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Rouge was beyond exhausted.
The last 48 hours had been hell. Team Dark’s simple recon mission on an anti-restoration group had gone completely tits up in a spectacular way. All of Team Dark to spy on a little group of rebels? Over kill right? She had been foolish to think G.U.N. was sending a little bit of easy work their way as a nice gesture. A ‘Wow you are an such effective team! Here’s a painless, uncomplicated one as a treat!’
As if G.U.N. could ever be that nice.
Camping in the frozen tundra of some Gaia forsaken mountain, trying to keep her wings from freezing and Omega from shooting Shadow, who seemed to be intent on winding up the heavily armed robot they called a team mate in between complaining about totally not missing his boyfriend.
Safe to say she was already on edge and tired when everything blew up in their faces.
Quite literally for Shadow.
By sheer dumb luck a scout stumbled upon their little camp, alerting the base before Shadow knocked him out with a swift kick to the head. Wasting no time Omega and Shadow, the agents of destruction, decided to throw caution to the wind and storm the apparently ‘unprotected’ base in a two man siege. That was when gun fire and missiles started. She had hidden behind Omega for the most of it, trying to contact HQ to get extraction or back up (because of course Shadow wasn't packing a chaos emerald on a short reccy). As much as Omega was in his element taking down the now exposed turrets, Rouge had no interest in being used for target practice.
Shadow, ever the lone wolf, had been gliding around the base on his air shoes taking down any brave souls that dare challenge the Ultimate Lifeform. He was playing hard and fast with dodging explosions and bullets, setting Rouge’s teeth on edge. Sure, he might be able to blip short distances and heal from pretty much anything but it didn’t make watching him act so recklessly any easier. She was pretty sure she had heard Shadow lecture Sonic on reckless behaviour in battle, such a hypocrite. Both of them were as bad as each other.
She hadn’t seen it happen, she had been busy looking down at her communicator at an acknowledgement from G.U.N. when she heard and felt the explosion. Omega told her later in the transport back that Shadow had caught a missile, clearly expecting to return to sender when the thing blew up as he was aiming it. Peaking round Omega she saw Shadow facedown in the muddy snow, bits of viscera and blood decorating the decimated ground. That wasn’t normal, she’d seen Shadow shrug off large explosions with barely any damage.
After that things got blurry, Omega finished the job, taking out what was left of the weaponry and the group surrendered. They knew reinforcements were incoming and Shadow and Omega had taken down any defences they had. She hovered near Shadow, willing him to get up or at least move. He had taken bigger blows and had been just fine, he’s fine. He didn’t move until the evac showed up and a medic started poking him.
Rouge nearly threw up when Shadow finally rolled over. The whole of the right side of his face was a mess of bone and torn flesh, his eyeball missing along with some teeth and most of his right arm. He batted away the medic as she tried to keep him down, the idiot not wanting to wait around for a stretcher. His vocal cords must have taken a beating because he couldn’t manage more than gargles and gasps. The poor medic was not used to dealing with someone who could ‘walk off’ an explosion to the face.
It took some convincing but she got Shadow to agree to having his wounds cleaned of shrapnel and dirt while they flew back to Station Square, reasoning he would heal faster if his body didn’t have to contend with foreign bodies and he didn’t have the eyesight right now to do it himself.
This was when Rouge made a critical mistake that led to her current situation. She had called Sonic. It felt the right thing to do, why wouldn’t she call someone’s partner to inform them their loved one was hurt but being treated. The blue hedgehog hadn’t seemed all too worried over the phone, took it in calmly and said he would meet them at the apartment with the chaos emerald left in his care and she found herself feeling relieved that the speedster was taking it all in his normal chilled stride.
Except Sonic was a liar .
He had somehow been on the tarmac their transport landed on, how he had gotten past security she would have to ask him. The idiot was on Shadow before they could step off the ramp, fretting at the bandages covering Shadow’s wounds and insisting on carrying Shadow, which Shadow surprisingly didn’t argue over.
After a quick debrief and farewell to Omega who was staying for repairs, the trio departed for home and they all promptly got clean and went to their respective bedrooms, everyone needed rest. Rouge had been so generous by conceding the luxurious double bath in the main bathroom and opted to use her small on-suite shower, because she was just that nice.
