Chapter Text
It was Rouge’s idea initially. Something Sonic went along with when it was proposed to him. The biggest obstacle now is coercing their respective boyfriends into following through with their plans and being civil with each other throughout the ordeal. Double dates are not uncommon when two pairs of friends are dating and know each other well enough to converse with both their partner and the other couple without tension. The main issue for Rouge and Sonic is that Knuckles and Shadow do not always get along. Their concern is that they will fight first verbally, then literally across the restaurant table.
“So…how do we keep them from killing each other?”
“Simple!” Rouge exclaims handing Sonic the reservation information. “We keep them occupied so they don't start competing with each other. Give them something else to turn their attention to when the other starts to antagonize them.” Rouge finishes her sentence with a little giggle and pulls out her purse. “I’ve been saving up a bunch of little echidna trinkets and information just so I have plenty of things I can distract Knuckles with while we go on our double dates. What do you have for Shadow?”
Sonic frowns at the ground for a moment, tapping his foot as he thinks. “Shadow’s not easy to distract, but I do know if I’m the one to antagonize him he’ll leave Knux alone for sure!”
“That’s good, except I want Shadow to have a good time. If he’s stuck between both you and Knuckles he’ll end up chaos controlling for sure, no matter how much he loves you.”
“Yeaaaah…” Sonic draws out. “I know he fidgets with his inhibitor rings a lot. A fidget spinner might work.”
“Not a bad idea, blue. Maybe less of a fidget spinner and more of a fidget ring?” Rouge pulls out her phone and shows him a couple different options online. “I think any one of these would work.”
“Cool! I’ll put an order in…” Sonic zips away and returns not a moment later with a red and yellow fidget ring along with a receipt. “...and get it with free shipping!”
“Nice! He’ll appreciate that. First double date this Friday?” Rouge gathers her belongings and gets ready to part ways with Sonic.
“You know it!” Sonic finger guns at her then races away. “See you there!”
“Bye!”
To Sonic’s surprise, Shadow seems pleased with the idea of a double date. Or as pleased as his grumpy facade can be. “What should I wear?” Shadow stands in the mirror, eyeing himself over and standing in different poses.
“Whatever you want to, Shads!” Sonic snakes an arm around his shoulders from behind the ultimate lifeform and ruffles his chest floof fondly. Shadow growls but retains his relaxed posture. “I’m still choosing my outfit, but if it's my opinion you want…” Sonic swings back around and touches his nose to Shadow’s. “I like it when your chest hair spills over a button down.”
Shadow brings his arms around Sonic’s back and brings him into a quick kiss. Shadow chuckles when they part. “Any chance I get to distract you, I’ll take advantage of.”
“You’ll get no complaints from me!” Sonic zips to the other room. “After all, I’m not the one with the larger ego.”
Shadow rolls his eyes in annoyance. “The echidna better not bring up anything that would get him punched in the face.” The ultimate life form walks to grab a couple button downs from his closet to try on. “I swear if I hear one word about Maria, Gerald, Emerl, or anyone else from the Ark, I will give him a piece of my mind.”
Sonic comes back into the room with his own clothes slung over his shoulder and caresses his back, causing Shadow to shiver. “Don’t worry about knuckle-head. Rouge has him under control.”
“Tch. Good.” Shadow comments and starts trying to put together a clothing ensemble for their dinner date tonight.
It seems choosing an outfit is a team dark issue since Knuckles has been standing outside Rouge’s place for the last ten minutes waiting for her to pick something. “Are you done yet?”
“No! Now quit asking. I’ll be done when I’m done.” Some shuffling of items can be heard from the other side of the door and the echidna groans in annoyance.
“We’re gonna be late.”
“Oh please. You say that as if Shadow and Sonic might show up early to something this time.” The door finally swings open and Rouge steps out in a gorgeous purple sequin backless dress with a slit down the left leg. “There! I’m ready now.”
Knuckles’ mouth hangs open slightly, any words he might have said are stolen just like his breath at the sight of Rouge. The bat grins wickedly, happy to see she still has him speechless whenever she dresses up. She cups a hand underneath his chin and gently closes his mouth for him.
“I love that you love the sight of me, but let's not have you catching any flies before our meal tonight. Hm?”
