A/N:Wow :D I'm so happy writing this. I upload chapter thirteen before bed, go to school the next day, then go to music, then have supper… then finally get a chance to go on the computer… and I find ten emails :D… and all of them were from FF too! Six reviews for chapter 13, and one for 12. Thanks so duper much :D! And as I hope you've seen, I wrote my lil' old holiday story the other day :)! Check it out and review if you haven't already ;)! Merry Christmas :D
--LA
Rouge belongs to SEGA… and Grace belongs to me. What a surprise.
Blegh… I have such writer's block… (And yes, that needed its own paragraph).
Hmm… it is now Boxing Day… my Merry Christmas above is pretty belated… and I have yet to start writing… despite several days of fruitlessly trying to think of a beginning. I'm sorry guys. I will start. Now… Now. NOW!
Rouge sat crumpled on the couch, switching positions every few moments in a vain attempt at relinquishing herself of the terrible pain in her stomach. She was feeling nauseous and sickly warm. Her sudden illness was, she suspected, from the stifling heat and humidity of the country. She shut her eyes and winced as her torso gave a particularly painful lurch.
Suddenly, a high pitched scream and a loud crash from the kitchen made her fall off of the couch and land roughly on the hardwood floor. She got to her feet, ignoring her aching waist, and dashed towards the source of the sudden noise. Standing, wide eyed and terrified, in middle of the room, a smashed plate at her feet, was Grace. There were shards of glass spread across the white tiles. Rouge thought she looked extremely odd without her normal, controlling air, but actually felt slightly sorry for her.
"What happened?" the bat asked. Grace raised a shaking finger to point at the wall. Rouge turned on her heel, but her eyes met only a blank wall with a tiny wall lizard. These tiny reptiles were so common that Rouge had become completely used to them, though the first time she saw one it did give her a bit of a start.
Extremely annoyed at being shaken from her spot on the couch, she irritable snatched up a magazine and swatted the tiny lizard so that it fell, dead, to the floor.
Grace shook herself, then looked furious.
"Rouge!" She cried, marching towards the sickly bat, her white boots crushing bits of glass in her wake.
"What?" Rouge said in defensive surprise, having expected gratitude.
"You killed it!" The plum fox shouted back, kneeling beside the little dead body and picking it up with a tissue.
"Um, yeah." Rouge replied indignantly, an eyebrow raised. "You were the one who-"
Her sentence broke off, however, as she felt her stomach tighten warningly. A hand shooting to her mouth, she sprinted to the washroom, plunging her face inches from the toilet bowl, suddenly sweating profusely. She took a rasping breath before vomiting, only just making it to the target.
A few, rather violent moments later, she sat panting on the floor of the bathroom, head resting on the cool sink, and feeling a fraction better. A knock at the washroom door came, and she hesitated in answering.
"Just a second." She called in response, feeling slightly proud at how strong her voice sounded, considering how unpleasant the past few moments had been. She got to her feet shakily. It seemed that the sudden bout of sickness had ended with a bang. She opened the door to reveal Grace, looking as angry as before.
"I can't believe you killed him!" She said venomously.
"I killed it," Rouge said in angry defense, still shaken, "because you were screaming your head off over it."
"But it was a life…" She said darkly. "What makes that life worth anything less than yours?"
Rouge only surveyed her for a moment in disbelief with an eyebrow raised.
"It was a freakin' lizard." She said flatly, surprised at how much of Knuckles she could hear in her own voice.
"So?" Grace said, sounding a bit crazed, "It was still a life."
Rouge actually felt pity towards her at the way her voice sunk into a quiet tone at the end of her preaching. Grace clearly felt very strongly about this.
A wave of empathy caught Rouge off guard, almost causing her to sob. Determined to change the subject, the uncomfortable bat-whose stomach had at last settled-turned to the subject of retrieving the sapphire. Luckily, this was usually a topic which brought out the most irritatingly superior manner of Grace.
"So," Rouge said loudly, marching out of the washroom, "take me through the plan again."
Just as hoped, Grace snapped back into her usual, controlling skin.
