Under my Umbrella
'All right, that is it! I have had enough of being stuck inside because of this rain.' Amy thought, her mind reeling as she turned off the TV in the middle of another mindless advert about socks.
She huffed loudly and wandered over to her coat cupboard. After a quick scan, she located exactly what she needed to survive outside in the rain and proceeded to pull it out and gather it in her arms. She shuffled back out, her arms full of waterproof attire, she proceeded to shut the door behind her with her hip. It closed with a soft click and Amy dropped everything onto the floor in front of her.
Amy lifted up her raincoat and quickly tugged it on, tying a scarf loosely around her neck. She slipped into strawberry print wellies and made her way to the front door of her little house. She could hear the rain splashing outside and she felt a small thrill at the fact that she was going to be right in the centre of it.
She reached over to the side of her door and grabbed her umbrella, whilst simultaneously using her free hand to open the front door. The sound of the crashing rain intensified and she felt a cool breeze wash over her face. Carefully positioning the umbrella, Amy flicked it so that it opened up just outside her door.
'No bad luck for me today please.'
The rain slid against the water resistant fabric and Amy quickly hopped underneath to avoid the water that had already begun dripping down the sides. Closing her door behind her, Amy Rose began to make her way through her puddle-ridden garden, a destination forming in her mind.
Sonic let out a low growl of annoyance as he collapsed helplessly onto a damp branch. His chest reverberated as he dragged out the sound pathetically. He was well and truly stuck.
'Go out for a run he said. It's not going to rain he said. What the heck Knuckles.' Sonic groaned internally as a drop of rain slipped off the leaves and landed on his nose. A quick wrinkle and the water slid off and fell onto the ground far below.
It had started off as a simple run, well, until the rain had started anyway. It had come out of nowhere, and in an attempt to get away from it Sonic had hid in the nearest tree in the park, the leaves creating a shelter above him, with only the odd leak.
He pushed back a branch and glanced out over one side of the big park but to his dismay there was no one in sight. 'Well, it's not like they could help me home anyway.' He reasoned.
At first Sonic had tried tree hopping his way home in his effort to avoid the rain. Unfortunately, he only found out that the trees circled the park when he found himself back on the same tree branch three times. Two hours of careful aiming and fancy footwork and he was still no closer to home than he had been when he started.
He'd tried jumping to a tree outside of the park, but the jumping distance was too great even for him. It would involve at least four seconds rain exposure and Sonic absolutely refused to stand directly under the dreaded rain. So there he was. Stranded up a tree in the middle of the park, until the rain subsided or he was rescued.
Sonic took a deep breath in an attempt to steady his heart rate. It had been a while since the rain started and it was going to be a long while before it stopped. He stretched himself out onto the branch, and closed his eyes. Maybe if he took a nap, he'd sleep through the rain?
He'd just closed his eyes when his ears twitched, picking up an unusual sound. The soft lilt of a voice? Sonic's ears perked up as he listened harder, straining to hear through the splashing of the rain.
'Is that...humming?' He wondered, sitting upright and glancing around below him. He couldn't see anyone near him but...
He listened again and, yes. It was fainter, but it was definitely humming and he definitely knew that tune. Only one person he knew hummed to that tune. Sonic scrambled to push away the leaves and look out onto the grounds. He spotted the umbrella bobbing on the path near him.
'She must have just got here.' Sonic thought. He cupped his hands around his mouth and shouted "Hey, Amy!"
Amy stopped in her tracks, her melodic hum dying in her throat as she turned to where she'd heard her name. She scanned the expanse of trees behind her, squinting her eyes to see better through the pouring rain.
Then she saw him.
Sonic was waving at her frantically, his navy quills sticking up at odd angles. She quickly ran over, taking care to avoid jumping in the particularly large puddles. She skidded to a stop near the tree he was clinging onto and looked up, shielding her eyes to see him better.
"Sonic?" She called out. "What are you doing up there?"
She heard a muffled response but the blustering wind had picked up and his voice was carried out with it. She shook her head lightly as she replied. "I can't hear you Sonic."
Sonic nodded to say he understood her and Amy watched as he carefully picked his way down the tree, foot slipping on the wet bark as he slid the last few feet landing roughly onto the damp ground below.
He dusted himself off and quickly joined her underneath the umbrella. "Amy, I could kiss you right now." Sonic stated, his face inches from her own and the most serious she'd ever seen it. "I've been stuck up there for two hours and I'm going crazy." He finished, missing the obvious flush of the girl's cheeks.
"W-w-why?" Amy stammered, turning away from him a little to hide her embarrassment.
"I was out running and it started raining and I couldn't get home in the rain." He explained as he shifted around, trying to get into a comfortable position underneath the umbrella. "Can I join you under the umbrella?" Sonic asked sheepishly, realising that in his rush to get away from the rain he'd forgotten to even ask.
"I'm not really sure I have a choice in the matter." Amy replied as Sonic shuffled closer to her, his side pressing up against her.
"Thanks Ames. You're a life saver. So where are we headed."
"Well, I was headed to central lake but I'd be happy to walk you home first."
