Chapter Five: Snow and Night, Chaotic Hearth
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*Soleanna: Castle Town Resort*
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Knuckles and Omega sat uncomfortably across from each other at a table of a bistro the resort had built in. The upside to working along with G.U.N. was that they were paying for a night's stay at this fancy hotel until they could rendezvous with Rouge and Shadow, dinner included. Downside? He had to share it with Omega.
Knuckles didn't have any particular beef with the reformed badnik. In fact, he obviously reminded him of Gamma during the fight with Chaos, and that was a good thing. Still, before Knuckles had started dating Rouge, he had harbored a strong distrust of Team Dark in general. Setting aside all the times his girlfriend had tried to steal the Master Emerald, Knuckles had been on the receiving end of Shadow's wrath, both with Eggman and the Black Arms. The echidna had gone toe-to-toe with Omega a few times, and he was formidable, even for someone as powerful as the Master Emerald's guardian.
Still, at Rouge's behest, Knuckles had tried to set aside his distrust of Shadow and Omega in addition to trusting her more.
That didn't mean they had much to talk about right now. The one thing in common they had was Rouge. G.U.N. said they would let them know when the storm was cleared enough to leave. It couldn't come soon enough.
"Why exactly am I here?" Omega asked after a dreadful pause. "I do not require nourishment the way you organics do."
"I don't know," Knuckles said with a sigh, leaning his head back into his arms. "Maybe there's something around here you could use to… I don't know, recharge?"
"Are you suggesting I plug myself into an outlet?" the mech replied, his tone souring slightly. "I am not an appliance."
"Sorry man, I don't know!" Knuckles sighed, rubbing his forehead a little. "Why don't you ask one of the servers if they have anything for robots!"
"Perhaps I will. There is much you 'do not know', it seems," Omega said with emphasis. Sighing again, Knuckles looked out the window, to distant clouds that had built and darkened over to the north. Following his gaze, Omega immediately read his concern.
"Rouge has endured worse than a storm of this caliber," he affirmed, his tone perhaps softening just a little. "She's intelligent and adaptable. She will be fine when we locate her."
"I know… I just wish I was there to make sure," Knuckles muttered, looking back over at Omega. "But… thanks, Omega. I never knew you said stuff like that!"
"It is a duty as a team member, unfortunately," the rogue badnik replied dryly. "During my time with Shadow and Rouge, I have observed and learned much of their mannerisms. There are times we must… 'parley', I suppose, when we are split on a course of action. Sometimes, it is necessary for me to remind them of each other's skills to move our mission forward."
"Remind them of their skills? Why? So you can figure out the best job for each of you?" Knuckles asked, sitting up in his seat now.
"No. To assure them of our collective survival," Omega answered. "We are all very familiar with each others' skills and capabilities. However, during a high-risk mission where either Shadow or Rouge must go solo, sometimes they seem to forget that, and begin worrying. For some reason, they usually lie and say they are not worried when their vitals and body language betray them. My assurances are usually enough to cease the hesitation and move the mission forward."
Knuckles stared at the mech in silence for a while. It was hard for the echidna to imagine Shadow the Hedgehog, of all people, expressing worry over someone. He'd seen Rouge show concern for the ebony hedgehog multiple times over the last few years, but even her openly expressing worry for anything was pretty rare. Not to mention, what exactly did it say about them that Omega, walking arsenal, had to be the voice of reason sometimes?
"Huh… you guys really have been through a lot together, huh?" Knuckles said with a small smile.
"Affirmative," Omega replied with a single nod. "That may be your first correct observation this evening."
"Hey!" Knuckles gritted his teeth. "Watch the insults, pal!"
Thankfully, a waiter came and took orders at that time, defusing what could have been a destructive brawl. Fortunately, G.U.N. had had the courtesy to concoct a sort of drink for Omega that acted as a sort of safe fuel while allowing him to process it as a refreshing beverage, which was retrieved for him while Knuckles was served a white wine. Taking another look out towards the north, he glanced at Omega again.
