Sally and Amy sat in the living room at Blazes house, playing Sonic Generations. Everyone else was watching, eating popcorn and talking about recent book releases.

Amy was distracted, and Sally could tell. She could see the look in her eye that she had when she was thinking of another world. But this time, it was the real world that was distracting her, and of course, that was going to affect her more than anything else. While Amy had lit up eyes a lot, and a bright complexion, she was more tense and on alert. She had become somewhat paranoid. Checking her phone a lot - even though the only other person she could be texting would be Sonic, or Shadow. She was day dreaming constantly, but also scared of what could happen - that was why she was so tense and uncertain. Sally knew all of this, and she'd seen it before.

She just didn't know what to do to stop this from going any further.

Warning Sonic again would just make him chase even more, and warning Amy would do the same.

All she could do was let Amy play out this chapter in her life, and then be there for her when it ended, and a new chapter would arise.

And she swore to herself that the next chapter was going to be about her.

Fucking friends. What do they know? They don't know her. They don't know me, at least not this side of me. Not the side that I am when I'm with HER. They don't know shit... And they don't know what happened to her, either. They need to back off.. I'm sick of this.

Sonic arrived at his house and slammed the door. He ran to the kitchen and poured himself a drink, sitting down and beginning to take a sip, before there was a knock on the door.

Sonic groaned and said, can't I get some alone time? Under his breath. He answered the door and it was none other than Shadow.

"Shadow, not now. I need to be alone."

Shadow pushed Sonic out of the way and walked in. "I don't take orders from you, Sonic. I'm your friend, so I'm not going to let you be alone when you're like this. Deal with it."

Sonic was shocked. Shadow was being surprisingly more like his character. Shadow sat down and poured himself a drink too, beckoning Sonic to sit down next to him.

They began drinking, in silence. After a few drinks, Sonic spoke first.

"I tried to do what you said. But now she hates me."

"No she doesn't, Sonic. If anything, she'd be attracted to you for doing that." Sonic was puzzled. "Yeah. If she had an ongoing abusive relationship, she is more than likely going to be compelled to a guy that treats her like shit."

Shadow grinned and Sonic growled. "I DON'T treat her badly, and she wouldn't be attracted to that. If she was, she'd have tried to talk to me by now. It's been at least two hours since we finished work."

Shadow took another drink, and grinned, holding up Sonic's phone.

Sonic was shocked. "Why do you have my phone?"

"I took it from you incase you'd drunk-text someone. But look, two new messages."

"Give me that." Sonic said angrily, snatching the phone off Shadow, but he was too slow, and Shadow held on firmly. Sonic frowned and finished his drink, and then pounced onto Shadow, tackling him for the phone, and tickling him as well.

Shadow looked up at him and dropped the phone, giving in, but Sonic didn't move. He was caught looking at Shadow, frozen in time, unable to move.

But he caught himself in his daze and snapped out of it, snatching the phone. "Ah-Ha!"

He read the new messages.

The first was from Amy:

I am at Blaze's, bored as hell. Are you busy?

Sonic's heart started racing and Shadow rolled his eyes, grinning. "Knew it." Shadow said.

"Shut up." Sonic smiled back.

The next one was from Sally.

Please be careful.

Sonic didn't know how to respond to that, so he didn't. Instead, he said to Shadow, "What should I say?" showing him the message from Amy.

Shadow giggled. "Invite her over. Hehehe... I'm sure she'd want that three-"

Shadow went silent as Sonic shot him a glare. "I'm not inviting her over if you're going to be stupid. If she's bored or uncomfortable, she can come around."

Shadow hmphd. "And you're staying." Sonic added.

Sonic texted back,

Just at home. Shadow is here, we've just been having some drinks.

It wasn't long before Amy replied:

Sounds fun :( I'm jealous.

Sonic sighed, and grabbed another drink.

"Go easy," Shadow said. "That's number four. Or five... I don't know."

"Count your own drinks, Shadow." Sonic laughed and started typing on his phone.

Would offer to pick you up, but we've been drinking. Guess we can come grab you on our feet.

Amy:

Cool. See you soon

Sonic finished his drank and grabbed Shadow. "We're going to grab Amy."

