Archive of Our Own ^beta

Chapter Text

If there was one thing Amy loved, it was Friday night. Her female friends would come over after a long week and eat takeout while complaining about work or watching a movie—and on occasion—treat themselves to the at-home spa experience. Tonight was a mix of all three. Blaze needed to let off tension from her royal duties, Rouge wanted to primp and preen herself for the date night she had after work tomorrow, and Amy was not in the mood to cook.

“I just CANNOT comprehend how Sol-damned IDIOTIC you have to BE to FORGET to tell the PERSON WITH PYROMANCY that the CARPET is FLAMMABLE! And then proceed to PISS me the FUCK OFF!! The fire powers aren’t a SECRET!” The purple cat vented, flopping face down onto Amy’s decorative couch pillow with a huff, tail twitching. Rouge lifted a cucumber slice off her eye to regard the raving royal, reaching over to pat Blaze between the ears, which flicked down at the contact.

“Sounds like someone set you up to fail. Did you tear him a new one?” the bat asked, replacing the cucumber on her eyes. She continued to pet their upset friend, her wings expanding and draping lightly over the cat as an additional form of comfort. Judging by the stiff way Blaze’s tail was flicking, she desperately needed it. Soon, the tail fell flat against her back, and the royal finally burnt out.

“What benefit would that give?" Amy asked as she re-entered the room wielding a tray with everybody's food plated just so. "Mainly just looks like bad planning on their part." The plates themselves were from another girls’ night activity at a pottery studio, and they made the pink hedgehog smile fondly every time they used them. Kneeling by Blaze's side she waved the spicy curry by the side of her head, trying to entice her out of the pillow. The cat took the plate from her, sitting up and resting it on her lap as she grabbed a set of napkin-wrapped cutlery from the tray. At the sound of Amy’s arrival with the food, Rouge got up to toss her cucumbers out and wash the clay facemask she’d been wearing off before she tucked into her personal pizza.

“Thanks  Amy… and, honestly? I haven't the faintest idea if it was on purpose and I don't really care. People could have gotten hurt if I’d caught fire .”

Regardless of the running water from the bathroom, the bat responded to the cat’s concerns. “Please! You've got the most control over your powers. You wouldn’t have caught fire.”

"Still, if I'd gotten too hot—"

Seeing the start of a spiral, Amy intervened by picking a fry off her plate and tossing it at the cat, who caught it in her mouth. “I agree. You probably have the most conscious control over your powers. Even when we sneak up on you on accident, you just kinda get all fluffy. I've never once been worried you’d lob a fireball at me, even when you were REALLY angry. Meanwhile, I get spooked by a centipede and suddenly have an open concept floor plan!”

“I can't count the times that Knuckles has tried to wake me up in the morning and ended up halfway down the hall,” Rouge added, words somewhat muffled by the towel she was using to dry her face.

“You guys are sweet. But I don’t think I have more self-control than someone like Shadow.  I imagine they’ve really got to keep a lock on their emotions,” the cat pointed out between bites of curry, tilting her head in confusion as Rouge started laughing.

“I mean, I don't think you're being fair. They have excellent control because of the inhibitors, they can’t hold themself back through sheer will the way you can. As much as they wish they could,” Amy commented, taking a bite of her portabello mushroom burger.

“And they’ve also repressed every emotion except for anger for the past what? 10 years? I’ve been trying to get them to relax some, but they’re as closed off as ever. In all these years of working together, I think I’ve seen them smile maybe ONCE,” Rouge complained.

Blaze considered it for a moment before asking, “... Was it that time Sonic missed the grind rail and faceplanted into a ramp at Mach two?”

“Yeah. To be fair we all lost it after we were sure he was okay.”

Amy hummed in general disagreement, swallowing her food and looking at Rouge with a little bit of apprehension. “What do you mean? Shadow smiles all the time.”

Attention piqued and pizza forgotten, Rouge raised an eyebrow at Amy. “Oh yeah? When was the last time you saw them smile?”

“At lunch last week. I found those expensive coffee beans they like on sale, so I grabbed like two packages… which I'm sure are gone by now… and they smiled. It's very subtle, and mostly you can see it in their eyes. An actual smile, but not like the kind that splits your face. Just a little one you could miss if you blinked.”

That earned her two very surprised looks from the women she was seated across from.

“I didn’t realize you two were that close,” Blaze admitted, to which Amy just shrugged.

“Do you know how—” Rouge started, only to be cut off by Amy.

“Yes, I am aware that they just munch on the beans straight, no I don't get it either. But it made them happy, and that’s the important thing. Anyways, what are we watching?” Amy asked, turning on the tv and navigating to the streaming services.

Blaze was purring into her curry, delighted by the warm meal and nudging Rouge to start eating before her pizza went cold. The bat wasn’t about to let go of the fact that Amy had studied Shadow enough to learn their ‘happy’ indicators, but it was a line of thinking that could wait for another time. 

“How about the Bachelorette? I want to talk shit about some very pretty men,” Rouge demanded, and with Blaze’s approval Amy dimmed the lights and turned on the show.

On the list of many… many things that Shadow hates, Friday nights settled themselves into the top five quite easily.

Technically, it was just the male portion of Team Sonic in the apartment they shared with Rouge and Omega. But Shadow would refuse to show up to the workshop or the bar the boys usually wanted to meet at, so Rouge had given Knuckles a key. Now every Friday they had to put up with Sonic’s bullshit.

They protested that they weren’t a pet that needed exposure, but Rouge refused to hear reason. Then, they’d protested that they weren’t a ‘boy’; which had led to an entirely DIFFERENT conversation and some personal development they hadn’t signed up for. That didn’t get them out of it either, because it was changed from “Boys” night to “Everyone But the Girls” Night.

Damn everyone for being understanding AND stubborn.

Tails was working overtime, leaving Shadow feeling even more outnumbered than usual. Normally when they became overwhelmed with the noise or frustrated with the blue and red males in their personal space the yellow fox was an acceptable distraction, willing to prattle on about any and all of his current projects at a volume Shadow’s enhanced hearing could stand.

Tonight Sonic had brought in two boxes of pizza and a case of soda, and Shadow was collecting the plates from the kitchen. They forwent the cutlery as Sonic and Knuckles didn't use any and Shadow had been shamed out of their tendency to eat everything with a knife and fork years before.

“If either of you gets ANY mess on the furniture—” Shadow started as they walked into the living room, only to be cut off abruptly by the blue blur.

“Yeah, yeah, yeah, you’ll put us six feet under. Do you have to say that EVERY time we show up here?”

The hybrid shoved the plates into Sonic’s hands. “I was going to say Rouge would send you to the stratosphere, but that works too. And yes, for as long as you let yourselves into MY apartment, I AM going to say it”

“I mean, I sleep here about as much as you do.” Knuckles piped up from the couch, motioning for Sonic to give him the plates.

Shadow rolled their eyes and made their way to the echidna, the other offering a plate of pizza and a can which they turned down. “You sleep here more, in both senses of the word. Most nights I lack the need to sleep, and on the nights I do need rest, you and Rouge are so FUCKING LOUD that I would find better sleep on a highway overpass. But MY name is on the lease and I pay rent, so it is still MY apartment.”

Knuckles smiled apologetically and Sonic punched him in the arm as he grabbed his own pizza. “So rude, Knucklehead.  All those years whining about respecting the peace and tranquility of Angel Island, but the second you get into an apartment you wake the owner? For shame!”

Shadow just grabbed a handful of coffee beans from the bag they’d grabbed before entering the room, enjoying the crunch as they tossed the remote at Knuckles. They didn't really care about what they watched, knowing it would probably be some action movie with a fast pace that could hold Sonic’s attention. Would it be too much to watch a documentary every once in a while?

“I blame the super hearing on that one… but I am sorry about that. Tails is working on some advanced soundproofing so you can't hear us, and so Rouge doesn't wake up every time Omega updates with his volume on or your neighbours use their blender.”

“Where IS Omega anyways? Maintenance again?” Sonic asked, looking toward the small side room Omega had claimed as his own, which was open and dark, indicating the robot wasn’t present

“Mission,” Shadow said, swallowing to not talk with their mouth full.

“And you didn't take the opportunity to go? I’m touched, I think they actually like us, Knux!”

“No, I asked. It was a week-long mission that would have conflicted with something else on my calendar, so I am forced to keep your company,” they retorted, exasperated as they tossed another handful of beans into their mouth.

“We love you too, ultimate pain in the ass— WAIT are you eating just… straight up coffee beans?” Sonic asked, pizza hanging limply between his hand and his mouth.

“You’ve never seen them do that? They’re pretty good if not a little bitter… but I thought Rouge didn't want you buying them anymore cause they were expensive and she hates the noise of you crunching?” Knuckles pointed out.

The dark hog swallowed again, rolling their eyes. “One, she is not the boss of me. Two, she is not in the house. Three, I was gifted these.”

That got both males' attention a little. Sonic’s ears perked. If Knuckles' were visible, Shadow imagined they would be doing much the same. The echidna was the first to speak. “You have friends who aren’t us? I’m shocked. Who are they?”

"I just admitted I would rather be shot at than spend any more time socializing with the likes of you two; let alone consider you friends. You just happen to be in my home and I am not allowed to remove you." Shadow scoffed, popping another smokey bean into their mouth. Sonic groaned in frustration, hands wiping his face dramatically as Knuckles accepted the familiar response with a shrug and picked up the remote to begin flipping through the channels once again. 

"Look, Shadow. I get the whole 'Leave me alone to brood' persona you've got going on and all, but you gotta have at least somebody you hang with, right?" the blue hog prompted.

“...Are you going to keep bothering me until I give you an answer?”

“Yup! You said it yourself, you can't kick us out of here even though you wanna.”

“If it gets you to shut the hell up and pick something, fine. It was Rose, she gave them to me when we met for lunch last week.”

Sonic snorted. “Yeah, sounds like Amy. Lemme guess, she dragged you to that 60s-themed diner on Fifth she adores. The chilidogs there are awful but she loves the ‘aesthetic’,” he pointed out, to which Knuckles nodded. The mention of their pink friend had gotten his attention. He wasn’t aware that the pair hung out socially, but it was just like her to arrange lunch just to bring someone a present she had for them.

“I mean, I like the food there just fine. The waitresses are always so chatty though, it's annoying! I usually only take her there on her birthday. What did you think, Shadow?”

The dark hog raised an eyebrow at the pair in what was—for them—an expression of surprise, before swallowing the mouthful of beans they’d stuffed in there. “I have not been in the diner. We went to our usual restaurant. I will have to suggest the diner next time if she does enjoy it as much as you say. Are you going to pick something or not?”

Knuckles recovered from this new information first and switched from channel surfing to a streaming service. There was a message on the account that popped up in the corner of the screen, which was a recommendation from Amy for a documentary about professional car races. Attached was the simple message “For Friday so you don’t kill each other <3”

All parties satisfied, Knuckles turned the documentary on and settled in with dinner.

Chapter Text

The next Friday went the same as usual. Amy got off work, came home to the texts from Rouge and Blaze with their orders, and placed them. Then she changed from her dress pants and blouse to her fluffiest pyjamas and bunny slippers.

This week they all ordered pasta from a local specialty place, so the order arrived before the bat or cat did and was kept warm in the oven. At the sound of a knock Amy bounced to the door, throwing it open to reveal Rouge, who was happy to fall against Amy with a huff when hugged. Her wings tucked around the hog and were slapped gently by Amy’s wagging tail.

“Being so stunning is so hARRD,” Rouge whined, much to Amy’s amusement.

“Oh, you poor baby bat. Go take your makeup off and change. You’ll feel better,” the pink hog insisted, taking Rouge’s bag and coat and ushering her upstairs.

“Thank youuuu,” she called over her shoulder, doing just as advised and changing out of her work clothes into leggings and one of Knuckles’ shirts. Searching through her purse, Rouge grew frustrated.

“Amy, can I borrow some makeup remover? I forgot mine.”

“Yeah, sure! Wipes are in the top drawer, the cleansing balm is behind the mirror, and if you want liquid remover instead it’s in my room on my dresser!”

“You’re a gem!” the bat called out, putting her loungewear on and walking into Amy’s bedroom. 

Rouge rarely went into Amy’s room unattended, mainly to respect the hedgehog’s privacy. She’d tried to help Amy find a dress for a first date several years before, but the decor hadn’t been her focus. Now she could take her time looking over the space. It was simple and chic; mostly natural wood, white, and pink. Classy, yet light and feminine. Her walls were adorned with art and postcards from friends and pictures of the whole group of them. The level of purposeful clutter was enough to make the room warm and cozy.

Finding the dresser she grabbed the bottle she was searching for, but as she turned to leave the room a flash of light caught her eye. A set of snowglobes sparkled in the golden light of the sunset, throwing chromatic reflections around the room. Had they been here last time?

No, the dresser had been bare so they could throw the reject pile on it.

“Spagonia… Holoska… Empire City?” Rouge asked no one in particular, turning each upside down to watch the sparkles and glitter fall over the monuments inside.  The sound of the door opening and Blaze’s whines alerted her that she should probably finish removing her makeup so the cat could use the washroom to change.

Once Blaze was finished and they’d all settled down with their dinners, the bat turned to Amy. “So I saw the snowglobes on your nightstand. I thought you didn't have the time to leave the country with how busy the Restoration has gotten?”

“Oh! Yeah, they're great. I haven't been able to get out to go save the world like everyone else, so Shadow’s been bringing me them when you guys go on long missions,” she replied, tail wagging as she dug into her pasta.

Rouge thought about that information. Those were the last three continents they’d been stationed on. Missions usually had limited downtime, but Shadow didn't need sleep and could have easily snuck away to purchase something. Especially something so... tourist-y. The thought of the brooding hog in any souvenir shop sent her into a fit of laughter that she waved off when it earned her glances.

“Wait, haven't you been to all those places before? When that thing with dark Gaia happened?” Blaze asked, thinking through all the stories Amy and the others had told over the years. 

Amy blushed and played with twirling the long pasta around her fork. “I have but… well it's kinda personal.”

“You don’t have to tell us if you don’t want to,” Blaze assured, Rouge nodding as well.

“No, it's fine. Just… When I was a little girl and my dad… well, he was a blacksmith and would have to go on long trips to deliver his work to clients or source materials, often to less than safe locations. When he came back, he would bring my mom a snowglobe from wherever he’d gone. They’d been doing that since the first trip he’d taken when they started dating. With the timezone changes, it was hard for them to even talk over the phone, so it was his way of saying ‘I missed you and I was thinking of you’. Mom thought they were a lucky charm that would make sure he came home. Our house had them in the main room on a shelf he’d built just for them and I used to stare at them for hours and beg my dad to help me flip them all over at once, but there were far too many for that. They all got destroyed when…”

Amy paused, trying not to choke on the tears building in her throat. After she drank some water and took a deep breath she continued.

“I meant to grab some when I went traveling the world last time, but we were saving the planet from imminent destruction so there wasn't time,” she said quietly, smiling down fondly at her food as she relived the memories, eyes misty with tears threatening to fall.

Rouge reached over to pat Amy on the leg. “Thank you for telling us, honey. I know this stuff isn’t easy for you. I take it you also told Shadow this story?”

Amy nodded a little, sniffling. “I was having a hard time around the anniversary of their..." Amy swallowed, “...last year, more so than usual, and Shadow was sweet enough to come to check in on me. They took care of me for a few days; made soup and listened to everything I said, even when I wasn’t making any sense… Gaia, I probably cried on them for hours. The next time you guys went on a mission, they brought me back a snow globe. And I cried on them again. I thought it was a one-off but they’ve been keeping up every time you’ve left for more than a few days.”

“Wow… that’s…” Rouge started, voice dying out as she looked at Blaze and realized the cat had let tears track down her face just like Amy had, despite all efforts to avoid doing so.

Right, two orphans are in the room. Time to play emotional support bat and give out the hugs.  

Rouge set everyone’s plates aside and dragged Blaze to the floor so she could toss a wing over each friend and offer them the hugs they both needed. She only let them go once the sniffles stopped.

“That's such a precious tradition… and not at all what I’d expect from Shadow. They don’t seem super sentimental,” Blaze said, after clearing her throat. She’d lost her parents at roughly the same age, but she had a palace full of memories. She couldn't imagine not having that reminder of them.

