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Description
Rouge sat on a blanket that was spread out over the bed of a Nissan Titan. The only light was the glow from the moon and the moonlight shining on Crawford Lake. Her cell was turned off. The silence was uncomfortable, suffocating. She felt as if her heart were trying to drill a hole through her rib cage.

A strong gloved hand gently touched her face. "You're so beautiful," a gentle voice whispered in her ear.

She turned to find herself staring into the eyes of her boyfriend, Knuckles. She felt his hand travel to the back of her head, entangling his fingers in her white silvery hair. He pulled her close, pressing his lips onto hers.

She inhaled sharply, then snaked her arms around his neck. She opened her mouth, allowing him entrance. Their tongues danced; teenage hormones going wild.

With one fluid, skillful movement, Knuckles pulled Rouge over him, and then leaned back against the back window of the truck. Without missing a beat, Rouge continued kissing him. She wasn't necessarily sitting on him; she was almost crouched over him.

Knuckles' hands slowly started exploring the young virgin's body. He apprehensively slid one rough hand up her leg, while the other gripped her hair. With gentle pressure on the small of her back, he pushed her down so that she was straddling him, which in turn made her involuntarily grind against his groin. Choosing to be more daring, he snaked his hand up her shirt, relishing in the softness of her skin.

Trying to ignore, or rather fight, her nervousness, Rouge chose to be a little more daring herself. Her lips left his and started trailing his neck. She expected her first time to be a little more magical, but at least they were in front of a lake…where other couples frequently visit.

Pushing those thoughts aside, she started unbuttoning his blue button-up T. It was already halfway undone, exposing some of his ripped chest and the upside down white moon-like mark.

"Hey," He whispered, almost growled, in her ear.

"Hm?" She answered, stopping her ministrations, locking her blue eyes onto his purple ones. The pale light from the moon, plus her straddled over him caused his face to shadow. Somehow, Rouge found this very attractive.

"Do you want to try something?" He asked, letting the hand that was on her back roam downward slowly.

'Oh my god! She thought, her heart racing, I'm about to lose my virginity to this guy and he's already asking me to do some weird kinky shit! Oh my god! I don't think I can handle it!'  "L-like what…exactly?" She asked nervously, climbing off of him and sitting next to him.

Rouge could tell what she was thinking; being that he had some experience before with women. "Don't worry," He said soothingly, "I'm not going to try anything you don't want to do."

Just the right words a naïve teenager needs to hear to feel all better. "Then what is it?" Rouge said, changing her tone of voice.

"I want to do something with you that will make this better for both of us," He answered, running his lips over her neck up to her long ear. His hand had long since left the inside of her shirt, and was now rummaging through his pants pocket.

"What're you doing?" Rouge asked, thinking he was pulling out a condom. But what he held in front of her face was not a condom in the least. "Oh my god is that-?"

"Yes." He said, smirking slightly. He opened the bag of cocaine, and then held it in one hand. With his other, he made the letter "L" with his forefinger and thumb, holding it horizontally. Very carefully he poured the tiniest bit of the pure white powder onto the piece of skin that was stretched in-between his two fingers. Rouge's eyes were wide as she watched what he was doing. She had never seen this sort of thing before. The most she's ever done was smoking and a bit of drinking and that was it. Knuckles raised his hand to his nose, making it look like he was trying to grab his entire face between his thumb and forefinger. He inhaled deeply, lowering his hand.

After a moment, he turned to Rouge. "Do you want to try it?" He asked.

"I don't know…" She said, unsure about what just happened in front of her.

"Aw c'mon, you'll like it," He chuckled.

"What will happen to me? Will I be alright?"

"I'm fine, aren't I? And the most that will happen is that your nose will burn, just not for long."

"You know I trust you, right?"

"Sure,"

"Don't you dare break it, Knux!" Her eyes were dead serious; locked onto his.

"I promise." He smiled, kissing her lips. He felt her sharp intake of breath.

"Alright," She said when they broke apart.

Knuckles grabbed her hand, looking at her fingers and slid off her glove.

"What are you doing?" Rouge asked.

