A/N: This is my entry for The Moonstar9's Writing Contest Round 3.

I don't own Sonic The Hedgehog.

"Where's my tie? I can't find my tie! I need my tie!" a blue figure yelled in his empty house. "Oh, where's the bouquet? I can't find it! I need it!" Sonic was under a ton of stress.

You see, he and his girlfriend have been dating for almost two years. Tonight would be their two-year anniversary, and he wanted to make it special and enjoyable for the both of them.

But as we all know, it's kind of hard to have fun when you're stressed.

"GAH! There's a tear in my jacket! What am I gonna do?" He was suddenly interrupted by the door knocking. "She can't be here already! It's barely seven thirty!" The hero of Mobius opened the door not to find Sally, but Tails dressed in a 'Mobian Hedgehogs' sports team T-shirt. He wore a baseball cap and a blue foam finger. "Hey Sonic! Why are you all dressed up?"

"Why are you dressed like an obsessed fan?" Sonic shot back. Tails looked genuinely hurt. "Sorry, little buddy. I didn't mean it like that. I'm just really stressed."

"Why?"

"Well, tonight is Sally and I's two-year anniversary, and I wanted to do something special for her. So, I was gonna take her on a date-"

"Wait, tonight?" Tails interrupted.

"Yeah! So far, everything's a disaster! I can't seem to find anything! Like my tie, the bouquet-"

"Sonic!" the twin-tailed fox interrupted again. "You promised that you would take me to the Hedgehog's baseball game tonight!"

Sonic mentally slapped himself repeatedly and physically face-palmed. "That was tonight?" The fox nodded. "I'm sorry, Tails, but... I gotta go on this date," he tried to explain to the young fox. "But Sonic! You promised!" The blue hedgehog sighed. "I know, but this is really special for me."

"Why?"

"Well... because..."

"Because what?"

"Because..." he sighed. "... You're too young to understand."

"Too... young?" the boy genius' voice cracked. Tears started blurring his vision, but he wouldn't dare to let them fall. "What do you mean... too young?"

"I don't mean it that way! I meant that-"

"I know exactly what you meant." Tails interrupted. "I can't believe that you would think that I couldn't understand these things! I... I..." He allowed one tear to trickle down his cheek. He quickly wiped it away before his hero could see it. "I can't believe I called you my friend! First you forget the game, and now you don't think that I could understand something that's so simple!"

"Tails-"

"No! Just... go on your stupid date with stupid Sally!"

"Stupid... Sally...?" Sonic nearly exploded in words. "Don't you DARE call my girl stupid! She is... smart and beautiful... and the sweetest thing alive! And... and I love her!"

Tails stood there dumbstruck. "You love her?"

"Yes! Now excuse me, I have to get ready before she gets here!" With that, Sonic slammed the door in the fox's face. Tails just stood there, frozen and shocked. L-love? What? He silently thought. He then let out a sigh of frustration. Some friend he is. Forgetting the game, calling me stupid, then telling me off. Maybe he's not all he's cut out to be. The twin-tailed fox stalked towards his house, lonely and ticked off.

As Sonic went back to his room to sort things out, he felt the sudden urge to run back outside and slap Tails across the face. He instantly felt even worse after the thought crossed his mind. I would never hurt him...He's my little buddy, after all! he said in his mind. The next thought that came across made him stop in his tracks. Then why did I hurt him multiple times just a minute ago? He shook his head to erase it from his mind. "Now... where was I before? Oh yeah. I NEED THE SOWING MACHINE FOR MY JACKET!"

After walking the long way home, Tails finally reached his small, but cozy, one-story house. He stomped inside his room and threw himself on his bed. Why does Sonic have to be such a jerk sometimes? He turned over and looked up at the ceiling. I wish that he would just pay attention to me for once! Remember the stuff we're supposed to do together! The boy sat up in his bed, the mattress no longer feeling comfortable to him. Ugh... I need to do something to take him off of my mind. He looked down at the game tickets that were still in his hands. He sadly smiled. Maybe I could still go... but who do I give the other ticket to?

He headed out of his house again, determined to find someone else to go with him. Someone better than the blue blur.

Knuckles the Echidna sat on the stones of the shrine of the Master Emerald, waiting for any thieves trying to steal the over-sized jewel. He slightly sat up when he heard footsteps coming up the stairs. "Who's there?" he called out to the owner of the footsteps. "Show yourself!" When the footsteps became louder, he stood up and took a fighting position. He pulled back an arm in anticipation to punch the intruder. "Hey, Knuckles!" he lowered his arm when he saw that it was just Tails. "Come on, man! I haven't hit anybody in a week! I was hoping to get 'em good!" the red guardian complained. "Sorry..." the fox mumbled. "I was just wondering if you wanted to-"

"Why are you wearing that outfit?" Knuckles interrupted.