Amy wiped at her eyes with a tissue and giggled “Yeah. I wasn’t expecting it, but maybe I should have been. They’ve always been understanding with delicate stuff like grief.”

“Well yeah, but I also meant letting you cry on them. I thought they were pretty averse to being touched,” Blaze pointed out, taking a sip of her water. Rouge looked even more surprised with every piece of information Amy revealed about her teammate.

“I have lived with that hedgehog for TEN years and have gotten ONE hug. Even then I think they wanted to crawl out of their skin. They do NOT know how to deal with other people touching them for long periods and with something as full-body contact as a hug. I think you broke them,” Rouge joked, trying to brighten the mood a little.

Amy seemed to think about that. “I mean, when I hugged them on Prison Island when we first met, they didn't seem angry or upset, just confused. Even now, they're not super resistant to hugs, and if I ask for one they usually oblige. They’re very soft!” Amy said simply, which had her friends at each other in confusion.

With that, Amy started the documentary about cursed jewelry they’d settled on and dimmed the lights. Rouge noted that Amy was giving the TV her full attention, so she probably wouldn’t notice Rouge and Blaze texting each other from the same couch.

[Rouge]: 1) Are you okay?
[Rouge]: 2) How the FUCK did she get SHADOW to enjoy HUGS?

[Blaze]: I’m fine. Just feel lucky I have my parents’ things.
[Blaze]: It is kinda shocking but… I mean, it's Amy. She gives really good hugs.

[Rouge]: I guess. But also the snowglobe thing??? That’s so romantic!

[Blaze]: It's very sweet. I should maybe grab her one from my home too.

[Rouge]: Good idea, I’m sure she would love that.
[Rouge]: Actually maybe check in with her first? I think if you just gave her one she would cry

“Amy?” Blaze interrupted the silence, waiting for the hog to look her way. “Would you like it if I grabbed you a snowglobe from my home?”

“You're so sweet Blaze, but I’d rather keep it between me and Shadow. Makes me feel closer to the spirit of the tradition,” she said, returning her attention to the show. Blaze and Rouge made eye contact yet again, with matching expressions of confusion. 

[Rouge]: This seems like much more than just a little tradition to make her happy and more like a grand gesture of something.
[Rouge]: “I was thinking about you and I miss you?” The hugs? The crying? The SOUP?? We are rapidly departing from strictly platonic.
[Rouge]: Do you think this is them trying to confess that they LIKE her?

[Blaze]: I don't know Rouge, they could just be good friends!

[Rouge]: Like you and Silver, right? Didn’t they get your mom’s wedding jewelry fixed long before you started dating?

[Blaze]: Oh my SOL they're in love with her.
[Blaze]: What do we do? Tell her? That feels invasive.
[Blaze]: She probably already knows. They’re not very subtle.

[Rouge]: Amy's shit at telling when people like her, remember that guy at HQ that had the hots for her for like… a year? He asked her out on a date TWICE and she STILL thought he was just being nice.
[Rouge]: Yes it’ is meddling but she clearly cares about them!
[Rouge]: Do I text Shadow about this?

[Blaze]: Maybe not. I feel like asking directly is gonna get us killed or they’ll shut her out.

[Rouge]: I’ll ask the boys if they know anything. Sonic will be able to tell if Amy’s into Shadow, and I’ve got a plan to see how they feel.

With Tails missing out on another meet-up for work, Shadow was considering asking Sonic if his not-so-baby brother was mad at them. Either way, they found themselves on their couch again with the primary-coloured idiots, wishing they could just curl up with the latest book on astronomy that they’d borrowed from Amy.

Knuckles got to pick the movie this time, and as he skimmed through the recommendations he came across the whole catalogue of romantic and cliche movies about couples who danced around each other in a comedy of errors until they confessed at New Year’s.

“Why the hell are these in your recommended section? You got a soft side?” Knuckles joked, getting a deep huff from Shadow in response.

“Rose must have watched them when she was house sitting for us in December. I do not get the point of these movies. The plots are obvious and cliche, the actors all look like they want to die, and they are so unrealistic. Real New Year's Eve’s are nowhere near as dramatic,” Shadow commented, to which Sonic shook his head.

“Because you’re always sober. If you could get drunk, you'd like them a lot more. Didn't we all get super wasted on the punch at last year’s party? I woke up on Vanilla’s roof, and we had the party at my place,” the blue blur pointed out.

Knuckles winced a little at the memory, “Yeah, Rouge and I nearly ended up in every snowbank between there and here. And even then I think we tried to go into your neighbour’s apartment. They were pretty nice about it once they realized we were shitfaced. What did you end up doing, Shadow? Pretty sure you left before we did.”

The dark hog scoffed and picked up the empty soda can on the floor. “Cleaning up as best I could so Miles did not have to deal with it. Then, I took Rose home.”

“Oh that must have SUCKED for you, Amy is VERY touchy on New Year’s. She’s a lightweight and is obsessed with the whole “romantic” concept of a kiss at midnight. Did she get you in a death grip? Attempt to squeeze you out of your pelt? Got you confused with me and went in for the smooch?” the blue hog teased a little. Shadow rolled their eyes and bristled their quills just a tad.

“She has not confused us since you spin dashed her heart like a badnik,” Shadow pointed out, making Knuckles snort a little as he kept looking through movies.

“Hey! I regret how I went about it, I apologized and we’re cool now!” the blue hog complained, huffing a little as Shadow poked at the sensitive topic, before deciding to taunt the other back. “So what DID you two end up doing? Frenching on her couch? Or did you just take her straight to bed?”

“HEY!” both Shadow and Knuckles yelled.

Shadow had turned a little green as they blushed from the implications Sonic was making, now bristling for sure. Knuckles glared at Sonic for being crass and upsetting their host, but also looked over at the dark hog to give his best ‘overprotective big brother’ look. Shadow turned away from them both to hide how well Sonic’s taunt had worked to unsettle them.

“Nothing happened. We watched the fireworks on TV until she fell asleep and then I spent the night on her couch because I dreaded coming back here and walking in on Knuckles and Rouge AGAIN.”

“Sorry,” The echidna said, eyes flicking away and back to the TV selection.

“It is fine.”

Sonic was about to start another taunt with a “So if she hadn’t been drunk-” when he got a text and pulled his phone out to answer it

[Rouge]: hey blue
[Rouge]: do you think something’s going on between Shadow and Amy?

[Sonic]: I think something might be up
[Sonic]:  not sure what.
[Sonic]: They took her home at the New Year’s party
[Sonic]: and they aren't DENYING that she was cuddly
[Sonic]: just that they didn't do anything Knuckles wouldn’t approve of.

[Rouge]: Amy gets hugs from them pretty frequently. They were probably used to it at that point. Anyways I wanna test something. Can you make sure Shadow picks up when I call and keep an eye on both their reactions?

[Sonic]: okay, what am I looking for?

[Rouge]: Watch her expression for that lovesick look and watch their body language for any notable changes. If you’ve pissed them off they should relax significantly when I hand the phone over to her.

The blue hog tucked his phone away, confused over the bat’s scheme. A few seconds later, the dark hedgehog’s phone vibrated with a call from the table and they picked up when they saw the caller ID.

“What?”

‘Hi to you too, sunshine. I was wondering if you could check the living room for a green bottle of face mask, about the size of a toothpaste tube?” the bat’s voice cooed through the phone. With all three looking around, Sonic was able to take advantage of the distraction to get behind Shadow and watch the screen, which was currently just focused on Rouge.

“Not here,” Shadow shook his head, Sonic doing the same thing and shrugging in Rouge's direction, unsure if she could even see him.

“Not here either, sorry batgirl,” Knuckles called from the other side of the room.

“Are you sure you did not bring it with you?” the dark hog asked, annoyed minorly at his roommate.

“I’ll check again. Here, talk to Amy.”

The phone was shoved into the pink hedgehog’s hands, Amy nearly dropping it before centring it on her face. Sonic watched Rouge’s prediction come to life, Shadow’s bristling settling down and the tension slipping from their shoulders instantly as Amy gave Shadow one of her sweetest smiles.

A very sweet smile.

A very familiar smile.

The smile he’d been seeing from the first day he saved her.

The smile she’d stopped giving him a few years ago when he broke her heart.

That was the look of Amy In Love.

He wasn't even listening into their conversation now, noting the way Amy hung off Shadow’s words, and laughed at things they said. They didn't make jokes but he supposed she found their dry humour entertaining. Conversely, Shadow wasn't even flicking an ear in his or Knuckles’ direction, attention captured by the girl on the other end of the call.

Sonic made his way back to his seat, reaching for his phone to pretend to scroll and waiting for the phone call to end. Amy said goodnight with such a familiar tone and giggle, cut off by Shadow putting their phone down after a click. The movie of choice was selected, one of the classic escape-the-ancient-temple action films that Knuckles liked to hate-watch.

[Rouge]: thoughts?

[Sonic]: HOLY FUCK
[Sonic]: When the fuck did THAT happen?
[Sonic]:  more importantly,
[Sonic]: why havent they made a move yet??
[Sonic]: shes so into them its giving me flashbacks

[Rouge] my thoughts exactly. They aren't even subtle! And that isn't even all the information we got out of Amy!

[Sonic]: Whats the plan?
[Sonic]: and dont tell me you dont have one.
[Sonic]: I know you do.

[Rouge]: convince them to get together. Tell Knuckles

Shadow had gone to check on an updating Omega, leaving Sonic time to grab Knuckles tightly by the arm.

“Knuckles, Rouge and I think Shadow and Amy have a thing for each other. She said there's more information she will tell us later, but I think she’s right.”

“Uh… what?” the echidna said, blindsided by the topic of conversation.

“Think about it. She loves that diner, but because they might be uncomfortable she took them elsewhere. The coffee beans. Spending New Year’s with them?”

“That doesn't mean-”

“What did she do last year on New Year’s?”

“... She didn’t show,” the echidna pointed out quietly. “She stayed at home and didn’t pick up her phone.”

“And she’s been doing that every year since…” Sonic prompted, trying to lead Knuckles to the point.

“You broke her heart?”

“I don’t want to fight you on this again. It was a conversation we needed to have. Regardless, this is the first year she’s shown up for the whole event in ages.”

The echidna scoffed, clearly unsettled by the memory of consoling a sobbing Amy. “And this matters why?”

“When they were on the phone, she was giving Shadow the Look. Like, all the eyelash fluttering and other things she did when she was into me. I know what an emotionally involved Amy looks like, Knuckles. She’s got it really bad.”

Knuckles wrinkled his nose a little, regarding the other with suspicion and doubt.

“If you don’t believe me that's fine, Rouge wants to meet up and talk about the information Amy gave her. If Shadow is as interested as Amy is, we’d be doing them a disservice by NOT getting them together. And since neither has made a move by now, despite it being really obvious, we need to give them a little push. Come on, it’ll be fun.”

Knuckles made an unsure noise, but Shadow came back before he could continue the conversation. He would have to wait until Rouge got home.

Chapter Text

The next Friday broke their usual pattern. Rouge and Blaze made work-based excuses as to why they wouldn’t be showing up at Amy’s house, and Sonic and Knuckles just let Shadow win their usual argument about if they should show up or not. The dark hog was too enthused by their victory and a free evening to question anything, and Amy had pointed out she and Shadow could just hang out together instead. Judging by the video Amy sent of Shadow getting some flour tossed in their face, they were baking at her house.

Instead, the rest met up at Sonic and Tails’ workshop to formulate their plan. The yellow vulpine was nowhere to be seen and everyone looked to his older brother for an explanation. Sonic brushed off their concerns with a noncommittal handwave.

“He’s probably just going for a flight to clear his head, been working a LOT lately. He said he’ll be back by midnight. Tails didn’t want to help with this anyways. I mentioned it to him and he thinks it’s a bad idea. But he’s 18 and hasn’t started dating yet, so what does he know about relationships?” The blue hog said with a shrug, looking at the whiteboard he’d pulled out and written a few points on. Rouge had matched his points with some of her own, the board a mess of pink and black lines as they puzzled over both hedgehogs’ inner thoughts and motivations.

“Okay, so, from the top. We know that Amy has probably been in love with them since before New Year’s at least,” the blue hedgehog started, gesturing to the timeline they’d pieced together.

“They probably fell before September, because that’s the only reason I think they would have voluntarily gone to take care of Amy without someone asking them to. The away missions were spread out over the next three months where they got the snowglobes,” Rouge pointed out, tapping her pen on her bottom lip idly.

Knuckles came back in from the other room, phone in hand. “I called Amy’s secretary and she said Shadow comes to pick Amy up every Wednesday at lunch. She also thought they were a couple already, which is… interesting.”

The bat’s ears perked up in surprise. “Shadow and I have to be in the office every Wednesday for debriefings and paperwork. They always dip around lunchtime, I assumed it was to take a social break because they seemed much more settled afterwards.”

“That doesn't make sense then. Being in public would only drain their social battery even more. Wouldn’t it? As bright and cheerful as Amy is, when my social battery is low she can be overwhelming if I don't stop her,”  Blaze pointed out, wondering idly if the team had the same kind of meetings for her and Silver. She wished she was with her partner, but they’d been called to deal with a rip in the timeline and weren’t due back for another month at least. She picked at her salad, turning over spinach leaves to hunt for croutons.

“Not exactly. You don't get tired being around Silver, do you?” Sonic pointed out to the cat, who shook her head.

“No, they’re easy to be around. Especially when they’re going off about plants or something they’d just discovered. It's relaxing- oh I see,” Blaze said, the hamster wheel powering Sonic’s thoughts turning in her head as well.

“The lunches have been happening since before this secretary got hired, which was in June,” Knuckles pointed out, causing everyone to look at their too-short timeline in surprise.

Rouge hummed a little. “That’s a lot further back than I expected. But the lunch dates don't necessarily have to be “capital D” dates. That might have just been Amy being friendly and Shadow needing some air, and THEN developed into whatever it is that's happening now. Either way, it’s a wonder they never mentioned it to any of us, especially Amy.”

“Yeah, she wasn't subtle when she was into me, I’m well aware of that. But maybe that's the point?” Sonic asked, turning to the girls for confirmation of his idea. “Like what she tried with me didn't work - not for anything she did -  but she figured it wouldn't work on Shadow, so she switched tactics? They’d probably prefer that to the bigger shows of affection Amy likes to do.”

“Sounds logical to me. Shadow seems the type to spook easily,” Blaze said. Knuckles raised his hand to make a point, speaking when Sonic nodded at him to go ahead.

“Speaking of which, are we sure Shadow even likes girls? I know Amy is pan but-”

“They do,” two voices said in unison; Rouge and Sonic both regarding the other with some suspicion.

“When G.U.N offers us covers for things, alibis, partners for undercover work, dates to events where we play security, they assign based on your preference to make interactions look more natural. Especially if the context is romantic. Shadow’s worked with men and women and everyone in between. They even brought Amy to one event, I think, but she would have had to go anyways for Restoration stuff,” the bat said, turning to Sonic for his explanation and sipping at her glass of wine.

“... They were the first person I came out to. We’d been racing and I lost because I was… distracted, which they noticed. I figured the person stuck in a tube for 50 years was the most likely to be homophobic, so it would be a better gauge of how the rest of you would react. Plus, I know they’re good at keeping secrets. It turns out, they’re bisexual, although they didn't have the words for it,” Sonic explained, rubbing his nose as he blushed a little.

“Okay, glad we got that clear first,” Knuckles pointed out. “I’d hate if it the same thing happened to Amy twice.” 

The echidna bit into his sandwich and tossed a fry at Sonic when the other requested one. He caught it in his mouth, but not before tripping over one of Tails’ many projects and landing face down on the cool concrete floor. He popped back up, victorious, as everyone started laughing.

“ANYWAYS, then we have the New Year’s party, which is probably Amy making the first move. Then what, just settling for that? No trying again? That's not her style,” Sonic brought up, thinking about anything else Amy could have done to show affection.

Blaze’s tail flicked as she came up with something. “What about the meteor shower last month? She invited everyone over to watch and then disappeared. I only saw her when everyone decided to leave.”

“Shadow wasn't there, though. They’d had a devastating day at work and you know how they get around that time of year…“ The bat let her sentence hang in the air, the rest of the group coming to the slow realization of the proximity of Maria’s death anniversary and the meteor shower.