Knuckles coughs into his hand. Luckily his red fur hides most of his embarrassment, but if anybody knew his true emotions better, it is Rouge. “Right. Let’s go.”
Their first double date is a reservation for an upscale Greek diner. Sonic, Shadow, and Knuckles are very aware of Rouge’s ability to sweet talk her way into any deal or arrangement, an ability that has proven useful for all of them at one point or another when it isn’t being used against them. It seems that she used her talents to land them this fancy date idea due to a promise she made with the owner. Something about selfies with the world’s fastest hedgehogs. Sonic and Shadow show up in matching slacks with different color button downs while Rouge arrives with her arms linked to Knuckles in his dapper suit and tie.
They sit together and begin their conversations by making general small talk, something Rouge and Sonic are much better at than their partners. Gradually they draw Shadow and Knuckles into the conversation by choosing topics that peak their interest. Things are going well, until Knuckles accidentally brings up the Ark without thinking. As is expected, Shadow gets defensive which grates on Knuckles composure. Rouge intervenes at the perfect time with an old map she had brought with her of an Echidna artifact dig site. With Knuckle's attention elsewhere, Sonic distracts Shadow with his swagger, spinning the ring of his partner's finger as he does so. With the growing animosity avoided, both Rouge and Sonic’s partners forsake the earlier topic for something mundane.
After the double date, Sonic and Rouge celebrate over text, excited that their master plan had worked to their benefit. After speaking with Shadow and Knuckles, both of them said they had a good time, and even apologized to each other for the initial frigid conversation. With the first double date out of the way, the social butterflies of the pairs went on to plan more stuff they could all do together.
After two weeks that included a walk in the park and a game of mini golf with the ‘squad’ as Sonic referred to them now, Rouge and Shadow found themselves with their third member of Team Dark on a normal mission to reclaim some lost data. “I and Knuckles want to go back to that Greek restaurant! It was delicious! You actually ate something there! And you hardly eat anywhere.” Rouge performs her normal spinning back kicks to a group of robots while Shadow is throwing rows and rows of chaos spears.
“They had good food. And Sonic is persuasive.” Shadow spin dashes into the nearest enemy and glances back to Rouge. “I would not mind returning. I don't think Sonic would either.”
“Wonderful!” Rouge clasps her hands together and pulls up her phone. “I’ll see if I can get us another reservation.”
“CEASE SPEAKING ABOUT ACTIVITIES NOT RELATED TO DESTRUCTION AT ONCE.” Omega rockets over to their position and fires his miniguns at a wall of robots trudging up behind both of his teammates.
“Hang on just a minute, Omega.” Rouge holds up a finger in his direction and the badnik stamps his foot in irritation.
“I WILL NOT ‘HANG ON’! THESE LAST FEW WEEKS YOU TWO HAVE BEEN VERY DISTRACTED DURING MISSIONS!”
Shadow frowns and folds his arms. “We have lives outside of our missions now, Omega. Unlike you.”
“Easy Shadow.” Rouge stills him for a second. “We aren’t workaholics anymore. We don't have to be. Sure Eggman is still a threat, but both I and Shadow have found peace and love outside of the battlefield. We meatbags need to have a better work life balance for both ourselves and our partners now.” She jokes by using his vocabulary, hoping to ease his rage.
Omega drops his shoulders, forsaking his anger for something more similar to distress. “MISSION FREQUENCY DOWN BY 55%. CONVERSATIONS BETWEEN TEAMMATES NOT INCLUDING MISSION DETAILS HAVE ESCALATED. THIS UNIT IS EXPERIENCING…EXCLUSION.”
Shadow lowers his arms and sighs, rubbing his temple. “I was worried this might happen.”
“Oh Omega. We aren’t trying to leave you out! We promise. Its just…there's more to both Shadow and I than just destroying things. We know it's something you love so we are still happy to go on missions with you, but we can't do it as much as we used to.” Rouge snaps her fingers, a brilliant idea popping into her mind. “What if you found someone else you could destroy with? Someone who could go with you on missions when we aren't available.”
“Or…you could try to do something other than destruction. That way you can be part of our lives in other ways.” Shadow offers, softening his frown.
