Finally! Chapter Eleven is here! Sorry about the wait, everyone. A girl who is applying for two different colleges can get a little busy every now and then. Thank you so, so, so much for the reviews! :D Really appreciated them. Keep 'em coming!
Amy hopped out of Rouge's pink Jaguar.
"Thanks so much for the lift, you guys!" she chirruped merrily.
"Okay, whatever," said Rouge.
"Take care, Amy," Shadow said kindly.
"Oh! One last thing." Amy skipped up to Shadow's window. Rouge massaged her temples. "When are Sonic and Mina getting married again? Just so I don't forget."
For what could have been the fifty-something-th time, Shadow replied, "Friday 21st of August, Amy."
Amy appeared to make a mental note of the date.
"And don't forget, honey, we're helping Mina choose her dress next week," said Rouge.
"What? Oh. Oh, right. Of course," Amy stammered, looking rather vacant.
"Are you okay, Amy?" asked Shadow.
"Yeah, no – I'm fine," said Amy as she clicked her heels together and headed off into her apartment block. "Take care, you guys."
Shadow saluted her before Rouge drove away quickly.
Amy shut her door and turned on the lights. They buzzed for a second. She leant against the closed door, feeling her heart sinking so low it became hard to breathe. She held a hand to her chest, trying to normalize her breathing.
"It's okay," she told herself. "It's okay."
Her mind whirred with confusion and an amazingly sweet sense of grief and rage, reminding her of how pitifully human (or hedgehog) she was. She dived for the freezer, dug out some Ben and Jerry's and set in for one minute in the microwave.
Five minutes later, she was in her pyjamas, eating ice cream and watching some chick flick on the TV. It had been the same movie over and over again for about six months now. It was called "Midnight at Rue Plumet". It was about two young French lovers – a ditsy but headstrong rich girl and a charming, handsome farm boy – in 1920's Earth who get separated by their social class. Years later, they are reunited when the girl's best friend reveals that she is getting married to none other than the girl's old lover, who has managed to make himself a fortune to support his rich fiancée. The story then follows the two as they slowly reunite, discovering the farm boy is with the wrong woman and he and the ditsy but headstrong heroine are meant to be together forever. On the day of the wedding, the girl confesses her love and the boy realises that he loves her too and then he finds out that his fiancée is, in fact, in love with someone else so he quickly brings that other guy to the altar so they can be married instead and he runs off with his old girlfriend and they live happily ever after.
It always made Amy cry happy tears at the end. It also made her have silly ideas. Ideas about, maybe, going to someone's wedding to confess her love to the man of her dreams in the hope he'll remember how they truly are meant to be together so they'll run off into the sunset and live together forever after. After all, just like the movie suggested, it's not over – it's never over – until someone says "I do".
Oh, but why was she fantasising about this? She wasn't like that anymore. She had grown up. She wasn't the silly, whimsical fangirl for Sonic she was before. She was happy for him and Mina. She was. She really was. She loved a wedding. Especially if it was one of her best friends' weddings. But she was also worried. She knew – she knew – deep down inside that it wasn't going to last. There's only one perfect person out there in the world for everyone and maybe, just maybe...Mina wasn't perfect for Sonic. In fact, the more she thought about it, the more convinced she was that Sonic and Mina just weren't meant to be, and the more she thought of that, the more determined she was to do what's right and make them see that. But how?
Remind Sonic of who he should really be with.
Amy Rose the Hedgehog. That's who.
No. No. She was through with that stupid cycle of thinking. Especially when it was three in the morning. Amy got into bed, slipped on her eye mask and turned off the lights. Her bed felt so big. It was a rather peculiar feeling – being in a bed so big when she felt so small.
_
Rouge never unwound properly until she had what she called "jewel therapy". She took a long, relaxing bath with some lit candles and surrounded herself with pricey gems of differing types, colours, shapes and sizes. The whole floor of the tub glittered with gems. Rouge thought they all looked so pretty underwater. The mesmerising thing about jewels was that they were so precise, so full of clarity and glamour that, at least while Rouge surrounded herself with them, she felt like a goddess of these untimely riches.
Knock, knock, knock.
"What?" Rouge groaned.
"I'd like to get my toothbrush if that's okay with you, miss," called Shadow from the other side of the door.
Rouge rolled her eyes, got out of the tub, put her silk robe on and opened the door to a patient ebony hedgehog.
"Can't a girl get some decent jewel therapy in this place?" she muttered as she pushed Shadow aside and went to treat herself to a midnight indulgence in the apartment living room – a diamond pedicure.
The sound of Shadow brushing his teeth in the background was the only sound that filtered through the pair's apartment as Rouge applied pearly pink nail polish to her dainty tanned feet.
The hedgehog came in moments later and found the white bat with diamonds in between her toes.
"You're so helplessly decadent," he mused.
"Shush, you," said Rouge. "It's my special treat for being so good this weekend."
"Hmmph," grunted Shadow, sitting down opposite her. "Tell that to the echidna."
Rouge ignored this and continued to place tiny diamonds in the corners of her still-wet toenails.
"Diamonds..." she said. "...Are a girl's best friend."
"Stop being unoriginal. You're quoting that movie again," Shadow sighed.
"What?"
"Moulin Rouge."
"It's the best film – it's got my name on it."
"It's the worst, most pretentious film in the history of animal kind."
"Don't be rude," said Rouge. "Many French prostitutes worked hard for your approval."
