Expectation Cultivation

Shadow didn’t feel like himself. His insides had been hollowed out, scrubbed down to the girders. All the cobwebs and festering dark-colored muck had been excised with a flamethrower. Stained floorboards ripped up to scour vermin infested crawlspaces. Everything reset for the new inhabitant. Fresh drywall went up, pristine floors went down. Everything new, everything clean, everything perfect. Everything pink.

Shadow didn’t feel like himself. That man had died (again) in Amy’s nest. She had murdered him and then resurrected him into someone better. This new man took up residence inside him, settling into the space quickly and setting a new agenda, a new direction for his very soul. Amy. He’d been holding his breath his entire life waiting for her. Now that he had held her in his arms his world shifted, aligning with a new true north.

Shadow didn’t feel like himself. And he was absolutely fucking fine with that.

However, on the topic of renovations, Shadow was seriously considering purchasing the building containing Amy’s apartment. That claustrophobic, dark little room…Clearly Amy had some affection for the place, but that didn’t mean it couldn’t be made better. The idea of her scrubbing dishes or having to go outside into the cold and dangerous world to clean her laundry revolted him though not near so much as her cohabitating with another man.

Amy wouldn’t even have to know. Kintobor Holding had several large real estate conglomerates under its umbrella. Hell, Shadow’s family might already own the building, or the land, or the management company for the property. He’d have to set Nicole on finding out. And if Amy needed to have somewhere to stay temporarily whilst renovations were underway…well, Shadow had room to spare.

It was clever plan. Mother would be proud…

Shadow cringed, causing Nicole to stop midsentence. “Sir?”

He shook his head, “It’s nothing. Please continue.” Nicole resumed listing all the meetings she had rescheduled and all the correspondences she had answered for him. This was his second round of ‘updates’ that afternoon. The moment he’d entered KLS’s offices, his steps had been dogged by a number of his subordinates, all eager to restart projects that had been stalled by the no-confidence debacle.

KLS business addressed or delegated, it was Nicole’s turn to hold Shadow’s attention…but his mind seemed loathe to provide it to her. Especially when it could be obsessing over his upcoming date with Amy instead.

Where should he take her? Somewhere private and exciting? Eclipse had mentioned the snowfall had been good at his chalet this season. It would be easy to ask to borrow the property for a skiing weekend…though what if Amy didn’t know how to ski? Well, he’d just teach her…but what if she didn’t care for the cold? Shadow chewed the inside of his cheek. Too many unknowns. Something else…

Warm. Maybe she’d like to go somewhere warmer. The island house would still be closed for the season, but Nicole could easily have it aired out and restocked in the time it took to fly down there. But then there was the risk that Irena would catch wind of their romantic weekend and do something disgusting like showing up there ‘accidentally’. Shadow shivered at the mere idea.

Though, to avoid the Mother risk, he could just have Nicole let out a rental property-

“Sir, should I come back later?” Merde, he really needed to focus.

“I’m sorry. Could you please repeat what you were saying?”

“I have the information you asked for on the gentleman who assaulted you at Blaze’s wedding.” Right. He had asked Nicole to look into the blue idiot before he learned the scrawny menace was Amy’s roommate and best friend and potential past lover. Still, no matter Amy’s relationship to the twit, Shadow needed find who leaked the Prower report to him. And what possessed the nitwit to divulge his knowledge to Shadow.

“What did you find?”

“His name is Maurice T. Hedgehog.” Nicole tilted her tablet towards him, showing a social media post of the moron smiling, his hand foolishly draped around Amy. How jaw tensed. “Twenty-five. A distant cousin of Miss L’Hérissonne, actually.”

Shadow’s brows rose. “Really?”

“A branch of the family that crossed the Drink after the Revolution.” When the L’Hérissonnes went from aristocrats to merely plutocrats. “I haven’t yet dug Into the immigration records, but I would estimate about two hundred years ago. Should I look into any active involvement in L’Hérissonne businesses?”

