Chapter 7

Pretense


He didn't come home that night.

He didn't even call.

Poor Tails was sitting on the edge of his seat, nerves prickling against the inside of his throat. It was the itch he couldn't scratch. He felt pathetic, sitting there like a worried wife and wondering if Sonic was coming home - or even okay. He knew it was a mistake to let him go out to club Rouge. He's probably passed out somewhere in the arms of some girl, Tails though grumpishly. I thought he was done with that. He really seemed to be hesitant around women now, like he was guilty or something...

...but Amy...

His expression hardened.

Was Amy his next conquest?

In terms of personality and friendliness, he had nothing against Amy. She was one of his oldest friends - and Sonic, too, actually. The three and Knuckles had known each other almost forever - and when she wasn't doting after his big brother she was nice to be around. She gave awesome Christmas presents. She always shared her baked goods with him first and was sweet. It wasn't until Sonic began blowing him off without realizing it to go hang around with girls that he became bothered by her. And now it seemed like she was the next soul he'd attach himself to for a week or so and then blow off for another.

Or worse; maybe Amy was the real deal. Maybe Amy was the one he'd want to spend the rest of his days with. Maybe Amy'd be the one to finally slow him down. He'd seen the chemistry, the sparks. It was possible.

...But then he thought of Amy and seriously doubted that she'd be dumb enough to let herself get that drunk. It was obvious that she was very much in love with him, but to get drunk and then lose her virginity in the same night to him? It was highly unlikely. No, Amy'd be a long term relationship rather than a fling. She had that morality and air about her to maybe make him think twice about simply messing with her.

Plus there was always the fact that Amy wasn't old enough to drink yet. To be fair, neither was Sonic but he still managed to get into clubs. Another year and he'd be fine, but Amy was pushing 17 in a few days... oh! He'd forgotten to get her a present. Tails marinated the thought for a while. What would he get her?

While distracted with the guilty thought that he should probably get Amy a gift - even if he was immensely jealous of all the attention Sonic gave to her as of late - he didn't notice a certain blue blur try and sneak his way through the door. He knew he was late. He knew he should have called, but he was busy at the time trying to balance lugging Knuckles around and eavesdropping on Shadow and Amy. He hadn't made out anything that they said - he just knew that they were sitting closer than normal friends and she had taken her hand into his. He was more than a little suspicious that something was going on there.

But he didn't like her. Nope. He was just curious. Yeah.

It was only the subtle clicking of the door that brought Sonic to Tails' attention. Sonic turned to see his younger brother figure giving him a stern, lecturing look, appearing more like his naggy wife than his best friend. "Where have you been? I've been worried sick!"

Sonic winced and walked over, ruffling the kit's fur atop his head. "Got drunk. Ames' house was nearby. I thought she called, sorry."

Tails grumbled a bit but didn't have it in him to remain angry at the guy. It was the more responsible thing to do than to try and stumble back to the workshop, he internally lamented. He almost mentioned that it wasn't Amy's duty to play mother but let it slide. If the subject as on the model too long Tails was afraid Sonic'd get that glossy look in his eye and get all nostalgic, not to mention majorly distracted.

I can't believe how selfish I am, Tails thought guiltily. Maybe he really likes her.

"Oh, okay," he answered lightly, watching his tone. "Are you okay?"

Sonic sent a lazy wink his way and plopped himself on the couch. "Damage's not bad; hangover's kinda minor and I haven't barfed yet, unlike Knux. All over Amy's carpet! You should have seen her face!" it was clear that after the ordeal Sonic was ready to laugh it off. He conveniently left out the part where Amy had kissed him.

The kiss was still way too confusing to him. Up until then, he was pretty sure that dating her would always be out of the question. Any physical attraction he felt to her was presumably a natural male reaction, especially with her modeling for bikini advertisements every now and again. But the kiss was something else; the buss brought more feelings bubbling over the friend zone than he'd ever thought it would. Kissing her wasn't supposed to be sensual. Kissing her wasn't supposed to be sexy.

Kissing his number one fan wasn't supposed to be good, period. He always thought that a relationship wouldn't work between them because he didn't hold substantial feelings for her aside from "oh, she's a nice piece of pink ass", but no kiss had ever felt that nice. Not with any of the girls he had flung with. Not with any of the exotic women he'd met along his journeys - a kiss with Amy Rose, the same girl he saved during the Little Planet ordeal, shouldn't have been that fascinating. She was young, naive, mischievous - still a child in so many ways, and yet the way she'd kissed him was wiser beyond her years.

