Bubbly comfort.

A hot bath had just been ran in the apartment of treasure hunter, Rouge the Bat. Bubbles filled to the top just the way she liked it. However, this bath was not for her, she ran this bath for her partner, Shadow the Hedgehog, who was yet to know about his little surprise.

He had just dealt with a weekend long mission, which had the ultimate life form a little achy and just to add more to the usual behaviour, moody.

This was something Rouge had thought of to help him relax, not to mention he was starting to stink up her house. Of course, she had mentioned this to him a few times already, but his exhaustion left him sat on the sofa, resting his eyes every now and again.

"Oh, Shadow," Rouge's voice called from the bathroom, loud enough to reach the hedgehog's ears from the sofa in the living room. He thought he could get away with not having to answer, remaining silent as his mind thought over the mission he had just completed.

His eyes were closed, only the pictures in his mind which the silent room helped him to picture perfectly, it was almost like he was reliving it. However, he sensed something, something out of the ordinary. His eyes slowly opened only to be met with a pair of blue eyes staring right into his own.

He couldn't get away with not answering her now.

"Yes, Rouge?" Shadow asked.

"I called you, Shadow. Didn't you hear me?" Rouge placed her hands on her hips, a stern look upon her face. She knew he did, so it was more of a rhetorical question than anything else.

"My mind was else where," Shadow stated, which he thought was a good enough answer to let him off the hook. "What is it?"

"Well," she began, her stern look replaced with a proud smirk. "I know how exhausting that mission of yours was, I mean, just looking at you pretty much says it all."

Shadow's expression remained blank, emotionless, the usual expression he had when anyone talked to him. "It was exhausting… but nothing I couldn't handle."

"Yeah yeah, I know." Rouge waved a hand before he began his ultimate life form speech before she gotten to what she really wanted him to say. "But, I have a nice little treat for you."

A treat? He had no idea what that could be and was slightly puzzled on why she would have even bothered.

"Oh really?"

"That's right, follow me, handsome." She wiggled her finger for him to follow her before she strolled out of the room.

The thought of the effort to remove his tired self from the sofa was exhausting enough, but, the thought of getting into an argument with Rouge was even more so. Pushing himself up from the sofa he followed her out of the room.

"Rouge?" Shadow called as he had lost her through the bedroom. What could this treat possibly be?

"In here, Shadow." Rouge's voice came from the on-suite bathroom. Giving a small frown he made his way through the bedroom over to the bathroom, the strong smell of lavender filling his nose as he approached closer.

Once he entered, he blinked at what awaited him. The lights dimmed, scented candles scattered throughout and a bubble bath that filled to the top of the tub.

"What…is this?" Shadow asked, a little taken back from it all.

"What does it look like? It's a nice little bubble bath to help with all that stress of yours."

Shadow raised a brow towards the Bat, who seemed very proud of all this, whereas he was just confused to what a simple bubble bath could possibly do to help.

"I don't have time for this…" he turned to face the door. "Thank you, Rouge. But I'd rather not."

What a slap in the face, Rouge's mouth gaped open slightly at that response.

"What? I just went to all this trouble of putting this together so you could relax and you go and throw it in my face?" She gave a small scoff of disgust. "Talk about ungrateful."

Turning to look over his shoulder before he exited the room, he saw Rouge's upset expression. That expression would cause him nothing but grief that entire evening when really all he wanted to do was relax. Giving a sigh of defeat, which he would deny always, he turned and strolled close to the tub, beginning to remove his shoes.

Rouge gave a small smirk of approval once she saw she had won, forgetting that her eyes were focused on him, which Shadow soon picked up on.

"Are you just going to stand there and watch me?"

Startled by his question, she shook off the small awkwardness by countering it with a teasing wink. "Why? Do you want me to?"

His eyes widened ever so slightly, turning his head away from her to hide his small shocked reaction. "Not really."

"Liar." She snickered, just to push the teasing further. Shadow sighed quietly, knowing this wasn't going to pass on it's own.

"Do what you want." He hoped that would result in her leaving, a perfect conversation ender. Or, so he had thought. Checking to see if she had left, he found her now sat on the bathroom counter, grinning straight at him. That wasn't what he had in mind at all. Rolling his eyes, he removed his glove rings followed by his gloves, hesitantly stepping into the tub.

He could feel Rouge's eyes watching him as he did so, trying not to let the heat from the water or her stare throw him off course of getting in the tub elegantly, but he did question in his mind why the bath water was so hot. He could almost feel his fur singeing as the water consumed him when he finally took a seat, the noise of the unnecessary amount of bubbles popping around him. Now what?

"Nice, huh?" Rouge broke the silence, reminding him of her presence.

"I don't see how this is considered relaxing… in fact, I find it quite uncomfortable."

"That's because you've just sat down, genius." She gave an amused eye roll. "Just give it a moment and you'll feel the stress drain away."

"…I doubt it."

"You'll see."

"You're not really going to stand there the entire time I'm in here, are you?" Shadow leant against his hand, which his elbow held up against the side of the tub.

"I'm sitting…" Rouge smirked, which didn't amuse Shadow at all. "Alright, grumpy, I'll pop back in five minutes to see how you're doing."

A hmph sound was heard from the ebony hedgehog which earned an amused eye roll from Rouge as she left the room.

"He's probably going to be long gone by the time I get back," Rouge smirked to herself before heading off to make herself and Shadow some coffee.

The five minutes had long passed, carrying the coffee's, Rouge strolled through her apartment back to the bathroom. Opening the door to peek inside, making sure if he was decent, expecting him to be drying off by now, she found herself looking at a scene she hadn't expected.

Ears lowered, quills lazily pressed on the tub and a peaceful expression on Shadow's face as he had his eyes closed in the tub. Rouge had to blink harshly to make sure she was seeing this right. He'd fallen asleep, she was right. She'd never seen such a vulnerable side to him, which made her smile softly, leaving the room to let him finish his relaxing.

Hope you enjoyed reading this small one-shot. Most random idea ever, but that's where stories come from, I suppose. :) Thank you for reading! xx