Shadow thought a moment. “Don’t bother. I doubt that has anything to do with how he knew about the contents of the Prower report.” And he didn’t feel like getting further on Breezie’s bad side for no reason. Shadow frowned and sighed. He was not looking forward to firing Silver del’Sol for sharing confidential information. Especially while Blaze was on her honeymoon. What a god-damned mess…

“I do have a likely answer.” One of Shadow’s brows rose. “Mr. Hedgehog works at Prower Laboratories. He is the lead technician performing the bench work underpinning the analysis in the report.”

Shadow leaned back in his chair, huffing. He had not expected this. “So, he knew about the report because he was involved in writing it?”

“I believe that is correct, sir.”

Shadow was relieved. Still irritated, of course, but at least he didn’t have to deal with an internal leak. What could have possessed the azure moron to talk to Shadow like that? Had he been looking to extort him somehow? If so, why run? He shook his head. Speculating wouldn’t reveal the truth.

But something still didn’t add up.

“Why was Maurice at Blaze’s wedding?” Shadow wouldn’t have been surprised if Blaze had extended an invitation to Dr. Prower as a professional curtesy…but a lowly bench technician? “I saw him with Silver del’Sol.”

Nicole’s lips pressed together tightly and she glanced away briefly. “They are…currently dating. Maurice was Silver’s plus one to the wedding.”

Shadow blinked. His first thought was how that was most certainly a conflict of interest, but whatever he felt about that was overridden by his second thought. Knowing the man Amy was living with seemingly batted for the opposite team filled Shadow with a surprising amount of joy. Yes, she would smell like him (something Shadow hated with the ferocity of an exploding supernova), but the tiny Beta wasn’t a rival romantically or physically. Of course, none of that would matter once Amy stayed with Shadow while he was renovating her building and just never moved back out… Stop. Slow down. Idiot.

Shadow shook his head slowly, trying to refocus. “Is Blaze aware?”

Again, Nicole hesitated. Shadow’s jaw tightened, but he forced the irritation away. Her reticence in this matter was understandable and commendable, he repeated to himself a few times, trying to drill it into his thick skull.

Blaze and Nicole were close friends. Shadow knew this and the point was only driven home further by Nicole’s role as Blaze’s maid of honor. Silver was Blaze’s younger brother (adopted, but that wasn’t a salient fact). Everything Nicole told him about their relationship was borderline traitorous, especially in this context. That she trusted him with the information was grounds enough to let the matter pass without comment.

“I do not believe,” Nicole began to answer, her words rushing out quickly, “that Blaze is aware that Mr. Hedgehog works at Prower Labs, but she is aware of Silver’s relationship with him.”

Ah. Shadow took a deep breath. This was a bit messier. Should the relationship become a problem later, which was worse? Blaze appearing to be incompetent for not knowing or negligent for knowing and not putting a stop to it? He closed his eyes. Mon dieu, nothing is ever straightforward, is it? There was a time when Shadow would have had Security walking Silver out the door yesterday for bad judgement, but now…

“I am also not aware that Mr. Hedgehog is currently employed by Prower Labs.” He stated clearly.

“Yes, sir.” Nicole responded eagerly. “Thank you, sir.”

With a sigh, Shadow picked up his coffee cup and rotated his chair to face the wall to ceiling windows giving him an unobstructed view of the City. He had a sinking feeling that overlooking this little indiscretion would return and bite him in the ass. He just didn’t really feel inclined to place himself into a position where he might have to explain to Amy why he had to fire her friend’s boyfriend. Messy.

His eyes drifted to the river. Tents were being erected along the riverwalk for the impending harvest festival. Now there was an idea. Local, public, simple. Dinner and a nice walk by the river with the option to explore the festivities. Unpresumptuous, common, and perfect for a first date. Shadow smiled. It was a solid plan, at least until he began to overthink every detail as he was want to do recently.

On the topic of overthinking…Shadow had been obsessing over Amy’s medication, probably (most certainly) more than he should. He knew the Starline product was ineffective at best (and potentially criminally harmful), but Amy’s reaction to his offer of cleaning her apartment had him second guessing himself. Yes, she’d sent him to her bathroom to find contraceptives, so he couldn’t be faulted for laying eyes on her hormonal suppressants. But did that give him the right to offer her an alternative? How would Amy take advice like that? Was he willing to take the risk if the answer might be poorly?