"Deciding which of your claws is longest. I don't have long claws, so I had to use the space between my fingers, but you do…it makes it easier." He found a finger that had a satisfactory nail on it. It was her pinky claw. "This one," He said, holding the bag open for her, "Just scrape some up into your claw, and then snort it."

Rouge felt a brand new sense of nervousness that had nothing to do with the reasons she was nervous before. With a slightly trembling hand, she obeyed Knuckles. She inhaled, pressing in the nostril opposite from the one she had her nail under.

Immediately, Rouge felt her heart hammer faster. She felt as if her mind were going through a million thoughts a second, but her motor skills couldn't keep up. A new energy washed over her, as if she could fly a mile and not break a sweat.

"How do you feel?" Knuckles asked.

"Amazing!" She said breathlessly, locking eyes with her boyfriend.

Knuckles smirked, then pressed his lips onto hers, parting them with his tongue. He pushed himself on top of her and started undoing his pants.

"ROUGE!" Came her father's voice all of a sudden.

Knuckles and Rouge jumped and scampered away from each other as fast as possible.

"What are you doing?"

Rouge suddenly snapped back to reality. She had been sitting at her long crystal dining table in a depressed daze, that she forgot that she had a frozen pizza in the kitchen's oven cooking.

"I don't mean to fuss at you, dear," Her father said, taking the almost-done-for pizza out of the oven, "But you really need to focus. You've been in acting as if your mind were on another planet for the past week."

"I'm sorry, dad," Rouge said, sighing, "I've just been a bit stressed. I have a lot on my mind, ya' know?"

"Well, if you ever feel like you need to talk, your mother and I are both here for you." He smiled at his    young bat daughter, "And hey, at least your pizza is still eatable!" He chuckled, leaving the kitchen.

Not even two minutes later, her mother entered the room. A black, fancy, curvy bat. "Rouge, you have a visitor!" She said , "And it's about time, don'cha think?"

Her heart skipped, she suddenly forgot about her daydream of Knuckles. "Who is it?" She asked.

"It's Amy!"

Rouge stood up and walked out of the kitchen to the living room. Amy was sitting on the couch, looking a little peeved.

"Hey," Rouge said, trying to mask her disappointment.

"Well damn," Amy said, easily seeing right through her, "Don't roll out the red fucking carpet or anything."

"I'm sorry, Ames." Rouge sighed, sitting next to her friend, "I haven't heard from Shad in over a week, but I really haven't had the time to go see him either. His phones always off to top it off."

"Hm. Well, you know how he is. He gets into those weird bi-polar-y moods and just has to be left alone." Amy said matter-of-factly, "Sonic gets like that too, though. I think it's a guy thing. They're like cats…they'll let you pet them as long as they want you to. Then they go off to do their own thing until they feel it necessary to grace you with their presence."

"And what are we?" Rouge asked, slightly amused at her analogy.

"Dogs."

"Dogs? How so?"

"We're insecure; we always need reminding of how special and wonderful we are, and we need constant attention. If we don't get those things, we feel as if something's wrong…just like a dog."

Rouge laughed. It was slightly true, but she also knew Amy's extremist attitude toward men. She didn't blame her, as she's been done wrong too many times, but sometimes she did take it too far.

"So why have you decided to grace me with your presence? Is Sonic's studying going well, or is it so exasperating that you need a break?" Rouge giggled, "Sorry, that was a little mean."

"No it's going fine, actually," Amy said smiling, her cheeks turning a little pink, "Especially since we've got a sort of reward system thing…"

"Ohhhhkay then, that's one of those need-to-know kinda things."

"Yeah, well, anyway, since you say you haven't heard from Shadow, you obviously haven't heard the news."

"What news…?" Rouge asked, apprehensively. "It's not another slut-friend is it?"

Chi-Chi laughed coldly, "Do you honestly think I would waste my time driving all the way out here if that's all I had to say? I could have just called you."

"Uhm, you could have just called me anyway."

Amy glared at her, not liking to be made an ass out of. "Just listen to me!"

"Okay! Okay!"

"Shadow's going to another school to finish out his Senior Year."

"Are you serious?" Rouge said in disbelief, "Why in the world would he do that?"

"His father's making him."

"How'd you find out?"