Rouge had been snuggled up in her cushy bed, nearly asleep after a lovely, long shower. She had been blissfully out of it until her sensitive ears picked up on a loud rasping noise, like someone was sawing wood and it sounded like Shadow. The shouting started not long after she had covered her ears with a pillow.
Oh this was not happening!
She threw back her covers and slipped into her lacey robe. These boys needed to learn to shut up when people were trying to sleep! She didn’t bother knocking, they could be balls deep in each other and she wouldn’t have cared. Consequences must be had! The door swung open with a bang and she yelled at the startled hedgehogs.
“Will you two shut up!”
0o0o0o0
Earlier
Sonic couldn’t keep his gut from rolling when he saw Shadow walking off the transport. He had tried really hard to wait in Team Dark’s apartment like he told Rouge, but he couldn’t ease the anxiety and worry eating at him. So naturally he broke into a secure government facility and waited for them there. His heartbeat rivalled his top speed when the stupid grey box with wings finally appeared in the sky.
The black and red hedgehog looked terrible, a mix of singed quills and blood stained fur. Thick layers of gauze covered the face he loved to kiss and a tourniquet tight around what remained of an arm. He had to keep reminding himself that Shadow was capable of regrowing his limbs, then had to remind himself that now was not the time to make jokes about Shadow being related to a lizard. That was still a bit of a sensitive subject and now really wasn’t the time to poke Shadow. Call it personal growth but he was starting to learn to hold his tongue after the party incident.
All Sonic wanted was to get Shadow back home and take care of him. A safe environment he could heal and recuperate. This was the worst he had ever seen the hybrid and it was taking a lot to control the urge to steal him away from the pointless meetings. If it had been anyone else severely injured the Commander would not have kept them on base to answer stupid questions. Towers seemed to treat Shadow like one of the robots that they used as cannon fodder. Shadow didn’t seem to care about his unfair treatment no matter how much Sonic tried to talk to him about it.
Stupid, stubborn Ultimate Lifeform.
Thankfully G.U.N. sent them home in a swanky government vehicle, meaning Sonic didn’t have to attempt running home while trying not to jostle a very pissed off Shadow in his arms. Shadow still couldn’t talk, vocal cords taking their time knitting back together, Shadow’s natural chaos levels must be running low after the fight. Sonic could feel the weight of the chaos emerald secreted away in his quills. It had been entrusted to him before the agents had left the other day. Shadow hadn't wanted it in reach of G.U.N. or on his mission in case the powerful gem popped up on any radars the rebels may have had, which probably explained why Shadow was so displeased to see him. Sonic knew Shadow needed the emerald badly, the extra chaos energy would speed up healing exponentially. Soon they will be out of the car and Shadow can get what he needed.
Club Rouge took up the bottom two floors of a four story building near the heart of Station Square, a prime spot for city workers to come and unwind. The Team Dark apartment spanned the top floor, a floor of admin and storage below acting as a buffer from the thrumming music and inebriated clientele. Shortly after buying the building Rouge had had a service elevator fitted so Omega could get up and down without a fuss. Right now, said elevator was a gift from Gaia to the trio. Rouge made quick work of getting them inside the living quarters, holding the front door open for Sonic to carry Shadow through. There was something so cute about seeing Shadow cradled in Blue’s arms.
“Ok darlings, you can use the big bathroom to get cleaned up, Mr Grumpy needs the bath more than I do.” The bat said, stretching out sore wings as she headed to her rooms, not waiting for the hedgehogs to respond. Guess that was that then. Sonic’s attention was pulled from Rouge’s closed door by an annoyed tapping on his shoulder.
Right, he was still holding onto Shads. Even with one eye and half a face Shadow still managed to scowl. Sonic let Shadow’s feet go and they hybrid forced his wobbly legs to comply. Once again Shadow nudged Sonic, holding out a hand expectantly.
“Sorry Shads,” Sonic said quickly, reaching into his quills to extract the wanted gem. He dropped the green emerald into the waiting hand and Shadow’s whole body seemed to relax once contact was made and the gem stashed away. Clearly the energy was soothing, Sonic dreaded to think how bad the pain must be. Shadow gestured to the bathroom, the message was very clear.
