Imperfect.
Across the vast stretches of the greenery that surrounded the concrete jungle of Central City, where lights flickered off and one and noise casted out could barely kiss the ears of the small woodland creatures inhabited within, he stood.
Statuesque he was. Nose turned down and ears up, every movement within earshot bounced off him like a wall. Wind blew through him, leaves and brushing past his jet propelled boots planted over the rocky mound he stood upon.
Indifferent.
Black eyelids opened and the deep red iris hidden behind them turned to the night sky. Stars centuries above stared back and shimmered in their places in the silk of the black vastness of their home out of reach. Among them, the moon sat in its throne and its luminescence reflecting off the waters and the eyes of the figure who stared back.
Cold…buzzing.
Shadow let out a breath, turning down to eye his communicator strapped to his wrist. It buzzed against his fur, the words across its tiny LED screen flashing an incoming call.
He tapped the screen and held it up to his face. "This is Shadow, come in." His voice was gruff and quick, turning to the grass hill around him.
"Really? No hi, or hey how's it going?" The flirtatious voice on the other line asked, Shadow's ears fell and his chest heaved another sigh.
"Rouge." He grumbled. "What is it? I'm in the middle of something."
He glared at the waveform of the call bounce at the bat kissing her teeth to the response. "What? Having a little me time again?"
Shadow turned and skulked down the rocks to touch down on grass. "And what is wrong with that?"
"You don't want me to answer that." Rouge responded, sounds of running water and glasses clinking in the background. "Anyway, I'm calling because I'm at my usual spot and it's very slow. You should come by." She added, "Unless moping around the forest like a gothic hermit is more alluring to you."
Fangs barred at the comment. "I am not moping."
"Mmm, whatever you say." Rouge's laughter followed, bringing a grumble from the hedgehog. "Just get your ass down here! Others may come."
"Others?" Shadow furrowed his brow.
"Yeah," Rouge said, Shadow's eyes trailing off towards the city lights. "Usually it's me and a few of the employees here, but you never know who could walk in." She leaned into the receiver. "Maybe a certain blue guy could show up." Her voice smirked around the words. "Just saying."
The pointed ears atop shadow's head flicked at the mention of a certain blue hedgehog, his eyes darting back to the communicator.
After a few moments, it was decided. "I'm on my way."
—-
"I hate this."
Shadow sat with his arms crossed in a booth across from his bat partner, both basked in a violet light and floor bumping to the bass of the music through the speakers across the room. The spot was called Pining Noir, themed after classic wineries turned dance club/sit and drink bar. Walls decorated with portraits of humans sipping a variety of beverages, pink streamers and colored lights. A dance floor wide open behind a set of silver bars before the actual bar, stacked with a wide armament of liquors and wines.
The cup before him was dressed up with fruit and tiny flowers, a curly straw hanging over the side like a dying weed. He glared at it, the weak useless thing that it was he thought.
"Oh lighten up, Shadie." Rouge laughed across from him. Pink colored lenses sat on her head, a violet satchel sat at her side and a collection of wine glasses before her. "Aren't you even just the least bit happier here than on some dirty cliff edge somewhere?"
Shadow pursed his lips, half lidding at the comment and reaching for the ugly drink. "Happier." He repeated in a neutral tone, bringing the beverage to his lips. "Hardly, but I appreciate the drink, Rouge"
Rouge rolled her eyes, swishing a wine flute in her ivory gloved fingers before smiling. "Well you're welcome, Hun. Anytime you want to have a drink, you are always welcome to accompany me." She sipped the wine before setting the glass down on the table top and folding her hands in her lap. "So what have you been up to lately? G.U.N. hasn't brought me any new assignments as of late, just a bunch of `where's this, who's that'."
Shadow rolled his head, the sweetness and possible over pour of the liquor within slowly working its effects on him. "Nothing very eventful." He replied, elbows atop the table's edge. "Some investigations into areas the doctor is known to operate, sudden surges of energy…" He trailed off, eyeing the booth seats.
Rouge tilted her head. "You have been attending those meetings too," her voice turned stern, leaning in over the table, "Right?"
Shadow grimaced, eyes failing to meet the bat's. "Yes," he said through barred teeth.
Rouge then sat back, grasping her wine glass with a smile. "Great, thank you."
"Unnecessary." He mumbled, catching a side eye from the bat. "They don't need to know my movements so regularly, nor do you need to worry."