”Amy did seem pretty upset by it…” Rouge conceded, ears twitching as she tried to get the others back on track.

“Shadow was there. I ran into them while I was getting an extra blanket. I figured they didn't want to talk. Amy had us all in the backyard but her bedroom window has a pretty good view of the skyline, and she had the telescope set up from there rather than on the lawn. What if she let them set it up in her room so they didn't have to interact with people and watched it with them? That's very her,” Blaze pointed out, but Knuckles shrugged.

“Honestly, that sounds more like Amy being mindful of their limits than anything romantic-”

“Knuckles, might I remind you what WE were doing at the meteor shower? That's the MOST romantic setting I can think of! Besides, other windows face that direction in her house. She chose her room for a reason,” Rouge replied, a blush darkening the echidna’s face and leaving him choking on his food.

“So how are we going to explain all of this to THEM? An intervention?” Blaze asked. From her perspective, all the evidence seemed circumstantial at best but if everyone else was so sure, it might be because she wasn't as well tuned to the social customs of this dimension as she’d thought.

“Well, since they probably already know they like each other… why don’t we separate them and tell them the other person likes them? Like, tell Shadow Amy likes them and tell Amy Shadow likes her and maybe that will give them the confidence to make a move?” Sonic suggested, waving his arms about to explain his thoughts.

“Good plan.  Doing it together would be a really bad idea if they don’t know already. How about Blaze and I tell Amy and you two tell Shadow?” the bat proposed, thinking about how to best convey all of this to the hedgehogs in question.

“Sure, send us to get our shit kicked in if this goes south,” Knuckles huffed, Rouge leaning back on his shoulder and placing a kiss on his cheek gently.

“Yeah, actually. Amy will NOT listen to the guy that broke her heart and her big brother tell her someone has a crush on her. And Shadow sure as fuck isn't going to listen to me about ANYTHING romantic, based on how they’ve reacted when I set them up in the past. Amy will listen to Blaze and I, and Shadow will listen to you two since you know social cues and the way she acts better… probably. You still might get punched, but you two can take a hit.”

“Great. I’ll have the medics on speed dial,” the echidna complained, pressing a gentle kiss to the space between his girlfriend’s ears, where he’d chosen to rest his chin.

“That's my boy… Now, for delivery, I’m thinking of some kind of presentation. Amy is the easiest to influence when she can see someone has put hard work into whatever they’re doing, and Shadow does best when there is a visual component to follow. Something like a PowerPoint,” Rouge suggested again.

“Oh, did we ever get through all the photos from the New Year’s party?” Knuckles asked, turning to Sonic, who had volunteered to sort through them all.

“Well… I might have ‘borrowed’ some of Tails’ tech for this. The computer is taking all the pictures from the party, and looking for any that have Shadow and Amy in them.” He zipped over to the computer and pulled up the results on the hologram projector set up against a wall. 

“So, there's the group picture, standing next to each other, very cute… then, they’re in the background of this one, looks like she’s talking to Tails, though… Oh, wait! They brought her a glass of punch.”

“There, they’re in the background in the one where you got on the table big blue, looks like… are they holding hands?” Rouge asked, pointing out the slightly out-of-focus black and pink blurs along the back wall, hands joined as Shadow lead them off-screen.

“Okay, skip through the photos. Let's see where we catch them again,” the spy ordered, both her and Sonic so thoroughly involved in this little ‘Where’s Waldo’ of their friends that they had forgotten their half-eaten dinners. As the more extroverted pair skimmed through photos, Blaze pulled Knuckles aside.

“I don't know about this Knuckles. This feels a bit too… invasive. If Amy and Shadow like each other, it isn't our place to say anything. If you guys had told Silver before we’d gotten together that I felt something for them I would have been mortified!”

The echidna’s silence was deafening and it wasn't because he was considering her words.

“Knuckles, tell me you didn't.”

“Okay, I didn't.”

“.... We will continue this conversation later. Anyways, what do you think?”

“I understand, I’m not sold on this method either… Amy needs someone willing to give her the same level of attention and care she gives the rest of us. If that person is Shadow, then fine, but… I just don't want her getting hurt, and this feels like it could backfire quickly.”

The cat mused quietly, closing her eyes to think about the male’s response. There was nothing she wanted more than for their friends to be happy, but maybe intervening like this wasn’t the right call. ”We won't be able to stop them though, you know how Rouge and Sonic can be when they get focused on something.”

“So, what? Do we make them confront Amy and Shadow alone? That’ll end in a hospital trip. Maybe we just go along with this and make them do all the talking,” Knuckles suggested, looking over at his girlfriend. 

As much as he loved her, Rouge tended to push and push until something broke, and he didn’t want that something to be Amy this time around. After a few seconds, he realized neither Rouge nor Sonic had moved, eyes locked on a screen they couldn't see from where they were standing. He motioned for Blaze to follow him, returning to his seat and waving a hand in front of Sonic’s face to get his attention. The hedgehog started vibrating excitedly.

“Guys, look at this okay, so so so-” Sonic said, talking much too fast for any of them to understand him. Knuckles grabbed him by the shoulders and let the blue hog recenter himself with a deep breath before he continued.

“Sorry. Better. Anyways, look at this, watch the background. So Amy and Shadow head towards the kitchen right? Right. And then a few minutes later Shadow comes out of the kitchen alone and-”

“Are they… smiling?” Knuckles asked, surprised at the greenish tint crossing the dark hog’s muzzle and the undeniable curve of their lips, fangs just barely visible.

“Yeah. I don’t think I’ve ever seen them so happy. Ears forward, shoulders relaxed and that blur? That's their tail. They’re fucking overjoyed,” Rouge pointed out, reading Shadow’s body language like a book with a shocked and awed tone.

“But what happened?” Blaze asked, unsure of why everyone had gotten so worked up until she remembered a critical detail. The next photo was of Blaze and Silver in the entrance to the kitchen looking up at the mistletoe. Blaze was so flustered she was starting to smoke, and Silver had blushed to the tips of their ears. This had been their first kiss, and the cat couldn't hide the smile that crossed her face at the memory. 

The mistletoe had been hung there, as it was every year, to prevent Sonic from getting at the food before everyone else showed up. Shadow and Amy were in the background, the latter sitting on the counter and staring in delighted shock at the couple behind them. Shadow had twisted to look back at the camera as well, hands lingering over Amy’s hip and thigh as if they’d been standing between her knees, a coffee cookie hanging from their teeth.

“... You don't think they were-” Blaze posited, to which Rouge just shook her head.

“Amy can’t get up onto the counter anymore since Tails adjusted them after that giant growth spurt he had. Shadow probably just helped her up. Knuckles, it's probably an innocent thing,” the bat assured her partner who has tensed up a little at the image, his protective side showing.

“There’s no way Amy didn’t know or warn them about the mistletoe. She’s the one who hangs it and is hyper-vigilant about who goes under it, even drunk. And Amy is a STICKLER for tradition. If she didn't want to kiss them, she knew how to skirt around it. And she’s too sweet to make them kiss her if they didn't want to,” Sonic pointed out, skipping to the next photo which had Amy in the background, alone under the mistletoe. She was staring in pleased shock at something outside of the range of the camera, looking perfectly smitten with her fingertips just barely brushing over her mouth. The timestamp had it set just seconds before Shadow’s blushing picture.

“So. We pop these reactions at the end of the powerpoints and boom, undeniable proof that not only do they LIKE each other, but that they enjoyed that a lot more than they thought,” Rouge said, seemingly pleased with herself and the plan they’d set up.

Knuckles huffed in annoyance, elbowing Sonic to get his attention. “So much for being a gentleman, huh? They said nothing happened when we asked.”

“I mean we asked what happened AFTER the party. This is closer to the beginning, so she probably had more punch after, since she's still standing unassisted. Either way, if they tried something she didn’t like we would have seen the hammer come out. I don’t blame them for not telling us,” the speedster said, trying to temper Knuckles' reaction. An upset echidna could blow this for them all. 

“Maybe Rouge and I should do all the talking,” Sonic suggested.

As they settled on gathering and sorting through information to add to their respective presentations, the extroverts seemed rather proud of themselves. Surely this would give those two the push they needed to see what was right in front of them! 

Blaze and Knuckles made eye contact across the table, sharing a mutually concerned look as they worked, the unease hanging over them like a cloud.

Chapter Text

Rouge twitched impatiently at the door of Amy’s house, tapping her foot. She was on time and Amy was usually already opening the door for her after the first knock; the fact that she wasn’t was driving the bat’s anxiety through the roof. She was a little nervous, but tried to calm herself with logic. Amy was probably in her room and didn’t hear her.  She focused instead on replying to Knuckles’ text, trying to soothe her boyfriend’s nerves.

[Rouge]: You’re worrying too much baby, it’s gonna be fine.

Blaze spooked her out of her thoughts by appearing out of a portal behind her. The bat whipped around, ready to attack before realizing who it was.

“You scared the fuck out of me! Don't do that again or I  WILL put a bell on you,” Rouge threatened.

“Sorry. Usually, you hear me with those ears. You okay?” The royal asked, fiddling with the hem of her gloves idly, tail flicking behind her in agitation.

“Nervous. I take it you are as well. I can do that whole thing myself, I know you're worried about how this is going to go,” Rouge assured the cat, turning back to the door and knocking loudly once again.

“Amy? AMY!? YOU OKAY?”

They heard a loud thud and a string of curses before the door opened. Amy was clearly in the middle of getting undressed from work and was panting slightly, red in the face. Her work button-up was untucked and open, her skirt bunched up on one side. It was a state of dishevelment that their pink friend was hardly ever seen in.

“Woah. What happened to you?” Rouge asked, grabbing onto Amy’s arm in case the other fell over.

“I tripped and fell down the fuckin’ stairs. I'm fine,” Amy grumbled, locking the door once both girls were in and returning to her room to finish getting her pj's on. The bat and cat took their shoes off and Rouge made her way to the living room to plug in her laptop.

“Is dinner on the way?” Blaze asked, hearing yet another string of curses from upstairs and another thud that was accompanied by Amy’s muffled groan.

“No, I'm sorry guys. I’ve been so… distracted today. Can we just get a pizza?” She asked through the door, to the mutual assent of the group. Blaze stepped into the living room to call and paused at Amy’s bra hanging off of the lamp on the far side of the room.

“Bad day I take it?” Blaze asked, motioning to the item of clothing when Amy came back downstairs. The hedgehog felt her whole face and the tips of her ears go red and hurriedly grabbed her garment off the shade.

“No, not really, just… long and hard. Lemme just go toss this upstairs. Pizza coming soon?” She asked, to which the cat nodded. Amy’s attention was drawn to Rouge who was hooking her laptop up to the TV.

“Oooh getting fancy tonight. I take it you’ve picked what we’re watching?” Amy asked, to which the other nodded with a small smile. The pink hedgehog ran upstairs, and Rouge could hear her talking behind her closed bedroom door, unable to make out the words but capable of noting her voice carried a slight urgency. Figuring she’d just gotten a phone call, the bat settled on the ottoman next to her laptop and waited.

Amy flopped onto her couch with a huff after coming back down the stairs.

“How about I paint your claws? A little pampering should take some of that stress off,” Blaze offered, patting her friend gently on the arm. Amy nodded with a small smile. The royal moved to the cabinet that held the supplies and only felt a little bad; painting Amy’s claws was the easiest way to immobilize her while Rouge presented their findings.

Also, they had to wait for the pizza anyways.

Blaze gently shook one of the bottles to settle the colour inside. “What colour are we thinking this time? Red?”

“Oooh, you should finally try the black I usually use,” Rouge prompted, completely genuine in her recommendation even as the cat glared at her behind Amy’s head. Making eye contact, Rouge seemed confused until she realized what she’d done, but their pink friend was already on board. Blaze took Amy’s hand in her own to prep her claws. After a few moments, Amy heaved a deep sigh.

“Alright, what's got you in a twist? You’ve both been kinda nervous since you got here.” Amy pointed out, unknowingly flipping the script on the pair.

“Uh…” Blaze’s eyes flicked to Rouge, willing the spy to bail her out.

“Okay. So, I am going to present to you some… information. And I want you to listen. And let me FINISH before you react, okay?” Rouge asked, to a confused Amy’s nod. The bat pulled up the PowerPoint projecting onto the tv, and two sets of eyes waited for Amy’s reaction to the title.

“ Why Shadow the hedgehog is in love with you ” she read out, turning a bright pink and making a distressed noise vaguely resembling a strangled duck’s quack. It was immediately followed by nervous laughter.

“What? Where did all of this come from? Is this a joke? Did Sonic put you up to this?”

“Those count as reactions sweetie,” Rouge said, unimpressed. “And no, this was my idea.”

She waved with the hand the cat wasn’t currently holding. “Fine, but don’t expect me to go easy on critiquing your presentation skills.”

Rouge seemed hesitant, but clicked on her slideshow, pulling up an image of the timeline created the week before.

“So, based on compiled evidence from multiple trustworthy courses, including them and yourself, we figured Shadow probably fell totally and irrevocably in love with you sometime early last year. Probably after you started your little weekly lunches on Wednesdays. I’m not sure which one of you set THAT up, and maybe at first they were cute little platonic dates, but they’re not anymore. You two are so affectionate and cute that your secretary thought you were already dating! Anyways, so lunch for like, three months or more, and then the anniversary comes up.”

Another slide forward, this time a few listed points that Rouge gestured at under the title “ Amy-Specific Behaviours ”

“One, you said they made you soup. Shadow can NOT cook. So they learned to make soup specifically for you, or just winged it to make you comfortable. Shadow also hates physical contact; I politely asked them for a hug earlier this week and got shot down. Fuckin’ rude, but it proves the point that you are the sole person they will let touch them at ALL. Let alone when having shows of emotion.”

Rouge took a breath, continuing. “Additionally, Shadow hates being around grief. They can't do funerals and they won't go to wakes. They feel uncomfortable around death for obvious reasons, but they went around their discomfort for YOU. And not only did they comfort you, but they also did very well and were listening because of my next point.”

Another slide, this time a world map highlighting the places they’d grabbed her snowglobes from. “The snowglobe thing, which I would argue is a Big Deal. Not only did they listen to the memory, but they also figured that it would make you happy AND had that thought in their head for a whole month before we went on that first mission. In between getting shot at by drones, they were thinking ‘I should grab something for Amy’. That snowglobe tradition was because your mom missed your dad and he wanted to show he was thinking of her even when he was gone. Shadow gave you one for very similar reasons, and I would argue that this would be a more platonic event if it was just the one time, but three? They’re helping you continue that tradition in the spirit of the original. Because they miss you. And you miss them enough to want a good luck charm so they’ll come back safe from missions. You said yourself that this was something you wanted to stay between the two of you to ‘keep the spirit of the tradition alive.’”

The next slide had “ MISC”  as a title, and Rouge explained. “This is stuff that sort of falls out of the timeline or has happened recently. First, There was an... Incident at work. We were in a confidential, high securities briefing about a potential threat who you’ve dealt with before. You came up quite a bit, especially in several videos fighting the threat. Afterwards, one of the other agents made some comments about you that I will not repeat in polite company. Shadow nearly exploded the guy with a chaos bolt, and then CALLED RANK and had him FIRED. ON. THE. SPOT. When that stuff happens to me they get angry, but they’ve never used their powers to threaten someone, or their rank to get them fired immediately and CERTAINLY didn’t bristle the way they did when you came up. They looked far more like a protective lover than just a friend. It’s why I told you to avoid coming to HQ if you could.”

She flicked to a screenshot from the call. “There is also the phone call the Friday before last. I  recorded the video and it's so clear how into you they are. I watched their pupils expand the second that you came on the screen, and their ears flicked forward. They were so focused on you, that they didn't even notice Sonic get behind them. Look at the ears, they don't move. They have devoted their entire attention to you, and you two didn't even talk about anything outside the norm.” The bat pointed out.

“Then we get to February and the meteor shower. We all know that's a bad time of year for them, and we also know that they were upstairs in your room with your telescope because Blaze saw them. None of us could find you for most of the show, and I bet you were upstairs all snuggled up and watching the stars because that’s the advice you gave me when Knuckles has bad days and needs the comfort. It’s such an Amy thing to do for them, and I know they appreciated it.”

