Mother Knows Best

Chapter Nine

On the whole ride back to Mobius, all that Shadow could think about was when he was going to see Kiera again. Of course, he was going to see her again. He promised himself he would. Shadow caught himself to be addicted to her. He learned everything about her yesterday – as did she. After he got back to his apartment, he tried to bury himself in a new mission. It was an attempt to not think about Kiera and miss her – but that task failed miserably.

Rouge tried and tried again to make him forget about his affections – or as she puts it his infatuation – with Kiera, and make him focus on her. She dragged him to all the places she loved: the shopping centre, the jewellery store, even Angel Island to tease Knuckles about stealing the Master Emerald. Shadow had none of it, he began to push Rouge away.

Rouge hated the fact that he was doing that to her, and blamed Kiera for what he was doing. She believed and told herself that it was all Kiera's fault. That was the reason make it through her day. As Shadow kept pushing himself away from Rouge, she spent a few days away from him and talked to Knuckles. At first he thought it was a stupid attempt to steal the Master Emerald from him, but she only wanted a friend to talk to.

"What do you want, Rouge?" Knuckles stood up in front of the Master Emerald. Rouge stood a couple strides from him.

"I was thinking we could talk." Knuckles frowned.

"Well, you thought wrong." Rouge sighed, waving off the opportunity to roll her eyes at her.

"I'm not here for the Master Emerald, Knuckles." Knuckles looked at her surprised that she didn't use that annoying nick name she gave him: Knuckie. He still found what she said hard to believe as she always wanted the Master Emerald from him.

"What exactly do you want, Rouge?" He asked.

"I told you. I want to talk." Knuckles still sceptical of her, nodded and returned to his seat in front of the Master Emerald. Rouge walked over to him and softly seated himself a few spaces beside him.

"I see the allure now. It is beautiful up here, isn't it?" Rouge commented with a small smile. Knuckles could hear her sadness through her voice.

"Perhaps, you should start by telling me what's bothering you, Rouge?" He asked her gently and gingerly, in case she began to cry – he didn't really want to comfort a crying woman. He wasn't so good at that.

"Maybe, I should start from the beginning." She muttered.

Knuckles nodded. "That would be wise."

Rouge glanced at him. "Myself, Shadow and Omega were on a mission a couple of days ago."

Knuckles nodded, understanding the beginning of her story and problem. "Omega got hurt, and his circuits got fried." Rouge continued.

"So, Shadow and I took Omega to someone who could help and fix him." Rouge turned her gaze to boot clad feet, focussing herself on something else so her emotions wouldn't over whelm her.

"Tails." He stated, and Rouge nodded.

"Yeah. So, I found out where he lived, and Shadow and I went to Tails' home – and well, things went downhill from there." Knuckles looked at her, raising an eyebrow in question.

"Downhill? Did Omega not make it, or something?" He asked.

Rouge shook her head. "No, he's fine – great even."

"Then, what happened?" Knuckles probed gently.

"Shadow fell in love with Tails' mother." Rouge stated, as if it was normal to say. Knuckles eyes broadened, unable to comprehend the sudden confusing information. Obviously, he knew that Rouge had feelings for Shadow – you would have to be dumb not to see it – but he didn't know that Tails had a mother let alone find out that Shadow fell in love with her.

"Tails' mother?" Knuckles questioned, still shocked and it was in his voice. Rouge rolled her eyes, cursing herself for leaving out the important detail.

"Oh, sorry, adoptive mother."

He calmed himself as Rouge corrected herself. Now, that makes more sense, he thought. He began to feel sorry for Rouge as she fell for Shadow, and he fell for Tails' adoptive mother – then he realised something. "Shouldn't you be glad?"

Rouge looked at the red echidna confused. "What do you mean?" She tested.

"Well, wherever Tails is, it is far away from Mobius – meaning that Shadow wouldn't be able to see her again, as he is a G.U.N agent. He gets missions like every other day." Rouge's brow furrowed and her eyes narrowed, taking this all in.

