A/N: I have developed a drinking problem.

Consider this a third part following the series that started Special. This is not a One-Shot and will probably be three chapters. This is stationed a couple months after Wet Creases. You don't really need to read the others to fully understand what's going on here so, whoo hoo.

I'm throwing my entire PDA repulsed narrative for these two right out the window for this one. Shadow likes the touching and so does Knuckles.

They want to touch each other but are being really stupid about it. So, they need a little bit of help.

Song that's in here is Let Me Live (Major Lazer, Feat. Rudimental, Anne-Marie, Mr. Eazi)

Pining Drunks

Hosting a drunk Knuckles was so fucking weird. It'd only been 45 minutes into the evening and after losing terribly at four games of drunk uno and connect four, the guardian was beyond wasted. Not necessarily gone, but definitely fucked up.

Rouge honestly didn't believe what she was seeing.

There was no way the person sitting across from her was their hot-headed guardian. That annoyingly peevish echidna had protested so angrily about being dragged away from his island just to 'fuck around' at Sonic's place, to the point where it had taken them an entire two weeks of probing just to get him to show up. They were simply amazed by the fact that they'd even gotten him down here and now to put the icing on the cake, they managed not only to get Knuckles to try liquor for the first time ever but also get him drunk within the span of one hour.

It was literally as if a switch was flipped and Knuckles entire personality did a 180. They were sharing a room with an entirely different person. The normally grumpy, bad-tempered packaged box of nerves had become this clingy, smiley, delirious drunken mess of an impostor.

Knuckles is a huge advocate of the "Keep your hands to yourself" policy and everyone who he associated himself with knows this. His toleration of physical contact within his circle of friends barely extended past a high five. Hugs were awkwardly returned and quickly shrugged out of, and hell, even pats on the back from his closest of friends made the echidna tense up almost instinctively.

Now, here he was grinning openly and snorting out ridiculous laughs to every dumb joke he was told. His eyes were droopy in almost a sleepy looking way that cast out whatever grumpy frown lines that would usually crease on his face. He engaged in silly spats, regarded everyone with friendly eyes and had barely snapped at not one person the entire evening... and it was great! Wonderful even, Sonic couldn't even begin to put into words how happy he was that his recluse of a friend was having a good time just chillin out with them. It was something the blue hero wished his friend didn't miss out on so often.

But then, the inevitable happened and things took a turn for the worst... seemingly.

Much unlike the others, Sonic didn't bat an eye when Shadow walked into the living room with a full cup of beer in his hand. Didn't bat an eye when his grouchy looking ass took a seat next to Knuckles on the couch either, even though there were a bunch of other places available to sit. It didn't faze him not one bit when he saw the hedgehog skim Knuckles over from the corner of his eye, face torn between some pained looking grimace of scrutiny and amusement; nor when he responded to the echidna's attention turning to him with a raised brow.

He did blink, however, in surprise when Knuckles practically fucking beamed at the gloomy asshole. Numerous amounts of confused choking sounds came from different parts of the room and Sonic couldn't help but snicker into his cup. Oh boy, were they confused. Knuckles was grinning as if this guy just hung the gotdamn moon for him and all he did was sit next to him. If Sonic didn't know any better, he would have said he spotted a flush on that hedgehog's face. It could have been just a trick of the light though because Shadow? Blushing? Ha! You'd have a better chance at making rocks talk.

Luckily, for the unassuming echidna, Knuckles behavior was quickly ruled as justifiable due to his outlandishly friendly nature that he'd been reduced too. Alcohol man, the best medicine for tight-asses. Plus, Shadow didn't seem to mind nor commented on it, so it was nothing to freak out about… right?

Rouge doesn't even remember what the fuck Sonic had said and neither did the hedgehog himself. It was probably lame, a repeat of one of his many stupid jokes that he's told the echidna before and even though Knuckles was never easy to amuse, the influence of alcohol must have shot that shit right out the window; because now, Knuckles was wheezing.

So hard that he made Sonic's own cackles punch harder, until tears glistened at the corners of his eyes. Knuckles, an unrestrained Knuckles had one of those stupid laughs that made whatever the hell you said to him funnier, just by his dumbass laugh alone.

