Chapter Text
Shadow opened his eyes when the soft alarm from his phone tickled his ears. He grabbed it, shut it off, then laid there for a second before pushing himself up from the mattress. He would be the first one getting ready for the day, because Rouge would undoubtedly be catching as many Z’s as she could. Of the two of them, her roommate was the early riser.
The hedgehog prepared for his morning shower, walked into the washroom, and was met with a sight he’d hoped he wouldn’t have to deal with again.
A bra. Rouge’s bra. Hot pink and lined with white lace, it hung on the decorative hook sticking out of the wall, straight across from him.
Damnit… he’d told her not to leave those lying around. It’d been mentioned once before when he noticed that a bra resting on the hook – left behind from the bat’s previous shower – was becoming a regular occurrence. She said she would stop doing it, but clearly she wasn’t really listening if he was being faced with another one today. It was uncomfortable to see her undergarments out where they shouldn’t be. He’d caught himself a couple times before lingering a little too long on how big the cups were, and it made him feel like a pervert; so he would politely ignore it as much as he could.
But she said she would stop leaving them out. And she didn’t.
Annoyed at this point, Shadow decided not to be passive anymore. He was hesitant to take the bra off the hook, but it had to be done. He grabbed the strap, then went on a brief search for a piece of tape. After acquiring a small strip, he went to the bathroom door and stuck the bra by its strap to the top of the doorframe, just outside the door. Rouge would have to see it when she got up for the day and he could confront her about it then.
So, with that done, he continued his own morning routine, closing himself in the bathroom for a shower. He was drying off from his wash when he heard a feminine gasp on the other side of the door. And he knew the bickering was about to start.
Rouge couldn’t believe what she was seeing! Her own bra dangling in front of the bathroom door, a humiliating display of the underwear she’d accidentally left unattended. Tan hands snatched the brassiere, the woman’s face burning up in anger and embarrassment.
“Shadow, are you in there?! Explain to me why the hell you thought it was okay to hang up my bra like this!?”
He raised his voice to be heard through the door. “I asked you not to leave your ‘intimates’ in here.”
“Oh my god, I forgot, Mr. Grumphog! I was tired and tipsy last night, I didn’t even think about it! Seriously, you didn’t have to move my stuff like that!”
Her cheeks felt so warm she thought her face might start sweating. It wasn’t just that Shadow had moved her belongings; the bat was secretly more embarrassed that he had been bothered enough by her lingerie to remove it from the room, and that he’d had the audacity to touch the worn item at all. The thought of her underwear being held in his hands flustered her.
The door opened, and the dark hedgehog stood just past the threshold of the washroom, dragging a cream-colored towel along his neckline. He was shirtless, clad in his typical jeans, and wearing a deadpan expression on his handsome face while an earthy scent of raspberry lingered from his direction.
“I just want our space to stay tidy.”
Without another word, he walked past her, his passive visage being followed by Rouge’s teal glare.
However, Shadow wasn’t quite as blasé as he appeared.
He’d noticed the look on her face, widened eyes giving away her shock; flushed cheeks displaying how self-conscious she felt in that moment. Her resolve was clearly shaken. It was a first for him, seeing that level of vulnerability in the normally-confident woman who shared his dorm. It almost made him feel bad for being so brazen in his method of confronting the problem.
But Rouge wasn’t fragile, no matter how weakened her composure may have been. Even while angry at her roommate, her brain couldn’t ignore the primal urge to peek at his figure when he passed by; she didn’t dare do it when he could still see her, but once his face was out of sight, her view fixed onto his back.
Accompanying long sturdy spines were lines of toned muscle on a lean figure. His fur was sleek and shiny from the shower, still ever-so-slightly damp and boasting a darker hue than usual. She never saw him working out, but thought he must be, judging by the definition etched into his body. He was hot – entirely too hot to be escalating these types of situations, because it threw Rouge off her game for once. As many times as she’d teased him before, the hedgehog had found a way to get her, too. She hoped he didn’t recognize it. She wanted to have the advantage most of the time!
When she realized her breathing had gotten heavier, Rouge clutched the bra tighter and shook herself out of the amorous daze before he could catch her looking at him. Then, she rushed into the bathroom, closing the door to slump against it and immediately slapping her palm onto her face. She groaned under her breath, feeling the heat of humiliation beneath her skin. What a crappy way to start her morning…
*****
Later that day, after finishing her classes, Rouge returned to her dorm room. She made it back before Shadow, walking into a quiet room with only the sound of her heels clicking through the space. She went to use the bathroom, pausing outside the door as she was reminded of what happened that morning.