"So, in hindsight, Shadow wouldn't be able to get any time to see her."

Rouge smiled at what Knuckles said. She was feeling a lot better, Shadow will fall out of love with Kiera, and in love with me. It's perfect. She thought, with a slight and sly smirk on her face. She was winning, and she couldn't wait to rub it in Kiera's face when the time comes. Knuckles felt guilty for what he said to Rouge, he only said what was needed to be said to make her feel better.

Earlier that day, Silver and Sonic were with Knuckles on Angel Island, and Shadow came saying he needed to talk to Silver – as he is his best friend. Knuckles overhead that Shadow told Silver that he had met someone, and he may have fallen in love with her. Knuckles knew from the way he was speaking of this person, that he truly cared for her and wanted her around him daily. Knuckles didn't want to lie to Rouge, but she didn't want to learn the total truth. Shadow didn't care about her the way that she wanted him to. Knuckles didn't want to be the one to break her heart, and he was sure that Shadow didn't want her to find out from someone else that he doesn't love her.

Knuckles knew that Shadow and Rouge were friends first before Rouge developed her feelings for him, and he also knew that this wasn't going to end well. He knew someone is going to get hurt, it would be either Rouge or the woman that Shadow is supposedly in love with – or himself. Knuckles kept his head out of their business, this will only end in tears and heartbreak, he thought.

Knuckles will be correct.

"Thanks, Knuckles." He nodded, and gave a small smile. Rouge returned the smile and stood up.

"I needed that talk. I'm glad to all you a friend, Knuckles." Knuckles sat there surprised – watching her fly away – he wouldn't have considered them friends but after this he may have been convinced they were. He smiled to himself a little. I'm friends with Bat-Girl, that's new, he thought.

In Yukon River…

Tails lay on the sofa with his head in Kiera's soft and warm lap. He was near to falling asleep as she was brushing her fingers through his hair. Kiera was watching some random television show called Supernatural – she was attempting to keep her mind off of Shadow.

Tails opened his eyes and glanced up at Kiera's troubled face. "Something wrong, Kiera?" He asked her softly in his sleepy tone of voice.

Kiera looked down at him. "No." She simply stated.

"Are you sad about Shadow?" He probed softly, suspecting it was a touchy subject. Kiera's heart froze for a second.

"Why would you think I would be sad about Shadow?" Tails sighed, she's becoming defensive and pushing away from me because of this, he thought sadly.

"I know the two of you had this thing, and I know that you miss him." Kiera stayed silent for a moment. Tails took this as a 'yes' to her missing Shadow.

"Did it just end?" Kiera looked at him, then reverted her gaze back to the television screen.

"I suppose. We didn't actually say that our thing was over in specific words." She muttered, holding in her emotions from pouring out in front of Tails.

"You've fallen in love with him, haven't you?" Tails asked her suddenly. Kiera hadn't thought about that, she has been in love before but that resulted in nothing but regret and heartbreak – so she has pushed every man that perused her before they admitted they fell for her. Am I in love with Shadow? I don't know what I feel, but it is something for him – but I can't be with him. She thought regretfully.

"As much as I would like to be with him. I can't. You know that, Tails." Tails nodded, understanding the fact of Lorenzo and Alistair are a problem for her even finding any amount of happiness in relationships.

"Yeah, but wouldn't you like at least a weekend with him? Just one?" Kiera wondered where he was going with that. She would like nothing more than some time with him, even just one weekend.

"Yeah. I would like that. But I can't." Kiera answered him softly.

He nodded. "How about next weekend you go to Mobius and stay with him?" Kiera widened her eyes, and looked down at him.

"Are you sure? Are you comfortable with that?" Kiera questioned him, surprised at his suggestion.

"If you're asking if I'm okay with you and Shadow together: I am. I won't be the one to stand in the way of finding happiness, not after they took that away from you." Kiera stopped herself from becoming overwhelmed with her emotions, and just game with a grateful smile.

"Thank you, Tails."