"Think we should have gone for ugly matching sweaters?" Rouge joked as she packed up the last of the cookies.
"No," Shadow responded immediately and forcefully, much to her amusement. "I would never live down that kind of humiliation, and you would just complain the whole time."
"Hey, come on now," she coaxed, prodding Shadow's arm and causing him to shake her off, "you're the Ultimate Lifeform and I can pull anything off. We could make it work."
Shadow stared at her with the driest look she had ever seen. "If I didn't know you any better, I might think you were serious."
Rouge scoffed, tapping Shadow on the shoulder. "Party pooper," she teased, disappointed that he knew how to read her so well by this point. "But I guess we don't have any ugly matching sweaters to begin with."
"You're ridiculous."
Rouge ruffled Shadow's spines, much to his displeasure. "Someone on this team has to know what fun is."
It was the night of Amy's party, and after a lot of negotiations, string-pulling, and calling in old owed favors, Rouge had managed to clear up all three of their schedules for that day. Unfortunately, their attempts at making something for the potluck had ended in foul-smelling, half-burnt disaster, so the remainder of their store-bought cookies and leftover gelt would have to suffice. It made Rouge's stomach turn when she imagined eating nothing but sugar all evening, but Shadow lived off of junk food. At least he would be happy with that and leave any fruit plates or vegetables with ranch dip for her to snack on.
Omega reentered the room, having checked his power supply and double-checking to make sure he was as unarmed as they could make him 一 "This is a party, Omega, and I swear if you go trigger-happy in someone else's house, I'm taking away whichever weapon you use and not giving it back." 一 and the trio was ready to make their way over.
"FINAL VARIABLE," Omega said, before wrapping a string of golden tinsel around his head and tying it in the back like a headband. "HOW DO I LOOK?"
"Fantastic, honey!"
"...Odd."
"ACCEPTABLE," Omega decided, and he led them out the door with that.
Amy's party was a relaxed affair, a fact that soothed Rouge's worries about Shadow getting overwhelmed or Omega getting overexcited. She sat back in her chair, sipping at her water 一 she would have preferred something that would give her more of a buzz, but Amy still wasn't old enough to legally buy or drink alcohol and Rouge wasn't there to turn the party into something wilder than it should be 一 and sighed. When did she get so responsible?
The wildest thing at this party was 一 aside from the open music queue featuring a myriad of wacky, intense, and sometimes just genuinely good songs 一 the sprig of mistletoe that Amy had left hanging over one of the doorways. She had craftily hung it by the food table, in an area where people would take a moment to look around for somewhere to sit down and eat, and already Rouge had seen multiple people get caught unawares under it, exchanging brief, casual, sometimes awkward kisses before splitting apart.
And right then, Shadow and Knuckles were openly arguing right below it.
"Think they've noticed it yet?"
Rouge glanced to the side; Sonic had taken a seat next to her, biting into one of the store-bought cookies her team had brought along.
"Maybe," she said with a sigh. "Either they haven't, or at least Shadow has and now he's trying to make sure Knuckles doesn't."
Sonic snorted. "If Knuckles saw it, I think he'd be a lot more red in the face than he is now," he remarked, causing Rouge to laugh softly behind her hand.
They watched the pair continue to bicker for a while until Sonic nudged her with his elbow. "I think it's time for an intervention."
Rouge smirked at him. "I'll take Knuckles if you take Shadow."
A grin flashed back in return. "Deal."
With that, the pair walked over to the arguing duo, each pulling their assigned charge to the side and planting a kiss on their cheek.
The effect was instantaneous for Rouge; Knuckles stumbled backwards, stuttering nonsense with wide eyes, whereas Shadow's mouth pressed into a thin line while Sonic laughed. Knuckles recovered first, pointing between Sonic and Rouge.
"Wh-What was that about?!"
Sonic pointed upward while Rouge giggled. "You two were taking so long to notice where you were standing. Can you blame us for moving things along?"
Knuckles looked seconds away from exploding from embarrassment. "Well… Well now you two are under it!" he accused triumphantly, clenching his fists at his sides, and, well, he wasn't wrong. Now Sonic and Rouge were plainly below the cluster of dark leaves and white berries.
The two looked at each other, shrugged, and to Knuckles' mortification, easily kissed each other on both cheeks without a second thought.
"There," Sonic said, easy as a breeze. "Now it's your turn."
"It's tradition," Rouge encouraged, and if looks could kill, she and Sonic would have been dead twice over.
Shadow and Knuckles turned to each other, both still on edge from their argument, but they obediently kissed each other on the cheek as well before turning away from each other. Rouge slid between them both, slinging an arm over each of them as she led them away from the troublemaking plant. "Okay now, let's leave some for the others too," she coaxed, causing Knuckles to splutter again and Shadow to huff in irritation.
Rouge grinned. My, how she loved her friends…
She let go of the boys once she passed her chair from before, her water cup sitting there unattended, and picked it up, swirling it around a few times before pouring it into a nearby ficus. She had no doubt in her mind that it was still safe to drink, but old habits died hard.
Her eyes scanned the room again, from Sonic who was now chatting with Silver, to Amy who was fervently explaining something to Omega, to Tails who was adding yet another song to their fifty-something music queue. Her lips quirked into a smile as she watched everyone have a nice time.
Absolutely worth every last second of negotiations with her bosses.
A flare of light swelled outside the window, catching her eye, and as it died down, Rouge could see a figure standing outside in the snow, shivering in the cold as they looked over to the house.
Was that-
"BLAZE!"
The next thing the bat saw was Silver flinging open the door with his powers and running outside to capture the purple cat in a tight hug, his tail wagging so fast that it was almost invisible, utterly ecstatic at seeing his best friend again. Amy followed him, ushering the princess out of the cold and into her home, also grinning from ear to ear.
"I'm sorry for never responding to your invitation," Blaze said to Amy once the door was closed behind her. "There's been a lot to handle in the Sol Dimension and I never got a chance to break away to answer. In fact…" Blaze cleared her throat, looking to the side. "I suppose I'm technically not supposed to be here right now, but I saw a chance to take the rest of my night off and… well… Here I am."
"And we're so glad to see you!" Amy insisted, taking Blaze's coat to hang it up.
"You're here now, and that's what counts," Silver agreed, already pulling her into another hug, which the cat returned with a soft smile on her face.
In no time at all, the party was back to normal, with Blaze mingling and eating and dancing with the rest of them. Rouge stopped by the snack table, taking a few apple slices, and her heart warmed up as she watched Omega review one of Tails' blueprints, Sonic tell a joke that somehow had the very proper Blaze let out a peal of uncontrolled laughter, Amy's half-successful attempts to teach Silver and Knuckles the latest meme dances, and over in the corner, Shadow watched everyone with warmer eyes than she was used to seeing.
Rouge paused in her munching, but ultimately made the decision to go join him, and even though there was no mistletoe hanging above them, she pressed her lips to his cheek.
"Hmph," Shadow huffed, but she saw a ghost of a smile on his face. "You're still ridiculous."
Rouge rolled her eyes, wrapping one arm around him in a side-hug. "Happy holidays to you too, Mr. Grumpy."
Shadow's frown reappeared, sending a stab of guilt through Rouge, but before she could say anything to lighten the mood again, he said, "I think… for the first time in a long time, I am having happy holidays." His gaze roamed around the room, around their friends, his eyes holding the softest look she had ever seen in them.
Rouge squeezed his shoulder and replied, "Me too."
And she meant it.