“ The Party” crossed the screen as the title of the next slide. “SO, According to Shadow, you got shitfaced at the party and they took you home, hung out until you fell asleep and then stayed the night in case you needed them in the morning for the hangover. They HATE taking care of drunk people. Won’t do anything more than toss me onto the couch when I've had too much because they don’t like playing babysitter for the inebriated. But clearly, you were worth pushing through their discomfort for over twelve hours. And we know why.”

The next slide was the series of images they’d found the week before, cropped to show the couple’s progression into the kitchen, and the background of the photo of Blaze and Silver under the mistletoe. Blaze blushed and merely kept painting Amy’s claws.

“You made your way to the kitchen. Maybe they saw the mistletoe on the way in, but I doubt it if they were focused on something else. Probably getting you water because you’d had too much. I also bet you were getting pretty cozy when they lifted you onto the counter because they look plenty comfortable with where their hands are. We know you had to get out eventually, and how deadset you are when it comes to one particular plant-themed tradition. But that isn't the damning evidence.”

The next image was both of their reactions after the kiss, with annotations on Shadow’s body language in Rouge’s perfect script. Their ears, face and blurred tail were circled and notes were written alongside.

“This is what we figured was their reaction, because you're still under the mistletoe. I would like to draw your attention to their ears, pointed and perked up, their tail, which is going so fast it is just a small blur and the fact that they look as green as a head of broccoli. Their hand is going up towards their mouth which is not a nervous tick they have, and they’re also smiling. A big old, split-your-face smile. All of this adds up to not only them being in love with you, but that you love them back, and for some Gaia-forsaken reason, you two haven't started dating yet. This concludes my presentation.”  The spy bowed politely to her audience, hoping the dramatic flair would make Amy laugh.

A knock on the door snapped everyone out of their own thoughts, and Rouge went to go get their dinner. Amy looked down at her hands, which Blaze had skillfully moved as her attention was elsewhere, leaving her claws in matte black lacquer, fully dried.

Neither Blaze nor Rouge reacted until Amy turned a shade of red rivalling Knuckles’ quills and started her distressed quacking yet again into a throw pillow.

“FUCK,” she yelled, running her hands down her face. Blaze snuggled up to her and started purring, attempting to soothe the hedgehog as best she knew how.

“Talk to us Amy, what’re you thinking?” Rouge asked, putting on her more maternal tone that usually grounded Amy in a panic.

“I don't… Why did you tell me this? You didn’t have any right to get up in their- in OUR business like that! And by my guess, they haven’t said anything to any of you! Do they even KNOW this was something you were doing?” Amy asked, slowly getting more antsy by the moment. Blaze and Rouge both made eye contact over the pink hog’s head, the cat wearing an obvious ‘I told you this was a bad idea’ expression.

“No, they didn't tell us anything. We figured that you were just trying to avoid getting hurt and wanted to show you that they wouldn’t reject you.” Rouge wrapped an arm over Amy’s shoulders which the pink hedgehog shoved off and got up, starting to shake a little.

“So not only did you assume their emotions based on circumstantial evidence, but you also assumed mine.” She asked, her voice so close to breaking it scared Rouge.

“Well-”

“Do you know how long it took for them to trust me? To spend time with me without pulling their teeth, to get them to feel comfortable enough to relax and to SMILE? To open up and let me in, to let me HELP when they needed it? To be vulnerable enough to talk to them about my PARENTS and to let them help me even when I didn't feel like I deserved it? Do you think they wanted anyone else to know about that? Don’t you think there's a REASON I didn’t say anything about them hanging around? About kissing me on New Year’s? Do you think they’d appreciate the fact that you've spilled something so personal that is NONE of your business? Don’t you think this is something they SHOULD HAVE BEEN ABLE  TO TELL ME ON THEIR OWN?” She asked, tears flowing down her face without the usual sobs that wracked her body when she was sad. Rouge took in the body language, ears pinned back to her scalp, quills bristling to make her appear more threatening, her tone dripping with acid and realized something a little too late.

Amy was furious.

“Get. Out. Of. My House.”

“Amy-” Blaze started before Rouge cut her off.

“Amy, I’m... I'm sorry i-”

“I don't give a shit. Take the food and lock the door behind you. I have lost my appetite.”

The pink hog went up the stairs with a tense posture, punctuated by the slam of her bedroom door. Rouge’s advanced hearing would pick up on the crying Amy was muffling in a pillow, and her ears pinned down to her skull in shame.

“I told you this was a bad idea,” Blaze said, as she gathered their things. The royal’s ears were also pinned back, her tail tucked between her legs as she moved around the living room.

“I know.”

“Shadow’s not gonna react any better.”

“I know.”

“I’ll text Knuckles to warn him but he’s probably not looking at his phone.”

[Blaze]: we were right, that went horribly
[Blaze]: Amy is fucking PISSED and kicked us out
[Blaze]: If you haven’t started yet we may be able to save you both from a hospital trip

Chapter Text

Sonic and Knuckles had searched the apartment complex twice after setting up the laptop for the dark hog, even asking Omega where they might have gone off to. The robot was under the impression that Shadow was still at work but Rouge had pointed out they’d left early that day for some meeting off-site. Eventually, the hog in question came back, unlocking the apartment door. They were green in the face and shirtless, quills slightly bristly.

“The fuck happened to you?” Knuckles asked. He couldn't recall the last time he’d seen Shadow that flustered. The missing shirt also had his attention, but he figured it was better to keep it to one question at a time. He placed the bucket of deep-fried mushrooms down on the coffee table to look back at the hybrid.

“Running. Needed to clear my head,” they replied, walking to the kitchen to gulp down a glass of water, finally noticing the fact that Sonic was busy adjusting the laptop without projecting it to the TV yet. The blue hedgehog was also avoiding the sight of his rival shirtless, for his own reasons.

“We have most of the streaming services, why do we need a laptop? Also, where is Miles?” they asked, shocking Knuckles and Sonic by stealing a few pieces of mushroom for themselves before settling into their usual chair.

“Is he upset with one of us? He has not attended these mandatory bonding sessions in a month, and that is the only thing keeping me sane around you idiots.”

“No, he’s not mad. He just didn’t wanna be here for this-” Sonic started, cutting himself off before he finished the thought. Shadow raised a brow, looking to the echidna for an explanation.

Sonic turned to Knuckles as well, who sighed. “We have… some information. A theory if you will. It's not dangerous or anything but we consider it fairly important.”

“And this matters to me why?” they asked, turning back to Sonic and levying his most unimpressed and focused glare on him. He was usually the easiest to break without saying anything.

The blue hog squirmed a little. He hated it when Shadow glared into his soul like that. He tried to will the flush in his face to die as he focused on the already set up laptop. “It involves you. Just.. let me get through the whole thing and then you can react however you want, okay?”

“Sure?” the dark hog answered, more bewildered than anything. Seeing that, Knuckles decided to get some insurance.

“I need you to swear-”

“Fuck!” the two hogs said in stereo, both flashing shit-eating grins at the third person in the living room.

“-you're both fucking horrible you know that? Shadow, I need your WORD that you will let him finish before tossing us into next week,” the echidna demanded.

“... you have my word Knuckles. Now what is this thing that is so important?” they asked, sitting up a little, finishing the food they had left.

Gulping, the blue hedgehog pulled up the first slide.

“ Why Amy Rose is almost assuredly in love with you, ” they read out, scoffing. “I take it Rouge helped you with this.”

“Whattt? Noooo” Sonic said, eyes panicked and flicking to Knuckles.

“Neither of you knows how to use the word ‘assuredly’ and Knuckles is physically incapable of keeping secrets. But I promised no reaction until you're done. Go ahead then Faker” They said, crossing one leg over the other and waving the other on in what could only be considered vague disdain.

“Ohhkay. So,” Sonic said, skipping to the slide with the timeline on it. “We figured Amy’s probably had a little thing for you for a bit, especially if the lunches were her idea. Her secretary thinks you two are together, by the way. Knowing how she is, as someone who had to deal with a lovestruck Amy for 8 years, this is important to her. She likes to spend lots of quality time with people and shower them with small gifts. She’s a sucker for details. Like the coffee beans. Now, you'd think ‘that's just how she is’ and you aren't wrong. But there is a difference.”

He tabbed to the next slide, pulling up a picture of the diner Amy loved. “This is that diner she ADORES. She never, not once, has taken you there, even though it's almost a year of straight lunch dates. Why? Because she knows you’d hate it. It’s noisy in both sheer volume and variety of sounds, the lighting is the kind that would probably give you a headache, and people are chatty. All that bothers us too, but she drags us along anyways. But for you, she takes you to smaller, quieter, more personal businesses. Less noise, fewer people. Less sensory things for you to have to deal with because she wants you to feel relaxed. That’s an extra level of effort she doesn't go through for everyone else.”

Sonic bit his lip before skipping over to the next slide, which had a picture of the team at the meteor shower earlier that year, in which a black and red blur was in the background, visible through Amy’s bedroom window.

“You love meteor showers and all things space, so Amy invites everyone over whenever something vaguely interesting is happening so Rouge will drag you and you’ll get to enjoy yourself. Regardless of the rest of us, she’s holding those parties so YOU will show up and hang out with her. The last meteor shower was in early February which I know isn't a good time for you for reasons I'm not gonna touch on. Rouge said you were out of it that day, and so Amy moved her telescope to her room so you could watch it without us. She disappeared most of the night, so she was probably with you making sure you were okay,” Sonic pointed out, skipping to the next slide quickly. 

It was a screengrab from the phone call two weeks before, Amy’s face with Rouge's posture notes to the side, contrasted with a picture of Amy when she was much younger and making a similar lovestruck look at Sonic.

“So, when you guys were on the phone I snuck a peek and Rouge set it to record for this reason. She’s making the exact same face in this picture from several years ago. Ears tilted forward, pupils dilated, she bites her lip at some point, and it is not outta nerves because she's fully relaxed talking to you. She’s also a lot more pink than usual, and Rouge said she was in a much better mood after talking to you for a little under a minute, even if you weren't talking about anything at all. She also laughed at something you said which was objectively not funny.”

“ Snowglobes and the anniversary ” Sonic pointed out, reading the following slide “Apparently these have something to do with Amy's parents and the anniversary in September. Rouge doesn't go into detail in the notes, but Amy has never mentioned that day to ANYONE. She will shut down when asked and withdraws entirely for the back half of September. She trusts you with her life, sure, but if it's something about her parents? That's something we’ve been trying to get her to talk about for years and you’ve somehow managed to get it. That’s as good as handing you her heart on a platter.”

Sonic glanced over at Shadow, making eye contact for this point, clearly surprising the darker hedgehog. They weren’t used to being the intimidated one of the two of them, but Sonic was being so serious it was unsettling.

“I cannot stress how big of a deal this is for her. Do you understand?” he asked, which earned him a slow, uncomfortable nod from his rival.He skipped to the next slide and his normally non-chalant tone returned.

“We talked about the New years party a few weeks ago, and I thought she had planned to get you to kiss her after you took her home. You said she didn't. Well, we figured out why that was; She got you earlier.” Sonic said with a shit-eating grin, skipping to the photos from the party that tracked the pink and black pair through the evening.

“You took her to the kitchen and had to pass under a mistletoe TWICE. Amy Rose swears on a mistletoe kiss so she wouldn’t have let you get away from it twice. Even drunk, you’re both way too observant to not have seen it. Not to mention you two practically cuddling when she’s on the counter. That’s the most I’ve seen you touch someone willingly in years.”

Sonic looked up to find Knuckles glaring at Shadow. He balled up the page of notes he’d already read through and whipped it at the echidna to get him to stop glaring. Now was not the time to play big brother!

“Anyways. So she kisses you under the mistletoe and you look happier than you did when I hit a ramp at Mach two. But look at her after you walk away,” Sonic said, skipping to that picture and pointing out the blushing lovestruck look on Amy’s face, aimed in Shadow’s general direction.

“You can't see her tail because of how fast it's wagging. She's got it bad for you buddy. And you like her just as much.” The blue hedgehog concluded. He crossed his arms over his chest and waited for Shadow’s reaction.

“Shadow?” Knuckles ventured after a few moments of silence, poking their arm gently. “Shadow you're not blinking or breathing.”

The hybrid remembered that was a thing that made living in their body much easier and proceeded to do both. They were bright green and avoided eye contact with both guests.

“I uh…” They started, clearly overwhelmed. “I did not realize how important the information about her parents was to her. I assumed everyone else knew.”

“No, she doesn't wanna talk about it” Knuckles explained

“What happened? She refused to say and I did not want to push her when she was already so… fragile.”

“Metal Sonic. We didn’t wanna hound her for details, and you kinda assume a few things over the years,” Sonic said with a grimace, trying to avoid thinking of a small Amy witnessing such a traumatic event.

“Noted. Anyways your presentation skills are shit,” the darker hog commented to change the topic, concern slipping away behind their usual mask of contempt.

“What do you mean? We just-” Sonic started, before Knuckles covered his mouth.

“What do you think is going on then, if she’s not in love with you?” Knuckles asked. Shadow leaned back against the chair as if they had all the answers and listed counterpoints on their fingers.

“We both lost important people in traumatic manners, so she kicked into hyper empathy. She keeps my sensory needs in mind because I have explained how debilitating they are to her and she is the type to break her back before making someone else uncomfortable, even you two. If you mentioned how much you hate the diner, she would not take you. The lunches were a mutual idea based on our schedules. Gift-giving is something she does to all of us whether we ask or not. The picture in the kitchen was taken at a very inopportune time. She stayed with me during the meteor shower because I offered her the same support in September.”

“What about the look in her eyes, or that kiss?” Sonic prompted. Shadow turned away from their rival with a huff. They didn't have an answer for that, and let their heart flutter for a moment before clamping down on those feelings and shoving them down in place of a more familiar one.

Anger.

“How did you get all this information?” They asked, trying to logic through the stuff that they hadn’t mentioned themselves. Sonic was the recipient of the alien prince’s glare yet again, and answered as he avoided eye contact.

“Rouge mostly, pictures, personal knowledge, Amy's secretary.”

“Not from her?”

“Oh Gaia no, you think she’d talk to her former crush and her brother about romance? No way.”

“So this is all assumptions and conjecture that you collected, recorded and complied without her permission or mine. And presented to me, as fact, without bothering to ask her if it were true.” They slowly let the familiar feeling of empathic anger wash through their senses.

“It is true, and don't say you're not into her because that's a big fat lie. You're green for her.” Sonic accused, not noticing Knuckles’ phone ding with a text notification that the echidna skimmed over. His face grew pale and he backed up slowly from Shadow, anticipating a fight.

“I will not copy you and present my guesses at Rose’s thoughts as fact, but I like everything the way it is. Now I am pissed, because not only have you put words in her mouth and my own in a way that could damage her perception of me, but you have also managed to do something else unforgivable.”

“What-” Sonic gasped as Shadow’s hand wrapped around his throat, clawing out of instinct despite knowing that they weren't going to let go until they were finished. The anger in the ruby eyes he was looking at burned bright as Shadow’s quills bristled out fully and an alien growl echoed their words.

“Everything I do is recorded and kept by GUN to justify putting me back in that damn tube because they still consider me a threat. Every text, every call, hell even every conversation in this house because Omega is under direct orders to record everything. If GUN could have my thoughts recorded they would, but since that is not an option, my thoughts are the ONLY thing that I have that are mine and mine ALONE.  I do not get the luxury of privacy that the rest of you enjoy and I am used to that violation from people who look at me and see a weapon. I am used to that from my boss and my job. But from my allies? From the two of you and Rouge, who I have trusted with my life before, who KNOW how little I choose to share and yet you still push? That is a betrayal I will not forgive, especially since you have now put a GUN target on Rose’s back. You have practically signed her death certificate in your pursuit of what? Entertainment?”

Shadow threw Sonic across the room, the blue hog smacking against the wall and coughing as he gasped for air.

“I do not need to waste any more energy on you two. Whereas it would be justifiable revenge to harm you the way Rouge has harmed me with this, that would upset Rose, and you have all done that more than enough.” Knuckles rushed to Sonic’s side, assessing his friend’s condition. Both heads snapped up to the other hedgehog’s voice when they continued speaking.

