Chapter 1

If there was one thing Rouge the Bat loved, it was jewels.

But there were three things she loved more than jewels, and that was Shadow and their two beautiful hedge-bat daughters, Ruby and Maria. Ever since Rouge gave birth to her children, her world completely changed. She spent her devotion on being a good mother; she would cook, play, and enjoy time with her daughters while Shadow was at work. Shadow appreciated her very much, but there's one thing that Rouge did for her daughters that Shadow absolutely despised.

She'd spoiled them…

and while most parents do spoil their children, she'd spoil them all the time. Whatever toys or clothes her girls wanted, she could never say no to them.

"Momma, may I get that doll set?" Ruby, aged seven, asked pointing to the fifty dollar doll set in the window.

"Oh of course you can sweetie!" Rouge replied with glee.

"Momma, may I get that pink dress?" Maria, aged four, asked pointing to the twenty dollar tutu dress.

"Ooooh that would look so pretty on you, princess. Of course!" Rouge answered.

"Mom, may I get this?"

"Mom, may I get that?"

"Mom?! Mom?! Mom?! Mom?!"

Dollar after dollar was spent every day on things the children wanted. Every day after work, Shadow would pass by his girls' room seeing more stuff adding up in there. There were a bunch of clothes overflowing the closet, stuff animals, doll houses, other doll accessories, and etc. Things that the girls enjoyed but took a toll on the family finances, which frustrated Shadow.

One day Shadow came back from a long GUN mission at work, he looked like he was ready to relax and take a long afternoon nap with no distractions. The black hedgehog immediately heard a sound playing from upstairs. It was a loud beat and he heard his daughters giggling in their rooms all the way from the doorway.

Shadow groaned, knowing he wasn't going to get any rest. "Rouge?!" he called.

"I'm in the kitchen, Shaddy." Rouge replied. He went into the kitchen and saw his albino bat wife preparing dinner.

Rouge turned around and smiled. "Hey Shadow, how's work?" she asked, giving him a kiss on the cheek.

"Rouge, what the hell is going on upstairs?" he asked annoyed.

"Well then.." Rouge thought.

Rouge giggled, "Oh it's just the girls playing music. I bought them a boom box and a disco ball today on my way from picking them up from school."

"What?!" Shadow replied shocked. "How much did it cost…?"

"Oh just $138. 99 total." She replied nonchalantly.

"Just $138.99?! Rouge, that's my hard earned money to provide for this family!"

"Oh relax Shadow, didn't you get a promotion at work?" Rouge asked.

"So? We still have bills to pay!" Shadow argued. Rouge rolled her eyes and took the baked rolls out of the oven while Shadow sat at the table trying to remain calm. She thought about his words while preparing dinner, feeling a bit guilty about the whole thing since it bothered Shadow this much.

"Fine, Shadow…I'll try not to spoil our girls so much.." Rouge said, serving a plate of food to Shadow.

"Try?" he questioned.

"Yes Shadow, I said "try"." Rouge replied, sitting down.

Shadow shrugged. "It's a start, I guess." Shadow started to eat his food but then paused. "Want me to get the girls down for dinner?"

"Hmmmm…nah, I'd rather eat alone with you." Rouge replied, winking at him. Shadow smirked and ate with Rouge, having a simple conversation about each other's day.

After dinner, Shadow went upstairs and laid on top of his bed to relax. He looked on Rouge's nightstand and saw a bunch of small papers in a stack.

"What's this…" Shadow picked up the papers and looked at them. "These are store receipts…all from recently…" The black hedgehog groaned "Women…"

"Rouge? Why are there a bunch of receipts here?!" Shadow called from upstairs.

"They're all from me and the girls' shopping trips!" replied Rouge from the living room.

"What?!"

"I told you I'd stop spoiling them today! Oh yeah and we have to go to the mall tomorrow!"

"Why?!"

"Because we need to pick out a color to repaint the kitchen! There's a painting store in there!"

Shadow sighed and laid on his back, he dreaded shopping because Rouge would take forever in there, even just to get one thing. "One of the perks of marriage…damn." Shadow deadpanned.

The next day Shadow and Rouge were at the paint store in the mall. Shadow wished someone could just shoot him right now. Going shopping, especially with a shop-a-holic like his wife was one of the worst things that could happen to him…and that's saying something after everything he's been through.

The couple approached the assistance stand; the employee smiled at them. She was a light blue duck with a pink bow and dress.

"Welcome to the Paint Shop, my name is Dee, how may I help you?" the duck asked.

"Hmmm we're looking to repaint the kitchen. We'd like to look at some colors first." Rouge said with a smile, Shadow only showed his stoic expression.

