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One of Sonic’s favorite activities was to piss Shadow off royally.
He couldn’t help it! Shadow was just really easy to rile up! He was also one of the only people that could keep up with Sonic, so he typically only did that when he wanted a challenge and Shadow wouldn’t accept otherwise.
Today was one of those days where he just kept pressing Shadow’s buttons and generally getting on his nerves. It wasn’t like the guy was busy or anything, he was just sitting at a cafe by himself with a tiny mug of espresso. Which did end up on the floor when Shadow stood up to chase Sonic around.
Eh, Sonic will buy him a new one later.
Right now he was way too busy enjoying their give and chase.
They were darting all throughout the city, stirring up wind that startled anyone that was in their path. They went up the sides of buildings, swirled in between cars, down alleyways, up stairs, Sonic was not giving it up.
But neither would Shadow.
And that’s part of why Sonic loved their little game so much.
Eventually they ran into the shopping district, and out of the corner of his eye Sonic spotted a head of pink quills and he grinned, making a hard left while Shadow kept running straight, the other hedgehog almost running smack into a light post.
Sonic sped down to where Amy was and ran circles around her, making her grocery bag fly out of her hands from the force and running her dizzy.
“I got it!” Sonic jumped up and grabbed her bag, but some of the contents had fallen into the air. He aimed the bag underneath them as each of the items dropped in, then presented it to her. “Ta-da!”
Amy’s quills were a mess and her dress was ruffled, wobbling around as she tried to regain her balance. But the moment she grounded herself she shot Sonic an annoyed glare.
“Sonic!” she huffed. “What are you doing here?”
“Pit stop.” Sonic dug into her bag without asking, grinning when he found a peach, taking it out and eating half of it in one bite. “Racing Shadow.”
Amy snatched her bag back, propping it on her hip. “Those aren’t for you. Did you antagonize him just so he would chase you?” she asked, then added pointedly. “Again?”
“I’ll pay you back.” Sonic said, mouth full of fruit. “And, yes, I did.”
Amy shook her head. “You know that’s not very nice. One of these days he’s actually going to kill you. Or worse.”
“Nah. He wouldn’t.” Sonic spit out the peach seed. “Besides, it’s soooo much fun!”
“We really need to get you a hobby. Or a job.” Amy mumbled.
“THERE YOU ARE!” a loud voice came from several meters away, making both Amy and Sonic jump. Shadow was standing there, chest heaving as he was breathing hard, eyes looking absolutely murderous.
“Aw, beans.” Sonic was already moving his feet. “Gotta run! It was nice talking to you, Amy! Still good for brunch on Tuesday?”
“Yes, but-”
“Coolseeyalaterbye!” Sonic rambled as he kicked into gear, running off with a gust of wind as Amy held on tighter to her bag so it wouldn’t fly away again. Shadow running after him but having the grace not to run past Amy in the same manner.
Amy just sighed. “I wonder if he knows and is being a jackass on purpose… or if he’s just a jackass.” she said to herself. “Although it’s hard not to realize… oh well.”
Sonic continued to run for several more miles until they exited the city and went into the forest. This was an area that was different from the straight and smooth roads and direct turns that they had just come out of.
Which meant that there were roots in the ground. And Sonic just so happened to trip over one of them, tumbling through the grass and landing flat on his back.
“Ow…” he groaned, hissing in pain. He laid there for a few seconds before trying to get up.
Shadow didn’t let him, appearing in front of him suddenly, grabbing his shoulders and showing him back onto the ground.
“Got you!” he growled, a deep scowl set on his face. “You’re going to pay for what you did.”
Sonic just rolled his eyes. “You mean your espresso? Dude, if you wanted me to take you out on a coffee date…” he smirked. “All you had to do was ask.”
Shadow’s face turned red and he very quickly got up off of Sonic. “You perverted little… ugh!” Shadow stomped on the ground. “I don’t know why I indulge you.”
Sonic sat up, still wearing that shit-eating grin. “Cause you wanna kiss me sooooo bad.”
“I do not!” Shadow shouted.
“Shadow, you should really take me out to dinner first before we go all the way to second base. I know I don’t look like it, but I’m not that easy.” Sonic winked.
Shadow’s face was as red as the stripes in his fur by this point, and he darted off without another word. Sonic sighed. He was really hoping the game could last a little longer, but Shadow always got weird when he fake-flirted with him. Sonic only did it because he loved the reactions he got out of him. It was one of the only things he could do that wouldn’t get Shadow mad necessarily, but definitely flustered.
It probably didn’t mean anything.
Oh well, he’d come back again tomorrow to piss him off again. For now though he was starving, and the hot dog place in the park closed in five minutes.
“Plenty of time.” Sonic said to himself stretched out his arms to the sky, grinning.
“Where have you been?” Rouge asked as Shadow walked into the room, furiously fluffing up his quills. “It’s not like you to be late.”
“I had a… troublesome encounter.” Shadow responded flatly.
Rouge smirked, able to read him easily. “You mean you ran into Sonic.”
Shadow rolled his eyes in response. “More like he ran into me. And then wouldn’t leave me alone.”
Rouge snorted behind her hand as they began to walk through the GUN facility. “What is this, the third time this week?”