"Anyways, I was going to ask if you were interested in-"

"Is it some new trend I don't know about? I've been stuck out here for who knows how long! I know it's my job to guard this thing, bu-"

"DO YOU WANT TO GO TO THE BASEBALL GAME WITH ME?" Tails suddenly shouted, fed up with Knuckles' short attention span.

"Oh, sure! Why didn't you just say so? Let's go!"

"Knuckles?"

"Yeah?"

"Shouldn't you get someone to watch the Master Emerald for you?" Tails questioned, pointing to the named object.

"Oh yeah..." The red echidna pondered for a moment, then asked, "Why don't you watch it?"

"But there's two tickets."

"I'll get Rouge to go!"

"But-"

"Please! Come on! I've been stuck here forever!" After a series of pleads from the guardian, the fox finally gave in. "Fine! Take them!"

"Yes! I owe you one!" Knuckles said as he took the tickets and headed down the steps. "Yeah you do," Tails muttered under his breath. He sat down on the stone steps and watched Knuckles run towards the city. He sighed as he thought, I need new friends.

Ding-dong! "I'm coming!" the blue hedgehog yelled as he made the final touch ups to his suit. He ran to the door and slowly opened it. "Why, hello, Sally," he said in his best formal voice. "Would you like me to escort you to our date?" She slightly giggled as she said, "Stop that! You're making me laugh!"

"What, you don't like my voice?"

"No! It's so weird!"

"Now I feel really loved," the hedgehog said sarcastically.

"I'm sorry, sweetie," Sally apologized before pecking him on the cheek. "All better?"

"Very much, yes."

"I told you to stop that!"

"Sorry. It's a habit." Sonic took her to his convertible (which he hardly used), so that they could head to the "surprise date" Sonic had arranged for them. Wow! I'm actually doing this! I'm actually taking Sally on our second-year anniversary date! He started to think. Man, everyone would be so proud of me! Well, except for Amy... but Knuckles would, and possibly Shadow, and Tails- His face fell for a second as he thought about his best friend. He still felt guilty for letting him down tonight.

"Sonic?" The blue blur snapped back to reality at the sound of his girlfriend's voice. "Huh? I mean, yes?" he hesitantly responded. "Are you okay?" He realized that she must have seen him in deep thought. He decided to take care of his "problem" later. "Yeah. I'm fine. Just lost in thought for a minute," he replied, putting on his trademark smile.

"Okay... if you say so," she said, clearly not buying it. She turned back towards the front window of the car, looking out, wondering what Sonic was thinking about earlier.

"Ugh! How does Knuckles do this? It's so boring!" Our friend Tails has gotten quite bored with guarding the Master Emerald. It has been an hour since Knuckles had left, so the echidna must have somehow convinced the jewel thief to go to the game with him.

The two-tailed fox has tried nearly everything to keep himself entertained. He tried to look at the clouds, but he couldn't see them because it was dark. He would look at the stars, but they were covered by the dark clouds. The boy thought about running up and down the stairs several times, but he calculated the amount of stairs and the energy that he had at the moment... let's just say that it wouldn't work out too well.

There was only one thing left to make these long hours a little more exciting.

Watching the grass grow.

Tails flew down to the bottom of the temple and found himself a nice patch of grass to observe. He carefully lied down on the greenery, and started to stare. After about ten minutes, he gave up and started to slowly walk back up, hoping that it would take up enough time for the actual guardian to come back.

But as he was approaching the top of the staircase, he noticed that the green glow that was emitted from the emerald before was gone. He ran up the rest of the way, only to find an empty spot in the center where the powerful jewel once was. "NOOOO!"

The couple of the night sat in a pavilion, enjoying the cooked meal that a famous chef had prepared. The shady area was decorated with lights somewhat similar to Christmas lights, setting the romantic mood.

"Wow! This reminds of the time when the Freedom Fighters came for Christmas dinner, and everything was chaotic! Bunnie and Antonie kept on getting stuck under the mistletoe, Amy kept on blowing up food, and Tails, poor Tails, he short-circuited the lights and got shocked!" Sally rambled on. Once again, the Mobian hero went into deep thought when the fox's name was mentioned. He must have been zoned out for a while, because Sally ended up screaming in his ear.

"SONIC!" He flinched as he held his ear as if it had lost its ability to hear. "Ow! That hurt!" he complained. "Sonic, something's obviously bothering you. What is it?" The blue hedgehog sighed. "It's nothing, I promise!" His doubtful girlfriend raised an eyebrow. "Fine!" He took a deep breath before starting his explanation.

