"How do you do that?" Shadow asked as he casually slid the coffee cup across the counter to Rouge. She was sitting cross-legged on a café stool, a velvety purple book in her hand. She looked up, her face still.

"Do what, exactly?" she asked with a hint of skepticism in her voice, betraying her formidable expression. She wafted the smell of her coffee to her nose before taking the first sip and wincing at the unexpected bitterness.

"Chaos, this is strong. Why is your coffee always so bitter?"

Big the Cat had hired Shadow three weeks prior as a barista in the café of his bookstore. So far, he received 8 separate complaints about Shadow's scalding and bitter coffee.

"I like my coffee bitter," Shadow replied flatly. It was becoming increasingly difficult to hold down a job in the past few years, and Shadow was becoming frustrated. Rouge set the cup down and wiped her lips.

"Sweetie, this is like poison." Rouge jeered, sliding the cup away with her long finger. "Anyway, how do I do what?"

"Read smut in a bookstore without emoting." Shadow answered, his face severe and cold as a statue. Despite Shadow's frankness, Rouge gave a shit-eating smirk.

"Why, you need tips?" She teased, shattering Shadow's tough act immediately. He glared at her, quietly waiting for her to answer the damn question.

"It's a gift, but I've also had a lot of practice. How could you even tell it was a... Smut book?" Rouge said, rolling her eyes as the fun ended.

"I work in a bookstore. We carry those kinds of books. And you can tell by how vague the covers are," Shadow replied.

"Vague?"

The cover was just an embroidered orchid design, nothing specific to the novel itself. Rouge suddenly understood what he meant. "I guess I know what you mean, I just never gave it much notice."

"We have an entire section of those types of books." Shadow nodded to the shelves behind her.

Sure enough, there was a section for adult novels, all with similar velvety coats with simple decals for covers.

"I assure you the author didn't use their real name either," Shadow added, taking Rouge's coffee and excusing himself to take a sip.

"I already knew that, actually. I follow her work and she's said herself it's a pen name." Rouge said, looking back at her book.

"Hmm… who's it by?"

"Athena Martel, she's pretty hot right now."

Shadow fumbled through his memory bank to see where he had heard that name. He went back to days at work when he'd glaze over the titles in the adult section from afar, never daring to actually pick up a book. He remembered seeing that name pop up over and over. "Ah, her stuff's been selling pretty well lately. We have a dozen or so of her books in stock."

"Really? Well, I'll have to scope it out later." Rouge said, smiling at the thought of having more of Martel's books to flip through.

"I wouldn't be reading that shit in public if I were you. I'd hate for someone to catch me reading that." Shadow said flatly. Rouge narrowed her eyes at the accusation, only to catch his bluff immediately thereafter. She'd noticed him occasionally looking over her shoulder while she read those books. She had sensed his hidden interest in them for a while. Somehow, the hard-shelled Shadow the hedgehog was… Embarrassed.

Rouge snapped her book shut. "I'd rather have someone catch me reading shit than one of your boring-ass novels." She retorted.

Shadow responded with an eye roll. "They're not boring. Well, assuming you're not a toddler who needs constant white noise and mindless content?"

"Jokes on you. I'm such a toddler." She snickered.

"Sometimes the subtle narratives are the most engaging. Rose is exemplary at that kind of writing."

"Wait, Amy Rose wrote your boring book?"

"Yeah?" Shadow asked, puzzled. Rouge didn't buy his ignorance but carried on regardless.

"Amy Rose, the author of Whispers of Solaris?"

"Whispers of Solaris?"

"You've never heard of it?!"

"It doesn't ring a bell."

"SHADOW! That's like Sonic, Tails, and Knuckles' favorite book!" Rouge reprimanded. Shadow was even more lost but did his best to hide it, a practice he often rehearsed.

"You know I don't listen to those three," Shadow answered candidly.

Rouge sighed, accepting what was a half-decent answer. It was true after all. It was an unspoken agreement amongst their group that Shadow never took the initiative. He just got dragged along everywhere and included in shenanigans, whether he wanted to be or not.

"How didn't I know she was still writing stuff?" Rouge muttered to herself. Before she could pry any further, her phone chimed in her pocket and she instantly pulled it out to check it.

