Hey I'm Back! Internet feels so good. Sorry for the LONG wait. Forgive me.
"Thanks, Miss. I bet this dress will look amazing on you, whatever the occasion is." A middle aged salesclerk handed Amy a glossy pink shopping bag and smiled.
"Oh, it's just my birthday. No big deal," Amy giggled and grabbed the shopping bag off the counter of her favorite store, Pink. Ironic, huh?
"Oh! Well, Happy birthday, dear. How old are you?" The woman asked curiously.
"Eighteen," Amy replied before waving goodbye.
"Well have fun!"
"Thanks!" Amy called back before exiting the store. "Even though I highly doubt it."
A light breeze gently blew through Amy's quills, making them dance in wind. She giggled and looked up to the sky, letting warm rays from the sun caress her rosy cheeks. The sun seemed to have magical powers because it always seemed to make Amy feel carefree when she was worried most. Loud vibrations from Amy's purse interrupted her little moment. Amy had the first mind to curse, but bit her tongue.
"Amy! Answer me NOW!"
Amy quickly shuffled through her purse to find out where Eggman's voice was coming from. She never did own a cell phone. But instead of finding a cell phone, which she was hoping for, she ended up coming across what looked like a stick of chapstick with a button on the top.
"The things you go through," Amy mumbled and pushed the button. "He-Hello?"
"Yeah, Amy. Get to the Mystic Ruins. Near Tails' workshop. I've got a job for you," Eggman barked.
"What kind of job?" Amy questioned.
"Shadow is out there and I need you to do a little convincing to get him on our side. Oh, and do me a favor: Throw that dress on. Look nice and be nice."
"Ugh Wha-" A click came from the chapsick, "For?" Amy growled and tossed the chapstick back in her purse. She asked herself, why does she listen to Eggman? What could he really do if she just ran away and never paid her debt back? Oh yeah, he would take Sonic in her place.
Amy stepped through some thick underbrush to a clearing where Shadow stood. There was a small stream, glittering brightly under the afternoon sun, next to him. Although, he didn't really seem to notice its beauty. The shimmer seemed to rub off on him and make him seem…nice looking. Almost.
"Sh-Shadow?"
Shadow turned around slowly and crossed his arms over his chest. He didn't look very amused or happy to see Amy. He had a nasty scowl on his face and his fists were clenched tightly to his side; it almost looked painful.
"Eggman wanted me to-"
Shadow rolled his eyes and interrupted Amy, "I know what he wants. But what are you here?"
"I-"
Shadow scoffed loudly and interrupted Amy again, "I knew you had been living with him. Now he's got you doing his dirty work. Well, tell him I'm not interested."
Amy covered her mouth in shock. There was nothing she could say really without telling a lie. Was it that obvious that she had been living with Eggman? If Amy didn't come back with Shadow, she was gonna be in big trouble…and so was Sonic.
Amy sighed heavily and patted down the bottom of her red sundress and pulled the top back over her chest, which she kind of struggled with because the material was made to tighten around that area.
Slowly she moved closer to Shadow. When she got almost close enough to touch Shadow, her red wedge had gotted caught by a tree root in the ground.
Before she could even react, Shadow had caught her by the waist before she plummeted into the water. With a quick glance to the side, Amy could see the water glistening beneath her and quickly threw her arms around Shadow's neck to keep from falling. She didn't trust him one bit.
Staring into Shadow's eyes was like staring at…nothing. His emotions were very hard to read, even through his eyes. It always seemed to look like Hatred, or annoyance. Oddly enough, Shadow could see how Amy was feeling very clearly. Her eyes were glossy and she couldn't hold eye contact long enough before she broke focus. Her cheeks were crimson red and almost looked hot to the touch.
Nerve finally came to Amy as she took a deep breath and leaned forward. Seconds later her lips were pressed against Shadow's. His lips weren't hard like she expected. They were actually soft like hers, only cold like ice.
As suprising as it was to Amy, Shadow hadn't pushed her off of him…yet. But she was terrified to open her eyes and see his reaction.
Amy slowly cracked an eyelid. Of course, Shadow was staring back at her. But what she saw confused her. His face was still as blank as before. Amy decided to pull away and wait for Shadow to say something. She waited for a while, but Shadow said nothing.
