Life in the Dark

Beach Day

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Shadow lay in bed. It had been another sleepless night for him. Nothing new but it was still rather annoying.

"Shadow? Are you awake?" Rouge whispered as she opened his door.

Shadow groaned and rolled over so that he was facing away from her. He was very tired.

"It's time to get up, Shadow. Oh, and get dressed. I'm going out but I need to keep an eye on you so you're coming with me ok?"

Shadow let out a sigh, still facing away from the bat as he asked in a flat tone, "Where? Who's going to be there? How long will it take?"

"The beach. Amy, Vanilla and Cream. Depends."

Shadow seemed slightly more enthusiastic hearing that Vanilla and Cream would be there. Cream is a good friend to him, she may only be six years old but she's one of the nicest people he knows. The hedgehog sat up, stretching as he did.

"Alright then, I'll be in the kitchen. Try to have actual breakfast this morning. We're running out of coffee beans." Rouge left Shadow's room, closing the door as she did.

Shadow let out another sigh and simply put on a pair of black jeans and the first shirt that he could find, which in this case was a Korn shirt. He put his phone and a pair of headphones into a shoulder bag just in case then headed to the kitchen, rubbing the strap on his bag and mumbling angrily to himself he walked.

He slumped onto a chair and rested his head on the table. The hedgehog then watched Rouge making something, tapping one finger against the table in a hopes to get her attention.

"I'm not making breakfast for you today, Shadow. You are fully capable of doing that yourself. Stop being lazy." Rouge spoke in a firm tone, keeping her focus on what she was doing as she spoke.

"I'm tired." Shadow complained.

"Well maybe if you actually tried to go to sleep at night, you wouldn't be so tired."

"I do try. It's just difficult."

Rouge sighed and stopped what she was doing to turn to Shadow. "Look, I'll talk to Vanilla today. I'll see if there's anything I can do to help you. But for now I'm afraid you might just have to deal with it." She picked up the plate of toast she had been making and placed it in front of Shadow. "I lied. I was making breakfast for you. You're welcome you spoiled brat."

"... Thank you, Rouge" Shadow then practically wolfed it down, which wasn't surprising considering the fact that he refuses to eat most of the time but still complains about being hungry.

"Well then." Rouge grabbed her own bag and a pair of sunglasses. "You ready to go?"

"Sure" Shadow grabbed his shoes which were conveniently laying near the table, put them on then got up from his space to follow Rouge as she left.

Rouge locked the door then began to walk to the beach, Shadow following not far behind, clearly not wanting to be outside.

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Once they had arrived, Shadow was immediately greeted by an over-excited Cream with Cheese following her.

"Hello, Mr Shadow! I didn't know you were coming. Would you like to build a sand castle with me and Cheese?"

"Why not?" Shadow replied in a strangely happy voice for him.

Cream giggled and dragged Shadow away from the others. The three then sat in the sand to make sand castles.

You would think that Shadow would make the best looking ones wouldn't you? But that wasn't the case. Shadow seemed to act alot more childish with Cream and Cheese, his sandcastles were terrible but he was having fun so it doesn't matter. It was clear that he tried not to look as happy as he actually was though.

Every now and again, Shadow yawned and stretched or rubbed his eyes. Cream had noticed quite quickly.

"Mr Shadow? Are you tired?" The rabbit questioned.

"Yeah. Nothing I can't deal with though."

"Are you sure?" Cream seemed rather unhappy at Shadow'sanswer. He often ignored his problems and Cream knows that's a bad idea.

"Well... no. But-"

"Me and Cheese can help you!" Cream basically jumped up from where she was sat and grabbed Shadow by the arm, trying to pull him with her. She quickly gave up on trying to move Shadow and ran over to Vanilla.

Cream returned dragging a large bag with her. Shadow watched as she pulled a few blankets out from it and layed them out on the sand, patting them asking Shadow to lay on them. Shadow did as Cream asked, not wanting to make her upset.

Shadow squinted due to the sunlight being in his eyes but quickly had them covered by another blanket as Cream and Cheese were trying to tuck him into bed. Shadow simply let them do what they wanted. He honestly couldn't be bothered to get up.

"Would you like a bedtime story Mr Shadow? Mr Shadow?"

Shadow had already fallen asleep, the only visible parts of himself being his quills, ears and shoes sticking out of the blankets.

---

A few hours had passed. Rouge decided that it was time for her and Shadow to go home. Looking around, she spotted his shoes sticking out of a bunch of blankets. Rouge walked over and pulled the blankets off to reveal a sleepy Shadow. The bat chuckled in amusement then shook the sleepy hedgehog lightly.

"Shadow, wake up. We need to go home."

"Hmmmmm no" replied Shadow.

Rouge simply grabbed Shadow by the arm and pulled him to his feet. She ain't dealing with his crap.

"We're going home Shadow." And with that, she basically dragged Shadow back to the house as he complained about his arm hurting (of course, she ignored it. He's the ultimate life form. He'll be fine.)

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