Thank you to the reviewers on my previous story! I'm pumped and ready to write again! I don't know if I'll continue the story I started back in January, but I do have a chapter of it I haven't posted yet, so we'll see!

For now, here's a little heartwarming story I thought of. Enjoy~

~All Along~

It had been a full week. The time crept by allowing his heart to continue to be devoured piece by piece by the absence that left it vulnerable.

Tears were shed, words were said, all was said and all was done. The rest continued to carry on with their days as if the events of the previous year were just a memory of a far off dream. Sonic remained lackadaisical and carefree, but a bit more serious since the incident, his first action upon returning to normalcy in Mobius were to take Amy out on a date. As abnormal as this may seem, he came to a very harsh realization; Amy would not be around forever, and he was ready to be there to spend whatever time they had together.

Amy was still shaken, her attitude dampened with the clear melancholy she still dragged around. Regardless, her large heart kept everyone going even though she was hurting more than anyone.

Except for him.

Tails knew that no one else could feel the deeply rooted pain that stemmed from her death. At first he wept and he mourned, but soon after he merely came to a halt. His workshop remained dull, his home was a mess; in any cabinet one would open, the food was completely spoiled. He had no desire to eat, and therefore never bothered to shop for new food upon the return home. The only food he had eaten were morsels that Sonic had brought to him from Amy. He begged his buddy to eat until he would give a sigh, and mindlessly take a couple of bites. But that's all it was; a couple of bites.

The days passed painfully slow, and each and every day was becoming the same monotonous routine. Without her there was no looking forward to the rise of the sun every day, and there was no peaceful sleeping at night. There were only horror filled memories of her leaving him over and over again until he once more found himself staying up all night.

He planted dozens of flowers all around his home. They were some of the only things that reminded him of her; she loved flowers. Without them, he might never have been able to keep himself sane. Part of his routine also involved picking only the most beautiful flowers so that he could adorn the grave they had all made for him. Each day he laid a different flower in front of her grave.

Paranoia was another of the many issues he found himself dealing with. No matter what, something was constantly badgering him to check on the grave, or to check on his most prized possession. He worried it wouldn't grow, and that due to his carelessness would bear no fruit, yield nothing but death.

This possession was that seed, the only thing Sonic could find of her.

After her death, Tails had said some pretty awful things to his friend. He recalled himself selfishly screaming at his hero, blaming him for not saving his love. "I believed in you!" he had yelled, sobbing uncontrollably. But Sonic, with his heart of gold, simply took all of the insults and allowed his friend to cry.

Cosmo was gone. No one could have prevented that, no one but Tails himself. And this is what haunted him each and every day; without the blow that Tails dealt to her, she would still be alive and spreading smiles to everyone's faces.

And now, Tails was left alone sitting at the cliff where the small tribute to his flower sat. His mouth curled into a saddened smile. Cosmo had told him before she left that no matter what, they would be together forever.

But if she were here…then why was he just so lonely? When she left she took his heart with him; he had lost his drive; no longer could he bear to work on his precious plane. It only reminded him of the horrid vessel that had delivered that horrible blow to Cosmo.

"Tails…"

A sympathetic and warm hand rest on his shoulder, and sure enough when he turned his head to the side, he noticed the pink hedgehog smiling sadly at him. "I made you some apple pie. I know how much you love it…"

The sad sight of his figure was something that they had all grown accustomed to by this point. Regardless, everyone still tried their best to even see a glimpse of a smile on the young fox's face. He was too young to let his time be wasted in sorrow.

For her sake, he managed a weak smile and graciously accepted the pie. "Thanks a lot Amy…your food has been the only thing keeping me alive." He accompanied his statement with a weak laugh, but Amy did not seem satisfied. "Well I'd hope you'd eat something other than pie!" Her tone was scolding, but Tails knew it was because she was worried about him. "Hey Tails…"

He looked over to her, noting that her face had softened, and a clear distinction was made from her previous attitude. She cringed a little bit when he looked over at her; it still bothered her that those bright blue eyes could appear so gray. He didn't even reply to her attempt to get his attention, and merely stared at her, clearly not very concerned with whatever it was she would say.

No one had ever dared to try mentioning the incident, the blue typhoon or anything, let alone her name. But Amy was always the most headstrong, ready to accept the consequences of anything rash she may say, but she was also accepting of whatever reaction Tails may give her.

"It isn't your fault."

His eyes sparkled as he looked up at the rosy hedgehog. She bit her lip to hold back any tears, and continued on. "You did what she wanted you to do; she isn't gone." Amy stamped into the ground to assert her words. She smiled a little bit through her tears, and continued: "Cosmo is everywhere in Mobius; she restored all the planet eggs, she's a part of everything! That seed that you planted-"

"And how do you know that?!" For the first time since returning, he had finally begun to open up. Love, anger, sadness, passion all lit up the fox's eyes, and he continued. "Cosmo could've been saved! Cosmo didn't have to…didn't have to…"

"SHE DIDN'T HAVE TO DIE LIKE THAT!"

