#TAKE THIS]

[ghostlyvoidbones]

Sonadow Lovebug AU - Pt. 2

a/n: Guy’s I don’t ship… I don’t ship sona… oh forget it.

summary: In which Shadow doesn't think he's delusional and Rouge is just trying to understand.

contains: Shadow's drug induced delusions, potential ooc (I'm not as familiar with Shadow and Rouge as I am the others, so I hope it came out ok).

wc: 2K

Rouge padded past the open door to Shadow’s room, clad in her cozy afternoon clothes while a coffee mug was raised to her lips in the middle of a sip. Although, after casting a brief glance inside she jolted to a stop, teeth clinking against the rim from the sudden, jerky motion. Lowering the mug, Rouge took a quiet moment to process exactly what it was she was looking at.

As a general rule, Shadow’s room had always been the most neat and organized out of all the members of Team Dark. His room was the definition of pristine, to the point that Rouge sometimes wondered if the hedgehog had an obsession with cleaning.

Which was why the state of it now was making her brain short circuit a little bit. From where she stood, Shadow’s oh-so-perfect room looked like a tornado ran through it. Twice.

Fabric and clothing items were scattered across the floor in rumpled clumps, coupled with books and the odd decoration here and there. The bed pressed against the far wall was unmade and everything on it was wadded up into a large ball, half falling off the mattress, a pillow already abandoned on the floor. All the furniture was skewed to some degree, an entire stool tipped over and forgotten in the corner.

Shadow himself was in the middle of the mess. Currently he had himself perched up on the top of his dresser, peering over one of the higher shelves drilled into the wall above it. She watched him scan the surface of it before dragging his entire arm across the empty space.

“What are you doing?”

At the sound of her voice, Shadow twisted his head around to look at her, looking her over briefly before turning back around and continuing his inspection of the shelf.

“I’m looking for pictures of Sonic.” Shadow answered promptly, unaware of the way Rouge squinted up at him in mild befuddlement.

“Right… Ok. I’m not sure if I want to know, but I guess I’ll ask. Why are you looking for pictures of Sonic?” Shadow didn’t even look at her when he responded.

“Why else? Don’t you have pictures of the echidna?”

Rouge bristled at the flatly delivered accusation, as if it were an obvious fact that everyone knew. Her shoulders hiked up and she brought the mug back up to her muzzle, partially to hide the blooming blush darkening her fur.

“I don’t have pictures of Knuckles! That would be…” She sent a pointed glare at the ground then shook her head clear of the thought. “Besides, any pictures I have are of people who I have a good relationship with. No offense, but I can’t really see that applying to you and big blue.”

Shadow huffed out a breath and hopped off the dresser. “I don’t know what you’re talking about. Sonic and I are in a very committed relationship.”

“Committed to mindlessly competing, maybe.” She mumbled into her mug before taking a long sip.

“Every romantic partnership has its quirks.” 

Rouge sputtered, coffee spraying from her mouth and staining her shirt. She barely noticed, however, as gaped openly at Shadow. He hadn’t even twitched. Hadn’t even hesitated when he said that. And yes Shadow had a sense of humor, he knew how to crack a joke. But Rouge got the distinct feeling that that wasn’t one.

“Now I know I didn’t hear you wrong.” Large bat ears swiveled forward, as if to emphasize her point. “Shadow, what on Mobius is that supposed to mean???”

Shadow gave her a weird look, lingering on where her spit-take launched coffee over her clothes and, unfortunately, the floor. 

“Competition can be healthy. It keeps things interesting.” Shadow continued,redirecting his attention toward searching his desk that he’d already stripped of all its papers and writing utensils. “Anyway, if you find any pictures of Sonic and I, let me know. Despite being in a relationship, I can’t seem to find any pictures of us together anywhere.”

The more he talked, the less she understood. 

“No- ok- see, that’s the problem.” Rouge swiped her sleeve across her muzzle where a few stray droplets of coffee trickled from the corner of her lips and stepped over to Shadow, putting the mug down beside his searching hands. “Since when have you and Sonic been dating?”

Shadow paused in his movement, glancing over at her with furrowed brows. “A while?”

“Does Sonic know that?”

“He should.”

Rouge searched his face as they went back and forth. Nothing faltered or flinched. As far as she can tell, everything Shadow said, he believed was true. 

“Why are you only telling me this now? Does anyone else know? Am I the only one who didn’t know?” She pressed, leaning into his space. A million thoughts blitz through her head, although one does seem to stand out a bit more than the others. “Actually, how long have you two even been together? Did he ask you?... Did you ask him?”

There’s a beat of silence. Then Shadow sharply turned his head to the side, avoiding all eye contact. “The trivial details don’t matter.”