“Knuckles.”

“Yeah?” the echidna answered, slightly terrified for and of the hedgehog in front of him, whose quills sparked with excess Chaos energy as their rage boosted their powers. Shadow’s hands, now in tight fists, were shaking.  Their back was to the damaged hog and echidna, and the black hedgehog had turned their head to keep Knuckles in their peripheral vision.

“Did she know anything about this plot you were all putting on to stab me in the back?”

The echidna swallowed, figuring it would be best to tell the truth, “Rouge and Blaze showed her something similar and she got really upset. But she doesn’t know we have any involvement.”

“Good. I am used to betrayal, but she is not familiar with it. It would be in her best interest if we never spoke of this again and pretend it never happened. You have torn any respect I had for you to pieces but Rose thinks the world of you and I do not wish to rip the only family she has left away from her. I fear who she would become if she knew how you all failed us both.”

Knuckles started sweating and nodded. “You have my word,” he swore, scooping Sonic’s arm over his shoulder and half-walking half-dragging him out of Team Dark’s apartment.

The dark hog packed while they fumed, stuffing anything they would need for a few days away into a duffel bag and calling out to Omega.

“Omega? I’m leaving for a few days for a… personal matter. How much of that did you record?”

“AUDIO RECORDING FUNCTIONS ARE SUSPENDED DURING UPDATES. NO AUDIO WAS RECORDED FROM  20:26 PM ONWARDS.”

“You needed another update?”

“ROUGE SCHEDULED AN UPDATE TO COMMENCE WHEN “EVERYONE BUT THE GIRLS NIGHT” STARTED. NO AUDIO HAS BEEN RECORDED SINCE THE RED ONE UNLOCKED THE MAIN DOOR.”

“...Thank you. Lock the door behind me and cease any updates until Rouge returns home.”

“AFFIRMATIVE.”

Chapter Text

No one even attempted to contact Amy or Shadow that weekend, unanimously agreeing that the pair needed space away from everyone and each other to recover from the emotional turmoil. When the group mentioned the fallout to Tails he scolded them all, acting far more like the adults that the rest of them were supposed to be. He’d been so put off by everyone’s behaviour he had spent most of the time at Vanilla’s house, needlessly upgrading her car and crashing on her couch.  Blaze couldn’t bring herself to make the jump across dimensions, and threw herself into her royal duties to compensate.

Amy had been allowed to take the week for herself from work, so she had been quietly withdrawing from most social interaction still. Until Tuesday at least, when Tails mentioned through gritted teeth that the pink hedgehog was looking to see them sometime soon. Sonic and Knuckles planned to make their way over the next day. 

When the red and blue pair walked knocked on her door in the late morning, Amy seemed surprised. She was dressed in her usual casual clothes, a nice sweater dress under her open winter coat to keep off the spring chill, and holding her purse as if she was on her way out.

“Oh… hi guys.”

“Hi Ames… you busy?” Sonic asked, scratching the back of his head and tapping his shoes on the ground to knock off imaginary dirt. She bit her lip and looked back into the house for a moment, before shaking her head no.

“I have a few minutes… come on in. I'm in the middle of a cleaning whirlwind and it's kinda messy, so I’d rather we just stay in the hall, if thats okay?” She asked, to which both boys nodded.

Once inside, Knuckles opened his arms to offer Amy a hug, and she didn't even hesitate before face planting into his chest with a pathetic whine. The echidna wrapped his arms around her, motioning for Sonic to shut the door so she could cry without her nosy neighbours watching.

“Come here, I got you.” Knuckles whispered, pressing his lips to the top of her head in an empty comfort. He made eye contact with Sonic, who looked as shitty as he felt. Shadow’s words had been haunting everyone’s mind, and no one was free from the anxiety-inducing thoughts they’d brought. Not that he would admit it to anyone for fear of looking weak, but Knuckles’ dreams were all nightmares of what might happen if Shadow’s prediction about GUN taking Amy as leverage became true. He squeezed his “little sister” a bit tighter at the intrusive thought.

“Why would they do that to them? I called them after to tell them what was going on and- and they warped to me because I - because I was crying so hard- and-” she started before bursting into full-on sobs again, crying into tissues that Sonic had offered her. Knuckles kept rubbing her back soothingly until she was good to continue. When she did, it was a hoarse whisper, barely audible.

“They spent the whole time making sure I was okay and comforting me when I should have been comforting them! After everything they’ve been through, and all the people meddling in their business, don’t they deserve a break? They were supposed to be our friends!” she cried, the guilt weighing on Sonic and Knuckles like an anchor in the ocean. By the looks of it, Shadow had kept up their end of the bargain by leaving their involvement a secret, but that did nothing to ease the weighted feeling on the boys. Eventually, Amy was distracted from crying when her phone chirped out a vaguely familiar tune, indicating she had received a message. She wiped her tears and skimmed the text, her mouth pressed into a thin line as her ears pinned back. When she spoke her voice dripped with venom in a way they hadn’t heard since the days of fighting Eggman. That alone was enough to have both their quills bristling.

“Knuckles, Shadow wants you to, and I quote here, “reel in your bitch of a girlfriend before I ground her like a helicopter with a broken blade.” She isn't letting them leave for us to get lunch and has had GUN confiscate their emerald. They're stuck in the building until they speak to her.”

She sent a text back, her sudden flash of anger cooling into concern. When another notification came she set her phone down before trying to recenter herself. “They aren't okay. They're doing a pretty good job of hiding it, but I can see how much the whole thing is hurting them. I don't know how they can stand to be in the same building as Rouge, let alone being held against their will. I have half a mind to call her and chew her out myself, but I know if I spoke to her I would say things I would regret. If I was in Shadow’s place I would… Gaia, I don’t even know what I would do…”

Knuckles coughed into his fist, trying to settle himself in a way that wasn't suspicious. Amy shifted a bit, biting her lip and looked up at them both. “Can I ask a question? And you have to answer honestly?”

“Yup,” Knuckles said a little too eagerly.

“Sure Ames, anything,” Sonic said, reaching to take her hand and give it a comforting squeeze. She squeezed back fondly.

“Did.. did you guys know what was going on? I promise I won't get mad, I just… I want to know. Shadow won't ask you themselves, but I can see how much it’s bothering them.” Tears threatened to fall and she wiped at her eyes delicately to avoid aggravating them even more. Knuckles, now able to get a good look at his adoptive sibling, noted the places where her makeup was applied a little thicker than usual. Judging by the lack of pale freckles that covered her nose, she was probably hiding the redness and eyebags from crying for a whole weekend.

Sonic coughed, giving Knuckles a look warning him to speak at all, and to let him handle this. Objectively, the blue blur was the better liar. “We knew some of it. Rouge and Blaze thought they were really into you, and we were recruited to help gather information. I thought she was just going to tease them about it or drop hints that you would be good for each other.”

Knuckles, without thinking, chose to ignore the warning to interject. “Don't be too mad at Blaze. She was against this whole thing from the start and I should have listened to her. But Shadow was right to put Sonic halfway through a wall. I’m surprised they even let us get past the title of  the PowerPoint before they started swinging; let alone the slide about what happened at the New Year’s party.”

“WHAT? When was this?” She asked in alarm, checking over the blue hedgehog for scrapes and bumps. He glared at Knuckles a little, but let Amy fuss over him the way she used to when they were kids. Sometimes it was easier to just let her ease her own worries and it also bought him time to think of an excuse. Hopefully she was too focused on the fight to notice Knuckles running his mouth.

“Ames I’m fine, I promise… Don’t worry too much about it, you know how we get sometimes. They needed to blow off steam after everything so I let them toss me around.”

She grabbed his ear to tilt his head, more to get him to hold still than anything. “When did you two even have time to get into a fight? Shadow spent most of the weekend taking care of me, or packing boxes to move-”

Amy paused, ignoring Sonics whimpers of pain from the grip on his ear. Knuckles could see the wheels spinning in her head as she connected the dots from what little he’d said. Sonic could as well, and gulped a little bit when he realized that Amy had caught them red-handed and blue-eared, respectively.

“-you two had to have fought before I called on Friday. But Shadow wouldn’t have known about that stupid presentation unless-” She mumbled, letting Sonic go and stepping back from the pair in shock. Tears pooled at the corners of her eyes yet again, and the look on her face was enough to make Knuckles’ heart stop.

“You lied to me… all of you LIED to me! You two, Rouge, Blaze, fuck, did TAILS know?” Her tone indicated that answering was not optional, and Knuckles nodded slightly.

“Don’t bring him into this. We told him about the plan and he wanted no part in it. He chewed us out while he was patching me up from the fight. He wanted to tell you but we all thought it would be better if you didn’t know.” Sonic got a little defensive over Tails, even if he knew Amy was right to be angry at them.

Amy scoffed. “Oh, so the eighteen-year-old can be treated like an adult, but I get left out of the loop? My love life, my FEELINGS are the butt of the joke all of the time and I AM SICK OF IT!! Which one of you IDIOTS came up with THIS idea?”

She looked expectantly between them, hands on her hips and tapping her foot idly. Sonic and Knuckles glanced at each other, and she must have seen the flash of pain and concern that permeated their silent conversation because her anger cooled significantly. She didn’t even bother to look at Sonic, no longer able to trust any of the words that left his mouth, so her big green eyes were focused on Knuckles.  

He couldn't lie to her again. But he also could barely bring himself to speak. She gathered what he was trying to say, and the implication nearly took Amy’s knees out, forcing her to brace herself against the hallway table. Was she still crying? Somewhere in the back of her mind, she was surprised she wasn’t all out of tears.

Knuckles moved closer to Amy, and couldn’t help the wince that crossed his face as she flinched away from him. It wasn’t unsurprising, but it still hurt and he found his tongue again to rush an explanation to defend the hybrid. “We fucked up big time and we deserve anything you wanna do or say or throw at us. But please, don’t blame them. We put them in a position where they only had bad choices, and the only thing they were focused on was how you would react to all of this. They wanted to spare you any amount of pain they could. They were only looking out for you the way we should have been.” 

Amy took a deep breath and pointed towards the door. The silence spoke for her as she maintained her lean on the wall for support as she followed them out to close the door. Both boys left and Sonic stopped after the door slammed behind them, looking back as if she would open it again. If he strained he could hear the crying coming from inside the house. After a moment, Knuckles tugged on his arm, and the pair reluctantly walked down the driveway.

“Do… you think she’ll ever forgive us?” Sonic asked once they were back at the workshop. Knuckles punctured the heavy silence with a deep sigh.

“If she ever does, we won’t have deserved it.” 

Monday found the dark hedgehog back at work, their request for time off denied by their superiors. Rouge had seen them angry before, but the glare that she received when they’d arrived could have killed her if she’d held eye contact any longer. She pushed her boss to have Team Dark’s missions moved back a week to give Shadow time to cool off, but she could only buy them a few more days before they needed to be back on their usual schedules. Regrettably, she made the decision that if Shadow didn’t approach her on their own, she would have to force them to listen.

Shadow huffed as they finished filling out paperwork in their office on Wednesday, glaring through the glass at the guards Rouge had posted outside their door. The rookie agents were under instruction to stay until she took her lunch and could smooth things over. Shadow could have blown clear through the two newbies, but they knew the pair weren’t deserving of their ire. It didn’t stop them from glaring holes in their backs. The spy bugs that were usually hidden around the space were disabled by one of Miles’ inventions for the moment, guaranteeing no one would be listening in on the inevitably sensitive and heated conversation. The hybrid texted Amy letting her know they wouldn’t be able to make their usual lunch, and that they’d reschedule for after work. They were still looking at their phone when the door to their office opened. Black ears flicked towards Rouge as she sat down on the couch they had moved in there to sleep when they couldn't be at home. The bat noted that it didn't look like it hadn’t been used recently, but said nothing about it for the moment.

“I’m sorry-” She started, cut off by the dark hog raising their hand to silence her. The bat’s jaw snapped closed.

“Save it. I am going to tell you what is going to happen. One, I am moving out of the apartment. I have alternative living arrangements organized, and you are to pretend as if I still live in the apartment with you, including getting mail and whatnot to get GUN off my back. Two, you will NEVER use your agent rank for a personal matter EVER again, nor will you remove my access to an emerald or trap me in this office. The only reason the building is still standing is because I want it to be. Three, I will remain on Team Dark but I will not be friendly with you in any matter more than necessary to do our jobs. Four, Rose NEVER finds out about how Knuckles and Sonic are involved. I do not want her to feel the pain of betrayal the way that you all have so kindly demonstrated for me yet again.  Any questions?”

“...No.”

“Good, because I have plenty, starting with ‘What the everloving FUCK did you THINK was going to happen?’ You are LUCKY that Omega had a long update and did not record anything.” Rouge flicked her ears down and looked away, embarrassed by her answer. They sighed and grabbed the bridge of their nose, getting up to pace back and forth behind their desk.

“Did you ever think - between delusions that this would in any way work - that telling her that SPECIFIC AND PRIVATE information could make her a target? I'm treated like a monster or a loaded bomb by everyone in this building and you of all people should know how much of my privacy is violated. My thoughts were the only thing they did not have access to and so long as I never spoke about them it was fine. So long as no one knew that, so long as I was just emotional support I could keep her safe. I could make sure she did not get hurt. And if I never got anything more? That would have been fine, I would have suffered in silence. But now because of you IDIOTS, she could very well be in danger from the very people who keep threatening to put me back in that fucking pod. Do you think they care who they have to take down to get to me? What they would DO TO HER?”

“Shadow-”

They slammed their hands down on the table, causing the bat to jump.

“They shot my twelve-year-old sister in the BACK, what do you think they’ll do to the WOMAN I LOVE?”

They stopped to breathe and took a drink of water. Their phone buzzed on the table and Rouge watched them flip it over to skim the messages. She didn't even have to guess who was on the other end because Shadow’s tension had all but melted from their body. Their tail twitched in an involuntary wag before they schooled it to stop. Every harsh feature softened at the edges just a little bit before they tensed up again. The bat prepared herself for another round of yelling. Instead, their voice was low and quiet.

“And did you think about what’s going to happen when she eventually figures out that you did this to her? That you violated her privacy the way the government violates mine? Is she not owed that much? I will not be the one to tell her, but if she does find out because your idiot boyfriend is about as good at lying as you are at thinking about the consequences of your actions, how do you think she will feel? Whatever kind of emotional hell you think I currently make my home in, hers will be so much worse. When that happens she is going to need a support system, one you all can not be a part of… and I might not be either. You have all put me in a position where protecting her also means hurting her by lying to her. And hurting her is the one thing I never wanted to do.”

Rouge’s phone dinged with a text, and the bat’s audible gasp was just shrill enough to pull Shadow from their brooding. They took one look at her and sighed, assuming their prediction had come true.

“Did he even last fifteen minutes? Please teach him how to lie better,” Shadow groaned,  flopping back into their desk chair. Their quills and ears dropped and they raised a hand to rub at their face, trying to soothe the headache that was pounding in their skull and the ache from their heart dropping into their stomach.

Rouge got up, intent on calling her boyfriend to yell at him, and when she looked back to close the door behind her Shadow hadn't even flicked an ear in her direction. 

Chapter Text

Shadow stood on Amy’s doorstep and tried to put their thoughts together. They’d been nervous like this before, a familiar tension holding itself in their shoulders and back. But this wasn't accompanied by the rush of adrenaline from a fight or the heat of chaos energy rushing through their veins. In its absence, a cold emptiness left them overwhelmed with a feeling they didn’t know how to name.

A more introspective person would be able to identify it as fear. In lieu of the name for this sensation, they pushed through it and grabbed the rose-shaped knocker, letting it fall against the door with a thud. They knew Amy would be able to tell it was them, she often complained that they were the only one to use the knocker for its intended purpose.

After a few minutes, the door was unlocked and opened a bit, and they noted the sounds of Amy’s footsteps moving down the hall as they shut and locked the door behind them. They took their time untying their shoes and placing them on the shoe rack, picking up hers as well. Shadow noted her purse was tossed aside on the hallway floor and grabbed it, hanging it and his work bag up on their designated hooks.

