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Shadow has never really liked the arcade, to many loud noises and such his boyfriend was the complete opposite loving every last bit of the arcade experience. From winning jackpots to losing money Sonic would spend so much time at the arcade.
Sonic: hey wanna go to the arcade with me? be fun!
Shadow sighed he knew he would hate it if he went with any other person though as he looked over at a pair of headphones he thought about it.
Shadow: when?
Sonic: Would tomorrow be good? There’s this new HUGE arcade by this really good chili dog place. I been wanting to go for some time and think it be a good date idea!
Shadow laughed he had never told well anyone about his hate of loud noises though they never really did come up so there wasn’t really a point.
Shadow: okay. What time?
Sonic: Is twelve good for you?
Shadow: I mean I have nothing else planned so yeah.
Sonic: great! I see you there 😊
Shadow: see you.
Shadow put down his phone and stared at the wall doing the one thing he did best, thinking. He wanted to do so many other things in his free time like reading a book or watching the show he started. Though he can never finish anything he always felt like something was wrong with him for it. Shadow remembers how on the Ark he found some of… her old books. They were about this magical wolf who would turn into a puppy and help young girls with their problems. Let it be moving to a new town or spending Christmas on a cruise he read them all. He always wanted to finish the series and whenever they were requesting more supplies Shadow may or may not have written the next book in the series on that piece of paper.
But now Shadow can barely pick up a book. He looked over to his bedside table and noticed the book on it there was dust all over the front cover. Shadow sighed he wanted to read it but whenever he did he always got annoyed “why did they do THAT?!” And “when does it get to the good part” he would ask and before he knew it would put the book down for months on end. Shadow decided to get up for the day even though it was already two in the afternoon to charge up his headphones and microwave himself some lunch.
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Sonic was excited to say the least he’s been wanting to go to this arcade for such a long time and well he finally was with his favorite person. Sonic had trouble sleeping though ever since he started dating Shadow it’s been getting better, not perfect but better. Sonic told himself that he would make sure this date is perfect for him and his boyfriend.
So Sonic went into investigator mode he looked a countless photos trying to find anything wrong in the end it came up the photos were of any old arcade, so he checked videos seeing who went there and what they had to say about and again it seemed good, he checked the reviews mostly positive some people complaining about prices and how confusing but he already knew that be a problem with any arcade and, so he had one more job to make sure this place was perfect, figure out everything he can about the owners of this place and how many locations or if this is the first and are they sketchy? He checked everything, and then more.
He didn’t realize how much time had passed. It felt like an hour at most but he could never be certain. He was fully focused on this and this alone he wouldn’t let this date be anything but perfect or well he let it be better than perfect but anything else including even better than perfect wouldn’t work for Sonic. Sonic heard the birds singing and didn’t pay much attention until his phone buzzed.
Shadow: leaving now see you there.
Sonic looked at the time it was already the next day! Sonic panicked and got ready as quickly as possible so much for being perfect if he was struggling to get ready in a hurry.
Sonic: nice leaving now myself ;)
Shadow: why are you winking?
Sonic: because I love you ;)
Shadow: but wouldn’t you end every sentence in a wink then?
Sonic: I mean I CAN ;)
Shadow: aw no
Sonic: what? ;)
Shadow: that
Sonic: lol what’s wrong with my winking ;)
Shadow: I’m dating an idiot
Sonic: only realizing that now? ;)
Shadow: not really it’s just sinking in
Sonic: lol anyhow see you there! ;)
Shadow: please stop the winking
Sonic: NEVER!!! ;) ;) ;)
Shadow sighed and put his phone away and put on his headphones. He put on a playlist then another one since none of the songs he actually liked was playing on the first playlist. Shadow then realized he had no idea where this arcade was so he pulled his phone out for the third time now and pulled up the directions to this place.
Once he got there he noticed Sonic playing with his quills like always. Sonic always play with them when he’s either nervous or excited. Neither really knew which one he was feeling now.
“Hey Shadow! I thought you would never come!” Sonic remarked walking up to Shadow.
