CHAPTER 20

It was early the next morning and Shadow lazily made his way downstairs as the doorbell constantly rang. He approached the door with a mug full of coffee in one hand. "I'm coming!" He muttered under his breath, "Christ! Why do I even have a doorbell?" He swung the door open and stared mindlessly at the black bat woman standing in front of him. "…Nails?"

She greeted him with an energetic and positive reaction. "Shadow! My future brother in law! Good morning! How the heck are ya?"

It took him a moment to realize that he indeed wasn't dreaming and Nails was actually standing at the door at his house with the attitude of a freshman cheerleader. "…What the fuck are you doing here?"

Before she could even reply, Shadow had once again spoke out.

"Get off my property!"

She arched an eyebrow towards the hedgehog, "Geez! Rouge was right about how you're not a morning person. So grumpy!"

Shadow stood there at the doorway in disbelief as Nails constantly kept talking.

"You know I'm not much of a coffee drinker myself, but hey if it helps you ease into your day then I guess I can't really knock it can I?" She giggled as she tried to make casual conversation with Shadow. "So is my sis around or am I interrupting an intimate morning session if you know what I mean."

Shadow didn't know how much longer he could stand listening to Nails' pointless talking. He turned away from her and shouted angrily into the house. "Rouge!"

It didn't take long for fast pace footsteps to come running downstairs.

Shadow turned to a white bat woman who appeared behind him. Before he could say anything, he watched as Rouge pulled Nails into the house. "Oh Nails, you're here. We can finally get going."

Nails clasped her hands together in excitement, "Oh yay!" She then watched as Shadow pulled Rouge from her

"Excuse us for a moment." Shadow pulled Rouge away from Nails enough so that they could talk without her listening to their conversation. "Why the hell is your sister here?"

She bit her lip and couldn't bring herself to look at him. "Well, I was thinking about what Tikal said about her the other day."

Shadow knew Tikal was somewhat fond of Nails so without a doubt that she was trying to get everyone to slowly like Nails.

"…What if Nails has changed? I want to hang out with her to see for myself." She noticed Shadow's aggravated expression. She placed her hands on his chest and looked up at him with a guilty look. "Oh baby, you're mad. I'm sorry I didn't tell you about my outing with her sooner. I just thought you would get all…" She paused and nervously glanced into his angry eyes, "…Like that. But she's my sister and I wanna bond with her…like sisters should. I want to give her a chance…just once more."

Shadow sighed heavily and placed his cup of coffee down on the small table next to them. "Okay to be honest, I am a little…agitated that you didn't tell me about this sooner. I mean we were supposed to sit down and actually start making plans for our big day."

"I know hun, and we will. This isn't going to be an all day thing. I promise."

"Okay fine, but be careful okay? I still don't fully trust her ass."

Rouge knew it would take some more time for Shadow to get the idea of opening up to Nails, but this was a start and everything was going better than she had expected. She smiled warmly, "I will, sweetie." She pulled him into a loving kiss until the two were interrupted by Nails.

"Aw!"

Without completely pulling away from each other, the two shifted their eyes over to Nails who was watching their every move in adoration.

"You two are just so perf together!"

In annoyance, Shadow turned to Rouge. "Get her out or I'll throw her out."

Rouge made a small smile and began to walk out the door with Nails by her side. "Let's go, Nails."

When they left, Shadow picked his mug of coffee off from the table and took a sip from it. "Times like this, I'm glad Espio's the closest thing I have to a sibling."

Later at Tonya's house, she and Espio were in her room laying in bed after having a steamy session with each other.

Espio held Tonya's bare body close to his and kissed her forehead, "Good morning."

"Good morning to you too." She made a small giggle, "I hope we didn't wake Tikal."

"She's a big girl. Besides, it's your fucking house. You should make all the noise you want."

When she felt his hands travel around her lower body, she gently pushed away from him. "Espio, we can't. Not again. It's like noon."

He heavily sighed and watched her get out of bed. "Come on, Ton. You're breaking my heart."

She made a small smile towards him while she was putting on her white collared shirt. "Sorry hun, but I should've been up hours ago."

Espio sat up in the bed and watched as she had gotten dressed. "I guess it is getting pretty late in the morning." He had then realized that Tonya was giving him a strange look. "…What?"

She bit her lip as she debated to tell him what was actually on her mind. "…How long have we been dating?"

He shrugged his shoulders, "Um five maybe going on six months now. Why?"

She nervously began to fiddle with her fingers, "…Do you think we kinda…rushed?"

The chameleon arched an eyebrow, "Rushed? Tonya, we knew each other since I was eighteen. Do you know how long ago that was?"

"I know that. I'm not talking about how many years we had on friendship. I'm talking about our relationship."

"…I'm not following you."

"Why do you love me?"

He was taken by surprise. Did she seriously just ask him that? What was going on with her? "…What?"

"Why do you love me?" She repeated in a firmer tone.

"Because you're pretty, smart, and you're really fun to be around. What's with this random Q and A anyway?"

She sighed heavily, "I just never really thought of it before but, at first I never really liked you because you always acted like a horny school boy."

"Oh come on. I wasn't that bad."

"You tried to get with Rouge when she first joined the Chaotix."

"…Okay I was bad but in my defense, at that time Shadow hated her and Rouge had made it pretty clear that she wasn't about me."

"So you backed off with Rouge and kept pressuring me to go out with you?"

"I don't know why you're getting so upset over this. Tonya, we're together now. It doesn't matter what happened in the past."