"Ooh!" she peeped excitedly, which immediately warned Shadow as to who it was. Rouge began happily tapping away at her phone and humming.

"You're so ridiculous with that meathead," Shadow commented. Rouge waved a hand at him and continued merrily typing without so much as a flinch.

"Ah, Knuckles wants the details of tomorrow's book signing," She repeated, finally looking up from her phone. "Hey, since she'll be here tomorrow for the signing, are you going to ask Amy Rose to sign your book?"

Shadow thought for a moment, glancing out the window at the back of the poster stuck to the glass. He sighed.

"Eh, probably not…" He decided. Rouge shot up out of her seat and tilted in Shadow's face in shock.

"What?! Shadow, you've been obsessing over these books for almost a year! you've been shoving these boring-ass novels down our throats for Gaia knows how long, raving about how genius and beautifully written they are! You work here for Chaos sake. You can so easily get it signed!" Rouge insisted, now lifted out of her stool by the flap of her wings.

"I'm good. This isn't about her new stuff anyway, it's about her old books. Besides, if Sonic, Tails, and Knuckles are any hint of what her regular fans are like, I'd rather stay as far away as possible." Shadow reasoned, leaning away from Rouge, who was only then slightly calmer.

"Hmm, That's actually not far off, I hear her fans can get kind of rowdy." Rouge floated back down to her seat and crossed her arms on the table.

"Really? Poor woman."

"Well, I think you should do it, anyhow. You've got to stop turning down these opportunities for happiness, Shadow." Rouge said, a tinge of sincerity in her voice for the first time that day.

"...Maybe you're right." Shadow considered. The more he thought about it, the more he fancied the idea of having a signed copy of one of his favorite books. He might actually give it a shot.

"Besides, Amy Rose is smoking hot," Rouge jeered. Shadow's tiny smile dropped at the return of Rouge's sarcasm.

"Why do you always have to make it about that?" Shadow groaned.

"What? She is!" Rouge pushed. "Shads, you've gotta get out there! You haven't had a girlfriend in too long, hon!"

"Just because you have the red one as a love interest, and somehow a relationship has brought you to a higher plane of existence, doesn't mean I want the same thing. Besides, the idea that anything would come out of a book signing is laughable."

"Oh come on, it might! You're all rugged and junk. Maybe she's into that!"

"This is so dumb."

"Hey, I'm just saying!"

Shadow emerged from the front doors of the bookstore after waving goodbye to Big, provoking the ringing of the shopkeeper's bell as the door swung open. He replaced his forest green barista uniform with a thin gray sweater, a tweed jacket, and dark-washed jeans.

"Kind of formal for a Meh Burger with friends, don't you think?" Rouge asked in ripped denim shorts and a distressed jacket over a crop top.

"Kind of cold for January, don't you think?"

"I wore a jacket," Rouge argued, flipping her unneeded sunglasses down over her smokey eyeshadow. Shadow rolled his eyes.

"Don't roll your eyes at me, I'm hot as hell." Rouge turned and began to strut down the sidewalk as Shadow reluctantly followed. After some banter and a quick stop at a storefront window to look at shoes, they finally arrived at Meh Burger. Stepping in, they immediately found their friends at the table.

Sonic waved erratically after catching a glimpse of the two, and Knuckles got up to greet Rouge appropriately with a kiss on the cheek. The gang all sat and ate their food. Sonic and Rouge gibbered on aimlessly while Shadow and Knuckles sat to listen quietly. Shadow looked over to see Tails on his phone typing sporadically.

"Are you texting your friends or something, Miles?" Shadow asked in a lame attempt to participate.

"I don't have friends, I'm on the stock market." Tails responded without looking away.

A mix of pity, disbelief, and surprise shut Shadow up quickly. It was clear Tails was going through his own thing. Teenagers.

"Shadow, you're going to Tails' graduation, right?" Sonic asked, noticing the interaction.

"If I'm not busy and he wants me there. I might." Shadow answered unsuredly.

Tails gave a nod and continued scrolling.

"Awesome! It's the Friday after next Friday I think. Anyway, Rouge, you were talking about Scorn or something..." Sonic continued

Rouge looked at Sonic with a mix of disappointment and wonderment at how dense he was. "You mean Scourge? The guy who was obsessed with copying you? The guy who got expelled from school? And arrested? It was like, a whole thing?!"