“Yeah well what can I say I like taking everything in, one breath at a time.” Shadow replied, rolling his eyes.
“Whatever you say you little Dark Chao, now come on they won’t be open all day!” Sonic said, pulling Shadow into the arcade with him.
Shadow regretted coming the second he walked in there were noises everywhere and he could barely hear his music, he was about to go home till he saw the look on his boyfriend’s face. Sonic had a huge grin. This was one of the biggest arcades he had seen, granted not as big as his dream arcade but it's a good starting point. Shadow sighed and closed his eyes, guess he just had to turn his music up even louder.
“Come on, I can get us both some cards!” Sonic finally said after a minute of staring at the two floors.
“Oh I can just-” Shadow started before being cut off by his boyfriend.
“Don’t worry bout it! My treat for the most perfect boyfriend in the world!” Sonic smiled, pulling Shadow along to get their cards to play some games.
Sonic got each of them 50 dollars worth of game points, to him it didn’t really matter how much people would just give him money for saving the day and what not even if he refused one person even tried giving Soinc their baby, yeah their BABY he sometimes wonders how that baby is doing.
“I go ahead and check out the games up stairs! Text me if you need me!” Sonic remarked after giving Shadow the game card.
Shadow pulled out his phone to text something.
Shadow: Need you.
Sonic laughed a bit before remarking, “Don’t worry you little Dark Chao, I be just a hop, jump, and a skip away worst case I can be here in just a sec!” Sonic reassured his boyfriend.
“I mean you be a staircase away which you shouldn’t really do any of those things on but okay” Shadow replied.
Sonic gave Shadow a kiss on the check, Shadow's face turned a bright red. He was used to Sonic kissing him but at the same time not it felt so nice but at the same time so weird and so wrong.
“Don’t forget to text me if you need me, you little Dark Chao!” Sonic said before running off, it felt kinda odd he spent so much time planning this date to be perfect and yet he basically just ran away almost right when they entered.
____________________
Shadow’s heart was beating so fast, he was panicking for so many reasons: the noises, the lights, all the people in one tight space, Sonic just leaving him, THE NOISES. Shadow took a deep breath in and noticed a claw machine filled with plushies of alight chao, a neutral chao, and a dark chao. Shadow let go of his breath and walked over to the craw deciding to give it a try.
It took him longer than he expected, half his points to be exact but he finally won a dark chao. He pulled his phone out and sent out a text.
Shadow: I may or may not have won you something.
Rouge: aww ty I be here at your house ;)
Shadow: wrong person sorry.
Rouge: oh don’t worry lol for your boyfriend I’m guessing.
Shadow: Why say it like that? You can just call him Sonic I mean there is no point in calling him my boyfriend.
Shadow was about to text Sonic when he realized something.
Shadow: Why are you in my house AGAIN, this is like the second time this month!
Rouge: Yes… second
Shadow: Don’t do it again :)
Rouge: Oh fuck you’re smilling look I won’t just promise you won’t do anything you regret okay please
Shadow: I won’t if you won’t break into my house again :)
Rouge: I promise
Shadow: Good.
Shadow laughed a bit to himself, everyone with half a brain knew he wouldn’t hurt anyone especially Rouge he had really grown to care about her, no everyone here. Shadow quickly went to text Sonic.
Shadow: Can you come down here real quick?
Sonic: Sure everything okay?
Shadow: Yeah, I just want to tell you something.
Sonic: Okay! Coming down right now!
Sonic had been winning the same game over and over trying to gain enough tickets to win Shadow a good prize, he knew it had to be one of the high end prizes and so he went to where one of the best games to win tickets was “tower of tickets” it required good timing, which Sonic was an expert at so he was winning standing there timing only getting better. It came to a point where a small crowd had gathered around Sonic, watching him win after win with perfect timing each and every time. Even when he got a text he went for one more game before checking his phone. He quickly got out of the crowd, luckily it was pretty essay for him. Sonic looked around before seeing his boyfriend holding something.
“Hey! What’s up other than the roof of course!” Sonic laughed while Shadow just rolled his eyes with a smile.
