🖤❤️ .𖥔 ݁ ˖ Shadow the Hedgehog... Having a crush on you?! (HC LIST)
୭˚. ᵎᵎ Might have a little mischaracterization, but It's just my interpretation of his character. :)
♡‧₊˚ Shadow didn't even know when, where or how he started to like you around so much.
♡‧₊˚ At first, he probably just thought of you being useful to Team Dark and a great help.
♡‧₊˚ But now? Now Shadow finds himself quietly watching the moon, seeing you there instead of the stars. Remembering the details of your face smiling, the way you laugh, and the way you treated him.
♡‧₊˚ He obviously doesn't know what this feeling is, after all he has never felt something so powerful for someone since Maria. He may even have thought it was selfish of him to compare you to her, not wanting to see you as a "replacement" or something like that.
♡‧₊˚ He doesn't like to talk about feelings (especially his), but Rouge is attentive enough to care about him and notice how he feels around others, especially around you. She must have noticed it before Shadow himself did.
♡‧₊˚ "Are you in love?"
♡‧₊˚ Nonsense. Where did she get that from? Shadow had no time for love. Love is a powerful word, a word he would only use to describe his relationship with Maria, practically his only family back then.
♡‧₊˚ But this got Shadow thinking.
♡‧₊˚ Was he in love?
♡‧₊˚ With you?
♡‧₊˚ This distracted him on missions, it occupied his mind more than he admitted or let on, until a point where he simply started avoiding you, thinking it was your fault. You waved at him and he ran; You got close and his spines stood on end; You smiled, and he refused to smile back.
♡‧₊˚ After a few days, he finally stopped to ask himself.
♡‧₊˚ Why was it your fault?
♡‧₊˚ It's not like you have the power to put feelings in him, and he knows that very well, he's not naive. But he also doesn't know how to deal with it yet.
♡‧₊˚ Shadow apologized and went back to his usual behavior around you, but if you were observant enough, you'd notice he was different. That he looked at you differently.
♡‧₊˚ Your dynamic was the same as always, but now Shadow felt an intimacy he hadn't felt with anyone else before. A certain discomfort, perhaps?
♡‧₊˚ Oh, he felt so guilty feeling uncomfortable around you, believe me.
♡‧₊˚ But he had already understood that this wasn't either of your faults, since, as living beings, you can't control your feelings like machines. He knew that.
♡‧₊˚ And yet, he still secretly wished he had a database to completely erase this folder of feelings that was making him malfunction.
♡‧₊˚ But... It's not like he doesn't like feeling this way about you. It's not like he hates the feeling of wanting to have you around.
♡‧₊˚ It's not like he's hating loving you. Really.
♡‧₊˚ This was something that made him and Rouge talk more than ever, since Omega himself wouldn't be of much help.
♡‧₊˚ "You just have a crush, Shadow. It's fine. It's not the end of the world."
♡‧₊˚ Oh, but it was the end of his world. At least that was what he told himself constantly.
♡‧₊˚ He's afraid of getting too attached to you and ending up like his trauma with Maria again, he's afraid of focusing more on feelings than on his missions, he's afraid of failing you by thinking about you like that.
♡‧₊˚ Even though he's practically over fifty years old, Shadow still thinks about feelings like a teenager, asking questions back and forth as if he'll get answers.
♡‧₊˚ You treated him like a friend, someone close, someone important, and not like a weapon. That's okay, all of his friends did that.
♡‧₊˚ But you?
♡‧₊˚ You didn't treat him like someone special because he had talent.
♡‧₊˚ You treated him like someone special because he was special to you.
♡‧₊˚ And he couldn't understand why.
♡‧₊˚ Why did you think he was special to you? Why did you stick around when no one else did? Why did you keep following him when everyone else was going the other way?
♡‧₊˚ And why did he have a shred of hope asking this?
♡‧₊˚ A hope that maybe, just maybe, you would look at him the way he looks at you.
♡‧₊˚ You already saw him better than anyone else, but he still wanted you to see more of him, he wanted you closer (physically and emotionally), and he felt selfish about it.
♡‧₊˚ It's kinda funny, really.
♡‧₊˚ The Ultimate Lifeform suffering from having a crush and not knowing how to deal with it.
୭˚. ᵎᵎ dividers by @cafekitsune