“I’ve stopped keeping track.” Shadow crossed his arms. “Where is Omega? I thought he’d be joining us on this debrief.”
“He wasn’t invited, and trust me he was groaning about it all day in the apartment for being excluded. Towers was quite disrespectful in stating that a covert operation has no need for a clunky robot like him.” Rouge explained, sighing.
Shadow furrowed his brow. He recognized that GUN was their employer and if they were asked to jump they shouldn’t even ask how high, but this sort of treatment really made him want to send in his two weeks notice with some kind of explosive. The only reason he and the rest of Team Dark bothered to stay with them was because there was still some good they could do while as agents under them, and Shadow could learn more about the project that was his origin, even though GUN still kept many secrets from him.
“Don’t worry, I’m already working on making Tower’s life more inconvenient.” Rouge smirked. “I’m going to sneak into his house and steal every left sock.”
Shadow shook his head. “That won’t work. Towers is the type of man to have hundreds of the exact same pair of socks. You’re better off adding dish soap into his washing machine instead so the next time he uses it the thing will overflow with bubbles.”
Rouge cackled and extended her wings. “You’re so sinister sometimes, I love it.”
They didn’t have any time to discuss this further because they had arrived at the door where they would be given the mission briefing. Rouge swiped her card and they were let into the room.
Towers was waiting for them, standing at a big circular tech table that had a hologram of a building pulled up as well as several files on the case.
“You two are late.” Towers remarked, brows furrowing.
“Don’t get your panties in a twist, you should be grateful we showed up at all after you said what you did to Omega.” Rouge floated slightly above the ground, flapping her wings in a dismissive manner.
Towers scoffed. “I won’t even designate that with a response. Let’s get to work.” he swiped over the hologram to have it facing the two Mobians. “This operation is an infiltration mission. We have received some intel that a prominent Mobian figure is working on a cloning technology. Since that sort of thing is highly unethical and illegal, we’ve been tasked with retrieving the information.”
Rouge and Shadow glanced at each other, recognizing what the other was thinking. Shadow ended up speaking up.
“What exactly do you mean by retrieving the information?”
“I mean you two will enter into a gala that the figure is throwing, find the computer where the information on the cloning technology is, download it, delete the files off of his computer, and then return the downloaded content back here.” Towers told them.
Shadow scowled. So basically what Towers was saying was that cloning was unethical and illegal unless GUN was doing it, right.
“The figure’s name is Loth the Sphynx.” Towers pulled up a photo. “The gala is this Friday, and we’ve procured two invitations for you two.”
“Oh, fuck. This guy?” Rouge groaned. “Sorry, boss. I’m going to have to sit this one out.”
“You cannot ‘sit this one out’, Agent Rouge.” Towers insisted.
“I’ll be compromising the mission if I go. I hooked up with this guy and robbed him blind, and I’m certain he remembers me because he had a warrant out for my arrest for four whole months before I joined GUN and got immunity! There’s no way I’d be able to attend this shin-ding and not get recognized immediately by him.” Rouge touched down on the ground, patting Shadow on the back. “Sorry, boo, looks like you’ll have to do this one alone.”
Towers ground his teeth. “He cannot do it alone.”
“I am more than capable-” Shadow tried to argue.
“I understand that you’re capable, but you’re also a wild card. The only reason we allow you to remain on your Team is so you have another voice of reason there to make sure you don’t leave the whole place in flames.” Towers interrupted. “So, unless you can find someone who is willing to join you on this operation, you will be assigned another Agent to babysit you.”
Shadow chaos-controlled onto the table, getting right in Towers’ face. “I do not need a babysitter! Why send me on this mission at all if you do not think it is something I could handle myself?!”
“Shadow.” Rouge flew up to put her hand on his shoulder. “Do not make GUN your enemy today.”
Shadow stared down Towers for a few more seconds before teleporting back to his spot, smoothing down his puffed-up quills.
“Fine then. I’ll find someone to assist me in the matter.”
Towers smirked. “Good boy.”
Shadow wanted to throw up.
Fortunately for him and unfortunately for Towers, Shadow knew exactly who he wanted to have on this mission.
“...because what else are you supposed to do when you see a street sign that says ‘Peger’, of course I’m going to say ‘Peger, I barely know her’! But Knuckles said I was being too crass.” Sonic spoke around the straw in his mouth.
Tails giggled in response. Sonic had taken his brother out to get slushies since Tails had just gotten accepted to an engineering job at a local place and that was reason enough for celebrations. Now they were walking back to Tails’ garage and enjoying the sun while they sipped on their frankly massive cups of sugar.
“Some people will just never get my sense of humor I suppose.” Sonic sighed.
“Well, I think you’re funny.” Tails told him.
“Thanks, buddy.” Sonic ruffled him on the top of the head. “I appreciate you.”
Today was a good distraction from the monotony of life that would normally lead Sonic to pestering Shadow for a race. He actually hasn’t seen Shadow since their last race where Sonic had flirted with him and Shadow had scattered. He really didn’t know why that made Shadow dart off like that, it wasn’t even that serious.
“Faker!”
Speak of the devil.