The kiss got him thinking. Probably more than he found comfortable and normal, judging by the nervous twitching in his leg muscles. He wanted to run, to and where he didn't know. He was afraid it was to her. He was afraid it was away from her. He was afraid of her.

Get your head on straight. Tails is right there!

"Her carpet...?" Tails was picturing a livid Amy Rose. The thought was daunting, to say the least. I wasn't that he disliked - he actually thought Amy to be very sweet and considerate. She and him shared the same left behind feeling at times; but Amy angry? The thought was blood chilling. Amy Rose was stronger than she appeared physically - she was much more than just pretty and sweet. Every rose had its thorn.

Sonic snorted, eager to get his mind off of thoughts of kissing the rosette. Knuckles' misfortune seemed like the perfect distractor. "Right? She was beyond furious, man. Know what's really weird, though?"

"What?"

The blue hedgehog leaned in, his elbows on his knees and back slanting slightly into a more comfortable position. He felt his back crack into place and grumbled just slightly - the floor wasn't the most comfortable bed in the world. Still, though, it was a better option than possibly spooning with the rosy rascal. Especially now that they'd kissed; he didn't know where his feelings lay. Still... there was a certain need to impress her. There had always been that nipping urge to show off to Amy. He liked his ego stroked and Amy actually seemed to enjoy helping him get his fix.

Maybe that was why he was suddenly so eager to help the girl out, to show her that he did care more than he let on. Maybe the kiss had triggered something; maybe he was tired of running scared? Or maybe he was just ready to accept the fact that the Amy Rose of his present wasn't the Amy Rose of his past. His favorite little fangirl, his bugbear, his stalker, his belle - she was growing up and he was terrified of being left behind. She was supposed to be the one staring at his retreating back and not the other way around.

"Amy's turning seventeen," he started. There wasn't really a way to start off the tangent without sounding interested in her. "Like, soon. Really soon, and I don't know if anyone's going to throw her a party. Can you imagine how upset she'll be if nobody remembers aside from Shadow again this year? She'll be crushed!"

Tails knew where this was going. However, he wasn't so sure how he felt on the matter. Any sneaking suspicions that maybe this conversation wouldn't revolve around her was smashed. Still, though, he wasn't opposed to the conversation. She deserved a good birthday. "You want to throw her a birthday party?" Tails' expression turned goofy. He could already count all of the ways the situation could go wrong. "Sonic, do you even know how to plan a birthday party? Who's gonna bake the cake? Not to mention inviting people, you don't know all of her friends.."

The hedgehog appeared to be staring the kitsune down. Was he actually doubting that he could do it? Tails never doubted him! Maybe he hadn't noticed that his little brother had grown up so much; there he was, giving Sonic a goofy smile and heavily implying that he didn't have what it took to plan a good birthday party for a seventeen year old girl. Well, he'd show him! He knew exactly what it was like to be seventeen - after all, he'd been that age three years ago! Granted, he was a boy and she was an Amy, but how different could they be?

It was odd how different his two yes men had become with age. They were both becoming more independent and seemed to need him less and less, yet they still held on to him with vice grips.

Was he even prepared to let them go though? Either of them? He wasn't so sure.

Sonic nudged the kid with his foot and then sat back, arms behind his head. There was a time and place for nostalgic thoughts, and planning a coming of age birthday party wasn't one of them. "As long as I show up she'll be thrilled. Don't worry so much!" he exclaimed. It wasn't a lie. As stubborn as Amy was nowadays about him, he knew she still had that soft spot for him. There was no way a crush that big was going away for a while. Didn't she kiss him yesterday anyways? There was proof enough. If she liked him enough to kiss him, she wanted him at her birthday party. He was important to her.

Sonic laughed and then hopped to his feet, the lively jolt in his eye returned to full bravado. "And how hard can baking a cake be?" He was slipping back into routine, back into his comfort zone of airy playfulness and boldness. He could do anything, couldn't he? He was Sonic the Hedgehog, for Pete's sake!