Omega thinks for a moment, before stepping towards them. “THEN I WILL BE PART OF YOUR LIVES OUTSIDE OF DESTRUCTION. INVITE ME TO YOUR NEXT ENGAGEMENT WITH THE BLUE HEDGEHOG AND ECHIDNA.”
Rouge and Shadow share a reproachful glance then turn back to the badnik. Rouge speaks gently, ears drooping as she breaks the news to Omega. “Sorry Omega. It’s a date between partners.”
“I DO NOT HAVE A PARTNER. THIS MEANS I CANNOT PARTICIPATE?”
“Not in that, no.” Shadow shakes his head, frowning deeper and rotating his head away from the badnik.
“CALCULATING SOLUTION FROM DATA ACQUIRED BY ROUGE AND SHADOW. PROCESSING. SOLUTION ACQUIRED. FORSAKING CURRENT MISSION TO PURSUE SOLUTION!” Omega fires his jet engines and flies away from his teammates, leaving them in the dust behind him.
“We can do other things together too you know?!” Rouge tries to yell after him, but Omega is already out of earshot.
“Let him go. He needs to figure this out on his own.”
Rouge sighs. “I know. I still feel bad though.”
“Me too…” Shadow nods, but motions Rouge into following him away from their current location.
The double dates continue for the next few weeks. Messages from Omega and mission spontaneity continue to plummet while Shadow and Rouge plan more outings with their respective partners. At one point, the topic of Omega came up in conversation.
“How’s Omega doing? Is he alright with you two being in relationships?” Sonic casually asks before slurping the smoothie that he has sitting in front of him in an obnoxious manner. The two pairs are enjoying a cafe date together suggested by Shadow.
“We had a talk about it a few weeks ago.” Rouge responds, looking slightly downcast as she remembers their conversation. “He wanted to join us, but…I don't know how Omega would take us being romantic in front of him. He doesn't know this side of us.” Shadow nods once in agreement with her.
Knuckles squints at his partner, seeming to connect two dots together in his mind. “Did you tell him that just because he didn't have a partner, he couldn't join us?”
“Yeah. Why?” Shadow munches on some coffee beans as he squeezes Sonic’s gloved hand that rests on his thigh.
Knuckles begins to laugh, banging his fist on the table to cope with his own amusement. “Haha! So that's why he was over there yesterday!”
“Where was he yesterday? Care to share with the class, handsome?” Rouge asks with a seductive lilt to her voice.
For once, Knuckles seems unfazed. “No no.” Knuckles waves one hand at her, wiping the mirth from his eyes with the other. “You’ll find out. This is gonna be hilarious. Just trust me.”
Another couple weeks pass by and without warning Omega is the first to bring up the topic of their double dates on a mission. Something the other two had agreed to avoid so that they could show the badnik they still appreciate him and want to be in his company, regardless of their work life balance.
“QUERY: WHEN IS THE NEXT DOUBLE DATE?” Omega’s hands spin into his miniguns as he aims at the wave of oncoming buzz bombers approaching their position.
“Thursday night.” Shadow responds as he throws a few chaos spears down the corridor adjacent to Omega’s targets. “Why do you ask?”
“REQUESTING TO JOIN. I HAVE ACQUIRED A DATE.”
“What?” Shadow clocks an Eggpawn against a wall with a fist and back hand-springs into another nearby. “Since when?”
“FOUR WEEKS AGO.”
Rouge flies over once she notices the conversation between the other members of team dark. “Oh! Who?”
“YOU WILL MEET THEM IN PERSON.” Omega launches missiles, destroying the rest of the badniks in their vicinity.
“You’re a robot. I didnt think you were capable of romance.” Shadow folds his arm, exhibiting confusion.
“IT IS NOT ROMANTIC.” Omega states with gleeful abandon.
Squinting at him suspiciously, Shadow pries further. “What is it then?”
“Yay!!!” Rouge cuts off Omega and Shadow’s conversation with a congratulatory remark. “We’re so happy for you Omega. We can't wait to meet them! Whoever they are.”
“INDEED. THIS PARTNER ALSO DESTROYS WITH ME, ROUGE. I HAVE SUCCESSFULLY ANNIHILATED TWO BIRDS WITH ONE BULLET.” Omega boasts proudly, referencing Rouge’s earlier advice.
