Chapter Text
“Query.”
Rouge the Bat sighed. Omega, always with the questions… “Go ahead, Omega,” she said, refraining from asking him to ‘shoot’. Made that mistake once- there was still burns on the nightclub walls. Team Dark was in their shared apartment, Shadow cooking them all dinner.
Rouge and Omega, for many reasons, were only allowed to sit at the kitchen barstools and not further while Mr. Ultimate-Lifeform-and-also-apparently-Master-Chef was in the kitchen. Rouge would call him an ass, but, well… his dinners were always pretty good.
Omega took time, something the Team now understood to mean he was formulating the best reply given situational context and learned idiosyncrasies of his teammates. Considering his words, then. Finally, he said, in his unchanging monotone, “Bat, you have interests in many different males as mates, true?”
Rouge nearly spat her wine, and at the stove, Shadow snickered.
Composing herself while the Ultimate Betrayer shook with the force of a contained laughing fit (she wondered when it would be normal, seeing Shadow laugh like that? So at ease, since his final confrontation with Doom and letting Maria go, at last), Rouge replied, “Omega that’s- that’s not a polite question…”
“So it is false, then? I have miscalculated.”
Shadow, composed enough to get back to stirring the stew he’d been simmering, smirked again. “He’s calculated, Rouge,” the hedgehog said, arching a brow and sending his smirk the bat’s way.
Rouge made a face at him and he want to back to cooking. Rouge sighed. “Ah, no, Omega, I, I suppose it is true, I have a… broad ‘type’.”
“Of potential mates?”
Rouge’s face burned. “No-! Oh, fine, yes, Omega, whatever you’d like to call it. What’s the point of this?”
Omega whirred, considering again. “Despite a broad preference set, you have never expressed interest in Shadow. True? And if true, my query is why?”
Rouge’s turn to grin, then. Shadow’s ear pinned uncomfortably and his nose curled. “Move on from this topic, please,” he droned.
“No, no no no, you were all cackles and grins when I was the one squirming, your turn, broody!” Rouge said, nearly standing in her seat and pointing at the hybrid. He only glowered at her.
Rouge sat back down and settled herself, smoothing the oversized t-shirt and soft shorts she had changed into for the evening. “Shadow… doesn’t really fall into my ‘preferences’, Omega. No matter how broad they may be.”
“Thank Chaos…,” Shadow muttered. Rouge ignored him.
Omega whirred again. “He is male, organic, and breathing?”
“Omega-!” Rouge shouted, before taking a breath and composing herself, again. “Shadow is… like a brother, to me. So, that’s trumps any… preferences.”
Omega continued staring at her, something he knew made her uncomfortable, which would make her keep talking to fill the silence. Damn him.
“Uh… and I mean, well, maybe I’m not Shadow’s preference, either, you know? That’s important, too,” the bat continued.
“I understand,” Omega toned. “Shadow- query.”
The hybrid threw up a hand as though to block the question. “Oh no-“
“Answer his question, spiky!” Rouge admonished. “You know he won’t drop it until you do.”
Shadow threw his head back and groaned, then looked back to the robot to glare. “Fine. Go ahead, Omega.”
Omega whirred, and Rouge saw a light behind his eyes that usually indicated he was administering a threat level analysis. At least he knew to check. Deciding the danger, for now, was minimal, the robot continued, “What are you preferences?”
“Telenovelas over action movies, classic literature over modern. Enough?”
Rouge snorted, and Omega whirred as he worked to process the information and assess why the hell that answer was so non-conforming to the dataset he anticipated. “Apologies,” he said at length, “I was misunderstood. What are you preferences in mates?”
Shadow growled low in his throat and turned back to the stove. His tail, now long and ending in a bladed spear ever since he had unleashed his Black Arms genetics, lashed quietly behind his legs. “End query,” he said darkly, tufted ears pinned.
“But my data is incomplete-“
“End. Query.”
Omega whirred defiantly. “Hedgehog-“
“It’s alright, Omega. You can’t force people to complete your data,” Rouge soothed. She looked to Shadow, who was still turned away. “But I am curious, now, Shadow. Maybe it’s down to the Black Arms why you don’t seem to have any attraction to anyone, yet? You certainly have plenty of option, women love a bad boy, after all.”
Shadow was quiet a moment longer, still tense. “…It’s not the Black Arms DNA.” He was still stirring, slowly. Consider his own words, then.
Omega watched his teammates with interest. Rouge was good at getting Shadow talking, even after the hybrid had shut down all others. He wondered how she did that. A query for later, he supposed, and flagged the thought.
“Then…?” Rouge led, arms folded on the counter and leaning forward. “Say the word, baby, and I can have whoever or whatever you want waiting in your bed for you~” She was grinning toothily, enjoying the gentle ribbing. Sometimes it was nice to make the Ultimate Lifeform uncomfortable, and he trusted her enough to let it happen.
