(NEW CHAPTER!) Mobius High (Sonic the Hedgehog)

Chapter 8: Another Day, Another Violent Encounter

Shadow awoke to the sunlight streaming through the windows of Tails' kitchen. He lifted his head from where it rested on the kitchen table groggily, squinting his eyes because of the abundant sunlight.

He leaned back a bit, glancing at the table and noticing that his shoes were perfectly clean and not in the same position they were in when he supposedly fell asleep. He stood, his eyes flicking through the room until they settled on Rouge who was still at his house. She was humming quietly to herself while she appeared to be attempting to cook something. She glanced over her shoulder, and gave a small smile. "Morning." She said, her face clean of makeup or any beauty products she usually wore. Fat beams of sunlight fell upon her and highlighted her best features through the disturbingly musty curtains.

". . . You stayed the night?" Shadow asked, walking over to where she was and leaning on the counter next to her. "Yeah. I didn't know how to get back to my place from here. When I got back out of the bathroom you were asleep at the table with your disgusting shoes in front of you, so I cleaned them for you. Hope you don't mind." She said, jabbing her thumb nonchalantly over her shoulder and pointing at his boots which glittered in the morning light.

"Thank you." He said after a moment of standing there silently, and turned to look down at what she was cooking. It might have been actual food at one point, but it was currently a steaming hunk of burnt char. He distantly hoped that she wouldn't put that anywhere near her mouth.

He grabbed the shoes off the table and walked over to his bedroom, stripping off the dress shirt and pants he still wore from the previous night. The previous night . . . oh Chaos. He thought as the images of the bodies drifted back into his memory. He slumped onto his bed, not bothering to put on any other clothes because he didn't need to anyway. Things were really getting out of hand. Someone was killing off students one by one, and now that Knuckles and Vector had gotten into that brawl he wasn't sure the Chaotix were going to help them. You don't need their help anyway, One side of his mind remarked as he slipped on his boots and stood.

He left the room, entering the kitchen. "Has Tails gotten back yet?" He asked Rouge who was now seated at the table picking at the lump on her plate. "Nope. Haven't seen him. He's probably at the hospital with Knuckles." She said as she took her plate over to the garbage and dumped the charred lump in. She put her plate down in the sink. "Can you take me back to my place?" Rouge asked as she scooped up her pile of clothes from the night before, as well as the piece of paper she had retrieved from her locker. She grabbed a napkin and a random pen from off the counter and scribbled down her address, handing it to him. He nodded, and lightly touched her arm after studying the note. He used Chaos Control, and warped them both to her house.

After the two recovered from the space jump, he observed that she lived in a small, luxurious ivory house. It had fairly modern architecture, as well as a balcony and a lovely garden covering the ugly foundation of the house. "Nice place," Shadow remarked as he walked her to her door. The house definitely screamed Rouge.

The bat stopped right before the door and turned around to face Shadow. "Before I go inside, I just want to know something." She said, her eyes sparkling in the autumn morning sun. He waited for her to continue patiently, returning her gaze and holding eye contact. "Where do I stand with you?" She said, and Shadow instantly wished he didn't know what she was talking about.

He slowly broke eye contact and looked down at his glittering shoes. ". . . I'll see you at school." He said, dodging the topic as he quickly warped away back to Tails' place. Crisis averted! One side of his mind thought. Another part mentally scowled and said You're just running away from your problems. Shadow shook his head to stop his thoughts. Maybe he had a concussion from when the blue liquid exploded at the dance and he hit his head, and that's where the thoughts were coming from. That makes sense, his mind said to him in response.