You& me, and our mate

ch 22; The slightly disappointing date

'

Saturday. And Knuckles was so nervous.
Not 'Cause he would leave Silver in Rouge's care ... And not since he would be on a date with Shadow on a semi-formal restaurant.
It 'Cause he has a hidden agenda behind the date... There he would ask for Shadow's hand, and approval to marry him...
The small box with the engagement ring was hidden in the pocket of his black suit trousers.
The echidna was dressed in a white shirt with opened collar, and a gray vest outwardly.
While his date, Shadow, wears a white t-shirt with an opened suit jacket in black. And plain black jeans.

Knuckles couldn't stop looking at his boyfriend. And excitement and worry crawled all over him.
Would Shadow say, I do?

The round table has a red cloth on top, with lit candles on the middle of the table.
The flame shines on their faces, and left a warm color at them.
Their assigned waiter placed one plate to each of them, with a small sandwich with lettuce, egg and a lot shrimps on top. Where a single slice of lemon decorated the sandwich.
The waiter looks asking at them.
" May I ask if you gentlemen want any wine? Or something else to drink?"
Knuckles nods.
" Sure-... We could take wine now... What do you suggest?"

The waiter looks over at the echidna.
" If you want any wine while enjoying shrimps, you should choose a white wine such as; Muscadet, Riesling, Prosecco, Torrontés, Pinot Blanc and Sauvignon Blanc... " he starts telling him.
Knuckles let's out a low chuckle.
" Alright-... Then you can give us any of them... Pick the one you like best..." he smiles.
The waiter bows.
" As you wish sir-..." he says, and walks temporarily away to get a bottle.

Shadow smiles shyly at Knuckles.
"... You really don't need to overdo the evening-... I'm only happy with spending time with you..." he blushes.
Knuckles smiles widely at him.
" Don't worry-... You deserve having an awesome evening... And it's been awhile since I last were at such a place... So, we better enjoy ourselves..."
Shadow nods when the waiter comes back with a bottle in the hands.

The waiter clears the throat a little to gain their attention.
When the two were looking curiously at him, he smiles.
" The wine I have chosen is Pinot Grigio-... It is a very light, and refreshing white wine... It has a citrus taste with salty undertones with honey-like aroma... And these flavors would work perfect to the shrimp sandwich..."  he tells them.
Knuckles nods.
" It sounds great-..."
The waiter smiles at him.
" Would you like to taste the wine?" He asks Knuckles.
The echidna chuckles, and moves the glass toward the waiter. With its foot still on the table.
" Of course-... You can give me a little of the wine..."
The waiter takes the cap off of the bottle, and starts pouring a little wine into Knuckles' glass. Just a little, so the echidna could taste it.

Knuckles picks the glass up, and starts whirling the wine around a little.
Then he sniffed the wine where its aroma starts bouncing around in his nose.
The echidna raises the glass against the lips, and starts slowly swallowing the wine.
At first he let's the wine moving around on the tongue, then he swallowed it down.
Knuckles puts the glass back down on the table with little wine still inside.
He gives the waiter an approval by nodding.
" The wine is perfect-... And we would love having a glass of that wine for our starter..."
The waiter nods.
" As you wish, sir- ..." he says and starts pouring wine to them both.
Then he leaves them alone until it's time for the main course.

The two morbians start enjoying the food.
Shadow places the cutlery down, and starts swallowing the white wine down.
"... Do you think Rouge is alright with Silver?-... Or do you think something has happened?... We haven't heard anything from her..." Shadow asks curiously with a hint of homesickness, where he missed the hoglet.
Knuckles let's out a short chuckle, and cuts a piece of the half eaten sandwich.
" Don't worry Shadz-... Everything is alright... Rouge will only call us, if anything happened... She doesn't wants to interrupt our evening..." he explains.
The hedgehog sighs, and looks to the side.
"... Yeah-... You might have right..." he mumbles, and placed the glass back down.
The echidna smiles.
"... You are very beautiful tonight-..." he flirts.
Shadow grunts surprised, and flinches the eyes back at him.
"... What?..." he swallows hardly with increased heartbeats.
Knuckles shrugs.
"... You are beautiful-... And I love seeing you in that suit jacket... It makes you very handsome..."
Shadow blushes.
" I-... I..." he stutters, and clears the throat while squirming a little on the seat.
"... Y-you are very handsome yourself... I-... Can't remember seeing you in any kind of formal clothes... The vest and the shirt look great on you..." he adds shyly, and looks a slightly down at the table instead at the other person.

