadow managed to sputter, dropping all battle-ready poses, opting for a boredly-confused look instead, as he gazed downwards at the holder of the umbrella.

A small pale orange rabbit, covered in darker markings with a small blue Chao floating a few inches above her shoulder, peered up from underneath it.

Shadow racked his Ultimate Mind for a name to give to her; he swore he'd seen her before. It was Cream—right? And the little blue menace was Cheese, he'd assumed, from all the stupid stories the 'faker' had droned on about.

She blinked innocently and asked, "You're Mister Shadow, right?"

Not in the mood to entertain a young bunny, Shadow ducked out from underneath the umbrella and back into the harshly wet rain. He pleasantly muttered his signature, "Humph." He saw no reason for a 'thank you'.

Unabashed, she followed him, holding the umbrella as high as she could reach, which was hardly an inch above his head—she was quite a short little bunny, after all.

"You look like you could use a place to stay and dry off," she observed, her large brown eyes furrowing worriedly. Her Chao nodded enthusiastically and yipped something incomprehensible.

"Yeah, well, so could all those other people," Shadow retorted, gesturing his head towards the dozens of people crowding the streets. Once again, he sidestepped out of the safety of her umbrella and into the rain. He wasn't going to accept help from a 7 year-old rabbit.

Cream looked at him confusedly. "But, Mister Shadow, all those other people have umbrellas." She looked at him again with copious amounts of unnecessary worry in her eyes. "And you don't."

"Wha—?" Shadow blinked as he turned to look into the crowd.

Sure enough, there was not a single person out today in this weather without an umbrella. Perhaps those confused looks people had shot him earlier weren't what the hell are you doing here? type confused looks, but maybe they were oh, you poor Ultimate Life Form, you must be soaked looks. Shadow felt his stomach clench. He didn't know which one was worse.

"So?" he protested. Normally, he would've probably roughed the guy up a bit, for absolutely no reason besides the fact that it gave him a morbid sense of pleasure. But, Shadow was far above harassing children. "What are you going to do about it?"

Cream grinned and Cheese clapped excitedly. Shadow suddenly wished he'd kept his mouth shut.

"Well," she mused, her eyes glittering. Her eyes. Why was he so drawn to those innocent brown eyes? They were an ordinary brown, but the exuded such virtue, that of the child that she was, and he found them mildly intriguing. "Cheese and I could take you home! I'm sure Mama would love to have you over!"

Shadow blinked, trying not to show disgust, and any thought of those childish brown eyes went straight out the window. Yes, maybe he had been a little harsh to her before, but she didn't have to torture him like this! How was he supposed to answer that?! More importantly, why in the wide wide world would he, the Ultimate Life Form, want to dilly-dally in the house of one of the 'faker's' friends?

"Uhm," he stammered for a moment, before chiding himself for sounding so defenseless. He put on a grouchy face and turned to face the busy street. "Humph. Go away."

Cream's expression suddenly turned chastised and disappointed, and Cheese looked at him in pity, shaking his head. "Oh—okay." She turned away with a small, "Goodbye, Mister Shadow."

Shadow felt a bubble of something—was that guilt?—form in his chest as the young rabbit walked in the opposite direction, taking her dry umbrella with her. He grumbled when the downpour of rain resumed by the gallons on his head. Maybe he could've been a little less harsh.

Oh well, he thought, as he watched Cream take slow, deliberate steps away from him with Cheese floating dejectedly behind her. Too late to change anything now.

He turned to walk away, squinting as the rain nearly blinded him. Within that moment, the storm swelled, as did the rain and the winds, and Shadow knew what that meant as he braced for the worse. The rumble of thunder resounded through the area, and a telltale surge of lightning claimed its next victim. This time, it happened to be one of the trees planted in a tree pit cut out into the sidewalk.

By some sheer stroke of ridiculous Shadow-patented luck, Cream had continued her rejected-looking walk and happened to stroll right underneath the tree that had been struck by lightning. The trunk teetered at an unsteady rate, and before he knew it, was toppling down, right where Cream was walking.

The stupid little rabbit was too caught up in her own worries, and even though her little Chao friend was trying to get her attention, pointing to the tree frantically, Cream didn't seem too interested. As a last resort, Cheese tried to push Cream out of the way, but even as light as she was, the rabbit was far too heavy for Cheese. It was when the tree was just a few millimeters from hitting her that Cream finally looked up. She gave a little scream and stood frozen in fear.

Shadow sighed, and even though his watery shoes were heavy and made him go much slower than he would have liked (his slower for us is actually quite fast), ran towards the bunny. He was the Ultimate Life Form, after all, not a monster.

He scooped her up, ignoring her startled squeak, and ran to the street corner, all while trying not to be nicked in the eye by one of her umbrella spokes. It was hard enough to see already.

Cheese followed him, scolding Cream in what Shadow thought was Chao-babbling. He put her back down immediately, not that she was heavy or anything, but because he felt thoroughly uncomfortable holding a rabbit that he barely even knew.

Cream flicked her umbrella open and looked towards Shadow with grateful eyes. He turned away. "Mister Shadow, thank you so much! You saved my life—"

"Don't mention it," he replied scorchingly, putting his gloved hand on her mouth to stop her from talking. He'd done his job. It was time to go. He revved up to get ready, even though he knew that in his state, he wouldn't get very far. "Now if you don't mind, I have to go."

"No, you can't!" Cream gasped, grabbing his hand whimperingly. Shadow growled and didn't dare look into her eyes, which were probably filled with little bunny-rabbit tears. "You can't go yet, not after you saved my life! Mama will definitely want to meet you!"

"Sorry," Shadow said, not sounding very sorry at all, as he wriggled his hand out from her grip. "But I've got to get home."

Cream looked at him oddly before re-attaining her grip on his hand. "But Mister Sonic says that you live far away! Well, he also said that that was because you're a big dummy who doesn't like other people."

Shadow's ears scathed at hearing the 'faker's' name and this time, he roughly yanked his hand from hers. Remind him why he was here again? "Keyword: Doesn't Like Other People."

Cheese sighed, and Cream had to ask, genuine worry lacing her tone, "But how will you get home, Mister Shadow?"

"Uh—with these, obviously," Shadow rolled his eyes and pointed to his speedy, albeit waterlogged, Hover Shoes. Granted, he didn't feel much like running, his quills were so inundated that he felt like he weighed a ton, but he had to get away from this rabbit. Something told him that she wouldn't leave until she was satisfied with his answers, and if he just left her alone in the rain (even with an umbrella), he'd never hear the end of it from the 'faker'.

"Come to my house," Cream insisted. "Mama could help you fix your shoes, and you could have a place to dry off and rest. You really do need help, Mister Shadow, I can tell."

Shadow hunched his shoulders in a defensive way, and grumbled, "Do not." He really thought he didn't—he was the Ultimate Life Form, right?

She sighed and exchanged looks with Cheese. Gathering up her courage, she turned to him with the most powerful puppy dog eyes he'd ever seen. "Please?"

"Ack!" Shadow yelped when he accidentally dared to look at her, his gaze inadvertently zeroed into her glittering eyes. Why would she do that to him? She was a witch—a sorceress! Perhaps even a robot! An evil spawn of Doctor Eggman's laboratory!

Puppy dog eyes, he shuddered, as if he was trapped in an everlasting horror movie. Even a Chaos Blast is useless compared to them.

Feeling nothing but pity for himself, Shadow closed his eyes and sighed; he knew he was going to regret this decision.

"Fine."

Author's Note 2:

If you guys liked this story, and would like to see more, please review and favorite/follow, it means a lot to me! And most importantly: please enjoy!