Sonic was tearing and his thigh burned underneath the force of his slaps while Knuckles was holding his sides for dear life, bent over at the force of his own cackling. Both of their faces were red with how hard they were laughing, it caused quite the eruption of snickers from the few who were just listening in to their stupid ass conversation… and then the guardian swayed.

Now, this wouldn't have been a problem if he'd landed sideways on the couch that he was sitting on by himself... but he wasn't by himself. So, Knuckles ended up plopping his body right onto the person he'd been sharing the couch with.

Shadow.

Everyone, and I mean everyone's head turned. All conversations halted at the suddenly tense atmosphere of the room. Their jaws dropped straight to the floor the moment their friend even entered Shadow's personal space and in his lap of all places! Now, all of a sudden, Knuckles drunk personality wasn't all that funny anymore. Because if there was anyone who disliked people invading their personal space more than the guardian, it was Shadow.

They watched Shadow's entire body go rigid. How his dark brows furrowed together and lips pulled into a scowl. His wide crimson eyes slowly shifted downward to the red male who'd landed on his lap. Knuckles, of course, oblivious to it all despite how deathly silent the living room had gotten, kept on with his poorly contained snickers and used his arm to rub the tears out of his eyes. Everyone watched in heavy silence, all certain that the hedgehog was definitely going to send Knuckles heavy wasted ass flying into a wall. A good handful of people prepared to get up to retrieve Knuckles incase anything violent was gonna pop off... but surprisingly, none of those things happened.

It was swift and barely noticeable to anyone too far a distance from them, but Rouge and Sonic were close. So, they were the only ones who were able to catch that quick moment when Shadow's widened eyes turned into a glare of disbelief and then flickered away into a look of... endearment?

Everyone who had expected the hedgehog to flip his shit was dumbfounded when instead he did... absolutely nothing.

He leaned back into the couch, set his shoulders straight and went back to sipping on his drink.

No one dared say a word.

The disbelief and questions written all over their faces only intensified when they began looking at each other as if they were going crazy and then back at Shadow like he was crazy. Their eyes only shifted away when the obsidian hedgehog, displeased with the fact that everyone's attention seemed stuck on him, glared all of them down.

For a few moments, it was dead silent. Everyone was unsure about how to return to their idle conversations with all that weirdness happening in the middle of the room. But then, miraculously the sound system, which up until now had gone completely unnoticed, paused and plunged the room into even deeper silence.

Thankfully, the next track picked up after the last song and put an end to the awkward quiet.

As I walk through the water,

so many things I see,

uh-huh,

And then I say to myself,

it's never as it seems-

It revitalized the atmosphere, giving the opportunity for all the partygoers to begin awkwardly heading back into their own conversations. It only took a couple minutes of mindless chatter and stiff snickering before everything began to slip back into normality.

The group appeared either to be ignoring or moving on from all the weirdness happening in the sofa adjacent to them, returning to passing around drinks and sharing silly stories.

...well, everyone except Sonic and Rouge.

The shared look they kept giving each other expressed their similar disbelief. Sonic though, had a wide grin of pride on his face while Rouge was just shook. What, were they supposed to ignore this strange developing milestone going on between their equally grumpy ass friends?

Even if they wanted to how could they?

Every time they caught movement in their peripheral vision, Knuckles was moving his neck to rest more comfortably on top of Shadows thighs. Grinning up at him as if he wasn't coddled up on someone else's lap like no big deal. Shadow wasn't any better, the hedgehog was plucking the lemon slices from Knuckles empty cup one by one and chewing on them while listening to whatever the drunk guardian had to say. Why he even had so many lemon slices in the first place was a mystery to her.

Nonetheless, something weird was going on here. Rouge was pretty sure that if she threw her drunk ass on top of Shadow like that, he'd shove her right to the floor, and Rouge had been his friend for the longest!

Knuckles was drunk, so he could be looked past when it came to his bizarre his personality change, but Shadow?

Shadow?! He had no excuse. He'd barely even touched his drink! There was no excusing him absentmindedly toying with the echidna's dreads, or the knee that kept rotating against the back of Knuckles neck. Or that smile on his fac- smile!?

Glass shattered within the depths of Rouge's mind.

Was that hedgehog smiling?!

"I'm not entirely oblivious to what's going on-" Sonic said. "-but damn, this is satisfying."

"Yeah? Well I am. Why is he's smiling." Rouge's eyes narrowed. "He is smiling right?"