"Sure, whatever. Want me to carry you?"

"Ha, no thank you. I'm perfectly capable to make it myself."

They both dashed away, Shadow skating and Sonic running, toward Blazes house.

Later, they'd picked up Amy and brought them back to Sonic's. It was cold outside, and running so fast was making Amy freezing, even though she wore clothes and the guys didn't.

"Heater?" Amy asked. Sonic pointed to the heater in the lounge room and turned the TV on, then went back to the kitchen to drink more, with Shadow.

He's leaving me in another room by myself? What the? Amy thought, annoyed.

She waited until she'd warmed up, and then walked up to Shadow, putting her arm around him. Shadow looked up at Amy, surprised.

Sonic was impressed, but also slightly jealous.

"You know, Shadow, I've always found you handsome." Amy smiled, and giggled. Sonic frowned and glared at both of them. She's mine! And so is he. Wait.

"Er. Thank you, Miss Rose. I'm very flattered." Shadow smiled warmly back to her, and she sat down in between Shadow and Sonic.

"So, what was going on at Blaze's?" Sonic asked. "I doubt you'll have much fun here. We're both pretty tired."

Amy had felt somewhat remorseful for going over to Sonic's. She didn't know what she had expected; she had just wanted his attention. His FULL attention... Not divided with Shadow.

She was the girl, wasn't she? Wasn't SHE supposed get affection while Shadow sat out?

Instead, he was treating them both equally, like... friends.

All she wanted was for someone to ignite the fire inside of her, the one created by someone she despised many years ago. She simply wanted the hatred and darkness inside of her to burn, to take her away, to distract her. She believed it was better to be totally consumed by a fire, than to have sparks erupt unexpectedly, controlling her basic activities. Once an opportunity had presented itself, it would be stupid to ignore it; in her mind, it made more sense to be completely involved in a disaster than to push it away before it started.

She could see the future of this situation. She could see it all in her mind. Visions of Sonic controlling her, loving her, making her go crazy. Visions of her being in love, attached to a dangerous person who was unpredictable and exciting. Even though Sonic was probably more on the safe side, she was attracted to his avoid-chase method, and wanted it to become more.

She wanted it to dominate her, and to lead her, and she wanted to have something REAL, to talk about, to write about, to sing about. She wanted the pain, she wanted the lust, the adventure, the longing.

And all she had to do was take a little charge, or initiate a way to draw Sonic in, and she had what she wanted.

But looking at Shadow, she felt as if she could get the same from him aswell. Something about Shadow matched the frequency she had; she could feel a similar longing inside of him. Perhaps he had the self-consuming fire that she did. Perhaps they could help eachother.

"Blaze's was fine. But... Just not exciting. Not like you two." Amy smiled lightly.

Sonic and Shadow looked at Amy, and then back to each other, unsure of what she meant. They both kept drinking nervously.

Amy became frustrated that she was being ignored. Why are they rejecting me?! She asked herself. She stood up and walked over to Sonic, placing her hands on his shoulders. Sonic's eyes shot wide open and he stared at Shadow, while Shadow just giggled.

"Shadow, Sonic looks so sad. Should I give him a massage?" Amy grinned and looked to Shadow, who continued giggling, and started laughing too.

"Sure, but I'm next." Shadow said, winking.

Amy smiled and started to massage Sonic's spikes (disclaimer: head? I don't even know). Sonic was extremely tense, as he was too scared to talk or react physically. Instead, he had ANOTHER drink, while Shadow watched curiously.

Eventually, Sonic relaxed, allowing Amy to massage him, not fussed whatsoever with what was happening.

He lifted his head and faced Amy with his eyes, who was shocked by his eye contact. He lifted his hand slightly and made a come here motion. Clearly forgetting Shadow was watching, Amy blushed and moved her head forward towards his, and he met her with a kiss. Instead of this morning, it was gentle; but still needy.

Knew it. She told herself. She knew that he wanted her, really.

But for some stupid reason, he wanted to protect her. What from? Himself?

If anything, he needed to protect her from HERself.

Shadow coughed, and they broke the kiss. Sonic continued to stare into her eyes, not responding to Shadow.

"Amy..." Sonic began, moving quickly and suddenly ...