(This was actually chapter 14. Most of chapter 13 was removed due to me losing rights to a fan character. It didn't feel right to publish an empty shell of a chapter.)

(The picture was a silhouette of the new maid, but FF doesn't allow pictures, so.)

Whoever works at YouTube and is in charge of reviewing monetization applications must've fallen asleep on the job and has been for a month. He might actually be in a coma.

So, Honest is being forced to work for Rouge yet another day at her dumb cafe. Would she have to work there her whole life? Rouge was a spy for the government, so they allowed her to pay them less than minimum wage, which already wasn't very much. Hopefully, she wouldn't be forced to work at her fan-canon club, too. Actually, wasn't Shadow the same age as her since SA2 came out the same year Honest was born? Then.. Oh yeah. The law says you had to be 18 to sell alcohol, and Honest knew all he did was sweep. So maybe Honest's age didn't postpone her having to work there? Maybe Rouge wasn't actually maliciously trying to have the whole city work there for five rings a day? Whatever. Honest still didn't trust her.

After work, Honest and Shadow were going to start heading home like they usually did. However, on his way out, Shadow and Rouge started talking. Honest decided to go step outside in order to get away from the sweet-smelling but way too congested feeling building.

It was dark out and several stars could be see in the sky overhead the town. Honest was surprised to see that she could actually see the lights of Speed Highway in the distance. "Hm." Her eyes then went back to the stars.

Shadow came walking outside a moment later. "Honest?" he asked.

Honest pointed at the stars, not turning around. "Are there actually other planets out there?"

Shadow looked confused. "Uh, of course there are."

"Like the ones you visited in X?" Honest clarified.

Shadow walked up to where Honest had been leaning against the rails of the walkway in front of Rouge's Cafe. "Yes. I've been there, and you've seen them yourself."

"I don't believe it. Even though I've seen them on a screen doesn't mean they actually exist. How come I haven't seen them myself?" Honest asked.

"Uh, I don't know. Maybe because it requires a rocket ship to go any of those places?" Shadow said, acting as if he were annoyed, which Honest guessed he really wasn't, but she didn't know for sure.

"And the only person who has one is Eggman, right?" Honest guessed, narrowing her eyes at him.

"Yeah, pretty much," Shadow confirmed. "GUN hasn't been testing interplanetary missiles in years."

"Is Cosmo still up there?" Honest asked next.

"Cosmo?" Shadow asked, as if he couldn't believe Honest had brought her up. "Technically, yeah, but she's safe to add into your story like Blaze and Silver."

Honest gasped. "You're right!" And then she started getting other ideas. "And I can add Venice, too! As Silver's way more attractive brother. xD"

The next day, Honest showed up at the café after Shadow did. She had a guest with her. "Rouge?"

Honest rounded a corner with the mysterious girl in tow to find Rouge and Honey talking to each other in the small space behind the front counter.

Rouge crossed her arms and looked over them at Honest's guest. "Cosmo?"

Cosmo smiled as she recognized a familiar face. Honest beamed. "Cosmo's interested in a job!"

Rouge equipped the Seedrian with an apron and a wooden spoon. Honey was measuring Cosmo with a roll of measuring tape as she received these items.

"Honey will work on getting you a uniform by tomorrow, but today you will just have to be without. Key has agreed to help get you acquainted with the kitchen."

"I have?" came a voice. The group located the source of the sound at the door of the kitchen. Key was there holding a mixing bowl with what looked like dough dripping down the side and onto the floor. "I don't remember agreeing to anything!"

Cosmo turned around and looked to Rouge, whom she thought would point her to someone else. Instead, Rouge just nudged her forward. "Oh, Key's just being Key! Of course she agreed. Now, go!" When Cosmo still didn't move, Rouge nudged her forward again. Cosmo sighed outwardly and walked over to where the porcupine was standing, waiting for her.

Honest was sitting at a table with Shadow as Manic worked three jobs at once behind them. Honest smiled and stretched out, practically laying on top of the table. She sighed loudly. "I think I did a good job recruiting Cosmo!"

