Hope you guys are enjoying the story, I'm trying to make it somewhat realistic. Like hey, yeah that's possible! I hope you feel the same.

When the two arrived back home they were greeted by Espio and Charmy moving Shadow's coffee table into the living room and Vector carrying a large cardboard box.

"Alright, this is the last of it!" Vector said placing the box down with the others.

"Thanks." Shadow said.

"Thank, Rouge. She payed us handsomely to get the job done." The large reptile smiled. "Let's go boys, our job is done."

Espio and Charmy set the table down in front of the couch and followed their leader back to the truck.

Amy walked downstairs with her books in tow. "Welcome home you two!" She said with a smile. She looked around the living room noticing the moving boxes. "Is this why I heard such a ruckus? I put Allison down for a nap, you guys are lucky she didn't start crying!" The female scolded.

"Sorry, Ames.. So how was she?" Sonic asked.

"She was a perfect angel. I swear, Allison is the one good thing, Eggman ever made. But then again she does have your genes, Sonic." Amy giggled. "It's only natural. "

"What about Shadow?" The blue hedgehog asked. "Ally is just as much his as she is mine."

Shadow glanced at Sonic in surprise. He didn't expect to be stood up for like that.

"Oh, I'm sorry!" The pink hedgehog quickly corrected. "She definitely has your qualities too, Shadow! I can tell she's going to be as strong and brave as you are!"

"Thank you, Amy.. that's very kind of you. " Shadow said with a little hesitation.

The female smiled. "Well, I hope you had fun on your date! See you guys later!"

"Uh, actually, Amy-" Sonic tried to say but before the words could register, Amy was out the door.

Shadow sighed. "Let's unpack for now." The ebony hedgehog walked over to the box labeled 'novels' and was surprised to see them so neatly organized. "You did this?" He asked, turning his head to Sonic.

"Well, yeah. I felt like they deserved some sort of respect then just be dumped in the box."

"You didn't have-" The dark hedgehog cut himself off. "Thanks."

Sonic smiled. "No problem, it's what friends are for!"

Shadow smiled a little. "Let's unpack before Allison wakes up." He walked over to the bookshelf with his novels and started placing them on the shelves in the same order Sonic had organized them in.

"Yup!" The blue hedgehog grabbed the box labeled 'utensils ' and headed for the kitchen. While arranging the various knives, forks and spoons he started to hear Shadow talking in the other room.

"Yes, Rouge, everything got here ok."

'Rouge? She just saw us an hour ago..' Sonic thought. 'What could she want?'

"Why did you have to bring up..that?"The striped hedgehog asked now tapping his foot against the carpet. "...Making mischief is not an excuse, Rouge. Even, Amy believes me and him are a couple.. we've only had Ally for a day-"

It appears he's talking to Rouge about her misunderstanding from earlier.

"Yes.." Shadow sighed. "But it's still too soon don't you think?"

The curiosity was eating him up inside, before Sonic knew it he was walking into the living room. "What's going on, Shads?"

The ruby eyed hedgehog looked over at him and sighed once more. "I'll talk to you later, Rouge."

"Sorry, I was just curious.. I'll um go back to unpacking." Just as Sonic turned around, Shadow walked over and placed his hand on the other's shoulder.

"No, it's alright. There's something I wanted to talk to you about but I don't think now is the right time. So please bear with me until I take the time to properly think about this." The ebony hedgehog explained.

"O-oh, no problem, Shadow! But what about when you said to R-" The hero was cut off by the other putting his hand over his mouth.

"Don't worry about it."

Sonic nodded. "Well, if you're done in here I could use some help with the utensils." The blue hedgehog deciding it was best to change the subject. Although curiosity was eating him up inside he would try to keep it contained for his friends sake.

"Of course." The other replied.

Shadow followed Sonic into the kitchen where they organized the assorted knives, spoons and forks into the hero's cutlery set.

Shortly after beginning soft crying could be heard coming from upstairs.

"Looks like, Allison is awake." Shadow said.

"Yeah, I'll go check on her." Sonic then proceeded to walk upstairs to his bedroom. He nearly had a heart attack at the sight of the infant once again rolling back and forth on the bed. The hero ran over to the side of the bed and caught her before she could roll off. "Phew.. Well, looks like someone had a nice nap.."

Allison's crying quickly turned into giggles by the looks of her parent's face.

"Yeah, hardy har har, it's fun to make me worry. Why do I feel like you'd get along great with Rouge..?" Sonic sighed and carried his daughter back downstairs.

Shadow walked out of the kitchen just as Sonic came into the living room. "You got her to stop crying?" He asked.

"Yup, after scaring me half to death.." Allison's ears flattened to her head, it seemed she felt bad for scaring her parent. The hero readjusted her so they were facing each other. "I'm not mad." He sighed out with a smile. "Just.. try not to do it again." The baby hedgehog smiled in return. He readjusted her back so her head was against his shoulder.

"How are you so good with kids?" Shadow asked.

"Honestly? I guess because I'm just a kid at heart. I know you might think that's immature but when you're forced to grow up quickly and be a hero.. I just like to think of it like a game, like there isn't lives or anything at risk.. wow.. that got deep for a minute- I-I'm sor-"

Before Sonic could finish his sentence, Shadow wrapped him in a hug.

"You're right, I did just think you were immature.. I never thought about your situation that way. You've been fighting most of your life, did you even have a childhood?"

"H-hey.. it wasn't all bad, I met Tails and Knuckles and well, you, thanks to these adventures after all."

"Yeah, I guess you did." Shadow pulled away from the hug and guided Sonic over to the couch.

Sonic gave Shadow a confused look as the other sat down beside him.

"I wanted to wait months to talk about this but you made up mind." The dark hedgehog took a deep breath. "How do you feel.. about me?"

Sonic blinked in confusion until a smile broke onto his muzzle. "You're a great pal! I respect you a bunch and I feel like I'll only get to know you better raising, Ally!"

"I mean more personally.. how do you feel about my past and how much it has in common with yours?

"Our pasts? Um... the only thing I can think of is.. tragic..?" Sonic said unsure.

"You got it." Shadow replied. "So take two people with broken pasts, do you think they could rebuild a better future together?

"I would hope so."

"I'm glad you feel that way because all this couple talk has me thinking.. would you be interested in trying a relationship together? I feel like we compliment each other and I would be lying if I said that I don't admire you..." The ruby eyed hedgehog took another deep breath. "I wanted to wait on this because our lives are suddenly so different with Allison in the picture.." Shadow turned to look Sonic in the eyes. "So what do you think of my proposal?"

"Hehe.. you asking me to be your boyfriend? I'd be willing to test the waters, not literally of course, but I do respect and admire you too. Hey, um, this isn't another 'we're doing it for Ally' thing is it? Because divorced or separated parents can work and I just feel-."

"Hedgehog.. shut up." Shadow interrupted. "I do admit that I feel like it would be beneficial to Allison, we don't need to be lovey dovey immediately. Let's just see where things go is all I'm saying. We can start slow and small, I know that's hard for you to grasp but if we want this to work for us then that's how we have to do it."

"Great, first my daughter and now my boyfriend is making fun of me!" Sonic laughed.

Shadow chuckled.

Sorry if it feels a little rushed, I'm trying to learn my lesson from past fics. But.. this story is primarily about Allison I just really want Sonic and Shadow's relationship set up so in later chapters it won't be weird or out of nowhere that they're lovey dovey with each other.

Also! Anyone spot the fire emblem fates reference? Here's a hint, it has to do with Niles.