To The Ones We've Lost SONADOW

Chapter 15: Rats and Relationships

Chapter 15: Rats and Relationships

"For Chaos sake we flew here and we can't even go in!?" Tails yelled, dropping his head against the brick building next to the club.

"Sorry kid, looks like we're too early." Rouge replied calmly as she looked inside of Club Midnight through a large window to the right of the locked entrance door. The worn wooded building whose lights were almost completely out save for a few lights in one of the back rooms which Rouge figured was for the employees currently getting the place ready to open in another two hours.

There had been no sign of the ultimate life form on the way to Club Midnight and what's worse he wasn't at the club either. They had painstakingly trekked through the city for just over an hour and he still was nowhere to be seen.

Very annoyed, the yellow fox let his forehead scrape against the brick as he turned to look at his travel companion. "I know that." He distanced himself from the wall, his confident display fading as his concern for his brother beat out his dignity. "But, we didn't see Shadow anywhere! He can't be with Sonic already, can he?" Tails questioned, looking rather helpless as he asked for the white bat's opinion.

Rouge shook her head. "I don't think so." She took another glance through the window again to see a dark furred rat doing paperwork at one of the booths in the club, almost hidden from sight because he had been using the fading sunlight as his light source. "But, perhaps we can see if he's been by."

"What?"

But the jewel thief was already on the move, knocking on the rectangular glass that decorated the club's door, catching the rat's attention fairly easily and despite the tired look on his face he stood up and shambled towards them anyways.

"We're closed." A raspy voice replied on the other side of the door, seeming to have no intention of opening it any time soon.

"I can see that, sugar." She said with a smug smile that made Tails certain that if the rat had opened the door that, despite her looks, would have ended in her having the door slammed shut in front of her. "I was just hoping that I could ask you for a favor. I'm Rouge, I own Club Rouge a bit of a ways from here." She greeted in a somewhat flirty manner, but took the time to swiftly pull out a business card from her pocket and held it up to the glass on the door so that the rat could verify that what she had stated was true.

"Remy, owner of this club." He said back, ogling her before hesitantly opening the door, revealing a bright red eyed mobian that somehow managed to make even breathing seem like a tiresome job. "What's this favor?"

"Well, you see-" As though she had done this hundreds of times before, she flawlessly managed to sling her arm around the rat's shoulder. "Me and my friend here," She motioned to Tails who wanted nothing to do with what she was currently doing and could only manage a small nod of acknowledgement to the rat. "-have been looking for someone for a while. Been real taxing." She finished with a breathy sigh.

"I see." Remy said, eyeing her closeness cautiously but so far making no effort to remove her as he studied the white bat intently.

"I was just wondering," She let her head tilt closer towards the rat to the point where their noses were almost touching, done in such a way that it might have made others wonder whether it had been entirely coincidental. The yellow fox being the only one who knew for sure that she had done this intentionally to get what she wanted. "if you happened to notice a black hedgehog standing outside of your club at some point?"

He shifted uncomfortably. "A black hedgehog?"

She nodded. "Yes, we've been looking for him-" Rouge repositioned one of her hands to wipe off some imaginary dust off of the rat's shoulder. "for a very long time now." She purred.