(In the last chapter, I said something about bringing {Cafe Edition} to a close, but I changed my mind. After starting up {w/Rosy}, I changed my mind and came back to this story, albeit a while later. I think I made up for it with the length of this chapter, though.)

Honest and Shadow had the same class at the end of the day, so as soon as their computer screens' clocks read 3:15, they were out the door and on their way to the café. Since they had been in the middle of moving for the past four weeks (months in our time), it had been a while since they had come into work. When they showed up, the café was absolutely silent and empty just as it always had been when they arrived. The café actually opened at 3:30, not 3:15 when school dismissed, but there was nothing that they could do to kill time outside of the café except maybe hang around the courtyard at school at that wooden table that had been in the middle of falling apart ever since they started high school. You could tell when Honest was excited because of how long her sentences were. It had been a while since she had last donned her uniform and got to work. However, no matter how big she happened to be smiling, Shadow never seemed to be doing the same.

"Are you not excited to be back at the café?" she asked him, opening the door to the back room and looking back at him.

His scowl disappeared for a moment as he thought. "Well, I would be lying if I said I didn't enjoy working here. Just please don't tell Sonic."

Honest laughed. "What about if I told Scourge or Rouge or Knuckles?"

"Scourge would laugh at me, Rouge would think she'd won something, and I'm not sure what Knuckles would do, but it probably wouldn't benefit me in any way," he replied quickly. He walked past her and into the back room. She followed, the door slamming shut behind them on its own.

The lights flickered on, revealing a small room with two closets and a large table in the middle for meetings, which they rarely ever had. Boxes were stacked in a part in the back. There was probably a secret passageway behind those boxes, but I'd better leave that for a future chapter.

Their uniforms were in different closets, so they stood back to back as they rifled through the others' to find their own. There were stickers on each of the doors that had pictures of a golden cat with black hair on them and the words "You're Wearing Honey!", which sounded really sticky. Their dresses, however, weren't made out of bee vomit and instead were of cloth and lace. Honey had a particular style to her dresses that not many other fashion designers had in that cloth and lace were the only materials used in making any one of her products. The cloth was made out of a polyester blend that didn't collect dust which was perfect for their jobs, and the lace wasn't that poor quality lace that got torn easily and frayed like rope. Instead, even after, how long has it been, four years give or take, the lace was still in perfect condition, though there wasn't very much of it in the design anyway.

Every dress was different by the way, reflecting each of the wearer's styles... or at least how Honey saw them. Some designs included stockings, other not. The cats' outfits included white or black collars, and the hedgehogs' included holes for their back spines to poke through.

As they dressed themselves, the surrounding room began to fill up with the other employees, some waitresses, some cooks and bakers. Honest jumped on top of the table to put on her shoes. As she finished tying the laces of one shoe, she noticed the cat sitting beside her to be Blaze. Honest couldn't help but notice that her shoelaces looked burnt on the ends.

"Hey," she said. The purple feline looked up at her with her usual scowl. "What happened to your laces?"

"Oh," she said, pulling up one of the laces on her other shoe to observe the scorched tips of her shoelaces. "I just can't help the flames sometimes. Especially on days where the air's dry like this. Most days here are wet, so I burn when I can."

The way she had said it so sincerely actually made it feel like it was a real problem, which Honest guessed it was. Uber real. Honest just nodded solemnly and focused back on her own shoes.

Honest didn't really like her outfit. It felt heavy and in the way. Honest kind of wished that Honey would remake it so that it would be shorter and have less lace. Honest wondered if Shadow wanted his outfit to be modified in any way.

She looked over her shoulder to see him standing by the door, waiting for her with Dina. Honest sighed before gritting her teeth. "I'm coming, okay? You guys get dressed way too quickly." She reached for the floor with her feet, eventually dropping off the edge of the table and walking over to them. "Don't you need your bows tightened? Or your shoes tied?"

"Nope," Shadow said. "Do you?"

Honest had to double check by reaching behind her and pulling on the bow parts of her ribbon in the back of her uniform. She tugged on it fiercely and sucked in air. "Nope, it's tight!" Honest struggled out. She then dashed past them and out into the main room of the building, Dina and Shadow giving her a bewildered look.

"Is Honest okay?" Dina asked.

"No. She's never been okay since the first time I met her."

Rouge was going from table to table, moving the numbered markers into the center of each table, where they had been yesterday at the start of the day before people started messing with them after sitting down at their tables. Honest didn't ask if she could help and instead positioned herself at the front doors. However, the first customer to enter the building didn't use the doors at all.

Honest could hear a gurgling sound and looked down at the floor to watch as a customer formed out of a puddle of black sludge. He stood there for a moment before looking over at Honest. "Greetings, Cat." He looked down at her hands. "Can I have a menu?"

