#do they fight after this. Yeah but like. its them. u kno. affectionate but neg

[project-sonadow]

happy hour drabble #4

"This is ridiculous," Shadow huffs, crossing his arms as he leans against back of the—their—couch. Sonic grins back at him all too easily, something that only irritates Shadow further; not only because of Sonic's smug attitude or clear enjoyment in Shadow's annoyance, but the fact that his disguise can't do anything about that stupidly lopsided grin of his. It only makes Shadow's grimace deepen as Sonic throws himself on the couch beside him, a little closer than usual.

"C'mon, Shadow, it's perfect!" Shadow just continues to stare disbelievingly, pointedly ignoring the arm Sonic has around the back of the sofa, body faced towards Shadow. "Nobody'd question a thing if we just say we're together!"

"Nobody would question anything if you'd stop bothering me during your breaks," Shadow hisses, still frowning as he glances away. He hates to admit it, but it is a decent excuse—one that makes it easy to want to keep discussions frequent yet private. But he doesn't want to admit that for multiple reasons, so all he can do is scowl back at Sonic's stupid, knowing face.

Their staring contest lasts for maybe a minute in silence, and Shadow's grip on his own arm tightens when he finally closes his eyes and lets out a long, long sigh.

"Fine. We'll use a ... 'relationship' as our excuse for meeting so often." It saves him from the constant questions he gets whenever he picks up and drops off Sonic from Speedy's, anyways. Sonic looks rather pleased with himself after getting Shadow to give in so easily, which means Shadow has to grit his teeth to hold back from Chaos blasting him point blank.

"Great! Soooo, that just means we gotta work on ... uh, y'know," Sonic shrugs. "Selling it."

"... What."

"Like," Sonic hums, giving Shadow a once over that absolutely does not make him feel a tiny bit overly conscious. Sonic makes some vague hand gesture at Shadow's face, then the space between them, then waves his hand around some more like it means something. "Y'know. Acting like you actually wanna see me—"

"I never want to see you."

Sonic rolls his eyes, scoffing himself now. "See, that's what I mean! We gotta fix that if we want this to work."

Does Shadow want this to work? No. And he would say as much if it weren't for that obnoxious look on Sonic's face, one that just seems to scream that he totally doesn't think Shadow can do it—that Shadow wouldn't be up to the challenge. So Shadow glares for a moment longer, feeling his ears flatten against the top of his skull with how badly he doesn't want to do this, before he turns away again with a tch.

"Fine," he grouses, again, half-growling the word before forcing himself to close his eyes and take a deep breath. When he lets it go, his eyes open to see Sonic still—staring at him, with those impossibly green eyes, and it takes everything in Shadow to not be on edge once more immediately.

"That's the spirit!" Sonic says cheerfully but calmly, still grinning but—and maybe these time loops are just finally getting to Shadow's head, a little, but he thinks this smile is just a bit softer than it was before. Sonic visibly moves a little closer, arm now almost around Shadow's shoulder more than the couch, and Shadow feels a little too warm and aware of the way Sonic's facing him. "Just don't look so constipated whenever I get close to ya', alright?"

Shadow swallows down some biting remark that he doesn't even know, eyes flickering from Sonic's arm around his yet again tensed shoulders to Sonic's face to the lack of space between the two of them. After another eternal second of Sonic just—just smiling at him, Shadow finally elbows him in the gut, feeling a little better at the quiet oof that escapes him.