As much as he feared for her health, he needed to respect her boundaries. Shadow would move at Amy’s pace no matter what his instincts had been continuously screaming at him. Like when he’d drunk her god-awful coffee (which, let’s be very honest here, was quiet possibly the worst he’d ever had in his life, sort of the safe house in Apotos- fuck, think of anything else but that!) and chatted amicably with her, all the while resisting the present, immediate, and urgent need to bend her over the kitchen median and fuck her so long and hard that the authorities were summoned to investigate a noise complaint.

Shadow’s breath hitched at the memory and he inhaled the coffee he was sipping into his trachea. He hastily put the mug down on his desk as he hacked and coughed.

“Sir?” Nicole half rose from her seat facing him and he waved her off.

“I’m fine. I’m fine.” He assured her between coughs, though tears pricked at his eyes. Shadow really needed to get his thoughts under control and back to non-Amy related matters. Much of the day had already passed and the urgent matters requiring his direct, undivided, and immediate attention continued to pile up. “Is there anything else?” He wheezed.

“Yes.” She said with the tone she used when she was certain Shadow wasn’t going to like what she had to say. “Your mother has expressed eagerness in meeting Miss Rose at the upcoming garden party.”

Shadow grimaced. Merde. “Right…” Shadow pinched the flesh between his eyes. “When?” Irena never reached out to him directly to speak, but after his stunt at the meeting of the Board, Eliza, Irena’s creature, had sent him several versions of «Madam would like to speak with you».

“Less than two weeks.” Fucking hell. So soon? He really should have been paying closer attention.

“If I recall, I have a very important meeting I must attend in person on the other side of the globe.”

“As you like, sir…” Nicole said slowly and Shadow frowned, knowing full well what was coming. “But is that wise?”

Shit, cowardly was what it was. And – Nicole was 100% correct – ill-advised. If Irena suspected that Shadow had lied to her to get his way for the vote, she’d make him pay in ways his simple mortal mind could not begin to comprehend. What’s more, given the text from his father, there was a high chance that the Queen of Hell had summoned her spouse into the mix. And Shadow would sooner have Amy face Irena a million times before ever allowing Black to lay eyes on her.

He took a deep breath and released it slowly. On some practical level, Shadow knew that he would be forced to expose Amy to his parents at some point, but he’d resolved to delay the inevitable as long as he could. Unfortunately, ‘as long as he could’ was only a matter of days.

“As is often the case, you are right. Very well.” He admitted. Nicole frowned, her brow knitting sympathetically. Still, that didn’t mean he couldn’t field a proper defense. “Though, please extend an invitation to my brother and his wives.”

Nicole nodded. “I will, sir.”

Shadow’s phone began to ring. He glanced at the caller ID and then looked at Nicole. “Could you please excuse me?” She nodded and quickly left his office. Shadow answered the call. “Rouge.” He did not bother to curtail his disdain. Not too long ago, Shadow had been furious at Rouge. Were it not for Amy’s call, he would have certainly done something he would have regretted and a lingering ire still yet remained.

“Hello, handsome.” Her flippant tone did nothing to quell his irritation. “How are you doing?”

He remained in control of his company and now had the attention of the woman he’d obsessed over for a month. Despite Rouge’s best efforts earlier, Shadow was doing fucking amazing actually. “I’m fine.” He answered, his tone flat.

“Just fine?”

Shadow was not in the mood to entertain the games Rouge’s tone suggested she was eager to play. “What do you want?”

“Can’t I call my best friend and offer my sincere congratulations?”

“Given that you are most certainly not doing that, I’d say, no, you can’t.”

“Har har. Listen Prince of darkness and adjoining poorly lit locations, I am ecstatic that Amy secured the bag and you got your dick wet.” Shadow grimaced at her vulgarity. “And I’m sorry about being a bitch earlier.”

Shadow remained silent.

“And…” He could hear Rouge struggling. “Being a bitch at your lawyer’s wedding.”

Shadow continued to say nothing.

