Partisan: 1 (noun) a strong supporter of a party, cause, or person. 2 (adjective) prejudiced in favor of a particular cause.
She sits on a park bench under the refreshing shade of a great oak tree, hands folded in her lap patiently as she watches passerby's with a promising gaze. The sun bows in the sky, poking a hole and releasing a profusion of colors. Soft pinks, like the color of her fur, delicately lace the sky, molding to the darkening blue.
She crosses and uncrosses her legs, smoothing down the ruffles of a dress she bought for the occasion. She fixes her bangs with her fingers to make sure they are in perfect place and readjusts her red headband. Her lips press into a firm line before she pops them after reapplying lipstick for the third time.
"He's late," she muses to no one in particular as the wind tickles her face.
A sigh escapes her lips as she rests her cheeks in her hands, glancing forlornly at the ground. She sits like this for minutes before she swiftly slaps her cheeks and shakes her head from side to side, her cheeks now painted a bright pink.
"Now, Amy," she tells herself in an apparent pep talk. "He is always late. He will come. He promised he would come and he's not one to go back on his word. He will come," she repeats more firmly whilst sitting up straight and poised to look her best.
The wind intensifies and she has drawn her jacket closer to her now hunched over body. The sun is a ghost, much like the person she is waiting for, and the moon has risen in the night sky. Splatters of stars sprinkle the atmopshere. The park is silent, waiting.
Just like Amy.
She lets out a frustrated growl, taking her head out of her hands. Her fingers curl into a fist right before they come crashing down on the park bench. A hammer erupts out of nowhere and she yanks it out of the air. She stands, swinging heavily at nothing, and maybe at everything.
"Two hours!" she shrieks at the top of her burning lungs. "Two hours, Sonic! You're two hours late. You promised, you jerk! TWO HOURS!"
She smacks the ground. She clashes against the park bench. She pounds the oak tree. She strikes through the air, twirling in a blinding dance that seems to have no end. He wonders when it will end. An angry Amy is an Amy you do not want to deal with.
Amy hurdles the hammer so it flies and lands a couple yards away. It lands right by a couple, who glare at her after being startled.
"What," she snaps, swinging her hands, "are you looking at?"
They walk away, muttering to themselves as Amy falls back onto the bench and whispers to the wind, "Two hours."
To his amazement, she sits there for another hour until he sees her lower lip wobbling, a tell-tale sign of a girl who is about to lose it all. She wails into the empty sky, her cries piercing the breeze. Crystal droplets cascade down her blotchy cheeks. She wipes her eyes every couple of seconds, but each tear she dries is replaced by five more.
After what seems like hours of crying, she looks up and sees a dark figure in the shadows, peering out at her. His name is on her lips. She can taste it on her tongue. But it is the wrong name.
"Shadow," she says, sniffing. She roughly wipes her sleeve across her face as if she can erase all signs of her distress. "What are you doing here?" She looks at him with large eyes, a liquid emerald that has lost its shine.
The hedgehog comes strolling out with heavy feet from his hiding spot, perching next to her on the seat. "I was taking a walk," he says simply in a low voice.
"Oh," she says. "Kind of late for a walk, don't you think?"
"Kind of late to be waiting for a…date," he replies, raising an eyebrow. "Don't you think?"
Whatever bit of hope she has left in her body shatters the instant the last word escapes his lips. Her body collapses, dejected. Fat tears fill the rims of her eyes, but she refuses to let them fall. She bites her lower lip to tame the trembling.
"It's been over three hours," she mumbles, kicking a pebble on the ground in front of her. "I guess he's not coming, is he?" She glances up at him and blinks, letting the tears fall to the ground where they explode on impact.
Shadow stares back at her with objective eyes without opening his mouth to reply to her rhetorical question. He leans back in the chair, feet planted on the ground in front of him. Amy can't help but compare him to Sonic. Sonic would be on the edge of his seat, feet tapping on the ground because he can't sit still. He would be ready to run in an instant, in the opposite of my direction.
But here Shadow is, grounded, and she finds it very comforting in an odd sort of way because nothing about Shadow is comforting.
"I don't know why I expected anything different this time around," she finally says after the silence becomes an unbearable weight crushing her chest. "He always does this. It's Sonic." She laughs, though it isn't funny at all. "Every time I end up alone at the end even though he promises me he'll show up. Do you think…do you think he's out battling Eggman and just is running really late?" She peers up behind her lashes, but she knows the answer before the word even escapes his mouth.
"No."
She sighs. "Didn't think so. I guess I really am just an idiot. What is the saying again? 'Fool me once, shame on you. Fool me twice, shame on me?' Well, shame on me, Shadow, for believing him so many times."
Shadow is quiet for some time. "You are no fool," he says. "The faker is the fool."
"Thanks, Shadow," she says. For the first time all night, he sees a genuine smile light up her features. "But I am one. I should just give up on him, right? I mean that would be the sensible, normal thing to do. How can I give him up, though? I've spent my whole entire life chasing him. How can I just end that chase? I love him, Shadow, I love him with all my heart but how can I love him when he just takes that love and throws it away?"
She doesn't expect an answer and he doesn't, at least, not at first.
"You can say you're going to give up on him all you want, but you know that is not true."
"What?"
He looks at her with determined eyes, eyes full of such emotion that she gasps. "You can't choose who you love. You can only choose what you do about it."
She pauses for a minute, considering his words, mulling them over in her mind. Then, she laughs abruptly. The sound is refreshing to his ears, like a distant memory being brought to surface. For a moment happiness radiates through his veins. And then the moment is over.
"Shadow the Hedgehog is giving me love advice?" she asks between outbursts of giggles. "Oh, who would have thought? You're giving me love advice! And good advice at that. Who are you?"
His ears flinch back as if this is an insult. "I am the Ultimate Life form."
"I know who you are, silly," she says with another radiant smile. "I guess you just surprised me. You're always full of surprises, Shadow. I guess that's one of the many things I like about you."
His cheeks burn as if he's been bit by fire. It occurs to her that he does not know how to accept a compliment. She wonders if he's been complimented at all.
She hits his knee lightly with hers. "Thank you," she says as she stands, eyes optimistic towards the sky. "I needed this. Thanks for the advice, Shadow." She swoops down like a free bird, kissing his cheek lightly. "I'm going home. I'm not going to waste my time waiting. If he wants me, he can come get me. I'll see you soon, okay?" She smiles, teeth and all, before she walks away, leaving him with cheeks as red as his stripes.
He touches the invisible mark with his fingertips, wondering what sensation he feels at the pit of his stomach. He watches her saunter off with newfound confidence until she disappears into the horizon. He sits long after she is gone, contemplating things he has not thought about before. Finally, he stands, eyes sharp at a nearby area before violently thrusting forward.
"You're late," Shadow hisses, forearm pressed against his throat. "You are a coward, faker. How many times are you going to stand there and miss your opportunity? Listen." He leans in, blood red eyes narrow in a glare before he snarls, "Hurt her and you are dead. She is what good there is left in the world. Do not destroy that good."
The blue hedgehog nods mutely before Shadow pushes him away. "You disgust me," Shadow says before disappearing in a flash of Chaos.
You can't choose who you love. You can only choose what you do about it.
This was my first time EVER writing in present tense. I hope I did a fairly good job considering it was my first time.
This idea has been at the forefront of my mind for the last 24 hours and it simply refused to leave until I jotted it down on paper. It came out a little different than I had intended, but the result is the same, and it was refreshing to write something like this.
Thank you for choosing to read this story. It means the world to me. It would also mean the world to me if you could review with your feedback :) Thank you again!