Shadow passes a salvaged bottle of water without provocation or comment. It's almost pristine, a striking contrast against his smudged glove and crisscross cut arm.

"Oh, my." Rouge smiles despite her bruised jaw, accepting the gift with a husky murmur into the dust, "Thank you, my love."

Rolling his eyes at the velvety undertones of jest, he ought to slip away. Wouldn't he, normally?

She's gazing up at him from her place on a chunk of concrete, nursing her tired legs.

Timidly, he lowers his head toward hers, as if her eyes are asking him to.

Calmly, she moves in turn, meeting his cheek with the tenderness of her mouth.

His angular frown quivers, crumbling into soft confusion. Yet he quietly smirks, as if he isn't at all frightened.

She takes her time before pulling away, allowing enough distance to remain that she could easily kiss him again, but somehow, she doesn't. She seems to know better than to push so hard.

Heart pounding, stomach clenching tightly, Amy stands in the ruined remains of a doorway with further provisions in her arms, intending to hand them out to the survivors, sensing that she's intruded on something sacred. Fixated on seeing something she shouldn't be seeing.

Eyes suddenly fall on her, shattering the intimacy of the moment.

She smiles politely, apologetically, as Shadow jerks away and Rouge sighs with good-natured disappointment, because it's too late to disappear.

"I wish I could have with Sonic whatever it is you have with Shadow."

"Hon, you gotta stop dwelling on–"

"What's so wrong with it?"

Rouge breathes against Amy's shoulder blades, tending to a wound otherwise out of reach.

The silence continues for several moments longer before the hedgehog murmurs, "You're gentler than you look," into the fluorescent gloom of the makeshift medical, far from sterile. "Thank you for helping me with this. Not a lot of ladies around to, um…"

"Taking your clothes off in front of me is no better than undressing with one of the guys, you know."

"Yeah."

The bat glances upward, her focus snagged by a green eye from over a pink shoulder.

A smile, in profile. "Thanks for reminding me to be coy, here."

A wink. "You're welcome."

"Can I harass you about you being madly in love with Shadow some more?"

"Why bother?"

"Because you get to see me with my clothes off."

"I… concede to that much."

"Not enough?"

"Don't flirt with your surgeon. I need to concentrate."

"Hey." Amy looks ahead, again, and a bit aside, at an empty bottle. "That booze really hit my head."

"And quickly, too. Lightweight."

"I might pass out soon. But it helps with the pain."

"You're too young and promising to be talking like that," Rouge mutters through sharp, pretty teeth, her deft fingers working a needle and thread over supple flesh, stained. "I'll forgive you because of the context but don't let me catch you self-medicating."

"You're concerned."

"Uh-huh."

"You love me, don't you?"

"Ugh."

"Okay, okay. Let's talk about you and Shadow."

"Ugh," the bat repeats in exactly the same tone, sweat on her brow.

"Why not?" The hedgehog giggles at that. "You guys are so weird and cute, together. I envy you so much, it's crazy!"

"Shadow and I are a dead, broken horse."

"Aw! Don't say that!"

"Keep still, you."

"Sorry. Ouch."

"There is nothing going on between Shadow and I."

"Actually, missy," Amy slurs whilst watching her boots swing back and forth from over the edge of the berth, "there is a whole lot of something going on between you two…"

"I have such patience," Rouge says in monotone.

"I want… Sonic to look at me the way you look at Shadow. And… I want Sonic to look weak when he's alone with me, or… when he thinks he's alone with me, like… Shadow does with you."

For a little while, nobody says a word.

"Are you mad at me?"

"No."

"Why are you so quiet?"

"I'm usually quiet."

"But… this is different. I think?"

"Honey, are you willing to die for Sonic?"

"Oh, of course, without hesitation!"

"Even if it's totally unnecessary, because of how much stronger he is, than you?"

"Well, I guess so. I mean, I love him. But… Sonic isn't stronger than me, as such… At least, not anymore."

"Even if he'd ridicule you, resent you, for the fruitlessness of your sacrifice once you're gone?"

"Ridicule me? Resent me?"

"Even if he'd be unable to understand why you did it for him? Even if your passing would leave him broken?"

"Broken?"

"Blaming himself, since that is all that could make sense. Holding himself accountable for appearing weak and in need of someone weaker, a mere mortal, to stand and face death in his place, because he was loved. It's nonsense."

"Rouge?"

"To him, a senseless tragedy, all over again. His trust… Because of that something you so envy and its terrible implications."

The hedgehog's heart is pounding. Her stomach is clenched.

"Are you still so willing, honey?"

"I don't know."

"Shadow is the Ultimate Lifeform. But I'm willing to die for him, to leave him behind, to himself, lost and alone in all the guilt and the shame and the regret. I must sound so arrogant for assuming so much." The bat hesitates, then recollects herself with a smile. "And if I do die for him, someday, then it'll be the most perverse and selfish thing I could do for him. But I'd do it, anyway."

Amy shivers when Rouge leans in close, breaths hot and stinging, perfume heady.

"That is how much he means to me. I wouldn't wish that sort of feeling on anyone."

The hedgehog chokes on a breath as the bat cuts the thread with her teeth.

"I feel terrible."

"You were rather drunk."

"Ah, very astute!"

Shadow seems to dwell somewhere between concerned and amused. His expressions are so complex and subtle that it's hard to read him at most times.

Amy huffs through her quills, which are a mess, as she glares about the large room filled with multi-coloured animals eating and talking with far too much noise and movement. "I hate people."

"Only for the next few hours."

"Yeah, yeah."

"Better freshen up soon. Faker will be most disappointed."

"Oh, would you stop calling him that? Neither of you is a fake. Honestly. Boys!"

The dark hedgehog watches the pink hedgehog poke at food. "Vector's handiwork."

"Oh?"

"It was his turn to take kitchen duty."

"That explains so much."

The corner of Shadow's handsome mouth curves noticeably upward.

"I'm sorry. That was mean. It's the hangover that's making me mean."

"Indeed."

"I really do appreciate breakfast. Vector is a sweetheart underneath his thick skin."

"Lunch…"

"Huh?"

"It's lunchtime, actually."

"Right. And I appreciate your company." Amy drags her glass over with a tiny, wincing chuckle. "And your gentle criticisms."

"You could have taken your food privately, in your quarters."

"And make people worry? Nah."

"People are already worried about you."

"Because I look about as surly as you do on your worst days?"

"Not as surly as my worst, but quite surly, yes."

She leans forward, patting his arm fondly. "You're rather spry one-on-one, you know that?"

"You're hardly a worthy opponent in your current state," is his silky reply as he endures the petting.

She leans back into her own seat once more, tentatively retracting her hand as she catches sight of Sonic from across the crowd.

Her hero, hurrying over with a smile bright as the sun. Brighter, still. Blinding. Beautiful and perfect.

She smiles dimly in turn, so feebly, overwhelmingly grateful that he is alive and that he knows her and that she loves him as much as she does.

"Hey, you two!"

Shadow nods curtly, then takes his leave, leaving behind a vacant seat.

"Uh, see you around?"

"Don't mind him. I've been quite tedious."

"Nah, he's just missin' Rouge."

"I hope so."

"Anywho!" Sonic casually sits before Amy, kindness in his emerald eyes. "How you holdin' up, tiger?"

She keeps smiling her dim smile despite the pain and her efforts at trying to remember her conversation with Rouge, because it seems so distantly important, somehow, as Shadow turns a corner and disappears.