“I want to get clean”
Without a word, Sonic held out an arm and helped his injured boyfriend towards the large, overly luxurious bathroom Rouge had spent a small fortune on. Seriously, who puts a chandelier and a TV in a bathroom? The main attraction of the room was the enormous, partially sunken bath with little cushions for occupants to rest their heads while they soaked. Honestly the thing was more of a hot tub than a bath. Sonic set Shadow down on the edge and made quick work of filling the tub with warm water and bath salts. This wasn’t the first time they had shared this bath.
Shadow worked off his filthy air shoes and pulled off his remaining glove with the small bit of his mouth not covered up. He wandered to the open shower and did his best to rinse off the debris with the hand held shower head, it wasn’t perfect but it would do. He pulled off the now redundant tourniquet, his blood vessels had closed up by now, the signs of new growth already evident. The water was barely halfway up when he slipped into the bath, not wanting to wait any longer. His coat felt gritty and matted.
Sonic quickly kicked off his shoes and socks, throwing off his gloves as he stepped into the tub next to Shadow, shuffling through the array of bottles and products lining the shelving next to the, looking for the ones Shadow preferred. Sonic was doing his best to stay quiet and not aggravate the injured hedgehog but every now and then a stray word or noise would slip out, luckily Shadow didn’t seem to mind or was too tired to care, head laid back against the cushion, stump resting along the edge to keep it out of the water.
“I’m going to get you soaped up, you good with that?” Sonic asked after a bit of time, Shadow gave a gentle nod and let his partner get to work rubbing shampoo and then conditioner into dirty fur. Sonic worked quickly, exercising god level self control, especially when running his fingers through Shadow’s fluffy white chest and over toned thighs. He only spoke to get Shadow to turn or move here and there despite the plethora of questions buzzing in his head. Shadow was feeling a lot better.
Sonic hesitated when all that was left was Shadow’s head and arm, he didn’t want to get soap in any of Shadow’s wounds. The stub of the arm was showing signs of healthy granulation, he really didn’t want to set the process back. Shadow opened his mouth, a breathy rasp came out, words barely intelligible.
“What was that?” Shadow made a face at the question and huffed, frustrated with himself. After a moment he tried again.
“Just… get on… with it.” Every word was fought for. Speech was definitely still painful. Shadow turned his back to Sonic and leant his head back, giving Sonic a way to run water through his quills without risking the dressings. Quills clean and rinsed, Shadow returned to his reclined position, relieved his coat didn’t feel like a child’s sandpit anymore, and let his eye close. Sonic noticed the edges of the tape on Shadow’s face had lifted in the heated moisture of the bath, it was probably time to redo those dressings anyway.
Shadow jumped when he felt a hand on his face, quickly seizing the offending appendage in a tight grip. It took him a moment to figure out what Sonic was playing at.
“Hedgehog… leave it,” He took a deep breath, "Unless you want… to see into my skull,” His words were already sounding better, getting above a breathy whisper. Sonic took his hand back with a nod and jumped out the bath, grabbing some towels that lived on the racking by the shower.
“Ok Shads, let’s get you dry and in bed then.”
That sounded divine.
0o0o0o0
Sonic was frustrated.
Shadow had passed out the second his head hit the pillow, Sonic didn’t mind that, the more Shads rested, the quicker he would heal. It wasn’t a massive difference but it would help. Shadow probably had a bad week ahead of him, growing a new arm and face could put a damper on any situation.
He didn’t mind looking after Shadow either, in fact he enjoyed helping his boyfriend bathe and seeing some of the tension leave his body. He didn’t even mind holding back the torrent of words he desperately wanted to say at the time. It was all to make Shadow more comfortable and that was always worth it.
No, none of that was the current source of Sonic’s current frustration.
Sonic can’t sleep.
He would blame the events of the day, stress and anxiety had a way of doing that to a person, except, that had never stopped Sonic from sleeping. Sonic was gifted in the sleeping department. He could fall asleep almost anywhere no matter what world ending events were happening. He had to be well rested if he wanted to be top of his game. The source of Sonic’s bad night was laying in front of him, snoring away like a chainsaw had been shoved in his throat.