In the blink of an eye, cold water washed over Amy and engulfed her. Freezing cold water almost made Amy's body lock in place from shock. She struggled to move her arms and legs and swim to the surface.
Shadow could see Amy's pink head poke up from the water, gasping for air. "Pathetic," Shadow murmed and turned to walk away.
Amy swam over to the edge of the stream as fast as she could and stood up in the shallow part of the water. Her quills were drooping in her face and her dress clung tightly to her body. Rage was the only thing she felt before she was out of the water and walking up to Shadow.
When she caught up to him, she grabbed his arm and spun him around and quickly slapped him in the face. The sound seemed to echo for ages. Birds flew up out of trees and scattered in every direction. Instantly fear and regret hit Amy hard and she immediately regretted what she had done.
Shadow's face developed a smirk, "Haha. You shouldn't have done that."
Shadow inched towards Amy, skillfully backing her into a tree. Amy realized what he was doing a second too late when her back hit the tree hard. Shadow smiled in satisfaction.
"Whoa, Sonic! Slow down."
Sonic chuckled at the sight of his best friend trying to keep up with him. Tails almost looked hopeless. His golden tails were spinning furiously to increase his speed as he ran behind Sonic.
"We have all day to explore. Mystic ruins is big, but there is no need to rush!" Tails yelled.
Sonic ran through some underbrush under some trees and waited patiently for Tails. Seconds later, Tails came crashing through the trees and smacked right into Sonic.
"Ouch!" Sonic yelled.
"Ow. Sorry," Tails whined and rolled off of Sonic and sat up. Sonic kicked himself off the ground and dusted himself off for take off.
"Hey, what's this?" Tails muttered to no one in particular and picked up what looked like a stick of chapstick. But oddly it had a small, barely noticeable, button at the top.
"Bud, don't tell me you wear that girly crap," Sonic teased and snatched the chapstick away from Tails. The chapstick twirled between his fingers before it flew over his shoulder.
"Face it, there's no where to go."
Barely audible murmurs made Sonic's ears perk up, making him alert, and he turned in the general direction of the noise.
"Sonic?" Tails asked. He could tell Sonic was listening to something, he just didn't know what. Sonic's grin had disappeared from his face, leaving a frown in its place.
Parting a bush next to him, Sonic peeked through it. He spotted a familiar black hedgehog with red streaked quills standing in front of a pink hedgehog, who was backed into a tree. The pink one went to move, but was quickly slammed back into the tree.
"Why are you working for him?"
"Why do you care?"
"Who came to find me? You. So who's involved now? Me. That's why I care. And the fact that you were willing to kiss me, just to give Eggman what he wants. You were willing to give something special away to satisfy Eggman."
The words sunk in right away; Stinging and taking a stab at Amy's heart. She gave away her first kiss for Eggman, what else would she have given away? Guilt was the next to thing to hit. Her throat closed up and her eyes started to get really glossy.
"So what's going on here?"
Amy's heart dropped at the sound of that voice. She wished she could run away as fast as he could run to catch her. She didn't want him to see her like this. The situation was pure ignorance. Her Begging his rival, of all last time Amy remembered begging was for Sonic to return her affection. That was the last thing Amy wanted to go back to.
Shadow's head whipped around quickly; he smirked almost instantly. "Wow. Somethings never change."
Sonic chuckled and strolled over to Shadow and Amy.
Shadow tightened his grip on Amy's shoulder; she almost instantly winced in pain.
"I think you should let her go," Sonic demanded.
Shadow chuckled, "I think you're fighting the wrong person here."
"Well, for one, you're always wrong. Two, you are the person who is always wrong, so you're the right one to be fighting. Three, I think I'm right."
"Suit yourself." Shadow let go of Amy and turned to face Sonic; He drew his fist and let a familiar frown take over his face.
Sonic smiled and got into a fighting stance. "Why so serious? Just like old times, huh?"
"Of course," Shadow replied.
"Stop. Sonic this doesn't concern you," Amy said quickly and grabbed Sonic's shoulder.
Sonic was surprised by Amy's sudden intrusion to him helping her. The look on her face was serious. Sonic almost didn't recognize her. Her quills reached the middle of her back, her eyes were more of an intense light green; Sonic could see himself getting lost in them… She'd gotten taller (Only to Sonic's chin as of now), and she filled out in certain places.