"Sonic told me, but I think he pestered Shadow about it until he told him. Don't ask me all the details, because I don't know 'em. All I know is that Shadow argued with his dad, no surprise there, and then he was told he was to go to the academy—"

"The academy?" Rouge said, eyes wide in shock, "You don't mean the Christian Academy, do you?"

"Well that's the only private school around here."

"Oy, Shad's not going to like that; now that you mention all this, maybe that could be the reason why he is being so distant."

"Yeah, I agree."

"Well, I think we should go visit him!" Rouge said, determinedly. She stood up and placed her right hand on her hip and pointed to the roof with the other, not caring if she looked exaggeratedly dramatic .

".Are you sure? You know how he gets when he's in a mood."

"I don't care." Her thoughts traveled to the night he climbed through her window, then left without a word to her since.
Amy took a good look at Rouge. "You care for him an awful lot, don't you?" She asked, suspiciously.

"Yeah, sure," Rouge answered with a shrug, "I'm his friend, that's what I'm supposed to do. Why?"

"I don't know, I've just never seen you act this way before…especially over him."

"Aw! Don't do that, Ames! I don't like him like that, and I know that's what you're getting at! He's like a brother! It wouldn't work out, anyway!" She looked away, remembering Shadow's and hers little tryst in old grave yard…if that's what you call it.

"Okay, then, you don't have to get so defensive." Amy said, still a little suspicious.

"Your car or mine?" Rouge said quickly, ready for a change of subject.

"Shadow lives way out there," Amy said, "And I'm borrowing my dad's gas-guzzler, so what do you think?"

"Oh, okay," Rouge said, picking up the keys to her Camry.
After letting her parents know where she was going, they jumped in the car and left.

__________________________________________________________

Shadow's head spun. He couldn't believe he stooped so low as to drink by himself the previous night.

He hadn't been awake for long, but the hangover he had was such that going back to sleep was already sounding like a great idea. He was already in his bed, just laying there. All he had on was a slightly baggy pair of jeans which fell just below his hips, exposing a bit of his boxer shorts; and socks. In short: All he had to do was roll over and he'd be gone. He closed his eyes for a minute.

No. He wasn't going to lay about today. He needed to do something besides that.

Getting up and futilely pulling up his pants, he staggered down the stairs and made his way to the kitchen. The window's shades were drawn up, letting in bars of sunlight through. He hissed, squeezing his eyes shut as the light burned him due to his current and sensitive state. He blindly shut the little kitchen curtains, relieving himself from the overly-bright sunlight.

He took a cup down from the cupboard and filled it with water from the tap. He chugged it, and was ready to refill it when a knock at the door distracted him. With the housekeeper on vacation, he had to answer the door himself, which annoyed him. Along with answering his stupid phone, he hated answering the door. He just hated answering anything, period.

Not caring to look through the peephole, he placed his hand on the doorknob. He braced himself for the wicked sunlight that would pour in any second; he opened the door, ready to bitch out whoever was inconveniencing him.

Rouge gasped. She had been expecting Shadow to answer the door, but not like this. Regardless of the fact that he was shielding his eyes, and had looked surlier than usual, she couldn't help but ogle at his shirtless, perfectly muscular upper body that was leaning against the threshold and his ebony fur shining with the sun's bright rays, the fact that his pants were slightly too big, falling just a little, exposing part of his hip bones that weren't covered by his boxer shorts underneath made it that much more difficult not to look away. And if she weren't mistaken, Amy was looking a bit more than she ought to as well.

"Well, don't fucking stand there all day," Shadow said, turning his back to them and walking away toward the living room, leaving the door open for them to freely walk through. The view from behind was just as compelling. Rouge never noticed before how his lower back dimpled.

"Someone dump cold water on me," She heard Amy whisper, which thankfully brought her back to reality. She was also feeling thankful that someone was sharing her exact thoughts.

"He's a fucking jerk," Amy continued, "but I'll be damned if he isn't a good-looking jerk."

"Oh my God, Amy!  What about Sonic?" Rouge hissed, looking toward the kitchen, making sure Shadow couldn't hear.

"I can look all I want, just as long as I don't touch, right?" Amy giggled.