And it kept. Getting. Louder.
Again, Sonic couldn’t really blame Shadow for this, his airways must be doing some weird shit to come back together, it’s not like Shadow was deliberately snoring to keep him awake.
As much as Sonic wanted to push Shadow out the bed he refrained. They made a promise to each other to start handling situations without violence after Amy’s party a few weeks back. So far they had both been good, not jumping any guns or lashing out. It hasn't been easy but in the long run it will mean a stronger relationship. They still raced and sparred though, no way they were stopping that.
Sonic rolled onto his back and pulled one of Shadow’s many pillows over his ears. The hedgehog instincts told him to roll up under the duvet with his quills pointing out into the darkness of the room. Normally they would sleep facing each other, some evolutionary throw back to protect their bellies while they slept Sonic figured, he hadn’t put much thought into it. Right now, Shadow was on his back. That probably wasn’t helping the snoring thing.
The snoring was so loud now, there was no way Rouge couldn’t hear it.
This was just going to be it for the night wasn’t it?
He huffed into the pillow that covered his face. Well, nothing better to do than give sleep another try. He closed his eyes and started to think of open fields of flowers that he itched to run through. He could almost feel the wind in his fur, the scent of lavender in the–
THWACK
Sonic shot upright holding his smarting nose, the stinging made his eyes water. To his side Shadow was also sitting up, frowny half face aimed right at him.
“What the fuck Shadow!” Sonic winced at how loud that came out, if Rouge wasn’t awake before she definitely was now. Had Shadow seriously just hit him?
“You woke me up with your snoring faker!” Shadow shot back just as loud, clearly his voice had repaired itself enough to match Sonic’s outcry. Sonic’s jaw dropped.
This was not on! He had tried so hard not to provoke Shadow this whole time, worked hard to restrain his dumb comments (which are always funny) and wandering hands. Only for this bitch to wake himself up and instantly blame Sonic?!
“That was YOU, idiot!” Sonic threw the pillow in his lap at the other hedgehog’s chest. Even pissed off Sonic wasn’t going to deck Shadow in the face with it, because he’s nice like that. Unlike Shadow. “What happened to our no lashing out rule Shads!”
Shadow’s face pinched, partly hidden scowl still obvious. He threw the pillow back.
“I don’t snore, I’m the–”
“Don’t you dare pull the ‘Ultimate Lifeform’ Card!”
“Don’t you dare wake me up with your loud mouth!”
“You were the one Snoring!”
“Will you two shut up!”
They both froze, Shadow’s only hand was pushing away Sonic’s face and Sonic was pinning Shadow down onto the bed by his chest, they hadn’t even noticed themselves getting into such a position. They both slowly looked at Shadow’s wide open bedroom door.
Rouge stood silhouetted in the doorway like an avenging angel, the lamp in the hallway backlighting her fanned out wings and clenched fists.
Uh oh.
“Living room, NOW!” She barked.
Great, now they were in trouble.
0o0o0o0
Shadow sat in his arm chair wishing he could cross his arms. It was his go to move for appearing like he didn’t care, even when he really did care, like now for example.
He couldn’t snuff out the spark of guilt in his chest. Rouge was pacing back and forth in front of him and Sonic, lecturing them on room mate etiquette. He did feel bad for waking her up, she had every right to be pissed off after everything he’d put her through the last couple days. From the looks of Sonic’s droopy ears and tight tucked tail he felt the same. It was stupid, and Shadow had no excuses for how loud he got, couldn’t even blame the explosion for deafening him, his ears had healed before stepping on the transport.
He looked at his bare hand, Rouge gave them no chance to grab gloves or socks, most likely not occurring to her in the moment because they were used to not wearing them within the walls of their own home. Sonic was another story, he had squeaked upon realising he was completely naked in front of someone who was not Shadow and had sat on the plush sofa with his feet tucked under him, hands hidden between his legs. It didn’t help the blue hedgehog’s embarrassment that Rouge had also kept her hands bare, not being one to care about such things. Mobian modesty was weird.
