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k1ng-ej · 1 month ago

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Shadow the Hedgehog X Reader

A valentine's confession

Note: first time writing for this silly guy, expect more vday related posts. i might open requests again soon, ive been in a depression episode for a hot minute now so this is the first thing ive written in a few days, i love him so much. Requests for him are open!

Shadow stood at your front door, hesitating to knock. For months you had enthusiastically shared your excitement for Valentine's day, mentioning it daily. During this time, Shadow wrested with his feelings. Each time you appeared with that radiant smile, he felt a spark in his chest that drew him closer to you than anyone else. He found himself paying more attention to your words and frequently caught himself admiring you from afar. Yet, he couldn't quite place his finger on what this feeling was, or, he was just in denial about them. As Valentine's day approached, with the sun dipping below the horizon, Shadow couldn't shake the worry of your absence. After all the excitement you had generated around this day, you had vanished just when it finally arrived. He asked others where you were, but no one knew

Finally, with a long sigh, he drew three sharp knocks to your door. He could hear muffled groans, a few clattering sounds, some muttered curses, and finally the unmistakable sound of locks turning as you opened your door. Instantly, he took in your disheveled state: the dullness in your eyes, the tangled mess of your hair, and the wrinkled clothes that suggested a sleepless night. You sniffled, surprise flashing across your face.

"Shadow! What's up? Did you need somethin'?" You asked, leaning against the door-frame. Shadow quickly realized that you were sick, and that was why you were cooped up in your house all day.

"Do you have a cold?"

"Oh, uh, yeah. Unfortunately came down with it last night and, man, this is a rough one. Usually a little cold doesn't keep me in bed all day but this one sure did!" You explained, your voice was hoarse, no doubt from all the coughing you were probably doing.

Shadow quirked an eyebrow at you. "Have you been taking medication?"

From the way you immediately broke eye contact and started fumbling over your words, he knew that was a no. You always were stubborn. He sighed and shook his head at you, and he noted the way you tensed up. Did you think he was angry?

"It'll help you get over it faster."

"That's the thing… I- Er- I don't have any medicine for it right now and I've been too sick to go out and get some." You frowned, running a hand through your hair to smooth it down.

"I'll get you some. Go rest. Leave the door unlocked, I'll be back." He swiftly spun on his heel, you tried to stop him, but before you could even get a word out he used Chaos Control. Shadow told himself that he was simply doing what any other mobian would do if someone they knew was sick, and this wasn't him caring about your well-being. The more he tried to bury and deny his feelings, the more they grew. Deep down, he knew what he was feeling, but he had never felt this way toward anyone and so he wasn't sure what he should do. The thought of letting someone inside of the walls that he so strongly built around himself scared him, the idea of being vulnerable made his chest tight.

Without hesitation, he swiftly collected medicine for your cold and picked up a couple of soups, hoping they would soothe your sore throat. After completing the purchase, he returned to your front door and opened it without a second thought. This was Shadow's first time inside your home, and he took a moment to absorb the surroundings. It was clear you appreciated a cozy living environment; a few plants decorated the windows in both your kitchen and living room. Your minimalistic decor showcased an eye for style, and the space was impeccably tidy. After mentally mapping out your home's layout, Shadow stepped into the kitchen and placed the bag of supplies on the counter. He then retrieved the medicine, quickly checking the recommended dosage before filling a glass with water. He paused, surely you could do this yourself right?

He shook his head, he wanted to take care of you. He was coming to terms with that.

Slowly, he approached your bedroom door, pills and water in hand. He knocked, he heard your muffled voice allow him entrance. Upon entering, he blinked, taking in the mess of your room. It was a stark contrast to how organized and clean the rest of your house was. Laundry was strewn about, a couple used tissues laid next to the full mini trash can next to your bed, some blankets and pillows thrown on the floor.

"Sorry for the mess… Haven't had the energy to clean up." You scratched your head, cheeks hot with embarrassment.

"Don't worry about it." Shadow simply shook his head and stood next to your bed where you laid. He placed the glass of water on your bedside table, then held out his gloved hand, two pills sitting in his palm. You promptly sat up, and he watched you swallow the pills quickly, a look of disgust on your face afterward. He assumed you weren't the biggest fan of pills. Shadow took another look around your room, he felt a pull to clean up for you.

Taking care of others would normally irritate Shadow, but when it came to you he felt naturally inclined to do so. You were the first one he would run to on the field, the first one he would ask if you were okay. There was no denying the feelings he had developed for you, but he was scared of them.

"Shadow, you okay?" The sound of your voice, and the feeling of your warm hand on his shoulder brought him from his thoughts. When you retracted your hand, he couldn't help but miss the warmth is provided.

"Would you like if I tidied up for you?"