“Oh no, we’re talking about this.” She gave Shadow no time to respond, taking him by the arm and dragging him out into the living room. He went with little resistance and plopped down onto the couch as Rouge directed him.

From where she stood in front of him, Rouge took a second to analyze the dark hedgehog.

So far, there hadn’t seemed to be anything out of place. Shadow had been his usual, dark and mysterious self. Even just now, he spoke like he usually did. The only things that were out of place was the torn apart room and the fact that… he suddenly believed he was dating Sonic?

As far as Rouge knew, he had a solidly bitter opinion of Sonic up until yesterday morning. 

After breakfast Shadow had left for his mission, came back earlier than expected but no less successful, and turned in for the night without speaking much to either her or Omega. Which meant something clearly changed in the time between yesterday morning and when he returned from sending out his report to G.U.N.

She had two theories as to what it could be. Either Shadow was possessed or Sonic asked him out yesterday. Both very viable options, but something about it didn’t sit quite right.

“What happened yesterday?” She asked, crossing her arms and carefully observing the neutral expression on Shadow’s face.

“I already turned in my report. If you’re so curious you can just-” She was quick to cut him off with a hand held up to his face. He eyed it with clear irritation, not that his bad moods ever intimidated her in any way.

“That’s not what I meant.” Rouge massaged her temples before trying again. “I mean outside of the mission. Did anything out of the ordinary happen? It could be anything really, something new or unexpected.”

Shadow looked at her like she was the weird one. But regardless, he took a moment to consider. He tucked a closed, gloved fist against the underside of his chin as he mentally ran through the events from the day before.

“I’d been making good headway in the morning…” A pause, “Then when I’d finally found a lead, Sonic showed up.”

Rouge’s ear flicked at the mention of the hero’s name. Leaning forward in anticipation, she lightly urged him to continue. “Then what?”

“He distracted me.” The ensuing frown was comical. “Going on and on about wanting a race, because chaos forbid he can’t stay out of anyone’s business for more than a minute at a time. He claimed it was a tie but clearly I was ahead by-”

“That’s it?”

They both looked at eachother, Shadow minutely startled with himself when he realized his eyes had fallen shut at some point and a faint smile was teasing at his lips. Rouge zeroed in on the way he visibly shut away the emotions he’d accidentally let leak out.

“What do you mean?”

“So you just raced him? Nothing else happened?”

“Yes.” Shadow winced, curling in on himself, his hand shooting up to hold his head. It lasted for a second before he was pulling his hand away, casting a puzzled look down at his leg. “No… I think I got bitten by a mosquito. I remember Sonic annoying me about it. Then I got.. Dizzy. I assumed I’d been low on chaos energy, which was when I decided to leave and finish the mission before it proved to be a problem.”

For a moment, Rouge believed that he and Sonic got together yesterday, and Shadow was being all weird about it because he was shy about his new relationship. However, now it sounded like that wasn’t the case.

Not to mention that the lowkey overpowered hedgehog was low on chaos energy? That was suspicious in of itself, adding to the already weird shift in behavior. After all, Shadow had to have been using large amounts of chaos energy to feel any sort of repercussions, which didn’t make sense for something as small and low effort as a reconnaissance and tracking mission. And she knew that none of that energy went into racing Sonic. Those two had raced plenty of times in the past for her to know that certainly wasn’t the problem. So what was the problem?

“Clearly whatever happened that made you dizzy is connected to the-” she gestured vaguely at Shadow “you being slightly delusional and acting out of the ordinary.”

“I’m not delusional. My mental performance is perfect.” Shadow nearly growled out, leveling a heavy glare on Rouge.

“You think you’re dating Sonic. You know, the same Sonic who you greet with a fight nine out of the ten times you two bump into each other?”

“It’s banter. He knows there’s no hostility in it.” Shadow rocked to his feet, entering Rouge’s space. The tension was enough to make her unconsciously lean back, wings twitching behind her with the faint urge to fly away. “And I don’t think it. We are. I don’t appreciate you accusing otherwise.”

At this point Rouge couldn’t figure out what was going on. She’d love to believe the two are happily together, but her point wasn’t just superficial blabbering for arguments sake. Last week Sonic had passed by them while they were out and Shadow decked him in the face. His excuse was that he was paying back something the blue hedgehog did not too long before that, but said payback was still far too violent and angry to be ‘non-hostile banter.’

However, judging by whatever had gotten into Shadow right now, she wasn’t going to be able to delve into the subject anymore than this. So she forced herself to relax, trying to take the situation in stride. She held her hands up, making herself appear less of a threat while still holding her ground.

“Right. Sorry, it’s just hard to believe since you kept it a secret from me for so long. But I believe you.” Little white lies. “What I don’t believe is that whole thing about the chaos energy, it’s too weird to be a coincidence. I think we should go to where you felt dizzy and take a look around, just in case.”

