Rouge picked up her cup of tea, the scalding hotness hardly registered within her senses after she took a long excruciating sip of the burning tea. Her main focus is on Sonic, and only Sonic, with concern. Whatever idea Sonic originally had from the beginning must've never included leading up to this. Plans never seem to go as expected.
"You kissed?" She said, repeating what Sonic just said. Sonic kept himself from meeting her gaze and the hedgehog gave her a sharp nod, his eyes pointedly staring with a forced blank look on his face. Rouge sees all however. The way he is sitting uncomfortably straight, how his fingers fidgeted timidly with his drink, the bat can see how he's biting the inside of his cheek as if he has much to say in his head but his voice won't speak up. Rouge took in a deep breath whilst tensing, even though she knows the truth already, she just wants to make complete sure of it. Even if it is a tad bit...uncomfortable to ask. "Was it consensual? You both wanted it? Shadow...he didn't...try-"
"No! No, it wasn't forced or anything like that-" He was quick to open his mouth and speak up, his emerald eyes even met hers briefly, then Sonic paused after interrupting Rouge from finishing that unneeded sentence because he knows it wasn't forced. With those words being said, Rouge visibly relaxed, almost like the weight of a thousand pounds had just been lifted off of her shoulders. The blue hedgehog continued, "-We kissed. I don't know why we did. But we kissed."
"I know Shadow would never ever think of trying anything like that, I just felt like I should ask in case that wasn't what happened...Now back to the present. How are you feeling?" The agent kept a watchful eye over the younger mobian. His carefully crafted mask he wore was back up. She didn't need to be a genius to know that he's greatly confused, his heart flashing from heart to stone in a way to block off the pain and trauma he very recently acquired.
"Fine." Curt. Short. Lie.
Rouge clicked her tongue like a worried mother tending to her wounded child. "Please don't lie to me like that, we all want to help you. You can trust us enough to let go of your mask, we're here for you. The real you." She placed great emphasis on real, because it is true. That is who they were helping. The real him, the shining one with lots of love and forgiveness that's been locked away from the scrutiny and expectations of those he loves and cares about.
"I'm confused, Rouge, by everything...I want to be free...but I'm scared because I don't know how to do this on my own."
She outstretched her hand to Sonic's, gently holding his hand and intertwining their fingers into a firm grip with the promise that she'll never let go. "You won't have to do this alone. Like I said before, we're going to help you. You and Shadow can be stubborn with that, you know." Seeing Sonic's small look of curiosity, Rouge said, "You two think and act alike more than you would think. You have people who love you, who care about you, want to give their help to you. Yet you two think that you have to struggle by yourselves. Remember, you don't and you won't. It may feel like it at times but always remember that we are always here."
Rouge heard him sniffle quietly, he struggled not to cry but was quickly failing because the reality that his friends who became his family are always here have finally hit him and she was quick to pull him into an embrace. There is still much to go through, but they'll go through it together. One step at a time. One friend at a time.