"I know Rouge can handle herself, but… you sure Shadow will take care of her if he needs to?" Knuckles asked softly.
"With absolute certainty," Omega replied without missing a beat. "Shadow never allows others he can help to be harmed. Especially not allies, and especially not Rouge."
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*Soleanna: White Acropolis, Shadow and Rouge's shelter*
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It had taken some time, but Shadow and Rouge had finally made enough adjustments to the cave for both of them to lay in their own bedrolls without being too cramped. With their respective supplies bundled next to each of them, they finally prepared to bunker down for the night as the storm came in.
"I still don't see the need for another heater if your bedroll has one installed already," Shadow muttered, leaning against the cave wall by his spot. "Just seems materialistic."
"Oh hush, I can't stand the cold," Rouge said dismissively. "Are you sure we'll be okay in here? Not to keep criticizing your hotel choices but I've noticed a few… ah, cracks in the ceiling?"
"It held out perfectly during the last storm; they're small enough no snow should be getting through to us," the dark hedgehog replied, glancing up as the moonlight shining down through the aforementioned cracks vanished as the storm clouds moved in above. "The built-up snow above should insulate us just fine. We're high enough up this mountain that we're not at risk of being trapped in an avalanche, either."
"Okay then… well if you're wrong, it's on your ass, mister," the huntress replied casually as she tried to get comfortable in her bedroll.
"Excuse me?" Shadow raised an eyebrow at her.
"Your ass," Rouge replied, pausing for a moment to yawn. "Maybe just yank out a few of your quills if we just get some snow on us. If we get trapped in here though, I might just snip that cute little tail of yours."
"What?!" the ebony hedgehog's face showed a mix of alarm and confused hostility at Rouge's nonchalant delivery of her threats.
"I'm kidding Shad, kidding!" the ivory bat laughed. "Oh, but your face! Ah, if only I'd packed a camera!"
"Hm! Troublemaker, same as always!" Shadow scoffed, turning his face away. His frown gave way a little as Rouge just kept laughing, however. "Rouge, you… ah, you never change, do you?"
"Probably not!" she said smugly. "I'm amazing as I am, don't see any reason to change!"
"Heh. Don't." The Ultimate Life-Form tried to hide his smile; too gentle to be a smirk. Rouge didn't need to see it to hear how tender his tone grew for that one word though. She smiled secretly to herself too; it seemed after they cleared the air, Shadow was a little more receptive to sentiment. Part of her was tempted to tease him for going soft, but she didn't want to discourage that.
Besides, she was exhausted.
"Are you ever going to lay down Shadow?" Rouge glanced over at him, still standing against the rock wall.
"Not yet. I want to keep an eye on the worst of the storm, just in case," he replied. "There's also a chance some of Eggman's remaining forces might risk sneaking through the storm for retaliation. I'll wake you if anything happens."
"That's soothing food for thought," the huntress sighed. "Well, whatever. Goodnight, Shadow."
"Goodnight. Rest well," Shadow added after a pause.
Rouge turned over in her bedroll, smiling again. Hearing Shadow return even basic sentiments was rare, and she knew it meant a lot coming from him. It gave her a fuzzy, giddy feeling in her gut as she drifted off to sleep.
As Rouge slept and Shadow kept watch, the storm began to rapidly worsen outside. A howling gale drowned out the sounds of the small heaters they'd brought. Time crawled by as the ebony hedgehog strained his senses for any sign of the cave succumbing to the storm, or any other threat. Frowning at the cave floor, Shadow looked over at his resting ally, thinking maybe he should follow her lead and just get some rest; he couldn't hear anything over the wind, and likely wouldn't be able to see anything if he ventured outside. The shelter seemed to be holding out just fine, keeping watch was fruitless.
After an hour of debating, however, Shadow's fur suddenly stood on edge when his keen senses felt something coming towards them. Fast. He would've noticed sooner if the storm hadn't masked it. With little time to act, Shadow suddenly grabbed Rouge in her bedroll, and leapt aside with her.
