17
Shadow hated to admit it but he has been healing better since he's been staying with Sonic's family. This morning he woke up alone on the couch with a krink in his neck but he didn't care about that, it wasn't a big deal. What he did care about though was the small yellow fox standing in front of him, just staring.
Slowly the fox smiled at him, okay creepy, before holding up what looked like an x-ray, oh, it was his ankle. The bone didn't look out of place anymore and now that he thought about it, it didn't hurt bad. He thinks it started after the bath, he was able to walk with barely a limp after and now it was completely healed. Nice.
"How are you feeling?" The fox asked, finally speaking up.
He thought for a moment before answering, "Fine." It was a simple answer but it seems to make the twin tailed being happy.
"That's great! I was thinking of showing you and Sonic the project I'm working on right now! Knuckles already knows." Shadow didn't know why this kid wanted to be around him but he wasn't in the mood to dampen the little guy's spirits today so he just nodded and looked around.
The house both looked and sounded empty, and Tails must have noticed Shadow looking around cause he spoke up suddenly. "Maddie and Tom took Sonic and Knuckles to go clothes shopping cause she forgot it the other day and I thought it would help us fit in a bit if we started wearing clothes other than shoes and gloves. They wanted you to get some sleep and I offered to watch over."
He hummed in response, still kinda tired.
"What exactly are you working on right now?" He asked
"Well me and Knuckles talked about where to keep the emeralds so that no one bad got a hold of them and we decided it would be best to hide them in plain sight! So I've been working on making a tool that will shrink the size of the emeralds but still hold all it's same power, Maddie is also buying jewelry, so we can put the emeralds in the jewelry and always be with them. And to combine them all we just have to put our jewelry together!" The kit seemed happy to tell Shadow about the designs of the other's jewelry until they got home.
Sonic bust through the door, wearing a plain white T-shirt and a pair of jean shorts and a silver chain with an empty slot around his neck. Knuckles also seemed excited about his own clothes, a dull grey long sleeve under a sleeveless black turtle neck with navy blue pants and bracelets, also with empty slots. Sonic ran at Shadow, shoving a plain paper bag at him, upon opening the bag Shadow found clothes and two hoop piercings with slots for gems, it looked like they could go in his ear, his nose, and his lip. There was also a piercing that he assumed went in his tongue. He only has his tongue and ears pierced. The tongue was more of getting stabbed in the perfect spot for a piercing and only healing around a small spot, and the ears were cause Maria didn't want to get hers alone when professor finally allowed her to. He's surprise, neither closed, since his healing but he didn't really mind. He looked back at Sonic who had moved behind him and gave Tails a paper bag of his own.
"Now you two go try those on, I'm hoping we got the right sizes for you Shadow, we went based on your size compared to sonic." Maddie smiled at them before leaving the room. Tails went off to his room to change and Shadow figured he could just use the bathroom to change, and that he did. He pulled the dark grey T-shirt over his head and found that there was actually an open back so his quills could stick out, he's not sure how he didn't notice before but oh well. He pulled out the black shorts and pulled them over his shoes, they were just a little too big so he had to tie the string into a messy bow Maria taught him. He looked in the mirror and struggled for a second to get the hoops in his helix, but he got them in and grabbed the other piercing. He stuck out his tongue and was able to get that one in much easier than the ear hoops. The tongue piercing already had a gem inside it so he guessed it probably wouldn't hold an emerald, also he doesn't think the tongue would be the best place for it since to combine the emeralds they needed to touch their jewelry.
As he stepped out of the bathroom Sonic greeted him with a jacket in red and blue colors just a bit darker than his stripes and Sonic's own quills. When Sonic smiled and walked away Shadow noticed that his shirt didn't have an open back, it looks like, judging by the smooth cut, Tails or Maddie cut holes out to fit his quills snugly, Knuckles also didn't have an open back, obviously since he didn't have quills. When he entered the kitchen Tails had a pale yellow shirt on and his own pair of shorts, which have a hole cut for his twin tails to be free.
"Ah, there you are, when I was taking your temperature yesterday I noticed you had the perfect spot for a piercing on you tongue, so I got you something to put in it, is that alright?" She asked Shadow with a smile on her face.
"Yes, I appreciate the offer. I won't waste the money spent." He nodded stiffly, before sticking out his tongue enough to show her the piercing.
"Oh perfect, it looks like the clothes fit too!" Shadow didn't understand how her and Sonic smiled so much, it had to hurt their faces right?
"Now can we go out!" Sonic was practically jumping up and down with his uncontaminated excitement.
"You're always allowed out, just be careful!" She called as Sonic zoomed out of the house, dragging Shadow with him, Tails and Knuckles following.
They stopped in the shed, read Tails' workshop, and Tail opened the door, revealing the place. There were tiny gems next to a tool that looked like a flashlight but was probably something completely different. He was proven right when Tails explained he used it to shrink the emeralds so they could put them in the jewelry. Tails asked Shadow to sit in a chair so he could demonstrate and when Shadow did so, Tails gently placed the blue and green gems into his ear piercings. Sonic begged to be next so he basically shoved Shadow out of the chair when Tails agreed. Shadow gave him the nastiest glare he could in return but only got a raspberry for a response. Knuckles offered his hand and though Shadow could get up on his own he felt a little bad leaving the guy hanging so he grabbed the hand offered and was pulled up onto his feet quickly, he thanked Knuckles as he dusted himself off.
Shadow watched as Sonic swung his feet while Tails put the red emerald into his necklace, securing it tightly. Now it was Knuckles' turn, he sat in the chair and remained still as tails put the purple and silver emeralds in his bracelets. The fox put the teal and yellow emeralds into his own bracelet. After Tails put the flashlight thing away they exited the shed and Sonic walked ahead, leading them to who knows where. Shadow didn't get as many stares as he thought he would since the people of green hills knew the sheriff had these fuzzy kids, but he still got some from people that obviously had never seen him before, the stares didn't last long though so it was whatever. Sonic talked animatedly as he walked along side Shadow, Tails and Knuckles lagging behind a bit. Suddenly Sonic stopped and grabbed Shadow's hand pointing at the empty building on the corner, there were two ladies inside, one wiping the windows down and the other sweeping the floor.
"Let's go see them! Maybe if we get friendly with the owner they'll give us free snacks." Before Tails could point out that that wouldn't work at all Sonic was already walking across the street, Shadow not far behind him not wanting to disconnect their hands. He's not sure why but it grounds him, makes it feel like he doesn't have anything to worry about.