"Can't say it rings a bell. I don't remember high school too well." Sonic said, scratching his quills.

"Well duh! you were barely there!" Knuckles added, there was a soft chuckle around the table. Knuckles seemed proud of it.

"I swear, I still see Scourge hanging around outside the jewelry store sometimes, hitting on teenagers. What a creep."

"Creep!" The table repeated, aside from Shadow who sat there with no clue why they were yelling. Sonic gave him an oddly sincere smile.

"I wish you went to high school with us, Shadow. Then you would know what we're talking about." Sonic acknowledged.

"Maybe." Shadow took another sip of his coffee and Knuckles took a massive bite of his burger.

"Babe, stop, you're gonna choke… Ooh! Guess what I found out today! Remember those boring books Shadow reads? Apparently, they were written by Amy Rose!"

Shadow preemptively brought a hand to his forehead in embarrassment, only to be met with a table of silence at what Rouge was the reveal of all reveals.

"We know." they said, in unison

"What do you mean you know!? I didn't know!" Rouge lamented.

"Yeah, it's kind of a running joke how dramatically her style shifted. That's why her fans get so violent because they're entitled little shits that hate her new stuff." Tails explained, only to wince and put his phone down, seemingly after a loss of profit.

"Language." Knuckles smoothly corrected with a sip of his smoothie. Shadow looked up from his rigid stare on his coffee.

Entitlement. That was a pet peeve if Shadow ever had one. But what bothered him more was the idea of those clowns getting violent. Shadow had been reading these books for so long and had been touched by Rose's words, but never detected a connection to the author herself. Something about such a novelist being harassed, and over something as frivolous as entitlement, rubbed him the wrong way.

"Violent?" he asked.

Tails continued, "Yeah, violent. She got robbed last year. And her last expo was overrun by creeps trying to… Well..."

"Well, what?" Shadow felt the pit in his stomach grow deeper.

"You know..."

Shadow felt his heart sink at the realization of what he meant.

"Now she only does small or private events." Knuckles continued, giving Tails a break from the uncomfortable conversation.

"Like the Book signing?! Shadow!? The one that you should probably be getting us into?" Sonic interrupted. The gang's heads snapped in his direction with a glare of disappointment.

"Dude, come on." Shadow commented, "Does now seem like the time to bring that up?"

"Am I wrong for wanting to show some proper support? Maybe show her a better crowd than the expo?" Sonic reasoned. The group knew he meant it. He was just excited.

Tails had been in love with Whispers of Solaris since he was in elementary school, and he quickly dragged Sonic and Knuckles along with him. Now the three were all obsessed with the series and had no problem displaying it.

Though the mania had died down, Tails' reclusive teenage behavior worried Sonic into making an effort to reconnect with him through the series, a sentiment that Knuckles took part in.

After some further discussion, Shadow felt slightly better about the idea of the three going to the book signing, though not by much. There was nothing he could do to stop them, as it was a public event, just small and quietly marketed.

On the way home, Shadow couldn't get the worrying image out of his mind. How, in a just world, could a woman who brought so much good to his year be harassed. It broke his heart, as much as he neglected to admit it. A robbery? Really? What about this woman was so particular? She was just a book author, after all.

His curiosity got the best of him, and in the comfort of his downtown apartment he decided to look her up on a whim.

When he pictured Rose, he imagined an unassuming, possibly slightly older woman with a weary yet warm demeanor, perhaps a bit frumpy. But as he scrolled through pictures of Amy Rose…

He saw a megastar.

Young, spirited, and gorgeous. Dressed in all varieties of fashion-week-esque ensembles. Big sparkling eyes, an award-winning smile... Something about her image was just entrancing, and Shadow couldn't look away. Shadow never thought much of celebrities, but Amy was just so… Alluring. It even caused him some embarrassment. And then when he thought about the beautiful prose she had written…

No, Shadow knew that no matter how deep his connection with her books, he could never truly know her just based on that. And while these feelings seemingly came out of nowhere, he couldn't deny them, just keep them in check. They were there, and he had to deal with that fact.

The further he scrolled, the more amateur the pictures appeared, and from worse and worse angles. He soon realized they were likely taken not by photographers or press, but by "fans."

"What in the living hell."