"Before you came over, Tails came and he said that we were supposed to go to the game tonight, and I told him that I needed to be with you, and he asked why, and then a whole mess came after that. I ended up slamming the door in his face." He exhaled the air that he didn't know he was holding in.

"Oh, Sonic..." Sally started. "You could have just moved our date to tomorrow! I would have completely understood!"

"R-really?"

"Yes! Now, since you two are best friends, go find him and make it up to him!"

"Are you sure?"

"Yes! Now go!" And with that, the speedster headed off to Tails' house.

When he got there, he found the house empty. Hmm. He must have gone to the game without me. I guess I'll have to check there!He thought before speeding off to the stadium.

The baseball arena was packed with fans for either team. The blue blur quickly rushed past security before they could even see him. He made an abrupt stop and scanned the area for any sign of his two-tailed friend. When he didn't see anything, he ran to another side of the stadium.

After running and scanning multiple times, he finally found someone who could help him. "Hey, Knuckles!" The red echidna looked up at the blue hedgehog, clearly annoyed that his attention was being averted from the game. "What do you want?"

"Wow. Someone's grumpy."

"Just tell me what you want!"

"Okay! I was just wondering if Tails was with ya!"

Much to Sonic's dislike, the guardian shook his head, then looked back at the game.

"Do you have any idea where he is?"

Knuckles sighed. "If I tell you, will you shut up?"

"Yes!"

"Fine. He's at the Master Emerald's temple, guarding it."

"What! Why?"

"I needed someone to guard while I came!"

"What about the extra ticket?"

"That's where I came in." The hero averted his gaze to the thieving bat.

"Rouge! Long time no see!"

"Yes it has."

"Why are you here?"

"Well, Knucklehead over here had two tickets to the game tonight, and I figured, why not?"

"Wow. You must have been really bored or desperate. Maybe both."

"It could be that."

"Hey! I'm still here!" The echidna cut in. The other two Mobians just laughed.

"We know, you knucklehead! We're just messing with you!"

The red guardian grumbled something under his breath and turned back to the game at hand. "Well, I gotta go to the temple, then."

"Alright. See ya later, hon." And with those last words, the blue hero raced towards the temple where the Master Emerald was supposed to be.

Tails was pacing back and forth on the top of the shrine of the over-sized gem, trying to figure out what he was going to do with this 'incident'. "Oh no, Knuckles is gonna kill me! Maybe I have time to start writing my will now... No! I have to find it! It's what Soni-" he caught himself before he could say the speedster's name. "It's what I would do! Now... who would want to take the Master Emerald?"

After a bit of thinking, he had ruled out Rouge, knowing that she was most likely at the baseball game, and Eggman because the doctor only sent out his robots to get what he wanted, and all of his robots were... no longer in service. Also, the fat man could never enter quietly, even if he wanted to. So who would that leave?

The fox decided that he would go into the city to see if he could find any trace of the emerald. He used his twin tails to fly off of the temple and off into the distance, where the city stood.

Half an hour later, the boy was finally in the urban area, ready to embark on his search for the Master Emerald. The first place he visited was the local jewelry store to see if someone had sold it there. When the fox was finally done there, he came up with no leads whatsoever.

Tails had begun to think of the horrid things that the guardian would do to him if he ever found out. Would he just give him a quick and easy death? Or would the echidna give him a long, torturous, and painful one? The fox shook his head to get rid of these thoughts. He should be thinking of ways to prevent his end, not what it will be like!

With no other ideas in mind, the two-tailed fox reluctantly went to the most reliable detective agency he knew.

"Come on, Espio! It's your turn!" the hyperactive bee said to the annoyed ninja. "Charmy, I didn't agree to play Candy Land with you!"

"But it's fun!"

"Maybe for your age."

"PLEASE?"

"No!" Charmy started to tear up at that moment. "Oh no, please don't-"

"WAAAAHH!" the young detective burst into tears.

Just then, an infuriated crocodile stormed into the room. "What's all the ruckus out here? I'm trying to practice my pick-up lines!" he shouted.

"Espio won't play Candy Land with me!"

"Charmy, Candy Land is a game for babies!" Vector replied angrily.

"Is not!"

"Is too!"

"Is not!"

"Am I interrupting something?" The Chaotix looked up to find Tails.

"No! Not at all! What would you like for us to do?" the green reptile asked.

"Um, well, I kinda lost something that I need you guys to find..."

"Sure! Anything at all! Describe it, so we know exactly how it looks, and then we'll discuss prices!"