"Are you two gonna stand there all day?" Shadow snapped, walking into the room, slipping on a Dimmu Borgir: Death Cult Armageddon t-shirt that he had stolen off of the pile of clean clothes that were thrown carelessly on the couch. It was obvious that Shadow didn't do chores, but the house wasn't a pig sty either.

"Sorry," Rouge muttered, her mind leaving the gutter, "I—I mean we—wanted to stop by and see how you were doing."

Amy scoffed as if to say "not my idea!" Rouge gave her a look that suggested that she stop with the attitude.

"Well, as you can see, I am fine." He said, as if it were the most obvious thing on the planet. He walked toward the kitchen.

"Like hell you are!" Amy snapped. She was the only one Shadow didn't intimidate. The followed him into the kitchen. "Look at yourself, you look extremely worn out! You haven't kept in contact with any of us, except for maybe Sonic." Her eyes fell on the empty 1/5th of Hennessy and glass tumbler next to it. It had a layer of water from melted ice cubes inside. "You polished that off all by yourself?" She asked, raising an eyebrow.

Shadow glared at her. "So what? I don't know what that idiot boyfriend of yours has told you, but you can believe me when I say that I don't need anyone checking up on me."

"When we heard that you had to transfer all of a sudden," Rouge said gently, "Of course we'd be concerned. I mean, I haven't heard from you since—since over a week ago."

Shadow's features softened slightly. He knew exactly what she was talking about, and was thankful she was tactful enough to not mention anything. It also surprised him…some. "Yes, well, it's true." He said less harshly, "There's nothing I can do about it, as I've already tried."

"Please forgive me for saying this," Rouge said in a low voice, "But neither you or your dad are religious; why the Christian Academy of all places?"

Shadow sighed, "In the end, every decision my father makes is for his benefit. I suppose it makes him look better to have a child that attends a religion-based school; makes him look more stable. Why he didn't do this a long time ago is beyond me. The only thing I can come up with was that it was a waste of his time to go through the trouble of enrolling me himself, instead of having the schools do it. He also sees it as a form of punishment."

Amy and Rouge gasped. "What did you do?" Amy asked.

"Got arrested," Shadow said with a smirk, "The old bastard bailed me out; after, of course, nailing some slut whom he gave permission to go through my things." He downed the water he poured for himself, "Gave the officer that arrested me a nice tip, too." He added thoughtfully.

"Why were you arrested?" Rouge asked, happy she was getting to the bottom of why Shadow stayed with her that night.

"I got into a fight, if you could even call it a fight. The police showed up, the three bitches that started with me ran off. I got caught, obviously, dad paid my bail, we got into a fight, then I…" His eyes met with Rouge's, "Left. There, I hope that satisfied your curiosities."

"Wow. That's crazy!" Rouge said.

"You know what?" Amy asked, "I just had an idea, and I think it's a great one."

"What is it?" Rouge asked turning to her.

"Well, you know that my dad has a beach house that he uses when he's visiting the costal-location restaurant? Why don't we stay there for a week?"

Shadow scoffed.

Rouge rolled her eyes at him. "I like that idea! It would be great to get away from here for a while. Just let Sonic know."

"Yeah, and I will talk to my dad about it." Amy said, "He'll go for it, no doubt, since I passed my EOC's. Shadow doesn't have to worry about permission, and I'm sure Sonic's grandfather won't have a problem either. Unfortunately, trying to convince your parents will be our biggest problem." She gave Rouge a "sucks for you" kind of smile.

"Yeah, they aren't going to trust me alone for a week with two boys." She said meekly.

"I don't see how," Shadow said, after being silent for most of the conversation, "You're always alone with us."
"Yeah well that's here. They think that the housekeeper is here watching us, and they can always come get me in twenty minutes if they want to. I'm easily accessible."

"It's that 'easy access' that got you in this in the first place!" Amy snapped. Shadow snorted, trying to mask his laughter. He remembered the time Rouge had told them how she and Knuckles got "busted".
The way her muzzle would flush in a deep red and her eye brows would twitch...

Rouge glared then folded her arms. "Anyway, I'll be at least two hours away. I'll ask, though. I mean the incident was almost two years ago, and I'm going to be eighteen this coming January, so maybe it'll work."

