*Shadow's POV *
I had stayed up talking with Rouge the night before. What was supposed to be a night of catching up with paperwork turned out to be a night where Rouge continued to scold me. She had noticed me avoiding the blue Hedgehog too much other than when I needed him for the mission, so she ended up making me tell her why.

"Why don't you give him a chance?" Rouge playfully bumped my shoulder. "I mean, unless you see something wrong with dating a guy?"

"No. I dont. And I won't." I rolled my eyes with a low irritated growl.

"Come on. I know right now the idea of dating someone may sound repulsive to you, especially with Blue, but do you really want to look back at this one day and wonder, "What if?" Rouge pushed. "I don't know, maybe you will actually realize you may like him after all. You won't know until you put yourself out there."

"I don't like him, and I don't have time for such a thing." I stood up from my desk, we were currently in my home office.

"Wouldn't Maria want you to put yourself out there? Try to find something or someone who will make you happy?" My ear twitched. Rouge knew what she was doing by bringing up Maria into the conversation. "She would like to see you happy. Giving Sonic a chance might just do that."

I growled in annoyance and sat back down at my desk, and rubbed my face, clearly wanting this to end. "I hate you."

"I love you too, Hun. So will you give him a chance?" She looked at her glove, dusting off some dirt, then looked back up at me.

"What's the point? I don't like him that way, Bat." I crossed my arms and rested back on my chair.

"Why dont I talk to Blue for you? I can tell him you'd like to date him and see if things take off but that you don't think you like him that way. I dont want you to lie to poor Blue either. He should know what's going on instead of hurting his feelings." Rouge suggested. I sighed and thought about it for a bit. If I said no, Rouge would never leave me alone about it, so I gave in and nodded.

"Can you leave now? I've got work to do." I waved her off as I looked back down at the papers that covered 90% of my desk.

"Fine. I'll see you in the morning then. We are going to talk to him at his house." She said and flew off through my window.

*Sonic's POV *
Being around Shadow wasn't so bad even after he rejected me. Working with him was fun and all, but I still just wanted to figure out who had paid G.U.N. to figure out my identity and why they needed to out me so bad.

"You went through the whole castle, and you found nothing?" Rouge said as she sat on the edge of the table, her palm resting on the table and her legs crossed as she looked at us. Shadow was sitting beside me as he ate some coffee beans, and I went over the folder that had our mission stated with info on my family.

"Did we really have to meet this early? It's 7 am." I yawned and put the folder down.

"Shadow and I need to head to G.U.N. the commander wants results, we need something now, or we will never hear the end of it." Rouge explained. I knew the commander was always overworking Shadow, and he expected nothing but the best from him, so I knew I was causing Shadow pain by doing this, but my family came first at the moment.

"Right. I'm sorry I haven't come up with anything either." I mumbled. I looked at Shadow and then grabbed the coffee bag from him, earning a glare. "I'm making Rouge and I some coffee. I'll give these back in a bit." I couldn't help but laugh at his reaction.

"Blue. I actually need to talk to you." Rouge said, so I looked at her as I started grinding some coffee beans to make coffee. I walked back to Shadow and gave him back the bag. I could see he was suddenly very tense.

"Sure. What is it?" I asked, confused and placed the grounded coffee in the coffee filter, then poured the water in the machine and turned it on. As I grabbed the two mugs, Rouge started talking.

"Shadow actually explained to me what's going on between the two of you." She started.

"What's going on between the two of us?" I asked again, confused, not really understanding what she was talking about. I looked at Shadow. "Is there something going on between the two of us I am not aware of?" I had to admit, I could be pretty clueless sometimes.

"What I meant was that Shadow told me you like him." I nearly dropped the mugs when she said that, I wasn't expecting it. My head snapped back to look at her.

"I uh." I stuttered, unsure of what to even say.

"You know Shadow is new to stuff like this. He won't know if he has feelings for someone even if it slapped him in the face." Rouge continued, so I decided to stay quiet. "He says he doesn't feel anything like that towards you, but I was wondering if you two would date and see where things go? I wanted to ask you myself because I don't want you to go into this with your hopes up. You know how Shadow can be after all." I placed the mugs down on the counter and looked at Shadow then back at Rouge. I couldn't help but feel both flustered and surprised.

I was speechless. "You- You want me to date Shadow to see if he ends up getting feelings for me later?" I asked, and she nodded. Shadow wasn't even looking at me anymore, nor was he eating the coffee beans. He looked even more uncomfortable than when Rouge first started talking. "Is he even okay with that? I mean, Shadow clearly doesn't see me in that way. What's the point?"

"I figured it might help him open up a bit more if he gets experience like this. Even if he doesn't end up having feelings for you, maybe you two can create a friendship out of this. Maybe teach him what a relationship is all about."

"I'm not going to lie, Rouge. This is the craziest thing you have ever come up with." I shook my head, then stayed silent for a while. "I don't know."

"Shadow will make time to be with you, and I'll help him little by little to realize what being in a relationship requires of someone. I know it's weird and maybe a bit mean since you do like him, but maybe it's worth the try?" She shrugged. "I already talked to him, and he agreed to try." My ears perked up at that. 

"I guess..." I stopped then looked at the coffee, which was now ready. "I guess if he's okay with it, I can give it a try, but Rouge, I don't think anything will change." I gave her her mug with coffee as I prepared mine with some cream and sugar, then went to sit back down next to Shadow.

"So it's a yes?" Rouge asked. Both Shadow and I were looking at her as I nodded. She clapped her hands together and then smiled happily. "You two are officially a couple then."

My heart skipped a beat.