Tails was fully prepared to thank whatever God was listening that the playful, joking air was back between them. It'd been a while since the last time they really just hung out and forgot their troubles - and girls, for that matter. Although their conversation revolved around Amy's birthday party, the fox could still tell his older brother was fulling invested on the conversation. His mind wasn't anywhere else for once. Just the mere thought of trying to bake a cake with Sonic was both frustrating and amusing to him. When had they ever baked together in their many years of friendship?

"You'd need to know how to work an oven," Tails advised.

The two brothers locked eyes and in that moment everything was understood. It didn't matter that Sonic was intent on throwing his possible belle a killer birthday party or that Tails had been upset with him mere moments before. They had each other's backs. With their momentary brotherhood restored, Sonic brushed by his brother, shouted "race ya!" and was in the kitchen before Tails even had the time to react. He laughed, the feeling wondrous and shook his head. Sonic. He needed this; after all of the second guessing he'd been doing on their relationship, a nice bonding time with his big bro was well appreciated and accepted.

"No fair!" Tails called before racing in after his brother. He came in to the sight of Sonic holding a cake pan, eyes murky with confusion and curiosity. He seemed to be contemplating the ideology of putting batter in an oven and then taking it out when it was solid. He looked at his younger brother and laughed out loud, still holding the pan with a hold of scrutiny. Tails was half afraid Sonic'd end up bashing his head off of the pan, and the other half of him was concerned as to how he found the pan in the first place. The kitsune only had one cake pan in his house; he wasn't aware Sonic knew of its whereabouts. It was impressive. It also meant that Sonic snooped around while Tails was in the garage. As usual, he snorted. Why am I surprised?

Maybe things won't change too much after all if he ends up getting with Amy, Tails thought as the two of them dropped into hysterical giggles. They sounded less like grown (or growing, on Tails' end of the brolationship) men and more like giddy school girls discovering a secret crush. It was refreshing, to say the least. I mean, if he's going to act like this if he ends up with her then it's better than nothing. I'm lucky to have him as my brother at all.

...I still miss him.

Chuckling down at the younger, the blue one stood at his full height and replaced the cake pan where he found it - in the tallest cabinet on top of the stove. Once it was safe back in its hideaway place, he closed the oak cabinet and hopped up to sit on the counter. In their past, Tails had reprimanded him of sitting on the counter - he made food on that counter, after all, and the last thing he needed was Sonic's butt all over it! However, as time went on it was clear to the kit that nothing was going to change, and the defiant shouts at his older brother to get down faded into a simple disproving shake of his head. Sonic wasn't easily tamed. He half felt bad for Sonic's mother; raising a young, truculent Sonic must have been a doozy!

Staring at his best friend's expression, it was suddenly very clear to him that he was dead set on the birthday party thing. It meant something to him, whether Sonic was ready to admit it or not. Amy meant something to him; he had a feeling Sonic had always sort of known that but tried his hardest to ignore it, to make it go away. This birthday party was no different. He'd be a terrible brother for trying to ruin this for him. And hey, who was to say planning the birthday party with him wouldn't be a great way to spend time with him again?

Tails leaned against the counter opposite the blue blur and swished his namesakes against his ankles. "She'd really love a beach party."


Nobody ever left after a morning with her.

Nobody.

What did Shadow think he was doing?

Her first reaction was rage; naturally, she was angry that he had just up and left before she had woken up. Did he know what it was like to wake up to an empty bed after offering yourself up to someone sexually? Granted that he was drunk and she had sort of forced herself on him... but didn't he realize how much she wanted to be with him like that? Wasn't that what all relationships were made of?

Every guy she had ever dated wanted nothing more out of her than sexual intercourse. Wasn't that normal, though? Wasn't sex normal in a relationship? There had to be a reason why he didn't want to get so personal with her. Was she not pleasing?

It was only a moment of self consciousness, however - she lifted the sheet from her form just enough to get a glance at her gratuitous amount of cleavage. She slid a hand up, along her sinuous thighs, past her shapely hips to grab a handful of breast. She was pneumatic, to say the least - the palm of her hand couldn't encase the entire breast by itself. Surely there was no reason why Shadow wouldn't be pleased by the sight of her. She was gorgeous, even she could admit it. An accidental tweak of her nipple told her that she was fairly hedonist. Even Shadow was dumbly male enough to notice that, wasn't he?

So what was it about her that turned him off so much? Even when he was drunk he was resistant.

Didn't he love her?

...Did she even love him?