Description
Rouge sat on a blanket that was spread out over the bed of a Nissan Titan. The only light was the glow from the moon and the moonlight shining on Crawford Lake. Her cell was turned off. The silence was uncomfortable, suffocating. She felt as if her heart were trying to drill a hole through her rib cage.

A strong gloved hand gently touched her face. "You're so beautiful," a gentle voice whispered in her ear.

She turned to find herself staring into the eyes of her boyfriend, Knuckles. She felt his hand travel to the back of her head, entangling his fingers in her white silvery hair. He pulled her close, pressing his lips onto hers.

She inhaled sharply, then snaked her arms around his neck. She opened her mouth, allowing him entrance. Their tongues danced; teenage hormones going wild.

With one fluid, skillful movement, Knuckles pulled Rouge over him, and then leaned back against the back window of the truck. Without missing a beat, Rouge continued kissing him. She wasn't necessarily sitting on him; she was almost crouched over him.

Knuckles' hands slowly started exploring the young virgin's body. He apprehensively slid one rough hand up her leg, while the other gripped her hair. With gentle pressure on the small of her back, he pushed her down so that she was straddling him, which in turn made her involuntarily grind against his groin. Choosing to be more daring, he snaked his hand up her shirt, relishing in the softness of her skin.

Trying to ignore, or rather fight, her nervousness, Rouge chose to be a little more daring herself. Her lips left his and started trailing his neck. She expected her first time to be a little more magical, but at least they were in front of a lake…where other couples frequently visit.

Pushing those thoughts aside, she started unbuttoning his blue button-up T. It was already halfway undone, exposing some of his ripped chest and the upside down white moon-like mark.

"Hey," He whispered, almost growled, in her ear.

"Hm?" She answered, stopping her ministrations, locking her blue eyes onto his purple ones. The pale light from the moon, plus her straddled over him caused his face to shadow. Somehow, Rouge found this very attractive.

"Do you want to try something?" He asked, letting the hand that was on her back roam downward slowly.

'Oh my god! She thought, her heart racing, I'm about to lose my virginity to this guy and he's already asking me to do some weird kinky shit! Oh my god! I don't think I can handle it!'  "L-like what…exactly?" She asked nervously, climbing off of him and sitting next to him.

Rouge could tell what she was thinking; being that he had some experience before with women. "Don't worry," He said soothingly, "I'm not going to try anything you don't want to do."

Just the right words a naïve teenager needs to hear to feel all better. "Then what is it?" Rouge said, changing her tone of voice.

"I want to do something with you that will make this better for both of us," He answered, running his lips over her neck up to her long ear. His hand had long since left the inside of her shirt, and was now rummaging through his pants pocket.

"What're you doing?" Rouge asked, thinking he was pulling out a condom. But what he held in front of her face was not a condom in the least. "Oh my god is that-?"

"Yes." He said, smirking slightly. He opened the bag of cocaine, and then held it in one hand. With his other, he made the letter "L" with his forefinger and thumb, holding it horizontally. Very carefully he poured the tiniest bit of the pure white powder onto the piece of skin that was stretched in-between his two fingers. Rouge's eyes were wide as she watched what he was doing. She had never seen this sort of thing before. The most she's ever done was smoking and a bit of drinking and that was it. Knuckles raised his hand to his nose, making it look like he was trying to grab his entire face between his thumb and forefinger. He inhaled deeply, lowering his hand.

After a moment, he turned to Rouge. "Do you want to try it?" He asked.

"I don't know…" She said, unsure about what just happened in front of her.

"Aw c'mon, you'll like it," He chuckled.

"What will happen to me? Will I be alright?"

"I'm fine, aren't I? And the most that will happen is that your nose will burn, just not for long."

"You know I trust you, right?"

"Sure,"

"Don't you dare break it, Knux!" Her eyes were dead serious; locked onto his.

"I promise." He smiled, kissing her lips. He felt her sharp intake of breath.

"Alright," She said when they broke apart.

Knuckles grabbed her hand, looking at her fingers and slid off her glove.

"What are you doing?" Rouge asked.

