A/N: Look! I'm writing Sonic shipfics! I'm totally not autistic! (I am, though. Not severely, but I'm highly functional, got diagnosed last year). And no, I wont rant about Sonic's eye color or scream at you to rot in hell for having the audacity not to masturbate to colorful hedgehogs. I just had an idea and wrote it down. That's all.

I've been writing this story for a year now. Motivation? I refused to upload it until I had at least finished four chapters (because I especially loathe it when I leave deadfics with just three chapters. If I happen to abandon this, I would've at least gone beyond that pattern).

I honestly don't find the games all that fun (even though I tried Sonic Forces, which was decent), I just like the characters. Not a serious ShadAmy shipper, either. I just find it cute.

Special message to my sister: You don't have to tell me to my face you read my stories, I already know you do. Please spare me that blush abundance. *Communist Manifesto Red Face*

In the Twitter Takeover we find out Shadow is a classic rock-loving Otaku. Hehe. Because of that fact only, I will be naming the chapters after rock songs (no, not songfic wise. I write the chapters however I want, and then choose a rock song title I see fit. Completely different.) Because I can't stop imagining him listening to AC/DC, Blue Öyster Cult, Journey, Metallica... the list goes further.

This chapter's title is based on a song by Pat Benatar.

Enough with my blabs. Enjoy!

On a balcony surrounded by the consensus of nature's sounds and the somber darkness of this particular starlit night, stood the silhouette of Amy Rose. Wrapped with the comfort of her favorite quilt made of wool and a cup of chamomille tea warming her hands, she absently watched the rill by the tree parallell with her house, doing its natural thing without a care in the world. Her eyes strayed to bird nests, the stars that felt unusually dull, and the greener grass beneath. All the things free of brooding, intelligence and everything that set her apart from them.

She took a sip of her tea.

If she could, she would switch places with them. It's simpler, less complex, easier than living with a painful heartache. Most days, she could cope; Sonic would reject her kindly, she would just shake it off as him being "shy" or "self-contained", apparently unbeknownst to him that it made him even more attractive and mysterious to her, and she would try again the next day, hoping for the day he would give in to come soon. Amy's thoughts were much revolved around her blue hero, but she did have her own life too, one she enjoyed especially if he wasn't around.

This day was an exception. This day there wouldn't be a "next day hope" to cling onto. It instead turned into a labile hill she gripped onto with all her might, but only secured her fate of falling to her doom.

Tears blurred her vision.

He had finally snapped, and Amy had felt like an idiot. He had yelled at her that he doesn't like her, and that she should leave him alone. Never once had he ever yelled at her, but it's something she should have foreseen long ago. When you're lovesick like a little school girl, your glasses become increasingly rose-tinted, only living in your immature, fairytale world of your feelings becoming reciprocated.

But, the hard way, she learnt that fairytales were also written by Brothers Grimm; they had more tragic endings than they were given credit for. Red Riding Hood? Eaten. Little Mermaid? Tortured for centuries until turning to sea foam. Sleeping Beauty? Raped in her sleep.

Amy Rose? Pathetically heartbroken.

Sobbing, tears wouldn't stop running. She still loved him. Her hands covered her eyes, pointlessly wiping them away with her palms. She still loved him so much. The cup fell from her hands and hit the floor audibly. Why couldn't he realize that?

After another hour of weeping and feeling pity for herself, a headache felt like it would split her skull. Her face muscles were exhausted from fatigue.

An hour of agitation, looping thoughts, a conclusion, made her blink, a last stream of tears squeezing out.

Was there any way she could show Sonic one last time how much she loved him...?

Right now, she felt desperate more than ever. Years after years of pursuing him, she hadn't made progress in the slightest. When she thought she had a small, small chance of getting him a specific time, it was just as quickly shot down. It had come to the point where she over-analyzed his words, like if he said "Hi" with an octave higher, did it mean something? Was he nervous? Was it something else? Except exactly that kind of thinking was what flinched him away, she figured.

It was settled. It was very unusually thought out when coming from good girl Amy Rose, who had more respect for other's privacy than that, but by this time her desperation was being the louder party, the common sense being scarcely a murmur.

She would kiss him. On the lips this time. If he responded, she could brush off his pre-rejections as being a hurricane of insecurities from his side. If not, then several years of curing heartbreak would await. But at least then she would know, there wouldn't be any ifs or buts added to anything.

Something very oddly specific cued right then. Just as that train of thought passed, she leaned over the balcony railing, having already started to scheme her next and last attempt at wooing Sonic, she swore she saw a silhouette amongst the tree trunks. She bent her torso further out to get a better view, pretty sure that if someone had been inside her house right now looking her direction, they would get a nice panty shot.

The most she could make out of the shadow was that it had a form akin to her own, spikes at its back and red shoes alike Sonic (she guessed that one). As though the figure sensed a couple of heedful eyes staring at it, it took off in speed which was unnatural for anyone except a specific somebody. A surge of excitement jolted through her spine.

Sonic?!

After a mindless squeal and before she almost automatically chanted his name, she regained her religion with an outtake of breath. No, she wouldn't be a clingy little child right now. This experiment was very crucial to her closure. If she were to be rejected, then she would go down with dignity.

Too eager to grab a coat, she ran out the door and took off in the mutual direction. She wasn't as fast, but she didn't have a too terrible sense of direction; that way was a lake she went to when needing to gather her thoughts, usually after a daily rejection from the hedgehog of her dreams. When worry clouded her mind, that place always gave tranquility in return as if to say: "Give me your sorrow so I can morph it into joy."