His question definitely shocked you, and you were quick to decline. Despite Shadow asking, he was not taking no for an answer. He huffed air through his nose as he reached over you and grabbed your TV remote, quickly putting something on for you to watch while he began cleaning. The mess did not bother him, he was quite an organized hedgehog himself and liked his belongings in order. Judging from the rest of your house, you were similar, and he knew the mess probably bothered you. He started by picking up all the laundry on the floor, throwing it into the basket that sat in the corner of your room, then put your bedding back onto your bed, and finally picked up the pieces of trash that laid about. Thankfully, the movie he had randomly chosen for you kept you entertained, and not protesting his offer to clean for you.

He threw the load of laundry into the washer, then came back to your bedroom to check on you.

"Are you hungry?" He asked, standing next to your bed with his arms crossed over his chest. He didn't know if it was intentional, but you stared at him for a solid minute, he grew nervous under your gaze, his heart rate picked up.

"Hm, I guess I could go for some food." You shrugged, starting to swing your legs off the bed.

"What are you doing?"

You paused, clearing your throat. "Going to make food?"

You watched Shadows expression change from confusion to annoyance, had you said something? Was he annoyed because he was taking care of you? You didn't know, but you felt tense under his narrowed gaze.

"I can make it for you. You need to rest." His tone came out harsh, but there was a hint of care laced somewhere. Shadow always wore a grumpy facade, making it difficult to discern when he was genuinely upset. However, as you spent more time with him, you began to notice the subtle nuances in his behavior that others overlooked. It was unclear whether he was aware of it, but he frequently reached out to those he cared about. You had witnessed him do this with you several times, and each instance sent a rush of butterflies through your stomach. While Shadow showed concern for others, including Sonic, it was evident that his attention toward you was different. The depth of his care ignited feelings within you that you couldn't ignore.

You had planned your Valentines perfectly, you were going to wake up early this morning, run out and grab a few cheesy gifts, and present them to Shadow in private, asking if he would be your valentine. It was a bold move, really, but you couldn't dance around your feelings forever. So when you came down with your cold, you were bummed. You didn't expect Shadow to come and check on you, but you had to admit it made you feel warm inside.

You stood from your bed and padded out into the living room, Shadow was in the kitchen, stirring your noodles until he heard your footsteps behind him. He swiftly turned around, creasing his eyebrows.

"Relax! I'm okay, I need to stretch my legs, I've been laying down for hours." You held your hands up in mock surrender, waiting for him to start scolding you for not resting. Instead, a long sigh escaped his lips.

"Fine. But when your food is done you're sitting on the couch." He said sternly, eyeing you until you nodded in agreement.

You leaned against the counter, eyeing the pot of noodles on your stove. You didn't have an appetite for anything, but you knew trying to eat something was better than not eating at all. Shadow stood just in front of the stove, his gaze was fixed on the pot, but his mind seemed elsewhere.

"Hey Shadow?" You called, the words leaving your lips before you could think. "Can I… Confess something?"

He blinked and turned to meet your gaze. In that moment, you felt incredibly small beneath his intense stare, your nerves overwhelming as you struggled to meet his crimson eyes. Uncertain of why you found your voice, you had no idea how to articulate your next thought. You had been waiting for Valentine's Day to confess your feelings to Shadow, and you refused to let anything, especially the cold, deter you— especially not with him right in front of you, an opportunity life had presented. Your heart raced wildly against your chest, a knot of anxiety tightening in your stomach.

You inhaled deeply. "I, uh, originally had some special plans for today. Since it is Valentines and all. Er… plans for a special someone, someone that I like."

Shadows brows raised, and for a brief moment you saw a flicker of hurt in his eyes.

"He's… complicated to understand." You continued, "He doesn't let anyone close emotionally, and he puts on this tough front but deep down he has a soft, and caring heart. I had the perfect day planned, I was going to buy flowers, and a candy I think he might like, and then… I was going to take him to a little secluded area, give him the gifts and confess my feelings. But then I got this stupid cold!" You sighed and pushed yourself off the counter, you pinched the bridge of your nose, a blush creeping up on your cheeks. You knew Shadow was smart, he could figure out you were talking about him, but you wanted to tell him directly that you liked him.

"It's you. I had that planned for you, because I like you." You finished, shyly looking at him and awaiting his reaction.

First, he was shocked, then confused, then a look of… relief? And finally, he exhaled.

"The feelings are… mutual." Shadow ran a nervous hand through his quills, and he looked away from you. You found it cute how he, The Ultimate Lifeform, was getting shy while confessing his crush on you. You couldn't help but giggle, and his eyes quickly snapped back to you.

"What's so funny?" His brows furrowed, replacing the relaxed expression he had just seconds before. You reached out, placing your hand on his shoulder. He looked at your hand, then to you as you spoke.