"Yeah." Sonic grinned. "He's also eating lemons with one of the straightest faces I've ever seen." His face made a disgusted grimace. "Rouge, why's your friend so gross?"

"That hedgehog never smiles."

"I know."

"It's horrifying. Shield my eyes wonder boy. They'll combust into flames if I look any further."

Sonic let out a burst of laughter and slapped his leg with the force of his snickers. "You're so mean, be nice. It's not like the world is gonna end just because Shadow learned how to tug his upper lip."

"You say that today, while the world is still intact. Come tomorrow though, you'll be eating those words. That smile is enough to trigger at least four natural disasters." She took another sip of her alcohol, willfully ignoring the burning sensation that was probably loosening her tongue to where she couldn't even pretend to hide her suspiciousness. "I knew they were becoming closer but I didn't think they were getting that close. Shadow's stubborn ass doesn't like anyone touching him, not even me."

Sonic shrugged his shoulders. "Yeah, you're right. When you look at it that way at least." He grinned. "Knuckles definitely has some special privileges going on for 'em. But you gotta remember your place here, you're just his friend."

"I'm his closest friend."

"I get that, I get that." Sonic light-heartedly reassured. "Probably his only one from where I can see it... but, what if Knuckles is like..." He gestured with his hands. "-something more than that? More than just a friend." With just that one sentence, Sonic brought Rouge's entire train of thought to a complete halt. She turned to look at the blue hero, and even with the suggestive wiggling of his brows, Rouge could tell that he wasn't joking in the slightest. He almost looked like he wanted her to agree with him.

Interesting.

Now, he had her attention. She quickly downed her drink and scooted closer to him.

"That's a big assumption blue." They were whispering now, heads dipping closer towards each other. "What makes you think Shadow would even be interested in someone like Knuckles? Romantically at that. I don't even think that hedgehog knows what dating even is."

Sonic struggled with containing his laugh. "Well, you don't have to know what dating is in order to like someone." He had a point there.

"But our Shadow? This guy? Liking someone? We are talking about the same hedgehog, right? Ultimate lifeform, mayor of Gloomtown, a knack for destruction."

"The edgelord himself?" Sonic continued for her, emerald eyes glimmering in mischief. "Sure, why not."

"But Knuckles...?" She gazed back over to them with a squint. "Out of all people, you assume Knuckles would be his first pick?"

"You're telling me that you really don't think Knuckles could possibly be his type?"

...

There was a long pause in between her answer to Sonic's question; her frustrated frown slowly deepening on her face... until something short-circuited within that brain of hers. Rouge's gaze became 10x times more intense. Starting with the guardian first, her eyes she scanned him over from head to toe and began picking him apart in any relevant way she knew how.

What exactly did Knuckles have?

A bad temper, a scowl that nearly laid permanent across his face, strength, a weird shady mysterious past that no one knew three fucks about... quadruple checks.

Did he work out? Yes.

Was he stubborn? 100%.

A bit taller than the other but not by much. Handsome, in his own right. Long spines, dark eyes and covered from head to toe in red... Shadow's favorite fucking color.

"Oh my god."

"Yep."

"Knuckles might be his type." Sonic's head jerked her way so fast.

"I know."

"You do?!"

"You can't tell me you really didn't notice." Sonics looked at her, now in full mirth. "There's no way you could have missed the signs." She did, she really did. Rouge missed all of the signs. To be fair, she wasn't necessarily paying attention to the progression of their relationship over the past couple years or so. There was nothing there really for her to assume anything romantic would, or even could come out of it.

...but now that she thought about it, these two really shared a lot of similarities. Shadow was like a Knuckles 2.0, except less friendly and installed with a record of homicidal tendencies. "Cmon Rouge..." Sonic sounded exasperated. "They've been tiptoeing around each other for almost a year. Those two spend more time together than with anyone else combined and that's only counting the few interactions where they're actually willing too. Think about it." He nudged her arm. "If Shadow practically vanishes from the planet for days on end and he's not at GUN or with you, where do you think he is?" He gestured towards Knuckles with his thumb. "And when he's not lurking around the city all by himself with an angry cloud over his head, who do you think he's with?"

He gestured his thumb towards Knuckles again. "Seriously?"