“Shadow!” She snapped, hand on her hip, “Are you even listening to me?!”
He sighed and dipped his head in silent confirmation. She seemed happy with that and carried on. Shadow let his gaze drift back to Sonic, another spark of guilt to dance with the one he already harboured, threatening to set him alight. He had been a dick.
“I have been more than accommodating and supportive,” Rouge’s words broke through the haze, “I made sure you got alone time when things were still under wraps, I talked to both of you during your ridiculous ‘casual’ phase! Chaos! I even had a hand in you two getting together!” She resumed her pacing. “So I expect a little bit of respect in return!” She finally flopped onto the sofa next to Sonic, an arm elegantly draped over her eyes.
Sonic finally made eye contact with him, flicking green eyes to the exhausted bat. Shadow shrugged, not sure what the blue idiot was trying to say. Sonic rolled his eyes and gestured with his head this time, mouthing words.
Say something!
Why was this falling on him?
“I’m sorry.” It was concise and to the point, Rouge would understand. Sonic huffed, obviously not a good enough apology for the Hero.
“Seriously Rouge, you have been the best ally we could ever have wished for,” Sonic started, fighting the urge to put a hand on the bat’s shoulder. “We are so sorry, we should have talked it out, not immediately jump to being at each other's throats.” Rouge lowered her arm and gave Sonic a warm smile, reaching to pull a peach hand from its hiding spot. Sonic felt his muzzle warm up slightly as she held it but matched her energy, leaning slightly towards her with a smile of his own.
“You are too sweet sometimes Blue,” a smirk spread across her features, “Maybe I’ll have to steal you away from the resident grump.” She could feel Shadow’s glare burning into her. Strangely, the sight of her holding his partner’s hand bothered him way more than her insinuation she could seduce said partner away from him.
“Keep your hands to yourself, thief.” Shadow hissed, she let go and held her hands up in surrender. Interestingly, Sonic didn’t hide the freed appendage, instead relaxing his posture and stretching out. It didn't take much for Sonic to feel at ease naked then. Shadow briefly wondered if Sonic’s friends had seen him like this.
“Fine, keep the blue boy all to yourself! At least tell me why you felt the need to argue in the middle of the night?” She asked her team mate. Shadow looked away and grumbled.
“The idiot woke me up with his snoring.”
Sonic’s whole body seemed to fluff up in bottled rage.
“You hit me in the face because YOU woke YOURSELF up!” He tried to keep the volume down. Rouge pinched the bridge of her nose. Shadow opened his mouth to retort but she cut him off.
“Shadow, hun, you need to apologise to Blue right now.” She fixed him with a hard stare. This didn’t deter him from arguing back.
“I have to apologise?!” He exclaimed, pointing a finger at the blue menace. “He’s the one that–”
“I’m telling you it wasn’t–”
“ENOUGH.” Rouge shouted. Thank Gaia they didn’t have neighbours to worry about. “Shadow you were the one snoring, I heard you with my own ears. He’s been nothing but attentive to you. Apologise. Now.”
Shadow sat deeper into his armchair incensed. He didn’t know what was worse, the fact she was scolding him like a child or the fact he had smacked Sonic for something that was his own fault. The small bit of fight he’d been holding onto slipped away, leaving him far more tired than he realised. He got up and headed to his bedroom, he didn't need this right now, he needed sleep and chaos energy.
And maybe he needed his stupid blue hedgehog.
“Are you coming?” He said over his shoulder. Sonic jumped up happily, running the short distance to Shadow’s side. Shadow pulled Sonic forward and carefully leant their foreheads together. They had discovered something about the action helped Shadow be a bit more open.
“I’m sorry I broke our rule, I’m trying to be better.” He whispered, he didn’t have to see Sonic’s face to know the beaming smile he wore.
“Come on Shads,” Sonic picked up Shadow’s hand and led him the last few feet to the bedroom. Before they could enter, Rouge called out.
“Hands to yourselves boys! Would hate for Shadow’s recovery to be set back because of a little fun!” She winked at the hedgehogs, laughing when they slammed the bedroom door shut.
Time for bed, maybe she should invest in some ear muffs for future use.