"Deciding which of your claws is longest. I don't have long claws, so I had to use the space between my fingers, but you do…it makes it easier." He found a finger that had a satisfactory nail on it. It was her pinky claw. "This one," He said, holding the bag open for her, "Just scrape some up into your claw, and then snort it."

Rouge felt a brand new sense of nervousness that had nothing to do with the reasons she was nervous before. With a slightly trembling hand, she obeyed Knuckles. She inhaled, pressing in the nostril opposite from the one she had her nail under.

Immediately, Rouge felt her heart hammer faster. She felt as if her mind were going through a million thoughts a second, but her motor skills couldn't keep up. A new energy washed over her, as if she could fly a mile and not break a sweat.

"How do you feel?" Knuckles asked.

"Amazing!" She said breathlessly, locking eyes with her boyfriend.

Knuckles smirked, then pressed his lips onto hers, parting them with his tongue. He pushed himself on top of her and started undoing his pants.

"ROUGE!" Came her father's voice all of a sudden.

Knuckles and Rouge jumped and scampered away from each other as fast as possible.

"What are you doing?"

Rouge suddenly snapped back to reality. She had been sitting at her long crystal dining table in a depressed daze, that she forgot that she had a frozen pizza in the kitchen's oven cooking.

"I don't mean to fuss at you, dear," Her father said, taking the almost-done-for pizza out of the oven, "But you really need to focus. You've been in acting as if your mind were on another planet for the past week."

"I'm sorry, dad," Rouge said, sighing, "I've just been a bit stressed. I have a lot on my mind, ya' know?"

"Well, if you ever feel like you need to talk, your mother and I are both here for you." He smiled at his    young bat daughter, "And hey, at least your pizza is still eatable!" He chuckled, leaving the kitchen.

Not even two minutes later, her mother entered the room. A black, fancy, curvy bat. "Rouge, you have a visitor!" She said , "And it's about time, don'cha think?"

Her heart skipped, she suddenly forgot about her daydream of Knuckles. "Who is it?" She asked.

"It's Amy!"

Rouge stood up and walked out of the kitchen to the living room. Amy was sitting on the couch, looking a little peeved.

"Hey," Rouge said, trying to mask her disappointment.

"Well damn," Amy said, easily seeing right through her, "Don't roll out the red fucking carpet or anything."

"I'm sorry, Ames." Rouge sighed, sitting next to her friend, "I haven't heard from Shad in over a week, but I really haven't had the time to go see him either. His phones always off to top it off."

"Hm. Well, you know how he is. He gets into those weird bi-polar-y moods and just has to be left alone." Amy said matter-of-factly, "Sonic gets like that too, though. I think it's a guy thing. They're like cats…they'll let you pet them as long as they want you to. Then they go off to do their own thing until they feel it necessary to grace you with their presence."

"And what are we?" Rouge asked, slightly amused at her analogy.

"Dogs."

"Dogs? How so?"

"We're insecure; we always need reminding of how special and wonderful we are, and we need constant attention. If we don't get those things, we feel as if something's wrong…just like a dog."

Rouge laughed. It was slightly true, but she also knew Amy's extremist attitude toward men. She didn't blame her, as she's been done wrong too many times, but sometimes she did take it too far.

"So why have you decided to grace me with your presence? Is Sonic's studying going well, or is it so exasperating that you need a break?" Rouge giggled, "Sorry, that was a little mean."

"No it's going fine, actually," Amy said smiling, her cheeks turning a little pink, "Especially since we've got a sort of reward system thing…"

"Ohhhhkay then, that's one of those need-to-know kinda things."

"Yeah, well, anyway, since you say you haven't heard from Shadow, you obviously haven't heard the news."

"What news…?" Rouge asked, apprehensively. "It's not another slut-friend is it?"

Chi-Chi laughed coldly, "Do you honestly think I would waste my time driving all the way out here if that's all I had to say? I could have just called you."

"Uhm, you could have just called me anyway."

Amy glared at her, not liking to be made an ass out of. "Just listen to me!"

"Okay! Okay!"

"Shadow's going to another school to finish out his Senior Year."

"Are you serious?" Rouge said in disbelief, "Why in the world would he do that?"

"His father's making him."

"How'd you find out?"