“And that’s all you’re getting, so say something or go fuck yourself!” Rouge growled.

Shadow couldn’t resist grinning. It was not every day Rouge offered an unsolicited and sincere apology. He wasn’t going to let the opportunity go to waste. “I accept your apologies as collateral for further apologies to be delivered at a later date.”

“Oh, blow me, you asshole.”

Shadow laughed. “Hard pass.”

“Why is everyone yanking on my fucking dick today? I swear to god!” Rouge exclaimed. “That fucking skunk. Did you see what that wife beater did?”

“Are you alone?”

“Fuck you, Shadow.” She cursed him viciously. “Don’t you dare try to manage me! Just shut the fuck up and listen to me. This creep, man…I- I- got out played today.”

Shadow frowned. Shit, he really needed to watch this press conference. Amy hadn’t wanted to talk about it until that weekend, so he’d figured he had some time, but with Rouge so upset she was stuttering? He’d be watching the accursed recording the moment he ended the call.

“That’s not weakness I’m hearing.” Shadow goaded. Rouge didn’t take the bait and huffed ruefully instead. Shadow sat up straight. This was serious. “How bad?”

“Eh, the fucker shifted so hard into reforms that I’ve got to come up with something fast or I’ll be seen as supporting the existing shit systems.” She sighed. “I shouldn’t have mouthed off at that homeless shelter or whatever the fuck it was a month ago.”

“Community center.” He corrected her.

“Shut up!” She snapped. “Whatever. Point is, Espio was right. The race is narrowing down to a singular issue. Omega rights and shit.”

Perhaps that was what had disturbed Amy so much. Was she having second thoughts in supporting Rouge? What a mess that would be and, with his luck, very probable. That was a bridge for crossing when he came to it. “You’ll figure it out.” He said.

“Yeah.” Rouge answered unconvincingly.

Shadow frowned. Rarely did Rouge’s bluster faulter. “You are far more qualified to run this City than St. John.”

“Yeah, like that matters.”

Shadow tried harder. “You’re smarter than he is. You are meaner, more ruthless, more conniving, and you don’t answer to anyone.”

“Yeah.” She sounded like she actually agreed this time. “Yeah. All good points.”

“He obviously has to resort to tricks and theatrics to get under your skin because he knows he can’t win in a fair fight.” Shadow was taking a wild guess, but the moment didn’t really call for brutal honesty. “You are going to disembowel him at the debate.”

“I am going to have his liver with some fava beans and a nice chanti.”

Shadow smiled. “That’s the spirit.”

“Thanks.” Rouge snorted. “Look. Jokes and bullshit aside, this shit with Geoffrey is serious and-“ She cut herself off. “You need to talk to Amy about it.”

Shadow frowned. “She may have mentioned something about the press conference, but she wouldn’t give me any details. At least not yet. What is it you’re not telling me?”

“If I was going to tell you, I would have.” She returned with her usual condescension. “Just take care of her. The situation is much more complicated than I had thought, and Amy’s involved in…unfortunate ways. That’s all I’m going to say.”

Shadow chewed his lip. On one hand, the idea that another Alpha knew something about Amy that he didn’t, made Shadow want to commit murder, but, on the other, Rouge was trying to look out for Amy and even compromising her confidence to a degree to do so. “Thank you. I will.” Whatever it meant to take care of Amy, he’d do it. Whatever, whenever, wherever.

“Amy is a wonderful young woman, but skittish doesn’t even come close to describing how hair-trigger her flight response is. So, kid-gloves on the front end, you get me Mr. Resting Murder Face?”

“I have no idea to what you are referring.” Rouge laughed and Shadow found himself grinning, knowing she couldn’t see him. A thought struck him. “Do you know what sorts of cuisine she enjoys?”

“What, going on a date?”

He could be coy and play a few more rounds of their cat and mouse, but Shadow really did need to be doing actual work. “Yes.” He answered simply.

Rouge hummed as she thought. “You know what? I have no idea. Take her somewhere nice, but not that uptight.” Well, that didn’t narrow the choices down by much. The City was the culinary heart of the continent.

