(OC indulgent ig)

It was supposed to be a normal work trip to Tokyo. You never expected to leave with an anthropomorphic black and red hedgehog going through a storm of emotions you have to teach him how to process, but here you were.

It was raining and you running to your car, when you saw him. A black and red hedgehog in the middle of the road, people were running away from him, terrified. But not you.

You saw past the cold, angry crimson eyes of this creature. You saw a being in need of comfort and space. And a towel. He was absolutely soaked to the bone.

Without thinking, you ran out into the road, grabbing his gloved hand and pulling him to shelter under your umbrella. He was injured, like he had fallen from a very high place or been involved in an accident involving fire.

No matter what it was, you didn't care about how much he was feared. In your eyes, he was a grief stricken child/teen who needed help navigating through this.

It's been a few weeks since that incident. Now you can basically call him your son.

His name was Shadow the Hedgehog, the Ultimate Lifeform. The few times he opened up to you, he would tell stories about the space colony ARK and a girl named Maria Robotnik. She seemed to mean a lot to him.

"You remind me of her," he said as you sat beside his bed in the basement, which you had transformed into a safe space just for him. "You helped me without thinking about the consequences. Maria did that all the time."