Shadow growled again, finally looking back over his shoulder. His ears were pinned and his brow was furrowed darkly in a scowl. “No thank you,” he said. So polite, even in murderous rage. He rolled his eyes and turned back to the stew. “… I don’t know my preference, anyway.”
Omega tilted some in his seat. Ah, back to his query, then? “Define?”
“Define not knowing?” Shadow scoffed, still scowling. “I don’t- I’ve never felt a need for it.”
Omega whirred again, slowly. “Then… new query,” he began. “What aren’t your preferences?”
Rouge grinned and patted the robot’s shoulder. “Good job, Omega,” she praised quietly.
Shadow took the stew off the heat and turned off the burners. He turned to lean against the far counter, arms crossed over his chest, tail flicking in frustration by his legs. He did, at least, seem to be taking Omega’s question seriously enough- after all, it was in the name of finishing a dataset, something Omega felt a strong compulsion to do, and he didn’t mean harm by asking.
He thought of Rouge’s assertions, earlier. ‘Plenty of options… Women love a bad boy.’ The thought was almost chilling, and he wrinkled his nose. Well, there, something he could give the robot for his data. “… I have never felt an attraction to someone of the opposite sex.”
Rouge’s ears perked. “Implying you have felt attraction, before? To someone… of the same sex?”
“Implying what part of I don’t know don’t you understand?” the hybrid growled.
Ah. Rouge hummed and nodded. “Oh, I see. I get it, now- Omega, Shadow’s not going to be able to finish that dataset for you just yet.”
A whir. Perhaps of disappointment. “I will continue it later, then.” The robot turned and walked off towards the room which held his power station, likely to ‘sleep’.
Rouge watched him go until the door closed, then looked back to Shadow. “I should’ve known,” she began, “Growing up on the space station and then all the chaos that’s happened since you woke up? You haven’t had time to experience anything, yet.”
“I don’t like how you said experience, please never say it again?”
Rouge snorted. “Hun, I mean any experiences. Beyond fighting. You found out you like reading, and old music, and you’re a good cook- important knowledge to have about yourself. But there’s gaps to fill in.”
Shadow looked affronted. “My memory has been perfectly returned to me, thank you, since after-“
Rouge sighed. “I know, I know- that’s not what I meant.”
Shadow calmed, glad to have the question of his memories settled.
“Shadow…,” Rouge began carefully, ears back. “Before when you mentioned never feeling an attraction to women and that you don’t know if you’ve felt it for anyone else, what did you mean? What makes you unsure?”
The hybrid swallowed thickly and turned his head, arms still crossed tightly, like he was protecting himself. “…Feelings I don’t have names for,” he muttered at length. “They aren’t… good. Or bad. They’re more annoying than anything.”
“Can you describe them?” Rouge pressed gently.
Shadow looked back to her. “Admiration, but deeper,” he said, words slow and careful. “Anticipation. Feeling on edge. Frustration.” Definitions were easy, for him. Words could be easily recited- all these were words that did not fit, but fell close. He had tortured himself over them all at length, finding every one coming up short.
The bat blinked, and her smile softened further. “That’s more than ‘preferences’, Shadow. You’re not gonna like it, but, it kind of sounds like your attracted to someone in particular.”
Shadow snorted and turned to get bowls for the stew. “Ridiculous. Fantasy.”
“What?” Rouge asked, brow furrowed. She flew over the counter and lighted beside the hybrid as he dipped bowls for the both of them. “That you might like someone?”
Shadow glared as he shoved her bowl towards her. “Yes. Now go eat your dinner.” He took up his own and moved to the kitchen counter.
Rouge moved back to join him. “Fine,” she sighed. “We can drop it.”
“Thank you.”
The two ate beside each other in silence for awhile. At length, Rouge said quietly, “But… think about what I said, would you? Shame to let rare feelings like that slip you by.”
Shadow blew soft but didn’t deny her request. He imagined now he wouldn’t have a choice. They finished their stew and worked to put away leftovers, remaining the rest of the night in companionable quiet.
—- —- —- —- —-
Shadow lay in bed that night, on his back staring up at the ceiling. Sleep was hard won every night, but now it eluded him completely.
In his mind, if he closed his eyes for a moment, he could see it- flashes of brilliant blue streaking past his line of sight, too fast even for his eyes to keep up with. Not at a standstill, that was. But in motion?
The blue took shape, and it was so much more. Emerald green eyes joined the form, free and bright, and delicate peach breaking up blue fur. An easy smile thrown over a shoulder, ears back against the rush of air as they teased the edge of the sound barrier. “Shads! Another race, then?”
He should hate that name- he did hate that name. But somehow, from that mouth and in that voice, it sent a frustrating shiver down his spine. Shadow opened his eyes and turned over on his side fitfully, ears pinned. He glared at his clock, 2:00 AM blinking back at him, mocking him.
He sighed and closed his eyes, endeavoring to turn off his mind and the dangerous, confusing thoughts that lingered there.
“Damn blue hedgehog…,” he muttered softly in his sheets. “What the hell are you doing to me?”