Sonic nodded. "Yeah, I mean, I've run into Shadow way more times on the island than I've ever run into him down here. There's not much to do on the island after you explore it all. Unless you like looking at trees grow. It was like, painfully obvious why Shads spends the majority of his time there."

Rouge was... annoyed. She should have been prying more into Shadow's personal life if he was going to go off and mind fuck everyone by doing things like getting himself a fucking boyfriend.'

Sonic was right though, how the fuck did she miss that? She remembered the whole birthday fiasco earlier this year, which she admittedly was surprised about. Rouge wanted Shadow to get a gift for the guardian for his birthday because she knew it would make the hothead happy. He appreciated gifts even though he protested against receiving them so much. That was primarily why she told him about it, but she didn't expect for him to go to the extent that he did. Even with that, she didn't realize Shadow was going so much out of his way for Knuckles because he had feelings for him.

He's gifted Rouge things before, rather thoughtlessly but it was still an honest effort. Despite making it clear that he didn't care much for the traditions that come with companionship, whenever he found or obtained something that was of little use to him, if it was within Rouge's spectrum of interest, she'd find it by her door or on the nightstand near her bed when she returned to her home.

Shadow had made attempts to bide into these social constructs of maintaining a friendship with her, so she didn't think twice about encouraging him to do so with another. Especially if it was someone who's he has only recently been able to acquire. If anything, she was just glad that Shadow had managed to actually obtain a friend beside her and Omega. But she didn't think it'd lead to this.

She would had never seen those two as compatible. If anything putting them together felt similar to locking two big violent dogs in a cage and letting them go at it until one of them stepped out victorious. Not kiss and makeup, the hell was the deal between these two?

She was more astonished at Shadow than Knuckles. The guardian is a bizarre individual but she knows that even he does crave and appreciate companionship. His relationship with Sonic was weird and inconsistent but genuine at most. Shadow was different… Shadow treated almost everyone with indifference, even his most trusted friends at times.

So what is it that suddenly made the echidna an exception.

Knuckles is bad-tempered, loud, can be seriously rude and has one of the nastiest resting bitch faces that this group can offer. But, Rouge could admit that those things didn't necessarily make him unattractive. From her own standpoint, he was good looking for a guy that lacked personal upkeep. He had a good conscious and was probably one of the more reliable people she'd ever known... but Shadow? Seriously?!

There wasn't much the hedgehog took interest in that co-related with anything the guardian even did. Sure, they were both cranky but their interest, the few that they might have, didn't even add up in the slightest of ways.

...but truthfully, if she tried imagining a visual of what Shadow's type would actually be or look like, her result would come up blank. Hell, she never even assumed that Shadow could like someone like that.

The more she became aware of how little she knew about certain aspects of her comrade, the more everything was beginning to become a bit more believable. Sonic may have a point.

...oh fuck, Sonic may have a point.

"Huh…" She murmured under her breath.

Just how long has Shadow been crushing on the hotheaded guardian? Even better question, how long had they been dating?

If they even were dating. She was tempted to entertain the thought that they weren't, but Shadow looked suspiciously comfortable with being used as a headrest for Knuckles big head. Completely absorbed in a state that Rouge had rarely ever witnessed him in. He was paying the echidna 99% if not all of his attention.

She could tell just by the tunnel-visioned look he had on his face, as if Knuckles was the only one in the room with him. He couldn't be saying anything worthwhile being as drunk as he was, but her colleague looked at him like he was someone of utmost importance.

… It was really fucking weird.

The longer she looked the more something uncomfortable twisted in her stomach. Something she'd rather not label for what it was.

"Red!" She jumped in her seat, startled by Sonic's sudden outburst. Blue boy was honestly either the worst at reading the mood or just liked ruining moments for the fun of it. Any trace of content on Shadow's face instantly dropped the moment Knuckles attention shifted away from him.

Knuckles reaction time was too slow for her to be comfortable with, but after blinking through a few moments of muddled confusion, he turned his still grinning face towards Sonic. Shadow was not grinning, in fact, he was straight out glaring at the green-eyed hedgehog. "You look like you need a refill bud, care for another shot?"

"No." Both of those answers left Rouge and Shadows mouth at the same time. So in sync, that even they had to stop and look at each other.

"Oh, my bad. I didn't know he had chaperones with him."

"You must intend on making him incapable of heading home after your little celebration ends Sonic." Something about the way Shadow brushed his fingers against Knuckles forehead made her insides crawl even more.