"Wh… h-huh…?! Hey! EEP!" the white bat yelped from her rude awakening, shortly before a resounding *Boom!* from a missile shook the shelter. A part of the rock wall had collapsed inwards, allowing part of the gale from the storm outside to blow in.
"Damn it! Rouge, stay here! Try to get the shelter back up, I'll investigate!" Shadow said as he set Rouge down in as safe of a spot as he could find.
"Wait a second! You're going out in that mess?!" she objected as she struggled to get out of her bedroll. "Don't be stupid!"
"I'll be fine, my Chaos powers keep me warm enough to survive this," he replied firmly, grabbing his energy gun from the rubble. "If we get attacked again we might not survive tonight." The dark hedgehog looked over at Rouge to see her crossing her arms and frowning. "I'll be back. I promise," Shadow assured her.
After a moment, she sighed and held her hands up.
"Fine. Just hurry and be careful. If you're not back in a minute I'm going out there for you, okay? At least take these." Rouge tossed her snow-goggles over to Shadow. "It'll make it easier to find our new friends in this blizzard."
With a nod, Shadow strapped the goggles on and dashed out the new opening in the shelter. Immediately, the goggles activated night vision and did their best to see through the snow. The harsh chill cut through Shadow's fur, and even his Chaos-boiled blood wasn't immune to this severe cold. He could probably afford to stay out here twenty minutes, thirty tops if he kept moving. Thankfully, it didn't take long to find the cause of his latest misery.
As Shadow had guessed, a small group of Dr. Eggman's robots were clustered on a small vehicle with snow treads and a cannon. The group hadn't noticed him yet, and seemed to be firing the cannon haphazardly into the hills and mountains of the area. Perhaps they were damaged from the earlier attack on the base and were malfunctioning. Maybe they were desperately searching for Shadow and Rouge for retaliation with no regard for their own safety. Whatever the case, it didn't matter now.
With a quick warp, Shadow appeared right before the Doctor's mechs. Alarms sounded from them as soon as they saw him, some dropping their weapons in shock. Panicking, they scrambled to defend themselves.
"Chaos Blast!"
But they were too slow. A violent surge of red Chaos Energy slammed into the mechs and their vehicle, causing them to explode instantly and launching their ride far off into the icy night. The smoldering scrap of their remains rained down and were quickly drowned in snow. Shadow's eyes narrowed suspiciously; this seemed too easy.
Suddenly, Rouge's goggles blipped to warn him of something to his right. He immediately zipped backwards a ways, just in time to miss another missile fired at him.
'A decoy?' Shadow thought to himself, turning to try and pierce the veil of the storm to see where the missile had come from. The goggles located a reading and revealed a missile turret, hidden in the side of one of the nearby mountains. He was right; the robots had lured him within its range once he had attacked.
Well, at least they'd made a bit of an effort to deceive him.
"Chaos Spear!" Four glowing bolts fired from Shadow's hand in quick succession, each hitting the turret dead-on, completely blowing up it and the robots that manned it. For good measure, the remains were all quickly buried in snow and rubble.
After taking a minute to look around, Shadow was satisfied there was no longer an immediate threat, and began his return to the shelter.
When he got there, he saw that Rouge had managed to pile up the rubble into a wall of sorts that blocked off about half of the new opening. Shadow frowned when he saw her visibly shivering as she struggled to clear some of the rubble off of their gear. The dark hedgehog quickly moved to assist her.
"Aww, d-damn it!" Rouge hissed through chattering teeth. "Those l-lousy p-p-punks destroyed m-my space heater! And the one in m-my b-b-bedroll is wrecked too!"
"Mine still works," Shadow replied glumly, and pushed it over to her. "Take it. You need it more than I do."
"Th-thanks… still g-gonna b-b-be a popsicle at this rate t-though," Rouge stuttered out, trying to stay focused on staying active and moving the wreckage. After a few minutes of blocking off the opening, Shadow used his Chaos powers to melt a layer of snow and ice into a half-decent insulation on the cracks.
