Sonic was already painfully bored of the technical explanations, but he kept up his posture and interested expression for Tails' sake. He was excited-- whatever he was showing off was obviously impressive, although Sonic could barely understand a word once the descriptions started.

Still, there was no reason for him to let him know he wasn't invested, he decided; it obviously meant a lot to his old friend, and he loved seeing him get excited over what made him happy.

"--an' you see how it goes like that?" the young fox pressed something on the intricate mess of parts, making something else just barely shift over. "THAT'S the bit that's gonna--"

His full, well-brushed tails waved behind him like huge golden flags. Sonic always found himself impressed with them, even now. It had been so many years since he first found the little fox rummaging around his plane, nervous and quiet and just a bit too skinny. His thin, dull fur had gotten stained here and there with oil and dirt and who-knows-what.

So different.

"--so I'm gonna go back and keep going! Wish me luck!" Sonic snapped back, glancing at the beaming face in front of him.

"Yeah, Tails! You've got this!" he answered enthusiastically.

Tails puffed out his chest in obvious pride before abruptly taking off with a wave. "Bye!"

"See ya!"

He leaned back a bit, taking a long breath. It was nice out; the little jungle was quiet except for the sounds of flickies and other tiny animals scuffling away around him.

He leaned back, careful to not topple off the fallen palm tree he was sitting on. He could vaguely smell the sea from here; maybe he would check on Knuckles later.

He bounced his leg, striking his heel against the thick dirt.

The sun was satisfyingly warm on his quills, and the breeze felt good against them, gently parting them here and there. The rush of waves and wind through dry branches was kind to his ears. Maybe...he would just lie back today.

He lazily looked over, abruptly greeted by the figure of another hedgehog next to him.

"Afternoon." Shadow leaned on his knees, the ghost of a smirk suddenly visible on his lips. "How's the view?"

Sonic hastily jumped down from the top of the boulder he had incidentally appeared on top of, hiding a well-deserved scowl aimed at his smug rival.

He took possession of his spot once more, feeling heat blaze against his flattened ears. "Oh, it's nice," he leaned back in a very calm display of relaxation without a single trace of anger visible on his expression at all. He began to bounce his leg again with impressive calmness at an extremely reasonable tempo. "Hard to hear ya from there, though."

Shadow glanced down at the small dust cloud that was forming, incidentally, right around Sonic's foot. "I suppose so."

Sonic took a deep breath, tilting his head up slightly. "Well, what's up?"

The other hedgehog blinked, looking ahead. "I decided I wanted to have a day off." He took a moment to stretch, his hooked spines briefly flaring out in a bizarre symmetrical pattern.

"What, by coming into my space?"

"You invited yourself onto my path."

"Don't see your name on it! ...and you came over!"

Shadow flicked an ear at him, squinting slightly. "For all your talk about true friendship, you don't take well to other people moving first."

"I- I was thinking!"

"Mhm." Shadow examined the chipped surface of one of his boots, leaning down to pick at a particular fleck of faded paint.

Silence.

Sonic scratched the side of his muzzle, leaning back again with a harsh sigh. "Ehh, how's the rest of your team?"

"Rouge is somewhere. Omega is harassing the city." He set his hands in his lap, looking up. "Also, Doctor Robotnik is working on something new, I think."

Sonic felt about ready to peel off his eyelids. "Ugh. When do you think he'll pull something, then?"

"I saw the front of his larger factory get up and walk into the ocean," he muttered, looking mildly amused. "...judging from the yelling, there'll be some time."

Sonic couldn't help but snicker at the image. "Poor ol' Egghead. Maybe I'll send him a gift basket, huh?"

"Hm." Shadow offered a slight nod, smiling slightly before suddenly standing up. "I'm going now."

"What-" Sonic gave up, rolling his eyes. "See you whenever, Mister Brooding."

Instantly, he was gone; a bright blip of Chaos energy shone against where he had just been.

Sonic exhaled slowly. For someone so quiet and generally polite, Shadow could certainly be exhausting. Once more, he leaned back, electing to kick his feet up and focus --once more-- on the peacefulness of the outdoors. Houses were overrated; this was the life.