"That's the idea!" Sonic's smirk was shameless. "After all, this is a one in a lifetime opportunity, hanging out with big red like this. The longer he's drunk the longer he'll stay. I don't know about you but he's looking pretty comfortable. You wouldn't mind keeping him there for a little longer for us, will ya.?" Sonic was sure that the scowl Shadow gave him in response was probably the nastiest his dark counterpart had ever given him.

"You're insinuating I let you get him drunker for your amusement."

"You, don't have to let me do anything." Sonic smirked. "Knuckles is a big boy, he can take care of himself." Wow, she really did not know who the root for here. On one end, Shadow wasn't wrong for trying to limit Knuckles alcohol consumption. It was his first time after all, and if they truly were... boyfriends, it would be only right to make sure he didn't make himself sick.

...but on the other hand, Knuckles was his own person. If he wanted to make himself sick, then go for it. Moreover, part of her wanted Knuckles to puke on Shadow anyway.

"Yer a piece of shit bloo." Actually, never mind. He didn't need any more alcohol, not with him slurring sentences like that. "But I likh you. Gimmie anoth-one."

"Oh?" His brows raised while wasting no time to pour Knuckles another drink. "You like me huh?"

Knuckles brows scrunched up, confused at the question. "...yeah?" Rouge was confused too, but going by the look on Shadow's face, her friend didn't like that question whatsoever. His glare hardened, especially when Sonic locked eyes with him. He already knew what question was coming next.

"Do you like me? Or, do you like, like me?" The flame in Shadow's eyes flared. His fingers tightened around his cup of beer in an attempt not to splash the subsistence in Sonic's face.

"Wha'..." Knuckles nose scrunched up, clearly displaying his confusion. "Like like? Double like? What's that even mean."

"You know when you like, like someone? It's different from when you just, like, someone."

"..." Knuckles squinted at him like he was stupid. "The fuck- what? No. No, no, no, sayin it twice don change the meaning of the word dum dum." Shadow actually huffed in amusement. Weird considering just a minute ago he was clenching his teeth so angrily. The guardian managed to tug what was nearly an actual smile from Shadow's face; amused by how similar Knuckles answer was to his own when Sonic had asked him the same question a few months ago. (It's in Special)

Sonic took note of it too, and oh boy. If Shadow thought that Knuckles answer had deterred him in the slightest, he was about to get a rude awakening.

"Oh cmon, it totally does!" He said swirling Knuckles drink that he still held in his hand. "You have to look at the context!"

"Context?" Knuckles snorted. "Wha' context?"

"Well, for starters, let's have an example yea?" Sonic smirked knowingly and planted his elbows on top of his knees so that he could lean forward. He was honestly to drunk to be having this kind of conversation with his red-headed friend, and so was fucking Knuckles by far. Way beyond the realm of discreteness, but hey, you know what they say. When life hands you lemons... squeeze them all in Shadows face.

"How much would you say you liked me?" The suggestiveness of that tone had Shadow wanting to kick the smirk right off of Sonic's face. "Would you saaaay, you liked me more than Amy?"

Knuckles nose scrunched up as he honestly, for a moment, thought about it. "Yea, I guesso."

"Tch, figures." Sonic rolled his eyes. "What about Tails." Knuckles shrugged and nodded again.

"Yea."

"Vector, over there? Espio too?" Sonic continued on- "What about Silver?"

"Sonic." Shadow caught the attention of all three of them, by sounding absolutely done with all of the blue blurs nonsense. "I don't know what game you're playing at, but it ends here. Where exactly are you going with this?" Good question, Rouge was curious too. Where in the fuck was Sonic going with thi- oh no...

Sonics smirk sharpened-

'No, no, no. Sonic, don't you fucking do it.'

-he looked positively smug about riling up the one person in the room who'd gladly give into any excuse to plant his face straight into the floor. So of course, he was going to go through with it, and actually fucking do it. "What about Shadow, Knux." All four of them went silent and the crimson eyes of the ultimate life form went from pissed to widening in shock. Sonic stared directly at him too and continued asking his question. "Do you like me more than Shadow?"

...

