Chapter Text
“Didn’t expect to see you here, Blue!”
Omega swiveled his head around to see Sonic the Hedgehog approaching their booth, raising a hand in greeting before leaning over the table.
“Heya, Rouge. What’s the occasion?” He inquired, giving the rest of Team Dark a glance.
“Just G.U.N. operations. They’re still recovering from the war, and Towers assigned me to keep tabs on a certain doctor for a while, but I just couldn’t bear to abandon my boys without treating them to something special first!” The bat dramatically pretended to swoon, before opening her eyes and giving Sonic the same kind of look she gave Omega when telling him that not even the strongest being on earth could possibly carry so many jewels. “I wouldn’t mind giving you a treat too, if you wanted.”
“That depends,” the blue hedgehog leaned further over the table, mimicking Rouge’s expression and tone. “What are you offering?”
Omega’s microphones picked up a low growling beside him. He turned his head again, noticing Shadow’s deepened scowl and furrowed brow right as Rouge broke out cackling. “Don’t worry, handsome, I’m not gonna take him away from you.”
The hybrid made a hrm sound, crossing his arms and shifting his gaze downwards, and the other hedgehog’s focus shifted to him. “With Rouge gone, you’re gonna have a lot less company, huh? I could help with that, if you want.”
“Not needed. You are incapable of being anything but a nuisance to me.”
“Oh really?” Sonic put his hand to his chin in mock thought. “Huh. Last time I checked, you were asking me to spar and race. But I guess it does make sense-I wouldn’t continue such a long losing streak, either.”
Shadow’s eyes widened ever so slightly. “You’re the only one here with a losing streak, hedgehog.”
“No, I’m pretty sure you’re just scared of being humiliated.”
“I could wipe the floor with you even if you had the emeralds, G.U.N., and the entirety of the Restoration on your side.”
“Oh yeah? Prove it.” Sonic leaned back from the close proximity him and his rival had subconsciously ended up in and jabbed his thumb behind him. “I saw a mountain on the way here, around 200 miles northeast. Winner covers the loser’s lunch?”
“Your wallet’s about to take a heavy hit, faker.”
The pair ran out of the restaurant at high speed, stunning the patrons of the busy establishment into silence for a moment and causing a waiter to fall as they rushed past her, the drinks and dishes she was carrying creating a massive mess on the floor.
Rouge sighed and picked up her iced tea, sipping it through a straw. “Honestly, sometimes I just want to grab them by the quills and mash their lips together.”
“I DO NOT UNDERSTAND THE PURPOSE OF SUCH AN ACTION.”
“You don’t?” The bat quirked a brow and an ear. “It’s so obvious, I assumed even you’d be able to tell how head over heels they are for each other.”
“THEIR HEADS ARE NORMALLY OVER THEIR HEELS REGARDLESS OF EACH OTHER’S PRESENCE.”
Rouge’s mouth twisted into a thin, flat line. “No, hun, it’s an expression. It means they’re…” she paused for a second. “Romantically attracted to one another.”
Omega stopped. He began retrieving files from his hard drives and booting up his analysis script. Sonic nearly always gravitated towards Shadow during the interactions on file, and Shadow interacted with and talked about him more than anyone else outside of Team Dark by a large margin. While he displayed hostility towards the hero in conversation, Omega had hundreds of logs contradicting this-Shadow pacing the floor and mumbling to himself about how angry he’d be if that moron put himself out of commission, skating away at speeds rivaling his personal records and shouting back that he had to prevent the blue fool from getting himself killed, smirking significantly larger and more frequently during his “training” sessions with the hero. Even his most recent sample-the way Shadow’s eyes and ears trained on Sonic the moment Rouge mentioned him, his irritation at the two’s banter, the elevation in his temperature and heart rate while his rival got in his face and goaded him…
“I HAVE CALCULATED AN EIGHTY-FIVE PERCENT CHANCE YOUR ASSESSMENT IS ACCURATE.”
She snorted as she took another draught of tea. “No shit, Sherlock.”
“WHEN WILL YOU CONFIRM THIS IMFORMATION WITH SHADOW.”
Rouge frowned. “I’ve tried to hint at it, but you know him, he’s so blunt we should grab him by the leg and use him to attack the next badnik we find-That’s a joke, don’t get any ideas.” She gave him a stern expression before continuing. “And telling him directly wouldn’t help, he’d just spiral even further into denial, in the best case scenario.” The bat’s troubled reflection disappeared in her drink as she swirled the straw, deep in thought.
“He looks so happy when he’s with him, but he won’t even call us friends, let alone admit to himself he has feelings for someone. I think the only way he’ll figure it out is with time and positive interactions.” She gave Omega a broken but michevious look.
“Be sure to schedule lots of playdates for them while I’m gone, huh?”
He could tell that she was joking, but registered it as a command regardless.
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Cream stood on her tippy toes, her arm stretched out as far as she could. The rack was still just too high for her to reach. She didn’t want to fly in the kitchen… Maybe if she jumped? She hopped on her one foot still on the ground, able to grab the rack and pull it farther out. Yes! She repeated the process, doing it over and over… until she yanked too hard and it crashed down onto her.
“Cream!” Vanilla ran to her daughter as Amy looked up from the pot. “Are you okay?”
“Yes, Mother.” Cream rubbed the spot where the cooling rack fell.
