Stages

Intimate Friends: Pt.5: What is it?

Rouge wasn't one to impose herself in Shadow's relationships.

It's not like she didn't care, on the contrary, it was one of her priorities. When Maria came part of the 'team', she told Shadow over and over again to leave her. He didn't listen.

Then he was badly hurt. The second time she came into their lives, she didn't bother to bring up the subject. Someone else was on that matter.

Her closest friend, Amy Rose.

And Shadow's new love. Although he was too stupid to realize.

If Rouge really thought about it, she knew she could pint-point the moment Shadow saw Amy as more than a friend. She can even tell the moment Shadow began to feel love towards her.

Like? When they were repairing the bike Amy gave to Shadow, DR.

Love? When Shadow let Amy ride BB, his favorite bike.

Rouge still couldn't believe Shadow let Amy ride his bike after what happened with Maria. She remembers asking for a ride once and Shadow preferred to pay for a taxi for her than to give her a ride.

Amy was in love with Shadow and Shadow was in love with her ... so what was stopping them?

Oh yes, Shadow's inability to understand feelings.

Shadow was confused as to what real love feels like. He might have loved Maria, but Rouge knew that it was mostly the fact that he didn't want to be alone. After all the psychological damage she did to him, it is understandable that he can't recognize when someone is being supportive. Most importantly, he can't realize what it feels like to be in love.

However, Rouge was enjoying the drama too much and instead of intervening, she decided to wait and see.

She only intervened when Shadow was acting like a jerk or stupid. Or both.

Rouge wanted to say something now because at the moment Shadow was being stupid and Amy ... well, she was something else.

"Amy is dating Sonic," Rouge whispered to herself. "Should I tell Shadow?"

"Tell me what?"

Goddamit, Shadow was a sneaky one.

They were currently at Team Dark's office. It was early morning, the sunlight trespassed the large windows of the office. Their desks were nicely illuminated. Rouge's desk was the cleanest. Shadow's could be clean as well, but the constant love letters he got daily filled his desk. Omega had a desk as well but it was empty. As requested of him, Omega didn't need a computer nor other necessities. He made his reports with his internal system and sent them to the Commander's computer.

"Are you going to tell me or not?" Shadow asked again.

"Nothing, just that Mia passed by. She told me to tell you she was sorry." Rouge replied. It wasn't a lie, she just wanted to stop herself from telling him the news.

"I'll talk to her later," Shadow walked to his desk and very discreetly. Almost as if he didn't want to show he cared, he asked, "... Have you heard anything ... about Amy?"

How interesting.

"You haven't talked to her? I thought you two were close." Rouge sat down on her desk, trying to pretend that she was busy doing work.

"We are," said Shadow.

"How close?"

"That doesn't concern you."

"True. Besides ... " Rouge looked at him teasingly, "You will never be as close to her as she is to Sonic."

Rouge got exactly what she wanted from Shadow. His expression hardens, eyes were sharp and he showed no expression.