Shadow doesn’t budge for a while. One would think she’d just threatened his entire family with the way he’s poised, coiled like spring ready to snap.

It took a bit of time for him to eventually calm down, shoulders dropping as he finally shuffled away. Rouge took the moment to breathe, surprised that she’d even been holding it in the first place.

“You’re right, I should have told you sooner.” Shadow looked down, opening and closing his fist experimentally. “And I agree. The whole situation does feel a little odd. It’d be worth it to check.”

“Okay, that’s good. Then I’ll get changed so we can head out.” She nodded, passing him to make her way down the hall to her room.

Her stride was steady and casual all the way to her bedroom door, which she opened and closed behind her. Once she heard the click of the lock slide into place, she dove for where her phone rested on the night stand beside her bed. She narrowly missed banging her shin on the frame but ignored it in favor of dialing a number.

As the phone rang, Rouge huddled into the corner of her room furthest from the door before crouching down. And when the call went through, she made sure that when she spoke, it was the quietest she’s ever been.

“Y’ello?”

“Sonic, are you and Shadow dating?”

“...What?”

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[dovewingkinnie]

what if she still had some of her mind intact when abstracted idk!! also caine is there because i like these two Goodnight

[repmet]

#all in the hips

[all-skedaddle-and-no-bop]

[avoidbee]

Harrow and one of the most gut wrenching quotes ever conceived

[kazzykatt]

Take This, Artfight Edition 3! (masterpost)

Staff of Afton Moon by @shookethdev Candy!Eclipse by @suntimeswolliw Vampire sundrop by @miwachan2 Sunny Slug by @scarredlove alien jestering au Sun by @fernzwing hospitalized au Moon by @bilolli

[literaphobe]

adrienette break up SHOULD be initiated by marinette AND it will result in yet another Iconic Marichat Moment where Adrien guiltily goes to her as chat out of desperation to just BE with her again in some way and she cries in his arms about the ex-boyfriend she still loves and when he asks her ‘why don’t you just get back together with him if you still love him? if it was a mistake I’m sure he’d understand I’m sure he’d be so happy to have you back’ and she just weakly murmurs ‘I can’t…’ to him and sounds so pained that he realizes that he shouldn’t try and get back together bc no matter what the reason is marinette’s clearly hurting and well. At least he knows she still loves him. Surely that’s enough

[lizard-queen-izzy]

Yknow what I'm thinking of actually? I'm thinking of an au where Tim survives the Unknowing and becomes an avatar of the Desolation. But he doesn't come back to the Archives or the Institute. He's free, so why would he? No longer marked by the Eye. I do imagine him sitting by Jon in the hospital whenever someone wasn't there, leaving just in time to never be spotted. Being just out of sight to hear Jon wake up, to hear how devastated he is at the knews everyone thinks he's dead. But he still doesn't show his face. Because he's earned a break, time to figure out where he's going next and what he's going to do. So he does. Can't go back to his flat, can't go back to the Institute, so where does he go? [I'm so glad you asked] He goes to Sasha's old flat. One of the firm memories he has of her is where she lived, so he goes there. It's empty, seems like it has been since she died. He lives there for the duration if season 4, getting used to his new life, figuring out what it means for him. And deciding how(/if) he's going to reconnect.

And then the Eyepocalypse happens. And he's thrown into a wasteland of chaos and fear, but it can't hurt him. Because he's part of it now. He decides to set out to find Jon. Because if anyone knows what's going on, it's him.

[applestruda]

Wip

[nothing-but-flowers88]

Ok consider, that scene in the mandalorian where Luke defeats the dark troopers but while they’re watching the cam footage and see this dark cloaked figure gracefully walk through, just a minute after they see a tiny being running in a little white cloak. As this mysterious Jedi continues slashing through the troopers, he holds out his hand trapping one mid air, then a tinier yellow lightsaber slashes through said trooper. As they walk in everyone’s in awe of course but even more confused when a tiny little girl happily bounces to see grogu as the mysterious Jedi makes his introductions.

And of course this is Dinluke and Din falls for Luke even faster seeing he’s a single dad to

[uwudonoodle]

[thecandlesticksfromlesmis]

Courfeyrac is a big phone user. Enjolras is not. I believe that these two went through an entire YEAR of close friendship before Courfeyrac is finally in the room when Enjolras says “Yeah hang on let me just text them and ask” before whipping out one of these bad boys and sending a message

Courfeyrac:

[a-timely-problem]

Billy: "And that's my dad and that's my dad and that's my mom and that's my mom and that's my ghost mentor, who's also sort of my mom and that's her wife, death, who wants me dead-"

[sushisusii]

It's dangerous to go alone take this! POCKET NAO

[riverc1an]