"Actually, this is all about him," Shadow laughed.
Amy glared at Shadow. "It's not my place to discuss this right now. If I…" Amy trailed off; fresh tears had began to form in her eyes.
"You're right, Amy. It's not your place. You don't belong."
Sonic could feel his temper rising quickly. Something Shadow was saying was obviously hurting Amy. "Enough," Sonic growled.
"Amy," Tails called and came through the underbrush. "I think you should back up."
It wasn't exactly the time or place to mention to Amy that Sonic developed quite a temper when it came to her. On the trip, every time Tails brought up Amy to Sonic he got sore about it. Tails was guessing he hadn't exactly grown out of it yet…
Amy shook her head and stepped in between the two. "I'm not gonna let you two fight. This is my fault."
Sonic didn't exactly understand why Amy was, all of a sudden, sticking up for Shadow. She never did. He's also the one who is obviously trying to hurt her.
"Yeah, it is your fault," Shadow said quickly. His words were icey with a hard edge to it.
"Move," Sonic mumbled and pushed Amy back gently.
"No I can-'"
"Move!" Shadow pushed Amy hard, but not hard enough to really hurt her. She tripped over her wedges and fell back into the shallow part of the river.
Before Amy could even open her eyes and swim to surface, she felt herself being picked up. "Sorry, Ames. For everything." Amy had to rub her eyes to see and looked at Sonic before he set her down. He gently set her down on the grass near the edge of the river.
His eyes traveled up and down her body, before he jumped out the water and hurled himself at Shadow.
A light blush emerged on Amy's cheeks once she realized what he was staring at. He was staring at her. Seconds later, the blush turned to embarrassment once Amy realized she could've stood up in the water.
Sonic tackled Shadow roughly to the ground and delivered punches to his face. Shadow kicked upward, throwing Sonic off of him. A blue blur could be seen rolling over into the grass a little ways away from Shadow. Shadow saw this as a chance to attack and ran over to Sonic and let his foot lower over Sonic's body. Sonic rolled away just before Shadow's foot came down hard on the ground, then his body went down right along with it; Sonic then released Shadow's ankle.
"Maybe your training has done you some good. But not good enough." Shadow spun himself around and kicked Sonic in his chest and quickly got up. "Later, Hedgehog."
After that, Shadow was gone.
Sonic dusted himself off and got up. "Typical Shadow," Sonic muttered.
"Amy, you alright?" Tails asked.
Amy nodded her head and stood up from her place in the grass. She had been trying to dry off as much as she could in the evening sun. After loosening the grip the dress had on her body, Amy slowly walked over to Sonic. "Thank you."
"Uhm, no problem," Sonic said quickly.
The two awkwardly stared at each other, which made Tails highly irritated. Years of not talking, they should have plenty to talk about. So Tails' decision was made: Break the silence. "So, what are you doing getting mixed up with Shadow?"
Amy was stuck. She couldn't find the words to say, let alone make up an excuse. "I-"
"Shadow is loopy in the head," Sonic added and rotated his gloved finger next to his head. "You never know what's up with that guy."
Tails looked at Amy awkwardly. She quickly caught on and looked down.
"I have to go," Amy whispered and turned to leave.
"Wait. Well it was really nice seeing you again, Ames," Sonic said shyly. He pulled Amy back around by the arm and gave her a quick hug, well if you could call it that. Amy's arms were stiff and still at her sides. Sonic had to put his arms through hers to even attempt to get a hug. But the sweet smell of strawberries quickly flooded his nose, so it wasn't a total loss.
"Nice seeing you too," Amy replied. She pulled away and turned to leave.
"Wait, Amy. I need a word with you." Tails grabbed Amy by the hand and pulled her to the side, far enough away from Sonic's ears. He was frowning, which wasn't a good sign. "I don't know what you're up to, but I suggest you knock it off. I'm guessing you're associating with Eggman, but that's your business. You're my friend, but so is Sonic. If it came down to it, I'd choose him. He may have hurt you, but don't hurt him."
Surprise was written all over Amy's face. She knew Tails was smart, but she didn't think he was that smart.
"Keep in touch," Tails mumbed before walking away; Amy was left standing there.
"What was that about, Tails?" Sonic asked.
Tails walked past him. "Nothing. Let's go."