A/N: I originally meant to have this done a couple of weeks ago, but life got in the way. Here it is now, though. I want to dedicate this one to a couple of people. First of all, to my loving girlfriend KagamiPINKAgreste, who has been one of the greatest gifts I've ever gotten in my life. Second of all, to my platonic soulmate Starlight Emiko, who has greatly helped me out during some difficult times. You two rock!

Shadow the Hedgehog was having one of the worst days of his life. While having work-related troubles was nothing new for him, today sucked right from the start because he went to ask his supervisor about an issue regarding missing equipment, and said supervisor dragged him into the office and criticized him for a wrongdoing that he allegedly committed. The Ultimate Life Form denied committing such a wrongdoing, citing lack of remembering the allegation, but his supervisor didn't buy it and threatened to send him down to HR. Thus, immediately after returning to his usual place of comfort – that is, the mansion of Rouge the Bat – he shut himself in his room and sat on his bed, curled up in the fetal position. Right now, he wanted to shoot somebody, but he was trying to be a better person, and Rouge had warned him against doing so when he let slip about it during an angry outburst. He could've played one of his favorite Executioner video games, but he'd already bored himself to death with those a thousand times over, and he didn't particularly feel like doing anything else.

Then, while Shadow was drowning in his own lament, his Hedgehog Sense tingled. Hedgehog Sense was a "sixth sense" unique to hedgehogs that alerted them to oncoming danger or other phenomena of interest. In this case, it told him that someone was coming up to his room, much to his dismay. Sure enough, he heard knocking on his door.

"Whoever it is, go away," said Shadow.

"Shaddy, I can understand if you're having a bad day, but please don't be rude to me!" The voice belonged to Rouge the Bat.

"What difference would it make? Everything's going to suck anyways."

"OK, then I guess you don't wanna go out to dinner with me and Amy!"

Shadow's Hedgehog Sense perked up. He thought he could feel more than one person, but people being close together could sometimes throw him off. Nevertheless, at the mere mention of his girlfriend Amy Rose, he perked up.

"Coming!"

Shadow headed out of his room, and…

"SHADDY!"

Amy gave him a big hug and kiss. No matter how low his life went, receiving affection from his favorite girl ever made everything that much better. However, it turned out that he was right, for there were indeed a couple more familiar faces:

"Hello, Mr. Shadow!" Cream the Rabbit waved at Shadow.

"Chao!" Cheese did so as well.

"Hello there, Shadow!" Vanilla the Rabbit waved at him as well.

"Mom! Cream!"

Shadow went over to Cream, Cheese and Vanilla and got a big hug from all of them at the same time. When they first met, Shadow had been none too fond of Cream, but eventually, he came to see her as an adoptive sister and Vanilla as his adoptive mother, which made him feel that much better about himself.

"How are you today?" asked Vanilla.

"Well, I wasn't doing that well, but considering you, Cream and Amy are here, I'm doing that much better."

Vanilla smiled. "Glad to hear it!"

"Well, what are we waiting for?" said Rouge. "Let's go!"

The gang all ended up going to a Chili's in Quartz Village.

"How many?" asked the waitress, a blue cat.

"Six," replied Rouge.

"Right this way."

The waitress led them to their table. Shadow had one question for Rouge:

"You invited somebody else that I don't know about to this dinner, didn't you?"

Rouge smirked. "Maybe."

"Knock off the coyness, Rouge. Are you forgetting that I have Hedgehog Sense?"

"Shaddy's right, Rouge." Amy smiled. "If you did invite somebody else, I'm curious to know who it is."

"It's a surprise, but let's say that it's somebody that Shaddy's yet to introduce us to."

Amy nodded, and then turned to Shadow. "So, who is this person that's supposed to be coming?"

"Hi, welcome to Chili's!" said a lavender wolf. "My name is Amber. Can I start you five off with some drinks?"

"I'll have a lemonade, please" said Amy.

"Dr. Pepper for me," said Shadow.

"I'll have a root beer, please," said Rouge.

"May I please have a lemonade?" said Cream.

"May I please have a ginger ale?" said Vanilla. "And a water for the Chao."

Amber left to get their drinks. Meanwhile, Shadow had another question for Rouge:

"What's taking this person so long? Shouldn't they have been here by now?"

"Relax, Shaddy; I'm sure she'll be here soon!"

"Sorry I'm late," said a random female voice. "I…"

Shadow looked over to see who'd addressed them: a blonde, blue-eyed teenage girl with her hair in a 60s-style flipped bob. She wore a red T-shirt under a pair of black overalls and a pair of brown work boots. She dropped her jaw when she saw Shadow.

"Eeeee! It's YOU!"

The girl gave Shadow a big hug, which he gladly returned. Amy, however, was confused:

"Um…who's this?"