"S-So, what w-was it th-that ruined a-all my s-s-stuff?!" Rouge demanded as they tried to get the area as habitable as possible before attempting to turn in for the night. "P-Please tell me you gave t-them what for!" She was desperate to keep her mind off of how cold she was; she was worried her wings were going to snap right off!
"Some Eggman mechs trying to lure us outside," Shadow answered as he used his fire skates to remove the snow to make room for the bedrolls. "Don't worry, I destroyed them all."
"G-G-Good riddance!" she said with a forced, haughty laugh. Shadow nudged her as he handed her goggles back to her.
"These helped. Thanks," he told her, immediately going back to work once she accepted them. Rouge got a small, warm feeling that allowed her to continue working.
A few minutes after that, they cleared the remaining rubble and ice out of their camp. But even with the storm outside shut out, it was still terribly cold, and there was nothing to try and stay busy with. Rouge attempted to warm herself in her bedroll with Shadow's heater as close to her as possible. She hoped she'd hurry and either finally warm up and sleep, or just mercifully freeze as quickly as possible to get it over with.
Now that he was out of the storm, Shadow felt better. He was still uncomfortably cold, but it was nothing he couldn't handle. However, even wrapped up in her bedroll, Shadow's bedroll on top and with his heater right next to her, Rouge was still shivering and trembling terribly, teeth chattering loudly.
'This is bad… hypothermia or something worse might set in if she doesn't warm up…' Shadow thought to himself, lines of concern cutting into his face as he tried to figure out what to do. There wasn't anything suitable to burn, what else could serve as heat?
Of course, one idea came to mind… it was a well-known survival tactic for surviving the cold, and Shadow's Chaos powers would likely make it even more effective…
'No, I can't do that!' the Ultimate Life-Form mentally hissed at himself, blushing a little at the thought. 'Even if she… wasn't with the echidna… it's…' He sighed heavily, and clenched his fists.
'It doesn't matter… whatever she or Knuckles thinks, her well-being is more important,' Shadow affirmed, and with a deep exhale, made himself walk over to where Rouge lay.
Trying not to overthink what he was doing, Shadow kneeled down, climbed into Rouge's bedroll, and wrapped one arm around her stomach.
"H-hm…?! S-Shadow…?!" the white bat peeped when she realized what was happening.
"Shut up. I'm just trying to warm you up before you freeze to death," Shadow grumbled, and channeled a very small amount of Chaos Energy to his palm, and throughout his whole body. Immediately, Rouge felt warmer, and she couldn't hold back a sigh of relief. Her whole body relaxed against him, which made Shadow blush an even deeper red. After taking a moment to process what had just happened, Rouge was blushing too.
However, exhaustion took hold, and the ivory bat quickly fell deeply asleep in the ebony hedgehog's warm embrace.
Despite being exhausted himself, Shadow felt as though he couldn't move. Part of him didn't want to disturb Rouge now that she was safely warmed up and asleep, part of him was frozen at the reality of him holding her… in a bedroll. Of course Shadow couldn't let Rouge just freeze, but he'd never imagined himself in this scenario before, regardless of circumstance.
After a few hours of laying there restlessly, the storm outside dimmed somewhat, no longer a whirling, noisy gale. Eventually, Shadow forced his stiff body to slowly relax. He became flushed again when Rouge was inevitably pressed even closer against him. She was soft, comfortable, and now that she'd had time to adjust her temperature, warm.
'It's just to keep her warm,' Shadow reminded himself. 'No need to be such a fool about this… she's my ally, my friend, that's all. I wouldn't try anything when she's with…' He shook the remainder of the thought from his head.
Finally, his eyelids grew heavy, and Rouge's sedative presence put Shadow to sleep as well.
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*White Acropolis: The Next Morning*
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As sunlight illuminated the ice and snow of the cave, Rouge finally began to stir from her slumber. The shelter had grown warmer, still cold but much safer than last night. When her senses returned to her, she cooed softly at the warm, strong presence behind her. Then, Rouge's eyes bulged open wide when she remembered what had happened:
Shadow the Hedgehog, of all people, had held onto her all night long.