"Well, it's, uh, big and green... and in the shape of an emerald..." The crocodile raised an eyebrow when he heard the description.

"Oh, forget it! I lost the Master Emerald!" Tails suddenly burst out. He got on his hands and knees. "Don't let Knuckles kill me! I'M TOO YOUNG TO DIE!" Vector was too shocked to make any kind of response. He looked down at the fox that was close to tears, then back at his comrades, who just shrugged. He then awkwardly patted the fox's head. "Uh, it's okay! We'll find it!" The boy looked back up.

"R-really?"

"Really!"

"Thank you so much!" Tails jumped back up. "Let's go!" He was about to run out, but was abruptly pulled back.

"Now wait a minute! Before we do that, we need to talk prices!" the reptile said. "Now, how big would you say this thing is? Because we charge by the size!"

"Well, I'd say it's-"

"Okay! So that will be about $55! And we charge $20 an hour, so be careful of that as well! So, we need the $55 now, and you can pay the rest after we find it!" The fox quickly found his wallet and took out the money. "Here! Now can we go?"

"Of course! Let's go, Chaotix!"

"Woohoo! We finally get a case!" the bee excitedly said. Then all four of them headed out the door and into the streets.

Sonic quickly reached the Mayan temple to find no one there. "Tails! Where are you?" he started to call. "Tails!" when he reached the top of the staircase, he found the Master Emerald gone. He then gasped. "Poor buddy! He must have lost it!" He sighed. "I guess I'll have to find two things at once!" He raced off towards the city, going to the one place he knew Tails would seek for help.

"So, how does this work?" After twenty minutes of walking, they have found absolutely nothing. "Well, first we have to find some leads! And we need suspects! For instance... look at that cat over there," the crocodile pointed to an orange cat walking among the pedestrians. "He looks really suspicious, doesn't he?"

"Yeah! Let's jump him!" Charmy shouted. The two ran up to the feline and jumped onto him, starting a vicious fight.

Half an hour later, Vector and Charmy came out of the hospital covered in bandages and slings. "A-and that's how it works!" Vector wearily said. Tails shook his head and said, "I demand a refund! You guys can't do anything! You're fired!" And with that, he stomped off back to the agency to get his money back. "Aw, man! I thought that it was going really well!"

At the agency, Sonic the Hedgehog was looking around to see if he could find Tails. "Tails! Are you here? " He heard the door open. He abruptly turned around to see his little buddy. "Tails!" He ran up to the confused fox and hugged him. "I am so sorry! Sorry for ditching you tonight! And yelling at you! It was so stupid!" The fox shoved the hedgehog off of him. "It's a little late for apologies."

The blue hedgehog sighed. "I don't blame you if you can't forgive me. What I did was wrong... I decided to make it up to you! I will do anything for you to forgive me!" He got on his hands and knees. "Anything! I beg of you!"

Tails was too shocked to speak. Was he really that desperate? He pondered on what to do for a couple of minutes. "I-I forgive you." he softly said. But it was loud enough for his friend to hear. Sonic picked him up and hugged him to death.

"Thank you! Thank you so much!"

"S-Sonic! I'm ch-choking here!"

"Sorry," he quickly put him down. "So Tails... what are we gonna do about your emerald problem?" Tails' eyes widened.

"You know? Does Knuckles know? DON'T LET HIM KILL ME!" Sonic quickly shook his head.

"He doesn't know! But if we don't find it soon, he will!" Just then, the front door opened to reveal the Chaotix.

"Oh! Hey, guys! Did you get your money back, uh, Todd? Great! Well, you'd better be on your way!" Vector nervously said. Sonic noticed his suspicious behavior. "Are you hiding something?"

"Hiding? No! What would we hide? We're open books! We have nothing to hide!" the green reptile rambled.

"Yeah! It's not like we're hiding the Master Emerald or anything! Ow!" Espio hit Charmy so he wouldn't say any more.

"The Master Emerald? Where did you hide it?" Tails blurt out.

"The Master Emerald? We're not hiding that! It's not like it's in the closet behind you! OW!" This time it was Vector who hit the bee.

"Check the closet!" Sonic opened the closet and sure enough, the giant jewel was in it. "You thieves! Why would you put my life in danger?"

"Well, it's kind of a funny story... you see-"

"Vector wanted to make more money, so he stole the Master Emerald so someone would come looking for it and then hire us. It was working fine for him until you fired us," Espio interrupted.

"We'll let you off for now... But beware!" With that, they walked out with the emerald.

"Wow! What a day! It certainly has been an adventure, huh?"

"Yep! And I couldn't think of a better ending for it!" Then the sun started to set as the two ran off towards the temple.