Chapter Text
‘Shadow?’ Rouge asked.
Shadow didn’t answer her. He was kneeling on the other side of their bed, staring at a laptop screen, resting his head in one hand. He was helping her with a mission for GUN’s cryptanalysis department. He was terrible with technology, but he was trying his best. She gave him a gentle nudge, and his gaze flickered. ‘Mm?’
She shifted over and sat behind him, slipping her fingers beneath the strap of the brush that she held in her hands. ‘You’re going to get frown lines, handsome.’
‘I’m going to get a headache,’ he muttered. ‘Why isn’t this working?’
She placed the brush on his shoulder and began to run it through his fur. ‘Try turning the caps lock off –’
Shadow abruptly sat up and looked back at her. His eyes locked onto the brush. She couldn’t tell whether he looked offended or alarmed. ‘… What are you doing?’
‘What does it look like?’ She shook out her hand, and the wires of the brush gleamed in the dim lights. ‘Now hold still.’
His ears flattened slightly, and he let her put the brush on his shoulder again. ‘Do you think I’m … dirty, or something?’
‘Of course not. But I can see that you’re not taking care of yourself.’ She shrugged and glanced at his screen as she worked, making a note of which parts of his code she would need to clean up later. ‘I came across a specialty brush store when I was visiting the South Island. You can’t find these things as easily in Central City.’ She looked down, taking care not to graze the diamond-shaped scar tissue on his back.
He sat in silence, letting her tend to him. He didn’t complain, but he didn’t seem overly receptive, either. Then his fingers stopped moving across the keyboard, and he pressed the power switch on the laptop. She looked up, wondering if he’d managed to code himself into a corner.
The dark screen reflected his face. His gaze was unfocused. He blinked, once, twice, then several times, each more forceful than the last. Then he took a shallow breath and closed the laptop lid. ‘… No one’s ever done this for me before.’
‘Really?’
He nodded once. ‘They just doused me in chemical solutions on board the Ark. They said it was to help keep Maria’s environment sterile.’ He drew his knees up to his chest and hugged them. She could feel the tension in his muscles. ‘But I think they just didn’t want to waste their time doing … this.’
The soft rasp of the wire quills and fur filled the ensuing silence.
He cleared his throat and said, ’N-No one ever does anything like this for me.’
‘That’s not true –‘
‘Except for you.’ He lay his head down on his knees. Now that the glow of his laptop had been extinguished, his body had taken on a golden hue. Rouge kept brushing his fur and quills, smoothing them down with her fingertips after each stroke of the brush. It felt like running her hand through a sea of candlestick ice – countless cylindrical slivers, but far warmer, and far softer. ‘You’re the only person who looks after me, or helps me, or takes care of me.’
Her heart began to ache, and she ceased her efforts for just long enough to kiss him on the shoulder. ‘You deserve more than one person. You deserve the world.’
‘I don’t want the world.’ The quiet rasp of the brush filled her ears again, and she felt him finally begin to relax. He turned toward her and cautiously pressed the side of his face against the brush. She heard the sound of a faint purr, and she couldn’t help but smile. ‘I don’t want the world… I just want you.’