Sonic Series Fan Fiction ❯ Set Me Free ❯ Pleasant...dreams? ( Chapter 1 )

-A/N-THIS STORY SHALL BE CONTINUED! Lol

Disclaimer- I do not own these characters.

 

“Set me Free”

 

Rouge sighed tiredly and stretched her arms over her head. “Whew. I'm beat.” She yawned, sluggishly dragging her feet through the flashy streets of Night Babylon. It was her third day off from working in the President's office, but she spent most of it tracking down emeralds for her own leisure and ended up taking up most of the day. Actually, her real reason for looking for them was to have an excuse to visit Knuckles and his Master Emerald. But that aside, any day she spent looking for a jewel and finding one was a day worth not regretting.

Nearing closer to her place, she figured she go play a few quick games of slots to test her lucky touch before turning in for the night. Then a thought came to mind. `I wonder if Shadow's doing allright…' Thinking of the ebony and crimson colored hedgehog, Rouge paused in her steps and faced her home. A small smile inched across her lips. “Well, it wouldn't hurt to go check on him…”

Moments later, the tired ivory bat stepped foot into her home. “Shadow, I'm---“ she started, looking around, but Shadow was no where to be found. “Hm.” she thought to herself “He must still be asleep.”

With a faint smile, she thought of him sleeping soundly all nice and snug under the sheets and blankets. “I guess I'll go see him before I hit the slots…but first…” she trailed off, heading towards the bathroom. With a yawn, Rouge lazily grabbed the knob and opened the door.

Standing directly in the middle of the floor dripping wet with a towel draped over his arm, was Shadow.

“Ahh!!” Rouge screamed.

Disturbed that she saw him, but behaving nonchalantly about it, Shadow casually slipped the towel around his waist and combed through the drenched quills on his head with his fingers. “You never knock, do you…?”

Rouge was utterly shocked at him being naked, but even more shocked at how well he was taking it and quickly slammed the door. “Not in my place, I don't need to!” she yelled from behind the door while leaning her back against it.

“Come on…” The casual sound of his voice made her ears twitch. “It's not like you've never seen me without clothes before…I never wear anything anyway…”

Rouge could feel her face grow hot and she shut her eyes while banging a fist on the door. “You---you idiot! Have you no shame?! Come out of there now!”

There was a bright flash and Rouge opened her eyes to find Shadow still dripping wet and standing directly in front of her. He smiled as she gasped at his sudden appearance and neared closer to her. Placing both his hands on either side of her against the door, he leaned in close enough to brush her nose with his then bumped his forehead with her.

“Sh-Shadow...” Rouge stammered, her cheeks growing hot as well as the rest of her body. With him being so close to her, she could barely think. She felt her eyes close as his fresh shower scent drifted into her nose and relaxed her. Lightly taking it in, she slowly opened her eyes and met her glistening aquamarine opals with his crimson pearls. “Shadow…” she uttered, confused, yet mesmerized by his behavior, “…why are you doing this…?”

With a chuckle, Shadow led one hand from the door and to the rim of his towel, of which he pulled off and tossed aside. Draping an arm around her to bring her close, he lightly brushed his lips against her neck.

“Because…this is your dream, Rouge…”

“My…dream?”

 

 

Rouge woke up with a start and kicked at the sheets that were wrapped around her. Panting heavily, she sat up and brought a hand to her heaving chest and slightly twitched her wings that were stiff from her laying on them. “Shadow…” was all she could whisper as broken fragments of her dream came back to her. What was she thinking, dreaming about something like that!? Angry at herself, Rouge muttered a curse and tried to erase the memory from her mind. But then, the picture of him kissing her neck drifted back into her mind and her attitude calmed considerably.

Even for a dream, she had to admit it was nice and kind of sexy. The way his warm lips felt brushing against her skin and fur sent shivering chills down her spine, and fluttered in her wings. Briefly closing her eyes to recapture the moment, she sighed and leaned back on her hands, allowing one of them to lightly curl around the sheets. Then she shook her head. “What am I doing thinking about it…” she muttered to herself, slowly opening her eyes halfway. “I'm not the type of woman who would be desperate over love. Especially one that interferes with work.”

Staring off into the distance through the moonlit window of her otherwise darkened room, Rouge released a defeated sigh and balled her hands into fists. Then suddenly, she felt something rather smooth and pointed in her hand. It almost felt like a tail...a spiky tail.

“What the…” Glancing at one side of her bed, she nearly jumped in shock as she saw the very same hedgehog she was thinking about curled up next to her. Sleeping soundly with half the covers wrapped around his leg and the other half encircling his shoulders, Shadow's ear twitched as Rouge gasped. Quickly, she covered her mouth.