“Great! Well, like Shadow said, we’re having dinner Thursday night at that Greek restaurant again, but you can't eat! Can your partner?”
“NEGATIVE. BUT THROUGH EXPERIMENTATION, WE HAVE FOUND WORKAROUNDS TO EDIBLE ORGANIC SUBSTANCES. WE WILL STILL ENJOY OURSELVES.”
“That’s not ominous at all.” Shadow remarks sarcastically.
“Well alright then! I’ll let Sonic and Knuckles know we’ll have a third pair joining us.”
“AFFIRMATIVE!” Omega boosts away and happily searches for more badniks to destroy.
Rouge hangs back to glance at Shadow. “I guess I should warn the restaurant owner we might have a giant robot or two joining us this time.”
“Hmph. Good luck.”
Once Sonic and Knuckles are notified of the addition to their now triple date, both of them seem curious about their identity. Only Knuckles had a decent lead on who this mysterious partner is.
“Oh! I bet I can guess who it is!” Knuckles gives a hearty laugh.
“Really Knux? Who?” Sonic asks, drumming on the table in anticipation for the waiter to arrive.
“I wanna see if I'm right first. If not, then I’ll tell you who I thought it was.”
The sound of jet engines descend into the parking lot outside and all four heads turn to investigate. Accompanying Omega is another figure, one with a sleeker and shorter stature than him. The three-pronged swoop on his head gives his identity away instantly to the company surrounding the table inside. Omega sports a black bowtie and Gemerl sports a regular black necktie.
“Haha! I knew it was him!” Knuckles punches his fists together in glee.
“Oh! Gemerl!” Sonic exclaims as he recognizes the robot that currently lives with the Rabbit Family.
“Well I’ll be.” Rouge comments, a smirk forming on her face. “I can’t wait to hear how he landed that steel twinkie.”
Next to Sonic, the ultimate lifeform balls up his fists. The frown on his face deepens as they watch the two robots walk up to the entrance, bantering with each other the entire way. The blue hedgehog notices and rests a hand on his shoulder. “Shads?” Sonic asks, understanding immediately why seeing the reborn gizoid might trigger this sort of response in the ultimate lifeform.
“It’s nothing. I’m fine.” Sonic knows Shadow is lying, but decides not to push it and instead reverts his attention to the new couple as they walk up to their table.
“NOTICE: WE HAVE ARRIVED.” Everyone, save Shadow who barely waves in their directions, vocalizes their greetings one after the other.
“Hey.” Knuckles waves in their direction. “Had a feeling it was you after I saw Omega at Vanilla’s front door a couple weeks ago.”
“Salutations, Knuckles.” Gemerl dips his head once in acknowledgement.
“Eyy! Good to see you out and about, G. You too Omega!” Gemerl waves a hand robotically in response.
“Well isn't this a surprise?” Rouge gives a wide smile, although anyone close enough to her could tell there is a small amount of strain in her voice as her eyes quickly glance to Shadow. “Glad to see you both made a friend. You’re perfect for each other.” She lightly teases.
“YES.” Omega boasts and Gemerl glances away timidly. “THERE IS MUCH DESTRUCTION IN OUR RELATIONSHIP.”
Gemerl rolls his eyes fondly and guides them both to the empty seats at the table.
“Destruction specifically on your end of our companionship.” Gemerl retorts as they sit down next to each other.
In an attempt to turn focus off of Gemerl for Shadow’s sake, Rouge asks Knuckles a deep question about echidna lore. “So, Knuckie. I’ve always been curious about the ancient gardens of Sky Sanctuary! Why not give us a quick history lesson while we wait for the waiter to take our order.”
“Oh the gardens were amazing. The tastiest grapes ever! There aren't many grape vines left, but I do what I can to take care of the ones my ancestors left me.” With the conversation rerouted, the group settles into the groove of their first triple date when the waiter shows up five minutes later to take food orders.
Rouge orders a fancy exotic fruit buffet to cater to her exquisite tastes. Sonic orders a loaded chilli sausage, with toppings spilling over the plate. Knuckles orders gyro, and Shadow barely acknowledges the waiter, uttering a ‘no thanks’ when asked about food.