“Oh, thank goodness.” Vanilla helped her up with one hand and picked up the rack with the other, going to the sink and rinsing it off, before drying it and setting it on the table. Cream watched intensely as Amy carefully started using the tongs to take the donuts out of the boiling oil and place them on the rack.
“They look amazing! Charmy’s going to love them!” Cream felt her mouth stretch up and her short tail wag at the thought of seeing her friend so happy.
“And the smell… it reminds me of when I worked the funnel cake stand for the Restoration’s charity festival!”
“Funnel cake?” Cream was puzzled.
“Don’t tell me you’ve never had funnel cake before!” Cream shook her head. “You’ve gotta try it-they drizzle fried dough on top of itself, and then they put powdered sugar on top! It’s SO good! I think there’s a fair coming up in a month or so-they’ll probably have it there if you want to try it!”
“A fair?! Is it anywhere near here?”
“It’s a just bit outside Spiral Hill-Tangle told me about the other day. They’ve got all kinds of food, games with cute prizes, a Ferris wheel…” Amy sighed dreamily. “It sounds so romantic.”
“That means you’re gonna ask Mr. Sonic to go with you, right?”
Amy’s expression snapped from lost in pleasant thought to regretful and conflicted. “I-…I can’t…”
“Why not?”
“I… can I tell you something, Cream?”
“Of course!”
“I think that… Sonic might be in love with Shadow.”
“Are you sure?” Cream frowned. They don’t look like they’re in love…”
“I think they are. Sonic won’t shut up about him-how fun he is to compete with, how easy he is tease, how he knows that Shadow’s really a wonderful person, and how he wants to help him show everyone else that…” Amy normally looked so cheerful when she talked about couples and romance, but right now, she wore one of the saddest faces Cream had ever seen.
“Are you going to help them get together, like Mr. Espio and Mr. Silver?” Cream hoped Amy would, she really wanted Mr. Sonic and Mr. Shadow to be happy together.
“NO!” Amy blurted out at the top of her lungs. “Uh… I mean… Sonic’s not really into the mushy-gushy stuff like we are, he’d just get scared and run away… probably… maybe…”
She sighed. “Just… please don’t tell him about this. Or Shadow. I don’t think they’ve realized yet. They, um… likely wouldn’t take it well.”
“…Yes, Miss Amy.” Cream wasn’t sure if she agreed, but she could tell thinking about it was making Amy more upset. She decided to change the subject.
“Oh! Mr. Omega is coming over tomorrow to spar with Gemerl!”
“Ooh! I can help you come up with some strategies if you’d like!” Amy turned to Gemerl, as they started work on the next batch of donuts.
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Gemerl wove around the battlefield, dodging Omega’s deluge of bullets.
“You can do it, Gemerl!”
Continuing his surprising display of agility, Gemerl quickly made it up close to Omega, before pulling back his fist and giving the other robot a powerful punch to the head.
“Woo! You did it!” Cream ran up to Gemerl and wrapped him in a massive hug, before pausing and turning to Omega, who had toppled to the ground from the force of the hit. “Are you alright, Mr. Omega?”
“ASESSING CONDITION. NO SERIOUS DAMAGE ACQUIRED. ESTIMATED REPAIR TIME: 3 HOURS.”
“Good!” Cream normally hated when others fought, but when it was a friendly competition, she had found out it was a lot of fun to watch. Both of the robots looked damaged, paint scraped and small dents scattered on their bodies, but she knew it was nothing Mr. Tails couldn’t fix easily. After all, Gemerl and Omega did this a lot-Gemerl said it was nice to be able to train in case of a real threat to her and her mother, and Omega just seemed to like fighting Gemerl.
It kind of reminded her of… Sonic and Shadow.
Cream sighed. Amy was an expert on love, but was she right about them? Cream thought couples were supposed to kiss and be nice to each other and get married, not fight and argue and ignore their feelings…
Suddenly, she got an idea. As soon as she saw Gemerl and Omega ending their post-battle conversation, she looked at Omega.
“Wait! Mr. Omega, can I ask you a question?”
“STATE YOUR INQUIRY.”
“You’re friends with Mr. Shadow, right? Is he… in love with anyone?”
“AS A ROBOTIC WEAPON, I AM UNQUALIFIED TO PROVIDE AN OPINION ON SUCH MATTERS.”
Cream was disappointed. “Oh. I see…”
“HOWEVER, MY OTHER TEAMMATE STATES THAT HE POSSESSES A ROMANTIC ATTRACTION TOWARDS SONIC THE HEDGEHOG.”
She perked up. “Miss Amy was right! Are they going to get married?”
“NEGATIVE. ROUGE HAS OBSERVED THAT SHADOW IS TOO OBTUSE TO REALIZE HE FEELS SUCH AFFECTIONS.”
“And Miss Amy said the same thing about Mr. Sonic. Unless…” Cream thought for a minute. “Mr. Omega, do you think we can make them realize that they like each other?”
“THE PROBABILITY IS ABOVE ZERO. ROUGE HAS ALREADY REQUESTED I SET UP PLAYDATES BETWEEN THEM IN HER ABSENCE”
“Can I help you?” Cream looked up at the hulking robot.
“MY DATABASES CONTAIN NO EVIDENCE INDICATING OTHERWISE.”
“Yes!” Cream pumped a fist in the air. “I can’t wait! They’re going to be so happy together!”