Sonic didn’t even get a chance to turn where the voice was coming from before he was tackled into the nearest wall, his slushie knocked out of his hands as Shadow pinned him, growling on his face.
“My slushie…” Sonic reached for it mournfully.
“The time for novelties will come later!” Shadow insisted.
Okay, so it was one of those days. Honestly, Sonic didn’t think that Shadow would ever willingly approach him like this. He was surprised, but also intrigued. His heart was hammering in his chest, something blooming there.
His mouth started running without him even thinking about it.
“Wooow, coming to find me even on our off days? You’re really obsessed with me, y’know?” he grinned.
Shadow flushed but just dug Sonic harder into the wall.
“Shut your mouth. I wouldn’t come to you unless I was desperate.” he snarled. And then he said something that Sonic never expected to come out of Shadow’s mouth.
“I need your help.”
Sonic blinked, unsure of how to take that. He looked over at Tails, who seemed equally as confused but not wanting to jump into the mess.
“Wait… what?” Sonic laughed nervously.
“I. Need. Your. Help.” Shadow repeated through gritted teeth. “Do I need to write it down for you?”
“N-No no, I got it. Just wanted to make sure my ears were working because I just can’t imagine a scenario where you’d actually want my help.” Sonic replied, gesturing to Tails to skedaddle on out of here which the fox promptly did.
“Well, I do.” Shadow replied bluntly. “I have a mission I can’t do alone, but neither Rouge nor Omega are allowed to accompany me, so I’ve been requested to find someone else.”
“Okay, yeah, but why me specifically?” Sonic asked.
He didn’t think that Shadow particularly liked him, much less wanted to team up with him willingly. What was the catch here?
Shadow released him from his hold, stepping away and crossing his arms.
“GUN wants me to steal information that I don’t believe that they should have either. I intend to wipe it from existence entirely. If GUN assigns me an agent then I won’t be able to achieve that. So I need someone like you who GUN trusts enough to send in with me but that won’t try and stop me from doing what needs to be done.” Shadow explained.
“Uh huh… y’know it just sounds like you’re passing me off as a scapegoat to GUN.” Sonic accused him.
Shadow looked away, telling Sonic that he was right.
“Yes, I’m not going to lie about that. But the truth is that even if you do take the blame for the information going missing, GUN won’t go after you. They know they can’t capture or kill you, you’re too fast for them.” Shadow’s irises slid over to look at Sonic. “And you aren’t scared of them.”
Hearing those words from Shadow made Sonic feel some type of way that he was going to explore later. He kind of figured, but never heard it said out loud that Shadow respected him in that way. They’ve thrown enough insults at each other that Sonic sort of thought that Shadow thought he was better than Sonic, even though they were equally matched. Except for the teleporting thing, but Shadow never used that in their races.
“So then what’s in it for me if I do help you?” Sonic posed.
“...”
“Oh come on, you didn’t even come with an incentive?” Sonic laughed.
“I thought threatening you would be enough.” Shadow mumbled.
Sonic snorted, putting his hands on his hips. “You’re hilarious. I’ll do it for a kiss.” he winked.
Shadow flushed and frowned. “Sonic…”
“Kidding! Jeez, you take everything wayyy too seriously.” Sonic threaded his fingers together and stretched out his arms to crack his knuckles. “What’s the job?”
“So you’re accepting?” Shadow asked.
“Duh. It sounds like fun. Gives me something to do that’s not ragebaiting and running away from you.” he smiled. “When do we start?”
Shadow granted him a smirk. “Alright, here’s the mission…”
Due to the nature of the event, GUN granted them specially-tailored suits specifically for the gala. They seemed a little reserved about Sonic joining Shadow on the mission, but they must have figured he could at least intervene if something went wrong and wouldn’t let his pride stop him from calling GUN for backup.
Sonic wasn’t prideful, he just knew he had mad skills and was going to be perfectly fine on this mission.
Despite the fact that he was being forced to wear pants.
“Do we really have to dress up like this?” Sonic pulled at his collar, the bowtie hanging loose from it. “This thing is going to suffocate me. And these shoes are not conductive for running in!”
“You mean conducive for running in.” Shadow responded without even looking at Sonic, smoothing out the pants of his black suit. Sonic was in a similar style but in navy blue. “And hopefully you won’t need to run around in the manner you normally do. It would be wise not to scuff those shoes.”
They were being driven in a car to the event and Sonic was nervously bouncing his leg up and down, wanting to get out and get his feet on some solid ground.
“But if I can’t run fast then I’m not Sonic the Hedgehog!” Sonic protested.
“You’re not Sonic the Hedgehog tonight, like I’m not Shadow.” Shadow crossed his legs and looked over.
“...huh?”
Shadow rolled his eyes. “Weren’t you listening to anything I told you? We have codenames. You’re Nicky and I’m Ash. You’re too famous of a name and Ash has always been the name I go by in covert operations like this.”
Sonic scrunched up his nose. “Who decided on Nicky for me? That sounds like a loser name.”
“Take it up with Towers.” Shadow sighed, then eyed the un-done bowtie sitting around Sonic’s neck. Without another word he reached over, taking it into his hands and tying it into a neat bow. He leaned in so close that Sonic could see the gold rings around his red irises, although they looked more brown than red in this lighting… Shadow had really pretty eyes.