You could cut the tension in the air with a knife. Sonic was starting trouble and Rouge quite honestly feared for his safety when Shadows face began to darken. This was not good, so not good. Rouge shook her head in Shadow's direction, trying to convince him to chill and not flatten Sonic into the couch. Shadow was about to open his mouth to spit something nasty at the hedgehog's smug face... until Knuckles swiftly broke the tension with a snorting laugh.

"Pffft, what?!" Unlike team Dark, Knuckles looked and sounded just as amused as Sonic did. Shadow looked at the guardian in surprise. "Das a good one. Don' ask me stupid questions, of cuse' I like Shadow more. You know tha'."

Both Rouge and Shadow nearly dropped their drinks. The bats' jaw quite literally fell open, while Shadow... oh my god, actually looked embarrassed. Did Knuckles really just blurt that out for them and everyone in close proximity to hear? At a party, with all of their friends?!

Then, for some reason, Knuckles began to frown. With creased by brows, he turned his head back around to look Shadow in the eye, fixing him with a worried stare. "You know that too, yea? Tha' I like you more?" Shadow's eyes couldn't possibly widen anymore. "Cuz, y'kno..." Knuckles tapped the back of his fist against the furred chest. "I do."

The ultimate life form inhaled sharply and reeled back to put a little space between him and the guardian. He truly could not look Knuckles in the eyes after listening to him say something like that and fought hard within himself, not to give in and let his face turn into any warmer shades that it was tempted too. He hid his timidity well, beneath that cold mask of his, but not well enough. Rouge could see his restlessness, not in his eyes but in his hands. They twitched around his cup of beer like a tail of a nervous cat; so much that he had to give up the beverage and put it down on the table behind them before he dropped it.

When Shadow didn't respond, Knuckles frowned deeper and huffed at the hedgehog ignoring his question. None of them expected for the echidna to quite literally reach up and tug at one of those pointed ears himself. "Answer meee." Rouges jaw dropped even more. But still, the hedgehog regarded the guardian with a leveled stare. Face doing it's best to give nothing away.

"Yes." It was to low to be heard by anyone but Knuckles, but both of their friends could easily read his lips. "I do."

Once again, Knuckles fucking beamed at him and Rouge had to down a whole nother glass of vodka. Sonic, the little shit, was grinning at her as if saying 'See? I told you so.' Yeah, thanks a lot, fucking trouble maker. She honestly wanted to flick him right on his forehead.

"Now I think that boad of honesty deserves, another drink!" Knuckles, unfortunately, was just as excited.

"Alrigggght!" Sonic reached out to pass Knuckles his shot of alcohol but instead of the guardian taking it, Shadow snatched it right out of the blue heros hand. "Ey! Shads..."

"AHA!" Sonic exclaimed. "I knew it! He DOES call you that."

Shadow ignored him. "You're going to get sick if you continue on like this." He said, now fully addressing the echidna with his attention.

Knuckles honest to god pouted at him and it was got damn adorable. Rouge almost coughed while drinking a second glass. "I don' feel sick. I feel sph-" He paused, squinting at his own loss of words. "I feel sph- fine. I feel fine."

"Yeah no. You don't." Shadow reached over to dig inside of the cooler that sat by beside the sofa and plopped a bottle of water straight onto Knuckles lap. "Drink it, all of it. If it can sober you up enough, then you can have your share of more alcohol. But if you still can't articulate a single coherent sentence, don't touch this stuff anymore tonight. I mean it." Knuckles grumpily scrunched up his nose but Shadow had his mind made up. In response, he downed the shot in one gulp... and immediately started coughing. "Phack! What the hell-!"

"PAHAAA-" Both Sonic and Knuckles, along with the couple of people that were in close vicinity to them, burst into laughter. Shadow coughed and hacked, desperate to get the burning sensation out of his throat. Pounding his fist against his chest in an attempt to escape the burn. This time Rouge fell into laughter too and did her best not to let any threatening tears ruin the makeup on her face.

"Well, you had the right idea doll-face."

"You see!" Knuckles could barely contain his gasping laughs. "You shuda just let'me drink it!" There he was, wheezing all over again.

"Do you even know what that was." Shadow groaned through his coughing, reaching over to steal Sonic's lemon ("Hey!") from his cup and run it over his tongue. "I don't even know what that was, what the fuck was that."

Vector chimed in from the kitchen. "SONIC! TEQUILA?!"