The mood was perfect, and Knuckles gets even more excited of the evening.
The echidna clears the throat.
" S-shadow-... Can I ask you something?" He blushes.
The hedgehog looks up at him, and sits more upright.
" Sure?-... What's on your mind?" He blinks confused.

Knuckles inhales deeply.
"... Where do you stand with the thought of marriage?... Would you want to get married one day?" He asks curiously, and slides one hand down from the table where he shoves it, into the pocket where the hand gives the small box a gentle squeeze. 
He wouldn't propose now-... But he would later-  ... If Shadow wants to get married...

At first Shadow remained silent due the question bounced around in the head.
He hadn't thought a lot about marriage... That part has never been really important for him.
He would be perfectly happy if he could find a mate Mephiles and he could share... Which they have done now... So-... Do he cares about getting married?

Knuckles furrows the eyebrows in worry, and clears the throat.
" S-shadow?" He says to wake Shadow up from the thoughts.
The hedgehog jolts where he confused looks at the other.
Knuckles raises an eyebrow.
"Well?-... Could you see yourself getting married? Maybe not now... But in the future?"
The dark furred hedgehog parts the lips slowly. What should he answer on that?
A few hesitant seconds later, he shrugs.
" Honestly?" He says where Knuckles nods nervously.
The hedgehog sighs.
"... Well-... I wouldn't mind being married..." he starts saying and caused Knuckles to bright happily up with a wide smile.
"... But!-..." Shadow adds, and made Knuckles confused.
"But?-..."
Shadow shrugs, and leans back at the seat.
"... I don't care about having any ceremony, where others would attend and celebrate our marriage... I don't mind having the ring on the finger... But-..." he starts explaining where he looks seriously at Knuckles.
"... If you want to have a classic wedding... And getting a wedding at all... You should propose to Mephiles...  He cares more about those kind of things... And honestly?-... He deserves getting a wedding... I will always celebrate valentine's day... Which he can't...Or would ever be able to celebrate... And my shitty family always celebrated Christmas at the 24th... And since Mephiles only appears on odd-numbered dates-... He could never celebrate Christmas with new cooked dinner where the family sat down, and enjoyed the day... At the best, my brother got a gift the next day, and could eat the leftovers... If there would be any leftovers from the Christmas dinner... So-... If I could ever give my brother anything... It would be a wedding... So-... Count me out when it comes to getting married... If you want that part-... You should ask Mephiles..." he tells Knuckles, and broke the magic  between them.

Knuckles hand slides out from the pocket where the box remained.
The thought of how coldly Mephiles' family treated him, caused few tears to appear in the corners of the eyes.
He inhales sniffling.
"... I-... I understand... And-... He is lucky having a brother as you... I might not having the best family either... But at least I had a good start of the life while my parents were still alive... But-... The thought of being left out from the start?... That's awful... And I'm surprised how great he handles those things, and keeps going on without any bigger struggles..." he says. Sad over the information of Mephiles shitty childhood... But also disappointed due Shadow doesn't want to celebrate a wedding with him...
But despite he was disappointed of getting his dream wedding shattered, he was still happy with spending his life with him... And with Mephiles of course.
The thought of Mephiles taking care of Silver, and trying to cook something nice for them-... Makes Knuckles heart to pound in pure happiness...
Such a shame Mephiles and Shadow share the same body... Even though Knuckles wouldn't admit himself as polyamorous, he would love having the two hedgehogs in one arm each.
It really sucks he could only have them half of the time... And not all the time...

Knuckles and Shadow keep eating, where the evening turned out great. Despite things didn't turned out as planned...