Her voice had gotten louder, "It does matter!" She sighed and took a deep breath as she tried to calm herself. "Maybe…maybe we don't have a real relationship. This could be something else and you just think this is what a relationship is like."

"You don't think we're dating? Then what the hell are we doing then?"

"…I think we're just…really close friends."

Espio's mouth practically dropped, "…What? Tonya…"

She felt like she couldn't look at him and turned away.

Espio was lost for words. "…How? Why are you thinking like this?"

"Because if we truly loved each other, we would be exactly where Shadow and Rouge are."

His heart raced with thoughts filling his head. What did she really want out of him? Marriage? "…Is this what this is about? You're getting all emotional about us because of what's going on with Shadow and Rouge?" He couldn't believe that Tonya was acting like this. "Tonya, we met way before Shadow even knew of Rouge's existence. If anything, maybe they rushed."

She shook her head, "They're different from us. They went through so much more shit than we did."

"Yeah", he spoke. "I know. Between his addiction with drugs and his obsession with Rouge, Shadow went literally crazy over her. He would've blown his brains out for her if she wanted him to."

"Well Shadow's just a really passionate guy when it comes to love."

He gave her a disbelieving look, "…He was hopped up on fucking coke and was pissed that Rouge was just using him for some side dick while she was fucking another guy!"

"…That's not what I'm trying to say."

"Then what are you trying to say? I don't love you?" He began to become angry, "…Are you trying to compare our relationship with theirs? You don't think I'm going all out here with this relationship thing?"

She crossed her arms and looked at him. "Things are just becoming more clearly now. I just thought we were a little past being just close friends."

With him speechless, he watched her storm out the bedroom.

Later on that evening, Rouge had gotten back from her meet up with Nails. She came into the living room and saw Shadow sitting on the sofa with a few papers laying on the sofa and a small table setting across from him.

He looked up when he saw her coming into the room. "You're back already?"

"Yeah I told you. I'm back in one piece like you wanted."

"Heh, good", he made room on the sofa so Rouge could sit beside him. "So how did the sister thing go?'

She sat beside him with a content smile on her face. "It went pretty well actually."

He arched an eyebrow in surprise. "Really?"

"Yeah we were just sitting around back at her shop and we were just catching up on some things. And oh my God! So many feelings were shared!"

He made a small smile. "Did she say anything that changed your outlook on her?"

"No", she spoke. "But", she turned to him with a serious look. "She said she wished black magic didn't take over her life. It cost her the only sane and close relative she has."

"…So are you going to let her back into your life?"

She made a small smile, "I'm open to the idea. I just really miss the idea of having my big sister back in my life."

Shadow still didn't completely trust her, but if Rouge was all for having Nails being apart of her life again then he wanted to support her. "I still don't like her that much, but if you're open about it then I will try to…accept her."

She leaned over and kissed his cheek, "Thanks, hun." She looked at the papers laying all over the table. "What are you up to anyway?"

"Well", he began. "Half of these are papers from work and half of this is just some ideas for the wedding." He reached out and picked up a notebook from the table and set it in his lap.

Rouge leaned closer to him to look at the notebook, "What is it?"

"I was trying to think of who we should invite to the wedding."

"Oh good! I see you already listed all of the guys, your mother, Tikal…"

"This is why I kind of need you by the way."

"Okay well for my side of the list, my mom and dad…"

His ears twitched as Rouge mentioned her parents, "Aw fuck…"

"What? I have to invite them!"

"I know but you know they don't really like me."

She made a small giggle, "What makes you think that?"

"I met them once and that was for Thanksgiving last year at your place."

"And they couldn't stop talking about you." She could remember that entire dinner like it happened yesterday. Rouge's parents had fought with Shadow almost the entire time. They didn't like him because they simply didn't like his style and personality.

"…They called me an antichrist freak."

Rouge made an uneasy look, "So they're a little judgey."

He shifted his eyes over to her, "They hate me."

"Well they can either come and support me or don't. I know Nails will."

"…Nails?"

She made a nod, "Yup I'm gonna make her a bridesmaid alongside Tikal and Tonya." She saw his uneasy expression, "What? You don't want her to be there either?"

He shook his head, "No, it's fine. She seems more than happy enough for us."

The two paused as they tried to think of more people they could invite to the wedding.

"Oh!" Rouge had then thought of someone else, "Julie-Su and Knuckles!"

Shadow's expression froze to a surprised one as he turned to her. "…Knuckles?"

She could already tell that Shadow wasn't crazy about the idea of inviting her ex boyfriend to the wedding. She made a hesitant nod, "Yeah, he's still a good friend of mine and you and him are okay…right?"

He hesitated for a moment. After when he and Knuckles had fought over Rouge, they eventually talked it out, but it was still awkward and Shadow was for certain that Knuckles had still didn't quite forgive him or Rouge for what they had done. "He and I are…okay." He then felt Rouge's hand being placed on his cheek.

"Honey, we don't have to invite them if you don't want to."

"No, it's okay", he spoke as he took her hand from his cheek. "That was all in the past. We were acting completely immature, but things are different now. He's happy with Julie and I'm happy with you."

"…Thank you, baby." She leaned over to him and brushed her lips upon his. She was glad to know that Shadow was setting aside his past grudges for them both to share their perfect day with each other.

In The Next Chapter…

Shadow: Oh my God…you two are bonding…

Nails: I think Shadow finally trusts me!

Rouge: It's so good to actually have a sister again.

Shadow: Espio?

Espio: Girls! I can't stand them and their damn drama!

Shadow: Maybe you should just tell her how you feel?

Espio: But…what if I lose her?