"Sonic told me, but I think he pestered Shadow about it until he told him. Don't ask me all the details, because I don't know 'em. All I know is that Shadow argued with his dad, no surprise there, and then he was told he was to go to the academy—"

"The academy?" Rouge said, eyes wide in shock, "You don't mean the Christian Academy, do you?"

"Well that's the only private school around here."

"Oy, Shad's not going to like that; now that you mention all this, maybe that could be the reason why he is being so distant."

"Yeah, I agree."

"Well, I think we should go visit him!" Rouge said, determinedly. She stood up and placed her right hand on her hip and pointed to the roof with the other, not caring if she looked exaggeratedly dramatic .

".Are you sure? You know how he gets when he's in a mood."

"I don't care." Her thoughts traveled to the night he climbed through her window, then left without a word to her since.
Amy took a good look at Rouge. "You care for him an awful lot, don't you?" She asked, suspiciously.

"Yeah, sure," Rouge answered with a shrug, "I'm his friend, that's what I'm supposed to do. Why?"

"I don't know, I've just never seen you act this way before…especially over him."

"Aw! Don't do that, Ames! I don't like him like that, and I know that's what you're getting at! He's like a brother! It wouldn't work out, anyway!" She looked away, remembering Shadow's and hers little tryst in old grave yard…if that's what you call it.

"Okay, then, you don't have to get so defensive." Amy said, still a little suspicious.

"Your car or mine?" Rouge said quickly, ready for a change of subject.

"Shadow lives way out there," Amy said, "And I'm borrowing my dad's gas-guzzler, so what do you think?"

"Oh, okay," Rouge said, picking up the keys to her Camry.
After letting her parents know where she was going, they jumped in the car and left.

__________________________________________________________

Shadow's head spun. He couldn't believe he stooped so low as to drink by himself the previous night.

He hadn't been awake for long, but the hangover he had was such that going back to sleep was already sounding like a great idea. He was already in his bed, just laying there. All he had on was a slightly baggy pair of jeans which fell just below his hips, exposing a bit of his boxer shorts; and socks. In short: All he had to do was roll over and he'd be gone. He closed his eyes for a minute.

No. He wasn't going to lay about today. He needed to do something besides that.

Getting up and futilely pulling up his pants, he staggered down the stairs and made his way to the kitchen. The window's shades were drawn up, letting in bars of sunlight through. He hissed, squeezing his eyes shut as the light burned him due to his current and sensitive state. He blindly shut the little kitchen curtains, relieving himself from the overly-bright sunlight.

He took a cup down from the cupboard and filled it with water from the tap. He chugged it, and was ready to refill it when a knock at the door distracted him. With the housekeeper on vacation, he had to answer the door himself, which annoyed him. Along with answering his stupid phone, he hated answering the door. He just hated answering anything, period.

Not caring to look through the peephole, he placed his hand on the doorknob. He braced himself for the wicked sunlight that would pour in any second; he opened the door, ready to bitch out whoever was inconveniencing him.

Rouge gasped. She had been expecting Shadow to answer the door, but not like this. Regardless of the fact that he was shielding his eyes, and had looked surlier than usual, she couldn't help but ogle at his shirtless, perfectly muscular upper body that was leaning against the threshold and his ebony fur shining with the sun's bright rays, the fact that his pants were slightly too big, falling just a little, exposing part of his hip bones that weren't covered by his boxer shorts underneath made it that much more difficult not to look away. And if she weren't mistaken, Amy was looking a bit more than she ought to as well.

"Well, don't fucking stand there all day," Shadow said, turning his back to them and walking away toward the living room, leaving the door open for them to freely walk through. The view from behind was just as compelling. Rouge never noticed before how his lower back dimpled.

"Someone dump cold water on me," She heard Amy whisper, which thankfully brought her back to reality. She was also feeling thankful that someone was sharing her exact thoughts.

"He's a fucking jerk," Amy continued, "but I'll be damned if he isn't a good-looking jerk."

"Oh my God, Amy!  What about Sonic?" Rouge hissed, looking toward the kitchen, making sure Shadow couldn't hear.

"I can look all I want, just as long as I don't touch, right?" Amy giggled.