With a groan, the bosomy bat rolled onto her back, nose pointed skyward. Was it really worth it? A single mercy fuck to calm her twitching desires which, in turn, caused Shadow to turn tail and run? He was uncomfortable over the entire thing. She distinctively remembered him telling her "no" as she pulled him up the stairs. Sure, his mouth was saying one thing, but his body was saying another. There was no denying his arousal, no denying the fact that he was perfectly capable of preparing for the main event. It wasn't that he wasn't able to screw either, because she was; they both had been curious on the matter, as he wasn't a hedgehog birthed from a woman and was made from science. Maybe Shadow just had zero sex drive. Maybe he had no desire for sex period. Maybe he just didn't like her all that much.

She scrunched up her perfect little nose at the thought. Not like her? On several occasions he had shown to be fond and overall grateful for her and her friendship. He'd said plenty of times that nobody understood him and listened to him quite like Amy and herself had; but clearly Rouge didn't understand quite like he thought she did, because if she did then she wouldn't be in this mental whirlwind!

And what was with him spending so much time with his ex girlfriend-? Not that she was jealous or anything. It was just curious. Did he prefer spending time with her over Rouge? It was no mystery who was the more sexually appealing of the two; Rouge took the cake, no questions asked. It was hard for anyone to be more sexually attractive than a seductive woman like herself. There'd be no other reason that he'd be so interested in an ex other than wanting her back, right

She was furious! She was simply vexed, she was -!

She was crying.

Crying.

The mere thought struck her as startling. Rouge the Bat was not the type of woman to cry over such frivolous things; even in her youth she was emotionally sound and stronger than other girls (and boys, mostly) her age. Even the thought of crying over something so stupid, so tiresome, so absolutely trying was enough to polarize her tears. She was upset at herself for crying and absolutely incensed at Shadow for the ability to bring her to such a low. Utterly ashamed of herself, she let her thoughts selfishly stray to something less troublesome - anything, anything at all that would bring her from feeling sorry for herself, of all things.

There had to be something that was pushing her to the depths of wallowing in her own pity. Woe her, her boyfriend didn't enjoy sleeping with her. Woe her, her boyfriend might still have feelings for his ex girlfriend (which she mostly still doubted, actually - who'd dump her for that?) It couldn't be a sudden burst of self consciousness. Of course not; Rouge was completely comfortable in her own skin. She was almost disgustingly ravishing, especially with her lips painted as red as they had been the night before.

The bat girl closed her eyes sluggishly and replayed the events of the night before. Surely there was a red flag, something that could be potentially bothersome enough for her to be feeling so terrible. It came in shards, staggering images; the glass Shadow drank from, the itchiness of the tag on the back of her dress, the dark look from violet eyes, the -

Knuckles.

She was suddenly up like a rocket, sitting up in the bed with her legs still tangled in satin sheets. What was he even doing there? Wasn't he supposed to be off on his island protecting his wife?

For whatever reason, that blazing echidna was at her club, in her domain. The thought brought upon a certain burning bubbling in the pit of her stomach, as if someone had poured scolding lead into the depths of her insides. Cursing the mere thought of his existence, she played the scene over and over in her head, searching for a bit of meaning. Was it the haunting look of sheer despondency that had her acting so uncharacteristic?

No. It had to be Shadow. She at least was sure of some sort of feelings towards Shadow anyways. Knuckles, on the other hand? Knuckles was confusing. He brought upon feelings of sheer fury and made her damp between the legs at the same time. It was mind boggling to her. He wasn't even a pleasant person, really; he was particularly gruff and hard to deal with on a good day. And yet, she was second guessing herself and her logic - it wasn't like Shadow was always a very pleasant person either, and she was in a relationship with him.

It's time to come clean, she thought hesitantly.

She squinted towards the window, where the sunlight was beginning to peak in through the restraints of the curtains. Day time...

It's time to stop laying around in bed all day, thinking about that damn echidna and get something done! she scolded herself. She would not become one of those girls! She refused it profusely. She was a strong independent women, and her personal daily goal was set into place; get things done.

