Undying spirit

•~Ep. 6: Complications~•

One month later

For the whole month, when Maria had to stay in Gerald's room in order to get monitored by her grandfather, Shadow kept her a company and refused to leave her alone. Gerald understood that, so he eventually let him stay here with Maria. Especially after he witnessed, how happy the girl was, not only because the antidote seemed to work well, but also thanks to the fluffy companion himself.

In a matter of health state, Maria was doing much better, her coughing attacks disappeared completely and she felt stronger and more vital each day, that passed by. This satisfied her grandfather, who smiled proudly at her.
"You are now allowed to freely move around and sleep in your own room, Maria. The results seem to be even better, than I expected," he announced her happily, Maria smiled brightly as she cheered up and hugged Shadow tightly.
"Shadow! Did you hear that?! I am... f-finally healthy!" tears of happiness streamed down her cheeks while the dark hedgehog hugged her back happily and plastered the biggest smile on his face in the history of his smiles.
"I..." he wanted to say something, but ended up crying from happiness as well. Gerald wiped a single tear from the corner of his eye covered by the small round glasses (which he strangely never took off), as he saw his two family members embracing each other this happily. It made him feel relieved, yet... there was still the dark thought lurking in the back of his mind, trying to swallow the happiness away from him. The dark thought was about a possible side effects of the essence injected into Maria's body. The worry made its way slightly to the front of his mind, but he tried to shake it off for now, since he wanted to enjoy a good time with his, now completely healed, grand-daughter.
"It's a shame I cannot take you to some park or other nice place, which exists down there on Earth... but how about to do a little celebration?" he suggested, making the two friends pull away from the long hug as they both turned their gazes at the old man after hearing his voice.
"Grandpa.. that's a good idea! Maybe I could bake some big cake?" Maria said excitedly and stood up to wrap her arms around Gerald gratefully. He did the same while smiling brightly.
"That sounds good to me, Maria," he agreed with her suggestion, making her giggle joyfully.
"Oh, thank you so much, grandpa! Without you and Shadow... I am not sure where I would be," she chirped excitedly and even planted a soft kiss on her grandfather's cheek. The two soon pulled away from the hug and Maria turned to face Shadow, who remained sitting on the bed and watching the family from there.
"Shadow... will you assist me?" she asked him with soft giggle. The ebony hedgehog nodded his head as he hopped down of the bed and smiled happily.
"Sure!"
"Okayy, let's go!" she extended her arm towards him and he reacted quickly by grabbing her hand, which was much smaller than his, and then followed Maria to the kitchen. Gerald watched the two until they disappeared behind the corner of the doorway, sighing he turned around to his table and sitting down on a chair he started writing a note about the whole healing process.

Hours later, a two various tones of laughter filled the kitchen along with part of the hallway, reaching an eardrums of some workers, who could be found somewhere nearby. The blond girl and dark hedgehog just turned into a crazy duo, as they sprayed a whipped cream at each other and just enjoyed themselves.
"Hahaha, Shadow! You will need a long shower after this!" Maria squeeked happily and covered her face with her hands, because laughing Shadow sprayed some more of the cream at her. This little battle occured about ten minutes ago and it was kind of Maria's fault, for she was the first one, who got a bit of the cream on her finger and instead of eating it, she rubbed it over Shadow's nose, making him do the same, but his cream ended up on Maria's cheek instead of nose. Then Maria grabbed the bottle with the whipped cream and sprayed a bit of it on top of his head. And you can guess the rest.
So, the both 'creamed' friends finally stopped their little battle while still laughing heavily. They had tears in their eyes, which they wiped away and slowly stopped laughing. Maria was holding her stomach, breathing heavily.
"Ouch... that hurts!" she exclaimed while still smiling widely. Shadow sat down on the ground and leaned back on the wall, as he also held his stomach.
"Yeah... but it was so fun! Whoo..." he let out a sigh of relief, when he felt the pain slowly fade away. This was the only acceptable pain for them. The only kind of pain, which made both of them actually feel good, because it was filled with happiness, since it was caused by too heavy laugh.
"Yes that was fun! Hey, you know what time has come?" Maria looked over at her ebony friend with a small smirk on her face. His smile froze on his face as he tensed up and his ears dropped down while he shook his head slowly, the smile leaving his muzzle.
"No, no, no... I am a big hedgehog, I can take ca- MARIA!!" he couldn't even finish his protests due to Maria already picking him up and carrying him towards a bathroom while giggling softly at his stubborn nature.
"No worries, Shaddy, everything will be just fine," she spoke calmly to him, but it had completely opposite effect. The hedgehog in her arms whimpered and even growled, trying to set himself free from her grip, however, to no avail. Maria learned pretty well how to hold him firmly, so he wouldn't fall, yet carefully so he wouldn't sting her with his quills, which he now straightened as he attempted to curl into a ball. But the way Maria was holding him prevented the dark creature to succeed. Shadow eventually gave up and before he realized it, his body got halfly immersed in warm water.
"So? What do you say? It's not that bad, is it?" she said quietly as she reached up on top of a small cabinet hanging on the wall of the bathroom and grabbing a certain yellow item she threw it to the bathtub, nearly hitting Shadow's arm with it. He got startled and splashed a bit of water out of the tub as he backed away from the little yellow item floating on the surface of the water in front of him. It had a small head and big black eyes along with bright orange beak. It was a simple rubber duck.
"Why is staring at me?! Maria, take it away from me!" Shadow felt terrified by the little duckie, which was slowly floating towards him. And the fact, how the hedgehog was still moving and creating waves on the surface of the water, was not any helping the situation here. Maria laughed at his cute reaction.
"Calm down, Shadow. It's just a toy," she explained and grabbing the duck she squeezed it slightly, causing it to make the typical squeaking sound, which startled Shadow at first, but he then calmed down.
"O-okay... where did you get it, anyways?" he asked curiously. Maria put the duck back on the water, intentionally closer to Shadow, before giggling softly.
"I found it here not so long ago and wanted to show it to you earlier, but.. you did not need a shower until now," she explained, Shadow listened to her while examining the duck without touching it yet. He then paused as he looked at Maria with a slight shock.
"W-wait! You.. you waited for me to need a shower so you could scare me with this... monster?!" he still did not trust the duck, which seemed a bit creepy to him, as it was 'staring' at him like this. He felt like it could see his inner self, his deepest subconsciousness. Maria laughed again.
"It's a rubber duck, Shadow. It won't hurt you," she replied calmly, trying to calm him down. He returned his gaze back to the toy duck and finally found a courage to pick it up and hold it in front of his face. He sniffed it softly, instantly making a disgusted expression while sticking his tongue out of his mouth and moving his head to the side to avoid sniffing it more than necessary.
"What material is it made of? It... does not smell nice," he asked, sounding disgusted. Maria chuckled and shook her head.
"That's why it's called rubber duck," she answered his question and sat down next to the bathtub, resting her head on the edge of it, she happily watched Shadow, who started somewhat playing with it. He tried to squeeze it and it made the highpitched sound, which usually triggered dogs down on the blue planet. And obviously Shadow, who cringed upon hearing this, for him, slightly annoying sound. He hoped that Maria won't use it often since now.
"Alright, be a good boy," she stood up suddenly, making Shadow stop playing with the toy and look up at her in worry.
"What?"
"No worries, I am going to use toilet, I will be right back," she informed him to calm him down and planting a soft kiss on his forehead she left him there alone with the rubber duck floating close to his chest. Shadow watched the girl until she disappeared behind the door and then sighed, returning his gaze back to the duckie he grabbed it and started playing with it again.