He spat it out between his tears, and finally fell into Amy's warm embrace as she patted his back. "Why did she have to go Amy…I loved her." His tears continued, and Amy couldn't hold her own back anymore. They mourned the death of the brave girl for countless minutes, until Amy finally began to speak again.

"But you aren't alone Tails…we all love you too." She mustered a weak smile, and wiped away his tears even before her own. "Sonic, me, hell even Knuckles loves you, though I doubt he'd admit it." She chuckled, and offered him a comforting embrace. His tears ceased after a little bit, and he finally felt the slightest bit of happiness; even if it wasn't much, it was a start.

Amy and Tails began making their way back to the small house in the Mystic Ruins, bumping into a certain speedy hedgehog along the way. He joined them in walking, but he was clearly very bored from such slow travel, and sometimes was running from the house and back to them. Amy rolled her eyes, mumbling: "show off". Finally, Sonic decided to take his respective spot between his best friend and his girlfriend to walk with the both of them.

Tails was feeling better than he usually had been these days; it was the first time he felt like he wasn't the reason Cosmo was gone. The first time he felt like maybe she wasn't gone after all. The empty feeling still resided in his heart, but it almost felt like the hole had reduced in size. Not significantly, but enough to keep him with a slight smile on his previously emotionless face.

They reached his residence, and Tails was shocked to find the door unlocked. "Did I seriously forget to unlock it?" Amy and Sonic exchanged a smug glance. Tails pushed the door open.

"SURPRISE!"

All of his friends jumped out at Tails, homemade sweets laying on the tables and a big banner that read "Cheer up!" was hanged from the ceiling. Tails was taken aback from this surprise, and turned around to Sonic and Amy, who were both smiling brightly.

Cream, Knuckles, Team Chaotix, Rouge, and some other friends were all smiling at the fox. "I told you lots of people loved you," Amy said with a wink. Tails began crying much to the surprise of everyone, and Sonic was immediately at his side.

"No Sonic, it's alright. I'm just…so happy." He wiped the tears which continued to flow from his face, and stood up. His blue eyes beamed brightly at all of his close friends.

"Thank you everyone…for this." He received a cheer, along with bright faces. They had never even brought up the incident much since Cosmo had died, and this party is what took down the boundaries and allowed the friends to be close once more.

One by one, his friends came up to him to speak with Tails. First was Sonic.

"Hey buddy," he winked, "I hope ya like this party Amy and I put together…but we couldn't have done it without everyone, so don't just give us the credit." Sonic chuckled, and rustled the fur on Tails' head. "I really couldn't stand seeing you so down buddy." His tone turned to a serious one, which was surprising to Tails. He hadn't often heard Sonic speak in such a way, which must mean Sonic really did care about Tails, and was very worried about him.

"I thought you might've hated me inside…for not saving her." Sonic looked down, his true feelings revealed, and kicked at an invisible rock on the ground. His foot swung like a pendulum, never straying more to one side than the other, and went in a cycle that was unbroken. Tails stopped the cycle, and opened up his heart.

"That's not true, Sonic."

The foot stopped swinging. Sonic looked up at his friend, and committed an act so out of character for Sonic that the entire room of people found themselves glancing over at the two friends. Sonic had hugged Tails, and had a couple of tears streaming down his face.

With the cycle broken, the hatred stopped flowing from everyone, the regret, the worry, and all of the negative emotions broke. Light filled their hearts where the darkness had once been, and a smile filled everyone's faces.

Sonic quickly jumped to his senses, wiped the tears from his face, and instead chuckled, and gave Tails a wink. "Ha…don't talk about me crying ever again." He warned the room, adding, "or else." Sonic then positioned his fingers into a gun shape, and pretended to hold it to Tails' head. "Not a word or the fox gets it." All of the friends laughed together.

Amy walked up to Tails next, and before she could speak, he filled the silence.

"Thank you Amy…you and Sonic have done so much for me, with you making me all the food every day, Sonic and you putting together this party and…" he wore a wry smile, and smirked a bit towards Sonic with his next line, "I'm glad you finally got a boyfriend."

Sonic was speechless now, as Knuckles burst out laughing and walked outside to laugh himself silly. Rouge chuckled, offering an "I knew it was going to happen," and Cream shyly smiled for Amy. "T-Tails! I told you not to-"

"Oh stop being such a baby, Sonic." Amy came up behind him and embraced him. "Hehe, now I can tell them all about how much you looooooo- ve me!" Sonic's face was beet red as he stammered out something that no one could understand, and the noise of Knuckles laughing grew even louder. "Christ, someone get him an ambulance before he has a heart attack!" Rouge exclaimed, and rolled her eyes at the red echidna's antics.

Finally, Knuckles reentered the house, breathless from laughing. Sonic glared at him, but Knuckles couldn't even look at Sonic without laughing. Once he regained his composure, Knuckles also walked up to Tails to exchange some words.

