Blue...

That's all Sonic could see around him.  That color normally never bothered him, seeing as his fur was blue, but this was different...

Stupid Shadow.  He challenged Sonic to a battle, and wound up using Chaos Control and warping both of them to a lakeside.  To make matters a LOT worse, Shadow decided to fire off the rockets in his shoes right in Sonic's face, launching him into the deep water...

~~~~~

Shadow reared his left arm back as far as he could before bringing it forward, punching Sonic as hard as he could in the jaw.  Sonic went flying, crashing into a tree, before retaliating with a sharp kick.  The two had been fighting for an hour, and they were almost evenly matched.  However, Shadow wasn't tired--Sonic, on the other hand, was completely exhausted.

"Give up, Faker?" asked Shadow.

"Not a chance!"  Sonic caught Shadow's leg as he attempted to kick him.  However, before he had a chance to attack, Shadow shouted something.

"CHAOS CONTROL!!"

The next thing Sonic knew, he was standing right by a lake, his back facing the shimmering water.  Shadow broke free of Sonic's grasp and kicked Sonic hard in the face.  Sonic was about to react, but before he could, Shadow's rocket boosters went off, blasting him backwards.  He skipped across the surface of the water until he was roughly twenty feet from land before he actually broke the surface.  He forced himself to come back to the surface, gasping and coughing.

"Sh-SHADOW!!!" he called.  "H-help--"  His head went under.  He managed to get back above water.  "I can't swim--!"

Shadow smirked and turned away.  Sonic's strength ebbed, and he couldn't keep himself above water any longer.  Taking one last deep breath, he let the water swallow him up.

~~~~~

Now here he was, drifting helplessly to the bottom of the lake.  Of course, Shadow wasn't going to help.  He wouldn't even tell anyone that Sonic was drowning.  Shadow hated him.  And Sonic hated him back.

Darkness began to blur Sonic's vision from lack of oxygen.  He was vaguely aware in the back of his brain that he was about to die.  He had never thought it would end like THIS.

Just then, he heard a strange sound.  Willing his eyes to open, he saw the last person he expected to see swimming toward him.

Shadow.

This confused Sonic in more ways in one.  For one thing, Sonic didn't even know Shadow could swim.  Another thing confusing him was that Shadow was actually trying to help him.  That REALLY wracked his brain.

The final thing that confused him didn't strike him until Shadow had reached Sonic, moving closer until the two met in a kiss.

Sonic's eyes widened as much as they could--they were already wide-open to begin with; if he widened them any further, he'd rip his eyelids.

Before Sonic knew what had happened, Shadow pulled away from him and used Chaos Control, warping them to dry land.

-0-0-0-0-0-0-0-0-0-0-

Sonic coughed up some water as Shadow placed his hand on the blue hedgehog's back.  Once he was sure his lungs were clear, he glanced over at the black hedgehog, a look of confusion and gratefulness in them.

"Wh...why did you save me...?" he asked.

"I..."  Shadow wasn't sure himself.  After a brief hesitation, he came up with an excuse.  "I didn't want you to die like THAT.  I'd much rather you die by my hand."

"Oh, really...?"  That trademark smirk of his tugged at his lips.  "And the kiss?"

An unfamiliar blush exploded onto Shadow's face, as if Rouge, Amy, Blaze, and Cream all decided to give him a makeover and went a little crazy.  He began sputtering obscurities.  "Wh--h-hey, I-I didn't--you-you were--"

Before Shadow could continue, Sonic kissed him on the cheek.  "Dude, it's cool.  You know I like you, right?"  Otherwise you wouldn't have kissed me.

Shadow didn't bother to hide the smile that had formed on his lips.  "...yeah..." he murmured.

Sonic was on his feet in a blur.  "Hey, Faker!" he stated jokingly.  "Race ya!"  With that, he was off.

Another smirk on Shadow's face.  "You are SO on."  He took off, powering up the boosters to the max.