After Shadow and the girl let go, Shadow introduced her: "Everyone, this is my platonic soulmate Hope. Hope, this is my girlfriend, Amy Rose. That's my sister/motherly figure Rouge the Bat, that's Cream the Rabbit, my adopted sister along with her pet Chao, Cheese, and that woman is Vanilla the Rabbit, my adopted mother."

Everyone waved at Hope and said "hi" to her, but Amy had a question for Shadow:

"Um…Shaddy…what do you mean by 'platonic soulmate'?"

"Let me explain it this way: I share a strong emotional connection with Hope, and I love her, but I'm not in love with her, if you understand. NO ONE could ever replace my beautiful Rose." Shadow smiled.

Amy smiled. "Awww, you're so sweet! And I actually think it's nice that you've found someone else to love! I mean, love doesn't always have to be romantic!"

Hope smiled. "Glad you're so welcoming of this, Amy! I gotta ask, though: I've heard of you before, but a lot of people were saying that you were Sonic's girlfriend."

Amy smiled and gave a dismissive hand flap. "Nah, that's old news! I won't deny having a crush on Sonic at one point, but when I got to know Shadow, I came to see how much better we clicked than I ever did with Sonic."

"I totally agree with that," said Rouge. "Those two never would've worked out. On the other hand, I find that Big Blue works out perfectly for me!"

Hope gasped. "Wait, you're SONIC'S GIRLFRIEND!? Eeeeee! You're so LUCKY!"

Rouge giggled. "Oh, you!"

By this time, Amber returned with their drinks, and she turned to Hope:

"Hi, can I get you something to drink?"

"I'll have a Coke, please."

"Also, are we all set to order or do we need a few minutes?"

"I think I know what I want, but give me a couple of minutes."

"Sure thing!"

Amber left to get Hope's drink.

"You seem like a very nice girl, Hope," said Vanilla. "How did you meet Shadow?"

"I responded to a post he made on Tumblr, and he responded back, and we conversed for a bit before I started chatting on Tumblr's instant messaging feature before moving over to Discord, and things bloomed from there."

"I'm happy for you, Miss Hope!" said Cream. "Mr. Shadow seems scary, but he's a very nice person once you get to know him!"

"Chao chao!" said Cheese.
"He doesn't seem all that scary," said Hope. "Why would he be scary?"

Shadow blushed. "It's a long story, one that I would rather not tell, but in short, I was framed by the government and had to fight to find out who I was."

Hope put a hand on Shadow's shoulder. "I won't ask too much, but I want to let you know that if you ever need to talk, I'm here."

Amy put a hand on Shadow's shoulder as well. "I'm here for you, too."

Shadow smiled. "You two are the best!"

"Awww!"

Amy and Hope hugged Shadow at the same time. Getting hugged by Vanilla and Cream was something, but being hugged by the two girls he loved more than anyone else in the world set his heart on fire. He would never forget this day as long as he lived. By the time they let go, Amber had returned with Hope's Coke.

"Are we all set now?"

Shadow raised his hand. "I'll go first. I'll have the Smokehouse Combo with Chicken Crispers and Ribs."

"OK, and what sauce would you like for your ribs?" asked Amber.

"Texas Dry Rub, please."

"I'll have the Classic Ribeye, please," said Hope.

"OK, and how would you like your steak cooked?" asked Amber.

"Medium rare, please."

"I'll have the Honey Chipotle Chicken Crispers combo, please," said Rouge.

"May I please have the macaroni and cheese?" said Cream.

"May I please have the Brisket Quesadillas?" said Vanilla.

Finally, it was Amy's turn. "I'll have two orders of the Texas Cheese Fries, please!"

Amber left to get their food.

"I'm glad we went here!" said Hope. "This is my favorite restaurant!"

"It's one of my favorites, too!" said Amy.

"Nice! Also, how did you meet Shadow?"

"It happened during the ARK incident. I jumped Shadow and gave him a hug, and when he spotted me, I tried to play it off as an accident. Truth be told, I could sense that he was feeling really sad and needed someone to cheer him up."

Shadow smiled. "I know."

Amy giggled. "Oh, you silly!"

Hope smiled. "Wow, sounds like you two go really well together!"

"Don't we?"

Shadow smiled. "And I'll forever be grateful for it."

"Awww!"

Amy and Shadow ended up making out, much to Rouge's chagrin:

"Vanilla, would you please go out to the car and get a crowbar? I have a feeling they're gonna be at it for a while."

Vanilla shrugged. Sure, she wasn't exactly used to Shadamy giving such public displays of affection, but on the other hand, she would've agreed that he was much better off like this than drowning in his own lament.

Criticism is gold. Negativity and nitpicking are pyrite.