Update time! An idea that just…came to me, I guess, from Thanksgiving. Enjoy!

I do not own Shadow, Rouge, and those people. However, I guess I own Rouge's relatives, as well as Ciel, Gemini, and Miffskin.


Halloween passed without much more trouble, though it is true that Shadow was not forced to cross-dress for a good long while. But at the moment, that was the least of Shadow's problems. Right now, all cause for worry was a small piece of paper held in the Ultimate Lifeform's hand, which he stared at with a most bemused reaction.

"A dinner invitation? With Rouge's parents?!? What the hell is this about?" Ciel and Gemini read the letter over his shoulder. It was indeed a dinner invitation, written in flowery handwriting, with a lipstick kiss at the bottom. Apparently, Rouge had picked up various bits from her mother.

"Since you spend so much time with Rouge, I guess they want to get to know you," Gemini explained. With a smirk, he added, "they probably want to make sure you'd be a suitable boyfriend."

"Shut up! Hold on, there's something else written here…'PS: We are aware that you have two siblings, so please bring them as well.'" Shadow's heart plummeted at those words; on his own, he probably could manage Rouge's parents. But dealing with them and his siblings?

"So we're going to a party?" Ciel asked. "Yay, parties! I'm gonna' go grab Miffskin!"

"You are not going to bring her to the party," Shadow snapped.

"Why not?"

"Because…uhmm…because she wasn't invited, that's why!" The winged sibling nodded sadly, but agreed. Shadow was glad for that; he didn't think that Mr. and Mrs. Bat (it occurred to him that he didn't know Rouge's last name) would appreciate having an alien at the table.

"That leaves one more question," Gemini pointed out. "When exactly is this party?"

"November 17th. Why do you ask?"

"…Tonight's the 16th. Meaning it's tomorrow." There were a number of replies that could have been made to this, but I think the one Shadow did choose works particularly well.

"…Sh-t."


Trying to act the part of a 'normal' male hedgehog as best he could, Shadow drove into the driveway of the parent's house, hoping for the best. He had convinced himself and his siblings to dress nicely (as in actually wear clothes, in his case), and to please, please, please not go psychotic during the course of the meal. Gemini had agreed, and Ciel was too busy worrying about living Miffskin at home.

The first thing that occurred to Shadow was that the house was big. Kind of like a mini-mansion. The outside was a casual white, with the roof being dark gray. The lawn was relatively nice, with a garden up front that was probably more for show than a hobby. Lightly pressing the doorbell, a small maid opened the door.

"Oh, Mr. Shadow, you've arrived! I'll go tell Mr. and Mrs. Jardin that you're here." So, Jardin was their last name. Rouge Jardin…had a nice ring to it.

"So, this is the infamous Shadow the Hedgehog…" Snapping out of his thoughts, Shadow came face to face with another white bat. He was a rather large white bat, with a very expensive robe on, and a moustache that almost matched the size of Eggman's.

"Uhmm, yes…I am. Shadow." He pointed behind him. "And these are my brothers…the one on the left is Gemini, and the one on the right is Ciel."

The bat nodded, examining them from behind his fluffy 'stache with icy blue eyes. "You do realize, of course, that Ciel is a woman's name…"

"It is?" Ciel asked. "I'd like to meet that woman! Is she nice?" Rolling his eyes, the Ultimate Lifeform bit back a sigh. The end was near…and public humiliation was next.

"Oh, there you are Shadow!" Rouge squeezed out from behind her father, dressed in the same turquoise-and-blue dress she had worn once before. "I was wondering when you'd make it. Come in already; we don't want you catching a cold, now do we?" She winked at him, the classic sign to trust her and not say anything, he followed her inside.

The dining room was large and exquisite, filled with useless yet "beautiful" objects everywhere. The author could go into detail, but decided that it's enough to say this: Everything was over-the-top in terms of fanciness, and the food wasn't even on the table yet. Rouge stifled a laugh at the sibling's expressions; even Shadow's mouth was hanging in disbelief.

"They don't seem to be high-class people," whispered her father. "How ever did you meet them?"

"It's a long story dad…maybe I'll tell you about it at dinner." Meaning, no. How would her parent's react to that little story? I mean, even the bit about her helping the government would upset them, so it was a topic best left unsaid. Hopefully, no one would bother her anymore about it…


"Hey, is anyone missing a fork? I've got two over here!" Everyone was now at the table, and Shadow had to resist the urge to roll his eyes. Gemini was too busy wondering why he had two sets of silverware to notice his brother's "just shut up now" look.

"Why dear, you're supposed to have two forks!" This was from Rouge's mother; a petit woman who looked like a smaller version of Rouge in almost all departments.

Gemini continued to stare at the forks. "But why two forks?"

"Because one of them is the dessert fork," Replied. Mr. Jardin. "You do know what that means, right?"

"It means we're having dessert," The mage replied matter-of-factly. Shadow sighed, but at least he hadn't had to ask the question himself. Of course, it was still a mystery to him why they had to use separate forks, but he knew better than to question aristocrats. It was like asking Amy why she chased Sonic; she would start to go on and on about the topic, as if the answer was obvious.

"So then," Rouge piped up to change the topic, "what do you boys think so far?"

"It's…very nice," The Ultimate Lifeform replied slowly. "And it's nice to meet your parents. Almost makes me wish I had parents." After that slip of the tongue, Mr. and Mrs. Jardin stared at the siblings.

"You're orphans?" Mrs. Jardin asked cautiously.

"Nope! We're artificially created lifeforms!" The yellow-striped hedgie explained. "We were created from the DNA of a hedgehog, various other people, and the data of an alien overlord!" Shadow noted that Rouge's father was turning a bright shade of red, but before he could explode, another maid came in, followed by large trays of food.