"Nah, I'll come to lake if that's cool with you. I'm already putting you out by taking up most of the room under here." Sonic joked, shoving his elbow at Amy just hard enough to make her lose her balance and grab onto his arm with her free hand.
"Sonic!" Amy shrieked, correcting her stance and releasing Sonic's arm.
Sonic just laughed as she began to stalk off without him. His laugh stopped abruptly though as he realised that he was no longer under the cover of the umbrella. He zoomed after her and expertly stopped directly next to her with a mumble of an apology and an offer to hold the umbrella for her. Amy obliged willingly and handed it over to the blue hedgehog.
The two hedgehogs walked silently for a few minutes, and Sonic was surprised by how isolated the park was in the rain. So far on their journey, they hadn't encountered another living soul.
'Guess I'm not the only one who hates to be caught out in this weather.' He mused as he scanned the park another time.
After another couple of minutes, Sonic could feel the pent up energy start to build up inside him. He rolled his shoulders and stretched his legs as they walked but nothing seemed to be enough. He could feel the desire to run surging in his chest, reminding him exactly why he didn't walk very often. He pushed it down with the thoughts of getting wet in this weather but it didn't work for very long. He needed a distraction.
He flexed his fingers nervously and he felt his right hand collide with something warm. He looked down and flexed his hand again, watching as it softly bumped into Amy's hand. She turned to look at him and before he could stop himself, he loosely grabbed her fingers.
Holding her gloved fingers, he tangled them up with his own and then untangled them. He continued to fiddle with her fingers as they walked. Amy looked at him strangely for a second and then brushed it off, chalking it up to the fact that Sonic tended to go a little crazy when it rained.
The simple repetitiveness of playing with her fingers was enough to distract Sonic from the longing to run and he was grateful that Amy didn't comment on it. Anyways, he was just holding her fingers, right. It's not like he was holding her hand or anything significant like that.
Before long, they arrived at the edge of the lake and Sonic was surprised to find that it hadn't taken as long as he'd thought it would to get there. They both took a seat on the bench, which thankfully was still fairly dry thanks to the tree branching out above it.
Once sat down, Sonic realised that he was still holding on to Amy's fingers. He slowly let his hand drop down to rest on the bench between them. Her fingers were still loosely captured in his own, but Sonic couldn't bring himself to let go of them completely.
'What if I need to distract myself from running again?' He thought, taking the chance to glance over at Amy.
Just as he did so, Amy began to talk, her gaze still on the lake. "It's beautiful isn't it." She said quietly. "The rain makes the most beautiful swirls on top of the lake."
Sonic followed her gaze out in front of him. "It's just a lake Ames." He said blankly.
"Look harder." She replied turning to him. "It's not just what you see Sonic. It's the whole experience. The sounds, the feeling of being out here, the view. It's all of it." She said, a strange spark in her emerald eyes. She turned back to the lake and pointed. "How often do you pay attention to the way the rain falls on puddles?"
Sonic took in her words and looked back out at the lake. The rain had softened to a steady pitter patter but the dark clouds in the sky showed no signs of letting up anytime soon. Sonic focused on the short lived patterns being made on the lake and found that the harder he looked, despite being water, the more entrancing they became.
"I suppose it's kinda nice." He admitted begrudgingly, turning to look at Amy. He felt a lot a calmer looking at the lake but there was no way in Mobius he was going to admit that. Sonic was surprised to find that Amy still had that strange spark in her eyes but now he realised what it was.
'Awe.' He thought, as Amy watched the calming effects of the rain for a few moments longer. Sonic however chose to look at her instead. She was so entranced by the lake, he doubted she even realised that he was staring.
He watched her for as long as he dared to, getting more and more intrigued at how she marvelled at the world. He'd been on plenty of runs to nice places, but he'd never seen them quite like this and for a second he wondered what it would be like. To be able to share his world with her, and watch her admire it the way it should be. He caught himself smiling at her and quickly turned away before she could see.
Gripping the umbrella tightly with his hand, he gently squeezed her fingers which were still caught up in his other hand. Amy turned to him slightly dazed and Sonic couldn't help but laugh as he angled the umbrella so droplets of water splashed onto her head.
"Sonic!" Amy groaned, dragging out his name as she huddled closer to him to get away from the rain. She ran her free hand through her quills and turned to glare at him. It quickly melted though as Amy noticed the softness in Sonic's eyes.
"Ready to go?" He asked simply.
Amy nodded with a smile, and together the two hedgehogs made their way over to Tails' house.
It's officially day one of sonamy week on Tumblr and this is my extremely rushed entry. I won't have time to post it tomorrow so I'm gonna post it now instead (it is technically Monday where I live so it's all good).
The theme for today was 'Umbrella'. I'm not really sure where I veered off to in the middle there but it certainly was not where I was planning to go with it so that's probably why it seems choppy (I'm sorry). I need to learn to stick my plans.
Thank you so much for reading, drop me a review if you can and I'll hopefully see you guys tomorrow for my day two entry (once I actually write it).
Chao for now x