Honest was frozen for a second, but his lizard-like green-yellow eyes broke her from her stupor. "Oh, yeah! Of course. I'll go get you one." She zipped off.

The embodiment of darkness's gaze flickered around the café until he spotted a silver hedgehog standing in front of the door to the kitchen while a pink hedgehog tied a sign around his neck that read "Try our twelve new varieties of cupcakes!". The inky rodent started floating towards the hedgehog without making a sound.

Honest ran out of the back room a few seconds later only to find that the customer had moved and was now making a B-line for the center of the restaurant, a trail of mushrooms left behind along the path he traveled.

"Suddenly I want to help advertise as well," he said as he approached the two hedgies. Amy looked up and noticed the murderer of the spiny, blue rodent whom she claimed to be the girlfriend of instantly, eyes narrowing. Silver's face, on the other hand, lit up when he saw the floating fiend.

"Of course you can help! Can you find him another sign, Amy?" he asked.

Amy kept her eyes on the black hedgehog as she walked backwards into the kitchen. When the door shut in front of her, the walking hedge-zombie sighed.

"How can I be friendlier so as not to provoke bad feelings in people?" Mephiles asked him, watching the door swing back and forth.

Silver was about to say something but then stopped. The embodiment of the absence of light turned towards him. "What were you about to say?"

"I was about to say that you should try smiling, but you can't," Silver said solemnly.

The other hedgie nodded slowly and knowingly. "What did you do to deserve that sign?"

He shrugged. "I guess I won Rouge's favor somehow when I ran into her that one morning and caused a cupcake avalanche in the middle of the room."

Mephiles nodded and floated away. "Are you going to talk to Rouge?" Silver asked.

He stopped. "I have no use for the bat's favor." He then started floating back towards the door where Honest was waiting, stomping her foot.

"I have your menu. Do you want it or not?" she asked, angry. She then yelped when black, sludge-covered tentacles began swirling around her. She anticipated the worst- them pulling tight suddenly- but was surprised when they just tugged the menu free of her hand and retracted. Her heartbeat slowed and she blinked.

"Thank you," he said, turning and floating towards the one booth in the back that didn't have a window by it. Honest huffed. She saw a green figure coming out of the back room and lurched for him, grabbing a hold of the sleeve of his uniform and pulling him over to her.

"Go take that sludge-ball's order and get it over with," Honest instructed the still-new-in-her-eyes waitress. He nodded and raced over to the customer where he waited with a neutral expression. Honest looked over to where Shadow stood next to a table with a notepad. She didn't recognize the fan character, but was definitely not okay with the way they were looking at her hedgie as they rattled off their order to him. Shadow just gave her an odd look and said "alright" before walking off. He met Manic at the pass through, and they stuck their sticky notes to the counter where Amy or Key would find them when they were ready.

Before long, the pink rat, Amy, walked out with the embodiment of darkness's order- a full platter of multi-colored, fully-decorated cupcakes.

"Why does he need so many cupcakes? It's not like he can eat them anyway," asked Amy as she handed them to Honest.

"Oh, he can eat them. Who knows how, but can he taste them?" the blond cat asked.

Amy just shrugged and Honest turned around and walked towards his table. There was a long shadow cast over him due to the curtain hanging above the seat opposite his. Before Honest could even get halfway across the room, a black line shot out from underneath Mephiles's table and across the floor. It grabbed her ankle and pulled her to the floor. The platter of cupcakes defied gravity for a second before turning over. The tray then fell to the floor with a clank. None of the cupcakes landed on her, however. Instead they just dropped onto the tiles beside her, bouncing for a while and smearing frosting on the floor before rolling to a stop. Honest just lied there in shock, blinking. A noise was heard that was similar to fire igniting and suddenly Shadow was standing between Honest and Mephiles, his fists burning with green flame.

"What was that for?" The personification of the absence of light was looking forward still.

"Shadow. Why are you standing in my way yet again?" he asked. Shadow's head just kind of fell to the side and a question mark flew out of it.

"Why do you expect me not to come to Honest's aid?" he asked.

He let go of her ankle and the tentacle retracted slowly back to him. "Honest is in no need of aid. I am simply interested in becoming her friend."

Now Shadow was really confused. "Tripping people isn't very friendly."

A frantic hedgehog sprinted towards them. "I'm so sorry, Honest! I told Mephiles that Rouge gave me the task of advertising the new cupcakes because I ran into her the other day!"

Shadow put a hand his to face. "You know to be careful when speaking to him. Why, though, did that make him attack Honest?"

Honest sat up, her fur bristling. "Mephiles is trying to make me give him a sign!"

