It never ceased to surprise Shadow how quickly the people of the future jumped from holiday to holiday.
Granted, he wasn't one to go into stores very often 一 large, crowded places usually didn't sit well with him 一 but Rouge said that their fridge and pantry were empty and that she could use the extra hands, so the extra hands he would be. Rouge might have been able to lift almost two tons on her own, but shopping bags were tricky business. A few runs to the store and back, complete with ripped bags and broken seals and smashed eggs had taught him that lesson in full.
All the same, the last he had been in the grocery store, he had seen all kinds of Halloween decorations. He had rather enjoyed them, finding the aesthetic to be pleasing and the idea of finding joy in horror to be a charming concept. Shadow figured that everyone could use a little more joy in their lives.
He figured Maria would think the same.
But the fake cobwebs and plastic skulls were all gone now, replaced with bright lights and fake snow and tinsel. Shadow knew that the next big calendar holiday was Christmas, but November was only half-over.
It perplexed him.
"Ah!"
A small delighted cry from Rouge caught his attention, and he looked over to his coworker-turned-best friend-turned-roommate. She was further down the aisle, fingers reaching out to a display of flat cardboard decorated with the same designs of reindeer and lights and the big man with the beard. Little numbers were spread over the item, and as Shadow stepped closer, he saw that 24 square perforations surrounded the numbers, evenly distributing them across whatever the thing was.
"What's that?" he prompted, and Rouge glanced at him, giving him a small grin.
Odd. He would have expected her to make more of a reaction. Such restraint from the bat seemed almost… sheepish?
"It's an advent calendar, hon." Rouge picked one off of the display and held it in both hands, looking at it fondly. "You open one door for every day of December until the 25th, and get a little chocolate as a reward."
Shadow nodded, waiting for the rest of the explanation, and at the drawn-out silence, Rouge glanced at him once more, her smile faltering as she saw him waiting. She sighed, shifting her weight over to one leg. "These were a big part of my childhood. We didn't get much, but these were cheap and usually kept us happy… especially if the 25th ended up being a letdown."
Ah right. Rouge's less than abundant childhood. She practically never brought it up 一 "The past is past, sweetheart, it doesn't matter when we have today and tomorrow to take advantage of!" 一 and it had taken a long time for her to open up about it. Shadow knew that level of trust was special, a testament to how much they had been through together.
Warmth stirred in his chest as he glanced over at the advent calendar. "Are you going to get it?"
Rouge hummed, pursing her lips, but her wings drooped, and Shadow frowned. That meant that she was going to start convincing herself not to get it.
"Not much of a point anymore, right?" There it was. "I mean, we're trying to eat healthier and-"
"Just get it," Shadow interrupted. "One chocolate a day isn't going to destroy you, and it's not like money is a problem for us."
Rouge looked back down at the treat in her hands, eyes narrowing as her innate stubbornness was undoubtedly hounding her with possible arguments against everything, and Shadow's own stubbornness flared to fight it back.
Like it or not, they were leaving the store with an advent calendar today.
"I've never had one," he pointed out. "And if it's a tradition… well, didn't you say I needed to try to be more festive?"
Rouge perked up almost instantaneously at that, flashing him a mischievous smile. "Well if that's the case," she declared, reaching out her free hand to the display, "how can I refuse? Let's both get one, and it can be our stupid little tradition."
Shadow almost smiled at that. "The best kind?"
Rouge grinned at him, dumping two of the cheap, chocolate-bearing treats into their cart, and Shadow really did smile when he saw genuine happiness and excitement in his friend's eyes. "The absolute best," Rouge corrected him, pushing their cart along with a small skip in her step.
Shadow rolled his eyes but followed behind. "Right."
It looked like Rouge really would need the extra hands, after all.