"As if I'd be inclined to be impressed," Shadow replied sardonically. "French whores just don't do it for me."
Rouge set down the bottle of nail polish rather sharply. "Goddamn it, Shadow, anyone would think you're a closet homosexual."
"Not a homosexual," said Shadow, nonchalantly. "Just asexual."
"Please," Rouge snorted. "There's no such thing as an asexual hedgehog. Just because you're 'The Ultimate Life Form' doesn't mean you're above it – don't be so vain."
"I'm not being vain, Rouge," said Shadow. "I honestly just don't see the need to be nailing anything that moves."
"What about Serena?" said Rouge.
Shadow raised an eyebrow. Serena had been a pretty squirrel he had spent the night with a few months ago. "We were never serious."
Rouge raised an eyebrow back, then went into a full-blown, over-dramatic impression of the not-too-bright ex-lover of Shadow's – with the bimbo-style lisp and everything. "Hi, you must be Rouge! Hey there, baaaabe! Giggle, giggle, giggle. Oh, I don't mean this to sound like high school, but did he say anything about me? Giggle, giggle, giggle."
"Enough," Shadow smirked.
"Don't turn your face up like that, honey – asexual my pretty little ass," Rouge snarled.
"I have no intention of sleeping with anymore silly little squirrels anytime soon."
"What about silly little Sonic-lovers?"
"What?" Shadow groaned.
"You're the only guy who can tolerate that little squirt for miles around – don't tell me she's not up there on your list."
"I don't remember ever making a list, Ms Rouge Layfette the Bat."
"Don't use my full name, bucko," Rouge said with a hint of sourness. "Just admit you wouldn't mind plucking her Sonic-reserved flower patch."
"That's a rather distasteful way of putting it," said Shadow. "Leave the poor girl alone – she's already got Sonic and Mina's nuptials messing with her mind. It's not like she needs the added-on pressure of getting out and getting laid at some point."
"I'm only thinking about what's good for her," said Rouge, checking her fingernails. "You must be cruel to be kind, my friend. Sometimes you gotta do what's right. Or, rather, you gotta do who's right."
"Will this include a lovesick echidna you've been playing around your little finger lately?" asked Shadow.
Rouge eyed him suspiciously. "Don't even get me started on that sorely pathetic little..."
"His attempt to come on to you tonight was hugely entertaining. Though, I must say, you delivered the perfect finale with that drink-throwing act."
Rouge softened. "I did, didn't I?"
"Yeah," said Shadow. Then he sat further back in his seat. "Though, a waste of money, if you ask me."
Rouge scoffed. "Compliments have their cost, so it seems..."
"And here's you telling me to get laid."
"Oh, I see. So is that an invitation?" Rouge said, suddenly with a certain silky tone in her voice. Shadow's senses sharpened at this. Rouge stared at him from underneath her long, black lashes, a playful smile crawling up her face. Shadow, however, as cool as a freezer, got up and headed towards the kitchen area that was adjoined to the living room.
"No rest for the wicked, huh, Rouge?" he sneered. Rouge, still grinning, got up and followed him. As Shadow lit himself a cigarette at the cooker, Rouge hopped into the air, flipped herself upside down and hung by her feet onto the ceiling lamp. Shadow turned and did a double take at the sight of his smooth-acting roommate. Then he smoked, wondering how the hell she kept her silk bathrobe covering her dignity at such an angle.
"Cigarette?" Shadow offered her. Instead, she took his in her fingers. Without a word, she brought it to her lips, inhaled and breathed out over Shadow's face. Shadow did nothing but close his eyes briefly against the sting of the nicotine smoke.
"Who needs the Guardian of the Master Emerald..." Rouge purred. "When I have the perfect partner in crime?"
"Only the best," Shadow replied.
Rouge smoked his cigarette again before bringing herself down from the ceiling to sitting on the countertop in front of him.
"Indeed," she said. "The best."
There was a slight pause, in which both roommates remained composed, looking at each other.
"God, it's so nice to have someone who's not stammering repeatedly to talk to," said Rouge. "I like a challenge."
"What's that supposed to mean, Madame?" asked Shadow, an eyebrow raised.
With that, Rouge's hands came down to the countertop and her legs wrapped tightly around the hedgehog's waist, pulling him into her lithe, nymph-like body.
"Monsieur," she purred. "What lies under this silk bathrobe is your freedom from four months of celibacy." Shadow stared at her, his face emotionless. "You might want to consider that."
Shadow paused, wondering how the hell he had got himself into this. Were he any other person, had he lacked any inch of his solid character, he would have lost his composure immediately and gratefully take advantage of Rouge's generous offer. Any four months of celibacy for the average young man would not need asking twice to jump into the lap of this gorgeous and willing bat. However, he was Shadow the Hedgehog. The Ultimate Life Form.
"That's a nice offer, but no," said Shadow. "My emotions are not reserved for a fling with my roommate."
Rouge hesitated to contemplate this, then she put the cigarette back in between Shadow's lips, hopped down from the countertop, and headed towards her bedroom.
"Well, if you ever change your mind," she said, turning at the corner. "You know where I am."
Shadow watched her cautiously. "Goodnight, Rouge."
"Goodnight, Shadow," she said, blowing a kiss. Then she left him and Shadow didn't move a muscle until he heard her door shut. He finished his cigarette and retired to his bed. The Ultimate Life Form could never be tempted. That was one thing he took most pride in.