Wait, huh?
“Now you look presentable.” Shadow remarked when he was finished. “Honestly, how have you gone your whole life without learning how to keep yourself tidy?”
“Most people think the windswept look is hot.” Sonic smirked.
Shadow shook his head. “Regardless of any truth that might be in that statement, it is unsuited for the current scenario.”
“...wait, Shads, what do you mean by that?”
“We’re here.” the driver said, stopping in front of a large building that was mostly windows. Shadow immediately got out of the car so Sonic didn’t get to hear an answer to his question.
Alright, go time.
Sonic took a deep breath and got out as well, instantly being met with red carpet and flashing lights from the paparazzi. Several others dressed in exquisite outfits were being let out and walking down towards the entrance, a mix of human and mobians who were all high-class or high-profile. This would never be an event that Sonic would attend willingly, but he could bear it if it would help out his buddy.
He just really hoped this wouldn’t take too long. Sonic didn’t have the patience to deal with stuffy rich people all night.
Sonic looked over at Shadow, who was fidgeting with the cuffs of his sleeves, eyes turned down at the carpet, not daring to take that first step forward.
“Nervous?” Sonic asked, meant to be a tease.
To his surprise, Shadow nodded once.
“This… it’s my first mission without Rouge or Omega by my side.” he admitted.
That made Sonic soften a little bit. He had previously taken Shadow for a ‘I work alone’ type of guy, which was part of the reason he’d been so surprised that Shadow had asked him to join him on this mission. But thinking about it more, if Shadow wasn’t alone, he was usually with the other members of Team Dark. Maybe they meant more to him than he realized.
Sonic grinned, then looped his arm through Shadow’s, startling the other hedgehog.
“Well, I’m not a bat or a big bad robot, but I’ll make sure you don’t have to do this alone,” he told him. “So don’t be nervous. I’m here.”
There was a softening in Shadow’s features and his quills, more of a blink-and-you’ll-miss it kind of thing before he scoffed and started to walk forward. But Sonic was a very fast blinker, hence he didn’t miss it.
Just like he didn’t miss the red flush colored Shadow’s cheeks.
“Thanks, I feel so assured.” Shadow mumbled, probably meant to be sarcastic. “Let’s just get this over with.”
Entering the building felt like stepping into a completely different, much fancier world. The party area was divided into two levels accessed by a grand staircase that spilt around a fountain. There were tables scattered around with roses in vases and waiters were running around with plates of food for all of the people in attendance.
This wasn’t Sonic’s idea of a party at all. Every other party he’d attended was filled with loud music and laughter and people having fun. There was a band playing, sure, but it was soft classical music and you could barely hear it, even with the low volume of everyone else’s voice.
“This place is sort of a drag, isn’t it?” Sonic remarked, snagging a tiny fancy hor d'oeuvre from a waiter.
“No one is actually here to enjoy themselves. They’re here to make themselves look good.” Shadow explained. “Getting invited to one of these things is a display of wealth or status. They attend because they want everyone to know that they are better than your average working-class person.”
“What’s wrong with the working class?” Sonic grumbled, eating the little fancy snack in one bite.
Shadow shrugged. “There are people that would do anything to not have to resign themselves to the majority.”
Suddenly these tiny portions didn’t taste so good.
“But we’re here to take some of that power away, right?” he asked.
Shadow nodded. “The first stage of the plan can commence.” he pulled a box out of his pocket and opened it up, revealing ear pieces small enough to pass as jewelry. He handed one of them to Sonic. “Do you think you can do a recon of the building without being seen?”
“Of course I can! And I’ll do it in less than a minute!” Sonic chuckled as he attached the ear piece. “But, uh, what exactly am I looking for?”
Shadow clicked his tongue after installing his own ear piece. “You’re looking for a Loth’s office, or anywhere the data on the cloning projects might be stored. It’ll probably be on his personal computer.”
“Got it.” Sonic saluted, dashed off, and then immediately returned. “So like, how do I tell what office is Loth’s?”
Shadow scowled. “Have you never done a mission like this before?”
Sonic shook his head and Shadow smacked his own forehead with his palm. “Of course you haven’t. Just look for an office that stands out. It’s the CEO’s place, so it’ll probably be bigger and grander than any other office in the building. Now try not to get caught.”
“Got it.” Sonic winked and darted away again. In two seconds he was right back with Shadow. “Wait, why am I doing all the work? What are you going to be doing?”
Shadow sighed, adjusting his collar. “I’ll be down here gathering intel, and if needed, will cause a distraction.” he made a motion like shoo-ing Sonic away. “Now get to work, and use the communicators if you need anything. You running back and forth to me multiple times is arousing too much suspicion.”
“Sheesh, I’m going, I’m going.” Sonic trotted off, only picking up the pace again when Shadow was out of eye sight.
He could go up and down the building in about ten seconds if he was inhibited, but he also had cameras and guards to look out for, which made things difficult. Still, it didn’t take too long for him to go through the first dozen floors. Which got him nowhere so far.