"Heeey, Sonic!"

NO

"Hi, Amy."

The pink hedgehog flipped her carefully styled quills, leaning into his face. "What'cha thinking about?"

"...mostly just how quiet this place is, to be honest." He closed his eyes, trying to focus on the soft material of his gloves against his wrists.

"Ooh-- it is nice, isn't it?" Amy shouted.

"Yeah."

"Hey, do you like this dress, Sonic?" she gave him a quick twirl. "Please just look, tell me what you think!"

He cracked an eye open, shifting up a bit. The dress, fitting her body and flaring grandly at her knees was rich, saturated red with soft white accents, perfectly fitted and perfectly matching her bright, well-maintained boots. A stylish contrast to the soft pink of her trimmed spines.

In other words, it was absolutely identical to the rest of her wardrobe.

"It looks great."

Amy's eyes immediately fell, her ears flattening against her skull. "...oh..."

"Amy--" Sonic rubbed a hand over his forehead. "Amy, I said it looks great."

"You said the last one was lovely!" she yelled, turning away from him.

"That too, Amy." Why didn't he try to tag along with Shadow?! "This dress is both, I think it's the best one yet."

Soft arms quickly wrapped around his neck, lifting him out of his comfortable spot and shaking him around. "Thanks, Sonic! Maybe it's up-to-speed for...say...a date night?"

NO

"Oh, I'm sorry, Amy..." his frazzled mind raced. "I promised Knuckles I'd...help him with something later today."

"Oh?" The pink hedgehog narrowed her eyes sharply. "--and what's that involve, hm?"

"Well--"

"Hey, guys." Out of nowhere, Knuckles glided down next to them. Sonic had never been so happy to see the wonderful, blessed young echidna float down straight from the heavens. "What's up?"

"Knuck-les!" Amy grabbed his shoulder, her gloves crinkling with the strength of her hold. "Oh, I'm fine!"

A bead of sweat trailed down one of his dreadlocks. Sonic focused on it, trying his best to breathe in his current chokehold.

"Now, this cutie over here was telling me that something was gonna stop him from having a nice, romantic date tonight! You wouldn't happen to know anything about what that would be, would you, Knuckles??"

Knuckles glanced at Sonic, who awkwardly met his gaze as his ears flattened. The blue hedgehog's muzzle had turned to an impressive shade of purple, and he never wished more that his friend could read minds when it came to internal pleas for help.

"Yeah-- sorry, Amy. Sonic promised he'd...cover for me while I got some food for the week."

Sonic exhaled the best he could through Amy's impressive grip.

Amy looked deflated. "Oh. How long?"

"Miiiiiight be an all-day thing. Sorry."

She released them both, Sonic finally getting in a heaving gulp of air. "Well...sorry, boys!" She smacked a kiss onto Sonic's cheek. "Next time, Sonic!"

"Sorry, Amy." he managed to grin lamely.

She shrugged, swinging her arms. "Next time! Have a good day, guys!" she narrowed her eyes playfully. "Assuming you don't run off on me again! 'Cause I will catch you!"

"No doubts there…"

She was gone.

Sonic slapped Knuckles heartily on the back. "Thanks, Knux. I'll be glad to do it."

"Ehh." Knuckles straightened his dreads, pulling his gloves back. "You wanna just hang out? It's been a long week."

"Sounds good to me, dude." Sonic clapped a hand on the echidna's shoulder. "Feel like chili dogs?"

"Agaiiin?" Knuckles rolled his eyes, elbowing Sonic sharply in the ribs. "I'm starting to think you've burned away your taste for everything except those."

"Not how it works, knucklehead!"

"Whatever. Hurry up before I change my mind." Knuckles made a quick jump into the air, tucking his legs up as the air caught underneath him. Sonic could never quite figure out how that worked. Perhaps it was some influence from the Master Emerald. Maybe he really was just full of hot air. Who really knew, except for Knuckles himself?

Sonic sped off in hot pursuit of food. Maybe he'd meet up again with Tails later, help him test whatever it was he was working on.