This is a fanfiction, and as such, most of the characters in the story are not mine. Most characters are © Sega, and are not used with permission.
Chapter 1: Flashback
It was early in the day, almost still the middle of the night as the sun was a few hours from rising.
In a nightclub in the center of downtown, the staff was cleaning up the mess from the night just past: spilt drinks, discarded napkins, and dirty glasses. Amongst the crew that was cleaning house was one individual sitting in one of the booths on the side; spread on the table were a batch of receipts and pages of bills and other financial statements. The loner was tapping numbers into a laptop, calculating the daily expenses and income; this was the price that was paid for being a business owner, as well as proprietor of the hottest nightclub in Baltesaria.
After typing in the last set of numbers from the receipts, the figure placed her reading glasses on the table and reached up to rub her eyes. Rouge wanted to sleep, and lucky for her, the night was almost over.
Running a nightclub was hard work, and it ran into the early hours of the morning, cleaning up from the previous night and preparing for the next night. Aside from cleaning and bookkeeping, she and the staff had to do inventory to make sure they had all they needed for tomorrow, because the day was the only chance they had to get any new stock. As long as the weekly shipments came in on time, they were plenty stocked and could retire early; but occasionally someone would have to collect some extra stock during the day. Thankfully, tonight was a night that the fridge was plenty stocked with alcohol and Rouge could go to bed early.
When all the work was done, Rouge packed up her computer and bid everyone farewell, until the afternoon when "Club Rouge" would open again for another night of dancing, drinking and a good time. Fortunately for the bat, she didn't have to go far; after locking up, she headed for her apartment, which was located above the club. That proved advantageous under these circumstances, but it also meant she couldn't take a day off, as whenever the club was open, she couldn't sleep.
Rouge opened the door of her apartment and flicked on the lights. This night was like almost every other night for the past year, very late and very tiring, which made her appreciate her lavish home as much as possible.
Her apartment was as large as the club itself, with light pink pastel walls in an open concept design that made the living space as wide open and warm as possible, in stark contrast to the black walls and neon lights of the club below. The den, dining room and kitchen were all connected as part of one large room, while the bedrooms and bathroom were the only rooms separated by walls on one side of the large condo.
As Rouge walked from the entrance to the door leading to her bedroom, she was slowly stripping off her clothes: her shoes, jacket, shirt, slacks, socks; when she reached her bedroom door, she was down to her bra and panties. Rouge entered her bedroom and came out a minute later wearing a silk bed coat. She walked over to the kitchen and got a glass of orange juice.
Morning was coming, and Rouge made it a habit to watch the new morning as the sun rose; owning a night club kept her awake in the night hours and she saw very little of the sun. Sure she was a bat, sure she was naturally nocturnal, but even she liked the warmth of the sun; so after a month of running the club, she made the oath to herself to see the sun rise every morning, even if it meant the end of the day instead of the beginning.
Rouge looked at the clock; it was after four, and it would be another hour or so before the sun rose. The bat sat down on her couch that faced a fireplace against the wall; reaching over, she grabbed a remote and pointed it at the brick structure, causing it to breathe to life with a quiet propane flame.
While sitting on the couch she wondered if she should turn on the television, or just watch the flickering flame while waiting for morning. The TV was a large plasma screen that Rouge had mounted into the ceiling that descended when she wanted to watch it, but at this hour there was little on but news, late night talk shows, infomercials and test patterns. Uninterested in that, Rouge sat and watched the fire.
As she watched the orange flame and drank her juice, she looked on the stone mantle and the pictures laid across it.
"Has it really been two years?"
Rouge placed the glass on her coffee table and walked over to the fireplace. On the mantle were pictures of her time back in Mobotropolis, most of which were dominated by four figures. One was Rouge, but the other three were people she had not seen in many months, a black furred hedgehog, a young rabbit, and a small baby. The bat picked up one picture that had all four in one image.
"I miss you guys so much; but then, you've got other things to deal with other than just thinking about little old me. Don't you?"
Rouge put the picture back, and glanced at the other images before letting out a deep sigh and returning to the couch.
"A lot has changed in two years, hasn't it? You're already expecting your second, I'll have to try and make it back for that one. Meanwhile, I'm here all by myself; my baby is a building with flashing lights and a large stock of booze. Sometimes I wonder why I really left. I've only seen you guys a couple of times since I left, and I miss you so much. I wonder what you'd think if I moved back, or if I just never came back at all."
Rouge laid back in her chair and closed her eyes, thinking back to all the times she had with Shadow and Bunnie.