"Nothing, nothing. It's just… I was expecting a rejection, or something along those lines. But, it's nice to know the feelings are reciprocated."

Heat rushed to his cheeks, and Shadow quickly regained his composure, turning back to the stove to finish preparing your soup. He couldn't bring himself to meet your gaze; his heart raced so wildly that he feared you might hear it too.

Despite his efforts to look away, your hand remained on his shoulder, providing a comforting presence he desperately needed. He was taken aback by your openness about your feelings; he never expected you to harbor such emotions for him. Relief mingled with nervousness and fear; acknowledging that you both liked each other led him to question the next steps toward a relationship. Did he truly want to pursue this? Could he offer you the support and care you deserved? Was he the right partner for you?

Communication was not his strong suit; he was accustomed to keeping everything bottled up inside. He worried that his tendency to be distant might push you away, and self-doubt clouded his mind, leaving him frustrated with himself. Yet, when he glanced at you again and caught the twinkle in your eye, the rosy blush on your cheeks, and the smile dancing on your lips, all those uncertainties faded away.

He followed you into the living room and sat next to you on the couch, he watched you slowly eat your soup, he could tell that you instantly felt relief in your throat, a satisfied hum rumbling in your chest. Even while sick, he looked at you with awe. Shadow always appreciated your looks, specifically your face. Whenever you smiled at him, his heart fluttered. The feeling was foreign, and when it first started he thought he was sick.

"This is good," You broke the silence, bowl resting in your lap. Shadow had positioned himself on the other end of the couch, you chuckled. "I don't bite. C'mon, sit next to me."

Despite how bold and straightforward you were being, anxiety swirled in your stomach. You knew Shadow would not make any first moves or initiate anything, whether it was because he didn't want to cross boundaries, or was too scared, you didn't mind. You watched him slowly scoot to the spot next to you, it made you smile. You put a show on the TV, and indulged in the soup he made for you. You didn't know what came after confessing your feelings for each other, but you were sure you could worry about that another time. For now, you wanted to relax, and enjoy the company you had while you were sick.

You placed your now empty bowl on the small table in front of the couch before leaning back. You thought for a moment, then leaned your shoulder against Shadows. He stiffened, not expecting the sudden contact, and unsure what to do. You stayed like that, and eventually you felt him relax, and heard a content sigh come from him.

#x reader #fluff #oneshot #shadow the hedgehog x reader #shadow x reader #shadow the hedgehog #shadow the ultimate lifeform #sonic fandom #sonic movie 3 #sonic the hedgehog #sonic 3 #shadow fanfic #shadow the hedgehog fanfic #mikeyposts

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ftm-hotch · 3 months ago

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thinking about how haley and hotch really were great together but the fandom fundamentally misunderstands their relationship because of misogyny

this is my white whale. I believe the tiktok girlies call it a "roman empire." I am Haley Hotchner's defense lawyer, and I work pro bono.

I started to draft this in my head and then I realized you know what I hate? I hate it when I'm in my own little corner of fandom and someone comes in from another corner and makes baseless accusations. So while I will be engaging in some counter-bashing, it will not be baseless, because for you, dear mutual, I have entered the belly of the beast.

Let's get into it, and then into what we actually see from Haley in the show.

Note: I'm going to stay in my lane here, my lane being ao3. It's been five years since I was what I would consider active enough on Criminal Minds tumblr to give an accurate report from the front lines, so I won't try.

So first of all, there are only 22 works. Not a lot to work with, but taking a look at the most commonly occurring tags within this one, we see:

Dr. Spencer Reid appears more in the "Not Haley Hotchner Friendly" tag than Haley Hotchner herself. 22% more, in fact (81% to 59%, Haley appears in roughly half of the works in a tag that has her name in it). Not looking good on the "erasing women" front. Haley isn't even present in a lot of these fics to show her side of the story, and she's often shunted aside in favor of Hotch/Reid. Nothing wrong with Hotch/Reid at all btw! But when a woman is consistently sidelined and demonized to make room for a man, there's a problem with how the fandom as a whole is thinking about women.

And sure enough, that's what's happening. Haley is serving as Hotch's tragic backstory in a lot of these fics, and not in the way she does in canon. In a perfect world, I would skim these fics and find out exactly how many this trope occurs in, but one of them is 10k words of omegaverse and it's two in the morning. I can tell you anecdotally, though, that it's a lot, and that the theme continues outside of fics explicitly tagged "Not Haley Hotchner Friendly."

The "Additional Tags" section doesn't show me much, which isn't surprising considering there are only 22 fics.

Now on to the content of the fics. Like I said, I didn't read or even skim every single one of these, but I did pull two that I consider representative of the two dominant strains of Haley hate: cheating and abuse.