`What's he doing here?!' she cried in her mind. And then she remembered, she was taking care of him after he fought with Emerl, before the little robot left to face Eggman and meet with his final destiny…

This would be the third time that Shadow had pushed himself too hard without realizing, and as usual, she had to clean him up afterwards. She remorsefully looked at him with concern in her eyes. The guy wasn't all that bad, he had a good heart despite the fact he was claimed to be evil by Eggman. She found it quaint how he seemed to represent darkness, but he wasn't evil.

Wordlessly, she watched him stir.

`He's not that bad looking at all…' she thought, smiling faintly. Then, with a quick movement of her wings, she adjusted them to be able to lay on her side without damaging them, and faced him. `…I guess…as long as he doesn't wake up and find me here, it'll be allright to lay here for a little while...' She stifled a giggle. `It'll be interesting to see what happens…'

With a muffled groan, Shadow rolled on his back with his hands in fists. One lay at his side while the other rested on the white fur on his chest.

Rouge watched the spot intently, admiring how the glimmer of moonlight spilling through her window washed over his fur, highlighting it. Looking a bit higher to his sleeping face, she felt her heart sink from the cold frown that he wore.

Then she frowned. “Always so serious…” she mumbled under her breath. “...Must be dreaming about his past…” Becoming uninterested in the tragedies that were intertwined with his past and not wanting to bear them, Rouge turned on her opposite side, away from him.

Laying there with her back to him, she crossed her arms and closed her eyes. It wasn't that she didn't care about his past, she just knew that if he were awake, he wouldn't want to share his burden with anyone in fear the same things would repeat themselves.

She heard him move around, and get even more tangled into the sheets, than what he already was, and mumble in his sleep. “Maria…”

“…” From hearing that tragic name pass straggled from his lips, Rouge slightly opened her eyes. She felt sorry for Shadow and what he had to go through…just because he was dubbed the “ultimate lifeform.”

She heard him whisper another name, but it didn't sound like the tragic Maria's. Curious, she started to turn to face him, but then shrugged it off and got comfortable. As she did, she could hear him changing position again and just when she was about to close her eyes, she felt the brush of a hand touch her stomach, then glide down to her thigh…

Without thinking, Rouge back-kicked Shadow and sent him rolling off the edge of the bed, where he bounced off the wall and fell onto the floor with a thud.

“Oh no…! Shadow!” Quickly, she moved to the edge and looked down at him. “I never knew he was so fresh!” She then giggled to herself. “I better keep that in mind…” Mischivieously, she bit her lip, then tried calling to him. “Shadow are you…” she trailed off, quickly deciding that she'd play it off and inched away from the edge.

With an irritated groan, Shadow lifted a hand to his head and rubbed it. “…What…is going on…” he muttered, slurring a few of his drowsy words together. Finding himself next to a wall, it took him a little while to realize that he was on the floor and had somehow fallen out of the bed. With a frown, he slowly tried to get up and looked towards the bed.

It was empty. The layers of sheets were tangled together and the mattress had been shifted to one side. But, other than that, he was completely alone. With a scoff, he cursed himself for allowing such a primitive thing to happen to him, even if he was asleep.

Taking hold of the sheets, he took it upon himself to not leave Rouge's bed looking like a slob slept in it and began making it up. Once he got to her side, he paused and lifted his nose in the air. There was a new and distinct scent in the room.

Light and sweet, he knew it wasn't there before. Tracing the scent closer to Rouge's pillow, he found it to in fact be hers and felt the area.

“It's warm…” he uttered, looking up “…So she was here…”

Averting his attention to the only slither of light in the room, he caught a clear glimpse of her silhouette flying upwards against the glow of the moon.

“Hmph…she's up to something…as always.” With a faint and smug smile, Shadow turned away from the window, and took one last secret whiff of the alluring scent she left behind before leaving the room.

 

“Achoo!” Rouge sneezed. She sat perched on the roof of “Club Rouge” while rubbing her arms in a vain attempt to get warm. “Of all the places I could have gone to hide, THIS was the quickest idea I could come up with?!” Then she chuckled. “Oh well, I guess this is worth it. Besides, I wouldn't want to see the look on his face when he comes up here and---“

“So this is where you are…”

Rouge nearly jumped off the roof from the sound of Shadow's placid voice being so close. With an irritated expression, she turned to face him. “Maybe you should consider ringing a bell before you teleport…!”

Replying to her statement with an unreadable expression, Shadow stepped closer to her on the roof and crossed his arms. “That's not my style. Anyway, what brings you out here….I thought you weren't very fond of the cold…”

`…Damn…!' Rouge shouted in her mind. `He can read me like a book!'

“I'm a big girl, Shadow. I can come and go wherever I please!” she retaliated, shivering slightly.

Shadow's eyes narrowed while observing her obvious shaking. `How admirable.' He thought `She's showing her strength to me…'

He chuckled lowly. Lifting her ears to the sound, Rouge shivered again, but this time, not from the cold. “Wh-what's so funny, Shadow? “

“Heh. Nothing, really. But, ” he started, stepping closer to her “I want you to tell me something.”