Even though he was running into rooms so fast the doors nearly flew off their hinges, it was just boring basic offices or conference rooms or janitor’s closet. Nothing that screamed ‘Evil CEO’. And trust me, Sonic knew what an Evil CEO room looked like. He’d broken into Eggman’s base plenty of times.
“This is getting me nowhere.” Sonic stopped on the 23rd floor, not even halfway up this giant place. He needed to think smarter and not just barrel through like he’s been doing.
“Okay…” Sonic rubbed his hands together. “If I were an evil mastermind then where would my office be located…”
Time to get into character.
“Ehuhuhu I’m evil Dr Eggman and I’m egg-shaped and annoying and only care about myself and I have to be the most important person in a room and… Oh! DUH!” Sonic smacked himself on the head.
Obviously evil people were all narcissists, hence the CEO’s office would be at the top floor. It probably would be the entire top floor depending on how self-centered this guy was.
Up the stairs!
It took less than a minute for Sonic to get up the spiral staircase all the way to the top floor. Except this one was identical to the other ones he had just investigated. No dice! Unless…
He probably should have looked at a floor map from the beginning. He popped back into the room with the stairs to find what he was looking for.
The skyscraper had a total of 51 floors above ground but the stairs only went up to level 50… so there was another floor that he didn’t have access to. Maybe the elevator?
Sonic pressed the button and thanked his lucky stars that no one was in there when it finally made it up to him (which only took one billion years by the way) he entered and saw that there was still no button for a 51st floor.
“Ooooookay, weird.” Sonic tapped his foot, thinking. His eyes diverted down to a keycard swiper-thing. “Oh! Duh! Wait… SHIT!”
Sonic pressed the number to head back down to the ground floor, pressing on the ear piece. “Hey, uh, Shads. Slight problem. I think I know where Loth’s office is, but we’re gonna need a keycard to get in.”
“Ugh, I should have known it was something like that. I have him in my sights, I’ll try to swipe it from him if it’s on his person, which is likely. Standby.”
“Sure, whatever.” Sonic rolled his eyes as the elevator continued to countdown, once again taking literally forever to get to the floor he wanted. This is why Sonic preferred to take the stairs in almost all situations.
When he finally reached the ground floor he was just itching to move his legs in a wide-open area, but figured that he probably needed to find Shadow.
“Shads, do you copy?” he pressed his ear piece again but was met with silence. “Shads? Hellooooooo?”
Nothing. Ugh. What was that faker even doing…?
Sonic looked up the grand staircase, seeing Shadow leaning against the barricade. He was talking to a mobian- a sphynx cat that Sonic could reasonably assume was the creep that they were intending to shut down.
But they were close together, too close, Shadow was practically whispering into his ear and-
Oh, absolutely not.
Shadow walked up the staircase, brushing himself off as he looked around to find Loth. He was never really good at the whole ‘interacting with the target’ thing but he’s picked up a few things from Rouge that he would hopefully be able to utilize here.
He just needed to retrain himself from punching the guy’s lights out.
It wasn’t difficult to find him, he was the only hairless mobian at the entire event, dressed well and surrounded by an entourage of people hoping to impress him and make connections. This was exactly the kind of party that the higher ups at GUN would throw to brag about all of the accomplishments that the agents that actually did the dirty work for weren’t invited to.
Shadow shook his head and turned away, patting his cheeks. He needed to get himself under control. Now was not the time to be thinking about his own gripes with his job. Now was the time for action.
Luckily action found its way towards him instead.
“You don’t really seem like you’re enjoying the party very much.” a voice shocked Shadow out of his thoughts.
He whipped his head around, seeing the target standing in front of him holding out a champagne glass for him with a little smirk.
“Oh, um, thank you.” Shadow took it with both hands. “And, um, no, not really. Apologies, I have a lot on my mind right now. Hard to enjoy a party, even one as lovely as this, with that sort of mindset.”
“No need to apologize.” Loth chuckled, swirling around the bubbling liquid. “I’ve just never seen you around at my parties before. I thought I’d made myself acquainted with all those who are routinely invited to my parties. Mind if I get your name?”
Shit. Cover story time.
“I’m Ash, the Hedgehog.” Shadow lied. “New money. Jewels business. I’m here with my partner, although I’m not sure where he’s run off to.”
“Jewels business, how prestigious.” Loth trilled, leaning in closer. “May I ask what your favorites are?”
Ew.
“Emeralds.” Shadow told the truth with that one. “What about you?”
“Well, I’m partial to diamonds, although it’s not my specialty. I prefer things that are more… organic.”
YUCK.
“I can see that. You’ve done a lot of good work, sir.” Shadow leaned in close as well, fingers twitching, getting ready to grab whatever was in the mobian’s pockets. “And I appreciate you taking the time to come up to me. I know you must be a very busy man.”
Loth chuckled again, tilting Shadow’s head up to meet his eyes and Shadow had to fight not to wrinkle his nose in disgust.
“I couldn’t just ignore a pretty thing like you. Do you have anything planned after this?”
Oh. Oh this guy was flirting with him.
A deep pit of disgust settled in Shadow’s gut.