They grabbed her discarded winter coat and took their suit jacket off to hang both garments back up in the closet. Feeling constricted by their button-up shirt, they pulled off their tie and popped the few buttons needed to relieve the tension around the chest fluff, which had made an uncomfortable day even more uncomfortable. Considering the quiet whimpering their advanced hearing had tipped them off to, they grabbed her a bottle of water from the fridge and a box of tissues.

Everything in order, the dark hog sighed as they looked to the pink ball on the couch, choosing then to join her. There was nothing else they could do to distract themselves, and the tension hanging in the air was too thick to ignore. They approached slowly, stiff and awkward, and got on one knee next to her couch so they could more easily meet her eyes.

“Do you need some space from me right now?” they asked, voice low and soft in a way that was reserved for only the most precious of things. Amy peeked over at them, sniffling a little, before shaking her head no.

They cocked their head toward the empty space on the couch next to her. “Can I?”

She nodded gently in response. They sat down, keeping distance between themselves and the pink hedgehog who immediately closed it by sliding over to their side, pressing herself into their embrace. Wordlessly, they slipped their arms around her and pulled her to sit on their lap; the pair had sat like this many times before when Amy was emotionally tapped out and Shadow’s words weren't cutting it. This time, however, each quiet sob she tried her best to muffle shot them right in the heart. Unlike the weekend, when they’d been like this last, it was their fault she was crying. 
They could have stayed like that for hours if she needed them to; no matter how much she sat in their lap, they could never get over how Amy fit perfectly under their chin like she was made to do so. But after a few minutes of suppressed wheezing it was obvious she was holding back her tears and misery and they tapped their chin on her head to get her attention. Her ears flicked up, brushing against their cheek softly.

“Please let yourself do whatever would make you feel better. Cry, scream, sob, whatever you need, I can take. I have violated both your values and my own, and you have every right to be upset with me.” they assured, nuzzling the top of her head affectionately. Shadow tried to hide how their heart ached when she relaxed in their arms as the wailing started, her hands slipping around their torso to crush herself against them. They could feel her tears soaking through their work shirt, and wordlessly reached over to grab the tissue box and place it in her lap.  She took a few and shifted to press her ear against their chest, listening for their heartbeat as a comfort. They wouldn’t deny that it sped up with the smallest of glances down at her, but she was hopefully too busy to notice. Eventually, the sobbing turned to crying, which turned to sniffles, which turned to silence. Determining that she was still awake, they offered her the bottle of water to drink, which she took a greedy gulp from before sitting up properly to face them.

If any view on the planet could break their heart, it was her look of utter despair she gave that they desperately wished to wipe from their memory. But they had to face the consequences of their actions, so they waited for her to react. They weren't expecting her to press their foreheads together, her eyes closed as she sighed deeply. As if on instinct, they let themselves reach a hand up to cradle her cheek, wiping any leftover tears away.

“You’re too good to me, I’ve been nothing but horrible to everyone today and here you are, picking up my pieces again,” she mumbled, voice hoarse from the crying.

They sighed, nudging their forehead against hers to ensure she was listening. “Your reaction was justified and I am nowhere near as good as you deserve. A better person would have found us some way out of this mess without having to lie to you. I am so sorry, you know the last thing I would ever want to do was hurt you-”

“Why didn’t you tell me?” she asked, eyes opening to meet theirs. 

Shadow got lost for a moment in the brightness of the green that managed to surprise them every time they had the pleasure of being this close. They’d seen the master emerald in all of its polished glory, and it paled in comparison to her. From her view, she could see the way their eyes filled with affection at first but slowly clouded with shame and guilt. Unsurprisingly, they broke the eye contact and let their gaze fall to her hands resting on her lap, where they grabbed one and pressed a kiss to the back of it.

“I have grown jaded to being stabbed in the back, to people violating my privacy and helping themselves to the information I would have never shared voluntarily. As far as I know, you have been spared that fate. You have never been given any reason to assume that they would betray your trust like that. The thought of you being miserable in any way is already a nightmare, and the pain of betrayal, when it comes from your loved ones, is a kind of pain I would wish on no one. I wanted to protect you from that pain as much as possible, ideally forever. I just… forgot that plan required Knuckles to be able to keep a secret. I beg for your forgiveness despite the fact that I do not deserve such grace after my behaviour,” they stated, fully prepared to do whatever penance she asked of them to atone for their mistake.

“Look at me?” she asked of them when she couldn’t catch their gaze on her own. She knew they were paying attention to her by the way their ears flicked at every inhale, but she was only satisfied when they actually looked up.

“There is nothing to forgive. You were put into a situation with no winning solutions and did what you thought was best. How could I fault you for that when I know it’s been tearing you apart ever since it happened?” She asked, closing her eyes and kissing them on the mouth, sweetly and slowly. 

The hybrid let go of the tension they hadn't realized they'd been holding since they’d walked into work that morning and took the opportunity to pull Amy in closer, savouring the feeling of her soft lips against their own. As they kissed, Shadow caught a faint hint of her perfume from earlier in the day, something floral and light they vaguely recalled complimenting her on once.

Her hands, which had ended up pinned between them, started to slide up through their chest fluff. Shadow let out a low groan, quills bristling out for an entirely different reason than the usual defensiveness. Emboldened by her touch, they let their tongue slide against her bottom lip which she clearly appreciated as she let out a squeak of her own. The pair quickly transitioned from what had started as a gentle assurance to something far more intimate and passionate. The hand on her cheek navigated through sharpened quills to pull her in closer, but they let her shift on their lap when she moved. They were so focused on not breaking the kiss, they didn't quite register what she was doing until she settled back on their lap, thighs on either side of them. The hitch in their breath didn't go unnoticed, and they let their eyes open lazily as she pulled away to breathe, not far, but back just enough that they could see her face properly.

“Is this okay?” she questioned softly

“This is more than okay,” they assured, admiring her features.

She was red, surely as much as they were green from their kiss, and her quills had bristled out in delight, coming undone from whatever style she’d pulled them into. Shadow let themselves stare at her, soaking in every detail from the desire in her eyes to the way her gaze flicked back and forth from their lips as she panted. They didn't realize just how much of their thoughts were visible on their face, and Amy blushed and bristled at the intensity of their adoration.

“S-stop looking at me like that,” she whined, covering her face with her hands which earned her a chuckle. Shadow tugged one of her hands away and placed a kiss on the inside of her wrist, her pulse jumping unsteadily under their affection.

“Why would I ever do that? You are stunning,” they complimented, as she flopped into their chest again to hide from their view and grumble about them not playing fair. Amy slid her hand into Shadow’s from their grip on her wrist to interlock their fingers. Thinking they’d continue with their barrage of affection, they nipped at the shell of her ear to see if they could get her to make a specific delighted squeak that they found incredibly adorable. The only reaction they got was their triangular target gently slapping against their cheeks in protest as they twitched. 

She had her own plans, as the hand in his chest fur shifted slightly to press over their heart. They didn't seem to notice that much, but her grabbing a fistful did get their attention, and Amy smirked in delight as she heard them inhale sharply through their nose. Not leaving them time to recover from that surprise, she eagerly pushed into them more, pressing brief but affectionate kisses along their throat. As soon as they relaxed from the tension of one surprise she would deliver another, focusing her attention on a particular spot at the junction of their neck and shoulder, one of their very few weak spots. Shadow cursed out loud, their head tipping back a little as they grabbed at her head on instinct, fingers scraping along the base of her quills, encouraging her without using the voice they always lost when overwhelmed.

Amy lived for the moments when the world’s most powerful being, capable of decimating cities and destroying bots with a simple flick became what they actually were; a 25-year-old who was just as desperate for love as she was. Usually, they could find what they needed in each other in simple touches, brushes of hands, or a kiss on the cheek. More than often, they loved via actions, taking care of small tasks, picking up treats and making up in areas the other fell behind in. But with the day they’d had, the intense emotional exhaustion demanded something that rivalled it in passion. She purred in delight as she continued her kisses and grinned as she started favouring the spot with rougher affection until she was sure a normal person would have a sizeable hickey. Shadow’s dark fur was a benefit and a curse, she could leave those kinds of marks and bites and no one other than the hybrid would know, but she couldn't see them either. She would have to be satisfied with the subtle gasps and clicks they made and the haze in their ruby eyes when she pulled back.

Her pride was short-lived, as she saw clarity and then mischief dance in their gaze before they retaliated and used their powers to freeze time. Amy only knew because of the vaguely tinny taste in her mouth she associated with chaos energy and her beau now pinning her to the couch, her legs over their hips and a cocky smile gracing their face. Their hands were supporting them on the couch’s arm and one moved down to softly take her chin in their hand and tip it upwards.

“I believe it might be my turn to return the favour, Rose,” they teased as they leaned down to ghost their lips against her neck lightly. Unfortunately for them, a shrill tone rang out in the silent house that had Amy jumping and digging her fingers into their arms and Shadow growling in a quiet and low way against her neck. The possessive noise delighted Amy, who reluctantly shoved them to sit back on their haunches so she could get up and grab her phone.

“I suggest we ignore it and go back to what we were doing,” they said with a huff as Amy pecked them on the nose before slipping out from under them to check. They observed her passively from their spot on the couch and admired their handiwork. Her clothes were displaced and rustled, her cheeks were the most delightful shade of pink and her tail was wagging a mile a minute. They were pretty sure they were just as dishevelled, but despite their preference for order, they couldn't be too bothered to care.

Their loving view was interrupted as she groaned and slammed her phone down, which would have broken it had she not finally put a case on it after years of Shadow’s scolding.

“Not work I take it?” they asked as she returned to the couch, the passionate moment lost as she ran her hands through her quills.

“No. Guess who?” she prompted.

“Miles and he wants us to talk to everyone”

She seemed surprised at their correct guess until they pulled out their phone and showed her a similar text sent by the fox a few hours earlier. “I told him that you would not be in the mood given everything. Try not to be so cross with him, he still has to live with Faker and none of this was his fault.”

With a huff, she crossed her arms over her chest. “I’m not mad at Tails, he’s already apologized. But everyone else deserves it!”

“My love, we need to talk to them at some point. Miles is right. Especially as it is a secret he bears for us as well; we are putting him in an incredibly awkward position,” they said. Now that they weren’t the target of her rage, they felt confident enough to tug her to lean on them again, relaxing back against the couch arm with Amy seated between their legs and her back to their chest.

She relented to their pull and rested her head on their shoulder. “UGH! I hate it when you're right! Why did we tell him again?”

“We did not tell Miles. You forgot to lock the door and he has a tendency to enter without knocking. Although he seems to have stopped as of late, maybe he has finally learned to announce his presence,” Shadow commented.

Amy snorted a little, “Well, being almost hit with a chaos spear is certainly motivation to knock before entering an occupied bedroom. That was a bit of an overreaction on your part.”

“I was protecting my mate while in a very compromising and vulnerable position. I take no fault on the matter, and I am not starting this conversation again. When I win every time, it starts to get a little boring,” they teased.

She puffed her cheeks out and pouted, a habit she’d retained from her younger years that they found more and more endearing every time she did it. “You’re so rude! Why did I let you move in again?”

“That was your idea. You said that two or three years of steady dating is when couples usually move in, and we have been dating for well over two years. This feud with the others is a convenient excuse for me to move out of the GUN apartment without offending Rouge. Why? Am I that bad of a housemate?” they nuzzled her cheek, knowing she had adored having “easy access” to their affection.

“... Do we have to do it NOW?” Amy whined, conceding to their efforts to persuade her.

They pressed a kiss to her cheek gently. “No, we can wait a little longer. I was thinking at least a week, give them some time to sit with their emotions before we send them into upheaval again. I have no doubt Knuckles will demand my head on a silver platter for even daring to touch you. Then again, I am looking forward to being able to react the way I want to when people flirt wIth you. That was getting on my nerves.”

She giggled and tilted her head back to admire the green tint their skin retained from earlier activities. “Jealous much? I shouldn't be surprised since you're pretty green with envy right now.” 

Shadow gave her a deadpan glance at the joke, but couldn't help but smile as she tried to avoid laughing at the pun. “Not envious or jealous. My faith in the bond we share is unwavering, and I know you feel similarly. It is more reflective of a selfish desire to have your attention all to myself.”

“Wow… I was going to say I never took you for the possessive type, but I knew. You're bad at sharing and even worse at hiding it. That guy who was hitting on me last year STILL won’t talk to me after you scared the life out of him,” she teased, biting her lip a little and catching the way the action caught their attention.  She got up reluctantly as her stomach rumbled. Oh right. Neither of them had eaten lunch.

“Anyways, you know I’m all yours. But I wouldn’t say no to an apology dinner,” she hinted.

Shadow snorted a little and rolled their eyes, “Is that your way of asking me to cook for you?”

“Maybe… Is that a yes?” She gave them her brightest smile, tugging on the hybrid’s heartstrings with the simplest expression. They got up as well, and couldn’t resist the urge to pull her into their arms and kiss her again. It was passionate and slow, just enough to remind her of their interrupted moment without being a sequel. They both did need dinner, after all.

“Fine. But we will be finishing what you started afterwards.” Shadow mumbled, voice dropping into a low growl that sent her bristling again. Satisfied with how they’d flustered their girlfriend, they wandered off to the kitchen, grabbing their apron off the matching hook set by the door.

Chapter Text

Despite their justified outburst Shadow was still expected to work with Rouge, and that resulted in the most awkward stretch of missions she’d ever been on. All silences were soaked in tension, especially on stakeouts where they would usually at least gossip about the office drama. Well, Rouge would gossip. Shadow would just listen and grunt, and on occasion provide a piece of information that would alter Rouge’s view of the situation. They were good at that, forcing her to think about things differently.

She’d had a lot of time for that as of late.

They were on a roof stakeout, a minor recon mission that might have been completed better by rookie agents with a lower pay rate, but she wouldn’t complain. It was a nice evening, with a warm breeze that indicated summer would soon make herself known. The thoughts of barbeques and beach dates were hopeful, but even that was affected by the lack of black and pink in her life. Amy usually hosted the barbeques, and Shadow was her designated beach volleyball partner—despite their protests.  The bat peeked over at Shadow, hoping to be able to pick up on their body language.

Neon signs backlit her fellow agent, splashing their hiding place in colourful ambient lighting, an overwhelming portion of which barely even reflected off of the dark hog. Sometimes, when the lighting was this poor, they did represent their namesake. A shapeless, formless shadow.

 The sound of their voice caught her attention just in time to avoid dropping the binoculars they tossed her. “Two windows down, four from the left.”

“Our guy?” she asked, noting the weasel seated at the desk.  She was familiar with him, one of Eggman's lackeys who had claimed to be “reformed”. She’d worked with him before, and he was a grade A slimeball. Amy had helped put him out of commission years before when he attempted to steal what little money the Restoration had. Now out of prison and his full body cast, he was persona number one on GUN’s radar. Oddly enough, for the hypothetical threat that he posed to Amy.

After several minutes of him just sitting as he worked Rouge heard the crinkling of a bag and something plastic knocked against her arm. She looked down to see a bag of her favourite dried mangoes at her side. The spy looked up to her partner, but they were focused on the window. Rouge smiled softly at the gesture, finding it quite sweet that Shadow had picked up Amy’s habit of throwing food at an emotional problem.

Nothing else of note happened and when the weasel got up and left his desk, shutting the lights off behind him, Rouge opened her mouth to say something about calling it a night; only to realize Shadow off to the side, talking on a phone she didn't recognize. It certainly wasn't their work one—this model looked like something Tails had tinkered with, probably to encrypt it. He’d been the only one the pair had chosen to stay in contact with and had assured the bat that Shadow’s new home wasn’t just a cave in the woods.

She could guess who they were talking to judging by the perk of their ears and the wag of their tail but didn't want to listen in on the conversation, so when Shadow walked back over to her and offered her the phone she regarded it with surprise.

“Uh.. thanks… Hello?” she greeted, confused at what Amy could want.

“Hi, Rouge,” Amy said, sheepish and timid in a way that she hadn’t been since she was a child.

“Hi… I’m surprised, I’ll admit. I didn't think either of you would want to speak to me.”

The hedgehog chose to ignore the comment. “I need you to pass a message on to everyone else for me if you can.”

“Yeah, anything. What is it?”

“Well,” Amy started, and Rouge could almost hear her biting her lip. “Can you have everyone come to my house on Saturday? I think we all need to talk.”