Rouge flinched. She knew what was coming. “And what's that?”

He smirked at her through an irritated expression and spoke his words clearly. “ I know that you were in your room just now.”

“…!”

“So…why did you `attack' me in my sleep?”

“Uh..” Rouge stammered, her eyes fleeting while she thought of a seamless cover-up. “Attack you? Now, why would I do something like that? Do you think I get some kind of sick pleasure out of attacking someone sleeping in the same bed as me?”

Shadow raised an eyebrow at the double meaning in her words.“…You tell me…”

“Well…!” she began, looking at him casually with one eye “You can't put the whole blame on me. I was asleep myself.”

“Really…is that so…” he mused, nearing closer to her.

Rouge found herself carefully watching his every step from out the corner of her eye, as she shivered a bit and continued her crafty lie. “Of-of course it is! I just happen to…sleep wild.”

Shadow scoffed, but it sounded more like a chuckle. “Oh…do you…?”

“I do!”

“Hmph. So explain how you got up here on the roof.”

“Well I…I sleep-walk…”

Shadow half smiled. “Hmph. And I suppose you just happened to fly up here while you were asleep also…?”

“What…?” Rouge questioned, then averted her attention elsewhere. `Hmm, that's a new one.' “Well uh…” Rouge hesitated, slowly looking over at him. He looked so smug standing there. She knew that he could see right through her. With a defeated groan, she crossed her arms and turned away. “Allright, fine! You got me. So, I kicked you out of the bed…what's the big deal?”

“You kicked me?!” Shadow groused, making an annoyed sound. “Just what did I do to you?”

Rouge glanced at him. “You…” she quickly trailed off while trying to think of something to say other than the truth. “...It doesn't matter! It's already over and done with! And it's getting late.” she stated, already getting up from her seated position and casually trying to stroll by him. Shadow discreetly studied her every move.

Rouge shuddered. She could feel the fiery hue of his eyes burn straight through her and meet with her heart. She knew he was watching her and slightly ruffled her wings. “You're staring at me…”

“…” Not knowing how to respond to her words, Shadow led his attention away from her and centered it on the broken moon above—the same moon that he helped Eggman destroy by using the Eclipse Cannon. He could tell that as the time went by, pieces of the celestial body had connected back together, but there was still a gaping hole that was quite visible.

Feeling the attention on her start to fade, Rouge turned to Shadow and parted her lips to speak, but kept them silent as her eyes followed his.

“…Do you think we did the right thing…firing that cannon, Shadow?” Rouge asked, her voice low enough to almost be a whisper.

Not taking his eyes from the defragmented crescent, Shadow's brow furrowed in thought. “It doesn't matter now…like you said, what's done is done. The only thing we can hope for is for Eggman's defeat…”

Taking in the fullness of his words, Rouge lowered her eyelids and glanced over at Eggman's “secret” base, the Gimme Shelter. “…One day…” she uttered, not even recognizing her own voice.

Barely hearing her words, Shadow glanced to her. She looked as if she were lost in a lingering thought as if carefully calculating the right moment to strike…

He felt a small smile curve his lips, then sent his attention back to the moon.

After a pause of silence, Shadow finally spoke. His voice was low and deeper than usual.

“Rouge…”

“Hm? Yeah?” she spoke softly, gazing at him with those half-lidded seductive eyes of hers.

“…If there was anything I did that offended you earlier, Rouge, I apologize.”

“You…you do?”

“Yes…” Shadow replied, then tossed her a sly expression. “I can't always control my actions when I'm asleep...just like you, kicking me out of bed…”

Rouge said nothing, but just stared at him, with a light blush on her cheeks. `Yeah…he's a frisky one allright.' Then she swayed her tail and with a thoughtful expression.

“…It's always the quiet ones…” she uttered under her breath.

“Huh?”

Surprised that he heard her, Rouge's face went hot as her ears nervously twitched. Then she quickly played it off with a yawn and a stretch. “Well….I'd love to stay and chat, but this is really cutting into my beauty sleep, so, I'll talk with you later.”

“Hmph” Shadow scoffed while watching her leave. “…Pleasant dreams…”

“Oh? And what are you doing? Planning on going somewhere?”

“…I might.” Shadow replied placidly with crossed arms, looking down at the Gimme Shelter. “…The cool air is rather soothing to me. …And almost anything is better than sharing the same bed with you…” he added, slightly glancing at her with an unreadable expression.

Feeling the blush return to her face, Rouge scoffed and leapt off the roof. Shadow wordlessly watched her as she gracefully floated down to the ground and headed back inside her place.

He chuckled lightly, sounding quite amused.

“…Hmph…”

 

 

----It's baaaaa~~aaack!

 

-Mel