And that started with getting out of bed. Stretching her legs over the side of the bed, she practically yanked and forced herself into an upright position. She yawned fully, stretching and moaning as the morning briskness helped in convincing her dress herself. It wasn't a far walk to the dresser anyways, and once she had on her undergarments from the night before it was just a slimming purple dress she had to pull over her head. I could do for a shower, she thought bluntly, already deciding against it as there were already too many things to be done that day. Bills needed to be sorted and paid, the club needed cleaning, employees that needed a swift kick to the butt... the thought that her schedule was booked for the day chided her into a quicker-than-normal strut down the stairs, her decent not nearly as graceful or sensual as it usually was.

Usually after a night alone with a boy in the private cavern of her night club, the employees usually found that their boss was glowing the next day. It was when she scowled at the bartender that they knew something had went wrong, something hadn't gone exactly to plan.

Said bartender - a raccoon with chalky fur and particularly dark eyes - seemed to be the only one with enough bravado to mention something to the boss lady. "Rouge?" she questioned.

She was greeted with a startlingly serious blue stare. Rouge wasn't the nicest girl in the world, but certainly she knew how to be civil and fair. Needless to say, this was a new side to her boss. "What?" the bat snapped, her hand combing over her hair; the usually very well kept 'do was looking windswept and knotted. Had she taken the time to do her hair? Had she even looked in the mirror since she woke up?

The raccoon was suddenly looking meeker by the moment. "Never mind," she muttered quickly, taken aback by her boss' foul mood. She knew better than to try and make sense of that, and she valued her job far too much to put it on the line in an attempt to cheer that up.

Rouge appeared to want to say something but backed out at the last moment. Deciding against questioning the worker's motives, she gave a simple command of "scrub the tables" before sorting through the register. The vixen made the fatal mistake of looking up; and there on the bar sat the same glass Shadow had been drinking out of before she pulled him upstairs.

The catalyst.

The dreaded bottle. Suddenly she was seething again, feeling everything that she did the moment she opened her eyes mere minutes ago and discovered that her boyfriend had ran with his tail between his legs. Who was he, Sonic? The bottle. Her mistake. His enemy. It felt cold beneath her finger tips and before she could even help herself she was thrusting it towards the ground, a sharp shriek escaping her normally very well trained mouth.

It smashed against the ground, causing enough commotion for the surrounding workers to jump in alarm. Shards scattered themselves across the floor, the impact of the glass hitting the tiled floor at such a force impressive even for Rouge.

Rouge smiled. Whatever ill feelings she had towards the night had been suctioned into the bottle, and now that it had been properly disposed of...

"Pick that up, Ruby," she commanded. The poor girl jumped to it at once.

And just as Rouge was turning to leave, the envelope of the previous night's profits tucked safely beneath her arm, she was suddenly face to face with the floppy eared bunny she had met on few occasions. The bat stopped dead in her tracks, having nearly ran the skinny girl over. Rouge was fairly certain the rabbit girl could be snapped in half if she was stared at too fiercely. What was her name anyways? Carrie? Cammie? Christine?

The girl was definitely familiar - wasn't she the same girl that tagged around with Amy and that cat? Judgmental as always, she looked her once over: skinny ankles, long fallow hair in a braid, big brown doe eyes. The girl was cute. Anything more than that?The former double agent didn't know. She was young though, and she had time to grow into her skin.

But what did a good little girl like her want from a girl like Rouge? They were immensely different.

"Miss Rouge?" she squeaked; it was clear that the bunny girl was out of her element in Rouge's domain. A good little girl like her would never normally stride into a night club, even after she was of age. Something told Rouge the girl before her had very different ideas of fun. But if she was so uncomfortable standing around booze and half dressed women, clearly whatever bone she had to pick with Rouge was pretty serious. Then again... the girl didn't look angry. If anything, she looked worried, upset, nervous, antsy - as if she'd seen a ghost.

The ivory bat shifted her weight carefully. "Let's talk in my office, bun."


"Thank you for making time to talk to me," Cream said gratefully, sitting herself in the red arm chair attentively. She crossed one long leg over another as a proper lady should; her mother had crammed manners into her at a young age and they stuck. She watched Rouge sit on her desk and do the same.

Rouge smirked a little and leaned forward, a little more than intrigued. The brightness of her blue eyes were startling, even for the foggy look she had thanks to the minor hangover she woke up with. Unlike Shadow, Rouge was very much used to the haze that alcohol brought. Resting her elbow on her knee, Rouge pressed her index finger against her chin, drawing all attention to her carefully carved and painted ruby nails. Right down to her fingertips, Cream could tell this woman knew her way about elegance and grace. With her sensual strutting came grandeur and her hips demanded attention. When Rouge talked, people listened.