Which was odd because when Sonic flirted with him, even if it was just as a joke, Shadow never felt like this. This feeling was like he was sinking, but with Sonic it was more like he was floating. His stomach hurt when it was Sonic saying words like that, but in a manner where it rendered Shadow speechless. Currently he was doing everything in his power not to bark back some quick-witted insult right in the man’s face.
Maybe it was because Shadow was more familiar with Sonic. Maybe it was because they were both hedgehogs. Maybe it was because Shadow knew he was never being serious with it. Even though the latter possibility made his heart ache.
It couldn’t possibly be the feelings he’s been avoiding confronting for years.
Shadow forced a smile, then leaned in as close as possible to whisper into the cat’s ear while at the same time reaching into his pocket.
“Unfortunately, I did come here with someone, and it would look suspicious if I left without them.” he spoke softly.
“Your aforementioned partner?” Loth hummed. “I see how it is.”
Shadow pulled back and pocketed the keycard. Success!
“Apologies.” Shadow pulled back, sliding his hands into his own pockets. “But it’s good to know I have options if anything were to ever happen to them.”
“Of course, my dear.” And then the fucker winked at him.
Disgusting.
Shadow turned around and nearly jumped back because Sonic was standing right behind him and Shadow hadn’t noticed.
“S- Nicky.” Shadow cleared his throat, catching himself before he blurted out Sonic’s name, then furrowed his brows because what on earth was he doing over here when Shadow had explicitly asked him to standby?! “What are you-?”
His wrist was suddenly grabbed and he was yanked away. “I need you for something. Come on.”
Shadow didn’t even argue and let Sonic drag him away from the Sphynx cat. He didn’t want to be around him anyways, but also HEY-!
The second they approached the elevator and Sonic pressed the button Shadow tugged his hand away.
“I did not need you to rescue me from that situation.” Shadow snapped at him.
“You were too close to the target.” Sonic crossed his arms and headed in as the doors opened. “I thought this was supposed to be a covert mission?”
“It is. I was only that close because I had to be to get this.” Shadow pulled out the keycard. “Like you asked me to. That was the whole point of me talking to him. And he was the one who approached me, by the way.”
Shadow didn’t know why he was defending himself. He also didn’t know why Sonic cared this much.
“Doesn’t matter.” Sonic huffed, the doors closing behind them.
“Well if it doesn’t matter then why does it have you so wound up?” Shadow swiped the card, a little robotic voice trilling Access Granted!
“I’m not wound up.”
“You clearly are.” Shadow snorted. “Did you dislike seeing someone else flirt with me that much? I never took you for the possessive type.”
Shadow was grabbed again, this time it was by his shoulders as he was slammed against the wall of the elevator, Sonic pinning him there, noses so so close, almost touching, the two of them just a lips length away. Shadow held his breath while Sonic was breathing hard, but other than the sound of their heartbeats it was piercingly quiet in this little box moving upwards.
For a moment Shadow thought that Sonic was going to kiss him.
And then that moment passed.
The door opened and Sonic pulled off of Shadow, turning his face away and his ears flitting downwards.
“Let’s just… get this over with.”
Shadow’s ears pressed back against his head too, then he nodded. “Right. Let’s get to work then.”
Sonic’s assessment had been correct and they were now on the top floor of the building previously inaccessible to them. It was slightly smaller than any of the other floors in the building but it was an open space with two of the three walls being windows and one of the walls behind the desk being a giant screen. There was a computer set up at the desk that was exactly what Shadow was looking for, so he walked over there first.
“Keep an eye on the door.” Shadow instructed, pulling out a flash drive from his quills.
“What’s that?” Sonic asked.
“It’s a hacking code Omega prepared for me.” Shadow stuck it into the port of the computer. “GUN reviewed it before they gave it to me. It’ll get me in, then once I find the files containing the cloning project, I upload them to the drive.”
“But…?” Sonic prompted.
The computer let him in and Shadow started clicking through the files. There were easily thousands of pages of material in here, and he didn’t suspect that any of the stuff containing the project would be easy to find, luckily he was one of the fastest things alive and could look through all of these in the blink of an eye.
“But since I know that GUN has malicious intentions with the files, I’ll be giving the drive to you to dispose of how you see fit.” Shadow explained.
A little snort came from Sonic and Shadow offered him a glance. “What’s so funny?”
“Nothin’. Just find it interesting how you trust me more than GUN.” Sonic stretched his arms up to put his hands behind his head.
“I trust you more than a lot of people.” Shadow stopped, landing on a folder titled PROJECT CADMUS.
“Even more than Rouge and Omega?” Sonic grinned.
“Don’t flatter yourself.” Shadow opened the file, eyes widening. “I found it.”
“Yippee!”
Shadow started the download process immediately. Since there was so much information to be put into the drive it was going to take a few minutes, but once it was on there Shadow was ready to delete all of it and get the hell out of here.
And uneasy silence settled between the two of them. Shadow just stood there watching as the bar slid over a small amount every few seconds, refusing to look at Sonic.
He couldn’t forget about what happened down there, or in the elevator, he was still shaking from it. Sometimes Sonic was an open book, other times he was impossible to read. Right now it was the latter, the blue hedgehog tapping his foot against the floor fast enough to blur. There was a dead, eerie silence between them that Shadow didn’t much care for.