“I uh- I won you something” Shadow said while handing Sonic a Dark Chao plush Shadow had won.
“Aww thank you so much!” Sonic remarked holding the plush.
“I know about how you have trouble sleeping but with me how you well-”
“Fall asleep in like five minutes?”
“Yeah. I thought since you always call me your little Dark Chao, I would win you your own-”
“Thank you.” Sonic said, hugging Shadow tightly. Shadow was confused, he knew the plush would probably mean something to Sonic but this much? Guess he really did something right this time.
“You're welcome.” Shadow said after a few seconds of just standing there with Sonic glued to his chest, Shadow hugged back and rubbed his boyfriend’s back not really knowing what to do.
Sonic pulled away from Shadow’s chest after a minute or two of just hugging each other. “Let me go check how many points I have and then we can do my favorite part! Cash in for rewards!”
“Oh I uh didn’t really play anything else so I don’t think I have that many tickets.” Shadow remarked with a small smile rubbing the back of his head.
“Really? You could've texted me later or if you want we can play some togher!” Sonic turned around to face his boyfriend.
“Oh no it’s okay really I uh never been a fan of these arcade places to much noise and all the lights and such.” Shadow remarked looking down.
Sonic looked at his boyfriend, “Why didn’t you tell me? If I would have known then I wouldn’t even have asked you to come here! Not like that but well,” Sonic grabbed Shadow’s hand, “You should've told me you hated this place. I wanted to make sure it was perfect heck I got no sleep last night making sure this would be the perfect date even if the bosses are kinda sketchy. If you told me then I could help make sure it was well perfect and with us not coming here in the first place.”
“I wanted to but you were so excited and well you made me feel so loved and I was going to say something when we got here but,” Shadow looked up and locked eyes with his lover, “I saw that smile on your face, the smile that made me fall in love with an idiot, the smile that makes me feel cared about.” Shadow remarked, gripping Sonic’s gloved hand tightly.
“Hey its okay, I love you no matter what besides the only reason I wanted to even come to this arcade with you was because I thought you’ll love it but well I guess we do still have a lot to learn about each other.” Sonic remaked and boped his nose with his boyfriend’s.
“I guess that is true. Thank you for everything you blue rascal.”
“HEY Amy’s the rascal, not me!”
“Whatever you say” Shadow rolled his eyes.
Sonic won quite a few tickets, almost enough to get anything up on the top prizes.
“So what would you want if you could pick any of them?” Sonic turned and asked his boyfriend.
“Let me guess you were trying to win as many tickets as possible to get me something?” Shadow asked, looking at his boyfriend.
“No”
Before they knew it they were being asked what they wanted from the prize corner.
“I take two pairs of your light up cat ear headphones!” Sonic looked at the chao plush his own little dark Chao had won for him, “And a hero Chao plush please!”
“Here you go, game card please?” The person behind the counter asked, which Sonic listen to. “Okay here you go have a fantastic day.” They said giving Sonic back his card.
“Why do you need two pairs of those headphones?” Shadow asked.
“To give a pair to you silly!” Sonic laughed, handing him a box.
“I hate cats.”
“Oh…”
“I’m kidding, thank you.” Shadow laughed a bit. It was awkward but also cute.
“I also got this, to match the Dark Chao plush you gave me!” Sonic smiles, handing the Hero Chao plush to his boyfriend.
“Thank you,” Shadow said, looking at his boyfriend with a smile.
“It’s really nothing! Wanna go ahead and get some chili dogs?” Sonic remarked with the bright smile he always had glued onto his face.
“I would love that.” Shadow replied, hugging his new Hero Chao plush tight to his heart.
—---------------
After they ate they went to Sonic’s house and just hung around and had fun playing games with just the two of them. No bright lights, no people to bump into, no risk for Sonic to leave (other than for the bathroom and such), and the best part for Shadow, there were no loud noises.
That night they both slept peacefully, no nightmares, no staying up till four just peace full sleep with them and their two new Chao plushies.
After that night they would each take great care of their respective Chao plush and while thinking about the other would fall asleep Chao plush in arms.