User blog comment:BrutaLity/Shadouge/@comment-1206330-20100420120707

Shadow and Rouge being teammates would kind of negate an actual pairing because if Shadow actually felt that way about Rouge, then it would get in the way of his work. He doesn't want anything to do that - his work is his number 1 priority (maybe number 2 after himself.... idk) Rouge isn't quite as concerned with the mission as she is with the reward. Acting in her flirtatious manner towards Shadow is for fun. Its sort of like someone saying "Are you coming on to me?" And the other person saying. "Do you want me to?" - making it SEEM like they're interested, but only joking around.

However, in this case, Rouge may actually have those feelings for Shadow, but buried so deep, that only the tip of it ever shows and not even she knows it really exists. If this were to be the case, then eventually SEGA would have Rouge find it out, and Shadouge would become less of a speculation and actually have a canonical definition, instead of all this gossip by the fans.

In the end, it all depends on how you interpret the characters and their actions, and how biased you already are. Some biased against Shadouge will totally deny the notion, while ignoring hints towards its existence. Those biased TOWARDS it will totally ship it, while ignoring the evidence it doesn't exist.

At the moment, Shadouge isn't fully real, but is still slightly there, a ghost of what may or may not come.