Shadow looked at her sideways. "Oh, so now you're the head of recruitment?"

Honest thought about it for a while. "Yeah, I think I am. Self-proclaimed Head of Recruitment, Honest the Cat, at your service." She saluted.

"Can CC work here at the cafe?" Shadow asked her. Honest replied instantly.

"No. He's not maid material." Shadow thought about all the fan art Honest had shown him of the Custom Avatar and Infinite. "I thought he was."

Honest lifted her head and grinned at him. "Not in my story, he isn't."

A phone could be heard ringing in the back. A second later it was picked up by Rouge. "Your house... you want it cleaned? ...you need some maids... you'd be willing to pay? ... with gems?!" Honest tensed up when Rouge entered the main room.

She shook the phone around in the air. "Maids! Gather around!" Everybody stopped what they were doing and walked to the front counter. Honest and Shadow joined them.

"Snow just called and she has a job for you all!" Rouge sounded excited.

Key sighed and came out of the kitchen. "We already have a job. Working here."

Rouge ignored her. "She wants some maids to come to her house and do some cleaning, and she's willing to pay."

"How much are we getting payed?" Key asked, her head shooting up at the mention of pay.

"What do you mean 'we'? You're getting paid the same hourly wage of 1 ring an hour. I'm getting paid in sapphires and rubies!" No one was excited for her. In fact, most of them had a frown on their faces from hearing about how they would only be getting paid their average, hourly pay for working at Snow's place instead of at the cafe (the very definition of overtime), when at any other job they would be receiving time and a half.

Rouge saw everyone's lack of enthusiasm and huffed. "Not all of you are going, though, so don't get too eager just yet." She pointed towards Cosmo and Amy. "You two are going to stay at the cafe to make the food while we're gone." Of course Rouge wasn't going to waste a valuable business day even though she was also additionally getting paid in jewels. After all, she would never sell the gems she received for money. She would probably put them on a satin pillow and polish them every day.

"Honey will stay here to supervise for me, and Blaze will stay behind to waitress."

"By myself?" Blaze asked, crossing her arms.

Rouge scanned the available waitresses in front of her. "Hm.. Rosy?"

Rosy poked her head out of the gathered crowd. "You can stay, too." Rosy went and stood beside Blaze and smiled up at her. Blaze gave her a look that said "Get away from me, you little, deranged, pink, obsessive rat."

"Since tomorrow's a weekend, I assume the maids that are going can show up at 8 AM tomorrow without having to be anywhere like at school, right?" They all took that as one of those questions that you aren't supposed to answer and stayed silent.

Rouge looked cool as she dismissed the meeting, but as soon as the crowd began to disperse, she turned around and muffled her scream by biting into her gloved hand. "Rubies and sapphires?! Without having to do anything myself but show up?! EEE-!"

Shadow and Honest stood at the front of the cafe near an empty table. Shadow watched as Honest held an imaginary broom and swept the floor, practicing for tomorrow.

"Manual work?" Shadow asked as if he didn't know the meaning of the words. "I mean, what we do here is manual work as it is, but cleaning? I've never done that."

"Yes, you have! Remember chapter... I forget what number... of {w/Sonic}? We polished Eggman's robots together, remember?" Honest smiled a cat smile as she thought of this. Shadow just narrowed his eyes at her.

"Oh, yeah. Now I remember. I fell asleep while doing it," he said. He glared at Honest, and she smiled. "Oh! I'm sorry! For some reason, I thought that was pretty cute at the time. Hm.." Shadow "pft"ed and Honest continued sweeping with her invisible broom.

(I said in {w/Sonic} that events in that story aren't canon unless they're talked about later on. Here is one of those moments.)

I was about to stop and discuss in-depth my old way of thinking about Sonic, but I actually don't understand it myself...

Thank you so much for reading this chapter! I'll see you next time as I introduce a new plot. Maybe. I might hold off and hint at it for a while. :P

Fun Fact: Pretty much everything I publish from here on is at least a year old. (But now like three years old. :P)