"Which is what you said to me last time," Rouge said over the rim of her wine, "then you 'disappeared'."
Shadow's eyes fell to the overly priced and dressed drink he thumbed the glass of, her voice poking away. "Off the grid and what'd you do, Shadow?" She asked, rhetorically. "Back with him, wrapped up in another trick with lies-again."
"I apologized." He muttered.
"And I can forgive you." She said softly, but her voice was softer. "I am going to always check in on you, Shadow. You can pout and complain about it till you're blue in the face, but you have friends and family who care and worry about you wandering off into chaos knows what."
"I'm not a child." He glared past the bat, the bartender shaking up another beverage behind the bar. "I am very capable of protecting myself, and making my own decisions. I shouldn't have to have a military organization track my every move."
Rouge shook her head, "If you didn't have a tendency to walk into hell willingly, no you wouldn't." She waved her hand. "Speaking of all that, when's the last time you talked to Sonic?"
Shadow's ears flicked at the name, his lips giving a shake against the glass. "Why?"
"Because," She sighed, rolling her eyes dramatically, "he's been asking about you. Chaos, he's always asking about you." She pouted playfully, "It honestly would be cute if he wasn't so…him about it, you know?"
Shadow's eyes flicked above him and closed, leaning back against the cushions of the booth. "How like him," he replied, lips around the straw in his teeth and eyes fallen back to the table. Rouge saw this and frowned.
"You know," She smirked, "To a passerby, it would seem like he really misses having you around." Rouge eyed the hedgehog, his expression and body language unchanged. "And call me crazy, but I think you miss seeing him around too."
"You're right." Shadow said simply.
"Oh, aha!" Rouge pointed.
"You are crazy." Shadow finished with a shrug, sucking the wind from the slightly tipsy bat before him with her smacking her hands down on her seat. "I don't…He is perfectly capable of finding me whenever he wants to."
Rouge nodded, impressed. "Playing hard to get," she winked, "never knew you had it in you, Hun."
Shadow glared, ripping a tiny plastic flower from his drink and tossing it at the bat who playfully swatted it away. "What is it with your obsession with him anyway? If you're waiting for me to take him, have at it." He waved with his eyes, although his shoulders slumped following the statement.
Rouge feigned shock the words, clutching imaginary pearls and shaking her head. "Shadow! You know I would never move so deviously. I keep to myself and stay in my lane, I just want you to be true to yourself." She laid a hand over the table, taking his own into it to his surprise. "You don't have to hide anything from me, you know that."
Shadow met her eyes, violet hallowing the friendly intent within them. He felt the grip around his hand and shook his head. "I know who I am. I know what I am, and that is why."
She frowned again, squeezing his hand. "Babe, there's nothing wrong with you. You are a hero! A trustful protector of the city, a strong hero that yes, has had ups and down," She shrugged, "but we all have! And if anyone has seen that-who isn't me-it'd be blue."
Shadow eyed their hands conjoined, white on white fabric wrapped around each other. As his blood cells expanded and thoughts clouded by the drink, the hand before him morphed in thin air. The slender digits that latched around his own larger fingers grew and pulled at him. The arm attached thickened and ended blending into a mass of blue fur, squeezing his hand and filling his chest with a warming vapor.
He thoughtlessly smiled, eyes closed as his imagination strummed along the frets beneath his heart, the chords he could hear. Or was it the club's music?
A thought later, he was back at the table and Rouge peered back with a questioning stare. Shadow snatched his hand from her grasp, peach cheeks rosy as he rubbed his hands together and glared past the booth. Rouge gave a small laugh and shook her head at him.
"See?" She asked, "Look at that smile, I swear if you were my type," She beamed proudly, "it'd be all over for you."
Shadow rolled his eyes, drink in hand. "You're drunk, Rouge."
"And you're not," She mocked, turning in her spot and waving towards the bar. "Aye, barkeep! Another one for the edge boy! Heavy on the pour this time!"
Shadow glared for a moment, turning to the emptied glass in his hand and pursed his lips. The remnants of the drink's blue color ringing around the bottom. He stuck his head out the booth, "And less of these frilly things in it!"
—
Oh the pounding, oh chaos the pounding make it stop.