And then Sonic opened up that godforsaken mouth of his.
“Are we… good?”
Shadow glanced over, but Sonic was looking down at the floor, foot still tapping.
“What?”
“I mean things aren’t going to be… awkward or anything. Right?”
“I don’t understand.” Shadow crossed his arms.
“I mean after I got all… weird, and then in the elevator…” Sonic groaned. “Look, Shads, I know that I flirt with you a-and I mean it as a joke but I would never want to make you uncomfortable and it sorta felt like I crossed a line tonight but you aren’t saying anything about it which makes me think you’re just going to completely drop me after this mission but I don’t want that but I don’t know how to approach this whole thing I mean, shit, Shads, I almost kissed you in there-”
Sonic continued rambling but a ringing in Shadow’s ears cut through anything else he would have said.
Sonic… almost… kissed him?
If the elevator hadn’t stopped when it did, would Sonic have kissed him?
WAIT.
Did Sonic pull him away from Loth because he was actually genuinely jealous of him?!
Sonic was still talking, why was he still talking?
“-I shouldn’t have agreed to this whole thing anyways I’m not trained for a mission like this I just ended up getting in your way and I-”
“Sonic.” Shadow moved forward so fast that he was in front of Sonic in a blink of an eye. “Stop talking.”
And then to seal it it grabbed the blue hedgehog’s face and kissed him smack on the lips.
It was highly effective in getting him to shut up.
When he pulled away Sonic was red in the face and his eyes were wide, mouth gaping like a fish.
“...oh.” Sonic cleared his throat. “Oh wow.”
Files successfully downloaded and deleted from source!
Shadow turned his head back, going to retrieve the flash drive, not even bothering to eject it before pulling it out.
“We have a lot to talk about. But for now we need to finish this mission.” Shadow tossed the drive over to Sonic, who fumbled it once, twice, before catching it with both hands.
“Yeah… right… Let's get this done.” Sonic nodded.
Suddenly the elevator beeped, drawing both of their attention to it as the little digital numbers went up, landing on the floor they were on right now.
Someone was coming in.
Loth entered his office, loosening the tie around his neck. When he looked up he saw the place exactly as he left it, just with the computer turned on. Odd…
He walked up to it to check it out, completely oblivious to the vent cover that was currently hiding two hedgehogs squished together, watching his every move. Sonic’s elbow was digging into Shadow’s side and Shadow’s knee was hooked over Sonic’s leg, and they were chest-to-chest because the alternative included a lot of painful quill exchanges.
“Do you think he saw us?” Sonic whispered.
“Shut up.” Shadow barked quietly at him. “We aren’t out of the woods yet.”
Loth turned the computer off and dusted his hands off, settling into his office chair and picking up a few papers to study. Sonic groaned. “Why isn’t he leaving? Why the heck is he even here?”
“Sonic. Shut. Up.” Shadow spoke through gritted teeth. “You’re going to give away our position.”
“But he’s taking wayyy too long to just get up and leave! Like what is he even do- mmph!”
Shadow had resorted to the method previously seen to be effective, which was wrapping his arm around Sonic’s head and kissing him sharply, one ear swiveling around so that he could listen for any movement below.
Sonic would be mad at him if kissing Shadow wasn’t the awesomest thing ever.
So he did what any reasonable person would do, which is kiss back, tilting his head for a better angle to make their kiss even awesomer.
Sonic had never actually considered kissing Shadow before tonight, what on earth was he even doing?! He almost did it in the elevator, fueled by emotions and impulse. But he never dreamed that Shadow would ever kiss him back.
Maybe that’s why he was always running away when Sonic flirted with him.
“Hey.” Sonic whispered softly between kisses. “Maybe a bad time to ask but… do you like me?”
Shadow snorted, kissing him silent again. “What gave it away?”
“C’mon, dude.” Sonic’s hands fell to cup Shadow’s waist, the circle of his palms encasing his whole body. “I kinda always thought you hated me.”
“I did hate you.” Shadow reached up, running his thumb over Sonic’s ear. “And then everything on the ARK happened and then… suddenly I didn’t anymore.”
Sonic stared at him, at Shadow’s thick eyelashes fluttering, at his muzzle dyed a deep red at the admission.
He was the prettiest thing Sonic had ever seen in his life.
“I don’t know when it started. It got worse when you joke flirted with me. I hated that you were never serious about it. I wanted it to be real.” he finally locked eyes with Sonic again. “How much of it was real?”
Sonic didn’t have a perfect answer for that.
“It… none of it. But all of it?” he tried. “I think… I think maybe this was a long time coming.”
Shadow raked his eyes up and down Sonic’s face, landing on his lips, pulling him in for another kiss. They didn’t need to say anything more than that.
They stayed in that vent for what felt like ages, way too distracted but the mission was basically over so who cared? They just needed to figure out how to get out of there.
…speaking of which, what was the getaway plan???
“Coast is clear.” Shadow pulled away suddenly, opening up the vent hatch.
“What?” Sonic blinked, lightheaded from the kissing as Shadow wiggled out from under him.
“Has been for a while.” Shadow dropped back onto the group as Sonic peeked his head out of the vent.