Irritation panged her heart just thinking about it, and she turned red all over again while fuming at the gall her roommate had to upset her the way he did. Why was it such a big deal to him, anyway? It wasn’t like one bra in the washroom made things messy, and why was it so hard for him to just ignore it? Shadow was more prudish than her, but he was an adult, too! Couldn’t he rationalize that it was just a piece of clothing and leave it be? She hadn’t even left it behind on purpose, but the first time she forgot her promise, he made sure to embarrass her with it. He was trouble, keeping to himself so much only to suddenly do something so uncalled for and…
Rouge sighed. Even she knew she was being a bit bratty, now; because she couldn’t pretend like her bra was just a piece of clothing. If it was, she wouldn’t have gotten so worked up over it. It certainly wouldn’t have bugged her the same way if it was just a shirt. And she couldn’t act like Shadow was some pervy loner just to make herself feel better. She knew him too well to seriously think that.
Still… he did humiliate her. And it was still bugging her. She couldn’t just let him get away with that. The necessity for a good prank to pull had her walking around the dorm, scanning the area and mulling over what she could do to embarrass him or tick him off a little.
She couldn’t do anything that would make a mess – that would prove him right, and the clean-up would be a pain anyway – nor could she try something that required luring him to participate. It had to be low-effort. Casual. Something that didn’t need to be set off by a trap.
Her blue-green gaze fell onto the couch that rested in their shared living area. The longer she stared at it, the more an idea started to formulate in her head. A sly smile crept across her muzzle as the bat thought up a way to mess with the hedgehog without much chance of it backfiring. It would require calling in some favours, but she figured it would be worth it. Because she knew it would get into that stubborn man’s head.
She would get him back, alright.
*****
Carrying a small carton of french fries and half a cup of soda leftover from his fast food dinner, Shadow maneuvered to open his dorm door without dropping anything. He took a single step forward before being stopped in his tracks at the sight of his pretty roommate approaching to leave the room.
Her fingers were tugging at the shirt that lay lopsided on her chest, readjusting it to sit properly. Her snowy white hair was disheveled, strands sticking out in ways she usually never allowed them to. And there was a satisfied smile on her tan face. His heart skipped a beat for some reason unknown to him.
“Oh, hey, Shadow,” she greeted, walking past him. “Hope you don’t mind, I had a guest. He passed out on the couch for a nap, so try not to wake him up, ‘kay?”
Shadow didn’t even have time to process what she’d just said before she cheekily snatched a fry and turned her back to leave. Bewildered, he watched the bat run her free fingers through her rebellious curls in an attempt to tame them while she strutted confidently down the hall. Then he turned his attention back to his dorm, wondering who the hell was in there. He was already annoyed that Rouge invited someone over, but even worse was the quandary of why she was okay leaving him alone in their place.
When he looked over at the sofa, he saw a mess of tussled violet quills splaying in all directions from underneath a blanket and lying on a pillow. He could hear soft snoring coming from the tired stranger. It made his annoyance jump to irritation, the hedgehog suddenly fretting over what Rouge and this other student had been doing while he was gone. Was this guy even a student? Or was he – Chaos forbid – someone who didn’t even attend the school, coming over to do… whatever, and then crash on their couch? The thought made Shadow scoff to himself, upset enough at the whole thing to tense up and grind his teeth together.
But, he soothed himself as well as he could, opting to try and ignore it as he reminded himself that Rouge was her own person. He recognized he shouldn’t care about who or what she did, but he also made a mental note to have a talk with her about not letting randoms stay in their dorm alone… and about not hooking up in their living room, just in case that was something he had to worry about, too. Not trusting the other man enough to sequester himself in his room, Shadow decided to finish his dinner where he could keep an eye out. He sat in the chair that rested near the couch and pulled his MP3 player out of his jacket pocket, putting in just one earbud to listen to music while he ate. He had to leave the other earbud out in case the stranger woke up. That annoyed him, too.