The waiter took one look at the robots and sighed, but takes their order anyway.
“SPAGHETTI.”
“It is referred to as pastitsio here, Omega.” Gemerl corrects the larger robot, then turns his attention back to the waiter. “I would like that as well, please. May I have vegetables added on? Preferably inside the sauce if possible.” The waiter gives them bewildered looks, glancing at Rouge for confirmation. The bat shrugs with a smile and the waiter leaves quickly when Omega turns one of his claws into a gun when he notices his disbelief.
Gemerl rests a hand on his massive forearm. “Not yet.” Omega grunts and turns his gun back into his hand.
Once food arrives, all pairs of eyes glance at the robots curious to see what they would do with the edible substances in front of them. Omega ignores all of his utensils and shoves his claws into the food he ordered, tearing out the noodles from inside the pastitsio as if he had a vendetta against them. Sonic and Knuckles laugh heartily at his antics, while Rouge and Shadow share a disgusted look, yet roll their eyes knowing they should have expected behaviour like this from their friend.
Gemerl notices everyone staring then explains the odd behaviour. “Omega pretends the food is Eggman’s flesh.”
“DIE DIE DIE.” Omega exclaims in a monotone voice.
“It is comical to watch if you ignore the awful mess.” Unlike the robot next to him, Gemerl picks up the utensils and begins to cut into the noodles while sorting the various chunks of the spaghetti sauce into different groups on his plate.
“Well as long as you guys are having fun, I don't mind what ya do.” Sonic is able to stop his laughter and wrap an arm around Shadow attempting to bring him out of his head and back into the present. He spins the ring once, but frowns when he notices Shadow finding more interest in the patterns on the table than the motion on his finger.
Despite not actually eating the food, Omega ‘finishes’ around the time everyone else does. His hands are all covered in sauce with some splatters here and there around his chest. Rouge rolls her eyes and finally allows herself to laugh at the sight. “I don't know what else I was expecting. Did you enjoy yourself?”
“AFFIRMATIVE! IMAGINARY EGGMAN EFFICIENTLY MAIMED.”
“I would certainly hope so.” Gemerl grabs a napkin from a table nearby and begins to wipe him off. “Many guests were here to witness your victory.” It is meant as sarcasm, but Omega does not seem to care, happily brandishing his claws for Gemerl to clean off.
Knuckles cackles. “Dinner and a show! You guys are a riot!”
“A crowd of people disturbing peace?” Gemerl asks him in confusion.
“Figure of speech.” Shadow aggressively corrects under his breath and the reborn gizoid gives him a curt nod, but pretends not to hear the tone of voice.
Omega’s eyes wander to Gemerl’s plate hungrily and the Gizoid quickly moves to protect it once he notices. “Absolutely not. I gave you my plate the last three times we went out.”
“THE RECOLLECTIONS ARE NOT IN MY DATABANKS! THEREFORE IT DID NOT HAPPEN.” Omega reaches for his plate of perfectly sorted food but Gemerl holds it away and smacks at his grabby claws with loud metal twangs playfully.
“Figures. With how much you love to destroy, one would think you would better remember what your guns and claws tear apart.”
One of Omega’s claws finds it’s way to his plate, keeping it in a stalemate between them. Then, Omega leans his chassis and head closer to Gemerl’s level, making direct eye contact with his partner. “I REMEMBER YOU.”
Gemerl’s fans kick up a notch at the rare flirtatious behaviour and the Gizoid faces away from the table bashfully. His hold on his food loosens ever so slightly allowing Omega to swipe it from him. “I would be insulted if you did not.”
As Knuckles and Rouge laugh at their antics, Shadow grits his teeth in anger and scrapes his fingers across the table. Sonic lowers his voice and encompasses the hand nearest to him in both of his palms. “Shads? I miss him too, but Gemerl isn’t Emerl. He seems happy. I think that's what Emerl would have wanted for anyone who might’ve come from his data.” Shadow allows himself to calm down for just a second, but still glares in his robotic teammate’s direction.
“Omega. Outside.” The ultimate lifeform seethes. The joyous noises from the table cease all at once as Shadow raises his voice for the first time that night. Omega and Gemerl share a glance unreadable to the eyes of the others in the room and the badnik slowly begins to rise from his seat.