"Do you need your memory checked, or something?" She asked briskly, though Rouge could tell that she was thrilled to retell her self-proclaimed brilliant, flawless plan. She pulled a carefully marked blueprint of the museum from beneath the table "Okay. Today's Saturday. So we're going to go by the museum on Thursday to check that everything's still the same as when we went yesterday."
Rouge frowned. This part of the plan always bothered her.
"But why? It's not like they're going to change anything."
"You won't say that when the stone exhibit gets moved across the museum to where the mummies were."
Rouge rolled her eyes, but shrugged, knowing that there was no winning this battle.
"Then," continued Grace confidently, dropping her voice into a tone one might use to describe a high-profile assassination, the exact same which she had used at this point in her speech the last five or six times she had explained the plan to Rouge. "We'll come back later that night at exactly three in the morning- half an hour after the guard should fall asleep from the sedation pills we'll put in his coffee when we go by that day. We go in through the fourth window from the east, on the second floor. That takes us into the dinosaur exhibit. Then-"
"Unless they've replaced the dinosaur exhibit with the men's washroom." Rouge interjected with sarcastic worry. "You know we were lucky to find that broken lock."
Grace glared at her, but ploughed on.
"Then, we take two rights and a left, down the stairs, and another right. Straight down that hall will be the rocks. It should be really highly guarded; I saw lasers at the base of the doorway. They were off then…" her voice filled with boastful pride as she continued, "but I could see them. The museum had cameras all over the place too. So we need to watch that as well.
"You're going to fly through the lasers, and grab the sapphire."
Apparently, Grace recognized how Rouge's eyes glazed over slightly.
"And," she added sharply, "Don't take anything else. Don't even touch anything else."
Rouge sighed.
"I know." She said. However, she couldn't help but fantasize the gorgeous jewels, which were unjustly cooped up inside, being in her possession. What breathtaking rings they would adorn.
Unfortunately, she was snapped back to reality as Grace's fiery glare singed the corners of her daydream.
"I know." She repeated flatly. Grace looked content with how far away she had pushed Rouge from stealing anything off limits.
"Alright." Grace continued "After that, we-"
Rouge got to her feet abruptly as a sudden surge of irritation and an urge to hit Grace flowed through her blood. She bit her lip to suppress shouting, and turned on her heel to leave the room. It was strange, but her body seemed more than willing to do anything on a whim. As she streaked into the hotel hallway, an unexplainable whiff of well-cooked toast met her nose. She sniffed and turned her head. The toaster was empty, the kitchen table bare… The bat dismissed at a waft from outside and turned back to departing the room.
"Rouge!" Shouted Grace angrily, marching into the room. The bat glanced over her shoulder at Grace jogging through the kitchen. Rouge was in no mood to talk. She glared at Grace stonily for a moment from the hallway before slamming the door in her face.
Grumbling, Rouge stomped down the hall with a murderous look on her face. What made Grace boss? She wondered mutinously. Her "brilliant plan" had so many loop holes and flaws. Rouge stepped into the elevator, paying to heed to where her feet were taking her.
Once alone in the small space of the elevator, her mind caught up to her harsh body which seemed to be getting less and less under its control. What had even set off her angry reaction, which was beginning to seem more and more melodramatic as the elevator descended? Now that she thought about it, her behavior had been getting steadily rasher over the past few days. Perhaps it was simply being with Grace for so long, perhaps it was hormones.
Rouge greatly resented hormones. She hated the idea that her entire personality could be influenced by a certain time of month.
A/N:… Sniff T.T! Are you guys reading the same story as I'm writing?! 'Cause if you are I'm amazed and impressed that you made it to the end. Ewwww it's disgusting! It's like… an earwig squashed under a pair of ugly boots! I strongly dislike earwigs. And ugly boots. Bleghh DX. I promise to pay for the keyboards which were ruined by all of the vomit I've induced. I'm so sorry :(. I've been trying… but my mind won't cooperate. You guys have no idea how badly I had writer's block :! Like it took me like a week or two to even start! Maybe it wasn't that long since the last chapter… hmmm… I've lost track of time. Ahh well. Sorry again :(. Please review :)! I've gotten six on the last two chapters… and I'd love to break that… hinthintwinkwinknudgenudge…
--LA
P.S: Sorry D:!