Always by Shadow's side.

"Abraham, if anyone could do this mission, why did you pick Shadow?" Rouge said looking at her boss. Abraham was quiet at that "Well? Is it a new Eggman Base? Is it..."

"It was just some group trying to impress Eggman," Abraham responded as Rouge furrowed her brow quickly "There's a chance they could be successful and we could finally capture him."

Rouge was now fuming "You weren't sure if he was even going to show up!?" she shouted at the Commander who was starting to back down "You are ruining the most important night of my life over a what if!?"

Abraham said "It's just a ball, what makes it so important that you're this upset?" backing away from Rouge poking at his chest as he said "Don't do anything rash, Rouge."

"You know what makes it so important to me!?" the furious bat said tempting to just kick her boss's head off in a fit of rage. "My love life has been tearing me apart!" Rouge practically bellowed "For over the past year, I have been struggling with who is just a friend and who is the man I loved between Knuckles and Shadow, why do you think I'm even here!? How dare you ruin my..."

"What?" Shadow said looking at her as Rouge paused mid rant "You were, using this night....as some sort of...test?", he crossed his arms "I'm done, bother me when you want to go. Call Knuckles and see if he's willing to dance with you." Rouge heard the hurt on his voice as she turned to say something. Shadow stormed off, Rouge deciding to abandoned her anger to try and explain herself, trying desperately to get to him.

Rouge caught up to him by the car saying harshly, not undeservedly so, "Isn't it Knuckles's turn?" as Rouge looked away, "I'm here take you home and that's it." his anger clear on display. "I can't believe I let my guard down, I thought tonight would be easy, a nice night hanging out with my so called best friend, and during the night I felt emotions I long since buried, but it was just to good to be true." he turned in a fury "What was part of your test? The sexy outfit, the cute way you got into the figs, the story of your mother, the dance, the invite in the first place, which part of that was true, Rouge? Maybe none of it was, maybe aside from the outfit, it was a lie. Being turned into a test subject again," Rouge didn't know what to say anymore "I hope I aced it." he said oh so sarcastically as Rouge stood there and took every word of ****. She was in tears, she could feel the make up running down her face, but she didn't care. She deserved every harsh word, every insult. She could hear Shadow panting, he clearly wanted to say more but he just couldn't for whatever reason, he then let out a "Why aren't you talking?"

"Because I deserve this," was a statement Rouge probably didn't expect Shadow to hear " I used you, I was going to use Knuckles too when I made this plan. I don't have anything to say to you Shadow, because what can I say? What would even believe?" she wanted to clutch at her chest her heart was hurting so much. She hurt him, she hurt Shadow, she hurt her best friend, "I could tell you the truth, that all of this was real, all of it, until now...I...I was so happy." she couldn't even look at him confessing everything to his shoes at this point "I wanted to sort things out, but throughout the night I did. You got me to talk about things I haven't thought of in years. I talked about my mother, I never thought I would ever talk about that," she slowly walked to the passenger side door. "Shadow, if you even care, you passed so well I scrapped the idea about testing Knuckles at all, and I still won't test him," she started to make her way in but her gut stopped her, for the first time she looked at the red eyes of the red and black hedgehog that she had grown to love "Just...so you know this, since I don't think we'll be talking in the car. Even if you hate me, even if you can never forgive me, even if you won't love me back, even if Abraham fires you for this, no matter what happens, even if the entire world betrays you, just...know I'll always be at your side." She went to go in "Remember that at least."

Rouge felt an arm pull her up and embracing her, there was silence at first as Rouge knew who this was and what he was doing. She looked down at the black and crimson quills of her best friend as he simply said "I will..." which was enough for Rouge as she hugged him back. Her hand covering her mouth sniffling a bit. Now Rouge felt Shadow's hand wiping her face. "I messed up your makeup, sorry." Rouge playfully hit him not really caring "So, what happens now?"

Rouge looked at him her heart thumping remembering how close they came in that ballroom to a kiss, and how excited she was starting to get, she noticed herself for a moment as she looked at Shadow "Shadow," she asked quietly "I want to go home and, I was wondering, would you like to stay the night" she emphasized those last words as Shadow got the hint.