Rouge was sure her heart stopped. When it started again it was light, like it was filled with helium. Or hope, hope was more likely. “Of course. Is seven okay?”

“Mmm… maybe like eight. And tell everyone to eat before they come, I don't know how long this might take.” the pink hog answered.

“Yeah okay, that works. I’ll see you then”

The second the line went dead Rouge handed the phone back to Shadow, who tucked it into their jacket pocket. They offered her a hand up from where she’d been sitting on the roof, and the bat took it. The dark hog was silent as always as they chaos controlled Rouge back to the apartment’s door. She couldn’t help but be hopeful as she rushed inside to wake Knuckles up and tell him the news.

The rainy Saturday was an oddly fitting setting as the entire gang walked up to Amy's house, where she was waiting to let them in so they wouldn't have to linger outside more than needed. It was the kind of spring rain that made everything feel clean and new, that cleared the dregs of winter out of the air.

They all greeted the pink hog, who gave them each a tight-lipped smile—except the guest Blaze had brought along, who caused her ears to perk up. Silver, who had returned early from their work on the timeline, was the only one given a true and full Amy welcome, and nearly fell over as she tackled them with a hug.

“WOAH! Hi Amy!” the silver hog exclaimed, stumbling backwards so they wouldn’t fall over. If it was a tighter squeeze from her than usual, Silver said nothing. As everyone filtered into her house, taking off shoes and coats at the door, the telekinetic hog lingered by Amy’s side.

“I heard what happened from Blaze. How are you two holding up?” they asked, voice low to avoid catching Rouge’s attention. Thankfully a glance over at the bat indicated she wasn’t listening.

Amy sighed softly, rubbing her arm gently. “We’re fine. A little calmer. This is just gonna be…”

“Awkward?”

“Loud. There is gonna be a lot of yelling,” she admitted, taking Silver’s coat for them now that everyone had moved to the living room.

“They're not gonna yell at you, Amy. They might cry, but I promise no one is mad at you. They're just mad at themselves and maybe each other.” They walked into the living room with everyone else.

 Amy, now alone, made her way into the kitchen to wait for Shadow to get back from running off their nerves. While there, she idly admired the flowers she’d found on the kitchen table in the morning.  How Shadow had found pink roses with black tips was baffling, but it delighted her nonetheless. She traced a petal with her finger and picked up the few that had fallen off. Making sure no one was watching, she climbed onto the counter and opened the cabinet above the stove hood where a container of similar petals was hidden. Adding her new finds to the jar, she nearly screamed when she heard the door open behind her, slipping off the counter.

A pair of familiar hands caught her and her jar, accompanied by a quiet snort. The tension drained out of her a little, and she simply blushed a bit as Shadow pressed a kiss to her temple, setting her on the counter with a raised eyebrow.

“Okay, well now I know where all the petals have been going… but why are you collecting them?” they asked, voice low so the chatter in the next room would cover the conversation from prying ears. The container was familiar to them, a glass cookie jar with a base the size of their hand that usually held holiday-themed cookies. Thinking about it, they remembered her saying something about it breaking, and the trip she'd made to the baking supply shop to get the replacement currently sitting next to the fridge. Connecting some of the dots, they looked up to their partner for an explanation and were surprised to find her avoiding their eyes and curling in on herself a little.

“Rose?”

“Nothings it’s… it's stupid,” she said, reaching for the container. They anticipated this, and held it behind them, leaving her with a pout until they used their free hand to grab hers and kiss the back of it.

“Nothing you do is stupid. Nor is it childish or insignificant. You do not do things without reason, even if that reason is just because it makes you happy,” they assured and she blushed a little more, crossing her arms over her chest and looking out her kitchen window at the street. At least she wasn’t bristling at them. That was a good sign.

“It’s something st-” she started, only to stop when Shadow’s expression dropped into an expression that was clearly asking if they needed to repeat themselves.

“It’s something I saw on the internet,” she admitted. “A girl collected all the flowers her partner got her over the years they’d been together, dried them, and then those were the flower petals tossed down the aisle at their wedding. We haven’t even talked about anything like that, and I am nowhere near ready to even CONSIDER it, but I just wanted the option if it ever came up and you dont-have-to-say-anything-please-forget-it,” she said, rushing through her words. She peeked over at them to see the hybrid assessing the jar in their hands. They’d gone a little green, but their ears were forward and they hadn’t bristled either. When they met her glance, she noted the glow of mischief dancing in their eyes.

“Okay, then I need to start getting you flowers more often. Otherwise, I think the flower girl might be out of a job,” they said, smirking a little when their partner squeaked quietly in surprise and blushed right to the tips of her ears. They weren’t prepared for her to pull them into a kiss and stumbled, clicking their teeth together. But neither complained as they savoured the moment, the jar set aside to avoid damaging it.  They also didn’t hear the footsteps behind them until a loud cough sounded.

Shadow bristled and nearly summoned a chaos bolt, tearing their mouth away from their partner and hissing at the unamused fox who had caught them. Recognizing it was just Miles they settled down quickly, huffing and avoiding eye contact with the vulpine.

“For Gaia’s fucking sake you two! Everyone is wondering where you are! You’re lucky I’m the one who came to find you, it could have been Knuckles,” the teen whisper-yelled at them, clearly worried about them getting caught and annoyed he was catching them again.

“My apologies Miles. We got... distracted,” Shadow said, turning their head as Amy grabbed their face to wipe her lipgloss off their mouth. Satisfied with her work, she hopped off her counter and gave the lanky fox a gentle pat on the cheek, pulling him down to kiss his forehead.

“I’m sorry Tails. Thank you for looking out for us for so long. You’re the best confidant anyone could ask for. Let's get this over with,” she suggested, desperately wanting to take Shadow's hand but knowing it might not be the best idea. The pair followed Tails back down the hall and entered the room with their friends seated or draped over the couches and chairs. Shadow felt Amy shrink back from all the attention and stepped a little bit closer. They met Knuckles’ and Sonic’s gazes, able to at least get them to look away in shame for a beat.

“I— Tails, Silver, none of this has anything to do with either of you, but I'm glad you came,” Amy started, getting an eager thumbs up from Silver and a grumpy huff from the fox.

“We are thankful the rest of you came as well,” Shadow added. “Even if we are still cross with you, you have had our backs and been by our sides for years. Fighting like this was unpleasant on all accounts, and now that we have had some time and distance we can discuss this like the adults we are. But, some ground rules. No yelling, no physical fights or powers—Silver you are the exception, to separate people if necessary. Am I  clear?” Shadow asked. Everyone nodded quietly.

Amy took a seat on one of her armchairs and Shadow chose to lean on it, observing the room to see who would speak first.

Turns out everyone wanted to start, including Amy.  Shadow watched as their partner let a small smile grace her face, and some of the tension drained away in everyone's shoulders. To some surprise, Rouge was the first to start again.

“I am SO sorry, both of you. Shadow was right, we made a choice for you guys that wasn't our call and didn't even think of how it would affect your friendship. We were so sure that we were helping that we didn't realize how bad it could be if it all went south. Please don't be mad at Knuckles or Blaze, they tried to be reasonable about it but Sonic and I just got so hung up on the idea of you two together because it meant that you both had someone to love you the way you deserved.” Rouge said, looking at the ground, ears pinned back to her skull. 

Sonic picked up the apology next, ears also pinned back and curling in a little on himself in true hedgehog fashion. “I got too involved with the idea because of the fight, Ames. Knuckles was right, I broke your heart and felt it was my duty to fix it. I couldn't give you what you wanted, but when I saw what I thought was your interest I figured I owed it to you to try and push the process. But I did to you both what I HATED having done to me, and that makes me far worse because I should have known better. We also took advantage of the information you voluntarily shared, Shadow, and we stuck our muzzles where they didn’t belong. You were right. We were no better than GUN. I’m sorry.”

Blaze gripped Silver’s hand tightly. “I should have stopped the entire thing the second you brought up your parents, Amy, and left it at that. I hang off every story of my parents that I can remember, I couldn’t imagine someone tainting the best memory I have of them with the pain we put you two through. You have both been through more than enough of this treatment and we added to it. We are asking for your forgiveness but we do not deserve it,” she choked out. A soft teal glow surrounded her as she started to steam from the emotions she was trying to keep under control, Silver slightly levitating her off the couch she was on so she didn't catch fire.

“Amy,” Knuckles started, “remember when we were kids and Eggman kidnapped us in that cage that shocked us nonstop?”

Amy nodded, flashing back to being smaller and pressed into Knuckles’ chest as he took the brunt of the damage. His quills had been singed for weeks and some spots hadn’t grown back as thick as they had once been. The memory alone was distressing.“ You promised you would never let anything hurt me.”

Knuckled nodded, clearly a little uncomfortable. “I failed you. And it wasn't an egg plot or some psycho trying to end the world, it was something that I could have stopped long before it ever got to you. I was supposed to keep you safe but I just sat by and let this happen. We got lucky that Rouge had Omega updating or we could have put you in danger. We’re your family, not the people you need protection from. Shadow, you don’t even have to forgive us, I know I wouldn’t if it was the other way around… We had no right to do what we did.”

“You did not,” Shadow agreed when Knuckles took a moment to catch his breath. The scrunched brow and deep breathing were more emotion than Shadow had ever seen the echidna express, and they knew that letting him continue or acknowledging it would embarrass him. 

With a sigh, the ebony hog pressed on. “But you all at least listened to what we had to say, and you thought about it. I am not blind. You all look worse for wear and it is not lost on me that this was just as emotionally draining for all of you as it was for us. Our initial reactions were fueled by panic and shock, and mine at least was far more violent and aggressive than was warranted. You confronted me with information I did not want GUN to find out about, and I did not even think to check if Rouge had a plan prepared for that. Instead of behaving like a rational adult, I reacted like a scared animal. I am—”

“Don't say you're sorry Shads, it ain't your style. Besides, both your reactions were more than fair considering everything,” Sonic cut in, clearly very uncomfortable with how weepy everyone was. Amy and Shadow looked at each other, communicating in some silent way that no one else could catch. Rouge and Knuckles gulped a little bit when they recognized the look of mischief on both hedgehogs’ faces.

“We do have… information that may impact how you view the situation. And I need you all to behave like adults and to let us finish before you react,” Shadow said. Silver held themself at the ready just in case.

“We had some…minor notes,” Amy said with a mischievous grin, turning to reveal the laptop plugged into her tv, which pulled up a well-done PowerPoint.

“ What You Got Wrong ,” Rouge read out incredulously, and everyone started talking at once; mostly confusion, playful complaints, and grumbles. Once everyone settled down, the pink and black pair began their presentation on a slide that said “ The Phonecall”.

“Go ahead, since most of this is defending your behaviour,” Amy said, rolling her eyes at Shadow and gesturing for the darker hog to take the lead. Clearly this had been their idea. They sneered at her a little bit, and she stuck her tongue out at them.

“I knew you were behind me during that phone call, Faker. I would hardly consider you a threat, with how often I kick your ass,” Shadow started, earning at least a little chuckle from the group and a loud protest from Sonic.

The next slide was Amy’s “ The Party” . “So, Shadow didn’t lie to you Knuckles, nothing happened after the New Year’s party. They took me home, we cuddled up on the couch, watched the fireworks, and fell asleep.”

“You are all so damn creepy, by the way,” Shadow interjected. “NONE of you saw us kiss at the party, and yet you had the whole story.” 

“We weren’t doing anything in the kitchen either, I just needed help to get on the counter cause I was a little tipsy. We respect other people's property, unlike a certain couple,” Amy said with a pointed yet playful glare. Knuckles seemed a little embarrassed, but Rouge just laughed. 

Shadow continued on the next slide, “ The Soup” , consciously trying to hold their tail still in an effort not to give away anything until the end. “ I CAN cook—I just felt no need to do so in the apartment because you would have demanded I cook for you all the time. Despite your inability to do so, you managed fine with freezer meals and takeout.” 

“I would not—” the bat started, before pausing and relenting. “Okay, MAYBE I would have.”

“The lunch dates were a mutual idea since we’re both in the office on Wednesdays. We've been doing them for the past, what, year and a half?” Amy asked, to which Shadow nodded.

“Also, there was one pretty big flaw in your timeline,” the pink hedgehog continued, pulling up a slide with the original timeline on it. She stepped up to the right of the screen, gesturing at the image.

“You all placed us “falling in love” somewhere in July or August. You were off by quite a bit… we started dating in November—”

“AHA!” Sonic shouted, standing and pointing at the pair, “I knew it!”

“Sit down, you idiot, and let her finish,” Shadow ordered, and Sonic sat quickly.

“November… of two years ago,” Amy finished with a sheepish smile, the timeline shrinking to fit the actual length of their relationship.

Everyone stared silently at the screen in shock, mouths open. Amy couldn't help but giggle, and even Shadow snorted quietly.  When no one spoke, she started explaining.

“You guys don't pay attention! We weren’t hiding it, at least not from you. For Gaia's sake, there has been a second toothbrush in my bathroom for months! None of you noticed! We kept it quiet at first while we figured it out, and we didn’t want GUN to use me as leverage. But when none of you picked up on it, it became a bit of a game. I was expecting you all to figure it out by like, a year,” Amy elaborated.

“But that means you’ve been dating longer than Rouge and I have,” Knuckles said, having compared the timeline to his own relationship.

“Not if you count the six years where you two refused to commit to the title despite meeting the definition of a couple. But yes, significantly longer than you all anticipated,” Shadow pointed out. Both the bat and echidna blushed a little.

“... Wait, then why didn't you move in here if you've been together for so long? Didn’t you just move out of Rouge’s place?” Blaze asked, to which Shadow just gestured vaguely towards the collection of cardboard boxes stacked in the corner of the room.

“I did. Hence the aforementioned toothbrush.”

“But Tails said—” Knuckles started before snapping his head to the vulpine, the rest of the room following suit.

“I said it wasn't a cave, and gave no other details,” the teen said, hands raised defensively. “Besides, I already knew and Amy swore me to secrecy.”

“You told Tails but not us?” Rouge asked, genuinely insulted. Amy squeaked loudly and started blushing, Tails suddenly found his namesakes very interesting, and Shadow coughed into their hand.

“We didn't tell him - uh- he sort of found out on his own,” Amy explained, wringing her hands.

Sonic glanced between Amy’s bright blush, Shadow’s sudden inability to maintain eye contact, and the way Tails fidgeted. His brother had never kicked the habit of twisting them when he was flustered, but it was still a rare thing to see now that he was older and more mature. What could have him so embarrassed? Rouge and Knuckles weren’t subtle about their affection, and the fox barely gave them a second glance now. What would make him react like this—

“Oh my Gaia.” the speedster mumbled, a lightbulb going off somewhere in his blue brain.

“Shut up,” Shadow growled, ears pinned back to hide the way they were starting to tint green.

“I can't believe this—”

“Faker I mean it.”

“Chaos help me, that is HILARIOUS. Do we need to send you to therapy buddy?” The hedgehog asked his brother, who looked like he wanted to die.

Amy bristled. “Sonic! knock it off!”

“I zoned out. What's happening?” Silver asked, turning to his partner who grimaced a little at the whole conversation.

“Sonic, I swear on my hammer if you say one more word—”

“Tails walked in on them fuckin’—” the blue hedgehog started before the bat slapped her hand over his mouth, slightly too late. Her eyes flicked to Amy and Shadow, who both looked fit to assault the hero, but Silver drew everyone’s attention.

“Yikes, awkward… Although I can’t believe you guys didn’t know they were together,” the future hog admitted, surprised.

Shadow raised an eyebrow. “Clearly not… Did you?”

Silver merely shrugged in response. “I mean I’ve been bouncing around in the future for the past month so I picked up on a few things, but it's also really really obvious. I figured you wanted to keep it lowkey. Also, future Amy insisted I not say anything, she said it would ‘ruin her fun’. I think she might have been referring to the sneaking around though, hard to tell.” 

“How did all of this even happen?” Blaze asked, trying to avoid the topic of the future lest they destabilize the timeline again. She’d just gotten her partner back, and the hedgehog was drained as all hell from having to fix everything. Another ripple would be hard to fix without adequate rest.

“Well, it was a few years ago…” the pink hedgehog started.