Note: one of these fics is what I would consider an outlier. It's a fic depicting Haley sexually assaulting Hotch in a very dubcon way, and having read it, I would consider it more like a huge departure from canon than a misogynistic misreading of Haley's character. The author wasn't concerned with Haley and Hotch's canon relationship, but rather with themes of sexual coercion. That's not the kind of Haley bashing I'm talking about. I'm talking about misogynistic interpretations of canon.

Cheating:

Ah, the trope of the cheating bitch. Yes, it is implied that Haley was cheating in canon (I'm 99% sure it was in 3.02 where they had the hang-up call to the house and then Haley's phone started ringing). So if she's canonically a cheater, where the hell am I going with this?

Well, context is important. I am of the opinion that Haley's subplot was a (clumsy) commentary on gender roles and female dissatisfaction. Haley was not getting what she needed or wanted from Hotch. I am absolutely not condoning cheating under these circumstances, but narratively, the function that her cheating was serving was as a commentary on female dissatisfaction, and I think overlooking that is a bit misogynistic and unfair. Just as Hotch had his reasons for doing what he was doing, Haley had hers. And again, Haley is often absent from these stories, just like she was in the overwhelming majority of canon.

And then there are the outright misogynistic takes on the whole thing:

"Cheating Aaron Hotchner" is paired with "Aaron Hotchner Needs a Hug." "Cheating Haley Hotchner" is paired with "Not Haley Hotchner Friendly." Hotch is assumed to have complex and emotionally charged reasons behind his cheating. Haley is assumed to be a bitch. Again, any narrative about female dissatisfaction, anything that would give Haley a sense of interiority and well-roundedness, is ignored in favor of Hotch angst.

That brings me to an important point. The discerning reader doth protest: "Mikey! Just because the fic is tagged 'Not Haley Hotchner Friendly' doesn't mean the author hates Haley! It just means the narrative isn't friendly to her, which could be for a variety of reasons, including that Hotch's POV is inherently skewed. After all, didn't you just write a few fics from the POV of a narrator you disagree with?" And to that I say, fair point! But. But. A few things are relevant here. One is that Hotch is just not that unreliable about Haley. He gets frustrated with her, but let's not forget "what I want, I'm not gonna get" (3.14). Hotch loves Haley, and consistently expresses his desire to go back to her. A Hotch who thinks badly of Haley is not a canon-accurate Hotch, and I think reading that into him shows bias on behalf of the author. Another relevant thing is that in reality, a lot of these authors ARE using the tag both to express the narrative's dislike of AND their own dislike of Haley. A third thing: we aren't just talking about individual conscious intent here; we're talking about fandom trends. Haley is not the first female character to go through this. There's more to this, on both sides of the coin, but it's still 2am and my head hurts now.

Abuse:

Now, here, I'm going to lay down a ground rule, and that rule is that whatever you accuse me of, I will not tolerate being accused of denying the reality that women can be abusive. I've been assaulted and abused by women and AFAB people. Don't even try me.

Back to my case studies. For this, I'm going to quote from a fic in the "Not Haley Hotchner Friendly" tag to show that portrayals of Haley as abusive are misreadings of canon.

Spencer didn’t press further, waiting for Aaron to continue. “We fought a lot…on the bad days”, he murmured, looking back down at his knees. “She never understood this - our- job. [...]"

Nah. Haley very much understood Hotch's job, and Hotch knew that. In 5.09, when Rossi asks if Hotch has told Haley yet that he's going back to the BAU, Hotch says he doesn't have to and that she already knows. Haley understood the demands of the job, and what it meant to him. She understood it well enough to put up with it for a long time, even though it put a hell of a lot of stress on her.

This quote also shows a willingness to overlook Haley's side of the story. In canon, as much as it could possibly be said that Haley misunderstands the job, Hotch misunderstands her stress even more. She's essentially a single parent, by Hotch's own 5.09 admission. Once, Hotch forgot a hospital visit for what sounded like a pretty serious condition Jack had as a baby.

“Haley said I wasn't prioritizing our family. Me ”, Aaron chuckled self deprecatingly.

I love Hotch with my whole heart. I really do. But in the early seasons, he consistently made choices that showed he prioritized his work over his family, and was even willing to be pretty cruel about it (the 3.02 fight where he uses the horror of the case as leverage in an argument).

"But wait! Mikey! Remember your own note about extreme canon divergence???? What if that's what this is?" Even if it is, this writing betrays subconscious misogyny. Haley is being used as a tool to create Hotch angst instead of being considered as a well-rounded character. She's being sidelined in favor of men, and the choice to use her as Hotch's abuser when the prompt this fic was based on mentioned nothing about her is in itself a misogynistic rewriting of what was actually going on in canon.

I'm tired now but I rest my case.

#hotch;#haley;#commentary;#aaron hotchner #haley hotchner #haley brooks #cm #criminal minds #mikeyposting;

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