"Dinner is served, Monsieurs and Mademoiselles," She said with a curtsy. "Tonight's dishes are the finest in French cuisine, including escargot. Please, enjoy your meal." The bats seemed pleased by this, Gemini was confused, Shadow was wondering why the escargot looked so much like a snail, and Ciel had turned a bright shade of green.

"Is it…is it really French?" He asked meekly. The others nodded, and he shrieked, causing the nearby windows and glasses to crack.

"What's the matter Ciel?"

"IT'S GONNA EAT MY FACE!!!" Now, even though this assumption may not have been all that wrong, everyone was still staring at him.

"Ciel, it doesn't look that bad," Gemini said helpfully.

"Indeed!" Mr. Jardin nodded, his moustache bouncing as he did so. "Why, this is the finest French dining; the maid said so!"

The winged sibling shook his head. "But French things eat people's faces!" On cue, Rouge tried to suppress a laugh, and failed.

"Whatever gave you that idea?"

"Well," Ciel began, "I was walking outside one night, and I saw this guy and girl together, and they were eating each other's faces! So I asked what they were doing, and the guy said he was frenching her."

"That means they were making out," Shadow explained bluntly.

"But when you and Rouge make out, you don't eat each other's faces! Well, I don't think you do…do you?" There was an awkward silence, the only sound being that of Rouge's dad choking on his escargot.

Gemini was about to comment, but was instead given the "shut up or die" glare from his red-streaked sibling, and kept quiet.

"So…" Rouge's mother interrupted, "how about I stop my husband from choking, and then we calmly finish dinner, alright?" Everyone nodded except for the aforementioned husband, who by now was on the ground, blue-faced, and half a snail sticking out of his mouth. At this, Shadow calmly pushed his own escargot off of his plate, and resumed eating the rest of his meal.


After awhile, Shadow decided that the whole point of the dinner party was quickly lost. It must have happened, he decided, after Rouge's parents began to ask about him. Not only was Shadow bad at answering questions about himself (unless the answer "I forgot" or "Maria" was acceptable), but it was probably a bad idea to let Gemini and Ciel help him with the questions.

"So then," asked Mrs. Jardin, "when exactly did you meet our dear daughter?"

"It was during a meeting with an…uh, employer of mine," He explained, ignoring Rouge's glares that meant he should shut up now. "She dropped in, we were introduced, and put on a mission together."

"Didn't you guys go to blow up Prison Island?" Ciel asked enthusiastically, despite now having Rouge and Shadow with the shut-up glare. "You told me about that one! You set a bomb on the island, but then you had to beat up Sonic, and you ended up saving Rouge because she got trapped in a vault with the Chaos Emeralds, and you didn't want to leave the gems! Right? Right?"

"Shut up Ciel!" Both the black and white furries shouted simultaneously. At this point, Rouge stormed out of the room for a breath of fresh air. Before Rouge's father could begin yelling at Shadow again since his daughter was out of the room, her mom asked, "So, how about your siblings? When did they meet Rouge?"

"She hit me in the head with her shoe!" This was from Ciel.

"…She stopped me from killing Shadow," And that was from Gemini. "You know, when I first saw her, I thought she was a hooker. But I must admit, she's pleasantly defied all my expectations…why are you all staring at me? I'm trying to eat here."

At this point, deciding that he had enough of this nonsense, Mr. Jardin lost his temper and threw a fork at the mage. After blankly staring at him for a moment, Gemini threw one back. This time, Rouge's father retaliated with a piece of éclair, which missed, and hit Shadow in the face. Everyone stared in apprehensive horror as the creamy desert slid down the Ultimate Lifeform's face.

"So, you dare to challenge me to a food fight?" With an evil grin not even the devil could surpass, Shadow grabbed the nearest plate of escargot, and fired the slimy buggers at both bat and hedgehog faces. Soon, everyone was encompassed in an all-out food war, save for a small maid cowering in the corner, and Ciel, whom after deciding that French food didn't eat his face, was plucking various flying tidbits out of the air to snack on.

Needless to say, Rouge was very surprised when she came in, and had a sudden soufflé hit her square in the chest.

"What is the meaning of this?" At the sound of her voice, all action suddenly ceased.

"He started it!" Exclaimed both Mr. Jardin and Shadow, pointing at each other. Gemini ducked behind a table, just in case anyone remembered it was actually his fault, and Mrs. Jardin pretended to have not taken part in this mess. Ciel…Ciel was just wondering why all the food suddenly stopped flying.

Shaking her head, Rouge suddenly pulled out her pick-nails. Remember those? Yes, they are sharp.

"Here I was, hoping you could all get along for one night! I guess I was mistaken…all of you, start running, and beg for mercy. You have a three second head start." Everyone began getting to their feet. "Time's up!"

"Chaos Control!"


Shadow, Gemini, and Ciel suddenly landed back in their apartment. The first of the trio wiped some sweat off his brow, glad he had brought his Chaos Emerald just in case.

"Remind me never to take you to a dinner party again," Shadow ordered.

"If you ever do, remind me not to come," Gemini retorted.

"Remind me…something," Ciel added. "But don't you think Rouge will be angry that we left like that?"

The red-streaked sibling laughed. "Even if she is, she'll cool off soon. Don't worry about it; I think it was worth it just to hit her old man in the face. Nice job everyone."

The next morning, Shadow awoke to a pick-nail thrown at his head.


Well, that was interesting. The next one is a holiday chapter, in which the age old question is answered: what would Shadow do if he heard about Santa Claus?

Thank you for reading! See you all in the next few weeks!

Oh, and for the record, the word Jardin is (I think) French for "Garden." So, Rouge's name would be "Red Garden" in French. I did that on purpose, you see. X3