"No," Mephiles said, his head spinning 270 degrees to face her. "I want your trust."

"Oh, no!" Honest said in a fed up manner, lifting her arms up dramatically from where she remained sitting on the vinyl flooring. "I am not in the mood to put up with this 'I am literally a biological representation of the absence of light and just turned my head almost all the way around, but I still understand the concept of sincerity' stuff today." At some point people had begun to crowd around the situation unfolding in the middle of the cafe. "Rouge, please let me sit in the back of the kitchen and take the rest of the day off, so I don't have to deal with that walking mushroom garden anymore." She lifted her arms as if to be helped up. Dina sighed and grabbed one of her arms. Infinite silently grabbed the other and they helped her to her feet. As soon as she was stood upright again, however, the being she had just insulted was standing over her.

"You always seem to say the most alluring of things in the most fascinating of manners," he said. Honest was speechless for a moment, but eventually she found her words.

"You know, I was trying not to break any walls today, but now it seems somebody else is commenting on my writing style," Honest said.

"I wasn't talking about the way you write. I was talking about the way you speak," he told her. Honest thought she could detect annoyance in his monotone voice, but then again it was probably almost certainly her imagination.

Now Honest was back in the hole she had started in. Her mouth was moving, but no sound came out. Eventually somebody realized what was going on and pitched in to help.

"I think it would be best if you took the rest of the day off. For your health as well as his," Rouge said, taking over for both Infinite and Dina and pulling Honest across the room and into the kitchen. Honest was wondering what she meant by his health being in danger, but everyone else there knew.

Rouge pulled Honest to the back of the kitchen and propped Honest up against a box in the floor. She left the room silently. Once back in the main room, Rouge looked around.

The room was very nearly back to normal. Mephiles was angry and glowing purple because he didn't get his cupcakes. Even though it was clear that he had only ordered them so he could trip Honest while she carried them, he was intent on getting a refund.

The front doors opened and Silver and Shadow darted into the room. They were holding the Scepter of Darkness between them and advancing towards the glowing demon at the table in the back. He saw them and hissed, melting into liquid and flowing beneath their feet, underneath the door, and down the street faster than they could get the Scepter to float or anything. They both sighed. Rouge shot over to them.

"You couldn't catch him? What if he attacks Honest tomorrow and causes cupcakes to fly in my restaurant again?"

The two hedgies just looked between themselves. "She'll need a guard then," Shadow said.

The bat sighed loudly. "Well, there really isn't anyone I trust with her more than you, Shadow. Go ahead, but you do realize that will take out two of my waitresses, right?"

"You have Blaze and Manic," Shadow said. "What about Dina and Infinite? They can wait on tables. Infinite's not absolutely incompetent."

An annoyed grunt sounded from across the room. Infinite was sweeping in the middle of the room. Dina was nowhere to be found.

"Blaze won't do anything. You know that. And Infinite tries to choke every customer that doesn't know exactly what they want to order before they do, so where's Dina?" Rouge asked, looking around.

In the kitchen, Dina sat in front of Honest. "Why does Mephiles like you so much?"

Honest was covering up her face with her hands. "He doesn't. He can't like anything except the idea of himself joining with living flame. He doesn't know what he's saying."

Just then the door to the kitchen opened and in came Rouge the Bat. She saw them instantly. "Come on, Dina. You need to fill in for Honest," she said. Dina turned around and they left the kitchen, Honest looked up. Through the pass through Honest caught a glimpse of Shadow standing in front of a table. At the table sat...

Oh, no. She wasn't missing this. Honest got up and rushed out of the kitchen at lightning speed. The one sitting at the table was Sonic. He was flipping through a menu.

"Can't I just order a chili dog? Look, I know it's not on the menu, but can't you just make one? For me?" he begged. Shadow just rolled his eyes.

"If it's not on the menu, you can't order it," he told him.

Suddenly a white figure glided towards them. "That's an amazing idea!" it exclaimed. It was Rouge. "Sonic, since you happen to be an expert in the matter, I say you should go teach the cooks how to prepare chili dogs so we can add that to our menu!"

"What?!" Shadow blurted, angry.

"What?" Sonic responded.

"Why are you unhappy, faker?" the black hedgehog asked.

"Don't you realize? Amy's the cook! I really don't feel like dealing with her today," he said, sliding down in his seat.

"Oh, Amy's out today," Rouge said. Sonic suddenly looked up. "She's accompanying Cream to the pumpkin patch today for a school field trip."

"That leaves... okay! I can totally do that for you, Rouge!" Sonic jumped up from his seat and raced past Honest, whom was still on her way over, and into the kitchen. Honest walked over to Rouge and Shadow.