"Okay! Any type of color? We have different shades of colors." Dee replied.

"I was thinking about some whites." Rouge answered.

Dee took out a pamphlet of different shades of white and showed it to the couple. "Here are all of our options for white, please take all the time you need."

Rouge eyed all the color samples and their names. "Ooooh…I wonder what we should choose…let's see there's ivory, pale, eggshell, salt, snow, pearl…Shadow what do you think?" she asked.

"What difference does it make? They're all white!" Shadow snapped, feeling like this is a waste of time.

Rouge scoffed. "Fine, Mr. Grumpy Wumpy pants." She turned to Dee. "We'll do the Ivory color."

"Excellent, the can will be $25.27. For an extra thirty dollars, we can send a team to your house to paint the house for you." Dee offered.

"Perfect!" said Rouge.

"What? Hell no." interrupted Shadow. "I don't need those losers, I can paint it by myself.

Rouge rolled her eyes. "Sorry, he's just grumpy about finances."

"Not a problem." Dee said with a cheery tune, Shadow paid for the paint and they headed outside the store and into the mall's hall.

"You need to stop spending money on useless stuff." said Shadow.

""Useless? They were going to paint the house!" Rouge replied.

"For thirty dollars." Shadow added, suddenly Rouge was distracted by a beautiful diamond necklace outside the jewelry shop. Holding the small diamonds was an elegant gold chain. For Rouge, this was breathtaking, she went other to the window and Shadow slowly followed behind her.

"What is it now.." Shadow thought.

"Ohhh, what a beauty…I can imagine myself on this..while wearing a red dress maybe.." Rouge said, staring in awe from outside the jewelry store.

"Oh I just wish I could steal…I shouldn't have promised to give being a thief up to my husband!" Rouge thought.

Shadow approached her and stood behind her, he didn't really care for any jewels besides the Chaos Emeralds. "Rouge, come on." He said.

"Oh Shadow, could you please get that for me? It's the most gorgeous thing I've ever seen!" proclaimed Rouge.

"You say that about every piece of jewelry." Shadow deadpanned.

"but this time I mean it." added Rouge.

"Hmph, what am I? Your sugar daddy?" Shadow questioned.

"You're so stingy sometimes!" argued Rouge.

"No, I'm trying to save money for bills and shit like that. Do we need to have this conversation over again?" he asked. Rouge sighed defeated which made Shadow relieved.

"Fine, but I'm feeling kinda hungry." Said Rouge.

Shadow's stomach rumbled and he placed his hand on it. "Now that you mention it, I could use a bite to eat."

Rouge turned around and saw a giant lid up map of the mall. She read and observed all the restaurants on the map and tried to figure out something.

"How about we go to Taco Casa at Sector D? It says it's happy hour during lunch today." Rouge suggested.

"Alright." Shadow said, the couple headed side by side to the restaurant at the other side of the mall.

"Finally, we agreed on something." Shadow thought.

The couple soon arrived at the restaurant called Taco Casa; it was also a sports bar which had a group of men sitting at the stools watching a game. Since it was lunch and most people were at work, it wasn't really crowded.

The two were seated at a booth. After the arguing about money, Shadow and Rouge thought some alcohol would be refreshing. Rouge ordered a margarita while Shadow ordered a beer. The drinks were soon brought by the waitress, along with free chips and salsa.

"Decided on your order?" the waitress asked.

"We'll just split the chicken taco basket, that'll be it." Shadow said. The waitress wrote down the order and left the two alone to have a discussion.

"Shadow, since when did you care so much about finances?" Rouge asked. "You weren't like this when we were only just roommates."

"Since we had more mouths to feed." Shadow answered, sipping his beer. "Since when did you like spoiling the girls so much?"

"I've always spoiled myself before they were born, I was a jewel thief remember?" Rouge answered.

"But isn't stealing wrong?" Shadow asked with a playful smirk.

"Don't talk to me about wrong, Shadow. You're the perfect example of using violence." Rouge defended, dipping a chip into the salsa and eating it.

"Only for well-intended purposes." Shadow replied. "Now…what made you become a jewel thief anyway? And why do you spoil the girls so much?"

Rouge paused after being asked those questions. Memories from her past were being raced into her mind which had all the answers to Shadow's questions.

"I…guess I haven't told you much about my past…" Rouge said. "and we've been married and have children…which makes this even more sad."

"I guess not…" replied Shadow. "We're pathetic." he joked.

"In my defense, you never asked until now." Rouge added, Shadow rolled his eyes.

"Well I'm asking you now." He said.

Rouge sipped some of her margarita and cleared her throat. It was time to come clean about things about her behavior.

"Well…it all started…"

To be continued…