"Are you two gonna stand there all day?" Shadow snapped, walking into the room, slipping on a Dimmu Borgir: Death Cult Armageddon t-shirt that he had stolen off of the pile of clean clothes that were thrown carelessly on the couch. It was obvious that Shadow didn't do chores, but the house wasn't a pig sty either.

"Sorry," Rouge muttered, her mind leaving the gutter, "I—I mean we—wanted to stop by and see how you were doing."

Amy scoffed as if to say "not my idea!" Rouge gave her a look that suggested that she stop with the attitude.

"Well, as you can see, I am fine." He said, as if it were the most obvious thing on the planet. He walked toward the kitchen.

"Like hell you are!" Amy snapped. She was the only one Shadow didn't intimidate. The followed him into the kitchen. "Look at yourself, you look extremely worn out! You haven't kept in contact with any of us, except for maybe Sonic." Her eyes fell on the empty 1/5th of Hennessy and glass tumbler next to it. It had a layer of water from melted ice cubes inside. "You polished that off all by yourself?" She asked, raising an eyebrow.

Shadow glared at her. "So what? I don't know what that idiot boyfriend of yours has told you, but you can believe me when I say that I don't need anyone checking up on me."

"When we heard that you had to transfer all of a sudden," Rouge said gently, "Of course we'd be concerned. I mean, I haven't heard from you since—since over a week ago."

Shadow's features softened slightly. He knew exactly what she was talking about, and was thankful she was tactful enough to not mention anything. It also surprised him…some. "Yes, well, it's true." He said less harshly, "There's nothing I can do about it, as I've already tried."

"Please forgive me for saying this," Rouge said in a low voice, "But neither you or your dad are religious; why the Christian Academy of all places?"

Shadow sighed, "In the end, every decision my father makes is for his benefit. I suppose it makes him look better to have a child that attends a religion-based school; makes him look more stable. Why he didn't do this a long time ago is beyond me. The only thing I can come up with was that it was a waste of his time to go through the trouble of enrolling me himself, instead of having the schools do it. He also sees it as a form of punishment."

Amy and Rouge gasped. "What did you do?" Amy asked.

"Got arrested," Shadow said with a smirk, "The old bastard bailed me out; after, of course, nailing some slut whom he gave permission to go through my things." He downed the water he poured for himself, "Gave the officer that arrested me a nice tip, too." He added thoughtfully.

"Why were you arrested?" Rouge asked, happy she was getting to the bottom of why Shadow stayed with her that night.

"I got into a fight, if you could even call it a fight. The police showed up, the three bitches that started with me ran off. I got caught, obviously, dad paid my bail, we got into a fight, then I…" His eyes met with Rouge's, "Left. There, I hope that satisfied your curiosities."

"Wow. That's crazy!" Rouge said.

"You know what?" Amy asked, "I just had an idea, and I think it's a great one."

"What is it?" Rouge asked turning to her.

"Well, you know that my dad has a beach house that he uses when he's visiting the costal-location restaurant? Why don't we stay there for a week?"

Shadow scoffed.

Rouge rolled her eyes at him. "I like that idea! It would be great to get away from here for a while. Just let Sonic know."

"Yeah, and I will talk to my dad about it." Amy said, "He'll go for it, no doubt, since I passed my EOC's. Shadow doesn't have to worry about permission, and I'm sure Sonic's grandfather won't have a problem either. Unfortunately, trying to convince your parents will be our biggest problem." She gave Rouge a "sucks for you" kind of smile.

"Yeah, they aren't going to trust me alone for a week with two boys." She said meekly.

"I don't see how," Shadow said, after being silent for most of the conversation, "You're always alone with us."
"Yeah well that's here. They think that the housekeeper is here watching us, and they can always come get me in twenty minutes if they want to. I'm easily accessible."

"It's that 'easy access' that got you in this in the first place!" Amy snapped. Shadow snorted, trying to mask his laughter. He remembered the time Rouge had told them how she and Knuckles got "busted".
The way her muzzle would flush in a deep red and her eye brows would twitch...

Rouge glared then folded her arms. "Anyway, I'll be at least two hours away. I'll ask, though. I mean the incident was almost two years ago, and I'm going to be eighteen this coming January, so maybe it'll work."