With almost a dance in her step, she reached the opening of the lake. After looking around her bit, she saw the silhouette standing in front of the glistening water, illuminating the gentle waves. To take her hero by surprise, she hid herself behind a tree near the back of the person. Too reckless for her own good, she didn't study the contours and traits of the being, and instead only plotted which second would be good to tackle him and get her idea through.

...Now!

Without thinking, without grasping a common sense of prudence or reconsideration, she leaped at the shadow, ignoring the grunts of confusion. Closing her eyes tightly and grabbing the muzzle, she roughly kissed her hero.

This... this was very strange... but she liked it. Not being 100% whom she was kissing spiced up the tension quite. A third option she hadn't considered which was transpiring, however, was that Sonic wasn't responding, but he wasn't pulling back either. Some sort of rebound she hoped for, but seconds passed and he remained still. She refused to let this affect her confidence, thusly straddling him and kissing deeper with an embarassingly whining sound, holding onto his forearms.

It was much better than she expected it to be. No sudden and fast movements like Sonic would be prone to, but calm and relaxed...at least she thought he was.

A palm got bold, searching the body below her, moving on their own accord. A taste thereof, her fingers curling into the soft pillow-like fur at his chest...

Wait...

Fur?!

Dawning on her, she ripped her lips away from the confused, but slightly flustered mass, cornered beneath her.

Apparently, the figure wasn't just a shadow literally.

"Sha-sh-sha-" Amy stuttered, jumping off the hedgehog with fear of having a looming fist upon her face.

"SHADOW?!"

Said person mirrored her gaze, minus the fear. He stared wide-eyed at the female, shocked that such an intimate gesture had been given to him in the middle of the night, especially so at a time when people would be home sleeping. Maybe the out of the blue action was what took him so long to respond; he had no idea how to!

Being at night coupled with an equally dark person, all she could see as she panicked were his red eyes staring at her. He still lay down, though with his elbows supporting his upper body so he could look more directly at her, and, if she dared to look more closely, he was panting a little. There was something odd in his gaze, she took notice, but dismissed it as an active imagination.

As she talked nonsense, she backed towards the main road, tentatively, step by step. "I-I'm sorry, I just-I didn't-" Tears once again came, and that left her with the only sane option, to run back. She didn't see nor hear if Shadow was doing anything as she turned, but after making a complete and utter fool of herself on a guy who could be potentially dangerous, she didn't risk looking back.

Shadow blinked in the direction which Amy had ran off too, hearing the footsteps from her slippers fade.

He still felt the tingle from that rather...intense kiss. The moment someone attacked him, he'd be prepared to punch the culprit off of him for daring to infiltrate his personal space, but as soon as those lips fell on his, he'd been so struck down, it's almost like his brain had hung.

Shadow wasn't naive; he knew what a kiss was. He'd even gotten some pecks on his cheek by Maria. When asking why she did that, she'd simply replied that it was a gesture of affection. He had a very loose definition of 'affection' already, so he couldn't figure what many more things a kiss could branch out to.

That would include the one executed the way Amy had bestowed him. Lips to lips. It was completely new to him, and it felt much, much different. More intimate. Close, personal. Exploring each other like that. That, he knew, was the reason he couldn't bring himself to shove her off. Curiosity.

It wasn't only that. He had tasted something in it too; some emotion, something strong, one he knew wasn't supposed to be reserved for him. The way she'd whimpered pleadingly and getting harsh with him told him that she wanted to find something, wanted to prove, wanted to convince. Naturally, as he was the wrong person, there wasn't something she could tell him. Or, so he thought. As he touched his mouth with his fingertips, he wished that it had been meant for him. Who knew what many more adventures she could've shown him had she furthered.

The black hedgehog gripped his head, standing up. This was so stupid. Why the hell was he thinking of stupid things like that? It wasn't meant for him; it wasn't any of his concern! Then again, she'd rudely invaded his privacy, not to mention, completely slobbered all over him without his permission! Stupid girl. Nobody was given permission to do that to him, Shadow the Hedgehog, and anyone who did, shall pay!

A wicked objective ran in his mind, but just as quickly discharged. It was an utterly pathetic mistake she'd made, but...it wasn't worth hanging up on. Not to mention completely meaningless. He had more important business to attend to, like finding the Chaos Emeralds. That's the reason he was out here in the first place.

He took off in a direction with his hover-like shoes, rounding the lake. A refusion was set in stone, to let something like that distract him. He was the Ultimate Lifeform; he needed no one! Only his own goals were worthy of pursuance. Amy was just a dumb little low life.

...If so, then why had that kiss consumed him so dominantly, why had it felt like the most visceral moment he's ever had in his long life? Why had such a simple action made him feel so powerless, at mercy, to a weak little female?

There was something going on, he thought, as he got on a curb, farther and farther away from the waters. There was some kind of unbeatable power that could be used as simple as so. Yes, he knew he'd said that the search would, and could, distract him, but he'd have to adjust that statement a bit. Maybe it would work for a short period of time, but it wouldn't change any fact that the image of her on top of him would be burned into his mind. Ever since that moment, he was a mental mess, which he would continue to be unless he took those matters into his hands. Stopping a second in his tracks, his fingers kneaded his temple, a growl coming from his throat as he gritted his fangs in frustration.

Was there any way to stop this turmoil?

Could someone stop him in that eternal circle of bewilderment?

A/N: As you may notice as you read on, this chapter is very purple-prosy. Sorry to disappoint all Shakespearean worshippers out there, but later chapters wont have that. If I'm going continue this story, I need to put less pressure on myself, and removing that obstacle will help the process.

Until next time!