"TEQUILA!" Immediately, the hedgehog cast a stormy glare towards his blue counterpart.

"WHY in your right mind would you give that to him?"

"For exactly the reason you're coughing right now! Pahaa!" There was no sense in even getting mad anymore, both Sonic and Knuckles were incoherent and practically in tears, holding onto their stomachs from the pain their cackling induced. Knuckles, this time around would have succeeded in falling completely off the couch if Shadow hadn't noticed him slipping. Though upset about embarrassing himself and having the echidna laugh at his dismay, he popped the lemon slice into his mouth and quickly reached down to catch him.

Rouge had to admit, it was nearly endearing to watch the hedgehog carefully place Knuckles back on his lap. Yeah, not the couch, his lap. The fall wouldn't hurt Knuckles and would definitely serve as payback for laughing at him, but Shadow still found the need to save him from his stumble. It was sweet... however, whatever endearment that was there quickly lost its charm when Knuckles responded by curling into the hedgehog's lap further and turning so that he could brush his head against Shadows stomach. Those violet eyes stared up at him in his mirth, a mischevious smirk slanting across his face.

"Don worry Shads. If you get sick, I promise to take care of ya."

Shadow actually fucking blushed and Rouge dropped her glass right out of her hand.

"Yeah, no one's going home tonight." Espio said, staring at the percentage of his wasted friends still in the living room. One more game of Uno they said, another game of Never Have I Ever they said, now look at everyone. Drunk and sprawled out all over the floor. He didn't know why he was so surprised, this wasn't a rare occurrence at all, but he'd been looking forward towards actually leaving tonight. He cared about his friends and didn't mind taking sacrificing some of his own time to spend with them, but honestly... god, they were just too fucking much.

"Espio." He looked over in Rouge's direction, one of the only people there with an actual tolerance for alcohol, thankfully, still conscious and able to walk on her own two feet.

"Do you need something?"

"Where's Shadow and Knuckles." Espio raised a brow.

"I don't know about Shadow but Sonic put Knuckles in a room down the hall. He couldn't stay awake after that last game." Rouge looked upset, conflicted even. Espio could not make out why knowing this would make her look that way but he could only assume it wasn't any of his business. Even though he had also paid witness to what happened between the two of them earlier, the last thing he wanted to do was get too involved with his friends' relationships. He was happy for them, though not necessarily surprised. The outcome seemed inevitable from the moment they questioned him on Knuckles birthday.

Maybe the others didn't recognize it but he knew there was going to be some real changes to the dynamic of their relationship from that day on. "Did you need something from him? Cause I don't know if you'd get anything out of him now…"

"No, it's fine." She slipped herself out of the chair and into a glide with such grace, he couldn't help but take a moment to admire her for it. "I just wanted to make sure he's okay. Won't feel right leaving without seeing him off." She gave him a smile that didn't necessarily reach her eyes. "What room is he in hon?"

Espio jerked his head in the direction of the hall. "Last one on the left. I'd tell you not to wake him but he's not a light sleeper, so you should be fine."

"I'll keep it in mind." Espio watched her glide down the hall with curious eyes.

"She's going to get her feelins hurt you'know." The chameleon startled and turned to see Amy Rose, smiling at him from her elbows over the couch.

"How do you figure, Amy?"

"Psh, you can't tell? Trust me, if there's anyone who can recognize an unrequited love, it's me. I can see romance, FEEL IT. It's in my veins!" Amy placed an arm over her eyes dramatically.

Espio frowned and turned back towards the hall Rouge had gone down. So that's what it was... "Maybe it wasn't the best idea to send her back there then."

"She'll be fine." Amy drunkenly slid down the couch and to the floor, nudging a passed out white hedgehog from beneath her feet. "Ro's a big girl, and tough. Like me." She smiled self assuringly. "It'll take a while but she'll just have to learn to live with it." Her voice became somber and her smile dropped from her face. "Just like I did..."

… and then she started bawling, right there on the floor. Espio had a look of sheer horror on his face, panicked eyes eyeing both her and the swift exit of the living room.

'This is not what I came here for.'

A/N: So, who do you think Rouge likes? (ಸ◞౪◟ಸ) Is it Shadow? Or is it Knuckles?

WHICH ONE? COUL D IT BE?

Guess right and you get a whole pizza.

...or you can wait until chapter three but THAT'S BORING.