"Just pretend to be my date!"
Rouge stared at Shadow, slowly raising a brow in confusion. "Why?"
"Because Sonic has a date," Shadow replied simply.
"And you want to one-up his date…" Rouge shook her head, sighing in defeat, then gave him a small smile. "Okay, I'll do it. But you owe me!"
Sonic tried not to stare, but found that to be nearly impossible.
"I didn't know Shadow had a girlfriend," Knuckles mused.
"Yeah, it's news to me too…" Sonic muttered, raising a brow in suspicion.
"Excuse me for a sec…"
He got up and sped up to the table where Shadow and Rouge sitting.
"Sooo, who's this?" he asked Shadow.
"Oh, hello Sonic," Shadow said as casually as he could (and overacting horribly). "Allow me to introduce you to Rouge–my date."
"Hi," Rouge said awkwardly.
"Aaaaand how long have you two been together?"
"Oh, since a little while ago," Shadow answered.
"Riiiiight…" Sonic wondered if "a little while ago" meant "earlier today".
He cleared his throat. "Well, uh, I should be getting back to my date…"
He left before Shadow could respond, smirking to himself as he sat back down at his table.
"He's totally just doing this to show off," he whispered to Knuckles. "I know Shadow, and Shadow would never date someone–unless it was to show me up."
Knuckles became thoughtful, a sly grin slowly forming on his face. "Hmm, you thinkin' what I'm thinkin'?"
"Totally," Sonic replied. "Let's have some fun with this."
"Just look at them," Shadow muttered. "Taunting us…"
"They're just holding hands, Shadow."
"They're being more romantic than us already, and dinner hasn't even been served yet!"
"Well, if it's romantic you want, you came to the right bat," Rouge replied a wink.
This whole thing was still ridiculous to her, but she figured she might as well try to have some fun anyway.
As Shadow felt Rouge's hand gently grab his, he felt a strange warmth in his cheeks, but he dismissed it as nothing–this was no time to be distracted.
Rouge smirked, then leaned in, touching her nose to Shadow's. Shadow blushed, but began to nuzzle back, assuming this was another thing dates did.
Sonic and Knuckles could barely stifle their giggles; things were already going as predicted.
Just then, the waiter came with their food. The two exchanged knowing glances, clearly having the same idea.
"Are they…sharing food?"
Rouge nodded. "Couples sometimes like to do that."
"I suppose we should be doing that too, then."
Rouge nodded again. She took a bite of her food, then offered the rest of the bitten-into piece to Shadow.
They continued to do this back and forth for a while, until they'd finished their meals.
As their empty plates were being taken away, Rouge smirked. "You know…what we were just doing? Some people call that 'indirect kissing'. So, in a way, you just kissed me a bunch of times in a row."
Shadow blushed visibly. "A-and you're only telling me this now…?"
"I just wanted to see your face once you found out," Rouge replied, grinning mischievously. "Oh, hold on…"
She grabbed a napkin and lightly dabbed some food off of Shadow's face, who blushed in embarrassment.
Sonic and Knuckles continued to snicker as they watched all of this play out.
"How far do you think we can get them to go?" Knuckles asked.
"Only one way to find out," Sonic replied.
"Aaaaand they're making out…" Shadow muttered.
"Well…" Rouge smirked slyly, gently touching Shadow's cheek as she leaned in closer. "Shall we, then?"
Shadow stared back for a moment, suddenly unable to form words. Why was he so nervous?
Well, he couldn't let it get the best of him. Not now…
Swallowing hard, he nodded.
Before he knew what was happening, Rouge's lips came in contact with his. He immediately felt a rush of warmth in his cheeks, accompanied by a flutter in his stomach and his heart nearly stopping. He tried to process what was happening, but his mind drew a complete blank, forcing him to let his body take over. His hands seemed to move by themselves as they gripped Rouge by her shoulders, pulling her even closer as his eyes slowly closed.
He hadn't even known it until now, but he had wanted this for a very long time.
Finally, the two had to stop to take a breather. Neither spoke for a long few moments, simply staring at each other and panting for breath.
Once she'd had a minute to recover, Rouge smirked at Shadow's now-very-red face. "Guess I forgot to mention that I'm also an excellent kisser."
Shadow slowly nodded in response, still too stunned to speak.
Rouge giggled at this. Then she became thoughtful. "Forgive me if this is too personal a question, but: why me? Was there any particular reason you wanted me of all people to be your date?"
Shadow averted his gaze, still blushing. "W-well…" he stammered quietly. "I didn't realize it then, but I suppose I sort of always…you know…"
Rouge gently squeezed his hand, smiling at him. "Well, if you ever want to do this again…you know, for real this time…"
Shadow squeezed back. "I…I think I'd like that."
"Awww, look at them," Knuckles whispered, unable to help the grin on his face.
"Huh," Sonic replied, not having expected this turn of events. "Well how about that…"