'What… the hell is happening?!' the huntress thought to herself, her once-chilled face now burning. All sorts of thoughts she didn't want to have came tumbling into her mind; Shadow's fur was so soft. The way he held her securely but comfortably, tenderly. How his Chaos Energy had tingled across her skin, left her with goosebumps at the sensation…
'GAAHH! What is wrong with you?! You have a boyfriend! Stop it! StopitstopitstopitSTOPIT! Stupid sexy hedgehog!' she cried inwardly. Slowly turning her head to look at him, Rouge again felt a rush of complicated thoughts. Shadow… looked adorable right now. His mouth was open ever-so-slightly as he breathed evenly, his right ear twitching occasionally. The angsty hedgehog looked so relaxed… a little vulnerable even. Rouge had grown accustomed to Shadow frowning most of the time, but now the frown lines were gone, relaxed. She'd never really seen him like this before…
'Okay, that's enough!' Rouge thought as she resisted the urge to go "Awww!" in adoration. She cleared her throat as loudly as she dared.
"Hnhngh… huh…?" Shadow mumbled, and yawned as he tried to retrieve his bearings, exposing one of his canines. The treasure huntress again mentally shrieked as she tried not to express herself over how cute the black hedgehog was being right now.
As soon as Shadow was on the same page as her, however, he too blushed madly and tensed up sharply. He was now acutely aware of Rouge's entire back pressed up against him, and all sorts of new and confusing thoughts flooded his head.
"R-Rouge! You're okay, good," he said as he scrambled to get out of the bedroll. The hedgehog moved like he was attempting to leave his thoughts behind. "I-I'm glad to see you didn't freeze!"
"Heh, y-yep! Thanks for that!" Rouge replied as she got to her feet. The two of them rubbed the backs of their necks, staring at the floor for awhile.
"Seriously though… thanks, Shadow," she repeated, more evenly than before. "I know you don't care for getting personal like that, but you did it to help me. You probably saved me… again. So… thanks."
"Yeah… of course, Rouge," Shadow said, still blushing a little as he forced himself to look at her, awkwardly brushing the back of his quills. "I wasn't going to stand by and let you be harmed if I could prevent it."
"Hm… yeah, I know you wouldn't," Rouge said, smiling at him. "You really can be such a softie Shadow, but y'know… that's not such a bad thing."
"Hmph. Careful, you're starting to sound like Amy Rose again," Shadow teased, smirking at her. "Who's the softie here, hm?"
"Oh you, definitely!" she replied with a small laugh. "You should've seen how cute you were when you were asleep. Precious! Absolutely precious!"
"W-What?! Don't be a fool Rouge, I am not cute!" Shadow snarled, turning his burning face away.
"Ha! Yes you are!" the huntress continued to tease, grinning widely. "You might be the Ultimate Life-Form, it doesn't mean you're not cuter than a Chao!" Before Shadow could retort, however, Rouge's radio crackled to life.
"Rouge? Hey Rouge, come in, you there?" Knuckles asked. "We're almost at your location, can you see us?"
"Knuckles!" Rouge exclaimed with an excited smile, and grabbed the radio. "Hey, I'm here! We're not outside right now, give me a minute and I'll check!"
Watching Rouge answer the radio, Shadow felt an odd sinking feeling in his gut that he couldn't explain. As soon as he heard Knuckles' voice, his mood soured. More than usual. He couldn't stand being around Sonic and his gang's overly cheerful and gung-ho attitude, but the echidna had never bothered him that badly. Not before.
"Shadow? Did you hear me?" Rouge interrupted the hedgehog's thoughts. "I said Knuckles and Omega are on the way, let's head outside so they can spot us."
"Hm. Right," Shadow replied distantly, quickly gathering his gun and pack as he left the cave. Rouge stared after him for a second, wondering what had occupied him so much she'd had to repeat herself. The ebony hedgehog was prone to brooding in deep thought, so she supposed it shouldn't have come off as too strange. She hurried after him.
'What is my problem?' Shadow pondered the reason for his mood. Had Rouge's teasing just gotten to him? No, the feeling had only hit after Knuckles had called. Why? His mind wandered to last night and this morning, forcing him to hide his pinkened cheeks from Rouge.