When Rouge talked, boys listened.

Cream let out a shaky breath. She wondered what Tails was doing. Was he thinking of her? ...Was he thinking of Amy?

She hated herself for even thinking illy of Amy; the girl never asked Tails to fall in love with her. It wasn't her best friend's fault Sonic's little brother had eyes for her. The two had spent a lot of time together during Sonic's earlier adventures. Tails and Amy had known Sonic the longest out of everyone - and that meant they knew each other pretty well too. Maybe during one of Sonic's moments where he ran off Tails and Amy bonded. Had he ever kissed her..?

Cream's nose bunched up as she pouted. The thought bothered her: her best friend and her crush kissing. It'd surely break her little heart.

It didn't go unnoticed, however. Cream's sudden change in demeanor was intriguing, to say the least. Something was on the rabbit's mind. Something that was dark and dirty, perhaps? Rouge leaned forward more, a smirk on her newly painted pink lips. Maybe this day wasn't so terrible after all. A little gossip never hurt anyone, and judging by the morning she had it was prime time for a little digging and investigating; the two things Rouge the Bat did best.

"Let's skip the formalities. What's bothering you?" she asked casually. She kept her tone in check. The last thing she wanted to do was scare the girl away. Rouge had many years of working for GUN in her repertoire. She knew how to play people, and this innocent little child was no different.

She could see the insecurities opening up in Cream's eyes. "It's Tails," she confessed, her voice suddenly very full and thick. "I just - I like him a lot and he's always paying so much attention to Amy and.. figured... you're the most successful flirt I know," she blushed.

Rouge didn't know wether to take the last part as a compliment or an insult. However, the rest of Cream's divulgence? Like taking candy from a baby. This was going to be easy. A little bit of girl talk and advice was like mother's milk to Rouge. She'd lead the girl in the same direction she took.

She gave a smile on her full lips and moved her finger to slice through the air chicly. It was the baton that began conducting her speech. "Oh, so it's boy trouble," she began rascally. Roguishly, she sauntered off of her perch atop the desk and stood before the blushing girl. With a quick swipe of her eyes Rouge came to the conclusion that Cream the Rabbit was in her early teens. Thirteen, fourteen maybe - still too old for sex but not too old to start flaunting what she had. The bosom factor wasn't with the doe for sure. She was just beginning to grow into breasts. Flaunting what little she had would get her no where with that fox boy for sure, especially if he had eyes for Sonic's little lover girl.

Wait, Tails had eyes for Amy?

Rouge's mischievous grin deepened. Oh, the game was on. She knew a way to cheer up and get her mind off of that knucklehead for sure now! Messing with the rosy rascal was one way to settle her nerves. It felt justified - after all, her boyfriend had run to Amy after finally losing his virginity to Rouge. It was more than a little suspicious. What was going on there? Shadow wasn't the type to cheat, and Amy wasn't the type to move on, but the fact remained that she was the first person he ran to. If messing with the girl and possibly kicking Sonic's tush into gear was an option, Rouge was sure to take it. Game on.

"Honey, you can't expect him to pay attention to you dressing like that," she lowered her eyes. Cream pulled herself tighter together, shoulders taunting closer to her. She became rigid with anxiety. Blue eyes were pleased at the sight; she had her squirming in her seat, uncomfortable with the entire situation. She was feeling self conscious. It was going to make the entire job so much easier. "It you want a boy to pay attention to you, you have to give him something in return."

Dark chocolate eyes danced around Rouge's gaze. "So.. I'm really sorry, I don't follow. Could you elaborate?"

And for a moment Rouge almost felt bad for leading the young girl in the wrong direction. Adolescence was tough, and Cream was at a tender age. Fourteen was difficult. She no longer had the body of the child and at the same time she didn't have the body of a woman. Hormones were rushing. She had a crush on a boy who might have a thing for an older woman. Was it even right to lead her on and send her in the wrong direction entirely? Was it right for Rouge to do it just to feel better about herself?

She'd feel bad about it later.

It wasn't like she was telling Cream to do anything different than she'd do herself. If Rouge liked a boy enough, she'd try to seduce him. It was the only way she'd ever known to get a boy to pay attention to her. It was the only way any guy paid attention for her. None of them respected her for her mind, even though Rouge was found to be a pretty bright woman. No, all they wanted out of her was to cop a feel.