“WHAT?!”
Shadow brushed himself off. “Ready to go?” he asked, ignoring Sonic’s protests as the other hedgehog tumbled out of the vent, landing on his head with his legs up in the air.
“You bastard!” Sonic laughed, righting himself almost immediately and stretching his arms over his head. “You can’t just say stuff like that!”
“Well I did.” Shadow pushed past him to get back to the elevator. “What are you going to do about it, faker?”
“Me?” Sonic snickered, following him. “Well, I’m going to take you out for dinner, bring you flowers, kiss you silly, and then challenge you to a race. Naturally.”
Shadow seemed surprised, eyes wide and lips parted. “You… you…!” he stammered out and turned red, turning away from Sonic. “Shameless!”
Sonic laughed. “What? Can dish it out but can’t take it, darlin’?”
Shadow covered his face to hide his blush. But he quickly cleared his throat and composed himself.
“Fine then. I will allow this if only to see what your precedent is, so that I can take you out on a date that is far superior.”
“Ooh, big talk. I like it.” Sonic circled a hand around Shadow’s waist. “Guess I gotta go all out the first time then?”
“I will surpass you in all areas, including dating.” Shadow put a hand on Sonic’s shoulder.
“Challenge accepted.” Sonic leaned in for a kiss.
Except the elevator doors opened and several red dots were suddenly trained on them, multiple soldiers posed to fire at them given the word, Loth standing amongst them.
“Aw, crap.” Sonic grumbled.
Shadow immediately pulled away and got into a fighting stance, bearing his teeth.
“How did you know we were here?” he barked.
“Oh please. You don’t think I recognize one of GUN’s dogs?” Loth scoffed. “Plus I have cameras in my offices.”
Sonic snapped his fingers. “I knew I was forgetting something!”
“You didn’t disable the cameras?!” Shadow slowly turned his head towards him.
“I got distracted! And I don’t know how to do that…”
Shadow smacked his own forehead with his palm while Sonic chuckled nervously. Loth cleared his throat and then held out his paw.
“Now, you’re going to hand over the files that you stole and give up without a fight. Otherwise I’ll tell my team here to pump you both full of bullets.” he smirked.
“Oh, please.” Sonic smirked, leaning on Shadow, elbow on his shoulder while he loosened his tie. “You’re looking at the fastest creatures alive. ‘Faster than a speeding bullet’ doesn’t ring a bell?”
“That’s Superman, faker.” Shadow reminded him.
“That’s us too. So try your best, Rotisserie Chicken.” Sonic teased him.
Loth bristled, raising his hand. “Fine then. Get ready to eat your words.”
Sonic turned to look at Shadow. “Ready for this, sweetheart?”
Shadow sighed, pulling at his own tie. “I was hoping that we could avoid an altercation. This was meant to be a covert mission after all.”
“Yeah, you and I both know that I don’t really do ‘covert’.” Sonic winked. “Now let’s kick this guy’s ass, babe.”
Shadow offered him a smile of his own, adjusting his gloves. “Very well.”
Taking out an entire security team was light work. The hard part was explaining to Towers what happened after the mission.
“WHAT DO YOU MEAN YOU NOT ONLY NEARLY BLEW UP THE BUILDING, BUT ALSO LOST THE PLANS???”
“I didn’t lose them. I know exactly where they are. Which is in the garbage because the flash drive became compromised.” Shadow said over the phone.
Compromised meaning that Sonic dropped it into the ocean after running over it. Happens to the best of us.
“Agent Shadow, I should write you up for insubordination and failure to follow direct orders. We never officially approved you working with Sonic anyways-”
“There was no time for your approval, I made a logical decision based on what was necessary for the case. His mistakes are his own, but the ultimate goal of the mission was achieved. The target no longer has access to the files that would allow him to continue the project. He is also in the hospital for a broken elbow, which is honestly getting off easy after he threatened to shoot me and my partner.” Shadow spoke back, stopping in front of the coffee shop. “Now, it’s after hours, so I will not be answering any questions or inquiries about work until tomorrow. Have a good night, officer.”
He didn’t even give Towers the chance to respond before he hung up and turned off his phone. Shadow didn’t need the extra stress of his job today. He had much better plans for the evening.
Speaking of which, within a millisecond a blur of blue and red appeared right next to him, Sonic having sped in holding a bouquet of roses.
“Hey.” Sonic grinned.
“Hey.” Shadow replied, looking down at the flowers. “Are these for me?”
“No, they’re for the cute barista in there. Of course they’re for you.” Sonic joked, much to Shadow’s dismay.
“You aren’t allowed to be possessive of me during missions and then make jokes like that.” Shadow took the flowers into his own arms. “You aren’t the only one who gets jealous.”
Sonic paid him no mind, but instead leaned in to kiss him on the cheek. “What if I want you to be jealous because you’re so cute when you pout?”
Shadow scowled and flushed and Sonic pinched his cheek. “Like that!”
“Quit it.” Shadow pulled away. “I thought you promised to take me out for an unforgettable day.”
“I did.” Sonic slid his hand into Shadow’s. “So are you ready?”
Shadow hummed, squeezing Sonic’s hand right back. “Of course.”