"I have to admit, even I felt kind of responsible…I didn't know if you blamed me or not." Knuckles looked down and left his friends shocked. Knuckles explained, "if I had just been able to gather some more power from the Master Emerald, then maybe, just maybe we could have killed it on our own…without her sacrifice…"

"…but I realized that her death left us all feeling that way. We all felt powerless, like we could have done something, but instead failed and she took the hit. But no…Cosmo was the one that did something." Knuckles stopped to wipe a tear from his eye, his powerful words gathering tears from everyone. "Cosmo was the one who stepped up to the plate to keep us from being killed. Don't you see? She did it because she loved us, and she loved her clan. Cosmo is a hero, and her death was her own choice to save us all…and for that…." Knuckles put his big, gloved fist on top of Tails' head, "it wasn't your fault at all. You only helped her to achieve her wildest dream, and to become a hero."

Knuckles had always been a brute, and he had always been honest. But these words were so brutally honest, that it left Tails, Sonic and even Amy feeling relieved. They had all felt partially responsible for her death, and now Knuckles had opened the door to the truth. He spoke from his heart, honestly and passionately.

Of course, Amy burst out crying and gave Knuckles a big hug. "Oh Knuckles," she sobbed, "thank you so much for that…" Tails felt some tears on his eyelids, and also joined in the group hug. They were all joined in one big clump of tears and feelings, with Knuckles in the middle tapping his foot, but smiling.

Trying to bring some light heartedness into the room, Sonic could only say "I guess it's not gay if Amy's in it…" and he himself joined in the group hug, much to the surprise of everyone. Eventually, Cream joined in the hug, also crying. Rouge couldn't help but feel guilty and came over to give Knuckles and Tails a hug as well. Team Chaotix was left awkwardly in the corner, Espio only mumbling "I told you we shouldn't go to parties for the free food." He clearly had tears in his eyes, however.

Once they all broke out of their hug, food was eaten, laughs were had, and it was overall the most fun any of them had experienced in ages. The last time had been the party on the blue typhoon, when Cosmo had joined them.

"I think you're missing someone."

A dark voice came from the doorway and immediately Rouge launched herself at the voice. She refrained from crying, but gave Shadow a large hug. All of their eyes grew wide, and even more tears were shed.

Shadow casually walked up to Tails, ignoring Rouge hanging on him, and gazed upon him with a stern expression.

"She's still alive. I spoke with her."

Tails' eyes grew wide, and he finally released all of his guilt with one question:

"S…s-so…I didn't kill her?"

His hands shook and he fell to his knees crying. Shadow crouched down, and continued speaking. "She told me to make you happy, no matter what. Cosmo no longer holds a finite form…she cannot come here to speak with us like a normal person, but instead she resides in all of the wildlife on every planet. Cosmo is at the heart of every planet egg. And, she's in your heart."

Such words from Shadow were a rarity, and Tails had finally felt the guilty slip away from him and into the air. His eyes lit back up to their former glory, his ears no longer limp and dangling, and his smile bright and real.

There was much catching up between Shadow and everyone, although he was still the same obstinate hedgehog he had always been. Sonic and him had a race, as per the usual, but with Sonic doing some extra showing off while he made sure Amy was watching him. She giggled and smiled while she watched her boyfriend goofily running around and doing tricks. Of course, Shadow and Sonic tied. They proceeded to argue about who won the race, and everything felt so normal again.

Tails ate lots of delicious food, and for the first time really enjoyed everything he ate. He smiled, he laughed and he no longer felt alone. Life was blissful once more, and he noticed smiles in all of the flowers surrounding his house. Cosmo was happy to see Tails vibrant once more.

Everyone had finally left, with the exception of Sonic and Amy, who were hanging out with Tails in his small media room. There was a big couch and a TV in the room, with the addition of a couple potted plants. They talked and laughed, then watched a movie together. Amy ended up falling asleep on the couch, and Sonic kissed her on the cheek. He had been hoping Tails didn't see, but of course he did. Tails teased him and caused Sonic to become flustered, and they found themselves laughing together instead of watching the movie.

Amy still remained sleeping on the couch as Sonic and Tails sit there talking. "So Tails, I notice you have a lot of plants…I know why, but there's one plant I wanted to ask about." Tails lifted his head, now curious.

"That little sprout in that white and green pot over there-"

Those were all the words it took, and Tails was off the couch, the lights were on and a sleeping Amy woke up confused. He ran over to the gorgeous pot, and fell onto the ground crying.

The seed Cosmo left behind that Sonic had found was now a healthy sprout donning two leaves.

Sonic put one arm around Amy, and smiled at his friend's happiness. They all felt each other's warmth in the room, and knew that there were four people there: Sonic with his arms around Amy, and Cosmo with her arms around Tails.

And she had been there all along.

I watched the end of Sonic x again, and I was like "hell, Tails couldn't have been so happy from the getgo; something had to have happened first." Plus it was obvious that it had been some time; plants don't grow overnight.

Sonic and Amy getting together well…HEY. I mean in Sonic x they were so close, how could I not ;D

I hope you guys found this as heartwarming as I tried for ^-^ Please review and favorite if you like it! Thank you very much!