Then, thinking about Knuckles again, was it…
Jealousy…?
'No, don't be absurd… Why would I be jealous of that idiotic echidna? I'm the Ultimate Life-Form!' Shadow assured himself. 'Just because Rouge is dating him… that doesn't mean… why should I care?!'
Why indeed.
The sudden bright sun on the snow as they exited the cave caused the dark duo to shield their eyes for a few moments while they adjusted. Once they had, they took a minute to observe the snow-consumed landscape. A few trees down the valley had been blown over, but aside from that, all the snow had turned White Acropolis into a giant, blank sheet that buried all signs of yesterday and last night's events.
"You were crazy for going out in this last night, you know that?" Rouge remarked as they tried to get as high up the hill as possible for the best visibility.
"Nothing crazier than what we've done before," Shadow replied with a shrug.
"You're right. Still… it was brave of you, that's all," she said with a shrug back at him. Shadow didn't reply, he just took his usual pose of brooding with his arms crossed as he stared out at the horizon. Rouge frowned a little; he'd been opening up a bit more since their reunion, especially after their apology. Now he seemed more like his usual bitter, sullen self.
Was he embarrassed about last night? Obviously he had been when they first awoke, but he hadn't appeared to be in a bad mood. Maybe it was nothing. Shadow wasn't the type of person to open up at all, let alone for prolonged periods. She supposed she shouldn't take it personally; she was just glad Shadow was back.
Before long, Rouge's sensitive hearing picked up the sound of a chopper. Smiling brightly, she pointed out to Shadow the direction it was flying in from. Soon they could both hear it, and quickly saw the helicopter headed for them. Once it was close enough, they saw the side-hatch open and could both see the distinct red of Knuckles' fur and Omega's chassis.
"Omega! Knuckles!" Rouge called out to them, waving to get their attention. Knuckles waved back with a smile of his own, and even Omega gave a half-hearted wave of his claws. Taking Shadow's arm, Rouge lifted her ally up and flew them both onto the chopper. Once they were securely on, the hatch was closed and the chopper began to depart.
"Rouge! Glad to see you're okay. Both of you!" Knuckles said with a grin, and pulled Rouge into a firm hug. Taken off guard by his sudden embrace, the ivory bat chuckled and hugged him back.
"Miss me that badly, Red?" Rouge asked with a wink, and planted a kiss on Knuckles' lips, which he returned.
Shadow sharply turned his gaze away from the two of them, a hardened frown back on his face. Omega glanced over at his hedgehog ally, noticing the reaction. As well as he knew Shadow, he hadn't seen that exact reaction before. He made a note to study his ally around Knuckles and Rouge as much as possible.
"Shadow. It is good to see you," Omega told him. "Observation: your vitals indicate you are in good health."
"Omega," Shadow greeted, giving him a nod of acknowledgement.
"Shadow, come on! You haven't seen Omega since the war with Infinite, give him a little more than that!" Rouge insisted half-playfully. Shadow sighed.
"It's good to see you too, Omega. Truthfully," he added after a moment. A satisfied smile on her face, Rouge put her hands on her hips and gave Knuckles a look. After a moment, the crimson echidna took her hint and cleared his throat.
"Shadow! Been a while man. Thanks for looking out for Rouge during the storm last night!" Knuckles said as pleasantly as he could. "We heard it was really bad."
"Hmph. You should know she can take care of herself," Shadow muttered, eyes narrowing as he looked away. Rouge scowled over at the angsty hedgehog.
"Come on Shadow, what's gotten into you?!" she snapped. "We're finally leaving this frozen wasteland, you can at least try to cheer up a little!"
"It's a little hard to 'cheer up' when there's an impending Black Arms invasion for us to avert," he replied sarcastically.
Both Knuckles and Rouge's eyes widened simultaneously, with Omega glancing between their expressions.
"The Black Arms?!" Knuckles asked. "They're back? They're coming to Earth? How? When?!"