The coldest water down his throat and filling his stomach could not fight back nor quench the anger of the ache within Shadow's skull the following morning. He sat the empty water glass beside the kitchen sink of Rouge's home blocks from the club. They had spent the remaining opening hours drinking and Rouge trying as she had to pull and pull out more of Shadow's feelings towards a certain blue hedgehog. Failing to do so, both ventured back to her apartment to sleep.
Shadow's dehydrated body ached from the leather couch Rouge had offered. In the state he arrived in the night before, it was the only logical option he had. That is, unless he wanted to attempt summoning enough of his chaos energy to teleport to his home near the forest, which would have likely ended up with him teleporting into a dumpster. Or worse, a second dumpster.
The sink stopped, and the glass came to his lips, eagerly gulping down the water. He wasn't much of a drinker, only doing so at Rouge request. Maybe it was fun, maybe it wasn't. Not as if Shadow would ever admit either former or later, only responding in his defaults that he so often had.
He sat the glass back down on the counter and breathed, the pounding wasn't going anywhere for the time being so he let out a groan as he stretched.
He turned to the living room, the white and violet obsession of his bat companion assaulting his vision from the carpet and the furniture. Portraits of herself sat on the coffee table in front of the uncomfortable white couch, and hung on almost every wall.
After splashing some cold water on his face and taking several deep breaths, Shadow made his way to the front door. Rouge had drunk herself into a state which he knew would not wake for another few hours. He stopped at the door before spotting an assortment of letters on a small table by the door. He peered at one particular one catching his eye. The corners were crumbled, a tear in the opening slot, and sloppily written across the whole of the envelope was her address.
Shadow huffed, reaching for the doorknob.
Three knocks sounded, startling the hedgehog and sending him back a step.
"Hey uh, Rouge? You home?"
You couldn't be serious…
"Maybe she's at work…"
"Naw, c'mon! It's Saturday! Who works on a Saturday?"
"Normal people, Sonic. Normal people with jobs."
"Okay, well I'm not super into your tone right now."
Shadow's heart dropped, clutching at air as his eye darted left and right. Why here, why now?
The knocks came again, and in a quick decision, Shadow stomped over and turned the knob and pulled the door open.
Before him, Sonic The Hedgehog stood. Beside him stood his now older yet still shorter companion, Tiles or something. Shadow sometimes struggled remembering the name of the fox boy. Though he figured maybe it was the few too many fruity alcoholic drinks the night before.
He glared between the two, who had stood surprised before him in the doorway. Sonic held a fist up mid-knock, a sheepish smile on his lips while Tails awkwardly yet cautious eyed the black hedgehog. Shadow couldn't help but scan the eyes of the former, taking in the green irises staring back at him.
Sonic soon smiled after the initial surprise. "O-Oh! Hey, Shads!" He beamed, peering past him into the apartment. "Whatcha doing here?"
Shadow eyed the blue hedgehog, the pounding still ravishing the contents of his head. "I could ask you two the same thing." He replied, closing his eyes to the volume of Sonic's greeting.
Sonic ran a hand through his quills, shying a smile. "Haha, I guess I came here to ask Rouge if she had seen you," He then leaned against the door frame, his foolish grin tugging away at Shadow. "Where've you been? It's been awhile!"
Shadow cringed, bringing a hand to his temple. "Please," He whimpered, "I have the worst headache and you are so loud right now."
Tails eyed Shadow closer. "Have you been drinking? You drink?" He asked, judging. "You know it's like, noon right?"
"Hey, c'mon bud. He's a grown up," Sonic tapped the fox on the shoulder. "Soon, you'll be waking up feeling all sluggish and sick."
"Not me," Tails smirked, side-eying Shadow, "I'd at least learn my limits beforehand."
"Outstanding," Shadow replied, not once turning to the younger of the two. "Now if you'd excuse me," He stepped past Sonic and Tails and started off down the apartment hall.
Sonic turned after him. "Wait, Shadow! I was wondering if you want-"
"Loud, nauseous," Shadow replied without stopping. "Need air."
The door at the end of the hall shut behind him, leaving Sonic and Tails standing alone. Sonic sighed, dropping his head seemingly dejected and Tails turning to him. "I'd try later, Sonic. He doesn't seem too…friendly right now." He gave a cautious look over his shoulder at the exit the black hedgehog disappeared behind.
Sonic followed suit, watching after Shadow's exit. "Maybe I'll ask him later…C'mon, let's get going."