“What…” He was going to regret asking this, “would you consider nice but ‘not that uptight’.”

Rouge chuckled. “Right. This is your very first date date, isn’t it?”

“I will not even attempt to parse what you mean by that, but I would like Amy to enjoy herself so,” He grimaced and prepared himself for ridicule, “I would not…hate advice.”

“Oooooh, not hate it you say? That almost sounded like you asking for help, Shadow. Be careful. If I didn’t know any better, I might think your icy heart might be thawing.”

“Are you done?”

“I could go on.”

“If it pleases you.” He braced himself for a drawn out, profanity laced diatribe.

“Oh, I would.” Rouge sighed. “But I’ve had a shitty day and you’re not making it very fun, you know? You’re making me feel like I’m kicking a quadriplegic puppy with AIDS, Shadow.”

“And yet somehow you find a way to make me at fault for your distress.” Shadow replied dryly.

“Of course. I’m a slimy bitch like that. You do know I want to go into politics, right?”

“No, this is the first I am hearing of it.”

They both snickered.

“Anyways,” Rouge brought them back to the task at hand “How can I put this is in a way you can understand? You want an elegant place, but without a published dress code. Fancy, but the prices need to be printed on the menu. Avoid a prix fixe until you know what she likes. No private dining rooms and no country or yacht clubs. There can be a valet, but if the hostess is dressed better than Amy, you’ve fucked up.”

Shadow’s ears wilted slightly at the list of criteria. “And here I had been under the impression I had been thinking about this too much. Now I come to find I was thinking too little.”

Rouge sighed. “Just get Nicole to pick a place. You were going to do that anyways.”

“I-“ He began to protest, before cutting himself short. He was going to ask for Nicole’s help, but now he felt indignant. He didn’t need Nicole’s help with something so simple. He could do the research to find the perfect restaurant that Amy would love with all his ample…time. Fucking hell. “I will likely do just that.” He admitted.

“Knowing her, Nicole probably already has reservations for you.”

“I haven’t told her of my date yet.” Or of his relationship with Amy at all, but Nicole seemed to be well informed, nonetheless.

Rouge snorted. “Knowing her, Nicole probably already has reservations for you.” Shadow had to admit that Rouge was likely correct. Admit to himself, of course. He’d rather die than admit as much out loud and to Rouge of all people. He didn’t know where he’d be without Nicole’s help.

Speaking of help…“Are you available the weekend after this coming one?

“Maybe.” Rouge answered cautiously. “Why?”

“I find myself playing host to a garden party.” Shadow tried to fill the air with chaff before he launched to live grenade. “I am mustering as many allies as I can. Irena has-“

“No way in hell.” She cut him off. “Shit. No! I’d rather pluck my eyes out with a rusty cocktail fork.”

“Amy will be there.”

“Does she know that?”

Shadow was at a loss for words as the realization knifed through his veins. He’d made a decision for Amy again. “Nique-moi.”

“That sounds like a no.”

“I can’t…It’s like I’m hallucinating when I think about her.” The confession poured out of him. “I can’t seem to remember that I don’t know what she would want or like. And,” He grimaced, “What’s more, I keep…keep feeling the urge to…harm anyone who gets too close to her.”

“That’s pretty fucked up, Shadow. You have got to be the most mate-sick motherfucker alive right now.”

“What are you talking about?”

Rouge released a long haggard sigh that curled into a peel of laughter at the end. “Where is that cocktail fork? I’ve found another activity I’d rather stab eyes out than participate in. Explaining sex ed to you!”

Shadow growled. Mate-sickness was for already bonded couples…right?

“Look,” Rouge continued, “If Amy is going, then I’ll think about exposing myself to your stochastic terrorist of a mother. And if I go, you owe me big time.”

“I’ll ready my check book.”

“Har har, fuck you.” They both laughed. “I need to drop. I have about a million people trying to get my attention and a million more that need their head and ass wired together. And I need to sit on Knuckles’ face until he suffocates-“

“Good-bye, Rouge. Always a pleasure.” Shadow killed the call before he had to endure any more descriptions of Rouge’s sexual desires.