"You don't know? It's the whole reason G.U.N. wants me to come in," Shadow scoffed. Worriedly, Rouge met Knuckles' bewildered face.
"What…?! Did you know the Black Arms were about to attack?!" the echidna asked.
"W… well… yes, G.U.N. told me not to tell anyone!" Rouge said quickly. She shot a glare over at Shadow. "It was supposed to be confidential so nobody would panic. The whole mission is to destroy them before they can even get close enough to attack the Earth!"
"Why me though, huh?! I could've helped G.U.N. too! I could've helped you!" Knuckles said, his whole body tensed in frustration. "Why can't you ever tell me what's going on with them?!"
"Heh. Perhaps you're just not as vital to saving the world as your inflated ego led you to believe," Shadow shot back. Knuckles shot him purple daggers and his teeth clenched.
"Say that again!" he shouted. "Say it again, and we'll see how 'Ultimate' you are when I'm knocking you out of this chopper!" His fists went up in a fighting position.
"You'd die before you ever landed a blow!" the dark hedgehog retorted, his body beginning to crackle dangerously with red Chaos Energy.
"SHADOW! KNUCKLES! GET YOUR SHIT TOGETHER!" Rouge screamed at them. Startled, the two dropped their stances and looked over at the furious bat.
"Shadow! Knuckles was just trying to be nice! I don't know why you're such a crabby ass right now, but it stops now! Apologize right now!" she snapped, glaring at Shadow as she aggressively pointed at Knuckles.
"S-Sorry…" the dark hedgehog muttered, eyes boring into the floor of the helicopter.
"And Knuckles! I'm sorry I couldn't tell you! Believe me, I wanted to, but we don't need to be fighting each other right now!" she told him pointedly. "If you want to be angry, be angry at me and G.U.N.! We can talk about that later, okay?!"
"Rouge is correct; save your aggression for the Black Arms," Omega tried to add helpfully.
"Fine…" Knuckles resigned with a sigh. "I just don't like being kept in the dark… again."
"You and me both!" Rouge groaned. "But now you know, okay? Maybe G.U.N. will let you pitch in once we get back!"
"Yeah…" the echidna took a seat. Rouge looked between him and Shadow, who was sullenly fuming in the corner. Omega and her shared a look, and she threw her hands up in exasperation.
Since Knuckles was in the know now, Rouge had the pilots just fly them all back to G.U.N. Headquarters. She was probably in hot water for leaking the impending invasion, but if it was just Knuckles, she could probably talk her way out of it. Besides, it was technically Shadow's fault for telling her boyfriend about the Black Arms. She was tempted to call him out on it, but she supposed she hadn't really mentioned anything about it being confidential to him. The rest of the helicopter ride was uncomfortably quiet, with nobody attempting to break the tension.
Rough heaved another heavy sigh as she sat down next to Knuckles. This wasn't how she'd wanted Team Dark's reunion to go.
'Well, at least being with Knuckles again should keep my mind off of Shadow…' she thought as she looked over at her echidna boyfriend. The thoughts she'd had that morning still haunted her; the white bat had no intention of being disloyal to Knuckles in their relationship. They had a good thing going, and she didn't want to spoil it. That angsty hedgehog was an ass, he'd just proven that. Not relationship material, right?
So why had being so close to Shadow gotten her so heated, so flustered? Why was there a guilty part of her that wanted to feel it again?
Rouge laid her head on Knuckles' shoulder and closed her eyes. Despite still being upset at being left out of the loop, he relented and put an arm around her. Feeling a wave of comfort, Rouge sighed and was able to banish her mind of thoughts about Shadow. For now at least.
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Author's:
Note:
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So glad to have this chapter done! I'd been wanting to write the warming up scene for a long time! Not very unique, I know. but it has a Chaotic touch, pun intended. Mostly for Shadouge fanservice but also to make them realize their feelings might go deeper than friendship.
Of course, Rouge and Knuckles still have a solid relationship, and now tensions are forming between Shadow and Knuckles. Ooh, drama! lol, hope you enjoy!