"Don't underestimate the power of body language," she explained simply. Cream perked up in comprehension. "Show a little leg. Wear some booty shorts. You have long legs. Boys like that."

Cream's expression wavered. "Oh, I really don't think Tails is like that..."

"All boys are the same," Rouge muttered darkly. Cream jumped. The bat suddenly looked very upset and anguished; were there some skeletons in her closet that Cream didn't know about? "They only want one thing out of you, and once you give it they leave. You just have to find the right boy who won't leave once you put out."

The bunny flushed deeply. Put out? But she was way too young for that, and so was Tails-! Maybe Rouge was drawing upon personal experience, but even so it was too mature to apply to her situation, wasn't it? Cream was growing steadily less worried about her situation and more concerned for Rouge, who appeared to be hiding something huge and refused to let it go. Anything that made a girl who was usually so collected like Rouge make that look with her eyes was serious.

Of course, Cream knew Rouge's pride would never let her divulge into the subject. Especially to Cream, who she hardly knew.

"Don't you think I'm a little young for that?" Cream asked sensibly, trying desperately to pull the conversation away from such topics. She was celibate. She was pure. She was wholesome. She was fourteen years old!

The bat gave her such a no-nonsense look that she had to sit up taller. Rouge was completely serious now. Her usual taunting tone had melted into a hazy warning signal. "Why else is Sonic suddenly so interested in Amy, Cream? Amy's not a little girl anymore. Amy has a body. Sonic's noticed," she explained bluntly. "He wants to have sex with her, and once he does he's going to drop her like a bad itch. I don't care if you tell her that. Someone needs to."

The bunny's eyes were plastered wide open. Rouge was hurt. Rouge was telling it like it was. Needless to say, 'like it was' was scaring her. The bunny was nervous over the entire situation.

Rouge went on, however. "And Tails is noticing it now too. That's why he's not giving you a second glance. He's too busy watching Amy's jiggle factor. Something you don't have," she mentored. She slid back up to her perch on the table, looking imposing and wise again. For some reason, it was easier to believe her when she sat upon her desk in such a way. She looked powerful and executive. "You need a competitive edge. Love's a battlefield, kiddo."

A competitive edge. Over her sister? Over Rouge? Highly unlikely. Cream stared down at her lap. Just as she was starting to feel a little better about herself...

...it was better to be aware of such things than live with her head in the clouds, she thought. Twitching her thumbs and twiddling them together, Cream spoke softly and regretfully. "Thank you, Rouge," she said honestly. Thank you for opening my eyes.

And just as quickly as she had appeared, the doe stood up, curtsied, and excused herself. She was up and out of the club that was causing her such discomfort quicker than Sonic ran when he saw Amy. Rouge watched her on the way out, a little jealous at the cuteness of her fluffy little tail that poked out of her dress. The wholesomeness worked on her. She had that going for her, at least.

Nothing she said was a lie; it was just merely all personal speculation. Rouge wasn't blind. She saw the rosy rascal grow up. She saw the way suddenly Sonic was paying so much attention to her. Were they all that blind?

And Shadow's no different, she thought darkly, suddenly back on the subject of her own situation. He played scared, got what he wanted and moved onto the next one. I'm just as stupid as Amy and Cream are when it comes to the game of love.

I'm pathetic.

Each carefully manicured nail tapped against the wood desk. The clicking and tapping lulled her mind into ease. All wasn't lost. If she wasn't good at the game, the only way to get better was to practice; she knew just the guy for the job.


...Aaah, remember when I said I'd update more frequently?

This chapter hit me like a sack of bricks. First I froze up at the first scene. Writing just Sonic and Tails together isn't something I'm solid in, and then again with the Rouge waking up scene. I need to get better portraying these characters, and that's the reason for the overlapping story lines in Moonstruck.

Because this chapter took so long to bust out, I tried to make it a little longer than usual. My brain hurts. My face hurts. I'm not very good at this fanfiction thing anymore.

Next chapter will come faster and easier, however - it'll probably be written better, too, because I'm really looking forward to it. Next chapter isn't filler so much. It's Amy's 17th birthday and shit goes down!

As usual, comments and suggestions are encouraged but not mandatory.