The music distracted him for a little bit, but it wasn’t enough to keep the frustration at bay. The light snoring started getting to him, as it prevented him from ignoring the bitter feelings he had about Rouge hooking up with someone. He couldn’t see anything of the guest besides his quills, so he had to wonder: what did she see in this guy? Unless he was some secret boyfriend, Shadow had no reason to think she knew him that well; he’d never seen him before. Was he stunningly handsome or charming? Someone she met while out partying, maybe? He groaned after swallowing the last of his food, already drained from the questions filling his head. He emptied the drink as well and then threw away the trash, sitting back down in the chair and raising the volume on his music player to try and drown out the concerns.
But he couldn’t help staring at the lump lying on their sofa, occupying their space… and eventually, aggravating the shit out of him with that damn snoring! He grew annoyed enough to turn off his music and walk over to the couch, then reached out and shook the man’s shoulder. In his attempt to wake him, Shadow’s voice came out harsh and clipped.
“Hey. Whoever you are, you can’t sleep here, so I need you to-”
Then a realization hit him that what he was shaking didn’t feel or move like an actual person. It was more malleable than a shoulder should be, and the snoring hadn’t stopped or stuttered at all. He pulled the blanket down and saw that what he’d grabbed wasn’t a shoulder, but a firm pillow.
“What the…”
Perplexed and displeased, he grabbed the purple quills and picked them up, feeling no resistance and discovering that it was actually a wig set! The moulded head it sat on was still laying on the pillow, bald now. Shadow felt his face flush hot with anger, and when he tossed the wig back onto the sofa, he found that the snoring sound was coming from a little tape recorder sitting between the wig head and the cushion. Embarrassment washed over him, and then he was offended that Rouge would do this. It was clearly a prank meant to rile him up, and it – infuriatingly enough – worked like a charm.
The hedgehog began to feel bashful that he had been jealous of the stranger. Impulsively, he locked onto the urge to confront his roommate about this transgression, stomping off to go find her. But when he stepped out of the dorm, he immediately saw Rouge standing there with a mischievous grin on her face.
“So, you met Vinny?” she asked, barely holding back a laugh. She was much more put together, her hair smoothed down again, and he hated that she still looked so beautiful to him even though she was nearly giggling in his face.
His cheeks were still hot as he replied, “What the hell, Rouge? Was that your idea of a joke?!”
She couldn’t hold back her chuckles anymore, bursting into laughter strong enough to make her eyes squeeze shut. Shadow glared deeply at her while she howled, “Oh, this sight is worth it!” She had to rein in her gleeful cackling to add between breaths, “Your face is so red!”
Distressed, he tried to collect himself, meanwhile Rouge recovered from her giggle fit.
She wiped a joyful tear from her glistening eye and walked past him, claiming, “That’s for embarrassing me this morning.”
Shadow followed behind and scoffed, a hefty puff of exasperation leaving his parted lips.
“That’s not fair. All I did was remind you to keep our place clean. This is just petty.”
“Ohh, were you jealous?” the lady teased, picking up the wig from the sofa and smoothing out the quills.
“No!” he answered a little too quickly and a little too loudly. He shoved his hands into his jacket pockets. “I was just… concerned that you were going to let a stranger stay here unsupervised.”
Rouge gazed at him, smirking with an eyebrow lowered.
“Sure, that was your worry. I believe ya, Shad.”
He silently cursed her bewitching looks as she turned away to pick up the wig head. Her pretty face and sultry voice were making it more difficult for him to properly express his frustration, and the smooth swaying motions of her curvy figure weren’t helping, either. He growled a little under his breath and crossed his arms.
“How did you get that stuff, anyway?”
“Friends,” she answered nonchalantly, putting the wig back on the head. Then she dragged her eyes to him and teased, “People let you borrow things when they like you.”
“Tch,” Shadow scoffed, looking away. For once, he couldn’t get his thoughts straight enough to say what was on his mind or to continue scolding her. He wouldn’t admit it out loud, but the bat had gotten him good. The only thing he could do now was isolate and regroup, away from her vexing ways and beguiling eyes.
He pulled the earbuds out from his jacket and turned towards his bedroom. “Whatever,” he grumbled, putting both earbuds in.
A prank wasn’t the classiest move, but Rouge was pleased with the results. Maybe, judging by his reaction, it had been a little too rough on the brooding man who Rouge reasoned – jokingly, for the most part – must be completely smitten with her. But, he would recover just fine after a night of sulking and sleep. It really was cute, and kind of endearing, how he’d clearly gotten jealous of her ‘visitor.’
She watched Shadow walk to his room, her glossy smile growing when she saw the noticeable shade of red still coloring his cheeks.