"Where is he going?" Honest asked.

"Rouge decided that we should add chili dogs to the menu," Shadow said gravely as if he were announcing the death of a loved one.

"So why is he going in the kitchen?" Honest inquired once more.

"To show whoever's on duty how to make them," Shadow said, unconcerned.

Suddenly Honest gasped.

They both looked at her in a confused manner. Her eyes went wide.

"Key's the only one in the kitchen right now!" Honest cried.

Immediately they were all concerned. They all three scrambled for the kitchen. Honest threw open the door. Sonic had his back to the door so he didn't see them.

One by one, heads began appearing in the crack of the door, everyone practically climbing on top of each other just to see inside the small kitchen. Surprisingly enough, Key was leisurely flipping through a cookbook titled "Simple Meals You Can Make Without Proper Funding" while sitting on an old, broken microwave. There was an outline of an ancient noodle cup inside.

"If Key is over there, then who is Sonic instructing?" All heads turned towards the large expanse of counter top on the other side of the kitchen where cakes were usually iced, donuts were usually filled, and jam was usually spread. It was there that our favorite blue hero was showing Rosy the Rascal how to make a chili dog.

"You're not allergic to garlic or onion, are you?"

"No. Well, at least I've never seen that mentioned in any of my character descriptions."

"Well, that's good because the chili powder I like to use includes a lot of onion and garlic powder."

Eventually everyone backed away from the door and let it swing closed silently. The crowd dispersed with a yawn shared between everybody there. However, Honest remained behind.

The first thought that came to her head was that it made sense for Sonic to get along well with Rosy because she was essentially Amy and thus he was already comfortable around her. Then again though, he didn't like Amy. That meant that he shouldn't like Rosy either. However, Honest knew that it had to be more complicated than what it seemed at the surface. If Sonic didn't like Amy, then he would like her opposite... for some reason.

Honest had been writing all this down on a notepad. Suddenly the door to the kitchen opened and a blue rat stepped out. "Uh, Honest?" She almost dropped the notepad and her pen.

"Oh! Hey, Sonic! I was just writing a new part to the story," she said quickly.

He didn't look angry as he said, "You were spying on Rosy and me?"

"It's for the story!" Honest exclaimed. She then proceeded to run into the back room at lightning speed. Sonic just shrugged and walked back over to his table.

Before he knew it, Rosy had climbed onto a step ladder and was changing the hanging menu with a bold-tipped pen. "Chili Dogs - 5 rings for 2" She smiled and descended the ladder.

Meanwhile, Honest was sitting at the dust-covered table in the backroom with her thin-as-a-gram-cracker laptop. It truly was 2018 (except it was 2019 when I published this :P). She typed up what she had written down. When she was finished with that, she played a nineteen year old game until Shadow appeared at the door.

"It's time to go," he told her. She closed her laptop and looked up at him with a smile.

"Really? Okay, let's go." They got changed quickly. Honest then put her laptop under her arm as they walked outside and started down the sidewalk.

"How was your day?" she asked him.

He sighed before talking. "Well, Sonic ordered his chili dogs and didn't bother me at all. He left as soon as he finished them and didn't talk to anybody, actually. Then..." He thought a bit. "Rouge mentioned something about adding outdoor seating, and I told her it was a good idea. I'm not sure if I actually thought it was, but why would I tell her 'no, outdoor seating is dumb' when I didn't feel a particular way about it?"

Honest went "hm" and touched her frozen nose. "How is my nose already so cold, and I've only just stepped outside?" They were both breathing steam. It was only October. It was strange for it to be this cold in their area so soon.

"How long has it been since you were called on a mission?" Honest asked.

He didn't think long before replying. "A while. But nothing's going on right now."

"I get really excited for the darker games. Forces really delivered in my opinion, but I'm over it now. I finished writing {Forces Edition}. That's how you know." She laughed afterwards. "Speaking of dark things- tomorrow's Halloween. I can't wait to draw us in costumes!"He rolled his eyes. "Yeah. Of course you do."

That was a freaking long chapter. Honest was excited to go back to work and back to work she did. Anyway, I hope that you all enjoyed this long chapter of {Cafe Edition}. I finally have internet back at my house, so I'm going to try to publish the rest of {w/Snow} and {Forces Edition}. I'm so sorry you had to wait so long, but hopefully you were ready to start reading again. See you next time. (You won't notice anything, though because I've already done this stuff. :P Just keep reading!)

(This chapter onwards I consider the "modern" {Cafe Edition}. It was at this moment that I learned the most as a writer and felt the most that I could write just about anything. In the next chapter, I attempt to be "super serious", but end up taking 81 days to write the chapter between chapters of {w/Rosy}.)