Yandere Toons x Reader: An Anthology of Headcanons and Scenarios

Shadow the Hedgehog (Platonic & Romantic Headcanons)

TW: Implied Violence, Implied PTSD, Toxic Mindsets.

A.N. - Artwork is illustrated by Yui Karasuno and can be found on the Sonic Channel's social media.

Platonic:

The initial days aboard Space Colony ARK were long and uneventful. Shadow had little more to do than read what literature Gerald Robotnik supplied, watch the scientist work, and listen to his granddaughter Maria daydream about Earth. The Ultimate Life Form is a stranger to the intricacies of friendship when he and his friend are not each other's sole option for social interaction, and he struggles to shed the tendency to act as if they are.

Maria taught Shadow to err on the side of benevolence, but extended periods of isolation and witnessing the death of the first person he cared about have skewered his ability to form attachments. Although he maintains a certain distance from anyone who associates with him, anything personal his friend tells him is kept strictly confidential.

The Ultimate Life Form is not a fan of mind games, having been the victim of many, and despises this behaviour in others, practicing brutal honesty and opposing anyone who he suspects is conning or exploiting his friend. Deception is intolerable to him, and if he uncovers a lie or one is unravelled before him, his temper flares and is expressed in the most vituperative way possible.

If the harm was the direct result of another person's carelessness, Shadow gauges their intentions. An honest mistake is rewarded with a warning to be more careful and a dollop of bitterness, while malicious intent is returned tenfold via Chaos Spears. If the guilty party is an important member of their life and is innocent enough to spare, Shadow is hesitant to trust them with his friend again and prefers to tag along on any future meetings.

Romantic:

Shadow does not expect his partner to desire any sort of intimate relationship with him, and due to his fear of reliving the loss of someone important to him, he does not seek to establish one. An insistence on confirming their safety that exceeds what attention he offers to anyone else is the main indicator of his affection.

The relationship is only as intimate as they want it to be, for Shadow is pathologically concerned with abandonment and losing them to some unforeseen disaster. While open to taking the role of an ad hoc confidante or therapist, he will not bully or cajole them into sharing something with him and assumes that their resistance is a reflection of his inadequate effort to secure their trust.

If grave injury befalls his partner, even accidentally, Shadow adopts the fullest extent of the blame and considers the incident to be one of his greatest failures. Being preoccupied or merely somewhere else at the time is seen as a grievous oversight, and he strives to redeem himself by sticking far closer to them in public settings and, overall, reducing his time away from them to practically never. Underestimating the level of danger is viewed as pure arrogance on his part, which he henceforth accounts for by assuming that every new situation is a potential threat deserving of inspection.

As the Ultimate Life Form stumbles down the path of guilt, the last thing he needs is another collection of fond memories haunting him in a reminder of what he allowed himself to lose. Shadow keeps his distance, not from lack of caring but rather from an excess of care. A history of those close to him meeting an untimely demise has convinced him that the cycle will not be broken for his partner, and the worry that he will fail them in their time of need results in him unsuccessfully trying to stay away.