"Dad, I think the equipment is broken," Tails had plugged everything back in but it didn't work. His dad came over and had a look, he unscrewed one of the devices and smoke escaped,

Amadeus started to cough, "It's completely fried, that's weird, a normal malfunction couldn't have caused this."

"Are you guys coming for dinner?" Mrs Prower asked.

They all went into the kitchen.

"So does that mean you lost all the data?" Silver asked.

"I'm afraid so," Tails said disappointed. "We should probably try it again some other time."

"That's a shame, but at least you still have your notes," Silver suggested.

"It's something."

Mrs Prower had prepared a lovely dinner with spaghetti, red sauce, some meatballs on the side for those who want and an arugula salad.

"It smells really good," Shadow said.

"Just wait until you taste it, Ms Prower's cooking is so good!" Silver said.

"Ow it's nothing," She said modest.

"You should really taste her risotto someday, that's my favourite!"

They all started to scoop the food onto their plates and everybody was passing the pots and pans. "It's so good!" Silver said with their mouth full.

"It sure is, thank you for letting me stay for dinner," Shadow thanked Mrs and Mr Prower.

"Well of course, a friend of Silver's is a friend of ours," Mrs Prower said. Silver smiled bright at Shadow who was sitting next to them. Silver took Shadows hand underneath the table.

"And besides, if you hadn't come along I would still have the problem with my prototype. So this is the least we can do," Amadeus said.

After a while Shadow took the bowl with spaghetti, "Here Silver you should take some more," He said.

"But I had enough," Silver said.

Shadow scoped some more on Silver's plate, "You are far too skinny."

"That's what I always say," Mrs Prower chuckled.

"That's too much!" Silver said as there was a plate full of spaghetti in front of them.

"Just eat it," Shadow said as he knew Silver always ate only leftovers from others and Silver should now take advantage to eat more now that there was decent food in front of them. "Or I will feed you like a little kid," Shadow threatened.

"Okay okay," Silver took a mouth full, "See I'm eating it."

When they were done eating, Silver asked if they could practise some more with the instruments before leaving. Of course that was okay, so Tails and Silver went over to de living room. Mr Prower went back to the barn to prepare for his presentation tomorrow and Shadow offered to help Mrs Prower with the dishes because he really wanted to talk to her.

Mrs Prower was cleaning the dishes and Shadow was drying them.

"You must be a good boyfriend to Silver, I never seen them so happy before," Rosemary commented.

Shadow smiled, "Well I'm trying to be, Silver really is something," He said and looked toward the living room where Silver was trying out the violin some more. Silver saw Shadow looking, they smiled and waved. Shadow waved back.

"I've heard you just found out about Silver being non-binary, that must have been difficult," Mrs Prower said.

"Well it sure was a surprise to be honest," Shadow chuckled, "I still really need to get used to the idea but I think Silver is worth it. They are very special."

Rosemary smiled, "It's very sweet of you to look past their gender and just accept Silver for who they are. When Silver told us, we weren't surprised at all to be honest. Silver had always been different, in a good way. Sometimes it really feels like they are our second child."

Shadow looked back at Mrs Prower, "What do you know about Silver's parents?" he asked.

"Not much to be honest," she replied, "Silver doesn't talk about them often and we never met them. We had planned something now and again but some how they were always too busy or needed to leave for work. Apparently they have to travel a lot for their work, so Silver takes care of theirself a lot. Sometimes I think Silver takes better care of their cats than their parents do for them."

"That doesn't sound good," Shadow responded.

"No not really, but Silver turned out to be a great kid so they probably did something right," she chuckled. "Years ago we talked about trying to adopt them, but Amadeus thought it wouldn't be good for us to get involved, as every parent needs to take care of their children in their own way. And Silver is really sweet, kind, polite and lovely so I think their parents did better than I expected."

Shadow thought for a moment while drying the dishes. "How long have you known Silver?"

"8 years now, I think. Tails and Silver met when they got in the same class in primary school, they have really motivated each other ever since. Went to the same high school and were top of the class. I'm really happy everything is going well at college, I must say I was really nervous about it all."

"I wouldn't be surprised if they end up being top of the class at college as well," Shadow commented.

"Me neither, to be honest," Mrs Prower said with a smile.

"By the way, I was wondering, could you maybe give me the recipe Silver likes so much?" Shadow asked, Mrs Prower smiled.

They finished the dishes and Shadow stood in the doorway, leaning against the frame and watching Silver. They were playing the piano again at this point, playing a classic piece from Dominico Scarlatti. Tails was in the barn with his dad. Shadow walked towards Silver and sat next to them on the stool, he watched how Silver was playing. Silver looked over at Shadow and smiled but kept on playing. Shadow leaned in and kissed them, Silver kissed him back.

"Do you want to play with me?" Silver asked and started to blush, "Music! Play music with me?"

Shadow laughed, "Of course," He said and he took the guitar, "What do you want to play."

Silver didn't answer but started to play the intro of Piano Man and they looked over at them and smiled bright. "I like this one."

"Okay then," Shadow said with a smile and played with them. Shadow started to sing softly to Silver. They looked at each other while playing

"I think I kinda started to like you during our performance," Silver said when the song had finished.

"Is that why you were acting so stubborn that evening?" Shadow asked.

Silver thought back at the evening, how Shadow had left with Rough. "Do you still see that bat girl?" Silver asked curious.

"Sometimes," Shadow said, "She lives at my dorm. But I do not sleep with her anymore, if that is what you're aiming at."

"Okay," Silver said feeling a little jealous. "Don't you miss it?"

"As I said, 'You're worth the wait'," he said with a grin.

"Sonic said you don't do commitment."

Shadow sighed, "I 'didn't' do commitment," he replied, "But with you, it's different."

"Different how?" Silver asked curious.

"You're not like the others, everybody else just always did what I said and what I wanted. It didn't matter how crazy it was. You aren't like that," Shadow smiled, "For you I have to work to get what I want and I like that challenge. Besides, you are the only one I ever had feelings for."

Silver blushed a bit. "Do you really not mind, me not being ready yet."

Shadow came closer next to Silver's face and whispered, "For me it's just like foreplay." Silver looked over at Shadow with a shade of red on their cheeks. Shadow lifted Silver's chin and pressed his lips against theirs.

"Silver it's getting late, maybe you should…." Mrs Prower stood in the doorway and suppressed a smile as Silver shyly pulled away from Shadow. "Maybe you two should go home," she said. "It's late and you have school tomorrow."

"Come on I'll bring you home," Shadow said as he took Silver's hand and stood up, "Thank you so much for your hospitality," he said towards Mrs Prower.

"You're welcome," she said.

Mr Prower and Tails just came back in the house. The three of them followed Silver and Shadow to the motorcycle.

"Wow is that a MTT 420 RR?" Amadeus asked.

"No I wish," Shadow said, "But I've build this one myself."

"Nice," Amadeus said as he walked around the vehicle.

"I'm not getting on that thing again!" Silver said.

"Yes you are, I will drive slower, okay?" Shadow said

"Well okay," Silver climbed onto the motor carefully as they didn't want Shadow to pick them up in front of the Prowers. Silver rubbed their eyes tiredly and yawned. Shadow sat in front of them and Silver wrapped their arms around him. "See you tomorrow," Silver said to Tails and they drove off.