Chapter Text

Shadow knocked somewhat impatiently on Amy’s door, tapping their foot idly. It was bad enough that there were no missions for Team Dark, but they had been temporarily demoted to errand runner for the whole damn organization. They’d been sprinting and warping across the world moving documentation back and forth, and Amy’s house was the last stop they needed to make before they were relieved from their duties.

Shadow intended to say something snarky about keeping people waiting when the door finally opened, but mean comments died in their throat as the pink hedgehog glared up at them through puffy, bloodshot eyes. Her quills were simultaneously flat and messy in a way Shadow had never seen before.

Amy was exhausted, miserable, and considered throwing her hammer at whoever dared disturb her pity party right up until she saw who it was; Shadow wasn’t the type to hang around if they didn’t need to. She hoped this interaction would be one of the times where they left without a goodbye after getting what they needed.

“What is it, Shadow? Please don’t tell me the world is ending because I am not in the mood,” she warned, and the dark hog remembered why they usually tried to keep on her good side. An angry Amy was lethal to most people, and while she couldn’t kill them her hammer did hurt like a bitch. Rarely was her ire directed at them, but if looks could kill they would be dead.

“Commander Vela wanted me to run these to you… files on the rehabilitation in the Northern sector and this,” they replied, motioning to the box they’d set at her feet and handing over a gilded envelope.

“Ugh, fuck I forgot about that. Come in, I need to give you something for the commander anyways,” she said with a sigh, leaving Shadow to follow her in with the box.

Amy busied herself with the box, looking over invoices, order slips, and other numbers indicating the area’s status. There was at least some good news, the files showed the region was back up to running at full capacity after an earthquake and she could divert resources more effectively. She scribbled a bunch of notes on a blank sheet of paper, instructions on resource allocations and the next steps. All she could do at the moment was focus on her work since being alone with her thoughts ended in another crying fit.

While Amy worked, Shadow took the opportunity to look around the room. It wasn’t their first time inside Amy’s house, but it was the first time the place felt so dark and lifeless. All the blinds were drawn, and the herb garden on her windowsill was dying from lack of attention. The glass jar on the counter that was typically full of freshly baked cookies was empty except for a few crumbs. Amy was the one to host everyone’s birthday parties, but the recent triple party for Rouge, Sonic, and themself had been in Tails’ workshop instead. Thinking back to the event they were forced into attending, Amy hadn’t been present at all. At the time they’d been told she was busy working, much to the hybrid’s disappointment. While they weren't very close, Amy was a pleasant conversation partner. Thinking back, they couldn’t remember a year where she hadn’t gone out of her way to hunt them down to give them birthday wishes, save this one. They looked over to the bubblegum-toned woman, but where normally they’d find their vibrant friend, today they only saw a shell. 

The dark hog said nothing as Amy folded up the file she had been working on and opened the gilded envelope. She skimmed its contents, growling out and slamming the invitation on the table.

“Absolutely fucking not.”

Shadow nodded in agreement. “That was also my reaction. I do not wish to attend either.”

“Why do I need to go to the company anniversary party? I don't work for GUN!” she complained, flopping down in one of her kitchen chairs. Her blood boiled with a rage she hadn't felt in a long time. The kind of rage when Eggman captured harmless animals or tried to end their world yet again. The kind of rage gave her the power to summon more hammers than she would ever logically need. She could feel the twitch in her forearms—years of battle left her itching to go and deal with the “threat”; unfortunately she had no opponent to fight. It took several deep breaths before the urge dissipated enough that she could focus.

“All major collaborators need to send one representative, including Team Sonic and the Restoration. You ARE the General, after all,” Shadow pointed out, before tacking on; “Though your reaction is a bit of a surprise. I thought you would have enjoyed an event like this.” They were unprepared for the bitter cackle that left Amy’s mouth.

“Oh yeah, getting spoken over during conversations like I’m a child by the same people who spin me around a dance floor and try to sneak peeks down my dress—despite being THREE TIMES my age—is a fun evening! Not to mention having to see—” she cut off mid-sentence to rub at her temples. She would not cry. She would NOT cry. Not now. Not here. Not in front of the only person who had spoken to her without pity in a month. If Shadow took on even the slightest of pitying tones, she was fully content to send them back to the ARK Piko-Piko style.

Shadow had vaguely overheard the conversation between Rouge and Knuckles a few weeks before, describing a falling out between the pink and blue hedgehogs. Given the information about the blue hog they were privy to, they connected the dots on what must have happened. A sense of pity washed over them, and although they didn't know what having your long-time crush come out to you in a blunt and—from what they had heard—very aggressive manner felt like, they figured it would be best to not mention it. Instead, they observed her posture and body language. Her ears were back, leg shaking, and she was practically curled into a ball as if her spines could protect her from the emotional ache.

“... I doubt he will show. Rouge will probably take Knuckles so the team’s representative position is filled. He MIGHT stop in for five minutes near the end to steal the food,” they insisted, hoping it would be enough to placate her worries.

“And miss seeing your ass in a tux? No way,” the pink hedgehog scoffed, freezing suddenly and feeling her stomach drop. She hadn’t just said that. Sure she was mad at Sonic for leading her on for over ten years, but was she really that horrible of a person to out him to the person he was crushing on?

Shadow's fingers snapped in front of her eyes and she focused on them. They’d seen the blood drain from her face and didn’t like how she started quivering and hyperventilating. Seeing her in distress struck a chord somewhere in their chest, originating from the soft spot she had made herself when she convinced them to save the world. So while it did require some personal information, they were willing to share if it set her mind at ease.

“Rose, I know. He and I have… discussed it. I do not reciprocate—frankly, I have never understood what you saw in him— but he is free to look wherever he pleases. I am not in charge of him or his emotions, and neither are you. Besides, unless I am mistaken, GUN requires attendees to dress formally, and we both know he would never be able to stay in slacks that long. Five minutes, maximum.”

Amy sighed in relief, both at the fact that she hadn’t just outed Sonic and at Shadow’s comfort, which had the same neutral inflection as every other sentence they’d said thus far. No pity. No judgment. Just cold hard facts, and maybe a little bit of snark. She stayed quiet for a moment, sifting through the files for the one Shadow needed to take with them to the office. Then she stopped, glancing over at them, a plan formulating behind her eyes.

“There’s no way out of this party, is there?”

“No… Well, some, but I doubt you would want to give up a limb and mine regenerate too fast to be a good excuse.”

“Okay, here’s an idea for you. We go to this stupid thing together. Get some food, talk to the bare minimum of people, get one dance in and then I say I'm feeling sick. You escort me home. This gets us both out of it as fast as possible and we can dip before he even considers stopping in. Then we have the rest of our evenings to ourselves. You can just drop me off back here and leave. Hell, we don't even have to talk to each other the entire night,” Amy offered, looking over at them.

The dark hybrid considered the offer. They couldn’t decline to attend with the way GUN was holding their leash, nor could they make an early exit without some legitimate excuse. Rouge would have her attention caught by her on-again-off-again boyfriend and wouldn’t be able to cover for them the way she usually did. Besides, Amy was offering a quick way out of the entire event as opposed to their usual method of hiding in dark corners and hoping no one saw them while they waited for Rouge to satisfy her party needs. She was also much better at conversation than they were and was mindful of their limits, never pushing them to speak when they didn’t want to. Conversation flowed easily between them, although it was more Amy talking and them listening, but they didn’t actually mind doing so. She was a very passionate individual and it extended to all aspects and topics.

“That is acceptable.”

“Great. Meet me here at seven. Also, here’s the file for the commander. Pleasure doing business with you,” she said with a smile, handing over the paperwork and offering her hand to shake. Her face hadn't contorted into a proper smile since the fight and the one she was trying to give now came off as strained. The plan was perfect. She got to do all the fun of getting all dressed up and almost none of the socializing. Especially since she knew Shadow rarely spoke at events such as this one. 

Shadow took the paperwork from her, shook her hand, and wondered just what they were getting themselves into.

~*~*~

The day of the party rolled around and Shadow found themself at Amy’s house at exactly seven sharp. They tugged at their collar, unsettled by the shirt compressing their chest fluff and the tie threatening to strangle them. The sound of a door unlocking caught their attention and they glanced up, once again struck speechless on Amy’s doorstep by the pink hedgehog’s appearance.

Their partner-in-crime had primped and preened for the event. She wore an off-the-shoulder dress that Shadow thought was black at first glance. A second look revealed the way it faded to a deep red as it kissed the floor. Her quills hung down her back in an intricate braid that contrasted the simple, dark necklace sitting at the base of her throat very nicely. Black satin gloves coming up to her biceps completed the elegant look. 

“Hi Shadow, sorry, I’m almost ready. Come in!” she encouraged, leaving the door open as she turned away from them to grab something on the table behind her. She felt much better than she had in several weeks, the fight with Sonic slowly releasing its grip on her every waking thought. It didn’t hurt that Rouge had come over to get ready together and had lent her the dress, which was far more serious and mature than anything she might have picked out for herself. Hopefully it would pose just enough of an intimidating aura to deter people from coming up to her. Having Shadow around if she needed them could only help, in that regard.

Shadow thanked the stars they’d recovered from taking in her outfit by the time she’d turned back around. They certainly didn’t want her to know just how impressed, and slightly flustered, she made them. They’d never had to attend an event of this caliber with Amy before so seeing her all done up was a shock, that’s all it was. It had nothing to do with the fact that she was in their colors. Or that pink and black were a particularly fetching combination.

“Uh. Nice dress,” Shadow greeted, trying to say something that didn’t make them sound stupid. “Oh, thanks! I borrowed it from Rouge,” she replied in a chipper tone.

Ah. Of course. Rouge had pestered the fuck out of shadow when they’d mentioned who they were escorting, and kept giggling everytime the pink hedgehog came up in conversation. The hybrid recognized the dress, they’d gone undercover with Rouge weeks ago and she’d picked it specifically because it matched their quills.

They hadn’t cared at the time, but they certainly did now. 

“It’s a little bit tighter than I would like but I didn’t have the energy to go dress shopping. I like the suit! Wait, are you okay? You look a little flushed.” She pointed out, picking up a small black clutch and a sheer shawl.

From her perspective the hybrid looked like they’d taken one too many rides on a rollercoaster, which was probably just a normal flush to their face. 

She sized up the hedgehog in front of her and let her eyes wander around their person for the reason they were so stressed.  Shadow had cleaned up nicely, wearing a well-tailored black tailcoat and white bowtie with nary a quill out of place. It was a little boring, sure, but it was classy. The tie around their neck, she gathered, was the culprit. It looked nice but was probably far too tight.

Shadow willed their blush to die, clearing their throat. “Yes. Just warm and uncomfortable. I hate wearing this thing.”

“I can tell. Let me fix it.”

Amy undid the offending article of clothing with a simple tug and scoffed at the shitty knot, reaching her arms around their neck to place the garment on correctly. This was closer than she had ever been to them, excusing the days when they battled side by side. She returned her attention to the tie, trying to avoid getting flustered by the casual intimacy of the situation. She had learned to tie ties when she was a teenager in the hope of a picture-perfect domestic romance: Waking up with her partner, eating a small breakfast before fixing their tie as they both headed out the door. That dream was dead now, but she smiled at the thought. For the moment she enjoyed the catharsis of getting to do it at least once, even if Shadow wasn’t the beau she’d originally envisioned. She’d have to stop herself from going in for the kiss afterwards, though. That would be awkward.

Shadow, for their part, initially looked away from the pink woman currently fixing their tie. Rouge had tried to do so before they left, but the bat hadn't been able to get nearly as close to them. Amy, however, had not only managed to get within arm’s reach, but had actually taken the tie off and was now almost pressed right up against them. They left their arms straight down by their side, unsure what to do with them. From this angle she was only looking at their neck, so they could observe her easily in their periphery. She was focused intensely on the task at hand, her tongue peeking out the side of her mouth ever so slightly. 

Amy had always been pretty, a fact which Shadow was more than aware of, especially with how some of their fellow agents swooned over her when she would stop by GUN HQ for meetings. But tonight she looked better than she had in ages and it wasn't the dress, her quills, or the makeup she had on. She looked confident and excited, her vibrant air that was ever so contagious returning to the space just because she felt good. For the moment, she was Amy Rose in full, not the faint shade she had become.

She smiled as she finished tying their tie and looked up at them, pleased with herself. They were unaware that they were giving her a small smile back, just happy to see her so content for once. 

Amy blushed and fiddled with the tie more, even though it was fine. As attractive as Shadow was—and she knew they were attractive, she had eyes that worked—she wasn't ready to dive back into the whole romance thing. Not yet. “There, all done. Let’s get going. The sooner we get there, the sooner we can leave,” she said, grabbing her house keys.

As the pair walked down her driveway to the waiting GUN vehicle Shadow offered her their arm to hang onto, which she took with a smile.

Huh. Maybe this won't be so bad after all.

“... And then we dipped as soon as we could and went to get fast food because the party was horrible,” Amy concluded, smiling fondly. “Of course, we didn't start ACTUALLY dating until almost a year later, but that was the start of it.”

“Oh… wow,”  Rouge mumbled, having let go of Sonic while Amy was talking, with a pointed glare for him to be quiet, “So I guess that ‘actual date’ was the one you were all worked up about a couple of years ago?”

“Yup,” Amy confirmed, having sat and slipped her hand into Shadow’s during her recap of their ‘unofficial’ first date. The hybrid was still a little uncomfortable with the PDA, but she was so happy that they figured they could get used to it.

“I’m so happy for you guys!” Silver chirped and hugged Amy, the telepath’s tail wagging back and forth like a little flag. Shadow was offered a fist bump, Silver having learned over the years that trying to hug the hybrid usually ended with a kick to the back of the head. They huffed a little but tapped their knuckles against Silver’s lightly.

As a chorus of congratulations traveled the room, Amy accepted their friends' hugs with delighted purring and clicking, and Shadow just stood by her side. To anyone observing the room, they looked pissed, but those within it knew the entirely neutral expression, wagging tail and forward-pointed ears were more indicative of their delight.

“Soooo….” Rouge began, sliding up to the side of Amy that Shadow wasn't currently on. The teasing tone was enough to set both hedgehogs on edge, tossing each other a brief glance. “Falling down the stairs, hm? I’m sure that's a new euphemism. Nice aim on the bra toss, ten points for the lamp.”

“What?” Sonic and Knuckles said, and Amy slapped the bat's arm with a hard but restrained hit. Blaze’s eyebrows shot to her hairline in shock as she remembered the odd occurrence. Tails and Silver just looked confused.

“I plead the fifth,” Amy grumbled, snapping her head towards Knuckles and Sonic with a glare that indicated they should drop the subject. Sonic started wiggling his eyebrows suggestively and only stopped when she made the ever-so-familiar gesture she used to summon her hammer.

Shadow merely huffed and refused to acknowledge the implications, even as their ears started tinting green and their quills bristled a little at the way their partner was upset and leaning into them. They would have liked to punch Sonic but Amy had requested they not start any fights, so they instead took the initiative to slip an arm around her shoulders to help settle her nerves. “Get out of my house, Faker.”

“This isn’t your house,” Sonic protested, “it’s Amy’s.”

“Fine. Get out of Rose’s house, Faker.”

“HEY! Honestly, after all these years, you'd think you two would calm down,” Amy scolded, two pairs of ears flicking down in apology.

“We should maybe go. I don't know about you all, but I am exhausted,” Blaze said with a yawn.

“Yeah, I can hear my bed calling me from here. The stress of hiding things for you two has aged me. I think I'm going grey!” Tails complained. The inventor hugged Amy on his way out the door. Shadow got a handshake from him and the couple quietly thanked him again for his discretion.

Everyone else figured they ought to get going, and with a few more goodbyes and a flash or two of chaos control, the black and pink pair found themselves alone again. Amy sighed and rested her head on Shadow’s chest, the pair flopped across one of the couches

“Well, that worked out much better than I thought it would,” Amy said with a relieved smile. 

Shadow simply hummed as they pressed a kiss to her forehead. “I wish they would have left certain topics out of it, but you are right. I was also anticipating some kind of fight. Or more questions. Do you think they have learned to keep their noses out of our business?”

Amy’s phone buzzed from her pocket and she pulled it out to see who it was, sighing as she showed Shadow the text.

[Rouge]: GIRL I WANT ALL THE NITTY GRITTY DETAILS!!

“... of course not.”