“Shadow, chill. They are just here for a good time, like we are.” Knuckles comments through a mouthful of food. Rouge and Sonic share a panicked glance as the ultimate lifeform’s rage flares up again. Shadow quickly rises from his seat at the table and he brandishes a chaos spear at the echidna. Multiple gasps sound from around the restaurant as all eyes turn to the situation unfolding at their table. Rouge and Sonic have become painstakingly aware that they did not account for the possibility of how the new additions might indirectly brew animosity between their hot-headed partners.
“Don't you dare tell me what to do!” Shadow growls, refusing to take his eyes off the echidna.
“Remember gentlemen, we are in a restaurant.” Rouge politely reminds both of them, reaching her hands out in an attempt to regain the squad’s hard-earned peace. She attempts to distract Knuckles with a little echidna pendant, but he seems too busy staring Shadow down.
“C’mon Shadow.” Sonic stands up next to his partner, mimicking Rouge’s tactic of distraction by spinning his ring. “Won’t you sit back down next to me? We were having a good time.”
“I will,” Shadow responds, shifting his focus between Knuckles and Omega. “Once we settle this.”
Gemerl lowers his head, facing away from the conflict rising across the table. “Do not concern yourselves further. I am aware when I am not welcome. I will vacate the premises.” Omega subtly raises a claw in Gemerl's direction, but the gizoid turns away from him and rises from his chair.
“Now look at what you’ve done!” Knuckles growls at Shadow, matching his position by standing across the table from him and squaring up.
“Knuckles sweetie.” Rouge warns, standing up and laughing nervously.
“GEMERL.” Omega calls for the smaller robot while speed walking after him, nearly taking out the glass door with his wide frame.
“Awww.” Sonic frowns watching them escape the building. Shadow moves to follow them, but Sonic holds onto his shoulders loosely. “Just give ‘em a moment to talk. They might come back.” Shadow grits his teeth, but directs his full attention back to the echidna which in turn angers Knuckles further.
Gemerl’s steps slow to a halt outside of the building, allowing the badnik to catch up to his form. “I should not have come. Both Rouge and Shadow avoid speaking to me whenever they visit the Rabbit Family household. I am not sure why I thought tonight might be any different.”
“SHADOW HAS ALWAYS BEEN SENSITIVE OF HIS INACTIVE ALLIES. THAT IS HIS ISSUE, NOT OURS.” Omega retorts, standing by the Gizoid's side.
“He made it our issue tonight. I had a suspicion all he and the others would see is Emerl.”
“CONFESSION: THIS UNIT WAS NOT AWARE OF YOUR PREDICAMENT.” Omega comments. “I NEVER MET YOUR PREDECESSOR.”
“That is why I consider your company satisfactory. You carry no preconceived ideas of me, except for the facts stored within your database. I am not the ghost of a different robot to you.” Omega does not speak and just stares at the gizoid with attentiveness.
After a brief moment of silence, Gemerl continues. “I can stand to live within your superiority complex. It is nothing compared to the distraught I experience whenever I am referred to as Emerl. You just compare me to yourself; a much easier correlation to withstand.”
“I AGREE.” Omega states with utter confidence after Gemerl finishes.
“Amusement: rising.” Gemerl reacts and leans against one of the badnik’s massive shoulder blades. A faint crash sounds from behind them. They both turn their heads to view the violent scene unfolding through the windows of the Greek restaurant. “Query: should we return?”
“NEGATIVE. I WILL SPEAK TO SHADOW LATER. LET US ENJOY OURSELVES ELSEWHERE. THERE IS MORE ENTERTAINMENT TO BE HAD DESTROYING BADNIKS NOT OVERLOADED WITH COMPLICATED MEATBAG EMOTIONS.”
“Fine, but you did promise that the next date we went on would include something other than destruction.” Gemerl firmly reminds him.
“AFTER TONIGHT, I NEED TO DESTROY FIRST. THEN, I WILL HUMOR YOU.”
Gemerl nods, understanding his reasoning without a need for Omega to voice it. “Very well.” By firing their jet engines, the two robots fly off into the night leaving Sonic and Rouge to sort out the argument in the restaurant.